1959 Powered Railcar with Dome

Powered Railcar Has Dome for Sightseers

Self-powered, a new railcar built for the French National Railroad by Renault has a glass and plastic dome in the middle that gives its passengers an unobstructed view of the countryside.  The 58-ton car holds 88 passengers.  It has an 800-horsepower diesel engine that operates a generator, providing power for motors.

This appeared in the August 1959 edition of Popular Mechanics magazine 

1959 Should you buy a foreign car?

Have you considered buying a foreign car?  If  you are typical of millions of Americans, you have probably thought about it. And you are probably trying to decide whether it would be a wise choice.

At present about 10 percent of all the new cars sold are imported. Not very long ago, it was generally believed that imported cars would never go over 5 percent of the total sales.

What has caused this spectacular jump in sales? Is it a fad? Are the people who own imported cars happy with them?  

The imported economy car attracts a larger percentage of professional and highly trained people than domestic cars, but this may be due more to an interest in unusual engineering design than to snobbishness or any status-making reason.

This is a portion of the article that appeared in the August 1959 edition of Popular Mechanics magazine.

1959 Coin Operated Gas Pumps

Coin Operates Pump At Self-Service Gas Station

What next?  In Sweden, a new idea is a coin-operated fuel pump.  Such self-service pumps have been installed at many service stations and are made especially for motor scooters and other small vehicles.  The driver simply pulls his scooter alongside the pump, deposits one or more coins and helps himself to as large a quantity of petrol-and-oil mixture as he needs.

This was in the August 1959 edition of Popular Mechanics magazine

1959 Flying Barrel

"Flying Barrel" Takes Off Vertically

French aircraft designers have come up with a "flying barrel", an annular-winged plane that takes off vertically from a launching truck, then shifts to horizontal flight.  Called the C-450 "Coleoptere", the tail-sitting plane has a one-man cockpit, flanked by air-intake ducts that feed the central jet engine.  Fuel is contained in the surrounding wing.  The experimental craft is expected to fly at speeds up to Mach 2 or 3.  Manufactured in Paris, the strange plane is expected to be test-flown for the first time this summer.

This was in the August 1959 edition of the Popular Mechanics magazine

1960 Elvis & Juliet

"Oh, it's Juliet Prowse...That's Frank Sinatra's girl! What's she doing with Elvis? ...Has Elvis gone off his rocker?"  The newsy tidbits flew faster than a gossip columnist's pencil. 

Juliet, in a crisp green cocktail dress, slid her arm through Elvis' while he tried to cut a pathway into the club.  As he felt her touch, he grasped hold of her arm as though it was the last thing he was goint to feel, ever. He looked into her blue eyes as if for reassurance and she looed up at him, a small smile gently curving her lips.

This is part of an article in Photoplay magazine, November 1960

1963 Gifts for kids & babies ~ Newspaper Ads

The racetrack!

Love the bike

1943 Face Mask

Plastic Masks Protect Workers in War Plants

Eyes, throat, and lungs are shielded against flying particles of metal and dust by this mask fitted with clear plastic lenses and a plastic respirator that is packed with several different filters for as many types of fumes.  The masks are being turned out by mass-production methods to equip plants engaged in America's speeded up war work, and are a refinement of the familiar goggles long used in this country in counteracting industrial hazards.  As worn by the young woman in the photograph, it would seem also to be a  safeguard against disfigurement of the beauty of the hundred of thousands of women workers who are doing their full share of our country's war work.

Check out the Coffee Cup with this image!

This was in the January, 1943 issue of Popular Science.

1935 Newspaper Funnies Section ~Cartoons

I always enjoyed the comics section of the newspaper.  This is the funnies section of THE REGISTER out of Danville, VA from Saturday, March 23, 1935

ALLY OOP

BLONDIE

BOOTS AND HER BUDDIES

TOOTS AND CASPER

MOON MULLINS

MAGGIE AND JIGGS

MICKEY MOUSE

1963 Newspaper Movie Ad Page

 All of these ads were in the Nov. 23, 1963 edition of The Greenville News.

 Notice how many drive-ins we had back then.

 John Wayne

 Tony Curtis, Martha Hyer, Charles Bickford, Kathryn Grant

 Sandra Dee (one of my favorites) and Jimmy Stewart (another favorite)

 Playing in two theaters!

