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Popular Science 
Monthly 


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Volume 88 
January-June, 1916 


————_—_____ 


Modern Publishing Company 
239 Fourth Avenue 


New York 


24135 


Copyright, 1916, by 
MODERN PUBLISHING COMPANY 
All rights reserved 


The Vision 
of a Blind Man 


EDWARD LIVINGSTON YOUMANS 
FOUNDER OF POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 


The Vision 
of a Blind Man 


HE progress due to science and 

invention in America, which 
makes this Twentieth Century so 
wonderful, so rich, is a tribute to 
the vision of a blind man. 

The science department in every 
university, the technical schools, 
owe more to him than to any other 
one personal force. 

Hundreds of thousands in this 
generation whose success is due to 
him, or who are benefiting through 
the work he did, do not even know 
the name of Edward Livingston 
Youmans. 

In his lifetime this self-taught 
man was recognized as the best in- 
formed intelligence in the nation, and 
he has been dead not thirty years. 


He made science popular 
in the homes of America 


Youmans’ work can be summed 
up in four words: He made science 
popular. 

In teaching himself the sciences, 
handicapped as he was with blind- 


ness, Youmans realized the barriers 
of learning within which scientific 
men have isolated themselves. 
Since the time, more than two 
thousand years ago, when Archi- 
medes. discovered the lever, the 
pulley and the screw, since the day 
science was born, in fact, scientists 
have been an exclusive folk, a sort 


eof high priesthood. 


They share their knowledge with 
None but the elect 
are permitted to enter within their 


each other. 
circle. Their constant excuse has 
always been, is now, that without 
technical mastery there can be no 
science and that only the trained 
mind can understand technicalities. 

When Youmans began his life 
work seventy years ago he realized 
his mission’ was that of an inter- 
preter: 7S 

He knew that science must be- 
come a part of the daily life of | 
human beings, if civilization was to 
His own experience 


go forward. 


proved to him how difficult it was 
to get the necessary knowledge. 


vi 


The Vision of a Blind Man 


With his sightless eyes 
he looked into the future 


chemical combinations, as it was 


then conceived. 


Youmans supplemented this with 
a text book on chemistry and 


He saw the social and industrial 


. . 150,000 copies were sold. 
revolution that science could bring 50,000 copies were sold 


A friendship and business rela- 


about, once people understood its | _ 
tion that lasted forty years was 


laws, and how these laws could be 


begun when the blind man was led 
into the store of D. Appleton & | 
Co., then on Broadway below the |f | 


made to work for them. 


There wasn’t any popular demand 


for science in those days; it was 


considered something absolutely City Hall, tote ee 


seller a volume he could not afford 
to buy and which he could not find 
in the libraries. Youmans’ advice 


apart from the daily life of people. 


Youmans, a practical man who 
made his dreams come true, had to 
make people realize a need of 


made Appleton’s the leading pub- 


which they were unconscious, and lishers of scientific books in Amer- 


then supply that need. ica. The editing of scientific books, 


He invented just one device— his own writings, his success on 


the chart or diagram object lesson, the platform—Youmans was a 


in universal use today and as ef- popular lecturer for seventeen years 


fective asit was when the “graphic” —did not educate people fast enough 


brought Youmans into national | satisfy this man of action. 


He could make science under- 
standable but he could not reach 
people in sufficient numbers. He 
wanted to sell science to the whole 


prominence. 


A color chemical chart 
invented by a blind man 


people. 

He knew that what was needed 
was a magazine. It is the medium 
that can give national publicity. | 
It has the power of iteration; its | 
value depends upon its success in | 
supplying a human need. 


Tens of thousands learned the 
rudiments of chemistry by looking 
at a color chart devised by a blind 
man. This revealed, almost at a 
glance, the whole mechanism of 


Forty-four Years After 


Herbert Spencer brought 
the magazine into being 


addition to Spencer’s there were 
articles by John Tyndall, Thomas 
Huxley, Professor R. A. Proctor, 
Dr. Henry Maudsley, Henry Ward 
Beecher and others who thought 
profoundly and were able to write 
simply. 

Within a year and a half the 
circulation was 12,000 and that 
would be a big circulation for a 
monthly that solid for fifty cents a 
copy and $5 a year, even in these 
days of large volume. 


While the idea was Youmans’, 
Herbert Spencer deserves the credit 
for bringing The Popular Science 
Monthly into actual being. A 
warm friendship had sprung up be- 
tween the two, based upon. the 
American’s admiration for the Eng- 
lishman’s work. 

Youmans had written to Spen- 
cer that he had temporarily aban- 


doned the plan of starting the mag- The Popular Science Monthly 


azine when h ceived the first : 
“ieee became the most famous publica- 


of a series of articles which Spencer |... ; 
tion in America because it was as 


had promised to write for the new | _ . :; 
widely known in Europe as it was 
publication. The articles reached 


; in this country. 
Youmans in April, 1872, and the 


Youmans edited the magazine 
until his death in 1887. His suc- 
cessors, under different ownerships, 


first issue of the new magazine 
appeared the following month. 

Thus the May issue of 1916 
marks the beginning of the forty- 
fifth year of The Popular Science 
Monthly. 

The Herbert Spencer articles 
made a sensation and the maga- 
zine was a success from the start. 


ably maintained his original policy 


long after this policy accomplished 
its work. 


The Youmans policy did not 
enlarge with the public mind it 
educated. Those who continued it 
did not take into consideration that 
the thought, activities and manner 
of living of the whole nation had 


Famous men who thought 
deeply and wrote simply 


changed. 


Youmans was able to get great 
men to write for his magazine. In. 


The Youmans idea is as big, as 


vital, as ever it was. The plan for 


vill 


The Vision of a Blind Man 


making it work—that is the policy 
of the magazine—had become mor- 
ibund. There was needed a fresh 


interpretation, a rational inter- 
pretation, to meet conditions You- 
mans was instrumental in bring- 
ing about. 

The reason for the change in 
policy is the same as was the reason 
for starting the publication, for in 
his prospectus which appeared in 


the magazine said: 
scientific knowledge to all classes 


of the community calls for more 
efficient means of diffusing it.” 


The more efficient means 
for diffusing knowledge 


The change in the policy of The 
Popular Science Monthly means 
simply that a more efficient means 
of diffusing scientific knowledge 
has been proved. 

There are now a thousand lab- 
oratories where there was one in 
the days when Youmans was a 
student. Instead of a propaganda 
for laboratories, The Popular Sci- 


ence Monthly now gives the news 


the first number, the founder of 


“The growing importance of 


that comes from these laboratories 
it helped to establish. 

It is perhaps the most important 
news of all. The quiet men at 
work in laboratories will decide 
the great war just as they decide 


how a farmer shall till the soil, how 


a laborer shall carry pig iron with 


his hands. 


Making the big idea work 
to fit these big times 


The laboratories are not all in 
the universities, technical schools 
and great industrial corporations. 

Wherever a man has fitted up a 
little workshop for himself to carry 
out his ideas along scientific lines, 
that shop is a laboratory. News 
comes from it—sometimes the big- 
gest news. 

It is the function of The Popu- 
lar Science Monthly, not only to 
report this news but to interpret 
it—to explain it in words and pic- 
tures—to make it graphic—to show 
how it can make the daily life of 
human beings easier, richer, happier. 

The new device for everyday, 
familiar use, and the discovery that 
leads to the foundation of a new 


WALDEMAR KAEMPFFERT 
PRESENT EDITOR POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 


. 


a is Hb pith a RRA 


a x 


industry, come within its scope. It 


tells how to make and use the 
simplest things that make life and 
work easier and reports the great 
advances in abstract science in 
words any intelligent reader can 
understand without effort, explain- 
ing the meaning of these discover- 
ies and just what work they will do. 


Kaempffert, the editor, is 
scientist and interpreter 


This can be done only under the 
direction of an editor who is him- 
self a scientist. He must have full 
knowledge, complete understand- 
ing of the language in which sci- 
ence speaks, and be able to inter- 
pret and explain it to meet human 
needs—needs he must understand 
and sympathize with. 

Edward L. Youmans had this 
capacity ;sohas Waldemar Kaempf- 
fert, the present editor of The 
Popular Science Monthly. 

Youmans had this gift for the 
people of his day; Kaempffert has 
it for the people of this day. 

Kaempffert has been interpret- 
ing abstract science, chemistry, 
engineering and invention for twen- 
ty years. As managing editor of 


The Vision of a Blind Man 


The Scientific American, one of the 


most exact journals, he proved 
himself the ablest man in America 
in this work. 


He has surrounded himself with 
specialists who know how to write 


simply, how to be interesting. 
The contributors to the maga- 
zine continue to be “‘the ablest sci- 


entific men of different countries,” 
to use Youmans’ words. For every- 
thing that appears in The Popular 


Science Monthly has the stamp of 
authority. This is the law. 


This is the first law: 
It must be interesting 


There is only one way to make 
science appeal to non-scientific 
people and that is to make it in- 
teresting. 

It is the law that The Popular 
Science Monthly must be inter- 
esting. 

Most of us are not given to con- 
centrated thought. We are in- 
clined to feel and act. 
speeds from one topic to another, 
finding interest in a hundred things 
that really do not concern us, but 
seeking always for ideas. 

Ideas make life worth while. All 


Our mind 


xii 


Forty-four Years After 


work is drudgery unless it is in- 
spired by ideas. 

The make-up of the magazine, 
which seems a haphazard affair, is 
perhaps the most perfect object 
lesson illustrating the way the 
mind of the average man works. 

It reads as a group of people 
talk, flashing from one subject to 
another, superficially unrelated yet 
having an invisible bond, giving 
important things longer, more seri- 
ous attention, touching lightly up- 
on those merely entertaining. 


Mechanical vaudeville is 
given at its real value 


For The Popular Science Month- 
ly is not lacking in what may be 
called mechanical vaudeville, and 
vaudeville seems to be a human 
need. The scientist, the engineer, 
the inventor are human beings 
after all. 

But these entertaining things in 
the magazine are presented at 
their exact value, as is everything 
else. The reader is not even given 
the opportunity of taking them 
seriously. 

The Popular Science Monthly 
has as many illustrations as can 


be crowded into the magazine be- 
cause the picture is the quickest, 
surest way of communicating ideas. 

Each month some 300 new ideas 
are pictured and explained—ideas 
that eliminate drudgery. 

Drudgery is not a permanent 
It is one’s attitude that 
makes one’s work drudgery or a 


form. 


vocation that is interesting. 

This fundamental runs through 
all economics. 

To define the work of The Popu- 
lar Science Monthly is to define 
civilization. 

Civilization is a result of bring- 
ing to the individual the fruits of 
all the experiments, ideas and dis- 
coveries the whole world has accu- 
mulated. 

The success with which it is 
doing this important work is shown 
by the fact that it has added ten 
thousand readers each month since 
the new policy was adopted. 

The Popular Science Monthly is 
now growing just as fast as people 
are becoming acquainted with it. 

It is one of the few periodicals 
that is an economic necessity. 

That which a blind man saw in 
a vision forty-four years ago has 
become a reality. 


——— sw 


aot. hae te ee oe « To, ee 


———s 


This volume contains: 
960 pages 
1393 articles 
2113 pictures 


purrs 


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Popular Science Monthly 
By EX 


Volume 88, January-June, 1916 


AERONAUTICS Page 

The Death Toll of Our Misspent Aeronautic 

PRODI IONE iene. Chee cash a-cir, Oe eiere oi your 
A Spanish Lesson in Aeronautics.........:...... 108 
50,000 Bird Men Now Are Flying.............. 248 

Government Manufacture of Aeroplanes—A Na- 
HOTA WleHACeli as feiss cisk.s cere eye fess oes ee 249 
PPE ETO UII EE. Sie ne sci e SP cea uspalekencua, oie Wicd <i 265 
Delivering Mail by Aeroplane.................. 341 
SPREL GM ETSIGUEMEV ARN 201... ote ad. bee acs = abo eters 351 
Nine Thousand German Aeroplanes............ 368 
a. PiEAi i 225 crepe ee a ee ae ene 483 
PIPATLO VETS OGRE CANT re oF noe Siyacc eae cout fe Bape. sic 537 
MOREE ETO COORDS) eto So onan) aR a oie Wn Sudasedee a 644 
Captive Balloon Teaches a Lesson.............. 693 
Catapulting Seaplanes from Battleships......... 713 
ee Litre d (Zp Pe MUMS y 4 ede yet onset setae baract cee snepayessice 882 
Air Raids Involve Problems Hard to Solve ...... 897 


AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE 


Monument Built to An Apple Tree. ........... 19 
Giving a Pear Tree New Roots................ 55 
TSR Cait ed ed gore) | 2) I Cee i ee a ee ee a 63 
How Gulls Help the Farmer................... 78 
Bebiog-ren That Counts Hogs 2.0.05 2a0s0cae- 105 
A Feed Hopper for Chickens........ ....... eri 
me trolley for the Stable Lamp 2.2... ..../. 2 o.-,- 112 


Lady Eglantine: The One-Hundred Thousand 
MIDNA ACHE rc dns: ation Mew coches 
Simplifying the Inspection of Farm Produce..... 385 

A Dollar Made of Corn... 39 
Straw-Stacker Does Away with Manand Pitchfork 504 


Making a Hen Lay Self-Preserving Eggs........ 507 
A Whole Garden Kit in One Tool.............. 565 
Digging Fence-Post Holes by Means of a New 
Rite bance seen meee ee eii rw oyc:. Sots: 565 
Srrecchino the Wire UW ame ge oer}. od eae oa e.0/diae’ ove 566 
Pormcathermectallem Erurt<) 5, -5.\lstae cine soothe o- 566 
Taking the Bump Out of the Barrow........... 567 
Making a Disk-Sled of a Harrow............... 567 
Fertilizing Two Rows at Once.......,...22++++- 574 
An Automatic Animal Fire Escape............. 652 
Teaching Hens Good Manners................. 667 
Poison Gas for American Pests..............--- 735 
Pipe-Power im the Flog-Pen.. - so). 6 see one oe os 2 740 
bernie antlers C irs ton ates <<. h:s52 oan ocersi nc’ 6 <Le eo 746 
Rough on the Hen—but Useful. .>............. 757 
Keeping the Cow’s Tail Out of ie Milk Pail . . 758 
(Agi Esar-Corn Feeder for Hogs. 0... i.eccs sete 793 
Trench-Digging by Machinery................. 830 
A New Powerful Farm-Tractor... . Rees) 
Drying Cattle Hides in a Broiling Tropical ‘Sun... 862 
ARCHEOLOGY 
mrieaAncient Wooden Leg. i... i. cee ieee ve wee 29 
Was This the Tower of Babel?................. 89 
ASTRONOMY 
gage LN COPS oS SA lea: aa ce OS Foe 188 
Loe) ti S Pe i ea a oe sen SOU 
Measuring the Light of the Stars............... 824 


AUTOMOBILES AND ACCESSORIES 


An Armless Man Drives a Car at Racer's Speed. . 8 
Imitation Hand Signals a Turn................ 9 
An Automobile Show Case............... te ee 
Using an Automobile as a Winch............... 28 
A Jack-of-all-Trades Truck........... cee ete 
A Need for Electric Rickshaws................. 53 


Cripple Makes a Fortune with Tri-Car; Then Runs Page 


farersry. Council . See at ecole eee 
Logging with Tiactors in the Maine Woods. 
Agsleich Motorcycleee ne s.06- en ee ase 
Keeping the Motorcycle Busy.................. 
Indicator Tells Pursuing Police Speed of Auto- 
mobile 
Ingenious Slide Rule for Motoiists............. 
Maud, the Motor Mule, on Our Cover 
AgGraoline; bicld: Kytehemcc. 2... ec xc ao noc ots 
Motor Car Bodies of 1916—Good and Bad 
Adapting Tire Inflation to the Load.......... 
on't Decarbonize Aluminum Pistons........... 
Cleaning New York’s Snow-Clogged Streets with 
Motor-tirueks.. . seme 0 oe ts en wie 
Tearing Up Rails with a Motor-Truck.......... 
A Motor-Cycle Converted into a Motor Sled.... 
A Mile-a-Minute with an Air-Driven Sied 
A Novel French Motor Tricycle Sweeper 
Asivachwe Caz Builtiaemores:, oor oe os eee « 
And Now Comes the Front-Wheel Drive Motor- 
Ole ee nieve 2. RR ae te aon bose ion 
Makimnerashire Casingaem nite) ie syed oon tes. ssans 
Josef Hoffman Invents a Pneumatic Shock Ab- 
SORBED. nee. PLE ae nm ardic wis sae a 
An Improvised Trouble Light for Motorists..... 
Adjustable Auto Foot-Pedal for Short Drivers... . 
Extra Seat for Ford Cars Hangs on Door........ 
Folding Motor Bucket Is Also Game Bag ....... 
Switch Detects Bad Ignition 
NMiatoniio OM Kis: mesa Mit sea ore ds wisn o.coe 
Protecting the Motorist on Dark Roads....... 
A Trolley Company Which Repairs Automobiles 


Pamavedt hy [ts Carsi 97 cae sce eed Ga 
Spreading Sand Over Oiled Roads by a Motor 
Agtachrment: 0 7 pea denies e cts hen 25,200 oniake 


A Convenient Step for Automobiles.............. 
Pull) Yourself Out of the: Mud .55 wo nc enn be sis 
A Cold or Wet Weather Suggestion for Motor- 
SUPE RES ES ra re fey os co. ana Dac oie a es ON Nias Nats 
Automobile:and Tractor, Magee vc. <class oo ce 
Running a Newspaper Plant with an Automobile. 
An Automobile Machine-Shop for the Battlefield. 
A Steel Hill to Test Automobiles............-... 
A Military Automobile from Fittings............ 
This Automobile Signal Takes the Place of Your 
Hand When Rounding a Corner............. 
AO Novel) British Piston, Rimgeee .).6 5 =x <6 = «00's 
Dichusthe Motor Duck. «on ne cone ans « os ae 
Vulcanizer for Tire Repairs on the Road..... : 
An Sa Heater in the Garage Makes C ranking 
Small. Wlator. Trucks Deliver Coal Cheaply ...... 
Motor-Cycle Helps Light a Town.............. 
Gaiters to Protect the Spring-Leaves of Auto- 


STOEL E ia 5. + < . apemeten  oeae cher icine ois cinva! aaetateiraa 
A Quaint Advertising Automobile.............. 
Gravity-Flow Gasoline Supply Station.......... 


A Portable Wrecking-Truck................06:. 
Woman Invents a Lite-Saving Device........... 
Motor-lesting Up to Date. is cc. «+. seule ssn ore 
Convenient Flashlight for the Automobilist...... 
An Automobile Converted into a Railway Ore- 

Tractor... 
With a Trans-Continental Burromobile ......... 
Gasoline Horses tor Small Farms............... 
Shelter-Top for London's Bus Riders........... 
A Detachable Motor for Bicycles............... 
Why the Automobile ““Goes Dead”’............. 
Attaching Tires to Their Rims Easily........... 
Taking Off the Tire in a Jiffy 
Small Racing Automobiles rit [otek Se en ae Serger 
Interchangeable Motor-Car Grease-Capsules... . 
A Disappearing Automobile Top............... 


Seen TT 


. ~ 7 
Xvl INDEX TO VOLUME 88 
Page Page 
An Emergency Tire Made Simply of Rope...... 587 How to Photograph Electrical Sparks........... 348 
Vulcanizing Tires with Exhaust Heat........... 593 Trimming Veneered Edges by Electricity........ 348 
Aan lesiexO OF Mik oic halo \creisic- \ckallab-> ceased as eaiete 593 An OwliDarkens the Lown) mete. 0 ee eee 369 
Ani@i up for Auto oprings. ..sbrs- 7. see 593 Typewriting Eight Telegrams Over a Single Wire. 374 


An Anti-Clogging Oil-Gage. .~..5......:0000+-- 
A New Way of Driving a Bicycle with a Motor . 
Converting an Automobile into an Apartment. 
The Chair Car—the Latest Development in Stage- 


COACIES: «5 ius <sc.c ee esac Se =.» Soe cae ee 729 
A Jomdhawk Grease\Gun....: .. : Secs ee 731 
Device Prevents Automobiles from Being Stolen.. 731 


How a Second-Hand Automobile Made a Railroad 
Payers. ood echidna cus ic: =: Se 

New Automobile Alarm Calls for Help 

This Grease Cup Keeps Your Hands Clean. 

Converting a Motor-Cycle Into a Tricycle....... 

To Keep Your Foot Always on the Accelerator 


Pedal iss. eons se.) Sa ee ee ae 757 
A Lamp for the Motorist’s Glove............... 758 
Improving Automobile Soriags................. 768 
Hints. tosthe Mator-GC velista. .. .. tie eree cess 770 
Fools Automobile Thieves...................+.- 780 


An Automobile-Bed for the Tourist 
A New Ford Folding Bed 


Some Ingenious New Accessories for the Touring 


Car 
A Glass Hood for Automobiles 
A Handy Automobile Grease-Gun 
Rain Protector for Automobile Wind-Shield...... 871 
An Electric Automobile Built Like a Drop of Oil ot 


BOATING 


The Trolley-Car Boat for Bathers 
A Wheel-barrow for Canoes 
The Ozark Float-Boat 
How to Build and Sail a Small Boat 


Navigating a River Boat by Sound............. 
How to Build and Sail a Small Boat............ 


CIVIL ENGINEERING 


Twelve Million Dollars for Twenty Minutes Train 


‘Time’. 2.5 Patek Gee as ne oh ee eee 7 
An Excavation for a Road Leaves House on Brink 17 
Two Bnuidges with but One Approach........... 20 
A Vast bank witha Parkon Topo es .ccces- 5 20 
A’ ReallyiGreater New. York. = 27h ae owe a 60 


The Longest Pipe Line in America.............. 93 
A Gigantic Steel Bridge-Beam................. 166 
Niagaraioni lap. site tes oe ene eeronets oes 180 
Lifting a House Over Trees: Sentiment vs. Cost.. 247 


The Giant Task of the Subway Diggers 
Three Slender Wires Form a Bude 
A Circular Bridge on Stilts... . 
The Bridge that Telephones Builtteere. 

An Elevated Road that Tried to Outstrip a Town. 
Digging Away the Slides at Panama............ 


Amputating Pittsburgh’s “‘_Hump”............. 532 
Workmen Shot from Tunnel Through the Bed of a 
River 25.0 cee aon | eet oe eee: 643 
Rocking a Three-Hundred Foot Tower with Your 
anid «oe 5 lol eee ae ee ree 645 
Spraying Concrete... 0.0. eee: - cee een 665 
New York’s Submarine Subway and How It Was 
Built... 2253 ohn | ees oa eee eee 705 
Making Money Out of Waste Land with a Stream 
of Water... 735 eee: oo SR eee 720 
Panama’s Locks Guarded by, Chainsemer -:cashine 745 
Using Ice to Lower Heavy Stones.............. 774 
& Hint for Draftsmen.. 22s eee eee 793 
ELECTRICITY 
Band Concerts from an Electric Light Bulb...... 71 
Brightening the Baby’s Path.................. 92 
Saving Steps at Target Practice............ 95 
An BFlectnic Flatron Floath::.::eeeeee. eee 95 
Electric Heater Resembles Desk Telephones..... 104 
Winter Uses for the Electric Fan............... 109 


Electric Toaster Eliminates Burnt Fingers...... 110 


Electric Candles on a Nine-Story Birthday Cake.. 169 
A Sleeping Nest with an Electric Elevator....... 185 
Signal Lights for Traveling Cranes............. 228 
Power from a Floating Water Power Plant...... 234 


Testing Shrapnel Shells in Electric Ovens 
Something Is Wrong with This 
Phonograph Fire Alarm 


Unemotional 


Can Battery Explosions on Battery Submarines Be 


Preventede eis. ic.<. << «da eo a ey cene tees 394 
A Top That Never Stops Spine ee eee 401 
What Makes an Electric Lamp-Bulb Glow?...... 401 
The Electric Dog and How He Obeys His Flash- 

lamp Master's: iccc.0%.-s. 6 cee ae icin late 26 
Finding the: PositivelWire:....t2 eee oe see 454 
How to Prolong the Life of Battery Cells........ 454 
Springless Electric Belll.;: : (ihe cs. ==... S22 ee 454 
A Simple but Powerful Arc-Light . 455 
Making a Master Vibrator for Automobiles...... 461 
Electric Door-Opener for a Garage............. 470 
A Metal-Vapor Light That Is White........... 529 
Telegraphing with the Telephones... -. oe 563 
Detecting Flaws in Steel by X-Ray............ Sit 
Storase Battery Flints.... . 3. 5..05.0 > oe eee 652 
An Electric Soldering Iron. 7) 7]. tooo ee 626 
Construction of Unipolar Dynamos............ 624 
The Electromagnetic Hand for Armless Veterans. 657 
An Electrically-Lighted Clock................. 699 
AvSocket Protecting. Knot> ames ee eee 731 
An Electric Fan Suspended by Its Own Wire..... 736 
Lamp Resistance for Charging Storage Patteries. 781 
Recharging Worn-out Dry Batteries... 7. Sie eee 781 
Automatic Dead-End Switch............. 785 
Making Coils of Resistance Wire for a Small Elec- 

tric’ Stove’: 5 iw 655 3h see ee oe eee 788 
How to Make an Electric Horn................- 788 
Repaiing a Burnt-Out Fuse! 22.) >>). eee 788 
Changing a Telegraph Sounder Into a Relay..... 789 
Subs'‘ituting a Flashlight for a Door Fell........ 789 
Telephone Line Test Clips Easily Made......... 789 
A Current Reverser for Small Motors........... 789 
Making Over the Lighting System.............. 795 
Healing Magic of the Electric Arc.............. 818 
Illuminating a Highway with Pockets of Light. 905 
Bird Protection for Electric Lines.............. 907 
Making a Simple but Efficient Flasher.......... 959 
For Those Midnight Serenaders................ 939 
A Musical Electric Door-Bell.................. 940 
Connecting Dissimilar Telephone Lines......... 941 
Connecting Wires with Tinfoil...........:..... 941 
An Efficient Spark-Plug Tester................. 941 
ikhe “Ideal? Battery. . eeieseen eee ee 945 
The Construction of an Automatic Battery Circuit- 

Breaker: $2 ="... ER. eee 947 
How to Make a Rural Mail Box Alarm......... 947 
Electrical Lighting Device for the Gas-Range. . 948 
An Electric Weather-Vane Indicator............ 948 

GEOLOGY 

The Devil’s Post Pile’: 53320-2500 oe «2 ee eee 178 
Natural Cannonballs’. @o oe + ~~. ee ae 178 
Natural Stadium Which Holds One Hundred and 

Thirty Thousand): S59 9:28 coke <p eerie 248 
What Wind and Rain Gan’ Do: ... 2-3: -.-.-= 530 
Fake Gypsum Claims gees ee ee te oe 573 
Rock Folded Like Cardboard.................. 814 
Strange Mineral Spring Deposit in a Nevada 

Desert...) ..:%... . - See = ee cee eee 897 
A Strange Spongelike Rock.............-..++-- 903 
Are:Metals Alive? ... gprs -s susus eles «. - ahelenenaranee 912 

GAMEFS, PUZZLES, AND OUTDOOR 
SPORTS 
Ice Dynamited So Yale Crew May Row........ 658 
Playing Golf on the Roofs... «i. a2 cena er 669 
Ten-Net—An Indoor-Outdoor Game........... 705 
Outdoors. Yet Indoors.2- Syne oe ed eee ere 726 
HOME CRAFTSMAN 

An Extra Drainboard for the Kitchen Sink... .. 113 
To Lengthen the Life of a Necktie............. 113 
Wood Box Arrangement Saves Many Steps from 

the: Dining-Room., Seems ae onesie ete 113 
Broom Closet Utilizing Waste Space. . 114 
A Cheap Septic Tankizpaes) serene 114 
A Craftaman Desk. Chango) oe eee see 115 
A Serviceable Hot Water Heater Which Can Be 

Made: at. Home. .\. Fee eae eet el oats 118 
How a Course Dinner Can Be Served Without a 

Maid: ; .\....: . cP ete etre eo ree 118 
Connecting Block for Bell Wires........ 119 


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B 
A 
Pith 


INDEX TO VOLUME 88 Xvi 
HOUSEKEEPING MADE EASY Page 
MRM ERIC EAD MENCIULEN vies. | 2 /s/Setiwie (steps, 9 2.6 (2 os vi8; e)., 0882 
An Electric Alarm Clock.......... A Foot-controlled Sewing Machine............. 54 
PTE ME RT CONOMUIZEL Hs coc a's 's = a habe rae ok) eyes bbe si Monday Mechanicem.|. samen fences fh sions ole 96 
Helping to Kindle Fire Wood.................. A Tub Within a Tub for the Baby.......... 106 
A Remedy for Sagging Doors................... Preventing the Clogging of the Sink....... week S06 
fea niramrleIpless “SATS... 6s aie wes aesniaha ee ss A Saucepan Which Is Also a Strainer............ 106 
Waste Heat Warms Water... .........6..0.00000- A Tea Kettle Which Does Not Burn............ 107 
Hints on Running the Home Furnace A Garbage Can Which Cannot Spill............ 107 
Distilling Water for the Household............. Combining a Brush and a Suction Pump in a 
ercimptan Plectric Toaster... ..66. 0c dpeeeess Gleanen..< dacs see ens, o2 hee ee 107 
Pmtiome-made Paper Baler. .2...6.00.+0.6+0 00% Ne2:2. Simple Way to Clean Vegetables............... 107 
Serving Table Attached to Range............... 122 AY Collapsible’ Wardrobemienc. 2s.) fluor cone 107 
A Meat Chopper Which Opens Like a Book ..... 108 
HOME WORK-BENCH Ice Cannot Fall Out of This Water Pitcher...... 108 
A.Gan-Opener That Cannot Slip. ©. 05.2272... : 111 
(hy [EWE UIGTOULG CaS 1S getie erenas Cen ican 311 Non-Rolling Nursing Bottle................... 112 
Avoiding Dangerous Stair Turns............... 311 A Wisconsin Cook Invents a Doughnut-Drainer.. 259 
Beene Amateur Painter.:. 25... 0s oop ec ves ca ec 312 Door ?Parcels Receivers... 22.52). se ent saes 263 
Pm Outdoor, Window. Bed’... ss ce ce eee 312 Cracking Nuts Three at a Time................ 264 
How to Make a Simple, Automatic Window Closing Bor bolkshing, Hurnituresen | lus a. d.cm ook 264 
DENEGO OLLIE A Sai aae i SER CIP aoe eet ae 313 Oil Mop Cleaner and Dustpan................. 266 
For Conserving Heat in Steam Pipes........... 314 AsBunsen Burner Flat, Tront sc. «5. ss see a 269 
How to Make a Snow-Plow to Clean the Sidewalk... 315 Aaa DyryincesCombeetn tet. fe te vere 269 
A Clock Light for Dark Mornings.............. 315 Tricks of the Short-Weight Tradesman.......... 388 
Em AUrOMatie esicoNsamp. si. sco ces ee ete 315 AySatety Wrinser-Guarde abn... icc c tute cm sleet. 410 
Making Use of Cupboard Space for Refrigerator.. 316 A Stairway Which Is Alsoa Door .............. 419 
Fastening Wood with Screws.................. 316 A Folding Service-Wagon...0.......-.....-:- 420 
To Make a Mission Screen.................--- 317 A Cheap Way of Preserving Eggs.............. 495 
Seam Ripper from Old Safety Blade............ 317 aw mmcevelingn =>... eee oe seers Col apr ek 497 
Mien perni a iViolasses Jar. so. 6. sp acwins ere cee 317 A Combined Electric Stove and Fireless Cooker.. 504 
Bini nieapy ight osu... 2. kee. cabinet sans 317 This Lamp Shade Will Not Scorch............. 505 
A Combined Ice House and Cold Storage Room... 318 This Chair Does Duty Twenty-tour Hours Every. 
Inclined Sidewalk for a Wheeled Invalid Chair... 473 i ap ee te A 4 4. ~ 2a lia die a ee 585 
A Simple Method of Clearing a Clogged Waste Finger-Saving Nutmeg-Grater................. 585 
efit Med I ann ee ees Reine 473 To Take Olives from a Bottle. 2 2000. 002...) 26: 585 
A Book or Music Stand from Old Spools......... 474 Auiioldertoriviurlk, Bottlestiy 0) oe fee eer 585 
A Cheap Substitute for Linoleum................ 475 New Device Distills Water for the Home....... 586 
Lengthening the Life of a Worn-Out Clock...... 475 Making an Acetylene Gas Generator........... 629 
Axiebatension £0.a Kitchen... ...)..0ss5.0.08..0. ATG) pie Novel Window-Shelf Maen)... .c 2. cn ane ee 630 
Goncealing the Spare Silver. oo. .5..0...+..02-5+- 478 A Siphon to Remove Cream From Bottles...... 630 
PPI OTSINeEAINEY race siren nie ne hee 478 A Wash-Wringer Attachment.................. 630 
Pero wer- hot Tlaneer irc oan teens oh eel mks 478 Space and Time Savers for the Home.. ........ 666 
A Garbage and Paper Burner................. & its) Anolmprovieed: Llall-T reesse one eon susie nets cus ic 666 
Using a Suction Pump to Clear a Clogged Drain.. 478 Keeping Beverages Fresh...............-...-.. 704 
A Modern Sanitary Hog House ................ 479 A Bottle-Sealing Machine for the Home........ 736 
A Hen-House Water Supply Which Will Not AvaceiGurtam* sb rotectione ates soe. ne wees 742 
BCE ZEEE Tee Sis cps cenit aie ae 480 Not Gorkserew: Needed Meer cnr. ee es bles 762 
A Whole Tool Box in One Tool................ 632 How to Keep the Baby in His High Chair....... 763 
A Self-Rocking Developing-Tray............... 632 An Easy Way to Remove a Broken Chair Leg... 763 
How to Make a Kitchen Table Fit You........ 633 ihesammous Bottle wert ae te kes cles et 772 
merdmethwenty OLeers > .e.. Wee woe cls cone « 633 Aysate;swing for the Baby... sess fcc ce = 795 
A Can of Paint and How to Use It............. 634" |) BloorScrubber Propels Itself. 30.5... 813 
Permits ane aI OW tos. See oo dee 637 Cherry-Stoner Saves the Hands............ mys 2) 
Burdandy Magazine-shelfcc .... 2%.... 0... eke ae 666 Moencyem the initchenmacees | a se ausdes cece 821 
Combination Bedroom and Living Room........ 666 AnpmlectncGas-Lightensenmrrs cc denacwr wees 821 
An Improved Bottle Stopper.................. 753 A Glue-Brush Like a Fountain Pen............ 821 
Pinnelastlinee. for apVise «0-0. sc... meek 759 How ittosAvoid Burnt Pingers. 20... i2. 6.14... 821 
How to Make a Distilling Apparatus........... 759 iiwoi@ookine) Vessels in\One en) one. se see cw 821 
AA Pinette Attached to a Bottle. -.2............. 762 ey 1 a eS 2 Rec Al ete ee : 822 
A Wedge as a Burglar-Alarm.................. 763 A Vacuum Washing Machine Which Sucks Dirt 
An Improved Darkroom Lamp................. 764 GHgorbabrics: .). {rete ie ©. ocle. boa aeOee 
meme tastioleriny Glass «osc... ssa ones pass 769 A Convenient Milk and Butter Slide for Refrigera- 
How to Build a Rabbit Hutch................. 791 LOLS es «sf EP slo ties die eens 823 
How to Make an Iceless Cooler........... ne AOE: An Ice-Grip with Many Uses.................. 823 
A Vegetable Peeler Made from a Razor Blade.... 792 Another Way to Rejuvenate Eggs.............. 823 
Making a Cheap Grocery Set of Your Own...... 794 Killing Insects with Poisonous Gas............. 857 
How to Make a Glove-Box.................... 794 An Electric Iron with a Headlight.............. 863 
An Improved Match Striker..:................ 795 Sterilizing Water by Ultra-Violet Light......... 866 
ERTL SeeM ESI ALO Wig! Va aise, Sexkscn: Sie Eaaisy ors ziasery, « ete 796 What Blood Pressure Means and How It Is Meas- 
orl Olishine) BUrneire tole lsc. “ies ven os cee 880 RELECP TT... = ls) Deda oes Eee 867 
How to Make an Accurate Sun-Dial............ 951 Why a Featherduster Is Like a Fly............. 878 
Bator Stove Blacking i... 06 046.500 0cteims 951 Iceiviaking at Home Nw. meus. tiscinoutien eee 891 
A heetl Pag Pompous, x), tater sok ate 951 Anilmprovised Flour Bin)... 2.2 snes sassceeee G02 
Clothes-Line Suggestions. .............02.-s00% 952 Doing Away with the Dish-Cloth.............. 906 
Pesmnxtary Kitchen Sink.......-....c0:sssecre. 952 Nesoaves the'Cook'’s Handé.....0) .eesant ens lene Geos 
room Holder from Barrel Hoop............... 953 Removing Waterproof India Ink Spots.......... 925 
How to Dry Unsightly Scrub-Rags............. 953 
How to Protect Sugar from Ants............... 953 HOW THE WAR IS BEING FOUGHT 
ow to Use Old Mantel Supports.............. 953 
A Milk-Warmer Made from a Lamp-Bulb....... 953 The Destruction of the Emden................. 13 
meyuvenating Your Pipe. ..-......cec+scnccnccs 953 Women in Europe's Machine Shops............ 17 
Making the Binslir Callithe!Polic@.05) 0.0.6.5... 954 | The Making of a Submarine Mine............ Teer 4 
SINC Len Berl et Yn he coh Soe och esas 954 How Range Finders Find the Range............ 26 
Automatic Feeding-Hopper Built for Twenty-five The Pigeon Spy and His Work in War.......... 30 
DRED 7 ISR AR TASS oe ere ae 5 ae How the War Is Being Fought..... cn) ie 33-50 
PCIMerMIOL CONCKEte: ic less ss vee teenies ees Shooting ab Jupiter. :<semenatia cents oh tice bis ore 66 
RCMP CNEAIE WHY oe ce fines s\) ne Siew erste o'a he « Piles of Walnut Logs for Gun Stocks............ 89 
How to Make Artificial Marble moPocket Periscope 2, “oe Cee ee 112 
The Left-Handed Woman's Home Appliances . Mining the Air Against Zeppelins............ 163 
Mie Ideal*Home for $5,000. 3.2.0.5... cece ce eee Sweeping a Channel for Submarine Mines....... 164 


eve 7 7 

Xviil INDEX TO VOLUME 88 

Page Page 
How the War Is Being Fought.............. 193-209 Cord Reel Is Telephone Convenience............ 916 
Why a Bullet Seldom Shoots Straight........... 244 The Mechanical Fly Swattem.2-.... 0... 8.15005 916 
A Queer Adventure in War......-..-.---+----s 247 An Umbrella with an Electric Fan.............. 916 
ihe New Acroplane Gun. ..: os cece nies eee 336 AvSanitary Butter Dish). eee ceo eee 916 
How the War Is: Being Fought.............. 354-367 Two Katchen Forks in‘One age. ee eee ee 916 
Train and Tent Baths of the Russian Army...... 370 
Will Germany Live on Sewage? ............-.-. 380 MECHANICAL ENGINEERING 
Recruiting Britain’s Army with Motor-Trucks, 

Motion Pictures, Mirrors and Brass Bands... 387 A Machine that Chews Money................. 77 
‘The Gostiof the. Ware wi)... eas. see Ge EoD Using the Sun’s Heat to Heat Water............ 79 
Why Cotton !s Contraband of War............. 412 Immense Water Wheels Which Lift Their Own 
A Barbed-Wire-Proof Fabric .\.. s...e-2---->-- 485 ater a o.5.52. ode etokts = pieces ins ae 82 
A Difficult Journey for An Army Tractor...... 490 A Windmill Which Always Turns in the Same 
Decoy Targets for Zeppelins................... 512 MTECHIONS 3.5 fous 42> RRR aa le eee 167 
How the War Is Being Fought............ 514-527 Steam-Driven Models Made by a Handless Me- 
The Allies’ Tsosses<iais tate c.s « «agen secaenetenete crete ae 540 CHADIOZ nate cise + Eee ee 168 
AnAdjustable. Grutch a... ); =. Geyer ei cle tr aes 558 This Belt Breaks All Records.................. 176 
Effects of the War on German Industries....... 567 What/aLxttle Engine CaniDoo- +. ace ee eee 212 
My. Adventures As appy...- cere an me 590 A Machine to Pull Up Old Telegraph Poles...... 223 

Sprinkling Streets with the Aid of an Old Fort.... 228 

INDUSTRIAL CHEMISTRY The Sculptor’s Use of a Pneumatic Chisel for 
Artistic\Garving ....... i.e: cee ee 229 
Bread. Without Grain, Flour... .. gapeee gees» ae 170 Testing a Hack. Saw’s Strength, ..... 0... s. 02 senee 
Hard-Pressed Germany Invents New Foods..... 237 A Machine to Clean Blackboard Erasers........ 268 
Paper from Grassiyc. cls. > <0) een eee ... 248 Sharpening’ Drills by Air; eee. os eee eee 336 
A Giant Grinder Which Goes to Its Work ...:.. 338 
INVENTIONS TO MAKE LIFE EASY The Hobby-Horse Turned Into a Swing......... 340 
: ; Lifting a Wagon to Dump Its Load............. 340 
Burnishing with the Sewing-Machine........... 436 Spending Money by Machinmery................ 346 

Cigar Tip Protector of Many Uses............. 436 Cleaning New York Streets with Modern Me- 
Head-Guard for Alley-Boys. «. sty sess => - tos 436 chanical: Appliances! 2 ee 378 
MorevAccurate Calipers... ....<ivelaaite = frig seein 436 A Machine Which Climbs Poles................ 381 
Trapping Mice in a Milk Bottle.......... 22 490 For Squeamish Fowl-Killers............... pen iH) 
Tricking Fish with Electric Minnows........... 436 Saving the Asphyxiated with a New Air-Pump.. 416 
Bicycle Frame Holds a Tire Pump............. 437 A Movable Storehouse Elevator...............- 418 
Collapsible Millinery for Traveling............. 437 The Biggest Cast-Iron Pipes in the World...... 487 
A Cutter for Fiber Phonograph Needles... . ee i! Saves Work of the Book-Gatherer............. 489 
Holding Meat While Carving.................. 437 Dumping a Whole Carload of Coal at a Time... 491 
A New Kind of Pin-Cushion . 2 fies Stokes . 437 Machine Fills Cracks in Pavements............ 491 
Preventing Furniture from Chipping Walls ...... 437 Suspension Bridges of Wire Fencing........... 495 
Can Maidenly Modesty Ask for More? ......... 438 Midget Crane Has Giant Ability .............. 507 
Conquering the Obstinate Oyster............... 438 Riveting Without Rivetssenem..... ur owe cone 509 
An Improved Potato Masher..........-.- we ateioy . 438 Giant Ladle for Molten Cinders............... 542 
One Motion of the Handles Works These Scissors A Magnetic Machine Which Saves Waste Iron .. 584 

Blades iwicerijit tic tae o. en daae.. lect 438 Climbing Steel Poles with the Aid of Special Shoes 644 
A Paper Milk-Bottle with a Window........... 438 Revolving Floor Puts a New Thrill Into the Dance 646 
Salt and Pepper Shaker........... negotiate senedeusi 438 Doing Away with the Submarine’s Storage Battery 654 
Light Your Umbrella if You Are Afraid to Go Home An Auger That Works*Anywhere............... 658 

in the Wark. 30.12 Se eles. eae epimers tes 594 Machine Shovels Faster Than Forty Men........ 661 
Signaling to the Driver Behind You.......... be Ds Three Tools:in: One. ;Waeer... 2 0 1een ee eee 668 
Pen Rack Removes Ink from Nib.............. 594 A Machine Which Plugs Knot-Holes ........... 730 
A Freight Hook of Many Uses................- 594 lifting Made Easy. .Reeien ss... 2524 aos 732 
Do Not Wring Your Mop by Hand............ 594 Novel Box-Opening Knifes... 4: .5..2 2: oc eee 734 
A, (Fountain! Tooth Brush s;: .cjcaeiteri pi tciyei= 594 Saw Guard with a Clean Record............... 738 
Adjusting a Shower Spray’s Angle............. 595 Pipe Bending—A Growing Industry............ 738 
Both Direct and Indirect Lighting............. 595 Wagon-Loader Resembles Gold Dredge......... 741 
A Coffee Percolator in Your Cup.............. 595 Eliminating Pottery/Waste....=......)se-eiee 742 
Blow Up Your Shoes with Air................. 595 A. Locomotive Apron: Exfter..\... =. s..neeues 764 
A Vacuum Cleaner Dust-Pan.:................ 595 An Automatic Pressure-Gage Alarm............ 781 
A Spring Cover for Milk Bottles.............. 595 Avoiding Groundings in Running Metal Molding 
This Ice-Shaver Saves Muscle................. 596 from Chandelier Outlets.................... 785 
A Foot-Propelled Motor Skate................. 596 Giant Press Used in Making Shrapnel Shells..... 815 
A Tooth-Brush Which Fits Your Finger........ 596 Water Rises to Three Hundred Feet in New York 
A Policeman's Club Which Is Also a Gun....... 596 Sky Scrapers. .... jaepepemtes canes aie eee 833 
Chalking Billiard Cues Mechanically........... 596 How Record-Breaking Girders Were Handled... 863 
Parting. Thick ‘Tresses. .)3)s05., \actyeebares ao ae 596 A New Era in Water Power Begun at the Henry 
Adjustable\Footrest: .....¢ ec: <hspee oe oh EROS Ford Farms...) See ck a ea soe eee 864 
AsBuzz-Saw oatety Razoree. . sees ee 850 Niagara's New Air: Route: :...... > «cae -:eienee 858 
Fooling the Pickpocket..............- sn) LODO. 

Straw: Hat Insurance (> ac -.9... dane oe 850 MODERN MEDICINE AND SURGERY 
A Tray to Hide Unsightly Cigar Ashes.......... 850 AND INDUSTRIAL HYGIENE 
A Clean Way of Removing Pens from ‘[heir 

Holders: 2. host es oC ie ee 8657 The Electromagnet im War. ..2.... 2.5 ase eee 27 
Learning Arithmetic with a Woman's Invention.. 869 Why a Woman Can Outtalk a Man............. 53 
A: Purse Powder-Holder.. 2.2. sheen eee ss 884 X-Ray Finds Safety Pin in Baby's Throat....... 54 
Combined Eye-Shade and Program............. 905 Hammering Spine to Cure Sick Heart........... 55 
The Fruit Picker’s Sleeve-Chute............... 914 Mercury Poisoning and Deafness—the Price of a 
AiMitten-Duster.,.)chauwe 40. . SA opine 914 Derby Hat... ..:. Sap peceeaaeae tare 68 
Muffler for Bowling-Pins.7.... + amen ere 914 A Walking Leg Bath isc sis aus re te 73 
Packing the Things You Never Can Cram into Hospital Work on the Firing Line.............. 80 

Wouruitcagse:.= 0.0 acest. Sevens -tetanech eee 914 Why There Are Defective Babies and Monsters... 83 
Safety-First for Window-Cleaners.............. 914 An International Test for Vision.............-. 112 
Small Electricheater:. i... - . nce > ee 914 Does Your Child Suck Its Thumb?............. 334 
Down with the Portcullis, and Your Fis Is Caught 915 Mending Bones with Rivets and Wires.......... 337 
Improved Pocket-Knife Punch................. 915 Sleep in Hot Water to Rest Your Nerves........ 381 
A Magnifying Needle-Threader................ 915 The-Peril of the Furt@oat pss pines ae ene 383 
Mattress Handles Lighten Housework.......... 915 Babies: in Glass Casese<-ar oacies oe eiisade > + ies 390 
A Perftume-Wafting Fani.t5..2 «bce cocci onlete 915 A*Rowing. Bath J. 3... gecerlamers feist eee on ean ens 486 
Telephone-Mouthpiece Deadens Outside Sounds. . 915 Making a Throat Examination Behind a Glass 
Convenient Holder for Toilet Articles........... 691 Screen! ’... .< Se .vs Siete nie et oles ee oa ee 497 


Se a le eal 


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if A) Cee = 


eee ee ee nee Te 


INDEX TO VOLUME 88 X1x 


Page 
thet Doge as a’ Carrier of (Disease: 2.0... 5.66 8s 510 
A Fresh-Air Tunnel for Your Bedroom......... 553 
Sriencesancuthe: Griminalcmn: sins so choacts coeur 555 
Cane Holds Doctor’s Medicines ............... 563 


Pure Water for Six Hundred Thousand People.. 580 
Handy Instrument for Physicians.............. 658 
Fumigating Has Improved, but Are We Less Afraid 
BiGerMS ass 2 Ses TN eee ee ale ee Oe 663 
Fumigating Tank that Contains R. R. Coach.... 664 
Sleep Outdoors in This Hotel.................. 669 
Bismfectinz school Pencils: .. .o2.050.05 0 Se: 694 
Twitching Muscles by Means of the Electric 
Murrente ey acs te ee Les eee oe 699 
The Modern “Horse Doctor” at Work.......... 721 
Sanitary Refreshment Tables.................. 729 
When Should Children Be Held Upside Down?... 739 
Three-Quartersof Humanity Are DeficientinLung- 
SADHClLUs Pe te ee ote Be Ss Pate 745 
Straightening a Baby Llama’s Knock-Knees..... 856 
A Whipping Machine to Cure Nervousness... ... 862 
ARonays ancdytbe woaw (5 2.00 Ns: se ckle a ae os 879 
MINES AND MINING 
An Oil Well Fire That Burned Four Months ..... 3 
Crigisnheapersunan’ Coal! 3.521 bssie2 nc ecco ecexcpare 18 
A Miner’s Safety-Electric Lamp............... 28 
Sle rniaio heal yee tar eck. 3-9 ied tase anr ata 79 
Nature’s Horde of Solid Silver................. 87 
A Piece of Salt That Weighs Two Hundred Tons... 179 
Inspecting the Inside of the Earth.............. 232 
the the Porty-INigers:. ... .,. ser. cvanorcl fangs, Valdoe « 267 
MOTION PICTURES 
Avast Ormurol Order ss <= iia bo5 ries, visio. ma Sole ae 24 
Five Thousand Dollars a Minute............... 64 
Risking His Life to Make a Motion Picture Play.. 65 
A Machine That Thinks Up Movie Plots........ 210 
Motion Pictures on the Firing Line............. 231 
Nanderine IMotion Pictures: 2... 55. 0... ee en. DOL 
Why Do Moving Pictures Seem So Life-Like?.... 386 
Capturing Jamaica fora Film Play............. 396 
An Automobile Dressing-Room ror a Motion Pic- 
PRL EMACELESR MM Maree cic corn Te alti oven Brake 54 
Expense in Motion Picture Making............ 570 
Mofion-Picture! Silhouettes... 3. 0. 2 sos t ee ce es 665 
More Motion-Pictures in Color ................ 717 
The Screen-Player’s Make-Up ................. 733 


Hazards of Motion-Picture Acting: Real and 


Baked eer rcs: et cee deceke ees 885 
MOTOR-TRUCKS 
Motor-Truck’s Energy Runs a Pipe-Threader.... 880 
Motor-Trucks Take the Place of Horses...... 898-901 
NAVAL ARCHITECTURE AND 
NAVAL SCIENCE 
Enlisted Men: The Navy's Foundation........ 171 
Our Thirty-five Knot Battle Cruiser............ 186 


PATENTS FOR SIMPLE INVENTIONS 


Readingnn Bed Made Pasys oc nlic.s scar sss ese 702 
Finger-Ring to Be Used as a Pencil Holder...... 756 
A Clothes Pin with a Sandow Grip............. 756 
Keeping the Heat Out of Milk Cans...+........ 756 
An Electric Whirlpool to Suck Flies to Their Doom 756 
A Single-Service Shaving Brush................ 757 
a neds the Big Shoe-Stand to the Little Boy.. 757 
Finger-Holds for Your Slippery Bath-Tub....... 757 

Does This Solve the Refilling Problem for Fountain 
erin ties era eee tet «TE Mota he Os ane 58 
A Sled for awn-oprinklers.... 64-2 scien o> vs te 758 
This Toothbrush Can Be Used Only Once....... 758 
riisninct Away the: PACKS iii... c+ s00 05s saat «6 758 

PHOTOGRAPHY 

It Looks Like a Telescope, but It’s Really a 
BOCA Ce ah) SIE SiG ici iene ee ae 225 
Piauay, Dark-ropmiLamp . c.f. ks. e cs wee 263 
Is This Actual Color Photography at Last?...... 417 
Fun with Pictures of Your Friends ........... 529 
Taking Photographs from a Skyrocket.......... 670 
How to Make Spirit Photographs.............. 719 

A Substitute for a Condenser When Making En- 
ho Gia 2 ee Ok pea er ee 763 

A Device for Numbering Photographic Plates and 
SRNR Tae, a diy aiehe GRAY ahah ek Chale ae 52 


Page 
Submitting Photographs for the London Exhibition 852 
A Camera Which Can Be Tilted at Any Angle... 889 
A Portable Dark-Room for Photographers...... 903 


PRACTICAL WORKERS 


A‘Radinm Lightning Rodi: ..c 3. 34Gb ieee ees 123 
ASGlue Scrapers. penstace mos oeteto he. qa ae Ac rior Ne 
An Emervency Pack maw)... 2<))s 2-18 eiise) sms = 124 
Differential Gear for Home-Made Tractors and 
CGycle-Cars:=).c Hae woth, tome eae ae Nore 124 
A Useful Home-Made Glue Brush.............. 124 
AmiEdective Window Mock. ~ -iacs se ceme ses ees 125 
(hosMakelomall: Spameie © oiic.s 0.0 pee) Seeesieieiee e 125 
Fowito, Case Hardensixon: «<2 3castas st ates 125 
Files and Tools from Switch Handles........... 125 
A Handle for a Small Bit or Drill.............. 125 
An Easily Made Marking Gage................ 125 
Rlome-Viade Drillvieress:... «cree 6 oi iyrke te cerca ees 126 
How to Get the Most from a Football.......... 126 
(ABE lelpvin. Wireless tinge (cies Asia chc) Sropsie ol ee ele 126 
Ground Detector for Three Wire Circuit........ 127 
Ingenious Circuit Saves Money in Photoplay 
ROSES ya. cs. cre emda rcv ene ae tate cterel Nee sete (sis -ctors eb27 
A Novel Medical Battery.......:....... baie RoR 
A Combined Triangle and Protractor........... 128 
Agbrawine: Cuttenserr gees oles An areicts ae aces ere 23) 
Overhauling Your Car for the Winter..... Sas eee 
To Make a Work Bench and Vise.............. 139 
A Sprinkling Can as a Dark Room Lamp... .. 140 
AnvAdjnstablé: Arcwlamnpie tics esc sci 'sca = o8- 3. 313s .. 140 
Alcoholebimener | Se yeiritcs. ne scr fie fn mee Ware be . 140 
Adjustable Printing-Frame Holder.......... .. 140 
Flow to Build antice Boatenick «= sees 06 a. s ars as 141 
Flow, to. Draw amyEclpse ss itech nets ede cyorere nye 142 
AyDporstep: Burclarni ilar). oo) vaio. «3s 2 142 
AySunple aboratonysDuxuer. cp... 2)s\-<</or- «62ers 142 
Waterproofing, Shoese see ec aie ie sivas wie ete wl aye we 142 
The Danger of Safety Tin Boiler Plugs.......... 246 
A. Lens That Remains m Focus /.:.....5. 22%... 259 
Makeshift Polarity Indicator.................- 260 
Ron Cracks and Holess ie jek. bn ee cies oie an ieee LOO 
To Prevent Bolt from Turning When Unscrewing 
(RCTS ey eis. ig Kn tN ae a pe Re te 275 
Saws DOS ees 2 eRe aerate ache cksle elo tee ais Slerars 275 
Potato Roaster for Campers...........-----+-- 276 
An Electrical Peddler Chaser........ an ae a\- -eiias 276 
Prevents Casks Slipping While Unloading....... 276 
Amublectric al Oy, SemapuOre: = oc ate ac, «© ss clan 277 
Saving Time in Tracing a Design............... 278 
Enlarging a Runabout’s Capacity.............. 279 
AgNon-Spillable Hammnellir) sce ve ofa = 272 ne > crete 279 
Mat-Making for Photographers...........-.... 279 
ShrockevA Dsarbers fn he wn nossa) p aiemeishs| «21a ofan 280 
Key Controls Battery Current...........-..-. 281 
Eliminates Pants’ Guards for Bicycle Riders.... 281 
An Ingenious Electric Connector............... 282 
Avpelfebighting Arc icightie.\:.: stsenci-- civ a 282 
Bending Brass Tubes Without Kinking.......... 282 
Enlarging Without Dividers.................. +202 
How a Jack Knife Can Be Used as a Compass... 282 
Airy squaresAids sce obi esjeis os) < Salsa aml 281 
fravbrevent. Rist asectin cc csier vats 5) pate 282 
Rinsing Photographic Negatives Without Running 
Water... eabnd.c boritercetae a cuits sic.< Maectehanrs 283 
A Mysterious. Motor... .<o.- <6 55 ce eens ae le 283 
Small Screws in Difficult Places...............- 283 
Fuse for Storage Battery Circuits.............. 284 
Falter for. Lubricating: Oil} (on ceric ite ae 284 
WAnGoodi Belt Conmpoundity. ts era: cies ait tn hee 
Ai Capacity Job vc) o.icis's syemis = inininle’slstarelatniade nisletes 285 
A Way of Fastening Machine Parts............ 285 
Substitute for Large Gas Reservoir............. 285 
Ice Skates Make Shoe-shining Stand............ 285 
Sleigh Attachment for Perambulators........... 286 
Drilling Holes in Glass. .... iets lev eterna tad m abergaNeiere 286 
Prevents Insulation Unwinding « .<..'\-esen san 200 
Hydraulic Blowing Arrangement............... 287 
The Care of Paint Brushes. , rose oe ens esse 288 
Lengthens Life of Blow-Torch Burners......... 288 
Renewable Fuses. ian 2 ukee oie W ctoctin Sciam pi ako bars 288 
Emergency Bolts. .......-:0.cseecresceereneees 288 
Binding Magazines into Book Form............ 289 
A Self-Adjusting Sandpaper Block.............. 293 
A New Use for Broken Drills and End Mills..... 293 
A Handy Way to Repair a Tire....... 7 i? 293 
A Home-made Football Inflater.........-...... 294 
Ap Dust-Proof Bottle tomAcida. vc sos ws. se wee 294 
A Multiple Punch...........-.---- hE ee 294 


INDEX TO VOLUME 88 


xx 
Page 

An Oil Tray Made Without Solder............. 294 An Easy Way to Punch Holes in Clock-Spring Stecl 770 
lio Pace Jceft=biandsINuts ta... «..-« <ea) «ae epee 439 An Improvised Pipe-Wrench................... 770 
A Spirit-Level for Use in Dark Places ........... 439 Improving a Drawing-Ink Bottle............... 770 
he \Plap-lorkc: Envelope: .i.0....-s2e.< 6. aeaeee 440 A Bow-Drill for the Work Shop................ 771 
Home-Made Motion Picture Camera........... 440 Non-Upsetting Holder for Drawing Inks........ 772 
An Electrically-Operated Screwdriver........... 44] Inside Counter-Boring in a Miller.............. 773 
How to Make a Self-Honing Razor Strop........ 441 How to Improve a Pocket Spectroscope......... 773 
Pe Simple Aan umip so 5. eae Or ee bate 442 A Lathe: Polishing) Kank=”.. . ; ./: gepenesio-ueeoee 774 
Barrel for:Holding Sacks.) | 2 \3¢'. . 4. 2+. ene 443 ‘Tappme: Blind Holes apeys. 2 .’. aaa oe eid 774 
Gage for Duplicate Hole Drilling .............. 443 How to Cut Metal and Not Cut Yourself....... 774 
Sawing Difficult Angles on Small Stock......... 443 Handling Small" Brads 322-.)0- -; eee eee 774 
An Emergency Pipe-Cutter........-..--+--+... 444 Whistle on Engine of Motor-Boat.............. 774 
Handling’ Small Brads-4: t..o2..... . eee 444 An Emergency Pipe-Cutter..............02+.<. 774 
A’ Lathe Polishing’ Kinki... 5. - ; - -2epe eee ee 444 An Automatic Pressure-Gage Alarm............ 780 
A sunple' Bri-Gage .)s\ncte ts. - «eee 444 How to Make an Electric Horn................ 788 
eapping Blmd Holes 2. ~ 220s: -\. > ee ea 444 Soldering German.oilver..i4;. . 2essie os) ake oe 792 

sing Icein: Masonry. ih eceis: « » Bee ae 444 Non-Irritating Skin Cleanser.................-. 794 
Whistle on Engine of Motor Boat.............. 444 Detachable Blades for Hatchets................ 813 
How to Build an Aero Ice-Racer............... 445 Measuring Cloth in the Roll................... 827 


An Emergency Drill Press 
A Handy Chuck for a Small Lathe 


. EAE 449 Adjustable Light-Holders for Factory Illumination eco 


449 Paraffin Protects the Labels of Chemical Bottles.. 878 


A Simple Gas-Pressure Regulator.............. 449 Oibsugithe Visiomalcathe..: . . . ic .eeee eee 
To Adjust a Laght-Cord: 355...;. - « ae 450 Slow-Setting Plaster of Paris....:.............. 887 
The Thermos Bottle as a Stove =~ ee Boe 450 A Long-Handled Screwdriver.................. 910 
Uglizing Empty Cartridges: 2... ...+: eee 450 Driving Screws in Inaccessible Places........... 918 
Cutting-Braes sec. json ose. >. ee > re 7462 A Home-Made Ice-Mold................0....- 918 
An Oil-Proof Cementsin s2.: = . «SS epee ae 508 How to Etch afWater-Set. . 2) aes pee eee 918 
Sandpapermg Made Easy..2......205bes eee ea: 568 Making an Electric Lantern from a Flashlight... 918 
A Method of Packing Barrels................. 568 Drilling Holes in Sheet Metal.................. 919 
Deep ‘Genter-Punchiig*).32 @:..): ; : . See oe 586 Grinding:Out Dies **=.- 22). tee ee eee 919 
A® Useful Gage+for’ Motonsts ..... .... Meteosat 597 A Home-Made Scalpel for Trappers............ 919 
How Betsy Ross Made a Five-Pointed Star With How. to Make a Reamer’: 2.-14 oo aoe eee 919 
BES EY pie. con Sap NN oie. = = ve by Re 597 A Hose Connection Guaranteed Water-Tight.... 920 
Making and Usin = See Drill... . 2. 598 How to Mend a Broken Casting............... 920 
Straightening Kinked Wire.................... 598 Silver-Plating ‘Glass'.¢. . .’. i. .eiteta ees. ta ae 920 
How to Construct a alee Cyclecar Starter.... 599 How to Protect the Surface of a Laboratory Table 924 
Removing Tires with a Clothes-Pin ............ 599 A Mission:S tains oo | ic. ...gr aa Ss > eee 92 
Bunsen Burner and Blow-Torch Combined..... 600 A Cheap Beam-Compass..... 
Brass Tube Cleans File Teeth................. 600 Gazing the Stack Draft..4 4 Seen eee 
Cutting Glass Bottles and Tubes with Oil....... 600 A Safe Way of Bending Pipes 
A Coarse File for Soft Metals.................. 600 How to Make a Polariscope to be Used as a Micro- 
A. Trousers-Wasigerc. fos cee ess kee, ee 600 SCOPES sect ars pipeicteke Ste <). sche aes hy op ene tee 926 
A Piece of Furniture of Many Uses............ 601 To:Stop!e Lathe: Gurckly” “soos eee oe 926 
Washing Blueprints and Bromide Enlargements.. 601 Cutting MleareAny Angle’. he ae a ae 927 
pave Fuel for Oil-Burmers........ - gee ast eee 602 A Substitute for a Soldering Iron............... 927 
A Speedometer Light for Ford Cars........... 602 Taking -the Squeak Out of a sienes an eee 927 
Driving Piles into Quicksand................. 602 Handling: Fine Screws)... 3 72. oe een ee 928 
Making a: Kite-Camerats = co ooh. 2 ts ee 603 A Home-Made Thumb-Screw.................. 928 
Turning Out Large Sheave Wheels Without a Lathe 604 How:toMake‘a Barometer Sop eet-b sl. .eeea 928 
A TFwo-Jaw (Chucks. 222350 eae: «eee ee 605 Making a Long Distance Shot with a Shotgun... 928 
How to Wind Springs Easily.................. 605 Ovling*Hammer:Handle. . .. gi3hewente-e ee oes 928 
Using an Electric Iron as a Stove.............. 606 
ow to Make a Leveling-Board............... 606 RADIO COMMUNICATION 

A~ Handy. “Drawer-CatehGnis. ...\. /. ae el ae 606 
A> Paint, Brush, Hook.de¢2h< 2)... See ee ee 606 Impedance of Oscillation Circuits in Wireless 
To Bore Endwise in Wood. .... 050. 0224s .0cs> 606 Telegraphy: 3.05.2 0% . 3 eae eee 
Filtering ‘Mercury... >... 55.305 1 See ee 607 Recent Radio Inventions : #6)... . b5..5 dnb 
A Simple . Bit Gage. 6.2.20 5.8. See eee eee 607 A Multiple Point Switch . /.36ie-- 22. ..-- ieee 
Blackine’ Bex Inside (Brush: : 3). .) eee ee 607 Radio‘Stations in/Alaska . .3@te-+ se 1 eee 
Razor Blade Floor-Scraper...........2+-.---«- 607 Radio Club News” <... . {.2optessaee 2 age eee 
A@Novel Polishing Pad. =2...044 . ee eee 607 What Radio Readers Want to Know........... 
A Handy (Drawing “Table... 2 . >: .. geese 608 A New Aerial Supporter................ 
Acid Engraving on Steel in Your Own Hand- A Simple Change-Over Switch................ 

tat (4 eS cee SE 608 A. Gondenser's ‘Power... . . spereienn ee ae a 
Lighting Your Pipe in the Wind............... 608 Aeroplanes, Wireless and the War.............. 
Attachine an Index Plate... [-......>2eeeoaeeee 609 Duplex Wireless Telegraphy................... 
Av'Gandle Motors. te... .... bok. . Jae 609 Recent, Radio Inventions. epece. sss se. - -Gcene 
An Emergency Vise Repair..............-.--- 609 Crystal! Detector Hints..." SRRRB pr ar 2. o> 6)- «ue 
A Trick i Wig 24. ./30.258b.. 7 eee eee 609 Antenna Circuits in Radio Telegraphy 
An Electric Alarm Operated by a Clock...... . 610 Edison’s Railroad Wireless...................- 


Protecting Labels on Bottles 


610 A Roof Insulator: ........ geese eGo = 5 eee 


Workbench Made from Old Piano............. 610 International Conference at Washington........ 305 
A Library Paste Which Does Not Dry Up....... 610 Radio Has Velocity of Light.......:........... 305 
Handling Small Bolts Easily.................. 610 The Static Coupled Receiving Tuner........... 306 
Catching Rats: Wholesale.) ia0...< eee 611 A Mexican. Radio Station . i}... «=. sa aueeee 307 
A News Stand and Blueprint Washer Combined. 611 KRadio'Glab News... ... ....geae o> aeee eee 308 
Laying Out Angles with a Two-Foot Rule...... 612 A: Variable Condenser. .. . Sines ee eee 308 
A Simple Way of Making Facsimile Rubber What Radio Readers Want to Know........... 309 
= Gio abate bee lular svete laces) & <i oe eee 612 Safeguarding Vessels by Radio................. 451 
Makin a: Bench Shear s2.. 3. 353... cn pee ae 753 The Earth’s'Conductivity : See ee al. eee 453 
A Drill Made from a Needle................... 753 Lhe Obligation to Secrecy: 2eisee de: + = eee 454 
Making a Handy Power-Bench.... Ss et WOO Photographic Records Still Impracticable....... 454 
Construction of a Revolving Drawing- Board..... 761 The Wireless Idea Is More Than Seventy Years Old aes 
The Construction and Use of a Safe Driving-Box Recent’ Radio Inventions... ee -e se eee 456 
MPET te et eee eee 5 a oe 761 An Improved Crystal Detector Stand........... 460 
Making Dies of Difficult Outline............... 762 Loose-Coupler Switch Arrangement............. 460 
A Set of Jaws for Counter-Boring and Facing.... 762 A Motor-Operated Aerial Switch. .............. 463 


Uncoupling Pipes 
Rounding Washers in a Speed Lathe 
Making Shrinkers 


764 Free and Forced Oscillations in Radio Telegraphy 464 
768 Making a Simple Alternating Current Rectifier... 468 
769 Radio's Firat Rescue. (2:52 J90c5 se eee eae 468 


INDEX TO VOLUME 88 XX1 


. Page SHIPS AND SHIPPING Page 
: Peineninc-Coil Sider -t Set ee eels eos soins 468 
Reconstructing a Dry Battery................. 469 New Diver's Suit Does Away with the Hand Pump 29 
; Mounting Spark-Gaps to Eliminate Unnecessary Gangway Life-Saver Prevents Crushing of Life 
> LS USTIOD) a. whee ech icc oD CEG OETA ee 471 Bonts ae Steere Ree ces. . nee 58 
Remco unine-Golls. ci) shee cele ce we cates 471 Gliding Boat for Tropical River Mail Service.... 74 
What Radio Readers Want to Know............ 472 Saving Men from Scalding Steam in Steamship 
Money Prizes for Radio Articles............... 481 Eneine Rooms. ce nets He nee einen woes ws 254 
An Undamped Wave Receiver............ es 613 Detecting Fires in the Holds of Trans-Atlantic 
The Tuning of Radio Telegraph Receivers...... 619 Perera arn ee oa co ee Ne ore ois, ts 257 
How to Build the Mast for a Wireless.......... 623 Steamer Breaks Back in Storm................. 335 
What Radio Readers Want to Know........... 627 A Submarine That Dived but Once ............ 391 
How to Fit Cables Into Small Terminal Holes.... 762 The Unabashed Fish and the Noisy Motor Boat.. 393 
Damping i Radio Circuits 5... ..22.60 5 ee 775 AMO reddnouchits Exticee mere el. ao tisisitas Sue ein a ce 404 
A National Wireless Association................ 779 Floating a Sunken Warship on a Bubble of Air... 405 
Lamp Resistance for Charging Storage Batteries.. 781 (ammes | hose Marbarieirates 7. tccisc ect ~ «oc 498 
An Unusual Recording Receiver................ 782 AS Calling) sCompommpeten ss «8. os eee eee. 505 
Mubalar Ouenched| Gap.) ti: v2... sis oee ee ee 782 Italians Build Highest Powered Motor Ship...... 541 
Miele pnonesecenvers.): J... osc ene te len we oor 783 Breaking Storm Billows with Compressed Air ... 561 
Mearnivipstnencodere: . cit). cece ete te ose 783 The Undependable Fog-Horn.................. 575 
Magnetic Adjustment of Audion............... 783 Miniature Ships That Were Built to Prove a Point 580 
An Electromagnetic Rectifier and a Polarized Relay 784 Reverses Tug’s Propeller Blades................ 663 
Inexpensive Stranded Aerial Wire.............. 785 Exit the Mississippi Stern-Wheeler: Enter the 
Automatic Dead-End Switch)... :.....2.....-- 785 MiBtOr Ear ce aime Oe ardor ah chaqaie aie oe Pos 696 
Audion of Increased Sensitiveness.............. 787 Making a Life-Saver of a Leak................. 700 
Repairing a Burnt-Out Fuse................... 788 Using Triggers to Launch Uncle Sam's Battle-ships 703 
Constructing a Variable Condenser............. 787 Making Your Own Boat Repairs Under Water. . 711 
What Radio Readers Want to Know........... 790 Submarine Signaling with Sound Waves......... 712 
Sharpness of Tuning in Radio..........:....... 935 Ancient Battleship Ideas Revived.............. 737 
Cena Ie ELEUGER. cod ss bese ea ee ee 940 A New Way of Loading Steamers from Freight Cars 829 
Preventing the Audion from Choking........... 943 
Praigiypean biate Gap... 25 eee 943 SOUND RECORDING 
The Non-Synchronous Rotary Gap............. 944 AND TRANSMISSION 
Mirenched Gap ampines.. ticle. sess co cen ess 944 
A Wireless Log for the Amateur................ 944 Edison’s Phonograph Diaphragm to Record Only 
Japanese Wireless Telephone.................. 947 argh SOUS) 2 Wa ries oie ote eres 5 ove. <, 10 
Radio Lower at Lufts' College, 02. 5... .. 949 Selling by Show-Window Telephone............ 18 
What Radio Readers Want to Know........... 950 A New Device for Recording Sounds........... 58 
Hearing the Stones on a River's Bed............ 92 
RAILWAYS 
WAR PROBLEMS IN AMERICA 
Locomotives Serve as Fire Eugines............. 8 
Artificial Rainstorm Tests Car Roofs.......... 10 Konta thatviravel omieatls. a )op- 00-03. 3 le 323 
Sidewalk Shelters for the Trolley Patrons of AMT orpedouwith yest iee steers osc a ctetle << cine 424 
CORREO TE SI > aoe ean eb pei ei 10. |. Our Helpless Coast Defenses......./....-..--- 499 
Telephoning from a Moving Train.............. 11 EieiplesstUmited tates tect esce so octkic seers oe 689 
A Boy’s Wonderful Working Locomotive Model.. 25 Undersea Fighting of the Future............... 803 
itheisteam Eneme in War. )3..ca2cees..ese sess 74 
Motor Car Mows Railroad Weeds.............. 79 THE WAR AND ITS EFFECTS 
Publishing a Paper Aboard a Train............. 185 
To Keep Automobiles Off Railroad Tracks...... 224 How War Mobilizes the Non-Combatant........ 812 
she Size ofa Railway Station’. ....2--:262 2... 233 London War Affects Baby Carriages............ 812 
New York Trains That Play Leap Frog.......... 245 imneisentlest Bululetose. sone. tate ts «os civ soe a 819 
Process for Painting Cars Rapidly.............. 261 MiaLvelaia War Wap ieee ve © Meee 2 f= s e sone 828 
oiehing Eggs from Swiftly-Moving Trains..... 343 vere dtr]... cues nis. sso si atele in 2 eB, 
Railroad Gate Warns and Stops Reckless Motorists 373 How the War Is Being Fought.............. 834-849 
Baking a Railroad Car to Dry the Paint......... 423 
Tamping Railroad Ballast with a New Air-Tool .. 536 WHAT'S NEW IN PATENTS 
Stopping the Speeder with a New Danger Sign .. 541 
Not a Toy—A Real Locomotive............... 490 Erasing Attachment for Typewriters............ 105 
Asleep on the Sleepers.............. 5 Bs Etech te. 688 Soda Fountain ina Suitcase.......... Se ee See ey 
How Fast Is Your Train Moving?.............. 693 A Finger-Knife for Egyptian Corn.............. 105 
Burning Cars to Make Money................. HiAvetoiline the cafe: Blowerg -< 3-22 «<0 oss = = ee 111 
How a Second-Hand Automobile Made a Railroad Bapy aiepottle Holdertie ce «ase caine od x x etme 158 
| 7 Sipe ony oy ee See eae ttn oie Lat nt ee 732 Tool for Stripping Insulation..............-..-- 158 
A Pire-Fichting’ Trolley'Car 0.0.5 62 ke 735 Electrically Lighted Pencil...............-.. . 158 
A Scientifically Designed Train-Announcing Mega- Combined Door Bell and Mail Receiver......... 158 
HUODE Sina eet el vis ee Tae Ten. Oe 741 AnmAgdto the Vetermary: oo te ccaaicia> sinc tivi sees 158 
A Continuous Railway Crossing................ 746 A Room Stove Water Heater..............+++-:- 158 
Pesiccesgtitl Railroadd)sciz3 =. sewtsj ss salen s ole virie 23 828 | Sanitary Kneading Board...........-.-.------ 159 
Expensive Transportation..................... 890 Self-Feeding Soldering Irom... s.00e soso eee 159 
A Traveling Laboratory for Testing Railway Scales 890 A‘Pad and Pencil Holder for the Telephone... .. 159 
Holding tooth Brigitta. |. 0-4 >> ase nares 159 
RECREATION Apparatus for Cleaning Hair Brushes........... 159 
Combination Sad-Iron Heather and Cooking 
Curved Spring Device Returns Bowling Balls.... 813 Wreareil.; |... cece 0c ie een rene hha ent ane 159 
Ice Skating in Summer Without Ice............ 908 Shoe Polishing Device... .. . stacbiclas #27) ea 160 
Answers to Sam Loyd’s April and May Puz- Opening and Closing Garbage Cans with the Foot. 160 
PAS ie ot Be SI i ee A Ene LTR 912-913 Purse'in. Palm: of Glove... 6. see exe op nese +. HOU 
Rater Making At iblome 7:).. 0. sberelecae cee 921 AntiSkidding Chain... oo x5 nantes ob eos 4 160 
Pecampens Ditch Ovens. shrines aces each ces 934 Walking Stick Becomes a Seat............----: 160 
F Meat-Holder Which Makes Slicing Easy ........ 160 
¥ ROAD BUILDING New Headlight Dimmer.) te. css ve ce ier ee os > 272 
: Keeping Your Soles Warttiose vase <. rena 272 
A Three Million Dollar Automobile Scenic Highway 56 Adjusting a Brush to Its Handle..............- 272 
LSS Teo SET GE I ee ge 226 For Applying Chains to Wheels.........-...-.-- 272 
An Automobile Road Sign and a Map Combined. . 229 Combined Egg-Tester and Mailing Tube........ 272 
Applying Hot Road Material.................. 267 Clothes hack, Drverrr. cea cic t areas, os 272 
a Blasting for Good Roads......-.........0.0008: 750 Combined Coat Hanger and Trousers Stretcher... 273 
ae Bad Roads Make Bad Going.................. 829 | Making It Easy for the Birds..............--.. 273 
x “Once Over” and the Road Is Done........... 876 A Simple Signal for Automobiles. ............++ 273 


6: 


Saad 


a 


A) Rollinge’Glock? 22055 . och tcc tee ween 
A Bird-House That Can Be Cleaned 
lf You Only Gave asKope > occu «5s tee aa ie 
That Mathematical Short Cut................. 
Hotel Keys Which Take the Place of Call Boys... 
The Strength of a Stream of Water............. 
Parcel-Carrying Rack for Biewcle 
The World’s Largest Flagstaff . 

Converting an Old Boiler into a . Water Standpipe 


A Sensible Feeding Bag for Horses’. 


INDEX TO VOLUME 88 


Page 
Keeping Shampoo Soap Out ot Yours arses 273 
A Shaving Mug with a Soap Pump............. 273 
Snapping the Snapping Turtle... 273 
A Headlight Dimmer Operated from the Seat. 274 
A Stepladder and Ironing Board............... 274 
Increasing Your Grip on the Golf Club......... 274 
It’s a Wise Man That Knows His Own Tooth 
SITING fee aon Serer e Es Geter occa 274 
AsSopito Feminine. Vanity... «sac. 6 = sieye sus cele eee 274 
Making Potato Chips by Machine.............. 274 
MISCELLANY 
Sea Shells for Decorating Concrete. 9 
The “Back Yard Limited’’.. . A Ses Oe 9 
Lengthens Life of Rubber Gloves. aire we: 11 
Shippinei hips in baskets oc. ....\- -..ceeee etre iae 17 
A Pueblo Village for the Garden of the Gods.... 19 
A Millinery Store on Water. ; : 24 
How Savages Prepare Poisoned iN rows ee ee 25 
aewo-¥ ear-Old (Bees vii aerate. ee en aeos 25 
Your Feet are Wiped When You Enter Bohemian 
Bakeries fre 20e 22a be ncest » 311 eres 26 
No 'Chance:to, Pass. This. Shop... ..... sas eee ose 32 
An Illinois Community with Ideas in Street 
Mighitrags.-. aaa coos =.: «oh eee 32 
Polite Sign Boards Bring Results............... 32 
Artificial Sausage skinst |. ts). ..> «eee eise s/s) 32 
AnIndian Weeding, Party. ...... .. -2cmieietepe c= hes 51 
Curious Trades of Other Lands. 52 
Fly Impaled by Spear of Grass.............-..-. 55 
From (GCellar:to pidewallk.. © soc. b:)2:. Sgaeetete eter ohe le 66 
AsGlockiNiade.oF OETAW. . alfa: cw Meee we ieiownene 66 
Street Corner Directories that Tell You Everything 70 
Where Men Are Still Cheaper Than Machinery.. 76 
ANGoli Lee Fertilizer; (5st hte oe eit 88 
A Real Sultan’s Strange Body-Guard........... 88 
Building with Cobblestones.................... 102 
Bottle Corks Made from Blood................ 107 
Left-Handed Watches for Left-Handed People... 112 
The Longest Letter in theaw orld... sees. wake eer 167 
IB ovis Derek DORt. 6 66 sie siseitsa.0 cep ae seieiee 170 
Fisho Dhatelravel on oand ss...) ccs. coinio ore, spatsiouene 177 
Fossil Plants Twenty Million Years Olds eee. 178 
The Latest Style in Handcuffs................. PANY 
Have You Eaten Your Cow?.............-200+- 211 
AT ree.Captrures albencesc.. 1... aati verter 224 
What Is the Best Shade Tree in the United States? 225 
A Merry-Go-Round in the Water.............. 230 
Forest Rangers Must Fight Snakes as Well as Fires 230 
Making Butter by the Barrel.................. 230 
How to Make Knots, Ties, Hitches and Bends... 235 
Brushing Your Teeth; There Is a Right and a 
Wrong Was. fo stir tene ie sate aim agepeionema diate els is 2 236 
A Revolution See aud Stop Watch Combined.. 246 
Our Big Bird Seed Pil 3. oe. won areas 252 
Making a Dancing Flecr Into a Skating Rink. 252 
A Business Office in the Open Air.............. 253 
An Ant Heap as a Look-out Station............ 256 
Levine: in-aciree Stump crs. ois sc + os ceisler 256 
How to Sit Straight and Be Comfortable....... 258 
Three-Wheeled 'Rickshawa for Asia............ 260 
Giant: Metal Shoevfece os ..cssva6. ameter. 261 
AlSaw Thatistands: Upic 2.724... cee Oe 262 


A Test for Baggage Smashers..... .\. ase eaaee oe 38 
Circular Barn Built of Concrete...............-- 339 
Piling Lumber in Forty-Foot Monumental Stacks 339 
A Shell That Melted Money in a Ship’s Safe...... 40 
The Largest Card Holder in the World.......... 341 
‘Vins Belt Breaks All) Records... 3. sees ees 341 
A Gas Well Which Wasted $200,000 ............ 344 
Why Can a Fly Walk Upside Down?........... 345 
Wor, Razoriis’Lake.a’ ocythe.. ..... 50st 349 
A‘Grvilized Man's Totem Tree, .. <i: peien fenaee 372 
Huge Twin Lanterns Light Entrance to School... 372 
When Will This Reservoir Be Emptied?........ 373 
AvEiouse with" agsail ss... ss, shtes ..c.stee ener ne 384 
A Motion-Saving Rule-Case for Printers........ 392 
Cervang the Confederate Army in a Granite Moun- ae 


This Factory Burns “Sauerkraut” 
A Brazilian Snake Farm 


Why. Do) WelHavesi-wo! Eyes?:. pronuenranien aaater 418 
Why Is the Sky Blue? . 419 
A Dust-Collecting Window-Ventilatoniy,. 1050.08 420 
A: Medleyiof Puzzles: Scr... . : See elel deities 430 
How to Ascertain Your Latitude and Longitude... 432 
Improving the Old-Fashioned Ice-Skate......... 434 
Preserving ‘Indian: Speech -,.:.. . cope oe ee 486 
an-Power Reel for Hauling in a Long Seine.. 488 
A ‘‘Center-of-the-Room”” Fireplace............. 489 
Roller-Skates i in Business Shakers; oa agieeeetans eniejer sale atvioke 494 
‘Totthe + (itanic’ “Heroes? : 2: Gees See 496 
The Lively Bird on Our, Coverage ren solos ene 496 
Every Man His Own Hair Cutter.............. 497 
Ladder Tipped with Mule’s Feet .............. 503 
Ay Qurck-Actine: Wirench..,. . : Jaen ee bere 503 
Operating a Stage Under Difficulties........... 505 
An Improved Hack-Saw Attachment........... 506 
A Grain Elevator Which Holds 3,500 Carloads... 511 
A. Blanketiwitho Many; Uses . = 23-0 eee eee 528 
Walking Backwards Across the Country....... 535 
A Judge Who Has Succeeded Without Arms. 540 
Pranks #Played. by. rees:. ...). seer ee pee 542 
Mahogany Steamboat Cabin for a Home....... 543 
A Giant Pair of Scissors with a Symbolic Meaning 543 
Mammoth Tusks From Alaska ................ 543 - 
How Blotting Paper Absorbs Ink.............. 544 
Balsa, lightest of Woods... cea ween. Se 544 
Did You Know That Flour Explodes?:)...9. see 554 
Sea-Scouts as Lamplighters../...............506 554 
AU BraidediTreet:. 3. : & bos a er eee 558 
Better Than the Bread Mother Baked.... ..... 559 
SodagPulpyhlas Many Uses.4 eee eee 560 
Laundering Smoke and Using It Over Again.... 562 
How a Boy Delivers Packages with His Own 
Biceycle=Drailers f 2.0) 0.0. od aeeese os. eee 564 

A ‘Pocket Safes aches. otic ere un 2 oe ee 564 
‘The Refreshment: ree)... Soc > eee 564 
A Sycamore Stump for a Lamp Post........... 568 
Raising Goldfish by the Acre................ 25, 969 
Waterinethe.Oyster..>: «2 ee ee ee 581 
MasicsWhilesvou. Work: 2 octane ee eles 582 
Army and Navy Clubs Please Notice.......... 582 


A Motion-Study Stopwatch Which Does Its 


Own Computingsc< .\: seein sek ee 583 
AcSuitease-onP Ww peels... :.....; ctr att ernie see eee 583 
A Silo and Windmill Tower in One............. 584 
Mark Your Golf-Ball with Your Initials ........ 588 
Ay Medley ofsPuzzles... .. Seren a) eee 589 
Hot-Water Bottle Fits the Back............... 539 
How I Made $22.50 by Reading the Popular Science 

Monthly? ano.) .- ao Cia eee eee 641 
An-Invisible Inle.>. 260... . Scare. sxcrtehe tee eee 644 
What One Corporation Is Doing to Make Men of 

Boy Employees: .:.::.,.°.,:2e aaa fos eee 648 
Catching Turtles as a Business................. 651 
Why Logwood Is Worth $200 a Ton ........... 651 
Llamas as' Powder-Garrierseic +: 151.20 he eee 656 
Singing forthe: Phonograph. i.e e eee 659 
Gasolineiin Bulk for Panamaeen 1 eee oe oo 660 
(This'Gabi Simply. Gan't “impsOversace eee ee 660 
Buying Telephone Poles by Weight............. 662 
Gas Flows Back to the Earth... 2.2.03. ....05 662 
A Nailless Chair Made by Good Soil, Fresh Air and 

Sunshine: 32 oc... . Sento, en eee 664 
A Nautical/Porchiseat.. . aes 2). a eee 667 
One Tree Grows Through Another.............. 688 
Army-Pistol Shoots Colorsmeeate au... cee 694 
AvOne=Pound' Diamond. Bigeasva.s.cs 1 a 694 
Serving’ Food on. the Rungeen...+ . -- 1.2 eee 695 
This Barn Bears a Lesson to Pacifists........... 697 
“Quiere Leche Hoy?” :.. . oS as... s os ee 697 
A Model of Joel Chandler Harris’ Old Homestead... 698 
Washing Logs'for Safety Jat. . > 22s 699 
dhe Shinele-Phonograph’75)5- 4 ice ee 714 
Teaching Blind Men to Fence................. 715 
Out-Periscoping the Periscope................- 716 
Putting Speed in Telephone Directories......... 718 
Punfying Iron.in:a: Vacuum ene eee 720 
A Room Papered with Postage Stamps.......... 728 
Soldering-Iron Has New Principle............... 728 
Earrings That Denote Widowhood.............. 730 
Canceling Checks with a Hammer and Anvil .... 739 
Why Can’t We Make Diamonds. . 742 
A Fiendish Plant Which Thrives on Cattle ...... 744 
A Tree Which Serves as a Bridge.............. 747 
A Medley of: Puzzles 52 fesse errr re ee arr 748 
Mechanical Tops Which Puzzle ................ 754 
Counting Up on Steel Fingers ................. 756 


a = 5 - - ee 
INDEX TO VOLUME 88 XXII 
Page Page 
Mematorsend) Gomes by Mail): . 5.3... .2-24-0-5 -% 764 These Desert Mates Never Quarrel............. 851 
Frying Eggs by Means of an Incandescent Bulb.. 770 This Gold Dredge Is a Glutton ................ 851 
SarponeCapyitostal:Card... 2.26. 0<. ste es os 770 iliiwo New. Colossal Bridgess +4. .2..)25...- 20.0% 851 
fupewer banquet at $25 a Plate..........5..2... 809 Wiky Does:avRifle Crack serene tok <diecslcse es set 853 
Hanging a Defective Boiler Plug as a Warning... 810 Vegetation That Thrives Where Water Is Scarce.. 856 
fombecowith Hour Ridges, .........0.0.0+0. 50s 811 Inventions for thei Navy ee eee eta 861 
Freezing Cocoanuts to Get at the Milk......... 811 A Summer House from Straw Bottle-Casings..... 868 
An Ingenious Combined Lawn Mower and Roller 811 A Water-Wagon in Actual Use................. 868 
Listening to an Electric Current............... 813 Austria Exhibits Paper Substitutes for Cloth... . 869 
the rouse That Tin Cans Built ............... 814 Chasing Butterflies for Money................. 872 
A Switchman Who Became Judge, Though Armless 816 Some Record Dredging at Panama............. 876 
Why We Can See Through Water.............. 816 A Fender for London Omnibuses............... 877 
APRNs RUD DEE PrAde:. = 2/86 Socks. sie wiaelon os 817 He Did It with His Little Magnet.............. 877 
A New Type of Motor Horse Ambulance........ 817 Making the Burglar Chase Himself............. 881 
The Longest Wagon-Bridge in the World........ 818 Signaling Three Hundred Miles................ 896 
Watch Your Oil for Gold Teeth. ............:... 818 Orange Peel Oil Is Explosive...................- 897 
Protecting a Bridge from Villa with Acetylene A Model of Trinidad’s Famous Asphalt Lake.... 902 
LIBIISCIS 5 CARIB IRS Cini En ee ee eee 819 Freak Motorcycle Carries Four Passengers...... 905 
mestrancvebersian Cistern’.\2 ssc). 62 fsb 2 en 820 Limbering the Muscles of Fire-Fighters......... 910 
natn iby Searchlight... 2. ..0+ cect. secre 820 One Reason for Appreciating the Value of Birds.. 910 
Teavelme iby Parcel Post. «0.2. 0s ees dete se 831 Game: Preserve for Ducksu. osc. ee eco: 911 
Puratnota Mhiiwnderstorm ...... =. sss ssce seh. s 832 What Time Is It? Half-Past Aunt Sarah by This 
Moving Furniture with a Motorcycle........... 832 WWiaitchivaneet ona 2: eRe 4. (cy | ete 911 
Present eels anne yo ais cin acs soe ie cian es ha 832 Wihya Docs arRifle Crackwieim.: cs). oscteresstles 853 


Publish Your Ideas 


The Poputar Scrence Monvruty pub- 
lishes each month about two hundred photo- 
graphs and fully a hundred drawings. Nearly 
three hundred subjects are taken up in each 
issue. 

You can help to make the magazine even 
more diversified than it is by sending to the 
Editor pictures that in your opinion would 
interest other readers. If you have made 
some useful article of furniture with your own 
hands, if you have repaired a piece of ma- 
chinery in some simple way, if you. have 
made a tool more efficient by some addition 
of your own, let the Editor hear from you. 

In every part of the country there is a 
natural curiosity about which we would all 
like to know. Send in a photograph of it—a 


. photograph in which a human being appears 


as a standard of size. Strange accidents and 
queer occurrences on the farm interest every- 
body. Tell the Editor about them, and send 
him photographs. 

Don’t be afraid to write. Give the Editor 
the facts briefly and in your own way. 

Your ideas and pictures will be paid for 
liberally if available. 

Address: The Editor of the Porutar 
ScrencE Monrutny, 239 Fourth Avenue, 
New York, N. Y. 


19) 


~ 


Popular Science Monthly 


239 Fourth Ave., New York 


Vol. 88 
No. 1 


January, 1916 


$1.50 
Annually 


A Fire that Burned Four Months 


ASG: 


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 


ames 


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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 approxt- 
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- 


6 


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 that 
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 ofihe 
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. 

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 


The heat was so intense 


Twelve Million Dollars for Twenty 
Minutes Train Time 


O cut twenty minutes from the 


running time of passenger trains 
‘and one hour from the running time 
of freight trains between New York 
and Buffalo, the Lackawanna Railroad 
has invested twelve million dollars in 
a concrete arch half a mile long. 


This beautiful viaduct built of concrete, 


By the old, circuitous route, due to the 
heavy grades, five engines were required 
for the work that two can now do com- 
fortably. 

The new viaduct is an imposing 


structure crossing the Tuckhannock Val- 
ley in ten graceful arches. It is of 
concrete, the largest concrete structure 
in the world, containing more than five 
hundred million cubic yards of ma- 
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 


cuts twenty minutes from the train time of 
the Lackawanna between New York and Buffalo, but it also saves miles of heavy grades 


were one hundred feet higher, it would 
have the dimensions of the viaduct. 

Including the viaduct, the total length 
of the cutoff is three and one-half miles. 
The old route is thirty-nine miles. 


~I 


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 
imiless: an hours: Prank .k 
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. 


Popular Science Monthly 


Mr. Fithen 
changes made 
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 
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. 


has a few 
in order to 


An armiess man’s own inventions have 
made it possible for him to drive his 
motor car at top speed with perfect control 


Popular Science Monthly 


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. 


A locomotive that goes to Fairyland 


9 


Sea Shells for Decorating Concrete 
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 
provides .the indispensable 
smoke. 


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- 


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. 


This railroad does not wait for a damage 
suit to learn whether or not a car roof 
leaks 


Popular Science Monthly 


Edison’s Phonograph Diaphragm to 
Record Only Faint Sounds 


el ice see 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 


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. 


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. 


12 «Popular Science. Monthly 


The Emden After the Battle—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 


~The Destruction of the Emden 


By Rear-Admiral Bradley A. 


‘iske 


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.—Editor. 


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 
had 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 


14 


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 


Popular Science M Be 


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 oS 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 SctENCE MONTHLY, 
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- 


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 


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 


In these battered funnels and this riddled deck we see the price of slowness; 
triumphant Australian cruiser Sydney was just a little faster than the Emden, whose 
bottom had been fouled by long cruising in tropical waters 


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 abie 
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. 


for the 


Popular Science Monthly 


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 


N San Pedro, Calif., a “good road” 

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 


is 


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 


18 


Selling by Show-Window Telephone 


TS 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 


_ ee 


Popular Science Monthly 


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 years, ago. 
Then, after fifteen years, it died, and 
the grateful. farmers have raised a mar- 
ble pillar in honor of the tree which 
has dene 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. 


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 


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- 
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- 


Popular Science M onthly 


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 
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 


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, 


al 


The Making of a Submarine Mine 


By John Randolph Rexford 


oe 
| 
2 


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 


21 


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 


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 
mine field. Again, 
it is important that 
should one or two 
mines be exploded, 
the adjacent ones 
be not fired acci- 
dentally—a difficult 
problem, as the 
concussion of the 
water produced by 
the explosion tends 
to disturb other 
mines. Another 
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 


WILLE LLL 


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 
exe rite'debyaiice 
plumb weight in 
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 


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. 


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 
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. 


in an hour. 


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. 


Unanchored 
automatic or floating mines must be dead 


Various devices are incorpo- 
rated to obtain this result 


A Millinery Store on Water 


RETIRED milliner 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 


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. 


A Sandstorm to Order 


A 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 company 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. 


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, 
so: that,- the-“suitsi@9e 
cloaks inside may _ be 
plainly seen by pedes- 
trians upon the side- 


walk or the occupants 
| MILLINERY E ae ; of 


tures -- eases 


passing machines. 
The coat hangers are 
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 
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 California dyer displays his work ina 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 


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, bui!t 
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, 
and 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 ito 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.) 


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 


ca ee Sale cy 


of the Burgomaster of Prague. 


The workman is not performing an act of homage. 


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 


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 


Popular Science Monthly 


The electromagnet is used with success by war surgeons to extract splinters of steel 


which are near the surface. 


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. 


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 
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 
hcurs. per charge 
aud can be relied 
on to furnish light 
at least ten and 
three-quarter hours 


A miner’s safety electric lamp has long 
been wanted. This one seems to fill the bill 


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 


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 
amidexplosive 
gases. 

By means of this 
improved lamp, a 
miner may work 
amid a steady white light, and feel se- 
cure from devastating explosions. 


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 
hub, © A -cable sas 
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 
speed. The revolu- 
tions of the wheel 
wind up the rope, 
and act as a very 
powerful — winch. 
The car is soon out. 


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 
with the equip- 
ment is the 
means of re- 
freswing thie 
air. Vitiated 
air from the 
lungs is forced 
into a tank 
containing sev- 
etal-_lajvyers 
of potash 
through which 
it  percolates. 
PTheipo tas h 
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. 
In this new 
device it is 
placed in a 
aim ber of 
shallow trays 
one upon the other; so that the air passes 
through each layer. 


An Ancient Wooden Leg 


ae 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 
a tank in order to test the apparatus 


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. ‘he artificial limb, a creditable 
mechanical contrivance, was made of a 
combination of bronze, wood and iron. 

Fortunately, 
the tomb also 
contained some 
evidence as to 
the age of its 


contents and 
the period in 
witeh. the 


wearer of the 
wooden leg 
might be sup- 
posed to have 
been walking 
Ont: “T-hree 
vases were 
found = which 
were decided 
upon as being 
representative 
of the period 
which had end- 
ed some three 
centuries be- 
fore the birth 
ei. Christ. 

With this re- 
mate, date 
practically fix- 
ed as a time 
when very ad- 
vanced forms 
of artificial 
limbs were in 
use, an inter- 
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. 

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. 


The Pigeon Spy and His Work in War 


How a German apothe- av 
cary filled Prescriptions by 
carrier Pigeons and how 


ie 


NE of the strangest phenomena 

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 stfange 
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- 


30 


his son invented a camera where- 
by pigeons could make photo- 
graphs for the German army 


sete 1 
enentate 
stat 


HH 


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 


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 


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 
without glancing 
up at the “warn- 
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. 


“Frightening” the 
motorist into drink- 
ing lemonade 


An Illinois Community with Ideas 
in Street Lighting 


N the village 
of Kenil- 
worth, Ill., the 
people carry out 
commend - 
able ideas in or- 
namenting pub- 
lié ‘erounds: 
They employ at- 
tractive meth- 
ods in hanging 
{hein ss ir eet 
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 


Nature built these 
lamp posts 


Popular Science 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 Illinois 
town. The entrances to this building 
are banked with flowers. 


Polite Sign Boards rene Results. 


POEFTE re 
quest is of- 
ten more effective 
than a peremptory 


order. Hence the 
board of park dt 
rectors tried the 


scheme in a small 
park near Lake 
Merritt, Calif. 

Instead of the 
ustalorecr 
‘* Keep. Om. te 
grass!” or “Do not 
throw rubbish 
here!” a polite re- 
quest reading, 
“This park is for 
your pleasure. 
Help us_ protect 
it!’ has been put 
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 cltant” 


Signboard that 

appeals to public 

sense of honor 
and civic duty 


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. 


TOR ART SOARS STN etal ne AER), 8" 


Directing Artillery Fire from a Serbian Captive Balloon 


© 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 


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 


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 


34 


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 


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 


© Photos by Universal Press Syndicate 


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 


56 


In the War Hospitals for 


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 


Horses 


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 


INERT RII 


a 


Be sate 
pase 


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 


SN EO Mtn ey? (ome 


se 


Secret Gasoline Supplies for Submarines 


“ROPE 
CARRYING 
[ATTACHED 

; TUBE 


GASOLINE — OIL 


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 


i 
ee 


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 é 


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 


The Doves of War 


Lf 


Zz 
Z 
g 
g 
Z 


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 


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 


ee oe, ee 


oo ome 


- 


© 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 4 


a 


42 


The Scepter of Britannia 


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« UIOQeZIAY usend,, 24} se yons ‘drys 19Mmau e& ‘Te}our jo sseur }e013 
«sndouey,, diysey33eq ysitig 94} uo sun yout-aajam}3 24} Jo 9upM 


mONvoossy Sssolg UBOLIEUIy © 


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eB Moly} pue ‘[njiamod Ajauieiyx9 91e suns asay} YySnoyiy 


wr 


43 


Extremes of the War Transportation Problem 


KSOUTHERN: «. WERAL HOSE! 


- Fue fr 


Nig 


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 
as shown in the illustration and are doing useful work in carrying the wounded 


Resse dies MOaias a ehe ves. 


4 
\ 


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 


Na Re He 29% renee 


At 


Unmilitary Phases of War 


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 


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 


4 oD 


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 


oo, * 


Saat 


PL a 


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 
the projectile at express*speed, as well as the gyroscope spinning devices 


id 


Ad 


Not a Cliff Dwelling, But a Modern Trench 


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YIM Peay sjoyseq [eospurjAs pue s8eq pues snosjoumnu pue ‘au0}s pI[OS JO poj}ONI}suOD a1e YOUII} OUT] ISI OSNY Sy} JO ST[eAM 
ay, ‘Sio}eys Ino-Snp pue Ssy1OM-asusjap Ul [[F{S 2[qeyIeulel soueiy jo e[durexo ue ‘UOT eOYIIO} psy YIUeIyY petojs-9014} VY 
SMAN UOpuOT pazBaysni[] jo AsezINo-D 


‘ie 


48 


What War Means to Women 


Two Berlin window cleaners starting 
out for their day’s work 


A woman cob- 
bler mends shoes 
for many resi- 
dents of Berlin, 
while her hus- 
band is at the 
front 


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 


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 


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 


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puoses st Ajsed Surppam yeAos & pue ‘sarjtunzs0ddo sr [Te Jo Jsour 94} soyeur Jopus|ds [ejuetIQ + *1OUOFYT JO preny S,JatyD 943 Aq poprens pue 
‘syueydaya asny 0M} Aq a[DTYDA 9yI]-SNnqruwio ue ur uMeIp Suleq s}sons pue “eJOATEAY JO JoryD ay} ‘ssouySrpy stpy *AQsed SUIPpeaM UeIpUy osueNs v 
pooMiopuy pus pooAlepa ys) (@) 


Party 


ing 


Wedd 


1an 


Ind 


An 


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 


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 
iianay be -used-cither ~as-'a: 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, 
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 


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 throws 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. 


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 


percentage varies 
to the same ex- 
tent, Dit... 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 
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 centralto 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 small 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. 


54 


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 snare, was the remarkable op- 
eration recently performed by 
Dr. GS. -Otfich; of Bevlewille, 
Tl. 

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, 
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 
about by a seamstress 
and used in any house 
that is wired for elec- 


The foot still controls this sewing machine, 
but a motor does the real work 


Popular Science Monthly 


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- 
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- 
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. 


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. 


Or 
Or 


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 
prass, near Hire 
Island, N. Y., 
waiting for game 
Dbinds,.Ds. Ae L. 
Goodman, a New 
York physician, 
saw a fly perch- 
ing upon a spear 
of grass near him, 
and entirely un- 
aa wd) LOL. fie 
hunter, for it nev- 
er moved. After 
watching the fly 
tor.; nearig, half 
air Mowe... Lx 
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. 


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. 


OS eS Stages A btn hal 


Popular Science Monthly 


57 


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 


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 apnerateS 
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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ODA A 


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 


A Really Greater New York 


By Dr. T. Kennard Thomson, Consulting Engineer 


Dr. T. Kennard Thomson, whose description of his project of a “Really 
Greater New York’ is published herewith, is considered an authority of note 


on pneumatic caissons. 


He has designed and built pneumatic caissons for 


important bridges over many of the great rivers of the country, im addition 
to having been retained as a consulting engineer in the construction of over 


twenty New York skyscrapers. 


During his experience he has underpinned 


buildings as high as eighteen stories, putting in new foundations with the 
slightest possible settlement, although sometimes 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 
also the man who conceived the project of building a new dam in the Whirl- 
pool Rapids, near Niagara Falls, which we described in our November issue. 


—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 
spent four years 
laying out New 
York, and went on 
record as_ saying 
that “the country north of One Hun- 
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 


Dr. Thomson is an engineer who thinks 
in large masses, and then arranges his de- 
tail to solve the problem he has created 


searching for some 
method to cut the 
Gordian knot of 
New York’s har- 
bor congess 
tion problems. 

It 1s hatd="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 
port foothold. At 
the same time this 
will mean an addi- 
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- 


ee ee 


+ 
a 


Popular Science Monthly 61 


tay FLUSHING BAY & 
A ie: * 
e 


é: 


GRAYESE 


mre NEW YORK BAY 


; 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 


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 
about 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 


Popular Science Monthly 


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 
Brooklyn 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). 


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 
Board of Pharmacy at the Plaza in Los 
Angeles, Calif. 

The motion picture companies all 
sent men to the 
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 orf 
“Indian hemp” 
was put on the 
fire. Marihuana 
is a weed with 
narcotic proper- 
ties, is closely 
akin to hash- 
6s; jam Gas 
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 


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, 


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 


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. 


—— ae oe? a ee ee 


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 opposite 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. — 


65 


Some 


LB SNe RRR? 


2 


PoE BN A ea ea ae LS EAN 


a 


re ree 0 ct enn oe Ee we a tax 


a ontihrevaney 
43 (is of ARES 


aed 


© 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 


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. 


Rubbish removal is slowly being 
modernized. Here isthe newest form 
of collapsible derrick for city houses 


Popular Science Monthly 


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. 


i eee 


Popular Science Monthly 


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. 


Mercury Poisoning and Deatness— 
The Price of a Derby Hat 


By A. M. Jungmann 


HEN you pay five dollars for 
\ \ your fine derby hat do not imag- 

ine you have paid the price of 
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 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 
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 


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 1s done by hand. The 
hand plucking creates an immense 
amount of dust, 
hair and fluff in 
the air. 

Frequently the 
workers stand in a 
m.a's.s . Obashiauaae 
which covers the 
floor to a depth of 
several inches. The 
skin is fastened 
over a leg stump 
by means ofa 
loop of clothesline 
which is held taut 
by another loop 
through which the 
plucker places his 
foot, as in a stir- 
rup. This causes 
the worker to as- 
sume what would 


68 


EN ee a en ee 


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 
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. 


“Carroting,”’ or scrubbing the rabbit pelts with nitrate of 
mercury solution. It is the use of this nitrate of mercury 
which constitutes theagreatest 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- 


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 


ea 


ee 
= J 
as tee 
*< 


ae 


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- 
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 


70 


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, 

Calit., . and “Seattle, . Wash.; 
and you want to know the location 
of office buildings, etc., 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) ase 
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. 


Kn iad bt 


Band Concerts from an Electric 
Light Bulb 


By George F. Worts 


USIC that ranges from the pierc- 
\Y 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 us pass 
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 


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, stich 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- 


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 
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. 


distance telephone 


Music from elec- 
from light, to be 
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 


the prohibitive cost. 
tricity—or music 
exact—goes back 


| | 


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. 


% 
ie 
Gs 
“4 
oA 
ie 
a 


Tingling streams of cold water bring the 
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 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. 


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 
Il” 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. J 

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. 


— 


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 
bolted to the rims of the 
wheels. The rubber tire re- 


[A 


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. 


Here is a chance for 
the honest motorist to 
tell everybody how fast 
he is running 


eC p 
aa 12) 


Keeping the Motorcycle Busy 

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 


The mechanic owner of this motorcycle keeps it at work 
in his shop turning a lathe 


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- 
ated at night by means of a 
light placed behind them. 


76 


Where Men Are Still Cheaper 
Than Machinery. 


REATEST 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- 


Machinery would be used to sift ashes 
and pump slime in modern communities, 
but in India hand work is cheaper 


— 


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 


Popular Science Monthly 


effectually bars out modern progress. 
For instance, the trains of ore cars are 
hauled by bullocks. An aerial tramway 
was instailed 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 
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. 


A Machine That Chews Money 


IVE million dollars a day in worn- money was first issued, is indicated by 

out paper money was destroyed by comparison with figures for the fiscal 
machinery in the Treasury Department, year 1865, when seventy million pieces 
at Washington, during the last fiscal of redeemed currency were destroyed, of 
year. Two tons of this redeemed paper, a face value of one hundred and forty- 
amounting to over three hundred and four million, two hundred and nineteen 
fifty million bank notes, with a face thousand, nine hundred and twenty dol- 
value of more than a billion and a half lars, which included a large amount of 
dollars, passed through the macerating fractional currency. 
machinery, new money be- 
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 destruction of distinctive 
The first step in the destruction of worn-out paper yaper. because. it is difficult to 
money is to bind the bills solidly and compress cg apsial Wear ee cep ; : 

them into packages burn bundles of money, and un- 


destroyed pieces may escape 

ployees sees that it is chewed up in a through the chimney. For this reason 

machine made for the purpose. It is the act of June 23, 1874, authorized the 

said that the average life of a one-dollar destruction by maceration. The destruc- 

bill is one year. tion of these once valuable bits of paper 

The great growth of this work since has always been witnessed by a joint 
the days of the Civil War, when paper committee, appointed for the purpose. 


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. 


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. 


Three men on this motor hand-car can mow as many 
weeds in aday as a hundred men working in the old way 


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 coaal 
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- 
thirds are in the eastern 
United States. 


r 4 


- 
oan, 


Hospital Work on the F iring Line 


the least understood divisional 
units in the United States army, 
have been newly equipped in order that 
they may be more mobile during battle. 


Eee te STATES field hospitals, 


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 
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 


80 


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 atthe 
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. 


: 
: 
: 
: 


[===] - CASE AND INSTRUMENTS 

; LIGATURES 

) EXTRA HYPODERMIC 
“S) ipa BOTTLE 


DIAGNOSIS 
~ TAGS 
Pik. 


i) MEDICINES 
BUCKLE 


POUCH FOR Fl RST AID 
PACKET 


= : 
WATER BOTTLE TY \ 
COVER FOR WATER BOTTLE ——————s 

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 


82 


Popular Science Monthly 


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 Litt 
Their Own Water. 
ace in Northern Syria, referred 


to in the Old Testament as 
Hamath the Great, is justly famous for 
its huge water w heels. 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 aqueduet 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- 


i 


scribed in the December issue of the 
POPULAR 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, 


+ 
« 
= 


being defectives? 


Editor. 


A cretin, aged 
forty-two 


OTH in Sinbad, the sailor, of Ara- 

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 
“\Vinged 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 
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 
are suddenly 
caused before birth 


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.— 


A twin egg monster before development 


83 


There are Defective Babies 
and Monsters 


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. EF. 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 
of. the shoulders. 
The brain was only 
slightly subnormal, 
but the cranial 
nerves were absent 
or undeveloped. 
“Tf he grew up 
he would be a 
hopeless cripple 
and would suffer 
from fits,”’ said the 
doctor. 


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. 

“Tt 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 


Should these children ever have been born? 


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. Resalie M. Ladova commented: 
A life is a life and I wish Dr. Haisel- 
den had stepped out and let someone 
else operate.” 


“e 


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, 


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 


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 


4 
4 


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 ”’ 


86 


veloped so large as to crowd out the rest 


of the body. 
The various 


divided many 
times 
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) i1e- 
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 
single eggs, 
belladonna. 


normally laid 
drugging her with 
another biologist of 
note, has deé- 
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 ,1s\ a “sourd- 
shaped” egg. Pro- 
fessor Elageitt 
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- 


into a com-. 


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 


simply by 
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. He assumed 
that the egg was comprised of about 
normal parts in the larger end, and that 


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 


the eggs died. 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 
Temaining few 


were placed im 


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 


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 PoprurLar 
ScrencE Montuty, 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. 


838 
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 


umbrelicn 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 


ey. 


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 


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 


1 he 


ce “ Fon y 


»& RPOASe, ; 
> san fourth of the material 


% cS 

RK: 
re 
a 


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 


89 


A lonely pile, worn by ages of weather 
jis the world’s only claimant to the 
honor of being the Tower of Eabel 


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- 


oy 
: resents about one- 


ff 


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 
this part of the plant. 
Each tree is inspected 
by an agent of the com- 
pany before it is cut. 


The Death Toll of Our Misspent 
Aeronautic Appropriation 


By Eustace L. Adams 


These officers are asking, 


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 
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 


, NHE terrible and increasing mor- 


_knows 


“Which of us will be next?” 


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 
the exact condition of his 
machine. 


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 outlook 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 


Landing stage at the Pensacola aero base. 


Many of these fine appearing machines are 
antiquated and unsafe, fit only for the junk-heap 


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 
1t. 

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 
flyingy;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 Keep 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. 


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- 
bile 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 


compact, yet of the most complete kind, 
is revealed. 
Four high-pressure burners furnish 


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, 
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. 


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. 


Seeing Your “‘Hits’? Half a Mile Away 


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 umnecessary to 
post men at the target to sig- 

nal back the hits 


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 


tion in which he 


en was ‘“‘off’? make 


the new target ex- 
ceptionally valu- 
able in training 
marksmen 


in knowing exactly the direc- ° 


DEV Aa. natn ts AL) IIA eI iy 5 


7 


Saving Steps at 


ee 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: tareet, 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- 


®areet 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 


Monday Mechanics 


N -the good old days when the only 
| 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 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 


Can she see the washboard? No; it 
has sunk out of sight because the tubs 
are too deep. 

A third fault is that the tubs are 
poorly lighted. Number four is that 
the tubs are against a wall and aiso 
in a corner, accessible from too few 
points. The only artificial light is a single 
electric bulb, a sixteen candle-power car- 


hand tubs 
Below, the 


Above, the back-breaking 

found in most houses. 

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 


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. 


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 


A sporting type body designed by the author. 
shield, concealed top and disk wheels. 
by the writer in December, 1912. 


98 


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- 


Notice the high sides, pointed wind- 


In insert, above, a double cowl body designed 
The two rear seats are divided by an arm 


a 


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 ineff- 
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 


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 large 
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. 


Popular Science Monthly 


Has advantages of double cowl and A handsome body whose appearance is 

aisle types. Hood tapers insufficiently, not improved by mouldings on mud- 

causing excessive swelling. Apron guards and hood. The extra seats 
should extend up to the body obstruct the doors 


icici i oi eerertheersrentlle 
SRE eos s ins ee 


Handsome town landaulet. It can be Closed position of French double phae- 


opened rearward of the door with lit- ton landaulet. An extension top (not 
tle overhang, as the roof over the shown) covers the driver. Taper of 
window swings forward hood changed from stock model (above) 


Closed position of stock ‘‘semi-touring”’ Open position of double phaeton lan- 
body. Almost the only one of its type daulet. Top folds up like an accordeon 
on the market, but probably one of the and glasses in all windows drop com- 

important changes of the future pletely. Mudguards very ungraceful 


Open position of above body. The A well designed model. Drive protec- 


enormous mass of the top when folded ted by extension top. Windshield is 
down is unfortunate. Otherwise a not handsome. Handles of front door 


most successful design are concealed, as they should be 


Building With Cobblestones 


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 
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 
many of the best speci- 
mens of cobble construc- 
tion are found in that dis- 


(pee ae combined with 


102 


Boulders and cobblestones 
always make attractive flow- 
er-urns 


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, 
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 
field stones. San Diego 
has two large two-story 
houses formed of this 


ee 


a 


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 
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 
by graceful  electroliers 
make lighting standards 
that harmonize with 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. 

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- 


stone construction is an 

homes which surround oe snk finer eras exceedingly light and 
‘ in_ oa Dungalow an an out- ‘ : 

them, and in some in Sac chinney of cobblestiaics graceful triple arch in the 


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 
shown, 
artistic. 


types of cobble construction 
though by no means the most 


This simple but interesting barn owes 
most of its charm to its cobblestones 


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. 


Even churches gain a new dignity 
when fashioned from boulders 


104 


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- 
ger 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 the tires 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. 


Popular Science Monthly 


A Hog-Pen That Counts Hogs 
gaat! 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>-farm’'s 
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. 


asian eveccpment for Typewriters 


ya erasing at- 
Prion for 
typewriters has 


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. 


been brought out 


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 liy- 
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. 


106 


ee 
This baby’s bath is soft and safe—and 
he can splash safely 


A Tub Within a Tub for the Baby 


[So sMASESIN, ti BAS y= 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- 

It does away with the danger of 


fornia. 


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 sattce- 
pan, is that the housewife is less likely 
to burn her hands than with the ordinary 
utensil. 


Popular Science Monthly 


A Tea Kettle Which Does Not Burn 


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. 


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. 


A Garbage Can 


Combining a Brush and a Suction 
Pump in a Cleaner 


Or Ack Y 
carpet sweep- 

en and Si c-t.1on 
cleaner combined 
is the subject of a 
patent recently is- 
sued to a man in 
Ohio. Heretofore, 
carpet cleaners 
“ny have been of one 
, » 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 Clean Vegetables 

T is no longer 

necessary to 
waste much time 
in thoroughly 
washing vegeta- 
bles. One of the 
simplest yet most 
effective devices 
for cleansing them 
quickly is illus- 
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 
irate: ec jrod “ex- 
tends from front to 
back of the frame, 
near the top, and 
Brom this: tod 
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. 


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. 


108 


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 of 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 
fires.sin 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 


ee a 


Winter Uses for the Electric Fan 


ous uses to which the electric fan 

in your home can be placed other 
than lowering the temperature and mak- 
ing it comfort- 
able in the room 
when the ther- 
mometer is high 
outside? How 
really indispens- 
able it is in innu- 
merable ways, 
and how much it 
does in _ preserv- 
ing health in the 
home 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 
Fait Stee airy bie 
enamel; the sur- 
face will be much 
smoother and of 
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 


| AVE you ever thought of the vari- 


Drying Paint 


Keeping Milk Cool 


in which an electric fan is allowed to 
run seldom has dust. Since dust breeds 
germs, the prevention of dust likewise 
prevents germs. 

The electric fan keeps the temperatttre 
of drinkables down. Open a cupboard 
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: rettirn 
from the wash 
for an hour or 
two where the 
electric fan can 
“b Lowi”, on tt: 
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 
mS. oud Tale Oct 
smells from fur- 


Drying the Wash 


naces, ovens, or 
stoves. 
bi 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. 


Airing the Sick Room 


109 


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. 


Clearing a show window 


Se ee 
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. 


ee ee ee oe 


Popular Science Monthly 


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qT 


If a burglar 
tries to “‘crack”’ 
this safe he will 
be blown up 
by his own 
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 


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- 


The slanting front of this hopper is suf- 
ficient to keep the supply of grain in the 
screened feed box constant 


cated. A lid is 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. 


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 

C O © best possible in- 

ternational test 

for visual acute- 

: ness... UButeas; tie 

eS) 'o) C efforts have been 

made to use it as 

cards with test 

letters are used, it 

Oo Q '@) 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 isa: 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 to any 
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 
S° many  ba-- 

pies tines e 
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. 


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 


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, stich 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 provided with. lids, as desired. 
When wood is needed for the stoves in 
either the dining room or kitchen it can 
be taken from the box. The box can be 
easily replenished from the woodpile. 


DINING 
ROOM 


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 


114 
Broom Closet Utilizing Waste Space 


N a Chicago house book cases are built 
in around one corner of a living 
room. At the 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 
be utilized as a 
broom closet by 
cutting a door. Thus 
a waste cubby-hole 
is converted into a 
useful space at a 
very slight cost 


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 scatiebe 
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 fil! 
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 to a 
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—*#—1 Manhole 
‘CEE: 


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. 


A Oat Sabey Desk Chair 


By Ralph F. Windoes 


N the October issue of PopuLar 

ScieENcE Monrtuty, 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: 
Pomesse box: Lie’ x 18/.. 
Meese ix 37 x SL... 


front legs 
back legs 


DESK CHAIR 


eS rea: 
PERSPECTIVE a 


OF COMPLETED 


LEATHER 


Elevations, showing dimensions, of the craftsman 
desk chair as the parts come from the mill 


115 


mes ag eo Oe [AIL pags 
6 pes. 34% x 2” x 1314”. side rails 
A Aes ig | ge ian V pee seat 
2 pes. 144% x 3” x 1414” back slats 


On one of our drawings a detail of 
the back legs is given. They are cut 
from the 114” 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 
time and expense; other- 
wise they must be ripped 
out of the planks by hand. 
In smoothing them, plane 
as far as practical, and 
spokeshave the balance. 
Be very sure that you keep 
the edges square. 

Selecting your working 
faces — noticing that the 
back legs are paired and 
that the mortises are not 
cut in the same face of 
each—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 respect to one 
another. As the tenon de- 
tail shows, the mortises 
will be 144” wide, 1” deep, 
and 114” long- 

Cut these mortises and 
fit their corresponding ten- 
ons in place. In the lower 
edge of the top back rail 
and the upper edge of the 
bottom, cut mortises for 
the slat tenons. 

Next glue and clamp 
these sections together, 
placing the back slats first. 
Attach the seat by screwing 
into it through the side 
rails that it rests upon. The 


DETAIL or 
UPPER END 


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 s‘:ows. 
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” 1s of ne- 


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- 


eS Se 


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 
up of a number of small 
rolls independent of one 
another, forces the skin up 
evenly, so that any irregu- 
larities in the hide are not 
transmitted into the split. 
The leather is split, as has 
already been told. 

After splitting, all hides 
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 in the 
case of top grains, and the 
flesh side only of splits. 
Now the leather is tacked 
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 
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 


DETAIL oF 
BACK LEGS 


ati Ae 


7 


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 


DESK GHAID RETAILS 


Sera cs Shor 


SECTION THROUGH 
SEAT 


DETAIL OF RAIL 


DETAIL OF SLAT 
TENONS — 


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. 


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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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 dimming 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 serv- 
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. 


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


aid Meeate ete Ie 


= 


Popular Science Monthly 


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., 


46:52 LOSS 


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 YA” 
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 
sound- 


using a pleasant bell, harsh 
ing effects may be eliminated. 


rd = 
Ground orn 
WOKS 


How to make a grandfather clock 
into an efficient alarm clock with- 
out changing its outward aspect 


120 


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. <Pbe= 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. 


Popular Science Monthly 


A Remedy for Sagging Doors 


HE ten= 

dency of = /7 
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 eyesis, bolted, to thes 
hinge while the threaded end is passed. 
through the flange of an L-shaped iron 

cleat held down by a lug. 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 


IOUIDS are 

likely to be 
spilled when 
pouring from a 
vessel that has 
no lip. If a glass 
rod is -held 
against the rim 
it conducts the 
liquid where it 
is required and 
with care not a 
drop need be 
lost. 2 


Waste Heat Warms Water 


HE wasted 

heat froma 
small gas heater 
Can’ Shes pub to 
work, warming 
water for house- 
bold. ase. 2% 
small stove pipe 
should be 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. 


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 
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 


FIFE DOOR 


CLINKER 2D00R 


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 
ash pit, for they will seal 
off the air from part of 
the grate surface and may 
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 


CLINKER 


ye 


Round fire pot fired 
by coking method 


ASH FIT 


Square fire pot fired by 
coking method 


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 


20.6 0 o® 
. 


Ze Pee e ee 

FRESH © room through cracks and 
ay = : 

a poorly fitted windows, but 

fogSave the tighter the construc- 


tion of the room the great- 
er the need for an outlet. 
The person most likely 
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- 
bustible gas is driven off 
gradually, and _ the live 
coals that are exposed on 
one side of the fire heat 
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 


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 
Fone 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- 
dle 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 


hee 


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. Puta 
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- 
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. 


22) SG 


Serving Table Attached to Range 


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. 


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 fo 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 
was only a step. Its con- 
struction is not difficult ; 
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 


1 ubes 
q ie 


i 
I 
} 


= 


vee Of hgti ung rod 


Hien of plore (ror 
above, showing ring 
of radio achive substance 


-- Lbonite support 


A radium lightning rod which 
depends on the ionization of 
the air for efficacy 


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 cen- 
taining the radio-active substance. 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- 
siderable distance from 
the point of emission, 
viz. the terminal 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 haying a 
radius of thirty or forty feet. The pro- 
gressive conductivity of the air toward 
the terminal concentrates the flow of 


_- Cast Iron bose 


123 


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 


| agree 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 


eer 


OOY? 


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 


iL Se ‘ 


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 


t and 5 “E 


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. 


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.,-ciit 
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. When 
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 
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 


1.4 Sepa 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. 


will. 


125 
Files and Tools from Switch Handles 


IRST procure the 
required number of 
switch handles. Remove 
the usual 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 
tite; 


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”, Jong...»1f. _ 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 

INGE re. ele 

dowel of wood, 
about & long, 
drive: a. 17) wire 
brad 14” from one 
end and let the 
point protrude 
VW”, Take a rule and lay off sixteenths 
from the nail. Drill a 34” hole through 
a block of wood 2144” x 214” x %,”. 
Then slide the block on the dowel. 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. 


126 
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 


CULL 


kr 


WY =—— = 


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 


-it in the tube. 


Popular Science Monthly 


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 ie 
bottom. 

The drill table is self-explanatory ; se 
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 


S 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 iiot 


to let any get on the stem, and insert 
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 1/16” deep, as 


| 


A notch in a screw driver gives a ~ 
grip on wires to be twisted around , 
binding posts or sockets 


This will be rout 


shown in the sketch. 


‘of great aid in bending wires around 


binding posts or sockets. 


a. ee ee ee ee 


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 


Swire mains sine Ne 


fi Neutra! N 
Negative 


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 A 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 1f 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 8 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. 


— 


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 


Recher’ Cormpensaror 


4POTSW 


Machine *1 Machine 4% 


This circuit allows one rectifier to 
serve two motion picture pro- 
jectors at the same time 


two alternating current rectifiers 
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. 


are 


128 


A Novel Medical Battery 
A 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. 


pottery 


bottery Cor bors 


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 NM. 

surface of an ordinary 


celluloid triangle, ti 
as this material 50° i 
E ra ", it 
aes tele it 

<< | 
See 


ees | hi a: 


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 4” 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 


ee ee 


Overhauling Your Car for 


the Winter 
By Victor Pagé 


(Continued from the December Number) 


Valve Removal and Inspection 
cy: 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 


Valve Springs 


ti 


=———I = =, 


Valve Stem Guides 


| | al Hat 
i] 


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 Operating Rods 


Fala i 
mo A 


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 


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. to. 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, A. 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 


Popular Science Monthly 


must be turned first in one direction and 
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 


Valve Cages 


Twin Clylinder 


HL 
TLS 


mt 
i 


Eien 


oh 


m 


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 fog 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 


Q~ | 


F 
a 


cee 


B= — 


— 
Seas 


Camshaft 


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 


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 cylinder 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 head at all points 
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 nore 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 .oo5-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 .oto-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 


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- 
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 
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- 
rically opposite points by a screw driver 


Pitted Seat 


’ Scored Seat 


—=s 


LEN ; =) 
Cam Screw Driver 


© finger lant! 
Operating lever 


; 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 


-Lenter Bearing 


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 


134 


lap joint form. 
Tf su Ohirisieihe 
case the ring is 
removed from the 
cy nmniden sand 
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 “wa tal “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 Fic. 13, C.. sA plue is 
made of soft wood, such as yellow pine 
that will be an easy fit in the cylinder and 
one end is turned down enough so that 
a shoulder will be formed to back 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 
enough to keep it from closing 
up. It is also important to 
turn the end of the wooden 
plug small enough so that its 


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 


1 fe cnn See 


diameter will be less than the 
bore of the ring when that 
member is tightly closed. The 
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 


Fig. 


leak-Proof Piston Ring 


13. Processes incidental to piston ring 
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 


ell eee 


—— i 


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 


: ,) 
C pee Rod Caps 3% 


si 
Pio 


7 


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 eben 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 


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- 


Hain Bearing Caps \ 
Top Half 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 that they will grip the crank 
tightly. 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 1s 
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 


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 


B 


Retaining Bolt 


A DN :> in 
Retaining Bolts 


hetaining 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 


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. 


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%” 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 


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 
weod wit serve; 34” x 1” x 12” 35 ‘the 
size. The iron washer is cut from the 
same size stock. The ends support the 
back of the slide marked S. They should 
project 34” 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. 


140 


A Sprinkling Can as a Dark 
Room Lamp 


A 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. 


Tf —— 
(; 
( 


a: 


= 


An Adjustable Arc Lamp 
OODEN 


arms are 
pivoted to the 
wood support 
byascrew and 
washer. The 
upper ends of 
the. afmisi, are 
drawn together 
by 42.fubbex 
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 turned 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 


Ef Or Fl OrG.- 

RAP EE RS 
are “at ten’ te 
quired to print a 
negative mores 
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 oilcan 
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. 


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 


eS 
—— SS 


aa) 1! 
<n irom 
ee ol 
Sac I 


waa 


ice-boat, 
showing details of the sail 


Fig. 1. The completed 


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 


plank. 
The mast is held in 
. place by three wire 
stays, ° On, the 
two ~side 
Stays,  turn- 


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 214” at top and 
bottom. The bottom should rest on a 
hardwood block with a 2%” hole drilled 
into it. Drill this hole 114” deep and 
fasten the block securely to the bowsprit 
114’ in front of the center of the runner 


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 


142 


The runner irons are not perfectly flat 
on the bearing edge, but have about 1” 
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 


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 vand the bowsprit is a 2° x6” -re- 
enforced by a 1” board on each side, Fig. 
2. The cockpit is 5’ long and for the 
flooring use 1” matched boards. 

all woodwork a few coats of paint. 


Give 


2-4 Fig. 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 Science 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@as 
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. 


To closed Civttlh==- 


The contact is made and the alarm 
bell rung by the pressure of any 
weight, even that of a child~ 


A Simple Laboratory Burner 
G- ©O2G 
burner for 
the laboratory 
which can be eas- 
ily constructed is 
shown in the 
sketch, which is 
self-explanatory. 
The © standard 
was made from 
38/’ 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. 


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 


ts 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 
size of the capacity and 
inductance coils in the cir- 
cuit. The reason for this 
is that the length of radi- 
ated wave depends upon its 
frequency, or the number 
of times in one second the 
electromagnetic field pass- 
es through a complete cycle 
of change in direction. 


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 between 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. 
=, A wavelength of 2,000 
er meters has, therefore, a 
wave-frequency of  150,- 
000 per second, since the 
velocity in meters per 
second (300,000,000)  di- 
vided by the length (2,000 
meters) gives this figure. 
Thus, to find the frequen- 
cy per second of any wave- 
length in radio , divide 
three hundred million by 
the wavelength in meters. 
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: 


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 anténna-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 Io 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. 
1 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 


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 m 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, 
only 100/3140 or 0.0318 of 
an ampere will flow. Thus 
for this frequency the sim- 
ple coil of wire presents 
more effective resistance 
than would a straight car- 
bon rod of 3,000 ohms. It 
should be noted that the 
higher the frequency goes 
the greater becomes the re- 
actance, and therefore the 
impedance, of a coil. At 
zero frequency, which is 
) 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- 
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 I, 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 


Fig. 6 


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 
to be 3180 minus 3140 
ohms, or only 40 ohms ca- 
pacity reactance. In the 
circuit of Fig. 5, therefore, 
a voltage of 100 at 100,000 
cycles would cause 2.5 am- 
peres to flow through the 
condenser and inductance 
in series. This is over 750 
times as much current as 
would flow through either 
the condenser or the coil 
alone, and is made possible 
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 


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. I 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 toral 
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 


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 ro and 
tuning condenser 17, 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 / 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 


Zz 
Bi 
AA 
Zim 


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 secondary 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 


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- 


ELMS 


Fig. 2. A heterodyne receiver, operating 
on the electrical beats principle 


cause of the difficulty in securing suff- 
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 4 
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 17 through a transformer 8, 9. 
The dynamometer 6, 14, 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 77. 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- 


J 
a 


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- 


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 1s 


Fig. 4. An improved form of 
heterodyne receiver 


coupled to the receiver coil, 74, 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 (13, 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 


Popular Science Monthly 


of the receiving coupling C and the sec- 
ondary of another 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 7 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 are 
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 
f.2. 

The heterodyne operation of this re- 
1 WV, 
WAN AA AAAANANAANAAAANAL 

VVVVVVVV VV 


Nz : 
MeN NNANANAAALR 
TATAVATATATATATATATATATATA A 


| 
| Ws 


Hiatal heat 


Ps Alls APs ADs Al one 


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, 
Nr, 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 if 
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 Yg-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. 


tS 


al 
——y 


Nf 
Z, 


—FSe 2 : 
y Vi GAY 
This switch may be used on a high 
voltage audion battery circuit 


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 
few months a great 
deal of construc- 


[tel], 3 ’ fower 


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 
from 1,000 to 1,500 
times audibility are 
received at Ketchi- 


tion work has been 


kan from Astoria 


done in Alaska, 


in daylight, and 


both in improving 


this intensity is 


the existing  sta- 


considerably more 


tions, and in the 


than necessary for 


erection of new 
ones. The past 
year has witnessed 
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 


20 wires €ach 1000' long 


Diagram of the antenna system at Ketchikan, 
Alaska 


good commercial 
operation, employ- 
ing a typewriter at 
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 


150 


Popular Science 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 
working without 
treubtle: The 
working range 
with vessels is also materially increased 
thereby, as the amplifiers enable the 
Navy stations to receive signals from 
the I 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 


wires each 225 100g | 


xe 
ff 


Umbrella antenna used 
on Alaska stations 


_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 


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 traffic 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. 


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. 


= Ra book, by the professor of 


physics and electrical engineering 

at the Municipal Technical Insti- 
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- 
ICE: 


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 


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 Goidschmidt, 
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, Ig15. 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. 


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 


155 


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. 


Q. 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. j 

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. RE. 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- 


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. 


ES S.eChicago; Mleeasks: ‘ 

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 9xll 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. 


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- 
er from tilting is shown herewith. Re- 


Sketch and construction of a steady 
aerial supporter 


ferring to the sketch, piece A is of %- 
inch strap iron, %-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. 


1 


BK 


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 -| 
lorec. ser 
- 


STOP SW. 


Fig f 


Or. 


Korary 9ap 


/19.2 
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. 


( 


What’s New in Patents 


Baby’s Bottle-Holder 


N_ adjustable 
x 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 
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 
an insulated elec- 
tric wire the tool 
«| has a laterally pro- 
y jecting blade in the 
f| 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 
1 battery terminat- 
4 ing in a bulb is 
threaded a clamp 
| which by means of 
4 set screws holds a 
4 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, andthe light is 
thrown upon the paper directly in front 
of the moving pencil. 


Combined Door Bell and 
Mail Receiver 


HE fulcrum fq 
which actu- {i 

ates the door bell | 
is devised to 
act as a holder for 
mail. A spring in {i 
the bell holds the iii; 
lengthened bar | 
against the house }\ 
at a considerable [jin 
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. 


J 


An Aid to the Veterinary 


WO pairs of = 

pivoted jaws 
are equipped with 
teeth plates to cov- 
er the teeth ofa 
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 tharm- 
ful contraction or 
expansion of theL_ 
walls, 


158 


Popular Science Monthly 


Sanitary Kneading Board 


ROLL of pa- 

per or parch- 
ment is placed at 
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 Iron 


SELF-FEED- 
ING soldering 
vee iron is made with 
m4 2 a tube or passage 
extending from the 
4 head through the 
La shaft and handle. 
#4 A reel, containing 
“| a large amount of 
; soldering wire, is 
“4 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 Cleaning Hair Brushes 
DEVICE g 
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 
Cooking Utensil 
SHEET me- 
tal body, of a 
pyramid form, is 
placed upon a met- 
al base plate which 
resis, Over the 
flame. An inclined 
rackallows the sad- << 
irons to be leaned F====uQ 
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. 


160 


Shoe Polishing Device 
CGOLEAL 
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 

pe =e | TN the palm of 
a glove or mit- 
| ten, an elliptical 
coin pocket is fast- 
ened, This pocket 
is fitted with draw 
})| 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 


Ce AT A 

which may 
be used on any size 
wheel is made in f& 
short lengths, so je*Pé 
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 

composed of 
several parts and 
may be readily tak- 
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 
jaws _ set 
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. 


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 lves to build 
another subway. 

In the March number the unseen under- 
ground actiwities of New York are revealed 
an an absorbing article and in a dozen or more 
anteresting pictures—done in the PoruLaR 
ScteNcE MontTHLY 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 Fngland 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 


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 


Popular Science Monthly 


239 Fourth Ave., New York 


Vol. 88 
No. 2 


February, 1916 


$1.50 
Annually 


Mining the Air Against Zeppelins 


By Carl Dienstbach 


angle anti-aircraft artillery to de- 
stroy Zeppelins attacking London 
has been repeatedly demonstrated, and it 
has stimulated many a scientific mind 
to invent some more efficient means of 
defense. At night the English aero- 
planes are at a serious disadvantage, 
since the glare of the ground search- 
lights renders it almost impossible to 
drop bombs on the enemy with any 
degree of accuracy. Instead, they fall 
into London, causing explosion and con- 
flagration. The same danger exists in 
firing upward against the almost invis- 
ible and swiftly moving Zeppelins. 
Joseph Steinmetz, an American in- 
ventor, proposes to mine the air with 
bomb-carrying balloons. Small hydrogen 
balloons, connected in pairs or groups by 
piano wire (weighing about ten pounds 
to the mile) are to be set adrift when 
the Zeppelins are over London. Accord- 
ing to the inventor, they would rise 
rapidly and enmesh the enemy’s aircraft. 
Attached to the balloon units are small 
hook-trigger bombs of high explosive 
contact and incendiary torches, which 
are to be drawn into the Zeppelin’ S gas 
bag with destructive results. The 
method is to be further elaborated by 
carrying nets of very wide mesh, an idea 
successfully applied in submarine war- 
fare. In the opinion of Mr. Steinmetz, 
even though the chance of a Zeppelin’s 
fouling the balloon-connecting wires is 
only one in a thousand, that one chance 
is well worth the attempt and expense. 
At first blush this scheme of mining 
the air as a defense against Zeppelins 
is attractively plausible. Undoubtedly, 
if the atmosphere above sige were 


oP failure of the English high- 


full of floating air-mines, it would not 
be so easy to bombard the town from 
aloft. When it comes to making this 
arrangement practical, however, serious 
difficulties are immediately encountered. 
Flotation in air is not like flotation in 
water. A balloon left to itself invariably 
goes up or comes down. It is generally 
considered a wonderful accomplishment 
if a balloonist knows the aerial ocean 
well enough to keep his craft in regions 
where sun, winds and vapors do not con- 
tinually force it from its level, thus 
causing him to use up gas and ballast 
and shortening the trip. Over a great 
city, this procedure would be extremely 
hazardous. After the air has been 
thoroughly sown with mine-balloons, it 
may snow. Imagine the result! With 
a wind blowing the balloons about dur- 
ing a snow storm, and their bombs strik- 
ing roofs right and left, the inhabitants 
of London might prefer the attacks of 
the Zeppelins. ‘Think of the conflaga- 
tion these clusters of balloons might 
cause ! 

The whole plan harks back to the ex- 


periment made in Austrian campaign 
against Venice in 1849. Nothing was 
done by halves at that time. No less 


than two hundred small hydrogen bal- 
loons, each carrying a twenty-five or 
thirty pound bomb, were liberated, but 
they refused to stay at the right level. 
They continued to rise until an upper 
current of opposite direction found them 
and returned them to the senders. 

Even if the mine-balloons remained 
over London in their allotted places, 
there are other factors to be considered 
which could very likely result in a catas- 
trophe. To carry the smallest bombs, 


163 


164 


balloons must be many'times larger than 
the heaviest floating mines. 
range they would furnish ideal targets 


to a Zeppelin’s machine- 
guns. A Zeppelin may 
easily shade its lights 
and yet clearly illumin- 
ate a near object 
in-the--air. ~ Let 

a good marksman 

with a machine- 

gun be stationed at each 
side of the front car, and 
before any balloon-mine 
could do any harm, it 
would be shot’ down and 
fall into a city street. 


The Plan Is Feasible in 
Water 


Interconnecting cables 
such as Mr. Steinmetz 
proposes, are more satis- 
factory in water than in 
the air, where: they are 
liable to slip off upward 
or downward. If caught 
by airships below them, 
the bombs will be drawn 
together harmlessly be- 
neath the level of the 
hulls Dhe- chances “ane 
that the Zeppelin would 
gather a trailing mass of 
wires, 


the benefit of those be- 
low. The steel propel- 
lers would cut the thin 
wire, and since they are 
as big and heavy, would 
hardly be damaged. It 
would also be easy to 
shape a Zeppelin so that 
single wire must slip off 
wherever it strikes the 
hull, simply by slanting 
the outlines of all pro- 
jections. 


It does not look as though the Stein- 
metz plan would make Zeppelin destruc- 
tion assured. The three dimensions of 
the air necessitate the use of mines in 
large numbers, yet the risk is propor- 
tionately increased. Here comes the ques- 
tion of the practical value of the plan. 


empty balloons [ 
and live bombs in its § 
wake, to be cut off for — 


Popular Science Monthly 


Sweeping a Channel for Mines 


At short / ‘HE operation of mine sweeping is 


Hooks and flaming bombs as 
a terror of the air for Zeppe- 
lins and, indeed, for any den- 
izens of the air. But is the 
terror not as great for the 
houses below? 


one of the most dangerous and 


arduous of the 

many tasks that 

fall to the lot of 

a navy. The dan- 

gers of mine 

sweeping are 
great even in the North 
Sea and around the Brit- 
ish Coasts, where there is 
no active opposition. 
These dangers are, of 
course, greatly increased 
when the ships are con- 
tinually under fire, as 
they were in the Dardan- 
elles. 

A mine field consists 
of a number of mines 
laid together. It will most 
effectively block off any 
particular area of water. 
A “certain, minub eg sor 
mines are generally laid 
at intervals just deep 
enough to render them 
invisible to the look-out 
on board the mine sweep- 
ers. For such work shal- 
low draught ships are al- 
ways employed. 

Mine sweepers work 
generally in pairs. Each 
ship tows over the stern 
a wooden apparatus called 
a kite, fitted with planes 
which dive beneath the 
water. The depitieta 
which it dives is regu- 
lated by the speed of the 
towing ship. Each of 
these kites is fitted with 
a pulley block. A wire 
rope is passed from the 
stern of one ship through 
the pulley on its own kite 
across the water through 
the block on the second 


kite and so up to the stern of the second 
ship, where it is fastened. Both ships 
steam ahead at the same speed, the kites 
dive to the depth corresponding to the 
particular speed, and the steel rope is 
stretched out between them. When the 
rope strikes a mine, it fires if. 


Cleaning New York’sSnow-Clogged 


Streets 
ecu 


Motor-trucks mobilized by city 
for snow removal dump their 
loads into Hudson River 


N Monday morning, 

December 13, came 

New York’s first heavy 
snow storm of the winter. 
When business men and wo- 
men started for work, the 
city’s transportation lines 
were sadly _ disorganized. 
Street cars, *busses and taxi- 
cabs floundered through the 
snow and took workers to 
their offices, hours late. 

At noon, those who were 
hardy enough to venture out to lunch 
saw a novel spectacle. Great numbers 
of privately-owned motor-trucks were 
crawling through the streets laden with 
snow. Drawn up beside huge heaps of 
snow in the busiest streets were other 
powerful trucks, and gangs of men were 
speedily throwing the snow into their 
capacious bodies. The old-fashioned 
street-cleaners’ wagons with their pa- 


165 


eee eee bucks 


4 


One of the new motor-driven snow plows which 
did much to make the streets passable after the 
recent New York storm 


tient horses were in evidence, too, but 
they were a minor consideration. The 
great work was being accomplished by 
the motor trucks. 

Through the avenues came heavy- 
powered trucks with snow-plows fas- 
tened to their front axles. Many of 
these were furnished by a "buss com- 
pany, while others were private trucks 
with a special plow attachment fitted for 


166 


the emergency. These plows pushed the 
snow into the middle of the streets, 
where it was carried away by the work- 
ers. 

On Tuesday morning, nearly all of 
the vast quantity of snow had disap- 
peared from the main thoroughfares, 
and the fleet of motor-trucks vanished 
as suddenly as they had appeared. 
Heaps of snow still clogged the middle 
of many of the side streets, but the work 
of removing this was done as it had 
been in previous winters, by gangs of 
men working twenty-four 
hours a day, aided by 
horse-drawn carts. 

Where did the motor- 
trucks come from? Where 
had they gone when the 
main streets and avenues 
had been cleared? 

Dissatisfied with _ the 
slow methods of snow re- 
moval last winter when 
two or three heavy storms 
paralyzed the traffic of the 
city, Street Cleaning Com- 
missioner Fetherstone ar- 
ranged with a number of 
large contractors to mobil- 
ize a flee: (of — privately 
owned motor-trucks, suit- 
able for the removal of 
snow, whenever a storm 
threatened to disorganize 
the transportation of the 
city. 

A census was taken of 
the owners of trucks who 
were willing to furnish 
them when needed for this 
work. A large number of these power- 
ful vehicles were placed at the disposal 
of the contractors, and when the call 
was sent, the trucks were quickly at 
their appointed stations. 

The work done by these trucks was 
remarkable. The ample bodies held an 
average load of two and one-half times 
the amount of snow that could be con- 
tained in the largest of the old-style 
carts and wagons, and the snow was 
carried to the various disposal points in 
a small part of the time usually required. 
As a result, the snow disappeared from 
the important streets as if by magic. 


Popular Science Monthly 


A Gigantic Steel Bridge-Beam 


NE of the greatest of modern en- 

gineering undertakings is the con- 
struction of the New Quebec Bridge, 
which upon completion will span the St. 
Lawrence near Quebec on the site of the 
great Quebec Bridge which collapsed 
several years ago with a great loss of 
life. Work upon the foundations of 
the original bridge was begun in the 
early spring of 1910, but nearly all the 
work accomplished when the bridge fell 


One of the largest steel beams ever used in bridge 
building, designed in place of the faulty members which 
caused the disastrous collapse of the new bridge at 
Quebec, before it was completed 


had to be practically abandoned and re- 
commenced from the foundations them- 
selves. 

Since the disastrous collapse was 
caused by weak members, the en- 
gineers have fitted to the new bridge 
some of the largest steel beams ever 
used in bridge building. An idea of 
their great size may be gained from the 
illustration, showing an end section of 
one of the members. Half of the pin 
hole shown is to receive a steel pin nearly 
four feet in diameter. It is expected 
that trains will be crossing the bridge in 
another twelve months. 


Popular Science Monthly 


A Windmill Which Always Turns in 
the Same Direction 


HEN the wind strikes a surface 

inclined at an angle to the direc- 
tion of the wind, the surface is displaced 
in a direction that depends upon the de- 
gree of inclination. Upon this well- 
known principle sailboats, windmills, 
and aeroplanes are built. When the 
wind comes in an opposite direction— 
that is to say, strikes the surface on the 
other side—it tends to displace it in the 
opposite direction. It would seem then 
to be impossible so to place a surface 
that it shall always move in the same 
direction no matter whence the wind 
comes. A French windmill maker, how- 
ever, has succeeded in solving the prob- 
lem. He makes a horizontal windmill 
with perpendicular vanes and axis re- 
volved by the planes without gearing. 

The vanes are formed of many sheets 
of iron arranged in the form of a wheel. 
The wind on entering the wheel passes 
between the plates and produces motion, 
and the wind on issuing, dips along the 
general slope of the vane and produces 
motion in the same direction. 

The wind is thus utilized going and 
coming. When the vanes are properly 
inclined, the power produced by this 
strange windmill is high, and the wind 


The roll of tape is sixty feet long. On 
it is written one of the longest letters 
ever mailed for two cents 


167 


Puzzling windmill which always turns in 
the same direction, no matter how the 
wind is blowing 


that reaches nine-tenths of the wheel’s 
diameter is set to work, no matter in 
what direction it is blowing. 


An Island Made to Order 


2 Ree soil is being used to 
build up the small coral island in 
the Pacific Ocean known as the Midway 
and used as a relay station by a trans- 
Pacific cable company. A quantity of 
earth is taken there every three months 
by the schooner that is sent with food 
supplies for the operators. The task of 
building the island has progressed so far 
that it'is now possible to keep a cow on 
the pasture. 


The Longest Letter in the World 
OUR friends are always asking for 
long letters. To supply this demand 

a man in Los Angeles, California, has 
invented a little novelty that has cap- 
tured the fancy of visiting tourists. 

It consists of a roll of paper tape sixty 
feet long. The paper is made to write 
on, and has a place for the name and 
address of the sender and receiver. It 
goes as first class mail for two cents, 
like any other letter, and can be mailed 
in any mail box. 

These little “long letters” cause many 
a laugh and one can write a regular 
letter on the tape, by merely unrolling 
it as it is used up. 


168 


Steam-Driven Models Made by a 
Handless Mechanic 


NE of the chief. exhibits at the 

Home for Aged and Disabled Rail- 
road Employees of America, Highland 
Falls, Ill., is a collection of model steam 
engines made by handless Joseph J. Bel- 
laire. 


All these miniature engines are driven by steam or air, 
and were made by the “‘handless mechanic”’ 


Thirty-four years ago Mr. Bellaire, a 
young and healthy locomotive fireman, 
swung down from his cab and crawled 
under his engine to take the ashes from 
the firebox. The engineer, forgetting 
that his mate was beneath the wheels, 
received the signal from the brakeman 
and set his engine in motion. The un- 
fortunate fireman, hearing the creak of 
the wheels, made a _ wild 
plunge for safety, and suc- 
ceeded in freeing himself— 
all but his hands. When 
they took him to the hospital 
they saved one thumb on his 
right hand. 

With infinite patience Mr. 
Bellaire succeeded in mak- 
ing his artificial hands use- 
ful. On his right hand is a 
thumb and a metal plate. On 
the left wrist is strapped a 
wooden attachment, in the 
center of which is a thread- 
ed hole for the insertion of 
various handy devices, the 
most useful of which is a 
steel hook. 

Since his accident he has 
spent much of the time in 
constructing models of en- 


This truck pulls up a half-mile of track during a working day 


Popular Science Monthly 


gines, some of which are remarkable bits 
of machinery. Working models of 
steam engines predominate in his col- 
lections, and most of them run on 
steam or compressed air. The various 
tubes and cylinders are soldered together 
instead of being riveted. All the models 
work like clockwork. Mr. Bellaire has 
exhibited his models many 
times and has received a 
large number of prizes and 
medals. 


Tearing Up Rails witha 
Motor Truck 


ULLING up the half- 

buried track of an old 
railroad much in the same 
Way as a dentist extracts an 
obstinate tooth, is the novel 
use to which a heavy motor 
truck, armed with a derrick, 
was recently put in a small 
Ohio town. The boom of 
the derrick was secured by 
a heavy braced pillar, which acted as a 
pivot, to the floor of the truck. Tongs 
were used to clutch the rail, and the 
pull exerted through a steel cable and 
pulleys. This wrecking equipment ‘“ex- 


tracted” between one hundred and sixty 
and one hundred and seventy rails per 
day, which is equivalent to a length of 
track a half-mile long. 


Popular Science Monthly 


A Motor-Cycle Converted into a 
Motor-Sled 


OW to make a power sled, is a 

problem that has been solved in a 
rough way at least, by C. H. Carpenter 
of Waukesha, Wis., whose great plaint 
in life has been that the motor-cycle he 
so dearly loves to tour with in summer, 
with his family, is not available for use 
in the winter, when the frost is on the 
pumpkin and the snow upon the ground. 


This motor-sled was converted from a motor- 
cycle at total expense of about one dollar 


He has solved the problem, he believes, 
and that with a total expense of fifty 
cents for a packing box and about as 
much for nails and screws. An iron 
framework, blacksmithed to hold the 
motor-cycle firmly to the rest of the ma- 
chine, added the greatest item of cost; 
for with felt lined clamps to grip, yet 
not mar the enamel of the motor-cycle, 
the iron work cost the sum of two 
dollars. 

Mr. Carpenter has made a motor-sled, 
with a packing box, his motor-cycle, and 
the stout, hickory runners of an old 
coasting sled, cut for the purpose. Tak- 
ing sections of two coasting sleds, the 
framework of iron was so designed that 
the motor-cycle power wheel operated 
between the sleds, much as the walking 
beam of an old-fashioned steamboat 
works on the shaft of the paddle-wheels. 
Built upon the sled, the packing box was 
cut down, planed and painted. It was 
given a high back, and the portion cut 
away in front was converted into a seat. 
The sled makes about twelve miles an 
hour, the motor-cycle being equipped on 
the power wheel with a special gripping 
tire, made by the simple method of 
winding ‘wire about the tire and rim. 


169 


Electric Candles on a Nine-Story 
Birthday Cake 


BIG birthday cake, with thirty- 

five electric candles on the top, is a 
sight which recently astonished Colum- 
bus, Ohio. The cake was made in 
recognition of the thirty-fifth birthday 
anniversay of a large store devoted to 
the sale of women’s goods. Heretofore 
it had been the custom to make use of 
the traditional wax candles but for obvi- 
ous reasons it was decided this year to 
make the experiment of using electric 
candles, which would last longer, give 
more light and be much more cleanly 
than those of wax. 

The result of the experiment was 
wholly satisfactory and electric candles 
will be used in the future. The wiring 
was buried in the sugar covering of the 


cake. 


Apart from this novel electrical fea- 
ture the cake itself was very interesting 
because it was one of the largest ever 
baked in this country. It was a nine- 
story layer cake weighing a little short 
of a ton and it required the services of 
eight men to carry it from the motor 
truck which hauled it around the city 
into the store, where it was the center 
of attraction. It was four and one-half 
feet in diameter and into its composition 
there entered a barrel of flour and one 
thousand eggs, three tubs of butter, 
fifty quarts of milk, one quart of lemon 
flavoring, one quart of vanilla flavoring. 
It was covered with two hundred and 
twenty-five pounds of icing. 

This cake would supply every 
employee of the store with a 
generous portion. 


Thirty-five electric candles graced this one- 

ton birthday cake, which required eight 

men and a motor-truck to deliver it from 
the bakery 


170 Popular Science Monthly 


A Boy’s Street Boat 


CHOING the spirit of his fore- 
fathers who crossed the bleak 
prairies of the west in the days of the 
California gold rush, when sails were 
occasionally raised on the prairie schoon- 
ers to help the horses along, a New York 
boy has added a leg o’ mutton sail to the 
foot power driving equipment of his 
“scooter” with the result that he has 
been several times in danger of breaking 
the speed laws of his city. 
With front and rear wheels oiled well, 


With the aid of a brisk breeze, this 
scooter can break the city’s speed laws 


and a brisk breeze blowing, he can travel 
at a twenty-mile-an-hour clip without 
much difficulty, despite the crude con- 
struction of his vehicle. The front 
wheels are those of a discarded baby 
carriage, while those in the rear are 
rollers taken from skates. The name of 
this conveyance is the “windmobile,” 
which is at least as happy as the names 
of apartment houses and Pullman cars. 


Bread Without Grain Flour 


HEMISTRY in Germany is strug- 
gling to produce a substitute for 
grain flour in making a palatable and 


nourishing bread. The recent potato 
harvest being large, most research- 
workers have sought to use flour from 
grain in place of potato starch. The dif- 
ficulty is that when bread contains an 
unusual proportion of potato starch, or 
even of rice or tapioca starch, it lacks 
the sponginess produced in ordinary 
bread through the carbonic acid devel- 
oped by the fermentation of yeast or by 
baking powder. 

In an article on the subject in Umschau 
some account is given of the experiments 
made to overcome the objections to the 
use of grain flour substituted. It had been 
proved that the defect in pure starch 
flour for bread-making is the lack of glu- 
ten, for the elasticity and toughness of 
ordinary dough are caused by the albu- 
men contained in gluten. A chemist 
named Fornet claims to have found a 
substance which, when mixed with dough 
from starch flour, produces the physical 
characteristics of gluten. The dough is 
raised with yeast, can be made from 
all kinds of starch, and looks like ordin- 
ary white bread. The bread has been 
found edible at the army front when 
several days old. The substance dis- 
covered is not yet announced. The fa- 
mous chemist, Wilhelm Ostwald, has 
proved that the albumen of gluten is 
coagulated by heat during baking and 
has used egg albumen instead with or 
without a gas-producer, as yeast or bak- 
ing powder, with good results, but the 
process is too costly. Walter Ostwald 
and A. Riedel have substituted thick 
starch pastes for the various albumens 
in the dough. These pastes resemble 
gluten in the qualities of elasticity and 
impermeability to gas and are also cheap. 
The leaven is made of potato flour, milk, 
and pressed hops; baking powder can 
also be used. The inner friction of the 
starch paste produces in baking the nec- 
essary puffiness and porosity of the 
dough, and the loaf shows an elastic, 
porous crumb. of fairly normal thick- 
ness. 

Wilhelm Ostwald also substituted 
casein dissolved in ammonium carbonate 
for gluten. In baking, the ammonia and 
carbonic gases present acted as leaven 
while the casein replaced the gluten of 
ordinary white flour. 


— 


Enlisted Men: The Foundation 
of the American Navy 


By Josephus Daniels, Secretary of the Navy 


NE of the curious and unexpect- 
ed things which I have found 
since I assumed the duties of 
Secretary of the Navy has been the 
effect of a too near point of view in 
destroying the perspective of some of 
our ablest Naval Officers as to what 


171 


Loading a four-inch gun in battle prac- 
tice on the cleared deck of a torpedo 
boat 


the subordination of everything con- 
nected with the Navy to its military 
functions really means, and how far 
back military preparation must begin. 

As each new civilian Secretary of 
the Navy assumes office, it has of an- 
cient custom been regarded by the 
service as necessary for the Naval of- 
ficers with whom he comes in imme- 
diate contact in the Department to 1m- 
press upon him that the Navy is a 
fighting machine, that its sole purpose 
and reason for existence is to fight and 
fight effectively, and that everything 
that is done must be done with this 
foundation principle constantly in 
mind. This is an almost self-evident 
truth, and it would be indeed a dull 
mind that could not grasp it and 
agree, but in the carrying out of this 
principle there is, I find, a tendency to 
begin at the top, and, working down 
towards the foundation of things, to 
stop suddenly before the bottom is 


172 Popular Science Monthly 


reached. Thus, in all matters of dis- 
cipline aboard ship. 

Thus, in matters of discipline aboard 
ship, in the training of crews and squad- 
rons, in maneuvers and strategy, in ar- 
mament and equipment, the idea of mili- 
tary efficiency has been splendidly car- 
ried out, and in these matters I hold our 
Navy ranks second to none. 


Have Our Officers Lost Perspective? | 


When it comes, however, to the utili- 
zation of our yards so that they will be 
of the greatest aid to the Navy as a 
military weapon, to the subordination of 
all our so-called civilian activities in the 
Department to the great military plan, 
and to the recruiting of men who will 
prove the most efficient military units, 
worthy of promotion, when fit, even to 
flag rank, many of our high navy officers 
have lost their perspective. This is all 
the more curious because the German 
military organization is continually held 
up by these naval officers as the ideal to 
be achieved, and if there is any one fea- 
ture where the German differs from 
other organizations it is in the thorough- 
ness with which the beginnings of things 
and things ordinarily thought of as par- 
ticularly civil are bent and subordinated 
from the start to their place in the final 
military organization. 

The need of perfectly trained crews 
so high in character and intelligence 
that they can grasp the most in- 
tricate matters of machinery and drill, 
that they can save tenths of seconds in 
the firing of a gun or keep in constant 
repair the most delicate electrical ma- 
chinery, is recognized by navy officers as 
highly important, but there were many, 
until very recently, who considered that 
no special effort was required to attract 
to the service the class of men from 
whom these results can be obtained. Pos- 
sibly this was because, in Germany, for 
instance, military service is compulsory, 
and the men with the brains and intelli- 
gence needed are compelled to enter 
some military arm of the service in any 
event, whereas in this country, depend- 
ing as we do upon voluntary enlistments, 
high class men cannot be secured unless 
there are real inducements far more at- 


tractive than pretty pictures on recruit- 
ing billboards. 

It was to remedy this failure to begin 
at the bottom in one of the most impor- 
tant military matters which led me to in- 
augurate new ways to attract the right 
class of men to the service and to keep 
them in the service when once so attract- 
ed by making the term of enlistment a 
great opportunity to obtain, at Govern- 
ment expense, an education, particularly 
along technical lines, which would enable 
the man, upon his discharge, to obtain 
a higher wage. 

Opportunities for such improvement 
existed before I became Secretary, 
and, while they have been considerably 
enlarged since then, the only sweeping 
change has been to give to those enlisted 
men who lacked it the rudimentary 
school education needed before they 
could comprehend the mechanical and 
electrical trades. | 

What I have done, however, is to 
bring prominently before the country on 
every occasion the fact that such oppor- 
tunities existed, and I believe there is 
hardly a young man anxious to improve 
himself who does not know that in the 
Navy he can find his opportunity. 


Our Recruits the Cream of Youth 


The result of this campaign has been 
gratifying in the extreme, and the Navy 
is now recruited to its full strength from 
so many applicants that we are able to 
pick the very cream, our latest figures 
showing that only seventeen per cent of 
those who apply are now accepted. In 
addition, while the value of a man who 
has already had the training of one en- 
listment term in the Navy is recognized 
as being far greater than that of a lands- 
man just taken on board, and while the 
military importance of having men of 
long experience on every ship has been 
acknowledged, the equal importance of 
making the service attractive to the en- 
listed men in order to keep them in the 
service has not been sufficiently consid- 
ered until recently. Without abating one 
jot of the rigid military discipline, with- 
out pampering or favoring the enlisted 
man at the risk of destroying his efficien- 
cy as a cog in a great machine, the num- 
ber of re-enlistments has increased, as 
the result, from fifty-four per cent to 


ae 


ae 


Popular Science 


The daily drill on the ship’s deck is an 

important and interesting feature of the 

day’s routine. Above, sailors in a battle- 
ship reading-room 


ninety-two per cent. 

I am asking Congress this year 
for eleven thousand five hundred 
more men for our Navy. Thanks 
to the policy outlined, there is not 
the slightest doubt that we will be 
able to get eleven thousand five 
hundred (or more when they are 
needed) young men of the highest 
type, keen, intelligent, desirous of 
improving, and willing to learn their 
duties. It has simply been a case of 
willingness to learn from civil life the 
most efficient way to achieve a military 
object, for the education of apprentices 
has been recognized by great manufac- 


The navy turns out 


173 


turing establishments as 
worth time and money in 
increased efficiency of 
workmen. 

The young man who has 
mastered the fundamentals 
of some particular trade 
can enlist in the Navy and 
be assigned immediately to 
work at that trade with 
sure promotion ahead of 
him. The experience that 
he gets in the Navy will be 
far broader and greater in 


Monthly 


good stenographers and 
typewriters as well as good mechanics 


all probability than he would get work- 
ing at his trade outside. Take the young 
man who has gone in for electricity and 
who lives in a small town. He has few 
chances of learning the higher branches 
of his profession; wiring for electric 


174 


bells, occasionally repairing a small mo- 
tor, putting in electric light fixtures— 
these are practically the limits of his 
experience. On every battleship, how- 
ever, are to be found the most delicate 
and complicated of electrical apparatus, 
huge dynamos of enormous horsepower, 
delicate signaling and recording instru- 
ments; every kind of electrical appara- 
tus is there. How to make and how to 
repair this apparatus is a part of his mil- 
itary education, progressing from the 
simpler work to that requiring the great- 
est skill, and with this training will go a 
thorough education in the fundamental 
principles of electricity as well. 


Every Recruit is Trained to Become 
a Skilled Artisan 


When he leaves the service he will be 
too proficient as an electrical expert to 
be in any danger of being compelled to 
spend the rest of his days as he began 
—putting up bell wires or installing elec- 
tric lights in a small town. He will be 
a welcome addition to any of the great 
electrical and manufacturing establish- 
ments, with good wages, and perhaps a 
place at the very top. 

This is true of all the other vocations, 
and fifty of them are taught in the Navy. 
There has just been established, for in- 
stance, a new class at Charleston for in- 
struction in gasoline engines, where the 
enlisted men will be taught not only the 
theory but the practical handling of the 
largest gasoline engines now in use. Ma- 
chinery of all kinds is used in these 
schools for enlisted men, and, in addi- 
tion, what is known as the yeoman 
branch affords an opportunity for those 
who desire to become expert stenogra- 
phers, typewriters and accountants. 
Here is a partial list of the schools for 
enlisted men at present maintained by 
the Navy. It is interesting as showing 
the wide range of subjects covered. 

1. Navy aviation school, 
Pensacola, Fla. 
2. Electrical schools, 
Navy Yard, New York; 
Navy Yard, Mare Island. 
3. Artificers’ school 
Navy Yard, Norfolk. 
4. Oil burning school, 
Navy Yard, Philadelphia. 
5. Machinist’s mates’ school and school for 


gas engines, 
Charleston, S. C. 


Popular Science Monthly 


6. Seaman gunner school and school for 
diving, 
i Torpedo Station, Newport, 


st 


Yeoman schools, 
Newport, R. I., 
San Francisco, Cal. 
8. Musicians’ school, 
San Francisco, Cal. 
Norfolk, Va. 
9. Hospital training schools, 
Newport, R. I., 
San Francisco, Cal. 
10. Commissary school (for ship’s cooks. 
bakers and commissary stewards), 
San Francisco, Cal., 
Newport, R. I. 
11. Mess attendants’ school, 
Norfolk, Va. 
12. Naval Training Stations for apprentice 
seamen, 
Newport, R. I. 
Norfolk, Va. 
Great Lakes, III. 
San Francisco, Cal. 


How thorough the instruction is, can 
best be shown by the course of instruc- 
tion in the Navy Electrical School at 
the New York Navy Yard, which follows. 

During the first week of instruction, 
the recruit studies machine shop work, 
such as forging, welding, tempering, an- 
nealing, brazing and soldering, and 
thread cutting. 

In the second week, his machine shop 
instruction continues, the novice becom- 
ing familiar with the hand operated 
tools such as the lathe and lathe tools, 
the shaper and shaper tools, the drill 
press, the milling machine and mill-cut- 
ters, and the emery wheel. He also 
learns the rudiments of machine shop 
work, such as bench, lathe, drill press, 
milling machine and emery wheel work. 

For the third week, he studies recip- 
rocating steam engines, the various 


-courses being in simple and compound 


reciprocating engines, also in the auxil- 
iaries, viz., separators, traps, pressure 
regulators, all kinds of valves, condens- 
ers, pumps, gages, revolution counters, 
tachometers and indicators. Practical 
operation of engines and practical work 
also occupy much of his time. He learns 
assembling and dissembling engines, 
lining up engines, resetting and adjust- 
ing valves, reading indicators, overhaul- 
ing and repairing engine and pumps and 
the regrinding of valves. 
The subject of steam 
taught during the fourth week. 


turbines is 


The 


$ 
4 
2 
| 
* 
; 


Popular Science Monthly 


practical operation and 
care and preservation of 
these complicated engines 
keeps the recruit busy dur- 
ing the week. 

For the fifth week, the 
subject is that of internal 
combustion engines. The 
study of the principles of 
these engines, and of 
special types such as the 
Hornsby-Akroyd, Meitz 
and Weiss oil engines, is 


The navy offers an opportunity to study 
electrical engineering 


thoroughly pursued, and the practical 
operation, care and preservation of all 
oil engines is taught. 

In the sixth week, the theory of mag- 
netism and electricity is studied, and in 
the seventh week, the instructors teach 
the students the theory of the dynamo 


Bluejackets in artillery and infantry 
excrcises ashore. Above, a school- 
room on shipboard 


and electro-magnetism. 

Practical work on dynamos is ac- 
complished during the next two 
weeks, and pupils learn the mys- 
teries of turbo-generators, switch- 
boards, operating dynamos in par- 
allel, care of the plant and dynamo 
room routine. 

Theoretical and practical work on 
motors occupy the recruits’ time 
from the tenth to the twelfth week. 
Studies are made of the principles of di- 
rect current motors, motor generators 
and dynamos, and practical work is done 
on service motors and motor starting 
and controlling devices. Ammunition 
conveyors and hoists, gun elevating 


176 


equipments, rammers and turret turning 
equipments are made the subject of 
study. 

The thirteenth, fourteenth and fif- 
teenth weeks are devoted to the study 
of the theory and practice of lighting 
and interior communication. The sub- 
jects listed are instruments, circuits and 
fuses, incandescent and arc lights, tele- 
phones, wires and wiring, wiring appli- 
ances and fixtures, search lights, signal- 
ing apparatus, interior communication 
cables, switchboards, telephone circuits, 
telephones and fire controls. 

During the sixteenth and seventeenth 
weeks the theory and practice of pri- 
mary and secondary batteries are studied. 

The last two weeks, the eighteenth 
and nineteenth, are spent in a general 
review of the entire course, and any 
points that have been missed by the pu- 
pils are made clear in their minds. 


Radio Telegraphy 


For the first six weeks of the course 
in radio or wireless telegraphy, the 
study closely parallels the study of mag- 
netism and electricity, dynamos and mo- 
tors, alternating currents, batteries, and 
internal combustions which is pursued in 
the course just outlined. 

From the seventh to the nineteenth 
weeks, the pupil is constantly practicing 
at the instrument, becoming efficient at 
sending and receiving. He also devotes 
one week each to the following subjects: 
Condensers, inductances, oscillating cur- 
rents, primary circuits (transmitting), 
secondary circuits and closed oscillating 
circuits, radiating circuits, transmitting 
sets, receiving apparatus, receiving cir- 
cuits, Fessenden sets, wireless specialty 
companies’ sets, and Telefunken sets. 
The nineteenth week is spent in review, 
as in the other course. 

Immediate entrance to these schools 
is, of course, obtained only by those who 
already have some knowledge of the 
trade, but every enlisted man who wants 
to take up a trade of which he may be 
utterly ignorant at the time of his en- 
listment has only himself to blame if 
he does not eventually acquire a chance 
to obtain this special shore instruction. 
He has only to state to his superiors on 
the ship what line he would like to fol- 
low and provided there are not too 


Popular Science Monthly 


many already having the same desire at 
the time on the ship, he will be assigned 
duties on shipboard which will give him 
a certain familiarity with the subject. 
After a year’s service, he can make ap- 
plication for a special course of training 
at the school, and, if he has shown suff- 
cient intelligence and progress in his 
work on board ship, he is certain to 
have his request granted. 

With such inducements. and with a 
daily school on shipboard where the sub- 
jects to be found in every public school 
on shore are taught him as well, it is 
not surprising that, instead of a lack of 
men of the type desired, the Navy now. 
finds it a difficult matter to choose from 
the host of applicants those best suited 
for the service. Judges no longer sen- 
tence ne’er-do-wells to the Navy as a 
punishment, nor are such men received, 
and desertions in the last three years 
have decreased thirty-two per cent. 

In this way has the doctrine of sub- 
ordination of everything to military ef- 
ficiency been carried to the very begin- 
ning, and we are certain of efficient 
crews on board our ships because we 
have efficient recruits to begin with. 


Iron Industry Gains in Germany. 


ESPITE the smothering effects that 

the war has upon industry of all 
kinds, the production and manufacture of 
iron implements increased considerably in 
Germany since the opening of hostilities. 
During the last year of peace, 1913, the 
German iron industry mined approxi- 
mately 35,941,000 tons of domestic iron 
ore, from which, after exporting 2,613,- 
000 tons and importing 14,019,000 tons, 
a total of 19,300,000 tons of crude iron 
was smelted. During the month of Au- 
gust, 1914, when the war started, the 
output of iron products sank to 18,310 
tons daily.. During 1915 this daily aver- 
age has increased to 33,000 tons. A 
large percentage of the iron being pro- 
duced in Germany is finding its way into 
war implements of various sorts. 


HE commission form of govern- 

ment is in effect in eighty-one of 
the two hundred and four cities in this 
country of over thirty thousand inhabit- 
ants. 


oD A 


Fish That Travel on Land 


When the tide goes out and strands“these fish in a shallow pool, they leave the water, and 


actually flop over land to the sea. They never get lost and travel in the wrong direction, 
but always take the straightest road back to deep water 


CIENTISTS rarely go a-fishing in 
troubled waters; Professor S. O. 
Mast, however, of the zoological de- 
partment of Johns Hopkins, is an ex- 
ception. The Johns Hopkins professor 
discovered that such fish as minnows 
are often found in the little temporary 
pools left in the sand by the tide, but 
rarely, if ever, after the water in such 
a tide is so low that the outlet is closed. 
When the tide is falling, these fish— 
fundulus majolisis, the scientific name 
for them—swim out, somehow knowing 
when the tide is about to get so low that 
they might be trapped in the little 
pools in the sand. As the tide falls, they 
swim in and out of such tide-pools at 
short intervals. Thus, these fish avoid 
being trapped in the pools and killed 
when the little collections of water dry 
during low tide. 

Professor Mast has observed that the 
outlets of such tiny pools may be closed 
while the tide rises, but if they should 
close while the tide is falling, the fish 
swim about rapidly in various directions 
to discover water. If they find none, 
they leave the water and actually flop 
over land to the sea. Professor Mast 
has seen scores and scores of these fish 
leave large pools and travel across sand- 
bars more than twelve feet wide and 
half a foot high. The fish nearly always 
leave the pools on the side towards the 


sea. They evidently remember the di- 
rection of the outlet and the direction 
from which they entered. 

Curiously enough, they never make 
any mistakes in “walking” on dry land, 
either. Professor Mast never found one 
to take a wrong direction for any great 
distance. Although he admits that it is 
not yet definitely known how fish are 
guided in the right direction, it is certain 
that light reflected from the water is not 
a factor in this sense of direction. 

Perhaps one of the most interesting 
discoveries made by the Johns Hopkins 
zoologist shows how fish can make their 
way on dry land. 

Of course, locomotion on land by fish 
can be brought about only by successive 
leaps and jumps produced by rapid bend- 
ing and wriggling of the body or side- 
swiping by the tail. 

When trapped in a pool which rapidly 
dries up or evaporates, they swim about 
for a few minutes, then come closely to 
the edge of the water and swim up and 
down the side of the pool nearest to the 
sea. Finally a dense aggregation of fish 
forms in the outlet near the dam, and 
three minutes by the watch after they 
are shut in, they manage to climb out 
on the sand. They leave in groups of 
twelve and “march” like General Sher- 
man to the sea. These fish are superior 
to some men in finding their way home. 


177 


Natural Cannonballs 


HE cannon balls illustrated are sim- 
ply big, nearly spherical rocks 


which are eral at intervals in the soft 
California, 


sandstone of Southern the 


Natural cannon balls found in the soft sandstone of 


Southern California 


same sand formation in which the great 
deposits of petroleum are (founds -O€ 
course there is no oil left in these cliffs; 
it has all leached out and evaporated, but 
where the strata dip down from two 
thousand to three thousand feet below 
the surface, there it is saturated with oil 
and natural gas, to constitute one of the 
greatest oil deposits in the world. 


The Devil’s Post Pile 


HE Devil’s Post Pile is one of the 
greatest wonders of America. It is 
such a remarkable formation of volcanic 
rocks that it has been constituted by 
Presidential | Proclamation 
into a National Monument. 
The huge pile is composed 
of large basaltic columns 
about the dimensions of tel- 
egraph or telephone poles, 
though most of them are 
either hexagonal or _five- 
sided. Some, however, are 
four-sided and closely re- 
semble hewn timbers about 
two feet in diameter. The 
“posts” stand in the pile at 
all angles from vertical to 
almost horizontal. 

The visible height of the 
tallest post is over fifty feet, 
although it is not known 
how far down they extend 


Popular Science Monthly 


—a considerable distance it is believed 
by geologists. Each year’s freezes and 
thaws throw down portions of the outer 
columns. From the vastness of the rock 
pile at the base of the standing columns 
it is evident that this process 
of disintegration has been 
going on for many centu- 
ries. The posts are com- 
posed of basalt of great 
hardness and density, the 
product of volcanic erup- 
tion. Exposed portions of 
the top of the pile show the 
scratching of glaciers, yet 
the pile itself and the sur- 
rounding country is coy- 
ered with a layer of pumice 
dust, an evidence that the 
“post-pile” is the product of 
a volcanic eruption which 
occurred after the glaciers 
had long since retreated. 


Fossil Plants Twenty Million 
Years Old 


EOLOGISTS describe what is 

known as the Denver Basis as a 
great, low, swampy region (Denver is 
approximately its center) which existed 
during an early period of the earth’s his- 
tory when the Rocky Mountains were 
just pushing their way up out of the 
primal ocean. This great “basin”? was 
made up of shallow “lagoons and low- 
lying, sandy shores on which grew a 
rank, tropical vegetation somewhat sim- 


A huge pile of basaltic columns which brings to mind 
Ireland’s “‘Giant’s Causeway” 


Popular Science Monthly 


ilar to that of the valley of the Amazon 
today. Huge palms, fig trees and giant 
ferns were laced together with a tangle 
of vines, through which man, had he 
been on the earth at that time, would 
surely have found it difficult to pursue 
or escape from his enemies. And of the 
latter there would have been many. The 
country must have fairly swarmed with 
strange animal life, according to the 
bones of scores of species of the enor- 
mous, half-animal, half-reptile of the 
Mesozoic Era. 

The photograph shows the perfectly 
preserved leaves and stalks of this 
swamp growth, which was submerged in 
the sandy shores of some lagoon. The 
air having been excluded, the growth 
was silicified and fossilized. At a glance 
it resembles the intricate carving in 
coarse sandstone such as might have 
been used in some ancient decoration. 
This formation is placed by geologists as 
belonging to the Cretaceous Period 
which is variously estimated to have 
been from fifteen to twenty millions 
years ago. 


A Piece of Salt that Weighs Two 
Hundred Tons 


T the famous salt mines of 

Wieliczka, eight miles southeast 
of Cracow, Galacia, which was the 
scene of bloody fighting between the 
Russians and the Austrians, there re- 
cently fell a huge mass of salt weigh- 
ing some two hundred tons. The 
great block evidently became detached 
from the roof of one of the chambers 
and came crashing to the ground. In 
its fall it demolished a portion of a 


Perfectly formed leaves and twigs fossilized 
in the course of twenty million years 


179 


A two hundred ton rock of salt which 
recently fell into the working chamber of 
the greatest salt mine in Austria 


passage and broke down heavy timbered 
barriers. No one was hurt, however. 

These salt mines are famous not so 
much on account of their size and 
large output <s for the many wonders 
they contain. Indeed, they are re- 
garded as one of the show places of 
Europe. They comprise a sort of 
underground world, with all kinds of 
chambers, such as ballrooms, restau- 
rants, theatres, churches, chapels and 
monuments hewn out of the solid rock 
salt. In these chambers may be seen 
wonderful chandeliers carved out of 
the rock salt. There are sixteen sub- 
terranean lakes in the mines, on one 
of which is a boat. It lies some seven 
hundred feet below the surface of the 
earth. The aggregate length of the gal- 
leries at present accessible is upwards of 
sixty-five miles and that of mining rail- 
ways twenty-two miles. The mines 
have an annual output of no less than 
sixty-five thousand tons. They are the 
property of the Austrian government 
and have now been worked for upwards 
of a thousand years. 


Niagara on Tap 


By Professor Thomas H. Norton 


To what extent should Niagara Falls be sacrificed in the production of elec- 
tric power? Each year witnesses a growing bitterness between two factions: 
The one insists that no scenic treasure shall be permanently marred by servi- 
tude to the demands of commercialism; the other claims with almost relent- 
less logic, that in the case of Niagara, the right of the nation to utilize the 
enormous power available, shall not be subordinated to a mere sentiment. 
Professor Thomas H. Norton, in a paper which he read before the American 
Electrochemical Society, outlined a scheme whereby it would be possible to 
satisfy those who see only the beauty of Niagara, and those who see only 


power goimg to waste. 


The following article by Professor Norton is an 


abstract from the paper in question, especially revised for this issue of the 
PopuLaR SciENCE MONTHLY by its author-——Editor. 


workable thesis, according to the 

terms of which, on our own con- 
tinent for example, the rights of its in- 
habitants shall suffer no material diminu- 
tion in the opportunity to fully enjoy the 
splendor of Niagara, while conditions are 
created which permit the utilization, on 
a satisfactory scale, of the tremendous 
source of power,—one of the nation’s 
grandest assets. 

The principle of an intermittent water- 
fall would appear to offer a simple, but 
thoroughly practicable solution. It may 
be briefly formulated as follows: 

During somewhat more than half of 
the twenty-four hours, especially during 
the night time, a waterfall is completely 
harnessed. Every kilowatt which it is 
capable of creating is devoted to the 
service of industry. During a shorter 
period—from ten A. M. to eight P. M.— 
the cataract resumes its normal activity, 
contributing to the esthetic enjoyment of 
all who behold it. 

In the case of Niagara, naturally the 
most familiar of the world’s great catar- 
acts to the readers of the PopuLar Sci- 
ENCE MoNntTHLy, the application of the 
intermittent principle would offer no dif- 
ficulties of an engineering nature. The 
topographic factors are simple. 

To harness completely the great mass 
of descending water is a matter of 
comparative ease. The expense would 
be far less than that required for the 
monumental Assouan Dam of the river 


oe HERE must be some practicable, 


Nile,—five hundred millions. It would 
probably not exceed two hundred mil- 
lions at the outside. 

One-quarter of a mile above the west- 
ern extremity of Goat Island, where rip- 
ples betray the beginning of the upper 
rapids, a dam would be constructed at 
right angles to the axis of the river. The 
length would be about four-fifths of a 
mile. Niagara River at this point is ex- 
ceedingly shallow. Equidistant sound- 
ings from the American shore to the 
Canadian shore show an average depth 
of 3% feet. It is evident that the con- 
struction, based upon the rocky bed of 
the river, would be relatively easy and 
inexpensive. 

The dam would possess the necessary 
architectural features to harmonize with 
the environment. The water impounded 
by the closing of the gates could be led 
by huge canals, on both sides of the 
gorge, to the edge of the bluff overlook- 
ing Lake Ontario. From this point a 
multitude of penstocks and rock tunnels 
would conduct the entire volume of wa- 
ter to the level of the river near Queens- 
ton on the Canadian side and Lewiston 
on the American side, where battalions 
of power-houses can easily be located. 

The total section of the system of can- 
als and penstocks required for the com- 
plete utilization of the average flow of 
Niagara River would be approximately 
sixteen thousand square feet. The mean 
flow of water, with a hydrostatic head of 
nearly three hundred and fifteen feet, 


180 


Popular Science Monthly 181 


“In the deep recesses behind the falling sheet of water at Niagara,’’ says Prof. Norton in his 
article, “‘a gigantic system of scaffolds would be erected. These would serve as the supports 
of a series of over-shot wheels or endless-chain bucket wheels. By careful disposition 
a considerable fraction of the available power—possibly thirty to forty per cent.—could 
be utilized without revealing any portion of the mechanism to the eye of the beholder” 


182 Popular Science Monthly 


would produce about seven million, four 
hundred thousand horse-power. 

Once provided with the mechanical 
means to control the vast volume of wa- 
ter, ordinarily sweeping over the crest of 
Niagara, the daily program would be as 
follows: 

At 8 P. M. the entire series of gates on 
the dam would simultaneously close. A 
few minutes later and the American Falls 
would falter. The volume of water 
would swiftly diminish. Soon the grand 
curtain would be rent and gashed as if 
by invisible knives. A minute or two 
more, and rivulets here and there pour 
over the brink. The gloomy, cavernous 
recesses beneath the overhanging edge 
are revealed to the eye. Another minute, 
and the rivulets have changed to drops. 

From Goat Island to the apex of the 
great Horseshoe the same sequence of 
transformations begins. It creeps stead- 
ily along the crest until it reaches the 
Canadian shore. The deafening roar of 
the cataract sinks to an agonizing groan, 
a reproachful sigh, a dying murmur. 
Niagara is silent! 

A few minutes later and the rage and 
fury of the long stretch of rapids in the 
picturesque gorge falter and slowly sub- 
side. The vast volume of water between 
the foot of the falls and Queenston grad- 
ually drains away. A quiet lake remains 
between the railroad bridges and the base 
of the falls. Its surface is about eighty- 
six feet below the normal level, and the 
enclosing cliffs gain that much in height. 
It would be somewhat narrower than the 
present river, and frequent rocky islands 
would appear near the temporary banks. 

For three-quarters of a mile the rela- 
tively narrow and shallow bed of the 
whirlpool rapids would be laid bare. The 
whirlpool itself would remain a some- 
what restricted and motionless sheet of 
water, forty feet below its normal level, 
at the head of a quiet fjord, extending 
inland from Lake Ontario. 

Such would be the topographic chang- 
es attending the harnessing of the catar- 
act. 

Synchronously with the vanishing of 
the falling tons of water, in thousands 
of workshops scattered over the fruitful 
territory of Ontario and New York, a 
million, perhaps many million, workmen 
begin their daily task. For fourteen 


hours the world’s greatest beehive of in- 
dustry is filled with the busy hum of 
activity, keyed to the highest pitch, ban- 
queting, as it were, on the corpse of a 
murdered Niagara! One shift of seven 
hours is succeeded by another of the 
same length. All the energy of the sev- 
en million, four hundred thousand horse- 
power is devoted to the welfare of the 
nation. 

-Itis10 A.M. As the signal is flashed 
from the National Observatory the gates 
of the great dam shoot upward. The 
hum of spindle and loom, the clang of 
the triphammer, all the many-toned ga- 
mut of sound which forms the orchestral 
accompaniment of a busy, happy people 
shaping, fashioning, creating the objects 
of convenience or luxury destined for 
each other’s comfort or enjoyment,—all 
sink to a whisper,—vanish! 

A minute later and the crest of a vast 
billow sweeps over the brink of the 
American Fall. In an instant, almost, 
with a deafening roar of exultant joy, 
the cataract has sprung into full activity. 
Swiftly the falling curtain spreads from 
Goat Island along the crest of the semi- 
circle, until Niagara, in full panoply of 
power and might, hurls her defiance at 
the assembled thousands gathered to wit- 
ness the most wondrous sight on the face 
of the globe—the rebirth of a cataract. 
The spectacle would combine all the 
swiftness of movement and stupendous 
grandeur offered by the sweep of the 
Johnstown flood, or the tidal wave of 
Galveston, free from the tragic terrors 
and horrors of those cataclysms. The 
gloomy, beetling cliffs disappear behind 
the sheet of foam and spray; rainbows 
hover in the clouds of mist; the gray 
walls of the gorge echo back the roar of 
the proud cataract! 

In a less dramatic and spectacular 
manner the level of water in the gorge 
would steadily rise; the foam and spray 
of the rapids become evident; the whirl- 
pool resume its circling activity; and 
Niagara’s normal life reappear. 

For ten hours the thousands of ma- 
chines, of furnaces, of electrolytic vats 
rest or are available for repairs, until 
the sun sets, and in the twilight the hour 
approaches for an eager muititude to 
witness again the death agony of a cat- 
aract unequaled in size. 


Popular Science Monthly 


A view of Niagara Falls when, a few years ago, ice dammed the river above and shut off 


all but a small proportion of the water. 


One of Prof. Norton’s plans would denude the falls 


each night still more than is shown here. When the water diverted by his dam to the running 
of his power plant, the ‘“‘grand curtain would be rent and gashed as by invisible knives, a 


minute or two more, and rivulets here and there would pour over the brink .. . 
minute, and the rivulets have changed to drops... 


Such would be the daily sequence of 
events. On holidays, on the Sabbath, the 
lovers of nature could view the falling 
sheet of water at all hours of day and 
night, in the twilight, at dawn, in the 
solemn quiet of midnight. 

When used for motive power on rail- 
ways, street-car lines, etc., in many 
branches of electrochemical industry, 
continuity of current is imperatively nec- 
essary. Storage batteries may be em- 
ployed, but at an increased cost for each 
electrical unit. 

It is, however, perfectly feasible to 
rescue a very large proportion of the 
power, ordinarily going to waste during 
the shorter period of the day, when the 
cataract resumes its normal activity, 
without affecting, to any noticeable de- 
gree, any elements of its scenic beauty. 

In the deep recesses behind the fall- 
ing sheet of water at Niagara, the Cave 
of the Winds, etc., a gigantic system of 
scaffolds could be erected. These would 
serve as the supports of a series of over- 


Another 
Niagara is silent!” 


shot wheels or endless chain-bucket 
wheels. By careful disposition a consid- 
erable fraction of the available power— 
possibly thirty to forty per cent—could 
be utilized and directed to electrochem- 
ical or transportation centers without re- 
vealing any portion of the mechanism to 
the eye of the beholder gazing at the cat- 
aract. There would be a noticeable in- 
crease in the volume of spray, which 
could tend only to heighten the scenic 
beauty of the waterfall. 

The simplest means to accomplish the 
purpose would be a series of buckets, 
operating on endless belts, working on 
axes located immediately beneath the 
brink of the cataract and at the base of 
the falling sheet of water. Essentially 
an enormous overshot water wheel, with 
its modern effective devices on the per- 
iphery, distorted and elongated into the 
form of a belt, as used for the transmis- 
sion of power from one shaft to another. 
A complete series of such elongated 
wheels, closely adjusted side by side, 


184 Popular Science Monthly 


would occupy the entire space behind the 
curtain of falling water, as far as their 
presence could be concealed from the 
view of those on the adjacent banks. 

It is scarcely necessary to state that 
during the fourteen hours of enforced 
quiet and rest, while the waters of the 
Great Lakes are diverted through a maze 
of penstocks, to dash upon thousands of 
turbines, the sight of a serried array of 
mechanical devices, lining the cliffs of 
Niagara, would be sadly out of harmony 
with the otherwise gloomy grandeur of 
the gorge. 

Although this period covers the time 
ordinarily devoted to slumber, still in the 
evening and during the early forenoon, 
tourists and others would constantly 
gaze upon Niagara at rest. 

To remedy this feature, one per cent 
or less of the river’s volume would be 
allowed to pass the dam, and flow over 
the brink. It would generate a thin cur- 
tain of water, just enough to hide the 
massive scaffolding and the maze of 
wheels. By simple hydraulic devices, 
this small amount of water could be 
largely transformed into spray. A deli- 
cate lace-like “bridal veil” would screen 
cliffs and every trace of commercialism. 

The initial outlay would scarcely ex- 
ceed two hundred million dollars. This 
is equivalent to a capital outlay of twen- 
ty-seven dollars per annual horsepower, 
based upon continuous use. The annual 
interest charge would be less than a dol- 
lar seventy-five. This approximates the 
rates of two dollars per annum in Ice- 
land and of three dollars on the west 
coast of Norway. At present the elec- 
tric power of Niagara costs twenty dol- 
lars per annum. 

It would mean the creation of an in- 
dustrial metropolis, surpassing any now 
existing on the face of the globe. No 
cinders or soot would pollute its atmos- 
phere; no towering chimneys would rise 
against the sky-line. Industries of the 
most varied nature, carbides, carborun- 
dum, aluminum, cynamid, chlorin, alka- 
lies, steel, copper, and many minor 
branches—all dependent upon the elec- 
tric current—would gravitate to this 
point. It would become in very truth— 


perhaps in name—the electropolis of 
America! 


A Mile-a-Minute with an Air- 
Driven Sled 


ie was doughty old Count von Zep- 
pelin who first pointed the way to- 
ward locomotion with an air propeller. 
More than fifteen years ago, when he 
first planned the giant, rigid airships 
which are now known by his name, he 
had to conduct a series of experiments 
in order to obtain propellers of sufficient 
thrust for his huge untried craft. Ac- 
cordingly he mounted them upon a boat 
and made experiments on Lake Con- 
stance. The speeds which he attained 
were not more than twelve miles an 
hour, but they were sufficient to prove 
that he could urge his first giant vessel 
through the air at forty miles an hour. 

The idea reappeared in) France dice 
later date. Ordinary launches as well as 


specially constructed hydroplanes were - 


driven on the Seine by propellers revolv- 
ing in air. Tissandier and Santos-Du- 
mont made speeds as high as fifty miles 
an hour on water. As in Count von Zep- 
pelin’s case, their experiments were 
prompted by the thought of obtaining a 
system of propulsion for air boats. So 
successful were they that a few motor- 
cycles and automobiles appeared thus 
propelled. 

Now comes an American manufactur- 
er who reduces the idea to commercial 
practice. He has constructed an air- 
propelled sled with which it is possible 
to obtain a speed of sixty miles an hour 
over ice or packed snow. An engineer- 
ing experiment, to test out the possibili- 
ties of an aircraft, has been developed 
commercially. The air-propelled ice- 
craft is now a vehicle of sport. 

Notice the construction of the sled as 
it is depicted on our front cover. Upon 
a frame supported by the two rear run- 
ners a gasoline engine is carried, by 
which the air propeller is driven. A 
string-piece connects the motor-carrying 
frame with the single forward runner. 
There is room for two men. The rear 
man does the guiding with an automo- 
bile steering-wheel connected with the 
forward runner, which is pivoted so that 
it acts as a kind of rudder. Stop the 
motor and the whole sled can be checked 
and brought to a standstill very quickly 
by a powerful emergency brake. 


—— 


~~ o™ 


+ Nghe am, 


Popular Science Monthly 


A Sleeping Nest With an Electric 
Elevator 


CALIFORNIA electrical engi- 

neer has constructed a_ sleeping 
porch thirty-eight feet above the ground. 
He thinks that the night air close to the 
ground interferes with his repose, and 
that the temperature forty feet from 
the ground is at least ten degrees cooler. 
His sleeping porch is a veritable nest in 
a steel tree. 

He took pains to build his cage 
to withstand the high winds that 
occasionally prevail in that section of 
California. The steel poles which sup- 
port the elevated bedroom are stoutly 
braced, and he has estimated it will be 
comfortably safe in winds blowing as 
briskly as two hundred miles an hour, 
thus allowing him an ample margin of 
protection. 

A miniature elevator lifted by a di- 
minutive electric motor of one-sixth 
horsepower is employed in making the 
flight between the ground and the lofty 
bed chamber. 


Publishing a Paper Aboard a Train 


ERHAPS one of the oddest publica- 
tions of recent years was that 


issued aboard a special train traveling 


While the editors wrote copy in the parlor 
cars, the newspaper was printed every day in 
the baggage coach 


185 


The owner of this sleeping nest cannot fly 
to his bed, like a bird, and so he installed an 
electric elevator 


between St. Paul, Minn., and Spokane, 
Wash. An entire printing equipment, 
including a linotype machine, a large 
cabinet of hand type and a printing 
press, was installed in the baggage car. 
The editors were selected from managers 
of the touring party and did their work 
in the parlor cars, and the paper was 
printed every day in the baggage coach. 
The press used was the first working 
model of a new type of machine. 


America’s First Thirty-Five Knot 
Battle-Cruiser 


that speed, range, striking power 
‘ and adequate armor protection, 
are essential in a fighting vessel and 
the ship in which these are combined 
to a pre-eminent degree most fully 
meets the ideal. But it is no easy 
matter to unite all these attributes in a 
single craft of a given tonnage. If a 
battleship is excessively armored, weight 
must be saved elsewhere—in guns, en- 
gines, etc. And so it happens that every 
fighting ship is more or less a compro- 
mise effected by the advocate of speed 
with the advocate of heavy guns and 
thick armor. 

Although the developments in battle- 
ship construction have been exceedingly 
rapid, the greatest impetus was given 
about ten years ago when Great Britain 
came to the fore with the Dreadnought, 
a ship which mounted only big guns, 
namely ten twelve-inch rifles. She was 
fast too, for her speed was twenty-one 
and one-half knots, something unprece- 
dented in battleships. 

Soon the superdreadnought appeared, 
a vessel still faster, mounting still bigger 
guns, and still more heavily armored. 
Then came the battle cruiser, a formid- 
able craft with a speed of twenty-eight 
knots—a type also first introduced by 
Great Britain. 

These battle cruisers—vessels which 
mount somewhat fewer heavy guns than 
the superdreadnought, but of the same 
caliber, and which have somewhat lighter 
armor and the greatest speed that can be 
given to a warship are at last to be intro- 
duced in our own navy. If we were to 
engage now in a naval war with a foreign 
power, we would be hopelessly at a dis- 
advantage, not only because of the few- 
ness of our superdreadnoughts, but be- 
cause we utterly lack battle cruisers. 

While no official announcement has 
been made of the principal features of 
these new ships, the PopuLAR SCIENCE 
MONTHLY is in a position to present de- 
tails which may be accepted as accurate. 

Profiting by the lessons taught by the 
engagements fought off the Falkland 
Islands and in the North Sea, this new 


(ee sense teaches everyone 


battle cruiser of ours is to have a speed 
somewhere between thirty-two and thir- 
ty-five knots. Obviously engines of 
enormous power are required to attain 
that speed, and so we may expect that 
one hundred thousand horsepower must 
be generated. Every additional knot 
means an inordinate increase in engine 
capacity. 

Our unbuilt and unnamed battle cruiser 
will have eight fourteen-inch guns and 
twenty five-inch guns. At first blush’ it 
would seem as if the Queen Elizabeth's 
fifteen-inch guns must carry the day if 
these two ships were ever opposed. But 
our ordnance officers have made the state- 
ment that the new fourteen-inch guns 
which they have developed are the su- 
perior of the fifteen-inch guns at present 
used in the British navy—or statements 
to that effect. . 

The armor protection of the new 
United States battle cruiser is to be 
twelve inches amidships and four inches 
at the ends. The Queen Elizabeth has 
thirteen and one-half inches of steel on 
the waterline, ten inches above that and 
a top layer of eight and one-quarter 


inches. It is here probably that we had 
to make our sacrifice in order to gain. 


the engine power and, therefore, speed. 


But if speed will enable our ship fo pick | 
out her own position and our guns have. 


the greater range, the loss in armor pro- 
tection is more than compensated for. 

The Lion and Tiger are battle cruisers 
in the true sense of the word. Our ship 
will easily outdistance them. In tonnage 
there is not much to choose, for they 
displace thirty thousand tons as against 
the thirty-one thousand tons of our ves- 
sel. In armament we will be far supe- 
rior. The Lion and the Tiger each mount 
eight fourteen-inch guns which are prob- 
ably inferior in range to the guns of 
equivalent caliber on the proposed Amer- 
ican ship. The Tiger has twelve six- 
inch guns and the Lion sixteen four-inch 
guns; but weapons of such small char- 
acter play no part in a long range en- 
gagement and are serviceable chiefly for 
the repulsion of torpedo boats. 


186 


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Is Mars Alive? 


By Waldemar Kzempffert 


T was in -1877 that the - 
Italian astronomer, 
Schiaperelli, detected 

on the planet Mars those 
curiously straight lines 
which he christened canali 
and which have since been 
a bone of contention among 
astronomers. Later he also 
saw his “canals” double, 
very curiously, until they 
looked _ like 
parallel rail- 
way tracks— 
something 
which has not 
been satisfac- 
torily explain- 
ed to this day. 
Now that Mars 
is about to ap- 
proach the 
earth again, a 
number of observers, headed by Pro- 
fessor W. H. Pickering of Harvard, are 
to add their opinions to the dozens which 
have been delivered in past years, all 
without materially affecting the validity 
of Schiaperelli’s work. 

Although Mars can never approach us 
nearer than thirty-five million miles 
(which is much nearer than it will ap- 
proach in February), we know more 
about its surface markings, in some re- 
spects, than we know about our own 
Earth. If the Earth were viewed as we 
view Mars, the only evidence of human 
handiwork that we could see would be 
the extensive grain fields of Canada and 
the United States. Of natural phenom- 
ena we would note the melting of the 
Himalayan and Rocky Mountain snows 
and the consequent flourishing of vege- 
tation; the great caps of snow that cover 
the poles; the continents and oceans; 
and the clouds that girdle the Earth. If 
a Martian were asked to fathom the 
mystery of a planet of which he knew 
only these things, we would hardly ex- 
pect him to form a very accurate con- 


E. C. Slipher, of Doctor Lowell’s staff, took this instru- 
ment with him to South America. The drawings of the 
“canals’? made by Mr. Slipher with this instrument 
agreed in detail with those made at Flagstaff, Arizona 


The Seven Hundred 
Puzzling Canals 
and What They 
Mean 


ception of our animal and 
plant life or even of our 
geographical and physical 
conditions. 

Far simpler is the task 
of the earthly astronomer 
who studies 
M ars. ofive 
planet is never 
obscured. No 
clouds, no 
veils of mist 
can dim the 
view; for the 
‘Martian atmo- 
sphere is ever 
dry, rare and 
severe, except 
around the 
melting caps. 
A weather 
prophet would have nothing to do on 
Mars. There is no weather—only the 
changes of the seasons. 


Watching the Snows of Mars 


Soon after the telescope was invented 
and used for astronomical observation 
it was discovered that there is snow on 
Mars. During each Martian winter 
great white caps settle down on the 
poles; during each spring and summer 
they dwindle and disappear. In the dead 
of winter these white expanses may 
measure thirty-three hundred miles in 
extent. 

Besides the snow, astronomers long 
ago discovered that there are curious 
blue-green and russet areas on the plan- 
et. At a time when astronomy was not 
as advanced as it is now, the blue-green 
areas were supposed to be seas and the 
russet expanses continents, with the re- 
sult that both were christened with pic- 
turesque but inapt names drawn from 
classical mythology. 

Some years after Schiaperelli discov- 
ered the famous canals of Mars, Pro- 


188 


a e 


Popular Science Monthly 


fessor Percival Lowell established at 
Flagstaff, Arizona, an _ observatory, 
equipped with the best instruments ob- 
tainable for the special study of Mars. 
He has gathered about him a corps of 
observers, who have become wonderfully 
skilled in refined Martian observation; 
he has the advantage of viewing the 
planet in an atmosphere unsurpassed for 
clearness; he has made his observatory 
the fountain-head of all important Mar- 
tian discoveries. To him we owe our re- 


189 


markings of Mars in the way that 
seemed most natural and simple to him. 
It is certain that they accept without 
question the markings of other planets, 
plotted under the same conditions. 

The significance of the canals is ap- 
parent when it is considered that no- 
where on Mars is there any water ex- 
cept at the poles. Ages older than the 
earth, Mars has arrived at a pitiful con- 
dition which may best be described as 
deadly aridity. Long ago much of the 


markably detailed knowledge of the fertile area of the planet shriveled to 
planet's onc ———_'Qvwobl.]q[cccx&_ i. immense 
face mark- ge3 A ESET cat 
— Oceans, seas, 
The Seven eee ean S 
Hundred <3 xed es to 
Canals— : Reet aICeIOS 
What Are ay Way: oO f 
They? caverns and 


It was Pro- 
fessor Lowell 
who not only 
confirmed 
Schiaperelli’s 
discoveries of 
the canals, 
but who plot- 
ted them ac- 
curately year 
Ai Ge & year 
and added to 
them until 
now their 
number is 
seven hun- 
goed ~and 
eighty - eight. 
It is he who 
originated 
and for more 
than twenty 
years has de- 
veloped the 
theory that the canals are all that their 
name implies—artificial waterways con- 
structed by intelligent beings. Per- 
haps it is because he has so persistently 
heaped one piece of evidence upon an- 
other to prove his theories that there is 
any Mars controversy at all. His op- 
ponents would probably be more in- 
clined to accept the existence of the 
canals if he had not interpreted the 


The distinguishing surface features of Mars are the 
snow caps at the poles, vast russet areas and blue-green 
regions between the poles, and the fine, straight lines 


which are known as “canals.” 
the straight lines are indeed ‘“‘canals,’’ and serve to 
conduct the water from the melting snows at the poles 
to the russet-brown areas, which are deserts, and cause 
them to flourish. Dr. Lowell’s theory finds confirma- 
tion in the fact that portions of the russet-brown areas 
assume the characteristic blue-green hue of vegetation 
with the advent of Spring 


cLeviees, 
leaving. only 
parched ba- 
sins. The at- 
mospher- 
ic gases have 
in part float- 
ed away, so 
that the air 
has become 
as rare and 
as thin as we 
should expect 
fo find it 
miles - above 
the Rocky 
Mountains. 
Whatever wa- 
Dr. Lowell holds that ter still re- 
mains, gath- 
ers in the 
form of snow 
or hoar frost 
at the poles. 

Clearly, if 
Mars is inhabited, Professor Lowell ar- 
gues, the one supreme task that engages 
the attention of every thinking being on 
the planet is the utilization of that pa- 
thetically scant supply of water. If it 
were possible to conduct the water of the 
melting snows in spring to those portions 
of the torrid and temperate zones that 
would still bring forth, if properly nour- 
ished, a race might save itself. 


190 


In the canals Professor Lowell sees 
the life-lines of the planet. They are to 
him great irrigating trenches which con- 


The relative sizes of the moon and of direct 
Mars photographs are shown by these two 
circles. The size of the moon to the naked 
eye is indicated by the circle to the left; 
the circle to the right indicates the size of 
a direct Mars photograph before enlarge- 
ment. This disposes of the usual conten- 
tion that the Mars photographs made at 
Flagstaff are no larger than pinheads 


duct the water of the melting snows to 
fertile fields thousands of miles away. 


The Canals Are Irrigating Ditches 


No more forcible argument in favor 
of this view can be advanced 
than their appearance and ar- 
rangement. Nature never 
works with mathematical preci- 
sion. Yet the canals have been 
planned with mathematical fore- 
sight. No whim governed the 
choice of their direction. Inva- 
riably they terminate in large 
well-defined spots, from which 
they radiate like spokes from the 
hub of a wheel. If there were 
one spot, or even two spots, to 
which a pair of lines converge, 
we might look on the phenome- 
non as one of the natural fea- 
tures of the planet. But when 
more than a dozen lines run with 
geometrical directness to a sin- 
gle spot, and, when, moreover, 
the spots themselves are connect- 
ed by lines and are in no sense 
isolated, we must assume that an 
intelligence has been at work. 

Aptly enough the spots and 
lines are distributed in the very 
regions where we should expect 
a Martian engineer to place 
them; in other words just where 


Popular Science Monthly 


water is needed. Were it not for their 
staggering length (fifteen hundred to 
four thousand miles), we should never 
see the canals at all. Viewed from a dis- 
tance of more than thirty-five million 
miles even so large a city as Chicago or 
London would be no larger than the head 
of a pin. What we see is not really a 
waterway, but, as Dr. Pickering and Dr. 
Lowell has pointed out, the vegetation 
that fringes its banks. 

Curiously enough, the canals disappear 
at intervals, only to reappear with their 
old clearness. On the face of it this 
would seem in itself an unanswerable 
refutation to any theory which assumes 
that the canals are irrigating ditches. It 
would be absurd for a hypothetical race 
of Martians to dig canals periodically, 
only to fill them again. But Dr. Lowell 
explains the disappearance very simply. 
What we see is but the sea- 
sonal growth of the vegeta- 
tion along the banks. Time 
is required for the water 
of the polar seas to make 


Size of Moon 
to naked eye 


The relative visible sizes of the moon and Mars. 
In the small circle is a photograph of the moon 
(the size which it appears to the naked eye). In 
the large circle, is a drawing of Mars exactly 
the size which it appears through the telescope 
with a power of 392 diameters—the lowest used 


Popular Science Monthly » 


itself felt; weeks 
must elapse before 
sufficiently luxuri- 
ant vegetation has 
sprung into being 
so that the courses 
of the canals can 
be traced each 
spring and sum- 
mer. And the pe- 
culiar manner in 
which the canals 
seem to creep down 
from the poles at 
the rate of two and 
a half miles an 
hour lends color to 
the explanation. 


The Growth and 
Death of 
Vegetation on 


Mars 


This elaborate 
network of sluices 
divides the planets 
into plains of more 
or less geometrical 
shape. Blue, green 
and orange are the 
colors of these Dr. 
plains—colors that 
proclaim the char- 
acter of the areas 
in question. The 
blue-green areas 
are fertile regions 
fed by the canals; the orange sections are 
deserts, hopelessly arid. This distinction 
Professor Lowell draws by reason of the 
peculiar fluctuations in hue which the 
blue-green patches undergo with the ad- 
vent of spring and winter. As autumn 
approaches they assume a russet tint, 
which renders it almost impossible to dis- 
tinguish them from the orange deserts. 
When the polar snows begin to melt they 
gradually deepen in shade until they as- 
sume the characteristic color of vegeta- 
tion. Inasmuch as these changes are 
closely linked with the waxing and wan- 
ing of the canals, it is evident that the 
one phenomenon is dependent upon the 
other. 

That the spots toward which the ca- 
nals converge are the objective points of 


of the planets. 


Percival Lowell, 
Flagstaff, Arizona, the finest private ob- 
servatory in the world for the special study 


Here for many years he 
has made those observations of Mars 
which have made him the foremost au- , 

thority on that planet in the world, ~ 


191 


Martian irrigation, 
is demonstrated by 
the scientific pre- 
cision with which 
the canals have 
been drawn to meet 
them. Not a soli- 
tary spot is any- 
where to be found. 
Three, four, six, 
even seventeen ca- 
nals _ concentrate 
their floods on a 
single spot. In di- 
ameter the spots 
range from seven- 
ty-five to one hun- 
dred and fifty 
miles. Like the ca- 
nals they have been 
designed with ge- 
ometrical economy. 
If there are cities 
on Mars, it is not 
unlikely that they 
are situated in 
these spots. 

Like the canals 
the spots disappear 
with the approach 
of winter; but be- 
fore they are ex- 
tinguished the ca- 
nals have faded 
away. This is as 
it should be. Be- 
fore our time the 
spots were thought to be lakes and were 
named accordingly. Professor Lowell 
regards them as oases studding the Mar- 
tian deserts. Lakes would never deepen 
in color; only vegetation can cause the 
characteristic fluctuations to which the 
spots are subject. 


Are the Canals Real or Merely Illusions? 


The amount of ink that has been spill- 
ed over the canals and their meaning 
would fill a hogshead. Many astrono- 
mers deny that the canals exist at all and 
regard them as optical illusions produced 
by eye-strain. But none of these skeptics 
has had the opportunity of studying 
Mars night after night in a clear atmos- 
phere, far from the smoke of cities. 
Doubting astronomers who have troubled 


who erected at 


192 


themselves to journey to Flagstaff or 
other well-situated observatories are 
speedily convinced that the canals are 
objective realities and not illusions. Un- 
til 1907 the Flagstaff observatory was 
the only one devoted to the study of 
planets and especially equipped and 
maintained for that purpose. In that 
year M. Jarry Deloges, at the suggestion 
of Flammarion, started an investigation 
of Mars in France and Algeria. The 
result was an astonishing confirmation of 
the Flagstaff observations. So similar 
are the drawings of the Martian disk 
made nearly seven thousand miles apart 
that one set might well be taken for a 
copy of the other. If any evidence were 
needed to prove that the canals of Mars 
are real, it is surely found in the actual 
photographs which were first made ten 
years ago at Flagstaff by Mr. Lamp- 
land of Doctor Lowell’s staff, and 
which have been duplicated over again 
by others since then. Unfortunately the 
detail in these pictures is so very fine that 
they cannot be satisfactorily reproduced 
in the pages of a magazine such as the 
PopuLAR SCIENCE MonTHLy. 

It must be admitted that it is not ev- 
eryone who can see the canals. The man 
who is a successful observer of faint 
stars may be quite unable to detect fine 
planetary detail for structural reasons. 
Moreover, big instruments, especially in 
high latitudes, are rather a hindrance 
than a help in observing Mars. 

Granting that Doctor Lowell and 
his followers are right and that Mars is 
a living world, what manner of beings 
are these who have dug canals to water 
their planet? Unfortunately, no ade- 


quate conception of a Martian’s physical 


Fe ae 


Popular Science Monthly 


appearance can be formed, although Ed- 
mond Perrier, a French academician, 
some years ago boldly declared that they 
must be very tall and very blonde. Ro- 
mantic guessing is not scientific deduc- 
tion. Doctor Lowell in one of his 
earlier works shows that, while we can 
never hope to draw a picture of a Mar- 
tian, we can at least deduce something 
about him because Mars is a small planet. 

The bigger the planet on which you 
live, the harder it is for you to move 
about. A steam crane would be a wel- 
come assistance in moving your body 
about on Jupiter. This is due entirely to 
the enormous gravitational attraction of 
Jupiter. The bigger the planet the hard- 
er are you pulled down to its surface. 
Mars is only one-ninth as massive as the 
earth. Hence you would weigh much less 
on Mars than you do on the earth. A 
Martian porter could easily carry as 
much as a terrestrial elephant. A Mar-- 
tian baseball player could bat a ball a 
mile. Because his planet is not able to 
pull him down with the attractive force 
that the earth exerts upon us, the 
typical Martian has conceivably attained 
a stature that we would regard as gi- 
gantic. Three times as large as a human 
being, this creature has muscles twenty- 
seven times as effective. His trunk must 
be fashioned to enclose lungs capable of 
breathing the excessively attenuated 
Martian air in sufficiently large quanti- 
ties to sustain life. As a canal digger— 
assuming that he had no machinery—he 
would be a great success, because he 
could excavate a canal with the speed 
and efficiency of a small Panama steam 
shovel. 


1 3 
These drawings of Mars were made under different conditions by observers who knew 


nothing of each other’s activities. 


And yet the pictures agree in their essential features. 


Drawing No. 1 was made October 21, 1909, by E. C. Slipher, of Doctor Lowell’s staff, 
at Flagstaff, Arizona; drawing No. 2 was made by Jarry Desloges four thousand miles 
from Flagstaff on November 13, 1909; drawing No. 3 was made on January 21, 1914, with 
the Lowell 46-inch reflecting telescope, a magnifying power of 365 being used; drawing 
No. 4 made by Mr. Slipher about one hour later on the same night with the same ins- 
trument and the same magnifying power, shows the same important features 


A Bridge of Boats 


ak. 


Towing a French pontoon to its proper position—work often done under fire. The bridge 

is practically completed before it reaches its destination. On arrival, it is anchored and the 

remaining flooring is laid to connect the different sections. (In the insert.) Cavalry 

shrinks from nothing—not even steep embankments. The horsemen in the picture are 
Russian Cossacks who are noted for their daring exploits 


193 


In this War of Big Guns 


German artillerymen carrying a heavy 
21-centimeter (8.4 inch) shell to the 
big gun emplacements which line the 
Russian front 


An Austrian shell bursting close to 
the Italian trenches. The photog- 
rapher who snapped this picture 
was buried under the earth thrown 
up by the explosion, and two men 
standing beside him were killed 


“7. - ae ee a ee, SEO ei Re me 


Huge quantities of ammunition captured from the Russians are of Japanese manufacture. 
Above are a large number of Japanese shells, captured from the Russians near Grodno. 
Below is shown a fort in which the Germans found a complete equipment of Japanese artillery 


194 


Curious Phases of the War 


Filling a French 
captive balloon 
from cylinders of 
hydrogen gas. The 
invention of this 
form of gas con- 
tainer permits of 
much more rapid 
filling of balloons, 
and dispenses with 
the old cumbersome 
generating plant 
which was formerly 
used 


The clock of a destroyed belfry at Monfalcone, 
which continued to go for three hours after it fell 


These field kitchens in the Aisne 
country have been concealed in 
caves by their French cooks, who 
are preparing meals as calmly as 
though they were at the Cafe de 
Paris 


(At Left.) An incendiary bomb 
which fell on a London house 
during a recent; Zeppelin raid 


Where the Austrians and Italians are Fighting 


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TRIESTSS 


The Italian army, with enormous effort, and overcoming difficulties the like of which are unknown 
on any other front, is endeavoring to drive the Austrians from their mountain strongholds. At 
present the action around Goriz, or Gorizia, holds the center of the stage, for unless they capture 
this fort, the Italians cannot hope to take Trieste. In the illustration, the Austro-Ttalian border is 
indicated by the broad white line. The heights of the mountains are indicated in feet 


196 


Austria’s Natural Citadels 


Austrian outposts watching the movements of Italian troops. Imagine the difficulty of 

storming this spot! Yet the Italians are every day attacking a seemingly impregnable 

mountain top. The suffering on both sides in the Alpine campaign is terrible, for the cold 

in the high altitudes is most penetrating, and snow-storms sweeping through the mountains 
cause the loss of many lives in both the contending armies 


197 


War Trades Practiced at the Front 


An outdoor blacksmith shop among the 
sand dunes near Ostend (below). Most 
of the German troops occupying the 
stretch of land along the coast of 
Flanders are sailors from the idle fleet. 
Their presence at the front has released 
a great number of soldiers for use 
along other sections of the line 


An odd watchmaker’s 
shop. An Italian watch- 
maker who had _ been 
called to the colors took 
up his trade again when 
he arrived at the front. 
Underneath an army 
wagon he set up his shop 


Many visitors to the 
trenches have brought 
away cigar lighters made 
of two cartridges. In one 
is placed the gasoline and 
wick, while the bullet of 
the other contains flint 
and a steel friction wheel 


oe 


Guns and Games at the Front 


A card game at 
the cannon’s 
mouth. These 
German officers 
are enjoying 
themselves 
while awaiting 
an attack upon 
their concealed 
gun emplace- 
ment 


Bulgarian artillery being 
set up in the field. The 
Bulgarians were equipped 
with French Creusot guns 
during the Balkan wars. 
It is quite probable that 
they are still using these 
powerful guns 


Cartridge belts for machine guns captured from the Russians. In spite of the tremendous 

losses in equipment, the Russians seem always able to secure enough to recoup their losses. 

The Japanese are now supplying the Czar’s forces with war material to renew the equipment 
lost in last summer’s retreat 


199 


New Labors of Hercules 


Building a mountain. This is not a ruined temple in Central America, but fodder stacked by 
Russian Prisoners for the use of German horses during the winter campaign. The Russians 
have gladly accepted the opportunity to work outside the war prisons 


Caves are now used along the whole western front for the storage of explosives. With 
the aid of aeroplane scouts, gunners have been remarkably successful in dropping shells 
upon the ammunition stores of the enemy. Hence the need for caves 


200 


The Fangs of the British. Navy 


© Underwood and Underwood 


The first photograph ever made of one of the new British monitors in action. These craft 

are equipped with one fourteen or fifteen inch gun, and are very effective for coast bombard- 

ment. Six first-class monitors may be built at the cost of one super-dreadnaught, and are 
useful for coast attack as in the Dardanelles 


A view from the forward turrets of the super-dreadnaught ‘“‘Queen Elizabeth,” the pride of 

Great Britain’s navy. The huge fifteen-inch guns shown throw a heavier shell than has ever 

been shot from a battleship before. During a bombardment in the Dardanelles, these great 
guns hurled their one-ton projectiles over a distance of nearly fifteen miles 


201 


Searching for the Best Respirator and Mask 


Styles in poison gas masks 

change more rapidly than 

Parisian styles in  bon- 

nets. Officers and men 

are constantly searching 

for a more efficient mask 

which will enable the sol- 

diers to resist the thickest 

clouds of asphyxiating gas. 

The favorite method of ‘ 
testing the efficiency of a 
new mask is to call for 
volunteers, who descend 
into a tunnel which is filled 
with the deadly ° fumes. 
Many volunteer to per- 
form this hazardous ex- 
periment, though the out- 
come is uncertain at best. ; 
They know that it. may ‘ 
mean the saving of many 
lives, even if it is at the 
actual sacrifice of their 
own. More and more the :, 
war resolves itself, in its 
minor phases, into battles 
of science, and science de- 
mands a laboratory. Here 
is the laboratory of the i 
respirators 


ater < 


If these men 
come out of 
the gas-filled 
tunnel unaf- 
fected, the 
mask will 
perhaps be 
adopted. At 
least, it will 
be givena 
further trial. 
We have not 
heard how 
many of these 
devices have 
been tested in 
this manner 
and found 
faulty, but 
it is certain 
that many sol- 
diers would 
rather beinthe 
trenches than 
in a gas-filled 
tunnel with 
an untried 
respirator 


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203 


Women Shouldering the Burdens of War 


A Serbian girl who is a 
pumpkin dealer. Serbia 
is now destitute of men 
in civilian occupations 
to a greater extent than 
any other of the war- 
ring nations . 


A modern Delilah. Yet they say that the war is 
touching London lightly! 


Loading bags of coal for several hours a day can be considered a good day’s work for the 
strongest man. Very few women would envy these Scotch women who are so valiantly 
taking the places of their fighting husbands 


204 
‘ 


An Artillery Sheli Used as a Bomb 


moccteabiatgis 


EHR nenaetaatecaca 


© Underwood and Underwood 
Preparing a huge 220-millimeter (8.8 inch) shell for use as an aeroplane bomb. The French 
have adapted some of their artillery shells so that they may be dropped from aeroplanes 
during their frequent raids over German territory. A percussion cap takes the place of the 
time fuse, and wings are placed at the large end of the projectile to keep it true to its course 


205 


Underground Engineering at the Front | 


A subterranean passage connecting two distant French trenches. Such is the danger of 

being shot by enemy sharpshooters while passing from one trench to another, that long com- 

municating tunnels are dug. Sappers start from both ends, and meet in the middle. The 

illustration shows the first connection between tunnels which have been begun a considerable 
distance apart, and which are about to be united 


206 
‘ 


mnths ah eentpiaiencaly 


The battery of 
Pumps above is 
‘used to draw the 
water out of a 
flooded trench. One 
motor pump would 
draw more water 
and in less time, 
and the German 
army is equipped 
with thousands of 
Power driven 
pumps. Many of 
these hand pumps 
bear American 
trade-marks, and 
much of the pip- 
ing was made in 
this country also 


On the right is an 
improvised open- 
air bath. A whole 
book could be 
written on the 
inventions of al] 
armies for keeping 
clean under difficul- 
ties which vary 
with every new 
station, and with 
the ingenuity of 
the soldiers 


Water and War 


~The French Helmet’s Practical Success 


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The new field equipment of the French infantryman. The French have gone far in their 
efforts to substitute for their comic-opera uniforms of blue and reda practical fighting costume, 
and they may now be considered as well clothed as any soldiers in the field. The steel 
helmet is the latest addition, and met with instant favor among the fighting men. The 
helmet is admirably designed, and tends to prevent the multitude of head injuries which 
have swelled the mortality rate. The illustrations of damaged helmets show the remarkable 
strength of this head-gear, for in all cases shown, the soldier was only slightly wounded by 
missiles which would otherwise have killed him 


208 


The Hardships and Pleasures of War 


oe 
. 


Collecting copper and brass is still in vogue in Germany. The little-boys of the large cities 


enjoy the work; they look upon it as a new sort of game. All copper and brass utensils are 
bought by the German government and market prices paid for the metal 


The Christmas spirit, strange as it may seem, was prevalent in the very trenches that are 


the scenes of the greatest slaughter. In many parts of the battle line foes became friends 
for a few hours, and after exchanging greetings and cigarettes, went back to the deadly game 
of killing each other. Here we have a picture of Father Christmas, a soldier, on his way to 
present the children of a half-ruined village with a few simple toys made by his comrades 


209 


210 


A Machine That Thinks Up 
Movie Plots 


EARLY every one of us believes 

that in the back of his brain he 
has a perfectly good moving picture 
scenario that awaits only the chance to 
be flashed upon the screen. He is now 
given an opportunity to produce, by the 
demand for scenarios in a field where 
hundreds of new stories are filmed every 
week. And now comes an opportunity, 


Turn the handle and new words appear on 
the face of this machine—words that sug- 
gest plots for motion picture plays 


in the form of a plot manufacturer, for 
those without ideas, a compact little 
cardboard box that contains more plots 
than the moving picture people could use 
in a hundred years. 

The “movie writer” as it is called, is 
exceedingly simple. Arthur F. Blanch- 
ard, of Cambridge, Mass., who is a Har- 
vard graduate, is the inventor, and he 
believes his machine will revolutionize 
literary art. The device consists of a 
modest cardboard box six inches long, 
three inches wide and two inches deep. 
Half a dozen slots are cut in the top sur- 
face, beneath which revolve spools of 
paper upon which are printed several 
thousand scientifically selected words. 
Handles project from either side which 
are turned at will. 

The word in the top slot is an adjec- 
tive, that in the second a noun, the third 
a verb. Next comes another noun (the 
subsidiary character) and then follows a 
word expressing a denouement. Each 
knob is given a few twists, either selec- 
tively or at random, and a complete plot, 


Popular Science Monthly 


perhaps extravagantly impossible, per- 
haps hackneyed, or perhaps new and 
useful, turns up. But at all events there 
will be a plot. Here are a few samples; 
imagination must supply the details. 

Beautiful, stenographer, bribes, cus- 
toms officer, adventure, recall. 

Benevolent, steward, captures, 
press, affair, reflection. 

Chivalrous, stranger, dares, governess, 
alliance, repentance. 


em- 


Cowardly, author, deceives, editor, 
anguish, rejection. 
Bold, beggar, blackmails, broker, 


brawl, banishment. 

As a toy, the mechanical plot creator 
also has its uses. With each person at 
a dinner provided with one of the ma- 
chines, a story can be started by the first 
person, the others following in turn, each 
based upon the preceding one and car- 
rying the story. It remains to be seen | 
how many successful picture plays re- 
sult from the use of this invention. 


A French Motor-Tricycle Sweeper 


ACQUELIN, the French champion 
cyclist, has conceived the idea of 
attaching a rotary brush to the back of 
the motor-tricycle. His novel combina- 
tion attracts much attention, in operation 
upon the streets of Paris. 

To a light frame, made over steel 
tubes, the motor-tricycle is attached, and 
this frame holds the brush and is driven 
by a chain-tfrom. the rear axle of the 
cycle. A basket of the proper shape lies 
next to the brush so as to feceivesime 
sweepings, as the work proceeds. 


That a professional cyclist should have in- 

vented this street-sweeper is natural. But 

why use muscle when gasoline motors are 
cheap? 


Popular Science Monthly 


The Latest Style in Handcuffs. 


se may be nipped 
in the bud most effectively by the 
police nippers invented by John J. 
Murphy of Norwich, Conn. The police 
nippers or “leaders,” as they are some- 
times called, are clasped about the 
wrist or even the ankles of the ar- 
rested man. 

The advantage of the new nippers 
is not alone in their effectiveness but 
also in the fact that they may be 
quickly and easily operated with one 
hand. The closing of the hand about 
the handle portions of the nippers 
causes the jaws to close. These are 
pivotally connected by opposed ex- 
tending arms with a sliding tubular 
member attached to the T-shaped 
inner handle. This tubular member 
slides on a basic rod to which the 
outer T-shaped handle is mounted. It 
takes but an instant to clasp the 
nippers on the wrist of an offender. 


Have You Eaten Your Cow? 


VERY man, woman and child in the 

United States eats, each year, a 
whole steer, sheep or hog, according to 
United States government figures, which 
show that one 
hundred million 
meatanimals 
are slaughtered 
in this country 
each year. 


It will be difficult for a thief to escape the clutch of the law if these new “‘nippers”’ are 


211 


Of one’s beef, mutton or pork, how- 
ever, one has to give up one and one- 
half per cent, on account of condemna- 
tion by government and city officials, for 
this proportion of the meat slaughtered 
is thrown out as unfit for use. The fed- 
eral inspection covered, last year, fifty- 
eight million meat animals slaughtered, 
and condemned 299,958 whole carcasses, 
and 644,688 in part. This represents 
considerably more than that number of 
cases of ptomaine poisoning which gov- 
ernment inspection saved Americans, but 
it also represents a considerable saving 
in other diseases. 

Tuberculosis was the chief disease 
condemned, 33,000 beeves and 66,000 
pork carcasses being entirely condemned 
and parts of 48,000 other beeves and 
440,000 other swine being removed. Hog 
cholera was responsible for the next 
largest loss, nearly 102,000 swine being 
condemned entirely on this account. 

It cost the taxpayers $3,375,000 for 
this protection, or four cents a head for 
the population of the country, which was 
paid for when they bought their beef, 
sheep or hog for the year. In selecting 
one’s diet for the year one should bear 
in mind the additional fact that over 
half the number 
of food animals 
inspected by the 
federal govern- 
ment last year 
were hogs. 


adopted, for they can be quickly and cffectively operated with one hand 


The Home Engine of Many Uses 


Ge Ae oie 


The portable gasoline engine makes possible the watering of lawns and parks where the 
source of water supply is a nearby lake or stream 


more gas engine horse power to- 

day than any other half dozen 
general classes. Besides being the most 
generous purchaser of motor cars and 
practically the sole buyer of tractors, he 
purchases the greater part of the half 
million stationary and portable engines 
turned out annually by several hundred 
American manufacturers. 

Few farms are now without a gaso- 
line or kerosene engine—many have 
two, and some-of.only fair size have five 
or six, all busy. The average size of 
engine is increasing rapidly (now prob- 
ably about six horse power) and as 
farmers become more familiar with 
them, these handy power plants are 
daily put to a more varied and more 
nearly constant use. 

The great majority consume gasoline. 
The danger of a gasoline famine, so im- 
minent a few years ago, has been averted 
for the present, at least, and the heavy- 
oil engine has not made much headway 
in the small units adapted to the farm. 

Farm engines, other than tractors, are 
almost w holly of the single-cylinder type, 
both vertical and horizontal being widely 
used. Some manufacturers make both, 
not only to give the farmer his choice, 
but to provide more than one dealer in 
a town with an “exclusive” agency. 

Most of these engines, are stationary 
or semi-portable, i. e., mounted on skids. 
Many are portable (on wheels), and this 
is especially true of the larger sizes. The 


Be farmer is probably buying 


(9) 


~ 


usual range is from one to thirty horse 
power. Roughly speaking, skid-mounted 
engines range from one to eight horse 
power, and the portable from ten to 
thirty-five horse power or larger. The 
tractor has taken the place of many of 
the larger portable. units, and is rapidly 
encroaching on the smaller portable field. 
However, there is a growing demand for 
the light-weight, high grade throttle 
governed type, so easily adaptable to 
many uses. 

The versatility of- the gasoline engine 
in the farmer’s hands is really remark- 
able. A one horse power model may 
play the part of a chore boy about the 
house, while a larger size may be at work 
around the barn and a still larger one be 
doing heavy work somewhere in the 
open. 

The washing machine, cream separa- 
tor, sewing machine, churn, grindstone 
and some of the lighter machines in the 
workshop call for “the smallest engines. 
A two or three horse power engine may 
be the mainstay of the farm water 
system and run the milking machine. 
The electric lighting plant, plus the work 
just mentioned, may call for four or five 
horse power, whereupon the corn sheller 
and feed grinder are brought in to keep 
the power plant busy. 

From this point upward the character 
of work changes less than the size of 
machine for doing it. Saws, feed mills, 
grain elevators, hay balers, etc., may use 
only a few horse power or the full 


12 


Popular Science Monthly 213 


Running a cream separator with 

a small engine. The same en- 

\ gine can be employed for other 
dairy work and for dozens of 

other uses on the farm 


A traction engine of novel form at work. 
This machine is one of the many attempts 
which have been made to supply a small 
traction engine which can be profitably 
used upon farms of moderate size. The 
problem of supplying such a tractor is more 

difficult than that of a cheap automobile 


So varied is the work to be done 
upon a farm that the engine must 
be readily movable from one place 
to another. The photograph shows 
a small engine which has been 
mounted upon a truck so that it can 
be readily shifted about. It has 
been geared with wheels so that it 
can be attached to the mower shown, 
which can be run by a thirteen year 
old boy and faster than with horses 


Above is an installation 
which shows how a gas 
engine can be used to 
drive a conveyor by means 
of which a wagon can be 
loaded, or hay or grain 
stacked and stored. At 
[res ‘ it the left is an engine used 

== 2 to churn butter and pump 
water at the same time 


214 Popular Science Monthly 


Gasoline engine used for irrigating one Circular bales madeby the gasoline baler 
hundred and fifty acres shown on the opposite page 


Engine power is the most economical for running 
the separator, milk-testing machine, churn, mechan- 
ical milker and other devices of the dairy 


An engine- 
driven water 
power plant 
for the small 
home is one of 
the luxuries 
brought by 
the gasoline 
engine 


Popular science Monthly Q15 


The engine-driven hay baler at work. It makes the bales shown on the opposite page 


Shelling corn by gasolene ets ie ee Engine-driven ce- © 
engine power - I Ne te way ment mixer 


—| 
r 
a : 


oe A a 
. . wh \ 
sf is Se, 


A typical power and water pumping plant for a large residence or institution. 


216 Popular Science Monthly 


Spraying trees in a park with the aid of an 
engine mounted on a horse-drawn truck 


A gearless two-horsepower engine 
which pumps from a deep well 


A drilling well at work at Amarillo, Texas. Power 


from a traction engine was used Ay twenty-two Hersepowes 


gasoline engine driving an 
attrition mill 


The picture to the left shows how a small 
engine can be employed to drive a conveyor 
and transport ice to an ice house. An engine 
is a very convenient thing to have whenever 
there is any sort of heavy hoisting to be done. 
Its power and ease of control make it splen- 
didly adaptable for such work. The same 
engine has many other uses on the farm 


Popular Science Monthly 


Threshing with the aid of a portable engine. Below are two pictures which show how 
hay can be hauled with a motor under difficult conditions 


A real gasoline horse guided by reins. 


It can go anywhere and never gets tired 


218 Popular Science Monthly 


Baling hay in the field. Below, is an arrangement for threshing and bagging peas 
by engine power. Contrast the horse with the engine. A horse tires out before the day 
is over; an engine is as fresh at night-fall as at dawn 


In the circle is shown a large power sprayer 
at work in acelery field. If the same work 
had to be done with hand-operated spray- 
ers, dozens of men would be required to 
take the place of this single machine 


. 


To the left is a silage cutter showing a 
connection with gasoline engine power 
for cutting corn silage inside the barn 
during any sort of weather 


Popular Science Monthly 


One engine running a grinder and 
pumping water at the same time. 
This particular outfit has many 
uses and has been especially de- 
signed to meet the requirements 
of the small farmer who cannot 
afford an expensive installation. 
It is illustrated on other pages 
at some of its tasks. Water 
pumping and wood sawing were 
the first uses to which gascline 
engines were put on the farm 


Below, an engine-driven wood sawing 


outfit at work 


A home-made gasoline bucket dredger at work 


digging drains on a farm 


Using a traction engine to uproot trees 


220 Popular Science Monthly 


The man below is 
grinding mower 
blades with the aid 
of a gasoline engine. 
The youth who was 
formerly obliged to 
turn the handle of 
a grinder will wel- 
come this machine 
with joy 


To the left, a five-horsepower gasoline 

engine mounted on an ordinary farm 

tractor and used for almost every form 
of farm work 


A battery of sprayers is at 

work in the picture in the circle, 

spraying hops in British Colum- 

bia. The gasoline engine has 

become invaluable wherever 

spraying must be done over 
large areas 


te 


NAR ns scdtbon ote | 


Driving a husker in Indiana with a portable engine 
is a great aid to the big western corn growers. 
The “hired hand” problem is brought a step 
nearer solution by it 


Popular Science Monthly 221 


A gasoline engine displaces the windmill Operating a well pump with a little engine 


To the left, an elec- 
tric light instal- 
lation for the small 
home. The im- 
provements in en- 
gines and electrical 
generators have 
placed electricity 
within the farmer’s 
easy reach. Good, 
safe illumination in 
the farm and stable 
more than pays for 
itself in the saving 
of time required for 
various duties, to 
say nothing of the 
elimination of risk 
from fire, always the 
terror of the dweller 
in the country 


/ . 


i | 


222 


capacity of an engine of twelve to 
eighteen horse power. The corn husker 
and shredder, the silo filler (especially 
if fitted with a “blower,” or pneumatic 
elevator), the big baling-press, etc., may 
easily utilize the power of the largest 


This little engine, attached to mowers and binders, 
made possible the saving of thousands of bushels of 


grain in the West last summer. 


portables which are now obtainable. 

Irrigation is almost a separate field, 
requiring a special installation, yet some 
of the smaller engines are pressed into 
service. In combination with hoists, 
spray pumps, balers and what-not, the 
utility of the gas engine becomes almost 
unlimited. 

One great drawback to the universal 
popularity of the gas engine is the ex- 
cessive competition and almost total lack 
of standardization — whether of price, 
rating, equipment, method of selling, or 
service to the customer after the sale. 

An engine advertised at a. low price 
may turn out to be of good value, but 
minus cooling tank, magneto, skid base, 
battery box, and other desirable acces- 
sories, while a higher apparent price may 
actually prove lower because equipment 
of good quality has been provided in full. 

The tendency is toward better acces- 
sories, better workmanship, and _ better 
racilities for the furnishing of necessary 
repairs. Moreover, at least two in- 


Heavy rains had made 
the ground soft, so that the power-driven mechanism 
was practically inoperative for lack of wheel-purchase. 
The binder was mounted on skids so that it could run 
over soggy ground almost as easily as over snow. A 
small gasoline engine drove the binding mechanism 


Popular Science Monthly 


fluential organizations of technical men 
are working toward the standardization 
of power ratings and -the use of stock 
sizes of bolts, nuts, pins and other easily 
obtainable parts. 

A farm engine is not only far more 
easily maintained than is 
commonly realized, but it 
is extraordinarily inexpen- 
sive. The horse is an ex- 
‘pensive luxury compared 
with a small motor. He 
must be fed regularly 
every day, whether he 
works or not; he is not as 
fresh in the afternoon as 
he was in the morning; he 
requires constant attention 
in order to keep him clean, 
to bed him properly and to 
minister to his physical 
wants. He may die at any 
moment. In fact, his work- 
ing life is brief. Besides 
there is something almost 
pitiful in watching a horse 
doing heavy work. 

Not one of these con- 
siderations applies to the in- 
animate, tireless, cheap en- 
gine. Its initial cost is less 
than that of a horse; it is never fatigued. 
It costs nothing when it is not in opera- 
tion; it requires but little attention. The 
“hired man” problem is not so difficult 
to solve when a cheap source of power 
is at hand. A farmer wrote to an engine 
manufacturer and made the following 
interesting comparison: 

“A man works at the rate of about 
one-tenth of a horse power. That is to 
say, the ordinary man in one hour does 
one-tenth horse power of work. In a 
day of ten hours, he does one horse 
power of work. If we consider a man’s 
time to be worth at least $1.00 a day, it’ 
costs $1.00 to do one horse power of 
work by man power. A gasoline engine 
uses one pint of gasoline per horse 
power per hour. If we take gasoline at 
twenty cents a gallon, a pint costs two 
and one-half cents. The cost of one 
horse-power hour of work done by gas- 
oline engines, therefore, is two and one- 
half cents. The cost for man power is 
one dollar.” 


Popular Science Monthly 


A Machine to Pull up old 
Telegraph Poles 


NE of the most difficult tasks fall- 

ing to the lot of the telephone or 
telegraph lineman is that of removing a 
pole which has been firmty 
embedded in the ground for 
a number of years. It 1s 
often necessary to dig the 
post out of its bed. 

A Chicago concern has 
recently placed on the mar- 
ket a jack which is said to 
be able to accomplish this 
task in a few minutes. The 
device is very similar to an 
ordinary automobile jack, 
but is larger and many times 
as powerful. In the illus- 
tration is shown a_ pole 
which was fixed five feet in 
the ground, and which had 
been embedded for eight 
years. It took the jack nine- 
teen minutes to pull the pole 
from the ground. 

A chain, with a_ grab 
hook attached, is fixed to 
the lift of the jack, and is 
passed once about the pole. 
The lift extends two feet; 
then it may be lowered and 
the chain given a new grip. 
The capacity of the jack is fifteen tons, 
large enough, it is claimed, to uproot 
the most stubborn pole. The amount of 
time and labor saved by this machine are 
worth considering. 


A show-window racer built of tires, tire boxes, and tire 
repair accessories 


A pole was embedded five feet in the ground. 
removed by a powerful jack in four and one-half 


223 
A Racing Car Built of Tires 


CLEVERLY constructed racing 
car, built of tires, tubes and car- 
tons containing parts is shown in this 
photograph of a Houston, Texas, tire 


It was 


minutes exactly 


dealer’s show-window.: The vehicle is 
composed mainly of outer cases, which 
range in size from twenty-eight by three 
up to thirty-seven by four and one-half 
inches and are set upon a frame of light 
timbers. The seat is formed 
of cartons containing inner 
tubes; the dash is made of 
cardboard, on which are fast- 
ened patches and repair ma- 
terial tins to imitate speedom- 
eter and lighting systems; the 
exhaust is composed of a 
tube, stiffened within by card- 
board to keep it rounded. In 
the seat is a driver who gives 
the final racing touch by grip- 
ping the famous Barney Old- 
field cigar in the corner of his 
mouth. As yet, no one has 
tried to buy this car, though 
it will undoubtedly be sold 
piece by piece. 


Q94 Popular Science Monthly 

TF ye: Tees Se # # # The lines of the sig- 
: nal are such a departure 
from the typical rail- 
road signal that it can- 
not help being observed 
by the wayfarer, either 
mounted or afoot. It 
consists of a tube of 
metal eight inches in di- 
ameter and two and a 
half feet long, mounted 
on a support, which, in 
this case is a piece of 
three-inch pipe. The 
pipe also offers accom- 
modation for the elec- 
tric wires which supply 
the current. The tube- 
is painted black and is 
A Tree Captures a Fence mounted in the direction of the road, so 


M ANY years. apo <a onowe ore lash that the red light inside ee be seen at 

’ great distance 
poplar trees was used for the beroreene 
posts of a fence, and boards were nailed re epee 
to the trees. The trunks of the trees, in see nt 
the process of growing, gradually over- sais 
lapped the boards, until now the boards 
are near the center of the trunks. Not 
needing the fence any longer, the owner 
sawed off the boards, the remnants of 
which still protrude from the trunks of 
the trees. 


When these trees were young, fence boards were nailed to their 
trunks. The boards are now completely buried in the tree 


To Keep Automobiles off 
. Railroad Tracks 


HpHe new long distance railroad 
signal has been brought about by 
the new conditions arising from the 
general use of the automobile. Chauf- 
feurs are so frequently found driving 
through country which is new to them 
that they often find themselves on the 
tracks of a railroad line before they 
know it. The long distance signal 
was designed to give them sufficient 
warning of the proximity of the rail- 
road tracks to enable them to be on 
the alert and to avoid accidents on the 
tracks. The new signal was designed 
by the officials of the Southern Pacific 
Railroad, and the first one was placed 
at the crossing of the main street in 
Tropico, Cal., but such excellent re- 
sults attended the experimental instal- 
lation that others are now being in- A red light inside the tube of this railway 


stalled. The use of the new signal will signal is visible for a great distance, and 
be further extended. the disk attracts attention in the daytime 


Popular Science Monthly 


It Looks Like a Telescope, but 
It’s Really a Camera 
CAMERA that can be used for 
taking photographs without the 
subject's 
knowledge, 
ik resembling in 
mma BES: | appearance a 
A git m| short tele- 
scope, has 
been brought 
out in Eu- 


This camera 
looks like a small 
_ telescope, but 
takes snapshots 
directly at right 
angles to the 


225 


What Is the Best Shade Tree in the 
United States? 


HE prize 


for the largest shade 


tree in the United States was won 
by a sycamore tree in Worthington, In- 
diana, which the judges of the Ameri- 
can Genetic Association found to have a 
circumference of forty-three feet, and a 
height of one hundred and fifty feet. 
This interesting incident calls attention 
to the fact that foresters are recom- 


mending the sycamore very strongly for 


city planting. They tell us that long 
experience with sycamores planted in 
city streets and on lawns has shown 
that the species is very well adapted 
to withstand the smoke, dust and 
gases sO common in cities. Besides, 
the sycamore is very resistant to the 
attacks of insects and fungi, and 

grows rapidly. At ten 


‘apparent line of 
‘vision of the 
photographer 


rope, in spite of the 
war’s absorbing inter- 
est. A lens almost 
invisible is located in 
the side of the tele- 
scope so that the 
photographer, point- 
ing what appears to 
be a telescope at some dis- 
tant object, can get snapshots 
of objects that interest him, 
directly at right angles to his 
apparent line of vision. 

The lens is equipped with 
an adjustable shutter, so that 
snapshots or time exposures 
can be made. For tourists 
traveling in foreign lands, such an 
equipment would be of considerable 
value, as natives often spoil photo- 
graphs by unnatural posing and va- 
cant staring, and this little camera 
would throw them off their guard. In 
Europe they call these contrivances 
“detective” cameras, probably because 
no detective ever carried them. The 
accompanying illustrations show snap- 
shots obtained without the knowledge 
of those in the picture. 


The new camera 
is especially val- 
uable for securing 
natural pictures 
of persons who 
would pose and 
stare, or else run 
away, if acamera 
were pointed at 
them 


years of age, a healthy 
sycamore is large 
enough for shade as 
well as for decorative 
purposes. Indeed, in the 
latter respect, it is not 
exceeded by any other 
Eastern species. Its 
mottled bark, its full, 
rounded crown, and its 
dense foliage, impart a 
very handsome and 
striking appearance to 
any lawns or boulevards 
which are fortunate 
enough to dis- 
play these mag- 
nificent trees. 
The sycamore 
ranks with the 
oak and hard 
maple as a dec- 
orative tree. 


