Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 88.djvu/409

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LEEPING in a bathtub full of water kept at blood temperature is claimed by some physicians to give the required amount of rest in half the time that sleeping in bed requires. In other words, four hours sleep in a bathtub filled with water at the proper temperature—and always maintained at that temperature—will result in the exact amount of restfulness that eight hours in bed will give.

The explanation is that warm water completely relaxes the nerves, which ordinary sleep does not necessarily do. The most difficult part of this treatment is in maintaining the water at a constant temperature, and for the purpose of accomplishing the result, a middle-western manufacturer has recently brought out on the market a thermostatic water control apparatus, which, as its name implies, maintains the water at any desired temperature.

In practice, the patient climbs into a bathtub filled with water, his head protruding through a hole in a rubber blanket, which is strapped around the edges of the tub. Water constantly flows in at one end of the tub, and out at the other.

For the harried business man, who complains that his working day is too short, such a sleeping couch as this should have a distinct appeal. He should be willing to rest four hours at least.



POLE or stack-climbing apparatus in which the pole or stack climber sits comfortably while elevating or lowering his position, as the work progresses, by a simple arrangement of clutches, has been constructed and put in use by a young telephone lineman in Arizona. The climber (the machine, not the man) consists of two parts, an upper and a lower. The mechanism in the upper part contains clutches which grasp the pole firmly, being manipulated by ropes from the seat below.

To climb the pole, the lineman or stack-climber takes his seat as far above the ground as possible in order to expedite matters. The clutch mechanism is pushed upwards as far as he can reach by means of a wooden pole. The clutch is then set, and with a rope and pulley arrangement, he elevates the seat. By continually repeating this operation, pushing the clutch box upwards as he progresses, he literally crawls to the top of the pole or stack.