Electrons Are Coming! – Minneapolis-Honeywell advert detail, Collier’s Magazine, 24 July 1943.
BUCK ROGERS, No. 1 WINTER 1940 - Dick Calkins Cover Art
V-2 Rocket Launch, 1943
The V-2 rocket was developed in Germany during WWII - its technical name was Aggregat 4 (A4), but the name used in general parlance was Vergeltungswaffe 2 (Retribution Weapon 2) or ‘vengeance weapon’ - as it was assigned to attack allied cities in retaliation for allied fire bombings perpetrated against heavily populated German cities.
Although it was the the world's first long-range strategic missile, it was also a major technological breakthrough in the development of large rockets. Innovations included a rocket engine burning liquid oxygen and alcohol, pioneered use of turbo-pumps to pressure-feed the propellants into the rocket's combustion chamber, a radio guidance system, and a gyroscopic system which corrected any course deviations.
After WWII, several V-2 rockets were appropriated by the US and the USSR and became the ultimate rocket teaching tool for both states and their individual space programs. On 24 October 1946, the first photo from space was taken from a V-2 launched by US scientists.
Costumed People - Photographer Leslie Jones, c. 1934-1956 (image via itkindofgotawayfromyou h/t Boston Public Library)
The 1948 Davis Divan - An adaptation of the 1939 [Frank] Curtis, three-wheel ‘Californian’ roadster, by a group of talented engineers from the aerospace industry for the Davis Motor Company, Van Nuys, California. (bottom image via Show Me Fact)
The most unique feature of this 'car of the future’ was the built in jack for each of the 3 wheels - these were fabricated out of military surplus hydraulic cylinders and lifted the car by flipping the appropriate switch. Only eleven Davis Divan’s were produced - Davis Motor Co. came to an ignoble end when the company was seized and liquidated by the LA District Attorney’s office after Gary Davis was hit with fraud and other charges related to failures in meeting contractual agreements. (via The Makes That Didn’t Make It)
Giant From Jupiter - Fantastic Adventures cover art by Malcolm Smith, June 1942
Acid corrodes a rod of ordinary plastic but leaves Teflon unaffected: A laboratory technician lifts two plastic rods from a boiling bath of hot sulfuric acid to demonstrate newly invented Teflon, discovered by GM and developed by DuPont, c. 1944. (image via whitetrout)
The Nébulor-Fulgor...! - Illustration by Guy Sabran in his 1946 illustrated youth sci-fi novel, ‘Croisière du Nébulor Fusée Atomique’ / ‘The Cruise of the Nébulor Atomic Rocket’ (France)
Electronics—A New Science for a New World - Graphic Design by Herbert Bayer for General Electric, Inc., 1942. (image via MOMA)
The Uninvited (1944) - The haunted 18th-century Gothic mansion on the English coast in director, Lewis Allen’s classic mystery, starring Ray Milland and Ruth Hussey (Paramount Pictures).
The Metalogen Man & Babs (Carol Matthews), a robot from the 1945 serial, The Monster and the Ape (Columbia Pictures).
Created by Professor Franklin Arnold, the Metalogen Man is stolen by a thuggish competitor, Professor Ernst, with the aid of his trained ape, Thor. Ken Morgan, a representative of the company for whom the robot was made, leads the attempts to recover the stolen robot.
The Gibson Girls, Vogue, 1948 - Photographer: Horst P. Horst (image via SlideShare)
George The Robot - A ‘Home Help’ radio-controlled robot built by 17 year-old, Tony Sale, 1949. Sale would later become responsible for building the replica ‘Colossus’ WWII code-breaking computer from Bletchley Park. The top image is the negative/print circulated by Getty which masked out the brand of vacuum cleaner in the original. (bottom image via cyberneticzoo.com)
A novel approach to military exercise: Daily Calisthenics for U. S. Army Air Forces Bombardiers, World War II (image via Smithsonian Air and Space Museum)
Theodore Hall's Aerocar - Illustration by Rene Ravo, Science et Vie (Science and Life) Magazine, February 1947 (image via Paul Malon)
Interior of the Sky Top Lounge - The Milwaukee Railroad’s streamlined Hiawatha passenger trains featured a variety of distinctive observation cars. The fourth and final design was the Sky Top Lounge, styled by industrial designer Brooks Stevens and produced by the Milwaukee Shops in 1948. The cars' round ends were 90% glass and included 24 revolving chairs, plus a drawing room. (image via Milwaukee Art Museum)
Trade Your Trouble For A Bubble - Pleasure Ball Illustration and concept by James B Settles. Featured back cover story of Amazing Stories, February 1946.
‘Trade Your Trouble for a Bubble’ and decide to go sightseeing across the country in this giant rolling ball of transparent plastic, balanced by interior gyro stabilizers controlling a suspended core which ever remains erect as it travels around its giant “track-ring.”
This ring is magnetic, and powered by the atom, revolves along the roadway, with is a specially magnetized roadway. The same power that makes the ball move forward (or backward) acts for stopping the ball. There are no huge motors, no complicated apparatus, just the simplest of gadgets, and a complex and very interesting interior which is the last word in pleasure palaces. Games, terraces, ramps, restful lounging places, dance floors, swimming pools and just plain sightseeing would make this huge ball a pleasant place to while-away a day.