Perle of the Bad Road 


By O. R. Geyer 


ITHIN the last few years lowa 
has been brought face to face 
with the new problems of preventing 
the tremenduous loss of life on the 
state’s highways. Every state in the 
Union is confronted with the same 


problem. Failure to exercise even the 
most important safety first principles 
is costing the lives of more than one 


as a means of saving many lives. 

The majority of these accidents 
could have been prevented with the 
exercise of a little more care, but since 
the average American is in too much 
of a hurry to protect his own life and 
the lives of others, the state must help 
him. lowa lost seventy-five of her 
citizens through accidents which oc- 
curred on the highways of the state in 
the year ending November 1, 1915. 
The number of persons seriously in- 
jured was many times this, totaling 
about five hundred, according to the 
best information obtainable by the 
Highway Commission. Conservative 
estimates based on these returns from 
Iowa indicate that each year sees an 
average of from one thousand two hun- 
dred and fifty to two thousand persons 


Grade crossings and unsafe bridges constitute two of the gravest perils of the road, although 
the danger of unsafe bridges is more important in those districts where heavy farm machinery 


is moved than it is in the Eastern States. 


The illustration on the left shows a fatal accident 


caused by a farm tractor and trailer falling through a wooden trestle, resulting in two deaths. 
On the right is a typical grade crossing, with a dangerous sharp curve, in approaching which 
the driver’s back is toward many approaching trains 


thousand Americans each year, accord- 
ing to statistics compiled by road ex- 
perts. This number is as large as the 
casualities in many a day’s fighting in 
the world wide war. After much study, 
the State Highway Commission of Iowa 
is pushing vigorously a campaign for the 
building of permanent roads and bridges 


killed and more than five thousand 
seriously injured in accidents on the 
highways. This means that in each 
state of the Union more than twenty- 
five persons meet death on the high- 
Ways in a year’s time. 

This loss of life and limb and the 
resultant destruction of property is 


226 


Popular Science Monthly 


Such bridges as these are responsible for 

many fatalities. When the spring rains 

cause the rivers torise, these light bridges 

are carried away, or so undermined that 

they cannot support the weight of an or- 
dinary automobile 


costing the country about twenty-five 
million dollars a year, a sum sufficient 
to build many miles of paved roads— 
an estimate based on an allowance of 
ten thousand dollars as the value of a 
human life. The loss in Iowa, econom- 
ic and real, is more than one million 
dollars. 

The greatest contributing factors to 
this huge death list are bad roads and 
bridges, speeding and reckless driving. 
The Iowa Highway Commission, 
realizing that it cannot put a stop to 
reckless driving and speeding, is work- 
ing on a plan to make the highways 
as safe as possible, and has succeeded 
in bringing about a material reduction 
in the number of accidents. Still, the 
commission realizes that even the 
safest roads will not make speeding 
entirely safe. It has begun a cam- 
paign against reckless driving. 

Second in the list comes the grade 
railroad crossing, which takes an un- 
usually heavy toll of lives and mangled 
limbs in a year’s time. There are 
eight thousand six hundred and sev- 
enty-six railroad crossings in Iowa, and 


227 


of this number nine hundred have been 
classed as a constant menace to life by 
the commission. The work of remov- 
ing these dangerous crossings was 
taken up in a serious manner more 
than a year ago, and at the present 
time nearly one hundred of the nine 
hundred crossings are scheduled for 
improvement in 1916. Improvements 
were completed on eighteen crossings 
during 1915. 

The task of removing and relocating 
these bad crossings is a stupenduous 
one, the average cost of each change 
ordered so far being four thousand 
four hundred and forty-seven dollars. 
At this rate it would cost Iowa nearly 
twenty million dollars as her share of 
the improvement. The railroads must 
pay a sum equally as large, too, before 
these nine hundred crossings are made 
safe for ordinary travel. The question 
as to whether these costly improve- 
ments are worth while is best answer- 


Another view of the tractor and trailer 

which fell through a wooden trestle. The 

driver of the machine and his assistant 
died on the way to the hospital 


228 


ed by the reports for the year 1914, 
which show that fifty Iowans were 
killed on railroad crossings of this 
sort. The death toll from this source 
for 1915 has been almost as large. 
Immediately following a fatal acci- 
dent, when public opinion demands ac- 
tion on the part of the local authori- 
ties, plan and estimates of cost are 
worked out, and a tentative adjust- 
ment of the cost between the county 
and railroad is made. In the majority 
of cases the railroads have been willing 


This old fort has been converted into a 
water tower, and is saving much expense 
to the town 


to co-operate with the state in remov- 
ing these sources of danger from the 
country highways. One railroad in 
particular relocated eleven dangerous 
crossings in one county. 

Dangerous turns in overhead cross- 
ings, bridges undermined during flood 
seasons, sharp turns in roads, “chuck” 
holes, ditches alongside roads, weeds 
and other obstructions on roads, un- 
guarded bridges, speeding on slippery 
roads, reckless driving at night, 


Popular Science Monthly 


“short” culverts, steep embankments, 
neglect in placing warning signs or 
barricading dangerous places are some 
of the sources of danger the traveler 
in the country must encounter almost 
every day. 

The loss of more than 125 Iowans 
in the last two years has not been 
without some beneficial results, as a 
demand for the building of permanent 
roads has been crystalized as the re- 
sult of these sacrifices. It has been 
rather a costly manner in which to 
awaken the public to the need of these 
changes, however. 


Sprinkling Streets with the Aid 
of an old Fort 


NE of the many Martello towers or 

forts found around the coast in the 
Channel Islands has been put to a novel 
use. These buildings lie idle for the 
most part, having been built over a hun- 
dred years ago, and are now useless 
from a military point of view. 

In Jersey Island, however, a use has 
been found for one of these towers. It 
now forms the base of a water tank used 
for street-sprinkling. 

A windmill pumps water into the tank, 
thus saving considerable expense for- 
merly incurred when water was taken 
from the water company’s mains. 


Signal Lights for Traveling Cranes 


ORKMEN employed in shops 

where a traveling crane is used 
are constantly on guard to see whether 
the crane is approaching them. This 
consumes a considerable amount of 
time, which, when multiplied by all the 
workmen so occupied in looking up at 
the crane, totals up to a formidable 
loss. An Ohio firm has placed on 
the market a device which is designed 
to warn the workmen, by means of red 
and green lights on the crane, whether 
the latter is coming toward, or moving 
away, from them. When the crane ap- 
proaches the observer, the red light au- 
tomatically lights, and when it departs 
from the observer, a green light gives 
the safety signal. The device has the 
advantage over warning gongs, which 
merely attract without telling the direc- 
tion in which the crane is moving. 


Popular Science Monthly 


This pneumatic chisel is installed in the 
sculptor’s studio, and greatly simplifies 
his work 1 


The Sculptor’s Use of a Pneumatic 
Chisel for Artistic Carving 


INCE the very beginning of sculp- 
ture, the greatest difficulty encoun- 
tered by the creator has been in the mat- 
ter of outlining the marble. The only 
method known, until quite recently, was 
the tedious process of carving with mal- 
let and chisel and this was not only 
laborious, but awkward as well, for only 
one hand was left free to guide the chisel, 
the other being required to hold the 
statuary in place. Naturally the result 
was often crude and imperfect because 
of the limited strength of the one hand. 
Hans Schuler, the well-known Balti- 
more sculptor, was among the pioneers 
of those who broke away from this 
confining and hampering method. He 
installed in his studio what is known 
as a “pneumatic chisel’—literally a 
chisel operated by air. This is nothing 
more than the old chisel employed by the 
stone-cutter and carver. The device 
greatly simplifies the work and gives 
infinitely wider scope to the artist. It 
leaves both hands free. 
The chisel, in shape and size exactly 


229 


like that of any ordinary stone-cutter’s, 
is driven by compressed air at a press- 
ure of seventy-seven pounds a square 
inch, operating through a long flexible 
tube, the air being compressed in a large 
tank by means of an electric motor. The 
chisel is pounded against the stone as if 
hit by a mallet, due to the air passing 
through the tube. 

It is amazing that the application of 
this long-known invention did not occur 
to sculptors several decades ago, but the 
efficacy of its use is well illustrated when 
it is realized that such eminent sculptors 
as Lorado Taft, Hans Schuler, and Ed- 
ward Berge make use of it exclusively. 
Of course it can be employed only in 
the rough modeling and in large figures, 
all of the finer and finishing work having 
to be done by hand as before. The 
amount of labor saved, however, is in- 
estimable. 


An Automobile Road Sign and a 
Map Combined 


HE Automobile Club of Southern 
California has installed guide signs 
at different points, which give a com- 
plete diagram of the good roads as well 
as the distances to the various towns 
and highways from that immediate dis- 
trict. The sign itself is complete and 
thus saves the motorist the trouble of 
consulting his own map, if he should 
have one with him.. The point at which 
the sign is placed’ is designated on the 
diagram by a three-quarter red disk. 
Guides of this type are a great aid to 
the motoring public and save any amount 
of annoyances and inconveniences due 
to inaccurate directions so often picked 
up on the roadside. 


A sign post that isa boon to the motorist 


230 Popular Science Monthly 


Forest Rangers Must Fight 


Snakes as Well as Fires 

HE Forest Service is on the war path 

against rattlesnakes in the national 
forests. Many forest rangers have been 
bitten by these venomous snakes from 
time to time, but the attention of the 
forest service was sharply called to the 
necessity for the extinction of rattle- 
snakes by an episode which occurred 
during a recent forest fire. 

Several fires broke out in the Shasta 
National Forest, and a force of men was 
called to subdue it. After the fire was 
thought to be extinguished and the men 
were withdrawn it was discovered that 
one blaze had broken out again. A 
squad of men who returned to the scene 
ran into a section of brush that seemed 
literally alive with rattlesnakes. Six 
hours were spent in fighting the snakes 
before it was possible to enter the forest, 
and in the affray several men were 
bitten. 


Arrangements are now being com- 
pleted for the arming of forest guards 
and fire fighters against snake bites. 
The weapon to be given out consists of 
a small combination tool containing a 
sharp lancet and a receptacle to hold per- 
manganate of potash, which is declared 
to be the best antidote for snake bite. 


Making Butter by the Barrel. 


AIRY work is receiving much atten- 

tion in England during the war. The 
thousands of wounded and _ convales- 
cent soldiers in the hospitals through- 
out the British Isles consume tons of 
eggs, milk and butter every day, and 
it is extremely important that all of 
this material be of the very best. The 
accompanying illustration shows a 
monster churn which can make and 
wash six hundred pounds of butter at 
a single operation. 


This monster churn makes and washes six hundred pounds of butter at a single operation, and 
is exceeding valuable at this time in English hospitals, where wounded soldiers consume 
large quantities of dairy products by the orders of their doctors 


2 


Popular Science Monthly 


This merry-go-round furnishes great en- 
joyment for bathers who must have water 
sports of a more or less reckless variety 
It is operated by an electric motor, and 
splashes the bathers in the water as it 
whirls them about 


A Merry-Go-Round in the Water. 


OR the entertainment of its 

patrons, who enjoy water sports 
of a more or less reckless variety, a 
recreation park on Lake Erie near 
Cleveland, Ohio, installed last summer a 
revolving mechanism for bathers which, 
in the form of pleasure it offers closely 
resembles the familiar merry-go-round, 
or carousal, of the state fair. 

An iron framework similar in de- 
sign to an oil well derrick supports 
revolving arms to the outer ends of 
which cables are attached: The _ bath- 
ers swing and splash in the water as 
the arms revolve. An electric motor 
on a platform a few feet above water 
level is connected by gears to an up- 
tight rod through which power to re- 
volve the arms is applied. 


Motion Pictures on the Firing Line 


LETTER from the War Front in 
Europe gives an interesting descrip- 
tion for a motion picture theater near the 
firing line in Flanders. This theater is 
operated by several British army officers 
to provide relaxation and amusement 


for the troops when off active duty. 
There are usually two performances 
each evening, with a four reel program. 
The soldiers pay twelve cents admission, 
while the officers are charged a double 


amount. The expenses are very low, 
since most of the work is voluntary, and 
all profits are devoted to charity. The 
operator and pianist were both formerly 
employed in the same capacity at mo- 
tion picture theaters in London. The 
power for the lights and the machine is 
obtained by fastening a dynamo to an 
automobile. 

At first all the films were obtained 
from Paris, but the cost was so high 
that the theater was being operated at 
a loss. The lieutenant in charge of the 
theater then went to London to attempt 
to rent the films at a more reasonable 
price. When he had explained his de- 
sires to the officials of a prominent 
motion picture concern he was offered 
sixteen thousand feet of film monthly 
until their supply was exhausted. 

It is said that it is by no means un- 
usual to hear the reports of shells while 
the performance is progressing, as the 
firing line is but a short distance away. 


Inspecting the Inside of the Earth 


N mining 

for coal or 
metals, opera- 
tors must know 
a number of 
things about 
their claims in 
advance unless 
they are out- 
and-out gam- 
blers. Before 
starting operations at a mine the 
thickness, extent and richness of 
the vein must be estimated in 
order to determine whether the 
mine can be worked profitably. 
The depth of the vein from the 
surface, the dip or angle at which 
it lies and the nature of the ma- 
terials that will be encountered 
before reaching paying values, 
are also factors of the greatest 
importance. In a word, the mine 
operator must have a good idea 
of the “lay of the land” in ad- 
vance, or he may be doomed to 
failure from the start. 

All of these questions are eas- 
ily. answered in advance by 
means of core drills. Think of 
the way a corer takes out the 
heart of an apple and you have 
the main idea of the core drill. 
These drills have been used for taking 
samples out of the earth at varying 
depths from a few yards to several thou- 
sand feet. The speed of drilling, of 
course, depends upon the size of the 
core and the hardness of the rock, but 
the average is probably between two and 


Piles of cores from the drill. Here is a 
record of the contents of the earth for hun- 
dreds of feet below the surface 


How the drill 

samples the 

’ earth through 

which the bor- 
ing is made 


four feet per hour. 
Several typical cores 
are illustrated. 

Figure i illustrates, 
in section, a core drill 
penetrating loose ma- 
terial composed of 
soft rock and earth. 
Here the cutting bit is 
shown with _ several 
sharp cutting edges, 
and the core barrel is 
about three-quarters filled with 
the different kinds of rock that 
have been penetrated. 

Figure 2 shows a core drill 
employing a steel shot bit, which 


solid rock. The rod F extend- 
ing to the surface of the ground 
imparts a rotary motion to the 
‘cutting tool. As the drill sinks 
deeper and deeper, this rod- is 
extended correspondingly — by 
screwing pieces into it at the top. 
The rod is hollow and through 
it are fed water and very hard 
small steel shot. The shot set- 
tles, entering the diagonal slot 
near the bottom of the bit which 
feeds it beneath the rotating bit, 
as shown at L. Here the weight 
of the drill,,combined with the 
abrasive qualities of the shot, rapidly 
wears away the rock and permits the 
cutter to settle around the core. 

While the core is being made, the cut- 
tings are washed upwards by the stream 
of water and settle in the receptacle B, 
which is known as a calyx. This gives 
an additional record, in inverse order, of 
the rock and earth penetrated, the mater- 
ials being in pulverized form, suitable for 
assay purposes. Figure 3 illustrates this 
point and also shows how the core is 
broken preparatory to extracting a piece. 
For this purpose, pebbles are fed into the 
drill in place of the shot. They jam 
around the core near the bottom and 
break it off as the drill is rotated. This 
wedged material also holds the core in 
place while the drill is being raised to the 
surface. 


232 


type is used for cutting hard, 


~~ 


Popular Science Monthly 


These drills, while sinking deep into the 
ground, constantly send up samples of the 


earth for examination. They are in the 
form of solid rods, large or small (as here) 


With several soundings thus made in 
different parts of a property and accurate 
records kept of the material encountered 
at different depths, it is a simple matter 
to map the various underlying strata and 
eliminate absolutely all guesswork from 
subsequent operations. 


The Size of a Railway Station 


OVERS of statistics will be interest- 

ed to know that in the concourse of 
the express level.of the Grand Central 
Station, New York, the old City Hall of 
that city could be placed with twenty- 
eight feet to spare at either end and with 
one foot clear on each side. The top 
of the statue on the City Hall would be 
nearly fifteen feet under the ceiling. The 
number of passengers handled annually 
at this great station increased from fif- 
ten million, seven hundred and fifty 
thousand in 1903 to twenty million, eight 


233 


hundred thousand in 1914. In 1905, 
nine hundred and eighty-two thousand 
cars entered the station, and in 1914 there 
were one million, one hundred and 
twenty-six thousand. Fewer trains, 
however, are entering the station, for in 
1905 there were two hundred and seven 
thousand eight hundred trains, while in 
1914 there were but one hundred and 
eighty-two thousand five hundred. This 
decrease is due to the fact that more cars 
are hauled by the electric locomotives in 
one train than were hauled by the steam 
locomotives, and therefore fewer trains 
are required than heretofore. 


. Soe Teer 
Rs Hie, o “Seheted 2 
to ays / Suet ene 
% : ee Cat es = ° $ 


y > 
cS 


Fig. 2 Fig. 3 
Typical cores and how they are procured. 
Fig. 1 is working through loose material, 
with a sharp-pointed drill. Fig. 2 is using 
steel shot to cut through hard rock. Fig. 3 
shows the use of water in cutting, also 
how pebbles are used to break and hold the 
core preparatory to stopping the work 


234 Popular Science Monthly 


Power from a Floating Water 
. Power Plant 


ARMERS who have small streams 

running through their places are 
showing much interest in the portable 
and self-contained power plant which 
has been designed and patented by A. G. 
Watkins of Philadelphia. The appara- 
tus can be used wherever water moves at 
the rate of two miles an hour, which is 
less than that of the average stream. The 
plant consists of two triangular floats 
fastened together by iron rods to form 


The float on one side houses a motor 
with a series of gear-wheels which mul- 
tiply the power to such a degree that a 
one-half horse power dynamo is effec- 
tively driven. The other side of the float 
contains a pump, and thus water or pow- 
er may be secured as desired. The float 
is anchored to a tree or any other con- 
venient object. Where more power is 
wanted several of these devices can be 
tied up one behind the other. 

The plant shown is the first which has 
been demonstrated by the inventor. It 
is shown on the surface of Carrol Creek 


Two triangular floats support the water wheel, which derives power from any stream flowing 
at a rate even as low as two miles an hour 


a channel of decreasing width. A water 
wheel is mounted in the narrow part. 
Between the floats and beneath the water 
there is an adjustable platform, set at a 
slight angle, so that, together with the 
floats, a wide-mouthed opening is form- 
ed, decreasing in its dimensions in three 
directions toward the wheel. This has 
the effect of increasing the volume of 
water passing through the narrow open- 
ing and acting on the blades of the wheel. 


at Frederick, Md. A line was run to 
the bridge appearing in the distance, 
where twenty incandescent lamps of six- 
teen candlepower each were operated. 

One of these plants will soon be in 
operation at St. Petersburg, Fla. It is 
said that the operation of the power plant 
in cold weather is not interfered with by 
ice for the reason that the motion of the 
water in the passage between the two 
floats prevents freezing. 


om oy 


The Timber Hitch, 
a safe and simple 
knot usually em- 
ployed in holding 
poles and booms. 
The turns in the 
loose end must be 
carefully made 


The Square or Reef 
Knot is one of the 
safest ties, but care 
should be taken to 


The Double Bow- 

line is used when 

the end cannot be 

used, and when a 

loop is desired in 
the bight 


The Blackwell Hitch, while safe for light 
loads, is likely to part under heavy strains 


The Single Bowline 


is one of the most 
important of all the 
hitches. It is very 
safe and will not 
slip or jam 


A “safety-first’’ tie, the Cat’s Paw. This 
hitch will sustain\heavyjloads, and is most 


The Timber and 
Half Hitch. Much 
the same as the 
Timber Hitch with 
the addition of a 
half hitch to avoid 
any danger of the 
rope’s rolling 


us-d for that reason 


When the rope is 
too long, it may be 
shortened by the 
use of this knot, the 


avoid a “granny”’ 


The first operation 

in preventing the 

dead end of a rope 
from ravelling 


The Clove Hitch is 

a very safe knot, 

and may be handl- 
ed very quickly 


235 


The Stopper Hitch 

is used to hold the 

strain in the fall 
line of blocks 


Sheepshank 


The second opera- 
tion in preventing 
the dead end of a 


rope from ravelling 


Brushing Your Teeth; There Is a 
Right and a Wrong Way 


F people as a whole were aware 

of the importance that a tooth- 
brush plays in the healthful happiness 
of their entire body more attention 
would be paid to this perfunctory daily 
exercise. The soberness of this fact 
is perhaps a trifle more evident when 
it is mentioned that mouth infection is 
now known to be the source of numer- 
ous diseases that cause chronic sick- 
ness and eventually death. Looking 
upon the situation from the opposite 
side, it is equally true that mouth and 


The teeth and gums should be scrubbed 
with a circular motion five or six times 
in succession 


teeth cleansing is the chief means of 
preventing these diseases, and in many 
instances, curing them. 

A Philadelphia physician, who has 
gone more deeply than usual into this 
question, points out that mouth 
washes are of no value in the presence 
of bacterial masses, unless these are 
removed once a day at least. In other 
words, the mouth should be thorough- 
ly scrubbed daily. 

This physician lays even more stress 


The tooth brush should be small and the 

bristles short. The upper brush is similar 

to those usually bought. The lower brush 
is correct 


upon the correct use of the toothbrush. 
He has calculated the antiseptic and 


The spaces between the teeth should first 
be carefully cleaned with dental floss 


curative results brought about by the 
the use of the toothbrush on a mathe- 
matical basis. 

For example, the tooth brush being 
usually two inches long, generally re- 
duces the movement of the bristles to 
a half inch, which is almost all taken 
up by springing and pivoting, so that 
the actual friction amounts to very 
little, if anything. 

Therefore, considering that friction 
is a highly desirable factor, the ideal 


It is most important that the circular 
brushing should extend as far back in 
the mouth as possible 


tooth brush is one not over one inch 
and a quarter long with bristles not over 
a quarter of an inch in length. Bristles 
of this length will necessarily be stiff, 
but if the gums are soft and inflamed, 
a brisk rubbing is the best thing in 
the world for them, and will, in the 
course of a week or two, bring them 
back to a state of health again. The 
fact that the inflamed gums become 
sorer than usual during the first few 
days is an indication of self-poisoning, 
or autoinoculation, a condition and a 
result that should not exist in an 
otherwise healthy person. 


236 


- 
» 


heat pbewe SRNR het i I. 


Popular Science Monthly 


Care should be taken to follow the curve 
of the gum with the entire face of the 
tooth-brush 


Floss silk, so this physician has 
noted, is another great corrective for 
ailing teeth. The silk should be passed 
between teeth, across gums and drawn 
rapidly, even roughly. The discom- 
fort may be slight, but it is sufficient 
to cause most people to avoid the prac- 
tice, although they would perhaps be 
somewhat more enthusiastic towards 
this particular tooth cleanser if they 
knew that it would help greatly to- 
wards avoiding gout, rheumatism, val- 
vular heart disease and ulcer of the 
stomach. 

Concerning the general mechanics 
of.tooth brushing, there are three im- 
portant actions to be borne in mind. 
The first is the rotary motion, where- 
by all the gums and the teeth in front 
of the second molars are cleansed by 
a vigorous whirling motion. Second, 
the drawing motion wherin the mid- 
dle of the brush is placed behind the 
wisdom teeth and drawn vigorously 
across the gums. Third, the drawing 
motion wherein the brush is placed 
back of the last molar and drawn 
sharply forward along the gum margins 
and the teeth. 

It may be mentioned that healthy 
gums can stand the same vigorous 


friction as can be borne with impun- 
ity by the finger nails. 


The middle bristles of the brush should 

be placed at the back of the third upper 

molar and drawn briskly forward along 
the gum margin 


937 


Hard-Pressed Germany Invents 
New Foods 


OTATO sausages are being made in 

Germany which are said to taste a 
great deal like blood sausages, and are 
not a great deal lower in food value. 
The price of the potato sausages (called 
also K-sausages) is much less than the 
blood sausages. 

It was found possible in Germany to 
purify bacteria-carrying oysters by al- 
lowing a stream of pure, fresh, filtered 
sea-water to run over them, in tanks, for 
four or five days. No sickness resulted 
from eating these oysters. 

Study of the milk marketed in Zittau, 
Germany, up to the present time of the 
war shows that scarcity of good fodder 
for the cattle does not decrease the fat 
content of the milk, but only the quan- 
tity of the milk. 


This movement will clean the backs of 
the teeth which are too often neglected 


In Germany the comparative quality 
of the milk can be decided by the use 
of certain bacteria. Five are used, 
called respectively and alarmingly the 
“Danish streptococci,” “Jaroslawer di- 
plococci,’ ‘“Guntherschen  diplococci,” 
“Russian lactic acid streptococci” and 
“Bacillus bulgaricus.” The Danish strep- 
tococci can live only in fairly good milk, 
the Jaroslawer diplococci in worse, and 
so on down the list until we reach the 


Bacillus bulgaricus, which is tough 
enough to live in very bad milk. How- 


ever, there is milk so bad that not even 
the accommodating Bacillus bulgaricus 
can live in it. 

An elderberry wine is being made in 
Germany which is so like grape wine 
that it can easily be used as an adulter- 
ant of grape wine. It can be detected 
by chemical analysis, however. 

New methods for determining husk 
residue in meals and flours have to be 
used, since the German war orders to 
grind more of the husk into the flours. 


238 Popular Science Monthly : 


be 


Cirrus clouds Cirrus passing into Cirro stratus 


**Mare’s tail” Cirrus clouds A small form of Alto-cumulus 


A Journey to Cloudland 


A majestic cumulus, passing into cumulus-nimbus. 


HE clouds, like the stars, are 
among those common objects of 
Nature upon which men look, for 

the most part, with unseeing eyes. Some 
aspects of the clouds do, indeed, force 
themselves upon our attention—chiefly 
those that denote the imminence of a 
storm—but few of us realize to the full 
the beauty and scientific interest of the 
vapory pageant that is continually sweep- 
ing across our skies. Strange to say, 
many artists, skilled in painting land- 
scapes, are unable to paint plausible sky 
scenes. About half a century ago an 
English painter, Elijah Walton, pub- 
lished a book (now almost forgotten ) in 
which he pointed out that the great ma- 
jority of out-door pictures, ‘including 
those of the old masters, are vety inac- 
curate in their skies. If the painter, 
whose business it is to observe Nature, 
has acquired so imperfect a knowledge 
of clouds, no wonder the average citi- 
zen needs instruction concerning them. 
At first sight, clouds seem infinitely 


9 


~ 


A very beautiful and common type 


various, yet with a little study one car 
assign them all to a few broad classes. 
The scientific classification of clouds 
dates from the year 1803, when an Eng- 
lish chemist, Luke Howard, published a 
description of seven cloud-types, to each 
of which he gave a Latin name. With 
a few additions and modifications, How- 
ard’s classification is now generally used 
by meteorologists. This system is based 
upon three fundamental forms: viz, 
fibrous or feathery clouds (cirrus), 
clouds with rounded tops (cumulus), 
and clouds arranged in horizontal sheets 
or layers (stratus). Intermediate forms 
are described by compounding the names 
of the primary types; e. g., cirro-cumu- 
lus, cirro-stratus, etc. 

There is really no good reason why 
the intelligent schoolboy, who knows an 
oak from an elm and a crow from a 
turkey buzzard, should not be able to 
call the clouds by their names. The In- 
ternational Cloud Classification, now 
adopted for scientific purposes all over 


39 


240 Popular Science Monthly ‘ 


Cumulus mammatus clouds 


A nondescript form of alto-cumulus Nimbus (rain-cloud) 


Popular Science Monthly 241 


Anvil-shaped cumulo nimbus 


the world, is brief and simple, and must 
serve as the point of departure in our 
excursion to Cloudland: 


I. Upper Clouds 
1.. Cirrus (“Mares’ Tails”). Detached 
clouds, delicate and fibrous, tak- 
ing the form of feathers. 
2. Cirro-stratus. A thin, whitish, 
en web-like sheet of cloud. 


IT. Intermediate Clouds 

3. Cirro-cumulus (“Mackerel sky’’). 
Small globular masses or white 
flakes. 

4. Alto-cumulus. Rather large globu- 
lar masses, white or grayish, part- 
ly shaded. 

5. Alto-stratus. A thick sheet of gray 
or bluish cloud. 


III. Lower Clouds 
6. Strato-cumulus. Large globular 
masses or rolls of dark cloud, oft- 
en covering the whole sky; espe- 
cially common in winter. 
7. Nimbus. Dark, shapeless 
attended by rain or snow. 


IV. Clouds Formed by Day in 

Ascending Air Currents 

8. Cumulus. Thick clouds with more or 
less rounded summits and flat bases. 

9. Cumulo-nimbus (““Thundercloud” ) 
The common cloud of summer 
thunderstorms; a mountainous 
mass, often turret-shaped or an- 
vil-shaped, generally with a 
fibrous sheet spreading out above. 

V. High Fog 

10. Stratum. A uniform layer of cloud 

resembling fog, but not resting on 


the ground. 
international 


oft- 


clouds 


The 


Classification also 


fracto-nimbus, or 


Strato-cumulus clouds 


recognizes a few minor types: especially 
“scud,” (shreds of 
nimbus seen drifting under the rain- 
cloud) ; fracto-cumulus (small detached 
fragments of cumulus, undergoing rap- 
id change in form), and fracto-stratus 
(formed when a uniform layer of strat- 
us is broken into irregular patches by 
wind or by mountains ). Mammato-cu- 
mulus (“sack cloud,” or “pocky cloud”) 
is a rare and striking cloud form, seen 
especially in thundery weather, consist- 
ing of rounded sack-like clouds, convex 
downwards. 

The photographs accompanying this 
article will help the reader to interpret 
the foregoing descriptions. There are 
several collections of such pictures, 
known as “cloud atlases,” of which the 
most important .is the International 
Cloud Atlas, published in Paris, with de- 
scriptions in French, English and Ger- 
man. [Equally useful, however, to the 
American student is the booklet entitled 
“Classification of Clouds,” with beauti- 
ful illustrations in color, issued by the 
Weather Bureau and sold at twenty-five 
cents a copy by the Superintendent of 
Documents, in Washington. 

The layman who has learned the cloud 
names given above will sometimes, per- 
haps, be puzzled to find a variety of 
other names applied to cloud forms by 
technical writers. The explanation is 
that many specialists have sought to in- 
troduce more elaborate cloud classifica- 
tions; in which, however, the Interna- 
tional nomenclature usually forms the 
substructure. None of these systems 
has ever come into general use. 


Clouds are Composed of Tiny Needles of Ice 


Turning, now, from the 


. 


obvi us to 


242 


the recondite, let us consider briefly the 
anatomy of a cloud. The highest clouds, 
cirrus, cirrostratus, and probably also 
true cirro-cumulus, with an average al- 
titude of six or seven miles above the 
earth, consist of tiny needles of ice. All 
other clouds are composed of drops of 
water, and do not differ at all in struc- 
ture from an ordinary fog, which is 
simply a cloud resting on the earth. 

These cloud particles are formed by 
the condensation of the invisible water- 
vapor (water in a gaseous state) which 
is at all times present in the air. Just 
as water-vapor condenses and becomes 
visible on the cold surface of an_ice- 
pitcher, so, it is supposed, condensation 
occurs in the free air on the surface of 
extremely minute (mostly ultra-micro- 
scopic) grains of so-called “dust,” when 
cooled to the critical temperature with 
respect to the amount of water-vapor 
present (the “dew-point”). The exact 
nature of this “dust” is not fully under- 
stood. 

You will perhaps wonder how clouds 
composed of water can exist in cold 
weather, when our ponds and _ streams 
are all frozen to ice; especially as it is a 
matter of common knowledge that the 
temperature of the air diminishes with 
altitude, so that wintry weather on earth 
implies wintrier weather in Cloudland. 
To find the clue to this enigma we con- 
sult the books on physics, and learn that, 
with proper precautions, it is possible to 
cool a liquid far below its ordinary 
freezing point (32 degrees Fahr. in the 
case of water). Clouds of “supercooled” 
water-drops are seen even in the polar 
regions. A sudden jar turns a super- 
cooled liquid instantly to a solid; and 
thus it happens that, in cold weather, 
raindrops or fog particles turn to ice on 
coming in contact with terrestrial ob- 
jects, such as trees, telegraph wires, and 
the like, giving us the interesting spec- 
tacle of the “ice storm.” 


Clouds are Always Falling 


Another paradox is the fact that the 
bits of ice and drops of water composing 
the clouds should appear to “float” in 
the air, though of much greater density 
than the latter. As a matter of fact 
they do not. Cloud particles are all the 


Popular Science Monthly 


time falling relatively to the air around 
them; though since this air itself may 
constitute an ascending current, they 
are not always falling in an absolute 
sense. The speed at which a cloud par- 
ticle falls through the air depends upon 
its size; the smaller the particle, the 
more slowly it falls. The smallest have 
diameters of the order of .0004 inch and 
fall in still air at the rate of about a 
tenth of an inch per second. The larg- 
est range up to more than a fifth of an 
inch in diameter, and fall at the rate of 
about twenty-six feet per second. Rain- 
drops and snowflakes are cloud particles 
which, in virtue of their size and other 
favorable conditions, succeed in falling 
all the way to the earth. Many a shower 
of rain or snow never reaches the earth, 
but evaporates in midair. 

Reverting to the aspects of clouds as 
we see them from the earth, there are a 
few interesting phenomena that require 
notice. Cirrus and cirro-stratus clouds 
sometimes occur in long, narrow strips, 
extending across the sky, and, while 
really parallel, seem to converge toward 
two opposite points on the horizon on 
account of perspective. These strips 
are called ‘“‘polar bands,” or, popularly, 
“Noah’s Ark.” Parallel bands of cloud, 
whether in continuous strips or in sep- 
arate cloudlets, reveal the presence of 
waves in the atmosphere. Where a wave 
carries a body of water vapor upward 
the latter cools by expansion and con- 
denses to visible moisture. Thus the 
clouds mark the crests of the waves. 


The ‘‘White Flag of the Chinook”’ 


A kindred phenomenon is that of the 
“cloud cap” often seen over a mountain. 
Here the ascent of the air, with its 
charge of water vapor, is due to the up- 
ward deflection of the wind by the slope 
of the mountain. Sometimes the cloud 
cap, once formed, spreads far away to 
leeward of the mountain peak, consti- 
tuting a “cloud banner.” Such is the 
“white flag of the chinook,’ seen stretch- 
ing from the crest of a mountain ridge 
in our Western states when the chinook 
wind is blowing over it. The same phe- 
nomenon constitutes the “foehn wall’ 
attending the foehn wind in the Alps. 
One of the most famous and striking of 


Popular Science Monthly 


cloud caps is the “table cloth’ that 
spreads itself over Table Mountain, near 
Cape Town, when a moist wind blows 
in from the sea. 

Sometimes the lo- 
cal topography 
causes the wind that 
has swept up over 
the cresg of the 
mountain to form a 
second “standing” 
atmospheric wave ta 
leeward of the 
mountain, and this 
may also be marked 
by a cloud, which, 
like the cloud cap it- 
self, presents a de- 
lusive appearance of 
permanence, while it 
is really in constant 
process of formation 
on the windward 
side and dissipation 
on the leeward. The 
pair of clouds thus formed—one over the 
mountain and the other at some distance 
from it—is exemplified in the well-known 
“helm and bar” of Crossfell, in the Eng- 
lish Lake District. 

Of all clouds the most majestic are 
the mountainous masses of cumulo-nim- 
bus that attend our summer thunder- 
storms. The formation of these clouds 
can often be watched from its early 
stages. On a hot, still day the warm air 
near the earth’s surface streams upward 
by virtue of the same “convective” proc- 
ess that accounts for the draft of a chim- 
ney. The diminished pressure prevail- 
ing at higher levels permits the air to 
expand, and expansion causes it to cool. 
When the ascending column reaches a 
sufficiently low temperature, its water 
vapor condenses into cloud. The first 
visible stage is the appearance of a small 
cumulus, rounded above and flattened on 
the under surface, constituting the capi- 
tal of an invisible column of rising air. 
This occurs at an average altitude of 
from four thousand to five thousand 
feet above the earth. In the course of 
the afternoon one sees these clouds grow 
and coalesce, until they have towered up 
to enormous heights; often ten thousand 
feet or more. Very often the summits 


Alto-cumulus clouds 


243, 


become fringed with feathery ice clouds, 


called “false cirrus,” but really identical 
in structure with true cirrus or cirro- 


Cumulus and alto-cumulus (above) 


stratus. Sooner or later the violent at- 
mospheric circulation that produces 
these clouds culminates in disruptive 
electrical discharges, rain, and hail. 

Similar clouds are not infrequently 
formed over great fires, and almost al- 
ways over a volcano in powerful erup- 
tion. In the latter case an actual thun- 
derstorm is commonly generated. 

Apart from their shapes, clouds pre- 
sent interesting phenomena of color and 
give rise to a great variety of luminous 
appearances, including rainbow, halos, 
coronas; and the like. These yield much 
information concerning the structure of 
the clouds in which any occur. Thus 
halos occur only in ice clouds, rainbows 
only in water clouds. The corona (not- 
withstanding statements found in many 
books on meteorology) probably never 
occurs in ice clouds, though it is some- 
times due to fine dust in the air. The 
colors of the rainbow, often described 
as invariable, really differ considerably 
from one bow to another, according to 
the average size of the water drops in 
which they are generated. 

3eautiful iridescent colors may some- 
times be detected in clouds, especially 
along their borders, and not pertaining 
to a true halo, corona, or rainbow. 


Q4A4 
What Is Hoarfrost? 


N every-day English the word “rime” 

is synonymous with “hoarfrost’”’ and 
is applied to the fine white deposit which 
replaces dew in cold weather. Hoarfrost 
is sometimes defined as “frozen dew,” 
but it is more often a direct deposit of 
small ice crystals from the atmosphere, 
the invisible water vapor turning to ice 
without passing through the liquid form. 

In recent technical literature the term 


<a 


Hoarfrost is a powerful but 
mischievous magician. Above, 
a beautiful effect created on a 
tree; on the right, a wire rope 


“rime’ has a _ different 
meaning. It is limited in 
its application to those 
striking deposits of rough 
ice or of feathery crystals 
which sometimes form on 


exposed 
objects surrounded by fog, when the 


temperature is below freezing. This 
formation is, in its turn, distinguished 
from the smooth coating of ice which 
results from rain in cold weather, and 
to which the name “glazed frost” is now 
applied. Heavy deposits of glazed frost 
often load branches, wires, etc., to the 
breaking point, and give us the familiar 
phenomenon of an “ice storm.” 


Popular Science Monthly 


Of all these various frost deposits, 
true rime perhaps presents the most curi- 
ous forms, and these reach their fullest 
development on mountain summits and 
in the polar regions. Beautiful tufts 
and fringes of ice form on objects of 
small diameter, such as twigs and wires, 
and along the angles of square posts and 
the like, but not on broad surfaces. The 
deposit is almost or quite confined to 
the windward side, and grows against 
the wind. 

At the former meteorological observa- 
tory on Ben Nevis these ice feathers 
were sometimes seen to grow at the rate 
of two inches an hour. In the winter 
of 1884-5, according to Mr. R. T. 
Omond, “during a long continuance of 
strong southwesterly winds and cold 
weather a post four inches square grew 
into a slab of snow some five feet broad 
and one foot thick in less than a week; 
the crystalline mass then fell off by its 
own weight and a new set began to 
form.” 

The anemometers and other 
out-of-door instruments at the 
observatory were generally so 
coated with rime in winter as to 
be useless. 


A Curious Tobacco 
Pipe-Borer 


RAVELERS among the 

Sioux Indians are very 
much impressed with the per- 
fect smoothness of the bore in 
their pipe-stems. Without the 
use of a tool of any kind, they 
make a perfect bore in the twigs 
of ash trees, which they use for 
musical instruments and _ for 
pipes. To accomplish this end, 
they employ the larva of a but- 
terfly which inhabits the ash 
tree. The Indians remove the pith for 
about three inches from the stick they 
wish bored. Into this cavity, they place 
one of the larve of a brown butterfly, 
which gradually eats its way down 
through the pith until the bore is com- 
pleted. A little heat applied to the wood 
expedites the work of the larve. The 
Indians consider both the tube made in 
a way and the larva as sacred as their 
idols. 


Popular Science Monthly Q45 


New York Trains That Play 
Leap Frog 

VERY interesting traffic situation 

occurs on the long and attenuated 


A 


Manhattan Island, which makes only one 
express track necessary. In the morning, 
New Yorkers travel southward to the 


Passengers riding on the express trains on 
the new “L” tracks will be reminded of 
the “roller coasters”? at Coney Island 


down town business sections, and in the 


evening return northward to their homes. 


In order to relieve the swelling traffic 


on the elevated lines in New York city, 
an ingenious method of track-laying has 
been resorted to. A horizontal view 
of the completed structure would bear a 
strange resemblance to the roller coaster 
railroads so much in evidence in nearly 
all of America’s amusement parks. Near- 
ing a station, the express trains for which 
the new track is being designed, rise 
swiftly on an incline, so that they play at 
a modified, mechanical game of leapfrog. 
Under the raised tracks, or “humps,” as 


they are known technically, the local sta- 
tions are situated. 

The reason for the leapfrogging is ob- 
vious. There are three tracks in service 
already on the elevated line, but the third 
track could not be used for express serv- 
ice unless the trains crossed over and on 


At each express station, the new tracks 
rise above the level used by the local 
trains 


the local tracks to take on and discharge 
passengers. This would involve delay 
and a serious possibility of accident, due 
to the failure of engineers to obey sig- 
nals. 

The stations selected for the express 
stops are either reinforced or renewed, 
and the middle track is raised abo=t 


246 


twelve feet. The loading platforms for 
the “extra elevated” express tracks are 
built over the existing local tracks, which 
are left unchanged. The length of the 
“hump” is determined by the grade of 
the present local tracks at that particular 
section, as the grade of the express 


STR cs inn | 


t ‘sri 
Seen y 


This device permits accurate timing of the 
revolutions of a machine 


tracks never exceeds three per cent. The 
new platforms are to be three hundred 
and fifty feet long. 

It is expected that the cost of opera- 
tion of the express trains will be some- 
what decreased as the headway which 
they get on the incline will carry them 
some distance before power need be ap- 
plied. Trains will also be able to stop 
quickly and smoothly because of the up- 
ward incline as they enter the station. 

Great credit is due the engineers en- 
gaged in the construction of the new 
tracks, for, with a few brief exceptions, 
traffic on the local tracks has not been 
interrupted. 


A Revolution Timer and Stop Watch 
Ingeniously Combined 


T takes skill to time the number of 

revolutions a machine is making per 
minute, especially if it is running rapidly. 
One’s attention is so divided between 
the watch and the revolution counter 
that it is difficult to start or stop the read- 
ing exactly on the second. In order to 
eliminate the human element and make 


Popular Science Monthly 


the reading positive, a Chicago man has 
connected the revolution counter elec- 
trically with the watch. 

Within the case of a stop watch is a 
tiny electro-magnet, which, when ener- 
gized, allows the second’s hand on the 
watch to run; but the instant the elec- 
tric current is broken and the magnet is 
no longer energized, the watch stops. 

The electric current is furnished by a 
flash-light dry battery attached to the 
revolution counter, and the counter it- 
self is so constructed that the electrical 
circuit is completed the instant the 
counter starts to revolve and is broken 
the instant it stops. 

The electrical mechanism does not in- 
terfere with the use of the watch, as a 
time piece or as a hand-operated stop- 
watch. The revolution counter may be 
used in the ordinary way if desired. 


The Danger of Safety-Tin 
Boiler Plugs. 


HE attention of the Bureau of 

Standards of the Department of 
Commerce has been called to a very seri- 
ous condition in the safety-tin boiler 
plugs used to warn engineers of dan- 
gerous boiler conditions. The plugs, 
which are made of fusible tin and which 
are supposed to melt easily when the 
temperature rises too high, were found 
on inspection to have become oxidized. 
Since the melting point of oxidized tin is 
about three thousand degrees Fahren- 
heit, one can readily see that the oxi- 
dized plugs, far from being a safety de- 
vice, actually increased the possibilities 
of danger from explosion. Lead and 
zinc impurities are found to be the prin- 
cipal causes of this oxidation in the tin; 
and their elimination by strict inspection 
is urgently advised by the federal au- 
thorities. 


Our Women Police 


OLICEWOMEN are now employed 

in twenty-six cities. Chicago has 
twenty-one; Baltimore, Los Angeles and 
Seattle, five each; Pittsburgh, four; San 
Francisco, Portland, Oregon, and St. 
Paul, three each; and Dayton, Topeka 
and Minneapolis, two each. Fifteen other 
cities have one each. Their pay ranges 
from $625 a year in Dayton to $1,200 in 
San Francisco. 


Popular Science Monthly 


Charles M. Schwab Lifts a House 
over Trees: Sentiment vs. Cost 


<tr is real sentiment in trees to 

Charles M. Schwab, especially those 
trees which have sheltered his fine old 
homestead called “Immergrun” near Lo- 
retto, Pa. 

‘Recently Mr. Schwab decided to build 
a new palatial summer residence on the 
site of the old home, but he did not want 
to destroy the beautiful frame house 


which has been more home to 
him than even his mansion on 
Riverside Drive, New York. 
The house is entirely sur- 
rounded by trees. To move it 
and not destroy the trees was 
no unsurmountable obstacle 
to the man who is furnishing 
guns and fighting ships for 
the Allies of Europe. 

When Schwab first spoke 
to his engineers about moy- 
ing the Loretto homestead, 
they mapped out for him a 
plan which sacrificed only 
three trees. But that was 
too much for Schwab. 

So the engineers attacked 
the problem again. The 
photographs herewith show 
them in the act of mov- 
ing the fine old Schwab residence over 
the trees. By the route that is being 
taken, the house goes over 23 trees be- 
fore it will reach the road where it will 
have clear sailing. The maximum height 
the house will be jacked over is thirty- 
four feet. It then starts on its journey 
across a deep valley on the Schwab farm 
where it will find a new resting place. It 
will travel a thousand feet from its pres- 


expense. 

frame house up to a height of thirty-four feet. It 

will be necessary to lift the residence over twenty- 
three trees before it can be lowered 


QAT 
ent location and will crown a little hill. 

The steel king intends to build a mil- 
lion dollar summer home in the heart of 
the cluster of trees that this jacking op- 
eration has saved. 


A Queer Adventure in War 


ANY aeroplanes are captured dur- 

ing the fighting in Europe; seldom 
does an aeroplane land on an enemy's 
aviation field without a fight. At an im- 
portant British aviation 
station in northern France 
a great German biplane 
was seen recently to emerge 
from the fog. As the anti- 
aircraft guns were about 
to fire upon it, the ma- 
chine circled several times 
around the field and final- 
ly alighted. 
Surprise changed to 


In order to move his old homestead without destroy- 
ing it and without killing the beautiful trees which 
surround it, Charles M. Schwab, President of the 
Bethlehem Steel Co., told the engineers to spare no 


Accordingly they proceeded to jack the 


amazement when the English aviators, 
mechanics and officers saw the German 
warplane drive quietly across the field 
and enter an empty hangar. The Ger- 
man‘ aviators calmly said they had lost 
their way in the fog, and that on becom- 
ing short of fuel they decided to alight. 
Jokingly, one of the Germans remarked, 
“Tf you will kindly give us a little petrol 
we should be able to return home.” 


248 


Popular Science Monthly 


Nature has built the largest stadium in the world for the sport-loving population of Cleve- 


land, Ohio. 


Over one hundred thousand persons watched this baseball game, and thirty 


thousand more could have been accommodated 


A Natural Stadium Which Holds 
One Hundred and Thirty Thousand 


HE largest stadium in this country 

is not a product of engineering 
skill but the work of nature. More 
than one hundred thousand persons, the 
largest crowd that ever witnessed a 
baseball game, was assembled in this 
great bowl recently without taxing its 
capacity. It is estimated that it could 
accommodate one hundred and _ thirty 
thousand persons. 

The natural stadium is part of a city 
park in Cleveland, Ohio, and all athletic 
events which take place there are free 
to the public. It is almost a perfect 
amphitheatre. The large field, suitable 
for all kinds of athletic games, is almost 
completely surrounded by hills inclined 
at just the right degree to accommodate 
spectators. At one end there is a break 
in the hills that affords a convenient en- 
trance and parking space for auto- 
mobiles. 


Fifty Thousand Aviators 


O the average American, the aero- 
plane is still a wonder, a miracle, 
a creation of magic. In Europe men 
have become so accustomed to it, that 
children now talk of becoming “avia- 


tors” as they would of becoming “police- 
men.” Counting both pilots and ob- 
servers, there are more than fifty thou- 
sand men now in Europe, in daily 
flights above ground. The number in- 
creases from day to day, and before the 
war is ended it is possible that the num- 
ber will reach one hundred thousand. A 
hundred thousand human beings taken 
to the air every day—and only six years 
ago Glenn H. Curtiss made his first long 
flight down the Hudson River—a won- 
derful feat chronicled in the press of the 
world! 
Paper from Grass 


ERMINATING a series of experi- 

ments, the Department of Agricul- 
ture has recently announced that it is 
possible to manufacture a first-grade ma- 
chine finished printing paper from zaca- 
ton grass, which grows in great profu- 
sion from California and Texas south- 
ward to the Argentine Andes. 

This grass is harvested for the sake 
of its roots. These are made into brushes 
of various sorts, and are frequently 
known as broom root grass. At the pres- 
ent time the tops of the grass are allowed 
to go to waste. There is reason to be- 
lieve that from these a satisfactory pa- 
per-making material may be developed. 


Government Manutacture of Aeroplanes— 
A National Menace! 
By Eustace L. Adams 


GOVERNMENT factory: for the 
v4 manufacture of aeroplanes and 

motors. The specter which haunts 
those who hope to see the United States 
take her place among the nations with a 
fleet of aircraft which will demand, and 
receive, respect! The ex- 
periment which cost Great 
Britain nearly five millions 
of dollars, and produced, al- 
together, fourteen flying of- 
ficers and seventeen aero- 
planes at the end of a wasted 
three years! 

There is a strong South- 
ern movement, of which 
Senator Duncan U. Fletcher 
is a leading spirit, to estab- 
lish at the new aeronautic 
base at Pensacola, Florida, a 
government factory for the 
manufacture of aeroplanes 
and motors for the Navy. 


A general view of the wharves at the new Aero Base at 
Pensacola, Florida 


Senator Fletcher, in defending his atti- 
tude, says: 

“T am strongly of the opinion that the 
aeronautic base (at Pensacola) should 
be equipped to manufacture aeroplanes 
and motors. Not to manufacture all 
that we may require, but a considerable 
number. This will act as a stimulus to 
private manufacturers, as a nucleus for 
a considerably increased output in war 
times, as a check on any tendency to- 
ward slackness on one hand, or too high 
prices on the other, by private manufac- 


turers. [xperiments may be conducted 
there which will evolve a highly valu- 
able type of military aeroplane. There 
a highly trained force may be created, 
and a ‘training and industrial plant built 
up, capable of infinite expansion on the 


It is on these grounds that Flor- 
ida hopes to see factories estab- 
lished to manufacture aeroplanes 


government’s 1,400 acres, 
which would be of service 
that cannot be estimated 
to the country in time of 
war. The government has 
an opportunity to build up 
a modern manufacturing 
plant, school and experi- 
ment station at Pensacola 
that will attract the best 
of the official and enlisted 
personnel of the Navy as well as the 
most skilled workmen.” 

A year ago the Secretary of the Navy 
requested the Bureau of Construction 
and Repair and the Bureau of Steam 
Engineering to investigate and make a 
report upon the advisability of having 
the Navy enter upon the manufacture of 
aeroplanes. This report, which the Sec- 
retary transmitted to Congress, advised 
strongly against such an attempt. Some 
of the reasons given were: 

“It would be a tremendous loss to the 


249 


250 


advancement of aeronautical work to 
lose the ideas and results of private in- 
vestigation and experiment. The estab- 
lishing of a government plant for the 
general manufacture of aircraft would 
require a complement of officers that 
could be ill-spared at the present time, 
not only because the Navy has a very 
limited number of specially trained de- 
signers in this class of work, but be- 
cause such a plant would call for the di- 
version from actual flying work of many 
of the most competent operators. Any 


can really fly. 
for a real aero corps 


government plant which could be estab- 
lished in the near future would be entire- 
ly inadequate in war time, as aircraft 
would be required in large quantities for 
such an emergency.” 

In spite of this report, the project is 
still being agitated, and numerous ofh- 
cials appear to be in favor of establish- 
ing such a factory. Southern news- 
papers, particularly those conducted in 
Florida, are jubilant, but it is to be hoped 
that they are “counting their chickens 
before they are hatched.” 

Senator Fletcher says that government 
manufacture would act as a stimulus to 
private manufacturers. When did gov- 
ernment competition ever act as a stim- 
ulus to private manufacturers? Certain- 
ly not in Great Britain when the govern- 
ment was conducting its costly experi- 
ments along those lines. Great Britain 
found that by means of government 
manufacture it could not keep up with 
the foreign powers in times of peace. 
How did it hope to produce the thou- 
sands of aeroplanes necessary in time of 


The navy has a half dozen of these flying boats which 
It should have five hundred as a basis 


Popular Science Monthly 


war, especially if the private manufac- 
turers had been driven out of business 
by government competition? At present, 
after a year and a half of warfare, and 
although private manufacture of aero- 
planes took a tremendous boom after the 
failure of the government’s experiment, 
Great Britain is forced to buy almost 
the entire output of the many American 
aeroplane factories. 

Should war be declared upon this 
country after the private manufacturers 
had ceased their efforts, because of gov- 
ernment competition, the 
government factory would 
not be able to supply the 
needs of our Army and 
Navy. It is conceivable ~ 
that we might not be able 
to cross the ocean in search 
of privately manufactured 
aeroplanes. In that case we 
would have to build up the 
industry from the _ start, 
while thousands of enemy 
aeroplanes hummed _ over 
our heads, and dropped 
bombs upon our ships and 
troops. 

Mr. Henry Woodhouse, a 
Governor of the Aero Club of America, 
in expressing his opinion of this project 
to the writer, said: 

“Manufacturing of aeroplanes and 
motors, which Senator Fletcher pro- 
poses, is inadvisable, first, because it 
would retard the development of naval 
aeronautics, and second, because it 
would discourage the youthful aero- 
nautic industry. Needless to add, there 
is, therefore, no argument in favor of 
the proposition.” 

There are many persons, interested in 
the problems of national defense, who 
see in such a project a real start toward 
a greater air fleet, and overlook the fact 
that it is a start in the wrong direction. 
It is probable that they cannot see the 
far-reaching evil results of such a step. 
On the other hand, a large number of 
far-seeing advocates for real prepared- 
ness are displaying great concern that so 
obvious a “pork barrel” proposition 
should receive even the most casual at- 
tention of Senators and Congressmen at 
a time when the nation seems at. least 


Popular Science Monthly a | 


An efficient private aeroplane factory. All these Curtiss machines are going to Europe. 


The 


aeroplanes in sight in this picture are almost double the number that either our Army or Navy 
Aero Corps has in commission, if only the serviceable machines in both services are counted 


awakening to the shocking condition of 
army and naval affairs, particularly in 
the branch of aeronautics. 

Mr. Alan Hawley, President of the 
Aero Club, the public-spirited organiza- 
tion that is leading the vast movement to 
supply the national guard and naval mil- 
itia of the various states with aeroplanes, 
said to the writer: 

“So long as the appropriations for 
aeronautics for the Army and Navy are 
not sufficient to meet the actual need for 
aeroplanes and for the training of avi- 
ators, there is no justification for spend- 
ing the small amount available for fac- 
tories and experiments. The dozen or 
so aeroplane manufacturers and aero 
motor makers have shown that they are 
able to supply, in any quantity needed, 
the type of aeroplanes and motors re- 
quired, and they have assured us that 
they will be at all times ready to do their 
utmost in every way to supply the aero- 
nautical needs of the Army and Navy.” 

Mr. Augustus Post, one of the fathers 
of the Aero Club, an experienced bal- 
loonist and a pioneer aviator, gives us 
his views on the matter. He says in 
part: 

“It would seem just at this time that 


it would be well to purchase what has 
already been perfected by the manufac- 
turers in this country and so well prov- 
en abroad, and that the Army and Navy 
might well devote their energies, at pres- 
ent at least, to training men to fly and 
in perfecting an aerial organization 
which could be moved where needed. 
The developments are bound to be so 
rapid in the near future that immediate 
steps must be taken to keep up with even 
the present rate of progress, and it 
would seem that rather than extensive 
laboratories, schools of flying should be 
established and the manufacture and in- 
ventive side of aeronautics left in the 
hands of those who are doing so well 
and who have accomplished so much.” 
- As was pointed out in the last issue 
of the PopuLtar ScreENcE Monturty, the 
aviation corps of our Army and Navy 
are at the present time, rather ghastly 
jokes. Congress has continually over- 
looked aeronautical needs, and the little 
money appropriated has been sadly mis- 
spent. A recent court martial of one 
of the officers of our Army Aero Corps 
afforded the public a glimpse into the 
rottenness of affairs when politics are 
applied to our infant aeronautical ef- 
forts. If government manufacture is 


nae Popular Science Monthly 


introduced at Pensacola, perhaps it will 
be the death blow to the hopes of those 
of us who wish to see the United States, 
the birthplace of self-sustained flight, 
provide for its Army and Navy a fleet 
of aircraft which in time of war would 
safeguard our Navy, our fortifications, 
and eventually our homes. 


es a ee ee ee a a 


sa eo 


The ice-skating rink which took the place of the popular 
dance floor in one of New York’s prominent hotels 


Our Big Birdseed Bill 


HEN one watches a canary 

daintily picking at its little box 
of birdseed, one is not likely to reflect 
upon the large quantity of that food 
which is eaten every year. Nevertheless, 
during the past year the canaries of this 
country consumed a total of four million 
seven hundred and four thousand six 
hundred and twenty-five pounds, or 
two thousand three hundred and fifty 
tons of birdseed. At the advanced price 
of five and one-half cents a pound which 
has been in force since the war made 
it difficult to import this material, the 
tiny birds have cost their owners two 
hundred and fifty-eight thousand seven 
hundred and fifty-four dollars and 
eighty-eight cents. 


HE average annual fire loss in the 
United States is about two dollars 
per inhabitant. 


Making a Dancing Floor Into a 
Skating Rink 
EW YORK, the city of many fads 
and fashions, is now forsaking the 
dance floor for the ice skating rink. 
Dancing, which has held sway for three 
winters, was doomed to a slow death, 
even before a substitute was found. 

It needed only the advent 
of a successful play in 
which an ice skating scene 
was the chief attraction to 
turn the tide in favor of 
the rink. Quick to see the 
coming change, the man- 
ager of one of the largest 
hotels in the city converted 
his famous dance floor into 
a skating rink, and at pres- 
ent has the largest in the 
city, with the exception 
of the permanent arenas 
which have catered to ice 
skaters for a number of 
years past. 

The rink is circular in 
shape, and consists of a 
shallow tank which holds 
five inches of ice. The 
water was frozen at the 
beginning of the season by 
the refrigerating plant of 
the hotel, and is to remain 
in that condition until the skating season 
is over. Every night, when the last 
skater has left the rink, the ice is 
scraped, and a slight film of water is 
sprinkled over the surface. When this 
water is frozen, it makes an entirely new 
surface for the next day’s sport. It is 
said that the rink was made at a cost of 
about twenty thousand dollars. 


Hazards of Aeroplane Making 


EROPLANE manufacturing must 
now be rated among the hazardous 
employments. At a foreign aeroplane 
factory a number of workmen employed 
in the varnishing department were taken 
seriously ill, and two deaths resulted. 
Upon careful investigation the cause 
was found to be poisoning by tetrachlor- 
ethane, an ingredient of the varnish 
used. These accidents led to an order 
forbidding the use of varnish containing 
a high percentage of this deadly chemical. 


Nn ni bbe tamaigen re, cael aeiced aes ate 


OO a ee 


ee ee 


Popular Science 


A Business Office in the Open Air 


NE of the most remarkable testi- 

monials ever given for the fresh 
air cure is that of Roger Babson, the 
famous statistician, at his Wellesley 
Hills, Mass., office. The confinement of 
Mr. Babson’s work broke his health to 
such an extent that his physician ordered 
him to live in the open, even during his 
working hours. 

A large office, built in the rear of his 
building, was so arranged that it could 
be enclosed in stormy weather. As may 
be supposed and as our illustrations 
show, his office force is heavily clothed ; 
the altitude is high, and the thermometer 
often drops below the zero mark. 

The main difficulty was found in oper- 
ating their typewriters. It was neces- 
sary that the hands of the typists be pro- 
tected with heavy woolen mittens; but 
even with this covering, it was almost 
impossible to operate the machines with 
speed. The difficulty was solved when 
Mr. Babson suggested the use of two 
curved sticks. These are held one in 
each hand, to depress the keys, in much 
the manner that a Xylophone performer 


Monthly 


253 


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Sgt. ® 
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LEB 


Roger Babson and his staff work in the 
open air. As the thermometer often drops 
below the zero mark, the office force must 
be heavily clothed. The heavy woolen 
mittens make it impossible to operate the 
machines with speed, so two curved sticks 
are provided with which the keys are de- 
pressed. Good speed is thus attained 


plays upon his instrument. After some 
practice, the stenographers become ex- 
pert in the use of these novel tools. 


Saving Men from Scalding Steam 
in Steamship Engine Rooms 


HE engine and boiler room forces 
of a steamship need no longer die 
like rats in a trap when a steam 

pipe explodes and fills the compartment 
with scalding vapor, if the invention of 
Mr. Ernest H. Peabody and Walter B. 
Tardy, of New York, is adopted by any 
of the steamship companies. 

At present the life of coal-passers and 
engineers is one of extreme hazard, for 
in modern steamships the engines are 
driven by forced feed. This means that 
the boiler rooms are filled with air at 
a high pressure, driven into the compart- 
ments by means of a blower, and pass- 
ing into the fire boxes to give the flames 
greater heat. Toekeep the compartments 
under this pressure it is necessary for 
the men to enter or leave by means of 
air locks, where one door has to be shut 
before another is opened. This method 
of entrance and exit is, therefore, very 
slow, and should the compartment be- 
come stiddenly filled with steam or nox- 
ious gases, all the men at work could not 
gain the outer air in time to save their 
lives. 

In order to obviate this difficulty, the 
inventors provide a tank extending from 
the engine or boiler room under the bulk- 
head to the adjacent compartment. In 
case of accident the men jump into the 
tank, and the force of their jump carries 
them under the bulkhead, which extends 
several inches under the surface of the 
water, thus shutting off the gas or steam 
from the adjacent compartment. When 
the men rise to the surface, they appear 
in the safe compartment on the other 
side, which compartment is fitted with an 
exit leading to the deck. 

The tank, which is constantly filled 
with water, is about eight feet deep, 
thus allowing those escaping to become 
completely submerged and to pass safely 
under the bulkhead. The water acts as 
an effective barrier to the escape of the 
steam or gases into the adjacent com- 
partment, and at the same time offers 
a ready means of hasty escape for men 


who may be caught in the room when 
an accident occurs. 

A modification of the invention is 
shown in Fig. 2 of the illustration. In- 
stead of having the tank filled with 
water, a series of valves are arranged to 
blow a draught of air from the bottom 
of the empty tank. This blast will be 
forced upwards in that side of the tank 
located in the gas-filled compartment, 
and will blow back the steam or noxious 
gases, so that they can not pass under 
the bulkhead separating the two com- 
partments. A trap is set in the floor a 
few inches from the tank, so that the 
first man to reach the tank will step on 
the trap and open the air valves. 

Another modification specified by the 
inventors is the use of a large room be- 
tween the two compartments, which is 
operated in the manner of an ordinary 
air lock, but is so arranged that when 
the door is opened, a great quantity of 
water shall be sprayed from sprinklers 
in the ceiling, as shown in Fig. 3. This 
water will drive out or condense the 
steam or gases so that the men may pass 
through the room in safety. 


Testing Shrapnel Shells in 
Electric Ovens 


N electric oven for testing shrapnel 

shells has been introduced by a 
Chicago firm. This oven is for use in 
one of the government arsenals for the 
purpose of ascertaining the amount of 
heat which the shells can withstand. 
For twenty-four hours, each shrapnel 
shell must be exposed to a temperature 
of one hundred and twenty degrees 
Fahrenheit ; and by the use of an auto- 
matic thermostat the temperature is 
maintained at this point for the desired 
length of time. A pilot lamp outside the 
oven indicates whether the current is on 
or off. On a continuous test of more 
than twenty-four hours, the temperature 
in the oven did not vary more than one 
degree. 


254 


Popular Science Monthly 


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256 Popular Science Monthly 


_As the photograph shows this huge ant-hill 
has been deserted by its original occupants 
to make room for two-legged inhabitants 


An Ant-Heap as a Look-out Station 


NE of the most destructive of 

African insects is the white ant. 
This strange little creature, well under 
an inch in length, erects huge heaps 
in which to dwell. In some places, 
particularly in the Congo, these heaps 
convert an otherwise flat country into 
a hilly one. They rise from twenty to 
fifty feet and more in height. In- 
variably they are crowned with several 
bamboo trees, which often attain a 
height of another thirty to forty feet. 
Then the heaps are often covered with 
beautiful ferns and the choicest of wild 
tropical flowers. 

The ants themselves are most de- 
structive, demolishing everything ex- 
cept iron and steel. They go about 
in vast armies, and in a single night 
the damage they will do is almost 1in- 
credible. They will enter huts or tents 
and attack everything that is not made 
of iron. Curiously enough, they only 
destroy that portion of the object that 
is not exposed to the air. For instance, 
they eat away the soles of boots, leav- 
ing the uppers standing in their 
place. It is only when you come to 


pick up the object that you find it has 
been destroyed. The photograph de- 
picts a deserted ant heap in the Congo 
which the surveyors converted into a 
look-out station. 


Living In a Tree Stump 


N the big timber section of the Pacific 
Northwest many huge fir and cedar 
stumps are to be found, reduced to mere 
shells through the action of fire or rot. 
Some of these stumps measure twelve 
feet in diameter. 

The pioneers of this region often util- 
ized these hollow stumps for cattle shel- 
ters, storage rooms or even as dwellings 
for short periods. If open to the sky, 
a roof of ‘shakes’ was put on, which 
kept the interior dry. Open fires could 
be used, as the huge stumps acted as 
chimneys, creating an excellent draught. 

The accompanying photograph shows 
a big Washington cedar, in which four 
men lived for over two months some 
forty years ago. They were engaged in 
building a home for one of the party, 
who is pictured standing beside the 
stump, which he has carefully preserved. 


Four men lived for two months in this tree 
stump while building a permanent home 


sr eS 


Popular Science Monthly 


Detecting Fires in the Holds of 
Transatlantic Liners 


Y means of an apparatus which is 

now found on many of the large 
trans-Atlantic steamships, the officer on 
duty on the bridge can instantly de- 
tect any fire which breaks out in any of 
the holds or compartments. 

This efficient indicator con- 
sists of a set of pipes extending 
from each of the holds directly 
to the wheelhouse. At the ter- 
minals in the wheelhouse is a 
set of electric fans which draw 
air from the holds into a glass 
case to which the pipes lead. 
Should a fire start in a hold, 
some of the smoke would be 
drawn through the tubes into 
the glass case, and would be no- 
ticed by the officer. 

As soon as the fire is discov- 
ered, the officer opens the case 
and fastens to the open end of 
the tube a steam pipe, which 
sends live steam through the 
tube into the compartment and 
smothers the blaze. 

This device has met with con- 
siderable objection among ships’ 
officers, because it was claimed 
that the noise of the electric 
fans was found very disturbing | 
to the officer on duty, and also 
that the apparatus took up a 
large amount of space, particu- 
larly on large steamers with 
numerous compartments to be 
protected. 

In order to overcome these of 
objections, the inventor, Will- 
iam Rich, an American, living in Liv- 
erpool, England, has taken out pat- 
ents for improvements over his orig- 
inal device. A set of small glass cases, 
one serving for several compartments, 
is located on the bridge, or wheel- 
house, while the remainder of the appa- 
ratus is located in a more convenient part 
of the ship. In the terminal compart- 
ment for the tubes is a set of fans which 
draw the air from the holds, and an- 
other fan which serves to send a smaller 
amount of air from each of these tubes 
through pipes into the device in the 
wheelhouse. Each of these smaller 


257 


tubes leads into a bottle or container 
which is filled with lime water. 

If a fire should break out in a hold, 
the smoke is drawn into the terminal 
box for the tubes as before, but is im- 
mediately drawn on until it reaches the 
glass jars containing lime water on the 
bridge or in the wheelhouse. The car- 


detected by the officer in the pilot house and by 
the watchman on deck, by means of the system 


tubes and fans indicated, which carry the 


smoke to the bridge or the deck 
bon dioxide carried up with the smoke 
turns the fluid to a milky color.. The 
officer can then order live steam turned 
into the tubes to smother the fire. 

With this new device, all the fans and 
the cumbersome apparatus are located 
in a distant part of the ship, while only 
the small set of glass cases is found in 
the wheelhouse, where saving of space 
is of more importance. 

The chief advatages in the system ob- 
viously lie in the fact that a fire can be 
discovered immediately, and can be ex- 
tinguished quickly by means of the same 
apparatus. 


258 Popular Science Monthly 


How to Sit Straight and Still be 
Comfortable 


HE ordinary straight-back chair 

encourages incorrect posture. It 
does not conform to the natural mould 
of the back. The sitter must assume a 
slouching attitude to be comfortable. 


pa CE a enemon S 


The cushion fits into the small of the 
sitter’s back and encourages him to sit 
upright with the chest properly raised 


All this is remedied by a simple de- 
vice invented by Dr. J. H. Kellogg of 
Battle Creek, Michigan. The device is 
a small leather or cloth bound cushion 
which may be attached to any chair. 
This cushion is so placed that it fits into 
the small of the sitter’s back and en- 
ables him to sit upright, with chest 
properly raised and at the same time to 
be comfortable. 

Concrete to Replace Willow Mats 

XPERIMENTS have been made by 

the United States Bureau of Stand- 
ards to develop a method for accelerat- 
ing the hardening of concrete in order 
that concrete may be substituted for the 
willow mats that have been used in the 
past along the Mississippi River. As a 
result of the experiment, it was found 
that four per cent of calcium chloride 
added to the mixing water increases the 
strength of the one-day-old concrete one 
hundred per cent. 


Testing a Hack-Saw’s Strength 


N order to prove that a hack saw is 

an instrument of remarkable tensile 
strength, an experiment was recently con- 
ducted at Springfield, Mass. It was 
found that the thin steel would sustain 
without injury two hundred and eighty- 
two pounds, the weight of two men. 

Much damage is done to hack saws by 
too speedy operation, the operator often 
forgetting that it is the action, not the 
speed, that does the work. A hack saw 
should not be run faster than forty to 
sixty strokes a minute, and no blade 
will stand a higher speed without injury. 


ee 


The thin hack-saw, although bending 

badly, is supporting two hundred and 

eighty-two pounds without damage to 
itself 


Popular Science Monthly 


A Lens That Remains in Focus 


HEN dissecting small objects 
under a magnifying glass, and 

in many similar operations, inconven- 
ience is caused by the object’s continu- 
ally getting out of focus as the work 
progresses. An English inventor has 
hit upon an ingenious method of over- 
coming this difficulty by fixing the lens 
to the tool so that when once focused 
it will always follow the point of the 
instrument. The illustration shows a 
lens fitted to a teazing needle in a 
wooden holder for dissecting purposes. 
The arrangement consists of a sliding 
sheath, A, capable of being slid to-and- 
fro along the holder, but gripping with 
sufficient force to maintain its position 
after adjustment. To this is pivoted 
an arm, B, to the other end of which 
a shorter arm, C, is similarly attached. 
The latter carries the lens, which may 
be anything from two inches to three 
inches focal length, and from one inch 
to one and a quarter inch in diameter. 
A lens mounted in the manner des- 
cribed above, will be found a great con- 
vience for the purposes of microscop- 
ical and botanical dissection, fine en- 
graving on metals and the more delicate 
photographic retouching. Provided the 
holders are round and of a size suited 
to the sliding sleeve the attachment may 
be fitted equally well to a dissecting 
knife, scalpel, teazing needle, steel scrib- 
er, or a photographic retouching pencil. 


When the ‘microscope is properly adjusted, it 
remains in focus without further attention 


_ housewife 


259 


The wire-drainer clasps over the edge of the 
kettle and holds a row of doughnuts suspended 
so that they may drain 


Wisconsin Cook’s Doughnut-Drainer 


LONG-FELT want of the Ameri- 

can home has been a doughnut 
drainer, a device that would save the 
from .getting her fingers 
burned with spatterings of hot lard. Mrs. 
Lyda M. Schultz, of Dorchester, Wis., 
has devised one of wire that clasps over 
the edge of the doughnut kettle and 
holds a row of doughnuts suspended 
over the kettle where they drain off on 
being taken from the kettle. 

The doughnuts cook in less than half 
the time it requires without the drainer, 
according to Mrs. Schultz, thus saving 
fuel, time, energy and lard, and the 
doughnuts are better. The drainer is 
easily cleaned. A shake in hot water and 
it is ready to hang up to dry. The drain- 
er can be used with equally good results 
in making shoe string potatoes, potato 
chips, fried oysters, dumplings, greens, 
vegetables, and even fried bacon. 


WITZERLAND is best supplied 

with postoffices. There is one for 
every nine hundred and_ sixteen in- 
habitants. 


260 Popular Science Monthly 


And Now Comes the Front-Wheel 
Drive Motor-Cycle 


MONG the many new forms of lo- 
comotion which are continually 
startling the public appears the front- 
wheel drive motor bicycle. This novel 


This front-wheel drive motor-cycle will 
run one hundred miles on one gallon of 
gasoline 


machine is equipped with a device very 
similar to the motor wheel to be seen 
on the street. 

The motor wheel in this case is actu- 
ally the front wheel of the bicycle, and 
it is claimed by the makers that it em- 
bodies the correct principle of pulling 
the load instead of pushing it. This 
method of construction permits of a di- 
rect transmission of power, the usual 
chain, belt or shaft drives being elim- 
inated. The front wheel bears the 
weight of the motor, while the weight of 
the rider is borne by the rear wheel. 

The motor is a single cylinder, four- 
cycle, and air cooled. It is said that it 
will drive the machine at a speed of 
twenty-five miles an hour for a distance 
of one hundred miles on one gallon of 
gasoline. 


Three-Wheeled ’Rickishas for Asia 


CONSIGNMENT of five hundred 

jinrickishas has been shipped to 
Calcutta, India, for distribution through- 
out the Orient, with the intention of 
eventually displacing the two-wheeled 
‘rickishas now in use in Asiatic coun- 
tries. The two-wheeled ’rickishas have 
a great disadvantage in the unpleasant 


way they often tip out the passenger 
when the coolie drops the handles to the 
ground. The new ’rickisha eliminates 
this disagreeable feature, and it pos- 
sesses an added advantage, because of 
having pedals, in keeping the feet of the 
coolie from the ground. Wet pavements 
and muddy roads have been the cause of 
many deaths among the jinrickisha coolie 
population of Asia ever since that vehicle 
was first introduced by an enterprising 
American missionary in the lands where 
the ’rickisha reigns. 

Some of the new jinrickishas are 
provided with storage batteries and an 
electric motor, but the majority of them 
are driven by foot pedals. The gearing 
is comparatively low, to adapt the new 
‘rickisha for hill climbing. 

Another consignment of five hundred 
of the vehicles will be shipped as soon 
as the American factory, where they 
are made, can turn them out. They are 
destined for India, China, Philippine 
Islands, Java, and the Straits Settle- 
ments. 


A Makeshift Polarity Indicator 


WO lengths of soldering wire at- 

tached to the two wires of a direct 
current circuit and suspended in a weak 
solution of sulphuric acid will serve as 
an emergency polarity indicator. After 
the wires have been in the solution for 
several seconds, one of them will be- 
come covered with a brown layer, in- 
dicating that the wire is connected to 
the positive side of the circuit. The 
brown layer is lead peroxide. ~ 


Tricycle jinrickishas are now used in 
the Orient, thanks to American salesmen 


efi 


Popular Science Monthly 


A Giant Metal Shoe 


PERFECT shoe more than fifteen 

times as large as the ordinary 
man’s shoe, and weighing five hundred 
pounds has just been made by a manu- 
facturer of Peoria, Ill., to be used as 
a part of an advertising sign. 


This giant shoe, fifteen times as large 

as an ordinary shoe, is complete in 

every detail, even to the eyelets and 
heel strap 


The shoe is made entirely of sheet 
metal and is seven feet six inches in 
height, fourteen feet long and four feet 
eight inches across the sole. It is com- 
plete in every detail, even to the eyelets 
and the strap for pulling it on, and is 
a perfect, magnified counterpart of the 
small shoe after which it was patterned. 


Painting Cars Rapidly 


PROCESS has been patented by 

which a railway car can be 
thoroughly painted, inside and out, in 
a fraction of the time usually re- 
quired. The car is first given a prim- 
ing coat and put in a drying oven 
which has a temperature of 250° F. 
After drying for three hours, it is re- 
moved and painted. Another three- 
hour period of baking follows, after 
which the car is ready for a second 
coat. This process is repeated until 
the car has not only been painted, but 
the necessary letters are also placed 
on the sides and it is varnished within. 
The length of time required depends 
upon the number of coats that are 
given and the quickness with which 
they are applied. 


261 


Making An Automobile Tire Casing 


NE of the most interesting sights in 

almost any one of the great tire 
factories are the great machines which 
are used in tire making. The one 
illustrated is used for making casings. 
Two men work together at each machine 
and their combined output 
is twenty-five finished cas- 
ings per day of ten working 
hours. 

Patterns conforming to 
the shape and size of the 
tire are mounted on a re- 
volving wheel. The opera- 
tor builds up a tread on this 
foundation. From spools of 
prepared fabric, cut to the 
proper width, lengths un- 
wind automatically over the 
tire structure, the casing be- 
ing built up in successive 
layers. The number of fab- 
ric strips is governed by the sectional 
diameter of the tire. For example, a 
four inch tire requires five strips, a four 
and one-half inch tire, six strips, and the 
large five inch tire requires seven strips. 
These processes, of course, prepare the 
tire only for the ovens where it remains 
for varying periods according to the rub- 
ber stock, size of tire, and construction. 


One machine like this will turn out twenty- 
five finished automobile tires a day 


262 Popular Science Monthly 


A Saw That Stands Up 


NE of the inconveniences of the 
ordinary handsaw is that it will not 
stand readily against a wall or a saw- 
horse. The least jar causes it to fall. 
This is neither good for the saw nor 
pleasant for the owner. 
A saw invented by 
a California man 
has two small 
teeth on the 
end “ot > ie 
blade which 

catch in 


The two small teeth prevent the saw from 
slipping when leaned against a box 


the floor just enough to keep it from 
slipping. With these points against the 
floor only a very slight support at the 
side is sufficient to keep the saw upright. 


Josef Hoffman Invents a 
Shock Absorber 


HE avocations of gen- 
ius are always interest- 
ing, and sometimes really 
valuable. The hobby of Jo- 
sef Hoffman is science and 
mechanics, and above all au- 
tomobiles. He has patented 
several automobile improve- 
ments. The latest of these 
is a pneumatic spring and 
shock absorber for automo- 
biles, on which he was re- 
cently granted a United 
States patent. 
Mr. Hoffman has found 
that the ordinary automo- 
bile spring or shock ab- 


Josef Hoffman found the ordi- 
nary shock absorbers far from 
soothing so he invented a 
pneumatic one of his own 


sorber tends to bind when there is a side 
displacement between the body and the 
spring, as for example, on a curve. His 
pneumatic spring is an improved type 
which is designed to eliminate all the 
sliding contact both from between the 
parts of the pneumatic spring and from 
the parts of the steel springs. 

The device consists of a cylinder, a 
plunger, a diaphragm, and a connection 
between the ends of the steel springs and 
the plunger of the pneumatic spring. 
The plunger is guided solely by the air 
held with the cylinder, which contains 
the diaphragm. Thus, when once the 
plunger is set centrally within the cylin- 
der, the air will not permit the plunger 
head to get out of center; but if, by 
some unusual force, its center is dis- 
turbed, the plunger will immediately 


spring back to its normal position. A . 
perfectly safe guiding of the plunger is ~ 


thus provided, and all sliding contact 
eliminated. 

The diaphragm is made of a grooved 
fabric, so as to enable the compressed 
air in the cylinder to reduce the diam- 
eter of the plunger. This reduction in 
size permits the diaphragm to enter the 
cylinder, whose walls it has shortly be- 
fore been touching. The entire device 
may be connected to the body and the 
semielliptic springs of the ordinary car. 

This apparatus is inexpensive and so 
simple in its construction that it cannot 
readily get out of order. 


EEE 


ol ll ee eit 


i el ee 


Pirreewin 


Popular Science Monthly 263 


When the tradesman shuts the door 
of this receptacle, it can be opened 
only from the inside of the house 


Door Parcels-Receivers 


VERY housekeeper has _ times 
when no member of the family 

is at home when the day’s supply of 
milk or meat or groceries are de- 
livered. Some dealets will not leave 
parcels when there is_no one to receive 
them. The milk and the meat tempt 
roving cats and dogs. In city homes, 
at least, the chance of human thievery 
has also to be considered. It is now pos- 
sible to have a special kitchen door fitted 
with four box-like compartments, one 
above the other. Each compartment is 
independent and is for a definite kind of 
supplies. Each has a door opening 
outside and another inside the house. 
The tradesman finds the outer door un- 
locked and closes it upon his delivery, 
after which the receptacle can be 
opened only from within the kitchen. 
Even if the housekeeper be at home it 


is convenient to have such an arrange- 
ment to save her coming from upstairs 
or from the basement laundry. 


A Handy Darkroom Lamp 


LAMP that can be used for print- 

ing and lighting the developer tray 
while the print is being developed can 
be made by covering one side of a 
wooden or metal box with orange or 
ruby paper or glass and leaving the 
other side open. The covered side 
should cast its light on the developer 
tray, while the open side can be used for 
exposing the print. 


A Rolling Clock 


N oddity in the way of a clock has 
lately been invented by a young 
jeweler in Los Angeles 
who claims that it is more 
accurate: than the ordi- 
nary timepiece. The clock 
is placed upon the high 
end of a small table 
which is eighteen inches 
long and of polished ma- 
hogany. Gravity draws it 
to the other end of the in- 
cline, but the speed is con- 
trolled by a wonderful 
system of weights in the 
cock... Eiiere arene 


and therefore no _ winding. 


springs 
Every thirty days the clock runs the 
eighteen inches and is then taken up and 


started all over again. The case re- 
volyes as it runs down, but the dial re- 
mains in the usual position. 


It takes this clock thirty days to roll the 
length of the stand 


264 


The leverage is so great that three nuts 
may be easily cracked at the same time 


Cracking Nuts Three at a Time 


NEW vise-like utensil to crack 
nuts easily and quickly is de- 


signed for use in the kitchen in prepar- 
ing a large bowl of nuts for table con- 
sumption or cracking nuts for use in 
cakes or other confections. 

The new cracker consists of a small 
vise equipped with a large handle to give 
adequate leverage. A simple worm moves 
one of the vise jaws. The jaws are 
notched so that nuts of different sizes can 
be broken and so that more than one nut 
can be cracked at a time. The leverage 
obtained by this construction is so great 
that it is very little effort to operate the 
handle, a point that is of great importance 
in preparing brazil nuts or hickory nuts 
for the table. 


“Growing Pains” are Rheumatism 


CCORDING to Dr. Mary H. Wil- 
liams, an English specialist in dis- 
eases of childhood, “growing pains” are 
nothing but rheumatism in the vast ma- 
jority of cases. 


Popular Science Monthly 


A Bird-House That Can be Cleaned 


BIRD-HOUSE that can be “house- 
cleaned” each year before the 
feathered tenants return from their 
southern pilgrimage has just been per- 
fected by J. C. Hubbard, a Battle Creek, 
Michigan, lover of birds. The new 
house obviates the loss that sometimes 
ensues because particular varieties of 
birds will not. raise a second brood of 
youngsters in an old nest—they want 
new quarters for each nesting 
The washable bird-house is made of a 
frame and a roof into which a hollow 
cylinder fits, held firmly in place by pegs. 
After the nesting season is over and the 
birds have gone south, the house can be 
cleaned by simply removing the pegs 
and allowing the cylinder to drop down. 
A garden hose is all that is needed to 
make the renovation complete. When 
the vernal migration is over the former 
occupant finds the old home clean and 
fresh and‘as inviting as a new house. 


By removing a few pegs, this bird-house 
may be opened and cleaned for the next 
coming of the birds 


Popular Science Monthly 


Aeroplane Drift and What It Means 


HEN making a flight between two 

distant points separated by water, 
or over strange ground on which there 
are no familiar landmarks, an aviator 
uses a compass like any sailor. He may 
find his bearings at any time during the 
trip by plotting a line on his chart in the 
direction in which he has been travelling. 
Then by estimating his rate of speed and 
the length of time he has been flying he 
obtains a point on this line which repre- 
sents his position at the moment. Such 
was the plan which Lieutenant Porte 
originally intended using in navigating 
the America on his proposed trans- 
atlantic flight. 

Serious errors are possible in steering 
by compass, because no correction is 
made for drift with the wind. Of 
course, there would be no drift in a per- 
fectly calm atmosphere; but the air is 
unfortunately a very unstable medium, 
filled with currents of varying velocity 
and direction, which insidiously divert 
air craft from their. supposed line of 
flight. 

This is illustrated in Fig. 1, where the 
aeroplane is shown heading due north 
and the aviator naturally supposes that 
he is flying in that direction. A strong 
east wind is blowing and carrying him 
northwest. He cannot feel this wind be- 
cause he is moving with it and the longer 
he flies the farther he drifts from his 
objective. This matter had never re- 
ceived very serious consideration until 
the transatlantic flight of the America 
was planned, and then it loomed up as 
a serious problem. A gyroscopic stabil- 
izer had been installed and automatic 
control ensured, thereby relieving the 
aviators of much responsibility, save that 
of “setting the course.” Yet with the 
America well on her way there would 
have been no certainty as to where she 
would have landed, although the pilot 
might have kept her absolutely upon the 
compass course. 

The air compass, like the mariner’s 
compass, is provided with a mark known 
as the “lubber-line,” a line usually en- 
graved on the compass case and repre- 
senting the bow of the ship. Generally 
there is a corresponding line 180° dis- 
tant representing the ship’s stern. While 


265 


— 
Sunposan 
Line Or Fuigur 


H 
Connecting | 
Case | 


WIND 


—_——_ 


Showing different wind conditions met by 

aviators during a flight, and on the right 

the corresponding readings on the drift 
indicator in each case 


the “compass needle,’ is frequently re- 
ferred to, nautical compasses are pro- 
vided with a card to which several 
“needles” are affixed on the under side. 
This card, bearing the cardinal points, is 
held toward the north through the influ- 
ence of the earth’s magnetism. It will be 
seen, therefore, that when a northerly 
course is to be sailed the ship must be 
so maneuvred as to bring the “N” on 
the card directly opposite the “lubber- 
line,’ as shown in Fig. 1A. 

Now let us again consider drift. 
Suppose we set our course as described 
and the conditions are those disclosed in 
Fig. 1. If we are flying at a reasonable 
height we see below us so much ofthe 
earth’s surface that we appear to be 
standing perfectly still in space; we 
know we are progressing because we 
would fall if we were not. We can rely 
only upon the compass for our sense of 


266 Popular Science Monthly 


direction. If we look at the earth 
through a telescope, however, we limit 
our field of vision to a comparatively 
small area, which rushes past so rapidly 
that we are unable to distinguish a 
single object. The earth seems to “flow” 
under us. 

If you have carefully followed the 
foregoing explanations you will be quite 
able to appreciate fully a drift indicator 
which has recently been developed and 
which is regarded as one of the most im- 
portant contributions to the science of 
aviation. 

The lubber-line is engraved on a moy- 
able ring mounted inside the compass 
and encircling the compass card. A tele- 
scope, provided with five fine cross-hairs, 
is mounted at any convenient location 
and so connected with the lubber-line 
ring that any movement of the telescope 
results in a corresponding movement of 
the ring. 

When the aeroplane is flying as in- 
dicated in Fig. 1, the positions of the 
lubber-line, the compass card and the 
cross-hairs of the telescope are as shown 
in Fig. 1A. Looking through the tele- 
scope the earth appears to flow in the 
direction of the wavy lines. We know 
the aeroplane is drifting, and at once we 
set the cross-hairs to parallel the lines of 


Dust from the mop falls through the sieve 
and is caught in the dustpan 


drift; the lubber-line is automatically 
and simultaneously moved in the same 
direction and to the exact number of de- 
grees. Fig. 2 shows the aeroplane fol- 
lowing the course unchanged, but the 
compass card Fig. 2A indicates our 
course to be actually northwest and not 
north. Fig. 3 and 3A show that the pilot 
has swung his craft around to meet the 
changed « onditions. While the aeroplane 
is heading northeast, the actual line of 
flight is now due north. 


Battery Wax Recipes. 


HERE is nothing better for the 
upper edges of glass cells or 
open-circuit batteries than hot paraffin. 
Brushed about the upper edge it pre- 
vents the sal ammoniac or other fluids 
from creeping up over the top. 

The paraffin can be colored, if neces- 
sary, with red lead, green dust, or pow- 
ders of various kinds. Generally the 
paraffin is used without color, so that 
it has a frosted appearance when cool. 

A black wax for stopping the tops of 
dry cells and coating the tops of car- 
bons is composed of tar and pitch in 
equal parts. These are made into a pasty 
mass with turpentine heated over a 
stove, but not over an open flame be- 
cause the ingredients are inflammable. 
The compound should be like very thick 
molasses, so that it can be worked with 
an old knife. 

Another good black wax is composed 
of paraffin, eight parts; pitch, one part; 
lamp black, one part. Heat the mixture 
and stir it until thoroughly mixed. Ap- 
ply with a brush or dip the parts into 
the warm liquid. 


Oil Mop Cleaner and Dustpan 


HE oil or polish mop is coming 
into very general use in homes 

with finished floors. The dust is 
quickly picked up in the soft yarn mesh 
of the mop but the problem of remov- 
ing the dust from the mop then arises. 
A special cleaner has been devised 
which is also a dustpan. One holds it 
in place with a foot upon the short han- 
dle, and combs the mop back and forth 
over a perforated platform, the dust 
falling into the dustpan beneath. This 
can be used in the house as well as out 
of doors. 


eee ree 


ee 


Popular Science Monthly 


Applying Hot Road Material 


O be impervious to water and to re- 

sist wear to the greatest possible 
degree, roadways must be impregnated 
with hot tar or some similar material. 
This condition demands vehicles which 
combine the necessary distributing ap- 
paratus with a plant for heating the road 
material. 

The truck illustrated herewith is of 
five tons capacity and is one of three re- 
cently installed in Baltimore, Md. The 
truck has a four cylinder gasoline motor, 
and this also operates a powerful air 
compressor with which the hot liquid is 
forced out on the roadway. 


267 


With the Forty-Niners 


HE historically important discovery 

of gold in California was made in 
January, 1848, at John Sutter’s mill on 
South Fork of American River near Co- 
loma, a point only ten or fifteen miles 
southeast of the town of Auburn. From 
1850 to 1853 the greatest yield was de- 
rived from the gravels, and the largest 
annual output for this period was more 
than sixty-five million dollars in 1852. 
There was some reaction in 1854, due to 
previous wild speculation, but a produc- 
tion of about fifty million dollars a year, 
chiefly from placer mines, was main- 
tained up to the year 1861. 


To obtain the best results, the tar to be used in making roads must be sprayed while hot. 
A great tank truck has been built, which has a small boiler on the rear of the chassis to 
keep the material at the desired temperature 


The material within the tank is main- 
tained in a liquid state with the aid of 
a small flash-steam boiler, which is 
mounted at the back of the chassis and 
which may be fired with either kerosene 
or gasoline. From this generator, super- 
heated steam is led through the material 
in a continuous flow by means of pipe- 
coils. 


HE most remarkable gold and silver 
beetles are to be found in Central 
America. Some have the appearance of 
burnished gold while the others are 
like silver. They are worth $35 apiece. 


At first the gold was won chiefly 
from the gravels along the present 
streams. 
of the rich bars on American, Yuba, 
Feather, and Stanislaus rivers and some 
of the smaller streams in the heart of the 
gold region, made at times from one 
thousand to five thousand dollars a day. 
In 1848 five hundred to seven hundred 
and fifty dollars a day was not unusual 
luck; but, on the other hand, the income 
of the gréat majority of miners was far 
less than that of men who seriously de- 
voted themselves to trade or even to 
common labor. 


268 
An Adjustable Auto Foot-Pedal 


for Short-Legged Drivers 
RR ce HORT per- 
XE sons usually 


have difficulty in 
driving an auto- 
mobile because of 
the distance of 
control pedals 
from the seat. 
Especially is this 
the case in cars made in large quan- 
tity, where no allowances are made 
for the varying leg lengths of prospective 
owners and drivers. For the convenience 
of these short-legged persons there has 
been brought out the two-step extension 
pedal, which can be attached and adjust- 
ed in a few minutes. The pedal consists 
of two sections with a serrated joint, sim- 
ilar to that of the adjustable handlebars 
on bicycles. The pedal can be adjusted 
to suit any driver and is nickel plated. 


An Extra Seat for Ford Cars Which 
Hangs on the Door 

ROWDING 

one or two 
extra persons in- 
to a Ford car ap- 
pears to be rather 
more of a habit 
than before. Time 
has shown that a 
little Ford tour- 
ing car can be relied on to “ramble 
right along’ with as many as seven 
people in it, and inventive geniuses 
are busy supplying additional seats. 
The accompanying illustration shows 
a neat, simple and very light seat, 
to be hung over the doors of the car. 
The hinges at the bottom of the hanging 
rods show that the seat can be folded 
flat. The device is finished in japan, 
with padded leather or pantasote seat. 
The hooks are also padded with leather 
to avoid marring the finish of the doors. 


Beeswax for Cracks and Holes 
HEN filling cracks and holes use 
beeswax instead of putty. Heat 

it until it is plastic and push it into the 
crack. Then sandpaper the wood around 
the crack and let the dust mix with the 
beeswax. When the wood is stained, 
the crack will be hardly noticeable. 


Popular Science Monthly 


This Folding Motor Bucket Is Also 
a Game Bag 


WATER 

bucket which 
folds up and may 
be put in the door 
pocket or under the =& 
cushions of an au- - 
tomobile is one of = 
the most convenient © 
of recent motor ac- 
cessories. It is made 
of heavy brown wa- 
terproof canvas and 
holds over a gallon. 
The only metal in 
the bucket is the top 
rim, which folds compactly, and 
when unfolded stays in position. To un- 
fold, the rims are pushed out iv the reg- 
ular size and the bucket is immediately 
ready for use. It may also be used as 
a fish or game bag, by leaving it flat and 
fastening a strap or small rope in the 
loops on the side of the bucket. This 
latter fact makes it especially handy for 
a long tour. 


A Machine for Cleaning Blackboard 
Erasers 

MECHAN- 
ICAL clean- 

er for blackboard 
erasers has been 
brought out 
which will entire- 
ly obviate the 
highly unpopular 
schoolroom — task 
of beating the 
erasers on the 
window sills, with 
the unpleasant / 
clouding of the /f* 
room which ac- 
companies this 
operation. The apparatus consists of 
several pivoted handles with erasers fas- 
tened at the upper ends, an upright 
screen and a rotating shaft fitted with 
cams. Rotated by a handle at the end 
of the machine, the cams force the han- 
dles outward so that they descend brisk- 
ly upon the screen, thus driving out the 
chalk dust retained in the erasers. A fan 
whirling rapidly at one end of the screen 
blows the dust away from the operator. 


Popular Science Monthly 


If You Only Have a Rope 


UPPOSE you are caught like a rat 

in a trap in a house on fire. Your 
only means of escape may be a dead 
wire; a loose rope, or sheets and blan- 
kets tied together to make a rope. 

Would you know 
how to slide down 
the rope or wire 
like a fireman or 
sailor? You will 
very likely say, as 
sixty odd univer- 
sity students re- 
plied w hen asked 
that question: “Ah, 
that is easy. Any- 
body can slide 
down a rope.” 

But can they? 
Boys are usually as 
agile as monkeys, 
and more likely in 
an emergency to 
be. able’ to fescue 
themselves than 
others, yet a recent 
test of boy scouts 
with a rope lower- 
ed from the first 
story of a suppos- 
edly burning build- 
ing, proved that only two or three 
knew how to use a pole, a wire, twisted 
sheets or a rope in order to reach the 
ground safely. 

Sliding down a rope, like many other 
things, is simple enough—if you know 
how! 

If you lower yourself by letting the 
rope or wire slide and slip through your 
hands or touch any part of the uncov- 
ered. flesh, the motion and friction will 
sting and tear your skin beyond endur- 
ance. This will cause you to let go and 
may produce serious results. 

By holding on with your hands and 
letting your weight go down, one hand 
over the other, you will not go far be- 
fore you are too tired to support your 
own body. Disaster will be the price, 
because you will drop like a shot. Nor 
can you slide with the rope between 
your legs, because the swaying will make 
the rope slip or will jerk it from its clutch. 

There is a right way, which secures 
to you almost the safety of walking on 


The correct way to 
slide down a rope 


269 


solid ground. You stand upright and 
put out your leg, say the right, and 
give it a turn around the rope. Next 
put the rope into the crook of your 
elbow and there hold it firmly. 

Your hands and skin do not now touch 
the rough rope at any spot. You may 
slip down slowly or rapidly, but under 
complete control by bending or stiffening 
the body, to the security below. Your 
garments act as a shield to your flesh, 
and you have a fire-escape and rope-lad- 
der fit for safety, stratagems or adven- 
tures. 


A Bunsen Burner Flat Iron 


N Illinois man- 

ufacturer has 
placed on the mar- 
ket a novel gas flat- 
iron which employs 
the principle of the 
Bunsen burner to 
keep it at an even 
temperature and to 
eliminate any out- 
side heating. Essentially, it consists of a 
hollow flat-iron, in the back of which 1s 
inserted a modified form of the simple 
and inexpensive burner. By its means 
the gas flame is directed down towards 
the point of the iron; and the intensity 
of the heat may be very easily regulated 
by the amount of air admitted to the 
tube attached to the back of the iron. 


A Hair-Drying Comb 


COMB with 

a hollow 
back for receiv- 
ing a hot iron is 
the essential idea 
contained in the 
illustration. The 
comb is the ex- 
ception that the 
back is hollow. A 
handle with a heating iron is provided 
as a part of the device. When it is de- 
sired to use the comb for drying the 
hair, the iron is heated in a gas flame 
and inserted into the back of the comb. 
Gradually the heat is conducted to the 
teeth, which are made of steel. Strok- 
ing the hair with the warm comb readily 
dries it, and, the inventor claims, leaves 
it in a lustrous, soft condition. 


That Mathematical Short: Cut 


Short Cuts in Arithmetic 


HE principle described by Mr. 

Shourn in the November issue of 
the PopuLar ScriENcE MONTHLY as a 
“Short Cut in Multiplication,” can be 
used equally as well in addition, sub- 
traction and division, with slight varia- 
tions. To use his figures in 


Addition. 
974265 — 33 — 6 
84337 = 25 = 7 
13 — 4 
1058602 — 22 —4 
Subtraction. 
974265 —= 33 
84337 —= 25 
8 —8 


889928 — 44 —8 
If the 33 and 25 were further reduced 
it would be 7-from 6, in that case 10 
would have to be added to the six, and 
1 subtracted from result, as below: 
33 = 6 = 16 
23 =—/7 = 


Multiplication. 
974265 == 33 = 4 
84337 — 25 = 7 


B2has/ 307) —" >t — 
Division. 

In division the division digits are mul- 
tiplied by those of the quotient and to 
the result the remainder is added, these 


must equal the sum of the digits of the 
dividend: 


Dividend — 974265 — 33 = 6 
Division — 84337 — 25 — 7 
Quotient —1146558 — 27 — 21/7 
Ara ie oe ees = = 
Dividend = 6 

—L,. E, F. 


270 


Be Sure You're Right 


HOSE who read in the November 

number of the PopuLaR SCIENCE 
MonrTHuty the article entitled “Short-Cut 
Multiplication Proof” may be _inter- 
ested to know that the principle of the 
method there discussed may also be ap- 
plied to the other three fundamental 
arithmetical processes. 

As a simple example suppose we di- 
vide 25 into 375. Our answer or quo- 
tient would be 15. Now let us reduce 
each one of these figures to its lowest 
terms, which, according to this process, 
means adding the 2 and 5 in the divisor, 
making 7. Then 3 plus 7 plus 5 in the 
dividend equals 15, and 1 plus 5 in the 
15 makes 6, the lowest term of our divi- 
dend; and 1 plus 5 equals 6, the lowest 
term of our quotient. To prove the 
problem all that is necessary is to mul- 
tiply the lowest term of our quotient by 
the lowest term of our divisor. If our 
division was correct our answer will be 
the lowest term of the dividend. That 
is, in this case (quotient) 6 x (divisor) 7 
equals 42; and as 4 plus 2 is 6, the same 
as the lowest term of our dividend, we 
know that our division was correct. 

The following is an illustration of 
proving substraction: 


5721 equals when the digits are ee 
tdsether ei Sy eee 
3545 equals when added 17, and 7* 
plus -1 equals .o5.3) 22ers 
2176 equals when added 16, and 6 
plus \2- ‘equals; >... eee 
The same problem in addition would 
be: 


5721 equals 15 equals..... 6 
3545 equals 17 equals..... 8 

14 equals 5 
9266 equals 23 ‘equals.c4:4% equals 5 


With a little practice one may become 
very proficient in reducing the numbers 
to their lowest terms, thus making the 
process valuable for those who have to 
check over their own work. Try it. 


—M. A. 


Popular Science 


Hotel Keys Which Take the Place 
of Shouting Call Boys 


O longer will hotel clerks have to 

“page” the corridors, lobbies and 
bars when a visitor asks for a guest who 
cannot be found in his room. It will 
only be necessary to take the key which 
Mr. Jones has left at the desk, and after 
a glance say, “Mr. Jones may be found 
in the grill room.” 

The labor-saving device which will make 
this possible is a novel key tag which 
has recently been patented by a Chicago 
inventor. The tag, on which the num- 
ber of the room is stamped, is oval, and 
is imprinted with a clock face. By means 
of a pin in the center of the tag the key 
may be fastened so that it will act as 
the clock hand, indicating the approx1- 
» mate time when the user expects to re- 


This key tells where 
to look for missing 
guests, when a pin 
is inserted to indi- 
cate the place where 
ee fete he can be found 


turn. On the outer edge of the tag are 
a series of small holes. Near these are 
stamped the names of the various public 
rooms of the hotel. Another pin is at- 
tached to the tag by means of a light 
cord or chain, and this may be placed in 
any of the holes, indicating the place 
where he may be found. 


Water That Cannot Be Cut 


FACTORY in Grenoble, France, 

utilizes the water of a reservoir sit- 
uated in the mountains at a height of 
two hundred yards. The water reaches 
the factory through a vertical tube of 
the same length, with a diameter con- 
siderably less than an inch, the jet being 
used to move a turbine. Experiments 


Monthly 


A stream of water under high | pressure will 
break the blade of a sword if an attempt 
is made to cut it 
have showed that the strongest men can- 
not cut the jet with the best tempered 
sword; and in some instances the blade 
has been broken into fragments without 
deflecting a drop of the water, and with 
as much violence as a pane of glass may 
be shattered by a blow from an iron bar. 
It has been calculated that a jet of water 
a small fraction of an inch in thickness, 
moving with sufficient velocity, could 

not be cut by a rifle bullet. 

The engineers of some big water pow- 
er projects of the Far West are willing 
to wager that a two hundred pound man, 
swinging a four-pound ax with all his 
might, cannot make a “dent” in the wa- 
ter as it emerges from the nozzle at the 
power house. Burying an ax in a stream 
of water looks like child’s play, and the 
average two hundred pound visitor is 
likely “to bite.” He invariably loses. So 
great is the velocity of the water emerg- 
ing from the nozzle in these modern 
power plants that an ax, no matter how 
keen its edge, is whirled from the hands 
of the axman as soon as it touches the 
water. The water travels under a pres- 
sure exceeding 500 pounds to the square 
inch in many instances, and no power on 
earth can turn ‘it off at the nozzle, once 
it gains mometum. It has the same ef- 
fect on one’s fingers as a rough emery 
wheel, and will shave a plank with the 
nicety of a razor-edged plane. When, 
as frequently happens, it is necessary to 
shut down a power plant operated by 
one of these streams, the nozzle is de- 
flected by means of a powerful set of 
gears. 


What’s New in Patents 
Little Inventions to Make Life Easy 


A New Headlight Dimmer 


SMAEL 

searchlight is 
nested in one of an 
ordinary size, pro- 
viding two com- 
plete headlights, 
one within the oth- 
er. The larger 
one, when lighted, 
throws its beams 
in an anular ring 
of light past the 
headlight which 
has been nested therein. This makes a 
dim light. To make a brilliant light, both 
are illuminated at the same time. 


Keeping Your Sole Warm 


% LAYER of 

; thick felt or 
rubber is sewed to 
a frame made of a 
resilient material, 
and shaped to fol- 
low the outline of 
the sole of a boot 
or shoe. At convenient points on the 
outside edge of the attachable outer sole 
are sewed projections or loops through 
which may be passed straps for secur- 
ing the outer sole to the sole of the shoe. 


Adjusting a Brush to Its Handle 


DE TACH- 

ABLE and 
adjustable handle 
-is fitted to the 
standard form of 
‘brush by means of 
a slotted fork and 
held to the brush 
by means of a bolt 
and a winged nut, 
which may be tightened or loosened by 
the fingers. By means of this fastening, 
the handle may be secured to the brush 
at any desired angle, or it may be re- 
moved at will. 


For Applying Chains to Wheels 


BAR, having 

a central 
spring clip de- 
signed to grip the 
spoke of a wheel, 
is provided with 
two hooks on each | 
end. In applying 
anti-skid chains to 
the wheel, after 
adjusting the clip, 
the ends of the chains are each engaged 
on the hooks, which are stationary, and 
the chains are thus held firmly in position. 


An Egg-Tester and Mailing 
Tube Combined . 


SHEET of 

paper - board 
is rolled so that it 
will be somewhat 
tapered. On the 
larger end, the tube 
is so cut that it will 
fit the size of an 
egg held against it. 
A circular or other 
piece of printed matter may be mailed 
in this tube, and the recipient may use 
it to test eggs, by pressing an egg against 
the end and looking toward the light 
through the smaller end. 


A Clothes Rack Dryer 


NUMBER of 
heavy wires 
are fitted with 


hooks at their low- 
er ends and sliding 
rings at the center 
and upper ends to 
form a collapsible 
clothes rack which 
can be fitted to an 
oil heater. By the 
sliding of the retaining 


the 
device may be disengaged from the 
stove, collapsed, and stored in a small 
space, 


rings, 


Popular Science Monthly 


Combined Coat Hanger and 
Trousers Stretcher 


GEOTHES 

hanger and 
trouser hanger 
are connected by 
a device which is 
commonly called 
a “lazy tongs.” 
When the trous- 
ers have been 
hung on the de- 
vice, the tongs are stretched as far as 
possible and locked, thus holding the 
trousers stretched. A coat and vest may 
be hung on this device at the same time 
by making use of the clothes hanger 
which forms the uppermost section of 
the apparatus. 


Making it Easy for the Birds 


CYLINDRI- 
GAL barkd 
box is made of 
fire-clay or pot- 
tery and is fash- 
ioned on the out- 
side to resemble 
the trunk and 
bark: afca: dreersA 
J slanting roof, 
which projects well above the walls of 
the house to prevent the leakage of rain 
or water into the house, is provided with 
deep flanges to hold it securely in place. 
A circular hole is made in the side near 
the top for the free passage of the birds, 
and on the inside is a climbing strip lead- 
ing from the bottom to the side opening 
near the top to aid young birds or in- 
jured ones to reach the opening. 


A Simple Signal for Automobiles 


N one side of 
the rear light 
J.| is marked the word 
=a “Stop.” The light 
is mounted on a 
| pivot, being actu- 
ated by a rod con- 
nected with the 
brake rod. When 
the brake is moved by the driver, the 
light turns, exposing the warning signal 
to the rear. 


9713 
Keeping Shampoo Soap Out of 
Your Ears 
WO ear pro- 


tectors are 
held in their prop- 
er places by means 
of a resilient metal 
band fitting under 
the chin. Passing 
over the top and 
front of the pro- 
tectors is a trough 
to catch liquid which might fall from the 
hair while the latter is being shampooed. 
The liquid passes over the top and is 
guided downward into the bowl, or if 
it falls against the front of the protect- 
or it is guided downward into two small 
cups or retainers which are suspended 
from the front of the protectors. 


A Shaving Mug with a Soap Pump 
SHAVING =< 
mug is made Ss 

with a false bot- 
tom to contain liq- 
uid soap. Passing 
into the soap reser- 
voir is a plunger 
which, when push- 
ed, allows a suffi- 
cient quantity of. 

soap for one shave to pass into the water 
reservoir. 


Snapping the Snapping Turtle 


NUMBER of 

resilient wires 
are attached to the 
end of a long pole. 
Each wire is pro- 
vided at its lower 
extremity with a 
hook which is first 
bent inwardly and 
then outwardly. In use, when a turtle 
or tortoise is seen crawling upon a river 
bed, the operator, with a quick down- 
ward movement of the pole, forces the 
free ends of the gripping wires or fin- 
gers downward upon the shell back of 
the reptile. The wire fingers spread out- 
ward until they ride over the edge of 
the shell back. The shoulders formed 
by the shape of the wire fingers engage 
under the shell and grip it tightly. 


Q74 
A Headlight Dimmer Operated from 
the Seat 
H-@:OD¥ err, 
sth re dds 


formed of a single 
piece of metal, is 
fitted to a pivot on 
each side of an au- 
tomobile headlight 
and equipped with 
an arm leading to 
a controlling lever. 
The shield, in its normal position, rests 
above the lamp, but when the con- 
trol lever is actuated from the driving 
seat, the shield pivots to the front of the 
lamp and deflects the rays of the search- 
light, so that the blinding light will not 
dazzle an approaching pedestrian or 
driver. 


A Stepladder and Ironing Board 


DEVICE that 

will appeal to 
the housewife who 
desires compactness 
is a step-ladder at- 
tached to an iron- 
ing board by means 
A brace is secured to the 


of two pivots. 
legs of the ladder and engages the bot- 
tom rung and holds the ladder in place. 
A similar brace makes it into an ironing 


table. The combination when not in use 
can be folded together to save storage 
space. 


Increasing your Grip on the Golf Club 


HE palm and 
f fingers of a 
ZE glove are provided 
*ZE_| with a number of 
— gripping surfaces 
composed of flex- 
_ible leather. These 
arencut tovsucha 
shape that when 
the glove is encir- 
cling a golf-club the maximum amount 
of gripping space is in proximity to the 
club, thus insuring a firm grip. On the 
back of the glove are numerous ventilat- 
ing holes, which also add to the flexi- 
bility of the glove. 


Popular Science Monthly 


It’s a Wise Man That Knows his own 
Tooth Brush 


HE handle of 

a tooth brush 
is made of a trans- 
parent material 
and is_ provided 
with a deep longi- 
tudinal slot. In this 
slot may be slipped 
a label upon which 
is marked the name 
of the owner of the tooth brush. A plug 
is furnished to seal the open end of the 
slot, making the interior waterproof. 
By means of this device the name of the 
owner is permanently placed upon the 
instrument, and is not made illegible by 
handling or by the influence of water. 


aa 


A Sop to Feminine Vanity 


FAN is made 

with a small 
mirror placed on 
the inside of one 
of the end blades. 
A small button on 
the same blade is 
designed for en- fa 
gagement with a 
hole in the adjacent blade. When ie 
button is engaged in the hole, the mir- 
ror is concealed behind the adjacent 
blade, which does not open, with the rest 
of the fan. When it is designed to use 
the mirror, a slight pressure upon the 
end blade will free the button and ex- 
pose the hidden mirror. 


Making Potato Chips by Machine 


THREADED 

rod is set on 
a stationary arm 
which is provided 
with a clamp and 
set screw so that it 
may be secured to 
a “Maples "On the 
arm, opposite the 
threaded.arm, is 
mounted a pin and a knife blade. A po- 
tato is placed upon the pin, and by means 
of a handle the threaded arm is rotated, 
thus pushing the potato against the 
knife. In the process of turning the 
handle, the knife cuts the potato into 
strips stiitable. 


) 


oi 


For Practical Workers 


To Prevent Bolt from Turning When 
Unscrewing Nut 

iH) ij HE bolt 
Hy will of- 
ten turn in 
unscrewing 
nuts, and 
should it be 
a carriage 
bolt difficul- 
ty is often 
experienced 
in unscrew- 


Vie 


This file prevents the bolt 
from turning 


The ac 
com panying 
illustration shows a very simple method 
of preventing the bolt from turning, by 
simply clamping a coarse file over the 
head of it, as indicated. 


Saw Box 


HE saw box illustrated is one 

which has proven itself well worth 
while. In cutting a large number of 
pieces to the same length it was found 
that the old-fashioned box soon became 
inaccurate, due to the contact of the 
teeth of the saw with the edges of the 
guides. To obviate this trouble and se- 
cure a more permanent and serviceable 
box this one was designed. 

The drawing requires very little ex- 
planation. Hardwood, preferably maple, 
is used throughout. The saw is first 
equipped with the two strips of wood, 
one on either side. These are bolted 
on to the saw with two 14” x 1” stove 
bolts, heads and nuts set flush to allow 
the saw to pass between the vertical 
guides. The holes may be _ readily 


punched in the saw by means of a good 
punch. Hold the saw on the end grain 
of a block of hardwood and keep the 
holes at least 34” from the edge, in 
order to avoid cracking the saw. 

As the saw will be found a little 
thicker at the heel than the point, as 
well as at the teeth, than the back, the 
boards will have to be dressed down to 
bring them the same thickness at every 
point, after they have been bolted on. 
Be quite certain to take the same 
amount from each board. 

Next work out the parts for the box 
and carefully assemble the boards at 
one end. Place the saw in position and 
assemble the boards on the other end, 
being certain that there is just enough 
play to allow the saw to move freely, 
but with no shake. A little beeswax or 
floor wax on all the guides will keep the 
saw moving freely and easily and will 
also prevent wear. 

An excellent depth gage can be ar- 
ranged as suggested in the sketch. A 
fine tooth saw will give best results. 
The saw is always available for other 


_ work by removing the screws and taking 


off the boards. The holes in no wise in- 


terfere. 


Ye"X3°X SAW LENGTH 


This saw box will be found more perma- 
nent and serviceable than the old-fashioned 
box 


275 


276 


Potato Roaster for Campers 


POTATO roaster for camping 
parties may be made from a sheet 
of stiff sheet metal—iron will usually be 


Mi 


bi 
is 
r 


The potatoes are held on nails, and 
the heat circulates evenly 


the handiest—through which a number 
of nails spaced equally distant are 
driven. The potatoes are pushed upon 
the nails and the loaded tray~ lowered 
over the glowing coals of the camp fire. 
The heat circulates about the potatoes 
evenly; so they are roasted uniformly. 


An Electrical Peddler Chaser 


| eipemeeeos the greatest source of 
annoyance to the housewife is an- 
swering the door-bell for agents who 
peddle things not worth buying. 

A little device shown in the accom- 
panying sketch will save her much an- 
noyance. The little box is placed at the 
front door over the bell button on a level 
with the eye. It contains a sign which 
shows through a small window. The 
sign is operated similarly to an old- 
fashioned window shutter by an electro- 


1/ WE DO NOT 
NEED ANYTHING 


This sign is guaranteed to rout any peddler 


J) yi iw 


Popular Science Monthly 


magnet; when not in use the two leaves 
of the shutter lie horizontal as in the 
right-hand drawing. In this position the 
sign cannot be read. The leaves are 
hinged to a double-armed rod, which, in 
turn, rests on a long lever, the lever being 
pinioned very near the magnet on a 
small bracket. This increases the lift 
of the magnet, so that about a quarter 


of an inch of movement on the left end 


will give about an inch and a half at the 
right, which is sufficient to bring the 
leaves in a perpendicular position and to 
exhibit the sign, which is drawn back by 
gravity. 

A push button is situated at a point 
in the house from which a view of the 
front walk or porch may be obtained; 
or, if the front door contains a glass, 
near the kitchen door. When an agent 
rings the bell the button is pressed and 
he is dismissed by the sign. He can’t 
argue with this “Agent Chaser.” 


The nails have their heads filed to a point, 
and prevent the casks from slipping 


Prevents Casks Slipping While 
Unloading 


ILY barrels or casks give truckmen 

much trouble when they are loaded 
upon wagons or drays, owing to the ten- 
dency of the unwieldy object to slip on 
the ways which are placed between the 
truck or wagon floor and the sidewalk. 
This difficulty can be removed by driv- 
ing a row of stout nails into the ways 
and filing the heads to a sharp point. 
While not seriously marring the face of 
the casks, the points prevent them from 


slipping. 


Popular Science Monthly 


An Electric Toy Semaphore 


N electric semaphore, if used in 

connection with a toy electric rail- 
way, will be interesting as well as in- 
structive. 

Its construction requires an electro- 
magnet, (F) Fig. 1, pulling down an 
arm (A) when the magnet is energized. 
The arm is provided with a small ex- 
tension, so that it automatically shows 
the regulation colored lights at either po- 
sition of the arm. When at right an- 
gles to the standard it is supposed to 
signify “Stop” or “Danger,” and a tiny 
red light shows. When hanging down 
at 45° from the standard it signifies 
“Clear Track” and only a small white 
light is seen. 


The 
painted, has a very realistic appearance 


Fig. 1. semaphore, if properly 


Fig. 2 is the detail of the semaphore 
arm, which is made of light sheet brass 
or aluminum. The dimensions explain 
it thoroughly. The small lip which is 
to be bent outwards at right angles is 
the part to which the string (K) is at- 
tached. 

Dimensions for a magnet cover (B) 
that will fit over a magnet taken from 
a medium sized bell or buzzer are shown 
in Fig. 3. This should be made of light 
sheet brass or aluminum. Small lips 
are provided which are bent in and sol- 


Q77 


dered or riveted to an adjoining side. 
The dotted lines indicate where the metal 
should be bent. No dimensions are giv- 
en for the small holes, their size de- 
pending on the size screw used to fasten 
the cover to the base. 


Fig. 2. 


Detail of the semaphore arm, 
showing dimensions 


The lamp (C), Fig. 4, is made of 
hard wood, 114” square, into which holes 
are bored as shown in the figure. Small 
31% volt flashlight lamps fitted into min- 
lature sockets are put into the 14” hole 
as far as they will go. The end is then 
filled with putty so that it is lightproof. 
The 34” holes are covered with tissue 
paper, the top with white and the bot- 
tom with red. The lights may be con- 
nected in multiple or series, depending 
on the voltage of the current. If small 
telephone switchboard lights and the 
opals which fit into the switchboard 
sockets can be procured the holes may 
be bored smaller and a much neater ef- 
fect secured. 

The base (D) and the standard (E) 
are made of hard wood. The base should 
be about 14” thick. In Fig. 5, the plan 
of the arrangement of the parts is 
shown. The four small holes shown 


Dimensions for cover to fit 


Fig. 3. 
magnet taken from bell or buzzer 


278 


are for binding posts. Each element has 
its own set of binding posts. The rea- 
son for this is that some experimenters 
have a_ step 
down trans- 
former which 
would be suit- 
able for the 
lights but 
Ca rH ot “pe 
used in con- 
nection with 
the magnet. 

No dimen- 
sions are giv- 
en for the spring (G), armature (H), 
or projection arm (Fig. 1), their size 
depending on the size magnet used. 
The spring (G) should be made of some 
spring metal, such as german silver or 
phosphor bronze. The armature (H) ts 
made of soft iron and the projection 
arm of aluminum. The spring and arm 
are riveted to the armature. 


Bearing point of semaphore arm 


Fig. 4. Diagram showing con- 
struction of lamp 


Big: "5: 


Plan of arrangement of parts, 
with dimensions 


An angle arm (J), holds the lamp to 
the standard. It should be about 14” 
wide and each arm about 1” long. 

The string (K) attached to the pro- 
jection arm is the means by which the 
semaphore arm is moved when the ar- 
mature is pulled down by the magnet. 
If a light brass chain is used in place of 
the string, the appearance is more real- 
istic. 

Fig. 7 shows the wiring diagram when 
used with one source of current. The 
key is a strap key or push-button, 


Popular Science Monthly 


placed at a distance from the 
semaphore. In Fig. 1, the 
arm is shown with the cur- 
rent passing through the 
magnet. 

When completed and as- 
sembled, if the cover, base 
and lamp are painted black, 
the standard painted white 
and the semaphore arm 
painted red with two white 
stripes as shown it gives the 
semaphore a very realistic 
appearance. 

The semaphore need not be. 
entirely electric as the sema- 
phore arm can be constructed 
so that it will move with a 
lever instead of an electro- 
magnet. In such a case, its 
construction will be much 
simpler than when electricity 
is used. 


Saving Time in Tracing a Design 


EARLY every worker, from the 
lady embroiderer to the machine 
shop designer, at some time has use 
for a symmetrical design, yet they us- 
ually go to the trouble of drawing each 
side out, or tracing one side. A far 
quicker and easier way is to use the 
following draughtsman’s method: 
Draw one half of the design out on 
tracing paper, or any strong tissue 
paper. Fold this over on top of the 
blank half, being careful that the 
crease comes exactly along the center 
line of the whole design. With a silver 
half-dollar, pass over the top of all us- 
ing a rapid to-and-fro stroke. The de- 
sign is now reproduced perfectly on 
the other half of the paper. For this 
work the pencil should not be too hard, 
F or B, or a common No. 2. 


Magners 


Wiring diagram when semaphore 
is operated with batteries 


Fig. 7. 


Popular Science Monthly 


Enlarging a Runabout’s Capacity 


HE torpedo extension with which 
most runabouts are built is often 


inadequate for carrying packages or bun- 
With 


dles of more than ordinary size. 
some extra lumber, the 
capacity of a small au- 
tomobile may be con- 
siderably increased, as 
shown in the sketch. 
An extra box is so con- 
structed as to get tele- - 
scopically into, and 
slide easily in and out of 
the main box on the 
rear of the car. When 
the hood is lifted and 
folded back, this extra 
drawer may be extend- 
ed into the hood and 
supported by it. In this 
way an extensible box 
is furnished which con- 
siderably increases the capacity of a 
runabout without decreasing its strength 
or detracting from its appearance. 


A Non-Spillable Funnel 


FUNNEL which will cease flow- 

ing automatically when the vessel 
into which the liquid is being poured 
reaches a certain height, can be devised 
by attaching a metal float to the tapering 
funnel-tip. The float is a small metal 
cylinder closed at both ends. Small brass 


When the funnel is filled the float rises 
and stops the flow . 


279 


tubes should be soldered on opposite 
sides of the float, as indicated in the 
drawing. Nails which will fit loosely in 
the tubes (to give the float free play) 
should be soldered at their points to the 
tip of the funnel, with the-float in place. 


The extensible box is easily made and greatly enlarges the 


capacity of the car 


When liquid is poured into the funnel, 
it will flow past the float until the vessel 
is nearly filled, whereupon the float will 
rise and check the funnel’s. discharge. 
The funnel can then be withdrawn quick~ 
ly, so that little or no liquid is lost. 


Mat-Making for Photographers 


AKE a few spoiled plates and clean 

off the film. Cut off four pieces 

from a roll of passepartout, one for each 

edge of glass. Paste these on the glass 

along the edges, leaving an opening in 

the center of the glass a little smailer 
than the films or plates. 

In using this put the mask in the 
printing frame first, lay the film or 
plate on top, and print in the usual way. 

By making a number of masks with 
different size openings in the center, dif- 
ferent size films. or plates can be 
printed. 

If a mask of special design is wanted, 
paste the loose mat on the glass, as it 
saves time, and also prevents the mat 
from being lost, torn or creased. 

Passepartout tape can be bought at 
any art store for to cents a roll of 12 
dozen yards. This will make all the dif- 
ferent size masks wanted, and there will 
be enough left over to passepartout a 
number of prints. 


280 Popular 


Shock Absorbers 


FTER a season without shock ab- 
sorbers on an automobile and a sea- 

son with them, a driver will be thorough- 
ly convinced of their worth. Here are 
given sketches and descriptions of a type 
which can be built by anyone handy with 
tools. The advantages of shock absorb- 


ers may be summed up in three words: 
comfort, speed and saving. With shock 
absorbers a light car equals in riding 
quality cars of much greater weight and 
longer wheel base. A speed of five to ten 
The 


miles more per hour is practicable. 


aS = 

== Siac 

SSS == 

== 
= SSS 
—s — as 
—_ I es 
—s Se — 
= —— = 
—: ee Se 
ito TESS 


These shock absorbers may be made with 
the aid of a few good tools 
saving is in the general wear and tear 
on the machine and especially in the tires. 
The absorbers shown here are fairly 


simple in construction, requiring no 
welding or other difficult forging opera- 
tions and but the simplest of machine 
shop operations, that of drilling. 

The rear absorber is somewhat simpler 
than the front one. Eight of the brackets 
shown are worked up. The hole in the 
top is formed by bending the piece of 


4" x ¥4" mild steel around the proper 
size pin. The size of this hole is not 


given, as it will vary, in some cases be- 


Science Monthly 


ing %4” and in others 9/16”, depending 
on the make of car. This is a matter 
which the maker must determine before 
ordering the stock. Cold rolled steel is 
used for all bolts. The width of the 
spring leaf will determine the length of 
the bolts. 

After the brackets have all been bent 
up a clip is placed around the neck of 
each. Some of the %4” x 34” stock 1s 
used for these. The clip is first made 
U-shaped and then placed over the neck’ 
while hot and the ends clinched or bent 
over. These ends should be just long 
enough to come together when bent over. 
The cross bar at the bottom of the rear 
absorber is made long enough to support 
the side of the springs. This bar is made 
from 4%” x 1” stock. The bottoms of 
the brackets having been bent to shape, 
the cross bar is held in position and the 
holes drilled. Rivets of %4” are used to 
hold these parts together, but before 
fastening finally the springs must first be 
provided and fit on the brackets. It is 
best to round the corners of the brackets 
to form a better support for the spring 
as well as to prevent the coils becoming 
nicked, thus causing them to weaken and 
finally break. 

Owing to the method of attaching 
front springs in use on almost all types 


of cars, the design of the front shock 


absorber must be radically different from 
that of the back. Here the pull is up 
instead of down, so the coil springs must 
be held rigid at the upper end and links 
used to transmit the shock down and un- 
der the bottom ends of the coil springs, 
which in this case are the free ends. A 
study of the sketch will show the con- 
struction clearly. In order to prevent the 
springs coming up over the bracket too 
far a set screw is placed in each side 
of each bracket as suggested in the 
sketches. A 14” set screw is heavy 
enough for this. The link is detailed in 
the sketch, except the size of the holes 
which will be determined by the size of 
the holes in the spring. The bottom cross 
bar is cut off even with the edge of the 
bracket instead of allowing it to extend 
as in the case of that on the rear absorb- 
er. The corners are again ground round 
before assembling the springs in place 
permanently. 


Popular Science Monthly 


The weight of the car will determine 
the size wire to be used in the coil 
springs; 3/16” for the front springs and 
%” for the rear ones is about right for 
a car in the 2,000 pound class. This is 
figured for a touring car where five pas- 
sengers are to be carried. In the case of 
the roadster the rear springs could be of 
one size smaller wire. In the case of 
cars materially heavier the size of the 
wire should be increased. In order that 
the springs may carry the load properly 
they must be made 1” longer than the 
place they are expected to fill. This 
means that when they are assembled in 
the finished shock absorber, they are 
already under compression. According- 
ly those for the front absorbers should 
be 6” and those for the rear springs 7” 
long. The inside diameter of the springs 
should be not less than 114” in any case. 

Those fortunate enough to have ac- 
cess to a machine shop can wind their 
own springs if. desired, although there 
will be no great saving as the springs 
will be made up as ordered by any good 
spring manufacturer for about twenty- 
five cents each. 

When placing the absorbers on the car 
they should first have their springs com- 
pressed and tied down with wire in order 
that they will not interfere with placing 
the bolts through. To compress them, 
use a cabinet clamp or vise. 

The entire cost of the absorbers de- 
scribed was just $3.34 outside of the 
work. 


Key Controls Battery Current 


HERE batteries are placed on 

bicycles or motorcycles for light- 
ing purposes, it is a great temptation to 
mischievous boys to turn the current on, 
a circumstance which, of course, means 
a loss of money to the owner of the 
vehicle. Such happenings can be averted 
if a lock switch is employed for con- 
trolling the battery current. 


Fig ve 


When the key is withdrawn, the auto-thief or 
mischievous boy is foiled 


281 


The batteries should be placed in a 
metal cylinder, the ends of which are 
plugged with wooden discs. On one of 
these discs a small drawer lock is fasten- 
ed. At one side of the lock—the side 
from which the bolt emerges when the 
key is turned—a brass or phosphor- 
bronze contact spring should be fas- 
tened.. When the key is turned, the bolt 
pushes this spring against a brass con- 
tact, and current flows from the bat- 
teries to the lamps. 


Eliminates Pants’ Guards for 
Bicycle Riders 
CHAIN guard can be made for 
bicycles which will dispense with 
the need of pants guards. _ 
A circular piece of stiff metal, having 
a diameter 1” greater than that of the 


A circular piece of metal protects the trousers 
from the sprocket gear 


large sprocket, should be cut and 
crimped along the edge. Clamps should 
be fashioned from heavy steel or iron 
for the purpose of grasping the spokes 
of the sprocket. The clamps should, be 
soldered to one face of the protecting 
disc and holes bored through the two. 
Machine screws pass throug’. the holes, 
terminating in tapped holes in similar 
clamps on the opposite side. 


A Try-Square Aid 


HEN using a try-square to deter- 
mine if stock is true, one cannot 
remember all the high and low spots. If 
the edge of the try-square is dipped in 
lamp black before using, and is then run 
on the piece, all the high spots will be 
black while the low places will remain 
untouched. 


282 


How a Jack Knife Can be Used 
as a Compass — 


POCKET 
knife that 
_ has two blades 
at one end can be 
VD) wn | converted, with 
Ee the use of a pen- 
“<3 cil, into a make- 
= shift drawing 
compass. One blade should be opened 
entirely ; the other only half way, so that 
they form a right angle. 
is half. opened is placed point down on 
the paper, while a pencil is fastened to 
the other, and the circle drawn. 


Enlarging Without Dividers 


RAAUW fa 

straight line 
on a strip of cel- 
luloid or tracing 
cloth, and with a 
thumb tack fix 
the strip on co- 
ordinate paper in such a way that the 
line always intersects axis XX, YY. This, 
of course, is best done on a drawing 
board. By swinging the free end of 
the strip to any position between the 
axes, any proportion is obtainable. 

The principle of triangles, by which 
the proportions are obtained, is so well 
known that further explanation seems 
unnecessary. Still, here is a concrete 
example: 

Let us suppose that we want to make 
a drawing twice the dimensions of an 
original. Measure a distance of 2” 
along the horizontal as indicated and 
locate the point P. Then shift the strip 
until the vertical distance to the central 
line is exactly 1”. We then have the 
ratio 2 to 1 as desired. Every hori- 
zontal distance from the axis of the 
strip is twice the vertical distance. 

Should the desired ratio be 4 to I or 
3 to I, or anything else, the same method 
is easily and consistently followed. 


Bending Brass Tubes Without Kinking 


RASS tubes can be bent without 

kinking if they are _ previously 
filled with fine sand. Both ends of the 
tube should be closed with wooden 
plugs. : 


The blade that - 


Popular Science Monthly 


A Self-Lighting Arc Light 


ROC RE. 7a 

tin can about 
Oink ‘diameter 
and. cut “thi ee 
holes in the side 
about 3” from the 
back, as shown 
in the drawing. : 
The two holes AA must hold a sec- 
tion of rubber hose tightly. A short 
porcelain tube Q is put in the third 
hole. The hose holds the carbon F stiff 
while the carbon F is loose in the insula- 
tion. The carbon is supported at X by 
a piece of No. 25 gage German silver 
wire about 6” long. This wire runs 
through the tube B to the binding post 
D. The binding post D is fastened to a 
wooden plug in the end of the tube Q. 
The tube is adjusted so that the end of 
the carbon FE touches the end of F. 


The wires leading to the light circuit 
are connected with the binding post D 
and the end of the carbon F. A resist- 
ance, consisting of about 15’ of No. 25 
gage German silver wire, is inserted at R. 


When the current is turned on it ex- 
pands the wire C, pushing the carbon £ 
away from F, forming an arc. When 
the current is shut off and the wire cools, 
the carbons are drawn together ready 
for relighting. 


An Ingenious Electric Connector 
LEC Paes 


onnectors for 
low voltage cir- 
cuits can be made 
from the small 
metal cases that 
are used for storing pen points. Holes 
should be bored in the ends of each half 
and binding posts attached, as shown in 
the sketch. This connector can be used 
for battery circuits. 


To Prevent Rust 


OOLS which are kept in a damp 

cellar can be protected from rust 
very easily, if a pan containing un- 
slacked lime is placed under the bench. 
The moisture is entirely absorbed by the 
lime. 


Popular Science Monthly 


Rinsing Photographic Negatives 
Without Running Water 
MATEUR photographers who are 
compelled to labor under the dif- 
ficulties of developing prints and nega- 
tives without the aid of running water, 


) 


If the pail is high 

enough, a service- 

able spray will fall 
upon the plates 


anni ’ 


aS 


will find the apparatus which is shown 
in the drawings to be of considerable 
assistance. Water is syphoned through 
a small tube from a pail, the tube lead- 
ing to the center of a developing tray 
where it is bent upwards at a right angle. 

If the pail is elevated to a sufficient 
height above the tray, the pressure will 
cause a spray, which will be distributed 
evenly over the emulsion surface. The 
used water is syphoned from a corner 
of the tray by another tube. 


Small Screws in Difficult Places 


AB a bit of beeswax on the head 
of ithe screw and push the point 
of the screw-driver through the wax and 
into the slot of the screw. The screw 
will be held in just the right position 
for driving home. Or again, if the 
screws are of steel the driver may be 
magnetized by stroking it a few times 
with a magnet. Its insertion will then 
become much easier. If the slot in the 
head is very shallow, the screw will be 
likely to slide over and stick to the 
blade of the screw-driver. In this case, 
use the bees-wax. 
Of course, it is evident that the hold 
on the screw is very light and can be 


283 


used only to drive a screw into its cor- 
responding tap. For inserting wood 
screws the above methods are out of the 
question. 


A Mysterious Motor 


HE “Mysterious Motor” will puz- 

zle any one. Not only the novice, 

but professional electricians must do a 
deal of thinking to decide how it runs. 

The little toy consists of an electro- 
magnet over which is suspended a 
four-spoked iron wheel mounted on a 
thick wooden base. When placed upon 
a flat metal surface the motor will run, 
but when set upon a non-conductor it 
will remain motionless. 

The thick base is hollowed out from 
the bottom to make sufficient room for 
a small flash-light battery. Four brass 
tacks are driven into the base. From 
one of these tacks runs a wire to the 
thin copper brush, to which the iron 
wheel acts as a comutator and: arma- 
ture combined. The current passes 
through the brush into the wheel, 
thence through the support to the coil. 
From the coil it passes on to one pole 
of the battery and from the opposite 
pole to another tack. This leaves the 
circuit broken between the two tacks, 
when the brush is in contact with the 
iron wheel. Consequently, when the 
device is placed upon a conductor the 
circuit is closed and the wheel revolves. 

The remainder of the cavity occu- 
pied by the battery is plugged with 
wood, and the base covered with heavy 
blotting paper, allowing the tacks to 
protrude. 

Much amusement may be derived 
from the “Mysterious Motor,” ‘at a 
party by announcing that you have a 
motor that will gather its power from 
the air, when placed upon any metal, 
and then giving a demonstration. 


When the motor is placed upon metal it 
will operate; on wood, it refuses to move 


284 Popular Science Monthly 


Filter for Lubricating Oil 
ih eae apparatus to be described was 
made for the purpose of filtering 
oil pumped from the crankcase of a ma- 
rine gas engine after it had been used 
in the cylinders and bearings of the 
engine. The oil filtered out perfectly 


‘Fig.2 


il 
| 
! 
| 
| 


a 


The oil is poured into the container through the 
paper filter, and collects in the container to be 


drawn when needed 


clear and was used over and over with — 


perfect success. 

Referring to the drawings, A is the 
container, made of zinc with soldered 
and riveted seams, about 16” high and 
14” in diameter. On one end of the 
cylinder A was soldered the cone-shaped 
part D with a %%” brass pipe coupling 
E soldered into the small end. A brass 
shut-off cock F was screwed into this 
coupling as shown. A loose-fitting cover 
was made to fit the open end of the con- 
tainer. _This cover B was about 14” 
larger in diameter than the container, 
and had a handle C riveted on to the top. 

To support this container a ring of 


lop view of stand” 


strap iron was riveted together and three 
legs riveted on, as shown, with holes for 
holding down screws bored in the feet. 
Three angle pieces of sheet iron H H H, 
were riveted on to the ring G for the bot- 
tom of the container to rest on. 


Another ring J was riveted together 
of a size to slip easily into the 
container. Then a cone was 
made up of copper wire gauze 
K and soldered to the bottom 
of the ring J as shown. Two 
or three sheet iron clips LZ L, 
riveted to J and bent over 
the outside edge of the con- 
tainer, served to hold the cone 
in place. This wire gauze is 
intended as a support for the 
filter paper, which is folded up 
into a cone as shown in Fig. 4 
and placed inside the wire gauze 
cone. The oil is then poured 
into the paper and will slowly 
filter through and collect in the 
bottom of the container. It can. 
either be drawn off by the valve 
as needed or be allowed to run 
through all the time and be col- 
lected in a can or other recep- 
tacle. 


It may require some experi- 
menting to find the best kind of 
paper to use, but for oil such as 
“Havoline” or “Monogram” or- 
dinary brown wrapping paper or 
even newspaper is perfectly sat- 
isfactory. Unsized paper is of 
course preferable, because of its 
porous character. 


Fuse for Storage Battery Circuits 


PIECE of glass tubing of small 

diameter is cut into pieces about 
one inch long. Small holes are drilled 
in the bottoms of used cartridge shells. 
The shells should be as nearly the size 
of the tubes as possible. They are then 
put on the ends of the tubes and a short 
length of German silver wire is put 
through the holes in the shells and 
soldered. The size of the wire can best 
be determined by experiment. Two 
fuses made in this way are fastened to 
a block of wood by four small clips and 
the fuse block is done. 


—- — 


Popular Science Monthly 285 


A Way of Fastening Machine Parts 


N building models of machines, en- 

gines, etc., the amateur is sometimes 
confronted with a case somewhat like 
that shown. 

The shaft A is of small diam- 
eter; the hub of the gear B is 
a great deal larger than neces- 
sary, requiring a large diam- 
efer-taperpin C. If this pin is 
driven in as shown in Fig. 1, it 
will weaken the shaft, but if the 
pin is driven in as shown in Fig. 
2, the shaft is only weakened 
slightly. The pin C in Fig. 1 can 
shear or break or twist at points 
D, but when the pin is driven as 
shown in Fig. 2, this is impos- 
sible and the shaft and pin will 
carry a far greater load than the 
old conventional way of pinning 
as shown in Fig. 1. 


A Capacity Job 


OME small stands had been de- 
signed both to length and size at 

the bottom so that they would fill the 
lathe completely. When it came to 
facing the top and bottom of the stands 


By means of the arrangement shown in 
the lower cut, the lathe is able to take 


larger stands. The upper cut is the 
original arrangement of the lathe 


it was discovered that the carriage 
could not be moved far enough to the 
right to allow the cross slide on which 
the tool is mounted to be moved in 
and out, it lacking only a few inches. 


= 


Old method of pinning on the left; new and efficient 


way on the right 


The tailstock was fastened down by 
means of two bolts passing through 
a wide plate. The bolts were taken 
out and the plate removed. The plate 
used for holding the center rest down 
was used instead. As this plate was 
only one-half as wide as the regular 
plate, it was fastened under the left- 
hand bolt of the tailstock, thus allow- 
ing the tailstock to be moved back far 
enough. The carriage could now be 
moved to the right, thereby allowing 
the cross slide to shift in and out. 

Before being able to run the car- 
riage close up against the tailstock it 
was necessary to remove the split nut 
used in thread cutting, as this nut 
struck the lead-screw and _ feed-rod 
bearings. The drawings show clearly 
how the gain was made. 


A Good Belt Compound. 


GOOD belt compound is made 

from equal parts of resin and light 
machine oil. Boil the mixture for about 
20 minutes. Use when cool by pouring 
a little, drop by drop, on the moving belt. 
Not only will a good gripping surface 
be secured, but the compound will also 
act as a preservative. 


286 Popular Science Monthly 


Sleigh Attachment for Perambulators 


WO runners are attached to a crank- 
handle, so that by moving the han- 

dle they may be suspended above the lev- 
el of the wheels or dropped below the 


This perambulator may be a sleigh in 
winter or a carriage in summer 


level of the wheels. Thus the perambu- 
lator may be used as a sleigh—or as a 
wheeled vehicle, at the will of the op- 
erator. 


Ice Skates Make Shoe Shining Stand 


1 am aehe eae ice skates of the type 
which clamp the soles of the shoe 
by the turn of a lever can be used for 
foot rests on shoe shining stands. The 
steel runner should be bolted between 
blocks of wood that are nailed or 
screwed to the foot rest base. With foot 
rests of this sort, the nervous customer 
cannot without difficulty, jerk his foot 
from under the hand or brush of the 
polisher. 


8 simpler method 


——— ag aa ¢ 
sooee lili = > ll mana ay RIE 


C 


With foot rests made from ice-skates, 
the customer cannot escape 


Substitute for Large, Gas Reservoir 


N apparatus that will take the place 
of the large and cumbersome 
reservoirs used in chemical laboratories 
for storing quantities of gas for experi- 
ments can be made with two four-liter 
bottles and several connecting tubes. 
Referring to the drawing, A and C in- 
dicate the bottles. A mouth is cut in 
the side of A and plugged with a rubber 
cork bored out to accommodate a glass 
tube. The tube leads from B into the 
bottle C through a pinch cock inserted 
at D. Gas is generated from an appara- 
tus leading to tube E and is stored in 
the lower bottle. When pinch cock D is 
released the gas is forced out of C 
through tube E until the supply is ex- 
hausted. Water in the upper bottle 
forces the gas from the lower bottle 
through the tube E. 


This apparatus supplies gas for labora- 
tory experiments 


Prevents Insulation Unwinding 


HE waxed cotton insulation of an- 

nunciator wire can be prevented 
from unwinding by unravelling a length 
of both layers and knotting them. As 
the layers are wrapped in opposite di- 
rections the knot will prevent further 
unravelling or slipping. 


Drilling Holes in Glass 


HE following mixture on the de- 
sired size steel drill, will do a neat 
smooth hole. 
Tarpentine* icc obs eure 22 50° pares 
Machine oil: ;\....... ncaa ee ee 1 part 
Use on point of drill at high speed. 
This formula is one used by optical 
grinders. 


Popular Science Monthly 


Hydraulic Blowing Arrangement 


i ee apparatus here described will be 
found very useful for supplying air 
to small blow-pipes in glass-working, 
etc., also for wood-burning and in jew- 
elers’ work, as it leaves both hands free 
to work. By reversing the valve it may 
be used for purposes requiring a small 
suction. 


| 


HN 
il 
Hi 


————————SS SS 
———— ny 


a 


4 


| 
: 


ee | 


Fig. 1. The hydraulic blower is useful 
for supplying air to small blow-pipes, as 
it leaves the hands free 


The apparatus is simple and easily 
constructed. Fig. 1 shows the general 
plan, where A and B are cans of the de- 
sired capacity (1 gal. being a good size) 
mounted on the wooden frame work 
with a pipe containing a faucet, H, sol- 
dered between them. The cans are fast- 
ened to the wood with a metal clip, E, 
which is screwed to the wood and solder- 
ed to the cans. 
mounted on a shaft, G, supported by the 
outer framework, and the cans are kept 
from turning by the pin, F. The tubes, 
T: Ts, should be made of copper or brass 
where they extend into the cans and the 
part outside the cans may be of copper, 
brass or rubber. 

To operate, the top can is filled with 
water and the rubber tube 7, which 
leads to the blow-pipe or other appara- 
tus, is connected to the lower can. The 
faucet H is then opened, permitting the 
water to flow from the top can into the 
lower one, thus forcing the air out of 
the latter, the flow of air being regulated 
by the flow of water. 


The inner framework is — 


287 


When the top can is empty the posi- 
tion of the cans is reversed and the hose 
is changed to the lower can. 

To do away with the changing of the 
hose, however, a very simple valve, 
which works automatically with the re- 
versing of the cans, may be used. 

The materials needed for the valve are 
as follows: 1144” of %” brass tubing, 
three pieces brass tubing 34” long to fit 
in rubber hose, 114” of brass rod with 
8/32” thread, four 8/32” nuts, four 34” 
brass washers, two 14” leather washers, 
and two 4/36” screws. 

The 14” brass tube T (Fig. 2) is 
drilled for the tubes Tz, T2 and T3 and 
drilled and tapped for the machine 
screws S. The small tubes are then sol- 
dered to the large one as shown. The 
nuts D and leather washers B and brass 
washers C are placed on the shaft, which 
is then inserted in T after adjustment for 
right between head distances. The screws 
SS are put in to prevent the moving part 
from slipping out either end. The valves 
should be oiled and the corresponding 
tubes connected. The weight W is made 
of lead just heavy enough to work the 
valve. 

The valve is placed on the framework 
to which the cans are fastened. 

When the valve is in the position 
shown the air comes from the lower can 
through 73, through the valve, and out 
of Tz to the blow-pipe or other appara- 
tus, while 72 is open to receive air. 

Inverting the weight shifts the valve 
so that the blow-pipe or other apparatus 
is always connected with the lower can. 


Fig. 2. Showing how the brass tube is 
tapped for tubes and screws 


288 


Emergency Bolts 


WO‘ short bolts may often be made 
_to serve as one long one as shown 
in Figs. 1 and 2, when no long bolts are 
at hand. The two bolts A and B are 


oS 


= 
id 
oad 

wal 


EE 


Z 


‘ \ 
\ 


ARYANS 
ODOOOOUCOU0000000000000 | 
i 


a 
Bs, 


10000 


7g. / 


Liq 2 


The nuts shown practically double the 
length of the bolts 


coupled together by means of the nut 
C. When two timbers are to be fastened 
together as shown in Fig. 2, it may be 
necessary to drill a recess M in one of 
the pieces to hold the coupling nut C 
but often the bolt is used in the manner 
shown in Fig. 1, where there are two 
projecting end pieces. In this case it 
will not be necessary to make room for 
the nut. 


Renewable Fuses 


N attachment plug can be con- 

verted into a renewable fuse by re- 
moving the flexible cord and connecting 
a length of fuse wire across the ter- 
minals. The plug should be inserted in 
series with the apparatus. 


The attachment plug is converted into a 
renewable fuse 


Popular Science Monthly 


The Care of Paint Brushes 


HOSE who have only occasional 

use for paint brushes find difficulty 
in caring for them, as it is expensive to 
buy new brushes for every job. The 
following will solve the problem: 

Procure a dish (a tin can will do) and 
fill with water high enough to cover the 
bristles of the brushes. Then pour in 
a small quantity of lubricating or ma- 
chine oil. War 

Next wrap the bristles in paper, kept 
in place with an elastic band or a tied 
string, and place in the dish of water 
with the oil floating on top. 

The oil prevents the evaporation of 
the water and the rusting of the iron 
brush parts. 

The paper wrapping keeps the bristles 


‘in shape, and prevents contact with the 


oil. 


Lengthens Life of Blow-Torch Burners 


HEN used constantly, the brass 
tube through which the flame of a 
blow torch passes is rapidly burned 
away, so that complete new burners 


Money is saved when the burner of the 
blow torch is made detachable 


must be frequently attached. This 
rather costly procedure can be avoided 
if the actual “business end” of the burn- 
er is made detachable, or renewable. 

Several short lengths of brass pipe, 
equaling in size that of the burner it- 
self, should be procured. With a hack- 
saw cut off an inch or so from the end 
of the burner and thread the remaining 
end. A narrow ferrule, or coupling, 
should be tapped to fit the threads, and 
the brass tips threaded to correspond 
with the shortened burner. When one 
tip is burned down, it can be quickly re- 
placed by a new one. 


Binding Magazines Into Book Form 


HIS article presents a_ simple 

method of binding magazines 

and the like into book form and 
illustrates novel and easily made tools 
for use in the work. The tools and the 
method can also be used for re-binding 
old books. 

The principal tool required is the 
press, which is shown in plan view Fig. 
1, and end elevation Fig. 2. 

Two jaws of surfaced wood 2 x 3 x 24 


inches are united by two bolts % x 13 | 


inches. These bolts are common iron 
bolts, but the threads must be cut down 
to about 344% inches from their heads. 
The heads of the bolts may be counter- 
sunk into the jaw and a strip of wood 
Y x 2 x 24 inches nailed over them. 
Strips of wood. 34x1%x6 inches are 
nailed to the under side of the jaws, 
close to their ends. These strips slide 
in contact with the outside of the wood- 
en box upon which the press is placed 
and serve to keep the press in position 
over the box. Two press boards 1x6x 
16 inches, having beveled edges, are 
used with the press. The drawings 
show the assembled sections of a book 
in the press, ready for making the saw 
cuts into the back as described later on. 
Fig. 3, represents the sewing frame. 
This is made by nailing a board. upon 


Wy 
4 U) 


———= 
Yj 


— A, 


orne Wess - 
SSS SS SS SS SSS 


Fig. 1. 


The press-plan view 


289 


O 22AZ7Z77“za 


two strips of wood 2x2x12 inches. The 
board may be about to inches wide. An 
iron rod % inch in diameter is bent to 
the form shown and its ends are in- 
serted into holes drilled into the pro- 
jecting strips, about 14 inch from the 
edge of the board. These holes are not 


ma 

Wy | 

ZZ} 
| Y 


Fig. 2. 


The press: end elevation 


drilled entirely through the wood. Hori- 
zontal holes are drilled to meet the ver- 
tical ones and the ends of the lower hori- 
zontal rod are inserted therein before 
the top board is nailed upon the strips. 

Arrange the numbers of the magazine 
which are to constitute the volume in 
their proper order, Carefully separate 
and remove from the magazine or old 
book, one at a time, the sections of which 
it is composed and stack them in order 
in a pile. Take four sheets of strong 
white paper, about 14 inch larger all 
around than an open sheet of the maga- 
zine and fold them the same way the 
magazine sheets are folded, to be used 
for end papers. The folds or joints of 
two of these sheets should be strength- 
ened by pasting upon them strips of thin 
white cloth 1 inch wide, using white 
paste. When the paste is dry, re-fold 
the sheets and press the folds down flat. 

Arrange the four end sheets in order 
with a plain folded sheet and a sheet 
having a cloth joint, for each side of the 
book. Gather the sections of the vol- 
ume, with the end papers in place, be- 
tween .the thumbs -and fingers and rap 
them into line along the back and top 
edges. Place a press board upon each 
side of the book as shown in Fig. 2. The 
boards should be placed parallel with 
the book and about 14 inch from it. Hold 
the book between the press boards with 


290 . 


the thumbs and fingers and carefully 
lower it between the jaws of the press. 
Now hold the book with the left hand, 
and, using a wrench with the right hand, 
clamp the jaws of the press against the 
press boards. 

Mark five lines across the back of the 
book in the relative positions shown in 


y 


NX 


Fig. 3. The sewing frame 


Fig. 3, using a pencil and a try square. 
If a try square is not at hand, a squared 
piece of card board may be used. 

Guided by these lines, make five saw 
cuts into the book. The depth of these 
cuts should be 1-16 inch or less, or just 
sufficient to show when the sections are 
again opened. A miter box or “back” 
saw is best for sawing the two-cuts 
nearest the ends but a wider saw may 
be used for making the three central 
cuts. After sawing, the book is re- 
moved from the press. 
- Tie three strong cords to the rods of 
the sewing frame as in Fig. 3. These 
cords must be long enough to project 
about 114 inch on each side beyond the 
edge of the book after it is taken from 
the sewing frame. Cords may be made 
of strong linen threads folded and 
twisted together several times. Usually 
the operator sits in front of the sewing 
frame, but it is best to sit at the end 
of the frame, since one can, in this po- 
sition, see the inside as well as the back 
of the sections and the arm has more 
freedom when sewing with long threads. 

The upper halves of the sections may 
be opened and fastened to the upper rod 
by means of spring clothes pins, so that 
the center of the sections will be visible 
and the leaves will be kept out of the 
way while sewing. 

Place a section of the folded end pa- 
pers upon the sewing frame and slide 
the cords B, C, D, upon the rods until 


Popular Science Monthly 


their position corresponds with the three 
central saw cuts. The right size of 
thread to use for sewing will vary with 
the size of the book and the number of 
sections it is to contain. For six num- 
bers of magazines No. 25 linen will be 
about the right size. It is best to use 
unbleached thread. The method of sew- 
ing is shown in Fig. 4, B, C, D, repre- 
senting the cords that are tied to the 
sewing frame and the fine line S, the 
sewing thread. 

With the right hand, pass the threaded 
needle in at the end saw cut E, receive 
the needle with the left hand and pass 
it out at the next saw cut. Carry the 
thread around D and in again at the 
same cut. Sew around the cords C and 
B in the same way. Pass the needle out 
at A, draw the thread out until about 
two inches are left projecting at S. Lay 
the title page section of the book or 
magazine face downward upon the end 
papers already sewn. 

Pass the needle in at catch stitch 
mark A of this section, sew around B, 
C, B, and pass the needle out at E and 
draw the thread down with fairly strong 
tension, looking to see that it lies straight 
within the section. The thread should 
now be tied to the projecting thread S 
of the previously sewn section. Pro- 
ceed in like manner to sew all the sec- 
tions to the cords. When the needle 
has been drawn out at A, after sewing 
the third section, it is passed between 
the first and second sections, back of the 
connecting thread, Fig. 4, the thread 
drawn out, the needle passed upward 
through the loop of thread and the 
thread drawn down with good tension; 
but the ends of the sections must not 
be drawn too tightly together or the 
middle of the back will appear swollen 
and will be somewhat inflexible. As the 
sewing progresses, every time the needle 
is passed out at A or B, the thread is 
caught around the thread that connects 
the preceding sections in the manner just 
described, before sewing on a new sec- 
tion. 

Be careful that the needle does not 
penetrate the sewing frame cords. As 
the work advances, the sections should 
occasionally be pressed together at the 
points where the cords emerge. 


Popular Science Monthly 


After a few sections have been sewn 
to the cords the ends of the sewing 
thread will be reached and a new length 
must be added. Tie a sliding knot in the 
end of the new thread (Fig. 5), slip the 
loop over the projecting end of the 
old thread, draw the old thread down 
through the loop and draw the loops 
snuggly together to form the _ knot. 
After the needle has passed out at the 
last catch stitch mark A or E as the 
case may be, the thread should be se- 
curely connected to the preceding catch 
stitch thread, so that it will not become 
untied. 

The cords may now be untied from 
the sewing frame and the book removed 
from it. The cords should be cut about 
114 inch from the edge of the book and 
their ends frayed out flat by scraping 
them with a knife. 

Place the thumb and fingers of the 
left hand upon the back of the book and 
with the fingers of the right hand, press 
inward along the frone edge to form 
the usual rounded shape (Fig. 7). 
Adjust the press boards so that they 
will be parallel with the back of the 
book and at a distance from it slightly 
greater than the thickness of the mill 
board to be used for the cover, Lower 
the book into the press and screw the 
jaws together just sufficiently to keep 
the book from slipping through the 
press. Give the book a final adjustment 
and screw the jaws of the press 
tightly together. Now take a ham- 
mer and hammer up and down along 
the edges of the back of the book with 
diagonal or outwardly inclined strokes, 
until the ends of the sections spread out- 


ward over the press boards as shown in . 


Fig. 6. Hammer along the center of 
the back also, to keep it in well rounded 
shape. 

Loosen the jaws of the press slightly 
and brush hot glue over the back, al- 
lowing it to penetrate for a short dis- 
tance between the sections. Tighten 
the press again, but not so tight as when 
rounding the back, and having cut a 
piece of fairly strong cloth to a size 
about two inches shorter and two inches 
wider than the back of the book, lay it 
in place upon the back and press it down 
firmly upon the fresh glue. 


291 


When the glue is fairly dry but still 
flexible, trim the end papers to size and 
take the book at once to the printer who 
will rap the book straight from its 
rounded form, clamp the book in his 
power cutter and trim its edges. 

After cutting the edges of the book 
they may be ornamented by placing the 
book between the boards in the crafts- 
man’s press and spattering the edges 
with red or brown ink. 


A : 
i —¢ 25, ee iON 
s \\ SAN 
\y NS SSN \ 
[eee WN ANY 
XY , RAK 
W Ni ‘Ny 
Figs. 4 and 5 . 
The method of sewing Fig 6 


Dip a tooth brush in a small saucer 
of ink, rap off the surplus ink and draw 
the brush across the coarse teeth of a 
comb. Practice first on a sheet of waste 
paper. 

The book is now ready for the cover. 
Obtain some mill board of the desired 
thickness, lay it upon another piece of 
mill or straw board and using a sharp 
knife guided by a straight edge, cut the 
mill board to the proper size. For a 
book of magazine size, there should be 
a space of about '%-in. or more between 
edge of the cover and the back edge of 


rd 


Fig. 8 
Forming the covers 


Fig. 7 
Shaping the book 


the book. This space should be greater 
when using heavy cloth like buckram, 
than for cloth of light weight. Fold 
a strip of paper around the back of the 
book and place the trimmed mill board 
in position on the book, Fig. 7. Make 
pencil marks upon this strip of paper 
close to the edge of the mill board cov- 
ers. 

Lay the mill boards upon the table 
with a space between them equal to that 


292 


indicated by the marks upon the paper 
strip and measure the size for the cloth 
for the cover, which size should be about 
34, inch larger all around than the outer 
measurements of the boards as shown 
in Fig. 8. Buckram is usually the only 
cloth suitable for covers that can be 
found in small cities. It should be 
of good quality and color. Thin, split 
leather can be handled the same as cloth. 

Having cut the cloth for the cover, 
lay it right-side down upon the table, 
and upon it lay the cover boards, Care- 
fully arrange in position with the meas- 

ured distance between 
x them and mark around 
4 their edges with a pen- 
cil, marking upon the 
buckram. Remove the 
boards from the cloth. 
Lay one board upon a 
piece of waste paper and 
brush hot glue over it and replace and 
press it down upon the cloth cover in its 
final position, glued side down. Turn the 
cloth cover and the attached board over, 
spread over them a clean cloth and fin- 
ish the pressing with a flatiron which 
should not be too hot. Press around the 
edges of the board as well as over its 
face. Proceed in the same way with the 
other cover-board. 

Trim the projecting edges of the cloth 
all around to about 1% or % inch from 
the boards. Cut the corners from the 
cloth as indicated by the dotted lines in 
Fig. 8. Do not cut the corners close to 
the board but leave about 14 inch of 
cloth and be careful to make the cuts at 
an angle of 45 degrees. 

Brush the glue upon the projecting 
cloth along the top edge of the cover and 
fold the cloth over upon the boards. 
Glue and fold the cloth at the lower 
edge in the same way. Before folding 
the cloth at the front edges, fold in a 
little corner of the corner cloth as along 
the dotted line Fig. 9. 

Place the book between its cover and 
carefully adjust it to its final position. 
Lightly mark around the four front cor- 
ners of the leaves of the book, marking 
the buckram to show where the book 
should lie within its cover. When all 
work is finished the marks may be 
erased. Lay the book upon the table 


Fig. 9 


Popular Science Monthly 


and open the top cover back upon it 
as in Fig. 10. 

Take a sheet of waste paper larger 
than the book and slip it beneath the 
end paper to protect the book from glue. 
Throw the strip of backing cloth and 
the cords backward and quickly brush 
the hot glue over the end paper. Fold 
the cords over upon the end paper, tak- 
ing care to spread their ends open as 
shown in the drawing and brush them 
down into place. Fold over the back- 
ing cloth and brush glue over it. Pass 
the smooth handle of the brush up and 
down over the backing cloth, and along 
the raised edge at the back to insure 
its contact with the book at this point. 

Slip the fingers of the right hand be- 
neath the front edge of the glued end 
paper and press down firmly upon the 
book to keep it from slipping out of 
place. With the left hand lift the cover, 


‘draw it snugly around the back of the 


book, hold it at an angle to allow room 
for the right hand and press the cover 
firmly into contact with the book all 
along by the back edge or joint. Re- 


‘move the right hand from the book and 


lightly lower the cover upon it. Open 
the cover and proceed to press the end 
paper into smooth contact with the 
board. Upon opening the cover, if it 
is found that the book has shifted badly 
from position, it may be well to strip 
the end paper from the board and try 
again. This is a risky operation, how- 


Fig. 10. Completing the process 


ever. Proceed in like manner with the 
opposite cover. When the covers are on, 
the edges of the flatiron or handle of 
the brush should be passed up and down 
along the depression at the joints of the 
book covers and the covers should be 
carefully opened and closed several 
times. The covers may be left slightly 
open while the glue is drying, or if they 
are closed, sheets of waxed paper or 


Popular Science Monthly 


celluloid should be placed between them 
and the end papers to keep the leaves 
from absorbing moisture and becoming 
wrinkled. 

The easiest way to letter the cover 
of the book is to make a stencil of the 
paper cover of the magazine, as this 
will save the labor of laying out the let- 
ters. Lay the cover paper upon a hot 
plate and saturate it with paraffine wax. 
Wipe off the surplus wax while it is 
still hot. Lay the waxed paper upon a 
piece of straw board and cut the letters 
out, stencil fashion, using the sharp 
blade of a penknife. Use a good water- 
proof India ink and a stiff brush from 
which surplus ink has been removed. 
Draw the brush inward from the edges 
of the cut out letters. The letters may 
be finished by filling in the blank spaces 
with a pen. 


A Self-Adjusting Sandpaper Block 


SANDPAPERING block that au- 
tomatically adjusts itself to both 
convex and concave surfaces of any ra- 
dius is very easily constructed by using 
a piece of rubber packing for the face 
and glueing to the back or fabric side 
wedge-shaped strips of hard wood of the 
general dimensions shown in the draw- 
ing. These strips should be about 1-32 
inch apart where they fasten to the rub- 
ber, so that the face will bend easily. 
The sandpaper is folded over the block 
in the usual way and with very slight 
pressure the face will conform to the 
surface to which it is applied. 


This sandpapering 
block adjusts it- 
self to any 
surface on 
which 

it is 
used 


Rubber Packing i thick 


293 
A Handy Way to Repair a Tire 
VERY _ convenient instrument 


which may be used to repair punc- 
tured tires can be made from a common 
button hook. Straighten or cut off the 
hook part with a pair of pliers. Saw a slit 
about 14 inch from the end up the stem 
of the hook with a hack saw and round 
off the ends into a fairly sharp point. 
With a knife cut all the sharp edges from 
the slit so it will not tear the rubber 
bands. Make a hook as shown in draw- 


\ 
\ 
Y 
\@. 
ot) 
Ni 
‘ i 


} 
\ 


With this tool rubber bands can be 
pushed into a puncture, to make an 
excellent quick repair 


ing, and passing the rubber band first 
through the slit and then over the hook 
enough times to fill up the hole in the 
tire, dip the rubber and hook in tire ce- 
ment and push through hole. Unhook the 
rubber band and draw out the hook care- 
fully with a twisting motion so as not to 
remove the rubber band. Cut off the pro- 
truding rubber and you will have your 
puncture repaired in excellent shape. 


A New Use for Broken Drills and 
End Mills 


ROKEN drills and end _ mills 

should not be thrown away, as 
they will be found useful if a special 
socket is to be made for the lathe or 
miller, when a drill or end mill is to 
be held. 

By grinding the tang off, it can be 
turned around in the socket to ascer- 
tain if the taper has a _ bearing the 
whole length. If a drill or end mill is 
used without thus changing it, the 
tang will prevent its being turned 
around. 


| 


294 
A Home-Made Football Inflater 


Ay VA EV se 

from an old 
bicycle tire or an 
inner tube is a 
very serviceable 
substitute for the 
expensive and 
delicate pumps 
used to inflate 
footballs. Cut the 
metal ring and 
the rubbed pad 
from around the valve, and the inflater 
is ready for use. 

Insert it into the neck of the foot- 
ball, attach the outer end of the valve 
to a bicycle pump, and your football may 
be quickly inflated. 


A Dust-Proof Bottle for Acid 


~~ CLAYS) 


spirit lamp 
makes an excel- 
lent bottle for 
keeping small 
quantities of ni- 
tric acid, solder- 
ing spirit or 
other acid liquids. 
A glass rod may 
be left im _ the 
lamp and covered with the ground cap 
as shown in the illustration. The cap 
usually makes a very good fit, and for 
many purposes no other stopper is_re- 
quired. 

When used to contain nitric acid, for 
testing gold, however, the other device 
shown may be adopted. A piece of glass 
rod is drawn out to a rather fine point 
at one end and passed through a per- 
forated India rubber cork, which forms 
an air-tight stopper. 


A Multiple Punch 


PUNCH 

for making 
a-number jot 
holes in sheet 
fibre or metal can 
be made from a block of steel machined 
as shown in the accompanying drawing. 
A punch of this type is intended for 
work that must be repeated with uni- 
form results. 


Popular Science Monthly 


An Oil Tray Made Without Solder 


ILtrays which —& z 
require no &§ 
soldering may be | 
made ifom a 
piece of tin of 
such _ thickness 
that it may be 
readily bent. The 
tin should be 
marked off as in 
the illustration. Bend the sides up 
on the lines AB and CD; then bend 
them back to their former place. Do the 
same with the ends on the lines XY and 
MN. Take the corner BY and bend 
along the line RT until the side and 
end come together and form a square 
corner, as in lower drawing. Bend the 
projection up against either the end or 
side. Do likewise to the remaining 


corners. 


Parcel-Carrying Rack for Bicycle 


HE accom- 

panying line 
drawings show 
a simple pack- 
age-carrying at- 
tachment for a 
bicycle, | which 
can be cheaply 
and easily made and removed or at- 
tached simply. The drawings show 
clearly the method of bending and the 
dimensions. Make the pocket to suit the 
handle bar of the bicycle. 


Switch Detects Bad Ignition 


T.4s oiten:a te; 

di 0s. ac 
troublesome mat- 
ter to determine 
which cylinder of 
a multiplex cylin- 
der engine is 
missing explo- 
sions. A very sim- 
ple little instru- 
ment, shown in 
the accompanying 
sketch, renders the discovery of the 
missing cylinder easy. It is simply a 
switch, to be fastened to the spark plugs 
in succession. 


RADIO SECTIO 


Devoted to the Encouragement of Amateurs 
and Experimenters in the Field of 
Radio Communication 


Aeroplanes, Wireless and the War 
By William Dubulier 


The author of this article is an American radio engineer, who has performed exper- 
imental work for the United States Government and whose investigations for the British 
and Russian governments have attracted attention abroad. His wireless apparatus is 
now used on British military aeroplanes. His article may therefore be considered as 
an exposition of the subject of radio communication from aeroplanes from first hand 


knowledge.—Editor. 

HE art of warfare has been trans- 
formed by wireless and wireless 
has in turn been transformed by 

modern warfare. We can safely say 
that the one great electrical event of the 
war is the use of wireless even between 
trenches, and the directing of artillery 
fire. While the regular telephone and 
telegraph are also used, the wires are so 
frequently broken by shrapnel and shell 
fire that wireless proves to be the only 
uniform and trustworthy means of com- 
munication. The men themselves at 
night (the only time when they dare 
leave the trenches) stumble over regu- 
lar telephone and telegraph wires and 
break them, and often there is no 
opportunity to repair the damage. Not 
only have the Allies tried to get wire- 
less trench sets, but the Austrians, Ger- 
mans and other powers as well. The 
trench set in question is one in which 
one man and certainly no more than two 
men are needed to 
carry, set up and 
operate, The trans- 
mitting distance 
need not be more 
than five miles. 
Such instruments 
are now being 
built and supplied. 
One type weighs 
only eight pounds. 


Fig. 1. 

system, showing synchronized revolving 

spark gap now being used by English 
and French governments 


Wiring diagram of the Rouzet 


209] 


For aeroplane use, the instruments 
must have a greater range. They vary 
in power from twenty watts to two kilo- 
watts, which latter is the power of the 
instruments now being installed on big 
aeroplanes made in England and em- 
ployed not only to signal the hits and 
misses of heavy artillery, but also to jam 
the enemy’s stations. 

In a wireless installation of this 
aeroplane type, light weight and com- 
pactness are the most important re- 
quisites. Let us begin by describing the 
small installations which require about 
twenty watts to operate and which are 
used almost exclusively by the French 
army for directing artillery fire. In de- 
signing this instrument old principles 
were revived—principles quite the same 
as those in vogue when wireless first 
came into being. There is a small in- 
duction coil with a vibrator and a 
spark gap, and an aerial and ground or 
counter capacity 
connected across 
the secondary. This 
is shown in Figure 
1. The efficiency is 
greatly increased 
by connecting the 
condenser -across 
the interrupter and 
primary as in the 
Dubilier system in- 


~ 


296 


stead of the condenser across the inter- 
rupter, the former custom. ‘The battery 
is a small case containing ten, eight am- 
pere-hour cells of twenty volts, and the 
secondary is connected with the dis- 
charge electrode or oscillator mounted on 
top of a small case within which the 


— 
e2Q 
iO; 3 


» 


y Lame 


Rrra a 


Fig. 2. 
weighs, complete, about 30 lbs, for 150 
watts, and includes one self-exciting 250 
cycle generator with synchronized spark 


The apparatus in detail. It 


gap, one Dubilier condenser, one 
transformer in oil, and a loose coupled 
tuning coil 


rest of the apparatus is fastened. The os- 
cillator is mounted outside to take advan- 
tage of the rush of air in the aeroplane 
track along, thus cooling it. The aerial 
and equivalent capacity is connected di- 
rectly across the spark gap, thus elimin- 
ating the necessity of tuning by means 
of a condenser and tuning coil. The 
arrangement is much the same as that 
which Hertz and Marconi used in their 
initial experiments. It will be seen, 
therefore, that the operating circuit pro- 
duces a natural wave without the neces- 
sity of adjustments such as are necessary 
for most spark transmitters. 

The primary input is about twenty 
volts and one-half an ampere. The inter- 
rupter produces a musical note of about 
250 frequencies. The trailing wire, 
which is used as the aerial, is about 150 
feet long, and has a three-pound lead 
weight attached to it. With this small 
power we were able to obtain five-tenths 
of an ampere in the aerial wire circuit, 
the capacity of which was about 0.00003 
m.f. It was found that communication 
could be effected a distance of fifteen 
miles. This served the purpose very 
well, especially for directing artillery 


TI i 


Popular Science Monthly 


fire. The receiving wireless station was 
situated about one mile behind the guns. 
Between the receiving station and the 
gunners a regular telephone line was 
set up. 

The position of the aviator is obvi- 
ously very perilous. He must be right 
over the enemy’s trenches if he is to 
direct every shot of the artillery. When 
a shot falls short or long or too much 
to the right or to the left, he flashes the 
information at once to his station. The 
next shot follows the course that he in- 
dicates. This is the most effective elec- 
trical work which has been done in the 
war. 

The aeroplane employed in this dan- 
gerous service is a two-seater contain- 
ing a pilot and the observer. The ob- 
server sends his messages as quickly as 
he makes his observations. 

Another set of instruments is used, of 
150 watts capacity, the energy being ob- 
tained from a generator driven by the 
engine of the aeroplane. Various in- 
stallations are used of this capacity, 
some utilizing direct current and some 


oH) 


me) 


il t 


The appardttig with a small 
engine for portable use 


alternating current. The best instru- 
ment in my opinion is one which has a 
250 cycle alternator attached: by a belt 
to the gas engine. This generator is of 
remarkabiv light weight and is so con- 
structed that it is self-exciting. The 
whole installation, including the genera- 
tor, a closed core transformer in oil, a 
key, condensers, loose-coupled tuning 
coils and hot wire meter weighs com- 
plete but 27 pounds. How remarkable 
is this installation may be gathered from 
the fact that the ordinary machine 


Fig. 3. 


Popular Science Monthly 297 


weighs between 75 and 100 pounds. An 
installation which I have been supply- 
ing the United States Government for 
aeroplane work, weighs 60 pounds. Yet 
here we have a complete apparatus 
weighing but 27 pounds. 

It would be practically impossible for 
one to build such a set in this country 
for government use because the govern- 
ment tests would automatically elimin- 
ate the instrument itself. For example, 
the generator if run under ordinary con- 
ditions in a room would not stand up 
under fifteen minutes’ continuous use. 
The United States Government insists 
on a test of eight hours’ duration in a 
closed room. The French and English 
have wisely concluded that since the 
generators are used in an aeroplane 
travelling through air at the rate of 
sixty miles an hour, a cooling effect is 
obtained which may be utilized and 
which will simplify the task of the radio 
designer. This generator seems to work 
most satisfactorily and ought, it appears, 
to be employed by our own navy for 
aeroplane work. On one end of the 
shaft of the motor is attached a rotary 
synchronized spark gap. A small 
closed-core transformer mounted in a 
fibre tank full of oil and generating 
about 20,000 volts is included in the 
secondary. The condenser used is of 
the Dubilier type. This is the standard 
for aeroplane installations in Europe for 
the Allies. 

The condenser is the most important 
element of the aeroplane wireless in- 


Fig. 4. The small apparatus used 
mainly by the French for directing artil- 


lery over trenches. This apparatus 
weighs about 12 lbs. and is capable of 
utilizing about 40 watts 


Fig. 5. 
aeroplane using the resonance alterna- 
tor of J. Bethenod. This alternator 
generates an alternating current of 1500 
cycles, 750 watts, at a speed of 4500 
R.P.M. The outfit consists of a gen- 
erator, a transformer, oscillating circuit 


A 750 watt equipment on 


and a system of manipulation. The 
generator complete weighs but 42 lbs., 
and is built for an overload of 20%. It 
is driven by the motor of the aeroplane. 
The transformer has a closed core, and 
is air cooled without magnetic leakage. 
The oscillating circuit provides for op- 
erating on a wave length up to 600 m., 
and is self-excited by a condenser with 
0.01 M. F. capacity 


stallation; for it is obviously impossible 
to use fragile Leyden jars. The con- 
denser must be unbreakable, have high 
efficiency, and occupy very little space. 
Figure 2 shows such an installation. 

By means of a small aeroplane aerial 
it is possible to radiate one ampere with 
this installation. Communication can be 
held over distances of fifty miles. The 
English government is building its own 
installations along these lines. 


Duplex Wireless Telegraphy. 


UPLEX wireless telegraphy, in 

which two messages are simul- 
taneously sent in opposite directions 
between two radio stations, is entirely 
practical. The system is used between 
Glace Bay and Clifden, and in the 
trans-Pacific stations. This arrange- 
ment makes it possible to handle twice 
as many radio messages between two 
stations in a given time. 


Recent Radio Inventions 


New Patents on Wireless Instruments 


By A. F. 


MONG the most interesting pat- 

ents of 1915 is No. 1139226, is- 

sued to E. Raymond-Barker, for 
a system of radio-telegraphy using two 
wave-lengths for transmission of a sin- 
gle message. Instead of sending Morse 
signals in which the dots and dashes are 
distinguished by the difference in dura- 
tion of impulses, this method uses sig- 
nals all of the same impulse length but 
distinguishes between dots and .dashes 
by sending each at 
a different wave 
frequency. That is 
to say, only short 
signals which cor- 
respond in length 
to ordinary Morse 


dots are sent, but 
these are emitted 
at two different 
wave lengths, one 
of which is for 
dots and one for 
dashes. 

Figure 1 shows 
the way in which 
the invention may 
be applied to a 
Poulsen transmit- 
ter. Here the pow- 
er lines G supply energy to two oscillat- 
ing arcs, F F, through suitable imped- 
ances. The central contacts or levers of 
two telegraph keys A and Az are con- 
nected in the shunt 
oscillating circuits 
of the two arcs, 
and serve to con- 
nect the arcs either 
to radiating reso- 
nant circuits C D 
or to non-radiating 
resonant circuits 
Cr Dr. Consider- 
ing the operation: 
When neither key is depressed both arcs 
are connected to their non-radiating cir- 
cuits through contacts H H, and gener- 


Ye 
Fig. 1. 


Fig. 2. 


Raymond-Barker double-wav 
transmitter 


Telephonic Receiver for double- 
wave system 


Jackson 


ate in these circuits oscillations of dif- 
ferent wave lengths. If it is desired to 
send a dot the left-hand key is depress- 
ed; this connects the left-hand arc to the 
antenna, and waves of a certain length 
(say 3,000 meters) are radiated. If a 
dash is to be sent, the right-hand key is 
pressed for an instant, and for that time 
the right-hand are is connected to the 
antenna and allowed to radiate waves of 
its different wave length (say 4,000 me- 
ters. Thus combi- 
nations of dots and 
dashes correspond- 
ing to the letters 
of the Morse code 
are transmitted. 
At the receiving 
station it is “neces- 
sary to pick up 
signals on either 
wave length and to 
indicate that one 
represents dots and 
the other dashes. 
Fig. 2 shows one 
way in which this 
may be done: The 
receiving antenna 
Br is connected to 
two parallel tuned 
primary circuits, C5 D5, one of which is 
tuned to the “dot wave” and the other 
to the “dash wave.’’ Each primary has 
coupled to it a tuned secondary C6 which 
acts upon a tikker 
detector Pr with 
telephone P and 
stopping condenser 
D6. One telephone 
is held to each ear 
of the _ operator 
and the dots dis- 
tinguished from 
the dashes by not- 
ing which ’phone 
gives the response. A simpler way of 
distinguishing the dots and dashes is by 
adjusting the tikker-interrupter speeds 


Pp 


298 


Popular Science Monthly | 


and the condensers D6 so that the sound 
of the dots is somewhat different from 
that of the dashes. This gives in effect 
a two-tone system, and obviously per- 
mits higher signaling speeds than does 
the usual dot-and-dash method. In ad- 
dition to the increase in speed the two- 
wave lengths feature offers excellent se- 
curity from interception of the messages 
by ordinary radio receiving stations. 
When the signals 
received are sutti- 
ciently «strong to 
operate a sensitive 
relay it is possible 
by this method to 
make a siphon re- 
corder pen-and-ink 
record correspond- 
ing exactly to cable 
falip.” Ita relay: is 
connected to each 
side of the receiv- 
ing system, the two 
contacts may be 
used to control a 
third polarized re- 
lay which will re- 
main in an open 
neutral position so long as no signals are 
received, but which, when waves are ar- 
riving, will close its local circuit and per- 
mit current to flow in one direction or 
the other according to whether it is 
operated by a dot-impulse or a dash- 
impulse. A siphon recorder in this last- 
named local circuit will recoid the sig- 
nals by a wavy line having a hump above 
its neutral position along a central line 
for each dot, and a hump below for each 
dash. Fig. 3 shows the actual connec- 
tions of apparatus set up to accomplish 
this result, and in this diagram the action 
may easily be traced from the sensitive 
relays U U, which are connected to the 
two detectors, to the siphon recorder g. 
U. S. Patent No. 1127921, issued to 
G. W. Pickard, is on an important detail 
of receiving tuning apparatus. Before 
the adoption of inductance varying ar- 
rangements similar to that shown in this 
specification it had been customary to 
rely upon either sliding contacts, vario- 
meters or roller inductances for tuning. 
Each of these methods has disadvan- 
tages; sliders give poor contact at times, 


Fig. 3. Relay connections for recorder operation 


299 


and cause loss of energy through short- 
circuited turns; variometers are limited 
in range of adjustment, and have their 
total resistance in circuit even at mini- 
mum inductance; roller arrangements 
are bulky, and slow in operation. All 
these difficulties may be overcome by the 
use of multiple-point switches connected 
to the turns of the coils, but it would be 
practically impossible to have a switch- 
point for each sin- 
gle turn of a long 
coil. If a saving in 
the size of the 
switch is attempt- 
ed, by making each 
point cover a num- 
ber of turns, it is 
not found possible 
to get sharp enough 
tuning unless an 
auxiliary variable 
inductance or con- 
denser is used. 
ihe phan-ot 
wiring shown in 
Fig. 4 makes it 
possible to get sin- 
gle-turn steps of 
inductance on a long coil by using two 
small switches. One of these, indicated 
by S, has taps taken off the body of the 
coil at each tenth turn. The other, Sr, 
has its points connected to each of the 
last ten single turns on the coil. The 
leads to the coil, A and G, run to the 
levers of the two switches; and each ter- 
minal may be connected directly to the 
tenth turn of the coil by placing its re- 
spective switch lever on a button marked 
“©.” This common zero of the two 
switches seems to be the novel point in 


Fig. 4. Common zero switches on 
inductance coil 


the present patent, and is the artifice by 
which it is possible to adjust to any in- 
ductance from zero to full value by steps 


300 “Popular Science Monthly 


of a single turn. Reference to Fig. 4 
shows that each step to the left of switch 
S adds in circuit ten turns of the coil, 
and that these large jumps of inductance 
may be filled in by the smaller steps se- 
cured by moving switch 1 to the right. 


~~ 


Fig. 5. Arco and Rendahl high power variometer 


This switching system has come into 
wide use within the past few years. 
One of the difficult problems of radio 
engineering is the construction of an 
easily varied inductance capable of car- 
rying such high currents as are encoun- 
tered in the oscillation circuits of power- 
ful transmitting stations. Flat spiral 
coils have proved useful, but if they are 
to be used for final adjustment some 
way is needed to change their induct- 
ance gradually without interfering with 
the current through them. 1915 patent 
No. 1131187, issued to G. von Arco and 
R. H. Rendahl, shows an interesting way 
of doing this. Referring to Fig. 5, two 
sets of flat spiral coils a and b are seen 
to be mounted in a framework which 
permits the group a to be moved away 
from the others by swinging them about 
the pivots f as an axis. The whole set 
of coils is connected in serics, with taps 
taken off at terminals k, <nd the units 
are carefully insulated from each other. 
When the moving group is in the posi- 
tion of closest coupling to the fixed coils 
the system has its maximum inductance, 
since the magnetic fields of all the coils 


are co-operating; when, however, the b 
coils are swung out into the position in- 
dicated by the dotted lines at the bottom 
of Fig. 5, the maximum addition of 
fields no longer occurs and the induct- 
ance of the system is very much re- 
duced. The special advantages of this 
method of mounting arise from the fact 
that parts having large differences of po- 
tential are kept well separated. Al- 
though the simple two-coil variometer 
construction used in receiving coils will 
give an inductance variation as large as 
1 to 15 when insulation difficulties are 
small, in the two coil form as applied to 
high-powered transmitter the coils have 
to be kept so far apart that the maxi- 
mum inductance is only about twice the 
minimum. With the sub-divided form 
shown in this patent, however, heavy 
currents can be carried and yet a con- 
siderable inductance variation attained. 

Fig. 6 shows an interference prevent- 
er arrangement patented in 1915 by T. 
B. Miller, specification No. 1127368. In 
the ordinary interference preventer of 
Fessenden two primary circuits con- 
nected to the antenna act on two oppos- 
ing secondaries ; one primary is adjusted 
to receive the desired signals selectively 
and to impress them upon the detector, 
while undesired signals are caused to af- 
fect both branches of the circuit equally 
and oppositely and so produce no final 
effect. The circuit of Fig. 6 differs 
from this earlier arrangement in that a 
single antenna primary circuit is used 
with two secondaries and two detectors, 


a ee Se 


pA A A A A 


Fig. 6. Interference preventer 


and the neutralization of interfering sig- 
nals is accomplished by opposing their 
effects in the telephone circuits. 


ete” SN partion 


Popular Science Monthly 


The epi? 3 is coupled to secon- 
daries 4 and 5, with their corresponding 
detectors 8, 14, and stopping condensers 
12, 18, in the usual manner. The leads 
from the condensers 12, 18, which ordi- 
narily go direct to telephone receivers, 
are in this case carried to the two pri- 
mary windings of a telephone trans- 
former. These two coils, 10 and 16, op- 
pose each other’s effects upon the sec- 
ondary 20, which has in series with it 
the telephone receivers 21. This trans- 
former is adjustable, so that either of 
its primaries may be caused to induce 
stronger signals in the secondary than 
will the other. 

The operation of the device may be 
considered in connection with a condi- 
tion assuming simultaneous sending by 
two wireless stations, one nearby and the 
other distant. Suppose that with an or- 
dinary receiver the strong signals from 
the nearer station practically drown out 
those coming from a distance, and yet 
that it is desired to read messages on 
the weaker waves. With the apparatus 
of this patent the receiving operator 
would adjust one of the detectors, say 
8, to a sensitive condition in which it 
would respond well to the weak signals. 
The other detector, 14, is then adjusted 
to receive only the strong signals. Thus 
there are set up telephone currents in 
primary 10 from both stations, that from 
the distant one being much weaker than 
that from the interfering set, and tele- 
phone currents in the opposite direction 
in coil 16, these latter being only from 
the interfering station. Since the sen- 
sitiveness of detector 14 has been re- 
duced, the interference currents in 16 
will be weaker than those in 10. By 
loosening the coupling between 10 and 
20, the signals from the interfering sta- 
tion will oppose in their magnetic effects 
on the secondary, and so produce no re- 
sponse; if it has not been necessary to 
weaken the coupling too far, the signals 
from the distant station should still be 
heard. 

Thus, if detector 14 is of the type 
which requires a certain fairly large cur- 
rent before it gives any response, and 
if the difference in signal intensities is 
not too great, some very advantageous 


interference reducing effects may be 
had. 


301 


A Cheap Ground Clamp 


A hose clamp can be purchased at any 
hardware store at two for five cents and 
a binding post taken from the zinc side 
of an old dry battery. A hole is then 
drilled in the hose clamp and the post 
soldered fast. 

Insulators can be made by taking a 
broomstick, sawed into 4 inch or 5 inch 


Strain insulator made from 
a broom stick 


lengths and having a screw eye put in 
each end. Baked and thereafter boiled 
in paraffine these make first-class strain 
insulators. To prevent splitting, a hole 
should be drilled in each end a trifle 
smaller than the screw eye and then 
filled with glue. The screw eye should 
have a coarse thread. The tough hard- 
wood holds the eyes so they will stand a 
heavy strain. Two coats of black as- 
phaltum make them resemble hard rubber. 


Crystal Detector Hints 


HEN the best results are to be ob- 

tained, the crystal should be 
mounted in a fusible alloy. This can be 
easily made by melting equal parts of 
ordinary fuse wire and tinfoil and add- 
ing a little mercury. 

In selecting pieces of galena the parts 
that are very shiny and have the most 
vein will be found to be the most sensi- 
tive. When breaking galena do not hit 
the mineral one hard blow: tap it three 
or four times lightly with a hammer, 
breaking it into square pieces, and there 
will be no waste. 

With silicon or ferron as a mineral, 
use a gold wire having a sharp point. A 
fairly heavy pressure may be used, and 
results in a firmer adjustment. The re- 
sistance of a crystal is great, and there- 
fore as small a piece as possible should 
be used. : 

Different combinations of minerals 
will often work better than one mineral. 
Galena and graphite, silicon and graphite, 
zincite and bornite, or chalcopyrites 
(perikon), ferron and silicon, and galena 
and tellurium will all work better in 
combination than alone. 


Antenna Circuits in Radio 
Telegraphy 


By John Vincent 


N the two earlier articles of this se- 
ries, the simple relations between ca- 
pacity, inductance, wavelength and 

resonant frequency were explained. It 
was shown that in a closed circuit such 
as that of Fig. 1, the maximum current 
would flow when the impedance (or al- 
ternating current resistance) was made 
as small as possible. It was also shown 
that by adjusting the circuit capacity C 
and inductance L, they could be made 
to neutralize each other’s effects for the 
particular frequency of the alternator E, 
and that when the circuit was in this 
resonant condition, the current flowing 
was dependent only upon the voltage 
generated at E and the resistance R. 
The relations of induct- 
ance and capacity to frequen- 
cy and wavelength, and those 
of voltage and impedance to 
current, exist in “open” an- 
tenna circuits such as that of 
Fig. 2, exactly as in closed 
circuits like Fig. 1. For most 
purposes the computations 
explained in the January ar- -§ 
ticle will give good results for 
either open or closed circuits. 


The only error likely to cause Fig, 2 


trouble depends upon the 

fact that in the elevated part of an 
antenna circuit there are both capac- 
ity and inductance. In the closed cir- 
cuit (Fig. 1) practically all the capacity 
is lumped together at C and nearly all 
the inductance at L. In the antenna, 
however, for short waves the inductance 
L may be quite small and so the distrib- 
uted inductance of the antenna wires 
may play an important part in determin- 
ing the resonant frequency of the sys- 
tem. For most radio telegraphic pur- 
poses waves considerably longer than the 
natural wavelength of the aerial are 
used, and with these the antenna may 
be considered to be the equivalent of an 
inductance, a capacity and a resistance 
all connected in series. 


If one thinks of capacity as a prop- 
erty possessed by any pair of conductors 
separated by an insulator (which is a 
correct idea), it is easy to see that an 
antenna has capacity with respect to the 
earth. As the two plates of a condenser 
are separated by an insulator and have 
capacity with respect to each other, so, 
in the antenna system, the aerial wires 
and the earth’s surface, (both of which 
are conductors) are separated by the in- 
tervening air. The capacity of the aerial 
system is a definite quantity depending 
upon the distribution of current in it, 
and like that of any other condenser 
may be computed or measured. 

Inductance is a property of conduct- 
ors which makes itself known 
by the magnetic effects pro- 
duced upon these conductors 
when the currents through 
them vary. Since direct cur- 
rent is usually of uniform 
strength, in direct current 
circuits inductance is not 
often considered; neverthe- 
less, the property is always 


é present and ready to become 


prominent when the current 
varies. In radio antenna sys- 
tems, alternating current flows 
and therefore the inductance of the wires 
is important. One hundred feet of anten- 
na wire stretched out straight has about 
0.07 millihenry inductance, which is 
equivalent to about twenty turns of No. 
24 wire wound in a coil of 4” diameter. 
For a given length of wire a coil has 
much more inductance than a straight 
wire, because each portion of it can act 
magnetically on the turns beside it. Thus 
the inductance of an antenna wire can 
be represented by that of a small coil, 
just as its capacity may be represented 
by that of a condenser. 

Antenna systems, like other conduct- 
ors, possess electrical resistance in addi- 
tion to their capacity and inductance. 
This resistance is made up of several 


i 


302 


a 


Popular Science Monthly 


parts, one being of the wires themselves 
and another that of the earth’s surface 
in the neighborhood of the antenna-base. 
All power losses in the antenna, includ- 
ing that due to the radiation of energy, 
represent additional parts of the effective 
resistance. All these component parts 
are added together to get the true total 
antenna resistance. For instance, in a 
large flat top aerial the wires might rep- 
resent an effective ; 
resistance of 0.3 
ohm, the ground 
0.4 ohm, losses by 
brush discharge 0.2 
ohm, losses at the 
insulators 0.2 ohm, 
and the radiated 
power 08 ohm. 
Added together, ~ 
the total resist- 

ance becomes 1.9 
ohms; a closed circuit having the same 
capacity and inductance as the an- 
tenna, and including a resistance of 1.9 
ohms in series, would permit the same 
current to flow as would the aerial when 
excited by the same frequency and 
voltage. 

From the foregoing the fact appears 
that, for wavelengths long compared to 
the fundamental or natural wavelength, 
the electrical propertiés of an aerial sys- 
tem are in many ways equivalent to 
those of a circuit containing lumped in- 
ductance, capacity and resistance. An 
experiment with the arrangement of Fig. 
3 will show this to be true. In the dia- 
gram A and G represent antenna and 
ground, which are connected to the “X” 
side of a double-throw double-pole 
switch. The “Y” terminals lead to a 
condenser Cr, inductance Lr and resist- 
ance Rz, in series. Across the center 
points are connected the radio frequency 
alternator E, the inductance L2, and the 
ammeter 7. Suppose the switch to be 
closed on the “X” side and the alterna- 
tor to be generating at 100,000 cycles 
per second frequency (which corre- 
sponds to a wavelength of 3,000 meters). 
Assuming the natural wavelength of the 
aerial to be considerably under 3,000 me- 
ters, if the inductance L2 be slowly in- 
creased the current reading of / will 
also increase, at first gradually and then 


Fig, 3 


303 


rapidly, till it teaches a maximum value. 
If the inductance is still further in- 
creased, the current will grow smaller 
and smaller. The largest current flows 
when the effect of the inductance just 
neutralizes that of the capacity for the 
frequency used, or, in other words, 
when the antenna impedance is a mini- 
mum. The aerial system reactance is 
then zero, the impedance is equal 
simply to the effec- 
tive ohmic resist- 
ance, and the an- 
tenna is resonant 
or tuned to the al- 
ternator frequency. 
In this condition 
the current is de- 
termined only by 
the total antenna 
resistance and the 
effective applied 
voltage, irrespective of other factors. 

If, now, the condenser Cr is made 
equal in value to the capacity of the an- 
tenna and the coil Lz adjusted to equal 
the aerial inductance, the right hand cir- 
cuit will have a reactance equal to that 
of the antenna. If the switch is thrown 
to the “Y”’ position, with the alternator 
running at 100,000 cycles, and the in- 
ductance L2 is again gradually increased 
from zero, the current reading of J will 
first increase and then decrease exactly 
as before. The point of maximum cur- 
rent will appear for the same value of 
L2 as when the antenna was connected; 
if the resistance Rr is set to a value 
equal to the total antenna resistance the 
greatest current in amperes will be ex- 
actly the same as with the switch in the 
“X” position. 

Thus it is evident that any antenna 
may be considered as an inductance, a 
capacity and a resistance in series, and 
that so far as current and voltage ef- 
fects are concerned the true aerial cir- 
cuit may be replaced by an artificial an- 
tenna consisting of equivalent condenser, 
coil and rheostat in series. This means 
that the considerations regarding the 
impedance of closed oscillation circuits 
and its arithmetic calculation, as given 
in the January article, may be applied 
almost without change to antenna cir- 
cuits. It is only necessary that the wave- 


304 Popular Science Monthly 


length used be somewhat longer’ than the 
fundamental of the aerial, which is the 
usual condition of practical wireless 
telegraphy. 

In all the discussions up to this point 
the use of sustained or undamped radio 
frequency current has been assumed. 
The generators indicated by the symbol 
E in the diagrams have been supposed 
to be radio frequency alternators of the 
Fessenden type, which produce continu- 
ous alternating current of a definite ra- 
dio frequency depending only upon the 


speed of the machine. Such an j\ 
alternator forces any attached > 
circuit to oscillate at the ma- 

s 


chine’s generating frequency, 


strictly upon the dynamo’s 


ment of Fig. 4. Here an antenna 4, 
which possesses inductance, capacity 
and resistance, has connected between it 
and the earth E a spark gap S. Across 
the spark gap, by means of terminals 
TT, a high voltage transformer, induct- 
ance coil or other charging source is 
connected. If the potential of this 
charging source gradually increases, a 
current flows into the antenna and, be- 
cause of its electrostatic capacity, this 
aerial system takes a charge. If the 
voltage continues to rise until the elec- 
trical pressure is so great that 
the air between the spark gap 
terminals at S breaks down, 
a spark will pass and the elec- 
tric charge previously im- 


rush to earth. In an ordinary 


but the amount of the current lemons 2 ; 
set up in the circuit depends <s- Fig. 4 pressed upon the aerial will 


voltage and the circuit’s im- 
pedance to that frequency. 
Transmitters of this general 
type are coming into wider 
use day by day, as is seen 
from the work of the Gold- 
schmidt, Fessenden and Tele- 
funken companies. The cir- 
cuit effects described are — 
substantially identical with those in 
alternating current circuits operating 
at commercial power-distribution fre- 
quencies of 25 or 60 per second; in the 
radio work, however, resonant or zero- 
reactance effects are made useful, and 
condensers are used directly in the cir- 
cuits. In low-frequency practice, reso- 
nance is usually carefully avoided and 
series condensers are almost never used. 

By far the greatest number of radio 
telegraph transmitters in use today are of 
the spark condenser-discharge type. The 
circuit behavior in these senders is 
somewhat different from that in the sus- 
tained wave alternator transmitters, but 
most of the basic principies already ex- 
plained hold true. The main difference 
arises from the fact that with the alter- 
nator the frequency of the oscillations 
developed depends entirely upon the 
speed of dynamo and is independent of 
the circuits connected to it, while in the 
spark transmitter the frequency depends 
mainly upon the capacity and inductance 
of the discharging circuit. 

Consider for a moment the arrange- 


Fig, 5 


antenna this discharge to 
earth will be such that the 
electrical inertia of the system 
will cause the charge to “over- 
shoot,” in a sense, and the an- 
tenna will take on a polarity 
opposite to that which it had 
originally but somewhat weak- 
er. The insulating properties 
of the air gap S are not regained in the 
brief time of the charge’s passage, and 


so the current rushes up to the antenna - 


once more; at each swing or partial elec- 
trical oscillation the electromagnetic in- 
ertia due to inductance causes the effect 
of “overshooting,” and the oscillations 
continue until the energy of the original 
charge is used up. The electrical phe- 
nomenon is in many ways similar to the 
mechanical effects which may be ob- 
served when a weight at the top of a 
springy rod (which has its lower end 
clamped in a vise) is swung back and 
forth. 

Consider such a mechanical system, as 
shown in Fig. 5. If the weighted end 
A is pulled to the right by drawing on 
the light thread B, the spring C will be 
more and more strained until at last a 
point is reached at which the thread 
snaps. This is a fairly close analogy to 
the straining of the air in the spark gap 
S, Fig. 4, as the charging voltage grad- 
ually increases to the breaking point. 
Referring again to Fig. 5, as soon as the 
“charge” of mechanical energy placed in 


SN 


Popular Science Monthly 


the spring C is released by the break- 
ing of the thread, the weight A swings 
to the left. By reason of its inertia the 
weight does not stop at the central nor- 
mal resting position unless the friction 
is very large, but “overshoots” and trav- 
els off to the left side. But its motion 
to the left does not carry it so far from 
the center as it was originally. When it 
again swings back to the right the dis- 
placement is still less ; the successive par- 
tial mechanical oscillations to right and 
left gradually become smaller until the 
energy originally imparted is used up, 
when the swinging stops. 

For every complete oscillation of the 
freely vibrating antenna system a certain 
definite time is required. This time, 
which is usually measured in fractions 
of a second and is called the period of 
oscillation, depends upon the capacity 
and inductance of the vibrating system. 
It is a definite quantity for each amount 
of capacity and inductance, and, when 
the resistance is not abnormally high, 
depends only upon these. If the capac- 
ity of the circuit is stated in farads and 
the inductance in henrys, the time of one 
complete oscillation in seconds may be 
found by (first) multiplying the capac- 
ity by the inductance, (second) taking 
the square root of this product, and 
(third) multiplying the result by 6.28. 
Thus if the capacity is 0.002 microfarad 
(or 0.000000002 farad) and the induct- 
ance 3.2 millihenrys (or 0.0032 henry), 
the product is 0.0000000000064, its 
square root is 0.00000253, and the period 
(multiplying by 6.28) is about 0.0000161 
of asecond. The frequency is obviously 
the reciprocal of this, or 62,000 periods 
per second, which (as shown last month) 
corresponds to a wavelength of 4,800 
meters. 

In the next article some of the effects 
of changing inductance, capacity and re- 
sistance in both open and closed circuits 
will be discussed. 


Edison’s Railroad Wireless 


IRELESS was used on railroad 

trains as long ago as 1885, but 
the system then devised by Edison de- 
pended upon static induction and not 
radiated waves. It has been only re- 
cently that radio telegraphy has 
proved useful in railroad work, 


305 


A Roof Insulator 


fe insulator for lead-in wires passing 
over the edge of a house roof may 
be made by cutting a piece of stiff asbes- 
tos and placing it between two pairs of 
porcelain cleats. A hole is then made in 
the asbestos and a porcelain tube insert- 


ee 
LE 


This insulator for lead in wires is efficient 
and easy to make 


ed; the entire insulator is then nailed to 
the roof and is ready for use. The draw- 
ing shows the construction in detail. 


Internationa! Conference at 
Washington 

NTERNATIONAL conferences on 

radio telegraphy were held at Berlin 
in 1903 and 1906 and in London in 1912. 
The next is to be at Washington, D. C. 
The regulations adopted have been 
agreed to by most of the countries of 
the world. 


Radio Has Velocity of Light 


N THE experiments between the 
powerful Navy station at Arling- 
ton and that of the French government 
at the Eiffel Tower, Paris, which were 
carried on two years ago, it was found 
that the velocity of electromagnetic 
waves as used in radio was substan- 
tially identical with the speed of light. 
The measurements were made by tak- 
ing carefully timed photographic rec- 
ords of signals sent across the Atlantic. 


The Static Coupled Receiving Tuner 


By John L. 


EARLY all experimenters are fa- 
miliar with the action of the ordi- 
nary inductively coupled receiving 

tuner illustrated in Fig. 1. With this 
arrangement of apparatus, if the ele- 
ments are well designed and manipu- 
lated, excellent results in tuning may be 
secured. The construction is not always 
easy, however, since the primary and 
secondary coils must usually be so built 
that one may slide within the other. It 
is difficult to devise ways to connect con- 
veniently to various taps on the movable 


4 coil without introducing losses 
in lead wires. Such losses in- 
variably result in weakened sig- 

LF 


nals, and prevent reception of 
4, signals from the greatest possi- 


ble distances. 


—l_ Fig. 1. Magnetic coupling for receiv- 
= ing tuner 


A somewhat different type of tuner, 
which is now coming into rather exten- 
sive use, usually gives sharp tuning and 
loud signals, yet is very easily assembled. 
The connections are shown in Fig. 2, and 
may be seen on examination to bear 
some resemblance to the inductively 
coupled layout of Fig. 1. In both dia- 
grams the antenna and earth are shown 
by A and E, the primary circuit loading 
coil by Lr, the primary by L2, the secon- 
dary by L3, the secondary tuning con- 
denser by Cz, the blocking condenser by 
C2, the detector by D and the telephone 
by T. In Fig. 1 the primary and sec- 
ondary coils are placed rather close to- 
gether, so that energy may be transfer- 
red electromagnetically by the action of 
the lines of magnetic force linking both 
coils. In Fig. 1, the mutual inductance 
of the primary and secondary (and there- 
fore their coupling) is altered by moving 
the coils toward or away from one an- 
other; when near together the coupling 
is close and the selectivity poor, when 


Hogan, Jr. 


far apart the coupling is loose and the 
selectivity or sharpness of tuning great- 
er. The gain in selectivity is often ac- 
companied by a reduction in signal 
strength. 

In Fig. 2, the primary and secondary 
coils are set far apart, so that there is 
practically no magnetic coupling between 
them. A third condenser, C3, which is 
preferably variable and of small mini- 
mum capacity (say of from 0.00005 to 
0.001 microfarad range) is put in circuit 
as shown. This additional condenser goy- 
erns the coupling of the system; when 
C3 has small values the coupling is loose 
and the tuning sharp, and when C? is 
increased the opposite condition is ap- 
proached. The two coils need not be 
moved at all in order to secure any of 
the desired coupling effects; therefore, 
either primary or secondary or both may 
be variometers and the end-switch losses 
thereby eliminated. 

In tuning with the condenser-coupled 
circuit the ordinary procedure is_ fol- 
lowed. The coupling is made close and, 
with the secondary condenser discon- 
nected by opening switch S, the primary 
is adjusted until the desired station is 
heard with the greatest loudness. The 
switch S$ is then closed and the secondary 
system tuned by varying L3 and Cr. If 
interference is present, or if the incom- 

y; ing signals are very sharply 

tuned, the best results are se- 
cured by gradually loosening the 


adjusting 12 and Cz, to keep the 
oe 


= coupling and at the same time . 


| 5 2 s belie 
—i_._ Fig. 2. Static coupling for receiving tuner 
=e 


signals at maximum strength. The reso- 
nant wave length of the coupling circuit 
L2, C3, L3, is generally much shorter 
than that which is being received. Test- 
ing this static-coupled received will be 
well-spent effort. 


306 


A Mexican Radio Station 


By Stanley E. Hyde 


N MEXICO at present there are eight 

radio stations, situated at Vera 
Cruz, Campeche, Obispo, Maria Madre 
Island, Mazatlan, San Jose del Cabo 
(end of Lower California) Santa Rosa- 
lia and Guaymas. During the recent 
troubles in Mexico the rebels destroyed 
the station on Maria Madre, which is 
one of a group of three Pacific Coast 


Antenna wire 


Tower, 
/ Qpenend 


lnsvlotor 
i Insulators 


Fig. 2. Plan of Antenna 


a 


2 wire = 


Fig. 2. Plan of counterpoise 


islands belonging to Mexico, situated 
about ninety miles southwest of the 
State of Tepic. These islands, ex- 
tremely barren and practically void of 
vegetation, are surely a most uninviting 
place for a radio operator. 

The station illustrated is that of the 
Federal government completed during 
the present year at Mazatlan, Sinaloa, 
the largest Mexican city on the Pacific 
Coast. The station is on the top of a 
hill back a little from the city, and over- 
looks the ocean. On-the side of the hill 
are broken down barbed-wire fences in 
great confusion, erected by the Federals 
to hinder the advance of the rebel forces 
which about a year ago tried to capture 
Mazatlan by land and sea. Upon reach- 
ing the station one is greatly surprised 
to find a moderntsteel tower for support- 
ing the antenna. It is square and grad- 
ually tapers to the top, on which is an 
observation platform which can be made 
useful for military purposes. The 


whole, constructed of thin structural 
steel, is 250 feet high, and guyed by 
steel cables anchored firmly in the earth. 
The antenna, which is illustrated in 
Fig. 1, has distinct features not found 
in the ordinary radio station, and is 
especially adapted to the tropics where 
the static is troublesome. It consists of 
four wires spread out umbrella style, 
but not connected together at the bot- 
tom. The four spans are brought to- 
gether near the top and the leads run 
down from the highest point, as illus- 
trated in Fig. 3. 

On such rocky and dry soil it would 
be impossible to obtain an efficient earth 
connection so a counterpoise or artificial 
serial is made use of. Fig. 2 shows a 
plan of this, which consists of wires 
supported 18 feet off the ground and 
insulated from it. These wires are also 
connected together at the tower ter- 
minal and brought into the station 
through a large lightning switch. 

The radio building is constructed of 
brick and has a red tile roof. Two 
rooms are used for the transmitting and 
receiving instruments, while the other 
three are for the use of the operator and 
his family. 

The transmitter is a 14% kilowatt 
Telefunken set, using a 500 cycle alter- 
nator, belted to a ten horse-power dis- 
tillate engine. Directly connected to the 


—— 


DDD | 


ay 


Antennas } 


x 


|| 
| 


— Counferpolse” 


Fig. 3. Diagram of station at Mazatlan, Mexico 


307 


308 Popular Science Monthly 


alternator shaft is a small direct current 
exciter. Engine and alternator are 
situated in a separate room from the rest 
of the apparatus. The engine is water- 
cooled by rain water collected in a large 
tank outside. The receiver consists of 
a Telefunken loosely coupled set with 
variable condensers, telephones, two 
sensitive Galena detectors and transfer 
switch. To the left of the receiver stand 
a high voltage tube condenser, the 
quenched, and variometer inductances. 
A hot-wire ammeter is included in the 
antenna circuit. 

It is remarkable that this small station 
can work with Vera Cruz, over 
mountains and dry places, a distance of 
nearly 800 miles, but strange things hap- 
pen in the tropics. . 


A Variable Condenser 
VARIABLE condenser can be 
made of two test tubes covered out- 

side with tinfoil, one tube being a little 
smaller in diameter than the other. The 
smaller tube is placed inside of the large 
one, a flexible card being attached to 
the tinfoil on each. The condenser is 
varied by sliding the smaller tube 
in and out ‘of the -larger.. \(Thefe 
may be several sets of these condensers 
made and hooked up in either parallel 
or series. 
large tube covered with foil on outside 
/ 


A variable condenser made from two test tubes 


Radio Club News 


HE Technical Association of Li- 
censed Operators, was formed on 
October 21, 1913. Meetings are 
held fortnightly, at which papers are 
presented and discussed. The present 
officers are: W. Woodrow, President; E. 
T. Dickey, Secretary and Treasurer. 
Other clubs are invited to address 
communications to the secretary’s of- 
fice, 1649 Amsterdam Ave., New York 
City. 
Radio Club of Redlands 
The Radio Club of Redlands, Calif., 


was recently formed, with an_ initial 
membership of nine. The following 
officers were elected: President and 
Chief Operator, Ezra Moore; Vice- 
President, Arthur Munzic; Secretary- 
Treasurer, Rudolph Kubias, and Asst. 
Secretary-Treasurer, Harry William- 
son. Meetings are held every second 
Friday evening, at 7:30 P. M. 
Amateurs in nearby towns are re- 
quested to communicate with the club, 
at 108 Eleventh Street, Redlands, Cal. 


Wireless Club in Salt Lake City 


At a recent meeting officers were again 
elected to positions in the Granite Wire- 


less Association. The club is beginning 
its second year in amateur radio work 
and is now studying some of the latest 
works on Radio under the supervision of 
Prof. S. H. Besley. Most of the mem- 
bers have stations entirely of their own 
make and have secured excellent results. 
They hope to have the largest club of 
the Middle West and invite communica- 
tions from other clubs. These may be 
addressed to Pres. Merton Stevenson, 
Granite High School, Salt Lake City, 
Utah. The club’s station call is G. W. A. 
and practice work is carried on the last 
Saturday evening in each month. Busi- 
ness meetings are held every Friday af- 
ternoon, beginning at 2 P. M. at the 
school building. 


Pensacola Junior Radio Club 


The Junior Radio Club of Pensacola, 
Fla., recently heid its first meeting. The 
following officers were elected: Edwin 
Copas, President; Oliver Williams, Sec- 
retary; Fred Gillmore, Operator. Near- 
by amateurs are invited to join. Ad- 
dress communications to Fred Gillmore, 


127 W. Gregory Street, Pensacola, Fla. 


IY tha 


What Radio Readers Want to Know 


Indoor Aerial 


C. J., Detroit, Mich., asks: 

Q. 1. Would it be possible to use the light- 
ing circuits in the house for an aerial, it being 
understood that the main switch is open? 

A. 1, While not a very efficient aerial sys- 
tem it might be used under certain conditions. 
If the wires are not placed in metal conduits 
or in no way grounded, the system could be 
used. Nothing but local stations would prob- 
ably be received. Better run a few wires 
across a ceiling in the top of the house than 
to try to use the light wires. 

Q. 2. If the wires could be used, what 
would be the wave length of the system? 
The house is a two-story frame house, with 
one light in the attic and four in the cellar. 

A. 2. It would be impossible for us to 
estimate the wave-length of the system. 

Q. 3. If the bulbs were unscrewed, could 
this aerial be used to transmit on by using 
a small coil? 

A. 3. No. The potential from the coil 
would be too high for the wiring and would 
puncture it at such points as fixtures. Similar 
trouble is experienced where currents are 
induced in the house wiring from an out- 
door system of aerial conductors. 


Radio Telephone 


E, J. O’B., Black River Falls, Wis., asks: 

Q. 1. Will you please give me the informa- 
tion which will enable me to construct a radio 
telephone set capable of transmitting one- 
half mile or farther if possible? 

A. 1. We would judge from your letter 
that you would prefer to have instructions 
for a set which you could set up yourself, 
without involving expensive construction 
costs. For details of larger or more effi- 
cient sets we would have to refer you to a 
text book on the subject as it would be far 
too long to cover in this column. However, 
there is in vogue a type of radio which will 
cover the distance which you desire and 
which is fairly reliable. Such a set consists 
fandamentally of a transformer, such as 
would be used for radio telegraphic work, 
shunted by a carbon micrometer gap. Con- 
nected across the gap are two small conden- 
sers in series between which is the primary 
of an ordinary oscillation transformer. The 
secondary of the oscillation transformer is 
connected on one side to the aerial and on the 
other to the transmitter, the other side of 
the transmitter being grounded. The conden- 
sers are about 0.0025m.f. in capacity and the 


transformer about “4 K.W., and should op- 
erate on 60 cycles or at a higher frequency if 
available. The April, 1914 Popular Electricity 
and World’s Advance, page 1,466, has a de- 
scription of such a set and shows the microm- 
eter .gap in detail, giving the necessary work- 
ing drawings. Page 666 of the May, 1914, 
Modern Electrics and Mechanics, describes a 
similar set, but omits details of the spark 
gap. 
Multiple Tuner 


A. .E, ‘Rochester, IN. Y:, asks: 

Q. 1. Is it absolutely necessary to use No. 
24 wire on the multiple tuner described in 
the September issue of the World’s Advance? 

A. 1. By changing the size of the wire the 
most important change in the characteris- 
tics of the tuner will be the wave length, 
to which it will respond. By increasing the 
size of the wire the wave length to which 
the tuner would respond would be decreased.. 
By using smaller wire the respondent wave 
length would be increased. In this partic- 
ular tuner it would be possible to use any 
size of wire from about No. 22 to No. 28, 
bearing in mind, of course, the change in the 
respondent wave length. For your purposes 
we do not believe this change would be of any 
great importance to you. 

Q. 2. Is it also necessary to use enameled 
wire? 

A. 2. Enameled wire permits the greatest 
number of turns to be placed on the coil and 
increases the respondent wave-length over 
that available with other types of windings. 
Spaced bare wire or single cotton or silk 
covered wire may be used quite satisfactorily. 


Receiving Set 


EE; Z., Longeitsland City, N: Y. asks 

Q. 1. Please give me the dimensions of a 
receiving transformer to use with an audion 
detector to have a range of 200 to 1,500 
meters. I desire to use switches instead of 
sliders. 

A. 1. Wind 150 turns of No. 28 S. C. C. 
magnet wire on cylinders 5% and 4% inches 
in diameter respectively and five inches long. 
You can arrange the taps to suit yourself. 
On the primary we would suggest that you 
make arrangements for tuning to every other 
turn, and on the secondary ten points wouid 
be sufficient. 

Q. 2. Please give me the dimensions of a, 
loading coil to increase the range to 4,000 
or 5,000 meters. 

A. 2. Wind No. 28 S. C. C. magnet wire 


309 


310 


on a cylinder 5% inches in diameter and 15 
inches long. You should place about 500 
turns on this coil. 

A. 3. What is the approximate capacity 
of a 17 plate rotary condenser whose plates 
are 4% inches in diameter and a separation 
of about 1-16 inch? 

A. 3. We assume by a 17 plate condenser 
you mean 17 rotary plates. This condenser 
would have a capacity on the order of 0.0008 
m.f. 


Receiving Distance 


B. R. J., Omak Wash., asks: 

Q. 1. I have a circuit of No. 14 copper 
wire, 475 feet long, strung from comb to 
comb of buildings. I wish to use this as an 
aerial by placing a gas pipe in the center of the 
span, raising it to 92 feet above the ground. 
Using silicon or other crystal detector, what 
is the prospect of getting at least time sig- 
nals from Mare Island Navy Yard, 800 miles 
south of here or from Bremerton, about 140 
miles west of here. I am located east of the 
Cascade mountains in the Okanogan Valley 
of Washington. 

A. 1. It is very difficult to say just what 
a station will do when the station is located 
behind a mountain range, but if you use an 
efficient set we do not see why signals should 
not be received from Mare Island. If you 
used galena instead of silicon you would 
probably have better luck. Be sure to insulate 
your antenna well from the gas pipe pole. 
This will prevent serious difficulties. 


Armstrong Circuit 


F, F. L., New Rochelle, N. Y., asks: 

Q. 1. Can the Armstrong circuit be used 
on wave lengths of from 150 to 3,000 meters? 
If so what size coils should be used? 

A. 1. The circuit itself is all right, but 
it is very difficult, if not impossible to get 
the audion to oscillate satisfactorily in a wave 
length of 150 meters. It is possible to get it 
to work on the longer wave length you men- 
tion. As the sustained waves are almost by 
absolute necessity of a long wave length there 
is very little need to get the audion to respond 
to the shorter lengths, as it is fully as effec- 
tive to receive there the spark frequency ra- 
ther than the radio frequency. 


Single Radio Receiving Station 


C. O. T., Easton, Md., asks: 

Q. 1. What instruments do I need to re- 
ceive messages 500 miles? 

A. 1. Some form of tuning coil, preferably 
a loose coupler, many of which have been de- 
scribed in the columns of this publication; a 
detector, a mineral such as galena would 


Popular Science Monthly 


probably be most satisfactory to start with; a 
high resistance receiver, a 2,000 ohm set is 
quite satisfactory, and a small stoppage con- 
denser is all that you would require. Better 
results would be obtained by adding a vari- 
able condenser across the secondary of the 
loose coupler, but this is not absolutely nec- 


essary. 
Q. 2. What kind of an aerial would you 
use? 
A. 2. The easiest to erect, is about the 


usual answer. Almost anything will do. Look 
around and see a few other aerials and you 
will get a good idea of what you think would 
best suit your needs. We would suggest that 
you buy, if not otherwise possible to obtain, 
a copy of Edleman’s book on “Experimental 
Wireless Stations.” This book will answer 
both questions 1 and 2 with far more detail 
than is possible for us to do here. It will 
also give you a very good elementary knowl- 
edge of the entire subject. 

Q. 3. We have a 32-volt storage battery 
house lighting system for house lighting. Can 
I use this on my receiving set? 

A. 3. No battery is required for your re- 
ceiving set. 


Loose Coupler 


J.B: Pittsbureh: ea asics 

Q. 1. Is it necessary for me to build two 
loose couplers in order to receive wave lengths 
of 150 meters up to 3,000 meters, or would one 
loose coupler be sufficient without bothering 
with the dead end effect? 

A. 1. Unless you desire the highest possible 
efficiency, one loose coupler will be sufficient 
for your needs. The amount of dead end ef- 
fect will be small and will not cause a great 
deal of loss. If so desired you could section- 
alize the coils by inserting one or more 
switches, but we would not consider this abso- 
lutely necessary. Unless you have a very 
small antenna it will not be possible for you 
to receive wave lengths as low as 150 meters 
without inserting a condenser between the 
aerial and the primary of your loose coupler. 
If you desire to receive wave lengths of 150 
meters, your aerial including all leads should 
not have a total length of over 50 feet. Sat- 
isfactory operation may be obtained from 
aerials whose total length is.125 or possibly 
150 feet if the series condenser above referred 
to is used. 

Q. 2. What number wire should I use to 
build a loose coupler which will tune to 3,000 
meters ? 

A. 2. Wind the primary with. No. 24 S. 
C. C. magnet wire, and the secondary with 
No. 26. The primary cylinder should be 5% 
inches in diameter and the secondary 4% 
inches. Both cylinders are 7 inches long. 


The Home Workbench 


Avoiding Dangerous Stair Turns 


HE turn of an ordinary narrow 
staircase is so sharp and the steps 

at the inner part of the turn so nar- 
row that a person in a hurry is likely 
to stumble and fall. The danger of 
injury can be considerably reduced by 
construcing the stairs with the steps 


The usual way of building stairs(Fig. A), 
and the more intelligent scheme of widen- 
ing the inside steps at the turn (Fig. B) 


wider at the inside of the turn. To ac- 
complish this, more steps must be allowed 
for making the turn. 

Instead of the usual sharp right an- 
gle, each succeeding step should be 
cut at an increasing angle, so that 
double the number of steps are re- 
quired in constructing the turn. By a 
comparison of the two drawings, it is 
readily seen that the breadth of the 
step on the inside of the turn meant 
comfort and safety in a narrow passage. 


A Dustless Ash Sifter 


HAT unhappy Saturday morning 
task of the small boy—sifting 
ashes—may be brightened to some ex- 
tent by a comparatively dustless ash 
sifter. Certainly, a device of this sort 
will be welcomed by the housewife, 


311 


ry 
as aw) 
1 


who listens with consternation to the 


‘grating sound of the ash-sifter, fully 


aware of the disaster that powdered 
ashes wreak on lace window curtains 
and polished wood work and furniture. 

The dustless ash sifter consists of 
two boxes, one for sifting the ashes, 
the other for receiving the waste. The 
lower box is large, and fitted with a 
sliding door at one end for removing 
the ashes when it is filled. The upper 
box is nailed over a long hole in the 
top of the other, and is provided with 
a hinged cover. At one end of the 
small box a hole is cut to admit the 
handle of the sifter. The sifter, itself, 
consists of a flat wooden frame, made 
box shaped, from four narrow boards. 
It is open at the top and screened at the 
bottom. 

The ashes are placed in the sifter, the 
hinged top is closed, and the handle 
is moved back and forth. Unusable 
ashes fall into the bin below; clinkers 
and unburned coal remain on the 
screen. 


A packing box, properly adapted, becomes 
an excellent dustless ash sifter 


$12 
An Outdoor Window Bed. 


CLEVER Los Angeles club- 
woman has invented a window 
bed which can be used for several pur- 
poses. It may be used, for instance, as 


an attachment on a window, whereby 


a fresh air lover can sleep with his or 
her head out in the open (Fig. 1). The 
head is protected from mosquitoes in 
summer by a metal screen box fitting 
tightly over the head of the bed. 

By making a few changes in the 
framework, floored tent or movable 
playhouse for children is erected. This 
can also be made 7 feet tall for adults, 
merely by extending the metal posts. 

Figure 2 shows how the device can 
be converted into a flower stand out- 


e 

4ck 
of 
ok 
° 
° 
ok 
© 
° 
° 
e 
° 


© 


Fig. 1. Outdoor sleeping becomes simple 
without a sleeping porch 


Fig. 2. In summer the arrangement can be 
used as a flower pot support 


Popular Science Monthly 


Fig. 3. How the arrangement becomes a 
plain bed 


Fig. 4. The same piece of mechanism made into 


portable two-shelf flower stand 


side the window and a table inside the 
window. In Figure 3 it is a plain bed. 

There are many further possibilities 
of this versatile bed as an elevated 
platform for travelling speakers, as 
a. ‘children’s* theatre “stages y acme 
display stand for itinerant peddlers, 
and patent medicine men. For further 
outdoor uses it can be transformed in 
a few minutes to a portable two-shelf 
flower-stand (Fig. 4), or a lawn settee. 


For the Amateur Painter 


HEN painting sash-windows it is 
very hard not to get any paint 
on the glass. Any attempt to wipe off 
the paint from the glass means wiping 
paint from the freshly-coated sash, too. 
To remedy this take a cake of soft 
soap and rub it on the glass close to 
the sash, making a 2” margin. The 
sash can then be painted without being 
careful about the glass. When the 
paint is dry wipe the soap from the 
glass and the paint will come off the 
glass, too. 


How to Make a Simple, Automatic 
Window Closing Device 


eee object of this device is to en- 
able one to sleep in a room with 
the windows open during cold weather 
without the disadvantage of having a 
cold room in the morning. Briefly, it 
consists of an electro-magnetic latch 
which holds the window open during the 
night until at some predetermined hour, 
early in the morning, an alarm clock ope- 
rates a switch in the latch circuit which 
releases the latch and allows the win- 
dow to close. 

The operation of this latch is as fol- 
lows: When a current passes through 
the magnet winding (Fig. 1) the arma- 
ture is drawn in toward the magnet 
which releases the hook. As the hook 
falls, the window no longer being sup- 
ported, closes. It is, of course, neces- 
sary to fasten a weight to the window, 
or remove the window weights, so that 
when it is not supported by the hook it 
will close because of its weight. When 
the window is closed the hook remains 
in the position shown in dotted lines in 
Fig. 1. As soon as the current ceases 
to flow through the magnet winding, a 
spring (not in the drawing) moves the 
armature back to its original position. 
When the window is again raised the 
top of the ring striking against the hook 
carries it up with it until the hook au- 
tomatically locks into position. The 
window will then remain open until a 
current again passes through the mag- 
net winding. 

The construction is as follows: 

The yoke piece may be cut out of a 
piece of iron or cold rolled steel 214” x 
144” x 4”. Two pole cores of the 
same material about °4’7 in diameter are 
riveted to this yoke piece as shown in 
the drawing. The magnet spools may 


Press-huttons,. 


Boslery 


Diagram of connections 


be formed out of brass, or some insulat- 
ing material, and wound with No. 20 B. 
& S. gauge single cotton covered wire. 

About 5 oz. of this wire will be re- 


SSE 


& rman 


AN 


Window rrome “Base 


HX: 


il he AGUSIING SCIEN 


Y 
Yoke- AAS. 
¢ — Se 
. . Armature 
he 
Hook 
/ Window sash 
~Yy7 
Fig. 1. The latch, showing its operation 


quired. The armature should be cut out 
of a piece of 1/16’ sheet iron and bent 
up at the top to form a bearing and at 
the bottom to form a support for the 
hook. The base, the hook, and the ring 
should be cut out of 14” sheet brass. A 
spring must be provided to keep the ar- 
mature over against the adjusting screw 
when the magnet is not energized. A 
suitable spring for this purpose may be 
formed by winding No. 23 B. & S. gauge 
phosphor-bronze wire on a rod 3/16” in 
diameter. This spring may be supported 
on a rod between the two magnet spools. 
This spring support rod should be just 
long enough to keep the armature from 
coming into contact with the pole core 
ends when the magnet is energized. 

For operating this device use an ordi- 
nary alarm clock, the only requirement 
being that it shall have an alarm winding 
key which rotates as the alarm rings. 


313 


ial 
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Popular Science Monthly 


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Spring support 


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Pole Core 


SING 


Hook 


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Z_ screw support | 
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Adjusting SCCW 


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Details of construction of window opening device 


Two binding-posts are fastened to the 
back of the clock. One post is in elec- 
trical contact with the frame of the clock 
while the other is carefully insulated 
from it. A flat spring is attached to the 
insulated binding-post and bent into such 
a position that the alarm key will come 
into contact with it as it rotates. It is 
not necessary to wind the alarm up com- 
pletely but only to give it a fraction of 
a turn so that in unwinding it will touch 
the flat spring in passing. 

The apparatus should be connected up 
as shown in Fig. 2. One dry cell is suf- 
ficient to operate this device. A press 
button switch may be included in the cir- 
cuit as shown in Fig. 2. This press- 
button is for use when it is desired to 
close the window at any time other than 
that for which the alarm clock switch is 
set. 

One alarm clock switch may be used 
to close any number of windows at the 
same time by simply connecting the 
magnetic latches on the different win- 
dows in series. It will, of course, be 


necessary to increase the number of cells 
in the battery if more than one window 
is to be operated. 


For Conserving Heat in Steam Pipes. 


N excellent covering for steam pipes 

may be made from materials that 
are almost always available. Take some 
fine sawdust and screen it through a 
sieve to remove any foreign bodies. 
Prepare a thin paste of flour and water, 
and mix the sawdust thoroughly with 
this paste. With a small trowel, the mix- 
ture so prepared should be applied in 
about 5 coats to the steam pipes while 
they are slightly warm. Each coat should 
be thoroughly dry before the next is ap- 
plied. If the steam pipes are in an ex- 
posed situation, 3 or 4 coats of coal-tar 
should be applied after the paste has 
dried; if inside a building, this water- 
proofing is unnecessary. Steam pipes 
treated with the sawdust as above lose 
very little heat and, in addition, the mix- 
ture is much cheaper than patented prep- 
arations. 


Popular Science Monthly 


How to Make a Snow-plow to 
Clean the Sidewalk 


HE plow is built on a lawn mower, 
the blades of which have been re- 
moved. In the drawing the plow is made 
from a shovel. One of the halves is put 
on each side and brought to a point in 
front. The frame is made of one board 


about 1” x 12” or two boards 1” x 6’. 


This snow-plow is made from a lawn mower 
from which the blades have been removed 


As the sizes of lawn mowers vary, so 
will the plow have to vary to fit. The 
cross-bar is the width and thickness of 
the handle of the mower, and can be ad- 
justed. It keeps the nose of the plow 
on the ground. 


A Clock Light for Dark Mornings 
BOY of fourteen, who has had 


no instruction in electricity, and 
whose home in a little Iowa town has 
no electric service, invented the device 
illustrated. In this home, early rising 
is the rule, partly from necessity and 
partly from choice. In the winter time, 
when the days are short, he must rise 
before there is much daylight. This 
arrangement enables his father or 


SMIALL LIGHT OS 
. | 
=— 


[| 


_ 


When the lid is lowered the switch automatic- 
ally closes the circuit and lights the desk lamp 


315 


mother to illuminate the dial of a clock 
and to see what time it is without get- 
ting up. 

As the diagram shows, two dry bat- 
teries are connected in series and put 
into a little wooden box, on top of 
which the clock rests. To the back of 
the box is fastened a light bracket 
made of strips of soft wood. This 
bracket overhangs the clock, and to 
its underside is fastened a three-volt 
searchlight bulb in a minature base. 
From one pole of the battery a wire 
is run down behind the dresser, under 
the carpet to the bed, up one of the 
bedposts, to a height about a foot above 
the mattress. Here a push-button is 
attached. The return wire goes back 
over the same route, up behind the dress- 
er to the lamp, and from the lamp to the 
other pole of the battery. Hanging in 
front of the lamp is a little piece of tin 
bent so as to make a crude reflector, at 


TTT 
- West Hf Hi Ht Hii 


A push button beside the bed allows the boy to 
see what time it is without getting up 


the same time that it serves to keep the 
light of the lamp out of the observers’ 
eyes. By pushing the button the dial is 
illuminated, and the occupant of the bed 
can read the time without rising. 


An Automatic Desk Lamp 


CONVENIENT automatic desk 

light may be easily constructed 
from two pieces of thin brass, a small 
light bulb with socket, and a dry battery. 
A piece of brass is screwed to the desk 
lid, as shown, and the other piece is fast- 
ened underneath it, so that when the lid 
is lowered the two pieces close the cir- 
cuit to light the lamp. A switch may 
be placed in circuit so that the lid may 
be lowered without lighting the lamp. 
The wires are placed as illustrated. 


316 


Making Use of Cupboard Space 
for Refrigerator 


fe location of a refrigerator in a 
certain home was an afterthought. 
No convenient space was available—ap- 
parently. The housewife tackled the 
problem and finally had a bright idea. 
There was a large cupboard built into 
the wall separating the kitchen from a 
small rear vestibule. It had large draw- 
ers beneath and shelves closed by doors 
above. 

She measured the space occupied by 


——— 
a 


Eee | 


a i 


Riper | 


(in 


SSE NESE SSS SSS 


TN 


Room for a built-in 
refrigerator should 
be found where a 
door for outside 
icing can be ar- 
ranged. This pre- 
vents mud being 
tracked over the 
kitchen floor 


KITCHEN 


the drawers, and she and her son divided 
up the list of dealers in refrigerators, 
spending each half day in the search 
of an ice box to fit into the drawer 
space. Persistence was rewarded at last. 
A carpenter was hired to remove the 
drawers, cut the wall, and install the re- 
frigerator, which was chosen with a rear 
icing door. The doors were also re- 
moved from the upper part of the cup- 
board and the shelves, now open are 
used for staple groceries. 

The location of the icebox is conven- 
ient in its relationship to the other work- 
ing equipment of the room. The iceman 
can fill the box without tracking mud 
over the kitchen floor. If the family is 


“ht as abe 


Popular Science Monthly 


away the two inner doors of the vesti- 
bule can be locked and the outer left 
open for the delivery. During the late 
fall and the winter the icing door is left 
open and the refrigerator keeps food 
well without ice, which would not be 
possible were the box entirely within the 
warm room. 


Fastening Wood With Screws 


EN the wood screw is used for 

fastening wood together, its func- 
tions are, firstly, to draw the pieces into 
close contact, and secondly, to hold them 
firmly. Driving a screw, as illustrated, 
is one of the simplest processes in wood- 
working, but until experience has taught 
the amateur better, he usually tries to 
force the screw through piece 1 by main 
strength or bores a hole so small that 
the screw must be turned in with a 
screw driver. In neither case will the 
screw draw the pieces more closely to- 
gether than when the screw entered 
piece 2. 

The hole at a should be large enough 
to allow the thread and the shank to be 
pushed through with the fingers, but not 
so large that the head of the screw will 
not have a good bearing at d. 

It is not customary to countersink the 
screw hole in soft wood as at b, or to 
bore a hole in piece 2 to receive the 
thread as at c, as the screw head can 
usually be turned into the wood by the 
drawing of the thread in 2, until its 
head is sunk a little below the surface of 
In hard wood the hole in 
piece 1 should be countersunk as shown, 
and a hole about the size of the core of 
the thread bored at c, in piece 2; if this 
is not done the screw may be twisted off 


The correct way to use wood screws 


Popular Science Monthly 


by the force applied to the screw driver, 
though if the screw is lubricated by be- 
ing pushed into a piece of yellow soap it 
may be driven more easily; this is often 
necessary even if hole c has been bored. 


To Make a Mission Screen 


LL the tools necessary for making a 
screen are a hammer, a few fine 
nails, a saw, plane, gimlet, rule and glue 
pot. The necessary material may be found 
at most sash and door factories or plan- 
ing mills free of cost. They are: Four 
pieces like 4, 2 like B and 6 like C in 1” 
boards. If possible obtain pieces of the 
same wood, ash or elm being preferred. 
If no work bench is available, nail a 
4" piece to the floor and by using this 
to keep the stick from sliding, plane sides 
smooth and sandpaper. Then take two 
pieces of A and the two B’s and at a and 
b bore holes for the casters. Cut in all 
the A’s and B’s ¥%” cuts at m,n, p, q. 
Then with knife or chisel break out the 
pieces and square the holes. Cut out the 
pieces in the C’s at r and s, and smooth 
the openings. Next procure 2 pairs of 
suitable hinges and fasten one pair on 
each of the A’s which have not the caster 
holes. Place the hinges on the face 
shown in the cut. When this is done, 
varnish or stain all the pieces thoroughly. 
When the stain has dried, the pieces 
are ready to assemble. Take 4 of the 
C’s and 4 of the A’s and glue firmly; a 
few fine nails may be used, care being 
taken that the wood does not split. Then 
assemble the 2 B’s and the remaining C’s. 
When glue has set, put up the frame, put 
in the castors and stain or varnish again. 
When this is dry, a suitable cloth may 
be attached to this frame. This screen 
is cheaply made and if carefully built will 
serve the purpose of an expensive screen. 
One thing in which care must be taken 


ahe Na Ng 
S-5- 


Construction details of mission screen 


A mission screen easy to make 


is the hinges, which must be on opposite 
sides, so that the screen when open must 
form a Z. 


Seam Ripper from Old Safety Blade 


HANDY device for the housewife 

may be made from a safety razor 
blade. Cut a wooden handle 5 inches 
long. Bore holes to conform to the holes 
in the blade. Two screws, passed through 
the blade and the wooden handle will 
hold the blade firmly. This device will 
be found exceedingly useful to rip the 
seams in cloth while sewing. 


To Open a Molasses Jar 


O remove the top of a honey or mo- 
lasses can which sticks, the follow- 
ing will be found practical: Take a 
piece of stiff wire and bend it into a cir- 
cle the size of the top. Put this around 
the top, and with pincers, twist till tight. 


A Simple Ruby Light 


be a 220-volt carbon lamp of 32 can- 
dle-power is used in place of the 
ordinary 110-volt lamp, a dim ruby light 
will be obtained which will not injure 
negatives exposed to it in the dark-room. 


A Combined Ice House and Cold 
Storage Room 


ae arrangement of a cold storage 
room for keeping milk, butter, 
eggs, fresh meats and small fruits in 
combination with an ice-house seems 
to meet the requirements of many 
country houses. Where perishable ar- 
ticles are purchased or obtained else- 
where in quantities, there is felt a need 
for some cold storage place other than 
the ordinary ice-box, which after all, 
is intended chiefly for articles in use 
from day to day and is rarely of suffi- 
cient size to accommodate large quanti- 
ties of food. 

The ice-house must necessarily be 
filled in winter, and the trick of using 
the chilled air from the ice-chamber to 
keep a storage-room below cool 
through the summer is an economical 
one, for there is no great waste of ice. 
Ice is a cheap commodity in winter, 
but rather an expensive luxury in sum- 
mer. Its waste in hot weather in tak- 
ing it from the ice-house to the kitchen 
almost daily represents about thirty 
per cent of the whole harvest. The 
daily opening of the ice-house, which 
admits warm air, causes a rapid shrink- 
age of the supply. 

The combination ice-house and cold- 
storage room eliminates, to a certain 
extent, this daily waste. Most of the 
articles kept in the kitchen ice-box can 
be retained in the cold-storage room 
until actually needed. Consequently, 
there is less transportation of ice to 
the house than by the old method. 

So far as possible this combination 
house should be located as near the 
back of the kitchen as conditions will 
permit, for if made easy of access, it 
will be utilized to its full extent both 
summer and winter. As the storage- 
house is a few feet underground, easy 
steps must be built to reach it, and 
not steep, narrow or awkward steps. 
The ice compartment of the house is 
filled at the back so that as little muss 
as possible is created either in putting 
in or taking out ice. 

The cost of building a combination 


ice-house and cold-storage room is one- 
third to one-half greater than that for 
a simple, old-fashioned ice-house, but 
in the end the extra investment is well 
paid for both in the convenience and 
greater saving of ice. There is another 
saving that is even more important. 
Many people living in country houses 
could reduce the cost of living by buy- 
ing perishable articles in wholesale 
quantities, but through lack of proper 
storage facilities they cannot do so. 
Butter purchased by the tub or firkin 
in the season when prices are the low- 
est would alone represent a big saving. 
Meats can also be made a big item of 
saving by buying in quantities, not to 
speak of small fruits in their season. 
With an ample cold-storage room, 


such as that illustrated, one could buy 


nearly all perishable articles by the 
wholesale and be sure not to waste 
any through deterioration. The saving 
in this way alone would more than 
pay for the extra cost in one year. 
The foundation of the combination 
house may be built of rough stones up 
to the ground level, cemented firmly 
together, and lined on the inside with 
a coating of good concrete. All parts 
of the house below the grade should 
be waterproofed in order to keep the 
moisture out. This is very important, 
for it is quite essential that the storage 
room should be dry as well as cold. 
In the center of the cold-storage 
room there should be an iron or wood- 
en pillar to support the load of ice 
overhead. Likewise, the floor girders 
above should be extra heavy to sup- 
port the tons of ice. The outside walls 
of the ice-house can be built of brick 
or stone, or even of wood, according 
to the style of the house with which 
it is connected. If wood is used the 
upright supporting-beams must be ex- 
tra heavy—four by six at least—so that 
they will be strong enough to carry 
the load of ice. Ordinarily, the ice is 
carried on the ground, and the con- 
struction of the ice-house may be made 


318 


Popular Science Monthly 


very light, but in this case the ice is 
above, and the load is considerable. 

Another point that requires special 
emphasis is the necessity of building 
a water-tight flooring for the ice above. 
Otherwise the water dripping from the 
ice will leak through the ceiling and 
spoil the storage room. Also the ice 
must not rest directly on this flooring; 
otherwise heavy cakes when put in will 
destroy the waterproof lining. A plat- 
form is made of unmatched boards, 
supported on short joists laid on edge 
and nailed rigid with strips of wood. 
This platform should be strong 
and steady, but it must be ar- 
ranged so that one can get un- 
der it easily when the ice is out. 
It will be necessary every au- 
tumn before putting in a fresh 
crop of ice, to clean the space 
underneath, examine the drain- 
age-pipe, and look for leaks in 
the waterproof floor. 

A good method to make this 
floor of the ice compartment wa- 
tertight is to lay down rubber 
sheeting, and then nail zinc 
sheets down over it. The rubber 
strips make the joints watertight. 
The flooring must have a gradual slope 
toward the drainage pipe, which should 
be at one or more corners of the build- 
ing. The laying of this waterproof 
flooring, and the installation of the 
drainage pipe are the most technical 
parts of the construction, for on their 
success depends the serviceableness of 
the storage room. 

There is no sawdust or inclosed air 
space between the ice-chamber and the 
top of the storage room. This permits 
the chill from the ice to penetrate 
downward and keep the room below 
cold. 

As the lower part of the room is 
underground there will be little chance 
for the temperature to rise in sum- 
mer. The bottom and sides of the 
storage room, on the other hand, are 
well insulated either with sawdust or 
air spaces. One can take his choice 
in regard to filling the air spaces. 
’ Some find spaces of dead air between 
the walls just as satisfactory as layers 
of sawdust or any other filling. That 


319 


is merely a matter of individual choice, 
although most of the big commercial 
ice companies still stick to the sawdust 
filling as the most satisfactory method 
of insulation. 

Your storage room is thus inclosed 
on all four sides, and at the bottom 
with double walls either filled with 
sawdust or dead air, and with an un- 
insulated ceiling above. The chilling © 
of the room from above is satisfactory, 
for the hot air naturally ascends, and 
the cold air descends. Of course, this 
produces a certain amount of waste 


Ground vist of combined ice-house and ‘cold 
storage plant 


in the ice, but far less than one would 
imagine. When the room is once 
chilled the change in temperature is 
very slight. Little or no warm air 
can come up from the ground or 
through the sides, except through the 
window and the door. 

To make the storage room service- 
able it needs at least one or two win- 
dows on the side opposite the door, but 
these windows are double and have 
two sashes, which can be darkened at 
will with heavy shades. Between the 
double windows there is a dead air 
space, which forms a pretty good in- 
sulation against the outside air. The 
window can be opened on cold days 
just enough to get ventilation. Fur- 
ther ventilation is obtained by tubes that 
run through the walls on opposite sides. 
These ventilating pipes should be of a 
kind that can be closed from the inside 
at will, so that too much air may not be 
admitted. 

This can be arranged very easily 
by having a cover to fit in the mouth 


. later. 


320 Popular Science Monthly 


of each pipe, so that it can be removed 
and easily cleansed at any time. 

The entrance is through a double 
door. This is better arranged with an 
outside door opening outward and the 
inner door opening inward. A vesti- 
bule of a few feet between these doors 
is a great convenience and very eco- 
nomical. Ona very warm day in sum- 
mer one can then enter the vestibule 
and close the door behind him before 
opening the inside one. There is then 
no rush of hot air from the outside 
to raise the temperature of the room, 
an important consideration where one 
must enter the storage room several 
times a day. The mere admission of 
a current of warm air on a hot day 
may raise the temperature of the room 


several degrees, and cause the melting 


of a ton of ice in the course of 
the season. 

The compartment above, in 
which the ice is stored is not 
very different from the inside of. 
the ordinary ice-house. The ice 
must be packed economically 
and in regular layer fashion, and 
then covered with saw dust. 
There should be a ventilator in 
the roof. This is essential to the 
preservation and sweetness of 
the ice below. The filling door 
should be placed as high up un-_= 
der the eaves as possible, but not — 
so high that there is no room for 
a block and tackle arrangement. 
This will facilitiate the handling 
of the ice enormously, and al- 
most save the cost of one man in 
filling it. 

With the house once constructed it 
is merely a matter of individual taste 
in dividing the storage room into com- 
partments for keeping milk, butter, 
eggs, meats and small fruits. Any con- 
venience of tables, shelves and _ bins 
that suggests itself can be installed 
The floor of this storage room 
is of cement, so that the spilling of any 
liquids will not cause damage. To 
keep the floor clean and sweet an oc- 
casional flushing with a hose will suf- 
fice. The drain for it should be at one 
side to permit the water to pass off 
quickly. But as a rule the room should 


be kept as dry as possible, since flushing 
the floor with water may cause an ex- 
cess of dampness that will take days 
to evaporate. 

The economy and convenience of 
such a combination house can readily 
be seen from the illustration. Ice for 
the house can be taken out from the 
back in the ordinary way, and that re- 
maining in the compartment will be 
utilized at all hours for chilling the 
storage room below. There will be a 
little waste through melting in hot wea- 
ther, but not to any extent. To offset 
this an extra ton of ice should be placed 
in the compartment each winter, and 
then the supply will last through the 
summer. 

A combination ice and storage house 
of this character can be built from 


CONCRETE 


Section of ice-house and cold storage plant, indicating 
construction of floors and walls 


$500 upward, depending upon the size, 
cost of materials and of labor. A good 
size is 25’ square, outside measure- 
ments, which will give a storage room 
of at least 20’. If properly built and 
filled with ice, a temperature of 34° can 
be maintained in winter, and from 35° 
to 36° in summer, which is suitable for 
the preservation of practically all food 
products. 


