Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 89.djvu/199

 Popular Scie?icc Mnnthhi

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��Accelerating the Fruit - Picker with a Picking Harness

THE friiit-ijickcr who has long pill up with the in- conveniences connected with picking fruit from trees will welcome the appear- ance of a picking harness. The harness consists of broad straps or sus- penders to which the fruit basket or pail is hung in front, leaving the hands free for pick- ing.

Equipped with it the picker goes about his task with ease, placing the fruit in the recep- tacle in front of him. He does not need to worry about its getting away from him, as the old pail hanging on the tree-branch often did, and he can strip a tree clean of its fruit in much less time with the new harness. In the berry season the harness can be used to advantage, and it is a great improve- ment for all workers in the orchard.

���arge luminous area like a lantern on the top of the head. This extraordinary creature must pre- sent a singular api)earance when swinmiing in the dark abysses the ocean. In the model the luminous spots on the sides are represented by buttons of glass connected with the interior by tubes. The > luminous protuberance

on the head was model- ed in gelatine and then tinted. When in opera- tion the model is con- nected with electric current so that a dis- tinct glow appearing in the side spots and the frontal "lantern" produces a very strik- ing and, it is believed by fish experts, a quite accurate representation of the appearance of a living phosphorescent deep-sea fish. The mod- el is about a foot long.

��This harness is light and enables the fruit-picker to work with both arms

��A Sailor's Nautical Wind-Wheel

��A

��A Deep-Sea Fish Which Has a Lantern of Its Own

AMONG the most remarkable fishes Ix. are those provided with lanterns of their own, and which swim in the dark recesses of the bott(3m of the deep ocean where no ray of natural light from above can penetrate. A model of one of these fishes, notable for its phosphorescent organs, is on ex- hibition in the United States National Museum. The sides of the fish are dotted at regular intervals with luminous spots, which may be seen, in the

�� ��NOVEL wind -wheel which gives the elTect, even in a light breeze, of two sailboats pursuing each other in a circle can be constructed easily and will prove a source of considerable amuse- ment to children. Tlirough the center of a strip of wood a yard in length, no wider than one inch and no thicker than one-half inch, a nail is dri\on which serves as a pivot. At either end of the stick a miniature sailboat is mounted. The boats should measure about twelve inches in length, with a tapering bow and stern which may be whittled or sawed. A mast is mounted in the bow of each, and a triangular cloth-sail tacked or sewefl in place. For a ship-shape wind- wheel, the sail may be stiffened with a

��Illustration. In The luminous sp>ots are represented by

addition there is a buttons of glass which Hght periodically sturdy boom

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