A Novel Watch.

1895

A watch has been invented which measures distance by sound. The inventor, a French officer named Thouvenin, has called the instrument a phonotelemeter. To operate it a little button is pressed at the instant of the flash and again at the sound. In the meantime a needle traverses a dial, registering time to the one-tenth part of a second. The rest is a mere matter of calculation.


Trivia

The true test of civilization is not the census, nor the size of cities, nor the crops, but the kind of men that the country turns out. — Emerson.

The Wax Chandlers' company of London was incorporated in 1483.

Hats were first made in England by Flemings about 1510.

Genesis of the Lightning Rod

1895

The first lightning rod was not constructed by Franklin nor set up in America, but by a monk at Seuttenberg, Bohemia, named Prohop Dilwisch. His apparatus was made and put together during the spring and summer of the year 1754 and was first set up in the garden of the cure of Prenditz (Moravia) on June 15 of the year above named. The rod attained as much distinction as that later made by Franklin and was the cause of the inventor being presented with much money and large estates. His enemies claimed that the rod was the cause of the great drought of 1757, 1758 and 1759, and upon the matter being reported to Vienna it was ordered to be taken down. — St. Louis Republic.


To Remove Mildew Spots

Moisten the mildewed spot with clear water, then rub over it a thick coating of castile soap. Scrape chalk with the soap, mixing and rubbing with the tip of the finger; then wash it off. Sometimes one coating suffices, but generally several are required.

1895

John Aitkin's Koniscope and What It Has Demonstrated.

The koniscope, the invention of John Aitkin, is a useful instrument for roughly testing the purity of the atmosphere. It consists of a small metal tube about 1½ feet or 2 feet long, which is closed at the ends with pieces of glass and is connected near one end to an air pump, a stop cock near the other end admitting the air to be tested. All the shades of blue, from nearly pure white to a deep black blue, are attached alongside the tube for comparison.

As the impurities of the air or number of particles present increase the color seen through the tube deepens, a color just perceptible being given by 50,000 particles to the cable centimeter, a very pale blue by 80,000, a pale blue by 500,000, a fine blue by 1,500,000, a deep blue by 2,500,000 and a very deep blue by 4,000,000.

In making a sanitary inspection the color given by pure air is determined first and is taken as the normal health color. In tracing the pollution a air by gas flames in a room 24 by 17 by 13 foot in size Mr. Aitkin lighted three jets in the center of the room, and in 35 seconds the products of combustion had reached one end of the room, causing a sudden deepening of color in the koniscope, in four minutes the deep blue color was obtained two feet from the ceiling, and in 30 minutes the impurity nine feet from the floor was very great, the color being an intensely deep blue. — Cincinnati Commercial Gazette.

A Wonderful Motor

1895

An Electro-Magnetic Machine That Fooled a Number of Investors.

About 20 years ago a Mr. Paine had an electro-magnetic engine in Newark, in which many persons whose names are not unknown to fame, and who certainly ought to have known better, "took much stock" in the literal as well as figurative sense. Being in Newark on some other business, I was waited upon by Mr. Paine and invited to see the machine. I accepted the invitation and went with him. The apparatus was shown off with great success, starting with full velocity the moment a connection was made with a little battery of four cells, driving lathes, sawing wood, etc., in a way that demonstrated several horsepower at least. I need hardly say that I was not convinced that perpetual motion had been discovered, but only looked out for the trick.

Nothing, however, could be demonstrated without taking the ponderous machinery to pieces. Near the end of my visit, however, in connection with a pseudo explanation of some point, Mr. Paine once more connected the battery, whereupon the machine, in place of starting promptly as before, made a few turns and stopped. This was of course accounted for by the inventor as caused by sonic derangement of parts, but as, a few minutes later, I went down stairs, I looked at my watch and found that it was five minutes after 6 o'clock. The building at large contained a steam engine, and power was confessedly used in all other parts except those occupied by Mr. Paine. This remarkable failure to start at just about 6 o'clock, therefore, revealed the actual source of energy. The little battery without doubt operated either a belt shafter in a room below or signaled a confederate similarly located for a like purpose.

