Page:Popular Mechanics 1928 01.pdf/122

 



Belief in the powers of weird faces carved on poles to cure sickness is waning in Korea, according to reports from a medical missionary there, many of the old superstitions being replaced by modern health practices. Young men are studying medicine, dentistry and public sanitation and comparatively little homage is paid the wooden "health commissioners" that once were thought to frighten sickness away and cure illness.

 

Finding that his customers often grew impatient while waiting for him to saw through large bones, a butcher has devised a motorized unit that does the work much more quickly and with less effort. It is a bandsaw, rigged to a rack with a bell-shaped base on the floor. The frame can be adjusted to various heights, the saw is in an upright position, out of the way, when not in use, and a convenient starting switch for the motor is furnished in the form of a small trigger on top of the handle that guides the saw. A pull of the trigger starts the motor.

 

It used to be that hotel guests favored spoons and other table articles when they desired a convenient "souvenir" to take away with them, but the manager of a large Chicago hotel declares that the public's taste has turned to towels, and that 20,000 of them disappear from the principal hostelries there every month. Loss of one towel a month to each room is the average experience, he says, and all sorts are taken, hand towels, those for the bath and all the other varieties. When hotels find towels belonging to another in their own laundries, they are mailed postpaid to the name tagged on them, according to a recently established custom.

 



Amusement and instruction are afforded the child in sets of collapsible cardboard furniture now on the market. The pieces are slotted so that they can easily be fitted together and, when correctly assembled, are said to be strong and serviceable for play uses. Living-room, dining-room and other sets are furnished.

