Popular Science Monthly 1916-01: Vol 88 Iss 1

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» Popular Science Monthly ‘939 Fourth Ave., New York Vol. 88 No. 1 January, 1916 $1.50 Annually A Fire that Burned Four Months URING a violent thunder storm a bolt of lightning struck the oil- soaked ground near the Potrero del Llano No. 4 oil well near Tampico, Mexico, the greatest oil well in the world. For more than four months from that date, August fourteenth, 1914, the re- sulting conflagration resisted all efforts to subdue it. The flames, covering an area of more than a city block, swept over the mouth of the great well, but thanks to the concrete cap covering the orifice, the main body of oil did not ignite. Upon the first outbreak of the Fasbinder flames, it was thought that the main well was doomed, as well as a great lake of oil containing nearly two million barrels, which was situated nearby. Twenty-five hundred men were sum- moned to the work of fighting the flames, and apparatus which had been successfully used at other fires of the same nature was brought to the spot. This great force of workmen labored ceaselessly day and night until the fire was conquered, four months later. The first precaution against the spread of the flames was the erection of a retaining wall of sand and dirt The fire mounted hundreds of feet into the air, and at night the huge red’ canopy over the sky drew thousands of spectators to the scene

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Se a ee ee Se ee woow seuNoeeww7 Popular Science Monthly The battery of fifty-three steam boilers, which pumped immense clouds of steam in a vain endeavor to smother the seething flames which completely encircled the burn- ing area. The earth itself seemed ablaze for the oil continued to seep through the soaked ground and fur- nished new fuel for the flames. The fire mounted hundreds of feet into the air, and at night a red canopy covered the sky, visible for many miles. Thou- sands of spectators watched the work. A great battery of steam boilers ar- rived at the spot and pipes were led to the fire. The laborers worked under continuous streams of water from fire hose, for the heat was so great that without soaking themselves in water, their clothing would have burst into flames. Those playing the streams upon the workers had to direct the hose while crouching behind shields to protect them- selves from the heat. When the steam pipes were laid, the battery of boilers was fired up, and clouds of steam descended upon the fire. The effort was vain, for the area of the flames was too great for the steam to cover in order to smother the blaze. More boilers arrived until forty- three were coupled to the steam-pipes. These had no effect, however, so this method was temporarily abandoned. A shaft was sunk into the ground, and it was hoped to fight the fire through this shaft with the aid of chemicals. This, too, proved unavail- ing. Spur tracks were laid from the main roalroad lines in order to rush materials more quickly to the scene. Experts were summoned from other mining and oil properties to aid in the work, Weeks lengthened into months, and still the fire burned fiercely. Much to the surprise of experts the great well, although in the center of the confla- gration, did not add its huge flow of oil to the blaze. The concrete cap withstood the intense heat and protected the main quantity of oil. One of the most remarkable features of the fire was the fact that during the time that the fire was burning, the managers were able to draw twenty-five barrels of oil daily from the well through the main flow line from the gate valve, which was well pro- tected by concrete. The mass of equipment that was brought to subdue the fire was truly enormous. During the four and one- half months that the fire raged, there were used forty-nine boilers of approxi- mately fifty horsepower, twenty steam pumps, three air compressors, two cen- trifugal pumps, quantities of railroad tracks and ties, road building materials, tens of thousands of feet of steam pipes, etc., all of which took about three thou- sand men to install. After attempting nearly every known method of subduing the flames, the engineers in charge set the labor-

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ers at work gradually pushing the retaining walls in toward the center of the blaze. Because of the intense heat this was done under the greatest difficulty. The circumference of the wall was gradually tightened, thus slowly reducing the area of the blaze. Pipes were led to the bottom of the blazing area and oil was drawn as fast as possible from the seepage. As it was not fit for commercial use this was pumped to a safe spot nearly five miles distant from the blaze proper and then burned, making in itself a huge conflagration. Finally during the last part of De- cember, the five walls had been pushed in so far that the blaze was confined to a relatively small area, and every- thing was made ready for a last effort, greater than all previous attempts. Tons of chemicals were piled near the scene, and thousands of feet of extra steam pipes were laid from the boilers and pumps. This work lasted until about the first of January. In the first days of the new year, the attempt was made. Chemicals were heaped into the fire area and boilers and pumps poured a deluge of water and steam upon the stubborn flames. For hours Popular Science Monthly this frenzied work continued, the re- sult trembling in the balance. At last the ingenuity of man conquered the stubborn forces of nature, and the fire was out. It seemed almost hopeless to attempt to calculate the damage done by thai bolt of lightning. The estimated pro- duction of the great well was one hun- dred and fifty thousand barrels of high grade oil a day, yet for more than four months but twenty-five thousand barrels were drawn. ‘Thousands of dollars were expended upon equip- ment for the fire fighters, and other thousands went for chemicals which were fed to the flames. The fire was watched by the great- est interest by the oil trade of the world, who recalled another record- breaking fire which occurred several years ago not far from the Potrero del Llano conflagration. The Dos Bocas gusher, one of the largest in the world at that time, caught fire before being capped. For nearly a year the fire raged, and only subsided when it had consumed all the oil in the fertile pock- et which it had tapped. At the pres- ent time it produces only salt water and gas. Pushing in the retaining wall which finally conquered the flames. The heat was so intense that streams of water had to be continually played over the workers, all of them Mexican peons, who are perhaps the most sensitive of human beings to extremes of heat and cold— except in their horn-like nether extremities, which were not affected in this case

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Twelve Million Dollars for Twenty Minutes Train Time O cut twenty minutes from the — structure crossing the Tuckhannock Val- running time of passenger trains ley in ten graceful arches. It is of and one hour from the running time concrete, the largest concrete structure of freight trains between New York jn the world, containing more than five and Buffalo, the Lackawanna Railroad hyndred million cubic yards of ma- has invested twelve million dollars in a concrete arch half a mile long. q . terial. Some idea of its vast size can be gained by a comparison with the dimensions of better known struc- tures. If the Flatiron Building were eight blocks longer, it would have practically the same dimensions as the Tuckhannock Via- duct. If the road- way of the Brooklyn Bridge ye 4 This beautiful viaduct built of concrete, cuts twenty minutes from the train time of the Lackawanna between New York and Buffalo, but it also saves miles of heavy grades : By the old, circuitous route, due to the were one hundred feet higher, it would heavy grades, five engines were required have the dimensions of the viaduct. for the work that two can now do com- Including the viaduct, the total length fortably. of the cutoff is three and one-half miles. The new viaduct is an imposing The old route is thirty-nine miles.

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Popular Science Monthly Mr. Fithen has a few changes made in order to adapt his car to a driver without arms. The most important is the design of the steering wheel, which has a number of metal cir- cles within the wooden rim, and these are just large enough to receive the stumps of his arms. With wonder- ful agility he can swing the wheel, and also manipulate the throttle, although only a few inches remain of each arm. In addition to the The yard locomotive’s great and mobile power is now turned to the task of fire fighting Locomotives Serve as Fire Engines NE of the large Eastern railroads has protected its property against fire by equipping all of its yard locomo- tives with special fire fighting apparatus. Pumps have been installed on the en- gines, and lengths of hose are carried in the tender: ‘ Each yard is divided into districts, and when a fire is discovered the nearest switch tower is notified and whistles are blown throughout the yard. By a code of signals engineers of fire fighting loco- motives are told the location of the fire and are given an open track to the scene. The illustration shows a test of the ap- paratus on the yard engine. An Armless Man Who Drives a Car at Racer’s Speed ITH a speed record of fifty-eight miles an hour, Frank FE. Fithen, the armless motorist, holds a record in the automobile world that is unique. Not only for speed, but for long distance driving he has made a name for himself, as he has been tour- ing the country for three years and has travelled eighty-five thousand miles. He is now preparing to visit the Northwest, and when he has passed through Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana, he will have entered every state in the union, driving his own car. This is a six cylinder ma- chine, long and heavy, and of sixty horse-power. pedals, Mr. Fithen operates the emergency brake with his foot, shoving forward and pulling back the lever with a vigorous motion. The accident which deprived him of both arms occurred when he was only. nine years old, but instead of leaving him helpless, it developed his deter- mination to succeed in spite of his in- firmity. Mr. Fithen can dress himself and undress; he can take a pencil be- tween his teeth and write with little difficulty ; he can swim, ride a bicycle and perform feats of fancy riding and balancing on the single wheel. An armless man’s own inventions have made it possible for him to drive his motor car at top speed with perfect control

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Popular Science Monthly 4 2 This driver need not lean out to signal an off-side turn. The arti- ficial hand saves him that trouble Imitation Hand Signals a Turn N imitation hand has been devised by a California merchant to warn traffic that his automobile is about to make an off-side turn. It is attached to one of the rods supporting the top. On the rear of the top side of the hand is an eye, to which a string is attached. Whenever the driver wishes to turn a left-hand corner he pulls the string and the hand goes up. This device costs less than ten cents and obviates the danger of losing con- trol of the steering wheel. The arm is painted black and the hand white. 9 Sea Shells for Decorating Concrete A CONCRETE worker of Long Beach, Calif., has discovered a new use for sea shells. The accompanying illustration shows an interesting speci- men of his work. It is a garden orna- ment constructed of solid concrete, dec- orated with small mussel shells. The shells, arranged in rows and squares, are imbedded in the concrete with the inside of the delicately colored shell exposed. The structure is intended to enclose a bed of flowers, and vines will be trained over the top. The same design may also be em- ployed to surround a garden fountain. Shells make concrete decorative in detail as well as in line The “Back Yard Limited ” A LOCOMOTIVE was built recently by in- ventive youngsters. It was composed of the following parts: One _ barrel, two lengths of stove pipe, one soap box, tin cans and some odds and ends of lumber. While it is not capable of tearing across the prairies at the speed of a mile a minute, you must be a small boy or a little sister to imagine its possibilities. Straw smudge A locomotive that goes to Fairyland provides the indispensable smoke. SRA CLs SERB TE —— Se RN A per ~ =

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to oem 10 Sidewalk Shelters for the Trolley Patrons of Cincinnati IDEWALK shelters for trolley pa- trons are to be built at the junc- tions of the principal trolley lines in the city of Cincinati, Ohio. One of these structures has already been erected at a point where ninety per cent. of the trol- Popular Science Monthly Edison’s Phonograph Diaphragm to Record Only Faint Sounds HOMAS A. EDISON has recently been granted a patent on a phonograph diaphragm which _ will record only faint sounds, excluding those of any great intensity. Cork or a similar material is used. Faint Cincinnati protects her street car patrons from rain and from sun ley cars of the city pass. The innovation has received such general approval that the experiment is to be extended. Small- er sheds are to be built at several other points where trolley patrons congregate to board the cars. The shelters are of metal of the um- brella or mushroom type, the character- istic of which is that the supports are in the middle of the shelter where the least number are required, so that little or no obstruction to the stream of pedes- trians is offered. Je oe pepe: PEPE PE ree es ; 4 fe ES This railroad does not wait for a damage suit to learn whether or not a car roof leaks sounds cause the diaphragm to vibrate only slightly; greater vibrations, caused by loud sounds, are restricted by a small cylinder and plunger working on the principle of a solenoid. ’ Artificial Rainstorm Tests Car Roofs N artificial rain storm has been de- vised by Charles N. Swanson, su- perintendent of car shops of the Atchi- son, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, as a means of testing the roofs of new cars and repaired cars before they have been put into service to make sure they are rain proof. The apparatus consists of a spraying device which throws a very large quantity of water controlled from a little house at the side of the tracks. The cars to be tested are hauled under the spray twice. The cars are then entered by the inspectors and all evidences of leakage are chalked for the guidance of the repair men. When the cars have been through the repair shops they are again subjected to the rainstorm test before they are put into service. The volume of water is so. great that it is possible to locate leaks in the side sheath- ing or ends of the cars.

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Popular Science Monthly Telephoning from a Moving Train Y means of the moving train tele- phone invented by A. A. Macfar- lane, communication between fast moving trains may now be possible. Communi- cation has actually been held between the experimental station and New York city. In this experiment the rails of the track were used for part of the conducting medium. On a sidetrack near the little town of Bridesburg, Pa., experimental work has been carried on with a steel freight car. At one end of the section of track used, a two-volt bat- tery is connected; at the other end a sig- naling and telephon- ing device is located between the tracks. The equipment con- sisted of a “puzzle” box and copper shoes that pick up currents from the rails. The nature and contents of this box are not being given out at pres- ent on account of some patents pend- ing. The inventor states that what the device accomplishes is made possible, however, by his furnishing to the current a path of least resistance. Without this device, current would follow the track, run through the wheels and axles and jump to the other rail and produce a short circuit. The current simply avoids its na- tural outlet, follows the track until it reaches the box and shoes, where it is picked up and taken aboard the train. Telephoning between moving trains is but a part of the importance of the inven- tion. The real object is to produce a signaling system that will bring the danger and clear signals into the cab of the engineer. An automatic brake has also been added and tested on an engine. The device will light colored lights in the cab of the engine, as well as furnish an automatically operated block for ap- proaching trains. Into each block cur- rent will be furnished by batteries along the track. When a train is in this block, 11 it will short circuit the current, so that a train approaching will be automatically stopped by the brake device operated in connection with the system. In the telephone system it will be ne- cessary to have batteries along the track, and by the use of the shoes and box de- vice with which the train will be equipped current will be furnished it. Then the telephone can be operated, and connection can be had through the main wires along the track, the current being carried out at the ends of the blocks. By this The two rails of a track are used as wires for telephoning to mov- ing trains. In the circle is shown the shoe by which the connection is made from rail to locomotive system, the inventor claims a moving train can be in communication with any telephone in the country. Lengthens Life of Rubber Gloves NEW process for vulcanizing seam- less rubber gloves has been brought out by which the life of the gloves is said to be considerably lengthened. In- stead of vulcanizing the glove on the dipping frame after the several coatings have been applied, each consecutive layer is vulcanized as the glove structure progresses.

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i f ’: The Emden After the Battl—Mere Scrap Iron The German commerce destroyer Emden was reduced to a mere hulk at a range of two and a half miles by the Australian cruiser Sydney. Part of the Emden’s crew were on shore and later reached Europe after many wild adventures in tropical lands

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The Destruction of the Emden By Rear-Admiral Bradley A. Fiske Rear-Admiral Fiske’s graphic description of the battle between the Aus- tralian cruiser “Sydney” and the German commerce destroyer “Emden,” is all the more interesting because it comes from an American naval officer who has distinguished himself by the invention of devices which have done much to im- prove American gunnery. The frightful havoc wrought by shell fire on the doomed German ship carries with it a lesson in preparedness, as Admiral Fiske points out—KEditor. \ N J HEN making her last raid, which was against South Keeling, an island of the Cocos group, a few hundred miles southwest of Sumatra and Borneo, and while she had three of- ficers and forty enlisted men on shore, the German commerce-destroyed Em- den was surprised by the Australian cruiser Sydney that had been told by wireless of her. presence. The Sydney was a vessel of five thousand two hun- dred tons displacement, had a maximum speed of twenty-six knots and carried eight six-inch guns that fired projectiles weighing one hundred pounds. The Emden had a displacement of three thousand six hundred tons, mounted ten four-inch guns that fired projectiles weighing about thirty-two pounds. She 1ad a maximum speed at that time of one or two knots less than the Syd- ney. An action ensued, the results of which are clearly indicated by the photo- graphs here shown, The battle began at a range of about two and a quarter miles; but the range was quickly. in- creased by the Sydney whose Captain took advantage of her superior speed All that is left of the bridge from which the captain and officers were wont to direct the activities of the fast German commerce-destroyer Emden sort nnn a AO AA CTS ST Seema nenaneaetaar naan ee

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14 Popular Science Monthly The bridge reduced by the Sydney’s shell fire to a battered wreck to secure a distant position, at which the smaller guns of the Emden could do the Sydney very little harm. Steel Crumpled Like Paper These photographs indicate the fright- ful effect of naval gunnery and suggest the tremendousness of naval power. In naval ships, large guns are installed that can be taken at great speed all over the world, and fired with great precision over long distances, and with great ef- fect. In the photographs, we see great masses of steel, crumpled like paper; we see the ship's side penetrated ; we see the bridge from which the Captain and the officers usually directed the ship, an un- distinguishable wreck of iron and’ brass; we see the funnels made veritable scrap- iron; we see the spar-deck torn up; we see the ship itself reduced from the con- dition of a rapidly cruising man-of-war to that of an inert mass of torn and twisted iron. All this was done in little more than an hour. Although the Emden was not a very powerful ship compared with many oth- ers she was nevertheless a strong and well-built vessel, and could not have been The spar deck of the Emden was torn up by a veritable hail of shell wrecked except by tremendous power. The power of armies is exerted for the most part by muskets, which cannot be heavier than single men can carry and by field artillery:and siege artillery, in- tended for use against men and lightly constructed buildings of wood and stone and brick. A Fourteen-Inch Shell is Equivalent to Sixty Thousand Muskets The value of a bullet fired from a musket, or of a large projectile fired from a gun, is due to its ability to pen- etrate the resisting envelope of a man in one case, or a ship in the other case. Naturally, the measure of that power is the energy of the projectile, which ener- gy is dependent on both mass and veloc- ity. As was shown in the November num- ber of the PopuLar SciENcCE MonruHLy, the energy of a fourteen-inch shell fired say from our Nevada, is about equal to that of sixty thousand muskets when the projectiles start. But after the musket bullet has gone a little more than a mile, it falls to the earth, its energy reduced to zero, while the fourteen-inch projec- tile has hardly started. If the Emden had been fired at by muskets at the dis-

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Re ae Popular Science Monthly The Work of an Hour and a Half It takes tremendous power to destroy a ship of war, as Admiral Fiske points out in his article. If the Emden had been fired at by muskets from the distance at which the Sydney destroyed her, the bullets, if they reached their mark, would have rattled off harmlessly

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16 tance at which the large guns were fired in the battle the bullets would not have reached her. It would not be possible for an army to carry around on land by any means whatever the big guns of war ships; so that the curious condition has come about that the dangerous sea, which de- fied for centuries the ability of man to move upon it, except very slowly and over little distances, is now contributing much more than the land to the exercise of his power. Suppose New York Had been the Target The destruction wrought upon the Emden, of which these photographs give such gruesome proof, has another interest for us, of a character not phil- osophic, but eminently practical, because it suggests that if this damage could be done to a strong, steel structure, like the Emden, what would have happened Popular Science Monthly to buildings, in New York, if they had been the targets instead. And it also suggests what might have been the ef- fect if those buildings had been the tar- gets not of the comparatively small projectiles which were fired at the Em- den, but of fourteen-inch projectiles weighing fourteen hundred pounds, filled with high explosive, fired from a hostile ship. The American fleet having been de- feated, a single ship carrying guns able to fire projectiles fifteen miles, and pro- tected against submarines by numerous destroyers and by other means, could, in two or three hours, fire into New York from a point beyond the reach of any of our guns, one hundred high ex- plosive shells, which falling on our streets, power stations, subways, ele- vated railroads and skyscrapers, would make the vicinity of Wall street look like these pictures of the Emden. In these battered funnels and this riddled deck we see the price of slowness; for the triumphant Australian cruiser Sydney was just a little faster than the Emden, whose bottom had been fouled by long cruising in tropical waters

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re rt oe «=6f Popular Science Monthly j The house rests on the brink of a city improvement, and also on the brink of destruction | , An Excavation for a Road Leaves : House on Brink TN San Pedro, Calif., a “good road” I boulevard is being cut through a hill. The accompanying photograph shows a house that has been left on the very brink of the excavation, and in a pre- carious position. The steam shovel can be seen in the background scooping deeper. The ground is an old sea-beach made up of loose sand. The owner has threatened to sue the city should the house come to harm. Women in Europe’s Machine Shops HE tremendous demand upon the ranks of skilled workmen since the war has resulted in the surprising knowl- edge that women can supplant men in machine shops. That the woman mechanic’ has ade- quately risen to her opportunity is a fact heartily attested to by scores of Euro- pean manufacturers. Several of them who have made a systematized study of the woman workman’s progress claim that the untried women mechanics have 17 mastered the details of their tasks in a much shorter time than workmen re- quire. Another interesting point is that the traditional belief of woman’s inability to invent is quite unfounded. As an ex- ample, in one machine shop where men had been employed on a certain opera- tion for years women took up the work, and in less than a week had devised a plan whereby the time required for the operation was halved. Shipping Pigs in Baskets. HE lot of domestic animals in the east is not enviable, particularly when enduring transport from one place to another. Fowls are always sent to market with their legs tied, so that it is impossible for them to move. The photograph shows how live pigs are transported in the Straits Settle- ‘ment by steamer or barge. They are shipped singly in wicker work baskets. The receptacle is just large enough to take a single pig. In this cramped and uncomfortable position, for the animal’s legs are tied, making it nothing more than a living log, it is often shipped long distances. Water is thrown over the ani- mals and occasionally they are allowed to drink, but nothing is given them to eat. They know nothing of “pigs in blankets” in the Orient, but pigs in baskets are a common sight

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18 Selling by Show-Window Telephone HE drawback to window demon- stration of any character is the in- ability of the demonstrator to get his ‘message across.” He can clearly point out the talking points of the article under demonstration, but he can talk about it through the medium of lettered cards only.- It is obvious that this method is very unsatisfactory. To overcome the objection and bring the demonstrator nearer his audience, an electric company has developed a loud speaking telephone equipment. The equipment consists of a special transmitter and a pair of loud speaking receivers and horns. The operation of the system is simple. The demonstra- tor connects the horns and receivers on both sides of his window, just~ high enough to be outside the reach of mis- chievous youngsters. The transmitter is placed inside the window and is wired Popular Science Monthly with the battery of six dry cells in series, As the demonstrator wishes to bring out each point, he simply speaks into the transmitter and his voice is magni- fied by the receivers and horns and car- ried to the audience outside. The equip- ment not only brings the demonstrator and his audience into more intimate con- tact, but serves as an auxiliary attrac- tion'to the display itself. It has proven a success wherever used. Oil is Cheaper than Coal WO large steamships, the Finland and the Kroonland, will be changed from coal to oil burners. By this change it is expected that $9,000 will be saved on fuel and $3,500 in wages on each trip. In addition, by the large space now occupied, coal may be used for the storage of freight. A total sav- ing of $37,500 is expected on each trip. The window salesman need no longer resort to cards and dumb-show. _ Of a loud-speaking telephone he talks to his audience on the sidewalk By means

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Popular Science J. onthly 19 Rea, The new rest-house at the entrance of the Garden of the Gods near Colorado Springs is built after the style of a Pueblo village, in keeping with the primeval magnificence of the park and its traditions A Pueblo Village for the Garden of the Gods UILT in the architectural style used by the Pueblo Indians of the South- west, a novel rest house has been erected by the Colorado Springs Park Commis- sion just within the gateway of the Gar- den of the Gods. This magnificent park now has a structure in keeping with its surround- ings and its traditions, as the appearance of the building harmonizes in its rugged lines with the rocky backgrounds, while the color, of a reddish tone, also corre- sponds with the hue of the cliffs and boulders. The terraced effect of the building is borrowed directly from the community houses such as are found in Taos and a few other primitive native towns, built in similar craggy places. Monument Built to an Apple Tree ERHAPS one of the most curious monuments in existence has recent- ly been built in Ontario by Canadians. The farmers have just erected a marble pillar to mark the site on which grew a famous apple tree. More than a century ago a settler in Canada named McIntosh, when clear- ing a space in which to make a home in the wilderness, discovered among a number of wild apple trees one which bore fruit so well that he cultivated it and named it McIntosh red. The apple became famous; seeds and cuttings were distributed to all parts of Canada, so that now the McIntosh red flourishes wherever apples grow in the great Dominion. In 1896, the original tree from which this enormous family sprang was injured by fire; but it con- tinued to bear fruit until five vears ago. Then, after fifteen years, it died, and the grateful farmers have raised a mar- ble pillar in honor of the tree which has done so much for the fruit grow- ing industry of their land. The story of this apple tree illustrates the African proverb that though you can count the apples on one tree, you can never count the trees in one apple. — aS ream hw nl hn ain 2 oe a et EER LS he Hh

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20 Two Bridges with but One Approach WO bridges that use the same right-of-way present a study in economy that may be seen at Pasadena, California. Both bridges are of rein- forced concrete, and both are for vehicu- lar travel, each entirely independent of the other. The small bridge, running lengthwise, is directly underneath the Popular Scvence Monthly ly, was built at the expense of private property party owners. It is composed of one long span and two short ones, and, including approaches, is about three hundred feet long. Built directly under- neath the large one, it is designed to bridge the stream channel only. Owing to the skeleton-like construction of the piers of the great structure overhead, one of its approaches pass- es through one of these piers, and the roadway leading thereto pierces still another. The purpose of this small bridge, thus located, is to serve the property owners who reside on the level be- low the rims of the depres- sion, so that they may not be required to make the The bridge that spans this picturesque stream has two rights of way, one for the dwellers on the plateau and one for those of the valley large one, and, in fact, its approach at one end passed through two of the piers of the larger structure. The large bridge, completed about two years ago, was constructed at the com- bined expense of the city of Pasadena and the county of Los An- long and circuitous climb to and from the larger bridge’s approaches. A Vast Tank with a Park on Top TWENTY-FIVE MILLION gal- lon concrete tank which will be hidden from view by being parked over, probably the largest of its kind in the world, has been constructed in Cleveland 4 geles. It has a total length of one thousand, four hun- dred and seventy feet, and is composed of nine spans and six girder spans, be- sides the usual abutments. From the lowest point in the channel bed to the road- way level it is one hundred and sixty feet in height, and the roadway that traverses it is twenty-eight feet wide, with a five-foot sidewalk on either side. Extending across what is known as the Ar- royo Seco, from rim to rim, it spans not only a small mountain stream, but also a lowland of considerable extent, embracing many acres of orange groves and a number of fine homes. It is a feature of a much- traveled automobile road that connects Pasadena with the city of Los Angeles, and is of rather ornate design. The small bridge, finished only recent- The top of this one hundred and fifty million gallon tank will be a fifteen-acre park as a part of the new filtration plant. The plant will have a capacity of one hundred and fifty million gallons a day. It covers fifteen acres. When completed the tank will be cov- ered with earth and become a part of the city park on which the plant is being erected,

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hg Ts \e- ot he eS il- be er, he nd ne Ly. of ng The Making of a Submarine Mine By John Randolph Rexford A battery of mines electrically exploded. Here is a fiercely graphic illustration of the de- structive power which is contained in the comparatively small globe or cylinder of steel whose sowing abroad in the sea is the first duty of the navy and coast defense when war breaks RIGINALLY all forms of appa- ratus designed to explode under water to destroy ships were called tor- pedoes, but this term is now applied only to the well-known naval weapon. Sub- marine mines may be divided into three groups: 1. Buoyant mines having a constant depth of immersion. 2. Ground mines which are used in shallow waters and rest on the bottom. 3. Floating mines. The mines belonging to the first and second groups may be exploded either from land by an electric current or by automatic contact with a ship. Electrically controlled mines are em- ployed only for the protection of har- bors and channels and may be divided into two classes: those which are entire- ly and those which are partially con- trolled from land. A mine.consists gen- erally of two perfectly watertight metal casings made of suitable shape. One of them is hollow and is intended to act as a float to maintain the mine at the required depth below the surface, while the other one is filled with the charge, which may be guncotton, trinitrotoluene or any other suitable explosive, and the detonator for firing the charge : In coast defense work where electric control is employed, mines are anchored permanently in suitable positions, where hostile vessels are likely to pass over them, and are connected by means of electric cables to the shore. Where mines are entirely controlled from shore, an observer on land can fire any mine or groups of mines by closing the elec- tric circuit the moment his optical in- struments inform him that the enemy’s ship is over a mine. Firing an Electrical Mine Mines which are partially controlled from land are anchored only a few feet below the surface of the water. When a ship strikes such a mine an electric contact is made which sends a signal to the shore station. The observer can then decide whether to fire the mine or not. An advantage of electrically con- trolled mines is that neutral ships can be allowed to pass over such mine fields in perfect safety. The use of such mines has, however, been considerably reduced, chiefly because salt water is one of the greatest enemies of electrical apparatus and makes it very difficult to maintain the electrical connections with the mine, and also because the permanent location Ate CI pS. BS EE a Sa adie

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22 of such mines could be discovered by spies. The mines which have been chiefly used in the present war are automatic and mechanical, and are fired when the ship strikes against them. It is by no means easy to design a satisfactory mine which shall have its firing gear carefully adjusted so as to insure explosion of the charge from the slightest shock produced by contact with the passing ship. At the same time pro- vision must be made to prevent the pre- mature firing of the mine either on land, on the mine laying ship, or when being launched into the 1 mine field. Again, it is important that M should one or two [J mines be exploded, A the adjacent ones | be not fired acci- f dentally—a difficult | problem, as the concussion of the water produced by | M: Mine the explosion tends A- Anchor todisturbother | L: Line | | A | mines. Another QZ TT (20mmz™77z essential condition is that the depth of immersion under the surface should be constant so far as the rise or fall of tides allows. A mine consists of three parts: (1) the chamber containing the firing mech- anism, the detonator and_ explosive charge: (2) the flotation chamber to give buoyancy to the mine, and (3) a detachable anchoring chamber provided with a winch having a paying out cable. A mine is maintained at the desired depth in the water by means of an an- chor in which -the cable, one end of which is connected to the mine, is un- wound from a drum suitably braked and mounted in the anchor casing. The ro- tation of the drum is controlled by a plumb weight attached to a short sound- ing line. When the plumb weight reach- es the bottom of the sea the rotation of the drum is stopped and the mine is pulled down to the required depth. It is only necessary to determine at what depth below the surface it is desired to Positions assumed by a mine and its auto- matic anchor in water from the moment of dropping the mine overboard to the final moment of mooring Popular Science Monthly anchor the mine and to throw into the water the complete apparatus, namely the mine and anchor, whereupon the whole apparatus will take up its proper position, the depth of submersion being determined by the length of the sound- ing line. The diagram on this page illustrates the working of the automatic anchor: Position 1. After having been dropped overboard the mine is at the surface of the sea with its attached anchor imme- diately below the mine with the plumb weight hanging about nine feet below the anchor. Position 2. The barrel is unwind- ing its cable and the anchor is de- scending to the bottom of the sea owing to the force exerted by the plumb weight in A keeping down a lever, so. that the drum is free to ro- tate. Position 3. The plumb weight reaches the bottom of the sea and the pull exerted on the lever ceases. This lever is now released and locks the drum, so that it cannot pay out any more. Position 4. As no more cable can be paid out the anchor has sunk to the bot- tom of the sea and drawn the mine with it. It will be seen from the diagram that the depth of immersion depends on the length of the sounding line. A safety device is generally introduced which is operated by the pressure of the water. The firing gear is locked by a spring which, however, is counteracted by the pressure of water. When the mine is submerged the firing gear is op- erative, but as soon as it comes to the surface the water pressure is gone and the mine cannot be fired. The percus- sion device employed is of the usual type for exploding charges of guncotton and does not differ from those ordinarily used. The detonator is sharply struck by -a ball or a lever when the mine is hit

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he at m he he ed ay be »t- th iat he ed he ed he )/p- nd 1S- pe ily by hit a Popular Science Monthly by the ship and causes the main charge to explode. In order to make a mine field as ef- fective as possible loose ropes are some- times connected between different mines with the object of getting the ship’s pro- peller entangled in the rope and thereby drawing the mine towards the ship and exploding it. ° a Launching a submarine mine Mines of the type described are easily laid. When stowed away on the deck of a mine-lay- ing ship the mine rests on the anchor which at the same time forms a little carriage to be run along the deck and_ simply dropped over the stern of the ship at the right moment. Whether mines have actually been laid by submarines is, of 23 signed mines to be laid by submarines and also for providing submarine boats with a series of chambers on each side for holding and launching mines. These chambers are disposed between double walls of the submarine and are made to form a smooth outline with the hull of the boat. This provision makes it pos- sible to carry a double cargo. Mines Which Become Ineffective After a Certain Period Unanchored automatic or floating mines must be dead in an hour. They are used to some extent in naval battles and are very cheap in construction. In some mines of this type clockwork is used which after an hour throws the fir- ing gear out of action while in another type delay-action devices for opening valves to admit water are employed so that the mine is sunk after a definite time interval. To some extent chemical methods are employed to fire the charge in floating mines, but a disadvantage is that the explosion does not take place instantane- ously as is the case with a mechanically fired mine. A glass tube is attached to the mine which is broken when struck by a ship; water enters and by coming in contact with sodium or potassium fires the charge. Other chemicals such as sul- phuric acid have also been used to fire the charges in floating mines. é the we” SS course, known only to the naval authorities. Patents have, how- ever, been taken out within the last few years for specially de- Loading an American mine. Unanchored automatic or floating mines must be dead in an hour. Various devices are incorpo- rated to obtain this result sera

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A Millinery Store on Water RETIRED wmilliner of Atlantic City, who spends his winters in Florida, bought a boat at Daytona and converted it into a millinery store. The exigencies of the situation made this original store desirable, for buildings are not allowed on the shore side of the Popular Science Monthly An Automobile Show Case NE of the latest features of the business world of Monrovia, Calif., is the delivery outfit devised by the pro- prietor of a dyeing and cleaning estab- lishment. It has been termed the “show case” delivery outfit. It is built like the ordinary delivery case, but its two sides and back are of glass, veer er reer 4 eeeeatee IER € =o en pee so that the suits or cloaks inside may be plainly seen by pedes- irians upon the side- walk or the occupants | ae of passing machines. tee The coat hangers are oe hooked over. screw- hooks fastened to the roof of the case. The owner removed the rear seat of his five- passenger car and in its place located the case. Both the case and the rear seat are “quick de- tachable”’ and one may Bonnets for sale on water street along the beach, and therefore rents are very high on the other side of the street. With his boat scheme he combined home comforts with a fine business location. His boat is seventy feet in length and twenty feet wide, and is lighted inside and out with electricity. be changed for the other in a very few moments. The floor of the case is four feet square, while it is four and a half feet high. As an advertising medium this case shows the people of Monrovia the kind of work turned out by this cleaning es- tablishment, a plan which fits in nicely with this “show me” age. A Sandstorm to Order NEW use for the aer- oplane has been re- cently discovered. A prom- inent moving picture director was searching for the best method of reproducing a sandstorm on the scenery, and took his eompany to the government aviation school. The scenery was set up on the sandy grounds surrounding the school, and one of the aeroplanes was held fast and the motor started. When the motor ‘was turned to full speed, the back-wash from the pro- peller stirred up a real sandstorm over the out- door stage. A California dyer displays his work in a glass delivery wagon. He took off the rear seat of his five-passenger car and in its place located the glass case in which was dis- played his work on its way home to the customer

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Popular Science Monthly A Boy’s Wonderful Working Locomotive Model MINIATURE railway locomotive, complete in every detail, which has attracted the attention of the railroad officials of several Pacific Coast lines, is the handiwork of Arthur Johnson, of Portland, Ore. This tiny locomotive, only forty-five inches in length, was built to test a new invention of his on a firebox. It is op- erated by steam, generated by oil fuel, and is equipped with air brakes, an in- A working model of a locomobile, built by this boy, which develops one-quarter horse power and will haul a ton terior throttle and reverse levers and gears. The engineering department of the Southern Pacific Company borrowed the model and figured out its weight, power, znd all other statistics in the same man- ner that they would figure on a full-size locomotive. To their surprise they found that the tiny engine developed one-quarter horsepower, and on a level track had a haul capacity of one and a quarter tons. How Savages Prepare Poisoned Arrows HE savage tribes of interior Af- rica have attained an extraordinary degree of skill in preparing poisons with which to make their arrow heads the dread of their enemies. Although they use a variety of substances in mak- ing the poisonous fluids, such as animal extracts, and products of decay, the most common source of the most vio- 25 lent poisons is found in several species of tropical plants. One of these, the Strophantus, is extensively employed by the tribes of West Africa. They boil the fruits of this plant in water for about twenty-four hours, frequently adding to the liquid heads of serpents, tainted blood and a mixture of dead frogs. When this devilish mixture has cooled to a thick mass, they dip the heads of their arrows into the poison, and then allow them to dry in the sun. They re- peat this process every few months so as to retain as much of the deadly effect as possible. The action of these poisons is very violent, death resulting, with in- tense agony, in five or ten minutes. Two-Year-Old Eggs. HE accompanying photograph shows a batch of eggs on sale in the native market at Nanking, China. China like other nations, consumes a large number of eggs, but the Chinese have very extraordinary methods of preserving them, by which they are kept for long periods. Eggs can be found in various inland towns of China that were known to be two to three years old. Like those in the photo- graph they were almost jet black and very hard, but nevertheless eatable. When fresh, the eggs are covered in a thin coat of clay or similar mixture and then cooked until they are quite hard. ‘They are then immersed for several hours in water. Treated in this way the eggs may be kept almost indefinitely. These eggs are two years old—and good The February Popular Science Monthly will be on sale Saturday, January fifteenth. (West of Denver on Thursday, January twentieth.)