Not long after Mr. Paine and his electric engine were unsuccessfully sought for by some of his stockholders, and all that was found was a portion of an iron frame of the machine, showing an interior passage for a belt to act on its axle from the room below. The connection between the arrival of 6 o'clock and the stoppage of the motor which I had noticed in my visit, and had, of course, referred to its true cause, was thus demonstrated. — Cassier's Magazine.

Just Short of Success

1895

A Lazy Inventor's Experiment With a Wonderful Alligator Engine.

"My boy once had a pet alligator that was pretty fierce," observed Meekin, the lazy inventor. "When he teased this young saurian, the beast would swipe out with its powerful tail in an amazing fashion, without doing itself or anybody else any good. It occurred to me that here was a splendid example of wasted energy, and I set out to devise a means of conserving it and turning it to some useful purpose.

"I spent a winter in Florida, and after I had experimented with some of the small 'gators that are supplied to tourists for a consideration I ordered some big fellows. After some little trouble I secured ten 'gators, each about four feet in length and of about ten horsepower tail capacity. My scheme for utilizing their tail power was this: The 'gators were placed side by side in stalls which left their tails free to wag. I had upright beams set like pendulums, the swinging ends of the beams coming close enough to the 'gators' tails to be in a good position for action. Then I built a tank over the stalls and filled it with thundering big cannon balls. There was an inclined chute running from the tank to a power wheel made with hollow places in the rim, something like a water wheel. In the chute I had a valve to regulate the flow of cannon balls. Half the 'gators used to work the cannon ball part of the machine and the other half to run a conveyor contrivance to lift the balls back into the tank after they had done their work in turning the wheel. I connected a small dynamo by a belt to a pulley wheel on the power wheel shaft. My main circuit ran from the dynamo to a bank of incandescent lamps which were to be used in the test.

"When everything was ready, the wheels oiled up, main switch closed and the 'gators pretty mad, I hired four little colored boys to go in front of the stalls and crack the 'gators on the head with short clubs. This made 'em awful mad, and so they struck out with their tails. Then the old shebang commenced to run. A little coon would hit a 'gator on the head, he'd let out with his tail, strike a beam, open the valve, let out a cannon ball, which rolled down the chute and onto the wheel, turning it around. Then the ball rolled back to the conveyor and was hoisted up by one of the other 'gators. She was humming beautifully, but I had forgotten one thing — that was a governor. The little coons liked their work and lambasted the 'gators unmercifully. I stopped 'em, but the wild animals were beyond control. They lashed around until the speed got so high that the armature of the dynamo burned out with a flash. The 'gators running the conveyor got into a race with the other fellows and hoisted up cannon balls so fast that the tank got overweighted and broke down. The cannon balls fell on the 'gators' heads and killed every one of 'em. Fact, I assure you." — Electrical Review.

It's Nice to Get Up in the Mornin' When You've Got a Talking Clock!

1920

There's an epidemic of talking clocks in the country. Chicago and Philadelphia are the first to be afflicted and it's said that the disease may spread.

Vincent Pinto of Philadelphia has what, to all appearances, is a staid old grandfather's clock, but at times it does things that would surprise, if not shock, all of the younger clocks.

During the early morning hours, it behaves as other clocks have from the time of the first grandfather's. But at 6 it changes. First it booms out the hours — Bong — bong — bong — bong — bong — bong — then it shouts, being heard thruout the house:

"Six o'clock and time to get up."

Mrs. Vincent and her daughter Rose obey and an hour later the clock shouts up the stairs to Pinto and his son: "Breakfast is ready. Hurry down."

Warns Men of Their Work.

"Off to work, now it's time," the clock warns the men of the family at 7:30 and at 9 a. m. it informs Mrs. Pinto, "It's time to go to your marketing."

