Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 88.djvu/844

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��Popular Science Monthly

��A Switchman Who Became Judge, Though Armless

DAVID Moylan was formerly a switchman on a Western railroad. Through an accident he lost his right arm, but he refused to relinquish his position. Only when he had lost his left arm, through a second accident, did he turn to something else. Then he began the study of law and showed marked ability. With his examinations, how- ever, came the first big handicap; but this man who seems undismayed at anything, proceeded to learn to write

��not only proficient but popular, he was elected to the City Council of Cleveland, Ohio, where he resides. He was as suc- cessful in this office as before, and was re-elected at the end of two years. Recently he ran for the office of Munic- ipal Judge and won.

David Moylan was once a switchman, he is now a judge. Did an accident force him to rise to his present success, or would ambition have elevated him to equal responsibility? At any rate, he succeeded where many less unfortunate would fail.

���by holding a pen between his teeth. Using this method, he took the exami- nations, proving not only his mental ability, but good penmanship as well, for he can write better with his teeth than many persons can with their right hand.

After becoming a lawyer, he prac- tised in that profession for four years. Becoming

���Judge David Moylan lost his arms in two

different accidents while employed as a

switchman on a western railroad

��Why We Can See Through Water

IF you go to an aquarium and look at the fishes or other animals that live in the water, you will see that in one case water may be very clear and transparent, and in another may be only half transparent. There are really all degrees possible.

When the waves of light pass through a translucent thing like frosted glass, they are twisted and broken and mixed. That is why you can see some light coming through, although you cannot make out things on the other side. But transparent glass lets waves of light come through it almost exactly as they come in, so that sometimes you are not sure whether the win- dow pane is there or not. Water is much the same as glass in this re- spect. If there are no solid sub- stances in the wa- ter, and if the water is still, it is very fairly trans- parent. Neither water nor glass nor anything else lets through ab- solutely all the light that comes to it. It keeps back at least a little, just as the air itself does with the light of the sun.

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