Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 88.djvu/197

 Popular Science Monthly

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��A Motor-Cycle Converted into a Motor-Sled

HOW to make a power sled, is a problem that has been solved in a rough way at least, by C. H. Carpenter of Waukesha, \\ is., whose great plaint in life has been that the motor-cycle he so dearly loves to tour with in summer, with his family, is not available for use in the winter, when the frost is on the pumpkin and the snow upon the ground.

���This motor-sled was converted from a motor- cycle at total expense of about one dollar

He has solved the problem, he believes, and that with a total expense of fifty cents for a packing box and about as much for nails and screws. An iron framework, blacksmithed to hold the motor-cycle firmly to the rest of the ma- chine, added the greatest item of cost ; for with felt lined clamps to grip, yet not mar the enamel of the motor-cycle, the iron work cost the sum of two dollars.

Mr. Carpenter has made a motor-sled, with a packing box, his motor-cycle, and the stout, hickory runners of an old coasting sled, cut for the purpose. Tak- ing sections of two coasting sleds, the framework of iron was so designed that the motor-cycle power wheel operated between the sleds, much as the walking beam of an old-fashioned steamboat works on the shaft of the paddle-wheels. Built upon the sled, the packing box was cut down, planed and painted. It was given a high back, and the portion cut away in front was converted into a seat. The sled makes about twelve miles an hour, the motor-cycle being equipped on the power wheel with a special gripping tire, made by the simple metliod of winding wire about the tire and rim.

��Electric Candles on a Nine-Story Birthday Cake

A BIG birthday cake, with thirty- five electric candles on the top, is a sight which recently astonished Colum- bus, Ohio. The cake was made in recognition of the thirty-fifth birthday anniversay of a large store devoted to the sale of women's goods. Heretofore it had been the custom to make use of the traditional wax candles but for obvi- ous reasons it was decided this year to make the experiment of using electric candles, which would last longer, give more light and be much more cleanly than those of wax.

The result of the experiment was wholly satisfactory and electric candles will be used in the future. The wiring was buried in the sugar covering of the cake.

Apart from this novel electrical fea- ture the cake itself was very interesting because it was one of the largest ever baked in this country. It was a nine- story layer cake weighing a little short of a ton and it required the services of eight men to carry it from the motor truck which hauled it around the city into the store, where it was the center of attraction. It was four and one-half feet in diameter and into its composition there entered a barrel of flour and one thousand eggs, three tubs of butter, fifty quarts of milk, one quart of lemon flavoring, one quart of vanilla flavoring. It was covered with two hundred and twenty-five pounds of icing.

This cake would supply every employee of the store with a generous portion.

���Thirty-five electric candles graced this one- ton birthday cake, which required eight men and a motor-truck to deliver it from the bakery

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