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26 Your Feet Are Wiped When You Enter Bohemian Bakeries T is an old custom in Bohemian baker- ies to wipe the boots of visitors as they enter. There is a good deal of wiping these days; for the government and city officials inspect the bakeries at very frequent intervals in order to see that the regulations regarding the amount of flour used in bread are car- ried out. The picture shows Dr. K. Gross, the burgomaster of Prague and representa- tives of the city council, entering one of the bakeries of the city. The burgomas- ter is the man whose boots are being wiped. How Range Finders Find the Range NE of the most interesting facts _ brought out in Germany’s subma- rine campaign against British commerce was the accuracy with which the British guns were trained upon occasional indis- creet periscopes. The periscope tube is small, and an especially difficult target at long range. yet on a few occasions — occasions Popular Science Monthly which were so recurrent that the ac- curacy could not be attributed to accident —British guns have demolished peri- scopes, thereby rendering the submersi- ble helpless—an easy prey when she came to the surface. Nor can this remarkable accuracy be attributed entirely to the correctness of the gun design. The fact of the matter is that the British method of range-find- ing, aside from being one of the most interesting, is one of the most accurate in the world. Whether the enemy appears in the form of a glinting periscope on the wa- ter, a black dot, or a ship on the horizon, the method of range-finding is funda- mentally the same. A range-finder works on the same principle as that by which we can estimate a distance with our eyes. Lines drawn from our eyes to the object form sides of an angle. The size of this angle determines the distance. Unconsciously and automatically we reckon distances by the complicated proc- ess known as triangulation. What we estimate roughly with our eyes, range finders determine accurately “SER RRR errs attr cme no Daa tin al iii EM tt BEE The workman is not performing an act of homage. of the Burgomaster of Prague. He is simply dusting off the shoes It is an old Bohemian custom that the boots of all visitors to bakeries must be so wiped

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Popular Science Monthly which are near the surface. The electromagnet is used with success by war surgeons to extract splinters of steel When used on deeply buried missiles it has been found to make bad wounds, because the fragment tears its way out through the flesh with lenses and measuring instruments that are wonderfully accurate. In the Marindin range finder, which is the type most commonly used in the British infantry, an optical arrangement is used, having an equivalent of two eyes mounted thirty-one and a_ half inches apart. Two reflecting prisms are em- ployed, so that the rays are brought to- gether in a combined beam to the eye of the range officer. A more complicated form of range finder is one equipped with magnifying lenses and an adjustable prism by means of which the instrument can be used for recording distances. When the instru- ment is directed towards some distant object, it will be split into unmatched halves until the prism is adjusted to the correct angle. The distance is then in- dicated on a dial. Range finders used on battleships are fundamentally the same as-the Maradin finder. They differ only in details. The Electromagnet in War HE electromagnet has long been used by surgeons to extract splint- ers from the eye. It has not proved so serviceable when its use has been extend- ed to other parts of the body. In the present war surgeons found that deep- lying fragments of shrapnel are literally torn out by the magnet, with the result that gaping wounds are produced which are difficult to handle. For that reason army surgeons, in Germany at least, pre- fer to restrict the use of the electro- magnet to those cases in which the steel splinters lie very near the surface. NOVEL device which announces to the chauffeur any overheating of his engine is made so that a streamer is released from the radiator cap to blow against the windshield. The ribbon is made of a bright-colored material, and shows at night as well as in the daytime. LS temeewetenaate ree eS es - 2) een — ee Resa ee H ! i sk

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28 A Miner’s Safety Electric Lamp WING to the hazardous nature of work in gaseous mines, a demand has been growing for a practical, port- able electric lamp. That an electric lamp would be safe to use has been well recognized, because it would be made so that it would not ignite inflam- mable gases and would produce a uniform light re- gardless of atmos- pheric conditions. The perfection of the efficient tungs- ten lamp in minia- ture sizes and the development of small, efficient, light weight stor- age batteries has resulted in the design of the long-desired miner’s electric lamp. The prime feature of this lamp is that it has been made thoroughly safe to use. By adequate insulation of the en- tire circuit, placing all terminals and contacts inside of locked and sealed steel cases and providing automatic means for extinguishing instantly .the glow of the filament, should breakage of the lamp bulb expose it to the air, this lamp has been made both safe and rugged. The outfit complete A miner’s safety electric lamp has long been wanted. This one seems to fill the bill Popular Science Monthly between contact springs, which maintain it constantly under stress, so that, in case of a blow otherwise only sufficient to chip or partly break the bulb, it will be completely shattered by the springs and will drop clear of the contact. Sufficient space is provided between the re- flector and glass cover to keep brok- en lamp parts from short-circuiting the spring contacts. This prevents the possibility of igni- tion even if the cap lamp is seri- ously damaged amide xplosive gases. By means of this improved lamp, a miner may work amid a steady white light, and feel se- cure from devastating explosions. ES —aat mam if ae Using an Automobile as a Winch N attachment for the rear wheel of an automobile, by which the au- tomobile may be made to serve as a winch has recently been brought out. Four hooks are attached by straps to the tire. The hooks are bent at their inner ends, and a coiled spring passed through the loops thus formed, so that the hooks point towards the weighs but three and three-quarters of a pound, of which three and a half pounds are carried on the belt and four ounces on the cap. The hattery will light tue lamp twelve hours per charge aud can be relied on to furnish light at least ten and hub. / A cable is wound about the loops and securely fastened. When the motor- ist finds himself mired, it is a sim- ple matter to pass one end of the rope about the nearest tree or tel- ephone post and then to start the car on the first three-quarter hours per charge at the end of one year’s service. The bulb is held at the focal point An attachment which makes it possible for an automobile to pull itself out of the mud with the assistance of a pair of stout trees speed. The revolu- tions of the wheel wind up the rope, and act as a very powerful — winch. The car is soon out. : MT: ESS Tiel Ces

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Se .-. oo — we rv =o | ee Oe Sa ODOR Popular Science Monthly New Diver’s Suit Does Away with the Hand Pump GERMAN has invented a breath- ing apparatus for divers which does away with the cumbersome hand pump and tubes. A diver can descend in the water with no other impediment than a safety rope and telephone wires, and these can be dispensed with if desired. The feature of most unusual interest in connection 29 to have been associated with the living personage of whom this was the se- pulchre. One of the objects, as to the use of which there was no doubt, was an artificial leg. One of the leg bones of the skeleton was missing, indicating that the leg had been interred with the wearer. The artificial limb, a creditable mechanical contrivance, was made of a combination of bronze, wood and iron. Fortunately, with the equip- ment is the means of re- freshing the air. Vitiated air from the lungs is forced into a_ tank containing sev- eral layers of potash through which it percolates. The potash cartridge ab- sorbs the car- bon dioxide. The oxygen supply is re- plenished from a small oxygen tube as it is required. Caustic pot- ash has been found to be the most satis- factory chemi- cal for absorp- tion purposes. the tomb also contained some evidence as to the age of its contents and the period in which the wearer of the wooden leg might be sup- posed to have been walking on it. Three vases were found which were decided upon as being representative of the period which had end- ed some three centuries be- fore the birth of Christ. With this re- mote date practically fix- ed as a time when very ad- vanced forms In this new device it is placed ina number of shallow trays one upon the other ; so that the air passes through each layer. An Ancient Wooden Leg oo years ago, when archeological researches were going on at Capua, Italy, the excavators came upon an an- cient tomb. Upon opening it they found it to contain a rather unusual relic of the past. A skeleton was found, and with it were numerous objects supposed The air inhaled by the diver is purified chemically and breathed again and again through an apparatus which . he can carry on his back. The diver is about to enter use, an _ inter- a tank in order to test the apparatus of artificial limbs were in esting light is shed on the an- tiquity of their invention. It is natural that there should be a considerable peri- od of development between the first crude effort and a fairly well-finished combination of wood and two different metals. ae The artificial leg here mentioned may still be seen, preserved in the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons in Lon- don. It is an evidence that archeology may teach even the surgeon. PASTS Se CRESS ee

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How a German apothe- cary filled Prescriptions by carrier Pigeons and how The Pigeon Spy and His Work in War his son invented a camera where- by pigeons could make photo- graphs for the German army of the war has been the revival during its. course of methods and implements used in the warfares of me- dieval times and even of antiquity. We hear of slings and catapults for firing explosive bombs a short distance, of ar- rows shot from aeroplanes, of helmets, breastplates, and shields for the protec- tion of the soldiers. Now, last of all, comes word that pigeons, the carriers of intelligence in times of stress in remote times, are used as photographers of the positions of the enemy. It is a strange medley, the air-ship, the last and most daring invention of man’s brain, rising in the early dawn to search out and pho- tograph the foe’s movements, and the graceful pigeon, so frequently mentioned in the stories of early days, soaring, per- haps at the same moment, to act as an aerial scout. But modern ingenuity has added some- thing to the older roles of the carrier pigeon—and has turned him into a pho- tographer. The only authenticated re- ports of this use have been found in accounts of a German invention, some of the pigeons having been brought down behind the allied lines. Whether the Allies have tried the same means of get- ting photographs of German entrench- ey of the strangest phenomena ments and troops is a matter of con- jecture. The story of this development of the pigeon’s work goes back to 1840, and the enterprise of a German apothecary of Cronberg named Neubronner. ° He gave the doctors of the surround- ing country pigeons by which they could send him prescriptions needed in haste. In this way the medicine was ready by the time the messenger with the other copy of the prescription arrived. In urgent cases the apothecary, ‘himself, sent a messenger with the preparation. This ingenious sales’ service was carried on for a long while. The apothecary’s son, Dr. Jules Neu- bronner, like his father, also had pigeons which he used to convey orders between his house and the sanatorium of Falken- stein, or to carry small doses of medi- cine, for which he had telephoned to his apothecary. One of his pigeons, a few years ago, stayed away for a month, and this led the doctor to devise a plan by which he could tell where his pigeons went when they were let loose. To this end he used a small, light photographic apparatus which could take views during a flight of about sixty-five feet a minute. The apparatus is arranged to fit the breast of a pigeon to which it is held

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memtivy tv + -_—= WM | © VS OF DDS eS te CD Popular Science Monthly by elastic bands that pass over the back. The shutter opens automatically at pre- arranged intervals and the roll of film, which moves in unison with the shutter, can take thirty photographs one and a half inches square. This allows an al- most continuous registry of the principal points of view during a flight of six miles. One of the engravings shows a view taken in flight by the pigeon photographer. The general staff of the German army heard of Dr. Neubron- ner’s ingenious device and investigated Photograph made automatically by a carrier pigeon in its flight 31 its adaptability for topographic recon- naissance. The method was evidently found satisfactory, for since the present war broke out many pigeon photogra- phers have been found back of the Allied lines either killed or stunned by the ex- plosion of shells and firing of machine guns. The history of carrier pigeons in war goes back to the earliest times. Pliny tells us that Decimus Brutus, one of the assassins of Caesar, used pigeons, when besieged by Antony at what is now Mo- dena, to communicate with the Consul Hirtius who was coming to his aid. The crusaders are known to have used them at the siege of Hasar near Aleppo, and the medieval Sultan Noureddin of Egypt is said to have established a pig- eon-post with relays of pigeons. Among the noted instances of their use in mod- ern times is the story that the London Rothschild knew of the defeat of Napo- leon at Waterloo, by means of carrier- pigeons, ahead of the English govern- ment, to his great financial benefit on the Exchange. But then, this is only one of a dozen stories of the origin of the Rothschild fortune. Releasing a carrier pigeon from its basket on its photographic journey

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32 No Chance to Pass This Shop HERE is more than one way of im- pressing upon the public that at a given point refreshments are for sale The accompanying illustration shows how one mer- chant frightened passing motorists into noticing that he had_ refresh- ments for sale by an adaptation of a railway block signal. His store is on the state highway of Cali- fornia in the cac- tus country be- tween Burbank and San Fernan- _ do. Few drivers = pass this point “Frightening” the without glancing motorist into drink- up at the “warn- ing lemonade ing” sign, inci- dentally reading the words on the down board, “Hot and soft drinks.” This sign is made doubly effective by the fact that a few yards from it runs the main line of a prominent railroad. The driver proceeding along this stretch of road is naturally on the lookout for warn- ings. An Illinois Community with Ideas in Street Lighting N the village of Kenil- worth, [Iil., the people carry out commend- able ideas in or- namenting pub- lic grounds. They employ at- tractive meth- ods in hanging their street Nature built these lights. One of — the plans is to suspend a square frame around a shade tree. An electric bulb, strong and brilliant, hangs at each corner of the frame. All signs and sign posts which the community finds necessary to place in Popular Scevence Monthly the streets for the information of drivers and pedestrians are tastefully constructed. In this village the plan of planting lawn trees in pairs and trios has been adopted. This is done to secure an immediate effect. Slender Carolina poplars are thus made to show consider- able foliage in a very short time. There is one big market and grocery store in this charming little L[llinois town. The entrances to this building are banked with flowers. Polite Sign Boards Bring Results. POLITE re- quest is of- ten more effective than a peremptory order. Hence the board of park di- rectors tried the scheme in a small park near Lake Merritt, Calif. Instead of the usual order, ‘“Keep off the grass!” or “Do not throw rubbish. here!” a polite re- quest reading, iy “This park is for Signboard that your pleasure. appeals to public Help us_ protect sense of honor it!” has been put and civic duty up on a small sign board. The directors of the park claim that it is much more effective than the old signs. The same method is followed by the street cleaning department of New York city, where the ash carts carry continu- ally changed signs urging the public to “Keep YOUR city clean.” ; *. wy ae BT WS PRAT FARYOUR PLEASURE f 1 Ee ans a Artificial Sausage Skins GERMAN butcher has recently patented in this country a process for making artificial sausage skins from fibers of animal sinews. According to the inventor these fibers, which may be purchased very cheaply from abattoirs, may be cleaned more thoroughly than the intestinal skin. The sinews are digest- ible, and it will do no harm if pieces of the skin are swallowed.

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rs Le 1e rk to ce NEE SPM EHS © International Film Service. A Serbian captive observation balloon ascending for a survey of the Austro- German positions. This is built on the German Parseval plan, the sausage-like appendix to the main envelope acting somewhat like the tail to a kite, giving the balloon great stability in the air. Such balloons are almost standard in European armies 33 BRN BK iB AR SIC STE LETTS

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The Wings of Death An armored French Caud- ron battle-plane (above), equipped with two engines, and a central fuselege which carries the pilot, observer, and a heavy machine gun. These machines are recent developments, but are giving very good account of them- selves. On the left, the arrival of a biplane at Nancy 34 The result of a well-placed German shell, putting out of commission one of the Le Rhone rotary motors with which this machine is equipped. This is the same type of aeroplane as that shown in the illustration at the top of the page. Note the effects of the shrapnel upon the engine and the fuselege of the aeroplane ty SERRE

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Wye Ceara me ser meeer Oe Lee Work and Play After the Battle is Over © Brown & Dawson © American Press Association Wounded Tommies recover strength and health in the convalescent camps in which they are prepared for future work in the trenches. Above are shown Rus- sian prisoners making uniforms for German soldiers—a less athletic employment 35 pes EIT SN ES deni eis cladeaahatae dices

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Electricity in the Hospitals On the left, a mechanical appliance for straighten- : ing a wounded leg. In the process of healing, the leg became bent and the muscles taut, and unless straightened would be use- ? less for life. Below, an electric massage use to restore circulation in an injured limb a ye % * © Photos by Universal Press Syndicate >] - ae ii a fi " oie In circle, treating the wounded by electricity in an Austrian base hospital. Every method known to surgery is employed in the base hospitals of the contending armies to heal the wounded for further service in the field. Below, an artificial sunbath. These ultra-violet rays act exactly like the rays of the sun, cleansing the blood and killing germs 36

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In the War Hospitals for Horses Horses, like men, are not all anxious to get to the front, but as they have not the priv- ilege of volunteering, force has sometimes to be used. The horse on the right evidently objects seriously to conscription In German hospitals for horses the best of care is taken of the dumb animals, and special or- ganizations have been formed for the sole purpose of treating injured horses. The horse on the left has just undergone an operation upon an injured hoof A hospital has been established in Kent for victims of the war whose names do not appear on any casualty list. The inmates are horses which have been wounded or have contracted ill- ness, and are being cared for by the Army Veterinary Corps, whose work is almost as impor- tant as that of hospitalsfor soldiers RO i cE

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i I SS =o Done For © Underwood & Underwood The result of a premature charge. It is an accepted rule among the warring nations that the enemy’s barbed wire entanglements shall be blown to pieces by artillery fire before the command is given to charge. These Russians have met death in the midst of the barricades defending the German positions in Poland 38

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IE Ee ee FF lie ak Secret Gasoline Supplies for Submarines t i g j 1,40 ROPE CARRYING ATTACHED “; TUSE A submarine at sea can replenish its supply of gasoline or oil by means of the device illustrated. Within an outer container, a tank of gasoline or oil is placed. Between the outer container and the gasoline tank is a space filled with water. When the water is forced out by compressed air, container and tank rise to the surface ee ere A float hidden in seaweed conceals the means of raising the tank to the surface. After the tank has been brought to the surface the submarine proceeds to replenish its supply of fuel by the simple expedient of pumping it into its reservoirs 39 Pes na rn ne OT Pie re

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Jack Frost, at Least, Will Be Routed © Photos by Underwood & Underwood In the upper pictures are shown some of the new sheepskin sleeping bags which will be served out to the allied troops. In the bottom picture, a German master tailor is applying efficiency methods to speed up the output of winter uniforms. A number of layers of cloth are put upon the cutting board, and a sharp disk swiftly follows the pattern, cutting the entire pile at the same time 40

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12 reserva mee The Doves of War By Courtesy of Illustrated London News A motorbus converted into a dovecote for the housing of pigeons until they are needed for service which no man or telegraph wire or wireless can perform 41 So ee Ree eee

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ea Se 3 a = —_ Odd Glimpses of the War No, these are not chorus men. Despite their ballet skirts, tights, and fancy shoes; these Greek Highlanders are real fighters. They are seasoned campaigners, and may have an opportunity to test their prowess—but clad in more war-like garb © International Film Service Members of the American Red Cross in Belgrade spraying Serbian soldiers with disinfectant upon their return from a long stay at the front. Serbia is still vermin- infested and disease-ridden, although typhus has been stamped out 42

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Extremes of the War Transportation Problem Private motorists in Great Britain are giving much of their time to volunteer ambu- lance work. They have supplied many of their pleasure cars with ambulance trailers i ; as shown in the illustration and are doing useful work in carrying the wounded ac emer Military trucks are sometimes mired in the swamps and mud holes near the front, especially on the Russian battlegrounds. Here is a German ammunition truck being pulled through a . Polish swamp by a large force of soldiers | 44

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Unmilitary Phases of War aie A YZ German soldiers pulling down a tall chimney which had been partially shot away dur- ing the bombardment of a town in Russian Poland. The ruins of war are now treated as any other ruins are handled in peaceful commun- ities everywhere Austrian soldiers aiding Russian peasants behind the lines in gathering their harvest. By means of these har- vests, the Austro- German forces are able to keep well supplied with food material. The two million Russian prisoners are prob- ably being used to maintain the econ- omic strength of both Germany and Austria. TheFrench and English prison- ers are not used for this work so much as their allies from the East | @©§Photos by Universal Press Syndicate . Elephants from Hagenback‘s Zoo at Hamburg (on left) hard at work removing logs and timbers for the German soldiers. The trenches were only a short distance from the French - i town shown in the illustration, on the right, so the Germans laid underground pipes from the water supply system of the town, and thus piped fresh water into their trenches j 45

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Salving Seven Thousand Dollars’ Worth of Death British Jackies hoisting a spent torpedo to the deck of a torpedo-boat destroyer. Torpedoes such as the one shown cost nearly seven thousand dollars,. and, as may be imagined, is considered worth saving 46

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Behind the Screens of Smoke and Sea The British destroyer “Kennet”? making a smoke screen to protect the Allied fleet from the fire of the Turkish batteries in the Dardanelles. Oil is poured on the fires and dense clouds pour forth to hide ships from the enemy. The ruse is used by all navies Torpedoes for the submarine in the background are being filled with compressed air at a pressure of one ton to the square inch. This compressed air runs the motor which sends i the projectile at express speed, as well as the gyroscope spinning devices 47

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yousi} 943 soyoRer yotyM [ays Aue jo uoTso[dxe oy} Uspeep 0} SAIIS RIO YUM PezTy sjoyseq yeorspurjAd pue seq pues snosouInU puke ‘sU0}S PHOS JO Pd}INIJsUOD JIB YOUdI} SUT] ISIY eSny sty} jo sijeM ° - - IeUIdI S,s9ueIg jo a[durexe ue ‘UOTeDYIRI0} play YyIues ey. ‘Siai[ays no-3np pue Ssy1OM-asusjep Ul [TPIS 91425 ‘ ad jo 3a HeIYgIOF Pley Y — eect gi a “Rean Fy sn ie aie ee, a ae ee en —" ae = 5) — o fo Ee = fot 5) eo © = a} me - Q ap & “Oo Es = = So) ia] i © Zz

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What War Means to Women A woman cob- bler mends shoes for many resi- dents of Berlin, while her hus- band is. at the front Carth serve to aeacen tne expiosion Of any sneill wilich reacnes tHe treme Two Berlin window cleaners starting out for their day’s work : With true Teuton thoroughness, the German government has opened the ranks of labor to women so that every available fighting man may go to the war and defend his country 49

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Mimicking the Ermine in War As winter comes on the ermine changes his coat of brown to one of white to match the snow and escape his enemies. Soldiers of Austria’s mountain battalions have torn a leaf from nature’s book. They, too, garb them- selves in white to escape their enemies Re eeescot eee, er Bs Since they must travel on snow- covered mountains the Alpinists of the Austrian army use Norwegian skiis. Austrian snow patrols often raid the opposing scouts by sliding down the mountains at a terrific rate on their skiis, shooting as they go. The momentum of such a charge is almost irresistible, and they are often able to rout a superior force by sheer weight and daring SOF Oc ly, TERNAL DET CETTE IAEA TOOT POS

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ST ee Ee nt an ech se ene Curious Trades of Other Lands & The world’s largest open-air pottery market, in Korea (above). At the right, an itinerant Korean brandy dealer, with his ample stock in trade Taking sago to market in Java (above on left). Sago is the marrow of a palm, and to transport the palm trunks to market, the Javanese nail them to long poles and roll them over the roads. The silversmith shown in the lowermost picture is able, with his rough tools, to do work that is the marvel of the world. Even his clay stove is a work of art 52

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A AARNE a SRE RN er Popular Science Monthly A Jack-of-all-Trades Truck HE city of Boston has recently put into service a versatile motor truck that serves in many capacities. When equipped with a dumping body it is a most efficient ash collector, but when equipped with its nine hundred gallon tank body, however, the truck makes its best showing. In this form it may be used either asa street sprinkler, to supplant three water carts, or as a street oiler, in which capacity it covers twelve thousand five hundred square yards in the short time of eight- een minutes. The forty regular sprinkling nozzles are assisted in their work by a rotary pump which raises the pressure to forty pounds, and this pump is also capable of removing the contents of the tank through a side opening, 53 Why a Woman Can Outtalk a Man WOMAN can talk longer than a man, and does’ so because she uses less force by a larger percentage than a man does. A German professor has proved by actual and very delicate measurements that the baritone singer uses far more energy than either. The range of voice differs greatly, so the thus saving labor of discharging it at the top. In cases of iso- lated fires, as among lumber piles, the truck with its power- ful pump be- comes an efficient percentage varies. to the same ex- tent, but as a general result it was proved that a tenor uses only from one-seventh to one-sixteenth of the lung pow- er of the bari- tone or bass. The The City of Boston’s handy motor truck, which carries dirt, sprinkles roads with water or with oil, and puts out fires with equal versatility and effectiveness fire fighting appliance. It thtows a stream of water of equal power to the ordi- nary fire engine and can get to the scene of the conflagration quickly. Authorities in the city state that the truck easily accomplishes the work of six horses and two drivers. difference in the force used by the contralto and soprano is very marked, and the contralto who sings in very deep tones uses at least ten times the force of the soprano. The explanation is so simple that it is surprising that it was not thought of long ago. It has long been known that the tenor or soprano brings the vocal chords together and keeps the edges vi- brating only by the emission of air. The bass or contralto leaves the space be- tween the chords wider open, and has to vibrate much more of the membranes. A Need for Electric Rickshaws CCORDING to advices from India, there is no reason why sma!l elec- tric vehicles should not replace the rick- shaw in hill stations, where these are now in general use. The overall dimen- sions of the vehicle need not be- over eleven feet by five feet.

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54 Popular Science Monthly X-Ray Finds Safety Pin in Baby’s Throat EMOVING an open safety pin which was swallowed by a_ seven-months-old baby with the sole aid of X-rays and a stare, was the remarkable op- eration recently performed by Dr. G. S. Otrich, of Belleville, Ill. When an X-ray photograph was taken of the child, it was discovered that the open pin was lodged in the esophagus, with the point sticking upward towards the child’s mouth. The X-ray tube was arranged be- neath an ordinary table, so as to throw the light upward, and the child placed so that the light from the tube would be in a di- rect line. A fluoroscope was adjusted directly over the child, a ‘and the obstruction became clearly visible. The doctor passed a small snare into the esophagus, and with infinite care passed it slightly beyond the pin. After withdrawing it until the pin seemed to be engaged, he closed the snare. On the first attempt the pin was closed and withdrawn. A Foot-controlled Sewing Machine OTORS for driving sewing ma- chines have been improved so that they can be carried This open safety pin was extracted with fa snare by the aid of the X-ray and a fluoroscope tricity and attached to any machine in half a minute. The motor is equipped with feet so that it can be set on the stand and applied to the flywheel of the sewing machine without the use of any screws or arms. In addition it is gov- erned by a pedal which controls the speed, from a stitch a minute to eight hundred stitches a minute. The motor stand is sim- about by a seamstress and used in any house that is wired for elec- ple, depending on the weight of the motor and its rubber feet for stability. ‘The lit- tle ledge of the sewing ma- chine itself forms a brace so that permanent attachments are not needed. The pedal sends the cur- The foot still controls this sewing machine, but a motor does the real work rent through a rheostat of varying resistance to obtain the differ- ent speeds required by the operator of the sewing machine. Thus the sewing machine can be electrically driven wher- ever there is a light socket. The motor and its attachments are light enough to be easily carried from house to house. By using it the work of a dressmaker is lightened by at least a half, and the physical tire of working is almost com- pletely eliminated. ase tN Pr Ap ARGO NOM ROSS EMER TE

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2 ROE NTNU Gi IE PR ARR SENN ESTE Popular Science Monthly —$—— Roots instead of branches were grafted to this pear tree, and with the fresh life brought to it by the healthy young suckers, the old tree returned to its previous record crops Giving a Pear Tree New Roots HE startling operations performed upon human bodies by advanced surgical methods find their counterpart in tree surgery. How a pear tree was supplied with new roots after its own had been destroyed, is an example. The disease which required the drastic treat- ment of removing the roots of a well- grown tree is “pear blight,’ which can be eradicated only by cutting away all affected parts. So dangerous is this tree disease that even the knife which is used in cutting away the bark, wood or roots must be sterilized after each use, in or- der to prevent the contagion from spreading to sound parts of the tree. Should the disease attack the roots, as in the instance shown in the photo- graph, it is necessary to supply nourish- ment to the tree by grafting to the trunk a number of healthy young “suckers.” These are well rooted and are set into the ground about the diseased tree, while the upper ends are grafted upon the trunk, so as to carry the sap from the ground by healthy channels. Fly Impaled by Spear of Grass NE of the most interest- ing accidents that has ever come to the attention of zoologists is shown in the ac- companying illus- tration. While ly- ing in the tall grass near I‘ire Island, N. Y., waiting for game birds, Dr. A. L. Goodman, a New York physician, saw a fly perch- ing upon a spear of grass near him, \ and entirely un- afraid of the hunter, for it nev- er moved. After watching the fly for nearly half an hour, Dr. Goodman’s_ curi- osity was so aroused that he got up and, upon examining the in- sect, found that the sharp point of the grass _ had pierced the fly’s frail body. The insect had evidently been flying against the wind, when a sudden gust blew it down against the blade of grass, which had swayed with the wind. Dr. Lutz, of the American Museum of Natural History, says that in the fifteen years that he has collected specimens he has never seen a similar accident, nor has he ever read of such an occurrence. Hammering Spine to Cure Sick Heart S a remedy for enlargement of the heart, Dr. Meyer Solis-Cohen ham- mers the spine with a rubber-tipped ham- mer. The tapping should be done on the protruding ‘vertebra in the spine at the bottom of the neck, a little above the shoulderblade. It immediately livens the valves of the heart.

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A Three Million Dollar Automo- bile Scenic Highway By Fred W. Vincent IGH masonry walled roadways H clinging to precipitous mountain sides and so cunningly built that no cement enters into their composition ; bridges of solid concrete spanning deep mountain gorges, and tunnels through living rock are only a few of the fea- tures of the Columbia Highway, a two hundred mile three million dollar road- way that Oregon is rapidly driving through the heart of the Cascades and Coast Range mountains, down the Col- umbia River, from The Dalles to the Pacific Ocean. For two years the work has been un- derway, guided by engineering experts who first spent months in Europe study- ing the famous mountain roadways there with the sole object of not duplicating, but of bettering the best the Old World had to offer. From the Dalles, where it connects with the trunk roads leading into the in- terior and the East, the highway follows the south bank of the Columbia—second largest river in the United States—and plunges into the rugged and picturesque Cascade Mountains. Here on one side for more than fifty miles is the river, on the other a rock wall rising sheer for heights varying from a few hun- dred to thousands of feet. It is through this majestic water carved gorge that the engineers faced and solved their hardest problem. Their instructions were to build a roadway not less than twenty-four feet in width and with a grade not to ex- ceed five percent at any point. A rail- road had possession of what little shor- ing there was along the river, and for this reason the construction force faced miles on miles of cliffs, long reaches of slope deep with slide rock, and a tim- bered wilderness with earth pitched ready to slip. The first work called for tunnels and the highway builders were compelled to make several bores through imposing rock points that rushed skyward hun- dreds of feet as straight as a plumb line. One tunnel at “Storm Point” is more than three hundred feet long. To insure proper light, arches have been cut through on one side to overlook the river at regular intervals. Here in the mountains has _ been worked into perfection the ancient art of dry masonry wall construction. There are approximately two miles of the high- way built atop such wall work and all along steep mountain sides. In them each stone was cut to fit and to stay for all time where put. Instead of the usual steel, reinforced concrete was resorted to in building the bridges that span the numerous. tor- rents. One spanning Moffat Creek is the largest flat arch monolithic bridge in America and the largest three-hinged arch in the world. The clear space of the span is one hundred and seventy feet and the arch rises only seventeen feet in that distance. Another bridge that crosses over a canyon two hundred feet in depth is three hundred and sixty feet long. One of the biggest problems was en- countered in the construction of the high- way over slopes where slides threatened. This included work over an immense bed of broken lava rock so restless that it is called “Crawling Mountain.” For half a century it alone had prevented a per- manent roadway to conect the Inland Empire with western Oregon. The en- gineers conquered the slides by sinking pillars through the loose super-rock and anchoring to bedrock. On the pillars they built a concrete viaduct just high enough for the slides to thunder harm- lessly underneath. The highest point above the river is attained at Crown Point, a cliff more than seven hundred feet straight up al- most from the Columbia. ee ee

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NENT PDI vane conor msaner= cme © Popular Science Monthly 7 Oregon’s magnificent highway, extending for two hundred miles through the heart of the Cascade and Coast Ridge Mountains, was built by engineers who first spent months in Europe studying famous mountain roadways there. The roadway is nowhere less than twenty-four feet in width and has a grade not exceeding five percent at any point. It is built to last for ages and is considered one of the finest examples of good roadmaking to be found in the country. In the circle above is shown a loop in the road affording a wonderful outlook over the Columbia River, on which the road opens vistas from time to time as it curves through the hills Oregon Built a Scenic Highway for Motorists

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58 Cripple Makes a Fortune with Tri-Car; Then Runs for City Council EVERELY hampered by a disease of the hip which makes him a crip- ple from his waist down, a resident of Los Angeles has begun life all over again in middle age, succeeding in a new busi- ness under a handicap which would have made most men quite willing to depend upon charity. The disease developed to an alarming extent and made crutches essential. At the same period, the physicians declared that life in the open air was the only thing that would save their patient. So C. E. Ellsworth dropped his for- mer name and for business purposes adopted that of “Handy Andy.” He had always liked to tinker with things, and This cripple made a comfortable fortune as a handy man, and then ran for the Los Angeles city council the skill of his hands was unimpaired. He was able to outfit a little second-hand car as a traveling machine shop, equip- ping it with emery wheels, vises and a big grindstone. In this machine he buzzed around town, doing odd jobs for house- wives and sharpening knives for butchers. After some years of hard work, “Handy Andy” bought a neat tri-car well equipped for the work in hand. Now he has succeeded in earning enough to buy a block of flats, and not long ago he en- tered into a political campaign, winning many votes for a place in the city coun- cil, although he failed of election. Popular Science Monthly Gangway Life-Saver Prevents Crushing of Life Boats HE hazardous method of lowering life boats into rough water along- side ships in disasters has inspired many inventors to perfect life-saving apparatus that would be really safe. Among the scores of such inventions that have been submitted to the patent office, is a long net gangway which pro- jects from the side of the vessel upon the surface of the water, being sup- ported at the lower end by large air tanks. The poles which support the gangway are hinged to the ship’s side, and when not in use are carried in long pockets below the rail of the first open deck. The chief advantage of this gangway- life saver is that the life boats never approach near enough to the ship’s side to be crushed by waves. The boat is held close to the gangway by means of gaff hooks. A New Device for Recording Sounds N apparatus for recording sounds has been devised which, while in- corporating some well known principles, has several features of decided origin- ality. The fact that it is possible to retain sounds by other mediums than the phonograph record is not generally known. One device, however, which departs radically from the wax record, is the telegraphone which was brought out several years ago., The tele- graphone is a magnetic apparatus, which impresses sounds in their rela- tive strength magnetically on a wire. The new invention makes use of the telegraphone principle to a certain ex- tent, in that it is magnetic. But it combines a new principle as well— that of photography. A diaphragm alters a shaft of light falling on a mov- ing strip of sensitized paper. When the reel of paper is used, it is copied photographically on a strip of iron. The iron is then etched—in much the same way that half tone plates are etched—and when it passes in its com- pleted form between highly sensitive magnets, the variations in sounds are accurately reproduced in a telephone receiver.

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Loading Lifeboats Safely on the High Seas A canvas gangway let down from the side of a ship, and supported on floats, is designed to allow the loading of passengers without the danger of smashing the boats against the ship’s side—an accident very apt to occur 59

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A Really Great Greater New York” is published herewi on pneumatic caissons. He has designe to having been retained as a consulting twenty New York skyscrapers. During | slightest possible settlement, although so also the man who conceived the project —EDITOR. T first glance, a project to reclaim fifty square miles of land from New York Bay, to add one hundred miles of new wa- terfront for docks, to fill in the East River, and to pre- pare New York for a population of twenty million, seems somewhat stupendous, does it not? One hundred years ago Gouver- neur Morris, Sim- eon De Witt and John Rutherford By Dr. T. Kennard Thomson, Consulting Engineer er New York Dr. T. Kennard Thomson, whose description of his project of a “Really th, is considered an authority of note d and built pneumatic caissons for important bridges over many of the great rivers of the country, in addition engineer in the construction of over his experience he has underpinned i} | - buildings as high as eighteen stories, putting in new foundations with the metimes the new foundations were sixty feet under the old. Dr. Thomson was one of the board of five con- sulting engineers in charge of the New York Barge Canal in 1914-15, and is of building a new dam in the Whirl- ool Rapids, near Niagara Falls, which we described in our November issue. 3 . 4 searching for some method to cut the Gordian knot of New York’s har- bor conges- tion problems. It is hard to realize the enor - mous strides of the past century, and still more dif- ficult to compre- hend the needs of the future. Now I propose to add, by a series of engineer- ing projects, fifty square miles. to Greater New York’s area and spent four years record as saying that “the country north of One Hun- Wl dred and Twenty-first Street would nev- | er be covered with houses -for centuries to come.” Now apartment houses extend to Yonkers, to White Plains and to New Rochelle. New York’s overflow has made of Brooklyn a great city. New subways are constantly being built, yet are inadequate when they are com- pleted. Twenty-five years ago New Yorkers felt sure that their water-front would be sufficient for their purposes for many years. Today engineers are 60 lavi N Dr. Thomson is an engineer who thinks : “a aying out ew in large masses, and then arranges his de- the same time this York, and went on tail to solve the problem he has created will mean an addi- port foothold. At tion of one hun- dred miles of new water-front. New York’s City Hall would become the cen- ter of a really greater New York, hav- ing a radius of twenty-five miles, and within that circle there would be ample room for a population of twenty-five millions, the entire project to be carried out within a few years. Many have said “Tt can’t be done.” The majority of en- gineers, however, have acknowledged the possibility, and I have received hundreds of letters of encouragement. Although this would mean an expen- Pratap RENE

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r LOT PRLS — a RRR A peers sey Popular Science Monthly 4% 4 .* at ft vor ~ ms “Ny : * ey oe 2 eS ee t Sk . ps : Seng sam PROPOSED TUNNEL N E Ww YOR K BAY - . NEW ISLAND PROPOSED TUNNEL SANDY HOOK An Engineer’s Plan to Make New York Bigger A bird’s eye view of the Really Greater New York as it will appear if Dr, T, Kennard’ Thomson’s project is completed. The black spaces show new land of immense value recovered from the harbor and the East River

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62 diture of a great deal more than the sum involved in the construction of the Pan- ama Canal, the returns would quickly pay off the debt incurred, and then would commence to swell the city’s money bags, until New York would be the richest city in the world. By carrying out this vast project in stages, each complete in itself, the re- turns would pour into the city treasury even while the engineers were working, and thus save much money to the tax- payers. The first step would be to build paral- lel coffer dams, about half a mile apart, extending from the Battery to within abeut one mile from Staten Island, and then connect the ends of these coffer dams by another coffer dam: The box- _ like space formerly these three coffer dams and the Battery would then be filled with sand up to about the low water level. A clear, vertical space of at least fif- teen feet should be left above this level, and below the street level, for sets of real rapid transit subways, conduits for electric power service, trunk sewers and all of those underground pipes which are an important part of the city’s wel- fare, so that it will never be necessary to tear up the street to get at these neces- sary arteries of our city life. Imagine the value of this new land for docks, warehouses and_ business blocks! The tax assessments alone would make a fortune! From the new Battery, I would build a set of tubes and tunnels to Staten Isl- and, bringing that land almost as close to New York as Jersey City is at the present time. Today the assessed value of Staten Island is about $50,000,000. With the completion of the land reclama- tion, the property value would not fall short of $500,000,000. This would help pay the expenses of the project. The next stage would be the construc- tion of a large island flanking the tip of Sandy Hook. Next I would make upon Old Orchard Shoal the first of two ex- tensive areas which, when joined to Staten Island, would form a large en- closed basin, and in addition to this would afford protected dock frontage on several sides. The shallows just within and contiguous to Sandy Hook would Popular Science Monthly be filled in, making a large new area. The projects I have just mentioned would reclaim some forty miles of new land, which would be a maritime Pitts- burgh, the greatest export manufactur- ing center in the world. In this new harbor, protected from the ocean by the new island off Sandy Hook, there would be docking facilities for the world’s larg- est ships. There would be dock yards, dry docks, ship yards, coaling stations, which would make all of Staten Island a great industrial beehive. Naval authorities agree that the East River is no place for the Brooklyn Navy Yard. In Newark Bay, after the comple- tion of the operation, would be a great, protected Navy Yard, with ship yards and dry docks enough for the dread- noughts of the future. A new river, cut straight through to Newark Bay, would form an ample entrance to the new Navy Yard. My next step would make still greater changes in the topography of New York. I would construct a new East River, forty feet deep and one thousand feet wide, from Jamaica to Flushing Bay. While this is under construction, I would lay tunnels and rapid transit tubes be- — neath it. There would be no bridges over the new river. On the same plan I would cut a new Harlem River from Hell Gate to the Hudson. By means of these straight and wide rivers, our entire fleet of battleships could proceed from the new Navy Yard into Long Island Sound within a short space of time. At present they have to steam all the way around Long Island, as they cannot go through Hell Gate safely. I would build a dam at Hell Gate and another just above the Bush Ter- minals. Heavy concrete coffer dams would prevent the land from slipping when the water was pumped out. Where rock is within a reasonable distance from the surface, and the bed of the river has been laid bare, I would not fill it with earth, but from the basic rock of the river bottom I would make concrete pil- lars carry highways and business blocks much after the fashion of the Grand Central Terminal. In the space below the street level I would leave ample space for subways, for sewers and pipe lines. No digging

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SARS, EATS A e PIPE A rte Popular Science Monthly 2S eal The rows of trenches are not structures built by warring soldiers, but are the terraced rice-fields of industrious Filipino farmers would have to be done, they would sim- ply be laid on supports, and great sub- sequent expense would be saved. As a result of this construction it would not be much harder to get to 3rooklyn than to cross Broadway. In- deed, New York and Brooklyn would be as much one big city as are the East Side and the West Side. New York would expand logically. At present most of the expansion is to the north of the city, and forms its chief problem. This practically completes my scheme. I do not urge the simultaneous attack of the entire project. It should be carried through section by section, and this would involve an annual expenditure of from fifty to one hundred million dollars. When these facts are understood there will be no difficulty in obtaining the nec- essary authority to start work. Then, after the section between the Battery and Staten Island has been laid out on paper, enough land can be sold to start the work, which would proceed just as fast as the proceeds of the sale justified, and a really great debt-free New York would result. Farming on a Precipice N mountain slopes so steep as to ap- pear quite worthless for agricul- ture, the rice growers of the Philippine Islands are producing crops upon made- to-order farms. These famous terraces of the Mountain Province extend as far as the eye can reach, a work of patience rivalling the pyramids. Imagine a whole mountain laid out in ledge above ledge, the walls almost perpendicular, the strip of field graded just enough to allow the water to flow from one terrace to an- other without violence, so that every acre is irrigated but not washed out by the current. As the photograph indicates, the work appears too vast to be the work of hu- man beings. In fact it might better rep- resent some great upheaval of the earth’s crust. XPERIMENTS are being carried on in Cuba with the fiber of a plant locally known as malva blanca, which is said to produce an ideal fabric for sugar bags. The February Popular Science Monthly will be on sale Saturday, January fifteenth (West of Denver on Thursday, January twentieth).

