Have You Any Ideas for ‘Secret Weapons ? / Inventors’ Council Wants To Know Them Many War Machines Were Developed by Civilian Amateurs Want to help finish winning the war? Well, just settle down some night in that favorite easy chair, light up the old pipe, take out pencil and paper and figure out an easy way of gen erating an artificial fog—one that can be laid just where you want it and really do the business. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? But the army would give a great deal for a practical solution to the problem of covering advancing troops this way. It can be done. A number of meth ods have been tried out; but most of the equipment is too big and cumbersome for effective action at the front. The army is still looking for a simple, effective way of pro viding this cover. And while it is looking for a way to create an artificial fog, it is also on the alert for any new methods of dispelling such a fog laid down by the enemy. Here, too, a number of methods have been suggested, some have been tried with a degree of success; but the problem hasn’t yet been really licked. This is where the National Inven tors’ council comes in. It was set up within the framework of the de partment of commerce in 1940 to serve as a clearing house for Just such ideas that military men might find valuable. Headed by Charles F. Kettering, a past president of the society of Automotive Engineers, and composed of the nation’s lead ing scientists and engineers, it serves as a funnel between the American ingenuity of the man in the street and the proper military authorities. The council is dedicated to the principle, widely accepted both with in the government and outside, that all modern warfare is largely a battle of inventive ideas. The heavily gunned and armored tank, the superbomber, the aircraft car rier and the robot bomb—all have been responsible for major changes in strategy as well as tactics in the battles of this war. Civilian Contributions. Another thing the council keeps firmly in mind is the fact that many of the weapons of modern war. or the key principles which go into them, were the product of the civil ian mind — the submarine, the torpedo, the motor driven airplane, the internal combustion engine. Naturally, most of the major improvements on the weapons of war come from expert technicians or outstanding engineers, thorough ly familiar with the particular field in which they lie. But many of the 200,000 ideas or inventions that have been submitted to the council since its inception have come from the rank and file of the people. From farmers, teachers, factory workers, business men, youngsters in school, and even a few women, have come suggestions that have proved of considerable assistance to The army is still looking for a simple method of generating arti ficial fog to cover advancing troops. the armed forces. And these inven tive suggestions follow a definite pattern in volume with each new phase of the war or induction of new weapons by the enemy. For example, when the submarine menace was at its height, the coun cil was receiving an average of 100 letters a day describing how tor pedo nets could be used to keep the “tin-fish” from blasting the sides of merchant ships. Now that the sub marine menace has been licked, such suggestions are rare. Right now, suggestions for combatting the robot bombs are on the upswing; Can tanks be equipped with ex plosive-absorbing: rollers to lessen the effectiveness of minefields? but none as yet has furnished the complete solution. When the soldiers and marines first began landing on Pacific beaches in the face of heavy enemy fire there were scores of suggestions that infantrymen be equipped with shields. This idea had to be dis carded, the council says, because the weight of such a shield, if it were to prove capable of stopping a mili tary projectile, would be too great for a fully-equipped infantryman to handle. Ideas from Soldiers. Some of the suggestions, too. come from men at the fighting fronts and in army camps. A lieutenant-colonel on duty in Italy wrote in with an idea for equipping tanks to blow up enemy mines with out danger to the tank-crew. His suggestion was equipping a heavy tank with a gigantic explosive ab sorbing roller, to be pushed ahead of the vehicle as it waded through the mine field. An army sergeant. Lauren N. El kins Jr., figured out an improved design for a field kitchen, tested it himself on maneuvers, found out it worked and submitted his idea to the council. Within 24 hours it had won acceptance of the army quartermaster corps and test mod els were constructed. Along with the new type field kitchen. Sergeant Elkins submitted an idea for a ship ping case for the