The Pittsburgh Press from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 23

5CWENTY-NINH It Seems to Me by The Pittsburgh AFRIT 1S3S 1 2 3 4 1 10 11 12 11 14 IS IS 17 18 19 20 21 23 23 24 25 24 31 28 29 30 MAY lrress i ii Ml TlWl I I 12 3 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 IS 16 17 18 JUNE 1M 1 2 3 4 7 (Copyright. 1935. by enmm Publishing Company A.11 Rirbts 4 19 20 21 (22123 24 25 26 27 28129130,311 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 IS 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 PITTSBURGH, WEDNESDAY, MAY 22, 1935 SECOND SECTION PAGE 23 saL.iliylTYUUII finliULi Inventions That Almost Worked i CTAMFORD, Conn Now that I'm back on the farm again v- I gravely fear I was film-flammed when last I ventured i nto the city. It wasn't New York exactly but only Larch-. mont, but that seems like a metropolis to me.

At any rate I was induced to see a film called Men" and of my own free will I wrote about it as a lively melodrama. That is still true but this columnist overlooked comment which would have been much pertinent, I DARE say Diary of an Alice in Hollywood Other Aviation Experts Fooled By Fuelless Motor their stuff. I hope they give that Butch Villard a little of his own strongarm stufl and then send him back where he came from." After a dozen men pictures have been released and duly digested it will be extremely difficult for even the most conservative commentator to suggest that maybe the boys from the Department of Justice were just a little too prankish in beating up or shooting some labor leader on the eve of a strike vote. meagre existence, barely able to 1 Ife Jf? ISSI meet his $22.50 a month rent. mVIT Ajjfir I figM' I He's Through Inventing Jf, I am informed that at the present time Hollywood is housing ro less than 12 projects for pictures built around the activities of agents of the Department of Justice.

Why this plethora? Of course there's money in it and it's a sure device to throw mud in the eyes of the censor. SS GV Always Win Out By making your hero a government man it becomes possible to have all the gangsters, stabbings and shootings you please. It is no longer bad for the young. In the very last reel the federals win out and the boy in the balcony goes i.way having learned that crime never pays. But whether it is in anybody's conscious intention or not, and I suspect it is, this string of men melodramas is very likely to have an important by-product.

A vast mass of propaganda is being loosed to convince the American public that agents of the Department of Justice are invariably brave, never corruptible and always right. If we hold to that thought it may come to do us lots of damage. Dangerous Weapon CONGRESS is now considering a series of bills calculated to blow civil liberties clean out of the water. At least one measure Is designated to created a secret service section of the Department of Justice. In all the countries of the world such bodies have been used largely to intimidate and persecute economic and political heretics.

I can think of no more dangerous weapon to be forged in the middle of our present hysterical red scare. Federal agents always have and always will interpret "red" in the widest possible sense. The triumphant and gallant capture of old lady anarchists like Emma Goldman will not content them long. Presently we will be reading how Officers and at the risk of their lives ambushed Oswald Garrison (Butch) Villard outside the offices of the Nation. We will be told that Butch was about to blow up the city hall.

Many Believe It AND a very large part of the reading public will readily believe it. The learner in the cinema cathedral will say, "Why these are some of those men who got Rat-Faced Robert in that picture Protecting the Home' which I saw last Sunday. They certainly know Public to Go Further PUBLIC opinion will not rest merely with the assertion that the reckless liberal has been bought by Moscow gold. He will also be accused of trying to protect the kidnaper, the racketeer and the mob man. Roger Baldwin's Civil Liberties group will be identified as a section of the gas house gang.

Some of this may seem to you burlesque. Perhaps a little of it is so intended. But the objective is utterly serious and I very much fear that even the most fantastic prophecies about a secret and sacrosant Department of Justice section might become literally true. Doesn't Believe It NEITHER the public nor the publishers of America are sufficiently aroused about the necessity of protecting a free press. To be sure, sham battles have been fought with phantoms.

