Page:Popular Mechanics 1928 01.pdf/88

 



A recent test by marine-corps aviators has established the feasibility of including deflated rubber rafts among the safety devices of flyers. After reaching an altitude of 3,000 feet, in a training plane piloted by Lieut. V. M. Guymon, of Salt Lake City, Utah, Corp. R. L. Huffman stepped from the craft. At 2,925 feet, his parachute opened, and he unpacked the raft and inflated it with the two tubes of carbon dioxide which he carried. Three minutes after leaving the plane, he dived into the Potomac river and, immediately bobbing up, swam to retrieve the parachute and fasten it to the raft. Putting together the two-piece oars, he then calmly rowed to shore. The cylinders of carbon dioxide used to inflate the raft are only about twelve inches long and four inches in diameter. By turning the cylinder, carbon dioxide is discharged into the raft, inflating it almost instantaneously, or, in fact, in less than thirty seconds.

 

Walnut trees with figured grain throughout the entire trunk are extremely rare, and efforts to cultivate them are being made by grafting the top branches of a highly figured tree to seedling walnut roots. It is hoped that this process may result in a tree with the beautiful grain so much desired for fine furniture and veneers. It is said that only about one in the half million walnut trees cut each year is an "unusual prize" as a source of the best and most fancied wood. The cause of the curly grain is somewhat of a mystery. Its occurrence at the stump has been attributed to the swaying of the tree in the wind or to the crowding of the wood laid on an inside curve of the tree.

 

Waterproof protectors for trouser legs, which can be slipped on in a few seconds and carried in the pocket when not in use, have been introduced in England. They are simply pulled on over the shoes, button in front and keep the trousers dry from the knee to the shoe top. An elastic band holds them in place at the top, as shown.



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