Each month the two best and most interesting original items submitted to and published in this department will receive the first prizes of ten dollars each; the three second best, prizes of five dollars each; and the five third best, prizes of two dollars each. Good photographs or well-executed drawings add to the value of your item and will increase its chances for a first prize. Items not winning prizes but considered worthy of publication will be paid for at one dollar each. There is only one restriction as to who shall compete: Professional writers are not eligible. You need not be a subscriber to compete. Enclose return postage if you desire to have your contributions returned. Address all communications to TECHNICAL WORLD MAGAZINE, "Made by Our Readers" Department, Chicago. (Third Prize, Two Dollars) SIMPLE MILK-BOTTLE RECEPTACLE To This swinging door enables the milkman to place the bottles inside the house, without his entering to do so. pipes is kept at a more normal temperature. Frank E. Brown, Whitinsville, Massachusetts. K SAVES WASTE HEAT (Third Prize, Two Dollars) A SMALL TORCH THIS torch is readily made from a small machine-oil can. Unscrew the spout and cut off the upper half. The handle is made of a narrow piece of tin four and one-half inches long, bent short at one end to catch under the rim of the can, with a hole in the other end the same size as the neck of the can. This strip is hooked under the rim, then bent to the shape of a handle, and the neck of the can is slipped into the hole. The spout is screwed on, after inserting a wick, and the torch is complete. Connecting a radiator to the pipe leading from the hot-water tank to the stove, as shown, not only provides heat, but eliminates the ominous rumbling and sput tering so often heard. located in the pantry or near-by cupboard and heated by coils in the cooking range, are often annoyed by having the water in the tank boil and rumble to an alarming extent, when running a hot fire continually. A good way to avoid this inconvenience consists in installing a radiator in an adjoining room and connecting it to the tank. The radiator is made of six pieces of old iron water pipe, about four feet long and two inches in diameter, assembled to form a series of radiating coils connected one with another by the ordinary U-coupling. The water is drawn off from the bottom of the tank and runs from the coil back into the heater. All the water going from the hot tank to be reheated in the range thus passes through the radiator and gives off much of its stored heat. The temperature of the room is materially raised thereby and at the same time the A DRYING A WATER-SOAKED WATCH WHAT to do with a water-soaked watch is often a problem when one is caught in the wilderness, or in a community where no jeweler is to be found. Lack of knowing what steps to take often results in much expense, if not in the utter ruin of the watch. Watches made with both a screw face and screw back, may be dried easily by removing the front and back, emptying the watch of as much water as will run out, reversing the crystal, screwing it on the back of the watch, and then laying it where the sun will have a chance to reflect through the crystal. The heat of the sun on the crystal will draw the moisture from the works in fifteen or twenty minutes. If water still remains in the works, the crystal may be unscrewed, wiped and replaced, and the process repeated. After the sun fails to draw any more of the water out onto the glass, it is safe to conclude that there is no more in the works, and the oil originally on them, warmed by the sun, lubricates the parts. There should be no more trouble with the watch, although it is advisable to have it examined by a jeweler at the earliest opportunity. H. T. Johnson, Edgerton, Michigan. wasted, and thus guards against this common waste. The telltale is a small pilot light for electric current, and its installation varies with the mechanism to which it is connected. On a large electric stove, a battery of the pilots appears in a row on the upper shelf. In the case of reading lamps and household living rooms, the little pilot is more decorative, being in the shape of a cut-glass bull's-eye placed flush with the switch plate in the wall. This device also enables offices, hotels, and similar places to keep a strict account of electric lights, fans, and so on, left turned on when the rooms are unoccupied. For this purpose, the telltale is located in the hotel office, where, together with the room keys, it gives the desired information. K. H. Hamilton, Cincinnati, Ohio. |