But was there any general outcry about the censorship imposed by the Navy in the Pacific There was not. Even, if the necessity for secrecy in some things were to be admitted there was no point in holding back the announcement of two deaths. Everybody in any way concerned with the officers and personnel of the planes must have been kept in an agony of suspense for day and hours. It was cruel and it was not necessary. The simple communique that all the fliers, with one announced exception, were safe would have been sufficient.

The Navy Department does not seem to me to be all wise. Neither does the Department of Justice. Homer Cummings has been known to nod, when next I see a man film I am going to ask that my pass be sprinkled with several grams of salt. Hendershot's great invention was the result of a bullet wound in the foot, inflicted by a bandit. and set it down again.

The propellor stopped. He turned it around the same way it had been squatting before. The propellor started again. Lester, Jr. hopped around in great glee.

And finally he discovered that when the ship headed north and south the propellor turned, but when it headed east and west it stopped. Out of this morass of strange happenings he could deduce only one thing that a certain magnetism was operating the propellor when the plane was headed north or south. But anything more than that well, he was stumped. He went out to Bettis Field "just for fun" with his little plane and the whirling propellor. Lindbergh Enthused There he met D.

Barr Peat, manager of the field. Peat looked at the model and was amazed. He thought he saw "a good thing" so he took Hendershot under his wing. Mr. Stout, of Ford Motor, came, saw ana apparently was convinced.

Then Major Lamphier, a war One CirJ By Aleen Today's Business I i I heim Foundation, to Colonel Lindbergh, Professor S. W. Stratton, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, E. G. Liebold, of the Ford Motor Co.

and Major Lamphier. The message declared that four years before Hendershot had attempted to sell his invention to the Benedum-Trees oil interests. Hochstetter said that the models presented by Hendershot at his laboratories were checked closely and found to contain batteries secreted in the windings of the coils. At the same time he produced a contract purported to have been made on Dec. 2, 1924, between Hendershot and John A.

Snee, of Elizabeth, and M. L. Benedum and J. C. Trees, by which Hendershot and Snee, another inventor who died several years ago, agreed to sell all rights to the invention for $25,000 payable within 30 days.

The researcher said that after the contract was signed, Hendershot was employed at $300 a month to work on his invention of the "fuelless" motor. The company called the products of these labors "frauds." Hendershot was fired. So Failure Comes The Guggenheim Foundation said they would not touch the invention. Hendershot picked up and went off to Havana for several months. Ten thousand dollars had been lost in the scheme and "I got about $4000 out of it in about five years," Hendershot said.

Hendershot insists that the principle of -terrestrial magnetism is still workable but usable for no mechanism larger than that found in an ordinary clock. He clings to the notion that the furore over his invention came, not from his own enthusiasm, but from "the extravagant ideas of others." "I still maintain that the device can develop power in minute quantities. Of course, I used a small battery. That's how I got my power. A six-volt battery would agitate the magnet and develop say 25 or 30 volts step it up, that's all I did." So Lester Hendershot, living with his family, his lost dreams, his airedale dog, his rabbits and his memories, is through with inven tions and wishing he had a job.

THE END. TWO YOUNG ROBBERS DRAW LIGHT TERMS Former Magistrate, Police Inspector Aid Pair Two robbers drew light sentences from Judge Harry H. Howand in Criminal Court yesterday after ex- magistrate J. W. McGowan and Police Inspector Jerry Deasy made pleas for leniency.

They are Joseph Hanlon, 22, of 32 Emma and John Kuzniewski, 18, of 1920 Fifth Ave. The latter was sentenced to the Work House for one to three years; Hanlon, two to four years. The pair robbed the store of John Kuza, 3225 Dobson on March 29, with five customers in the store. After the pair pleaded guilty, Mr. McGowan asked for leniency for Hanlon.

Inspector Deasy spoke for Kuzniewski. Hanlon had previously been In the Huntingdon Reformatory and Work House for robberies. School Picnics Planned School children from Munhall, Whitaker, Baldwin and Hamar Twps. will frolic at Kennywood Park tomorrow afternoon and night School officials in charge are G. Stone, C.