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Se a 64 Five Thousand Dollars a Minute. FTER a crusade of about six months, the police of Los An- geles, Calif., have destroyed the re- sults of their successful raids on opium dens in. an immense $25,000 bonfire, the flames of which were fed by con- fiscated marihuana, contraband opium and “hop” pipes. This strange fire was ignited by inspectors for the State 3oard of Pharmacy at the Plaza in Los Angeles, Calif. The: motion picture companies all sent men to the Popular Science Monthly Hundreds were at the scene of the fire, some drawn by curiosity, others to take a farewell look at the precious burning dream-stuff. The officers placed big wooden boxes in a square and then set pipes, spot. A battery of cameras was set up. One of the accompany- ing pictures shows three cameras busily taking “close ups” just before the match was applied. Several more cameras are in the back- ground. One ton of marihuana or “Indian hemp” was put on the fire. Marihuana is a weed with narcotic proper- ties, is closely akin to hash- eesh, and is Hundreds of heartbroken “dope fiends’? watched the preparations. In the picture below the flames are reaching for the prec- ious opium pipes, destroy- ing the lottery tickets and filling the air with the soothing fumes of opium and marihuana smoked when dry. It is in par- ticular favor with Mexicans. A ton of it at retail prices would bring $16,000. A_ great number of tael cans of opium appraised at about $7,000 furnished additional fuel. Among the confiscated goods were fifty opium pipes. One was taken from an old China- man who had smoked since he was a boy. He was convicted in court and -paid his fine without a murmur. But when the officers told him his pipe would be confiscated, tears came to his eyes. He offered first $50 for its return, and then by jumps of $50 each brought the price up to $400. Half a dozen cameras lined up to film the big little fire cans, bottles, trays and small boxes of the “dope” on them. Wires were strung around the square and the pipes were hung in a row. On the boxes also, were scat- tered paper slips with Chinese char- acters on them. These were confis- cated lottery tickets. The officers poured on coal oil and applied the torch. In five minutes it was a pile of tin cans and ashes.

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Popular Science Monthly Risking His Life to Make a Motion Picture Play NE of the most spectacu- lar feats ever shown on the films was recently recorded when a horse and its rider dived eighty-three feet from the top of a cliff into a pool of water. This performance was invented by a director who wished to inject realism into the film version of “Car- men.” The results in the pic- ture were highly satisfactory, but the results to the actor were unfortunate. The plot of the story de- manded that Carmen’s lover should commit suicide by div- ing with his horse from a high cliff. One of the most daring of the actors was selected for the feat. After a long search a suitable spot for the act was found in the Adirondack Moun- tains. The cliff chosen towered eighty-three feet above a pool of water, the bottom of which was studded with sharp rocks. The actor, when all was ready for the filming, with a battery of camera men waiting on the opposive bank, drove his horse to the edge of the preci- pice and urged the frightened, trembling animal over the brink. The horse was wiser than the actor, however, for he could not be driven to make the plunge. At last another steed was chosen, this time, a trained diving horse. Even the horse trained to the work refused at the last minute to make a clean dive, and while it hesitated on the edge the daring driver spurred him over. The fall was not a clean one, and the horse som- ersaulted twice during the long drop. The catapulting drop made it impossible for the actor to throw himself away from the horse, and the two struck to- gether on their backs and dis- appeared from sight. > Oem eee, © Underword and Underwood The perilous feat of a motion picture actor and his horse. The horse was not hurt by the 83- foot drop, but the actor was seriously injured aos a ———

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66 From Cellar to Sidewalk ANDLING ashes, ice and boxes be- tween the sidewalk and the base- ment is often attended by much heavy lifting and the usual employment of two . men, or is done with a clumsy elevator. With a new hoist shown in the illustra- tion this work is accomplished by one man and more rapidly than it could be done even with an elevator. When not in use the hoist mast tele- scopes and is wholly contained below the basement doors. When it is to be used, a handle in the basement is turned and the mast automatically raised to the required height where it locks itself. The operator can now raise ashes or other heavy articles out of the basement by turning a handle on the side of the hoist within easy reach from the side- walk level. A pressure of seven pounds on the handle will raise one hundred pounds on the end of the cable. The upper part of the hoist is on ball bearings so that when the weight is raised to the proper height it can be swung readily to the sidewalk or into a wagon. at Rubbish removal is_ slowly being modernized. Here isthe newest form of collapsible derrick for city houses Popular Science Monthly Lae oo ita This clock, built entirely of straw, manages to keep accurate time in spite of its flimsy fabric A Clock Made of Straw CLOCK made in Germany is con- structed of nothing but straw. Not even a piece of stiffening cardboard or a drop of glue has been used. It is six feet high and is two feet square. There are eight pendulums which allow speed regulation. By pressing a button which comes out automatically on one side, the clockwork is wound up and runs for five hours. By pushing another button, the hands can be set. The dial, figures, pendulum, hands, even the chain, weight gears and the skeleton are of straw. The chain is fourteen inches long and endless. In the construction of this clock, thousands of stalks of straw have been used, mostly three and four fold to give greater strength. Shooting at Jupiter T is reported from France that Jupi- ter, which has been especially bril- liant lately, has often been mistaken for an enemy airship flying over Paris, and that guns have been trained on it.

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Popular Science Monthly 67 A steam tractor helps reduce logging costs in the Maine forests. Caterpillar wheels support the tractor on the snow Logging with Tractors in the Maine Woods OGGING has remained for genera- tions the most primitive of all mod- ern operations. The logging railroad is a comparatively recent development, but even that falls far short°of being an ac- tive agent in reducing the vast waste necessitated by the fact that only such timbers can be moved out as will pay for expensive transportation. In the tropics a mahogany log worth hundreds of dollars in New York is valued at only a few demonetized dollars as it stands in its forest, and almost priceless hard- woods are left to rot or burned up in the clearing of ground simply because they cannot be “squared” to the formal size, about one foot on each side. To a lesser degree the same problem faces the timber cutter in the forests of our own country. The long hauls through the woods to streams or roads, even to the roughest sort of logging roads, is discouragingly expensive, and from there to the railroad or mill entails another long haul with primitive means, either oxen or horses. Modern power appliances are, how- ever, slowly coming into use as they prove their worth. In certain sections of the Maine woods, where logging is the winter occupation of farmers from nearby sections, tractors are now in use. The drive on these engines is by cater- pillar wheels, broad enough to keep from sinking into the snow, and the forward part of the tractor is mounted on sleigh runners, which are turned by hand to guide the tractor and its train of logging sleds. The tractor is crude in a way, but it can reach sections of forest country to which even the ordinary logging rail- road, with its clumsy engine, cannot readily penetrate. In the tractor shown here, the runners at the front make steering easy and ac- curate. The unwieldy front wheels of the ordinary tractor would hardly serve in the forest.

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Mercury Poisoning and Deafness— The Price of a Derby Hat By A. M. Jungmann HEN you pay five dollars for y \ your fine derby hat do not imag- ine you have paid the price ot the hat. The real price is paid by the unfortunate victims of “hatters’ shakes” who contract mercurial poisoning while engaged in preparing the fur and mak- ing it into your hat. There are many trades which are dirty and hazardous but it would be difficult to find one as objectionable as the hat- ters’ fur trade. From the moment the fur receives a scrubbing with a solution of nitrate of mercury until the hat is finally completed, mercurialism is a con- stant menace to the workers. Conditions found in various factor- ies differ greatly. In some, every effort is made to protect the workers and in others the welfare of the operatives is neglected. The Department of Health of New York city recognized that thou- sands of workers in our industries are subjected to conditions which endanger their health. As a means of protecting the workers and raising the standard of the public health, the animals by the trappers. They are stiff and full of natural animal grease and dirt. The skins are first cut open by unskilled laborers. They are then combed and brushed by hand. The brushes used for this purpose have fine wire bristles. With this brush the work- man frees the fur from particles of dirt. Anything which is not readily removed by the combing and brushing process is removed with the aid of a very sharp knife. In some cases the skins are brushed by machines supplied with suc- tion devices. Where the work is done by hand the air is full of fine dust and particles of fur. It is the usual prac- tice to have a man employed all day in sweeping up the accumulated dust and dirt from the floor with results that can be imagined. After the skins are combed, they are dampened and the long hairs are clipped or plucked. In the case of hare skins the plucking is done by machinery; with coney skins it is done by hand. The hand plucking creates an immense amount of dust, the Department opened an Occu- pational Clinic and concentrated its en- ergies first of all on the fur and hat- ters’ fur trades. In the prepara- tion of the hatters’ fur used for the manufacture of felt hats, rabbit, coney, nutria, muskrat and hare skins are put through a number of processes. The skins are received hair and fluff in the air. Frequently the workers stand in a mass of hair, which covers the floor to a depth of several inches. The skin is fastened over a leg stump by means of a loop of clothesline which is held taut by another loop through which the plucker places his foot, as in a stir- in the factories just as they have been stripped from The occupational clinic where the workers in trades which give rise to occupational diseases are examined by the New York City Department of Health 68 rup. This causes the worker to as- sume what would

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Popular Science Monthly seem to be an almost impossible posture. The toes of the left foot, which is in the stirrup, barely touch the floor and the worker is forced to lean foward and press his abdomen against the upper pole of the stump that he may retain his balance. In the case of plucking machines much of the danger to health is eliminated be- cause the plucking machines are supplied with suction devices which carry off the loose particles of fur and dust. The next treatment to 69 volving brush which passes through a bath of mercury. In either case it is necessary for the workman to wear strong gum gloves to protect his hands from the mercury solution. The carroted fur is now taken to dry- ing rooms where it is placed on racks and dried in ovens. When the mercurial solution has been volatilized the skins are put through the shaving process. Machines cut the hair from the skins and deposit it on metal trays. Girls which the skins are sub- jected is the most dan- gerous one. It is known as carroting. The pelts, with what fur remains on them after the long hair has been removed, are placed on a table and scrubbed with ni- trate of mercury solu- tion. This gives a bril- liant yellow color to the light parts of the fur. Hence the name. In some instances this work is done by hand and in others by machinery. Combing rabbit skins to remove particles which may be lodged in the fur. A good workman combs twelve hundred of these skins a day sort out the hair of the various parts of the ani- mal’s body and place it in groups. The skins, when they are denuded of hair, are used to make glue. It is impossible to de- scribe the noise of the cutting machines. Unless a person has leathern lungs he cannot make himself heard in the cut- “Carroting,” or scrubbing the rabbit pelts with nitrate of mercury solution. It is the use of this nitrate of mercury which constitutes thegreatest hazard in the fur felt trade When carroting is done by hand the workman holds the pelt on a table and scrubs it with a brush which he dips in the mercury solution. When it is done by machinery he holds the pelt on a re- ting rooms, even if he shouts close to your ear. The girls who sort the fur are for the most part young. The workers suffer from defects of hear- ing brought on by the unearthly clat- ter. Some of the workers who were found to be perfectly devoid of hearing rman cms a ASSES Ce a ae

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told the doctor at the clinic that if they remained at home for two days they generally regained some of their abil- ity to hear. If Dante could have vis- ited a cutting room he might have described another torment in his infer- no. In looking over a roomful of young girls whose deft fingers never falter in sorting out the fur one is astonished that they can retain their composure in that unspeakable bedlam. And one wonders, after all, if any felt hat is worth years of deafness. But, deafness is not the only danger, for every one who handles the fur after it has been carroted faces the menace of mercurial poison. Three hundred and fifty employees of the hatters’ fur trade were examined through the Occupation- al Clinic. Of these fourteen per cent. were indisputably suffering from mer- curialism. Many have violent tremors of the hands, face and tongue. Unfor- tunately most of the workers fail to realize the danger of their occupation, and it is exceedingly difficult to get them to observe the first principles of self- protection against the hazards of the trade. In some instances it was found that the employer had to lock the carrot- ing rooms and the drying rooms at noon time to prevent the employees from eat- ing their lunches there. The constant breathing of dust and fur-laden atmosphere affects the nose, throat and lungs of the workers. This could be obviated by sweeping after hours or by the employment of a vacuum device. But no matter how much may be accomplished through cleaning up the factories and installing safety devices the condition of the workers cannot be very greatly improved until they them- selves are made to understand the pecu- liarly dangerous character of their work. The use of mercury in the hatters’ fur trade causes much suffering among the workers but it is something which must be tolerated until such time as someone invents a felting process which is as good and as cheap as that dependent on mer- cury. Only mercury can roughen up and flare out the laminae of the fur fibres which causes the fur to snarl readily and to form felt satisfactorily. Popular Science Monthly Street Corner Directories That Tell You Everything HEN you are in Los Angeles, Calif., and Seattle, Wash., and you want to know the location of office buildings, ete., you have only to go to the nearest street corner to find a directory on the side of the building giving the location of busi- ness houses, office buildings, and a list of street cars which pass the corners within three blocks from that point, and their routes and destinations. The street cor- ner directories of Los Angeles know almost as much as a policeman. The buildings with- in a radius of two blocks, the car lines that pass the corner, and where they go, are all set forth graphi- cally These directories are changed or added to every month. They are large cards covered with glass and in a metal frame. Over one hundred of them have al- ready been placed and the list is being added to rapidly. This system re- lieves the traffic policemen stationed at the intersections of the streets, leav- ing him free to attend to the regula- tion of the automobiles.

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Band Concerts from an Electric Light Bulb By George F. Worts USIC that ranges from the pierc- M ing wail of a taut violin string to the grumbling bass of a mon- ster horn has been added to the re- markable achievemnts of an electrical instrument so small and so insignifi- cant in appearance that it could be passed by scores of times without arousing so much as a lingering glance. Despite its innocent appearance, however, its technical name is more than formidable. Scientists know it as the “oscillating vacuum tube,” al- though this name has been changed and shortened to a simple compound word, “audion.” “Audion” is derived from audio, to hear, and ion, the tini- est division of electricity; in other words, to make audible the action of ions. This, in a word, is exactly what the oscillating vacuum tube accom- plishes. Before proceeding directly to a dis- cussion of the latest marvel of the au- dion,—electrical music—let hurriedly over some of the achievements that have preceded it, which, in a round-about way, have led to the discovery. Amateur and profes- sional wireless opera- tors know the audion well, although numbers of them are not aware that it has other uses than the reception of radio signals. Connected with the proper wireless instru- ments, the audion will receive and strengthen the weak signals of a distant radio station to a degree several times as loud as any other detector. But its abil- ity in this direction us pass Dr. Lee DeForest, inventor of electrical music, and his audion bulb 71 does not stop there. If several of the tubes are connected in the correct way and adjusted with great care, the wire- less signals will be increased in loud- ness several hundred times. This ar- rangement is known as the Audion amplifier. In both of these uses, the construc- tion and operation of the audion are practically the same. In fact, for all of the uses to which the audion is put, its fundamental structure, apart from size, does not vary. In appearance it closely resembles an ordinary electric lamp bulb. There is a brass base with threads, so that it can be screwed into a socket, a round glass bulb and a fila- ment burning brightly in a partial vac- uum. But beyond this point, the au- dion and the electric light are strangers. Built into the bulb close to the fila- ment are two metal electrodes. One is a tiny replica of the grids that are used in coal stoves... . and it is called a grid; while the other is a small plate. The grid and the plate are connected to the other apparatus in such a way that a per- fect balance, electric- ally speaking, is main- tained between them. When an outer influ- ence, such as an in- coming wireless wave, is brought into the bulb, this balance is disturbed, and in a strengthened form, the disturbance is heard in the telephone head re- ceivers as the dots and dashes of the wireless code. Strange to say, this same balancing princi- ple is made use of in another application di- rectly opposite in na-

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72 . ture to the foregoing, when the vacuum tube is employed as a wireless tele- phone. Hundreds of the bulbs are con- nected to a powerful battery or dyna- mo.. The voice spoken into a telephone transmitter connected in the circuit so disturbs the electrical balance of the bulbs that powerful waves are created. The most striking example of this ap- plication was the recent feat of tele- phoning wirelessly from Washington to Hawaii. Another use of the audion is in re- laying the current that carries the Popular Science Monthly By the combination of some of the foregoing properties of the vacuum bulb, the uncanny but delightful result, electrical music, is attained. The idea of converting the silently flowing elec- tric current into strains of the most bewitching music is not entirely new. Many readers will recall the telhar- monium, which was built at great cost several years ago and with which elec- trical concerts in the home were prophe- sied. But the telharmonium required dynamos of such variety and size that it was eventually given up because of In appearance the audion closely resembles an ordinary electric lamp bulb. Built into the bulb close to the filament are two metal electrodes which are connected in such a way that a perfect electrical balance is maintained between them. When the wireless wave disturbs this balance, the disturbance is heard in the telephone receivers voice over long distance telephone lines. The other applications of the audion are of a laboratory nature. One of these applications is transforming elec- tricity. By throwing a small lever, the outgoing current can be varied from fifty to more than a million vibrations a second, the prohibitive cost. Music from elec- tricity—or music from light, to be exact—goes back many years before the telharmonium. Legendary Egyp- tian history, three thousand years old, tells us that the rays of the descending sun, would strike weird music from the face of the statue of Memnon. Incredible as this tale may seem to

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Popular Science Monthly us now, the present day accomplish- ment of electrical music is hardly less astonishing. To an ordinary audience, the fact of most striking importance would be the quality of the music. It is quite possible to imitate the mellow- est tones of a Stradivarius violin, but more interesting still, it is possible to create music of a tone and timbre that no one in this world has ever heard before. No less strange than the qual- ity of the music is the means by which it is obtained. The variations produced in an electrical circuit by inserting a lead pencil line drawn on paper will cover not only the complete octave, but will include the most infinite shadings in tone. Dr. Lee DeForest, the discoverer of this type of electrical music, claims that with an arrangement of four or five bulbs and suitable adjusting ap- paratus and keys similar to those of a piano keyboard, he can easily obtain notes ranging in pitch through as many octaves as are desired and a tone qual- ity identical with that of all musical in- struments now in use as well as qualities never before produced. The volume of sound depends upon the adjustment, the number of batter- ies that are used and the size and num- ber of electric horns which project the sound. The horns can be distributed in various parts of the room or grouped together. The basic principle involved in cre- ating music by a vacuum bulb, Dr. DeForest does not attempt to explain. Nor does anyone else. Perhaps it is due to the unbalancing action caused by interference with the flow of the current. In this case, the tiny particles of electricity loosened, bombard the grid and the iron plate in musical rhythm. At all events, the action is probably highly complicated, and it may involve some new principle of electricity that we have not yet learned. A Walking Leg Bath N interesting and unusual way of using water as a curative measure is represented by the “walking leg bath” evolved by a Battle Creek sanitarium and included in its list of helpful ap- paratus. %3 Tingling streams of cold water bring *he blood rushing to impoverished muscles as a patient walks through this leg bath The walking leg bath is a simply con- structed frame, lined with a number of woven wire springs and equipped with two water pipes, perforated at inch spaces to permit a horizontal shower. This strikes the legs at the moment when the muscles are in action and most open to benefit. The patient is told to walk through the bath briskly, and by the continued per- formance of that act alone he improves his condition, the wire springs against which he must brush in passing, insur- ing a brisker circulation. The needle- like streams of water—at varying tem- peratures—forced against his legs by air pressure heighten the effect. It is one of the most exhiliarating of the modern “cures.” The walking leg bath is recommended in certain forms of rheumatism, vari- cose veins and other maladies affecting the lower extremities. ees

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74 Gliding Boat for Tropical River . Mail Service GLIDING boat that speeds over the water at the rate of fifty miles an hour has been built for transporting mails on the Magdalena river in Colum- bia, between the Carribean coast and the capital city, Bogota, a distance of six hundred miles. On her trial trip, from the factories at Nyack, N. Y., to the foot of Ninety-first Street, New York, a dis- tance of twenty-two miles, the “Yolanda II” covered the distance in less than a half hour. Popular Science Monthly The Steam Engine in War HAT the Lanz locomobile, the name by, which a remarkable port- able superheated steam engine is known, is equally as successful for war as well as peace purposes is convincingly shown by its behavior during the past year on the various battle fronts. One of the most interesting applica- tions of the locomobile is for power pur- poses in connection with field equipment, such as wireless telegraph sets. One lo- comobile is supplying energy to a two hundred horsepower field wireless equip- This gliding boat, which takes its power from the displacement of air instead of water by its propellers, was built in New York for use on a tropical river, where weeds make the use of screw propellers in the water impossible Two gasoline engines of one hundred and fifty horsepower each are connected to an air propeller. It is impossible to use screw propellers in the Magdalena, as the sea weeds and grass are so thick. The Yolanda II draws three inches of water while speeding at a rate of fifty miles an hour, and five inches while at rest. She was designed by Gonzalo Mejia, an engineer of Columbia. The prob- lem of transportation on tropical rivers, where the shallow draft of encumbering sea weed, makes a draft of more than a few inches impracticable, has engaged the attention of native engineers for years. Mr. Mejia’s boat is one of the best devices yet built to meet the prob- lem. ment. The locomobile is used extensive- ly in operating pumps directly behind the firing line. A more extensive use is in supplementing the power plants of ammunition factories. In one plant two locomobile units of five hundred horsepower each were add- ed; in another, which, before the com- mandeering of the fuel oil supply, had been employing oil engines, a single one hundred and twenty horsepower locomo- bile engine supplanted the entire power equipment. Among other applications of the loco- mobile are hauling guns and ammunition trains to the various batteries, and in heating hospitals and prison camps with the hot water from its boilers.

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Popular Science Monthly A motorcycle on runners is a novelty, but its practicability has been proven A Sleigh Motorcycle. LTHOUGH it is possible with little snow on the ground to run a motorcycle with its rubber tires, it has been found impossible to do so when the fall measures several inches, and a resident of Galt, Ont., has solved the problem thus presented. The rubber tires were taken off the front wheel of the machine, and off the wheel on the side car, and | _ _ runners were fitted on, and Fy Bea bolted to the rims of the wheels. The rubber tire re- 75 to grind lawn mowers, and the like. Fans driven by the same power keep the en- gine cool, so that it can run many hours without overheating. The device was constructed by W. M. Conover in his shop in Gettysburg, Pa., and is a complete success. Of course the motorcycle is of value to him in se- curing business, and the belt and pulley attachment can be removed with no trouble in a few minutes’ time. Indicator Tells Pursuing Police Speed of Automobile AW-ABIDING motorists who have had the disagreeable experience of being arrested when they were well within the limit of the law will doubt- less greet, with delight, the new inven- mains on the rear wheel of the machine for driving pur- poses, but the runner on the front wheel makes the rut, thus permitting the use of the one tire. jo __ fs { Se ie) Here is a chance for 5 the honest motorist to sd tell everybody how fast he is running Keeping the Motorcycle Bus Y applying a belt and pulley device to his motorcycle, a mechanic who runs a grinding establishment has been able to double his output in the last sea- son, the motorcycle supplying the power tion of a Pennsylvania inventor. By means of a speed indicator, similar to the indicators which are found on the instru- ment boards of nearly every car, the in- ventor has made a combination license tag holder and speed indicator which chows clearly to the public the number of the car, as well as the exact speed at which the car is traveling. A semicircular plate, with the numbers in multiples of five up to thirty miles an hour, is equipped with a pointer, which indicates ac- curately the speed of the car. Both the license tag and the indicator plate are perforated, and are illumin- The mechanic owner of this motorcycle keeps it at work in his shop turning a lathe ated at night by means of a light placed behind them.

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SS: 76 ‘Where Men Are Still Cheaper Than Machinery. ade tig good to the greatest number makes some strange cus- toms in India. The inhabitants are num- bered by millions, and they are so pinched for money that a little has to go a long way. The companies operat- Popular Scvence Monthly effectually bars out modern progress. For instance, the trains of ore cars are hauled by bullocks. An aerial tramway was installed by an enterprising man- ager, but he soon found that his mainte- nance charges were much greater than the total freight costs when the bullocks were used. Back came the bullocks and their native drivers. Instead of using machin- ery, women and girls are employed to sift the ashes and recover small particles of unburned coal. The sys- tem is cheap and effective. So is the handling of slime pulp from the mills. This is a fine, slimy mud which is settled in big stone tanks in order to recover the wa- ter from it. In progressive countries heavy pumps are used to Machinery would be used to sift ashes and pump slime in modern communities, but in India hand work is cheaper i ing gold mines there find it the best policy to hire all the labor they can, both because it is cheaper than in- stalling labor saving machinery and because by that means they can save many from starvation. Wages are extremely low and work- men are often very intelligent, perform- ing exceptionally good work. Raw ma- terial is cheap, too, and the combination empty the settled mud from the tanks, but in India they use native laborers and a primitive mechanism which takes much more time, uses more labor, and is not nearly so satisfactory, but it is cheaper and keeps many natives in food. A woman scoops the mud into a basket, two men raise it on the end of a long lever sweep, another empties it into a trough while a woman pushes it with a long stick to give it impetus enough to move along to its destination. The spectacle would drive a modern efficiency. expert to distraction, but he would reconcile himself to it when he figured out the relative cost of machin- ery and men. Ingenious Slide Rule for Motorists SLIDE rule has been devised by which a motorist can compute accu- rately the ratios which exist between the number of revolutions of the engine and the mileage of the car per mile; the cor- responding ratio of gear reduction, etc. It can also be used to ascertain the theo- retical horsepower by the knowledge of the cylinder dimensions, and the reci- procal relations between various parts of the machinery. It is intended that the device will bear the name of some automobile manufacturer and be used as an advertising novelty.

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A Machine That Chews Money IVE million dollars a day in worn- out paper money was destroyed by machinery in the Treasury Department, at Washington, during the last fiscal year. Two tons of this redeemed paper, amounting to over three hundred and fifty million bank notes, with a face value of more than a billion and a half dollars, passed through the macerating machinery, new money be- money was first issued, is indicated by comparison with figures for the fiscal year 1865, when seventy million pieces of redeemed currency were destroyed, of a face value of one hundred and forty- four million, two hundred and nineteen thousand, nine hundred and twenty dol- lars, which included a large amount of fractional currency. ing issued to take the place of that which was de- stroyed. This money, after being sent to the Treasury for redemption, is carefully counted, made into piles, first punched and then cut in half, after which a com- mittee of treasury em- The chief duty of these treasury employes is to see that all old paper money is thoroughly destroyed The government first issued paper money in connection with the Civil War finances, and Sec- retary Chase’s regulations for the destruction of notes unfit for circulation were issued as a re- sult of an act of Congress. In Secretary Chase’s time paper money and securities were de- stroyed by burning. Experience showed that this was not the safest plan in connection with The first step in the destruction of worn-out paper money is to bind the bills solidly and compress them into packages ployees sees that it is chewed up in a machine made for the purpose. It is said that the average life of a one-dollar bill is one year. The great growth of this work since the days of the Civil War, when paper the destruction of distinctive paper, because it is difficult to burn bundles of money, and un- destroyed pieces may _ escape through the chimney. For this reason the act of June 23, 1874, authorized the destruction by maceration. The destruc- tion of these once valuable bits of paper has always been witnessed by a_ joint committee, appointed for the purpose.

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78 by a joint committee, appointed for the purpose. Secretary McAdoo has recently modi- fied the work of destroying the paper money so as to meet present conditions better. Now each member of the com- mittee will check the money and securi- ties delivered as well as witness their destruction. In the past, one member of the committee has usually verified the amount and the whole committee merely witnessed the destruction. The new regu- lations are designed to simplify the work and throw greater safeguards around the destruction of money and securities. The record shows that the paper money de- stroyed in 1915 had a total weight of five hundred and ninety tons. Popular Science Monthly food dead fish, garbage, and offal of vari- ous sorts, and their services in cleaning up such material are not to be regarded lightly. It will, however, surprise many to learn that some of the gull family ren- der important inland service, especially to agriculture. At least one species, the Cali- fornia gull, is ex- tremely fond of field mice, and during an outbreak of that pest in Nevada in 1907-8 hundreds of gulls assembled in and near the devastated alfalfa One reason why half a paper bill is worthless. The treasury department cuts the returned bills into two pieces lengthwise as a preliminary to its total destruction How Gulls Help the Farmer HE term “gull” is usually associated in the popular mind only with long- winged swimmers seen along the salt water shores.and in coast harbors. There are represented in the United States, however, twenty-two species or sub- species of gulls, including the gull-like birds known as skuas and jaegers. Of these some are true inland birds, fre- quenting prairies, marshes, and inland lakes. Flocks of gulls on the waters of our harbors or following the wake of vessels are a familiar sight, but not every observer of the graceful motions of the bird is aware of the fact that gulls are the original “white wings.” As sea scavengers they welcome as fields and fed entirely on mice, thus lending the farmers material aid in their warfare against the pestiferous little rodents. In Salt Lake City, is a monument surmounted by two bronze gulls, erected by the people of that city “in grateful remembrance” of the signal service ren- dered by these birds at a critical time in the history of the community. For three consecutive years—1848, 1849, and 1850—black crickets by millions threat- ened to ruin the crops upon which de- pended the very lives of the settlers. Large flocks of gulls came to the rescue and devoured vast numbers of the de- structive insects, until the fields were entirely freed from them.

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‘ =~ =was ‘ Popular Science Monthly Motor Car Mows Railroad Weeds PRACTICAL railroad man has invented a weed cutting machine, which derives its energy from the source that runs the gasoline-driven handcars running up and down sections of every track. ; There are a number of advantages in the new weed destroyer. The cost of labor has been cut enormously. A sec- tion crew with scythes working all day can cut no more than a mile. The usual price for this work is $1.75 per man per day. Thirty cents is the cost of cutting the same amount of weeds with the motor weed cutter, which mows down heavy weeds and grass at the rate of a mile every twenty minutes, averaging twenty-five miles a day. Cutter bars are so arranged at the sides of the car that they can be raised by the operator in case of obstruction on the roadbed, but when down follow the angle of the ground perfectly. The blades can be stopped or started without raising, and the little gasoline driven traveler can pull itself along whether it is on or off the track. Traveling at the rate of three miles per hour the gasoline scythes cut a swath six feet wide on each side of the track. If the lay of the ground varies on either side of the track, as is often the case, the blades can be handled by the operator to conform to this condi- tion. A regular crew of three men is re- quired, and this number accomplishes the work that formerly required one hun- dred men. 79 With this simple device the sun’s rays are utilized to heat water Using the Sun’s Heat to Heat Water, N the Southwest, where the sun at noontime is extremely warm, all - sorts of heaters have been invented to catch and utilize the sun’s rays. In the case illustrated here, the coils of pipe, which are connected with the water sys- tem in the house, are arranged on a framework in a position where they are exposed to the sun during the hottest part of the day, and so great is the heat that the water be- comes warm in a short time. Still Enough Coal CCORDING to the In- ternational Geological Congress, there is coal enough yet unmined to last the world nearly six thou- sand years at the present rate of consumption. There is a reserve of unmined coal estimated at 7,398,561.000,- 000 tons, of which two- Three men on this motor hand-car can mow as many weeds in aday as a hundred men working in the old way thirds are in the eastern United States.

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the least understood divisional units in the United States army, have been newly equipped in order that they may be more mobile during battle. The field hospital service of our army, as it is constituted today, is one of the best in the world. Contrary to popular opinion, field hos- pital men are trained soldiers. They do their most important work under fire, and in war, their dead and wounded rank next to infantry in number. While the officers of field hospitals are surgeons and while the privates have been in- structed thoroughly in first aid work, the real duty of the field hospital men during battle is to keep the front clear of savable wounded men. The field hos- pital problem is one of rapid transporta- tion. During the past four years, since the system conceived by Tripler during the Civil War has been put into opera- tion, every scheme to make it possible for field hospital officers and men to work swiftly has been resorted to. Officers and men of the hospitals are walking dispensaries. The officers carry surgical instruments, extra hypo- dermic needles, needles, ligatures, medi- cines, first aid packets, large iodine bot- tles, large water bottles and cups, diag- nosis tags. During battle the officers can spend little or no time in dressing wounds or in “cooling the fevered brows” of fallen soldiers. Their time is occupied in directing the bearer-men, or littermen, who carry wounded soldiers to the field hospitals just outside the line of fire. While doing this transportation work, the stretcher bearers are really more under fire than the fighting soldiers. The new equipment furnished the field hospital men is as compact and as BT ee ae STATES field hospitals, -light as possible. Each man carries a meat can, a bacon bag, knife, fork and spoon, a water bottle, ten first aid pack- ets, iodine swabs, five plain gauze ban- dages, safety pins and adhesive plaster, corrosive sublimate gauze, diagnosis tags and pencil, a large water bot- tle, instrument cases, forceps, scissors, and a hatchet. The enlisted men are Hospital Work on the Firing Line thoroughly trained in the uses of the in- struments they carry. When they have time, they administer first aid treatment to wounded men, but if they are pressed for time in the heat of battle, they devote all their energy to getting savable wound- ed men to a point where they may be in comparative safety while awaiting sur- gical treatment. The men are taught that their work is to protect Uncle Sam’s fighting mate- rial. They are not permitted to spend any time at the front with fatally wound- ed men, but to strain every nerve in saving wounded men who can be patched up to fight again. No nurses are per- mitted at the front. They are at the base hospitals, usually out .of range of the enemy’s guns. It is possible to take down and pack up on mule-drawn ambulances the entire camp equipment of a field hospital in two hours. Ordinarily, that is, in time of peace, the camp tentage of a field hospital is as follows: five small pyramidal tents for officers, nine large pyramidal tents for soldiers, five tropical hospital tents for kitchen, stores, mess, dispensary and op- erating room, six ward tents each con- containing thirty-six beds, and tents for officers’, patients’, and men’s latrines, with one for the men’s bath. In field serv- ice the large pyramidal tents are not car- ried, and one thousand four hundred and ninety-eight pounds of weight are saved. No tent furniture or cots are carried. The field hospital equipment for serv- ice weighs eight tons and is transported on eight four-mule wagons, which are used for ambulances. The army is now experimenting with motor cars to sup- plant the mule-drawn ambulances, since a similar equipment serving with the American Ambulance on the French front has proved remarkably successful. Fifteen horses—seven for the officers, two for the major, and eight for enlisted men—go with the field hospital equip- ment. The organization carries three days’ rations, three pounds to a man, or eight hundred and ten pounds, and one thousand three hundred and sixty-eight pounds of forage for the animals.

