Evening star., 1943-11-21
Mr.. C. Is Angel
|Ot Inventors
On the Side
BY Gene Handsakey.
PASADENA,

TA6AO6NA.
Amazing chap, that Crosby. Lam
guild but indefatigable. You never
know what new pie he'll have q
finger in.
Long popular crooner Of the "Blues
OF the Night" golfer +. cattle
owner race track builder
turfman whose nags delight radio
gagsters and now impresario of
war winning inventions.
With his brothers-Bob, the band
leader, and Larry, his public rela-
tions man-Bing has established 4
laboratory that fills a classic need
go-between for the unknown and
often shabby man with an idea and
the manufacturer who can put 1t
into mass production.
Blueprints and Concepts.
Obscure Edisons bring their gad-
gets, drawings or hazy concepts to
the Crosby Research Foundation
here, a dozen miles east Of Holly
wood. The foundations engineers,
aided now by Army technicians,
then strive to perfect or adapt the
relatively few offerings that show
promise Of practicability.
Projects now in the works are all
military secrets, but H. Lloyd
Praeger, the foundations general
manager, can tell enough about them
to indicate some are sensational.
There's contrivance with which
Praeger declares it's possible for an
aviator to see through fog and
clouds-literally with his eyes, not
inferentially by means of instru-
ments.
How it operates-whether chem
ically, electrically or otherWise-is,
OF course, secret Praeger adds,
but I can tell you this:
when the inventor brought it to
us the thing just barely enabled us
to see the ground as a big dark blur
through 500 feet of fog below a
plane. Now we can distinguish
buildings. We hope to be able to see
people walking along the street"
The Patient Inside.
Already perfected is a stereoscopic
Horoscope which gives three
dimensional view of a patients in
terror when a surgeon is probing for
a bullet or scrap of shrapnel. It's
expected to cut in half .he time
needed for many operations.
Inventor Thomas Bussler of
Wheelersburg, Ohio. turned in an
auxiliary lock which, says Praeger,
makes railroad-switch tampering
impossible with anything milder
than welding torch.
Through the laboratory passed a
gold-plated mirror gadget that picks
up ultrared rays from plane ex-
hausts 1t has enabled English Spit
fire pilots to shoot down hundreds
of German planes at night.
Bing, publicity shy, SCOTS, Hey
can that stuff. fella," if you suggest
he and his brothers are helping the
war effort with their foundation
They have little to do with the ac-
tual research, but they are the
financial hackers and consult occa-
sionally on proposed developments.
Just Another Pastime.
Thus in Bing's case it's another
activity for a guy who never seems
to try very hard at anything and
deprecatingly calls himself "the
Groaner," but is one of the favorite
singers of all time =. . who stars in
radio and movies is heard on
records somewhere probably "a hours
a day :. entertains the men in
service camps largely financed
the building Of a race track at Del
Mar, Calf. (now converted to de-
fense work. >. has a string Of 80
race horses ;. and owns hundreds
Of cattle in Nevada and Argentina
About 80 per cent Of the gadgets
submitted to him are rejected Some
are impractical, such as the perpet-
ual motion and antigravitational
machines averaging one each pei
month. Of those accepted for in.
vestigation, about 2 or 3 per cent
pan out into something useful.
The foundation produces some
items itself, turns others over Il
manufacturers 1t collects a per.
centage of the inventors royalty
varying with the amount of research
it has invested, but so far the book!
are kept entirely in red ink.