Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 88.djvu/292

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��Popular Science Monthly

���The leverage is so great that three nuts may be easily cracked at the same time

Cracking Nuts Three at a Time

ANEW vise-like utensil to crack nuts easily and quickly is de- signed for use in the kitchen in prepar- ing a large bowl of nuts for table con- sumption or cracking nuts for use in cakes or other confections.

The new cracker consists of a small vise equipped with a large handle to give adequate leverage. A simple worm moves one of the vise jaws. The jaws are notched so that nuts of different sizes can be broken and so that more than one nut can be cracked at a time. The leverage obtained by this construction is so great that it is very little effort to operate the handle, a point that is of great importance in preparing brazil nuts or hickory nuts for the table.

��A

��"Growing Pains" are Rheumatism

CCORDING to Dr. Mary H. Wil-

��liams, an English specialist in dis- eases of childhood, "growing pains" are nothing but rheumatism in the vast ma- jority of cases.

��A Bird-House That Can be Cleaned

A BIRD-HOUSE that can be "house- cleaned" each year before the feathered tenants return from their southern pilgrimage has just been per- fected by J. C. Hubbard, a Battle Creek, Michigan, lover of birds. The new house obviates the loss that sometimes ensues because particular varieties of birds will not raise a second brood of youngsters in an old nest — they want new quarters for each nesting.

The washable bird-house is made of a frame and a roof into which a hollow cylinder fits, held firmly in place by pegs. After the nesting season is over and the birds have gone south, the house can be cleaned by simply removing the pegs and allowing the cylinder to drop down. A garden hose is all that is needed to make the renovation complete. When the vernal migration is over the former occupant finds the old home clean and fresh and as inviting as a new house.

���By removing a few pegs, this bird-house

may be opened and cleaned for the next

coming of the birds

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