341 POPULAR SCIENCE ODD AUTO SCORE AT recent California auto road races, a specially designed score board was erected, facing the grand stand, which enabled the spectators to follow the movements of each racing car about the eight mile course. Telephone stations had been set up at half mile intervals around the course where an operator reported as each car passed. These telephones were nected with the judge's stand, where a man was stationed behind the board to receive the reports and to move the numbers representing the STANDPIPE THAT COLLAPSED. It was 140 feet high, 20 feet in diameter, and was con cars mov ing to the black and white spaces that were marked for each half mile. This device added AFTER THE STANDPIPE, FILLED WITH WATER, SUDDENLY CRASHED TO THE EARTH. No satisfactory solution of the cause of the disaster has been given. WHERE DEMOCRACY WILL NOMINATE ITS LEADER. The Fifth Regiment Armory, Baltimore. Here the National Democratic Convention will nominate the candidates for the presidency and vice-presidency. greatly to the interest of the contest, for the crowd was able to tell just what cars were due to pass, and whether they were coming singly or in a bunch. As one car would pass another on the opposite side of the course, the fact would be recorded by means of the shifting numbers, so that even when no car was in sight, the interest and excite ment were maintained. The photograph shows how it works: car number 34 is shown passing the grand stand, and its number on the board is entering the last mile, while other cars are recorded at various parts of the course. This system is valuable in case of accidents, as the telephones were connected with the field hospital, where a motor ambulance stood in readiness. It is, in the manner in which the results appear, based upon the electric sign-boards used in the leading cities of the country to give the baseball "fans" a genuine reproduction of a game when the home team is playing in some other city. The same sort of device has been used, though TOOTH OF A GIANT SHARK-A SPECIES LONG EXTINCT. more crudely, to illustrate the progress and status of football games. If its use spreads it should prove to be very popular. FELLING A CHIMNEY LIKE A TREE THIS stack, ten thrown, stood ten feet square at the base, and one hundred feet high, was built of common brick, lined with fire brick and was topped out with a cast iron cap. It will be seen that the method of throwing this stack was quite similar to that of cutting down a large tree. Brick work on one side was cut out, extreme care being taken to make the cutting symmetrical on each side of the center line of the stack. This method of cutting was continued until the weight of the stack began to crush the brickwork at the edge of the cutting, and as soon as this occurred the great hill of bricks of course fell to that side. POPULAR SCIENCE CUTTING AWAY THE BRICK- So accurately was the work done that the fallen stack lay exactly parallel with the sidewalk, as was intended. The outer shell crushed downward, while the inner lining maintained its original shape until the 343 falling stack struck the ground when it, in its turn, also collapsed. This stack stood at Cleveland, Ohio. It was removed in order to make room for a large new incandescent lamp factory. This method of felling a brick stack, of course, has to be very carefully understood and thought out by the man in charge. If this be not the case a serious disaster may be the result, as a falling stack surrounded by houses is very different from a falling tree in a forest, many miles away from a habitation. SUBMARINE JOUR- AMONG the curiosities of American journalism is a newspaper published in a sink of the Colorado Desert in California, at the little town of Thermal. By reason of the depressed place of issue, the editor calls his sheet "the Submarine," and prints under the title the descriptive line, "most THE STACK ON FALLING LAY PARALLEL WITH THE SIDEWALK, AS HAD BEEN PLANNED THE FRONT PAGE HEAD OF THE "COACHELLA VALLEY SUBMARINE." THE "LOWEST DOWN PAPER ON EARTH." low down paper on earth-published 122 feet below sea level-weekly." "The Submarine" first saw the light as a 4 by 6 folder in a tent at Indio, also in the Colorado Desert, but higher up, that is, at 22 feet below sea level. That seemed pretty low down for a newspaper, but with the sea level, and later to its present abiding place, 122 feet below, and its claim to "low-downness" there is none up to the present time to dispute. In its younger days this desert journal was printed on paper of a marine blue tint, and ran a humorous column appropriately conducted by McGinty-the char 11:1 A NEW USE FOR SEAWEED. These little figures are the work of a clever Los Angeles woman. They are made from seaweed. GAS MOTOR TO DISPLACE HORSES FOR DRAWING FIRE APPARATUS. This hook and ladder truck was built in 1861, being the oldest that could be found for the purpose of demonstrating the safety with which old apparatus could be handled by the tractor. The test was made at Springfield, Mass. attached by means of one bolt, to the rear frame and is fastened, directly in front of the engine with one It protrudes AN ELEPHANT SHREW AT THE LONDON Zoo. -It is a South African importation. As the name implies, it has a curious and mobile elephant-like trunk or snout. The hind legs, very long, suggest those of a kangaroo. It hops along on these with great speed. It is about the size of a dormouse. three air-tight compartments. ly. The front of the frame is wheel, by a common nut. down, from the engine, when on the water, at an angle of twenty degrees. The top blade is just covered by water. The steering is accomplished by two small rudders, on the back of each float. They are connected with and steered by the handle bars. These rudders, working simultaneously, are fastened to the front wheel by two flexible wire cords. Two small rubber-tired wheels, at the rear of the frame, help to carry the weight of the floats, on land. They also keep the machine from tipping sidewise. FOR LAND AND WATER TRAFFIC. The necessity that the inventor met with, at least once, possibly many times, in his lifetime, to suddenly change from land to water travel no doubt actuated him in going about and setting to work to construct such a contrivance as he has produced. It can be seen to be a very ingenious affair, if a proper and careful study of the apparatus be made. So many factors had to be taken into considerationlightness, simplicity of parts, quick adjustability from one form and one use to another-that the inventor, it will be noted, had his problems to deal with. |