And so it goes, all day long, that nobody in the house may forget any duties. At 11 o'clock at night the clock, imitating Pinto's voice in its deepest and sternest tones, says:

"Time to go home, young man, it's 11 o'clock; time to go home."

Miss Rose's "young man" gets his hat and goes.

Pinto and his son built the clock and installed the talking apparatus after eleven months' work. Pinto made his own records, and he can change the clock's conversation whenever he wishes. It is rumored he sometimes stops the talking apparatus on Sundays and other days when he is at home.

Here's the Chicago Edition.

But Oscar Lindholm of Chicago, a machinist, declares that the Philadelphia clock is an infringement on a patent that he obtained six months ago. Lindholm has patented an alarm clock that yells instead of ringing.

The invention can be adjusted to an ordinary phonograph and the record is made to wake you in the manner that best suits your tastes and nationality.

If you're an ex-service man you may be delighted to hear the old familiar strains of "You gotta get up, you gotta get up, you gotta get up in the morning."

Or if you happen to be Scotch you can have the song that Harry Lauder made famous — "Oh, it's nice to get up in the mor-r-rning, but it's better to lie a-bed!"

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Aug. 7, 1920, p. 5.

Mechanical Music

1895

The Wail of a Professor Who Declares That Learning Is a Lost Art.

"What for I look blue?" said the professor. "I will tell you. I look blue because my beezness is being — what you call him? — keeked out. No — ah, yes — knocked out by the maker of those stupid mechanique instruments of music. There is no longer any need to learn the piano, for, see, all you do now is bring in the telegraphique wires from the street, and the piano will play itself. Organ — no. Buy some rolls of papaire and put him in the organ and turn the crank, so, and out will come anything you wish from Strauss to Cherubini. Mandolin — no. For some much too clever Yankee has make another something which you shall button to the piano, and there, my faith, you have your mandolin. Zither — no. For there are the zithers now that you play with a steek. Chord of F, press this steek; cord of B, press that steek, and so on. There is no more need to learn anything.

"Mademoiselle say to me, 'Ah, professor, why should I practice any more when Mees So-and-so, who nevaire took the lesson in her life, has an electrique piano which can play everything as well as you do when she press a leedle button?' And I say, 'Why, indeed?' Then madame say to me, 'Ah, professor, I shall geeve up the mandolin, for I can put a leedle thing to the piano and make it play like the mandolin weeth two fingers.' And I say, `Ah, so?' Then monsieur say, 'Professor, I guess I give up the organ and buy one of those windyphones like Billee Sweetzer have, where all you have to do is to move the feet, and the music come out joost as good as you play,' and I say, 'Was that so?'

'And it ees so. The mechanique music have knocked me out. There is no heart any more to learn anything that take time and patience when you can have all the good music that you like by pressing the leedle button and moving the feet. It ees not the music of the soul, to be sure; maybe it ees not the music of the expression; maybe it ees not music at all. Bah! Who cares? All you want is the tune, just like the organ man and piano woman on the street. Arteest be dam. Vive la mechanique! I am going home to invent a violin electrique and an automatique flute that you shall play with your knees." — New York Sun.

Boon For Housekeepers

1901

An ingenious inventor recently noticed that housekeepers frequently find it very difficult to keep their clotheslines in proper position, and, investigating further, he learned that all those who have occasion to use ropes or cords are often somewhat puzzled when they are called upon to tighten them or to maintain them in a strained position.

Consequently he set his brains to work and invented an instrument by means of which any rope or cord can be easily and securely tightened and held in position. The instrument consists of an iron rod, at one end of which are two other small, perpendicular rods, while at the other end is a wooden handle, similar to a crank, and which serves the same purpose. The slack portion of the cord is rolled around two perpendicular rods, and then by simply moving the crank the rope can be tightened to any extent desired. As soon as the crank begins to work the rope begins to wind itself around the rods, and when it is sufficiently tightened the free end can be securely fastened by means of a prop.