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ve nt ed ite 1 Se CD bate 8 oo = 8D CD ’ a vy ww '™ ve LIGATURES neEpEXTRA HYPODERMIC - NEEDLES Nope BOTTLE. DIAGNOSIS ~~ TAGS us MEDICINES BUCKLE = WATER BOTTLE Eee NN COVER FOR WATER BOTTLE =D 4 AND CUP PENCIL’ NEEDLES’ CUPTELESCOPES IN WATER BOTTLE A Walking Dispensary The hospital corps of the United States army is learning much from the developments of the war in Europe. It is likely that the old ambulance mule, among other things, will at last give way to the swift light automobile 81

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eee a Popular Science M onthly This ancient water wheel in Syria pumps the river up into the aqueduct at its top. Thus a wide territory is watered by other aqueducts and canals Immense Water Wheels Which Lift Their Own Water. AMA, in Northern Syria, referred to in the Old Testament as Hamath the Great, is justly famous for its huge water wheels. The city lies some one hundred and ten miles north- east of Damascus on the River Oron- tes, and upon its banks are four huge water wheels used for drawing water for irrigating purposes and also for supplying the town. The wheels are driven by the flow of the river on what is known as the undershot principle; that"is to say, the wheel is moved by water passing beneath it. The largest, shown in the accom- ing photograph, has a diameter of seventy-five feet. Upon its outer rim is a series of buckets which raise the water and deposit it in the aqueduct at the top. Like its companions, the wheel is built of mahogany, with an axle of iron. The creaking of the wheels is in- cessant, day and night, year in and year out, for they never stop. It is interesting to note that wheels built on this same principle are in actual use in this country, in one of the fertile valleys of California, as de- ! scribed in the December issue of the PoPpULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. A Golf-Tee Fertilizer MONG the hundreds of patents is- sued every week occasionally one stands out above all others as being en- tertainingly original and ingenious. Such a patent is one issued recently for a golf tee. It is intended that the tee shall be shattered to tiny fragments when the ball is struck, and to act as a fertilizer after having been broken. The tee is manufactured in a conical shape with a cupped top, into which the ball fits. It is made of green gel- atine, so that, contrary to the condi- tion which exists in the paper and rub- ber tees, the golfer can keep his eye on the ball without the usual distraction. When the club strikes the ball, the gela- tine tee is simultaneously struck and shattered to a veritable powder. These small green fragments scatter on the grass and are dissolved at the earliest rain. As gelatine is an excellent fertilizer, the shattered tee serves a very useful secondary purpose,

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Why There are Defective Babies being defectives? Editor. A cretin, aged forty-two bian Nights’ fame, and Homer’s Odyssey, there are narrated, strange tales of a monster with one eye in the middle of its head, who was so gigantic and so voracious that he ate two men for breakfast and two for supper, besides emptying three bowls of wine. This creature was called Cyclops or Polyphemus. Another strange for- mation described in tradition as a “Winged Horse” was Pegasus, the steed of the Muses, which was faster than or- dinary horses, because of its wings. Uni- corns or horses with spear-like horns are also mentioned in ancient histories as are other human, animal, and plant pedigreed prodigies. Side-shows, dime museums, fairs and the circus have special departments de- voted to exhibitions of Jo-Jo, the Dog- Faced Boy; the Bearded Lady, Siamese Twins; two-headed calves; four-legged hens, and various B tise in Sinbad, the sailor, of Ara- and Monsters It is not our purpose in this article to com- ment upon the ethical right of a physician to ‘permit a defective infant to die. science do to prevent Bollinger babies from Why are defectives born from apparently normal and healthy parents? The subject has been studied by many scien- tists and their results are here summarized.— What can A defective who is almost an idiot as the little Chicago baby’s deformities were traced to the prospective mother’s typhoid fever, has been a much debated medical point. Dr. E. I. Werber, of Princeton and Yale Universities, has undertaken ex- perimentally to ring the changes on all theories, doubts and opinions by finding exact facts upon which to base the whole problem. It is now possible to attempt an explanation of the strange malformation of the little Bollinger baby born in the Chicago German- American Hospital on Friday, Novem- ber 12, 1915, which created’ such wide- spread interest, because Dr. H. V. Haiselden, the German surgeon, refused to operate to save its life. The principal physical deformities in that much-dis- cussed case were the closure of the in- testinal tract, paralysis of the nerves of the right side of the face, the absence of the right ear, blindness of one eye, and malformation animal and human monstrosities. The manner in which the odd, contorted creatures are form- ed, whether they are inherited, like club foot, color blindness, and webbed fingers, or of the shoulders. The brain was only slightly subnormal, but the cranial nerves were absent or undeveloped. “If he grew up he would be a hopeless cripple and would suffer are suddenly caused before birth A twin egg monster before development 83 from fits,” said the doctor.

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84 Many of the visitors at the hospital treated the baby, which lay in a little bundle in a private room, as if it were uncanny. Dr. MHaiselden alone treated it like a human being. He looked into the little twisted face and patted its cheeks. “It would be a moral wrong to let it live. It seems to me that a city which allows a Blackhand outrage a week, a thousand abortions a day, and an auto- mobile accident every round of the clock is hardly in a position to criticize Popular Science Monthly Can Science Prevent Defectives? The most serious question, however, is how to prevent just such monstrosities as the unhappy Bollinger infant and to this end Dr. E. J. Werber, and inde- pendently Professor F. E. Chichester of the Zoological Department of Rutgers College, New Brunswick, New Jersey, have directed their experiments and dis- coveries. Before the eggs are made fertile and begin to form the unborn baby, colt, Should these children ever have been born? To the left is a cretin; beside her a type technically known as a Mongolian idiot; next comes a micro-cephalic, who is a burden to himself and to the institution in which he is confined; the last on the line is a water- brained (hydro-cephalic) girl for whom society has no use a man who holds that death is prefer- able to life to a defective.” Dr. John B. Murphy, former presi- dent of the American Medical Associa- tion, and physicians and_ professional men generally, took sides with Dr. Haiselden. But his critics were just as numerous. Dr. Rosalie M. Ladova commented: “A life is a life and I wish Dr. Haisel- den had stepped out and let someone else operate.” puppy, or other animal, these investiga- tions proved it to be possible to induce such changes in the eggs or early em- bryos by inoculation into the blood stream of the mother the poison of dia- betes, of kidney diseases, of typhoid fever, and other poisons and waste ma- terials, so that deformed offspring would be developed and born. With two sub- stances, butyric acid and acetone, chem- icals that are produced in the blood of those who have sugar disease and sugar

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Popular Science Monthly in the flowing lymph and serum, a great variety of monsters were born in the ex- periments of Professor Werber. These experiments yielded defectives and monstrosities, similar to the Bol- linger baby, to mythical Cyclops, to Siamese twins, and to creatures without legs, without necks, minus eyes, with ab- sent ear or entire faces, with open spinals, open brains, with tails and with- A calf which started to grow a second body 85 out tails, armless, and even clubbed feet. Hydrocephalus, in other words water- logged head, where the upper part of the head is so elongated as to resemble an Atlas, was produced by alcohol and other poisons in many embryos. In many, parts of the organs were lost, shrunken or undeveloped. Sometimes only half of the body developed. Some eggs were found to have one eye de- A puppy born without fore legs. It lived six weeks The skull of a defective pig. The ani- mal had but one eye and no face. To the left, a two-headed calf, one of the common freaks of the old-fashioned **side show ”’

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86 veloped so large as to crowd out the rest of the body. The various divided many times into a com- pound egg. These are fragments bro- ken off by the poi- sons in the blood of the mother, and the particular di- visions which are poisoned cause the malformations and freaks. Making Hens Lay Double Eggs Examples of eggs within eggs have been attributed to the serpentine movements of the flexible canal through which they pass. Hens fre- quently lay several double eggs in suc- cession. Fere,a distinguished in - vestigator, claims that he succeeded in producing double eggs in a hen which normally laid single eggs, simply by drugging her with another biologist of note, has de- scribed the ovary of a hen which habitually laid dou- ble eggs and con- cludes that fusion is the explanation of some double eggs. The one which Professor Chiches- ter wishes to re- cord is a “gourd- shaped” egg. Pro- fessor Hargitt studied one, which was not preserved carefully, and on account of evap- acids, bacterial poisons used seem to act upon the multiplied egg, after it has sub- Popular Science Monthly oration, the condition was such that he could not be certain of the presence of chemicals, and A twin dog-fish, the result of some chemical effect upon the egg the eggs died. belladonna. Glaser, A twin fish How quad- starting to ruple eyes develop grow A double head in process of formation TADPOLE MONSTERS yolk in the smaller end. that the egg was comprised of about normal parts in the larger end, and that He assumed the smaller con- sisted of only al- bumen, “its yel- lowish tint having resulted from the evaporating proc- ess which had tak- en place.” Many cases of twins and double monsters in fish have been recorded but no case of ap- parent modifica- tion of structure by chemical means in one of the twin fish mentioned. Dr. Chichester fertil- ized the eggs from several female Funduli by the sperm of one male and at the proper stage, he added a dilute solution of ether in plain sea- water. Many of Two days later the water was changed for fresh sea-water and a few of the dead eggs were removed. Three days from the beginning of the experiment the dead eggs were picked out, and the remaining few were placed in fresh _ sea-water. The living eggs numbered two hun- dred and fifteen, and the uncounted dead eggs about six hundred. At the end of six days’ time the normal embryos were sep- arated from the abnormal. In the first lot

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Popular Science Monthly there were a pair of cyclops, one pair of twins and one hundred and ten nor- mal. In the second lot there were nine typical cyclops and_ seventy-eight nor- mal. The twin Funduli were most close- ly observed and were killed and_pre- served on the sixteenth day only because it was evident that they were about to die. The cyclops was the smaller of the two; the eye on the right side was ap- parently lacking. One-Eyed Animals and Men Dr. Chichester also describes three in- stances of Cyclops in mammals, one in a rat, and the third in a man. The man had an hour glass eye in the center of his forehead. The rat had no external or internal indications of an eye; the pig had no eye-ball nor lens, but had three lids, the two upper ones being fused almost completely. Neither the pig nor the rat had a proboscis. Obviously, monsters and freaks are now in a fair way to be explained with- out cursing nature for a visitation, which is experimentally traceable to human ignorance, accidents, disasters, and the circumstances that interfere with the natural gravitation of living things toward an even keel, a symmetri- cal development and the stability of health and a balanced figure. Maude, the Motor Mule, on Our Cover " AUDE, the Motor Mule,” whose portrait appears on this month’s cover, is an automobile which has been performing the latest dances upon vari- ous racetracks over the country. Before the racers commence their whirlwind cir- cling of the speedways, the band plays a tango or a one-step, and “Maude” ap- pears upon the track, rearing upon two wheels and cavorting to the tempo of the music. A photograph and a brief article were reproduced in the December PopurLar ScIENCE MonrtHLY, but a few addition- al details of “Maude’s” way of working will be interesting here. The car was built especially for exhibition purposes. Running beneath the body is a small track upon which moves a heavy weight. Another weight is fixed on the overhang behind the rear axle. When the driver, Roy Repp, pulls a lever, the heavy 87 weight beneath the car moves forward or back as desired, the center of gravity is upset, and the car, suddenly stopped or slowed down, rears up on its hind wheels. The counterweights are so del- icate that the car may be run while bal- ancing upon the rear wheels, as shown on the cover. Fach of the rear wheels is fitted with a separate brake. When one of these brakes is engaged the wheel is locked, and the differential gear drives the op- posite wheel alone, causing the car to swing. By means of these independent brakes the car may be made to wheel and dance in time to the music. Six hundred pounds of almost pure silver Nature’s Horde of Solid Silver. ECENT development at some of’ the mines of the Cobalt district of Ontario, Canada, has resulted in the production of more of the wonderfully rich silver ores for which the camp was famous during the days of its first working. At the Temiskaming mine there has been found some rock which makes a special record for high value. The six hundred pound slab shown assays about ten thousand ounces of silver per ton, being therefore about one-third pure silver. There is no gold in the ore, that being one of the general peculiarities of the ores of the Cobalt district.

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£8 A Real Sultan’s Strange Body-Guard F Eastern monarchs none retain such a strange and picturesque bodyguard as the Sultan of Dyokja, one of Java’s few remaining native rulers. Surrounded by -hordes of strangely uniformed retainers, consist- ing of soldiers, musicians, singers, dancers, bearers of the royal fan and umbrella, pipe, and betel-box, his court presents an extraordinary spectacle, re- calling a comic opera on a colossal scale. Popular Science Monthly The time to visit this court is dur- ing one of the many native festivals. Then one may witness a sight which for Oriental pomp and grandeur and startling effect has certainly no equal. On that occasion the troops appear in the weirdest of costumes. There are uniforms of every shade and color—black, white, blue, pink, and green—uniforms made up of several colors, striped uniforms, and uniforms enriched with gold lace and other trim- mings. Some take the form of tightly- The general of the Sultan of Dyokja’s army |e ‘ \ " vst hi! uf lh at ‘as Ny wl rey me | { The sultan of Dyokja, in Java, maintains a court which must be the envy of the comic opera librettists. The uniforms are all queer, and the etiquette is individual and very Javanese, especially in minor matters of oriental deportment

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Popular Science Monthly fitting tunics, others possess a distinct Western cut, while others again wear loose-fitting gowns, reminding one of a lady’s tea gown. The headgear is equally as varied, that of the Sultan’s personal body- guard consisting of a highly embell- ished pyramid shaped hat with a wide brim in front and two laps that fall down over the ears. So far as the weapons are concerned, they are about as varied and wonderful as the uni- forms.’ Some men are armed with long pikes, others with lances, still others with old-fashioned, long-barreled mus- kets bearing ludicrously long bayonets. Was This the Tower of Babel? T is doubtful if there is any place in the world so rich in ancient re- mains as the valley of the Euphrates, in Mesopotamia. The result is that to archaeologists and scholars the place is a veritable “Tom Tiddler’s ground,” and new “finds” are con- stantly being reported. When it is remembered that tradition places the site of the Garden of Eden here, while amongst its many ruins are those of ancient Babylon, the promising nature of the valley to the scientific excava- tor becomes apparent. It is near the ruins of Babylon that we find what many scholars believe to be the remains of the Tower of Babel—an immense cube of. brick 89 A lonely pile, worn by ages of weather fis the world’s only claimant to the honor of being the Tower of Babel work, called by the natives Birs Mimrud. Recent exhaustive examina- tion of the strange pile and its site has revealed the fact that the tower which once stood here consisted of seven stages of brick work on an earthen platform, each stage being of a dif- ferent color. The tower boasted of a base measurement of nearly six hun- dred square feet, and rose to an un- known height. Even to-day the ruins rise some hundred and sixty feet above the level of the surrounding plain. Piles of Walnut Logs for Gun Stocks HIS pile of logs rep- resents about one- fourth of the material needed to fill a large war order received by an. Iowa sawyer. His mill has a capacity of one million gun stocks a year. These walnut logs are valued at. about six- ty thousand dollars, and will make two hundred and fifty thousand gun stocks. Five car loads is the daily capacity. of Here is one reason why walnut furniture is likely to be popular and expensive before long. This pile of American walnut logs is waiting to be cut up into gunstocks for the soldiers of Europe this part of the plant. Each tree is inspected by an agent of the com- pany before it is cut.

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The Death Toll of Our Misspent Aeronautic Appropriation By Eustace L. Adams These officers are asking, ‘“‘Which of us will be next?” tality rate among our Army and Navy aviators is proportionately greater than in the flying corps of any. large nation in the world in times of peace. Death after death among some of the finest officers in the Army and Navy seems to be necessary to shake the officials and people of the country into a realization of facts that have been repeatedly brought to their attention. In the fulfillment of his duties, officer after officer has flown in antiquated and patched-up aeroplanes, knowing that the machine was unsafe and likely to col- lapse at any minute. These young men, splendid types of American manhood, have bravely sacrificed their lives that the United States may at last look the issue squarely in the face. Their death , NHE terrible and increasing mor- seems cruelly necessary to drive home the fact that the Army and Navy must be supplied with sufficient modern aero- planes. As this article is being written, the Army and Navy have, together, twenty machines. Of these twenty, six are in actual flying condition. The rest are out of commission, some temporarily, many permanently. We have now about fifty officer-aviators who are actually capable of flying a machine; yet Montenegro, a nation so small that we seldom hear of it, although it is at present fighting in the World War, has an aeronautical corps of fifty machines, and more than two hundred first-class aviators. Our aeroplanes are, for the most part, hopelessly out of date. They are patched and worn. Some of them are two or three years old. Each officer should have one machine, which he—alone—should fly. If he breaks a part, he should super- vise its repair, and when he takes it into the air again, he should know its condition. As it is, several officers fly the same machine. Students are taught to fly in it, and the result is usually much breakage. Everyone or no one super- vises the repairs. Consequently the of- ficer who is called upon to fly never knows the exact condition of his machine.

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Popular Science Monthly “Another Army Aviator Killed’— how often we see that headline. It must not be supposed that these men are killed while attempting to perform circus feats, such as looping-the-loop. Despite many newspaper reports to the contrary, they are usually killed during the performance of their duty—nothing more. What effect has all this on our aero- nautical corps? The officers of the Army and Navy, detailed to aeronautical work, are dissatisfied and disappointed, but still hopeful. Some of them, who have seen too many of their brother officers and friends crash to their death, have voiced their opinions. One officer is now being court-martialled for refusing to fly ma- chines which he knew were unsafe. At the last session of Congress, one million dollars was appropriated for aero- nautics. But, is the outiook better? Will new machines be bought, a permanent foundation built for the fleet of aero- planes that the United States must and

91 eventually will have? How was this needed appropriation spent? <A _ few machines were bought, and a few more may be ordered. Although aeroplanes cost slightly more than a good automo- bile, we have little to show for the ap- propriation in the way of flying machines. An aeronautic base de luxe was built at Pensacola, Florida. This station con- sists of a navy yard and a naval reserva- tion, containing two villages, the civilian population of which totals one thousand and sixty-nine people. As this station is as large as some of the large navy yards in full operation throughout the country, many of the officers who had been de- tailed for flying service were assigned to administrative and executive duty in order to keep up and maintain this ex- pensive plant. All this for half a dozen seroplanes of doubtful worth and a new and costly dirigible of an antiquated type! Fine for the people of Florida, but

-

fed aks

Landing stage at the Pensacola aero base. Many of these fine appearing machines are antiquated and unsafe, fit only for the junk-heap

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92 expensive in the lives of many splendid young men. What is the remedy for this shocking condition? During the present session of Congress there must be an appropriation which will insure the purchase of a great number of new machines. When we have at least five hundred machines as a start in the right direction, then, and not until then, will the Pensacola Aeronau- tical Station be of real benefit and be worth the money that has been spent on it. With the requisite number of efficient aeroplanes, and money enough to main- tain flying schools, the aviators of our Army and Navy will have to confront only the ordinary dangers incidental to flying, which they are ready and willing to face. Photographs of the War HE photography of the war has been, until recently, one of the great disappointments of modern jour- nalism. In the first months of the great conflict, few pictures of any real interest filtered through the hands of the censors, but since the beginning of the second year, American photographers have man- aged to find their way to the fronts and have taken pictures which while inocu- ous in the eyes of the censor, had that striking news value which has made American journalistic enterprise the cri- terion of the world. In the first rank of these photogra- phers is Albert K. Dawson, of Brown & Dawson, Stamford, Conn., whose picture of a German 42-centimeter cell which pierced the walls of a Przemysl fort but failed to explode, is one of the most striking war photographs to reach this country. This photograph, which as pub- lished in our November issue, was mis- takenly credited to Underwood and Un- derwood, but the credit of the achieve- ment should go to Brown & Dawson, who copyrighted the picture. Hearing the Stones on a River’s Bed MICROPHONE installed in a sounding lead is used in taking soundings to determine the character of the Ohio river bed. An armored cable Popular Science Monthly leads from the microphone to the traw- ler, terminating in a telephone receiver and dry batteries. The ship is propelled at a rate of from two to six miles an hour. When the sounding lead drags over the mud bottom, a dull groaning sound is heard in the receivers, while a stony or pebbly bottom will cause a se- ries of sharp, staccato raps. Brightening the Baby’s Path RANK PEIRCE, of Edwardsville, Ill., an electrical experimenter, de- vised a way of lighting the path for his baby’s buggy. He thought of the plan when the baby objected to riding An electric light in the hood of his carriage brightens this baby’s way at night or in the evening dusk in the dark and being jolted about be- cause of striking unseen objects. The light and reflector of a flashlamp are arranged in the top, a four-volt light be- ing used and giving about sixty candle- power. It is connected with two dry cells in the bottom of the baby carriage, under the seat. The light throws a ray fifteen to twenty feet ahead of the buggy. It may be easily adjusted to xeep the rays from the child’s eyes at all times. A plug and socket arranged in an incon- spicuous place is used to light and shut off the current.

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y Popular Science Monthly A Gasoline Field Kitchen MONG the useful and interesting devices of which the origin is di- rectly traceable to the war, the automo- pile field kitchen in the illustrations is one that is made necessary by the swift- ness with which armies in the field are transported and by the promptness with ¢ which these armies must be supplied with food. In this field kitchen the army cook raises the canopy on the rear end. Behold! A kitchen of the most ~~ weoerelCUt rey ww compact, yet of the most complete kind, is revealed. Four high-pressure burners furnish i 93 The Longest Pipe Line in America One of the greatest pipe-laying proj- ects ever brought to a successful conclu- sion in the western part of this country, and possibly in this entire land, was the laying of one hundred and fifty-three miles of eight-inch steel pipe from the Midway oil fields to Vernon, California, at the expense of three million, five hun- dred thousand dollars. This line has a daily capacity of between twenty and thirty thousand barrels of oil and rep- resents capital of three nations. The actual route of the pipe line is as follows: Beginning at Pentland and passing through the southern part of the Midway district, the line enters the Tejon pass. After leaving the pass its course lies through the Castaic country, then through the Newhall tunnel and the San Fernando valley, until it meets the Santa Fe tracks. The army—and the circus—field kitchen, sprawling over rods of ground, and using its coal out of a load dumped hastily in a pile, is a thing of the past. The modern equip- ment travels by automobile, and its stoves are all inside, fed by gas at high pressure the heat ; cleverly concealed pumps force water from the fifty-gallon tank in front of the car to the enamelled sink in the kitchen; and a variety of uten- sils, such as jugs, plates, meat-choppers and fish-slicers are provided for the rap- id and clean preparation of food. Like most modern kitchens, too, this one boasts of ventilators, both at the sides : and in the roof of the car. Indeed, it would seem as if the English firm which invented this motor-kitchen simply made a practical, miniature edition of a most approved and modern type of hotel kitchen. =—_ we Thence it proceeds to Vernon, where there is a double topping plant capable of treating about twenty thousand bar- rels a day, and finally on to the sea. Along the route there are eleven high- pressure and one low-pressure pumping stations, and beside these there are three chief storage stations and two loading stations. One of the storage stations, consisting of four fifty-five thousand-bar- rel tanks, is at Pentland, another made up of the same number of tanks is at San Fernando, and a third, consisting of six fifty-five thousand-barrel tanks, is beside the ocean.

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The electric target of steel is shown on the right. The bulls-eye is black and the outer circles are set behind it, in lapping arc-shaped leaves. When a shot hits, an electrical contact is closed and indica- tors show automatically the exact section of the target where the shot struck thus rendering it unnecessary to post men at the target to sig- nal back the hits Seeing Your ‘‘Hits’? Half a Mile Away f -3 As each shot is fired, the elec- tric contact registers, and the marksman can see at once not only in what ring he struck, but whether it was to the right, left, above or below the bulls-eye, so that he can cor- rect his range or his aim to suit. The interest which is thus. aroused and the __ greater advantage to the marksman in knowing exactly the direc- ae tanemnnatcte:itetreengeet ~oreteeenoneeemttanemneneeeeteteecemani , oe enemas \ tion in which he was “‘off’? make the new target ex- \ ceptionally valu- . able in training marksmen

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Re en | Saving Steps at N electrical target that signals the exact accuracy of the marksman to an indicator on the firing line has been installed on the shooting range of the United States marines at San Francis- co, Calif. The method of signaling the accuracy of shots which is now employed on nearly all government ranges is not at all satisfactory, as it is difficult to con- vey to the man on the firing line the explicit information of the closeness of his shot to the bull’s eye. An elaborate system of flag and disc signalling is usually employed. This re- quires, at least on the long distance ranges, the use of field glasses. When the marksman fires a shot at a target, the “spotter” in the distant pit lowers the target and raises a signal to denote the numerical accuracy. A white disc denotes a bull’s eye; a red flag, a miss, with other emblems to denote whether the bullet pierced ring No. 4, 3 or 2. This procedure requires a large corps of men both in the pits as spotters, and on the range behind the individual marksman, as scorers. Moreover, it is confusing, and there is no satisfactory way of signalling whether the bullet which missed the bull’s eye went too far to the left or right; too high, or too low. The electrical target, as it is called, corrects a great many of these faults, although its installation cost is consider- ably higher. In appearance, it resembles a number of large ventilating fans su- perimposed one upon the other, each one smaller than the one beneath it. The bull’s eye is a thick metal disc, painted black, which extends in front, of the blades. Steel plate is used in the con- struction. Behind the plates are elec- tric contacts. . On the firing line is an electric indi- cator, which, in design, is a replica of the target. Each leaf of the target ‘is represented by a miniature electric lamp on the indicator. When a bullet strikes one of the blades of the target, the con- tact made closes an electrical circuit con- Target Practice sisting of batteries, a cable to the in- dicator and one of the lights on the in- dicator. The action is immediate, the marksman knowing instantly not only his score but the exact place on the tar- get where the bullet struck, so that he can adjust his rifle sights to conform with wind and temperature conditions. The target and indicator are marked to resemble a clock face, following a long established practice on rifle ranges. The enormous electric flat-iron float has taken its place as an important feature of all civic parades An Electric Flat Iron Float. FLOAT that was conceded to be among the best of the one hundred and seventeen in a recent parade held by the business men of Liberty, N. Y., was a representation of a popular electric iron. It was mounted on a small run- about. Following the business men’s parade, the Firemen of Liberty held a parade and the “Iron” float was selected for participation as one of the best decorated in the previous event. Realizing the advertising advantage, the company which made the float has had it mounted on the roof of the power house where it can be seen from. all parts of the city. The February Popular Science Monthly will be on sale Saturday, January fifteenth (West of Denver on Thursday, January twentieth). 95

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way to wash clothing was to carry it to the riverside and sop it up and down and rub it upon stones, there was good reason for calling the first work day of the week-blue or drab or even black. To-day, however, fortunate home laundresses have at their disposal excel- lent mechanical helpers. The pity of it .. the good old days when the only Monday Mechanics Can she see the washboard? No; it has sunk out of sight because the tubs are too deep. a A third fault is that the tubs are poorly lighted. Number four is that the tubs are against a wall and also in a corner, accessible from too few points. The only artificial light is a single electric bulb, a sixteen candle-power car: The amount of energy used in running a hand washer is as dis- heartening as it is unnecessary is, that these helpers fall far short of the mark because of lack of knowledge upon the part of women of how to operate them efficiently and because of really blame-worthy _ stupidity upon the part of the men who design and install the equipment. For instance, notice the upper right- hand photograph, taken in the “conve- nient” laundry of an ordinary home. It is not an isolated instance. There are hundreds like it in other houses and apartment buildings. The bottoms of the set tubs are but fourteen inches above the floor. The average height for women is five feet four inches. 96 Above, the back-breaking hand tubs found in most houses. Below, the electric washer which pays for itselt before it begins to wear out bon, hung near the ceiling in the center of a very large basement room. Then the water inlets are flush with the back of the tub, so it is not feasible to attach a

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er he of Popular Science Monthly hose for filling either the wash boiler or a washing machine. This means the arduous carrying of water in buckets. The remedy is a complete change. The tubs should be out in the room instead of in a corner. There should be more window lighting and a stronger lamp located above the tubs. The laundry trays themselves should be shallower in form and their bases six or eight inches higher. There should be faucets suitable for hose at- tachment and set high above the rim of the tubs to be out of the way of the washing. The laundry stove should adjoin the tubs at their left, so that the boiled clothes can be lifted directly into the rinse tub, for the washing .processes are usual- ly rounted from left to right. If a wash- ing machine is used, however, it may be desirable to give this location to it. The best location for a washer depends upon the type of the machine and upon the style of wringer, if it be stationary or sliding or swinging. If one uses portable tubs the bench should be slightly higher than is usual, the exact height being deter- mined by individual experiment. Twenty-four inches is right if the tubs are for rinsing only. If one uses a wash- board, twenty to twenty-two inches is preferable. Galvanized iron is better than wood because it is much lighter to handle and because wooden tubs shrink and leak if not used for a period. When washing in the kitchen it is well to have an elastic mat to stand upon, for this lessens weariness. If a cement floored basement is used a little slatted framework of laths is good to stand upon not only to save weariness but also to keep the feet dry and warm. If one can possibly afford it a washer is to be substituted for the back-breaking washboard. A hand pow- er washer entails as much wearisome work as hand rubbing. Test it by at- taching a spring-balance to the lever of a hand power washer filled with wa- ter and clothes. Pull on the balance in- stead of direct on the lever. The han- dle moves through an arc of twenty- eight inches and the pull is twenty pounds as the balance will show. Mul- 97 tiplying two and one-third feet (the arc of movement) by twenty (the pounds of pull) you get forty-six and two-thirds foot-pounds of work for every stroke of the handle. The average is thirty strokes per minute. This means four- teen hundred foot-pounds every minute. An ordinary washing is seldom less than three fillings of the machine at ten minutes per filling. The real advantages of a washer are that scalding, sterilizing water can be used and the boiling process can be omitted, and that the application of power can be taken from weary woman’s back and arms and tranferred to the stronger muscles of a man, or to me- chanical power. Some form of power washer is what every home laundress deserves. The cheapest is water power and this is available only in cities where there is unlimited water under high pressure. These do not have a motor wringer. The woman of the farm or village can attach her hand power washer adding the proper wheel to carry a belt, to the farm gasoline or oil engine. This, too, means wringing with a wringer turned by hand. For twenty dollars to thirty-five dollars a splendid power washer is available with an at- tached, motor-driven wringer. The higher priced ones have also a wash bench. The power wringers are stationary, swinging or sliding. The city woman can have that best of all servants, electricity. A one-sixth horse power motor can be attached by a belt to a hand-power washer. This is shown in a photograph on the foregoing page. Machine, motor and accessories, without wringer,cost twenty-eight dollars. For forty-five dollars to one hun- dred dollars one can get excellent elec- tric washers with power wringers in- cluded and the saving of woman- power for higher uses will justify the investment. The cost of current is very small, usually two to four cents an hour. A fifty dollar washer should last at least ten years, which is five dollars a year for depreciation. Count- ing interest on the investment of fifty dollars this is three dollars yearly. Current cost varies but ten cents a week, a generous allowance.

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‘Motor Car Bodies of 1916— Good and Bad By John Jay Ide HE average American automobile manufacturer has finally grasped some of the essentials of stream- line form as far as open bodies are con- cerned. There are now only a few mak- ers who cling to such features as the wide radiator, straight-sided hood and bulging cowl, low body sides affording little protection to the occupants, and upholstery protuding above the top rail. Of the cars offending in the respects mentioned several are splendid produc- tions mechanically. One would think that the makers would be ashamed to mount coachwork of such antiquated de- sign on their chassis. Fortunately, these are extreme cases; the average body is a credit to the Amer- ican industry. Strange to say, some of the cheaper cars are better looking than their higher priced competitors, although the palm for beauty must be awarded to a fairly expensive machine produced in Ohio. The builders of this car intro- duced the double cowl into stock body design last year and its effect may be seen in the number of double cowl bod- ies offered to the public for 1916. In fact, this type bids fair to become more popular than the body with an aisle be- tween the front seats. In this connec- tion it may be remarked that in Decem- ber, 1912, the writer designed what is believed to be the first double cowl body mounted on an American chassis. A photograph of the car is shown on this page. Among the features adopted on some 1916 cars is the “concealed” door, having no mouldings around it. As the hinges are not exposed, the streamline effect is heightened, but, unless the workmanship is very good, the joint between the door and body widens so that in time the door is concealed only in name. For years the windshield of the aver- A sporting type body designed by the author. Notice the high sides, pointed wind- shield, concealed top and disk wheels. In insert, above, a double cowl body designed by the writer in December, 1912. The two rear seats are divided by an arm

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Popular Science Monthly age American was distinguished by mas- sive stay rods, attached to the frame and fairly successfully blocking access to the motor. Now, however, except in one or two cars it is made strong enough to stand alone. Many screens appear to have been attached to the body as an afterthought. This is the result of fit- ting ready made shields instead of de- signing them at the same time as the bodies. The ugly filler board at the base of the windshield is not considered as _ indis- pensable as formerly, but one well-known car continues it in the guise of a venti- lator. On some machines the sides of the screens curve in at the bottom. ‘This is not only ungraceful, but also ineffi- cient, as the front seat occupants are not so well protected as they would be if the screen was its full width at the base. The slanting windshield was introduced last year, but has not yet been much copied. Auxiliary seats, instead of folding against the side of the car, now often disappear into recesses behind the front seats. The double cowl lends itself well to this construction. Most cars have crowned mudguards but a few are equipped with the more advanced domed type. Domed guards not only look better, but also can be moulded in one piece with the aprons, thus. removing a possible source of squeaking. Many mudguards are not carried far enough down behind the rear wheels to protect the spare tires or trunk from mud. Also, the clearance be- tween top of the wheels and the guards is often absurdly great, even when the car is fully loaded. The detachable top for winter use was brought out last year and is now sup- plied by a number of makers. It gives some of the advantages of a sedan for a few hundred dollars. A bad feature is the impossibility of opening any win- dows except those in the doors. Very rarely does a detachable top look any- thing but what it is. The veriest novice would not be deceived. In the average American car the top of the frame is about twenty-six inches above the ground and the running board is eighteen inches. And yet the manufac- turer wonders why he cannot obtain that This body builds up too much towards rear. Frame andrunning boards are too high. Exposed upholstery and wind- shield stay rods are relics of the past Height is too great. Windows when lowered clear down, are little more than half way. Curved door top breaks sweep of roof. In spite of these de- merits the appearance is good Fine, large rear side lights. Windows open only partially. Handle of front door should be concealed as it is not on level with the rear one Clearance between front of rear whee and mudguard is insufficient. Rear deck terminates ungracefully. Other- wise the car is successful

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Wheelbase is too short. Front seat with its imitation of a double cowl cuts down effective opening of rear door. Back mudguards poorly designed Radiator too low, requiring excessive taper of hood. Clearance of rear wheels and mudguards is enormous, emphasiz- ed by light colored undersides of guards Compare mudguard clearance of this with above. Hood, with low joint and slanting vents, is the least successful part of design If folded top were lowered, spare wheel moved forward and rear hinges con- « cealed, it would be handsome despite ugly radiator Popular Science Monthly much-admired low-hung appearance, typical of the foreign car. Some day he will realize that sufficient ground clear- ance can be obtained with frames well under two feet high. The unnecessary frame height is par- tially responsible for the ponderous ap- pearance of many of our closed cars. Some limousines are actually between seven and eight feet high. There is no excuse for this even in a seven-passen- ger body where lack of foot room re- quires high seats. The most glaring fault in closed body design is the impossibility of lowering the windows all the way. With a rear seat accommodating three people it is ad- mittedly difficult to drop the rear side light completely owing to the wheel hous- ings. English coachmakers have ac- complished this by curving the window slots. Why the door lights should not drop remains a mystery. Owing to the fact that many motor car owners are dissatisfied with the ap- pearance and comfort of stock models, there has arisen a demand for custom made bodies. The only way of obtain- ing collapsible bodies of the phaeton, landaulet and double cabriolet types, ex- cept on one or two chassis, is to have them made to order. If these bodies were brought out as standard models they would prove extremely popular. That is, granting that they were well made, as nothing is more exasperating than a.collapsible body which rattles. In conclusion the writer may be per- mitted to describe a sporting body which incorporates some novel points- in de- sign. As seen on page 98, the sides are very high, properly protecting the occu- pants. The plan shows the positions of doors and spare disk wheels. The seats are isolated from the body sides and back, and are adjustable fore and aft and as to inclination. The wind shield is pointed, thus harmonizing with the radiator. The top folds down into a permanent case under which is a larye compartment for luggage. Domed fen- ders are attached to the stub-axles in- stead of the frame, and they follow the movement of the wheels. With this con- struction the fenders and wheels are concentric and the clearance between them is reduced to a minimum.

