STRONGEST MAN EVER E. O. Kistler, of Denver, who scored 2.270 points in recent strength test, breaking his predecessor's record by over 200 points. DOG WALKS TIGHT ROPE THIS striking picture of a dog on a WOODPECKERS' STOREHOUSE Anyone seeing the woodpeckers thus putting away acorns might suppose that the birds intended to eat them in the winter months, when other food becomes scarce. That is not the bird's idea at all. It is providing for a supply of fresh meat for the early spring. When spring comes, a worm develops in each acorn; and when the worm is fat, juicy and fully developed, the woodpecker goes after it, breaking the protruding shell, and devouring its helpless occupant. HARD WORK FOR THE AUTO A NEW state road, between Seattle and Spokane, Washington, is now being built by a method almost revolutionary in character, in that the crushed stone, from which the road is largely built, is handled entirely by machinery from the time it enters the crusher until DOG AND MASTER TAKING THE PRIZE WINNER IN A CONTEST FOR THE LONGEST HAIR IN BERLIN. This woman's hair is ten feet long. it is put into service by being spread upon the roadbed. The stone runs from the crusher directly into self-dumping cars, in which THIS MOTOR TRUCK DOES THE WORK OF THIRTY-SIX HORSES. it is transported to the contractors' bunkers. These bunkers are so located that the truck can drive under and receive a load by merely opening a gate. From this point the truck carries and dumps the stone upon the roadbed, spreading it by moving ahead upon the plank string ers. The motor truck doing the work is constructed with a steel hopper body and carries about 3% cubic yards of stone, or 8,500 pounds at a trip. This, with the truck's own weight of 1,500, makes a total of 10,000 pounds carried at each trip. The truck makes 22 round trips every day, or about 18 times the capacity of one team, as it was estimated by the contractors that each team would not be able to make more than one trip daily, as the hauling is up a very steep grade, carrying approximately four cubic yards at a trip. At a cost of $5.00 per day for each team and driver, the expense of delivering the truck's capacity of stone would be about $90.00, while the truck with two men delivers the same quantity of stone at a cost of $12 per day. SCHOOL OF THIRTY-SEVEN HUGE WHALES CAST ASHORE ON THE COAST OF TASMANIA. In pursuit of a multitude of fishes they ran aground in shallow water, and were left to their fate by the receding tide. BRIDGE FOR AUTOMOBILES IN SOUTHFRN CALIFORNIA. The Automobile Club of Southern California is a live organization which is spending thousands of dollars to improve the highways of that section of the country; a good work, the benefit of which all may share, whether they are members or not. One of their few pieces of work which is exclusively for motorists is the bridge of structural iron and concrete shown in this photograph. It is arranged with a couple of grooves which take the wheels of the auto, but as there is no roadway between them it is impossible to drive a team across. DOUGH UNTOUCHED BY HANDS IN Muskogee, Oklahoma, an electric bakery is in operation. It is equipped throughout with electric driven apparatus. The plant has a capacity of 40,000 loaves of bread a day, in addition to the numerous side lines of cakes, pies, rolls and other pastry and it will be seen that this is a profitable consumer for the electric supply company. Without doubt this is one of the most modern bakeries in the country. The flour and dough are never touched by human hands until the loaves come out of the oven ready for delivery to the consumer. The power installation consists of numerous small motors from one to five WHERE BREAD IS KNEADED AND BAKED BY ELEC- A modern bakery at Muskogee, Oklahoma, which turns is a dough-divider driven by a two horse-power machine and an egg beater operated by a one horse-power motor. A three-barrel dough mixer is supplied with power from a five horse-power motor, which also drives a dough break flour lifter and conveyor, all grouped on the same motor. The 700-loaf revolving oven is provided with a two horse-power machine. MACHINE FOR WEEDING WATER COURSES A MOTOR boat which will be of great service to navigation as well as for public hygiene, has just been invented for mowing aquatic weeds. Fig. 1 shows the machine mowing a fish pond in the grounds of the Institute of France at Chantilly. The boat carries near the front a monocylindrical gasoline motor of 8 horse power. The cutting bars are operated in an alternating movement by cogged connecting rods fitted together with a spring; it mows a width of 4 meters from 2.0 to 2.5 km. per hour. Three men are sufficient for the service. One drives the motor, FIG. 2-REPLACING THE APPARATUS IN POSITION the boat, sometimes with a pole, sometimes with the rudder, while the third man is occupied exclusively with the weeding. The weeds on being cut float to the surface and are picked up by a light floating dam, formed of a simple pole with vertical pegs, which is placed obliquely across the canal. The dam is moved along as the mowing machine advances. When meeting a vertical obstacle the cutting bars can be folded backward, as illustrated by Fig. 2. marshy sections the malarial condition may be avoided by destroying the parasitic vegetation. FIRST SUSPENSION BRIDGE IN AFGHANISTAN OUR photograph represents the first steel bridge constructed in Afghanistan. It was completed and opened for use last year. The bridge is built over the Caboul river on a level with the gorges of Diroontah. Before this bridge was built communications were assured only by means of ferry boats operated by cables; this very primitive medium of transportation became insufficient and it was found THIS BRIDGE IS 820 FEET HIGH IN THE MIDDLE. the second guides Gôteik railway bridge over the Caboul river. Afghanistan. RI THE "AERMOBILE"-A MONSTER AEROPLANE UNDER CONSTRUCTION IN CALIFORNIA. necessary to replace it by this bridge 130 meters in length. The construction of it was extremely difficult because of the steepness of the embankments. HUGE "AERMOBILE" A MONOPLANE of the gigantic di mensions of 105 feet by 60 feet, and with a lifting area of 6,000 square feet has been built recently at Venice, California, and is now awaiting the installation of its two 100 horse power engines before attempting flight. This is not only the world's largest aeroplane, but is also an absolutely new attempt at the solution of the problem of flight. The aermobile, as it is called, is the work of Captain August E. Mueller, an aeronaut who has had experience with balloons, both spherical and dirigible, for many years in various parts of the world. He describes hi machine as "a parachute with a head and a tail," and as all the weight of engines and passengers is far below the great oval plane, there should be no danger of its turning turtle. The "aermobile" has six metal propellers, each furnished with three blades. These propellers are well distributed under the plane, two in front, two on the rear and one midway down each side. DETECTOR FOR "LIVE" WIRES ELECTRICAL wiremen, in making re pairs or adjustments in central stations, need to know whether the current is on the lines and other conductors, so as to avoid risk of shock. But since the presence of the current makes no difference in the appearance of the conductor, there was considerable risk in this work until the invention of the voltage detector illustrated herewith, which announces to the eye whether the conductor is "alive" or not. This simple contrivance was invented by J. B. Taylor, an American, and has obtained a special prize in France as an accident preventer. It consists of a light S-shaped metal vane, pivoted at its center upon a vertical metal stem like a com NEW APPARATUS TO PROTECT THE LINEMAN. pass needle and enclosed in a small glass globe. The lower end of the metal stem is fixed to the conductor which it is desired to safeguard-such, for example, as the disconnecting switch of a highvoltage powertransmission line. The electrostatic charge on the conductor, when alive, produces a repulsion at the points of the vane, causing the latter to spin around; and |
