Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 88.djvu/439

 Popular Science Monthly

���A new British piston ring, built on a new

principle, for use on motorcycles and light

automobiles

A Novel British Piston Ring

A BRITISH piston ring, especially adapted to motorcycles and light motor cars, has been constructed along entirely new lines, shown clearly in the accompanying picture. Nothing hereto- fore has appeared on the market, which even resembles the Gaskell ring, as it is called after its inventor.

The ring is made up from three segments, held in place by three plungers, inserted in recesses spaced equally round the circumference of the piston and slotted to receive the ring. They are held up to their work by small helical springs, which tend to press the rings against the inside of the cylinder walls. One of the plinigers is fitted at the center with a small stud, which engages small recesses cut in the ends of two ring segments. This pin, shown on the left- hand side, prevents the ring from turn- ing as a whole. The groove in the pis- ton is deep, and only one ring is required, which is not distorted by being forced over the larger head of the cylinder pis- ton into the slots. This is an advantage which cannot be gainsaid. Compression is good and frictional losses small in this type of ring.

ACCORDING to the report of the Police Commissioner of New York the policemen of that city are healthier than those of London and healthier than the soldiers of the United States Army. The average ])ercentage off duty because of physical disability was 2.24 for New York policemen as against 2.43 per cent for enlisted men in our army, and 2.35 for the London police.

��411

This Factory Burns "Sauerkraut" for Fuel

A WESTERN paper mill uses "sau- erkraut" as a fuel for firing its boilers. Lovers of this Teutonic delicacy need not be alarmed, however, for the "sauerkraut" used in this reckless man- ner is not to be bought at the corner grocery store. This "sauerkraut" is a by-product of their pulp mill and looks so much like the vegetable that it was given that name in the mill.

The "sauerkraut" of the pulp mill is in reality the coarse material that is not completely ground up in reducing the logs to pulp. It is caught in screens, when the ground pulp is floated away from the machines, and is dried and de- livered to the boiler rooms, where it is used for fuel.

���A handful of "Sauerkraut," not the real

thing, but the kind used for fuel. It is

really wood pulp, the rejected portion of

a paper mill's product

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