Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 90.djvu/296

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��Popular Science Monthly

����A long pin jabbed into the cigar holds the appliance and serves as a shaft on which the disk slides

��Ensnaring the Ashes of a Cigar as You Smoke

YOU need not let the ashes of a cigar get away from you. A new appliance has been devised for catching them and for holding them safely. You need only to turn a cigar which has this appliance until its butt-end faces upwards and then until its butt-end faces downwards and the cigar is decapitated of ashes, which are caught in a small receptacle.

The mystery is easily explained. A long pin, jabbed into the cigar, serves the double purpose of holding the appliance on and of providing a shaft on which the receptacle may slide. But this is not an ordinary receptacle. It is divided into two parts by a metal partition having a small opening. In the half nearer to the cigar is a spiral-shaped coil of wire while in the farther half is a metal disk placed near the opening in the parti- tion. Into this disk the innocent ashes are made to fall.

��A Convenient Holder for Dental Floss

YOU can clean your teeth after every meal very quickly and conv^eniently with the dental-floss holder illustrated. No bulky acces- sories have to be carried about, only a small glass tube an inch-and-three quarters long which can readily fit into a small pocket. The floss is contained in this tube and when wanted for use a short projection on it is slipped out to receive the end of the floss. The accumulations of food between the teeth can now be quickly and easily removed. The floss is tasteless. Dentists claim that such use of the floss is abso- lutelv necessarv for cleanliness.

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��The coil of dental floss in the jar is drawn out, one length at a time, and this length is held in posi- tion for use

��A Stimulating Climate May Be

the Cause of Suicide N estimating the relative stimu- lating power of the various climates of the world, Ellsworth Hungtington ("Civilization and Climate," Yale University Press) says that in Eng- land the mean temperature of the seasons and the degree of storminess are both highly favorable, while the seasonal changes are only moderate.

"On the other hand," writes Mr. Huntington, "Germany is above medi- um in temperature, and high in seasonal changes and storminess. In this respect, it resembles the north- eastern United States and southern Canada. Japan is similar except that it is somewhat too warm and damp. The coast of British Columbia and the neighboring states is highly favorable in mean temperature, and medium in storminess and seasonal changes. Around San Francisco, the mean tempera- ture is still better, but both seasonal changes and storms are mild. In compen- sation for this, however, there are fre- quent changes of temperature because fogs blow in from the ocean, and are quickly succeeded by the warm, bright weather which generally char- acterizes the interior. Farther south where the fogs cease, the conditions become less favorable from the point of view of the changes from one day to another, although the mean temperature of the seasons still remains advantageous.

"The chief defect of the climate of the California coast is that it is too uniformly stimulating. Perhaps the constant activity which it incites may be a factor in causing nervous disorders. When allowance is made for the fact that California's urban population is relatively smaller than that of states like Massachusetts and New York, insanity appears to be even more prevalent than in those states. Moreover, the cities of the California coast have the highest rate of suicide. In proportion to the population the number of suicides is greatest in San Francisco; then come San Diego and Sacramento; while Los Angeles and Oakland are exceeded only by Hoboken and St. Louis." Possibly these facts may be connected with the constant stimula- tion and the lack of relaxation.

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