Word: metalled
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...handles to trigger a fast sequence: 1) a canvas windscreen came down over his face, 2) the plane's canopy blew off, 3) an explosive charge sent seat and pilot into the thin, -65° air, and 4) in the air a cable from the plane yanked the metal seat off his rump, left Marine Rankin above 40,000 feet with his jet helmet, oxygen mask and his parachute, preset to open automatically-at the safe-breathing level of 10,000 feet. "I had a terrible feeling like my abdomen was bloated twice its size. My nose seemed...
...ejection, the cable that yanks the seat free also trips a safety lever that sets the parachute's aneroid barometer into action. As the pilot falls, the increasing pressure compresses the metal diaphragm of the barometer. When the barometer records a pressure normal to 10,000 feet (the altitude was considerably higher in Rankin's case, because of the barometric turbulence of the storm), a strong spring releases the ripcord pin and the chute opens...
...handcuffs then manufactured could be opened with the same key, and he kept one hidden on his person. Others could be opened by rapping them on a hard surface; so when he challenged an audience to put him in cuffs, there was always a convenient piece of metal strapped to his thigh. When he conned Scotland Yard detectives into trying their "darbies" (handcuffs), they locked Houdini's arms around a stone pillar and left him to suffer. The great escapist simply banged the darbies on the pillar and walked...
...patient sits alone in a sterile-looking cubicle, electrodes taped to his chest and extremities, and hunches over a series of buttons on a metal console. He presses a button. On a viewing screen, up pops a question, such as "Do you suffer from shortness of breath?" The patient thinks he does, so he presses another button marked "Yes." The machine records this, and his yes or no answers to a hundred other questions. From the electrodes, a polygraph ("lie detector") notes which questions pack a heavy emotional charge for him. The machine produces a printed and punched, easy...
...move steel where four could do the job. Featherbedding has helped to break whole firms: automakers now contend that it was a major factor behind the demise of Packard, Hudson and Kaiser cars. The United Auto Workers often insist that several types of skilled workers-machinists, oilers, carpenters, metal handlers-work on a single job that management says could be handled...