 Lee Remick, James Garner  Comedy

 The FIRST James Bond movie! Dr. No.  How cool is that?!

 John Wayne, Dean Martin, Rickie Nelson

 Of course, Elvis

Henry Fonda.  I loved this movie!!!

1955 Speed with Safety

LOOK AT THE HIGHWAY ACCIDENT FIGURES after any weekend or holiday, and you might come to the conclusion that cars are mighty dangerous.  Not so, says Betty Skelton, 28-year-old auto-speed-record holder for women and only woman test driver in the automobile industry.  It's not cars that make life hazardous, Betty explains, but careless drivers.  Trouble is, she says, many of the people behind the wheel never really learned how to drive.  Betty currently is lecturing to youth groups all over the nation on safe driving habits.  She believes that every high school should have a thorough training program, instilling in the youngsters correct driving habits which will stick with them for life.

When Betty talks, young drivers-to-be prick up their ears.  They figure that anyone with so much experience behind the wheel must know the score.  She's the only woman licensed as a race driver by the American Automobile Association.  Last June, driving an experimental Dodge Firearrow at the Chrysler Proving Grounds, Chelsea, Mich., she streaked around the course to be officially clocked at 143.44 miles per hour, setting a world's speed record for women.

Dodge hired Betty as a test driver, not only because of her driving skill and technical experience, but also to learn what women may or may not like about any new model undergoing tests.  Betty arrives bright an dearly at the test site from her Detroit home, checks with engineers and mechanics on details of the car she is to test, makes a run, reports on performance, waits for changes and adjustments, then repeats the entire process. From the feminine point of view she makes suggestions on such matters as using the brake pedal while wearing high heels, possibility of snagging stockings, and ease of opening the trunk.

Photographs by Joe Clark and Jurgen Jacobsen for the American Magazine.

Article in American Magazine, May 1955 issue

1960 Glass-Fiber Frame Bike

Bomard Industries, Inc., Grand Haven, Mich.

One manufacturer is peddling bicycles distinguished by their colorful glass-fiber frames.  Designed by an industrial designer, the new bicycle combines a streamlined effect with the protective enclosure of mechanical parts, such as gears and chains.  Accessories such as horn and light are concealed in the sweep of the frame.  The color is designed into the glass fiber.

Click Here to see coffee cup with this image!

This article appeared in the November 1960 edition of Popular Mechanics magazine

1959 Versitile Back Yard Play & Lounge

No ordinary teeter-totter gives such thrills - and it won't roll over

A Back Yard "Piped" for Fun
Here's a Prescription for back yard fun at low cost:  Take two 12-foot lengths of one-inch pipe: bend to semicircles 7 feet in diameter. Make crossbars of 1 1/4 inch pipe that can be moved anywhere along the semicircles and held in place with setscrew locks.  Handy, but not essential, are two wheels from an old lawn mower attached to one end of the joined pipes.  Dwight Kindschy of Moscow, Idaho, has a moveable hammock in mind when he built the original model.  His youngsters quickly took over the hammock as a fascinating piece of gymnastic equipment.  He built another for adults - but seldom gets near it.

With a crossbar seat under the canvas, it becomes a reclining seat. 

 What better way to spend a summer afternoon?  Movable bars held by setscrew locks make for variety

Dad's original idea was for a restful hammock - but whoops, you can raise the back and make a delightful slide all the way down the canvas strip



This article appeared in the June 1959 edition of Popular Mechanics

1959 Mini Locomotive delivers Mail

Paint, scraps and ingenuity converted box into locomotive

"Locomotive" chugs up Wire to deliver Mail

Mail is delivered to Morton Murphy's front door by private locomotive.  Murphy's home, in Brown County, Ind., is 200 feet from the road, and a trip to the mailbox takes him across some rugged terrain.  Murphy redesigned his mailbox into a miniature locomotive, complete with cab, cowcatcher and headlight (a Christmas tree bulb).  The "track" is a wire strung at waist level between the house and the road.  the mailbox hangs from it on pulleys.  A small electric motor attached to the flywheel of an old sewing machine provides its power, winding up a line attached to the locomotive.  Murphy flips a switch, and the mail chugs up to the house.

"Station" is convenient height

Electric motor belted to the flywheel of an old sewing machine winds up a line to pull locomotive up the track.



This article appeared in the June 1959 edition of Popular Mechanics magazine