A circa 1950 G.H. Davis cutway drawing of two Soviet T-34 tanks (in the rear is the bottom of the upcoming Joseph Stalin III tank).
The T-34 weighed about 34 tons, with a 500 hp diesel engine. Max speed: 30 mph.
Source: Popular Mechanics November 1950
Like most magazine illustrators of the early to mid 20th century, little is known about George Horace Davis.
From a site dedicated to The Illustrated London News (ILN), we learn that he spent 40 years contributing to that publication, producing up to 2,500 pages of illustrations.
Born in Kensington in 1881, Davis was first published in ILN on July 29, 1923. He learned art at Ealing School of Art and served with the RFC during WWI.
Davis died December 7, 1963
Stewart Rouse was, for a period, a staff artist at Popular Science. The magazine bio (February 1946) described Rouse as a “lanky Lincolnesque character” of 6″ 4.5′ who attended the Chicago Art Institute.
Handy with metalwork tools as well as pen and ink, Rouse once built his own airplane.
Rouse was an artist of breathtaking ability–one who seemed destined to draw technical illustrations with heart from the very get-go in life.
Here is one of several gorgeous woodcut-like illustrations he produced for Pop Sci that recall Albrecht Durer:
A cutaway within a cutaway. Drawn by Stewart Rouse, this illustrates a generic WWII fighter plane peeled back to show the pilot within. Then the pilot’s gravity suit itself is peeled back to reveal some of its inner workings.
Bladders within the suit were inflated with air from the craft, to minimize the chance of pilot blackouts during hard turns.
Source: Popular Science January 1945
Behold, in all its gigantic 2500 x 1060 px glory, the oceanliner Cristoforo Columbo from 1955.
This 29,100 ton Italian Line ship provided 703 tourist class, 225 first class, and 320 cabin class cabins.
It’s a Rolf Klep masterpiece, part of a larger LIFE double spread that included an Super-G Constellation in the upper left. I’ve done my best to stitch it together from separate images.
Source: LIFE June 27, 1955