Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 88.djvu/758



A Machine Which Plugs Knot-Holes

HE machine shown in the accompanying illustration is the invention of Alerton J. Miller, a wooden-box manufacturer, of Los Angeles, California. Designed for the purpose of assisting in the plugging of knot-holes in box shook, it may be equipped successively with two different sizes of circular bit-like saws—one of which is used to eliminate the knot or reduce the knot-hole to a perfectly round hole, and the other of which, slightly larger, cuts the plugs used to close the holes.

The plugs are inserted in the shook by hand and fastened in place with crimper nails. Plugs are usually kept in stock, of various thicknesses, and as the lumber is cut up into shook the pieces containing loose knots or knot-holes are laid aside and later transferred to the boring machine. Box lumber is generally of rather inferior quality, and hence full of knots; and by the use of this machine a very great saving in lumber footage is made possible. The plugging of knot-holes in this way in a box factory that turns out ten thousand feet of box-lumber in a day can be done by one man working only three or four hours per day.

Earrings that Denote Widowhood

HAT India is a land of curious customs is confirmed by examining the accompanying illustration. This woman is a native of Garo, a province of Eastern Bengal. She is a widow; but instead of wearing black crêpe, she dons these ponderous earrings made of solid brass. Since her widowhood is perpetual, she is obliged to wear them the rest of her life. Each year another ring is added. The large number of rings would seem to indicate great age; but in India girls are married when only five or six years of age, and frequently are widowed at eight or ten.

The constantly increasing weight of metal stretches the lobe of the ear, to which they are attached, in the extraordinary manner depicted. It is safe to say that no widow ever forgets the fact of her widowhood when wearing such a clumsy weight.