Sanitary Lid for Teakettle

1916

Safety Device That Prevents Burns When Refilling.

Many a housewife has sustained a bad burn from lifting the hot lid of the kettle she was attempting to refill. A teakettle lid has been invented which will render this impossible. The lid has an automatic valve in the center which opens as the flow of water is turned upon it and closes when the water is shut off. This valve is at the bottom of a depression in the lid, and the concave thus formed is a convenient place to set a cup or other small vessel containing butter to be melted or other ingredients requiring gentle heat. The lid is of aluminum, thoroly sanitary and indorsed by the cooking experts who have seen it.



Chickens and Electricity

1916

By treating young chickens with high frequency, high voltage currents of electricity a London experimenter has made them grow more rapidly than those of the same age reared without the treatment.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Sept. 16, 1916, p. 9.

How to Carry a Gun

1901

There are only two directions in which the muzzle of a gun can safely be pointed; these are up or down. A shot fired in the air can scarcely injure anyone or anything and one discharged into the ground is equally harmless. Therefore, in all the different positions which the gun assumes, see that it is pointed either up or down.

Sometimes a man will be seen who carries his gun reversed, holding it by the muzzle while the fore end rests on the shoulder and the stock projects behind. Happily, this practice is not common, for it is extremely dangerous, and many men have been killed by carrying their guns in this way. If a man stumbles or steps in a hole or catches his foot on a root and falls, his gun will very likely be thrown forward with the muzzle directly toward his body and may easily enough be discharged.

Sometimes one may see a boy or even a man who will carry the gun across the back of the neck, with one arm over the stock and the other over the barrels, sometimes with the hand resting on the muzzle. This is certain to give a very uncomfortable feeling to anyone who happens to be walking by the side of the person carrying his gun in this fashion and opposite the muzzle end. While the danger of a discharge is perhaps not great, it is unpleasant to be walking along with a gun pointed at your neck or head. — Forest and Stream.

Beware of Empty Gasoline Container

Beware of Empty Gasoline Container

1920

Is More Dangerous Than Full One, Say Scientists

Empty gasoline tanks are always more dangerous than full ones, says the Popular Science Monthly. In most cases some residue remains in the tank or can. The remaining gasoline vaporizes and is explosive. As the tank is being filled this mixture is forced out and will explode if ignited by a spark held near the opening.

To guard against accidents all openings should be blown out with compressed air. If this method cannot be used the cover should be removed and the vapors fanned out. Unless a current of air is circulating gasoline should never be used for cleaning engines or other machinery; and if the air is passing lights should be kept at a safe distance on the intake side of the engine.

In Safety and Danger

1905

The Scientific American recently called attention to the odd fact that the man who rides a few score feet in a New York City elevator runs a greater risk of injury than the man who travels from New York to Chicago and back on the fastest trains. No fewer than thirty persons were killed, and many more hurt, in New York elevator accidents in the first nine months of this year. No such proportion of those who traveled on the fastest passenger trains between the two cities were even hurt.

Yet the average man buys an accident insurance ticket whenever he starts on a railway journey of any length, and never thinks of such precautions before entering the car that lifts him to his office. Whenever a notable railway accident occurs he talks for days about the great loss of life. But he never thinks of the proportionately greater loss of life every day from accidents that befall men at home in their own houses.

The returned missionary who publicly complained the other day that, after living entirely unhurt for four years among the wildest savages of Africa, he had no sooner returned to civilization than he met with a railway accident that kept him in a hospital for six months curiously illustrated the habit of the human mind to dwell upon remote dangers and ignore those near.

Yet the fact is indisputable — the accident insurance companies have proved it to their financial loss and gain — that one of the most dangerous places a man can be is in his own home, whereas one of the safest is in a first-class railway train at full speed, while the very safest place on earth is aboard a first-class steamship in the middle of the Atlantic. — Chicago Inter Ocean.

Protection For The Motorcycle Racer

1916

Novel Armored Suit That It Is Thought Would Save Life In Event of Accident

A pneumatic armor has been patented for the purpose of saving the lives of motor-cycle riders, and particularly racers, who, with this protective garb, may smash into each other or dive into a fence without the least regard for the consequences. The armor consists of a one-piece suit of stout material into which the wearer is laced.

Attached to the exterior of the suit is a long tube curled back and forth until the entire person of the wearer is protected by a cushion of air. Air is pumped into the tube in the same manner as a tire is inflated and when it is desired to pack the suit the air may be allowed to escape so that the outfit will take up as little space as possible. The inflation and deflation is done through the means of the check valves at the sleeves and at the trousers' top.

'Crash Of Death' Stunt Driver In Hair-Raising Performance

Ogden, Utah, 1937

STUNTER FLIPS AUTO ON BACK

'Crash Of Death' Performed Before Small Crowd At Stadium

Before a small and shivering crowd of spectators, Jerry Edwards, 32-year-old Detroit stunt driver, presented his hair-raising "crash of death" performance Saturday night in the Ogden stadium.

"This is one of the smallest crowds I've ever showed before," Edwards told the onlookers through a loud-speaking system. "But I have to work just as hard for you as I do when I perform before 20,000 people, as I have often done."

PRECEDES CAMPAIGN

Edwards was brought here under the auspices of the junior chamber of commerce as the forerunner of a county-wide safety week campaign sponsored by a citizens' safety council, comprising Ogden service clubs.

