Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 88.djvu/742

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��Popular Science Monthly

��Burning Cars to Make Money

AFTER having carefully estimated l\ the value of the wood in discarded railroad cars, balancing it against the cost of the labor necessary in retrieving it, the Pennsylvania Railroad came to the conclusion that it would be far more profitable to burn the old wooden cars entirely; then recover and sell the scrap

���iron remaining. By following this meth- od of economy not only with cast-off cars, but with scrap material of all descriptions, the railroad company saved $2,000,000 in one year. Waste paper alone sold for $19,211, while old wheels, metals and wrought iron yielded more than $780,000.

��The Shingle-Phonograph

THE accompanying illustration shows a phonograph recently constructed by Harvey Smith, a student in the West AUis High School, West Allis, Wisconsin. The reproducing part of the phono- graph is nothing more pretentious than an ordinary shingle, with the point of a darning-needle securely fastened in one corner. A steel knitting- needle, clamped in a labora- tory ring-stand, 'is thrust through a hole in the shingle to support it as it is carried over the record. The record is mounted upon a wooden turn-table constructed as fol- lows:

A disk made of three- quarter-inch wood, with a groove in the edge is mounted on the hub and axle of an old bicycle-wheel, so that it can turn easily. This is con- nected with an ordinary bat- tery-motor by means of a cord-belt. Pressure of the thumb and finger on the shaft of the motor regulates the speed of the disk. Records can be played backward simply by twisting the belt. The small illustra- tion shows how two shingles may be used at the same time to play a duet on the same record. In like manner three or four shingles may be used.

���By burning its old w _i ar_ -i railroad company saves $2,000,000 a year in labor formerly

spent to repair the cars. Before setting fire to the cars, all usable fixtures are removed.

After the fire, the remaining scrap iron is sold

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