May 1963…
Rails brace moving cargo. Slotted rails and telescoping, spring-loaded poles, according to this recent patent, might speed cargo handling, reduce in-transit damage and lessen the need for placing items in crates.
The rails would be fastened to the roof, floor, and sides of the truck or freight car. Snapping pole ends into holes would keep the cargo from shifting.
July 1963…
This projector turns words into pictures.
The New York police are now using a quick-identification projector invented by one of their own members.
It puts together from coded slides a verbal description of a wanted man and projects his image on a screen where it can be photographed and distributed.
It works from slides offering 600 combinations of facial features, similar to a previous system, but with important differences. The system, unlike the earlier one, uses a projector, and in addition, has built into it a series of wafer-thin mirrors that can distort any of the features at a press of a button.
A chin can be lengthened, nose shortened, or eyes widened if a witness desires. The machine cuts the work of hours down to minutes.
Detective Peter Smith, who used to draw identification pictures, developed the machine on his own time and money and turned it over to the department without charge.
Anybody can operate a new machine that prints 1,500 show cards a day, for it works as easily as a typewriter.
No setting of type is necessary. The device is provided with a row of holes, each representing a letter or figure.Cards may be printed in two colors at a single operation.
According to the inventor, the device prints signs at a fraction of the cost of ordinary printing and turns out work of more finished quality than could be done by hand.
November 1963…
A new mortar containing plastic lets builders bond bricks together into panels that can be lifted into place in any weather. Panels were braced in steel frames 4 by 5 to 4 by 14 feet, raised to the roof of an eight-story Denver building, and welded to become penthouse walls.
The extra-strength mortar was made from cement, sand, and Sarabond liquid polymer, a Dow Chemical development.
April 1963…
Plug-in vest heats from dashboard.
Riders in open cars, boats, tractors, or on motorcycles can now keep warm on cold days, says the inventor of this plug-in vest.
It has flexible heating elements enclosed in plastic front and back panels and it plugs into a cigarette-lighter receptacle connected to a 6, 12, or 24-volt battery.
Normally worn inside the jacket, the French device is demonstrated above on a cold day in London. When not in use the plug can be tucked in a pocket.
July 1963…
Platform rolls like a ship’s landing deck. An experimental platform that tilts up to fifteen degrees is used by the British Navy to enable them to test the capabilities of new helicopters for landing on ships at sea.
Shown here is a Westland Wasp which was the latest anti-submarine helicopter back in 1963. It can be fitted with either wheels or suction cups for landing on small ships
Innovation from December 1963.
The tiny white button in the lens can detect and amplify, by 100 times, signals carried to it on less than a billionth of a watt of light.
The transistor-like device, a quarter-inch in diameter, would be the heart of a matchbox-size receiver, enabling space systems to pick up light-borne signals beamed from millions of miles away.
Sperry Rand researchers, who developed it, hope to make it still a billion times more sensitive-comparable to seeing, from the moon, the glow of a 400-watt bulb on earth.
July 1963…
Para-anchor steadies your boat in all kinds of weather. It works on the same drag principle as the parachute.
It holds the bow into the wind, resisting drift and reducing roll in deep water. A lifesaver if an engine failure occurs in rough water.
Of nylon construction and unaffected by salt water, the anchor is 24 feet in diameter. It packs small and can be stored wet for days.
July 1963…
One-man electronic garage parks cars by pushbutton.
Theater-goers in New York’s Times Square have something new to talk about: a garage that can park or unpark 27 cars in 10 minutes with only one attendant on duty. It’s all done by pushing a button and it works this way:
Drive up in your car onto a receiving platform, get out, and you’re handed a key. (It’s your receipt, keeps anyone else from handling the car.) The lone attendant then presses a button and automation goes to work. Before you’ve left the building, long fingers have reached under the car and transferred it to an elevator that deposits it in its designated pigeonhole.
Getting it back is just the reverse. The insertion of your key sends the elevator to your car’s stall to bring it down.
Speed-Park garage holds 270 cars. Two special Otis elevators handle the chores.
July 1963…
New boat can either fly or sail. Towed by a powerboat, this craft takes to the air under its flex-wing sail.
On its own with the wing tilted to catch the breeze, it sails like a catamaran. A plane type stick controls the wing in flight; rudder pedals steer the boat on the water.
Flight Dynamics, Raleigh, N.C., designed it with two skis mounted on an aluminum-pipe frame.
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