Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 89.djvu/606

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��Popular Scienre Monthly

���When this fifty-six-thousand-pound flywheel is spin- ning in the hold of a ship seasickness is prevented

��Preventing Ships from Rolling by the Use of Giant Flywheels

TO travel over the roughest seas or through the most varying winds with no rolling or rocking of the craft is believed to be a coming possibility — if it has not already been achic\cci. The new principle has been a[)plied to some ot the smallest yachts and to aeroplanes and is now being extended to larger vessels.

The accompanying illustration shows the largest steel casting ever made for this new purpose. It weighs 56,000 poiuids and is 10 feet in flianu'ter and 2~ inches thick on its face. Two of these are now being installed on a United States army transjiort. They constitute the principal part of what is termed a gjTO- scopic stabilizer.

The mechanism depends for its success on the fact that when revolving at a high rate of speed, the usual motion im- parted to a vessel b\' tin- wa\es is offset b\- this res'oUing mass. Thifi particular casting revolves 1 1 50 times per minute.

��The Sidewalk Coaster Becomes an Automobile

A MECHANICAL cross-brt^ between the motorcycle and I he boy's sidewalk coaster, is the (inc-passenger motor vehicle practically a motor-driven plat- form, illustrated below. Its pressed steel platform suspended four inches from the ground between wheels is fitted with pneu- matic tires. The motor is attached to the front wheel and provides ample power to meet all road conditions.

The fact that you stand in driving the vehicle and the further fact that your weight is carried between the wheel centers, makes it very easy to balance the machine. There is practically nothing to watch but the handlebar which supports the rider and steers and controls the operation and speed of the machine. Both brake and clutch are operated by moving the handlebar forward or backward.

The machine is intended primarily for short distances but enough gasoline can be carried in the tank for a tri|) of one hundred miles. The speed can be in- creased to tweiU\-fi\e miles an hour.

���The handlebar controls the speed of the machine, steers it and operates the brake and the clutch

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