cool inventions

Linda Mason sails along on an motorized scooter called theMcCoy Sportsman in Hollywood, Calif., March 14, 1949. When given a slight push, the Sportsman travels at 8 mph with a 120 pound passenger aboard.

Flanked by his two daughters, Egon Bruetsch sits in his new three wheel car for which he developed a plastic body in Stuttgart, Germany, Oct. 10, 1954. He claims it weighs only half as much as a normal metal body. The car seats three persons.

Toy designer Marvin Glass, of Chicago, issues an order to theRobot Commando Soldier in a preview of Christmas toy designs in New York, March 10, 1961. The robot shoots rockets and can be controlled by voice through an attached microphone. Glass says,I'm trying to develop a concept of toys that a child can actually participate in, that will allow some expression of the dynamism of his personality.

A giant electrified model of the human brain's control system is demonstrated by Dr. A.G. Macleod, at the meeting of the American Medical Association in New York, June 26, 1961. Macleod is the coordinator for its development by a pharmaceutical company. The maze of twisting tubes and blinking lights traces the way the brain receives information and turns it into thought and then action.

This newbanking machine was displayed for the first time at the American Bankers Association annual meeting in San Francisco, Calif., Oct. 25, 1966. Banks of the future may havetellers installed in office and apartment house lobbies. Richard Glyer demonstrates how to deposit a check in one. Through the medium of automation he can talk to a teller whom he sees on the television screen. She will answer his questions, cash checks and issue currency from his account.

Jane Martin remains seated andgets her filing done using theCorresfile electric/hydraulic lift and circular file system at the Office and Management Association's 11th Annual Seminar and Business Show in Chicago, Ill., March 6, 1953. The electrically operated hydraulic lift raises a person from floor level to five feet alongside a circular file. The circular file has six shelves and each holds the equivalent of three file drawers. The Corresfile is an innovation of the Wassell Organization of Westport, Conn.

A young man demonstrates a new type of cigarette lighter which does not use a flint or wick and is not much bigger than a cigarette. It was exhibited for the first time at the Frankfurt Autumn Fair in Frankfurt, West Germany, Sept. 20, 1950. The lighter is fully automatic and smokers need only to unscrew the left end of the lighter and touch the other end to the cigarette. The new gadget is filled with a special liquid called Vulcanit and manufacturers claim that one filling will last for one week.

A television screen is inset into an avant garde cabinet for canned music called theKuba Komet at the Radio and Television Exhibition in Frankfurt, West Germany, Aug. 5, 1957. As well as the television set, the Komet houses a radio, a record player and a tape recorder. The upper part of the assembly swings on a vertical axis to face any direction.

Marion Liebig, Miss Hesse 1959, keeps warm under the artificial sunshine of an infra red lamp in a snow covered park in Wiesbaden, Germany, Jan. 18, 1960. The shivering bystander standing nearby is unidentified. The lamp, shown at the nearby sporting goods fair, is powered by bottled gas.

The world's first separate television screen and receiver was presented by James M. Skinner Jr., left, President of Philco Corporation, the developer and manufacturer of the set, to W. Laurance Lepage, President of the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, Pa., on June 11, 1958. This set will be placed in the Benjamin Franklin Hall of the Institute for public display.