Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 88.djvu/897

 Popular Science Monthly

��869

���The checkered chart is a new and painless device, which quickly teaches the mysteries of multiplication, division and subtraction to the most reluctant pupil

��Learning Arithmetic With a Woman's Invention

THE reason we honor Miss Albertina Bechmann this month is because she has invented a painless way of learning the multiplication, division and subtraction tables.

Her invention consists of a board on which are printed rows of figures from o to 144. The rows are separated by grooves. If you want to find out what 6 times 4 is, all you have to do is to find the figure 6, at the top of the board, and the figure 4 at the side, and to place a ruler in the groove nearest 6, as shown in the photograph, and another ruler in the groove nearest 4. In the corner made by the two rulers you will find your answer, 24.

If you would divide 24 by 6, you place one ruler between 6 and 24 and the other ruler in the groove running at right angles to 24, and, presto! you have your answer, 4, at the outside end of the second ruler. Also, by Miss Bechmann's painless system, 8 times o is never 8, as many children think. It invariably shows that 8 times o is o.

If you would know what 6 plus 18 is, you hunt up the 6 column, and under-

��neath the 18 you will find your answer, 24. I f you would subtract 6 from 24 you would find your answer, 18, right above 24.

��Austria Exhibits Paper Substitutes for Cloth

IT was announced last November by the Austrian Ministry of War that paper v'ests and foot coverings had been received for the forces in the field, and that the officials should instruct the men that paper, as a poor conductor of heat, was an excellent protection against cold. Attention was also called to the hospitals that paper was a good substitute for fabric, and that cellulose wadding af- forded a sanitary dressing for wounds. Later, at the suggestion of Ma.x: Schuschny% an exposition of paper prod- ucts designed as protection against cold and a substitute for cloth, was held. The invitation to exhibitors brought fifty, and within five days twenty thousand persons had visited the exposi- tion. Of all the useful articles exhibited, perhaps the most important was the "Danish quilt," consisting of crumpled newspapers. These coxerlets have been used extensively for hospital purposes in the royal palace of Austria.

�� �