Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 89.djvu/860

 84G

��Popular Science Monthly

��Flags Made of Wire. They Wave Even When There Is No Breeze

���Flags made of wire mesh mounted on a round iron- rod frame wave forever without becoming tattered

W1II-:N' a flag has bec-n tattered in battles its dilapidation bears witness to heroic service. It calls up pictures of brave deeds and \ictories won. But the flags that flutter in the breeze over our public buildings arc anything but insignia of glory when they become ragged after a period of service.

F. C. Wardell of Boone, Iowa, has con- ceived a plan to banish the perishable bunting and silk flags except for special occasions, by substituting one made of wire mesh mounted on a round iron-rod frame. The one in the accomi)aining [ihotograph was modeled from a composite picture f)f about fifty photographs of a cloth flag in \arious degrees of wind. It has been mounted on Knsign Peak, Salt Lake Cit\-, Utah, as shown in the oval picture.

In position the flag seems to be floating in the breeze, but the undulations are on!\- imitations. The wire mesh is practicalK- in- destructible, and it can be painted again and again.

To those who an- really patriotic suili a flag .seems a boon. It not only olTers a means wiierei)y the appearance of a loc.iii- ty is distinctly im- prf>veowrr

��A Caterpillar Three Hundred Feet Long

Till-- Ferracute Machine Company of Hridgeton, New Jersey, on being asked to take part in a local parade, put the matter up to its employees, who con- <ii\c(l the idea of constructing the giant (■ater[)illar, shown in the accompanying usiration.

Works on I.epidoptera were searched in \ain for models, and being thrown on their own resources they took a living specimen and magnified its hideous- less. The caterpillar they made is tliri-e hundri'd feet long and nearly li\e feet in diameter, with a head containing features hitherto un- known.

The inoti\e power was sup- plied by a hundred men wearing jjointcd caps, ranged three feet apart, the heads and caps pro- jecting through the back. Four hundred yards of green muslin Composed the skin, the head con- sisting of a light framework covered with paper and ajipropriately painted. Tile eyes were made of new tin dish- l)ans, iincrtcd, which reflected rays of light ill a striking manner.

There were a number of unique features in the parade, but the caterpillar, as it wended its sinuous way through the streets and up-and-ilown hill, cau.scd the greatest sensation and amusement, so that the participants were gi\en first honor.

The photograph was taken directly in front of the attractive oflice of the Ferra- cute Works.

No, the parade was not a feature celebra- ting the seventeenth of March, allhougit the good St. Patrick would probabK- not h.ive qu.iilf(l e\i-n before such a monster.

���men. weiiriiiK |xiinted riips. suppheti the foi this tlircc hundred foot long cutcn>illur

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