Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 88.djvu/53

Popular Science Monthly

MINIATURE railway locomotive, complete in every detail, which has attracted the attention of the railroad officials of several Pacific Coast lines, is the handiwork of Arthur Johnson, of Portland, Ore.

This tiny locomotive, only forty-five inches in length, was built to test a new invention of his on a firebox. It is operated by steam, generated by oil fuel, and is equipped with air brakes, an in terior throttle and reverse levers and gears.

The engineering department of the Southern Pacific Company borrowed the model and figured out its weight, power, and all other statistics in the same manner that they would figure on a full-size locomotive. To their surprise they found that the tiny engine developed one-quarter horsepower, and on a level track had a haul capacity of one and a quarter tons.

HE savage tribes of interior Africa have attained an extraordinary degree of skill in preparing poisons with which to make their arrow heads the dread of their enemies. Although they use a variety of substances in making the poisonous fluids, such as animal extracts, and products of decay, the most common source of the most violent poisons is found in several species of tropical plants. One of these, the Strophantus, is extensively employed by the tribes of West Africa. They boil the fruits of this plant in water for about twenty-four hours, frequently adding to the liquid heads of serpents, tainted blood and a mixture of dead frogs. When this devilish mixture has cooled to a thick mass, they dip the heads of their arrows into the poison, and then allow them to dry in the sun. They repeat this process every few months so as to retain as much of the deadly effect as possible. The action of these poisons is very violent, death resulting, with intense agony, in five or ten minutes.

HE accompanying photograph shows a batch of eggs on sale in the native market at Nanking, China. China like other nations, consumes a large number of eggs, but the Chinese have very extraordinary methods of preserving them, by which they are kept for long periods. Eggs can be found in various inland towns of China that were known to be two to three years old. Like those in the photograph they were almost jet black and very hard, but nevertheless eatable.

When fresh, the eggs are covered in a thin coat of clay or similar mixture and then cooked until they are quite hard. They are then immersed for several hours in water. Treated in this way the eggs may be kept almost indefinitely.