The climax to the show, in which Edwards used two stock light sedans, came when the dare-devil sped his crimson machine up a wooden platform, crashing full somersault and bottoms-up again on the sodded field.

NO SERIOUS HURTS

During the four years Edwards has been presenting his death-defying stunts, he has never suffered serious injury, although he has been put out of "commission" temporarily and unable to finish his show.

"The best thing to do when you have a flat tire is to step on the gas — not the brakes," Edwards told the crowd.

He said one of the best precautions against accidents is to keep both hands firmly on the steering wheel.

—The Ogden Standard-Examiner, Ogden City, Utah, May 9, 1937, page 10A.

Another Team of Horses Falls Into Mississippi River

1903

ANOTHER TEAM LOST OVER THE CITY DUMP

Fine $400 Team Becomes Frightened and Plunges Into the River.

For the second time in as many weeks a team of horses has fallen from the city dump just east of the government bridge and been lost in the Mississippi. A little less than a week ago a team belonging to M. L. Bargholtz and attached to one of the city dump wagons fell into the river through the giving away of the bank. Yesterday morning at about 8 o'clock a fine team of horses belonging to John A. Littig and hitched to one of the Drake delivery wagons, while on the dump became frightened at a passing switch engine and in their mad flight plunged over the edge of the dump and into the river 15 feet below. Up to dark last night neither the wagon nor the team had been located. The team was purchased Saturday by Mr. Littig from Mr. Edens for $400. The wagon is valued at $200 and the harness at $50.

Considerable criticism was passed yesterday upon the condition of the dump with regard to safety and to this Inspector Harry J. High, who has charge of the dump, said last night that he considered the dump as safe as were possible under the conditions. He said that the place was under the personal and constant care of a capable man and pointed out the fact that Mr. Littig's team became frightened, causing them to pitch themselves over the bank. He said that while he thought the dump were perfectly safe in itself it would probably be better for owners of timid teams to use the city dump located at the foot of Fillmore street.

—Davenport Daily Republican, Davenport, Iowa, March 3, 1903, page 7.


BARGHOLTZ PUTS IN CLAIM FOR HIS HORSES

Wants $250 Recompense From the City For Accident At Dump.

The board of health held a short session yesterday afternoon but aside from the reading of the regular monthly reports of the various officers of the health department, but little of interest came up.

The claim of M. L. Bargholtz for $250 for the loss of his horses over the city dump in the Mississippi was presented to the board, but was sent, to the council without comment, for the reason that the matter belongs properly to that body. Mr. Bargholtz claims that the city is properly responsible for the loss of his team, for the reason that the edge of the dump, where he says that he was instructed to drive, was not properly protected against accident.

It seems that the warm weather which preceded the accident, two weeks ago had in a measure removed the frost from the edge of the bank, rendering that part soft and causing it to give way under the load of the dump wagon.

—Davenport Daily Republican, Davenport, Iowa, March 4, 1903, page 5.

Boy, Aged 6, Falls 6 Stories Unhurt

1920

NEW YORK, N. Y. - Although he had fallen from the roof of a six-story tenement house and escaped injury, all that scared 6-year-old Tommy Burke was the appearance of a policeman whom excited women summoned after they saw Tommy strike several clothes lines.

Tommy and other boys played tag on his way down.

Out on the roof, Tommy ran too near the edge and fell off. He spun through space and landed in a deep pile of snow in the yard. Although he looked dazed for a few minutes, he brushed the snow from his clothes and looked for a place to get out of the yard.

Dr. Wheedon of the New York Hospital said Tommy was absolutely intact. Tommy commented, "Gee! Wait'll me mudder sees me suit!"

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, March 27, 1920, page 2.


To Dumb Forgetfulness a Prey

GREENFIELD, Ind. — Caleb Moncrief, farmer, has always denied that he is absent-minded, but he has a taxi bill as proof to the contrary. After completing his business here, Moncrief drove home, forgetting he had taken his wife to town with him. she followed in a taxi.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, March 27, 1920, page 1.

Automobilists or Horsemen - Who Has Most Cussedness?

South Dakota, 1909--

FAULT ON BOTH SIDES

Automobilists Say that Horsemen are Often in the Wrong

Much has been said and written locally of late referring to the carelessness and all around cussedness of automobile owners as a class, but no one has come forward to assert that there was another side to the matter, until this morning when one of the most enthusiastic motorists of the city ventured into the Huronite office and remarked that the chauffeur had his troubles as well as anyone else.

At a recent city council meeting the matter of fast and careless driving was brought to the attention of the city fathers. The complaint was that some of the autoists of the city were in the habit of speeding on First street, and thus endangering the lives of all who dared to put foot on that highway. The chief of police was instructed to obtain the numbers of all who thus violated the city ordinance and to bring them to time, and this was a wise and timely act.

All motorists, however, are not bent on the shedding of human blood along the public thoroughfares, and they in their turn meet with difficulties presented by others on the roads. It is a known fact that a prejudice exists among certain people against automobiles, and that they refuse to give them even the half the road that is their's. They will turn to the left and do other things to inconvenience the drivers of machines. If they acted thus upon meeting another team they would expect sooner or later to have an accident, and there is the same possibility in the case of trying to tease the automobilists. There should be fairness on both sides, and the police should be instructed to look after the irresponsible among horse drivers as well as among auto drivers.

--Weekly State Spirit and Dakota Huronite, Huron, South Dakota, August 26, 1909, page 7.