226 Popular Science Monthly 



Turn It at Any Angle. It's Always 

 Ready to Shoot 



SEVERAL attempts have been made to 

 mount machine guns on automobiles 

 and motor boats. The principal problem to 

 be confronted is that of vibration. In every 

 case the inventors have devised several 

 forms of 



mountings 

 which would 

 lessen to a 

 considerable 

 degree vio- 

 lent shocks. 

 Needless t o 

 say, they 

 have been 

 hard put to 

 it/to devise a 

 mounting 

 that would 

 stand up 

 under the ex- 

 cessive vi- 

 bration of a 

 travel i ng 

 automobile. 

 The ac- 

 companying 

 illustration shows a new mounting for a 

 machine gun which enables the gun to be 

 fired in any direction without changing the 

 base. A ball and socket joint gives the 

 greatest possible latitude of range, and the 

 gun can be fired at any angle to straight 

 up. The flanged base and about one foot of 

 the supporting column are attached per- 

 manently to the automobile floor. 

 The stand can be lifted off this 

 base and put on another car, or 

 by driving its pointed end into 

 the earth it can be used for 

 land firing. 



A machine-gun mounted on a ball and socket base fastened 

 permanently to the floor of an automobile. It can be fired at 

 any angle to straight up without changing or altering 



vised, but it is so high that the starting 

 platform has to be reached in an elevator. 

 A steel car takes the place of the old 

 pine board. From three to ten persons 

 may be swung through space in the same 

 car. The car is suspended not from a rope 

 but from metal rods, preferably of steel. 

 The tower which supports the swing is 



composed of 

 steel pillars; 

 so is the ele- 

 vator build- 

 ing, as well 

 as the ele- 

 vator itself. 

 The swing 

 chair or car 

 is held in po- 

 sition on the 

 starting 

 platform by 

 a locking de- 

 vice. When 

 the car is 

 ready to be 

 released, a 

 lever is oper- 

 ated which 

 lets the car 

 fall. The in- 

 ventor does not tell us whether or not the 

 car will return to the starting platform 

 every time it is released. Neither does he 

 explain how the car is brought back to the 

 starting platform. Perhaps he figures that 

 with a minimum of resistance it will return 

 to the platform and thus be caught and held 

 by the lockingdevice without further trouble. 



A Giant Swing for the 

 Summer Resort 



INSPIRED by the swing 'neath 

 the old apple tree, Frederick 

 E. Happel, of Ballston, Virginia, 

 has devised a giant swing for 

 parks and recreation centers to 

 thrill even the person who has 

 grown tired of turning figure 

 eights, riding down the roller 

 coaster, and chuting the chutes. 

 Not only is Mr. Ballston's 

 swing by far the largest ever de- 



The giant swing is an overgrown edition of 

 the old apple tree swing. It is made of steel 



