Page:Popular Mechanics 1928 01.pdf/91

 

Development of a new phase of the canning industry is promised in the introduction of a unit which removes the stems from seedless grapes. It is said to have an output of five tons in a nine-hour day and to do the work at a cost of less than $4 a ton. The grapes are dumped into a hopper and, as they pass through the outfit, they are caught by revolving brushes and pushed through a network of small, upright steel pins. Thus the bunches are broken up. The small stem is removed by passing the grapes over small rubber cylinders arranged in pairs. Canning of grapes has been done on a small scale for several years, but the excessive cost of stemming them by hand workers hitherto has prevented the widespread development of the industry.

 



Motion pictures on film or paper are taken with a camera recently introduced in England. Combined with it, is a projector showing the photographs. The paper film is projected by reflected light with the aid of two special lamps attached to the outfit and is said to give sharpness and definition on the screen in no way inferior to the film. The camera can be loaded in daylight, the projector shows pictures over six feet high and the set is inexpensive.

 



How Lincoln probably looked while pleading a case in court is seen in the latest notable Lincoln statue, made by Lorado Taft for Urbana and Champaign, Ill. It was recently unveiled near the courthouse and in front of the hotel, which stands on the site of the old inn where Lincoln stopped when his business took him to the "twin cities." The figure is of bronze and the monument is ten feet high.

 

At a fashionable London restaurant, a "sunlight lamp" is used to treat sickly potted plants. A wild orchid bloomed in eight hours after exposure to the health-giving rays and a faded bouquet, worn by a woman, was placed under the light to revive it.