RY batteries can be brought back 
to their electrical life for a time by 
punching holes in the zinc covering af- 
ter having removed the cardboard filler, 
and soaking them in warm salt water. 


Our Readers’ Service 
Department 


Since our editorial pages must be kept free 
from advertising matter of any kind, we can- 
not mention manufacturers names, trade- 
marks and the like. But if you want to know 
more about some simple tool or appliance 
which you can use in the shop or the home 
and which was described or illustrated in the 
PorutarR ScreNcE Monruty, af you want 
to know who can supply more information 
on a subject which has been discussed in our 
pages, write to our Readers’ Service Depart- 
ment. Of the two hundred articles and three 
hundred pictures published each month by the 
Porutar Science Montuty, there must be 
many that interest you in a personal way. 

Even if the subject in which you are inter- 
ested has not been taken wp in the PopuLaR 
Science Montuuy, the Readers’ Service 
Department will help you, either by giving 
you the actual information which you want 
or by telling you from whom it can be ob- 
tained. 


321 


Forts on Rails to Travel Along Our Defenseless Coasts 


A New York inventor, Lawrence Luellen, proposes the mounting of heavy guns on rails, 

to be run between concrete emplacements at suitable points. General Crozier, the foremost 

ordnance expert of the United States Army, has thought well enough of the proposal to 

sketch mountings for the guns. The guns can be quickly mobilized and used wherever an 

attack is threatened or actually begun. Any desired number of guns can be concentrated 
at a single spot—something which is not possible with permanent fortifications 


322 


Popular Science Monthly 


239 Fourth Ave., New York 


Vol. 88 
No. 3 


March, 1916 > 


Annually 


Railroad Forts That Go Where 
They Are Needed 


A New Idea in Preparedness 


\ , JE have large cities, long coast 

lines and borders, also extensive 

areas that must be protected. It 

would be impracticable to fortify most 

of them by expensive fixed fortifications 

even though such fortifications were con- 
sidered efficient. 

The conditions of our roads, bridges 
and general topography of the country 
make it impracticable to move very heavy 
artillery rapidly, and we must look to the 
railroads both to transport heavy guns 
and to provide suitable bases from which 
to fire them rapidly and accurately. 

The vastness of our areas, coasts and 
borders, demands that we have an ex- 
tremely flexible as well as powerful land 
armament which can be operated by com- 
paratively few men and used anywhere. 

Railroads can mount twelve, fourteen 
and sixteen-inch guns for defense 
through a new invention patented by L. 
W. Luellen of New York, which makes 
it possible to protect with heavy mor- 
tars and guns our inland cities and five 
thousand miles of coast line, instead of 
the three hundred miles now protected 
by fixed fortifications. 

Heavy guns are permanently mounted 
on especially constructed railway cars, 
which are to be quickly locked on solid 
concrete foundations for instant use, to 
secure accuracy and rapidity of fire con- 
trol. These mobile armament cars are 
designed to utilize the present coast and 
inland railways to protect our seaboard, 
thus increasing the flexibility and stra- 
tegic value of high-power guns such as 
are now mounted on fixed foundations. 

Mr. Luellen would install at fixed 


points along existing railroads or at de- 
sirable strategic points, suitable concrete 
foundations, from which the highest 
powered guns may be fired. A specially- 
designed car will permanently mount high 
powered guns which may thus be swiftly 
transported to the point of attack, lo- 
cated on the foundations and brought 
into action. | 

These concrete foundations may be sit- 
uated, at a very nominal cost, on main 
lines, spurs, or side-tracks, either singly 
or in groups, behind hills, in railway 
cuts and in secluded spots along the re- 
gion it is desired to protect, as compared 
with the cost of placing fortifications at 
such points. 

Should the enemy locate and obtain 
the range of one of the mobile batteries, 
the car can be quickly unlocked and 
moved to another location. 

Present railroad facilities along the 
coasts of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, 
Connecticut, New York,—including Long 
Island—and New Jersey, are so located 
that ample gun foundations could be 
placed on spurs or side tracks so that any 
boat attempting to land must come within 
range of any desired number of guns. 
By properly grouping the concrete bases 
and placing one hundred and forty of 
them on the coast line mentioned, no 
landing party could reach the shores 
without coming within the deadly nine- 
mile range of six mortars. 

These concrete bases would cost ap- 
proximately three thousand to four thou- 
sand dollars each—total cost of one hun- 
dred and forty bases, including labor, 
about five hundred thousand dollars. 


323 


324 Popular Science Monthly 


The mortar armament cars should be 
located at stations along the coast, where, 
upon an hour's notice, several of them 
could be moved into position for action. 

It is estimated that to cover this shore 
line would require in the neighborhood 
of fifty mortars and ten rifle armament 
ears. This would mean that there would 
be one hundred and ten guns on mobile 
car equipment with total outlay (esti- 
mating the car and guns to cost one hun- 
dred and fifty thousand dollars) about 
nine million dollars. 

Approximately twenty to twenty-five 
men would be required per car. Thus, for 
the cost of one modern battleship, we 


This hen stops at a hotel. Lady Eglantine, 
the prize egg-layer of history, is worth 
anything you please because she transmits 
her admirable proclivities to her progeny 


could equip these shores with new mo- 
bile armament containing one hundred 
and ten guns, which could be more accu- 
rately fired and which would be strateg- 
ically more effective, with little risk of 
losing a single battery. 

This is not the first time that railway 
forts have been proposed. The idea is 
at least twenty-five years old. The fa- 
mous Creusot works of [france about 
three years ago actually built a railway 
battery. How successful it was we do 


not know. Mr. Luellen has made a dis- 
tinct contribution in suggesting concrete 
emplacements. 


Lady Eglantine: The One-Hundred- 
Thousand-Dollar Hen 


HEN whose value ranges all the 
way from $1,000, to a prince’s ran- 
som (whatever that may be), because 
money cannot buy her, recently attracted 
the crowds that frequented the poultry 
show held at the Grand Central Palace. 
There was nothing about this clucking 
heroine to distinguish her from other 
white leghorns, and she is as modest in 
her fame as world’s title holder as if 
she had not laid one of the three hun- 
dred and fourteen eggs that she deposit- 
ed to her credit in three hundred and 
sixty-five days. Furthermore, she was 
bright and lively and exhibited none of 
the temperament that one reasonably 
looks for in any great artiste. 

In the first place, and-so that your 
understanding of this item of the day’s 
news may be well based, the bird was 
hatched at Greensboro, | Md.. April 15, 
1914, on the Eglantine Farms, run by A. 
A. Christian. She was one of five single- 
comb white leghorns placed in a pen at 
the egg-laying competition on the 
grounds of the Delaware Agricultural 
Experiment Station at Newark, Dela- 
ware, from November 1, 1914, to Octo- 
ber 31, 1915. “In this time she»made her 
record. She is black-eyed, fourteen 
inches high and weighs four pounds. She 
has a perfect figure. 

Mr. Christian was offered a great deal 
of money for Lady Eglantine but he will 
not sell her. No price, he says, will 
tempt him. When Mr. Christian’s atti- 
tude on this became known somebody 
said the bird was worth $100,000, where- 
upon she was called the “$100,000 hen.” 
But she might just as well be called a 
$1,000,000 hen, for nobody can estimate 
her value. 


HERE was a large decline in the in- 

dustry of mining precious and 

semi-precious stones in the United States 
during 1914. 


The April Popular Science Monthly will be on sale Wednesday, March 
fifteenth (West of the Rockies, Tuesday, March twenty-first). 


The World’s Largest Flagstaff 


Unloading the largest flagstaff in~ the 
world. This huge timber was brought to 
London from British Columbia, and is 
shown being towed up the Thames to Kew, 
where it will be erected in Kew Gardens 


HUGE log, two hundred and fit- 

teen feet long, and. weighing 

eighteen tons, was recently trans- 
ported from British Columbia to Lon- 
don, to be erected as a flagstaff in Kew 
Gardens. 

The transportation of this great tim- 
ber across the ocean presented unusual 
difficulties. The pole was finally secured 
to the deck of a steamer, close to the rail, 
much to the discomfort of the ship’s 
passengers. 

Upon its arrival in London, a number 
of cranes, operating simultaneously, slid 
the timber free from stanchions and 
deck houses, and dropped it into the 
water, where a line was secured to its 
butt to tow it up the Thames River to 
Kew, where it will be erected. 


The Giant Task of the Subway 
Diggers in New York 


By Charles Phelps Cushing 


S_ there anywhere in New York to- 
night a cross section of street-life 

more dramatic in contrasts than the 
bit of Broadway in front of the Metro- 
politan Opera House? The Great White 
Way is gay, thronged, and glittering. 
The opera is just over; crowds in even- 
ing clothes, silk-hatted and the bejew- 
eled, are pouring out to their waiting 
limousines. There, as in past years, the 
pageant of wealth parades—but this sea- 
son with a difference. The sidewalk and 
the pavement of Broadway are now 
rough planks, and from below this rum- 
bling floor the shrill tattoo of a drill re- 
sounds upon rock. Picture this cross 
section : 

Above that plank floor, the silks and 
jewels and glittering lights; below it, in 
half-darkness, a squad of laborers in 
greasy overalls, stained with sweat and 
mud, risking their lives to build another 
subway. 


New York rarely gives a thought to 
its thousands of sappers and miners. 

“Building another subway,” it says. 
“Wish they’d hurry and get it over. 
They’ve torn up half the town.” 

So a khaki army in the subway trenches 
hurries, by day and by night, risking life 
and limb like soldiers. The peril of the 
job is a story in itself, not to be told in 
a paragraph. Suffice it, for the present, 
to say that only a few yards farther 
down the same street one person was 
killed and three persons were wounded a 
short time ago when a layer of “rotten 


stone” slipped into the subway ditch and 


half a block of the floor of Broadway 
followed it. Sell 
Transporting Three Billion People 
ima Year 
The average resident of New York has 
very little comprehension of the vastness 
of these great engineering operations. 
Is the human mind able to picture 


The simplest method of building a subway, known as the ‘‘cut and cover” method. If the entire 
length could be built with open construction, the engineers would have a comparatively sim- 
ple task. The twisted vertical steel rods are the reénforcing members for the concrete walk 


ee ee 


~ Popular Science Monthly af 


In the illustration below may be 
seen one of the many trestles 
which carry gaspipes across a 
torn-up street. After one serious 
explosion, New York put these 
pipes in the air where leaking gas 
would escape without danger of a 
catastrophe. The average cost 
of doing this is twenty-five hun- 
dred dollars; and where larger 
distribution mains must be han- 
dled, the cost runs as high as ten 
or eleven thousand dollars 


The great tangle of pipes and conduits 
shown above must all be separated and 
placed within narrow confines, since they 
interfere with the progress of the tunneling. 
Great patience, as well as ingenuity, must 
be exercised in unraveling these tubes with- 
out accident. Below may be seen a sec- 
tion where open construction is employed. 
Many square miles of pavement have to be 
torn up to prepare for the digging opera- 
tions. After constructing this part of the 
subway, the earth is again filled in above, 
new pavement has to be built, and the 
interior work is then completed 


328 Popular Science Monthly 


(0 DRTC DERE rity 
a 
> mY oe 


SVBWAYS WIT GRAND CE 


Se OR EE a. } 


An engineering undertaking of tremendous difficulty. This honeycomb of tunnels at the 
Grand Central Station, at Forty-second Street and Park Avenue, New York, is being dug 


eight hundred million people? That is 
the number of passengers the present 
system of rapid transit in New York 
(elevated lines and subways combined) 
can transport in a year. This carrying 
capacity is being increased to -three bil- 
lion! When the new system is com- 
pleted it would stretch, in single track, 
from New York’s city hall into the bor- 
ders of Eastern Tennessee, some six 
hundred and twenty-one miles. The cost 
of the new lines and extensions amounts 


to three hundred and thirty million dol- 
lars, which is to say, as much as the gov- 
ernment has thus far expended at Pan- 
ama. No other urban rapid transit 
system in the world will compare with 
New York’s in magnitude. 

The new subways—in single track, the 
total amounts to more than one hundred 
and fifty miles of tube and trench—are 
the most interesting side of the construc- 
tion now in progress; for this work is 
at once the most difficult and the most 


Popular Science Monthly 


NTRAL STATION 
rr “2 
“a 


through treacherous and rotten rock, and has to be built without disturbing the traffic in the 
present interborough subway, which is to be seen on the second level in the illustration 


perilous. New underground routes are 
being driven through some of the world’s 
most crowded streets, and without mate- 
rially interfering with the traffic. Though 
the typical construction is a covered 
ditch with a roof which is only a foot or 
two below the floor of the street, there 
are many places where real tunneling 
and mining operations are required. The 
digging goes on under a variety of con- 
ditions: through underground swamps 
and watercourses, through treacherous 


rock, through sand and even through 
quicksand. At the south end of Man- 
hattan Island two new sets of tubes are 
being driven under East River; at the 
north end a set of tubes was built on 
shore and then towed out into place and 
sunk on the bed of the river. In Lex- 
ington Avenue a new idea in subway 
building is presented in the form of an 
underground double-decker. At Grand 
Central Station the earth is being honey- 


‘combed into five levels. 


330 


Popular Science Monthly 


| 


| million dollars. One of the 
largest of the diverted sew- 
ers is in the neighborhood of 
the Pennsylvania Station, at 
Seventh Avenue and Thirti- 
eth Street. Now that a new 
subway is coming up Sey- 
enth Avenue, this sewer is 
being rebuilt to give outlet 
into North River—at a cost 
of five hundred thousand 
dollars. 

Or consider the fact that 
while construction is in 
progress under the street, 
many gas-mains must be 
carried over the roadways 
on trestles. The average 
cost of doing this is twenty- 
five hundred dollars; and 
where larger distribution 
mains must be handled, the 
cost runs as high as ten 
or eleven thousand dollars. 


Street-Cars and Wagons 
Carried on Dry-Land 
Bridges 
Or, again, in accounting 
for where so many millions 
must be spent in building 
subways, consider that the 
engineers never vacate more 
than half of the roadway at 
a time, and that the street- 
railways overhead and all 
the stream of vehicles and 
pedestrians are literally car- 
ried, while the digging is in 


The new local tracks beneath Lexington Avenue near 


74th Street. 
from serious obstruction. 


hundred and twenty-one miles 


These are some of the more striking 
features of the work; but even the mat- 
ter-of-course features loom big when 
one comes to inspect them closely. To 
make room for the subways, the space 
just below the street level has to be va- 
cated of all its various pipes. The ex- 
pense of moving them is enormous. Take, 
for example, one item, the cost of relo- 
cating sewers. Sixty miles or more of 
new pipes are being laid. The bill for 
these changes comes to more than six 


It will be noticed how free the street is 
This system, extended in 
a single track, would reach from New York’s city hall 
into the borders of Eastern Tennessee, some six 


process, upon miles and 
miles of dry-land bridges. 
They are the longest bridges 
in the world, and bear as 
much traffic as the busiest in 
the world. 

Then, too, hundreds of buildings must 
be shored up, for many of them are not 
built upon the solid rock; and rotten 
strata of treacherous stone must be 
braced to prevent slides. In a number 
of instances buildings had to be torn 
down. The famous old Astor House 
was one of these. It stood on sand at a 
corner under which a tube had to pass. 

But one of the most ticklish operations 


_ of all is a section of new subway in Wil- 


liam Street, where the underlying mate- 


Popular Science Monthly 


rial is quicksand. William Street is a 
narrow winding lane of old downtown 
New York. It is barely forty feet in 
width between building fronts, and in 
the half-mile section where the subway 
is being dug (from Beekman Street to 
Pearl) it bears twenty buildings of from 
seven to twelve stories in height, and ten 
of from thirteen to twenty stories. \When 
the digging was first proposed, owners 
of abutting property assessed at forty 
million dollars protested and carried the 
case into court. The Public 


331 


dred and seventy dollars, of which six 
hundred and four thousand, five hundred 
dollars is for underpinning. 

William Street is not the only place 
where the subway diggers have to be 
particular about building stanch floors 
and sidewalls. At Broadway and Canal 
Street an underground watercourse was 
encountered and a very heavy floor had 
to be built to resist the water’s upward 
pressure. Pumps with a capacity of 


twenty million gallons a day were kept 


Service Commissioners had 
so much confidence that the 
work could be done safely 
that they assumed responsi- 
bility for any damages that 
might result. 


Building on Water 


“The conditions encoun- 
tered are unique,’ writes 
John H. Madden, Asst. Di- 
vision Engineer, “in the num- 
ber of large and heavy build- 
ings, few of which have 
foundations to rock or hard- 
pan, and with these excep- 
tions all other foundations 
are above the subway sub- 
grade and uniformly above 
water levelas well.” The sub- 
ways floor is, in general, 
three to five feet below mean 
low water ; and below ground 
water level the material is 
swimming sand. “To guard 
against any possible flow of 
material into the subway 
trench, continuous bulkheads, 
either in the form of rigidly 
held, tight sheeting or con- 
crete cut-off walls, will be in- 
troduced between the under- 
pinning piers so as to form an 
integral portion of the latter 
and will be carried to such 
depth below the subgrade of 
the subway as to eliminate 
any tendency of the quick- 
sand to flow under the toe 
and be released into the ex- 
cavation.” The total esti- 
mated cost of the section is 
two million, two hundred 
fifty-four thousand, six hun- 


One of the serious difficulties often met by the engineers. 
Underground water is seeping into the tunnel near the 
corner of Broadway and Canal Street so fast that a set 
of pumps removes twenty million gallons a day from this 
one spot. 

upward pressure of the water and quicksand 


The flooring here is reénforced to resist the 


332 Popular Science Monthly 


busy for a while, discharging a volume 
of water as great as the daily supply 
required for a city the size of Atlanta. 
Care had to be taken, meanwhile, not to 
pump out sand along with the water, or 
the adjacent buildings would have come 
tumbling down, just as in a certain en- 
gineer’s vision of the most effective way 
of destroying the city of Boston: 

“An enemy need not 
bother mustering battleships 
or waste his time bombard- 
ing from afar the intellec- 
tual Hub of this land of 
ours. In time of peace let him 
have his spies build a big 
pumping station right in the 
middle of that city, and at 
the proper time start draw- 
ing indiscriminately from 
the ground below the water 
saturating the subsoil. You 
know a large number of 
Boston’s big buildings rest 
upon floating foundations. 
Pump out the water in the 
supporting quicksand, and 
down those structures would 
tumble into the yawning 
cavities so created. It would 
be far more effective in its 
demolition than the projec- 
tiles of a hostile fleet!” 

Up near the north end of 
Manhattan Island, at Lex- 
ington Avenue and One 
hundred and Twenty-ninth 
Street, the subway diggers 
had to construct another 
stout waterproof floor when 
they encountered what evi- 
dently was once a swamp. 

We mentioned, in passing, 
the razing of the old Astor 
House, which was built upon 
sand. The tunnel which 
comes up Vesey Street and 
cuts under the site of the 
old hotel curves around into 
Broadway through big cylin- 
ders of cast iron. 

Underground swamps and 
watercourses, sand, quick- 
sand, sand mixed with boul- 
ders (as in Brooklyn)—all 
these the diggers encounter 
and vanquish. But what the 


subway builders fear most is something 
different from all of these: a material 
known to the geologist as Manhattan 
Schist and to the rest of us as “rotten 
rock.” No material is more treacherous 
than this, for along’ with layers of ex- 
treme hardness are pockets and seams 
of disintegrated stuff, some of it so soft 
that, after it has been exposed a little 


Under the old Astor House, which has been torn down 

because an underground swamp made it extremely 

hazardous to tunnel beneath the building. The illus- 

tration shows an underground dinner of celebration 

when a section of the iron tubes for one of the subway 

lines was completed. The arch of the big tubes shows 
in back of the posts at the left of the picture 


pe ee ee eee ee ee 


; 
) 
| 


Popular Science Monthly. oop 


while to the air, it can be crumpled in 
the hand like earth. 

When New York built its first sub- 
way, the engineers encountered some of 
this “rotten rock” in Park Avenue near 
the Grand Central Station. Serious 
slides resulted; houses caved in. And 
the builders of the new subways have 
not come off any more fortunately than 


Rebuilding and moving sewers to vacate space required 
for the new subways. The sewers alone mean an ex- 
penditure of from six to seven million dollars. The 
illustration shows a large tube making a new outlet 
for the sewer system emptying into the Hudson River. 
This outlet will cost the city half a million dollars. 
To the left of the picture is the magnificent new 


Pennsylvania Terminal 


their predecessors. Of several cave-ins 
the most serious recently was one in 
Seventh Avenue, near Twenty-fourth 
Street, where seven persons were killed 
and eighty-five were injured. 

Try to conceive, then, how cautiously 
the engineers must work in building the 
Lexington Avenue double-decker sub- 
way and in tunneling the treacherous 
rock in the vicinity of Grand 
Central Station where (as 
an accompanying illustration 
tells better than whole pages 
of description could do) the 
ground is being honey- 
combed into five levels — 
this in the same perilous 
ground where the engineers 
first learned how gingerly 
they must proceed in a local- 
ity where the “rotten rock” 
literally abounds. And _ to- 
day an extra factor of diffi- 
culty must be confronted 
here from the fact that the 
operation of the present 
subway cannot be interfered 
with while the new tubes 
are being constructed. 

Following a blast, a slide 
of “rotten rock” knocked 
out the shoring of the wood- 
en bridge which forms the 
temporary street, and en- 
gulfed a loaded street car, a 
large motor truck, and 
scores of pedestrians. Spec- 
tators said that the structure 
fell like a house of cards. 
The maze of gas pipes and 
electrical conduits added a 
grave danger, for a spark 
from the tangled wires 
would have exploded the 
leaking gas, and would have 
added many more names to 
the list of killed and injured. 

On Saturday, of the same 
week, a section of Broadway 
fell in, endangering many 
lives. Fortunately, there 
were few pedestrians in that 
section of the street and only 
one vehicle, a taxicab, so 
that the casualties were few. 
But New York’s confidence 
was sadly shaken. 


Popular 


Much of the danger of driving on snow is eliminated by the 


use of these skiis on the front wheels. 
make skidding less likely 


Motoring on Skiis 
OTORISTS who know the diffi- 
culties and dangers of piloting 
their cars through heavy snow, will greet 
with approval a new device which 1s 
claimed to make snow-driving safe, prac- 
tical and comfortable. 

Two kiln-dried white ash skiis are fas- 
tened securely to the front wheels, and 
carry them over the surface of the snow. 
In deep snow the full width of the sktis 
carries the load, while on a hard path 
only the steel guide runner touches the 
road. The guide runner also makes 
steering easy and prevents the skidding 
of the front wheels. 


Does Your Child Suck It’s Thumb? 

T is very seldom that we see a straight, 

well-formed mouth. Sometimes it is 
spoiled by protruding teeth, sometimes 
by a large overhanging upper jaw, gen- 
erally we find the upper lip much larger 
than the lower. This is not, as might 
at first be supposed, a characteristic of 
the American people just as flat noses 
are a characteristic of the Negro race. 


Sctence Monthly 


They travel lightly 
over the snow, and by responding promptly to the wheel 


It is due to one of the 
most unfortunate habits 
that can be formed in 
childhood — the sucking 
of the thumb. 

The bones of a baby’s 
jaw are extremely plas- 
tic, and subject to al- 
most any amount of de- 
formity by long-contin- 
ued impact and strain. If 
even as soft an object as 

_a thumb is placed in the 
mouth for any length of 
time, the inevitable re- 
sult will be that the up- 
per jaw and the teeth 

will be pushed out 


of place. 
Many mothers are 
+ aware of the dan- 
“s - ger in making such 


a habit, and they 
resort to what they 
think is the next 
best thing — which 
is in reality the 
next worst thing— 
the pacifier. Imag- 
ine a bit of hard 
rubber and ivory in a child’s mouth 
during all of its waking hours, and 
many times its sleeping ones. It is 
nothing more or less than an instrument 
which rapidly and skilfully dislocates the 
teeth and the jaws. A child should not 
be permitted to carry any object in its 
mouth aside from the rubber nipple of 
its bottle, and even here care should be 
taken to see that this is removed prompt- 
ly after the feeding is over. 

It is not easy to prevent the baby 
from putting its fingers into its mouth, 
as this is more or less of a natural in- 
clination. In rare extreme cases it is 
necessary to tie the hands. Many par- 
ents put a bitter solution on the fingers 
which is sufficiently distasteful to break 
up the practice, but this is a doubtful 
procedure and one to resort to only by 
the advice of a physician. 


ENNSYLVANIA leads all other 

states in the country in the use of 
steam power, using twenty per cent. of 
all that is used in the entire United 
States. 


se 


wR. ot 


Popular Science Monthly Roe ee 


The wreck of the steamer “‘Socotra,’’ on the Brittany Coast of France, lay in two sections, 
wide apart, and its cargo, dumped into the sea, was protected from pillage by armed guards 


Steamer Breaks Back in Storm 


URING one of the heaviest storms 

of the season the Peninsular ana 
Oriental steamer Socotra was blown 
ashore opposite Paris Plage, in Brittany, 
France, on a night during the latter part 
of November. In spite of the desperate 
attempts of tugs to tow her away from 
the dangerous shoals, she broke in half 
a few days later. 

As soon as the ship was broken the 
packet freight with which she was loaded 
tumbled out of her cargo hold and was 
washed ashore by the waves. The local 
inhabitants immediately proceeded to 
pillage the valuable wreckage, but guards 
were soon called to the scene, and they 
remained on duty until the entire con- 
tents of the ship were safely removed. 

It can be seen from the photograph 
that the Socotra was broken a few fect 
forward of the engine, the two halves 
being forced several hundred yards apart 
before the storm abated. 


An Old Boiler Used for Stand-Pipe 


LD boilers, like the one shown here, 

can be found in most every junk 
yard and can be obtained at a very rea- 
sonable price. One lowa farmer bought 
an old boiler of a near-by City Council, 
transported it to his farm and set it up 
on a concrete base. He uses it for a 


water supply tank which gives him water 
under pressure in all departments of the 
farm. 

He took all the old tubes out of the 
old boiler and sold them for junk which 
paid him for hauling the outfit to his 
farm. The old boiler was given a coat 
of asphalt paint inside and out. Dur- 
ing the cold winter months this Iowa 
farmer prevents the water from freezing 
by packing straw around it. 


A farm stand-pipe made from 
an old boiler 


336 Popular Science Monthly 


Railroad Warning for Motorists Sharpening Drills by Air 
N order that motorists who happen to T quarries and mines, one of the 
be unfamiliar with the dangers that most time-consuming tasks is the 


lie in their road on the approach to a 
railroad crossing which is near 


regrinding of dull drills. Expert forges 

° are required if the 
work is done prop- 
erly. To obviate the 
large amount of 
time spent in this 
way, a pneumatic 
drill sharpener has 
been installed in 
some mines and 
quarries. It shortens 
the task of drilling 
to a fraction of the 
time formerly re- 
quired when the job 
was done by hand. 

The drill heads are 
heated to the proper temperature and 
placed between dies, and the pneumatic 
hammer shapes the head in a few sec- 
onds. Various patterns of dies are em- 
ployed for various drill heads. 


A Key Marker. 
HANDY way to mark keys of 
the Yale type so that they are 
easily distinguished in the dark is to 
a sil ees insert an ordinary office paper rivet it _ 
Day or night this roadside signal guards the hole in the handle of one of the 
the wary autoist against the dangers of a kevs and flange it in the usual way 
grade crossing Oe eet : fe 

with the punch. There is no mistaking 

Lutherville, Md., a railroad company the “feel” of a key so marked. 

whose tracks run to that city has instalied ; 

warning posts which can 
be plainly seen day or night. 
After dark, a powerful 
electric lamp behind a re- 
flector illuminates the 
warning posts which can 
tells them that a dangerous 
railroad crossing exists 
three hundred and fifty 
feet ahead of them. The 
cross arms can be seen and 
read easily in the daytime, 
as they are placed in a con- 
spicuous position. A bright 
red glass in back of the 
lamp, the conventional 
danger signal, makes the 
warning sign doubly effec- 
tive. The scheme was de- Compressed air is one of the most powerful mechanical 


PS y ]- A A 
> ised by W alter R.Moulton, agencies of to-day. Here it is harnessed to the job of 
an illuminating engineer. sharpening rock drills 


Popular Science. Monthly Sot 


Mending Bones with Rivets and Wires 
eee accompanying X-Ray photo- 

graphs show the result of a nine- 
teen hundred pound flywheel falling 
across the legs of a machinist who was 
handling it. The first radio- 
graph, taken shortly after 
the accident, shows how 
the thigh bone was crushed 
and splintered by the heavy 
weight. Such is technical- 
ly known as a “comminut- 
ed fracture.” It was at 
first thought that on ac- 
count of the splintering of 
the bone it might be neces- 
sary to amputate the leg, 
but a surgeon was found 
who undertook the splicing 
and reinforcing of the bone 
as shown in the second ra- 
diograph. This was made 
through a heavy plaster 
cast eight weeks after the 
bone was set. Three hours 
were required for the set- 
ting operation, the thigh 
bone being laid bare by an 
incision ten and one-half 
inches long. A vanadium 
steel plate secured to the bone by means 
of the screws bridged the main fracture, 
which may be clearly distinguished. The 
dark lines are silver wires which hold 
splintered pieces to the main bone. These 
fragments were removed, and holes to re- 
ceive the wires were bored with a hand 
drill. Holes to correspond were drilled 


Rivets, steel plates and silver wires helped 
to save this shattered leg 


in the main bone and the pieces were 
then wired in place as shown. A wire 


passes entirely around the main bone 
(which was splintered down the center), 
and this serves to hold the two halves to- 


“Fire, fire, fire,’ loudly shrieks this phonograph into the 
telephone when the flames burn its restraining string 


gether. This wire is bronze. A vanadium 
steel staple holds the large middle piece 
to the bone below it. 


Something Is Wrong with this Un- 
emotional Phonograph Fire Alarm 


FIRE alarm apparatus that calls 

“central,” telling her in a calm, 
dispassionate, mechanical voice that the 
factory of Smith, Jones & Co., at No. 1 
Jones Street, is in flames, and to please 
call the fire department immediately, is 
the proposal of an inventor in South 
Carolina. A phonograph, with its horn 
close to the mouthpiece of a telephone, 
is fitted with a record bearing the fire 
warning. The phonograph starts when 
an electro-magnet placed near it draws 
down the releasing lever. 

The circuit of which the magnets are 
part, is closed by an automatic switch 
which is held open by a cord. A fire 
burns the cord, allows the switch to 
close, and “central” is promptly notified. 
But suppose a fire breaks out in the 
night and the operator fails to answer be- 
fore the record is finished. What then? 


338 


A Giant Grinder Which Goes to 
Its Work 
F you have an axe to grind, it is no 
longer necessary to bring the axe to 
the grinding wheel, for a_ portable 


grinding wheel of full-sized proportions 
has been brought into the grinding field. 


The newest thing in portable tools is a grinder which 


goes to the blade to be sharpened 


Numerous small grinding equipments in- 
tended for light work have been intro- 
duced from time to time, but only re- 
cently has a man-sized portable grinder 
been a reality. A huge motor mounted 
on a three-wheeled truck supplies the 
driving energy to the 
abrasive wheel through 
flexible tubing. In opera- 
tion when the speed has 
been adjusted to suit the 
needs of the workman, he 
grasps the handles of the 
wheel on either side and 
brings it against the object 
to be ground at any angle 
or any pressure desired. 
Grinders of this type are 
intended for use in foun- 
dries or in factories where 
there is a great deal of 
heavy abrasive work to be 
done. 

For the mechanic who 
values convenience and 
neatness of work, this new 
appliance is well-nigh per- 
Eee: 


from the inside. 


Popular Science Monthly 


A Test for Baggage-Smashers 


XPRESSMEN who are accustomed 
to slamming trunks around like 
pasteboard boxes may not have to be 
cautioned to handle with care the baby 
elephant of a trunk pictured, for they 
will do well if they budge one corner of 
it. It was built in Fargo, 
N. D., and is eighteen feet 
long, ten and a half feet high, 
and ten feet wide. 

To build this monster near- 
ly two thousand feet of lum- 
ber were used as well as five 
hundred bolts, eighty-seven 

- yards of canvas, ninety yards 
of lining, fifty-four pounds 
of nails, half a ton of iron, 
and ten gallons of paint and 
pastes. 

The trunk is made in sec- 
tions, and can be knocked 
down and stored under cover 
when not on exhibition. It 
is canvas-covered. The slats 
are made of planks; the cor- 
ners and binding are of heavy 
iron and are bolted on. The 
lock is made of bronzed wood, 

so that it looks like brass. The handles 

are of wood and are covered with imi- 

tation leather. The trunk is wired for 
electric lights. 

On the inside are a ten-foot showcase 
and two dray loads of trunks, bags, etc. 


A trunk like this could be inspected by customs officers 


It has its own electric lights 


Popular Science 


Piling Lumber in Forty-Foot 
Monumental Stacks 


MECHANICAL lumber - stacker 

which has recently been placed on 
the market has made possible a great 
saving in lumber yard space in our large 
cities. The Edison Monthly states that 
it is now possible to pile planks to the 
height of forty or more feet with a crew 
of four men, while in the past piles sel- 
dom reached a greater height than 
twenty-four feet. 

The machine is electrically operated, 
and consists of a steel skeleton tower of 
the desired height, over which revolve 
two endless chains. Carriers are attached 
to these chains at short intervals. On 
these, planks are placed by workmen on 
the ground. Ten boards a minute are 
delivered by the carriers to the men on 
the top of the pile. One of these stack- 


This electric stacker will pile lumber forty 
feet high with perfect facility 


Monthly 339 


This round barn is made of reinforced 
concrete, eight inches thick. The loft 
has neither beams nor posts 


ers is said to have piled one hundred and 
twenty-five thousand feet of lumber in 
ten hours. 


Circular Barn Built of Concrete 
PIONEER reinforced concrete, 
round barn, the first of its kind, and 

only one known to exist in the United 
States, has been completed on the farm 
of Harry McDaniel, near Dover, Del. 

The barn is seventy-two feet in di- 
ameter and sixty-four feet high, the 
concrete walls being twenty feet high 
and eight inches thick, reinforced. It 
has a cupola five feet high and ten feet 
in diameter, with eight windows. It 
took thirty-one thousand shingles to 
cover the building. 

The most remarkable part of the 
building is the loft, which has no posts, 
no beams, no girders of any kind. The 
loft has a capacity of about three hun- 
dred tons of hay. There is a circular 
track, thirty-five feet above the floor, 
used in conveying the hay to the remot- 
est part of. the loft. 

The lower floor of the barn has thirty 
stalls for milch cows and eighteen stalls 
for horses, with a space in the center 
for twenty-five head of young stock. 
The building is two hundred and twenty- 
six feet in circumference. 


CCIDENT insurance is compulsory 
among the workmen in Holland, 
but other insurance is optional. 


aiaar: Sk ie 


plaything for children 


The Hobby-Horse Turned Into 
a Swing 
CHILD’S lawn swing with a heb- 


by-horse for the chair, is the in- ° 


vention of a Missouri man (James \V. 
Moore, of St. Joseph, Missouri). The 
hobby-horse is pivoted on a platform. 
It is connected with hangers, by which 
the platform’ is supported from the 
framework. The hobby-horse is rocked 
automatically by the oscillation of the 
swing, giving its juvenile riders a very 
agreeable thrill. 


Lifting a Wagon to Dump Its Load 


NOVEL method of solving an un- 

usual difficulty met by a contractor 
at Hamilton, Ohio, is shown in the ac- 
companying illustration. Upon com- 
mencing his work he disccvered that the 
gravel storage-hopper above the con- 
crete-mixer was in an inaccessible loca- 
tion for the traffic. Owing to the street 
traffic there was no room for a gravel 
pile. It became necessary to resort to 
drastic measures. 

When a gravel-wagon comes to the 
spot to discharge its load, the horses are 
unhitched and the wagon tongue is re- 
moved. Then a pair of hooks is at- 
tached to the front axle, and a pair of 
rings slipped over the hubs of the rear 
wheels. By means of a crane the wagon 
is lifted bodily over the hopper. Upon 
arriving at the desired location the driver 
pulls the dump lever and the load of 
gravel drops into the hopper. 


Popular Science Monthly 


A back-yard swing and two hobby-horses made a new 


A Shell That Melted 
Money in a Ship’s Safe. 

NE of the most telling 

samples of the terrific 
effect of naval gun fire is a 
piece of metal recently taken 
from the hulk of the famous 
German commerce destroyer 
Emden. This souvenir con- 
sists of a lump of metal 
which was smooth on one 
side, but on the other side 
resembiing a piece of jagged 
rock. The metal consisted 
of a portion of the fireproof 
safe of the Emden and some 
silver coins from a drawer 
in the safe. The explosion 
of a shell probably blew 
some of the dollars into the 
steel, the heat fusing the whole into a 
mass of iron and silver. 


enamel igiccatesncteitoce reeeees ae 


— : “ 


es 


BN Tal: 


The wagon is raised bodily and its load 
dumped in the chute. The scheme saves 
shoveling or a conveyor system 


Popular Science Monthly 341 


This Belt Breaks All Records 


GIGANTIC conveyor - belt which 

has recently been installed in a 
California sugar refinery is said to have 
broken all records in the conveying of 
sugar. The belt is truly remarkable in 
size, being one thousand 
four hundred and _ forty- 
three feet long, thirty-six 
inches wide, and weighing 
nearly six tons. 

In its operation this con- 
veyor continually sustains 
a load of sixty bags of 
sugar, a total weight of 
seven thousand five hun- 
dred pounds. These bags 
are delivered to the belt 
every nine seconds and are 
carried to their destination 
at great speed, as the belt 
makes twenty-six complete 
revolutions every. eight 
hours. 

At the close of its service this belt will 
have exceeded the remarkable record 
established by its predecessor, which 
carried over two billion pounds of sugar 
before there were any evidences of wear. 


A belt which is destined to carry over two 
billion pounds of sugar before it wears out 


Delivering Mail by Aeroplane 


N his annual report Postmaster Gen- 

eral Burleson has recommended the 
appropriation of fifty thousand dollars 
for the establishment of aerial postal 
routes. He has submitted a list of 
routes over which much time could be 
saved by delivering the mail by aero- 
planes instead of by railroad. 


The Largest Card Holder in 
the World 
HE tree in the accompanying pic- 
ture is rightly named when it-is 
called. “the largest card case in the 
world” for it is literally plastered with 


This is where you leave your card, with thousands 
of others, to record your visit to the famous California 


redwoods 


thousands upon thousands of cards of 
all kinds. 

The tree is one of many in the fa- 
mous redwood grove of big trees in the 
Santa. Cruz mountains and is about 
eighty miles from San Francisco. Each 
year finds the tree covered with a fresh 
coat of calling cards, personal cards, 
business cards and other cards too nu- 
merous to mention. Not only is the 
outside made use of but the interior, 
which, due to some forest fire in the past 
is hollowed out into a large room, is 
thickly covered with pasteboards. 

The exposition at San Francisco at- 
tracted more people to the grove than 
usual and a close observation will reveal 
the cards of foreign ambassadors, ex- 
presidents of the United States, Sena- 
tors and so on down to the scrap of pa- 
per placed on the tree by a passing 
“knight of the road.” 

Although there are dozens of trees 
many times larger than this one, it is the 
only one used as a card-case. 


HEN the new water system of 

Madrid, Spain, is completed, it is 
estimated that the supply will exceed 
two hundred and six thousand gallons 
per minute, and that, in addition, there 
will be a hydro-electric production of 
twenty-one thousand horsepower. 


342 


Three Slender Wires Form a Bridge 

HREE wires make a_ bridge in 

Maine. It is probably the cheap- 
est one ever made, if the good old sub- 
terfuge of a log thrown across a stream 
is excepted, but it is as serviceable as 
concrete for spanning the  fifty-foot 
creek over which it does duty. The 
bridge was built by a Portland electric 
light company for the use of the patrol 
maintained over its high-tension power 


Popular Science Monthly 


seconds, grasping two wires with his 
hands and sliding one foot ahead of the 
other on the bottom cable. After his 
first attempt the patrol reported that 
he would not use the bridge, because he 
was no tango dancer. The wires-sway 
back and forth and impart a rythmic 
motion, terrifying at first. But after a 
few times the patrol liked the sensation. 
Now he invites others to tango across 
with him. 


Cross this fragile bridge and you will be so engrossed with the problem of maintaining your 
balance that you cannot admire the scenery 


lines, which run across country. Twice 
a day it is used by this one foot pas- 
senger. 

Three hours a day are saved by the 
man who patrols this part of the trans- 
mission lines into Portland. Before its 
construction it was necessary for him 
to make a long detour to a road bridge 
in order to cross the creek. The stream 
is deep and cannot be forded. The 
bridge came after several row boats had 
been stolen by tramps and small boys. 

Short telegraph poles were erected on 
‘ach side of the stream, above the high 
water line, and light cables strung 
across; two waist-high and one for the 
feet. The patrol can get across in fifty 


A Trolley Company Which Repairs 
Automobiles Damaged by Its Cars 


N electric company which operates 

street cars in Iowa, finds it cheap- 
er to repair motor cars damaged in col- 
lisions than to have the work done by an 
outside repair-shop. It is estimated that 
about fifty per cent of the expense of 
having this work done outside has been 
saved. Moreover, the practice is said to 
have gained the good will of those whose 
automobiles have been damaged. As it 
is, the company had a large number of 
cars in its own garage w ith a staff of 
repairmen. It was necessary only to add 
a few men to the regular staff to repair 
the damage caused by accidents. 


Popular Science Monthly 


Catching Mailed Eggs from Swiftly- 
Moving Trains 


GGS may now be delivered from a 
station platform and caught with 
ease and safety by the mail car of a fast- 
speeding express train, by means of an 
automatic mail exchange system recently 
adopted by a large western railroad. 
This device works with great speed. 
When the train nears a station a lever 
on the truck of the mail car is operated 
by a track trip, thus setting in motion 
the system of cams which perform the 
functions of discharging and receiving 
the mail from the station. 
A set of arms move out from the side 


343 


of the car, and as the train passes, the 
suspended pouches of mail are caught by 
the arms and drawn into the car. An- 
other cam, deriving its power from the 
car axle, picks up the mail pouches 
which are to be delivered at the station, 
and deposits them in a chute, where they 
slide into a trough on the station plat- 
form. This chute extends down until 
it nearly touches the platform, and the 
pouches fall but a few inches. They 
slide on the smooth surface of the trough 
until their fall is broken. As soon as 
the train has passed the station, the ap- 
paratus is automatically drawn inside the 
car and the doors are locked. 


The much advertised delivery of eggs by parcel post has produced many patented devices 


for handling mail sacks without breakage. 


This one is already carrying eggs 


A Gas Well Which Wasted $200,000 


By Harry Knowlson 


ing roar for over a week and 

wasting upwards of two hundred 
thousand dollars of natural gas is the 
record of the largest gas well ever drilled 
in Pennsylvania. The Spiegel well—for 
it was named after the owner of the land 
—is in Versailles Township, near Fast 
McKeesport, Pa., that is, in the “Pitts- 
burgh district,” a section rich in “pay 
sand,” which has produced several not- 
able gas wells. 


ee: WILD” with a deafen- 


row for two thousand feet. In that re- 
gion geologists say there is a layer of 
sand permeated with natural gas. Once 
an opening is made in the earth’s crust, 
the gas rushes upward with terrific force. 

Between six hundred million and eight 
hundred million cubic feet of natural gas 
were lost before the well could be cap- 
ped and the flow controlled. Almost im- 
mediately after workmen struck the “pay 
sand,” the gas rushed forth with such 
destructive force that it demolished the 


_ wooden derrick used in connection with 


This remarkable gas well goes down 
the drilling. Several laborers narrowly 


into Mother Earth as straight as an ar- 


The workmen who 
bored this well sent 
their drills down two 
thousand feet through 
ledge after ledge of 
earth and rock to tap 
the fissure pocket full 
of gas. When the 
pocket was opened, the 
gas, confined under 
those two thousand 
feet of earth and rock, 
burst out to the sur- 
face, demolishing the 
derrick and nearly kill- 
ing the workmen. Over 
six hundred million 
cubic feet of gas es- 
caped before the cap ae aaa 
was put on and its hell ii deh a 


£: 


stop-cocks closed. The SANDSTONE 

cap was of heavy steel, ripe 

with six valves, all of é 

which were of course "GAS SALT SANDS 4 AA? 
. . | 4 ee 

left open until the cap Ag ice? 

was in place, when - LIMESTONE 


they were closed. The 
loss of gas before the 
process was complete 
was estimated at 
$200,000. Great care 
had to be exercised 
during the week that 
the gas escaped un- 
checked. No lighted 
matches or other 
flames were permitted 
within a great distance 
of the well. The family 
living near by were 
obliged to forego cook- 
ing and had to go to 
bed without light 


bees 
. PAY SAND 
L on _ 

rs Si YS 


Popular Science Monthly 


escaped being killed. Thereafter, for 
more than a week, the flow of gas con- 
tinued unabated in quantity and _ pres- 
sure. 

This gigantic “gasser” was capped 
eventually with a long piece of steel tub- 
ing, larger in diameter than that in the 


The gas blew off at a pressure of one hun- 
dred feet per square inch three feet above 
the outlet 
well, and having six valves on the sides 
and another on top: Of course these 
valves were left open while the tubing 
was being placed in position and made 
secure to the casing in the well, to which 
it was attached by threads. One at a 
time, the valves were closed until a pipe 
was fastened to each to carry off the gas 
to a reservoir. As soon as the pipe was 
attached to a valve that one was opened 
again, so as to relieve the enormous gas 
pressure. Thus the entire flow was 
harnessed and taken away for consump- 
tion in the neighboring locality and near- 

by towns. 

After considerable difficulty and sev- 
eral unsuccessful attempts, a venture- 
some engineer finally succeeded in 
measuring the flow of gas. When a 
gage was applied a few days after the 
well struck “pay sand” and the flow of 
gas was at its height, it was found that 


B45 


there were one hundred pounds open 
flow three feet above the outlet. And on 
this measurement the estimate of 
seventy-five million to one hundred mil- 
lion cubic feet of gas per day was based. 
The men on duty continuously .suf- 
fered severely from earaches because 
of the terrific noise made by the out- 
rushing gas. Fortunately, there was 
no electric storm or the well might 
have caught fire. Had this happened, 
the blaze could not have been extin- 
guished. \While the gas was flowing 
freely, the Spiegel: family, living in a 
house within thirty yards of the “gasser, 
had to forego cooking and all went to 
bed at sunset because they dared not 
have a light. 

The value of the lost gas was estimated 
at the Pittsburgh rate of thirty cents per 
one thousand. This means a daily loss 
of not less than twenty-two thousand, 
five hundred dollars. The actual value 
may be more, since higher rates obtain in 
other cities. Since the w ell ran for seven 
days and twenty-one hours before it was 
checked by capping, the minimum total 
loss was one hundred and _ fifty-seven 
thousand dollars. Others put it at close 
to two hundred thousand dollars. 


Why Can a Fly Walk Upside Down? 


OU have seen a boy use what he calls 
a “‘sucker,’’ a round, flat piece of 
leather which is soaked in water and flat- 
ened against a stone so that all the mois- 
ture between the stone and the leather is 
pressed out. He picks up a brick with 
a string attached to the leather. Since 
there is no air between the leather and 
the stone the atmosphere presses the 
leather so firmly against the stone that 
the stone can be picked up by the leather. 
A fly has suckers on his feet which act 
very much on the same principle. As 
soon as he puts down a foot he automat- 
ically squeezes the air out between it and 
the surface upon which he is walking. 
The atmosphere, therefore, presses him 
against the ceiling or wall. 


If you want further information about the subjects which are taken up in 


the Popular Science Monthly, write to our Readers’ Service Department. 


We 


will gladly furnish, free of charge, names of manufacturers of devices described 


and illustrated. 


Spending Money by Machinery 


By Herbert Francis Sherwood 


HERE were no commercial type- sponsible persons whose time is especial- 


writers in Abraham Lincoln’s day. ly valuable. 


The great President often wrote his let- One of the greatest corporations in the 
ters himself. Even with the invention world is the municipality of New York. 
of the time and labor-saving typewriter, It has more than ninety thousand em- 


there are some tasks in writing 
whicha great man, like the ae 
president of a cor- _ ie 


. = Se 5 % 
oO. a ee a sr A3\ = 
poration, a <n 
| wet NS : : Ee 
= c ne ia ae) 
an EE Mt Sone a\s t A 
a a F 
BE pete eh I cae ae 
oe: of areas a aN <n 
Cee = OS at 
RY oh Srl ai SIT ree Seo? 
B77 i) at c™ 23 
° 4 As) 9 
£ LD) wuss = ae es ets 
ee ao ge 
Lai TRE so qe See eee 
Sa py Bee ce) gi*k 2 a 
Ag Ponrt sett pose eS sie 
Eis suv pO ee 
Sey Are wf < a 
a = cc Eee 
on saa ee 
A : $! ‘ i et 
| ee tga RO 
ae Bee 
“ — 


One of New York’s new 

pay checks which are 

printed, filled in, and 

signed by machinery 

could not well leave to 
subordinates and which 
were impossible of ac- 
complishment on a ma- 
chine. Such are the sign- 
ing of checks and the 
signing of stock certifi- 
cates and bonds. The 
average executive accus- 
tomed to the signing of 
papers, cannot, without 
fatigue, attach his name 
to more than twenty-five 
hundred in a day. In 
these times, when govern- 
ments and corporations 
issue bonds representing 
millions upon millions of 
dollars, and have pay- 
rolls carrying thousands 
upon thousands of names, 
the task of signing a name 
in some cases has become 
an indescribable drudgery. 


346 


EEE OO SS eee ee ye 


Pp oyees receiving more than 
one hundred and five million 
dollars in wages and salaries 
in the course of a year. In 
1915 the finance department 
of this corporation intro- 
duced a method of filling out 
pay checks and signing them 
by machinery, and _ thus 
saved seventy-five per cent 
in cost, and accomplished 
work formerly requiring 
more than sixtyoffice-holders. 


The electric machine which fills in the checks with the 
anf name and amount at the rate of seventy-five hundred 
Yet it must be done by rG- an hour or about twenty per second ~ 


Popular Science Monthly 347 


Ten fountain fens 
obey the impulses 
of the master pen 
in the operator’s 
hand, and one 
man can sign 
twenty thousand 
checks a day 


For each employ- 
ee there is a type 
plate bearing his 
name. These plates 
are placed in a ma- 
chine which can be 
operated by a clerk 
receiving $540 a 
year. The individ- 
ual checks are print- 
ed with names and = A machine for num- 


appropriate amounts _ bering and dating 
at the rate of sev- checks. The checks 


f are carried forward 
etity-tive hiindredan in a vertical posi- 


hour. The machine tion by means of 
is almost human. It long belts 
stops automatically when the supply of 
check blanks is exhausted, or the reser- 
voir of name-plates has been emptied. 
The checks are numbered and dated 
in a container whose principle of opera- 
tion is that of the machine used in can- 
celling stamps on letters in post offices. 
In order to make the checks valid, of 
course, they must be signed. This is 
done on a machine so designed that ten 
will receive the signature simultaneously. 
The penholder, which traces the signa- 


tures when grasped in the hand 
of the deputy paymaster author- 
ized to do the work, rests on a 
ball bearing and is connected 
with ten fountain pens. With 
this device, a novice can trace 
twenty thousand signatures in a 
day without fatigue. 


S ] 
DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE j 
Rings Connty Trust Company i | 


AY TO THE y 
ORDER OF EMANUEL SAGOTSEY Si 
The sum or TrELve 


348 Popular Science Monthly 


To photograph a spark like this is no feat of 


simple ‘‘snap-shot’”’ work. It takes some 
preparation, but it can be done by any care- 
ful experimenter 


How to Photograph Electrical Sparks 


HE following experiments can be 

performed with a 14” spark-coil. 
The ordinary photographic plate is used 
in all cases, its size depending on the 
objects. The experiment is conducted in 
a darkroom or in a room lighted only 
with a ruby photographic lamp. Any 
white light will spoil the plates instantly. 
After exposing the plates they must be 
developed. 

Take a small bottle with a wide mouth 
and fill it half full of any talcum 
powder. Over the mouth’ place a thin 
piece of gauze to act as a fine sieve. Tie 
the gauze around the neck of the bottle 
with a fine string. Place the photo- 
graphic plate on a metal plate with the 
coated side up. Connect the metal plate 
with one of the secondary posts of the 
spark-coil. Sift a thin layer of the 
talcum powder over the photographic 
plate. Now place a very fine metal 
point in the middle of the plate (a pin 
is excellent). Connect the pin with the 
other post of the coil and make one 
spark, lasting one second or less. Wipe 
off the powder and the plate is ready for 
developing. 


Trimming Veneered Edges 
by Electricity 


T has been the custom to trim the 
edges of veneered work with a draw- 
shave or rasp, but this is always accom- 
panied by danger of injury to the work. 
The importance of having veneered work 
perfect has prompted a manufacturer to 
bring out an electric-trimming device, 
which makes injury to the work im- 
possible. 

Built within an aluminum case, which 
protects the saw on all sides except the 
cutting edge, is an electric motor. This 
drives the special saw for trimming the 
veneered edge at very high speed and 
makes possible the perfect removal of 
the delicate wood and the glue as well. 
The saw 1s adjustable to any height by 
means of a screw, so that the veneer may 
be removed flush with the work or the 
edge extending to any desired height. 
Power is supplied from a lamp-socket. 


A boy can operate this electric planer (for 


it is nothing else). The concentrated 
power of electricity makes perfection 
easily attainable by the modern workman 


iceelicnestmemined tients btn ee 


Popular Science Monthly 


Your Razor Is Like a Scythe 


F we had eyes like microscopes, the 

process of shaving would seem not 
much different from mowing with a 
bush-scythe. A razor is practically a 
miniature bush-scythe, and its cutting 
action is similar. Some of the bushes 
are cut squarely across and others at an 
acute angle. When the 
bushes are upright, and the 
scythe is Swung directly 
against them, the cut is 
made nearly at a right an- 
gle. But if the bush man 
cuts his bushes a little too 
high and then wants to go 
over them again, “grub- 
bing” them down to the 
ground, as he would 


Cuttings 
the second 
time over 


phrase it, especially if the bushy stumps 
are in a marshy place where the ground 
does not hold them firmly, he strikes at 
them several times in succession, and the 
cut is likely to be more and more at a 
slant, depending upon the resistance with 
which they hold their own in the ground. 

When the barber applies a heavy coat 
of lather to a long beard, the lather tends 
to. hold the hair upright. In the first 
shaving, the microscope shows that the 
cuttings are nearly at a right angle to 
the length of the beard, but the “second 
time over,” when the call is for “a close 
shave, Mr. Barber,” short rapid strokes 
are made, several times repeated. When 


349 


the lather is off, the barber will occa- 
sionally wet his fingers, because the face 
gets too dry. Indeed, there is nothing 
to maintain the perpendicularity of the 
beard. It bends over and the barber 
rapidly whacks away at it like the bush- 
man grubbing the bushes to the ground. 

In connection with these views of the 


Microscopic views of the cut- 

ings after shaving. The long 

hairs in the picture above are 

from a three days’ growth 

- of an Albino Irishman. Note 

that the hairs were cut near- 
ly at right angles 


human beard, there is some- 
thing very surprising in Dean 
Swift's “A Voyage to Brob- 
dingnag,’” where he describes 
a mythical traveler to the land 
of the giants and what he had to say of 
giants’ beards. He writes: 


“T used to attend the king’s levee once or 
twice a week, and had often seen him under 
the barber’s hand, which, indeed, was at first 
very terrible to behold: for the razor was 
almost twice as long as an ordinary scythie. 
....l once prevailed on the barber to give me 
some of the suds or lather, out of which I 
picked forty or fifty of the strongest stumps 
of hair. I then took a piece of fine wood, 
and cut it like the back of a comb, making 
several holes in it at equal distances with a 
needle....I fixed in the stumps so artificially, 
scraping and sloping them with my knife to- 
wards the points, that I made a very tolerable 
comb which was a seasonable supply, my own 
being so much broken in the teeth, that it was 
almost useless.” 


Popular Science Monthly 


Hovering over the battle lines in Europe are battle ’planes of great size. The engines turn 
over slowly, giving the ’planes a lazy speed of sixty milesan hour. When a machine rises to 
fight them off a sudden transformation takes place. Powerful engines are switched on, and 
at tremendous speed the birds of prey rush to the battle, with their guns belching fire 


Destroyers 


of the Air 


By Eustace L. Adams 


An all steel battle aeroplane, manufactured near Boston. These machines may revolutionize 
the aeronautical industry, since, with proper machinery, they may be stamped out in almost 


unlimited number. 


HE navy with the greatest num- 
ber of super-dreadnoughts wins 
in a modern naval engagement. 
Since the launching of the Dreadnought, 
which gave the type its name, the na- 
tions of the world have been feverishly 
engaged, attempting to outdo one an- 
other in the building of great sea fighters. 
The race for supremacy in dread- 
noughts and super-dreadnoughts of the 
air is as keen at this moment as the race 
for supremacy on the water. Armies are 
finding that if they have no giant aero- 
planes to drive away the armored battle- 
planes of the enemy they are fighting un- 
der an almost impossible handicap. 
France, England, Russia and Germany 
have all developed their aerial dread- 
noughts during the last year of fighting, 
and the development of the aeronautical 
industry has progressed the equivalent 
of many years during the last twelve 
months, measured by past progress. 
Those who have seen aviators “loop the 
loop” and break records at aviation meets 
and country fairs, can form but a slight 
conception of the huge machines now 
hovering over the battlefields of Europe. 
Giant aeroplanes, heavily armored, and 
carrying a crew of several men, ward off 
attacks with two or three guns, shooting 
high explosive shells in an aerial contest. 
They are capable of remaining in the air 
for several hours. Were they devoted 


They will doubtless be models for pleasure craft 


to peaceful pursuits, they could carry 
mail and passengers almost with the cer- 
tainty and regularity of an express train. 
Although Americans have never seen 
these machines, this country is playing 
no small part in developing the battle- 
plane of today and the aerial express of 
tomorrow. Two builders of aircraft in 
the United States are reported to be con- 
structing aeroplanes which will be among 
the largest that the world has ever seen. 
The average exhibition aeroplane with 
which most of us are familiar measures 
about thirty feet from tip to tip. A com- 
pany with factories in Washington is 
said to be manufacturing some aero- 
planes which have a wing span of one 
hundred and eighty feet. Heavily ar- 
mored with steel, and carrying a two- 
inch gun in each of its two fusilages, 
each great machine will be driven through 
the air by two motors developing sixteen 
hundred horsepower together. 
Immediately before the outbreak of 
the war, the eyes of the world were upon 
a flying boat named the America, built 
for the first. trans-Atlantic flight, but 
destined to cross the ocean in the hold of 
a steamship, to play an important part 
in British operations against enemy sub- 
marines. The America was one of the 
pioneers of the present battle-planes. 
Equipped with two motors, and with a 
comfortable cabin for the operators, this 


351 


352 scious Science Monthly 
English Sturt avant Americ Type German “Fritz: 
Scout Balle ie Bue boat Battle lane 
al ht CSO 60-100 ft. 


Curtiss Triplane 
133 ft. 


<30 ft high 


Christmas 


Battleplane 
180 ft spread| 


Showing the growth of the aeroplane and the comparative sizes of the more important ma- ) 
chines now in use or building. The first shown, the scout machine, is very little smaller than 


the standard size ’planes in use in the United States. 


Compare it with the others, and an 


idea may be gained of the great progress recently made in this infant industry 


aeroplane was at the time a distinct ad- 
vance over anything previously built. 
Under war conditions this machine 
proved so successful that Glen H. Cur- 
tiss is now building them at the rate of 
one every day. 

The Canada, a land machine, was 
the next aeroplane of note designed by 
Curtiss. Machines of this type are all 
manufactured in a Canadian factory, and 
the plans are sedulously kept from the 
public. Reports from Canada indicate 
that these aeroplanes have an eighty- 
foot wing span, and are able to carry 
two guns and one ton of explosives. 
Trial flights made at the testing grounds 
have resulted in speeds but little under 
one hundred miles an hour, since the ma- 
chine is equipped with two motors of 
great power. 

The newest designs of Curtiss call for 
a triplane, with a wing span of one hun- 
dred and thirty-three feet. This great 
flying boat weighs, fully equipped, near- 
ly eleven tons. When on the water it is 
driven by a propeller similar to those 
used on large motor boats, but when it 
is to be lifted into the air, the great 
power of its two heavy engines is trans- 
mitted directly to the aerial propellers, 
and the huge machine rises like a sea- 
gull. A crew of several men is sheltered 
by an ample cabin, and a number of 
guns project from the sides of the com- 
partments. The speed of this craft is 
probably high, and its cruising radius, 


when fully ‘loaded, should be about six 
hundred and seventy-five miles. 


European War-planes of Huge 
Dimensions 


From the haze of the European war 
fronts come reports of aeroplanes which 
transport unheard-of weights for many 
hours, and which carry large crews to 
operate machine guns and cannon, but 
the censors have been remarkably suc- 
cessful in suppressing all definite news 
of these marvels. 

Before the outbreak of war the Sikor- 
sky biplane, a Russian machine of great 
size, had startled the world by making 
successful flights with seventeen passen- 
gers. Luxurious accommodations were 
provided for the guests, and meals were 
served in the air. This machine, while 
propelled by four Salmson motors of 
five hundred horsepower each, had the > 
great disadvantage in war times of being 
slow, since it could fly but little more 
than fifty miles an hour. Little has been 
heard of this aeroplane since it was con- 
verted into a battle-plane, but it is cer- 
tain that numerous machines of similar 
size and design have been added to the 
Russian aerial fleet, and that the speed 
has undoubtedly been greatly increased. 
The luxurious passenger compartments 
have been remade into cabins for gun- 
ners and bomb droppers, and gun 
mounts now take the places once oc- . 
cupied by comfortable chairs and dining 


Popular 


The Sikorsky biplane, the first of the aeronautical giants of to-day. 


Science M onthly 


353 


Before the outbreak of 


war, this machine startled the world by making successful flights with seventeen passengers 


tables, luxuries replaced by explosives. 

With the exception of the Sikorsky 
biplane, the first reports that filtered 
into the press of both continents con- 
cerning aerial dreadnoughts was the ap- 


pearance over the English lines of a- 


huge German machine, which hovered at 
a great height over 
points of vantage, 
refusing to be 
driven away by 
anti-aircraft guns. 
The engines turn- 
ed over slowly, 
driving the biplane 
at a lazy speed of 
sixty miles an 
hour. British avia- 
tors who rose to 
fight off this 
stranger were 
received with a 
hearty welcome. 
Powerful motors 
were switched on, 
and the machine 
flew to the combat 
at a tremendous 
speed. From the 
fusilage two guns 
blazed forth, and 
the hardy British 
were quickly 
driven to cover. For some time this 
machine held the supremacy of the air, 
and not until France and England built 
their aerial dreadnoughts did the odds 


Scene in the Curtiss factory at Buffalo. 
Mechanics are seen working on one of the 
many aeroplanes of the ‘“‘America’’ type, 
which are being turned out at this factory 
at the rate of one finished machine a day 


again become even. As nearly as can be 
ascertained, Fritz, as this new machine 
was soon christened by the English, has 
a wing spread of between eighty and 
one hundred feet. In the central fusilage 
are mounted two heavy guns, and there 
are accommodations for two gunners 
and a pilot, with 
usually an ob- 
server to watch 
the enemy’s lines. 
In two  fusilages 
on the wings are 
two heavy motors, 
with the necessary 
room for mechan- 
iclans and_ engi- 
neers... The . great 
power of the mo- 
tors gives the 
battle-plane w on - 
derful flexibility 
of speed. 
Unsubstantiated 
reports from Eu- 
rope credit the Ger- 
mans with a new 
triplane which 
carries a crew of 
twenty men, eight 
motors, and five 
guns, including an 
anti-aircraft g un 


throwing high explosive shells of heavy 


caliber. This super-dreadnought is said 
to be sheathed with armor. 
(Continued in the April issue.) 


Exit the Black Charger—Enter the Gas Mask 


© Underwood and Underwood 


foot. 


The modern officer no longer dashes across bullet-swept fields on a snorting steed. In this 
war he gets orders by telephone and traverses the perilous gas-swept first-line trenches on 
The hand-grenade at his belt is his surest weapon. 


In the oval is a naval turret 
captured in the German trenches in the Battles of Champagne. 


354 


Protective Devices of War 


The British have adopted the 
steel helmet of construction 
similar to that of the French. 
It is now in general use and 
is shown to the right. Below 
are shown the new German uni- 
forms for the Russian winter 
campaign, consisting of caps and 
overcoats of white slipped over 
the regular uniforms, making the 
wearers almost invisible against 
the snow over which they are 
now engaged in fighting 


The German spiked helmet of 
gleaming nickel was _ hidden, 
early in the war, with a gray 
cloth cover. Now the spike has 
disappeared, though the helmet 
itself is still of metal and still 
carries itscloth cover. The pic- 
ture on the left shows the newest 
German officers’ uniform, free 
from almost every distinguishing 
sign that would make the officers 
a special target for the enemies’ 
sharpshooters 


in the Trenches—-and After 


This dining table is not to be recommended on rainy days. The table and individual chairs 
have been cut out of the earth by French soldiers behind the trenches in their moments of 
relief from the strain of fighting. All’s well so Icng as the sun shines Ps 


Lhis picture continued on opposite page 


Convalescent German soldiers who have been so seriously wounded that they will never be 
able to do heavy work, are being taught stenography and typing by government instructors. 
A large number of men are now employed in capacities requiring a knowledge of typing 


356 


- —_— P 


Hobbling Prisoners with Their Own Trousers 


The scissors are mightier than the rifle. Instead of placing a heavy guard around these 
German prisoners, the French officer merely cuts off the suspenders of the prisoners’ trousers 
and cuts out a ‘‘V”’ from the belt, making a running escape impracticable 


This picture continued from opposite page 


reduced by losses in the war, and by filling in their ranks with men who are fitted to do noth- 
ing else there will be an economic gain to the country as a whole. The illustration shows 
one of the classes practicing upon batteries of hundreds of typewriters 


Women Who Do Men’s Work in War 


rcecEe NiCr 


comp cemeteries 


ea 
A 


Women of the belligerent 
nations are doing men’s 
work of a kind not usually 
allotted to them. Here we 
see them studying the tra- 
jectory of a projectile by 
means of a stream of water 
emitted from a vessel at 
various pressures 


The standing figure is that of 
Fraulein Jarema Kuz, who 
volunteered with a regiment 
of Uhlans, and has served 
her colors so well that she 
has been promoted and dec- 
orated. The other two pic- 
tures show German women 
at work in the laboratories. 
These German women have 
added much to the strength 
of the German arms in the 
field. Much of the labora- 
tory work connected with the 
war is now done by women 


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This new 
portable 
stretcher and 
hammock is 
being made 
for the Bel- 
gian Army. 
A sling is 
made for the 
folded bed to 
be hung from 
the shoulder 


Simplifying the Problem of the Hospitals 


Safe from rain and wind the sleeper also has his 
gun ready in case of an alarm 


A Sister of 
Charity 
astride 
her horse 
on?) the 
way to 
Visio 
trench 


The Eyes of Joffre 


eases eS PENS 


i eS 


Courtesy of L’Illustration 


Companion aeroplanes above the clouds. This remarkable, official photograph was taken 
from a French aeroplane just as a comrade’s machine flew past. The sea of clouds over 
which the aeroplanes are flying may be clearly observed in the illustration 


361 


Cave-Men of the Trenches 


An officer’s underground home 
in “‘The Forest of the Saxons,’’ 
so called because a regiment of 
German Saxons are quartered 
there. Much time and care have 
apparently been spent in the 
construction of this bomb-proof, 
as it is complete to the smallest 
detail. Below, a realistic picture 
of the “home life” of the 
French soldiers in an under- 
ground grotto 


© Medem Photo Service 


On the right bank of the river Oise, 
near Noyon, France, there are sev- 
eral caves and chasms so extensive 
that they can give shelter to a 
whole regiment of troops. The 
great arch shown in the photograph 
to the left has been named by the 
Germans “Bismarck Rock.’ Sol- 
diers are shown building a scaffold- 
ing in order to place an appropriate 
inscripticn over the entrance 


aot 


Preparing for the Crises of Battle 


While awaiting their orders to start for the 

front, Canadian cavalrymen spend many hours 

practicing with the sword. Horses and men are 

well padded, and special swords are used to 
prevent injury 


363 


In these days of trench fighting, 
the bayonet plays an important 
part. Recruits in all armies are 
givén a thorough course in bayo- 
net fighting before being sent to 
the front. Below, a French avia- 
tor profits by the example of 
the “tramp” and wraps himself 
in paper. This novel suit is 
made of a special paper, and is 
intended to be worn be- 
neath the uniform 


(= 
al 


Inventions the War Has Brought Out 


A Russian portable 
shield captured dur- 
ing a retreat and 
now used by the 
Germans. This 
shield is made of 
bullet-proof steel , 
and is admirably 
designed to shelter 
five riflemen who 
protect their 
trench-digging com- 
rades. The shelter 
may be taken to 
pieces in a very 
short time and 
packed for trans- 
portation in motor 
trucks 


Ch ae 


© American Press Association 


An ingenious French 
device for photograph- 
ing the German posi- 
tions. A special cam- 
era is attached to a 
kite, and when the 
proper altitude is reach- 
ed, the photographs 
are taken automatical- 
ly. Occasionally the 
kite is sent up from an 
automobile, and is 
towed to the desired 
locations. One of the 
interesting phases of 
the war has been the 
use of kites, even man- 
carrying kites, in war 
observations. Acamera 
can well take the place 
of the man, especially in 
a kite. The distance 
from the ground can be 
accurately estimated 
by means of.a theodo- 
lite, the instrument 
used by surveyors 


Listening to the sound of heavy guns with the 
aid of a tin-can telephone receiver. A tin can, 
suspended from a copper wire which is wound 
about a pencil or penholder pressed against 
the bone back of the ear, makes an excellent 
instrument for detecting these sounds when 
they cannot be heard otherwise 


This Was Once a Peaceful Russian Town 


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Two Phases of War Transportation 


One of the new French 
battle ’planes, equipped 
with a three-inch rapid- 
fire gun. Owing to the 
substantial construction of 
modern aeroplanes, it has 
been found that a spray 
of bullets from a machine- 
gun or a shrapnel shell 
does little damage, unless 
one of the bullets strikes 
a control wire or seriously 
wounds the pilot. The 
latest development is the 
installation of guns which 
throw explosive shells. 
These shells, if correctly 
aimed, will tear the frame- 
work of an opposing aero- 
plane to pieces 


Below is pictured an inci- 


dent by no means un- 
common in military serv- 
ice. A French staff car 
has become mired in the 
bed of a flooded stream. 
Repair cars are within 
easy calling distance in 
almost any district in the 
war zone, and the me- 
chanics are equipped to 
handle any kind of an ac- 
cident, from that shown; 
to the removal of a car 
which has been hit by a 
high-explosive shell 


ne 


CO bt Fe eM, 


Printing a Newspaper Is Part of the War Game 


The home of the ‘‘Gazette des Ardennes,” a French 
newspaper published by the German Army in the 
captured French town of Charleville. The paper is 


chiefly intended for the inhabitants of the territory oc- a a 
cupied at the present time by German troops. The ee Bagi aiid @ PR 


Gazette 
inMVERSIBE => 


first issue appeared in November, 1914 


3 Ardennes 


The first anniversary 

number was, like its 

predecessors, printed in 

French and sold by lit- 
tle French boys 


367 


368 


Popular Science Monthly 


Revolving fan blades beneath the hopper of this sand truck throw the sand over many feet 
of street surface which has been freshly oiled 


Spreading Sand over Oiled Roads by a 
Motor Truck Attachment 


T is the custom in some cities to 
sprinkle sand over  freshly-oiled 

streets to prevent oil from adhering to 
vehicle wheels or from being tracked 
upon sidewalks by pedestrians. 

To accomplish this work more rapidly, 
Mr. Charles H. Rust, City Engineer of 
Victoria, B. C., attaches a wooden hopper 
to the back of a motor truck. At the 
bottom of the hopper is placed a small 
door to allow sand to run out of the 
hopper at any desired rate. Just below 
this door is a revolving disk with 
wrought iron vanes or ridges riveted to 
its upper surface. The disk is driven 
through bevel gears and a chain and 
sprockets from the rear axle of the 
truck. 

Shovelers within the body of the truck 
keep the hopper filled with sand, and as 
it runs out upon the whirling disk, the 
vanes throw it out over a space ten feet 
wide. 

The disk is thirty inches in diameter 
and revolves at a rate of two hundred 
and eighty-five revolutions a minute. 
The truck travels at a speed of three 
miles per hour. 


Nine Thousand German Aeroplanes 


NE of the most closely guarded se- 

crets in the military establishments 
of Europe at the present time is the 
strength of the flying corps. That Ger- 
many at present has at least nine thou- 
sand war aeroplanes in active use, is 
the statement attributed to one of the 
higher officers last month. This officer, 
when the military attache of one of the 
South American nations commented on 
the plans of the British government to - 
build ten thousand aeroplanes, remarked 
casually, “We have more than nine thou- 
sand ourselves!” In this connection it is 
also reported that along the Russian 
front, only an exceedingly thin line of 
infantry holds the trenches, and that 
nearly two thousand aeroplanes are 
cruising above the battle lines in the 
East, notifying the German headquar- 
ters in ample time. of any movements 
along the Russian front. The crying 
need of the Russian armies now is flying 
machines, of which they need at least 
two thousand to be able to cover their 
own movements of troops. The greater 
the number of machines an army pos- 
sesses, the fewer are lost. Hence the 
demand for a large corps. 


Popular Science Monthly 


A Convenient Step for Automobiles 


HE running board of an automobile 

is not an easy step for many 
people, especially women and children. 
To make the boarding of the car easier 
a folding step has been put upon the 
market by an Indiana inventor. 

The step is mounted under the run- 
ning board and is operated by com- 
pressed air. The driver of the car 
simply presses upon a pedal when the 
step is required, and it lowers itself. 
When folded into place it is entirely out 
of sight and is so constructed that there 
is no rattling. It adds but small weight 
to the car. 

A similar step has also been perfected 
by the inventor for railway trains. 
When opening the vestibule door of a 
car at a station, the porter simply pulls 
a lever and the step drops into place. 
This saves the handling of the wooden 
step usually carried on Pullman cars. 


Pull Yourself out of the Mud 


HAT perpetual horror to the motor- 

ist of sliding down a bank into a 
ditch at such an angle that he cannot get 
out under his own power is banished to 
a fairly comfortable distance by a com- 
pact block and tackle arrangement so 
easily operated that it can be used with- 
out danger of soiling the clothes. The 
apparatus consists of a hand crank, pul- 


Turning the crank exerts seventy times as much power 
as the force applied, so that the car is easily dragged 
out of the ditch or up an embankment 


369 


An automatic step lowered by pressure on 
a pedal. By its aid a small child may 
board the car with no great difficulty 


leys, steel cable and chain. One of the 
chains is fastened to the three stakes 
driven in the ground. The other chain 
is attached to the framework of the auto- 
mobile. The pulleys and wire cable are 
in the middle. Turning the crank exerts 
a leverage of great power—actually 
seventy times as great as the force ap- 
plied—so that little difficulty is experi- 
enced in dragging even a 
large motor out of a deep rut 
or ditch back into the road- 
way. 


An Owl Darkens the Town 

N a recent evening a 

large horned _ owl 
plunged the town of Van 
Buren, Ark., into darkness 
when it alighted upon a steel 
tower and caused a short 
circuit of the main feed 
wire which supplied the 
town with electricity. The 
bird, which measured five 
feet across the wings, was 
killed by a current strong 
enough to kill a horse. The 
lighting company secured 
the body of the dead bird, 
and put it on exhibition. 


370 


Train and Tent Baths in Use by the 
Russian Army 

ILTH, vermin and disease are 

among the most deadly foes to 
which an army is subjected. This is 
proved by the wars of the last century 
in all of which far more soldiers died 
from epidemics than from wounds. 
The combatants of the present day are 
more fortunate in these respects than 
those of the past, for owing to the 
great advance in sanitary science much 
better hygienic regulations are en- 
forced. Many problems, though, are 
not yet solved, one being that of the 
personal cleanliness of the men. 
Among the various methods brought 
forward to meet this difficulty two of 
the most ingenious have been devised 
by the Russians, namely, train and 


Popular Science Monthly 


into parts not weighing over six hun- 
dred pounds, which can be transported 
on two-wheeled carts; the interior is 
protected from cold, and one hundred 
men per hour can bathe, have their 
hair cut and their clothes disinfected. 
There are two concentric tents sup- 
ported by the same center-pole. The 
inner tent forms the steam-chamber, 
where fifty men at a time can have a 
steam bath. The circular corridor be- 
tween the two tents is divided into 
five compartments, two dressing 
rooms, a mechanical hair-cutting sec- 
tion, a laundry for towels, etc., and a 
disinfecting chamber with four disin- 

fecting appliances. The men 


enter the first dressing room, 
pass their tagged clothing into 


The Russians have devised as many sanitary short cuts and mechanical engines of war as 


any of the wattling nations. 


Here is a picture of one of the big tents which help to make 


cleanliness possible to soldiers who come from the muddy trenches 


tent baths. The bath train consists of 
a series of cars, one for dressing, one 
for disinfecting the clothing with 
formalin at a temperature of two hun- 
dred and twelve degrees, another for 
the baths, still another for putting on 
clean underwear and the disinfected 
uniforms, and a final one for rest and 
refreshment. The equipment of such 
a train costs about twenty-five thou- 
sand dollars to thirty-five thousand 
dollars and baths can be given to from 
two thousand to three thousand men a 
day at a monthly expense of about five 
thousand dollars. 

The tent has the advantage over the 
train that it can be set up at the actual 
front. It can be raised and struck 
easily, the equipment can be separated 


the disinfecting chamber and enter the 
hair-cutting section where one man’s 
hair is cut per minute, and then go into 
the steam chamber. The temperature 
here is one hundred and twenty to 
one hundred and fifty degrees; there 
are hot and cold water cocks, pails for 
the men to use, and benches—not tubs. 
After half an hour the men enter the 
second dressing room and receive their 
disinfected clothing at the window. Be- 
sides the heat supplied by the various 
appliances, four stoves warm the exte- 
rior corridor. 

While the expense of maintaining this 
institution may seem high, it is more 
than offset by the advantages derived in 
the way of sanitation. 


Popular Science Monthly 


A Cold or Wet Weather Suggestion 
for Motorcyclists 


SIMPLE yet convenient hood or 
cover for a motorcycle can easily 
be made from a piece of heavy brown 
canvas (brown for looks only) or a 
piece of rubber cloth about 30” by 48”. 
The canvas should be cut 
into the shape shown in the 
picture, then hemmed to 
prevent raveling. The hood 
may be securely tied to the 
handle-bars with pieces of 
rawhide; but care should 
be taken to place them far 
enough forward to allow 
free movement of the 
grips. In the same man- 
ner as above rawhide strips 
are run through to tie the 
hood firmly under the 
head light. Likewise, in 
the rear, pieces of rawhide 
or soft iron wire are fas- 
tened to the mud guard 
braces to hold the hood in 
place. 
The hood is now fin- 
ished, and the illustration 
shows how it looks on the machine. 


sleet. 


Automobile and Tractor, Too 


O design a farm-tractor is not dif- 
ficult, as is evidenced by the thou- 
sands of such machines in use in the 
western states. Nor is it difficult to de- 
sign a pleasure vehicle. But to combine 
a touring car and a farm-tractor suggests 
problems that do not appear easy of 
solution. Yet the designer of the curi- 


The rear wheels are jacked up and the tractor-wheels 

are attached. Thus an automobile is changed intoa 

tractor when it is not wanted for touring, and the 
machine is used at, least twelve hours a day 


371 


ous-looking vehicle shown herewith has 
experienced no particular difficulty in 
successfully combining these two types 
of widely differing vehicles. 

The basis of the vehicle, as may be 
seen by the picture, is an ordinary five- 
passenger touring car, complete even to 


The motorcyclist is usually exposed to wind, rain and 
An ingenious cyclist has devised this covering 


to protect himself 


its top, its windshield, and its spare tire. 
It is converted into a farm-tractor by the 
simple expedient of jacking up the rear 
wheels and attaching the great tractor- 
wheels. These wheels are driven by 
spur-gearing attached at the ends of the 
driving axles of the touring car. 

To adapt the tractor to different kinds 
of work it has gearing which permits 
two speeds, the high gear giving four 
miles an hour and the low gear two miles 
an hour. In addition to 
its usefulness as a tractor, 
the vehicle can also be used 
for power purposes about 
the farm, there being a 
power shaft, not shown in 
the illustration. At the 
rear is an extra radiator to 
prevent overheating when 
plowing at slow speed. In 
action, the tractor will drag 
three sixteen-inch plows 
through _ soft or wet 
ground, and will accom- 
plish the work of four to 
eight horses. 


372 


A Civilized Man’s Totem Tree 
EORGE E. CARR, a Civil War 
veteran of Union Springs, N. Y., 

has carved a totem tree that is “differ- 
ent,” as he says, from the totem which 


This white man has no use for coats of arms, 
but he has expressed his personality in a 
carved totem pole of his own making 


the Indians regard as a family tree. He 
made it after his own fancy, spending 
two summers in decorating it with ani- 
mals, birds, portraits, and curious fig- 
ures. 

At the top he placed neat little bird 
houses. To heighten the artistic effect, 
he painted the objects a variety of col- 
ors. The tree is eighteen feet high and 
six feet in circumference, and has thirty- 
four figures carved on it. These figures 
are part of the tree, not carved and 
placed on it. 


HE commission form of govern- 

ment is in effect in eighty-one of 
the two hundred and four cities in this 
country that have a population of over 
thirty thousand. 


Popular Science Monthly 


Huge Twin Lanterns Light 
Entrance to School 


HE lantern shown is one of two 

which are to be used in lighting 

the entrance of the new Pullman Me- 
morial Training School in Chicago. 

The lantern is eight feet in height, the 
diameter of the cap is four feet, and 
the panels are three feet high and 
twelve inches wide at the top, tapering 
to nine inches at the bottom. The ma- 
terial is cast bronze; each lantern weighs 
six hundred pounds. 

A one thousand watt lamp is set in 
the base of each lamp in a specially con- 
structed reflector. This causes the rays 
of light to be directed on a much larger 
reflector in the cap, which distributes 
the light uniformly on each panel. The 
objectionable “lamp spot,’ or halo, is 
thus done away with, and the even glow 
is pleasing to the eye in spite of the 
brilliancy of the light. 


HE province of Saskatchewan, Can- 

ada, pays a mother twenty-five dol- 

lars every time she gives birth to a child; 

it also pays the attendant physician a fee 
of fifteen dollars. 


The light of learning will gleam like a beacon 
from this school lantern and its twin 


Popular Science Monthly 


Railroad Gate Warns and Stops 
Reckless Motorists 


NEW safety gate has been put in 

use on crossings to warn motorists 
when a train approaches and stop them 
if they do not heed the warning. Elec- 
trical contacts are fastened to the rail- 
road track a few hundred feet from the 
road crossing. When a train rolls over 
them, current is sent to an iron box on 
a pole at the side of the road. A. bell 
clangs loudly—this is the warning—and 
at the same time, a long steel arm 
swings out over the road. At equal dis- 
tances along the arm “tell-tales” are 
hung. These are steel wires wound in a 
spiral, usually about eight feet long. A 


373 


When the train approaches, a bell rings, a 
signal light flashes, and the arm of the pole 
drops down, thus lowering a number of 
heavy spiral wire tell-tales which should 
stop the most reckless motorist 


motorist, no matter how reckless, 
will think twice before he risks these 
tell-tales. At night, in case an auto- 
mobile driver should misunderstand 
the bell, a bright ruby light shines 
down the road, while a white light, 
fixed at right angles to the other, 
illuminates the safety arm and dang- 
ling tell-tales. 


When Will This Reservoir Be 
Emptied? 


UPPOSE we have a reservoir a mile 

square and one mile deep and we as- 
sume that the water in it does not evapo- 
rate and is not added to by rain or other 
causes. Again, let us suppose that there 
is an outlet in the bottom of the reser- 
voir through which the water escapes 
at the rate of one hundred gallons per 
second (more water than most families 
use in a day). When will the reservoir 
be empty? 

A few minutes work with pencil and 
paper will suffice to show that you would 
never see the bottom of this artificial 
lake—no, nor your great-grandchildren. 
In fact it would take some three hun- 
dred and fifty years to empty the tank. 


Typewriting Eight Telegrams Over 
a Single Wire 


HEN the possibilities of sending 
WV messages over a wire by elec- 

tricity were first realized, soon 
after Morse demonstrated the first tele- 
graph, the limitations in the message- 
carrying ability of a plain circuit were 
encountered. The ordinary good oper- 
ator could send only about one complete 
message per minute, and to do this he 
required the full use of a wire connect- 
ing him with the receiver. Each line 
was thus limited to about four hundred 
messages per business day, and it be- 
came clear that extremely high rates 
would have to be charged for messages 
over expensive long distance wires. The 
greatest cost of the telegraph system 
was due to the erection and maintenance 
of the lines, and therefore the best way 
to make lower charges possible appeared 
to be to increase the number of mes- 
sages which could be handled on each 
wire. 

The first step toward solving the prob- 
lem of message limitation came with the 
duplex telegraph, which made it possible 
for four Morse operators to use a single 
wire at the same time. In this system 
two streams of messages pass over the 
wire simultaneously, in opposite direc- 
tions, so that the capacity is doubled. 
The next step was the quadruplex, in 
which four messages are sent simul- 


MINN E Ap 
ug) 


ase 
TT ST Seen 
iN 


MILVAUKEE 


taneously, two in each direction, over 
the same wire. In this system one line 
carries about sixteen hundred messages 
per day, and large saving, as compared 
to plain or simplex single-message tele- 
graphing, results. The duplex and quad- 
ruplex are very greatly used today, and 
the latter is not easy to keep in full op- 
eration during rainy weather. An octu- 
plex system was devised, but has not 
been found practical. 

Since the hand-telegraph systems are 
limited in message capacity by the 
speed of the Morse operator, automatic 
receivers and transmitters were de- 
vised to speed up the impulses passing 
over the line. In the Wheatstone sys- 
tem, which is perhaps the most success- 
ful of the plain automatic telegraphs, it 
is possible to send three hundred or 
four hundred words per minute over one 
wire, thus increasing the normal capac-- 
ity some ten or twelve times. In this 
system the messages are first punched 
into special tapes by perforating oper- 
ators. The tapes which are simultane- 
ously punched out by ten perforators, 
will usually keep one wire in full oper- 
ation. At the receiving station the mes- 


sages are printed in dots and dashes on 
a secgnd tape; this is divided into suit- 
able lengths and distributed amongst a 
number of transcribing operators who 


This remarkable telegraph system has been in operation over the lines shown for many 
months, and has resulted in the saving of much time and money to the company, and 
eventually to the senders 


374 


Popular Science Monthly 


translate the Morse code and write out 
the messages for delivery. The system 
is entirely. practical, and is used in con- 
nection with the ocean cables. In the 
United States it is not favored for inter- 
city telegraphing because of the loss of 


The receiving instru- 
ment. A telegraph blank 
is inserted in the instru- 
ment, and as the perfo- 
rated tape passes through 
after receiving its im- 
pulses over the wire, the 
message appears in type- 
written form, ready to be 
delivered 


time which results from the se- 
ries of processes through which 
messages must pass. 

Automatic telegraphy suggest- 
ed printing telegraphy, in which 
the message received appears in 
typewritten form. The first of 
these instruments, like the stock- 
ticker, printed their messages on paper 
tapes. Soon it became possible to op- 
erate page-printers over considerable 
_ distances by wire. In these a typewriter 
keyboard transmitter, either directly or 
through a punched tape, operates over 
the line a typewriter receiver. The mes- 
sage is thus printed ready for delivery 
almost as soon as the transmitting op- 
erator punches it out on the sounding 
keyboard. Such printing systems usual- 
ly operate up to fair typewriting speeds 
of fifty words per minute or so, and can 
be duplexed. By their use much time 


A sending operator at the keyboard perforator. 
instrument is much like a typewriter, but instead otf 
printing the letters a group of punches are controlled by 
the keys and punch a tape with various combinations 


375 


and expense in message handling are 
saved, and the good features of present- 
day rapid wire line service are largely 
due to these installations. 

The newest and most perfect page- 
printing telegraph is that which the 
Western Electric engineers have recently 


completed. In this system a single 
wire is used not only to carry eight 
messages simultaneously, four in each 


direction, but to print them on blanks 
at the receivers, ready for 
delivery. Thus the speed of 
direct printing operation 
(fifty words per minute) 1s 
combined with a distribution 


This 


of holes 


of one telegraph line among eight pairs 
of sending and receiving operators. The 
increases of speed ana economy pro- 
duced by such an arrangement are al- 
most self-evident. 

The apparatus used in this new quad- 
ruple-duplex system is built up in a group 
of transmitting, receiving and accessory 
units. One of the illustrations shows a 
sending operator at the keyboard per- 
forator. This instrument is much like a 
typewriter, but instead of printing the 
letters a group of punches are controlled 
by the keys and perforated on a paper 


376 


tape with various combinations of holes. 
In the illustration the fresh tape may be 
seen unrolling from the reel back of the 
rack carrying the message about to be 
sent. After perforation at the left end 
of the keyboard machine, the tape passes 
under the pivoted arm of an automatic 
stop and then into a transmitter unit (at 
the extreme left of the photograph). 
The operator ordinarily punches tape at 


These eight operators work at one end of a single trunk 


line. 
kept busy every minute. 


working day 


about the speed of transmission, so that 
a little slack tape hangs under the con- 
trol arm of the stopping device. Should 
he fall behind, however, as soon as the 
transmitter uses up the loose tape and 
so begins to stretch it tightly between 
the two machines, the control arm is 
lifted. This operation automatically 
stops both the local transmitter and the 
receiver at the distant end until more 
letters are perforated. Then the tape 


Four are sending and four receiving, and they are 
The same number work on 
the other end of the wire, and it is possible to send more 
than six thousand messages over one wire in a single 


“Popular Science Monthly 


slackens, the control arm drops and 
transmission begins again. Thus the 
printed message appears complete and 
without blanks, even though the trans- 
mitting operator is forced to stop in the 
midst of perforating. 

The printing receiver is shown in an- 
other photograph. Inside the case a 
message is being typewritten as the per- 
forated tape corresponding to it passes, 
letter by letter, through the 
transmitter. Each group of 
five impulses (one for each 
row of punched holes in 
the sending tape) prints a 
single letter, makes a space 
between words or starts a 
new line on the printed 
page by returning the pa- 
per-carriage to the right 
and turning up the paper. 
At the end of each mes- 
sage a short time is al- 
lowed for the receiving op- 
erator to take out the 
printed telegram and in- 
sert a fresh blank; while 
the new message is being 
typed he checks over that 
which has just been re- 
ceived and, if it seems cor- 
rect, turns it over to the 
delivery department. - 

The printing, ready for 
delivery, of keyboard-per- 
forated messages, could be 
accomplished by any of the 
older successful page-print- 
ing telegraph systems. In 
fact, the same line could be 
duplexed and messages 
sent at about fifty words 
per minute in both direc- 
tions, so keeping four op- 
erators at work on a single 
wire. But the new printing 
telegraph is capable of handling the tele- 
graphic output of eight transmitters and 
thus keeping sixteen operators busy over 
one line. This simultaneous transmission 
of messages is made possible by the use 
of a pair of special distributors, one at 
each end of the line, which successively 
switch in and out each of four sets of in- 
struments. The line is duplexed and 
therefore permits messages to travel in 
both directions at the same time; for each 


Popular Science Monthly 


quarter revolution the distributors con- 
nect on the line four operators using one 
duplex ‘channel’ set, which consists of 
a sender and receiver at each end. 

The operation of the two distributors 
is perhaps the most important new thing 
in this system, since it is through them 
that the line can be used successively by 
each of the four groups of four oper- 
ators. The simple fact that in printing 
telegraphs over three-quarters of the to- 
tal time of operation is used for prepar- 
ing to send, and in printing the letters, 


377 


plished in one-fifth of a second, and dur- 
ing each quarter of this period, or one- 
twentieth of a second, each set of in- 
struments is connected to the line. In 
the three-twentieths of a second the re- 
ceiving printer operates and the trans- 
mitter prepares to send the set of five 
impulses corresponding to the next letter 
in its message. 

The other photograph shows the eight 
operators, four sending and four receiv- 
ing, who work at one end of a trunk line 
using this new quadruple-duplex printer. 


The problem of bridging a mountain stream, circling the edge of a precipice and “tacking” 
up a steep grade forced the engineers responsible for the electric railway up Mt. Lowe to 
make this queer “‘circular bridge”’ 


while less than one-quarter will suffice 
for the actual transmission of the five 
electrical impulses, has made _ possible 
this distribution and simultaneous op- 
eration. The distributors are merely 
special rotary switches which revolve, 
one at each end of the wire, at exactly 
ties same’ effective speed. For. each 
quarter revolution the duplex line is con- 


nected to one set of instruments and 
the impulses forming one letter are 
transmitted in both directions. If the 


distributor rotates at three hundred rev- 
olutions per minute, three hundred let- 
ters or fifty words per minute will be 
sent in each direction through each of 
the four channels, making a total of 
four hundred words per minute. Each 
revolution of the distributor is accom- 


A Circular Bridge on Stilts 


HE circular bridge shown in the il- 

lustration is unusual both in its de- 
sign and in its location. The trestle 
work forming almost a complete circle, 
practically all of which is “on stilts,” is 
a part of a mountain inclined road. At 
the point where the roads almost meet, 
one track is about six feet higher than 
the other. The circle formed by this 
track is seventy feet in diameter. 

This bridge is also noteworthy be- 
cause it is located nearly five thousand 
feet above sea level. It is a portion of 
what is known as “The Mt. Lowe in- 
cline railway,” a line which winds its 
way up the side of Mt. Lowe. The turn 
seems to show how crooked is this three- 
mile line. 


Cleaning New York Streets with Modern 
Mechanical Appliances 


STON, of the Street Cleaning De- 

partment, of New York City, re- 
cently began the operation, in a so-called 
“model district,’ of machinery for col- 
lecting refuse and cleaning streets. There 
is nothing just like it in this or any 
other country. The ideal which the com- 


(STON, of the si J. T. FETHER- 


economy and efficiency suggested that 
the tractor be designed to meet the needs 
of all these services, and be available for 
twenty-four hours a day, if required. 
The tractor, therefore, is a power 
plant on wheels and provided with a 
heavily constructed fifth wheel by means 
of which the different kinds of trailers 


Huge tractors of this type have recently appeared in New York streets, and have aided 
wonderfully in the refuse removal work of the Department of Street Cleaning. They are so 


built that the driver has no control over the gasoline engine. 


He simply operates the 


electric current, thus making the power machinery more nearly ‘‘ fool-proof”’ 


missioner undertook to demonstrate in 
this district, which took in many phases 
of the city’s life, Fifth Avenue stores, 
wealthy homes (such as that of J. P. 
Morgan), tenement houses and factories, 
was a dustless job, with refuse collec- 
tions made in a given locality day after 
day with the regularity of a train 
schedule, at a minimum of cost and a 
maximum of efficiency. For refuse col- 
lection, for instance, he replaced horse 
carts with motor trucks of great capacity, 
and capable of transporting every kind 
of refuse simultaneously. 

His problem was solved by the com: 
bination of a _ gasoline-electric tractor 
and trailers designed to perform the dif- 
ferent functions required. As it is in- 
tended that the streets shall be cleaned 
by power, and that power plows shall be 
employed when snow is to be removed, 


can be attached. The tractor has a wheel 
base of only seventy-two inches, in order 
that the long trailer may be swung 
around in a thirty-foot street. The 
power plant consists of a four-cylinder, 
forty horse-power gasoline motor coupled 
to an electric generator on the same 
shaft. The generator supplies power for 
driving the tractor and the motors used 
in operating the flushing and sweeping 
machines. Such a type of tractor com- 
bines the simplicity of control of an elec- 
tric vehicle and the relatively large mile- 
age capacity of straight gasoline equip- 
ment. The motor is equipped with a 
governor and special devices which auto- 
matically regulate its speed according to 
the load. The motor may be started at 
the stable. It runs slowly until the driver 
moves the controller, turning the elec- 
tricity into the driving motors or into 


378 


Popular Science Monthly 


the motors on a trailer. It then auto- 
matically starts up at full speed of nine 
hundred revolutions a minute. When the 
electricity is switched off, the speed is 
again automatically reduced. The driver 
has no control over the operation of the 
gasoline engine. He controls the elec- 
tric current alone. The value of this is 
that the power machinery is made more 
nearly “fool-proof.” A less skilled man 
may be employed to run the machine, for 
the job consists simply in steering it, 
switching on and off the electricity and 
applying the brakes when necessary. The 
machines cannot be run above eight miles 


A crew of five 
men accompany 
these great trac- 
tors, and refuse 
is emptied into 
their ample bod- 
ies with great 
rapidity. The 
upper trays re- 
ceive barrels, 
boxes and pa- 
pers, and the 
lower sections 
the ashes and 


an hour on an ordinary level paved street. 

The refuse trailers, which have al- 
ready been placed in operation, consist 
of a massive steel-frame arranged to 
carry a series of eight deep rectangular 
steel cans, and, resting on top of these, 
two big trays for barrels and boxes. In 
the sides of these big trays are rectan- 
gular openings by which the ashes, street 
sweepings and garbage can be thrust into 
the cans underneath. These openings 


379 


On the piers the re- 
fuse is discharged in- 
to barges by locomo- 
tive cranes which 
take their power from 
aethird-raile) «bie 
various sections of 
the trailer are lifted 
bodily and their con- 
tents dumped into 
the barge. The 
rapidity of operation 
and the fewer men 
employed actually 
reduce the cost of 
the work 


are closed by swinging steel doors 
horizontally hung so that the 
pressure of an ash can or a shovel 
will open them, and gravity will 
close them instantly when the 
pressure is removed. 

On the piers where the refuse 
is discharged into the barges are 
four locomotive cranes taking 
their power from a third rail. The 
various sections of the collecting 
trailer are lifted bodily and their 
contents dumped on to the barge. 

Twelve of the tractors and refuse trail- 
ers are now in operation, and the crew 
of five men go through a block with 
a speed and resultant cleanliness marvel- 
ous to the eyes of New Yorkers accus- 
tomed to the antiquated methods in use 
elsewhere in the city. 


NLY ten per cent. of the in- 
habitants of the Phillipines speak 
Spanish. 


Will Germany Live on Sewager 


HE problem of securing food, 
which confronts Germany, has 
occasioned a thorough, scientific 

investigation of the subject and its eco- 
nomic solution. The scarcity of fats has 
been especially felt, due partly to the 
large consumption of fat-containing 
foods by German people. Direct sources 
of fat, such as olive oil, have ceased to 
be imported, and indirect sources, like 
meats, nuts and grain, thot.gh domestic 
products, are diminished in their output. 
The dry summer affected the fodder for 
grazing animals, especially since more 
vegetable food has been consumed by 
the entire population than formerly. 

One of the first questions considered 
was whether the fat consumed was nec- 
essary for proper nourishment. Physio- 
logically, fat stands next to protein in 
importance, the other foods being car- 
bohydrates (starches and sugars), salts 
and water. The Germans as a people, 
consume more fat than other nations,— 
in fact, all people eat more oily food 
than is necessary. Nevertheless, for en- 
ergy-production, 3.6 ounces of fat are 
equivalent to 8.8 ounces of carbohy- 
drates. Fat also prevents too rapid 
breaking down of the protein in the 
body, which fact, together with its re- 
sistance to cold, makes it highly impor- 
tant for the troops in the field. 

In Germany today, the consumption of 
oil, butter and other fatty foods, per 
day, is less than two ounces, though for- 
merly it was nearly double that amount. 
It has been found that a strict economy 
would practically solve the problem. If 
the rich would not waste food, the poor- 
er classes could be relieved. Large 
crops of linseed, hemp, poppy, mustard, 
sunflowers, walnuts, beech-nuts, hazel- 
nuts and even Indian corn and sesame, 
all containing oil in varying degrees, will 
be reaped this year. They require land, 
however, which would otherwise be used 
for other necessary foods. Peach-pits 
and the seeds of other fruits have been 
considered as sources of oils, but as yet 
little has been done in that direction. 

The committee in charge of the food 
question, authorized the Agyicultural 


Banks to buy and distribute last year’s 
crop of beech-nuts and flax. Beech- 
nuts have heretofore been wasted, but 
now even the royal Prussian forests are 
to be stripped, and their output placed at 
the disposal of the committee. School 
children have been enlisted to gather 
nuts and turn them in to the common 
store. A ton of fresh beech-nuts brings 
approximately from fifty to sixty dol- 
lars; air-dried nuts, from seventy-five 
to eighty-five dollars. Provision has 
also been made for gathering the sun- 
flower harvest. 

These measures pertain more to the 
future than to the immediate needs, 
however. Accordingly a general collec- 
tion of fatty refuse from meat-shops, 
slaughter-houses, hotels, etc., has been 
ordered. The system used is the work 
of Bovermann. The refuse, mixed with 
water, passes through a receptacle very 
slowly to allow the fatty substances and 
oil globules to rise to the surface, while 
the heavier bodies sink to the bottom. 
The top layer can then be drawn off and 
the fat easily extracted and purified. 

This method, of course, only takes 
care of a fraction of the fats which may 
be found in refuse. The slime at the 
bottom could also be used for some pur- 
poses, such as feeding swine. All sew- 
age from households and manufactories 
is largely impregnated with fat in vari- 
ous forms, such as soap particles and 
oils. According to Professor Bechhold, 
in Die Chemiker-Zeitung, .35 ounces of 
fat per person, are wasted in sewage, ey- 
ery day. In peace times, such waste 
would be fourteen million, two hundred 
and eighty thousand dollars, while in the 
last few months, it would be forty-seven 
million, six hundred thousand dollars. A 
further stringency may necessitate the 
use of sewage also. 

The fisheries are another source of fat 
and also protein, which as yet remain 
unclaimed. Only one-fourth of all 
catches are used for food, though the 
small fish, thrown back, contain much 
available nutriment. Even bones and 
various hides could be made to yield 
some fat, if their use became imperative. 


380 


Popular Science Monthly 381 


Sleep in Hot Water to Rest 
Your Nerves 


LEEPING in a bathtub full of wa- 

ter kept at blood temperature is 
claimed by some physicians to give the 
required amount of rest in half the time 
that sleeping in bed requires. In other 
words, four hours sleep in a_ bathtub 
filled with water at the proper tempera- 
ture—and always maintained at that 
temperature—will result in the exact 
amount of restfulness that eight hours 
in bed will give. 

The explanation is that warm water 
completely relaxes the nerves, which or- 
dinary sleep does not necessarily do. The 
most difficult part of this treatment is in 
maintaining the water at a constant tem- 
perature, and for the purpose of accom- 
plishing the result, a middle-western 
manufacturer has recently brought out 
on the market a thermostatic water con- 
trol apparatus, which, as its name im- 
plies, maintains the water at any desired 
temperature. 

In practice, the patient climbs into a 
bathtub filled with water, his head pro- 
truding through a hole in a rubber blan- 
ket, which is strapped around the edges 
of the tub. Water constantly flows in 
at one end of the tub, and out at the 
other. 

For the harried business man, who 
complains that his working day is too 
short, such a sleeping couch as _ this 
should have a distinct appeal. He should 
be willing to rest four hours at least. 


Here is a system of heat regulation that 
makes it possible to sleep in a bath that 
is always at the same temperature 


With this invention, telephone; line work 
is as comfortable as sitting or standing in 
the shop would be 


A Machine Which Climbs Poles 
POLE or stack-climbing appara- 
tus in which the pole or stack 

climber sits comfortably while elevating 
or lowering his position, as the work 
progresses, by a simple arrangement of 
clutches, has been constructed and put 
in use by a young telephone lineman in 
Arizona. The climber (the machine, not 
the man) consists of two parts, an upper 
and a lower. The mechanism in the up- 
per part contains clutches which grasp 
the pole firmly, being manipulated by 
ropes from the seat below. 

To climb the pole, the lineman or 
stack-climber takes his seat as far above 
the ground as possible in order to ex- 
pedite matters. The clutch mechanism 


is pushed upwards as far as he can 


reach by means of a wooden pole. The 
clutch is then set, and with a rope and 
pulley arrangement, he elevates the seat. 
By continually repeating this operation, 
pushing the clutch box upwards as he 
progresses, he literally crawls to the top 
of the pole or stack. 


382 Popular Science Monthly 


Running a Newspaper Plant with 
an Automobile 


S a result of a blizzard last Decem- 

ber, all of the towns along the 
New York, New Haven and Hartford 
Railroad between Stamford and Mount 
Vernon were without electric light and 
power, since they draw their supply of 
current from the high-tension system of 
the railroad. Mount Vernon, which has 
its own municipal plant, was the only 
exception. 


This little automobile furnished the power for an entire 
newspaper plant, which had been crippled by a blizzard 


The publishers of the News and 
Graphic, of Greenwich, Connecticut, 
were unable to operate their presses. 
Manager Barton thought of utilizing a 
portable gas engine, but this was not to 
be had. He happened to drop into an 
automobile agency. . The manager of- 
fered the services of a touring car. A 
few minutes later the machine was 
backed up in front of the newspaper of- 
fice and one of the rear tires was re- 
moved. With very little difficulty the 
jacked-up wheel was belt- 
ed to the main driving pul- 
ley of the shop, the other 
wheel being allowed to rest 
on the ground. Soon the 
twenty horsepower engine 
of the small car was run- 
ning not only the two big 
cylinder presses, but the 
folding machine, the power 
cutter, and several small 
job presses as well. Need- 
less to say, the paper ap- 


peared on time to the amazement of the 
citizens of Greenwich, who had not ex- 
pected to see newspapers for days. 


Wandering Motion Pictures 


ARRYING movies to the people 
by automobile is the latest ad- 
vertising scheme of a well known 
motor car manufacturer. The car not 
only carries the apparatus, but sup- 
plies power for driving an electric 
generator which furnishes the project- 
ing light. 

A small dynamo is bolted 
to a two-inch plank, which 
in turn is fastened to the 
running-board of the car. A 
pulley attached to one of the 
rear wheels of the auto, 
which is for the time being 
jacked up from the ground, 
is belted to the generator 
and the power for driving is 
thus transmitted from the 
car’s engine. 

The switchboard control- 
ling the current is hung 
upon the windshield and the 
screen is attached to any 
covenient building or bill- 
board. 

Scenes about the plant of 
the manufacturer are shown upon the 
screen and it is claimed that the entire 
outfit can be unpacked and put into op- 
eration in a few minutes. 


HE largest commercial gasoline- 

engine has been built for installa- 
tion in a double-ended ferry-boat used 
for the transportation of trains across 
an arm of San Francisco Bay. This 
engine weighs nearly fifty tons and 
develops six hundred horse-power. 


This car not only carries the apparatus, but generates 
the power for the motion picture machine 


So 


? 


The Peril of the Fur Coat 


By A. M. 


a pretty white fur piece around its 
neck and its hands thrust deep into 
the comforting warmth of a white fur 


iby youeverseearosy-faced child with 


The new method of 
beating fur. The ma- 
chine is designed on 
the principle of a vac- 
uum cleaner. A rat- 
tan beater inside the 
machine beats the fur 
and the particles of 
dust and fur are sucked 
up into the bag in- 
stead of filling the air 
about the workman as 
was the case with the 
old method 


muff? An altogether in- 
nocent and charming 
sight, you would think. 
It is rather a disillusion- 
ment to find that death 
and disease lurk around 
that snowy fur. Not for 
the child, to be sure, but 
constantly, from _ the 
minute that fur was opened in the 
garment furmaker’s shop to the minute 
when it is placed around the little one’s 
neck, at least one person’s health was in 
danger because of it. 

That this particularly dangerous trade 
may be made comparatively safe has 


A fur worker beating fur by hand. 
not protected from the particles of fur and dust which 
are raised by his beating 


Jungman 


been discovered by the physicians of the 
Occupational Clinic of the Department 
of Health of the City of New York. 
With a view toward obviating many of 
the hazards which sur- 
round the fur garment 
makers, an exhaustive 
study has been made of 
the fur and allied trades 
in this city. 

In the garment mak- 
ers’ trade the workers 
have better surround- 
ings than do the hatters’ 
fur workers. Their per- 
ils are to be found in 
the making of childrens’ 
sets. These are made of 
angora skins and other 
pelts. The angora skins 
are brought from China, 
and when they reach 


The workman is 


the factory they are more or less 
curly. The hair is combed to straighten 
it and to give it an appearance of uni- 
form fluffiness. For this purpose a 
combing machine is used. This means 
that a man holds the skin under a re- 
volving cylinder on which are set fine 


383 


384 


wire bristles. If you want to see the fur 
fly, watch one of these combers. The 
floor on which the man stands is covered 
inches deep with fur and the air is thick 
with it. In passing through a room 
where one of these machines is in opera- 
tion, one’s hair, eyes, ears and clothing 
become full of the indescribably fine 
particles of angora fur which are loos- 
ened by the machine. Sometimes the 
operator wears goggles and a respirator ; 
sometimes not. Some factories keep the 


combing machines in box-like compart- 
ments so the operator does not suffer. 

Another harmful practice is the beat- 
ing of finished fur garments by hand. 


mate 3 = a 
When the fisherman is not-a-fishing he 


takes off the sail of his boat and uses it 
as an awning for his house 


The beater uses two rattan sticks with 
which he belabors the garment, causing 
hair and dust to fly into the air and set- 
tle all over him. Recently a machine has 
been invented which does away with the 
dirt and dust of the hand-beating meth- 
od. It consists of a vacuum device in 
which is placed a rattan beater which 
can be operated at any one of three 
speeds electrically. The vacuum princi- 
ple is employed to draw all the dust and 
particles of fur into a bag, instead of 


Popular Science Monthly 


permitting them to be blown about the 
room. It is believed that asthma is con- 
tracted particularly by those persons who 
handle dyed wolf, racoon and coney 
skins. Unfortunately, many of the fur 
workers were exceedingly reticent and 
offered the physicians very little help to- 
ward determining their physical condi- 
tion, fearing to acknowledge any ailment 
lest their working capacity might be 
curtailed. It is a noteworthy fact that 
of the workers in the fur and allied 
trades, seventy-two per cent were under 
forty years of age and ninety per cent 
under fifty. This is conclusive evidence 
that the fur and hatters’ fur trades are 
dangerous to health. As getting rich at 
these trades is out of the question, so far 
as the workers are concerned, the only 
reason for such an early retirement from 
the work must be disability. 

There are many ways in which the 
evils of the fur trades can be mitigated. 
As sixteen thousand persons are engaged 
in these trades in New York City, their 
condition is of vital importance to the 
public health. For this reason the De- 
partment of Health has made an ex: 
haustive study of these trades and efforts 
are being made to improve present prac- 
tices. 

When one considers that some of the 
things suffered by the victims of mer- 
curialism are diseased gums, black teeth, 
severe headaches, nosebleeds, violent 
tremors of limbs, face and tongue (hat- 
ters’ shakes), and that other diseases 
among fur workers are bronchitis, asth- 
ma, tuberculosis, skin diseases, loss of 
finger nails, blueness of hands, etc., it 
would seem that the animals whose pelts 
are used are not the only ones to suffer 
in order that you may wear a felt hat 
and a fur-lined coat. 


A House with a Sail 


HE sail on the little shack pictured 

is not for the purpose of propul- 
sion. It is used as an awning so that 
the sun will not make the contents too 
warm. The hut belongs to a fisherman, 
who catches fish and crabs and sells 
them to the motor tourists between Los 
Angeles and Santa Barbara. The fish- 
erman uses the sail when out in his boat, 
but when he gets back he removes the 
sail from his boat to his hut. 


mye 


_— 


Simplifying the Inspection of Farm Produce 


Each sack of vegetables or 
fruit can be dumped in the 
device, examined and re- 
sacked, all in a few seconds 


EALINGS in such 
D commodities as fresh 

fruits and vegetables 
are peculiarly unintelligent. 
There is but the roughest 
approach to uniformity in 
standards of quality. Nei- 
ther the buyer nor the seller 
knows accurately the quality 


385 


of the goods bought and sold. 
To better this condition a 
device has recently been in- 
vented which is here illus- 
trated. 

Ordinarily such goods as 
potatoes are delivered to the 
buyer in a truck-load of bags. 
The buyer’s inspector makes 
a rudimentary inspection. 
Because the bags are so 
tightly packed together on a 


The device was invented and 
patented by a New York food 
inspector who wanted to see 
the whole consignment, not 
one or two selected sacks only 


a) aie 


386 


truck, only one or two from the tail end 
can be dropped off at a time. A bag is 
stood up and the string is cut; the 
bag is thrown over, and its contents are 
spilled out by lifting the lower end. As 
the average bag of potatoes weighs 
about one hundred seventy-five pounds, 
this entails considerable manual labor 
and time. After the inspector passes on 
the potatoes they must be shoveled up 
and thrown back into the bag and the 
bag must be sewed up. This process 
must be repeated for all inspected bags. 
If as many as five are inspected out of, 
say, one hundred on a truck load, the 
inspection is considered adequate. It 
frequently happens that when the pota- 
toes reach their consumption destina- 
tion a large proportion are found of in- 
ferior quality; they have never been 
seen by the inspector. Knowing that 
only the bags at the tail end of the truck 
can be inspected, the seller places there 
those of the best quality. 

The device illustrated is intended to 
afford opportunity for better inspection 
and for the inspection of a larger pro- 
portion of the goods and the reduction 
of time and labor. The device is wheeled 
up to the end of the truck, a bag of 
potatoes is placed upon the small dump- 
er and the string cut; it is then tilted 
over so that its contents spill and spread 
out in the tray. The inspector, stand- 
ing upon the platform at the side, views 
the entire contents at a glance, and 
then pulls the lever. The weight of 
the potatoes in the tray causes the front 
end to descend; the potatoes run out 
through the spout into the bag held un- 
der it, and the bag is sewed up. There is 
little or no manual labor. The process is 
much faster than the old-fashioned way, 
and as many bags of potatoes through- 
out a delivery may be inspected as may 
seem desirable. 

This device is suitable for inspection 
of the coarser vegetables—such as po- 
tatoes, carrots, cabbage, onions, turnips, 
parsnips and the like. It is also suitable 
for such fruits as lemons, oranges, ap- 
ples and pears which need not be care- 
fully handled. 

The floor of the machine is construct- 
ed of slats, so as to allow the dirt to fall 
between them. Hence the buyer pays 
only for the goods bought. These slats 


Popular Science Monthly 


can be fastened at varying distances so 
as to act as a sorting device for size. 
Undersized fruits or vegetables drop 
through and are discarded. 

By means of a small tray fitted into 
the permanent one and having a solid 
floor, grains can also be inspected—such 
as oats and corn. Thus the entire con- 
tents of a bag can be properly inspected, 
instead of simply a handful. 

The device described was invented by 
Hugh M. Foster, examining inspector 
of purchase and supplies for New 
York’s Board of Estimate and Appor- 
tionment. After years’ experience he 
became impressed with the lax methods 
in use. By law an employee of the city 
is prevented from profiting directly or 
indirectly by the sale of an article to the 
city government; therefore the inventor 
gave permission to the city to construct 
as many of these machines as would be- 
needed for its own use. This permis- 
sion has been accepted by the Board of 
Estimate and Apportionment*on behalf 
of the city, and the machine has been 
constructed and is now being used in the 
institutional departments which buy 
such supplies. 


Why Do Moving Pictures Seem So 
Life-Like? 

It takes a certain amount of time to 
affect the eye. You do not see things 
instantaneously. If you move a lighted 
cigar in a dark room very rapidly you 
see what is apparently a continuous curve 
of light. 

The motion-pictures reproduce move- 
ments faithfully for the same reason. Be- 
fore the eye has a chance to see a picture 
in its entirety a new picture is flashed on 
the screen. The pictures appear and 
vanish at the rate of sixteen a second, in 
other words, so rapidly that the effect of 
continuous motion is produced. 

Advantage is taken of this to produce 
very curious and unnatural effects; for 
example, an old building tearing itself 
down, a hole digging itself in the ground, 
a skyscraper growing up from a found- 
ation without the aid of human hands. 
The camera operator has simply taken 
a picture of the demolition of the old 
building and the construction of the sky- 
scraper at the rate of perhaps one an 
hour, but projects them all in twenty 
minutes. 


al 


Recruiting Britain’s Army with Motor-Trucks, 
Motion-Pictures, Mirrors and Brass Bands 


LTHOUGH the British Army in 
the field at the present time is esti- 
mated at between one and two million, 
the regiments are located on so many 


going even to the remotest hamlets and 
villages where there was any likelihood 
of procuring a few able-bodied soldiers 
for the king. The first unit of this mod- 
ern motor caravan to 


RECRUITING} 
# DFFICE & 


CENTRAL RECRUITING COUNCIL 
-- DUBLIN, - 


sf Plotocrapy of 


—JOIN T 


Instead of asking recruits to come 
to his office, Lord Derby sent re- 
cruiting stations to them in the 
form of elaborately equipped 
motor-buses. Thus Dublin was 
canvassed with the _ vehicle 
shown. Orators appealed to 
Irish patriotism from the top of 
the vehicle and a military band 
supplied musical enthusiasm 


fronts and fighting under such adverse 
conditions that the wastage of life is 
simply appalling. The problem of the 
British has been to fill the gaps caused 
by this wastage. Extraordinary meas- 
ures have been taken to drive home the 
necessity of enlisting. 

First, Lord Kitchener tried his hand 
at recruiting and then Lord Derby. 
What success Derby achieved has been 
due to very aggressive methods. He 
shrank from nothing. Thus a fleet of 
motor-trucks was employed as portable 
recruiting stations. They journeyed from 
town to town on the principle that if 
the men would not come to the recruit- 
ing stations, the recruiting stations 
would have to go to the men. 

These trucks traveled over prescribed 
routes in England, Scotland and Ireland, 


be put into service 1s 
shown in front of the 
Dublin Town Hall in 
the accompanying il- 
lustration. When in 
Dublin the truck was 
accompanied from sec- 
tion to section by no 
less than three 
complete mili- 


Ba 
THE 


i 
j 


One of the street 
mirrors used in Lon- 
don to shame reluc- 
tant cockneys into 
fighting for their 
country 


tary bands of music to help create re- 
cruiting interest. 

The truck equipment also included a 
motion-picture outfit, which was used at 
the night meetings to show actual war 
scenes at the front as arguments why 
more men should enlist. 

It was under Lord Derby’s direction 
that lackadaisical English city-dwellers 
were spurred into taking a more active 
interest in their country’s dire need by 
mirrors. Every Englishman was given 
an opportunity of seeing the man _ his 
country wanted. 


387 


Exposing the Tricks of the Short- 
Weight Tradesman 


HE efficient management of the 
modern household is greatly pro- 


moted by the careful use of well- cup. 


selected 
measuring 
appliances. 
Improved 
systems 
have been 
slowly 
ewe yeu 
from the 
guesswork 
of earlier 
times. For 
example, 
terms like 
the “pinch 
Of Sadatcey 
Speck or 
pepper,’’ 
“handful of 
rice,’ “sweeten to taste’ 
(units of vague magnitude) 
have gradually been replaced 
by definite amounts, speci- 
fied and measured. The 
Bureau of Standards has de- 
voted much attention to this 
subject, so neglected in the 
average kitchen. Household 
appliances ought to include: 


1. A test set of weights 
and measures for checking 
purchases and other pur- 
poses. 


2. Meters for measuring 


the delivery, for household 
use, of gas, water and elec- 
tricity. 


’ 


3. Special measuring in- 
struments, such as thermom- 
eters, hygrometers, barom- 
eters, hydrometers and time 
pieces, for measuring tem- 
perature, moisture, pressure, 
density and time. 


4. Special measures used 
in cooking. 


The housewife’s safeguards—accurate measures. These 
are glass graduates, pints and half pints, and accurate 
spoons, from table to quarter teaspoons 


A “crab” or ‘‘Shand- 


cuff’’ scale. By 
combining its parts 
incorrectly, results 
greatly in error are 
obtained, the com- 
monest method re- 
sulting in shortages 
of 25 per cent 


388 


The basis of the kitchen system of 
weights and measures is the standard 
Ordinary china cups cannot be 


used, since 
they vary in 
size. A spe- 
cial set of 
spoons will 
a lis ost 
found con- 
venient. 

Accuracy 
in measure- 
ment should 
not be con- 
fined to bak- 
ing and 
cooking, but 
should also 
extend to 
buying. In 
this regard, 
it is a fact that many house- 
Wives scrutinize the cost and 
quality of goods, but fail to 
realize that unless the quan- 
tity is determined, the actual 
cost price is not ascertained. 
Dishonest merchants, whose 
prices are low, may be mak- 
ing big profits by giving 
short measure. 

The Bureau of Standards 
discovered that only a few 
states and a few of the 
larger cities maintained any 
efficient inspection service, 
and that negligence in this 
regard was costing the con- 
suming public large sums of 
money, and putting a premi- 
um on dishonesty in compe- 
tition. Shortage in weights 
and measures was found to 
be common. The _ honest 
dealer, as well as the pur- 
chaser, suffers from the ex- 
istence of such fraud, since 
the possessor of a lying scale 
can apparently undersell him 


Popular Science 


These two measures have the 

same capacity, but the tall 

measure, which has no bottom, 

has so small a diameter that a 

proper heap cannot be obtained. 
Note the overflow 


and yet actually receive 
more for his goods. As 
an example, it was esti- 
mated that the consumers 
of the country lost annu- 
ally more than eight mill- 
ions on short- weight de- 
liveries of one staple ar- 
ticle of food. 

The methods of cheat- 
ing and the types of false 
apparatus exhibit great 
variety. Among the dif- 
ferent types of false ca- 
pacity measures may be 


389 


Monthly 


This straight-face 
spring scale has a 
fraudulent sliding face. 
The left one is used in 
buying. The _ seller 
slides the face down- 
ward, as on the right, 
thus greatly decreasing 
the indicated weight 
and defrauding the 
unsuspecting buyer 


is one of those practices 
which has come into use 


The purchaser of gasoline 


mentioned those having sees only the five-gallon 


movable or false bottoms ; See, DUE Metin eee inreely throuph “trade 
we measure inside is the one See iere 

measures having a_ por- Eaity tied custom. 

tion of the height cut The use of correct 


away from either the top or bottom; 
measures with staves removed arid the 
hoops and bottom adjusted accordingly ; 
“bottomless”? measures which have rela- 
tively small diameters and high sides, 
and which—although they may contain 
the proper number ‘of cubic iiches—give 
incorrect quantities, as they do not per- 
mit a proper heap; measures with false 
interiors, such as have been found in 
milk cans and measures for selling gaso- 
line; and liquid measures used for dry 
commodities. This last expedient is 
in use to some extent in practically all 
parts of the country and results in a 
shortage of about fourteen per cent. It 


measuring scales of high quality is not 
always in itself a guarantee that 
rect amounts will be given, for it is pos- 
sible for the user of correct scales to 
manipulate them to his advantage. A 
type of scale, which was formerly com- 
mon among certain classes of dealers, is 
the straight- face scale, designed to be 
held in the hand, with the graduated face 
made movable, so that the dealer might 
lower or raise it so as to make the point- 
er indicate an amount less or greater 
than the true weight, according to 
whether he was buying or selling. Many 
other forms of false scales have been 
used for years. 


COrR= 


Popular Science 


Monthly 


A large hospital for infants has recently been equipped with a number of rooms with glass 
walls, so that without entering the rooms nurses may observe the babies as easily as if 
they were so many fish in an aquarium 


Babies in Glass Cases 


A Sesh years ago the Hebrew Infant 
Asylum at Kingsbridge Road and 
University Avenue, New York, adopted 
the plan of using glass cases for ba- 
bies admitted to the observation build- 
ing. As a result the children may be ob- 
served without the necessity of entering 
their rooms. 

Each child is supplied with its own 
utensils, towels, bath, etc. If one baby 
develops a communicable disease it is 
impossible for it to give it to another. 
This is the first building of this kind to 
be erected in the United States. The 
idea was taken from some European in- 
stitutions and adapted to the needs of 
this asylum. There are glass chambers 
enough to accommodate twelve babies 
ranging in age from a few days up to 
one and a half years. 


Why Is the Sun Hot? 


F we could build up a solid column of 
ice from the earth to the sun, two 
miles and a half in diameter, spanning 
the intervening distance of ninety-three 
million miles, and if the sun should con- 


centrate his entire power upon it, it would 
dissolve in a single second, according to a 
calculation made by Professor Young. 
To produce this enormous amount of 
heat would require the hourly burning 
of a layer of anthracite coal more than 
nineteen feet thick over the entire sur- 
face of the sun. If the sun were com- 
posed of solid coal and we derived our 
heat from the burning of that coal the 
sun would burn out in less than five 
thousand years. Since the earth is mil- 
lions of years old the sun can not be 
burning. Its heat must be generated in 
some more persistent way. 

The great German physicist Helmholtz 
was the first to explain satisfactorily 
what keeps the sun hot. The sun is not 
burning; it is heated to the glowing point, 
like a piece of white hot iron. Helm- 
holtz found that if we suppose the sun to 
be contracting by only two hundred and 
fifty feet a year we would receive our 
present amount of heat. In other words 
heat is being literally squeezed out of the 
sun. Professor Newcomb estimated that 
when the squeezing process has contin- 
ued for about seven million years, the 
sun will be one half its present size. 


Popular Science Monthly 


A Dollar Made of Corn 


REMARKABLE reproduction of 
a silver dollar was recently made 
' by George Herren, a cabinet maker of 
Pella, lowa. This reproduction which is 
thirty-two times the size of 
its model, is constructed en- 
tirely of kernels of corn, 
glued to a backing of heavy 
pasteboard. 

As shown in the illustra- 
tion, the resemblance is very 
close. It is estimated that 
over a quarter of a million 
kernels of corn were used, 
and its construction occupied 
the maker’s -time for more 
than six months. More than 
thirty different shades of 
color are to be found in the 
“dollar,” which is to be found 
on exhibition in the home of 
the patient cabinet maker. 


CHURCH, claimed to 

be the smallest. in 
America, was recently dedi- 
cated in Manchester, N. H. 
The main auditorium is 
eighteen by twenty-eight feet, 
with seats for about seventy persons. In 
a tiny gallery are seats for twenty-eight. 
There is also a vestry and a basement. 


This 


The Lady on the Dollar appeared on a 

giant disk of corn kernels after George 

Herren had spent many winter evenings 
on his mosaic 


is the 
Chicago watched disappear twenty years ago, and saw 
reappear only a few weeks ago for the first time since it 


391 


A Submarine That Dived But Once 
WENTY years ago an aspiring in- 
ventor in Chicago designed and 
built a submarine which he claimed 


would revolutionize the construction of 


‘Foolkiller,’ a submarine boat which 


was “‘tested”’ so disastrously 


underwater craft. The public, being 
somewhat skeptical, christened the mar- 
vel “Foolkiller Number One,” and turned 
out in large numbers to see its trial trip 
in the Chicago River. 

Its ability to dive was at once demon- 
strated, for the new boat immediately 
submerged, and appeared no more. A 
few months ago, the ill-fated craft was 
raised to the surface after several un- 
successful efforts had been made to drag 
it out of the river mud. It is said that 
the “Foolkiller” will be placed on exhibi- 
tion on dry land, as it is feared that its 
natural ability for submerging will be 
demonstrated again if the ship is left in 
the water. 


N New York City, one person is in- 

jured by a motor vehicle every 
seventy-five minutes. One victim out 
of every twenty dies. 


HE bones of all flying birds are hol- 
low, thus combining the greatest 
strength with the least weight. 


Popular 


The type furniture awaits the make-up man in a rack 


attached to the ‘‘turtle’’ table 


A Motion-Saving Rule-Case 
for Printers 


ERE is pictured a little invention, 

just out, which will be appreciated 
by every printer. It is a time saver in 
newspaper offices, and a saver of many 
steps to all those who make up type into 
the forms. 

This is a new style of rule case for 
printers to be connected with the form 
chase within easy reach of the make-up 
man who has occasion to use the many- 
sized rules required in making up his 
page of type matter. 

Heretofore the make-up man had his 
rules somewhere in a separate case near 
at hand but never within easy reach, so 
that whenever he wanted a certain-sized 
rule it was necessary for 
him to go to the case and 
get it. 

With this new invention, 
all the different-sized rules 
are right at the page he is 
making up, and all he has 
to do is to reach over the 
page and pick out just the 
kind of rule he needs with- 
out even changing his po- 
sition over the type. 

The case of rules extends 
over the end-screws in the 
chase, and when the page 
is made up and ready to 
lock, the case is lifted off 
the end screws and hooked 


Science 


automobile shows two years ago. 


Monthly 


on to the next page to be 
made up.. The invention is 
being used in the make-up 
room of one of Cincinnati’s 
largest newspapers. 


An Automobile Machine- 
Shop for the Battlefield 


ECAUSE of the great 

number of automobiles 
and aeroplanes which are 
being used by the armies in 
the field in Europe, it has 
been found necessary to pro- 
vide a practical traveling 
workshop which may be 
hurried to any point along 
the road where a_ break- 
down has occurred. 

One of the most complete of these 
workshops is shown in the accompany- 
ing illustration. Upon a powerful motor- 
truck is mounted an independent power 
unit, consisting of a dynamo, switch- 
beard, and a charging-set. Two work 
benches are prov ided” for the workmen 
who accompany the car, and these are 
equipped with a five- inch lathe, drills, 
grinders, and a complete set of tools. 

One of these traveling workshops will 
soon be attached to each column of the 
Royal Flying Corps and to the British 
Army Service Corps, in order that all 
repairs may be made at the front with- 
out the necessity of requisitioning aid 
from the service stations at the army 
headquarters. 


Traveling automobile repair shops were a novelty at the 


To-day they are 
common necessities of war 


Popular Science Monthly 


A Steel Hill to Test Automobiles 


HE ability of a motor car to climb 

a hill “on high” has long been con- 
sidered a necessity by motorists and a 
selling argument by manufacturers. 
And because Detroit, where many motor 
cars come from, is in a flat section of 
the country where hills are the excep- 
tion, one manufacturer has built the 
steel test-hill illustrated. Furthermore, 
this same manufacturer has also con- 
structed a half-mile track for speed 
tests and what is termed a “sand pit.”’ 


Detroit automobile dealers had to build this steep hill to order so as to have grades where 


393 


The Noisy Motor-Boat and the 
Unabashed Fish 


ONTRARY to general opinion, a 

number of motor-boats cruising 
about a harbor with more or less noisy 
engines have no appreciable effect upon 
the fish in nearby waters. It has long 
been thought, particularly by fishermen, 
that the presence of a noisy motor-boat 
would drive the fish away. Exhaustive 


experiments recently conducted by the 
Bureau of Fisheries prove this theory 
to be incorrect. 


they could demonstrate the hill-climbing proclivities cf their cars in that city of level highways 


The track permits speed tests, and in 
the “sand pit” the testers alternately 
sink the cars to the hubs and then drive 
them out of the clinging sand. 

But the test hill is perhaps the more 
remarkable. The hill is located in the 
center of the speed track and is built 
entirely of structural steel. It is five 
hundred and forty-two feet long and 
thirty feet wide. The two approaches 
have grades of varying steepness so that 
cars can be tested on gradual and steep 
inclines. 

The speed track is built of wood, 
more than two hundred and_ fifteen 
thousand square feet of lumber being 
required. It is built on a foundation 
of clay and cinders with the turns 
banked and is surfaced with pine plank- 
ing, creosoted to afford a dustless sur- 
face for the tests. 


In testing the effect of motor-boat 
noises, on fish, a number of young 
scup, known to be sensitive to sounds, 
were placed in a large wooden cage. 
This cage was fastened in quiet water 
at the end of a wharf, and a motor-boat 
with a very noisy engine was run at 
varying distances past the cage. At no 
time did the fishes appear to be dis- 
turbed by the noise, except when the 
splash from the boat hit the cage. Then 
the scup would generally dive to the 
bottom of the receptacle. 

Another test was made with baited 
lines. When a number of fish had com- 
menced to nibble at the bait, a motor- 
boat was backed up under its own power 
until its stern was directly over the 
lines. The fish continued to nibble until 
driven off by the backwash from the 
propeller. 


Can 
Battery 
Explosions 


ARD upon the dis- 

aster which befell 
the F-4 off Honolulu—a | 
disaster which resulted aeace ram 
from a_ storage-battery 
lining and rivets being 
corroded by sulphuric 
acid fumes—comes an 
accident sustained by the 
E-2 which seems to be 
due to the explosion of 
gases generated by the 
storage battery. When 
lead-plate storage-batter- 
ies are employed, gases 
or fumes are likely to =e 
escape from the battery 
compartment and to suf- 
focate the crew; the fumes 
(a fine spray containing 
dilute sulphuric acid in 
suspension) are very penetrating and eat 
into the machinery of the boat and parts 
of the hull, causing corrosion and de- 
struction of the metal. At least one 
French submarine was lost as a result of 
this corrosion. In the Edison type of 
battery, which does not employ lead, hy- 
drogen gas is generated, which when 
mixed with the proper volume of air, is 
highly explosive. Whether the old lead 
battery or the modern Edison battery is 
installed, a ventilating system must be 
provided in order to remove the gases. 
From the very first, then, we find that 
submarine designers have bent their 
minds to the installation of blowers and 
ducts which will suck out the dangerous 
gases and conduct them to the outside 
of the vessel. The illustrations on the 
opposite page show very clearly the fun- 
damental principles on which these ven- 
tilating systems are based. 

But, after all, this is a makeshift. The 
storage battery is inherently dangerous. 
Recognizing this, the Navy Department 
has for over a year been at work trying 
to do away with storage batteries alto- 


The United States Submarine E-2, 

the latest victim of a naval accident 

which has been attributed to the 
explosion of battery gases 


On Sub- 


a marines Be 
-, Preventedr 


gether. It seems likely 
that before long the 
United States Navy will 
develop a submarine in 
which the same propel- 
ling engine will serve 
both at the surface and 
under the surface. At 
present Diesel engines 
drive the vessel 
when she is above 
water, and elec- 
tric motors deriv- 
ing their current 
from storage bat- 
teries, are em- 
ployed for under- 
water propulsion. 

While nothing 
definite is as yet 
known about the 
Navy’s experiments, it is certain that 
compressed air will be used, which will 
be stored in tanks occupying the space 
now taken up by the batteries. The air 
will not only serve to feed the engines 
but also to provide a purer atmosphere 
for the crew. It seems certain that with 
the compressed air system the radius of 
the submarine will be increased. Why? 
Because the electric motors for under- 
water propulsion will be dispensed with 
and their place taken by compressed air 
tanks. In other words, the space for- 
merly occupied by storage batteries and. 
by electric propelling machinery is to be 
taken up by compressed air tanks, repre- 
senting so much stored power. 

As soon as the submarine reaches the 
surface it will suck air in automatically 
through its pumps. In other words it 
will breathe when it reaches the surface 
just as if it were a mechanical whale. 

The United States Navy has been freer 
from terrible submarine accidents than 
that of any first-class power. But even 
the two accidents which American sub- 
marines have had are two too many. 


394 


— 


Popular Science Monthly 395 


The method of ventilating batteries 
shown below was patented by the 
builders of the Holland boats. An 
alarm rings when a jar has been 
broken. An insulated tank collects 
the leakage 


AIR OUTLET INTAKE PIPE 


EXHAUST PIPE_, 
=) VENTILATING 
CONNECTIONS 


* Tia 


= 


SO eS 


VENTILATING HOLE 7% 
Ra 


Above and below are shown the usual 
methods of ventilating. One cell is in- 
sulated from another 


INTAKE _PIPES 


DRAINING ~BOX— LEP, 
EXHAUST PIPES > 


Edison patented the method on the right 
of coping with the hydrogen and oxygen 
gases of his battery. These form an ex- 
plosive mixture, which is ignited by a red- 
hot wire. As Edison says “‘By my 
process I cause the combination of the 
oxygen and hydrogen to take place at 
shorter intervals before the quantity of the 
gases evolved have become sufficient to 
render explosion dangerous” 


ELECTROLYTIC 
SOLUTION? 


HOT PLATINUM WIRE) 
TO IGNITE GASES 


To the left, Si- 
mon Lake’s way 
of ventilating 
storage batteries. 
An air-duct ex- 
tends through 
the battery com- 
partment. It is 
connected with 
a suction fan dis- 
charging into a 
pipe, leading 
through the top 
of the hull. A 
non-return ex- 
haust-valve pre- 
vents water from 
reaching the air- 
duct and cells 


e 


Capturing Jamaica for a Film Play 


By George F. 


Worts 


A Moorish city, covering thirty acres of ground, with castles as well as huts, and costing 
thirty thousand dollars, is but part of the gigantic setting of the new film play 


HEN Annette Kellerman and 
WV her large company of players 

arrived in Jamaica one day last 
August with the intention of making a 
moving picture that would cost some- 
where in the neighborhood of one mil- 
lion dollars, she found that the entire 
group of islands was under martial law. 
Jamaica was heavily garrisoned, all 
sorts of restrictions were placed upon 
strangers, and into this unfriendly at- 
mosphere of British colonial red tape 
came an invading army of actors and ac- 
tresses, cameramen, électricians, proper- 
ty men, scene painters, directors, and 
what not. Besides all these there were, 
of course, heavy artillery in cameras, and 
the ammunition to be fed to them, tons 
of chemicals, properties enough to stock 
the Metropolitan Opera House for a 
\Wagnerian season, and just for good 
measure an entire menagerie, consisting 
of lions, tigers, elephants, camels and 
other creatures calculated to lend Orient- 
al atmosphere when the right time ar- 
rived. 

Whether or not the estimated cost of 
one million dollars has undergone the 
usual press agent’s expansion, the fact 
remains that the picture will be one of 
the most spectacular that has ever been 


produced in the whole history of films. 

A fair idea of the amount of materials 
required for the stage settings, costum- 
ings, handling of films, etc., can. be 
gained from the knowledge that five 
shiploads went down to Jamaica from 
New York the first time. The first con- 
signment of actors, actresses and work- 
men alone amounted to twelve hundred 
persons. One thousand tons of proper- 
ties and stage settings have been shipped. 

To insure the proper attention to the 
cinematographic film, chemical labora- 
tories, storehouses and printing and de- 
veloping plants have been constructed. 
An ice plant for chilling the tropical wa- 
ter used in development was erected. 

One of the first tasks to which the 
director in charge, Herbert Brennon, set 
himself was the construction of the larg- 
est stage that has ever been built. It 
measures over all five hundred by two 
hundred feet, and is being used for the 
erection of giant “sets’’ of all varieties. 
More than six different companies occu- 
pied with different scenes of the film can 
work at one time. 

Probably the most cumbersome task is 
the construction of an inland Moorish 
city which covers thirty acres of ground. 
Contrasted to the usual flimsy structures 


396 


Popular Science Monthly 397 


used, it was necessary that 
these buildings be made of 
durable materials, owing to 
the destructiveness of the 
West Indian hurricanes. 
Thirty thousand dollars is 
the estimated cost of this 
city. 

Another important fea- 
ture which will be unique 
in film history is the storm- 
ing of the historic old 
fortress of Augusta. Be- 
fore reconstruction of this 
aged ruin could be attempt- 
ed, it was necessary to 
make the locality thorough- 
ly sanitary. For putting 
the fort in presentable 
shape several boatloads of 
concrete, stone and steel—all of the stutf 
of which fortresses. are made—were 
shipped down from New York. It has 
taken five months to complete the restora- 
tion. wees 

Now that it has been rebuilt, Fort Au- 
gusta is to be destroyed and the task of 
destruction falls to the lot of the \\Vest 
Indian squadron of the British navy. 
Real powder and real shells will be em- 
ployed. Needless to say, it required sev- 
eral weeks of persuasion before the per- 
mission to stage this battle could be ob- 
tained. Before this issue of PoruLar 
ScieNcE Montuty will have reached 
the newsstands, the West Indian fleet 
with decks stripped as in actual battle, 
with gun crews stripped to the waist, 
with range finders perched in the con- 
ning towers, will be bombarding the for- 
tress—and Fort Augusta will have again 
crumbled into ruins. 

Quite as interesting as the construc- 
tion problems that have been involved is 
the number of players who will appear 
in the film. In addition to the twelve 
hundred actors and “mermaids,” there 
are scheduled to appear ten thousand 
Hindus who have been held in Jamaica 
since the completion of the Panama ca- 
nal, five thousand British cavalrymen 
and more than five thousand native Ja- 
maicans who have been recruited for the 
various mob scenes. 

The exact nature of the film has not 
yet been divulged, nor has a name been 


i - ; ie 4 


A section of the big stage floor, with the executive 
offices at one side. A portion of a Moorish house may 


be seen in the foreground - 


decided upon. A few of the facts that 
are known is that besides the bombard- 
ment of Fort Augusta, and the use of a 
Moorish city, there will be a number of 
mermaid scenes; Trinidad asphalt lake 
will figure; some of the scenes will take 
place in the heart of the jungle; and a 
submarined ship is included somewhere 
on the programme. Just how consistent 
the plot will be with all this array. of the 
spectacular, is something for time and 
the audience to decide. 


A Transfer Solution 


RINTED pictures from magazines, 

newspapers, folders, etc., may be 
transferred to paper, cloth, cardboard, 
glass or china with the following solu- 
tion: 

One bar of common soap is dissolved 
in a gallon of hot water, to which one- 
half pint of turpentine is added. After 
it has stood for a night, stir well and 
bottle. The solution is applied to the 
print with a soft brush or one’s fingers, 
and the material to which it is to be 
transferred is placed upside down on it. 
The back of the material is then rubbed 
and the design is transferred. 

A picture may be transferred to glass 
for the purpose of a lantern slide. In 
such a case the glass must be varnished 
with a perfectly transparent varnish be- 
fore transferring; then proceed as be- 
fore. Pictures are transferred to china 
in the same way. 


The Cost of 


A chain of double 
eagles extending for- 
ty-four thousand 
miles is the cost of 
the war to date 


walk- 

ing 
along the 
Ringstrasse in 
Vienna one 
day a few 
years ago, I 
found myself 
in the neighborhood of 
the Hofburg, the Impe- 
rial and Royal palace. It 
was one of the days 
when visitors were ad- 
mitted to the “Treasury 
of the Imperial House 
of Austria,” so I turned through the gate 
and having witnessed the impressive cer- 
emony of the changing of the guard, paid 
my krone and marched in. Purchasing 
an official catalogue of the treasures, I 
looked at the display of royal insignia, 
crowns and swords, the sacred relics 
such as a nail from the true cross and a 
tooth reputed once to have rested in the 
jaw of John the Baptist, and the dia- 
monds, emeralds, pearls and rubies in- 
cluded in the list. Of all that I saw, I 
was most impressed with a sentence in 
the introduction to the aforementioned 
catalogue. It read that in 1876 it had 


It costs over twelve thousand dollars to 
kill a man in this war 


Great War 


$12,100.68 — 

The Cost. of 

Killing a Man 
in War 


By Herbert 


Francis 


been “decreed 
that in the fu- 
ture the. Haps- 
burg - Lorraine 
private treasure 
should only in- 
clude those ob- 
jects which were 
held to be essential as demonstrating the 
power and wealth of the reigning family.” 

This might do very well for the con- 
sumption of the ignorant peasant of the 
Austro-Hungarian empire, but I imag- 
ined what would be said of the taste of 
a democratic American family which 
should thus blatantly announce in open- 
ing its gallery of art objects and relics 
to the. public that the collection had been 
made with the purpose of “demonstrat- 
ing the power and wealth of the family.” 

Later I visited the royal palace in Ber- 
lin. My chief recollections are of the 
plaster imitations of curtains with which 
a number of apartments were bedecked, 
the great felt slippers with which every 
visitor was equipped in order to. protect 
the polished wood floors, and the theat- 
rical manner in which the Kaiser’s gold 
plate was displayed in the throne room. 
The golden vessels reposed on a metal 
framework so designed as to give oppor- 
tunity for the close examination of each 
piece. The whole was enclosed in a glass 
cabinet with mirrors at the back. As the 
visitors entered the room an attendant 
would open a small door in the wainscot- 
ing and throw an electric switch, light- 
ing up the interior of the glass case with 
invisible globes. By means of these foot- 
lights it was possible to see clearly both 
the front and the back of the golden dish- 
es. With truly Teutonic efficiency, the at- 


398 


Popular Science Monthly 


tendant cut off the current 
as soon as the visitors 
turned to leave the apart- 
ment. 

I have described these 
two exhibitions by which 
the Teutonic rulers chose 
to demonstrate their wealth 
and power by way of show- 
ing how standards change. 
For more than a year now 
a method of demonstrating 
wealth and power has been 
exhibited in continental Eu- 
rope which makes the old 
seem disgustingly cheap 
and-picayune. All the -jew- 
els and gold plate in the 
palaces of Vienna and Ber- 
lin taken together would not foot the 
war bill for one day. 
. While exact figures showing the cost 
of the war will not be compiled until 
after it has come to a close, yet estimates 
have been made which show what a great 
destroyer of wealth it is. The best esti- 
mate is that up to January 1, not less 
than forty billions of 
dollars had been expend- 
ed in direct prosecution 

of warfare. This 
incomprehensible 

5 Siim)a- avers 
ages $77,- 
200,772 a day 


: aa 


399 


Three men would be required to carry the gold used to 
run the war for one minute 


since war began and does not take into 
consideration. the billions of dollars’ 
worth of property wiped out in the coun- 
tries invaded and through the deaths of 
millions of workers. For each minute of 
the day, the nations at war are obliged 
to pay out $53,611.64. Imagining this to 
be in gold and put into bags having a 
capacity of fifty pounds each, it would 
require the services of probably three 
soldiers to carry each minute’s monetary 
needs. And according to the best ob- 
tainable statistics, the burden would be 
fatal to two of the number, for at the 
rate of fifty pounds to the man, it would 
require an army of 2,218,500 men to 
transport the forty billions in gold. This 
number is about two-thirds the to- 

tal estimated number of men killed 
within the period covered by the 
forty billions. Using the 
best available data at the 
time of writing, 

it IS costing 
$12,100.68 

gold to kill 


It would require fifteen trains of seventy cars each and one of fifty-seven cars to carry the 
gold spent in carrying on the war up to January 1, 1916 


400 


a man. War is a costly undertaking. 
It was once even less efficient and 
more costly. In the Civil War, the num- 
ber of Northern soldiers who died was 
360,222, while the South lost, at the low- 
est estimate, 250,000. That war cost the 
North $6,189,929,908, while the South’s 
bill was at least $3,000,000,000. It 
therefore cost approximately $15,059.97 
to slaughter a man. Killing is done in a 
more wholesale fashion nowadays. 

Fortunately, the warring nations are 
not obliged to gather together the forty 
billions and transport it at one time to 
the front. If they did, it would require 
fifteen trains of seventy cars each, and 
one of fifty-seven, each car being of the 
fifty-ton pattern used in hauling coal 
from the Pennsylvania mines to tide- 
water at New York harbor. This would 
interfere with the movement of food sup- 
plies, guns and other munitions of war 
for the time being. The weight of the 
gold would be 55,440 tons. : 

Even if it were desired to do this, 
there is not enough visible gold in the 
world to permit it. According to the 
figures of the director of the mint, the 
world’s production of the precious metal 
between the years 1850 and 1913 inclus- 
ive, was $12,072,058,618, or less than 
one-third the estimated cost of the war. 
This, added to the $225,000,000 assumed 
to be in the hands of the potentates and 
other wealthy Europeans prior to the 
discovery of America, and the $3,383,- 
224,000 figured to have been brought to 
view between the time Columbus first 
saw the Western Continent, and the dis- 
covery of gold in California, still leaves 
a deficit of nearly twenty-five billions 
to be made up otherwise. 

But let us suppose there were forty bil- 
lions of gold in the hands of mankind, 
and that through some gigantic financial 
operation it had reached America and 
been coined into double eagles. There 
would be, if the gold were alloyed with 
other metal to the usual degree of fine- 
ness, 2,222,222,220 of them, enough to 
cover the site of the Woolworth Build- 
ing to a depth of seven feet eight inches, 
or form a pillar the height of the build- 
ing, seven hundred and fifty feet, and 
twenty-two feet square. If placed on 
edge and face to face, they would form 
a roll 3,653.42 miles long. This roll 


Popular Science Monthly 


would extend from New York to a 
point in the Pacific Ocean about six hun- 
dred miles west of San Francisco. Or, 
taking their diameter as one and five-six- 
teenths inches, they would pave a 
boulevard three hundred and fifty-one 
feet wide extending from one end to 
the island of Manhattan to the other 
a distance of thirteen miles. What 
a shining road that would be! The 
Irishman who expected to pick up dol- 
lars in the streets as soon as he landed, 
would literally be able to do it, assum- 
ing that the gold pieces were no better 
secured than is the surface of some of 
New York’s thoroughfares. That great 
highway, broader than Broadway, would 
be the nearest approach to the streets of 
the New Jerusalem described ‘by John, 
that the world could ever expect to see. - 
And if all these gold pieces were laid flat 
in a single row, edge to edge, they would 
extend 43,841.12 miles around the waist- 
coat of the globe. 

This would, indeed, be a “demonstra- 
tion of power and wealth” that would 
make the display of jewels, relics and 
gold plate of the Teutonic ruling families 
look like a penny peep show. 


A Mystifying Chemical Trick 


PLAIN blue _ handkerchief is 

shown to the audience. When the 
handkerchief is warmed it turns white 
and when heated resumes its former 
color. 

Make a starch paste and add enough 
water to the paste to thin it. Then add 
sufficient tincture of iodine to color the 
liquid blue; a few drops will be enough. 
Dye a white handkerchief with this blue 
liquid and when the handkerchief is dry 
it is ready for the trick. 


Raising a Motorcycle Stand 
Automatically 


MOTORCYCLIST may save the 

time and trouble of raising the 
stand when the machine is pushed off, 
by fastening one end of a door-spring 
to the stand near the bottom, and the 
other end to a convenient place on the 
luggage carrier. While the machine is 
on the stand, the spring is stretched, but 
the removal of the weight releases it, 
and the stand is pulled back into place. 


Popular Science Monthly 


What Makes an Electric Lamp-Bulb 
Glow? 


HEN you heat iron in a forge it be- 

comes either red hot or white hot, 
depending on how hot it is. It sends 
forth light. The hot- 
ter it is the more 
light it gives. Final- 
ly there comes a 
point where the iron 
melts away. 

-The best light-giv- 
ing material is that 
which will melt at 
the highest tempera- 
ture. Carbon is a 
material which can- 
not be melted eas- 
ily; but it burns up 
in the open air long 
before it reaches 
the melting point. Edison conceived the 
idea of making a little thread of carbon, 
of placing that thread in a bulb, and of 
heating it by the electric current to the 
highest possible point. In order to pre- 
vent the carbon filament from burning 
up he pumped out all the air in the bulb. 
The result was that the thread of carbon 
was heated to the glowing point, so that 
it gave a very bright light. 

Tungsten is a metal which melts at the 
highest melting point. It ought to be the 
best light-producer, since it can be heat- 
ed higher than any other metal without 
melting. The trouble is that tungsten 
is exceedingly brittle, so that a thread 
cannot easily be made of it. This diffi- 
culty was overcome about twelve years 
ago by making a paste of powdered tung- 
sten and forming a thread of this paste. 
Later still a way was found of so treat- 
ing the tungsten that it could be drawn 
into a hair-like thread a mile long if nec- 
essary. All modern electric incandescent 
lamps have such tungsten filaments. They 
consume very much less current than the 
older carbon-filament lamps and give a 
much whiter light, simply because tung- 
sten can be heated so very much before 
it melts. j 


HIE Department of Agriculture as- 

serts that on the average farm a 
flock of one hundred to one hundred and 
fifty hens is more easily made profitable 
than a flock of one thousand. 


401 


A Top That Never Stops Spinning, 
LECTRICITY has invaded the 
young boy’s field of sportsmanship. 


The record spin in the game of whose- 
top-can-stay-up-longest has been shatter- 


A top which will keep on spinning forever 


—or until its battery wears out. It af- 
fords indeed ‘‘endless’’ amusement 


ed so badly that the cord-spun top, in 
comparison, really does not spin at all. 

Like most other things that electricity 
takes a hand in, the electrical top does 
not topple after a mere spin; it whirls 
on for hours, according to the desire of 
its youthful operator. The top, in real- 
ity, is a miniature eléctric motor turned 
on end. In place of the steel peg and 
the sidewalk, there is a steel shaft which 
revolves in a bearing, and instead of the 
wooden pear-shaped body, there is an 
iron armature wound with wire. At the 
top of the shaft varied colored disks are 
placed. When the current from a dry 
battery is turned on, the shaft revolves 
and the disks spin, giving a pleasing 
effect in rainbow colors. 


402 Popular Science Monthly 


© American Press Association 


The march of the Confederate Army as it is to be immortalized in the living granite of Stone 
Mountain, near Atlanta, Georgia. On the face of this mountain hundreds of men will be 


Carving the Confederate Army 1n 
a Granite Mountain 


MONUMENT to be carved out of 

the living granite of a mountain, a 

monument of flawless granite two 
miles long and a thousand feet high—to 
be built as an everlasting memorial to 
the people of the South and the cause of 
the Confederacy—such is the gigantic 
task allotted to Gutzon Borglum, one of 
America’s foremost sculptors. 

This great monument is to be carved 
from the solid granite composing Stone 
Mountain, which is located near Atlanta, 
Georgia, and which is called “the larg- 
est pebble in the world,” since it is one 
solid stone, two miles long, without a 
flaw or a fissure in its entire surface. 

Upon the face of the mountain hun- 
dreds of men will be engaged for eight 
years in carving companies of giant fig- 
ures representing the Confederate Army 
and’ its famous generals on the march. 
Should Mr. Borglum wish to complete 
the task alone, he would have to live for 
centuries. The central portion of the 
group, bearing the likeness of the leaders 
of the army on horseback, will be approx- 
imately thirty-five to fifty feet high. The 
line of marchers will be nearly two thou- 
sand feet in length. ; 


Each State of the Confederacy will be 
represented by one of the generals who 
led the Southern Armies, and the char- 
acters will be selected by committees 
from the various states. Thirteen im- 
mense columns will also be cut.in the 
base of the mountain, to represent the 
thirteen Confederate States. 

The difficulties of construction, Mr. 
3orglum asserts, will not be great. He 
will” build a studio, about one hundred 
feet long, squarely upon the axis of the 
face of the mountain, and from three- 
quarters of a mile to one mile from its 
face. In the side of the studio he will 
have a window of such length as will 
show the full field of the mountain in- 
tended for the figures. Then he will 
draw the figures on the window to scale, 
cross-lining it, and on the mountain, as 
it appears on the window, he will draw 
in the entire work on the window itself. 
By a little imagination, the drawings on 
the glass will appear as figures on the 
actual stone. 

By shifting his position the sculptor 
can shift the whole scheme of his de- 
sign to any part of the mountain; and 
by moving towards or away from the 


(agent PROP aa Saas 


vw, 


+ PD Me 24 


Popular Science 


Monthly 403 


engaged for eight years in carving scores of colossal figures, representing the Confederate 


Army and its famous generals on the march. 


window he can increase or decrease the 
scale of the figures. 

Cut into the heart of the mountain will 
be a memorial hall, running the entire 
length of the colonnade. In this imper- 
ishable hall will be kept the valuable rec- 
ords and relics of the Daughters of the 
Confederacy, as well as records of the 
Southern States. 

A park of eighty acres will be laid out 
at the foot of the mountain, and from its 
path a suitable view may be obtained of 
the principal figures carved in the rock. 

The cost of the work, which is now es- 
timated at about two million dollars, will 
be raised by individual contributions 
from the entire people of the South. It is 
said that several wealthy people have of- 
fered to finance the entire project, but it 
was deemed best to make this a popular 
undertaking, so that it may more truly 
represent the spirit of the American 
South. 


The Bridge That Telephones Built 


HE building of the great railroad 

bridge which spans Hell Gate, was 
greatly expedited by the telephone. The 
work started last January, and in Oc- 
tober of last year the steel arms that 
had been insistently creeping over the 
river from shore to shore were joined 
with the aid of a telephone system, which 


The portait studies are all to be likenesses 


in itself was a fitting climax to one of 
the greatest construction feats the world 
has ever seen. 

Telephones were located in the power 
houses, the offices, in the erector cabins, 
at the jacks, at the compressor house 
and on the structure in close proximity 
to the boss riveters. 

The critical moment came on the day 
when both arms were completed and 
were ready to be lowered into alinement. 
The completed arms hung in midair ex- 
actly twenty-two and one-half inches out 
of alinement. The traveling erectors 
had been shoved out to the last eighth 
of an inch, another shove and they 
would have tipped everything over, and 
ruined a year’s work, to say “nothing of 
some twelve million dollars in steel. 

Gages were affixed to the sides of the 
final beams marked off to the thirty- 
second of an inch, and at the exact spot 
the foreman stood with the telephone at- 
tached to a girder directly in front of 
him and with every station cut in and 
open. Every man knew his job and every 
man repeated back his telephonic order. 
It was antic and responsible task to 
put up to the telephone, but the ’phone 
faultlessly carried the orders of the fore- 
man -over steel girders and under the 
East River to the men who stood at the 
pumps, the erectors and the riveting 
machines. 


a gig 


4.04 


A Sensible Feeding Bag for Horses 
NEW feeding-bag for horses, de- 
vised by George W. \Vaddell, of 

Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, makes it 

possible for the horse to feed in comfort. 


The old and the new way of feeding a horse 


This feeding-bag is bowl-shaped and 
not of cylindrical form. As it has hooks 
at its four corners from which straps 
and buckles extend to the horse’s collar, 
it is much more readily fastened to the 
harness than the old-style bag. It is 
readily cleaned and emptied, which can- 
not be said of the old feeding-bag. Be- 
sides, it can also be used for watering 
the horse. Unlike the old-style feeding- 
bag, it can be folded perfectly flat when 
not in use and placed under the wagon- 
seat. 

The accompanying illustration con- 
trasts this modern, sanitary feeding 
equipment with the poorly-ventilated bag, 
that has to be tossed about by the horse 
if he wants to reach the last mouthful 
of oats at the bottom. 


Popular Science Monthly 


A Dreadnought’s Buoy. 

S battleships have grown in size 

so have the mooring buoys to 
which these floating forts are made 
fast. The one shown in the photo- 
graph was recently turned out by a 
3ritish firm. The buoy measures eight- 
een feet in diameter, and has a depth 
of thirteen feet. It is made of steel 
plates three-eighths of an inch thick, 
and has four water-tight compart- 
ments. A forged iron mooring bar 
passes through its center. It will 
withstand a breaking strain of 185 
tons. 

A wooden fender on the outside of 
the buoy protects it from collisions. — 
This is made of elm and is one and 
one-half feet wide and about the same 
dimensions in depth. With mooring 
bar the buoy weighs fifteen tons. It 
carries a load of seven tons when one 
of the bulkheads is filled with water. 

The smaller buoy seen in the photo- 
graph has a diameter of three feet and 
weighs two hundred pounds. 


The buoy of a dreadnought has a platform 
all around on which the sailors can walk 
to attach the cables. The small buoy is 
of ordinary size—three feet in diameter 


If you want further information about the subjects which are taken up in 
the Popular Science Monthly, write to our Readers’ Service Department. We 
will gladly furnish, free of charge, names of manufacturers of devices described 


and illustrated. 


Two great dangers faced the divers on the wrecked gunboat. 
the ship and made it almost impossible for the divers to work, and numberless man-eating 


fish were attracted to the scene. 


ALVING the Mexican gunboat Pro- 
greso, sunk by one of the factions 
opposed to Carranza at Progreso, 

Yucatan, was interesting because the ves- 
sel suffered an injury identical with that 
which would have been caused had she 
been torpedoed. What is more, she was 
converted by compressed air into a huge 
bubble, so that she was able to make a 
long voyage under her own steam. The 
repair, W hile provisional, was almost per- 
manent. It was a steel patch applied 
while the ship was still submerged. The 
plates were of course bolted and not riv- 
eted, but the finished job compared fa- 
vorably with one done in dry dock. 
The story of how the gunboat was 


ship with a 
Bubble of Air 


By M. G. Cary 


The surf constantly beat over 


The men had to work in large cages for protection 


= 


sunk: has some of the amusing elements 
associated with Latin-American revolu- 
tions. When the Progreso was sent to 
Progreso by General Carranza to block- 
ade that port, the wily Yucatecans 
hatched a plot. For several days the 
Progreso rolled about in big swells. 
Word was sent out to her captain that 
the Carranza sympathizers were going 
to communicate with him and try to 
send him fresh provisions. In the jail, a 
real Carranza sympathizer languished. 
He was made the unwilling tool of the 
plotters. Deceived into believing that he 
would be aided to escape, he was taken 
from jail, put in a boat with provisions, 
and sent out to the Progreso. As he 


~ 405 


406 Popular Science Monthly 


The ship had been sunk on a bar in the 
open roadstead, so that the upper works 
were awash. The surging of the rollers 
and the undertow made it difficult for the 

divers to work or to move about ; 


came alongside he was closely questioned. 
Some of the provisions. were taken 


aboard, among them were a number of__ 


bottles of brandy. Perhaps the brandy 
allayed all suspicions. At all events it 
was decided to hoist on board a hogs- 
head of lard. This was found to be al- 
ready slung. Half way on its upward 
journey it exploded, killing about thirty 
men, wounding nearly the same number, 
and incidentally sinking the Progreso. 
The poor fool in the boat (if he really 
had known what he was doing, his cour- 
age would rank with that of Hobson), 
was taken on the deck of the sinking 
ship and shot with characteristic Mexi- 
can promptness. The <Auzxiliar, an 
ocean-going tug, happened to be near, 
and saved the crew from the sinking 
vessel, 

Five months later a New York salvage 
company was commissioned by the Mex- 
ican government to raise the ship. Ask 
the head of the wrecking expedition how 
the Progreso was salved, and he will an- 
swer: “By a board fence, a few lengths 
of barnyard netting, and a moving-pic- 
ture screen.” In spite of this airy de- 
scription, the undertaking was fraught 
with many difficulties and real danger. 


In the first place 
the surf was 
heavy. The steam- 
er sent down by 
the salvage com- 
pany wallowed 
about seventeen 
days before it 
was possible to 
start work. The 
ship had been 
sunk in the open 
roadstead, but 
upon a bar so that 


were awash. Be- 


sa LLL LL LIAL LS LS LLLLALL IA LLL Lf 


Diagram of the hold of the ship, showing 

the compartment which was filled with 

compressed air to make the steamer rise 
on what was practically a bubble 


fore the wreckers could start to raise her 
it was necessary to seal every opening; 
glass deadlights, hatches and bulkhead 
doors had been blown away. The surg- 
ing of the rollers and the undertow made 
it hard for the divers to work or to main- 
tain their footing. Even at low tide the 
obstacles were formidable, for the surf 
broke about their heads, and the heavy 
diving suits hampered them because they 
were not completely submerged. 


Cages Saved the Divers from Sharks 


Man-eating sharks added to the haz- 
ards of the work; for they were attract- 
ed by the noise of hammering, and had 
to be fought off many times. Even more 
savage than the man-eating sharks was a 


the upper works 


OLR NE RDO PP op ant ING: ote 


AT Bc ae 


‘ 
' 
; 


Popular Science Monthly 


peculiar fish with a cod-like head, called 
tinteraro by the natives. Finally the en- 
gineer hit upon the plan of caging his 
men. Uprights were placed on the four 
corners of the weighted scaffolds upon 
which the divers stood, and wire netting 
was run around the three sides. The 
tinteraros would make a rush for the 
men, but stubbed their noses against the 
netting. Men were always on duty with 
pikes to assist if the cage should give 
way. After nightfall the fish were at- 
tracted by hundreds, and it was feared 
that the combined weight of many of 
them would break the netting. TF ortu- 


nately, it held until the operations were 


Before the wreckers 
could start to raise 
the sunken steamer 
it was necessary to 
seal every opening 


completed. 

cofferdam was 
erected on deck 
to bring the 
space tothesame 
height and to 
facilitate drain- 
ing the sunken 
body of the 
ship. The cof- 
ferdam is the 
above-mentioned 
“board fence,” 
and the motion- 
picture screen 


the ship, made by the explosion. 
of the divers by the derrick on the ship’s deck. The divers placed it 
in position and set the bolts, which were fastened on the inside 


407 


was an eighteen by eighteen-foot canvas 
used inside the hull to close the wound. 
When all the hatches and deck were 
thoroughly sealed compressed’ air was 
turned into the hold, and the water re- 
ceded as the canvas was put. in place. 
After only four days of work the craft 
was towed toward the shore and beached. 
There the- job was completed. 

The steel patches were put on when 
the rent was still below the surface of 
the water, but where the surf could not 
harm her. A template was made to lay 
out the plating, i. e., a full-size pattern 
to show the exact size and shape of the 
hole and the location of any existing 
rivet-holes in the plating which might 
still serve to attach the new plates. The 
plating required was then laid out and 
drillea on deck. 

Meanwhile the sand hogs, working in. 
the compressed air, had driven out the 
rivets in the plating of the ship, where 
the holes would serve for the new plates. 
At certain points they drilled new holes, 
putting a wooden plug in each. The 
steel patch was then lowered section by 
section, by a derrick. Starting at the 
top, these sections were bolted in place 
over the rent. One by one the bolts were 


Lowering the plate into position so as to cover the vent in the side of 


This was done under the direction 


with nuts 


408 


put in from the outside by the divers. 
As the sand-hogs on the inside removed 
the wooden plugs from the rivet holes, 
they also put in the nuts and bolts. In 
the vicinity of the injury, the frames of 
the ship were entirely destroyed, and 
they were supplanted by a new structure 
of heavy timbers. To make all this bolt- 
ing tight, gaskets of red lead and lamp 
wick were used. Also, due to irregular 
contour of the hull plating, in many 
places it was necessary to fill in with 
concrete. Once before this method had 
been utilized, and by the same man, Mr. 
W. W. Wotherspoon, and that was when 
the Royal George went down in the St. 
Lawrence River. 

Thus patched and plugged, the Pro- 
greso was finally pumped dry. She was 
then able to make a sea voyage to Vera 
Cruz under her own steam. After an 
examination it was decided that the 
patches would be allowed to remain as 
they had been placed, until a slight 
amount of work could be done to put 
her into excellent condition while in a 
New York drydock. 

The Progreso is a vessel of fifteen hun- 
dred and sixty-five tons displacement, 
measures two hundred and‘ thirty feet in 
length by thirty-four foot beam, has en- 
gines of 1,380 horsepower, and mounts 
four-inch guns. 

The method by 
which the Pro- 
greso was raised 
is substantially 
the same in prin- 
ciple as that 
used in driving 
tunnels under 
the bed of a riv- 
er. When the 
tunnels under 
the Hudson Riv- 
er were con- 
Spr ier © CO seta 
“shield” was 
driven forward 
by: hydraulic 
jacks. The men 
who dugand 
blasted the earth 
and, rock ,en- 
countered by the 
shield passed 
through air- 


Popular Science Monthly 


locks ; in other words, chambers in which 
air was forced at such high pressure that 
the river water was held back and pre- 
vented from inundating the workmen. 
Some conception of this air pressure may 
be obtained when it is considered that 
during the construction of the Pennsyl- 
vania railway tunnel under the East 
River a man was actually blown up 
through the mud of the river, arriving at 
the surface none the worse for his ex- 
perience. 

It is evident that a kind of air-lock 
was created in the forward hold of the 
Progreso and air at such high pressure 
was forced in that the sea water could 
not push its way in. 


After the 
holes in the 
hull of the 
steamer had 
been patched 
with sheets of 
steel, and the 
forward com- 
partments 
filled with 
compressed 
air, the pow- 
erful salvage 
pumps were 
started, and 
the vessel 
was quickly 
pumped dry 


When the “Progreso’”’ was pumped dry, she was able to steam to 
Vera Cruz, where she was dry-docked and thoroughly examined 


Popular Science Monthly 


A Military Automobile From Fittings 


NE of the most painstaking pieces 

of pipe-fitting work ever exhib- 
ited in this country is a model mili- 
tary automobile built entirely from mal- 
leable and cast iron fittings and so 
admirably put together that 
the wheels are almost per- 
fectly round. The detail, 
even to the smallest parts, 
is very perfect and well 
proportioned. 

The model contains one 
thousand one hundred and 
twenty-nine separate pieces 
and weighs seven hundred 
pounds. It is six feet long 
and two feet and four inch- 
es wide. It was buiit by 
Julius Genor of Bridge- 
port, Conn. 

Although the material of which it 1s 
composed was cheap and easily obtain- 
able, the model represents an immense 
amount of fine machine work. 


A soft-hearted chicken- 
killer is spared the 
sight of blood when the 
fowl is inserted head 
first into this death- 


chamber. The lever 
on top is tearfully 
operated, causing a 


knife to be driven 

through the brain of 

the fowl. Then a blow 

from a pendulum-like 

hammer is regretfully 

delivered at the back 
of the bird’s head 


409 


For Squeamish Fowl-Killers 

NEW and ladylike way to kill 

fowls has been devised by which 
the free flowing and spattering of a 
chicken’s blood after lancing is prevented 
and the unpleasantness of viewing the 


This model military automobile is built entirely of 
malleable and cast iron fittings 


whole sanguinary affair is removed. 

\Vhat to the squeamish is the most dis- 
tressing feature of the poultry business 
—lalling fowls by hand—is eliminated 
by a machine, which does the work with 
accuracy and with a delicacy that must 
appeal to the aesthetic. The fowl is 
considerately suspended by the legs from 
yoke-like leg clamps, with its body and 
head within a tubular casing. In the 
lower portion of this casing is a dainty 
head-holder with a ring, in which the 
bill is inserted. A V-shaped collar is 
pushed into position and tenderly locked 
in place over the front portion of the 
neck of the fowl. The door to the cas- 
ing is then decently closed, shutting the 
fowl from the horrified view. Next a 
lever extending out from’ the casing is 
boldly operated, causing a knife or lance 
to be driven through the brain of the 
fowl. To relieve any doubts that still 
linger a blow from the pendulum-like 
hammer is immediately thereafter de- 
livered at the back of the head of the 
fowl. To relieve any doubts that still 
blood, which is caught in’ a small pan 
below. the head, so that not even the 
machine is soiled. Could respect for 
one’s feelings be carried farther? No 
undertaker can be more considerate. But, 
somehow, the old axe and the chopping 
block seem simpler and just as effective 
to our brutal mind. The fowl is cer- 
tainly rather more tortured before the 
last quick death-blow is delivered. 


410 


This Automobile Signal Takes the 
Place of Your Hand When 
Rounding a Corner 

HROUGHOUT the country it is 
the practice of motorists, when 
they are about to turn a corner, to ex- 


A red disk, raised by pressing a button, 
takes the place of the motorist’s extended 
hand in making a turn 


tend the-arm out of the car at the side 
toward which they intend turning. 
Drivers have learned to look ahead for 
this notice. The unusual signal here 
shown comes nearer to the extended 
arm than anything that has thus far 
made its appearance. 

Upon approaching the corner the 
driver of the car, which is equipped with 
a pair of these signals, simply presses 
a button which is located at the top of 
the body near the side of the seat. As 
this button is pressed it operates a 
mechanism, which in turn swings this 
arm-signal outward from. the side of the 
car so that it may be plainly seen by the 
driver of the machine that is following. 
When the corner has been turned, the 
button is again pressed, this action per- 
mitting the signal to drop down against 
the- side-of the car. This, signal 76 
equipped with a red disk for use dur- 
ing the hours of the day and a tiny elec- 
tric lamp for night driving. 

We are told by experts that seventy- 


Popular Science Monthly 


five per cent of the driver’s steering 
efficiency is lost the moment the arm is 
extended outward from the side of the 
car. By the use of this device the hands 
of the driver are upon the wheel when 
the corner is actually being rounded. 
The arm of this signal is about fourteen 
inches in length, twice the thickness of 
the ordinary lead pencil, and the disk is 
about six inches in diameter. With the 
exception of the. disk and the globe, the 
contrivance is painted black, and every- 
thing except the small lamp is mechani- 
cally operated. The device is the inven- 
tion of W. F. Irwin of Los Angeles, Cal. 


A Safety Wringer-Guard 


S wringer rolls revolve very rapidly 

when operated by an electric motor 
the element of safety to the hands of 
the laundress is important. A new 
wringer-guard has appeared, the in- 
ventor of which has kept this in mind. 
In feeding the clothes into the wringer 
the hands are kept at a safe distance 
by this guard, the opening of which is 
large enough for bulky pieces, like 
blankets. The guard may be attached to 
either side of a reversible wringer. 


= 
= 3 


The need of a guard to prevent injury to 
the fingers in an electric wringer has been 
met by this device 


Popular Science Monthly 


A new British piston ring, built on a new 
principle, for use on motorcycles and light 
automobiles 


A Novel British Piston Ring 


BRITISH piston ring, especially 

adapted to motorcycles and light 
motor cars, has been constructed along 
entirely new lines, shown clearly in the 
accompanying picture. Nothing hereto- 
fore has appeared on the market, which 
even resembles the Gaskell ring, as it is 
called after its inventor. 

The ring is made up from three 
segments, held in place by three plungers, 
inserted in recesses spaced equally round 
the circumference of the piston and 
slotted to receive the ring. They are 
held up to their work by small helical 
springs, which tend to press the rings 
against the inside of the cylinder walls. 
One of the plungers is fitted at the center 
with a small stud, which engages small 
recesses cut in the ends of two ring 
segments. This pin, shown on the left- 
hand side, prevents the ring from turn- 
ing as a whole. The groove in the pis- 
ton is deep, and only one ring is required, 
which is not distorted by being forced 
over the larger head of the cylinder pis- 
ton into the slots. This is an advantage 
which cannot be gainsaid. Compression 
js good and frictional losses small in this 
type of ring. 


CCORDING to the report of the 

Police Commissioner of New York 
the policemen of that city are healthier 
than those of London and healthier than 
the soldiers of the United States Army. 
The average percentage off duty because 
of physical disability was 2.24 for New 
York policemen as against 2.43 per cent 
for enlisted men in our army, and 2.35 
for the London police. 


411 


This Factory Burns “Sauerkraut” 
for Fuel 

WESTERN paper mill uses “sau- 

erkraut” as a fuel for firing its 
boilers. Lovers of this Teutonic delicacy 
need not be alarmed, however, for the 
“sauerkraut” used in this reckless man- 
ner is not to be bought at the corner 
grocery store. This “sauerkraut” is a 
by-product of their pulp mill and looks 
so much like the vegetable that it was 
given that name in the mill. 

The “sauerkraut” of the pulp mill is 
in reality the coarse material that is not 
completely ground up in reducing the 
logs to pulp. It is caught in screens, 
when the ground pulp is floated away 
from the machines, and is dried and de- 
livered to the boiler rooms, where it is 
used for fuel. 


eee ewer ce, 
re | ~ 


A handful of ‘‘ Sauerkraut,’”’? not the real 

thing, but the kind used for fuel. It is 

really wood pulp, the rejected portion of 
a paper mill’s product 


Why Cotton Is Contraband of War 


By Hudson Maxim 


Lee 
a bat 


r. {IIS Pia 
. +4 


#623 


A 46 @ 


j 


Met ids 6 


Cotton: It will make a shirt to hide your 
_ Makedness or blast a subway to make 
transportation easier 


OTTON happens to be the best 
combustible element to combine 
chemically with nitric acid so as 
to produce a high explosive, and also to 
serve as the principal ingredient for the 
manufacture of smokeless powder. 

A bale of cotton may, therefore, be 
considered a bale of guncotton in 
embryo. 

There are many kinds of nitrocellu- 
lose, depending upon the so-called de- 
gree or character of nitration, that is to 
say, upon the way in which it is treated 
with nitric acid and the strength of the 
nitric acid. 

When ordinary cotton is immersed in 
nitric acid, the cotton absorbs oxygen 
from the nitric acid, but not as free 
oxygen, because the oxygen is taken up 
in combination with nitrogen. But the 
weight of the oxygen absorbed is much 
in excess of the weight of nitrogen, the 
nitrogen acting merely as a carrier of 
the oxygen. The appearance of the 
cotton is not changed to any appreciable 


412 


a 


oe aban beth ne. Ge, POE, Poh 


extent, but the weight of the cotton is 
considerably increased. 

The oxygen which the cotton absorbs 
from the nitric acid is sufficient to con- 
sume all of the cotton without atmo- 


spheric air, so that 
when guncotton is 
put in a confined 
space and set on 
fire it explodes 
with great vio- 
lence, producing 
what are called 
carbon dioxide and 
carbon monoxide, 
with free nitrogen 
and steam. 

When the cotton 
is immersed in the 
nitric acid the acid 
takes water out of 
the cotton, which 
dilutes the acid. 
But the cotton gets 
the best of the 
bargain, because 
the weight of oxy- 
gen and nitrogen 
which the cotton 
receives is in ex- 
cess of the weight 
given up by the 
cotton. 

In order to keep 
the nitric acid bath 
strong enough to 
act on the cotton, 
and to minimize 
the acid, it is nec- 
essary to add sul- 
phuric acid to ab- 
sorb the water, and 
t takes about 
three parts sul- 
phuric acid to one 
part of nitric acid 
to make a proper 
mixture for this 
purpose. The sul- 
phuric acid, how- 
ever, has no effect 
whatsoever upon 
the cotton. 


It merely acts to absorb the 
water liberated from the cotton. 

There are several ways in which the 
cotton is treated with the acid mixture. 
The coldest and simplest was merely 


Popular Science Monthly 


413 


to immerse the cotton in the acid, and 


when it was thoroughly nitrated to place 


From the portrait by S. J. Woolf. 


If you want to know how to write poetry 
or blast a subway, lay out a garden or design 
a battleship, ask Hudson Maxim. It is no 
off-hand slap dash opinion that he will give, 
but a well reasoned statement. For Maxim 
believes that everything could be reduced to a 
science, whether it is writing sonnets to your 
lady’s eyebrow or defending the country 
against foreign invasion. 

But Maxim is above all an authority on 
explosives. That is why we asked him to 
write this article for the POPULAR SCIENCE 
MonTHiy. He invented the process of mak- 
ing the multi-perforated smokeless powder 
used by the United States. His Maximite, 
adopted by the United States Government, 
was the first high explosive which could be 
sent through armor plate and burst inside 
of a ship. That achievement in itself was 
enough to make any man famous. But 
then he is also the inventor of Stabilite, a 
powder which we have every reason to regard 
as important because it can be made quickly 
in an emergency. A torpedo invention of 
his, intended to do-away with compressed 
air, has also been bought by the Government. 
Mr. Maxim is a member of the Naval Con- 
sulting Board. 


it in a centrifugal machine and wring 
out the acid and throw it into an excess 
of water to wash out the remainder. 


The way that is 
employed principal- 
ly by the United 
States Navy is to 
do the nitrating in 
a centrifugal ma- 
chine and _ when 
the nitrating is 
complete to set the 
centrifugal ma- 
chine in motion, 
which extracts the 
acid from the ni- 
trocellulose. There- 
upon the nitrocellu- 
lose is quickly and 
thoroughly washed. 

After the wash- 
ing process is com- 
pleted there is a 
quantity of acid 
remaining, and 
also there are con- 
tained in the nitro- 
cellulose certain 
unstable com- 
pounds. These are 
removed by thor- 
oughly boiling the 
nitrocellulose in a 
large excess of 
water. 

After this is done 
the nitrocellulose is 
pulped in an ordi- 
nary pulping ma- 
chine, like that 
used in making pa- 
per pulp. When 
this is thoroughly 
done the finely 
pulped nitrocellu- 
lose is gathered 
and pressed into 
cylinders. It still 
contains a consid- 
erable percentage 


of water, which must be removed in or- 
der to dissolve or gelatinate it as a step 
in converting it into smokeless powder. 

This is done by forcing alcohol under 
pressure through the mass of pulped 


414 


guncotton cake from the top, the water 
beig forced down ahead of the alcohol 
until it is driven entirely out at the bot- 
tom, and alcohol takes the place of the 
water. 

This is called the replacement process, 
and was discovered by Francis G. du 
Pont. It is very important. 

Making cotton contraband of war does 
not prevent the Germans from making 
guncotton from other materials. When 
wood fiber or fiber obtained from grass 


Cotton nitrated and ready to be 

transformed into smokeless powder 

(nitrocellulose). Grains of smoke- 

less powder (nitrocellulose) are per- 

forated so that they can burn inside 

as well as outside, thus controlling 
the rate of gas production 


is treated with nitric acid it also becomes 
a kind of guncotton. The German chem- 
ists are very well able to make their gun- 
cotton, and consequently their gunpow- 
der and high explosives, from the trees 
of the forest. 

But nitric acid also is contraband of 
war. How then are the Germans to get 
their nitric acid? 

Before the outbreak of the European 
War the Germans had anticipated the 
present blockade and prepared for it. 
The German chemists and scientists had 
developed a very practical, very efficient 
and cheap method of producing nitro 
compounds from the air, nitric acid 
among them, by means of the electric 
current. 

I understand that today the Germans 


Popular Science Monthly 


are not only able to make all the nitro 
compounds they need for the purposes 
of explosives, both high explosives and 
smokeless powder, but also what they 
require for fertilizers for the farmers. 

With a nation of scientists, chemists 
and inventors like the Germans, it is 
entirely impossible to stop them from 
producing explosives in any quantity 
they may desire, entirely independent of 
any class of imported materials, be- 
cause although the English may blockade 
the seas they cannot establish a blockade 
between the genius of the German 
scientists and the German govern- 
ment. 

It is very curious how the trials 
of war often result in the most 
beneficial effects upon a nation. 

When the English established 
their famous blockade under their 


Continental system in Napoleon’s time, 
the French were compelled to resort to 
some other means than importation to 


get their sugar. Consequently, they de- 
veloped the sugar beet, and planted it in 
enormous quantities, with the result. that 
France introduced the sugar beet in- 
dustry, which has been of vast im- 
portance to that nation ever since. 
Likewise, the English blockade against 
Germany today is compelling the Ger- 
mans to develop their internal industries 
in a most phenomenal way. They have 
solved the nitric acid problem, and very 
likely they will continue, after the war 
is over, to make their nitric acid and 
other nitro compounds from air. What 
is more, they will probably compete suc- 


cessfully with the natural nitrate of Chile. 


Popular Science Monthly ALS 


If you want to know why cotton is contraband of war this picture will tell you. It 
shows a Russian mine which ran ashore on the Baltic Sea and which the Germans ex- 
ploded. As inall modern mines the charge was composed of a high explosive made by the 
proper chemical treatment of cotton. The war is actually being fought with cotton— 
cotton grown upon the peaceful southern plantations of the United States. So long as 
cotton is obtainable these high explosives can be manufactured in great quantities. Nat- 
urally, the warring countries who can secure unlimited control of the cotton supply make 
themselves just that much more formidable to their enemies. Great Britain watches with 
never-closed eyes every shipload of cotton leaving the United States 


You read of “craters” in the newspapers—great holes produced either by the explosion of 
some huge shell or of some subterranean mine. This is a photograph of a type of crater 


produced by a mine. Surely the men in this war live on the crests of voleanoes—not figura- 
tively, but literally. At any moment the soldiers in the trenches may be blown to atoms 
by mines charged with high explosives made from guncotton. The tremendous expansive 
power of guncotton when exploded, will lift many million times its own weight of matter, 
with a suddenness that prevents any possibility of escape for those who are within its range 


416 


Saving the Asphyxiated with a 
New Air-Pump 


HE man pictured in the photograph 

is being revived by a lungmotor, 
which is a resuscitating machine invent- 
ed by two Chicago men. It competes with 
the pulmotor in the life-saving work of 
the United States Bureau of Mines, and 
is being adopted by hospitals, fire com- 
panies and life-saving stations. Its use- 
fulness extends to cases of poisoning by 


A new resuscitating machine has been invented which 
so nicely meets any requirements that it can be operated 
in a rocking boat or a swaying ambulance 


gases and fumes, mining accidents, elec- 
tric shock, the rescue of persons appar- 
ently drowned or overcome by the smoke 
of fires, cases of collapse through exces- 
sive anesthesi@and the rescue of infants 
asphyxiated at birth. 

The device has two independent air 
cylinders, the pistons of both of which 
are attached to and operated by one han- 
dle. Air is drawn into the inspiration 
cylinder on the upstroke. On the down 
stroke it is compressed and _ forced 
through an outlet-valve into the metal 
inspiration-tube and thence through the 
face mask into the mouth and to the 
lung. When the lung has been expand- 
ed until full, its natural resilience will 


Popular Science Monthly 


assert itself, and expel the air into the 
expiration cylinder of the lungmotor. 
Suction action is avoided. 

The lungmotor introduces a small vol- 
ume of air at a time, and keeps a full 
volume of air in the lung. The natural 
resilience of the lung comes into opera- 
tion as a safety-valve in forcing out ex- 
cessive air and obviating the dangers 
that attend the introduction of too great 
a volume of air, which would cause ob- 
struction to the flow of blood to the lung 
and prove disastrous to the 
patient. 

The appliance has a very 
delicate pump-regulating 
mechanism. A device for 
limiting the degrees of pres- 
sure within the lungs of the 
patient is combined with 
mechanism for controlling 
the supply of air—or of 
oxygen if oxygen is em- 
ployed, as it may be. This 
minimizes the possibility of 
injury to the delicate struc- 
ture of the lungs through 
abnormal pressures. A num- 
ber of stops are located at 
different positions on the 
piston-rod. These serve to 
limit movement of the pis- 
ton to be reciprocated. It 
is, of course, necessary to 
regulate the operation of the 
device so as to force much 
more air into the lungs of 
an adult person than would 
be used in the case of a child. 

A limiting valve is interposed in a 
tube that leads from the inspiration cyl- 
inder or pump to the mouthpiece applied 
to the patient. This limiting valve regu- 
lates the amount of air or oxygen deliv- 
ered to the mouthpiece and thus protects 
the patient’s lungs against pressure of the 
air from the machine. This feature. of 
the device is important because of the 
hurry and confusion that is likely to exist 
where a patient has collapsed. It may 
be noted in concluding that the device 
can be operated in a rocking boat, a sway- 
ing ambulance, or while the patient is 
being carried on a stretcher. An oxygen 
generator can be connected with the ma- 
chine when needed. 


PRG aces 


ete ae 


_— 


Popular Sctence Monthly 417 


Is This Actual Color Photography 
at Last? 


INCE the discovery of the won- 

ders of the camera a hundred 
years ago, the instrument has done 
some marvelous work, but it has al- 
ways been regarded as incomplete in 
that it was not capable of producing 
a print in which the colors of nature 
would appear. Some few years ago 
the greatest step in this direction was 
made by Frederick E. Ives, of Phila- 
delphia, who succeeded in get- 
ting three impressions on glass 
and, when superposed and 
backed by a light, these three, 
each of a different color, 
blended together so that all the 


COURSE OF BLUE SENSITIVE 
PLATE \ 


COATED SIDE IN CONTACT ] 


GREEN SENSITIVE 
RED SENSITIVE 
PLATE HOLDER 
PRESSURE SPRING 


and the other two are made on film 
which has been sensitized with bichro- 
mate of potash, which makes an im- 
age slightly in relief. The film which 
was made under a red screen is dyed 
red and that which was made under 
the yellow screen is dyed yellow and 
then the three are held together, with 
the blue print on the bottom. When 
they are properly registered the colors 
are blended together and a perfect pic- 
ture in real color is presented. After 


tints of nature were repro- 
duced accurately. This trio 
could be placed in a lantern and 
the picture projected in all its 
glory of color on the screen. 
Utilizing the same principle it 


REFLECTOR 


SPRING TO THROW 
BLUE PLATE 


BLUE SENSITIVE PLATE 


The principles of construction of a camera which 
exposes three plates simultaneously. From them a 
photograph in natural colors can be made 


was found possible to make ex- 

cellent press prints in color, but a photo- 
graphic print in color was not achieved 
until recently, when Mr. Ives succeeded 
in devising a new camera by which it is 
possible to deliver a picture, entirely the 
product of the camera, in which are 
shown all the tints and colors of the 
original object or model. 

The invention consists primarily of 
an arrangement by which three plates 
are exposed in the camera at the same 
instant and each one under a screen 
which sifts out all the rays except 
those desired. For instance, one plate 
takes a record of all the yellow rays, 
another the red rays and the third the 
blue rays. These plates are developed 
in the same manner as the usual photo- 
graphic plates (differing only in the fact 
that they are extremely sensitive to 
color); then a print is made from each 
negative, a special printing frame being 
resorted to by which the three prints are 
made simultaneously. One of these prints 
is made on a piece of blue print paper, 


being secured at one edge, these sheets 
are given a chemical bath and then 
pressed together so that they form 
one piece. The process is no more com- 
plex than that of making an ordinary 
photograph. There are a few more op- 
erations which are more than com- 
pensated for by the beautiful results 
obtained. 


A Brazilian Snake Farm 


NE of the queerest farms in the 

world is the snake farm at Butan- 
tan, in the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil, 
where thousands of poisonous snakes of 
all varieties are kept in captivity. The 
venom is removed from these reptiles 
and injected into the veins of a number 
of young horses kept for that purpose. 
Thousands of tubes of serum are dis- 
tributed from this institution every year, 
and much has been done to reduce the 
high mortality rate resulting from snake- 
bites. 


If you want further information about the subjects which are taken up in 
the Popular Science Monthly, write to our Readers’ Service Department. We 
will gladly furnish, free of charge, names of manufacturers of devices described 


and illustrated. 


418 


A Movable Storehouse Elevator 


N many industries which require the 
storage and removal of heavy bales, 
boxes or casks the employment of sta- 
tionary elevators is impracticable. This 
is the case in tobacco warehouses, in 
chemical factories and in storehouses for 
various raw materials, contained in pack- 


Boxes and bales for storage are easily 
handled by two men with this simple 
movable elevator 


ages half a ton in weight and a cubic 
yard in bulk, must be handled. As the 
bales are usually piled up four deep, the 
‘work of storage, if done by hand labor, 
is very fatiguing. 

The Zeitschrift des Vereins deutscher 
Ingenieure says that a movable elevator 
has been devised by W. Dahlheim, which 
has given satisfaction in the establish- 
ments that have already adopted it. The 
apparatus consists of a wrought-iron 
skeleton tower having an inclincd front, 
which forms the runway for the plat- 
form on which the load is placed. The 
loaded platform is hoisted by means of 
a hand-winch, so constructed that the 
platform remains stationary when the 
handle is released and descends gently 
with uniform speed when the handle is 
pressed backward. There are no separ- 
ate brakes or catches to operate and ev- 
erything is done with the winch handle. 
The work is so light that one man can 


Popular Science Monthly 


raise an average load of 500 pounds to 
a height of twelve feet in one minute. 

The elevator is mounted on two large 
wheels, at the back, and two small steer- 
ing wheels in front. When it is to be 
moved to a distant part of the establish- 
ment, it is tipped backward on its large 
wheels and moved like a hand truck. 
The loaded elevator can be tipped with- 
out disturbing the load and can be moved 
through low doorways, while its small 
width (about thirty inches), allows it to 
traverse narrow passages. The vertical 
back of the elevator may be constructed 
in the form of a ladder, by which the 
pile of goods can be climbed. The floor 
of the platform is composed of a smooth, 
iron plate, for bales, or a number of’ 
small rollers, for boxes. It can be load- 
ed and unloaded either from the front 
or the side. 

The field of this device is not restrict- 
ed to storehouses. It may be utilized in 
the erection of buildings, for loading 
heavy articles on trucks or railway cars, 
and in various other ways. Its economy - 
in operation is evident from the fact 
that for average loads it requires the 
service of only three men—one to load, 
one to unload, and one to hoist. 


Why Do We Have Two Eyes? 


ECAUSE we have two eyes the things 

we see seem solid and not flat, with 
the result that we can judge their distance 
from us with fair correctness. Look 
through a window at a house across the 
street with one eye closed and then with 
the other eye closed. The bars of the win- 
dow frame will cut across the opposite 
house in different places. The two fields 
seen with the eyes separately although in 
the main alike, differ. When you look at 
the house with both eyes open the two 
fields seen by the two eyes are combined 
and the house across the street assumes 
depth and relief. Although we see a house 
with each eye we see only one house with 
both eyes. This makes the stereoscope 
possible—an instrument so designed that 
the two eyes are made to converge on a 
single point and yet to see two different 
pictures. If these two pictures repre- 
sent a chair as it would appear to the 
right and left eyes respectively, they 
are perceived as one solid object. 


Popular Science Monthly 


Why Is the Sky Blue? 


Sunlight, which we call white, is com- 
posed of light rays of different colors— 
red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo 
and violet. It can be broken up into its 
constituent colors in various 
ways. If it passes through a 
transparent prism (like the crys- 
tals that hang from a chande- 
lier) or if it falls on a suriace 
which has almost invisibly mi- 
nute irregularities (like mother- 
of-pearl or the wing of a butter- 
fly) we see the rays into which 
sunlight has been separated. 
These phenomena are observed 
when light is not absorbed. 

Hold a piece of red glass in 
front of a flame and we see only 
red. Rays of all other colors 
have been absorbed. The natu- 
ral colors of the objects we see 
about us, leaves, flowers, books 
and chairs, depend upon absorp- 
tion. A green leaf throws back 
chiefly green rays; the rest are absorbed. 
So, the natural color of everything in 
nature is the unabsorbed residue from 
full white light. There is no such thing 
as color by itself. 

A swarm of minute particles, scattered 
in the path of white light, will break it 
up, like the surface of mother-of-pearl. 
If the particles happen to be of just the 
right size and the spaces between them 
just the right distance, they will absorb 
rays of one color only and throw off the 
rest. The atmosphere is filled with 
countless dust particles, and their size 
and spacing is such that they scatter 
rays which we call sky blue. Nearer the 
horizon, larger particles turn the blue 
into white; this happens above a dusty 
town and when mists or clouds hang 
above us. All that is left of white sun- 
light, after passing through many miles 
of blue-scattering air, appears in the 
hues of sunset. The size and spacing of 
dust particles as well as the angle at 
which sunlight strikes them, determines 
the color of the sky. 

On the moon where there is no atmos- 
phere and no dust, the sky is jet black 
at noon. The sun appears as a vividly 
glowing disk in an inky canopy. That 
is also true of the vast space which 
exists between the stars. 


419 


A Stairway Which Is Also a Door 
N order to construct a stairway be- 
tween floors in a limited space, a 

swinging stairway has been developed 

which does away with the usual double- 


A stairway which has a hinged door section, 
by which the cellar or the upper floor can 
be reached with equal facility 


width landing. The stairs are built with 
a hinge half way between the upper 
floor and the landing, the landing being 
half way between floors. The. stairs 
from the landing to the floor are built 
directly beneath the others. A person 
descending, stops at the landing to dis- 
engage a small catch. The released 
catch allows the lower portion of the 
hinged stairs to fold upwards, so that 
the person passes underneath them to 
the lower staircase. A heavy weight 
makes it easy to lift the stairs when the 
catch is released. 


The tea-wagon has now been adapted to 


the kitchen. The dinner dishes are all 
handled at the same time 


A Folding Service-Wagon 


REAL labor-saver for the house- 
keeper is a wheeled service-wagon. 
A helpful new one has two oblong trays 
with raised rims to prevent dishes from 
sliding off. The upper one is approxi- 
mately table height, the lower forms a 
supplementary shelf beneath. In one 
trip, breakfast or luncheon for the fam- 
ily can be taken to the dining-room. 
The wagon is mounted upon two large 
rubber-tired wheels with two small 
nickel-plated ones in the rear. Placed be- 
side the wife at the dining table, it can 
be used without rising to exchange the 
soiled dishes of the first course for the 
fresh food of the second. After the meal 
the soiled dishes are wheeled in one trip 
to the kitchen. Rolled close to the sink, 
the wagon receives the clean dishes as 
dried and returns them to the china- 
closet. When not in use it folds up com- 
pactly and can be stored in a closet or 
pantry. It is equally serviceable to re- 
ceive clean ironed clothes and to distrib- 
ute them over the house, or to serve as 
a sewing and mending table. 


Popular Science Monthly 


A Dust-Collecting Window-Ventilator 


N order that the air brought into a 
room for ventilating purposes shall 

be as free as possible trom dust, a fil- 
tering box has been developed, which, 
attached to the window frame, allows 
only cleansed air to enter. The box pro- 
jects some distance beyond the outside 
wall, so that the air currents will be suf- 
ficiently strong to force their way 
through the layers of filtering material, 
into the room. 

Sheet metal walls are arranged in the 
box in a zig-zag fashion, half of them 
attached to the top and half to the bot- 
tom; the air must pass repeatedly up 
and down. The walls are perforated at 
their outer edges. A strip of cloth is 
passed between the projecting edges of 
the plates. Because of the staggered 
arrangement of the plates, this ventilator 
acts in the incidental capacity of a sound 
muffler. When in position it occupies a 
very small space; and the amount of air 
admitted can be controlled by a small 
sliding shutter. | 


F the two hundred and four cities 

in the United States of over thirty 
thousand inhabitants, one hundred and 
fifty-five have municipally owned water- 
supply systems, the total value of which 
is one billion, seventy-one million dollars. 


A window ventilator which eliminates 
dust as well as drafts 


If you want further information about the subjects which are taken up in 


the Popular Science Monthly, write to our Readers’ Service Department. 


We 


will gladly furnish free of charge, names of manufacturers of devices described 


and illustrated. 


Popular Science Monthly 


An Elevated Road Which Tried to 
Outstrip a Town 


NTERESTING bits of history some- 

times lie behind big projects—the 
motives that inspired the undertakings, 
the difficulties that were encountered in 
the promotion of the work and various 
other things that either record success 
or failure. 

In Sioux City in 1890 was built the 
third elevated railway in the United 
States. Also Sioux City is said by many 
to have had the first electrical elevated 
railroad in the United States. 


421 


night. The elevated railroad was one of 
the “boom” products. Like other pro- 
jects it fell during the panic of 1893. 
But unlike numerous other undertakings 
of magnitude it was not abandoned after 
the crash, which blighted the dreams of 
hundreds of men, although at that time 
it went into the hands of a receiver. 
The men who built it believed, of 
course, that it would be used permanent- 
ly. The suburb could have been reached | 
as well by surface lines as now—but the 
purpose was to shorten the distance by 
building an elevated line which would 


What remains in Sioux City, Iowa, of the elevated railroad that cost more to build than 
the suburb it served was worth. The railroad actually ran during the ‘‘boom”’ days of the 
80’s, but Sioux City, with thirty thousand inhabitants, finally decided she did not need it 


It was not necessity that prompted the 
building of an elevated railway in Sioux 
City; it was the desire to develop farm 
land into a suburb of what was destined 
some day to be the great commercial cen- 
ter of the west. The company collapsed 
a few years later, but endured long 
enough to accomplish its one aim—to 
convert a strip of farm land into a 
suburb. 

In reality Sioux City grew during the 
years of 1880 and 1893 to a size far out 
of proportion to the development of its 
trade territory. The slogan appeared to 
be: “Build the city first!” instead of per- 
mitting the city to expand as the indus- 
tries of agriculture and cattle-raising 
expanded. 

Sioux City was in the midst of a 
“boom” between the years of 1880 and 
1893. Buildings sprang up within a 


obviate all railroad crossings. 

The elevated road, proper, was about 
two miles in length. To this was added 
about three miles of surface lines. The 
cost of construction for the five miles 
of railway was $586,000. 

On December 7, 1889, the contract for 
construction work was awarded.  Fin- 
ished within a period of six months, it 
was used as a steam road until May 5, 
1893, when one of the builders and in- 
corporators was appointed receiver. No 
reverses of importance were experienced 
by those who financed the work or the 
construction company. In the rush ev- 
erything apparently was forgotten. When 
the panic was precipitated the bonding 
companies realized their mistake. There 
had been no demand for such a road in 
a city that contained only about thirty 
thousand inhabitants. 


Delia the Motor Duck 


HOUSANDS of. bathers 
at a famous beach near 
San Francisco were re- 
cently astonished to see a rakish- 
looking automobile drive down 
the beach and into the water. 
Instead of immediately disap- 
pearing beneath the waves, the 
automoble rode _ high 
over the swells, and still 
moving rapidly, took a 
short cruise around the 
harbor, after which it 
came ashore and disap- 
peared as suddenly as it 
had appeared. 


If you owned “‘Delia’”’ and you came to a stream 

you would plunge boldly in and swim with the aid 

of the propeller to the opposite shore. Then you 

would climb the bank and ride on wheels over 
roads again 


A closer inspection of this remarkable 
machine reveals the fact that it has a 
boat body, through which project the 
automobile wheels. When used as a 
boat the power is transferred from the 
driving wheels to a propeller in the stern, 
and the steering wheel actuates the rud- 
der instead of the front wheels. 

Water is prevented from entering the 
body at the points where the axles pro- 


422 


Popular Science Monthly 


ject through the sides by the same meth- 
od of packing that is ordinarily used at 
the propeller shaft. The hull, or body, 
is hung on large steel springs, similar to 
those used on stock automobile bodies. 
These springs, as may be 
seen in the illustrations, are 
not exposed, but are con- 
tained within the hull with 
the rest of the mechanism, 
and are protected from all 
dust, grit and water. The 
sides of the boat-automobile 
are high enough to prevent 
the shipping of water, but 
the machine is not designed 
to be operated in rough 
weather. 

The hydro-motor car rides 
well in the water, and is able 
to attain a speed of about 
ten miles an hour. 

This hy dro-motor has 
proved so successful that its 
inventor, Michael de Cosmo, 
of San Francisco, is design- 
ing a new model which he 
expects to exhibit in_ the 
near future. Several 1m- 
provements suggested dur- 
ing the experiments with 
Delia,” will be made soon. 


Baking a Railroad Car to Dry 
the Paint 
HE repainting of thousands of 
passenger and freight cars presents 
a big problem for the average railroad. 
It also represents a large expense, which 
the roads are trying to cut down by in- 
creasing the durability of the paints and 
shortening the time that cars must be 
kept out of service during the process. 
It is the aim of practically every road 
to keep its cars in continual use, where- 
ever possible. 

Very recently the Pennsylvania Rail- 
road established a test department, for 
the purpose of speeding up the work of 
inspection and repairs and thereby re- 
ducing the loss due to idle cars. One 
problem that had engaged the attention 
of the railroad officials was that of re- 
ducing the time required for drying a 
car after painting. Their experience, 
however, with quick-drying paints had 


It formerly took 
weeks to paint and 
dry a railway car. 
With this oven it 
can be done in as 
many days 


423 


not been satisfactory, as they proved less 
durable than those requiring two days or 
more to dry. 

This led to experiments in baking the 
slow-drying 


aints, and for that purpose 


the railroad recently constructed a mam- 
moth baking oven at Altoona, Pa. It 
is large enough to accommodate cars of 
almost any length. With the car well 
inside, the doors are closed and the tem- 
perature is raised above the boiling point 
of water. The paint is completely dry 
and hard and the car ready for service 
in about three hours. 

The saving of time by this process has 
been very marked. It has reduced by 
ninety-five per cent. the time usually re- 
quired for drying cars by the old method 
and has cut in half the time a car is 
held out of service during repainting. 
Besides, the artifically dried paint is 
claimed to be much more durable than 
that dried in the open air. 


4.24 Popular Science Monthly 


BATTLE SHIPS 


TOR PEDO CONTROL 
SE. CELLS 


ORIENTATOR FOR TORPEDO DIRECTOR 


As a human being, you have the power of running toward the thing that you see. You have eyes 
—organs sensitive to light. Suppose a torpedo had eyes. Suppose that it were given the power 


A Torpedo with Eyes 


By Walter Bannard 


torpedoes that obey the orders of a 
single master; torpedoes that heed 
faithfully the wish of an operator ex- 
pressed through a simple directing ap- 
paratus ; torpedoes that can be projected 
six or eight miles through the water, be- 
ing constantly under the control of the 
man and his machine on shore; in a 
word, torpedoes which carry out the in- 
tention of one man to destroy an oncom- 
ing vessel of tlie enemy. This torpedo 
would simply be the projection mechan- 
ically, of this man’s will to destroy that 
vessel. 
Theoretically, we have the materials 


Bs forse we have at our command 


at hand to render this achievement pos- 
sible. In fact, the “‘light-directed tor- 
pedo,” as it is called, is virtually on the 
threshold of reality, but it has not yet 
crossed the threshold. This delay is 
caused by the present unreliability of a 
chemical substance, selenium, and it is 
upon selenium that the eventual success 
of the light-directed torpedo depends. In 
an article on the Hammond electric dog, 
appearing elsewhere in this issue, will 
be found an explanation of the way in 
which selenium does the work. 

A boat has been directed wirelessly 
from shore—most all of us have read of 
that—and a boat can be directed by wire- 


a ee ee ee 


rs. 


"Neat 


Ce ee ee a ee ee 


“Gs 


Popular Science Monthly 


425 


either of running toward the thing it sees, or of fleeing fromit. That is the basic idea of the weapon 
here pictured. Itsmovementsare absolutely controlled by the beam that comes from a searchlight 


less from shore now; can be made to 
stop, start, stop and swerve to right and 
left. Nevertheless, the secret of a re- 
liable, light-controlled torpedo — for 
light-rays are more desirable than wire- 
less—has not yet been entirely solved. 

John Hayes Hammond, Jr., who has 
been widely heralded for his wireless ex- 
periments, joined hands not long ago 
with B. F. Meissner, an electrical engi- 
neering student of Purdue University, 
and together they designed and con- 
structed an ingenious mechanism on 
wheels that would trail after a pocket 
lamp held before its selenium eyes in a 
most uncanny way. Using this same 
principle, a torpedo with selenium eyes 
that will follow the directions of light 
trays from shore, will eventually be de- 
veloped; soon, it is to be hoped. 

There have been two big obstacles to 


prevent the evolution of a controllable 


torpedo: 

One is the lack of a suitable appa- 
ratus for transmitting sufficient light 
to control the mechanism at useful dis- 
tances; the other is to accomplish the 
directing without interference from the 
enemy’s ship. The solution of the prob- 
lem demands a more scientific knowledge 
of selenium and its chemical properties. 

Suppose that day had come and a hos- 
tile ship was booming into the harbor of 
New York, grimly determined to scatter 
our fair buildings to the four winds. 

“Sic!” says the man on shore. 

Almost with human intelligence, the 
glistening steel cylinder darts out to- 
wards the enemy, at a forty-mile-an-hour 
clip. Though at present such an occur- 
rence is only a fancy, it may become 
a reality. 


The Electric Dog 


Obeys 


HE electrical dog, which Mr. John 
Hays Einesieataindl jr.,;. amd) 1 de- 
signed, and which has received 

much publicity, has no tail to wag and 
no voice to bark with, but he can follow 
a person about in a most surprising way. 

Like the sunflower that follows the 
sun in its path across the heavens, my 
first apparatus was capable of turning 
itself ae to face the object that stimu- 
lated it. But a great difficulty had to 
be overcome. The stimulant was light, 
and sometimes the dog saw too much 
light, so that he behav ed occasionally in 
an astonishingly erratic manner. 

Just how grave a difficulty this dis- 
obedience really is, was illustrated by an 
amusing incident during a demonstration 
at a Chicago theater. 

The dog was ready to spring into ac- 
tion, but when the stage was lighted, in- 
stead of obeying the “flashlight held in 
my hands, the dog insisted on paying at- 
tention to a very alluring but not thickly 
clothed young woman painted on the 
scenery near by. It seems that the re- 
flected light from the painting was 
sufficiently brilliant to compete with the 
flashlight and to cause the dog to creep 
to this fairer attraction with a directness 
which was almost uncanny. 

To all practical intents and purposes, 


and How He 


His Flashlamp Master 


By B. F. Meissner 


The electric dog and its master. A pocket flashlight is the magic 
wand which it obeys 


the electrical dog is a dead dog until ex- 
cited by an external light ray—usually a 
pocket flashlight, held in the hand. Fas- 
tened to the front of a squat, oblong box 
on three roller-like wheels, are two great 
lenses, much out of proportion to the 
rest of the dog’s make-up. These are the 
eyes through which the dog receives his 
intelligence. Behind the lenses are two 
extremely sensitive cells containing the 
black, wax-like selenium. Because of the 
importance of this substance in the dog’s 
behavior, the mechanical animal has re- 
ceived its nick-name, “Seleno.”’ <A _ pe- 
culiarity of selenium is that it is sensi- 
tive only to light rays; or, to put the 
facts a little more technically, selenium is 
a non-conductor of electric currents un- 
til it is struck by light, when it becomes 
a conductor. Located behind the selen- 
ium eyes is an arrangement of relays, 
batteries, magnets and a motor. Whena 
beam of light strikes one of the selenium 
cells, it causes a relay to be operated 
which, in turn, causes current to flow 
through one of the magnets controlling 
the steering wheel. The driving motor 
starts, and the dog is under way. Shift 
the light so that it strikes the other selen- 
ium eye and the dog moves in the other 
direction. In other words, in whichever 
direction the light travels, there, also, 


4.26 


eee ae ee Oe ae 


— 


nae Pg 


will the dog go. By reversing a switch 
on the outside of the box, the dog can 


be made to back away from 


Illuminating both cells equally causes 
the dog to move in a straight line. 


The electrical dog will 
never become a common 
household toy. It has taken 
years of scientific study and 
endeavor to perfect, and it 
requires ripe technical knowl- 
- edge to understand clearly. 
However, for the benefit of 
the reader who possesses 
more than an average amount 
of scientific and_ technical 
knowledge, a detailed descrip- 
tion of the electrial dog is 
given in the following lines: 

The mechanism involved in 
the successful performance of 
the electrical dog 
is so complicated 
and delicate in its 
nature that it is 
doubtful if many 
experimentors will 
care to attempt its 
construction. Few 
dimensions are 
given, because the 
materials naturally 
convenient to the 
builder have an 
important bearing 
upon even the 
most detailed parts 
of the apparatus. 
T he dimensions, 
together with the 
construction in 
general, are largely 
a matter to be de- 
termined by the 


CONDEN ; 


pamie o 


Popular Science Monthly 


the light. 


mt 


i 


SCREEN 


SELENIUM CELLS 


427 


ployed in lectures and demonstrations 
before various engineering societies and 
gatherings of all kinds. 

Beginning outwardly, the electrical 
dog has these three dimensions: Length, 


three feet; height, one foot; 

width, one and one-half feet. 

A small shelf projects from 

the bottom of the box to- 

wards the front.. This is 

sawed or whittled almost to a 

point,and a metal plate erected 

extending four or five inches 

outwards from a line drawn 

exactly between the lenses. 

The plate is there to prevent 

light from going into one 

lens when it is intended for 

the other. 

The selenium cells should 

be selected with great care, 

‘and will cost from five dol- 
lars apiece, up- 
wards. The cells 
are of as low a re- 
sistance as pos- 
sible, this — resist- 
ance being at the 
same time consist- 
ent with a high re- 
sistance ratio be- 
tween light and 
darkness. Putting 
this thought into 
concrete figures, 
cells with a resist- 
ance of from one 
thousand to one 
hundred thousand 
ohms normal or 
‘*dark’’ resistance 
are the best. The 
resistance of the 
cell in the dark 


builder’s individual ie prea at 9 ec should be at least 
ingenuity. The lees. ll three. timése cas 
general construc- oa - great as its resist- 


tion details sup- 
plied here were 


SOLENOIDS 


PIVOT 


ance in sunlight. I 
have used cells of 


embodied in the pie dee | sixty thousand 
electrical dog, or : cao deere ohms resistance, 
orientation f Diagram showing the electrical ap- ad i diikoe tiaeine 

see 5 mecn- paratus used in the construction of the a ey gave 
anism, that Mr. Hammond Meissner Orientation Mech- good results with 


John Hays Ham- 
mond, Jr., and I 
constructed, an d 
which I have em- 


anism, or Electric Dog. Rays of light 
striking the selenium cells cause the 
motor and steering magnets to be oper- 
ated. The light in the position here shown 
causes the dog to go in a straight line 


batteries of fifteen 
or twenty dry 
cells. Since the 
current amounts to 


428 


only a few thousandths of an ampere, 
small flashlight batteries may be em- 
ployed. The selenium cells should be 
capable of carrying at least two or three 
milli-amperes without heating. 

The next and probably the most deli- 
cate step in the entire construction is 
the ultra-sensitive relay that is placed in 
circuit with each selenium cell. These 
should operate reliably on a change in 
current strength of as little as twenty- 
five millionths of one ampere. - 

The finest of polarized relays, such as 
those devised 


AGATE : 

= US : for use with 
Wf \\ coherers in the 
\\ early stages of 
wireless _ tele- 
pa graphy, require 
an operating 

SELENIUM CELLS 
: cure mt ot at 
BoTH CLOSED least five hun- 
> a dred microam- 
peres; -of” ‘one- 
half a milli-am- 
ston age — Fon onentty ITCH jae e : the most 
ae sensitive galvan- 
onieter relay 
«4 With solid con- 
Jue tacts, Wequines 
about two hun- 
dred microam- 
peres. These 
values are for 


conditions of jar 
and_ vibration 
such as_ those 
which naturally 
exist in the elec- 
trical dog. The 
relays that I use are the most sensitive of 
the pivoted, galvanometer type; but in- 
stead of having two solid contacts of plat- 
inum, one is made of platinum with a 
needle point, and the other is a globule of 
mercury, an arrangement which requires 
a very small contact pressure for reliable 
operation under vibration. 

A drop of light oil over the mercury 
prevents oxidation. This contact, how- 
ever, cannot break currents in excess of 
a few milliamperes and should therefore 
be used in conjunction with relays of the 
telegraph type, which are capable of 
handling the currents required in the 
motor and solenoid circuits. Less sen- 
sitive instruments cannot be used unless 


TURNING MOTOR 
Diagram of 
the electrical 

connections 


_thirty-ampere-hour cells. 


Popular Science Monthly 


the source of light be very powerful. 
The sensitiveness of this arrangement is 
so high that a dog can be operated with 
ease from a distance of twenty feet with 
a pocket flashlight. 

The pony relays indicated in the dia- 
gram are ordinary telegraph relays of 
twenty ohms resistance, provided with a 
special pair of back contacts, which are 
always closed when the relay is not en- 
ergized. 

The motor is a ten-volt battery motor 
of the largest size obtainable (about fif- 
ty watts). Its source of power should 
be a storage battery, which also supplies 
the solenoids. In my apparatus this bat- 
tery was composed of four four-volt, 
They should 
be as small and as light in weight as 
possible. 

The solenoids are approximately five: 
inches long and three inches in diameter, 
with cores three-fourths of an inch in 
diameter. Of the iron-clad type, they are 
wound with number sixteen magnet 
wire, and have cone-shaped pole faces, 
the air gap being inside the coil near 
the middle; the stroke is about one-half 
inch from the central position. Their 
purpose is to turn the steering wheel. 

The core, which extends from one 
solenoid to the other, is maintained in 
the central position when both the sole- 
noids are energized. 

The single rear wheel is mounted on 
ball bearings in the horizontal plane to 
facilitate turning by the steering mag- 
nets. 

The reversing switches, by means of 
which the dog can be made to back 
away from the light, instead of being at- 
tracted to it, are not shown in the dia- 
grams as they would introduce an un- 
necessary amount of complication. Their 
purpose is to reverse the connections of 
the two solenoids. 

The driving motor is connected to the 
shaft of the two forward wheels through 
a worm-wheel reduction, and a differ- 
ential gear box, such as those on auto- 
mobiles. 

The adjustment of the parts of the 
dog is sometimes a rather difficult task, 
particularly when other sources of illum- 
ination besides the flashlight are en- 
countered. If used in a room with win- 
dows through which daylight passes it 


Popular Science Monthly 429 


MOTOR 


STORAGE BATTERY 
_ “f 
%. 


PONY RELAYS — 
DRY BATTERY 


e 


© STEERING WHEEL 


A perspective view of the dog showing his internal mechanism. In the insert, a diagram 
showing the construction of the steering solenoids 


may suddenly refuse all the inducements 
offered by the master with his pocket 


fiashlight and turn his entire 
attention to the pursuit of 
the window. 

The principal adjustment 
is that of equal sensitiveness 
of both selenium-cell-relay 
units. It is practically im- 
possible to obtain two selen- 
ium cells having equal 
resistances and equal sensi- 
tiveness, and therefore dif- 
ferent applied voltages and 
different tensions in the back 
springs of the relays are 
necessary, in order that both 
will operate at the same in- 
stant when influenced by 
the attracting light, and that 
both will release at the same 
instant when the light is ex- 
tinguished, or when it be- 
comes too weak to effect 
operation. 

With selenium cells made 
sensitive only to definite 
colors or wavelengths of 
light, it is possible to make 
the dog back away with one 
light and be attracted by an- 
other. Cells can be given a 


O 


LIGHT 


A simplified dia- 
gram illustrating 
the principle of the 
dog’s construction 


certain amount of inherent color sensi- 
tiveness, but this is best secured by 


means of ray filters which 
allow’ only definite wave- 
lengths to pass. Another 
means of making the dog 
sensitive to only one source 
of light is to cause that light 
to be interrupted by means 
of some form of shutter, in 
conjunction with selective 
elements on the dog which 
will not allow the sensitive 
relays to be closed unless the 
fluctuations in the trans- 
mitted light correspond ex- 
actly with the frequency of 
the selective element. 

It is obvious that if we 
make the dog a boat instead 
of a wheeled vehicle, and if 
we provide the boat with a 
forward compartment filled 
with gun cotton, we would 
have a torpedo of the kind 
described and pictured else- 
where in this issue. A 
searchlight on board a ship 
would serve to guide the tor- 
pedo on its course of destruc- 
tion through the water. 


A Medley of Puzzles 


By Sam Loyd 


We asked the puzsle man to prepare for our readers a variety of his 
popular problems—mechanical, mathematical and otherwise. 

Here we have his first offering. 

Let us put on our thinking caps and see who can unravel his interesting 
posers.—Editor. | 


pe 


The problem of the presidential dark horse 


The Presidential Puzzle 
A political prophet says that only six 
of the presidential possibilities are to be 
“the running,” 
“dark horse” 


considered in 
eventually a 
the winner. 


In the illustration we see his idea pre- 
sented in checker-board puzzle form, wise. 


with the six likely 
candidates deployed 
for the contest and 
the ~ dark horse” 
standing on square 
No. 15. The puzzle 
is to show how the 
candidate F may, in 
a series of jumps, 
make his way to the 
White House on 
Square 5, his oppo- 
nents being eliminated 
in the process. Here 
are the conditions: 


and that, 
will come in 


WN 


Puzzling Kugelspiel (see page 431) 


Li 
“ 


————_} 


st 


My 


Jump the men in any order you wish, 
a jump meaning that a candidate hops 
over another on an adjoining square to 
the square beyond. 

A candidate hopped over is at once 


removed from the field. 


Prizes for the Clever Ones 


If you can solve one or more of the 
problems write out your answers and 
send by post not later than March 
tenth to SAM LOYD, care of the 
Popular Science Monthly, 239 Fourth 
Ave., New York City. 


To each of the ten persons who send 
the best answers to the puzzles will be 
awarded acopy of Sam Loyd’s Cyclo- 
pedia of 5000 Puzzles, Games, Tricks 
and Conundrums,”’ published at Five 
dollars. 


Answers and prize awards will appear 
in May issue 


430 


The jumps may be diagonal or other- 
That part does not matter. 


Start with anyone 
you like and continue 
the jumps until the 
survivor F in the 
final jump lands on 
Square 5, the presi- 
dent’s future home. 

The candidates and 
squares are numbered 
and lettered to facili- 
tate a description of 
the jumps. 

Now see if you can 
clear up the political 
situation. 


| 
: 
: 
| 
: 


ow dee. wh LAP Sar Ad one 


_ 


a 


Popular Science Monthly 


Puzzling Kugelspiel 

An old Dutch sportsman informs me 
that our modern ten-pin game is derived 
from the Dutch pastime of Kugelspiel, 
played on the greens of Holland for 
many centuries. He says that while our 
modern game has resolved itself into 
mere expertness in knocking down the 
pins many variations of old Kugelspiel 
involved mathematical features as well. 

The most scientific of these old-time 
“set-ups” employed 15 pins which were 
arranged, as shown on page 430, in three 
groups of 3, 4 and 8 pins respectively, 
and the contest between two players con- 
sisted in turn-about plays to see which 
would-be compelled to roll his ball at 
the final pin. 

It is an interesting puzzle to work out 
just what should be the first player’s shot 
to assure his leaving a final pin for his 
opponent, assuming that both players 
were so skilful that at every shot they 
could knock down any or all of the pins 
in one of the separate groups. At a sin- 
gle shot a bowler is permitted to strike 
a pin or pins from only one of the 
groups. 

Here is a specimen game: 

Player A knocks down 5 of the pins 
from the group of 8; player B wipes out 
the entire group of 4, leaving two groups 
of 3 each for his opponent. A then takes 
one pin from one of the groups; B takes 
a pin from the other group and the situ- 
ation is now two groups of 2 each. A 


pe 


The Cost of a Villa 


431 


An elepkant on his hands 


takes one pin then B removes the 2 and 
wins by leaving a single pin. 

If you were bowling a game with the 
old Dutchman what would be your open- 
ing shot in order to assure the leaving 
of a final pin for him? 


The Cost of a Villa 


When the Smith’s suburban villa was 
completed and they counted costs, it ap- 
peared that the painter’s bill was $82 in 
excess of the paperhanger’s charges; the 
plumber charged $30 more than the 
painter; the mason received $160 more 
than the plumber and the carpenter, who 
charged $24 more than the mason, ren- 
dered a bill three times as large as that 
of the paperhanger. The lot cost halt 
as much as the house, so who can tell ' 
how much the Smith’s new home cost? 


An Elephant on His Hands 


An overly-ambitious Hindu who had 
acquired the proverbial elephant that “ate 
all night and ate all day,” sought to rid 
himseli of the voracious beast by un- 
loading him on a fellow native. The 
prospective buyer was willing to do busi- 
ness on the basis of 8 rupees less than 
the asking price; the would-be seller 
would knock off only 20 per cent. There 
remained a difference of 7 rupees be- 
tween their terms, and the pachyderm 
failed to change owners. 

Can you tell how much the native was 
offered for his animal? 


How to Ascertain Your Latitude and 
Longitude 


By Hereward Carrington 


HERE is a very simple way by 
means of which the novice, un- 
trained in astronomical observation, can 
determine his latitude, without the aid of 
complicated and expensive apparatus. 

If you were situated on the equator, 
the north star would be directly north of 
you. This star must be learned and iden- 
tified, so that it can be picked out any- 
where, at a moment’s notice. This is all 
the astronomy you need know—as the 
location of this star will give the latitude. 

When half-way to the north pole the 
north star is midway between the zenith 
and the northern horizon. At the pole 
it is directly overhead. In all other places 
its “angle” varies, being for example, 30° 
at New Orleans, 40° in Philadelphia, and 
so on. The altitude of the north star is 
the latitude of a place north of the equa- 
tor. All that is necessary then, to deter- 


EQUATOR 
Re 
rt 


10.15 20 25. 40/5, 1° 
SUN FAST SUN SLOW 


432 


mine the latitude, is to measure the angle 
of the north star and thus determine the 
altitude of the celestial pole. This will 
give the latitude. 

Take a pair of ordinary compasses. 
Open them, and place one point in a level 
window sill, holding the arm _ upright. 
Now point the other arm of the compass 
at the north polar star. The angle thus 
formed by the pair of compasses will be 
fairly accurate, provided the pointing has 
been done carefully and the other arm is 
held at right angles to the sill. 

When the compasses have been ad- 
justed, as explained, proceed to measure 
the angle formed by the arms of the 
compass. This will indicate your lati- 
tude. For every degree of curvature of 
the earth, the north star rises one degree 
from the horizon. It is thus an easy mat- 
ter to see your latitude, from the number 
of degrees made by the angle of your 
compass. 

Another way to discover the latitude 
of any given place—and a method much 
more often used—is by means of the sun. 
Observations of the sun are depended 
upon by vessels at sea. 

The first thing to do is to ascertain 
what is known as your true north-south 
line. To do this you must know your 
longitude and have the correct time. 
Next, measure the altitude of the sun at 
apparent noon—that is, when its shadow 


/ is north. Place a curved piece of card- 


board in the window, as shown in the 
diagram, with the blind drawn down to 
the wood of the upper window. The 
angle made by the shadow will then in- 
dicate the altitude of the sun with suffi- 
cient accuracy. 

Next, consult what is known as the 
“Analemma” (see diagram). If you live 
in the northern hemisphere, you must 
subtract from the declination of the sun 
(which the analemma gives you) the 
sun’s declination. Subtract this result 
from 90°, and the remainder is your lati- 
tude. 


<< t=‘ 


mw 


_- 


Popular Science Monthly 433 


For example, you wish to ascertain the 
latitude of San Francisco, and make your 
observation on October 23. 

1. Ascertain your north-south line. 
(The sun’s shadow will cross it on that 
date at 11 h. 54 m. 33 s. A. M., Pacific 
time.) 

2. The sun’s altitude, when the shadow 
is north, would be found to be 41°. 

3. The declination is 11° S. Adding, 
we get 52°, the altitude of the celestial 
equator. . 

4. Subtract: 90° — 52° equals 38°, 
the latitude of the place of the observer. 

The “analemma” employed is a care- 
fully worked-out diagram, giving the 
position of the apparent sun and its 
declination for every day in the year. It 
must be remembered that, each year, this 
will vary slightly, but for all ordinary 
calculations, the diagram here given will 
answer every purpose. 

The vertical lines represent the number 
of minutes the apparent sun is slow or 
fast—as compared with the mean sun. 
Since the analemma shows how fast or 


‘slow the sun is each day, it is obvious 


that, knowing one’s longitude, one can 
set his watch by the sun, by reference to 
this diagram; or, having correct clock 
time, one can ascertain his longitude. 

To ascertain longitude, one must have 
a true north-south line; also the correct 
standard time. Now— 

1. Note when the sun’s shadow is due 
north. Refer to your analemma and see 
how far the sun is fast or slow. 

2. If fast, add the amount to the time 
by your watch; if slow, subtract. This 
gives you mean local time. 

3. Divide the number of minutes and 
seconds past or before 12 by 4. This will 
give you the number of degrees and min- 
utes you are from the standard time 
meridian. If the right time is before 12, 
you are east of it; if after, you are west 
of it. 

4. Subtract (or add) the number of 
degrees you are east (or west) of the 
standard time meridian, and this gives 
you your longitude. 

To set your watch you must have a 
correct north-south line and know your 
longitude. 

1. Find the difference between your 
longitude and that of the standard time 
meridian by which you wish to set your 


watch—Eastern time, Central time, etc. 
—as the case may be. 

2. Multiply the number of degrees and 
seconds of the difference by 4. This 
gives you the number of minutes and 
seconds your watch is faster or slower 
than local time. If you are east of the 
standard meridian, your watch must be 
set slower than local time ; if west, faster. 

3. Observe the position of the sun— 
whether fast or slow—according to your 
analemma. If fast, subtract that time 
from the time obtained in step two; if 
slow, add. This gives you the time be- 
fore or after 12 when the shadow will 
be north; before 12 if you are east of 
the standard time meridian; after 12 if 
you are west. 

4. Set your watch at the time indicated 
by step 3, when the sun’s shadow crosses 
the north-south line. 

To strike a north-south line you must 
know your longitude and have correct 
time. Steps, 1, 2 and 3 are just the 
same as before (in the last example). 
At the moment of making step 3, you 
know the shadow is north; then draw 
the line of the shadow. If out of doors, 
stakes will indicate this line. 


A Vulcanizer for Tire Repairs 


EVERAL new 

types of vulcaniz- 
ing devices have re- 
cently been placed on 
the market for the 
motorist who desires 
to make his own 
quick tire repair on the road. They all 
naturally strive to utilize some material 
or part of the car. Among those of more 
than passing interest is one which can 
be used without special instructions. It 
is nothing more than a clamp, in which 
the inner tube is held. On the upper 
half of this clamp is a hollow, to be filled 
with gasoline. A one-ounce measure 
goes with the device, and thg ounce of 
gasoline will burn about seven minutes, 
which is just enough to effect a complete 
repair of a puncture. 

Another device consists of a plain 
metal plate which is held by any sort of 
clamp to the exhaust pipe of the muffler. 
Putting the inner tube on this metal plate 
and holding it down on it for about five 
minutes is sufficient for vulcanizing. 


The ski skate 


(ia, Se 
SI, T= ; 
Sept al. 


th an ankle-brace 


A skate with a 
curved runner 


An ice and roller skate 


Improving the Old 


URING this winter, when socie- 
ty’s revival of ice skating has 
caused many dance hall managers 

to turn their polished hardwood floors 
into ice rinks, manufacturers have stud- 
ied the patent office files in search of 
novelties. in skates which might be of- 
fered to the public. 

It is a surprising fact, that a large pro- 
portion of patents which have been 
awarded to inventors have described 
skates which are capable of being trans- 
formed from ice to roller skates at a 
moment’s notice. Many and weird are 
the skates described in the patents, and 
hardy indeed would be the skater who 
would offer to experiment with them on 
hard and unyielding ice. 

A skate which may be used as a ski 
is shown in Fig. 1. It may be used sin- 
gly or in pairs, and is designed to be 
used on a thick crust of snow. The run- 
ner projects over the front of the skate, 
and forms an adjustable handle by which 
the skees may be steered. A turn of the 
handles guides the runners in any de- 
sired direction. 

In Fig. 2 is shown a skate which is 
claimed by the inventor to have most un- 
usual advantages. The lever which ex- 
tends upwards from the skate contains a 
mechanism for clamping it tightly to the 
shoe. By turning the top, the position 
of the clamps is changed, and when the 
lever is swung to an upright position, as 
illustrated, the clamps are drawn tightly 
to the shoe. A gaiter is furnished with 
the skate, and when the lever has served 
its other purposes, it is fastened to the 
gaiter, and forms an ankle brace. | 

When one thinks of the blade of a 
skate, it is natural to believe that it must 
be absolutely straight. Should we see a 
blade that had several kinks in it, we 
would be tempted to take it to a black- 
smith and have him hammer it until it 
became straight. To do this, however, 
would be to defeat the purpose of a Ger- 
man inventor, who has patented in this 
country a skate which has several curves 
in the blade. Each of these curves is de- 
signed to. correspond with the natural 
movements of the skate in use, or with 
the curve or figure which is described 


434 


tan il tata 


Ce 


Fashioned Ice-Skate 


by that part of the runner which be- 
comes active. The inventor believes 
_ that a steady forward movement is nev- 
er given during a single stroke of the 
skate. A glance at Fig. 3 shows this. 

Another German invention is the com- 
bined»ice and roller skate illustrated in 
Fig. 4. The inventor has attempted to 
reduce the friction common to roller 
skates by employing balls or spheres, in- 
stead of wheels. These are attached to 
the skate by means of bolts, which may 
be removed to adjust the ice blade. 

A skate which may be used with equal 
facility on ice or snow is shown in Fig. 
5. Runners are secured to each side of 
the blade by means of a bolt, which per- 
mits of the runners being lowered flush 
with the blade when it is desired to trav- 
el over snow through which the single 
blade would sink. This skate has the 
advantage of being equipped with clamps 
which will permit the skate being se- 
cured to any type shoe. An ice-skate which can also be 

An ingenious invention patented sev- 6) used as a roller skate 
eral years ago is an ice skate which has 
two rollers mounted on each side of the 
blade. These are so affixed that when 
it is desired to skate upon the ice, the 
rollers are fastened out of the way of the 
blade, and are ready at any moment to 
be swung down so that they will lift 
the ice blade from the ground (Fig. 6). 

Another combination ice and roller 
skate is illustrated in Fig. 7. This skate 
is unusual in having five rollers attached 
to the blades when the skate is to be 
used away from the ice. The ice blade 
is made in two parts, and the rollers are 
held between the sections by means of a Sa 
bolt, which is also used to draw the |= = {|v Eigsef | Brake for 
blades tightly together when the skate is | = xxi] ESf | ice skates 
to be used on the ice. Both sections of [2 = es 
the blade are slightly beveled, and when 
drawn together, form a “hollow ground” 
blade, which is said to be very desirable. 

Roller or ice skates which may be 
equipped with brakes is the subject of 
the patent shown in Fig. 8. Braces are 
projected from each side of the skate 
and fastened to a leather band which is 
adjusted to fit the limbs. By means of a 
ratchet, the brakes are operated by 
Swinging the braces forward or back. 


435 


Little Inventions to Make Lite Easy 
Why Weren't They Thought of Before? 


p Protector of Many Uses 


CONE- 

SHAPED 
cap to protect the 
tip of a cigar is 
made with a pro- 
jecting piece ex- 
tending half the 
length of the 
cigar. This pro- 
jecting piece is a 
label, as well as a surface upon which 
a match can be struck. In the center of 
the conical top is a small hole through 
which a match can be inserted into the 
cigar, to make a draft opening without 
cutting the end of the cigar. 


Tricking Fish with Electric Minnows 


N artificial 

minnow for 
angling is provided 
with a transparent 
, | body, within which 
\} is placed a_ small 
{| electric light. The 
invention is to illu- 
minate the minnow 
in order to attract 
the attention of the fish. Of course, a 
number of hooks are attached to the 
sides of the device to catch the too in- 
quisitive fish. 


Head-Guard for Alley-Boys 


SPHERI- 

CAL wire 
cage, made in 
hinged sections, 
is provided for 
the protection of 
alley-boys against 
flying bowling 
balls and_ pins. 
The cage com- 
pletely surrounds the boy’s head and 
face, and pads are provided to hold it in 
place. A hinged section is also provided 
for each shoulder. 


436 


Trapping Mice in a Milk Bottle 


HE. trap—is 
composed 
of top and bot- 
tom sections 
which are placed 
in an old milk 
beodat dees he 
mouse enters at 
the mouth of the 
bottle and finds 
himself in the upper section of the trap. 
Surrounding this section is a trough 
filled with liquid bait. When the mouse 
attempts to climb out, his wet feet slip 
on the glass walls of the bottle and he 
falls through the central hole in the 
trough down into the lower section of 
the trap. The two sections of the trap 
may be separated in order to remove the 
entrapped animal. 


More Accurate Calipers 


Te Ase Rial 
to one leg of 
a pair of calipers is 
a rack upon which |” 
teeth are cut to fit |-. 
a worm gear which 
is affixed to the 
other leg. The width of the jaws 
of the calipers is regulated by means of 
the worm gear, and it is claimed that 
great accuracy may be obtained. 


Burnishing With the Sewing-Machine 


HE burnish- 

ing tool is 
made of a ta- 
pered, cylindrical 
tube of metal, in 
which is inserted 
an electrical de- 
vice for heating 
the tool. At the 
lower extremity 
is a slot through which the margin of 
the material to be burnished may be 
placed. The device may be easily at- 
tached to a sewing-machine. 


_ — 
a _ — 


Popalar Science Monthly 


A New Kind of Pin-Cushion 


HIS pin- 

cushion rep- 
resents a Chinese 
face, the lower 
portion of the 
pigtail being com- 
posed of threads 
which can_ be 
withdrawn. 
Through the 
center of the cushion a box penetrates, 
which may be used to hold buttons, 
thimbles and other useful implements. 
The bottom of the box is designed to 
hold needles, thus acting as a needle 
case. The entire device hangs from the 
wall by the pigtail. 


Bicycle Frame Holds a Tire Pump 


HE steel 

frame of a 
Phe y G.Fe ara 
motor - cycle is 
made hollow 
immediately _be- 
neath the rider’s 
seat. Into this 
hollow space is 
slipped a tubular 
tire pump. When the pump is needed, 
the seat is swung out of the way on a 
swivel, the cap which closes the open 
end of the frame is unscrewed, and the 
pump may be removed. 


Collapsible Millinery for Traveling 
O provide a 


fashionable 
hat which may be 
folded up and 
placed in a_travel- 
ers trunk or 
suitcase, a dress- 
maker has created 
a design which is 
composed of two 
stiffened sides and a_ soft collapsible 
middle on the principle of the paper 
hats made for carnival time. When the 
hat is placed on the head, the stiff sides 
are bent to open the hat in its proper 
position. When it is taken off, the hat 
flattens so that it can be stored away in 
a small space. 


437 
Holding Meat While Carving 


PON a suit- 

able base is 
fixed a _ casting 
consistingof 
three equidistant 
arms, each ter- 
minating in a 
toothed quadrant. 
Actuating on 
these quadrants 
are arms to which 
are affixed claws for holding the meat. 
In the center of the device is a small 
plate, to which are attached two metal 
points of different lengths, designed to 
pierce the meat and to hold it in the 
center of the device. This plate may be 
clamped in any desired position by 
means of a bolt which is equipped with 
a thumb-nut. Either large or small 
pieces of meat may thus be accommo- 
dated. 


Preventing Furniture from Chip- 
ping Walls 
ITTED into 
the threaded 
interior of a boss 
which is attached 
to the resilient 
clamping-ring of 
the furniture buf- 
fer, is a wooden 
or metal screw, 
equipped with a 
rubber button at the end. When the 
clamp is applied to the leg of a chair or 
bedstead, the rubber tip on the adjust- 
able screw acts as a buffer to prevent the 
marring of the wall. 


A Cutter for Fiber Phonograph 
- Needles 

DEVICE 
for trim- 
ming or cutting 
fiber phonograph- 
needles is mod- 
eled closely after 
a pair of ordinary 
scissors. The top 
element of the de- 
vice is equipped 
with a holder for the needle, while the 
lower element has a sharp blade for 

trimming the needle. 


438 
Conquering the Obstinate Oyster 
PAIR ef 
jaws are 


hinged to a I- 
shaped handle. 
Between the jaws 
is placed a slid- 
i I ing cam, eonne 
MMI 

a as the handle of the 
device. By pushing the button, the cam 
is pushed down between the jaws, thus 
spreading them, and opening the oyster. 


Can Maidenly Modesty Ask for More? 


SHELF is 
provided for 
the seats of the 


being placed con- 
siderably above 
t h e workmen’s 
floor. In front 
of the seats is 
placéd> a’ desk, 
the lower part of which forms a curtain, 
leaving just enough space above the 
floor to allow the workman to reach the 
shoes of the patron. A speaking tube 
is placed before the patron on the desk 
so that she may give instructions to the 
workman, and by means of an electric 
light signal, the completion of the pro- 
cess is announced. 


A Muscle-Saving Potato Masher 
SPIN DUE, 


running ver- 
tically through 
the center of a 
hopper, is rotated 
by a suitably 
geared handle. A 
set of rotating 
arms at the bot- 
tom are actuated by the spindle to force 
the mashed vegetables through a _ per- 
forated plate or sieve. The chief im- 
provement consists in the rotating arms, 
which are toothed on the upper edge, 
thus serving to grate the potatoes before 
they are forced through the sieve, ob- 
viating any possibility of the potatoes’ 
remaining lumpy or hard. 


patrons, the seats» 


Popular Science Monthly 


One Motion of the Handles Works 
These Scissors’ Blades Twice 


HE © shorter 

blade of the 
scissors 1S  ac- 
tuated by means 
Gieantaticiner, 
which, as the 
handles -are 
spread apart, 
opens the scis- 
sors. <A spring 
closes the blades when the plunger has 
passed the tooth of the ratchet. The de- 
vice may be made to close the blades 
twice for every movement of the handles 
by spreading the handles wide. By so 
doing two teeth actuate the plunger. 


A Paper Milk-Bottle with a Window 


RECTAN- 

GULAR 
opening is cut in 
the side of a 
bottle made of 
paper, pulp, or 
other opaque ma- 
terial. Into this 
opening is in- 
serted a_ section 
of transparent material, such as celluloid. 
A flange on the inside of the bottle pre- 
vents the window from being pushed 
out by interior pressure, and when the 
process is finished, the joints are 
covered with transparent cement. 


A Salt and Pepper Shaker 


RECE PT- 

ACLE is di- 
vided equally in 
two parts, to serve 
as a combined salt 
and pepper shaker. 
A screen is fitted 
on opposite sides 
of the device, so 
that either season- 
ing may be poured 
out singly. A ball 
is held near the 
screen in the salt 
compartment to 
break the lumps of salt to a fine con- 
sistency. 


or Practical Workers 


A Spirit-Level for Use in Dark Places 


MILLWRIGHT must often set 
up machinery and benches before 
a tenant has moved into a building. As 
the gas and electric lights are not 
turned on before the tenant takes pos- 
session, it is hard to level shafting, 


foundations, benches, etc., in dark 
POCKET FOR LIGHT ON. HORIZONTAL PUSH SMALL FLASH- 
FLASHLIGHT == HORIZONTAL LEVEL, LEVEL BUTTON LIGHT BULB 


_BATTERY USE WHEN NEEDED 


A spirit level equipped with a small flash- 
light will be found very useful for use in 
dark buildings 


places, especially on dark, rainy days. 
Candles are often employed, but both 
hands are required. With the level to 
be described, one hand is always free. 

Use a small, round flashlight battery 
and drill a hole in one end of the level, 
large enough to hold it. With a ruler 
as a guide, make grooves with a thick- 
set penknife on the outside of the level 
to hold a fine wire. Push the wire in 
with a screwdriver, fill in the top with 
rosin or wax and finish smooth. Drill 
holes under each level, just deep enough 
to hold a flashlight bulb. Solder wires 
on them, and fill in with rosin or wax 
and finish smooth. The rosin or wax 
filling will hold the wires and bulb se- 
curely. 

Drill holes for the smallest size but- 
tons obtainable, and push the buttons in 


A. three-wire 
The buttons are so 


block of wood. 


with a 
system is employed. 
located that the hand which places the 
level, lights the level with the thumb of 
that hand, thus leaving the other hand 


free to work with. A sliding cover is 
put on the end and screwed in to keep 
the battery in position.—T. F. Buscn. 


To Face Left-Hand Nuts 


ie facing left-hand nuts, damage is 
often done to the facing tool or nut 
arbor, by the nut’s starting to unscrew, 
and pushing the tool to one side or 
breaking it. The nut arbor or mandrel 
shown, will prevent the nut from com- 
ing loose, holding the nut in place until 
one side has been faced. It consists of 
the threaded piece A on which the arm 
B is held by the set screw. When the 
nut has been screwed up tight, the shaft 
arm B is set so that the cap screw C can 
be tightened up against one of the flat 
sides of the nut. The set screw should 
have a copper end if it is used on nuts 
that have had the:r sides finished. When 
many nuts are to be faced, it will pay to 
make a small cam that pivots on the end 
of the arm B to take the place of the 
screw C. The arbor can be held between 
lathe-centers or made to fit the mandrel 
of any lathe —C. ANDERSON. 


This nut arbor or mandrel holds the 
nut in place until one side has been faced 


439 


440 


Home-Made Motion Picture Camera 
HE motion picture camera shown 1n 
the drawing is very simple in con- 

struction and operation. It holds stand- 


ard film rolls and is about 5” by 7” by 
8” in dimensions. 

The film passes from the upper mag- 
spool, 


azine over the toothed down 


Camera box 


The working mechanism of a home- 
made motion picture camera 


through the slot where the exposure 1s 
made (size of exposure 34” high by 1” 
wide) and then over the lower toothed 
spool on to the take-up reel, which is 
keyed to the shaft on which it rests. 
The shaft in turn is connected through 
gears to a clock-spring. This gives the 
reel the power to take up the exposed 
film as used. 

It will be noticed that the lower 
toothed spool has a four-toothed gear 
fastened to its shaft. The action of the 
large wheel, which contains the four 
pegs, on the four-toothed gear is similar 
to the Geneva movement on most mo- 
tion picture projectors. This large 
wheel is driven from the crank by four 
to one gearing, and as each of the pegs 
turns over four teeth of the little spool, 
the height of one exposure or 34”, six- 
teen exposures are made to one revolu- 
tion of the crank. Two little springs rub 
on the toothed spool to prevent slipping 
of the film in either direction, which ac- 
tion should take approximately one 
second. 

A universal-focus lens is shown in the 
drawing, but a focusing lens may be 
used, in which case the shutter must be 
placed behind. The shutter is of the 


Popular Science Monthly 


semicircular revolving type, driven 
through the chain and gears from the 
crank at a ratio of sixteen to one, or six- 
teen revolutions of the shutter to one of 
the crank. This will make a revolution 
of the shutter to each exposure. By 
shifting the chain forward or backward, 
the shutter can be made to uncover at 
the proper moment; that is, just after 
the fresh section of film has come to 
rest. 

Before using the camera the spring 
must be wound. A cover should be kept 
over the lens.—E. G. GETTINS. 