How the Burmese Make Fire

1901

One day a Burmese messenger brought me a note. While he was waiting for the reply. I observed an object something like a boy's popgun suspended around his waist. On asking what it was he showed me that it was an implement for producing fire.

It was a rude example of a scientific instrument employed by lecturers at home to illustrate the production of heat by suddenly compressed air. A piston fitted into the tube; the former was hollowed at the lower end and smeared with wax to receive a piece of cotton or tinder, which when pressed into it adhered. The tube was closed at one end. Placing the piston at the top of the tube, with a smart blow he struck it down and immediately withdrew it with the tinder on fire, the sudden compression of the air having ignited it. I was so much struck with the scientific ingenuity of this rude implement that I procured it from the Burman and sent it to the Asiatic society of Bengal, with a short description of its uses. — "Recollections of My Life," by Surgeon General Sir John Fayer.

The Regulation of Clocks

1902

The remarkable pendulum experiment in the Pantheon at Paris to prove the rotation of the earth, strikingly illustrates the majestic uses of the familiar clock-maker's device.

It seems almost impossible of belief, in an age of well-regulated watches, that the clocks of Galileo's time could not be kept going at a uniform speed. Clocks went by means of a dragging weight, but the pendulum had not been thought of as a regulator. It occurred to Galileo to make a clock with the pendulum only, but of course, the work of turning the wheels stopped it. It was left to Haygens, in 1656, 14 years after the great astronomer's death, to combine the pendulum with the dragging weight and thus solve the problem of reckoning astronomical time with exactitude.

Small Alarm Clock — Ouch!

1903

A novelty in the way of an alarm clock has been perfected by an American jeweler. It is about the size of a hazel nut. It is made to wear on the finger. The alarm is not a bell, but a sharp pin, which pricks the finger at the time the wearer wishes to rise.


Electricity Saves Windmill

In Germany electricity, among other curious results, has rehabilitated the discarded windmill. At Neresheim a windmill applies power for thirty-six incandescent lamps that light a large paint factory. Another in Schleswig-Holstein keeps a steady current of thirty volts. At Dusseldorf a windmill winds up a heavy weight of which the descent works a powerful dynamo.

Prince Discovers New Fish 20,000 Feet Down

1920

PARIS, France — The Prince of Monaco has discovered a new fish which lives at a depth of 20,000 feet under a pressure of 600 atmospheres. Although at such a depth there is practically no light, the Grimaldichthys profundissimus, christened after the Prince's family name, has rudimentary eyes.

The fish was brought up during one of the Prince's oceanographical cruises off the Cape Verde Islands. Two other species not hitherto known were caught at a depth of over 16,000 feet.


Invents Music Sheets for Piano

A Frenchman has invented piano music printed on long sheets, so mounted on motor driven rolls that they are advanced as rapidly as a user wishes saving the work of turning pages.

Vancouver to Have Largest Telescope

Feb. 1920

Its 10-foot Lens Said to Be the World's Greatest

VANCOUVER, B.C. — The largest telescope in the world is being erected on the Vancouver exhibition grounds, and will be one of the big attractions of this year's fair.

The lens of this powerful spyglass is ten feet in diameter, this being six inches larger than the world-famous telescope at Leipsig. It has been in the possession of T. S. Sherman, Vancouver's meteorologist and weather man, for nearly six years, but construction of the telescope was deferred owing to war conditions.



Tests His 150-Pound Airplane

Midget Flier Has 22-foot Spread and 9 H. P. Engine

REDWOOD CITY, Cal. — New aviation history was written here when a 22-foot airplane, driven by a nine horse power motorcycle engine and weighing only 150 pounds, flew for four or five minutes at an altitude of not more than 50 feet.

The plane was constructed by C. F. Flinger of Palo Alto, who said he has been working for two years on it.