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_ 3a om id Popular Science Monthly Has advantages of double cowl and aisle types. Hood tapers insufficiently, causing excessive swelling. Apron should extend up to the body A handsome body whose appearance is not improved by mouldings on mud- guards and hood. The extra seats obstruct the doors >. SRR RR Sec neeagG Handsome town landaulet. It can be opened rearward of the door with lit- tle overhang, as the roof over the window swings forward oe ea aia Closed position of stock ‘‘semi-touring”’ body. Almost the only one of its type on the market, but probably one of the important changes of the future Closed position of French double phae- ton landaulet. An extension top (not shown) covers the driver. Taper of hood changed from stock model (above) Open position of double phaeton lan- daulet. Top folds up like an accordeon and glasses in all windows drop com- pletely. Mudzuards very ungraceful Open position of above body. The enormous mass of the top when folded down is unfortunate. Otherwise a most successful design A well designed model. Drive protec- ted by extension top. Windshield is not handsome. Handles of front door are concealed, as they should be coe aiecsahenaiereoes ET ne es ———e

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oe Some of the most beautiful houses in the world are built from stone carved only by the hand of Nature in the mills of the moraines through the grinding of ice-floes century after century cement are used extensively in the West for all kinds of ornamental and utilitarian construction. From orna- mental urns and corner markers to foun- tains, bandstands, bridges and even such large structures as two-story houses, churches and even an observatory, may all be found in California, built of the cobbles that are removed in clearing. The resulting edifices peeermpeteinley combined with trict. The rounded stones merely en- cumber the ground and most owners are willing to help pay for their removal to a building site. In the citrus section may be found an observatory in the grounds of Pomona College, which is a splendid bit of archi- tecture. Near by is one of the most attractive homes in the West, a great rambling bungalow of field stones, are of remarkably artis- tic appearance. The econ- omy of this type of build- ing is well shown by the fact that in the citrus belt near Los Angeles thou- sands of tons of cobble- stones are dug up by the Hindu laborers and piled in great heaps between the groves. These cob- ble piles are often fifteen feet high and twenty feet broad, and extend for many rods between the cleared fields. They are literally cheaper than dirt. It is but natural that which has for its main interior feature a_ sun parlor or glass-roofed pa- tio. This is a most at- tractive detail of a charm- ing home, with ferns and flowers growing as in a conservatory, but in a temperature suited for its use as a general living room. In Azuza may be found a decidedly artistic cob- blestone church, with only a few roughly- squared stones used in connection with the nat- ural shaped boulders and many of the best speci- mens of cobble construc- Boulders and cobblestones always make attractive flow- field stones. San Diego has two large two-story tion are found in that dis- er-urns houses formed of. this 102

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1- rs al id b- y- in it- id Xe) ry ‘is Popular Science Monthly material, and the suggestion of perma- nence as well as rustic charm is made by the utilization of the big pebbles. In the larger cities there are count- less specimens of public as well as pri- vate construction formed of this rough- and-ready material. The parks contain splendid examples of the 103 Staircases and culverts are frequently built of this material, to good advantage, while chimneys, flower boxes, supports for pillars and verandas are found to be attractive when formed of rough stones and used in conjunction with frame or brick construction. decorative possibilities of cobblestones. The bridge in Ganesha Park is far more in keeping with its surroundings of trees and shrubs than a more formal structure would be, and this applies to the bandstand in the same park and to the drinking fountain in Eastlake Park, Los Angeles. In Glendale may be found lamp posts of cob- bles. Great masses of rough stone surmounted 3 by graceful electroliers en make lighting standards oie that harmonize with the Among the strictly util- itarian buildings made of this cheap but satisfac- tory material may be mentioned barns, gar- ages and even pumping stations, such as house the machinery for elec- trically operated irrigat- ing apparatus in Califor- nia. They are far more durable than the wood or metal so frequently used, and form an attractive detail in a well-kept coun- try home, instead of be- ing an eyesore. Perhaps the most re- markable bit of cobble- homes which surround them, and in some in- stances they are used as well for resting places at the street cor- ners, with rustic benches and drinking fountains enclosed in the massive walls. Hollywood makes use of an unusual form of corner marker, a tall cylinder of cob- bles topped by a sphere, and in this is a socket to carry flag poles for festive oc- casions. This is one of the most difficult types of cobble construction shown, though by no means the most artistic. Nothing gives a finer touch to a bungalow than an out- side chimney of cobblestones stone construction is an exceedingly light and graceful triple arch in the town of Huntington Park. This consists of two seven-foot arches spanning the path to the house from the street, while a third arch rests upon the other two, springing lightly from the crest of each and extending over the sidewalk. This is the pride of the owner, who has surrounded his grounds with extensive walls and flower urns of the same building material, found on his own place. ; : a ee . ‘ ‘ : es OER. te”. 2k a 2a pis ik This simple but interesting barn owes most of its charm to its cobblestones Even churches gain a new dignity when fashioned from boulders SEIN I LE SOS NOC

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Electric Heater Resembles _. Desk Telephone MONG the new electric heating de- vices being brought out is one which looks like a desk telephone. It consists of a round, transmitter-like de- vice, about six inches in diameter, con- taining the usual electric coils, and with a cage in front. This is mounted on the side near the top of a standard such as is used for the electric fan. The heater is supplied with eight feet of cord so that it may be moved around and placed either on the floor or on a table. It is made in two styles; one having two heating units, and the other having but one. The latter, of course, is less expensive to buy and uses less current. The double unit one, however, gives off sufficient heat to warm a room of considerable size. This heater can be used not only to heat a room but can be placed in such a position that it will warm the feet only. Adapting Tire Inflation to the Load ALIPERS have been devised for measuring air pressure in automobile tires in relation to the load carried. A touring party before starting on a trip may use the new tool to establish correct This new tool, with its corresponding tables, practically eliminates the dan- gor of blowouts due to over-inflation with a heavy load. The driver with his scale can quickly find how wide his tires should be to ride properly, and with this scale-can find how much be- low or above the proper pressure they are Poputar Science Monthly A desk heater which radiates its comfort to the spot where it is wanted, and is still an attractive bit of furniture pressure in thestires for the load of peo- ple and trunks, and by keeping this pressure constant tires may be greatly economized. The device is simple, small and compact, and may be used in a few sec- onds. The tool has a size scale and a load scale. The size of the tire at the top is measured on the size scale, and the slide moved along to the same size on the load scale. The tool is then placed over the bottom of the wheel, and if it fits easily over the tire the pressure is correct. If it does not fit, the tire is inflated or deflated to the correct point. Blowouts can usually be traced to faulty in- flation, so this tool can be expected to pay for itself.

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dy re ye 1e ill Ly Ze le. at on he he ad en m re ct. ire ly n- an or Popular Science Monthly A Hog-Pen That Counts Hogs DOOR for a hog-house that will admit only a_predeter- mined number of animals has been invented bya Wisconsin farm- er. On many stock-farms where there are a number of animal houses difficulty often arises when hogs endeavor to fre- quent one house instead of apportioning their numbers to the various shelters. This difficulty is overcome by the inven- tion of a door which will admit a certain number of animals, and then no more. The door is hinged at the top. A lever communicating with a rachet above the door slips down one notch on the rachet every time the door is opened. When the last spur of the rachet is reached, the door cannot be opened. Erasing Attachment for Typewriters ee A" erasing at- La tachment for typewriters has been brought out which does away with the time- worn practice of searching for a lost eraser when a typographical mistake is made. A key projects from the body of the typewrit- er, resembling the tabular key, back spacer, and similar refinements which have found their way into typewriter structure in recent years. Pressing the key operates a series of levers and arms which terminate in a rubber eraser, and rub it upwards and downwards on the paper, so that the particular error is re- moved. Although an erasing attach- ment of this kind would hardly prove suitable for business correspondence, it would probably find a wide field in news- paper or other offices where absolute neatness in typewritten matter is not so essential. neal 105 Soda Fountain in a Suitcase SODA foun- tain which can be carried with reasonable ease is the subject of a patent of in- terest to the men who make a liv- ing selling palat- able beverages on the sidewalk. One of the ingenious features of this invention is that no one would ever suspect that the innocent appearing hand case is real- ly a soda fountain. The case contains two separate compartments, in one of which the carbonated water is contained, and in the other, the glasses and various syrups. An inconspicuous faucet pro- jects from the soda water tank for the purpose of replenishing the supply. A Finger-Knife for Egyptian Corn HERE has recently been patented a new style of knife or cutter for harvest- ing Egyptian, Broom, Milo Corn and similar grains. It is now in use in Cali- fornia. The knife is strapped to the hand as shown in the illustration. When the stalk is grasped the fingers naturally close and off goes the head of grain. to be tossed into a wagon or bin immediately. The implement is very sharp and strong, so that it will cut practically any size stalk which will enter between the knife and guard. With an instrument on each hand a person can do twice as much work, thus saving half the cost of harvesting the crop. Before this invention appeared a cutter had to hold the stalk with one hand and cut it off with a knife in the other. It is now possible to cut the heads off the grain as fast as the hands can be opened and closed. The blade is) the part between the fingers, the dull back of the knife blade protruding rearwardly through the fin- gers and being held there solid by a small leather strap around the two cen- ter fingers. pea a]

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This baby’s bath is soft and safe—and he can splash safely A Tub Within a Tub for the Baby IS MAJESTY, THE BABY, can have a royal bath every morning in a soft little tub designed to fit inside the large tub of his elders, A seamless, waterproof fabric is supported by a rigid frame across the top of the regular bath- tub. The small tub is located at the front of the frame, so that the nurse need not reach across it. The fabric goes over the bars to make a soft bump- er, and it can be removed easily and laid flat-for cleansing. When not in use the frame can be hung upon a hook on the bathroom wall. Preventing the Clogging of the Sink NEW sanitary device is installed in many of the new homes and apartment houses, in Los Angeles, Cali- fornia. It does away with the danger of This strainer is built into the sink itself Popular Science Monthly having clogged drain pipes in the kitchen. The device consists of a removable pail with a fine strainer trap in the bottom. The enamel sink is constructed so as to receive this pail, which fits snugly into place, leaving no room for bits of food to collect. The dishes are rinsed off under the faucet, and all the scraps go into this receptacle. As the strainer is finer than in the usual type of sink, all the small particles are caught in the trap and do not flow into the drain pipes. The strainer is removable so that all the grease which has been retained in the trap can be cleaned off. A Saucepan Which Is Also a Strainer SAUCEPAN which may also be used as a strainer is one of the lat- est additions to kitchen equipment. Pour- ing boiling water from a saucepan and holding the cover on to avoid losing some of the vegetables is always dangerous. The new saucepan has a strainer equip- ped with a rim on the pouring side of the No need to scald fingers in draining vegetables from this saucepan kettle in which holes have been punched. In use, the cover is removed, the pan picked up by the handle, and the water poured out. The rim prevents the food from spilling, but allows the water to run. The pan is especially useful for boil- ing potatoes in their jackets, since the operation can be accomplished so quickly that when the cover is put back, enough steam is retained to burst the jackets. The main qualification of the new sauce- pan, is that the housewife is less likely to burn her hands than with the ordinary utensil.

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wT feeeve WT =v OF ” ‘5 ome Me Cy Sev ie ss Sw a) a Popular Science Monthly A Tea Kettle Which Does Not Burn a SAFETY- first tea ket- kettle has only re- cently been placed on the market. It may be filled un- der a water fau- cet without the danger of burning the hand with steam. The device, which makes the kettle safe to handle, is a separate filling top, in front of the usual top, and outside the handle. This separate top is manipulated by a pressure of the thumb on a small han- dle. The escaping steam cannot burn the hand, since it rises a couple of inches forward of the handhold. A Garbage Can Which Cannot Spill ARBAGE cans with covers that lock on are es- sential, especially to women in the coun- try, where there are prowling dogs. The one shown has a handle which press- es tightly against.an arch of wire on the lid, holding the cov- er securely on the bucket. It can be re- moved by jerking the handle over one of the humps in the arch. The same principle is applicable to pots and pans for kitchen use. Combining a Brush and a Suction Pump in a Cleaner ROTARY carpet sweep- er and suction cleaner combined is the subject of a patent recently is- sued to a man in Ohio. Heretofore, carpet cleaners Whave been of one a” of two types, the , one employing the rotary brush and the other relying upon an inrush of air. This latter type is the well-known mod- ern vacuum cleaner. In the new inven- tion the revolving brush serves to loosen 107 threads and other clinging objects from the carpet, while the vacuum attachment removes fine dust. Simple Way to C T is no longer f necessary to | waste much time in thoroughly washing vegeta- bles. One of the simplest yet most effective devices for cleansing them quickly is illus- ae fy ee trated herewith. ~~ — It consists merely of a pan the bot- tom of which is covered with a fine wire screen. The pan is suspended from a faucet over the sink. When the water is turned on, the dirt is dis- solved and drained off. The screen-bottomed pan is much more effective than a colander for this use, as the drainage is complete and immediate. A Collapsible Wardrobe PORTABLE wardrobe for protecting garments consists of a canvas covering suspended from a folding =& frame. A rod ex- # tends from front to © back of the frame, | near the top, and from this rod clothes hangers are suspended. A ward- ° robe of this type is desirable in places where a permanent clothes closet is not necessary. Bottle Corks Made From Blood. A NEW process for making the thin cork layers which are used to seal hermetically bottles having metal tops involves the use of blood. Granules of cork are bleached and compressed in turpentine, glycerine and blood, from which the white proteid has been removed. A low heat is first used. After it has dried, the temperature is raised to 240 degrees for one hour. The mass is then pressed in the discs. lean Vegetables ORS ASNT ENE NT eT a a a a trsbaas came pac oi mA

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Here is a meat chopper which opens on the side and has no secret corners ‘ for germs to hide in A Meat Chopper Which Opens Like a Book NEW meat grinder which is easy to clean, opens like a book, leaving no hidden recesses. One of the chief faults of the old grinders was the difh- culty of cleaning them thoroughly. The new one will be a great labor-saver for that reason. The hopper is split in two, and though when closed resembles the ordinary ones, one side when unlocked drops down, leaving the entire hopper and mechanism exposed. The lock is a lever which, when raised, allows the side of the hop- per'to drop. The hinge at the bottom of the food receptacle is merely a steel rod passing through holes in two projections, which turn on the rod, allowing one side of the chopper to drop. A Spanish Lesson in Aeronautics . ‘HE Spanish Government has estab- lished an aviation school which well serves as a model for a similar in- stitution in this country. On the first of October the new Spanish aerodrome about five miles out- side the city limits of Madrid was opened ~ to the public. The Spanish Government assists those receiving instruction. The Popular Science Monthly number of pilots instructed at the same time is twelve, who have to pay ninety- seven dollars and fifty cents to cover cost of fuel, breakage, etc. The fee for mechanicians is but forty-eight cents. The cost of these lessons ought to be well above ours, since most of the ma- chines were brought from this country, and the price of gasoline is more than double what we have to pay. Yet the cost of learning to fly in this country is from three hundred and fifty dollars to five hundred dollars. Ice Cannot Fall Out cf This Water Pitcher - N ice-water pitcher, resembling a coffee-pot, has a top of glass which locks on securely so that water may be poured from it without causing the ice to fall- into the tumbler. The top re- sembles that of certain teapots, for it has little projections which fit into hollows made for them. Hence, when the top is slightly turned the projections are under the ledge at the top of the pitcher, thus locking it fast. Such annoyances as are caused by pieces of ice falling out, flood- ing the tablecloth with water, and fill- ing the tumbler with ice instead of water, are impossible with the new pitcher. In addition the lid is a protection against flies in warm weather. Being made of an- nealed glass, the pitcher will withstand any de- gree of heat. “— The ice cannot fall into the glass when water is poured from the pitcher

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Ss +t a oD OCOD CD mw” Winter Uses for the Electric Fan H= E you ever thought of the vari- ous uses to which the electric fan in your home can be placed other than lowering the temperature and mak- ing it comfort- AU ean aN | \ggi able in the room Al ANT] when the ther- mometer is high | iN Ty { outside? How | ears ‘4 really indispens- pate mt able it is in innu- 5) = — —_ merable ways, a =s5} and how much it does in preserv- ing health in the nome by keeping the rooms cool and fresh? If you have just finished painting a door, wall or window sides, let your elec- tric fan run in the room for two or three hours, and the paint will not only dry faster, but it will be free from the dust that often sticks to wet paint. If you have varnished your floor, place your electric fan so that the air it stirs up will have free access to the wet varnish. Your floor will look brighter than if per- mitted to dry in the usual way. If you have used enamel paint to give your bath- tub a new and bright appear- ance, use your fan to dry the enamel; the sur- face will be much smoother and of Keeping Milk Cool greater firmness. It is a wise plan from the sanitary viewpoint to allow your electric fan to run for at least a quarter of an hour in the bed chamber before you retire. It cools and freshens the air, making the chamber both more comfortable and healthful for the night. Before you work in your office, library or den, let your fan run a half hour. You will not be liable to the slight head- ache, so often felt after a brief time at work in a place where the air is close. Dust cannot accumulate where there is a free circulation of air, especially fresh air, and it is very noticeable that a room Drying Paint in which an electric fan:-is-allowed to run seldom has dust. Since-dtist breeds germs, the prevention of dust=likewise prevents germs. * The electric fan keeps the’ temperatyre of drinkables down. Open a cupboatd in which there are milk, wine, or bever- ages of any kind and allow your electric fan to run immediately in front of it, so that its cooling blast will strike the bottles. The temperature drops rapidly. The electric fan has other offices in the home. The wise housekeeper will place her laundry after its return from the wash for an hour or two where the electric fan can “blow” on it. Any dampness remaining after drying and iron- ing at the laun- dry is removed, any odor of soap~is destroyed, and a fresh sweetness imparted to the linen. Fine linens and laces preserve their whiteness better if dried by the fresh air; artificial hot drying injures expen- sive materials, and in damp weather they cannot be dried properly merely by being suspended in a room where there is little circulation of air. If there is an odor in the room, due to fresh paint, varnish or recent paper- ing, turn on your electric fan and note how soon this odor will dis- appear. This is also true of smells from fur- naces, ovens, or stoves. In the sick room fresh air is of paramount im- portance. A free access of pure air is often the safeguard against those min- istering to the wants of the sick. There is indeed no season of the year in which its usefulness cannot be prov- en, and winter is no exception. Drying the Wash Airing the Sick Room 109 seme 2 GE EN IIe nc ERE SICA

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110 Most important to the shopkeeper is the use of the electric fan in show win- dows to keep the frost off the glass. Un- less some special arrangement is made to secure excellent ventilation of the show window, it will become so heavily coated with frost on cold days that the exhibits cannot be seen from ‘the street. A fan in the window, how- ever, will keep the air circulated so that the moist- ure that tends to gather upon the window will be evaporated. The fan is very useful in aiding the heating system in the home, especially where a hot air system is employed. Every one who has ever tended one of these furnaces knows that it is fre- quently impossible to make the hot air rise through certain pipes when the wind is blowing in the wrong direction. A fan placed direct- ly in front of the register. will draw the hot air through the pipes and heat the room very quickly. The writer knows of a number of cases where the cold air intake pipe is so arranged that a fan may be placed inside, thus increas- ing the circulation of the furnace. Who has not gone to his furnace to find it cheerless and depressed with hardly a spark visible? In such cases the most drastic arrangement of drafts will fail to save the fire, but if there if any life left in the fire pot whatever, a fan placed in front of the lower door will soon have the coal blazing merrily. When the kitchen is filled with smoke from an unruly range an electric fan placed in the window will quickly clear the atmosphere without drawing in a large volume of cold air. Many women use a fan to dry their hair after a shampoo by placing it upon a radiator and sitting in the draught. SRMRR KCL Ow REO eR REAR R! ss 2 2x3 ee tet Re Rd SASS RSW S P raze Clearing a show window Helping heat a room Popular Science Monthly Electric Toaster Eliminates Burnt Fingers O those who have frequently burned their fingers while’ turning over the toast on their electric toaster, the new toaster recently added to the elec- tric devices now on the market will prove an interesting improvement. By turning the knob near the bottom, the frame holding the slice of bread to the heater coil is thrown outward, while wire catches at the bottom trip the toast so that it slides along the frame, browned side down. On turning the knob back The new electric toaster and sketches showing how it turns the toast without picking up with the fingers again, the toast is raised to a vertical position with the fresh side toward the heater. By this ingenious arrangement it is not necessary to touch the toast with the fingers until it is ready for buttering. Don’t Decarbonize Aluminum Pistons WNERS and drivers of automobiles in which the pistons are of alumi- num alloy, should be very careful in us- ing “decarbonization” methods. Unless all experiments are wrong, it is bad pol- icy to use the oxygen-acetylene flame for this purpose. Aluminum oxydizes much more rapidly than iron, under the influ- ence of oxygen, and in the extreme heat of the oxy-acetylene flame still more rapid oxidation is probable. Until exact tests show that the oxidation is not fast enough to worry the motorists, the lat- ter should steer the safe course and use some other method.

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~~ er ee ec i wo fe & If a burglar tries to ‘‘crack”’ this safe he will be blown up by his own 111 metal caps from bottles and tins. The tool is prevented from slipping by an adjustable lock, which can be moved back and forth and made to fit any size can. This lock is composed of a cutting edge fastened to a movable clip. The cutter is adjusted for the can to be opened. It operates on a central pivot as in one of the old-fashioned can openers. Square cans are opened by this tool with a cutting knife of the other type, also arranged so that it cannot slip. A hooking device is attached for removing metal capping corks for bottles. A Feed Hopper for Chickens. FEED hopper for chickens can easily be made by sawing the sides of a laundry soap box as indi- nitroglycerine Foiling the Safe Blower ROOVES are made in the upper edge of the safe door, so that in case nitro-glycerin is poured into the crack of the door, it will flow through these grooves to an element which may be destroyed without injuring the rest of the safe. Upon disintegrating, this element sets free a spring motor mech- anism which operates a rotating hammer. The hammer strikes a succession of blows upon a percussion pin. Thus the nitro-glycerin is exploded prematurely and the successful blowing of the safe is prevented. This Can-opener Cannot Slip NEW can opener, which locks fast so it cannot slip and cut the hand, has been placed on the market. It also opens round or square cans, and removes This new can opener does not cut fingers. It opens bottles as well as cans The slanting front of this hopper is suf- ficient to keep the supply of grain in the screened feed box constant cated. A lidis fastened on the top by hinges, and the feed is poured in at the top. The front slants, which keeps the feed always sliding down as it is taken out of the opening. The open- ing is covered with chicken wire to keep the fowls from stepping into the feed and fouling it. The dotted lines show the original construction of the box. titi cw a

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== ii F Ht 112 Left-handed Watches for Left Handed People WATCH for left-handed people has been invented by a Kalamazoo jeweler, who believes that the left- handed look at things in a “left- handed” fashion. The left-handed watch runs back- ward. The dial is arranged so that the numeral 1 is on the left hand of 12 instead of on the right as in the case of the ordinary watch. The hands also run from right to left instead of in the usual fashion. Mechan- ically, with the exceptions given, the left-handed watch differs very slightly from the ordinary time-piece. The inventor constructed the unusual watch for the benefit of his daughter, who is left-handed. An International Test for Vision HE International Ophthalmic Con- gress at Naples, in order to intro- duce uniformity in methods of measur- ing vision, has adopted the broken ring of Landolt as the Cc O © best possible in- ternational test for visual acute- ness. But as no oO (2) > efforts have been made to use it as cards with test letters are used, it ©) Q QO has had little practical value. However, Dr. Edward Jackson, of Denver, has found that if the broken rings are arranged in a symmetrical group and printed, as here illustrated, on a card that can be turned with any edge uppermost, it constitutes a test independ- ent of a knowledge of letters. The test is placed five meters from the patient. If the direction of the break in the rings is recognized at full distance, full acute- ness of vision is demonstrated. If at four and a half meters, the vision is one- tenth defective, and so on. Popular Science Monthly A Pocket Periscope NE of the interesting inventions which the war in Eu- rope has stimu- lated is a very small, but none the less service- able, pocket peri- scope. The sol- dier, concealed behind an intrenchment, can quickly at- tach this tiny instrument to the barrel of his rifle, to a pole, or to a trench- digging tool, and can readily observe, by means of the two circular mirrors, the movements of his antagonists in the dis- tance without exposing himself. A Trolley for the Stable Lamp HE problem = of carrying an oil lantern while at work in a barn or garage is an old and per- plexing one, but it has been inge- niously solved by an inventor in South Dakota. Instead of depositing the lantern on the floor, on an upturned box, where its light is usually shed to the least advan- tage, he has devised a simple but effective overhead trolley system, A stout wire is extended across the ceiling between braces, and the lantern suspended on a small wheeled truck from it. Non-Rolling Nursing Bottle i? many ba- bies these days are bottle- fed that mothers will be interested to know of a new feeding bottle which is flattened at the sides to prevent its rolling over either when baby is feeding or when the mother is washing the bottle. The ounces are scaled upon one side and the rim of the neck is so sloped that the nipple is easily put on. serene

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* | The Home Craftsman An Extra Drainboard for the Kitchen Sink SUPPLEMENTARY drainboard combined with a handy utensil cabinet can be attached to a kitchen sink which has only one inadequate drain- board. One end of the new drainboard rests upon the edge of the sink, while Ta Fe | 3 sil The extra drainboard and cabinet is easy made and fills a space that is not needed as a rule the other is supported by legs construct- ed as shown in the accompanying draw- ing. Beneath the drainboard, shelves for plates and tinware can be installed and a curtain hung in front of them to improve the appearance. To Lengthen the Life of a Necktie GREAT many people who are users of four-in-hand ties are more or less bothered by the tie’s be- coming useless after it has been worn a few times. Take the wide end of the tie with seam up and lay it flat upon a table. Then thrust in the finger and seize the lining. Take the silk cover in the other hand and pull it over the lin- ing, about half of its length. A hot iron is then run over the lining to straighten it out. To bring back the silk to its original shape is very easy. Lay the tie flat upon a table and pull the silk cover back. very gently. Then after the tie is back to its original shape a hot iron is run over the whole. Wood Box Arrangement Saves Many Steps from the Dining Room HE task of bringing in wood for several stoves, which is supposed to have caused anguish to almost every small boy, can be solved in an ingenious way, provided the woodshed adjoins the house. If a houseowner is _ fortunate enough to have an arrangement of rooms, such as is indicated in the draw- ing, he can save many steps, by the ex- pedient suggested here. At the juncture of the two walls a hole large enough to accommodate a_ kindling wood box should be sawed. The box may or may not be pxovided with lids, as desired. When wood is needed for the stoves in either bata, eo room or kitchen it can be taken from the box. The box can be easily replenished from the woodpile. DINING ROOM wooo SHED - | woop BOx KITCHEN OF Foo How a wood box can be built into a house and connected with the wood shed, so as to save useless walking from room to room 113

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114 : Broom Closet Utilizing Waste Space N a Chicago house book cases are built in around one corner of a living room. At tlie joining of the two cases there is a small waste space, not to be utilized for shelves and covered at the top by a broad shelf which finishes off The corner inside two bookcases can BROOM] BOOK be utilized as a CLOSET] CASE broom closet by cutting a door. Thus a waste cubby-hole is converted into a useful space at a very slight cost BOOK CASE the cases five feet above the floor. As the kitchen is immediately behind the room this little waste “cubby hole” has been “tapped” by a narrow door open- ing into the rear room. It is just large enough to hold the broom and_ dust cloths. A Cheap Septic Tank PERFECT septic tank can be built at a small cost by following the plan here illustrated. A tank six feet long by three feet square (inside measurement), will answer the re- quirements of a family of six people. After digging the hole, and before placing the form, fill the bottom of the hole with 8” of concrete, mixed five to one. Then place the form upon the concrete making sure that there is a space of no less than 8” between the form and the sides of the hole. Set the Popular Science Monthly form so that the top is level; then fill all around with concrete. Tamp the concrete in well, being sure not to use any large stones, as the tank must be water tight. Next comes the top. Cover the form over with boards, leaving a hole in the center sixteen inches square for the manhole. Build a box around this eight inches high. Then cover the top of the tank with concrete, being sure to have it smooth around the hole. The concrete work should all be done at one time, so there will be no seams in the work. For the cover of the manhole make a frame twenty-four inches square and four inches deep; fill this with concrete and let it stand until dry and hard. The cover must be set in cement to insure an air tight joint, for unless the tank is air tight it will not work. After the concrete has set, remove all the forms from the inside. It is best to use a good rich mixture of cement around the inlet and outlet pipes to insure a good tight joint. For A, the inlet, use common four- inch tile, and from B, the outlet, use three-inch tile. The tile may be run toa cesspool or may be branched out in two or three directions and used to irrigate a small garden spot. The tank can.be set underground just far enough to have sufficient dirt over it to make t—4#—41 Manhole ia yl , (“aaa 4 Di Linn eal A a This form of home-made septic tank can be used with success by a family of six people a lawn, as it will not freeze in cold weather. If it is air tight it will not have to be opened after putting in operation. It is a good plan to fill the tank full of water and let it stand a day or two, to be sure that it does not leak, before cementing the cover on.

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A Craftsman Desk Chair By Ralph F. Windoes N: the October issue of POPULAR SciENCE MonTrHLY, the author pre- sented a craftsman desk table. The chair herein described is its companion piece, but it would serve equally as well as a dining or an occasional chair. The mill-bill for this chair is as fol- lows, all pieces to be planed and sand- papered to exact dimensions at the mill. Of course, the lumber should be of the same kind and quality as was purchased for the desk: 2 pes. 1144” x 11%” x 18”.. front legs 2 pes. 11446” x 3% =x 37”.. back legs 6 pes. 344% x 2” x 141”..... rails » pes. 34% x 2” x 1314”. side rails a RL eins seat pes. 4% x 3% x 1414” back slats lm ~_~ l 2 On one of our drawings a detail of the back legs is given. They are cut from the 144” piece, that is, 3’ wide, and should be very carefully laid out and worked up, as they are, in reality the most difficult part of the construc- tion. If the craftsman desires, he may take this drawing with him to the mill, lay out these legs there, and have them sawed out on a bandsaw, which would save a great deal of the

War DEOK CHAIR time and expense; other- wise they must be ripped out of the planks by hand.

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x In smoothing them, plane as far as practical, and “ys spokeshave the balance. “ xe very sure that you keep DETAIL oF the edges square. pata Selecting your working Legs faces — noticing that the back legs are paired and 7 that the mortises are not cut in the same face of -ach—lay out these mor- tises in pencil. Also, lay out the mortises in the front legs and compare the four in their proper posi- tion with réspect to one another. As the tenon de- tail shows, the mortises will be 114” wide, 1” deep, ms

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Elevations, showing dimensions, of the craftsman into it through the side desk chair as the parts come from the mill rails that it rests upon. The 115

Page 114

116 seat must be cut out around the back legs. Clean it up and apply the same finish that was used on the desk table. The seat is covered with leather, pad- ded over curled hair, as the detail shows. First the hair is carefully picked apart, and placed. Then a piece of cloth slightly smaller than the leather is tacked tight over the hair, and finally the leather is placed. It runs under the front and back edges, where common tacks are used, and along the edges on the top it is fastened with gimp tacks. These edges may be turned under, or a piece of gimp braid used under the tacks to cover the cut edges of the leather. As this is the first project of this se- ries that has required the use of leather, a few words on this very interesting ‘ subject will not come amiss. Leather is the skin of any animal that has been tanned and cured. Cloth covered with any substance, and finished in any way is not leather. Thus we differentiate between genuine leather and its imitations. There is no imitation that is better than genuine grain steer or cow hide leather, but there are a number of imita- tions that are better than some split leathers. A question that has been asked in printed matter circulated throughout the country is, “How many hides has a cow?” This question, written by a manufacturer of a leather substitute, was concocted to start the public think- ing upon the subject of split leather. In itself, the question is certainly foolish, but it has undoubtedly accomplished its purpose. If the one hide of a cow were to be tanned and curried, it would be too thick to use for tufting loose cush- ions—in fact, any branch of furniture upholstering. Therefore it is necessary that the leather be split. As to “how many” times it can be split, there is some doubt. One leather manufacturer claims that he is able to split one steer hide into fifty whole parts, each about as thick as a sheet of tissue paper. Of course, such sheets of leather have no commercial value, whatever, but a per- formance such as this would serve to answer the foregoing question. The usual method of splitting a hide, Popular Science Monthly is as follows: First, the “top grain”— the best part of the leather, is removed; second, “special deep buff”—not as ser- viceable as top grain; third, “‘extra split” —used for very cheap leather furniture; and fourth, a “slab” that is left, of un- even thickness—used for inner soles of shoes, etc. This, the usual procedure, varies exceedingly in practice with the different manutacturers and the differ- ent kinds of hides. Comparing these with substitute leathers, we are very much of the opinion that no imitation will ever approach “top grain” in points of beauty, utility, and service. ‘Special deep buff,’ properly grained and enamelled, is, no doubt, much _ better than any imitation now on the market, but this is a debatable question, and we will leave it with the manufacturers to settle. An expensive imitation surpasses “extra split,’ especially for furniture purposes, but the cheaper, thin grades, are not to be recommended for any pur- pose. Of course, the “slab” is of no account for furniture work, and hence we will not consider it. The making of good furniture leather is an interesting process. The green hides come to the leather manufacturer from slaughter houses in a wet salted condition. First the eye holes, nose, lips, ears and leg shanks are trimmed—these trimmings being later sold to manufac- turers of soap greases and glue. The hides are next washed in clear water to remove the salt and dirt, and soften the texture. The fat is now removed from the meat side, and shipped to manufac- turers of neat’s-foot oil. Following this the hides are limed; that is, worked in a lime bath for a number of days in order to dissolve the fatty hair roots which will permit the hair to be easily re- moved. This by-product goes to makers of cushion fillings, etc. Next, the fleshy material remaining on the meat side is scraped off—this being sold for glue stock—and the hides are thoroughly cleansed of all lime and bacteria. Now the hides are ready to be tanned. They are placed upon pivoted frames which are constantly agitated in a weak solution of tan liquor—oak _ bark, usually. Each day the strength of this liquor is increased, until on the eighth day the hide has received sufficient tan-

Page 115

Popular Science Monthly ning to be called leather.” The excess water is now removed, and the skin “stoned,” i. e., rubbed and ironed until the wrinkles are all removed. . Now comes the splitting—the most in- teresting operation to laymen. This is accomplished on a delicately adjusted machine having an endless knife travel- ing between two rolls. The upper, or “gauge” roll, determines the thickness that the leather will be split, while the lower, a “ring’’ roll made 117 all leathers receive a coat of color, usual- ly black, which is their finished surface. If the leather is found to be somewhat stiff, it is softened by rubbing with a cork armboard. After cleaning and measuring, each piece is rolled up ready for the market. It is necessary to emboss all splits, and as this is a mechanical operation, a careful examination of the leather will reveal this repetition of design, while in up of a number of small rolls independent of one another, forces the skin up evenly, so that any irregu- DESK GHAI DETAILS DETAIL OF SEAT larities in the hide are not transmitted into the split. The leather is split, as has ae: already been told. ake After splitting, all hides cern. oF are re-tanned and_ thor- oughly rinsed and scoured. Then follows a bath in a liquor boiled from the. ground leaves of the su- mac tree, which serves to brighten them and make them more pliable. Next the leather is lu- bricated. This process is known as “stuffing” and consists in filling the fibres with a coating of cod oil and other greases. Both sides are treated the case of top grains, and the flesh side only of splits. . | in 1 i] Now the leather is tacked | | { { { t ( nie + upon frames where it is stretched and allowed to dry. After removal from these frames, it is soften- ed, and made ready for the enameling. This consists first of a 19 — BACK LEGS Ht the CF ca ar ee aI me) WV ° i SECTION THROUGH EAT DETAIL OF RAIL TENONS — 4, vIn > aera ema tT Le) | i DETAIL OF SLAT TENONS — number of coats of linseed oil—varying in consistency —which are allowed to dry before re- ceiving the Japan. This also is ap- plied in successive layers, allowing all to harden. Then the leather is taken to the embossing presses, where the attrac- tive crevices are stamped into the splits. The top grains are usually not embossed in this way, as a special method of re- tanning accomplishes this. At this stage Details of construction of craftsman desk chair the best grades, that are not embossed, this repetition of crevices will not be apparent. To clean leather, sponge with warm water softened with borax and rub with an old soft cloth; then rub in a few drops of glycerine and polish with chamois. To extract grease spots, rub softly with flannel dipped in ether.

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118 A Serviceable Hot Water Heater Which Can be Made at Home SERVICEABLE hot water heater can be made in the home, and it will give as satisfactory results as the more expensive ready-made heaters which are directly attached to the boiler. Pipes should be led from the center and

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Cs YPC); The home worker can make the connections and install this heater bottom of the boiler, joining in a U- shaped pipe. Brass unions should be used as joints, being installed at the back of the stove. The water front, or heating unit, consists of the U-pipe, bent in a small enough radius so both sides are in range of the burner. It should be packed in place with fire clay. How a Course Dinner Can be Served Without a Maid CLEVERLY devised china closet is built into the wall between the dining room and kitchen, a long serving counter and the dish-storage shelves above it opening into both rooms. the linen and silver drawers opening into the dining room only. The sink and drainboard are on the kitchen wall ad- joining the cupboard, which makes easy the putting away of dishes after wash- ing. The range is as near as possible on the second adjoining wall, to save steps in dishing up a meal and placing it upon the counter.

Popular Science Monthly The unique feature of the cupboard is that the dining room front of the sery- ing counter is hidden from view, when desired, by three sliding doors. The kitchen face of the counter is uncovered. In serving a meal the housekeeper lays the table with the first, or soup course; places the second, or meat and vegetable course on the counter behind slide B; and the third, or dessert course, behind slide C. Without returning to the kitchen she can later remove the first course and place it on the empty counter behind slide A; remove the waiting second course, which has been concealed by slide B; later, place the soiled dishes of the second course back behind this same slide B; and serve the dessert that is ready behind slide C. When the meal is finished she can put the remains of the dessert back upon the counter at C. In preparing to wash the dishes she finds, upon .reaching the kitchen again, that they are on the counter at her right, as they should be, and she scrapes and piles them upon the drainboard at her left. This makes it possible to route the process of dish cleansing from right to left, which is most efficient.