The Flap-Lock Envelope 


HE ordinary envelope when sealed 

can very easily be opened and re- 
sealed, and the chances of detection are 
rather slight, especially if care be taken 
when resealing to see that the flap is put 
back in the exact position it first occu- 
pied. The attached drawings illustrate 
a distinct improvement on the old style 
flap. Instead of rounding off into a point, 
it is extended into a narrow strip, the 
length of this strip being the exact dif- 
ference between the rounded point of 
the old-fashioned flap, when sealed, and 
the bottom of the envelope. A slit is cut 
in the back of the envelope, a little wider 
(1/16”) than the width of this strip, 
half way between where the rounded 
point would come and the bottom of the 
envelope. The flap is gummed in the 


+4GUMMED BACK 


This envelope can- 

not be secretly 

opened without 
certain detection 


FIG A. FIG.L 


ordinary way, and the extra strip is 
gummed on the lower half of the oppo- 
site side, Figure 1. 

The envelope is sealed as usual. The 
gum on the lower outside half of the 
strip is dampened, and the strip is easily 
slid into the slit in the envelope and 
pressed down, sealing it to the inside of 
the envelope, Figure 2. Opening and re- 
sealing this envelope, undetected, 1s 
practically impossible—J. A. McManus. 


Popular Science Monthly 


How to Make a Self-Honing 
Razor Strop 


ANY men do not know how to 
hone a razor. Twice a year they 

give their good razor to a barber or a 
tool grinder to hone, and it is often re- 
turned with the temper so far gone that 
it will not hold an edge. The red side 


The proper and improper method of strop- 
ing a razor, showing why a flexible strop 
ruins the blade 


of every strop, which is used for sharp- 
ening, is a strip of leather soaked in a 
mixture of crocus and kerosene. The 
black side (finishing side) is soaped, 
black, tanned leather. To retain a sharp, 
straight edge on a razor for life without 
honing, a straight flat strop must be 
used. You cannot hold a flexible strop 
tight and straight enough to prevent the 
formation of a blunt or rounded edge 
on a razor. That is why a razor must 
be honed every six months; it will not 
shave if the edge is too thick. The thin, 
concave edge that cuts can be retained 
only by using a flat and straight, non- 
bending strop, like the one illustrated. 
Get a piece of hard wood 14 in. long, 
114 in. wide and 4 in. thick. Plane and 
sandpaper it to a smooth surface. Cut a 
handle at one end. Get two strips of 
smooth-finished horsehide (or cowhide, 
if you cannot get the other) 10 in. long, 
11% in. wide and about 14 in. thick. Coil 
one strip of leather to fit into a tomato 
can. This will save space and material. 
et 25 cents worth of crocus (accept 
nothing but dry, bar crocus) from a ma- 
chine shop supply store or a polishinz 
concern. Mix this with enough kerosen> 
to make a thin paste. Pour this cn the 
strop until it is covered above the strop 
level and allow it to soak seven days. 
Clean off with cloth, and cement both 


44] 


leather strips on the wooden strip, using 
a good tire or leather cement, and allow 
it to dry, using several flat-irons as 
weights. 

Crocus is the finest emery there is. It 
is used for polishing nickel and brass 
and does not scratch. The finishing side 
of the strop should be lathered with soap 
and rubbed in until dry. 


Do not throw the crocus mixture 
away. [Bottle it, and use it for polishing 
purposes. Also apply it to your strop 


once a year to keep it effective. 

Strop your razor flat. The lower dia- 
gram shows how a flexible strop wears 
down the edge of your razor to a round- 


ed edge.—F. T. Buscu. 


An Electrically-Operated Screwdriver 
HANDY and _ practical  screw- 
driver, operated by electricity, 

will more than pay for itself in a very 

short time. 

An electric motor is fastened at the 
left side of a base of wood. A small 
wooden structure, as depicted, is built of 
posts, and a small hole is drilled at the 
top cross post to admit and allow the 


Screworiver - bit ——+ 


4 fii) _ TS, 
|| || 


This electrically driven screwdriver may 
be conveniently held in the hands 


free movement of the steel shaft with 
the chuck. An arrangement by which 
the motor rotates the steel shaft (with 
chuck) is clearly shown. This device 
consists of two threaded pieces one on 
the end of the steel shaft of the motor, 
and the other on the end of the shaft 
with chuck. A chuck is threaded on to 
the upright shaft, and with a set of bits, 
drills, and so forth, including taps, very 
good and quick work can be done with 
this apparatus. The base being rested 
against the body and the current switched 
on, the apparatus does the rest. 


44.2 


A Simple Air-Pump 
N order to obtain great heat or a high 
temperature, with a blow torch, it is 
necessary to have a tank supplying com- 
pressed air. 

Obtain an iron-pipe, 2” inside diam- 
eter, and having one end closed up with 
a pipe-end which may be removed at 
will by unscrewing. In the center of this 
end drill a 14” hole and thread with a 
standard thread. The pipe should be 


Liston head LEONE’ SIT'QO 
/ i 


1 
aoe a 


NK 


DS 


Construction diagram of a simple air-pump which will : 
supply a blow torch with compressed air 1S 


cut 5” long. Now from the plain end 
measure in 1” and cut the pipe diagon- 
ally across, as shown in diagram, 14” 
holes should then be drilled at either end 
and in the same line of the pipe. These 
holes are for the screws, which are to 
hold the cylinder in place on the base, 
and therefore they should be sunk 
rather deep so as not to interfere with 
the working of the piston. It will be a 
good idea to smooth the inner sides of 
the pipe with some emery cloth. 

The piston is the most important part 
of the pump and ought to receive most 
attention. It is made of a wood disk 
2” diameter and 1” thick. In the middle 


Connecting rod 
/ 


Popular Science Monthly 


on the disk a hole is chiseled out measur- 
ing 14” x 4” at the bottom and 34” x 
1,” at the top and is *4” deep. Through 
the middle of the side and _ passing 
through the center of the circle of the 
disk, a 14” hole is drilled right through 
from one side to the other. At either 
end of the hole and with the same center 
a 14” hole is now drilled. This is to 
admit the piston pin and the 14” holes 
admit the nuts at either end. This part 
may be seen in the diagram. 
A and A717 are the inlet valves 
and are 14” diameter, and 
the center of each hole is 
%4”’ from the edge of the 
disk. Leather is placed in 
these holes measuring 14” x 
54” and is glued to the disk 
by a section about 3/16” 
from the farthest edge of 
the leather hinge. The draw- 
ing shows this by dotted line 
across the rectangle. In or- 
der that there will be little 
or no leakage,a 14” leather 
strap is wound around the 
disk 14” from top and bot- 
tom. This is done by mak- 
ing a ridge 1/16” deep and 
14/’ wide in the middle of 
the side of disk when it ts 
turned out. The leather 
should be: glued in with the 
rough side out. 
“ The connecting rod is 
made of %” iron rod. The 
length when finished should 
measure 815’. This length 
not at first needed be- 
cause we flatten the ends 
out to the shape.and dimensions given in 
drawing. The holes are for the bear- 
ings of piston and arm pins. It is very 
easy to forge the ends in a fire made for 
heating the house and to hammer them 
on a small piece of iron. 

The air is kept from returning to the 
pump by a valve set on top of the tank. 
The drawing gives all the information 
necessary. The ball bearing used is a 
little smaller than 14” (perhaps 3/16’). 
The wire at the top prevents the ball 
bearing from escaping. 

The pressure arm is 1” x 144” x 10” 
over all. Holes are drilled 34” and 3” 
from one end. One serves as the pivot 


Popular Science Monthly 


pin and the other as the connecting rod 
pin. The end should be rounded off to 
give the arm play in the bottom of the 
base. Stop pieces prevent the arm from 
being pushed or drawn too far. A slot 
1” x \4” x 1”, which is through the arm, 
allows the arm to move freely on the 
connecting rod pin. The pin is nothing 
but a 14” bolt, 114” long. 

The receving tank used is made from 
an old hot water boiler usually found 
in homes where the hot water is not sup- 
plied by the house. 

If a pump is made in this way it will 
surely give great satisfaction. 


Gage for Duplicate Hole Drilling 


REEL, the; hole~ to . the’ required 

depth and measure the distance 
exposed on the auger bit. This distance 
is taken from the face of the work to 
the end of the jaw protruding from the 
chuck of the brace. 

Secure a block, say 134” or 2” square, 
which is as long as the distance previous- 
ly measured. Drill through this block 
and allow it to fit over the auger bit, 
acting as a sleeve. The only exposed 
part of the auger bit will then be equal 
to the depth of the required hole. 


A Barrel for Filling Sacks 


HE clumsy performance of holding 

a sack and filling it at the same time 
can be simplified if the sack is hung in 
a barrel. Four curved nails are placed 
at equal distances in the rim, and the 
sack is suspended from these. \hen it 
is filled, the sack can be easily removed. 


A few curved nails in the rim solve the 
problem of keeping a sack open while it 
is being filled 


By the use of this device, one man 
can do the work of two and in less time, 
with practically no outlay. 


443 


How to Saw Difficult Angles on Small 
Stock 


N making a craftsman lamp, a very 

rigid miter is needed to cut unusual 
angles on small stock. If no miter box 
is at hand, the following device may be 
substituted. Use a smooth board about 
1 in. thick and 18 in. sq. as a drawing- 
board and lay out the work directly on 
this board. Nail on cleats as indicated 
and the miterisy ready for tse. It is 


possible to secure very great accuracy 
and rigidity with very little trouble. In 
the case of one lamp, 44 pieces 14 in. by 


la 


\ 


The cleats and the drawing take the place 
of a very rigid miter-box 


14 in. by 3 in. were cut with bevels to 
form an eight-sided box, built up of 
these pieces as a child builds up dom- 
inoes. The pieces were so accurately 
cut that they went together perfectly. 

The drawing is first made very ac- 
curately, then blocks’ No. 1, 2, 3, 4, are 
nailed on the board along the diagonal. 
Enough room for the saw kerf was left 
holding the saw in position against Nos. 
2 and 4 before nailing on Nos. 1 and 3. 
A and B are now nailed on, allowing 
just enough room for the stock. The 
first cut trims the first end on the stock, 
at the same time removing the surplus 
ends of A and B. Care must be taken 
that blocks 1, 2, 3, 4 are right-angled on 
the sides —E. A. Hopcson. 


How to Build an Aero Ice-Racer 


By R. U. Clark | ; ee ee 


A small and simple ice-racer, which should attain fs : Sie 
speeds of from sixty to one hundred miles an 
hour, according to the power of the engine used 


LLUSTRATED accounts of several 
I motor-driven ice-boats have ap- 

peared for some time past in difter- 
ent publications. 
have been more or less alike, and prac- 
tically all have born a close resemblance 
to an ordinary sled fitted with a motor. 
In many cases these vehicles have been 
greatly overpowered, for although some 
of them have attained to speeds as high 
as eighty miles an hour, they have ac- 
complished this with considerable waste 
of power, principally because of their 
faulty design, both as regards body 
shape and propelling mechanism. 

In designing any high speed vehicle 
the body and all the external parts 
should approximate a pure streamline 
form as nearly as possible. This fact 
has been thoroughly demonstrated dur- 
ing the past few years in the case of the 
aeroplane, and during the past season 
has been forcibly illustrated at the auto 
races. In the case of the motor-driven 
ice-boat, the necessity of a streamline 
body is far more apparent when it is 
considered that more than 95% of the 
tractile power is consumed in overcom- 
ing the resistance of the wind where 
traction is secured by direct aerial 
drive. 

In addition to being essential to high 


The machines depicted ° 


speed, a closed-in ice-boat body affords 
a very necessary protection from the 
cold and wind, which alone would be 
reason enough for constructing such a 
vehicle along these lines. It therefore 
seems strange that, in spite of these 
facts, people should think a wooden 
cross equipped with runners and a 
motor, a fit apology for a motor ice- 
boat, but this is probably due to the fact 
that the advantages of closed-in con- 
struction are not fully realized, and con- 
sequently the builder does not care: to 
take the time to build a decent body. 

A motor ice-boat to be worth while 
should combine the following features: 
Strength, lightness, cheapness, proper 
streamline form, complete 
from the wind, and above all ease of 
construction. Fortunately it is a very 
simple matter to design and build such 
a body, as will be at once apparent after 
a glance at the illustrations submitted 
herewith. As will be noticed from these 
sketches there are two possible seating 
arrangements which allow of simple 
streamline body construction. The ma- 
chine depicted in Fig. 1, with the motor 
at the rear, is designed primarily for 
use as a single passenger machine, in 
which case the body need not be over 
five feet long, by about twenty inches 


444 


protection | 


a 
| 
4 


: 


/ 

1 

1 

é 

: 

: 
- 

. 
- 


Popular Science Monthly 


wide. By enlarging the body as regards 
length and width, from three to four 
passengers could be carried, provided 
the body was strengthened accordingly, 
the occupants sitting in the same man- 
ner as they would on a double runner 
sled. This requires a few inches addi- 
tional width to the body. 

Fig. 2 shows a different motor and 
seating arrangement from that sub- 
mitted in Fig. 1. On the machine in 


Fig. 1. Side view of small 
racer, showing steering gear 
and brake action 


Fig. 2 the motor is placed in front, driv- 
ing the propeller, through a long shaft, at 


the rear. This shaft runs between the 
passengers along the middle of the 
vehicle, as can be seen from the top 
view plan in Fig. 2. Note that the shaft 
is enclosed where it passes through the 
cockpit. From this sketch it is apparent 
that sociable seating is employed. This 
requires a wider body which tends also 
to cut down the speed, but at the same 
time allows of several passengers being 
carried, and the use of more power. 

The body construction is practically 
the same in either machine illustrated in 
this article, but, of course, due allowance 
should always be made for the weight 
carried. A one or two passanger ma- 
chine may be constructed so as to weigh 
little over 100 pounds complete, but in 
all cases it is advisable to build a light 
frame to lay the planks on, although in 
the case of a small machine it is per- 
fectly possible to obtain — sufficient 
strength from a body constructed of 
four boards of the proper shape fastened 
edge to edge, in which case the side 
boards should be fairly thick, or else 
have their edges re-enforced with mould- 
ing inside. 

As has already been stated when 
tandem seating is utilized the motor 
should be situated at the rear, in which 
case the aerial propeller can be directly 
connected to the crank shaft of the 


445 


motor, thus constituting the complete 
power transmission. 

The runners for both of the models 
described in this article are constructed 
in the usual manner of wood, shod with 
steel or iron edges, these being formed 
of square rods set in the wood edgewise 
so as to present a sharp running edge 
to the ice. They are held in this posi- 
tion by their extremities, which are 
flattened and secured to the wooden 
runners. 

Both machines can be made with 
only three runners, one in front by 
which the boat is steered, and two at the 
rear. The size of these runners de- 
pends to some extent upon the load to 
be carried, but for ordinary use runners 
from twelve to eighteen inches long 
should prove entirely satisfactory. When 
it is the intention of the builder to carry 
many passengers, the spread of the rear 
runners should be widened considerably, 
or else the machine should be fitted with 
four runners. 

The steering of the motor ice-craft 
here described is accomplished by means 
of two beveled gears and shafts as illus- 
trated. This fixture can be rigged up 
by using the gear mechanism found on 
an old ice cream freezer. This changes 
the plane of rotation as desired and 


Fig. 2. Top view of another form of racer, 
in which the motor is in front, and the 


propellor at the rear. This form of ma- 
chine holds two passengers 


cost of a regular steering 
mechanism. In case the former device 
is employed, a large steering wheel 
should be provided, as the ratio of the 
gears utilized is rather high. 

Braking the speed of the aero ice-boat 
is accomplished by means of the lever 
drag brake shown in the drawing. The 
complete brake is constructed of two 
pieces of iron or soft steel riveted to- 
gether and forged to the shape illus- 
trated. The brake is held in the proper 
position when not in use by means of a 


saves the 


446 Popular Science Monthly 


APF MARAAA AAA VRRARARY DY ALAA REE RERRRURERER EN 
eS Ee 


a ee ZEN SAU oR : — 
IZ PTTL Za L2Le2 Yaw 


Working drawing showing details of a simple aero ice-racer. This entire machine may be 
built for less than twenty dollars, if good judgment is used in buying materials 


spring and a small wooden block, as can 
be seen by referring to the drawings. 
The bottom edge of the brake should 
present several rough teeth to the ice. 
This prevents any sudden catching due 
to lumps or ridges in the ice. 

The small shields on the top of the 
body are intended to cut down the re- 
sistance caused by the bodies of the 
passengers, and can be constructed of 
metal or fiber. They are semi-conical 
in shape as shown, and afford consider- 
able protection from the cold. 

A motorcycle motor is very well 
suited for use on a motor ice-racer. 
These motors can be bought second hand 
in running condition at most any price 
from $8.00 up, and ranging in horse 
power from 3 to 20. The smallest of 
these weigh only about 40 Ibs. complete, 
and are capable of driving a small ice- 
racer at considerable speed. 

The speeds possible with the aero- 
driven ice-boat range very high when 
the craft in question is properly designed 
and constructed, and if sufficient power 
is used. Even the smallest craft should 
be capable of a speed of a mile a minute 
when well made, and with a powerful 


motor a good machine should attain a 
speed of nearly 100 miles an hour; a 
great deal, however, depends on how 
well the body is designed and con- 
structed, and how well the motor runs. 

Having described the aero ice-racer in 
a general manner, it is next in order to 
furnish detailed instructions for the con- 
struction of a simple craft of this type 
which will give the most satisfactory 
service, and at the same time require the 
least effort in the making. A machine 
of this type is therefore described fol- 
lowing the design in Fig. 1. 

To begin at the bottom and work up. 
Three wooden runners should be made 
of clear stock at least 1” in thickness. 
One of these is represented by the lower 
portion of the runner shown in Fig. 3. 
The other two should be similar in shape 
to the entire runner illustrated in the 
same figure. The dimensions for these 
are given in the drawing. The shape 
can be laid out from the sketch by mark- 
ing off the chief dimensions as indicated 
and drawing in the curves free hand. 

AV -shaped g sroove 34” wide by 3/16” 
deep is cut along the ‘nad aie of the bot- 
tom of these-three runners with a miter- 


Popular Science Monthly 


box saw, and is continued part way up 
both ends as shown in Fig. 3. 

Three 18’ pieces of %%” square iron 
or soft steel should be procured and the 
ends flattened, by hammering two 
opposite edges, for a distance of about 
114”, and two 3/16” holes bored in each 
end so that the iron runners can be at- 
tached to the wood, after being bent 
while cold to the approximate shape, in 
the exact manner shown in Fig. 3. These 
iron runners are held in place by 3/10” 
brass screws countersunk. The screws 
should not be less than 1” long and 
should have flat heads. 

If the wooden runners are over 1” 
thick they can be made of soft wood, 
and it will be possible to run the craft 
over the snow even if it is only packed 
to a small degree. 

The small runner mentioned above is 
for the rudder, and is placed in the front 
of the machine. A 5” round steel rod 
17” long is sunk into the center of this 
runner to a depth of about 2”, and is 
held in place by two 3/16” steel bolts 
which pass through the rod and runner, 
as in Figs. 1 and 5. Four or five 5%” 
washers are slipped on the rod. 

Fig. 4 shows plainly how to lay out 
the sides of tle boat body. Both sides 
can be cut from 714’ board 34” thick by 
i2” wide. The dimensions are taken 
from the sketch and are laid out on the 
boards in the exact manner shown. The 
proper curve for the bow is obtained by 
marking off various points at different 
distances from the center lines, as 
shown, and connecting these points until 
a fair curve is obtained. Spruce is one 
of the best materials, as well as the 
cheapest, for making the body, but 
should be free from splits. 

Nineteen pieces of 14” by 6” stock 
exactly 22” long are now required. 
These should be of selected spruce and 
are used for the bottom and deck of 
the boat body. They are laid on cross- 
wise. The side. boards should be held 
the proper distance apart temporally by 
several short sticks nailed at various 
points along their edges, and the entire 
bottom nailed in place with 2” nails. 
The bottom board should overlap about 
%4’’ at the front of the body. 

The rear edge consists of a piece of 
spruce 20144” long by 1” thick by 


4 AT 


2” wide. This is nailed in place between 
the sides before the first rear deck 
board has been laid on, and _ properly 
beveled at the same slant as the sides. 
The rear deck board is then nailed on, 
the nails along the back being set in 34” 
from the edge. The rear edges are then 
rounded off to decrease the wind re- 
sistance, and give the body a finished ap- 
pearance. Two more 60” boards are then 
laid on, thus completing the rear deck, 
which is composed of three boards in all. 

The deck board nearest the bow is 
now laid on in such a manner that its 
lower edge meets the front bottom 
board. First, however, it should be 
beveled to the proper angle to allow of 
a perfect fit. The top edge of the bot- 
tom board is then rounded over to a 
blunt point. These details are illustrated 
in ig. 5. Three more top deck boards 
are then put into place. The front 
boards should be steamed before bend- 
ing. 

In the third boards back from the 
front, on the top and bottom of the body, 
¥s" holes should be bored midway be- 
tween the side planks, and 2” in from 
the rear edge of the boards in question. 
The hole in the bottom board is re-en- 
forced by a 14%” iron plate, 2” square, 
drilled in the center to correspond with 
the hole in the bottom plank. This plate 
is placed on the outside as shown in 
Fig.’ 5. 

It is now in order to insert the up- 
right shaft, affixed to the small runner, 
in the two half-inch holes bored for this 
purpose. The top of the shaft is then 
filed square in such a manner that it 
makes a good nt with the hole in the 
bevel gear, of the rotating device of an 
old ice cream freezer, which turns the 
dasher. This mechanism is seen in place 
in Fig. 5. It will be noticed that in this 
figure the housing for the gears is bolted 
direct to the upper deck on the outside, 
while in lig. 1 it is placed under the 
deck. The former method of outside 
mounting is by far the simplest, and 
probably the best. The ‘crank shaft of 
the freezer mechanism is slipped into an 
8” piece of heavy brass tube, which 
should fit snugly over it, and should be 
secured to prevent movement in any 
direction by two 1” pins passing 
through the tube and shaft. These pins 


448 Popular Science Monthly 


should be made of steel, and should be 
riveted in place. On the end of the 
brass tube is mounted the steering wheel. 
A good idea of the complete device can 
be gained from Fig. 5. 

The two rear runners should now be 
bolted to the body of the craft with 4” 
bolts. These runners should overlap the 
rear of the body by 3”, leaving about 11” 
of surface to bear against the body. The 
bottom edges of the runners should be 
3” below the body. In other words the 
clearance of the body at the rear should 
be 3’. At least 3 bolts should be put 
through each runner. 

Figure 6 gives a good view of the 
brake. This is constructed of two pieces 
of.iron, or soft steel. One piece 30” 
long by 4%” in diameter has its extremi- 
ties bent at right angles making legs 4” 
long. These are flattened as shown, and 
saw teeth filed to engage with the ice. 
To one of these legs is affixed the 1” 
x 14” iron lever by means of rivets. This 
is brought to the bottom of the leg and 
affords additional surface to engage with. 
The upper end of this is rounded to fit 
the hand. This brake is attached to the 
bottom of the body 20” from the rear by 
means of three stout brass straps. The 
lever is bent out to clear the side by about 
3” and when not in use is held against 
a small block by means of a spring as 
shown in Fig. 1, so as not to drag on 
the ice. 

The next step is to select a good sec- 
ond-hand motorcycle motor of from 3 to 
4h.p. A motor in good running condition 
can be bought for $10.00 with battery 
ignition, and for about $15.00 with a 
magneto. This motor is mounted at the 
extreme rear of the sled, and is held 
firmly in position by two U-shaped iron 
supports, one of which is shown in Fig. 
1. These supports should be about 14” 
thick by 1145” wide, and should be high 
enough to elevate the motor so that the 
distance between the top rear edge of the 
body and the main crankshaft bearing is 
about 187%. This will require about 44’’ 
of strap iron for each support, as these 
pieces must extend high enough up on 
each side of the crankcase to permit of 
two crankcase bolts on each side being 
passed through the supports, provided 
the engine in question has two bolts.to a 
side, which is generally the case. 


The controls on most second-hand mo- 
tors are so different that it is practically 
impossible to give any method for rig- 
ging them up on the motor ice-boat. The 
simplest method, is to use flexible con- 
trols for the spark and gas, mounting the 
levers on the side of the boat near the 
brake handle, in such a manner that they 
do not come in the way when actuating 
the brake. 


The next consideration in equipping 


the craft is to provide an aerial propeller 
of the proper diameter and pitch. So 
many things must be taken into consider- 
ation in designing a propeller for an ice- 
boat that it is practically impossible to 
submit any one design which will work 


at high efficiency. on any motor ice-boat.; 


In order to obtain the very highest efh- 
ciency exhaustive experiments with pro- 
pellers of different dimensions would be 
necessary. However, for ordinary work 
an aerial screw having an over-all length 
of 3’ will be found entirely satisfactory. 
in Fig. 7, a design is submitted which will 
give good results with a motor of from 
3 to 4h. p. The greatest pitch of this 
propeller is 4’.. This means that at every 
revolution the propeller theoretically ad- 
vances 4’ and in practice somewhat less 
than 3’ if we figure the efficiency at about 
70 per cent. 


The exact dimensions for the propeller 


are indicated in the sketch. The cross- 
sections of the blades given show the 
size and angle every 3” from the center 
to the tip. It will be noted that the un- 
der-surface of the blade is slightly con- 
cave, most of the cross-sections being 
semi-streamline in form. This propeller 
can be constructed of a 2’ by 6” spruce 
plank slightly over 3’ long. Spruce is 
one of the best materials for this pur- 
pose and also the cheapest. Most of the 
work in turning out this propeller can be 
done with a small hatchet or a draw- 
shave, and finished up with a spoke- 
shave. The blades should be well sand- 
papered and given several coats of shel- 
lac. This propeller is bolted directly to 
the pulley or sprocket as the case may 
be, on the end of the motor crankshaft, 
with two °4” bolts, the ends of which 
should be secured to prevent their loos- 
ening. 

The machine which has been-described 
will carry two passengers. 


a 


Popular Science M onthly 


A Simple Gas-Pressure Regulator 


STEADY gas pressure is often 
desirable but seldom obtainable di- 
rect from the main. The writer, desir- 
ing to use gas as fuel for six small in- 
cubators, found the regulator shown in 
the accompanying diagram very simple 
to construct and extremely effective. 
The tank used was a five-gallon, gal- 
vanized iron oil tank. The division 
shown is cut from a piece of galvanized 
iron and the pipes are fastened into place 
with locknuts and leather washers, be- 
fore it is soldered into place, which 
should be about one-third the way up the 
bottom. The center pipe is 144’ stand- 
ard and extends to the bottom, forming 
a conductor for the oil and a brace for 
the dividing diaphragm. The gas pipes 
are 14” standard, and are fastened firmly 
to the wood brace at the top of the tank. 
The regulating valve is an ordinary gas 
cut-off with an extended arm riveted to 
its “T” lever. The arm which connects 
the valve lever 
with the float, 
is bored in a 
number of 
places, which 
allows for set- 
ting. This ad- 
: justment is 
U beeZ "| ||_ necessary only 
Tem y once. The wood 
H float has two 
1” holes bored 
through it as 
shown, and so 
uses the two 
gas pipes as 
guides. The 
weight of the 
float must, of 
course, be suf- 
cient to operate the valve, which may be 
suppled up a little with laundry soap. 
Pour in enough thin, cheap machine 
oil to fill the bottom compartment and 
raise the float about an inch, set the 
valve about two-thirds open and turn on 
the gas. With no burners going, the 
float should rise so that the valve is 
nearly closed. With all burners going 
it should be an inch above where it 
stood before the gas was first turned 
into the regulator—E. C. Graves. 


a A psiaddadupceys 
LLL 


This simple device will 
regulate an uneven gas 
pressure from the main 


449 


An Emergency Drill Press 


DRILL press for emergency jobs 
can be made in a few minutes pro- 
available. A 


A 


vided a breast drill is 


GEE 
MME 
WM Ac 
.] 

jada 


» 


This emergency drill press is simple to rig 
up, and will be found very useful 


wooden arm between two and three feet 
in length should be pivoted at one end 
to a wooden support that is fastened 
by nails or screws to a stout base. A 
few inches from the pivot, a bolt should 
be inserted through the arm and the 
handle of the drill. Place the lever un- 
der the left arm; manipulate the drill 
with the hands.—N. S. McEwen. 


A Handy Chuck for a Small Lathe 


CHEAP and useful chuck for a 

polishing lathe, can be made as fol- 
lows: Cut from a 114” brass tube, a 
piece about 1” long. File the edges true 
and solder at one end a fairly thick disk 
of brass. In the centre of this, drill a 
hole and insert and solder a short length 
of steel shafting, which will serve as a 
grip for the drill chuck when mounted 


A good substitute for a scroll chuck 


on the lathe. At equidistant points 
around the circumference of the cup, 
drill and tap to fit three steel screws. 
The article to be turned is held securely 
by the screws.—H. VINCENT. 


450 


Utilizing Empty Cartridges 
\ 7 ERY good binding posts can be made 
from empty .32, .38 and .44 caliber 
cartridges and stove bolts in the follow- 
Grease the stove bolts with 


ing manner: 


Many useful devices, from bind- 
ing posts to alcohol torches, may 
be made from empty cartridges 


tallow or vaseline, place the 
threaded end in the empty 
cartridge, and hold it in place 
with the U-shaped strip of 
tin, as shown in the diagram. 
Now fill the space between the bolt and 
the cartridge with melted lead or babbitt 
metal. When the lead has hardened, re- 
move the strip of tin, and unscrew the 
bolt from the lead. By drilling a small 
hole through the cartridge, and solder- 
ing a small strip of brass to the bottom 
to permit its being fastened ‘to the de- 
sired base, an inexpensive and_ hand- 
some binding post is ready for use. 

A good alcohol torch can be made 
from a vaseline bottle and a rim-fire 
cartridge as follows: Make a _ hole 
through the screw cap of the bottle large 
enough to admit the cartridge. File off 
the closed end of the cartridge, so as to 
produce a short tube with a flange at one 
end. Insert this through the cap, to 
which it should be soldered. The wick 
is led through the tube from the bottle, 
and the entire outfit forms a serviceable 
torch. 


The Thermos Bottle as a Stove 


T is perhaps not generally known that 
the smallest fireless cook-stove is any 
one of the numerous vacuum bottles 


Popular Science Monthly | 4 


———4 


which have been on the market so long. 
In most families these are regarded as 
a convenience or luxury for picnic pur- 
poses. They really make a very useful 
fireless stove. 

Heat soup, beans, peas, 
or any other vegetable that 
will go through the rather 
small opening of the bottle, 
leave them there for several 
hours, and they will come 
out completely cooked. The 
many uses of vacuum bot- 
tles are by no means ex- 
hausted by the one just men- 
tioned. 


To Adjust a Light-Cord 


T is often difficult to ad- 

just the electric drop- 
wire quickly and at the right 
height by tying knots in the 
cord, and worse still to un- 
tie these knots and put new 
ones in, when the light is to 
be moved. The wires also 
become dirty after they have 
been up some time, and if 
one undertakes to change 
the light 
the result is a pair of 
soiled hands. 

A piece of good 
stiff cardboard, about 
the size of a calling 
card,and a sharp pen 
knife complete the 
list of necessaries to 
make a cure for this 
evil. Cut a diamond- 
shaped hole in the 
cardboard and draw 
the wire through the 
middle of the hole. ) 
When you have the 
light at the proper 
place, push the twist- 
ed wire towards the 
bottom and top of the 
slit, and the weight 
of the fixture and 
globe will prevent 
further slipping. 
There is no knot here 
and if it is desirable to move the light 
again you can do so, without any trouble, 
and in a minimum time. 


A 


Apiece of card- 
board and a 
knife make ty- 
ing knots un- 
necessary 


Oe Leaihia ae . 6 


— eg eee 


Experimental 


Electricity 


Practical Electrical Hints for the Amateur 
Wireless Communication 


Safeguarding Vessels by Radio 


By Annis Salsbury 


NE wreck a day is said to be the 

average on the fog-visited Pacific 

Coast. Commerce on the Great 
Lakes, while possible during only half 
the year, is exposed to dangers inherent 
in waters visited by dense and persistent 
fog. Likewise, the Atlantic Coast is not 
without this menace to navigation, for 
it runs a close second to the Pacific in 
the number of its sea tragedies; the Gulf 
of Mexico is also frequently blanketed 
with mist, and there the dangers of col- 
lision or grounding on coral reef or sand 
bank are much increased. 

The United States lighthouse service 
has greatly lessened the death toll of 
treacherous points, but even a beacon of 
a million candlepower or the shrillest 
fog whistle is powerless to combat fog. 
Sound, unreliable under even the best 
atmospheric conditions, is refracted and 
reflected to a marked degree by fog- 
banks, fog-waves and fog-billows. Fog 
blots out the bright rays from a light- 
house as completely as if it were 
swathed in thickest wool, and the mar- 
iner who is unfortunate enough to find 
himself on the sea under these condi- 
tions, unable to sight a warning beacon, 
and not trusting fog-siren or booming 
rocket, flounders about as helplessly as 
a blind man on a busy street. Fog is 
without doubt the greatest menace to 
safety known to navigation, and any 
means of enabling a mariner to keep his 
course in fog and to receive timely 
warning of the proximity of other 
vessels will relieve ocean travel of its 
chief danger. 


Scientists in the United States, thor- 
oughly cognizant of this fact, have for 
some time been on the trail of devices 
calculated to overcome this peril of the 
sea, but not until recently have practical 
suggestions been put forward for the 
relief of this age-old menace. 

The “radio compass,” which promises 
to add much to the safety of navigation, 
has been in use in Europe for several 
years. It is said that ships have found 
their way up the river to Hamburg in 
the densest fog, and that Zeppelins de- 
pend entirely on stations fitted with this 
special apparatus during darkness or 
when the earth and its familiar land- 


Loop pikes Nal 
Th gy angles 


€ 


Rado - ‘gontanater 
howing 2 primaries 
A &B8 af right angles. 
aA rordling 5éc. © 


ar 


Wiring diagram of the Bellini-Tosi di- 
rectional receiver 


452 Popular Science Monthly 


marks are blotted from view by mists 
or fogs. The French government, as 
well, has made it possible for ships, 
fitted with the compass, to determine 
their positions through wireless signals 
from the stations along the coast. 

The United States Radio Service is 
now experimenting with the Bellini- 
Tosi type of radio compass at Cape Cod 
and the Telefunken compass at Fire 
Island. The purpose of each is to en- 
able the navigating officer of a vessel to 
take bearings of wireless telegraph sta- 
tions, ini order to find the position of his 
ship or to avoid collision with other 
craft. It is not asserted that the bear- 
ings taken exceed, or even equal in ac- 
curacy, those taken with an accurate op- 
tical instrument under favorable condi- 
tions, but reliable bearings may be 
obtained by radio, when direct optical 
bearings may not be taken because of 
unsettled weather, etc., and in making 
harbors, in keeping to difficult channels, 
and in avoiding collisions with other 
vessels, when fog obliterates surround- 
ing objects from view. 


Transmitting Distributors of the Tele- 
funken Compass 


Both compasses are modifications of 
the same principle. The Bellini-Tosi 
type provides that the moving station, 
whose position requires determination, 
shall send signals to a fixed station. The 
direction of receipt is determined at the 
fixed station, and then transmitted by 
wireless to the moving station. In the 
Telefunken system, the fixed station 
sends out signals and the moving station 
determines from what direction they 
are coming. In both arrangements it is 
necessary that one of the stations should 
be directive. > 

Directive sending is accomplished by 
special antennas, which are considerably 
more complicated than those of the ordi- 
nary undirective type, require greater 
space, and are difficult to install on 
movable stations, such as ships or aero- 
planes. The system in which fixed sta- 
tions send out directive signals, therefore, 
appeared most feasible to German in- 
ventors. In this case the movable re- 
ceiver need only be equipped with an 
ordinary antenna. The Telefunken com- 


pass is so worked out, then, that it may 
be installed only on shore. Some thirty- 
two transmitting antennas are disposed 
at equal distances around a circumfer- 
ence of a circle 200 meters in diameter. 
Each pair is joined up successively with 
the transmitting apparatus by a rotary 
distributor, and at each position a signal 
corresponding to a point of the com- 
pass is sent out. An operator on board 
ship thus hears a succession of signals, 
increasing gradually in strength to a 
maximum and then dying away. The 
loudest signal occurs at the moment the 
shore operator is sending on the anten- 
nas pointed in the direction of the re- 
ceiver. All that is necessary for the 
ship operator to do, then, to obtain the 
bearing of the land station, is to note 
the signal that is strongest. 

On the other hand, the Bellini-Tosi 
arrangement is contrived so that it may 
be installed on shipboard. The ship 
thus fitted is enabled to get its bearing 
from any wireless station on the coast 
or inland, if within range of the ship’s 
wireless. The salient features of the 
Bellini-Tosi system are two aerial loops 
of equal size, suspended in _ vertical 
planes crossing each other at right angles, 
and a “radiogometer” or special receiv- 
ing transformer, having two primary 
coils of equal size and crossing each 
other at right angles in vertical planes. 
When a signal is received, currents are 
induced in both aerials, their relative 
strength depending on the direction of 
the sending station with reference to the 
planes of the two aerial loops. The 
signal is loudest when the plane of the 
aerial loop is the same as that of the 
sending station, weakest when the planes 
are at right angles. The induced cur- 
rents pass through the corresponding 
crossed coils in the instrument and pro- 
duce, in the space enclosed by them, two 
magnetic fields at right angles to each 
other. The two fields have relative 
strengths depending on the relative 
strengths, depending on the relative 
aerials, and they combine to form a re- 
sultant field at right angles to the di- 
rection from which signals are coming. 
The pivoted secondary coil will conse- 
quently receive the strongest signals 
when its plane is in the direction from 
which signals are coming. A pointer at- 


EEE 


—~  ™ «eR ae 


Popular Science 


tached to this secondary or “exploring” 
coil indicates its position and _ con- 
sequently the direction of the sending 
station. 

A useful application of the direction 
finder is the determination of whether 
the ship is on a course which will take 
it inside or outside a lightship or iso- 
lated lighthouse. A few signals from 
the fixed station will settle the question 
as certainly as if the light were visible. 
Similarly, when making a harbor, a few 
signals from a station within will show 
immediately whether the ship has drifted 
to one side of the entrance. When try- 
ing to locate another vessel in a fog, the 
indication of the direction finder may 
show, by a steadily increasing strength 
of signal, that the other ship is approach- 
ing, but, since only the direction and 
not the sense is given, it might leave 
doubt as to whether it was approaching 
on the port bow or the starboard quarter. 
A wireless query as to her course, ad- 
dressed to the other ship, would remove 
the doubt at once. 

Following out the German idea and in- 
stalling the compass on shore, relieves 
the ship of a special aerial, but the 
point against it is that there must be 
numerous coast stations fitted out with 
the transmitting apparatus. The Tele- 
funken device is used along the German 
coast, however, and at the outbreak of 
the war, comprehensive schemes for in- 
stallation at intervals of every 25 miles 
along the northern and western coasts 
were about to be carried out. 

United States Government engineers, 
working from a slightly different angle, 
have suggested a plan which they be- 
lieve will greatly reduce the fog peril 
and yet require minimum investment in 
men and money. It is merely a wire- 
less transmitter, fitted with an auto- 
matic sending device, and calibrated to 
send only a limited distance. This radio 
fog-signal may be installed with equal 
facility on shipboard or at a land station. 
The antennas are of the simplest type, 
and the automatic transmitter makes it 
possible for any person to operate it. A 
ship making its way along the coast in 
a fog may hear some lighthouse in his 
vicinity, equipped with the radio fog- 
signal, sending out a pre-arranged series 
of signals, characteristic of that particu- 


Monthly 453 


—=—= 


—S 


The transmitting distributor of the Tele- 
funken compass 

lar lighthouse. The captain then knows 
that he is within ten or twelve miles of 
that particular point. His position is 
further fixed as the ship proceeds, from 
the change in intensity of the signals, 
since, if the signals increase in strength, 
the captain knows that he is getting 
nearer the source of transmission. 

A bad coast may be fitted with the 
radio signals at intervals close enough 
so that the coast-wise vessel will 
pass directly from the jurisdiction of 
one to that of the next. In this way 
there will be continuous protection for 
the ship. Installed on shipboard it may 
prove a valuable means of keeping ves- 
sels from crowding on to one another. 
The radio fog-signal is not a direction 
finder, but is to be merely a warning to 
ships passing along a dangerous coast, 
or an inexpensive addition to  ship’s 
equipment which way be used in time 
of fog. 


The Earth’s Conductivity 


HE resistance of sea-water is 

only about one-hundredth that 
of fresh water. Damp earth often 
offers less resistance to electric current 
than does fresh water, but dry earth 
méasures over ten times as many ohms 
between opposite sides of a cubic 
section. 


454 Popular Science Monthly 


Finding the Positive Wire 


N easy and 

simple way 
to find out which 
wire froma 
storage battery 
is positive and 
which is nega- 
tive is the fol- 
lowing: 

Take a glass 
tumbler and draw some of the electro- 
lyte from the battery, filling the tumbler 
about half full. Take two strips of 
clean lead and attach them to the two 
wires. Drop the leads into the solution, 
suspending them free in it, and switch 
on the current. After two or three min- 
utes turn off the current and examine 
the pieces of lead. The one attached to 
the positive wire will be covered with a 
fine brownish deposit, while the nega- 
tive end will be clean. The illustration 
herewith shows the arrangement. 


How to Prolong the Life of 
Battery Cells 


| icearamead used for gas engine 
ignition are usually connected in 
series parallel, or, in opposition. This 
is the best method of connecting them, 
since a larger current can be obtained. 

One disadvantage in this method of 
connecting cells is that, if the cells are 
left in opposition when not in use, they 
very quickly “die.” The accompany- 
ing diagram shows a handy method of 
connecting eels so they will be in par- 
allel only when 
the. switehus 
closed. When the 
switch is opened 
the parallel con- 
nection, as well as 
the external cir- 
cuit, will be broken. The arrows indi- 
cate the direction of the current when 
the switch is closed. 


7o Spark Coil 


The Obligation to Secrecy. 
LTHOUGH the United States 


Government does not require ex- 
perimental radio receiving stations or 
their operators to hold Federal li- 
censes, the law as to secrecy of re- 
ceived messages is enforced upon 
them. This law states in effect that 


no persons shall divulge or publish the 
contents of any radio messages re- 
ceived or known by them, and provides 
a fine of $250 and three months im- 
prisonment for violations. 


Springless Electric Bell 


N electric bell can be made which 

will operate without springs, by in- 
stalling the armature between two op- 
posed sets of magnets. The resistance 
of opposing sets of magnet coils should 
be equal, about 150 ohms when the bell 
is operated on low voltage, and 200 ohms 
when a higher voltage is used. The dia- 
gram of necessary connections is shown 
in the accompanying illustration. 


The action of the magnets makes the use of 
springs unnecessary 


Photographic Records Still 
Impracticable 


IGH speed automatic wireless tele- 

graphy in which a photographic re- 
corder is used for the receipt of messages 
has often been attempted. Under favor- 
able conditions signals of a moderate 
strength can be recorded at 80 or 100 
words per minute, but presence of the 
slightest “‘static’’ 
Even normal static, as it is heard during 
the summer in Northern latitudes, is suf- 
ficiently troublesome to make practical 
working impossibile. Other methods, 
such as those using phonographs or tele- 
graphones, for recording the incoming 
signals, have proved successful over mod- 
erate distances. The large number of 
messages which can be sent in a short 
time by automatic working makes the 
problem attractive to radio companies. 


makes great trouble.. 


_ 


Ss tts 


Popular Science Monthly 


A Simple But Powerful Arc-Light 


HE arc-light shown can be made 

from odds and ends at a very 
small cost and can be used for many 
different purposes. 

A piece of wood for the base, some 
strips of brass, a few battery binding 
posts, screws, drop cord and plug, and 
two battery carbons in a fruit-jar, with 
a small piece of fiber insulation, are all 
the articles needed to construct the 
light. 

The fruit-jar resistance is the novel 
feature. Two ordinary battery carbons 
are held at a fixed distance from each 
other by two strips of fibre, the bottoms 
being about '%-inch and the tops 3¢-inch 
apart. 

Rubber insulation cut from an old 
baby buggy tire may be used for handles 
at the ends of the strips holding the 
arc carbons. By moving these handles 
the arc may be raised or lowered and 
fed together. 

After the wiring is completed, fill the 
jar 3% full of water and connect the plug 
with a regular 110 volt house light 
socket. This will make it necessary to 
put heavier fuses in the fuse block. 

This arc will melt any substance 
placed between the carbons, as it will 
give from 14 to 1 inch flame. 

If a housing is placed over the base, 


Diagram showing relative 
positions of carbons 


as shown in dotted lines, and a reflector 
used with a common reading glass in the 
sleeve, the arc will cast a light the dis- 
tance of a mile. 


455 


An Electric Heater in the Garage 
Makes Cranking Easy 


nae problem of cranking an engine 
on cold mornings is one of the irk- 
some tasks that still confronts the owner 
of automobiles. Radiators filled with 


Diagram of wire connection with heater 


an anti-freezing mixture will resist very 
low temperature without congealing, but 
if an engine is idle over night, all the 
working parts become so cold that a 
great deal of energy must be expended 
at the crankshaft before even a sputter 
of encouragement comes from the ex- 
haust muffler. This can be avoided by 
the use of a 500 watt electric air-heater. 
The circuits to feed the heaters can be 
wired, as shown in the diagram. 

About half an hour before the owner 
is ready to use his car in the morning, 
he turns the switch, which is located in- 
side the house, and the heater in the 
garage begins to warm up the engine and 
the fluid in the radiator. As he leaves 
the house he disconnects the heater from 
the line; but by this time the engine, ra- 
diator and carburetor are warm, and at 
the first turn, a liberal charge of gas is 
exploded in the engine cylinder and the 
car is ready for work. 


The Wireless Idea Is More Than 
Seventy Years Old 


EARLY eighty years ago the first 

patents on wire telegraph sys- 
tems were issued, in England and 
America. The first suggestion that 
wires might be eliminated came only 
a few years after the beginning of line 
telegraphy, and although “wireless” 
telegraphy by conduction was prac- 
ticed experimentally in 1842, it was not 
until 1895 that radio telegraphy was 
first accomplished. 


Recent Radio Inventions 


Microphonic Relays; An Unusual Quenched Spark-Gap; 
a Shpping-Contact Detector 


By A. F. 
Fa a number of years inventors 


struggled to produce microphonic 

relays, but their work was practi- 
cally without substantial success. It was 
not found possible to build an instrument 
which would magnetically modulate the 
current through a microphone contact in 
such a way that all the vibrations of the 
human voice could be reproduced and 
magnified. This, 
nevertheless, did 
not prevent the de- 
velopment of mi- 
crophonic relays 
that would aug- 
ment the energy of 
current having a 
single definite fre- 
quency. Instru- 
ments of this sort 
are shown in 1915 
U.S. patent’, No: 
1,163,180, issued to 
W. = Schloemilch 
and A. Leib. 

One arrangement 
of this patent is 
shown in Fig. 1. 
The antenna, tun- 
ing and rectifying system a, b, c, f, leads 
the converted, pulsating energy of the 
received waves to the first amplifier dz. 
This consists of a wire vibrating system 
gt connected mechanically to a micro- 
phone Ar. The tension of the vibrating 
Wire is variable, and is to be adjusted so 
that its mechanical period is the same as 
the sound period of the incoming wave 
groups. Thus the wire is made to vi- 
brate, through resonance, and a great 
effect is produced upon the microphone. 
The current from battery kr is varied by 
the first relay and led through the mag- 
nets and the second-step relay, which 
controls the current from a second bat- 
tery. The second step of amplification 
is carried into the third relay and its 
output through switch m either into the 
loud-speaking telephone » or into the 
delicate contact relay p, the final relay 


456 


Fig. 1. With amicrophonic relay of this sort, 
tremendous magnifications may be obtained 


Jackson 


or, and the Morse printer o. The relay 
p is not of the microphonic type, like 
those of the first three steps, but has a 
tuned wire pz in contact with a sluggish 
spring p2. 

When signals are received of the 
group frequency to which all these re- 
lays are attuned, the third-step relay 
sends a strong current into the intensi- 
fying instrument /. The vibrations of the 
wire PI practically open the local circuit 
of this last named 
apparatus and so 
permit the final re- 
lay to close and 
the Morse printer 
to. registers iis 
same microphonic 
amplifying appara- 
tus may be applied 
to sustained-wave 
reception, if an in- 
terrupter is insert- 
ed ‘at either the 
sender or receiver ; 
in this case, the vi- 
brating wires are 
tuned to the inter- 
rupter frequency. 

In the same way, beats or heterodyne 
receivers may be used, and the relays 
tuned to the resulting signal frequency. 
With apparatus of this kind, tremendous 
magnifications of signals may be ob- 
tained; the microphonic relays must, 
however, be protected from vibration 
and kept in accurate adjustment. In 
place of the intensifying relay p, a trans- 
former and rectifier may be used to make 
the amplified alternating currents oper- 
ate a direct-current relay. 

By the combination’ of large amplifi- 
cation from the microphone relays, con- 
nected in cascade, with exceedingly sharp 
resonance to tone frequency, some ex- 
tremely interesting results have been se- 
cured. Using a single receiving antenna, 
tuner and detector, it has been found pos- 
sible to record, on separate Morse tapes, 
messages from three different transmit- 


Popular Science Monthly 


ters, sent simultaneously on the same 
wavelength. Each sender used a differ- 
ent spark fre- 
quency, and three 
banks of relays, 
such as those de- 
scribed, were con- 
nected in the tele- 
phone circuit of 
the receiver. Each 
of the relay- 
groups was me- 
chanically tuned 
to the tone-fre- 
quency of one of 
the senders, and 
theretrore re 
sponded to signals from that station 
only. 

The use of group-frequency tuning, in 
addition to the ordinary wavelength tun- 
ing, gives a vast number of combinations 
for the reduction and prevention of in- 
terference. The practical difficulty is 
that “static” is amplified along with the 
messages, and, what is most unfortunate, 
produces a ringing, musical sound. This 
of course makes it all the harder to read 
the signals. 

Patent No. 1,129,942, 1915, issued to 
H. D. Arnold, shows a form of audion 
tube of increased efficiency. It is found 
possible, by varying the location of the 
plate with respect to the grid and fila- 
ment, and by altering the form of the 
grid, to build audion amplifiers in which 
the magnified en- 
ergy is character- 
ized either by 
high voltage or 
high current. A 
bulb of the high 
voltage type is 
shown in Fig. 2, 
in which the grid 
3 consists of fine 
wire and is placed 
close to the fila- 
ment 5. The plate 
4 is set at some 
distance from the grid-filament system 
and the whole is enclosed in the usual 
evacuated bulb 6. The patent referred 
to deals especially with various combi- 
nations of these high and low voltage 
amplifiers for line telephony; neverthe- 
less, the use of similar instruments for 


> 
SS Sat) 


Y 
H 
Y 
y 
y 
i 
4 


SSS 


Fig. 2. An audion bulb 
of high voltage 


| 


lect odes 


Fig. 3. A quenched spark 
gap of unusual construc- 
tion 


457 


both radio transmitters, amplifiers and 
receivers makes the design of interest. 
A quenched spark-gap of unusual con- 
struction appears in Fig. 3. Small 
tungsten buttons, having parallel faces, 
are set into brass or copper electrode- 
holders, and set with their parallel faces 
very close together. A number of these 
gaps, each operating in open-air, are 
connected in series to make up the com- 
plete quenched-gap system. With gaps 
of this type, on account of the very high 
melting point of tungsten, the two elec- 
trodes can be adjusted very close to- 
gether without any great likelihood of 


Fig. 4. Diagram of the slipping-contact de- 
tector for radio telegraphy 


short-circuiting through oxidation. Also, 
since tungsten is practically unburnable, 
the diameter of the electrodes may be 
made very much less than in the ordi- 
nary quenched gaps. The inventor states 
that little difficulty is experienced in get- 
ting pure spark-tones when the tung- 
sten electrodes are used, because of their 
constancy in operation; it is pointed out 
that even with incorrect coupling values, 
the spark tone remains good. Oscillation 
circuit couplings of as high as 45 per 
cent, giving extremely high quenching, 
may be used. The drawing is taken 
from 1915 U. S. patent No. 1,152,272, is- 
sued to H. Boas, 


458 


A United States patent issued to C. V. 
Logwood, in 1915, No. 1,161,142, de- 
scribes what has come to be known as 
the “‘slipping-contact” detector for radio 
telegraphy. This is shown in Fig. 4, and 
consists of a grooved conducting cylin- 
der 12, which is rotated by a smaller mo- 
tor 13 and has bearing upon its surface a 
delicately fine contacting wire, 16. This 

apparatus forms a resistance- 


varying device, which is connect- 
2 3 9 lé 
4 
=/ 


Fig. 5. Aresistance-varying device connected 
into the receiving circuit 


ed into the receiving circuit as shown in 
Fig. 5. Rapid irregular changes of re- 
sistance, or in some cases actual break- 
ing of the circuit, result in permitting 
the large condenser 8 to draw an irreg- 
ular charge from the condenser 6 in the 
oscillating circuit. The condenser 8 dis- 
charges through the telephone 7, and 
gives the hissing response to sustained 
or feebly damped waves that is charac- 
teristic of this form of receiver. The 
device has been found to be very sensi- 
tive as compared with a rectifier and in- 
terrupter for receiving sustained waves, 
and in addition has the advantage of 
drawing energy from the receiving sec- 
ondary circuit at so small a rate that 
very sharp tuning may be obtained. 
Patent No. 1,144,969, issued to G. W. 
Pickard, shows an interesting receiver 
for radio telegraphy and telephony. The 
circuit arrangement is shown in Fig. 6, 
where the antenna A is_ connected 
through an inductance Li to ground G. 
Coupled to this primary coil, which is 
tuned to the frequency of the incoming 
waves, is a secondary L3, shunted by 
tuning condenser C2 and having associ- 
ated with it the detector D, condenser 
C3, and telephone 7. These elements 
form the usual receiver, which is tuned 
to the waves it is desired to receive; the 
present invention adds to this a closed 
oscillating circuit formed of coil L2 and 


Popular Science Monthly 


condenser Cz. This third inductance 
coil L2 has a variable coupling to the 
primary Li, and is used to create elec- 
trical beats in the receiving circuits by 
the peculiar coupling reactions which oc- 
cur when the mutual inductance of the 
system is given the correct value. The 
inventor states, in effect, that when sus- 
tained waves are received, the primary 
and the closed circuits may be so related 
that the inducing and induced currents 
will react upon each other in such a way 
as to produce electrical beats or ampli- 
tude variations and at such frequency 
that they may be picked up by the coil 
L3. The receiver is of nearly equal 
value if the received waves are not com- 
pletely sustained, but are only- feebly 
damped; for highly damped, incoming 
energy, however, the device is practi- 
cally inoperative. From the patent spec- 
ification, it appears that this is a new 
type of receiver which will give variable 
musical responses to signals transmitted 
by spark or sustained-wave alternator- 
senders. The tighter the coupling be- 
tween L2 and Lz, the higher the fre-. 
quency of the beat-tones produced. The 
coil L3 should not be very tightly cou- 
pled to the primary Lr. ; 

A modified form of quenched-gap 
sender is shown in Fig. 7, from U. S. 
patent 1,162,830, issued to G. Von Arco 
and A. Meissner. The invention 
is intended to permit heterodyne 
Z3 


Fig. 6. An interesting receiver for radio tele- 
phony as well as telegraphy 

or beats reception from spark-senders, 
without destroying the musical charac- 
ter of the signal note. As is well known, 
when a heterodyne receiver is used for 
producing sustained-wave signals, the 
tones produced are clear and perfectly 
musical; the same receiver, when trans- 
lating signals from spark-senders, almost 
invariably gives a hissing sound instead 


Popular Science Monthly 


of the ringing musical tone which is so 
desirable. At one time it was thought 
that the increase in damping of spark 
signals, as compared to those of sus- 
tained-wave transmitters, was responsible 
for this change of note, but more recent- 
ly it has been found that the difficulty 
arose through the constant changes of 
phase from group to group. If the train 
of waves produced by a single spark dis- 
charge continued until the next spark 
passed, and if the second spark occurred 
at just the right instant and in the right 
direction to keep its waves in exact phase 
(or so to speak, hand in hand) with 
those which were dying away, the beats- 
receiver would pro- 
duce a musical 
tone instead of a 
hiss. The method 
of the present pat- 
ent is directed to- 
ward _ producing 
this result. 

Referring to the 
figure, the closed 
primary circuit J, 
including the con- 
demser 7 and 
quenched spark- 
gap 2, coupled to 
the antenna circuit JJ, is charged by 
power from the alternator 12 through 
lead wires 4 and 5. A portion of the 
spark-gap is shunted by the closed cir- 
cuit JJ, which comprises the secondary 
of transformer S, condenser 7, and 
spark-gap 9, with shunting-switch 13. 
Transformer 8 serves to couple the con- 
trolling circuit JV with the ignition cir- 
cuit JJ; IV includes one coil of trans- 
former 75, coupling it to the antenna. 
Primary and secondary of 15 may be 
short-circuited by switches 16 and 17. 
Associated with the antenna is a closed 
pick-up circuit VJ, which has coupled to 
it a rectifying-detector combination V[// 
and a local high-frequency-generator 
circuit VI/, 

The operation of circuits J and JI is 
in accordance with the ordinary quenched 
spark-gap practice. Controlling circuit 
IV, however, acting through ignition cir- 
cuit J/7, (and being of high persistence 
compared to the antenna), tends to reg- 
ulate the recurrence of spark in the 
main gap 2. With transformer 175 in 


Fig. 7. A modified form of quenched-gap sender 


459 


operation, by opening switches 16 and 
17, the antenna JJ reacts upon and goy- 
erns the controlling circuit JV; the con- 
joint operation of these various systems 
keeps the successive wave groups of the 
same phase and therefore, by continual 
reinforcement of the oscillations in the 
persistent receiver-circuit, results in a 
pure signal note in the heterodyne tele- 
phone. Thus it becomes possible to take 
advantage of the musical note for read- 
ing through static, in addition to the am- 
plifying properties 
of the beats-receiv- 
er and the compar- 
ative simplicity of 
quenched-gap_ op- 
eration. The cir- 
emitisi: hi, PL. 
Milly & Orme a 
beats-receiver used 
as a tone-tester at 
the transmitting 
station; when the 
outgoing wave- 
trains are held ex- 
actly in step by the 
controlling circuits, 
the telephone of 
VIIT gives off a 
musical tone of the 
the distant receiving 


sort heard at 
station. 


ANNOUNCEMENT 


The time which must neces- 
sarily elapse before the pub- 
lication in a monthly maga- 
zine of news of any sort has 
forced us to discontinue the 


department of ‘Radio Club 
News.” The editor will, 
however, be interested to re- 
ceive communications from 
Radio Club secretaries, and 
suggestions from them con- 
cerning the magazine and 
future articles. 


460 


An Improved Crystal Detector 
Stand 
FTER many years of scientific ex- 
perimentation with various kinds 
of detector stands and contacts, the crys- 


tal detector stand described below was 


found satisfactory. 

The detector is of the ferro type, 
mounted on a small box containing an 
arrangement for moving the crystal. 
The chief merit of the instrument lies in 
the use of a direct differential screw 
which insures perfect alinement. 

This differential screw consists of a 


l 


| 


1 oT 


u 
SS 


Elevation and plan of a simple crystal 
detector stand 


combination of an 8-32 screw and a 2-56 
screw. It is made by drilling in the 
end of the 8-32 screw a hole to be tapped 
out with a 2-56 thread. A little patience 
is required, for if the builder does not 
center the hole perfectly the first time, he 
must try again. This is where the suc- 
cess of the instrument lies. A 2-56 screw 
is to be screwed tightly into this hole. 

A hole should then be drilled in the 
piece A, directly below the one in the 
piece B, and tapped out for a 2-56 thread. 
When the differential screw is screwed 
in place and turned one complete revolu- 
tion, it will lower 1-32”, but at the same 
time the piece 4 will be raised 1-56” by 
the other screw, or in other words, the 
piece A will be lowered 3/224”. 

The rest of the standard is easily 
made, as may be seen from the diagram, 
the pieces A and B being of 1/16” brass, 
14” wide and of a suitable length. The 
pieces C are of thin phosphor bronze or 
brass 14” wide and of suitable length, 
and the pillars D of round or hexagonal 
brass of any size to please the maker. 
The parts are held together with 8-32 
machine screws. 


A box of 14” oak about 514” by 3” 


Popular Science Monthly 


by 1144” should then be made, the detect- 
or being mounted centrally on the cover. 
Two binding posts are put on the front 
as well as the knob for the adjusting 
arrangement. As will be observed the 
adjusting arrangement includes a screw 
with adjusting knob, the screw running 
through the box, and the far end having 
the thread filed off and resting in a small 
hole bored in the back of the box. Jam 
nuts are used in back of the front piece 
to prevent the screw from coming out. 


A small guide rod guides the piece 
H, which is moved by turning the screw. 
The rest of the arrangement can be seen 
from the diagram. The disk cup should 
be mounted eccentrically on the shaft N 
so as to obtain a greater range and con- 
tact for the mineral. The hole in the 
top of the box should be small enough 
so that the mineral will be held firmly. 
The standard and mineral adjusting de- 
vice are connected respectively to the 
two binding posts. 


For a contact wire, a piece of very 
stiff German silver or other resistance 
wire (not iron) should be used, and 
heavy or light contact can be made with 
the point. No. 30 B. & S. is all right. 


Loose-Coupler Switch Arrangement 


MATEURS often wonder how they 

can reduce the number of taps on 
their loose-coupler and still tune accu- 
rately. The following scheme has been 
used successfully and it is found that it 
not only saves money but the instrument 
works more easily. Instead of tapping 
every wire in the first ten and then every 
tenth wire, a tap is taken from every 
second wire in the first twenty and after 
that every twentieth wire. Thus half of 
the taps are done away with on the sec- 
ond switch. This, of course, only tunes 
in steps of two. To remedy this a separ- 
ate single turn is added at one end of 
the primary and arranged with an extra 
two-point switch, so that this turn can be 
used whenever needed. With this ar- 


rangement, any possible number of turns 
may be used and the trouble and ex- 
pense of making several extra taps are 
saved. Another advantage is that rough 
tuning can be accomplished much more 
quickly and, after a station is located, 
the more accurate tuning can be done. 


Making a Master Vibrator for Automobiles 


HE ignition of any motor car 

equipped with a vibrating coil may 
be greatly improved by the insertion of 
a device known as a “master vibrator” 
in the circuit. It is very difficult to ad- 
just the separate vibrators for each 
cylinder, so that sparks of the same in- 
ce tensity are produced 
= pitnemen, (o,f! the 
cylinders; but by 
substituting one vi- 
brator for the sev- 
eral originally used, 
this difficulty is 
overcome. 

A discarded unit 
coil may be secured 
from any garage or 
second-hand _ parts 
house, the only requirement being that 
the vibrator on the end of the coil shall 
“buzz” when current is passed through 
the terminals. It is not necessary for 
this coil to deliver a spark. Hence the 
condition of the secondary winding is 
unimportant. A single coil which has 
been removed from a set of two or more, 
will prove very satisfactory, the box not 
being required. 

This coil will have three terminals, 
two for the battery current and one that 
led to the spark plug. Connect four or 
five dry cells, as shown, and touch the 
two wires to any two of the three ter- 
minals until a pair is found which causes 
the vibrator to operate. Connect either 
one of the two terminals just found to 
the third (the one that did not cause 
vibration). This  short-circuits the 
secondary winding of the coil, and makes 
it inoperative. The two terminals which 
did cause vibration are to be used. If 
this coil has no protecting box, it will 
be best to make one of a size that just 
takes the coil, with a cover hinged or 
screwed on over the vibrator end. The 
two terminals to be used should be 
brought to the outside of this box, pre- 
ferably through the .end opposite the 
cover, and the box containing the coil 
should then be mounted solidly on the 
dashboard by the side of the two, four 
or six-unit coil-box already there. 

It will now be necessary to prepare 


The master vibrator 
as completed 


the coils on the car which have been 
in use for ignition purposes. A _ per- 
manent electrical connection must be 
made between the two platinum points 
on each vibrator. This may be done 
in either of two ways. The best meth- 
od is to run a short piece of copper 
wire from the metal piece carrying 
the vibrator-spring to the metal piece 
on which the other platinum contact 
is carried. This allows the current 
that formerly flowed from one contact 
to the other, to pass through the cop- 
per wire, and the spring will no longer 
tremble when current flows. A quicker, 
although not as satisfactory a method, 
is to turn the adjusting screw on each 
coil until the two contacts are held 
tightly together, making the circuit 
complete at all times and preventing 
vibration of the spring. 

The wires running from the coil 
originally used to the timer on the en- 
gine and to the spark plugs, are to re- 
main, but all other wires to battery, 
magneto and switches are to be re- 
moved from the coil terminals. This 
completes the preparation of the coil 
formerly used. 

If the car is equipped with two sets 
of batteries, or a set of batteries and a 
magneto (such as the Ford magneto), 


When the contacts are properly adjusted, 
the addition of this master vibrator greatly 
improves the ignition circuit 


it will be necessary to fit a switch hav- 
ing three terminals, one for the batter- 
ies, one for the magneto or reserve set 
of batteries and the other for the coil 
connection. This switch will have 


461 


462 
three positions, one being “off,” one 
for battery and the other for the mag- 
neto or second set of batteries. If but 
one set of batteries was used, or if the 
magneto was used without batteries, 
it will be necessary only to use a 
switch having two terminals, one “on” 
and one “off.” The switch selected 
should be fastened to the dash or to 
the box containing the master coil, 
previously described. 

The system is then ready for wiring. 
A good grade of primary wire should 
be used, and the connections should 
be made with regular brass or cop- 
per wire terminals soldered on. The 
switch Swe | used on the coil case 
should be placed in one of the positions 
formerly used for running and al- 
lowed to remain there permanently. 


: < \ / 
BR 


Wiring diagram showing connections for 
master vibrator 


If the position selected is on the “mag- 
neto” side, the following connection 
will be made to the terminal which 
formerly ran to the magneto; if on the 
“battery” side, to the connection which 
ran to the battery. This terminal, either 
battery or magneto, should now be con- 
nected to either terminal on the master 
coil. 

If a switch having but two terminals 
was used, the remaining connection 
from the master coil should be con- 
nected to either switch terminal. If 
a switch having three terminals was 
used, this connection from the master 


Popular Science Monthly 


coil will be made to the common ter- 
minal on the switch. This common 
terminal is the one that completes a 
circuit through either of the other 
switch terminals, depending on which 
way the switch is thrown. 

If the switch having but two termin- 
als is in use, connect the unused ter- 
minal to the battery or magneto 
through the wire which formerly ran 
to the coil on the car. . If the three- 
terminal switch is used, run a wire 
from the terminal that completes a 
circuit when in the “battery” position 
to the battery, and run another wire 
from the terminal that completes the 
circuit when in the “magneto” posi- 
tion to the magneto. This can be ac- 
complished by attaching the wires that 
formerly ran to the car-coil terminals 
to the new switch terminals. 

Provided the connections have been 
made as directed and other wires have 
not been disturbed, the system is ready 
to operate when the master vibrator 
has been properly adjusted. This is 
done by turning the adjusting screw 
until the contacts are seen to sepa- 
rate. The screw is then turned in the 
opposite direction until the contacts 
just come together. Turn the starting 
crank or flywheel with the new switch 
in the “battery” position until the vi- 
brator is heard to buzz; then turn 
the switch off without moving the fly- 
wheel out of this position. The vi- 
brator may be adjusted by removing 
a spark plug wire about 14” from the 
plug and again turning on the switch. 
Turn the adjusting screw one way or 
the other until a good strong spark is 
secured, replace the spark plug wire 
and start the engine as usual. 


Cutting Brass 


ITH a quill pin dipped in a strong 

solution of alcoholic corrosive 
sublimate, draw a line on the brass. Set 
it dry and then go over it with the pen 
dipped in nitric acid. The metal may 
then be broken like glass cut with a 
diamond.—JOHN SCHMELZEIS. 


If you want further information about the subjects which are taken up in 


the Popular Science Monthly, write to our Readers’ Service Department. 


We 


will gladly furnish free of charge names of manufacturers of devices described 


and illustrated. 


Popular Science Monthly 


A Motor-Operated Aerial Switch 


N the DeForest sending equipment of 

a certain station, no anchor gaps are 
used, since the switching system for the 
Betial cousists: of, a large D. P. D. T. 
switch with one side for sending and the 
other for receiving. The operators could 
not place the switch near the operating 
table, since then the aerial and ground 
leads for the sending set would have to 
run a long way to reach it. This, of 
course, is objectionable because these 
leads induce high potentials in the light 
and power wires in the station; high 
voltages may be induced even in the re- 
ceiving set, burning out the detector and 
so on. The switch was placed so that 
the sending-set leads were of minimum 
lengths, even though it had to be fas- 
tened high up on the ceiling. At first, a 
system of ropes over pulleys to work the 
switch was used, but it was not easily 
operated from the table and the entire 
arrangement did not look 
good. 

After having tried 
several ideas, one was 
found which is a work- 
ing success, and the 
switch is now. worked 
by a small, reversible se- 
ries motor. A _ minia- 
ture electric hoist, with 
the motor, pulls a cord 
so as to throw the 
switch from one set of 
jaws to the other. The 
accompanying cut shows 
the systems installed. 
The winding apparatus 
consists of a drum driv- 
en from the motor shaft 
by a reduction § gear. 
The drum is a wire spool having a 114” 
core and 314” heads and made 214” 
long by sawing some of the core off. 
The cog wheels for the reduction gear 
were taken from a telephone magneto. 
The little cog was soldered on the motor 
shaft and the big one screwed on one 
end of the winding drum. The bearings 
and shafts of the magneto drive were 
also utilized. The shaft of the winding 
drum is supported on the motor frame 
by a bent piece of scrap iron and fastens 
on the motor base. 


463 


A series-wound motor, which drove a 
ten-inch fan, is used. It draws about 
one ampere from the 110-volt A. C. cir- 
cuit. It is reversed with a small D. P. 
D. T. battery switch. 

The cord is kept from slipping by ty- 
ing a knot around a screw. The cord 
is then wound a couple of turns in each 
direction. One end goes to the switch 


handle, where it is tied fast, and then 


By means of this system all the large switches may be controlled 
directly from the radio table 


continues over a small awning pulley and 
back to the other end, where the two 
ends are tied together. 

Besides the duty of reversing the mo- 
tor, the control switch must disconnect 
the motor from service as soon as the 
aerial switch has been thrown. This was 
easily arranged by placing a bent spring 
of No. 16 or No. 18 brass between each 
pair of jaws of the control switch. Thus 
the switch handle kicks open and leaves 
the motor out of circuit, as soon as you 
release pressure, on either side. 


Free and Forced Oscillations in 
Radio Telegraphy 


By John Vincent 


HE February article of this series 
pointed out how closely all oscil- 
lation circuits resembled each 

other, whether or not they contained 
spark-gaps and whether they were open 
antennas or closed condenser-circuits. 
Not all of the similarities were brought 
out, however, and it is interesting to note 
that for all practical purposes the rule 
last given, for finding the time period 
of an oscillating spark-circuit, is the 
same as that for determing the resonant 
wavelength of an antenna. 
The simplest way to work 
this out is to compute the 
period and wavelength of 
an aerial, such as shown in 
Fig. 1, accordin, to each of ‘ 
the rules, and then to com- ae 
pare the results. —a 

Suppose the antenna 

system of this diagram has the constants 
given in the fourth example of the No- 
vember article. The aerial itself will 
then be of 0.0012 microfarad capacity 
and 0.023 millihenry inductance, and the 
loading-coil will have 0.35 millihenry in- 
ductance. This last named figure is the 
sum of the inductances of secondary 
and loading-coil in the earlier example; 
the total is taken because in 
Fig. 1 only a single coil is 


J 
je Shes 
c 
Z 


that would be set up when currents of 
a definite frequency surged back and 
forth in the antenna, and that the fre- 
quency could be found by dividing the 
wavelength in meters into the number 
300,000,000 (which is the velocity of 
electromagnetic waves in meters per 
second). By performing this operation, 
it is found that the frequency of the 
1,270-meter wave is 300,000,000 /1,270 
236,000 cycles per second. This is 
the resonant frequency of a circuit hav- 
ing the inductance and ca- 
pacity above stated, or, in 
other words, the frequency 
of exciting alternating volt- 
age which will produce the 


4 


Fig. 1. 


ee largest current in that cir- 
ated cuit. At that frequency the 


current will be the greatest 

possible for any given volt- 
age, because the circuit has minimum 
impedance when the capacity and in- 
ductance neutralize each other’s reactive 
effects, as was also explained in Jan- 
uary. 

Now, taking the same antenna circuit 
of Fig. 1, and assuming the same values 
of inductance and capacity, the time 
period of natural oscillation may be 
found by applying the rule 
stated last month. This time 


shown. “a _ period is the number of 

Applying the rule for : seconds which it takes for 

finding resonant wavelength, Fig. 2, SPark-eee the alternating current in 
circul 


when capacity and induct- 
ance are known, the steps are: (1) miul- 
tiply the total inductance by the total 
capacity (0.0012 microfarad times 0.373 
millihenry =0.000447), (2) take the 
square root of this number, which equals 
0.0213, (3) multiply this result by 
60,000 (0.0213 times 60,000 = 1,270 
meters) and thus obtain the answer re- 
quired. Thus the tuned wavelength of 
the antenna with loading-coil is found to 
be 1,270 meters. From the January 
article it appeared that this corre- 
sponded to the length of the ether-wave 


the circuit to pass through 
a complete cycle, i. e., to start from zero, 
reach a maximum in one direction, re- 
verse, pass through zero and reach a 
maximum in the other direction, reverse 
again, and reach zero. The number of 
times this cycle is performed in one 
second is the frequency of the current, 
and is the numerical reciprocal of the 
time period. Since one millihenry is 
one-thousandth of a henry, the value of 
inductance may be given in either unit. 
Since for this antenna it is 0.373 milli- 
henry, in henrys it is one-thousandth of 


464 


Popular Science Monthly 


this, or 0.000373 henry. One micro- 
farad is one-millionth of a farad; hence 
the capacity in farads is one-millionth of 
0.0012 microfarad, or 0.0000000012 fa- 
rad. Taking up the rule for computing 
the time period, the first step is to mul- 
tiply the capacity in farads by the in- 
ductance in henrys (0.0000000012 times 
0.000373 =0.000000000000447 ). The sec- 
ond step is to take the square root of 
this number, which is found to be 
0.000000669. The third step is to mul- 
tiply this by 6.28, which gives 0.0000042 
second as the time period. Thus it ap- 
pears that the alternating current passes 
through a complete cycle in only 42 ten- 
millionths of one second, and that the 
frequency (which is the reciprocal of 
this) is a little over 236,000 cycles per 
second. This agrees with the result se- 
cured from the first calculation above. 
If several other sets of ee and 
inductance values 
are worked out by 
both the above 
rules, the same 
agreement will be 
found. It thus be- ; 
comes clear that tase 
the resonant fre- 
quency at which any condense -circuit 
will oscillate most strongly, is practi- 
cally identical with the frequency of the 
free alternating current which will be 
produced if that circuit is set into vibra- 
tion by a sudden discharge within itself. 
Referring to Fig. 1, if the capacity of the 
antenna is charged by a gradually rising 
voltage supplied from the secondary of 
a transformer through terminals T, T, a 
point will be reached beyond which no 
energy can be forced in, because the air 
between the spark-balls at S will break 
down. The spark which then occurs 
completes the oscillating circuit from the 
earth £ through the inductance L to the 
antenna A, and the stored electrical en- 
ergy rushes to the ground. By the over- 
shooting action which always takes place, 
if the circuit resistance is not too great, 
the current surges back and forth. The 
frequency of the alternations thus pro- 
duced is that which may be computed as 
in the paragraph above. This frequency 
is practically the same as that which 
would produce the greatest current in 
the antenna, if the transformer were dis- 


Coupled Spark-Sender 


465 


connected and the spark-gap replaced by 
a bigh-frequency alternator in such a 
way that the total inductance and ca- 
pacity remained the same. 

An entirely similar condition exists for 
the closed circuit of Fig. 2. Here a con- 
denser C, a spark-gap S, an inductance 
L and a resistance R are connected in 
series. The terminals of a high voltage 
transformer, to charge the condenser, 
are connected at 7, T. If the potential 
applied across the condenser is gradually 
increased, a charge will be stored in it 
by virtue of its electrical capacity. When 
the voltage becomes so high that the 
spark- gap breaks down and a spark 
passes, the con- 
denser discharges 
through the induc- 
tance and  resis- 
tance. If the re- 
sistance is not too 
high, the discharge 
will be oscillatory, 
and the frequency 
of the oscillations 
{and their time - 
period)can becalcu- 
‘lated according to 
the three steps of the same rule given 
for antennas. Thus the number of 
cycles per second of the free alternat- 
ing-current discharge in the circuit can 
be found, if its inductance and capacity 
are known. The wavelength which 
would be set up by currents of this fre- 
quency may also be determined easily, 
as has been shown. 

{f the transformer is disconnected and 
a high-frequency alternator substituted 
for the spark-gap, the circuit will have 
im it forced alternating currents of the 
frequency at which the alternator gene- 
rates. As was shown in January, the 
greatest current will flow when the fre- 
quency of minimum impedance (or zero 
reactance) is reached. This is the re- 
sonant frequency and has practically the 
same numerical value as that of the free 
oscillations discussed in the paragraph 
immediately preceding. 

The foregoing descriptions should 
give a clear indication of the difference 
between free and forced alternating cur- 
rents in oscillation-circuits. If a sus- 
tained, alternating voltage is applied to 


= 


466 


of any circuit, either from the out- 
side (by magnetic induction, for in- 
stance) or internally by a high frequen- 
cy alternator or other apparatus, a 
forced alternating current of the gene- 
rating frequency will flow. The fre- 
quency of this forced current cannot be 
changed by varying the constants of the 
circuit, for it is determined by the gene- 
rating source. The amount of current 
which is set up for a certain voltage, 
however, is governed very largely by the 
circuit constants. As was shown in , 


Z 


—— 


= 


Fig. 4. Direct coupled 
sender 


the January article, the greatest current 
flows when the applied alternating fre- 
quency is of the value for which the ca- 
pacity and inductance of the driven cir- 
cuit neutralize each other, or that for 
which the impedance (alternating cur- 
rent resistance) is therefore the smallest. 
The other type of alternating cur- 
rent, called “free,” occurs when a con- 
denser is charged and then allowed to 
discharge through an inductance and re- 
sistance (which must not be of too 
high value). The frequency of this free 
alternating current so produced is de- 
pendent entirely upon the constants of 
the circuit, and, for the same values of 
capacity and inductance, is practically 
identical with the resonant or minimum 
impedance frequency. 

The critical value at which resistance 
becomes too high for free oscillations to 
exist in a condenser-and-inductance cir- 
cuit, is almost never encountered in ra- 
dio transmitters. It may be computed 
from a simple rule, as follows: (1) Di- 
vide the total circuit inductance, in hen- 
rys, by the total capacity in farads, (2) 
take the square root of this ratio, and 
(3) multiply the result by 2. The re- 
sult is the “critical resistance” in ohms. 
For the antenna circuit of Fig. 1, this 
is found to be (1) 0.000373 henry di- 
vided by 0.0000000012 farad=310,000; 
(2) the square root of this is 556; (3) 
2 times 5561112 ohms. Thus if the 


Popular Science Monthly 


resistance is less than 1112 ohms, 
the result of the condenser discharge 
will be oscillations at the rate of 2306,- 
000 per second; of course no ordinary 
sending circuit ever reaches so high 
a resistance value, so oscillations are al- 
ways to be expected. In receivers, how- 
ever, when detectors may be placed di- 
rectly in series within the circuit, the 
direct-current resistance is often seve- 
ral thousand ohms.. Free oscillations 
cannot exist in such circuits, but a defi- 
nite tuning effect for forced oscillations 
is present, since, by adjusting the ca- 
pacity and inductance reactances to neu- 
tralize, the greatest alternating current 
can be made to flow. 

Referring to Fig. 2, it is obvious that 
for a given charge in the condenser, the 
greatest current will flow when the re- 
sistance R is of the smallest value. It 
is also true that the oscillations will per- 
sist for the longest time when this re- 
sistance is smallest. The actual resist- 
ance in circuit may be made only that 
of the wires and spark-gap, so that the 
free oscillations may be made to vibrate 
back and forth hundreds of times for 
each spark. In an antenna like Fig. 1, 
however, the effective resistance can- 
not be reduced indefinitely, because in 
addition to the spark-gap and wires 
forming the inductance and leads, the ra- 
diation of energy in electromagnetic 
waves adds a few more ohms. Because 
of this, and also because the capacity of 
an antenna cannot be increased indefi- 
nitely without great expense, the two 
circuits of Figs. 1 and 2, are often com- 
bined in the arrangement of Fig. 3. 
Here the coil in the closed circuit, L3, 
forms the primary of a transformer 
whose secondary is coil L2 in the open 
or antenna circuit. 

When condenser C is charged and al- 
lowed to discharge through the closed 
circuit, free oscillations are produced of 
the frequency determined by the effec- 
tive capacity and inductance of the cir- 
cuit. In passing through the primary 
L3, these free oscillations induce alter- 
nating voltages of their own frequency 
in the secondary coil L2 and the con- 
nected antenna circuit d Lr L2 E. By 
adjusting the inductance of the secon- 
dary and loading-coils, so as to neutral- 
lize the capacity reactance of the an- 


Popular Science Monthly 


tenna for the frequency of the closed 
circuit, forced alternating currents of 
the same frequency and largest am- 
plitude will be induced in the antenna 
circuit. These large currents surging in 
the aerial will produce electromagnetic 
waves of the same frequency and cor- 
responding length. Thus the discharge 
of a condenser in a closed circuit may 
be used to generate waves for radio 
telegraphy; for the best effect, the an- 
tenna circuit must be adjusted so that 
its natural frequency is the same as that 
of the closed circuit, or, in other words, 
both must be tuned to the wave fre- 
quency. 

This principle may be applied to a 
case corresponding to the circuits of the 
average inductively- coupled amateur 
transmitter. Since the present laws 
limit amateurs to wavelengths below 200 
meters, it is necessary to use such in- 
ductance and capacity in the primary as 
will give waves below this value. Prac- 
tice has shown that it is nct feasible to 
use a condenser larger than 0.01 micro- 
farad in size; this, with an inductance 
L3 equal to 0.0011 millihenry (includ- 
ing lead wires), will produce free alter- 
nating currents of 1,500,000 per second 
frequency, which corresponds to 200 me- 
ters wavelength. Since, for this size of 
condenser, the total permissible induc- 
tance is so small, it will often be better 
to use smaller condensers and more in- 
ductance; for instance, 0.005 microfarad 
capacity and 0.0022 millihenry induct- 
ance or even 0.001 microfarad capacity 
and 0.011 millihenry inductance (both 
of which combinations tune to 200 
meters) will give better results in 
many stations. The average small an- 
tenna, such as may be used for 200 
meters sending, will have a capacity of 
about 0.0004 microfarad. The sum of 
inductances in coils Lr and L2 will 
therefore be 0.027 millihenry for 200 
meters. The secondary may be made 
identical with the primary, and the bal- 
ance of the inductance needed placed in 
the load coil Lr. 

The values quoted are not absolutely 
accurate, of course, for every station 
will have small variations in length of 
lead wires, closeness of coupling, regu- 
larity of gap action, etc., which may 
modify slightly the amounts required. 


‘flowing. 


AGT 


The best way to get true tuning-ad- 
justment is to set the closed circuit at 
the desired wavelength, by calculation 
or wavemeter, and then to alter the 
coupling between L3 and L2 and the 
amount of inductance in Lr, until a hot- 
wire ammeter in the antenna circuit 
shows the greatest possible current to be 
For good results, the coupling 
must not be too tight. When very small 
primary inductances are used in induc- 
tively coupled transmitters, it is not 
likely that the coupling will be tight 
enough. 

The circuit of Fig. 4 is the equiva- 
lent of Fig. 3, except that the closed 
oscillation-circuit is directly coupled to 
the antenna circuit. Part of the primary 
coil is used as the secondary, as indi- 
cated by the portion between the right- 
hand clip and the earth, marked L2. 
The computations given above apply to 
this circuit as well as to that of Fig. 3, 
but, with the direct coupling here shown, 
it is sometimes possible to get satisfac- 
tory operation with larger primary con- 
densers than when the inductive coup- 
ling is used. Since larger condensers 


‘make it possible to use more transmit- 


ting power for the same voltage and 
spark frequency, the direct coupling 
may be preferred in some senders. Con- 
trary to the widely accepted idea, it is 
possible to get just as sharp waves with 
the direct as with the inductive coupling. 
It is necessary to tune the circuits with 
care, however, and to have the greater 
part of the total antenna inductance in 
the loading coil Lr. 

The above stated principles of tuning 
and adjusting various open and closed 
circuits for maximum effect, with both 
free and forced oscillations, include the 
fundamental laws of radio telegraphy 
and telephony. The simple rules which 
have been given in the five articles of 
this series may be applied to all types of 
transmitting and receiving circuits, and 
permit selection of apparatus which will 
operate successfully in various circum- 
stances. The computation of receiving- 
circuit constants will be discussed next 
month; and after power in transmitters 
is treated, designs will be given for coils, 
condensers and other instruments which 
may be combined according to these 
rules. 


468 


Making a Simple Alternating 
Current Rectifier 


RECTIFIER is very convenient if 
audion storage batteries are to be 
charged and only alternating current is 
available. The ones on the market are 
rather expensive, but a simple apparatus 
can be made by anyone at small cost. 
Thoroughly clean worn-out Sampson 
sal-ammoniac cells. Cut some sheet alu- 
minum 1/32” thick, the same size as the 


Supply a 
AC. 


Fig. 1. How the jars are connected 


zinc plates which belonged to the cells. 
These aluminum plates should be fitted 
into the old slots occupied by the zinc, 
and wires carried from them up through 
the holes in the jar covers, to serve as 
binding posts; or the old binding posts 
may be aluminum-soldered to the alumi- 
-num sheets. Insulate the aluminum by 
wrapping a few rubber bands around the 
carbon terminals. 

Prepare an electrolyte by dissolving 
aluminum sulphate in cold tap water to 
the point of saturation. Fill the cells 
with this solution to the water level, indi- 
cated by a line about 114” from the top; 
the two poles are then completely im- 
mersed. Connect the jars as shown in 
Fig. 1. 

The operation of the rectifier is based 
on the principle that for every half-wave 
a film of oxide is formed on the surface 
of the aluminum, preventing the flow of 
negative current. A rectifier of 1, 2 or 4 


ML C6 Al 


en) Ae ss 


° 
CAL 
AC. + QC + 2C¢ 


Figs. 2 and 3. Wiring for one and two- 
jar types of rectifiers 


Popular Science Monthly 


jars can be used, but neither the one nor 
the two-jar type will have 80 per cent efti- 
ciency. The one-jar type rectifies oniy 
one side of the wave. These types are - 
shown in Figs. 2 and 3. 


A Tuning-Coil Slider — 


HERE are many kinds of home- 
made tuning-coil sliders, but most 
of them have faults. 

The most troublesome part is usually 
making the contact strip and fastening 
the handle. Since this requires almost 
constant use, it must be reliable and ca- 
pable of working easily. 

A good plan is to take a piece of 
square brass tubing, about 3/7 long, and 
with a sharp hack-saw, slit down 114” 
on both sides. Then bend both parts, one 
up, the other down, and cut out the re- 
maining piece inside, leaving two curved 
arms. 


Now drill a 11/64” hole at the end 


A simple and efficient tuning-coil slider 


of the upper arm, and with a sharp- 
pointed center-punch, make a small dent 
at the end of the lower arm, to form an 
excellent contact point, being much better 
than a drop of solder, since that is al- 
ways liable to chip off. An 8-32 screw 
passes through the upper bent piece and 
serves as a fastening for the handle. 


Radio’s First Rescue 


HE sinking of the S. S. Republic, 
which struck the Florida during a 
heavy fog, occurred in January, 1909. 
This was the first ship whose passengers 
and crew were saved by radio from what 
would have been almost certain death. 


Popular Science Monthly 


Reconstructing a Dry Battery 

ONSTRUCTING or reconstructing 

a dry battery, 1f it 1s done’ care- 
fully and with pure materials, will pre- 
vent the unfortunate experience of the 
amateur experimenter, who upon buy- 
ing dry cells in an electrical store, finds 
they are old and that a generous por- 
tion of their strength has seeped out 
while lying on the shelves. So far as 
the cost of construction is concerned, a 
home-made dry battery is about as ex- 
pensive as a standard ready-made cell. 
The only gain is in the life and con- 
sistent ability of the battery. 

The foundation of the home-made dry 
cell consists of the zinc cylinder, care- 
fully cleaned, from a worn-out battery. 
The cup should be boiled in clean water 
for several minutes. When the inner 
zinc surface is washed, it is lined with 
three or four layers of white blotting 
paper. This paper should be laid in firm- 
ly and held with clips but not glued. Two 
disks of blotting paper are placed in the 
bottom of the cup. Care should be taken 
that none of the inner surface of the 
zinc is exposed to the chemicals that 
are afterwards put in, or the life of the 
cell will be considerably shortened. 

After blotting paper is in place, it 
should be soaked for several minutes in 
a solution of zinc chloride and sal am- 
moniac in distilled water. To arrive at 
the correct proportion of chemicals will 
take a little time unless a hydrometer is 
handy. The zinc chloride should be dis- 
solved first. Crystals should be dis- 
solved in the water until the hydrometer 
reading is 32 degrees. If a hydrometer 
is not available, a saturated solution of 
zine chloride should be made; that is to 
say, a solution that has dissolved as 
much of the chemical as it is able. 
Add half again as much water as was 
originally used. This brings the solution 
to an approximate 32 degrees. 

Powdered sal ammoniac should now 
be added until the solution is again sat- 
urated, when it is ready for soaking the 
blotter lining of the zinc. The soaking 
process should continue until the blotter 
can absorb no more of the solution. 

Chemicals with which the battery is 
filled consist of a thorough mixture of 
two parts of manganese powder and 
three parts of powdered carbon or 


469 


graphite. Carbon is cheaper. Coke is 
still cheaper, although it does not an- 
swer the purpose quite so effectively. 
Retort carbon, or arc carbon, pulverized 
in an iron retort, can be used. The two 
powders can be thoroughly mixed if they 
are placed in a covered jar of some sort, 
and the jar rolled 

and shaken care- 
fit yee ce aus 
should be taken 
in mixing the 
powders, as a 
generous propor- 
tion of the bat- 
tery’s future per- 
formance de- 
pends upon this 
operation. When 
the manganese 
and carbon pow- 
ders are thor- 
oughly inter- 
mingled, they 
are moistened 
With the (zinc 
chloride-sal am- 
moniac solution. 
Moistening the powder does not mean 
bringing it to a pasty state. It should 
have a damp, lumpy appearance. 

Tamping the mixture into the zinc 
shell is the next step, and it 1s the most 
important part of the process. After the 
carbon rod is 
placed. ‘in. | the 
center, the pow- 
der should be 
dropped in, a 
little at a time, 
and tamped 
down forcibly 
with a blunt 
stick and a ham- 
mer.) Tt) ‘is “a 
painstaking pro- 
cess, but the re- 
sults are worth 
the effort. When the container is filled 
within about one-half inch from the top, 
the blotting paper layers are folded in- 
ward and the rest of the space filled 
with sealing wax or a mixture of par- 
affin and resin. 

When the battery is finished, if the 
directions are carefully followed, it 
should give excellent results. 


Section through an ordi- 
nary dry cell 


Method of mixing ma- 
terials in a mortar 


470 


Electric Door-Opener for a Garage 
ib let unpleasant climax to a motoring 
trip on a wet evening is the neces- 
sity of climbing out of the machine when 
the garage is reached, walking through 
the downpour and opening the door. This 
undesirable experience can be averted 
entirely if the garage door can be made 
to open by an electric motor, started by 
the closing of a contact in the roadbed, 


S19 Foor 


Wiring diagram of door-operating mechanism 


by the weight of one of the wheels. 

A small pit should be cut in the con- 
crete path at the entrance of the garage. 
The pit should measure 1’ across and 1’ 
in depth. A stout wood post should be 
erected from the floor of the pit and 
capped with a thick disk of copper or 
brass to which is attached a well-insu- 
lated wire. A well-seasoned board about 
1” thick, which will fit loosely in the 
mouth of the pit, should be cut and on 
the bottom of it screwed a heavy plate to 
which another wire is attached. The two 
wires should lead through a _ conduit, 
placed at an angle so that water will not 
leak into it, and terminating in the ga- 
rage. The board should be supported, 
flush with the roadbed, by a heavy spiral 
spring. To drain the pit, a pipe of suff- 
cient size should lead from one corner 
to a sewer connection. A white post, or 
a signal mark of some kind, should be 
put in the path close to the pit, for the 
purpose of marking its location when 
the automobile is driven upon the con- 
tact. 

The door of the garage must be of the 
sliding type, and the rollers which run 
along the suspension track above should 
be oiled thoroughly, so that the friction 
is reduced to a minimum. 

A motor, 44 or % h.p., should be se- 
cured, by screws or lugs, to the door as 
near to the top as possible and very close 
to the edge which opens. The shaft, 


Popular Science Monthly 


which should point upwards, should be 
fitted with a large friction pulley with 
wide flanges at both ends. A stout, non- 
stretching, braided rope should be 
attached to a screweye in the door jamb, 
at the same level from the floor as the 
pulley of the motor, three or four turns 
wrapped smoothly about the pulley, and 
fastened taut to a screweye in the op- 
posite jamb. When the motor is oper- 
ated, it is obvious that the rope will wind 
and unwind on the pulley, and the door 
will be pulled open. 

A circuit breaker should be installed 
above the door at the back, so that when 
the door is wide open, the current will 
be shut off from the motor. Some pains 
must be taken in the construction of this 
circuit breaker, as it is a most important 
part of the apparatus. A short wooden 
peg projecting upward should be fas- 
tened to the top of the door. When the 
door slides open, this peg strikes a lever 
arm, and the circuit is broken. The lever 
arm should consist of a 4” length of 
brass, 4%” wide and 14” thick. A small 
hole should be bored through its center 
to serve for pivoting purposes. At the 
lower end, a “trigger” of somewhat light- 
er and more springy metal should be 
soldered. When the peg strikes this 
trigger, the breaker will not be thrown 
out so suddenly as to derange the rest 
of the apparatus. The contact arm 


Motor 


Wiring diagrams of important parts 


should be screwed to the center of some 
sort of wooden base upon a thick washer. 
The washer will act as a bearing. A light 
spiral spring, to insure a quick break, 
should be attached to the upper part of 
the arm and its other end held by a 
screweye set in the base. The contact 
spring should be cut from _ rather 


Popular Science Monthly 


heavy spring brass sheet. It should be 
bent, as shown in the drawing, and held 
securely at one end by a small wood 
block and screws. A stout, flexible cord 
should be fastened to the upper end of 
the lever arm and led out to a small 
pulley, from which it should hang within 
reaching distance of the floor. When 
the opening dcor causes the peg to strike 
the trigger and open the circuit, the cir- 
cuit breaker should be re-set by pulling 
the string. Aithough not entirely ad- 
visable, the helical spring may be omitted, 
and a weight suspended from the lower 
end of the string so that when the 
door is closed, the breaker will be re-set 
automatically. 

Connections of the various pieces of 
apparatus should be made as indicated 
in the accompanying diagram. 

Briefly, the operation of the electric 
garage door-opener, is this: When the 
wheel of the automobile runs upon the 
board in the pit, the car should be 
stopped. The current from the line flows 
through the contacts and into the motor ; 
the pulley revolves and draws itself, al- 
most literally, along the rope, thus open- 
ing the door. When the door is opened, 
the peg strikes the trigger and the cur- 
rent flow is shut off. 

There are various other ways of in- 
stalling the motor and driving mechanism 
upon the garage door, but the one de- 
scribed is undoubtedly the cheapest. 
However, in case the clearance of the 
automobile roof is very small—too small 
to allow even for the small space that 
the rope occupies—the motor may be in- 
stalled on the door jamb, and a bicycle 
cog mounted on the end of the shaft. 
A long bicycle chain should pass from 
this cog to another on the opposite jamb, 
and one of the door pulleys attached to 
the chain. Another method which would 
be simpler, perhaps, than either of the 
foregoing would necessitate only the in- 
stallation of a magnetic release and a 
heavy weight operating through pulleys. 
If electricity were not convenient, a wa- 
ter motor could be used, or a water or 
compressed-air plunger, working on the 
principle of the plunger elevators, would 
give fairly satisfactory results. It is 
quite evident that much originality in 
construction is left to the builder. 


471 


Mounting Spark-Gaps to Eliminate 
Unnecessary Noise 

= NOVEL and very good method 
of eliminating most of the noise 
made by a rotary spark-gap in operation, 
is shown quite clearly in the illustration. 
The rotary gap, with its motor, is 
mounted in a substantial wooden cabinet, 
with a glass door. This cabinet is then 
suspended on four strong spiral springs, 
from the underside of the operating table. 
It is advisable to have the glass door 
on the cabinet closed tightly, so as to con- 


fine all possible noises and vibrations to 
the wireless room. 


The springs eliminate most of the noise made 
by a rotary spark-gap in operation 


Winding Tuning-Coils 
METHOD of winding tuning-coils 
so as to increase their durability and 

quality should be of interest to wireless 
amateurs. Most of those who wind 
their tuning coils and loose couplers with 
enameled wire find that it is hard to keep 
them from rubbing when the slider pass- 
es over the turn. This occurred with a 
coil which one correspondent has been 
using and which is wound with enameled 
wire on a hard rubber tube. 

To prevent this loosening of the turns, 
one should, before winding the coil, 
wind an even layer of tire tape over the 
tube, and thereafter wind the wire over 
it tightly. This scheme will also prevent 
the wire from loosening much on a coil, 
wound on a wooden core, which may 
shrink. Soaking in paraffin also prevents 
shrinking of wooden tubes. 


W hat Radio Readers Want to Know 


Range of Station 


S. D., Glendale, Cal., inquires: 

Q. 1. With a four-wire aerial, 100 feet in 
length by 55 feet in height at one end and 
70 feet at the other, connected with a “1500- 
meter” tuning coil, galena detector, 1000-ohm 
receivers, 43-plate variable condenser and a 
fixed condenser, how far should I be able to 
receive? : 

A. 1. The daylight receiving range of this 
apparatus is perhaps 250 miles, while the night 
range may be 1000 miles, depending largely 
upon the power of the transmitting station 
from which it is desired to receive. 

Q. 2. With the foregoing aerial, “4 K. 
W. transformer connected to the proper con- 
denser and oscillation transformer, how far 
can I transmit and approximately what will be 
the wavelength emitted? 

A. 2. The natural wavelength of the an- 
tenna system is about 300 meters, and ra- 
diated, it wlll be above that value by an 
amount depending on the number of turns and 
the general over-all dimensions of the second- 
ary winding. If your station is located so 
that the Government Authorities will allow it 
to be operated at a wavelength of 300 meters, 
the daylight range will be approximately 50 
miles. At a wavelength of 200 meters its 
probable range will be from 20 to 30 miles. 


Condenser for Transmitter 


LeR. D., Milwaukee, Wis., inquires: 

Q. 1. How many plates of glass, 8 inches 
by 10 inches covered with tinfoil 6 inches by 
8 inches, are required to make a suitable con- 
denser or a % K. W. Thordarson trans- 
former? 

A. 1. Assuming that this condenser is to 
be operated at a wavelength of 200 meters, its 
maximum capacity in any case cannot exceed 
0.01 Mfds. With the dimensions given, the 
capacity of each plate is approximately 0.0006 
Mfds. For a value of 0.01 Mfds. approxi- 
mately 16 plates should be connected in par- 
allel. If the potential of the transformer is 
20,000 volts, the condenser should be split into 
two banks. You then require 32 plates con- 
nected in parallel in each bank and two such 
banks connected in series. 

- Q. 2. Please give the construction of a 
0.5 Microfarad condenser. 

A. 2. We infer that this condenser is to 
be somewhat similar in construction to the 
type used in telephone work and operated at 
low potentials. If so, two strips of foil, 6 
inches in width by about 90 feet in length, are 
separated by a similar thin strip of paraffin 


paper. A second sheet of paraffin paper is 
then placed over one of the tinfoil strips and 
the entire unit wound up in circular form. 
The connections from each strip may be 
brought out to a binding post. 

Q. 3. How many electrodes should be em- 
ployed in connection with a rotary spark-gap 
having a disk 6 inches in diameter? The mo- 
tor has a no-load speed of 6000 R. P. M. 
This gap is to be used with a % K. W. trans- 
mitting set. 

A. 3. With the transformer operated from 
a 60-cycle source of current supply, it is not 
advisable to produce more than 300 to 400 
spark discharges a second. Assuming the 
load speed of the motor to be about 4000 R. 
P. M., it is recommended that the disk be 
fitted with 6 discharge electrodes equally 
spaced about the circumference. Excessive 
speeds are undesirable and unnecessary. The 
average commercial, non-synchronous, rotary 
spark discharger operates at a speed of 2400 
R. P. M. and has 10 discharge electrodes 
mounted on the disk. 

Q. 4. What are the names of the cities 
corresponding to the abbreviations sent out 
from Arlington in the weather forecasts, such 
as: MEE Ur 

A. 4. These abbreviations refer to impor- 
tant weather observation points. An interpre- 
tation follows: T, Nantucket; S, Sidney; A, 
Atlantic City; H, Hatteras; C, Charleston; K, 
Key West; P, Pensacola; B, Bermuda. For 
the Great Lakes the designations are as fol- 
lows: DU, Duluth; M, Marquette; U, Saulte 
St. Marie; G, Green Bay; CH, Chicago; L, 
Alpina; D, Detroit; V, Cleveland; F, Buffalo. 


Inductively Coupled Tuner 


W. M. K., Windsor, Ontario, writcs: 

Q. 1. I have an inductively-coupled re- 
ceiving tuner with a primary winding 4% 
inches in diameter by 6 inches in length. It 
is covered for 5 inches with No. 18 enamel 
wire. The secondary is 6 inches in length by 
3% inches in diameter covered for 5 inches 
with No. 24 single cotton wire. Kindly ad- 
vise the range of wavelength. 

A. 1. The range of wavelength to which 
this apparatus is responsive depends upon the 
size of the variable condenser employed in 
shunt to the secondary winding, but with one 
of very small capacity it should be adjustable 
to about 2500 meters. The present winding 
does not represent the best design for an ef- 
ficient tuner, since No. 24 wire is preferred 
for the primary winding and No. 30 or 32 for 
the secondary winding, 


A72 


The Home i iadmas 


A Simple Method of Clearing a 
Clogged Waste Pipe 


EMOVE the top and bottom from a 
discarded tomato or other can and 
place it over the outlet from the sink, as 
illustrated. Procure a block of wood 
that will easily fit into the tin, as shown. 
With a hammer hit a sharp, strong 
blow on the wooden block, and away 
goes the stoppage. The tin cylinder 
prevents the force of the blow from 
spreading sideways and upwards. It is 
a fact that a stoppage seldom occurs in 
the trap, but usually at some bend or 
joint below it. 

This scheme has been used before, but 
the addition of the can is a new idea, 
and is a big improvement over the old 
method of laying a board on top of the 
water and striking a blow, most of the 
energy being expended sideways. Of 
course the sink must be partly filled with 
water to use this idea, and the can must 
be held down firmly. 


T Tie 


By striking the plug a sharp blow, the 
clogged waste pipe is cleared for the 
free passage of water 


Inclined Sidewalk for a Wheeled 
Invalid Chair 


N homes where there is a wheel- 
chair invalid, the patient could have 
more frequent outings, were it not for 


This inclined walk obviates the dis- 
comfort of jolting an invalid-chair up 
and down the usual stairs 


the difficulty the nurse has in getting 
the chair down the steps from the 
house. Even where a strong person is 
able to get the chair and patient up 
and down the steps, the sufferer has to 
endure much uncomfortable jolting in 
the process. 

This difficulty was solved in one 
home by removing the railing at one 
end of the veranda and building a new 
side walk, an inclined plane sloping 
down to the street walk, to take the 
place of the usual stairs. 

While relatively few homes have in- 
valids, the average home does have a 
succession of babies, and the slight cost 
of such a walk would be more than 
repaid by serving the convenience of the 
mother with the baby carriage, both in 
leaving and entering the home. 


473 


474 


A Music Stand 

VERY pretty and useful music 

stand can be easily constructed 
with inexpensive material. Anyone who 
can use a hammer, saw, auger, varnish- 
brush and glue-pot, can make this stand 
at an astonishingly low cost. The ma- 
terial necessary can be obtained in al- 
most any village. The use of the stand 
is not restricted to music, as the one the 
author constructed had various uses. 
The lowest shelf held a set of Shake- 
speare’s works. The next was used for 
music books, the second for sheet music 
and the top for holding a lamp, a metro- 
nome and a match-holder. 

The materials will mostly depend upon 
the advantages: Four boards (dressed 
to required thickness), 15’ x 24; one 
board (dressed to required thickness), 
9” x 18”: four iron rods, 47 x 14”. 

Tacks and putty are required, as well 
as spools of different sizes and shapes, 
nails, and glue. The boards will be 
dressed for a few cents at a planing 
mill; the rods can be obtained at a black- 
smith’s and the spools at a dressmaker’s, 
tailor’s or milliner’s. Thumb tacks may 
be procured at a book store. 

If possible, obtain spools that have 
had Nos. 36, 40 or 60 cotton thread, 
and dress the boards, of the first 
size, to a_ thick- 
ness equal to the 
length of the hole 
in the spool. This 
will vary with 
the size of the 
spool: Find 
points on the 
four similar 
bo ardsy iipit 
inches from the 
corner, on the di- 
agonal. This may 
be done by drawing the diagonals and 
marking on them points x inches from 
each corner. With a 14’-bit, bore holes 
at these points in the four boards (x 
depends on the radius of the spool in 
Fip-3)). 

Place the spools in a vise and saw 
each in two, making the cut parallel to 
the hole in the spool. Then drive the 
finishing nails, one in each half-spool, as 
shown in Fig. 1. Commencing at one 
corner, nail these half spools to each of 


Fe. 


Method of cutting 
and placing spools 


Popular Science Monthly 


TU, 


| = ! 
PT TTTITTEY EACLE 


Music stand easily constructed at small 
expense and with few tools 


the boards, the hole in the spool running 
at right angles to the top of the board. 
Some difficulty will be found in driving 
the nails into the spools, to avoid split- 
ting the wood. The boards, when com- 
pleted thus, will appear as in Fig. 2. 
Take the board whose larger dimen- 
sions are 9” x 18” and complete it. It 
must be dressed. The spools required 
for it are common spools that have 
held silk thread. These must be sawn 
into halves, the cut made this time at 
right angles to the hole (Fig. 3). Next, 
with a good, sharp knife pare off the side, 
as shown in Fig. 3, just enough to pre- 
vent rolling. Then into some, drive 
nails, from one side to the pared side, 
as shown in Fig. 3. Dress the board 
to a thickness equal to the smallest di- 
ameter of the spool, and place this board 
centrally on one of the other boards. To 
do this, draw the diagonals on the under 
side of the smaller board, and measure 
one diagonal. Then from the middle of 
the other board (where its diagonals in- 
tersect) mark off on its diagonal lines 
equal to one-half the diagonal of the 
small board. The corner of the smaller 
board will coincide with the four points 
just marked. Lay the spools on the 
larger, around the smaller board, which 
has been nailed firmly to the larger 
board (nails being driven from under- 
neath the larger board). The larger 
part of the spool is on the outside. 


Popular Science Monthly 


and the hole of the spool forms a right 
angle with the edge of the board next 
it. Having each spool touching the next, 
drive in the finishing nails. The spools 
will be arranged as in Fig. 4A and the 
board complete will appear as in 4B. In 
4A the dotted lines represent the holes in 
the spools. The lower board has pre- 
viously been covered with a light coat of 
glue, from the center to the line of the 
end of the spools. 

Cut more spools like those used in Fig. 
3, only do not drive in nails or pare. 
Then find the radius of the end of the 
spool (the smaller end). Suppose it to 
be x inches. Then mark off four points 
which are x inches from the four sides. 
That is, each point is somewhere on the 
diagonals, and _ perpendiculars from 
those points to the 2 nearest sides are 
x inches. Join these points together and 
then mark off, on the lines thus formed, 
points 2x inches apart. Count the 
points, and whittle that number of sticks 
which will fit snugly into the holes of 
the spools and are %” longer than 
the holes. With a gimlet drill holes at 
the points marked on the board, a little 
over 3%” deep. The gimlet should be 
exactly the same size as the pegs. Drive 
in each peg and before doing so, put 
some glue in each hole. Pour in enough 
to fll the hole. When the peg is driven 
in the glue will partly run out. Smear 
the upper part of the pegs with glue and 
put on the spools, with the saw-cut next 
the board. The glue on the peg and on 
the board will hold it. Push a thumb 
tack, which is also smeared (the point 
and underside only) with glue, into the 
top of the peg. 
should be of brass, and are only for 
ornament. The corner spools, of course, 
are not put on, neither was there a peg 
driven in, the hole there being drilled 
with the auger. Varnish the four 
shelves, or stain to match furniture. 

For the remainder, more spools are 
necessary. These spools must be in sets 
of 4, the spools in one set being all 
equal. The sets range from those con- 
taining spools of cotton basting variety 
to the small cotton thread, the sets get- 
ting smaller as they reach the top, 
though there should be a far greater 
number of small spools than large ones. 
One end of each rod is threaded and has 


These thumb tacks . 


475 


a nut. Run these spools to the rods and 
varnish. When all is dry, assemble. 
Commence by putting the unthreaded 
ends of the rods through the upper 
shelf, extending above to half the depth 
of the spool. Glue the four spools, sim- 
ilar to those in Fig. 3, on the ends of the 
rods and board. 

Then slip on the spools, in sets, small- 
est first, gluing the ends of the spools 
to make them stick. When 1214” have 
been covered, put on the next shelf and 
12144” more spools and so on till the last 
shelf is on; then fill up with the largest 
spools and put on the nuts, cutting off 
any rod left over, though it depends on 
the size of the spools whether any will 
be over or not. Then set up the stand, 
and, filling in the holes of the four cor- 
ner spools with putty, push in a thumb 
tack in each, and varnish the stand again. 
The author using this as 2 model, though 
varying a little in design, constructed a 
flower stand, though much smaller. 


A Cheap Substitute for Linoleum 
- HREE sheets 
of strong, 
brown paper, past- 
qed together, with 
‘¥a top covering of 
ordinary  wall-pa- 
per, make an excel- 
lent, inexpensive, 
sanitary substitute 
for linoleum. After cleaning the floor, a 
sheet of good, strong, brown paper is 
pasted down and allowed to dry. Then 
a second sheet is laid and allowed to dry 
thoroughly before laying a third sheet. 
If a pattern floor covering is desired, 
ordinary wall-paper serves the purpose 
admirably. It is pasted to the top sheet 
of brown paper already laid. The whole, 
being thoroughly dry, a coat of sizing is 
applied and left to set, after which a 
coat of good varnish completes the pro- 
cess. This floor covering has all the ad- 
vantages of real linoleum and may be 
washed and polished in the usual way. 


Lengthening the Life of a 
Worn-out Clock 
N old clock can be rejuvinated and 
used for many years by increasing 
the distance of the escapement, or in 
other words, by prying apart the jaws 
just a mite. 


An Extension to a Kitchen 
By George E. Walsh 


es many houses, there is no room for 

little devices, especially when these 
are for the kitchen. The old house has 
been remodeled and extensions added, 
but the kitchen has not kept pace with 
the growth of the rest. 

There is a great deal of work to do 
in too small a space. There are not 
shelves enough. What ordinarily can 
be stored on the first floor must be 


This well-planned extension can be fitted 
to almost any house 


carried down into the cellar. 

This condition ends in a serious con- 
sideration of building an extension to 
the kitchen. A carpenter is probably 
consulted, and an estimate given, but 
nine chances out of ten this extension 
will be only an increase in floor area. 

This would not be the case if the 
owner realized how many extra advan- 
tages he could obtain by making this 
change more thoughtfully. There are 
a great many devices which could be 
planned for. If foresight is used, many 
of the little conveniences can be built 
by the householder, after the carpenter 
has finished his job. 

The first illustration shows a _ well- 
planned extension which can be fitted 
to almost any house. Arrangement 
has been made in it for various little 
contrivances. The storage of the food 
that is desired to be kept handy, such 
as crackers, cakes, bread and unopened 
groceries, can be put in the cupboard 
which opens both into the extension 
and into the kitchen. This saves many 


steps, because the supplies may be 
reached from either side. As all the 
doors are glass, quite a little light 
comes through into the kitchen from 
the extension. 

At the further end of the extension, 
along the entire wall, are adjustable 
shelves for canned goods, preserves, 
vegetables, etc. These shelves are 
easily made, as shown in the diagram. 
They consist of six uprights with 
holes for pegs in them at intervals, 
upon which pegs the shelves rest. 

At the bottom, are lockers with 
screens and places for boxes and bar- 
rels of flour. In one end are deep draw- 
ers which work on hinges, and swing 
out and down, forming a trough in 
which loose sugar and flour can be 
kept. It is easy to scoop out the con- 
tents from them and save the extra 
labor of uncovering and covering bar- 
rels and tins. 

A handy device for the delivery is 
installed at one side of the entrance. 
It consists of a small opening with a 
swinging door, something like a letter 
box. The goods, pushed through by 
the delivery boy, slide along an inclined 
plane out of reach. A small bell can 


be arranged at the side to give notice: 


of delivered goods. This saves many 
a weary chase down stairs to open the 
door for the tradesmen. 


[——— DELIVERED 
GARBAGE COVER—-—J coops pur 


EXTENSION OF 
THE KITCHEN 


Plan of the extension to the kitchen 


476 


*. 


%, 
2 

a 
=, 
a 


Popular Science Monthly 


Ice is also put into the ice-box 
through a door from the outside. A 
small shed-like extension, just large 
enough for the ice-box, is built nearest 
the kitchen proper. The doors of the 

——$—— ice-box open on 
the inside, but a 
smaller: one 
opens on the 
outside to per- 
mit the iceman 
to insert the ice 
from without. 
Because this ice-box extension stands 
out from the rest of the house, it is very 
cold in winter, so that no ice is then 
needed. 

Another feature of the kitchen ex- 
tension is the large window opposite 
the door. In hot weather this can be 
thrown wide open and netting put in. 
This makes a very cool place for iron- 
ing. A gas jet should be placed near 
for use with 
a Sas 17 On ; 
making the 
work even 
cooler. 


Mm 


This bottle rack 
prevents upset milk 


corner of the 
eniprance- 
stairs is built 
Ac) SRBe mse 
garbage-hold- 
er. This con- 
SiSES Of 2 
small house with a roof over it, large 
enough to enclose the garbage pail. It 
can be slipped in or out by means of a 
door at the side. In the summer, this 
keeps the flies out and the odors in. 


This garbage-house 
keeps flies out and 
bad odors in 


Other small 

| i I i | contrivances can 
= = be constructed in 
this extension. 

For instance, a 


PL —4|| rack with holes 
Pw ll Mihi large enough to 
contain the milk 
bottles, can be 
fastened just out- 
side of the door. 
This will do away with the nuisance of 
upset milk bottles. 

A collapsible table can be hinged 
under the window, or even a kneading 


This collapsible ta- 
ble will be found 
most useful 


Around the - 


This cabinet will save the housewife many 
unnecessary steps 


board. A pair of heavy wooden brack- 
ets can be built near the ceiling out of 
reach of the head, for the purpose of 
holding a step ladder or clothes pole. 

Indeed, many little devices can be 
built into an extension such as this, if 
arrangements are made for them in the 
beginning. They are all simple and 
can be home-built, after the main 
structure has been completed. 

An extension with all these aids will 
be more than welcomed by the house- 
keeper. Even those houses which have 
kitchens of ample size would be helped 
by such an addition, for it divides up 
the work, leaving one part for cooking 
and washing dishes, and the other for 
storage, food preparation and laundry 
finishing. 


A door on the outside of this ice-box allows 
the ice to be inserted from without 


478 
Using a Suction Pump to Clear 
a Clogged Drain 


HE head-pump 

of an ordi- 
nary tin garden- 
sprayer may be 
used effectively for 
freeing a waste 
pipe from obstruc- 
tion. Being unable 
to empty the bath 
tub, even by run- 
ning wires down 
the drain, one ex- 
perimenter prepared to bail it out, antici- 
pating afterward a plumber’s bill of $2 
or $3. For bailing, he had, besides a 
basin, a tin suction pump detached from 
the reservoir usually included in the 
hand-sprayer. 

Taking up this pump, it occurred to 
him to try its effect over the vent of 
the tub. Pressing down the piston, he 
was astonished at the resistance, and 
on taking two or three strokes, found 
that the water was rapidly lowering in 
the tub. The suction pump, pressed 
down upon the drain, had given an op- 
portunity for exciting its not inconsid- 
erable force and, as a result, had dis- 
lodged the obstruction without further 
difficulty —E. R. CHADBOURN. 


BG BE ED ES (I =D, 
rege oT 


A Door Retainer 

OT wishing 
the horizon- 
Go) tal top door of an 
/ ice-box or cabinet 
ee | to fall clear back 
aes when opened, the 
device here shown 
may be used. From 
L/to’ steet “ar 
brass, fashion a piece as in the illustra- 
tion. The angle of the sides is equal to 
180° minus the angle at which the door 
is to stand. The hole in the piece is equal 
to the diameter of the pin of the hinge 
on the door. Take the pin out of the 
hinge and file one of the pin-holders off, 
to allow the device just made to fit on 
the pin and in the inner portion of the 
hinge. Re-assemble the hinge and screw 
it on the door. When the door is 
opened this device will hold it up at the 

desired angle—NosB LE LANDIs. 


Popular Science Monthly 


A Garbage and Paper Burner 


SATISFAC- y 

TORY gar- 
bage and paper 
incinerator can be 
made from a cylin- 
der of galvanized 
iron 14” in diam- 
éter. and. 260 m 
height. A cylinder 
of this sort can be 
made at the local 
tinsmith’s for about 
seventy-five cents. 
In use, it is placed 
on an iron grate and the refuse ignited 
by placing it on a pile of dry paper in 
the bottom.—C. L. VESTAL. 


Concealing the Spare Silver 


N building 

their home, a 
family provided a 
storage place for 
the “company” 
silver, which holds 
the entire supply when the family leaves 
home in the summer. In the clothes 
closet of an upstairs bedroom is a shirt- 
waist box on casters. This seems nat- 
ural and attracts no attention. Beneath 
it is the hiding place in the floor. A sec- 
tion of flooring is hinged and below is a 
box for the silver.—Avis G. VESTAL. 


A Flower-Pot Hanger 


ITH the com- 

ing of winter, 
it becomes neces- 
sary to bring in 
the flowers. The @ia}ead 
handy device @G#& 
shown can be made 3S 
by any blacksmith. 
It consists of a frame for holding the 
flower-pot and a wall bracket for hold- 
ing the frame. Both are made from 14” 
round iron, fashioned to the illustrated 
shape and welded together. The size of 
the iron hoop that encircles the pot is 
determined by the diameter of the pot 
just below the top flange. The size of 
the bracket is determined by the weight 
of the pot and its size. Good judgment 
only is needed to make either of these 
parts.—NosLe LANDIS. 


A Modern Sanitary Hog House 


N Iowa, where the hog is given the 
first place on many a farm, hundreds 
of new hog houses have been built. 
They are very practical, easy to build, 
and make the most of the materials. 
Houses built after this plan harness the 
sunlight most effectively. The windows 
are in the roof, that is on the south slope 
of the roof, which is at half pitch. Any 
farmer who has only ordinary skill can 
put together such a structure during the 
nothing-to-do period on the farm or at 
the end of the rush season. 

The foundations for the walls are 
made of concrete and go down below 
the frost line, so that the tile-walls 
will not crack. The pen-floors are of 
hollow clay, tile laid, on a sand cush- 
ion. This makes a warm and dry bed 
for the old mother sow and her litter. 
The pen partitions and the walls of the 
house are made of clay tile 8” thick, 
and a stanchion is bolted to the wall 
every G.~ The rafters are 2”’x6” and 
are 16’ long and spaced 2’ apart. 

The house is solidly put together, 
if the plan here shown is followed out 
by the builder. It will need but little 
repairing. The materials that will be 
needed for the farmer who will want 
to build such a house have been listed 
‘below. For a sixteen pen house, that 
is with eight pens on both sides of 
the center feed-alley, and with pens 
6’x8’ in size, the materials will cost at 
the rate of about $20 per pen in many 
sections. [Tor a house that has outside 
ground dimensions 21’ x 50’ the follow- 
ing materials will be needed: 

25 barrels cement for foundation and 

feed-alley floor. 

2,500 Woiiby. clay blocks for floor and 

walls, 58x12”, 

10 pes. 2’x8’—10’ for plates. 

52 pes. 2’x6/—16’ rafters for roof. 

26 pes. 1’x6/—12’ cross ties for 

rafters. 

1,600’ roof-sheathing. 

15 000 cedar shingles for roof. 

16 skylight sashes “for roof. 

16 pen doors, 2’x3’. 

2 doors, 3’x7’. 
1 metal cupola, 18”, 


Stake out the building site, 21’x50’, 
and inside the lines dig the founda- 
tion trenches. These are 10” wide 
and 2%’ deep. If the ground is solid, 
wood forms will not be needed, but 
always use care and do not jar loose 
any of the trench walls when pouring 
concrete into them. Make the «concrete 


with one sack of cement, three cubic 
feet of sand and five of gravel. 


*Mix 


—__Cementns| —_ Bp Concrere Trough ug Concrere Trough 
OUI et a. = PET 


10 Cancrere fa ooting 
) ECT ION 


Floor and section plan of sanitary 
hog house 


the sand and cement thoroughly before 
adding the gravel and the water. Slush 
the mixture into the trench at once 
and be sure that the top is leveled off 
properly. 

The tile walls (8” thick) of the house 
are laid directly upon the concrete 
foundation, as the diagram illustrates. 
The common size blocks are 5” x 8” x 
12” in size. Lay them flatwise in the 
wall. Use a lime and cement mortar, 
but only a small amount of lime will 
be allowed, not to exceed one tenth 
part by volume. The lime makes the 
mortar plastic, so that the mortar will 
stick to the ends of the blocks when 
they are being laid up in the walls of 
the hog house. The tile walls of the 


479 


480 


house are 5’ in height. When the last 
course of tile is being laid, do not for- 
get to insert the anchor bolts in the 
mortar joints every 6’. Let the thread- 
ed end of the bolt project at least 2%” 
so that the 2” x 8” wood plate can be 
securely bolted to the tile wall. It is 
then possible to spike the roof rafters 
of the house to this wood plate. As 
the tile walls are going up, set in 
place the door frames for the pen 
doors and also the end doors. These 
are only made of 2” x 8” planks, with 
spikes driven into them so that they 
will be well bonded to the tile walls. 

The roof building is the next step. 
Make it at half pitch with the 2”x6” 
rafters, 2’ center to center. Use 16’ lum- 
ber and tie every set of rafters with 
a 6” board 12’ long. This makes a 
stiff frame and a solid foundation for 
the roof. Any cheap lumber can be 
used for sheathing. Space the boards 
1%” apart. The cedar shingles should 
be applied with galvanized three-pen- 
ny nails and laid with not over 4%” 
exposed to the weather. The roof sash 
or the skylights have a metal flashing 
so that they will not leak. These sash 
frames are set in place as the roof is 
being shingled. The roofing will run 
up over the metal flashing. The glass 
in the roof sash is covered with hard- 
ware cloth to prevent hail damage. 
That completes the shell of the house. 

The floors “are the next” step. .in 
the process of erecting a modern hog 
house. The tile for the floors may be 
seconds. Lay them on a well-tamped 
sand and gravel cushion and cover 
the tile and the joints with a rich mix- 
ture of sand and cement, mixed one to 
two. A floor so made, with an air 
space under it, is warm, dry and healthy. 
The feed-alley floor is all concrete, 5’ 
thick, and the hog-troughs are made of 
the same material. The pen partitions 
can be made of either tile or wood 
planks. Make the pens size 6’ x &. 
This is the generally accepted standard- 
size farrowing pen. 

The recent cholera epidemics and 
other swine troubles have in a large 
measure been traced back to the old 
filthy, germ-ridden, dark hog pens on 
most corn-belt farms. This great loss 
from disease has taken millions of dol- 


Popular Science Monthly 


lars from hog growers’ bank accounts. 
It has driven home a lesson, never- 
theless. It has, in a way, revolution- 
ized the management of swine and has 
brought about a general cleaning-up 
policy, better sanitation and _ better 
health for the porker, so that he will 
be in a prime condition to fight dis- 
ease when it appears. 


A Hen-House Water Supply Which 
Will Not Freeze 


© make a non-freezable drinking 
fountain for the hen house the fol- 
lowing material will be needed: One 
soap or cracker box; a lantern; two gal- 
vanized iron pails, about two-quart ca- 
pacity ; and enough heavy asbestos paper 
to line box with a double thickness to 
keep in the heat generated by the lan- 
tern and for fire prevention. 
The box must be large enough to hold 


The deflected heat from the lantern keeps 
the fountain from freezing 


the lantern and two pails. Two holes 
are cut in the top of box, one at each 
end, allowing the pails to sink into the 
box with only about 3” protruding; in- 
side the box, between the pails, the lan- 
tern should be placed. The heat will be 
deflected by the lantern top and the box 
around the water pails, thus keeping the 
water a few degrees above freezing even 
in coldest weather. 

The box is placed on a platform. 
This, in addition to being a support for 
perches on which the fowls stand while 
drinking, is also the bottom of the heat 
box upon which the lantern rests. When 
filling or cleaning the lantern, the box 
and pails are lifted from the platform, 
but when filling the pails, they are sim- 
ply removed from the holes. 


Money Prizes for Radio Articles 


We want you to tell our readers how you have overcome your wireless 
troubles. Every radio operator, commercial or experimental, has en- 
countered difficulties in building or using his apparatus. Many 
different people are bothered by the very same problems day after day, 
and it will help you to learn how others worked to get successful results. 
It will help others to learn how you succeeded. 

For the two best articles describing how you overcame troubles in 
building, operating, adjusting or repairing any radio instrument or 
group of instruments, we offer first and second prizes of $25.00 and 
$15.00 respectively. The Judges of the Contest, who will be the Editors 
of the Poputar Science Montuty, will select the prize-winning 
manuscripts from those which conform with the following conditions. 
The prizes will be awarded to the two writers whose articles, in the opinion 
of the Editors, will prove most helpful to the readers of the magazine. 


Conditions of Prize Contest 


Manuscripts must be typewritten, on one side of the paper only. 

Illustrations must be on sheets separate from the manuscripts. 

Articles must be addressed to the Radio Prize Contest, PopULAR 
Science Monrutuy, 239 Fourth Avenue, New York, and 
must reach that address before June 15, 1916, in order to be 
considered. 

4. Manuscripts which do not win prizes may be purchased for publica- 
tion, at the option of the Editors and at the usual rates. 

5. The decision of the Judges, which will be announced in the August, 
1916, issue, is to be final. 

6. Each manuscript must be accompanied by a letter containing criticisms 
and suggestions as to the wireless section of the PopuULAR 
Scrence Montuty. The merit of these letters will not be con- 
sidered in awarding the prizes, but their suggestions will be 
taken as indications of what types of articles are of the most 
value to our readers. 

7. If contestants wish to have their manuscripts returned, they should 
send postage for that purpose. 

8. Articles should not exceed 2,000 words in length. If you cannot 

compose your information in that length, write more than one 

article on different phases of the subject, each article to be 
independent. 


ee 


481 


iy 


PN edhe 


The End of a Battle in the Aur 


A few years ago military experts considered fighting in the air an improbability and declared 

that the aeroplane and the Zeppelin would be useful only for scouting and bomb dropping. 

Now, battles between aeroplanes are so common that they are seldom mentioned in the 

dispatches. Aeroplanes as yet have been able to accomplish little against raiding Zeppelins. 

The anti-aircraft guns are the Zeppelin’s greatest enemies, and these Paris and London 
dare not use lest the projectiles fall back in the streets 


482 


Popular Science Monthly 


239 Fourth Ave., New York 


Vol. 88 
No. 4 


April, 1916 


$1.50 
Annually 


A Pigmy Zeppelin 


pelins go) with a_basket-work 
frame of layered wood has been 
recently built for the British .Govern- 
ment by a number of American con- 
structors, including T. Rutherford Mac- 
Mechen, president of the Aeronautical 
Society of America, and Walter Kamp, 
a prominent American aeronautical de- 
signer. 
One of the chief efforts of the designer 
has been to reduce the weight of the hull 


i PIGMY Zeppelin (pigmy as Zep- 


J 
we 


oy es 


and car without sacrificing strength, and 
this has been accomplished, he believes, 
by the substitution of laminated wood 
for the aluminum which composes the 
framework of the Zeppelin. The rings 
which are used to keep the hull in cylin- 
drical form are made of thirty-nine thin 
layers of mahogany, carefully glued to- 
gether, and covered by a steel collar. 
Thirty-two wooden ropes, hardly as 
thick as a man’s thumb, wind again and 
again around the hull, weaving the whole 


A pigmy Zeppelin which is being built for the British Government by a company of American 


constructors. 


The framework of this novel airship is made of ropes and laminated wood, so 


closely woven together as to resemble a huge mesh of wood and wire 


483 


484 Popular Science Monthly 


into a great mesh of basket-work. Six- 
teen slender members form the longi- 
tudinals, running from bow to stern, and 
intersecting the spirals of wooden rope 
where they cross each other. The func- 
tion of the spirals and longitudinals 
acting together is to distribute the gas 
lift and strains evenly to all points of the 
hull. 

There are, in reality, two hulls, the 
inner enclosing thirteen balloonets or 
gas bags and the outer supporting a 
waterproof and airtight envelope or 
skin. Twenty-nine ribs, or transverse 
girders, encircle the inner hull, and a 
spider web of wire cables stiffens the 
alternate ribs and forms the bulkheads 
between the balloonets. 

Two eight-cylinder, sixty-horsepower 
motors have been installed, and by 
means of cable drives transmit the power 
to four propellers mounted high above 
the car, two being placed on each side of 
the slender torpedo-like hull. 

In hot weather, or when the airship 
passes through a heated stratum of air, 
the gas expands, exerting more lifting 
power, and causing the airship to rise. 
To control this tendency, the gas has to 
be artificially cooled, or it will be neces- 
sary to release some cf the valuable 
hydrogen to allow the ship to retake its 
proper altitude. On the centrary, if a 
sudden wave of cold air strikes the gas 
bag, the gas immediately contracts, and 
part of its lifting power is lost. If there 
is no means for heating the gas and ex- 
panding it, ballast will have to be 
dropped from the car, thus compensating 
the decreased lifting power of the gas 
by a lighter weight which it has to 
carry. 

The control of the lifting power of the 
gas in the MacMechen dirigible is in 
the heating and cooling process. To 
keep the hydrogen from cooling and 
losing its lifting power, hot vapor from 
the engine is blown into the foot-wide 
space between the balloonets and the 
outer skin of airtight cloth. To cool and 
condense the gas for descent, or to pre- 
vent its expansion to an extent that 
causes an undue inflation of the gas bags, 
cold air is introduced into the same space 
by means of a luminum disks with re- 
volving shutters at the bow and stern. 

It is claimed that by this method of 


construction a rigid airship has been 
built which is one-third lighter than it is 
possible to build a Zeppelin of the same 
relative size. The hull and car weigh 
2,190 pounds, and the gas capacity is 
108,000 cubic feet, or about one-tenth 
that of the latest Zeppelin monster. As 
hydrogen is usually rated by aeronauts, 
this quantity will lift about three and 
one-half tons, or seven thousand pounds. 
With engine equipment and crew, the 
airship weighs about 5,300 pounds, leav- 
ing a margin of 1,800 pounds for ballast, 
explosives and additional fuel. The 
length of the hull is 236 feet over all. 
The designers claim that their airship 


DYNAMIC 
LIFTING SURFACE 


IDER WEBBING 
AT BULKHEADS 


will make about seventy miles an hour, 
or about ten miles an hour faster than 
the speed of a Zeppelin. 

The POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY be- 
lieves that this airship will prove disap- 
pointing to its builders and to the 
British Government. Previous experi- 
ments with wooden frames in dirigibles 
have proved costly failures. The Zep- 
pelin’s first rival, the Schiitte-Lanz 
dirigible, was built with wooden frame- 
work, and proved much heavier than a 
Zeppelin of the same dimensions. Lami- 
nated wood was used in the experiment 
and this was found faulty and discarded. 
The Zeppelin of to-day is the product of 
practical experience, as is the second, 
and successful, Schiitte-Lanz, which 
discarded the weblike wooden frame for 
the lighter metal ribs and strakes of the 
Zeppelin. Such a solid frame as that of 
the pigmy airship would not do for a 


=“ wr 


Popular Science Monthly 


larger dirigible, for it loses the greater 
lightness for the same strength of a 
small structure. In a small dirigible 
resistance against propulsion is so much 
greater than the lift available for engine 
power in the large craft, that it com- 
pletely discounts the small craft’s struc- 
tural advantages. Any improvements in 
lightness and strength will, therefore, 
never make this pigmy Zeppelin a 
superior in speed to its larger and more 
powerful rival. 

The whole idea of a small and speedy 
“aerial destroyer”’ is mistaken, since in a 
dirigible everything has to take second 
place to speed; otherwise Zeppelins, 


erm 


a eel. egies 


13 DRUMS OF HYDROGEN GAS 
KEEP THE CRAFT ALOFT 


The designers believe that the laminated wood con- . 
struction will produce an airship which is one-third 
lighter than a Zeppelin could be built with similar 
Two sixty-horsepower motors drive 


dimensions. 


485 


crease the lifting power, and consequent- 
ly the size, in order to achieve greater 
power and speed. Whether the Zeppelin 
has been a success or not is a mooted 
point, but the Zeppelin has been the 
only dirigible that has accomplished 
anything of note in this war, and the 
smaller dirigibles have been permanently 
relegated to their hangars. 


A Barbed-Wire-Proof Fabric 
NE of the most trying tasks incident 
to trench fighting has been consid- 
erably lightened by the appearance in 
the British trenches of gloves made of a 
fabric which is said to be impervious to 


[} ELEVATION 
i/<—-RUDDER 


four propellers, and the airship will be expected to 
make more than seventy miles an hour at full speed 


which cannot seek safety in landing, 
would be at the mercy of the wind. 

The rope drive to the propellers has 
been proved greatly inferior to bevel 
gearing, chains and belts. The cable 
drive was tested on the first Gross- 
Basenach, but was quickly discarded. 

The most meritorious feature of the 
design of the pigmy Zeppelin is in the 
alternate heating and cooling of the gases 
by hot vapor from the engine and cool 
air sucked in by blowers. This certainly 
should prove of valuable assistance to 
the dynamic lift-control without en- 
tailing much additional weight. 

In conclusion, it seems that the idea 
of a wooden frame has been tried, ap- 
proximately in its present form, and 
found lacking. The rope drive has been 
succeeded by more efficient means of 
power transmission, and the entire trend 
of dirigible construction has been to in- 


barbed-wire points. The fabric is made 
up into mittens, with the first finger and 
thumb separate. The fabric is water- 
proof, and in addition the gloves are 
insulated for gripping electrically- 
charged wires. 

The same material is applied to the 
manufacture of sleeping-bags, which, 
when opened, may be thrown over a 
barbed-wire entanglement to allow a 
soldier to climb over the sharp points 
without injury. When made up into 
vests or tunics, the fabric is strong 
enough to turn shrapnel splinters, or 
even a bullet when it has lost part of its 
momentum. The interlining is anti- 
septicized, so that if a bullet goes 
through, it takes into the wound enough 
antiseptic wool to prevent poisoning. 

The materials used in the manufacture 
of this remarkable fabric have been 
sedulously kept secret this far. 


486 


Preserving Indian Speech 
E are already beginning to regret 
that: a0 


could have 
been made of 
the voices of 
great singers 
of the last 
generation, 
while we shall 
be handing 
down our Ca- 
mises) aad 
Melbas to 
those who 
come long 
after us. Not 
long ago 
the Depart- 
ment of the 
Interior in 
Washington 
awoke to the 
fact-thas 
there was 
something 
else to be pre- 
served for 
the future, 


namely the speech and war songs of 
our native Indians. The new generation 


A Rowing-Bath 
f ‘HE rowing-bath has been perfected 


in a western sanitarium for the 


Popular Science Monthly 


of Carlisle-bred chiefs do not take the 
ancient rituals very seriously, and it is 


phonographic records probable that after the oldest of the 


A chief of the Blackfeet singing his war songs into 
a Government phonograph for preservation 


living warri- 
ors have died, 
the Indian 
war songs will 
be practically 
forgotten. 

It was this 
feeling which 
prompted the 
Government 
to make the 
phonographic 
records of the 
voices of the 
greatest of the 
living chiefs 
for the files 
of the nation. 
For some time 
pas Galo 
these warriors 
on their per- 
iodic visits to 
Washington 
have recorded 
on the phono- 


graph their songs and their legends for 
the files of the nation. 


to give the element of exercise. Enter- 
ing the tub, the bather attaches the 
rowing device and turns on the cold 


purpose of adding zest to the morning water. As it pours into the tub he 


plunge. It is 
valuable as a 
curative 
measure, but 
it may also 
be used with 
enjoyment 
and benefit 
by any one. 
The rowing- 
bath consists 
of ac metal 
contaimer 
which is at- 
tached to the 
nozzle of an 
ordinary 
tub by means 
of a rubber 
cord suffi- 
ciently strong 


The rowboat bath is the newest contribution to the 
physical enjoyment of living 


scoops up the 
water and, pul- 
ling the con- 
tainer toward 
him witha 
rowing mo- 
tion, empties 
it full upon his 
breast, thus 
securing the 
zest which 
accompanies 
the pleasant 
pastime of 
buffeting surf. 
This bath is 
a diversion 
from the ordi- 
nary ‘‘shower”’ 
on a hot sum- 
mer day. 


Biggest Cast-iron Pipes in the World 


Bronx Tunnel at New York are 

probably the largest cast-iron pipes 
ever made. The internal diameter is six 
feet; the thickness of metal is two and 
three-quarter 
inches; and the 
length twelve 
feet. The one 
end has the or- 
dinary bell 
form; the other 
the spigot. The 
weight of one 
length is about 
twenty-six 
thousand 
pounds. 

These mains 
are laid parallel 
and run down 
a shaft at As- 
toria on Long 
Island, along a 
tunnel two 
hundred and 
twenty-five 
feet below the 
surface, under 
East River, 
and then up a 
second shaft 
at One Hun- 
dred and 
Thirty-second 
Street and 
East River. 
They are to car- 
ry gas into the 
Bronx, the most 
rapidly grow- 
ing borough of 
New York city. 


‘Ts: big gas-mains in the Astoria- 


line, New York city. 


It is not an impossibility that the 


tunnel may sometime be flooded with 


A row of seventy-two-inch pipes for the Astoria 
In the foreground is a spigot 
joint with tee cut-off 


The small motor is driving eight steel knives which 
are cutting the pipe from the inside 


water. Under such circumstances it 
would not be desirable to have the long 
lines of iron tubes begin to _ float. 
While the pipes are heavy enough to 
prevent their floating, the margin is not 
greapey Lhe 
weight of 
water dis- 
placed by a 
© y ) tandses 
twelve feet 
long and 
seventy-seven 
and one-half 
itt Clk GS. pk 1 
diameter is 
between 
twenty-four 
thousand and 
twenty-five 
thousand 
pounds. The 
overlap where 
bell-end en- 
compasses 
spigot-end 
complicates 
the matter a 
little, but after 
all allowances 
are made, there 
would prob- 
ably be a good 
solid weight to 
the pipe lines if 
the tunnel were 
full of water. 
The amount 
of lead used 
to calk the 
joints is about 
two hundred 
and twenty- 
five pounds per joint. The mains rest 
on concrete saddles set six feet apart. 


200,000! 


In just eight months this magazine has doubled in circulation—it has 


grown from 100,000 to 200,000 copies. 


Tell your friends to read the Popular Science Monthly. Tell them 
that the Popular Science Monthly gives all the news of invention and 
science, and that it is easy to read and full of pictures. 


487 


In order to reduce his unloading time and also to run 
coal into cellars as awkwardly placed as this, a coal- 
merchant had a special truck body designed like 


that shown here 


Small Motor Trucks Deliver Coal 
Cheaply 
ne eee time by means of a dump- 
ing body elevated by power from 
its own motor and skids laid over the 
sidewalk, the small two-ton truck shown 
in the accompanying illustration deliv- 
ered an average on thirty tons per day 
for a period of several months and in 


A Man-Power Reel for 
Hauling in a Long Seine 


N ingenious device for 

hauling in a long seine 
has been introduced by a 
fisherman who operates on a 
large scale in Mississippi. 
The seine he uSes is Over a 
mile in length, and it would 
require a large crew to haul 
it in. The contrivance he 
has invented consists of two 
wheels about eight feet in 
diameter, mounted on the 
ends of an axle, thus forming 
ahuge reel. This is mounted 
on a scow so that it can re- 
revolve. The seine is wound 
up on the big reel. 

When it is to be laid, the scow is 
rowed out to the desired spot, the end 
of the seine is fastened to a stake, which 
is driven to the bottom, and the seine 
is paid out from the reel as the scow is 
rowed away from the stake. A man at 
each wheel tends the seine to keep it 
from tangling. To haul it in, two of the 
crew tread up the spokes of the wheels 
so that the reel revolves and slowly rolls 


Popular Science 


Monthly 


doing so covered between 
fifty and sixty miles daily. 
At two tons per load this 
means fifteen trips per ten- 
hour day with an average 
length of trip of three to four 
miles. 

Inlarge cities, where streets 
are well paved, the coal de- 
livered in large quantities 
and the hauls more than 
five miles, five- to ten-ton 
trucks have proved very suc- 
cessful. But for country and 
suburban work, where the 
roads are poorer, the coal de- 
livered in five-ton loads or 
less and the hauls less than five miles, 
trucks of two-tons capacity or there- 
abouts have proved best. : 


For work in residence sections where 
the streets are soft, small-capacity trucks 
can maneuver more quickly than larger 
ones, run less chance of getting mired, 
and because of their greater speed, can 
often deliver a greater tonnage. 


The fisherman winds up his mile-long seine on a big 
windlass which a small crew can operate by hand ina 


moderate-sized boat 


up the seine on the axle, the scow mean- 
while being backed over the course of the 
laid seine. Negro labor is cheap in the 
far South, so that this device has proved 
both economical and efficient. 


HIRTY-FOUR dollars a minute is 
the cost of maintaining New York’s 
police force of nearly eleven thousand 
men. 


Popular Science Monthly 


Saves Work of the Book 
Gatherer 


HE gathering or assem- 

bling of a book in the 
book bindery is generally 
done by girls who walk 
around a large room taking 
the signatures from one pile 
after another as they move 
along. The work is hard 
and the capacity of the 
gatherer is limited by her 
walking ability. Where 
the character of the work is 
always the same, special ma- 
chinery has been made which 
will do the work, but where 
there is a variety of work the human 
gatherer is necessarily resorted to. 

An electric table driven by a two- 
horse-power motor has recently been de- 
signed and built by the manager of a 
Louisville printing establishment which 
enables the girls to sit at their work, 
taking the desired sheets from the piles 
placed on the table as they move by in 


A California fireplace where everyone can sit in front 
of the blaze, but which has no inglenooks 


A “Center-of-the-Room”’ Fireplace 
BUILDER of Long Beach, Cali- 


fornia, has constructed a novel fire- 
place in his home, the very lines of which 
have the effect of making this dwelling 
“different.”’ This is a ‘middle-of-the- 
room” fireplace and is known as a 
brazier. It is possible for a family and 
its friends to sit entirely around the fire, 
so that a dozen or more persons may 
toast their toes at the same time. 


489 


The center of the table revolves and the girls pick off 
the printed units they are gathering for binding 


an endless procession. The table will 
accommodate ten or twelve girls. It 
was successfully used in the assembling 
of. a  two-thousand-nine-hundred-page 
legal work, and it is claimed by the in- 
ventor that by making the table a 
double-decker, an unabridged dictionary 
could be handled upon it, so efficient is 
the rotating arrangement. 


The brazier consists of a 
hood, a basin, a spark-guard 
and a grate. With the ex- 
ception of the grate, the 
parts are made of hammered 
copper. The basin, the sides 
of which serve as a foot- 
rest, is five feet square, six 
inches deep and four inches 
from the floor, and is sup- 
ported by four legs, located 
at the corners. Within this 
basin an iron grate has been 
placed, on which the fire is 
made, only the ashes falling 
to the basin. A copper-wire 
spark-screen, three feet in 
height, has been made to fit 
within the basin at the foot of the slop- 
ing sides. This guard has brass posts, 
top and bottom. It may be instantly 
removed when it is desired to clean the 
basin. 

This home has walls nine feet in 
height and it is of such a length so that 
when lowered its upper end extends a foot 
or so above the ceiling. The neck of 
this hood is twelve inches wide. At its 
lower end it flares out to four feet. 


Popular Science Monthly 


The tiny electric locomotive on the small track is as mighty, weight for weight, as the - 
giant which fills the background 


Not a Toy—A Real Locomotive 
HE engineer is standing next to the 
largest electric locomotive in the 
world. But the youngster in the fore- 


ground is not a top by any means; it is 
a lusty, able, mining locomotive weighing 


A British army tractor which crossed England despite 


many difficulties 


five thousand pounds. Pound for pound 
and volt for volt, it can draw just as 
heavy a load as its big brother behind, 
which weighs five hundred and sixty 
thousand pounds. The big motor is 
driven by a current of three thousand 
volts, while the “‘toy’’ which 
runs on a twenty-inch gage 
track, is driven by aself-con- 
tained storage-battery, de- 
livering eighty-five volts. 


A Difficult Journey for 
an Army Tractor 
AR certainly gives rise 
to strange exigencies. 
In the illustration may be 
seen a big tractor transport- 
ing a large, awkward load 
through a flooded road in 
Berkshire, England.  Diff- 
culties were encountered eve- 
ry mile. Telegraph wires 
were always in the way, tree 
branches seemed surprisingly 
numerous, and arches reared 
themselves in the path of 
the vehicle. 


Popular Science Monthly 491 


Dumping a Whole Carload of Coal Machine Fills Cracks in Pavement 
at a Time ILLING in the cracks between pav- 
HE speediest way of loading coal ing-stones is a process known as 


from a freight-car into a steamer is_ “‘grouting,’’ and proper grouting, when 
embodied in a mechanical loading plant done by hand with the aid of a wheel- 
installed on a wharf at Char- 
leston, South Carolina. 
Instead of unloading the 
coal from the cars and stack- 
ing it to await the steamer, 
then retransporting it to the 
steamer’s hold, the car, filled 
with coal, is merely lifted 
bodily from the track by a 
powerful elevating mechan- 
ism and its contents poured 


This giant coals steamers and 

loads barges by picking up rail- 

way cars and turning them up- 
side down over the hopper 


barrow and a trowel or a 
spade, is a slow and time-con- 
suming task. A compact 
grouting-machine has been 
brought out, which, while 
operated by only one man, is 
able to do the work better and 
in less time than a small gang 
oflaborers. Aconcrete-mixing 
into a great chute, from which it streams machine is mounted on wheels with a long 
into the hold. spout protruding in front. As the con- 
Thirty coal-cars, each with a load of — crete is needed, it is poured through the 
one hundred tons, can be handled in an — spout and outupon the pavement, whence 
hour. The entire plant is electrically the cement finds its way into the cracks. 
operated. In ac- — 
tion, the elec- 
trical loader is 
spectacular. The 
loaded cars roll 
down an incline 
upon the eleva- 
tor. A motor is 
started, the car 
swings upward 
until it is turned 
bottom-side-up, 
the coal pouring 
into the hopper, 


thence to the ship. A machine which fills in the cracks between paving stones 


492 


Popular Science Monthly 


© American Press Association 


The “‘Cascadas”’ is the largest all-steel dredge in the world. It scoops up fifteen wagon-loads 
of material at a time, and has disposed of as many as seventeen thousand wagon-loads of 
earth and rocks in a single day 


Digging Away the Slides at Panama 


HE whole Panama Canal zone may 
be imagined as an aggregation of 
slopes of hard material upon which 

softer materials rest. In cutting the 
canal the equilibrium maintained be- 
tween the upper and the lower strata 
was disturbed. Asa result the overlying 
material tobogganed down into the cut 
which constitutes the canal, upon the 
inclined under material. Nothing can 
stop the movement now in progress until 
the angle of repose is attained, and this 


can be reached only by removing the 
excess amount of material. Col. Goeth- 
als states that seven million cubic yards 
must be removed before the slides are 
entirely stopped, and that this is at best 
only a guess. “‘It must not be inferred,”’ 
says Col. Goethals, ‘‘that the canal will 
be closed until this amount is dredged; 
on the contrary, it is the intention to 
pass ships as soon as a channel is secured 
through the remaining six hundred feet, 
and there are reasonable grounds for as- 


Popular Science Monthly 


Eigen Set Sea eee peek ee 


cans 


© American Press Association 


The thousands of tons of earth and rock precipitated into the Panama Canal had to be re- 


moved before shipping could pass through the canal. 


were caught at this point. 


suming that a channel through the ob- 
structed area can be maintained.”’ 

Seven dredges have been more or less 
steadily working at the bases of the 
Culebra slides for the last few months. 
Three of these are fifteen-yard dipper- 
dredges, one is a  five-yard dipper- 
dredge, one a ladder-dredge and the 
others are sea-going suction and pipe- 
line suction-dredges. 

The two photographs appearing on 
these pages show the fifteen-yard dipper- 


Two dredges and the ship ‘““Newton”’ 


It took seventy-nine days to dig the ‘“‘Newton”’ out 
y J gs 


dredge Cascadas at work. This is the 
largest all-steel dredge in the world. It 
was made in Germany especially for use 
in the canal and was shipped in parts to 
the Zone. The dredge is one hundred 
and forty-four feet long. The bucket 
shown in the picture lifts fifteen wagon- 
loads of material at a time. In a single 
day fourteen thousand cubic yards—in 
other wordsas many wagon-loads—can be 
removed, although a record of seventeen 
thousand cubic yards has been made. 


I ke ee 
The May Popular Science Monthly will be on sale Saturday, April fifteenth 
(West of the Rockies, Saturday, April twenty-second). 


494 Popular Science Monthly 


Roller-skates have been found successful in Baltimore 
as a means of speeding up the message boys in telegraph 
offices where a great volume of messages is relayed 


Roller-Skates in Business 


URING the rush hours, when tele- 
graph operators are busiest, West- 
ern Union boys glide on roller-skates 
from desk to desk, snatching the mes- 
sages from the hooks without even stop- 


Motor-cycle Helps Light a 
Town 


HEN the town of St. 

Charles, Mo., was left 
in darkness recently by the 
breaking of the high-powered 
transmission cable from the 
Keokuk dam on the Missis- 
sippi, a motor-cycle helped 
save the situation and keep 
the town lighted. The town 
formerly was lighted by a 
steam-power plant which 
drove a 150 k.w. generator. 
When the engineers looked 
up the abandoned steam 
plant they found it possible 
to get up steam and run 
the generator, but discovered 
that an important auxiliary, 
the little exciter-generator which is run 
in conjunction with the big one was out 
of commission. The exciter at the 
sub-station was available and E. F. 
Wayee, trouble man for the Electric 


ping, and scarcely slackening 
their speed. The boys and 
operators co-operate in the 
ratio of about one to twenty- 
two. That is, with one boy 
for every twenty-two opera- 
tors, the messages are not 
allowed to stay on their 
hooks more than one second 
before being snapped up. 
The skates are fitted with 
rubber rollers, so that anoth- 
er feature of modern business 
efficiency—silence—has been 
considered. Every second is 
scored down in black and 
white on the telegrams, and 
efficiency experts study these 
figures in an attempt to cut 
down the seconds to frac- 
tions of seconds. The use of 
skates reduces the time ac- 
cording to the space which 
has to be covered. The 
main office in Baltimore has five boys 
who work in shifts, two being able to 
handle the work of forty-five of the swift- 
est operators. The room is sixty feet 
long and. accomodates many operators. 
Best of all, the boys enjoy their work. 


A motor-cycle attached to an electric light plant helped 
to light a town 


Company of Missouri, harnessed his 
motor-cycle to the plant by removing 
the rear tire and belting the wheel to 
the exciter. For an hour, the motor- 
cycle supplied light to the city. 


—_—_- 


oOo Oe a a 


ae 


Suspension Bridges of Wire Fencing 


built by a wire agency in Southern 
Oregon, to the number of twenty in 
Jackson County alone, which goes to 
show their practicability. 
The method of construction is simple. 
Three lengths of fence are used. Two 


By aris ay footbridges have been 


total tensile strength of the wires is 
seventy-five thousand eight hundred 
and eighty pounds, so that it will safely 
hold a load of a hundred people. The 
agency plans to build a one-hundred-foot 
wagon bridge in the near future along 
the same lines of construction. 


Suspension bridge built of fence wire 


are stretched for the sides and one hori- 
zontal length serves for the bottom. 
After having been wired together and 
planked, the bridge is safe even for small 
children. The anchor posts must be 
well braced and put deep in concrete 
with long cross-pieces on the bottoms. 
The ends of the wires are wrapped around 
the posts and spliced to the wires again, 
so that there is no danger of their slip- 
ping, even though the staples may give 
way. 

The bridge shown in the photograph 
is three hundred and ninety-six feet long; 
the longest span being two hundred and 
fifty-six feet. At the highest point it is 
forty-five feet from the water. The 


A Cheap Way of Preserving Eggs 


GGS may be successfully preserved 
for many months in a solution of 
water-glass. One quart of water-glass, 
which may be purchased from any 
druggist for twenty-five cents, is enough 


to preserve twenty dozen eggs. Heat 
ten quarts of water to the boiling point 
and allow it to cool. Pour the water 
into a five-gallon earthenware crock, 


add one quart of water-glass and mix the 


two. Place the eggs in this solution as 
soon as laid, but do not wash them. 
When the crock is filled to within two 


inches of the top of the liquid, cover and 
store in a cool, dry place. 


195 


496 Popular Science Monthly 


TheLively Bird onOur Cover 


ANSAS CITY was re- 
cently treated to the 
unusual sight of a spirited 
race between a young os- 
trich anda motor-cycle, when 
a policeman attached to the 
motor-cyclesquad of the city 
police force paced the bird 
nearly a mile and a half on 
Cliff Drive, one of the 
fashionable thoroughfares of 
the city. 

The bird is seven months 
old. Specially trained for 
such work, it has appeared 
in numerous state fairs in 
races with automobiles and 
motor-cycles. The _ police- 
man, although he could have 
easily made a_ speed of 
seventy miles an hour with 
his high-powered machine, 
paced the ostrich. His speed 
indicator showed that the 
bird made forty miles an 
hour. When near the finish 
line, the policeman brought 
cheers from the crowd which 
had gathered to witness the 
race by opening the throttle 
To the “Titanic’’ Heroes of his engine and finishing 


COLOSSAL statue to the men who well in advance of nature’s fastest bird 

died on the ‘‘Titanic’’ that women at a whirlwind speed of over a mile a 
and children might be saved first, is soon minute, to the dismay of the ostrich. 
to be unveiled in Potomac 
Park, Washington. The 
statue, fifteen feet high, is 
the work of Mrs. Harry 
Payne Whitney, and is 
carved in granite. It was 
put in the stone at Quincy, 
Mass., and shipped from 
there to Washington for the 
unveiling. 

The stark simplicity of 
the whole design, and the 
reach of the arms, which the 
artist consciously exagger- 
ated, make the statue one 
which will be seen and re- 
membered. Mrs. Whitney 
recently gave an exhibit of 
her work, the original design 


A gigantic granite statue is to stand in Washington— 
a monument to the heroes of the ‘“‘Titanic”’ 


f hi bee h For part of the race, the motor-cycle kept just ahead of 
ol this statue being the the ostrich, both bird and machine making a speed of 
center of attraction. forty miles an hour 


Popular Science Monthly 


The new safety hair-cutter by means of 
which you can trim your own locks 


Every Man His Own Hair Cutter 


ONSIDERING the success that has 
accompanied the wide use of the 
safety razor in its various forms, the 
advent of a new honed barber tool, the 
safety hair-cutter, leaves no reason now 
why every man should not become his 


Making Throat Examination Behind 
a Glass Screen 
6) NE of the newest medical appli- 
ances to be placed at the dis- 
posal of physicians is an instrument 
which combines a device for 
holding down the tongue of 
a patient during an examina- 
tion of the throat, and a cir- 
cular glass shield, as shown 
in the illustration. 

The glass shield is inter- 
posed between the face of 
the doctor and the mouth of 
the patient, and allows the 
doctor to make a much closer 
examination of the mouth 
and throat, than is now con- 
venient. It is often neces- 
sary to swab out the throat 
with a solution which irri- 
tates the delicate mucous membrane and 
nerves, causing the patient to cough sud- 
denly and violently, right in the face of 


497 


own barber. The new safety hair-cutter 
is operated on practically the same prin- 
ciple as the safety razor, the main differ- 
ence being that a comb takes the place 
of the steel guard. Holding the comb 
close to the head results in a close cut; 
holding it at a wider angle, in a longer 
cut. It is possible, if the comb is man- 
ipulated properly, to cut the hair nearly 
as close as if a razor were used, although 
the manufacturers advocate the use of a 
safety razor behind the ears and along 
the back of the neck. 


Lawn Leveling 


A ie. enable one man to level a lawn, 
set up in the center of the lawn a 
“plane table.” Use a drawing board sup- 
ported perfectly level on three stakes 
and about four feet from the ground. 
To test the height of the leveling pins 
as driven, tie a knot in a plumb line, so 
that when the knot is on a level with the 
board, the end of the bob is on a level 
with the required height of the lawn. 
It is then easy, no matter where the man 
is working, to sight along the level board 
and test the height of the stakes with the 
line. This method saves accumulating 


errors when carrying the levels out from 
one peg to another. 


The device combines a spoon to hold down the tongue 
and a circular glass shield through which the physician 
looks at the patient’s throat 


the physician. Every physician will wel- 
come this apparatus, especially for the 
treatment of diphtheria. 


Oniy Hong Kong surpasses New York in the number and 


activity of its harbor pirates. 


Taming Those Harbor Pirates 


HE problem of the harbor pirate has 

perplexed the police of every great 
port of the world. Perhaps they have 
been more notorious in the cities of the 
Chinese coast than any other part of the 
world because of the wantonness and the 
dare-deviltry of their attacks. Even now 
in the port of Hong Kong which usually 
bristles with the warships of all nations, 
a dark, ghostly junk often slips quietly up 
out of the night. Throat-cutting and 
loot occur before the unsuspecting crew 
is hardly aware of the attack. Armored, 
shallow-draft gun-boats have done away 
to a large extent with these cut-throats 
in the south of China. 

Next in prominence to the Chinese 
ports is the harbor of New York. It 
would be difficult indeed to estimate the 
number of cheap melodramas that have 
been based on New York harbor pira- 


New York’s police boats are 
therefore armed with machine guns 


Popular Science Monthly 


teering. Within the last 
few years, however, the 
vocation of pirate in 
New York waters has 
lost the greatest part of 
its profitableness. River 
pirates when caught are 
dealt with so harshly 
that the pirates have 
been discouraged, and 
the recent addition to the 
New York police boats 
of automatic rifles, or 
gattling guns has _ re- 
moved almost all of the 
remaining desire. 

Mounted conveniently 
on the roof of the pilot 
houses of the New York 
police tugs are rapid-fir- 
ing rifles which can be 
swept entirely around 
the compass. These guns 
will literally squirt bul- 
lets of the regulation ar- 
my size at any desired 
target within a range of 
twenty-eight hundred 
yards, or considerably 
farther than a mile, with 
accuracy. They are not 
aimed. When the search- 
light of the launch dis- 
covers a pirate craft, the 
gun is pointed in its gen- 
eral direction—and the trigger is pulled. 
The business of hitting the target is just 
as easy aS squirting water from a hose 
on a man who is passing your front yard. 

The crews of the eleven New York po- 
lice boats were given daily practice all 
last summer in the Ambrose Channel off 
Staten Island. 

Each launch carries five hundred 
rounds of ammunition. When pirates 
are pursued, one of the three men who 
comprise the crew, is stationed at the gun, 
another steers the boat and directs the 
searchlight, while the third takes care of 
the engine. 

When the character of the enemy is 
believed to be more dangerous than 
usual, the patrol boat which is equipped 
with a Hotchkiss one-pounder, projecting 
a shell about two inches in diameter, is 
called into service. It will throw a pro- 
jectile accurately more than two miles. 


Our Helpless Coast Defenses 


N one hun- 
| dred years 
of naval 
warfare the 
range of guns 
has increased 
twelve times, 
the weight of 
broadsides 
twenty times, 
the speed of 
firing twenty 
times and the 
weight of pro- 
jectiles eighty 
times. The 
most powerful 
weapons at 
present mount- 
ed on a battle- 
ship are the 
fifteen-inch 
guns of the 
Queen Eliza- 
beth, England’s 
famous super- 
dreadnought. 
They can hurl 
sixteen-hun- 
dred-pound 
shells from one 
end of Man- 
hattan Island 
to the other 
a distance of 
fifteen miles. 
The Queen 
Elizabeth could 
stand off nearly 
two miles be- 
yond the range 
of our largest 
twelve-inch 
coast defense 
rifles at Sandy Hook and destroy the fort. 


© American Press Association 


coast-guard forts. 


And we—we could do nothing. The 
splashes from our shells would be 
seen by the officers on shore—evidences 


of our inferiority. 
Making a Fourteen-inch Gun Hit 


Harder 


The performance of the fifteen-inch 
guns mounted on the latest English super- 


The gun crew of a twelve-inch mortar in one of our 
These squat guns fire a heavy 
projectile high in the air, and are able to do great 
damage during an engagement. 
ranges rises three or even five miles in the air and 
drops almost perpendicularly on its target 


dreadnoughts 
have stirred 
the ingenuity 
of our naval 
ordnance 
experts. > Far 
our new baitle- 
ships, the 
California, 
Mississtppr 
and Idaho, 
fourteen-inch 
guns of forty- 
five-caliber 
were specified. 
The caliber of 
a gun Is simply 
its muzzle 
diameter divi- 
ded into the 
length; a six- 
inch gun of 
fifty caliber is 
twenty-five 
feet long. Ob- 
viously these 
fourteen-inch 
guns would be 
at a disadvan- 
tage if opposed 
by the fifteen- 
inch guns of a 
Queen Eliza- 
beth. Accord- 
ingly, their 
length has been 
increased to 
fifty calibers. 
Because the 
gun is longer, 
the powder is 
able to give the 
shot an addi- 
tional push, as 
it were. Rear-Admiral Joseph Strauss, 
Chief of Ordnance of the United States 
Navy, gives it as his opinion that “these 
guns, although of less caliber and weight 
than fifteen-inch guns now mounted 
abroad, are capable of penetrating the 
heaviest side armor at oblique impacts 
and at the greatest effective battle range, 
and give us the advantage of flatter tra- 
jectory with greater volume of fire due to 


The shell at long 


4.00 


500 Popular Science Monthly 


We have built exactly two sixteen-inch coast defense guns, one of which is shown in 


Fourteen-inch guns of this size are installed on the super-dreadnoughts New York, Texas, 
Oklahoma, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Arizona. The fifteen-inch guns of the Queen Eliza- 
beth can out-range these weapons. For the newest of our battleships this fourteen-inch gun 


Popular Science Monthly 501 


the picture. These guns are intended to be used at the two ends of the Panama Canal 


will be lengthened so that the powder charges may exert a longer push on the projectile. 
It is claimed that this expedient will make our fourteen-inch gun of the future even more 
powerful than the fifteen-inch gun of the Queen Elizabeth, which at present is unequaled 


502 


the increased number that we are per- 
mitted to mount on any ship of equal 
displacement.” 

But we have not rested here. In 
August, 1914, a type of sixteen-inch 
gun forty-five calibers in length was 
tested. This gun fulfilled the expecta- 
tions of its designer. It is probably 
the most powerful gun in existence 
to-day. Some day it will be mounted 
on our battleships. 


A Modern Fourteen-inch Gun Is Better 
Than Sixty Thousand Muskets 


The projectile of the modern four- 
teen-inch naval gun starts at a velocity 
of about two thousand six hundred 
feet per second. Its weight is one thou- 
sand four hundred pounds. Compare 
this with the weight of a musket-bullet 
—one hundred and fifty grains—which 
starts with a velocity of two thou- 
sand seven hundred feet per second. 
Rear-Admiral Bradley A. Fiske has 
made a very interesting comparison of 
the striking energy of the two. “After 
the bullet has gone, say five thousand 
yards, its energy has fallen to zero, 
while the energy of the fourteen-inch 
projectile is nearly the same as when it 
started. While it would be truthful, 
therefore, to say that the energy of the 
fourteen-inch gun within five thousand 
yards is greater than that of sixty 
thousand muskets, it would also be 
truthful to say that outside of the five 
thousand yards millions of muskets 
would not be equal to one fourteen- 
inch gun.” 

The high-powered, long range fifteen- 
inch guns mounted on modern dread- 
noughts of the Queen Elizabeth type 
have made it necessary for the United 
States of America to consider its coast 
defenses. Remember that the Queen 
Elizabeth can fire her great gums accu- 
rately at a range of twenty-five thousand 
vards, and that our best coast defense 
guns could not touch her, partly because 
they are mounted on obsolete disappear- 
ing carriages which do not permit an 
elevation of more than fifteen degrees, 
and partly because the guns on dread- 
noughts of the Queen Elizabeth type 
represent the very latest advance in 
ordnance. Even our newest fourteen- 
inch coast-defense guns, of which five 


Popular Science Monthly 


were completed last year, have a maxi- 
mum range of only eighteen thousand 
yards, which has been increased to 
nineteen thousand three hundred by 
enlarging the powder chambers. 

Some idea of the power of a modern 
fourteen-inch coast defense gun may be 
gained when it is stated that its sixteen 
hundred pound projectile gun will drill 
through nearly twenty-three inches of 
the best quality of armor at one thou- 
sand yards and through ten inches at 
one thousand nine hundred yards. The 
fourteen-inch coast defense gun made 
at Watervliet Arsenal, weighs when 
finished one hundred thirty-eight thou- 
sand pounds, costs fifty-five thousand 
dollars and is wound about with thirty- 
seven thousand pounds of wire. 

Realizing that even this mighty 
weapon is too feeble an opponent for a 
Queen Elizabeth, we are beginning to 
build sixteen-inch coast defense guns. 
They are the largest and longest in the 
world. Unfortunately only two of them 
have been built, and these are intended 
for Panama, to protect the canal. 


Shots That Cost One Thousand 
Dollars Each 


At an elevation of forty-three degrees, 
such a gun will have a range of twenty- 
one miles. That is about the distance 
which many suburbanttes have to travel 
in an hour in order to reach their offices 
in New York city. The piece alone 
weighs one hundred twenty-seven tons. 
The shell, two thousand four hundred 
pounds, can pierce twenty-one inches 
of armor 2.8 miles. The powder charge 
is four hundred pounds. The shell and 
powder alone cost one thousand dollars. 

The most commendable feature of 
our fortifications are our mortars. They 
are first-class and their high angle fire 
is as good as there is anywhere. Our 
twelve-inch mortar fires a shell weighing 
one thousand and sixty-four pounds and 
has a maximum range of twenty thou- 
sand yards. 

Our coast defenses are in reality 
harbor defenses. Of our five thousand 
miles of coast line not more than three 
hundred are under potential protection 
of fortifications. The greater part of 
our seaboards is absolutely undefended 
at the present time. 


Ladder Tipped With Mule’s Feet 


perfect safety at almost any angle 
on rough and uneven ground or 
The one shown in 


) e every ladder will stand with 


on a polished surface. 
the illustrations will, because of the tips 


which are placed on either end. 


A New Quick-Acting Wrench 
QUICK-ACTING 
by Fred G. Rockwood, 


Wis., has a mova- 
ble jaw which may 
be released with the 
screw-threads of 
the jaw-actuating 
shaft and quickly 
slid into engage- 
ment with the nut 
to be loosened. 
The actuating- 
shaft then engages 


1 


“in 


wrench invented 


Mendota, 


~ 
i 


This ladder has feet 
like a mule, and that 
is why it can be safely 
tilted in any position. 
Four cupped pieces of 
rubber, secured by 
means of stout pins, 
swing on the ends of 
the ladder. They have 
just enough play to fit 
any inequalities of the 
ground or surface 
against which the lad- 
der is placed 


Fs Sai oF ol a MSs 


ah 


The mule 


footed of animals. 
inventor has taken his cue and made a 
ladder-tip like a mule’s foot. The tip 
is metal and rubber 


is among the most sure- 


From his feet the 


the rubber grips 


the surface on which the ladder rests. 


with the threads of the movable jaw and 


sa 


\ —— 


and being locked. 


Upper pictures show movable jaw, loose, 
Lower picture shows 


the wrench used on piping 


tightens it with no loss of time. 
The center bar is screw-threaded on 


two sides. To 
move the slidable 
jaw quickly, the 
screw-threads — of 
the center bar are 
shifted so that they 
do not engage the 
slidable jaw. To 
lock the jaw, the 
operator gives the 
collar a turn. 


504 Popular Science Monthly 


A rope drawn by horses lifts the load to the desired height. Then a clutch is released, the 


platform tilts, and the straw slides off 


A Combined Electric Stove and 
Fireless Cooker 


VERYONE. inthis. electric “age 

knows the value of an electric stove 
in the kitchen, but unfortunately not 
everyone can afford to have one. For 
this reason the new electric fireless 
cooker will largely fill this want. Not 
only is the original cost less than that 
of the stove, but the cost of operation 
also is decidedly reasonable, consider- 
ing that the current is on but a few min- 
utes while the food is being brought to 
a certain temperature. 

The electric fireless cook stove departs 
from the usual fireless cooker in that it 
has no soapstone radiators to clean, heat, 
or handle in.any way. One permanent, 


An electric fireless cooker which has no soap- 
stone radiators to be cleaned, heated or 
handled in any way 


stationary radiator is concealed in the 
bottom, and in this heat is stored and 
radiated. The kettle and pans are placed 
on the heavy wire rack, and the current 
turned on for a short time. A steam- 
escape valve warns of the danger of 
explosions. Though this stove has many 
advantages over the earlier types, the 
price is within the range of the average 
pocketbook. Many housewives will wel- 
come its use, especially on hot summer 
days. 


Straw-Stacker Does Away With Man 
and Pitchfork 


MACHINE that does away with the 

laborious process of stacking straw 
with pitchforks has been put into use 
on scme of the farms in Kansas. 

The apparatus performs its task as an 
elevator, raising the straw from the 
ground and depositing it on the top of 
the stack. The elevator works on pul- 


leys attached to a stiff frame on wheels.. 


A rope drawn by horses lifts the 
weight to the desired height, when a 
catch is released by the operator and the 
platform tilts and the straw slides off. 
By way of contrast, the old type of 
stacker is shown to the right in the ac- 
companying illustration. 


a 


Popular Science Monthly 


The Gila River is too deep to be forded. 


Operating a Stage under Difficulties 


PERATING a stage line is not all 

that it’s cracked up to be when the 
line happens to be in certain parts of 
New Mexico. The illustration shows 
one of the difficulties—and the picture 
was taken under very favorable circum- 
stances. 

The route of the stage is between 
Silver City and Mogollon. As the Gila 
River generally is too deep to be forded, 
it was necessary to construct the “bridge” 
shown. The car is run on to the plat- 
form at one side and then pulled to the 
other side by a team of horses. Last 
winter the “bridge” washed out and the 
automobile was dragged across on the 
bottom of the stream with nothing show- 
ing but the top of the steering wheel. 
It took ten horses to do the trick. 


A Calking Compound 


A GOOD calking compound can be 
made by melting separately 1 lb. of 
beeswax and 2 oz. of rosin. When melt- 
ed, mix them together. This amount is 
sufficient to calk a 16’ boat. The com- 
pound must be applied while hot, and can 
be poured into the seams or applied with 
a varnish brush, and the surplus scraped 
off with a putty knife. The hot com- 
pound will penetrate the wood, thus 
obtaining perfect water-tight seams. If 
the seams are very large, first calk tight- 
ly with cotton. 


Hence this trolley ferry was constructed 


Gaiters to. Protect the Spring-leaves of 
Automobiles 


HE importance of keeping the 

spring-leaves on automobiles clean 
and thoroughly greased, cannot be over- 
emphasized. Every motorist soon feels 
the effects of poor spring lubrication. A 
novel device which reduces the trouble 
to a minimum, by keeping the springs 
free from dust and grit and from the 
corroding influence of rain water, which 
somehow or other always manages to 
creep between the leaves, is shown in the 
accompanying illustration. It consists of 


plain leather or canvas gaiters, two for 
each spring, easily attached and detached. 
Additional grease can be injected at any 
time without the trouble of removing the 
gaiter, by means of a tube and screw- 
cap attached at the side. 


| Lee =a _ : 
Gaiters for automobile leaf-springs keep 
out dust and grit 


By means of this new attachment, a shaper 
is converted into a power hack-saw machine 


An Improved Hack-Saw Attachment 


NEW hack-saw attachment has 

recently been perfected which in- 
stantly converts a shaper into a power 
hack-saw machine. There are many ad- 
vantages to be found in this improved 
arrangement, one of them being the sav- 
ing of floor space and of the additional 
shafting space and extra pulleys that 
would otherwise be required. 

The instant raising or lowering of the 
cutting edge of the hack-saw blade by 
elevating or depressing the tool-head of 
the ram, enables the operator to slit tool- 
steel, or any piece of work that will go 
in a shaper-vise, end up or lengthwise 
as desired. Since shaper-vises can be 
swiveled to any desired angle instantly, 
angle cuts at any degree can be made 
without loss of time, and the vise ca- 
pacity is thus greatly increased. 

The vise-bed can be raised or low- 
ered at will, or it can be shifted from 
side to side. The wide range of adjust- 
ment of the shaper-bed renders it pos- 
sible to make cuts on large pieces of 


Popular Science Monthly 


work which would otherwise require 
mounting on a milling-machine. Cuts 
can also be made at the same setting in 
dimensional relation to each other. 

Perhaps the most important ad- 
vantage of all is the privilege of chang- 
ing the length of stroke of the blade. 
This can be operated by the ram-gage 
on the back of the shaper to drive the 
saw, from one-eighth of an inch up to 
and including the full length of the 
blade, whether it be twelve, fourteen or 
seventeen inches. 

The connecting arm is simple in con- 
struction. It has a covered protector at 
its base which prevents the dropping of 
the frame itself at the completion of the 
cut. The lack of this feature in most 
hack-saw machines is of the greatest 
disadvantage, since the dropping of the 
frame causes the breaking of more 
blades than any other one thing. 


This Lamp Shade Will Not Scorch 


DECORATIVE silk lamp-shade 

which can be slipped in place over 
electric-light bulbs of ordinary sizes has 
been put on the market by an electrical 
manufacturer, who claims that, unlike 
most shades of this sort, the silk will not 
be scorched. The silk is fastened about 
a light wire frame, which is slipped eas- 
ily on to an incandescent bulb and held 
in place by spring clips. A disk of mica 
is put at the base of the bulb, so that in 


The electric bulb will not scorch the silk 


case the socket has not been properly 
grounded, anyone touching the wire 
frame can not receive a shock, because 
of the insulative qualities of the mica. 


Popular Science Monthly 


Midget Crane Has Giant Ability 


TINY crane, so apparently helpless 

that it is difficult to imagine its 
doing actual work about a large factory, 
is in use on the assembling floor of a 
tractor plant in Cleveland. The crane, 
despite its appearance, has tremendous 
capacity. It can seize and lift a weighty 
automobile or tractor engine from the 
floor, swing it up into the air and into 
the chassis without so much as a grunt 
or a groan of protest. 


ARR 


i ae 


: 
‘ 
: 


507 


make a hen lay an egg which should be 
self-preserving. He succeeded very well. 

By his method the hen was fed uro- 
tropin, administered in capsules at the 
rate of less than a gram a day. Uro- 
tropin is deposited in the egg, where it 
changes into formalin, a_ well-known 
preservative. 

Eggs laid within twenty-four hours 
after the first dosing, as well as those 
laid five days after, were sufficiently 
affected to be preserved. Dr. Riddle 


The midget crane runs around the factory under its own power, on a body which looks like 


an electric baggage truck. 


It can lift weights apparently far out of proportion to its size, 


and it is controlled by one man 


The crane with its operating mechan- 
ism is mounted on a rigid, four-wheeled 
truck. It travels about and performs 
its required lifting all under the guidance 
of one man. 


Making a Hen Lay Self-Preserving Eggs 


HE PopuLar SCIENCE Monruaey for 
January gives an account of a 
Chinese method of preserving eggs by 
coating them in hard clay. It is an in- 
teresting process, but morc or less labori- 
ous. 
Four years ago, Dr. Oscar Riddle, now 
of the Carnegie Institution, undertook 
in a leisure moment to see if he could not 


tested the keeping power of the eggs in 
comparison with those from untreated 
hens under particularly severe circum- 
stances. Eggs of both varieties laid in 
the month of July were allowed to stand 
in a temperature varying from seventy- 
eight degrees above zero to twenty-five 
below. By the middle of September the 
difference between the two kinds of eggs 
could be easily detected; by the middle 
of November all the eggs from undosed 
hens were spoilt while those from uro- 
tropin-fed hens were still edible, although 
they had lost some of their bulk of water. 

The drug does not injure the hens, 
and is obtainable at small cost. 


The old Dutch wooden shoe as an adver- 
tising device on wheels 


A Quaint Advertising Automobile 


ESIGNED to resemble a wooden 

shoe, such as the peasants of Hol- 
land wear, the automobile pictured is 
curious enough. The lines of the sabot 
are correctly followed, and even the ap- 
pearance of wood is secured by artistic 
eraining. It is a most attention-com- 
pelling bit of advertising on wheels. 


Gravity-Flow Gasoline Supply Station 


: ‘HE owner of an automobile gaso- 
line supply station installed a tank 


with a glass gage. The tank is much 


above the fuel tank of any automobile, 
so that the gasoline flows by gravity, the 
quantity being controlled by the pur- 
chaser at his machine. 


The tank has 


Why not let gasoline run down into 
your fuel-tank instead of pumping it up 
by armpower? 


Popular Science Monthly 


been accurately calibrated and checked 
by an official. This insures no shortage 
from leaky valves. This apparatus is less 
expensive and easier to operate than an 
ordinary pump. 


A Portable Wrecking-Truck 

SMALL light-weight wrecking- 

truck, which can be carried with 
ease in a relief car, has been designed 
by a Danville (Ill.) man, and has been 
useful in his business. When called 
from his garage to tow in a wrecked car 
with a smashed wheel, he does not have 


Is it mot better to tow a _ wrecked 
automobile in this way than with the usual 
awkward timber drag? 


to drag in the wreck on a four-by-four 
timber, set under the axle of the missing 
wheel, but slips the truck in place instead 
and tows the car home without difficulty. 
It fits under the front or rear axles with 
a few minutes’ work, and the caster-like 
arrangement of the wheels makes it easy 
tO steer, 


An Oil-Proof Cement 


CEMENT which will not be af- 

fected by oil is made by mixing 
glycerine and litharge to the consistency 
of a thick paste. This will be found very 
handy in repairing cracked oil-reservoirs 
or in making an oil-tight joint between 
two metal plates. The cement should be 
applied as soon as it is mixed, since it 
hardens very quickly. 


~~ 


Popular Science Monthly 509 


Woman Invents a Life-Sav- 
ing Device 

HE is an_ enthusiastic 

motorist and drives her 
car with ease and skill, but 
just the same she feels a 
great deal more secure since 
she has equipped her ma- 
chine with a fender of her 
own invention, for it elimi- 
nates the dan- 
ger of injuring 
some unwary 
pedestrian. 
Who is she? 
Mrs. J. M. Wirt 
of Omaha. Her 
fender is en- 
closed in a small 
case extending 
across the front 
wheels. When 
not in use it is 
inconspicuous 
and does not disfigure the car. In an 
emergency it springs open like a flash, 
throwing out a net four feet in front of 
the wheels. The net is so accurately ad- 


Riveting Without Rivets 
LECTRIC current, reduced to an 
extremely low voltage but increased 
in volume to tremendous proportions by 
the. use of 


The “‘woman’s fender’’ 
rolled up. In the oval, 
it is shown extended 
after the foot-brake 
has been depressed to 
meet an emergency; for 
the fender and brake 
are operated as a unit 


justed that it will pick 
up an object as small 
as a brick; yet it is strong enough to carry 
a weight of two hundred and fifty pounds. 

The releasing-trip operates the brake 
and fender simultaneously. 


equally successful. Electric riveting re- 
quires much less time. Riveting, how- 
ever, is not the precise word, as welding 
is the operation that actually takes place. 


huge trans- 
formers, finds 
an unusual 
and spectacu- 
lar applica- 
tion in per- 
forming the 
work that riv- 
ets are in- 
tended to per- 
form. The 
chief distinc- 
tion between 
the ordinary 
rivet and the 
electric rivet 
is the differ- 
ence in time 
that is re- 
quired in the 


two opera- 
tions. The 
results are 


Intense electric heat, applied in one spot after another, 
welds the steel more firmly and more quickly than 
is poss:ble with the use of rivets 


Two layers of 
metal to be 
joined are 
placed to- 
gether be- 
tween the 
Laws. ora 
giant ma- 
chine. A lev- 
er is pulled; 
ele‘ -t-6:Ec 
sparks fly; a 
spot between 
the jaws 
quickly heats 
to brightness; 
the two sur- 
faces melt and 
flow together. 
The result is 
a permanent 
but practical- 
ly unnotice- 
able weld. 


510 


Motor-Testing Up To Date 


HE accompanying illustrations show 

two methods which are used in 

two motor-car factories for testing 

every chassis before it is turned over to 

the sales department for ultimate sale 
to the consumer. 

In one method of scientific test- 
ing the semi-finished chassis with the 
motor in place is fastened beneath 
great air-fans. The rear 
wheels are belted to the 
fans which act as a brake. 
The motor is tested in this 
way. The power it devel- 
ops is used to test the re- 
mainder of the chassis. 
Three frames at a time are . 
tested. Following this test, 
tires are put on the cars 
and they are given a road 
trial, 

In another method of 
testing, the rear wheels of 


Testing the horsepower of an automobile before 
leaving the shop. With the aid of meters set up on 
a support in front of the apparatus, the actual horse- 
power delivered to the rear wheels is read directly 


the completed chassis are placed on large 
rollers set beneath the floor of the test 
house, and these rollers are geared to 
electric dynamometers which impose a 
load on both the motor and the trans- 
mission elements. With the aid of me- 
ters, set up on a standard in front of the 
operator, readings of the actual horse- 
power delivered to the rear wheels can 
be taken directly. Incidentally, it is in- 
teresting to note that the power devel- 
oped is not wasted but is used to light 
the test house. 


Popular Science Monthly 


The Dog as a Carrier of Disease 


HE dog in the country is a useful 

and pleasant adjunct to the farm if 
he is properly controlled and cared for, 
but when neglected, may readily become 
a carrier of disease to stock, in addition 
to gaining opportunity to kill sheep and 
destroy gardens and other property. Dog 
ordinances, as a general rule, have been 
intended chiefly to curb the dog’s power 


The testing plant of a modern 
automobile factory 


of doing harm by attacking, 
biting, killing or running sheep 
or stock. The part that he 
plays as a carrier of diseases 
to animals only recently has 
been recognized according to 
the zodlogists of the Depart- 
ment of Agriculture, who be- 
lieve that when this is better 
understood, rural ordinances 
and laws which lessen this 
danger will gain the support 
of the community. 

Of the diseases carried to 
stock by dogs, the foot-and- 
mouth disease is probably of 
the greatest interest at this 
time. In this case the dog acts as a me- 
chanical carrier of infection. The dog 
which runs across an infected farm may 
easily carry in the dirt on his feet the 
virus of this most contagious of animal 
diseases to other farms, and thus spread 
the disease to the neighboring herds. 

There are, however, many other mal- 
adies in the spread of which the dog, 
takes an active part. Rabies, hydatid, 
ringworm, favus, _double-pored tape- 
worm, roundworm, and tongueworm are 
often conveyed to human beings in this 


Popular Science Monthly 


way. Occasionally the dog helps fleas 
and ticks in transmitting bubonic plague 
or the deadly spotted fever. 

Hydatid disease is caused by the pres- 
ence in the liver, kidneys, brain, lungs, 
and other organs, of a bladder worm or 
larval tapeworm. bladder worms are 
often as large as an orange and may be 
larger. A dog which is allowed to feed 
on carrion may eat all or part of a blad- 
der worm containing numerous tape- 
worm heads. These tapeworm heads de- 
velop into small segmented tapeworms in 
the intestines of the dog. The tapeworms 
in. turn develop 
eggs which are 
passed out in the 
excrement of the gi; * a 


dog. They are Pde 


511 


keep them free of these worms. In the 
case of sheep measles, the bladder worm 
in the meat, typical of this disease, is 
swallowed by the dog and again the tape- 
worm eggs are passed by the dog to 
grass or water, and there are eaten by 
sheep. : 


A Grain Elevator Which Holds Three 
Thousand Five Hundred Carloads 


NE of the greatest of all elevators, 

is the concrete oe elevator 
which has just been completed in Fort 
Williams, Ont. The storage capacity of 
this concrete elevator will “be three mil- 
lion five hundred thousand bushels, or 
about three thousand five hundred car- 
loads, as ordinarily estimated. 


Thirty-five hundred carloads, or nearly one hundred long trains, must carry the grain this 


elevator can hold at one time. 


It can load fifty thousand bushels in an hour and can empty 


itself, if the cars are available, in ten hours 


spread broadcast on grass and in drink- 
ing water where animals can very well 
eat them and thus become infected. The 
hog is particularly liable to this disease 
because of its rooting habits. The eggs 
may get into human food, and persons 
who allow dogs to lick their hands and 
face also run the risk of getting the eggs 
of the tapeworms in their Sy stems. 

The parasite which causes gid in 
sheep somewhat resembles the hydatid 
worm. A dog allowed to eat the brain 
of a giddy sheep may swallow this para- 
site and later distribute the eggs of the 
resulting tapeworm over the pasture. 
Sheep while grazing swallow the eggs 
with the grass which they eat. In the 
case of sheep dogs it is important to ad- 
minister vermifuges often enough to 


The outstanding features of the con- 
crete ‘elevator are its marine unloading 
cars, which can empty any of the largest 
boats in less than ten hours. The mar- 
ine unloading cars have a capacity of 
about fifty thousand bushels an hour and 
are capable of unloading a big boat in 
less than a working day. 

It will be possible to load fifty thou- 
sand bushels of grain in freight cars 
every hour, which is tremendously fast. 
Canal boats can be loaded at the fast 
rate of thirty thousand bushels an hour. 
Aside from the great size and wonder- 
ful appliances for handling grain which 
have been incorporated in this elevator, 
the fact that it is constructed entirely 
of concrete reduces the liability of fire 
and with it the cost of insurance. 


Decoy Targets for Zeppelins | 


By R. J. Byjierstedt 


HERE is no doubt that more 
powerful guns are now available 
than those which made so ridicu- 
lous a showing during the September and 
October raids on London, but the 
problem of adequate range finding is so 
nearly prohibitive that few who are 
familiar with it pin much hope to a gun 
defense. 

I am credibly informed, however, that 
what might be called “diversionary” 
protective measures have been employed 
with considerable success. These con- 
sist of various ingenious devices cal- 
culated to draw the fire of the Zeppelins 
away from the points where they could 
do the most harm. So far, these appear 
to have been employed principally in the 
important manufacturing districts be- 
tween London and the North Sea rather 
than in the immediate environs of the 
metropolis. The idea'is said to have 
originated in the mind of a Norfolk 
farmer after a pile of chaff which he had 
been burning on the night of a raid was 
made the target of several well-placed 
Zeppelin bombs. 

“The Zepps thought my fire was the 
blast of the mills,’ he told an air 
service officer. ‘“‘Why not have some 
ready to fool ’em the next time they 
come?” 

Since factories and barracks were the 
main objects of attack, why not provide 
some that could be found without diff- 
culty and the destruction of which would 
be of small moment. The first experi- 
ment was made by cutting ‘“window- 
holes” in a row of bill-boards—‘‘hoard-. 
ings’ the English call them—along a 
railway, and illuminating each orifice 
with a carbide lamp. When these came 
in for attention from the raiders, the 
present plan of using “‘stage scenery” 
factories and barracks as Zeppelin decoys 
was outlined. 

These decoys consist simply of sec- 
tions of imitation walls, pierced with 
windows, which, by means of guys and 
props, can be made to represent the side 
or sky-lighted roofs of a factory or 
barracks. Where practicable the illumi- 


nation is furnished by running a cable 
from the nearest electric transmission 
line, and where this is too troublesome or 
expensive, carbide or kerosene lamps are 
employed. The sections hook or clamp 
together and are made small enough to 
allow of a stack of them being carried on 
one of the big war motor trucks. 

An interesting light is thrown on this 
phase of protective work by a photo- 
graph that was published in England 
about three months ago, and probably 
also in the United States. It showed a 
huge war motor truck, with an enor- 
mous tarpaulin-covered load, stalled 
between the copings of an old stone 
bridge over which it had endeavored to 
pass. The caption merely explained 
that it was “Somewhere in England,” 
and that the load itself was an “official 
secret.’’ Most of the information which 
I have set down above came to me as a 
consequence of this photograph. 

I chanced to be looking over the copy 
of the Daily Mirror on the cover of 
which the view in question appeared, 
when a garrulous and slightly inebriated 
“Tommy” who shared my third class 
apartment with me asked if I knew what 
the load was. 

“Not beyond the fact that it is an 
‘official secret,’ I replied. ‘Do you 
know anything about it?” 

‘“‘Blime me if I don’t,” was the answer. 
“She wuz carryin’ stage scen’ry; stage 
scen’ry fer the Zepps.”’ 

The man, it appeared, was a member 
of the Army Service Corps, and was just 
returning from the hospital where to use 
his own words, he had been to “git a 
hunk o’ ‘fact’ry’”’ picked out of him. 

His injuries, he said, had been received 
when a “‘factory”’ which he had helped 
to erect was actually struck and de- 
molished by a Zeppelin bomb. They 
had just switched the lights on from 
their dug-out, he said, when the Zeppelin 
hove in sight and headed up to pass 
right over the decoy. The “factory” was 
blown to pieces, but a couple of hours’ re- 
pair work on the morrow left theshattered 
sections in as good shape as ever. 


512 


Popular Science Monthly 


\ Wiiiions 


ETD 


Decoys for Zeppelins 


In order to deceive bomb-dropping Zeppelins, the English are building “‘stage’”’ factories 
(mere painted scenes) which are illuminated at night 


The Work, the Tragedy, and the 


What the gun pointer sees 
through the loop-hole of 
a German gun shield 


© International Film Service 


The armored Italian cap- wat 
tain of one of the numer- The Italians now possess heavy siege guns which compare 


ous wire-cutting ‘‘ Death very favorably with the German and Austrian guns 
Companies ”’ which did such great execution at Liege and Namur at 


Courtesy Illustrated War News 


Through the barrel of the gun may be seen Italian soldiers who are hauling this heavy cannon 


514 


a 


Ingenuity of the Great War 


© American Press Association 


One of the tragedies of the 
war. The sinking of the 
hospital ship “ Anglia” 
with wounded on board, 
after striking a mine in 
the English Channel. The 
remarkable photograph 
was taken from one of the 
rescuing ships just as the 
‘“‘“Anglia”’ plunged beneath 
the waves, carrying down 
many of the wounded and 
their nurses 


the opening of the war. The moving of these great guns 
to lofty positions in the Alps is no mean feat, as may be 
seen in the picture, showing thirty men at work 


AnItalian soldier 
wearing a steel 
helmet and suit 
of armor. His 
company is 
made up of 
picked men, 
whose perilous 
duty it is to cut 
the enemies’ 
barbed wire 
entanglements 
before an_ in- 
fantry attack 


A system of mirrors makes it possible for the Austriar soldier to fire 
his rifle without exposing himself 


515 


© Underwood and Underwood 4 


Soldiers Big and Little 


Above may be seen a detach- 
ment of Serbians crossing 
the Koloubara River. This 
bridge has been the scene of 
many hard-fought engage- 
ments, having changed hands 
over and over again, each 
time being destroyed by the 
losers and repaired by the 
victors. Only enough tim- 
bers are used to permit sol- 
diers to cross single file 


Prcbably the youngest soldier 
in tke ferbian Army was 
recently captured by the 
Germans. Here he is, on the 
left, a six-year-old, clothed in 
odcs end ends which he found 
on the battlefield. Nobody ~ 
knew where he lived. He 
shared the fate of the other 
soldiers with whom he was 
captured. He is now in a 
prison camp, where we see 
a German soldier giving him 
a light for his cigarette— 
since he must smoke like a 
regular soldier 


Two Queer Phases of the War 


A French Red Cross 
dog returning from an 
examination of “No 
Man’s Land’”’ between 
the trenches, and 
bringing the helmet of 
a wounded soldier to 
the hospital corps be- 
hind the lines. These 
brave little animals are 
seldom wounded, for 
they seem to be the 
only living things re- 
spected by both armies. 
When dark comes, the 
hospital corps’ will 
venture into the dan- 
gerous territory and 
endeavor to collect the 
wounded who still live 


On the right, a new use 
for women’s finery in 
war. Hand muffs are, 
so far as we know, an 
innovation in the 
trenches. Last winter’ 
the troops received a 
great quantity of wool- 
en mufflers, socks and 
mittens, but apparent- 
ly fur muffs and ear 
laps are in style this 
winter on the German 
battle front 


© American Press Association 
BLT 


And They Call War Glorious! 


Rolling a field of 
mud for an aviation 
field. Aeroplanes 
must have a fairly 
smooth place to 


start from, and the 

ground must be 

hard enough to sup- 
port the machine 


An exhibition of war trophies was recently opened to the German public in Berlin. 
Great crowds have been in constant attendance, for the proceeds from the exhibition 
will go to the German Red Cross. In the center of the page are two of the exhibits. 
On the left, a searchlight which has been struck bya shell, and on the right a saddle 
which has been riddled with bullets and hacked by sabers. The lower picture shows 
the result of a rat hunt at the front. The trenches are infested with rats, and now 
and then a rat hunt constitutes a welcome diversion from the tiresome waiting for an 
attack by the enemies’ forces 


518 


All in the Day’s Work of a Soldier 


In the lower right-hand cor- 
ner of the picture on the left, 
is shown a French tunnel 
which leads to a mine under 
the German position. The 
wires which will blow up the 
mine may be seen coming 
from the mouth of the tunnel 


The destruction 
of a _ pontoon 
bridge on the 
Isonzo River. As 
is customary in 
modern warfare, 
all means of 
retreat and 
advance are 
destroyed when- 
ever possible by 
the enemy. The 
illustration is a 
striking picture 
of the actual 
mining of a pon- 
toon bridge 
which crossed 
the Isonzo 


A piece of meat has been placed at the entrance to the rat’s hole, and the French soldier is 

ready with his bayonet to strike. On the right, a hospital for injured rifles near the Austro- 

German lines in Russia. Expert gunsmiths repair rifles and small arms which have been put 
out of commission by the vicissitudes of hard campaigning 


519 


Clothes of Paper and Sacking for Belgians 


Samples of clothing made by the wo- 
men in the devastated districts of 
Belgium and Northern France. 
Empty flour sacks have been eagerly 
accepted by the women, and very 
serviceable garments for children 
have been made out of them. By clip- 
ping off the two bottom corners of the 
sacks for armholes and cutting a 
semicircle for the neck, the sacks 
have been converted into the shirts 

shown in the pictures - 


4 es 
epee - ie hg 
Po ws Pe : 


Another makeshift which is proving of great value in the war. Immense quan- 

tities of paper blankets have been made and forwarded to the men in the 

trenches. These blankets are made of a few sheets of newspaper, which are 
sewed together_and sometimes covered with cloth 


520 | 


ins 


a 


he Austrian Mount 


in’ 


tadels 


1 


Natural C 


peurseut aq yam Aeuw usu powie 
8 uo uorj}Isod ve ‘sy9ojsuadye pue s 


JO Joquinu ¥& ]euIs os uaAa Suis 
JOppe] Jo sueaur Aq ‘pandas ser 


PO|SIp JO AZNoyZIp ayy, 
T Joujzed uenjsny uy 


eet — 


‘ssed juezodun ue 
‘9UIT} JEM ul sdiy ues 


SuIPUeUUIOD YPIOI ysry 
JOIAT, ay} Jo asdunrys vy 


321 


In War As Well As In Peace 


Parisians no longer 
are able to make 
use of their favorite 
mode of transporta- 
tion, the ’bus. Far 
from the busy 
streets of the great 
city, the ’busses 
trundle, painted an 
ominous war-gray, 
and filled with sol- 
diers or provisions. 
When the battle 
lines move forward, 
the huts and shel- 
ters of the men are 
also brought up. 
The picture shows 
the dwelling of an 
Austrian comman- 
der put on skids 
and pushed to its 
new position 


The fizhting armies have large corps 
of men engaged in the trades and pro- 
fessions in which they were employed 
before the war. Shoemakers, tailors 
and barbers may be found in great 
numbers just behind the trenches. ,The 
photograph shows a German shoemaker 
hard at work near the front 


Necessity is the Mother of Invention 


Even the copper weights on German clocks have 
been fired at the Allied troops! Stones have been 
substituted for the old copper weights 


Another example of Germany’s inventive genius turned to warlike purposes. The photo- 
graph shows the portable searchlight. This projector, small as it is, is remarkably powerful, 
and may be assembled for action in an exceedingly small space of time 


523 


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He Is the Eye 


There is a Question About the Gun—Not About the Ovens 


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© International Film Service 
Does this gun, mounted on the Italian liner ‘‘ Verona,’ 


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as a protection against submarines, 


transform the peaceful passenger ship into an auxiliary cruiser? This is the new question 
in international law which it has raised 


Austrian ovens behind the lines in the Serbian war zone. These crude ovens are made of 
clay, and despite their strange appearance, they are said to suit their purpose admirably 


3205 


is Mined 


How an Enemy Trench 


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A Tragedy of the Skies 


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© American Press Association 


This remarkable photograph was taken from the German trenches during Lieutenant R. C. 
Ferrick’s fall from the skies. While he was making an observation flight over the German 
lines in the Champagne district, his fragile machine was struck by a shell from an anti 
aircraft gun and burst into flames, diving thousands of feet to the earth. The daring 
photographer who took this picture was forced to climb out of the trenches and stand 
fully exposed to the fire from the opposite trenches, but the British were watching with 
horrified eyes the fall of their comrade, and the photographer escaped with his wonderful 
picture without even being fired upon. The Germans have recently made great improve- 
ments in their anti-aircraft artillery, and as a result, Allied airmen have been forced to fly 
. at great heights or run serious risk of being shot down 


~ 


327 


528 Popular Science Monthly 


This blanket protects the man, the horse and the vegetables 


A Blanket with Many Uses 


HAT is believed to be the most 
ingenious and practical camping 
blanket devised to date is the invention 
of J. L. Wright, of Revere, Mass. As 
a warm, rain-proof traveling-coat, or 
storm-cape, it cannot be equaled. It is 


are not confined to 
camping. It is a 
better horse-cover 
than an ordinary 
blanket, since it 
has all the blanket’s 


good points, but is 


ERR FUR in 


pears cea 


‘ 


long and fits snugly about the neck. 


Owing to its size 
and “rectangular 
shape, it can be 
readily converted 
into a_Tenmi- 
covering. As 
a sleeping-bag, it 
is closed at the 
side and bottom. 

The uses of this 
handy accessory 


Two blankets make a shelter tent 


not so heavy on 


Sleep in the open, warm and dry 


No chance for 
rain to enter 


the horse’s back. 
It does good 
service as a wagon- 
cover, fitting neatly over 
the sides and buckling at 
the corners. 


Why Legs Are Called 
el OG) ge xiw 


HE first artificial leg, 

other than the ordina- 
ry wooden pegs, is said to 
have been made in London 
by a man named Cork in 
the early part of the nine- 
teenth century. Hence the 
name “ Cork leg,’’ no mat- 
ter what the material. 


oe ee eee 


Popular Science Monthly 529 


Fun With Pictures of Your Friends 


F you would like to have a little fun 
with your friends, try enlarging a 

group negative or single figure after this 
fashion: First place the negative in the 
enlarging frame in the usual manner. 
After the desired size of print has been 
decided upon and focus made for size, 
tip the frame or sliding-board (on which 
sensitized paper is placed) gradually 
backward, until the persons or scenes 
assume fantastic shapes. The best angle 
of the board will probably be around 
forty-five degrees, although some nega- 
tives require a greater angle to change 
them. 

A print from the negative of your thin 
friend will reveal him as a very stout 
person, but without losing the facial like- 
ness in the process. By tipping the 
board backward, everything seen in the 


il 


Diagram showing the arrangement of the 
sliding - board for making trick pictures 


negative, is lengthened, so that the fat 
man becomes a tall, thin person and a 
stubby tower becomes a factory chimney. 

The length of exposure needed wi!l be 
found to be about the same as when the 
board is in the normal position. Dura- 
tion of exposure depends on the size of 
the stop used. It is not necessary to 


Tip your sliding-board at forty-five degrees 
sidewise and you make the whole world rotund 
and happy 


own an expensive enlarging outfit, since 
the trick can be done on anything from 
a “Brownie” to the professional appa- 
ratus. Try it on your friends. 


If the tilt of the board is the length of 
the picture, thinness becomes an 
attribute of all 


A Metal-Vapor Light That Is White 

A NEW vapor lamp employing the 

vapor from metals’ has_ been 
patented by a German scientist. Zinc 
chloride and zinc bromide have been 
used and give the best results at at- 
mospheric pressure. As in the mercury- 
vapor arc, the inclusion of air or other 
foreign gases in the tube is 
prejudicial. On the other hand, 
an arc in an atmosphere of 
aluminium chloride or titanium 
chloride is more stable, and an 
admixture of nitrogen is harm- 
less. Oxygen, however, must be 
excluded. It is stated that the 
color of the light is white, and 
that the efficiency is in the neigh- 
borhood of that of the mercury- 
vapor lamp. 

The fact that the light is white 
will greatly add to the importance 
of the lamp, since there are many 
uses which demand such illumina- 
tion. 


SS 


What Wind and Rain Can Do 


How Nature’s Chisels Work Through 
Millions of Years 


salt-incrusted playa at the bottom 

of Death Valley, California, which 
is the bed of an ancient lake, there is a 
large volcanic rock which, it is stated, 
has appeared to grow out of the ground 
several feet within the memory of the 
pioneers. When first observed, this was 
simply a large irregularly-shaped rock 
resting on the ground. Since then it 
appears to have been pushed upward. 
It is supported on a fragile, wedge- 
shaped neck not over a couple of feet 
broad. The apparent instability of the 


(3: the sloping “‘shores’’ of the great 


region, sweeping everything before their 
great volume of water. 

On the opposite page is pictured 
another product of wind and rain, 
probably one of the most singular collec- 
tions of rock figures in existence. Acres 


and acres in extent, from a distance they 


resemble, as much as anything, a vast 
family or colony of gigantic prairie dogs 
sitting on their haunches, and covering 
the entire slopes of Red Mountain, 
Arizona. The figure of the man in the 
left center of the photograph indicates 
the size of these “‘prairie dogs.” 


Mushroom Rock—one of Death Valley’s curiosities 


thin neck with its top-heavy burden is 
accentuated by a good-sized hole in its 
middle, so that in traveling the trail 
which passes directly under the rock, the 
tenderfoot is apt to feel relieved when 
the formation has been left behind. 
Contrary to supposition, there has 
been no growth or uplift of this rock. 
The earth at its base has been washed 
and blown away by the winds and the 
cloud-bursts, which, on rare occasions 
occur even in this intensely desert 


This mountain is a cinder cone of the 
San Francisco plateau, and the village 
of rock forms has been caused by the 
cutting and sculpturing of the soft lava 
by the wind and rain. The cinder cone 
of a volcano is the last upheaval, the 
result of the dying gasp of eruption. So 
stupendous, however, has been the 
dynamic energy attending many of the 
earlier volcanic disturbances of the West 
that there are cinder cones several 
thousand feet in height. 


Popular Science Monthly 531 


Sculptured by the Elements 


Many acres are covered with these giant ninepins of soft lava. Of colossal size, as shown 
in contrast to the human figure, they resemble, from a distance, a vast colony of prairie 
dogs sitting on their haunches 


Amputating Pittsburgh’s “Hump” 


hilly prominence upon which stood 

the County Courthouse. Ad- 
joining it were the Frick, Carnegie, and 
other large sky-scrapers. It impeded 
travel. Hence it was decided to remove 
the “Hump.” This involved the cutting 
down of fifteen thousand feet of city 
street, and affecting twenty-two im- 
portant city blocks. 

In this district thirteen public service 
corporations had underground conduits, 
cables, pipes, 
etc. 

In the busi- 
ness section 
of most large 
American 
cities the 
overhead 
wires and ca- 
bles have 
been so. ef- 
fectually 
placed under- 
ground that 
nothing re- 
minds us of 
the mechan- 
ism whereby 
water, gas 
and electrici- 
ty are -sup- 
plied a few 
feet beneath 
the surface of 
the street. 

Particular- 
ly “difficult 
was the task 
of maintain- 
ing in opera- 
tive condi- 
tion seven 
thousand, 
two hundred paper-insulated cable wires 
contained in lead cable-sheaths. These 
cables, twenty-one in number, were 
originally drawn into vitrified clay con- 
duits and spliced in manholes located at 
the street intersections. When the cut- 
ting of the ““Hump”’ proceeded and the 
street was down to the level of the con- 
duits, it was found that the drilling and 


ce “Hump” in Pittsburgh was a 


How the cables carrying most of Pittsburgh’s telephone 
conversations were taken care of until the new conduits 
were ready for use 


blasting in the immediate vicinity shat- 
tered the conduits, so that further exca- 
vating would cause the conduit line to 
collapse. The clay conduits were broken 
off the cables and the cables were planked 
up in a box or trough. Alongside the 
plank box was the trench, twenty-two 
feet deep, in which a conduit line was 
to be constructed by what is known 
as the “split duct’’ method. These 
special conduits are scored lengthwise 
inside and outside before being vitrified 
or baked and 
can be easily 
split in two. 
After a layer 
of half-ducts 
is laid in ce- 


possible to 
place the ca- 
bles in posi- 
tion and re- 
place the top 
halves of the 
ducts. 

This _ pro- 
cedure of low- 
ering the te!- 
ephone cables 
into split 
ducts saved 
about $40,- 
000 which 
would have 
been expend- 
ed in purchas- 
ing new un- 
derground 
cable to be 
pulled, splic- 
ed and cut 
into service, 
to say noth- 
ing of the oc- 
casional interruptions of service and 
confusion in transferring the working 
lines from the old cables to the new ones. 
The cables thus lowered below the new 
grade of the “Hump” cut contained 
three thousand, four hundred and eighty- 
one miles of copper wire, paper-insulated, 
twisted into pairs and enclosed in a lead 
sheath. The time required to accomplish 


532 


ment, -1tetS 


ee ee 


Popular Science Monthly 533 


The “Hump” cut passed through the very heart of the City of city and to the base- 


ments of the large 
office buildings. 
The particular 
conduit line leading 
into the “Hump” 
district which had 
to be rebuilt con- 
tained seventy ducts 
where it left the cen- 
tral vault, thence 
sixty ducts in Straw- 
berry Alley, and 
branched out via 
Grant Street, Oliver 
Avenue, Diamond 
Street and Tunnel 
Street. It was necessary 
to rebuild the cable vault 


seventy-duct line was lo- 
cated on Pentland (formerly Fountain) 
Street, the “Hump” cut was only a few 
feet down. The new grade was cleared 
by removing thirty-five ducts off the top 
of the seventy-duct line and building 
them down on the side, thus making a 


Cables were placed in a plank box, shown 

at the right. The ditch is twenty-two 

feet deep, cut mostly through blue rock 

and limestone by means of steam drills 
and dynamite 


the work was eighteen months, costing 
the telephone company about $75,000.00. 

This is the largest job of the kind ever 
attempted and_ successfully accom- 
plished. At the rear of the telephone 
company’s main exchange, located at 7th 
Avenue and Grant Boulevard, there is a 
central cable vault or underground room 
about eighteen feet square, extending out 
under the street, from which radiate in 
various directions the underground con- 


Cables systematically arranged and hung 


: é noe in the trench preparatory to being low- 
duits leading to different parts of the ered into the split ducts 


in question. Where the 


534 Popular Science Monthly 


conduit line ten ducts wide and seven 
ducts high. 

The work was carried on in the heart 
of a great city, and also in the midst of 
the added confusion of tearing down old 
and erecting new buildings. 

In the transfer of cables from the old 
ducts to the new, the fact that this could 
be done without splicing and consequent 
interruption of service was particularly 
important. The long distance cables, 
moreover, were composited for the simul- 
taneous working of telephone and tele- 


Laying the cables into split ducts without 

cutting or drawing through conduits as 

usual. The ducts used were the usual 

vitrified clay, but before baking they 

were scored inside and out, and easily split 
open by the brick-layer 


The cables are in the ducts and the con- 
crete which will seal them is about to be 
applied. The split conduit was a new idea, 
but it allowed for the “‘laying”’ of the cables 
instead of drawing them through the pipes 


The only cable cut. It 
was necessary to do this 
to get around an obstruc- 
tion. There were 800 
wires to be cut and spliced 
individually 


graph, or else carried 
additional phantom 
telephone circuits su- 
perimposed upon the 
physical circuits. The 
cutting of these cables, 
which was the usual 
thing to do, would 
have entailed not only 
expense, but interrup- 
tions more serious than 
on the local service. 


Popular Science Monthly 535 


Walking Backwards Across the 
Country 


WALK across the continent back- 

wards is the task set himself by 
Patrick Harmon of San Francisco, who 
expects to reach New Yorkin July. Mr. 
Harmon is fifty years old, and is making 
a schedule of fifteen miles a day. He 
walks the whole distance to the East 
with his face to the setting sun, and the 
traditional wager of some $20,000 is to 
be won on arrival in New York within 
two hundred and sixty days set for the 
trip. 

‘The whole route of his walk, 3,900 
miles, is to be made with his face to San 
Francisco and his feet moving toward 
New York. Mr. Harmon uses a mirror, 
hung on a special frame, to guide him 
on his way, and is accompanied most of 
the time by walking companions. 


A Convenient Flashlight for the 
Automobilist 


STURDY electric lamp which ob- 

viates the difficulty of searching for 
special shapes of batteries to fit it, has 
recently been placed on the market. An 
ordinary dry battery furnishes the cur- 
rent. 

Two handles are affixed to the battery 
box, one of which is similar to the handle 
found on the old-style oil lantern. 
The other handle is close to the side of 
the lantern, and enables the user to 
manipulate the light in limited spaces. 
As shown in the illustration, this handle 
‘makes the lantern very serviceable as a 
motorists’ “‘trouble light.’’ In the side 
of the handle is cut a slot, by 
means of which the lantern may 


This man needs the mirror to see where he 
is going, for he is walking backwards from 
San Francisco to New York 


be readily hung on a nail or hook. 

This light will be found serviceable 
especially for watchmen, farmers and 
others who formerly employed a smok- 
ing, flickering kerosene lantern, which is 
liable to go out when most needed, and 
which always carries with it a certain 
amount of danger. 


The new electric lantern is more depend- 
able than the small flashlight 


oe 


GOOD roadbed is one of the 
greatest assets of a railroad. There 
is almost as much difference between 
riding over a well and a poorly main- 
tained roadbed as be- 
tween jitneying over 
an asphalt and a cob- 
ble pavement. 
Tamping the crushed- 


stone ballast under- 
neath the ties is partic- 
ularly difficult. For- 


merly tamping was 
done by hand with the 
aid of a pick or a long 
bar with a blunt end. 
Now, many of the pro- 
gressive railroads use 
a novel type of pneu- 
matic tamper. In tun- 
nels and terminals, 
where compressed air 
is employed for operating electro-pneu- 
matic signals, it is simple to connect the 
tools with the compressed-air pipe line by 
means of a hose. For work out on the 
road, where a supply of compressed air 
is not available, air is supplied by a small 
engine-driven compressor, mounted on-a 
special car. The gasoline-engine also 
drives the car. 

An interesting feature of this car is 
the method of quickly derailing it and 
placing it beside the tracks. Four small 
wheels are set at right angles to the 
main wheels. By placing a few lengths 


A track surfacing and tamping gang on the New York Central. 


The men generally work in pairs 
on opposite sides of the ties 


Popular Science Monthly 


4 


The compressor car is 
mounted beside the track to furnish compressed air to the tampers 


Tamping Railroad Ballast with a 
New Air-Tool 


of timbers under these wheels, the car 
can be run off the track in a few seconds. 
Electric railroads employ a similar type 
of compressor-car, with an electric mo- 
tor instead of a gasoline engine to run 
the compressor. 

The pneumatic tamp- 
ing machine works on 
much the same princi- 
ple as the familiar 
pneumatic riveter. A 
piston or hammer de- 
livers eight hundred 
sharp blows per minute 
on the end of a tamp- 
ing bar, which is in- 
serted in the nozzle in 
the lower end of the 
tool and which is 
locked in position. The 
bar cannot be knocked 
out, yet the operator 
can shift it from one 
position to another. 

The tampers are usually worked in 
pairs on opposite sides of the tie. The 
face of the tamping bar presses against 
ballast beneath the bar under and to the 
center of the tie. This actually lifts the 
tie and track as much as may be desired, 
and packs the ballast tight. The blows 
are light; consequently the ballast is not 
broken as much as with hand tamping 
and less damage is done to the ties. 

The New York Central found that its 
savings by changing from hand tamp- 
ing to pneumatic tamping amounted to 
over $150 per mile of track. 


Destroyers of the Air 
By Eustace L. Adams 


(Continued from the March Issue) 


The first real aeroplane squadron of the United States Army, consisting of eight one hundred- 
horsepower Curtiss tractor biplanes. These machines are good American designs, showing 
European influence in the streamline fusilages, disk wheels and other details 


VEN before the advent of Fritz, 
the great German biplane, which 
for a brief time drove its adversa- 

ries from the skies, the Allies were work- 
ing upon the plans for aerial battleships. 
One of the results is a French biplane 
with a wing spread of about seventy feet. 
Her wings tower thirty feet from the 
ground; her crew numbers twelve; her 
guns are two, and they throw three-inch 
high-explosive shells. By reducing the 
crew a great number of heavy bombs 
may be carried. The new machine is a 
welcome addition to a bombing foray 
over German territory. This battle-plane 
has held its own with Fritz, and is ac- 
credited with having done much damage 
during the recent French raids on Frei- 
burg and German towns of military im- 
portance. 

Twin-engined machines are now com- 
mon on both battle lines. Machines with 
two guns no longer arouse interest. 
Aeroplanes mounting a single gun and 
one motor are scouts, for the most part, 
which need great speed and_ slight 
armament. A speed of well over one 
hundred miles an hour is not at all unus- 
ual for these machines, which correspond 
with the swift “destroyers” of the navy. 

To fight off these heavy scouts, battle- 
planes are required, the best known of 
which is the German Fokker monoplane, 
which at first created consternation 
among the British aviators. This ma- 
chine is a very high-powered monoplane, 
resembling the French Morane. The 


v 


3 


wing spread is very small and the planes 
are flattened, yet a two hundred horse- 
power motor is mounted on the fusilage. 
Speeds of one hundred and thirty miles 
an hour are said to be attained by this 
wasp-like machine. A single machine- 
gun is mounted in the bow, and is 
operated by the pilot. Owing to the 
need for lightness of weight, small fuel 
tanks are carried and the machine does 
not stray far from its hangar. When an 
enemy flyer is sighted, a Fokker rises, and 
because of its superior speed, can 
maneuver to any position it likes. It 
usually climbs far above its foe, and 
then, with engine at full speed, dives 
straight at its opponent, with its ma- 
chine-gun blazing fire. The only hope 
of the Allied aeroplane, taken at a dis- 
advantage from above, lies in a quick, 
twisting dive, followed by rapid flight 
for the protection of friendly anti- 
aircraft guns. The Fokker is essentially 
a machine for fast, decisive fighting, and 
because of its almost total lack of 
inherent stability, requires an expert 
aviator to operate it. The British, since 
the disastrous début. of the Fokker as a 
fighting machine, are said to have 
evolved a monoplane which will success- 
fully compete with it. 

One of the most important of all these 
new machines has been built in this 
country, at Boston, Mass. The Sturte- 
vant battle-plane is entirely of steel, and 
is a biplane of tractor type built with a 
remarkable simplicity. The steel con- 


~ 


‘ 


538 Popular Science Monthly 


Courtesy of Illustrated London News 


Capable of accommodating sixteen passengers, or of carrying a heavy cargo of bombs, the Si- 
kersky biplane was the first aeroplane to be built of gigantic dimensions. At the outbreak 
of war this machine was the largest in the world, but its usefulness was handicapped by its 


struction that has been used consists 
largely of steel tubing, and the best 
practice in bridge work and structural 
engineering has been introduced, for the 
first time in aeroplane construction. All 
parts are interchangeable, and with the 
proper machinery, the aeroplanes can 
be manutactured in great numbers with 
great speed and at a very lowcost. With 
this type of construction, machines of 
great size may be built which will have 
an unusually large factor of safety and 
great inherent stability. 


The first model of the Sturtevant all- 
steel battle-plane has a so-called turret 
(in reality a stationary streamline body) 
half-way out on each wing. In these 
turrets may be mounted heavy guns, and 
in time of peace they may be used 
for passengers or freight. The first 
trials of this new machine were most suc- 
cessful, and the designer, Grover C. 
Loening, former Aeronautic Engineer of 
the United States Army, has been 
awarded a medal by the Aero Club of 
America for his meritorious work. 


Popular Science Monthly 539 


At the pre- 
sent time, 
aeronautical de- 
signers in America 
have been hampered 
by the fact that there 
is not a dependable avia- 
tion motor manufactured in 
this country to-day. In 
Europe there has been a great 
advance in the manufacture of 
aeronautical motors, chiefly because 
several automobile manufacturers turned 
their attention to this phase of the motor 
industry. Firms with international rep- 
utations for motor designing, such as the 
Mercedes in Germany, the Rénault in 
France and the Sunbeam in Great 
Britain, have designed aeronautical mo- 
tors which are giving the greatest satis- 
faction under the most difficult war con- 
ditions. 
Until very lately, the aviation motors 
made in this country have been manu- 
factured by companies which had little 


motor of to-day, the most formidable 
obstacle in the path of aviation will have 
been overcome. 

If the war has accomplished no other 
useful end, it has advanced the progress 
of aviation many years. In the United 
States, without the spur of military and 
naval aeronautics, aviation was regarded 
as a profession from circus performers, 
whose main duty was to ‘‘loop the loop,” 
and provide thrills for the crowds. 
Now, with aircraft manufacturers turn- 
ing out aeroplanes at the rate of sixteen 
a day, the public is beginning to realize 
that it is a remarkably healthy infant 
industry, closely rivaling the unpre- 
cedented growth of the automobile 
industry in its early stages. One of the 
foremost aeronautical experts in the 
country recently said to the writer: 

“Within one year after the signing of 
peace between the European powers, the 


slow speed—a fault which has probably been remedied by now. The huge size of this aerial 
craft is shown by comparison with the men standing beside it. Remember that there are 
some aeroplanes now flying which are even larger than the one here pictured 


or no previous experience in motor de- 
signing. The Packard Company has de- 
signed a promising twelve-cylinder avia- 
tion motor, and the Simplex Automobile 
Company is equipping the rejuvenated 
Wright Aeroplane with a well-designed 
and carefully built motor, which in its 
first tests has justified the hopes placed 
in it by its designers. 

When automobile manufacturers co- 
operate with aeroplane builders and suc- 
ceed in developing an aeronautical motor 
which is as dependable as the automobile 


first aeroplane will make a successful 
flight across the Atlantic Ocean. Very 
soon aeroplanes will be carrying our mails 
to inaccessible spots. Shortly after this 
will come the carrying of passengers on 
a schedule as regular as that of our 
Twentieth Century Limited. Many of us 
will live to see the aerial expresses with 
many planes, multiple engines, and an 
enormous carrying capacity, which will 
take us to San Francisco or even to Lon- 
don and Paris as easily as we can now 
ride to Kansas City.” 


540 


A Judge Who Has Succeeded 
Without Arms 


CCASIONALLY one meets men 

whose determination to succeed re- 
gardless of obstacles makes those ob- 
stacles act only as added stimuli to their 
progress: Such is the case of Judge 
Quentin D. Corley of Dallas, Texas, 
who ten years ago lost his entire right 
arm and his left 
arm above the 


wrist. With 
this handicap, 
many men 


would sink into 
a life of help- 


Armless Judge Corley can put 
on his own necktie, as well as 
dress himself alone. He 
didn’t learn to shave, merely 
because that hardly seemed 
worth while with barbers 
willing to help him 


lessness, however unwillingly. 
Corley proceeded to study law, 
meantime earning a living for himself as 
a superintending contractor. At the end 
of a year he had devised a hook with 


which he could write and do many 
things. At the end of the second year 


he had been admitted to the bar, and in 
seven years from the date of his accident 
he was made County Judge of Dallas 
County. 

Judge Corley has now perfected a 
mechanism with which he has made 
himself independent of outside assist- 
ance. He is able to use a telephone, pick 
up large and small articles with ease, 
take money from his pockets, turn door- 
knobs, bathe himself, lace shoes, use 
a toothbrush, handle a knife and fork, 


Judge 
in the 


Popular Science Monthly 


and put on or take off his collar and neck- 
tie. But this is not all. He can do 
things which many men with both arms 
have not learned to do, such as swim, 
dive, bowl, drive a horse, and run an 
automobile. The accompanying illus- 
tration shows Judge Corley seated in his 
automobile, with his foot on the throttle 
and his mechanical hand on the wheel. 
He cranks his machine and, in fact, takes 
entire care of it. 

Judge Corley is a young man who foals 
keenly the needs of a cripple. His atten- 
tion is now directed to Europe. His 
plan is for each government to establish 
a temporary institution where cripples 
may be taught a trade or profession and. 
the use of mechanical hands. The ex- 
pense to the government would be re- 
markably small in comparison to that 


Judge Corley can 
run his automobile 
alone, and does it 
because he likes to 


of maintaining permanent institutions 
for the care and support of cripples. 


The Allies’ Losses 


ECENT information, believed to be 

correct, gives Allied losses in the 
European War until January_as follows: 
Total British casualties, 549,467, -in- 
cluding 24,422 officers; French total, 
2,500,000, of whom 800,000 were kilted: 
1,400,000 wounded and 300,000: cap- 
tured. It is estimated that nearly 
sixty per cent of the wounded return to 
the trenches. Official figures regarding 
the Teutonic losses are unobtainable. 


Popular Science Monthly 541 


An Automobile Converted Into a 
Railway Ore-Tractor 


FORD automobile which was fast 
reaching the end of its usefulness 
in a mine in Texas was recently knocked 
apart, put together again on a short, 
heavy chassis, and mounted on railroad- 
wheels for use on a narrow- 
gage track. Although the 
automobile had been driven 
more than twelve thousand 
miles, it fell to its new task 
with a will and has been be- 
having admirably ever since. 
The weight of the full load 
pulled by the improvised 
locomotive, consisting of 
three two-ton ore-cars, is 
about sixteen thousand, five 
hundred pounds. Dragging 
this weight between various 
points about the camp it 
travels on an average of 
eighteen miles a day, con- 
suming during that time 
about four and one-half gal- 
lons of gasoline and one gal- 
lon of oil. 


which is painted the word “‘Stop”’ in 
staring red letters. The warning is 
painted on both sides of the novel signal 
and is visible at a considerable distance 
in either direction. 


The officials of the railroad feel that 
the sign will be more effective than the 


The cost of converting 
the touring car into a day 
laborer was one hundred and 
fifty dollars. 


Stopping the Speeder with a New 
Danger Sign 
DISTINCT novelty in safety de- 
vices is now being tested on nearly 
one hundred grade crossings of the New 
York Central Railroad. Upon the ap- 
proach of a train, the watchman, instead 
of waving the customary white flag, holds 
in the air a white sign, across the face of 


A Ford automobile which was converted into a mine 
locomotive at a cost of one hundred and fifty dollars 


The old-fashioned white crossing-flag having outlived its 
usefulness, the New York Central now uses a big white 
disk with ‘‘Stop’”’ painted on it in red 


familiar flag. If the experiments prove a 
success, the new device will be used at all 
grade crossings on its system. At night 
a red lantern with the word ‘‘Danger”’ 
painted on the red glass will be used. 


Italians Build Highest Powered 
Motor Ship 


N Italian shipbuilding concern has 

recently completed the construc- 
tion of the world’s highest- 
powered motor-ship. ~ This 
record-breaking craft, de- 
signed forthe Brazilian Navy, 
is a submarine depot-ship, 
three hundred and ‘twenty- 
six feet long, and propelled 
by two Diesel engines, each 
of three thousand two hun- 
dred horsepower. It is ru- 
mored that the ship will not 
be delivered to Brazil, but 
will be used as an adjunct to 
the Italian submarine fleet 
at least for the war. 


A burl that looks 
like a leg 


Giant Ladle for 
Molten Cinders 
GIANT ladle for 
away 
molten cinders from the 


carrying 


Popular Science Monthly 


Pranks Played by Trees 
URLS are abnormal growths 
common to almost every spe- 
cies of tree. They are produced as 
a result of some injury, such as for- 
est fires, insect attacks, gnawing of 
animals, or excessive pruning. The 
effect of the injury is to stimulate 
the growth of dormant buds or to 
give rise to a great many new ones 
which cannot develop into branch- 
es, but do form a gnarled and inter- 
woven mass of woody tissue of very 
intricate design. 

This unnatural growth is very 
dense and hard. In most trees it is 
very small,but in the case of the red- 
wood, the largest tree that grows, it 
reachesasize which makes it of value. 


furnace of a Maryland 
steel company has re- 
cently been cast, 
weighing nineteen thou- 
sand, seven hundred 
and ten pounds. A 
fair idea of the propor- 
tions of this huge ladle 
can be gained by a 
comparison with the 
figure of the man who 
is standing in it. It is 
ten feet in diameter 
and nine feet deep. 


With a Trans-Conti- 
nental Burromobile 

TRANS-CONTI- 

NENTAL “burro- 
mobile’’ recently 
made its appear- 
ance in Los An- 
geles, California, 
after having crossed 
the country, from 
the Atlantic to the 
Pacific. The speed- 
ometer on this ma- 
chine showed that 
more than five thou- 
sand and forty-two 
miles had been cov- 


A ladle to hold the cinders of 
a steel furnace 


The burro goes along to help the car 


44 i. % a 
i ee oe 


Nature grew these legs 
—@n..a tree 


ered, and John A. F. 
De Lion, the driver, 
tells us that he is not 
yet ready to “settle 
down.” In the accom- 
panying picture John, 
the owner of the car, is 
seen seated in the ma- 
chine; the boy who is 
standing is a traveling 
companion; while Jack, 
the four-footer behind, 
is the means by which 
this car has been “‘lift- 
ed’’ from many a sand- 


hole and out of mud 
hub-high. 


John started from 
Philadelphia on June 
30, I912, and through- 
out the intervening 
time he has been on the 
road. The route se- 
lected led John to New 

York, -. Chreag@ae 

Omaha, Denver, El 

Paso, Phoenix and 

San Diego. He ex- 
pects eventually to 
tour the entire 
* length of California 
and even to pro- 
ceed farther up the 

Pacific Coast. 

The donkey, 
strangely enough, 
goes behind the car. 


Mahogany 

Steamboat 

Cabin for 

a Home 
HEN the 
steamer 
‘ialian | was 
built her de- 
signer had her 
fitted out with 
a solid mahog- 
any cabin, 
made of the 
heaviest and 
finest mahog- 


Popular Science Monthly 


The mahogany cabin of a topheavy boat now does 


duty as a cabin 


543 


eccentric resi- 
dent of San 
Diego, who 
hauled it up 
the steep em- 
bankment to 
his vacant lot 
and lives in it. 

The cabin 
makes a fine 
little bachelor 
home and is 
spotless in its 
polished splen- 
dorwithoutand 


any wood obtainable, only to discover within. The heavy French plate-glass 


when she was launched that she was top- 
heavy. It was necessary to remove the 
expensive mahogany cabin and dispose 
of it. Accordingly it was sold to an 


A Giant Pair of 
‘Scissors With a 
Symbolic Meaning 
OE STECHER of 
Dodge, Neb., owns 
the largest pair of scis- 
sors in the world. Also 
he possesses the great- 
est scissors grip in his 
powerful lower limbs. 
It is that scissors grip 
of his which has made 
him famous as a wres- 
tler. 
Recently the friends 
of Joe Stecher gave him 


a big celebration at his home, and pre- 
sented him with a three thousand dollar 
One of the nota- 


diamond-studded belt. 


Mammoth Tusks 
from Alaska 

HE huge 

mammoth 
tusksshowninthe 
photograph were 
dug out of the 
earth at Silver 
Creek near Daw- 
son, British Co- 
lumbia,justacross 
the boundary 
from Alaska. 
They are far larg- 
er than the tusks 
of the greatest of 


cabin-home. 


Joe Stecher, the wrestler’s, scissors are 
longer than his legs, but not so mighty 


Enormous fossil tusks from Alaska 


Colonel James (¢ 


windows and Venetian blinds also add 
a note of distinction. Several reminders 
of the sea are still present inside the 


bles of the state, in- 
vited to address the as- 
sembly on that occa- 
sion, spent no time pre- 
paring a speech about a 
diamond belt, but in- 
stead went to a big 
manufacturing plant 
and ordered a pair of 
shears eight feet in 
length. The factory 
put men to work and 
worked them overtime 
to produce the mon- 
strosity of cutlery. 
When this speaker, 


*. Elliott of West Point, 
Neb., was introduced, he presented, not 
the diamond belt, but the giant scissors. 


modern elephants 
and the animal 
who swung them 
must have been a 
giant even among 
mammoths. The 
buffalo skull and 
horns seen in the 
center of the pic- 
ture, large as is 
its massive head, 
show by compari- 
son how huge 
must have been 
the head of the 
mammoth. 


544 
How Blotting Paper Absorbs Ink 


VERY student of physics knows that 
water will run up a narrow tube by 


capillary attrac- 
tion. Anything 
immersed in 
water has a sim- 
ilar attraction 
for the water; 
that is, the ob- 
ject becomes 
wet by the wa- 
ter that clings 
pavricskwe 
amount is lim- 
ited by the 
weight of the 
liquid itself. 
Place your hand 
in water, and 
your hand, when 
withdrawn, is 
wet. The lim- 
ited attraction 
between the 
hand and the 
water is gaged 
by the weight 
of the water that clings to the hand. 

Imagine several hands placed close 
together in water, but not touching one 
another. If this composite hand were 
formed of ten single hands, it would 
attract ten times as much water as the 
one hand would attract and hold on its 
surface. So, a wisp of hay, composed 
of a hundred spears of dried grass, 
placed in water, will remove a hundred 
times as much of the fluid as would 
cling to one spear. Bushes in a marsh 
will remove a certain amount of water 
which will, by capillary attraction, cling 
to their submerged parts. 

Under the microscope, fibrous blotting 
paper, when absorbing ink, resembles, on 
a small scale, a marsh matted with 
shrubs and sticks and twigs, around 
which water is flowing as ink runs about 
and among the fibers that together form 
the spongy paper. There isa limit to the 
amount of liquid which a “blotter’” will 
absorb, as there is a limit to the amount 
of water that a marsh will absorb with- 
out overflowing. That limit, in the 
“blotter,”’ is the combined capillary at- 
traction of the fibrous shrubs and sticks 
and twigs that together form the paper. 


Popular Science Monthly 


Balsa, Lightest of Woods 
XPERIMENTS made by the Mis- 
souri Botanical Garden of St. Louis 
- show that the 


Blotting paper absorbs ink on the same principle 
as a handful of hay will absorb a liquid 


Balsa is very soft. It 


is easily cut with tools, » 


and is imported into 
the United States from 
Costa Rica to make 
the floating parts of 
life-preservers and life- 
rafts. The government 
uses it for buoys and 


water signals. 


It has 


several advantages over 


cork. 


Balsa, on the right, is 
a wood ten times as 


light as 


the left 


ironbark, on 


wood called bal- 
sa, native to the 
West Indies and 
Central Amer- 
ica, is nearly 
twice as light 
as cork. 

In the photo- 
graph a piece of 
balsa-wood (B) 
is balancing a 
piece of Aus- 
tralian ironbark 
(A). The two 


blocks have the 
same width and 
thickness, but B 
is ten times the 
length of A. 


ae 


isi Bae coh as lee ae 


svc 


* ti ee 3 
janie veya iain i 


Gasoline Horses for Small Farms 
Is the Small Tractor Here at Last? 


Pant { ia 
¢ ‘ é }_# . 


An eighteen-horsepower tractor hauling barley over a smooth California highway 


gasoline engine and the motor-car 
on the farm—even the motor- 
truck where introduced—makes it seem 
perfectly natural that the internal com- 
bustion tractor should pull the plow and 
take the place of the horse in all field 
work on the average farm. But the 
history of agriculture for nearly eighty 
years has shown that the general appli- 
cation of mechanical power to the work- 
ing of the soil is a problem far more 
difficult than the use of motors in sta- 
tionary work or road transportation. 
The problem, however, is apparently 
near a solution, and the year 1916 may 
see the practical fulfilment of an ideal 
that has occupied the minds of thousands 
of inventors, 7. e., the production of farm 
tractors mechanically and economically 
suited to the 
average farm, 
as well as to the 
great ranches 
of the West and 
Northwest. 
Steps in the 
long evolution 
may be set 
down in order: 
1770—Cugnot’s 
road _loco- 


ga amazing popularity of the small 


motive. A small tractor starting out from a state fair ground 
to give a plowing demonstration 


1800-1825—De- 
velopment 
of steam road locomotives and 
their practical legislation off both 
American and English highways. 
1858—Fawkes’ steam plowing engine in 
Pennsylvania. 
1870-1875—Adoption of the differential gear and 
friction clutch. 
1875-1890—Development of the steam threshing 
engine, self-propelled. 
1890-1905—Development of large steam plow- 
ing tractors. 


545 


1903—First commercial gas-tractor. 
I910-I1912—Gas-tractors actively displacing 
steam for plowing on a large scale. 


Success of the power-lift plow cuts 
crew of plowing outfit to one 
man, and makes smaller tractors 
profitable. 

1914—Amazing variety of small tractors 
produced, following virtual collapse 
of market for large tractors and con- 
stant increase in the cost of horse 
and man labor. 


1915—Numerous tractor demonstrations 
throughout the Middle West focus 
attention of hundreds of thousands 
of farmers upon light tractors pull- 
ing two or three plows. 


1916—Will see thousands of these small 
tractors, with the improvements 
suggested by one or two seasons’ 
work, put to practical test by farm- 
ers. Partial success apparently as- 
sured by recent experience. 

From the 
foregoing it will 
be seen thatthe 
widely success- 
ful light tractor 
has hardly ar- 
rived though 
it may be al- 
most here. 
Changing con- 
ditions—higher 
horse and labor 
costs, greater 
familiarity 
with the gas-engine on the farmer’s part, 
a growing inclination to plow deep and 
farm more scientifically—these, rather 
than mechanical improvements, favor 
the light tractor of to-dav as against 
very similar machines of five years ago. 

The light tractor problem is difficult. 
From the profit-and-loss standpoint, it 
costs more in proportion to build and to 


1913 


546 Popular Science Monthly . 


Above, an 8-16 horsepower tractor plowing 
under a heavy growth of sunflowers 


To the left, an illustration which shows that 
the possible width of furrow cut is much less 
in proportion to the width of a small-round 
wheel tractor than in the larger outfit: The 
plow must travel at or near the right-hand - 
side of the tractor or else the tractor must ~ 
move partially upon the plowed ground, 
with a loss of tractive power and the undoing 
of part of the plow’s work 


Below, a tractor plowing with one drive-wheel 
in the furrow. The front wheel in the furrow 
helps to steer 


oP. 


bea 


Popular Science Monthly 547 


Above is an 8-16 horsepower tractor 
plowing sod. Note the self-steering at- 
tachment in front 


To the right, a small tractor which is 
self-steering and which has a light- 
draft two-bottom plow 


Below, a self-contained motor plow of 
the latest type, cutting three furrows 
at once. This illustrates one of the 
great advantages of the tractor, for it 
can really do multiple work, day after 
day, and with absolute reliability. 
Nothing but the worst sort of weather 
can stop it or delay its work 


548 Popular Science Monthly | 


A tractor known to farmers as the steel mule 


4 * 
ae a AR REG ME ET 
. Pe 


ig thatthe 


A single-drive-wheel tractor, with power lighting device for plows 


Popular Science Monthly 549 


“Listing,’’ a type of plowing common in the southwest. A drum-drive tractor is used 


: 


Two harrowings at once with an 8-16 horsepower tractor 


0 Popular Science Monthly 


Harvesting in North Dakota with a Ford car for motive power 


Orchard plow- 
ing with a small 
caterpillar trac- 
tor. For such 
work the ma- 
chine must be 
very low so that 
it can crawl un- 
der trees easily. 
This type of 
tractor can ob- 
tain an enor- 
mous grip on 
the soil because 
of the unusual 
length and 
breadth of its 
track or contact 
service 


A small tractor running a big corn sheller. When a tractor is not engaged in field work, it can 
be otherwise employed usefully 


: 


The designer of 
this machine de- 
scribes it as a 
‘“four-to-five 
‘horse-pull’ 
sieve-grip’’ ma- 
chine. Itis here 
shown with tan- 
dem disks. The 
peculiar wheel 
construction is 
intended to se- 
cure traction ; 
in fact, its trac- 
tion efficiency is 
very high in pro- 
portion [to the 
weight and mo- 
tor power 


Popular Science Monthly 


5 


The use of the small tractor for threshing in the field has come into wide use in the West 
owing to its manifold advantages over the old method 


~ 


1 


Soe Popular Science Monthly 


operate; probably much less to sell. It 
displaces a smaller percentage of the 
farm’s total animal power, which cannot 
be wholly dispensed with. 

The smaller units of machinery which 
it operates are apt to present a higher 
cost per unit of work. Its earning 
capacity in custom work off the farm is 
less. It appeals more as a convenience, 
but the ability to rush work at the proper 
time on the farm is often really justified 
by a greater net return, regardless of 
cost. 

From’a mechanical standpoint, the 
difficulties are perhaps even greater. 
The small tractor is called upon for a 
greater variety of work than its large 
counterpart—light hauling, cultivation, 
and other jobs formerly done only by 
horses. It must, of course, run 
stationary machines and thus take 
the place of some of the larger sta- 
tionary and medium-sized 
portable engines. It must do 
its field work over unfavor- 
able grades and surfaces such 
as do not usually 
confront the auto- 
mobile and motor- 
truck. 

In plowing, the 
possible width of 
furrow cut is much 
less in proportion 
to the width of 
a small round- 
wheel tractor than 
in the larger out- 
fits, and this has 
presented extraor- 
dinary difficulties 
in the way of side draft, hard steering 
and unequal wear. The plow must 
travel at or near the right-hand side of 
the tractor, or else the tractor must 
move partially upon the plowed ground, 
with a loss of tractive power and the un- 
doing of part of the plow’s work. 

This problem of hitching, probably 
more than any other, is responsible for 
the failure of the small-wheel tractor to 
follow at once the lines of the large units, 
which are now practically all of the four- 
wheel type, with the two driving-wheels 
at the rear. The small tractors which do 
follow this conservative type are proba- 
bly further advanced at present than the 


A small tractor loading a silo 


many radical variations from it, though 
this may prove to be due less to the 
principle than to greater experience on 
the part of the manufacturers. 

Some of these variations are meeting 
with considerable success, especially that 
group which employs but one driving- 
wheel, mounted at the right-hand side so 
as to place the power directly ahead of 
the plows. An idler wheel on the left 
merely serves to distribute the weight 
of the machine and give the necessary 
stability. 

Several small tractors dispense with. 
the third and fourth wheels, carrying the 
entire weight upon two drivers. The. 
hitch is made directly to the plow, culti- 
vator or wagon, which completes what 
is virtually a self-contained outfit. _ 

Other tractors, both three and four- 
wheel, are made self-contained by hang- 
ing the plows from the frame, usually 
Junderneath. The plows 
may be removed and the 
tractor used for pulling 
other implements. This 
type is at a disad- 
vantage in soft 
ground, however, in 
that in case of mir- 
ing down, the plows 
form an anchor 
from which it is 
dificult to cut 
loose. 

Soil conditions 
are far from uni- 
form, and the plow- 
ing tractor cannot 
depend upon mo- 
mentum to help it 
through the hard spots and up short 
grades. For this reason, very largely, 
the tendency seems to be toward the use 
of the more flexible four-cylinder motor. 
For the same reason, and the low co- 
efficient of friction between a wheel and 
the soil, such extreme lightness of weight 
has never been found practical in the 
tractor as it has in the motor-car. 

The average soil resistance to the plow 
in well-tilled loam, is close to five pounds 
per square inch of cross-section of the 
furrow slice. A furrow fourteen inches 
wide and seven inches deep will there- 
fore require a pull of five hundred pounds, 
varying of course, with the type of 


4 
; 


Popular Science Monthly 553 


Bring the fresh air to your pillow, and avoid. danger and the annoyance of getting 
up in the cold to close the window in the morning 


soil and its physical condition. A two- 
plow tractor, therefore, should have an 
effective drawbar pull of one thousand 
to one thousand two hundred pounds, re- 
gardless of the speed at which it travels. 

As the effective pull of a round-wheel 
tractor is seldom over one-fourth to one- 
third its total weight, it is hardly feasible 
to build the conventional tractor with 
much less than two tons of weight. In 
present quantities, well-built tractors of 
this size can seldom be sold for less than 
fifteen to twenty cents per pound. 

The problem of the light tractor de- 
signer has, therefore, been complicated 
by factors of cost and mechanical eff- 
ciency which have made progress very 
slow. 

Besides the wheel-type of tractor there 
is another-class using either one or two 
endless steel belts. The ‘‘caterpillar’’ 
type, so-called from the trade name of a 
leading example, has peculiar advantages 
in the small-unit field in that it can be 
built narrow, with a low center of grav- 
ity, and still obtain an enormous grip 
upon the soil owing to the length and 
breadth of its track in contact with the 
ground. Very successful small tractors 
of this type are in common use, and the 
earlier disadvantage of extreme wear on 
the tracks has apparently been overcome 
by the use of good material and ingenious 
construction. The tractive efficiency is 


high in proportion to weight and motor 
power, steering is easily accomplished, 
and on either soft or hard ground the 
broad surface of the track has obvious 
advantages. 

Still another type, as yet of little com- 
mercial importance, discards the plow 
and uses instead a rotary cylinder, 
studded with flexible steel hooks to 
pulverize the soil. An ordinary tractor 
chassis of light weight is used, the cylin- 
der requiring practically no assistance 
from the drive-wheels in its forward 
motion. In fact, tests have sometimes 
shown that the cylinder helps to propel 
the entire machine. 


A Fresh-Air Funnel for Your 
Bedroom 


HOSE who are too timorous to 
brave a widely opened window in 
the bedroom may have their supply of 
fresh air brought to them without ex- 
posure by the window-fitting illustrated. 
The device is in reality a fresh-air 
tunnel made of light fabric and held in 
place by hoops of metal to insure an 
open air passage at all times when the 
air-chute is in use. At one end the 
chute opens through a window-board, 
thus admitting the fresh air. The other 
end is draped over the head of the bed: 
The air-chute may be opened or closed 
by means of a string. 


——~ 


554 
An Automobile Dressing-Room for a 
Motion Picture Actress 

ISS BESSIE EYTON, a popular 

motion picture star now stationed 
in Los Angeles, objected to going about 
in the costumes she 
had to wear while 
being filmed. She 
devised away toturn 
her automobile in- 
to a dressing-room. 


Her 
wheel- 
dress- 
ing- 
room 
isa tri- 
umph 

: of in- 
She has taken her 


genuity over space. 
small car and so carefully calculated 
every inch of volume that she has made a 
commodious dressing-room out of it. 
She has a place to make-up and a place 
for the costumes that will be needed 


during one day’s work. The dressing- 
room is curtained, so that it is as private 
as the dressing-room of any theater. 