L. E. Melandy piloted the plane, which Flinger calls the "Flivver of the Air."

Melandy drove the mosquito plane for about four miles and upon his return to the flying field here declared that everything worked perfectly.

Joy For The Men at Tea

1917

Some Good Samaritan Has Invented Oval Saucer That Safely Holds Cup and Dainties

Any man who knows that, sooner or later, he must go to another afternoon tea cannot but rejoice at the recent invention of an oval, platterlike saucer large enough to hold with ease a cup, a lettuce or other sandwich, and a dainty trifle of pastry. The thing was needed, the modesty of the anonymous inventor — evidently not Mr. Edison — reveals him one of the large body of occasional and unwilling tea-goers.

We, the reluctant and unwilling, are all strangely alike at these functions and we have all been embarrassed by the old-fashioned saucer. Circular in shape, and hardly larger than the cup that belies its reputation and dances drunkenly whenever another guest joggles our elbow (which happens so often that we suspect conspiracy), the old-fashioned saucer affords no reasonably secure perch for a sandwich; responds with instant delight to the law of gravitation if left to itself; and sets us wishing, those of us who think scientifically, that evolution had refrained from doing away with an extension by which alone we could now hope to manage it. We mean a tail!

If afternoon teas had been started in the Oligocene epoch instead of the seventeenth century, we are convinced that evolution, far from discarding this useful appendage, would have perfected it. A little hand would have evolved at the end of it, such a little hand as might hold his saucer while a gentleman sips from his teacup. — Atlantic Magazine.

To Remove the Cigar Band

1905

Simple Device That Will Often Prevent Spoiling Good Smoke

Only a few years ago the placing of a band around a cigar was unknown and when it appeared first the band of paper was to be seen only around the finest brands of smokers. At first it was a badge of excellence, but later was adopted by all cigar manufacturers who advertised their goods, and the band developed into a mere means of identification, which has often had the object of preventing substitution of inferior goods.

The use of the band has become so general that there seems to be a demand for some means of readily removing the same. One might think that this was a matter of no difficulty, but it is a well known fact to cigar smokers that most bands are placed on cigars so tightly that it is difficult to remove them. In attempting to remove the band with the finger-nail or with the point of a knife it frequently happens that the wrapper of the cigar is so punctured or torn as to injure the smoking quality of the cigar, if not entirely to destroy it.

To facilitate the removal of the band an inventor has conceived the idea of making use of a thread, string or cord under the band, having the ends thereof projecting beyond the edges of the band brought together and tied into a knot, forming a loop. This loop can be readily taken hold of by the thumb and finger and by pulling on it the band will be readily severed without marring the cigar wrapper in the least. This severing device may be placed under the band after the band is put upon the cigar, or it may be put on the cigar at the time that the wrapper is placed there on.

Could Not See Into Future

1919

Men of Genius Had Little Idea What Their Inventions Might Mean to the World

It appears that it is not infrequently the case that great inventors do not comprehend the significance of the things they have produced. Here are two examples:

When Hertz first began to obtain satisfactory results from his now famous researches into the possibility of transmitting electric waves certain men of science suggested that some day similar vibrations might serve to transmit messages through space. Hertz laughed at the hypothesis and assured all comers that his experiments were for laboratories only. Now, after a few short years, it is hard to find a single issue of a daily newspaper that does not record some noteworthy example of the use of wireless telegraphy.

Levassor was the great engineer who sketched the automobile with such skill that his design has not been materially changed to this day. After Levassor accomplished his historic trip from Paris to Bordeaux and return at the dizzy speed of about 15 miles an hour his admirers gave him a banquet. During the toasts one of them, stirred by the spirit of the occasion, rose and enthusiastically called on the assembly to drink to the approaching day when carriages should travel at the speed of 60 miles an hour. Levassor turned to his nearest neighbor and asked in a quick undertone:

"Why is it that after every banquet some people feel called on to make fools of themselves?"