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DINING ROOM SERVING COUNTER SHELF KITCHEN

A china closet which makes it possible to serve course dinners easily without a maid and can also serve as a pantry

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Popular Science M onthly Connecting Block for Bell Wires HIS connecting block is very handy for joining a number of wires from the same set of batteries, such as spark coils, door bells, light lamps, etc.,

43-52 brass

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C0 botery — As many bells as are wanted can be attached to one set of batteries by this simple connecting block

and as many wires as desired can be add- ed by simply adding more nuts on the bolts. A good idea of it can be ob- tained from the drawing. The base can be made of hard wood such as oak or maple. It has four holes drilled in it. The two nearest the end are for No. 10 wood screws, to fasten it on the wall or table. The other two are for the brass bolts. The bottom of the base where the bolt heads rest, is drilled in about 14” inch with a 14” drill. This is so the base to be level on the bottom when the bolts are inserted. Ink Erasing Blotter AKE an ordinary sheet of blotting paper and steep it several times in a solution of oxalic acid or oxlate potas- sium and dry. While the ink spot is still moist apply the blotter and the ink will be extirely removed. If the ink is dry moisten and apply the blotter. An Electric Alarm Clock HE tall hall clock that is so frequent- ly found in the halls of old-fashioned houses can be readily converted into a very serviceable and effective electric alarm clock without in any way impair- ing the dignity of its appearance. The face of the clock, if mounted on metal, should, as the first step, be removed from the metal and remounted on a wooden back, so as to provide proper insulation. Bore %” holes beside each of the figures

119 as shown in the sketch. Each of these holes should receive a copper rivet long enough to extend 1/16” above the face of the clock. Soldered to the back of each rivet is a copper wire of the kind used in bell wiring. By means of 12 such wires, the rivets in the face of the clock are connected to the contact points on a 12-point switch, which is numbered to correspond to the figures on the dial. A dry battery, concealed in the base of the clock, is connected with the works at one terminal, and to the bell and switch at the other pole. Now solder to the small hand a very fine spring wire so that it will come in contact with the cop- per rivets beside the numbers. To set the alarm, for example, at 6 o’clock, turn the switch handle to the number 6. When the hour hand comes in contact with 6 on the dial, the bell will ring until the switch is turned off, or until the hand has moved away from the contact. By using a pleasant bell, harsh sound- ing effects may be eliminated.

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Page 118

A Fuel Economizer CONSIDERABLE portion of the heat from the ordinary. home tur- nace escapes, by way of the flue-pipe and chimney, into the open air. Conse- quently, if this wasted heat could he diverted into the rooms of the house, less coal would be required; and more heat could be pro- duced from the coal used. The device shown in the illustra- tion, which should be installed with the heating system, con- sists essentially of two pipes of sheet metal, one enclosed within the other. The inner pipe is the flue; and the outer enclos- ing pipe, which should be 4” or 5” larger in diameter ~— than the inner pipe, carries the air from the cellar up along the hot flue pipe. The air enters the outer pipe by way of the opening at A; and as the air rises, it absorbs the heat from the flue. Directly above the floor on each story, a register is installed in this outer pipe; and the hot air, which is ordinari- ly wasted, is thus used to heat the rooms. The outer pipe should be led into the attic, where it terminates, and a ring should be placed over its open end to prevent the entrance of dust and par- ticles of wood into the device. The in- ner pipe, of course, enters the chimney in the usual way. To increase the ef- ficiency of the outer pipe, it is advisable to cover it with a layer of asbestos, which insures the escape of the heat only at the registers on each floor. Helping to Kindle Fire Wood MALL kindling can be fired quickly if the wood is dipped in a hot solution of two quarts of tar and six pounds of resin. When this is cool, fine sawdust and powdered charcoal should be added until a thick consistency is obtained. This mixture should be spread in a layer one inch thick over the kindling wood. ‘should be Popular Science Monthly A Remedy for Sagging Doors HE ten- dency of heavy swinging garage or barn doors to sag can be rectified by proper bracing. Two 14” iron rods are fitted diagonally in- side the doors from the lower outer corner to the hinge in each upper corner. The rods are bent in the shape of an eye at one end and threaded at the other. The eye is bolted to the hinge while the threaded end is passed through the flange of an L-shaped iren cleat held down by alug. A nut which holds the rod in the cleat serves as a turnbuckle for raising the door to its original position. Pouring from Lipless Jars IQUIDS are likely to be spilled when pouring from a vessel that has no lip. If aglass rod is held against the rim it conducts the liquid where it is required and with care not a drop need be lost. Waste Heat Warms Water HE wasted heat froma small gas heater can be put to work, warming water for house- hold use. A small stove pipe led from the top of the heater and underneath a hot water tank placed in a horizontal position. A section of eaves trough to cover the pipe in its contact with the tank will save much heat.

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Popular Science Monthly Hints on Running the Home Furnace O get the best heat at the lowest cost and with the least expenditure of time and labor, a number of valuable suggestions have been. prepared and is- sued by the United States Department of Bureau of Mines. Here are some: Attend to the fire regu- larly, and do not wait until it has burned low and heat is needed throughout the house. Let the size of the coal fired be as nearly uniform as possible. Using a coal of uneven size prevents an even flow of air through the fuel bed and increases the tendency of the fire to burn through in spots. Try to keep the fuel bed free from air spots. Avoid excessive shaking of the grates and thus re- duce the amount of coal a DSO) 450 o eT fed YL PO0:. 5 92.0 oo 8 2,0 8 9-055 090 oor 2 A ind WT) SLIVE 2st a COALS -°509° eaeeees G FIRE POT 9009228: Bey ° ae 25 ASH FIT 121 them as rigidly as possible. Insufficient draft is often responsible for failures of heating systems to meet requirements. The chimney or smoke pipe may be too small, or may be ob- structed, or may have leaky joints. The importance of providing an inlet for the air that must enter the furnace room is fre- quently overlooked. Rough- ly 150 to 300 cubic feet of air are required for each pound of coal burned, and to prevent trouble from in- sufficient draft, some means for admitting this air into the furnace room must be provided. Usually enough air leaks into the furnace room through cracks and poorly fitted windows, but the tighter the construc- tion of the room the great- er the need for an outlet. The person most likely FRESH?° ° Condeg e%'oe lost by falling into the ash pit. Ordinarily the shaking of the grates should be stopped as soon as bright particles begin | to drop through. In mild weather it is well to leave on the grates a layer of ashes under the active fuel bed. This layer will increase the resistance to the flow of air through the fuel bed and will facilitate the main- tenance of the low rate of combustion required in such weather. It will also cut off some of the grate surface. Clinkers should be worked out of the fuel bed, for they obstruct the flow of air, clog the grates, and may break the parts of the shaking grates. Keep heating surfaces and flues swept clean so they will readily absorb heat. Do not let ashes pile up under the grates in the O57, COS Ol zs 0: 0.05 8 pe: DOOR FIRE” 200R CLINKMER Pca 6 ethan Round fire pot fired by coking method P295 ORE Hy 08739099929 00 25 ByBoweotee eaters et a 2-50, ote FRESH COALS «rte IVE CO 3 TAS. a 23 to be interested in proper methods of operation is the one who pays the fuel bills, and as a rule it is to be expected that better results will be obtained if the firing is done by the household rather than some one hired to tend the fires. However, something more than an interest in keeping down the coal bills is necessary; some knowledge of the characteristics of the fuel and the func- tions of the different parts of the heater is required to save fuel and trouble. Use the coking method of firing as shown in the illustrations; that is, work ‘the partly burned coal, from which the gas has been driven, to one part of the fire and throw the fresh coal on the remaining por- tion. The fresh fuel then ignites slowly, the com- J bustible gas is driven off Corr LASS ash pit, for they will seal oo to oF to Ie gradually, and the live off the air from part of —— coals that are exposed on the grate surface and may Square fire pot fired by one side of the fire heat cause the grate bars to be come burned and warped. Ascertain by experiment what operat- ing conditions produce the best results in your particular heater and adhere to coking method this gas, so that it is burned before it leaves the fire pot. If fresh coal is spread uniformly over the fire surface, much of the gas driven off is not ignited and escapes unburned.

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122 Distilling Water for the Household OR the housewife who wishes to be sure that her family is drinking perfectly pure water, the new home water still is most important. It is made of copper and lined throughout with tin, as this metal is un- changed by distilled water. The device consists of three drums, one upon the other. The bottom one is the boiler, the middle one is the reservoir for the dis- tilled water, and the upper one is the condensing chamber above which cold water is placed to cause the steam which rises from the boiler to condense. To obtain distilled water, the boiler and cold water chamber are filled and the still placed on the stove. The dis- tilled water falls into the reservo'r (mid- die drum) through a water seal (L). This seal is an important improvement over the ordinary still because it confines the steam from the boiler, thus increas- ing the pressure in the condensing cham- ber and giving twenty-five per cent more condensation with the same amount of heat. The distilled water may be drawn off at any time through a faucet, and the water in the cooling chamber al- lowed to flow from a faucet into the fill- ing aperture of the boiler to replenish 1i. Making an Electric Toaster ANY experimenters wish to make resistances for electric toasters and heaters but are at a loss to know how to wind the resistance coils for it. The fol- lowing method of winding the coils of wire will be found practicable. The wire used should be about No. 22 (B. & S.) iron wire, such as is used in basket mak- ing. Remove the handle from a hand drill and fasten the drill in a vise so that the crank can be revolved freely. Put a 3/16” rod, 5” long with a 1/16” hole through one end in the chuck. Cut the wire into about 10’ lengths and put one end of a piece of the wire through the Popular Science Monthly hole in the rod and as the crank is turned the wire will be wound on the rod in an even layer. Each piece of wire gives a coil, closely wound, 4” long. Remove the end of the wire from the hole and the coil will slip off the rod. When the coils are stretched over a frame of wood so that they are 6” long the adjacent turns of the coil will no longer touch. In this way one can wind 120 coils in one after- noon. A Home-made Paper Baler OW to dis- H pose of waste paper is a problem that is often presented to the city dwel- ler. The accom- panying sketch shows how accumulated paper may be baled in a simple apparatus. Use a strong wooden box about 22”x28’x30", and strengthen the corners with angle irons. Saw the ends apart diagonally, and by means of two step hinges join the two halves together. Two baling wires should be hung from the inside of the box. Paper placed in this box can be pressed down until a bale weighing from 40 to 50 lbs. is produced. After the bale is wired, it can be easily removed and taken away by the junk man. Serving Table Attached to Range A SERVING table that can be attached to the range will save much time for the housewife in the kitchen. Referring to the drawing, the board is attached to the stove by means of braces and rivets. To the right of the shelf is the hot water boiler. A faucet may be installed in the boiler above the shelf. Well seasoned wood should be used, and covered entirely with a layer of sheet copper.

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For Practical Workers A Radium Lightning Rod By Lucien Fournier LIGHTNING ROD does not pre- vent the occurrence of lightning. It even provokes it, but suppresses its incendiary effects. Such, indeed, is its chief object. May we not increase its efficacy in this direction? The problem is an in- teresting one. We know that if the air were a very good con- ductor of electricity there would be no electrical storm. All that is neces- sary for our _ purpose, therefore, is to give the air this quality artificially. Nothing is more simple —we need only to ionize it. To ionize the air is, so to speak, to “metallize” it by means of infinitesi- mal particles like those which are given off by radium and which are discharged into the sur- rounding space from the point of emission. From the recognition of this fact to the construction , of a radium lightning rod a lubes Terrrunals of lightning rod e View of plate from above, Showing ring of radio active substance | -- fbonite support ebonite, resting on a cast iron base fixed in the ground. At the summit of the apparatus is a cluster of three points, and below them the plate: con- taining the radio-active substange. This plate, slightly convex upward, is of copper, about one-tenth of an inch thick and ten inches in diameter. The radio-active substance is spread in the form of a ring on its upper surface, the ring being about three- quarters of an inch in breadth and _ concentric with the edge of the plate. The amount of radium is only 0.2 milligramme (about .003 grain), and it is deposited on the plate by electrolysis. What effects are pro- duced by this small amount of radio-active substance upon the sur- rounding air? The in- ventor declares that the conductivity of the air is increased several -million- fold, and that this con- ductivity extends to a con- _-Costiron bose siderable distance from the point of emission, was only a step. Its con- A radium lightning rod which Viz., the terminal of struction is not difficult; depends on the ionization of the air for efficacy it is only necessary to put a few milligrams of radium on a plate, installed on a lightning rod near its terminal. The inventor of the process has constructed an experiment- al rod consisting of three brass tubes fitting into one another and having a total length of about 12 feet. The tubes are mounted on a massive support of the lightning conductor. Under these conditions the passage of electricity will take place between earth and air, not by brusque, irregular discharges, limited to a single point, but by a constant, steady current passing through a column of air having a radius of thirty or forty feet. The pro- gressive conductivity of the air toward the terminal concentrates the flow of 123

Page 122

124 electricity in that direction. Moreover, the radio-active emissions have the ef- fect of reducing the potential gradient and preventing explosive discharges between the cloud and the lightning rod. It is easy to see the advantage of this arrangement. The difference of potential between the two electrified bodies being small, the spark will be of moderate intensity and the discharge unimportant; moreover, it will always take place by way of the lightning rod, and not at some distance there- froin, as often happens, on account of the ionization of the air around its point. A Glue Scraper NSTEAD of buying glue scrapers for the shop, convert some of the worn- out files into useful articles. Heat the end of a file red hot and beat it down to a sharp edge at the anvil. Then heat again and at a point about 1% inches from the sharpened end, bend over at right angles. This end of the file should be heated again after bending and plunged into cold water to harden the steel, so that the sharp edge will last. This instrument will make an excel- lent glue scraper which will render ef- ficient service in cleaning glue from jointed boards, and also from the top of the bench or work-table. An Emergency Hack Saw SIMPLE yet efficient hack saw to fit an emergency can be made : ; from a piece of iron wire %g in. in % A hack-saw frame can be made from a piece of stout wire diameter, bent as shown. The length depends on the size of the blades used. The wire is flattened at each end, and the blade is made fast by a rivet. Popular Science Monthly Differential Gear for Home-Made Tractors and Cycle-Cars A differential gear that can be made for home-made tractors or cycle cars consists of a main sprocket, or gear, mounted to run loosely on the ends of the two-piece counter-shaft, 6. The sprocket, and spur gear, ‘are keyed on a short shaft which turns in a pillow block. The pillow block is bolted in the How to make a differential gear for a home- made tractor or cycle-car main wheel about one-third of the dis- tance from the rim. The sprocket, and the gear, are keyed on the two counter- shafts. The small gears mesh together. An endless chain belt connects sprockets 1 and 3 A Useful Home-Made Glue Brush N excellent glue brush for the cab- inet maker or carpenter can be made from a piece of elm tree bark, which may usually be found in the yard of a furniture factory, wagon shop, or any hardwood lumber yard. With a sharp knife, whittle away the brittle out- er bark down to the white fibre, or in- ner side of the bark of which the brush is to be made; cut a piece of this to the length and width required for the brush; soak one end of this piece in hot water for a few minutes; lay the water-soaked end on a hard substance, such as a piece of iron, or hardwood, and beat it out with a hammer, dipping it in the water occasionally to keep it thoroughly wet. The beating will cause the tough fibres of the bark to separate at the end, these forming an excellent and inexpensive brush, which never sheds hairs and lasts longer than the cheap brush commonly sold at the stores.

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Popular Science Monthly An Effective Window Lock N_ inexpen- sive and effective window lock may be made by the av- erage man with a few tools from a piece of sheet steel. Two steel pieces are cut out according to the design illustrated, and bent to a slight angle, care being taken that both are bent to exactly the same degree. One piece is made about one-quarter of an inch longer than the other, and is bent at right angles, so that the other piece will “strike against it, and be prevented from passing. W hen the window is closed, the device is in operation, and because of the projecting end of the longer piece, the window can- not be opened. The device is released by inserting a screw- -driver between the metal strips and bending them in order to disengage the catch. To Make Small Springs N making little springs of small- sized wire take a ma- chine screw and wind the wire tightly around it in the threads. This brings the spring out as closely as most home- made springs need be. A slight pull will stretch it to the desired length. A screw somewhat smaller than the size of spring desired should be used to allow for the resiliency of the wire. How to Case Harden Iron AKE up a paste of powdered prussiate of potash and water. Coat the iron with this paste, and set it aside to dry. Let the forge fire be clear and bright. When the paste is dry upon the iron thrust the iron into the fire until it is cherry red. Keep it at this heat for a few minutes and then take it out. Plunge it into cold water, and it will be found converted into steel at the surface. 125 Files and Tools from Switch Handles IRST procure the required number of switch handles. Remove the usuai screw. Into the hole left by the screw, force the tang of the file or other tool. As most of these switch handles are made of wood, there is a metal ferrule on the end which serves to keep the handle from splitting. This ferrule serves the same purpose when a tool is inserted into the handle. Tools vary in size but different sized handles may be used for different sized tools. If a sup- ply of these handles is kept handy a handle may be fitted to a tool at any time. A Handle for a Small Bit or Drill CONVENIENT handle for small bits, drills or screw drivers which are intended for use with a brace can be quick- ly made from an old spool about 2” long. If the square end of an old or discarded bit is at hand, drive it slightly into the hole in the spool, so as to. make the hole square. After this is done the spool can be placed on nearly any size of bit, to hold securely. An Easily Made Marking Gauge NTO a %* dowel of wood, about 8” long, drive a 1” wire brad 14” from one end and let the point protrude 1”. Take a rule and lay off sixteenths from the nail. Drill a Prigail hole through a block of wood 214” x 214” x %”. Then slide the soe on the ios el. The friction is enough to hold it for marking. By tapping the dowel with the block held in the hand, the marking distance can be lengthened or shortened, as may be desired. ee ————

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Home-Made Drill Press VERY lathe owner knows what an unsatisfactory job drilling in a lathe is, and a great many cannot afford to indulge their hobby to the extent of pur- chasing a drill press. The following is a description of a drill press which employs the ordinary A drill press made from an ordi- nary round-shank breast drill round shank breast drill and two cast- ings, the patterns of which were home- made, as was also the drill table, which was turned in a foot-power lathe. The attractive feature of this drill press is that the breast drill can be re- moved in a few minutes’ time and used in the regular manner, and in the same length of time it can be reassembled. To begin with, the breast drill must be one of the round-shanked type, which retail for about $1.50, and with a range of from 0 to &% inch drills. In the drawing may be seen the main casting. The casting is very securely fastened by screws to the bench. The pattern should be made of %-inch stock, with the sides ribbed ™% inch so as to give greater strength. The bearings at Popular Science M onthly the top and bottom should be cored a sufficient size to be liberally babbitted, The lugs are slotted with a hack saw and drilled and tapped for adjusting screws at the top and for a clamping bolt at the bottom. The drill table is self-explanatory ; the shank and surface being the only parts that require machining. If the builder has a lathe this can easily be done; but if not, a machinist will do the work at a low cost. The feed lever is made of 3/16x¥% inch iron or cold-rolled steel. Two pieces are hinged in an L form. The socket for raising and lowering the drill is made of pipe fitting, such as is used on awnings, lapped for a set screw. To babbitt the casting a jig must be used in order to align the table with the drill properly. For this purpose pro- cure a piece of steel of the same diame- ter as the shank of the table. Turn down one end sufficiently to be gripped in the drill chuck, and with this rod it becomes possible. How to Get the Most From a Football n° a rule the tube of a football blad- der will crack off before the blad- der is worn out. This is due to the bending of the tube. A bicycle valve cap will protect the stem and a pump may be used to blow up the football. To do this coat the outside of the valve with shellac, being careful not to let any get on the stem, and insert it in the tube. Wind a shoe string around the outside of the tube to hold it firmly against the valve. When the shellac has set the shoe string may be removed. A Help in Wire-Twisting UT a notch in the center of a screw driver blade, about 1/10” deep, as A notch in a screw driver gives a grip on wires to be twisted around binding posts or sockets shown in the sketch. This will be found of great aid in bending wires around binding posts or sockets.

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as id id Popular Science Monthly Ground Detector for Three Wire Circuit EARLY everyone is familiar with the method of connecting a couple of incandescent lamps whereby they will indicate the presence of grounds on a two-wire system. For such serv- ice the two lamps are connected in se- ries between two of the wires of oppo- site polarity of the two-wire system, and a ground wire is tapped between 3 wire Mans Positive + aos 7T & 8 roe Neutral oN & § if Negative - gfe A 8 C Q— ] &) Q——— : i =O Fig. 1. Wiring diagram of a three- circuit ground detector the two lamps. Where a ground occurs on the circuit, the lamp connected to the wire on which there is a ground will grow dim or will go out altogether, and the other lamp will burn above normal brilliancy. The method of connecting incandes- cent lamps to indicate grounds on a three-wire system is not, apparently, very well known. It is, however, sim- ple in arrangement and operation, as indicated in Fig. 1, and described in the following paragraph. The three lamps, 4, B and C, are connected between the neutral and the negative wires or between the neutral and the positive wire, as shown. Each of the lamps should be designed for the voltage between either of the out- side wires and the neutral. For exam- ple, the voltage between any outside wire and the neutral is 125. Conse- quently A, B and C should each be a 125-volt incandescent lamp. The three lamps connected in series should be protected with a fuse at each tap as shown in the figure. A lead be- tween lamps 4 and B with a switch in series should be connected to the earth. With the three-wire system free from grounds all three lamps, A. B and C, 127 will burn dimly, whether the ground switch GS is open or closed. If, how- ever, an accidental ground occurs on the positive wire, all of the lamps will burn with full brilliancy if GS is closed. If a ground occurs on the negative wire and GS is closed, lamps B and C will not illuminate, but A will burn at full brilliancy. If a ground occurs in the neutral wire, GS being closed, A will not burn, but B and C will burn dimly. The switch should always be connected between the lamps (4 in this case) which connects to the neutral wire and the next adjacent lamp. If it were connected between B and C, in case of a ground on the positive wire, lamp C would have double voltage (250 volts) impressed on.it, and hence would quickly burn out. —~s Ingenious Circuit Saves Money in Photoplay Houses OTION picture theatregoers de- mand that one film shall follow another without interruption. This has given rise to a troubling problem. Dis- solving the beginning of one reel into the end of the preceding one, so that a con- tinuous flow of the screen narrative is given, necessitates the use of two pro- jecting machines, one of which is started just before the other stops. This man- euver requires two arcs burning at the same time, and two arcs, where alternat- ing current only is available, means that l] ‘~? aa 1 A.C. Line Rectifier’ Compensaror + oil 4.POTSW £ Machine "1 Machine "2 This circuit allows one rectifier to serve’ two motion picture pro- jectors at the same time two alternating current rectifiers are necessary. Motion picture operators in Philadel- phia have solved the problem of supply- ing current to two arcs with one recti- fier by the use of a four poled double throw switch connected as the accom- panying diagram illustrates.

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A Novel Medical Battery COMMON buzzer is used in place of the induction coil and _ con- nected with the dry cells through a mul- tiple switch. The switch is of very sim- ple construction. A piece of brass, cut in an L, with a battery binding post at one end, which serves as a pivot and ter- minal, and a knob at the other end to swing it about, compose the arm of the switch. Brass screws are best for con- tact points. The base may be made of a scrap of wood. The L on the arm of the switch is a little less than the distance from the center of one screw to the center of the next. Therefore when the arm is moved it contacts with the approaching screw just before it leaves the receding one, and so all the way around. This eliminates the jerk when throwing an- other battery in the circuit. BUZZCL PO js "4 | SWITC/)- ( | | — bottery C. aa A common electric buzzer is the only induction coil needed for this very simple medical battery A wire is led from the contact screw and another from one of the binding posts of the buzzer. A round carbon from a battery is fastened to each one of these wires to provide handles through which the shock is given. The first two batteries should be rather weak, so that persons not used to electricity may stand the shock. Any number of cells may be used, and by connecting each to a screw and to one another as shown in the drawing, the shocks may be varied from a slight vi- bration to a powerful shock. All the batteries may be put in a box with a lid and the buzzer and switch - mounted on top Popular Science Monthly A Combined Triangle and Protractor HE combination of a triangle and protractor will prove a very useful addition to the implements of the draftsman. The degrees may easily be marked on the \/ surface of an ordinary ud | celluloid triangle, if as this material | f(y t | | it 1 ( ( ; = 46 ' 1 2 a buh AAA AA bobibuboloh A good protractor may be made by marking degrees on an ordinary celluloid draftsman’s triangle is readily scratched with a sharp point. On the perpendicular of the triangle a scale may be marked, this further en- hancing the value of the instrument. The degree markings may be placed in their proper positions with the aid of a protractor. A Drawing Cutter Make a handle similar to the one shown. Split it with a fine-toothed saw, in the end having the 45° angle sawed off, to a length about ™%” longer than a safety razor blade. Make the opening fine, barely wider than a razor blade. To use the cutter, place a safety razor blade in the slot, adjust it to the desired length by pushing forward or drawing backward, then hold by a pressure of the fingers on the sides of the handle. A safety razor blade has many uses. This shows how a drawing cutter can be made out of a blade

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a TE ce ——— Overhauling Your Car for the Winter By Victor Pagé (Continued from the December Number) Valve Removal and Inspection O*: of the most important parts of the gasoline engine and one that requires frequent inspection and refitting to keep in condition is the mushroom or poppet valve that controls the inlet and exhaust gas flow. In over- hauling it is essential that these valves be removed from their seatings and ex- amined carefully for various defects which will be enumerated at proper time, The valves are held against the seating in the cylinder by a coil spring which exerts its pressure on the cylinder casting at the upper end and against a suitable collar held by a key at the lower end of the valve stem. In order to re- move the valve it is necessary to first compress the spring by raising the collar and pulling*the retaining key out of the valve stem. Many forms of valve spring lifters have been designed to permit ready removal of the valves. When the cylinder is of the valve in- the-head form, the method of valve re- moval will depend entirely upon the sys- tem of cylinder construction followed. In the Franklin engine, which is shown in part section at Fig. 9, it is not pos- sible to remove the valves without taking the cylinder off of the crank case, be- cause the valve seats are machined di- rectly in the cylinder head and the valve domes are cast integrally with the cyl- inder, This means that if the valves need grinding the cylinder must be removed Valve Springs Valve Stem buides Valve Operating Rods es ; : t Camshatt -: Fig. 9. A sectional view of part of the Franklin motor, showing valve seats machined directly in cylinder head, and valve domes cast integrally with the cylinder 129

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130 from the engine base to provide access to the valve heads which are inside of that member, and which cannot be reached from the outside, as is true of the L or T-cylinder construction. The preferred method of carrying the valves when they are placed in the cylin- der head in the Buick 6-cylinder motor, is shown in Fig. 10. The valves are carried in cages which are readily re- moved from the cylinder head by un- screwing the retention nut that keeps the valve cage tightly pressed against the seating at its lower end to ob- tain a gas-tight joint. The valve cages are easy to handle and it is a relatively simple operation to compress the valve spring and remove the pin which makes for easy removal of the valve. When this construction is followed it is possible to grind in the valve by simply removing the cage assemblies from the cylinder. It is not necessary to disturb the cylinder in any way and does not call for disconnection of intake or ex- haust manifolds; the only things that need be removed are the valve operating tappets, which is work of but a few mo- ments. Valve Grinding Process Much has been said relative to valve grinding, and despite the mass of in- formation given in the trade prints it is rather amusing to watch the average re- pairman or the motorist who prides him- self on maintaining his own car perform- ing this essential operation. The com- mon mistakes are attempting to seat a badly grooved or pitted valve head on an equally bad seat, which is an almost hopeless job, and of using coarse emery and bearing down with all one’s weight on the grinding tool with the hope of quickly wearing away the rough sur- faces. The use of improper abrasive ma- terial is a fertile cause of failure to ob- tain a satisfactory seating. Valve grind- ing is not a difficult operation if certain precautions are taken before undertaking the work. The most important of these is to ascertain if the valve head or seat is badly scored or pitted. If such is found to be the cause no ordinary amount of grinding will serve to restore the surfaces. in this event the best thing to do is to remove the valve from its seat- Popular Science Monthly ing and to smooth down both the valve head and the seat in the cylinder before attempt is made to fit them together by grinding. Another important precaution is to make sure that the valve stem is straight, and that the head is not warped out of shape or loose on the stem when the valve is a two-piece member. Valve Grinding Processes Mention has been previously made of the importance of truing both valve head and seat before attempt is made to refit the parts by grinding. The appearance of a valve head when pitted or scored is indicated at Fig. 11, A, in order that the motorist or novice repairman can readily identify this defective condition. After smoothing the valve seat the next step is to find some way of turning the valve. Valve heads are usually provided with a screw driver slot passing through the boss at the top of the valve or with two drilled holes to take a forked grind- ing tool. The method of arranging the valve head for the grinding tool and the types of grinding tools commonly used are also shown at Fig. 11, 4. A combi- nation grinding tool which may be used when either the two drilled holes or the slotted head form of valve is to be ro- tated is shown at Fig. 11, B. This con- sists of a special form of screw driver having an enarged boss just above the blade, this boss serving to support a U- shaped piece which can be securely held in Operative position by the clamp screw or which can be turned out of the way if the screw driver blade is to be used. As it is desirable to turn the valve through a portion of a revolution and back again rather than turning it always in the same direction, a number of spe- cial tools has been designed to make this oscillating motion possible without trou- ble. A simple valve grinding tool is shown at Fig. 11, C. This consists of a screw driver blade mounted in a handle in such a way that the end may turn freely in the handle. A pinion is secure- ly fastened to the screw driver blade shank, and is adapted to fit a rack pro- vided with a wood handle and guided by a bent bearing member securely fast- ened to the screw driver handle. As the rack is pushed back and forth the pinion

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Popular Science Monthly must be turned first in one direction aud then in the other. A valve grinding tool patterned largely after a breast drill is shown at Fig. 11, D. This is worked in such a manner that a continuous rotation of the operat- ing crank will result in an oscillating movement of the chuck carrying the screw driver blade. The bevel pinions which are used to turn the chuck are normally free unless clutched to the chuck stem by the sliding sleeve which 131 ing the surface of a valve head when the usual form of valve head truer is not available is indicated at Fig. 11, E. The valve heads are usually provided with a small depression in the center known as a countersink which is designed to act as a support for the valve when it is being machined from the forging. The stem of the valve is caught in the chuck of a bit stock and rested on any sharp point on a wall or bench. This can be easily made by driving a large wire nail Valve Cages Twin Clylinder Valve Jappets Casting : \ N ol) | See Za m e : l_| : at 2 lis = = 7 Thad — Conaholl Oi! Troughs Crankshaft Fig. 10, A part sectional view of Buick Motor, showing method of valve mounting in easily removable valve cages must turn with the chuck stem and which carries clutching members at each end to engage similar members on the bevel pinions and lock these to the chuck stem, one at atime. The bevel gear car- ries a cam piece which moves the clutch sleeve back and forth as it revolves. This means that the pinion giving forward mo- tion of the chuck is clutched to the chuck spindle for a portion of a revolu- tion of the gear and clutch sleeve is moved back by the cam and clutched to the pinion giving a reverse motion of the chuck during the remainder of the main drive gear revolution. A method that can be used for smooth- in the bench from underneath so that the point projects through the bench. The bit stock is briskly turned by a help- er and the rough spots are removed from the seat with a fine file, care being taken not to change the taper of the valve head. The valve stem could be turned much faster and a superior finish obtained if a breast drill were used instead of a bit stock, though with care a very credit- able job may be done with the latter. One of the things to watch for in valve grinding is clearly indicated at Fig. 11, F, It sometimes happens that the ad- justing screw on the valve lift plunger or the valve lift plunger itself does not

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132 permit the valve head to rest against the seat. While the condition is exaggerated in the sketch it will be apparent that unless a definite space exists between the end of the valve stem and the valve lift plunger that grinding will be of little avail because the valve head will not bear properly against the abrasive ma- terial smeared on the valve seat. When a bit stock is used, instead of being given a true rotary motion the chuck is merely oscillated through the greater part of the circle and back again. It is necessary to lift the valve from its seat frequently as the grinding opera- tion continues, this is to provide an even distribution of the abrasive material placed between the valve head and its seat. Only sufficient pressure is given to the bit stock to overcome the uplift of the spring and to insure that the valve will be held against the seat. The abrasive generally used is a paste of medium or fine emery and lard, oil or kerosene, This is used until the surfaces are comparatively smooth, after which the final polish or finish is given with a paste of flour emery, grindstone dust, crocus or ground glass and oil. An erro- neous impression prevails in some quar- ters that the valve head surface and the seating must have a mirror-like polish. While this is not necessary it is essential that the seat in the cvlinder and the bevel surface of the head be smooth and free from pits or scratches at the completion of the operation. All traces of the emery and oil should be thoroughly washed out of the valve chamber with gasoline be- fore the valve mechanism is assembled and in fact it is advisable to remove the old grinding compound at regular inter- vals, wash the seat thoroughly and sup- ply fresh material as the process is in progress, The truth of seatings may be tested by taking some Prussian blue pig- ment and spreading a thin film of it over the valve seat. The valve is dropped in place and is given about one-eighth turn with a little pressure on the tool. If the seating is good both valve head and seat will be covered uniformly with color. If high spots exist, the heavy deposit of color will show these while the low spots will be made evident because of the lack of pigment. The grinding process should Popular Science Monthly be continued until the test shows an even bearing of the valve hedd at all ae of the cylinder seating. Piston Troubles If an engine has been entirely disman- tled it is very easy to examine the pis- tons for deterioration, While it is im- portant that the piston be a good fit in the cylinder it is mainly upon the piston rings that compression depends. The piston should fit the cylinder with but little looseness, the usual practice being to have the piston diameter at the point where the least heat is present or at the bottom of the piston. It is necessary to allow n.ore than this at the top of the piston owing to its expansion due to the direct heat of the explosion. The clearance is usually graduated and a pis- ton that would be .005-inch smaller than the cylinder bore at the bottom would be about .0065-inch at the middle and .0075- inch at the top. If much more play than this is evidenced the piston will “slap” in the cylinder and the piston will be worn at the ends more than in the center. Pistons sometimes warp out of shape and are not truly cylindrical. This results in the high spots rubbing on the cylin- . der while the low spots will be blackened where a certain amount of gas has leaked by. Mention has been previously made of the necessity of reboring or regrinding a cylinder that has become scored or scratched and which allows -the gas to leak by the piston rings, When the cylin- der is ground out, it is necessary to use a larger piston to conform to the en- larged cylinder bore. Most manufactur- ers are prepared to furnish over-size pis- tons, there being four standard over-size dimensions adopted by the S. A. E. for rebored cylinders. These are .o1o-inch, .030-inch, and .o4o-inch larger than the regular dimensions. Care should be taken in reboring the cylinders to adhere as closely as possible to one or the other of these standards. Removing Pistons Stuck in Combustion Chamber The removal and replacement of pis- tons and rings seldom offer any trouble

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Popular Science Monthy if the work is properly carried on but if for any reason the piston should be pushed too far up into the cylinder on some types of engines the top ring will expand into the combustion chamber and will lock the pistons tightly in place. This is a difficult condition to overcome with some forms of cylinders though if the cylinder casting is of the L or T form it may be possible to compress the rings sufficiently to remove the piston by sim- ple means. The best method is shown at Fig. 13, A. A very thin strip of metal of approximately the same width as the piston rings is passed through one of the valve chamber openings and passed around the pis- 133 inserted through each valve chamber cap. Fitting Piston Rings Before installing new rings, they should be carefully fitted to the grooves to which they are applied. The tools required are a large piece of fine emery cloth, a thin, flat file, a small vise with copper or leaden jaw clips, and a smooth hard surface such as that afforded by the top of a surface plate or a well- planed piece of hard wood. After mak- ing sure that all deposits of burnt oil and carbon have been removed from the piston grooves, three rings are selected, one for each groove. The ring is turned ton and pulled out through the other opening. It requires the services of two people and sometimes three to remove a pis- ton stuck in this man- ner. The efforts of one are directed to keep the band taut un- der the ring and to exert an upward pull which forces that por- tion of the ring em- braced by the metal band to fill the groove in the piston. Another Pitted Seat + ’ Scored Seat + a / fh DS) Ome DPS Se tam Screw Drwer finger Control Operating Lever Center Bearing « —— person uses a pair of screw _ drivers, one through each valve chamber opening to compress the ring at the points indi- cated in the drawing. This means that a three-point compressional effect is ob- tained and it is a simple matter for the third person to draw the piston back into the cylinder when the ring has been properly compressed in its groove. It is not always possible to compress the ring so the only other alternative is to break it in a number of pieces by hitting the brittle ring with a drift or chisel and then withdrawing the pieces one at a time until the ring has been entirely re- moved. With the T-head cylinder it is sometimes possible to remove the ring without the use of the metal bands, as that member is compressed at diamet- tically opposite points by a screw driver Fig. 11. Forms of valve grinding tools and methods of grinding all around its circumference into the groove it is to fit, which can be done without springing it over the piston as the outside edge of the ring may be used to test the width of the groove just as well as the inside edge. The ring should be a fair fit and while-free to move cir- cumferentially there should be no ap- preciable up and down motion. The ring should be pushed into the cyl- inder at least two inches up from the bottom and endeavor should be made to have the lower edge of the ring parallel with the bottom of the cylinder, If the ring is not of correct diameter, but is slightly larger than the cylinder bore, this condition will be evident by the angular slots of the rings being out of line or by difficulty in inserting the ring if it is a