But best of all she can have hot water 
and heat. A pipe with a drum and plate 
is connected with the exhaust-pipe, 
which runs through the car. Whenever 
she wants hot water or heat she has only 
to turn a valve and start the engine. 
This throws the exhaust through the 
drum, and in less than a minute the car 
is warm. 


Did You Know That Flour Explodes? 


URING the last ten years, about 
twenty explosions have occurred in 
cereal, flour and feed mills, with the loss 
of two million dollars’ worth of property, 


Popular Science Monthly 


as well as the killing or injuring of over 
two hundred_employees. Investigations 
regarding the causes of these explosions 
and subsequent fires have not proved 
conclusively what are the difficulties 
to be avoided. In 
eight cases, the ex- 
plosions are be- 
lieved to have orig- 
inated from the 
sparks produced in 


process. Tiny par- 
ticles of gravel or 


cause for cereal dust explosions sug- 
gested is the use of naked flames. 


Sea-Scouts as Lamp-Lighters 


HEN ‘the 

men of a 
country have to 
go to war, their 
responsibilities 
must be assumed 
by the women and 
children. The sea- 
scouts of England 
are boyswhocame 
promptly forward 
with their services 
in any capacity 
which might be 
required. In the 
illustration may 
be observed a sea- 
scout performing 
the useful task of 
lighting the street- 
lamps. Equipped 
with a bicycle and 
lamp-lighter, he 
makes his circuit 
in short time and 
does it as well, we 
dare say, as any 
full-grown man. 


England is using 

some of her boy 

sea-scouts to light 
street lanterns 


the machines dur- © 
ing the grinding 


metallicsubstances | 
coming into con- 
tact with the plates 
of the machine may 
A small automobile was converted produce enoug h 
into a dressing-room, with pipes sparks to ignite 
for heat and hot water. It is now the dust within the 
used as a dressing-room by a machine. 
motion picture actress : 
Another possible 


— a 


OO 


_ 


Popular Science Monthly 


Prisoner doing 
one of the Bisch- 
Simon tests. 
This one con- 
sists of placing 
blocks in a 
frame; some- 
thing similar to 
a jig-saw puzzle. 
A normal person 
finds it surpris- 
ingly easy; a de- 
fective makes an 
hour’s work of it 


If the blocks are placed properly 

they make a man’s head. The 

prisoner is putting the nose 
where the eye belongs 


These blocks differ in weight 

and should be arranged the 

heaviest first and so on down 
to the lightest 


Science and the Criminal 
By Louis E. Bisch, M. D., Ph. D. 


The author of this article is one of New York's foremost psychiatrists. He 
is an associate in educational psychology at Columbia University and director of 
the Speyer School for Atypical Children in New York. To him we owe New 
York’s interesting experiment of studying the criminal as a human being rather 
than regarding him as a destroyer of property and life. The new psychopathic 
laboratory of New York's Police Department has been placed in his charge.—Editor.. 


age intelligence, with a normal mind, 
may be led to see the error of his ways 


F a seven-year-old child were sen- 
tenced to serve a term in Sing Sing, a 


storm of protest would arise which 
would reverberate through the country. 
Yet, in effect, this is what is done. 
Criminals whose mentality measures 
only that of a seven-year-old child are 
made to serve jail terms. 

When a normal man commits a crime 
and is punished for it, the punishment is 
correctional. When a person of de- 
fective mentality commits a crime and is 
punished for it as if he were normal, the 
effect is to aggravate his tendencies 
rather than to correct them. 

The primary object of our penal insti- 
tutions is reformatory. A man of aver- 


and to mend them through our penal 
measures. But the man who commits 
crime because of undeveloped or defec- 
tive mentality cannot be _ benefited 
through any such means. A person who 
suffers from a mental defect which is 
curable should be not in prison, but in 
a hospital. And if his mental troubles 
are not amenable to treatment, he should 
be placed in an institution wherein his 
presence would be permanent, not tem- 
porary, and where his criminal tendencies 
would nor react against society. 
Feeble-minded persons are not bene- 
fited in any manner through the serving 


556 


of a prison sentence. When they are 
discharged they are likely to repeat the 
offense at the earliest possible moment, 
and society is compelled to foot the bills 
for their frequent trials and commit- 
ments. 

When Police Commissioner Woods be- 
came satisfied that 
a percentage of 
criminals should be 
dealt with as 
psychopathic pa- 
tients rather than 
as normal men who 
have chosen to com- 
mit crime, he deter- 
mined to test this 
idea. So it was 
that after a certain 
amount of experi- 
mental observation 


Popular Science Monthly 


three and the total number of arrests was 
thirty thousand, five hundred and thirty. 
We feel assured that observations ex- 
tending over forty-nine days are suffi- 
ciently comprehensive to warrant us in 
assuming that what we found indicates a 
condition which exists the year around. 
And as six hundred 
and twenty-three is 
the average number 
of arrests which take 
place every day and 
five per cent of 
those arrested are 
abnormal, thirty- 
one persons who are 
unbalanced mental- 
ly are locked up eve- 
ry day. These pris- 
oners suffer from alb 
sorts of mental ills 


the Psychopathic 
Laboratory at Po- 
lice Headquarters 
came into being. 
Before the laboratory was finally es- 
tablished we devoted forty-nine days to 
observations. Each day the prisoners 
at headquarters are “‘lined up” so that 
the detectives may recognize any familiar 
faces. At these daily “‘line-ups’’ we 
picked out men who appeared to be suf- 
fering from some men- 


AS fy tal defect and gave 
LG aks : them a thorough men- 
KK tal and physical exam- 
fe) ination. 
ihe bee D . hi a . 
( uring this experi- 
rl mental period, four hun- 
a dred and nine prisoners 
I. 3h were observed. Of this 
? A number, fourteen were 
Ai defective found, ito} be, teeble- 
takes time to minded, one insane, two 
puzzle out what constitutional inferiors, 
is missing 


two drug habitues, one 
hopelessly immoral, one an alcoholic. 
Only eight were normal. Out of the 
twenty-nine selected for examination, 
twenty-one were found to be defective 
mentally. Seven per cent of those ap- 
pearing at the line-up were examined 
and five per cent were found to be ab- 
normal. 

The average number of daily arrests 
during the period of our preliminary ob- 
servation was six hundred and twenty- 


The blocks must be placed in their proper 
openings—easy for you, but difficult for a 
defective 


ranging from dan- 
gerous forms of in- 
sanity to the pitiful 
condition of a grown 
man with the brain development of a 
child. 

Criminals of this type cannot be im- 
proved through the ordinary corrective 
methods. They serve their sentences 


and return to so- 
, 
[ps7 
ps > ( 


ciety only to re- 
A defective finds 


peat the offense 
and pass again 
SMW 
it difficult to trace 
the course of this 


through the Po- 
maze with a pencil 


( 


lice Department, 
the courts, the 
District-Attor- 
ney’s offices back 
to prison from 
which they 
emerge each time 
more dangerous. 
This means that 
they not only con- 
stitute a constant 
menace to society but are a needless ex- 
pense as well. Their constant reappear- 
ance in the courts soon mounts up to a 
very considerable sum. Also, it goes 
without saying, prison treatment is far 
from humane in the case of such per- 
sons. Where their difficulty is one 
which may be cured, they require hos- 
pital treatment and where it is incurable 
they should be committed to an institu- 
tion wherein they would be protected 


Popular Science Monthly 


against themselves and removed forever 
from society. 

At the conclusion of our experiments, 
the need for a sure 
method of detecting 
the mentally defec- 
tive among the 
city’s criminals be- 
came apparent and 
so after many con- 
ferences with the 
Department of Cor- 
rection, Professor 
Edward L. Thorn- 
dike of Columbia 
University, Chief 
Justice McAdoo and 
a number of other 
magistrates, Police 
Commissioner 
Woods brought the 
Psychopathic Lab- 
oratory into being. 

Before taking up 
my duties in the 
Laboratory, Inspec- 
tor Faurot and I 
went to Chicago, 
where we studied 
the methods em- 
ployed in the 
psychopathic labo- 
ratories there. Be- 
side myself we have 
an expert psycholo- 
gist, Dr. E.C. Rowe, 
who works in the 
laboratory every 
day. On our advi- 
sory board we have 
Edward L. Thorn- 
dike, Professor of Educational Psychology 
at Columbia, Dr. Frederick Tilney, Pro- 
fessor of Nervous and Mental Diseases 
at the College of Physicians and Sur- 
geons, Dr. August Hoch, Director of 
Psychiatric Institute, New York State 
Hospitals, Dr. Woods Hutchinson, Ar- 
thur Train and Raymond D. Fosdick. 

We have not confined ourselves to the 
use of any one particular test or scale for 
measuring mental ability, but have 
adapted to our particular needs certain 
parts of a number of well-known tests. 

Every patient receives a thorough 
psychological, neurological and physical 
examination. If his case presents any 


Inspector Faurot turning over a case to 
the psychologist at the psychopathic 
laboratory at police headquarters. 
inspector, at the right, is handing the 
history of the case to the psychologist 


A physician making an ex- 
amination of a prisoner at 
the psychopathic laboratory 


aot 
peculiar problems we place it before our 
advisory board for special study. 

Each day we receive a number of un- 
usually interesting 
cases. I will cite a 


The few at random. 

A criminal who, be- 
cause of his_ intelli- 
gence and the number 
and variety of his ex- 
ploits, might have been 
a stage crook was 
brought in for exami- 
nation. On the way to 
the laboratory he told 
the detective who had 
him in charge that the 
scrub woman who was 
working in the _ hall 
when they passed, knew 
him by name. He be- 
lieved that the children 
in the street recog- 
nized him and was sure 
that all Italians did. 
When examined, this 
man showed a very 
high intelligence, but 
he was suffering from a 
form of insanity which 
might, at any moment, 
take a homicidal turn. 
From the nature of his 
calling it will be seen 
that this man was 
fearless, yet his insan- 
ity had taken the form 
of abject fear of recog- 


nition. His case was 
incurable. Obviously, 
prison was not the 


place for him. 

A fugitive from jus- 
tice was arrested. He 
had served two terms 
before, one for assault 
and one for abduction. 
Examination showed 
him to be a high-grade 
imbecile, his mental age being seven years. This 
condition is incurable and it is certain that each 
time such a person gets out of prison he will 
commit another crime. Hisability to reason and 
his range of ideas were both exceedingly limited. 

A waiter was arrested charged with attempted 
blackmail. He had sent a threatening letter to a 
company demanding $500,000. When examined, 
he was perfectly willing to talk about his efforts 
to obtain the money and believed it was due him. 
He was found to be insane and the only proper 
treatment for this difficulty is that which he 
would receive in an insane asylum. 


The most revolting and hideous crimes 
are those committed by mental defec- 
tives. These persons possess an unusual 
amount of cunning, which makes their 
apprehension difficult. It is generally 


558 Popular Science Monthly 


A tree which braided itself into a rope 


believed that many of the terrible 
crimes which have never been solved 
have been committed by defectives. It 
is impossible to know just how frequent- 
ly and to what extent feeble-mindedness 
exists. It is the purpose of the labora- 
tory to accumulate statistics concerning 
criminals who are definitely abnormal 
so that material will be at hand which 
may be used in the great struggle to- 
wards the prevention of crime. 


A Braided Tree 


EAR Arlington, Ohio, is a small 

tree which departed radically from 
the way a well-behaved tree should grow. 
Two inches above the ground, this tree 
divides into three parts, which twist 
around one another in the curious man- 
ner shown in the illustration. At the 
height of five feet the three parts diverge 
like the branches of an ordinary tree. 
Note in the background a similar tree, 
but having only two parts. 


An Adjustable Crutch 


HE military hospitals in Germany 
have a crutch that fits every one. 
Extended, it will accommodate an eight- 
foot giant; or it can be shortened to fit 
a midget. It can be taken apart and 
used as a cane by the convalescent. 
During the recent exchange of prison- 
ers a wounded Canadian was allowed to 
bring his adjustable crutches with him, 
although it is the custom to fit every 
patient with an artificial limb or regula- 
tion crutches when he leaves. Adjustable 
crutches are considered part of the per- 
manent emergency equipment of the 
hospital. Many other appliances, such 
as artificial limbs and hands, which can be, 
used for many necessary operations, are 


being perfected for those crippled in war. 


The Germans made these adjustable 
crutches to be used by long and short men 


a ee 


cc a & 


-from 


Popular Science Monthly 


Shelter-Top for London’s ’Bus Riders 


ONDON rains and London fogs 
will before long have no terrors for 
that portion of the populace that pre- 
fers to ride atop “busses in 
order to gain the benefits 
the owtdoor air. 
Weatherproof coverings or 
tops are being installed on 
all of London’s ’busses, and 
their construction is such 
that they can be put up or 
taken down in two minutes. 
In the photograph, which 
shows the new rain-proof 
*bus-top, can incidentally be 
seen rows upon rows of 
posters, one way of advertis- 
ing which the British army is 
employing. Evidently pro- 
ceeding along the theory 
that repetition is the best 
way to advertise for any- 
thing, the “same poster is 
used over and over again, 
in the hope of driving home 
a lesson to the reluctant 
Briton. 


559 
that is, baked in a shallow clay oven, 
fired by charcoal, as the bread of 


our southwestern Indians, the bread of 
the Bolivian Incas, and the Argentine 


Lendoners no longer have to ride on their beloved ’bus- 


Better Than the Bread 
Mother Baked 


PY HAT civilized person to whom has 
never come the pleasure of tasting 
bread as it is baked in the open— 


The 
The bread from the clay ovens of Bolivia is said to be 
even more nourishing and delicious 


tops in the rain. 


brick ovens of our ancestors baked good bread. 


Here is one of several designs of 
detachable tops now being installed 


cholos, is baked—has never really tasted 
bread as it was intended to taste. It 
is a little coarser, perhaps, than the 
snow-white bakers’ bread of 
the large cities, but it has 
nourishment and flavor that 
are unmatched. 

In South America the 
oven is very simple in struc- 
ture, consisting merely of 
a hollowed-out clay or mud 
mound, sometimes supported 
on a wooden framework, as 
is illustrated here, but usual- 
ly by a rock pile. 

Repair for Cracked 
Window 
WINDOW that is 
cracked can be repaired 
temporarily by bolting two 
roofing nail-caps where the 
cracks meet. Roofing nail- 
caps are large tin washers 
with small holes which must 
be reamed out to accommo- 
date a machine screw. 


560 


A Detachable Motor for Bicycles 


SMALL motor, developing one 
horsepower, which may be quickly 
clamped to the frame of any standard 
bicycle has been placed on the market. 
The entire motor, including magneto, 
muffler and carburetor weighs 
but fifteen pounds, and the 
fully equipped motor-bicycle 
may be picked up and readily 
carried to any desired resting 
place. 
The motor is said to be cap- 
able of propelling the bicycle 


An American manufacturer makes a motor 

which is so light that the whole machine 

can be picked up and carried as easily asa 
standard bicycle 


and rider from two to twenty-five miles 
an hour. It is of the two-cycle or two- 
stroke type, which gives an explosion at 
every revolution of the crank-shaft, re- 
sulting in a marked absence of vibration. 
The speed of the engine is controlled en- 
tirely from one lever on the handlebar, 
which advances and retards the spark. 

Soda Pulp Has Many Uses 

HE uses of soda pulp have been 

greatly expanded during the course 
of the war. Resembling cotton in soft- 
ness, strength and lightness, it is being 
used in the manufacture of explosives 
and articles of clothing which have 
hitherto demanded the use of cotton. 


Popular Science Monthly 


For centuries, Scandinavian countries 
have lined the walls of their homes with 
soda pulp. It is a poor conductor of 
heat and therefore reduces the cost of 
heating; it 
is airtight 
and there- 
fore 


covering 
material 
for wood- 
en bar- 
racks. 

Cellu- 
lose wrap- 
ping paper is being made from soda 
pulp, since its durability and strength 
have been shown to be very great. 
It may also be used for foot wrap- 
pings for soldiers. 


The motor is hardly more cum- 
bersome than the flat boxes that 
fit inside the bicycle frame to 
carry clothes on cycling tours 


= 


The whole motor weighs only 
eleven pounds, ready to attach 


Popular Science 


Monthly 


Pouring oil on the troubled waters is no longer a marine necessity, if bubbles of air are handy. 
Inventors have been experimenting for years on a scheme for stopping breakers by means of 
compressed air 


Breaking Storm Billows With 
Compressed Air 


HE gnawing seas are ceaselessly 

busy changing our coast lines. The 
bulk of us are unaware of this, but the 
coast dweller, particularly he who lives 
near sandy beaches, can tell many a 
story of wind-lashed breakers and 
pounding surf. Whole stretches of the 
New Jersey coast have been under- 
mined and demolished in this fashion. 
Our sandy western shores have been 
similarly assailed, and property owners 
on both seaboards have spent great 
sums in trying to rear barriers against 
these attacks. Unhappily, neither bulk- 
head nor jetty has proved permanently 
effective, and the fundamental reason of 
their failure lies in the fact that they 
are designed to halt the well-nigh ir- 
resistible onrush of the storm-tossed 
billows. 


A test will shortly be made upon tke 
southern coast of California of an 1in- 
genious system which represents a mini- 
mum of cost compared with what it is 
promised to do. It is not essentially an 
experiment, because the principles in- 
volved have been tried out before, with 
encouraging results. The lay mind in- 
stinctively pictures a rigid bulwark of 
some sort, for nothing short of this 
seems logically the medium to arrest the 
mighty drive of a great tumbling wave. 
And yet Mr. Philip Brasher, the in- 
ventor, employs nothing more — sub- 
stantial than a curtain of ascending air 
bubbles ! 

The feasibility of the scheme hinges 
upon two factors—a knowledge of wave 
motion and the catching of a billow be- 
fore it has time to break. Despite what 
most of us think to the contrary, the 
body of a deep-water wave does not ma- 


562 
terially advance, but the vibratory im- 
pulse that creates the wave does move 
forward. We have an every-day illus- 
tration of this in the fluttering motions 
of a flag. But there comes a time in 
this disturbance, where water is con- 
cerned, when the mass affected does ac- 
tually advance. This is when the body 
of the wave can not rise and fall with- 
out losing its balance, so that it tumbles 
over, breaks, and goes pounding up the 
incline of the beach and hurls its volume 
violently against anything standing in 
the way. The shallowness of the water 
is responsible for this, because there is 
not room for the abnormal vertical 
movement set up by the wave-making 
impulse with its onward drive. 

Now, as Mr. Brasher reasons, if the 
wave-forming action of any particular 
body of water could be upset, then the 
creation of the billow would be nipped 
at its very beginning, and there would 
not be a chance for the development of 
that movement which would be capable 
of acquiring destructive momentum. It 
is like checking a flywheel at the start 
instead of trying to bring it to a stand- 
still after it has attained some speed of 
revolution. To this end, the Brasher 
system has recourse to an air compressor 
connected with perforated pipes laid on 
the sea-bed, far out in the water, and deep 
enough to sustain waves before they be- 
come breakers—in other words, before 
their staggering masses tumble violently 
forward. In rising, the air bubbles tend 
to interrupt or to destroy the rotary mo- 
tion of the water particles—that move- 
ment which is characteristic of the wave. 
By doing this the wave impulse is 
checked, and the billow subsides and 
passes shoreward into shallow water, 
effectually robbed of its power to do 
harm. This disruptive effect of the 
bubbles is magnified by employing com- 
pressed air, because the globules expand 
as they mount and increase their inter- 
ference as they get nearer the surface 
where the lashing crest of a wave has 
its birth. 

But the Brasher air-breakwater is not 
designed merely to safeguard beaches. 
It might be adapted for the temporary 
calming of the waters about a stranded 
ship so that her salvage might be under- 
taken at any time. An installation of 


Popular Science Monthly 


this sort was made on the rocky coast 
of Massachussetts where a wharf could 
not be built in a sheltered haven. The 
air, supplied from a compressor, made 
it possible to load barges with stone at 
all times instead of waiting for favor- 
able weather. It is easy to imagine other 
applications, for instance, such as the 
building of piers and the like which 
normally would be halted if the wind- 
swept waters were seriously disturbed. 


This is a smoke laundry. After having 
been washed the smoke is enriched by oil 
and gases and is conducted again into the 
stove where it is thoroughly consumed 


Laundering Smoke and Using it 
Over Again 

Rok the purpose of abolishing the 

smoke given off by a coal stove and 
of employing the unconsumed gas and 
particles of carbon which ordinarily go 
up the chimney and are wasted, an ar- 
rangement of pipes and water tanks has 
been devised. The apparatus consists of 
three tanks connected together and to 
the top and bottom of the stove. Smoke 
leaving the stove is conducted first to a 
cooling tank composed of a coil of pipe 
submerged in cold water. From this 
coil the smoke is drawn by a suction pipe 
into a second tank filled with water. 
Here the smoke is thoroughly laundered, 
passing on into the third and last tank, 
which is partly filled with water and 
kerosene. 

The laundered smoke is enriched by 
the oil and passes again into the stove, 
where it is thoroughly consumed. From 
the standpoint of health, this arrange- 
ment is highly desirable. 


eS 


Popular Science Monthly 


Telegraphing with the Telephone 


HE man at the telephone is tele- 
graphing. He is Paul P. Banholzer 
connected with the 


of Philadelphia, 
steam engineer- 
ing and electrical 
department of the 
Navy. He has 
increased the effi- 
ciency of the tele- 
phone by devis- 
ing a_ telegraph- 
transmitter which 
can be attached 
to any telephone 
standard. The 
connection be- 
tween the two in- 
struments is pure- 
ly mechanical and 
not’ electrical. 
The device does 
not require an ad- 
ditional electric 
circuit. Its ad- 
vantage lies chief- 
ly in the fact that 
the Morse signals 
sent by this in- 
strument carry 
farther over a 
long distance tel- 
ephone line than 
the voice and that 
the sounds pro- 
duced are definite 
and unmistaka- 
ble even to an inexperienced person. 

The instrument is especially useful in 
telephone train-dispatching. If the tele- 
phone conversation is not clearly under- 
stood it can be verified, or supplemented 
by the telephone-telegraph instrument. 


The doctor 
did not care 
to carry a 
medicine 
case, so he filled a hollow cane with pills instead 


The telegraph-key is mounted very much 
like any other telegraph-key, except 
that it is pivoted at its extreme end; the 
sound that it produces is sharper than 
that of the ordinary telegraph-key and is 
conducted to the telephone through the 
metal base and through clamps which 


A telegraph-key attached to a telephone, 

which places the whole vast telephone 

system of the country at the disposal of 
the telegrapher 


563 


encircle the telephone standard and 


- fasten the instrument in place. 


The apparatus is being tested out at the 
Philadelphia Navy Yard with wireless. 
It is claimed that 
if conversation 
can ‘be.trans- 
mitted by wire- 
less telephoning, 
telegraphing by 
wireless telephone 
with this instru- 
ment, can be con- 
ducted by any 
““wire’’ operator, 
and that it will be 
possible to intro- 
duce wireless on 
ail -railroads: 
When telegraph 
wires are down, 
this device can be 
used on the tele- 
phone circuit in 
conduits under- 
ground. 


Cane Holds Doc- 
tor’s Medicines 


N_ eccentric 

physician, 
who did not like 
to be seen carry- 
ing a medicine- 
case, devised a 
hollow hard- 
rubber walking- 
sliding metal holder 


stick with a 
for the bottles of tablets and powders 


and other first-aids. This metal holder 


is a half-tube, slightly crimped at the 
edges, so as to grip the bottles tightly 
enough 


to prevent them from falling 
out when the tube 
is pulled out of the 


cane. To all appearances the cane is 
just like other walking-sticks, but when 
the old physician removes the handle, 
by unscrewing it from the straight part 
of the cane, a sort of button is revealed, 
which serves as a means of grasping 
and pulling out the tube with its drugs. 


! 
| 
: 


564 Popular Science Monthly 


How a Boy Delivers Packages with 
His Own Bicycle-Trailer 


BICYCLE-TRAILER of effective 

design has been built by a Battle 
Creek boy to expedite his work. With 
the trailer he finds it easy to transport 
bundles and boxes and to finish his task 
in much less time than if he attempted 
to haul the bundles on a small express 


The inventors of automobile appliances are now giving 
much attention to trailers. This boy invented his own 
trailer for carrying packages with his bicycle 


wagon, such as that commonly employed. 

The trailer is simple in construction. 
A two-wheeled platform is fastened to 
the bicycle by means of a curved rod, 
which follows the contour of the rear 
wheel and which is bolted to the saddle 
fittings. 

The metal rod obviates any possibility 
of a rear-end collision, while the pulling 
power of the bicycle is not impaired. 
The trailer does not impose an unusual 
burden on the rider, especially when the 
wheels of the trailer are kept well oiled. 


A Pocket Safe 


ONVERT a pocket flashlight into 
a purse by simply taking out the 
battery a : 


Why the Automobile “Goes Dead” 


It frequently happens that an automo- 
bile, particularly the Ford car, will stop 
suddenly and all attempts to “make it 
go” will prove ineffective. Battery and 
all other parts of the ignition, the mag- 


neto and spark-plugs, seem to be in good 
condition and yet the car will not 


“spark.” In this case the fault probably 
lies in the contact-brushes of the mag- 
neto. A small particle of dirt, getting 
under the contact-brush, will effectively 
stop the car. Examining the brushes in 
such a case will save much unnecessary 
work, and a trip to the garage. 


The Refreshment Tree 


T Mount Lowe, Califor- 

nia, the thirsty visitor 

_has only to turn on a faucet 

projecting from a large tree 

near the hotel and water be- 

gins to flow. No waterpipes 

are to be seen and curiosity 
is aroused at once, 

As a matter of, fact the 
‘lower part of the tree is hol- 
low, and the pipes were run 
along underground between 
the roots and up through the 
hollow part to a knot hole, 
where a faucet was attached. 
Around the faucet the hole 
was plugged up with cement 
which looks like the tree it- 
self. Drinking is popular 

here, perhaps because the visitors think 
it is the tree of knowledge. 


To passers-by the tree is an inexhaustible 

supply of water. But the source of water 

is a pipe ingeniously concealed within the 
trunk of the tree 


ae 


Ingenious Machines to Work for 
the Gardener and the Farmer 


A Whole Garden Kit in 
; One Tool 


EVERAL devices 
have recently been 
invented to make the 
task of creating your 

own garden agreeable. 
A handy new imple- 
ment capable of many 
uses has been invented 
by Joseph De Falco, of 
Vineland, New Jersey. 
It may be quickly con- 
verted from a hoe into a 
rake, from a rake into a 
weeder and from a weed- 
| er into a shovel. It has 


aa Fe : sige 105 ie 


A post-hole digger of this type will make a hole in a 
minute and a half. It does the work of fifteen men 


oe 


a handle to which any of these tools may 
be adjustably clamped; besides they can 
be tilted at whatever angle is handiest. 
A pivotally-mounted, ridged headpiece 
and a fastening-guide arranged to engage 
the teeth, make such adjustments a mat- 
ter of choice with the gardener. 


Digging Fence-Post Holes by Means of 
a New Machine 

OR the gardener and the farmer a 
hole-digging machine has been in- 
vented by August Enstrom of Rock 
Island, Ill. Up in New England, where 
the fertile hills are rocky, there are good 
farms with perfectly built, picturesque 


et Ae fey a I EE Cae a eee 


% : {eer : 

; stone fences extending in all directions. 

3 Sometimes they have cost almost as 

z This garden tool is a hoe, a rake, a weeder much as the farm is worth. A hole- 
; or a shovel digging machine would have made it 


566 Popular Science Monthly 


easy to put in posts and have wire fences. 
The farmer could then have put his 
profits into the banks instead of his 
straight stone fences. The Enstrom 
hole-digging machine has a digging or 
cutting blade fitted on the lower end of 
a spindle which is driven by 
various gears from a gas- 
engine. 

The machine also has an 
endless conveyor-belt with 
spaces which are constantly 
carrying up the earth dug by 
the cutting blade and depos- 
iting it in a chute which 
throws it to one side of the 
machine. This belt, of course, 
is also operated by the power 
from the gas-engine. 

The machine is mounted 
on a truck which can be 
pulled around wherever the 
gardener or farmer wants to 
use it. In fact, the machine 


a 


- ie 


The newest fruit picker is a roller which 
lifts the fruit up from the ground after 
it has fallen from the tree 


does the work of fifteen men. It digs a 
hole ten inches wide and over two feet 
deep in a minute and a half. When 
there are interfering obstructions it 
takes a trifle longer. The machine can 
be so adjusted as to make the hole any 
width desired. 


Stretching the Wire Taut 


HEN the holes are dug and the 
fence posts put in, the next prob- 
lem is stretching the wire for the fences. 
C. N. Edwards, of Hillsboro, Ohio, has 
devised a new wire-stretcher, which is 
light and portable. It can be readily set 


up and arranged for use wherever de- 
sired for constructing and_ repairing 
wire fences. 

The various strands of the wire fence 
are held between a pair of bars which are 
clamped together on opposite sides of the 


A new wire-stretcher which pulls the whole 
of a web fence by one hand-operated gear 


fence-wires. A chain fastens these bars 
to the traveler-block of the wire-stretch- 
ing machine. This traveler-block is 
screw-threaded and operated on a screw- 
shaft, which carries a small gear. These 
gears mesh with a large gear turned by a 
double crank in the hands of the farmer 
or gardener. The gears are supported 
by a two-legged frame which gets further 
support from a long guide rod which 
rests against the last fence post. 


For Gathering Fallen Fruit 


CALIFORNIA fruit grower, Peter 

H. Lint of Los Gatos, has devised 
a machine for rapidly gathering up fruit 
which has fallen to the ground. A large 
roller with prongs projecting from it 
picks up the fruit and transfers it to 
the box carried by the rack. The ma- 
chine is pushed along as if it were a huge 
lawn-mower. It is particularly useful in 
gathering fruit which has to be evapo- 
rated, such as prunes and apricots, and 
which will not be damaged by being 
pricked as a result of the novel method 


Popular Science Monthly 


of gathering. Many varieties of fruit 
ripen about the same time on the 
Pacific Coast and there the machine is 
especially valuable because the prune- 
grower is in danger of being left short- 


handed. 


Taking the Bump out of the Barrow 


MAINE inventor, George S. Nich- 
ols of Freeport, has taken the 


567 


the land and reduce the danger of soil 
blowing. Any kind of soil may be worked 
with the attachment. 


Effects of the War on German Industries 
di Sees industrial situation in Germany 

has undergone many changes dur- 
ing the course of the war. A great in- 
surance reserve for soldier workmen in- 
valided in war was started so long as ten 


jounce years ago, but the frightful 
out of the A wheel-barrow with springs takes more kindly struggle which is NOW in prog- 
Raided to uneven roads than the old-fashioned sort ress and its harvest of perma- 
wheet- . nently disabled men were hard- 
tee ia ; ly expected. Soon after the 
by at- war had started, however, the 
taching h necessity for drastic measures 
Tee nada became clear to the men prom- 
of the 4 Wa» inent in the manufacturing in- 
Sty Ff - a aie dustries, with the result that a 
ms ae P method of developing and util- 
springs izing the productive capacity 
which are of crip- 
fastened pled sol- 
to’ the side bars diers 
of. the barrow- was in- 
frame instead of stituted. 
around the axles In car- 
directly to the rying 
ends of the side out this 
bars—the usual work, 
method. This the Ver- 
makes it easy to etn deut- 
handle a loaded scherIn- 
wheel-barrow. genieure 
When the wheel provides 
bumps against a prizes 


stone the springs 
take up the jar 
instead of the wheel-barrow passing the 
jolt along to the man behind. 


Making a Disk-Sled of a Harrow 


ROSS-harrowing levels the ground, 

conserves the moisture and elimi- 
nates the furrows. A disk-sled attach- 
ment, invented by L. A. Gaume of 
Danville, Kan., can be readily fastened 
to any make of sled-harrow to do this 
work. The attachment has a spring 
pressure device by means of which the 
large wide ridge that is thrown up by the 
cutting-disk is divided into four small 
narrow ridges. The various harrow- 
knives level the ground, close up the 
furrows, lessen the work of harrowing, 
prevent evaporation of moisture from 


If this disk-sled attachment is applied to an ordinary sled-har- {a ir 
row, cross-harrowing can be done without a special implement 


meth- 
ods and appliances which will enable 
disabled workmen to carry out the 
duties of normal men. Wherever possi- 
ble, the veterans are returned to their 
former tasks. Often the problem of 
finding new employment for them must 
be solved. 

The large iron, steel and machinery 
plants are caring for thousands of fam- 
ilies, the heads of which were formerly 
employed in their shops. The expense to 
each concern averages over one hundred 
thousand dollars a year. It is a remark- 
able fact that the complicated systems of 
industrial insurance in existence have 
been able to make all payments demand- 
ed. Sick-benefit funds for the factory 
employees are already consumed. 


568 Popular Science Monthly 


A Sycamore Stump for a Lamp Post 


N a Pasadena, Cal., front yard stands 

an old sycamore stump about ten 
feet high. A foot or so from the top 
are the stubs of two branches. The 
owner of the property has conceived the 
idea of converting the stump into a lamp 
post.» In the top and at the end of each 
branch stub he ‘has placed an. electric 
light bulb. These are connected with 
a source of current in his house by wires 
that run under the sidewalk and up 
through the trunk of the tree. 


An old sycamore stump which was made 
both useful and decorative by the simple 
use of three electric lamps 


Waste of sandpaper and of patience is elim- 
inated by this efficient little block 


Sandpapering Made Easy 


ANDPAPERING has always been a 

disagreeable job because there has 
been no convenient device for holding 
the sandpaper. A sandpaper-gripper in- 
vented by Logan H. Fowler of Colony, 
Kansas, provides a means for holding 
the sandpaper without crumpling it and 


-without exhausting the patience of the 


man who is attempting to put the final 
polish on a piece of furniture. 


The sandpaper is stretched over the 
bottom of a block and fastened by grip- 
ping members at each end. The block 
has a handle which is readily grasped 
in the hand; thus a convenient tool is 
provided for the carpenter or the cabi- 
net-maker. It saves time and requires 
only about one-sixth of the amount of 
sandpaper generally used. 


A Method for Packing Barrels 


DEALER who had at different 

times a number of barrels to fill 
with a fine powder, wanted to get as 
much as possible into each barrel. He 
hit upon the scheme of placing two lag- 
screws (about a _ half-inch by three 
inches) under opposite edges of the 
barrel somewhere near the center. By 
rocking the barrel back and forth a 
few times it jolted the powder down 
until it was quite solid. This method 
can be successfully used for a great 
variety of articles. Lag-screws cost 
but little and they will last forever. 
The square heads keep them from roll- 
ing. The screws will fit any size bar- 
rel and can be carried in the pocket so 
they will be handy when needed. 


Raising 


Millions of gold- 

fish. are. raised 

on this farm. 

More money can 

be made out of 

goldfish than out 
of grain 


NTEN- 
| SIVE gold- 


fish farm- 
ing is more 
profitable than 
cattle - raising, 
in the opinion 
jf hus ene 
Catte of Lang- 
don, Kansas. 
He has ten 
acres of ponds 
given over to 
the raising of the shiny little parlor fish. 
Millions of goldfish have been reared by 
Catte since he started in the business 
years ago, but the demand for goldfish 
continues to grow. 

That fish farming is a paying business 
when conducted on a wholesale scale is 
evidenced by the fact that this Kansas 
farmer has been able to make as much 
money from his ten acres of goldfish 
ponds as other farmers from their one 
hundred and sixty acre farms. In fact, 
the industry has grown to such propor- 
tions that Catte has turned his big grain 
farm over to his son in order that he 
himself may devote all of his time to the 
raising of goldfish. 


Photo from life by Dr. R. W. Shufeldt 


Goldfish by the Acre 


Raising goldfish 
is no lazy man’s 
job. You must 
wade in and sort 
out the market- 
able fish with 
your bare hands 


Years ago 
Catte started a 
private fish 
hatchery on a 
homestead he 
had taken up 
near the foot 
of the sand 
hills. He was 
able to convert 
seme. bogs and 
4 spring into a 
fish pond, 
where he began raising fish for the mar- 
ket. There soon sprang up such a de- 
mand for small fish, however, that Catte 
found it more paying to turn his atten- 
tion to goldfish. Now his business has 
grown to such an extent that his hatchery 
covers thirteen acres and is composed of 
fifteen ponds, ten of which are devoted 
to goldfish. 

Catte’s busy season begins in the au- 
tumn. Most of his time is spent in wad- 
ing about in high rubber boots, sorting 
out the marketable fish with his bare 
hands. This is no lazy man’s job. Gold- 
fish farming consists in something more 
than reading the newspaper on the back 
porch, waiting for the fish to 


oT \\ 
a 7 


569 


Expense in Motion Picture Making 
By Albert Marple 


not on the “‘inside’”’ of the motion 

picture business to realize the ex- 
pense to which a picture company will 
go to secure effects necessary for the suc- 
cessful filming of a photoplay. Some- 
times the setting for a single scene 
costs hundreds and even thousands of 
dollars. When it is considered that 
even a one-reel play consists, gener- 
ally, of something like fifty scenes, it 
may be readily understood that the 
cost of producing even.a single reel 
play is enormous. What, then, must 
be the outlay for five, six and even 
seven-reel plays? A few months ago 
the writer traveled with a company 
during the making of a one-reel play. 
It took the company four days to put 
the play on and, although not a single 
setting was made for this production, 
the work being mostly outside the 


cL IS indeed difficult for one who is 


studio, that “one-reeler’” cost the com- 
pany about nine hundred dollars. The 
joke of it was that after being made and 
finished, that particular play was “pigeon 
holed” and, for some mysterious reason, 
was never copied for circulation among 
the motion picture theaters. This is but 
one source of the “incidental” expense 
of a company. 

Street scenes cost the most. It is 
indeed seldom that a scene of this 
character does not run up into the 
thousands of dollars. Weeks and 
months of work will be put upon a 
street for a single scene. Just as soon 
as that particular scene has been suc- 
cessfully “shot,” down it comes and 
another “street” rises in its place. 

A street scene built for the play, 
“Terrance O’Rourke” is an exact re- 
production of a street in Tangiers, 
Northern Africa. Employees of the 


It took nine tons of powder to make this explosion, the smoke from which clouded the air for 
two minutes in the resulting motion picture 


570 


oe 


Popular Science Monthly 571 


This “‘Street Scene in 
Old London” looks 
simple, but it was only 
a little less expensive 
than transporting the 
entire theatrical com- 
pany to London itself. 
In the circle, a ““Mas- 
ter Key”? mine scene, 
all of which was made 
to order with the excep- 
tion of the mine dump 
and railroad on the hill. 
The Western scenes 
are naturally less ex- 
pensive than the repro- 
. duction of a European 
street, but their cost 
is rather more than 
would be ex- 
pected 


The Western 
mining town 
shown below 
was burnt at 
arco st of 
$1350 


nga \ F hx 


vg 
- ‘i —™ 
Ee a: 
en eS E> ¥ 


572 Popular Science Monthly 


picture company combed libraries in 
search of information concerning Tan- 
giers. After days of labor, assisted by 
librarians, they found a picture of a 
Tangiers street. From this photo- 
graph, artists constructed the scene. 
The buildings were made accurately 
to the scale of. the photograph; the 
fixtures, the rugs hanging from the 
windows, the awnings, the palms on 
the roofs, the doorways, and in fact 
all details of the picture were pains- 
takingly worked up into true dimensions 
after weeks. A citizen of Tangiers might 
have imagined himself at home if he had 
walked down that stage-street. This 
scene cost the producing company some- 
thing like fifteen thousand dollars. 

One of the most realistic bits of 
scenery work done by any company is 
a “mine.” When this scene is thrown 
upon the screen the general opinion 
is that the “movie” company simply 
took possession of an existing mine 
long enough to make this picture. This 
mine, buildings and all, were construc- 
ted especially. It cost the company 
between fifteen hundred and two 
thousand dollars. It was built under 
the personal supervision of an “old 
timer,’ and it was done right. It was 
used in the “Master Key”’-serial. 

A street used in “The Dumb Girl of 
Portici,’ one of the longest pictures 
ever made, consisting of ten reels, 


A tool which avoids torn fingers and the 
still more expensive torn tire casings 


cost the company about ten thousand 
dollars. The cost here named was for 
the actual material used and the labor 
of constructing this street. The street 
took about three months to build. 

People who attend motion picture 
shows are often heard to remark that 
“all motion picture fires are ‘faked.’” 
That is not always so. In one film plot 
a fight starts in a gambling house. 
A bullet misses its mark and _ sails 
through a box of matches standing on 
a shelf. The matches ignite, the 
flames spreading to the walls of the 
building and from there along the en- 
tire street. This street cost over thirteen 
hundred dollars to build. 

During a storm on the Pacific ocean 
the schooner, “Aggie,” struck a rock 
and, after being abandoned by the 
crew, lay for several hours partially 
submerged beneath the waves... A 
film company saw a chance for a very 
unusual scene. The wreck was pur- 
chased, and a large company of actors 
was rushed many miles to the scene. 
Launches were chartered and several 
“takes” made. Later a thrilling play 
was written around these naval scenes, 
which, alone, ran up into the thousands 
of dollars. 

The foregoing has to do almost en- 
tirely with the “scenery” for the pic- 
tures, the outlay for actors’ salaries 
has not been touched upon, although 
it is a gigantic item. The weekly sal- 
aries of many stars are written in four 
figures, and most leading actors receive 
“several hundred per’—week. 


Attaching Tires to their Rims Easily 


TIRE tool for quickly attaching 

the casings of automobile and mo- 
torcycle tires to their rims has been 
brought out. A large U-shaped metal 
clamp passes from above the tire to the 
under side of the rim. A lever, with a 
protruding arm, swings from a pivot in 
the clamp against the edge of the casing 
that is to be forced into place. By bear- 
ing down upon the clamp, the protruding 
arm of the lever présses the casing into 
place inside the rim. A number of small 
holes are bored in the clamp and the 
lower end of the lever to adapt it for 
use with tires of various sizes. 


—— a 


Popular Science Monthly 


Petroleum Lands in Southern Cali- 
fornia are worth millions. To ac- 
quire them for nothing from the Gov- 
ernment, the speculator works them 
on the plea that they contain gypsum 
deposits. So they do, but the oil is 
what he wants. His work, done to 
meet Government requirements, con- 
sists in carving out the stairs and 
terraces seen in the illustration 


Fake Gypsum Claims 

NE of the most fantastic 

frauds of the times is that 
which is being perpetrated in ac- 


quiring for nothing petroleum 
lands in Southern California 
which may be worth from $1,000 to 


$2,000 an acre. It consists in entering 
lands underlaid with petroleum under 
the pretext that they contain valuable 
gypsum deposits. The gypsum is there, 
it is true, but it is commercially worth- 
less; however, with the $100 a year “as- 
sessment” for work on a claim, it is 
possible to hold large acteages, while in 
reality even this hundred dollars’ worth 
of work on most of these claims in- 
cludes a very liberal estimate for the cost 
of the labor performed. 

The people in the oil country smile 
very broadly at this assessment work, 
and, the work accomplished is of no 
value and is simply to enable the oil man 
conscientiously to make oath to the fact 


that he has done or paid for having done 


$100 worth of work on his claim. Thus 
there are to be found picturesque amphi- 
theaters and other configurations done 
artistically in a poor quality of gypsum, 
and winding stairs leading to nowhere 
along the hillsides and slopes of the rich 
California oil fields. In this manner the 
oil lands are held against all comers 
until the particular oil speculator or 
syndicate gets ready to sell the land or 
finance a company, perhaps, actually to 
develop it for oil. A single well in any 
of these great Southern California oil 
fields may make the fortune of the man 
who strikes it, some of the gushers hav- 
ing produced upwards of a million dol- 
lars’ worth of petroleum. 


574 | Popular Science Monthly 


“= 


~~ 


The double spray for fertilizer cuts down 
the farmer’s work one-half. The same 
machine can be used for planting 


Fertilizing Two Rows at Once 


HE farmer or gardener can speed 

up his Spring work by putting fer- 
tilizer into two rows simultaneously in- 
stead of merely doing one row at a time. 
A bifurcated fertilizer spout makes it 
possible for one man to do the work of 
two. The device may be attached to 
any ordinary fertilizer distributer, and 
its spouts will deliver the fertilizer in 
opposite directions to the two rows. In 
some instances planting might also be 
done in double-quick time with this in- 
genious device. 


Taking Off the Tire in a Jiffy 
TIRE tool, invented by John P. 
Cunningham, of York, Nebraska, 

simplifies the usually troublesome under- 


taking of removing an automobile tire 
from the wheel-rim. It is especially de- 
signed for use in connection with clinch- 
er tires. One person can brace his foot _ 
against the spoke and easily and quickly 
pry the tire off with this tool, without 
soiling his hands. 

The device has a bar, the inner end 
of which is attached to a ring which fas- 
tens around the hub to act as a brace. 
The outer end of the bar has a peculiar- 
ly-shaped lateral offset portion, which is 
inserted between the edge of the tire 
and the flange of the rim. An operating 
lever is used by the autoist in conjunc- 
tion with the other device. The lever 
has tongues that engage mid-way on the 
bar of the device that extends from the 
hub and engages under the tire. The 
offset portion of the device is worked 
along the tire by a rotary prying move- 
ment. It is then held securely by a 
ring device that engages around the hub. 
Then the autoist takes his auxiliary lever 
in hand, braces his foot against the 
spoke, spins the wheel around and off 
comes the tire. 

It is almost equally useful in replac- 
ing the tire. The only difference is that 
the tire casing goes inside the upper lug 
of the offset portion of the tire that 
swings about the hub. The wheel is 
turned the same as in removing the tire. 
The offset lug, being on the outside of 
the casing, forces it over the rim into its 
proper position. 


With this tool a clincher tire can 
be pulled off quickly and without 
damage by one person 


we ey 


ae 


, 
| 


The Undependable Fog-Horn 


A victim of the freakish fog-signal. The British freighter ‘‘Chalcas,”’ feeling her way past Point 
Wilson, at the entrance of Puget Sound, and guided by the blasts of the siren, suddenly ceased 
to hear the fog-horn. Before it could be picked up again, the steamer was wrecked and a 
loss of seventy-five thousand dollars resulted. The siren had kept blowing, but the steamer 


had entered one of the “ 


less serious problem to the navi- 
gator than they did before the 
days of submarine signals, but as the use 


r NHE caprices of fog-horns present a 


_of the latter device is by no means univer- 


sal, the erratic behavior of aerial signals 
is still responsible for many marine dis- 
asters. 

Whether the signal be a siren, trumpet, 
whistle or bell, its range of audibility is 
subject to remarkable fluctuations. A 
signal under certain circumstances audi- 
ble at a distance of ten miles, will on 
occasions be entirely inaudible at a 
distance of two; or, again, there will be 
certain zones or regions within a mile 
or two of the signal where no sound can 
be heard, while the signal is distinctly 
heard at much greater distances. These 
“zones of silence’? have often been de- 
scribed, but never fully explained. More- 
over, many misleading statements are 
current in regard to them. 

That fog has a blanketing effect upon 
sound was believed until disproved by 
the classic experiments of Tyndall at the 
South Foreland and elsewhere in Eng- 
land in the ’seventies of the last century. 
Tyndall proved that, in general, sound 
carries farther in a fog than in clear 
weather. In the same series of experi- 
ments this physicist developed an hy- 
pothesis to account for zones of silence 
and aerial echoes. This explanation lays 
particular stress upon a supposed “‘floc- 


zones of silence,”’ 


and had ceased to hear 


culent’’ condition of the atmosphere, 
1. e., the pressure of streams of air of 
mutually different temperatures and 
humidities, giving rise to _ invisible 
“acoustic clouds.”’ Tyndall’s hypothesis 
is, however, not now accepted in its en- 
tirety. 

About the time of these experiments, 
similar investigations were carried out 
in America by General Duane and Pro- 
fessor Joseph Henry. One result of the 
American experiments for which the in- 
vestigators themselves were not responsi- 
ble, was the currency given to the idea 
that a “‘zone of silence’’ surrounding the 
source of sound is a more or less uniform 
and permanent phenomenon. Except 
under special conditions of topography, 
this is not the case. 

A typical case of acoustic fluctuations 
is shown by one of the accompanying 
diagrams. On the night of November 
6, 1880, the steamer Rhode Island, 
valued with her cargo at $1,000,000, was 
lost on Bonnet Point, in Narragansett 
Bay. This wreck occurred only a little 
more than a mile from the fog-signal at 
Beaver Tail Point—a Daboll trumpet— 
which was in full blast at the time, and, 
under ordinary circumstances, could be 
heard at a distance of six to eight miles. 
The conditions of audibility in this region 
were subsequently investigated by Com- 
mander (now Rear-Admiral) Chadwick, 
U.S. N. His observations were made 
from a sailboat, in clear weather. (It 


Jivd 


576 


should be noted that the mere 
presence of fog has little, if any- 
thing, to do with the eccentric 
behavior of fog-signals. That 
these acoustic caprices are asso- 
ciated in the popular mind with 
fog, and often attributed there- 
to, is due merely to the fact that, 
except for experimental pur- 
poses, fog-signals are only operat- 
ed in foggy weather.) 

On the accompanying chart the 
thickness of the line representing 
Chadwick’s route shows the 
varying degree of audibility of 
the signal at Beaver Tail Point. 
The sudden fading away of the 
sound within a short distance of the 
signal was, in this case, partly the result 
of topography (abruptly rising ground 
behind the signal), and therefore a per- 
manent condition; yet investigations 


With the fogometer, here shown, both radio and sound signals are 
used in determining a vessel’s position in relation to the lighthouse, 
thus obtaining more accurate results 


Ww 
5 tose po , MAuTICAL Mites 


* Bell and Horn 


Popular Science Monthly 


c = A WN 


Narragansett Bay, the black lines showing how the 


audibility of a fog-horn fluctuated 


made on another day, with different at- 
mospheric conditions, would doubtless 
have yielded results differing to a large 
extent from those here shown. _ 

Refraction, by the wind and by strata 

ae oa of different densi- 
ties in the atmos- 
phere, undoubt- 
edly plays an im- 
portant part in 
the anomalous be- 
havior of fog-sig- 
nals; but the sub- 
ject is” str 
obscure, notwith- 
standing the elab- 
orate investiga- 
tions that have 
been devoted to 
it by Stokes, Tyn- 
dall, Henry, Rey- 
nolds, Rayleigh, 
and many others. 

The net result 
of the facts above 
set forth is that 
aerial fog-signals 
serve merely as a 
poor makeshift, 
pending the gen- 
eral adoption of 
submarine sig- 
nals. Radio sig- 
nals are also use- 
ful in this con- 
nection. 

A device for 
utilizing both ra- 
dio and sound sig- 
nals to determine 


“we - 


“1 oe 
> 


—— Te 


oer 


; 


Popular Science Monthly 


a vessel's position in a fog, when suffi- 
ciently near a signal station, was intro- 
duced and patented a few years ago by 
Capt. W. J. Smith, of Seattle. It is 
called the ‘‘fogometer.’’ The use of this 
device depends upon the fact that the 
transmission of a radio signal is practical- 
ly instantaneous, while a sound signal 
requires an appreciable length of time to 
travel through either air or water. 
Moreover, the speed of sound in air is 
1,090 feet per second, at a temperature 
of 32° Fahr., and increases with the 
temperature at the rate of about 1 foot 
per degree. Its speed in sea water is 
about 4,590 feet per second. 


Gaging the Distance of a Ship in a Fog 
by Signals 


Now suppose a vessel to be within 
hearing distance (by aerial or submarine 
signal) of a wireless station on shore, the 
ship having a wireless outfit. If the 
station gives a sound signal and a wire- 
less signal simultaneously, the distance 
of the ship from the station can be de- 
termined by noting the difference in 
time between the two signals, as re- 
ceived on board. Capt. Smith has pre- 
pared tables showing the distances corre- 
sponding to various intervals of time, for 
both aerial and submarine signals. 

The construction and modus operandt 
of the fogometer will be clear from the 
accompanying diagram. The three rules 
here shown are graduated in arbitrary 
units representing nautical miles. We 
suppose a vessel to be approaching the 
Strait of Juan de Fuca from the south- 
ward, ina fog, within hearing distance of 
the lighthouse off Cape Flattery, which 
is equipped with wireless. First her 
course is laid off as to direction only, 
with a parallel rule. Calling the light- 
house by wireless she requests the opera- 
tor to despatch wireless and sound sig- 
nals simultaneously, and to repeat the 
dual signal at the end of thirty minutes. 
The first pair of signals gives the ship’s 
distance from the lighthouse, as above 
explained. This is, say, 7.7 miles. After 
thirty minutes the second pair of signals 
gives the distance as 5.1 miles. The 
distance run in the interval is found by 
log to be 5% miles. We now have the 
three sides of a triangle, and set the 
fogometer accordingly, placing the ver- 


577 
tex of the appropriate angle over the 
lighthouse. We next slue the triangle 
around until the offshore side, A, con- 
forms to the edge of the parallel rule con- 
taining the course. 

Finally, we mark the chart with a 
pencil point through the aperture at the 
end of the run (the intersection of sides 
A and C), and take a line through this 
point and the lighthouse, which, with 
the aid of the parallel rule and the com- 
pass rose on the chart, gives us the cor- 
rect bearing of the lighthouse. 

The distance of the lighthouse at the 
end of the run does not, of course, actual- 
ly correspond to the length of side C, 
unless it should happen that the arbi- 
trary graduations of the rules are 
identical with nautical miles on the 
chart; but this is immaterial, as the 
distance is known from the comparison 
of wireless and sound signals, as above 
described. | 


Objections to the Use of Combined Signals 


It must be stated, however, in this 
connection that the determination of 
distances from the combined radio and 
sound signals is, in fact, not so easy as it 
might, at first sight, appear to be. 
During the past year the United States 
Bureau of Lighthouses made observa- 
tions from the tender Larkspur, cruis- 
ing near the Fire Island Light Vessel, 
which has a 12-inch steam chime whistle 
and a submarine bell, and was tempora- 
rily equipped with wireless. A report on 
these experiments states that “‘the com- 
paratively short ranges of the whistle 
and submarine bell lead to such a brief 
difference of interval between such sig- 
nals and the radio signals as to make 
highly accurate observations by stop- 
watches a necessity, thus limiting the 
usefulness of the method from a practical 
standpoint.” 

The Bureau is experimenting to de- 
velop an efficient fog-signal using radio 
only. 

Detecting Flaws in Steel 
ECENT experiments in this country 
have shown that with the aid of a 
Coolidge X-ray tube, defects in steel 
castings can be detected even through 
metal of considerable thickness. Radio- 

graphs, not a fluoroscope, are used. 


Some Jobs You Would Not Want 


To get a bird’s-eye view of New York city’s swarm- 
ing streets newspaper photographers perch on girders 
five hundred feet and more in the air 


Painting 
the iron- 
work of a 
skyscraper in 
course of con- 
struction. - One 
step and... 
Below, a_ steeple- 
jack at work on the 
flagpole of a big 
New York hotel. 
Old-time sailors 
were no more ven- 
turesome 


Human spiders painting the 
cables of Brooklyn Bridge. 
Theirs is an all-year job. 
But for their work, the 
bridge would long since have 

collapsed Photos copyright by International Film Service 


re ati es. 


. een 


Some Jobs You Would Not Want 


Rodman Law makes a 
profession of dropping 
from great heights. He 
jumped off some of New 
York’s tallest build- 
ings with a parachute 
for motion picture 
companies 


Diver plunging into the 
Chicago River to recover 
bodies from the “‘Eastland’s”’ 
hold. Many divers risked 
their lives unhesitatingly in 
searching for the lost 


Lh. Maa. SY any 


Egan, the Chief of New 
York’s Bureau of Combusti- 
bles, opens Black Hand and 
anarchist bombs. Thepictures 
to the left and below show 
him be- 
fore and 
after he 
has satis- 
fied his 
curiosity 


The man shown in the 
picture on the left 
(he is climbing up 
the side of the Flat- 
iron Building in New 
York city) claims 
that he has so perfect 
a sense of equili- 
brium that walking 
up a vertical wall is 
no more difficult for 
him than climbing a 
flagpole 


Photos copyright by International Film Service 


579 


580 Popular Science Monthly 


Miniature Ships That Were Built 
to Prove a Point 


N an effort to show the constant 
necessity of deepening the channel 


leading into New York Harbor, the War ’ 


Department has had an interesting fleet 
of perfectly modeled miniature ships 
made by H. E. Boucher of New York, 
ranging from the S. S. Dreadnought of 
nearly a century ago to the-S. S. Vater- 
land of the present day. Other minia- 
ture ships in this fleet are the Britannic, 
Borussia, Arizona, and Oceanic, with 
drafts of from sixteen feet in the case 
of the Dreadnought to thirty-eight feet 
in the case of the Vaterland. 


it will also serve as a source of power for 
manufacturers. Another important fea- 
ture involved in his plan is to conserve 
the scenic beauty of Niagara Falls, 
which is now being seriously threatened 
by power plants. The scheme is to con- 
struct a canal between Lake Erie and 
Lake Ontario and provide adequate 
locks to compensate for the fall in water 
level so that the canal can eventually be 
used for traffic. More important to the 
people on the lower levels, however, than 
its use for power and traffic, is the pros- 
pect of an unlimited amount of fresh, 
pure water. 


Numersous cities cast their sewage 


The steamers of che world’s history, in exact relative proportions, are shown in a War 
Department model. The whole story of the steamer’s development is graphically shown 
in tiny compass 


The intention of the War Department 
is to prove that the increase in size of 
ocean vessels with their consequent in- 
creased draft means that sea harbors, to 
be adequate, should be dredged con- 
tinually. 


Pure Water for Six Hundred Thou- 
sand People 


SYSTEM of supplying pure water 

to the community between Buffalo 

and Lake Ontario, now using the water 

of the Niagara River, which is contami- 

nated by the City of Buffalo, has been 

planned by an engineer residing at 
Washington, D. C. 

Not only will his water system furnish 

water to the cities on the lower level, but 


into Lake Erie so that its lower end is 
unfit for human consumption. From a 
technical standpoint, one of the most 
interesting phases of the proposed proj- 
ect is the way of reducing the danger 
now existing. 

The canal will have two intakes, one 
above the city of Buffalo and the other 
below it. The latter conducts away the 
sewage from the city so that the towns 
farther down the river are most effec- 
tively immunized. 

Another advantage of the canal will 
be its provision of a safe harbor at either 
end. The power plant which is proposed 
to do away with much of the water 
diversion at the Falls will be located 
at the end of the canal, overlooking 
Lake Ontario. 


: 
‘ 
: 
! 
P 
: 


angle-iron joints. 


Small Racing 
Automobiles 
for Boys 


A boy can now have an automobile just suited to his size 


abouts for boys, a factory has 
been built in Culver City, Cali- 
fornia, where one-passenger cars are 
made with a simple mechanism easily 


Jy supply the demand for small run- 


mastered by a young driver. They are 


good for a speed of twenty miles an hour 
and can carry a weight of five hundred 
pounds. 

The selected ash 
frame is three by 
one and one-half 
inches, with bolted 


The suspension is 
on four springs. A 
two-cycle engine is 
used, air-cooled, 
governor control, 
and the ignition is 
by coil and batter- 
ies. Power is trans- 
mitted by a flat 
belt. 

Every needless 
feature is omitted 
in order to make 
a car which the small boy can learn 
to run, without too many complicated 
attachments to puzzle him. It was de- 
signed by Pendleton, the inventor of the 
electrical timing system of recording 
speeds—a man who has always taken a 
great interest in miniature racers. 


Watering the Oyster 
OME fish dealers add fresh water to 
oysters to increase their size. The 


Every unnecessary feature is eliminated 
so that a boy can take care of his car with- 
out the aid of a garage-keeper 


oyster when put in fresh water will 
“drink” or absorb considerable water 
and will increase in size in proportion. 
As oysters are usually sold by the pint 
or quart, any increase in their size due 
to the addition of water enables the 
dealer to fill the measure with a 
smaller number of oysters. 

If four quarts of 
oysters and one 
quart of fresh water 
are placed in a con- 
tainer and the mix- 


ture allowed to 
stand for several 
hours, there will 


appear to be five 
quarts of dry oys- 
ters, for the con- 
tainer will be full 
and there will be 
little or no water 
in sight, as it is on 
the inside of the 
plump, — succulent 
looking oyster. The 
average purchaser 
has no means of detecting the addition of 
water. The chemist, however, by de- 
termining the amount of water in the 
oyster and comparing it with the amount 
that an oyster normally contains, can 
readily detect the adulteration. 
Increasing the bulk with water is not 
confined to shucked oysters. Some deal- 
ers float the oysters for several hours 
while yet in the shell in fresh water. 


osl 


582 Popular Science Monthly 


Army and Navy Clubs 
Please Notice 


MAGAZINE and news- 
paper holder made in 
the form of a sword has been 
created by a famous furni- 
ture maker of New York. 
A personal design of his own, 
it is executed by hand, and 
the blade is a knotted branch 
split down the middle and 
stained a French gray. The 
handle, like a sword-hilt, is 
made of woven willow and 
fits the hand comfortably. 
The whole contrivance is 
singularly light and easily 
handled, and the usual long 
handle of such devices, 
which makes it difficult to 
use - them comfortably, is 
eliminated. The new news- 
‘paper: holder is in fact more 
easily held than a paper 
which is not so protected. 
The hilt is black, in at- 
tractive contrast to the gray 
of.the ‘‘blade.”” The device 
has already found its way 
—> into many clubs. 


A newspaper holder that looks like a sword, made for, 
Army and Navy clubs j 


Miusié While! You Work lively music and the speed of the music 
puts the speed into their work. 
DRY-CLEANING establishment in The music-while-they-work is said to 
Cincinnati has come to the con- be a South American idea, where music 
clusion that if its employes hear music at is recognized as a necessity of life. 
frequent intervals while they 
work it will not only make 
them happier, more con- 
tented and better workers, 
but that they will accom- 
plish more than if they were 
without it. 

Working upon this theory, 
there have been installed 
throughout the big estab- 
lishment enough phono- 
graphs to keep lively music 
playing most of the day. 

The records are selected 
with care, lest a_ funeral 
selection, a dreamy waltz, or 
a Sextette from Lucia should 
creep in. There are many 
lively dance records and 


popular songs. The work- If the regimental band makes soldiers step lively, why 
ers hum and sing to the shouldn’t this phonograph make ironing easier? 


i ea 


” ay an 


Popular Science Monthly 


A Motion-Study Stopwatch Which Does 
Its Own Computing 

N the factory and other industrial 

establishments where accurate data 
are demanded as to costs and the 
time of mechanical operations 
is required, the stop-watch has 
become as much a part of the 
equipment of the plant as the 
engine or motor which drives the 
machinery. For a long time the 
ordinary stop-watch 
which was designed for 
the race-track was em- 
ployed. It answered 
the purpose, but after 
it had been used the 
real work began. It 
Was necessary to enter 
into a more or less 
lengthy computation in 
order to arrive at the 
output per hour or day. 

There has been re- 
cently introduced into 
this country, from the 
factory of a Swiss 
watch-maker, a_ time- 
study watch by which 
it is possible. to arrive 
at the conclusion di- 
rectly without resorting to the use of paper 
and pencil or even undertaking any men- 
tal calculation. It answers the demands 
of the professional rate-setter as well as 
the factory manager who wants only a 
reasonably close approximation. The 
dial is divided into tenths and hundredths 
and in addition to these desirable fea- 
tures, it contains figures spaced two- 
hundredths of a minute apart to indicate 
at any point of elapsed time exactly 
what the corresponding output per hour 
is. If the hand is stopped over .36 of a 
minute, the reading directly under it 
shows that the output is 167 per hour. 

In the manufacturing business it is 
often desirable to know exactly what 
time is required in the performance of a 
particular piece of work. When an em- 
ployee sees that the stop-watch is being 
held on him he will often lag so as not to 
set too swift a pace for himself. By the 
use of this watch it is possible to de- 
termine accurately the exact time spent 
in “loafing’’ and that actually required 
to perform the operation. Assuming 


With this watch the workman can 
fill out his time sheets accurately, 
and allow for an exact counting of 
time cost, which before has been an 
uncertain quantity in auditing 


583 


that an employee performs a certair. 
group of movements in an elapsed time 
of eleven minutes, a part of which time 
is known to have been wasted. The 
observer will follow up his first 
observation with another, stop- 
ping the watch during the frac- 
tions of the minute which the em- 
ployee wastes by unnecessary 
movements or loafed time; the 
result obtained will be the actual 
time required for the 
performance of the task 
under imvestigation. 
The watch is started 
and stopped by the 
movement of the slide 
on the edge of the 
watch. For rapidly cal- 
culating time in effi- 
ciency tests, this watch 
cannot be equaled. 


A Suitcase on Wheels 


ORTERS and am- 

bitious boys are 
wishing that some 
kind censor would 
prohibit the manu- 
facture of a new suit- 
case carrier, for should the use of this 
ingenious device spread broadcast, the 
familiar cry, “Carry your bag, Mis- 
ter?’’ will become a thing of the past. 

A pair of 
wheels is set 
on a_ stand- 
ard that may 
be quickly 
fastened toa 
suitcase, as 
shown in the 
illustration. 
Ani cextra 
handle is at- 
tached: to the 
end of the 
case, and the 
bag is wheel- 
ed along the 
ground with 
no more ex- 
ertion than is 
required to 
wheel a rid- 
erlessbicycle. 


No need to hire a red- 

capped porter if you 

have wheels like these 
on your. suitcase 


584 


A farmer built a record silo tower and 
now finds that a windmill on top catches 
every breeze that blows 


A Silo and Windmill Tower in One 


ILOS have been built by the thou- 

sands within the last few years, but 
few farmers have made use of the com- 
bination shown in the illustration. This 
is a two hundred-ton silo of hollow-tile 
block construction which supports the 
farm’s windmill tower. The photograph 
shows how the silo is filled with green 
corn in the autumn. 

The silo walls, five inches thick, are 
made of hollow ‘clay blocks, with each 
mortar joint re-enforced by a heavy wire. 
The door-frame is of concrete re-en- 
forced with vertical rods, to which the 
wall-re-enforcing is tied. The roof is of 
concrete and metal lath, thus making the 
entire structure fire-proof, and wind- 
proof. Dead-air spaces make the walls 
impervious to moisture and reduce the 
loss from freezing to a minimum. 

It is now a common practice among 


Popular Science Monthly 


farmers to buy a twelve or fourteen-inch 
cutter co-operatively and to use it on 
five or six jobs in a season in filling si- 
los. Such outfits have a capacity of from 
eight to ten tons per hour. One corn- 
binder is required in the field to keep 
the crew busy. Two. men are employed 
in the field loading the cut corn bundles, 
and from three to five teams are needed 


‘to haul the corn to the cutting machine 


at the silo. This method has proved to 
be the most generally practised through- 
out the corn-belt states. 


A Magnetic Machine Which Saves 
Waste Iron 


; ee order to separate the tiny grains 
of ore from the lumps of gravel and 
sand, after the final washing process, 
thereby saving iron that would ordinari- 
ly go to waste, a magnetic ore machine 
has been developed which may substan- 
tially increase the income of mining 
properties. 

The sand, gravel and finely divided 
iron particles are washed through a long 
trough beneath which a series of power- 
ful electromagnets are situated. As 
the liquified mass slowly flows forward, 
the iron grains are drawn to the bottom 
of the trough and retained, because of 
the power of the magnets, against the 
floor of the containing walls. 


Iron in the water is caught on the magnetized 
walls of the sluice-box, with a saving of many 
hundreds of dollars 


Popular Science Monthly 


notoriously small. 


This Chair Does Duty Twenty-four 
. Hours Every Day 


N this day of compactness, both in 
cramped city flats and suburban 
bungalows, a piece of furniture serving 
two purposes is in demand. A chair has 
been designed which, in emergencies, con- 
verts a parlor or dining room into a bed- 


Finger-Saving Nutmeg-Grater 
HOUGH a cook has ten fingers, that 
does not lessen the pain if one of 
them be hurt. Grating nut- 
meg in the old-fashioned way 
often means grating fingers 
in an old-fashioned way. To 
avoid this a little device is 
available for the up-to-date 
cook. 
A metal case holds the 
nutmeg and a cap presses it 
firmly against the rough, 


Modern city apartments may be comfortable, but they are 
The inventor has risen to the oppor- 
tunity presented by their smallness. 
combination bookcases and beds and tables and ladders. 
His latest achievement is an armchair which can be pulled 
out to form a couch 


He has patented 


room. It may do regular service in 
any room when a family has out- 
grown its bedrooms and cannot afford 
the additional rent of a larger apartment. 

As a bed this chair, which does duty 
twenty-four hours a day, has good steel 
springs and a real mattress. It is large 
enough even for a tall man. . It-is opened 
by a single motion. 


abrading surface. All the cook has to do 
is to hold the handle of the contrivance 
safely in one hand while turning a little 
crank with the other. The 
rotary motion makes the 
grating continuous and rap- 
id and one’s finger tips need 
never touch the grater. 

Though designed especially 
for nutmegs, this little de- 
vice may also be used for 
grating other small objects, 
“4 such as vegetables. 


To Take Olives from a Bottle 


N implement which is used to secure 
the elusive olive in the bottle is 
shown in the il- 
listratione-It 
may also be used 
to remove cher- 
ries,” pickles; 
chow-chow, 
lump sugar, nuts 
and the like. It 
clasps small ob- 
jects firmly and 
eliminates the 
trouble of fish- 
ing in the bottle 
in a vain en- 
deavor to spear 
the contents. 


A Holder for Milk Bottles 


ERE is a holder for the milk bottle 

that will save stooping, for the 
holder can be at- 
tached to the wall 
or door post. A 
pair of looped 
arms at the top 
forms a spring- 
clamp to engage 
the neck of the 
bottle. The spiral 
spring in which 
the holder termi- 
nates provides a 
support for the 
bottom of the milk 
bottle, holding it 
firmly in place. 


586 


Mark Your Golf-Ball with Your 
Initials 


MARKER 
Ws ed 20n 
stamping the in- 
itials of the own- 
er on golf-balls is 
shown in the il- 
lustration. Either 
WO... tites, Or 
four initials may 
be marked. The 
type is inked by 
rolling the pad over it; then the lever is 
pressed firmly down, the middle finger in 
the ring giving sufficient purchase. If 
desiréd, the ball may be marked in two 
or more places. 

The marked balls are very useful in 
preventing disputes as to ownership on 
crowded -public courses, but also serve 
to clear up doubtful points as to owner- 
ship of lost balls and the like on private 
grounds. 


Interchangeable Motor-Car 
Grease-Capsules 


IL holes on 

automobiles 
are a thing of the 
pas t -and*. the 
later screw-down 
grease-cup, now 
universally used 
on automobiles, 
is apparently 
doomed to oblivion because of an ex- 
ceedingly simple and effective device in- 
vented recently by an Englishman. It 
consists of a collapsible lead capsule, 
which is screwed on to parts that need 
grease lubrication, in place of the grease 
cup. Finger pressure on the capsule is 
sufficient to force grease into the bear- 
ing or part to be lubricated, and when 
the capsule is emptied a new, ready-filled 
one is screwed in its place. The old 
one is thrown away. No dirt, no grease, 
no loss. 

The screw-thread, which takes the 
capsule and keeps it firmly during trav- 
el, is fastened to the part, instead of the 
grease-cup. It is made of brass and 
forms a grease-tight joint. Most of the 
parts lubricated by grease-cups are out 


Popular Science Monthly 


of sight on the automobile, but even 
where visibility is desirable, the collaps- 
ible tubes can be used. It would be nec- 
essary to provide them with light brass 
or plated caps, where they are in exposed 
positions. 


New Device Distills Water 
for the Home 


OR the house- 
wife who 
wishes to make 
sure that her fam- 
ily isdrinking 
pure water, a new 
water-distiller, re- 
cently placed on 
the market, 
should prove ac- 
ceptable. The de- 
vice is made of 
copper and is 
lined throughout 
with tin, as this 
metal is chemically unaffected by distilled 
water. The still consists of three drums, 
which comprise the boiler, the reservoir 
for distilled water, and the condensing 
chamber. 


To obtain distilled water, the boiler 
and the cold water chamber are filled, 
and the still is placed upon the stove. 
The distilled water falls into the 
reservoir through a water seal. This seal 
is an important improvement, because it 
confines the steam from the boiler, thus- 
increasing the pressure in the condens- 
ing-chamber and giving twenty-five per 
cent more condensation for the same 
amount of heat. The distilled water 
may be drawn off at any time through 
a faucet, the water in the cooling- 
chamber flowing into the boiler to take 
the place of that drawn off. 


Deep Center-Punching 


N the boiler shop, where heavy cen- 

ter-punching is done, as on heavy 
tank and boiler heads and plates, the 
layer-out may save time and_ physical 
energy by the use of a center-punch that 
fits into a light pneumatic calking ham- 
mer. This can be easily made from any 
of the various air-tools that have been 
discarded. 


Popular Science Monthly 


A Disappearing Automobile Top 


N automobile top that drops out of 
sight behind the driver and pas- 
sengers when not in use is the ingenious 
idea that a Colorado man proposes for 
the automobile manufac- 
turer who desires in his 
product the utmost in sim- 
plicity of appearance. An- 
other advantage of this top 
is the decrease in wind re- 
sistance of the car. 

No part of the top pro- 
trudes from the car when it 
is down. The top is circu- 
lar, being pivoted at either, 
side. The pressure of small 
levers is sufficient for rais- 
ing and lowering it with 
little difficulty. [or touring 
car bodies two tops are nec- 
essary, one of which drops 
into a depression behind the 
driver's seat, the other dis- 
appearing into a_ similar 
pocket behind the rear seat. 


An Emergency Tire Made 
Simply of Rope - 


HEN a blowout occurs on the 

road and no spare tube or shoe is 
on the car and the blown tube or cas- 
ing is beyond further repair, the usual 
method of procedure is to run to the 
nearest garage on the rim. In every 
case this means positive destruction of 
the rim, if the casing is removed, and 
the serious damage of the rim or the 
destruction of the shoe, if it is left on 


A rope will get you home safely when you have a 
blowout, if you follow directions given above 


587 


the rim in an entirely deflated condition. 

The inconvenience caused by the acci- 
dent may be eliminated to a great ex- 
tent by following the tactics of a driver 
who, instead of running in on the bare 
rim, purchased some rope from a nearby 


An attractive runabout 

top which drops entirely 

out of sight, and also 

reduces the wind resist- 

ance to a very appreciable 
degree 


farmer and wound it tightly around the 
rim, felloe and spokes, as shown in the 
accompanying illustration. The first 
few turns of rope were wound circum- 
ferentially; the remainder was wound 
crosswise, so that holding places were 
obtained at four or five spokes. Suf- 
ficient rope was used to make the thick- 
ness of the novel tire equal to that of 
the rubber casing. 

lf properly wound, the 
rope-tire will not make rid- 
ing very uncomfortable; in 
any event it is better than 
destroying a rim. 

Many drivers, instead of 
using a covering of rope 
or other material, have 
been successful in saving 
the rim by stuffing the 
blown-out outer casing. In 
a few instances, grass or 
straw has served the ptr- 
pose well, and in others 
old rags or other soft ma- 
terial, such as paper. 


A Medley of Puzzles 


By Sam Loyd 


Off His Beat 


“ HAT time of the morning is it?” 
asked the roundsman. It was 
then that Finnegan’s mathematical bump 
stood him in good stead; for, being 
a few minutes late on his beat, he 
clouded the situa- 
tion with the fol- 
lowing truthful re- 
ply: 
“Just add % 
the time from mid- 
night until now 
to %. the time 
from now until 
midnight, and it 
will give you the 
correct time.” 
Can you figure 
out the exact time 
Finnegan made his speech? 


At the Auto Races 


N interesting question arose the 

other day at the Auto Races when 
three of the speed experts started on a 
hundred-mile race. A member of the 
sporting fraternity offered the odds of 
20 to I against anyone’s guessing the 
complete result of the contest. While 
the odds appeared to be surprisingly 
generous, an onlooker 
who prides himself on 


Cheese and Crackers 


HEF LOUIS is showing the exact 
ratio in which cheese and crackers 
should be consumed. Says Louis: 
“The balance board, which weighs- 
% as much as the cheese has 4/5 of 
its length on one 
side of the bal- 
ance point. Now 
what is the ratio 
between these 
quantities of 
cheese and crack- 
ers?” 

This problem is 
literally a lesson 
in ‘“‘balanced ra- 
tions,’’ which you 
can easily solve by 
a simple algebraic 
principle. 


At the Stamp Window 


NCLE SAM’S postal clerks in an 
ordinary day’s turn at the stamp 
window are confronted with all sorts of 
perplexing problems which they are ex- 
pected to solve off-hand without betray- 
ing the mental gymnastics required. 
One of these bright young men tells 


- how the other day the cashier of a large 


mail-order house 
which buys in quanti- 


his aptness at figures 
claimed the book- 
maker would have the 
advantage of such a 
wager. 

Remember _ that 
one, two or all three 
of the cars might 
fail to finish. Then 
again, that all three 
might cross the finish 
line together, or that 
two might finish in a 
dead heat, etc. 

Can you figure out 
in just how many 
varied ways the race 
might have termi- 
nated? 


CASH PRIZES FOR PUZZLE SOLUTIONS 


Fifteen Dollars in prizes will be 
awarded for solutions of the puzzles 
appearing on these two pages. The 
first prize of Five Dollars will be paid 
to the reader who makes a perfect 
score. Ten prizes of One Dollar each 
will be awarded to the first ten who 
send in meritorious answers. Should 


there be more than one perfect set of 
answers, the first prize will be paid 
to the reader whose letter was mailed 


first; the postmark will guide us in 
determining the mailing date. Answers 
to the April puzzles will appear in the 
May number. Names of the winners 
of the prizes in the June number. 
Send solutions to Sam Loyd, Care 
POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 
The solution of the March Puzzles appear 
on the opposite page. The names of the win- 
ners of the March prizes will appear in May. 


ty, tossed a banknote 
through his window 
and said: 

‘““Give me some I- 
cent stamps; three- 
fourths as many 2's 
as I’s, three-fourths 
as many 5’sas 2’sand 
five 8-cent stamps for 
the balance of the 
money.” 

Can you tell the 
denomination of the 
banknote? 

The postal clerk 
did not even have to 
use a pencil and 
paper, though you 
may, if necessary. 


—_" 


Popular Science Monthly 


Juggling the Digits 
‘THE schoolmistress set a very pretty 
problem in simple addition for her 
class when she 
said, ‘“‘I want you 
to arrange the 
divsts 1372), 37-4; 5, 
6, 7, 8 and 9g and 
Oo in a sum which 
will total 1916. 
The use of frac- 
tions, proper or 
improper, is per- 
missible so long 
as the sum total, 
when finished, will be exactly 1916.” 
Can you juggle the digits into the de- 
sired arrangement? 


How Old Was. Jimmie ? 
N registration day in the public 
schools Jimmie Jones, brother of 
the famous Ann, smoothed down his hair 
and looked somewhat quizzically at the 
teacherawhen she asked him how old he 
was. Finally he replied: 

“When I was born my sister was one- 
fourth the age of mother; sister is now 
one-third as old as father. and I am one- 
fourth of mother’s age. In four years I 
shall be one-fourth as old as father.” 

How old was Jimmie Jones? 


Dividing the Farm 

OUR heirs to a piece of land formed 

like the accompanying outline of 

tine Letter Tf, 

brought their 

plans to a_sur- 

veyor’s office for 

instructions in 

carrying out pro- 

visions of the will, 

which were that 

each heir was to 

receive a piece of 

land of a uniform 

shape and size. The surveyor gave them 

the startling information that it was im- 

possible to divide the actual land accord- 

ing to the terms of the will, but that he 

could divide the paper plan of the proper- 

ty so that it would conform to the terms, 

that is, he could cut the diagram into 

four pieces of the same shape and size. 

Can you show how he accomplished 
this task? 


589 


On the African Firing Line 
HE Zulu Chief found a cocoanut 
and threw it at the monkey. Said 
the monkey as he 
threw two in re- 


turn, ol -can"t 
eateh- but") am 
great on the 
pitch.” 


Every time the 
Zulu threw one 
cocoanut the 
monkey tossed 
back two. 

Since all the 
cocoanuts used in 
the engagement can be seen in the pic- 
ture, who can tell just how many cocoa- 
nuts the Zulu had thrown when the 
artist snapshot him? 


Answers to March Puzzles 
THE PRESIDENTIAL. PUZZLE 


Candidate D jumps to square 7, re- 
moving man A; E jumps to square 8, 
removing B; C jumps to square 4, re- 
moving E and C again jumps to 10, re- 
moving D; F then jumps over C and lands 
in the White House on square 5. 


PUZZLING KUGELSPIEL 
Analysis will show that the first player 
must knock one pin from the 8 group, 
leaving groups of 7, 3, 4. He will then 
be able in successive plays to leave the 
following winning positions against his 
opponent: (2)°7).6)/*(5, 745.5) (ra, 3) 
(1, I, 1) or the doubles (4, 4) (3, 3)(2, 2). 

Chit, CGSt. OF A “VILLA 
The Smiths’ new home cost $2,253. 
The paper-hanger’s bill was $148; the 
painter’s, $230; the plumber’s, $260; 
the mason’s, $420, and the carpenter’s, 
$444, a total of $1502. The lot cost $751. 


AN ELEPHANT ON HIS HANDS 

The data of that unconsummated ele- 
phant deal reveals the fact that the 
would-be seller asked five rupees for his 
animal, and that the prospective buyer’s 
best offer was less than nothing, for he 
asked a bonus of three rupees to take 
the beast, which you see would be eight 
rupees less than asking price. Then the 
seller came down twenty per cent to 
four rupees, but there remained a differ- 
ence of seven rupees between them and 
no deal. 


- 


My Adventures as a Spy 


By Lt.-Gen. Sir Robert Baden-Powell 


The author of this article is a famous British officer. 


Having joined the 13th 


Hussars at the age of nineteen, he served in India and South Africa, became dis- 
tinguished in the Matabele campaign in 1896-7, and won fame in the Boer War for 
his brilliant defense of Mafeking in spite of famine, sickness and the lack of troops. 


None of his varied experiences are more interesting, 


however, than his exploits as a 


spy. Many of these episodes are related in his latest book (“My Adventures As a 
Spy,” J. B. Lippincott Co.), from which this article is taken.—Editor. 


T has been difficult to write in peace- 
time on the delicate subject of spies 
and spying, but now that the war is 

in progress and the methods of those 
much abused gentry have been disclosed, 
there is no harm in going more fully into 
the question, and to relate some of my 
own personal experiences. 


These hieroglyphics contain a secret 
message which can be easily read by 
those who know the semaphore sig- 
naling code, which consists of swing- 
ing two arms in different positions, 
either singly or together. The dots 
indicate where the letters join. For 
example: The semaphore sign for N 
consists of both arms pointing down- 
wards at an angle of 90°. The letter 
I is shown by both arms pointing to 
the left at the same angle. The next 
N is shown again, and the letter E is 
a single arm pointing upwards on the 
right at an angle of 45°. In each word 
you read downwards. 


REA OMARAMD XM Coe menz€ v4pon ME-~e 


~~ 


As a first step it is well to disabuse 
one’s mind of the idea that every spy 
is necessarily the base and despicable 
fellow he is generally held to be. He is 
often both clever and brave. Let us for 
the moment change the terms “‘spy”’ to 
“investigator” or ‘‘military agent.’’ For 
war purposes these agents may be di- 
vided into: 

1. Strategical and diplomatic agents, 
who study the political and military con- 
ditions in peace time of all other coun- 
tries which might eventually be in op- 
position to their own in war. These also 
create political disaffection and organize 
outbreaks, in order to create confusion 
and draw off troops in time of war. 

2. Tactical, military, or naval agents, 
who look into minor details of armament 
and terrain in peace-time. These also 
make tactical preparations on the spot, 
such as material for extra bridges, gun 


emplacements, interruption of communi- 
cations, etc. 

3. Field spies. Those who act as 
scouts in disguise to reconnoiter positions 
and to report moves of the enemy in the 
field of war. Amongst these are residen- 
tial spies and officer agents. There are 
also traitor spies. For these, I allow, I 
have not a good word. They are men 
whosell their countries’ secrets for money. 


Tactical Agents 


In addition to 
finding out mili- 
tary details about 
a country, such as 
its preparedness 
in men, supplies, 
efficiency, and so 
on, spies have to 
study the tactical 
features of hills 
and plains, roads 
and railways, rivers and woods, and even 
the probable battlefields and their artil- 
lery positions, and so on. The Germans 
in the present war have been using the 


This sketch of a but- 


terfly contains the 

outline of a fortress, 

position and power 

of guns. Only the 

marks on the lines 
are significant 


The marks on the 
wings reveal 

shape of the fort- 
ress shown bere and 
the sizeof the guns. 


FORTRESS ihe 
GUNS. 


FIELD Goxs, if © 


MACHINE ne 
GUNS. * 


The position of each gun is at the place 

inside the outline of the fort on the but- 

terfly where the line marked with the 

spot ends. The head of the butterfly 
points towards the north 


huge guns whose shells, owing to their 
black, smoky explosions, have been nick- 
named “‘Black Marias”’ or “Jack John- 
sons."’ These guns require strong con- 


590 


Popular Science Monthly 591 


crete foundations for them to stand upon 
before they can be fired. But the Ger- 
mans foresaw this long before the war, 
and laid their plans 
accordingly. 
They examined 
all the country 
over which they 
-were likely to 
fight, both in Bel- 
gium and in 
France, and wher- 
ever they saw good 
positions for guns 
they built founda- 
tions and emplace- 
ments for them. 


This was done in 
time of peace, and 
therefore had to 
be done secretly. 
In order to divert 


( ° © Shows machine guns. ” them. 


A smart piece of spy 
work. Veins on an ivy 
leaf show the outline 
of the fort. The tip of 
the leaf indicates north 


suspicion, a Ger- 

man would buy or rent a farm on which 
it was desired to build an emplacement. 
Then he would put down foundations for 
’ anew barn or farm building, or—if near a 
town—for a factory, and when these were 
complete, he would erect some lightly con- 
structed building upon it. There was 
nothing to attract attention or suspicion 
about this, and numbers of these emplace- 
ments are said to have been made before 
war began. When war broke out and the 
troopsarrived on the ground, the buildings 
were hastily pulled down and there were 
the emplacements all ready for the guns. 


Officer Agents 


It is generally difficult to find ordinary 
spies who are also sufficiently imbued 
with technical knowledge to be of use in 


A sketch of a triangular fort was trans- 

formed into a stained glass window design, 

with certain of the decorations signifying 
the location and sizes of guns 


gaining naval or military details. Conse- 
quently officers are often employed to 


obtain such information in peace time 
as well as in the theater of action in war. 
But with them, and especially with those 
of Germany, it is not easy to find men 
who are sufficiently good actors, or who 
can disguise their appearance so well as 
to evade suspicion. Very many of these 
have visited England’s shores during the 
past few years, but they have generally 
been noticed, watched, and followed, and 
from the line taken by them in their 
reconnaissance it has been easy to de- 
duce the kind of operations contemplated 
in their plans. 


Catching a Spy 


Spy-catching was once one of my 
duties, and is perhaps the best form of 
education towards successful spying. I 
had been lucky enough to nail three and 
was complimented by one of the senior 
officers on the Commander-in-Chief’s 
staff. We were riding home together 
from a big review at the time that he was 
talking about it, and he remarked, ‘‘How 


The sketch on the left was made, giving 
all the particulars wanted. To bury it 
in such a way that it could not be recog- 
nized as a fortress plan if the spy were 
caught by the military authorities, it was 
turned into a sketch of a moth’s head. 
Underneath in the note-book was written: 
“Head of Dula moth as seen through a 
magnifying glass. Caught 19.5.12. Mag- 
nified about six times size of life.’ 
(Meaning scale of six inches to the mile.) 


do you set about catching a spy?” I 
told him of our methods and added that 
also luck very often came in and helped 
one. Just in front of us, in the crowd 
of vehicles returning from the review- 
ground, was an open, hired Victoria in 
which sat a foreign-looking gentleman. 
I remarked that as an instance this was 
the sort of man I should keep an eye 
upon, and I should quietly follow him 
till I found where he lodged and then 
put a detective on to report his moves. 


592 


From our position on horseback close 
behind him we were able to see that our 
foreigner was reading a guide book and 
was studying a map of the fortifications 
through which we were passing. Sud- 
denly he called to the driver to stop for 
a moment while he lit a match for his 
cigarette. The driver pulled up, and so 


An instance of how an effective disguise 
can be assumed on the spur of the moment. 
This disguise was effected in two minutes 


did we. The stranger glanced up to see 
that the man was not looking round, and 
then quickly slipped a camera from under 
the rug which was lying on the seat in 
front of him, and taking aim at the 
entrance shaft of a new ammunition 
store which had just been made for our 
Navy, he took a snapshot. Then hur- 
riedly covering up the camera again he 
proceeded to strike matches and to 
light his cigarette. We followed close 
behind him till we came to where a 
policeman was regulating the traffic. I 
rode ahead and gave him his instructions 
so that the carriage was stopped and the 
man was asked to show his permit to 
take photographs. He had none. The 
camera was taken into custody and the 
name and address of the owner taken 
“with a view to further proceedings.”’ 


The Pluck of a Spy 


Except in the case of the traitor spy, 
one does not quite understand why a spy 
should necessarily be treated worse than 
any other combatant, nor why his occu- 
pation should be looked upon as con- 
temptible, for, whether in peace or war, 
his work is of a very dangerous kind. It 
is intensely exciting, and though in some 
cases it brings a big reward, the best 
spies are unpaid men who are doing it 


Popular Science Monthly 


for the love of the thing, and as a really 
effective step to gaining something valua- 
ble for their country. 

Many interesting schemes are re- 
sorted to in spying. Once I went 
“butterfly hunting’’ in Dalmatia. Car- 
rying a sketch-book, a color-box and a 
butterfly net in my hand, I was above all 
suspicion to anyone who met me on the 
lonely mountain side, even in the neigh- 
borhood of the forts. I was hunting 
butterflies, and it was always a good 
introduction with which to go to anyone 
who was watching me with suspicion. 

They did not look sufficiently closely 
into the sketches of butterflies to notice 
that the delicately drawn veins of. 
the wings were exact representations, 
in plan, of their own fort, and that the 
spots on the wings denoted the number 
and position of guns and their different 
calibers. 


The use of hair in disguising the face is 
perfectly useless unless the eyebrows are 


considerably changed. The brow and 
the back of the head are also extremely 
important factors in the art of disguise. 
The second picture shows the effect of 
“improving” the eyebrows of the face on 
the left, and also of raising the hair on the 
brow, while the third sketch shows what 
a difference the addition of a beard and 
extra hair on the back can make 


The matter of disguise is obviously an 
important one. I was at one time 
watched by a detective who was one day 
a soldierly-looking fellow and the next 
an invalid with a patch over his eye. I 
could not believe it was the same man 
until I watched him from behind and 
saw him walking, when at once his indi- 
viduality was apparent. It is wonder- 
ful what a difference is made by merely 
altering your hat and necktie. It is 
usual for a person addressing another to 
take note of his necktie, and probably 
of his hat, if of nothing else, and thus it 
is often useful to carry a necktie and a 
cap of totally different hue from that 
which you are wearing, ready to change 
immediately in order to escape recogni- 
tion a few minutes later. 


Popular Science Monthly 


Vulcanizing Tires with Exhaust Heat 
: DEVICE 


which ena- 
bles the motorist 
to vulcanize tubes 
simply by using 
the heat devel- 
oped at the ex- 
haust tube of an 
automobile has been brought out by a 
Pennsylvania firm. The vulcanizer con- 
sists simply of a curved plate to fit over 
the exhaust manifold, a clamp for hold- 
ing the inner tube in place, and a ther- 
mometer to indicate the temperature. 
By running the motor slowly the heat 
may be regulated so as to keep about 
260 or 280 degrees, at which temperature 
the vulcanizing process will readily take 
place. 


A Trouble-Proof Tire 


UN C- 

TURE- 
PROOFING 
a trre: from 
the inside is 
the latest idea 
of one well- 
known tire 
iia 1 fac - 
Tit, et ce hae 
‘““trouble- 
proof” tire, as 
ts Tate st 
product is 
called, has a toughened chrome leather 
strip on the inside of the casing, where 
it touches the inner tube, and tires so 
treated have been 
the manufacturer’s claim, for 12,000 
miles without puncture. The idea is 
that the chrome leather strip will turn 
back the point of any kind of nail or 
spike, after this nail has penetrated the 
entire rubber casing itself. 


An Oil Cup for Auto Springs 


= SIMPLE but 
= effective oil- 
ing device for the 
leaves of springs 
on Ford cars is 
the Mosco oiler, shown in the accom- 
panying drawing. It consists of a reser- 
voir which is formed between the clamp 
and the side of the spring; felt washers 


run, according to, 


593 


are used to prevent the leakage of oil. 
The device is held in place by two set- 
screws. 


Hot-Water Bottle Fits the Back 


RDINARY 

metal hot- 
water bottles have 
never been popu- 
lar because of 
their inflexibility, 
but the shape of 
a new aluminum 


one does away - 
with this incon- 
venience. It is 


oval and curved so that it fits the bacl< 
or a cheek swollen with toothache equal- 
ly well. For the cold-blooded person 
who cannot afford an electric bed pad, 
and for whom a rubber hot-water bottle 
loses its heat too quickly, the new bottle 
will be invaluable. Perhaps one of its 
best points is the fact that it does not 
wear out, or become leaky. Water for 
it can be heated right in the bottle by 
holding it over a lamp or stove. A thick 
eiderdown cover makes it soft and pre- 
vents its burning the aching or cold 
member to which it is applied. 


An Anti-Clogging Oil-Gage 
IL-gages for 
use on auto- 
mobiles have the 
disadvantage of 
catching all sedi- 
ment in the lubri- 


cant. Clogging is 
the result. Prac- 
tically all gages 


are constructed on 
the principle of 
the drain of a 
water-sink, with 
its sharply-curved 
piping. A manu- 
facturer of gages 
has realized this 
inherent error in 
ordinary oil-gages 
and has brought ; 
out a new type which is intended to elim- 
inate clogging. It has a downward chan- 
nel of large diameter, and is particularly 
adapted for Ford cars. 


Why Weren’t They Thought of 


Before? 
Little Inventions to Make Life Easy 


Light Your Umbrella if You Are Afraid 
to Go Home in the Dark 


N_ umbrella, 

made with 
an electric bat- 
tery within its 
hollow handle, has 
lights affixed at 
each end of the 
stick and at the 
ends of the ribs. 
Push buttons in 
the handle make and break the circuit. 
The inventor has the idea that his um- 
brella will be of value in theaters and in 
dark streets and alleys. 


Signaling to the Driver Behind You 


Y pressing an 

electric but- 
ton on the steer- 
ing wheel of an 
automobile, a red 
light is made to 
appear in a small 
box fastened on 
the rear mud- 
guard, and asmall 
semaphore arm is raised to indicate 
danger. When the button is pressed a 
second time, the semaphore drops and 
the red light changes to green. 


Pen Rack Removes Ink from Nib 


PEN RACK 

to be fast- 
ened against the 
wall, has a prong- 
ed hook which 
holds the pen- 
holder in a verti- 
cal position, with 
the penpoint 
down. When the 
penholder is hung up and allowed to 
swing back it is suddenly arrested by a 
ledge and the ink is spattered against 
the blotting paper. 


A Freight Hook of Many Uses 
EVERAL im- 
provements 
are made over the 
familiar hook 
commonly used 
by teamsters and 
freight handlers. 
At the lower part 
of the hook, the 
shank becomes 
separated and is curved upward to form 
a claw, very useful for pulling nails. The 
fulcrum of the claw is shaped like a 
hammer head, and may be used for 
driving nails. Hinged to and counter- 
sunk in the shank is a blade which serves 
for cutting and as a keeper for the hook. 


Do Not Wring Your a by Hand 

GEAR, actu-—" s 

ated by a 
handle, turns a 
hook to which is 
attached one end 
of amop. At the 
same time, the 
pressure frame is 
moved upwards 
by a set of gears, ~ 
also actuated by the movement of the 
handle. Thus, when the handle is 
-moved, the mop cloth is tightly stretched 
by the shifting of the presser frame, and 
the small loop is turned until the mop 
is wrung out. 

A Fountain Tooth Brush 

H ] S t oo t h es SERRE 

brush -4is 
equipped with a 
hollow head and 
passages leading 
from this cavity 
within the brush 
to the bristles. 
Near the handle 
is attached a tube 
which conveys a medicated solution 
from a tank suspended above directly 
to the interior of the brush. 


594 


Popular Science Monthly 


Adjusting a Shower Spray’s Angle 


SHOW ER- 

BATH at- 
tachment intend- 
ed to control the 
angleof discharge 
ismade by attach- 
ing two upright 
pipes to the dis- 
charge-taps of the 
supply-pipes. At 
the desired height elbows are affixed to 
the pipes to join them in the center. At 
this point a swiveled T-pipe is connected 
to both ends of the pipes, so that the 
angle of the upright portion of the T may 
be changed at will. To the upper end of 
the T-section are added the adjustable 
shower attachment and a handle. 


Both Direct and Indirect Lighting 


REFLEC- 

TOR for an 
electric light is 
made so that the 
fixture may be 
used for either di- 
rect or indirect 
lighting. The re- 
flector is shaped 
like a canopy, and 
is held in either position by wire or chain 
crows’ feet leading from the main sup- 
port. The lamp-receiving socket is en- 
closed in a standard, which may be 
coupled directly to the support when the 
fixture is used for direct lighting. When 
indirect lighting is desired, the lamp 
socket is covered by a metal cap. 


A Coffee Percolator In Your Cup 


SMALL per- 

colator with 
which a guest ata 
restaurant may 
make a cup of 
coffee to suit his 
own taste holds 
an ordinary cup- 
ful of liquid. In 
the container, 
which is clamped upon the cup, is placed 
ground coffee and hot water and clear 
coffee drips through the strainer into the 
cup. When all the water has dripped 
out, the container is set aside. 


595 
Blow Up Your Shoes with Air 


N order to keep 
expensive and 
delicate shoes in 
proper condition 
when they are not 
being worn, the 
pneumatic shoe- 
tree exerts an ev- 
en pressure on all 
parts of the fab- 
ric. A metal form 
partially surrounds a flexible sack which, 
when filled with air, takes the place of 
the old fashioned wooden tree. The sack 
naturally follows the lines of the shoe, 
so the leather is not forced out of shape. 


A Vacuum Cleaner Dust-pan 
DUST-PAN 


is made with 
a false bottom 
and with a cham- 
ber in the large 
end t oi this 
chamber is a bel- 
lows, actuated by 
a plunger in the 
handle. The pas- 
sageway leading 
from the bellows through the false bot- 
tom ends in a lip just below the norma! 
edge of the dust-pan. To remove the 
last dirt from the floor, the slot is placed 
over it, and by means of the bellows the 
dust is quickly sucked in. 


A Spring Cover for Milk Bottles 


pes attachment 
made of 
spring steel which 
consists of a stout 
handle and a lip 
and cover for 
pouring out the 
contents of a milk 
bottle is held 
firmly to the bot- 
tle by the tension of the spring steel. 
This exerts an upward pressure on two 
grips at the base of the bottle, and a 
downward pressure on the ring which 
forms the pouring lip at the top. A 
cover is hinged to the ring at the top, 
so that it opens by a pressure of the 
thumb. 


596 Popular Science Monthly 


This Ice-Shaver Saves Muscle 


SHEET met- 

al blade pro- 
vided with a cor- 
rugated cutting 
edge is secured to 
two side-arms, 
which act as a 
guide when the 
device is in opera- 
tion. The entire 
device is fitted to a convenient handle. 
In use the cutting edge is pressed to the 
ice and is guided by the metal side-arms. 


A Foot-Propelled Moter Skate 


HE \accem- 
panying 
sketch shows a 
novel form of 
skate in which the 


tion is supplied 
by the feet of the 
skater. The foot-piece is mounted be- 
tween the two wheels, slightly lower than 
their centers. Within the frame proper is 
concealed a strong steel revolving screw, 
which communicates with the rear wheel 
by means of the ratchet gearing shown in 
the diagram. To set the skates in mo- 
tion the skater applies the power to the 
screw by pressing down on the foot- 
plate, which is connected with the screw 
by the crank in front of the toe. Thus 
the drive-wheel, which is the rear wheel 
of the skate, is set in motion. The 
model shown is provided with two 
wheels; but this same mechanism may 
be applied to the four-wheeled skate 
with equal facility. 


A Tooth-Brush Which Fits Your Finger 


CASING composed 

of all-absorbent fab- 
ric, and fitted on one side 
with a bead or flange, is 
held on one finger while 
cleaning the teeth. To the 
end of the device a string 
is fastened, which may be 
used to hold the case on the 
finger while in use, or may be used to 
clean between the teeth. 


power of locomo- - 


A Policeman’s Club Which Is Also a Gun 

POLFCE- 

MAN’S club 
is provided with 
an internal mech- 
anism whereby 
the club may be 
converted into a 
firearm, to dis- 
charge one bullet. 
By means of a 
system of springs, the firing-pin is held 
retracted until the handle of the club is 
unscrewed for a short distance. This 
action releases a safety catch, and the 
cartridge is ready to fire. In discharging, 
the handle is pulled back and released. 


Chalking Billiard Cues Mechanically 


CM: A Dee 

DR PGA 
holder for chalk 
is cast integrally 
with a short rod, 
in which is a spi- 
ral slot. The en- 
tire device fits ov- 
er a rod project- 
ing down from 
the ceiling. On this rod is a pin, which 
fits into the spiral groove on the chalk 
holder. When the cue is placed in the 
funnel-shaped opening of the holder, an 
upward push causes the device to re- 
volve until the pin has reached the end 
of the spiral groove. 


Parting Thick Tresses 
BOR EM 
AN inventor 
has patented a 
comb intended 
for owners of 
thick hair which 
refuses to. stay 
parted. Asshown 
in the illustration, 
the device con- 
sists of two combs which are secured to 
an elastic band. The combs are inserted 
in the hair at the point where the part 
is desired, and then drawn apart. At the 
same time, the band is being stretched 
over the head and holds the hair down 
flat. The combs can then be released 
from the head, while the band is re- 
tained in position. 


' j 
wee es eS 


—————— ee 


For Practical Workers 


A Useful Gage for Motorists 


VERY simple but useful attach- 
ment for the automobilist’s key- 
ring is shown in the accompanying illus- 
It can be made of spring steel 


tration. 


36 HOLE 


Ya a 


Noa7’tHick “o1o"THICK 


The little piece of steel illustrated can be 
used in the ways shown and in many others 


or hard brass, steel being preferred, how- 
ever, since it can be hardened and 
tempered. It is made from a piece of 
stock about .o50-in. thick, 114-ins. long 
and %%-in. wide. Before hardening, a 
is-inch hole is drilled in the end and the 
corners rounded off to make it easily in- 
serted on a key-ring. The piece is 
then ground down to about .046 in. to 
.047-in. thick for about half its length, 
and to about .o1o-in. thick for the 
remainder. 

The thick end will be found valuable 
for setting the gap between the elec- 
trodes of the ignition spark-plug; the 
thin end will be useful when adjusting 
the clearance between the valve stems 
and adjusting nuts on valve-lift plungers. 
The gage can be easily made and will be 
found very useful whenever such a tool 
is needed.— VICTOR PAGE. 


How Betsy Ross Made a Five-pointed 
Star with One Cut 


HEN George Washington and 

two other Revolutionary leaders 
called on Betsy Ross to bestow upon 
her the honor of making the first flag, 
they expressed a desire to use a star of 
five points. She immediately folded up 
a bit of paper and, with one cut, formed 
a perfect five-pointed star. This is the 
way to do it: 

Fold a perfect paper square diagonally, 
as in Fig. 1. Then make another fold, 
as in Fig. 2, X being the middle of the 
line TU. The fold must give an angle 
R, Fig. 3, of about 36 deg. This is 
approximately half the angle S. A little 
ae will enable anyone to make this 
old. 

The point D of Fig. 3 is folded over as 
in Fig. 4, angles E and F being equal. 
The two points A and B, which are 
together, are then folded over, as in 
Fig. 5. If the edges are all together, a 
diagonal cut, shown in Fig. 5, will make 
afperfect star, having five points. 


uw, ae 


fig 6 


Making a Five-pointed Star with One Cut. 


Fig. |. Fold in square of paper. Fig. 2. X, middle of 

TU. Fig. 3. Angle R is half angle S. Fig. 4. Angle 

E is equal toangle F. Fig. 5. Ready tocut. Fig. 6. 
Completed star 


597 


598 


Making and Using a Small Still 


MATEUR chemists and_ photog- 
raphers as well as other experi- 
menters often find themselves in need of 
pure or distilled water. This still will 
prove a help and is an interesting ap- 
paratus to make. It is easily operated 
and will distill a comparatively large 
quantity of liquid. 

The principle of distillation is the mere 
raising of a liquid to its vaporizing point 
and the collecting and condensing of its 
vapor. The most important part of the 
still is the condenser, which is shown in 
the detailed diagram. It consists of a 
large glass tube about 1)4 ins. in 
diameter and about 12 ins. long. Each 
end is sealed tightly with a good sound 
cork stopper. 

Three tubes known as the condensing 
coils are about 14 in. in diameter and 16 
ins. long, and are passed through the 


ASRANGEMENT OF APPARATUS 


Diagram of the arrangement of apparatus 
for a small still 


stoppers and glass casing. Two short 
lengths of tubing are placed in the corks 
to allow the cooling water to enter the 
casing and to provide an overflow outlet. 
The condenser ends should be painted 
with shellac or dipped into molten 
paraffin wax to seal any leaks. Connect 
the three coil tubes with rubber tubing, 
as shown, to make one continuous 
circuit, and to allow the vapor to enter 
one end and pass through the casing thre? 
different times before the condensed 
liquid emerges. Mount the casing upon 
a wooden base with two brass straps. 
The diagrammatic arrangement of the 
apparatus shows the system of operating. 
The boiler is easily made from a can and 
small funnel as shown. Solder the fun- 
nel carefully to the top of the can. Fill 
the boiler by submerging in the liquid. 
Use a Bunsen burner or alcohol lamp for 
vaporizing the contents. Connect the 
boiler to the inlet of condenser by means 
of rubber tubing. A vessel of co!d 


Popular Science Monthly 


water is used to cool the condenser, the 
water being siphoned to the water inlet 
on the condenser through tubing. Make 
certain that the coil tubes are entirely 


Detailed diagram of the condenser 


covered with the cooling water to insure 
perfect condensation. Allow the waste 
water to drain off and collect the dis- 
tillate in a clean vessel. 

Remember that distillation is based 
upon the principle that the boiling points 
of different liquids differ. With this in 
mind many interesting experiments can 
be made with the apparatus described. 
Any desired liquid may be removed from 
a mixture of various liquids by keeping 
the boiling point of the mixture the same 
as that of the desired substance. 

The boiling points of some common 
liquids at sea level are as follows: 

Water 212° Fahr. 

Alcohol 173° Fahr. 

Ammonia 140° Fahr. 

Chloroform 140° Fahr. 

Saturated Salt Sol. 226° Fehr. 

Turpentine 315° Fahr. 

Sulphuric Acid 590° Fahr. 

Ether 100° Fahr.—B. F. DAsHiELL. 


Straightening Kinked Wire 


INKED wire can be straightened 

satisfactorily with two blocks of 
wood, cut and fitted as shown in the 
accompanying drawing, and bolted to- 
gether loosely. The wire is_ passed 
between them, wrapped around a short 
strip of hard wood and pulled with a 
firm, even pressure. 


: [ G 
[KY¥GG 
HY ZZ, 
a Zk pars 
ee. 
Tin a a Zi 
AR = 
Ee SS \ZZz i. Z lone 3 
= \F Zee 
CEB / a cara 
~SsS RS LAP 


Crooked wires can be straightened out by 
merely running them between these two 
blocks of wood 


Popular Seience Monthly 


How to Construct a Simple Cyclecar 
Starter 


RELIABLE home-made starter 
for cyclecars, or other light cars, 
capable of being operated from the seat, 
can be made in the following manner: 
Drill a %-inch hole in the end of a 
strong piece of wood, 1 in. by 1% ins. by 
3 ft., shown at A Fig. 1. Make a bear- 
ing by fitting in a piece of steel or brass 
tubing. Make another hole B %¢ in. in 
diameter, about I ft. from the first one; 


cya IE Wooden 
lever and anchor 
= for chain 


and fit in a bearing. Bend a piece of 
steel, 4% in. by \% in., into a U-shaped 
form asat C. After drilling holes in the 
ends, connect this piece to B by means 
of a bolt. 

Saw off the crank of the car a few 
inches from the bearing. It must then 
be tapered and a 14-tooth motorcycle 

sprocket keyed and bolt- 
ed on, as shown in Fig. 2. 
Place a spring on the in- 
side of the casing to bear 
against the engaging rat- 
chet, thus forcing it to 
catch when the sprocket 
is turned, Fig. 2. To 
throw this ratchet out 
after the engine has start- 
ed, a small wire or cable is 
run from the seat to a 
bell-crank, and this Porces 
the sprocket and 
ratchet out. The long lever-arm 
is now fastened by the bearing A 
at some convenient place on the 
frame, allowing for a free move- 
ment back and forth. The piece 
C is then bolted on at B, Fig. 1. 
A wire rod, attached to C is 
fastened to a chain, which passes 
over the sprocket and connects 
with a coiled spring. When | 
the arm is pulled forward, 
this spring draws it back. 
The relation of parts is 
shown in Fig. 4. 

To operate, the wire 
lever fastened to the seat is 
first released, allowing the 


FRAME 


BA hechd 
=\(((t4 
= | 


Fig. 2. 


Mo- 

torcycle 

sprocket on 
crankshaft 


Fig. 3. Fas- 
tening and at- 
tachment of 
wooden lever 


599 


ratchet to spring into mesh. The lever- 
arm is then pulled up with a jerk; this 
spins the engine over from one to two 
turns, depending upon the size of the 
sprocket and the distance of B from A. 
When the motor starts, the wire from 
the seat is drawn back and the ratchet is 
pulled out of gear. In case the motor 
kicks, the lever simply flies out of the 
hand and falls down on a spring cushion 
or on the wire rod. No damage is ever 
done by a kick, since, by the time the 
engine has turned over once, most of its 
energy is lost. The main advantage 
over a crank lies in the increased leverage 
derived, and also in the greater number 
of turns which can be given the engine. 
With this starter, the greatest amount of 
force is delivered just at the point when 


Fig. 4. Rela- 
tion of parts, 
as applied to 
cyche car 
cranking 
from the side 


the engine has its highest compression, 
which makes it desirable for magneto 
ignition. There is positively no danger 
of getting a broken arm with this starter. 
The diagrams are for a_ cyclecar, 
cranked from the side. By means of a 
series of pulleys and wire cable, the same 
principle applies where the engine is 
cranked in front. —N. S. McCEWEN. 


Removing Tires with a Clothes-Pin 
INGLE-CLINCH bicycle-tires may 
be quickly removed by means of an 
ordinary clothes-pin. Separate the 
prongs of the clothes-pin until it splits. 
The larger piece may be used in prying 
the bead of the tire away from the 
hooked edge of the rim, and also for lift- 
ing it over the edge. Use the other 
prong to prevent slipping back into the 

curve of the rim.—G. M. Morrison. 


fac 


—SE==————— 


Arrangement of parts and connections for 
Bunsen burner and blow-torch 


Bunsen Burner and Blow-Torch 
Combined 


COMBINATION Bunsen burner 
and blow-torch can be made from 
38-inch gas fittings. The cost should not 
exceed $1. 
The following material is needed: 
Two tees, A. 


Five 1-inch nipples, B, C. 
One floor plate, D. 


One air-mixer from an _ inverted gas 
burner, E£. 
One air-mixer from an _ upright gas 
burner, F 


One straight valve, G. 

One “L” valve, H. 

One valveless hose connection, K. 

The fittings should be assembled as 
shown. 


By careful adjustment of the air- 
mixer, F, an intensely hot blue flame 
twelve to eighteen inches long can be 
secured. By regulating the mixer, £, 
the usual Bunsen flame may be obtained. 
—A.C. Fisner and J. B. WHITTAKER. 


Brass Tube Cleans File Teeth 
EETH of a file clogged with lead 


or other metals can be cleaned with 
a short length of brass tubing. The file 
should be held on edge and the tubing 
forced along the teeth. Wedges will be 
formed at the end of the tubing, which 
will force out the metal which has 
formed between the file teeth and thor- 
oughly clean the file —E. B. WILLIAMs. 


Popular Science Monthly 


Cutting Glass Bottles and Tubes 
with Oil 

O cut a glass bottle or tube, fill with 

lubricating oil to the level you 
wish the vessel to be cut. Then heat an 
iron rod to the point of redness and 
slowly dip it in the oil. When the oil 
gets hot, the vessel will crack round the 
top of the oil, making a clean, even 
break that can be dressed off on a grind- 
tone.—A. E. SMITH. 


A Coarse File for Soft Metals 


EAD or other soft metals can be filed 
with an ordinary flat file which is 
annealed and cut along one edge with 
sharp angular teeth. Afterwards, the 
file should be rehardened. 
—E. B. WILLIAMs. 


A Trousers-Hanger 
HE pieces B, B’, B’ and B* are flat 


strips of metal riveted to make 
flexible joints. The rivet R is made with 
a hole in its head large enough for the 
rod to slide through and connect to 
the rivet K, while C and C’ are clips to 


This trousers-hanger is easily made and is 
more efficient than those which can be 
bought at most stores 


hold the trousers, and are connected to 
B and B’ by flexible joints. The clips 
slide on the rod O. The weight of the 
trousers will be exerted at the point K, 
thus pushing out the strips B and B* and 
stretching the trousers. This appliance 
is not only light and non-breakable, but 
it is also easy to make. Every man 
should welcome it—Lro M. LAFANE. 


Popular Science Monthly 601 


A Piece of Furniture with Many Uses 


ACK of space in business offices or 
dwellings makes it difficult to use 
many pieces of furniture, such, for in- 
stance, as a writing desk, drawing table, 
cupboard or blackboard. In some cases the 
professional requirements of engineers 
and draftsmen make a number of pieces 
of furniture necessary, but these take up 
much space, and may even require sev- 
eral rooms to 
contain them. A 
great economy 
of space is ef- 
fected. in! ihe 
combination i1- 
lustrated. It can 
be converted in- 
to a desk either 
horizontal or in- 
clined, for the 
transaction of 
ordinary busi- 
ness; a drawing 
table whose 
height and slant 
can be regulated for a standing person; 
a blackboard of good height; and lastly, 
a closet. The whole is not more than 
ten inches thick when folded. 
The main box part, which serves to 
hold drawing instruments and the like, is 
provided with a top portion containing 


The desk closed 


Washing Blueprints and Bromide 
Enlargements 
HE difficulty of washing blueprints 
and bromide enlargements (espec- 
ially of the larger sizes) often makes 


Cork floats easily attached to large sheets 
make the washing of bromide enlarge- 
ments an easy task 


The desk extended and Ted serves asa 
‘fine drawing board 


drawers, adjustable at various heights. 
This holds the large drawing board 
hinged to it, the base of the board rest- 
ing on a pair of legs with adjustable top. 
The legs can be folded back into the 
main box when the drawing board 1s let 
down. By turning up the drawing board 
so that it mounts straight in the air and 
exposes the under side, we have a black- 
board, located at a convenient height. 


one hesitate to attempt much work of 
this kind. 

The difficulty of washing large en- 
largements and blueprints can readily 
be overcome in the following manner: 

Procure some large corks, and in 
each cut a groove around the cork near 
the smaller end, to serve as a retainer 
for a rubber band. Then cut the cork 
lengthwise through the center, and cut 
a wedge-shaped piece from the top, or 
widest part of the cork, as shown in 
the illustration. Place a rubber band in 
the groove to form a sort of clamp. At- 
tach several of these cork floats to the 
edges of the prints to be washed, and 
place them in the washing receptacle, 
which must be deep enough to enable 
the prints to hang vertically. As hypo 
and blueprint chemicals always sink, the 
prints are thoroughly washed in the 
shortest possible time.—C. I. Rem. 


602 


A superheating coil for oil-burning fur- 
naces gives an even pressure and complete 
combustion 


Save Fuel for Oil-Burners 


1 the feed-pipe of an oil-burner is 
lengthened and bent into several 
convolutions which are placed directly 
beneath the burner, the oil is thinned 
and gas is formed, with the result that 
an even pressure is gained and more 
heat per unit of oil is obtained. In 
many cases it will be found that the 
increased pressure will be sufficient to 
justify doing away with the pressure 
pump ordinarily used. Care must be 
taken in installing superheating coils 
of this type; otherwise explosions and 
disastrous fires may result. 


A Speedometer Light for Ford Cars 


HERE are numerous 6-volt speed- 
ometer lights on the market, but it 

is very hard to obtain a bulb that will 
not burn out when used with the cur- 
rent direct from the Ford magneto, the 
voltage of which is about 12. If suit- 
able resistance is placed in series with a 
6-volt light to cut down the voltage to 
6 volts, the standard 6-volt light will 
work very well on a Ford. Twenty-five 
feet of No. 26 B. & S. gage German 
silver wire is the proper amount. It 
may be wound upon a piece of porcelain 
tubing or any other non-conductor. 
After it is wound it should be thoroughly 
wrapped with friction tape to protect it. 
To install it, one wire from the resist- 
ance coil can be connected to the bind- 
ing post where the wire from the mag- 
neto binding post connects on to the 


Popular Science Monthly 


binding post of the coil box underneath 
the hood. 


The resistance can be fastened to the 
dash underneath the hood by taking 
several turns of tape around the coil and 
driving a tack in each end of the tape. 
This will hold it in place very satis- 
factorily. The other wire from the coil 
should be run to the other side of the 
car, being careful not to get it grounded 
to any metal parts of the car. It should 
then pass through a hole drilled through 
the dash at the exact place where you 
want the light located, through the light, 
and then should be grounded to the iron 
frame of the machine at any convenient 
place. It is best to buy a speedometer 
light with a pull-chain switch socket, 
but if you cannot obtain this kind con- 
veniently you will have to get a small 
dash switch of some kind and place it 
in circuit with your light. This light, if 
carefully installed, is very satisfactory. 
The author has one on his car and 
knows of two others who have used the 
same idea and are very well pleased 
with the results —Ivan M. WELLs. 


Simple barbs of wood attached to piles 
will prevent them from working up when 
driven in quicksand 


Driving Piles Into Quicksand 


HEN driving piles in quicksand, 

under water, the piles have a tend- 
ency to rise from 1’ to 3’, unless the 
hammer is left set on them for several 
hours. To avoid this waste of time, cut 
up some tough saplings of about 2” di- 
ameter, into lengths of about 2’, and 
spike them to the piles like barbs, as 
shown in the illustration. The results 
are very satisfactory.—J. L. BAYLEY. 


Popular Science Monthly 


Making a Kite-Camera 


EW of us can have the experience, 

at the present time, of a ride in an 
aeroplane, but it is quite possible to see 
dieow our surroundings look from a high 
viewpoint, by taking pictures from a 
kite. It would take a very large kite, 
indeed, to carry some forms of ready- 
made camera, but it is easily possible to 
make a camera light enough so that it 
can be attached to any good kite and 
still be capable of making perfect pic- 
tures. 

The lens is probably the most impor- 
tant part of a camera, and for a kite- 
camera nothing would serve the pur- 
pose better than a single achromatic 
lens, such as is fitted to small box 
cameras. Such a lens is light in weight 
and capable of making very good pic- 
tures. The lens can be bought very 
reasonably, or one can be taken from 
some other camera. The lens should be 
obtained first of all, before starting the 
construction of the Camera, as the di- 
mensions of the camera box must be in 
proportion to the focal length of the 
lens. A lens of two or three inches 
equivalent focus is satisfactory. The 
equivalent focus of the lens can be de- 
termined by focusing the sun on a piece 
of paper. The distance of the lens from 
the paper when the sun is focused to 
a burning spot is the distance at which 
the lens is to be placed from the plate 
or film. 

For the purpose of kite photography 
a camera taking pictures two inches 
square is big enough. If larger pic- 


POSIHION OF FAM 
SLIDING COVER 


CAMERA FRONT — SHUTTER OLTAILS 


The camera used should be built of the 
lightest materials and every allowance 
made for air resistance 


tures are desired they can be subse- 
quently enlarged. The construction of 
the shutter and camera box is explained 
by the diagrams. 

The box of the camera is made cone- 
shaped in order to reduce the weight 
and air resistance. The sides of the 


603 


A kite-camera is easily built. It makes 
bird’s-eye photographs 


camera are made of light but stiff card- 
board, glued together with a strong ad- 
hesive. The back of the camera is made 
in the form of a tight-fitting cover, also 
made of cardboard, and the inside 
measurements should be the same as the 
pictures to be taken. The lens is fitted 
to an additional partition of heavy card- 
board fitted inside of the cone, at the 
same distance from the back of the 
camera as the focal length of the lens. 
By sliding the lens back and forth 
slightly in its tube, a sharp focus can be 
obtained on distant objects, and the lens 
is then firmly fixed in position. 

The front of the camera, 2!so of card- 
board, is provided with a circular open- 
ing which must be large enough so as 
not to obstruct the view of the lens. 
On to the front is fitted the shutter, 
which consists of a sheet of cardboard 
blackened on the inner side, and cut in a 
triangle shape. Into the shutter, near 
the center, is cut a slit, which serves to 
make the exposure, by admitting light 
through the lens when it moves across 
the aperture. The size or width of the 
slit regulates the time of exposure, and 
a few trials should be made in order to 
obtain the most suitable width for the 
speed of the lens and film to be used. 
In general, the slit can be as large as it 
is possible to make it without admitting 
light to the film while the shutter is 


604. 


closed in either direction, right or left. 

The shutter is pivoted at the lower 
end, and the motive power is supplied by 
a rubber band which draws the shutter 
to the left when it is released to make 
the exposure. The exposure is made by 
means of a time-fuse attached to a 
string which holds the shutter to the 
right, against the pull of the rubber 
band, until the fuse has been consumed, 
when the string is burned off and the 
shutter released. At that moment the 
picture is made. The shutter must fit 
tightly and must admit no light to the 
inside of the camera, except through the 
exposure slit. 

When the camera has thus been com- 
pleted it should be covered on the out- 
side with black needle paper, to make it 
absolutely light-tight, and the inside of 
the box should be blackened with a pure 
black ink. 

The proper length of fuse to use, so 
as to release the shutter after the kite 
has attained the maximum height, can 
be determined by making a trial flight 
with the camera attached to the kite, 
timing with a measured length of burn- 
ing fuse. A length of fuse correspond- 
ing witi. the length burned until the kite 
reaches the greatest height, is attached 
to the string, and the camera is now 
ready to be loaded with film, which is 
done in a dark room by the light of a 
ruby lamp. Films of the correct size 
can be obtained from a film pack, or a 
roll film can be cut up into pieces of 
the correct size. The film is laid into 


ie 


\ i 
2 
a WN 
1) aR 


\ “ 
Salt 


Packing cut fran 
rubber belting 


Large sheave wheels can be turned out ac- 

curately without the use of a lathe if care 

is taken in adjusting the timbers and 
handling the gearing 


Popular Science Monthly 


the back or cover of the camera with 
the dull or emulsion side towards the 
lens, and the cover placed on the 
camera. 

After making sure that the shutter is 
in proper position for making the ex- 
posure, the camera can be taken out into 
daylight and attached to the kite. A 
fairly stout rubber band looped around 
the middle of the camera. box and 
around one of the wooden struts of the 
kite will hold the camera securely in 
place. The camera should always be 
fastened to the kite in such a manner 
that it points almost straight downwards 
when the kite is in flight; then the pic- 
tures give the impression of great height. 

The kite used for taking pictures 
from above should be fairly large and 
of good construction. The box type of 
kite is very suitable for the purpose, and 
many other forms will also prove very 
satisfactory. Besides the pleasure of 
making pictures of our familiar sur- 
roundings from above, and the great 
novelty of such pictures, a kite camera 
can also be used for many practical pur- 
poses. 


Turning Out Large Sheave Wheels 
Without a Lathe 
N turning out sheave wheels of large 
diameter, a lathe is not always avail- 
able. The work can be accomplished in 
the following manner: 

Place two large timbers over the mo- 
tor-pit (which should be parallel to the 
line shaft), and put spreaders between 
them. Bolt the timbers together and 
brace them up. The sheave wheel is 
then swung between them, as shown in 
the diagram. Remove the hand-chain 
wheel from a 2-ton chain-block and sub- 
stitute a 14-inch pulley for it. Take off - 
one of the lift-chain wheels and insert 
the square end of the lift-chain axle 
in the square socket previously cut in 
the end of the sheave wheel. Bolt down 
the chain-blocks with two U-bolts to a 
piece 12” hy A27e 

A heavy steel plate is then placed 
across the timbers in front of the sheave 
wheel, on which is mounted the extra 
tool post-head of the lathe. With this 
arrangement, the speed may be reduced 
and sufficient power gained for. prac- 
tical work.—H. V. ABELING. 


Popular Science Monthly 


A Two-Jaw Chuck 


HOSE who have a wood-turning 

lathe sometimes find need of a 
small chuck. The following will be 
helpful to them: 

The frame A of the chuck (Fig. 1) 
may be made from a wagon-tire or other 
piece of steel 14” thick and 1” wide and 
as long as necessary. Bend over about 
34” at each end, being careful to make 
the corners square. Drill a small hole 
in the exact center of the frame for the 
center G of the shaft (Fig. 2). 

Fit a round iron ring B snugly on the 
shaft. Fasten this ring on the shaft with 
a key, set-screw, pin or the like. Secure 
this ring to the frame with four strong 
rivets. .D, Fig::1. 

Cut two slots C (Fig. 1) in the frame, 
as shown in the diagram. This is the 
hardest part of the work. The best way 


Fig. 1. 


Top view of the chuck, showing 
its parts and construction 


is to drill holes not quite as wide as the 
slot, but as long, and file square. This 
will require patience. 

The jaws E E (Fig. 2) will require 
some sawing and filing, but are not as 
hard to make as the slots. Get two pieces 
of steel 1’ square and 114” long, and 
file them to the shape and dimensions 
shown in the drawings, being careful to 
make the surfaces that slide on the frame 
fit as snugly as possible. 

Thread two 14” bolts, F, round one 
end and file two flat places on the other, 
so they can be turned with a wrench. 
Drill a seat in the ring B for the round 
end and let the other end project about 
V4” through the holes at K K (Fig. 2). 

Drill a small hole close up to the end 


Fig. 2. 


Side view of the chuck in position on 
the shaft 


SOCE 
at 


a : 


Construction details of jaws of the chuck 


of the frame and put a small pin through 
it to keep the bolt from coming out; or 
screw a small collar J J up as far as it 
will go and fasten it there (Fig. 2). The 
bolt goes through the hole H in the jaws, 
which is tapped to fit. By turning the 
bolt the jaw may be made to slide along 
in the slot. 

To get the jaws in the frame, the up- 
per end of the slot must be widened. 
Then the jaws may be put in the slot 
and turned around. 


How to Wind Springs Easily 
HEN winding small springs with 
a lathe, much time is consumed in 
unraveling the wire from the spool, 
which is necessary to prevent tangling. 
The following method is quick and saves 
the -end pieces. The supports, 4, A, 
shown in the diagram, may be fastened 

I 


ML i 


te 
ea 


With this scheme, time and wire are saved 
in winding small springs on a lathe 


j 


ih 


directly to the bench, or to a board. 
Drill holes in each support to receive 
the rod holding the spool. A collar C 
for holding the parts together, is fas- 
tened to each end of the shaft inside the 
supports. The board D is attached to 
the bench by a hinge, as in the diagram. 
On its upper end is a block of wood, 
which fits over the spool between the 
flanges. A piece of heavy felt is at- 
tached to the under side of the block. 
This takes up the irregularities, when 
the layers of wire change. The spring 
E holds the block firmly against the wire. 
The tension on the spring should not be 
so great as to cause trouble in pulling the 
wire from the spool.—C. ANDERSON. 


606 


An electric iron, supported bottom side up, 
makes an excellent electric stove 


Using an Electric Iron as a Stove 


N electric iron can be converted 
into an electric stove with the aid 
of a case cut from a sheet of stiff iron 
according to the dimensions given in the 
accompanying illustration, and bent and 
riveted as shown. The iron rests on 
angle irons riveted to the sides of the 
case. Wires carrying electric current to 
the heating-coil should enter the case 
through a porcelain tube in the base. 


Development of },” 


sheet iron case. 
Bend on dotted lines 


How to Make a Leveling-Board 


N excellent leveling-board can be 

made from a rough board and a few 
nails. Attach two pieces of wood to the 
ends of the board, temporarily, allowing 
them to project slightly beyond the 
edges. To these pieces fasten a strong 
thread or cord, drawn as tightly as pos- 
sible without breaking. Jay the board 
on its side and, every few inches, drive 
small nails in the edge of the board, 
making the head of every nail even with 
the thread. In the same way, drive a 
few nails in the opposite edge, near the 
center of the board, for the level to rest 
on, taking care that the opposite edges 
are parallel—J. L. BayLey. 


Popular Science Monthly 


A Handy Drawer-Catch 


O keep the contents of a drawer 

in the workshop safe without us- 
ing a lock, so that the drawer cannot 
be opened by outsiders, drill two holes 
in the closed drawer, one on each side, 
through the top of the bench into 
the strips on which the drawer slides. 
To lock the drawer all that is neces- 
sary is to pass a bolt through each 
hole. A jig, fixture or a heavy piece 
of metal is then placed over each boit 
so that they will not be detected. The ~ 
bolts should be a snug fit so as to avoid 
rattling of the drawer. 


A Paint Brush Hook 


HE handy man who has had his 

paint brush fall in the dirt will ap- 
preciate this simple and easily-made de- 
vice which effectually prevents the brush 
from slipping out of the hand. A small 
gimlet or a hand drill and a pair of pin- 
cers are the only tools necessary. A piece 
of fairly heavy wire is bent into the 
shape illustrated, the two projecting ends 
are inserted into the holes in the handle 
of the brush and are bent flat on the op- 
posite side. The brush is grasped as 
usual, the hook coming between the two 
middle fingers. —F. P. BAEYERTZ. 


| 


n 
tH) 


i 
1" 


A hook helps to hold the paint brush in the | 
hand and also to hang it on a bucket edge 
or ladder rung 


To Bore Endwise in Wood. 


T is often necessary to bore in the 

end grain of wood. The ordinary 
bits, however, catch in the wood and 
split it. This can be overcome by us- 
ing bits which have had the lips filed 
off. This simple expedient will obviate 
any further trouble. 


Popular Science Monthly 


Filtering Mercury 


HE mercury 
used in a 
laboratory for ex- 
perimental pur- 
pases Often 
picks up particles 
of grit or metal 
filings that can be 
most easily re- 
moved by filter- 
ing. This should be done under pres- 
sure, 


Put the soiled mercury in a glass 
syringe tube. Closing the small end 
with the finger, insert a thin section of 
perforated cork, then some asbestos 
wool, and finally a perforated India- 
rubber cork. The asbestos should be 
sufficiently tight to prevent the mer- 
cury from passing at ordinary pressure. 
Tie on the cork with twine and invert 
over a suitable vessel. Then compress 
the air above the mercury by means of 
a cycle-pump, using only just enough 
pressure to drive the metal through the 
filtering material. It will come out clean 
and bright, leaving the impurities in the 
asbestos fibers. 


As the wide end of a syringe tube has 
a distinct rim, there will be no difficulty 
in wiring the cork in position to avoid 
the possibility of its being forced out by 
the compressed air—H. J. Gray. 


A Simple Bit Gage 


HE amateur 

mechanic who 
relies upon his 
sense of touch or 
“feel” to select a 
bit of the proper 
size, frequently makes the mistake of 
choosing the wrong size and thus drills a 
hole which may be too large or too small 
for his purpose. This source of error may 
be eliminated if a piece of sheet brass is 
perforated with a number of holes cor- 
responding in size with the bits in one’s 
outfit. The sizes should be marked in 
the brass beneath each hole; and when 
a particular bit is wanted, the desired 
size can be determined by inserting the 
bit into its corresponding hole. By this 
method errors are easily avoided. 


©* GE Ome, 


1 we 
Poce neunder each hole 


Ci O'O.0. 0% 


607 


Blacking Box Inside Brush 


Ae SLACK- 

TN, Gy box 
can be made, 
which is lodged 
inside the polish- 
ing brush. To 
this end the large and flat brush has a 
wood backing which is hollowed out at 
the middle for fitting in the black- 
ing box. A second wood piece of the 
same size as the brush backing is applied 
upon the latter and it is also hollowed 
in the center, so that the blacking box 
is contained in the cavity formed be- 
tween the two wood portions. The top 
wood piece is held on in any suitable 
way which will allow it to be readily re- 
moved and replaced. 


Razor. Blade Floor-Scraper 
VERY 


service 5S 

able floor Xe . 
scraper can \— LP 
be made very 
quickly from a piece of wood and an 
old plane iron. The handle should be 
shaped from hardwood to which the 
plane iron is fastened as shown. Be- 
sides using it on the floor it will be found 
very handy for scraping off old paint. 


A Novel Polishing Pad 


VERY use- 

ful and ef- 
ficient polishing 
pad may be eas- 
ily made with a 
pita hh em pty 
spool, some cot- 
ton-wadding and 
a piece of flannel. 
Cut the flannel in 
a circular form 
about eight inches in diameter, placing 
the cotton-wadding in the center, the 
outer portion of the flannel being drawn 
in and tied firmly to the center of the 
spool. When polishing operations are to 
be commenced, simply pour the polish 
through the whole in the center of the 
spool— GEORGE H. Ho.pen. 


608 : 


A Handy Drawing Table 


DRAWING table, which can be 

adjusted for height and angle, 
will amply repay its builder in con- 
venience for the time and pains spent 
in its construction. The materials are 
reasonable in cost. 

After the stand is constructed, any 
drawing board may be attached to the 
upper part, and the screw-heads should 
be countersunk. 

A complete list of the materials re- 


A drawing table which can be’made by an amateur. The dia- 
grams show the structural details 


quired is as follows: 


2 Wood: strips 24” x 6’ x 1” 
Bee OKs Se 2a ate Ae an Ae 
4 “6 “c Ov’ x 6” x 1” 
Po Po. Strip haa Ss ee ee 
1 “ec “ce Q”’ x Q”” x 1” 
1 “ce “ce 12” x “4 x 1” 
2 lengths of iron rod %” x 12” 


1 heavy barn-door hinge. 

1 bolt 2” x 3%” with a thumbscrew 
tap. 

1 bolt 5” x 34” with two 1” washers 
and two thumbscrews. 

1 pin (a cheap screwdriver with the 


flat part filed off will do). 


Acid Engraving in Steel in Your 
Own Handwriting 

AKE the tool to be marked, and 
heat it until it melts wax. Rub 
and melt wax over the area which 
is to be etched and harden the wax 
by cooling. Do not heat the wax and 
rub on a cold tool, as it hardens too 
quickly and does not hold, when writing 
on it. Use a pointed file or scratch-awl 
to mark or write with. A fine point 


Popular Science Monthlis 


makes a fine line; a flat point makes a 
wider line. Write or mark through 
wax, so that the writing tool touches 
the steel; blow off crumbs of wax and 
apply the acid. 

Formula—Etching Acid 


Murtatic: Acme’. 32 aceon I part 
Witrie Pcie. oo a epee I part 
Wratters 2553s ve one nee I part 


Mix in bottle, using a glass stopper as 
other corks do not last. 

Apply acid with a fountain pen filler 
very slowly. Etching 
should continue until 
the acid turns a rusty 
color. Then wash off 
the tool in water, heat 


it and wipe off the 
melted wax with a 
cloth. Polish the 


tool. Oijl it to prevent 
reaction of water to 
rust. Do not put the 
used acid back in the 
bottle, or allow the 
smallest drop of acid 
to touch any uncover- 
ed part of the tool, as 
it will eat a hole in it. 

All this takes about 
five minutes. To retard the action of the 
acid in etching, add another part of 
water. This is only done when a num- 
ber of tools are to be etched. 

It is best to wax all at one time, writ- 
ing on all, and leaving the etching as a 
last operation. Do not leave the bottle 
containing the acid near any tools. The 
fumes will rust them. 


= ft iis 


See LLC 


COUCH ELC CA agent } 


Lighting a pipe in the wind is difficult 

because it is hard to keep the match burn- 

ing until it reaches the pipe. Scratch the 

match on the pipe, and all such troubles 
will be avoided 


Lighting Your Pipe in the Wind 
MATCH - SCRATCHER, easily 
shielded from the wind by the 

hand, is formed by making grooves on 


the side of one’s pipe with a_three- 
cornered file as shown in the illustra- 


tion. THOMAS SHEEHAN. 


SS = = ll . ii 


Popular Science Monthly _ 609 


Attaching an Index Plate 
Y the following plan, an index plate 
can be attached to a hollow spindle 
lathe which has no convenient place for 
attachment. 
The spindle, A, to hold the plate, is 


sIndex plate 


Expanding bolt 
A convenient method of attaching an 
index plate to a hollow spindle lathe 


turned to fit the bone of the lathe spindle 
and has a 14” hole drilled through the 
center. One end is tapered and split to 
receive the tapered bolt B. The plate 
should have two pins riveted to it to fit 
the holes in the spindle end. The bar 
D and the arm E are made according to 
the design of the lathe —A. H. JoHNsoN. 


A Candle Motor 
interesting and. novel form of 


N 
A motor can be made from two ordi- 
nary tallow candles. When properly 


made, the motor will have a rocking or 
seesaw motion due entirely to the melt- 
ing of the burning candles. 


The lower candle burns faster than the 

upper, and, becoming lighter, is raised. 

The seesaw motion continues, therefore, 
as long as the candles last 


As the illustration shows, the device 
consists of a cardboard tube having an 
inside diameter to receive the candles 
snugly. The tube is hung on an axle in 
the center of a wooden stand or bear- 
ing made of three simple pieces of wood, 
as shown. The tube should be fairly 
well balanced. Candles are then in- 
serted in the ends, also well balanced. 
If one end proves heavier than the other, 
light the candle at the heavy end, and 
allow the tallow to melt until that end 
rises; then light the other candle. The 
alternate dripping from the two candles 
will cause the tube to rock back and 
forth like a walking-beam. It will keep 
going until the candles are entirely con- 
sumed.—Cuart_es I, Rem. 


An Emergency Vise Repair 
AVING broken the threaded shaft 
of a 3” vsei it cao be repaired as 
follows: 
Take two pieces of brass 2” by 34” by 
4” and in the center of each piece bore 
and tap a hole to admit an 8-32 thread. 


A vise repair which can be made quickly 
in case of an emergency 


A threaded brass rod 6” long, two 
knurled nuts and a knurled 8-32 nut 
about 34’ in diameter are the other ma- 
terials needed. 

The various parts are assembled as 
shown in the diagram. The brass bars 
are marked A, the threaded rod, B, the 
small knurled nuts, C, and the large nut, 
D.—T. W. B. Best. 


A Trick in Sawing 

MATEUR carpenters often have 
difficulty in sawing a square cut. 
If when starting to saw they will hold 
the saw so that the reflection of the 
work extends in a straight line, there will 
be no difficulty in sawing the wood at 

right angles with the edge. 


610 


An Electric Alarm Operated 
by a Clock 


GOOD electric alarm-clock is sug- 
gested in the accompanying illustra- 
tion. A small fibre pin is inserted be- 
tween two bent springs and attached by 
a cord to the hammer of an alarm-clock. 


When the alarm goes off the fibre pin is 
pulled out, the wires make a circuit, and 
the electric bell starts 


When the alarm goes off, the fibre pin is 
jerked out from between the springs. 
They close like teeth and complete an 
electric circuit which consists of dry bat- 
teries and a door bell. A switch, SW, 
opens the circuit— J. W. Kraus. 


Protecting Labels on Bottles 


NSTEAD of coating the labels of 

chemical bottles with paraffin, the 
usual rule, a better plan is to coat them 
with a mixture of candle wax and petrol. 
After this is applied, a high luster can 
be obtained by painting the surface with 
a solution of “white lac” in methylated 
spirits. The result is a brightly varnished 
label which is impervious to most chem- 
icals.— G. E. WEtcH. 


Workbench Made From Old Piano 


LD square pianos that have outlived 

their musical usefulness can be bought 
very cheaply, and the solidness with 
which they are constructed fits them ad- 
mirably—after a few important altera- 
tions have been made—for workbenches. 
All of the mechanism should be removed, 
including the keyboard, and the piano 
body sawed to the desired height. The 
top may be replaced when the height has 


Popular Science Monthly 


been shortened, and it makes a substan- 
tial table. The exact type of the piano 
and the tools which are available to the 
workman will decide the details of the 
reconstruction. 

The piano from which the writer con- 
structed a workbench has proved a 
source of other value. About fifty feet 
of well seasoned lumber were secured, 
several gross of screws from the action, 
several pounds of lead and a basketful 
of good ivory. The strings and felt will 
also find future use.—T. E. WHITE. 


A Library Paste Which Does Not Dry 


A JAR of library paste can be pre- 
vented from drying out by the 
following procedure: 

Break off a piece of glass tubing just 
long enough to reach to the bottom of 
the jar. In one end of this tubing place 
a wad of cotton and push the end con- 
taining the cotton down through the 
paste. In the open end pour a little 
water which will gradually seep through, 
moistening the paste. The paste will be 
moist but not watery. 

—Loren THorREAU Warp. 


Handling Small Bolts Easily 


TOOL for turning small bolts can 

be made from a discarded socket 
wrench. The handle of the wrench 
should be cut off, and the protruding 
spindle machined, as shown in the ac- 
companying illustration. The finished 
spindle will readily fit an ordinary ‘‘Yan- 
kee” screwdriver —B. G. McIntyre. 


Small bolts are easily handled with this 
rebuilt socket wrench 


: 
: 


4 
j 
; 
: 
4 


Popular Science Monthly 611 


Catching Rats Wholesale 


HERE there are many rats, a trap 
which will catch a large number, 
without being reset, is a great advantage. 
An excellent device may be made from 
a large bucket, half-filled with water. 


Many original rat-traps have been devised 

by the soldiers in the trenches, where the 

vermin flock in droves. Here are two of 
the traps, now in use 


Place a board against the edge of the 
bucket for the rats to ascend. Provide 
a metal piece, which can be pivoted at 
the upper end of the board and bent into 
the shape shown in the diagram. The 
pivoting may be easily effected by sim- 
ply stretching a wire over the flap and 
fastening it to screw-eyes in the end of 
the inclined board. Place lard or bacon 
at the overhanging end of the metal piece 
for bait. The rats ascend the inclined 
board; when the bait is reached, their 
weight overbalances the upper flap, and 
they plunge into the water, the flap re- 
suming its original position. 

Another good method requires a bar- 
rel of water. Attach a small board to 
the end of a stick and place this in the 
barrel vertically, so that the board forms 
a small platform, which should be sub- 
merged slightly in the water. Cover the 
top of the barrel with parchment or 
even strong paper or cardboard. Make 
a U-shaped cut in this covering to form 
a tongue for holding the bait. A rat 
approaching the bait is precipitated into 
the water. He soon reaches the plat- 
form and cries out in distress; other rats 
come and they also fall into the water. 
A fight for the board ensues and the would 
be rescuers are slaughtered together with 
the original victim.—F. P. Mann. 


A News Stand and Blueprint 
Washer Combined 


COLLAPSIBLE news stand 

which can be turned to the desir- 
able, if not closely related use of blue- 
print washer can be made effectively 
from ordinary 3’’ lumber and 1” pip- 
ing. The piping adds much to the 
rigidity of the news stand and offers the 
opportunity for the extra use of blue- 
print washer with the simple assistance 
of a garden hose. The magazine rack 
makes an excellent drying place for the 
blueprints. 

As constructed, the stand will fold 
close to the wall and can be hooked or 
locked in position. The main support 
of the stand is made of 1” piping, 
fastened to wall and sidewalk. The 
shelf turns on the elbow fitting which 
is also the outlet for the blueprint wash- 
ing system. The front legs are hinged 
and shut back on the shelf when it is 
closed. The rack is set out from the 
wall by a bracket built so that when the 
shelf is closed up against the wall, the 
guards push the back of the rack pin- 
ions up and drop the rack down inside 
the shelf. This closes the entire appara- 
tus inside the shelf with the exception 
of the front legs, which can be locked 
down. 


The magazine rack can be turned into a 
blueprint washer. An inventive boy de- 
signed and built this 


612 


Laying Out Angles with a 
Two-Foot Rule 


HE aver- 

age car- 
penter who 
has any occa- 
sion to lay 
out an angle 
which does 
not require 
absolute accu- 
racy, such as 
can be ob- 
tained with a 
protractor, 
can secure fairly accurate results with 
the use of the accompanying table. A 
standard two-foot rule is required. By 
opening the rule to different angles we 
secure corresponding varying openings 
measured in inches between the edges of 


The two-foot rule can 
lay out angles 


Popular Science Monthly 


Suppose we wish to measure an angle 
of 20°. By consulting the table for 20°, : 
we find the distance 4 to be 4 5/32”. | 
Using a pair of dividers or an additional 
rule, spread the two-foot rule apart until 
the distance A measures 4 5/32” in 
length. Then the angle B will measure 
20°. The table has been computed with- 
in 1/32”, that being sufficient for all 
practical purposes —S. H. SAMUELES. 


A Simple Way of Making Facsimile 
Rubber Stamps 


AY a piece of carbon copying paper 
face up upon a smooth table. Over 

this, place a sheet of paper and with 
a lead pencil write the name. The 
name will be reproduced on the back 
of the paper. Lay the carbon paper 
face down upon a piece of very smooth 
zinc, and upon this, place the paper 
on which the name has been written, 


the rule, as designated by the letter A. 


TABLE FOR LAYOUT OF ANGLES BY TWOSOOT RULE 


A a 
26 Woh 


Pefatefal= [allot fel= [a 
Tee befall] = le for 
La fo [a fo [oa fo [oa 

=| =a] = [| >[al= [l [a 
a= [> 


fla [al fal =f lal 


ry 
Nie Na 


ny 


i 


o 


als 


> 
n 
Rls 


Ry 
Ou 


NIS 


By following this table, an angle of any degree, from the 
smallest to the full right angle, can be laid out with 
an ordinary carpenter’s two-foot folding rule 


this also face down. Then with 
a pencil go over the lines, which 
now read backwards, thereby 
tracing the lines upon the zinc. 

Next, prepare an acid-proof 
ink by mixing equal parts of py- 
rogallic acid and sulphate of 
iron. Go over the lines on the 
zinc with a pen dipped in this 
ink. When dry, apply hydro- 
chloric acid to the face of the © 
zinc. After it has eaten deeply 
enough, wash off the acid in run- 
ning water. 

A plaster cast is then taken 
and a reproduction made with 
rubber in the manner described 
in the March, 1915, number of 
MopvERN MECHANICS AND THE 
Wortp’s Apvance. The zinc can 
also be mounted type-high on a 
wooden block and used in a 
printing press. 

For those who are not experi- 
enced in vulcanizing rubber or 
who do not care to go to the 
trouble, the following is recom- 
mended: India rubber, cut up 
into small pieces, is dissolved in 
highly rectified spirits of turpen- 
tine until semi-fluid. This is 
then poured into the plaster cast, 
which has been previously dust- 
ed with powdered graphite. 


— a 


Experimental Electricity 


Practical Hints 


for the Amateur 


Wireless 


Communication 


An Undamped 


Wave Receiver 


By W. Ross McKnight 


YOU are missing much enjoyment, 


if your wireless set is not equipped 
to receive signals from stations 
employing undamped_ (“‘continuous’’) 
waves. Arlington transacts considerable 
business with a Poulsen arc transmitter. 
Tuckerton and Sayville, working with 
Germany, use undamped waves, as 
well as a new government station, NAJ, 
on the great lakes. A number of other 
stations which use arc sets are located on 
the Pacific Coast and in the Southwest. 
Notableamong 
them is the new 
Navy station 
at Darien, Pan- 
au aia na | 
Zone with call 
letters UBA. 
It is expected 
that others will 
be established : 
from time to > 
time. Again, Wiring diagram of the 
it is not impossible for the advanced ex- 
perimenter to “get’’ the Nauen and 
Eilvese stations in Germany, if he be in 
position to erect an aerial some six hun- 
dred or more feet long. 
Persons who have experimented with 
the audion detector have found that it 
may be rendered extremely sensitive to 


some spark signals by certain critical ad- 
justments of the lighting and high vol- 
tage batteries. When in this state, the 
audion is a perfect generator of high- 
frequency oscillations. Not every bulb, 
however, can be made to “oscillate’’ 
merely by adjusting either or both of the 
battery systems. Also, this condition, 
when obtained by these means, is not 
stable and reliable, nor is it flexible 
enough to accommodate itself to tuning 
to various wavelengths and to various 
spark - frequen- 
cies, both of 
which are im- 
portant con- 
siderations. 

Consequent- 
ly, instruments 
and manipula- 
tions are want- 
ed that will 
enable one to 
turn his audion 
into a high-frequency generator with the 
certainty and reliability that water may 
be turned from a faucet. 

The following information will enable 
any amateur having an audion,to receive 
signals from undamped wave stations 
located within, say, 1000 to 1500 miles, 
and, under favorable conditions of 


undamped wave receiver 


CASH PRIZES FOR RADIO ARTICLES 


The POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY is offering cash prizes for radio ar- 


ticles. 


See page 481 of this issue for details. 


613 


614 Popular Science Monthly 


location and skill, from the Navy station 
at Darien, which is about 1800 miles 
from Washington. He may also receive 
signals from spark stations many hun- 
dreds of miles farther away than before, 
and “‘bring in” the stations which he has 
been hearing from two to ten times as 


loudly as before. 
EZ 


The accompany- 
ing illustrations 
portray an arrange- 


both tuner circuits are variable by 
switches only, 16 ten-turn and 18 one- 
turn in the primary, and 12, equally 
spaced, in the secondary. Inductance I is 
made of a paper mailing tube, 3” outside 
diameter, 18’’ long, and wound closely 
over 16” of its length with No. 25 DCC 
wire. Including the 
ends of the wind- 
ing, ten taps, equal- 


Fi 
| 
assis 


ly spaced, are led 


rT 


ment of three tun- 


to a ten-point 


switch. Inductance 


ed circuits, the 


open (antenna) cir- 


6, in the secondary 


cuit, the secondary 
circuit, and the au- 
dion wing (high po- 
tential) circuit. The various condensers 
and inductances shown are the usual 
tuning devices. 

The antenna in use with the set here 
described consists of two stranded copper 
wires 250’ long, spread 4’ apart on 
bamboo spreaders, raised 30’ above level 
ground, located up in the mountains of 
northeastern Pennsylvania. The anten- 
na, with the aerial tuning inductance, 
primary of inductively-coupled tuner and 
the condenser shunted around the aerial 
tuning inductance and the primary 
winding, permits of tuning to resonance 
with from 1000 to 8000 meters wave- 
length. Tuning to shorter wavelengths 
may be done by cutting in the condenser 
shown in the ground wire. With this 
set it has been easily possible to read 
signals from the Navy station at Darien, 
Panama, day or night, ever since the 
station was opened. 

The constants of the aerial, inductan- 
ces and condensers may be varied, of 
course, and those in use or On hand in 
‘most advanced amateur stations may, 
perhaps, serve the purpose; but in the 
aggregate a fine degree of resonance 
must be procured. All inductances (save 
those of the tuner) are in oak boxes; the 
tubes are fastened to the lids by brackets, 
with the switches on top of the lids. 
This arrangement permits the entire 
unit to be lifted out of its box without 
disturbing connections, if desired. Tap 
leads inside are covered with soft rubber 
tubing. Coil boxes may be placed on 
end to save space. 

The tuner is of the familiar inductively- 
coupled navy type; the inductances in 


How the inductance coils are made 


circuit, is made of a 
paper mailing tube, 
3’ by 18”, wound 
closely for 16’ with No. 36 DCC wire; 
and 10 equally spaced taps are led toa 
ten-point switch. Inductance 13 is iden- 
tical with inductance 6. Inductance 14 
is of the same dimensions but it is wound 
with No. 25 wire for use when tuning to 
shorter wavelengths, and to permit fine 
variations in conjunction with inductance 
13 when tuning to long waves. All con- 
densers (except that around the high- 
potential battery) are of the familiar 
segmental variable type, with range of 
capacity from 0.0008 to 0.001 mfd. 
Condenser 3 is filled with castor oil, 
giving ita maximum capacity of approxi- 
mately 0.004 mfd. It is used to boost 
the wavelength of the antenna circuit. 
Rheostats 9 and 10 are employed to 
regulate the filament voltage. One is 
the ordinary rheostat that is a part of 
every audion detector. It has a total 
resistance of about Io ohms. The other 
has a total resistance of only 14% ohms 
in 10” of length. This second rheostat 
is not absolutely essential, and may be 
omitted, but it has been found to be very 
convenient to have such a rheostat for 
closely regulating the lighting voltage, 
whether storage or dry cells are used. 
The condenser 15 shunted across the high 
potential battery is of the ordinary tele- 
phone type, of from 1 to 2 mfds. capacity. 
Condenser 18 may be either a true 
variable, or a variable-fixed condenser 
susceptible of several changes of capacity. 
The function of these condensers is to 
provide paths of low impedance, for the 
high-frequency currents, around the high- 
potential battery and the telephones. It 
is considered good practice to have a 


Set se 


Ps a 


Popular Science Monthly 615 


condenser across the telephone terminals 
with an audion detector, however used. 

The leads to condenser 15 must be 
amply protected against any possibility 
of shortcircuiting the high-potential 
battery. If a telephone-type condenser 
is used, after the leads are soldered to the 
lugs (which are close together) it is a good 
plan thoroughly to cover the lugs, the 
solder, and the wires which are exposed, 
with sealing wax or paraffin. Condenser 
II must be one that does not “‘contact”’ 
inside, for a shortcircuit of the high- 
potential battery is possible when all 
inductances are tuned out. Itis a good 
idea to insert a 4 ampere fusein the high- 
potential battery circuit. 

Condenser I1 is the one most handled 
in tuning. It is used in conjunction with 
inductances 13 and 14 to bring the wing 
circuit into resonance with the secondary 
circuit, and cause the bulb to oscillate. 
In the wiring diagram, 16 shows a volt- 
meter across the filament terminals; 
though not positively necessary, it is 
useful. If one gets accustomed to regu- 
lating the lighting voltage with a volt- 
meter, the likelihood of ‘‘crowding”’ the 
filament is almost eliminated, and hence, 
a longer life of the bulb may be expected. 
The bulb may be shaded to prevent 
strain on theeyes. Inthediagram, I17isa 
pole-changing switch provided to reverse 
the lighting battery; itisa very desirable 
adjunct. Any d.p.d.t. battery switch 
will do. 

Condenser 7, usually used to tune the 
secondary, is not necessary with this set. 
Tight coupling is employed with long 
waves. Any necessary variation of ca- 
pacity for short waves may be effected by 
slightly changing the coupling. The 
fixed condenser usually found within 
each audion detector, in series with the 
grid, should be removed or bridged over; 
the variable condenser 8 takes its place 
in this set. 

Assume, now, that we have assembled 
these component parts and wish to “‘pick 
up” Tuckerton, Arlington, or Sayville— 
stations working with long wavelengths 
of from 6000 to 8000 meters: 

Couple the tuner closely; throw in all 
of the aerial tuning inductance and those 
of both primary and secondary of the 
tuner; throw in all of the secondary 
loading inductance; set condenser 8 at 


about half capacity (according to the 
scale); set condenser I1 at zero; throw 
in all of inductance 13 and about half of 
14, adjust the lighting and high-potential 


Arrangement of complete receiver 


batteries as usual, then slowly turn up 
condenser II. 

The lamp should begin to oscillate, and 
this will make itself manifest by a 
peculiar muffled ‘‘boiling’’ sound and a 
change in the sound of static. A loud or 
troublesome hissing sound indicates too 
much high-potential or lighting voltage, 
or both, and should be avoided; the bulb 
is not in its most responsive condition 
when this is present. A very slight blue 
glow is usually observable in the bulb, 
back of the wing, when it is doing its 
best. If immediate results and signals 
are not secured, raise and lower the high- 
potential and lighting voltages in various 
combinations and manipulate condenser 
11 until the bulb oscillates. Swinging 
condenser 8 through its arc, and chang- 
ing the polarity of the lighting current 
may have important effects—it depends 
upon the bulb. 

Not all audions oscillate with equal 
facility, but I have never handled one 
that would not oscillate with a little 
patient persuasion. Holding a lighted 
match to the bulb until the glass is very 
warm tends to break down its unwilling- 
ness to oscillate. The sensitiveness of a 
given bulb while oscillating seems to be 
directly comparable to its sensitiveness 
in ordinary use. Since not all audions, 
nor even both filaments in any one 
audion, are equally sensitive, this should 
be kept in mind so that one will not 
expect an insensitive bulb to give the 
finest results, under any conditions. 


616 


Experience and observation have shown 
that the ‘‘X”’ grade Hudson filament 
bulbs are the most satisfactory and 
economical. 

Once the proper adjustments are dis- 
covered, the setting will be practically a 
constant for a stated wavelength, and it 
will likely be found that all the un- 
damped wave stations mentioned may be 
tuned to maximum strength of signals by 
slight changes in the capacity of con- 
denser 11, perhaps tuning up condenser 
3, for Sayville. 

The continuous-wave stations are 
heard in clear, flute-like tones, the pitch 
of which may be varied in a wonderful 
and amusing manner by slight change of 
condenser 8 or 11, or both, or the prima- 
ry of the tuner, or inductances 13 and 14, 
or simply touching a metal part of the 
secondary circuit. 

Particularly close tuning with arc 
stations is necessary, since usually two 
waves of practically equal energy but of 
slightly different length are emitted. 
One of them (the main wave) represents 
the dots and dashes and the other (the 
compensation wave) represents the 
breaks. Some difficulty may be ex- 
perienced in entirely suppressing the 
compensation wave, but the difference 
between the two may always be made 
sufficient for clear reading. 

With this set the phenomenon of 
“stepped-up” voltage of the high-poten- 
tial battery may be taken advantage of 
to procure a further increase in volume 
of signals of spark stations. Arlington’s 
spark signals may be brought in to a 
degree of loudness painful to the ear- 
drums by throwing in all of the tuner 
inductances, all of the secondary loading 
inductance and all of inductance 14, 
condenser II remaining at zero. South 
Wellfleet (WCC) can be made to ‘‘come 
in” like a grandfather bullfrog by 
similar manipulation, making due allow- 
ance for the shorter wavelength. The 
same is true, generally, of spark stations 
anywhere within reach, that work on 
1000 meters wavelength or over. A far 
distant and relatively weak spark station 
may come in, not with the true note, but 
with a “‘whisper’’ effect. It is usually 
not practical to obtain perfect oscillation 
of the audion, resonance with and 
amplification of signals from stations 


Popular Science Monthly 


using wavelengths of 600 meters and 
under, because of the circuit difficulties 
involved. 

The experimenter who sets out to rig 
up a receiving set of this character is 
urged to avoid loose connections, im- 
perfect contact at switches, bunched and 
parallel connecting wires as much as pos- 
sible, and sloppy work generally, and to 
employ persevering patience in tuning 
the set to various stations until adept- 
ness is acquired. All switch handles 
should be of good insulating material, 
and no part of the operator’s body should 
be allowed to come into contact with 
binding posts, switch levers or bare 
wires; the capacity of the body will 
prevent delicate adjustment. The in- 
ductances and condensers of the three 
circuits should be kept separate, each 
circuit a reasonable distance from the 
other, say a foot. Proper allowance 
must be made for the fact that signals 
that may be coming in ever so clearly 
may sometimes be almost or entirely 
suppressed by placing the hand or arm 
close to certain of the coils or condensers, 
or even close to the connecting wires. 
This is particularly true of undamped 
signals being received on a lower har- 
monic of the true wave. 

Just a few words about winding the 
coils with the finer wire: Use a lathe, if 
available, or improvise one with a tool 
grinder, replacing the grinding wheel 
with a circular block that will just fit 
inside the tube; one tack will hold the 
tube to the block. A similar block, sup- 
ported and free to turn on a stud, will 
hold the other end of the tube. By lo- 
cating the spool of wire on a rod about 
25 to 50 ft. away and starting the wind- 
ing carefully, the whole tube may be 
wound in a few minutes at high speed; 
the wire will ‘‘feed”’ itself, barring acci- 
dent. The taps may then be brought 
out by lifting the proper turns with the 
point of a knife blade, cutting the wire, 
unwinding a turn of each end, twisting 
them together and soldering the bare 
ends. The tubes may be wound with 
the coarser wire by hand and _ taps 
brought out as they are reached in 
winding. Any experimenter whose wire- 
less is equipped to receive undamped 
waves, should be able to obtain very in- 
teresting and valuable results. 


—s 


Arc Light Interference 


of PoPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY there 
were published several queries and 
answers on the matter of arc light inter- 
ference with received signals. Our read- 
ers were asked to contribute suggestions 
which they found helpful in overcoming 
or reducing this 
sort of disturbance. 
A large number of 
replies have been 
received, and the 
— proposed methods 
Be. ae fe gia) TE here described. 
It appears that at 

oe least two kinds of 
inductive disturbances are encountered. 
The first of these is the ordinary ‘“‘induc- 
tion hum,”’ heard in nearly all wireless 
stations that have alternating current 
power lines run- 
ning into or very 
near them. The 
second type is that 
which is caused by 
the flickering and 
fluttering of carbon 
arc lights in opera- 
tion, and which is 
usually transferred 
to the receiving 
wireless aerial by 
induction from ad- 
jacent power lines. 
The induction 


i the November and December issues 


MOU) [ECEWING 
~ aerlo/ 


Ma prin. 


-hum is the most 


common and the easiest to eliminate. It 
is troublesome when direct-coupled re- 
ceiving tuners are used, but may often be 
cut out by changing over to an induc- 
tively-coupled receiver. One experi- 
menter states that by running his aerial 
lead through a fixed condenser before 
connecting to his tuning coil, he reduced 
the interference greatly. Another writes 
that he secured good results by placing a 
7-volt tungsten lamp in series with the 
antenna lead, keeping the lamp lighted 
to a certain brilliance (determined by ex- 
periment) by means of a battery and 
rheostat. The real reason for any im- 
provement gained from either of these 
last two methods is not apparent; the 
use of inductively-coupled apparatus, 


Secondary | Ltro prim. 


= ~Ground 


Balanced primary method of reducing arc 
light interference 


however, has not only been found effec- 
tive by practical test, but also is theo- 
retically correct. 

Another way of cutting out the hum is 
effected by merely opening the main 
switch which brings power into the 
house containing the receiving instru- 
ments. This method prevents internal 
induction from the leads, but, of course, 
cannot be used when it is desired to 
utilize the electric power for transmitting 
signals or for lights. In some stations 
the trouble has been stopped by connect- 
ing one side of the incoming 110-volt line 
to ground, through a fuse which will 
blow on 2 amperes or so, or by grounding 
through a condenser or small 110-volt 
lamp. Which of the two power wires is 
to be grounded through the lamp, con- 
denser or fuse in this way must be de- 
termined by trial. 
In grounding 
through a condens- 
er the fuse should 
also be used, for 
protection in case 
the condenser 
punctures. 

Some of the 
above methods are 
effective not only 
for the alternating 
current induction, 
but also for the 
ragged, harsh 
noises from arc 
lights. Especially helpful is the plan of 
grounding the power lines, for in many 
cases the arc induction is picked-up by 
the regular lighting lines and brought to 
the wireless station over them. Both 
iis OterCietUlD- “Te aaaear aa 
ance have also been ee 
reduced in wireless 
stations by con- 
necting the dia- 
phragms of the re- 
ceiving telephones 
to ground, either 
directly or through 
acondenser. Often it helps merely to 
touch the aerial or ground lead with the 
finger, or to rest the hand upon a metal 
plate connected to the blocking condens- 


Small aerial néar 
bower house ) 


27.f condenser 


ir luse 


Ground = 


Grounding line 
through the conden- 
ser and the fuse 


617 


618 . 


er or one of the telephone leads. Some 
correspondents have suggested perma- 
nently connecting one of the telephone 
tips to the telephone diaphragm by use 
of a small metal strip, saying that by 
trying the several possible combinations, 
they were successful in finding an 
arrangement which actually reduced the 
interference without weakening the sig- 
nals. A variation of this method is to 
use the metal-capped telephones and to 
ground the cases, either directly or 
through a condenser. Sometimes it is 
sufficient to connect the case or one of 
the telephone terminals to the operator’s 
body by bending a piece of tinfoil over 
the ear-cap and connecting it to the case 
or cord tip. It has also been found use- 
ful to connect together the metal cases 
and headband, as well as to connect to- 
gether a certain one of the four tips and 
the metal case. Which cord-tip to connect 
in this way must be ascertained by trial. 
It has been learned that at a number 
of stations both the induction and the 
arc noises can be reduced if the antenna 
is changed so as to point directly away 
from the power lines. When the aerial 
and the 110-volt wires are parallel there 
is, of course, the greatest inductive 
effect between them, and when they are 
about perpéndicular the induction is 
least. Sometimes a position not exactly 
perpendicular gives the smallest inter- 
ference, because of an irregularity in the 
magnetic field around the power wires. 
Taken as a whole, the elimination of 
arc noises remains a big problem at 
some stations. In many cases the 
remedies suggested above will reduce 
the disturbances so much that they will 
cause no trouble, but it is likely that at 
some other stations the interference will 
persist in spite of the hardest work to 
get rid of it. If it becomes necessary, 
the ‘‘balanced primary’’ method may be 
tried as a last resort; in this arrange- 
ment a small extra antenna is erected 
near the power lines and connected to 
ground through a second primary which 
opposes the effects (on the secondary) of 
the regular primary coil connected to 
the regular receiving aerial. This more 
complicated circuit may prove worth 
while, since, by its use, the noises have, 
in some cases, been almost entirely cut 
out after the simpler plans failed. 


Popular Science Monthly 


A Crystal Detector 


HE main advantage of this detector 

is that a great number of sensitive 

spots on the crystal are obtained. A co- 
herer-stand may be used, by substituting 


Crystals 


A great number of sensitive points on the 
crystal are obtained 


small galena crystals for the filings. In 
the absence of a coherer-stand, use two 
large binding posts, two brass rods and 
a piece of glass tubing which will fit 
snugly over the brass rods. The mineral 
is prepared by placing a sensitive piece. 
of galena in a small piece of cloth and 
then pounding the crystal into small 
pieces. The small crystals are then sep- 
arated from the powdered mineral, and 
placed in the glass tube . Adjust the de- 
tector by turning the glass tube and moy- 
ing the brass rods until the maximum 
sensitiveness is obtained. A buzzer is 
used to excite the circuit in order to se- 
cure the best adjustment easily. Great 
care should be taken not to touch the 
crystals with the hands, since moisture 
or grease will decrease their sensitive- 
ness to a great extent. 


Restoring Electric Light Bulbs 


FTEN when the electric lights of 
the tungsten filament type go out, 
or burn out, it is caused by the break- 
ing of the filament wire. When this is 
the catise, screw the bulb into the socket 
of a flexible cord and turn on the cur- 
rent. By holding the bulb in a hort- 
zontal position, manipulate it by turning 
and rolling and tapping it with the hand 
to cause the filament wires to cross. 
When successful it will instantly light. 
While lit, hold it in a quiet position for 
a few minutes till the wires weld, after 
which it can be used for regular service. 
The writer has been able to recover 
over 60% of light bulbs he has tried, and 
they have lasted from three hours to 
three weeks.—JoHN HOEcK. 


The Tuning of Radio Telegraph Receivers 
By John Vincent 


peared last month discussed the 

difference between free and forced 
oscillations in radio telegraph circuits, 
and applied the laws of resonance to 
several of the more common types of 
sending apparatus. It is interesting to 
note that the same simple fundamental 
laws of tuning govern the operation and 
adjustment of receiving apparatus, in 
very nearly the same way. The need of 

. securing agree- 

Fig. 1. ment in frequen- 
cy between the 
arriving waves 
and the receiving 
aerial circuit is as 
great as the need 
of tuning together any two circuits in- 
volved in radio telegraphy. 

As has been shown, the traveling 
electromagnetic wave which is sent out 
in all directions from a transmitting 
station has a definite wave-frequency. 
It is more usual to speak of each par- 
ticular wave as having a_ particular 
wavelength, but it is just as accurate to 
consider the wave-frequency. The fre- 
quency of any wave may be found by 
dividing its length in meters into 
300,000,000, according to the examples 
given in January. As has also been 
shown, every antenna circuit has a 
definite frequency of resonant vibration; 
this frequency depends upon the effec- 
tive inductance and effective capacity of 
the entire antenna and connected in- 
struments, and this frequency is that 
which would be assumed by an alternat- 
ing current (or free oscillation) set up in 
the antenna system by first charging its 
capacity and then allowing it to dis- 
charge freely through the circuit to 
earth. The frequency of this free 
oscillation may be figured out, according 
to the rule given in the March article, 
when the capacity and inductance are 
known. 

The frequency of free oscillation is 
practically the same as the frequency of 
the forced oscillation which will cause 
the largest current to flow in the antenna 


ee article of this series which ap- 


Simple 


« receiving aerial 
4 


circuit. The equivalence of these two 
quantities, as explained in connection 
with transmitters last month, holds for 
receiving - circuits as well. In other 
words, the resonant free-oscillation fre- 
quency of an antenna system not only 
represents the wavelength which will be 
best radiated from that antenna, but 
also the wavelength which will be re- 
ceived with the greatest intensity. 

This law may be worked out for a 
simple circuit arrangement such as 
shown in Fig. 1, where the antenna A is 
connected to earth E& through a variable 
tuning inductance JZ, and a current in- 
dicator J. Suppose the instrument J is 
a sensitive hot-wire ammeter of the sort 
used in wavemeters, and that the aerial 
is rather large and is erected within a 
mile or two of a powerful transmitting 
station. Suppose that the antenna is of 
the flat-top variety, having four wires 
hung on 30’ spreaders and with a total 
length of 150’; this aerial will have a 
capacity of about 0.001 microfarad. If 
the high power sender is in operation, at a 
wavelength of 5000 meters, strong ether- 
waves of frequency 300,000,000 ~ 5000 
= 60,000 cycles per second will pass by 
the receiving station. If, now, we tune 
the receiving aerial to this frequency by 
adding to the coil ZL, until the total 
antenna inductance equals about 6.94 
millihenrys, the ammeter J will show 
the greatest deflection. If either more 
or less than this amount of inductance 
is used, the current in the antenna will 
be smaller, for the reason that 6.94 


fA Fig. 2. An inductively-coupled receiver, 
in which a secondary coil and tuning- 
condenser make up a closed, oscillating 
circuit. In operation, the antenna cir- 


.cuit must be tuned as in Fig. 1 


619 


620 


millihenrys with 
the antenna capac- 4 

ity of o.oo1 mfd. 

tunes to the wave- — 

frequency of 60,000 i 

cycles and_ there- a 

fore to the wave- 

length of 5000 me- 

ters. 

The principle of z 
tuning the antenna } 
circuit, then, is to 
change its induct- =. 
ance or capacity = 
or both in such a 
way and by such amounts that the 
resonant wavelength agrees with the 
length of the incoming wave. That is 
to say, the free-oscillation frequency of 
the circuit must be made practically the 
same as the frequency of the forced 
oscillations generated in the antenna by 
the received electromagnetic waves. 
These waves, of course, produce forced 
oscillations of their own frequency; 
hence it becomes necessary merely to 
adjust the antenna so that it will natu- 
rally radiate the wavelength which it is 
desired to receive. 

If a secondary circuit is coupled to the 
antenna, as in Fig. 2, the same general 
conditions apply. In this diagram the 
antenna A is connected to earth through 
inductance coils L, and L;, as before. 
The lower coil is used as the primary of 
an inductive coupler, whose secondary 
is the third coil Z;. Across this seconda- 
ry is connected a variable tuning con- 
denser C,, and in shunt to this the 
crystal detector R and the stopping-con- 
denser C,. This latter instrument has 
connected to its terminals the telephone 
receivers, J. In operation, the antenna 
circuit must be tuned to’ the frequency 
of the incoming waves by varying the 
inductance of L, or Lz, exactly as in the 
example just considered. If the antenna 
capacity is 0.001 mfd. and the incoming 
wave has a length of 5000 meters, the 
sum of the effective primary inductances 
must be about 6.94 millihenrys. A dis- 
tribution which would agree with good 
practice would allow 0.05 millihenry for 
the antenna itself, 5 millihenrys for the 
loading-coil ZL; and the balance (1.89 
millihenry) for the primary coil L2. It 
would be entirely feasible to have the 


Popular Science Monthly 


Fig. 3. Diagram of a two-circuit 

tuner, the same as in Fig. 2, with 

the addition of a potentiometer and 

battery for adjusting the detector 
to maximum efficiency 


entire inductance 
of coils DB, and £5 
in a single primary 
winding, but the 
convenience of a 
separate loading- 
coil for long waves 
makes it desirable 
to divide the coils 
as indicated. 

The secondary 
coil ZL; and the 
tuning - condenser 
C, make up a 
closed, oscillating 
circuit of the kind discussed in the Janu- 
ary article. In order to transfer the 
most power from the primary or aerial 
circuit to the secondary, so that the de- 
tector may be operated by the strongest 
impulses, it is necessary to adjust the 
time period of the secondary oscillation 
to agree with that of the primary. In 
other words, the secondary must have 
its inductance and capacity adjusted so 
that it is tuned to the wave-currents 
flowing in the primary. The resonant 
frequency of the secondary must be 
made the same as that of the primary, 
and the same as the frequency of the in- 
coming wave. If the secondary coil L; 
has an inductance of 4 millihenrys, the 
condenser must be set at 0.00173 mfd. to 
give resonance for the assumed wave- 
length of 5000 meters. When the ad- 
justment is such that the effective values 
of capacity and inductance are these, 
and when the coupling between the coils 
L, and L; is chosen so that the transfer 
of power is at the rate which is best for 
the detector in use, the loudest signals 
will be heard in the telephones. 

The numerical values of inductance 
and capacity given in these two exam- 
ples, it must be noted, are the effective 
values for the circuit considered. That 
is to say, the assumed frequency of 
oscillation will occur if the circuits be- 
have as though these exact values of 
coil and condenser were used. The 
real measured values of capacity and in- 
ductance may be somewhat different 
(though not very much) from the quanti- 
ties worked out by applying the simple 
rules; this is because the coils in the 
circuit react upon each other and par- 
tially destroy the pure inductive effect 


Popular Science Monthly 


of each, and because the simple capacity 
of the tuning condenser is not the only 
capacity in the circuit. For instance, in 
Fig. 2 it is necessary that the secondary 
effective capacity shall be 0.00173 mfd.; 
this is not the value of C;, itself, since 
the capacity added by the presence of 
the detector, stopping-condenser and 
telephones must be considered. The 
capacity of the detector is very small 
and, since the stopping-condenser and 
telephones are in series with the de- 
tector, the resultant added capacity is 
still smaller. If, instead of the arrange- 
ment shown, the telephones had been 
connected across the detector, the limit- 
ing capacity would have been that of 
the ’phone windings, which is sometimes 
fairly large. A good reason for placing 
the telephones in shunt-to the blocking- 
condenser instead of in shunt to the 
detector is therefore brought out; the 
detector capacity is so small that tuning 
is governed almost entirely by the tun- 
ing-condenser C,; when the arrangement 
of Fig. 2 is used. 

A two-circuit tuner is shown in Fig. 
3. It has all the elements as in Fig. 2, 
with the addition of potentiometer P 
and battery B for 
adjusting the de- 
tector R to its point 
of maximum recti- 
fication efficiency. 
The tuning to in- 
coming waves Is ac- 
complished as in 
Fig. 2; the antenna 
circuit is first tuned 
by adjusting the in- 
ductances until its 
resonant frequency agrees with that of 
the waves desired, and then the sec- 
ondary circuit is tuned to the same fre- 
quency by proper adjustment of in- 
ductance ZL; and capacity C,. It 
should be noted that the same arrange- 
ment of telephones is shown here as in 
Fig. 2; the potentiometer, battery and 
telephones are connected across the 
stopping-condenser C, and not directly 
across the detector R, so that their 
capacity will not become prominent in 
the tuning of the secondary. This ar- 
rangement, as compared to the more 
common connection, gives greater ease 
of adjustment over a wide range of 


A 
73 


Fig: 4. The primary and second- 
Z’ ary are parts of the same coil 


621 


wavelengths, and makes sharper tuning 
possible. 

The same principles of tuning may be 
applied to direct-coupled apparatus, as. 
shown in Fig. 4. Here the primary and 
secondary are made part of the same 
coil, the proper amounts of inductance 
for each being tapped off by moving the 
sliding or switch-contacts as shown at 
L, and L;. Obviously, the sum of L, 
and L, gives the amount of primary or 
antenna-circuit inductance, and the in- 
ductance of Ls; is that used in the sec- 
ondary. To tune the secondary circuit 
to the desired frequency L; and C, 
must be used; ZL, and JL, tune the 
primary. The coupling between pri- 
mary and secondary is determined by 
the distribution of the total antenna- 
circuit inductance between the coils L, 
and L,. For any given wavelength, the 
larger L, becomes, the smaller is L, 
(since it is necessary that their sum shall 
remain the same) and the looser the 
coupling between primary and _ sec- 
ondary. The less of coil L, is used, the 
more of L, it becomes necessary to cut 
into circuit, and the closer the coupling. 
With a direct-coupled apparatus of this 
sort, having a sep- 
arate primary load- 
ing-col Z,, “at is 
possible to secure 
as exact tuning as 
with the inductive- 
ly-coupled appara- 
tus; the bad reputa- 
tion of ‘“‘two-slide”’ 
tuners, as to dull- 
ness of tuning, has 
arisen mainly be- 
cause the coupling is so tight that only 
broad tuning can be had when all the 
primary inductance is directly part of 
the coil which also forms the secondary. 

In many cases it is not necessary to 
have as sharp selectivity as may be 
secured from the circuit of Fig. 2; in 
these instances the secondary tuning 
condenser C, may be dispensed with, as 
shown by Fig. 5. Here the primary L, 
and the loading-coil ZL, are adjusted as 
usual to the wavelength which it is 
desired to receive; the secondary is so 
broadly tuned, however, that it is not 
necessary to regulate its inductance by 
small amounts in order to secure loud 


622 


signals. If a single-pole switch is placed 
in the lead to C, of Fig. 2 (as shown in 
Fig. 1 of p. 306 in the February issue) it 


Popular Science Monthly 


condenser may be about 0.003 mfd., , 
maximum for wavelengths from 10co . 
to 5000 meters, and correspondingly | 


becomes possible to smaller or larger 
use either the broad | | i; for shorter or longer 
or the sharp-tuned fF Fig. 5. By opening the waves. For the au- 
secondary system, secondary tuning-condenser dion, where the 
; ae the primary may be tuned heels tbl 
as may be desired. == 5 idependeaely ighest possible 
For any given wave- / voltage should be 


length more induc- 

tance on the sec- 
ondary will be re- 
quired to get loud 
signals with the ar- 
rangement of Fig. wt — 
5. than for Higisoe, sor. 
this is because the 
secondary circuit of Fig. 5 actually is 
broadly tuned by the capacity of the 
detector, blocking-condenser, telephones, 
etc., acting with the total inductance of 
the secondary. Since the natural capac- 
ity of these other elements is small, a 
larger secondary inductance is made 
necessary to reach the desired wave- 
length. 

Where still less closeness of tuning is 
necessary, the arrangement of Fig. 4 
may be modified by omitting the loading- 
coil ZL, which permits variation of 
coupling, and by doing away with the 
tuning-condenser C,, as shown in Fig. 6. 
This results in the ordinary close- 
coupled direct tuner, which is useful for 


picking up signals when interference is - 


not severe. By connecting in the tuning- 
condenser C,, as shown by the dotted 
lines, it is possible to improve the 
selectivity of the system in some meas- 
ure, especially if the blocking-condenser 
C, is made of very small capacity or 
even left out altogether. 

It will, of course, be seen at once that 
in tuning the secondary circuit of any 
of the receivers described above, one 
may choose a great many combinations of 
inductance and capacity in order to have 
resonance to a certain frequency. For 
instance, the wavelength of 5000 meters 
is reached when the secondary inductance 
is 4 millihenrys and the condenser 
0.00173 mfds. If the inductance were 
2 millihenrys, twice the former capacity, 
or 0.00346 mfd. capacity would be re- 
quired. The best ratio of inductance to 
capacity depends largely upon the type 
of detector used; for most crystals, the 


applied to the grid, 
it is best to use 
comparatively large 
values of secondary 
inductance, with 
the corresponding 
small secondary 
condensers; C,, for 


audion had best never be 


working, 
larger than 0.001 mfd., even for the 
longest waves. 

The size of the stopping-condenser C, 


is also a matter of interest. For crystal 
detectors, it is customary to use capaci- 
ties of from 0.01 to 0.04 mfd. at this. 
point in the circuit. By making the 
stopping-condenser variable in steps of 
about 0.005 mfd., it is possible to select 
a best value for each particular operating 
condition; in general, the higher the 
telephone resistance and the higher the 
incoming spark-frequency, the smaller 
the stopping-condenser may be. The 
smaller this condenser is made, after it 
passes below about 0.01 mfd., the less 
is the damping of the secondary circuit, 
and the sharper is the tuning. Too 
great reduction of the capacity, however, 
in the attempt to gain selectivity, re- 
sults in weakening the response to the 
signals. The size of the blocking or 
grid-circuit condenser for the audion is 
much less than for the crystal detectors; 
C, is then best made variable, with a 
range including values as small as 0.0001 
mfd. or less. 

In operating any of the sharply tuned 
circuits shown in the foregoing, it must 
be remembered that the best settings of 
primary inductance, coupling, and sec- 
ondary inductance and capacity are 
largely dependent upon each other. In 
tuning-out interference and ‘“‘bringing 
in” a particular station, the best plan 
is first to open the secondary tuning- 
condenser circuit to give the arrange- 
ment of Fig. 5; this makes it possible to 
tune the primary independently and ac- 


s 


Popular Science Monthly 


curately to the inductance value which 
gives the loudest signal when the coup- 
ling is made fairly loose. This primary 
adjustment is then left fixed, and the 
condenser C, cut into circuit to tune the 
secondary. By selecting the best set- 
ting of C, in connection with several 
values of L;, one particular value which 
gives the best signals is found. This is 
left fixed, and the coupling ‘s gradually 
opened. For each looser position of 
coupling, the primary inductance and 
the secondary tuning condenser are 
varied slightly, to the point which gives 
loudest signals; thus a final adjustment 
is found which gives either (1) the loud- 
est possible signals from the desired 
station, or (2) readable signals with a 
minimum of interference. 


How to Build the Mast for a 
Wireless 


HE person who wishes to install a 
wireless station can easily find 
ample directions. When it comes 
to a support for his aerial, however, it 
usually says to erect a mast sixty to 
ninety feet high, without giving the 
details of its construction. Following 
are the materials needed for a mast 
sixty feet high: 
IO pieces, 12’ by 2” by 4”, straight- 
grained hemlock. 
2 pieces, 4’ by 2’”’ by 4”, chestnut. 
1 14-inch bolt, 10” long. 
29 \-inch bolts, 8” long. 
116 blank nuts to fit on 14-inch bolts. 
120 ft. of rope. 

2 pulleys; also 
guy wires and in- 
sulators. 

The first thing to 
consider is the foun- 
dation. This is made 
of two 4’ chestnut 
pieces, shown at a 
Fig. 2. The durabil- 
ity of the wood may 
be increased by ap- 
plying a coat of tar 


paint. Bore a 4- 
inch hole in each 


timber 3’ from the 

end. Nail a block b, 4” thick, between 
the other ends; this holds the pieces 
the proper distance a part. Dig a hole 


Construction details of the wireless mast 


623 


where the mast is to be erected and 
place the wooden pieces in it, with the 
block at the bottom. Allow the ends 
to project 8’’ above the ground, which 
should be stamped down very firmly to 
insure stability. 

For the mast proper, saw one of the 
12-foot pieces in half. Lay one of the 
halves on top of a 12-foot piece so that 
their butts are even at one end; and 3” 
from their butts bore a %-inch hole 
through both. Bore another 1%-inch 
hole 3’ from the butts; then one every 
2’ along the whole length of the mast. 

Bolt the one 6-foot piece and the three 
12-foot pieces together. The bolt is 
slipped through the holes, four blank 
nuts put on the bolt and then a threaded 
nut screwed on. The blank nuts are 
designated by a and the threaded one 
by 6 in Fig. 1. This 24-foot section is 
laid so that its butt can be bolted to the 
foundation with a 14-inch bolt 10” long, 
as in Fig. 2. Before raising this section, 
drive a 6-inch spike bent as shown in 
Fig. 4. Thread a pulley with rope and 
hook it upon this spike. The tackle 
will then be in place when the section is 
raised. After raising the 24-foot section 
to a vertical position and guying it 
temporarily, drive a 6-inch spike into the 
end of a 12-foot timber, after bending 
the spike as shown in Fig. 4. Then hook 
the second pulley c on the spike, Fig. 5. 
The end of the rope from pulley 6 is 
tied to the piece a few inches from the 
The reason for this operation 
will be made clear 
by examining Fig. 5. 
Each time a 12-foot 
piece is raised, the 
tackle is always rais- 
ed for the next tim- 
ber. When in posi- 
tion, each piece is 
bolted to the one 
raised before, and 
so on to the top. 
Two sets of per- 
manent guys are at- 
ki Sal tached to the finish- 
ed mast, as indicat- 
ed in Fig. 3, one set 
being ‘30’ and the other 60’ from the 
ground. The guys should be insulated 
every 30’.—E. R. THomas. 


center. 


Construction of Unipolar Dynamos 


tured by almost everyone, is a 
complicated machine having many 
poles and an iron armature which is 
wrapped up with many turns of copper 
wire and which has at one end a huge 
copper commutator on which copper or 
carbon brushes bear gently, to conduct 
the energy to distributing wires and ca- 
bles. Very few, however, realize that 
there is another type of direct-current 
machine which, although suitable, as yet, 
only for some special uses, may eventual- 
ly earn an important place for itself. This 
machine is the unipolar dynamo. 
In the old style dynamo, the current 


r \HE direct-current dynamo, as pic- 


Fig. 2. Two wheels 
that revolve in op- 
posite directions. 


Fig. 1. Barlow wheel 
acting as a current 
. generator 


set up in the armature windings is alter- 
nating, because the conductors, as they 
revolve, pass successively under a mag- 
netic north pole and then under a south 
pole. In order that direct current may 
be delivered to the line, an expensive and 
delicate commutator is required, which 
reverses the connections with the line 
every time the current begins to flow in 
a direction opposite to that in which it 
was flowing before. 

If arranged so that the armature con- 
ductors, as they revolve, cut across a 
magnetic field always in the same direc- 
tion, the current generated will always 
flow in the same direction, and no com- 
mutator will be required. This arrange- 
ment has received the name of unipolar 
dynamo. 

The most practical form of unipolar 
generator in use is, to a certain extent, 
a reproduction of the apparatus known 
as the Barlow Wheel (Fig. 1). It 
consists of a metal disk mounted so 
that it projects between the poles of a 


624 


magnet. Connections are made to the 
shaft of the wheel and to the periphery 
of the disk by means of sliding-contacts. 
These contacts can be compared, in some 


respects, with the brushes of multi- 
polar dynamos. If, now, the disk is 
rotated, the lines of force passing 


through it from pole to pole will be cut, 
and if the sliding-contacts are connected 
together, an electric current will flow in 
the circuit so formed. The disk is 
equivalent, electrically, to a large num- 
ber of radial conductors connected in 
parallel, and hence, the voltage of the 
machine is the same as that obtained 
from a single conductor only; however, 
on account of the very large cross-sec- 
tion of the disk, the machine can supply 
a very large amount of current. It 1s 
evident that in the construction just de- 
scribed, the disk always cuts the lines of 
force of the magnet in the same di- 
rection, and hence the current supplied 
by the machine is direct and absolutely 
continuous, showing no pulsating effects. 
It is known that in order to induce a 
tension of one volt in a conductor mov- 
ing across a magnetic field, the conductor 
must cut one hundred 
million lines of force 
per second, and from 
this, it is evident that in 
order to have a unipo- 
lar dynamo delivering 
current at a high ten- 
sion, it is necessary el- 
ther to use a very large 
disk and magnet, or to 
rotate the disk at an ab- ON 
normally high speed. eae 
Two or more disks, con- Fig. 3. Uni- 
nected in series, can be sacs Peake j-7 
used also, but in that 
case, adjacent disks must either be ro- 
tated in opposite directions, as shown in 
Fig. 2, or insulated from the shaft and 
connected by means of sliding-contacts. 
Adjacent disks may also be. connected 
with the shaft. revolved in opposite mag- 
netic fields (Fig. 5), and connected to- 
gether by sliding-contacts on their pe- 
riphery; for, if the conductors connect- 
ing the disks were revolved with them, 
an electric force would be induced in 


Mis 
A NS 
HSS 


hs 
Lup tyy 


“J 
q 
3 

‘ 

; 


Popular Science Monthly 


them, equal, and opposite to that in- 
duced in the disks, so that the total volt- 
age of the machine would be that of one 
disk only. 

The development of the seam-turbine, 
however, has opened a large field to the 
unipolar dynamo, by providing a simple 
means for obtaining very high rotative 
speeds, although there is as yet one in- 
convenience to this coupling, i. e., slid- 
ing-contacts that will operate well at the 
high peripheral speed of the turbine- 
driven disk, which speed is as high as 
80,000 feet per minute in the small- 
sized machines direct-coupled to a De 
Laval turbine. In connection with this, 
it must be remarked that commutator 
sparking is always liable to occur when 
ordinary turbo-generators are used, 
whereas this inconvenience is entirely 
eliminated with the unipolar dynamo, 
there being no commutator. 

Figs. 3, 4 and 5 show the essential 
parts of three different types of unipolar 
dynamos, and of these types, the first 
and last are the most efficient, since no 
gears are needed, the wheels being 
keyed to the same shaft. The magnet 
of the Barlow Wheel is displaced by 
powerful electromagnets almost entirely 
covering the surfaces of the disks, thus 
creating a very large magnetic field 
for the armature to revolve in at high 
speed. The short arrows in these three 
figures indicate the path followed by 
current when the dynamos are in opera- 


tion, while the dotted lines show the di- 


rection of the lines of force set up by 


625- 


the large coil forming the electromagnet. 

In the construction of unipolar dyna- 
mos, the voltage of the machine is prac- 
tically the only electrical point to be con- 
sidered, inasmuch as mechanical consid- 
erations, stiffness for example, compel 
the designer to give the disk sufficient 
cross-section to carry a large current. 
For instance, with a single-disk, uni- 
polar machine, required to give 50 volts 
at the terminals at 20,000 r.p.m., a steel 
disk 16’ in diameter cutting across a 
magnetic field of a density of 95,000 
lines of force per square inch, would be 
sufficient, and for that speed and di- 
ameter, a disk not less than 14” thick at 
the periphery would be required to avoid 
its bending. Such a disk, with eight 
sliding-contacts, can safely carry 400 am- 
peres, yielding an output of 20 k.w. 

In unipolar dynamos, the main elec- 
tric losses are those due to the resistance 
of the disk and that of the magnetizing 
coil; for the lines of forbe being always 
cut in the same way, hysteresis and eddy- 
currents are practically cast out. This 
is a great advantage over the multi- 
polar dynamo, since with a high speed, 
the reversals of flux are very quick, and 
the hysteresis losses are large. Magnetic 
leakage is very much less important 
with a unipolar than with a multipolar 
generator. In fact, there is no need to 
consider it when figuring out the mag- 
netizing windings. 

Inasmuch as the disk-armature, if 
made of steel, can be very accurately 
faced and mounted, and is a good con- 


HIGH SPEED GENERATORS 


Peripheral speed between 40,000 and 60,000 feet per minute. 
Air-Gap density, 95,000 lines per square inch. 


LOW SPEED GENERATORS 


Peripheral speed between 15,000 and 25,000 feet per minute. 
Air-Gap density, 95,000 lines per square inch. 


RATING 


LENGTH OF 


DIAM. OF 
AIR-GAP DISK 


PERIPHERAL 
SPEED 


30” 15,700 


KY a 18,200 
48” 23,800 
60” 18,950 


626 


ductor for the magnetic lines of force, 
the air-gap can be very short, thus effect- 
ing a large saving in the magnetizing 
current. At the same time, unipolar 
dynamos can be very much overloaded 
without danger of burning the insula- 
tion, as the magnetizing coil, the only 
piece that need be insulated, can_ be 
wound with asbestos-covered wire. Con- 
sequently, the temperature can rise as 
high as necessary to carry a big over- 
load for a long time, this overload being 

limited only by 

+ - the capacity of 

TAS Lae 
Fe) in the case of 3 
Sool shunt-wound gen- 
UNS erator. This is a 
great advantage 
over multipolar 
dynamos,asin 
these, cotton-and- 
shellac insulation 
is so profusely 
used, that a com- 
paratively — slight 
overheating is 
sure to injure the 
windings. 

The table on page 625 furnishes some 
idea of the relations of size, voltage and 
output of the most efficient types of unt- 
polar dynamos. 

The only serious drawback of the uni- 
polar dynamo is the low voltage that it 
supplies, but a 7 
on account of 
the simplicity 
Gt Ze. ce i- 
struction, sev- 
eral machines 
¢ ad.-be. con- 
nected in se- 
ries, or a ma- 
chine with 
several disks 
can be used, 
and then the 
voltage deliv- 
ered is large. 

The uni- 
polar turbo-generator presents, as a 
whole, the most compact and efficient 
equipment known. ‘The turbine is econ- 
omical, and the unipolar requires no 
gears to be coupled to the turbine, and 
so receives the whole turbine power. 


ap 
D b& 
CLISULA ZZ 


7e22 


Fig.4. Unipolar 

dynamo with two 

disks revolved in op- 
posite directions 


Fig. 5. Unipolar dynamo 
with two disks revolving 
in the same direction in 
opposite magnetic fields 


Popular Science Monthly 


An Electric Soldering Iron 


N electric flatiron may be used 

in making an electric soldering 
copper by removing the coil and fit- 
ting over it a piece of brass tubing, 1” 
by 5”. Cut a slot in one end to receive 
the plug contacts, and into the same end 
fit a handle in a bushing; into the other 
end fit a bushing holding a copper point. 
The plug from the flatiron may also be 
used, and can be quickly separated from 
the soldering tool—S. BERNSTEIN, 


x E BRASS BUSH, DIA THICK 
B BRASS BUSH. ® DIA 32 THICK F IRON ROD & DIA 
C CO/L FROM OLD FLAT IRON G HANDLE 
D 3% BRASS TUBING /'DIA 
} The coil from an old electric flatiron is used 
in making the heating element of this elec- 
tric soldering iron 


A COPPER POINT #°DIA 


Storage Battery Hints 


INCE the introduction of the electric 

starting and lighting for automo- 
biles, hundreds of thousands of people 
have become acquainted with storage 
batteries, while the expansion oi the field 
of electric passenger automobiles and 
trucks has brought thousands of storage 
batteries to garages for charging and 
overhauling. Charging a storage battery 
is not the simple thing it may seem, and 
much damage is done to batteries by 
careless handling. A few simple instru- 
ments, designed to remove all guesswork 
from charging, have just been brought 
out by a Philadelphia concern. They 
are as follows: 

A rubber bulb-syringe for filling and 
equalizing the acid in the batteries. 

A pocket thermometer, graduated from 
20 to 220 degrees Fahr., especially de- 
signed for use in batteries while charg- 
ing. The temperature of a storage bat- 
tery should never be permitted to rise 
too high. 

A hydrometer syringe, containing a 
hydrometer graduated especially for such 
work. The sharp point of the syringe 
is inserted in the storage cell opening, 
and the central portion of the syringe 
filled with the liquid. The hydrometer 
inside the glass cylinder will indicate the 
state of the battery: 1300 stands for fully 
charged ; 1275 for 75%; 1250 for 50%: 
1225 for 25% and 1200 for exhausted. 


W hat Radio Readers Want to Know 


A Tikker Receiver and How it Works 
C. M., Indianapolis, Ind., inquires: 


Q. I should like some information concerning 
the “‘tikker’’ for the reception of undamped 
oscillations. I have heard considerable regarding 
continuous waves but so far have not been able 
to ascertain just how a tikker is constructed. 


A.. However constructed, the tikker is nothing 
more than a circuit interrupter arranged to open 
and close some portion of the receiving tuner 
circuits at a rate of 200 to 500 times a second. 
The original Poulsen tikker consisted of two light 
gold wires, one of which was attached to the 
vibrating member of an ordinary buzzer which, 
when set in operation, interrupted the circuit 
from the secondary winding of the receiving 
tuner to the telephones. At a later date another 
form of tikker was devised which consisted of a 
toothed wheel driven by a small motor and in 
contact with a brush. 


The very latest type of tikker is known as a 
“slipping-contact detector.’’ Of simple con- 
struction, it comprises merely a grooved wheel 
(with a perfectly smooth surface) rotated at a 
speed of say 1000 revolutions per minute. A 
small piece of thin steel wire is placed in light 
contact with the groove. The constant gripping 
and slipping of the wire during rotation causes a 
variation of the accumulated energy in the tele- 
phone condenser, thus setting up audible pulses 
of current in the telephone circuit. 


The tikker, regardless of the type of construc- 
tion, occupies the same position in the secondary 
circuit of the receiving tuner as the crystal de- 
tector, but generally the secondary winding is 
constructed of Litzendraht to give a circuit 
having a minimum value of damping. 


Range; Aerials; Quenched-Gap 


D. P. D., Limon, Colo., asks: 


Q. 1. Will an aerial 100 ft. in length by 50 ft. 
in height be satisfactory for receiving messages 
from coast stations with 1000. to 1500 miles of 
mountainous country intervening? The local 
conditions for this work are good, since there are 
no high buildings or hills in the immediate 
vicinity. This aerial will have an altitude of 
5600 ft. above the sea level. Will I be able to 
receive ship stations with it? 


A. 1. If receiving apparatus of the vacuum- 
valve amplifier type is installed little difficulty 
should be experienced in receiving signals from 
the coast stations during the night hours. 


Q. 2. Does a series condenser cut down the 
sending distance of a transmitting set? 


A. 2. Speaking generally, it has the effect of 
cutting down the flow of current in the antenna 
system and therefore reduces the range. The 
insertion of a series condenser generally has the 
effect of increasing the total resistance of the 
antenna system. 

Q. 3. Will an aerial 50 ft. in length by 40 ft. 
in height, composed of 4 wires spaced 3 ft. apart, 
be satisfactory for transmitting 100 miles using 
a. I. k. w. closed-core transformer and a rotary 
spark-gap? 

A. 3. It will be rather difficult to consume the 
full output of this transformer at a wavelength 
of 200 meters because the capacity of the con- 
denser cannot exceed 0.01 mfd. If the receiving 
station is fitted with suitable apparatus you will 
experience little difficulty in covering the desired 
distance at nighttime. During the daylight 
hours we should prefer a 2 k. w. or 5 k. w. 
transmitting set operated at an increased wave- 
length. : 

Q. 4. Which is considered the more efficient, 
a rotary-gap or a quenched-gap when the neces- 
sary high potential is obtained from ther k. w. 
transformer? 

A. 4. The quenched-gap may be made the 
more efficient electrically, provided the trans- 
mitting apparatus is harmoniously designed 
throughout. A_ well-designed quenched-gap 
transmitter has a specially constructed motor 
generator and transformer. The range of the 
average amateur station will be increased by 
the use of a quenched-gap provided certain pre- 
cautions in the design of the apparatus are 
observed. For example, the oscillation trans- 
former should be so constructed that the in- 
ductance value of the primary and secondary 
windings can be regulated inch by inch. Like- 
wise the degree of coupling between the primary 
and secondary windings must be very closely 
adjustable. 

The potential of the transformer requires 
careful regulation. In motor generator sets this 
is accomplished by means of the generator field 
rheostat, but where the energy is taken direct 
from the city mains it may be necessary to 
supply a transformer having variable tap-offs 
in the secondary winding, in order that the cor- 
rect value of voltage may be obtained. In addi- 
tion, the high potential transformer must be one 
that possesses considerable magnetic leakage. 
If of the closed-core type, it should be fitted with 
a magnetic leakage gap. The open-core trans- 
former naturally possesses this characteristic. 
If you are not wholly familiar with the design 
and requirements of the quenched-gap dis- 
charger, the rotary-gap is recommended on ac- 
count of its simplicity, easy construction, and 
permanence of adjustment. 


627 


628 


Induction from Streetcars 


F, M., Washington, Ind., writes: 

Q. I am about to purchase certain wireless 
telegraphy instruments, but inasmuch as my 
receiving aerial will be located near a streetcar 
line and powerhouse I desire to know what 
effect these wires will have on the reception of 
signals? 

A. Although you may expect to receive inter- 
fering sounds from these wires due to electro- 
static induction, they will not wholly prevent 
the reception of signals. If possible, place the 
receiving aerial at right angles to the power line. 


Receiving-Tuner Doubts Cleared Up 


W. B. H., Fresno, Cal., inquires: 

Q. In the December, 1915, issue you give cer- 
tain dimensions for an inductively-coupled re- 
ceiving tuner to cover a range of 1500 meters. 
The statement is made that the primary and 
secondary windings should be made of No. 28 B. 
& S. fage copper wire. To me this seems incor- 
rect. I cannot understand how the secondary 
voltage will be any different from that of the 
primary if the same size of wire is employed. 
Before commencing the construction of such a 
tuner I should like to have this matter cleared 
up. 

A. It is perfectly feasible to cover the primary 
and secondary of the receiving tuner with the 
same size of wire. For the average crystal de- 
tector it is customary in some forms of com- 
mercial apparatus to use No. 32 S. S. C. wire on 
the secondary. A step-up ratio of turns in an 
oscillation transformer does not _ necessarily 
mean a stepping up of voltage, since there are 
other factors which must be taken into considera- 
tion. Please understand that the actual wave- 
length to which the tuner described in the 
December, 1915, issue will be adjustable depends 
upon the capacity of the condenser in shunt to 
the secondary winding. With a _ secondary 
winding 5 ins. in length by 4d ins. in diameter, 
covered with No. 32 wire and shunted by a con- 
denser of 0.001 m.f. capacity, the tuner will be 
adjustable to wavelengths in the vicinity of 
4000 meters. 


Where to Place Receiving Aerials 


R. P. C., Nineveh, N. Y., asks: 


Q. I wish to construct an aerial 60’ in height 
by 200’ in length. Our buildings are surrounded 
by hills. In which location do you think I would 
‘achieve the better results for receiving purposes, 
namely, by suspension of the wires on 20’ 
poles atop of the barns which are 40’ in height, 
or by placing them on 60’ poles upon the hill, 
which is 200’ above the barns? Our elevation is 
1145’ above the sea level. Approximately over 
what distance may I expect to receive messages? 

A. For general work we should prefer to erect 


Popular Science Monthly 


the aerial on the hill, provided that the receiving 
apparatus can be housed in the immediate 
vicinity of the aerial. The actual distance over 
which messages may be received depends en- 
tirely upon the type of receiving apparatus in 
use. With the average amateur equipment 
fitted with a crystalline detector you should be 
enabled to copy messages at nighttime during 
the favorable months of the year from all com- 
mercial stations located on the Atlantic coast 
and Gulf. With an extremely sensitive long 
distance set, say one employing a regenerative 
receiving circuit in connection with the audion, 
you should experience no difficulty in receiving 
messages from the radio station located at 
Nauen, Germany. 


A Receiving-Condenser for 1500-Meter 
Loose-Coupler 


W. M. K., Windsor, Ont., inquires: 

, Q. 1. I should like to put this department to 

trouble again by asking for information concern- 
ing the size of a receiving condenser for a 1500- 
meter loose-coupler. Approximately how many 
tinfoil sheets should be used and what are the 
required dimensions? 

A. 1. We assume that reference is made to 
the fixed condenser in shunt to the head tele- 
phones. Two sheets of tinfoil 30 ins. in length 
by 2h ins. in width, separated by a thin piece of 
paraffin paper and rolled up on circular form, 
will give a sufficient value of capacity for the 
average requirements. The variable condensers 
must be of the air dielectric type such as supplied 
by electrical supply houses advertising in the 
columns of this magazine. 

Q. 2. Approximately over what distance can 
I receive with this set connected to an aerial 
go ft. in length and 50 ft. in height at both ends, 
keeping in mind that the tuner is adjustable 
to a wavelength of 1500 meters? 

A. 2. During the nighttime this apparatus 
should be responsive to stations 1000 to 1200 
miles distant. The daylight range is proble- 
matic. 


Sustained Waves and Government 
License 


H. W. D., Jr., Schnectady, N. Y., asks: 

Q. 1. May an amateur make use of a set 
responsive to an undamped wave? 

A. 1. There are no regulations governing the 
type of receiving apparatus employed at the 
amateur station. If an undamped oscillation 
transmitter were employed it would be necessary 
to secure a U. S. station license. 

Q. 2. What is the fundamental wavelength 
of a four-wire aerial 120 ft. in length, 45 ft. in 
height at one end and 50 ft. at the other with a 
lead-in of 25 ft. placed at an angle of 70 degrees 
to the aerial? 

A. 2. The natural wavelength of this antenna 
is approximately 320 meters. 


~ The Home Workbench 


55 


Making an Acetylene Gas Generator 


HE gas generator used by the 
United States Life Saving Corps 
and also by the Volunteer Life 
Saving Corps for their searchlights on 
beach-wagons is not difficult to construct. 
Carbide about 14 in. in diameter is used, 
and costs, retail, 10 cents per pound. 
Fifteen pounds will light a home three 
hours each evening for one 
month, at a cost of $1.50. 
For each pound of carbide 
a gallon of water is used. 
Hence to make a 15-pound 
carbide generator, a 15-gal- 
lon tank must be used. 
Only galvanized iron should 
be used, as it corrodes the 
least of any metal. 

After deciding upon the 
size (say 15 pounds), take 
two 15-gallon tanks. Se- 
lect one which will fit, in- S 
verted, inside of the other, 
allowing enough space to 
slide up and down with- 
out binding (see diagram). 
Another small tank, half the height, 
is used to catch the falling carbides. 
This holds the sediment, prevents it 
from spreading and simplifies cleaning. 
Besides, it is the only. tank which cor- 
rodes. To determine how large to make 
the hood, use 15 pounds of dry earth 
as a medium for measuring. Pile it in a 
cone, the width corresponding to the 
width of the tank. The height measure- 
ment gives the depth of the hood. A 
model of the hood should first be made 
out of pasteboard to avoid waste or er- 
ror in cutting. It should fit snugly, in- 
verted in the gasometer tank. Cut off 
the point of the hood to allow a 1-in. 


CH 


TAMTTTTTTUTTTTTT 


if 


ae 


Sh 


SEDIMENT can 
A government gas gen- 


erator which is easily 
built by an amateur 


¥, 


li 
\ 


hole for a valve-opening. Lay the mod- 
el flat on metal and draw around it, cut 
with shears, roll carefully around a pipe 
to get the shape, and solder together. A 
l-in. flat washer is used, being soldered 
into the valve-hole on the inside to act 
as a guide for the valve-head when it 
is closed. A .14-in. pipe soldered into 
a l-in. cap for a valve-head and stem 

¢ can be used, the length of 
the stem being 2 ins. longer 
than the gasometer (see 
diagram). Place the valve 
in position, solder the hood 
in the gasometer, and make 
sure there are no leaks in 
any of the tanks. If you 
are not sure of the tight- 
ness, turn both tanks up- 
side down and test with 
water. 

In the top of the gas- 
ometer drill a 2-in. hole, 


solder in a nipple, and 
screw on a cap with a 
leather washer. This is 


used for filling the hood 
with carbide. A gas-cock is soldered in 
the side of the gasometer near the top 
for the gas supply, for the hose, or for 
the pipe to the gas line. A 1-ft. acety- 
lene burner gives 100 candle power. 

To operate the generator, fill the wa- 
ter tank with water and the hood with 
carbide. Close the gas-cock and place 
the gasometer in the water-tank. Open 
the gas-cock to let the air out. The gas- 
ometer will sink very slowly until the 
valve-stem touches the bottom, thus 
opening the valve and letting the carbide 
escape into the inner tank and generate 
gas. The gas will raise the gasometer 
three-quarters of the way up, and thus 


629 


630 
close the valve automatically. Close the 
gas-cock, make the proper connections, 
and the apparatus is ready to use. As 
gas is consumed, the gasometer descends 
until it opens the valve. More carbide 
falls into the receptacle to generate fresh 
gas, thus raising the gasometer and clos- 
ing the valve again. When through with 
the light, turn off the gas-cock. This 
stops the generator. As the gas cannot 
escape, it remains in the same position 
until used again. 

The gas is generated in the larger 
tank, rises to the smaller tank and lifts 
it. The weight of the gasometer pre- 
vents it from going too high and also 
gives the pressure to the gas. The gas 
cannot flow down and around and out 
through the spaces between tanks, since 
the quantity of water forms a perfect 
seal. —T. F. Buscn. 


A Novel Window-Shelf 


ROCURE from a blacksmith two 

34” iron rods about 16” in length. 
Bend these in the center at a right angle. 
Then put eight ordinary screw-eyes— 
the eyes must be large enough to permit 
the rod to pass through—into the wall 
and into the under-side of the shelf- 
board as the illustration shows. With 
a pair of pliers open up the eyes of those 
in the wall, which is an easy matter. 
Now insert the rods and bend the eyes 
back over them. The shelf-board can now 
be slipped on the projecting ends of the 
rods, care being taken that they go 
through both the front and rear screw- 
eyes. Unless the screw-eyes are long 
enough to be driven into the scantling, 


t— SCREW-EYES 


Two views of a simple window-shelf which 
can be easily removed 


Popular Science Monthly 


supporting upright strips for these will 
be necessary. 


When it is desired to remove the 


shelf-board to facilitate sweeping, for 
instance, just pull it out and swing the 
ends of the rods back against the wall as 
if they were on hinges. They may even 
be removed if desired. 


UOT TAH ANN OY 


iN 


The cream may be taken off the top of a 
milk bottle with a syphon more rapidly 
and effectively than with a spoon 


A Siphon to Remove Cream 
from Bottles 


ASS easy and effective means of re- 
moving the cream from bottles of 
milk is shown in the illustration. The 
siphon is filled by inverting the short 
end in the neck of the bottle until the 
cream runs in; the thumb is then held 
over the long end and the siphon placed 
in position. By adjusting the depth to 
which the short end reaches in the bot- 
tle, the entire amount of cream can be 
removed without withdrawing any milk. 
The siphon is easily cleaned by running 
hot water through it. An ordinary rub- 
ber tube will do. 


A Wash-Wringer Attachment 


O facilitate the 
moving of the 
wringer to and 
from the wash- @& 
room, saw off one 
end of the bottom at right angles, drill 
a hole in it, and fasten on a caster. The 
caster should be one of the type which 
does not pivot about and should be so 
placed that it barely touches the floor 
when the wringer is upright. When it is 
desired to move the wringer, pull it back 
on the caster and push it ahead. 


Popular Science Monthly 


A Burglar-Alarm for the Unprotected 
Chicken-House 

HICKEN-FANCIERS and poultry- 
farmers will be interested in an 
electric alarm which is set ringing by 
thieves. The favorite means of entrance, 
provided the door is securely locked, is 
through the windows of the coop. The 
installation of the usual type of burglar- 
alarm involves an outlay for costly equip- 


When the chicken thief breaks the thin 
wires covering the window, he opens the cir- 
cuit, the buzzer-armature drops, and the 
alarm bell rings | 
ment. The apparatus to be described is 
inexpensive, and may be easily installed. 

A row of wire nails about 1” apart 
should be driven into the window-frame 
above and below. Fine cotton-insulated, 
magnet-wire should be strung up and 
down over the two rows of nails, as 
shown in the diagram. ‘The two ends 
should be led to a gravity cell, and also 
to the magnets of a buzzer. The arma- 
ture of the buzzer should be disconnect- 
ed, but not removed, as it will have an- 
other use. By consulting the diagram of 
connection it will be obvious that if the 
wires over the window are intact, the 
armature will be drawn down upon the 
magnet-cores, away from the contact. 
Wires connected with a bell and dry bat- 
teries in the house—the distance makes 
no difference—should be brought to the 
armature of the buzzer and to the con- 

tact that touches it. 

The operation is as follows: When a 
marauder attempts to enter the window, 
he breaks the wires—which he assumes 
to be strings—with a sweep of the hand. 
The circuit, suddenly opened, allows the 
armature of the buzzer to fall back 
against the contact. This closes the bell 


631 


circuit and causes the bell to ring in the 
house. If there are several windows in 
the chicken-barn, the wires covering all 
of them should be connected in series. 
Gravity or blue vitriol batteries should be 
used for the magnet circuit. 


How to Shingle Without Leaving 
Nail-Holes 


HE illustration will show how a 1’ 
by © straightedge, or longer, can 
be used to lay shingles 214” by 8” or 2” 
by 7”, according to the weather, on the 
side of a building, without nailing the 
straightedge on to the shingles and thus 
leaving unsightly holes. Any blacksmith 
will make four hooks out of 1%” by 14” 
iron and twist them so that the shank 
can be screwed on the ends of the 
straightedge, and so that the hook part 
will extend down and under the last 
course of shingles, as indicated in Fig. 2. 
The iron is drawn out to 1/16” thick- 
ness, and the spurs on the hook part are 
made by cutting a V in the hook while 
it is hot and turning it back and filing 
it down to a sharp edge. This spur holds 
the straightedge in place. It is well to 
have this part of the hook offset clear of 
the ends of the straightedge (Fig. 1). 
After the straightedge is in place, a 
slight tap of a hammer over the shingle 
will drive the spur into the shingle under- 
neath. No holes will be left to mar the 
face of the work. A slight jerk will pull 
the spur out and the straightedge is then 
ready to be used for the next course. 


T, 
uN 


f 

; 7+ 
o . 
1H. * 
FIG! 2 ate | 


Hil} 


—— 
| 


= | 

TE UN | 
Ni 

I 


j 
iti] TET TT) ay ey . MA 
ih NEE 10g) ‘as 
Details of a shingling device which keeps 
the edges straight without driving nail- 


holes into the exposed ends 


632 


A Self-Rocking Developing-Tray 


SIMPLE form of _ mechanical 

rocker, which may be relied upon 
to keep up a steady, gentle movement 
for a long period without attention, is a 
great convenience to the busy photo- 
grapher. A flat, square board, rather 
larger than the developing-tray, is 
pivoted on the apex of a zinc triangle, as 
shown in Fig. I. The zinc triangle is 
easily made from a strip of sheet zinc 


Ray SSS 


| it 


Nf) 
SAMMWRRDD DSB 


The counterbalance swings under the 
table and the tray rocks easily and 
continuously without attention 


as long as the side of the board and bent 
into the form of a V, with flanges for 
attachment to the board. It should be 
screwed along the exact center of the 
under side. An alternative is to use a 
triangularly-shaped piece of wood, 114” 
thick, nailed through from above. The 
wood must, of course, be rather hard. 
A piece of strong, flat iron, 3’ or more 
in length, must be fastened at one end 
to the under side of the base, also in the 
center, but at right angles to the pivot. 
This is shown in Fig. IT. 

With the board standing on the edge 
of the table, the iron should be bent into 
a curve reaching under the edge of the 
table as illustrated. A weight of several 
pounds is firmly secured to the free end 
of the iron. This weight can be made 
by casting ten or twelve pounds of lead 
scrap into the shape of a disk, a hole 
being made through the center for bolt- 
ing the disk to the arm. The disk weight 
must be fastened securely; else the 
movement will be jerky, and much 
energy will be lost. In bending the iron, 
it will be necessary to adjust it by 
degrees until the board is found to bal- 
ance freely on the pivot and come to rest 
in a level position. 

The rocker leaves the operator free to 
attend to other matters while develop- 
ment is proceeding. If it is desired to 


Popular Science Monthly 


open the darkroom door, a sheet of card- 
board should be laid on the dish, and a 
light-proof cover should be placed in posi- 
tion. A cardboard box slightly smaller 
than the board, makes a good cover, if 
lined with two thicknesses of black twill, 
with additional pieces at the corners. 
This rocking arrangement is a time-saver 
for any photographer. 


A Whole Tool-Box in One Tool 


HE day of the family tool-box may 

soon be a matter of past history if 
a device that is now on the market can 
do all that its manufacturers claim for 
it. The tool that threatens to do this 
revolutionizing is 10 inches in length 
and weighs 11 ounces. It can do every- 
thing that a variety of household tools 
can do and other things besides. Here 
are a few of the tools whose work it 
intends to accomplish: Hammer, lifter 
for hot pans and dishes, tack-puller, 
screwdriver, mnut-cracker, box-opener, 
wrench, pliers, rule, measure and ice- 
chipper. It works automatically. 


ee || 
ml 


i 


This ‘‘Jack-of-all-tools’? may be used to 
lift a hot plate off the stove or to hammer 
the tacks in the parlor carpet 


ULLY one-half of all the automo- 

biles sold in the United States are 
bought by farmers and others living in 
rural communities. 


Popular Science Monthly 


How to Make a Kitchen Table Fit You 


OES your kitchen table fit you? 
The average woman is 5’ 4” in 
height. An ordinary table, built for her, 


If it is 


Is your table of the right height? 
too high any one can saw off the legs; here 
are shown schemes to make them longer 


is 30’ high. Thousands of women should 
have their tables a little higher or a little 
lower to avoid the fatigue that results 
ae working at a table which does not 

i 

Mrs. Frederick, the writer 
on domestic efficiency, after 
conducting a series of tests, 
states that 14” should be add- 
ed or subtracted from the 
height of the table for every 
inch of the person’s height 
above or below the average 
5’ 4”. A table may be raised 
by boring holes in the legs and in- 
serting casters, or by screwing on four 
rubber-tipped door stops. For a very tall 
woman, four right-angle braces may be 
screwed on to the lower parts of the legs, 
the short sides of the braces resting on 
the floor. 


Feeding Twenty Steers 


OR the average farmer of the middle 

western states, who annually fattens 
a carload of steers, a plant can be made 
which will be found good from every 
point of view. It is not expensive; it is 
arranged for convenience; the labor cost 
of feeding is lessened, and all the work 
of feeding is under cover. A_ good, 
sensible, warm shelter is provided for 


tS 
E75 


“ZF 
SS 


633 


fat stock. The feed-lot is paved with 
concrete. This saves manure and 
makes a much better surrounding for 
the steers. 

An economical constructiton will re- 
quire the following amounts of materials. 
Labor will cost but little. Farm hands 
can do the work during the “‘nothing to 
do” period on the farm. These prices 
hold good in the West: 


45 bbls. cement for pave- 
ments, floors‘and walls.. $ 72.00 
8 cedar posts, 12’ long for 


Shed supports s2S. 7 ee 4.00 

8 cedar posts, 14 long for 
shed supports ........- 5.00 
2500 of 2” x 6” framing lumber 70.00 
30 squares galvanizing metal 95.00 
500’ crib siding for corn crib 15.00 
$261.00 
Sig eae RIA Sok ee 300.00 
TiGTE ete aaa: eee Pere $561.00 


ae 


CUT oor 


laa imi 
—Y\ <All 
a 


1000 BU. CAP; ROOM 


CORN CRIG 


FEED ALLEY 


FEED TROUGH 


SHED 20°«50 
FOR 
20 STEERS 


Twenty steers can be kept and fattened in 
this small and cheap plant, the designs 
shown being sufficient for starting work 


A Can of Paint and How to Use It 


By H. A. Gardner 
Assistant Director, Institute of Industrial Research, Washington, D. C. 


REPARED paints, contained in 
sealed packages, are the most 
economical and convenient. The 

brand selected should be composed of 
pigment and liquid, the pigment being 
white lead (corroded or sublimed) ad- 
mixed with zinc oxide, with or without 
a small amount of chemically inert pig- 
ments. These pigments should be 
ground in a liquid composed of linseed 
oil with a small amount of drier and thin- 
ner. Small amounts of color pigments 
have been added to such mixtures, if the 
paint is tinted. These paints are suita- 
ble for the exteriors of all wooden struc- 
tures. 

If the painter desires using a paint 
mixed by hand, paste paints may be ob- 
tained either in the form of white lead 
ground in oil or zinc oxide ground in oil, 
which may be mixed together, or pur- 
chased in the form of a paste paint 
made of these two pigments. It is cus- 
tomary to add to 100 lbs. of a paste 
paint from 4 to 6 gallons of linseed oil 
and a pint of liquid drier. The mixture 
may be thoroughly stirred in a barrel or 
tub. Labor and time are necessary to 
produce a smooth paste. Loss by spat- 
tering should be avoided, if possible. A 
gallon or more of turpentine may be 
used to take the place of part of the oil 
for first-coat work. If a colored paint is 
desired, color ground in oil may be 
added to produce the desired result. 
The paint should then be stirred for half 
an hour or so in an endeavor to get the 
color thoroughly into the mass in order 
to prevent streaking. 


What Color Shall I Paint My House? 


The color of a paint to be selected for 
a house requires consideration. In many 
rural localities, white paints are used, 
and they contrast pleasantly with the 
green of the surrounding foliage. It 
must be remembered, however, that 
white paints which have been tinted, by 
grinding into them small percentages of 


permanent colors, are more economical 
to use, since the wearing value of these 
tinted paints is from 30% to 60% great- 
er than the wearing value of whiet 
paints. For instance, if a white paint 
is applied to one house and a similar 
white paint, tinted with say 3% or 4% 
of color, is applied to another house in 
the same locality at the same period of 
time, the surface painted white will 
probably require repainting at the end 
of a period of three years, while the sur- 
face painted with the colored paint will 
be in an excellent state of preservation 
and will probably not require repainting 
for two more years. Therefore tinted 
paints should be used whenever durabil- 
ity is the commanding consideration. 
The property owner should also remem- 
ber that the lighter shades or tints are 
in many instances best adapted, since 
the lighter colors reflect the heat rays 
from the sun, while the darker colors, 
such as dark red, dark blue and very 
dark gray absorb the heat. For this 
reason, a house painted in light colors 
will be cooler in the summer than one 
painted in very dark colors. 

Before the paint is applied, the wooden - 
surface must be freed from moisture. 
If new, weathering of the wood for a 
short period is generally advisable in 
order to allow thorough seasoning and 
drying-out of absorbed moisture. Paint- 
ing should never be done in damp 
weather. A successful job depends upon 
the application of the paint during clear 
dry days. If the wood has not been 
painted before, any visible sap streaks 
or knots should be brushed with turpen- 
tine just before applying the paint. 
This treatment will soften the resin in 
the wood and allow the priming or first 
coat of paint to soak thoroughly into 
and combine with the resin, thus pre- 
venting scaling. For the priming coat, 
there should be added to a gallon of pre- 
pared paint from 2 to 4 pints of turpen- 
tine, or benzol when obtainable. The 


634 


Popular Science Monthly 


mixture should be thoroughly stirred 
until it is uniform throughout. It may 
then be applied by brushing out to a 
thin coat on the new wood. The turpen- 
tine will serve to carry the paint into 
the pores of the wood and thus provide 
a good substantial bond. The paint, 
moreover, will dry rapidly to a= hard 
surface which will provide a permanent 
foundation for subsequent coats. Upon 
the priming coat depends the success of 
the whole painting job. Even if the 
coat looks thin, the hiding power of the 
paint should be sacrificed in order to ob- 
tain this thorough penetration and hard 
drying. 

When the priming coat has become 
thoroughly hard and dry, which, as a 
rule, will take at least three days, al- 
though a week is better, all the nail holes 
and other imperfections in a wooden 
surface may be closed up with putty. 
There may then be applied the second 
coat of prepared paint as it comes from 
the container, without the addition of 
any material except a small quantity of 
turpentine if the paint is heavy. One 
pint of turpentine to a gallon of paint 
is generally sufficient for this purpose. 
The turpentine will cause the second coat 
to dry with a semi-matt surface. After 
a suitable drying period, the third coat 
‘may then be applied. No turpentine or 
thinner should be added to the third 
coat of prepared paint, since it is desired 
to obtain a film rich in oil, that will dry 
to a high-gloss surface. When old sur- 
faces are to be repainted, all loose, scaled 
paint should be removed and rough, 
checked surfaces lightly sanded with fine 
sandpaper. The work may proceed for 
new surfaces as for the second and third 
coats. 


How to Paint Rooms 


A few years ago the use of paint was 
largely confined to exteriors of buildings. 
Interior walls were often left bare. Dis- 
coloration and dampness followed. The 
modern method is to decorate all in- 
terior wall .and ceiling surfaces with 
paints which are of a washable char- 
acter. These paints may present either 
a flat and light-diffusing surface, or a 
high-gloss, enamel-like surface. The 
flat or high-gloss paints are obtainable in 
prepared form. Before applying such 


635 


paints to plaster or cement-wall surfaces, 
a wash treatment with a 25% water 
solution of zinc sulphate is advisable, in 
order to neutralize the lime present in, 
the wall. Later, when the walls are 
thoroughly dry, the paints should be ap- 
plied in two or three-coat work. High- 
gloss paints should always be applied 
over an undercoat of flat paint. Light 
cream color and the very light shades of 
pink, green, blue or very light gray give 
the greatest amount of light reflection in 
a room. 


What Paints and Painting Cost 


Paste paints cost about $3.00 to $4.00 
per gallon, while prepared paints sell 
for $2.00 to $2.50 per gallon. A’ paint 
in prepared form, ready for application, 
will cover from 300 to 1400 sq. ft. per 
gallon, depending upon the character of 
surface to which it is applied. On 
smooth iron surfaces, the greatest spread- 
ing rate is obtained, and on rough con- 
crete surfaces, the lowest spreading rate. 
On wooden surfaces the average spread- 
ing rate is about 900 sq. ft. per gallon, 
one coat. In estimating the amount of 
paint required for a surface, the total 
number of square feet should be calcu- 
lated by multiplying the width by the 
height, of each side. The total area 
should then be divided by 300, which 
will give approximately the number of 
gallons required to produce three-coat 
work. For instance, if the total area for 
the four sides of a house is 6300 sq. ft., 
21 gallons of paint will be required for 
the work. If the cost of the paint is 
$2.35 per gallon, the material cost will 
be $49.35. The cost of labor for properly 
applying the paint should be figured at 
double the cost of the paint. To the 
total must be added cost of brushes, 
ladders, incidental materials, etc. It is 
readily seen, therefore, that the cost of 
the paint is a small part of the cost of 
painting, and for this reason only the 
best paint should be used in order to 
secure a job that will last for the longest 
time without repainting. 


Why Good Paints Save Money 


The property owner should remember 
that it is a very good business proposi- 
tion to keep buildings of all types, 
especially dwellings and farm buildings, 


636 


well painted. By so doing, the value of a 
property increases at least 25%. If 
wooden structures are left bare and ex- 
posed, the surfaces become roughened 
and the wood is subjected to warping 
and cracking. When dampness enters 
such exposed wood, conditions become 
favorable for the action of destructive 
fungi and rotting may take place. Ap- 
plication of good paint, however, will 
preserve wood almost indefinitely. Strik- 
ing illustrations of the truth of this state- 
ment are afforded by the condition of 
those well painted, century-old dwellings 
to be found throughout the original 
colonies of this country. Moreover, 
paints not only decorate and preserve 
wood, but they make it more resistant 
to fire. For this reason, the application 
of paints to shingled roofs is often ad- 


visable. For instance, prepared paints of many of these is shown in the chart. 
Weatherboarded Dwellings, Churches and] Paint prepared on a Lead and Zinc Base. 
Factories, Fences and Wooden Structures. Preferably tinted. Class ‘‘A.” 
Shingled Roofing and Siding. Same as Class ‘‘A"’ or a Creosote Shingle Stain. 
Woop Sheds, Barns and Outbuildings ae as Class ‘‘A’’ or Prepared Iron Oxide 
: : ‘aint. 
Porch Floors. Colby Silos Paint containing Durable Var- 
nish. : 
Windawicnntton: pom tee BSE A” or Chrome Green Shutter 
PAINT General Structural Iron and Steel Girders,] Rust Inhibitive Prepared Paint, Red Lead,} 
FOR - Roofing, Siding, etc. Iron Oxide, etc. Class “B 
EXTERIOR | METAL ‘ Prime with 5%, Water Solution of Copper Salt. 
SURFACES Galvanized Iron. Dry, and apply Class “‘B” Paint. 
Tinned Roofing and Copper Flashing. Clean ee with Benzene. Apply Clas: 
aint 
Brick Walls and Fronts. Same as Class “‘A”’ or Prepared Red Iron Oxide 
Paint. 
STONE |Cement and Concrete Structures, Ball Parks, re 
Pavilions, Stucco on Brick or Frame,} Prime with 25% Water solution of Zinc Sul- 
Cement Tanks, Posts, Silos, Culverts, phate (to neutralize alkali). Dry and ap- 
etc. ply Class ‘‘A’’ Paint or Cement Coater. — 
General Trim, Stairways, Doors, Paneling. Class “A’’ Paints finished with Enamel or 
Varnish. 
Dee) | Dante eather, Kapa ae 
| as finish. eo ee Fillers, Stains and Varnish as desired. 
PAINT / 
FOR ae Same as for Exterior Work. | Same as for Exterior Work. . | 
INTERIOR 
SURFACES 


Popular Science Monthly 


contain 60% to 70% of non-combusti- 
ble, metallic or mineral pigments. When 
such paints are applied to shingles a 
very waterproof, semi-metallic film re- 
sults. The film smooths the rough, 
fuzzy surface of the wood and prevents 
warping at the edges, thus doing away 
with the formation of pockets in which 
hot cinders, blown from a passing loco- 
motive or carried from a neighboring 
fire, might lodge. 


Paints for Various Surfaces 


Painting the exterior or interior walls 
of a dwelling constitutes only a part of 
the many uses for paint. Painting 
metals of various kinds, varnishing and 
staining woodwork, and many other ap- 
plications call for the use of an immense 
variety of paints and finishes. A list 


Ceilings and Walls of Portland Cement, Keene 
Cement or Sand Lime Plaster. 


Alkali Neutralizing Primer, then Sanitary Flat 
Finish Oil Paint. 


ane Ceilings and Walls of Bath Rooms and Kitch-| Alkali Neutralizing Primer, then Class “A” 


ens. 


Cement Floors. 


Paint, and Varnish or Washable Enamel. 


Alkali Neutralizing Primer, then Class “A’’ or 
Prepared Floor Paint. 


An attractive bungalow of moderate cost. 


The detailed construction of this confortable 


home is described in the following article. 


Building a Bungalow. I 


By Geo. M. Petersen 


HE style of architecture best adapt- 

ed for the homes of a great num- 

ber of the American people, both 

for suburban and city use, is without 

doubt that commonly known as the 
bungalow. 

The bungalow originally came from 
India and other Far Eastern countries 
where light con- 
struction and cool, 
well ventilated 
buildings are desir- 
able. These bunga- 
lows are really gar- 
den-houses and are 
generally one story 
in height with large, 
roomy verandas. 
The bungalow was 
introduced in Cali- 
fornia and now is 
common to all parts 
of the United States, 
the construction 
varying, of course, 
with the different 
climatic conditions. 

Because of the 
fact that the bunga- 


Z : . Fig. 1. 
low is primarily a 


Floor plan of an original Far 
Eastern bungalow 


garden-house, it is well to locate it on a 
large lot, on a slight elevation if possible, 
and surround it with trees and shrubs. 
For city use, the building should be set 
well back from the street, from 25 to 
30 ft. at least, while in the country it 
should be located in the center of a large 
piece of ground or garden spot. 

Due to the fact 
that a large num- 
ber of architects, or 
at least so-called 
architects, have 
classed all of their 
architectural mis- 
fits under the head- 
ing of “bungalows” 
it is not uncommon 
to hear people ex- 
press themselves as 
being unfavorable 
toward them. Oth- 
ers think they are 
only a fad and will 
soon go out of date, 
while others, and 
the writer is among 
the latter class, 
think that the bun- 
galow is the most 


STCHENV 


CHAMIBER 


C405.| CLOS, 
i—i 


CHAMBER 


637 


638 Popular Science Monthly 


desirable kind of dwelling in which to 
live; that it has come to stay and that, 
when properly planned and built, it is 
the most artistic and cosy home to be 
desired. 

The advantages of the bungalow are 


CELLAR PLAN VERANDA 


FLOOR PLAN 


Fig. 2. A two-story city bungalow 
which was built for $1800 


many, the one which appeals most 
strongly to the women being the fact 
that all of the work is on one floor and 
the continual running up and down 
stairs is done away with. This fact also 
helps to solve the servant problem in the 
suburban districts as many women who 
have never done their own housework in 
the old two-story houses have done away 
with their servants and are getting along 
without servants, through the handy 
arrangement of the bungalow. It is this 
same all-on-one-floor idea that is making 
two family flats so popular in the larger 
cities of the United States to-day. In 
short, the bungalow may be termed an 
efficient dwelling. 

The size of the bungalow must natu- 
rally vary to meet the requirements, as 
to sleeping rooms, arrangement of rooms, 
etc., as well as to come within the 
finances of the builder, and at the same 
time look good on the lot. 

The floor plan of an original Far 
Eastern bungalow is shown in Fig. 1. 
It has been remodeled for use in the 
colder climate of this country. It is a 
very simple affair, is decidedly cool and 
comfortable in the summer and remark- 
ably warm and cosy in the winter. It 
can be readily heated at a small expense 


for fuel and is an ideal house for a small 
sum of money. This type of dwelling is 
particularly suitable for shore cottages, 


since it makes an ideal summer camp — 


when built without a cellar and heated 
only with a large fireplace and the 
kitchen stove. This house can be built 
for the small sum of about $600, includ- 
ing ceiling the interior with wall board, 
or plaster, painting and plumbing. Of 
course this figure does not make any 


provision for hardwood trim, floors, — 


tile bathrooms or anything of that 
nature, but is for the completed house, 
finished in a good substantial manner 
with good lasting materials. 

The houses shown in Figs. 2 and 3 
have been built by the writer for $1800 
each, including cellar, furnace, fireplace, 


plumbing, laundry trays, electric lights, — 


wall paper, shades, interior and exterior 
painting and, in fact, everything com- 
plete. These plans are strictly city 
homes in every sense of the word and are 
good enough for anyone, although they 


may be small for some families. A’ 


regular two-story bungalow is shown in 


FIP ST FLOOR 


SECOWD FLOOR 


Fig. 3. This house, also, was built for 
$1800, including furnace and plumbing 


Fig. 2, and, while it appears exceedingly 
small from the street, it is really very 
roomy. The one drawback to this type 
of bungalow lies in the fact that it is 
almost impossible to keep the sleeping 
rooms cool in the summer, due to the 
fact that the sun beats down on the 
roof all day long. In the one-story 
bungalow there is a small air-space and, 


in some, a good-sized attic, which acts — 


Popular Science Monthly 


as an insulator against the heat. With 
the two-story type shown, however, 
there is no insulating space between the 
roof proper and the 
ceiling of the sleeping 
rooms except the thick- 
ness of the rafters, usu- 
ally about 6 ins., and 
sometimes only 4 ins., 
which is not sufficient to 
protect the interior of 
the house from the out- 
side heat. Of course 
this disadvantage may 
be overcome to a cer- 
tain extent by cover- 
ing the roof with asbes- 
tos shingles or with some 
other roofing material 
which will resist the 
heat, but unless the roof 
is well shaded by trees 
it will be almost impos- 
sible to keep the roof 
cool enough in the heat 
of summer to stop the 
heat from entering the 
second floor. 

One of the finest small bungalows 
which the writer has ever had the pleas- 
ure of erecting is illustrated in Fig. 4. 
While not costing as much as many 
others constructed by him, it is never- 
theless a complete bungalow and for 
this reason it will be used as an example 
of what a modern bungalow should be. 
It was erected at a cost of $5100, com- 
plete, including a steam-heating plant 
and an automatic water-heater. 

This bungalow is 28 ft. in width and 
38 ft. in length as shown on the plan. 
The cellar has 7 ft. of headroom under 
the girder and 7 ft. 8 ins. of headroom 
under the joists, which not only obviates 
a continual bumping of one’s head, but 
is of great assistance to the proper in- 
stallation of the heating plant. The 
foundation walls extend 2 ft. above 
grade and are built of blue flint stone 
above grade and of limestone below. 
Limestone is used below, since flint 
“sweats” underground so that a flint 
stone wall is damp practically all of the 
time. Limestone, on the other hand, 
does not make a pleasing effect above 
ground, in the majority of cases, as it is 
inclined to be full of little holes and 


ful bungalow, 


Fig. 4. Floor plan of a success- 


complete 


639 


imperfections which stand out as glaring 
defects in the bright sunlight. The 
square bays which project on the east 
and west sides of the 
house are supported by 
large stone corbels in 
place of the ordinary 
wood brackets. The 
eaves overhang the 
house about 2 ft. 6 ins. 
and are pattern-cut raft- 


er-ends, as shown in 
Fig. 5. The exterior is 
covered with gray- 


stained shingles which 
come very close to 
matching the gray of 
the massive stone chim- 
ney which extends up 
the outside of the build- 
ing. The trim, or out- 
side woodwork, other 
than the shingles, was 
painted white so that 
the color scheme of the 
building was merely 
stone gray and white. 
Bungalows, in general, 
should be painted with quiet color com- 
binations such as the one just given; 
with two shades of the same color or 
with direct contrasts, a dark color such 
as green or brown is used for the body 
and white, pearl gray or some other 
direct contrast is used for the trim. 
Bungalows may be covered either with 
lap, bevel siding or shingles, although 
the latter are usually the most pleasing. 
Stucco or brick veneer may be used, 
although a bungalow loses a great deal 


costing $5,100 


Fig. 5. 
artistic in pattern with cut rafter-ends 


The eaves of the bungalow are 


640 


of its cosy appearance when the exterior 
is of plaster or brick. 

The interior of the house is finished 
complete with clear quarter-sawed white 
oak, including the kitchen wainscot, cup- 
boards, etc. It may be well to state 
here that there is often considerable 
confusion in the owner’s mind as to 


Panel de- 


Fig. 8. 
sign of dining room 


Fig. 6. Simple columns between music 


and living rooms 


what is really the best grade of oak, 
since the grades are decidedly mislead- 
ing. ‘“‘Clear’’ oak is the best grade and 
“‘Number One’”’ is second. ‘“‘Select’’ is 
the third grade and perhaps the most 
commonly used, since it makes a very 
fair trim when finished. This third 
grade allows for small tight knots and 
pin worm holes, but is otherwise sound 
although the allowed percentage of 
lengths under two feet is very large, in 
the flooring grade. ; 

Separating the music room from the 
living room is a very simple colonnade 
consisting of only two large columns, as 
shown in Fig. 6, while the living room 
and dining room are divided by a mas- 
sive buttress having china cabinets on 
the dining room side and panels on the 
living room side, as shown in Fig. 7. 
The dining room itself is finished with a 
heavy beam-ceiling and a 5-foot 6-inch 
batten panel wainscot, the panels of 
which are made up of three plies of white 
oak veneer to prevent shrinking or 
warping. The panel design is shown in 
Fig. 8. 

The doors throughout the house were 
all made specially for the job and are 


Popular Science Monthly 


single-panel doors having a five-ply oak 
veneer panel. 

In the rear hall, as marked on the 
plan, the linen closet was built with a 
clothes-chute underneath. The opera- 
tion of this chute was decided on by 
the owner and it is certainly a good idea. 
The baseboard lifts up, the soiled clothes 
are dropped on the floor and pushed 
through the opening into the cellar box, 
from which they are taken directly to 
the laundry trays in the cellar. 

The bathroom is finished in white tile 
and white enamel, with white enameled 
fixtures. The floor is laid of white 
hexagonal tile one inch in diameter, 
while the walls are wainscoted 5 ft. 
from the floor with 3 by 6-inch oblong 
glazed tile with tile cove and cap. The 
lavatory is an oval pedestal design and 
the closet is a low front-wash-out type. 
The tub is of standard enameled iron. 

The average owner does not under- 
stand the grading of enameled ironware 
and therefore calls loudly for a “five-year 
guarantee” article. This is really an 
extravagance as a “‘two-year”’ guarantee 
is absolutely as good for the following 
reason; enameled ironware in general, 
and bathroom fixtures in particular, are 
known as “‘five-year,’’ “‘two-year’”’ and 
‘“‘non-guarantee”’ fixtures. This means 
that the best grade is guaranteed against 
any defect for the term of five years, the 
second grade for a term of two years, 
and the third grade for no time at all. 
The difference between the first and 
second grades, however, is very little, 
except in price. 

(To be concluded) 


LIVING RM. S/OE DINING RIF SIDE 


Fig. 7. Buttresses between dining room and 
living room 


eo 


How I Made $22.50 


By Reading the 
Popular Science Monthly 


N an investment of seventy-five cents I 
realized a profit of twenty-two dollars 
and fifty cents, or three thousand per 

cent. 

It was the Porputar Science MontTHiy 
that paid the profit. 

I have been a constant reader of PopuLaRr 
Science for some time. Often I wondered 
who wrote the interesting articles which I 
read. One night I 
was in my workshop 
etching glass by a 
method described in 
a previous issue. 
The work was 
halted by the 
absolute necessity of 
having perfectly 
clean glass to work 
upon. Finally I hit 
upon alcohol and 
powdered chalk. 
The result was all I 
hoped for. 

After finishing the 
work I sat down for 
a smoke, thoroughly 
satisfied with my- 

self—as we all are after a job well done. 
Picking up the current issue of “‘our’” magazine 
I prepared myself for an enjoyable evening. 
Suddenly I came across a small reading 
notice at the bottom of a page—something 
that I had not seen before. It read: 
“Tdeas submitted to this department are 
paid for at space rates when published.” 
| That sounded good, but what could I 
sell? I have it! That alcohol-chalk stunt— 
it’s good, dustless, and practical. So I sent in 
an article on a “Dustless Window Cleaner.” 
It was accepted and paid for. Ive written 
a few articles since then that paid —xg—, 
more. 

While talking to a local mer- 
chant one day, he told me what 
he paid a Boston man for win- 
dow attractions. I thought it 
over that night. I brought out 
my bunch of PopuLar Scrence 
Montutres and went through 


The number of the Pop- 
ular Science Monthly 
containing the article on 
Novel Window Attrac- 
tions was rented for six 


dollars and a half 


“Novel Window Attractions” in the January, 
1915, issue, page 81? Look it up. It will pay 
you to do so. I rented the magazine to 
my friend, the local merchant, for one dollar 
per night, first two nights, fifty cents each 
night thereafter. He had it four nights. 
Another merchant paid me for five nights 
more. 

“Magic Mirror for Show Windows” (De- 
cember, 1914, page 668) paid me in rent the 
same terms, five and one-half dollars. 

“Colored Lights in Window Display” 
(April, 1914, page 1467) paid me in rent from 
a florist, two nights, four dollars. 

The most prominent dye house in town paid 
me a dollar for “A Facetious Dyer’s Sign” 
(September, 1914, 7 
page 238). es ZZ A 

I made up about a =f 
pint of “Acid Ink 
Eraser’ (July, 1915, 
page 89), and sold 
five two-ounce bottles 
at twenty-five cents 
a bottle. 

I wish to take 
this opportunity to 
thank the PopuLar 
Science MonrTauty, 
the editors and con- 


“Colored Lights in 


tributors. I have Window Display” 
itemized what I paid me in rent (for 
have made. Study the magazine) from 
the figures; look up a florist, two nights, 
articles; and then— four dollars 
“Go Thou and do likewise.” 
Received: 
Articles, Popular Science Monthly, space 
ALLL Oe NER ee pel Se Se Spee ale iter ts ee ae $15.00 
Rent, ““ Novel Window Attractions”........ 6.50 
ee” ee i oe ee a 5.50 
eee es ee 4.00 
Information, “Dyer’s Sign”... .......2.4+- 1.00 
Sale of “Ink Eraser” ......... 1.25 


Estimated Material 

and Labor... ..... $10.00 
Cost of magazines from 

from which articles 

were taken........ 15 


$10.75 $33.25 


the index of each for window 
attractions. Luck! I know 
what the word means now. 