A. Rushton, Logan Wilding, Charles E. Heiner, S. H. Noll.

Charles G. Gibson and William M. Young. By Ed Reed Stabilization of Currency Is Easy To Say But Difficult To Do Lindbergh, Great Possibilities Seen Until Battery Is Found In Coils This is the last of three articles recounting scientific discoveries, amazing in their potentialities, but "hoaxes" as far as scientists are concerned. The following story tells about an "inventor" of Elizabeth whose motor ran Kith-out fuel, so it teas thought.

By CECIL B. BROWN Lester J. Hendershot, 29, smiling and partially bald, cheerfully bore the jibes of his Elizabeth neighbors. He had to expect them and he was used to it. For Hendershot, a road inspector, was also that prime target of wisecracks an inventor who hadn't invented anything that would work.

But this same inconspicuous small town putterer not only startled Elizabeth, but also the nation and the world. He invented a fuelless airplane motor that almost worked. Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh examined it, tested it and announced: "All I need to fly around the world now will be a bigger basket of sandwiches." Major Thomas G. Lamphier, commander of the First Pursuit Squadron of the U.

S. Air Service, Selfridge Field, was enthused: "Wonderful!" he exclaimed. Success Seemed Certain William B. Stout, head of the aircraft division of the Ford Motor Co. inspected Hendershot's invention.

"No humbug here," he remarked. The Guggenheim Foundation for the Promotion of Aeronautics was on the verge of conducting tests. Commerce Department aviation officials said they were convinced. Electrical engineers reported to Government officials that the motor operated successfully. Thus was the stage set for the inventor of the fuelless motor.

Hendershot simply had the idea that the "earth currents" which made the brilliant Aurora Borealis in Northern skies could be harnessed and made to work an engine. Just as radio cashed in on sound waves, so Hendershot was all ready to cash in on the currents which are darting between the North and South Poles. The whole world was electrified by the announcement that here was a motor that needed neither electricity nor oil nor gasoline. I Other Uses Seen Some officials thought the development for ground use might be even greater than for airplane use. It would revolutionize all industry, and conceivably might make unnecessary the production of coal, oil and water, because energy made available in one form is easily performed into light, heat or power.

For Hendershot's fuelless motor obtained convertible energy from terrestrial magnetism and the rotation of the earth, whereby power could be supplied for a long time without fuel. These were the claims advanced. These were the claims that had the scientific world flocking around this breezy road inspector from Elizabeth. Hendershot's brain child whirled him dizzily to the peaks of notoriety. He hovered there for months, suspended by the tugging forces of belief and disbelief.

Then skepticism slowly' inflated the bubble of his invention to a perilous tautness. And when the bubble burst in 1928. Hendershot went careening down into the same niche of inconspicuousness that he had once before occupied Today, at 36, he lives in a one- story, white frame house on the outskirts of Elizabeth, with his wife, Melinda, and his 11 -year-old son, Lester, Jr. He has been on relief since last August, ekeing out a SIDE GLANCES "You surely remember Madrid. Watsons and had that onion soup.1 liStfif a a a a a in of By Florence Fisher Parry HOLLYWOOD SUNDAY.

Up betimes after a night filled with the songs of mocking-birds gone haywire over their baroque habitat, and small wonder, poor birdies! What a life is this In Hollywood, with time crumpling up ke an accordion, making strange, discordant music bewildering to the ear! Could not decide whether a fur coat or a chiffon dress should adorn me for the day. for summer goes into winter with the thundering Mrs. Tarry suddenness of Kipling's Dawn. Drove all the day, as is the native custom, and took hair-raising turns 'round desperate canyons: and the lone white Yuccas, monstrous Candles on the wild sides of the mountains, added a rare note of beauty to the landscape's thousand delirious hues and odors. Monday Up and to 5505 Hollyr wood where more communications are received from would-be Reformers of the Movies than any other place on earth: The Hays Office, technically known as the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, but in reality the dumping place of grievances and disputes within the industry, and from without, the plaints of earnest Club women and Professional Reformers.

