Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 88.djvu/722

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��Popular Science Monthly

��Army Pistol Shoots Colors

A DEC ID ED novelty in the way of pistols has been perfected for use by the United States Signal Corps for the purpose of communicating at night. In appearance, the pistol resembles the old- fashioned dueling pistol except that it is lighter and smaller. Cartridges firing spurts of flame of various hues are used for ammunition, the color of the flame carrying a definite message to the distant lookout.

A One-Pound Diamond

THE great diamond mines of the Transvaal have been revealing their age-long secrets for many generations, but the greatest surprise of all came on the twenty-fifth of January, 1905, when

��brilliant naments England stone is a brilliant of carats and is the central figure of the English crown.

Only six months were required for cutting the splen- did stone, advantage being

��of 516I4 carats. It or-

the royal scepter of

The smaller

square

309V16

��\i

���One and one-third pounds was the weight of the

famous Cullinan Diamond. It was cut into two large

gems and over a hundred smaller brilliants

��the Cullinan stone, afterward named Star of Africa by George V, was discovered. When the excited owners placed the colossal gem on the scales they found it weighed 621.2 grams, about one and one- third pounds. It was more than three times the size of any diamond ever found before or since, weigh ing 3,025^ carats, and of quality.

King Edward VII was presented with the stone on his birthday in 1907. Later it was placed in the hands of the famous Amsterdam firm of I. J. Asscher and Company who cut it into two large stones and over a hundred smaller ones. The larger jewel has the exceptional number of seventy-four facets being a drop

��An army pistol which shoots colored light

taken of the planes of cleavage.

Disinfecting School Pencils

IT has long been recognized that the school pencil is a fruitful source of disease. The pencil points are usually given a bath by the child's placing it in his mouth to soften the lead. Then the pencil is passed on to another child, who does the same, thereby spreading all kinds of communicable dis- eases. The pencil is disin- fected by a new system, through the action of formal- dehyde gas upon the bacteria.

���the

��The lead-pencil of every child is a germ- carrier. Disinfect the pencil with for- maldehyde gas, as shown by the picture in the circle, and the spread of disease in schools will be reduced

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