Do any of you remember 


eae 


A dye house paid a 

dollar for the idea of 

a “Facetious Dyer’s 
Sign 


641 


Profit on Investment......... $22.50 


L. E. Ferrer, 
591 Middle St., 
Portsmouth, N. H. 


MUD AND SILT 


Three men were blown through twenty-seven feet of river mud, twenty-five feet of water and 

twenty feet into the air on top of a geyser of mud and foam while engaged in excavating the 

bed of the East River, New York city, for the building of a new subway. They were 

working in what is known as a shield, which is pushed forward foot by foot as the workmen 

progress. Compressed air prevents the water from rushing into the shield. The great pres- 

sure of the air forced the three men one after the other through a hole in the river bed. One 
of the men, the first to be ejected into the river, survived 


642 


nd ae ee ee 


spd 


SeseGttie 


os 


rayon: 


- 


Popular Science Monthly 


239 Fourth Ave., New York 


Vol. 88 
No. 5 


May, 1916 


$1.50 
Annually 


Workmen Shot From Tunnel 
Through the Bed of a River 


By Eustace L. Adams 


with mid-afternoon traffic. On the 

East River, far underneath the 
lofty structure, tugs and barges were 
busy with their endless tasks. Suddenly 
passengers on the bridge and crews of 
boats heard a muffled roar, and a geyser 
shot from the river twenty feet into the 
air. Dark forms mingled with the water, 
and a moment later, when the rush of the 
geyser had died down, three men were 
seen floating on the surface of the river. 

One of these men quickly disappeared 
from sight. His dead body was later 
recovered. The other two swam for shore 
and were rescued. One of them died 
before he could be taken to the hospital. 
The other lived. All three men (sand 
hogs, who had been digging in an 
atmosphere of compressed air under the 
river) had been blown from their posts in 
front of the great steel shield which is 
boring through the East River bed to the 
open air. They were shot through 
twenty-seven feet of river mud, twenty- 
five feet of water and an additional 
twenty into the air on top of a geyser of 
mud and foam. 

The first knowledge that the officials 
at the Brooklyn end of the new subway 
tube had of the accident was when a 
number of terrified workmen rushed into 
the compressed air caisson, clamoring 
to be let out. Among these was one 
man who had been a witness of the acci- 
dent, and from him a coherent story was 
obtained. 

The tunnel in which this strange acci- 
dent occurred had been pushed out under 


[Bee BRIDGE was jammed 


643 


the river for about three hundred feet, 
by what is known as the shield method. 
When engineers commence their under- 
ground tunneling, a heavy steel shield 
is built at the end of the shaft where the 
men are at work. This shield is pushed 
forward into the mud or dirt for a dis- 
tance of two feet by a number of hy- 
draulic rams which are capable of 
exerting a pressure of five thousand 
pounds to the square inch. In the shield 
are a number of doors which allow the 
workmen, or “‘sand hogs,” to dig away 
the dirt, stones and mud in front so 
that the shield may be moved another 
two feet. - 

The question naturally arises: What 
keeps the mud and water from coming 
into the shield and overwhelming the 
workmen? A short distance behind the 
shield is a bulkhead wall, containing air 
locks. The entire space forward from 
the airlock is kept filled with com- 
pressed air. This air, when maintained 
at the proper pressure, balances that 
of the water and keeps it from flowing 
into the tunnel. If sufficient pressure is 
exerted by the air-pumps, the water is 
driven still farther away, and the work- 
men may work on dry ground, instead 
of on mud of a molasses-like consistency. 

As they excavate in front of the shield, 
the workmen plank up the opening they 
have made and remove the planks just 
before the shield is to be pushed forward. 
The shoring serves merely to keep loose 
earth and stones from falling upon the 
men as they work. 

Four men, who were outside the shield, 


644 Popular Science Monthly 


had just removed some of the shoring 
when earth began to drop rapidly away 
from one spot in the top of the tunnel. 
One of the men seized a bag of cement 
which is kept for such an emergency and 
attempted to block up the rapidly 
growing hole. Suddenly there was a 
report like a pistol shot. His startled 
comrades saw the man jerked up out 
of sight. Then they realized what hap- 
pened. The man 
had been blown 
away like a pea in 
a pea-shooter. One 
of the men managed 
to save himself by 
clinging to the 
shield. The other 
two victims were 
shot upwards to 
the surface of the 
river. 

The instant that 
the work of rescue 
had been complet- 
ed, officials began 
the work of repair. 
It was found that 
the accident had 
been caused by a 
spot in the bed of 
the river which had 
been unable to 
withstand the air 
pressure of twenty- 
four pounds to the square inch that 
had been maintained in the tunnel. 
As a result the bottom of the river had 
blown out like a faulty automobile tire 
when overcharged with air. 

Only once before in the history of 
tunneling has a workman been shot 
through the bed of a river and survived. 
Eleven years ago a ‘“‘sand hog’’ was 
blown through the bed of the East River 
during the construction. of the present 
subway system. Although severely in- 
jured he survived the shock, and by a 
curious coincidence was working on the 
tunnel in which the recent accident 
occurred. 


but not a pole of steel. 


Militia Aero Corps 
WENTY-FOUR states are at pres- 
ent organizing aero corps to be in- 


cluded in their National Guards and 
Naval Militias. 


Spikes help a lineman to climb a wooden pole, 


vented which enables a lineman to clamp him- 
self step by step on the steel pole 


Climbing Steel Poles with the Aid of. 


Iron Shoes 

T was always an easy matter for a line- 

man to stick the points of his climbers 
into the sides of a wooden pole and 
reach the top with the agility of a 
squirrel. With the introduction of steel 
poles for high tension electrical lines, 
some other climbing help had to be 
found. A forged steel shoe has been 
invented, which is 
neatly strapped 
over the regular 
shoe. 

The toe of the 
steel pole - climber 
curves upward. On 
its tip there are two 
steel projecting 
bearings or clamp- 
ing points, and 
these points tell the 
secret of the device. 
A square steel 
block, having four 
sharp corners is 
placed just beyond 
the toes of the 
steel shoe. When 
dull from use these 
corners may be 
substituted one for 
another. 

This special block 
bears on the out- 
side of the steel pole, and a steel point 
situated at the end of the climber bears 
on the opposite side. 

The climbers have a clamping action 
between the block and the point on the 
edge of the steel pole. This action is 
accomplished by the pressure of the 
lineman’s weight on the end of the 
climber. Naturally his weight will come 
at the right point in climbing the pole. 
As he raises his foot for the next step, 
the lifted heel releases the grip of the 
climber. The steel climbers weigh about 
as much as the old style grippers used 
for the wooden poles. 


An Invisible Ink 
HEN the juice of an onion or 


A shoe has been in- 


lemon is substituted for ink, no - 


visible effect is made on the paper until 
heated, when the writing will stand out 
very plainly. 


Rocking a Three-Hundred Foot Masonry Tower 
with Your Hand 


Y the mere pressure of your hand you can rock 
B “Sather Campanile’’—the three-hundred-and-two- 
foot memorial tower just completed on the campus 

of the University of California. 

In order to minimize the danger from earthquake shocks, 
the architect, Professor John Galen Howard, and the 
engineer, Professor Charles Derlith, Jr., so built the strong 
steel frame of the Campanile that cross-bracing is elimi- 
nated at alternate stories. Asa result the vibration of the 
tower is like that of a steel rod one end of which is thrust 
in the ground. In an earthquake the tower would vibrate 
like a tree. 

According to Professor Elmer E. Hall’s tests, the tower 
has a vibration period of 1.13 seconds. By pressing against 
the steel frame at the top of the Campanile every 1.13 |. 4 
seconds he <as able to rock the tower, so that earthquake | aa 
recorders (seismographs they are called) registered the _ 
vibrations. However, the amount of motion was less than _ 
the thickness of this sheet of paper. ; ; 

The plan on which the tower was built is to preventare- 
enforcement of the rocking caused by an earthquake vibra- 
tion. For instance, a child can set a hammock swinging 
violently simply by pushing at the right moment, no mat- | | | 
ter how heavy the load may be. If the pushes are not timed ; 4 
correctly, the swinging is retarded. Itisthe samewith the | | 
Campanile. The plan is to prevent cumulative swaying, such 
as would occur if the period of 
the earthquake and the vibra- 
tion of the tower were the same, 
and such as would cause the 
structure tocollapse. Mrs. Jane 
K. Sather erected 
the memorial 
to her hus- 
band. 


ean 
arian meena ENE ARO 
chen 4 st Sy x 


smreep eee 


any pt cnceanesnatinneis veenes dine 


ne pow eee ae Ree 


The pressure of 
your hand will 
swing the bell-tower 
at Berkeley, Calif., 
which in height is 
second only to Wash- 
: ington Monument. It 
ke y was erected. as amemorial, 
rae by Mrs. Jane K. Sather at 
7 a cost of two hundred and 
twenty-five thousand dollars 


sa? 


Dancing 


study of the menu 
card and finds him- 
self in a_ totally 
different position. 

The ordinary 
speed of the floor 
is one revolution 
in eighty minutes. 
The motion is 
hardly perceptible 
as one steps on to 
the floor, but is 
sufficient to swing 
one all the way 
around during the 
course of a dinner. 
The original inten- 
tion was to revolve 
the floor rapidly 
enough to give a 
kind of a merry- 
go-round effect, 
but a polished floor 
is slippery and cen- 
trifugal force is 
constantly on the 
watch for the un- 
wary. Upset ta- 
bles, broken mirrors, and indignant pas- 
sengers soon convinced the management 
that there was such a thing as too much 
speed even in a New York restaurant. 
Hence a regulator was installed. 

The manner in which the floor is 
driven is very simple. It is pivoted at 
the center and is supported on rollers. A 
small motor, mounted on the ceiling of 
the room below, provides the motive 
power. It drives a small pinion which 
meshes with a rack running entirely 


on a Revolving Floor: 


New York’s Latest Cabaret Fad 


N order to provide its patrons with sensations that are 
| somewhat out of the ordinary, a well-known New York 

restaurant has installed a revolving dancing-floor. This 
circular floor, which is about thirty-five feet in diameter, 
occupies the center of the main dining-room. The greater 
part of it is left clear for dancing, but a circle of tables is 
generally arranged around the circumference. Seated at 
one of these tables, the diner is conveyed slowly around to 
survey and to be surveyed by all present. 

One can readily imagine the shock a stranger must feel 
when, having been escorted unknowingly to one of 
these tables and subconsciously noting his proximity 
to a certain pillar or mirror, he looks around after his 


around the edge 
of the undersur- 
face of the floor. 
One-half horse- 
power is_ suf- 
ficient to turn 
the heavy floor, though it is often loaded 
with a hundred people. 

In the center of the floor is a large cir- 
cle of glass through which colored light 
is thrown. A fancy dancer can thus 
obtain beautiful effects. 


646 


Popular Science Monthly 647 


A New York restaurant is responsible for this newest development of the dancing craze. 
At first they tried to turn the floor at high speed, but this was found too fast for New Yorkers. 
Now the floor turns at a solemn but relentless rate. The whole floor, with as many as one 
hundred persons, is turned by a one-half horsepower motor, so well arranged is the mechanism 


The Making of a Telegraph Boy 


Training Messengers 


to Become Managers 


A tailoring department is maintained, for the boys must look neat enough to enter the finest 
hotels in the city. Each boy is measured and provided with two suits for which he pays a 
small weekly rental. Three tailors keep the uniforms clean and in repair 


T is a big ‘undertaking to produce 

useful and capable men from boys 

whose opportunities for education 
have been limited and who are practical- 
ly without training. Yet that is the task 
assumed by one of our great telegraph 
companies. Its messenger boys are to be- 
come not merely bearers of dispatches, 
but men of char- 
acter. 

Fred Geigle, 
manager of these 
boys—and there 
are several hun- 
dred of them—is 
the man who has 
charge of the 
work. He em- 
ploys and dis- 
charges, repri- 
mands or pun- 
ishes, as the oc- 
casion arises. 
But above all he 
sets out to wina 
boy’s confidence. 
Mr. Geigle him- 
self commenced 


by step to the manager’s chair. Surely 
he knows just the conditions under which 
the boys work. On the other hand, the 
boys feel instinctively that he is their 
friend. To him they go confidently for 
assistance in any difficulty. 

From the time the boy hands in his 
application every precaution is taken 
conscientiously 
by the company 


Neatness and 
courtesy are val- 
uable business 
assets. The rules 
presented to a 
new boy stipu- 
late that his uni- 
form must at all 
times be in per- 
fect condition, 
must be clean, in 
repair, buttons 
all on, and coat 
kept buttoned. 
The company 
provides as many 


tosafeguard him. 


4 
Se eee eee, ee 


as a messenger 
boy and worked 
his way up step 


Between calls there is an opportunity to become 

expert with the typewriter and to learn how 

to use telegraph instruments. Every boy with 

any ability has an opportunity to work up to a 
responsible office position 


648 


changes of uni- 
forms as are 
needed to keep 
the boys up to 


Popular Science Monthly 649 


_the standard in appearance, for which 


service each boy pays a small weekly 
rental. Three tailors are employed con- 
stantly to keep the uniforms clean and 
in repair. In the summer, washable 
blouses are provided instead of coats. 


The company maintains free baths for @ 


the boys, with free towels and 
soap. 

Each boy is 
instructed in 
simple matters 
of courtesy. He 
is taught when 
and where to 
remove his cap. 
He is made to 
feel that he is 
identified with 
an important 
commercial 
house, and that 
his deportment 
should be such 
as to be worthy 
of his company. 
He knows that if he does not conduct 


& 


-himself properly he will be reported to 


the manager. His oversights are entered 
upon the index card, and adverse entries 
count against him when the time comes 
for promotion. In this practical manner 
the boy is taught that good manners 
bring their reward in dollars and cents. 

The company also maintains a small 
circulating library for the use of the 
boys, a former messenger acting as 
librarian. Every boy in the messenger 
service is entitled to the free use of this 
library. 

The company desires to assist every 
boy to fit himself for something better, if 
the boy cares to do so; and to further 
this object, a typewriter is placed in the 
messengers’ waiting-room. Any boy is 
at liberty to practice upon it while wait- 
ing for calls. A set of telegraph instru- 
ments has also been installed, with an 
inside connection, so that any ambitious 
boy may learn telegraphy and carry on 
communication with another boy at the 
end of the line in the same room. 

Especially commendable work which 
Mr. Geigle performs is in training his 
boys to be men. A messenger boy is sub- 
jected to many experiences which rarely 
come to the boy employed in a business 


Great quantities of clothes for m 

are kept in the stock room. Each new applicant 

is fitted with a suit of correct size. The 

necessary alterations are made in the company’s 
tailoring department 


house. The boy’s honesty and integrity 
are tested hourly by the very nature of 
his service, and he himself is subjected to 
the wily approaches of those who would 
profit by his commissions. Thus the boy 
is compelled to be doubly 
fortified, first entrenched 
within his own consciousness 
lest he be tempted to do 
wrong; and secondly, 
he must beever watch- 
ful for the tempta- 
tion from without 
which would 
ensnare him 
and despoil his 
employers. 
Among sey- 
eral hundred 
boys, it some- 
times -happens 
that one is not 
so careful or 
particular in 
some matters 
as he should be. 
This lapse is reported to the manager, 
and the boy comes before him for ex- 
planation. A boy is never discharged 
for a first offense, unless it be of a very 
serious nature. Instead, the manager 
talks it all over with him in the desire 
to be helpful rather than harsh. The 
boy is given an opportunity to try again 
in another location, from which reports 
are also made. ~ Should the boy fail even 
a second time to progress satisfactorily 
he is given still another trial, with the 
earnest, patient counsel of the manager 
to show him the right course to pursue. 


essenger boys 


Making Weather Forecasts with Flowers 


EATHER conditions may be pre- 
determined by means of a unique 
arrangement, easily prepared by anyone. 
Procure a bouquet of paper flowers. 
They may be made or purchased, but 
their colors must be pink and blue. Dip 
the flowers in a saturated solution of 
chloride of cobalt and allow to dry. 
Repeat the process five or six times; and 
place the flowers in a suitable vase. 
When wet weather is approaching, 
the flowers retain their original colors, 
but when it is going to be dry, the pink 
flowers become purple and the blue ones 
turn green. 


Popular Science M. onthly 


Bringing home the harvest. The sack contains turtles, 
weighing in all over a hundred Pounds. They are sold 
by weight—shells and all 


: 


Popular Science Monthly 651 


Catching Turtles as a Business 


ID you ever wonder where the 

turtle in your soup at the fashion- 
able restaurant came from? Did you 
know that many of the buttons on your 
clothes were made from the backs of 
snapping turtles? In early September, 
when turtles are house-hunting among 
the pebbles and worms in the muddy 
bed of some fresh water creek, prepara- 
tory to sleeping away several months of 
cold winter weather, men are getting 
ready to wake them up in the middle of 
their nap by jabbing a steel hook into 
their backs. The work of hunting 
turtles, though it begins in the early 
autumn, continues all through the winter 
months. 

The hunting of turtles has become a 
specialty with J. S. Bassler, who can 
boast of catching four and five tons every 
year. He uses a heavy steel rod bearing 
a hook at the end. Fitted with rubber 
boots and warm clothes, Mr. Bassler 
wades along the stream, jabbing the 
hook into the muddy bottom. Rudely 
awakened from his comfortable, ice- 
cold bed, the turtle is jerked out of the 
water on the end of the hook. 

The turtle hunters usually select 
some country having numerous small 
streams. Here they pitch their tent 
and remain for several days, working 
within a radius of eight or ten miles 
from camp. After the streams are 
exhausted, they move on to another 
section of country. Sometimes five 
hundred pounds of turtles are-found in 
the same hole, and thousands of pounds 
are caught during the usual stay in each 
camp. 

The live turtles are placed in large 
bags and carried to the road where they 
are loaded in a wagon. A bag of turtles 
weighs between one hundred and one 
hundred and twenty-five pounds. The 
turtles are later packed in sugar barrels, 
one on top of another, each barrel 
weighing as much as three hundred and 
twenty-five pounds. They will live in 
this condition for many days. The 
chief markets, like New York and 


Chicago, pay from six to twelve cents a 
pound for turtles, including the shells. 
Turtle soup is made from ordinary 
snapping turtles and not from green sea 
turtles, as gourmets fondly believe. 


Why Logwood Is Worth $200 a Ton 


HE great bulk of the logwood from 

all regions of its growth is used to 
obtain black dyes which result from its 
use with alum and iron bases. The use 
of logwood dates back over two hundred 
and fifty years, and from that time on 
the logs from Yucatan and Honduras 
have been considered far superior to 
those obtained from Jamaica and Santo 
Domingo. It may be of interest to note 
that the logwood tree is not a native of 
Jamaica. 

The first shipment of logs that came 
into England in about 1550 was obtained 
at points on the Spanish Main and it 
seems that at first the dyers were unable 
to obtain durable colors. In order to 
protect the public the use of logwood 
was forbidden in 1581 by an Act of 
Parliament. The dyers in France and 
Germany, however, soon developed the 
use of logwood. After that English 
dyers were again permitted to use it, 
with the result that the demand for log- 
wood began to increase. The wood from 
Campeche soon brought a price as high 
as $500 per ton, and that from Jamaica 
about $250. At the present time the 
Campeche wood sells for about $200 per 
ton and that from Jamaica and Haiti 
$100. 

Tke world’s present annual consump- 
tion of logwood is estimated at about 
200,000 tons, of which the United States 
consumes approximately 30,000 tons. 
The import statistics for 1914 show that 
20,000 tons of. logwood came from 
Jamaica and about 10,000 tons largely 
from Haiti. The Bureau of Statistics of 
the Department of Commerce and Labor 
supplies the following figures in refer- 
ence to the sources, quantities and values 
of logwood imported during rgro. 


SOURCE QUANTITY VALUE 
British Honduras..... 1,005 tons $ 16,491 
British West Indies . 1) eh ipo ea 137,906 
FRAtGL er rs eer oe 19,022 “ 200,544 
WERICONS saree eS ate 449 “ 5,381 
St eWOMINO . 5. ss. le ¥ ii 3,914 
Other Countries...... Oe) 4,212 


The present bad condition of the dye 
trade in the United States has called forth 
numerous propositions for remedying the 
difficulties, but nothing practical has 
been done. 


An Automatic Animal Fire Escape 


Y the use of an automatic, animal 
fire escape just presented by a 
Western inventor it is possible to 
clear any size sta- 
ble of animals in 
five short seconds. 
In the operation of 
this fire escape the 
element of chance 
does not enter. It 
has a positive ac- 
tion, and as _ all 
working parts are 
controlled by gravy- 
ity there is nothing 
to get out of order 
at the critical mo- 
ment. The value 
of an apparatus of 
this kind will be 
realized by anyone, 
for a fire. seldom 
destroys a stable of 
any considerable 
size without a num- 
of the animals be- 
ing lost. This re- 
sults generally from the fact that the 
animals, frightened by the fire .and 
smoke, become unmanageable and, if 
loosened, rush into the flames. The 
new device does away with all danger 
from this source and in addition provides 
a means of escape. 

When the fire escape is to be arranged, 
the stalls are located along the sides of 
the stable. Each is arranged with a door 
in the exterior wall, which is provided 
with a mechanism which at the same 
time that the door is held shut, holds upa 
gate above the open end of the stall, or 
behind the animal when the stall is oc- 
cupied. A manger with collapsible parts 
is mounted in proper relation to the 
stall and a special halter is provided. 
Each manger is made up of two distinct 
parts—a front and a bottom. In the 
edges of these where they unite when in 
normal position is located a slot or 
groove, in the form of a one-inch hole, 
half of which is in the bottom and half 
in the front. Through this hole is run 
a one-inch rope, with a knot at its lower 
end and a ring at its upper end. When 


Diagram of the automatic horse fire escape. 

A gate drops, the manger collapses, and the 

halter is loosened when the outside fire-es- 
cape door of the stable is opened 


the manger collapses, the rope is in- 
stantly released and the animal freed. 
All working parts are operated by grav- 
ity. When the 
door, which is hung 
ov gravity hinges, is 
unlatched it falls 
open, thereby al- 
lowing the bar 
which supports the 
rear gate to roll 
forward. This re- 
leases the gate, 
which drops, pre- 
venting the animal 


the stable. As the 
door is opened still 
farther the manger 
collapses and falls 


having released the 


One large business 
house in Los Angel- 
es, at the stables.of 
which company the accompanying il- 
lustrations were made, has a series of ten 
of these escapes inone row. By a single 
operation, performed by hand or auto- 
matically, all of the escapes may be trip- 
ped, as shown on the opposite page. 

If a fire breaks out, the device works 
automatieally. This result is accom- 
plished by running a cable along the in- 
terior of the building. This cable is cut 
into short pieces and connected with 
fusible links, these being placed as near to 
the woodwork as possible. From the in- 
terior the cable is run through the outside 


wall close to the lever which operates the’ 


fire escape doors. The end of the cable 
is then attached to a trip to which a 
weight is fastened, this weight also being 
connected to the lever which releases the 
door latches. In the event of a fire the 
cable separates, on account of one of the 
fusible links being melted, this releasing 
the trip which allows the weight to pull 
down the lever and which, in turn, 
automatically releases all of the fire 
doors. This device is the invention of 
John Betty of Los Angeles. 


652 


from backing into 


to the floor, the 
opening of the door 


supporting rods.. 


— 


Le Be ee 


~~ 


Popular Science Monthly 653 


Solidly locked when 
not needed, the outside 
doors of the stable are 
held shut by triggers 
connected with a shaft 
which runs the length 
of the building and is 
operated by a single 
lever. The device can 
be arranged to operate 
automatically in case 
of fire. In this case a 
weight lifts the lever 
—the weight being re- 
leased when any of the 
fusible metal sections of 
a cable are burnt out in 
any part of the stable 


Diagram 

of door 

release 

system. Release { Door 
The tim- swung 


out 
on 

staggered 
hinges 


ber at 
the top| 
of the 
doorway 
is ashaft 
connect- 
ed with 
the gate 
at the 
rear, which 
closes as soon as the outside door is opened 


A Stable Door Which Opens When a Fire Breaks Out 


When the door, which is hung on gravity hinges, is unlatched, it falls open. When released, 

the gate drops and the animal is prevented from backing into the stable. As the door is 

opened still farther the manger collapses and falls to the floor, the opening of the door hav- 

ing released the rods which support it. This all occurs in an instant. The animal is forced 
to move out into the open air 


Doing Away with the Submarine’s 
Storage Battery 


it could be made still more terrible 

if it were propelled by a system 
simpler than that at present employed. 
Although no perfect engine has yet been 
found which is suitable for both surface 
and underwater propulsion, naval en- 
gineers are agreed that were it not for 
the storage battery the submarine might 
be made big enough and fast enough to 


fl Ponca as the submarine seems, 


battery, is installed on every submarine 
for underwater propulsion. The weight 
of that battery is about three hundred 
and seventy pounds per horsepower per 
hour. Hydrogen gas, which is in itself 


not poisonous, but which is highly ex- 
plosive when mixed with 
air, is generated as the bat- 
teries discharge. 


OE 
ee ees ~ 
om ge. 
=| Fae 


Control 
turret 


Hence a 
ventilating system 


Protective hood 


Air bottles Torpedo compartment 


Air bottles beneath floor 


Engine room 


A 

take its place in the battle-line 
of a high-sea fleet. Some day we 
may see squadrons going into 
battle accompanied by submersi- 
ble vessels of huge dimensions, 
which will have armored decks 
and which will be capable of mak- 
ing speeds of twenty-five knots and more. 
Compared with the battle possibilities of 
these future craft even the largest of 
present German U-boats will seem puny 
and toy-like in comparison. But before 
we shall see them the present type of 
surface propelling-engine must be vastly 
improved, and above all the storage bat- 
tery must be abandoned. 

An oil or any other internal-combus- 
tion engine cannot be employed to drive 
a submarine under water because of the 
poisonous gases generated and because 
it breathes air more voraciously than any 
human being. Hence an electric motor, 
deriving its current from a _ storage- 


Eliminating the Storage Battery from 
the Submarine—the Neff System 

These drawings are a longitudinal 
vertical section and a sectional plan of 
the Neff system. The two small cross- 
sections at the bottom are taken through 
the points marked A and B below the 
two larger drawings. 

Both the forward and aft compartments con- 
tain steel bottles in which air is compressed 
at 2,500 pounds pressure; other air bottles are 
placed beneath the floors. The engines drive 
propellers near the bow of the boat. Protecting 
fins guard the propellers from injury. 

The engine-room is supplied with air in two 
distinct ways; one for surface running and the 
other for submerged running. The super- 
structure is open to the sea and serves to hold a 
considerable amount of air after the submarine 
has begun to submerge. This trapped air 1s 
automatically fed to the engines for the first few 


must be provided. In the lead-type of 
battery, which is in use side by side with 
the Edison nickel-iron cell, the greatest 
care has to be exercised to exclude salt © 


654 


Popular Science Monthly 


water; if that should come into contact 
with the liquid of the battery, chlorine 
gas—the poison gas of European battle- 
fields—would fill the vessel. 

Although the Edison cell will not 
generate chlorine, even if salt water 
should leak in, it does generate an ex- 
cessive amount of hydrogen when dis- 
charging. Whatever type of cell may be 
installed the storage battery is heavy, 
cumbrous, dangerous and very limited 
in the amount of power that it is able to 
deliver. 

Realizing that the submarine must be 
freed of the storage battery, the Navy 
Department has taken a great interest in 


Open superstructure 


655 
company spent about $130,000 in com- 
pleting a submarine boat, seventy-five 
feet long and seven and one-half feet 
in beam. It was driven only by oil en- 
gines; it had no storage battery at all. 
In order that the crew might live despite 
the poisonous gases given off by the en- 
gines, a compressed air ventilating sys- 
tem was installed. The six men on board 
stayed under water thirty-six hours— 
a record submergence. 

It was in this boat that Mr. Neff be- 
came interested. He made improve- 
ments of his own and engaged engineers 
to contribute their ideas. A trial board 
appointed by the Navy Department ap- 
proved of the ventilating and propulsion 


Oil fuel and 
ballast tanks 


minutes—a feature of importance 
when the submarine ts cruising at the 
surface in a heavy sea and the atmos- 
pheric air-feed may be cut off mo- 
mentarily. 

The air bottles are tapped as they are 
needed. A_ high-pressure airline 
leads from these bottles throughout the 
vessel; the high pressure system in turn supplies 
a low pressure system of pipes. As soon as the 
atmospheric air-feeding devices have been cut off 
the air pressure within the vessel drops; and 
this drop is utilized to cause the feeding of air 
automatically from the stored supply. 

The exhaust from the engine passes out 
through an exhaust manifold from which an 
exhaust-pipe leads, discharging beneath the pro- 
pellers. Mechanical exhausters are also pro- 
vided in case the water pressure is so great that 
the natural suction effect produced by the travel 
of the vessel through the water is insufficient. 


what is known as the Neff system of 
submarine propulsion, which takes its 
name from Abner R. Neff. 

About three years ago a California 


Air bottles 


system. The only objections which 
have been raised to the system are 
military in character. Against the 
Neff system it has been urged that 
large quantities of air would be 
emitted, when the submarine is 
running under water; a wake of air 
bubbles would be left on the sur- 
face to betray the craft and to make it 
easy to follow its submerged course. An- 
other objection is the noise made by the 
Diesel engines under water; the pounding 
of engines and air compressors could 
easily be picked up by sensitive sound- 
receiving devices. 

As might be supposed, the inventors of 
the Neff submarine system are ready 
with replies. They point to the manner 
of handling the exhaust from the en- 
gines—indicated in a general way in the 
accompanying illustration. The burnt 
gases are led to a system of condensing 
tubes outside of the hull. The expanded 
gases, having been condensed, are drawn 


656 
inboard by mechanical exhausters and in 
turn pumped overboard. Underneath 
the hull the exhaust is sprayed out and 
carried back to the propellers. If there 
are any bubbles left they are churned up 
by the propellers as by an egg-beater. 
Thus the betraying wake left by a train 
of air bubbles is to be eliminated. 

The noise from oil engines under 
water, to which objection has been raised 
by naval officers, is caused by a final ex- 
pansion of gas, after it leaves the cylin- 
ders, from a pressure of about fifty 
pounds down to atmospheric. This is 


Popular Science Monthly 


one can say. The Navy is frankly inter- 
ested in the project, but, following the 
usual government policy, it prefers to 
adopt the system only after it has been 
completely developed by some private 
company. About $300,000 have been 
thus far spent on the system. Its 
promoters are unwilling to make any 
further sacrifices. Here we have a good 
example of the use of a Naval Advisory 
Board. The Neff system may not be 
perfect; but it has assuredly commenda- 
ble features enough to justify the Board 
in carrying on the further development 


The llama of South America corresponds to the camel of the East as a beast of burden 
in the desert regions of the Andes 


accompanied by rapid sharp reports and 
a reverberating roar. In the Neff system 
it is claimed that the exhaust is silent, 
because the engine is exhausted into a 
condenser or a closed chamber from 
which it is drawn at a partial vacuum and 
discharged overboard at nearly the out- 
side water pressure. The remaining 
noises are due to the movements of the 
machine parts, such as the clicking of 
valves. All this noise, it is claimed, may 
be reduced by proper regulation and ad- 
justment. In testifying before the Com- 
mittee on Naval Affairs of the House of 
Representatives, Mr. Neff pointed out 
what the PopULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 
has already shown—that the characteris- 
tic hum of an electric motor can be picked 
up at a distance of fifteen miles by micro- 
phones and that this hum is easily dis- 
tinguished from the vibration of engines. 
Hence there is just as much objection to 
the electric motor as to the Diesel engine 
under water. 

Whether or not the Neff system will be 
adopted by the United States Navy no 


with government funds. If private com- 
panies were to wait for inventors to sub- 
mit commercially perfect devices we 
would have no tungsten lamp, no 
harvesting machinery, no electric motor. 
All new inventions are crude. They 
must be regarded as material for de- 
velopment by laboratory engineers. Not 
until the government assumes that at- 
titude are we likely to improve our 
fighting machinery. 


Llamas as Powder-Carriers 


N the semi-desert Andes countries the - 


llamais the general beast of burden, cor- 
responding to the camel in the Old 
World. The photograph shows a troop 
of these singular animals transporting 
American powder to an interior Bolivian 
mining district, far from any railroad. 
The llamas are heading for the Andean 
Mountain passes, led by a reliable old 
bellwether. Two or three gauchos 
(herdsmen) will manage a bunch of fifty 
or sixty animals; for the creatures give 
little or no trouble unless overloaded. 


ee 


Popular Science Monthly 


The Electromagnetic Hand for 
Armless Veterans 

T a meeting of the Verband Deutscher 
Elektrotechniker (Association of Ger- 
man Electrotechnicians) the suggestion 
was made that the Verband consider the 
design and development of artificial 
arms, equipped with electro- 
magnetic seizing and holding 
mechanism. The underlying 
idea is simply this: 


Construction of the electromagnetic hand. 
To the left, how the hand is used in sawing 


The sleeve enclosing the stump of the 
arm is provided at its outer end with a 
pot-shaped or bell-shaped 
magnet, which can be ad- 
justed or held in a ball- 
end socket, so as to bring 
the retaining face of the 
magnet to any position de- 
sired. The magnet may 
then be either clamped tight 
or else left movable against 
slight resistance. The pot- 
magnet is connected with a 
current supply by means of 
ascrew-plug. Connection is 
made by moving some other 
part of the body, for exam- 
ple the foot, the chin, the re- 
maining arm, the dam- 
aged arm itself, or even the 
whole body. 

The pot-magnet makes it 
possible not only to grasp 
all iron objects, but also to 


Electromagnet 


657 


hold them tight or to lift them and move 
them for any length of time. During 
these manipulations the connection be- 
tween the stump and the object (tool) is 
not a rigid, but a movable one. For this 
reason the magnetic hand may be used 
by all workmen who work with iron tools 
or iron articles. Asa 
rule, the tool need not 
be specially altered or 
given a special shape 
for the mutilated man, 
since the magnetic 
hand is capable of 
grasping the tool at 
any place, provided it 
is made of iron. 

In filing, for in- 
stance, the magnet is 
placed on the outer 
end of the file. The 
file is moved exactly as if it were guided 
by a healthy arm; for the magnet can 
move relatively to the sleeve. A car- 
penter’s plane is provided at its extrem- 
ity with a small iron disk and is manipu- 
lated in exactly the same manner as any 
other plane. Stampings cut out by ma- 
chine dies can be removed perhaps with 
greater ease than with a normal hand. 

Still other grasping movements, for 
instance a pinching movement, may be 
carried out without difficulty. Even the 
delicate closing movement of a pair of 
pliers may be effected. 


Stee/ Plate 


The plane must have a piece of steel on its upper face 
so that the electromagnetic hand may have a hold 


658 


Popular Science Monthly 


A new auger which will work in any position and around almost any obstruction. It can be 
used in a corner, under a shelf, or even inside a box with equal facility 


An Auger that Works Anywhere 


va NEW auger that will work in any 
position has been invented by Wm. 
H. Stiner, of Kennett Square, Pa. The 
chuck is made to take a tool of any size 
up to 2-inch. The great value in the 
device is that it will be of use in so many 
difficult places, it can be placed between 
two rafters and used to bore a hole, and 
the handles can be taken out and placed 
in other positions at will, thus enabling 
the operator of the tool to do many 
difficult jobs that could not possibly be 
undertaken with the ordinary tool. 


Handy Instrument for Physicians 


N instrument for making diagnoses 

in the case of injured eyes, ears, 
noses or throats has been designed for 
physicians and nurses, and it is so small 
and compact that it can be easily slipped 
into the vest pocket. A nickeled case con- 
tains a cell or dry battery which lights 
a miniature lamp. By the use of various 
attachments, the ear and nose can be 
examined, the diseased or injured por- 


tion being magnified by a small glass that 
is attached. By means of a strap, the 
instrument can be fastened to the front 
of the head for use by the surgeon in 
emergency operations. 

Ice Dynamited so Yale Crews 
May Row 


HE Yale crews began practice early 

in March on the Quinnipiac River, 
but not until a path was cleared with 
dynamite through the solid ice fields. 
The condition of the frozen river 
annoyed Coach Guy Nickalls. The 
rowing instructor had to contend with 
work in the gymnasium for the varsity 
oarsmen until he ordered practice on the 
water, which was then one immense 
sheet of ice. For the first time in the 
history of rowing in this country dyna- 
mite was brought into play. Nickalls 
organized a blasting squad consisting of 
Mather Abbott and Charlie Wiman. 
When the coach’s dynamite crew finished 
their work a long lane had been cleared 
for the shells. 


A handy appliance for diagnosing diseases of the eye, ear or throat. 
illumines the parts and a magnifying glass aids in the examination 


An electric light 


Popular Science Monthly 


Embalming a duet by Lina Cavalieri and Lucien Muratore. 
a member of the Metropolitan Opera Company. 
The photograph shows in a general way how songs with orchestral accompaniment 


tenor. 


Cavalieri was formerly 
Muratore is a distinguished Italian 


are recorded. Sometimes the phonograph projects through a partition, so that the singer 


sees only its mouth. 
records. 


Singing for the Phonograph 
HE recording of the human voice on 
the phonograph is almost a science 
in itself—not so much as the artist is 
concerned as the laboratory head who is 
responsible for the clearness of the ulti- 
mate record. While each phonograph 
company has its own system of arrang- 
ing the recording phonograph relatively 
to the orchestra and artist, the essential 
principles are very much the same in all 
laboratories. 

As a general rule the musicians are 
perched midway between floor and ceil- 
ing, with their instruments pointing 
toward the horn of the recording phono- 
graph. Men who play the tuba and 
similar brass instruments turn their 
backs to the phonograph so that the 
mouths of the instruments may project 
their growls and blasts toward the horn. 
In order that the tuba players may see 
the conductor of the orchestra, mirrors 
are placed in front of them, which reflect 
the movements of his baton. 

For violin solos, an ordinary violin is 
used, the artist usually playing directly 


Often five or six phonographs are used simultaneously to make 
In making master records, the artists always sing twice 


in front of a horn projecting through a 
partition. This is true of chamber 
music and all records in which the violin 
tone can be heard with sufficient dis- 
tinctness. In heavy orchestral pieces, 
however, a special instrument called, 
after its inventor, the Stroh violin, 
is used. It seems that the sounds 
of the ordinary violin are difficult 
to produce, especially at a distance. 
Stroh devised a _ violin’ which has 
no sounding-board. It comprises sim- 
ply a bridge, over which the strings 
are stretched in the usual manner, and a 
horn which amplifies the sounds. This 
instrument is now used in all phonograph 
laboratories. On the finished phono- 
graph record its sounds are hardly to be 
distinguished from those of an ordinary 
violin. 

Many experiments have been made to 
determine the best shape of room in 
which to make records. Edison, for 
example, tested almost every conceivable 
form. He even went so far as to build 
a room in the shape of a horn, the small 
end of which terminated in the phono- 


660 Popular Science Monthly 


graph itself, The singer stood practical- 
ly upon the edge of this huge horn’s 
mouth, for such was the room. The 
results were no better than those ob- 
tained by stationing the singer in front 
of an ordinary phonograph in an ordi- 
nary room. Asa result we find that no 
special effort is made by the phonograph 
companies to utilize rooms of special 
shape so as to gather all sounds and con- 
centrate them upon the record. 


A London cabby designed this three- 

wheeled cab. The third wheel prevents 

the cab from tipping over, even when mak- 
ing the shortest and quickest of turns 


It is difficult to believe that the 
technique of making records cannot be 
improved. In view of the elaborate 
studies of echoes and_ reverberations 
made in large auditoriums for the pur- 
pose of improving their acoustic proper- 
ties, it seems that the time is now ripe 
for a new series of experiments which 
will show how those sounds may be gath- 
ered which are now lost. 

The record made by the artist is 
called a master record. In fact, two 
records are made, one being hermetically 
sealed and stored away in the company’s 
archives for future generations. The 
other record is used for the preparation 
of a die for making commercial records. 


This Cab Simply Can’t Tip Over 
CITY cabman of London has 


devised and built an attachment in 
the form of a third wheel for his cab, 


which, he claims, adequately prevents 
the cab from upsetting, even in going 
around the sharpest and swiftest of 
curves. The additional wheel is placed 
under the driver’s seat, almost in dan- 
gerous proximity to the horse’s heels. 
It is fitted with springs on either side 
and performs the incidental function of 
absorbing jars and jolts. Even in spite 
of the added factor of safety which the 
third wheel provides, it is doubtful if 
the cab will continue to be 
popular in London. Cheap 
taxicab service and the fam- 
ous London ’bus have crowd- 
ed the horse almost entirelv 
from London thoroughfares. 
Hansoms, which are just now 
beginning to lose their vogue 
in New York, have not been 
seen in London streets for 
several years. One of the 
last to be removed has been 


placed in the British Museum as a relic 
for future generations to gape at. 


Gasoline in Bulk for Panama 


ASOLINE is being shipped in bulk 
to Panama. The first consign- 
ment arrived at Balboa in February and 
was unloaded into the new storage tank 
recently erected by the Panama Canal 
Commission. In Panama there is now 
stored fuel for ships of all sorts, gasoline, 
crude oil and Diesel oil. Considerable 
gasoline is still on hand in Panama in 
drums, the supply being sufficient to last 
at the present rate of consumption 
about five months. 


ee 


Popular Science Monthly 


Machine Shovels Faster 
Than Forty Men 


N the Great Lakes, 

where bulk cargoes 
of coal and ore make up 
the majority of loads 
carried by the giant 
freighters, one of the 
greatest factors of loss 
is that occasioned by the 
difficulty in gathering 
together the last rem- 
nants of coal or ore 
which remain in the out- 
of-the-way nooks and 
corners of the hold and 
which the unloading ma- 
chine cannot reach. 
When the piles of ore or 
coal have been dimin- 
ished so far that the 
bottom of the hold is in 
sight, the customary 
practice is to send gangs 
of men with shovels to 
shift the piles into the 
convenient reach of the 


A sturdy “shover”’ which pushes coal or any other loose material 
into big piles under the hatches. The steam shovels can then 
hoist full buckets 


power-shovel, or ‘‘bucket”’ as it is called, 

To do away with this waste of time, 
a Cleveland concern has brought out a 
machine which takes the place of the 
shoveling gang. The machine does the 


discharged. 
rubber tires. 


; et te at 


gan ie 


The scraper-shovel 
quickly sweeps out 
the corners un- 
reached by the lift- 
ing-bucket 


work of about forty 
capable — shovelers. 
On one occasion, the 
automatic shoveler 
moved one hundred 
tons of ore into the 
path of the bucket, 
approximately. in 
two hours less time 
than the hand gang 
formerly — required. 
The machine con- 
sists of a high-pow- 
cred gasoline engine 
operating a lift- 
shovel at the front of 


the machine. When the shovel-is raised 
as far as it will go, it is turned over 
in a dumping position and the load 
The wheels are fitted with 


662 Popular Science Monthly 


Gas Flows Back to the Earth 


N the Midway oil-field of California 
natural gas is being returned to the 
earth from one pocket to another. Two 
flowing oil wells on this lease produce a 
considerable quantity of gas along with 
the oil. Already there is more gas than 
is needed for fuel or domestic purposes 


Too much natural gas is obtained from a California 
oil-field. For that reason it is piped back into natural 
underground reservoirs for future use 


in the field. Instead of permitting this 
'gas to go to waste it is carried by pipe 
lines to a hole that was drilled for oil 
several years ago. Under natural pres- 
sure the gas finds an outlet at about 
five hundred feet. Apparently it is 
being stored away in underground reser- 
voirs at that depth. 


Buying Telephone Poles by Weight 


OME of the telephone and telegraph 

companies have adopted a plan of 
weighing poles which they buy as a 
means of as- ; 
Cerra tniinte | 
just how well 
seasoned they 
are. Men who 
are experienced 
in handling 
_ poles are able to 
calculate with a 
remarkable de- 
gree of accuracy 
the approxi- 
mate weight of 
a pole that has 
been properly 
seasoned. 
Should a_ pole 


prove to be much heavier than their 
estimate, it has not been properly sea- 
soned as a general rule; the over-weight 
is due to the presence of sap in the wood. 

The accompanying illustration shows 
a weighing device which is utilized by 
one concern. A tripod supports a long 
lever, the short end of which is a few 
inches in length and the long end twelve 
or fifteen feet. To the short end is at- 
tached a simple weighing device consist- 
ing of a balance-arm and sliding and 
fixed weights. Hanging from 
this by meansof heavy chains 
are two sets of wood tongs. 

The pole is slid between 
the tripod to such a position 
that its weight will be about 
evenly distributed on either 
side. The points of the 
tongs are embedded in the 
wood, then the long arm of 
the lever is brought down 
and the pole is lifted from 
the ground and its weight 
ascertained. The leverage is 
so great that one man is 
generally able to lift the average pole. 

Only the well-seasoned poles are dipped 
in the preserving bath. This bath adds 
greatly to the life of the base of. the 
pole, as the chemical, which is kept hot 
by a fire beneath the vat, enters every 
pore and crack in the base. 


HE East will have to look to the 
West for progressive ideas. Palo 
Alto, California, a town of about 7,000 
population, has a town incinerator of a 
daily capacity of 30 tons of mixed refuse. 


Before dipping in the preserving bath, telephone poles are weighed to 
determine whether or not they are well seasoned 


Popular Science Monthly 


Reverses Tug’s Propeller-Blades 


ITH small boats, the quickest and 

surest way to back-water is to 
reverse the pitch of the propeller-blades. 
Numerous motor-boats are equipped with 
mechanism which performs the task by 
the mere shifting of a lever, but in the 
case of larger craft the blades 
of the propeller are so heavy 
that to reverse them by an 
ordinary lever would be al- 
most impossible. A large tug 
that plies San Francisco Har- 
bor was recently equipped 
with a propeller-blade re- 
versing mechanism, which, 
while embodying the old lever 
principle, accomplishes its 
purpose in a surer and more 
ingenious way. 

The blades are shifted by levers that 
are controlled by a worm-gear, which 1s 
in turn operated by a hand-wheel and 
chain. When the wheel is spun, the 
worm revolves, causing the levers to be 
pushed in or out, the 
pitch of the blades 
being determined by 
the direction and 
number of turns of 
the wheel. An addi- 
tional advantage of 
this type of blade 
shifter is that the 
pitch of the blades 
can be altered, as de- 
sired, to an almost 
infini- 
tesimal 
degree. 


- Cyanogen gas carried to your door—or 
window—to fumigate your house 


If the pitch of the propeller- 
blades is 
tinued drive of the engine will 
back the boat. 
which does just this thing with 
complete mechanical success 


reversed, 


663 


Fumigating Has Improved, But 
Are We Less Afraid of Germs? 
N these days of sanitary living, sani- 
tary breathing, sanitary sleeping, san- 
itary eating, etc., fumigation has come 
to be one of the most popular of in- 
door medical sports. Not a great many 


eens wel VOM Beenyogene ie 
@ 


the con- 


Here is a device 


years ago, when we 
were still eating 
butter that had not 
previously gone un- 
der the vigilant microscope of the 
health officer, we considered that a little 
block of sulphur burned in a room after 
someone had had measles would annihil- 
ate the last germ. Not long ago, how- 
ever, an enterprising physician some- 
where in the United States examined a 
sample of wallpaper that had been on 
the wall since a case of diphtheria had 
run its course there a score of years be- 
fore. On the sample he found an agile, 
active colony of diphtheria germs. This 
was not the sole cause, but it was one of 
the immediate causes of wide-spread, 
better fumigation. 

Cyanogen, deadliest of gases, is now 
smoked into a room in which patients 
having contagious diseases have lived. 
The latest and one of the most effective 
ways of dealing death to the lurking 
microbe depends on a tank fastened to 
the rear of an automobile. The automo- 
bile is driven up alongside the house to be 
fumigated, a hose is attached to the top 
of the tank and led into the room. 

Structurally, the automobile fumigat- 
ing machine is highly interesting. An 
electric motor, attached to an air-pump, 
is started in the bottom of the tank, 
causing air to be forced through the 
mixture of chemicals. This air draft 
carries the death-dealing gases through 
the tube into the room. 


Popular Science Monthly 


To protect themselves from Russian vermin, the Germans are disinfecting all trains from 


Russia. 


Large cylinders, into which railway cars are run, are closed by tight end-covers, 


whereupon poisonous gases are turned on 


Fumigating Tank That Contains a 
Railway Coach 


VERY railway train which returns 

to Germany from Russia is usually 

so infested with vermin that the German 

Government, in self-preservation, has 

had to resort to wholesale fumigation 
methods. 

Fumigating tanks so large that stand- 

ard-sized railroad coaches can be rolled 

into them, have been installed by the 


Twenty-eight box-elder shoots were 
planted in a square. They were bent 
and trained to form a garden-chair 


government at several railway centers. 
When the car has been placed inside 
such a tank, gigantic steel disks are 
clamped tightly over the ends of the 
enormous tube and fumigating gases 
forced in. All germs lurking in the car 
are killed in a few minutes’ time. 


A Nailless Chair Made by Good Soil, 
Fresh Air and Sunshine 


ERE is a chair made by Mother 
Nature. Fresh air, sunshine, and 
fertile soil were her only tools. 

In 1903 John Krubsack of Embarrass, 
Wis., decided to make a chair different 
from any he had seen. He planted 
twenty-eight box-elder shoots in a five- 
foot square. He watched over them 
carefully; for if a single shoot had died 
his plan would have been spoiled. 

After five years the little shoots at- 
tained a height of seven feet. Mr. 


‘Krubsack was then ready to begin real 


work on his chair. He bent the tender 
shoots and then fastened them. When, 
after several years, the joints became 
solid, the owner cut the shoots and 
trimmed the branches. 

The chair has eighty-seven joints, and 
weather conditions will never cause it 
to fall apart. 


Popular Science Monthly 


Spraying Concrete 

HE important work of re-enforcing 

the levees along the Mississippi 
River was recently aided by the addition 
to the usual equipment of an apparatus 
which sprayed concrete into the crevices 
of the pavement and levee facing. A 
large tank containing a mixture of sand 
and cement was filled with compressed 
air and the mixture forced at high pres- 
sure from the mouth of a large funnel 
with such force that a permanent adhe- 
sion was made. 


Motion-Picture Silhouettes 


HE moving-silhouettes of C. Allan 

Gilbert’s films are produced in a con- 
verted stable near Washington Square, 
New York city. 

The coach-house has been fitted up 
like an ordinary motion-picture studio, 
with its inner walls done over in white. 
The lighting arrangements are such that 
the players are photographed in bold 
relief without any shadows. 

The actors work on a stage which is as 
narrow as it is long. They pose in pro- 


Moving-silhouettes are innovations in motion-picture photography. 
produced by so adjusting the lights that long, superhuman shadows are cast when a gigantic 
figure is to stalk on the screen 


665 


Courtesy of Professional Memoirs 
Concrete sprayed from a hose filled 
pavement crevices quickly and efficiently 


file. Figures can be made to throw long 
shadows under a light, and this has been 
advantageously done when an actor is to 
appear double the size of his neighbor. 
The camera is placed in a pit, so that the 
lens is on a level with the player’s feet. 
But should it not be possible to get 
over a situation unaided by the players, 
J. R. Bray, the animated cartoonist, 
comes to the rescue with drawings which 
match the genuine acting perfectly. 


Novel effects are 


Space and Time-Savers 
for the Home 


How a room was made attractive by a 
little home-built furniture 


Bedroom Hid in a Living Room 
ONVENIENCE and the saving of 


space are of prime importance in 
city flats and country bungalows. Here 
is an illustration which shows how com- 
fort was brought to an ugly room that 
served as both bedroom and living room. 
The addition of the wall-closet with 
its drop-shelf provided not only a 
writing-desk, but a cabinet for bottles 
and other small objects constantly in 
demand. When not in use as a desk, 
just that much space is saved. The 
built-in seat is utilized for a clothes- 
closet and it also screens the unsightly 
porcelain washbasin and its pipes. It 
is a simple matter to add a drop-shelf to 
a cabinet already built-in. One seen 
recently concealed an electric stove and 
an entire light housekeeping equipment. 


A Handy Magazine-Shelf 


CORNER arrangement for maga- 

zines in the form of swinging 
shelves, obviates the necessity of mutilat- 
ing the walls by the use of brackets and 
nails. The boards are joined in the 
corners by means of cleats underneath, 
helping to add to the stability of the 
shelves. The lower shelf is wider than 


the upper, affording a place for maga- 
zines of larger size. Three long and 
three short chains provide support. 
These are attached to hooks in the 
shelves; the two side chains 
finding their anchorage at the 
highest point of the mantel 
and a correspondingly high 
point on the door-frame. The 
middle one extends to a hook 
in the ceiling. Short lengths 
of chain run from their hooks 
in the lower shelf to the 
longer chains. A framed Frieze of the 
Prophets (by Edwin Abbey) extends en- 
tirely around the corner. 


An Improvised Hall-Tree 


F you have no place to hang your hat, 

a couple of boards, a few yards of rope 
and a half-dozen ‘pieces of wood can 
easily be made to fulfil your needs. Two 
wide boards, the height of a doorway, 
are cleated together as a foundation. 
The upper cleat is used as an anchor- 
age for a pair of wooden arms which 
are swung at an angle in order that the 
coat-hooks will not interfere with the 


The convenient magazine racks filled an : 
empty corner and ornamented the room 


666 


Popular Science Monthly 667 


a six-inch shelf which serves as 
an umbrella rest. Holes are bored 
in the outside corners, through 
which holes the rope supports are 
passed to the two deep wooden pegs 
projecting out far enough to receive 
the umbrellas, and thence to the pair 
of brackets above the center cleat. 


A Nautical Porch Seat 

EARLY every attic has a 

rickety chair the seat of 
which might be rescued and con- 
verted into a comfortable porch 
chair such as the one pictured. 
Attached to a substantial cross- 
section in front, the back se- 
cured to two wooden cleats on the 
wall, the seat is complete. Two 
heavy ropes are fringed and knotted 


An attractive hall-rack that was made 
of miscellaneous boards and rope 


hatson the pegsbelow. These ‘‘arms”’ 
are fitted on wooden pegs that extend 
through the cleat in such a manner 
as to permit them to be movable. 
Heavy wire is bent by pliers to form 
hooks for the coat-hangers. The hat- 
pegsare really a pair of wood-handled awls. 
The lower cleat affords support for 


A porch seat with a nautical air— 
made from an old chair-seat 


through the wooden brackets, then 
thrust through the holes in the cross- 
section of the seat. 


Teaching Hens Good Manners 

/ ERE is a contrivance for cor- 
recting the hen’s bad _ table 
manners. Observe how over-crowd- 

ing is rendered impossible. The 
narrow strips of st< inding-room, and 

the lack of head-room explain the 
good behavior. A few packing-boxes 
and some nails are all that is needed 


Bad table manners gain a hen nothing 
with this home-made feeding trough to build this feeding-trough. 


668 


Three Tools in One 


RECENT invention is a spade 

which can be turned into a post- 
hole digger, ditching-tool, or even a 
weed-cutter. The tool consists 
merely of a straight wooden handle, 
a ferrule, and steel blade like that 
of an ordinary spade with more 


This spade can 
be used for start- 
ing a hole and 
alsoforremoving 
the dirt. Atan 
acute angle it is 
an excellent 
ditching-tool; at 
an obtuse angle, 
a weed - cutting 
device. Above, 
the spade as a 
post-hole digger. 
Below, asa right- 

angled hoe 


rounding sides, but equipped with a spe- 
cial device by means of which the blade 
can be brought at right angles to the 
handle, or at any angle desired. As a 


Popular Science Monthly 


There is often need for a hoe of this 
size, and it is always a convenience 


spade it may be used to start a hole; 
at right angles for lifting out dirt, or 
scraping it back; at a small angle it 
makes an excellent ditching-tool; and at 
an obtuse angle, with its sharp edge it 
makes the best of weed-cutting devices. 

The adjustable device is simple, con- 
sisting merely of a case-hardened eye at 
the upper end of the blade, and having 
three flat surfaces for the pressure of a 
spring, placed in the ferrule and pressing 
upon the eye. At the upper end of the 
spring the ferrule is pierced by a set- 
screw which gives tension, thus holding 
the blade in any one of four positions. 


The spade is here shown at its regular work 


Popular Science Monthly 


Playing Golf on the Roof 


HE already familiar 

practice net of the golf 
stores has been turned to 
the use of finished players 
by a Boston hotel. On the 
roof has been set up the 
usual sort of net into which 
the player drives, but in- 
stead of the canvas back 
being merely to stop his ball 
from flying off the roof, it is 
painted to show what sort 
of shot he made. On the 
right are two sections, ‘‘low 
slice’ and “high slice,’’? and 
on the left two correspond- 
ing sections, “‘low pull’’ and 
“high pull.’ Numbers in- 
dicate the distance that 
would be gained by either, 
and whether the ball would 
go out of bounds before 
stopping. The central panel 
is dotted with numbers indicating 
the lenght of drive which would have 
resulted on a normal course. Wherever 
the ball strikes, the canvas shows the 
value of the drive, as to distance and 
direction. Below the charts is a space 
two feet high marked “bunker.” 


Francis Ouimet trying roof-garden golf on the top 


of a Boston Hotel 


Sleep Outdoors in this Hotel 
, i ‘HE fresh-air habit has at last been 


recognized by a Boston hotel keep- 
er, who, winter or summer, will let you 
sleep on his roof under a tent, if you 
have paid for a room down-stairs. Need- 
less to say this hotel is becoming popular. 


The roof of a hotel on which patrons may sleep summer or winter 


Taking Photographs From a 
Skyrocket 


MONG the aids to the ponerse of 
the war that have been proposed in 
Germany is the phctography of the 

enemy’s positions by the flight of rockets 
carrying cameras. The invention is less 
expensive and can be sent up closer to 
the enemy without provoking attack 
than a captive balloon, dirigible or aero- 
plane. Besides, it is not so dependent 
upon the wind as a kite. 

When the inventor, Alfred Maul, be- 
gan his experiments fifteen years ago, 
he found, as he tells us in an article ap- 
pearing in Umschau, that the ordinary 
rocket can hardly carry a considerable 
weight, and so he 
was obliged to de- 
vise one of greater 
strength. 

His first inven- 
tion was a shell 
closed above and 
open below con- 
taining a firmly 
compressed pow- 
der composition in 
which was a deep 
opening. Ignition 
developed a con- 
siderable volume of 
gas, which gas 
pressed down upon 
the atmospheric 
air, thus causing 
the rocket to rise. In a shot the initial 
velocity is the highest, whereas in the 
rocket the initial velocity is low but in- 
creases until the charge is burnt out. 
This occurs in about one and one-half to 
two and one-half seconds, but the rocket 
continues to rise, through the force 
generated, from six to nine seconds. 

In his first camera experiments Mr. 
Maul used two small rockets com- 
bined. Here the rotary camera, which 
could take a picture about one and one- 
half inches square and had an oblique 
downward inclination, was in a hood 
above the rockets. At the sides of the 
rockets were two chambers containing 
parachutes of unequal size. The guide- 


View of a German town taken with a 
rocket from a height of 1,550 feet 


staff had two vanes at its lower end, like 
an arrow, to prevent rotation and change 
of direction of the lens. At the highest 
point of the flight a time-fuse raised the 
shutter and threw out the smaller para- 
chute. Just before landing, the larger 
parachute was opened. The double 
rocket could carry a load of over half a 
pound and rose about one thousand feet. 
Failures accompanied successes in the 
tests. Rockets exploded, parachutes 
dropped at the wrong moment and much 
costly apparatus was destroyed, before 
the inventor saw the cause of his mis- 
fortunes, which was that the time taken 
for ascent depend- 
ed on the density 
and moisture of the 
air. The exposure 
and release of the 
parachutes were, 
therefore, arranged 
independently of 
the period of ascent, 
by making the up- 
per part of the hood 
resilient and equip- 
ping it with an 
electric contact de- 
vice. When the 
rocket paused for a 
momentat its high- 
est point of ascent, 
the contact opened 
the Siatter and directly afterward threw 
out the first parachute. This proving 
successful, the photographic apparatus 
was enlarged to a diameter of eight and 
one-half inches; the plates were made 
four and three-quarters by four and 
three-quarters inches, the focal distance 
was also four and three-quarters inches. 
The length of the equipment was now 
over thirteen feet and the weight thirteen 
pounds. As the apparatus was still in- 
clined to rotate on its axis corrective 
experiments were made, but the rocket 
proved unable to carry the weight of 
a special governing apparatus. Finally, 
a gyroscopic device was arranged which 
works automatically when the rocket 


670 


Popular Science Monthly 671, 


| HOLLOW } 
SPACE 


How the Skyrocket Camera Works 


Ignited by an electric device, the rocket darts upward sixteen hundred feet. An electric contact 
opens the camera shutter and releases the parachute which returns the camera in safety 


, 


672 Popular Science Monthly 


The apparatus needed to fire the skyrocket 
camera. Above, a view just as the rocket is 
about to be put in piace. At the left, ready to 
be shot. Below, packed and ready to move away 


Tt Ys AHR RRLRISION YH LE 


rises and does not permit rotation. 

The present apparatus can rise to a 
height of sixteen hundred feet. Its 
length is twenty feet, its weight about 
fifty-five pounds, and the pictures are 
seven and one-quarter inches square. Its 
parts are shown on the preceding page. 
The guide-staff about fifteen feet long 
is made in two united but easily sepa- 


rable parts, the upper being bolted to 
the rocket, the lower carrying the vanes, 
as shown. 

When ready for use the rocket is 
mounted on a collapsible, heavy frame 
carrying the sighting device and weigh- 
ing about eight hundred and eighty 
pounds. The rocket is ignited by a 
distant electric device. The weight im- 
mediately runs down and the charge is 
fired, driving the rocket up one thousand, 
six hundred feet in eight seconds. When 
near the highest point of ascent the 
contact in the top of the hood opens the 
instantaneous shutter and releases the 
parachute. As the parachute opens, the ~ 
rocket divides into two parts, connected 
by a thirty-two-foot belt. The hood and 
camera hang just under the parachute, 
while the container and staff swing about 
thirty-two feet below. The parachute, 
relieved of extra weight, lands the camera 
without jar in sixty seconds. 


German 


The Mascots of the Troops 


At the wheel of the launch j 
West African Colony. If 
crew in the world 


mascots could brin 
would prosper, for 


The French Mili- 
tary dogs are being 
put to more and 
more efficient work 
during the war. 
They are now being 
trained to mount 
the French Parapets 
and give warning of 
the approach of the 
enemy. Here one is 
being trained 


& good luck, every regiment and 


Fighting Mud in the Trenches 


It is not easy to imagine men stand- 
ing in trenches like this for three 
days and nights at a stretch, but 
that is what they did all through 
the long winter. Mud inundates 
the trenches on warm days and 
freezes in the cold weather. Long 
rubber boots, called ‘“‘trench boots,’’ 
were supplied to the men _ last 
winter and relieved the suffering 
to a great extent. Work in the 
trenches is not even confined to 
standing in the mud and fighting. 
In the illustration at the right is 
shown a sapper looking out from an 
air-hole. Many miles of tunneling 
have to be dug in order to gain de- 
sired positions and avoid the fire of 
the enemy. Underground mining, the 
digging of new trenches and building 
huts and caves for residence, give 
the soldier mud baths from head 
to foot 


A large number of men can experi- 
ence the luxury of a hot shower-bath 
by means of the arrangement shown 
above. The water passes through a 
heating apparatus before it reaches 
the spraying attachments 


The Structural Side of War 


The Austrian soldiers above are stringing 
a telephone wire in the mountainous 
Isonzo district. In modern war, every 
part of an army must be connected with 


other parts and with the general staff by 
telephone. At the right, a model German 
trench and officers’ shelter. The sticks pre- 
vent the earth from sliding in, and keep 
the floor dry. Below, Montenegrins are fill- 
ing shells for their mountain artillery 


675 


Modern Machinery Resists Even War’s Destruction 


A German transport column removing the 
remains of a Russian aeroplane which was 
brought down by anti-aircraft gunsnear Lotz- 
en. Although the aeroplane itself was irre- 
parably damaged, the engine was again set 
up, this time on a German machine 


© Underwood and Underwood 


Proof of the excellent quality of the material 
used in American automobiles was shown when a 
shell struck the front of an American motor car. 
Despite the enormous strain which axle and 
frame underwent, both being bent almost beyond 
recognition, there was not a crack in the metal 


A Russian 
machine-gun, 
captured by the 
Germans during 
the summer 
drive, now serves 
as an anti-air- 
craft gun to keep 
Allied aero- 
planes away 
from the town 
of Tirlancourt, 
France, which 
is now occupied 
by the invading 
troops. This type 
of gun is highly 
prized by both 
sides 


The Artifices of Modern Warfare 


eo > 
Saint nti Bos osc ehSis UB E tab ee TS Ursa ee 


A submarine commander has but one means of judging the speed of the vessel to be attacked 

—by noting the size of the bow-wave thrown up by the intended victim. The correct- 

ness of the estimate means either a hit or amiss. The British have devised a clever method 

of confusing the German submarines. A huge bow-wave is painted on the sides of the ship, 

rendering it extremely difficult for the underwater craft to judge the speed accurately. 

In the insert is shown a heavy Austrian Skeda howitzer concealed with hay to make it 
invisible to the Russian air-scouts 


677 


SESE 


English Women Doing their “Bit” om 


In the circle is a Another girl who 
girl who is doing is helping to 
her part as a keep the roads 
bricklayer. She in repair in the 
does only the country. The 
tasks that re- heavy work is 
quire no skilled done by men, 
labor; but that but the girl may 
fact does not les- do much by 
sen the manual merely filling up 
exertion required the many worn 
spots with 
crushed rock 


Operating a 
large steam 
roller seems 
an impossible 
task. for sa 
frail woman, 
but here we 
see a road 
engine being 
manipulated 


A modern ferrywoman. Among the 
men’s tasks assumed by the British 
women is that of operating a row- 
boat ferry across a tidal river 


All the Comforts of Home in an Airman’s Kit Case 


© International Film Service 
Every British aviator is furnished with a remarkably compact kit-case containing almost 
everything which can add to his comfort, from a pneumatic pillow to a pack of cards 


a1 * 


679 
SI ESI _ 


Movable Barracks for the French 


Constructing portable barracks for French troops. These houses may be quickly set up imme- 
diately behind the firing line, and form an ad- : 
mirable shelter for soldiers who are taking 
their three days’ rest from the trenches 


~ 


Credit for the invention of these 

portable houses is given to the 

commandant Adrian, who invented the helmets now used by the French troops, but these 
barracks resemble very closely the portable houses which are so familiar to all Americans 


Making the Deadly Trench Torpedoes 


The caps which cover the ends of the 


A com- oy torpedoes of large caliber are heated at 
pleted When they are finished, the forge as shown above, and then 
trench the projectiles are care- welded to the body of the projectile 
torpedo fully tested with 
and its delicate instruments to 
parts verify the sizes and 
before alinements. These 
assem- clumsy looking bombs 

bling are thrown with amaz- 


ing accuracy 


681 


The Paris Zeppelin Raids 


ry 
On Jan. 30- 
31, Zeppelins 
raided Paris, 
demolish- 
ing tene- 
mentsand 
blowing a 
hole in the 
subway. 
Reports 
showed 
little loss 
of life 


An unexploded 
120-lb. bomb 
found in a house 


Esti fe 
An 
incen- 
diary 
bomb 
found 
att € 35 
the raid 


nm 


h of a Zeppel 


1n1s 


The F 


PpouTUIeXd SEM YIM 9Y} UdYM payedAos 919M USISIp UT sadueYS JUeJIOdUIT [eIDAIgG 


*10Q-3[-JUeqeig Je UMOP }YSsNOIq pue ye 


poly sem pue ‘onq-2]-1eg 1eou ‘AustAaqy oAOge SurysOM sem diysire sy, ‘osyuns Aq uMop jysnoiq urjaddaZ ysiy 9y} ,,“L£-T,, 9} JO YOOIM IY 


tye a) 


| 
a e Lad 


12 B= 9 PNT ATA Tee 
ves a pee} 


~~ Aa | 


683 


The Booming Iron-Cross Industry 


Every German soldier cher- © 
ishes the hope that he may 
sometime win the Iron Cross. 
The generous bestowals of this 
reward have resulted in a dis- 
tinct industry. The crosses 
are cast in multiple molds, in 
which the basic form of the 
cross is formed and the “W” 
with the imperial crown above 
and the date below is cast 


At the right, the first 
step in finishing, where 
the engraver cuts the 
rough edges from the 
castings 


The effect of the cross is greatly 
enhanced by a silver thread im- 
printed in 
the: iriim, 
and resem- 
bling acord 


The outline of the cross is. stamped 

on squares of thin silver plate by 

subjecting, the plate to great pres- 
sure in a screw-press 


After the iron center is 

soldered to the silver rim, 

the cross is sawed out by 

hand, preparatory to the 
final polishing 


Gas Is No Respecter of Persons 


An infernal machine of the 
trenches. This small cylinder, 
when filled with the proper 
chemicals, will manufacture 
enough asphyxiating gas to kill 
hundreds of men. It is one of 
the many which are used by the 
Austrians in overcoming the 
enemy’s forces before an attack 


The children of towns on the firing line may meet gas at any moment on their way through 
the streets. Here are seen school children of Rheims lined up for the inspection of their 
gas helmets. So many gas attacks are launched in the immediate neighborhood of this 
unfortunate French city that no one is safe in the streets without a gas mask ready for 
immediate use. The school children are required by their teachers to carry a helmet, and 
if upon inspection the masks are found faulty or missing, the offending pupils are punished. 
Below is a French mother adjusting her daughter’s gas mask before she leaves the home 


685 


At right, Francisco 

Villa, who was once a 

Mexican presidential 
possibility 


The only 
Mexicans 
who do not 
fight—Indi- 
ans from 
the Sierra 
Madres. 
Most Mexi- 
cans’are born 
outlaws, who 
see no reason 
why they 
should work 
when they 
can live by 
outlawry 


Villa, the International Outlaw 


Above, a typi- 
cal Mexican 
“army’’— poorly cloth- 
ed, but well armed and 
thoroughly seasoned 
veterans, and 


equally at 
home in 

. the moun- 
Ay tains or on 


-~ the desert 


ses Gini laa a ae 


American soldiers guarding food destined for Mexican refugees 


686 


— a 
iS —— 


—— 


ea 


; 
7 
o 
: 
- 
p 
4 
7 


At the right, Gen. 
J. J. Pershing, lead- 
ing the American 
Army which had 
orders to get Villa 
“dead or alive.” 
His instructions 
were those General 
Funston received 
regarding Aguin- 
aldo—and he is do- 
ing his work in the 
same thorough way 


‘phar 
Oh ities Mild 2 gt tia) 
cn ge 


And His American Pursuers 


Alm ‘e5r:7Ga 7 
soldiers on the 
Rio Grande— 
the type of boys 
who are out 
after Villa. The 
American regular 
army, man for 
man, is as finea 
set of soldiers as 
fight under any 


The wig-wag man is an indispensible 
member of the expedition 


The signal corps, on whose field instruments the army will depend for communication. 
Below, a portion of the Thirteenth Cavalry on the march 


688 Popular Science Monthly 


One Tree Grows Through Another viduals are section hands on the Shang- 
N a West Virginia forest nature has hai-Nanking Railway, and because the 
played an unusual prank upon two __ little wooden pillows on which they and 
trees. One of them their ancestors have 
is a maple and the % ; been resting their 
other an oak. Close heads for a~ good 
inspection reveals many thousands of 
the interesting fact years were almost 
that the oak tree exactly similar— 
has beyond doubt both in height, cross- 
grown up through section and hardness 
the maple. The oak —to the eighty- 
being the more rug- pound “T” along 
ged of the two trees which they were 
is causing the maple working, they were 
where its bifurcated not long in adapting 
trunk joins, a few the convenient met- 
feet above the als to the same pur- 
ground, to split. pose. There is one 
swift express which 
Asleep On the speeds over the 
Sleepers straight and well- 
HEN the first ballasted track be- 
railways were tween Shanghai and 
built in China it was Nanking at the rate 
necessary, first to 


s of sixty miles an 
force the coolies to hour, and in the first 
work upon them at 


days that the ‘‘noon- 
the point of the bay- day sleep” habit be- 
onet, and later, to |i iim ma| came popular it was 
protect these coolies An oak tree growing through a maple no uncommon thing 
by force of arms to have two or 
from the outraged inhabitants of the three decapitated coolies reported at 
countryside through which the railways headquartersevery evening. This finally 


ran. This feeling passed rapidly, how- became so troublesome that orders were 


ever, as the Chinaman’s phil- sent out prohibiting the prac- 
osophical disposition asserted tice absolutely, and holding 
itself. The accompanying j the section bosses respon- 


sible for the men in 
their gangs, buteven 

to this day,’casu- 
alties from 
sleeping on 


photograph illustrates 
graphically the way 
in which the Ce- 
lestial has taken 

the railway. 


The sop- the track 
orific S€#7 bel 
indi- occur. 


The Chinaman’s pillow is a hard wooden bench, the size and shape of rails. So why shouldn’t 
the coolies use these nice pillows the railroad laid down 


Helpless United States 


By Frederic Louis Huidekoper 


2 _o=7E GUNS ~ 25000 vos. 


The range of United States coast artillery as compared with that of guns mounted on 
British dreadnoughts of the “Queen Elizabeth” type 


Although Mr. Huidekoper is not a professional soldier, he is an earnest 
and close student of military history, whose writings, notably his ‘‘ Military Studies,” 


have been consulted with profit even by staff officers. 


The following article 1s 


abstracted from his book, ‘‘The Military Unpreparedness of the United States,”’ 
by permission of Messrs. Macmillan and Co., the publishers —EDITOR. 


CCORDING to the latest statistics 
available, dated April 20, 1915, the 
authorized strength of the Regular 

Army—was 4,833 officers and 87,877 
enlisted men, while that of the Philip- 
pine Scouts was 182 officers -and 5,733 
men, thus making a total of 5,015 officers 
and 93,610 men. 

Notwithstanding the small size of the 
Regular forces in continental United 
States, the policy of the War Depart- 
ment to maintain the overseas garrisons 
at full war strength—a very sound policy 
since it will be almost impossible to re- 
enforce them for some time after the 
outbreak of war and then only under the 
most favorable circumstances—must re- 
quire a further reduction in them. As 
the Secretary of War very pertinently 
pointed out in his report for 1914: 


“Tt will be necessary in the very near future to 
take from the United States and put into the 
Philippines thirteen companies of Coast Artillery, 
1,950 men; in the Hawaiian Islands, three regi- 
ments of Infantry, one battalion of Field Artil- 
lery, and two companies of Coast Artillery, 6,380 
men; and in the Panama Canal Zone, one regi- 
ment of Infantry, one squadron of Cavalry, one 
battalion of Field Artillery, one company of 
Engineers, and twelve companies of Coast Artil- 
lery, 4,774 men. ... This will leave in the 


United States proper 12,610 Coast Artillery 
troops and 24,602 of the of the mobile army, the 
latter being then not much more than twice the 
size of the police force of the city of New York.” 

As the Coast Artillery must of neces- 
sity remain stationary in fortifications, 
the only force that can be transferred 
to repel attacks by an enemy seeking to 
land or penetrate within our borders is 
the Mobile Army, which will shortly 
be reduced to 24,602, as Mr. Garrison 
has stated.* It is an astounding proof 
of our unpreparedness at the present 
moment that such a force would be 
smaller than the actual strength of 
the Regular Army at any time since 
the close of 1861 —save in April, 
1865, when it numbered only 22,310, 
but when we had more than a 
million volunteers who were Regulars in 
everything but name—notwithstanding 
that in those 53 years our population 
has increased from about 31,000,000 
to 100,000,000. 
We Have No Modern Howttzers and 

Not Enough Field Guns 

On December 8, 1914, according to the 

* Since this passage was written the Mexican situation has 


mitigated its force. The Mobile Army will be increased, 
probably permanently.—EDITOR. 


689 


690 


testimony of Brigadier General Crozier, 
the Chief of Ordnance, the United States 
possessed only 658 three-inch field pieces, 
and even when the guns under construc- 
tion and those provided for by the pres- 
ent appropriation have been finished, the 
number of guns of all calibers will not be 
more than 912. The minimum estimate 
of what would be needed has been placed 
at 323 batteries of four guns each, a 
total of 1,292 guns, while the maximum 
estimate, made by the late Chief of 
Staff, was 2,834, which is undoubtedly 
what would be required in a war against 
a great Power. On 
December 23, 1914, 
the Secretary of War 
acknowledged that 
we had only 634 
completed modern 
field guns and howitz- 
ers altogether. The 
United States has 
nothing larger in cal- 
iber than the 6-inch 
howitzer, and only 
forty of those cither 
in existence or ap- 
propriated for; yet 
every one knows 
that in the present 
European war great 
use is being made of 
heavier guns than 
these. The Chief of 
Ordnance also testified that, even when 
the design has been decided upon and: the 
forgings delivered, the actual construc- 
tion of a gun requires about four months; 
that a battery costs about $85,000; that 
if $2,100,000 were appropriated annually 
it would still require eight years before 
the United States would have 1,292 guns. 

In no other respects is the military 
unpreparedness of the United States so 
apparent as in the matter of reserve ar- 
tillery ammunition. The minimum num- 
ber of rounds per gun required in the Ger- 
man Army is 2,800, while our own Field 
Service Regulations for 1914 prescribe 
1,856 rounds. Disregarding the other 
field pieces possessed by the American 
Army and assuming that the 568 three- 
inch guns were alone supplied with 1,856 
rounds each, the number required would 
be no less than 1,054,208; yet the Chief 
of Ordnance confessed on December 8, 


regular army 
at any time 
since 1861 


The mobile army of the 
United States is not much 
more than twice the size of 
the New York city police 
force, and smaller than the 


Popular Science Monthly 


1914, that all the United States then had 
‘was about 580,000 rounds for the Field 
Artillery, for the guns of all different 
calibers.”’ If the 634 field guns of all 
calibers which the United States pos- 
sessed in December, 1914, fired only 915 
times each, they would more than ex- 
haust the present reserve supply of field 
artillery ammunition amounting to 580,- 
ooo rounds, and it is a conservative 
estimate that two days of such firing 
as is a common occurrence in the battles 
of the present time, would suffice to 
consume the entire amount now on 
hand. The Chief of 
Ordnance stated 
that even if every 
source of supply 
were utilized, only 
‘““‘about 400,000 
rounds’ could be 
manufactured in the 
first six months; that 
only 130,000 rounds 
could be turned out 
each month there- 
after; that a mil- 
[i on .£ Ota eas 
might be made in a 
year; that we need 
about a million and 
a quarter; and that 
“it takes over a year 
to get that much if 
we were to go at it 
with unlimited appropriations.’’* Gen- 
eral Crozier had to confess that “‘no 
permanent ammunition trains have been 
provided,” and that at the present rate 
of appropriation by Congress it would 
require eight years to complete 1,292 
guns and their ammunition trains, and 
about four years to supply 1,800 rounds 
to the field guns of various calibers— 
with the exception of the 6-inch howitzers 
to which it was contemplated to give 
only 1,000 rounds—and then only on 
condition that the various plants 
throughout the country were kept “‘go- 
ing night and day” in manufacturing 
artillery ammunition. 


Plenty of Rifles, But Too Few Machine-Guns 
After considerable experimentation the 
Ordnance Department has found it ad- 


* Many American factories have engaged in the mak- 
ing of munitions for the Allies since this comment was 
made. Weare probably ina better position now to meet 
our ammunition requirements.— EDITOR. 


Popular Science Monthly 


visable to discontinue the manufacture 
of the service model of machine-gun and 
has adopted the gun made by the 
Vickers Company of London as the 
better weapon. Of the old model— 
Gatling and Colt automatic guns—there 
were 1,380 in December, 1914, but 
many were obsolete and only 1,000 could 
be counted upon as serviceable. The 
former estimate of 1,801 machine-guns 
required by the Army has within the 
past year been cut down to 1,361, on the 
basis of four per regiment. This is mani- 
festly far too low, as the French among 
others have increased the number of 
machine-guns per regiment to more than 
forty during the present war, owing to 
their great power of destruction. Only 
125 machine-guns were manufactured 


for the American Army during the fiscal 
year ending June 30, 1914, and the sup- 
ply of ammunition for them is fixed at 
21,400 rounds per gun. 

A more satisfactory condition is found 
in respect to infantry rifles, of which the 
United States possessed on June 30, 
1914, slightly less than 700,000 of the 
most modern Springfield pattern, as 
well as between 300,000 and 400,000 of 


691 


the old Krag-Jérgensen rifles. During 
the preceding year, 25,545 United States 
rifles, caliber .30, model of 1903 (or 
Springfield) were manufactured, which 
is at the rate of about 82 per working 
day, whereas that one small-arms fac- 
tory has a capacity of 500 rifles per diem. 
The Chief of Ordnance declared that a 
reserve of 800,000 small-arms was de- 
sired, which would be sufficient to arm 
any force such as the country would be 
likely to need for the first months of war. 
It will, however, be necessary to increase 
the last appropriation—which was only 
$250,000—if the remaining 100,000 rifles 
are to be secured within several years. 


Only Four Days’ Supply of Ammunition 
For the Infantry 


The reserve supply of small-arms am- 
munition in December, 1914, was only 
195,000,000 rounds. Our Field Service 
Regulations prescribe 1,360 rounds for 
each infantryman—that is, 100 in his 


The heaviest United States field piece is 
a pop-gun as compared with the German 
42-centimeter, the largest mobile piece of 
artillery yet constructed 


IN CALIBER THAN THE 6-INCH HOWITZER 
belt, 120 in the combat train which goes 
with the troops, 120 in the ammunition 
train which follows behind the supply 
trains, 340 rounds in the advance depot 
from which it can be sent forward to the 
troops, and 680 in the depot at the base 
of supplies. In other words, 195,000,000 
would not be sufficient to supply an 
army of 145,522 infantrymen with 
1,360 rounds each. The 1,360 rounds 


prescribed for American infantrymen 
would, in all probability, be exhausted in 
four days’ fighting. 

The range of guns being one of the 
most important factors in war, the 
House of Representatives, by Resolu- 
tion No. 698, adopted on January 14, 
1915, called upon the Secretary of War 
for information in respect to our sea- 
coast cannon. On the following day Mr. 
Garrison replied ina communicationto the 
Speaker of the House, in which he stated: 


(1) That there were no guns mounted in the 
fortifications of the United States proper of a 
caliber larger than 12 inches. 

(2) Thattherange ofthe 12-inch guns mounted 
on the standard disappearing carriage was not 
more than 13,000 yards, but that the range of the 
12-inch guns mounted on barbette carriages was 
approximately 18,000 yards. 

(3) That the British dreadnoughts of the 
Queen Elizabeth type were equipped with 15-inch 
45-caliber guns, and that their range was ap- 
proximately 21,000 yards. 

(4) That ‘“‘It is true that the range of the guns 
just mentioned exceeds by over 4 miles the range 
of the guns as mounted in the defense of the 
United States proper, either on the Atlantic or 
Pacific coast; but it is not true that the range 
of those guns need remain thus restricted, since 
by a slight change in the mounting their range 
will be practically equal to that of the 15-inch 
45-caliber guns above referred to.” 


It was admitted by our leading 
ordnance experts and military officials 
that such an augmented range could only 
be obtained at the expense of diminish- 
ing the weight of the projectile and hence 
its penetrating power. The net result is 
thus in favor of the heavier British guns. 


Popular Science Monthly 


The United States has four machine-guns 

per regiment. The French, among others, 

have increased the num- 
ber to forty 


The Coast Artillery 
Would Fire All Avail- 
able Ammunition in — 
Forty-five Minutes 
A table prepared by the Chief 
of Coast Artillery on December 
8, 1914, and submitted to the 
House Committee on Military Affairs, 
showed that on that date 1,299 guns 


had been mounted and 51 were in 
the process of construction — only 
one of the latter being of 16-inch 


caliber; that three 14-inch guns had 
been mounted—that is, outside of the 
United States—and 21 appropriated for; 
that 433 modern 12-inch guns were in 
position and 11 under construction; 
while the remaining 863 already mounted 
and 18 appropriated for were old- 
fashioned 12-inch or calibers ranging 
down to 3-inch. Since high-powered 
guns have a life of only 240 rounds—cr 
if used at the maximum, 100 rounds— 
it is therefore self-evident that the arma- 
ment of our fortifications is sadly in need 
of being modernized. 

On December 8, 1915, the Chief of 
Coast Artillery confessed to the House 
Committee on Military Affairs that: 


“Of ammunition for continental United States 
we have now on hand and under manufacture 
73 per cent of the allowance fixed by the National 
Coast Defense Board. That allowance for conti- 
nental United States is the number of rounds that 
any given gun would fire at the maximum rate of 
firing in one hour.” 


Let the reader realize fully what this 
astounding revelation means. It means 
that the guns of the fortifications in the 
United States firing at the limit of their 
capacity would expend every bit of 
ammunition that they possess within 
45 minutes. And the present Chief of 
Staff, General Scott, submitted to the 
same committee a statement showing 
that if the mortars were similarly fired 
they would exhaust the last round of 
ammunition in 30 minutes. What would 
happen if our fortifications were sub- 
jected to a gruelling bombardment? 


Popular Science Monthly 


693 


A captive balloon raised above the site of the proposed power plant between the White 
House and Washington Monument to show how high the stacks would come 


Captive Balloon Teaches a Lesson 


O demonstrate to the residents of 

Washington and particularly to 
the members of Congress, just how 
unsightly the effect of the contemplated 
new power plant chimneys really may 
be, the experiment was made of floating 
a captive balloon over the site to a 
height equivalent to that of the com- 
pleted chimneys. The effect was start- 
ling, since the balloon, when it attained 
the height of the proposed chimneys, 
had soared to an almost unbelievable 
height. Inasmuch as the new power 
plant with its undesirable chimneys will 
have an effect upon the new City Park 
plan, many people who watched the 
balloon experiment made up their minds 
that the chimneys should never be. 
The question is now under discussion 
among interested residents. 


How Fast Is Your Train Moving? 


FAIRLY accurate computation of 
the speed of a moving train can be 
obtained by any keen-eared traveler 
with the aid of a watch equipped with 
a second hand. The wheels of a car 


produce a clacking in passing over the 
rail joints, the succession being divided 
into measures of as many beats as there 
are wheels onone side of the car. Further- 
more, the traveler, due to his position, 
always hears one beat in each measure 
accented above the others. To deter- 
mine the speed of the train, it is neces- 
sary only to count the accented beats 
for twenty seconds, the result being 
approximately the number of miles per 
hour of travel. 

To explain this, let us say that fifty 
accented clicks are counted in the 
twenty seconds. Then the train is 
making about fifty miles per hour; for 
the fifty beats indicate that an equal num- 
ber of rails have been passed over. The 
standard rail is thirty feet long. Hence 
fifteen hundred feet are being covered 
every one-third minute, or two hundred 
and seventy thousand feet per hour; 
which, divided by five thousand two 
hundred and eighty, gives fifty-one and 
one-seventh miles per hour as the actual 
speed. It will therefore be seen that 
the original count (number of beats in 
twenty seconds) comes close enough to 
serve the purpose. 


694 Popular Science Monthly 


Army Pistol Shoots Colors 


DECIDED novelty in the way of 

pistols has been perfected for use by 
the United States Signal Corps for the 
purpose of communicating at night. In 
appearance, the pistol resembles the old- 
fashioned dueling pistol except that it is 
lighter and smaller. Cartridges firing 
spurts of flame of various hues are used 
for ammunition, the color of the flame 
carrying a definite message to the 
distant lookout. 


A One-Pound Diamond 


HE great diamond mines of the 
Transvaal have been revealing their 
age-long secrets for many generations, 
but the greatest surprise of all came on 
the twenty-fifth of January, 1905, when 


md 


One and one-third pounds was the weight of the 
famous Cullinan Diamond. It was cut into two large 
gems and over a hundred smaller brilliants 


the Cullinan stone, afterward 
named Star of Africa by 
George V, was discovered. 
When the excited owners 
placed the colossal gem on the 
scales they found it weighed 
621.2 grams, about one and 
one-third pounds. It was 
more than three times the 
size of any diamond ever 
found before or since, weigh- 
ing 3,025%4 carats, and of the finest 
quality. 

King Edward VII was presented with 
the stone on his birthday in 1907. Later 
it was placed in the hands of the famous 
Amsterdam firm of I. J. Asscher and 
Company who cut it into two large stones 
and over a hundred smaller ones. The 
larger jewel has the exceptional number 
of seventy-four facets being a drop 


brilliant m of 5164 carats. It or- 
naments = the royal scepter of 
England. ~*~ The smaller 
stone is a ~*~ square 
brilliant of 3093/16 
carats and is the 
central figure of the 
English crown. 
Only six months were 
required for cutting the splen- 
did stone, advantage being 


An army pistol which shoots colored light 
taken of the planes of cleavage. 


Disinfecting School Pencils 


T has long been recognized 
that the school pencil is a 
fruitful source of disease. The 
pencil points are usually given 
a bath by the child’s placing it 
in his mouth to soften the lead. 
Then the pencil is passed on to 
another child, who does the 
same, thereby spreading all 
kinds of communicable dis- 
eases. The pencil is disin- 
fected by a new _ system, 
through the action of formal- 
dehyde gas upon the bacteria. 


The lead-pencil of every child is a germ- 


carrier. Disinfect the pencil with for- 

maldehyde gas, as shown by the picture in 

the circle, and the spread of disease in 
schools will be reduced 


a 


Popular Science Monthly 


Serving Food on the Run 


HE war has done many unexpected 
things in this country. It has 
touched the every-day facts of life in a 
degree unimagined prior to August I, 
1914. It has even affected the manner 
in which food is served. Since the war 
began, the Remington Arms and Ammu- 
nition Company has erected a plant at 
Bridgeport, Conn., which is more than a 
third of a mile long. This plant, with a 
capacity for eighteen thousand men, is 
working throughout the twenty-four 
hours in eight-hour shifts. As soon asa 
man leaves his machine, another takes 
his place. Men working for only eight 
hours a day, do not require, and, if they 
are working on piece, do not desire, a full 
hour for meals. A half-hour is long 


enough for most of them. 
But a man cannot devote 
much time to eating if he 


695 


must walk a third of a mile in search of 
food and then return to his place. Soa 
“cafémobile”’ has been invented to meet 
his requirements. This, in fact, is alunch 
counter on wheels. It is supplied with 
metal compartments for different kinds of 
food which should be warm when served, 
as well as for fruit, sandwiches, pies, ete. 
At different points throughout the 
factory provision has been made for 
attaching it to an electric circuit. By 
this means the soups, hash, potatoes, 
coffee, and meat can be heated readily. 

Just before the lunch hour the squad- 
ron of “‘cafémobiles’”’ sets out from the 
restaurant, each loaded with a supply of 
food. These are pushed by men in 
white caps, blouses and aprons. Each 
is trundled to a different place in the 
factory, previously assigned, and takes 
up a position near the electric connection. 
The folding counter is turned back and 
the oranges, apples, pies, sandwiches and 
milk set out in tempting array. 


In turning out high-priced munitions every minute is precious for the men in the factories. 

So, a Bridgeport firm uses the ‘‘cafémobile’””—a lunch-counter on wheels which saves 

the machinist on piece-work the time required to walk a third of a mile from his lathe to 
his food. By means of electric connections, foods are served hot 


Exit the Mississippi Stern-Wheeler; 
Enter the Motor-Barge 


‘ 
i \ 
SOS a oe es ee % 
‘ : 


Motor-barges equipped with traveling-cranes, wireless apparatus and other modern apparatus, 
are to supplant the romantic Mississippi stern-wheeler 


HE old, picturesque stern-wheel 

Mississippi freighter and passenger 

boat has a rival in a new type of 
barge. 

The first of these boats is two hundred 
and forty feet long, forty-three feet wide 
and has a cargo structure two hundred 
feet long, forty feet wide and twelve 
feet high. The roof of this box-like 
structure can be removed in its entirety 
or in sections so as to permit access to 
any part of the cargo. The stowage of 
the cargo is facilitated by the use of 
an electrically-operated traveling-crane, 
which is capable of sending a boom on 
either side of the barge a distance of 
sixty-eight feet, which can travel along 
the whole length of the barge and which 
has a lifting capacity of three tons. 


These two-thousand-ton barges have 
a steel hull divided into four watertight 
and airtight compartments, with no 
hatches. Hence the boats are practical- 
ly unsinkable. A puncture of the bot- 
tom will not permit water to enter 
faster than it will compress the air in 
each compartment to a given point. 
Should any accident puncture a com- 
partment at any other place, powerful 
electric bilge-pumps, capable of dis- 
charging eight thousand gallons per 
minute, can be operated by a switch 
located in the pilot-house. 

Another commendable emergency ma- 
chine is a bow-pump, with suction and 
discharge at port and starboard at will. 
By turning a switch the pilot can suck 
away the water at one side and discharge 

it at the other with a resultant 


Dorr 


acters aed 


pull of twenty-five horsepow- 
er, which enables the vessel to 
turn from the dock against a 
forty-mile wind. 

As the illustrations show, 
the living quarters, engine- 


; rooms and pilot-house are en- 


OUTBOARD 
PROFILE, 


ELEVATION 
AND 


PLAN VIEW 


Diagrams showing structural details of the motor-barges 


tirely separate from the hull 
proper and the cargo spacing. 
Forward on the main deck are 
located the dining-room, the 
galley, and the large kitchen, 


696 


Popular Science Monthly 


which last is equipped with an elec- 
tric stove, a dish washer, an ice plant 
and other necessary auxiliaries. 

The engine-room, located aft, contains 
four eighty-horsepower en- 
gines which drive four screws 
fifty-one inches in diameter, 
so that the barge can travel at 
a speed of ten miles per hour 
in slack water, seven miles 
upstream and twelve miles 
when running with the cur- 
rent or downstream. 

To facilitate the handling 
of these large cargo-carriers 
further, many recently in- 
vented marine appliances are 
installed, such as telephone 
service, wireless outfit, 
searchlights, and a system of 
indicators located in the pilot- 
house, by means of which the” 
captain can almost instantly 
tell the condition prevailing 
in any part of his ship. 

These barges can deliver 
freight at New Orleans five 
days after leaving St. Louis, a very much 
faster schedule than anything heretofore 
attained by the old type of stern-wheeler. 


An equestrian milkman of Buenos Aires. 
If he gallops he may deliver butter 


697 


This Barn Bears a Lesson to Pacifists 
HE well-known contrariness of the 
middle- western farmer was illus- 
trated in an amusing way recently when 


© Alfred R. Wagstaff. 
The owner of this barn refused to remove it when the 
landlord’s contractor wanted to make a concrete path 
where it stood. Hence the result shown 


an Illinois contractor requested a farmer 
to move his barn out of the right of way 
over which a concrete sidewalk was 
planned to be run. The farmer ignored 
the contractor’s request. Then one 
bright morning the contractor smashed 
holes through each end of the barn and, 
despite the farmer’s angry protests, the 
sidewalk was laid through it and on the 
way to its eventual destination. 


“Quiere Leche Hoy?” 


OWN in Buenos Aires the apart- 

ment houses do not have dumb- 
waiters and the milkman does not come 
rattling and clanking across the cobble- 
stones in front of your home at ap- 
proximately four A.M. By that hour he 
is just about preparing to leave his 
hacienda with a full milk can strapped 
to either side of his horse. Arriving in 
the city he will make his rounds, stopping 


at his various customers to inquire 
Quiere leche hoy?—'‘Any milk today?” 
Some milk peddlers announce their 
presence as they canter along by loud 
shouts. But this practice is generally 


discouraged, as Buenos Aires is a quiet 
city, resenting vulgar hallooing in its 
orderly streets. 


698 Popular Science Monthly 


A Model of Joel Chandler Harris’ Old 
Homestead 


OR the encouragement of a fund for 
the purchase of Snap Bean Farm, 
famous as the home of Joel Chandler 
Harris (‘‘Uncle Remus’’), a doll’s house 
made to resemble the Harris home— 
‘‘Wren’s Nest’’—has been built by Eli J. 
Memory, of Richmond, Va. 

The minia- 
ture ‘‘Wren’s 
Nest”’ became 
popular with 
the young 
folks. Sub- 
scriptions to 
the Snap Bean 
Farm fund 
were readily 
forthcoming, 
because each 
contributor 


had an opportunity to draw for the doll’s 
house. 

The little house required two arduous 
weeks for its construction. It is made 
of eighty tiny “‘logs’’ cut along the 
banks of Peachtree Creek near Atlanta. 
The structure is forty-five inches long, 
forty-three inches high and twenty-eight 
inches wide. It has a_ twelve-inch 
veranda on the front and an eight-inch 
porch in the rear. There is a nine-inch 
hallway from front to rear, and the 
interior contains four rooms and five 
doorways. The roof is arranged on 
hinges so that it can be lifted to inspect 
the interior. 

In building the house, Mr. Memory 
used one thousand one hundred and 
forty-one pieces of pine, willow, ash, 
mulberry and grapevine. The roof is 
made up of six hundred and forty-four 
pine shingles made from lathing. 


; 
: 
: 


To raise a fund for the purchase of Joel Chandler Harris’ home, a doll’s house, 


a replica of the Harris home, was made the prize in a lottery 


2. tee 


eer ee ee le ee ee 


—— rr Oe ee ee 


Popular Science Monthly 


Washing Logs for Safety 


ASHING logs for safety before 

they go to the sawmill is the 
novel method employed in a lumber 
camp in the West. As the photograph 
shows, the logs are carried in a V-shaped 
trough upon steel rollers which convey 
them between jets of water of great 
force. These jets strike the surface of 
the logs, scouring them thoroughly on 
all sides. The result is that the bits 
of broken stone or other hard material 
that might cling to the rough bark are 
removed, and danger to life as well as 
damage to property is averted, for if a 
swiftly rotating saw hits a rock or nail in 
a log it is likely to explode like a bomb 
and send fragments of steel in every 
direction. The washing of the logs 
before they go to the saw is thus a safety 
measure well worth while. 


Jets of water scour the log and remove broken 
stones—a safety measure for sawmills 


Twitching Muscles by Means of the 
Electric Current 


N the treatment of certain ills it is 

often desirable to introduce exercise, 
but in cases of prolonged illness, the 
muscular effort is often beyond the power 
of the patient. To overcome this in- 
ability to exercise, numerous devices 
have been invented to provide automatic 
exercise. One of these, much used in 
sanatoria, where natural methods instead 
of drugs are relied upon, is the “‘sinu- 
soidal bath” with its many variations. 

The bath is comparatively simple in 
its operation. The unit tubs and warm 
water provide electrical contacts; the 


699 


sinusoidal apparatus is attached to an 
ordinary light socket. The sinusoidal 
current, which is painless in its applica- 
tion, will produce muscular contractions, 


The man is taking a “‘sinusoidal bath.’”’ His 
arm and leg muscles are being twitched elec- 
trically to give them much-needed exercise 


mild or violent at the will of the oper- 
ator. The length of the contraction is 
regulated by a clock which breaks the 
current. The current may be applied 
in the four units simultaneously, but as 
a rule, the curative quality is best trans- 
mitted by alternate application. <A 
treatment usually lasts from twelve to 
fifteen minutes. 


An Electrically-Lighted Clock 


NEW YORK manufacturer has 

recently brought out a compact 
electrically-lighted clock, provided with 
dry cells and a press button attached to 
the end: of a cord long enough to reach 
from a nearby table or dresser to the 
bed. A small switch . 
is fitted on the front 
side of the box con- 
taining the battery, 
so that the light can 
be burned con- 
tinuously 
if desired. 


The long cord runs from the clock to your 

bed. To find out the time without getting 

up, press the button at your end of the 
cord. The clock is illuminated at once 


Making a Life-Saver of a Leak 


HEN a heavy sea is running, one 
\ \ of the glass-covered portholes in 

the bow of a steamer is often 
crushed in—an accident which, while 
seemingly unimportant, has resulted in 
the foundering of many a ship. Water 
rushes into the opening at the rate of 
many gallons a minute. Should the 


The water tank covers a hole in the 


ship’s side. Part of the interior is shown 

so that the balancing-chamber can be seen. 

The small tube at the top leads to the 

mercury gage which tells whether the 
ship is listing or not 


LOAD LINE jamal ENGINE eee 


BALANC 
CHAM 


A cargo steamer equipped with two pneumercators. The balancing-chambers are contained 


crew be occupied in other parts of the 
ship in clearing decks or battening down 
hatches, the broken port is likely to 
escape notice until enough water has 
entered to make the situation really 
serious. 

An automatic registering device with 
a dial in the chart room or captain’s 
cabin has been installed on several 
freighters, to indicate within a fraction of 
an inch exactly how much water the 
vessel is drawing both forward and aft. 
The instrument has been applied to 
other uses, such as measuring the depth 
of rivers and the amount of oil and other 
liquids in tanks aboard ship and ashore. 
In all of these applications the principle 
of the device is the same. 

The natural law which governs the 
operation of the ‘“‘pneumercator,” as the 
invention is called, is nearly as old as 
mechanics. Simply expressed, it is that 
the weight of liquids having the same 
cross-section is directly proportional to 
the depth. 

Described in a few words, the device 
consists of a pressure-gage, which regis- 
ters the weight of liquids in which it is 
sunk, and by means of a tube containing 
air indicates the pressure on a wall- 
gage. The apparatus is made up of 
three essential parts: a balancing- 
chamber, an indicator and a small 


pressure-pump. The balancing-chamber 
is connected by copper pipe line with the 
indicator, and the indicator is connected’ 
with the pump by means of another 
pipe line. 


iene BF RE a pee 


in the tanks which are indicated in the bow and stern. Holes in the ship’s side, which allow 
the tanks to be filled, are placed a few inches below water line when the ship is unloaded. 


700 


Popular Science Monthly 


The balancing-chamber is a small 
metal bell with a tube at the top and a 
small hole in the side near the bottom. 
When the balancing-chamber is sunk, 
liquid is forced into the hole, the re- 
sultant pressure being transmitted 
through the pipe to the mercury indi- 
cator. The indicator resembles an old- 
style barometer, having a tall mercury 
column. As soon as the _ balancing- 
chamber has been sunk to the bottom of 
the tank the mercury column will rise 
no higher; it is then necessary to balance 
the system by means of compressed air. 
This is necessary to compensate for the 
loss of pressure transmitted due to the 
length of the copper tube. A valve at 
the bottom of the indicator is turned so 
that the balancing-chamber is in direct 
communication with the .air-pump. A 
few strokes of the pump force out the 
liquid from the sunken chamber. Then 
the valve is turned back to its former 
position and the pressure is correctly 
registered on the dial by the mercury 
column. The accompanying drawings 
explain the system so clearly that 
further elucidation is hardly necessary. 

With this device it is not only possible 
to determine correctly the amount of 
water or oil in the tank—and the cali- 
bration of the gage can be easily trans- 
lated into gallons—but it can be em- 
ployed for determining the tonnage of a 
vessel by the use of a balancing-chamber 
in the bow and another in the stern. 
Both of these chambers communicate 
through tubing to twin dials located in a 
convenient place. 

Two of the accompanying diagrams 
illustrate the manner in which the ap- 


* eet “aie eee ee ee 


CARGO 


HOLD 


ae el CAPTAINS | 
wee = OFFICE 


As the vessel sinks in the water, due to natural or accidental causes, the increased pressure 


701 


paratus is installed for determining a 
ship’s draft. A one-inch hole is bored 
in the bow a few inches below the water 
line when the vessel is.unloaded. If four 
equipments are installed instead of two— 
one on the port side and the other on the 
starboard side in the bow and the other 
two installed similarly in the stern, it is 
an easy matter by having the four gages 
side by side to tell whether the ship is 


= 
= 
> 
= 
id 
c 
e 


i) 


| a/R PUMP 


- 


The bell-like object is contained in a small 
tank which communicates with a _ hole 
below the water line in a ship’s side. The 
variations in water pressure are communi- 
cated to the gage. The purpose of the air- 
pump is to balance the system for accuracy 


FORE PEAK 
ALANCE CHAMBE) : 
gare nine ee 


TANK | 5 


is transmitted through copper tubing to indicators in the cabin’s office, the chart-room or 
the engine-room, giving due warning to the officers of the ship 


702 


properly trimmed or not. It is this 
system of installation which will give 
indication in the pilot-house or engine- 
room when the ship springs a leak. It is 
also possible to tell after the ship springs 
a leak whether the pumps are taking care 
of the inrush of water or not. By 
means of an electrical attachment to the 
mercury indicator, warning bells can be 
rung when a dangerous height has been 
reached by the mercury column, or, in 
other words, when the ship is listing in 
any quarter. 

The possible uses of the pneumercator 
are almost limitless. It can be employed 
in oil fields, at hydroelectric plants, on 
warships, on gasoline engines and, in 
fact, any place where accurate pressure 
gages are necessary. 

A pneumercator is installed on the 
U. S. S. New York for indicating the 
amount of oil in the auxiliary tanks. 


A New Way of Driving a Bicycle 
with a Motor 


NE of the most ingenious motor 

attachments for bicycles yet placed 
on the market has recently appeared in 
England. The motor, which develops 
slightly over one horsepower, is attached 
to the luggage-rack; it weighs but six- 
teen pounds and occupies little space. 


A new place for the bicycle motor 


A V-shaped belt-rim is attached to the 
back wheel, and on this fits a friction- 
wheel, which is chain-driven from the 
motor. A lever operated from the 
handlebar lifts this wheel from the rim, 
and thus provides a free engineand clutch. 


Popular Science Monthly 


The motor is said to develop sufficient 
power to drive the machine at the rate of. 
twenty miles an hour, although on a 
steep hili, the rider must help the motor 
by pedaling. 

The makers assert that they can place 
this littlke machine on the American 
market at a cost of about fifty dollars. 
The expense of operating will probably 
be small, as the engine is designed to run 
nearly one hundred and fifty miles upon 
one gallon of gasoline. 


This electric fixture can be easily attached 
to any bed 


Reading in Bed Made Easy 


N electric light device which can be 
attached to any bed directly over 
one’s head has recently been put on the 
market. A strip of brass is bent into 
nearly a circle at one end, the other end 
being bent in the opposite direction to 
form a large hook for hanging over the 
headboard. 
An ordinary electric socket is fitted 
with a short threaded tube having a 


‘flange at its outer end. This tube passes 


through a longitudinal slot in the brass 
strip and is held in place by a spiral 
spring which presses against the flange 
and the inner surface of the curve. The 
length of the slot permits a wide angle 
of adjustment of the light. This simple 
device may be easily attached to a desk 
or any other piece of furniture where a 
light is needed. 


Using Triggers to 


Uncle Sam/’s Battle- 


Made the 
Launching of Dreadnoughts 
Mechanically Perfect 


By Robert Howard Gordon 


Has 


How Science 


involves the problem of releasing a 

ship from its ways without straining 

the shell. In the case of such great super- 
dreadnoughts as the New York and Ari- 
zona, the great length and enormous 
weight of steel necessitate unusual care in 
calculating the points where the strain 
can be relieved by additional ways. The 
“‘ways’”’ are of two kinds, ground ways, 
which are immovable, and sliding ways, 
which move with the ship into the water. 
Ground ways consist of longitudinal 
timbers on either side of the keel, placed 
about midway between the keel and the 
turn of the bilge or under surface of the 
vessel. The sliding ways are similar and 
rest upon the ground ways, with a thick 


, NHE launching of a great battleship 


Launch 


The battleship 
**Arizona”’ ready 
to be ‘‘fired”’ into 
the sea by her 
hydraulic 
triggers 


coating of stearin or grease between 
them, to facilitate the sliding motion of 
the hull, as shown in Figure I. 

It was thought best in launching the 
Arizona to carry the ways as far forward 
as possible to gain additional length of 
sliding ways and consequently reduce the 
unit pressure. The extreme narrowness 
of the fore part of the shell necessitated 
the placing of three steel-plate slings 
under the ship, extending from side to 
side and lashed to the ship by heavy, 
wire rope as shown in Figure 2. The 
space between the slings and the hull of 
the boat was then filled with concrete, 
which gave the ship a temporarily in- 
creased width forward. The under por- 
tion of the shell, in the wake of the 


703 


704 


concrete, was greased with stearin, 
painted on hot, and the concrete was tied 
back to the slings. 

The supporting structure for the aft 
portion of a ship must be removed before 
the launchings can take place (if the 


Steel 
Wire Slin 0g 


Center Line 
ig of ship 


1 iipwer park of 
| shell, greased. 


basa stearire Te: 


Fig. 1. 


Section through the fore part of 
the supporting structure, starboard side 
looking forward 


stern dips into the water first), since the 
central portion of the hull has so much 
greater width. About six weeks before 
the Arizona was launched, the aft keel- 
blocks were removed and _ tumbling 
shores substituted. These consisted of 
blocks rounded off at their top, forward 
and bottom, after ends, thus allowing 
them to tumble when the ship started to 
move down the ways. This arrange- 
ment is illustrated in Figure 3. 

The actual releasing of the ship was 
accomplished by means of two _ hy- 
draulicly-operated triggers, one on either 
side of the shell and operated together. 
The trigger, shown in Figure 4, consists 
of special forged steel, the upper end 
engaging a cap set in the sliding ways, 


-zSteel f 


Fig. 2. 


narrow fore part of the vessel 


‘and Arizona. 


View showing steel-plate slings under the 


Popular Science Monthly 


and the lower end bearing against a 
piston, sliding in a cylinder fastened to 
the ground ways. The cylinder con- 
tained a thirty per cent mixture of 
glycerin and water. When the signal 
was given, a releasing valve was turned, 


___ «Direction a as Bottom af 


Tumbling shores 


Fig. 3. 


allowing the glycerin in the hydraulic 
cylinder to escape. The pressure in 
the cylinder being removed, the trigger 
swung on its pivot, disengaging the cap 
and allowing the ship to move down into 
the water. 

The effectiveness of this arrangement 
was proved in 
the launching 
of both the 
New York 


No apprecia- 
ble strain was 
noticed any- 
where,though 
very careful observations were taken. 


Fig. 4. 
draulic trigger itself 


The hy- 


Keeping Beverages Fresh 


Y a new patent process grape juice, 
wines or beverages made from fruit 
juices can be so treated that they will not 
become turbid and will not form a sedi- 
ment when stored. Also they are prac- 
tically freed from any sort of bacteria. 
The liquid, under regulated pressure 
and temperature, is passed 
through a finely divided mass 
of some material which will 
not dissolve or absorb mois- 
ture, such as corundum, gar- 
net or quartz, and at the same 
time subjected to an electric 
current. If the liquid to be 
treated is acid, the crushed 
material it is passed over must 
be electro-negative; if the 
liquid is basic or neutral, the 
material, must be electro-posi- 
tive. Alternating current is 
employed. 


Ten-Net—An Indoor-Outdoor 
Game 


“Ten-net,” the new game, in action. On the left, the net is extended immediately after the ball 
has been shot. On the right is the attitude of the player receiving the ball 


F ‘“Ten-net,’’ a novel game invented 
by Halvor Achershaug, of New York, 
meets with the popularity which is 

predicted by those who have played it, 
both indoor and outdoor sports will be 
forced to look to their laurels. 

Many different games may be played 
with the nets patented by the inventor, 
ranging from a modified form of handball 
for indoor work to an exciting outdoor 
game somewhat resembling lacrosse. 


At the right, a 
player about to 
shoot the ball 
into the air for a 
high “fly ;” open- 
ing the arms 
throws it into 
the air with 
great force 


The nets are made of whipcord, 
fastened to two wooden handles in much 
the same manner that a hammock is 
slung between two posts. A triangular 
loop of resilient spring wire projects from 
each handle, and to this the edge of 
the net is securely bound. 

In the center of the nét is a cradle- 
like arrangement which is also made of 
spring wire. This gives added strength 
to the point which stands the greatest 
shocks during the game. 

In playing ‘‘Ten-net,” the 
players use a tennis ball, and 
throw it back and forth, using 
the hand nets both in catching 
and throwing. When the ball 
comes speeding through the air, 
the player spreads his net, and 
allows the ball to hit it. At the 
moment of impact, the handles 
are quickly brought together, 
and the net breaks the force of 
the ball. A turn of the wrist, 
and the net is lowered, with the 
ball held securely inside. 

In throwing the ball, the net is 
used as a sling. The net is 
relaxed, since the handles are 
held close together. To get the 
greatest speed and distance, the 


A player receiv- 


ing a ball from 
a high “fly.” 
The net is held 
at an angle to 
catch the ball 
without having 
it bounce away 


net is held behind the head, and 
is suddenly brought forward; at 
the same time, the hand grips 
are spread apart. The ball speeds 
away to an astonishing distance, 
where it is caught by another 
player, holding another out- 
stretched net. 


New York’s Submarine Subway 
and How It Was Built 


By Howard B. Gates 


The author of this article is a Civil Engineer, who 1s connected with the Public 


Service Commission of New York city. 


His official duties were such that he 


was closely identified with the daring work that he so interestingly describes. 
Obviously, he writes from first-hand knowledge.—Ev1tor. 


TWENTY-story building literally 
yaN grows out of the ground over 

night; subways are built beneath 
our most congested streets and under 
rivers and we scarcely know they are 
there until they are ready for operation; 
our water supply is siphoned under 
rivers at great depths and runs through 
the very bowels of the earth in arteries 
hundreds of miles in length for our con- 
venient use at faucet and hydrant; 
bridges spring from the opposite banks 
of our rivers and meet in the center 
within a fraction of an inch and we talk 
with our friends across the ocean and 
continent with perfect ease and under- 
standing. Not only to the lay mind but 
to the technically trained as well, do 
these achievements become a source of 
wonder, the former accepting the result 
as sufficiently marvelous in itself, while 
the latter appreciating the underlying 
principles of science and laws of nature 
which contribute to their success, won- 
ders at the ingenuity of their applica- 
tion. One of the most recent examples 
of these marvels of engineering is the 
“submarine”? subway or Harlem River 
tubes built beneath the Harlem River to 
form the connecting link between the 
Boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx 
subway systems now nearing com- 
pletion. 

The Harlem River at the point of this 
crossing is six hundred feet wide and 
varies in depth from twenty to twenty- 
six feet. In accordance with the require- 
ments of the Secretary of War, the top of 
the structure was fixed at a depth which 
placed it an average of seven feet below 
the river bottom and made the lowest 
point in the structure about fifty-seven 
feet below water. To start the con- 
struction at the bulkhead lines was not 
practicable; hence the tubes were pro- 


jected landwards, so that the total 
length of this special construction was 
one thousand and eighty feet. 


The Four Tubes Floated Like Boats 


Briefly, the method consisted in as- 
sembling the steel shell or form of the 
four tubes, in sections about two hundred 
and twenty feet in length upon timber 
supports above the water. With the 
ends sealed or partially closed, a section 
was launched and floated as a boat. 
Towing it to and anchoring it above its 
designed location, its tubes were filled 
with water under positive and accessible 
controls and gradually lowered into a 
previously dredged and prepared trench. 
As each section was lowered in turn, it 
was attached to the end of the previously 
placed section and encased in concrete. 
When all of the sections had been 
lowered and properly encased, with their 
ends closed by watertight walls or 
bulkheads, the water by which they had 
been sunk was pumped out, and a 
reinforced concrete lining was placed 
inside the steel shell to complete the 
structure. 

The steel portion of the structure 
consists of four parallel tubes bolted 
together, with flat sides on their interior 
walls. Between the tubes are vertical 
diaphragm plates which are placed at 
intervals perpendicularly to the direction 
of the tracks and which extend to the 
rectangular limits of the structure. 


Digging Trench for the Tubes in the 
Bottom of the River 


The safe submerging of this light steel 
form and the temporary control and final 
location of it, comprise the most spec- 
tacular part of this great scheme. The 
trench into which the subway was to be 
located was formed by a “‘clam-shell” 


706 


mm 


Popular Science Monthly 


dredge. While the trench was being pre- 
pared, the structural steel tubes were in 
process of building over a slip about a 
mile away. 

In launching each section nine flat- 
decked boats similar to canal barges, 
were uniformly distributed beneath the 
structure at low tide. As the tide rose 
the huge steel form was lifted clear of its 
supports; then tugs readily towed it out 
of the slip. Small valves in the bottom 
of these boats were simultaneously 
opened, the section slowly settling down 
into the water until it floated on its own 
surfaces as a boat. The flat boats were 
ballasted with stone to overcome the 
buoyancy of the wood of which they 
were constructed and were readily pulled 
from beneath the structure. After they 
had been pumped out, they were 
available for use on the next section. 

The flotation of the structure was 
made possible by the watertight wooden 
bulkheads which completely closed the 
ends of the outside tubes and the lower 
half of the ends of the center tubes. 
These bulkheads and tubes presented 
something of the appearance of four 
large submarines tied together, their 
ends cut off and boarded up. As the 
same essential principles are involved in 
their submersion, they might be termed, 
the ‘Subway Submarines.” Their weight 
or displacement when entirely equipped 
was about seven hundred and fifty tons. 


How the Tubes were Sunk 


It is evident that, if the tubes are to be 
submerged, an enormous weight must be 
added to overcome the buoyancy that 
causes them to float. The admission of 
water suggests itself; but the scientist 
points out that this is a_ practical 
impossibility. Certainly it is a grave 
risk, to attempt to control and adjust 
the amount of water in so large a 
structure, especially where any tendency 
toward unequal settlement might cause 
the water to flow to the lowest points, 
and eventually plunge the whole struc- 
ture to the bottom a hopeless wreck. 
It is a well-known principle in physics 
that the resulting buoyancy-effect of a 
floating body (in other words, the 
weight which the floating body will carry 
and remain floating) is theoretically 
equal to the weight of a volume of water 


707 


of the same dimensions as the floating 
body, less the actual weight of the body. 
In the light of that principle the use of 
the four steel air cylinders illustrated in 
place upon the top of the tubes is at 
once apparent; they furnish the neces- 
sary suspension while the tubes are being 
filled with water. 

These cylinders, of light steel plate, 
were divided into three compartments 
(a small center one about fifteen feet 
long and two end ones about twenty-six 
feet long). Each compartment was fitted 
with separate valves for the admission of 
water and for the application of air 
pressure by which the water could be 
removed entirely from the cylinders, or 
from any compartment, or adjusted to 
any desired refinement. The cylinders 
had a combined floating effect seventy- 
six tons greater than the structure when 
submerged. Hence it was necessary to 
let in but nineteen tons of water to each 
of the cylinders to overcome their 
tendency to float. With the buoyancy- 
cylinders in place and four long steel 
location masts erected and carefully 
plumbed so that they were exactly over 
the center line at each end of the outer 
tubes, the section was ready to be towed 
into position. Approaching the site, the 
scene presented was essentially that 
shown at the extreme right in the 
illustration. 


Filling the Tubes with 


Sink Them 


In order to fill the outside tubes with 
water (the first operation in lowering a 
section), twelve-inch submerged valves in 
each of the end bulkheads were opened 
simultaneously. With the excess float- 
ing effect of the buoyancy cylinders in 
mind, it will be appreciated that it was 
relatively unimportant how fast the 
tubes filled with water as long as they 
maintained an even keel. Slowly the 
section settled, ‘as it filled with water, 
until it became submerged. Gradually 
it transferred its weight to the buoyancy 
cylinders and pulled them down into the 
water until only about two feet six 
inches of the cylinders were visible, a 
condition which followed shortly after 
that shown in the insert at the lower 
right-hand corner of the double-page 
illustration. Workmen standing upon 


Water to 


\ 


“FINISHED SECTION © 


§ AGS ia 


REM ING IN eS 
SEC NS WITH CONCRETE 


The four tubes of the new subway under the Harlem river in New York city are being put in 
place by floating them to a point above their destined position. The sections are then 
released from the barges which are carrying them half submerged and are dropped into place. 
Once in the trench which has been dug in the river bottom, concrete is sent down through 


Popular Science Monthly 709 


The great tunnel sections seem to float in the 

water as easily as though they were of wood. 

. mie Four sections, when floated to their positions 

GING TUBES ois, Fees Sia z ? p ’ 
susie. nae weighed seven hundred and fifty tons 


A section ready to be launched for towing to 
its resting place. Note the great size 
by comparison 


pipes to embed the tube sections solidly in the rock and to join the sections, one to the other. 

The work is done by divers where the elaborate mechanical system is inadequate, and at last 

compressed air forces the water out and the final joining is completed. This method requires 
less time and is less expensive than the use of a driving-shield 


710 Popular Science Monthly 


each of the cylinders next simultaneously 
turned wheels which opened a three- 
inch water-valve in the bottom of the 
center compartment of each cyliner and 
by carefully observing the rate at which 
the cylinders became submerged and 
testing the subsequent load transferred 
to the derrick, the nineteen tons of 
water to overcome the buoyancy was 
admitted, filling the center compart- 
ment to about one-half its capacity. 
Then just enough more was let in to hold 
the section in position when lowered, 
against the action of the tidal currents 
in the river. This total excess load 
never amounted to more than a few 
tons, which the derricks readily sus- 
tained. The section was lowered, until 
one of the diaphragms at or near each 
end, rested upon temporary timber 
frames, in the shape of an inverted “U.”’ 
By means of the location cables attached 
to the ends and sides, the section could 
be shifted north or south, east or west 
until the masts (which projected about 
ten feet above the water) indicated that 
the structure was in proper position. 
The control over this large steel struc- 
ture was very complete; the section 
could be raised or lowered, shifted at 
will, or could even have been brought to 
the surface again if conditions had made 
it necessary. 


How the Sunk Tubes Were Joined 


Each section after the first, had a 
positive anchorage to the section pre- 
viously placed; the ends were brought 
into perfect alinement by means of steel 
pins mounted on the end of one section, 
and guided into tapered holes in 
castings mounted in the same relative 
position on the other section. As the 
two sections were drawn together, the 
pins were started into the tapered holes 
and served to guide the ends to a 
positive junction, then a diver bolted 
_them together. The complete operation 
from the time of opening the valves to 
admit the water to fill the tubes, to their 
final anchoring, required but three hours. 

As soon as a section was placed, prep- 
arations were made to deposit the 
encasing concrete, the weight of which 
was necessary to keep the tubes from 
coming to the surface when their 
buoyancy would be restored in the un- 


watering, and the strength of which 
concrete, together with the reinforcing 
effect and waterproofing qualities of the 
steelwork, was to provide a safe working- 
chamber for the completion of the sub- 
way structure. The section, as far as 
described, might be considered to be a 
large box sunk in the bottom of the 
river, without top or bottom but having 
sides and ends, and divided by the 
diaphragms into a series of pockets 
which could be filled with concrete in 
any convenient order. 


Pouring Concrete Through Pipes 


The tubes, being surrounded with 
water, the problem resolved itself into 
displacing this water with concrete and 
without the loss of the cement which 
would occur in dropping the concrete 
through even a much less depth of 
water. This was accomplished by what 
is technically known as the ‘“‘tremie’”’ 
method of depositing which involves the 
use of long pipes which are kept nearly 
full of concrete and which are raised a 
little as the concrete is poured in at the 
top. A nearly continuous flow is main- 
tained. The concrete gradually dis- 
places the water but does not mix with it. 
Each pocket required an average of twelve 
hours for its completion by this method. 

When all of the pockets had been 
filled, except those over which the 
buoyancy cylinders had_ been placed, 
these cylinders having performed their 
functions, were disconnected by forcing 
the water out of them; they floated to 
the surface there to be reclaimed for use 
on the next section. 

With all of the sections in place and 
encased and with the extreme ends of 
the series closed by the heavy wooden 
bulkheads previously mentioned, four 
small steel shafts or wells attached to 
the tubes before sinking, were opened 
and the water pumped out. It was 
then possible to get inside of these sub- 
merged passages beneath the river, 
assemble the concrete forms and place 
the lining, thus completing the structure. 
There were no leaks in the tubes except 
where some of the bolts in the interior 
walls had not been tightened sufficiently, 
and by tightening these bolts, the 
finished work was, figuratively speaking, 
‘“‘dry as a bone.” 


a —————_—_-. ee ee 


Popular Science Monthly wait 


Making Your Own Boat Repairs 
Under Water 


ERE you ever gliding over the 

smooth surface of a lake in your 
motor-boat with the satisfaction of hav- ee 
ing a perfectly working craft, when a = 
sudden lurch told you that something AIR PIPE“ 
had gone wrong? The feeling is not 
pleasant. It is only comparable with 
being stranded at night on a lonely road 
when your automobile has given out. 
In an automobile you are better |= 
off than in the motor-boat. 
Every kind of device has been 
thought of to help out the auto- 
mobilist, but the yachtsman has 
been neglected. At last a de- 
vice has been invented for the 
lover of boating which obviates 
the necessity even of towing the 
boat ashore to find out what 
damage has been sustained and 
what repairs are necessary. 

The inventor of the device 
once found himself adrift with 
a broken rudder. Down through 
the clear water he could see the 
broken part. He had the proper 
tools for repairing it, but there 
was no way of reaching it. If 
only he could get down under 
the boat! The idea of a diving- 


helmet occurred to him then and You do not have to be an experienced diver to use 

there. After a series of experi- this hood. A metal helmet, bearing four weights, 

ments, the actual thing was rests on the shoulders, and a hand-pump furnishes 

produced. fresh air. All sorts of emergency repairs can be 
made under water with this device 


This diving-helmet is of metal. 
Its lower edge fits snugly over the shoul- ders. Four adjustable weights, two in 


mie Rae 


In the middle picture is shown Rex Beach, the author, just emerging from the water after 

testing the diving-helmet. The other two illustrations were made off the Florida Keys by 

photographing under water. In case of accident, the diver can rise to the surface 
immediately by simply removing the hood 


712 


= 
Ree Yi, 


Popular Science Monthly 


working and no more. As in 
the case of the regulation 
diving-suit, the amount of 
air is regulated by signals, 
but should any accident 
happen at the source of air, 
the diver simply lifts the 
helmet off his shoulders and 
quickly floats to the surface, 
an utter impossibility in the 
regulation suit. 

A small glass window en- 
ables the diver to see the dam- 
aged part, in shallow water. 
With this simple appliance, a 
rope tangled in the propeller, 


ES 


7} 
4 


a broken blade, a jammed rud- 
der or hull punctures can be 


readily taken care of. 


The accompanying illustra- 


tions were made by _ photo- 
graphing the diver in twenty 


feet of water at Sea Gardens 


along the Florida Keys. 


Submarine Signaling with 


Sound Waves 


improvement has been 


AN 
made upon the usual bell 


and striker for use in subma- 


rine signaling. By means of 


a new device, recently patent- 


A submarine signaling apparatus that makes sounds 
under water by vaporizing the water and thus causing 
waves which transmit the sound 


front and two in back, are fastened in 
place by metal strips. These weights 
overcome the buoyancy of the air in the 
hood and the natural buoyancy of the 
person wearing it. The buoyancy of the 
air in the hood tends to hold it in an up- 
right position. Since the weights are 
suspended below the center of buoyancy 
of the body (which is in the chest), the 
shoulders are held firmly in the curved 
lower edge of the helmet. 

Fresh air is supplied to the diver by 
means of a single tube which leads to a 
small hand-pump in the boat. The 
pressure of the pumped air not only 
prevents the water from entering the 
hood, but keeps a fresh supply passing 
through at all times. Since there is no 
suit to inflate, pressure of the air in the 
helmet is always sufficient to equalize the 
water pressure at the depth the diver is 


ed by Theodore-Bedde, waves 
may be transmitted much 
greater distances than hereto- 
fore. Also, the frequency or 
pitch of the sound waves is entirely under 
control. Another advantage lies in the 
relatively small size of the apparatus. 

An electrode 1, centrally placed in the 
bushing 2, passes through the hull of the 
boat, the collar 3 holding the bushing in 
position. The electrode terminates ex- 
ternally in a sparking-knob 4. The 
bushing and the electrode are connected 
with the two brushes of an alternating 
current generator. A switch is inserted 
between one brush and the bushing for 
interrupting the circuit. 

When the circuit is closed, the alter- 
nating current which is made to flow 
from the knob 4 to the collar 3, vaporizes 
some of the surrounding water. A power- 
ful strain is exerted on the water, result- 
ing in strong impulses being sent out. 
Signaling may be accomplished by 
opening and closing the switch. 


Populer 


Science Monthly 713 


By means of a trigger which moves but forty inches, an aeroplane can be catapulted into the | 
air with a velocity equivalent to a run of forty feet on the ground. This new invention 
advances the use of aeroplanes at sea far beyond anything yet achieved 


Catapulting Seaplanes from Battleships 


FEW years ago, when the thought 

of using aeroplanes in connection 
with battleships occurred to naval 
officers, the problem of launching was 
solved in a crude way by means of 
temporary inclined platforms built on 
‘the’ deck. Apart from the military 
objection to such a_ structure, the 
weather conditions had to be decidedly 
favorable in order to insure a successful 
start for a flight. At no time was it 
considered practicable to launch the 
flying machine while the ship was in 
motion. The machine ran down on the 
platform on the regulation wheels of a 
land machine; they were not real sea- 
planes. 

It was apparent that the hydro- 
aeroplane or seaplane would have to be 
carried temporarily upon a car or truck 
from which it could be detached at the 
right moment and allowed to rise of its 
own impulse by reason of the supporting 
pressure of the air due to the speed 
acquired in a short run. It was also 
clear that the car would have to be 
quickly accelerated to full speed within a 
run of something like forty feet. This 
rapidly gathered headway had to be 
insured without jerks or jars. To this 
end Captain Washington I. Chambers 


of our navy has devised a compressed-air 
catapult, the compressed air operating a 
piston which, in its turn, actuates a 
wire rope traveling over pulleys. A 
movement of but forty inches on the 
part of the piston is multiplied so as 
to draw the car forward forty feet. 

To-day, the catapult has been so far 
perfected by the Bureau of Construction 
and Repair of the Navy Department 
that it has become a permanent feature 
aboard the aviation ship U.S.S. North 
Carolina. It is now possible to launch 
in flight the service seaplanes while the 
cruiser is steaming along at fair speed. 

The seaplane’s motor is set going be- 
fore the catapulting process is started. 
In fact, the pilot does not give the signal 
for launching until his engine is working 
just right. The impulse air for working 
the piston is drawn right from the torpedo 
air-supply system, and the working pres- 
sure is something like three hundred 
pounds to the square inch. By means of 
a cleverly designed valve the air is, ad- 
mitted progressively to the cylinder, and 
in this way the desired maximum speed 
is reached from zero without shock. 

In the future, our navy, when hundreds 
of miles from shore, will be able to send 
its seaplanes skyward with measurable 
indifference to the weather. 


714 Popular Science Monthly 


Burning Cars to Make Money 


FTER having carefully estimated 
the value of the wood in discarded 
railroad cars, balancing it against the 
cost of the labor necessary in retrieving 
it, the Pennsylvania Railroad came to 
the conclusion that it would be far more 
profitable to burn the old wooden cars 
entirely; then recover and sell the scrap 


Shingles and a 
darning needle 
are the secret of 
this phono- 
graph’s tone 


iron remaining. 
od of economy not only with cast-off cars, 
but with scrap material of all descriptions, 
the railroad company saved $2,000,000 


By following this meth- 


in one year. Waste paper alone sold 
for $19,211, while old wheels, metals 
and wrought iron yielded more than 
$780,000. 


The Shingle-Phonograph 


HE accompanying illustration shows 
a phonograph recently constructed 
by Harvey Smith, a student in the West 
Allis High School, West Allis, Wisconsin. 

The reproducing part of the phono- 
‘graph is nothing more pretentious than 
an ordinary shingle, with the point of a 
darning-needle securely fastened in one 
corner. A_ steel knitting- 
needle, clamped in a labora- 
tory ring-stand, lis thrust 
through a hole in the shingle 
to support it as it is carried 
over the record. The record 
is mounted upon a wooden 
turn-table constructed as fol- 
lows: 

A disk made of three- 
quarter-inch wood, with a 
groove in the edge is mounted 
on the hub and axle of an old 
bicycle-wheel, so that it can 
turn easily. This is con- 
nected with an ordinary bat- 
tery-motor by means of a 
cord-belt. Pressure of the 
thumb and finger on the shaft of the 
motor regulates the speed of the disk. 
Records can be played backward simply 
by twisting the belt. 
tion shows how two shingles may be 
used at the same time to play a duet on 
the same record. In like manner three 
or four shingles may be used. 


By burning its old wooden cars a railroad company saves $2,000,000 a year in labor formerly 
spent to repair the cars. Before setting fire to the cars, all usable fixtures are removed. 
After the fire, the remaining scrap iron is sold 


The small illustra- ° 


Teaching Blind 
Men to Fence 
fe FRANCE, the only 


country where fencing can 

be said to flourish, a new 
system for teaching the use 
of the foil to blind men has 
sprung up. Its originator, 
Georges Dubois, has a 
method whereby the student 
is taught to rely upon the 
sense of touch only. In all | WV ee oe 
fencing —f ——— — 
methods to ce. aa 

— : : 

thesense i ground enable the stu- 
of sight ses rip : se dent to assume his 
wholly relied upon. 
Professor Dubois 
emphasizes touch 
and eliminates sight 
altogether. 

Soldiers, blinded 
in war, have now an 
opportunity of be- 
coming skilled in the 


use of that ancient 
weapon, the small- 


The white strips on the 
is’ NOt position 


himself ‘‘on guard.” 

In the circle is 
shown Professor 
Dubois placing the 
pommel, or end of 
the handle, against 
the student’s wrist. 
If the pommel is in 
the center of the 
wrist, the blade is 
inline with the arm. 
The blind students 
practice ‘‘binding,” 
by twisting their blades over 
their opponent’sand thrusting 
at thesame time. This play is 
mainly for thrusting under the 
shoulder, accomplished by 
twisting the foil. 


Blind students are taught the 
feeling of an opponent’s sword 
by means of iron rods 


Making a successful thrust is the test of a 
blind man’s training 


sword. A blind man’s one advantage 
is his ability to concentrate his attention 
without being distracted by seeing the 
action of others. This is of great value 
in modern fencing where a single ‘‘touch”’ 
anywhere on the body means that the 
bout is over. Intense alertness is requis- 
ite from the moment the fencer puts 


Out-Periscoping the Periscope 


N observation apparatus with great- 
ay er range than the periscope has 
been constructed by Joseph de 
Falco, of Vineland, N. J. With it, ob- 
servations can be made by a submarine 
without the vessel endangering itself by 
coming so close to the surface as the 
present submarine periscope requires. 
The ‘‘eye’’ of the new apparatus is an 
inverted semi-spherical mirror. This 
mirror is suspended from the end of a 
horizontal rod. The rod is attached to 
an adjustable mast, and is of the proper 
length to bring the mirror directly above 
a vertical, chimney-like tube in the roof 
of the house. The “‘eye’’ may be raised 
or lowered by means of a rope which 
passes up over pulleys attached to the 
horizontal arm and mast and then down 
into the hut where the end is within im- 
mediate reach of the observer. 

In making observations, an image of 
all objects within a complete circle are 
reflected by the eye-like mirror. This 
image is magnified as it passes through a 
series of magnifying lenses directly be- 


i 


LVTETTT TTT trrrn 
T 1 


Diagram of construction of ob- 
servation apparatus, showing 
the “‘eyes’”’ and the lenses 


neath it, but far below 
in the periscope build- 
ing or cage. The reflec- 
tion from the observa- 
tion mirror ‘“‘eye’’ is 
finally projected on a 
screen in front of the 
observer. 

The arrangement of 
these lenses is shown in 
the accompanying dia- 
gram. The uppermost 
one is stationary, being 
mounted in the vertical 
tube on the 
roof of the 
building be- 
low. The 
other 
lenses 
are all 
a de- 
justa- 
able 
a tal 
may 


The innocent-looking hut appears to be a shed with 
an electric light pole above it 


be regulated according to the height of 
the mirror outside, the object being, of 
course, to focus the picture on the ob- 
servation screen below. 

This screen is, in reality, a semi- 
spherical shell with the concave surface 
uppermost. It is made of white enam- 
eled glass, so as to make a distinct 
image of the outside world. This ob- 
servation apparatus rests on a table of 
suitable height for a man to sit comforta- 
bly and watch proceedings without in- 
curring the risk of being seen and fired 
at. The picture thus obtained is in the 
nature of a bird’s-eye view, since the 
mirror is located at a _ considerable 
height. 

On the battle-fields of Europe a method 


716 


Popular Science Monthly 


of taking observations is to hoist an 
officer to the top of an extension or 
telescopic mast or tower. There the 
view is excellent until a bullet or shell 
interrupts his work. 

If in place of a human observer, the 
“‘eye’’ or semi-spherical mirror of the ob- 
servation apparatus were substituted the 
securing of necessary observations would 
not be as costly to life, and the view ob- 
tained would be a 
more extensive one. 


More Motion- 
Pictures in Color 


ATURAL- 

color moving- 
pictures have so far 
achieved very little 
success, mechanic- 
al difficulties being 
thestumbling block 
which no inventors 
have yet been able 
to overcome suc- 
cessfully. One com- 
pany has developed 
hand-tinting to a 
fairly satisfactory 
degree, although 
the results have not 
yet attained the 
necessary stand- 
ard. The color ef- 
fects are somewhat 
obvious. Another 
maker of colored 
moving-pictures 
placed his on the 
market before be- 
ing commercially 
perfected. With 
this process it was 
necessary to run the film through the 
projecting machine at twice the normal 
speed, natural-color results being ob- 
tained by a revolving color disk which 
allowed red and green pictures to be 
flashed alternately on the screen. The 
same process took place when the picture 
was taken. The latest attempts at 
moving-picture color photography is 
suggested by an English inventor who 
proposes to expose alternate ‘‘frames’”’ 
or pictures of a film through a shutter 
provided with a color filter. On one 
“frame” the colors in the photographed 


The observer sits safely inside the hut and 
watches what is going on in the semi- 
spherical mirror on the table 


TAT 


object which contain green will be regis- 
tered on the next ‘“frame;’’ various 
shades and tones of red will be separated 
out. When the positive film is printed 
from the negative strip it will be stained 
orange and green in alternation. Two 
positive films will be printed from the 
one negative and stained, then super- 
posed and cemented together. Alternate 
frames are stained green and orange, 
and the two strips 
so arranged in as- 
sembling that when 
the film is ready for 
projection one 
green frame will 
be opposite an or- 
ange frame. The 
film will be run 
through the _ pro- 
jection machine at 
normal speed, i. e., 
sixteen frames a 
second, and the re- 
sultant image on 
the screen, if the 
process works out 
as it is planned, 
will be lifelike in 
color. By a com- 
plication of the pro- 
cess, using three 
fundamental col- 
ors, instead of or- 
ange and green, fin- 
er gradations of 
color will be possi- 
ble. The difficul- 
tues which beset 
this plan can be 
removed by ade- 
quate mechanical 
means. Coloring 
alternate frames red and green has not 
yet been successfully accomplished—at 
least on a commercial scale—although it 
probably could be done. The other 
difficulty is to secure positive film half 
the present thickness which would be 
sufficiently flexible and durable when two 
strips were cemented. The matter of 
superposing two film sections, so that 
the images exactly coincide—and this is 
absolutely necessary due to the immense 
magnification which takes place—is an 
important mechanical problem which 
must be thoroughly worked out. 


718 


Putting Speed in Telephone 
Directories 
SERIES of experiments were re- 
cently conducted by the New York 
Telephone Company to ascertain the 
quickness with which a telephone num- 


staRbeeule 


Testing the speed of telephone directories. 
the arrangement adopted were found in 9.28 seconds as 
against 10.36 seconds in the old arrangement 


ber could be found with the book 
printed in three different ways. 

Dr. J. W. Baird, Director of the psy- 
chological laboratory at Clarke Uni- 
versity, Worcester, Massachusetts, was 
called in to supplement the work of the 
telephpne men by conducting other 
tests, using a variety of type arrange- 
ments. Dr. Baird made nearly four 
thousand experiments to determine the 
case and speed with which the average 
person could find a number on pages of 


Names in 


Popular Science Monthly 


the directory set up in various forms. 
Thirty-two men and women were se- 
lected as subjects for the tests. Care 
was taken that these individuals should 
represent radically different occupations 
and degrees of experience in the use of 
the directory 

Pages with names begin- 
ning with the letters I and 
M and S were selected when 
tests showed that they va- 
ried sufficiently in difficulty 
to fulfill the purpose of the 
experiments. 

Twelve pages were sub- 
jected to experiments, an [- 
page, an M-page, and an S- 
page, being printed in each 
of four different page ar- 
rangements and mounted on 
cardboard. Each page was 
placed in a separate ‘‘book- 
let.” While the individual 
tested was looking up a num- 
ber, the experimenters held 
stop-watches measuring the 
time elapsing from the open- 
ing of the booklet until the 
subject found and pronounc- 
ed the number. 

To find a telephone num- 
ber in the old telephone di- 
rectory, the pages of which 
were set in three-column 
measure, required an average 
time of 10.36 seconds. When 
the subscribers’ names were 
printed in a four-column 
measure without indentation 
or leading, the finding time 
increased to 10.69 seconds. 
When the lines in the four- 
column page were set in 
“staggered”? arrangement, 
j.e., inalternate indentation, 
the finding time was reduced to 10.14 
seconds. When the type on the four- 
column page was made slightly higher 
and, moreover, narrower, taking eleven 
lines instead of twelve lines to the inch, 
the finding time was cut to 9.28 seconds. 
It was this arrangement of the page that 
was chosen, cutting 1.08 seconds from the 
10.36 seconds required by the average 
subscriber to find a number in the old 
telephone book. This is a gain of more 
than ten per cent. 


Popular Science Monthly 


Converting an Automobile into an 
Apartment 
OU can go for an automobile tour 
now and carry your apartment 
with you in a _ neat-looking box-like 
contrivance which fits on the back of 


There is very 
little left to 
desire in the 
way of an 
apartment if 
one has this 
sleeping, 
cooking and 
living tele- 
scope-auto- 
mobile apart- 
ment 


719 


and other comforts to be had at home. 

The automobile-telescope apartment 
is the invention of Gustav de Britteville 
of San Francisco, who uses it on business 
tours into the country. 


How To Make Spirit Photographs 


RINT from ordinary negatives in the 

usual manner on printing-out paper, 
then fix the prints in a solution of 1 oz. 
hyposulphite of soda and 8 ozs. of water, 
and wash them thoroughly. While still 
wet, immerse them in a saturated solu- 
tion of bichloride of mercury until the 
image disappears; then wash thorough- 
ly. Be very careful, as bichloride is very 
poisonous. Soak some clean blotting- 


The apart- 
ment will fit 
on the back 
of your auto- 
mobile and 
can be put on 
or taken off 
in fifteen 
minutes by 
an amateur 


your automobile and which can be 
taken off or put on in fifteen minutes. 
The shell or case of the telescoping 
apartment is three feet and four inches 
long, as wide as the automobile, but not 
as high at the highest point as the 
automobile top. The roof of the 
“apartment” has a gentle slope. 

Into this small space are, fitted a 
comfortable double bed in an electric- 
ally-lighted berth with a tempting book- 
shelf over the head of the bed; a 
complete cooking outfit, including a 
two-burner gasoline-stove; a table; a 
dressing-room attachment, with a shower 
bath equipment which includes a_ ten- 
gallon can and an attachment to the 
exhaust for heating water; storage 
room for a week’s supply of food and 
linen; a dressing-table; a writing-desk; 


paper in the hyposulphite of soda solu- 
tion and allow it to dry. 

To cause the spirit photograph to ap- 
pear, cut a piece of blotting-paper the 
same size as the prepared print, and 
moisten it; then hold the apparently 
blank piece of paper in contact with it. 
The photograph will come out gradualy- 
clear and plain, and if washed thorouglh 
ly will be permanent. 


720 


Making Money Out of Waste Land 
With a Stream of Water 
S Henry Ford was laughed at when 
he claimed he would make a success- 
ful automobile, so Harlan K. Whitney, a 
civil engineer, caused much merriment 


when about two years ago he bought 
twenty acres of the most useless land on 
the outskirts of Battle Creek, Mich. 

The property was about evenly divided 
between rolling hills and squashy marshes. 
To-day the hills have been dumped 
into the marshes and leveled off, and 
soon Mr. Whitney will open his new 
addition of six blocks, which are less 
than three quarters of a mile from the 
business district, and only a block from 
a street-car line. 

It is doubtful whether the power of hy- 
draulics has ever before been used in the 
State of Michigan for this purpose. One 
hundred and twenty-five thousand yards 
of earth have been washed away, and 
about twenty acres graded. Some hills 
were twenty-five feet high. 

The apparatus used was simple—so 
simple in fact, that it caused about as 
much ridicule as the suggestion that the 
land could be reclaimed. Two two- 
inch streams from an eight-inch well 
were pumped with a two-stage centrifu- 
gal pump. The water was carried some- 
times as far as six hundred feet, sheet- 
iron sluices conveying away the used 
liquid with the sand and gravel driven 
before it. For along time the water was 
turned back into the well, allowed to 
settle, then pumped over again. 

His application of hydraulic mining 


- The new residence addition of Battle Creek, Mich., which was formerly 
a waste of marshes and ugly hills 


Popular Science Monthly 


principles to waste real estate is bound to 
change Mr. Whitney from an engineer of 
moderate means to a land owner of 
wealth. There will be at least one 
hundred lots in a most desirable location, 
whose total value should run close to 
one hundred 
thousand dollars. 
The cost was only 
nominal. 

The reclaiming 
of many acres of 
useless land has 
been effected in 
many American 
cities, notably 
Washington and 
New York, and 
in many ways; 
but the use of 
hydraulic power 
for that purpose 
is an innovation. 


The hills were 
washed away with water which carried the 
mud formed down into the marshes 


How the work was done. 


Purifying Iron in a Vacuum 


N entirely new method of producing 
pure iron is reported to have been 
discovered by Trygve Yensen, an as- 
sistant in the engineering experiment 
station at the University of Illinois. 
This discovery was made during an 
investigation of the magnetic properties 
of iron and iron alloys. His method con- 
sists in melting electrically refined iron 
in a vacuum, which reduces the impuri- 
ties far below any point which had been 
reached by any previous investigator. 
The magnetic properties of this vacuum-. 
fused iron have proved to be remarkable. 


The Modern “Horse 
a Doctor” and How He 


i 


This terrier is suffering from 
a compound fracture of both 
hind legs. He fell from a 
fourth-story window. To 
the right is shown a sick 
horse. He developed pneu- 
monia when a barge contain- 
ing horses for the Allies was 
sunk in the Hudson 


NE million dollars is a fortune—at 
() least it seems so to most of us. 
Yet animal surgery is saving one 
million dollars a year in New Orleans, a 
city of about three hundred and fifty 
thousand population. As New York has 
fourteen times as many inhabitants as 
New Orleans it is safe to assume that 
animal surgery means fourteen million 
dollars to New York every year. 
“Oh, it’s only a poor dumb animal!”’ is 
a wasteful expression of a _ wasteful 
thought. When the value of the poor 
dumb animal is considered in dollars and 
cents he immediately becomes impor- 
tant. Science has discovered that ani- 
mals are worthy of attention because of 
themselves—or their economic value. 
The good old-fashioned ‘‘hoss doctor”’ 
is disappearing and in his place we have 
the veterinary surgeon. The man who 
intends to devote his life to the health of 
animals is a man of scientific training 
who takes his profession as seriously as 
does the physician to human kind. You 
cannot hold yourself out as a veterinary 


Saves Money 


By A. M. Jungmann 


surgeon any more than you can proclaim 
yourself a doctor or a lawyer without 


being one. In the Regent’s Examina- 
tions veterinary science is classed with 
law, medicine, dentistry, etc. The 
United States has twenty-two veterinary 
colleges as against twelve ten years ago. 
There are between three and four 
hundred teachers and about three thou- 
sand pupils. 

The American Society for the Preven- 
tion of Cruelty to Animals has been 
making an appeal for the protection and 
conservation of animals for years. Un- 
doubtedly it has accomplished a great 
deal even when it has based its appeal on 
humanitarian motives. But in New 
Orleans, where the figures show that by 
adopting more efficient methods, the lives 
of its mules and horses are lengthened 
and the city is actually saving a million 
dollars a year, the Society has made a 
direct commercial appeal for the rational 
treatment of animals. Once the owners 
of large numbers of horses and mules 
were convinced that by better care they 


721 


722 


could get more work out of their animals 
they were only too glad to codperate in 
every way with the agents of the Society. 


a 


The cat miscalculated 
the speed of an automo- 
bile. He almost got out 
of the way, but a paw and his tail didn’t 


According to the figures published by 
the Department of Agriculture there 
are about one 
hundred and 
ninety one mil- 
lion domestic 
animals in the 
United States 
and they are 
worth, roughly, 
six billion dol- 
lars. Is it any 
wonder that 
science has be- 
come interested 
ii. “anima ls. 
There .are ap- 
proximately 
twenty-one mil- 
lion horses in 
thecountry, rep- 
resenting an in- 
vestment of two 
billion, three 
hundred million 


Popular Science Monthly 


consider that he represents five hundred 
and sixty million dollars of our total 
wealth and that his kind numbers about 
four million five hundred thousand. 

Purely as a question of national 
economy veterinary science should be 
encouraged. 

The successful veterinary must be, 
first of all, a good diagnostician; for his 
patients cannot help him by describing 
their symptoms. On the other hand, 
they cannot mislead him by withholding 
the truth, as human patients are prone 
to do. Another essential is a natural 
sympathy for animals. This is par- 
ticularly necessary; unless the doctor can 
gain the confidence of his animal-patient 
it is exceedingly difficult for him to 
obtain satisfactory results. 

Animals are subject to many of the 
diseases that afflict human beings, and 
besides these they suffer from a number 
peculiar to their own species. Horses 
are liable to pneumonia and unless very 
carefully treated the disease is likely to 
prove fatal. One of the most serious 
ills to which horses are subject is known 
as ‘‘azoturia,’” meaning to the lay 
owner and driver spinal trouble. The 
horse more likely to suffer from. this 


dollars. The de- 
spised mule may 
not be so de- 
spised when you 


time. 


The horse sustained injuries to both fore legs. 


A few years ago he 
would have had to be killed, but now, thanks to this very modern 
method of treating animals, he will be as good as ever in a month’s 


The use of a local anaesthetic prevents the horse from feeling 
any pain during the operation 


Popular Science Monthly 


terrible malady than any other is the 
city work horse whose driver thinks he 
is doing the animal a kindness by over- 
feeding him on Saturdays, half-holidays 
and Sundays. 

A horse suf- 
fering from azo- 
turia will drop 
in the street and 
be unable to 
rise. His hind 
legs rendered 
useless, the ani- 
mal loses con- 
trol over his legs. 
Death may re- 
sult in a few 
hours. At best 
the horse may 
liveseveraldays, 
suffering in- 
tensely. If a 
horse which has 
fallen in the. 
street is hurried 
to a hospital he 
sometimes re- 
covers. The dis- 
ease is steadily 
increasing 
among city 
horses and is the 
cause of the 
greatest anxiety 
to veterinary 
surgeons. If 
horse owners 
would cut down 
their horses’ 
feed during the 
days of rest or 
would see that 


the animals are exercised when full 
rations are fed there would be no 
danger. Every work day following a 


Saturday or Monday holiday the veter- 
inary hospitals are crowded with un- 
fortunate azoturia victims. Despite the 
progress of veterinary science, azoturia 
is as baffling to the veterinary to-day as 
it was twenty years ago. 

The animal hospital is conducted in 
much the same way as if its patients 
were human beings. Everything about 
it is sanitary to the last degree. It is 
divided into accident wards and con- 
tagious wards; it has perfectly equipped 


123 


Operating rooms; and it requires a 
number of ambulances. In the model 
animal hospital maintained by the 
American Society for the Prevention of 


> 
" He vahifies, ; 
( "y 


* 


The victim of a street accident. This horse cannot walk. So he is being 
conveyed from the ambulance to the operating table by means of a trolley. 
He is an unusually large horse but his feet just clear the floor. 
supported by the sling and a man keeps his hands on head and chest, 
both to reassure the horse and to prevent him from turning around 


He is 


Cruelty to Animals in New York city, 
every possible provision is made for the 
care and comfort of the patients. The 
white-tiled wards are all thoroughly 
sanitary. The cat and dog wards have 
white cages in which the patients are 
kept. 

The Department of Health sends all 
rabid dogs which have bitten persons to 
this hospital. Here they are kept in a 
large ward by themselves. If, at the 
end of twelve days, they show no signs 
of rabies they may be returned to their 
owners; if they develop the disease they 
are humanely killed. When the small 


724 


patients have recovered sufficiently to 
take exercise they are allowed the 
privilege of a specially designed roof- 
garden, but only for the number of 
hours prescribed by the doctor. 

Because of their size and weight, the 
handling of wounded or sick horses has 
always presented a difficult problem. 
That problem has been most admirably 
solved in the hospital of the American 
Society. As soon as a horse has met 
with an accident in the street a police- 
man or the driver immediately sends for 
‘one of the A. S. P. C. A. ambulances. 
A big automobile ambulance responds, 
and the ambulance surgeon gives what 
aid he can. The running-board of the 
ambulance is drawn out. It is but the 
work of a minute to rope the horse’s 
feet. At a given signal the ambulance 
attendants pull the ropes, thereby turn- 
ing the horse over, so that he lands on 
the running-board. He is then firmly 
strapped to the board, and an electric 
motor inside the 
ambulance hauls 
the running-board 
back into place. 
While on his way 
to the hospital the 
horse is as com- 
fortable as_ possi- 
ble. When the am- 
bulance reaches the 
hospital it is driven 
on a large elevator 
which takes it up 
to the top floor, 
where the operat- 
ing room is situ- 
ated. If the horse 
is unable to walk, 
a sling is passed 
around him while 
he is still attached 
to the running- 
board. The sling 
is then fastened to 
a trolley which 
leads into the op- 
erating room. He 
is laid upon the 
table without once 


having had to 
make the effort to one of our colonels. 
stand. 


When the ani- 


A view in one of the wards. 
which the surgeon is dressing was seriously 
wounded by backing into a large steel hook 
which tore through the flesh of his tail 
and came out over his hip. He is a valuable 
cavalry horse and is the favorite mount of 


Although his injuries 

were such that he had to submit to an 

operation, he will soon be back doing what 
he can for preparedness 


Popular Science Monthly 


mal’s wounds have been dressed, he 
is trolleyed out of the operating 
room and into the ward and _ placed 
in one of the stalls. A horse which 
cannot stand is slung up and kept in the 
sling until he regains the use of his feet. 

The operating table is fascinatingly 
ingenious. The horse is made to recline 
on a cushioned frame. Although per- 
fectly comfortable he is so firmly 
strapped in the frame that he cannot 
hurt himself by kicking or struggling. 
The table canbe raised or lowered by a 
lever, so that the surgeon may perform 
his work as easily and as expeditiously as 
possible. 

Dr. T. S. Childs, the surgeon at the 
head of the hospital, has performed some 
remarkable operations on horses. One 
of his charges was a famous racer which 
had fractured the bone above the hoof. 
When the horse was placed on the 
operating table Dr. Childs found that 
the bone was so badly fractured that it 
had penetrated the 
skin; aside from 
being broken the 
animal’s leg was 
badly lacerated by 
the bone. Part of 
the bone had to be 
removed, after 
which the leg was 
set. The leg was 
then placed in a 
plaster case 
which a small hole 
was left for drain- 
ingthewound. The 
patient was sup- 
ported in a sling 
but he appeared so 
unhappy that the 
doctor allowed him 
the liberty of a 
large box stall, one 
of the hospital’s 
“private rooms.” 
There he finally re- 
covered. This 
horse was very in- 
telligent and seem- 
ed to realize that 
everything was be- 
ing done for his 
comfort. He took 
the best of care of 


The horse 


The seventh heaven of a bather’s delight is to be attained in this floating trolley-car— 


according to its inventor. 


The favorite recreation of letter-carriers is said to be walking. 


On the same principle city-dwellers presumably must bathe in trolley cars 


his hoof, learned to hobble around on 
three legs and even acquired the trick 
of lying down and getting up without 
placing any weight on that leg. Four 
months in the hospital would be an ex- 
pensive period for an ordinary horse. 
But this one was valued at $50,000. 
Another remarkable case which Dr. 
Childs handled successfully was that of 
a horse which had broken three ribs. 
To-day that horse is back on the street. 
These cases are mentioned only to give 
an idea of the work which is done in the 
field of veterinary science. Cats and 
dogs are brought to the hospital with 
rubber bands wantonly placed around 
their tails, legs or necks. The bands 
cut into the flesh and cause the animals 
to lose their tails and often their legs. 
Cats seem to have a habit of swallow- 
ing needles. When a cat is brought to 
the hospital suffering with a cough Dr. 
Childs looks for a needle. In one 
instance he operated on a cat to remove 
what he thought was an_ ordinary 


needle. He found a _ hat-pin nine 
inches long. But the cat's life was 
saved. Dr. Childs has distinguished 


himself as much by his work among 
small animals, such as cats and dogs, as 
he has among horses. 


The Trolley-Car Boat for Bathers 


FLOATING, electric passenger car 

service combining the pleasures of 
boating with the conveniences of trolley- 
ing is the daring proposal made in a 
recent patent. The trolley-boat is in- 
tended to enliven seashore bathing- 
resorts, as if they were not lively enough 
now. The cars used are similar to 
ordinary trolley cars, but,-instead of 
being mounted on wheels, they have two 
oblong floats, pointed at their front ends 
for cutting through the water. At their 
rear ends are propellers. 

The current is supplied by conductors, 
supported by cross-beams attached to 
steel poles. Each pole has a weight at 
the bottom and a buoy in the middle, 
just submerged in the water. The whole 


_structure isanchored tothe sea bottom 


with chains. The weight maintains the 
vertical position of the pole; and the 
buoy, remaining at the same distance 
below the surface, makes it possible to 
run the cars at high or low tide. 

The car is supplied with a regular 
trolley-pole, provided with three contact 
wheels, one pressing against the under 
surface, and one on either side of the 
conductor. On the tops of the poles are 
electric lamps for illumination at night. 


O 


utdoors Yet Indoors 


N an effort to solve the fresh-air prob- stout braces anchor the cage to the 
lem for city babies several enterprising — side walls in such a way that the strong- 


inventors have 
whereby youthfu 
given all the fresh 
air they need and 
given it in perfect 
safety, at the same 
time allowing their 
busy young moth- 
ers plenty of time 
to do housework. 
As a result, manu- 
facturers have al- 
ready produced for 
the market tiny 
sleeping - porches 
which can be 
placed outside any 
window. 

An iron brace 
capable of sustain- 
ing a weight of 
five hundred 
150 Wasp re 
vents the porch 
from falling. 
Moreover, 


devised arrangements est of winds are robbed of all danger. 
1 Americans can be Another feature of the miniature sleep- : 


One hundred feet in the air—a sleeping-porch for babies 


726 


Popular Science Monthly | Ther 


ing-porch is that the baby cannot get 
out, nor can flies and mosquitoes come 
in. Into this tiny compartment rolls, if 
desired, a baby carriage so that the effort 
of the mother in taking the baby in and 
out is reduced to the minimum. 

For grown-ups a similar sleeping-porch 
has been devised. Of course it is much 
larger, 
much 
more 
elabo- 
rate and 
more 
expen- 
sive. In 
order to 
dimin- 
ish the 
high 
COS 1:6 
that the 
instal- 
ling 


Above, the way the baby sleep- 
ing-porch is applied and used 
in a city flat. Below, another 
view of a similar device. At the 
left is a sleeping-porch, easily 
applied, in which a _ grown 
person can sleep in safety and 
unmote:ted comfort 


f 


r 
* 


\ 
HT 


wT) 4. 


a 
—_ 


of a sleeping-porch usually entails, a western 
manufacturer has put on the market a hanging 
sleeping-porch to be suspended from stout iron 
straps lugged to the side of the building. The 
porch fits over the window of the bedroom and 
is provided with curtains which can be raised 
by cords from the bed. The porch has been so 
carefully designed that, when properly installed, 
one of them will sustain a weight of about 
athousand pounds. This contrivance will 
not disfigure the appearance of any dwell- 
ing and is not expensive. 


wa ty 
aad cc Ali I as a 


728 Popular Science Monthly 


Soldering-Iron Has New Principle A Room Papered with Postage Stamps 


N electric soldering-iron which heats ITHIN easy walking distance of 
the object to be soldered only at the old cathedral town of Chi- 
the actual point of contact, thereby chester, England, is the ‘Rising Sun,” in 
doing away with much of the loss of heat North Bersted, a house of interest to all 
who collect stamps. This small inn 
contains a room every inch of which is 
covered with postage stamps. Ceiling, : 
walls, doors, chairs, tables, picture | 
frames, every part of the room, except : 
the floor, is thickly covered, while from 
the ceiling hang long festoons and ropes, 
made of bundles of stamps for which there 
is no other place. Fully two million 
stamps are pasted up, and a million more 
hang in the festoons. Great bundles, one 
of which contains sixty thousand stamps, 
hang among the heavy loops. 
; 
: 


| 
| 
“i 


To obviate loss of heat by radiation, this 

soldering-iron has been invented. It heats 

the object to be soldered only at the point 
of direct contact 


by radiation in the old-fashioned iron, 
has been put on the market for work of 
all kinds. The iron, which 
is made in various sizes, is 
connected with a step-down 
transformer. 

Heat for soldering is gen- 
erated by the resistance of 
carbon or carborundum con- 
tacts against which the ob- 
ject to be soldered is placed. 
The other contact, through 
which the current flows, is 
metal and will heat but 
slightly. No current is used 
until the object to be sol- 
dered is placed between the 


Gra 2 


brass and the _carbon con- Of all English inns the “Rising Sun” is the most 
tacts. It is said that with curious. It has a room, every inch of which is 
this new form of electric iron, covered with postage stamps—ceilings, doors, pic- 


i ° ture frames and tables. There are so many stamps 
soldering can be done in that some have to be disposed of in long festoons 
about half the usual time. and ropes, which hang from the ceiling 


Popular Science Monthly 


The Chair-Car—the Latest Develop- 
ment in Stagecoaches 


INNESOTA has returned to the 
good old days of the stagecoach, 
although those of the natives who can 
recall ‘the romantic 
journeyings of the eee 
clattering vehicle 
would have some 
difficulty in recog- 
nizing the coach in 
its revised, 1916 
edition. The crack- 
ing blacksnake whip, 
the plunging horses 
and the picturesque- 
ly cursing driver 
give way to the al- 
most silent whirring 
of a gasoline motor. 
In place of the hard 
and crowded seats, 
there are soft leath- 
er chairs, with com- 
fortable, springy backs and an arrange- 
ment of springs in their bases which 
absorbs all the shocks that the shock- 
absorbers of the vehicle itself overlook. 
Gone also is the close confinement of 
the stuffy old coach, with its romance- 
nourishing darkness, where the young 
adventurer could hold hands in perfect 
safety with some fair passenger. For 
the new highway coach is_ brilliantly 
lighted by great round windows, not un- 
like the portholes of steamers. At night, 
incandescent bulbs shine in the ceiling. 
This modernized stagecoach clips off 


A soda-fountain table that is convenient 
and sanitary and handsome as well 


The modern stage- 
coach looks like a ship 


729 


the distance between Minneapolis and 
St. Paul over fine macadam roads. The 


fare is twenty cents, which lifts this par- 
ticular highway coach from the despised 
jitney class. 


Inside, the seats are comfortable and 
there is plenty of light 


A Sanitary Refreshment Table 


An attractive and extremely durable 
restaurant table is made with heavy 
metal legs and four swinging stool seats 
of mahogany or oak finish. When un- 
occupied these stools are out of the way 
under the table. 

The tops are noteworthy. They are 
pure white, of a solid material, made by 
melting crushed onyx at a temperature 
of two thousand six hundred degrees 
Fahrenheit. This material does not ab- 
sorb or craze, is as easily washed as 
glass, is unaffected by acids, and strong 
enough to endure hard usage. 


In addition to being a very compact 
and handy arrangement for ice cream 


parlors, especially in small stores, these 
tables can also be used outdoors, obviat- 
ing the trouble of carrying chairs as well 
as tables. 


730 


A machine which cleans 
out knot-holes and then 
plugs them with a solid 
piece of wood 


A Machine Which Plugs 
Knot-Holes 


HE machine shown 
in the accompanying 
illustration is the inven- 
tion of Merton J. Miller, a wooden-box 
manufacturer, of Los Angeles, Califor- 
nia. Designed for the purpose of assist- 
ing in the plugging of knot-holes in box 
shook, it may be equipped successively 
with two different sizes of circular bit- 
like saws—one of which is used to elim- 
inate the knot or reduce the knot-hole to 
a perfectly round hole, and the other of 
which, slightly larger, cuts the plugs used 
to close the holes. 


The plugs are inserted in the shook 
by hand and fastened in place with crim- 
per nails. Plugs are usually kept in 
stock, of various thicknesses, and as the 
lumber is cut up into shook the pieces 
containing loose knots or knot-holes are 
laid aside and later transferred to the 
boring machine. Box lumber is gener- 
ally of rather inferior quality, and hence 
full of knots; and by the use of this ma- 
chine a very great saving in lumber foot- 
age is made possible. The plugging of 


Popular Science Monthly 


knot-holes in this way in a box factory 
that turns out ten thousand feet of box- 
lumber in a day can be done by one man 
working only three or four hours PEP 
day. 


Earrings that Denote Widowhood 


HAT India is a land of curious cus- 
toms is confirmed by examining 
the accompanying illustration. This 
woman isa native of Garo, 
a province of Eastern Ben- 
gal. She is a widow; but 
instead of wearing black 
crépe, she dons these pon- 
derous earrings made of 
solid brass. Since her wid- 
owhood is perpetual, she is 
obliged to wear them the 
rest of her life. Each year 
another ring is added. The 
large number of rings 
would seem to indicate 
great age; but in India 
girls are married when 
only five or six years of 
age, and frequently are 
widowed at eight or ten. 
The constantly increas- 
ing weight of metal 
stretches the lobe of the 
ear, to which they are at- 
tached, in the extraordi- 
nary manner depicted. It 
is safe to say that no widow ever forgets 
the fact of her widowhood when wearing 
such a clumsy weight. 


She is a widow. Her earrings are a 
badge of mourning 


Popular Science Monthly 


A Tomahawk Grease-Gun 


OMBINING the advantages of a 
grease-gun with that of a spring- 
separating device, the tomahawk spring 
lubricator is a most interesting new tool. 
As the illustration shows, it is a small 
steel tomahawk, the hollow handle of 
which is filled with soft graphite lubri- 
cant. By a turn of the wrist, this lubri- 
cant is forced through a canal into the 
“edge” of the tomahawk, and thence be- 
tween the leaves of the creaking spring. 
The directions for this tool are the 
simplest: Hold the edge of the hatchet 
against the spring to be lubricated, strike 
a blow with a hammer on the striking 
butt and turn the handle with the left 
hand. A goodly quantity of lubricant is 
promptly forced between the spring 
leaves. “Although the tool is particularly 
intended for small cars, it can be used 
on any sized spring on automobiles or 
trucks. All that is necessary is a heavier 
hammer and a stronger blow. 


A Socket-Protecting Knot 


MONG the essentials required in 
the electrical element of factory 
operation is the convenience of the 
adaptable extension lamp. Considerable 
trouble is experienced in making plugs 
and sockets last more than a few weeks. 


This switch grounds the magneto and 
makes automobile thievery impossible 


Here is a device that saves hours of time 
in greasing the leaves of automobile springs 


Hence the scheme of putting a knot in 
their terminal wires, near the socket, be- 
fore attaching to the cord. This serves 
for relieving strains and excessive bend- 
ing of the wires, which in a short time 
break off, if left straight. Thus the life 
of the plug or socket is lengthened ten- 
fold. This is a simple expedient, but it 
works. 


Device Prevents Automobiles From 
Being Stolen 


Ae device intended for the 
safety of people who leave their 
automobiles standing on the street or 
in a public parking space f6r long 
periods, has been invented. This is 
merely a switch which, when the plug 
is removed, grounds the magneto and 
prevents the engine from being start- 
ed. When the plug is pushed in as 
far as it will go, the switch does not 
make contact; consequently the mag- 
neto is free from grounds. When the 
plug is pulled even part way out, the 
switch makes contact and the magneto 
is grounded, thus stopping the engine. 
This condition, of course, continues 
when the button is entirely removed. 

No other type of plug could pos- 
sibly be used to start the car. A ring 
on the plug can be attached to one’s 
key-ring so that it will not be lost or 
misplaced. 


732 


How a Second-Hand Automobile 
Made a Railroad Pay 
HE Kansas, Southern and Gulf 
Railroad, a dream of the early 
80’s, was projected to traverse the 


gaa i Fe i 
Leese atonal eee toe pe. 


wheat belt, connecting the Dakotas 
with the Gulf Coast. Work started 
at Blaine, Kans., and after twelve miles 
had been completed to Westmoreland, 
the county seat, the promoters could 
find no further sale for their bonds and 
had to abandon construction. For 
equipment they had two engines and 


two cars. 
Bae electric trailer-truck employed 
for shop and factory transporta- 
tion has been equipped with a powerful 
and compact crane operated by the 
same energy that sends the truck on its 
way. The crane revolves on ball-bear- 
ings, and the hoist is motor-operated. 
The steel barrels loaded, 
have a weight of seven hun- 
dred pounds and the electric 
lifting arm will pick them 
up easily and lift them over 
the sidé:ef the truck. .The 
platform of the truck itself 
accommodates three barrels. 
It is very hard to attempt to 
hand-truck barrels of such 
weight over perfectly 
smooth floors and over 
floors of uneven surface it is 
almost impossible. 
The truck itself is also 
used for drawing trailers 
from one location in the fac- 


Lifting Made Easy 


A second-hand automobile which made it possible to 
operate a bankrupt railroad profitably 


This truck runs around the shop and picks up and 


Popular Science Monthly 


The road never paid dividends, and 
even had to borrow money to pay in- 
terest on its bonds. About five years 
ago the engines wore out, and there 
was no money for repairs. The State 
took charge and appointed 
C. E. Morris as receiver. 
Morris traded the two loco- 
motives for a reasonably 
good one and kept the trains 
going with some regularity. 
He also got a court order 
that let him raise the freight 
rates, and charge five cents 
a mile for passenger fares. 
But even this would not 
make the road pay expenses. 
About two years ago Morris 
disposed of the old engines 
and purchased a second-hand 
automobile. For the front 
wheels he substituted the trucks of a hand- 
car, and for the rear wheels two locomo- 
tive front wheels. The body had room 
for six passengers, besides the driver, and 
Morris built some miniature freight cars, 
by putting bodies on hand-cars. The road 
now has three freight cars, each with a ca- 
pacity of two tons, and is not only giving 
satisfactory service, but ismaking money. 


tory to another, and with the addition 
of the new crane and lifting arm the 
trailers are easily loaded and emptied. 


si sae 


transports barrels and castings 


The Screen Player’s Make-Up 


What the Camera Does to Your Face 
By Horace A. Fuld 


NY textbook on light will tell you 
yay that white light is a composition 
of rays forming what is known as 

the spectrum, and ranging from violet 
and blue through green, yellow and 
orange to red. There are also rays and 
colors on each end of the spectrum, for 
instance, ultra-violet on the violet end, 
not visible to the human eye. The rain- 
bow: is a common example of the spec- 
trum. When light strikes an object cer- 
tain of these rays are absorbed. The 
unabsorbed are reflected, and the pro- 
portion of the reflected rays gives the 
object its color. Therefore light is a 
question of absorption and reflection. 


At left, J. Frank Glendon without make-up. Note the natural darkness of the skin. 


When light comes in contact with a brick 
all the red rays are reflected, which gives 
the eye the impression we call red. The 
corn flower, on the other hand, is blue 
because virtually all rays except blue and 
yellow are entirely absorbed. This, in 
brief, is the theory of color. 

The ingredient common to every form 
of photographic film is a silver salt, in 
emulsion form, spread on a celluloid 
base. When white light is admitted 
through the shutter of the camera it 
strikes the iodide or bromide of silver 
and reduces it to a metallic state. Thus, 
in photographing a scene, light objects 


‘ 


will be responsible for a chemical change 
in the salt, the extent of the change 
depending upon the brilliancy of the 
object. 

The film is almost as sensitive to vio- 
let rays as it is to white light itself. Blue 
diminishes the sensitiveness but little. 
With the greens and the yellows we be- 
gin to notice a decided diminution. In 
other words the film is most sensitive to 
the violet end of the spectrum and least 
so to the reddish colors. This explains 
at once why red hair photographs black, 
for the film is almost entirely unaffected 
by these reddish rays. 

Two more factors influence the use of 


rs 


. en 


In 
middle, the same actor properly made up. Flesh tint lightens the tone of his face to the 
proper shade for motion-picture work. At right, the same make-up overdone, showing too 
much red on the face, eyes too heavily lined, eyebrows too black and too much red on the lips 


colors in camera work. These are re- 
flected light and intensity. When light 
strikes an object, so that some of it is 
absorbed while a portion is reflected to 
produce color, still another portion is re- 
flected, without any change, as white 
light. This is known as reflected light. 
Illuminating the object enables us to 
photograph, as well as see it. 

All these facts must be borne in mind 
by motion-picture actors. The colors 
that actors use in their make-ups differ. 
At one studio, for instance, red in vary- 
ing shades is the favorite, with no special 
reason apparently; at another, blues are 


33 


734 


the subject of constant experiment. 


Theoretically the blues are the most sen-' 


sitive, yet some companies insist that 
other colors be used. The net result of 
color on the film is gray, and provided 
the right tint is obtained, the color pref- 
erence of the individual make-up special- 
ists does not matter at all. 

Browns are depended upon to make 
up Indians, Malays and other characters 
ot dark skin's: 
but. a very little 
brown goes a long 
way, for brown is 
a combination of 
red, black and grey, 
evidently a danger- 
ous and dark-col- 
ored combination. 

For mulattos or 
negroes a darker 
shade of the same 
pigment is all that 
iS Dew iti tues. al- 
though there are 
special prepara- 
tions for the negro 
make-gep 7 7O.t 
course, our knowl- 
edge of film color- 
value teaches us that other dark tints 
might be used instead of brown or black, 
but the use of the correct color has an- 
other advantage. It tells the usually ig- 
norant “super” or “extra” what he is for 
the moment. There is a good deal in 
feeling the part, most actors tell us. 

Occasionally an actor will be found 
with a peculiar skin, one that contains 
unusual pigments, and it invariably pho- 
tographs very dark. The cure, in case 
of extreme darkness, may occasionally 
be accomplished in the developing room. 
Ghastly faces to accompany death scenes 
are obtained by a liberal application of 
white make-up. 

Both facial make-ups and costumes are 
influenced by the color of the back- 
ground. An experienced actor, called in 
to take part in a certain picture, will, be- 
fore making up, carefully examine the 
color of the set in front of which he is 
to act. He does not want to make up, 
especially in the matter of clothing, too 
nearly the color of the set, for in that 
case he would not stand out from the 
background. Yet he has a still greater 


Any sort of cardboard box can be opened 
without breaking the contents if this 
handy knife is used 


Popular Science Monthly 


fear of dressing so as to create too sharp - 
a contrast, for too great contrast is the 
despair of the man in the darkness who 
develops the film. If an actress wears 
a white shirt-waist against a black back- 
ground, one of two things happens, 
either the film is over-exposed, or it 
is under-exposed. It takes much less 
time to develop the white than it does 
the black, and if both are shown in con- 
trast in the same 
scene, one or the 
other will suffer. 
This theory of con- 
trasts also holds 
for the colors. 
Reds and blues 
make a poor com- 
bination, either in 
the setting or in 
the actor’s or ac- 
tress’s .clothes, or 
in the facial make- 
up, for the blues 
develop faster than 
the reds. In fact, 
it is always better 
to use in one scene 
adjacent colors of 
the spectrum. 

Occasionally you will notice an actor 
or actress with lips and cheeks to which 
the color has been too liberally applied. 
This is over-zealousness in an attempt 
to counteract the blue rays from the 
overhead lamps by means of which the 
studio scenes are lighted. As all Jamps 
in common use give off a large percent- 
age of blue rays, reds and yellows suffer 
in proportion, so that it becomes neces- 
sary to apply a color that will compen- 
sate this elimination. 


Novel Box-Opening Knife 


NOVEL knife for opening paste- 

board boxes of groceries and in 
fact any sealed cartons without dan- 
ger of cutting one’s fingers or project- 
ing the knife into the contents of the 
box, has been recently invented. 

The knife is a short blade project- 
ing centrally from an angular shoe, 
the sides of which are at right angles 
to each other, so as to form a channel 
adapted to run smoothly along the edge 
of a box while the blade slits its edge. 


Popular Science Monthly 


Poison Gas forAmerican Pests 


AS that is far deadlier 
than the poison gases 

that are used on the battle- 
fields of Europe is employed 
daily in America for pur- 
poses of stamping out pes- 
tilential beetles, moths, and 
vermin of all kinds. Hydro- 
cyanic acid gas will kill a 
man if he inhales a single 
lungful. Yet its deadliness, 
when controlled by man and 
directed against his many 
small destructive enemies, is 
so desirable that the Depart- 
ment of Agriculture has is- 
sued an order requiring cit- 
rus crop growers in Califor- 
nia to apply it to their plants 
to combat scale, the mealy 
bug and similar destroyers. 
The gas is produced by dropping tab- 
lets or measured amounts of cyanide of 
sodium into sulphuric acid. The room 
in which the gas is generated is well 
sealed. Different plants require differ- 
ent amounts of the gas for thorough fu- 


A Fire-Fighting Trolley-Car 


ULUTH has a fire-fighting trolley- 

car which is used for detached sub- 

urbs where poor roads or other barriers 
prevent ready response by motor or 
horse equipment to alarms of fire. The 
harbor of Duluth is formed by a narrow 


Preparing to rid a greenhouse of insect pests by means 


of deadly gas 


migation, the dose of sodium cyanide 
varying from five ten-thousandths to 
five thousandths of an ounce per cubic 
foot of air space. The former amount 
is sufficient to kill ordinary green flies; 
the latter will deal death to sow bugs. 


strip of land extending across the west- 
ern end of Lake Superior. This strip 
of land, four hundred to six hundred 
feet in width, extends for a distance of 
seven miles from the Minnesota to the 
Wisconsin shore. About three miles of 
it, extending from the Duluth shore, is 
built up with summer houses and perma- 
nent residences of expensive 
construction. This suburb, 


A suburban fire department which finds an old street- 
car an efficient motor fire-engine 


Park Point, is so narrow 
that only one street is laid 
out,-and on this street the 
track is laid. 

The city purchased a 
streetcar which had out- 
lived its usefulness, but 
which was still in fairly good 
condition. After the seats 
were removed a_hose-box 
was installed the whole 
length of the car and left 
open at both ends, so that no 
matter in which direction 
the car is going, it can 
carry the hose line from the 
hydrant to the place where 
the fire is located. 


736 


An easily operated machine for putting ‘‘crowns’’ 
on bottles 


A Bottle-Sealing Machine for 
the Home 


SEATTLE inventor has patented 

a light, inexpensive _ bottling- 
machine, operated by hand, which may 
be folded into a compact form. It has 
a hand-lever with a metal device shaped 
like an inverted cup mounted near the 
fulcrum on the under side, so that a 
pressure of approximately three hun- 
dred and fifty pounds is exerted upon 
the metal caps used to seal the bottles. 
The lever may be hinged at-four dif- 
ferent heights to accommodate four dif- 
ferent sizes of bottles, so that the bottle- 
sealer is very convenient for bottling 
fruit juices, cider or spring waters at 
home. The metal caps are obtainable 
at a very low price and are already 
crimped around the edge, but left flar- 
ing to fit over the rim of the neck. 

The cup-shaped device on the under 
side of the lever presses the caps down 
and squeezes the flaring, crimped sides 
together, thus sealing the bottle air- 


Popular Science Monthly 


tight, since the caps are lined with a cork 
pad. The machine is constructed of 
wood and measures about fourteen 
inches in height and the same in length 
when set up. It can be packed flat, since 
the base and upright bar fold together, 
and the lever is removable. 


An Electric Fan Suspended by 
Its Own Wire 


N ingenious electric fan which may 

be used in any ordinary electric 
light socket is shown in the accompany- 
ing illustration. As the weight of the 
fan complete with its socket and guard 
is but slightly over two pounds, it may 
be suspended from any light-cord with- 
out injuring the connections. 

The five-inch fan is operated by a one 
hundred and ten-volt motor, suitable for 
either alternating or direct current. The 
blades run at high speed and throw an 
air current over a large area. It is said 
that this tiny fan has met with instant 
favor, as it saves the space and operat- 
ing expense of the usual eight and ten- 
inch fans. 


A fan which hangs in an ordinary lamp 
socket and cools a whole room 


ere 


_ guns the factories of 


Ancient Battleship Ideas Revived 


By Percival Hislam 4 


Mo people imagine that the first 


armored ship was the “‘iron- 
cased frigate’ Glotre, launched 


American engineer Stevens laid down 
at Brooklyn an “armored _ battery” 
which had five gun-positions out of 


for the French navy in 1857; yet the seven on the middle line. In order 
Pin te hh : to save 
built an length, the 
armor- other two 
plated guns were 
vessel near- placed 
iv -three slightly en 
hundred échelon— 
years ear- asystem 
lier. That of mount- 
Was: ai ing found 
1585, when in many 
Antwerp British and 
was besieg- German 
ed by the dread- 
Spaniards. noughts 
The Dutch The “Finis Belli,” built in 1585, the first armored battleship, to-day. 
took one of and precursor of the ‘‘Merrimac’”’ and all armed ships The Stev- 
their big- ens bat- 


gest ships, cut her down and erected on 
the deck a battery with armored and 
sloping sides, within 
which they mounted 
eight of the heaviest 


the day could pro- 
duce. The roof of 
the battery formed 
an armored breast- 
work for men armed 
with cross-bows and 
shot-guns, and there 
were gratings in the 
roof to provide ven- 
tilation for the bat- 
tery below. A re- 
drawn contempora- 
ry picture of the 
Finis Belli, as she 
was called, is repro- 
duced herewith; and 
notwithstanding the 
lapse of time, she 
bears a striking re- 
semblance to the Merrimac of the Civil 
War, which was designed and built on 
precisely the same principles. 

More than sixty years before the first 


six propellers. 


. dreadnought was designed, the famous 


A circular warship of Russian design with 


Two were built, but 
proved utterly unmanageable at sea 


tery would have been able to fire all 
her guns on either broadside. Unfortu- 
nately, she was 
never completed, 
and after being on 
the stocks for over 
forty years was sold 
as scrap-iron. 

The other  illus- 
tration depicts a re- 
markable type of 
ship built for the 
Russian Navy in the 
seventies. They 
were absolutely cir- 
cular and fitted 
with six screws 
apiece, the arma- 
ment consisting of 
two twelve-inch 
guns in a revolving 
barbette in the cen- 
ter. Two of these 
vessels were built, 
the Vice- Admiral 
Popoff (after the designer) and the 
Novgorod. They proved absolutely un- 
manageable in anything but a_ mill- 


pond, though the idea might have some 


practical use for coast defense. 


737 


738 Popular Science Monthly 


Pipe Bending—A Growing 
Industry 
HE growing use of bent pipes 
in various branches of engi- 
neering has called for a systema- 
tized method of bending, a process 
involving mathematical calcula- 
tions of some difficulty. 

Pipe-bends have a variety of 
applications, among which are the 
following: to provide flexibility 
and to compensate for contraction 


as columns, pipes, etc.; to reduce 
friction in piping. The commonest 
use of pipe bends is in the construc- 
tion of heaters and refrigerating 
plants. In the accompanying 
photographs, two large pipes in pro- 
cess of bending are shown. Heavy 
crane machinery is employed, and 


Pipe-bends are necessary to provide flexibility 


and to compensate for contraction and expansion great pains are required in apply- 
of steam-lines; to reduce the number of joints, and ing the heat correctly. 
thereby losses, in pipe-lines; to avoid obstruc- , 
tions such as columns, and to reduce friction A Saw-Guard Which Has a 
in piping Clean Record 
and expansion of steam-lines;. to reduce LTHOUGH in use in various mills 
the number of joints, and thereby losses, for the past three -years, a saw- 


in pipe-lines; to avoid obstructions such guard manufactured in Ohio has to its 
credit a record of no acci- 
dents of any kind. The 
guard is suspended from a 
bracket over the table and 
covers the saw completely. 


When a board to be sawed 
is pushed against its lower 
front end, it automatically 
rises until the board is 
under it. When the board 
has passed through, the 
guard drops back in place. 
A small pulley against which 
the board is pushed, and an 
arrangement of levers causes 
the guard to be raised. 

The value of this guard as 
a safety appliance cannot be 
over-estimated, since saws 
have always been a source 


When a board to be sawed is pushed against its lower 
front end this guard rises, but when the board passes ‘i 
through, the guard drops of many accidents. 


— se ee 


Popular Science Monthly 


When Should Children Be Held 
Upside Down? 
REATER love for children hath no 
man than the one who discovered 
that the lives of many, little children 
can be saved in certain emergencies, 
if they are held upside down. 


Bes 


Held upside down, the child’s face is 
safe from the flames 


When the clothing of children catches 
fire if a third of the child’s flesh is 
burned, inclusive of its chest or head, it 
is very likely to die. Yet if the little 
one is held upside down immediately 
after its garments have caught fire, the 
child’s life may be saved. 

The three-year-old tomboy daughter 
of a United States Senator was playing 
a war game with some boys. They 
were gathered around a camp-fire when 
the wind carried an ember in her direc- 
tion and set her clothes on fire. Corporal 
Hopkins, who had served in an emer- 


The coin tumbles out promptly 


739 


gency hospital, happened to be at hand. 

He seized the little girl by her ankles 
and held her head down, not an instant 
too soon. The flames were just about 
to burn her bosom and curls. Flames 
have a tendency to rise and a child’s 
face, hair, lungs, heart, and chest are the 
vital parts first endangered. 

Another emergency which demands 
that the child be held upside down by 
its legs or feet, is when it swallows a 
fish-bone, a coin, or a piece of candy. 


On the face of one hammer is a Maltese 
cross which is forced through the check 
when struck with the second hammer 


Canceling Checks with a Hammer 
and Anvil 


N Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, 

one of the largest and wealthiest 
counties in the Keystone State, the 
Board of County Auditors still uses an 
ancient method of canceling all checks 
given in payment of bills by the county 
treasurer and by the treasurer of the 
Board of Poor Directors. The appa- 
ratus, shown in the accompanying photo- 
graph, generations old, is composed of a 
block of oak, fourteen inches high and 
ten in diameter, and two ordinary- 
looking hammers. On the face of one 
is a Maltese cross which is forced 
through the check when struck with the 
second hammer. 


740 


Hog-Power in the Hog-Pen 
N amusing sight can be witnessed on 
some of the large farms, where hogs 
in large quantities are raised, in the 
south and west. 


Large vertical gal- 


The hog smears himself with an insecti- 
cide by rubbing against the roller 


vanized-iron cylinders may be seen to 
revolve in the hog-pens, while the hogs, 
in numbers of ten or 
twelve at a time, trot 
busily around a cylinder, 
always in the same direc- 
tion and sometimes at a 
speed nearly approaching 
a gallop. At first blush 
this procedure may seem 
like a recreation. But, 
the hogs are not playing 
at some new game; they 
are preparing their meal of ground grain, 
and the hog that is too lazy to trot 
and grind goes hungry. = 

In the upper part of this re- 
volving cylinder is a hopper or 
compartment into which the 
grain is poured. When the 
cylinder is revolved, a grind- 
ing mechanism chops the grain 
into fine particles suited to the 
palate of a well-bred hog. To 
secure this prepared grain the 
hogs must supply the motive 
power for grinding; and they 
supply it—with their snouts. 
A ring-like trough is attached 
to the bottom of the cylinder. 
Short wooden paddles project 
from the edge of the tank into 
the trough, and when pressure 
is applied to them they revolve 
the tank, grinding the grain, so 
that it flows in equal amounts 


. with an oily insecticide. 


Another apparatus by means of 

which the hogs apply insecticide 

to themselves and save time and. 
trouble for the farmer 


Popular Science Monthly 


into the spaces between the paddles. 
This grain feeder is virtually a ‘‘one- 
hog-power’’ machine as one energetic 
hog can revolve it. 

Again, if you ever see a number of 
hogs pushing and jostling about a small 
device standing in the middle of a hog- 
pen, the object of their attentions may 
well be an apparatus which makes the 
hogs work to rid themselves of vermin, 
instead of forcing the farmer to spend 
weary hours spraying them with an 
insecticide. 

The device consists of a steel roller set 
in a receptacle which is partially filled 
The pigs find 
that when the vermin are troubling 
them, it is only necessary to rub against 
the roller, to end the trouble. 

The appreciation of the hogs for these 
modern conveniences is absurdly com- 
ical in its actual working out, but these 
and similar hog inventions have done as 
much to make farming 
profitable in these mod- 
ern days as many of the 
much more _ pretentious 
machines. The hog-pen 
takes up the slack end of 
the farm, and any de- 
vices which make them 
yet more independent of 
attention are vitally im- 
portant. These appli- 
ances come the nearest to making hogs 


work of anything yet discovered. 


ay 
—— 


The hogs prepare their own meals by revolving the 
cylinder with their snouts. 
grinds the grain to feed the hogs. 


As the cylinder turns, it 
Lazy hogs go hungry 


Popular Science Monthly 


A Scientifically Designed Train- 
Announcing Megaphone 


GIGANTIC megaphone for an- 

nouncing the arrival and departure 
of trains at the Pennsylvania Railroad’s 
terminal in Washington, D. C., has been 
developed to such a degree of success 
that sounds emitted by it reach clearly 
to every corner of the huge station, 
despite the fact that the announcer is 
not required to raise his voice much 
higher than an ordinary conversational 
tone. The megaphone, which is mount- 
ed on a high wooden platform, is 
interesting, not only because of its 
gigantic proportions—for two men could 
crawl inside and hide comfortably—but 
also because it is the culmination, of a 
great many painstaking experiments. 

A. M. Keppel, who is the designer, has 
tried out in the huge horn almost every 
applied principle of acoustics. A dozen 
horns of various sizes, shapes and 
groupings have been installed, improved 
and discarded. The present megaphone 
is considered to be the most satisfactory 
of all. Probably the most important 
discovery in connection with all of the 
devices tried was that a flat horn 
carries sound with fuller volume and 
less distortion than a round horn of the 
same general proportions. Accordingly, 
a huge flat megaphone was built and a 
number of smaller horns were secured 


A loader which is built like a California gold-dredge and 
which can handle one cubic yard of crushed rock in a 
minute and a quarter 


TAI 


within it, all being controlled by a single 
As it now stands the horn 
Long 


mouthpiece. 
contains no inner megaphones. 


> 


A megaphone which was built to carry sound 
without the waste of a single vibration 


iron wires have been attached, extending 
from near the mouthpiece to beyond the 
end of the horn. Their purpose is to 
prevent echoing, and to purify and 
clarify the sound. The giant mega- 
phone measures ten feet 
four inches across the 
large opening and eight 
feet in length. 


Wagon-Loader Re- 

sembles Gold-Dredge 
WAGON-LOAD- 
ING machine has 
been. brought out which 
in appearance and opera- 
tion is a replica in minia- 
ture of the huge dredges 
used in California and 
Alaska for mining sur- 
face-gold. To a chain 
passing around two pul- 
leys, one at either end of 
a steel frame, small steel 
scoops or buckets are 
attached at regular in- 
tervals. An electric mo- 
tor supplies the power. 


742 


Why Can’t We Make Diamonds 

E can. But they are so small that 

a microscope has to be used to 
see them. There is no chemical differ- 
ence between the graphite in your pencil, 
the coal in the kitchen stove and the dia- 
mond. All are forms of carbon, and the 
diamond is but crystallized carbon. The 
Kohinoor that blazes in the diadem of 
a potentate was crystallized by nature 
from something like coal. 

Molten iron will dissolve carbon, just 
as sugar is dissolved in water. Like 
water it chills and solidifies when it ex- 
pands. A French physicist, Moissan, 
heated a crucible containing a mixture 
of pure iron and carbon to a tempera- 
ture of seven thousand degrees Fahr. He 
dropped the white-hot crucible into cold 
water. The resulting contraction pro- 
duced great pressure, and in that press- 
ure diamonds were formed, not Kohi- 
noors, but microscopic crystals, each of 
which cost about five times as much as 
a natural diamond of equal size. Sir 
William Crookes, the distinguished Eng- 
lish chemist, obtained minute diamonds 
also by combining great heat with great 
pressure. He exploded cordite, to which 
carbon had been added, in a closed cham- 
ber. In other words he used a kind of 
cannon the mouth of which had been 
sealed. If we are to make big, salable 
diamonds we must have far more power- 
ful mechanism at our disposal. Some 
day that mechanism will be provided, 
and the diamond factory of Niagara 
Falls will compete with the Kimberley 
Mines of South Africa. 


A Lace Curtain Protection 


N the summer, when the windows are 

opened, the housewife may be an- 
noyed by the fact that the lace curtains 
blow against the screens, and become 
rusty and dirty. This can be avoided 
by placing a small tack at each side of 
the window and tying a piece of white 
cord from one tack, across to the other. 
This will keep the curtains clean. 

When a person sits near the window 
he may be bothered by the curtain blow- 
ing against him. Now, if another piece 
of string is placed exactly where the first 
piece was, and the curtain is placed be- 
tween the two, it will be kept there; and 
both difficulties will be solved. 


Popular Science Monthly 


Eliminating Pottery Waste — 
OTTERY-MAKING has been, until 
recently, one of the few remaining 
industries where the skilled workman 
held absolute sway. And even with the 
most skilled of firemen, the variation 
in the degree of heat in the kilns was still 
so great that the loss in ruined pottery 

and “‘seconds” was immensely high. 

Not long ago an Englishman, Conrad 
Dressler, invented, for use in the glazing 
of wall tiles, a tunnel-kiln in which small 
carloads of material could be fired at 
once, and in which, by means of the 
generation of the heat from gas-pro- 
ducers, a saving in fuel up to eighty 
per cent could be affected. Not only 
this, but the temperature was kept so 
even that the wastage from ruined tiles 
and “seconds” was eliminated almost en- 
tirely, and the whole device could be con- 
trolled by unskilled workmen. 

The oven has recently been applied to 
the kindred art of pottery-making, and 
in several large plants has taken the 
place of the old ovens, with vast saving 
to the company, though perhaps deliver- 
ing a blow to that notable American in- 
dustry, the five-and-ten-cent-store, where 
“seconds” delight the economical. 

In pottery the clay bodies are changed 
in chemical and physical structure at a 
temperature varying from two thousand 
to twenty-five hundred degrees Fahren- 
heit, and to fall short of this tempera- 
ture or to increase it unduly for any 
length of time, is to spoil the merchandise. 

The gas from the producer enters the 
tunnel-kiln and is burnt, not among 
the wares to be baked, but in two long 
tubes running lengthwise of the tunnel, 
from which the fumes are carried off 
outside the kiln. The control of gas and 
air for its combustion is regulated auto- 
matically or at will, and is thoroughly 
even. The goods to be fired are put on 
the trucks, and propelled by a small mo- 
tor, taking about one hour for the trip, not 
including the cooling ina heated chamber. 

This kiln was first used in this country 
by a manufacturer of sanitary porcelain 
ware, and the scene reproduced here is 
from this American plant. 
in all cases, are placed on the shelves of 
trucks, which commence at two feet from 
the ground and rise to five feet for their 
trip through the long kiln. 


The goods, 


i? 


743 


Popular Science Monthly 


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744 
A Fiendish Plant Which Thrives 


on Cattle 
A PLANT grows in Persia, which 
animal’s nostrils or sides, the seeds there 


kills by burying itself within an 
germinating and imbibing the moisture 


ECE 
f 


A plant which fastens its claws into the 
nose or sides of cattle, kills them and 
feeds upon them 


from the decaying body. No rain falls 
on the mountain plateaus of Persia dur- 
ing the whole summer. Vegetation is 
luxurious in the spring, when water in 
abundance runs down to the plains from 
the snow-covered mountain-chains and 
ridges. A merciless sun, and a dry des- 
ert atmosphere soon evaporate what 
moisture is not carefully stored by ar- 
tificial means, and all plant life withers 
and dies, except desert thorns and some 
species of thistles. 

During the spring the fat-tailed sheep 
and the camels enormously increase the 
fatty deposit in tail and hump. In two 
months’ time bees store up honey 
enough for the rest of the year. All 
nature seems to labor overtime. 

When the spring luxuriance of ver- 
dure is passing, our fiendish plant begins 


Popular Science Monthly 


its deadly work. The fully devesoped 
seed pods, hidden under the withering 
foliage of brown and yellow leaves, fas- 
ten their tiger-like claws in the nostrils 
of a grazing camel, a wild ass, an ante- 
lope or a sheep; the animal tries to rid 
itself of the sharp prongs by rubbing, 
but the more it rubs the deeper it forces 
the claw-like tentacles into its tender, 
tortured skin. In many cases inflam- 
mation of the entire throat follows and 
the poor animal, unable to eat or drink, 
succumbs. That appears to have been 
the object of this fiendish plant, for it 
seems that only in the rich fertilizer of 
a decaying victim can it find enough 
nourishment for numerous offspring, 
which sprout from the hundreds of 
black seeds contained in its great, belly- 
like capsule. This-is what the drivers 
of caravans say, and they hold the plant 
in fearsome awe, giving it many a bad 
name in their native tongue, such as 
“devil’s flower,” the “killer,” and_ the 
like. The herds of breeding camels are 
left on the grazing grounds in a semi- 
wild condition, and wander over many 
miles to find sustenance. 


With a wheel on the front, a canoe can be 
handled easily by a woman or child 


A Wheel-barrow for Canoes 


CANOE-BARROW, invented by a 

Philadelphia man, makes the trans- 
portation of a canoe on land an easy mat- 
ter. Even a woman can take a canoe 
down to the water with the barrow. A 
wheel is attached to a simple metal frame 
that engages the gunwales and bang- 
plate of the canoe at one end. It may 
be attached to an empty or loaded canoe 
while resting in its natural position on 
the ground. . 


Popular Science Monthly 


Panama’s Locks Guarded by Chains 


HE huge locks of the Panama 
Canal are guarded by massive 
chains stretched across the channel. No 
vessel can crash into the gates at any of 
the locks because of these fenders, 
placed seventy feet from each gate and 
near the surface of the water. When a 


boat is allowed to pass, the chains are 


T45 


Three-Quarters of Humanity Are 
Deficient in Lung-Capacity 
ECORDS show that fully three- 
fourths of us are deficient in lung 
capacity. Regarding six as a normal 
standard, the average person is able to 
register only three or four units of 
pressure. In cases of asthma, the lung 
capacity is only one-sixth normal. 
Bronchial affections such as 


Great chains act as fenders to keep ships from 


smashing into the locks at Panama 


lowered to the bottom of the canal. If 
the chains are struck by a boat, they 
gradually yield to the force, paying out 
to a certain distance which depends 
upon the violénce of the impact. 

The mechanisms which regulate the 
chain-fenders are installed on_ either 
wall. A system of hydraulic cylinders 
is used for raising and lowering the 
chains. The action of the fender when 
struck by a boat is modified 
in part by the friction pro- 
duced in the machinery, but 
mainly by the resistance 
produced by water flowing 
through valves. 

Satisfactory experiments 
were conducted last Novem- 
ber under the direction of 
Henry Goldmark of New 
York. The Cristobal, laden 
with her cargo from New 
York, was run against a 
chain at various speeds and 
was brought to rest without 
injury. The distance trav- 
eled after striking the chain 
agreed, in each case, with 
the previous calculations. 


asthma, hay fever and similar 
disorders are readily benefited by 
the therapeutic use of the vacu- 
um breathing-apparatus. . The 
mechanism is not complex in its 
operation, the chief end to be at- 
tained being the gradual increase 
of the breathing capacity of the 
patient. 

The patient places a rubber 
hood over his nose and mouth 
so that all air reaching him must 
be drawn through the rubber 
tubing. This tubing is connected 
with a glass containing water, 
which is permeated by air ob- 
tained through another, inde- 
pendent opening. The patient is 
forced to draw. the air he breathes 
through the water, or against an ap- 
proximate pressure of six pounds. ‘This 
makes him breathe deeply and vigor- 
ously. - Exhalation is made easy by 
the pull of a vacuum apparatus operated 
by motor, connected through a second 
tubing with the breathing hood. The 
lung energy expended is indicated on a 
mercurial register. 


A vacuum breathing-apparatus to increase your lung 
power by drawing air through water 


746 


is the ultra-modern ma- 


Maud Muller now 
gathers the hay with 
a modern rake, which 
delivers it at one side in 
neat rows for loading 


chine that the lady in 
the accompanying pic- 
ture is operating. Like 
a good rule it works 
both ways. As a rake 
it covers a wide path 
and delivers the hay in a row at one 
side. It has a rotating tooth-carrying 
frame, the rotation of which may be re- 
versed at will. When reversed, it oper- 
ates as a tedder, that is, it kicks the hay 
into the air, thus turning it over so that 
green hay will dry quickly. 

The angle of the teeth is automatically 
changed by reversing the rotating frame. 
In consequence, the teeth are always 
disposed at the proper angle when the 
machine is in operation. This makes the 
machine effective, however unskilled 
the operator may be. 

The rotating frame is controlled by a 
somewhat intricate set of gears oper- 
ated from a hand-lever within reach of 
the driver. It is a great help in haying 
time. Lewis E. Waterman, of Rock- 
ford, Illinois, invented the various im- 
provements that distinguish it from 
other side-delivery rakes. 


A Continuous Railway Crossing 


CONTINUOUS crossing has been 
‘invented that has very few parts 


Popular Science Monthly 


Maud Muller Up to Date 
HE hay-rake has been vastly im- 
proved since Maud Muller’s poetic 
hay-day. It 


and which makes the passage of every 
train perfectly smooth either way. It 
is composed of four steel triangles which 
slide back and forth by means of a lever 
thrown in the switching tower. In the 
illustration may be seen the four trian- 
gular blocks and also the rods which are 
used in operating them. When the blocks 
are set to make a continuous crossing 
from left to right and it is desired to 
clear the other track, a stroke of the 


lever will cause the blocks to move in - 


a diagonal direction upward and _ out- 
ward. The slots are thus closed, making 
continuous rails for the trains. This 
system may be attached to the signal 
so system so 
that it is al- 
ways in the 
correct po- 
sition. ~ 
The new 
device has 
been instal- 


purposes by 
the Penn- 
sylvania 
Railroad at 


ers, Ohio, 
where sixty trains pass every day and 
the wear on the crossings is so great that 


new ones are necessary frequently. This 


crossing, however, has given excellent 
service for a number of months and may 
be permanently adopted. Trains of sleep- 
ers, ordinarily as noisy as trains of 
freight cars, pass over quietly without 
waking the passengers. 


= “ sey 


The jog is entirely eliminated by this new 
railway crossing 


led for test 


Carroth-. 


1 2a amelie 


Popular Science Monthly 


A Tree Which Serves as a Bridge 


UT near Marshfield, Oregon, in the 
celebrated Coos Bay region, a 
fallen forest tree is made to serve the 
useful purpose of a foot-bridge. The 
tree—an immense fir—grew 


handily 


TAT 


is as tractable as a family nag, but when 
a city man tries to ride it the craft some- 
times behaves more like a broncho. 

In appearance it is most primitive. 
“Something like a dug-out, something 
like a canoe, something like a flat- 


enough by the side of a stream, to bridge 
which under ordinary circumstances 
would have cost considerable. Once the 
interested residents hit upon the idea, it 
was practically no trouble to fell the tree 
across the stream, trim away the 
branches and with an adz to flatten the 
upper surface of the fallen trunk. To 
make passage over this unusual bridge 
less hazardous, a hand rail was built 
through the simple expedient of boring 
holes in the log for the upright standards 
to which the fence-like railing was at- 
tached. The bridge gives complete sat- 
isfaction and attracts the interest of 
every newcomer in the vicinity. 


The Ozark Float-Boat 


MONG the types of 
small craft that navi- 

gate North America’s inland 
waters, one of the most pe- 
culiar is the Ozark Moun- 
tain float-boat. The swift, 
crooked and rocky streams of 
southern Missouri and north- 
ern Arkansas have known it 
for many decades, but at last 
it is beginning to disappear 
before the invasion of canoes 
and small power-boats. Un- 
der the management of a na- 
tive “hill billy” the float-boat 


A giant fir, felled to drop across the stream, furnished this excellent foot-bridge 


bottomed skiff,’ describes it—yet it is 
no more than a cousin.to any of these. 
It is made of a few pieces of lumber 
held together with iron clamps, fash- 


‘i.ned by the cross-roads_ blacksmith; 


in length is twenty feet or more; in 
width, not much wider amidships than 
two. It rarely has any seats and scarcely 
ever knows paint. ‘The sides and ends 
taper like a canoe’s, but the bottom is 
flat and the passenger, if he is care- 
ful, may stand up in it when he is cast- 
ing for bass. 

The craft is called a float-boat be- 
cause its specialty is going down 
stream. When it has to be propelled 
against the current the native lays down 
his paddle and takes to poling. 


The Ozark float-boat is rough, but it is as tractable as 
a family nag in the hands of an exper¢ 


A Medley of Puzzles — 


By Sam Loyd 


Fifteen Dollars in prizes will be 
awarded for the solutions of the 
puzzles appearing on these two pages. The 
first prize of Five Dollars will be awarded to the 
reader who sends in the best set of answers and 
writes the best letter of suggestion for the Puzzle 


of One Dollar each will be awarded 
to the ten readers who send the ten 

next best sets of answers and letters. 
Answers to the May prizes will appear in 
the June issue. The names of winners of the 
prizes in the July issue. Answers and letters 


Page. 
tain more than fifty 


Play Ball 


N this field of 49 
baseballs the 

puzzling proposi- 
tion is to mark off 
all but 20 and to 
leave those 20 balls 
in such arrange- 
ment as to score © 
the greatest possi-~ 
ble number of rows, 
4 balls to a row. 
In the diagram 
it is shown how the 
balls, lettered from 
A to K—12 balls— 
are made to score 5 
rows. Now see 
what is the highest 
score you can make 
with the full comple- 
ment of 20. 


How Large Is This 
Man’s Lot? 

“Talking about 
Poles” remarked Mc- 
Manus, ‘‘here’s a 
study in Poles that 
would give Peary and 
Cook a pair of head- 
aches. 

“In building a fence 
around my square lot 
I find that if I put the 


The letters of suggestion must not con- 
words. 


a ae 
> 


@-----O----- 
A ’ 


Ten prizes 


9 ® 


J----@------OF----@ 


© 


’ 


MARCH PRIZE WINNERS 


The ten copies of the ‘“‘Cyclopedia 
of Puzzles,” offered for the best 
answers to the four March puzzles 
are awarded to the solvers given below, 
who not only solved all of the puzzles 
with absolute correctness, but gave 
analyses of the Kugelspiel problem, 
which proved to be the stumbling 
block for most of our contestants. 


Ernest A. Hodgson, Dominion Obser- 
vatory, Ottawa. 


Nathaniel Ratner, 1804 Arthur Ave., 
Bronx, N. Y. 


Fred A. Tracey, 
Mt. Holly, N. J. 
T. B. Ford, Chevy. Chase, Md. 


George S. Fuller, 506 Sears Bldg., 
Boston, Mass. 

Chrystal McCue, Goodells, Mich. 

Audley A. Baker, 808 Bell Ave., 
E. Carnegie, Pa. 

Earl F. Koke, 2121 N. Nevada Ave., 
Colorado Springs, Colo. 


Wm. K. Bendrat, 616 W. 48th Street, 
Los Angeles, Calif. 


J. A. Fairchild, Mt. Olive, Ill. 


59 White Street, 


748 


must be received before May 8th, addressed to Sam 
Loyd, care Popular Science Monthly, New York. 


poles two feet apart 
I will be shy 110 
poles, whereas, if I 
plant them two 
yards apart, I will 
have go poles left 
over. 

‘“‘Now can’ ‘you 
tell me how many 
square feet there 
are in my lot?” 


Children A-plenty 


Farmer Smith 
and his wife say 
that the race sui- © 
cide scare is of no 
account down their 
way, as they have 
15 children, born at 
intervals of one year 
and a half. 


Miss Pocahontas, 
the eldest of the chil- 
dren, who is reluctant 
about mentioning her 
age, admits she is 
seven times older than 
Captain John, Jr., the 
youngest of the brood. 

Can you assist the 
census man in figur- 
ing out the age of 
Miss Pocahontas? 

av 
SS 
a 


Popular Science Monthly 


A Daisy Game 


Here is a version of the ‘One I love 
two I love’’ Daisy Game which involves 
a neat little puz- 
zle. You see the 
young people take 
turns in plucking 
the petals, the 
victorious player 
taking the last 
petal and leaving 
the “Old Maid” 
stump with his or her opponent. The 
player has a choice of removing one or 
two of the petals at each play, provided 
the- two are side by side. For example, 
. the first player might take petal 13, or I 
and 2, but not 2 and 13, since they are 
- not together. 

The game may be played with small 
buttons or other markers laid upon the 
petals until all are covered. If your 
opponent started by covering I and 2, 
what would be your play to make sure 
of a win? 


While You Wait 


-. .Q’Sullivan, the cobbler, who shoes his 
customers ‘“‘While you wait,’’ says he 
can repair five pairs of men’s boots in the 
same time that it takes to fix six pairs of 
women’s shoes, and that it takes the 
same time to overhaul five pairs for the 
children as it does three pairs for the 
women, so he charges according to the 
time consumed. 

The other day he took in $6.60 and 
reshod three men, four women and two 
children. Can you tell how much he 
charges to repaira pair of children’s shoes? 


749 


Reversing Magic Squares 


“Let us have a little talk about magic 
squares,’’ said the schoolmistress. ‘‘The 
arrangement of 
numbers in the 
form of squares, 
so that they will 
add up the 
same amount in 
every column, as 
well as in the two: 
diagonals, is 
without doubt 
the oldest of 
mathematical puzzles. It was held in 
great veneration by the Egyptians; and 
the Pythagoreans, to add more effici- 
ency and virtue to the magic square, 
dedicated it to the then known seven 
planets. 

“Here we have the simplest form of 
the magic square, this being capable of 
extension ad infinitum. Now, since there 
is nothing new to be presented about 
magic squares let us take a contrary view 
of the magic square principle and imag- 
ine an arrangement of figures in square 
form that will not give two like totals in 
the 8 rows. Juggle the figures about in 
any manner you wish to bring about the 
8 different totals, but do not disturb the 
center 5. 

“There is another little puzzle sug- 
gested by the lines forming the squares. 

“TI want you to show how the diagram 
of 9 little squares may be constructed of 
4 separate continuous lines of similar 
length, which means that no lines must 
cross. There you have two puzzles to 
work out.” 


APRIL ISSUE PRIZES 


The Editor has decided that it is not fair to award the prizes of the Puzzle 
Page on a basis of the date of mailing the answers because readers do not all 


receive their copies at the same time. 


Therefore the prizes for answers to the 


puzzles in the April issue will be awarded in accordance with the rules stated on 
the opposite page governing the prize offer for the letters and answers to puzzles 
in this issue. Answers to the April puzzles must be received not later than May 8th. 


The answers to the April puzzles will appear in the June issue. 


The names 


of the successful April contestants will appear in the July issue. 


Blasting for Good Roads 


By J. H. Squires, M.S., Ph.D. 


the present poor condition of roads 
that are already oppressive and 
promise to become intolerable. 

As for the work of building or im- 
proving roads, the advent of dynamite 
into this field is reducing both time and 
labor to a minimum. For clearing a 
right of way by removing stumps and 
boulders, removing outcrops, getting 
rid of high sides and digging ditches— 
for proper drainage is the best of good 
roads insurance—it has been demonstra- 
ted that the highest point of efficiency 
is reached through the use of explosives. 

Also for cutting away hillsides or 
bluffs and lowering grades—operations 
which heretofore have in many in- 
stances seemed prohibitive because of 
the labor required—this modern short- 
cut to the easy haul is destined to bring 
about a radical change in our roads. 

For both the construction and main- 
tenance of good roads, it approaches 
the ideal, since it reduces time, labor, 
and expense, and produces results that 
make for permanency. 


Othe | corrective must be found for 


= ° te 


eat 


Swamps and uncontrolled streams are 
hard on vehicles 


The condition revealed in the upper pic- 
ture corrected by a blasted ditch and a 
good culvert 


Bad drainage is the greatest enemy of 
good roads. Excess of water, more 
quickly than anything else, destroys a 
road. Relief is through drainage. Drain- 


A 


YY 


Plan of loading preparatory to blasting a 
ditch through a swamp 


10g YY 


YU 
VA 


(2 BLASTING CAP 7 

YE 5117 CARTRIDGES, 

PF, PRESSED TIGHT 1), 
VOL ss ttt se set 


Proper method of 

placing and loading 

a boulder for smoke- 
hole shot 


Boulder in ditch 
flooding a road 


age ditches were formerly dug by hand | 
labor; the cost was high and the work ° 
progressed slowly. Many are already 
more or less familiar with ditch blasting 
methods and the results that are ob- 
tained. In the rougher sections of the 
country, especially in the swamp and 
flooded areas, the use of dynamite for 
ditching cannot be too highly recom- 
mended. It does the work quicker, 
better, and cheaper. It permits good 
drainage at a low cost where any other 
method now known would mean poorer 
drainage and a great increase in cost. 
This applies to all types of ditches. 

Excepting in some prairie regions, all 
road improving is attended with much 
stumping in or along the right of way. 
Most stumping on highway construction 
is now done by hand. The work is slow 
and expensive; the stumps are heavy 
and difficult to handle and are therefore 
simply rolled to the side of the road, 
where they remain as eye-sores for 
years. These stumps can be blasted 
out at small cost. 

There is now much pick and bar work 
in removing boulders and ledges from 
the road. A careful study of conditions 


750 


Popular Science Monthly 


A common obstruction 


has failed to reveal a case where the use 
of explosives will not hasten the work 
and decrease the cost. 

The old method of making cuts in 
hard ground by hand digging, using 
road plows for loos- 
ening the clay, is 
not at all satisfac- 
tory. It is slow, 
arduous, and _ ex- 
pensive. Well 
placed blasts will 
either loosen or 
throw down this 
hard ground so that 
it can be easily 
loaded into wagons 
or carts, or can be 
removed by drag or 
wheel-scrapers. The 
object sought is the 
saving of time and 


EAKING 
oe 


The rock broken up The clear road 


earth on the other side, is now too often 
left as an impediment to progress. Light 
blasts are proving effective for loosening 
this material so that it can be removed 
by a drag scraper or road machine. 
The stumps, boul- 
ders and ledges in 
the side ditches are 
now largely neg- 
lected. This causes 
baddrainage. Their 
removal can be suc- 
cessfully accom- 
plished only when 
explosives are used. 
Old water breaks 
or ‘‘thank. you 
marms’’ are also at- 
tacked by  explo- 
sives, as blasting is 
most effective in 
getting rid of these. 


expense. 

When road im- 
provement necessi- 
tates the widening 
of cuts, the work is 
too often done with 
picks. The hard 
ground is loosened 
and torn down by 
hand digging, and 
then carted away. 
Material saving in 
time and money 
may be effected by 
throwing down the banks by blasts, 
after which the loosened soil may be 
moved with scrapers or by wagons. The 
exact nature of the loading will depend 
on the depth of the cut and the nature of 
the ground to be moved. 

The high side in a road which is 
caused by a boulder or hard bank on 
one side, or by the washing away of 


Correcting a heavy grade 
by building a culvert and 


Many of our hill 
roads are now trou- 
bled withshort, dan- 
gerous curves where 
skidding and colli- 
sions are always to 
be expected. Too 
little attention is 
given to correcting 
the conditions. 
The new dynamite 
method of relief is 


cutting down the hill to shoot off the 
point of the cliff if 
the road passes around the outside 


point, or to widen the side hill cut if the 
curve points into the hill. The bank may 
be shot away by heavy charges that will 
blow all of the soil down the hill, or the 
ground may be loosened and removed 
by scrapers or road machines. 

Much interest is now being shown in 
tree planting along private and public 


752 


roads. These trees must usually be 
planted where the conditions are not 
favorable to them. Where such adverse 
conditions are encountered, better results 
in the growth of the trees are obtained 
when each hole is blasted. 

In heavy road construction the steam 


Appropriate method of loading 
for side hill cut and fill 


Loading for side hill cut when 
material is to be wasted 


Ss 


shovel is playing an important part. 
Light tractor rigs are employed. These 
dig slowly and with difficulty in hard 
ground. On actual count it was found 
that under such condition the dipper 
was not filled more than one time out of 


A common road trouble and the remedy 


five. This slowed up the work. Blasting 
ahead of the shovel will loosen the 
ground so that it can work to capacity. 

The demand for hard surfaced roads 
creates a need for millions of tons of 
crushed stone. This is blasted out of 
the quarries. In some sections remote 
from operating quarries, the stone is 
obtained by blasting hard boulders out 
of the fields. Occasionally a rock cut 
affords an excellent source for stone, 
and gives the additional advantage of 
cheapening the cost of construction by 
making use of the most expensive 
material to excavate. 


Popular Science Monthly 


When crooked or shallow streams are 
paralleled or crossed it is often cheaper 
to correct the stream than to elevate the 
road to a sufficient height to keep it out 
of trouble. 

A great part of the filling up of stream 
courses is caused by logs and other 
floating material 
forming rafts and 
sand bars in the 
channels. Another 
fruitful source of 
trouble is from 
outcrops of rock 
which divert or 
impede the nor- 
mal flow of the 
current. 


Loading a rock- 
ledge outcrop 

Overhanging stumps and trees 

along the banks lend still further ob- 


struction. Sharp bends in the course of 
the stream check the current and cause 
trouble by forming sand bars. 

Any and all of these troubles may be 
overcome quickly and at reasonable 
cost by the use of dynamite for shooting 
out the rafts and logs, and blasting a 
sufficient channel through the confining 
rock. A well-placed blast will cause the 
overhanging stumps to vacate immedi- 
ately. 

Cutting off sharp turns in the channel 
will take a little more time and should 
be well done in the beginning. Locate 
the line of the new cut-off and blast a 
ditch that will at all times carry a part 
of the flow. When this is done and the 
rafts and logs are out of the way above 
and below, all there is left to do is to 
wait for heavy rains to flood the streams. 
The increased velocity of flow will 
cause the water to cut and wear away 
at the bottom of the channel as well as 
at the sides. From time to time it will 
be best to go over the stream and make 
sure that no new obstruction is being 
formed. 


Loading top-rot- 
ted stump 


A good use for blast- 
holes 


Popular Science Monthly 


Small blasted ditches have been scoured 
‘out by the current until they are now 
carrying the entire flow of large streams. 
With a little help now and then any 
stream with a fair fall can be made to 
do wonders in making itself a permanent 
and suitable course. 

Sometimes roads must parallel streams 
for considerable distances, where the lay 
of the land is such that the road must 
be immediately alongside the stream. 
Correction lies in deepening the stream 
by blasting, and then constructing a 
small side ditch next to the bank to 
handle the water from above. 

The field of usefulness of explosives 
in road building is rapidly widening 
and will in a short time include many 
classes of work now done entirely by 
hand labor, as the cost will be materially 
reduced. 


Construction of a bench shear for cutting 
copper strips. This device is easily oper- 
ated by a foot treadle 


Making a Bench Shear 


HE illustration shows a shear that 

was made for cutting strips of 
copper, 4 in. wide and \% in. thick. 
The jaw A, is made deep to be gripped 
in the wire at the bench. The moving 
jaw is connected to a treadle on the 
floor. The rod 8B, which brings the 
moving jaw back to place, pivots at C, 
and rests on the pin D. It is worked by 
a spring which is fastened to the top of 
the bench. The guide E, which is 
fastened to the stationary jaw, keeps 
the two cutting edges of the jaws 
together. The stop is made adjustable, 
as shown. 
from tool-steel. The writer made the 
stationary jaw out of cast-iron, which 
has cut several hundred pieces and is 
still in good condition.—C. ANDERSON. 


The jaws should be made . 


753 
An Improved Bottle Stopper 


BGT TLE 

stopper espec- 
ially suited to the 
use of travelers, is 
shown in the illus- 
tration. It consists 
of a single piece of 
soft red rubber, 
having two parts, 
a base and a hood. 
The base is in the 
form of a regular 
stopper, and _ its 
upper edge is ex- 
tended as a short tube, as shown at A, 
in the illustration. After inserting the 
stopper in the bottle, the top part is 
pulled down over the rim, as at B, 
forming a tight hood over the mouth of 
the bottle, as at C. This stopper is 
especially good for benzine, alcohol and 
other volatile or inflammable liquids, 
or for acids and the like. 


New Automobile Alarm Calls for Help 


HE recent starting of an automobile 

at an exhibition of motor cars by 
wireless power, suggested to an inventor 
a new application of the wireless prin- 
ciple. The instrument includes the 
installation of a wireless sending appara- 
tus, with a radius of only a few hundred 
yards, and a small receiving instrument, 
such as are used now without the need 
of aerial wires. When the owner of the 
car leaves it unprotected for a time, he 
switches on the ‘wireless’? and walks 
away. Any interference with the igni- 
tion system is at once ‘‘wirelessed”’ to 
the owner, who carries the receiving 
instrument in his pocket. The buzzing 
of his receiver sends him scurrying to 
his car. 


CZ. 
CL NP 


A fine drill made from a needle 


A Drill Made from a Needle 


MALL drills for watchmakers can 
be made from needles which are 
tempered, filed at one end to the usual 
shape of a drill point, and fitted at the 
other end with a small brass or copper 
handle. 


754 Popular Science Monthly 


ee: Fig. 1. A 
ra = gyroscop- Se 


mother 
top and 
her brood 


Fig. 3. A ball 
which spins or 
rolls on a wire 


Fig. 4. Atop which 
climbs its string 


=----j}-----. 
eS ere 


Fig. 5. A colored wind- 
mill top spun by air 


Mechanical Tops 


PINNING-TOPS, like toy soldiers 
S and other necessities of boyhood, 

have existed for many years. Re- 
cently, the old standby made from a 
spool with a peg pushed through the 
center, has succumbed to more scientific 
devices. The principle of the gyroscope 
is frequently used. The little ballet 
dancer, Fig. 1, can spin on her foot, her 
arm or her head, because of the gyro- 
scope mechanism which is concealed in- 
side it. 

A toy which resembles an old hen and 
her brood of chickens, consists of one 
large top having several lateral cavities 
with small tops mounted in them, Fig. 2. 
When the big top is spun, a disk at- 
tached to its shaft rotates also, and the 
outside of this disk, touching each of the 
small tops, causes them to spin. 

Jugglers and acrobats have a ball 
which will balance on a wire, resist all 
efforts to roll it, or roll in only one 
direction, Fig. 3. The gyroscope prin- 
ciple is involved in this toy. 

Another top for balancing on a wire 
has an egg-shaped case with a removable 
cap, Fig. 4. The mechanism, enclosed 
within this case, spins in a tiny depres- 
sion. The case is mounted on a minia- 
ture truck of two wheels. 

The principle that a whirling body 
tends to rotate about its shortest axis is 
demonstrated in a toy consisting pri- 
marily of a blow-mill encased in a 
circular tin box, Fig. 5. Attached to 
the axis of the fan is a long cord ter- 
minating ina hook. When the fan is ro- 
tated, the cord becomes rapidly twisted. 
A ring suspended from the hook will 
rotate in a horizontal position. 

Variations from the simple ring may be 
used, one being a ring having a con- 
centric disk of primary colors. Rapid 
rotation tends to resolve the colors into 
white. The opposite phenomenon may 
be illustrated by means of irregular 
pieces of white cardboard with holes 
punched in them; they tend to break up 
white light into colors. 

One of the newest ideas in toys is a 
real musical top, Fig. 6. A hollow cone 
has a vertical shaft projecting beyond 
the upper rim and having a central hole 
in which a nail may be inserted for 


Popular Science Monthly 755 


Which Puzzle 


spinning. The cord is wound around 
the shaft, and after being quickly 
withdrawn, the nail should also be 
ufted out. The music is made by short 
tubes in the sides, placed at right angles 
to the diameter of the cone. Tiny 
reeds attached to their inner ends are 
vibrated when the top is spun. 

A game in which tops are pitted against 
each other for speed, requires the use of 
a top having a depression in its upper 
surface for a fan, Fig. 7. The air-cur- 
rents created by rotating the top revolve 
the fan. Numerals on the rim of the 
cavity indicate the movement of the fan. 

For those who like to solve puzzles, 
the art of spinning a top must also be 
acquired if they wish to solve the 
puzzle-top, Fig. 8. A central, circular 
tube constitutes the body of the top. 
From it project radially four tubular 
arms. Four balls are free to move in 
these arms but they must pass through 
the central part. The trick is to spin 
the top with a ball in each arm. 

The chameleon top, Fig. 9, has a semi- 
circular depression in its upper face in 
which are held, by means of a screen, 
several cubes having different colors on 
their surfaces. Rapid rotation of the 
top forces the cubes outward and diverse 
color combinations are presented. 

A “fyine’” top, . Fie.- 10, has two 
propeller blades pivoted on its sides. 
When the top is not being spun, two 
coiled springs hold the blades inside the 
body, but the centrifugal force exerted in 
rotation forces them out through the 
lateral slots. The top literally rises 
from the table, the degree of upward 
movement depending upon the force 
expended in setting the toy in motion. 

A very novel effect is obtained with a 
top having an auxiliary wheel, Fig. 11. 
The body is in the form of a globe very 
much flattened on the upper and lower 
sides. The auxiliary wheel is simply a 
disk painted with the primary colors, 
and having a central pin. When the 
top is in motion, the wheel is laid on the 
spinning-surface, its edge touching the 
top and its axis pointing inward toward 
the spinning-point. It will then rotate 
with the top, producing a_ peculiar, 
fascinating effect. 


Fig. 6. A_ real 
musical top 


Fig. 7. A speed-record- 
ing top with which con- 
tests are held 


Fig. 9. The 
chameleon top 


Fig. 10. This 
top flies in 
the air 


Fig. 11. The 
wheel rotates 
with the top 


Ee 


SA 


Little Inventions to Make Life Easy 
Why Weren’t They Thought of Before? 


Finger-Ring to Be Used as a 
Pencil-Holder 


V-SHAPED 

spring clip is 
attached to a fin- 
ger-ring, and is 
used to hold a pen- 
cil in a convenient 
place so that the 
user will not have 
to search for a mis- 
laid pencil con- 
stantly and yet leaves the hand free. 


This Grease-Cup Keeps Your 
Hands Clean 


O obviate the 
necessity of 
removing thegrease 
cup when it is de- 
sired to fill it with 
grease, an inven- 


the cup a washer 
which acts as a 
plunger to force out 
the grease. This washer runs on a 
screw-threaded stem, which is operated 
by a thumb-screw in the head of the 
cup. 


A Clothes-Pin with a Sandow Grip 


clothes-pin 

has been pat- 
ented with a grip 
sufficiently firm to 
resist the strongest 
\| wind. On the wire 
or rope used for 
drying the clothes, 
is attached a ring 
which projects 
downward, and terminates in two short 
arms similar to the blades of a pair of 
scissors, but having corrugated surfaces 
for gripping the clothes. Above the 
pivot the outer surfaces of the arms are 
also corrugated to engage a ring nut, 
which can be tightened when fastening 
the pin on the clothes. 


tor has inserted in. 


tips,’ are written 


Keeping the Heat Out of Milk-Cans 


MILK-CAN 

especially de- 
signed to keep out 
heat is the latest 
improvement in 
dairy appliances. 
It consists in real- 
ity of two cans, 
one within the 
other. The space 
between them is filled with felt, ground 
cork or other heat-insulating material. 


An Electric Whirlpool to Suck Flies to 
Their Doom 


HE latest fly- 

killing engine 
is a small motor \ 
encased in a han- 
dle with a cord 
which attaches to 
an ordinary elec- 
tric socket. ‘The 
motor operates a 
miniature electric 
fan placed eccentrically in the open end 
of the handle. Air is sucked in and 
swirled around the circumference of the 
casing and forced out through a bent 
tube ending in a screened trap. Insects 
coming within reach of the “ deadly 
wind ”’ are sucked in and killed. 


Counting Up on Steel Fingers 


N improve- 

ment on the 
old method of 
counting on one’s 
fingers is a new 
device having sev- 
eral strips of steel 
pivoted at one end. 
At the ‘finger 


[coms|-lH4h © [HEEEEH a 


the names of the various articles which 
are usually sent to the laundry, such as 
“shirts,” ‘“‘handkerchiefs,’’ and ‘“col- 
lars.’’ On each “‘finger’’ is mounted a 
slide which may be quickly moved to 
register the number of pieces. 


756 


Popular Science Monthly 


Converting a Motor-Cycle Into a 
Tricycle 

M OT OR - 

cycle may be 
easily transformed 
into a motor-tri- 
i cycle, by the use of 
a patented axle 
which is attached 
by lugs to the low- 
er end of the frame. 
On the upper end 
of the frame is 
bolted a spring, to which are at- 
tached two uprights for the axle. By 
this means the substitute axle is securely 
fixed to the motor-cycle frame. A belt- 
drive from the engine transmits the 
power to the two rear wheels. 


Rough on the Hen—But Useful 
N order that the 
poultry breeder 

may identify the 

| hens which have a 
| propensity to enter 

the nest to set need- 

lessly, a valve con- 
me taining inkor liquid 
=| dye is placed at the 
opening of the nest. 

When a hen enters the box containing 

the nest, a trap-floor drops, pulling a 

string which opens the valve, thus 

allowing some of the marking fluid to 
fall on the hen’s back. 


To Keep Your Foot Always on the 
Accelerator-Pedal 


O provide a 
safe and com- 
\ fortable rest for an 
automobile driver’s 
foot so that he may 
keep his foot in the 
proper position 
near the accelerat- 
or-pedal, a rest has 
been invented, 
which consists of a tubular piece of 
metal to be bolted to the floor at the 
desired spot. On one side of the rest is 
attached an upright piece of metal, 
which acts as a guide to prevent the 
foot from slipping in an emergency. 
The rest fits directly under the arch of 
the shoe. 


~ 


757 
Shaving Brush 


A Single-Service 
SANITARY 
shaving brush 

which may be 
thrown away after 
having been used 
once is made of a 
pad of sponge or 
antiseptic cotton 
covered with a 
flexible material © 
such as gauze or cheesecloth. This 
brush is impregnated with a sufficient 
quantity of powdered soap to lather the 
face. The brush is adapted to be made 
in large quantities at a very low cost, so 
that it may be thrown away after every 
shave. 


Adjusting the Big Shoe-Stand to 
the Little Boy 


O enable small 

children to 
have their shoes 
polished without 
difficulty, an in- 
ventor has made a 
pair of substitute 
foot rests for a 
polishing stand. 
These rests may be 
easily attached to the stand, and are so 
designed that they will accommodate 
any size of chiid’s shoe. A pair of heel 
and toe clamps are attached to the shoe 
plate and are connected by means of a 
coiled spring. 


Finger-Holds for Your Slippery 
Bath-Tub 


OME difficulty 

is often exper- 
ienced, especially |_ 
by invalids, aged | 
people and _ chil- 
dren, in seating 
themselves in the Kee 
modern enamel or > 
porcelain bath tubs. 
The surfaces are 
naturally slippery, and this difficulty is 
increased by the presence of water and 
soap. An inventor who must have 
slipped has provided gripping surfaces 
under the rolled edges of the tub, so that 
the bather may easily change his 
position. 


758 


Brushing Away the Tacks 


REVOLV- 

ing brush has 
been devised for 
sweeping aside 
small objects 
likely to puncture 
an automobile tire. 
Attached to the 
axle is a frame- 
work, holding the 
brush and two gear-wheels. The small 
gear-wheel engages with cogs on the rim 
of the automobile wheel; and the large 
gear-wheel operates the brush, thus 
rotating the brush in an_ opposite 
direction to that of the moving tire. 


This Toothbrush Can Be Used 
Only Once 


di fe bristles of 
this novel 
toothbrush are 
made of some ma- 
terial which be- 
comes soluble upon 
application of wa- 
ter. After having 
been used once, the 
toothbrush is use- 
less, and a new one must be provided. A 
suggested composition of the bristles is a 
mixture of antiseptic formaldehyde tooth 
powder, paper pulp and an adhesive of 
an antiseptic or sanitary nature. 


A Lamp for the Motorist’s Glove 


XTENDING 
the arm to 

one side asa warn- 
ing to drivers be- 
hind is well- 
enough in the day- 
time. At night 


Japedient is neces- 
sasary. LeLover 
come this difficulty a new device has 
been patented consisting of a glove with 
a small electric light fitted into the back 
near the wrist. The contact points are 
on the index finger and the thumb so 
they can easily be brought together. 
The wires pass through the glove between 
the inner and outer layers. 


Popular Science Monthly 


Keeping the Cow’s Tail Out of 
the Milk Pail 


O prevent a 

coun ft-olm 
switching her tail 
while being milked, 
a large, heavy clip 
is made of some 
metal, preferably 
iron or steel. On 
the inside of each 
block of metal, 
forming the faces of the clip, is a groove 
which receives the tail comfortably. A 
suitable spring holds the two faces of the 
clip tightly together. With the heavy 
clip on the end of her tail, the cow is 
unable to switch it freely. 


A Sled for Lawn-Sprinklers 


N arrangement 

for holding |# 
the nozzle of a hose E22 
used in spraying |~ 
consists of a sled- 
like framework [372 
with two upright ¢@ 
pieces having & 
grooves for the re- 
ception of the noz- 
zie. Over one groove or notch is a 
clamp for securely fastening the hose. 
Just in front of the mouth of the nozzle 
is pivoted a spoon-like spreader or 
deflector. A thumb-screw makes it 
possible to adjust this part at any 
desired angle. 


Does This Solve the Refilling Problem 
for Fountain Pens? 


N order that a __ 
solid ink may be |p 
used in a fountain- (\0 
pen, and in order K 
that the ink may 
be renewed without - 
soiling the fingers, 
a small receptacle |. 
is made to screw 6 

into the upper end 
of the barrel. When the cap protecting 
this upper end is removed, a pellet or 
stick of solid ink is dropped into the | 
receptacle, and the other end of the 
barrel is filled with water. 


For Practical Workers 


Anni, 
To 
ep 


Using a Hinge for a Vise 


SERVICEABLE and durable vise 
may be made with a few simple 
tools, at a very small cost. Procure an 
8 or I0-in. strap hinge and cut it off 
along the lines marked A-B in Fig. J. 
Fasten the hinge, with two small bolts to 
your workbench or on to a _ board, 
which may in turn be fastened to the 
bench, as in Fig. JZ. Secure another 
bolt of %-in. diameter, 2% ins. long, 
and thread it for a distance of 2% ins. 
Insert it through the holes XY, X, which 
should be drilled before the hinge is 
fastened to the bench. See Fig. I. 
Put on a winged nut and your vise is 
complete. 
Any hinge may be made to serve as 


A strong hinge makes a good vise if adjust- 
ed in this fashion 


i 


a clamp in the same way, by putting a 
small bolt through two of the holes and 
tightening up the winged nut with a 
wrench.—H. W. LUEDDECKE. 


How to Make a Distilling Apparatus 


VERY chemical laboratory requires 

a good, distilling apparatus for 
obtaining pure chemicals. The one 
here described is inexpensive and easily 
made. A piece of brass or copper tubing 
20 ins. long, with a diameter of 2 ins. 
and a thickness of about 1/16 in., is 
fitted with 2 rubber stoppers 17% ins. 
in diameter, having a center hole of 


Running water and simple laboratory 
equipment serve to make this still 


% in. Two holes 5/16 in. in diameter, 
are drilled 2 ins. from each end, and 
2 brass tubes 1% ins. by 5/16 in. are 
carefully soldered into them. One of 
these tubes is for supplying water to 
the large tube, which acts as a water- 
jacket, and the other is for discharging 
the water. 


59 


760 


The inner tube is made of glass stock 
14 in. in diameter and 40 ins. long. By 
means of a Bunsen burner with a wing 
tip, the glass tubing can be bent into 
the shape indicated in the illustra- 
tion, having 10 curves, each 134 ins. 
long. Heat the tubing until it is cherry- 
red and then carefully bend it into the 
proper shape, but wait till it is cool 
before making the next curve. Care 
should be taken to have the curves 
uniform for fitting into the metal tube. 
One end is now fitted into a rubber 
stopper, which supports it in the water- 
jacket. The other end should be smeared 
with vaseline and inserted in the other 
stopper, and that in turnin the outer tube. 
Each of the short side tubes should be 
fitted with a length of rubber tubing, 
one being attached to the water-faucet 
and the other to the drainage pipe. 
Chemicals of all kinds, including mer- 
cury, may be purified by means of this 
apparatus.—SAMUEL COHEN. 


Making a Handy Power-Bench 


VERY workshop should include a 
power-machine like the one shown 

in the illustration. It can be used as a 
wood-turning lathe, for running an 
emery-wheel, and, in fact, for many other 


2) = 
oo 

= ———— 
— Ss 


EE 


This arrangement of a power-bench can be 
made on an old sewing-machine body 


necessary operations. Procure a chain 
and two bicycle sprocket wheels, a steel 
rod, ranging from ]4 in. to in. in diame- 
ter and 1 ft. long, one side of a sewing- 
machine stand, with the wheel and 


Popular Science Monthly 


Lathe con- 
struction de- 
tails of the 
power - bench 


treadle, a piece of galvanized sheet iron, 
1 ft. sq., but not too thick, a thumb-bolt, 
and a clamp from an old emery-wheel. 

Screw four supports to the top of the 
bench, as shown in the illustration. The 
one to the extreme left has a hole drilled 
near the top and a short piece of tubing 
fitted into it to receive the shaft. Screw 
a piece of iron on the back to act as a 
stop for the shaft. Make grooves in the 
tops of the two middle supports and, 
after inserting tubing, screw galvanized 
strips over the tops to secure the shaft. 
Drill a hole in the support represented at 
the right. Make it a size smaller than 
the thumb-bolt, which should be filed to 
a point, and insert the bolt. In placing 
these supports and drilling the holes, 
care must be taken to keep the shaft 
perfectly level and in a straight line with 
the thumb-bolt. | 

Make a slit in the bench exactly 
parallel with the line of the shaft. 
Drill a hole in the base of the right 
support and insert a bolt to pass down 
through the slit. Make two holes in 
the bench at the proper place to let the 
chains run through, and drill a hole in 
the shaft directly above. Place the 
part shown in Fig. 1 on that shown in 
Fig. 2, and both on the part shown in 
Fig. 3. Bolt them together, place them 
on the shaft, pass a nail or wire through 
the shaft, and solder it to them. At 
the end of the shaft a number of different 
forms of chucks may be used. 

Fasten a small board to the sewing- 
machine wheel by means of strips as 
shown in Fig. 4. Then attach the 
gear, Fig. 5. A stick connecting the 
treadle with the wheel and a support for 
the treadle must also be adjusted before 
the machine is complete. When finished, 
anyone may be proud of this little power- — 
machine.—HARRY B. DURLIN. 


Popular Science Monthly 


w 
WZ WLLILLILLLILLLL ILLUS LILLE LLL PLLYLELS TLD LYYSESELLLEL PLL), WZZ4 


BERR SAA /AANANAAAAANANAAMANAAT AANA S 
—eSe — wv s Ui 


RUBBER 
R 
—— oe 
NH 


rs 
PULLEY 
A 


A revolving drawing-board of this design 
can be made by an amateur 


Construction of a Revolving 
Drawing-Board 


DRAWING-BOARD that revolves 

will be of interest to many ama- 
teur draftsmen. The following dimen- 
sions may be altered according to 
the materiais that the builder has on 
hand. Procure a board, 1% in. by 18 
ins. by 24 ins., of any soft wood. By 
measuring down from the top of the 
board 9 ins. and in from the side 16144 
ins., establish a point and describe a 
circle of 15 ins. diameter. 

Prepare another board of the same 
dimensions, with a circle of 141% ins. 
diameter. By means of a band saw, 
remove the disk within the circle of each 
board. Glue the two boards, W and S 
together, the centers of the two circles co- 
inciding. The two disks, SY and WY, 
should be similarly glued together. Glue 
two rectangular strips of hardwood E£, 
I in. by 2 ins. by 18 ins., on the ends of 
the rectangular boards to prevent warp- 
ing. 

Make two pulleys A, 4 ins. in di- 
ameter, with a V-shaped edge. Attach 
one pulley to the bottom of the circular 
board. Measure from the left side of 
the rectangular board 5%4 ins. in on the 
center line and drill a 14-inch hole. 
Into this hole, force a piece of brass 
tubing, 34 in. long, and having an inside 


761 


diameter of 14 in. In the top board, 
make a rectangular opening, 614 ins. by 
3% ins. by 44 in., so that the small hole 
just made will be at the middle of the 
lower long side, as shown in the diagram. 
At this point, fasten a protractor. 

A short piece of steel rod, 4% in. in 
diameter, must be threaded at one end. 
Attach a needle or pointer, such as a 
clock-hand, to the other end and place 
the rod in the brass tubing. Fasten the 
other pulley to the under, threaded end 
by means of nuts. Pass a_ thread 
around the two pulleys and tie it 
securely. Rubber tacks should be driven 
into the bottom of the board at the four 
corners. The dial may be kept clean by 
means of a piece of glass, 614 ins. by 
354 ins. By adjusting the index finger, 
the revolving board, with its drawing, 
can be set at any angle which may be 
desired.—H. ALEXANDERSON. 


The Construction and Use of a Safe 
Driving-Box Lifter 


HE device illustrated is for lifting 

driving-boxes with a traveling crane, 
for use with planers, boring-mills, drill- 
presses and the like. It is made from 
two forgings and a %%-in. chain. The 
two rectangular links are made from 
34-in. iron. The ring is made first, then 
the rectangle, and lastly the two are 
welded. They slip over the driving-box 
as shown. As soon as the crane-hook 
is hoisted, the two links are- drawn 
together. An accident is practically 
impossible. The size of the link can be 


made to fit any driving-box, though it 
can be used for any box it will go over. 
The only exception is when the box is 
too small.—JosEPH K. LONG. 


Lifting the driving-box of a locomotive is 
simplified by this device 


762 
A Pipette Attached to a Bottle 


SMALL pip- 
ette may be 
\. suspended from the 
:\ cork stopper of a 
\ bottle, by means of 
jan ordinary eye- 
bolt whose diame- 
ter is slightly larger 
than the diameter 
of the dropper. 
The arrangement 

is clearly depicted in the illustration. 

If the bottle is shorter than the 
pipette, a rubber band may be attached 
to the pipette, forming a flange to en- 
gage the ring of the eye-bolt. This 
device is especially useful in hospitals 
and homes, where sanitary measures 
should be observed.—P. F. QUINN. 


Making Dies of Difficult Outline 


N making a die 

for punching out 
plates of an un- 
usual outline, such 
as the one shown 
in the diagram, the 
following method 
may be employed 
to advantage: 

Lay out the fig- 
ure carefully, drill 
the holes C and 
knock out the plug. 
Replace the plug 
and secure it by 
means of two pins, 
DD. “Bol: the 
plug to the face- 
plate, parallels be- 
ing placed between the face-plate and 
die so that the plug can be driven 
towards the face-plate and dropped out. 
Locate the point A which is the center of 
a circle whose circumference coincides 
with the outline of the end of the figure. 
The plug should now be removed and the 
half-cirele bored out and _ clearance 
given to it. Next, remove the die from 
the face-plate and replace the plug with 
the pins. Fasten the plug to the face- 
plate, locate the point B and bore out 
the semicircle, as before. Finish the 
two flat sides between the semicircles 
with an end mill in a milling machine. 


Popular Science Monthly 


How to Fit Cables Into Smali 
Terminal Holes 


N installing an 

A. C. induction 
motor, it |jsome- 
times happens that 
the holes in the 
terminals on the 
terminal board are 
too small-to receive : 


the ends of the 5 

cable. Instead of $= 

the common but Campneé TERMINAL BOARD 
3 CREW OF MOTOR 

unsatisfactory 


method of cutting strands of wire off 
the cable to make a fit, the following 
method is suggested: 

Make some brass thimbles and sweat 
them on the cable ends, as shown. The 
thimbles are made from a round brass 
rod large enough for boring a hole to fit 
the end of the cable. The other end is 
turned down to fit the hole in the 
terminal block.—H. HUNTER. 


A Set of Jaws for Counter-Boring 
and Facing 


HE diagram 

shows a special 
set of jaws made 
for use on the lathe- & 
chuck when coun- = 
terboring and fac- ae 
ing the inner ends secan. | 1] 
of castings, such as that shown in the 
illustration. The jaws being cut away 
allows plenty of room for facing the ends. 
The cutter used is a lathe-tool set in the 
tool-post.—C. ANDERSON. 


No Corkscrew Needed 


F manufacturers 

would loop a 
piece of strong cord, 
the length depend- 
ing upon the size 
of the stopper, 
around the cork 
before inserting it | 
in the neck of the | 
bottle, they would ~ 
greatly help their patrons. 


This would 


do away with corkscrews and would. 
save time.—WM. Ep. FINKERNAGEL. 


