Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 88.djvu/280

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��Popular Science Monthly

��introduced at Pensacola, perhaps it will be the death blow to the hopes of those of us who wish to see the United States, the birthplace of self-sustained flight, provide for its Army and Navy a fleet of aircraft which in time of war would safeguard our Navy, our fortifications, and eventually our homes.

���The ice-skating rink which took the place of the popular dance floor in one of New York's prominent hotels

��Our Big Birdseed Bill

WHEN one watches a canary daintily picking at its little box of birdseed, one is not likely to reflect upon the large quantity of that food which is eaten every year. Nevertheless, during the past year the canaries of this country consumed a total of four million seven hundred and four thousand six hundred and twenty-five pounds, or two thousand three hundred and fifty tons of birdseed. At the advanced price of five and one-half cents a pound which has been in force since the war made it dif^cult to import this material, the tiny birds have cost their owners two hundred and fifty-eight thousand seven hundred and fifty-four dollars and eighty-eight cents.

THE average annual fire loss in the United States is about two dollars per inhabitant.

��Making a Dancing Floor Into a Skating Rink

NEW YORK, the city of many fads and fashions, is now forsaking the dance floor for the ice skating rink. Dancing, which has held sway for three winters, was doomed to a slow death, even before a substitute was found.

It needed only the advent of a successful play in which an ice skating scene was the chief attraction to turn the tide in favor of the rink. Quick to see the coming change, the man- ager of one of the largest hotels in the city converted his famous dance floor into a skating rink, and at pres- ent has the largest in the city, with the exception of the permanent arenas which have catered to ice skaters for a number of years past.

The rink is circular in shape, and consists of a shallow tank which holds five inches of ice. The water was frozen at the beginning of the season by the refrigerating plant of the hotel, and is to remain in that condition until the skating season is over. Every night, Avhen the last skater has left the rink, the ice is scraped, and a slight film of water is sprinkled over the surface. When this water is frozen, it makes an entirely new surface for the next day's sport. It is said that the rink was made at a cost of about twenty thousand dollars.

Hazards of Aeroplane Making

AEROPLANE manufacturing must now be rated among the hazardous eniplo3'ments. At a foreign aeroplane factory a number of workmen employed in the varnishing department were taken seriously ill, and two deaths resulted. Upon careful investigation the cause was found to be poisoning by tetrachlor- ethane, an ingredient of the varnish used. These accidents led to an order forbidding the use of varnish containing a high percentage of this deadly chemical.

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