Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 88.djvu/289

 Popular Science Monthly

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��A Giant Metal Shoe

A PERFECT shoe more than fifteen times as large as the ordinary man's shoe, and weighing five hundred pounds has just been made by a manu- facturer of Peoria, 111., to be used as a part of an advertising sign.

���This giant shoe, fifteen times as large as an ordinary shoe, is complete in every detail, even to the eyelets and heel strap

The shoe is made entirely of sheet metal and is seven feet six inches in height, fourteen feet long and four feet eight inches across the sole. It is com- plete in every detail, even to the eyelets and the strap for pulling it on, and is a perfect, magnified counterpart of the small shoe after which it was patterned.

Painting Cars Rapidly

A PROCESS has been patented by which a railway car can be thoroughly painted, inside and out. in a fraction of the time usually re- quired. The car is first given a prim- ing coat and put in a drying oven which has a temperature of 250°!•". After drying for three hours, it is re- moved and painted. Another three- hour period of baking follows, after which the car is ready for a second coat. This process is repeated until the car has not only been painted, but the necessary letters are also placed on the sides and it is varnished within. The length of time required depends upon the number of coats that are given and the quickness with which they are applied.

��Making An Automobile Tire Casing

ONE of the most interesting sights in almost any one of the great tire factories are the great machines which are used in tire making. The one illustrated is used for making casings. Two men work together at each machine and their combined output _ is twenty-five finished cas-

ings per day of ten working hours.

Patterns conforming to the shape and size of the tire are mounted on a re- volving wheel. The opera- tor builds up a tread on this foundation. From spools of prepared fabric, cut to the proper width, lengths un- wind automatically over the lire structure, the casing be- ing built up in successive layers. The number of fab- ric strips is governed by the sectional diameter of the tire. For example, a four inch tire requires five strips, a four and one-half inch tire, six strips, and the large five inch tire requires seven strips. These processes, of course, prepare the tire only for the ovens where it remains for varying periods according to the rub- ber stock, size of tire, and construction.

���One machine ;...^ i'...., „... .^.^. v.«l L..^...y five finished automobile tires a day

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