Popular Science Monthly 


How to Keep the Baby in His 
High-Chair 


O prevent a 
baby from 
standing up in his 
high-chair, try 
this: Remove the 
leather handle from 
an old razor strop. 
Cuta ‘sittin’ the 
center from end to 
end, leaving about 
an inch at each end 
uncut. Fasten one 
end of the strop to 
the inside of the back of the chair, with 2 
screws, 2g in. in diameter. Hook the 
other end up under the feeding shelf. 
The slotted belt rests comfortably on the 
baby’s shoulders and he is_ perfectly 
safe—BERNARD SPIVAK. : 


A Substitute for a Condenser when 
Making Enlargements 


OR enlarging 
photographs 
under artificial 
light by the projec- 
tion process a good 
condenser, of di- 
% ameter sufficient to 
— cover the negative 
™% used, is necessary 
to insure even dis- 
tribution of light 
on the print. The 
object of the con- 
denser is, of course, 
to distribute the 
light more evenly 
to each and every 
corner of the nega- 
‘tive. <A good sub- 
stitute for a condenser—lenses suitable 
for large negatives are expensive—is a 
lamp-board mounting a number of 
miniature tungsten bulbs so that the 
light is distributed fairly evenly over the 
whole surface of the negative, instead of 
being concentrated at a single spot, 
which is the case when a single lamp is 
used without a condenser. The board 
should be slightly larger than the nega- 
tive to be enlarged, and should mount as 
many lamps as it is possible to squeeze 
into the surface. If 6-volt lamps are 


763 


used, 18 or I9 can be connected in 
series, to be used on the house-lighting 
circuit. 

The lamp-board should be mounted 
well away from the negative at the free 
end of a bellows, so that the board can be 
kept in constant movement while the 
print is being made. This helps to 
distribute the light more perfectly. Ex- 
cellent results can be obtained with this 
simple apparatus.—E. F. HALLocK. 


A Wedge as a Burglar-Alarm 


N excellent 

burglar alarm 
for the home or for 
use when traveling 
is seen in the illus- 
tration. It consists 
of a wedge, which 
is placed in the in- 
terior of the bedroom under the door. 
It carries several small points or claws 
on the under side, which grip on to the 
floor, making it impossible to open the 
door even by the hardest pressure. Be- 
sides, a bell rings when the device is 
pushed upon, for the wedge part slides 
back slightly upon the base, actuating a 
rod which sets off the bell mechanism. 
For use in hotels when traveling, the 
little device is one of the most practical, 
and, being small, it can be stowed in any 
baggage. No key is needed to wind up 
the bell. The bell itself is turned about 
by means of its milled edge as will be 
seen in the illustration—F. P. MANN. 


An Easy Way to Remove a Broken 
Chair-Leg 


T IS sometimes 

difficult when 
repairing chairs 
and other house- 
hold furniture to 
remove a_ broken 
end from the base, 
except by boring. 
If a screw-nail is 
driven into the 
broken end and 
then a claw-ham- 
mer applied, the 
broken end may ° 
be removed very 
easily.— JEFFERSON RUSSELL. 


764 
An Improved Darkroom Lamp 


METHOD of darkroom illumina- 
tion is shown in the accompanying 
illustration. The negative may be 
examined thoroughly during the process 
of development without unduly exposing 
the plate. A two-candle- power in- 


candescent lamp is attached to a handle 
and enclosed by a hemispherical re- 


A two candle-power ruby lamp allows close 
examination of ‘negatives during the proc- 
ess of development 


of dark ruby glass. The lamp is held 
near the plate and all the light is thrown 
downward so that: the eyes receive only 
the light reflected from the plate. 

Only a small section of the plate is 
exposed to the light at any time. When 
the lamp is not being used for this 
purpose, it may be laid face down on 
the. table or suspended so as to light 
the darkroom.—GEORGE YASTE. 


How to Send Coins by Mail 


AY the coin on a sheet of paper and 

describe a circle around it. Then 
with a knife, cut through the paper 
along the heavy lines, as indicated in 
the diagram. The coin may then be 
slipped underneath the central slip and 
the two flaps may be folded over the top. 


Cut on heavy lines 


A piece of stiff paper cut as indicated will 
hold a coin securely for mailing 


Popular Science Monthly 


A Locomotive Apron Lifter 


ga device shown in the illustration 
is for holding up the apron between 
an engine and its tender, while coupling 
or uncoupling the tender. The apron 
is generally hinged to the cab brackets 
and is a mean thing to handle. This 
appliance is simply,'a small clamp which 
slips in over the edge of the apron and 
has a small chain with a hook on the 
other end which is fastened on hooks 
around the cab handhold. The details 
are clearly shown in the diagram. Note 
the small set-screw, which is tightened 
after the device is put on the apron, to 


tua ot 
Fite Door Can 


Hand hold / 
AL 


of 


Application 


The “apron” between locomotive and 
tender will be held up safely with this 
device during coupling 


Uncoupling Pipes 


HE threads on steam, water, and 
gas-pipes are usually coated with 
white lead or paint when the pipes 
are coupled together; old pipes that 
have been put together in this manner 
are usually hard to uncouple. If the 
juncture is heated, the paint or lead will 
soften and the pipes can be taken apart 
very readily. 
When two pipes rust together, pour a 
little oil on the exposed threads and 
allow the oil to soak in for a few minutes. 
Then heat to make the oil penetrate. 
The pipes may then be taken apart 
easily —F. M. DEFENDORF. 


How to Build and Sail a Small Boat 


By Stillman Taylor 


HE average boy will find it compar- 

atively easy to build a thoroughly 

satisfactory sailboat, and no diff- 
culty will be experienced if the simple 
instructions which follow are well under- 
stood before undertaking the work. A 
boat of this flat-bottom or “‘sharpie”’ 
model, is the easiest of all sailing craft 
to construct, it will be found safe and 
stable and will show a fair amount of 
speed with a reasonable spread of sail. 
It is, moreover, essentially a boy’s boat, 
suitable for use on rivers and lakes, and 
because of the flat bottom, it draws but 
little water, and is upon this account a 
very desirable boat for use at the sea- 
shore, for it may be pulled up on the 
sandy beach. 

The cost of building will naturally 
vary somewhat—depending upon the 
locality and the kind of fittings used. 
The finished hull may be built for $10, 
and if the mast is rounded out by the 
builder, and the sail is stitched by 
mother or sister on the sewing-machine, 
the total cost may be kept within $20. 
A completely rigged ‘boat of this type 
will cost not less than $75 if made by 
a boat-builder. 

In beginning the work, first cut out 
the stem as shown in Fig. 3. Oak or 
ash is the best material for this part of 
the craft, but cypress may be used. As 


may be noted in the diagram, the stem 
is rabbeted out on a bevel to receive the 
sideboards. 

The sideboards may next be marked 
to the shape and dimensions shown in 
Fig. 2, and then 
carefully sawed 
out with a rip 
saw. 

The molds, 
which give the 
correct width and 
shape of the boat, 
are merely used to 
keep the sides in 
shape while put- 
ting in the ribs 
and flooring. 
These are re- 
moved when this 
part of the work 
Deck plan has been com- 

'” pleted, hence they 
may be made from any odd pieces of old 
lumber found about the house—packing 
boxes, etc. Three molds are required, 
the dimensions being shown in Fig. 4. 

The stern or transom is best made of 
oak or ash, but cypress or cedar will 
answer very well. This is first drawn 
to shape and sawed out to the shape 
and dimensions shown in Fig. 5. 

Having gotten out these pieces, the 


Lee 1 


Material Required for Hull 


ZIDCa Me gieetae ghee eee: x 05 ft. ss. c.f Sideboards 
2 pes, Crpress). Sets. gin.x 2in. x15 ft.........Floor-stringers 
2ipesi: Gypreshes tata ct gin.x gin. x14 ft.........Seat-risings 
De pC mOvOLeESsi. 7a nts Dar LMR OIN KOTO aLe Mee foe Seats 
I pe. MOvpress sal wee ee gin.xI5in.x 8ft.........Sides centerboard trunk 
Tope.) s Gypress 76306 0 OS ee oe | Deck beams and knees 
Tepe. *GyOReSS 76). cs eas eolst eee OPES. XS FO fiw e ces Centerboard posts 
GOCE. VDL ess ret tous «nial fies 63.in..x 18 ft .. Decks 
Epc. /OaxorAsa >. 1... O10. * 6 in, x 18 ins. ..2.... Mast blocks 
2 pes. Calor Ao eens lee eit: KIS it... . 2. ss Ribs 
pe. Oak ior Asiiwa iss.) Pines Wl, X30 isc. rss s Stern transom 
rpc. Oskor Ash. v5 0a; bean me 5 in. e 12 ft... os oe: Cockpit coaming 
nipe: Gale of Ast .-24.0.50%)> Pits Mae eX AOr Is. esses os Top centerboard trunk 
apes, Oalk or Asiits, > in. 2 in. Half-Round Molding... .Fenderwales 
2 pes. Oak or Ash........ 4 in. Quarter-Round 
Molding..............To cover tacked edge on coaming 
I pe. Georgia pine....... Fin. Mase 15 {thoes Outside keel or shoe 
I pe. Georgia pine....... CRY oly Sh BS 9 deere ae Centerboard 
I pe. Georgia pine....... Piece sitex 4 ft. ...):...RKudder 
5 pes. Cedar or white pine.. fin. x 6in. x 16 ft.........Flooring-boards 
Rive, ING, OOr 10 Ounce Canvas. . 66.6... eee eee Deck covering 


766 


work of setting up the hull may begin. 
First nail the sideboards to the beveled 
scarf or rabbet in the stem, by a double 
row of nails. Galvanized cut boat- 
nails should be used, and a hole must 
first be bored before the nail is driven 
home. This must likewise be done in 


STEM 


Fig. 2. Sideboards 


fastening all parts together—otherwise 
splitting is likely to spoil the work. 

Now place mold A, 5 feet_from the 
stem (see deck plan Fig. 1), and after 
bending the sideboards around it, 
secure firmly in position, by tacking a 
batten across the sideboards at top 
and bottom. In doing this, merely 
drive the nails partly in, so that they 
may be easily removed later on. Place 
mold B, 3 ft. from mold A, fasten and 
set up mold C in the indicated 
position. Owing to the some- 
what abrupt bend of the sides 
at this point on to the stern, 
Ars a rope strap may be 
twisted around the 
sideboards like a tour- 
, niquet, to force the 
. sideboards tightly up 
against and at right 
angles with the molds. 

3} Clamps may, of course, 
be used, if at hand. 

The transom is now placed between 
the sideboards—outside flush with edges 
of sideboards—and fastened in place by 
nailing the sides to it. 

The floor-stringers are now to be 
nailed along the inside bottom edge of 
each sideboard. To make the stringers 
follow the bend near the stern, make 
several slight saw-cuts across, so that 
the stringer may be sprung to follow 
the curve of the sides. 

We are now ready to put in the oak 
ribs, and these must be nailed solidly 
to the sideboards. Space the ribs about 
18 ins. apart, and nail with galvanized 
boat-nails, through the  sideboards. 
Clench the ends on the inside of the rib. 

The hull is now ready for the flooring. 
Turn the hull upside down, and if the 


A 
' 
I 


Se a 


Gx Zi 
Fig. 3. Stem 


Popular Science Monthly 


sideboards and stringers are not perfectly 
straight across the edges, plane off until 
the flooring fits well when laid’ across 
the bottom. This detail is an important 
one, for if a tight joint is not made here, 
the boat is likely to leak. The floor- 
boards are now laid across and nailed 
solidly to the edge of both stringers and 
sideboards. Begin at the bow and 
finish at the stern, letting the last floor- 
board extend beyond the transom about 
¥% in. and neatly round off the edge. 
To prevent any possibility of leakage, 
it is a good plan to lay a strand or two 
of candle-wicking along the edge, before 
nailing the flooring in place. The floor 
boards must be planed so that the edges 


pees 45". -- -- a -* ee =) Gis eee > 
a SET, a aS a 
= Pam EPR St | 4 Uu—_—____——” 
a6 Pia 2 cee 
NE AS WM groans , N22 


4 ae 
PUREE 5 = 36 vom eee o 
W923 


Fig. 4. Molds 


are perfectly square and’ smooth, that 
each may fit the other as tightly as 
possible. If this is done, and cedar or 
white pine lumber free from knots or 
defects is used, the bottom will quickly 
swell water-tight. Calking is never 
satisfactory in flat-bottomed boats, for 
it is almost impossible to keep it from 
falling out of the seams. It is unneces- 
sary if the flooring is laid as directed. 
After the bottom is on, nail the 4% 
by 6-in. strip of Georgia pine (do not. 
use North Carolina pine, which is an 
inferior wood), in the center of the out- — 
side. This forms the outside keel or 
shoe and should run from stem to stern. 
Fasten by nailing from the outside, and 
clench the nails on the inside, setting in 
the heads well below the surface. This 
should also be done throughout the 
boat, so that putty may be filled in to 
make a good finish. 
The boat may now be turned right 
side up and the seats and seat-risings 
putin. The risings are simply % by % 
in. strips, screwed to the ribs the seats 
resting upon them. . 
The molds may now be removed. 


Popular Science Monthly 


In the place occupied by them put in a 
rib, in the same manner you have 
fastened in the others. 

The work of making the centerboard 
may now be started, which is shown in 
Fig. 6. First cut the slot in the exact 
center of the floor, and through the 
outside keel. Make this slot 2 ins. 
wide. At each end, put in a post. 
Nail this post solidly to the flooring 
and to the keel. The sides of the center- 
board trunk are best made of a single 
board; if two are used, calk the seam. 
The sides are 
shaped as shown 
and nailed to the 
posts. Lay two 
or three strands 
of candle-wick- 
ing at the junc- 
tion of flooring 
and trunk. Finish by nailing a I-in. 
quarter-round molding to cover the 
joint, first laying in a strand or two of 
candle-wicking. For the centerboard, 
two pieces of Georgia pine are doweled 
together as shown in diagram. Gal- 
vanized or plain iron rods about 4 in. in 
diameter are all right for fresh water, 
but brass is more durable in salt water. 
In boring the dowel holes, make them 
the same size as the dowels, and 
take particular care to bore the holes 
straight, otherwise the board will not be 
true. In the lower left-hand corner of 
the centerboard, make a 41%-in. slot. 
Bore a hole through the trunk and hang 
the board by driving an oak pin flush 
with the outside of the trunk. Near the 
after-end of the top edge of the board, 
drive a staple or screw-eye, and fasten a 
galvanized iron rod in the eye, so that 
the centerboard may be raised and 
lowered. The top of the trunk is 
finished with a %4 by 3%-in. oak piece, 
in which a hole is bored to allow the 
rod to project through. Screw this in 
place on the edges, using brass screws. 

The deck beams may now be put in, 
and while many boats are made with a 
flat deck, it is best to form a ‘‘crown”’ 
by curving the beams 1% or 2 in. in the 
center. For the fore deck, put in three 
deck beams, running them across and 
screwing solidly to the ribs. Two 
beams should be put in to support the 
stern deck also. To support the side 


Fig. 5. Transom 


767 


decks, knees should be put in to rest 
upon each seat, and in between. The 
deck details are shown in Fig. 8 

The deck is laid in strips, running 
fore and aft (lengthwise of the boat). 
Begin by laying the first strip from stem 
to coaming line; then fit the others as 
shown in diagram. When ready to lay 
the side decks, put a few strands of 
candle-wicking along the top edge of 


(“ 


pas Uy 


Uinare 


A 


a eee > 
13° 
v 
Aeoccs -~36*---- > Sporn F8- = 
13 GASE 
vE 
——— Palwie Dees es ae 
Peas ny ee ae ee 
ae re aa 


BOARD JOINED WITH DOWELS 7 


Fig. 6. Centerboard construction 


sideboards, and nail the deck solidly to 
the sides. Screw firmly to the deck 
beams, countersinking the heads of all 
screws and nails. 

Now that the boat is decked, cut out 
the inside curve for the coaming of the 
cockpit. The coaming will not require 
steaming, if 14-in. oak is used. Simply 
bring the forward ends together to form 


a A. A butt-block shaped to fit, is now 
screwed firmly in place to make a solid 
joint. 

If the deck is carefully laid with 


tight joints and kept well painted, it 
will be water-tight, but the usual 


768 
practice is to cover the decks with 
canvas. The canvas may be laid in 


glue or wet paint, the former being 
by far the better method. Procure a can 
of soft, black marine glue and brush it 
on the deck with an old stubby paint 


T/LLER 
Sages = Ir 


BLADE 


t=} 


8 


= ta He 


S37 PIECE 
POST 


Rudder details 


brush. The glue comes in the form of 
atthick paste, and will be found too stiff 
to brush evenly, but spread it as evenly 
as possible. Now lay the fitted canvas 
in place and with a moderately hot flat 
iron, iron the canvas until the melted 
glue sweats through to the surface. Now 
pull the edges of the canvas over the 
sides and tack to the edge of sideboards 
with copper tacks, spaced close to- 
gether. Tack the inside edge of canvas 
neatly to the lower edge of coaming. It 
is better to use a one-piece deck covering, 
but it may be pieced by lapping one 
edge over another about an inch, and 
gluing in place. Do not use tacks 
anywhere on the deck. 

The row of tacks on the outside edge 
is covered by screwing on the 2-in. 
half-round molding which forms a 
fender-wale. Ta- 
per this at bow 
and stern to make 
aneatappearance. 
The tacked inside 
edge is similarly 
covered by 
screwing a 14-in. 
quarter-round 
molding around 
the coaming. On 
the outside of the 
coaming, about 18 
ins.aft of the mid- 
dle seat, screw an 
oar-lock block 
(made of oak or 


DECK BEAM ) ash), to both the 
CROWNED /4 ANEE coaming and the 
Fig. 8. Detail of decking deck. 


Popular Science Monthly 


Several types of rudders may be used, 
but the outside transom form of rudder 
is preferable to the form using a rubber 
port. Such a rudder is easily made as 
shown in Fig. 7. 

(To be concluded) 


Rounding Washers in a Speed Lathe 


OUNDING the edges of washers in 
large quantities may be accom- 
plished on a speed lathe, by means of an 
arrangement such as shown in the dia- 
grams. The washer A, Fig. 1, is floated 
on two pins placed on the face of the 
piece B, Fig. 2, which is made to fit into 
the headstock spindle. The central hole 
in the washer must fit snugly over the 
pin D. The pin E engages with one of 
the four other holes, but it need not fit 
tightly. 
Fastened in a socket held in the tail- 
stock spindle, is a piece of copper F, 
Fig. 2, being drilled out to clear the pin 


11g. / 


Fitting for rounding washers on a lathe 


D. When the washer is in position, the 
copper end is brought into contact with 
it, keeping it in place. 

The tool G is used in actually rounding 
the edges of the washer. Every washer 
is put on and taken off without stopping 
the machine. Care must be taken that 
no chips get between the washers and 
the face of the arbor, since this will 
make a bevel on one side and ruin the 
work.—C. ANDERSON. 


Improving Automobile Springs 


MWANY lightly-built cars of the Ford 
class will ride more easily if the 
body springs are taken apart and sent 
to a polishing shop to be polished off. 
Here they are first given a rough brush- 
ing with a coarse carborundum wheel, 
after which they are polished to a bright 
luster, greased, and colored. After 
this treatment, the springs should be 
kept lubricated, and they will be found to 
work very smoothly.—R. W. TILLOTSON. 


Popular Science Monthly 


Boring a Hole in Glass 


HILE the Wimshurst static ma- 

chine is one of the most easily 
constructed mechanisms of its kind, no 
doubt a good many amateurs are pre- 
vented from constructing it through the 
mistaken notion that the glass plates 
are difficult to drill. This is by no 
means the case, 


provided one has 


CILLA 
c 


fig. 2 


fig 3 
Arrangement for boring hole in glass by 
means of a lathe 


access to a lathe. The difficult part is 
not in cutting the disk, since any good 
glazier can do that; but in cutting the 
hole in the center, for fitting the hub 
on the machine. 

Excellent results can be obtained with 
the following scheme: Into a piece of 
copper tube C, Fig. 2, the size of the 
hole wanted in the glass, drive a block 
of wood W. This must be a driving fit. 
Then screw a 5/16-in. wood screw S ex- 
actly in the center of the wood block, 
as shown, and cut off the head. In order 
to hold the screw in place, it is advisable 
to tin the shank of the screw and the 
edge of the copper tube, and fill it with 
solder, as shown at L, Fig. 2. This is 
our boring tool. Next, make a bracket 
(B, Fig. 1), that will slide on the lathe- 
bed plate. This may be made of wood. 
Place a center in the chuck and slide 
the bracket B against it, so as to mark 
the exact center. Remove the bracket 
from the lathe, and with a pair of 
dividers, draw a circle the size of the 
plates which are to be bored. 

Drive two nails on this circumference, 
as shown at VN, N, Fig. 3. Now replace 


769 


the bracket in the lathe, and place the 
boring tool in the chuck as shown in 
Fig. 1. Place the glass plate on the 
nails NV, N. If all this has been carefully 
done, the plate will be perfectly cen- 
tered. Now move the bracket so that 
the glass plate just touches the boring 
tool, and exert a gentle pressure with 
the tailstock. 

The cutting is done by applying oil 
and emery. Since the copper is very 
soft, the emery becomes embedded in 
the tube and thus forms an excellent 
cutter. A rather slow speed is desirable. 
The best way to apply the emery is to 
put it in an oil-can with a rather large 
opening and squirt it into the cut. 

It is well to relieve the pressure from 
time to time to allow the emery to work 
into the cut. By this means a very clean 
hole can be cut, and the result will well 
repay the trouble involved in the mak- 
ing.—E. C. MEILLORET. 


Making Shrinkers 


N making the part shown in the illus- 
tration, much time, as well as steel, 
may be saved by shrinking on the piece 
A. Make the shrinkers from a piece of 
extra-heavy I-in. pipe, having the 
required outside diameter. The use of 
pipe obviates thecost of makingshrinkers, 
and a 1-in. drill just cleans out the hole. 
Cut the pipes into the required lengths, 
leaving a little extra for facing, and then 
drill them. When a long pipe is drilled 
and then cut up, a burr is left at each 
end, which is difficult to remove. 

In Fig. 1 is shown a device, which is 
very handy for shrinking a piece to be 
located at some special point. A piece 
of steel, which has been drilled out and 
hardened for use in hammering on the 
shrinkers, is shown in Fig. 2. It will 
not crack or splinter like an ordinary 
piece of pipe.-—C. ANDERSON. 


Set Bushing ”™ 
held in Vise Cr 


Fig £ 


Device for shrinking a piece of piping into 
place on a shaft 


770 


Frying Eggs by Means of an 
Incandescent Bulb 


N ordinary in- 
candescent 
bulb, together with 
some sand and a tin 
can, can be used for 
frying eggs to suit 
the taste of the 
most critical. Pro- 
cure a can bites enough so that a space of 
1% in. will remain between its sides and 
the bulb at its widest part. Cut a hole in 
the bottom of the can to fit an electric 
socket. Screw in the bulb and fill the 
can with sand as shown. Place the pan 
on the top of the can and be sure it fits 
tightly. Turn on the current; in a very 
few minutes sufficient heat will be 
generated to cook the eggs. If left 
longer, the sand and aR will become 
almost red-hot.—Wwmo. HARRIER. 


An Easy Way to Punch Holes in 
Clock-Spring Steel 


HE diagram rep- 
resents an in- 
strument that will be 
found handy for 
punching holes in 
spring-steel, such as a 
clock-spring. It con- 
sists of a link from an 
automobile chain, one pin of which A is 
filed flat like the end of a punch. By 
placing the steel spring over the hole D 
and entering the pin B in hole C, a sharp 
blow with a hammer over A will cut a 
clean hole through the spring. Being of 
steel, the pins A and B may easily be 
hardened.—M. F. VANDERSDALE. 


An Improvised Pipe-Wrench 


PIPE-wrench 
can be im- 
provised from a 
solid wrench A 
and a coarse, 
sharp file. The 
file B is placed in 
/ the lower jaw and 
raised with slugs of metal, if necessary, 
until the desired grip is obtained on the 
pipe between the upper jaw and the 
file surface. This expedient will prove 
of value in an emergency. 


Popular Science Monthly 


A Carbon-Copy Postal Card 

F o ree! RSs We 

card, similar [45> 27 
to the regular ys Less Past 
double” card’ sed [>> ——— 
for a return mes- 
sage, may be used i 
for making a car- Brae St. 
bon copy. The 
carbon is slipped between the two folds 
of the card in writing; then the copy is 
oa off along the central perforated 
ine. 

For this purpose a comparatively thin 
card is required. 

This scheme is especially valuable to 
clubs and business houses who have to 
send out hundreds of short communica- 
tions.—F. P. MANN. 


Improving a Drawing-Ink Bottle 


HE quill, usu- 

ally attached 
to the stopper of a 
drawing-ink bottle, 
necessitates several 
dips into the ink 
before a sufficient 
quantity is obtain- 
ed for transferring p27 
to an instrument. ~~ 
By slitting the quill on both sides of the 
point and standing it on the point, with 
a heavy object bearing down on the 
stopper, the tip becomes horizontal, 
forming a small cup, which will retain a 
large quantity of ink.—C. NIELSEN. 


Hints to the Mortor-Cyclist 


HE appearance 

od cylinder 1//// 

rusted cylinder 

heads can be great- 

ly improved by ap- 

plying ordinary stove polish ia a 
small brush. 

Bent crank-hangers can be straight- 
ened by putting a piece of one-inch pipe 
over the end of the hanger and exerting a 
little pressure. 

A wrench for the bolts in the crank 
case can be made by grinding or filing a 
screwdriver bit into the desired shape, 
as shown in the diagram. The bit is 
then placed in the brace and used like a 
socket-wrench.—E. H. DODGE. 


A Bow-Drill tor 


HE bow-drill about to be de- 
scribed will be found a most use- 
ful addition to the average ama- 
teur’s workbench, and although the 
size of the drills somewhat restrict its 
field of usefulness, it will . 
be found invaluable in the 
construction of certain 
classes of apparatus. 

The handle should be 
turned first, preferably 
from good ash stock. It 
is perfectly straight in di- 
ameter and 514 inches 
long. One end tapers in 
to 3%, inch. A %-inch 
hole should be bored in- 
the other end 34 inches 
deep; this serves as a mag- 
azine for the drills. 

The next step is to turn 
the knob or breast-piece. 
This is 2 inches long and 
14% inches at the widest 
point. One end is rounded 
off as shown in the dia- 
gram, while a shank 34 inch 
long and 5% inch in diam- 
eter is turned on the other 
end. This fits the maga- 
zine and serves as a stop 
for it and as a breast- 
piece for the drill. 

The next step is turning 
the spool, the dimensions 
of which are given in Figs. 
xt and 3 of the diagram. 

The chuck is next made. 
This is of iron or soft steel 
4 inch in diameter and 
134 inches long. A slot 4 
inch long is filed in one 
side %4 inch from the end; the upper 
side being filed 11/64 inches deep, 
while the lower side is filed 5/64 inch 
deep. A hole is next bored end- 
ways into this slot slightly larger than 
3/32 inch; the other end is embedded 
into the end of the spool for one inch of 
its length and should not turn. A 9/32- 
inch hole should be bored in the other 
end of the spool up to the end of the 
chuck. This should be done before the 
chuck is put in so that the spindle will 


the Work-Shop 


bear directly on the end of the chuck. 
This reduces the friction. 

The next step is to embed the steel 
spindle in the handle. This had best be 
of steel, 14 inch in diameter and 23% 


PA 


| it! 
al = sal 
a 


Construction details of a bow-drill adapted for actual 


workshop use 


inches long. One end should be slightly 
rounded, while the other is tightly em- 
bedded in the handle for 7% inch of its 
length. The spool on this spindle should 
rotate freely. 

The drills are next made and are eas- 
ily and cheaply constructed from the 
ribs of an _ old-fashioned umbrella. 
These ribs are of the finest spring steel. 
To make the point, cut the wire to the 
desired length, say about 3 inches, as 
this is long enough for average work. 


771 


172 


Then heat the tip to a cherry red and hit 
it a sharp blow with a hammer to flatten 
it slightly, and quickly dip into cold 
water. This gives about the proper de- 
gree of hardness. The necessary clear- 
ance was given when it was flattened, 
and the point is then ground down until 
the flat side is very nearly a half-round 
and the narrow side tapers to a point at 
an angle of 30 degrees. The other end 
is filed off slightly on a long angle, as 
shown in Fig. 4. This slides up upon 
the slot in the chuck and prevents the 
drill from turning. 

The bow is made of some limber 
wood, such as elm or hickory, and is 
trimmed down so that when bent it will 
give the desired tension to the string. 
This depends on the wood used and 
should be sufficient to keep the cord from 
slipping when twisted once around the 
spool. The bow used with the drill de- 
scribed was 2% feet long, 34 inch wide 
and %4 inch thick. The cord should be 
of leather attached to one end and about 
6 inches above the other end, which was 
left for a handle. 

The chuck described here is expressly 
made for the wire drills, but if the 
maker has any other drills that bore with 
a backward and forward motion, he 
could use any design of chuck he wishes 
in order to accommodate the drills. 

This bow-drill, if the points are well 


‘An attractive non-upsetting ink bottle stand 


Popular Science Monthly 


ground, will quickly bore wood or iron 
and if supplied with turpentine will even 
bore glass. When needed, the drills can 
be made longer, but when the length is 
over 6 inches care must be taken or they 
will bend when pressure is exerted on 
the handle. To rotate the drill, the bow- 
string is twisted once around the spool 
and the bow is then pushed rapidly 
backward and forward at right angles to 
the handle-—Rat McGoocu. 


= The bottle will 
_ glow with the 
sparks which fill it 


The Luminous Bottle 


O perform this experiment, fill a 

big bottle nearly full of water and 
run a wire from one terminal of a spark 
coil to the inside of the bottle. Set the 
bottle on a plate of glass to insulate it 
from the table. Then run a wire 
from the other terminal and tie 
it securely around the bottle about 
half way up. When the spark- 
gap is started, little sparks are 
given off from the wire to form 
a fine network all about the bot- 
tle—F. M. KimsB te. 


Non-Upsetting Holder for 
Drawing Inks 


AN ink stand that will not up- 
set, owing to the broad base 
secured, can be made according 
to the dimensions given in the 
diagram. The base should be cut 
first and the sides fitted after- 
wards. Cigar box wood will do. 
The two end pieces should pro- 
trude in front of the bottles and 
the upper surfaces should be 
whittled out for pens. 


4 


Popular Science Monthly 


Inside Counter-Boring in a Miller 


HE problem of securing the counter- 

bore shown in Fig. J, may be solved 
by means of a cutter C, shown in Fig. JJ. 
This cutter is made for left and right, 
for use in a milling machine running only 
in one direction. It is a snug fit on the 
shank D, one end of which is held in 
the chuck, as shown in Fig. JJ. The 
small diameter of the shank is a few 
thousandths of an inch smaller than the 
hole, which is drilled through the sides 
of the work, shown at A, Fig. J. 

The method of holding the work is 
shown in Fig. JIZ. After being placed in 
the vise, it is lined up with the end of 
the shank, which is held in the chuck. 
The cutter is then placed between the 
sides and the table moved inward. 
This runs the cutter on to the shank to 
which it is fastened by means of the 
screw E.—C. ANDERSON. 


FIG. I 
A 


a SS 


Riel Ges Tae 
ie —_ maf 
once. A 


Ye ac ee aca 


A solution to the problem of getting the 
counter-bore shown in Fig. I 


How to Improve a Pocket Spectroscope 


MALL direct-vision spectroscopes 
are very popular with many amateur 
experimenters and are comparatively 
inexpensive. The utility of an instru- 
ment of this type can be greatly increased 
by a few simple improvements which 
can be made by anyone who is handy 
with tools. 
The most important addition is that 
of a comparison prism, whereby light 
from two sources can be viewed simul- 


773 


taneously and the spectra compared. 
This is shown in Fig. J. A small right- 
angled prism P, with %-inch sides, is 
fixed at the slit end of the spectroscope 


A comparison prism can be added to a 
pocket spectroscope with little difficulty 


S, the position being carefully adjusted 
so that exactly one-half of the narrow 
slit is obscured, as shown in Fig. JJ. 
Strong isinglass cement, or an alcoholic 
solution of shellac, may be used as an 
adhesive and will be entirely satisfactory, 
if the instrument is carefully handled. 
Light proceeding from a source X 
immediately in front of the spectroscope, 
will pass directly through the uncovered 
half of the slit; while light coming from 
the side, as at Y, and entering the prism, 
will be refracted at right angles to its 
former direction and made to pass 
through the covered half of the slit. In 
this way two spectra can be seen, one 
above the other, and compared. 

It is a great convenience to fasten the 
spectroscope to a stand, thus leaving 
both hands free. A simple stand that 
can be constructed without difficulty, 
is shown in Fig. JJJ. The spectroscope 
S is gripped between two wooden blocks 
B and C, hollowed out at one end. A 
gentle grip is all that is needed. This 
can be secured by the use of a small 
brass bolt A, passing loosely through 
large holes in both blocks. The lower 
block B is perforated at the end to slide 
up and down a rod D, fixed upright in 
the center of a wooden base. A thum- 
screw E, serves to hold the block at any 
desired height. To make the stand 
steady, the base should be weighted 
with lead.—H. J. Gray. 


774 Popular Science Monthly 


A Lathe are Kink 


O polish small 

_ round boxes, 
napkin rings, and 
the like, after they 
have been taken 
‘from the lathe, 
take a board, A, 
and with an expansion bit bore a hole 
the size of the object to be polished, B, 
and place it in this hole so that partof 
it projects. 

Screw the board to the face-plate, C 
and put it on the lathe. The edges of 
the board may be turned down with a 
chisel and the object given its final 
smoothing and polishing without grip- 
ping it in metal—R. F. CUMMINGs. 


Tapping Blind Holes 


EFORE tap- 

ping blind 
holes, much time 
and trouble can 
be eliminated by 
first making sure 
that the holes 
have been drilled 
to the right 
depth. This is 
done by placing 
a leather washer on the spout of an oil-can 
so that the end will just touch the bot- 
tom of the hole, the washer resting on 
the face of the work.—C. H. ANDERSON. 


How to Cut Metal and Not Cut 
Yourself 


HEN making a long cut in a strip 
of sheet metal, the metal is likely 
to bend 
up be- 
hind the 
shears 
and cut 
the hand 
of the 
worker. A guard 
can be made from 
a rectangular piece 
of sheet metal. Cut off the two corners 
of one end and bore two holes as shown 
in the diagram. Bend the smaller end 
along a longitudinal line through the 
middle. Fasten to the bottom handle 
of the shears by means of a small bolt. 
—J. LIEBMAN. 


Handling Small Brads 


N ordinary 
pen greatly 
facilitates the 
handling of small 
brads or pins. 
The brad should 
be placed be- 
tween the blades 
of the nib and 
then hammered 
in part way, after which the pen may be 
removed.—JOSEPH BRAFF. 


Using Ice to Lower Heavy Stones 


HE placing mR 

of finishing k ep y. 
stones, weighing | \“~_ Sil , Mf 
several tons, is AN lt I A 


often difficult be- 
cause spikes can- 
not be used, ow- 
ing to the posi- 
tion of the stone 
in the building. 
The stone can be easily lifted to the de- 
sired level with ropes, but it cannot be 
lowered with them, since they would 
wedge in the sides. By placing several 
cakes of ice in the hole, the stone can 
be lowered on to them, directly above 
the opening. Streams of hot water will 
melt the ice and let the stone sink into 
place easily —A. J. COWEN. 


An Emergency Pipe-Cutter 


I Poe Sot 

brass or 
other soft metal 
can be threaded 
with a_ lock-nut 
of the proper 
size. A lock-nut 
is cut at opposite places across the 
threads, the two threaded halves thus 
formed comprising a very crude pipe- 
cutter. The pipe should be held by a 
vise and the nut gripped with a monkey- 
wrench.—C, A. FAIMAN. 


Whistle on Engine of Motor-Boat 


WHISTLE in place of the pet-cock 

or priming cock, of a twin cylinder 
marine engine will be of use in signaling 
from a motor-boat. 


P| 
Z 
s 


bend arg. 


Experimental Electricity 


Practical Hints 
for the Amateur 


Wireless 


Communication 


Damping in Radio Circuits 


By John Vincent 


HE subject of damping and ‘‘loga- 
rithmic decrement”’ of current and 
r voltage in radio telegraph senders 
and receivers is often looked upon, by the 
wireless experimenter, with a certain 
degree of awe. This is usually because 
many of the text- 
books and articles 
treat the matter as 
though it were very 
complicated. and 
hard to understand; 
the fact is indeed the 
contrary, and the 
matter of damping 
is not at all difficult 
to grasp. There is 
no need of making 
use of long mathe- 
matical expressions 
to figure out how much damping exists 
in any circuit, and what damping itself 
means. 

In the first place, it must be under- 
stood that in speaking of the damping 
of an alternating current one refers 
merely to the rate at which the current 
oscillations die away. If the oscillations 
die away fast the damping is said to be 
high, or if, on the contrary, the oscilla- 
tions persist a long time before fading 
out, the damping is feeble. A pendulum 
having a freely pivoted joint at the top, 
and swinging through the air, will 
vibrate back and forth many times 
before coming to rest; its oscillations, 
which are, of course, mechanical, are then 
feebly damped. But if the same pen- 


Fig. 1. Pendulum 
with circular scale 


dulum is.immersed in water it will stop 
swinging much sooner, because the 
friction of the water offers resistance to 
its motion; in this condition the damping 
is higher. If the pendulum is lowered 
into a tank of heavy oil or molasses the 
friction will be greater still, and the 
oscillations will die out very quickly; 
thus the mechanical system becomes 
highly damped. 

If we arrange the pendulum with a 
circular scale and pointer, as shown in 
Fig. I, it becomes a simple matter to 
measure its period and damping. To 
find its period it is only necessary to 
draw the bob to one end of the scale and 
let it go, counting the number of 
complete swings it makes in one minute. 
The length of time taken for one 
complete swing from left to right and 
back, measured in seconds, is equal to 
sixty divided by the number of swings 
in one minute; this division gives the 
time period of the pendulum. For 
instance, if the bob is swung out to the 
left and let go at the beginning of the 
minute of timing, and if it swings back 
to the left side thirty-six times and is 
at the right-hand end when the minute 
is up, the period will be 60 divided by 
36.5, or 1.64 seconds. By lengthening 
the cord or rod a little, the period 
could be made exactly 2 seconds, or by 
shortening it, 1 second. For the illustra- 
tion of damping measurement given 
below it is useful to make the pendulum 
about 39 ins. long, which will make the 
period about 2 seconds. The cord may 


775 


776 


be lengthened or shortened, as required, 
until, by anumber of successive measure- 
ments, it is shown that the time of 
making one complete swing is two 
seconds. To measure the damping it 
is not necessary to have the period any 
specific length of time, but the plotting 
of oscillation curves of the pendulum is 
made easier if some simple number is 
chosen. 

This plotting of the oscillation is an 
interesting and useful preliminary to 
the determination of the damping of 
the pendulum. Suppose that the period 
has been adjusted to 2 seconds, and 
that the scale along which the pendulum- 
bob swings has been marked off into 
10 equal parts on each side of the middle 
or zero position. Let the bob be drawn 
to the left and held at the tenth division; 


ee 


~e GREY SET 


Beanwes ee ~~ 


> 
S 


Fig. 2. Swings of first pendulum 


if it is released it will reach the lowest 
point (zero) in exactly 14 second and 
will swing out to the right side. At the 
end of 1 second it will reach the end of 
the swing to the right and will be on the 
point of returning. At the end of 
114 seconds the bob will be again 
opposite the zero point, and at the end 
of 2 seconds it will be at the end of its 
first complete period and about to 
swing to the right in beginning the 
second period. The important thing to 
note is that although the bob started at 
10 on its scale, it did not swing so 
far to the right but instead commenced 
to return at the point indicated by 
about 9.5 on the scale. At the end of the 
first complete period it swung out only 
about as far as 9 on the left; at the 
next complete period it swung only a 
little beyond 8. If one watches the 
extreme reach at the end of each swing 
very carefully, it becomes possible to 
make a table of the successive turning 


Popular Science Monthly 


ae 


points. For a certain pendulum these 
may be as follows: 


Time in Seconds Position of Bob 


o (start) To left 
0.5 ) 

I 9.5 right 
1.5 Oo 

2 (end of first period) 9.0 left 
2.5 7) 

3 8.6 right 
3-5 : o 

4 (end of second period) 8.1 left 
6 (end of third period) 7.3 left 
8 (end of fourth period) 6.6 left 


and so on. At the end of each half 
second the bob would be at zero, and at 
the ends of the fifth, sixth and later 
periods, at the following values of the 
scale. to the left: 5-9;- 5.33 2.8; sage 
3.0; 3:53 3:5) + 2.87) 2:53-2:45) 2a 
By drawing a horizontal line to represent 
time in seconds and by dividing the 
space above and below it into ten equal 
zones, above for swings to the left and 
below for swings to the right, the 
diagram of Fig. 2 may be drawn by 
measuring off the points given in the 
table (or those measured from your 
own pendulum). This diagram repre- 
sents the actual movements of the 
suspended weight, and by drawing a 
broken line through the highest points 
one can get a good idea of how fast the 
swings die away, or, in other words, of 
how great the damping is. 

The most interesting thing about the 
figures determined by the above experi- 
ment is that the ratio of the successive 
measurements or amplitudes of swing 
remains a constant quantity. This may 
be proved by taking the ratios of the 
swings at the ends of each period; the 
first ratio is 10/9=1.1. The second is 
9/8.1=1.1. The third, 8.1/7.3=1.1. 
Likewise, all the others may be found to 
be equal to 1.1, since it is a law of nature 
that all simple free oscillations in any 
vibrating system (whether mechanical 
or electrical) will die away or be damped 
out at such a rate that the ratio of their 
successive maximum amplitudes remains 
constant. This ratio of amplitudes is 
a measure of the damping, and is called 
the damping factor. The larger the 
ratio the higher the damping. 

Suppose that the wind friction of the 
pendulum shown in Fig. 1 is increased 


x 
: 
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4 
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‘ 
; 


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} 
4 
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ie 


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Popular Science Monthly 


by fastening to it, near the bottom, a 
fairly large piece of cardboard, in such 
a way that it will act as a brake. The 
swings of the pendulum will die away 
much faster than before; that is, the 
damping will be increased on account of 
the increased frictional resistance of the 
fan. On such a more strongly damped 
pendulum (assuming that the oscillation 
is started by letting the pendulum 
begin from the point 10), the successive 
maximum swings to the left (at the ends 
of the first, second, third and later 
periods), may be as follows: 8.0 (end 
of Ist); 6.4 (end of 2nd); 5.1 (end of 
ain eee eas 02:63:92.1, etc. It1s 
seen at once that now the swings decrease 
much more rapidly. This is even more 
vivid when Fig. 3, which shows the 
motions oi the second pendulum, is 
inspected; the rapid fall of the broken 
line along the top, which indicates the 
damping, should be noted especially. 
The constant ratio or damping factor, 
whose value is an indication of the damp- 
ing, may be found as before by dividing 
the first maximum amplitude by the 
second, the second by the third, etc. 
This gives us: 10/8=8 /6.4=6.4=5.1 
=etc.=1.25. Since this ratio is larger 
than before the brake was added to the 
pendulum, we have an_ arithmetical 
proof that the damping is larger. 

So far we have considered only the 
“damping” of the oscillation system; 
what is the ‘logarithmic decrement?” 
Nothing more nor less than the natural 
logarithm of the constant ratio which 
has just been figured out. These 
logarithms, or special numbers, for 
several different ratios, are given in the 
following table: 


Ratio Logarithm 
I 0.00 
1.05 0.05 
I.11 0.10 
1.16 0.15 
1.22 0.20 
1.25 0.22 
1.28 0.25 
1.35 0.30 


By looking up the ratio 1.1, which was 
that of the first pendulum, in the table 
it is seen that the logarithmic decrement 
of that arrangement was a trifle under 
0.1 per period; similarly, for the second 
pendulum (which had a damping factor 


777 
of 1.25), the decrement is found to be 
0.22 per complete period. 

Although the examples just given are 
purely mechanical, damping in electric 
circuits is of the same character. Let 


us consider the circuit of Fig. 4, which 
has connected in series a condenser C, 
left 


an inductance L, a resistance R and a 
special current indicator J. This indica- 
tor is of the sort which will show the 
amount and direction of the current 
flowing through the circuit at any 
instant, as would a Braun-tube oscillo- 
graph. If C is charged to a certain 
potential and then is allowed to dis- 
charge through the oscillation circuit 
by the sudden closing of switch S, the 
result will be a free oscillating current 
through L, J and R. As was shown in 
the March article of this series, the 
frequency and time period of this free 
oscillation can be figured out from a 
simple rule, if one knows the inductance 
and capacity of the circuit. The thing 
important to this discussion is not the 
period of frequency, however, but the 
rate at which the free oscillation dies 
away. If the oscillograph J is arranged 
to make an actual photograph of the 
oscillation current-effects (which is en- 
tirely feasible, even on very high 
frequencies), the result will be a curve 
of the sort shown in Figs. 2 and 3; if 
the capacity and inductance, or either 
of them, are in- ae 
creased, the time | 
period will be |. ‘ 
lengthened andthe = 
curves will spread 3 
out more along Be Wun J 
horizontal line. I : 340 

the voltage applied Fis: 4 Osciltograph 
to the condenser 

before the switch S is closed is made 
larger, the current flowing will be in- 
creased and the highest and lowest 


778 Popular Science Monthly 


points (the maxima) of the curves will 
be farther from the zero line. If the 
resistance in the circuit is increased, 
there will be fewer oscillations before 
the current dies away to a small value; 
that is, the damping will be increased. 
These three electrical effects correspond 
in the mechanical case, to changing the 
length of the pendulum string, pulling 
it farther from zero before releasing it, 
and putting on the fan to increase the 
wind-resistance. 

If an oscillogram made in this way, 


Coo 
sesacaanssesostsauseueere 
ae 9 Haerraas | ttt 


ae az 
HEHEHE abr Diarra cea 
PECEEEHE oer pee EEE 


Fig. 5. Oscillation for various decrements 


showing the free oscillatory discharge 
in such a circuit as indicated by Fig. 4, 
is measured with a pair of dividers, it 
is found that the ratio of the maximum 
amplitudes remains constant. Just as 
with the pendulum, the logarithm of 
this ratio may be taken and thus the 
logarithmic decrement of the circuit 
determined. If the ratio (or damping 
factor) is found to be 1.05, the table 
above shows the decrement to be 0.05 
per period. If the ratio is made as 
large as 1.28 by increasing the resis- 
tance, the decrement is increased to 0.25 
per period. The numerical range of de- 
crement values for circuits used in radio 
telegraphy is very much the same as 


that of mechanical vibrating systems; 
the electrical oscillations in an ordinary 
spark sender for radio will die away at 
about the same rate as the mechanical 
oscillations of a springy steel rod held 
in a vise. There is a variation of decre- 
ment values in wireless transmitters 
from about 0.03 to about 0.5 per period; 
the present laws of the United States 
require that the logarithmic decrement 
shall be 0.2 or less, since otherwise there 
are so few oscillations in a wave-train 
that tuning is not of very great value. 

If every time it was desired to measure 
the damping of a circuit one had to set 
up a high-frequency oscillograph and 
make a photograph of the free oscillation, 
and then measure the amplitudes of the 
current maxima from that and finally 
compute the ratio and the logarithm, 
there would be very few such measure- 
ments made. It happens that since the 
damping in any circuit depends upon 
the effective capacity, inductance and 
resistance of that circuit, one may 
compute the decrement directly from 
known values of those quantities. The 
rule is not complicated; it merely states 
that the logarithmic decrement of any 
simple circuit may be found by the 
following four steps: (1) Divide the 
effective capacity, in farads, by the 
effective inductance, in henrys; (2) 
take the square root of this result; 
(3) multiply this root by the effective 
resistance in ohms; and (4) multiply 
this product by 3.14; the answer is the 
logarithmic decrement, per complete 
period, of the circuit in question. 

This rule for computing decrement 
may be applied to a simple circuit, for 
example that of Fig. 4. Let us assume 
that the effective capacity is 0.001 
microfarad, which equals 0.000000001 
farad; the inductance may be 0.o1 
millihenry, which is 0.00001 henry; and 
the resistance we may assume as 3 ohms 
total. Following out the rule, the first 
step gives 0.0001 as a_ preliminary 
result; the square root of this is 0.01; 
multiplied by 3 this becomes 0.03; and 
multiplying again by 3.14, the logarith- 
mic decrement is found to be 0.095 or a 
trifle under 0.1 per complete period. 
It is often difficult to measure the three 
quantities resistance, capacity and in- 
ductance in an oscillating circuit in 


: 
x 
j 
4 
4 
A 
¥ 
é 
¢ 
¢ 
“ 


Popular Science Monthly 779 


such a way as to get their true effective 
values. The relation expressed by this 
rule is used often to determine the 
resistance when the damping, inductance 
and capacity are known; to do this, the 
damping must be measured in some 
other way. The method most utilized 
depends upon the fact that feebly 
damped circuits give much sharper 
tuning than those which are highly 
damped. In a later article this will be 
explained more fully, and various ex- 
amples of tuning measurements will be 
given; for the present it will be sufficient 
to point out that the sharpness of tuning 
depends upon the amount of energy 
that may be accumulated in an oscillat- 
ing circuit by resonance. Every wave 
of a wave-train adds its share to the 
energy being stored, hence it becomes 
almost obvious that the more waves 
there are in a train, the more energy 
will be stored. It is apparent from the 
pendulum experiments that the feebler 
the damping of an oscillating system, 
the more oscillations it will complete 
before it comes to rest. Since the 
Waves in a wave-train correspond to 
the number of complete current oscilla- 
tions in the antenna as a result of the 
spark generating that wave-train, it is 
seen that the less damped the antenna 
current, the more waves per train. Thus 
the less the damping, the sharper the 
tuning. 

Fig. 5 is a curve which shows the 
number of complete oscillations in a 
wave-train of any normal decrement 
before the amplitude is reduced to ten 
per cent of its original value. By looking 
up the decrement along the horizontal 
line, then tracing upward until the 
curve is intersected directly over the 
assumed decrement value, and then 
following the horizontal line to the scale 
at the left, the various desired values 
may be found. Thus, for decrement 
0.2 there are only 12 complete oscilla- 
tions before the amplitude has fallen 
off nine-tenths, while for decrement 0.02 
there are about 112 oscillations. As the 
decrement grows smaller the number of 
oscillations rises rapidly; for zero decre- 
ment the number would be infinite— 
the oscillations would be completely 
sustained and would not die away until 
the circuit was opened. 


A National Wireless Association 


HE National Amateur Wireless 

Association, headed by Guglielmo 
Marconi, inventor of wireless telegraphy, 
has entered the field of radio communica- 
tion for the expressed purpose of promot- 
ing group, or co-operative, working 
among amateurs. The organization is a 
comprehensive one, aiming to direct and 
standardize radio experiment through- 
out the United States by arranging with 
each member for progressive courses of 
study and later through grouping the 
most promising radio enthusiasts with 
active co-workers and guiding the experi- 
ments along productive lines. The de- 
velopment of radio engineers from sincere 
investigators who are hampered by 
facilities for higher training is to be 
promoted: by a series of specially de- 
signed experiments, supplemented by a 
monthly bulletin service. 

Military wireless signaling is a branch 
of instruction to be given a prominent 
place in the program. Arrangements 
have been made for amateur clubs 
throughout the country to affiliate with 
military organizations as accredited 
members and officers of signal corps. 
This branch of training is under the 
direction of Major William H. Elliott, 
Adjutant-General of the Junior Ameri- 
can Guard and one of the vice presidents 
of the Association. Several signal corps 
batallions have already been formed and 
are training to serve in the proposed 
third line of defense for the nation. 
Summer camps have been secured and 
field maneuvers will be featured in the 
vacation months. 

From the New York headquarters of 
the Association, announcement is made 
that every amateur who is properly 
endorsed may secure membership as an 
individual. According to abilities and 
geographical location, members are en- 
tered for eligibility in some existing local 
club, state or inter-state association, and 
when these have secured recognition, a 
representative is appointed to the Na- 
tional Council with a voice in the 
management of the governing body. 

In the unusual growth in popularity 
of wireless lies a possible source of bene- 
fit to the nation. Every skilled amateur 
could render great service to his country 
in time of war. 


780 Popular Science Monthly 


An Automatic Pressure-Gage Alarm 


N ordinary pressure-gage may be 
easily equipped with a _ simple 
home-made contact device, which will 
serve aS an automatic alarm, giving the 
attendant an audible signal, when the 
pressure has exceeded or dropped be- 


U 
lem — 
post © et 
— 


LUT ug 
LYS 


\tt. 


OD cidaauiitiia 


NEEDLE 
SHAFT 


ISS SSS 


\ 
~ SWITCH 
BATTERIES 4 


o, 
Co) ii 


Diagram of connections for making an 
audible pressure-gage alarm 


low a previously determined value. This 
device may be arranged as follows: 
Carefully remove the glass front of the 
gage and also the needle from its 
spindle. Then, on the under side and at 
the outer end of the pointed end of the 
needle, fasten a very light piece of 
spring brass, which is to brush over the 
contact to be mounted on the face of the 
dial. This contact is fastened on the 
face (of dial) in such a position that 
the spring on the end of the needle is 
in perfect contact with it, when the 
needle indicates a pressure correspond- 
ing to the value at which the alarm is 
to be given. It is, of course, to be in- 
sulated from the dial, and in turn, con- 
nected to a binding post, mounted on the 
outside of the frame, or containing case, 


of the pressure-gage and properly in- 
sulated from it. A second binding post 
is mounted on the case itself, and elec- 
trically connected with it. These two 
posts form the contact device, and are 
connected in series with the bell battery 
and a small single-pole switch. In re- 
mounting the needle on its shaft, great 
care must be exercised to see that it oc- 
cupies the same position on the face of 
the dial that it did before. A little error 
may prove of great damage, in case it 
should indicate a pound or so less than 
is really the actual pressure. The spring 
of brass, on the outer end of the needle, 
should be very light and flexible, and so 
adjusted that it will move over the con- 
tact on the face of the dial with the 
minimum friction. It would, no doubt, 
be best to fasten a small piece of plat- 
inum on the points that touch or coincide 
with each other, to prevent trouble due 
to corrosion and arcing. 

A diagrammatic sketch of the entire 
device, including the electrical connec- 
tions, is presented herewith. One or 
more additional contacts may be mount- 
ed on the dial, at various spaces show- 
ing different pressures, etc. These con- 
tacts may also be put in circuit with 
bells, buzzers, and-the like with different 
tones.—Wn. WARNECKE, JR. 


Fools Automobile Thieves 


ROBABLY the simplest way to dis- 
appoint the automobile thief is by 
means of an inconspicuous lock which 
short-circuits the ignition system. Two 
springs should be installed in the walls 
of a rubber tube. When a rubber plug 


ALB Springs 


A’ short-circuit of the ignition system is the 
safest guard against automobile thieves 
is inserted, the springs are forced apart 
and the current will go to the spark- 
plugs as usual. Withdrawing the plug 
allows the springs to come within 
sparking distance of each other, and the 
circuit is temporarily put out of order. 
One spring should be connected to the 
terminal of the magneto and the other to 

the automobile frame. 


2; 
4 


. 
- 


Popular Science Monthly 


Lamp Resistance for Charging 
Storage Batteries 


LAMP bank resistance for reduc- 

ing current in charging storage 
batteries, while wasteful of energy, is 
cheap in construction and is often use- 
ful in power houses or in those few 
places were electric current is abnor- 
mally cheap. The lamps are inserted in 
holes bored in a soft pine plank, mak- 
ing contact on the lower side with strips 
of copper or brass that are fastened by 
tacks. Contact with the other lamp ter- 
minals—the threaded bushings—is made 
by winding clean copper wire in a zig- 
zag fashion between the lamps’ bases, as 
indicated in the diagram. The wire 
should be wound about each lamp base 
several times to secure adequate contact, 
and soldered, if possible. A fuse block 
should be provided and the connections 
made as shown. 

Old lamps are best, as their resistance 
is lower than new ones. If the polarity 
of the current is not known it can be 
found by placing one wire of the circuit 
in a tumblerful of water with a wire 
from the lamp bank opposite. Only a 
couple of lamps should be used in this 
test. By noting the bubbles that arise 
from the two wires, the polarity can be 
determined by marking the wire from 
which most bubbles rise. This is the 
negative side. Storage batteries will be 
ruined if the connections are not correct- 
ly made. 


Salt warer, 


G 


AU 


TOT Ny 


= 


Method of recharging dry batteries by 
immersing them in salt water 


To Copper Strips on 
tuse Block 


Board 13/435 


A simply arranged lamp bank for reducing 
voltage when charging storage batteries 


Recharging Worn-out Dry Batteries 


RY batteries are made of dampened 

carbon cobalt. That all batteries 
have not the same life is due to the fact 
that they are dry from use, or leakage 
from evaporation through the top. 
Cheap batteries do not contain the 
quality of carbon found in high-grade 
batteries; hence it is useless to recharge 
cheap ones. A good high-grade battery 
will recharge three times before it is 
worthless. 

Take six worn out batteries, drill four 
holes in the top of each through the tar 
covering (a red hot nail or a small drill 
will do), so that the black carbon can 
be seen. Fill a pail with water, so that 
it will be about one inch higher than the 
tops of the batteries. Dissolve three 
good handfuls of common table salt in 
the water. Do not use sal-ammoniac. 
Place the batteries in the pail in a stand- 
ing position. Leave them for eight 
hours, stirring the salt water about twice 
during that time. 

After removing the batteries, stand 
them upside down to let what water will 
run out (about two hours). Then seal 
them with a hot soldering iron; connect 
them, and they are ready for use. This 
can be done three times.—T. F. Buscu. 


782 


Tubular Quenched Gap 


PATENT for a novel form of 

quenched spark-gap is No. 1,132- 
589, issued in 1915 to F. H. Kroger. 
In the illustration is shown one of the 
diagrams forming part of this patent. 
The gap units are made up in groups of 
two sparking spaces connected in series, 
and each unit slips into a pair of clips 
much as does an ordinary cartridge fuse. 
This gives complete interchangeability 
and makes it possible to substitute new 
gaps for any which happen to break down, 


aa 
Ye, We 
4 GSP 
7 ft 


———— 


oy 
Interchangeable gap units for a tubular 
quenched gap 


without disturbing the sections which re- 
main in useful condition. As may be seen 
from the illustration, each unit has as 
its most important parts the central 
tube 10 and two shorter cylinders 6 and 
6a, which slip over the inner tube with 
a small space between them and which 
have their ends expanded to a consider- 
ably larger diameter than their central 
portions. The outer tubes are supported 
by the grooved insulating disks 7, 
which serve also to hold them con- 
centric with the inner cylinder Io. 
Between the end supports and at the 
extremes of the units are placed soft 
rubber washers 8, and the entire struc- 
ture is clamped between washers and 
the nuts 9, so as to form a rigid, air- 
tight assembly. The spark passes 
between the inner cylindrical surface of 
the cylinder 6 and the upper, outer and 
parallel surface of 10, and, after the 
current traverses tube 10 to its lower 
portion, it passes from the lower outer 
surface of 10 to the inner and parallel 
surface of 6a. The current is then led 
to the second unit through clip 4c, and 
jumps two more gaps. As many gaps 
may be placed in series as needed. The 
spacing between sparking surfaces re- 
mains constant regardless of the pressure 
on the gaskets. 


Popular Science Monthly 


An Unusual Recording Receiver 


T has been known for many years that 

a wireless telegraph power trans- 
former connected directly to lighting of 
power lines would often set up, in those 
supply circuits, very severe disturb- 
ances. Unless proper protective meas- 
ures are resorted to, it sometimes 
happens that the operation of a wireless 
telegraph transmitter thus connected 
will cause sparking, insulation break- 
downs and other troubles at some 
distance from the sending station. In 
a plan disclosed in U. S. patent No. 
1,143,799, issued during 1915 to R. B. 
Avery, these line’ disturbances are 
made use of to record or make evident 
the operation of a wireless transmitter. 
Referring to the figure, it is seen that 
the primary 2 of a step-up transformer 
I is connected to the alternating current 
power lines 3. One terminal of the 
secondary coil 5 is led to the adjustable 
spark-gap 6 through wire 4, and the 
circuit passes thence through wire 9 to 


System for recording messages received by 
power lines 


the swinging plate of a special condenser, 
10. The other plate of this instrument, 
8, connects through 7 with the second- 
ary coil and is separated from 10 by the 
insulating sheet 11. The pivoted sheet 
Io is mechanically connected through 
21 to the contact apparatus 12, which 
comprises a lever 19, moving and fixed 
contacts 18 and 15, and an adjusting 
spring 17, as shown. When this contact 
is closed, current flows from battery 25 
through the local lines 22, 23, and the 
sounder or recorder 24 is operated. 

In using this receiver, the spark-gap 6 
is opened just beyond the point where 


Popular Science Monthly 


sparks will pass from the normal opera- 
tion of step-up transformer 1. When 
surges are set up in the lines 3 by the 
operation of the distant wireless trans- 
mitter, the impulses serve to increase 
the potential of the secondary 5 and a 
series of sparks passes across 6. This 
results in a stronger charge being placed 
upon condenser 8, I1, 10 and the plates 
are therefore attracted more strongly 
than before. By the ensuing motion of 
21 and 19g the contacts 18 and 15 are 
brought together, the local current flows 
and the sounder or recorder is operated. 
As soon as the key of the sending 
station is opened, sparks cease to pass 
across 6, plate 10 swings back to its 
normal position, and the sounder circuit 
opens. Thus, it becomes possible to 
observe the transmission of wireless 
messages from a station in the vicinity 
without using an antenna or detector in 
the usual way. It is not always neces- 
sary for the instruments described to 
be connected with the power line supply- 
ing the wireless station, for often the in- 
ductive effects are sufficiently strong 
to operate such an apparatus located 
at a considerable distance from the 
signaling plant. 


Magnetic Adjustment of Audion 


UNITED STATES patent issued in 
1915 to B. Graves, No. 1,138,652, 
shows an interesting method of con- 
trolling electromagnetically the action 
of an audion receiver. The diagram of 
that patent is reproduced, in which the 
usual complete receiving-circuits are 
shown. The new features are the coil 
of wire 25 wound about the bulb and 
connected to battery 23 through regulat- 
ing resistance 24, and the electromagnet 
20, which is supplied with current from 
battery 21. By varying the position 
and strength of the magnet 20, and by 
altering the intensity and direction of 
current through the coil 25, the patentee 
has found it possible to increase the 
sensitiveness of his audions. The matter 
of magnetic control of such receivers is 
of considerable experimental interest, 
and it is doubtless well worth while to 
try this method. 
The consensus of opinion on _ the 
matter, however, so far as there is any 
agreement, seems to be that any effects 


783 


which can be produced magnetically 
may also be secured by variation of 
filament current, plate circuit potential 
and tube vacuum. Occasionally it is 
not found possible to get the best re- 
sponse from a given bulb by any of the 
ordinary adjustments, and in_ these 
instances full sensitiveness is sometimes 
secured by applying a properly-disposed 


Increasing the sensitiveness of tne audion 
with an electromagnet 


magnetic field. The inventor of the 
method shown, states that by its use 
he has secured better results than from 
a simple magnetic field set up by a 
permanent magnet. It is _ probable 
that the independent control of magnet 
position and field intensity makes it 
possible to secure the best conditions 
more easily. 


Learning the Code 


MATEURS learning the Continen- 

tal code will find it a great help to 
practise sending and receiving words 
which necessitate the use of letters 
frequently misunderstood or forgotten. 
The prime essential in learning the code 
is to forget how each letter looks on the 
code chart and learn to recognize the 
letters by sound. Such letters as F, 
L, Y, Q, X, and others have a peculiar 
rhythmic sound which soon becomes 
familiar and easily recognized. The 
following words are helpful in code 
practice: fizz, fall, calf, fix, lax, liquor 
lacquer, buzzer, squall. 


Telephone Receivers 


Rok long distance receiving, a good 
pair of head telephones is always a 
profitable investment. If the telephones 
are insensitive, it is useless to expect to 
hear distant stations. 


An Electromagnetic Rectifier and 
a Polarized Relay 


By R. E. Ryberg 


The Rectifier 


HE storage battery has become a 
necessity in the laboratory of the 
experimenter and wireless amateur. 


The problem then becomes one of sup- 
plying an efficient means of rectifying 
the alternating current in the house- 
lighting mains in order to charge these 
batteries. They could easily be charged 


Fig. 1. Wiring diagram for large condenser 
by a small direct-current generator, but 
not every experimenter has one at his 
disposal. Almost everyone has an elec- 
trolytic rectifier for this purpose, but 
this rectifier, besides wasting current, is 
a source of constant trouble and requires 
frequent cleaning. Therefore, the ex- 
perimenter will welcome any device the 
operation of which will scarcely affect 
the meter. 

Many experimenters have a polarized 
ringer about their shops, and this will 
answer very well. If the keeper or per- 
manent magnet is weak it may require 
re-magnetizing. 


The resistance of the coils is from 
1,000 to 1,600 ohms, so it is readily seen . 
that they will consume very little cur- 
rent,—about .o6 ampere to .II ampere on 
the 110 volt supply. 

The clapper rod should be cut as 
short as possible, and bent outward to 
engage the permanent contact and 
stopper. The coils must now be mounted 
on a suitable hardwood base together 
with the stationary members, of which 
there are two, one being used as a con- 
tact and the other as a stopper. Plat- 
inum or silver contacts should be sol- 
dered to the permanent contact and the 
corresponding side of the clapper rod. 

A condenser K, of large capacity, say 
14 mfd. to 2 mfds. should be shunted 
across the contacts to reduce sparking. 
By adjusting the contact C, and the 
stopper S, Fig. 1, this device will work 
nicely. The wiring diagram is shown. 
In making the connection with the mov- 
ing element, it should be soldered up on 
the clapper rod or the armature. Care 
must be taken to permit the clapper rod 
to swing freely. The connection should 
not be made on the armature support 
as the current should not pass through 
the bearing R. This arrangement uses 
one alternation of the cycle only; but 
the experimenter, by placing additional 
contacts, may take advantage of the 
complete cycle. 


The Polarized Relay 


The same instrument can be used as 
a polarized relay with only a few 
changes. 

A polarized relay is a most useful in- 
strument for the experimenter. It is the 
only relay that can be used in multiplex 
telegraphy and the best relay to use in 
conjunction with selenium cells and co- 
herers. The reader will realize a few 
of its many uses. The instrument shown 
in the illustration, when used as a re- 
lay, will operate successfully on .5 milli- 
ampere. 


784 


Popular Science Monthly 


One of the changes mentioned was 
the use of a powerful magneto magnet 
in place of the keeper or permanent 
magnet which is ordinarily used. The 
method of mounting is shown schematic- 
ally in, Fig. 2. In using the magnet: it 
must be mounted so that the lower sur- 
face A of the upper pole is above or 
level with the top of the armature E, so 
that the lines of force will penetrate the 
armature. A pole piece P can be used to 
extend the pole of the magnet. If used, 
it must be located over the center of the 
armature. It can be about 14” square by 
34” long. Its use can be determined by 
trial, since it does not always improve 
the operation of the instrument. 

The magneto magnet can be obtained 
second hand for about 50 cents at a 
motor-cycle repair shop or a garage. If 
weak it can be re-magnetized for almost 
nothing. For a polarized relay of over 
1,000: ohms. resistance a few cents spent 
in obtaining a powerful permanent mag- 
net will be an excellent investment, as 
the commercial instrument of this re- 
sistance is beyond the means of the 
average experimenter. 

When used as a relay, it is unneces- 
sary for the clapper rod to swing very 
far, so that the armature E may be 
lowered to close proximity with the ends 
of the magnet cores by means of two 
adjusting nuts. The distance can easily 
be determined by experiment. When 
used as a rectifier this distance need not 
be as small and can be adjusted accord- 
ingly. The bearing-screw R, Fig. 1, 
should be adjusted to prevent any un- 
due play of the armature, but on the 
other hand, it must not be made tight 
enough to bind. 


Inexpensive Stranded Aerial Wire 


T is a well-known fact that stranded 
wire is preferred for aerials to solid 
wire, but it is not used much by ama- 
teurs since the cost is high. An inex- 
pensive stranded wire may be made, 
however, as follows: 

Find the length of aerial wire needed 
and then cut five pieces of No. 20 bare 
copper wire that length. Lay them to- 
gether and about every two feet twist 
the strands twice. The resulting wire is 
of low resistance, high tensile strength 
and proves very satisfactory. 


785 


Automatic Dead-End Switch 


HE multiple-point switch, shown in 

the illustration, is equipped with 
small auxiliary switches to cut off the 
wire not in use on loose-coupler primar- 
ies or loading-coils. Most dead-end 
switches must be opened or closed inde- 


Wiring diagram of a multiple-point switch 


pendently, but this one is operated by 
the movement of the multiple-point 
switch itself. It cuts off the primary in 
steps, immediately after you cut in less 
coil than the amount where each break 
occurs. Thus no switches are forgotten. 
The diagram explains its construction, 
and dimensions are not given, since they 
will vary somewhat, according to the spe- 
cific needs of the maker. 


Avoiding Grounding in Running Metal 
Molding from Chandelier Outlets 


O run metal molding from outlets 
from which chandeliers are hung, 
and avoid grounding, the following 
method is suggested. Cut away the 
canopy as shown in Figure 2, and apply 
insulation between the canopy and 
separable, metal outlet box. This pro- 
duces a neat appearance and is inex- 
pensive.—JOSEPH FISHER. 


A Metal molding. e 
B New separable box.” 

C Part of canopycutaway. |! 
D Insulating material. 
E Remaining canopy. , 


786 Popular Science Monthly 


Money Prizes for Radio Articles 


We want you to tell our readers how you have overcome your wireless 
troubles. Every radio operator, amateur or professional, has en- 
countered difficulties a building or using his apparatus. Many 
different people are bothered by the very same problems day after day. 
It will help you to learn how others worked to get successful results, 
and it will help others to learn how you succeeded. 

For the two best articles describing how you overcame troubles in 
building, operating, adjusting or repairing any radio instrument or 
group of instruments, we offer first and second prizes of $25.00 and 
$15.00 respectively. The prizes will be awarded to the two writers whose 
articles, in the opinion of the Editors, will prove most helpful to the readers 
of the magazine. The Judges of the Ccntest, who will be the Editors 
of the Poputar ScreNcE Montuty, will select the prize-winning 
manuscripts from those which conform with the following conditions: 


CONDITIONS OF PRIZE CONTEST 


1. Manuscripts must be typewritten, and on one side of the paper only. 

2. Illustrations must be on sheets separate from the manuscripts. 

Articles must be addressed to the Radio Prize Contest, PoPpuLAR 
ScrencE Montutry, 239 Fourth Avenue, New York, and must 
reach that address before June 15, 1916, in order to be considered. 

4. Manuscripts which do not win prizes may be purchased for publica- 

tion, at the option of the Editors and at the usual liberal rates. 
5. The decision of the Judges, which will be announced in the August, 
1916, tissue, is to be final. | 

6. Each manuscript must be accompanied by a letter containing criticisms 
and suggestions as to the wireless section of the POPULAR SCIENCE 
Montuty. The merit of these letters will not be considered in award- 
ing the prizes, but their suggestions will be taken as indications of 
what types of articles are of the most value to our readers. 

7. If contestants wish to have their manuscripts returned, they should 

send postage for that purpose. 

8. Articles should not exceed 2,000 words in length. If you cannot 

present your information in an article of that length, write several 
articles, each on a different phase of the subject, and each independent. 


we 


Popular Science Monthly 


Audion of Increased Sensitiveness 


N the attempts 

to increase the 
sensitiveness of 
audion detectors 
and amplifiers, 
there have been 
devised many in- 
ternal arrange- 
ments of the three 
usual elements 
(grid, plate and fila- 
ment). In some, the 
spacing of the con- 
ductors is changed, 
and in others the forms of the electrode 
are radically different from those usually 
encountered. A type of tube shown in 
the diagram, was patented by A. McL, 
Nicolson in 1915. It is illustrated in 
the diagram accompanying specification 
No. 1,130,009. This instrument con- 
tains within its evacuated bulb two 
concentric cylindrical electrodes, of 
which the inner 1 corresponds to the 
grid and the outer 4, to the plate of the 
ordinary audion. The filament 2 is 
wound spirally around the inner elec- 
trode in a groove 3, but is, of course, 
insulated from the surface supporting 
it. The construction shown is said to 
show increased efficiency because the 
filament is placed close to the input 
electrode 1 and because this electrode is 
of large surface; these two conditions 
co-operate to set up a strong electro- 
static field between the filament and 
the grid or its equivalent, and this 
has been found to make for increased 
amplification. 


Wi 


DD] 


Re 


met 


New Audion Bulb 


Constructing a Variable Condenser 


VARIABLE condenser, cheap and 

easily made, requires the following 
materials: tinfoil, 2 ft. of 1%4-in. ash or 
oak, and g plates of glass, such as old 
photographic negatives. The plates 
should be 3% ins. by 4% ins. 

Cut 18 rectangles, 334 ins. by 234 ins., 
of tinfoil. Shellac them at the center 
of both sides of the glass plates. Care 
must be taken that the foil forms an 
even coating on the glass. Next, con- 
struct a box of 5 sides, having the 
following dimensions: 

MeBtindy as ples. 45% ins. by 2% ins. 

Bottom....... 81% ins. by 2% ins. 


787 
Sides S46 ATP 4% ins. by 3. ins. 
Hacie.. 5.0.8: 2% ins. by 3. ins. 
Before assembling the box, make 


9 cuts lengthwise across the top and 
bottom, 3/16 in. apart and )% in. deep. 
The first groove on the top and also on 
the bottom should be made % in. from 
the edge. These grooves will be the 
correct width to hold the plates firmly 
in place, if made with a rip-saw. The 
2nd, 4th, 6th and 8th grooves from 
either side must be somewhat wider 
than the others so as to allow the plates 
to slide along easily. The top and bot- 
tom of the box are glued and nailed to 
the sides, as shown in Fig. I. 

The back is put on after clips have 
been fastened to the Ist, 3rd, 5th, 7th 
and gth plates and a wire soldered 
across them, as shown in Fig. 2. The 


iy 4— $+ 


GIOSS 
Jin Fol! 
flbber handle 


me SOS NCCE 


Creed 
=| 


A variable condenser can be made with old 


photographic plates and tinfoil. These 
diagrams show construction details and 
the necessary connections 


second, 4th, 6th and 8th plates are also to 
be connected together in the same way. 

A wooden stop-block, measuring % in. 
by % in. by 2 ins., must now be made 
and fastened 1% in. from the edge of 
the end of the bottom, as shown in 
Fig. 1. A handle of hard rubber should 
be fastened to a cross-piece, measuring 
1% in. by % in. by 2 ins., and having 
4 grooves like the ones first made, but 
34 in. apart. The first should be 7/16 
in. from the end. 

The terminals should be made of 
spring-brass less than 1/32 in. thick and 
bent as shown in Fig. 3. One touches 
the tinfoil of the first plate: the other 
touches the foil of the eight plate, as 
shown.—W. E. FINKERNAGEL. 


788 


How to Make an Electric Horn 


NYBODY having a little mechani- 

cal ability can make a very satis- 

factory electric horn from a couple of 
coils and a few odds and ends. 

In the accompanying diagram, the 
electromagnets and horn are fastened 
to a continuous piece of band iron, 
which in turn is screwed to a wooden 
base. On the end of the band iron over 
the electromagnets is fastened a piece 
of heavy clock-spring. This serves as a 
vibrator or armature. At the free end 


'of the spring a hole is drilled, through 


which is screwed a heavy stove bolt, 
which acts as a striker. A small strip 
of strap iron is screwed into the base, 
bent over the vibrator, and drilled to 
hold a 'set-screw, which is merely a 
small bolt with a nut on both sides of 
the iron. This is the interrupter. It 
also controls the pitch of the horn. 


(flan mede 70m shest of tin 


ZEN 

/ " 

‘\ i 

A ZS f | 
y, 

iM ( 


il 


A practical electric horn which was made 
from odds and ends 


The mouth of the horn is cut from a 
piece of tin and soldered to the bottom 
part of an old machine-oil can, the 
flexible base acting as a diaphragm when 
set in vibration by the striker. 

The electricity runs through this 
horn in exactly the same circuit as in a 
door-bell. When connected up and the 
button is pressed, the vibrator is drawn 
to the coils and the circuit broken by 
the interrupter, causing the striker to 
move back and forth. The less room 
given for movement by the interrupter, 
the higher the pitch of the horn. 

The vibrator, being made from a 
spring, lends still more force to the 
vibrations. 


Popular Science Monthly 


This horn may be worked on the 
house-lighting circuit by connecting in 
series with an incandescent light, or it 
may be run by batteries. 

It can be used for many purposes, 
being especially good for a burglar 
alarm.—ED. GETTINS. 


Making Coils of Resistance Wire for a 
Small Electric Stove 


ESISTANCE wire may be easily 
wound in coils for a small electric 
stove by means of a hand drill. Place 


oe of - eee for wer 
Work- of Resistance 
Bench ire 


Resistance coils can be wound evenly by 
means of a hand drill fastened securely in 
a vise during winding 


the drill in a horizontal position between 
the jaws of a small vise. Insert a rod of 
about 1%-in. diameter in the chuck of 
the drill; an old curtain rod will do. 
Make a support for the spool, as shown 
in the illustration. Then, by turning 
the handle of the drill with the left hand 
and guiding the wire with the right 
hand, the wire will come off very easily 
without becoming tangled. 

With about 18 ft. of No. 30 nichrome 
wire, a small electric stove will con- 
sume practically 100 watts of electrical 
energy.—FRANK HIEMER, JR. 


Repairing a Burnt-Out Fuse 


BURNT-OUT fuse may be easily 
repaired with the aid of a little 
solder. Substitute for the old fuse wire 
a new one of the same capacity. Solder 
a length of copper wire to each end of 
the fuse wire (Fig. 3), and after cleaning 


Cssaee 


a 
fig / ae 


Fig 3 


A burnt-out fuse can be made as good as 
new at very small cost 


Popular Science Monthly 


the brass ferrules around the hole (Fig. 
1), apply a small amount of solder to 
each. Assemble the fuse by slipping 
the copper wire through the hole; then 
apply solder and mend with a hot iron. 
Fit the fuse in the fiber and in. the hole 
in the opposite brass ferrule. Tin in the 
same way as before and cut the copper 
wires flush with the brass end, as. in 
Fig. 2. The fuse will then be found to 


be as serviceable as before: 


Substituting a Flashlight for a Door-Bell 


HEN there is 
sickness in 
the house, it is 
often necessary to 
avoid all noise as 
= far as possible. At 
=| such times the door- 
bell is a source 
lof great annoyance. 
To overcome this 
difficulty, disconnect the wires from 
the bell and run them down the gas 
or electric fixtures. Leave the ends 
bare and bend them into hooks, as 
shown. in the diagram. Secure a flash- 
light bulb and solder two wires to it, 
bent as shown. The flashlight can then 
be connected with the push-button at 
the door by simply hooking it on to the 
wires. 

This arrangement is also of great 
service to anyone who is deaf. If wires 
are arranged in every room, the flash- 
light can be attached in whichever room 
the deaf person happens to be. Thus a 
bell is not needed.—J. E. Noste. 


Telephone-Line Test-Clips Easily Made 


NY telephone 
man canmake 
a pair of line test- 
clips for ten cents. 
Buy two large 
safety-pins and cut 
\4 in. off the point 
of each. Solder a 
piece of No. 6 cop- 
per wire, 1) ins. 
long to the part 
from which the 
point was cut so 
that it will pass between the wires at 
the open end of the pin. 
File a small groove in the copper in 


789 


which the line wire: may rest. Then 
simply solder the test cord to the loop at 
the other end of the pin. 


Changing a Telegraph Sounder 
Into a Relay 


TELEGRAPH 

sounder can 
easily be changed 
into arelay by add- 
ing a small piece of 
copper as shown in 
the accompanying 
diagram. A piece 
of sheet copper is 
bent as shown and ¢ 
placed under the* 
screw C, but previous to. this, a piece 
of thin mica is placed between screw C 
and stand: E at D. A piece of small 
wire is coiled and carried from the 
screw B to the screw C, to imsure a 
good contact. 

The two telegraph wires are attached 
to the regular binding posts and the. 
relay wires are connected with screw B 
and copper A. When the magnet’s base 
is drawn down, the arm F completes, 
the circuit in B and A.—Wm. HARRIER.: 


A Current Reverser for Small Motors 


DOUBLE-POLE, double-throw 

switch, if connected according to 
the accompanying diagram, will reverse 
the direction of a direct-current motor. 
Disconnect the wires on the motor that 
are connected to the binding posts, 
brushes and field. Connect binding 
post No. 1 of the switch and No. 6 post 
to one end of the field. Connect the 
other field terminal to posts No. 2. and 
No. 5. One brush is connected to one 
binding post of the motor and No. 3 
post of the switch. The other brush is 
connected to No. 4 post. The batteries 


are inserted between one of the binding 
posts on the motor and No. 3 post of 
the switch. 


il 


Diagram of current reverser for small motors 


What Radio Readers Want to Know 


Receiving Tuner; Sending Condenser 

L. J. T., St. Louis, Mo., inquires: 

Q. 1. Some confusion exists in my mind 
regarding the designs for receiving tuners. Take 
for example the following: For a receiving tuner 
to be adjustable to wavelengths from 175 to 
4,000 meters, is it preferable to construct two 
separate tuners or may two small-sized tuners be 
joined together (in the primary and secondary 
windings) to receive the longer wavelengths? 
Also, what is the most desirable size for the 
cylinder and the size of the wire in the primary 
and secondary? Is single cotton-covered wire 
better than enamel wire? In addition, approxi- 
mately how many taps are required on the 
secondary winding? 

A. 1. A receiving tuner of this range is 
practical provided the precaution is taken to fit 
it with dead-end eliminating switches. If the 
dead-end losses are to be wholly eliminated,’ you 
are advised to construct two separate tuners. 
Assuming that the smaller tuner is to be used for 
amateur work it may have the following dimen- 
sions: The primary winding is 3} ins. in diame- 
ter by 2 ins. in length covered with from 80 to 85 
turns of No. 28 D.S.C. wire. The secondary 
winding is 3 ins. in diameter by 2 ins. in length 
covered with No. 30 D.S.C. wire. The secondary 
winding is equally divided between the taps of a 
three-point switch, while the primary winding 
may be fitted with a slider. Connected to an 
aerial of the dimensions found at the usual 
amateur station, the following described receiving 
tuner will permit adjustments in both the 
antenna and detector circuits to a wavelength of 
4,000 meters. The primary winding is 4 ins. 
outside diameter by 7 ins. in length and is wound 
closely with No. 24 S.S.C. wire. The secondary 
winding is 3} ins. in diameter by 6 ins. in length 
wound closely with No. 30 S.S.C. wire. The 
turns of the latter winding should be equally 
divided between the points of a ten-point switch. 
The primary windings may be fitted with a slider 
or preferably two 10-point switches, one of which 
takes in a single turn at a time and the second 
one connects in a number of turns in groups. 

The secondary winding must be shunted by a 
condenser of ‘small capacity; one of .o005 micro- 
farad capacity will permit the reception of wave- 
lengths in the vicinity of 4,000 meters. 

If you are familiar with the construction of 
dead-end switches the windings of the long wave- 
length tuner may in this manner be broken up 
into groups and a small portion used for the 
reception of amateur signals, though the efficiency 
will probably not be so high as when two different 
tuners are used. 

Q. 2. Please give the dimensions for a con- 
denser to be connected to a 1-k.w. transformer 
regardless of the 200-meter wave. 


lod 


é 


90 


A. 2. The proper capacity of the condenser 
depends upon the secondary voltage of the trans- 
former and the frequency in cycles per second. 
Lacking this data we can not advise. If the 
potential of the transformer is 20,000 volts at a 
frequency of 60 cycles, it is customary to fit it 
with a condenser having a capacity varying from 
0.012 mfd. to 0.018 mfd._ A single plate of glass 
} in, in thickness with other dimensions 14 ins. by 
14 ins. covered with foil 12 ins. by 12 ins. will have 
a capacity of 0.002 mfd. Nine of these plates, 
connected in parallel, will totalo.o18 mfd. If as 
assumed, the potential of the transformer is 
20,000 volts, a series-parallel connection for the 
plates is required, that is to say, 18 of these 
plates must be connected in parallel in each bank 
and the two banks connected in series. 


The Use of Loading-Coils 


E. C. T., Beaumont, Texas, inquires: 

Q. 1. Approximately what is the wave- 
length adjustment possible with a double-slide 
tuning-coil 18 ins. in length, 3 3 ins. in diameter, 
wound with No. 22 S.C.C. wire? 

A. 1. Connected to the average amateur 
aerial this coil should permit adjustments to 
stations employing wavelengths as great as 3000 
or 3,500 meters. 

Q. 2. Would I secure better results if the 
coil were wound with bare wire? 

A. 2. Not necessarily, since either bare or 
insulated wire may be employed. This coil is too 
large for the maximum degree of efficiency at 
wavelengths lying between 200 and I,000 meters. 
For the ordinary aerial a single coil of wire, 6 ins. 
in length by 3 ins. in diameter wound with No. 26 
S.S.C. wire, will be sufficient for the lower value 
of wavelength. 

Q. 3. Will a pancake loading-coil increase 
the wavelength of the above tuning-coil? 

A. 3. Yes, but we see no need for it. 

Q. 4. How is the loading-coil to be con- 
nected to the tuning-coil? 

A. 4. It should be connected in series with 
sliding-contact connected to the aerial wires. 


Ground Connection 

P. V. D., Warwick, N. D., inquires: 

Q. What form of earth connection is con- 
sidered desirable where the sub-soil consists of 
hard and very dry clay? 

A. If by digging to a depth of several feet 
moist earth cannot be reached, you are advised to 
install what is known as a “surface ground.” 
For your purposes this artificial earth connection 
may consist of several long copper wires spread 
out radially from the base of the mast and the 
greater portion placed directly underneath the 
flat top portion of the aerial. There should be at 
least as much wire in this “ground”’ as there is in 
your antenna. 


The Home Workbench 


SV ¢ 
— Z 


How to Build a Rabbit Hutch 


AISING rabbits near a large com- 

munity is a profitable industry, 
and it is an enterprise that many school- 
boys in America have embarked upon, 
with returns in money that are indeed 
out of proportion to the small amount 
of time and energy necessary for the 
proper care of the little animals. 

The construction of clean, comfort- 
able homes for rabbits, as recommended 
by the Department of Agriculture, is as 
follows: 

The hutches, as they are called, 
should be built of good, sound lumber, 
and should have tight floors, providing at 
least 12 sq. ft. of floor space. The best 
plan for building hutches in quantity is 
that used in building sectional book- 
cases. The bottom section has short, 
stout legs, while the others are placed 
upon it until the desired height is 
reached. A convenient size for an 
outdoor hutch is one measuring 6 ft. 
in length, 1% ft. in height, and 2 ft. in 


KK 
KOO 
rareigigeen eee KOO 
PKODBOOY SC) 05: 
SNS - 
ORK eI SO 


ws 
O anes i LOK é 
RK KK ee 
> OL OO XS 


The proper dimensions of a rabbit hutch 
are six by two by one and a half feet 


width. The top, bottom, ends and one 
side should be enclosed, while the open 
side is fitted with two doors on hinges. 
The space should be partitioned, so that 


pits 


EN 


i j : 
Al 


one-third comprises the sleeping quarters, 
while the remaining two-thirds serve as 
exercising space. A hole, large enough 
to admit the passage of a full-grown 
rabbit’s body, is cut in the partition. Of 
the two doors which enclose the two 
rooms of the ‘‘apartment,’’ one is of 


“74 

ee KIRK) 4: 
a LK 
00.00%: 


See 
SOLE 
Oe 


ate 


SOLS 
S256 


A portable hutch, with two stories, which 
can be carried about by two boys 


wood, and the other of wire mesh similar 
to that used in enclosing poultry run- 
ways. The screen door should be 
provided with a sliding wood cover, as 
a protection against severe cold weather. 

Outdoor hutches, which are desirable 
for most of the climates found in 
America, are best, and should be fitted 
with sloping roofs and made otherwise 
watertight. Holes for ventilation should 
be bored in the side walls near the ceiling. 
Several layers of waterproof paint should 
be applied. 

Rabbits thrive on a diversity of 
vegetable foods. The most important 
fact to bear in mind in feeding is that 
a sudden change of diet is often disas- 
trous. The best grain for rabbits is 
oats, although this dietary monotony 


791 


7192 


may be broken occasionally by corn- 
meal, barley, or other grain. Hay is 
necessary to the rabbit’s health. During 
the winter, green foods are required 
together with grain. Two meals a day, 
except for suckling stock, when three 
should be given, is the best schedule. 

The Belgian hare is ready for the 
market at the age of four months, 
although some breeders sell at the age 
of ten to twelve weeks, aiming to have 
their stock weigh about five and one- 
half pounds at that age. 


COT 


eee 
— 


The pan on the top shelf keeps the duck 
curtain wet and the evaporation of the 
water cools the whole box 


How to Make an Iceless Cooler 

N farms where ice is scarce, the 

device illustrated is of great utility. 
It consists of a box of convenient size, 
with shelves at various distances apart. 
In the drawing, the upper shelf is about 
3 ins. from the top of the box, which is 
about 12 ins. by 18 ins. square. The 
bottom shelf is 13 ins. above the floor, 
the second shelf 12 ins. above that, the 
third 11 ins. higher,and soon. A pan of 
water is placed on the top shelf. 

The box should be placed where there 
is more or less movement of air, to 
encourage an evaporation of the water 
which keeps a heavy duck curtain wet 
all the time. This curtain completely 
envelops the box. It is tacked on two 
sides and on the back, but left loose in 


Popular Science Monthly 


the front. Only two lengths need be 
used, one starting near the floor on 
one side, extending loosely over the box 
and down on the other side; the other 
extending from the floor behind to the 
top and fastening at the sides, but left 
loose above and down at the front. 
The front should have buttonholes to 
go over pegs at the side. 

When the pan is filled with water, 
the duck should rest in it, so that the 
water will flow by capillary attraction 
to the floor. Very little of it should 
actually reach the floor, because most 
of it should be evaporated by the air. 
This method will actually keep the 
temperature inside the box considerably 
cooler than that outside. This cooler is 
easily made and the cost is reduced to a 
minimum.—Dr. L. K. HIRSHBERG. 


A Vegetable Peeler Made from a 
Razor Blade 


N old safety-razor blade can be used 
for peeling vegetables by attaching 
it to a wooden handle, as shown in the 
illustration. The handle should be 7 ins. 
by 34 in. by 1% in., and should be sand- 
papered to a smooth finish. Attach the 
blade by means of two bolts A, 1 in. by 
1% in., having flat heads. Place a washer 
B on each bolt, between the blade and 
handle. 

If a drill is at hand, a strip of iron or 
brass may be substituted for the wooden 
handle. Many uses can be found for 
this handy knife——J. E. NOBLE. 


If the razor blade is 
properly adjusted the 
fruit may be peeled 
quickly and without 
useless waste 


Soldering German Silver 


ERMAN silver cannot be soldered 

with lead without showing a differ- 
ence in color. The following formula 
obviates this difficulty: Silver, 1 part; 
brass, I part; zinc, I part. Melt in the 
ladle, stir, pour into the mold and cool. 
The flux for the foregoing is borax 
powder.—T. F. Buscu. 


Popular Science Monthly 


Put the harness away in 
the harness room with a 
conveyor like this 


A Harness Carrier 


ARMERS generally have difficulty 

in keeping their harness in repair 
and in the proper place. Hanging it up 
on an old hook about the stable is not 
in accordance with present day efficiency 
methods. On a certain Iowa farm a 
noteworthy system of caring for the har- 
nesses is practiced. The harness carrier 
runs over the litter carrier track of the 
barn and into the harness room near the 
stable. The carrier is made of three 
planks cleated together with boards. 
There are four hooks on each side of 
the carrier for hanging the heavy work 
harnesses. The litter carrier track runs 
behind all the horses, so the only addi- 
tional track that is needed, is that which 
runs into the harness room. 


An Ear-Corn Feeder for Hogs 


SELF-FEEDER for hogs, which 
will hold approximately 20 bushels 
of ear-corn, is easily made. The crib has 
a base 3’ by ¥ and is ¥ high. It is built 
on a solid frame of 2” lumber and cov- 
ered with 6” crib siding for the walls, 
and ship-lap 
for the roof. 
The siding 
should be 
spaced <I” 
apart for ven- 
tilation. Sur- 
rounding the 
Base ws *'a 
rrouen. 17 
wide with a 
fender on its 
outer edge made of lumber 2” by 4”. 
The corn is deflected into the trough 
by a pyramidal arrangement in the crib, 


793 


as shown in the cut. Its flow is fur- 
ther regulated by an adjustable slide 
held in place by bolts with winged nuts. 
The trough is sheltered somewhat by the 
overhanging roof, made from boards 3’ 
long. One section of the roof should be 
hinged for filling. The feeder should be 
built on skids or runners so that it may 
be hauled about the lots to any desired 
location. It may be painted and set in a 
high, well-drained spot or on a concrete 


platform. The lumber list follows: 

Z pes. 4% x 4” x 7 runners 

Ge pess 20.) 107 x5” floors 

2 pes. 2” x 4” x 6’ trough-fender, 
sides 

2 pes. 2” x 4” x 5 trough-fender, 
ends 

6 pes. 2” x 4” x 4 studding 

4 pese2 x 4’ x° 6": plates 


50’ ship-lap for cover, 3’ lengths 
50’ (lin.) 1” x 4” cleats 

80’ 1” x 6” crib siding 

ay x 12 shide 

2 12” strap-hinges 

10 bolts, with winged nuts 


, ey WES > lf 
~ “ib dea sae 
The hogs can get at the trough but not 
into the interior of this ear-corn feeder 


A Hint for Draftsmen 


O remove ink from ruling pens and 

lettering pens dip them in a solu- 
tion of ammonium hydroxide, or, as it is 
more popularly called, ammonia water. 
A strong solution will cause old ink as 
well as any kinds of waterproof ink to 
be easily wiped off with a cloth. I have 
used ammonia for a long time for this 
purpose and it does not seem to have 
any injurious effects on the pens. Am- 
monia also cleans ordinary steel pens 
equally well.—L. G. HASKELL. 


——== a — = eg 


ee eee 


An attractive grocery set which can be made 
by any housewife 


Making a Cheap Grocery Set 
of Your Own 


HE storing of staple groceries in 
the pantry is now giving way to 
placing them on open shelves in the 
kitchen. But an array of paper sacks 
and open boxes with their covers at all 
angles, is unsightly. Special sets of con- 
tainers, made of glass, pottery or china, 
are rather expensive, but no housewife 
need be without a set. A dozen glass 
fruit-jars, quarts and pints, are very 
neat, require no labels and speak for 
themselves when the supply is low. 
Ordinary tin coffee-cans make a fine 
set, when covered with varnished wall 
paper and labeled with ink. Pasteboard 
coffee-cartons, with hinged, tin pour-out 
spouts in the lids, are also available. 
Cocoa, mustard or baking-powder cans, 
when washed and painted, make excel- 
lent receptacles for spices. Even screw- 
top olive-bottles may be used to good 
advantage—Avis G. VESTAL. 


Non-Irritating Skin Cleanser 


ECHANICS’ hands, while not or- 
dinarily tender, can in time be in- 
jured by the continued use of soaps and 
cleansers which contain caustics, sand or 
even pumice. An effective cleanser 
which can be substituted for these more 
dangerous ones consists of pure white 
soap dissolved in hot lemon juice. When 
cooled, the mixture will have the consist- 
ency of ordinary soft soap, and while it 
can be safely used on the most delicate 
skin, it will thoroughly remove all grease 
and dirt. 


Popular Science Monthly 


How to Make a Glove-Box 


HIS glove-box is best made from 

some fancy wood such as walnut 

or mahogany. If these cannot be pro- 

cured, a fine box may be made from 

red gum-wood, which has a large, close 
grain and takes a fine finish. 

The sides are fastened together by 
means of small grooves and tongues. 
The small pieces 347% x 34” x 314” 
should be fastened to the long side 
pieces by means of the rub joint. The 
glue should be hot. Rub the small 
block up and down on the side until it 
sticks firmly. Clamps are not neces- 
sary. 

After the sides have been fastened 
together, the corners should be round- 
ed off. Take the surplus off with the. 


FUNASUAANED AOU 


A glove-box made by hand from fine wood 


chisel and gouge and finish with the 
half-round file. The inside of the box 
should then be sandpapered. Now fas- 
ten on the top and the bottom. Round 
off the top and sandpaper the entire 
box. 

With a sharp-pointed marking-gage, 
mark a line around the box 3” from the 
bottom. Saw off the cover, using great 
care to follow the line. True up the 
edges with a sharp plane and fasten 
on the cover with narrow hinges. 

To finish the box, give it a coat of 
linseed oil. After rubbing this dry, 
apply a coat of white shellac. Smooth 
this off by rubbing with linseed oil and 
pumice stone. Then apply a second coat 
of shellac. Smooth this off with oil and 
rotten-stone, and apply the final coat of 
shellac, and polish. 


Popular Science Monthly 795 


PARLOR 


BEDROOM 


“Lop 
’ 


BATH ROOM 


e 
“Pp. 
BEDROOM 


CP oncee-on--- chain pull lamps 
ee eee aoe wall snitch 
Dotted lines in kitchen shorv lamp cord 


pomeenn 


Floor plan of the apartment showing the 
rearranged lighting system 


Making Over the Lighting System 


HOUSANDS of apartments in ev- 

ery city are wired and lighted in 
the most thoughtless manner possible. 
One husband, with a practical turn of 
mind, studied the situation, and in a few 
hours made a very convenient arrange- 
ment. The expense he had to bear himself, 
but all of the changes can be undone and 
the material removed to another apart- 
ment. 

All of the lamps in the flat were six- 
teen candlepower carbon bulbs, giving 
relatively little light at a high cost for 
current consumption. Except in the 
dining room and parlor there was but a 
single lamp in a central ceiling fixture 
and set so high as to be difficult to reach. 
All of the lamps were of clear glass, 
hence glaring. The clothes closets had 


no lights and were so located that the 
single north windows could not possibly 
illuminate them. Moreover, the electric 
apparatus for which attachment was 
needed, could not be used without hav- 
ing each time to unscrew a solitary lamp 
and leave the room in blackness. 

For the entire flat he purchased tung- 
sten lamps of higher candlepower, thus 
securing more light for less current con- 
sumption. The reduction in monthly 
bills quickly compensated for the new 
lamps. The four small ceiling bulbs in 
the dining room were chosen of frosted 
glass; most of the other lamps have 
frosted tips. The four parlor bulbs he 
eae in an amber solution to soften the 
ight. 

The central dining room fixture held 
three lamps. Two were sufficient for 
dining purposes and he removed the cen- 
ter one to permit morning attachment of 
the electric toaster. 


A Safe Swing for the Baby 


N an Illinois town a clever. mother 

has made for her “toddler” a swing 
from which he cannot easily: fall. The 
wicker hood of an old baby carriage, 
shaped like half a muskmelon, is sus- 
pended by ropes from a low tree limb. 
If he tires of swinging he can fall asleep 
comfortably in the hollow of the basket; 
without danger—Avis G. VESTAL. 


The baby swings in the hood of a discarded 
baby carriage 


An Improved Match-Striker 

ACK a piece of fly-screen over sand- 

paper of the same size. This will 
not wear out as readily as sandpaper 
alone. 


‘had been used by someone else 


Building a Bungalow—II. 


By George M. Petersen 


(Concluded from the April Number of the Popular Science Monthly) 


“You should see my bungalow— 

the plan was original with me and 
we think it ideal in every way.”’ Per- 
haps the plan was “‘original,’’ so far as 
the speaker is concerned, but in reality 
the writer has never seen a really original 
bungalow that was a success. The fact 
of the matter is that every conceivable 
plan, that is wor- 
thy of the name, 
was discovered 
years ago and the 
so-called ‘‘new 
ideas’’ are only al- 
terations or chang- 
es made in these 
old lay-outs. Of 
course. there are 
new elevations that 
are original, and 
some of them are 
really pleasing, but 
on the whole they are only an assembled 
product. combining -the attractive fea- 
tures in several houses which the de- 
signer has seen. 

The writer’s experience in designing of 
residences has been wide. When he 
first started in he would feel highly 
elated over some new feature which he 
had conceived and installed in someone’s 
plans, only to find out, sometimes 
months or years afterwards, that the idea 


| ee often we hear the expression 


O/NING 
FPOOs/4 


LIWIVVG 
ROOst 


perhaps years before. It was 
rather discouraging, but was 
really unavoidable as the old 
saying that “there is nothing 
new under the sun” holds 
especially true in house de- 
sign. There are numerous 
features in connection with 
modern appliances and con- 
veniences that are either new 
or are worked up in such shape 
that they are really practical, 
but so far as the design itself 
is concerned it is the same old 


story under a new title. It therefore 
behooves the designer of houses not to 
say that the design was original with him- 
as it is really an untruth. 

So far as bungalow designs are con- 
cerned, the writer has never had the 
pleasure of seeing one yet that could not 
be directly traced 
back to one of the 
twenty used as the 
illustrations for this 
article, although it 
may be that there 
are one or two stud- 
ies that have been 
omitted. It makes 
no difference how 
large or expensive 
the bungalow or 
house is, it must fol- 
low some general 
plan and these gen- 
eral plans are term- 
ed “‘plan studies” on 
account of the fact 
that the designer 
looks over his “‘stud- 
ies,’ selects one that he thinks will be suit- 
able to the arrangement he has in mind; 
and, with the study as a foundation, 
he designs the wonderful plan which peo- 
ple look over and remark how wonderful 
his plans are. His arrangement may be 
clever, his lighting arrangement may be 
nearly perfect, his heating 
plans may be exceptionally 
well arranged, his ventilating 
scheme may be well-nigh per- 
fect and the whole may make 
a very pleasing, attractive and 
nearly perfect home, but when 
it is traced down it will be 
found that the living room 
can be found in so-and-so’s 
house, the dining room in 
someone else’s dwelling, the 
chamber arrangement may be 
brought down from the old 
Colonial days, while the fire- 


AITCHEN 


DINING 
Room 


£/VING 
ROOM 


Popular Science Monthly 


places may be copied 
from the old masterpieces 
of the Old Country; the 
panel-work may be a relic 
of old England, while the 
exterior of the house may 
have been adapted from 
the Swiss chalet or some 
other type of architecture. 
To sum up the whole 
proposition, it may be said 
that the designer is a de- 
signer of details only and 
that only so far as their 
location and size are con- 


ROOM ROOM 


L/V/NG 
Room 


OINING 
ROOM 


Sa) 
56 | 
Fig. 4 


797 


from any room in the 
house without passing 
through a third room. This 
study also places the kitch- 
en in the corner of the rear 
of the house so that it has 
two sides completely ex- 
posed to assist in lighting 
and ventilating that im- 
portant room. While this 
study closely resembles that 
shown in Figure 1 and may 
be termed a plan drawn 
from that study, it is never- 
theless a study in itself, 


cerned. 

With the thousand of different bunga- 
low plans in use throughout the country, 
there is probably not one which cannot 
be traced, directly or indi- 
rectly, back to one of the 
general layouts or plan stud- 
ies shown in the drawings 
submitted herewith. Of 
course the partitions may be 
shifted a few inches this way 
or that, the ceilings may be 
raised or lowered a few inches, 
the plan may be reversed so 
that the bedrooms come on 
the opposite side of the 
house, the fireplaces may be 
put into different locations in 
the rooms, the veranda may 
be shortened or lengthened, a pantry may 
be added or a pantry may be omitted, 
and other changes may be made that are 
too numerous to mention, but the plan 
is still the same as one of those shown. 

In Figure 1 is shown a very common 
study from which some 
very plain but interesting 
layouts can be worked up 
with little difficulty, as 
the study is exceptionally 
valuable for the narrower 
type of city bungalows. 
This is one of the two- 
bedroom layouts which 
are so popular at the 
present time. 

Figure 2 shows a study 
which is very similar to that shown in 
Figure 1, the principal difference being 
in the location of the pantry and in the 
center hall arrangement which allows a 
person to get into any room in the house 


DINING 
ROOM 


30 


Fig. 5 


Fig. 6 


and a valuable one at that. 
Figure 3 shows a study which treats 
with three bedrooms, a vestibuled front 
entrance, interior stairway to attic and 
cellar, anda fireplacechimney, 
which is so placed that a fire- 
place may be built in both the 
living room and dining room 
and still be connected to the 
same chimney, thereby saving 
a good many dollars for the 
owner. It will also be noticed 
that the amount of hall room, 
usually called “‘waste space,” 
is exceptionally small. The 
third bedroom, the one off 
the kitchen, may be used as 
a maid’s room, sewing room 
or just as a spare bedroom. 
By placing a door between this room and 
the one ahead of it the room may be 
brought into almost direct connection 
with the bathroom so that the trip 
through the kitchen can be avoided. 
This third room, when connected with a 
door, can be used, together 
with the room adjoining it, 
for the owner’s suite—one 
room being used for a 
sleeping room and the other 
for a dressing room. When 
this arrangement is used, 
the third bedroom may be 
equipped with three win- 
dows on either side so that 
the effect is a great deal like 
that of a sleeping porch. 
Figure 4 illustrates a type of house 
which is very desirable, but which is 
rather uncommon. The great advan- 
tage in this type of bungalow lies in the 
arrangement of the sleeping rooms. It 


L/VING 
ROOM 


DO/NING 
ROOM 


798 Popular Science Monthly 


will be noted by the reader that the 
bathroom and the two sleeping rooms 
are at the rear of the house so that a 
person may use them with perfect 
freedom while visitors 
are being entertained 
in the living rooms. 
Again, a person may 
be in ill health or may 
be tired out so that he 
must retire before the 
regular time; in this 
case the arrangement 
of the sleeping rooms 
also is advantageous 
as by closing the door 
connecting the living 
room and rear hall the 
noise from the former 
is practically  elimi- 
nated before reaching 
the bedrooms. The stairs to the attic 
and basement may also lead from this 
small hall, so that in the event of a 
billiard room being fur- 
nished in either place 
it will readily be reach- 
ed without taking vis- 
itors through the kitch- 
en. Take it all in all 
and the study shown in 
this figure is really 
worth actual study by 
anyone who is contem- 
plating the erection of a 
bungalow for a home. 

Figure 5 is a study of 
a bungalow along the 
same general lines as 
those in Figure 4, but is 
a little cheaper house to 
build. The bathroom is, perhaps, in a 
little better location because of its 
being further removed from the living 
rooms and kitchen. There is also a dis- 
advantage in the location of the bath- 
room due to the fact that the servant 
must come past all the sleeping rooms to 
reach it, whereas in Figure 4 the bath is 
directly opposite the kitchen door. This 
study also permits of a smaller house 
and for that reason is cheaper to build 
than is the one in Figure 4, as already 
stated. 

Figure 6 is a study of a three bedroom, 
rear bedroom bungalow in which the 
least possible space has been consumed 


Room 


oY, ania Aas th, RUBEN 
Fig. 8 


for the hall. The great disadvantage of 
this plan lies in the inability of a person 
getting from the kitchen to the bathroom 
without going through the living rooms. 
Aside from this one 
point and that of the 
location of the stairs, 
the study is a good one, 
since the three bedroom 
doors are all about an 
t. equal distance from the 
| bathroom door. 


/O— 


HI TCAHEN 


Figure 7 gives us a 
study of a bungalow 
having four bedrooms, 
and this study strongly 
suggests two houses 
connected together on 
account of the sleeping 
portion of the house 
being built in a wing at 
the side of the living and service portions 
of the building. This arrangement is 
good for the size of the house, but there 
are better and more ap- 
propriate types of archi- 
tecture for a four bed- 
room house than a 
bungalow, although this 
study is shown here as 
it is used to some extent. 


EOS TOY | eee 


sirable type of bunga- 
+ low, especially adapted 
to a warm climate where 
a conventional garden 
may be kept in the 
court. The ventilation 
of this type of house is 
also very good and the 
cost of erecting a house 
of this size and design are not as great 
as would be imagined. This type makes 
an ideal summer home, as the large 
living room is very comfortable on the 
cool summer evenings when the family 
desires to gather together indoors in- 
stead of on the broad, roomy veranda. 


OLNING 
Room 


Another feature of this study lies in the 


fact that the sleeping wing of the house 
may be extended back as far as is de- 
sired in order to obtain as many bed- 
rooms as may be necessary. The dining 
room and kitchen may also be dropped 
back and a library or den placed in the 
location now occupied by the dining 
room. If it is desirable to leave the 


Figure 8 is a very de-. 


Pease ee eo 


wr 


Popular Science Monthly 


dining room at the front of the house on 
account of the view or for any other rea- 
son, the den may be placed in the space 
occupied by the 
pantry and the pan- 
try may be moved 
to the rear or some 
other location. 

In Figure 9 we 
have a study of a 
three |bedroom 
bungalow which, 
while not the most 
artistic ‘study 
shown in this arti- 
cle, is a very com- 
pact arrangement 
and a_ reasonable 
plan to build from. 
Every line is 
straight and economy is the principal 
feature. By making the house a trifle 
wider and running a hall down through 
the center so that all bedrooms would 
enter on to it and thereby be in direct 
communication with the bathroom,. the 
arrangement would be greatly improved. 

Figure 10 shows a very simple bunga- 
low and is the cheapest study shown. It 
is the aim, from the viewpoint of econ- 
omy, to keep any type of house as nearly 
square as possible and to meet this the 
study shown in this figure was worked 
up. The one great drawback to this 
particular study lies in its only having 
one bedroom, but that disadvantage can 
be readily overcome by working up a 
plan from the study 
and putting in as 
many bedrooms as 
may be desired, al- 
ways remembering 
to keep the house 
as nearly square as 
possible, provided 
the lot on which it 
is to be erected is 
wide enough to al- 
low for it. 

In Figure 11 is 
shown a study 
which has unlimited possibilities at the 
hands of a clever designer. This study 
allows the kitchen to be well ventilated 
from three sides, which is a very good 
feature. The stairs going up to the bil- 
liard room in the attic are just off the 


L/V/NG 
ROOM 


DINING 
ROOM 


26 
Fig. 10 


799 


living room and extremely handy when 
visitors are to be entertained in this 
manner. The cellar stairs go down from 
the kitchen and are right under the 
stairs going up into the attic, thereby 
saving 
floor 
space. 
The 
bed- 
rooms 
and 
bath- 
room 
being 
at the 
rear of 
the house give the plan the desirable 
features mentioned under Figure 4. 
Figure 12 shows a study which strong- 
ly resembles that shown in Figure 11, 
excepting that the bedroom is the room 
that is ventilated from three sides in- 
stead of the kitchen. The stairway to 
the second floor and the arrangement of 
the bathroom directly off the living 
room should also be noticed. The more 
the designer thinks over this study the 
more ideas will be obtained from it, 
since the study lends itself readily to a 
great many different arrangements which 
are pleasing and economical. The en- 
trance into the living room from the side 
of the house instead of from the front in 
the conventional manner is greatly ap- 
preciated, especially in a summer home 
that faces a lake or other body of water. 
In a case of this kind it is always ad- 
visable 
andde- J 
sirable 
to place 
the en- 
trance’:s 
on the 
side of 
t he 
house 
oppo- 
site to 
that from which the prevailing wind is. 
This placing of the door will be greatly 
appreciated when the wind is blowing a 
heavy rainstorm ahead of it and driving 
the water through every possible open- 
ing, so that it is not only impossible to 
use the door but it is almost impossible 


DINING 
Room 


LIVING 
ROOM 


Fig. 12 


800 


to keep the rain from driving in around 
it. 

Figure 13 shows another study which 
is especially desirable for summer use 
on account of the great wide living room 
which extends clear across the front of 
the building. In this study the living 
room and din- 
ing room are 
combined so 
that the cost 
is greatly re- 
duced by omit- 
ting the one 
room and at 
the same time 
the most de- 
sirable view 
obtainable from the house may be se- 
cured while at meals, as well as when 
lounging in the living room after a tramp 
or a swim. 

Figure 14 has a strong tendency 
toward the general plan of Figure 13, 
but is considerably different when close- 
ly examined. In the first place the study 
shows two bedrooms and in the second, 
this study has a dining room which was 
omitted from the study in Figure 13. 
The resemblance lies in the large living 
room across the front and the arrange- 
ment of the kitchen, bathroom and rear 
bedroom. The dining room and the 
second bedroom are merely inserted. be- 
tween the living 
room and_ bed- 
room of Figure 
13 and we 
thereby obtain 
another study 
with which to 
work. 

Figure 15 
shows a really 
clever study of 
a wide and shal- 
low bungalow— 
one of those that make a very grand 
impression from the road but which 
have little depth when closely examined. 
As will be noticed by looking over the 
drawing, the three bedrooms and bath, 
instead of being placed at the rear of the 
house as in the studies shown in Figures 
4, 5, 6, 11, 12 and 13, are placed at one 
end of the house. This arrangement al- 
lows the living rooms to be entirely 


LIVING ROOM 


as 
Fig. 13 


DINING 
ROOM 


Popular Science Monthly 


separated from the sleeping rooms by 
closing the doors, as has been already | 
explained, and also allows: of perfect 
ventilation of the living room and dining 
room. The bathroom is in the handiest 
possible location for all of the rooms, and 
the three bedrooms are all of good size. 
The stairs may go up or down from the 
little hall between the dining room and 
kitchen and may go in the opposite di- 
rection from the other end. The most 
desirable arrangement, under the usual 
conditions, would be to have the cellar 
stairs lead down from the little hall, 
while the attic stairs lead up from the 
wall.end of the partition and enter the 
dining room. A door may also lead up 
the stairs from the kitchen, if this is a 
desirable arrangement. 


DINING 
ROOM 


LIVING 
ROOM 


6 


40 


Fig: 15 


The object of showing these arrange- 
ments or “‘studies’”’ is to get the pros- 
pective builder into a habit of looking 
over plans and considering where they 
are weak and where strong and also) to 
impress upon his mind: that his opinion 
may be just as good as that of the 
average architect, so far as designing is 
concerned, at any rate. 

The remarks about assembling various 
details into one plan are also given with 
a view to helping the prospective builder 
take notice of little arrangements, ele- 
vations, fixtures, color schemes and the 
other numerous details which go to make 
the completed building. By making 
notes on the things that “‘look good,” 
at the time they are seen, a house which 
will contain just what you desire in al- 
most every respect will result as you have 
seen these things actually finished and 
you do not have to guess what it will 
look like or take someone’s word for its: 

Keep the bungalow along conservative 
lines, and the ultimate effect will be re- 
fined rather than freakish. 


Puree" 


The Popular Science Monthly 
for July 


Are mine fields a real defense against 
submarines? Ships are being torpedoed every 
day in the mined English Channe! and in 
harbors seemingly impregnable because of the 
extensive mine fields that guard the entrance. 
Could this happen in New York Harbor? 


The Mine That Hears 


One of the most prominent of our engineers 
has invented a system to destroy instantly 
any submarine which might attempt to pene- 
trate into our harbors. He describes this 
wonderful invention in the July Poruuar 
ScieNcE MOonrvuty. 


How to Camp 
Are you going camping this summer? 
Next month will appear an article on this 
subject which will give new ideas to even the 
most seasoned camper. 


What Sailors Don’t Know 
About Sailing 
Most yachtsmen think that they know how 
to sail a boat. They don’t. Professor H. A. 
Everett, of Johns Hopkins University has 
analyzed the science of sailing a boat, and 


shows in the July issue gust why most men 
handle their boats badly. 


The Voice Typewriter; Talk and 
It Writes 


Other features are: “* Automobile Repair 
Kinks,” “A Typewriter That Obeys the 
Human Voice,” ‘‘A New Armor Protection 
for Ships,” and—but why continue? There 
are three hundred more. 


801 


2 Popular Science Monthly 


Simon Lake, the submarine inventor, suggests that we could mobilize two-hundred-ton sub- 
marines by rail. ‘“‘The railway tracks would be continued down under the water as a 
submarine railway at such points as the government might desire. It would be necessary 
only to back the truck and submarine down into the water until the submarine floated’”’ 


Popular Science Monthly 


239 Fourth Ave., New York 


Vol. 88 
No. 6 


June, 1916 


$1.50 
Annually 


Undersea Fighting of the Future 


I.—Mobilizing Submarines on Rails 
By Simon Lake 


Under the general title ‘Undersea Fighting of the Future,” we publish two 
articles, by two distinguished engineers, 1n which the possibilities of the submarine 
are set forth in a way which shows that we have only begun to learn the use of the 


most powerful naval weapon thus far developed. 


Mr. Lake’s article deals with the 


mobilization of submarines for defense; Mr. Chandler's with a highly ingenious 
method of engaging and destroying submarines under water. 

Simon Lake came prominently before the public notice about fifteen years 
ago as the inventor of a submarine on wheels—a craft which could not only navigate 


under water but which could also travel on the bottom of a waterway. 


He acted 


as advisor on submarines to the German and Russian governments.—EpITOor. 


FIRMLY believe 
| tre destiny of the 

submarine is to stop 
all future maritime 
wars between coun- 
tries. A tremendous 
power for destruction, 
the submarine is in it- 
self useless for purposes 
of invasion. The mo- 
ment the submarine 
becomes visible it be- 
comes vulnerable. Its 
function, therefore, is 
to lie in wait and at- 
tack unawares. All 
students of warfare 
must now admit that 
it is manifestly impos- 
sible to send an army 
across the sea with big 
guns and troops and to land them, if 
submarines are on watch. I believe all 
engineering experts must also admit that 
when the proper motive power for sub- 
marines is evolved, a motive power which 
will give the submarine the speed of a 


Simon Lake. the author of the 
article on this page, is the in- 
ventor of the ‘‘even-keel sub- 
mergence type”’ of under-water 
craft which has in recent years 
been introduced by most of the 
navies of the world 


surface ship, then mer- 
chantmen cannot carry 
on commerce on the 
high seas except by 
mutual agreement equi- 
table to all nations. 
And I believe this will 
hasten the day when 
each country will con- 
sent to agreements to 
“do unto others as they 
would be done by.” 

If, in time of nation- 
al differences, it were 
possible for each 
country to encircle it- 
self with a zone ten 
miles in width, to pass 
which would be sure 
death, it would not be 
long before quarreling 
countries would make up their differ- 
ences. If our country had sufficient 
submarines to protect its coast line 
and to establish such a similar zone, 
an offensive war would be rendered 
unnecessary. 


805 


804 

Last year Congress made an appro- 
priation calling for 25-knot submarines, 
to cost not more than $1,500,000 each. 
I saw this reported in the newspapers 
and I immediately wired the Depart- 
ment that it was impossible to secure 25- 
knot boats for less than about two-and- 
a-quarter million dollars each, and I 
later advised that it would then probably 


take several years to develop a suitable 


engine. The largest submarine engine 
of which I know is one of 1300 horse- 
power, completed in Italy for one of the 
large German boats just at the beginning 
of the war. 

As it would probably require about 
10,000 horsepower to attain twenty-five 
knots, Congress hardly realized how 
stupendous was the problem of produc- 
ing at a single step a boat capable of 
traveling nearly twice as fast as the 
best underwater vessel of the day. No 
wonder there were no bidders for a 
25-knot-boat. 

While it was impossible, even with 
unlimited money, in the present condi- 
tion of internal combustion engineering, 
to. develop a 25-knot submarine boat 
quickly, it is possible to get quickly a 
large number of 50-knot submarine boats 
of small size, which for the same expendi- 
ture would prove many times more 
effective in warding off an attack than 
the larger boats. I refer to what I call 
“amphibious submarines;”’ that is, sub- 
marines of about two hundred tons dis- 
placement, which could be hauled on 
special railway trucks from one point of 
the country to another at a speed of 
fifty knots per hour, with crews, stores, 
equipment, all on board. The railway 
tracks would be continued down under 
the water as a submarine railway at 
such points as the Government might 
desire. It would be necessary only to 
back the truck and submarine down 
into the water until the submarine 
floated. Her commander would only 
need to give the bell and she would be 
off. Such boats could probably be 
built for three hundred thousand dollars 
each to make ten knots on the surface 
and about eight submerged. It would 
be possible'to get six or eight such boats 
for the cost of one twenty-five-knot boat 
and cover six to eight times as much 
territory. A torpedo fired from a small, 


Popular Science Monthly 


inexpensive boat is just as effective as one 
fired from a large, expensive boat. The 
small boats could make the trip from 
New York to San Francisco in four days, 
New York to Boston in five hours, New 
York to New Orleans in thirty-six hours, 
in perfect safety, while a modern large 
submarine, under war conditions, could 
probably not make the trip at all, except 
as a-slow-going surface boat, liable to 
capture or destruction. One hundred of 
these amphibious submarines could be 
quickly turned out by the various ship- 
yards throughout the country, and it 
would also be possible to get engines 
quickly for them; the power required 
permits of using sizes of engines that 
have already been developed by several 
concerns. Such a system of coast 
protection would enable the quick mobil- 
ization of a large number of submarines 
at any threatened locality, for harbor or 
coast defense purposes. Of course it 
would be advisable to have a large 
number of submarines for off-shore work 
or to patrol the coast where distances 
between ports or harbors would be too 
great for the smaller craft. 

Many disadvantages accompany the 
use of the storage battery. It is very 
heavy for the horsepower energy it 
carries. It is also bulky, so that only 
sufficient energy may be carried to 
propel modern submarines at about 
eleven knots per hour for one hour, 
about eight knots per hour for three 
hours, or at about five knots per hour 
for twenty hours. This means that when 
the energy is exhausted the submarine 
must ascend to the surface or secure 
surface connection in order to obtain 
air to enable her engine to be run to 
recharge her batteries. This is likely to 
prove her undoing, as the noise of her 
internal cumbustion engines in charging, 
can, with a proper receiver, be heard 
many miles, and would direct an enemy 
surface boat or submarine to her. There- 
fore, before the submarine can become 
invulnerable, she must become capable 
of operating without sound. If it were 
possible to produce some sort of primary 
battery whereby energy-producing ma- 
terial could be put into the battery like 
coal into a furnace, it would be ideal for 
submarine torpedo-boat use, and the 
submarine would then become invincible. 


Undersea Fighting of the Future 


II.—Battling with Telephones 
By Edward F. Chandler 


The author of this article has conducted extensive researches in the art of 
submarine radio transmission, applying the results to defensive and offensive 


means of warfare. 


F the war has taught us anything it 
has taught us that the submarine 
must be reckoned with both as an 

annihilator of battleships and as a de- 
stroyer of commerce. Of the dozens of 
instrumentalities 
invented for killing on 
a wholesale scale it is 
the most terrible. And 
yet how crude is this 
new weapon! Com- 
pared with what it can 
be made it is what the 
blunderbuss of old is 
to the modern rifle. 

Consider for a mo- 

ment how a submarine 
boat is handled. The 
commander plows 
along at the surface 
much as he would on 
any ship. In the offing 
he sees a pillar of 
smoke. Friend or foe? 
He must investigate. 
Changing his course, 
he steers for that 
cloud on the horizon. In fifteen minutes 
he has approached near enough to dis- 
cover that the smoke is pouring from the 
funnels of a hostile collier. She flies the 
naval ensign of her country, and she is 
convoyed by a torpedo-boat destroyer. 
Thesubmarine commander gives an order. 
Water surges into tanks in the subma- 
rine’s hold. The craft sinks until only 
her periscope projects from the water. 
Heading for the collier the submarine 
arrives within half a mile of its prey. 
The commander takes the bearings of 
the collier by compass and orders com- 
plete submergence. In another minute 
the craft is completely under the surface. 
A sharp command, and a puff of com- 
pressed air starts a torpedo from one 


Edward F. Chandler, whose most 
important work thus far probably 
is the development of a subma- 
rine range-finding system and its 
application to the detection and 
destruction of hostile submarines 


The system of submarine navigation described 1n this article 
is the result of conclusive tests —EDITOR. 


of the launching-tubes. In less than 
a minute it has reached the collier. There 
isa dull explosion. Fifteen minutes later 
a cargo of four thousand tons of coal lies 
at the bottom of the sea, and a hundred 
brave men have per- 
ished miserably. 


Why the Submarine 
Is Crude 


It seems very simple, 
very certain, this tor- 
pedoing of a ship from 
a safe place under the 
water. But for all that 
it is unscientific and 
haphazard. The sub- 
marinecommandert sees 
nothing below the sur- 
face; that is why he 
must take aim before he 
submerges. To strike, 
the target must be large 
and very near; other- 
wise he would surely 
miss. Suppose that you 
were told to shoot 
blindfolded at a mark one hundred yards 
away and that you were given two 
minutes to locate the target before your 
eyes were covered. You would be exactly 
in the position of a submarine com- 
mander about to torpedo a _ hostile 
ship. Is it any wonder that torpedoes 
must be fired at close range? Is it not 
obvious that the submarine could be 
made still more terrible if the submarine 
commander could locate his quarry 
accurately in the inky blackness in 
which he is immersed? 

To use lights under water is hopeless. 
Even millions of candlepower would not 
reveal the presence of a ship a mile off 
to a submerged underwater craft. But 
suppose that the commander of a sub- 


805 


Popular Science Monthly 


Although the submarine is blind after it dives it can be made to hear with the aid of micro- 


phones. 


If two hostile submarines were equipped so that they could hear each other there 
is no reason why they should not fight under water. 


Torpedoes would be the weapons 


used—torpedoes directed solely by the sound emanating from the craft to be destroyed 


marine could locate his prey by sound; 
suppose that he could hear a ship and 
locate her by sound more accurately, for 
example, than a blind man can locate the 
position of a ticking clock in a room? 
Might not that solve the problem? 
With this thought in mind, I have 
worked out a method of utilizing micro- 
phones—a method which is a modifica- 
tion and extension of that which I 
described in the PoPULAR SCIENCE 
Montuiy for October, 1915. Those 
who read that article will remember 
that I showed how it was possible to 
make a torpedo guide itself toward the 
beating propellers of a ship with the aid 
of microphones—‘“‘electrical ears,’’ as I 
call them. A microphone is found in 
every telephone transmitter. It is an 
instrument for intensifying feeble sounds, 
or for transmitting sounds, and it is 
based on the principle that the transi- 
tion between loosely joined electric con- 
ductors decreases in proportion as they 
are pressed together. The conductors 
form part of a circuit through which a 


current is passing, and the variations in 
pressure due to sound waves in the 
vicinity of the conductors produce 
variations of resistance, and hence 
fluctuations of the current, so that the 
sounds are reproduced in a telephone 
receiver. In the modern telephone the 
transmitter is essentially a microphone, 
the pressure of the sound waves being 
communicated to the conductors by 
means of a diaphragm. 

In a torpedo of the type I described in 
the POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, the 
microphones are mounted in pairs on 
both sides of the nose. So long as the 
sound of the hostile ship’s beating pro- 
pellers, traveling through water far more 
readily than sounds travel through air, 
affect all microphones with equal 
intensity, the torpedo rushes on straight 
to its mark. But if the vessel should 
change its course, the vibrations of the 
propellers would no longer strike the 
two pairs of microphones with equal 
force; one pair would be more affected 
than the other—the pair directly ex- 


Popular Science Monthly 


MICROPHONI. 


TRANSMITTE 


In order that a submerged submarine may direct its course accurately toward a hostile ship 


it may be provided with microphones on its port and starboard bows. 


The difference in 


‘the volume of scund received by the two microphones indicates the course to be pursued. 
’ The sound can be converted into movements of a finger playing over a dial 


posed to the vibrations. At once 
electrical circuits are closed and auto- 
matic mechanism started which swings 


‘the rudders of the torpedo and points 


the nose of the torpedo toward its mark. 
As soon as the microphones on both sides 
are restored to electrical equilibrium, in 
other words as soon as they hear with 
equal clearness, the torpedo keeps on a 
straightaway course. 

It is evident that the same principle 
can be applied to submarine boats travel- 
ing under water, with the difference that 
since the submarine is manned by intel- 
ligent human ‘beings, the microphones 
can be made merely to indicate the 
course to be pursued, leaving to the 
commander the task of steering a true 
course. As in the case of the sound- 
controlled torpedo, the submarine is 
provided with microphones on its port 
and starboard bows. Telephone ear- 
pieces are provided which enable the sub- 
marine commander to listen to the 
sounds gathered by the microphones. 
If the submarine is not pointed head on 


. 


toward the ship to be destroyed the 
microphone on the off side will hear less 
than the other, and the difference in the 
volume of sound received by the two 
microphone detectors will be noted at 
once in the telephone receivers. The 
commander changes his course until he 
hears equally well with both ear-pieces. 


Seeing Sounds on a Dial 


While it is perfectly feasible to direct 
a submarine by telephone it is much 
more effective to convert the microphone 
vibrations into visual signals. As a 
result the commander of a submarine 
has only to watch a finger move over a 
dial in order to know what course he 
should steer. In a sense he sees the 
sound which the microphone detectors 
hear. The accompanying diagram sets 
forth the essential principles of this 
conversion of the microphone vibrations 
into visual signals so clearly that an 
extended description seems hardly neces- 
sary. 

While a visual steering indicator is 


808 


primarily depended upon to guide the 
submarine on its deadly errand, tele- 
phones are connected with the micro- 
phones, to be used when the occasion 
arises. With their aid the commander 
learns a new language. He realizes the 
meaning of strange grindings, hums, 
moans, blows, mur- 
murs and vibrations 
—the many tongues 
of the sea. If we but 
knew it the water of 


Ott] 


the ocean is a veri- elas oF 
table Babel; it is a MICROPHONIC 
TRANSMITTER 


great reservoir of 
sound, the recipient 
of ten thousand differ- 
ent vibrations, rang- 
ing from the grinding 
of pebbles to the 
pounding of steam- 
ship engines. Just asa 
woodsman learns the 
meaning of the weird 
soughing of wind in 
tree tops, the ‘‘woof”’ 
of a bear, the patter 
of deer’s feet and. the 
call of quail, so a 
submarine comman- 
der can distinguish 
one underwater sound 
from another and in- 
terpret it correctly. 
A tramp steamer can 
be microphonically 
distinguished from a 
Mauretania, a_ tor- 
pedo-boat from a 
superdreadnought, 
and above all a sub- 
surface craft from a 
surface craft. Thus 
the character of an 
unseen ship miles away can be ascer- 
tained. 

But apart from listening to passing 
ships, the telephones will be required to 
receive messages from an admiral on a 
battleship five miles away. Both war- 
ships and merchantmen are equipped 
with submarine signaling devices — 
devices which send forth either bell 
sounds or rhythmic vibrations. It is 
easy to see how useful they can be made 
to telegraph orders to a submarine under 
water five miles or more away. 


STEERING INDICATOR 


ve TELL OLLLP LIED a 
a Ge 1 


ie 
MICROPHONIC —# 


Deed J 
ITC } 


A diagram showing the Chandler sys- 
tem of converting sounds heard through 
a microphone into visible signals 


Popular Science Monthly 


Under Water Echoes end How They 
Are Applied 

In the foregoing account of my inven- 
tion I have assumed that the vessel to 
be attacked with the aid of the micro- 
phonic steering-indicator is in motion— 
that its engines are giving audible 
sounds and that its 
propellers are churn- 
ing up water noisily. 
But suppose the vessel 
to be attacked is at 
anchor—what then? 
Is not the submarine 
commander helpless? 

The difficulty is 
easily overcome if we 
can make the sub- 
marine produce a 
characteristic sound 
and if we can have 
that sound echoed 
back from the ship to 
be sunk and picked 
up by the submarine’s 
own microphones. 
Fortunately Professor 
Fessenden has _ pro- 
vided an instrument 
ideally suited for the 
purpose. Called an 
oscillator, it may be 
regarded as a kind of 
underwater klaxon 
horn, the diaphragm 
of which is electrically 
vibrated to emit a 
characteristic bleat. 
By means of a switch, 
located near the hand 
of the submarine com- 
mander, the oscillator 
can be turned on or 
off. 

The oscillator will be of use not only to 
locate a ship at rest but to save the 
submarine in a nerve-racking emergency. 
Imagine the commander of a U-boat 
bent on the destruction of a ship enter- 
ing a harbor and traveling along at the 
surface with only his periscope exposed. 
A fast armed motorboat looms up—a 
type of craft which has proved to be 
a most formidable enemy. The sub- 


marine must act quickly. There is but 
one course—to sink quickly. Valves are 
The craft 


opened and tanks filled. 


Popular Science Monthly 


sinks out of sight. It is safe for the 
moment. The agonizing uncertainty of 
the crew can be imagined. They know 
that a relentless enemy awaits them, that 
his searchlights sweep the water all 
night. Hour after hour drifts by. If 
the submarine’s commander rises, a hail 
of shot and shell is sure to rain upon 
him; if he stays under water very long 
he and his men will die of suffocation. 
Why not move on? The waiting motor- 
boat cannot see him. But in what 
direction and how far? He is almost 
sure to run into the shore and to puncture 
the thin shell that saves him from 
inundation. If he could only locate the 
harbor entrance he would be safe. An 
oscillator and a set of microphones will 
enable him to head for the inlet as surely 
as if he were traveling on the surface 
and he could see it with his eyes. He 
pulls the switch of the oscillator. A 
shrill note is sent through the water. 
His eyes on the steering indicator dial, 
he watches the response of the finger 
to an echo. The echo of what? Of the 
oscillator’s vibrations reflected by the 
shore. He steers this way, now that way, 
barely crawling along, always watching 
for the echo on the dial. The finger on 
the steering indicator moves from side 
to side as the microphones pick up the 
echoes. At last there comes a moment 
when the finger stays at zero, when, in 
other words, there is no echo for the 
microphones to hear. That 
can mean only one thing: the 
oscillator is sending out its 
bleat not toward an echoing 
shore, but toward the har- 
bor’s mouth and toward the 
open sea, where safety lies. 
With his eye on the steering 
indicator the commander sig- 
nals ‘‘full speed ahead,” know- 
ing that salvation lies before 
him. 


Artificial Senses Take the 
Place of Eyes and Ears 


The use of microphones on 
submarines not only increases 
the effectiveness of the sub- 
marine enormously, but opens 
up new and intensely dramat- 
ic possibilities. As soon as 
one submarine is equipped 


809 


with devices for threading a course 
under water with certainty all submarines 
will be similarly equipped. Grant that 
and at once we have the means of 
pitting submarine against submarine, of 
actually engaging in submarine fights. 
What strange encounters they will be— 
these underwater engagements of the 
future! Two vessels, blind but for 
steering indicators connected with micro- 
phones, circling around each other in the 
effort to ram or to plant a torpedo at the 
right moment, cocking electrical ears, as 
it were, and maneuvering entirely by 
sound—what battle of Wells or of 
Verne’s can compare with it? Instru- 


. ments, artificial senses, take the place 


of Nature’s eyes and ears; hidden move- 
ments are electrically translated into 
twitches of a quivering finger on a 
graduated dial; one intelligence is pitted 
against’ another. Surely this is real 
scientific warfare—this battle of micro- 
phones! © 


A Sewer Banquet at $25 a Plate 


O celebrate the completion of a new 
sewer in St. Louis a cabaret banquet 
was held in the tube. A “‘banquet room” 
three hundred feet long and-a gas- 
equipped kitchen were created. The 
food was cooked in the tunnel and served 
on twelve tables placed lengthwise. 
The cost of the banquet was twenty- 
five dollars a plate. 


The underground kitchen in which the meal for a banquet 
given in St. Louis’ new sewer was cooked 


Hanging a Defective Boiler Plug 
as a Warning 


MINIATURE gallows from which 

hangs a defective fusible plug re- 

sponsible for a boiler explosion 
which occurred on board the steamship 
Jefferson, near Norfolk, Va., on May 11, 
1914)isoneof theinteresting curios on the 
walls of the office 
of Secretary Red- 
fiele,.-of:<the 
Department of 
Commerce in 
Washington. It is 
a grim reminder of 
a tragedy which 
cost the lives of 
eleven men. A 
small placard 
above it reads: 

“A Murderer! . 
Hung for killing 
eleven men.” 

Below it are the 
words: 

“The fusible (?) 
plug which failed 
to fuse. From the 
boiler of the S. S. 
Jefferson. Boiler 
exploded. Eleven 
lives lost.” 

The plug con- 
sisted of a threaded 
brass bushing 
about an inch and 
a half in diameter, 
with hexagonal 
head. Through the 
center of the bush- 
ing runs a plug of 
fusible metal, 
which, in this in- 
stance, was defective; it did not blow 
out when the water in the boiler became 
low, thereby causing a disastrous explo- 
sion. When the plug was sawed open 
lengthwise it was found that most of the 
original filling had disappeared, only a 
few traces of it remaining embedded in 
a dirty, greenish-white mass of tin 
oxide, which would not melt until 
heated to a temperature somewhat 


& MURDERER t 


ung for willing eleven mos. me 


TRE .FUSIBLE (7) PLUG, 
WHICH FAILED TO FUSE, 
FROM THE BOILER OF 


Impurities of the fusible filling of this 

plug prevented its blowing out and re- 

sulted in the loss of eleven lives. So, 

the plug was hanged as a murderer, in 
a government bureau 


higher than 2,900 degrees Fahrenheit. 

Impurities in the fusible metal, which 
were the cause of its failure to blow out, 
are easily discernible. In subsequent 
investigations made by the United 
States Bureau of Standards ten hundred 
and fifty fusible 
plugs were exam- 
ined. These were 
from one hundred 
and five different 
makers, and about 
one hundred of 
them had been in 
actual use for from 
four to twelve 
months. From a 
study of these 
plugs the Bureau 
recommends that 
the fusible metal 
itself should pre- 
ferably be pure tin, 
because it has been 
found to be far 
more reliable and 
durable. The 
Bureau further 
recommends that 
the tin be as free 
as possible from 
zinc and lead. 

One of the many 
types of deteriora- 
tion of fusible plug 
fillings observed by 
the Bureau consists 
in the formation of 
a network of mi- 
nute thread-like 
cracks or corrosion- 
regions, ramifying in all directions. The 
Bureau found that these penetrated the 
metal and then broadened out until the 
filling was largely, or wholly, oxidized 
and destroyed. The presence of small 
quantities of zinc in the tin was the 
main contributing cause of the network 
type of corrosion. This was proved 
conclusively by the investigation con- 
ducted after the disaster. 


810 


Popular Science Monthly 811 


An Ingenious Combined Lawn-Mower 
and Roller 


OR smoothing golf links and other 

large tracts of land that require 
constant trimming, a combination lawn- 
mower and roller has been invented. 
The driving apparatus consists of a two- 
cylinder gasoline motor mounted on a 
platform in front of the driver and cooled 
by a rapidly rotating electric fan and 
water system. The machine is both 
broad and rather long, so that it can 
climb over rough grounds with a speed 
that hand mowers and rollers could 
hardly attempt. 

Combining the two operations of 
mowing and rolling saves a great deal of 
time, and, due to the speed with which 
the mechanism travels over the ground, 
lawns or golf links can be put into condi- 
tion and reoccupied in a fraction of the 
time required when the grass is mowed 
and rolled by hand. 

The machine shown in the photograph 
weighs one thousand, one hundred 
pounds and is equipped with a sixteen- 
horsepewer engine. It will operate on 
any grade up to twenty-five per cent. 

By the simple manipulation of a lever, 
the driver can adjust the blades to cut 
any length of grass. 


This lawn-mower and roller combined is able to smooth out 
the wrinkles and trim the grass on golf links in half the 
time usually required for such work 


If this egg were a watch-dial, an hour 
would have only fifty-five minutes 


An Egg With Hour Ridges 


E have heard of all sorts of freak 

eggs, from double ones to those 
having a few sporadic bumps on their 
surface, but never before have we seen 
one with ridges corresponding to the 
numerals on a clock dial. 
All that are needed are the 
hour and minute hands. 
There would be one differ- 
ence, however, between 
using this egg-dial and 
that of a regular clock: it 
would register thirteen 
o'clock. 


Freezing Cocoanuts to 
Get at the Milk 


PENNSYLVANIA 

man has devised a 
means of removing cocoa- 
nut shells by freezing the 
nut until the shell is slightly 
contracted, and then sub- 
jecting it to acomparatively 
high temperature so as to 
cause rapid expansion. 
Cracks in the shell are thus 
produced. A series of ham- 
mer blows then completes 
the breaking of the shell. 


812 


London’s perambulators are now equip- 
ped with sidelights to avoid danger in the 
darkened streets 


London War Affects Baby Carriages 


; bagaaret has passed an unusual law 
which requires that baby carriages 
shall be equipped with sidelights. While 
no adequate explanation is given, it is 
believed that the new ruling was put 
into effect because of the darkness into 
which the streets are plunged because 
of the fear of Zeppelin raids. Baby 
carriages, while not dangerous objects, 
are objects of danger, and the fact that 
they are compelled by law to be equipped 
with a lamp to light their way, lessens 
the possibilities of collisions. The law 
requires that the light shall show white 
in front and red in the rear. 


How War Mobilizes the Non- 
Combatant 


NE of the impressions of war 
received by Dr. George W. Crile, 
who served with the American Ambu- 
lance at the front, was that a civil 
community is terrorized when it is first 


Popular Science Monthly 


under fire, but that in time this terror 
wears away and life under the sound of 
shells goes on quite normally. (“A 
Mechanistic View of War and Peace,” 
The Macmillan Company). 


“I observed that from Furnes to Ypres the 
farmers were quietly tilling the soil under active 
shell fire. In one instance just at the outskirts 
of Ypres I saw a fresh excavation made by a shell 
which had fallen on a newly-made furrow. The 
farmer was working at one end of the furrow and 
the German artillery at the other end. The 
farmer seemed no more disturbed than the 
artillery. An aeroplane fight high above our 
heads called forth the rapt attention of everyone 
in the fields, on the roads and in the houses, but 
even so the excitement was less than one usually 
sees at a baseball game. 

“In Ypres, so long under bombardment, and 
so extensively battered, some of the citizens had 
stolen back in spite of shells and resumed their 
daily routine. I recall a little plaster house at 
the edge of the town, in the doorway of which 
two women were pleasantly gossiping and two 
little girls were playing with dolls. The nearer 
the front one goes, the more quiet and serious 
every one seems. It is the solemn atmosphere of 
the consecration of human life.” 


Adjustable Footrest 


N ingenious German named Stickler 
has invented a support for the leg 
below the knee and the foot, which can 
be easily adjusted to any form of chair 
or bench and afterwards removed with- 
out trouble when the need for its use is 
over. Thus, one of these footrests can 
serve a number of seats. 

It has always been one of the draw- 
backs even to the most comfortable of 
ordinary chairs that while the upper 
part of the body is well supported, the 
feet, when they fail to touch the ground, 


A comfortable foot and leg rest which 
can be used with any chair 


lack a rest. This enables one to work in 
a comfortable sitting position. 


Popular Science Monthly 


Floor Scrubber Propels Itself 

MACHINE for cleaning floors has 

been brought out, so quiet in its oper- 
tion that it can be used in hospitals and 
so gentle in its action that a frail woman 
can manipulate it without difficulty. 
Its chief feature of interest 
is that it departs radically 
from the suction or vacuum 
type of cleaner. Attached 
to the lower end of a long 
iron handle is an indus- 
trious but small electric 
motor. As the motor spins, 
it rotates a circular brush, 
which can be applied with 
any desired pressure to the 
floor surface. Behind the 
brush motor are two rubber 
wheels serving a double 
purpose—to act as a lever 
for regulating the pressure 
of the rotating bristles 
against the floor and as a 
carriage fer rolling the equipment from 
one part of the building to another. 

Because of the brush’s rotary motion 

the machine is self-propelling. Various 
grades of brushes are supplied for various 
floor surfaces. For polishing hard- 
wood floors and mosaic or tile, brushes 
of other types are employed. 


Curved Spring Device Returns 
Bowling Balls 
RETARDING 
device consisting 

of a spring chute lead- 

ing from the gutter to 
the rack in the rear of 

a bowling alley serves 

the two-fold purpose of 

returning all balls to 
the player and return- 
ing them without the 
usual concussion 
resulting by the 
method now used. 
The curved spring 
has one end firmly 
fixed to the base of 


the housing 

and the other 

to an 

The eee : ad- 
a ; 

ag jus- 

aye) = 


$13 


No matter how swift a ball is thrown it is 
returned to the player with uniform speed. 


Detachable Blades for Hatchets 
ERE is a hatchet with detachable 
blades, made possible by spring 


A simple spring device ‘retards the balls as they return 


to the player 


clips co-operating with apertures and 
slots of the blades. When attached 
each new blade 
is as rigid and 
stable as the main 
body of the 
hatchet itself, and 
when it becomes 
dull it can be 
readily detached 
and reground. 
Thus the body of 
the hatchet be- 
comes continuously serviceable, and one 
is always assured of a sharp blade. The 
blades can be economically made by 
stamping from sheet steel. From the 
standpoint of pure efficiency the hatchet 
makes a very effective weapon. 


A detachable blade 


Listening to an Electric Current 

N interesting electrical experiment, 

illustrating the fact that sound accom- 
panies the passage of electricity through 
the body, can be shown in the following 
manner: Let two persons each hold an 
electrode from a small magneto or shock- 
ing-coil. Let one person, with his free 
hand, touch the other person behind and 
just below the ear. A buzzing sound, 
otherwise inaudible, can be heard. The 
tone of the sound depends upon the 
number of interruptions of the current. 


814 Popular Science M onthly 


When the Appalachian Mountains were lifted above 
sea-level, millions of years ago, these strata of limestone 
were arched up like a bubble in pie-crust. The core 
of the rock has been partly mined out to make cement 


Rock Folded Like 
Cardboard 


HE rocks in this photo- 

graph which are seen 
to be bent over in the shape 
of a loop were at one time— 
some millions of years ago— 
the flat bed of the ocean. 
When the Appalachian 
Mountains were uplifted 
above the sea they were 
raised with the rest of the 
land, and as the uplift was 
irregular these strata of lime- 
stone rocks were bowed up 
like a bubble of a pie-crust,; 
which is lifted by the gas 
generated in the cooking of 
the pie. The core of this 


making cement. The re- 
maining rock is also lime- 
stone, but as it is not of the 
proper consistency for mak- 
ing the best cement, it was 
left intact. 

When rock is bowed or 
arched up in this manner, 
the result is termed an 
anticline. This anticline is 
exposed at several points 
along the Chesapeake and 
Ohio Canal, Maryland. 


The House That Tin 
Cans Built 


OU have heard of the 

house that Jack built 
and you may have read 
about the house that junk 
built, but did you ever hear 
about the house that tin 
cans built? Huts built from 
tin cans—five gallon gasoline 
cans—are not at all un- 
common in that section of 
America between the Rio 
Grande and the Tierra Del 
Fuego, as in the locality the 
five gallon can is a generally 
accepted standard of liquid 
measurement. While not en- 
tirely suited for a dwelling in 
Mexico, because it is not bul- 
let-proof, this tin can house 
is very comfortable. 


There is no such word as “can’t” for the man who 
Z built this house; but he uses can frequently, his house 
rock has been mined out for being made of five-gallon gasoline cans 


- 
: 
: 
: 
i 
; 


ae oe a ere 


A ADE 


Giant Press Used in Making 
Shrapnel Shells 


N the manufacture of brass cartridge 
cases for shrapnel or high-explosive 


shells, fifteen to twenty 
operations are required before 
the case is completed. Start- 
ing with a brass disk or blank, 
a number of cupping, drawing 
and indenting operations are 
performed before the case is 
ready for the heading opera- 
tion. Hydraulic presses on 
which dies and corresponding 
punches are 
employed, are 
used for all of 


these opera- 
tions. A very 
powerful hy- 


draulic press is 
used for the 
heading oper- 
ation which is 
shown by the 
accompanying 
photograph. 

The head- 
ing operation 
is accom- 
lished by 
inserting a 
‘‘fullering- 
block”’ exactly 
matching the 
indention 
previously 
made, be- 
tween the 
head of the 
press and the 
top of the cartridge case, the latter being 
held in place by a suitable die. As the pres- 
sure is applied the fullering-block causes 
the brass to flow outward in all direc- 
tions, thus forming the head of the 
shell. The pressure is furnished by a 
motor-driven, triplex, hydraulic pump, 
which delivers water at a pressure of 
thirty-two hundred and fifty pounds to 
the square inch. 

The press has a revolving turret with 
dies to receive three shells. This 


A pressure of over three 
thousand pounds to the 
square inch is delivered 
by this machine in making 
shrapnel shells 


provides for an almost continuous opera- 
tion, as there is always one shell awaiting 
the heading operation and one shell 
being unloaded, while the other shell is 
undergoing the heading operation. The 
rotation of this turret is controlled by 
an indexing device, so that the shell is 
accurately held in place directly beneath 
the fullering-block. 

The photograph showsa rear view of the 
press. The lever controlling the indexing 
device is shown at the extreme right. 


815 


$16 


A Switchman Who Became Judge, 
Though Armless 


AVID Moylan was formerly a 

switchman on a Western railroad. 
Through an accident he lost his right 
arm, but he refused to relinquish his 
position. Only when he had lost his left 
arm, through a second accident, did he 
turn to something else. Then he began 
the study of law and showed marked 
ability. With his examinations, how- 


ever, came the first big handicap; but 
this man who seems undismayed at 
anything, proceeded to learn to write 


by holding a pen 
between his teeth. 
Using this method, 
he took the exami- 
nations, proving 
not only his mental 
ability, but good 
penmanship as 
well, for he can 
write better with 
his teeth than 
many persons can 
with their right 
hand. 

After becoming 
a lawyer, he prac- 


Popular Science Monthly 


not only proficient but popular, he was 
elected to the City Council of Cleveland, 
Ohio, where he resides. He was as suc- 
cessful in this office as before, and was 
re-elected at the end of two years. 
Recently he ran for the office of Munic- 
ipal Judge and won. 

David Moylan was once a switchman, 
he is now a judge. Did an accident force 
him to rise to his present success, or 
would ambition have elevated him to 
equal responsibility? At any rate, he 
succeeded where many less unfortunate 
would fail. 


Why We Can See Through Water 


F you go to an aquarium and look 
at the fishes or other animals that 
live in the water, you will see that in 
one case water may be very clear and 
transparent, and in another may be 
only half transparent. There are 
really all degrees possible. 

When the waves of light pass 
through a translucent thing like 
frosted glass, they are twisted and 
broken and mixed. That is why you 
can see some light coming through, 
although you cannot make out things 
on the other side. But transparent 
glass lets waves of light come through 
it almost exactly as they come in, so 
that sometimes 
you are not sure 
whether the win- 
dow pane is there 
or not. Water is 
much the same as 
glass in this re- 
spect. If there 
are no solid sub- 
stances in the wa- 
ter, and if the 
water is still, it is 
very fairly trans- 
parent. Neither 
water nor glass 
nor anything else 
lets through ab- 
solutely all the 
light that comes 
to it. It keeps 
back at least a 
little, just as the 


tised oes that Judge David Moylan lost his arms in two re 7 ae one 
profession for four different accidents while employed as a with the light 
years. Becoming switchman on a western railroad of the sun. 


Loh tht ell 


a 


ee Ors 


re 


a 


rs eee 


Pee 


Popular Science Monthly 


Every consideration is given to the injured horse in carrying him away to the hospital. 
This truck differs from the ordinary automobile ambulance in having a trailer 


A New Type of Motor Horse- 
Ambulance 


IFFERING from other previous 

types of motor ambulances for sick 
or disabled horses in that it is a truck 
and trailer principle and not a self- 
contained vehicle, the latest unit, as 
shown in the accompanying illustration, 
has a low platform trailer inte which the 
horse may walk with ease or be hauled 
in on a special device if unable to stand 
up. 

The new equipment consists of a one- 
ton motor-truck and a trailer, the for- 
ward end of which is supported on the 
truck. The trailer has a specially low 
platform and a tail-gate which may be 
swung down to form a bridge to enable 
the sick horse to walk into the trailer 
body with ease. A second independent 
floor on rollers is provided in the trailer. 
When the horse is so disabled that he 
cannot stand up this platform is rolled 
out of the trailer and down the lowered 
tail-gate to the street, where the animal 
is securely bound to it with his head on a 
pillow to prevent injury. The platform 
is then hauled into the trailer by means 
of a steel cable wrapped around a drum 
carried in the gooseneck of the trailer- 
frame and revolved by a hand-crank as 
shown in the illustration. 

The trailer is provided with a perma- 
nent top and curtains at the front, rear 
and sides for use in inclement weather. 


Two stanchions are provided at the 
center of the trailer at each side to sup- 
port the ends of a canvas sling passed 
under the stomach of the horse to take 
the weight off his feet when one of his 
legs is injured. 


Germany’s Rubber Trade 


HE war has had its effect on the rub- 
ber trade in Germany. The manu- 
facture of rubber sporting goods, toys, 
articles of luxury and the like has been 
almost entirely curtailed. Had a demand 
existed, the lack of the necessary raw 
materials, even in substitute qualities, 
would not have been forthcoming. Busi- 
ness is very slack in sanitary and surgical 
goods, because the essential, fine crude 
rubber can only be had for military pur- 
poses and skilled labor, which is very 
important in this line, is very scarce. 
The enormous consumption of solid 
and pneumatic tires by the German army 
has given the manufacturers all they can 
handle. Business decreased appreciably, 
however, towards the close of the year 
1915. The cycle tire industry has not 
been favored by war conditions. Only 
reclaimed rubber has been available for 
making casings and only very limited 
quantities of crude rubber have been 
allowed for inner tubes. The restrictions 
on the use of cotton fabrics has practical- 
ly stopped the making of cycle tires for 
other than military purposes, 


Popular Science Monthly 


A bridge, two miles in length and twenty feet wide, is stretched across Pen d’Oreille 


Lake, for the use of farmers who sell their produce in Sandport, Idaho 


The Longest Wagon-Bridge in 
the World 


N the accompanying photograph is 

shown a bridge two miles long, twen- 
ty feet wide and twenty-five feet high. 
The tower in the center is the draw- 
bridge through which vessels pass. By 
turning a heavy iron wheel the weights 
at the top of the tower are lowered to 
throw the bridge open. 

This bridge is on the Pen d’Oreille 
Lake, and was built for the benefit of 
the farmers across the lake, as they had 
no other way of getting across water to 
Sandpoint, Idaho, to sell their produce 
and do their marketing. 


Healing Magic of the Electric Arc 


HE most intense heat produced by 
man is that of the electric arc, and 

the possibilities of its application in vari- 
ous branches of American industry have 


Broken or cracked castings can be quickly 
mended by means of an electric arc 


only begun to be realized. Like many 
other useful scientific agents, the elec- 
tric arc has been adopted by the burglar. 
There is no safe known that will not 
yield to the electric carbon applied by 
the skilled ‘“‘safe-cracker.” 

Aside from lighting, the most useful 
purpose to which the electric arc has 
been put is in the mending of broken or 
cracked castings and metal parts of all 
kinds. A broken shaft, for instance, can 
be resurrected from the junk heap if a 
skilled workman, with adequate arc ap- 
paratus, is given a chance at it. More- 
over, a broken metal piece repaired by 
the electric arc is as serviceable as when 
new. In fact, strain tests made upon 
repaired castings often result in break- 
age at a different point than where the 
repair was made. 

The accompanying photograph shows 
a workman engaged in arc-welding. Due 
to the intense heat at the point at which 
the carbon pours its electrical fire upon 
the metal, the operators usually wear 
helmets, not unlike the gas helmets of 
the present war. They at least hold be- 
tween their eyes and the arc a thick plate 
of cobalt glass. The amount of protec- 
tion required depends upon the strength 
of the current fed to the arc. 


Watch Your Oil for Gold Teeth 
HILE overhauling an old, two- 
cylinder car, E. E. Booth, of Po- 

mona, Cal., found in the crank case a 
sizable piece of refined gold which had 
apparently been once the crown of some- 
body’s tooth. Its presence in the oil and 
other residue has not been explained. 


Popular Science Monthly 


The guarding of this railroad bridge across the Pecos River on the Mexican frontier was 
accomplished by means of acetylene search-lights located on the banks below the bridge 


Protecting a Bridge from Villa 
with Acetylene Lamps 


URING the trouble in Mexico it 
was feared along the frontier that 
the Mexican desperadoes might destroy 
American bridges, thereby preventing, or 
more or less seriously hindering, the effort 
of the American troops ordered across the 
border in capturing bloodthirsty Villa. 
On several occasions bands of maraud- 
ers threatened to dynamite the bridge of 
the Southern Pacific Railroad, which 
stretches, a delicate steel thread, across 
the Pecos River. The Southern Pacific 
Railroad bridge which is three hundred 
and twenty feet in length, spans the 
lower course of the Pecos River where 
it flows into the Rio Grande. The 
bridge is one of the most important 
connecting links in the southern branch 
of the Texas division of the railroad, 
and its demolition, a comparatively easy 
matter, would cause a tremendous loss 
because of the delay in freight shipments. 
To forestall the plans of a possible Villa 
dynamite squad, troops were stationed at 
regular points along the roadbed of the 
river. At several places underneath the 
bridge, powerful acetylene search-lights 
were turned on at night. Because of the 
vigilance of the 19th United States In- 
fantry, which was stationed on the bridge, 
the Mexicans made no attacks. 


The Gentlest Bullet 
CAT may be killed by shooting, but 
the use of chloroform is generally 
considered more humane. Shooting has 


its merciful side also, and during the 
period of the present war, much has been 
said regarding the most humane bullet. 
The bullet used by the French infantry 


-cannot be said to be desirable, yet it is 


perhaps the least painful and produces 
the fewest bad effects of any now in use. 
Its swiftness enables it to pass right 
through the body and to cut a very 
small, clean hole, without tearing the 
surrounding tissue. The chance. of, 
escaping important nerve centers is thus 
greatly increased. | 
The greatest injury is caused by tear- 


‘ing open the tissues and splitting the 


bones. Many heavy bullets act in this 
way as well as the dum-dum bullets, 
so much talked about last year. Shrap- 
nel balls are not so disastrous in their 
effects. They have so little force back 
of them that they 

seldom penetrate 
beyond the outer 
muscular 
coating. 


Vigilant American troopers kept the calcium 
focused on the delicate steel structure all night 


820 Popular Science Monthly 


bad aot 
Pega 


time in 2 asa 
hee NETS RLS ee Doom 
Fy . 


ite. 


Bathing under the glare of the calcium has become a popular recreation at some of Chicago’s 
extensive beaches on the shores of Lake Michigan 


Swimming by Searchlight 
OR the benefit of the tired business 
man and the tired business woman, 
unable to take advantage of Chicago’s 
twenty-two miles of lake front during 
the daytime, the city has installed along 
some of the beaches powerful: electric 


searchlights, so that the bathers can see, 


just where, and with whom, they are 
swimming. After nightfall, the lights 
are turned on, throwing their rays in 
various directions, so that the bathers 
have plenty of illumination both 
on the beach and at a generous 
distance into the lake. 

Aside from giving the 
Chicagoans a new form of 
water sport, it makes 
their swimming _ per- 
fectly safe. 


A Strange Persian 
Cistern 


ERHAPS 
nothing 
could better | 
illustrate the | 
difficult | 
nature of : 
Peesta, 2s [ 


erations than the accompanying photo- 
graph which shows the extreme measures 
that have to be adopted for the conserva- 
tion of water over a large part of the 
region in which the Turks, Russians, 
and even a considerable number of 
Persians are now in conflict. 

The Caspian watershed of Persia is 
fairly well watered and wooded, but all 
the region south of about the latitude 
of Teheran—the central and southern 
zones—are almost absolute desert, the 

largest cities being near the base of 

the mountains where the rivers 

have not had time to be absorb- 

ed in the burningsands. At 

other points there are oc- 

casional wells and springs, 

but the principal sources 

of water in these 

desert regions are the 

strange cisterns such 
as shown in the 
illustration. 

Stone con- 
duits carry 
water from 
the moun- 
tains to the 
cisterns on 


regards 
military op- 


Water is carried many miles through conduits and de- 
posited in these remarkable dome-covered Persian cisterns 


the desert 
plains. 


elk ili ai Mae, Puli 


a ae 


= oe, 


ert See ee ee eT ee eee ee ee 


. ie ie | 


Housekeeping Made Easy 


How to Avoid Burnt Fingers 

HERE is 

the cook 
who has _ never 
burnt her hands 
draining scalding 
hot water from 
vegetables? Blis- 
tered hands may 
now become mere 
reminiscences, for 
there are upon 
the market excel- 
lent vegetable kettles of aluminum with 
lids held in place safely by clamps. On 
one side is a hand-hold for tipping the 
vessel and for holding the lid. 


Cherry-Stoner Saves the Hands 
N automatic 
method of 
removing the 
stones from cher- 
ries without 
touching the fruit 
with the hands or 
soiling it in any 
way, is afforded 
through the ope- 
ration of the sim- 
ple little device illustrated. Press the 
finger on the spring-rod, so that it goes 
through the fruit and reaches the stone, 
and continue pressing until the stone is 
forced out. 


An Electric Gas-Lighter 
GAS- 
LIGHTER 
which can be at- 
tached to an ordi- 
nary electric sock- 
et has recently 
been patented. A 
tubular insulating 
handle A contains 
a bank of elec- 
trical resistance C 
to which is connected a metallic leaf 
spring. By pressing a push-button D 
on the side of the handle the spring is 
brought into contact with a carbon 
electrode E. Connecting with the re- 
sistance coil is a wire D which, in turn, 

connects with the house circuit. 


Efficiency in the Kitchen 


HE cook, like 

most other 
responsible peo- 
ple, is depending 
less on her guess- 
ing apparatus and 
more on simple 
little instruments 
which insure ac- 
curacy. For in- 
stance, there is 
the kitchen clock, 
the graduated pint measure, scales of one 
kind or another, thermometers, etc. The 
graduated measure has superseded the 
various sized teacup. 


Two Cooking Vessels in One 
COOKING 


utensil 
which comprises 
inner and outer 
vessels separated 
from each other 
and permanently 
connected togeth- 
er at their upper 
ends to provide a closed heating chamber 
which extends from the bottom of the 
outer vessel to the upper ends of both 
vessels, is able to distribute heat more 
effectively throughout the food in the 
upper portion of the inner vessel. 


A Glue-Brush Like a Fountain-Pen 


OW comes 

a glue foun- 
tain that applies 
glue through a 
brush by pressure, 
doing away with 
the time consum- 
ing task of dip- 
ping and apply- 
ing. Liquid glue 
is contained ina 
long metal barrel 
in which an inner barrel fits piston-like. 
At the lower end of the outer barrel is a 
small curved tube which points towards 
a brush. Forcing down the inner barrel 
urges the glue into the bristles of the 
brush. 


821 


822 
A Vacuum Washing-Machine Which 
Sucks Dirt Out of Fabrics 

ONICAL vacuum cups which see-saw 

up and down, do the washer-woman’s 
hard work in the laundry machine de- 
vised by E. F. Beebe of Minneapolis. 
Besides saving rubbing, the cups cleanse 
the clothes with practically no wear and 
tear on the fabric. 

Tke tub rotates beneath the cups, thus 
enabling them to reach every part of 
the washing. The wringer is pivotally 
hinged at one side of a post of the frame 
that supports the 
fupso It. can be 
swung close up to 
the tub, or it may 
be swung to one 
side when the ma- 
chine is to be used 
with a fixed tub. 
An electric motor 
usually furnishes 
the power, but a 
gas-engine may be 
used instead. 


Try These 


NEof the latest 
household ap- 
pliances is the hot- 
water platter. It 
is especially useful 
at breakfast time. 
Boiling water can 
be turned into the 
tank under the platter and 
the top screwed down. Then 
by placing the nickel cover 
over the food, it will keep 
hot for at least a half-hour. 
Before cleaning tan or 
russet shoes, rub them over 
lightly with a flannel cloth 
wet with milk, first removing 
any stains with benzene. If 
this is done, the shoes will 
receive the polish much 
better and remain in a softer 
and more pliable wearing 
condition. 

When hooks and eyes are 
used on the placket of a 
tailor-made suit, if the pair 
at the base of the opening 
are pinched down flat the 


Popular Science Monthly 


placket will never tear or look shabby. 

A good furniture polish can be made 
in the following manner: To six ounces 
of the best refined kerosene add one 
ounce of the best yellow resin, one dram 
of vermilion to color, and ten ounces of 
turpentine. Mix these ingredients at a 
gentle heat for at least an hour. Then 
strain and stir constantly until cold. 

A canvas or linen household pocket, 
or sidebag, with a belt, will be found a 
great step-saver for the busy housewife 
In it may be stowed such articles as 
keys, pocketbook, memo- 
randum pad and pencil, 
so that they are ready at 
hand. 

Paint stains may be re- 
moved from cotton orlinen 
by soaking in turpentine 
or gasoline. If on silk, do 
not use turpentine; ether 
will probably dissolve it. 

Grass stains, when fresh, 
can be removed by soaking 
in alcohol. If the stains 
are old, rub with molasses 
and allow to stand several 
hours before washing out. 


ge 


A number of electrically operated vacuum cups cleanse 
the clothes with very little wear and tear on the fabric 


PVE OR es 
le 


Popular Science Monthly 823 


A Convenient Milk and Butter 
Slide for Refrigerators 


F all the foods kept in a refrigerator 

milk and butter require the most 
frequent opening of the food compart- 
ment. They are removed for each meal, 
returned after the meal, and are taken 
out between meals for use in cooking. 
When they share the usual large chamber 
the entire compartment is opened to the 
warm air each time. A new refrigerator 
accessory is a milk and butter slide 
arranged separate. It reminds one of 
a drawer in an office filing cabinet. 

Upon opening the small door a metal 
skeleton slide appears, so divided, that 
it holds two one-quart milk-bottles and 
three one-pound bricks of -butter, each 
bar of butter resting on a removable 
sanitary tray which can be carried to 
the table. Only one-tenth as much cold 
air is lost as when the door to the main 
provision chamber is opened. The 
metal slide is plated with zinc, and 
nickel. 

Not only does this arrangement pre- 
vent the rapid melting of the ice, but 
there is another advantage. Butter and 
milk absorb odors and vapors given off 
by other substances. This difficulty is 


obviated by means of this device and the 
odor of onions, meat, etc., does not reach 
the butter and milk. 


Butter and milk should be kept separate 
from the other foods in the refrigerator 


The disagreea- 
ble task of han- 
dling ice is great- 
ly lightened by 
the wse- of sa 
simple ice-grip 
which can be 
used for lifting, 
shaving, or split- 
ting. It consists 
simply of a 
roughened piece 
of metal provid- 
ed with a strap 
to fit the hand 


An Ice-Grip With Many Uses 


HE slippery, cold block of ice 

delivered by the iceman can be 
grasped safely by holding it with a 
pair of ice-grips. Each grip has an 
oval, roughened face to make contact 
with the block. On the back of each is 
a strap for the hand. For its second use 
a grip becomes an ice-pick. At one end 
is a sharp point for this purpose. When 
shaved ice is wanted a grip becomes an 
ice shaver. 


Another Way to Rejuvenate Eggs 
MARYLAND man has found a 


means of preserving eggs with a 
substance known as “‘liquid petrolatum,”’ 
which he claims will rapidly penetrate 
eggs, when applied externally, and make 
them proof against moisture or bacteria. 
The preserving substance is a mixture of 
hydro-carbons. When properly treated, 
eggs can be preserved under a normal 
temperature for many weeks without 
deteriorating. 


| Measuring the Light of the Stars 


By Joel Stebbins 


Professor of Astronomy in the University of Illinois 


Prof. Stebbins’ remarkable measurements of the heat of stars have attracted 

the attention of astronomers all over the world. Apart from the value of the results 

- obtained, his work 1s interesting because it shows that astronomers are making use 

of modern technical advances, as in the case which he describes, sometimes before 
_ they are perfected for commercial purposes.—EDITOR. 


astronomy is the exact determina- 

tion of the amount of light that 
comes from each of the stars. Not that 
the knowledge of the fraction of a candle 
power of each star is of any interest or 
importance, but that the measures are 
valuable for future reference, especially 
to determine the gradual changes in 
light caused by the dying out or the 
brightening of these distant objects. 
Our own sun being one of a class of stars, 
the best clue to the life history of the sun 
may be given by a study of other bodies 
of the same kind. We also find in the sky 
numerous extraordinary objects, called 
short-period variable stars, which change 
in brightness by fifty per cent or more in 
the course of a few days, or even hours. 


Wanted: A Standard Eye 
For. general purposes the unaided 
human eye is one of the best instruments 
for measuring the light of stars, and most 
forms of photometer depend ultimately 
upon the eye for a comparison of two 


() of the standard problems of 


lights. Because of the difference between 


individuals, however, there is no such 
thing as a “‘standard eye,” and astrono- 
mers have long been waiting for some 
purely mechanical device which will 
register light intensities. Let us note 
that such an instrument is even more in 
demand for commercial work, especially 
for testing electric lights. At present the 
ordinary householder has to take the 
word of somebody else for the amount of 
light he is getting from electric lamps. 
The lighting companies accommodate us 
with meters telling how much current we 
use, but we have no exact measure of how 
much light they are delivering. City 
authorities contract for a number of 
lamps of say one thousand candle power 
each, but who knows after the lamps are 
installed whether they furnish a thousand 


or only eight hundred candle power? 

We see that there is a real demand for 
an instrument which, held at a given 
distance from any lamp, will indicate 
just how much light is being emitted. 
Needless to say, many experimenters 
have attempted to perfect such an instru- 
ment, but so far without success. The 
underlying principle of these devices has 
been to make use of some substance 
which changes its properties under the 
influence of light. One of the most im- 
portant is the element selenium, a sub- 
stance in the same chemical group as 
sulphur. For more than a generation it 
has been known that the crystalline form 
of selenium changes its electrical resist- 
ance when exposed to light. Other sub- 
stances exhibit this same property, but 
none to such a marked degree as selen- 
ium. The ordinary arrangement is called 
a cell or bridge. Two wires are wrapped 
about an insulator, and on one face the 
selenium is deposited and then sensi- 
tized. The best method of sensitizing is 
a trade secret, but one standard method 
is to melt the selenium at four hundred 
and twenty degrees Fahrenheit, and 
then let it cool gradually, when it will 
crystallize and be light-sensitive. There 
must be a certain amount of mystery 
in the process, even to the makers them- 
selves, for none of them can furnish cells 
of a standard resistance, nor even two 
cells which are precisely alike. On the 
opposite page is shown an unmounted cell 
of the usualform. In the dark it hasan 
electrical resistance of about five hundred 
thousand ohms, but on exposure to strong 
daylight the resistance drops to about 
ten thousand ohms, or only one-fiftieth 
of the original. 

The principle of a selenium photom- 
eter is, then, to connect a selenium cell 
with a small battery and to measure the 


824 


he 


oe) 
rhs) 
Or 


Popular Science Monthly 


increase of current, due to light, by means of an 
ammeter or galvanometer. However, there are 
several difficulties in this simple process. When 
selenium is exposed to a strong light, some 
minutes or even hours are required for the re- 
sistance to return to its original value. Selenium 
is extra sensitive to red light, and so does not 
give directly a measure of how bright a light 
would appear to the eye. For instance, a carbon 
filament lamp with its yellowish light will affect 
a selenium cell just as much as a much whiter 
tungsten lamp of double the candle power. 
Finally and worst of all, selenium is very ir- 
regular in its action, and no experimenter has 
yet solved to his own satisfaction the 
mysteries of this element. 


The Selenium Cell Is Packed in Ice 


As applied to the stars, however, many 
of the ordinary difficulties disappear. 
star light isso faint, even atthe focus of  Gompara- © Eelipee | 
a large telescope, that the slow recovery  tiveSieot Fosition \ 
of the selenium is not such a ae, 
drawback; next, since we are . 
usually concerned only 
with variations of light, 
it matters little which 
color is used; and 
lastly the irregu- 
lar action may be 
controlled some- 
what by keeping 
the selenium at a 
low uniform tem- 
perature. Strange 
as it may seem, 
when the light of 
stars is to be meas- 
ured, a selenium 
cell at the end of 
the telescope is 
surrounded with 
an ice pack, the 
ice being renewed 
every day in sum- 


a ~~. Eclipse 
/ ‘\, Position 


we 


In the circle is shown 

a selenium cell and ice 

pack attached to the 
telescope 


The oval diagram 
above the circle pic- 
tures the system of 
Delta Orionis, show- 
ing orbit, eclipse 
positions, and compa- 
rative size of the sun 


To the right—Un- 
mounted selenium 
cell, natural size 


826 


mer. Such an arrangement is shown in 
connection with the telescope of twelve 
inches aperture at the University of IIli- 
nois Observatory. Wires are lead from 
the telescope to a galvanometer in an 
adjacent room. Two observers are neces- 
sary, one to point the telescope and ex: 
pose the selenium cell to the stars, while 
the other reads the galvanometer and 
records the measures. 

With this short description of the de- 
vice, let us see how results are obtained 
on the stars. Nearly every one has 
heard of the wonders of spectrum analy- 
sis; how, by studying the light of a star, 
split up into the different colors, the 
astronomer has been able to draw certain 
conclusions about the constitution of the 
body. For example, it is easily demon- 
strated that metals, such as iron and 
calcium, exist as hot vapors above the 
surface of the sun. It is not so well 
known, however, that by means of the 
spectroscope we can study the motions 
of the stars as well as their chemical 
constitutions. 

It would lead us too far afield to dis- 
cuss this phase of the subject, but let 
us state that peculiarities in the spectra 
of certain stars lead us to conclude that 
they are attended by large companions 
or planets which move about them. 
Such stars are called ‘“‘spectroscopic 
binaries,’ since they are revealed by 
the spectroscope. The North Star is an 
object of this class, being in fact a triple 
system, as there is one body which re- 
volves about the main star in only four 
days, while a second and more distant 
companion has a period of a dozen years. 
In some cases the planes of the orbits of 
these companions are at such angles that 
when they pass in front of the main stars 
there are eclipses as seen from the earth. 
About one hundred such cases are known, 
but moreare being'continually found. The 
study of these eclipsing binaries is espe- 
cially important, since they give us the 
most direct measure of the diameters of 
the stars. Spectroscopic measures de- 
termine the size of the orbit in which the 
second body moves, while with the 
photometer is found the duration of the 
eclipse, which is simply the time neces- 
sary for the companion to pass in front of 
the main star, and hence gives at once the 
sum of the diameters of the two bodies. 


Popular Science Monthly 


The Stars in Orion 


Any one who is familiar with a few 
of the constellations knows Orion, which 
is in the south in the winter sky. The 
striking feature of this group consists of 
three stars in a row, known as the Belt 
of Orion. The right hand star of the 
three is Delta Orionis, the Greek letter, 
Delta, meaning the fourth star in the 
order of lettering. This object is a 
spectroscopic binary, the period of the 
companion being six days. The star 
was one of the first observed with the 
selenium photometer, and by comparing 
it with other stars in the vicinity it was 
soon found that at intervals of six days 
there is always a loss of eight per cent 
of the light, an amount imperceptible 
to the eye. The eclipse lasts slightly 
less than one day. After an exhaustive 
study, the main facts of the system have 
been brought out, and the appearance 
of the two bodies as viewed from the 
direction of the earth is shown to scale in 
theoval diagram. From simple considera- 
tions it is established that the companion 
is about six tenths the diameter of the 
main body, and the four small circles 
show the successive positions of the com- 
panion in its orbit, which is not circular 
but slightly elliptical, and of course 
viewed at an angle. The dotted circles 
show the position for eclipses, and we 
find as expected that when the smaller 
body is behind the primary there is also 
an eclipse, but in this case only seven 
per cent of the light of the system is 
cut off, as compared with eight per cent 
when the companion is in front. This 
demonstrates that the smaller body is 
seven-eighths as intense for the same 
surface as the main body, and is hence 
far from being a dark planet. 

The figure shows how close together 
the bodies are as compared with their 
diameters, and we also find that we are 
dealing with a giant system. It is very 
interesting to note the comparative size 
of the sun, eight hundred and sixty 
thousand miles in diameter. The larger 
star of Delta Orionis has fifteen times 
and the small star nine times the sun’s 
diameter. The system, brought up and 
placed beside the sun, would not only 
appear large, but would beextraordinarily 
intense in comparison, the surface brill- 


Ret yy ae 


Popular Science Monthly 827 


iancy of each component exceeding the 
sun at least twenty fold, so that the 
total light of the system is equal to about 
five thousand suns! Imagine the condi- 
tions of the earth if we had such a pair 
of bodies to govern us. 

In spite of their enormous size, the 
bodies are not so very massive, exceeding 
the sun only about twenty-five times in 
weight, and therefore they are much less 
dense than the sun, one hundred and fifty 
times smaller in density, which amounts 
to saying that they average about six 
times as heavy as the same volume of air. 
According to current theories of the life 
history of stars, Delta Orionis, like the 
other objects in Orion, is very young, 
and in due course of time will contract 
and cool off and become much more like 
the sun, though of course remaining 
more massive. 

The case here selected illustrates what 
can be revealed by electrical measure- 
ments of light changes which have en- 
tirely escaped eye observation. Many 
other stars are being studied in the same 
way, and it is possible to measure their 
diameters and weigh them, when the 
only effect at the end of the telescope 
is a minute electrical current set up by 
the light action. Thus we see that 
astronomers are making use of the mod- 
ern technical advances, and in some 
cases, like the present, a new device may 
even be used with success in pure science 
before it is perfected for commerical 
purposes. 


Measuring Cloth in the Roll 


HE inconvenience of unwinding a 
roll of cloth to measure it has been 
obviated by a clever mechanism de- 
vised by Anthony Fobare. The exact 
length of any roll of fabric can be ascer- 
tained in a few minutes. 

The idea consists in passing a thread 
between the folds of the roll and measur- 
ing the thread. For this purpose a tool 
shown in Fig. 1 is used. The thread 
passes through a handle 2, which termi- 
nates in a projection 3 about the size of 
a large knitting-needle. A disk 4 is placed 
between the handle and the projection. 
When inserting the projection between 
the folds of cloth this guard presses 
against the end of the roll, keeping the 


Unwinding a roll of cloth is unnecessary to 

find its length. A thread can be inserted 

between the folds and the length of the 
thread taken 


projection a uniform distance from the 
edge. 

The spool is mounted on a box 16 
(Fig. 2). The thread is held under 
tension by passing between two disks 
23 held together by a spring. After 
passing around a large pulley 39 at- 
tached to the side of the box, the thread 
again passes through two tension-plates 
43 and then into the handle of the 
threading-tool. 

The circumference of the pulley 39 is 
just one yard. On the threaded shaft of 
this pulley is suspended a traveler or 
rider 34, which moves along the threads 
as the pulley is rotated. A pointer 38 
indicates the number of turns on a scale 
36, placed parallel to the shaft. Every 
turn stands for one yard. The inches 
are recorded on the face of the pulley, 
the circumference of which is divided 
into thirty-six parts. When the meas- 
urement is begun the pointer 42 and the 
rider 34 should both be at zero. The 
unwinding of the thread, as it is woven 
into the roll of fabric, is thus recorded in 
yards and inches. 


ES ee 


828 


Popular Science M onthly 


This panoramic map showing the entire portion of the world affected by the European 
conflict, was constructed in a prominent Chicago store as a permanent exhibit 


A Marvelous War Map 

HE lessons that the war has taught 

have been many. One of them is 
that we know less about Europe than 
we think» we do. We are learning 
geography on a more detailed plan than 
we did in our school-days. To help us 
in locating battlegrounds and fortresses 
the owners of a large and prominent 
store in Chicago constructed a panoramic 
map showing the entire portion of the 
world affected either directly or other- 
wise by the conflict. 

It may be stated that three months’ 
labor by a corps of workers was required 
to design and construct the war map. 
The setting has been placed in the 
playroom of the toy section, and made 
to resemble a fort, as the view herewith 
makes plain. The idea was to make 
possible the instruction of both child 
and grown-up, and in this way to become 
a teacher so that the results would be 
productive of good to the public. 

The view shows all the prominent 
cities in the war section, as well as forts, 


wireless stations, topography, steam- 
ship lines and railroads. It includes 
such countries as France, England, 


Germany, Russia, Holland, Roumania, 
Servia, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey, Italy, 
Norway, Denmark, Ireland, Switzerland 
and Scotland. In each of these countries 
may be found the important cities and 
towns, together with churches, theaters, 
palaces, and other important buildings, 
all properly located with due regard to 


distance and other detail. Every body 
of water is shown. Submarines, war- 
ships and other sailing craft sail the 
oceans and seas. Wireless stations 
flash their messages, railroad trains race 
across country, and each city is lighted 
with its own lamps as well as the lights 
from other places that make prominent 
features of the exhibit. 

Every ten minutes there is a complete 
change in the scene, by means of the 
lighting effects, from daylight to dark- 
ness, and the cloud effects and electrical 
display are wonderful to behold. This 
is the most fascinating idea in connection 
with the otherwise wonderful exhibit, 
and marks a feat that stands out as 
unique and deserving of favorable com- 
ment from all who have witnessed the 
map. It cost thousands of dollars ‘to 
construct, and is to be retained as a 
permanent exhibit. 


A Successful Railroad 

The best paying railroad in the world, 
according to length, is the Sandersville 
road, running from that city to Tennille, 
Georgia, a distance of three and one-half 
miles. In 1913 and 1914 a twenty per 
cent dividend was declared, while in 
some years forty per cent has been paid 
on the capital stock. The road’s rolling 
stock consists of two locomotives and 
two coaches. It makes four round trips 
daily and hauls practically all the freight. 
coming to Sandersville. 


Popular Science Monthly 


A New Way of Loading Steamers 
from Freight Cars 


N unusual handling plant designed 
to reduce the time in transferring 
pig-iron, coal, steel and various other 
bulk materials from gondola cars 
to boats, has been installed by a 
large steamship company at Cleve- 
land, Ohio. 


829 


profit by experience. Writing of the bad 
condition of the roads in England in 
1685, Macaulay says: 

“The chief cause which made the 
fusion of the different elements of society 
so imperfect was the extreme difficulty 
which our ancestors found in passing 
from place to place. . . . In the seven- 
teenth century the inhabitants of Lon- 


A gigantic locomotive-crane empties coal into the one-hundred-ton concrete bin from 
which it is loaded into carts through three hand-operated gates 


A one-hundred-ton concrete bin, held 
above the ground by steel beams, is 
situated midway between the freight 
tracks and the steamship. A locomotive 
crane on the tracks transfers the material 
from the cars into the bin. Two-ton 
carts are hauled under the bin, and the 
coal drops into them through three 
hand-operated gates. As soon as the 
carts are filled, they are drawn to the 
steamship by means of electric trucks 
equipped with storage batteries. It 
is said that this plant has proved a 
decided success and has largely reduced 
the handling costs of bulk materials. 


Bad Roads Make Bad Going 
T is no truer that history repeats itself 
than that men, in general, do not 


don were for almost every practical pur- 
pose, farther from Reading than they 
now are from Edinburgh, and farther 
from Edinburgh than they now are from 
Vienna. . . . When Prince George of 
Denmark visited the stately mansion of 
Petworth in wet weather, he was six 
hours going nine miles. 

All this was the condition of highway 
traffic in England two hundred and 
thirty-one years ago and it can be 
duplicated in many parts of the United 
States today. It has been estimated 
by careful government experts that only 
about 150,000 miles of really first-rate 
modern highways are to be found in the 
United States; the total mileage of 
public roads in January, I915, was 
W273 Tah. 


Trench-Digging by Machinery 


ODERN engineering require- 
ments coupled with a persistent 
demand for labor-saving devices 

have brought into being several types 


Above, the endless chain type 
of machine excavating a twelve- 
foot trench with cutting buck- 
ets. To the right, the wheel 
type of machine with its driv- 
ing mechanism at the top 


of trench-digging apparatus 
which are of ingenious con- 
struction. Of all manual la- 
bor, digging trenches by hand 
or excavating on a large scale 
by hand is the most laborious 
and expensive method. One 
of the largest single items in 
a contractor’s specification, 
until the modern digging ma- 
chines came along, concerned 


the amount of excavating to be done. 
With the several new types of mechani- 
cal excavators this item can be reduced 
materially. 

In the machines recently marketed 
two general principles seem to be used. 
In one, cutting bucketsare attached to an 
endless chain, while in the other they are 
mounted on the periphery of a wheel. 
In both methods the buckets are forced 
to bite into the ground at the end of a 
trench, carrying the dirt up with them as 
they rise. 

The endless chain type of machine 
grips the dirt and hoists it to the surface 
in the same way as chain buckets on an 
elevator-hoist lift grain to upper bins. 
The wheel type has a curious mechanical 
feature in that the wheel itself has no 
central hub. Instead, it consists merely 
of a rim supported by four sets of rollers 
mounted on an internal framework. 
The reason for this is that it gets all the 
driving machinery up near the top of the 
wheel, enabling a deeper trench to be 
dug with a smaller wheel than would 
otherwise be possible. In fact both 
types have their driving mechanism 
located at the upper end of the chain, 
and both also make use of a transverse 
conveyor belt to carry the excavated 
material to wagons as fast as it is 
brought up. 

Behind the wheel on the wheel type 
of machine is located a bracket-like or L- 
shaped framework, known as the “‘shoe.”’ 


— 


sah 


"7 


=F .”.6h TCC CT Uh ee 


Popular Science Monthly 


This slides along the bottom 
of the trench and supports 
the rear end of the wheel 
frame work. Depth of dig- 
ging is controlled by raising 
or lowering the front end of 
this framework, the rear por- 
tion of course riding along 
on the “shoe’”’ according to 
the depth of the front end. 
A special feature of this 
“shoe” is that a man can ride 
on it laying tile or pipe as fast 
as the digging progresses. 

Many widths and depths 
of trenches can be cut by the 
machines. Some have been 
made six feet wide and fif- 
teen feet deep. One machine 
dug two hundred rods of 
eleven and one-half inch 
trench thirty inches deep in 
a ten-hour day, and another 
dug a thousand feet of 
twenty-inch trench five and 
one-half feet deep inthe same 
time. Small boulders, tree 
roots, and similar barriers 
offer no great obstruction, 
and the machines accomplish 
work under difficult circum- 


stances with a celerity that -is sur-. 


prising. 

Various modifications of the chain- 
type and wheel-type have been made to 
fit special conditions. These relate 
largely to the shape of buckets used, since 
digging an open trench in sandy soil re- 
quires a far different kind of bucket than 


aed 
ep me 
© le 
weer 


In a ten-hour day this machine will do 
the work of two hundred men 


831 


“Caterpillar” wheels enable the big machine to travel 


over soft ground 


making a clean-cut channel in hard clay. 
To enable the machines to travel over 
wet, soft ground “‘caterpillar’’ wheels are 
used. 


Traveling by Parcel Post 


HOUGH our parcel post is a won- 

derful system, enabling us to send 
all kinds of strange things by mail, the 
English system can do one thing which 
we have, as yet, not attemped. 

An Englishman who was in a hurry to 
reach a part of London with which he 
was unfamiliar, called at the general post 
office to consult a directory. Upon ex- 
plaining his case, the clerk gave him the 
startling information that he could go by 
parcel post for the payment of threepence 
a mile. 

He was accordingly placed in charge 
of a messenger who took him to his des- 
tination. The boy carried a printed slip 
on which was written ‘Article required 
to be delived”’ with a description of the 
parcel following. 


832 Popular Science Monthly 


This motorcycle owner finds it possible to save money 
by delivering furniture on a side-car chassis 


Moving Furniture with a Motorcycle 


HE wide range of usefulness of the 

motorcycle is shown in its utiliza- 
tion for commercial purposes. A furni- 
ture dealer in Westerley, Rhode Island, 
has found that he can make deliveries 
on a side-car as efficiently and more 
economically than by the horse and 
wagon heretofore used. 

Upon a side-car chassis, he con- 
structed a small van which can be ex- 
tended when needed to a length of eight 
feet. Side boards are added 
to this, so that a large load of 
furniture can be carried. The 
motorcycle in the _ photo- 
graph carries upon its side- 
car two sofas, one large and 
one small, one upholstered 
and one plain rocker and two 
upholstered  straight-back 
chairs. This load is handled 
with ease in spite of its bulk 
and weight. 


Locating a Thunderstorm 
HEN you see a flash 
of lightning, count the 

seconds before it thunders 
and you can tell how far 
away the storm is. Since 
light travels 186,000 miles a 
second, we may for all practi- 
cal purposes regard ourselves 
as seeing the lighting the 
instant it flashes. But sound 


ond. Multiply 1087 by the 
number of seconds during the 
interval between the flash 
and the thunder and the re- 


you and the stcrm. 
rule, from twelve to fifteen 
miles is the greatest distance 
thunder can be heard. 


Stores on Wheels 


DAYTON woman who 

conducts a tobacco and 
confectionery shop has insti- 
tuted a system of traveling 
stores that has served to in- 
crease her business to an 
appreciable extent. The 
traveling stores are in charge 
of small boys, but they are so 
arranged that the business is carried on 
in a systematic manner. 

Each store is a wagon—a two-wheeled 
cart to be exact—and the goods are pro- 
tected from the elements and the dust by 
glass covers. The carts are, in fact, 
traveling show-cases, and a full assort- 
ment of goods is carried at all times. 
An interesting and business-like feature 
is the special compartment for a cash 
register, which makes the outfit com- 
plete. 


An enterprising woman has been able to increase her 
business by bringing her wares to the customer 


travels only 1087 feet a sec-’ 


sult is the distance between,» 
As a 


ti shiih al oe 


dbase pag lene on Rall 


oy eo eee 
shee OS agli 
eer, rae ee soybe 


1 a a 


treed 


vet aire 


Popular Science Monthly 


Madison Square Garden 


VALVE 


833 


Flatiron Building 


Metropolitan Tower 


Catskill Water will rise without 
pumping to this height. 


PRESSURE TUNNEL 


AL BASLSASLASL BASIN AALS AAAS EEL REA BREA BES GASSES TEAS EGS EELS ALSTS ASS ASS 
SERIAL ETO ELI OTE EEL ET TI LET I LILI ANE PLT LT TEL 


Water supplied to the city of New York from the Catskills rises two hundred and eighty five 


feet under its own pressure 


Water Rises to Three Hundred Feet in 
New York Sky Scrapers 


CITY possessing a pressure system 

capable of elevating water a vertical 
distance of nearly three hundred feet 
above street level without pumping is 
unusual. Yet New York’s new Catskill 
supply system will accomplish this feat. 
Contrasted with the thirty or forty-foot 
heights which the average city system 
can attain, the performance is out of 
the ordinary, to say the least. 

The artificial lakes supplying the water 
to New York are high up among the 
Catskill mountains, one hundred to 
one hundred and _ twenty-five miles 
north. In the case of the Metropolitan 
tower, for instance, this height to the 
supply enables the water to rise unaided 
two hundred and eighty-five feet above 
the ground level, or four hundred and 
eighty-five feet above the pressure 
mains, which are themselves two hun- 
dred feet below the street surface. The 
two hundred and eighty-five feet are 
more than two-thirds of the way up the 
occupied portion of the tower, so that 
but comparatively little pumping is 
necessary in order to reach the highest 
offices. The case is typical of all the 
large buildings in the city. 

Heads such as that mentioned mean 
that pressures over two hundred pounds 


to the square inch have to be contended 
with in the huge mains so far below the 
surface. This condition necessitates 
unusual construction. In fact, the 
whole length of the mains from the 
Catskills to the city is made up of diff- 
cult engineering feats. Over much of 
the distance they are made of steel 
tubing, lined and re-enforced with con- 
crete. In places they bore through 
solid-rock mountains, tunnel under rivers 
and lakes, burrow far beneath city 
streets and skyscrapers, all that the 
city may be reached by the shortest 
route consistent with engineering econo- 
my. Smaller mains near the surface 
care for the work of local distribution. 


War and Trade 


ECAUSE many foreign-owned ves- 

sels, which formerly traded between 
the United States and South American 
ports, have been withdrawn for war 
purposes, trade is thereby increased in 
proportion for American vessels. It is 
estimated that seventy per cent of our 
commerce with Brazil, the Argentine 
and other South American countries is 
now being carried under the American, 
Brazilian and Argentine flags. Of the 
remaining thirty per cent only about 
fifteen per cent is still carried in vessels 
of the nations at war. 


. " 


What a Lot of Machinery to Chase Villa! 


ee ee 


© Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. 
Above, a few United 
States trucks in the Mexi- 
can expedition. At left, 
water supply wagons 


Above, one of our flying squadron 
of aeroplanes which started bravely 
after Villa and his fleeing band. A 
few days after the pursuit began, 
two aeroplanes were in condition 


—a ee ee ee 


© Underwood and Underwood, N. Y. 


The Sixth Infantry encamped on the line of communication between the cavalry at Villa’s 
heels and the base of supplies. One of these small tents is carried by each soldier, and 
is used only to give him shelter while resting 


834 


ae 


Tracking Villa in the Wilds of Mexico 


@©lnternativnal Film Service 
At top, the Seventh Cavalry machine-gun troop crossing the divide south of Casas Grandes. 


In oval, the army wireless station at Columbus, New Mexico. Above, the Eighth Cavalry 
machine-gun troop in practice. Many of our guns are obsolete in design; in the recent 
raid one gun became clogged and had to be abandoned 


835 


© Underwood and Underwood, N.Y._ 


Above, ambulance 
corps leaving Colum- 
bus, N. M. for the inte- 
rior. At left, the “‘rook- 
ies” at Camp Cotton, 
El] Paso, being whipped 
into shape for possible 
service in the future. 
Infantry men are 
shown going through 
skirmish drill 


Photos © : 
Int. Film Serv. 


The cook preparing dinner for his waiting, hungry company. He is cutting bacon, the one 
staple product of the West obtainable in a sufficient quantity for the soldiers. Bacon 
and canned tomatoes—the latter because of the liquid—are the two table necessities of those 
who live in a country so dry that to waste a pint of water is to court the undertaker. Great 
difficulty has been experienced in the Mexican campaign because of the high winds which 
lash the sand and dust violently against man and beast. It is impossible to move in 
any one direction in a sand-storm. To prepare food under such conditions requires all 
- the patience and fortitude that soldiers are credited with having 


. 836 


a a ee 


Our Punitive Expedition Into Mexico 


ead 


1 


fe 


Mia a 


© Underwood and Underwood, N. Y. 


Caught between the roving bands of marauding guerillas, Mexican families have suffered 
terrible hardships during the past three years. In some instances the homes of peaceful 
people were destroyed and the members murdered without any reason other than 
the satisfaction of some alleged leader’s lust for blood. Siding with Villa or Carranza 
was useless to ward 
off these plundering 
bandits, seeking to 
destroy both life and 
property. The pho- 
tograph shows a 
band of Mexicans 
making their way to 
the United States, 
where they can set 
up house and be safe 
under the Stars and 
Stripes. Many Amer- 
ican families have al- 
so been obliged to 
leave homes and in- 
dustrial interests, and 
seek refuge on our 
own soil to escape the 
depredations of Mex- 
ican outlaws 


Mexican weapons captur- 
ed by Americans. The 
lifting of the embargo on 
arms has placed within 
the convenient reach of 
every cut-throat in Mex- 
ico weapons of the most 
modern type; in fact, 
weapons of the same 
effectiveness as those used 
against them by the 
United States troops. 
Mexico has suffered short- 
age of everything except 
arms and ammunition 
during her recent state of 
internal revolution. At 
right, troops of the Puni- 
tive Expedition drawing 
water from an improvised 
well near Divisional Head- 

"quarters at Casas Grandes, 

: Mexico 


Things the Recruiting Office Never Mentions 


Some of the huge 
baskets in which 
provisions and 
munitions are 
shipped to 
the Russian 
Army on 
the firing 
line 


Above, an un- 
usual test, even 
for a dispatch 
bearer’s motor- 
cycle. Some of 
the most notable 
feats of the war 
have been ac- 
complished by 
sturdy motor- 
cycles, but most 
machines “in 
Active Service” 
have a short life 


© Tropical Press Agency. 


Even menagerie elephants have to do their bit for England. In the streets of Manchester 
this great tireless beast hauls heavy drays 


838 


 —_ .! as PS —_ — = . see eee 


Does This Mark the Beginning of a New Labor Era? 


A three-inch shrapnel shell 
contains approximately 
two hundred to three hun- 
dred bullets, each one-half 
an inch in diameter. A 
matrix of resin or other 
smoke-producing sub- 
stance keeps the bullets 
from rattling, and deter- 
mines the location and 
time of explosion by 
creating a black smoke. 
At the right, French wo- 
men loading shells. A 
small car with receptacles 
for the shells is run along 
between the work-tables 
to receive the shells when 
prepared 


For the first time in history, women 
have been obliged to take the places of 
machinists, and they have displayed 
exceptional skill in such work 


Above, tamping down explosive charge 

with cork stopper. At right, adjusting 

“‘safety-heads” to prevent premature 
explosion of the charge 


The Modern Orderly Rides Not on a 


© Underwood and Underwood, N.Y. > 


British riders taking 
wounded soldiers for 
an outing. Thousands 
of convalescents are 
thus given their airing 
every week. In ‘the 
upper lefthand corner 
anti-aircraft practice 


> ha 


Two of the principal uses of the motor-cycle on the war front are carrying dispatch riders 

at terrific speed from one part of the line to another, and making forays while mounted with 

light machine guns. Six or eight of these fragile-looking motor-cycles make a formidable 
battery, and even the most reckless opponent might well hesitate to attack them. 


840 


Snorting Horse But on a Swift Motor-Cycle 


© Underwood and Underwood, N. Y. 


At top, a motor-cycle trailing a prairie 
schooner with accomodations for four. 
In the circle and oval, a motor-cycle 
bearing a small machine gun—the 
design of Sergeant Leonard (U.S. A.) 


A few more glimpses of the daring motor-cyclists with the British Expeditionary force. 
Owing to the great speed of these machines, they are often detailed to the most dangerous 
work, and many coveted medals have been presented to the riders 


841 


Nothing Is Unusual in Europe Now 


Russia like every other seemingly civilized 
country harbors its money counterfeiters. 
The United States is, however, compara- 
tively free from counterfeiters compared 
with foreign countries. In Russia and Italy 
the destruction of counterfeiting “plants” 
is an everyday occurrence. The photograph 
shows a group of Russian counterfeiters 
gathered about their press and dies. Note 
the crude type of machine employed in 
this illegal industry 


dean (eon ene llll 


- 


¢ 
. 
r 

t 
“ 


British troops which are being retained in England awaiting the call to the front while away 
their time by making a huge war map of Europe with cobblestones 


842 


An idea of the enormous number of casualties 

on the battlefields may be obtained from this 

glimpse of a German storehouse containing 
splints for wounded arms and legs 


“i ; | ~— “W 4 


The mental unrest of the disabled men 
is eased by encouraging them to make 
trinkets of empty shells and cartridges 


A repair for frozen fingers— 
a glove with elastic bands 
which stretches the fingers 
and thus hastens the cure 


tA 
An artificial sunbath of 
ultra-violet rays which is being used by 
a German military hospital for healing 


843 


Like Other Countries Germany Did Not 


Although Bushnell and Fulton 
had both demonstrated the 
practicability of navigating a 
vessel under water, Germans 
took but little interest in the 
subject until 1850. In that 
year Wilhelm Bauer, whose 
portrait appears to the right, 
built the U-boat illustrated. 
Bauer served as a Bavarian 
artillery officer in the Danish 


In the oval, a squadron of German sub- 
marines. Two types of submarines have 
been developed, known in this country, 
respectively as the Holland and the Lake 
types. Americans are prone to regard 
Holland as the pioneer submarine inventor 


War and had ample opportunity 
to note the havoc wrought by 
Danish warships on Schleswig- 
Hollistein troops. He thought it 
would be easy to build a sub- 
marine boat which would destroy 
the Danish warships. The Prus- 
sian government was not very ¥ 
encouraging, and so he had to : 
build his vessel with the aid 
of private citizens 


gaping hole blasted in 
the side of an un- 
armored ship by a 
German torpedo. The 
latest type of German 
submarine carries from 
ten to twelve tor- 
pedoes. It is equip- 
ped with six torpedo 
tubes (four ahead and 
two astern). In the 
nose or warhead of a 
torpedo from five 
hundred to seven 
hundred pounds of gun 
cotton are carried—a 
high explosive of ter- 
rific possibilities as the 
picture convincingly 
testifies 


The photograph to the : 
left shows the great / 
£ 
a 


Take Kindly to Its First Submarine 


The two photographs to the 
right show respectively the 
internal operating mechanism 
and the exterior of Bauer’s ill- 
fated submarine. The boat was 
propelled by means of pedals and 
a train of gear wheels and cog 
wheels. The ‘‘Brandtaucher,”’ 
(Fire Diver) as Bauer’s boat was 
called, made just one trip in 
Kiel harbor. That was in 1851. 
The boat foundered, but fortu- 
nately the crew was rescued. The 
vessel was not strong enough to 
stand the pressure of water 
when submerged, In 1887, 
thirty-six years later, the govern- 
ment undertook some dredging 
in Kiel harbor for the purpose of 
building a torpedo basin. Bauer’s 
submarine was then discovered, 
raised and transferred to the 
courtyard of the Berlin Naval Museum, where it may 
now be seen. The submarine is a product of many 
lands and many minds. Even in ancient times efforts 
were made to navigate vessels under water—apparently 
with little success. Napoleon gave the subject some 
thought. It was with him that Robert Fulton dealt. 
The submarine, as we see it, combines the ideas of 
Bushnell, Fulton, Nordenfeldt, Holland and Lake 


To the left, aGerman submarine of an 
early type shown in section. Below, a 
German submarine of a late type. These 
late submarines have a radius of action 
of about 2,000 miles; that is, after having 
filled their oil tanks they can travel 
for that distance before it becomes nec- 
essary to replenish their fuel supply 


French Life Along the Western Battle Front 


© Underwood 
and Underwood, 
N.Y 


846 


At left, French grenadiers. 
With their shields and metal 
helmets they look for all the 
world like Middle Age sol- 
diers. Below, an improvised 
officers’ quarters. At lower 
left hand, a legging imper- 
vious to barbed wire, invented 
by George Lynch, the war 
correspondent. At lower right 
hand, a Scottish Highlander 


ee ee Spl Na REE hc " 


errr 


Behind the Scenes of the War 


j 


© Underwood and Underwood, N. Y. 


At top, a German dépot of telephone materials containing a vast amount of wire and 
other devices for the prompt installation of an efficient telephone system. The telephone, 
more than any other single factor, has made trench warfare possible. The illustration shows 
Vedrines, the famous aviator in his Morane monoplane. The gun shoots straight ahead, and 
bullets which happen to hit the rapidly revolving propeller are deflected 


847 


TT 


Making and Using the Booming Guns 


Above, French gun carriages being 
tested at the Creusot works. At left, an 
Austrian mortar at maximum elevation. 

Below, a 220-millimeter (8.8-inch) gun , 


The Italian engineers have proved themselves among the best in the world. Time and 
again the Austrians have been surprised by having shells dropped upon them, apparently 
from the skies. The Italians had dragged huge guns up precipitous mountain slopes and 
were safely installed out of the enemy’s range on plateaus, from which shells were fired over 
mountains. Here we see a 305-millimeter gun (12-inch) being assembled on a mountainside 


848 


vt 


z 
t- 


How a Zeppelin Raider Appears to Englishmen 


A target for hundreds of British anti-aircraft guns. This remarkable photograph was taken 
as a marauding Zeppelin, on a bomb-dropping raid, passed a quiet East Coast town on 
its way to lightless London 


849 


850 


Popular Science Monthly 


Straw Hat Insurance 
N longer need we fear the elements 


when we essay forth in our new 


Hat Shield 
turned back 


straw. wats. 
Come dust or 
rain — our pro- 
tection is ample. 

The invention 
that calls forth 
this outburst of 
enthusiasm is a 
light hatshield, 
printed in imita- 
tion of the kind 
of hat it covers 
—supported by 
an ingenious 


frame and fastened in place by tension 
clips. That it may always be at hand 


A Buzz-Saw Safety Razor 


AZORS have been further improved 
by means of a device for rotating 


a safety blade. 
A small motor 
3 isencased with- 
in an insula- 
ted “handle: 
Smiall gear- 
wheels, 6and 7, 


transfer the <3 


power to a re- 
volving shaft 5, 
to wine h= 1s 
attached a razor- 
blacte “4. sebie 


electric current 


is carried to the motor by means of a 
cord 1, which passes through the handle, 


in case of need, it is kept 
folded inside the crown. 


Fooling the Pickpocket 


O one can open the bag 

shown in the illustra- 
tion without being detected, 
whether it is being carried 
or not. A small battery 2 
is connected with a bell 3, 
which is connected with a 
metal plate 4, located near, 
but not touching another 


as shown in the diagram. 
The lever 2 serves for turn- 
ing on the current. In 
operation the blade moves 
close to the opening 8. 


A Tray to Hide Unsightly 
Cigar Ashes 


N ash-tray which elimi- 
nates the unsightly 
appearance of cigarette stubs 
and the fumes they give off, 
is shown in the illustration. 


plate 5. 


Connected with 


plate 5 is one of two bars, 6 and 7, 
placed the one above and the other 


below the handle 
of the bag. The 
other bar is con- 
nected with the 
battery, a _ small 
switch being in- 
serted between 
them for breaking 
the circuit when 
desired. Situated 
close to the two 
plates 4 and 5 and 
actuated by one of 
the hinged mouth- 
bars of the satchel 
is a switch or con- 
tact-bar 8. When 
the bag is opened, 


this bar touches both plates and thus 
completes the circuit, ringing the bell, 


and warning the owner. 


A funnel-shaped part has 


_its lower opening attached to the upper 


rim of a cylindrical box. Resting in the 


iene 


funnel is another 
member, consist- 
ing of two cones 
with their bases 
together. At their 
widest part, they 
rest on the funnel 
at its junction with 
the box. A ring- 
shaped trough is 
thus formed, into 
which ashes may 
be deposited. The 
cone is supported 
by a vertical pin 
attached to the 
base of the box. 
By lifting the cone, 


the ashes fall in the box. The ill-smelling 
fumes, however, are prevented from 


escaping. 


Popular Science Monthly 


These Desert Mates 
Never Quarrel 

VER one of the trails of 

the Sahara Desert the 
queerest of teams is em- 
ployed in drawing a two- 
wheeled cart, which carries 
light freight. The team 
consists of a camel and a 
small mule, and while the 
loads may be unevenly 
distributed between them, 
the mates never disagree. 
Naturally, they are rarely 
in step. Each draws his 
portion of the load in his 
pecu'iar way, the camel 
loping along with great 
strides while the mule. trots—almost 
scampers—beside him. 


This Gold Dredge Is a Glutton 


ROM the farm lands of Ohio has 
come an application for patent to 
Washington—and it has been granted— 
upon a placer-mining dredge which can 
wash and extract the gold from six 
hundred to twelve hundred cubic yards 
of ore dirt in a day. Moreover, an 
active application of the principle con- 
tained in the patent is doing its work 
daily in the placer fields of Colorado. 
The action of the mining machine is 
not entirely unlike the well-known gold- 


The dredge gulps from six to twelve hundred cubic 
yards of gold-laden dirt every day 


The widely differing peculiarities of a mule and a camel 
are here combined to form a curious team 


dredge, or “‘gold hog,” as it is familiarly 
called in California and Alaska. This 
machine, however, runs on tracks instead 
of in the water and shovels the dirt 
from behind instead of from in front. A 
capable steam dredge digs up the pay 
dirt, swings it above the separating 
machinery and drops it into a hopper. 
Water is sprayed on the incoming dirt 
at the rate of two thousand gallons a 
minute. The loosened ore then under- 
goes amalgamation (dissolving in mer- 
cury), the precious mass dropping below 
the hopper into a tank in which it is 
heated, the mercury being vaporized 
and re-condensed, and the gold accumu- 
lating in the tank. 


Two New Colossal 
Bridges 
OTABLE among the 
great engineering feats 
of the year 1915, are the 
colossal bridges which were 
constructed. As successor 
to the unfinished structure 
over the St. Lawrence at 
Quebec, which collapsed a 
few years ago, a new bridge, 
the longest arch in the 
world, is being completed. 
Its span is 1800 ft. During 
six months of last year 
about 32,000 tons of steel 
were placed in this bridge. 
The beautiful arch over 
Hell Gate, 977 ft. long, is of 
massive construction for 
carrying great weight. 


852 


A Device for Numbering Photographic 
Plates and Films 

PLATE and film-numbering ma- 

chine invented by John R. Stephen- 

son of Pullman, Washington, makes it 


This simple device, resem- 
bling in appearance a small 
adding machine, enables the 
photographer, professional or 
amateur, to preserve an ac- 
curate record of his photo- 

graphic plates and films 

possible for the photogra- 
pher, professional or ama- 
teur, to keep an accurate 
record of his photographic 
plates and films. In opera- 
tion and appearance the ma- 
chine resembles a small & 
adding machine. It prints any desired 
number on the light-sensitive surface of 
the plate or film (which after develop- 
ment is termed a negative) by the trans- 
mission of light through transparent 
figures arranged on opaque numbering 
strips. These strips bear the numbers 
I—9g consecutively and o. 

The machine has a slot in which the 
point of a pencil may be pressed and 
the strip slid along in its groove in the 
numbering machine until the desired 
figure is positioned over the opening in 
the table member of the machine, 
through which the light passes to print 
the numeral on a photographic plate or 
film, resting on the table of the machine. 
The rays from an electric flashlight 
under the table member are reflected by 
a slanting mirror up through the open- 
ing and through the figures on the num- 
bering strips of the machine, to transfer 
the numbers to the photographic plate 
or film. 

Guide pieces on the table member 


Popular Science Monthly 


hold the photographic plate in the proper 
position over the numbering machine. 
This makes it easy to operate in the dark, 
as it furnishes its own light for handling 
and the guide pieces insure proper posi- 
tioning of the photographic plate or film 
to be numbered. It is possible to print the 
photographs either in white or in black. 
If transparent numbering strips having 
opaque figures are employed, small 
opaque surfaces, with transparent num- 
erals appearing therein will be plainly 
legible when the dry plate or film is 
developed. If opaque numbering strips 
having transparent numerals are em- 
ployed, opaque fig- 
ures will be printed. 


Submitting Photo- 
graphs for the Lon- 
don Exhibition 

HE sixty-first an- 

nual exhibition of 
the Royal Photo- 
graphic Society will 
be held as usual in 
August and Septem- 
ber of this year. Mr. 
C. E. K. Mees of the 
Eastman Kodak Com- 
pany has been ap- 


Transparent numerals on a small opaque 
area or opaque numerals can be trans- 
ferred to each negative 


pointed one of the judges in the scien- 
tific section of the exhibition and he will 
receive photographs from exhibitors. 


Why Does a Rifle Crack? 
By Edward C. Crossman 


WAR strength infantry company ]~ >> aa a @ 
lay in our rear. We walked 
toward its far-off target, nearly 

in the line the bullets would take, a 
few yards’ divergence to the left giving 
us the safety margin we felt would be 
enough with such expert marksmen. 
From some indefinite point in the air to 
our right, there came a_ sudden 
burst of high, thin, eerie crashes, the 
thin crash that comes from the leap of 
the electric spark from the static ma- 
chine, repeated in fitful.fashion. Most 
extraordinarily, the sound lacked any 
definite point of origin; it seemed higher 
than we were; and it seemed to come A i 
from our right. Nearer than this we Photograph by Ordnance Department, U.S. N. 
could not locate it. A slight lull in the This picture was taken when the bullet 
sharp crackling, and there ae paucace aro on tame ae Uae Be ‘apariee? bi 
sound—the heavy, dull thudding o : E 


_—s Ss a 


guns fired at a great distance. As we 
progressed toward the long fire target 
twelve hundred yards from the infantry, 
the queer crackling noise followed us, 
growing thinner and more weird, but the 
thudding of the far distant guns grew 
fainter. 


a second. The two wires making the 
contact and the electric flash by which 
the photographs were made are shown 
as two black lines. The bullet takes its 
own picture. Note the eddying effect 
of the air behind the bullet. The fastest 
mechanical shutter, giving an exposure 
of one-thousandth of a second, would 
allow the bullet to move 2.7 feet during 


Photograph by Ordnance Department, U.S. N. 


The bullet was photographed when six 
inches from the muzzle, just escaping from 
the blast gases of the rifle. Note the 
outline of the sound wave diverging 
from the nose of the bullet. This is the 
first stage of the exit of a bullet from a 
rifle’s muzzle. It is not unlike the bow 
wave of a boat 


the opening of the lens 


We were walking not more than one 
hundred or one hundred and fifty yards 
from the line of fire of a trained infantry 
company, delivering its fire at a group- 
target twelve hundred yards, roughly 
three-quarters of a mile, away. 

The thin, high-pitched crackling, that 
seemed at one time like the leap of the 
high-tension spark of the static machine, 
at another like the cracking of whips, and 
again like the vicious crash of a stone 
through glass, came from the flying 
bullets of the United States service 
rifle, which starts with the speed of 
twenty-seven hundred feet per second. 
The thudding, that fell off to almost 
nothing at twelve hundred yards, came 
from the rifles themselves, the only 
sound one hears when close to them, 
but the least noticeable at a distance 
when one is close to the course of the 
bullet. 

As we gained the target, a new sound 


854 


BULLET TRAVELS 


pe 


1000 *YARDS 


BEHIND BULLET 


t 
j 
’ 
' 
| 
J 
| 
U 
' 
' 
SOUND 3 SECONDS | 
' 
I 
| 
! 
! 
! 
1 
| 
| 
! 


SOUND |685 YARDS ! 


BULLET 500 YARDS 


Popular Science Monthly 


BULLET 8OO YARDS 


SOUND 'WAVES 


SOUND £3, SECONDS 
BEHIND BULLET 


SOUND 


265 YARDS 


SOUND §& SECONDS 


100 


BEHIND BULLET 


SOUND | 480 YDS 


BULLET 300 YARDS 


=== 


SOUND #, SECOND 
BEHIND BULLET 


'‘ 
' 
' 
' 
1 
| 
t 


SOUND 


140 YARDS 


mingled with the irregular crashing of 
the bullets—a high-pitched whine, with 
an occasional vicious yowl punctuating 
the noise. This came from the ricochet- 
ting bullets, striking the ground short 
of the target and then glancing off and 
pursuing their erratic course through 
the air, their velocity much diminished, 
their travel changed to an end-over-end 
whirl, and the bullets themselves defaced 
and battered by the impact with the 
ground. 

Back of the target the bullets passing 
through it went into the waters of the 
lake several hundred yards out, with 
the noise of heavy blows, almost as 
hollow and heavy as the impact of a 
well-swung carpet beater on a huge, 
loose carpet. Almost the same sound 
comes when a bullet strikes flesh, human 
or otherwise. ; 

Normally the sound of the progress of 
the modern military bullet up to nearly. 
a mile, is the high-pitched, ear-splitting 
vicious crash. At longer ranges it hums, 
probably from an increasingly unsteady 
flight. Or possibly it hums all the time, 
but the sound is killed by the vicious 
crash that accompanies the bullet while 
it is traveling fast. 

Under some conditions of air and 
background, not yet clear to me, bullets 
hiss. The sound is noticeable at the 
skirmish, on the six hundred yard range 
at Camp Perry, and at the great matches. 
It is never heard at the range of the 
writer’s club, situated in the hills with 
every chance for sound to be echoed 
back and reproduced, nor has the writer 
heard it on any other range. However, 
this hissing noise is audible only at the 
firing point. Trial out along the flight 
of the bullets developed that either they 
did not hiss to the person so located or 
else the hiss was covered up by the 
usual crash, which amounts to the same 
thing in the end. 

Never do bullets howl unless they 
have been tipped out of normal flight 
by striking some obstacle. The howl 
is merely the noise of a more or less 
jagged missile whirling end-over-end, 
while the normal bullet, traveling nor- 


Sound is slower than a bullet. Bullet crash 
and rifle report are heard one after the other. 
The crash is due to air rushing in to fill the 

vacuum behind the bullet 


Popular Science Monthly 855 


mally, slips through the air like a trout 
through water. . 

The soldier, fired on and missed by a 
single sniper without other sound to 
confuse or cover up that pertaining to 
him, hears two distinct sounds, if the 
firing takes place within four hundred 


second is this sound heard. Strangely 
enough it is not heard if the bullet has 
started at very high speed and falls to 
this lower one. Possibly what is heard 
in such case is the crash of the bullet at 
some distance farther back where the 
velocity is still high enough to produce a 


yards or so. Pho- 
netically they are 
“Pack-punk.’’ 
The first is a 
vicious and men- 
acing crash. It is 
the bullet arriving 
with its regards to 
him; the second 
is the report of the 
rifle which follows 
along some dis- 
tance behind the 
bullet. The mod- 
ern bullet travels 
faster than does 
sound, which has 
but the speed of 
eleven hundred feet 
per second. The 
person watching 
the jet of steam 
from the whistle of 
the far-off locomo- 
tive and noting the 


interval of time. 


which elapses 
before the whoop 
of the whistle 
arrives, will ap- 
preciate that sound 
is a leisurely 
traveler. 

The crash comes 
from a vacuum 
formed in the rear 
of the flying bullet 
by its enormously 
quick displacement 
of air. The bad 
shape of the missile 
allows the air to 


Drawings from photographs of bullets in 
flight. Showing older type, metal jacketed, 
small bore military bullet in flight. Note 
bow wave of air driven ahead of the bullet, 
and the eddies of air in the wake like 
water in the wake of a ship. Directly in 
rear of the base of the bullet is the vacuum 
that causes the sharp crash as the air 
closes suddenly in upon it 


The flight of the modern spitzer bullet, 
which is used by Germany, England, 
France, the United States and some other 
nations. Note the sharper angle of the bow 
wave, and the greater vacuum in the rear of 
the bullet. This is caused by the fact that 
these lighter sharp-point bullets are driven 
at far higher velocity than the older type, 
and the vacuum is more pronounced. Also 
the noise is more marked. A bullet which 
tapered down to the stern as sharply as the 
point of the bow would have little vacuum 
and little noise. The photograph from 
which this sketch was prepared was made 
by Professor Boys by means of an electric 
spark produced as the bullet cut the wire 


crash. 

Military rifles 
drive their bullets 
at speeds of from 
two thousand to 
three thousand feet 
per second. The 
same bullets, load- 
ed to give velocities 
of less than four- 
teen hundred feet 
per second, do not 
make a sound. So, 
black-powder or 
low-power rifles 
like the familiar 
.22, do not pro- 
duce this crash 
from their bullets. 
The difference in 
the arriving time 
of the two sounds, 
bullet crash and 
report of the rifle 
which fired it, is 
very noticeable at 
the long ranges. 
At one thousand 
yards, for instance, 
the bullet of the 
United States rifle 
arrives at the mark 
1.86 seconds after 
it leaves the muzzle 
of the rifle. The 
bullet thus covers 
the distance at the 
average speed of 
about sixteen hun- 
dred feet per 
second. Sound, 
traveling at the 


flow back again around the stern, like 
water around the stern of the fast mov- 
ing boat. Finally, the air rushes in be- 
hind the bullet and makes the crash 
just as the air rushes in behind the elec- 
tric spark. 

Only at speeds higher than twelve 
hundred or fourteen hundred feet per 


uniform rate of eleven hundred feet per 
second, takes 2.7 seconds to make the 
trip, and the bullet and its accompanying 
crash, thus arrive nearly a second ahead 
of the report of the rifle. So comes 
about the phenomenon of the two 
distinct sounds; first the bullet crash, 
and then the report of the rifle. 


856 


A special pair of steel braces was used to 
straighten the crooked legs of this valu- 
able baby llama 


Straightening a Baby Llama’s 
Knock-Knees 


F mechanics had not come to the 

rescue of a valuable baby llama at 
the Cincinnati Zoological Gardens, he 
would be a useless little llama now. 
Llamas with knock-knees are not wanted 
by any zoological garden. 

He was made a perfectly good llama 
by the use of a special pair of steel 
braces so constructed that they would 
straighten out the crooked legs and in 
the meantime allow him to enjoy life 
by frisking around with his mother like 
an ordinary baby llama. 

To accomplish this unusual task of 
straightening out the legs, a pair of 
steel braces were constructed, each 
having six straps so attached that they 
buckled around the legs. Thus the 
braces were held securely in place. The 
straps were tightened day by day and 
gradually drew the legs closer and 
closer to the steel braces so as to straight- 
en out the curves. 

At first the little llama refused to walk 


Popular Science Monthly 


with the braces on his legs. Soon he 
got over this and frisked about with 
his mother as if the stays were not on his 
legs at all. Freedom of movement was 
accomplished by hinging the braces at 
the knees, so that they could bend 
naturally in walking. 

It took two weeks to draw the legs 
into normal position. As a matter of 
safety, the braces were left in place until 
the legs became strong enough to bear 
the weight of the animal. 


Vegetation that Thrives Where 
Water Is Scarce 


HE weather in the deserts of our 

great Southwest is such that only 
three months in the spring are sufficient- 
ly moist to permit any considerable 
vegetable growth. The cactuses, which 
are practically the only form of vegeta- 
tion courageous enough to live in such 
arid regions, protect themselves in an 
almost human way against destruction. 
The outer coat of the barrel cactus, 
shown in the illustration, is almost as 
strong as bark and is armed with long 
formidable spines, arranged in rows of 
clusters. These rows are an effective 
barrier to most animals seeking the 
inside of the cactus, which is composed 
of pith soaked full of water. . The water 


is stored up during the short rainy 
season, as squirrels store nuts for winter. 


Se PE Net 


A traveler quenching his thirst from a 
barrel cactus 


Popular Science Monthly 


A New Powerful Farm-Tractor 


NE of the most powerful of the 

many farm tractors now on _ the 
market has recently been offered to the 
public. This new machine is remarkable 
not only for its great pulling power, but 
for the ease with which it 
plows through almost im- 
passable swamp, marshes 
and beds of streams. 

The features of construc- 
tion that permit of success- 
ful usage under such severe 
conditions are the double- 
worm drive and the swivel 
action of the axles. The 
four-cylinder develops sixty 
horsepower, but since this 
power is directed to both 
front and rear axles, great 
tractive ability results. 


Killing Insects with Poisonous Gas 


RUIT growers of California who 
have long contended with insect 
pests are now employing a new method 
of killing the pests, which is said to 
be exceedingly efficient. Under the 
old system of spraying the trees, the 
best result that could be obtained un- 
der the most favorable conditions was 
the removal of from eighty to eighty- 
five per cent of the insects. By fumi- 
gating the fruit trees with hydrocyanic 
gas, it is said that one hundred per 
cent results are usually obtained. 
A gas-making machine has been re- 
cently placed at the disposal of the 


An equipment for fumigating an orchard consists of 
one gas-machine, about thirty tents and five or six men 


857 
fruit growers, which mixes the compo- 
nent parts of the gas and liberates the 


fumigating gas in any desired quanti- 
ties. In the employment of this ma- 


chine, a tent is placed over the tree 
is about to be treated. By 


which 


This four-cylinder tractor develops sixty horsepower, 
which is divided between front and rear axles, affording 


great tractive ability 


means of markings on the canvas the 
number of cubic feet occupied by the 
tree is accurately measured, and the 
amount of gas to be employed is thus 
decided. It has been discovered that 
the strength of the gas mixture to be 
used depends upon the size and age of 
the tree. On the average tree, from 
ten to fifteen feet in height, a strength 
of about one ounce of-cyanide to one 
hundred cubic feet of gas is the aver- 
age dosage. 

The proportion of cyanide, acid and 
water is adjusted in the machine. The 
usual proportion is that of equal parts 
of cyanide and acid, but the proportion 


of water varies from two to eight 
parts. 
The gas is liberated un- 


der the tent, and permeates 
the enclosed space, thus fu- 
migating every branch and 
leaf of the infected tree. 
The gas is held in the tent 
for about an hour, when all 
the insects are usually 
found to have perished. 
The ordinary equipment 
employed by contractors to 
fumigate an orchard con- 
sists of one gas machine, of 
the type shown in the illus- 
tration, about thirty tents, 
and a staff of five or six men. 


Niagara’s New Air Route 
& 


By Charles W. Person 


ENDLESS 
TRACTION 
BLE 


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tee 3,0") 
ESA 


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it RL } 3 a 
R\ CARRYING 98 ee 
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iw) w AAS Gy a8 8.82 —_— ASSENGERS 


o. o- 
PLATFORM THOMPSONS O be sus- 
INT STATION = pended in 
; mid-air 
over the vortex of the 
boiling, swirling Whirlpool Rapids at 

Niagara Falls, Ontario, with an uninter- 

cepted view of the rapids on one side and of 
Niagara Glen and the lower river on the other, is a 


dream which Spanish engineers, backed by Spanish 
858 


ie 


Popular Science Monthly 


capital and patents, have realized. An 
aerial scenic cableway now spans the 
Rapids from cliff to cliff. 

For sheer excitement and thrill the 


trip by air over 

the Whirlpool out- 

does anything that 

tourists have ever ex- 

perienced. True, there is 

the first stage of the cable- 

way which climbs the Wetter- 

horn in Switzerland; but it can 

not compare in magnitude with 

the Niagara project. Then there is the 

tramway at San Sebastian, Spain, for the 

transportation of tourists from a trolley 

terminus to a casino overlooking the Bay 

of Biscay—the only previous installation 

of the system in use at Niagara Falls and 

owned by the same company. But, the 

span at San Sebastian is only nine hun- 

dred and nineteen feet, while at Niagara 

it is eighteen hundred feet. It may be 

safely said that Niagara now has the 

longest and probably the safest scenic 
cableway in the world. 


TT 


859 


It was the successful operation of the 
San Sebastian cableway, for the past 
six years, during which time it carried 
as many as twenty-six thousand passen- 


COLTS POINT 
STATION 


Be Be Soe 


Me aad Sh 
oh 


gers in a single season, which brought 
Torres y Quevedo, the inventor of the 
system, to Niagara Falls. No time was 
lost in starting operations. Work was 
begun July 12, 1915. The cables are 
now erected, and cars are now runn- 
ing upon them. 


Diplomacy and Engineering 
7 S > 


The Whirlpool is situated some three 
miles below the Falls and is almost 
entirely within Canadian territory. 
Hence, the two anchorages or terminals 
of the cableway, Colt’s Point and 
Thompson’s Point, are both in Ontario. 
Because the boundary line between 
New York State and Ontario forms an 
acute angle, which is intersected by the 
cableway about sixty feet within the 
apex, the promoters found themselves 
in a diplomatic tangle. After securing 
the sanction of the Province of Ontario 


860 


and of the Victoria Park Commission of 
Niagara Falls, they had to obtain 
permission from Albany, since the bed 
of the river is owned by New York 
State, and from Washington, since the 
water is owned by the Federal Govern- 
ment. 

But the restrictions did not stop here. 
The engineers were cautioned against 
erecting a cableway which would cross 
the tracks of the Niagara Belt Line 
Railway, and they were further warned 
against dam- 
aging the 
cliffs on either 
side of the 
Whirlpool. 
To increase 
their difficul- 
ties they were 
forbidden to 
build any 
towers or 
structures 
which would 
rise above the 
level of the 
tracks of the 
railway run- 
ning along 
the cliff. 

This first 
cableway of 
its; kind <in 
America was built at a total cost of 
sixty thousand dollars, exclusive of 
engineering expenses and exclusive also 
of the car and loading platforms, both 
of which were built in Spain. With 
past experience to guide them, the 
promoters have no doubt a duplicate 
installation could be built for forty- five 
thousand dollars. 

The Torres system is simple in the ex- 
treme. It consits merely of six par- 
allel carrying or track cables which 
hold the passenger car, each cable be- 
ing securely attached to a fixed anchor- 
age atoneend of the line and to a coun- 
terweight system at the other. The 
cables are fastened at Colt’s Point to a 
seven hundred and forty-one ton con- 
crete block, and at Thompson’s Point 
each is attached to a ten-ton counter- 
weight or stretcher after passing over a 
grooved sheave. These counterweights 
move freely up and down in steel guides, 


Heavy rock excavation at Thompson’s Point. 
Whirlpool appears below 


Popular Science Monthly 


as the load is diminished or increased. 
Thus, the tension upon the cables is not 
increased by the weight of the car, 
although the deflection of the cables i is, 
of course. 

In other words, a sudden load thrown 
upon the cables causes the counter- 
weights to rise and the cables to sag. 
The greater the load on the cables the 
greater will be the sag. But the tension 
will not be increased; it always will be 
ten tons to the cable. Thus, the tension 
in the track 
cables de- 
pends solely 
upon the 
COUnMt ETS 
weights and 
not at all up- 
on the weight 
of passengers 
borne by the 


Car. 


Suppose a 
Cable Should 
Snap ? 


For this 
reason the 
suddenbreak- 
ing of any one 
track cable 
would not be 
serious, as the 
other cables would support all the 
weight of the car without any increase 
in their tension. Should a cable break, 
the car filled with passengers would fall 
suddenly and then bob up and down 
until it assumed a new position of 
equilibrium. The breaking of two 
cables at the same time is considered 
impossible by the engineers. 

The simplicity and safety of the Torres 
system lie in the fact that each cable is 
put into fixed tension from the start of 
operations, that this tension never va- 
ries, that the resistance of the cable can 
be verified at any time by increasing the 
load on the counterweights, that if 
any cable or fastening is faulty it will 
probably break when heavily weighted 
for trial or inspection trips, and that 
if a cable does break practically no extra 
strain is put upon the other cables. 

The passenger car is propelled by a 
traction cable fastened to a ten-ton 


The 


Popular Science Monthly 


counterweight box, arranged in steel 
guides similar to the track-cable counter- 
weights. This creates a tension which 
adjusts any slack caused by the rising 
and falling of the car. At San Sebastian 
the car holds only fourteen passengers, 
but at Niagara seats are provided for 
twenty-four passengers and_ standing 
room in a raised aisle for twenty-one 
more besides the 
conductor. 

Theengineers 
have determin- 
ed to a nicety 
what would 
happen to the 
car if the trac- 
tion cable were 
to break. As 
the two termi- 
nals are nearly 
at the same 
height above 
the river level, 
one being 249.5 
{t.and the other, 
246.5. it., they 
figure that the car would run backwards 
and forwards along the track cables 
until it came gently to rest at the lowest 
point of the sag of the cable, which 
would be about the center of the span 
or directly over New York State. A 
light basket which holds one man and 
which hangs from pulieys which can be 
readily thrown over two of the track 
cables, would be used in the rescue work. 
The emergency man would attach a re- 
lief cable to the marooned car, and an 
auxiliary engine installed for the purpose 
would pull the car back to Thompson’s 
Point. 


Map showing cableway. 


Some Interesting Safety Devices 


There are several safety devices of 
ingenious construction, among the num- 
ber being an automatic control stop 
which halts the car within three feet of 
the concrete station. A clamp on the 
car strikes the face of the control stop, 
prevents the car from traveling farther, 
and then engages with it in such a 
manner that the car cannot slip back 
from the landing platform. Further- 
more, the car gates cannot be opened 
until the clamp has engaged with the 
control stop, and even then only the 


a Le A haat 
/y! ( THe WHIRLPOOL Sie Oe 


which extends over New York State 


861 


right gates can be opened. In addition 
to this, there are limit switches which 
prevent the power from being turned on 
again, and thus jam the car against the 
station once the power has been shut off. 

To string the cables across the 
Whirlpool the traction and track towers 
and sheaves were first erected. Then a 
long rope was carried around the face of 
the cliff from 
Colt’s Point to 
Thompson’s 
Point. When 
this was pulled 
taut a wire rope 
was hauled 
across with the 
aid of a_hoist- 
ing engine, and 
then the trac- 
tion cable was 
pulled into 
place. This 
cable was used 
to haul the track 
cables across. 

The trip from 
from point to point can be made in 
about five minutes. To test the car 
cast-iron bars weighing thirty nine thou- 
sand and nineteen pounds, or three 
times the working load of the car with 
forty to forty-five passengers, were dis- 
tributed on the floor. A _ trestle was 
built and the car was suspended by its 
wheels from it. The test was satisfac- 
torily met. 


/ 


} J 


c 


#. 
# £ 
i= 

= 

= 

S 

S 

in, 

= 

N 
S 


Note the small portion 


Inventions for the Navy 


AST July, Secretary of the Navy 
Josephus Daniels announced the 
creation of a board, afterwards desig- 
nated as the Naval Consulting Board, 
headed by Thomas A. Edison, for the 
purpose of aiding in the development 
of the Navy and the defense of the 
nation, by giving expert consideration 
to the many needs of the Navy and 
the many inventions that might be sub- 
mitted to it. Public announcement of 
the creation of this board was accom- 
panied by an invitation from the Navy 
Department to the inventors of the 
country to submit their ideas. 
Seven months later, not less than five 
thousand inventions, ideas and sugges- 
tions had been received. 


862 Popular Science Monthly 


< aaa 


Advantage is taken in South America of the intense heat of the tropical sunlight in drying 


cattle hides. The odor is the most objectionable feature of this method 


Drying Cattle Hides in a Broiling 
Tropical Sun 


Gye of the strangest sights which will 
greet the traveler from the North 
in visiting the small tropical countries 
along the eastern coast of South America 
is an occasional large tract of land 
covered with long racks of wood upon 
which are strung cattle hides drying in 
the sun. Whenever one of these inter- 
esting tracts is approached the visitor 
after one or two experi- 
ences does not have to 
be forewarned; the odor 
which arises from them 
is almost unbearable. 
The intense heat of the 
tropical sun causes rap- 
id decomposition of the 
fleshy parts, which cling 
to the hides, so that 
they dry quickly; but 
while they are drying 
the stench that ema- 
nates from them is sick- 
eningly offensive. 
Dried hides comprise 
one of the chief means 
of revenue of Uruguay. 


A Whipping Machine 
to Cure Nervousness 
BR acta must have 

been merit in the 
“birch tea’’ of child- 
hood, for the same rem- 
edy is prescribed in 
sanitariums nowadays 
for invalids. In other 


His nervous, tired body is receiv- 
ing a soothing series of slaps 


words, it is considered that a healthy re- 


action may be gained from a “‘spanking.” 

In the mechano-therapy departments 
of up-to-date institutions, the ‘“‘whipping 
post,” a mechanical device for thera- 
peutic paddling is an accredited healing- 
machine. 

You are whipped by straps of heavy 
cloth or leather attached to two rapidly 
revolving posts. When you take the 
treatment you step backward into the 
flying whips and re- 
ceive their blows upon 
your legs, back, abdo- 
men or chest, depend- 
ing upon the malady 
from which you are 
suffering. The impact 
of the straps is just 
sufficient to set the 
blood in free circula- 
tion. Thereisnosmart- 
ing, stinging sensation 
because the straps are 
broad enough to elimi- 
nate any possibility of a 
cutting blow. You are 
paddled 
lashed. 

The “‘whipping post”’ 
is valuable in many 
types of nervousness. 
It is also valuable in in- 
creasing blood circula- 
tionand relieving numb- 
ness. Certain forms of 
paralysis though not 
responsive to other 
treatment, are bene- 
fited. 


rather than. 


a — 


Popular Science Monthly 


An Electric Iron With a Headlight 


NM electric iron for pressing fine 
linen, elaborate center- 

pieces and similar articles, 
where extreme care is highly 
important, has a small elec- 
tric lamp in the same position 
that a head lamp occupies on 
a locomotove. The lamp is 
shielded from accidental 
blows by a metal cap at- 
tached to the end of the han- 
dle, the shield also serving as 
a reflector, concentrating the 
light upon the work in hand, 
and preventing the rays from 
shining in the eyes of the 
operator. The lamp is con- 
nected across the heating 
coils, taking its current from 
the cord which runs to the 
socket. 


This electric iron with a headlight is just 
the thing for ironing when it is neces- 
sary to use special care 


How Record-Breaking Girders 
Were Handled 


O erect record-breaking girders 

weighing up to one hundred and 
thirteen tons and up to one hundred and 
thirty-two feet long, in connection with 
grade-crossing elimination work in 
Chicago, required a plant unusually 
sturdy and capable of quick work. 
Every operation had to be known 
beforehand; for two of the five spans 
were over high-speed tracks where a 
maximum of only two hours’ interruption 
to tracks could be allowed. That the 
calculations of the bridge engineers was 


863 


By planning each move beforehand, these huge girders, 
weighing over a hundred tons each, were handled easily 


correct is evidenced by the fact that the 
fifteen girders were all placed without 
exceeding the allotted time. 

A tower was designed which would 
straddle the track below, its columns or 
legs resting on wheels which rolled along 
the rails, so as to enable the workmen to 
place it at the exact spot desired. The 
tower was then securely blocked up on 
sills and the lower cross-bracing removed 
to allow the heavy girders carried on 
four steel flat cars to run beneath. A 
huge pair of hooks then took hold of 
the girder by its upper flange and lifted 
it to the proper elevation, so that it 
could be swung around until its end 
bearings would come over the steel 
columns, whereupon it was lowered into 
place. Power to raise the girders was 
supplied by giant derrick-cars through 
steel cables, one of which may be seen 
near the top of the rail in the accom- 
panying illustration. 

Removable leg sections or ‘‘gates’’ in 
the rear of the tower provided for dis- 
engaging it from the girder just erected 
and moving it to the next. After the 
three girders in one span were in place, 
the tower was jacked up on a bed of 
greased rails along which it was slid 
across the tracks to the next span. 

The girder, when hoisted in the air, 
could be moved only a trifle endwise be- 
cause of its weight, and hardly at all 
laterally, 


A New Era in Water Power Begun 
at the Henry Ford Farms 


ENRY FORD'S Farms serve as an 
experimental field for the various 
appliances being developed by 

Mr. Ford. His new home is located 
on the farms. This is near Dearborn, 
Michigan, on the north bank of the 
river Rouge, on the site of a pioneer 
mill. 

It is well known that the great milling 
centers can furnish flour and even meal 
at better prices than the lowly country 
mill. Asa result the grist mill is almost 
obsolete. Many a grist mill is being 
reconstructed, and turned into a hydro- 
electric power plant to light and heat 
nearby villages. But there are draw- 
backs to this conversion. There are 
high-water periods, and ice jams that 
reduce the water power. It is a curious 
fact that during times 
of great flow or over- 
flow, a small water- ‘ 
power is literally (== 
drowned out. Inother 
words, the power is 
reduced sometimes al- 
most to nothing. This 


l 


gr aw: 


H. 


ead 


is due to the fact that water rises faster 
below than it does above a dam during a 
freshet. The tendency is to conceal even 
the location of a dam in very high water. 
Hence, the head pressure on the turbine 
water wheel is reduced, so that little or 
no water will pass through it, with the 


The water power plant here shown is located at the Henry Ford Farms, near Dearborn, 
Michigan. The low head of water is increased by use of an “‘accelerator”’ which relieves the 


864 


Popular Science Monthly 


_ result that it cannot drive its generator 
during high water periods. 


High Water Head 
i ae - t- 


Nn High Tail Water 


S 
"Normal or Low Water Head 


Norma! Tai! Water 


Vertical section through the turbine and 
concentrator, showing different water 
levels and other details 


The current consumer needs his light 
and power during rainy seasons and 
thaw periods. Therefore, the small 
water power has been considered a 
hazardous investment without a steam 
engine or gas engine in reserve. 

The river Rouge is a sluggish stream 
draining a wide flat valley. It flows into 
the Detroit river, which is often affected 
by winds on the Great Lakes. This 
causes the Rouge to back up and lower 
the head at the Ford dam at times 
when other conditions are favorable to 
good power. 

The farms’ water power has been 
modernized. It is now an electric 
station which provides current for the 
village pumping station, for Mr. Ford’s 
home, and the various requirements of 
the farms. The problem of variable 
heads, and variable flow, in connection 


per Draft Tube fe 


et 5 


pressure at the lower end of the turbine, and aug- 


ments the pressure at the intake end 


Water 


865 


with constant requirements, was of 
special importance. Therefore, some new 
ideas and new apparatus were developed 
in the solution. 

As has been already stated there are 
times of excess flow, in which the actual 
head pressure on the turbines is lowered. 
If a greater number of turbines were 
installed to use this surplus water the 
cost, together with the expense of larger 
foundations and _ buildings required, 
would be prohibitive from an investment 
point of view. This made it necessary 
to try to increase the head by the use 
of the surplus water itself, in other 


Head Water Level 
355 
Q 


Turbine Water’ 
Whesl 


Pressure Head 


Faas 
io 1B 


f 
ece/erator 


pe for A 


ed Fy 


Sphon l=. 
Supply } 25 


Concer trator 


—+~ Super Draft Tube 


Teer 
nus Head 


i 


Suction or 
Syphen 
Jaduced Hee 


action Pipe for 


ELEVATION 


y 
Siphon Supply 
Working Head = The induced Head plus the Inducer head 


The concentrator is in reality a tube within 
a tube, acting somewhat like a siphon 


words, to set the mischievous 
water to work. This was done 
to the extent that the turbines 
can develop more than their 
normal power at times when 
they otherwise would be ren- 
dered powerless. 

This was brought about by 
an apparatus which leads a 
portion of the surplus flow to 
the turbine discharge pipe in 
such manner that a vacuum 
is formed for the turbine to 
discharge into, thereby adding 
atmospheric pressure, or head, 
to the water head already 
acting on the turbine. This 
produces the full head condi- 
tions for the turbine. In 
turn, full power is furnished. 
This apparatus is calied a 


866 


“turbine discharge accelerator,’ because 
it can accelerate the flow of water 
through a turbine water-wheel. It is 
adjustable, and it can readily be regu- 
lated to the river conditions. 

The illustrations will give a general 


This household size apparatus will sterilize 
one thousand gallons of water for five cents 


idea of the new device. The results 
were so marked as to appear incredible. 
Some of them are as follows: 

1. The turbine wheel can be made 
to develop its normal rated power at 
half head. 

2. The turbine wheel can be caused 
to develop nearly double its rated 
power at its normal head. (It will, of 
course, use more water in both cases). 

3. The turbine can be made to 
develop a fair amount of power at 
proper speeds, when the head seems 
to be almost totally destroyed by high 
water. The latter conditions § are 
extreme and are not often met in 
practice. 


Popular Science Monthly 


Sterilizing Water by Ultra 
Violet Light 


LTRA violet light is not visible to 

the eye, yet it affects a photograph- 
ic plate, decomposes many chemicals, 
causes sunburn and sunstroke, and 
kills bacteria. Nature’s purification of 
rivers owes something to the ultra 
violet portion of the sun’s rays. Why 
not use it to purify drinking water? 
That idea has actually been carried out 
at Saint Malo, at Rouen and at Lune- 
ville, all in France. 

The best commercial source is the 
mercury arc in which mercury vapor 
in a high vacuum becomes luminous 
as it conducts the electric current. The 


‘ultra violet cannot pass through the 


glass. Hence, the lamp tube must be 
made of clear quartz, one of the few 
solids transparent to these rays. 

The light tube is a “pistol lamp,” as 
it is called, because it is bent into a U- 
shape and enclosed in a quartz jacket as 
a protection against the cooling effect 
of the water. The pistol tube is im- 
mersed in the flowing water while the 
connections are outside the tank. 

The capacity of apparatus now in the 
market varies from twenty gallons an 
hour to ten thousand gallons an hour or, 
by increasing the number of units, to any 
figure for large city water plants. An 
experimental plant in one American 
city forces the water through concrete 
channels two feet wide, three feet deep 
and twenty-six feet long, affording a 
contact period of thirty seconds with 
the ultra violet rays. The pistol lamps 
are spaced thirty inches apart, and in 
front of each is a baffle of wired glass 
in which a rectangular opening is cut 
to divert the water against the quartz 
tube. 

The smaller types are used in steril- 
ization of drinking water for homes, 
clubs, hospitals, factories, etc., purify- 
ing swimming pools, sterilizing water 
for ice plants and can even be found 
with armies in the field. The Austrian 
army carries a portable type on a motor 
car. In five minutes after starting the 
generator the soldiers fill their canteen 
with sterile and palatable drinking water. 
The household size is efficient and ec- 
onomical. 


Popular Science Monthly 


What Blood Pressure Means and How 
It Is Measured 


F for any reason the blood pressure 

is raised, the _blood circulates more 
freely through the brain as well as 
through the other parts of the body, giv- 
ing a feeling of buoyancy and confidence. 
The man who is working at a terrific 
rate, however, must have a high blood 
pressure, but if continued above a safe 
normal point, it will result in the “burn- 
ing up” of his vital forces, resulting in 
many organic as well as nervous dis- 
orders. ; 

High blood pressure does not always 
mean one and the same _ unalterable 
thing. It may be a sign that the arteries 
have stiffened to such an extent that the 
heart is taxed to pump the necessary 
volume of blood through the arteries 
and with sufficient speed. It may mean 
an improper condition of the blood it- 
self—viscosity—the old-fashioned “thick 
blood” come to life again as a reputable 
scientific fact. It may mean that the 
heart has become too big for its job, as 
when an “athlete’s. heart,” trained to 
push a big stream of blood, keeps on 
trying to do so when the demands of 
office work do not require it. It may 
also result from excessive pumping of 
the heart due to abnormal mental stimu- 
lation in the form of worry, or continu- 
ous mental or nervous strain. 

A device for measuring blood press- 
ure, an ingenious instrument called a 
“manometer,” has recently been perfect- 
ed. The instrument records the pressure 
of the blood on a diaphragm dial very 
similar to a steam-gage dial. The scale 
is divided into millimeters. 

The apparatus, which is the invention 
of Dr. Thomas Rogers of Rochester, 
New York, is one of the most important 
surgical instruments devised in years, 
ranking with the pulmotor, stethoscope, 
and clinical thermometer. Its operation 
is comparatively simple, but its reading 
requires an expert. The best results are 
obtained when a stethoscope is used in 
connection with it. 