kitchen, which broke down into two benches and a table. Another invention which has saved scores of lives is a simple signaling mirror which can be di rected straight into the eyes of pilots searching for crews of sunken ships or airmen down at sea. This mirror, cheap, light and easy to construct has been known to send a shaft of sunlight into the eyes of a pilot up to 10 miles away 36 times in a single minute. And there is no trick to focusing it. Value of Milkweed Floss. From the floss of the common milkweed, the researches of a civilian scientist Ailed one of the most pressing of military needs at the outset of the war. Supplies of kapok, used in the heavy jackets of high-altitude fliers and in life belts, had been shut off by the advancing Japanese. This scientist showed that milkweed floss could do the job bet ter and that it could be used, too, for insulating and soundproofing. Many of the ideas adopted, the council’s records show, have served to speed up quick repairs in the field, to get planes and guns back into the battlelines faster than they could have been readied previously. But not all of the inventive and mechanical problems of the armed forces have been solved. Many new ideas still are urgently needed, even in fields where considerable im provements have been made since the start of the war. For example, there is a crying need for some means of controlling fires in tanks until the personnel have had time to evacuate. At pres ent, the council’s records show that carbon dioxide under pressure in a small metal container is being used with some success. But the carbon dioxide treatment doesn’t serve to prevent the live oxygen-carrying ammunition from exploding within the tank as the fire soars past the burning point of TNT. An improve ment over this method would be widely welcomed if adapted to the peculiar needs of the tank, where interior space is so limited. Tanks Need Improvements. The cramped quarters of the pres ent-day tank make it a fertile field for improvements. The operator's vision is extremely limited when the tank is “buttoned-up” for battle. He can see only ahead. Performance of gyroscopic compasses and other Instruments on the control panel could be stepped up. Improvements already have been made, through ideas submitted to the council, in methods of ventilating the tanks to reduce the extreme heat under which its crew must operate. At present a roof-suspended unit that takes in air through a bullet-proof enclosure is in use in many types. But the field for improving the com fort and fighting ability of the men who man the tanks has by no means been exhausted. Another invention the council would like to put its hands on is a voice-transmitting gas mask which would permit its wearer's voice to be heard clearly. At present the new type masks are using a flexible dia phragm. Others combine the fea tures of a lip microphone and a portable transmitter. Bui the field is still wide-open for improve ment. Keenly needed, too, as a protec tion to fliers, is a means of inflat ing carbon dioxide life rafts more speedily at high altitudes. Fliers forced to bail out in cold North At lantic areas at 30,000 feet find that their carbon dioxide supply has been burned to dry ice by tempera tures ranging as low as 60 below. In the rapid parachute descent, the car bon dioxide doesn’t have time to re sume its gaseous state and shock of the icy water, if the life raft isn’t immediately available, is often fatal in far northern latitudes. Range finders, too, are important factors in directing artillery fire at enemy positions. Delicate optical in struments, they are subjected to hard usage in the field and reflect sudden temperature changes. A method of providing more sturdy construction and at the same time reducing the width without reduc ing the accuracy of operation is a real need. Right now, the council is particularly interested in homely ideas that might aid in destroying or removing obstacles to landing op This signalling mirror can be di rected into the eyes of pilots who are searching for crews of sunken ships or airmen down at sea. erations that have proved so costly in lives in the far Pacific and on the beaches in Normandy. A simple idea from a mechanic or a farmer might develop a technique that would preserve the lives of the men who must go out ahead of the main landing parties and clear the way. Japs Clever, Too. The council cited the report from Saipan that men, clad only in bathing suits and armed with rifles and detonating charges, had to swim to the obstacles off shore and blast them individually from the path of the oncoming troops. The Japanese, too. have shown themselves ingenious in adapting simple decoy devices to battle-front