Only One Foundation

Men best prove their right to rights by making good in little things. Rights are those things that grow out of universal justice. In the last analysis they are beyond price. Some folks say they have bought the right to certain things. That is only because custom has commercialized them. Such rights savor of monopoly and are as unstable as the dollars with which they are purchased. Right that rests upon divine law may seem very tame, but after all it's the only right that abides amidst the rise and fall of empires and the changing customs of men. To such rights every man is heir. — Exchange.

Old Ways of Keeping Time

1910

Devices That Were Adopted by the Egyptians, Romans and Early English People

As far back as history will take us we find that there was always some crude means of reckoning time. The clock is, of course, a comparatively modern invention, the first mechanical ones that would keep the time even approximately having been made in 1250 A.D.

The early Egyptians divided the day and night each into 12 hours, a custom adopted by the Jews or Greeks probably from the Babylonians.

The day is said to have been first divided into hours in 293 B.C., when a sun dial was erected in the temple of Quirinus at Rome. As early as 158 B.C. the time was called in the streets of Rome by regular public criers.

In the early history of England we are told that the people found a means of measuring time by the use of wax candles. It was reckoned that three inches of candle would last an even hour.

Among most of the nations of the north day began at sunrise, while among the Athenians and Jews it began at sunset. With the ancient Romans it began, as it does with us, at midnight.

Chance for Inventive Genius

1910

By Col. J. M. Mabry of Memphis

Many persons wonder why no shrewd inventor has ever yet devised a machine that will pick cotton.

Many an inventive genius has worked at this problem, but as yet it is unsolved. There is no trick in getting up a contrivance that will do the work of picking, but that does not begin to solve the difficulty. The trouble lies mainly in the fact that the cotton does not all mature and open at the same time. A machine that may pick out the locks of the opened bolls cleverly enough will also take along the green and unopened bolls and therefore destroy a big part of the crop. The human pickers will let the unripe cotton alone and return to the fields for it later, on maturity. Then again the machine will take up a lot of trash, dead leaves and pieces of stalk that will cause much trouble and labor to get rid of before the cotton can be carried to the gin.

It is a great pity that some better way of extracting the fleecy stuff cannot be found, but there is apparently nothing to do except continue the old plan of gathering the crop by hand. This is a slow and also an expensive procedure, as in a good year almost every planter raises more than he can gather with his own labor and is thereby forced to hire outside help. Occasionally it is impossible to get this help and as a result much of the cotton is left in the fields to be waited for want of labor to pick it.

Armless Judge Going to Europe to Aid Crippled

1915
Click Photo for Bigger

There He Will Arrange Plans to Help Allies' Maimed

Photo Caption: With only his mechanical arm — designed by himself — Judge Quentin D. Corley dresses and shaves himself, handles his own food, writes his own opinions and handles his own records in the County Court of Dallas County, Texas. He drives an auto, bowls, plays billiards, carries bundles and even helps his wife with the housework.

Over in Europe there are many armless men who feel they are hopelessly helpless. So the Dallas judge is going abroad to do what he can to aid war victims "for humanity's sake," as told in another column on this page.

The top picture shows Judge Corley completing his dressing operations. A contrivance, attached to a suit case, permits him to put on his collar and tie. With an almost similar machine he shaves himself. Below is a photograph of the judge bowling.

DALLAS, Texas, Dec. 16. — Quentin D. Corley, the "armless judge" of this city, will soon take up the burden of the maimed in the European conflict. On Dec. 22 he will leave for Washington, D. C., to confer with an official whose name is not known and who had told the Belgium ambassador to America that Judge Corley, the armless, does the work of a man in everyday life.

It is expected that the judge will sign a contract with the Allies to teach armless soldiers to be happy and to be useful.

The judge says any work he may do will be for the sake of humanity and not for money. "I shall only accept the same salary. I am getting now, and expenses," he says. "If they see fit to honor me if I do their men a service, I shall be glad of that, too."

