Mechanix Illustrated was a magazine published from 1928 through 2001. My grandpa bound his copies in large books containing about six magazines each. His personal collection runs from 1942 through 1970. Enjoy this article and have a safe Memorial Day.

Converts Into Ambulance

Of unusual interest to country doctors and also adapted for use in police emergency cars is this ingenious device which coverts and ordinary automobile into a surgicaly correct one-patient ambulance. A roll-away stretcher bed fits in the rear luggage compartment of the car when not in use. The rear seat of the automobile is divided into two sections, one of which raises, opening into the luggage compartment. A rider may administer first aid.

Giant Mt. Rushmore Memorial Completed

Huge faces of Washinton, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt carved atop 6,200-foot Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills of South Dakota were recently completed, after 14 years of blasting and chiseling by famed Gutzon Borglum. The faces are of a size proportionate to men 465 feet tall. Borglum died last year and the great task was finished by his son.

114-M.P.H. Anti-Aircraft Combat Car In Production

An innovation in defense against enemy aircraft is this “mobile anti-aircraft fortress,” now being manufactured for the U.S. Army by a Michigan firm. Unlike the usual aircraft defense battery, which can get but a comparatively  few shots at an enemy plane as it swoops overhead, this unique “wheeled fortress” races along under the plane at speeds up to 114 miles per hour and can actually get in thousands of shots before the plane is out of range. Its four guns pour out a total of 5,220 shots per minute – an automatic 37mm cannon firing 120 shots per minute, and three machineguns [sic] firing 5,100 shots per minute.

Probably the world’s fastest “tank,” the combat car is entirely arc-welded.