Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 89.djvu/683

 Popular Scinirr Mo)illihj

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��Just How You Wear Out Your Clothes

WE speak, and speak correctly, of "wearing a suit of clothes" when we have in mind only the use of the clothes; but the garments are literally worn away. We might also speak of "wearing" bed- clothes, because the fibers of the bvd linen are worn away in much the same manner as a car- penter wears away the surface of wood when he sand- papers it. Draughts and other air cur- rents waft these fibers to and fro until they collect in small clusters of "Huff." The "bits and cantles" that ha\c begun to at- tract others to them gather more and more, imtil a large proportion of the aerial flotsam has

been transformed into what the house- keeper calls "little rolls of dust" that she finds under the bed and in the corners. These are fibers that friction has removed from the bed linen and from one's clothing.

Whenever cloth is handled, some fibers are rubbed off and in time become visible and objectionable. The forma- tion of this fluff is not unlike the growth of snowballs that boys roll.

I'nder the microscope, especialK' with reflected light, these balls of fluff are wonderfully beautiful, gleaming with a brilliancy that cannot be captured by a photograph.

��end of which is inserted a round steel die, containing hatched lines. This steel die revolves and its surface comes in contact with an ink pad placed inside the holder. The check to be protected

��is phued aluminum

��upon a board.

���Small clusters of "fluff" blown into what the housekeeper calls rolls of dust

��colored ink, which

��small corrugated lurnished for the purpose, and then the hatched wheel of the protector is brought into po- sition on the sur- face of the check, o\er the written amount. With a slight pressure the wheel is slowly re- \-olved across the face of the check. The re\'ol\ing wheel lioth prints and perforates the paper, following the grooves of the aluminum sheet underneath. The result is a series of printed, and per- forated hatched lines, in a faint- does not interfere

��with the legibility of the writing but does prevent any erasures or changes.

The chief advantage of the new protector is its size.

��A small, compact in- strument for preventing the erasure of signatures on checks

��A New Check Protector No Bigger Than a Pocket Match-Safe

ANEW check protector has just been in\ented by an Oakland, California, man. It is so small and compact that it resembles a pocket cigar-lighter and can be carried in a vest pocket as casiK- as a match-safe.

It consists of a metal holder, at one

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