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134 lap joint - form. If such is the case the ring is removed from the cylinder and placed in the vise between the soft metal jaw clips, as shown at Fig. 13 B. Sufficient metal is removed with a fine file from the edges of the ring at the slot until the edges come into line and a slight space exists between them when the ring is placed into the cylinder. It is impor- tant that this space be left between the ends, for if this is not done, when the ring becomes heated the expansion of metal may cause the ends to abut and the ring to jam in the cylinder. Another method of fitting a piston ring is indicated at Fig. 13, C. A plug is made of soft wood, such as yellow pine that willbe an easy fit in the cylinder and one end is turned down enough so that a shoulder will be formed to back the Fig. 12. A nail or piece of wire will grind Buick valves Popular Science Monthly fine mill file or piece of emery cloth and the ring is again inserted, in the cylinder bore to find other high spots which are removed in a similar manner. When the rings fit fairly well all around, the en- tire surface will have a uniform coating of blue. If the old piston rings are bright all around but appear to have lost their elas- ticity, a new lease of life may be given by a process known as peening, which is shown at Fig. 13, D. The ring is stood on a surface plate and is tapped inside with the peen end of a light hammer us- ing the harder blows at the thick section and gradually reducing the force of the blow as the slot is approached. If skill- fully done a ring may be stretched to some extent and considerable elasticity imparted, Piston rings are not always of simple form shown. Various duplex constructions have been offered with an idea of reducing the possibility of leak- age. A ring of this type which is known as the “Leak Proof” piston packing is shown at Fig. 13, E. These duplex rings are harder to install than the simple forms, and it is important that they be carefully fitted to the cylinder and to the ring. The turned down por- tion should be a little less than the. width of the ring to be tested. The-ring is pushed on this turned down end of the wooden plug and held by a small batten secured by a screw in the center. This does not hold the ring tightly File ‘Wood Block enough to keep it from closing Piston Ring 4 up. It is also important to D lh r turn the end of the wooden a plug small enough so that its we sailed : diameter will be less than the ct es leak-Proof Piston Ring bore of the ring when that member is tightly closed. The ee So cylinder bore is smeared with a little Prussian blue pigment which is spread evenly over the cylin- der wall with a piece of waste and the ring is moved back and forth in the cylinder while it is held square by the shoulder on the plug. The high spot on the ring will be shown by color. Us- ually the ring will be found to bear hard- est at each side of the slot. These high spots are removed carefully with a very restoration piston grooves, as described below. The bottom ring should be placed in position first; this is easily accom- plished by springing the ring open enough to pass on the piston and then sliding it into place in the lower groove which on some types of engines is below the wrist pin, whereas in others all grooves are above that member, It is

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LBRO © Popular Science Monthly not always necessary to use guiding strips of metal when replacing rings as it is often possible, by putting the rings on the piston a little askew and man- ceuvering them to pass the grooves with- out springing the ring into them. The top ring should be the last one placed in position, Before replacing pistons in the cylin- der one should make sure that the slots in the piston rings are spaced equidistant on the piston and if pins are used to keep the ring from turning one should be care- ful to make sure that these pins fit into their holes in the ring and that they are ’ an we Rod Caps 9% Fig. 14. Showing method of sup- porting crankcase to provide ready access to connecting rod and crankshaft bearings not under the ring at any point. The cylinder should be well oiled before at- tempt is made to install the pistons. The engine should be run with more than the ordinary amount of lubricant for several days after new piston rings have been inserted. Inspection and Refitting of Engine Bearings While the engine is dismantled one has an excellent opportunity to examine the various bearing points in the engine crankcase to ascertain if any looseness exists due to depreciation of the bearing 135 surfaces. As will be evident from the views at Figs. 14 and 15, both main crankshaft bearings and the lower end of the connecting rods may be easily exam- ined for deterioration. With the rods in place as shown at Fig. 14, A, it is not difficult to feel the amount of lost mo- tion by grasping the connecting rod firm- ly with the hand and moving it up and down. The appearance of the engine base af- ter the connecting rods and flywheel have been removed from the crankshaft is shown at Fig. 15, while the appear- ance of the upper portion of the crank- case, after the crankshaft is removed is clearly shown at Fig. 14, C. After the connecting rods have been removed and the flywheel taken off the crankshaft to permit of ready handling any looseness in the main bearing may be detected by lifting upon either the front or rear end of the crankshaft and ob- serving if there is any lost motion be- tween the shaft journal and the main bearing caps. It is not necessary to take an engine entirely apart to examine the main bearings as in some forms these may -be readily reached by removing a large inspection plate either from the bottom or side of the engine crankcase. The symptoms of worn main bearings are not hard to identify. If an engine knocks when a vehicle is traveling over level roads regardless of speed or spark lever position, and the trouble is not due to carbon deposits in the combustion chamber one may reasonably surmise that the main bearings have become loose or that lost motion may exist at the con- necting rod big ends, and possibly at the wrist pins. Adjusting Main Bearings When the bearings are not worn enough to require refitting the lost mo- tion can often be eliminated by remov- ing one or more of the thin shims or liners ordinarily used to separate the bearing caps from the seat. Care must be taken that an even number of shims of the same thickness are removed from each side of the journal. If there is con- siderable lost motion after one or two shims have been removed, it will be ad- visable to take out more shims and to ao al ap cere aetna Nia ee eer = ass tna aay medeaies ene ae ee

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136 scrape the bearing to a fit before the bearing cap is tightened up. It may be necessary to clean up the crankshaft journals as these may be scored due to not having received clean oil or having had bearings seize upon them. It is not difficult to true up the crank pins or main journals if the score marks are not deep. A fine file and emery cloth may be used, or a lapping tool. The latter is preferable because the file and emery cloth will only tend to smooth the sur- /Yain Bearing Cops Top Halt Crank Case Fig. 15. Top half of crankcase, showing method of cranksnaft re- tention by three main bearing caps face while the lap will have the effect of restoring the crank to proper con- tour. If a crank pin is worn out of true to any extent the only method of restoring it is to have it ground down to proper circular form by a competent mechanic having the necessary machine tools to carry on the work accurately. After the crankshaft is trued the next operation is to fit it to the main bearings or rather to scrape these members to fit the shaft journal. In order to bring the brasses closer together, it may be necessary to remove a little metal from the edges of the caps to compensate for the lost motion. A piece of medium emery cloth is rested on the surface plate and the box or brass is pushed back and forth over that member by hand, the amount of pressure and rapidity of move- ment being determined by the amount of metal it is necessary to remove. This is better than filing because the edges will be flat and there will be no tendency for the bearing caps to rock when placed against the bearing seat. It is important to take enough off the edges of the boxes to insure tightly. that they will grip the crank The outer diameter must be Popular Science Monthly checked with a pair of calipers during this operation to make sure that the sur- faces remain parallel. Otherwise the bearing brasses will only grip at one end and with such insufficient support they will quickly work loose, both in the bear- ing seat and bearing cap. Scraping Brasses to Fit To insure that the bearing brasses will be a good fit on the trued up crank pins or crankshaft journals they must be scraped to fit the various crankshaft journals. The process of scraping, while a tedious one, is not difficult, requiring only patience and some degree of care to do a good job. The surface of the crank pin is smeared with Prussian blue pigment which is spread evenly over the entire surface. The bearings are then clamped together in the usual manner with the proper bolts and the crankshaft revolved several times to indicate the high spots on the bearing cap. The high spots are indicated by blue, as where the shaft does not bear on the bearing there is no color, The high spots are removed by means of a scraping tool, which is easily made from a worn out file. These are forged to shape and ground hollow and are kept properly sharpened by fre- quent rubbing on an ordinary oil stone. To scrape properly, the edge of the scraper must be very keen. When correcting errors on flat or curved surfaces by hand scraping, it is desirable, of course, to obtain an even- ly spotted bearing with as little scraping as possible. When the part to be scraped is first applied to the surface-late or to a journal in the case of a bearing three or four “high” spots may be indi- cated by the marking material. The time required to reduce these high spots and obtain a bearing that is distributed over the entire surface depends largely upon the way the scraping is started. If the first bearing marks indicate a decided rise in the surface, much time can be saved by scraping larger areas than are covered by the bearing marks; this is especially true of large shaft and engine bearings, etc. An experienced workman will not only remove the heavy marks, but also reduce a larger area; then, when the bearing is tested again, the marks

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=’! we Popular Science Monthly will generally be distributed somewhat. If the heavy marks which usually appear at first are simply removed by light scraping, these “point bearings” are gen- erally enlarged, but a much longer time will be required to distribute them. The number of times the bearing must be applied to the journal for testing is important, especially when the box or bearing is large and not easily handled. The time required to distribute the bear- ing marks evenly depends largely upon one’s judgment in “reading” these marks, In the early. stages of the scraping op- eration, the marks should be used partly as a guide for showing the high areas, and instead of merely scraping the marked spot the surface surrounding it should also be reduced, unless it is evi- dent that the unevenness is local. The idea should be to obtain first a few large but generally distributed marks; then an evenly and finely spotted surface can be produced quite easily. In fitting brasses when these are of the removable type, two methods may be used. The upper half of the. engine base may be inverted on a suitable bench or stand and the boxes fitted by placing the crankshaft in position, clamping down one bearing cap at a time and fitting each bearing in succession until they bed equally. From that time on the bear- ings should be fitted at the same time so the shaft will be parallel with the bot- tom of the cylinders. Considerable time and handling of the heavy crank- shaft may be saved if a preliminary fit- ting of the bearing brasses is made by clamping them together with a carpen- ter’s wood clamp and leaving the crank- shaft attached to the bench. The brasses are revolved around the crank- shaft journal and are scraped to fit wher- ever high spots are indicated until they assume a finished appearance. The final scraping should be carried on with all bearings in place and revolving the crank- shaft to determine the area of the seat- ing. When the brasses are properly fit- ted they will not only show a full bear- ing surface but the shaft will not turn unduly hard if revolved with the same amount of leverage as afforded by the flywheel rim or starting crank, bearing caps being bedded down and lubricated. 137 Retaining bolls ~ hetaining Bolts Retaining Bolts Fig. 16. Outlining common types of connecting rod big ends Bearings of white metal or babbitt can be fitted tighter than those of bronze and care must be observed in supplying lubricant as considerably more than the usual amount is needed until the bear- ings are run in by several hundred miles of road work. Before the scraping process is started it is well to chisel an oil groove in the bearing as_ these grooves are very helpful in insuring uni- form distribution of oil over the entire width of bearing and at the same time act as reservoirs to retain a supply of oil. The tool used is a round nosed chisel, the effort being made to cut the grooves of uniform depth and having smooth sides. Care should be taken not to cut the grooves too deeply as this will seriously reduce the strength of the bearing bushing. Remetalling and Fitting the Connecting Rods Fitting and adjusting the rod bear- ings, especially those at the crank pin end, is one of the operations that must be performed several times a season if a car is used to any extent. There are two forms of connecting rods in general use, known respectively as the marine type, shown at Fig. 16, A, and the hinged form depicted at Fig. 16, B. The hinge type is the simplest, but one clamp bolt being used to keep the parts together as the cap is hinged to the rod ee = ee eee a ea eee ee eee

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138 ° end on one side, this permitting the lower portion to swing down the crank pin to pass out from between the halves when the retaining bolt is removed. In the marine type, which is the most com- mon, one or two bolts are employed at each side and the cap must be removed entirely before the bearing can be taken ' off of the crank pin. The tightness of . the brasses around the crank pin can never be determined solely by the ad- justment of the bolts, as while it is im- portant that these should be drawn up as tightly as possible the bearing should fit the shaft without undue binding, even if the brasses must be scraped to insure a proper fit. As is true of the main bearings, the marine form of connecting rod has a number of liners or shims in- terposed between the top and lower por- tions of the rod end and these may be reduced in number when necessary to bring the brasses closer together. In fitting new brasses there are two conditions to be avoided, these being out- lined at Fig. 16, C and D. In the case shown at C the light edges of the brush- ings are in contact, but the connecting rod and its cap do not meet. When the retaining nuts are tightened the entire strain is taken on the comparatively small area of the edges of the bushings which are not strong enough to with- stand the strains existing and which flatten out quickly, permitting the bear- ing to run loose. In the example out- lined. at D the edges of the brasses do not touch when the connecting rod cap is drawn in place. This is not good practice, because the brasses soon be- come loose in their retaining member. In the case outlined it is necessary to file off the faces of the rod and cap until these meet, and to insure contact of the edges of the brasses as well. In event of the brasses coming together before the cap and rod make contact, as shown at C, the bearing halves should be re- duced at the edges until both the caps and brasses meet against the surfaces of the liners as shown at A. Before assembling on the shaft, it is necessary to fit the bearings by scrap- ing, the same instructions given for re- storing the contour of the main bear- ings applying just as well in this case. It is apparent that if the crank pins are Popular Science Monthly not round no amount of scraping will insure a true bearing. A point to ob- serve is to make sure that the heads of the bolts are imbedded solidly in their proper position and that they are not raised by any burrs or particles of dirt under the head which will flatten out after the engine has been run for a time and allow the bolts to slack off. Simi- larly, care should be taken that there is no foreign matter under the brasses and the box in which they seat. To guard against this the bolts should be struck with a hammer several times after they are tightened up, and the con- necting rod can be hit sharply several times under the cap with a wooden mallet or lead hammer. It is important to pin the brasses in place to prevent movement, as lubrication may be inter- fered with if the bushing turns round and breaks the correct register between the oil hole in the cap and brasses. Care should be taken in screwing on the retaining nuts to insure that they will remain in place and not slack off. Spring washers should not be used on either connecting rod ends or main bear- ing bolts, because these sometimes snap in two pieces and leave the nut slack. The best method of locking is to use well-fitting split pins and _ castellated nuts. In a number of the cheaper cars, the bearing metal is cast in place in the connecting rod lower end and in main bearings, and is not in the form of re- movable die cast bushings. Precautions in Reassembling Parts When all of the essential components of a power plant have been carefully looked over and cleaned and all defects eliminated, either by adjustment or re- placement of worn portions, the motor should be reassembled, taking care to have the parts occupy just the same relative positions they did before the motor was dismantled. Before the cylinders are replaced on the engine base, heavy brown paper gas- kets should be made to place between the cylinder base flange and top portion of the engine crank case. Gaskets will hold better if coated with shellac, as it fills irregularities in the joint and assists materially in preventing leakage after the coating has a chance to set. , ORs ETT ORD ETH geome Te

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SRS AOTC + gE Popuiar Science Monthly To Make a Work Bench and Vise HERE is nothing more essential to good work than a good bench. When room was plentiful and lumber cheap it was the usual practice to con- struct large, heavy benches. With the spread of the manual training idea a rather new and different type of bench has been developed. They are smaller, and a type of construction is used which will require a minimum amount of lum- ber to give the required strength and rigidity. In the bench shown the two top rails are notched into the legs, while all of the lower rails are first cut square on each end and drawn and held in po- sition against the legs by means of the bolts. To do this the holes are first lo- cated and bored in the legs the size of the bolts or 1/16” larger. Next, the same sized hole is bored into the end of the rail to a depth of 4”. From the side a 1” hole is bored in to meet the end of this one. The center of this hole should be located 3%4” from the end of the rails. In assembling, the nut is placed in the rail from the side and the bolt through the leg and into the end of the rail to meet it, when the bolt may be drawn tight by means of a wrench ap- plied to the head. The bench may be kept rigid indefinitely by going over all of the bolts occasionally. The top of the bench may be one or several pieces glued together. The lat- ter method is the better as well as the most usual one, but is not essential to a good bench. The back pieces are easily worked out to the size suggested. Any good, sound lumber may be used for the Details of the construction of the vise, showing dimensions 139 bench, though hard lumber, such as oak or maple, is best. The last mentioned is most often used. The bench described above may be fitted up with a machinist’s, cabinet maker’s, pattern maker’s or any other type of vise the builder may desire. A very satisfactory form for general wood KARE agen > 7 The completed work bench, with- out the vise, showing dimensions and general construction work is shown here. The greatest ad- vantage of the parallel jaw vise is the fact that at all times it will take firm hold on the work without injuring it or causing it to pop out as soon as work is begun. The upper part of the vise, as shown in the sketch, or the front jaw, is first worked up, after which the guides shown under the bench top are worked out and assembled. Care should be used to secure a snug fit, but no binding should be allowed. The edge of the bench top, together with the piece marked X, forms the back jaw. Both back and front jaws should have wood faces supplied them to take the wear. These are easily replaced. They are not shown in the drawing. The part P is best an iron plate, although wood will serve; 4” x 1” x 12” is the size. The iron washer is cut from the same size stock. The ends suppert the back of the slide marked S. They should project *4” from G. Carriage bolts are used to bolt the guides together and to the bench top. The screw is of the usual form and manner. The nut, however, is not fas- tened as usually, but instead is bolted to the underside of X by means of the clamp shown. The satisfaction this bench and vise will afford will quickly repay the builder for all time and expense required to make them. a SS a Sa e

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A Sprinkling Can as a Dark Room Lamp N example of how a com- mon utensil can be converted to a purpose other = than the one for which it was originally intended is shown in the illustration. A night light or a candle is placed inside a sprin- kling can set on its side, and the semi- oval opening which receives the water is covered with a few folds of ruby tissue paper affixed with music tape or glued tags. In this simple way, a very service- able dark room lamp is obtained. Venti- lation is provided for through the noz- zle; the bend prevents the escape of light. An Adjustable Arc Lamp OODEN arms are pivoted to the wood support byascrew and washer. The upper ends of the arms are drawn together by a rubber band __ passed around them. The carbons are clamped in spring clothes pins, which, being fastened to the arms with one screw only, allows them to be swung up or down. By this means the carbons may be adjusted at any angle to each other. A spool is fastened at the lower part of the wood support with a long screw and washer. Two pieces of string are tied to opposite ends of the spool, given a few turns around it in the same di- rection, and fastened to tacks at the ends of the arms. The spool is fast- ened with just enough tension so that it will stay in place no matter which way it may be furned in adjusting the dis- tance between the carbons. Two pieces of spring brass wire are made into coils somewhat smaller than the carbons. These are sprung on the ends of the carbons, making good con- Popular Science Monthly tact with them. The wires carrying the current are connected directly with these brass wires. Pieces of sheet fiber fitted in the jaws of the clothes pin clamps af- ford additional insulation, although the wood parts, if dry, are quite sufficient insulation for low voltages. With an 110 voli house-lighting cur- rent, the lamp should be run in series with suitable lamp bank or other resist- ance. If the current is alternating, a choke coil may be used in series with it. Adjustable Printing-Frame Holder HOTOG- RAPHERS are often re- quired to print a negative more,g deeply at one end than at another; but the ordinary method of holding the frame in the hand is unsteady and unreliable. An adjust- able support for a printing-frame, en- abling the operator to set one end fur- ther from the light than the other, is shown in the sketch. It consists of a wooden base upon which is supported and pivoted a block fitted with two up- rights. With the aid of a ratchet and swivel indicated, the block may be moved to various positions. The two uprights are also furnished with a ratchet and screw, which grasp the printing-frame in the two trough-shaped groups pro- vided in the latter. Various sized print- ing-frames may be inserted in this holder, and with the aid of the ratchets, the distances from the light to different portions of the negative may -be easily adjusted. Alcohol Burner N excellent alco- hol burner can be made from an oil can with the spout cut off about an inch above the body, and a wick inserted. -The flame can be raised by pick- ing with a pin or any other sharp pointed instrument.

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How to Build an Ice-Boat HE ice-boat described is fast for its size, and can be built at a small cost. It has a sail area of about 70 sq. ft— enough to carry two people. Good lum- ber should be used, such as bass wood or white pine, and the weight should be kept as low as possible. The sail is of the “balanced” type. The dimensions are: Boom, or bottom, 10’; gaff, or top, 6’; leach, or back, 12’; and luff, or front, 7’. This sail can be Fig. 1. The completed ice-boat, showing details of the sail drawn tight by means of the rope and pulley on the boom as shown is Fig. 3. The flatter a sail hangs, the closer the boat will sail into the wind, for which reason two bamboo poles are put across the sail as shown in Fig. 1. A set of Fig. 2. Showing construction of the runner plank reef points should be fastened to the lower bamboo pole so the sail area can be decreased in case of a strong wind. In making the sail, first chalk its out- line on the floor, cut and sew the strips as shown in Fig. 1. The outer edge should be turned over and a cord sewn in. The top of the sail is not straight but is cut with a slight curve. Lace the sail to the poles with a strong cord. The mast is 14’ high. Care should be taken to select straight-grained wood for the mast. At one-fourth of the distance from the top, the mast should be 3” in diameter and taper to 2%” at top and bottom. The bottom should rest on a hardwood block with a 24” hole drilled into it. Drill this hole 1144” deep and fasten the block securely to the bowsprit 114’ in front of the center of the runner plank. The mast is held in place by three wire stays. On the two side Stays, turn- buckles should be used to tighten the wires. Fasten a 314” ring to the boom with rawhide | to hold the = boom in place on the mast. Tie the top ring to the end of the rope, with which the sail is hoisted and thread the rope through the pulley on the center of the gaff, Fig. 3. A strong rope should be fastened as shown in Fig. 3. Do not make the sail poles until the sail is completed, and then make them 6” or 8’” longer than the sail so stretching can be taken up. For drawing the sail in and out, fasten the rope and pulleys as shown in Fig. 1. The runners and runner guides are made of oak. Cut runners as shown in Fig. 4, and fit iron shoes to them. For runner shoes use 34” square iron rod and flatten both ends so that holes can be drilled for bolts, to fasten to runners. Fig. 3. Mast Rigging 141 a a EE dine ans A iA wea discs et Si BS

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142 The runner irons are not perfectly flat on the bearing edge, but have about 4%” rocker curve. Fig. 5 shows how the runners are pivoted on the riding bolt. The top of the rudder post is square. Drill a small hole at top of the rudder ) = i Fig. 4. Construction of the runners post for a cotter pin so that the tiller will not slip off while sailing. A good rudder post can be made from an old bicycle fork. Put an iron plate and washers under the boat so the rudder will turn easily. For the runner plank use a 2” x 8” plank 8’ long. The side braces are 2” x 4” and the bowsprit is a 2” x 6” re- enforced by a 1” board on each side, Fig. 2. The cockpit is 5’ long and for the flooring use 1” matched boards. Give all woodwork a few coats of paint. Al WGA \\ \ va) "| “| J 2" Big. 5, Method of piv- oting the runners on the riding bolt How to Draw an Ellipse RAW the major and minor axes. ‘With a radius equal to one-half of the major axis from the extremity the minor axis describe an arc cutting the major axis. At the two points where the major axis is cut, place tacks or pins. Then place the pencil on the end of either axis and pass a thread around the point of it and the two tacks. Draw the thread tight and tie it. Describe the eclipse. If it is desired to use ink a pen is substituted for the pencil. Popular Scrence Monthly A Doorstep Burglar Alarm N alarm ringing arrangement which will announce the intrusion of un- desirable visitors can be installed on a door step, and be completely concealed. One of the steps is removed and re- placed with a hinge at the back. Be- neath the step a spring contact is placed and connected with batteries and a bell. A rubber cushion is tacked along the edge of the board upon which the step rests. The weight of the body on the step will press the contacts to- gether, closing the circuit, The resilien- cy of the rubber cushion will press the step back in place when the weight is re- moved. cs ee =. - Sfep To closed cirttlit==- — The contact is made and the alarm bell rung by the pressure of any weight, even that of a child A Simple Laboratory Burner GOOD burner for the laboratory which can be eas- ily constructed is shown in the sketch, which is self-explanatory. The _ standard was made from 34” pipe fittings, and the valve was obtained from an old kitchen gas range. Waterproofing Shoes HE soles of shoes or boots may be made waterproof, and also made to wear much longer, by giving them three coats of varnish, allowing each coat to soak into the leather well before applying another. RE TOE HE RE LAORETEN

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RAE io eevee a RADIO SECTION Devoted to the Encouragement of Amateurs and Experimenters in the Field of Radio Communication Impedance of Oscillation Circuits in Wireless Telegraphy By John Vincent N last month’s article it was shown that every antenna had a particular natural wave-length, or fundamental wavelength, which it would radiate if it were excited electrically and then left to oscillate. It was pointed out that this natural wavelength depended upon the capacity and inductance of the aerial, and that these in turn depended upon the total length of the antenna-to-ground system. It was also shown that if in- ductance were added in series with the antenna, so as to “load” the system elec- tically, the resonant wave- length would be increased. A simple rule for comput- ing arithmetically the reso- nant radiant wavelength in meters, when the capacity in microfarads and the in- ductance in millihenrys is known, was stated. It should be noted espe- cially that the wavelength radiated depends upon the (ss be the same as the frequency of the oscillating current in the antenna system, which produces it, and the oscillation frequency is determined by the amount of capacity and inductance in the anten- na circuit. Considering ether-waves ‘of the sort used in radio-telegraphy, which pass over the surface of the earth from the sender to receivers in any direction at a speed of 186,000 miles per second, the usual relation petween velocity, wave- length and wave-frequency may be used. In these waves, as in any other traveling waves, the frequency is found by di- viding the velocity by the wavelength. =ys A wavelength of 2,000 ‘ meters has, therefore, a LOH wave-frequency of 150,- ooo per second, since the . al velocity in meters per Fig. 1 - second (300,000,000) di- cuit. The reason for this size of the capacity and inductance coils in the cir- f is that the length of radi- Gy vided by the length (2,000 meters) gives this figure. P Thus, to find the frequen- - cy per second of any wave- length in radio , divide ated wave depends upon its — frequency, or the number three hundred million by of times in one second the electromagnetic field pass- , es through a complete cycle of change in direction. ay the wavelength in meters. YS =! Similarly, to find the wave- = length in meters for any = frequency, divide the fre- = quency per second into This wave-frequency must Fig. 3 300,000,000, which goes: — pc a tn en —_- = — ee a aS Ee IS es i ne i a

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144 WAVELENGTH FREQUENCY Meters Cycles per second 300 1,000,000 600 500,000 1,000 300,000 2,000 150,000 3,000 100,000 These frequency values are not only the numbers of cycles per second in the radio waves, but also the frequencies of the oscillating currents which will set up such waves. Referring to Figure 1, if E represents a radio frequency alter- nator which generates current of 100,000 cycles per second in the antenna-to- ground circuit A, I, B, E, G, the system will radiate waves corresponding to that frequency, or 3,000 meters in length. The stronger the 100,000 cycle current in the antenna, the more powerful will be the radiated waves. It is therefore desirable to do anything possible to in- crease this antenna current. Also, the higher the antenna the more powerful will be the radiation of waves for a given current. It is for this reason that great heights are sought in erecting sending antennas. When a battery or direct current gen- erator applies a voltage or electrical pressure across the terminals of a circuit having resistance, an electric current flows through that circuit. The strength of the current is fixed by the amounts of voltage and resistance, and, measured in amperes, equals the number of volts pressure divided by the number of ohms resistance. This is simply Ohm’s Law in its elementary form, and the fact is one of the first things learned in the study of electricity. But its extension to alternating current circuits is not so well understood, though it is very little more complicated. In fact, the same law in the same form applies to alternating cur- rents, if one uses instead of the simple ohmic resistance its alternating current equivalent, or impedance. Impedance, or effective alternating- current resistance, is the property of cir- cuits which determines how much cur- rent will flow when a certain alternating voltage is applied. The current in am- peres is always equal to the applied electro-motive force in volts divided by the impedance in ohms. If, in Figure 1, Popular Science Monthly the alternator E generates 100,000 cy- cles and 100 volts, and if the total im- pedance of the antenna-to-ground circuit is 5 ohms for this frequency, a radio- frequency current of 20 amperes will flow through the ammeter I, and waves of corresponding intensity will be radi- ated. If the impedance were 10 ohms, only 10 amperes would flow and the waves would be very much weaker. Evi- dently for powerful sending the antenna circuit impedance must be kept as small as possible, since then the current is largest. How can the impedance be made small? Before this question can be an- swered it is necessary to find out what impedance really is, and whether it is always the same for any particular circuit. Four quantities enter into the makeup of impedance, and these are the resist- ance, capacity and inductance of the cir- cuit, and the frequency of the current flowing in it. That portion which de- pends upon the capacity and inductance of the circuit is called the reactance, and changes as the frequency changes. This reactance is always added by a special rule to the simple resistance to make up the total impedance. The resistance it- self remains practically constant for rea- sonably small changes of frequency, but the reactance may vary greatly if the frequency is changed even slightly. The effort to increase antenna current by making impedance as small as_ possible must therefore be confined almost en- tirely to reducing the reactance portion, since the simple resistance of coils, wires and earth connection is always reduced to the smallest feasible amount to begin with. The computation of reactance in al- ternating current circuits is not compli- cated, and may be considered in two parts. Referring to Fig. 2, a resistance R is seen in series with an alternator E and ammeter I. Since reactance de- pends upon the presence of inductance or capacity, and since the circuit of Fig. I has no inductance or capacity, there is zero reactance. The impedance is there- fore made up of the resistance R only, and the current I is found, in amperes, by dividing the resistance in ohms (which in this case equals the impedance in Soo grea ee LON FA TEI TS

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Popular Science Monthly ohms) into the alternator electromotive force in volts. This is true for any fre- quency, except for comparatively small changes in the resistance. If instead of the resistance there is connected a coil having inductance, L in Fig. 3, a very different condition holds. This circuit possesses inductive react- ance of an amount in ohms equal to 6.28 times the frequency of the current times the inductance of the coil in henrys. If the alternator frequency is 100,000 per second and the coil has 5 millihenrys (or 5/1000 of a henry) inductance, the inductive reactance is 6.28 times 100,000 times 5/1000, or 3140 ohms. Assuming the resistance to be zero, if the alter- nator produces 100 volts, 145 in effect an exact opposite of inductive reactance, and each may be used to neu- tralize the current limiting characteristic of the other. This opposition of capacity and induct- ance reactances is one of the most im- portant phenomena made use of in radio telegraphy, and is the basis of resonance. The action may be illustrated by study- ing Figure 5, where a condenser and an inductance are connected in series with the alternator and ammeter. Assuming resistance still to be zero and remember- ing that the effective reactance in ohms is equal to the inductive reactance minus the capacity reactance, or vice versa, the remainder taking the name, of the larger component. This is found only 100/3140 or 0.0318 of ) —— to be 3180 minus 3140 an ampere will flow. Thus _ ; ohms, or only 40 ohms ca- for this frequency the sim- ys ple coil of wire presents more effective resistance pacity reactance. In the y circuit of Fig. 5, therefore, a voltage of 100 at 100,000 than would a straight car- Fig. 4 cycles would cause 2.5 am- bon rod of 3,000 ohms. It GN peres to flow through the should be noted that the YS = condenser and inductance higher the frequency goes . = in series. This is over 750. the greater becomes the re- = times as much current as actance, and therefore the + would flow through either impedance, of a coil. At Fig. 5 the condenser or the coil zero frequency, which is fF ; alone, and is made possible direct current, the react- ance vanishes and the im- pedance of the coil is merely its resistance. Still another condition holds if a condenser is con- Fig. 6 nected in the circuit, as in Fig. 4. The circuit now has what is called capacity reactance, and this, in ohms, amounts to the reciprocal of 6.28 times the frequency times the capacity in farads. If the frequency is 100,000 per second and the capacity is 0.0005 microfarad (or 5/10,000,000,000 farad), the capacity reactance figures out 6.28 times 100,000 times 5/10,000,000,000 di- vided into 1, or 0.000314 divided into 1, or 3,180 ohms. This would permit about one-thirtieth of an ampere to flow if 100 volts at 100,000 cycles were applied. The most important thing to note as to capac- ity reactance is that it decreases as the size of the condenser increases, and as the applied frequency increases. . It is rom) by the neutralizing effect above stated. If the con- denser were of slightly more than 0.0005 micro- farad capacity, so as to make its capacity reactance exactly equal numerically to the inductive reactance, these two ele- ments would neutralize completely, for the total reactance would be zero. If the resistance were also zero there would be no limit to the current in the circuit; in practice there is always some resist- ance in circuit, and this determines the number of amperes which will flow through the circuit for a given voltage, if the resonant condition exists. Fig. 6 shows the practical closed cir- cuit of capacity, inductance and resist- ance. The current in amperes equals the e. m. f. in volts divided by the im- pedance in ohms. The impedance equals the square root of the sum of the square of the resistance and the square of the iS ia ant i emai os eee i ci cn io eR i tI in

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146 total reactance. The total reactance is found by subtracting the capacity por- tion from the inductance portion, each computed as above. When the con- denser and the inductance are chosen so that they neutralize each other for the operating frequency, the impedance reaches its lowest possible value and equals the simple resistance. This con- dition of balanced reactances, therefore, gives the largest possible current for any applied voltage of the given frequency. The circuit in this condition is in reso- nance, and the frequency for which the capacity and inductance neutralize is the resonant frequency. The antenna circuit of Fig. 1 is in many ways equivalent to the closed cir- cuit of Fig. 6. The aerial itself pos- Popular Science Monthly sesses capacity, inductance and _ resist- ance, and the coil B adds to the system inductance and resistance. If the total inductance of the circuit is adjusted by varying coil B so that it exactly neutral- izes the capacity of the antenna for the frequency of the alternator E, the an- tenna will be resonant or tuned to this frequency and the greatest aerial cur- rent will flow. If the inductance is changed, or if the frequency of E is al- tered, the reactance will at once com- mence to grow large and by increasing the impedance will cut down the antenna current and the radiated waves. In the next article further useful ap- plications of resonance will be described. and additional simple computations ex- plained. Recent Radio Inventions By A. F. Jackson A patent issued during 1915 to C. D. Ainsworth and bearing number 1,145,735 shows an interesting ar- rangement of three-electrode vacuum- tube detector. Fig. 1 indicates the con- struction of the device and the circuit connections. Referring to this drawing, within an evacuated glass bulb 7 is sealed a support 8 which carries a_ tubular anode 2 and two electrodes 4 and 6, also in the form of tubes and concentric with the central conductor. The two outer cylinders are made of woven wire, 4 (which may correspond to the grid of an audion) being of somewhat finer mesh than 6. The tube is operated cold, i. e., without a filament heated by auxil- iary current, and secures its conductivity through the radio-active material, such as uranium, which is placed near the electrodes at 9. The usual circuits, com- bining antenna and ground with induc- tively coupled secondary coil zo and tuning condenser 77, are used. The central electrode, however, corresponds approximately to the plate in the usual audion arrangement, and is connected to the positive terminal of the battery 3 through the telephone 12. No series con- denser in the circuit of electrode 4 is shown. The patentee explains the operation of the detector by saying that the rarefied gas within the tube is made conductive by the radiation from 9, which may be a compound of uranium, thorium, radi- um or actinium, and that consequently a steady small current tends to pass from 2 to 6 and to 4. The voltage of 13 is adjusted just below that which will “break down the electrical resistance of sl0 jle (°) (¢) = M 4 asian / ’ 5 ‘Radio octive material Fig. 1. An interesting arrangement of three-electrode vacuum-tube detector the ionized gas” when no signals are be- ing received; but when currents are in- duced in the secondaty system from the antenna, a re-distribution of potential takes place and the battery flows, so producing a signal in the telephones. This described operation is therefore 1 scrape netaaegs e « eR ORP MEMES ueaerennar soe = meets ee

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CARE OTR. “asco . « - RT RNR RET EET RENEE EGE eT permet oe Popular Science Monthly closely analogous to that of an auto- coherer, in which incoming-wave energy changes the resistance of a conductor and thus alters the amount of current flowing through it from a local battery. In his early experiments with the au- dion, Lee deForest is said to have used radio-active compounds in place of the heated filament, but without success be- 4 Pod — = 6 3 “4 56, Fig. 2. A heterodyne receiver, operating on the electrical beats principle cause of the difficulty in securing suffi- cient conductivity by ionazation. The detector of the Ainsworth patent should prove a useful instrument when devel- oped to a practical operating point, since, as the patentee points out, constancy in operation may be expected and the nui- sance and expense of filaments and heat- ing batteries are done away with. U. S. Patents 1,141,386 and 1,141,453, issued in 1915 to R. A. Fessenden, show not only a simple “heterodyne” receiver operating on the electrical-beats principle now so widely used, in Fig. 2, but also a method for simultaneously sending and receiving with continuous waves, as in Fig. 3. Taking up the first of these, it is seen that the antenna 7 is connected to ground 2 through the primary of the inductive coupler 3. The secondary / has in series with it a variable tuning inductance 66, a condenser 5 and one winding of an electro-dynamometer-tele- phone, 6. The second telephone winding 14 is coupled to a small radio-frequency alternator 77 through a transformer 8, 9. The dynamometer 6, 74, consists of two coils placed end to end, one of which is stationary and may have a fine iron- wire core and the other of which is mounted upon a diaphragm 7. In re- ceiving radio signals the antenna and secondary systems are tuned exactly or approximately to the frequency of the incoming waves, so that currents of this 147 frequency will be induced in coil 6. The alternator, 17, is then run at a radio frequency slightly different from that being received, and its current output led to coil 17. The magnetic fields of these two coils interact one upon the other; when the currents are relatively in one direction, the fields add and the diaphragm, 7, is attracted, and when the currents are relatively reversed, the fields oppose each other and the diaphragm is repelled. This alternate adding and op- posing of fields goes on constantly be- cause of the slight difference in frequency of the two currents, and the diaphragm is moved back and forth at a rate deter- mined by the difference in the frequen- cies. If the incoming wave is of 6,000 meters length, which corresponds to 50,000 cycles per second frequency, and the local generator produces currents of 50,500 cycles frequency, the number of impulses impressed upon the diaphragm will be 500 per second. This last is called the “beat frequency” of the heter- odyne receiver, and is the frequency of the signal tone heard by listening to the telephone diaphragm, 7. No beats or impulses on the diaphragm are produced unless both currents are flowing; there- jt ‘hit wr? + Fig. 3. Sending and receiving simul- taneously with continuous waves fore, although power from alternator 17 is constantly flowing, signals are heard only when waves are received on the antenna from the distant sending station. This dynamometer heterodyne gives a much louder signal than could be ob-

