Modern Mechanix Round-UP

Today on Modern Mechanix we have this cute little midget television set with a 2" screen, a $375 four-function 1970 calculator, an attempt to set the non-stop tractor riding record, a talking mailbox, and we learned how Disney made the soundtrack for Fantasia. In 1950 Mechanix Illustrated must have run themselves out of red ink publishing the sensationalist piece "Can Russia Defeat Us with Atom Bombs?"

This weekend we looked at a Playboy ad done in Ascii art, a food cooker that runs off of an automobile's exhaust, a sonic laundry cleaner, an odd insect resistant chair, a spinning house designed to withstand hurricanes, a crazy looking ad for "Auto Eyes", the original fishing video game, a waiting room for hitch-hikers, a giant truck designed to ship prefab housing kits, and a variety of gadgets for the home. We also learned how to get a career from the television boom, how UPS sorted packages, the inside story of rodeos, and that morning is not the best time for work. Also in 1931 Popular Science asked the question: "Can Soft Drinks Poison You?"