Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 90.djvu/361

 Popular Science Monthly

��345

���Digest Your Food Electrically! You Can Do It with a Wireless Apparatus

WIRELESS engineers have perfected the "spark" system of wireless teleg- raphy, until now powerful currents are perfectly controlled. These currents have a decided medical value, and physicians were not long in employing them, first of all in the "baked" cautery method for making bloodless operations. Here sets of small electrodes are placed opposite the organ to be operated upon, and a low- voltage current is applied which may change its direction as many as a million times in one second. The current can be directed upon the partic- ular organ until it becomes heated to such an extent that it is actually "baked!" The cauter- ized organ may then be removed, if neces- sary, with little chance of blood poisoning.

The "wireless apparatus" shown in the accompanying illustration is being used now as an aid to digestion. The patient illustrated was so weak that he could not digest enough food to keep himself alive. The three large electrodes that are shown placed against his side were connected with a branch circuit of the apparatus. The number of times in a second that the current changed its direction was then regulated in the main circuit by the large wire coil seen near the head of the physician. The strength of the current was carefully adjusted, and when the proper values were ob- tained, the electrodes were "thrown in" with the main circuit. The current, as it coursed through the stomach and its connecting organs, so stimu- lated the cells that they were soon able to do their work again.

��The patient could not digest enough food to keep him alive, so electrical stimulation of the organs was resorted to and he recovered

��Will the Gasoline of the Future Be Mined?

THE latest estimates of the United States Geological Survey show that if gasoline continues to be used up at the present rate, all the petroleum fields now in use will be exhausted before 1950. Where, then, will our future gasoline come from? Billions of dollars are involved in the question. The probable answer is that "mined" gasoline will be used. Colorado, Utah, and other Western and Middle Western states con- tain extensive oil- bearing deposits of bituminous shale. Crude oil can be ex- tracted from them and this can be distilled further to ob- tain gasoline. Enough gasoline could be produced in this way to equal many times the amount obtained from all cur present-day petroleum fields.

���The pigeon-hole idea applied to traveling bags. Every inch of space is utilized, even the flaps

��You Don't Need to Dig in This Bag to Find What You Want

A TRAVELING bag which is a veritable wardrobe trunk, if one counts its numerous trays and compartments, has been invented by Samuel H. Wallach, of New York city. The trays are placed so that they taper upward toward the top. Access to them is gained by opening or separating the walls of the body portion of the bag.

The side and end walls of the bag are secureK' fastened together above the upper tray by a buckle. Several large envelope- shaped compartments are provided for soiled linen and small ar- ticles. Only a single lock is necessary to give access to any or all parts of the bag.

Each wall of the bag is provi- ded with pockets into which articles of various sizes may be tucked.

�� �