Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 88.djvu/781

 Popular Science Monthhj

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��Small blasted ditches have been scoured out by the current until they are now carrying the entire flow of large streams. With a little help now and then any stream with a fair fall can be made to do wonders in making itself a permanent and suitable course.

Sometimes roads must parallel streams for considerable distances, where the lay of the land is such that the road must be immediately alongside the stream. Correction lies in deepening the stream by blasting, and then constructing a small side ditch next to the bank to handle the water from above.

The field of usefulness of explosives in road building is rapidly widening and will in a short time include many classes of work now done entirely by hand labor, as the cost will be materially reduced.

��To Bench-^

���Construction of a bench shear for cutting copper strips. This device is easily oper- ated by a foot treadle

Making a Bench Shear

THE illustration shows a shear that was made for cutting strips of copper, Y2 i''i- wide and ^ in. thick. The jaw A, is made deep to be gripped in the wire at the bench. The moving jaw is connected to a treadle on the floor. The rod B, which brings the moving jaw back to place, pivots at C, and rests on the pin D. It is worked by a spring which is fastened to the top of the bench. The guide £, which is fastened to the stationary jaw, keeps the two cutting edges of the jaws together. The stop is made adjustable, as shown. The jaws should be made from t(x:)l-steel. The writer made the stationary jaw out of cast-iron, which has cut several hundred pieces and is still in good condition. — C. Anderson.

��A

��An Improved Bottle Stopper BOTTLE

���stopper espec- ially suited to the use of travelers, is shown in the illus- tration. It consists of a single piece of soft red rubber, having two parts, a base and a hood. The base is in the form of a regular stopper, and its upper edge is ex- tended as a short tube, as shown at A, in the illustration. After inserting the stopper in the bottle, the top part is pulled down over the rim, as at B, forming a tight hood over the mouth of the bottle, as at C. This stopper is especially good for benzine, alcohol and other volatile or inflammable liquids, or for acids and the like.

New Automobile Alarm Calls for Help

THE recent starting of an automobile at an exhibition of motor cars by wireless power, suggested to an inventor a new application of the wireless prin- ciple. The instrument includes the installation of a wireless sending appara- tus, with a radius of only a few hundred yards, and a small receiving instrument, such as are used now without the need of aerial wires. When the owner of the car leaves it unprotected for a time, he switches on the "wireless" and walks away. Any interference with the igni- tion system is at once "wirelessed" to the owner, who carries the recei\'ing instrument in his pocket. The buzzing of his receiver sends him scurr\ing to his car.

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��A fine drill made from a needle

A Drill Made from a Needle

SMALL drills for watchmakers can \)C made from needles which are tempered, tiled at one end to the usual shape of a drill point, and fitted at the other end with a small brass or copper handle.

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