use in attempting to confuse or mis lead attacking forces. One Japanese sniper had rigged up an over-sized “puppet show” to harass American landing forces. He concealed six dummies in trees surrounding his position and at tached them to his own station with ropes. When his shots attracted American fire in his direction, he would jerk the cord, let one of the dummies fall from a tree. Each time the American troops were confident they had eliminated his sniping post. Then he’d wait his chance and open fire again. Some ideas along that line, de veloped by Yankee ingenuity from close experience from hunting and fishing, from work around farm machinery, or from bench and lathe, the council believes, might go a long way in saving the lives of our fight ing men and give them opportunity to develop tactics of surprise that could come in handy in many a close encounter. The American people have re sponded tremendously to the need for wartime inventions of all sorts and character, the council believes, but there are still hundreds of ways in which American “know-how” can be applied to the problems of a me chanized war. Archives of Patent Office Hold Story of American Greatness The flies of the patent office con tain the graphic story of the prog ress of America and the achieve ments of the men who helped build this great country of ours. In these files are the “birth certificates” of the hundreds of thousands of inven tions that have placed America away out in front in scientific and industrial achievement. Every week, every day in fact, these files grow bigger. For Americans are still in verting, even though most of their brain children will not see the light of day until the war is over. The institution of patenting is pro vided for in article I, section 8, of the constitution of the United States, which states that congress shall have the power “to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to au thors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.” To date, the U. S. patent office has issued nearly 2,500, 000 patents, some of which marked turning points in the history of the world. The steam engine, telephone, electric light and airplane are only a few of the more obvious ones. The others are broken down into 310 classifications, under which there are some 50.000 sub-classifications A patent gives the owner the ex elusive right to make, use or sell his invention or discovery through out the United States and its terri tories for a period of 17 years. Looking at HOLLYWOOD 'I'HE only trouble with being a fine actor in Hollywood is you're worked to death. Sydney Green street knows all about that. In less than three years here Sydney, who Is my idea of a really excellent ac tor, has made 12 pictures. A Sydney Greenstreet part comes close to being the kernel of any pic ture in which he appears. That’s the way it turned out in "The Maltese Falcon," his first. Au diences didn’t know his name, but answers to nearly all the sneak pre view cards ask- _ ing, “Who gave the best perform ance?" read: “The fat man." That was Sydney, who weighs in at 280 pounds on the hoof. Warners, where Sydney checks in, knew right then that they had something. Tak ing advantage of Sydney Greenstreet his leave of absence from the Lunt* Fontanne production of "There Shall Be No Night,” Warners rushed him into his second, “They Died With Their Boots On,” in which he scored again. When the Lunts wound up their road tour Greenstreet signed a studio contract. Not a Novice Sydney, who is 64, has been act ing 44 years. His stage record reads like a Who’s Who of the Theater, and in fact he has to refer to that musty tome himself In order to re call all that he has done. The world has been Sydney’s oys ter. There's hardly a spot on the globe he doesn’t know—Canada, the Americas, the British Isles, India, Ceylon, Italy, France, Malta, and North Africa—all these he toured not once but many times. Sydney Greenstreet, who was born In Sandwich, Kent, England, Decem ber 27, 1879, is all through traveling. He likes our town and has settled down for good on a high mountain overlooking the town. He greeted me there recently among priceless objets d’art. “You see, Hedda, I am comfort able at last—I’ve done with my traveling. I’m 64, and I think there is tremendous scope for fine work here. “The most important thing with me in pictures i* to keep from being typed. I started as an arch-villain in ’The Maltese Falcon,’ and feared for a while that I’d stay a big bad man. From Good to Worse “Luckily, and I intend to keep it that way, I haven’t. My characteri zation was changed in ’They Died With Their Boots On,' when I played General Scott. I was a heavy again in ‘Across the Pacific,’ and a sort of benevolent mystery man in ‘Casa blanca.’ “For ‘Background to Danger’ I reverted to evil again as head of the Nazi Gestapo, but in ‘Conflict’ I am a psychiatrist who sends Mur derer Humphrey Bogart to his exe cution. “ ’Devotion’ has me cast as Wil liam Makepeace Thackeray, a per fectly lovely gentleman, but in 'The Mask of Dimitrios’ I again switch to a man of mystery and dark doings. Still Learning "The movies are new to me," he says, "but I think I am catching on. The first time I saw myself I was embarrassed. 1 got the shock of my life. I wanted to die. I knew I was pretty bad, but there I was on the screen—a horror. The lens is the actor’s best critic—it shows the mind working. It shows feelings. You can get wonderful cooperation out of the lens if you are true, but God help you if you play it false.” Greenstreet has what I call a background. While still a young ster he drifted into amateur theatri cals until, encouraged by his moth er, he joined the Ben Greet Players and made his debut in "Sherlock Holmes" in 1902. In 1904 he came to America, join ing forces with Sir Herbert Tree and Margaret Anglin. For seven years he played with the Lunts in "The Taming of the Shrew,” “Idiot’s De light,” "Amphytrion 38.” "The Sea Gull,” and "There Shall Be No Night.” Then Warners caught him. If Greenstreet has any criticism of Hollywood actors—and he is very loath to criticize any one—it is that they don't work hard enough. "Maybe I can’t help it,” he says. "Maybe it’s old fashioned on my part, but I have to be letter per fect in my lines before setting foot on a stage. I was brought up that way.” War Broadens Niven Latest report from the unofficial war correspondent, David Niven, who forgot to mention that he had just been made a colonel—and who, when he comes back to the films, should write as well as act: "Sorry I haven't been exactly swamping you with letters, but as you can im agine. what with one thing and an other. we in the army have lately been quite busy! . . I have seen many of your friends since 1 last wrote.’* Tenure Solved by Dad-Son Partnership National Farm Life Can Be Made Secure “One of the fundamental needs of agriculture is to have a succession of the same family on the same land throughout succeeding generations,” according to H. C. M. Case, Unl versity of Illinois college of agri culture. In making that statement. Case said that he was thinking of the good of the individual, the com munity and the nation. One of the major problems of agriculture is the movement of capi tal and earnings from the country to the city. In a period of ten years, approximatley six and one-half million people go from the country to the city during normal conditions. The costs of their education, the in heritance of farm property by city dwellers and collection of rent from a farm property by city dwellers make a heavy drain on the land. This situation also makes it difficult for young people remaining in the country to secure a foothold as farm operators and eventually to become owners of farm property. One way of meeting the situation is by means of father-son partner ships on the farm. Case offered four specific suggestions, each based upon a well-kept system of records regarding kinds of father-son ar rangements which may be made to facilitate the young man getting a start on the farm: (1) Where the father owns all the land, equipment and livestock, and the son supplies only his labor. The common arrangement is to guar antee the son hired-man wages, but if a given share of the farm in come agreed upon by the father and son exceeds the amount of wages, then he receives an additional amount at the end of the year. (2) Where the father is a tenant and the son contributes only labor. The plan is similar to the first one in so far as the son is guaranteed a going wage, but he receives a cor respondingly larger share of the in come received by the father because his labor will amount to a larger proportion of the contribution to the farming operation than it would if he also owned the farm. (3) Where the father and son oper ate a farm Jointly. If the son lacks capital, he can give his father a promissory note and pay interest on his share of the investment of the operating capital, which would put him in the status of a tenant with his father. Under this plan, the father would receive the landlord share of the income from the farm, but in addition the father and son as equal tenants would divide any additional earnings between them. (4) Where the father is ready to retire. In this instance, the son as tenant may take over the owner ship of the operating capital, even though he lacks the capital to pur chase it outright. He may give his father a note and