Thence to a glance at the Central Casting Bureau, where 500 jobs for one day's work are di vided among waiting extras; and got some figures on Unemploy ment in Los Angeles that should be learned by every foolish girl and boy on earth who harbors vain dreams of Hollywood fame and fortune! The Rendez-Vous THE afternoon to the home of Billie Burke, who is as far re moved in every attribute from the fiuttery parts she plays, as one could ever imagine. And it was pleasant to chat there with this serene and gracious hostess, and, look out of the large windows at the rows of prim tall rose trees, flanking the prim carpets of pansies; and know how agreeable a haven Hollywood has provided one whose own true happiness lies behind her. Wednesday To the Fox lot early, to see a prevue of Shirley Temple's new picture, "Our Little Girl," and then to visit with her in her little studio bungalow. Alone and quite apart from all the others, we spent an earnest time together, and not once was the child a "show" child. but unaware, spontaneous and grave.

I've written of her in another "story." so leave her now, reluc tantly, for the Vendome, Hollywood's new noon rendez-vous lor motion picture stars, so prohibitive in price that only those who can afford the costly publicity it affords them, can indulge in it. Kay Mulvey, charming hostess of M-G-M, had arranged a luncheon party for me there. Two places were empty: "Jean Harlow was sick with flu which held up "China Seas" lor some days, and Madge Evans was suddenly called to some retakes. "My" guests were Jeannette Mac-Donald, Una Merkel and Constance Collier (the "latest'' important stage star to have been acquired by The Need for Technicolor NEVER could there be brought together three such contrasting personalities! Jeannette Mac-Donald personified the Golden Glamour of PERSONALITY, Una Merkel, eternal young naivete, and Constance Collier trailed the rich traditions of an incomparable Theater background. Here were the Three Essential Female Ingredients of the present movie cast: The radiant Star, the wistful ingenue, and the wise dowager smiling in the background! No table there could boast the charm and interest of our own; and Miss MacDonald, brown as a nut from her sojourn in Hawaii, was the cynosure of all eyes and deserved it.

I found in her the most stalwart little touper of them all, gay and alive with a charm no celluloid can capture! Jeannette MacDonald, with the world at her feet over "Naughty Marietta," had scarcely had time to hear of the public's reaction to this glorious picture; and Una Merkel would be genuinely surprised, I know, if she knew how familiar her face and accent are to every movie fan! As for Constance Collier, I would have given much to read the thoughts that lay behind her wise and crowded brow. Triumphant years behind her, she has embraced a totally new medium with grace and humility. Three Great Personalities IN THE afternoon I talked long with Nelson Eddy, a thoughtful man of depth and character, whose rise to sudden fame in "Naughty Marietta" after years of painful struggle would make a story fit for a Dreiser or a Thomas Wolfe telL For a long, exciting hour I talked with Richard Boleslawski, the great director of "Les Miserables," and got from him a deep insight into the reverent approach of a director to his work. From him I went to W. S.

Van Dyke, the vital director of "Naughty Marietta," "The Thin Man," and dozens of magnificent, and spirited pictures. Hegavemetwc hours of most colorful experiencef and theories. I raced into my dinnei clothes to meet a SELF-INDULGENCE: dinner and to -spend the night with an old room-mate at boarding school. And forget, under the merciful spell of Reminiscence, that there was such a place as By 3. FRANK BEAMAN Press Financial Editor BUSINESS and banking generally failed to look behind the words of Secretary of the Treasury Morgenthau when he surprisingly announced that the United States is willing to consider stabilization of world currency and that this counrty has the soundest money in the world.

It was almost the same as serving notice on the country that the Administration time friend of Peat's, landed at the field. "Come on down to Selfridge Field," he invited, "We'll give you every facility for experimental work. Hendershot went. Then the Major sent for Colonel Charles Lindbergh. The "Lone Eagle" came with his financial backers.

They all trooped to the experimental plant and Colonel Lindbergh came away with promises to "get behind the invention." But a Pittsburgh pin pricked the bubble. Invention Called Hoax On Feb. 25 electrical engineers in Washington gave virtual sanction to the invention. Two days later, business interests in Pittsburgh delivered a blow that stopped the fuelless motor as quickly as the lack of fuel stops a gasoline motor. F.