The air-bag is first strapped on the 
subject’s arm over the main artery, and 
is inflated with a bulb attached to it. The 
operator then adjusts a stethoscope to 
his ears and finds the pulse. The throb- 


867 


Manometer being used in measuring a 
man’s blood pressure 


bing of the pulse against the air-bag 
is communicated through a_ rubber 
tube to the case containing the dia- 
phragms upon which a vibration is set 
up. These vibrations, which are syn- 
chronous with those of the pulse, are 
translated into millimeters by the deli- 
cate needle of the dial. 


A Clean Way of Removing Pens from 
Their Holders 

DEVICE 

for readily 
ejecting a pen 
from its holder 
without soiling 
the fingers has 
been invented by 
Joseph H. Brem- 
er, of Tampa, 
lorida. His pen- 
holder terminates 
in inner and outer 
sleeves, which-are slotted longitudinally 
from their outer ends. In this slot a 
pen-ejecting bent steel wire slides to 
push the pen along. The shank of the 
wire is formed into a ring, which en- 
circles the penholder. To remove the 
pen the ring is grasped and forced to- 
ward the end of the holder, and the bent 
steel wire pushes off the pen-point and 
thus spares the fingers, 


A bent steel wire 
ejects the pen 


868 Popular Science Monthly 


Straw bottle-casings and a tack-hammer 
made this pleasant thatched garden-house 


A Summer-House from Straw 
Bottle-Casings 


HE was the thrifty wife of a restau- 

rateur in a California suburb and 
the gardens about the establishment 
made it a point of interest for motorists 
from the city. The ambitious little lady 
thought that a summer-house among 
the palms and acacias would improve the 
grounds, but building material was ex- 
pensive and so was expert carpenter 
hire. She was determined and practical. 
“Tf I will furnish half the building ma- 
terial, and half the labor, will you 
furnish the other half?’’ she asked her 
husband, and he agreed willingly to the 
plan and thought nothing more of it 
until he saw carpenters at work erecting 
a very light skeleton of a summer-house. 
It was a frame of the lightest and cheap- 
est wood—a few slender uprights on a 
circular ground plan and flexible half- 
inch boards which could be bent about 
them in a circle, the posts spaced four 
inches with an allowance for a door and 


a small window. It was a 
half-day’s work for two 
men. ‘“‘But that is no sum- 


mer house!”’ the husband | 
exclaimed. ‘‘Thereisnoshel- 
ter there from wind or 
sun. It’s no better than 
an onion crate!” 

“Wait and see,”’ rejoined 
his good wife. ‘‘My share 


went down into the cellar. Presently she 
emerged, bearing an armload of what 
every one would call rubbish. The 
straw casings of wine bottles had been 
accumulating below for years, and her 
husband had planned to burn them some 
day. The straw was a nuisance, a fire 
menace, and a possible hiding place for 
rats. It proved to be anything but 
rubbish. 

It was not damp or dirty, except for a 
bit of dust that could be shaken off. 
That clever wife immediately set about 
tacking the straw casings upon the 
frame of the summer-house. It was the 
lightest sort of work, just a tap with 
a tack hammer and the wisp of straw, 
bound by its strands of twine, was in 
place. The casings were overlapped 
like shingles, so as to shed a light rair- 
fall, and the roof was treated in the same 
way, the peak being topped with half 
a dozen casings bound into a conelike 
ornament. When a round table and a 
few chairs were set inside the summer 
house, it turned out to be one of the 
most popular corners of the place. 


A Water-Wagon in Actual Use 


REAL water wagon, with passen- 

gers, may be seen in the accompany- 
ing illustration. These men are not on 
the water wagon for moral purposes, 
but are engaged in towing huge rafts 
of lumber through the shallow water at 
Carleton Point, Prince Edward Island. 
One raft is visible at the extreme right 
of the picture. The great weight of 
lumber necessitates the employment of 
six horses, which have become accus- 
tomed to wading and seem to like it, 
especially in hot weather. 


of the summer house has 
not been contributed.’ She 


By means of this water wagon men and horses huge lumber 
rafts are towed through the waters of Prince Edward Island 


—. Te ee 


~ 


Popular Science Monthly 


869 


ate [* Lei sbebe beds] 
(Op, LA TE ARS | 


The checkered chart is a new and painless device, which quickly teaches the mysteries of 
multiplication, division and subtraction to the most reluctant pupil 


Learning Arithmetic With a 
Woman’s Invention 


HE reason we honor Miss Albertina 

Bechmann this month is because 

she has invented a painless way of 

learning the multiplication, division and 
subtraction tables. 

Her invention consists of a board on 
which are printed rows of figures from 
o to 144. The rows are separated by 
grooves. If you want to find out what 
6 times 4 is, all you have to do is to find 
the figure 6, at the top of the board, and 
the figure 4 at the side, and to place a 
ruler in the groove nearest 6, as shown 
in the photograph, and another ruler in 
the groove nearest 4. In the corner made 
by the two rulers you will find your 
answer, 24. 

If you would divide 24 by 6, you place 
one ruler between 6 and 24 and the 
other ruler in the groove running at 
right angles to 24, and, presto! you 
have your answer, 4, at the outside end 
of the second ruler. Also, by Miss 
Bechmann’s painless system, 8 times o 
is never 8, as many children think. It 
invariably shows that 8 times 0 is 0. 

If you would know what 6 plus 18 is, 
you hunt up the 6 column, and under- 


neath the 18 you will find your answer, 24. 

If youwould subtract 6 from 24 you would 

find your answer, 18, right above 24. 

Austria Exhibits Paper Substitutes 
for Cloth 


T was announced last November by 
the Austrian Ministry of War that 
paper vests and foot coverings had been 
received for the forces in the field, and 
that the officials should instruct the men 
that paper, as a poor conductor of heat, 
was an excellent protection against cold. 
Attention was also called to the hospitals 
that paper was a good substitute for 
fabric, and that cellulose wadding af- 
forded a sanitary dressing for wounds. 
Later, at the suggestion of Max 
Schuschny, an exposition of paper prod- 
ucts designed as protection against cold 


and a substitute for cloth, was held. 
The invitation to exhibitors brought 
fifty, and within five days twenty 


thousand persons had visited the exposi- 
tion. Of all the useful articles exhibited, 
perhaps the most important was the 
“Danish quilt,’’ consisting of crumpled 
newspapers. These coverlets have been 
used extensively for hospital purposes 
in the royal palace of Austria. 


The bed can be set up in a few minutes 
and shelters the tourist from wind and rain 


An Automobile-Bed for the Tourist 


HE delightful independence of tour- 

ing in an automobile can be 
improved upon by means of an auto- 
mobile-bed. | Wherever nightfall over- 
takes the traveler, he can make up his 
own cot and sleep in his own tent, 
completely sheltered from wind and rain 
’ and with no expense for a hotel room. 

The metal frame of the bed is jointed 
in the middle; and a leg is attached at 
this point on either side. A cross-bar 
connects the legs, so that they will 
swing together when the bed is being 
folded up. One end of the frame pivots 
on a shaft secured to the side bars of 
the automobile, as shown in the illustra- 
tions. The two outer legs are pivoted 
to the frame. 

When not in use, the legs are swung 
up against the frame; the outer half of 
the frame is folded over the inner half, 
or foot of the bed; and the whole lifted 
to an upright position against the beck 
of the tonneau. Small ratchet wheels at 
each of the joints are provided for 
holding the legs in position and also for 
locking the entire frame when folded up. 
A light metal framework is provided to 
be set up over the bed. Curtains are 
stretched over the frame to form a sort 
of box-tent, as shown in the illustration. 


Some Ingenious 
For the 


A New Ford Folding Bed 


a entire bed equipment which 
weighs but fourteen pounds, and 
which may be folded and packed away, 
with the exception of blankets and com- 
forters, in a tool box, is the latest thing 
devised for Ford owners who wish to 
avoid hotel bills. The equipment. in- 
cludes a piece of strong canvas, two poles 
or iron bars for spreaders, one for the 
foot and the other for the head; four 
half-inch iron rods for supports leading 
from the car-top supports to the four 
corners of the canvas mattress, and four 
ordinary straps with buckles. 

No changes need be made in the car 
other than to put two brass or iron 
rings in the dash to which the front 
straps are fastened. The half-inch rods 
resting at opposite angles on the car-top 
supports hold the canvas mattress above 
the seat tops, thus giving ample room 
beneath for “lower berths” for the chil- 
dren, while the straps running from the 
four corners of the mattress to rings in 
the dash and rings in the rear are 
buckled taut to keep the mattress from 
sagging. The bed is more rigid, due to 


this method of securing it, and it will 


This car may be truly nicknamed “The <- 
Flying Bedstead” 


easily support two grown persons. 

With or without a tent the bed equip- 
ment comes in handy on touring trips. 
For instance, it may be used as a loung- 
ing hammock by attaching short ends 
of rope at either end of the canvas bot- 
tom, or it may be used as a table-cloth. 


870 


—— ee ee ee a ee ST ee eee 


eee ee oe ee eS ee 


a 


’ 
a weet ee 


New Accessories 
Touring Car 


Rain Protector for Automobile 
Wind-Shield 


HERE a wind-shield is used for 
the front of an automobile, the 
’ driver’s view is dimmed by rain falling 
upon the glass. This is often a great 
drawback in running the car. Various 
means have been suggested for keeping 
wind-shields clean. The accompanying 
illustration shows one which has at 
least the merit of originality. A rotating 
propeller is used to drive off the rain 
drops. It is claimed that this is accom- 


plished effectually, at the same time not 
obstructing the view, for it is a well- 


This propeller blows 
the rain away from the 
wind-shield 


known fact that one can look through a 
rapidly rotating propeller. 


A Handy Automobile Grease-Gun 


NEW grease-gun which saves the 

automobile man trouble when his 
machine needs lubricating, has been 
placed on the market. It consists of a 
can of grease. Attached to its side is 
a pump gun which pushes a quarter 
pound of grease into the casing every 
time the pump is pulled up and pressed 
down again. To prevent the grease 
from escaping when the gun is not in 
use, a long rubber hose with a patent 
stopper is provided. 


With his hood made of tough glass, the driver 
can examine his motor while speeding along 
the road 


A Glass Hood for Automobiles 
| PEEUr and practical is the auto- 


mobile glass hood built recently by 
Earl C. Anthony of Los Angeles, Cali- 
fornia. True, hoods of isinglass have 
been used, but they are easily broken 
and destroyed. This creator of novelties 
realized this fact, and as a result of his 
determination to eliminate this draw- 
back came the glass ‘“‘machine house.”’ 


With one stroke a quarter-pound of grease 
is forced into the casing 


Chasing Butterflies for Money 


By J. McDunnough 


ORE or less periodically a lurid 
\Y account crops out in the news- 
papers to the effect that some 
millionaire, usually a member of the 
Rothschild family, has paid a fabulous 
sum for a butterfly—a sum ranging any- 
where, according to the vividness of the 
reporter’s imagination, from five hundred 
dollars to ten thousand dollars. The 
effect on the average reader is either to 
cause a sneer of pity that anyone, even 
a millionaire, can be such a fool as to 
part with so much money for so frail 
and useless an object or else to create the 
impression that it is simply necessary to 
go out on the front porch or into the 
back yard with a hat or broom or make- 
shift net, knock down some unwary 
member of the butterfly family which 
happens to stray within reach, impale it 
on a pin in a cardboard box and ship it 
post haste to the aforesaid millionaire 
in order to receive by return mail a sub- 
stantial check. - 

These newspaper tales seem to have a 
common origin in the fact that some 
twenty or thirty years ago an expedition 
to one of the islands of the Malay 
Archipelago was financed by a member 
of the Rothschild family. One of the 
prime objects of this expedition was to 
secure specimens of a large butterfly of 
a pure black color of which only a single 
specimen was known at the time. In 
this the collectors were perfectly success- 
ful. Besides securing specimens of the 
species in question,~however, the ex- 


872 


pedition brought back a vast quantity 
of other material of great scientific 
value. The total expenses were doubt- 
less considerable, probably well above ten 
thousand dollars; but it was not correct 
to assert, as it was asserted at the time, 
that this sum had been expended for a 
single butterfly. It was not spent even for 
specimens of a single species of butterfly. 

The variety of butterflies is not as a 
rule due to the fact that there is actually 
a great scarcity of certain species in 
Nature, but rather because these species 
frequent inaccessible regions or countries. 
Those brilliant metallic blue butterflies 
of South America, the giant Morphos, 
generally fly in the tree tops of almost 
impenetrable jungles, making their cap- 
ture on the wing very difficult and almost 
impossible ; today, however, collectors 
armed with field-glasses search certain 
trees for the caterpillars which can often 
be secured in good numbers without any 
more difficulty, after they are once 
located, than that of climbing the tree 
and cutting off the twig on which the 
caterpillar rests. By confining these 
larvae in jars cr cages with a sufficient 
supply of the food plant they undergo 
their transformation just as well as or 
even better than in a nattral state. In 
due course of time the butterfly emerges 
and is thus secured in much more perfect 
condition than if it had been caught on 
the wing. As a consequence of the 
increased supply the price of these 
species has dropped tremendously during 


Popular Science Monthly 


the last twenty years, many of them 
being today obtainable at the cost of a 
few dollars per specimen. The same 
thing is true of the brilliant Ornithopter- 
as of the Indo-Malay region, those huge 
butterflies with a wing expanse of from 
five to eight inches, and whose color is a 
combination of velvety black with either 
green, yellow, orange or blue. Fifty 
years ago in order to secure these species 
it was necessary for a collector practically 
to take his life in his hands and penetrate 
unknown regions -inhabited by fierce 
head-hunting tribes; today, owing to 
the advance of civilization and the im- 


873 
provement in means of transportation, 
numbers of the species appear on the 
market each year; the natives have 
been trained to hunt for the caterpillars 
and breed perfect specimens of the insect, 
and whereas in former years collectors 
would regard even tattered and torn 
specimens as almost priceless, today for 
a few dollars a specimen perfect in every 
respect may be purchased. 

In the Palaearctic region all species of 
butterflies from Tibet have always 
commanded a high price owing to the 


Many butterflies are easily raised in captivity from cocoons picked off trees 


Popular Science Monthly 


The professional butterfly chaser uses every artifice in order to capture his winged prey. 
The time-honored net is supplemented by light at night, in order to apply practically the 


effect of flame on moths. 


virtual impossibility of European col- 
lectors penetrating into the country; of 
late years, however, the Catholic mis- 
sionaries who have succeeded in estab- 
lishing themselves in this region have 


An umbrella is a handy receiver for cocoons shaken from bushes 


been instructed by Mr. Charles Oberthur 
of Rennes, France, the owner of the 
second largest private collection of 
butterflies in existence, in the capture of 
insects and they in turn have trained 


Popular Science Monthly 


some of their native converts. Through 
their agency large numbers of species 
which formerly were of extreme rarity 
or even unknown to science have been 
obtained. 

Another region which furnishes numer- 
ous interesting and highly prized but- 
terflies is the high mountain ranges 
of Central Asia, the Panier Range and 
the Thian Shan Mountains. Formerly 
species from these localities were scarcely 
known outside of Russian collections, but 
about eight years ago they began to ap- 
pear on the market in enormous quanti- 
ties. A Russian who had been com- 
missioned by the Hagenbecks of Ham- 
burg to secure live specimens of the 
snow leopard occupied his spare moments 
and those of his men in the early morning 
hours by picking the half-frozen butter- 
flies off the flower heads on which they 
had rested over night. To judge by 
the quantities he secured by this method 
the region must have been a veritable 
Eldorado for the butterfly collector. 
As a result of his activities several 
species which formerly commanded a 
price of from ten dollars to twenty dol- 
lars a specimen became an absolute 
drug on the market and were almost 
given away. 


Two Hundred Dollars for a Glittering 
Butterfly 


Of course there still remain some rare 
exotic butterflies for which possibly a 
wealthy collector might be willing to pay 
from one hundred dollars to two hundred 
dollars a specimen, but such species can 
almost be counted on one’s ten fingers; 
and it is safe to say that within the next 
fifty years even the price of these will be 
considerably reduced, for as soon as col- 
lectors become acquainted with their 
habits and haunts and succeed in 
breeding them the supply will at once 
increase. 

In our own country, where half the 
indigenous species of butterflies known to 
science have been described within the 


last sixty years, there is probably no - 


species for which more than five dollars a 
specimen would be paid, and the ma- 
jority of species could be purchased for 
less than one-tenth of this sum; the 
“rarest ones are those frequenting the 
desert regions of the Southwest and the 


875 


great barren lands of the Far North. 
The inaccessibility of these regions is 
again the cause of the rarity, for the very 
fact that they have remained unmolested 
in their haunts by man and his civiliza- 
tion is proof enough that at certain 
seasons they should be found in large 
numbers. 

In this connection, and as an illustra- 
tion of the contention, the following story 
is told at the expense of one of the best 
known private collectors in the country. 
In the early eighties a collector brought 
back with him from Arizona two or three 
specimens of a new species of butterfly 
which he had obtained at considerable 
risk to life and limb by climbing some 
precipitous crags around which they 
were flying and hanging there by toes 
and finger nails until an unwary insect 
came within striking distance of his net. 
For years no further specimens could be 
obtained and finally, after making an 
unsuccessful trip to Arizona in search of 
the species our collector let it be known 
throughout the district that he would 
pay two dollars a specimen for all caught 
and brought to him. Imagine both his 
delight and consternation when a native 
son arrived one fine morning with over 
one hundred specimens of the long sought 
species which he had captured with the 
greatest ease congregated around a moist 
spot on the ground in some remote 
canyon. It is said the collector kept his 
word and purchased the specimens, but 
needless to say the offer no longer holds 
good. 

When one considers that the number 
of private individuals willing and able 
to purchase specimens is very small and 
that further there are seldom any repeat 
orders after a small series of specimens 
has once been obtained, it stands to 
reason that as a commercial enterprise 
butterfly collecting is less attractive than 
selling clocks. On the other hand as a 
delightful means of spending one’s spare 
moments it cannot be too highly recom- 
mended; the eye is trained to observe, 
the body is invigorated in the chase, the 
brain cleared of cobwebs by the fresh, 
pure, country air, and finally there is 
always the possibility of securing a 
little extra pocket money by the disposal 
of rare species which one has succeeded 
in running to earth. 


876 


“Once Over’? and the Road 
Is Done 


HERE has been put to work on the 
roads in the vicinity of Philadel- 
phia, a new and interesting piece of 
road-making machinery, which is attract- 
ing attention because it performs several 
operations at once. 


After one passage 


‘Two treatments of the roadway during the season 


keep it in excellent condition 


over a poorly-built or worn-out piece of 
roadway, the surface has been planed, 


scarified, rolled and left in good condi- 
tion for use. The ‘“‘once-over’’ is all 
that is necessary at the time. If a 


roadway is treated by this machine two 
or three times at intervals 
during the early part of the 
season it is in reasonably 
good shape for months of 
service. 

The machine, Ree a 
heavy, weighs about eighteen 
thousand pounds. Itisdrawn 
by a traction engine of from 
twenty-five to forty horse- 
power, according to the char- 
acter of the work to be 
performed. There are two 
low-hanging blades on either 
side; as the machine passes 
along, these scrape off the 


surface 


of the road at the sides, bringing the | 


loose earth to the center. The scarifier 
cuts off the hummocks in the center of 
the grade, which is then packed down 
hard by the action of the roller. A 
feature of the roller’s work is that the 
crown of the road is as nicely rounded 
as if done by hand. 


Popular Science Monthly 


Drainage is essential in road main- 
tenance, but it is impossible where there 
is a thick growth of vegetation at the 
sides of the road. Three trips over the 
road during the spring and early sum- 
mer not only place it in good condition, 
but keep down this vegetation for the 
entire summer. 

The apparatus will make a 
roadway thirty feet wide or 
may be adjusted to one-half 
that width. While its work 
is most effective in rejuvenat- 
ing an old road it may also 
be used for building new 
roads in connection with an 
ordinary tractor-blade grader. 


Some Record Dredging at 
Panama 


Ss HE Cascadas, the largest 
= all-steel dredge in the 
world, which made three new 
high records for dredging in 
the Culebra Cut at Panama, 
can remove thirty-five thousand tons 
of material with ease every working day 
of twenty-four -hours. The heaviest 
train ever hauled by one locomotive, 
from Baltimore to Philadelphia, con- 
sisted of fifty-five cars with four thou- 


A traction engine pulls the machine which performs 
the three functions of scraping, cutting and rolling 


sand four hundred and one tons of coal. 
The output of the Cascadas on one day, 
however, weighs more than the contents 
of eight such trains. Furthermore the 
Cascadas is an all-American product, de- 
signed, constructed and erected in this 
country by a company which is the larg-. 
est manufacturer of its kind in the 


Popular Science Monthly 877 


A Fender for London Omnibuses 


HE darkening of London streets, 

in the presence of hostile Zeppelins, 
has given rise to a new danger—that of 
being run down by automobiles. Many 
such accidents have already been suc- 
cessfully averted by a new device which 
is attached to the front of the automo- 
bile. Two heavy arms project forward 
from the axle and support a piece of wood 
two feet long and one foot wide, placed 
on end, face forward, directly in front of 
the wheel. 

At the base cf this guard is a rubber 
attachment, consisting of a short length 
of large rubber tubing, the axis being 
horizontal. Above is a similar piece of 
rubber of smaller diameter, its axis 
placed perpendicularly. These rubber 
pieces are further strengthened by curved 
metal pieces on their inner surfaces next 
to the board. 

Whichever way the wheels turn, the 
guards remain in the same relative posi- 
tion, since the projecting arms are at- 
tached to the rotary portion of the axle 
next to the wheel. This attachment, 
simple as it may seem, effectually pre- 
vents running over a pedestrian by 
pushing him out of the way. 

The exigencies of war have given rise Ryspae GG a cite pike bine 
to many such safety expedients. The dan- arid pais and thus saves money 
ger from darkened streets is only one of 
the many problems to be dealt with. Even more He Did It With His Lit- 
serious difficulties have to be met on the continent. tle Magnet 


ATHERING up the 
fragments, as the Bi- 

ble tells us, is a sure way to 
a life of plenty. Even so 
elusive and ephemeral a 
thing as the soap bubble is 
being conserved in these 
days of scientific manage- 
ment and office efficiency. 
Even the office boy has 
heard the call of thrift, and 
has answered it by attach- 
ing a string to a magnet and 
pulling it over the office floor 
and pushing it into inac- 
cessible corners, the result 
of which has been an ac- 
quisition of pens, pins, paper 
clips and numerous office 


The rubber guards strike the body and gently tosses it access¢ ries which would 
to one side away from the heavy wheels otherwise be lost. 


878 


Why a Featherduster Is Like a Fly 


NYBODY can see a feather duster 

in the hands of the housekeeper, 

but it takes a microscopist to discover 
that the fly uses a similar duster in the 
characteristic and amusing performance 
known to children as “fiddling.” From 


its own viewpoint the house-fly is neat 


With these featherduster - like 


and cleanly, but it cares not where it 
scatters its dust, nor how much it in- 
conveniences and menaces human _ be- 
ings. The fly dusts its body with praise- 
worthy industry and continuity, passing 
one leg over the other with a peculiar 
rolling motion, using each like a feather- 
duster, and the leg being dusted as an- 
other duster. 

Under the microscope, the legs, not 
only of the house-fly but of others re- 
lated to it, are seen to be covered with 
hairs and bristles, which under low pow- 
er, give the entire leg a feathery ap- 
pearance. In some flies even the termi- 


legs, the fly spends 
much of his time freeing himself from particles of dust 


Popular Science Monthly 


nal claws are hairy. The fly is evidently 
annoyed by the dust, and much of its 
spare time seems to be devoted to the 
fiddling process. A microscopist who 
wants to prepare a fly for microscopical 
study usually allows it to develop under 
a bell glass, or in some other condition 
in which the dust cannot soil the speci- 
men, The accompanying 
illustration of a fly’s fiddling 
legs show, even under the 
highest power of the micro- 
scope, not the slightest par- 
ticle of dust, because the fly 
was prepared immediately 
after such transformation. 
The purpose of the picture 
is to display the feathery 
legs in their fiddling posi- - 
tion, free from dust. The 
freedom from dust is, in 
this instance, due to the skill 
and ingenuity of the micro- 
scopist, not to the diligence 
of the fly. 

The moral of the picture: 
A feather duster in the 
hands of a diligent house- 
maid can spread more dis- 
ease germs than a hundred 
flies with their microscopic 
feather dusters, and t hives: 
mechanism is the same. 
Campaigns against the fly 
should include the duster- 
wielding housewife. Pla-- 
cards should be exhibited with 
pictures of a fly and a house- 
wife and with this legend: 
“These two animals spread 
disease with their feather- 
dusters.” 


Paraffin Protects the Labels of 
Chemical Bottles 


I the amateur chemist will paint a 

thin coating of paraffin over the la- 
bels of his reagent bottles with a fine 
brush he will be saved much time and 
bother in replacing labels. The paraffin 
will prevent any drops of reagent from 
attacking and badly discoloring the la-— 
bels. Most reagents do not act on paraf- 
fin. The paraffin coating should extend 
about one-quarter of an inch beyond the 
edges of the label. 


X-Rays and the Law 


2 -RAY pictures have been used as 
evidence in law suits brought for 
personal injuries in order to show 

the injured parts clearly. To mark the 
negative for identification, lead letters 
(opaque to X-Rays) have been used, ar- 
ranged at one 
side of the 


1/4/16 


of accident:- 


pent photo- s-pier #47-N.Y. atio 
graphed.This_ |egmam te os o Pim. 
method did _ | @eeeaimumaiettas 


¢ of injury:- Fracture ofthe 


not eliminate 
the possibil- 
ity of fraud, 
and hence the 
photographs 
so marked 
were not al- 
ways accept- 
able to the 
courts. There 
was no way 
of proving 
that thename 
and date on 
the picture 
Were. not 
forgeries. As 
a result some 
fifteen States 
have passed 
laws which 
prohibit the 
courts from 
receiving an 
X-Ray pho- 
tograph as 
evidence un- 
less the plate 
or card on 
which the name, address, date and re- 
marks are written is placed either under 
or over the parts injured. Suppose the 
bones of a hand are broken and the 
fracture is to be photographed. It will 
be necessary under the law in question, 
to place a label directly on or under the 
injured part in order to make the 
photograph acceptable to the court. 
The lead letters heretofore used cannot 
be arranged in this manner; they hide 
the fracture and thus vitiate the eviden- 
tial value of the photograph. 

Dr. Aurelius De Yoanna, Brooklyn, 


hi: Metacarpal bone. 


of when plate taken:- 1/5/16. - 


To be used as evidence in an accident case, an X-Ray 
photograph must have a label which could not possibly 
have been forged 


~¢ 


New York, has invented and patented 
a method of authenticating X-Ray 
plates which will allow him to mark the 
injured part and arrange a label directly 
on or beneath the injured part. It is 
impossible to “‘fake’’ the - photograph. 
After the 
photograph 
has been tak- 
en, the frac- 
ture is dis- 
tinctly seen 
through the 
label. Thus 
the method 
overcomes 
the objection 
to the lead 
letters here- 
tofore em- 
ployed, and 
at the same 
time the vari- 
ousStatelaws 
are obeyed. 

The label is 
so pliable 
that it may 
be used on 
curved parts 
of the body 
and in con- 
nection with 
celluloid films 
or plates. 
When used 
with a cellu- 
loid plate the 
label may be 
placed on the 
plate or film or on the injured part and 
the X-Ray taken in the usual manner. 

The label itself is made of lead, tin- 
foil, or any other material opaque to 
X-Rays, so that when written on by a 
pencil, pen, stylus, typewriter or other 
device the writing will become trans- 
parent to the X-Rays. Hence, the 
written or printed matter on the label 
may be easily read, and the fracture 
beneath the label carefully studied. This 
label complies with the law and at the 
same time does not injure in any way 
the finished photograph. 


880 


Motor-Truck’s Energy Runs a 
Pipe-Threader 


UNDREDS of arc lamps have been 
transferred from wooden pole sup- 
ports to the structural iron work of the 
elevated railway, in Philadelphia. To 
do this, several miles of pipe had to be 
threaded and cut to varying sizes. The 
cutting and threading work to be done 
advantageously had to be done as the 
- work progressed. 
Out of this necessity a novel motor- 
driven pipe-threader was built by the 
superintendent of the electric company. 
A portable truck was equipped with a 
screw-cutting machine, driven by electric 
motor. The energy for its operation was 


Current from the truck furnishes power 
to the screw-threading machine 


furnished from the storage batteries of 
the truck used by the company for the 
transportation of men and material. The 
pipe-cutter. was set up at any desired 
location, the necessary wire connections 
made, and it went to work. It was 
moved along and no time was wasted de- 
livering pipe back and forth between the 
work on the street and the company’s 
shops. 


Oiling the V’s on a Lathe 


O keep the V’s of the lathe bed oily 

and in condition, a piece of heavy 
felt should be glued over the V’s on the 
four wings of the carriage. The felt 
should be almost saturated with oil each 
day. As the carriage moves back and 
forth over the V’s, the oil will spread 
over the surfaces in contact and emery 
and grit will be prevented from accumu- 


lating between the carriage and the lathe 
bed. 


Popular Science Monthly 


Slow-Setting Plaster of Paris 


HE rapidity with which plaster of 

Paris becomes hard when mixed 
with clear water in the ordinary manner 
often proves to be a very objectionable 
feature, especially if one desires to do 
several little jobs with one mixing of the 
plaster. To overcome this fault, if the 
plaster is mixed with water to which 
has been added an equal quantity of 
strong cider vinegar the plaster will re- 
main soft and workable for a very much 
longer time than when mixed with wa- 
ter alone. 


Adjustable Light-Holders for 
Factory Illumination 


OWS of machines are peculiarly 

hard to illuminate economically 
without some such arrangement as is 
provided with a new adjustable holder 
which has just found its way into the 
market. By its use all machines can be 
lighted to save current and to prevent 
eyesight troubles on the part of the op- 
erator. 

The new device is made of steel tub- 
ing and equipped with one or two joints 
which make the light adjustable. Long 
rows of machines, such as sewing ma- 
chines, linotypes, drafting rooms, and 
the like, are individually lighted by 
standards with the globe in a steel shade, 
and all the wires lead to a long conduit. 
Where tables are not permanently estab- 
lished the standards can be fastened to 
the floor or to the walls. 


These adjustable light holders will 
solve many a difficult problem in fac- 
tory lighting 


For Polishing Furniture 


HE polish generally used on mis- 

sion furniture is the dull wax fin- 

ish. If, instead of applying only wax, 

alternate coats of boiled linseed oil and 

wax are used, a polish will be obtained 

which is brighter and more durable 
than the ordinary finish. 


Making the Burglar Chase Himself 


to dispose of a burglar is to scare 

him with the thing he most fears, 
and that is a pistol, a Chicago man, R. 
_C. Mayberry, has devised an apparatus 
which ‘will fire off cartridges and do the 
scaring automatically at the very mo- 
ment the burglar begins work. 

The burglar unwittingly sets off the 
contrivance himself and does his own 
frightening, as it were. This is accom- 
plished through the aid of numerous 
push-buttons or other switches, located 
at points along the path a burglar must 
pursue in entering a building. Thus, 
the raising of a window will close one 
of the switches and cause the contrivance 
to operate. If, once inside, the burglar 
should stumble over a string stretched 
across his path or step on a loose 
board, a fusillade will surely 
greet him. As soon as he 
operates one of the numerous 
switches, his presence is prompt- 
ly heralded far and wide by 
powder, smoke, and noise. 

The device is in part mechani- 
cal and in part electrical in 
nature. Housed in a small box 
about five inches square and 
ten inches long, it is preferably 
suspended from or attached to 
the ceiling of a room. Hence, 
it is out of the way and less 
accessible to would-be tamperers. 

The mechanical part of the 
apparatus consists of a small 
clockwork mechanism which 
rings a high-pitched bell on the 
principle of an alarm-clock. The 
slow unwinding of the spring as 
it operates the bell, causes a 
cam-like contrivance to revolve, 
at each successive turn releasing 
a firing-pin on one of five .44 
blank cartridges located in a 
metal bar nearby. 

The electrical part of the 
mechanism comes into play in 
starting. The burglar’s closing 
one of the switches causes cur- 
rent from dry-batteries, located 
within the box, to be sent 
through a small solenoid. This 


pag that the easiest way 


operates a small bolt-lock and _per- 
mits the bottom door of the box to 
drop down, at the same time starting 
up the clockwork with its resulting 
exploding of the cartridges and ringing 
of the alarm-bell. As the bottom door 
drops down smoke from the cartridges 
escapes. 

The burglar either departs before he 
has had any opportunity to secure loot, 
or else leaves so many clues behind in 
taking his ill-gotten goods along that 
his ready apprehension later is an easy 
matter. The robber has no means of 
knowing, of course, whether the shots 
are coming from a mechanical contri- 
vance or from an outraged householder’s 
revolver. He never stops to inves- 
tigate. 


Five blank cartridges are fired in rapid succession 
when the window is opened 


881 


882 Popular Science Monthly 


The only part of the craft which escaped undamaged is one 


of the propellers. 


An idea of its size may be had by comparing 


it with the spectators in the distance 


Punctured Zeppelins 


“CYOMEWHERE in England’’ there 
lies the mangled and _ crushed 
remains of what was once a bomb- 
dropping Zeppelin. In the mass of 
wreckage large fuel tanks, twisted net- 
work, a propeller which escaped un- 
scathed in its downward plunge, testify 
mutely to its colossal size. But as to 
the number of the craft, the identity or 
size of its crew, and the location of the 
spot which unwittingly proved to be its 
grave, no one, save those in authority, 
knows. The hand of the censor is on 
the mouth of every eye witness. 

As far as the actual capturing or 
enforced landing of Zeppelins over enemy 
soil is concerned the campaign waged 
by Germany has been a notable success. 
With the possible exception of the 
“L 77,” which was brought down near 
Revigny, France, the Allies have little 
definite recent information of the con- 
struction and features of these dread- 
noughts of the air. The “L 77,’ French 
discovered, possessed a fifth propeller 
which was attached to the stern gondola 
and which was driven directly from an 
additional engine. Hence, there were 
five engines in all, capable of developing 


a total of one thousand horsepower. 
The crew is believed to have numbered 
twenty-three men. About one and a 
half tons of bombs were carried. One 
official described the bomb-releasing de- 
vice as consisting of a hook which was 
opened by an electrical apparatus con- 
trolled by a push-button in the central 
cabin of the airship. No armament 
heavier than machine-guns was carried. 

The most recent attempt to salvage a 
marooned Zeppelin was made by the 
English when the “‘L 15’ was forced to 
land off the Kentish Coast after it had 
been damaged by an_ anti-aircraft 
battery. After the crew had been 
rescued a trawler attempted to tow the 
water-logged airship to harbor, but the 
dead weight proved too much and it 
sank. England was thus thwarted in 
an attempt to examine at her own time 
and convenience the character of the 
aircraft used against her. 

From such airships as have fallen 
into the Allies’ hands, however, comes 
the information that Count Zeppelin is 
breaking away from the pencil form so 
long established by him and that he is 


building his new destroyers in a stream- . 


line shape. 


; 
2 


a 


Popular Science Monthly 883 


+ 


[Soe eee 
pen a 2 ~.. 
oF a 
‘\ 


“Dead” Zeppelins tell no tales, but when they 
plunge to death over the enemy’s territory, as 
this one did, their seared and twisted remains 
reveal facts of the highest military importance. 
The fuel tanks, the mass of bent ironwork, the 
tattered pieces of envelope, and what is believed 
to be the skeleton of the elevating part of the 
steering mechanism (below) all aid the aero- 
nautic engineer in restoring the great bull of the 
craft in his mind’s eye 


The Purse Powder-Holder 


AU GHas we mav 
A= at woman’s van- 
ity, it is never- 
theless a weakness 
which has been so 
greatly commercialized 
and traded on that 
thousands of manufac- 
turers are maintaining 
large and profitable 


a CLASP 


PERFORATIONS 


plants solely for 
the making of 
such toilet novel- 
ties and toilet ac- 
cessories as pow- 
der puffs, cases for 
powder puffs, mir- 
rors, rouges of all 
kinds, etc. 

Time was when 
a few women— 
those with more 
vanity or perhaps more temerity than 
others—carried, for the purpose of ap- 
plying powder to their faces, a small 
square of chamois in the center of which 
reposed some loose powder. The rest 
either did not use powder or, if they did, 
dabbed it on their faces only in the 
privacy of their boudoirs. This method 
Was unsatisfactory and inconvenient; the 
loose powder was spilled and wasted as it 
was applied. An ingenious and _far- 
seeing manufacturer then put on the 


884 


This compact little case contains a mirror 

and hairpins, besides the chamois powder- 

puff. The powder cannot spill out of its con- 
tainer, yet it is always ready for use 


market a small, round, 
cotton or wool contriv- 
ance which was used 
in connection with 
the square of chamois 
and loose powder. A 
decided improvement, 
this proved a boon to 
the fastidious lady who 
wished to repair . the 
ravages of an_ after- 
noon’s shopping to her 
complexion before she 
reached home. Still, 
its use also entailed 
waste of powder as well as the incon- 
venience of carrying about on one’s 
person a bulky package from which 
the powder persisted in- leaking into 
the purse or pocket where it was carried. 
At last a very compact and useful little 
novelty has been invented which not 
only combines facilities for carrying 
powder, but also provides compartments 
for the mirror and hairpins, so necessary 
in fastening veils,’ 
stray locks, etc. 
Half of the lit- 
tle case is made in 
a pocket form to 
hold the powder, 
with a small 
opening at one 
side which is 
closed with a 
clasp. The inside 
of this half—that 
is, the side ap- 
plied tothe skin— 
is made of cham- 
ois slashed or per- 
forated so as to permit the powder to sift 
through easily but without waste. The 
other half, which folds directly over the 
puff side, serves as a preventative for the 
leakage of powder and also provides three 
little compartments, one large one for a 
mirror and two smaller ones for hairpins. 
When not in use both sides are held to- 
gether with a clasp fastener, so it makes 
a flat and compact arrangement which 
may be very easily carried in the purse 
or pocket. ; 


Hazards of Motion-Picture Acting: 
Real and Faked 


By E. T. Keyser 


OME people maintain that a camera 

S will not lie. They are correct. A 

camera shows exactly what happens; 

but if you place the wrong construction 

upon what you find in the picture that 
is entirely your own fault. 

If, in a screen comedy, an automobile 
proceeds casually to ascend the front of 
a skyscraper, don’t miss the remainder 
of the reel by rushing to the box office 
to enquire the make of the machine. 
Perhaps it has not such a very good hill- 
climbing record after all. Had you 
watched the filming of that particular 
scene you would have observed that a 
representation of the skyscraper’s front 
elevation reposed flat on the floor and 
that the automobile traveled over it in 
the usual manner, while, above it, and 
with lens pointed downward, the motion- 
picture camera was recording the fact. 

A most wonder- 
ful exhibition of 
athletic prowess, as 
evidenced by a 
swimmer’s ability 
to jump from the 
water to a spring- 
board ten feet 
above, was pro- 
duced by the simple 
method of having 
the aquatic Sam- 
son run backward 
along the board and 
jumpoff backwards. 
Then the film was 
run through the pro- 
jecting machine re- 
versed, presenting 
indisputable evi- 
dence that the fly- 
ing fish of the trop- 
ics had found a 
human rival. 

Speaking of 
jumping, have you 
noticed the effort- 
less manner in 
which comedy char- 


Helen Gibson playing the leading role in 
a breathlessly exciting railroad drama 


885 


acters lightly vault to the top of a wall 
which would have baffled the crack pole- 
vaulter of your old college team? The 
actor is photographed while making a 
short jump from the ground. The 
cameraman ceases grinding while the 
jumper ascends the wall via a ladder, 
placed out of range of the lens. Then the 
actor jumps down. The second “take” 
is reversed and joined to the first, there- 
by showing the superiority of knowledge 
to training. 

But it is not in comedy alone that the 
ingenuity of the cameraman and of the 
cutter is shown. Nellie, the little 
daughter of the engineer, wearied by a 
long day’s quest of the elusive buttercup, 
goes to sleep on the railroad track, with 
her downy cheek pressed close to a fish- 
plate. Papa, driver of the crack flier, 
with the Limited in tow, rounds a curve 
and sees with hor- 
ror his angel in the 
path of the iron 
monster. To stop 
the train is impossi- 
ble. Must Nellie 
die! Perish the 
thought. With an 
agility bespeaking 
long practice in sav- 
ing little Nellies, 
papa climbs for- 
ward on his engine, 
reaches the cow- 
catcher and, just as 
its cruel bulk is 
about to crush out 
the fair young life, 
leans over and tri- 
umphantly raises 
his child in his 
strong right hand 
and out of harm’s 
way. 

Before complain- 
ing to the S. P. C. 
C. of the reckless 
manner in which 
children’s lives are 


886 Popular Science Monthly 


The cold shudder caused by witnessing a death struggle on 
the edge of a precipice, with the final thrust which hurls the 
villain into space, has no basis in fact. Just as 
he is about to fall, the 

_-—-7 camera is 


stopped, a dummy substi- 
tuted and the action re- 
sumed. Assoon asthe dummy 
4 is spattered on the rocks below, 
‘ the camera is again stopped and 
the real man assumes the position of the dummy. 
Mark Swain and Chester Conklin are here 
shown about to fall from a real aeroplane in 
this safe but photographically horrible way 


When the picture in the circle 
is viewed on the screen, it 
will tell the story of a hair- 
breadth escape from destruc- 
tion, but when it was enacted, 
the train was moving very 
slowly and the daring leap 
was made with deliberation 


Above, a leap for life. 
This»jump was not faked 


A wrecked bridge makes a good setting for a film story 


ee 


— 


ee par 


Popular Science Monthly 887. 


Above, a real water scene. Ability to swim and dive is 


invaluable to the moving-picture actor. In some instances, 
che “struggle for life’ which appears on the screen is not 
n wreck from which some 


faked. Below, a horrible trai 
cherished heroine miraculously escaped 


Above, jumping from a 
burning building into a 
net. Below, Pearl White 
rescued from drowning 


In circle, Helen Gibson, former telegraph operator, and 
Robyn Adair “playing” on a railroad bridge 


Douglas Fairbanks has forsaken the regular stage 


”? 


for such dare-devil ‘‘stunts’”? as this 


endangered to make a few feet of film, 
come and watch how itisdone. Behold 
the locomotive with the engineer on the 
cowcatcher, Nellie in his arms. Observe 
that the train is moving slowly backward 
and that the camera man is grinding 
slowly. Papa lays Nellie carefully down 
on the track; then walks backward to his 
cab. When the film, reversed, is run 
rapidly through the projector, there will 
be another thriller on the screen. 

[N. B.—It is now considered advisable 
to use hard coal when doing this feat, 
since a keen observer in the audience 
once noted that the clouds of 
smoke were pouring into the 
stack instead of out of it.] 

Did you ever notice the realis- 
tic manner in which a screen 
motor-car will bump its victim? 
It is so natural that you would 
imagine yourself witnessing an 
actual occurrence at Fifth Avenue 
and Thirty-fourth Street while 
the traffic policeman’s back is 
turned. There are several 
methods by which the operation 
may be performed without losing 
the bumpee’s services for the 
next -pi ctu fe.) me, vWierul 
may lie down in the road, right 
up against the front tires and 
the car is started on the reverse 


Popular Science 


Monthly 


with a most natural jump. Then 
the cameraman ceases turning 
while the car is brought to 
the other side of the prostrate 
one, with the back of the rear 
tires touching him this time. 
Quick throwing of the lever into 
speed forward produces another 
jump. The whole performance 
looks very tragic when it gets on 
the screen. 

Another method is actually to 
bump and push the victim over 
and then to pass over him at slow 
speed with the camera-crank also 
turning slowly. A rather spare 
style of architecture is_ pre- 
ferred in the victim of this 
method, as clearances must be 
carefully considered. 

But it is not all trick work, 
however. There are actors of 
the screen whose artistic sense 
or pure dare-deviltry causes them 
to yearn for.a realism which lands them 
alternately in the Hall of Fame and the 
hospital. ‘ 

Some time ago, Irving Cummings 
worked .in a_ picture which called 
for a close crossing of an automobile 
and a railroad train. Picking his cross- 
ing, he timed a particular train from a 
given point to the exact spot selected for 
the crossing. Then, with a stop watch, 
he timed his car, from a start from 
which he could view the train reaching 
the fixed point. He averaged train and 
car for several days. At last he made 


Helen Gibson makes a safe landing on a horse from 
a crane on a moving wrecking-train 


— os. 


Popular Science Monthly 889 


the dash. There was enough accuracy in 
his arithmetic to get the crossing but 
he left part of the rear mudgard aboard 
the cowcatcher. The engineer, who was 
the only extemporaneous actor in the 
event, took a week off at the picture com- 
pany’s expense to recover from the shock. 

Not so long ago Anita King, in “The 
Race’? went off the end of a broken 
bridge and twenty feet out into the 
water, while an officer was waiting in the 
Hollywood — studio 
to serve an injunc- 
tion upon her to 
restrain her from 
carrying out the 
performance. Some 
one ‘who had _ re- 
ceived a tip of what 
was to happen and 
who feared for the 
actress’s safety had 
made a strenuous 
effort to prevent 
the hazardous leap. 

Elmer Thompson 
has just jumped 
his car across a 
twenty-seven-foot 
gap in a bridge out 
in Camarillo, Cali- 
fornia, in the taking 
of a scene for “‘The 
Secret Submarine.” 
The car lighted on 
the forward wheels 
with the rear ones 
elevated like the 
hind legs of a 
bucking broncho. 
It was touch and 
go whether the 
machine would 
somersault or right 
itself. It happened 
to do the latter. 

In “The Trail of Danger,’’ Helen 
Gibson is swung by the derrick of a 
rapidly moving wrecking train, from the 
saddle of a horse, to the deck of one of 
the cars. 

This combination of cameraman, cut- 
ter and realistic actor is responsible for 
more thrills on the screen than can be 
found in any three-ring circus, outside 
of the posters. The life of a moving- 
picture actor is a series of thrills. 


Sometimes a fossil skull weighs a quar- 

ter of a ton; it cannot be lifted to be 

photographed. That is one reason 
why this camera was invented 


A Camera Which Can Be Tilted 
At Any Angle 

N photographing natural history ob- 

jects such as skulls, mounted fossils, 
etc., it is often necessary to take a view 
of the specimen as seen from above. In 
most cases the object can be taken off 
its stand and placed against a vertical 
screen with the side to be photographed 
toward the camera. Sometimes, how- 
ever, the object is so delicate that one 
dare not turn it 
from its upright 
position, or it is 
too valuable to risk 
handling, or it may 
be altogether too 
large to do so, as 
for instance in the 
case of a dinosaur 
skull weighing a 
quarter of a ton or 
a completely 
mounted fossil 
animal. 

For such cases, 
there is in use by 
Mr-A.E. Anderson, 
photographer to 
the Department of 
Vertebrate Paleon- 
tology of the 
American Museum 
of Natural History 
-in New York, a 
camera of his own 
design, which can 
be tilted at any 
angle, or, in fact, 
turned upside 
down, as shown in 
the illustration. 
The camera has a 
ground glass eleven 
by fourteen inches 
and is provided 
with an unusually long bellows. The 
stand supporting it is so constructed 
that the camera when turned upside 
down can project a considerable distance 
beyond the vertical axis on which it 
ordinarily rests. 

With the aid of this camera, Mr. An- 
derson has found it possible to photograph 
anything which presented itself, whether 
it was too heavy to be lifted or too deli- 
cate to be moved. 


— 


Popular Science Monthly 3 


Four four-mule teams are more efficient when pulling together than when separate where 
extensive transportation is necessary. The maximum traction effort required is less than 
four times the maximum for a single team 


Expensive Transportation 


N many engineering projects, the cost 

of transporting equipment and ma- 
terials assumes a very high relative 
value. 

In illustration, may be cited the case 
of the hydro-electric development of 
Big Creek in California. The site of 
the works was to be located fifty-six 
miles from the nearest railroad. It 


was estimated that to do this work with 


teams, the transportation cost would 
have been about twenty 
dollars per ton. So, the 
contractors built a stand- 
ard size railway. 

But they could not con- 
struct a railway in order to 
supply materials for a 
transmission line, 
which is two hun- 
dred and forty-one 
miles long. Teams 
had to be employed. 

A little con- 
sideration will 
make clear why 
it is better to 
unite four four- 
mule teams in- 
to one than to 
use them sep- 
arately. A 
loaded wagon must ordinarily be hauled 
by a team able to overcome the maxi- 
mum difficulties. A string of four 
wagons would hardly all of them have 
their individual maximum difficulties at 
the same moment. In other words the 
maximum traction effort required for the 
string is probably less than four times 
the maximum effort required for a single 
wagon. 


The test-car is used for detecting faulty railway scales 


A Traveling Laboratory for Testing 
Railway Scales 


NE of the interesting phases of the 

United States Bureau of Standards’ 
work is the testing of _ railway-track 
scales by means of traveling test-cars 
which make their way over the great 
railway systems of the country. - 

Two test-cars are now engaged in this 
work. Each test-car carries ninety 
thousand pounds of standard weights, 
eight of ten thousand pounds each 
and four of two 
thousand, five 
hundred 
pounds each. 
The car carries 
also a_ small 
truck driven by 
an electric mo- 
tor on which 
the weights can 
be placed so as 
to be rolled on 
to the trucks of 
the scale to be 
tested. 

At the for- 
ward end of the 
car there is a 
crane which 
can be extend- 
ed through 
the end doors, and which carries an 
electric hoist for raising the truck and 
placing it on the track. The work of 
the first test-car demonstrated that 
seventy per cent of the number of 
freight scales tested showed an error 
of at least two hundred pounds in 
weighing a freight car of one hundred 
thousand pounds. This proves that the 
test-car was needed. 


Ice Making at Home 


HERE is no sound 
scientific reason why 
a household refriger- 
ating machine should not 
be a commercial success and 
go into very general use in 
private homes. There is a 
wide demand for such ma- 
chines, and much money 
and engineering skill have 
been expended in their de- 
velopment. Notwithstand- 
ing this, it must be ad- 
mitted that they have not 
gone into use very exten- 
sively in private house- 
holds. 

The use of refrigeration 
to cool and preserve our 
food and drinks is so general 
that it has now come to be 
regarded as an_ essential 
factor in our daily life. 
Nevertheless it is surprising 
how few users of such re- 
frigeration there are who 
could accurately explain 
even the principles on 
which the ice-cooled re- 


By Jay F. Bancroft 


TO COOLING 
SURFACE 


=] 


The re- 
frigerat- 
ing ap- 
paratus 
here de- 
scribed 
can be 
conven- 
iently lo- 
cated in 
the base- 
ment be- 
low the 
kitchen. 
The prin- 
cipal fea- 
ture of 
this ma- 
chine is 
thedumb- 
bell con- 
tainer 


frigerator works. Ev- 
erybody knows that in 
order to cool a _sub- 
stance it must be placed 
in proximity to a cold 
body, such as ice. There 
are numerous ways in 
which cold bodies can 
be produced mechani- 
cally, but the only way in practical use in 
household refrigerators is by the evapora- 
tion of a liquid. If the hand is plunged 
into warm water and then exposed to a 
draft of air the hand dries, but also be- 
comes very cool. This cooling effect 
is more pronounced if ether or alcohol is 
used instead of water, for such liquids 
evaporate more readily. The cooling 
effect is due to the fact that the liquid 
has changed to a vapor, and in doing so 
has absorbed a perceptible amount of 
heat from the hand, which heat disap- 
pears with the vapor. This principle is 


FLASKS 


shown in 
its relation to the 
other parts of the 
machine. This ma- 
chine is ‘so ‘nearly 
automatic that the 
services of an expert 
attendant are not 
necessary 


MATERIAL 


extensively used in dry climates for cool- 
ing water which is placed in porous- 
walled vessels exposed to the air. The 
small amount of water that seeps through 
the porous walls and is evaporated will 
cool down the remainder of the water 
within the vessel. 

Should water be placed in a pan under 
the receiver of an air-pump such water 
can be very much cooled, or even con- 
verted into ice, by removing the vapor 
as fast as it is formed. Only a small 
fraction of the liquid is evaporated, but 
in the evaporation of this small fraction a 


$91 


In ammonia machines, high pressure is 
‘ avoided by means of an automatic switch 
which stops the motor 


large amount of heat is absorbed from 
the remainder of the water, which is 
thereby cooled to the freezing point. 
This heat apparently disappears in the 
vapor, for the vapor is no warmer than 
the water from which it comes. This 
heat is said to be latent. Now should 
the pan containing the cooled water be 
connected with a pipe-coil located in a 
refrigerator, the cold water would per- 
form the same function as ice. In 
practice, however, water is not used in 
refrigerating machines, more volatile 
liquids being used instead; the vapor 
discharged by the pump is condensed and 
returned to the evaporator to be again 
evaporated. 

- Of the several well-known types of re- 
frigerating machines, the gas compression 
and expansion machine is the one most 
generally used for cooling household re- 
frigerators. All compression machines 
are made up of four distinct parts, viz.: 
a compressor or pump, a condenser, a 
refrigerating-coil, and an expansion valve 
between the condenser and the refrigerat- 
ing-coil. These are connected in a closed 
cycle so that the compressor can suck 
out the gas from the refrigerator-coil and 
discharge it under high pressure into the 
condenser, where the hot gas is cooled 
by running water. The combined effect 
of pressure and cooling causes the gas to 
liquefy. This liquid passes through the 


Popular Science Monthly 


expansion valve into the refrigerator- 
coil where it evaporates because of the 
low pressure maintained by the suction 
of the compressor and the heat absorbed 
from the articles being cooled. The func- 


‘tion of the refrigerant is that of a heat- 


carrier; it takes up heat in the refrigera- 
tor and discharges it into the cooling 
water. It is able to do this by reason of 
the work of the compressor which main- 
tains a high pressure in the condenser, 
where the heat is discharged, and a low 
pressure in the refrigerator-coil, where 
the heat is absorbed. The refrigerants 
most generally used are ammonia, sul- 
phur-dioxide, and ethyl-chloride. 

The most essential requisite of a 
household refrigerating machine is that 
it shall be so nearly automatic that the 
services of an expert attendant shall not 
be required. -. — - j Petite 

A near approximation to this require- 
ment seems to have been attained by 
the machine shown on page 891. The 
larger of the two hollow shells encloses 
the compressor, and the shell itself is the 
condenser and runs in cooling water, 
while the smaller shell acts the same as 
a refrigerator-coil. When completed this 
device is charged with a suitable amount 
of sulphur-dioxide and lubricating oil 
and is then sealed up. As all the moving 
parts are sealed up, the escape of gas is 
effectually prevented. By reason of the 
ingenious manner in which the com- 
pressor is constructed all danger from 
high pressure is overcome. 

The illustration on the preceding page 
shows how this machine may be used 
to cool a refrigerator on the dining-room 
floor of a home, the machine itself 
being in the basement. 

While ammonia is a most excellent 
refrigerant in large machines, it is not 
much used in household machines be- 
cause of the danger of the high pressure 
in the condenser and the possibility of 
leakage. Ammonia machines for house- 
hold use are usually so arranged that the 
switch controlling the motor is closed 
by the pressure of the water flowing to 
the condenser, and whenever the water 
fails or is turned off the machine is 
automatically stopped. In this way 
dangerously high pressures in the con- 
denser are avoided. In all ammonia ma- 


chines the pressure in the condenser 


Popular Science Monthly 


usually rises as high as 150 pounds. 
With sulphur-dioxide as the refrigerant 
the pressure in the condenser is rarely 
over 50 pounds, and the heat generated 
in compression is also much less than 
when ammonia is used. 

In most of the household refrigerating 
machines, all parts of the machine, in- 
cluding the electric motor, are arranged 
on a bed-frame which rests on top of 
the ordinary household refrigerator, the 
expansion or refrigerating-coil 
extending down into the com- 
partment usually occupied by 
ice. This coil may be arranged 
in a tank containing brine to 
store up reserve cold for times 
when the machine is stopped, or 
the coils may be so arranged as 
to hold small cans for freezing 
ice. 

In one of the recent sulphur- 
dioxide machines, shown in the 
accompanying illustration, the 
use of cooling water is dispensed 
with and air-cooling is substi- 
tuted. In this machine the 
condenser is composed of a 
great length of small copper pipe 
coiled around to form an en- 
closing fence about the com- 
pressor and motor. The spokes 
of the fly-wheel of the com- 
pressor are arranged at 
an angle so as to circu- 
late air over the con- 
denser-coil. The elimi- 
nation of the cooling 
water is obviously a 
very attractive feature 
of this machine. 

Another household 
machine, using ethyl- 
chloride as the circulat- 
ing refrigerant and em- 
bodying a rotary com- 
pressor, is shown at the 
top of page 894. It is 
very compactly arranged 
and is constructed on 
sound engineering prin- 
ciples. 

Still another household machine uses 
a low-pressure refrigerant known as the 
“Barsmith liquid,” or ‘‘Barsmith gas,” 
having many of the characteristics of 
sulphur-dioxide. In construction this 


893 


machine consists of a refrigerant con- 
tainer, an expansion-valve, a brine tank, 
a compressor, a condenser, and a motor, 
usually an electric motor. The brine 
tank is located in what is termed the ice 
compartment of the refrigerator. The 
other parts of the machine may be lo- 
cated on top of the refrigerator. The 


expansion-valve is connected with the 
brine tank. The liquid refrigerant passes 
from the container to the expansion 


In this _ sulphur-dioxide 
machine the use of cooling 
water is dispensed with. 
Instead, a condenser com- 
posed of a great length of 
small copper pipe coiled 
around to form an enclos- 
ing fence for the motor 
and compressor is used. 
The air cooling method 
employed in this appara- 
tus is, in many ways, an 
advance over that of other 
refrigerating machines 


CONDENSER CO/L 


valve, expands to a gas, and bubbles up 


through the brine and is collected in a 
dome on top of the brine tank, from 
which it is drawn off by the compressor, 
compressed and cooled and passed back 
to the container ready for another cyele. 


894 


As in other machines, the motor is 
started and stopped by means of a 


This machine has a rotary compressor and 
employs ethyl chloride as a circulating 
refrigerant 


thermostat in the refrigerator. The 
weight of this machine complete, in- 
cluding the brine tank, is about 160 
pounds. 

In recent years much has been done 
towards the development of an absorp- 
tion household-machine, and _ several 
meritorious machines of this type are 
now on the market. An absorption 
machine is much like the compression 
machine, the principal difference being 
that the compressor is replaced by a still 
or boiler. This still is partially filled 
with strong aqua ammonia. When 
heat is applied to the still the dissolved 
ammonia is driven off as a gas into 
the condenser, where it is converted into 
liquid ammonia just as in the compres- 
sion machine. After all the ammonia 
is driven off from the still and collected 
in the condenser, the burner under the 
still is extinguished and the still, with 
the water from the aqua ammonia, is 
allowed to cool down. Cold water 
has a great affinity for ammonia and at 
once begins to take up gas from the liquid 
ammonia which flows from the con- 


Popular Science Monthly 


denser into the refriger- 
ating-coils. This evapo- 
ration of liquid ammonia 
in the refrigerator coils. 
causes intense cooling.’ 
Check valves are placed 
between the still and 
condenser and between 
the refrigerator-coil and 
still so as to make the 
ammonia flow in the 
proper direction. Of course there is no 
cooling done during the distillation 
period, but this period is generally very 
short compared with the absorption 
period. Usually one distillation a day is 
sufficient. One great advantage of this is 
that there areno moving partsand hence 
no noise. The flow of the fuel gas and 
cooling water is automatically controlled 
in the later machines. The automatic 
devices will need some attention to keep 
them in order, especially the check- 
valves. The principal objection to these 
absorption machines is the high tempera- 
tures and pressures used. The alternate 
heating and cooling of the still tends to 


*“*“Barsmith 
liquid,” which 
is similar to 
sulphur-dioxide, 
is the refrigerant 
used in this com- 
pact machine 


Popular Science Monthly 


weaken the metal walls of the still, 
which in time will cause leakage of am- 
monia-gas. 

It may be said that any compression 
machine can be used with any volatile 
refrigerant that will boil at 30° F., or 
under, when exposed to the atmosphere, 
but in practice certain minor differences 


895 


constant running cooling water is used. 
In many places the water supply con- 
tains sediment or dissolved minerals 
which will tend to collect under the con- 
trolling valve and diminish the flow of 
water. 

Most people imagine that the tem- 
perature in an ordinary ice-cooled re- 


are ob- frigerator 
served = EXPANSION VALVE sap lower 
the con- = than cig 
struction really is 
of the ma- and when 
chines on they in- 
account of stall a re- 
the differ- frigerat- 
ences in ing ma- 
pressure of chine they 
the various try to keep 
refriger- the tem- 
ants used. perature 
Inasmuch down be- 
as all the low 40° F. 
machines The insu- 
above re- lation in 
ferred to the ordi- 
are prac- nary re- 
tically au- frigerator 
tomatic, An absorption machine, though expensive to install, ought is not suf- 
and can soon to repay the initial cost ficient to 
be run, maintain 


and are being run, without a skilled 
attendant, it is hard to understand 
why such machines are not more 
generally used. 

The high cost of the first installation 
is probably the largest obstacle to their 
very general use. Take a machine whose 
first cost is $900 and whose life is, say, 
ten years, you have a fixed charge of 
about $12.00 per month. Add to this 
the cost of electric current, and the cost 
of whatever repairs and adjustments 
may have to be made by skilled experts 
during the life of the machine, and you 
have a bill considerably in excess of the 
cost of 100 pounds of ice per day. 

One of the most objectionable fea- 
tures urged against compression ma- 
chines is the noise made by the motor 
and compressor. Even when the ma- 
chine is located in the basement it can be 
heard over most of the house, and at 
times such noise is deemed very objec- 
tionable. Another cause of trouble is 
in securing a constant and even flow of 
cooling water to the condenser, where 


such temperature and hence the use of 
electricity to run the machine will be 
excessive. 

When the public is fully aware of the 
great advantages, sanitary and other- 
wise, of this character of cooling, over 
the ice-refrigerator plan, the difference 
in cost, it is believed, will be cheerfully 
accepted. 

The actual cost to build a machine of 
this character that sells for $900 is 
probably not one fourth of that amount. 
It is fair to presume that the first cost 
price of all these machines will soon be 
materially reduced. 

Unfortunately, several machines have 
been put on the market which were 
faulty in design and involved engineer- 
ing defects which made their failure a 
certainty, and these failures have cast 
a shadow on the really meritorious ma- 
chines. 

All the difficulties and obstacles tend- 
ing to prevent a commercial success of 
these machines are apparently capable 
of being overcome by engineering skill. 


a 


The ‘‘Torpedo Kid’’ was modeled after a 
falling drop of oil 


An Electric Automobile Built 
Like a Drop of Oil 


UR present day pear-shaped racing 

automobiles are all distant cousins, 
so to speak, of the ‘Torpedo Kid,” a 
car designed by Walter C. Baker, the 
creator of the first American-made 
electric. In a dash at Ormonde Beach, 
Florida, some years ago, it did a mile 
in 56 seconds, establishing a world’s 
record for speed at that time. 

Oddly enough Mr. Baker came to be 
the originator of the first pear or cigar- 
shaped racer by studying the shape of a 
drop of oil as it fell through the air. He 
observed that the drop, while falling, 
was not round but took the form of an 
ellipse. In short time he arrived at the 
conclusion that a solid body of the same 
shape as the drop of oil, if cut in two 
and built low to the ground, would offer 
the least possible wind resistance. He 
followed out this theory in the construc- 
tion of the ‘‘Torpedo Kid,” and its 
initial record of a mile in 56 seconds 
proved that Mr. Baker was right. 

Other automobile manufacturers were 
quick to see the advantages of the 
constructional features embodied in the 
“Torpedo Kid,’’ with the result that 
pear-shaped racers, electrically and gas- 
oline-propelled, began to dot the courses 
of our race tracks. For a while the 
electric racers held their own against 
the others, but the gasoline engine 
improved so rapidly that before long 
the electric racer was as scarce as it was 
before the heyday of the ‘‘Torpedo Kid.”’ 
However, Mr. Baker has built a larger 
car along the same lines as his speediest 
electric, and it is said to have made 
one hundred and twenty miles an hour. 
A few years ago it was entered in some 


Popular Science M onthly 


‘Fisher, chief of the instrument division 


races in France but before it could give 
account of itself, it got beyond the 
control of the driver and ran amuck, 
injuring several bystanders. 


Signaling Three Hundred Miles 


PORTABLE electric  signal-light 
which, although operated by dry- 
cell batteries, gives two hundred and 
fifty thousand candlepower, has been 
designed and constructed by E. G. 


of the United States Coast and Geo- 
detic Survey. It is to be used during the 
summer in the mountainous regions of 
Idaho and Oregon on primary triangula- 
tion where the distance between stations 
is frequently as much as one hundred 
miles. No larger than the ordinary 
automobile head-light, the packed ap- 
paratus weighs about twenty-three 
pounds. Under ideal atmospheric condi- 
tions the light will be visible through a 
telescope of ordinary power for a distance 
of two hundred and fifty to three hundred 
miles. 

The great power of the light is due to 
a new type of tungsten filament designed 
by Mr. Fisher. The filament is concen- 
trated so as to confine the light to as 
small a point as possible—very much as 
in the gas-filled lamps now used for street-_ 
lighting. There are two tiny coils of 
filament about-one tenth of an inch in 
height and one thirty-second of an inch 
in diameter, connected by a loop at the 
top. The glass bulb is about two inches 
in diameter. 

The light is about one hundred and 
seventy times more powerful than that 
given by the acetylene signal lamps 
now being used by the survey. 


A specially constructed tungsten filament 
enables this lamp to throw its rays a dis- 
tance of three hundred miles 


Popular Science M onthly 


Strange Mineral Spring Deposit in a 
Nevada Desert 
NE might study this desert photo- 
graph a long time before reaching 
the conclusion that it pictured the 
deposit of a mineral water spring,-and a 
very small spring at that. The spring is 
situated on the southern border of South 
Carson Lake in western Nevada and is 
known as Allen’s Springs. The flow of 
water is less than one-half gallon a 
minute, but in this very arid country 
even this meager supply is important as 
it represents the only drinkable water 
within a radius of over twenty miles. 
The strange looking deposit is a 
yellowish porous mass of tufa, chiefly 
carbonate of lime, which has been left as 
the waters have evaporated in the 
desert sun. In addition to this tufa 
from the spring, there are thinner 
incrustations of similar material that 
were deposited from the waters of the 
now extinct Lake Lahonton which, in 
prehistoric times, was a lake of enormous 
dimensions. No definite conclusion can 
be reached as to the time in years that 
has elapsed since this lake reached its 
maximum area, except that geologically 
speaking the existence of the lake was 
recent—perhaps seventy-five or one hun- 
dred thousand years ago. 


As the waters from a Nevada spring evaporated, a 


strange deposit was left. 


Orange Peel Oil Is Explosive 

VERYBODY knows the flavor of 

orange peel, but not everybody 
knows what causes that flavor. It is 
due to the oil contained in little cells in 
the rind. If the peel is bent so as to 


It is yellow, porous tufa 


897 


strain these oil-laden cells, the oil 
bursts out, often as a visible spray and 
usually perceptible to our sense of smell, 
and often as a greasy film on the fingers. 

As shown in the accompanying photo- 
graph, the peel may be so bent as to 
rupture a large number of these cells at 


A miniature explosion occurs when the oil 
from an orange peel is ignited 


one time, and to fill the air with an oily 
mist. If, at the moment of bending, a 
lighted match be applied by an assistant 
a decided explosion will follow. This 
experiment is most successfully per- 
formed in a darkened room or in a room 
wholly dark except for the light from the 
match. 


Air Raids Involve Problems 
Hard to Solve 


ONDON’S problem of placing 

anti-aircraft guns is a serious 
The farther away from 
London they are stationed, 
the greater the number re- 
quired to make the passage 
across the fortified zone 
sufficiently perilous. On the 
other hand, the nearer the 
guns are brought to the city, 
the more restricted is their 
action for fear of inflicting 
injury on those they are 
intended to defend. A 
possible solution to this 
problem is the employment - 
of mobile guns. 

The use of aircraft as a defense against 
air attacks has been officially stated to 
be inefficient by itself. The difficulties to 
be met are not regarded as insuperable, 
however, and great hopes are placed in 
future developments along that line. 


one. 


Truly a War of Motors 


Besides displacing horses 
at the front in the World 
War, motor-trucks are 
also used to carry woun- 
ded chargers off the 
battlefield. Four ambu- 
lances like the one shown 
are now with the British 
Army in France. Each 
holds two horses. One 
side of the body swings 
down so that animals can 
walk or be hauled in. The 
twenty-ton naval gun be- 
low was carried by an 
American tractor over 
eleven miles of mountain 
roads which were badly 
torn up by shot and shell. 
Despite these difficulties, 
the load was delivered 


The great number of 
motor vehicles now 
in use in the war 
has necessitated the 
employment of 
vehicles whose sole 
purpose is to make 
quick repairs. The 
unit shown at the 
left is an American 
workshop with the 
Ninth Australian 
Corps. Note the 
complete equip- 
ment of forge, anvil, 
vise, drill presses 
and tools. Also 
note how the lower 
half of the body 
swings down to 
form a convenient 
working platform 


898 es = Oh ee 8 ee 


This motor - truck 
may be used twen- 
ty-four hours a day. 
A number of bodies 
for various uses are 
utilized with the 
chassis, and by sub- 
stituting one for 
another the truck 
may be constantly 
at work. The bodies 
are loaded while the 
truck is busy, and 
when it arrives 
at the loading- 
platform the bodies 
are exchanged by 
means of the over- 
head tackles shown 
in the lower illus- 
tration. Local trans- 
portation facilities 
have _ progressed 
rapidly since the 
motor-truck sup- 
planted the horse 


A Truck with a Long Day 


Consider These Miracles of Mechanics and Think 


The device pictured on 
the right has robbed 
bursting water mains 
of their terror. The 
mechanically operated 
valve-closing apparatus 
is mounted on the run- 
ning board. Below will 
be seen two pictures 
showing an electric 
truck used in Phila- 
delphia for trimming 
arc lights 


Above, a truck fitted with a steel tower 
and swinging extension platform. The 
driver may operate the truck either 
from the driving seat or from seat 
on the tower. Below on the left 
is a truck which cleans a street 
as a rubber squeegee cleans a 
window. The spiral-shaped 
rubber roller leaves the street 
remarkably clean. The tank 
may be removed and an- 
other body substituted. 
Below, a fire-truck with 
amotor-operated ladder 
extensible for about 
eighty-five feet 


How Little We Accomplished With Horses 


Mills may operate their own 
trucks and thus send into 
the woods for their logs, 
whereas logging trains 
either haul to tide- 
water or to a regu- 

lar railroad. Few 
logging roads 
run to the 
mills that 

they feed 


The automobile- 
truck has invaded 
the forest and is 
taking the place of 
logging trains. This 
method is cheaper 
than the mainte- 
nance of railroads; 
and a motor-truck 
does not have to 
stick to a track 


A crew of three or four men is required for a logging 
train, but a single man can handle a motor-truck 
freighted with logs 


901 


Popular Science Monthly 


actsshat esc EP 


wii 


In the National Museum at Washington is a model of the Island of Trinidad, showing 


Cte Mn js ara 


the topographical details on a scale of one inch to sixty feet 


A Model of Trinidad’s Famous 
Asphalt Lake 


HERE are several places in which 

natural asphalt in one form or 
another exists with but few impurities, 
the best known and largest being located 
on the Island of Trinidad, a British pos- 
session lying off the northeast coast of 
Venezuela. The island includes about one 
thousand seven hundred and fifty square 
miles of rather barren land. Near its 
center is a lake of natural asphalt about 
one hundred and thirty acres in extent, 
which furnishes over two hundred thou- 
sand tons of material each year. Nearly 
one half of this total is sent to the 
United States. 

Nature seems to have endowed this 
remarkable lake with miraculous powers. 
The supply never decreases appreciably, 
in spite of the great number of tons of 
asphalt removed annually. From some 
eternal pitch-spring located far beneath 
the surface there continues to flow a 
steady stream of this fine road-building 
substance. Naturally it is not like water 
in consistency; it flows very slowly like 
cold molasses or tar. It is not unlike 
the asphalt seen in the carts in your own 
home town, but it is not boiling or even 
hot, except for the heat of the tropical 
sun which renders the work on the sur- 
face very uncomfortable. Since the 
lake is fairly solid, the men and teams 
go out on its surface to dig and haul 
the asphalt to the refining plant on 
shore. Although not molten, this lake 
has a perceptible motion, which pre- 
vents the construction of buildings for 
refining or a railway for transmission on 
its surface. 


In the highest part of the model and near 
the center the black asphalt lake glistens. 
On the shore near at hand stands the re- 
fining plant, and the little tram-way 
which conveys the material ready for 
shipping down to the pier at the water’s 
edge. Scattered about the island are 
many fine residences and rows of houses 
where dwell the working men and their 
families, as well as a club house built to 
accommodate the visitors, since the 
island has been converted into a very 
good winter health resort. 


An Improvised Flour Bin 


N the absence 
of a_ kitchen 
cabinet acon- 
venient flour 
sifter can be 
made by using 
an ordinary bag 
and placing a 
sifter in the 
opening, after 
securely fasten- 
ing it with heavy 
string. The bag 
is inverted and 
hung from a nail, 
conveniently 
placed above the 
work table by 
running a heavy 
string through 
the bottom. At 
first the flour 
will sift out 
as it shifts into position, but it will soon 
settle in the bowl of the sifter. 


A flour sack is also 
a flour bin 


Popular Science Monthly 


A Strange Spongelike Rock 


HE so-called sponge rocks near 
Livingston, Montana, have at- 
tracted the attention of many travelers 
and scientists on account of their re- 
markable tracery and porosity. They 
appear like huge pieces of pumice stone 
intricately carved by Nature into in- 
numerable cells, webs and _ cavelets. 
Some of the pieces are almost threadlike. 
The rock is sandstone, which was 
formed millions and millions of years 
ago when the entire State of Montana 
was the bottom of a sea. In the course 
of ages, Montana has been bodily up- 
lifted several thousand feet. 

The spongelike formation of the rock, 
as it appears to-day, is of course due to 
the wearing action of water and wind, 
the softer particles of the rock having 
been washed or blown away, leaving the 
harder portions standing. There are a 
number of these rocks in the same 
locality, and several of them are said 
to have been appropriated by wild bees 
and other insects. 


The spongelike appearance of this rock is 
due to the wearing action of wind and rain 


903 


Take this portable dark-room with you in the 
woods and develop your negatives on the spot 


A Portable Dark-Room for 
Photographers 


PORTABLE dark-cabinet has been 

invented, which does away with 
many inconveniences encountered by 
photographers in developing their nega- 
tives without the advantage of a suita- 
ble dark-room. A metal framework 
supports a table or shelf adjustable to 
any desired height. Extending above 
the table are two rods supporting a 
square frame to which is attached a large 
hood. This hood completely envelops 
the table and affords enough room for 
the upper portion of the photographer’s 
body behind the table. A hole in one 
side of the covering is used for intro- 
ducing the materials in the cabinet. 
Another hole in its lower part is provided 
with a strap or elastic band, which 
passes around the waist of the operator 
as he enters the hood. 

The cabinet is lighted by a window of 
ruby glass directly over the table and 
opposite the photographer. Fresh air 
is supplied by means of a mask with a 
rubber tube leading to the outside. 
Tourists who take many pictures can 
make’good use of this cabinet. 


What Shall We Do for Gasoline? 


HERE are about two and one-half 
million automobiles in use at the 
present time. By the end of the 

year their number will be well over three 
million. All of them consume gasoline. 
There are also three hundred thousand 
motor-boats, forty-five thousand motor- 
trucks, thirty thousand gasoline farm 
tractors, and an untold number of 
stationary engines, all dependent on 
gasoline. Over thirty-five million barrels 
of gasoline are annually required to meet 
the demands of these many motors. 

The total gasoline content of all the 
oil produced in this country in I9I5 is 
estimated at 1,892,500,000 gallons. 

According to the preliminary report 
on the investigation of the rise in the 
price of gasoline, prepared by the 
Federal Trade Commission, the 1915 
exports of gasoline amounted to fifteen 
per cent of the entire gasoline content 
of all the crude petroleum produced in 
the United States within the year 1915, 
Exports for the year of gasoline, naphtha, 
and benzene totaled eight hundred and 
twenty-four million, five hundred and 
fifty thousand gallons, as against two 
hundred and thirty-eight million, five 
hundred thousand in 1914. 

We are burning up gasoline faster 
than we can distill it from the crude oil 
which we pump out of the earth. In 
past years so much gasoline was pro- 
duced that some of it could be set aside 
for possible later emergencies. But 
even these stocks are now practically 
exhausted and we are living almost from 
hand to mouth. 

It has been suggested that benzol be 
used. Not until the war began did the 
United States of America make any 
serious attempt to recover benzol as a 
by-product of coke making. 

Benzol is not greatly different from 
gasoline. Motorists object to it because 
it requires adjustments in the motor. 
Moreover, the quantity of it available 
will always be so limited as to preclude 
widespread distribution. 

What is known as casing-head gasoline 
has been finding increasing favor. 
Casing-head gasoline is literally squeezed 
out of natural gas just as you squeeze 


904 


water out of a sponge. The output of 
gasoline thus extracted is about one 
million and a half barrels a year. 

In the ordinary method of distill- 
ing petroleum, heat is applied. At 
low temperatures the vapors of the 
lighter constituents of the oil are distilled 
off and condensed. As the temperatures 
increase the heavier vapors rise; finally 
a heavy mass is left from which no fuel 
at all can be distilled. The line of 
demarcation between gasoline and kero- 
sene is ill-defined. Hence in the days 
when the kerosene lamp was in vogue 
and when gasoline could not be sold for 
lack of automobiles, the oil refiner 
retained as much gasoline in his kerosene 
as he dared. Nowadays the situation is 
reversed. Gasoline contains as much of 
the kerosene element as possible. From 
year to year, gasoline is becoming 
heavier and heavier. But: even this 
device of the refiner, made necessary by 
the enormous demand for motor fuel, 
has failed to meet the situation. So, 
for years oil chemists have been trying 
to devise plans whereby kerosene itself 
could be subjected to further heat 
treatment—a heat treatment which is 
known as “‘cracking,’” and which serves 
to break up the kerosene molecules into 
gasoline molecules. One of the most 
successful of these processes is that 
invented by Dr. Burton. Thanks to 
him at least three hundred thousand 
automobiles are now running on cracked 
gasoline. More recently Dr. Rittman 
has come to the public notice as the 
inventor of a cracking process for which 
marvelous things are claimed. Dr. 
Rittman believes that the cracking 
process will solve the gasoline problem. 

A cheap motor fuel is a vital neces- 
sity to the automobile industry. The 
cheapest at present available is kerosene. 
But unlike gasoline it demands a special 
type of carbureter—an apparatus which 
will perform its function far more scien- 
tifically and accurately than is neces- 
sary with gasoline. If present indica- 
tions mean anything at all they mean 
that motor car manufacturers will de- 
velop a type of carbureter which can be 
successfully used with kerosene. 


Popular Science Monthly 


Freak Motorcycle Carries 
Four Passengers 


HE oddest thing yet 
constructed in the 
motorcycle line is a freak 
mount designed to transport 
four passengers, with the 
foremost -man sitting on a 
spring bucket seat and the 
other three directly behind 
him on regular motorcycle 
saddles. The frame of the 
machine is a double trape- 
zoid. It has the front and 
rear wheels sprung some- 
what on the lines of spring 
forks, with a shock spring 
above and a recoil spring 
below. The wheelbase ts sixty-six inches. 
The motor, which uses kerosene as a 
propelling fluid, has two cylinders and is 
water-cooled. Each cylinder has two 
pistons. There are two 
crankshafts coupled by 
means of a longitudinal rod 
having wormgears. Thisrod 
drives the camshaft, magneto 
and water pump. The final 
drive is by V-belt to the front 
wheel. Four-inch tires are 
used, and band-brakes are 
fitted to both wheels. 
Combined Eye-Shade 
and Program 
COMBINED eye-shade and detach- 
able program or printed matter 
section can be affixed to a hat by a sim- 
ple curved clip device having a shank at 


Novel system of highway illumination along 
the crest of the Kensico reservoir 


Program and eye- 
shade combined 


This four-passenger motorcycle is under the control 


of the man in the rear 


one end to engage a loop on the eye- 
shade, and at its other.or free end, 
extending below the attaching shank to 
press on and grip a hat brim firmly. 
The eye-shade passes under 
‘a hat brim and the clasp 
holds it firmly in place with 
all types of hats. 


Illuminating a Highway 
With Pockets of Light 

NTIL Wilson Fitch 

Smith, division engi- 
neer of the Catskill aqueduct 
system of water supply of 
New York city, worked out 
an illuminating plan of his 
own by using lanterns and. boxes, nearly 
two thousand feet of the State highway 
which is laid out on the dam across The 
Bronx valley, was unlighted. 

Mr. Smith did not 
want to erect unsightly 
poles on top of the dam 
for illuminating the high- 
way at night, and as 
there was no other 
method available, he hit 
upon the novel idea of 
lanternsand boxes. Sub- 
sequently cubical pock- 
ets were cut in the heavy 
stone slabs and the 
proper. connections 
made. The lantern-box 
combination gives a re- 
markable uniformity of 
light, and the artistic 
effect is pleasing. 


906 


A simple telephone transmitter dragged through the 
water reveals the nature of the river-bed 


Navigating a River Boat by Sound 


O determine the character of inland 
river beds, steamboat captains are 
using microphones installed in sounding 
leads. On each ship an armored cable 
leads from the microphone to a telephone 
receiver and dry batteries. When the 
sounding-lead drags over the mud bot- 
tom, a dull groaning sound emanates 
from the receivers, while a stony or 
pebbly bottom will cause a series of 
sharp, staccato raps. 


Doing Away With the Dish-Cloth 


DISHWASHER has been perfected 

which does its work quickly and 
well and which eliminates the unsanitary 
dish-cloth. The machine consists of a 
cylindrical container with a diameter of 
about two feet, funnel-shaped at the 
bottom and having a tightly-fitting cover 
to prevent the escape of steam. A wire 
tray with grooves holds the plates in an 
upright position, and a central basket 
contains knives, forks and spoons. After 
being filled, the tray is placed in the bot- 
tom of the container. Above it is 
another tray for the teacups, water- 
glasses and smaller dishes. Below both 
trays, in the funnel-shaped bottom is a 


Popular Science Monthly 


triangular arm, or fan, which 
rotates at a high speed, 
throwing the water upward 
against the dishes. 

After placing the tray: 
with their dishes in the ma- 
chine, hot water is poured 
in, the cover adjusted, and 
the lever operated for two 
minutes. The soiled water 
is then drained off, fresh 
boiling water applied, and 
the operation repeated. The 
dishes are thus washed and 
sterilized. They dry of their 
own accord if the water 
is hot enough. Of course it 
is well to scrape the dishes 
reasonably clean before 
putting them in the con- 
tainer. 

The convenience of the machine may 
be increased by a water-pipe connection 
and a drainage pipe. Also a small motor 


eliminates the use of the hand-lever in 
operating the machine. 


Washing and drying the dinner dishes 
without a cloth and towel 


If you want further information about the subjects which are taken up in 


the Popular Science Monthly, write to our Readers’ Service Department. 


We 


will gladly furnish, free cf charge, names of manufacturers of devices described 


and illustrated. 


Popular Science Monthly 


Bird Protection for Electric Lines 
OCIETIES for the protection — of 
birds have insisted with particular 
emphasis that central station managers 
should provide suitable safeguards to 
prevent the electrocution of birds which 
perch on high-tension lines. These 
endeavors have generally been wel- 
comed by the power companies, not 
because they pity the birds, but because 
short-circuits might be produced and 
great damage caused. The arcs pro- 
duced through the body of a bird, 
between the line and grounded iron 
parts, are a serious menace for electric 
plants. Fluctuation in voltage is caused 
and .worse still may happen if two birds 
should produce short-circuits. For this 
reason the system illustrated in the ac- 
companying figures was evolved by one 
of the large German electric companies. 
In order to prevent the production of 
electric arcs between a grounded pole- 
arm and live conductors, an insulat- 
ing button is fixed wherever there 
is a risk of such bridging. These 
insulating buttons are either 
pointed or flat. A bird can 
perch upon them with 
impunity. Sucharrange- 
ments will be welcomed 
by all bird lovers. 


Inclined arms are an 
effectual safeguard 


The production of electric arcs 
between a grounded pole-arm 
and a live conductor is avoided 
by means of an insulating button 


907 


A convenient lifter for hot dishes 


It Saves the Cook’s Hands 


O modern cook need make a burnt 
offering of her fingers on baking 
day, for it is no longer necessary to draw 
hot, handleless pie-pans and pudding- 
bowls from the oven with hands poorly 


protected by dish towel or apron. For 
a few cents she can buy a_ simple 
mechanical lifter which solves the 
difficulty. This consists of wire 


loops to hold the hot dish, and 
a safe wooden handle with a 
thumb latch for adjusting 
the lifting loops. To re- 
lease the dish simply 
requires a slight 
pressure on the lever. 


ZN 
¥ 


Prey ee tt 
. 


Persia 


LP ae, PEE 


ee 
e 
esl 


a Pare: fe 


Wooden poles only re- 
quire insulating supports 


Ice Skating in Summer Without Ice 


CE can be made artificially for summer 
skating. It has the disadvantage of 
melting. For that reason, chemists 
have devised glassy surfaces which will 
stand heat and which will be as accept- 
able as ice in winter. 
Some years ago a German patented a 
process, in which thick pasteboard 


plates are immersed in very hot linseed — 


oil and varnish, mixed with glue. After 
becoming thoroughly permeated with 
this mixture, they are subjected to a 
powerful pressure, which squeezes out 
the excess of oil and gives them great 
strength. When dry, the plates are 
immersed in hot paraffin and again put 
under pressure. To one side of each 
plate a layer of parchment is applied; 
the other side is coated with gypsum 
and tar. The plates, with the parchment 
sides up, are then fitted together on the 


WATER-PROOF 


KX RIBBON 


(G-=>— YLLLLSELIISTLLLL SL Sy} ee 


% 
Y 
Z 
4 
% 


FASTENER SECTION OF RIM 


Diagrams showinz treatment of floors. 


“3 
« 


floor and united-by cement. The finished 
surface of the rink is coated with a ~ 
material consisting of one part of © 
glycerin, two parts of wax, and three 
parts of oil. An unusually smooth 
floor is thus formed; but ordinary skates 
cannot be used, since their sharp edges — 
would soon cut up the surface beyond 
repair. 

Another compound contains soluble 
glass, fluor-calcium, asbestos, ground 
glass or flint, paraffin and soapstone. 
These substances, when thoroughly 
mixed, are applied to the floor. A thin 
coating of soluble glass and a layer of 
paraffin are then added. Absolute 
smoothness is obtained by passing a 
heated roller over the surface. If the 
surface becomes scratched, more heat is 
applied, or fresh coats of glass and 
paraffin are added. 


N SECTION oF 
N RUBBER BAG 


4 
<] 


The hot salts are poured into frames on the floor. 


After solidifying, the frame is removed and used for the next section. The frame with the 
galvanized-iron wire nets is used in re-surfacing the floor, a rubber bag filled with steam 


being laid on it. 


The heat is thus applied without bringing the bag into direct contact 


with the salts 


908 


Popular Science Monthly 


Skating on Salt 


The idea of using crystalline 
salts, such as the carbonates 
and sulphates of sodium, potas- 
sium and other substances 
having like properties, has also 
been suggested. The salts are 
boiled and then poured direct- 
ly on a water-tight floor, hav- 
ing raised edges. The floor 
should be laid in sections, by 
means of a frame for holding 
the melted salts. After they 
solidify, the frame can be used 
for an adjacent section. 

This same method has been 
improved so that a good per- 
manent sliding-surface is ob- 
tained. When the rink be- 
comes badly scratched, due to 
excessive use, heat is applied 
by means. of a_ rectangular 
frame supporting a wire lattice- 
work. The frame is placed on 
the floor and a rubber bag, filled with 
steam, is laid on the lattice-work. The 
action of the heat melts the salts, so that 
a flat, smooth surface is formed. 

Another device for heating resembles 
an ordinary garden rake. Steam is 
blown on the floor through a longitudinal 
slit in a tube. The tube has a handle 
and two runners for guiding it across 
the floor. The pipe for supplying the 
steam passes down the handle and 


Intersecting channels underneath the salts are filled 
with water to be taken up by the porous layer 


909 


a 


MAGNES/UM CHLORID 
CRYSTALLINE SALTS 


The porous substance permits the surplus moisture to 
pass from the magnesium chlorid to the crystalline top 


layer or vice versa 


connects with the lower horizontal tube. 

This smoothing process is too frequent- 
ly necessary, owing to the varying 
degrees of humidity in the atmosphere. 
To do away with this difficulty, at least 
partially, one inventor places a thick 
sheet of sodium carbonate upon a layer 
of porous material, which, in turn, 
rests upon a floor having many inter- 
secting channels. Water, circulated 
through these channels, is absorbed by 
the porous material and thus 
comes into contact with the 
top layer. This tends to pre- 
vent the air from affecting 
the sodium carbonate, but 
does not completely overcome 
the difficulty. 

The nearest approach to 
perfection is a combination of 
substances now being used in 
Germany with success. Be- 
low the porous layer is a sheet 
of some hygroscopic (water- 
attracting) substance such as 
magnesium chlorid. When 
the air is humid, the excessive 
moisture from the crystalline 
* top layer passes into the mid- 
=e. dle porous layer, and then 

into the bottom layer; when 
the air is dry, moisture reaches 


910 Popular Science Monthly 


the salts on top by passing up through 
the porous substance from the magne- 
sium chlorid below. In this way a good 


One Reason for Appreciating the 
Value of Birds 


HE fecundity of certain insect forms 


sliding surface is maintained. 


Limbering the Muscles of 
Fire-Fighters 

HAT the fireman’s life is not all 
velvet was proved in New Or- 
leans recently, when the fire depart- 
ment turned out in force and did 
some remarkable feats of quick lad- 
der-climbing for the edification of 


is astounding. The progeny of one 
little insect, the ‘“‘hopaphis,”’ sees thirteen 
generations born to it in a single year, 
and would, if unchecked to the end of 
the twelfth generation, multiply to the 
inconceivable number of ten sex- 
tillions of individuals. If this 
brood were marshaled in line, ten 
to the inch, it 
would extend 


i—| to a point so 


the public. A tall wooden tower was sunk in the 
erected, ladders were hoisted into profundity of 
position, and up these the firemen space that 
climbed in record-breaking time. light from the 
The fire chief was so pleased with head of the 


the demonstration that he ordered the 
tower to remain in its original position, 
to be used in the future for regular 
ladder-climbing exercise. 

In New York, where there is a fire 
college connected with Central Head- 
quarters to which firemen from all parts 
of the world come to be enlightened in 
the latest methods of combating blazes, 
ladder-climbing forms one of the most 
rigid courses of training. All sizes of 
ladders are put up against the rear wall 
of the college and up these the ‘‘rookies’”’ 


procession, 
traveling at 
the rate of one 
hundred and 
eighty-four 
thousand 
miles a _ sec- 
ond, would 
take two 
thousand 
five hundred 
years to 
reach the 


or probationary firemen are ordered by earth. 

their superiors. At the topmost point In eight 
of the highest ladder the rookies are vears the 
sometimes sent with scaling ladders, progeny of 


which they attach to stone outcroppings 
or window sills and go up fifty or sixty 
feet further. This is the kind of training 
which instills a spirit of daring in the 


one pair of 
gypsy moths 
could destroy 
all the foli- 


men. The training is made to resemble, age in the 
as closely as possible, the problems in- Ui n-b tesa 
volved in the actual work of fire-fighting. States, if un- 


A demonstration of firemen’s ability in ladder-climbing in New Orleans, La. 


checked. 


‘aos 


c 1 I 1 These men 
proved so efficient in practical life-saving methods, that their chief ordered the tower to be 
left in position for the drilling of recruits 


—  St—t 


Ss ae 


Popular Science Monthly 


911 


Thousands of ducks find a safe shelter and breeding place at the United States Game 
Preserve at Wichita, Idaho 


Game Preserve for Ducks 


O protect the wild ducks and other 

birds, besides having a general closed 
hunting season, a number of game 
reserves have been established both ‘in 
the United States and Canada. Wild 
fowl soon learn the safety of such resorts 
and enormous flocks may be seen in 
these havens. The photograph 
shows an exceptionally fascinat- 
ing view in the Game Preserve 
established by Uncle Sam in the 
Wichita National Forest of Idaho. 
These same ducks, almost as 
friendly in the Game 
Preserve as tameducks, 
allowing themselves to 
be photographed at 
very close range, will be 
as wild and wary as 
hawks as soon as they 
have left its protecting 
borders and scattered 
among adjoining lakes 
and rivers. 


What Time Is It? Half- 
Past Aunt Sarah by 
This Watch 
F you happen to ask 

. W. Humberd 


It is nearly half-past Aunt 
Sarah by this curious 
watch 


of St. Joseph, Missouri, what time it 
is by his watch and chain he is apt to 
reply: ‘‘Just about half-past Edith”’ or 
‘“‘a quarter to Calvin’”’ or ‘‘fifteen seconds 
after Albert.’’ And then, of course, you 
are shown the watch and the mystery 
begins to unravel itself. 

Humberd, who is a contractor, has a 
wife and ten children, just a big 
enough family for every hour in 
the day. Humberd had their 
pictures arranged—one for each 
hour—on the dial of his watch. 
Thus his watch has thirteen faces 
—twelve of them smil- 
ing. 

Humberd himself 
starts off as one o'clock. 
Then comes Mrs. 
Humberd an hour 
behind him. The eld- 
est son is three o’clock, 
followed by two other 
sons, so that it is six 
o’clock before the first 
daughter appears. At 
nine o’clock there is 
another daughter, and 
so on down through the 
whole happy family of 
children. 


912 Popular Science Monthly 


Are Metals Alive? 


HANGES in hardness, strength or 
elasticity in certain metals may be 


the cells of plants and animals change in — 
form, size and position. He heats — 
copper in order to find why that metal 


due to conditions analogous to disease in 
organic tissues, according to some metal- 
lurgists. This theory of the disease of 
metals has been so far accepted in Ger- 
many that the Imperial Navy Yard at 
Wilhelmshafen sends metals regularly 
to ‘‘the autopsy room and dissecting 
tables’ of Professor Heyn, a leader in 
this kind of work. This new conception 
of metals is due to the studies made some 
years ago by Professor Jagadis Chunder 
Bose, an East Indian physicist of Presi- 
dency College, Calcutta, who proved ex- 
perimentally that it is scientifically 
wrong to divide matter into “‘living’’ and 
‘“‘dead.’’ He demonstrated that the phe- 
nomena which we commonly associate 
with lifeshould also beassociated with non- 
living metals, books, paper and the like. 

It seems as if metallurgy will create 
a new and vastly important branch for 
itself—the branch of producing inocu- 
lating material for metals, which shall 
change their temper and form swiftly 
instead of waiting for the slow processes 
of forging and tempering that obtain 
to-day. 

Heyn has been studying the modifica- 
tions in iron under all grades of temper- 
ature, and he holds that the metal 
passes through various stages of disease 
that produce structural changes just as 


Answer to “‘ Off His Beat” 

The mathematical cop says that his con- 
versation with the Roundsman occured at 
9:36 A. M., because 1/4 of the time from 
midnight would be 2 hours and 24 minutes, 
which added to 1/2 the time until midnight, 
7 hours and 12 minutes, equals 9 hours and 
36 minutes. Had the Roundsman not 
remarked it was morning, 7:12 P. M. would 
have been an equally correct answer. 


Solution of ‘‘ At the Auto Races” 


The race of the three autos might have 
terminated in 26 varied results, as follows: 

Assuming that all three finished six ways, 
viz. AS BSCr ASC. EB: B, Age Bea 
C, A, B; C, B, A. Then A, B, C in a dead 
heat or A, B; A, C or B, C in a dead heat for 
the first place. Then again, A first with B, C, 
in a dead heat for second or B first with A, C, 
second or C first with A, B, second. Then 
there are various results in which one or 


Answers to Sam Loyd’s April Puzzles 


suffers from over-heating, and he con- 


cludes that it becomes poisoned with — 


copper protoxid, which so sickens it that 
its structure changes and partially 
breaks down. 


The metallurgists have joined the ~ 


chemists in erasing the line which divides 
all substances into organic and inorganic 
—yjust as the line between animal and 
plant life has ceased to exist. The 
German metallurgists have come to 
speak as a matter of course of the life 
that unfolds itself in steel under various 
temperatures that are applied to it in 
working it. Poison steel with hydrogen 
or hydrogenous matter and you so 
sicken it that it gets into a condition 
where it is as brittle as if it had been 
ruined in tempering. 

Pure glycerin cannot be frozen by ordi- 
nary means, even at twenty degrees be- 
low zero. But, introduce a bit of glycerin 
that has already been frozen and the rest 
begins to congeal. This process is nothing 
more nor less than inoculating an inor- 
ganic substance with crystals in order to 
breed in it the condition of crystallization. 

Bredig, a German investigator, found 
the point of infection in the crumbling 
tin roof of the Council House at Rothen- 
burg. The roof suffered from a disease, 
now known as tin pest. 


more of the cars fail to finish. All three 
might fail to finish. Then there are nine 
different results in which one car failed and 
with two failing to finish there are three ways. 


Answer to ‘‘ Cheese and Crackers ”’ 


Let us call the weight of the cheese X, and 
the balance board would be 1/2 X. Four-fifths 
of the board, and therefore, 4/5 of its weight 
would be on one side of the balance point. 
Let us assume that the beam was 5 feet in — 
length. Then on the cracker side, at the 
point 2 feet from the fulcrum (the average 
distance), would be a weight pressure of 2/5 
X pounds. This being equivalent to a 1/5 X 
pounds pressure at the extreme end. On the 
cheese end of the beam would be a pressure of 
1 1/20 X pounds. This to balance would 
require a pressure of 21/80 X pounds at the 
end of the long arm. Since a pressure of 
16/80 X already existed, the difference to 
be made up in crackers would be 5/80 X. 


Popular Science Monthly 


Therefore, the ratio of crackers to cheese 
would be as 5 to 80. 


Answer to “At the Stamp Window” 


The cashier gave the postal clerk a $1,000 
bill in exchange for 18,816 one-cent stamps, 
14,112 two-cent stamps, ~ 10,584 five-cent 
stamps and 5 eight-cent stamps. No other 
United States bank-note can be divided in the 
manner necessitated by the cashier’s order. 


Answer to “‘Juggling the Digits” 


Solution of the schoolmistress’ puzzle of 
the digits involves the interesting principle 
of “residual roots,’ which means the con- 
tinuous addition of a group of figures until a 
single figure results. For example, 1, 2, 3, 4, 
5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0, added together equal 45. 
Four and five equal 9. No matter how those 
figures may be grouped in a sum, without 
employing fractions, the “‘root’’ number will 
always be 9. The root of 1916 is 8, so it is 
apparent that the given problem cannot 
be worked out without resorting to some 
method which will reconcile the discrepancy 
in roots. Following are three methods where- 
in fractions are employed to bring the result: 

1907 56 1907 68 1907 86 

3 — 2 — 2— 
4 28 5 


34 a7 g43 


1916 1916 1916 


Answer to ‘‘How Old Was Jimmie”’ 
On school registration day Jimmie was 


Answers to 


Answer to 
Ball’’ 


The diagram 
shows how 18 rows, 
4 balls in line, may 
be scored in an ar- 
> rangement of 20 
balls. 


Answer to “How 
Large Is This Man’s 
Lot?” 


The lot must have 
been 150 feet wide by 150 feet deep, having an 
area of 22,500 square feet. He had 190 poles, 
and if he had placed them two feet apart 
around the lot, he would have been 110 poles 
shy, whereas, if he had planted them two yards 
apart he would have had go poles left over. 


Play. 


Answer to “Children A-plenty ”’ 


Miss Pocahontas Smith must have been 24 
and little Captain John 3, with 13 brothers 
and sisters ranging between. ‘‘Seven times 
older”’ is equivalent to ‘eight times as old."’ 


Answer to “A Daisy Game” 
The correct reply to play of 1 and 2 is to 


9 3/5 years of age; his mother was 38 2/5 
years; his father 50 2/5 years and his sister 


16 4/5 years. 


Answer to ‘ Dividing the Farm”’ 


The accom- 
panying diagram 
shows how the 
land formed like 

* the letter T is 
divided into four pieces 
of the same shape and 
size, it being necessary 
however to turn over one 
section in order that all 
four may be exactly alike. 


Answer to “‘On the African Firing Line” 


There are 8 cocoanuts in evidence in the 
picture, which may be accounted for as 
follows: The Zulu threw the first and the 
monkey the second and third. Then the 
Zulu picked up one and threw it back. The 
one he threw came back with two more from 
the monkey, which would account for five 
upon the ground. Again he picked up one 
and threw it, bringing two more, which 
would account for 7 on the ground. Once 
more he picked up one and threw it as his 
parting shot. It came back, making seven 
on the ground as shown in the picture. 
According to schedule, the monkey was 
entitled to two shots, and in the picture we 
see his first, which scored a bull’s eye. 

The Zulu threw 4 cocoanuts. 


May Puzzles 


take 8. This divides the daisy into two parts 
of 5 petals each. You may then imitate every 
play of your opponent. Should he reduce one 
side to 4, you reduce the opposite to 4, and so 
on, which enables you to remove the last 
petal and win. 


Answer to ‘“ While You Wait’”’ 


The cobbler charged goc. for repairing 
men’s shoes, 75c. for women’s and 45c. for 
children’s, 


Answer to “ Revers- SOLUTION 


ing Magic Squares’ 
The diagram shows 
how the g little 3 ra w 
squares are con- 
structed of four sim- 
ilar continuous lines. 
The diagram also 8 3 9 


shows an arrange- 


ment of the 9 figures 

in which totals of the 

8 rows are dis-simi- 
lar. 


913 


Little Inventions to Make Lite Easy 
Why Weren’t They Thought of Before? 


Small Electric Heater 


HE electric 

he ‘axtses 
shown in the 
illustration is very 
serviceable for 
quickly heating 
small quantities 
of water or other 
liquid in a suit- 
able vessel. The 
large heating surface insures very quick 
action. An easily detached connector 
adds to the convenience. 


Packing the Things You Never Can 
Cram into Your Suitcase 

: HE attach- 

ment fits the 

side of a suitcase 

and is meant to 


increase the 
capacity of the 
terior: “The 


central rectangle 
is made of stiff 
material, while 
a ee esi e- picees 
fold in on it, completely covering what- 
ever is placed inside. The neat, flat 
bundle thus made may then be fastened 
to the side of the suitcase with tie straps 
provided for the purpose. 


The Fruit Picker’s Sleeve- Chute 


TTACHED 
to the wrist 
of the operator 
is a sleeve. Fruit 
grasped by the 
hand slides down 
the cloth tube 
and into the bag. 
The fruit-picker’s 
other hand is thus 
left free to grasp a ladder, tree-branch, 
or other support. Much time is thus 
saved over the older method of holding 
a pail or basket with one hand and 
dropping picked fruit into it with the 
other. 


Safety-First for Window-Cleaners 
SMALL [Iw 

platform 
is clamped to a 
window-ledge to 
serve as an exten- 
sion to the outer 
sill. This gives a 
wider foothold 
outside the 
window and ma- 
terially increases the safety with which 
window-washing operations may be 
undertaken on high buildings. A railing 
around the top of the platform lessens 
the danger of a chance miss-step. 


A Mitten-Duster 


MITTEN- 

duster which 
can be slipped on 
the hand enables 
the housewife to 
dust furniture as |_) 
with the ordinary |%7* 
dust cloth and at | | 
the same time keep 
her hand perfectly Mi 
clean. The mitten consists of a hand- 
shaped piece of soft felt; a bunch of 
cotton yarn is attached to the lower 
edge and serves to gather the dust. 


Muffler for Bowling-Pins 
HE: noise | A «K 
made by ; 
falling bowling 
pins is a nuisance, 
especially when 
the alleys are in 
the vicinity of a 
hotel or other 
place where quiet > 
is desirable. This difficulty is overcome 
in large part by cutting a groove in the 
belly of the pin and in the top, and then 
putting in place a rubber band to deaden 
the sound made by the falling pins. 
This acts effectively as a muffler and 
reduces insomnia in nearby places to a 
minimum. 


914 


Popular Science Monthly 


Telephone-Mouthpiece Deadens 
Outside Sounds } 
HE added 
mouthpiece 
shown has a 
second diaphragm 
attached to its 
inner end. This 
absorbs the out- 
side noises which 
interfere with 
telephone conver- 
sation. Through a central hole in this 
_ outer diaphragm sounds spoken into the 
mouthpiece are carried to the inner 
diaphragm in the ordinary manner. The 
invention is particularly useful in mills 
and factories where pounding and noise 
make it impossible to telephone with 
ordinary apparatus. 


Down with the Portcullis, and Your 
Fish Is Caught 


HE fisherman 

plants his 
trap in paths fre- 
quented_ by fish. 
When the prey 
swims through 
the metal arch- 
way, a quick jab 
on the handle 
causes the top 
cross-piece to descend, pinning the fish 
tightly to the spikes beneath. The 
catch may then be drawn up through the 
water and dropped into the boat. 


Improved Pocket-Knife Punch 
I NEW pocket- 
RS knife has a 
blade L-shaped in 
cross-section. It 
is especially 
adapted for use as 
an awl or punch. 
The inner edge of 
_i—— the punch is 
sharpened, so that it can be used in 
reaming out and cutting into a hole. 
Slanted corrugations on the blade’s 
exterior assist it to penetrate hard 
substances, since they grip the material 
screw-fashion. The new punch is no 
more in the way than the ordinary 
knife-blade, since it folds compactly 
into the handle when not in use. 


915 


A Magnifying Needle-Threader 

LMOS T Ee 

every pro- 
fessional or home 
seamstress, as she 
approaches 
middle age, 
begins to have 
trouble to see well 
enough when 
threading her 
needle. There has been devised an 
adaptation of the magnifying glass to 
serve her. A lens which will enlarge 
three and a half times is supported by a 
little standard fitting into the spool of 
thread. The glass can be turned to any 
desired position as the seamstress looks 
down through it at her needle and thread. 
The lens is also available for other pur- 
poses,such as removing splinters, or study- 
ing fine pririt or small pictures or maps. 


Mattress Handles Lighten Housework 
WO rectan- = 
gular wire 

frames, hinged 

together at the 
middle, are fas- 
tened to the 
mattress with 
heavy safety pins : 
or any other con- Mims 

venient means. A handle is located 
near each corner of the mattress; 
other handles are provided in the center 

if necessary. By grasping the handles a 

housewife can move a mattress much 

more easily than by seizing the bulky 
cloth itself. 


A Perfume-Wafting Fan 
ONTAINED Ee 
witha >a A 
fan-handle is a 
layer of cotton or 
other fabric, while 
at the top of the 
blade is a strip of 
blotting paper 
clamped across a 
hole. On_ both 
these absorbent materials perfume is 
poured. As the fan is swayed in the air 
the perfume is given off. Because of the 
novelty of the idea, the fans are advanced 
as a valuable advertiser for perfumes. 


916 


An Umbrella with an Electric Fan 
ERE is an 
umbrella 
“s with an electric 
fan to keep you 
cool on a hot day. 
Within the hollow 
handle of the um- 
brella are con- 
cealed both a dry 
battery and a 
motor. A _ shaft 
extends through the umbrella casing 
from the motor to the axis of the fan, 
which is so constructed that the blades 
open and close with the umbrella. By 
pressing a small push-button at the side 
of the handle, the fan blades are made 
to revolve as long as pressure on the 
button is maintained. 


Convenient Holder for Toilet Articles 


CLAMP, fas- 

tened to a 
wali} “hes ya 
notched lug for 
gripping a tooth- 
brush, shaving- 
brush, and other 
toilet article. A 
glass, placed over 
the top to keep 
the dust off, is readily removed at any 
time. In the hollow of the arm back of 
the glass a shaving stick may be de- 
posited, thus making the whole a 
compact and convenient fitting for 
crowded bathrooms. 


The Mechanical Fly Swatter 
= WO mesh 
screens such 
asare used onordi- 
nary fly killers are 
pivoted so_ that 
when a trigger is 
pulled, a spring 


causes the two 
screens to come to- 
gether like the 


jaws of a trap, thus catching the fly 
between the two screens and crushing it. 
The handle of the device is shaped like 
a pistol stock, and the spring mechanism 
is actuated by a trigger, as in a pistol. 
If desired, the two screens may be locked 
together, and the device used as an 
ordinary fly ‘‘swatter.”’ 


Popular Science Monthly 


Two Kitchen-Forks in One 


BOU ESE: 

kitchen fork 
that meets one of 
the housewife’s 
troublesome 
problems is 
shown in the cut. 
In taking vege- 
tables, tender 
meats, and other 
similar foods from the pan it is custom- 
ary to use two forks, one in each hand, 
in order to prevent breaking the food 
into small pieces. The double fork 
enables one to make the transfer with 
only one hand, leaving the other hand 
free for handling the utensils and for 
other purposes. 


Cord Reel Is Telephone Convenience 
O take up 5 

loose tele- 
phone cord and 
prevent it from 
getting entangled 
with desk materi- 
als, a reel is actu- 
ated by a spring, 
having just 
enough tension to 
keep the cord wound up but not sufficient 
to move the telephone. The attachment 
will fit any ordinary desk-telephone. The 
spring is the lowest of the three coils 
shown in the illustration, the cord being 
the others. 


A Sanitary Butter Dish 
SAN FRARN 
butter dish 
protects the butter 
from dirt, dust, and 
flies, and at the 
same time keeps it 
cool and solid. The 
butter is contained |) 
in the tray of crys- 
tal glass; beneath, 
is an ice chamber !n which ice may be 
placed in warm weather. The cover is 
turned over the butter to protect it 
when the dish is not in use; when the 
butter is needed the cover easily swings in- 
to place underneath the glass. This dish 
is not only convenient and useful, but 
ornamental as well. 


For Practical Workers 


Curing a Noisy Automobile Hood 
ANY of the cheaper cars develop 
an annoying series of noises after 

they have been in use for a time, and 
most of these may be entirely eliminated 
by a little careful attention. The most 
common cause, outside of the mechanical 
depreciation, is looseness at the hood, 
as this rubs against the hood-ledge on 


RAWHIDE 
BELT LAC/ING 


Diagram showing the use of rawhide to pre- 
vent hood from rattling 


the radiator and dash, and produces 
squeaking. The hood is liable to rub on 
the filler-board between the frame and 
hood side, as the frame distorts due to 
highway irregularities, and if the hold- 
down clips are loose, the hood will rattle. 

A very simple method of overcoming 
this trouble is to remove the strip of 
shoe-lace or light webbing ordinarily 
used on the hood-ledge and substitute 
for it, a good, broad, rawhide belt-lacing. 
The webbing is not heavy enough to 
keep the hood away from the ledge and 
soon flattens out. The rawhide is not 
only thicker and broader, but it is more 
enduring. In order to use the lacing, 
the small holes in the ledge-strip must 


be enlarged, which can be done very 
easily by making a drill hole on each 
side of them and then punching out the 
metal with a chisel. 

Another good way to cure hood 
rattle, which is unavoidable with thin 
gage hoods, is to run a trunk-strap over 
the hood as shown. This should have a 
series of holes for the buckle at each 


end, the buckles being carried by shorter ~ 


straps attached on each side of the car, 
so the hood can be raised on either side 
without entirely removing the strap. 
The strap is guided by clips riveted to 
the hood, the straps carrying the 
buckles being held down by clips 
fastened to the filler-boards. Much 
improvement can be made by inter- 
posing a thin strip of rubber from an 
old inner tube between the hood side 
and filler-board as shown. The springs 
regularly furnished to seat the hold- 
down clips can also be replaced with 
stronger ones.—VICTOR PAGE. 


A Long-Handled Screwdriver 

LONG-HANDLED screwdriver 

can be constructed in a_ few 
minutes with a block of wood, a piece 
of 14” pipe and adowel 4” x". A 
slot is sawed in one end of the pipe to 
prevent the screwdriver from turning. 
The accompanying diagram illustrates 
the construction. Any length screw- 
driver may be constructed by the 
variation of the length of pipe used. 


Handle, f Pine black of wood 
7 / 


A screwdriver of any length can be con- 
structed with a block of wood, a piece of 
pipe and a dowel 


917 


a ———— = ij” 


918 


Making an Electric Lantern from a 
Flashlight 
SMALL tubu- 
lar flashlight 
of the double tung- 
sten battery type, 


uf TAKEN 


B/E, of about 134-in. 
ui diameter, may be 


Sf7~- converted into lan- 
tern form ata small 
“cost. The regular 
type of dry battery 
is used, being 
cheaper and more 
durable. 

The body of the 
lantern is made of 
galvanized iron. Its 
base is 314 ins. by 3% ins. square, and 
its height is 9 ins. Two 10-32 machine 
screws are let through two opposite 
sides near the top, and soldered in place. 
The handle is drilled at each end, slipped 
over the screws and fastened on the out- 
side with small brass nuts. Two notches 
are made in the cover to enable it to 
set down over the screws. 

The lens, metal ferrule and cap are 
removed from the fiber body of the 
flashlight and soldered to the front of 


hi 
Wy BATTERY BOx 
MADE OF GALV iRON 


the battery box, as shown in the 
illustration. The switch may be used 
by mounting it as shown. One ter- 


minal of the battery is grounded to 
the box; the other runs to the switch 
and from there to the bulb. After 
giving the box a coat of black enamel, 
the lantern is finished. It is in many 
ways an improvement over the original 
flashlight —A. DANE. 


Driving Screws in Inaccessible Places 
RIVING a 
set-screw in 
a place too small 
to admit the fin- 
gers to hold the 
screw may be ac- 
complished as 
follows: 
Roll a piece of 
“paper into a cor- 
nucopia with the hole just a trifle smaller 
than the screw. By dropping the screw 
into this and holding it in the hole with 
as light pressure on the screwdriver you 
can drive the screw home. 


Popular Science Monthly 


A Home-made Ice-Mold 


O help reduce 

the high cost 
of living, many 
people would 
freeze their own 
ice during the win- 
ter months if they 


had molds that 
were practical and 
inexpensive. Get 


at a furnace shop an old hot-air pipe, 
the larger the better. Cut into sections 
about two feet long and press into square 
tubes to afford a chance for the expansion 
of the freezing ice. For each tube or 
mold, make a pan for it to set in by 
bending up the four edges of a sheet of 
tin, making the pan about two inches 
deep. Fill the pan with water, place a 
tube in it and the first night’s freeze will 
give a solid ice bottom. Add each day 
as much water as will freeze hard, till 
the mold is full. Put into the refrigera- 
tor, without removing from the mold. 
As many tubes can be used as desired or 
convenient. 


How to Etch a Water-Set 


HE easiest method of frosting glass 

is by means of hydrofluoric acid. 

A complete water-set can be beautifully 
etched with very satisfactory results. 

Procure a water-set of any description; 
the quality of the glass makes no differ- 
ence with the frosting process. Dip 
each piece in melted paraffin, being sure 
that every point is covered. After 
cooling, inscribe, with a knife-blade or 
etching-tool, the letters or design to be 
used, and see that the wax is entirely 
removed from the design. 

Place all the pieces in a box, lined with 
heavy Manila paper. Also set a bottle 
of hydrofluoric acid in the box. Do 
not remove the acid from the original 
container, since it will eat through 
glass; simply remove the stopper and 
place a cover over the box. The fumes 
of the acid will act on the glass so long as 
exposed. From 36 to 48 hours give a 
good heavy frosting. 

This method can be used on electric 
bulbs, glass doors or any glass that can 
be properly exposed to the hydrofluoric 
acid fumes. The acid will keep for 
months.—L. E. FETrTer. 


Popular Science Monthly 


Grinding Out Dies 


FTER continued use, dies ‘some- 
times require a little more clear- 
ance. A grinding attachment for this 
purpose is shown in the diagram. The 
coupling is fastened to a small motor- 
shaft. A piece of drill-rod, %” in 
diameter is attached to the other end of 
the coupling, and a small piece of metal 
is forced on to the end of the wire to 
form a shoulder for the wheel. 

Using a wheel with a diameter as 
small as 14”’, and having it mounted on 
the slender rod, which acts as a flexible 
shaft, it will find its way to small places 
that otherwise could not be reached 
without a stone. 


Flexible Shar? > 
aay oT ER) 


Diagram showing simple appliance for 
grinding out dies 


Drilling Holes in Sheet Metal 


T is very difficult to drill holes in even 

fairly thick sheet metal and practical- 

ly impossible in thin metal, especially 

brass and copper. The following method 
will be found serviceable: 

Drill a hole of the desired size in a 
piece of steel of suitable size. Square 
off the shank end of the drill and place 
the point in the chuck clear to the top. 
Close the jaws lightly so as not to in- 
jure the drill. A piece of drill-rod with 
the end squared off is better, this piece 
constituting the punch. 

Lower the punch and place the steel 
so that the punch enters the drilled hole. 
If the punch is raised carefully the hole 
will remain directly under the punch. 
Hold the sheet metal up against the 
punch; then lower both at the same time. 
They will not disturb the steel block un- 
derneath, when together. Additional 
pressure with the press-lever forces the 
punch through the sheet into the hole, 
taking with it a piece of metal the size 
and shape of the punch. 

If the holes have a definite location, 
mark the center lightly with the cen- 
ter punch. Turn your punch in a 
lathe, leaving a small point in the center. 
By placing the center punch markon this 
point, holes can be located with accuracy. 


This reamer does accurate work and can 
be easily made 


How to Make a Reamer 


N accurate and efficient reamer for 
enlarging steel or brass bearings, 
etc., can be made as follows: 

Obtain a round steel rod and make a 
2-inch slit at one end. File about an 
inch off the other end and square it so 
it will not slip in a brace. The length 
and diameter of the rod will depend 
upon individual needs and uses. Cut 
a strip of emery cloth 2 ins. wide. Insert 
one end in the slit in the rod and wrap 
the rest around it. The rod, with the 
emery cloth, is then inserted in the 
bearing to be reamed and turned by 
means of a brace. 

This tool gives a smooth, clean, ac- 
curate cut and is much better than a 
round file for the same purpose. A set 
of these rods may be made from old 
pieces of steel that are found lying 


around most workbenches and _ will 
often come in very handy. 
Jalely razor blade 


An old safety-razor blade is just the thing 
for making a scalpel 


A Home-made Scalpel for Trappers 
N skinning animals, a very sharp knife 
is needed. A good scalpel can be 
made from safety-razor blades, as shown 
in the diagram. New blades may be 
substituted by removing the bolts. This 
tool is especially useful in dissecting 
skunks and muskrats.—E. S. CLARK. 


920 


A Hose Connection Guaranteed 
Water-Tight 


HE hose connection illustrated, has 
an upper part with a tapered end to 
fit the rubber washer in the large end 
of the lower part. Near the end of 
each part, which engages the hose, is 
an enlargement to keep the hose from 


Bee Frubber Washer 


Diagram giving proper dimensions of 
hose connection 


slipping off. Small clamps can also be 
used. Each flange consists of 2 segments 
of a circle, 90°, each opposite the other 
and tapered, or rather increasing in 
thickness, so that after the 2 parts are 
placed together, a 90° turn, and some- 
times less, will make the connection 
perfectly tight —JosEPH K. Lona. 


A ninety-degree turn makes this connec- 
tion perfectly tight 


Silver-Plating Glass 


ERE is a good recipe for silvering 
mirrors or silver-plating glass of 
any kind. 

Two solutions are used. For con- 
venience they may be designated as solu- 
tion No. I, and solution No. 2. 

Solution No. 1 is prepared as follows: 
To a one per cent solution of silver 
nitrate add pure aqua ammonia, drop 
by drop, till the precipitate is almost all 
dissolved. Let this stand and then 
filter. The filtrate is solution No. I. 

To prepare solution No. 2: Dissolve 
one gram (.04 oz.) of silver nitrate in a 
little water and add to 500 cubic 
centimeters (17 fluid ozs.) of boiling 
water. Then dissolve 0.85 gram (13.12 
grains) of Rochelle salts in a little water 
and add to the 500 cubic centimeters of 


Popular Science Monthly — 


boiling water containing the silver 
nitrate. Boil for 20 or 30 minutes till 
the gray precipitate has collected, and 
filter the solution. This filtrate is 
solution No. 2. 

The glass surface to be coated must 
be carefully cleaned with alcohol to 
remove all traces of grease and dirt. All 
other surfaces which are not to be 
coated, should be painted with melted 
paraffin after the glass has been cleaned 
with alcohol. This leaves a clean 
exposed surface on one side of the glass 
to which the silver will stick. In coating 
with the paraffin, be careful not to get 
any on the clean surface. Mix equal 
parts of solutions No. 1 and No. 2, and 
place the glass to be coated in the solu- 
tion. The silver will stick better if the 
clean exposed surface of the glass is 
rubbed with a small cotton swab, 
saturated with the solution. Leave the 
glass in the solution till the coating of 
silver is as heavy as desired. Then 
scrape off the paraffin, being careful not 
to mar the silver deposit on the rest of 
the glass. If desired, to protect the 
silver coating, two thin coats of white 
shellac may be applied.—L. G. HASKELL. 


How to Mend a Broken Casting 

HILE placing a casting in his 

lathe, ten years ago, a machinist 
permitted it to drop on the tailstock, 
breaking the casting, as shown in the 
illustration. It was a serious break in 
those days, when cast-iron could not be 
welded so readily as now. The only 
recourse was a harness of two turned 
rings and two bolts. The arrangement 
may be seen in the illustration; it does 
not look good, but it is still doing 
service.—N. G. NEAR. 


UT 


TT 
MTL 


‘ 


ml 


This mended casting has done service for 
ten years 


_” 


Kite Making at Home—I. “ 


How to Build and Fly the Malay, 


Blue Hill Box and Tetra- 
hedral Cell Kites 


By Harry F. Rinker eis 


HOUGH the kite is usually thought 

of as having four corners, with a 

grotesque face painted on each 
side and terminating in a tail of rags, 
the fact is that this sort of kite has 
disappeared. Today every boy who 
is scientifically inclined, can build for 
himself kites which are 
as much ahead of the 
one Benjamin Franklin 
used as the motor-cycle 
is an improvement over -4 
the bicycle. 


Building the Malay 


We will begin opera- 
tions by making six-foot Malays, each 
of which carries 18 sq. ft. of sail, or 
108 sq. ft. for the battery. The maxi- 
mum pull from these kites is delivered at 
approximately 45 degrees flying angle, 
and the tangent of 45 degrees being .707, 
the resultant pull equals approximately 
7/10 the horizontal wind force per square 
foot. With a ten-pound breeze, therefore, 
the pull of one kite will be 126 pounds, 
and six of them will 
pull 756 pounds. It ,- 
is evident, therefore, %_ 
that some mechan- 
ical advantage is 
needed by the opex- 


Bo 6 Ge. als 


6o0'.6 


FIGURE 1 


FIGURE 2 


921 


All the kites to 
be described in this article, 


which is to be concluded in the July 


issue, are here shown 


ator to handle such a force as this, and 
such apparatus will be discussed later. 

The design of the kite is as follows: 
The frame of this kite consists of twosticks 
at right angles to each other, supporting 
the sail. For the six-foot kite, the two 
sticks are each 6 ft. long. The vertical 
stick is placed keelwise, 
while the transverse © 
stick is laid flatwise 
across it. The required 
size for the vertical 
' stick is 1 in. by % in. 
‘and for the transverse 
stick 3¢ in. by 34 in. 
Take a piece of clear 
white pine, spruce, or fir stock, 114 ins. 
thick, and split it once. Plane up the 
split edge to a straight edge, and rip 
off, parallel to it, six pieces *4 in. wide. 
The majority of the fibers in each piece 
must run from end to end. Clamp 
up and plane off to 1 in. thickness, as 
shown in Fig. 1. Take apart and lay 
flat on bench as in Fig. 2, and dress to 4% 
in. thickness. Spring each piece carefully 
in your hands to see 
that it has uniform 
strength. Get your 
cross-sticks from I 
in. or 7% in. stock 
in a similar manner: 


922 
Dress them clear and clean with a good 
sharp plane. Now mark them as just 
described. Make six brass clips, of No. 
22 or 24 gage brass, as in Fig. 3. Also 
make six as shown in Fig. 4. 

The bolt in the clip on the upright 
should be tight enough to pull it into 
the wood, and the wires on the trans- 
verse stick should do the same so that 
clips will not slip, but at the time 
avoid bruising the wood more than 
necessary. The twisted ends of wire 
can then be turned in, and soldered. 
The ends of each stick ‘should then be 
wrapped with several turns of wire, 
keeping about 34 in. from the extreme 
end. These wrappings should also be 
soldered. The ends of the cross-stick 
should then be notched for the bow- 
string, as in Fig. 7. The bowstring 
when applied should pull the cross- 
stick as in Fig. 8. Always leave the 
bowstring so it can be slipped. The 
distance X should be about 6 ins. for a 
very light 
wind, and 
about 10 ins. 
for a 10-mile 
breeze. If 
not satisfac- 
tory at first 

adjust after 
| trial. 
Finally 
make a saw 
cut about 14 
el sr bal 9 in. deep in 
the end- of 


—— 
a 


BEND ON ALL 
DOTTED LINES 


a 
rl 
| 
1 


G. 
+ 


———- 
H a 
i] 
alae sae al 

| 

1-4 
Teel 

\ 
1 
i 
1 
| 


cele aa each | stick, 
FIGURE 3 sawing the 
34-in. way 


on the cross-stick and the %-in. way 
on the upright. Then take a string, 
strong enough to_ stand _ consider- 
able pull, and pass around the frame 
through the saw cuts. Make a slip- 
knot where you join and hold in your 
hands or fasten temporarily. Square 
your frame by measuring this string 
till corresponding parts on each side 
are exactly equal, moving the sticks 
in relation to each other till you get 
the frame true. The cross-stick will 
now be exactly at right angles to the 
vertical, and the bowstring should 
pass about fo ins. behind it. 

The center lines of the two sticks 


Popular Science Monthly 


bee 


te 
FRONT SIDE 
FIGURE 4 Se Ea 
FINE NOTCHES . 
Sila at za 
3 | toe ! : WIRE WRAPPING 
ee “LINES. if NOTCH FOR BOWSTRING 
pedis SPO -1F 
Spam Ip ae Ty Les 
FIGURE 5 FIGURE 7 


must cross exactly 18% of the length 
from the top of the vertical stick. Be 
exact if you want your kite to balance. 
So, 72 ins.X18%=12.96 ins. = distance 
from the top: Mark 13 ins. with a 
pencil, and shade this slightly upward. 
Now mark the exact center of the cross- 
stick. 

The best material for making the sail 
is known as silesia or cambric in the 
dry goods stores. Any combination of 
colors can be used if desired, but they 
must join in a straight line up the keel. 
Blue and yellow, white and red, green 
and pink, etc., are all strong contrasts. 
However, the colors seen most distinctly 
at great heights are red and white, 
black and white, orange and red, and 
blue and white. Whatever the colors 
you select, and plain ones are as good 
as any, start by marking out on the 
floor with chalk the four points of your 
frame. Sew your cloth firmly on a 
sewing machine, and lay it out as in 
Fig. 9. 

Sew a brass curtain ring, I in. diameter, 
in each corner, so it can be hooked into 
the saw-cut. Tie a stout string from 
ring to ring, putting the rings in place 
on the frame and pulling into position 
till both sides are exactly the same 


- STRING oR W/RE 4 
a 


FIGURE.8 


length. The extra length on the cross- 
stick must be fulled on the string to- 
ward the top of the upright so as to 


Popular Science Monthly 


i en . 

oe 

H ; 
BIND WITH TAPE HOLE / DIA. 


FIGURE 9 


bring all the slack in the center. This 
forms a pocket under pressure, making 
the head-sail which keeps the kite from 
pitching. Turn over all the edges and sew 
them firmly and evenly. You will now 
have a cover with rings in each corner 
and re-enforced edge. Turn the raw 
edges in. Remember it is windy where 
this kite goes. To bridle the kite, get a 
piece of wire and bend it as shown in 
Fig. 12. Solder it into an endless loop. 
This must be slipped on as the sticks 
are put together, 
so that the loops 
marked A _ pro- 
ject through the , 
1-in. hole in the } 
sail, while those 
marked B pass 
behind the up- 
right stick. The 
bridle string is 
fastened by means 


—3/a — > eh 


of an S-link— 
as shown, at each end. One link is 
hooked into the loops marked A, and 
the other into the ring at the bottom 


of the kite. You now have a kite 
which when knocked down and_ the 
sail wrapped around the sticks, forms a 
package 6 ft. long and about 2% ins. in 
diameter. You can carry six of them 
easily. You can get on a trolley car or 
boat with them without trouble, while, 
if not made as above you could not 
handle one. After a little practice, they 
can be put together in a few seconds, 
and they will carry a boat along in 
good shape at an amazing speed when 
properly flown. 

The flying cord used by the writer 
was a steel wire No. 18 gage, in %-mile 
coils, tested to 750 pounds. A special 


FIGURE 13 


923 


BRASS RING 


D2 s7ocx 


FIGURE 10 


FIGURE IL 


reel was used for this wire, with multiply- 
ing attachment, and smaller steel wires, 
No. 22 gage being used for each individ- 
ual kite. 

The method of flying is this: A kite 
is set up, bridled, and hooked to one of 
the small wires, this wire paid out 
from an auxiliary reel, until 200 ft. are 
aloft. The main flying wire is then 
attached. When 4oo ft. are aloft, the 
reel is checked. A second kite is flown 
with 200 ft. of lead wire and hooked 
into the main 
wire. Both kites 
are then paid out 
on the reel, till 
another 200 ft. 
is aloft when a 
third kite is flown 
and attached. 
This process is 
continued till all 
the kites in the battery are aloft. 
The reel used contains one mile of wire. 

The method of attaching the kites to 
the main line may seem to the novice a 
means of inviting trouble but in practice 
each kite flies higher than the main line, 
and invariably some slight difference in 
balance or variation in direction of the 
wind at different heights sets them out 
from the main line at different angles, 
so that they do not interfere. Four of 
these kites in a 10-pound wind will give 
two-thirds the pull of six, as a matter 
of course. So if you had a 15-pound 
wind, four would be about all you could 
handle, while in a 30-pound wind, one 
would be fully capable of keeping you 
busy even if it did not break its back, 
for a 30-pound wind, blowing 80 miles 
an hour would give a total loading on 


oe - e —- —e- - = 


924 


the vertical rib of 540 pounds, which is 
nearly the ultimate. It will not be 
necessary to demonstrate further than 
the figures given, that this kind of kite 
flying is strenuous enough to hold a 
man’s attention when his whole battery 
is aloft in a 10-pound wind. 

The reel is made of two circles of 
7%-in. material, 6 ins. in diameter. To 
one side of these pieces, other circles of 
34-in. material, 12 ins. in diameter, are 
glued cross-grain, and further secured 
by a half-dozen clenched brads. To 
the inner 6-in. circles nail slats of 
34-in. material, I in. wide by Io ins. 
long. Cut the holes 
in the center of the 
ends I in. square; 
put a square stick 
tightly through 
these holes, allow- 
ing it to project 
2% ins. at one end 
and 3 ins. at the 
other. Turn bear- 
ings for the frame 
in each of the pro- 
jecting ends. These 
will be I in. in 
diameter. If you 
have no lathe you 
can whittle them 
with a knife and sandpaper. The frame 
is made, as shown in Fig. 13. 

Obtain two grooved pulleys of the 
diameter shown and a piece of sewing 
machine belt. Put the belt on the 


pulleys crossed. This will give it better. 


contact. Screw into the I2-in. pulley a 
handle about 1% ins. from the edge, and 
you have a good stout reel which will 
bring your string in four times as fast 
as an ordinary reel. You will appreciate 
this when you have tried both. No 
checking arrangement is needed on 
your reel. When necessary to check, 
take the string in your hand and snub 
around the projecting end of the axle. 
Two iron pins, 15 ins. long, of %-in. 
round iron, pushed slantwise toward the 
front through the 1-in. holes into the 
ground, will take the strain. 

The construction and methods of 
flying the Blue Hill box-kite and the 
tetrahedral cell will be discussed in 
the next issue of the POPULAR SCIENCE 
MONTHLY. 


FIGURE I4 


Popular Science Monthly 


How to Protect the Surface of a 
Laboratory Table 
TRONG acids and other chemicals 
of strong composition are continu- 
ally spoiling the appearance of laboratory 
tables. The following treatment may 
therefore be found of service. It can be 
recommended for preserving the ex- 
perimenting table from the injurious 
effects of strong acids or alkalis that may 
be accidently spilled, provided the 
liquids spilled are not left on too long. 
Two solutions are required, as follows: 
The first one consists of one part of 
bluestone dissolved with one part of 
chlorate of potash, 
in eight parts of 
boiling water. 


=le— WIRE NA/L™ 
For the second 


solution, dissolve 
144 parts aniline 


hydro-chloride 
(which a chemist 
can obtain to or- 
Yo" der), in 10 parts of 
water. Having 
thoroughly cleaned 
the table, apply the 
first solution as hot 
as possible, and 
with a flat brush. 
Apply another coat 
as soon as the first is dry, and then two 
coats of the second solution. When 
thoroughly dry, rub with raw linseed 
oil, till polished, and wash with hot, 
soapy water. A good black surface 1s 
thus given to the wood, in addition to the 
acid-resisting qualities. After it is per- 
fectly dry, a little linseed oil, applied 
with a cloth, will also be of advantage. 
A hard surface with considerable luster 
is thus obtained, which will resist 
damage to its surface, especially from 
acids.—WM. WARNECKE, JR. 


A Mission Stain . 

NE of the best and cheapest stains 

for mission furniture can easily be 
made by mixing black asphaltum with 
turpentine. Any desired brown shade 
can be obtained by varying the amount 
of turpentine. Apply the mixture to the 
work with a brush. After it has been 
on a minute, rub it dry with a clean 
cloth or cotton waste. It will dry 
quickly and leave a dull mission finish. 


Popular Science Monthly 


Gaging the Stack Draft 


HE draft pressure of a stack is 

expressed in inches of water, mean- 
ing the amount of draft required to 
change the difference of equilibrium of 
two communicating columns of water, 
measured in inches. 

The draft of the chimney can be 
easily obtained with the use of the little 
gage illustrated herewith. The fuel 
consumption of a boiler can be figured 
whether or not it is in proportion to the 
results, etc. The illustration shows how 
such a gage is made. A single length of 
glass tubing with an inside diameter of 
4 in. is bent to the required shape by 
holding over a small flame and bending 
very slowly when 
hot. Fasten toa 
board with wire 
or brass straps. 
Arrange a scale of 
inches between 
the two columns. 

To read the 
draft, place the 
gage on a wall in 
a vertical position 
and put a little 
water into the 
tube so that it 
just balances in 
either column. 
Connect a piece 
of rubber tubing to the left leg and 
seal in a small opening in the stack or 
pipe. The draft or suction at the end 
of the tube will cause a slight vacuum 
‘ in the tube and will cause the two 
columns of water to change their level. 
The draft may vary from 14 in. to 2 ins. 
according to height of stack, temperature 
and weather conditions. The draft 
pressure required will depend upon the 
kind of fuel used. Wood needs little 


Glass tube used. for 
gaging stack draft 


draft, about % in. or even less. Bitu- 
minous coal will require 34 in. to I in. 


and anthracite or slack will need a 
draft of 1% ins.—B. F. DASHIELL. 


A Safe Way of Bending Pipes 


TT HOSE who try to bend piping with- 

out kinking by filling the pipe with 
sand and still fail, will attain better suc- 
cess if they pour molten lead into the 
pipe, allow to cool and then bend. Heat 
the pipe, allowing lead to flow out. 


925 


A Toy Rubber-Elastic Winder 


DISCARDED egg-beater may be 

easily converted into a toy aero- 
plane winder. Cut off the loops which 
formed the beater part. Wire the stubs 
together and make two wire hooks or 
loops for fastening the rubber bands. 
The winding will be greatly facilitated by 
increasing the length of the crank. 


ee a 


ENO OF BEATER 


“ELASTICS 


An old egg-beater can be converted into a 
good toy winder for rubber motors 


A Cheap Beam-Compass 
WOODEN rod, such as drygoods 


merchants use for cloth, makes a 
good beam-compass, by attaching a 
pencil and nail as shown in diagram. 
The pencil is flattened on opposite 
sides, to be gripped in the beam, and 
the head of the nail has been filed off. 
The rings consist of brass tubing. When 
using ink, the ruling-pen is gripped like 
the pencil—Wwmn. TURNPENNY. 


Brass Ring # 7 flat Thick 


Diagram showing construction details of 
beam-compass 


Removing Waterproof India 
Ink Spots 


T is not generally known that black 
India ink, especially the waterproof 
kind, may be removed from nearly any 
material by placing a blotter underneath 
and pouring household ammonia over 
the dried ink. Care should be taken 
that the blotter does not become satu- 
rated with the blackened ammonia. 


926 


How to Make a Polariscope to be Used 
with a Microscope 


ANY micro- 
scopic objects 
that appear unin- 
teresting and de- 
void of structure 
when examined in 
the ordinary way, 
develop surprising 
beauty of form and color when viewed by 
polarized light. This applies to the 
majority of crystals and rock sections, as 
well as many vegetable sections contain- 
ing minute crystals embedded in the 
tissues. A beam of light may be polarized 
by passing through a specially cut prism 
of Iceland spar, or more cheaply, by 
using a bundle of glass plates inclined at 
a certain angle. The polarized beam is 
allowed to pass through a transparent 
object and afterward through a second 
prism or bundle of glass. The polariscope 
will therefore consist of two parts, one 
placed beneath the stage and called the 
polarizer; the other somewhere above 
the object, and called the analyzer. The 
best position for the analyzer is usually 
considered to be just inside the body- 
tube of the microscope, immediately 
above the objective. A low-power ob- 
jective measuring about I in. is best 
when working with polarized light. 
The accompanying illustration shows 
the details of the polarizer in section. 
The several parts may be mounted in a 
prass tube A. Any tube that happens 
to be handy will do, but it must make a 
nice fit in the understage fitting of the 
microscope, so as to be capable of 
rotation without danger of falling out. 
A paper tube can be used as a substitute, 
though of course it will be less durable 
than metal. If paper is used the tube 
should be made by coating one side of 
a strip of paper with thin glue or good 
strong paste and winding tightly around 
a rod or tube of suitable size, care being 
taken to prevent the formation of 
wrinkles. If several layers of paper are 
wound on, the tube will be hard and 
strong when dry. One end must be 
closed with a cap B, perforated in the 
center with a hole 14 in. in diameter and 
projecting sufficiently beyond the tube 
to afford a convenient grip. 


Popular Science Monthly 


Two pieces of cork C, C, must fit 
neatly in the tube. Each of these must 
be cut as shown in the illustration, the 
slanting sides forming an angle of 57 
degrees with the side of the tube. 
Further, both corks must be perforated 
with a hole of the same size as that 
made in the cap B. The holes should 
be carefully made with a cork-borer so 
that they will be continuous when the 
parts are assembled, and parallel to, the 
axis of the tube. They should be black- 
ened inside with photographic dead- 
black, or else lined with black paper 
having a dull surface. After fixing one 
cork by means of fish glue, a number of 
thin microscopic cover-glasses D should 
be dropped in, each of which must first 
be cleaned thoroughly with tissue paper 
or chamois leather. About 18 will be 
sufficient. They are best handled with 
a pair of small pointed forceps. The 
second cork can then be inserted, a 
gentle pressure being applied to keep 
the thin glass plates from moving and — 
so rubbing dust off the corks. 

The analyzer is merely a replica of 
the polarizer, but small enough to go 
inside the body-tube of the microscope. 
In this case it will not be necessary to 
have a cap at the end of the tube, since, 
if the polarizer rotates, the analyzer 
does not need to move. 

A polariscope made in this way is in-— 
expensive and the results, though some- » 
what inferior to those obtained by the 
use of Iceland spar prisms, will repay the 
trouble of preparation. One or two 
selenite films should be purchased, 
mounted on microscope slides of the 
ordinary size, 3 ins. by 1 in., and placed 
immediately beneath the object. By 
this means, the range of color is greatly 
increased.—H. T. GRAY. 


To Stop a Lathe Quickly 

HEN polishing or turning small di- 

ameters in the lathe it is usual 
to speed the lathe up to its limit. This 
is all right, but in stopping it is the custom 
to throw the belt shifter quickly, which 
often causes the reverse clutch to be en- 
gaged; and if it happens suddenly the 
result is that the belt comes off. This 
trouble can be easily prevented by plac- 
ing a collar on the shipper rod which will 
prevent the reverse clutch from engaging. 


Popular Science Monthly 


Cutting Tile at Any Angle 


T is often desired to cut tile, cast-iron 
pipe, or even steel pipe at an angle 
in order to make a turn in the pipe 
line. Where these pipes are so large (as 
they usually are) that they cannot be 
laid in a miter box for cutting, and where 
it is desired to mark them quickly and 
correctly at the same time, the following 
is a good expedient: 

Set the tile in water at the correct 
angle, as shown in the diagram; hold 
it there and make chisel marks all 
around at the surface of the water. 
The cut can then be made, after remov- 
ing the tile from the water, in a true 
plane. Where care is taken in lowering 
the tile into the water so that it will not 
be wetted too high, the ‘“‘wet edge’ on 
removal will serve as a good guide for 
the path to be cut.—W. F. SCHAPHORST. 


Piping and tile may be easily cut at any 
angle by dipping in water 


A Substitute for a Soldering Iron 


T is often necessary to repair a leaky 

wash-boiler, tea-kettle or other utensil 
quickly, and if no soldering iron and 
appliances for heating it are at hand, 
the work must be taken to a tinsmith. 

Moreover, a small soldering iron in 
the hands of an amateur is a difficult tool 
to use on large work because heat is 
rapidly conducted from the iron by 
the cold sheet-metal upon which it is 
used. 

In many households may be found 
self-heating flat-irons. As shown in the 
drawing, the burners from such irons 
may be used to good advantage for 
soldering. Since the flame is directed 
downward by the pressure from the 


927 


A good substitute for a soldering iron is 

made from the burner of an ordinary 
self-heating flat-iron 

tank, the principle is essentially the same 

as that employed when using an alcohol 

lamp and a blowpipe. 

A heavy copper wire may be used in 
place of a soldering iron. If the wire is 
short, it will be necessary to place it in 
a handle or wrap some sheet asbestos 
around one end, as it will become too 
hot to handle. This ‘soldering iron”’ 
will remain hot until you can finish the 
job.—C. H. PATTERSON. 


Taking the Squeak Out of a Sign 

NSTEAD of being kept awake nights 

by a squeaking drug store sign, the 
writer resorted to the following expedi- 
ent to silence the offending advertise- 
ment: Insert two pieces of leather 
strap between the iron pipe which 
supports the sign and the strap- iron 
hangers, as shown in the diagram. 
Fasten the ends of each by twisting 
soft iron wire around the hanger. 

No oil is needed and the leather will 
wear for a long time. 


GS 


QI ee 
Dy NI | 2 


The squeaking drug store sign can be 
silenced with two pieces of leather 


928 


Handling Fine Screws 


Nrepairiag 
watches, clocks, 
spectacles and 
other small articles, 
the difficulty of in- 
serting very fine 
screws into their 
respective holes 
may be easily over- 
come with the aid 
of a piece of paper. 
The screw is first pierced through a 
strip of stout paper, which is then held, 
with one hand, over the hole, while the 
screwdriver, held in the other hand, 
gently presses the screw into the required 
position. 
When the screw is partly driven, the 
paper is torn away and the screw finally 
driven home.—GEORGE H. HOLDEN. 


A Home-made Thumb-Screw 


curorr __ WASHER Rea materials 

ly gy FL needed for mak- 

thei nl ‘ing a thumb-screw, 

Z are, ta.) 1 ommale 

* headed screw and 

a washer. Cut the washer as shown 

and sweat it into the slot of the screw. 

If the washer is a good fit, very little 

soldering will be necessary to insure a 
perfect union.—L. E. FETTER. 


ANN 


How to Make a Barometer 


SIMPLE but 
reliable bar- 
ometer may be 
made from an or- 
dinary tumbler and 
a test-tube or vial. 
Thevial, about two- 
thirds full of water, 
is inverted in the 
tumbler, which is 
nearly full of water. 
A. tin cover ay 
provided with a 
hole in the center, 
| will serve to sup- 
port the vial in an 
upright position. The greater the pres- 
sure of air, the higher the water will 
rise in the bottle, and vice versa. A 
little paper scale, ruled as shown, may be 
attached at B to indicate the degrees of 
fluctuation.—H. J. GRAy. 


Popular Science Monthly 


with 


Making a Long Distance Shot 
a Shotgun 


T is sometimes 
necessary to 
take a chance on 
making a long shot, 
in shooting into 
a large flock of 
ducks, especially in 
hunting on water. 
Cut a shell into 
two pieces, mak- 
ing the cut between the shots and 
powder as indicated in the illustration. 
If you have made the cut in the right 
place you will have a wad left at each 
end. Now put the portion of the shell 
containing the shots into the gun chamber 
and then put in the portion containing 
the powder. Of course your gun must 
be an open-bored gun. When you fire, 
the portion of the shell containing the 
shots will travel the same asa bullet, but 
upon striking the water it will burst and 
the shots will scatter in every direction, 
and you are sure to bag some game that 
would be otherwise impossible to reach. 


Oiling Hammer Handle 


HAMMER 

handle which 
is well oiled will out- 
last two ordinary 
handles, as the oil 
penetrates the wood 
rendering it springy 
and also preventing 
dry rot. In the ac- 
companying illus- 
tration is shown the 
methods by which a 
hammer handle may 
be thoroughly oiled. 
A \-inch hole is 
drilled in the end of the handle for a 
depth of about 2 ins. The ham- 
mer is then put in an upright posi- 
tion, and the hole filled with lubri- 
cating oil. When the oil has soaked 
into the wood, fill again, repeating the 
operation until the handle is well oiled. 
If desired, a small wooden plug can be 
driven into the hole to keep the oil from 
leaking out before it has completely 
soaked in.—O. B. LAURENT. 


How to Build and Sail a Small 
Boat—II. 


By Stillman Taylor 
(Concluded from May Issue) 


N rigging the boat with a single sail, 
known as ‘“‘cat-rig,’’ the mast should 
be stepped well forward, say about 

18 ins. from the stem. If a sloop rig is 
preferred, the mast is stepped farther 
aft, to make more room for the head-sail 
or jib. The cat-rig is the best for a 
small boat. It is faster and is much 
more easily and quickly handled. In 
any case, where the hole is cut in the 
deck, a mast-block must be screwed 
firmly on the underside of the deck, and 
a second block with a hole cut in the 
center for the heel of the mast to set in, 
is screwed to the floor directly under 
the mast-hole in the deck. 

The boat should be painted with 
three coats of good paint, and to avoid 
the difficulty of reaching the extreme 
parts of bow and stern after the decking 
is on, paint these places as the work 
progresses, not forgetting to paint the 
bottom underneath the keel, and the 
inside of the centerboard trunk. A 
single coat of thick paint will suffice. 
The outside, or the entire coaming may 
be finished “‘bright’’ if desired, in which 
case give it three or four coats of good 
spar varnish. 

The mast may be rounded by planing 
and tapering a spruce or white pine or 
cedar stick, 3 ins. by 3 ins.; or a natural 
pole of the required diameter may be 
cut in the woods. Make it 3 ims. in 
diameter from heel to deck, then a 
uniform taper to the top which should 
be 2 ins. Square the heel to fit the mast 
step, making a loose fit, to allow for 
swelling. A round spar is not at all 
difficult to make. Simply plane off the 
four corners, then take these corners off 
to make it six-sided. Now plane these 
six corners off and a nearly round spar 
is secured. Scrape round with a steel 
cabinet scraper, and finish with sand- 
paper. 

The boom should be about 2% ins. 
in the center, tapering to 2 ins. at the 


foot (mast end) and about 1% ins. at 
the other end. The gaff may be made 
2 ins. in the center, tapering to 134 ims. 
at either end. Both boom and gaff 
should be made at least 6 ins. longer 
than the width of sail, -to allow for 
stretching of the canvas. A goose-neck 
attachment may be used to attach the 
boom to the mast, or a patent sail hoist 
may be used for both boom and gaff. 
These are expensive, and the ordi- 
nary boom and gaff-jaws will answer. 
Jaws may be purchased with cleats and 


cS 


Deck-Pulley 


SEIN 


Bow-Chock 


Sister-Hook Pulley 


These diagrams show the construction of 
several small parts of the boat 


930 


other fittings, or sawed out from oak or 
ash. 

A light sail is needed, and this may 
be made at home on the family sewing 
machine, or sewed entirely by hand. 
Five-ounce unbleached cotton drill is 
heavy enough, and yard wide material 
may be used. The bights or laps are 
made by turning over a fold on each 
side, about I in. wide, and stitching 
along the two edges. Narrow laps 
about 6 or 8 ins. make a neater 
appearance and strengthen the sail. 
The laps must be made to run parallel 
with the leech, as shown in the sail 
plan, page 929. The corners of the sail 
should be re-enforced with a segment 
of canvas sewed on each side. About 
1 foot above the boom, sew in a row of 
reef-points (14-inch cotton rope) so 
that 6 ins. may hang from either 
side. By tying these together around 
the boom, the sail is shortened or 
“‘reefed,’’ as the nautical term expresses 
it. The sail may be bound with cotton 
rope, but a simple and strongly stitched 
hem will answer. At the leech make a 
I-in. hem, so that a small rope may 
be run through to take up any slack as 
the sail stretches out. This prevents 
that bug-bear among sailors, a flapping 
leech, and makes the sail set flat and 
not bag. 

The sail is attached to the mast by 
mast-hoops; either oak or metal hoops 
may be used. Seven or nine hoops will 
be needed, in the 3 or 3-in. size. 
Grummet holes must be worked in the 
sail on the side marked hoist, and the 
sail secured to the hoops by seizing 
with a double strand of marline. To 
make the grummet holes, purchase a 
dozen or so of %-inch galvanized iron 
grummet rings, cut a 14-inch hole and 
place a ring on either side of it, and sew 
over and over with waxed sail-twine— 
overcasting the ladies term it. Your 
mother or sister will show you how to 
do it. A row of grummets must also 
be worked in along the boom and the 
gaff to attach the sail to these spars, 
putting a grummet at each lap or bight. 

To rig the boat, procure a mast band 
with two eyes, of the right size to slip 
down about 2 or 3 ins. from the top, 
where it should bind firmly. Drive the 
band on with the two eyes fore and aft, 


Popular Science Monthly 


that is, in line with the boat. To the 
forward eye, splice or seize a length of 
3/16-in. wire rope, which must be long 
enough to reach the stem where this end 
is secured by seizing to an eyebolt 
screwed into the oak stem. Instead, a 
strap fitting the stem may be used. 
This is the stay to support the mast. 

To the rear eye in the mast-head 
band, seize a metal pulley-block (2-in. 
shell, for 14-in. rope is correct size). 
This is for the peak halyards. A foot 
or so below this block, screw an eyebolt 
in the mast and fasten a similar pulley 
for the throat halyards. To the gaff, 
splice or fasten a bridle of wire rope and 
to it fasten the end of the peak halyard, 
either with a bridle clip or a bull’s-eye, 
which is merely a wooden ring with a 
groove in the outside circumference in 
which the rope is spliced or seized. 

On each side of the deck, opposite 
and about 6 ins. from the mast, 
screw a galvanized deck-pulley. This 
arrangement will lead the halyards aft 
to within reach of the helmsman, and 
also serve to support the mast. 

At the bow, screw an open bow-chock 
3-in. size, on each side of the stem on 
deck. A cleat is unnecessary on the 
forward deck, for the mooring line may 
be more securely fastened to the mast. 

The main sheet may be rigged in 
several ways, but in a small sail like 
this no great purchase is required, and 
two single blocks will be sufficient. To 
avoid shifting each time when going 
about, however, a traveler may be 
screwed to the after deck. This is 
simply an iron rod about 18 ins. long, 
fitting with a sliding ring to which a 
pulley is seized. When going about on 
another tack, the sail shifts without 
attention. Cleats for belaying the sheet 
may be screwed to each side of the deck, 
but a cleat placed in the center of the 
rear seat or on the deck, will make it 
unnecessary to shift the rope every time 
one goes about. 


A Cheap, Practical Mooring for Your Boat 


While a 20-pound anchor is about the 
right size for our craft, most boatmen 
prefer to use a heavier mooring for the 
permanent anchorage, with a marking 
buoy or pick-up. One of the best 
moorings is easily and cheaply made of 


Popular Science Monthly 


concrete. For a small boat, an old 
dishpan makes a splendid form in which 
to cast our anchor. A good quality of 
Portland cement must be used, in the 
proportion of one of cement to two of 
gritty sand. ° Mix thoroughly and add 
a quantity of broken or any old iron 
bolts and other small bits of scrap iron 
you may happen to find. In the center 
of the form, embed a large eyebolt with 
a large washer firmly riveted to the end. 
The buoy or pick-up may be made in 
the form of a spar, but an 
old beer keg is the best, be- a 
cause being heavily made 
it is easily rendered 
waterproof and will 
stand many years of 
hard service. To at- 
tach the mooring line, a 
heavy iron rod is run 
through the sides of the 
keg and the ends turned 
over to form eyes 
for attaching the 


cable. From 

anchor. to 

buoy, 

cian A solid con- 
1s Des crete block 
De aa Concrete makes a 
rope Block cheap serv- 
atl iceable an- 

chor 

right 


if renewed each season. 


How to Sail Your Boat 


The knack of handling sailing craft 
is quickly learned, but the many little 
practical wrinkles of seamanship are 
only to be picked up after considerable 
experience on the water. Sailing is not 
the dangerous sport many people imagine 
it to be, however, and if the boat is of 
good model and not over-rigged, prac- 
tically all accidents may be placed at 
the door of carelessness and ignorance 
or a desire to appear smart and show off. 
Of course every boatman should know 
how to swim; one does not anticipate 
a capsize or collision, it is true, yet 
accidents occur now and then, and the 
ability to keep afloat is well worth 
acquiring—even if only for the greater 
confidence it gives. 

As every boat possesses certain char- 
acteristics and little peculiarities, the 


931 


handling of one craft differs somewhat 
from that of another, but the principles 
of handling are the same for all craft 
propelled by sails—from the four-masted 
schooner down to the little skiff we have 
just built. Hence, the owner should 
know his own craft—how much sail 
she can safely carry to get the best 
speed, and so on. 

While a knowledge of the theory of 
sailing is not at all necessary to sail a 
boat, every skipper should have some 
idea of the effect of the wind on his 
craft. Now the wind pressure against 
the sails of our boat acts in two directions 
—it presses and drives the boat ahead, 
and also forces it sideways, to make it 
tip or “‘heel.’’ The pushing force of the 
wind is of course encouraged in every 
possible way, by proper rigging and 
handling, while the heeling tendency is 
counteracted by making the boat suffi- 
ciently stable to resist the upsetting 
force. This is gained by building the 
craft of ample beam, by using a deep 
or heavy keel, or by ballasting the boat 
with lead, iron, rocks, sand-bags or 
other heavy weight placed on the 
bottom of the craft. 

When a smooth-bottomed craft (like 
a common row-boat) is fitted with a 
sail, the side pres- 
sure is so marked 
that the boat will 
be forced side- eee 
ways even faster <*- 
than it is pro- 
pelled ahead. 
This sliding or 
“making leeway”’ 
as sailors call it, 
must be eliminat- 
ed so far as possi- 
ble, and this is 
done by using a 
deep keel or—in 
the case of the 
boat we have 
made, by using a 
centerboard. When sailing close-hauled 
or beating against the wind, the center- 
board is dropped, thus affording re- 
sistance to the side pressure. When 
sailing free, or directly before the wind, 
the board is raised, so that all the driving 
force of the wind may be gained to propel 
the craft forward. 


Soe Sede 
arn 
ee 
weet 
a 
SS 
ae 
ee, 
gh 
By ‘‘tacking”’ a boat 


can proceed against 
the strongest wind 


932 ' Popular Science Monthly 


Owing to the fact that the wind 
pressure on the sail exerts a certain 
force on the bow of the boat, this 
“veering” is overcome by swinging the 
rudder at an angle. This balances the 
force of the sail. Every well-designed 
and properly rigged boat—whatever its 
size or number of sails—should have 
what sailors call a ‘‘weather helm;” 
that is, if the tiller is let go, the boat will 
fly up into the wind and come to a stop 
with the sails shaking. This is accom- 
plished by using a properly proportioned 
head sail or jib, and in single sail or 
“‘cat-rigged’’ boats like the one we have 
made, by stepping the mast well forward 
toward the bow. A few boats carry a “‘lee 
helm,”’ that is, if the tiller is let go the 
boat sags off to leeward, and if the 
rudder is not thrown across to prevent 
it, the sail will jib over and the boat 
swing around as on a pivot. A boat 
thus badly rigged and balanced, is a 
dangerous craft for anyone to handle; 
it is a tricky boat. Furthermore, a 
boat so balanced is slower under sail, 
because the rudder must be swung 
across at a considerable angle in order 
to keep it headed up to the wind, and 
this drag of the rudder greatly retards 
the speed. 

Some boats can sail closer to the wind 
than others and the single sail or cat- 
rigged type will point higher to wind- 
ward than a sloop-rigged craft which 
carries a jib. No boat can sail directly 
against the wind; therefore, when sailing 
up-wind we must travel at an angle— 
which diagonal course is called ‘‘tack- 
ing.’’ Suppose we are sailing close- 
hauled—beating to windward, the wind 
blowing in the direction indicated by 
the arrow, page 931. As we cannot sail 
directly against the wind, we must 
“tack” or sail a certain distance close- 
hauled with the wind on one side, and 
then go about and sail close-hauled 
with the wind on the other side. Thus 
we proceed to windward in a series of 
zig-zag courses. 

In the diagram just referred to, the 
wind is ‘‘dead ahead”’ and the tacks are 
equal. If the wind is a point or two off, 
as shown in the next diagram, one tack 
will be longer than the other, as shown 
in the dotted lines. This sailors call 
‘‘making a short leg and a long leg.”’ 


Tacking against the wind or “beating 
to windward” as most skippers call it, 
naturally requires much practical ex- 
perience before one can get the best 
speed out of a boat. Some boats will 
sail closer than others but any well- 
designed and properly rigged craft 
should be able to point up within 45 
degrees of the wind. 

When sailing as close-hauled as pos- 
sible the sail must be trimmed rather 
flat. It is, of course, possible to pull in 
the sail too much; this must be avoided 
for if trimmed too flat, the speed of the 
boat is much retarded and the side drift 
or leeway becomes more marked. In 
trimming the main sheet, pull it very 
flat, then ease it off until the edge of 
the sail along the hoist or mast wrinkles 
and flutters. The old hand always 
makes use of this fluttering, which 
indicates one is sailing ‘‘full and bye’ 
or as close to the wind as _ possible 
without sacrificing an iota of speed. 

In handling the boat, a good skipper 
will endeavor to ‘“‘coax’’ his craft closer 
to the wind, ‘‘crawling to windward” as 
the sailor calls it. This is done a 
thousand and one times during a day’s 
sail, by heading the boat close and then 
easing it off, with the sail just a-flutter. 

When going about on another tack 
the boat is eased off a trifle, and the 
rudder thrown across, slowly and stead- 
ily. If the rudder is worked too quickly 
it checks the speed and may even put 
the boat in “‘stays’’—so that it simply 
drifts sternwards, and necessitates swing- 
ing the bow around with an oar. When 
sailing with companions, going about 
is generally preceded by calling out 
‘““‘hard-a-lee,’’ which warning enables 
passengers to duck the boom as it 
swings over, and to shift to the wind- 
ward side if needed. 

The approximate trim of the sail 
with the wind at the several points of 
the compass, is shown on page 933. No.1 
shows the sheet trimmed flat for sailing 
close-hauled, No. 2 with bow wind, 
No. 3 wind a-beam, No. 4, wind abaft the 
beam, No. 5 wind on the quarter, and 
No. 6 with wind dead astern. 

In small sailing craft, the boat is 
commonly ballasted or trimmed by 
shifting the weight of the skipper and 
one or two companions, but the boat 


Popular Science Monthly 


may be ballasted if desired. Perhaps 
the best way to do this is to fill a couple 
of canvas bags with sand or fine gravel, 
and place them on either side of the 
centerboard trunk. Acleat --._ 
tacked along the floor will 


prevent the bags from i. 
shifting. Ten or twelve- as 
ounce canvas bags re-en- os 


forced by sewing a length 
- of 3/16-in. rope around the 
seams will be suitable. A 


rope strap-handle will a 

make it easier to handle / 

the bags, which should ¢._ 

weigh about forty pounds Ss: 

each. prs 
In ballasting, the boat ae 


must be trimmed P 

to ride on an even ie 

keel, or with justa =” 

trifle more weight If the wind is not “dead 
aft of midship. If ahead” the “tacking” 
sandbags or other must be irregular 
weights are used, ballast to an even keel, 
and your weight aft will trim the boat 
correctly. Too much weight forward 
makes a boat difficult to steer, and too 
much ballast aft causes the stern to 
drag too much water. 

The skipper of any boat—be it large 
or small, should keep his ‘‘weather 
eye” open at all times. When sailing 
in a river or landlocked lake or bay, 
one must be on the watch for puffs, and 
head up into the wind or ease off the 
sheet a few inches. Moreover, the main 
sheet should not be made fast, but held 
in the hand, so that the rope may be 
cast off to run free at a moment’s notice. 
In a brisk breeze, a half-turn around the 
cleat will take all strain from the hands, 
but allows the rope to render \ 


7 


933 


up into the wind, rather than pay off 
and jib the boom over. The experi- 
enced skipper can jib in even a heavy 
wind by easing off the sheet as the 
boat pays off and the boom swings 
over, and quickly pulling the sheet as 
the craft swings on the other tack. 

It is well to keep in mind this rule of 
the road at sea; that a boat on the 
starboard tack has the “right of way” 
over a craft on the port tack. By 
starboard tack is meant the wind blow- 
ing from the right or starboard side 
(sail to left or port) and vice versa when 
on the port tack. 

When sailing past the lee of a 
vessel at anchor, or an island, keep your 
weather eye open. Your boat is certain 
to be becalmed or “blanketed” while 
passing, and as she draws clear of the 
object, the full force of the wind will 
strike your sail. Remember this and 
avoid a possible capsize. It is fool- 
hardy to attempt to sail close to steamers 
and other large craft, for the sake of 
riding the swells. Keep away from 
them. 

Sailing a boat in rough water demands 
judgment, especially when the wind 
and sea are a-beam. This is the most 
dangerous point of sailing, and calls for 
a cautious hand on the tiller. If the 
wind is strong and fresh, it is the wisdom 
of a sailor to reef and shorten the sail, 
rather than to stagger along under the 
whole spread. There is an old maxim 
which runs something like this—‘A 
sailor shortens sail in time, but the 
landlubber cracks on sail until all is 
blue.”” Keep this in mind and avoid 
taking chances. 

In rough-water sailing, with the boat 


\ t 
free at will. -< - 2 =a : 3 = 
When running straight be- < ; = = = 
/ & 4 3 6 


fore the wind, every boat will 
swing more or less from side 
to side, and this ‘‘yawing”’ 
is counteracted by swinging the rudder 
slightly in the opposite direction as the 
bow swings. A little sailing experience 
will show how the trick is done, for the 
good sailor can tell the behavior of a 
craft by the ‘‘feel’”’ of his hand on the 
tiller. 

When going about or changing the 
course, the novice should always come 


Diagram showing the trim of the sail with the wind at 


different points of the compass 


heeled over to some fifteen degrees, 
a heavy roller may even capsize the 
boat. Guard against this, and when 
you note a particulary big wave coming, 
put up the helm a trifle, so that the wave 
may be taken on the bluff of the bow 
or abaft the beam. This use of the 
weather helm is one of the essentials in 
seamanship, Should a big wave seem 


Wi 


eo. 
7 Sa AES o 


18 IMcnes 


iN 


WE 


All sorts of vegetables and meats can be 
baked in this camp oven without burning 


about to come aboard over the bow, 
luff quickly into it and meet the wave 
bow on. 

When running before a strong wind 
and heavy sea—‘“‘scudding”’ as the sailor 
knows it—the man at the tiller must be 
on the alert to keep his craft from 
broaching to, that is from flying up in 
the wind, on the one hand, and being 
‘“‘brought by the lee’ on the other, 
which means running off so that the 
wind is on the other quarter. 

The boom should be well topped up 
to keep it high above the water. As 
most small craft are not often rigged 
with a topping lift, the sail should be 
hoisted well up on the mast to afford 
more clearance for the boom above the 
water. 

Should you happen to be caught out 
in a gale or squall, it may be possible 
to run to port under bare poles, or ride 
out the gale. Even a small boat will 
weather a heavy blow by rigging up a 
sea anchor. Of course a regular sea 
anchor is best, but a fairly good sub- 
stitute may be fashioned by tying 
together a raft made of oars, boathook, 
seats, sails, cushions, etc., and let it 
drag from the bow, paying out some 
fifty feet of rope. 

No sport is more exhilarating than 
sailing, and the fun is greatly enhanced 
if one can sail a boat which he has him- 
self constructed. 


Popular Science Monthly 


A Camper’s Dutch Oven 

HEN you go camping in the sum- 

mer, either for a short or pro- 
longed outing, the old-fashioned Dutch 
oven, which at one time was very com- 
monly used, cannot be excelled as a 
cooking arrangement. It is a sort of 
fireless cooker, which can be built and 
set up anywhere by means of a few 
bricks or stones. It will cook meat, 
biscuit, bread, potatoes or anything else. 
The beauty of it is that it cooks by indi- 
rect heat or by reflection. 

It is constructed of any kind of bright 
tin. To make a large one with an open- 
ing of about two feet, take a piece of 
bright sheet tin about 6 ft. long, and 3 
or 4 ft. wide. Lay this out, and cut in 
the shape shown. Then roll it up, and 
fasten the edges by riveting. Cut a cir- 
cular piece of tin to fit the back. Then. 
directly through the center fit a thin 
piece of sheet iron from the open front 
to the apex. This is to hold the bread, 
biscuits and other articles. A smaller 
size may have an opening of about 21 ins. 

This funnel-shaped piece of tin is 
set up on the ground, with bricks or 
stones supporting it on either side 
directly in front of your camp fire of 
blazing wood. The food is cooked en- 
tirely by reflection. The heat from the 
fire is reflected from the bright tin sides 
to the food. In a short time the heat 
inside the funnel is sufficient to cook a 
steak or fry a fish. Nothing will burn, 
for the heat is not direct, and there will 
be no cinders or ashes in the food. 

The heat can be regulated by the 
distance from the fire, but the oven 
should not be placed close enough for 
the smoke and cinders to enter the 
funnel. The articles of food can be 
placed in the oven, and the open fire 
built. All that is required then is an 
occasional replenishing of the fuel. The 
Dutch used this oven in the house by 
placing it in front of the open grate fire. 
It can be used to good purpose in this 
way in the winter. 

This camp oven is so cheap and 
so easily constructed, that it can be 
discarded when the bright surface of 
the tin has worn off, and a new one 
made. An oven of this sort affords 


a reliable and simple means of cooking 
outdoors. 


Experimental Electricity 


Practical Hints 
for the Amateur 


Wireless 


Communication 


Sharpness of Tuning in Radio 


By John Vincent 


HE effect of increased resistance in 

a freely oscillating circuit was 

described in the May article of 
this series. It was pointed out that the 
more rapid loss of energy, brought about 
by the presence of this added resistance, 
reduced the num- 
ber of current os- 
cillations in the 
circuit. It was al- 
so indicated that 
when the persist- 
ence of the circuit 
was thus reduced 
(as its damping or decrement in- 
creased), the system became less sharp- 
ly tuned. 

Just what is meant by the “‘sharpness 
of tuning?’ Before this can be answered, 
it is necessary to look more closely at 
the effects of tuning itself. This phe- 
nomenon of resonance is, perhaps, made 
of more use than any other in the 
science of radio telegraphy; and yet it 
is often grossly misunderstood, even by 
skilled operators and experimenters. 

Mechanical illustrations of tuning, 
drawn from the art of music, have been 
described in book after book; yet there 
seems to exist some difficulty in carrying 
over, into the purely electrical cases, the 
physical facts which these analogies 
should teach. Suppose that one dis- 
regards, for the moment, the sympathetic 
tuning forks and the tuned strings (both 
of which vibrate, though only one is 


Fig. 1. A simple circuit 


plucked), and that one considers a 
simple electrical circuit having in series 
an inductance, a capacity, a resistance, 
a current indicator and a source of high- 
frequency sustained voltage. Such a 
circuit is that shown in Fig. 1. In the 
February article the effect of altering 
the circuit impedance by changing its 
inductance and capacity was described; 
when the values of the coil Z and con- 
denser C just neutralized, for the 
frequency generated by the alternator 
E, resonance was secured and the current 
indicated by J became a maximum. 
The same circuit may now be studied 
with the alternator at rest. If a charge 
of electricity is placed upon the con- 
denser and allowed to discharge freely 
through the circuit, there will be set up 
a feebly-damped alternating current of 
the character indicated by Fig. 2; this 
is on the assumption that the resistance 
R has a small value, as is usual in 
practice. The frequency of this free 


left 


Fig. 2. Feebly-damped alternating current 


935 


936 


oscillation may be determined by wave- 
meter measurement, or may be computed 
according to the rule given in the March 
article. Speaking generally, what hap- 
pens is that the dielectric of the 


current by varying the frequency 


condenser is electrically strained in one 
direction when the charging voltage (or 
pressure) is applied to it; as soon as 
the pressure is relieved, the strain reacts 
and its energy produces a_ current 
through the circuit (Fig. 1) from the 
positive plate of the condenser toward 
the negative side. In passing through 
the inductance the current sets up a 
strong magnetic field, which expands and 
stretches away from the coil as the 
current through it grows larger. Since 
there was only a definite amount of 


electrical energy forced into the conden- | 


ser by the original charging voltage, 
there is a limit to the amount of current 
which can be produced by the discharge; 
as soon as this limit is reached the 
magnetic field around the coil L begins 
to contract, and adds its energy to the 
current flowing toward the negative side 
of the condenser. By this time the 
condenser is fully discharged, that is, 
the two plates are at the same potential. 
But the magnetic field is still collapsing 
on the coil, and therefore, current is 
forced to continue flowing in the same 
direction as before; this results in a 
piling up of potentials on the ‘“‘negative”’ 
plate of the condenser and a reduction 
of electrical pressure on the plate which 
was “positive.”’ In other words, the 
reaction of the magnetic field has 


Popular Science Monthly 


caused the condenser to assume a new — 
charge, of polarity opposite to that | 
which it had originally. The pressure of 
this inverted charge increases until 
the energy of the magnetic field is 
exhausted; then the condenser dis- 
charges once more, but in the opposite 
direction. A current flows back through 
the inductance, and an expanding field 
is set up, just as before, except that the 
polarity is reversed. The contraction 
of this second magnetic field forces a 
new charge upon the condenser, and 
this time the polarity is the same as of 
that which began the oscillation. Since 
a limited amount of energy is set free 
in the circuit, and since some of this 
energy is used in heating the wires 
(because of their resistance) each suc- 
cessive charge and each successive 
current is smaller than that which 
preceded it, and the free oscillation is 
damped, as shown in Fig. 2. The greater 
the resistance of the circuit the greater 
the proportion of the original energy, 
which is lost in heat at each oscillation, 
and the sooner the current is damped 
down to a very small value. 

What has this internal action of a 
resonating circuit got to do with its 
resonant condition, or its tuning (which 
is much the same thing)? In a word, 
everything. Why? Because ‘tuning’ 


$9000 ~=—«4#9500~—«S0000~—=«S0S0—S—« SOOO 


—~ Cycles 


Fig. 4. Curve showing changes in current 
by altering the resistance 


is little more than taking advantage of 
this self-swinging power of a circuit so 
that energy may be added to it at just 
the right time to give its oscillations the 
largest amplitudes possible. In adding 


small amounts of energy to an oscillating 
electrical system, the addition must be 
made by the application to it of corre- 
sponding magnetic or electric forces. 
That is, small charges must be put upon 


Popular Science Monthly 


the condenser one at a time, or small 
additional currents must be introduced 
by way of the inductive portions of the 
circuit. These charges must be applied 
at the instant that the natural (or self- 
oscillating) charge of the condenser is 
of their polarity, for otherwise no 
advantage of increased charge would be 
had; similarly, the increments (or 
additions) of current must be made 
when the natural current is flowing in 
the proper direction, for, if not, there 
would be an opposition to the normal 
current in the circuit and no increase 
would be secured. This is as certain as 
the fact that, in order to make a swing 
go higher and higher, it must be pushed 
when it is moving or about to move in the 
same direction as the applied force; and 
it is true for the same reason. 

Let us now assume that the alternator 
E in Fig. 1 is capable of delivering 
1 kilowatt of electrical power at 50,000 
cycles per second, but can run safely at 
speeds as high as that giving 100,000 
cycles. Let the inductance and capacity 
be of such values that the natural 
frequency of the circuit is 50,000 cycles 
per second (corresponding to a wave- 
length of 6,000 meters), and consider 
that the total resistance is two ohms. 
If the alternator is started from rest 
and gradually speeded up, it will 


= 


are used to radiate waves to a receiving 
antenna, C 


produce pulses of alternating voltage 
at gradually increasing frequencies. 
These voltage impulses will charge the 
condenser C first in one direction and 
then in the other; but very little current 
will flow, because there is no tendency 
for these lower-frequency voltages to 
co-operate by resonance. As the 
frequency comes close to 50,000 per 
second, however, the current will com- 


937 


mence to rise, and at 50,000 cycles it 
will reach a maximum of about 23 
amperes. At this frequency the small 
voltage additions produced by each 
cycle of the alternator are impressed 
upon the condenser exactly in step with 
the natural oscillation voltages, and the 
greatest possible’ oscillation current 
results. When the frequency is increased 
beyond 50,000 cy- 
cles, the resonant 
value of the circuit, 
the circuit begins 
to fall off very rap- 
idly. If one meas- 
ures the current at 
each of a set of fre- 
quencies near the tuned point, the result 
may be plotted in the form of a curve like 
that of Fig. 3, where the intersection 
over each frequency shows the amount 
of current indicated by JI when the 
alternator is run at the corresponding 
speed. It should be noted that the rise 
and fall are extremely sudden. 

Suppose now that this same experi- 
ment be repeated with all conditions 
remaining the same, except that the 
total resistance of the circuit is set at 
10 ohms. As the speed of the alternator 
is increased it is noted that the current 
begins to rise in the neighborhood of 
50,000 cycles, as before, and to fall 
after that speed is passed; the interest- 
ing features are, however, that the 
maximum current is now only 10 
amperes, and that the rise and fall 
near the resonant point are not nearly 
so sudden as before. By taking a 
series of careful measurements and 
plotting them out in curve form, a 
diagram like that of Fig. 4 may be 
produced. The slope of the sides of 
this curve is considerably less than that 
of Fig. 3; the effects of adding resistance 
have evidently been to decrease the 
current at resonance, and to make the 
circuit less sharply dependent upon 
applied frequency. We know that this 
means the tuning of the circuit has 
become less sharp; we know also, that 
the adding of resistance has increased 
the damping of the free oscillations in 
the circuit. These two results are 
closely related. 

Next, the application of these experi- 
ments to a modern radio telegraph 


Fig. 5. Simple 
£ antenna circuit 


A 


‘>= 


938 


transmitter may be considered. If the 
condenser, inductance and resistance of 
Fig. I are replaced by the antenna 
circuit of Fig. 5, it is easy to see that the 
constants of the two circuits may be 
made substantially the same. If the 
total antenna resistance is 2 ohms, the 
resonance curve of Fig. 3 will indicate 
the variation of antenna current with 
frequency; while, if the resistance is 
10 ohms, Fig. 4 will be correct. In the 
former case over twice the current will 
flow between antenna and ground than 
in the latter; if the antennas are of the 
same height, that having the lower 
resistance will radiate energy over four 
times as effectively. However, in order 
to keep the current at its maximum 
value in the low resistance antenna, it 
is necessary to regulate the frequency 
of the alternator much more closely 
than is needed in the second case. Thus, 
in an alternator sender, low resistance 
and consequent high natural persistence 
may be a practical disadvantage; it is 
sometimes necessary to compromise 
between highest electrical efficiency and 
greatest operating convenience. 

In all the above cases the source of 
radio-frequency power is an alternator, 
and the currents and waves involved are 
of the continuous or sustained type. In 
such circuits the damping does not effect 
the sharpness of radiated waves, but 
only their amplitude and the ease with 
which the greatest intensity may be 
secured and maintained. In_ spark- 
discharge circuits, which depend upon 
their natural constants to determine 
not only the amplitude and frequency, 
but also the decrement of the oscillations 
within them, the circuit damping be- 
comes of the greatest importance. The 
details of this branch of the subject are 
so involved that it is not possible to 
treat them fully in a series of elementary 
articles such as these; only certain fun- 
damental facts can be presented. 

From the experiments in connection 
with the circuits of Figs. 1 and 5, it is 
evident that the maximum transfer of 
energy from the alternator to the 
circuit in which it is connected can occur 
only when there is minimum impedance 
(or at the tuned point), and maximum 
persistence (which corresponds to the 
condition of least effective resistance). 


Popular Science Monthly 


This broad principle is applicable to all 
cases of resonant transfer of energy; the 
largest exchange occurs when the excit- 
ing oscillations and the excited circuit 
are of the same frequency and of the 
greatest persistence. It makes little 
difference whether the energy is trans- 
ferred magnetically, as in an inductive 
coupler, or by electromagnetic waves 
extending over long distances; agree- 
ment of frequency and persistence are 
essential. It is well to note that if the 
exciting oscillation is damped there is 
no gain secured by increasing the 
persistence of the excited circuit beyond 
a certain point; reduction of resistance 
to the amount which gives this best 
condition is helpful, however. 

That this general principle applies to 
radio receivers as well as to transmitters 
may be seen by consideration of Fig. 6. 
In this diagram, A and B represent 
respectively the closed and open circuits 
of a spark-type transmitter, and C and 
D mark the antenna and secondary 
circuits of a receiver located some 
distance from A and B. If the condenser 


- of A is charged and allowed to discharge 


across the gap, electrical oscillations 
will be set up in the closed circuit. These 
will have their frequency determined by 
the effective values of the capacity and 
inductance of the circuit, and their 
damping will depend upon the induct- 
ance, capacity and effective resistance. 
If the circuit B has the proper natural 
frequency, it will be excited violently 
by the voltages impressed across the 
inductive coupling, and a comparatively 
large current will be set up in it; this 
antenna current will have the frequency 
of the two circuits A and B, and a 
damping dependent mainly upon the 
effective resistance of the aerial circuit. 
Waves of this same frequency, and of 
the damping of B, will be radiated and 
will pass over the earth’s surface to the 
receiving antenna C. If C has the 
correct tuned frequency, currents will 
be set up in it; if the effective resistance 
is of the proper value, these currents 
will have the largest amplitude. In the 


same way as at the transmitter, maxi- 
mum transfer to the circuit D will take 
place if this final circuit is not only 
tuned, but is also of the proper persis- 
tence. 


Popular Science Monthly 


For Those Midnight Serenaders 


OME people live in neighborhoods 

that are very popular with cats. 
The fence is the back-yard band stand, 
where cats of all sizes and vocal abilities 
assemble and give voice to their woes 
just as one is preparing to go to sleep. 
After ineffectively following the accepted 
plan of hurling shoes, hair-brushes and 
other missiles at the disturbers, one 
sufferer decided to solve the problem 
with the aid of electricity. The plan 
has worked admirably. 

The fence was made of boards sepa- 
rated about one quarter of an inch. Along 
the tops of these boards he nailed short 
strips of brass and connected them 
alternately to the terminals of a small 
induction coil which had been discarded 
from an automobile. When the mid- 
night serenaders trod upon these alter- 
nate strips, their musical inspiration 
departed completely, and they them- 
selves followed it swiftly, but quietly. 
Of course it was necessary to have the 
coil turned on all night, although the 
inventor plans to install a clock-work 
regulator made from an old alarm clock, 
so that the coil will have to work only 


NS 


Md 
ai 


py 


i 
\\ 


-\\ AS | 4 . val 


Would that we could apply this principle 
to the back-yard band and also to the 
organ grinder! 


ee 

The number of sections cut out of the 

brass disk determines the number of 
flashes produced 


during those hours when the night is 
most hideous. He expects that, in time, 
the cats will be wise enough to pass the 
word along to leave his back fence alone. 


Making a Simple but Efficient Flasher 


FLASHER for low voltage lamps 

can be made in the following 
manner: Remove the hands, including 
the second hand, and the glass from an 
old clock. Make a small brass disk 
(this can be done on a lathe), with a 
hole in the center just large enough to 
fit snugly on the axle of the second hand. 
Divide the disk into four parts, and 
describe a concentric circle, as shown in 
the diagram. File out two pieces along 
these lines, as indicated in the diagram. 
After replacing the second hand and 
the disk, fasten the clock to a board. 

Two brushes can be made from an old 
clock-spring, after taking the temper 
out by heating. Screw them to the 
board in such a position that they 
touch the wheel lightly. This arrange- 
ment and also the connections with 
lamps and battery are shown in the 
diagram. 

If more flashes are wanted, a greater 
number of sections can be cut out of the 
disk. Many different combinations can 
be produced. Instead of ordinary white 
bulbs, colored ones can be used, adding 
greatly to the effect.—JosEPH KRAUS, JR. 


940 


A Musical Electric Door-Bell 

N unusual door-bell, differing from 

the noisy regular electric bell, is 
here described. his apparatus may 
look unpractical and clumsy, but it 
can be covered up in a neat wooden case, 
if desired. Procure a small instrument 
commonly known as the “‘tubaphone.” 
A tubaphone consists of a wooden rack 
on which are mounted 
several pieces of brass 
tubing cut into different 
lengths, and _ properly 
tuned to give forth the 
various notes of the 
scale, when set in vibra- 
tion. Such instruments 
are usually sold at fifty 
cents, the price depend- 
ing upon the size, etc. 
Several strips of pine 
about 2 ins. wide, and 


HOW TUBES ARE 
SUSPENDED 


Popular Science Monthly 


drilled in the upper end of the strip 
serves to admit a screw holding a 
wooden hammer-head. A small strip 
of felt is glued to each striking side of 
the block. These proceedings, as de- 
scribed, are carried out for the other 
strips, hammers, etc., along the appara-. 
tus. Another piece of brass is fastened to 

each of the long hammers to act asa trip. 
It is riveted to the ham- 
mer so that its upper end 
will come in touch every 
now and then with the 
wooden pegs, fastened on 
the revolving-roller. The 
setting of the pegs in the 
roller requires some pa- 
tience; one mistake will. 
be of more value than an 
hour’s description. The 
pegs, which are obtained 
from a shoemaker, must 


be set so that the music 


7/8 in. thick are pro- 
cured to be used in the 
framework. It is simple 
to make, and is readily 
understood by examin- 
ing the diagram. 

The tubes are sus- 
pended, as shown, on 
rings or rubber bands. 
The distance between 
the tubes should be at 
least one inch; the first 
and last tubes must also 
be about one inch from 
the edge of the frame- 
work, for placing a 
support on each side. 
The base may be of any size desired, 
but these dimensions can only be 
determined by calculation, and upon 
the number of brass tubes used, etc. 
A roller should be turned out from 
a piece of pine, long enough, of course, 
- to be within the range of every hammer 
striking the brass tubes. A shafting 
attachment on the roller is also to be 
provided for. 

Lastly, the hammers are made of 
sheet brass, having a length that will 
reach from the base of the apparatus, 
to a point slightly above the bottom of 
the suspended tubes. A hole is drilled 
in the bottom end of each strip, which 
is firmly fastened to the base by a 
round-headed wooden screw. The hole 


ip ss emai < 


PUSH \|BUTTO 


The mere pushing of a button at the door 
causes this apparatus to play a tune 


will sound cor- 
rect, care being 
taken that the 
higher tubes vi- 
brate in sym- 
pathy with the 
lower notes. 
With an ordi- 
nary motor and 
push-button, 
with the con- 
nections de- 
picted, the ar- 
rangement will 
be found com- 
plete. 

As soon as the button is pressed, the 
motor will revolve, and, being shafted 
on to the roller, will rotate it. The 
pegs will actuate the hammers, and the 
hammers will in turn vibrate the brass 
tubes, producing the musical strains, 
which show that someone is at the door. 
Such melodies as ‘‘Home Sweet Home,” 
may be made and if the folks tire of 
the same tunes, several rollers may be 
on hand and changed as often as desired. 


WOODEN 
FRAMEWORK 
a 


Antenna Wire Strength 
HOSPHOR bronze antenna wire is 
practically as strong, for the same 

cross-section, as the best iron. This is 


nearly twice the strength of copper and 
over four times that of aluminum. 


Popular Science Monthly 


An Efficient Spark-Plug Tester 


T is a very simple matter to test a 

spark-plug by the use of a small 
spark-coil as shown in. the accompanying 
diagram. By placing the plug to be 
tested across the terminals of the coil 
and pushing the button, if the plug is 
in working order a very bright spark 
will jump across the gap. If the plug 
is ‘‘dead”’ the circuit will either remain 
open or else the current will flow with- 
out making any spark. 

This method of testing is of particular 
value in detecting short-circuits. For 
instance, it frequently happens that the 
insulation of the plug breaks down at 
a point above the gap, in which case 
the explosion caused by a plug in this 
condition will be weak and result in 
loss of power in the engine. Such a 
short-circuit can be detected at once as 
the spark will jump across at whatever 
point the insulation is weakest. 

The trouble and annoyance of testing 
spark-plugs by running the engine may 
be obviated by the use of this simple 
method of testing, easily arranged by any 
experimenter.—H. A. HOOPER. 


This apparatus is especially valuable 
for testing short-circuits 


Connecting Dissimilar Telephone Lines 


HE diagram shows an arrangement 

for connecting a grounded and a 
metallic telephone circuit so that the 
same telephone can be used on either 
or both lines. When the switch is left 
open on the grounded telephone circuit, 
the extension bells remain grounded and 
rings are received. When this switch is 
closed and the switch on the metallic 
line is opened, the telephone is cut in 
on the grounded circuit and conversation 
can be carried on over that line. If 
both switches are left closed, rings are 


941 


received simultaneously on both sets 
of bells, and conversation is possible 
over the combined circuits not only 
from the telephone in the diagram but 
between any other stations on the two 
circuits. Thus, either circuit can be 
used independently of the other, or at 
this station the other telephones can be 
switched back and forth if that service 
is desirable. This will be found advan- 
tageous on many rural lines connecting 
with magneto switchboard exchanges. 
It will also be of use on private party 
lines.—J. G. ALLSHOUSE. 


The same telephone can be used on a 
grounded and a metallic telephone circuit 
with this arrangement 


Connecting Wires With Tinfoil 


ERHAPS a number of readers ex- 

perience trouble in making a good 
wire connection when solder is not at 
hand. They will find the following 
method very efficient, especially with 
aluminum wire. 

Scrape about 8 ins. of the wire to be 
connected. See that all the dirt, 
corrosion, and grease are thoroughly 
scraped off. With the aid of pliers, 
twist the wires together very tightly. 
A piece of tinfoil, about an inch wide, 
should be lapped over the connection 
twist. The tinfoil should be lapped 
together as tightly as possible, without 
tearing and then pressed with the fingers. 
After this proceeding one or more 
layers of tape are stretched over the 
tinfoil, so that corrosion, rain, etc., will 
not affect the connection. The tape is 
pulled very tightly, to insure a good 
connection of the tinfoil with the wire. 
It is well to paint it with asphaltum. 

It should, of course, be understood, 
that this expedient should be resorted 
to only when solder is not at hand. 


942 Popular Science Monthly 


Money Prizes for Radio Articles 


We want you to tell our readers how you have overcome your wireless 
troubles. Every radio operator, amateur or professional, has en- 
countered difficulties in building or using his apparatus. Many 
different people are bothered by the very same problems day after day. 
It will help you to learn how others worked to get successful results, 
and it will help others to learn how you succeeded. 

For the two best articles describing how you overcame troubles in 
building, operating, adjusting or repairing any radio instrument or 
group of instruments, we offer first and second prizes of $25.00 and 
$15.00 respectively. The prizes will be awarded to the two writers whose 
articles, in the opinion of the Editors, will prove most helpful to the readers 
of the magazine. The Judges of the Contest, who will be the Editors 
of the Poputar ScrmncE Montutuy, will select the prize-winning 
manuscripts from those which conform with the following conditions: 


CONDITIONS OF PRIZE CONTEST 


1. Manuscripts must be typewritten, and on one side of the paper only. 

2. Illustrations must be on sheets separate from the manuscripts. 

3. Articles must be addressed to the Radio Prize Contest, PopuLAR 
SciencE Montuuy, 239 Fourth Avenue, New York, and must 
reach that address before June 15, 1916, in order to be considered. 

4. Manuscripts which do not win prizes may be purchased for publica- 
tion, at the option of the Editors and at the usual liberal rates. 

5. The decision of the Judges, which will be announced in the August, 
1916, issue, is to be final. 

6. Each manuscript must be accompanied by a letter containing criticisms 
and suggestions as to the wireless section of the PopULAR SCIENCE 
Montuiy. The merit of these letters will not be considered in award- 
ing the prizes, but their suggestions will be taken as indications of 
what types of articles are of the most value to our readers. 

7. If contestants wish to have their manuscripts returned, they should 
send postage for that purpose. 

8. Articles should not exceed 2,000 words in length. If you cannot 
present your information in an article of that length, write several 
articles, each on a different phase of the subject, and each independent. 


Popular Science Monthly 


Unit Type of Plate Gap 
NEW type of unit quenched spark- 
gap is shown in the illustration, 
which is taken from I915 patent No. 
1,163,568 issued to F. G. Simpson. 
This gap is of the plate type, but differs 
from the ordinary plate quenched gap 
in that damaged sections may be 


removed without deranging any of the - 


rest of the apparatus. Each unit 
contains a pair of sparking surfaces, one 
of which is formed by the-upper side of 
plate 3 and the other by the lower face 
of 15. These opposing surfaces are 
machined to be perfectly plane and 
parallel, and are mounted by the use of 
the clamping members 5 and 18. The 
two plates are kept apart mechanically 
and electrically by the insulating piece 
12. The details of mechanical construc- 
tion are clear from the diagram; it 
should be noted that the spacing of the 
gap depends upon the distance that 3 
is screwed into 5, and not directly upon 
the thickness of the insulating separator. 
Stops 24 and 26 are provided to keep 
air spaces between adjacent pairs of 
plates, and with the flanges 6 in the 
outer metal piece, aid in keeping the 
gap cool. The required number of 
sections, such as illustrated, are grouped 
to form a complete gap, and connection 
from the inner plate of one unit to the 
outer of the next is made through the 
strip 22. 


24 


7] 20 22 


a wy |_| | Se 
aca Z Gg 


; Gr\2 SENS SNF wy Se 
“INN = Wi SY May 4 | 
<i DGS SESS sears 
4 v9 ‘id 


19 17 WS 


The mechanical construction of a quenched 
gap unit of the plate type 


Preventing the Audion from Choking 


ANY operators have noticed when 
they are using the audion detector 

that there is a tendency for the grid to 
charge too rapidly and ‘ ‘paralyze”’ the 
bulb. In times of severe static this 
effect may be very annoying, since when 
the paralysis sets in, all signals stop. 
It is possible to discharge the grid, and 


thus to place the detector in operation’ 


943 


again, merely by placing the fingers 
across the small stopping condenser in 
the grid circuit; sometimes, even, the 
bulb will automatically regain its sensi- 
tiveness in a second or two after charg- 
ing. Occasionally, however, there are 
found very high vacuum tubes which 


This special audion circuit overcomes the 
tendency of the grid to charge too rapidly 
and paralyze the bulb 


will not free themselves of this paralyz- 
ing charge. - If atmospherics are strong 
and frequent it is sometimes impossible 
to read a single word without interrup- 
tion. 

One remedy for the paralysis is to 
shunt the small grid condenser by a 
very high resistance, which permits the 
charge to leak off and so prevents all 
but the strongest impulses from affect- 
ing reception. This scheme is used a 
great deal, but at times is not entirely 
satisfactory for the reason that when 
the charging surges are intense, it is 
necessary to reduce the shunting 
resistance to so low a value that the 
sensitiveness of the audion is spoiled. 
In U.S. patent No. 1,127,371, issued 
during 1915 to G. W. Pierce, there is 
shown a new way to do away with the 
interruptions due to charging. The 
drawing shows the invention, which is 
based upon the observation that when 
the audion is paralyzed the ‘‘B battery”’ 
current in the telephone circuit is 
reduced practically to zero. 

Referring to the diagram, the antenna 
20 is seen to lead to ground 21 through 
the primary 22 of a receiving trans- 
former. The secondary of this instru- 
ment 23, is shunted by the tuning 
condenser 24, and the terminals carried 
to the audion grid 13 through condenser 
25 and to the filament 14 in the usual 
manner. Battery 18, acting through 
variable resistance 17, is used to light 


944 


the filament; and battery 31 supplies 
the telephone current through recording 
relay 31, telephones 40, discharging 
relay 51, ballast resistance 39 and plate 
12 of the audion bulb. The contact of 
the discharging relay 54, may be 
arranged simply to short-circuit the 
condenser 25, or (as in Fig. 1), actually 
to place upon it an opposing charge 
from battery 61, regulated by the 
potentiometer 60. The recording relay 
32, operates the sounder 34. It should 
be noted that both relays are of the 
back-contact type, which close their 
local circuits when the current through 
their magnets is reduced or interrupted. 

The operation of the receiver, with 
weak or moderate incoming signals, is 
exactly like that of the simple audion. 
Unless impulses of sufficient strength to 
paralyze the tube are received, the relays 
do not close. As _ soon as a violent 
impulse arrives, however, the large 
positive charge assumed by the grid 
chokes off the flow of current from bat- 
tery 31, and the armatures of the two 
relays spring back and close their 
contacts. 

The discharging relay reverses the grid 
charge and,in this way, permits the 
audion to regain its normal sensitive 
condition immediately; the recording 
relay causes a click of the sounder. 
Evidently the system of connections 
shown allows the reception of strong 
signals by listening to the sounder, yet 
prevents interruption of the receipt of 
messages of single violent impulses. It 
is, of course, necessary to adjust relay 
51 to contact very quickly, so that the 
brief click caused by each closing will 
not interfere with the reading of 
messages. 


The Non-Synchronous Rotary Gap 
HE effectiveness of this popular type 
of gap depends mainly upon the 

adjustment of the electrodes and the 
speed at which the disk is driven. 
While with it, the absolutely clear note 
of the synchronous type cannot be 
obtained, the adjustment should be such 
that a comparatively even tone may be 
secured. The somewhat “raggy’’ spark 


given by this gap is not entirely dis- 
advantageous, as it is very effective in 
working through certain kinds of static. 


Popular Science Monthly 


With regard to the speed at which the 
disk should be driven: although a high 
speed will naturally increase the shrill- 
ness of the note produced, there is a 
considerable loss in radiation at very 
high speeds, owing to the fact that there 
is not sufficient time between the sparks 
in which to charge the condenser to its 
highest voltage. The use of too many 
points on the disk amounts to the same 
thing, and should be very carefully 
guarded against.—N. A. WOODCOCK. 


eee 0% 0g oF 


AG eaears amo 
i 


AY | BAY | 8204 /-6 | 
ae 
Bee 


A neat and complete record of messages 
received can be kept in this manner 


A Wireless Log for the Amateur 


HE experience of listening is much 
more valuable if a careful record is 
kept on some such log as that illustrated. 
The abbreviations used in the heading 
are translated as follows: Sta. Cld., sta- 
tion called; Pri., primary of loose-coup- 
ler; Sec., secondary of loose-coupler; 
Var., variable condenser; Clg., coupling. 
This log was used with a navy-type coup- 
ler, and complete entries made on the fol- 
lowing plan: For example, take the 
third note, in which N. A. A. was called 
by N. A. X.; the 12-9, under Pri., means 
that the best signals were received at the 
twelfth point of the multi-turn switch 
and the ninth point of the single-turn 
switch. The numbers, under Clg., give 
the length of the coupling in inches. In 
a coupler which has a slider instead of 
switches on the primary, the slider-rod 
may be calibrated. This simple chart 
is easily handled and from it many in- 
teresting observations can be drawn. 


Quenched Gap Damping 
GOOD quenched gap set will give 
decrements as low as 0.03, for which 

value there are over 75 waves to the 
train. 


The “Ideal”? Battery 


By A. R. MacPherson 


O the experimenter in the field of 
electro-chemistry there is much 
unexplored knowledge which in 
time will prove of inestimable value to 
the chemistry of commerce, particularly 
in the methods of generating electricity 
through chemical actions, which at the 
present day, though apparently satisfac- 
tory, are very inefficient. There are 
scores of patents on devices for generat- 
ing electricity chemically, but the ma- 
jority are lacking in the fundamental 
principles necessary to the attainment of 
an efficient commercial product. 

The primary cell to be realized is one 
in which carbon and oxygen are the ele- 
ments consumed, a much greater amount 
of energy being obtained if these two 
elements unite, with the production of 
an electric current. No other form of 
energy, such as heat or polarization, to 
impair the efficiency of the cell, would 
be manifest. The problem is to find an 
electrolyte which will dissolve the car- 
bon as ions and to construct the neces- 
sary oxygen electrode; thus, the two op- 


20 G70. OONErY 
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Diagram illustrating the arrangement and 
connections of plates for oxidizing process 


posite poles of the cell would carry on 
the reaction through the intervening 
electrolyte and no local action would be 
produced. All of the energy of the cell 


‘ 
~ 
‘ 
‘ 
Ny 
Ny 
‘ 
N 
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ANN 


7 

y 

y 

y 

4 

a 4, 

y 

y 

y 

4 

a ra a G ;, 4, 
a EE fire bOr & Fire a Z 
VILLLZLLLLLLELLLLLLLD 


View showing Jablockkoff’s cell arranged 
over a furnace 


would be dissipated if the carbon and 
oxygen acted directly on each other. 

The author has carried out a series of 
experiments in this field involving the 
production of an electric current through 
the action of an electrolyte on zinc 
plates, the carbons forming the positive 
pole. Only the carbon plates were acted 
upon, in that the oxygen stored up with- 
in the pores of the carbon was set free, 
this action considerably increasing the 
current strength of the battery. 

The oxygen was impregnated in the 
pores by an oxidizing process in which 
the battery of carbon and zinc plates 
was immersed in a solution consisting of 
chromic acid, chrome alum, and _ sul- 
phuric acid, the plates being connected 
in parallel to an outside source of cur- 
rent giving about twenty amperes. Af- 
ter allowing the current to run through 
the cells for fifteen or twenty minutes 
the battery was removed from the solu- 
tion, washed, and immersed in the elec- 
trolyte, which was a simple salt solution. 
The E. M. F. produced for a short pe- 
riod was more than double the strength 
of the regular action in which the car- 
bons had not received this oxidizing 
treatment. It is probable that the salt 
solution acts on the zinc, releasing hy- 


945 


946 


drogen, decomposing the salt, and at the 
same time setting free the oxygen in the 
carbon plates. The fact that the carbon 
plates can be treated continuously by this 
process without impairing their efficien- 
cy seems to indicate that the oxygen does 


not unite with the carbon, but is simply 


stored up within its pores. 

This type of battery indi- 
rectly illustrates the chemical 
actign of a more ideal cell, 
but is lacking in some of the 
necessary fundamental prin- 
ciples; the method employed 
is inefficient, and the results 
obtained do not measure up 
to the applied forces. 

There are certain chemical 
substances which might prove, 
by analysis, to be adaptable in 
an application of this kind. 
Platinum “black,” for in- 
stance, possesses to the high- 
est perfection the power of 
promoting combination be- 
tween oxygen and other gases, absorb- 
ing over two hundred times its volume 
of oxygen, the oxygen simply condens- 
ing in the pores where it may be avail- 
able for combination with other gases. 
An organic compound known as linoleic 
acid possesses the peculiar property of 
absorbing oxygen from the air in large 
quantities, forming a solid substance. 
The properties possessed by these two 
compounds simply illustrate the many 
possibilities lying dormant in the chem- 
ical world which on application to the 
field of electro-chemistry might prove 
invaluable. 

It may be of interest to note several 
attempts that have been made in the 
past on this idea. Jablockkoff in 1880 
constructed a carbon oxygen cell using 
a fused salt as an electrolyte, the carbon 
being immersed in melted potassium ni- 
trate, the positive electrode being iron. 
Thus, the oxygen was supplied in the 
form of a nitrate, but this was not suc- 
cessful as the carbon was brought into 
direct contact with the oxidizing sub- 
stance, and it was necessary to keep the 
cells at a temperature of several hun- 
dred degrees. 

In 1896 W. Jacques patented a cell 
which was constructed of an iron pot 
containing a melted mixture of potassi- 


Diagram showing 
cell arrangement ion 
a large scale 


Popular Science Monthly 


um and sodium hydrate into which the — 
carbon dipped. Oxygen was made to 


unite with the carbon through the inter- 
vening electrolyte, by blowing air against 
the iron pot which formed the positive 
pole, and thus producing an electric cur- 
rent. 


But this was not successful as the 
salt was changed to a car- 
bonate, and also a _ certain 
amount of direct oxidation of 
the carbon took place. 

Thus it is evident that the 
problem of constructing an 
efficient cell of this type is far 
from being solved, as it seems 
almost impossible to find a 
substance which will dissolve 
carbon, and thus create a di- 
rect transformation of chem- 
ical energy into electrical en- 
ergy. But if some ambitious 
experimenter with a thorough 
knowledge of chemistry would 
go after the solution of this 
problem with the same perse- 
vering research that Edison employed in 
his experiments with the incandescent 
light, there is every reason to believe 
that he would attain success. And the 
reward would be well worth the effort, 
as the present commercial world is wait- 
ing for such an efficient device that will 
fulfill all of the necessary requirements. 


‘ 


RSM A OSA OMOM6oOiOOOooyy 


ON 


Sectional view of Jacques’ ingenious cell, 
showing heating of hydrate mixture 


Popular Science Monthly 


The Construction of an Automatic 
Battery Circuit-Breaker 


N automatic circuit-breaker and its 
operation are depicted in the ac- 

companying diagrams. 

Referring to Fig. 1, A is a wooden base 
4 ins. by 2 ins. by % in., B is a brass 
strip 14 in. by 34 in., bent as shown so 
as to stand 234 ins. above the base. 
The magnet MM is 2% ins. by 3% in. and 
wound with 4 layers of No. 16 annuncia- 
tor wire and screwed to B at a point 
21% ins. above the base. The strips C 
and D are of spring brass, 1/64 in. thick 
by 34 in. wide, their ends being bent as 
shown in Fig. II. The strip D, has a 
piece of soft iron E screwed fast to it 
at a point opposite the magnet core. 
The strip C is bent so as to have a 
tendency to spring up when D is drawn 
into the magnet. The wiring is clearly 
shown in Fig. I. 
In operation, the circuit-breaker is 
placed in series with the battery and 
the circuit which is to be protected, 
close to the battery. Should a short- 
circuit occur on the line, the excess 
current flowing through the magnet 
energizes it more strongly than when 
the normal current flows, drawing D in- 
ward, thus releasing C, and so breaking 
the circuit—E. B. WILson. 


a” 
BRASS STRIP jf \ 
CONTACT 4% : 
Pg \ 
“7 CONTACT \ 
\ 


y 
4 
g-  N 


When the postman raises the mail-box lid 
a bell rings in the house 


947 


When a short-circuit occurs, the circuit 
is broken automatically by means of this 
simple device 


How to Make a Rural Mail-Box Alarm 


O those living in rural or suburban 

districts, where the mail is deposited 
in a wooden mail-box by the roadside, the 
device here described will be of interest. 
The idea is to have an announcing bell at 
the house when the mail is placed in 
the box, and thus make a long wait in 
the cold unnecessary. An electric bell 
is put in circuit as depicted, using a dry 
battery as a source of energy. It is 
advisable to use a roll of insulated bell 
tape to insulate the wires properly. 
Two dry cells will be sufficient for any 
distance up to 200 ft. Cut a thin brass 
strip and bend at the center. Fasten to 
the top-extension of the mail-box and 
connect with the battery. Replace the 
wooden cover of the mail-box by a 
brass or metal one. Both the brass 
strip and metal cover must, of course, 
be connected with the house by two 
separate wires. The wires to the house 
are simply tacked by staples on to 
small posts. Following is the modus 
operandi: As soon as the mailman 
lifts the lid to place the mail in the box, 
the metal lid comes in connection with 
the brass strip and closes the circuit, 
operating the announcing bell at the 
house.—WM. WARNECKE, JR. 


Japanese Wireless Telephone 


HE Japanese Navy is equipped 

with apparatus for radio telephones, 
with which wireless speech can be 
transmitted dependably about, ten miles 
and often three times this distance. 


948 


An Electric Weather- Vane Indicator 


WEATHER vane can be construct- 
ed as shown in Fig. I or an old 
existing vane can be used toserve the 


ASO Y! 


SY Segent Disk 


To batteries 
fig. / 


Fig. 1. The ringing of a bell indicates 
which way the wind is blowing 


same purpose. A circular wooden disk 
4 ins. in diameter is mounted on the up- 
right of the vane. This disk has eight 
copper segments fastened to itas shown in 
Fig. 2. The whole thing is mounted so 
that the segment marked JN is pointing 
to true north; the 
other segments will 
then take the prop- 
er directions. The 
direction which the 
wind is blowing 
will be indicated 
by the ringing of 
the bell, since the 
circuit is closed 
when the switch 
handle is brought 
around to the point 
corresponding to 
the same point on 
the vane. 

If the direction 
of the wind is such 
that the rod is 
brought in contact with two. seg- 
ments at the same time, it will cause 
the bell to ring when in contact with 
both points on the switch. Such a 
condition indicates that the wind is 
blowing directly between the two direc- 
tions indicated by the ringing of the 
bell. For example, the switch at N will 
cause the bell to ring, and also at UN. E. 
The direction of the wind is then N. N. E. 

By this method the direction of the 
wind can be more accurately determined 


Vig 2 


Fig. 2. Diagram of 
connections 


Popular Science Monthly 


than by actual observation and also 
does not make it necessary to see the 
vane to determine the direction of the 
wind. The method of wiring is shown 
in Fig. 2.—J. M. CoueEn. 


Electrical Lighting Device for the 
Gas-Range 
O woman appreciates the conve- 
nience of an electrical lighting appa- 
ratus for the gas-range until she has 
actually used one. Following is the 
description of one which is easily made: 

In the diagram is shown a 5-point 
switch and a common _ push-button 
installed on a suitable base. For this 
purpose, a small board can be attached 
to the wall near the stove. The push- 
button is connected in series with three 
or four dry batteries and the primary 
winding of a spark-coil that will give at 
least a %-in. spark. 

The battery, the primary winding, 
the four burners and the proper connec- 
tions are shown in the diagram. Note 
the pipe connection to the stove, with 
one wire from the secondary winding 
of the coil grounded to the pipe, while 
the other end of the winding is connected 
with the center of the 5-point switch. The 
wires from the switch to the spark-gap 
at the burners must be well insulated, 
and at least an inch apart. 

The gaps at the burners are made 
from No. 10 steel wire and insulated 
from the stove with hard fiber. The 
steel wire to the gap must come up into 
the center of the burner from below, so 
that the flame will not harm the wire 
or gap. When it is desired to light a 
burner, simply turn the switch to the 
proper point, turn on the gas, and push 
the button. 


Any amateur electrician can fit the gas- 
range with a lighting device 


Radio Tower at Tufts College 


HE radio tower recently erected at 

Tufts College, Medford, Massachu- 

setts, isattracting unusualattention. 
In September, when the tower was 
completed to a height of over 275 ft., 
one of the temporary guy ropes parted 
during a high wind and allowed the 
tower to topple over. Instead of snap- 
ping at some point above the ground 
the structure pulled away from the 
sub-base and fell as a complete unit. 

It has been shown that the collapse 
was not due to faulty design, and the 
tower has been re-erected without im- 
portant changes. 

The tower itself is built entirely of 
angle irons and assembled in the manner 
shown in the illustration. It is 288 ft. 
above the concrete base, and 3 ft. 4 in. 
square in section from base to top. 
The corner, or upright, angle-irons are 
3 ins. by % in., while the diagonal and 
cross angle-irons are 2 ins. by 3/16 in. 
The corner angles are each nearly 12 ft. 
long and, as shown by the diagram, are 
divided into three sections. The sections 
are placed directly on top of each other 
and held together by means of angle- 
irons fitting inside of the corner angles 
and extending several inches either 
side of the joint. These angles are 
secured by bolts % in. in diameter and 
I in. long. This bolt construction is 
employed throughout the tower, there 
being no rivets. Washers are not used 
with the bolts. 

The structure is mounted on two 
concrete bases. The upper base is 5 ft. 
4 ins. square and 12 ins. thick. It is to 
this base that the iron work of the 
tower is secured. This sur-base rests on 
four porcelain insulators set so as to 
leave 5 ins. between the two bases. The 
lower base is the same size in section as 
the upper base, but extends 6 ft. into 
the ground. When the first tower 
collapsed these two bases pulled apart. 

As the tower is not self supporting, 
the system of guying is of great import- 
ance. Three sets of four guys each 
have been adopted, thus giving 120- 
degree guying with four guys fastened 
to each of the three deadmen. These 


guys consist of stranded steel cable with 
rope core, the two upper of which are 
34 in. in diameter and the two lower 
54 in. 

After the complete erection of the 
tower the fourth guy was added to each 
of the three sets at a 
point about 75 ft. 
from the ground. 
These guys are extra 
and were not included 
in the original design, 
but as it now stands 
the tower has 12 guys. 

The guys are broken 
up by porcelain strain 
insulators 5 ins. in 
length and 3 ins. in 
diameter. The ends 
of the wire are secured 
by a series of Crosby 
clamps. Twelve- 
inch turn-buckles 
are inserted in each 
set of guys. 

The three dead- 
men are made of 
concrete and weigh 
about 25 tons each. 


On the surface they 
are 5 ft. : inane Construction details 
square. They are of the tower 


placed 150 ft. from 

the base of the tower so as to give an 
angle of 45 degrees to the lower guy, 
which is placed mid-way up the tower. 

The tower was erected aloft, each 
separate piece being placed in position 
before another was secured. Temporary 
guy ropes were used in large numbers 
during the erection of the second tower, 
as it was due to insufficient temporary 
guying that the first structure collapsed. 

Harold J. Power, for whom the tower 
was erected, is a graduate of Tufts 
College. While there he was president 
of the Wireless Society, to which organi- 
zation he has granted the use of the new 
tower and experimental station. 

Many methods of mast construction 
have been tried, and while a serviceable 
tower of wood can be built, wood is 
generally considered inferior to steel. 


949 


What Radio Readers Want to Know 


Crystal Receivers 


W. L. K., Cincinnati, O., inquires: 

Q. 1. What is your opinion of the carborun- 
dum crystal as compared with other mineral 
detectors? Area battery and potentiometer re- 
quired for the maximum degrees of sensibility? 
What color is the most sensitive? I have been 
told that a flat piece of metal is used for making 
contact. Is this correct? 

A. 1. The carborundum detector is not as 
sensitive as galena, cerusite, silicon, perikon, etc., 
but for commercial use is more desirable. The 
adjustment is rugged and not easily influenced 
by the local transmitting apparatus or heavy 
atmospheric discharges. 

Good results with this crystal can only be ob- 
tained by applying a local battery. Generally, 
one battery cell shunted by a 400-ohm potentiom- 
eter fitted with a sliding-contact will permit the 
necessary control of the current. It is equally 
important that the current flow through the 
crystal in a definite direction; the proper direc- 
tion is best determined by experiment. 

Crystals of the dark blue variety are found to 
be the most sensitive. It is customary to mount 
the crystal in a small metallic containing cup 
with some form of “‘soft metal.’’ A sharp point 
such as that afforded by a steel phonographic 


needle with a rigid spring adjustment, is the’ 


most desirable. 


Safe Towers 


G. S., St. Louis, Mo., writes: 

Q. 1. I would like to know if I can safely erect 
a 60-ft. mast for the support of an aerial system 
if the first 20 or 30 ft. consist of 3-in. gas pipe 
and the remainder of 2-in. gas pipe. 

A. 1. A structure of this design is not recom- 
mended unless it is very carefully guyed. Pipe 
unions should not be used. If a single section of 
the desired length cannot be obtained, that is to 
say, if a single 30-ft. section is not available, 
the mast should be constructed of several sections 
of the correct diameter to fit inside of each other. 
The sections should be telescoped for a distance 
of about 2 ft. and held in position by iron 
bolts passing diréctly through the pipe. This 
construction will eliminate the weakness of re- 
ducing couplings and pipe unions. A _ 60-ft. 
mast of this type should have two sets of guys. 
Great care must be exercised in the erection, for 
iron pipe will not stand a horizontal strain when 
the sections are of considerable length. 

We know that this is a vital matter to amateur 
experimenters, but obviously in the space at our 
disposal in this department a complete set of 
drawings for the construction and erection of 
a mast cannot be given. Wind-mill towers can 
be purchased at reasonable prices, and it might 
be of benefit to you to get into communication 
with the manufacturers. 


Antenna Wavelength 
E. B. K., Gulfport, Miss., inquires: 
Q. 1. Please calculate the fundamental wave- 
length of a six-wire aerial, 90 ft. in height at one 


end, 45 ft. at the other with the flat top portion 
150 ft. in length. I believe that its wavelength 
is in excess of the U. S. restrictions, and should 
like advice concerning the method of cutting it 
down to comply with the law. 

A.1. The fundamental wavelength of this aerial 
is approximately 410 meters which is far in excess 
of the U. S. restrictions. You are advised to 
reduce the dimensions of the aerial, making the 
flat top portion from 50 to 8o ft. in length and 
the vertical portion from 40 to 60 ft. in height. 
If it is intended to employ this aerial for the 
reception of signals from long distance stations, 
the construction should not be changed, but for 
the transmission and reception of signals on the 
restricted 200-meter wave, the dimensions of the 
complete system should not exceed those last 
given. 


Armstrong Receivers 


C. J. G., Chatham, N. Y., writes: 

Q. 1. In' the December, 1915, issue of the 
POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY you published a 
drawing of the Armstrong circuit. Will you 
please advise if the coils L2 and L3, L6andL7, 
are constructed after the form of inductively- 
coupled receiving tuners? If not, in what re- 
lation are these coils placed? 

A. 1. It was intended that these coils be 
constructed in the form of inductively- coupled 
receiving tuners. L 2 and L 3 should be so con- 
structed that L 3 may be placed completely 
inside of L 2. In actual practice L 6 is generally 
placed about 1 in. from L 7, but under certain 
circumstances it may be necessary to place them 
in closer inductive relation. 


Sending Transformer and Condenser 


L. J. T., St. Louis, Mo., writes: 

Q. 1. Please give a minute description of how 
to build a 1 k. w. wireless transformer suitable 
for radio work. 

A. 1. Assuming that this transformer is to be 
operated at a commercial frequency of 60 cycles, 
you are advised to adopt the open core type of 
transformer because it possesses inherent char- 
acteristics peculiarly suitable for radio work. 
The following dimensions are good for a1 k. w. 
transformer to have a secondary voltage of 
20,000. The primary core consists of a circular 
bundle of No. 28 or 30 soft iron wire 3 ins. in 
diameter by 25 ins. in length. This should be 
covered with two layers of Empire cloth or 
friction tape. The primary winding is then 
covered with an insulating tube of micanite or 
hard rubber 3/16 in. thickness. The secondary 
winding consists of 38 pancakes of wire each 
1/8 in. in thickness, having approximately 1100 
turns of No. 30 S. C. C. wire. 

It is preferred to divide this winding into six 
sections with about six pancakes in each section. 
These pancakes should be spaced on a fiber disk 
about 1/16 in. in thickness. If cotton covered 
wire is employed it should be dipped in hot 
paraffin just previous to the winding. 


950 


The Home Workbench 


How to Make an Accurate Sun-dial 


HIS sun-dial can be made easily and 
it will give accurate results. While 
the variation of time in all parts of the 
United States will be slight, the most 
accurate reading will be made between 
the 35th and 45th parallels of northern 
latitude as this is the area it is designed 
to cover. ; 
Any material will 
suffice to make the 
dial and style from, 
and any thickness 
may be used. But 
the most neat dial 
can be made from 
brass or copper, cut 
from a sheet or cast 
from patterns. The 
parts should be at 
least 14 in. thick to 
be substantial. The 
degrees of time, as 
well as the dimen- 
sions for making, are shown on the ac- 
companying drawing. Care must be 
taken that all lines are drawn straight 
and the dimensions followed closely. 
After the hours are put on, the spaces 
can be subdivided into halves and 
quarters and five minutes if desired. 
The space left in between the A. M. 
and P. M. hour divisions is to receive 
the style and should be just as wide 
as the style is thick. The best way to 
mount the style is to tap two holes in 
the lower edge and bolt through the 
dial with small machine screws. The 
style may be ornamented with several 
hollows cut out, but the top edge or 
shadow casting edge must be perfectly 
true. The long vertical end of the style 
goes at the 12M mark on the dial. 
The whole can be erected upon any 


et 


Diagram of sun-dial, showing dimensions 
for construction and angles for determin- 
ing each hour mark 


oil 


suitable stand, wood, stone ot cement 
which can be worked up into an orna- 
mental design. The 12 noon end of the 
style must point exactly north and the 
other end to the south. Or the dial may 
be set to local time by waiting until 
exact noon and then setting the dial 
accordingly.—B. F. DASHIELL. 


A Waterproof 
Compound 


GOOD water- 
proof com- 
pound can be made 
if the following di- 
rections are careful- 
ly observed. It is 
suitable for any job 
not larger than an 
ordinary cellar, or 
where the water 
pressure is not too 
great, and is espe- 
cially adapted for 
wells, cisterns, cement ice-boxes, etc. 
First dissolve soap in water until a 
good soapy liquid is obtained. This can 
easily be done by chipping common yel- 
low soap into a wash boiler and allowing 
it to boil. About one bar of soap to every 
bucketful of water is enough, but a half 
bar more will do no harm. When ready 
to mix, add one bucketful of soap solution 
to every two bucketfuls of clear water. 
When applying the mixture, it is essential 
that it be well troweled. The smoother 
the finish, the more lasting the result and 
the better the water-proofing qualities. 


How to Mix Stove Blacking 


SE vinegar instead of water when 

mixing stove blacking. The work 
of polishing will be easier and the polish 
will last much longer.—C. A. WOLF. 


951 


952 


Clothes-Line Suggestions 


T is stupid for a woman to stoop 
nearly to the ground every time she 
lifts a sheet from the basket for hanging 
up on the line. It is dull to carry the 
heavy basket of wet clothes all around 
the yard, or to leave it in one spot and 


n 

Hi 

N 

/ 
A AR Z Ss j 
\ WS Sa ATT Sey 
NN | Ne ss 4 

~ SS l \ Kee es 3 ¥: 


‘\ 


\\ 


Make permanent 
loops in the ends 
of the clothes-line 


take walking tours in a spiderweb path 
back and forth from basket to line. 
Besides, it is easy to soil the bottom of 
the basket if the yard is also a garden. 
These useless motions are obviated by 
pulling the basket around upon a little 
wagon, which is of convenient height. 
When comforters and other heavy 
bedding are washed they do not dry 
quickly if hung upon a single line. The 
inside of the folded piece is not touched 
by sunshine and wind and the texture 
is too thick for penetration from the 
outer side. String two lines parallel, 


A simple wooden reel and a handy basket 
to suspend from the line, make clothes- 
hanging easier 


Popular Science Monthly 


about two feet apart. This allows air 
to circulate up under the “‘tent.’’ For 
dresses also this scheme is very satis- 
factory. 

A clothes-pin carrier can be made from 
a grape basket. Suspend it from the 
line by a stout wire bent into a loop at 
each end, and push it along the wire 
ahead of you. 

A. small wooden reel on which to 
wind a rope clothes-line saves the 
trouble of unraveling the tangles which 
get in, if it is rolled or looped up in a 
ball. Permanent loops at the ends of the 
rope and at intervals, spaced like the 
distance between posts, will save time 
and temper in stretching the line and 
making new knots each week. 


A Sanitary Kitchen Sink 


N setting kitchen sinks it has always 

been a rule to set the sink under the 
drain-board, and as the drain-board 
extends over the edge of the sink, 
it forms a bad place for dirt and 
grease to collect which no kind of 


ior 


The close-fitting drain-board prevents the 
collecting of dirt 


brush or cloth can dislodge. To improve 
this condition, use a solid drain-board 
and cut out the center large enough to 
let the sink through. The flange or rim 
of the sink will hang on the drain-board 
about 34 of an inch all around. Drop 
the sink into this hole and with a sharp 
pencil mark around the rim. Rabbet 
this out about 3% of an inch, or so that 
the rim will go into this rabbet and 
finish flush with the top of the drain- 
board. Take thick white lead or soft 
putty to bed the sinkin. This sink will 
not leak and is sanitary. WM. J. ALBIN. 


Popular Science Monthly 


How to Dry Unsightly Scrub-Rags 


HE cloths used 

to mop the 
kitchen floor are 
inevitably stained 
and unsightly, even 
when rinsed. To 
dry them, and still 
have them hidden 
from view, bore 
holes in the top and 
bottom of awooden 
box, stain the out- 
side to match the woodwork and hang 
it in the warmest place in the kitchen. 
The warm air rises through the holes 
and dries the cloths hanging on hooks 
on the inside. Tea towels and dish rags 
may be similarly treated.—A. G. VESTAL. 


SSS 


SS 


GZ 
SSS 


—, 


————$—— 
) 


A Milk-Warmer Made From 
a Lamp-Bulb 

N electric milk 
or medicine 
warmer can be 
made from a large 
carbon electric 
lamp by holding 
the bulb over a 
blow-torch and 
slowly heating the 
glass as shown in 
the diagram. The 
glass should be 
wiped dry before 
heating, and if 
pains are taken in 
heating the bulb, 
the soft glass will 
} sag enough to form 
a basin to hold a 
small amount of water—Wm. HarRIER. 


— 
Z 
—— 
= 
Ss 
BB 
= 


PULTE CAMELS 


Broom Holder from Barrel Hoop 
ope bee a Tory ate ROOMS, 

ca when not in 
use, should be 
stood on end. A 
section of a wood- 
en barrel hoop 
cut and nailed in 
place as shown in 
the illustration 
makes an excel- 
lent holder for three brooms; and the 
cost is nothing. 


953 


How to Protect Sugar from Ants 
Shelf 


HANDY re- 

ceptacle for 
sugar may be made i\ 
from an ordinary = 
lard-pail with a 
tight cover. Cut 
a slot in one side, 
a little above the 
middle, and solder 
on a spout or lip, 
made from a scrap 
of bent tin. The 
pail may be suspended from a hook 
on the under side of a shelf above the 
table. To remove the sugar, the cook 
simply tilts the pail over a dish on the 
table. This arrangement effectually pre- 
vents ants from molesting the sugar. 


How to Use Old Mantle Supports 
HE used sup- ; [x 
ports - fort JY 
Welsbach upright 
gas mantles can be 
utilized on a water- 
faucet as a strainer | 
and also to prevent | 
splashing. Remove } 
the wire ends from ‘ mas 
the sheet metal part or sockets which 
hold them; place the cylindrical part 
containing the screen over the end of 
the faucet. Hold it in place by reinsert- 
ing the wires in the sockets in the new 
and reversed position. Sometimes an 
extra turn of the wire is required to 
prevent slipping down. Though this 
strainer is not fine enough to filter out 
bacteria, it will serve many uses where 
particles of dirt and weeds get in the 
water.—T. GLYNN. 


Rejuvenating Your Pipe 


OQ make an a 

old tobacco | Ay, 
pipe as good as AY) 
new, plug the ¢@ 
stem with a bit of 
match, fill the 
bow] with alcohol, 
light and let burn. 
Do this three or four times and the 
pipe will be as clean and as sweet as 
when new, without the bother of break- 
ing it in.—L. E. FETTER. 


954 


A Quick Creaser 


VERY convenient article for a 

household is apparatus for creasing 
trousers in a jiffy. The illustration 
shows a very light and easily operated 
device. It is shown in operation at 
the left. It clamps the trouser leg and 
is electrically heated by means of two 


Fini : 


if 


—————— 


Trousers can be pressed 
by electrical heat 


coils of wire, running the full length of 
the apparatus, as shown at B, B. 
The clamp A clasps the trouser leg. 
Three springs as C, one at each end and 
one at the middle, furnish the pressure; 
D indicates the releasing handles. 

By dampening the trouser leg with a 
wet sponge and applying this apparatus, 
a fine crease can be obtained in a jiffy. 
This apparatus can be applied to the 
back of the trouser leg as well as the front. 


Making the Burglar Call the Police 


N invention soon to be installed in 
certain government buildings in 
the South, to make burglars and house- 
breakers themselves ring up the police 
calling for their arrest, has been worked 
out by Louis H. German, Louisville, 
Kentucky, as the sequel to a narrow 
escape he experienced from an intended 
robbery. 

The system involves the automatic 
sending of the alarm from an instrument 
concealed in the room or building which 
has been broken into. This instrument 
may, for example, be a telephone con- 


Popular Science Monthly 


cealed within a wooden cupboard. An 
elastic cord is fastened to the receiver 
(or other suitable alarm-sending ele- 
ment), and to the end of this short 
elastic cord is fastened a long wire or 
cord that is run through eyes that are 
fastened to the tops of doors and to 
window frames, and its further end 
hooked fast to the last eye in the end 
door or window. This wire is put in 
place by the owner or proprietor before 
he leaves the room. The telephone 
receiver hook is held in its place so as to 
give the alarm when he leaves. For 
this purpose, a cord is fastened to the 
hook and run through a hole in the wall 
to the outside, where it is fastened to a 
hook or nail. 

When the proprietor opens the door, 
the elastic band attached to the receiver 
simply stretches without lifting the 
receiver from the hook, as it is held in 
place by the taut cord hooked outside 
the wall. Once he has closed the door 
and is outside, he proceeds to release 
this cord from its hook, so that it will 
slide through the wall inside. The next 
person who undertakes to open door or 
window will consequently stretch or 
strain the wire or cord extending across 
the doors so it will raise the receiver of 
the alarm-giving telephone from its hook, 
as it is no longer held down by the other 
cord. 

In the daytime, the cord that protects 
the various doors and windows may be 
withdrawn and stored inside the cup- 


nd 


i) 


By means of this scheme every door 
window may be guarded 


board that conceals the alarm-sending 
telephone, and employees and visitors 
in the building will be unaware of the 
existence of the automatic burglar-alarm. 


Popular Science Monthly 


iy 


I! 
1s 

a) 
i 


\, 


This cistern is made of concrete blocks. 
Its height is about ten feet 


A Cistern of Concrete 


HIS cistern, located above ground 
and on an elevation, makes it 
possible to have water under pressure 
in all departments of the farm. Water 
is pumped into the cistern by the farm 
windmill, the frame of which can be 
seen in the illustration. The cistern is 
built of concrete blocks laid in cement 
mortar. It is a round structure, the 
inside diameter being twelve and a half 
feet, and the height ten. The size is ample 
for farm use, yet the cost of the improve- 
ment is within reach of the average 
farm owner. The materials should cost 
about sixty dollars in the middle west. 
The foundations and the floor are of 
solid concrete. Build the foundation 
walls below the frost line and make 
them ten inches thick and the floor five 
inches thick. About 300 blocks will be 
required for the cistern. When the 
desired height has been constructed, 
the next step will be the building of the 
concrete slab roof or cover. This will 
be re-enforced with a heavy wire mesh 


peal fal ee 
INSIDE Diameters 


AY s ST 


TV io* CONCRETE Toor 


ty 
Zy + aw 
Wot - . 
RO TNA 
(eae 7 
| 


Cross-section plan of the cistern, showing 
its dimensions 


955 


and there will be a 24-inch cast-iron 
manhole in the center. Build the form 
work of lumber well supported by 
timbers and joists. After the concrete 
has been poured and allowed to harden, 
the builder can enter the cistern through 
the manhole and remove the form lumber 
in pieces. The inside walls should be 
given a good treatment of cement wash 
mixed to the consistency of thick cream. 


Automatic Feeding-Hopper Built 
for Twenty-five Cents 


ROCURE the following articles at a 

ten-cent store; a tin pail, a funnel, 

a pie-tin, and a strainer. The large 

end of the funnel should be a good fit 
for the inside of the pail. 

Cut out the bottom of the pail and 
remove the spout of the funnel. Place 
the funnel in the pail and solder securely. 
Cut a V in the pie-tin, bring the edges 
together and rivet or solder them, making 
a conical deflector. Cut the piece 
taken from the bottom of the pail so 
that it will fit on the strainer; fill the 
strainer with corn and solder the piece 


Chickens can be trained to feed them- 
selves by means of this device 


on to keep the corn in. A rubber band 
or light spring and a spool cut in half 
are also needed. 

From the cover of the pail fasten a 
cord to a rubber band, also run a long 
cord from the end of the rubber band 
through the funnel to the spool valve, 
then to the deflector, and to the bait 
bar or strainer. The cord is fastened to 
the spool by the wooden plug. When 
adjusting, the plug is loosened; or the 
feeder can be adjusted by the cord on 
the cover of the pail. 


956 


The Left-handed Woman’s Home 
Appliances 


FRIEND who is left-handed says 

it is foolish, when she must do her 
own housework for a lifetime, to put 
up with the little annoyances that 
come from using tools and arrangements 
standardized for normal, right-handed 
housekeepers. 


The left-handed woman should have her 
kitchen arranged for her own convenience 


She has her scissors sharpened the 
reverse of the usual way. The drain- 
board in her kitchen is at the left, 
instead of at the right of the sink. The 
shelf of her range she had transferred 
to the left. If she used a cabinet gas- 
range, with high ovens at the side of the 
open cooking-burners she would choose 
a stove with ovens at the left. In 
hanging up small tools near the place 
where they are to be used, she locates 
them at the left, rather than at the right 
side of the table or counter. The usual 
location of the spout or lip upon sauce- 
pans or skillets serves a left-handed 
cook well, for they are wrong for the 
average woman.—A. G. VESTAL. 


How to Make Artificial Marble 


COMPOSITION closely resembling 

marble can be made from marble- 
dust and magnesite. Thoroughly mix 
equal parts of these ingredients while 
dry. Make a watery solution of magne- 
sium chloride, strong enough to float an 
egg. Add the magnesite and marble- 
dust mixture to the magnesium chloride 
solution, until a thick, creamy com- 
position is obtained. Pour this into 
molds of glass. The glass should be 
washed, polished, and rubbed with a 
cloth soaked in paraffin oil. The oil 


Popular Science Monthly 


gives the appearance of polished marble, 
when the composition is hard. Twenty- 
four hours are required for hardening. 

If a mottled or veined effect is desired, 
add dry mineral colors to a _ small 
amount of the mixture, and, with a 
spoon, deposit it in several spots. When 
the mixture is poured into the molds, 
which should be from a height of 2 ins., 
the colored spots will blend with the 
white mass, forming beautiful veins and 
flecks. If holes are desired, rods of 
wood, dipped in melted paraffin, are 
placed in the molds. 

This composition is especially good 
for electrical switchboards. Clock-cases, 
table-tops and statuary can also be 
made from it. Fine ‘sand, or even 
sawdust, may be substituted for marble- 
dust. For each pint of dampened saw- 
dust, it will be necessary to use a pound 
of magnesite.—A. H. WAYCHOFF. 


Convenient Stairway 


N a new house having three rooms and 

hall on the lower floor one compact 
stairway serves the purpose of two. A 
hinged door at the bottom of the kitchen 
branch and a sliding door at the front 
hall face of the small landing give 
privacy to either section of the stairway. 
Warm air is prevented from rising when 
bedrooms upstairs are being aired. Also 
the noises downstairs do not disturb 
anyone who may be asleep or ill up- 
stairs. Another feature is the hinging 
of the second step from the bottom of 
the kitchen branch making, beneath it 
and the third step, a storage space. for 
cooking utensils and dish-drainer, since 
there is no pantry. This arrangement is 
a great space-saver. 


OL 


Minnt.— 
= me 


Much valuable space can be saved by this 
kind of stairway 


The Ideal Home for $5,000 


By Geo. M. Petersen 


HE ideal home which we will de- 
scribe this month, is a building in 
which everything was studied out 
in advance; in which every dollar was 
reckoned before the job was started and 
one which, through attention to details 
of small things, was kept down to a very 
reasonable figure. The house is 
modern in every respect, has an at- 
tractive exterior and a 
pleasant interior and is 
altogether a very desirable 
home for the person 
of average means. 
Many per- 
sons who are 
now living in 
ipae are per- 


‘in this way three feet were saved in the 


length and two feet in the width of the 
house. The next step was to figure the 
framing of the house so as to reduce 
everything to stock lengths and sizes 
in order to avoid waste of material and 
the cost of labor for cutting. Following 
this the interior finish was 
gone over very carefully and 
ay EI everything which would not 

actually add to the value 
of the premises was elim- 
inated, the finish of the 
various rooms was gone 
over thorough- 
ly and another 
floor plan made 
for future addi- 
£0 nS, aad 


fectly able to 


build a home 
of their own 
but dread to 
begin opera- 
tions because 
they are afraid 
that the ultimate cost will far exceed the 
appropriation. This item of “‘extras”’ is, 
in the great majority of cases, one which 
causes a great deal of trouble between 
the owner and the contractor, but if 
the proper attention is paid to the little 
things before the contract is awarded 
there will be no chance for the extra 
expense. 

The cost of the house under discussion 
was as follows: 


Lumber, Millwork and Glazing. $1541.00 


Sappenter Labor... sic. os xd, 705-75 
Mason Work, complete....... 1425.00 
MMM 5 wigs Arild c ane ag 425.00 
Heating, Hot Water ae: 400.00 
Painting. . iach dpe A a7 5-00 
Electrical Work............. 75.00 
Decorations and Fixtures... .. 150.2 
MO tah Oadby «i Sac 1% $4997.00 


In the first place the plan was drawn 
and then studied until each room was 
reduced to the minimum size which 
could be used and still have it desirable; 


The completed five-thousand-dollar home. 
spacious closed veranda and the broad cornice 


equipment. 
—. .._ The electrical 
=—_ work was then 
taken up and 
only such out- 
lets as were 
actually necessary were provided; the 
plumbing and heating were also gone 
over very thoroughly as was the paint- 
ing. The exterior also received its share 
of thoughtful attention with the result 
that not only was a nice sum saved on 
this item but the appearance of the 
house was actually improved. 

We will now investigate the house 
floor by floor and see what was finally 
accomplished. 


A Basement Complete in Every Detail 


In the basement we have a billiard 
room eleven feet wide and twenty-two 
feet long, which has a nook fourteen 
feet wide and seven feet deep, in which 
may be placed a card table and some 
easy chairs for the onlookers. The floor 
of these rooms is of No. 2 common 
yellow pine, seven-eighths of an inch 
thick laid over 2 by 4 No. 2 hemlock 
sleepers which are laid on top of the 
concrete cellar floor. The tongues of 
the boards in this floor were painted with 
white lead and oil before they were 


Note the 


957 


958 


driven together and the sleepers were 
covered with a waterproof building 
paper before the floor was laid. The 
reason for these steps was to protect the 
room from dampness. The waterproof 
paper protected the under side of the 
flooring and the paint in the joints 
protected the room from any dampness 
which might have entered through the 
floor. The floor was then stained to imi- 
tate oak and given a coat of shellac and 


HEATER 
ROOs/I 


BILL sgvicc' RPOOsT 


Plan showing dimensions and arrangement 
of rooms in the basement 


another of good floor varnish. The 
walls and ceiling of these rooms are 
plastered with one coat of patent wall 
plaster applied directly to the stone on 
the exposed walls and on lath on the 
inside wall and ceiling. The fireplace 
at the end of the room was built of 
selected common brick and provided 
with a rough hemlock plank for a shelf. 
The stairway to the first floor hall was 
built of yellow pine and provided with 
a stock handrail and 134 by 134 spindles, 
all stained to match the floor. 

At the left of the billiard room a small 


Popular Science Monthly 


toilet is provided with a vent out under 
the steps leading to the front door. 
Back of this toilet is the heater room — 
where the hot water heater was installed. 
The coal bin was located immediately 
in the rear of the heater room. To the 
right of the heater room we find the 
laundry with a three-part cement laun- 
dry-tray and in the rear projection we 
have a fruit room with a sand floor, on 
which the sand is three feet deep to 
allow for vegetables being planted during 
the winter months, to prevent them 
from decaying during the winter months. 
A small closet is provided under the rear 
stairs in which are kept the wash boiler, 
pails and other rough household utensils. 
A small wine closet is also provided 
under the stairs to the billiard room, and 
another closet is built between the 
billiard room and the laundry. The 
partition around the stairs is plastered 
the same as the billiard room and all 
plaster was painted a light tan to har- 
monize with the oak floor and woodwork. 


An Attractive Entrance Hall 


Entering the house from the front 
entrance we come into a_ vestibule, 
which is provided with a tile floor and 
birch trim, stained mahogany, and then 
into the main hall. This hall is finished 
throughout in plain cut red oak, with 
the exception of the front stairs which 
are birch and white wood finished with 
mahogany treads and white enamel 
risers. The doors leading from this 
hall to the living room on the right hand, 
and the dining room on the left hand, 
are glazed French doors which open 
into the rooms. The living room is 
finished in North Carolina pine, polished 
with a forest-green stain which makes a 
very pleasing and restful finish. The 
entrance from the veranda to the living 
room is through two pairs of French 
doors located as shown on the first floor 
plan. The dining room is also finished 
in North Carolina pine, polished with a 
rosewood oil stain which makes a very 
attractive and _ rich-appearing finish. 
The dining room is also provided with 
a window seat in the bay window. A 
china closet is afforded at either end of 
the seat. The radiator for the room is 
placed under it. The dining room is 
not finished with any paneling or 


Popular Science Monthly 


ceiling-beams but only with a ten-inch 
high base and a chair rail. 

The kitchen and pantry are done in 
natural-finished yellow pine and the pan- 
try is equipped with cupboards on two 
sides and a counter across the end. These 
cupboards are provided with sash doors, 
drawers, tilting flour-bin, cutting-boards, 
tin closets, etc., which are very essential 
to the workings of the culinary depart- 
ment. The only connection between the 
kitchen and the dining-room is through 
the pantry, so that there is a double door 
between the kitchen odors and the dining 
table. The rear stairs go up to the 
landing between the first and second 
floors, where they join the main stairs to 
the second floor. 

All floors throughout the first floor 
with the exception of the vestibule, 
kitchen and pantry and rear entrance 
hall, are of %¢-in. ‘‘select’’ oak. The 
kitchen and pantry floors are of 3%-in. 
yellow pine and the vestibule floor is 
of tile. All the wood floors are stained a 
medium dark oak and then shellaced 
and varnished. 


Economy of Space Observed 


On the second floor we find a hall, 
four bedrooms, bathroom and a rear 
veranda. The bathroom is finished in 
white enamel with a tile floor and hard 
plaster wainscot marked off to imitate 
tile. This wainscot is also white 
enameled. There is a small linen closet 
opening off the bathroom and a medicine 
case built in the partition over the 


lavatory. The balance of the wood- 
work on the second floor is white 
enameled on white wood with the 


exception of the doors which are of 
unselected birch, stained mahogany. 
All the upstairs floors are of ‘“‘select’’ 
oak %%-in. thick and finished with a 
light stain, shellac and varnish. All 
closets are provided with shelves and 
hook strips and the mantel is provided 
with a built-up pine shelf as is the one 
in the living room. The attic stairs 
lead up over the rear stairs and are off 
the main hall. The rear porch is 
covered with canvas and is accessible 
from either of the rear bedrooms. 

As will be noted from the picture, 
the exterior of the house is sided half 
way up and shingled the upper half. 


959 


The siding is painted a light lead color 
while the shingles are a deep brown, the 
trim being white. The ceiling of the 
veranda as well as the plancier of the 
main and dormer cornices is plastered 
with stucco on wood lath and makes a 
very pleasing effect. The appearance 
of the house is also greatly improved by 
the small lights in the upper sash of the 


niin 


Hi 


LIVING 
ROOM 


Arrangement of rooms on the first floor. 
Note the large living room 


windows and the dormer windows, 
which are broken out of the roof on the 
front and two sides. The chimney 
extends up the outside of the house all 
the way and, while it adds to the cost of 
the building to run up an _ exposed 
chimney of this size, it also adds greatly 
to the looks. The shingles on the upper 
part of the building are laid in alternate 
courses of six inches and two inches, 
while the siding is laid three inches to 
the weather. 

This makes up a house that is fit for 
anyone to live in and at a price within 
the reach of almost anyone in this day 


960 


when it is so easy to obtain money on 
first and second mortgages. There, are 
other designs which may be built at’ the 
same price, or even less, and perhaps are 
more desirable than the one illustrated 
herewith, but this plan is used as an 
example of what can be done when 
economy is the rule of the day and the 
owner will consult with the planing mill- 
man, the mason contractor, the electri- 
cian, the painter, the plumber and the 
heating contractor instead of leaving 
everything to the architect, who in many 
cases, although fully able to draw 
beautiful pictures and artistic plans, is 


CHAMBER 


__ TR 


| BATH 
LL) 
cxoser] omy 


The bedrooms on the second floor are all 
located conveniently near the bath 


totally unfamiliar with building condi- 
tions at the time the house is to be 
erected and in all probabilities could 
not tell you what the sizes of stock 
materials are. 

For instance, it is a common occur- 
rence for architects to lay out a building 
which will call for a stud of such a 


Popular Science Monthly 


length that perhaps a foot and a half 
will have to be cut from each one. 
Practically all lumber, both dimension 
and boards, come in even feet such as 
8, 10, 52, 14, 16, 18, 20; 22; 24, 26.2. 
30, with a different price on nearly every 
length so that a plan calling for an 
18-ft. 6-in. stud for instance, would 
require the owner to pay the long price 
for a 20-ft. stud and then pay a carpenter 
50 cents to 70 cents an hour to cut it 
down to size. The most economical 
sizes to use are from I2 to 16 ft. 


Useless Expense Should be Avoided 


Also in the matter of electric light 
outlets and plumbing the owner can 
generally save money by consulting the 
man who will do the actual work unless 
he is positive that he has an architect 
who is perfectly capable of cutting out 
all the surplus expense without spoiling 
the effect of the finished house. Now 
the builder is being run by the architect 
who wants to try out some theory at 
someone else’s expense. He incorporates 
this theory and that idea into the 
builder’s plan, tells the builder that the 
house can be put up for so much money 
and collects his fee. Along comes 
Mr. Millman to put in his figure for the 
lumber and millwork. He sees this, 
that and the other thing in the specifica- 
tions and a plan with a lot of knick- 
knacks on it and immediately shoots 
his price up to cover items that are 
indefinite or questionable. It is not up 
to him to make suggestions to the 
owner or he will get in bad with the 
architect, and the owner is liable to get 
provoked because he has not asked for 
any advice. The owner becomes dis- 
couraged and drops the matter until a 
friend whispers in his ear. He digs up 
the old plan, calls on Mr. Millman and 
asks where the expense could be cut. 
He is shown a few items which will re- 
duce the cost several hundred dollars and 
with a new courage, he goes after the 
other contractors until he is surprised 
to find that he has not only kept the cost 
below his estimate, but has, in many 
cases, greatly improved the arrangement 
and appearance of his house. The opin- 
ion and advice of the man who is to do 
the work is far more desirable than that 
of some cub architect. 


: Popular science monthly 


P67 
v.88 


| Physical & 
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PTA AO TEE OPN ATNE Ne hth a) tren aey coma ee Tek 


Yhesifevtee maadatnaeg ates 


ett genet hi ae why jemesanmbane es 


a Sesarosiee » eet i tn 
ceo soreeshpeejarhwanepenrint par lon tenth tht ntiny antawnbyindin tid Siribed arian maharateshaem oi-miomioean venient 
Nibble h view ae radar constnhins kop Foaeoe oooh ott ssanebae bier oooetonen wkeed tig 


eee 
Se tt ar 
eee 


sriminiraasenen 
specs 
: a Cacar 
pesueeninng i 
aoa eae PE ad eet eel tent oe 

banebcies 


hee ee 


eee 


ones nae 


Serene ta¢ id ar bed page, 
ete A i Ba a ant IB a eran gra 


A erage neti nt