pay interest on the investment or the operating capi tal and become a full operating ten ant of the farm. Or it may be desir able for the father to retire while still owning the operating capital. Under this cheme, the son may ac cept a smaller share of the income from the farm in order to give his father adequate pay for his invest ment in both the farm and the oper ating equipment. Health Improved by Control of Parasites Cattle grubs spoil one out of every three hides by puncturing the skin, and also cause considerable loss of meat. Similar damage is also done by ticks, mites, lice and other anthropod parasites which interfere with growth and make animals un thrifty. Rotenone and selected dips are recommended as an antidote. Worm parasites of the digestive tract injure older stock, and cause many deaths, especially among young animals. As much as 125 mil lion dollars a year is lost by the damage they inflict. Nodular worms, for example, spoil sheep intestines for catgut sutures and sausage cas- j ings. Phenothiazine is the principal recommended remedy. Animal livers are spoiled for food and for use in medicinal prepara tions by liver flukes (flat, leaflike parasites) and fringed tape worms. Wartime research has produced a hexachlorethane - bentonite suspen sion for the control of liver flukes in cattle. Two slices of bread wasted once a week in each home equal three million wasted loaves per year. Protein for Poults Young turkeys thrive on a simple vegetable-protein diet which does not require any of the animal pro teins in scarce supply because of the war, U. S. department of agri culture research has determined. Soybean meal and peanut meal were the chief high-protein feeds used in the test diets. Most rapid growth to six weeks of age came from a mash containing ground wheat and soybean meal, together with some alfalfa-leaf meal. The Use of Fabric and Thread in Decorating Homes of Tomorrow By Ruth Wyeth Spearb CURTAINS OVER WALLS TEXTURED FURNITURE COVE RINGS-ADEQUATE LIGHTING AND SIMPLE MODERN TABLES AfTj» SHABBY ROOM OF HO SPECIAL STYLE MAY BE MADE MODERN WITH CLEVER USE OF FABRIC AND DETAILS IF YOU arc dreaming about re A decorating after the war—and who is not—put this in your note book. There will be a more lavish use of fabric in home decoration than ever before. There will be many new types of textiles and many new weaves. Fabrics will be designed to wear longer and to stay clean longer. A feeling of spaciousness will be obtained by blotting out some walls with cur tains. Irregular or badly propor tioned spaces will be brought into harmony by covering parts of them; and small windows will be made to seem high and wide by covering the wall around them. The homemaker who can sew a straight seam will save many a dollar for she may have curtains of any length, width or fullness merely by stitching straight widths together. And here is a decora tors’ tip for her—allow a hundred and fifty per cent fullness if French pleats are to be used at the tops of curtains; and set the machine for a long stitch for speed. Clip sel vages every few inches to avoid puckered seams and hems. • • • NOTE—You do not have to wait for your home of tomorrow to have the attractive coffee table shown in this sketch. It la easy to make from straight cuts of lumber. A map, a favorite print or a piece of hand work may be placed under the glass (op to give a decorative effect. Ask for pat tern No. 254 and enclose 15 cents. Address! MRS. RUTH WYETH SPEARS Bedford Hills New York Drawer 10 Enclose 15 cents for Pattern No. 234. Name .. Address .. Maori Boys Are Skilled Canoeists From Infancy The Maori boys of New Zealand are skilled canoe-users as soon as they can walk. Apart from actual races with one another, they im provise all sorts of stunts with their canoes. To see them make their canoes jump hurdles one foot high in the water is a grand sight, but the effect is heightened when a few of them, each in his own craft, hurdle-race down a river. There’s nothing effeminate about these hardy, sun-bronzed lads. Mode from Premium Grains/ CORN FIAKES nil* Crain* art Graat Fnad*"- fMu&fp • Kellogg’s Com Flakes bring you nearly all the protective food elements of the whole grain declared essential , to human nutrition. / BUY STOVES NOW! See This New Heater Don't Wait Until Cold Weather Comes! Modal 520 || jhu Xrm fctftlfc UD INTERIOR TIER UlL' MODEL 570 O S P»1 No K6MS1 ond 127471. Mill r«n. P»t. No. «4I0M. Nun* Kec. In U. 8. ■nit l'm Pal Off UJHRItl fflORWnG COAL HEATER If you need new heating equipment, don’t wait until cold weather cornea to get it. See the amazing WARM MORNING Coal Heater while your dealer has it in atock. 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