Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 88.djvu/196

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��Popular Science Monthly

��Steam-Driven Models Made by a Handless Mechanic

OiSIE of the chief exhibits at the Home for Aged and Disabled Rail- road Employees of America, Highland Falls, 111., is a collection of model steam engines made by handless Joseph J. Bel- laire.

���gines, some of which are remarkable bits of machinery. Working models of steam engines predominate in his col- lections, and most of them run on steam or compressed air. The various tubes and cylinders are soldered together instead of being riveted. All the models work like clockwork. Mr. Bellaire has exhibited his models many times and has received a large number of prizes and medals.

Tearing Up Rails with a Motor Truck

PULLING up the half- buried track of an old railroad much in the same way as a dentist extracts an obstinate tooth, is the novel use to which a heavy motor truck, armed with a derrick, was recently put in a small Ohio town. The boom of the derrick was secured by a heavy braced pillar, which acted as a pivot, to the floor of the truck. Tongs were used to clutch the rail, and the pull exerted through a steel cable and pulleys. This wrecking equipment "ex- tracted" between one hundred and sixty

��All these miniature engines are driven by steam or air, and were made by the "handless mechanic"

Thirty-four years ago Mr. Bellaire, a young and healthy locomotive fireman, swung down from his cab and crawled under his engine to take the ashes from the firebox. The engineer, forgetting that his mate was beneath the wheels, received the signal from the brakeman and one hundred and seventy rails per and set his engine in motion. The un- day, which is equivalent to a length of fortunate fireman, hearing the creak of track a half-mile long, the wheels, made a wild plunge for safety, and suc- ceeded in freeing himself — all but his hands. When they took him to the hospital they saved one thumb on his right hand.

With infinite patience Mr. Bellaire succeeded in mak- ing his artificial hands use- ful. On his right hand is a thumb and a metal plate. On the left wrist is strapped a wooden attachment, in the center of which is a thread- ed hole for the insertion of various handy devices, the most useful of which is a steel hook.

Since his accident he has spent much of the time in constructing models of en- This truck pulls up a half-mile of track during a working day

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