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.
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of the whole grain declared essential ,
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