Story of the Judge's Career

Judge Corley's story is a strange one. He was of a roving disposition when young, and took no qualms at satisfying it as a guest of the railroads. He was riding thru New York State on a freight train when a burly brakeman's head showed over the far end of the car. He slipped and fell as he tried to flee. The trainmen picked him up a poor, mangled youth. One arm was gone at the shoulder and the other just above the elbow.

As he lay in the hospital fighting for life, he began figuring how he would use that life once he was out again.

"I strove to invent and picture in my mind a mechanical hand, but of course I could not get anything but the open and shut movement; no one has," he says. "Then I thought that if I made an arm with an elbow joint in it, and so rigid that it would have both lateral and perpendicular movement, I had the problem solved."

A youth of 23, seemingly handicapped for all time and yet doomed by a healthy body to live a long life, Corley came home to his parents in Dallas with only his idea of a mechanical arm — and a deathless ambition to conquer the terrible odds against him.

How His Plans Worked Out

For four years he studied law with all the mental force of his brilliant mind, and at night he spent hours upon the plan for his mechanical arm. When completed, it was a steel hook made of two steel flanges, which opened and shut on cogs, a little handle which turned them being worked by his teeth. In this way he gripped things tightly, and with the hook he could handle almost anything he could lift.

From then on it was easy. He soon learned to write and then passed the bar examination. He began to practice law and to practice the use of his arm, and study means by which he could use it. His progress was wonderful. He invented other machines, to be used in dressing and sport, until today he can do almost anything a normal being desires to do.

He has a desire bordering on passion to aid the soldiers who have lost both arms in battle. There were more than ten thousand of them in the Allies' armies alone at last count.

Wants to Make Them Useful

"I know I can teach them to use my inventions within a short time, and I want to do it," he says. "I want them to get away from the terrible feeling that they are burdens upon the state and upon their families. If they'll put these men in my hands I can teach a thousand in three months to use this arm and take their places in life and seek happiness."

His friends say he can do it, too. He has pupils all over Texas who are learning from him the secrets. They invariably make good when he turns them loose.

Judge Corley has the inventions he uses patented, but does not sell them. "I have them for humanity," he says.

The plan on which the Belgian ambassador is said to want Judge Corley to work will be a school under his supervision, at which armless men will be equipped and trained by him. It will take him to Europe about four years, if the war continues a year or so longer.

—Saturday Blade, Chicago, Dec. 18, 1915, p. 5.

Patents Hatchway Device

1915

Invention Slides "Strongbacks" Instead of Removing Them

Capt. R. T. Anderson of San Francisco, Cal., has been granted a patent on a device for sliding the "strongbacks" in a hatch to either one side or the other, instead of lifting them out singly and placing them on deck while the cargo is either taken on or discharged.

Under present building plans each of the "strongbacks" is lifted out and laid on deck after the hatch covers have been taken off. This requires some time. Under the Anderson plan these heavy beams are slid back to either one side or the other and then are pulled to position again and pinned in place after the work in the hatch is completed.


Invents Seat for Motorman

Revolves and Can Be Adjusted at Any Angle

A new motorman's seat invented by a Vermont man is said to have an advantage over the ordinary motorman's seat in that it has both a revolving and stationary top. It can also be adjusted at almost any angle by means of a mechanism.

This seat has been in use on all of the cars of the Burlington Traction Company for several weeks and has been found to be satisfactory. It is specially designed for air controlled cars. The work of their manufacture will be begun on a small scale at first, or until a factory can he built or secured.


Here's World's Smallest Saw

Quarter-Inch Diameter and Made for a Purpose.

Probably the smallest "buzz" saw in the world is one that has just been made by Ambrose Thomas, a violin maker. Thomas made the saw blade by hand and it is only one-fourth inch in diameter. The teeth are constructed the same as those on large saws. The blade is attached to a foot-power dentist drill and will saw the hardest of lumber with ease. Thomas uses it for sawing groves in the edge of violins to insert the variegated wood.