Woman and the Pin

1910

It was in a deductive way that the captain found out that Ethel Clare Le Neve, the supposed accomplice of Dr. Crippen, was a girl though she was dressed in boy's togs. She had applied a missing trouser's button with a safety pin. The method was entirely feminine, says the Cleveland Leader. A boy would have borrowed a marline spike or a nail, or whittled a wooden peg.

This dramatic use of the safety pin again focuses the attention on woman's marvelous capacity as a pinster. Give her a hat pin and she can affright a footpad or lure olives from a long-necked bottle, with equal ease. She makes it decorative, too, and deadly. In a crowded street car it is as fearsome a weapon as the cries of a Malay running a-muck.

But her chief record is made with the common or garden pin. She fastens buttons or shoes with it and when baby swallows the rattle, harpoons it out with a pin. If a tornado blows and the shingles are threatened she crawls out on the roof and pins them down.

Writers of those fascinating summer stories in which a man and a lovely girl are cast away on a South sea island miss the chance of their lives when they do not provide the heroine with a paper of pins as her salvage from the wreck.

She's Proud of Her Title of "Modern Betsy Ross"

1915

In her studio on the top floor of a quaint brick building in Westland avenue, Boston, Mass., Mrs. Amelia Fowler, the famous flag expert, sits quietly in a businesslike frame, and, with needle and thread, works wonders. The photograph shown here was taken recently in the studio. Mrs. Fowler takes a piece of silk and embroiders America's seal on one side. Then she turns it over and embroiders something else in different colors on the other. And neither design shows thru the silk. She is said to be the only person in the world who can do this.

And yet there isn't the slightest inclination on Mrs. Fowler's part to make believe she is endowed with any special ability. She assumes — in fact, says openly — that her accomplishment is due to natural ability combined with hard, conscientious work. Tho she has many employees, she is herself probably the hardest working of all. She's enthusiastic over flag restoration and imparts this enthusiasm to her co-workers.

Mrs. Fowler is known all over the world as an authority on flags, flag restoration and flag history. She is called the "modern Betsy Ross." And she is proud of this title. It will be remembered that Mrs. Elizabeth ("Betsy") Ross, a patriotic lady, made the first "Stars and Stripes" in 1777. Previous to that time several designs had been used for flags. The flag as adopted June 14, 1777, had 13 white stars, arranged in a circle, in a field of blue, and the fly had 13 stripes, alternate red and white, and retained its form until 1795, when Vermont and Kentucky were admitted into the Union; then, by an act of Congress, it was changed to 15 stars and 15 stripes. On March 24, 1818, an act was passed restoring the flag to its original 13 stripes, and ordered "That a new star be added on the 4th of July succeeding the admission of every new State."

Mrs. Fowler does practically all the present flag work for the United States Government. She has restored 173 flags and received $300,000 for her work. She specializes on the "Stars and Stripes," America's emblem. "It means so much to me now, more so, perhaps, than ever before," says Mrs. Fowler. "We should all feel proud of our flag and our country in these days of trial."

Lamp for Chauffeur's Cap

1915

Will Aid Him in Locating Motor Trouble at Night

The troubles of the chauffeur will be cut out to a great degree by the use of a new lamp which has been patented and which contains the essential features of the miner's lamp in the respect that it is a part of the cap.

Mounted on the head, it is always in the right place to shed its best illumination of the work at hand, and here it also leaves the hands of the chauffeur entirely free to make any repairs or adjustments which may be necessary.

The lamp is mounted directly over the visor and the current is supplied by two batteries of a special shape to fit into the construction of the cap, one being disposed of on either side. The cap is made with a flap which comes down over the visor and completely hides the lamp when there is no demand for its services, but when the illuminating rays are desired the flap is turned back and secured with a clasp button at the top.

—Saturday Blade, Chicago, Dec. 18, 1915, p. 9.

Horse Gets Shoe Repaired

1910

Animal Leaves Barn, Goes to Blacksmith and Returns Without Owner's Knowledge

NEW YORK. — "Old Joe," if he is blind in one eye and weak in the other, possesses plenty of real horse sense. For years he has hauled an express wagon over a fixed route, his only side trips being to Carroll, the horseshoer, in Christopher street, between Washington and West streets.

The other morning Joe was left in the stable because his right forefoot shoe needed fixing, and Dan Barry, Joe's driver, had no time to take him around to Carroll's before business hours.

"Half an hour later Joe stopped in front of the Carroll blacksmith shop. "Ain't that Barry's horse?" asked Carroll of his assistant. "It sure is. Must have run away," was the reply. "Run away nothin'," said Carroll. "That horse never runs away."

Joe raised his right forehoof as if it hurt him. Carroll looked it over. "That hoof's all right. Only needs a new shoe," was the mental note of Carroll. The new shoe was fitted. Next thing Carroll knew Joe was trotting away.

"Well, what d' you think of that?" exclaimed Barry, when he came back and found a new shoe glistening on Joe's foot in his stall. "He went and got himself shod, and I'll bet he told Carroll in good horse talk to have it charged."

Venice Angel Now Mounted on Ball Bears, A Weather Vane

1916

Modernized the Angel

Mounted on Ball Bearings, It Now Acts as a Weather Vane

There are many kinds of angels ranging in style from those we read about in the Bible to those who bring out talent on the stage. It has remained, however, for a writer in the American Machinist to discover a new type of the seraphic assortment. This angel is "ball bearing" and entirely unlike the common or garden variety of angels. It stands on top of the famous tower known as the Campanile di San Marco, in Venice, and swings to the wind like a weather vane.

The statue of the angel San Marco, which surveyed the old city of Lagunea since the sixteenth century, was found but little damaged among the ruins after the collapse of the tower. It was repaired and now stands again on the lofty height, but is supported in a very different manner from the old, for it now rests on modern ball bearings.

This method of mounting allows the statue to be turned around a vertical axis by the wind, so that it swings automatically into such a position that the angel always presents the smallest surface to the wind or storm. If one considers that the large wings of the angel, which are eleven feet high. project straight backward, it may be imagined that the difference of the wind pressure is considerable, whether the wind blows against the small front surface or against the side exposing the large face of the wings.

—Stevens Point Daily Journal, Stevens Point, Wisconsin, July 29, 1916, page 3.