Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 88.djvu/517

 Popular Science Monthly

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��Saves Work of the Book Gatherer

THE gathering or assem- bling of a book in the book bindery is generally done by girls who walk around a large room taking the signatures from one pile after another as they move along. The work is hard and the capacity of the gatherer is limited by her walking ability. Where the character of the work is always the same, special ma- chinery has been made which will do the work, but where there is a variety of work the human gatherer is necessarily resorted to.

An electric table driven by a two- horse-power motor has recently been de- signed and built by the manager of a Louisville printing establishment which enables the girls to sit at their work, taking the desired sheets from the piles placed on the table as they move by in

���The center of the table revolves and the girls pick off

the printed units they are gathering for binding

��an endless procession. The table will accommodate ten or twelve girls. It was successfully used in the assembling of a two-thousand-nine-hundred-page legal work, and it is claimed by the in- ventor that by making the table a double-decker, an unabridged dictionary could be handled upon it, so efficient is the rotating arrangement.

���A California fireplace where everyone can sit in front of the blaze, but which has no inglenooks

A "Center-of-the-Room" Fireplace

ABITLDKR of Long Beach, Cali- fornia, has constructed a no^'el fire- place in his home, the very lines of which liave the effect of making this dwelling "different." This is a "middle-of-the- room" fireplace and is known as a brazier. It is possible for a family and its friends to sit entirely around the fire, so that a dozen or more persons may toast their toes at the same time.

��The brazier consists of a hood, a basin, a spark-guard and a grate. With the ex- ception of the grate, the parts are made of hammered copper. The basin, the sides of which serve as a foot- rest, is five feet square, six inches deep and four inches from the floor, and is sup- ported by four legs, located at the corners. Within this basin an iron grate has been placed, on which the fire is made, only the ashes falling to the basin. A copper-wire spark-screen, three feet in lieight, has been made to fit within the basin at the foot of the slop- ing sides. This guard has brass posts, top and bottom. It may be instantly remo\-ed when it is desired to clean the basin.

This home has walls nine feet in height and it is of such a length so that when lowered its upper end extends a foot or so above the ceiling. The neck of this hood is twelve inches wide. At its lower end it flares out to four feet.

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