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148 tained from the magnetic effect of the incoming waves applied directly to a suit- able air-core or self-excited telephone, since the magnetic force acting on the diaphragm depends upon the product of the two currents in the coils 6 and 14, and that in r4 from the local generator may be made quite large. Figure 3 shows the duplex hetero- dyne system. Here the receiver just described has added to it, in series with the antenna, a radio-frequency alternator powerful enough to generate the strong waves used in sending. This transmit- ting alternator has its field coils, 76, sup- plied with power through the sending key, 78, and also has connected across its armature terminals a circuit which is Fig. 4. An improved form of heterodyne receiver coupled to the receiver coil, 14, by way of transformer 68, 69. The condenser, 27, may be inserted to tune the auxiliary circuit. All the other main elements of Fig. 3 are the same as shown in Fig. 2, except that variable condenser 22 may be added to make the diaphragm-coil circuit resonant. When the sending key, 78, is open the sending generator, 26, does not generate and the system is entirely equivalent to that shown in Fig. 2, since all the receiv- ing portions are operative. When the key is depressed to make a Morse dot or dash, however, the generator field circuit is closed and intense radio-frequency currents are set up in the aerial system. These induce strong currents in the re- ceiver coil, 6, which might have so great an effect on the diaphragm as to make receiving from the distant station impos- Popular Science Monthly sible. Closing the key, however, con- nects in the circuit 27, 68, and through the coupling transformer similar, but op- posed strong currents are set up in the receiver coil 14. The intensity and phase of these is adjusted so that their mag- netic field exactly neutralizes that of the transmitter currents in coil 6, and the diaphragm is therefore left undisturbed and in receiving condition even though the key is pressed down. Thus the aerial is used for sending at the same time it receives. This duplex system makes possible the transmission of twice the normal amount of traffic between two radio stations, for messages can pass both Ways simultaneously. Since the same aerial is used both for sending and re- ceiving, there is no need for erection of separate sending and receiving sta- tions located some distance apart and connected by wire lines, as is done at the Marconi trans-oceanic plants. The patent specification points out a number of variations of both simple and duplex heterodyne operation; for instance, the telephone receiver may be mechanically tuned to the beat-note frequency, or the action of the dyna- mometer may control a microphonic- contact relay (73, Fig. 3) operating an ordinary telephone 12 by varying the current from a local battery rz. It is also suggested that, instead of cur- rents, the voltages set up-*by the re- ceived waves may be used to interact with locally generated radio-frequency voltages, upon an electro-static tele- phone, to produce heterodyne beats and a musical signal. An improvement upon the dynamo- meter heterodyne just described is the subject of 1915 U. S. Patent number 1,141,717, issued to J. W. Lee and J. L. Hogan, Jr. In principle this receiver is identical with the older forms of heterodyne, but instead of adding the effects of the incoming and _ locally generated currents mechanically upon a dynamometer device, the two are combined electrically. As shown in Fig. 4, a normal receiving outfit is first set up. This may consist of the antenna A, having in series with it to ground F a loading coil B, the primary

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+E SORENTO eS . . —— Popular Science Moni)/y of the receiving coupling C and the sec- ondary of anogher oscillation transform- er E. The secondary D may have the tuning condenser Q connected across its terminals leading to the detector R and stopping condenser S. Across this last named are connected the ordinary telephones ZT and potentiometer with battery, U. In addition to these usual receiving instruments, a generator of radio frequency current is coupled to the oscillation circuits. This may be, as shown in Fig. 4, an oscillating arc J having the resonant condenser H and inductance G connected serially across it and fed with direct current from O through resistance M and choke coils Be The heterodyne operation of this re- | AVUVVV VU Nez ANANAA NN \ VVVVVUVVY AAA | Ms Na Ps AAs Ally. Al sound, Fig. 5. Curve indicating operation of new rectifier heterodyne ceiver may be explained with reference to Fig. 5, which is a series of curves roughly representing the currents in the several circuits. The upper line, N1, indicates the incoming-wave cur- rents as they would be set up in the antenna and secondary circuits if sig- nals were arriving but the local oscilla- tor were not in operation. The second curve N2 shows the current of slightly different frequency which is generated by the local oscillator itself, as it would be induced in the receiving circuits ii no signals were being received. The third curve, N3, represents the beat- current which is produced in the cir- cuits when signals are being received and the local generator is running; this current is seen to change from zero to 149 maximum strength regularly, accord- ing to whether the two interacting cur- rents aid or oppose each other. This varying radio-frequency current has a beat frequency equal to the difference of the two radio frequencies, just as in the simple magnetic heterodyne, and, when rectified by the detector R, produces in the telephone circuit a pul- sating direct current corresponding to the heavy curve on axis N4. These pulses of course act on the telephone diaphragm in the well known manner and produce a musical signal tone of the beat-frequency. This recent type of heterodyne is the forerunner of many receivers used to- day for continuous wave signals. In some of these the local oscillator is a suitably arranged audion bulb and the detector a second audion. Occasion- ally amplifiers are added, and a very sensitive receiving system thereby ob- tained. In some instances the same audion bulb is used as a local gener- ator, and, simultaneously, as the de- tector and amplifier. The basic method of operation can be traced back, how- ever, to the heterodyne principles ex- plained in the above three patents and outlined herein. A Multiple Point Switch HE drawing shows a positive con- tact, smooth running multi-point switch, having 14-inch diameter switch points on 34-inch centers, with the width of contact arm %-inch. It may be seen from the drawing that all movable con- tacts are of the self-cleaning knife edge type. An attractive and substantial in- strument is the result. This switch may be used on the high voltage audion battery circuit by leaving each alternate contact point dead, and making connection through the central contact ring. This protects the battery against short circuits. po0ao00000, Hi \ ito EN NEN AB SES This switch may be used on a high voltage audion battery circuit — rns een eR BIE 2 Ree nc aR ANAS a

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Radio Stations in Alaska By Vincent I. Kraft ADIO communication plays an im- portant role in Alaska. Many cities and towns which would otherwise be iso- lated are kept in touch with the rest of the civilized world by this agency alone, and the United States Government em- ploys it to communicate with govern- ment vessels in North Pacific waters, and to receive the weather reports from all parts of the northland. Remote as Alaska is from the source of radio in- ventions and improvements, the Alaskan stations represent strictly up-to-date methods of radio communication. During the past [e)25" tower few months a great of rendering service that the United States Army cable does at present, be- tween the United States and the above- mentioned points. Experiments are still being conducted between Ketchikan and Astoria, the longest of the spans, and although the wave lengths that will be employed in actual commercial com- munication had not been definitely de- termined upon up to last August, it had been found comparatively easy to cover the distance satisfactorily, using waves between 3,000 and 5,000 meters in length. Signals ranging in strength a from 1,000 to 1,500 Ul times audibility are deal of construc- ee received at Ketchi- tion work has been kan from Astoria done in Alaska, in daylight, and both in improving ronan naar 5 F t h i S intensity is the existing sta- considerably more tions, and in the than necessary for erection of new good commercial ones. The past [8] zomres each 1000" long [e] operation, employ- year has witnessed Diagram of the ee: daa at Ketchikan, ing a typewriter at the completion of the Ketchikan unit of the new chain of semi-high-powered stations. Here the Marconi Company has built a 25 kw. plant, which is at present in daylight communication with a similar outfit lo- cated at Astoria, Oregon. This first span of the new chain is over a dis- tance of 640 nautical miles, and con- nects Ketchikan, the southernmost city of importance in Alaska, with the United States. Astoria was chosen as the United States terminus of the chain, after a series of tests in many parts of Washington and Oregon, on account of its natural adaptability to Alaska work. Another station, of ten kilowatts ca- pacity, will soon be erected at Juneau, the capital of Alaska, and will be within daylight range of the Ketchikan station. The erection of a fourth station, in the vicinity of Seward, the terminus of the new Government railroad, is contem- plated. Other stations will probably be erected later. This chain of stations will be capable 150 the receiving sta- tion. The installation at Ketchikan, the largest of the stations of the new chain, includes four steel towers of the self- supporting type, 315 feet in height, be- tween which is supported an antenna of 20 wires 1,000 feet in length. The sta- tion is equipped with a 60-cycle trans- mitter of 25 kw. rated capacity, provided with a synchronous disc discharger. The transmitter is able to operate at 100 per cent. overload. The receiver is of the standard Marconi panel type, adapted to the reception of waves up to ten thou- sand meters in length. The station at Astoria, Oregon, is a duplicate of the Ketchikan installation. The United States Navy, which has maintained stations for many years in Alaska, is improving its present installa- tions and building new ones. The sta- tion at St. Paul (Pribilof Islands), since its erection some four years ago, has been equipped with a set of five kw. capacity Telefunken apparatus. The eee oe pee NTE GEREIE ED IE EI

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— — ' ‘ | Ce ee fe ee ee | — Oe OR GF le ee w Sv ©t 8 oe rT ’ Av Popular Scvence Monthly Navy is planning to increase the height of the masts to 500 feet and install a 25 kw. set in addition to the present 5 kw. one. The new set will be of the Poul- sen arc type, for the generation of con- tinuous waves. The station at Unalga Island has been dismantled, and that at Dutch Harbor (Unalaska) will be in- creased in size, to make it capable of handling the traffic heretofor handled by the Unalga station. Unalga and Dutch Harbor are only eighteen miles apart, and it was not deemed necessary to maintain both stations. These two stations are peculiarly well located for long distance radio work. The station at Unalga Island has several times been in direct communication with the United States Navy station at Key West, Florida, nearly six thousand miles distant, although the power employed at Unalga Island was only ten kw. The operators at Unalga claim to have copied quite regularly, during the winter months, many stations on the Atlantic coast, in spite of the fact that Unalga Island is located more than fifteen hun- dred miles west of the Pacific coastline of the United States. Stations in Japan, Russia, China and the Philippine Islands are heard regularly and were it not for the fact that the Asiatic stations use lan- guages other than English in their regu- lar work, the operators at Dutch Harbor or Unalga Island could easily communi- cate with them. . The station at Wood Island (Kodiak) is one of the most efficient the Navy has in Alaska. This is undoubtedly due largely to its favorable geographical lo- cation. Kodiak is within daylight range of St. Paul (575 nautical miles distant), Cordova (260 miles), and Sitka (530 miles). Occasionally Kodiak has been in daylight communication with Unalga Island, and it is very probable that, when the improvements at the Dutch Harbor station are affected, that station will be in daylight range of Kodiak. The station at Cape Whiteshed (Cordova) has been rather unsatisfactory for long distance work, although this station is equipped in an up-to-date manner with a ten kw. Telefunken set. This may be due to a poor location. The station at Sitka is one of the first put up by the Navy in Alaska, and has 151 done very efficient work, although not until recently has it been equipped with the latest type apparatus. At present two sets are installed, one being a five kw. Telefunken set, and the other a 20 kw. 240 cycle synchronous rotary dis- charger set. The installation of vacuum tube am- plifiers in all the Navy stations of Alas- ka, recently, has made a marked improvement in the service ren- dered. Stations that have previ- ously had diffi- culty in main- taining commu- nication are now Umbrella antenna used working without on Alaska stations trouble. The working range with vessels is also materially increased thereby, as the amplifiers enable the Navy stations to receive signals from the 1 and 2 kw. sets on board ships, as far as the ships are able to receive sig- nals from the five and ten kw. equip- ments of the Navy stations, and often- times farther. The Navy has but re- cently inaugurated a new service, where- by vessels in communication with its Alaska stations may send in reports of their positions daily, which are to be re- layed without charge to the Navy sta- tion at North Head, Wash., where the position reports are turned over to the telegraph lines for transmission to the daily papers of the Pacific Coast. By this service, the reports of positions of vessels in Alaskan waters each night, are published in the following morning’s pa- pers in all the principal cities of the coast. Heretofor the Alaskan station have been able to communicate with North Head at night only, but since the in- stallation of the audion amplifiers, day- light service has been possible to a lim- ited extent between North Head and Sit- ka, using waves under 2,000 meters in length. This is over a distance of 780 nautical miles. During the summer months there is but an hour or two of darkness each night, and during the lat- ter part of June and the early part of July, it does not get even completely jn ee fo i ee

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152 dark. This has made it very difficult to handle traffic during the summer months and as the communication is limited to the period of darkness, it has frequently happened. that more business has been offered than could be despatched during one night. For this reason, the Govern- ment has been desirous of installing equipment, capable of handling traffic between North Head and Alaska, during all seasons, day and night. With this object in view, the Navy has ordered a thirty kw. arc set to be installed in the present Cordova (Cape Whiteshed) sta- tion, to test with North Head. By em- ploying continuous waves of great length, generated by this set, it is very probable that the desired daylight com- munication will be established. A much larger station will also be erected near Cordova, at Mile 13 on the Copper River and Northwestern Railroad. Here will be installed a one hundred kw. arc set, which will insure continuous communi- cation between Alaska and the United States, and may make direct communi- cation with Arlington (Va.) possible. The adoption of the arc type trans- mitter, by the Navy, marks a long-fore- seen step in advance, and the results of the tests to be conducted by the Navy will be watched with interest by the en- gineering profession. If the operation of the continuous wave transmitters proves satisfactory between the United States and Alaska, where the conditions are unusually trying, it is not improbable that they will be installed throughout the Navy service. The Signal Corps, of the United States Army, operates a chain of sta- tions throughout the interior of Alaska, with stations on the coast at Nome, St. Michael, Kotlik, Petersburg and Wran- gell. These stations serve districts where the maintenance if not the con- struction of a landline would be a very difficult matter. The Signal Corps sta- tions work in conjunction with the United States-Alaska cable system, and the interior land telegraph system, both of which are owned by the Signal Corps. In the interior many points have radio stations as the only means of communi- cation, because the extremely heavy snow fall prohibits the use of telegraph lines. Between Nome and St. Michael, Popular Science Monthly a distance of about 120 miles, it was found, after many futile attempts, im- possible to keep a cable intact, during the winter months, on account of the heavy ice floes, which carried the cable away. Accordingly radio stations were erected at these points, and all cable or telegraph trathc for Nome is now sent by radio from St. Michael. A some- what similar condition exists between Wrangell and Petersburg, in Southeast- ern Alaska, but in this case it is the tides in Wrangell Narrows, rather than ice floes, which make the maintaining of a cable difficult. With few exceptions, the Signal Corps stations in Alaska are of one uni- form type. The regulation equipment consists of a single 200-foot steel tower, from which is supported a 12-wire um- brella antenna, and a ten kw. Telefunken set. Receiving equipments include both Telefunken and I-P-76 Tuners. Most of the stations have counterpoises. Another group of radio stations in Alaska, is the group of salmon cannery stations. The majority of salmon can- neries are located at points distant from the cable or telegraph lines, and for their own convenience, the owners have in- stalled, or leased, small sets. These sta- tions work with Government or Com- mercial stations, and afford a means of communication with the outside world. These sets, at small expense, handle business between the canneries and the home offices of the packing companies, in the United States, that would other- wise have to go by the slower mail. These stations are in operation during the canning season only, which lasts from about May to September, and are some ten or fifteen in number. In times past, when the Seattle-Alaska cable has broken, the radio stations of the Government, in conjunction with the commercial stations of Alaska have sat- isfactorily handled the heavy traffic al- though these station then had _ low- powered sets, and were able to hold communication at night only. With the completion of the improvements and new installations now planned for, however, the radio system of Alaska will be capa- ble of giving uninterrupted service be- tween the United States and most of the important points of Alaska.

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+= OO O20 ae al a Pont = | _— . =e ee oy ee ee tT — |wiictiil re \Y Aw ef Ss F {7 we ‘ ‘' sF— "Oe ~~ ae @ New Books on TEXT BOOK ON WIRELESS TELEG- RAPHY. By Rupert Stanley. Published by Longmans, Green & Co., New York, 1914. 344+XII pp., 200 illus. Price, $2.25. HIS book, by the professor of | physics and electrical engineering at the Municipal Technical Inst1- tute, Belfast, Ireland, is intended to fur- nish a proper introduction to the tech- nical problems of radio signaling. The common fault of assuming on the part of the student either on extended knowl- edge of electrical theory or an interest in long mathematical discussions has been avoided. The author omits considera- tion of items which do not lead directly to a clear understanding of radio trans- mission, but gives full treatment to the physical phenomena which are especially concerned. Of the twenty chapters the first four may be said to discuss the abstract topics of electrical radiation and energy trans- fer. The next two take up electrical units as measured and calculated, and the particular effects of capacity and self-induction. After descriptions of in- duction coil, transformer and alternator operation, and of oscillatory discharges of condensers, a brief history of radio is given in Chapter IX. Later chapters describe the operation of spark and sus- tained wave transmitters and receivers, the phenomena appearing in coupled circuits, the use and adjustment of tele- phone amplifiers, etc. A final chapter on radio telegraph measurements leads to appendices of codes and regulations, which, with a short index, complete the book. In taking up the elements of electri- city, the electron theory is used as a basis of explanation. The descriptive portions of the book are excellent, and the discussions of theory seem clear. The Goldschmidt, Poulsen, Marconi and Lepel arrangements for continuous wave operation are shown, and the plate quenched gap and older spark appara- tus are described in detail. More at- tention is given to British Marconi ap- paratus than that of any other firm; many constructional and wiring dia- Radio Subjects grams of various Marconi, Telefunken and other instruments are shown. The book can be recommended for careful study by anyone who desires not only a good technical acquaintance with radio but also a fair degree of familiar- ity with recent wireless telegraph prac- tice. WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY. By J. Zenneck. Transl. by A. E. Seelig. Published by McGraw- Hill Book Co., New York, 1915. 443+XX pp., 469 illus. Price, $4.00. This translation into English of Pro- fessor Zenneck’s “Lehrbuch,” the classic of radio telegraphic technical literature, is sure to be welcomed. Although many of the interrelations of electrical quan- tities are stated mathematically and in such form as to make a knowledge of the calculus desirable, nearly all these statements are explained so clearly that even the student who possesses only slight acquaintance with electrical matters can find much information in useful form. The book is thorough, and the radio reader will find as he advances in his work he will get out more and more as he rereads it. Chapter I is on condenser circuits and their oscillations, Chapter II on “open” or radiative circuits. Measurement, cal- culation and effects of frequency, damp- ing, energy losses, and electromagnetic fields are described. Chapter III dis- cusses the relations of resistance, in- ductance and capacity, current and volt- age in the high frequency alternating current circuit, and explains current measurements. Coupled circuits, with magnetic, conductive and static linking, are taken up in Chapter IV, and the dis- tinctions are brought out contrasting quenching against non-quenching opera- tion, as well as damped oscillations against sustained currents. The next chapter is on resonance and its measure- ments, while Chapter VI treats grounded antennas. Chapter VII, on transmitters of damped oscillations, describes first the plain antenna sender, second, the coupled tuned-circuit transmitter and, third, the quenching apparatus. This classifica- 153

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154 tion as well as the application of the names Marconi, Braun and Wien suc- cessively to the three types, is perhaps open to criticism. Radio frequency al- ternators of Fessenden and Goldschmidt, and the arc senders of Poulsen and Lo- renz, form the subjects of the next two chapters. The tenth chapter, on the propagation of waves over the earth’s surface, contains much interesting mate- rial as to the effects of earth resist- ance and capacity and of atmospheric changes. Chapters XI and XII describe the operation of detectors and receiving arrangements for both damped and sus- tained waves. The last two chapters are on directive transmission and _ radiotel- ephony, respectively. Some notes on progress up to 1912, a series of useful Popular Science Monthly tables, a bibliography and set of notes on theory and a very full index complete the book. This American edition is especially well printed and sets a high mark to be reached by other technical publications. As a reference work alone, recording and describing accomplishments in the radio arts, the book should be extremely useful to radio-engineers. As a text for a thorough course in both theory and op- eration of radio instruments its value can scarcely be overrated. Since the treatment is almost entirely a matter of facts undisputed by real authorities, the tendency to favor German workers on historical points may easily be over- looked in view of the importance of their technical work. Radio Club News Schenectady Radio Association HE Schenectady Radio Associa- tion, which was formerly known as the Amateur Wireless Association, held its annual election of officers in September, with results as follows: R. Denham, president; H. Vogel, vice- president; L. Pohlman, secretary; S. Dodd, assistant secretary; E. Kurth, treasurer, and A. LeTarte, librarian. The association meets every Thurs- day night in the High School building, where it has a 1 K.W. outfit. The un- official call letters are S. R. A. The As- sociation welcomes any visitors who wisa to attend its meetings, and would like to correspond with other similar clubs and persons interested in the radio field. The association is also planning to send representatives to New York city, to meet members of other organizations and would like to hear from them. Cincinnati School Radio Society The East Night High School Radio Society was organized with a member- ship of 52 amateurs and students of the school, in October, 1915. Officers elected at the first meeting were Wm. G. Finch, President; C. H. Fender, Secre- tary; Professor Frantz, Treasurer. It is proposed to install a modern 5 kw. ra- dio set, and thus to train the membership into a thorough knowledge of radio op- erating conditions. The secretary, who may be addressed in care of the school, Cincinnati, Ohio, will be glad to hear from the members of other nearby organizations. Bronx Radio Club At the last meeting of the Bronx Radio Club of New York, election of new officers was held. The results were as follows: M. Haber, President; H. Berlin, Secretary; J. Smith, Vice-president; A. Richter, Treasurer; A. Schoy, Business Manager. A lecture was delivered by one of the members on “The Theory of Wireless Transmission.” Lectures are given at every meeting, by the more advanced members of the club, dealing with timely topics of wireless or electrical interest. The club will be glad to communicate with other clubs and individuals, desir- ous of having information or particulars of the proceedings of the club. All com- munications should be addressed to the Secretary, 705 Home St., Bronx, N. Y. EL APE

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tv ve = Se ews © What Radio Readers Want to Know Increasing an Umbrella Aerial. C. A. P., Fresno, Cal., asks: Q. 1. Would it be advisable to add 2,000’ of wire to my umbrella aerial ? A. 1. If you add the wire so as to make the length of the antenna greater it will be ad- visable to add the amount of wire you men- tion. It would be better if you could ar- range so as to have this wire extend 300 or 400 feet out from the pole. This would give you a longer fundamental wavelength, which is necessary when receiving from stations using very long wavelights for transmission. Q. 2. Can I hear Arlington with a silicon detector ? A. 2. It is possible that you could hear NAA. Stations along the Atlantic coast with aerials no larger than yours have heard the high power stations of the Pacific coast. Very recently we had occasion to note the recep- tion of Berlin by an amateur station in Massa- chusetts. The operator used an oscillating audion in connection with a home-made re- ceiving set. His aerial was about 150 feet long and 50 feet high, although 300 feet above sea level and in sight of the ocean. Very ex- cellent work is being done by well informed amateurs who are using oscillating audions. Q. 3. What is the best receiver for long distances ? A. 3. We would advise you to equip your station with an oscillating audion. For in- formation regarding audions, oscillating au- dions, radio telegraphic transmitting and re- ceiving apparatus write to the DeForest Radio Telegraph & Telephone Co., 101 Park Avenue, New York City. Be sure to mention the fact that you desire the instruments for amateur experimental work, as the price is very much lower for this kind of work than when sold for commercial operation. They will supply you with bulletins covering the subject on request. Q. 4. What station uses call 2GN? A. 4. We have no record of these letters being assigned as yet. Radio Receiver Information. M. H., Wilmette, Ill, asks: Q. 1. What is the natural wavelength of an inverted L aerial of total length 85 ft. 5 wires on 9 ft. spreader, and 55 feet high? A. 1. About 200 meters. Q. 2. What size wire is most efficient for a loose coupler to receive 600 meter wave- lengths? A. 2. It makes very little difference what 15 size wire is used. In general the useful sizes run from about No. 22 to No. 28 B. & S. gauge. Q. 3. What would be the dimension and size of wire necessary to make a loading coil from 10,000 meter wavelengths? A. 3. Wind No. 28 S. C. C. magnet wire on a cylinder 5” in diameter and about 30” long. Q.4. Does the secondary circuit also need loading ? A. 4. Yes, or the two circuits would not be tuned to the same wavelength. The second- ary circuit is usually increased in period by shunting the secondary of the tuner with a variable condenser of large capacity. Load- ing inductance is also used the same as for the primary. Receiving Set For Amateurs. J. A. Strossman, Mt. Sterling, asks: Q. 1. I have a four-wire aerial 90 feet long, 50 feet high at one end and 30 feet high at the other. Is this a fairly good aerial for ama- teur use? A. 1. We should consider it quite satisfac- tory. (). 2. What is the natural wavelength of this aerial ? A. 2. About 225 meters. Q. 3. How many miles should I receive with this aerial, using a double slide tuner, galena detector, and 1,000 ohm receivers? A. 3. Local conditions so affect the receiv- ing range that it is even worse than guessing to try to give any distance. For this reason we do not publish receiving distances in this column. Q. 4. What is the best all around detector for amateur use? A. 4. Galena is usually considered the most sensitive of the single minerals. Silicon will keep its adjustment better but is not as sen- sitive as galena. Radio Abbreviations. A. R. L., Pittsburgh, Pa., asks: Q. 1. Will you please give me the meaning of the following abbreviations used in sending radio messages? CK, HR, SRNS. A. 1. CK is the abbreviation for check used to state the number of words in the message. HR stands for here and is used to indicate that a station has a message there for transmission. It is sometimes used to acknowledge the reception of a message. We can find no reference to your third abbrevia- - o

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156 tion, although the first two letters SR are often used for senior, especially in combina- tion with some other abbreviation indicating the title of the person addressed. The abbre- viation you mention may be of this type. Loose Couplers and Stranded Copper. R. M. L., Indianapolis, Ind., asks: Q. 1. Will you please inform me as to the sizes of the primary and secondary cylinders, also the sizes of the wire primary, and sec- ondary needed to make a loose coupler with which I can receive signals of-a 4,000-meter wavelength? A. 1. Make the primary 5% inches in diameter and 16 inches long; the secondary 434 inches in diameter and 16 inches long also. Wind both coils with No. 28 wire. Use bare wire if possible, if not use single cotton cov- ered magnet wire. Q. 2. Will you please inform me whether it is necessary to use a tikker to receive Arling- ton, NAA, when using its new continuous wave set? A. 2. Yes, unless you use some other method such as the oscillating audion, which is capa- ble of receiving undamped waves. Q. 3. Will you please advise me what kind of wire should be used in the aerial for long distance receiving? A. 3. Stranded copper is quite satisfactory. There is made a special seven-strand tinned copper wire for antenna purposes which will work very well. This wire costs about a cent per foot and can be obtained from nearly any wireless supply house. Phosphor bronze is also used and has the advantage of being stronger than copper, and it is also more ex- pensive. Trouble With a Half Kilo-Watt Transformer. K. T., Scranton, Pa., asks: Q. 1. I have built a one-half kilo-watt trans- former of the Type E design for radio work and find that instead of taking five amperes it takes but two or three. I used stove pipe iron instead of silicon steel called for by the designers. Would it be all right to reduce the number of turns on the primary to cause the transformer to take a larger load? A. 1. Yes, on the transformer you mention this would be satisfactory. Care should be taken that the safety gap on the secondary is not opened too far, as a higher voltage will be induced in the secondary if the primary winding is shortened. Are you sure that you are using the same size condenser on the secondary that is called for by the designers? Popular Science Monthly Many transformers for radio work were de- signed before the Federal radio law was passed and were intended to be used with a larger condenser than is now permissible. Accord- ingly instead of drawing 5 amperes these trans- formers are only taking 2 or 3 with the lighter load. These transformers are having their primary winding reduced, causing an increase in secondary voltage, and accordingly a larger load on the transformer. We are rather sur- prised to find that your transformer is taking less current than expected, unless it is the condenser question, for in general transform- ers constructed by amateurs are noted for their high current consumption. Some Miscellaneous Information. i. >. Chicago, Til asks: Q. 1. Would there be any change in the connections of an ordinary receiving set if the set was to be used on wavelength of 10,000 meters? A. 1. No, the usual connections with loading coils would be used. Q. 2. In receiving long wavelengths is it necessary to load both the primary and sec- ondary circuits? A. 2. Yes. The primary is usually loaded by putting a loading coil in series with the primary of the receiving transformer. The secondary is usually brought up to the long wavelength by shunting the secondary of the tuner by a condenser of large capacity. Q. 3. What would be required to load a 2,200 meter set up to 10,000 meters? A. 3. For the primary wind about No. 26 wire on a cylinder 5 inches in diameter and 3 feet long. The secondary would be best loaded by adding a small loading coil in series with the secondary of the receiving transformer and shunting the coils with a variable con- denser of about 0.008 m. f. capacity. Q. 4. In the primary circuit is it considered best to put a variable condenser in shunt with only the tuner rather than around both the loading coil and tuner? A. 4. Yes. Q. 5. How many condenser plates 12x14 inches do I need for a 1 KW. transformer with secondary voltage of 20,000, using a rotary gap? By 12x14 inch plates I mean the size of the glass, the actual surface of metal being only 9x11 inches. The glass is % inch thick. Wavelength 200 meters. A. 5. Your set will probably require about six plates. Q. 6. What is the best material to use for connecting up the transmitting instruments? A. 6. Copper ribbon is about the best thing for general use.

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Radio Construction Notes A New Aerial Supporter MATEURS having high masts are often troubled by having their hoisting ropes shrink in wet weather. A remedy which also prevents the spread- Re- er from tilting is shown herewith, Ni ll a\\ Sketch and construction of a steady aerial supporter ferring to the sketch, piece A is of %- inch strap iron, 44-inch wide and 2 feet 4 inches long. Have a blacksmith bend it as shown and drill two %-inch holes, one on either side, 3 inches from the bent end. In mounting it on the mast it should be on the same level as the pulley. The closed end must clear the mast by about an inch when it is in the horizontal po- sition. Long screws should be used to fasten it to the mast and it should be so loose that the ends with the hooks on will drop down when the light cord C is released, About %-inch diameter is a good size for this cord. Piece B may be either an iron or wooden rod 6 inches long. It is fast- ened to the spreader with two No. 14 galvanized wires. The rope R_ passes through pulley F and is fastened to the middle of piece B. The aerial is raised by means of hoist- ing rope R until piece B is against the pulley D, and then the hooks on A are raised by pulling on cord C. Rope R is then slackened until piece A alone supports the aerial. To lower the aerial simply pull on rope R until the hooks disarrange themselves and then lower away. A Simple Change-Over Switch GOOD many cases of poor send- ing and receiving results may be traced to a poorly insulated change-over switch, One that will cost less than fifty cents and will give as good results aS a more expensive one is an ordin- ary double-pole, single throw switch such as is used in the lighting circuit. This is connected as in the diagram. When the switch. is open, the incoming waves will go through the loose coupler ; when the switch is in, the receiving set is short circuited, and the power circuit is closed. Thus, when receiving, an ac- cidental touch of the key will do no harm, as the power circuit is broken. If the station has a rotary gap, a triple pole switch may be used, the ex- tra blade connected in the gap motor circuit as in Fig. 2. Thus, throwing the switch will start the rotary gap. or P lorec. ser an STOP SM. Pine — — Aower Or | = 4: STTP SW. ie; r = NW hotary gap | —_ a Fig.2 Connection diagrams for ordinary switch used as change-over A Condenser’s Power T 60 cycles a condenser will store 1 kw. of power if its value is 0.019 microbarad and it is charged to a volt- age of 30,000. This e. m. f. corresponds to a spark gap slightly under one-half inch in length. 157

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Baby’s Bottle-Holder mE ESE ST IE N_ adjustable (Snes S bts arm is de- signed to be affixed to an infant’s crib or cradle. Attached to the end of this arm is a device for holding a nursing AP = bottle. A bottle is placed in the clamp and its position may be readily fixed and adjusted. This device allows the feeding of an infant without the pres- ence of the mother or nurse. Tool for Stripping Insulation OR the split- ting of the outer wrapping of 4 an insulated elec- tric wire the tool | has a laterally pro- y jecting blade in the A center of two pro- 4 jections which serves as guides while it is being drawn along the wire. On the side of the instrument is a blade which strips the insulation from the wire when the outer covering has been split away. Electrically Lighted Pencil O the end of a slender dry battery terminat- ing in a bulb is which by means of 1 set screws holds a lead pencil. A leaf spring switch is affixed to the wall of the battery so that the circuit may be easily made. When the switch is pressed the bulb is lighted, and the light is thrown upon the paper directly in front of the moving pencil. What’s New in Patents 158 Combined Door Bell and Mail Receiver HE fulcrum f which actu- {i ates the door bell |; is devised to act as a holder for mail. A spring in the bell holds the lengthened bar against the house at a considerable tension. The mail carrier pulls the fulcrum away from its normal position to insert the mail. This actu- ates the ringing mechanism of the bell. An Aid to the Veterinary WO pairs of pivoted jaws are equipped with teeth plates to cov- er the teeth of a horse. One of the! jaws terminates in a set of fixed teeth, which may become engaged with a latch affixed to the other jaw. A strap holds the device in position on the head of the animal. By means of the teeth and latch, the horse’s mouth may be held open during a veterinary’s examination. A Room Stove Water Heater HE water jacket is re- versible end _ for end, having its greatest diameter at its middle point. The walls are thickened where the cold water en- ters the stove, thus preventing harm- ful contraction or expansion of the walls,

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Popular Science Monthly Sanitary Kneading Board ROLL of pa- per or parch- ment is placed the head of this sanitary kneading board, and a sheet is drawn over the upper surface of the board when in use. When the work is done, the paper is torn off and a new sheet inserted. This device saves the work of clean- ing the board after kneading bread or cutting meat, and is thoroughly sani- tary. Self-Feeding Soldering — SELF-FEED- ING soldering iron is made with a tube or passage extending from the head through the shaft and handle. A reel, containing a large amount of soldering wire, is mounted above the handle, and _ the wire passes through the passage in the iron to the head of the tool, where it is melted by the heat and flows to the point to be soldered. A Pad and Pencil Holder for the Telephone LTHOUGH the memor- andum pad is a necessity for the -| telephone, the ordi- | nary pad is apt to be lost or mislaid. The accompany- ing _ illustration shows an_attach- ment consisting of a single plate of metal curved around the telephone standard. At its upper end it is fitted with a pencil- holding clip, and its lower end is ex- tended forward to contain a pad. The fact that the entire attachment is made in one piece makes it indestructible. 159 Folding Tooth Brush HE handle of a tooth-brush is made to form a casing which will form a cover pro- tecting the tooth- brush when the lat- ter is not in use. When in use the brush is held in its extended position by a spring, which is locked by a jin, and the casing forms a handle. Apparatus For cee Hair Brushes DEVICE for cleaning | hair brushes is | made with a comb | to remove hair and |. other foreign sub- stances. A wick is kept moist by |- means of a moist- |. ening tray filled with a disinfecting liquid which cleanses and imparts a pleasing odor to the bristles. - A tray at the bottom receives the foreign substances, which have been caught by the comb. As the brush is passed over the device, the bristles come in contact with the moistened wick. Through the friction the liquid is effect- ually distributed through the bristles in the form of a fine spray. Combination Sad-Iron Heater and a Utensil SHEET me- (= tal body, of a | pyramid form, is placed upon a met- al base plate which rests over the flame. An inclined rackallows the sad- irons to be leaned against the pyra- midal body of the heater. Upon the top rests a suitable oven, which may be used for cooking, Heat ascends inside the sheet iron body, thus keeping the sad- irons warm, and also heating the top and the oven.

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Shoe Polishing Device COLLAP- Rs | SIBLE shoe polishing device is made of heavy wire, hinged at several places, and held in a rigid open .| position for use by “| means of a ferrule. The polishing cloth is extended tightly across the jaws of the device, and when not needed, may be easily removed. A wooden handle is attached by means of a heavy wire. Opening and Closing Garbage Cans with the Foot COVER for a garbage re- ceptacle which may be opened by a pressure from the foot, is made of a metal lid di- vided in the mid- dle to form two semi-circles. The ends of these semi-circles are pivoted and terminate in metal ears. The pivot has small gears -which engage to make both semi-circular covers open away from each other upon the pressure of a foot upon the ears. The covers open away from each other exposing the inte- rior of the receptacle. When the pressure upon the metal ears is removed, a spring forces the semi-circles back into their original position, entirely covering the receptacle, + Purse In Palm of Glove N the palm of 3 a glove or mit- AA ten, an elliptical 44 coin pocket is fast- fe} ened, This pocket 4 is fitted with draw 1 strings, so that the | purse may be eas- ily closed. In ad- dition, a flap is sewed to the glove which closes over the entire device and is secured by a push fastener. Popular Science Monthly Anti-Skidding Chain CHAR which may be used on any size |._—_¢ wheel is made in f short lengths, so |e’? ¢ that it may be placed in position by first passing it about one of the | spokes of the wheel, then engaging one end of the chain through a link on the opposite end. This forms a loop encircling the spoke. The chain may then be passed around and around the rim and tire, and fastened with a catch to the loop. Walking Stick Becomes a Seat HE stick is OG composed of several parts and may be readily tak- 5 en to pieces. At the lower end is a tripod which forms the legs for the seat. Hidden in the stick is the canvas seat, which may be stretched over the head of the cane by means of a removable sleeve de- signed to be threaded into the handle to form the support for the seat when the affair is set up. Meat-Holder Which Makes Slicing Easy PON a marble or metal base are pivoted two jaws set’ with clamps for gripp- ing a piece of meat or fowl while it is | being cut or carved. If it is desired to turn over the meat, the clamps are quickly loosed and by means of handles affixed to the jaws, the operation is completed without touching the meat with the hands. A strap holds “the jaws firmly in a closed, or partially closed, position. 20 URE m

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SS ae eS Se ie ig is ly | | = ———————————— Featuresof the March Popular Science Monthly Above the plank floor which now consti- tutes Broadway, in front of the Metropolitan Opera House, are silks and jewels and glitter- ing lights; below it in half darkness a squad of laborers in khaki overalls, stained with sweated mud, are risking their lives to build another subway. In the March number the unseen under- ground activities of New York are revealed an an absorbing article and in a dozen or more anteresting pictures—done in the PopuLar ScrENCE MONTHLY way—to show exactly how sewer pipes are being rearranged, how rock is being blasted, how a tunnel is being sunk beneath the Harlem River. Why did England declare cotton contra- band of war? You will find out if you will read in the March number an article which traces cotton from the time that it is in the boll on some southern plantation, to the time when it is placed in the breech of a 42-centi- meter gun in the form of smokeless powder of terrific energy. Of course there. are other articles equally worth reading. But how can we enumerate three hundred subjects in two hundred words? 161

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Can This Be Done? Joseph A. Steinmetz of Philadelphia would mine the air above London against Zeppelins as the Dardanelles are mined against battleships. He would send aloft captive hydrogen balloons carrying explosives, grappling-hooks and torches. It would be hard for the balloons to maintain their level. The wind would toss them about. What is more, a Zeppelin’s machine gun could pick them off and drop them into London itself with dreadful results 162