W. Hochstetter, research director of the Hochstetter Laboratories, warned that Hendershot's invention wasn't really an invention at all but "came under the head of a hoax." He sent telegrams to the Guggen-1 Chorus Wet stein of my voice. This is downright indecent. My voice going straight to the public from my bare mouth without being Pasteurized first. And my looks doing the same thing.

Never again will I leave Hollywood. "And now, my darling, you've been simply wonderful to me and I can't tell you how much I love every one of you. You're all so kind, and I can't wait until I get back to play in this theater again. I think maybe I might be able to arrange it next winter, but in the meantime I'll keep remembering how sweet you are to me and I do want to thank you so much. You do like me a little, don't you? So thank you again for your kindness and appreciation." (Copyright.

1935. by Press Publishing- Co.) Five Cents Daily Pay OTTAWA, May 22 Convicts will be paid live cents a day for work done in Canadian prisons if tney behave themselves, it is announced here. The money will be handed to them on release. OFF THE RECORD PERSONAL APPEARANCE "Oh, my dear, lovely, lovely public, it is so wonderful to get right up here in front of you and look into all your kind faces. This is the first time I've ever made personal appearances, you know, and I'm simply scared to death, but I know you're eoine to be nice to me and reallv.

"I wish." he mourns, "that I never would have got the idea for fuelless motor. "All this notice wasn't exactly my fault. Other fellows had bigger hopes than I did. I was at sea about the whole thing most of the time. I'm through inventing." And the epitaph to his inventive inclinations came out like a long, low sigh of relief.

Now he has a new philosophy the philosophy of where-will-it-all-end? He says: "There's no use inventing things. You're supposed to be crack-brained if you monkey around with apparatus. There's enough scientific stuff in the world to make men jobless without inventing anything else." But it wasn't always that way. Back in 1927 he was an enthused person, ready to burgeon forth on sea of riches as a genius of the scientific world. The birth of Hendershot's "great achievement" started with a bullet which imbedded itself in his' heel, and his small son's smile that lured him into building the child an airplane.

Shot By Bandit Hendershot was at various times railroad fireman and engineer. At one time he had worked at the Westinghouse Electric Co. and he was later to do a few months ex perimental work at Cornell Univer sity. In 1927, while an inspector on a new Clairton road, on his way home on a dark but otherwise inauspicious night, Hendershot heard the gruff command of a highwayman to stick 'em up." But Hendershot didn't stick them up. He turned his short legs into pistons and sped for safety.

But bullet from the bandit's gun imbedded itself in his "achilles" heel. Unlike the famous warrior of Greek mythology, Hendershot found potential fortune instead of death the vulnerability of his heel. Laid up by the wounded foot. Hendershot bowed to the demand Lester, for an airplane. Builds Small Motor Not an ordinary airplane did this boy want.

He had that kind already. He wanted one that would really run. Working with a model he" had made, Hendershot hollowed out the solid wood block that formed the nose of the ship so that a tiny motor could fit into it. Then he built that tiny motor. He made a magnet to put in the motor.

That's where his experience at Westinghouse helped. But how he made it was his secret. When he had finished the motor and put it into the plane, he placed the miniature flying ship down on the libarry table. And then it happened! The propellor on the model started to turn! Hendershot's mouth gaped 'open. He rubbed a limp hand over his eyes.

He turned his back, a physical movement which he thought might evaporate what certainly must be an optical illusion. There was no mistake about it. The propellor was whirling around at a steady clip! Hendershot picked the plane up By George Clark That's where we ran into the i 1 llR, if ST 1- if tions. The carrying charges are no higher for the bigger debt than they were previously. Of course in preparing for budget balancing the Administration may have another monetary trick up its sleeve, especially now since most of the Treasury refinancing is out of the way.

This might be devaluation of silver. Commodity Dollar IT is not possible to further devalue the gold dollar and talk of stabilization, seriously. It also is apparently impossible to talk of stabilization and a commodity dollar and be consistent. The commodity dollar as originally conceived by the Roosevelt advisors was one that would have a changing value in gold, but remain steady in purchasing power. This could only be accomplished by shifts in the price of gold as commodity indices fluctuated.

Thus, apparently, the Administration has fully retreated from the position taken at the London conference which disrupted the possibility there of an economic pact. The commodity dollar was part of the whole theory of gold which proved so upsetting to business and banking for so many months. It was based on the "ontention that the price of gold was an important element in bringing about the depression. HERE again, though, the Administration may have a plan, inconsistent as it now seems, by which domestic prices may be kept under some form of control while the external dollar remains steady. At least there is nothing else to indicate that the advisors have disproved the gold theory or even have abandoned the commodity dollar idea.

War debts are a third major condition of stabilization. Some solution must be found to this problem, which especially concerns the finances of foreign nations which would be a party to agreement. While they may be temporarily ignored, these debts actually upset the so-called balanced budgets of such powers as Great Britain. France and others. The war debt matter was a force in the depression and will remain such, until finally disposed of.

Here there is nothing to indicate the Administrations attitude or even a basis for working out a settlement. now can move definitely for balancing the budget. Without the assurance that income and expenses could be kept In balance there could be no possibility of stabilizing world currencies. An unbalanced budget, with expenses out of hand, is a constant threat of inflation, menacing to any world agreement of currency values. Actually income has been exceeding exiectations while the deficit has yet to attain the proportions originally estimated.

While this still leaves a wide gap to be filled in either by the proceeds of recovery or by some new taxing source, the Administration's stabilization announcement indicates pretty clearly that the advisors see ways of balancing accounts. Slowly But Surely THE whole theory of the Administration has been that the deficit was simply an investment in' the country itself and that the that would accrue through resultant improvement in business would in a period of a lew years largely pay off the principal. This was put more specifically by President Roosevelt when he addressed the bankers in Washington last October. Flatly he told the bankers that their demands for a balanced budget would be possible only when private industry absorbed the un- ,4 rcliflVPH the BOV- and relieved the gov- ernment of this one burden, which he said, unbalanced the expense item. Recently there has been a slow but steady increase of employment in the nation.

Likewise there has been a steady improvement in eeneral business with production and profits rising, putting more and more firms and individuals in the tax paying class. Spending An Asset rrHEN, while it does add to the I public debt, the $4,000,000,000 works relief bill, really can be turned into an asset balancing the budget. This money, which becomes part of the long term debt greatlv relieves the burden unemployment relief for the next two or three years and the spending of it pours money into commercial channels increasing the tax sources. Another change that is beneficial is the low interest the government pays on its debt as a SSt of recent refunding opera- I this is so much more thrilling than working before cold cameras." If I could only see a cold camera this minute I'd throw my arms around it and weep. Whoever talked me into signing a contract to come out on a stage four times a day and beg for applause must have had a grudge against me.

Look at them sitting: out there looking at me with their oyster eyes thinking "I guess a camera can make a beaut out of anybody!" What do you expect of me, you dumb clucks? I'm just Glory Austen, the- most glamourous star in Hollywood. Do you expect me to act, too? "And now if you will all clap your hands real hard I'll know you'll want me to do my imitation of Katherine Hepburn." Well, I'll do it anyhow. "Now I don't want you to think I don't like Katherine. Kate and I are the best of friends, really, and I simply adore her, but of course it's common gossip that she has the best make-up artist in Hollywood. I dont use any make-up at all.

Just a little around the face." My darling public, scum of the earth, I've finished my imitation. Clap. Put your hands up like this, people, and strike them against each other. Oh, this is going to get back to Weisman he's going to hear this deafening silence in Hollywood. I'll never get my contract resigned.

I'm through. "Now I want you please to guess who this imitation is, and the first one who knows who it is should start the applause." What I need is a self-starter. If I want the applause to get going at all I suppose 111 have to start it myself. I know who I'm imitating. Half of the audience thinks it was Shirley Temple and half Jimmy Durante: Well, it wasn't.

It was Zazu Pitts. "And now would you like me to sing a little song from my last picture?" You wouldn't? Well, you'll hear a little son; from my last picture and you'll like it that's purely an expression of speech, of course. Oh, for a director, a script and a supporting cast! And oh, for a sound device to take the kinks out ur jij irsfcsa 'He's Joe. I guess we're too fast for him! 1'1 SS1 "-rir ,.4 -immi i ii liJir ItLl..