Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 90.djvu/468

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��Popular Science Monthly

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��Keeping the Tobacco at Top of the Can

THE man who smokes a pipe and buys his tobacco in the "neat little tins" will save himself cut fingers and perhaps a degree of lost temper if he

���A movable auxiliary bottom to raise the tobacco in the can as it is used from the top

will equip his tobacco can with an arrangement similar to that shown in the accompanying drawing. A groove is dented into one side of the can and a sliding strap of some fairly stiff metal inserted in the groove under a loop which is cut as shown. The strap is bent, half of it being inside the can. When a little of the tobacco, which is contained in a snug fitting paraffined paper bag has been poured out the metal strap is pressed upward, bringing the level of the tobacco even with the top of the can. This can be repeated as the tobacco is used until the can is empty.

��Keeping Your Plants Watered While You Are Away

IF you are going away from home for a few days and are afraid your choice window plants may suffer for lack of water, place the plants around a large bucket filled with water, drop one end of a piece of yarn to the bottom of the water, and lay the other end on the earth around one plant, using as many pieces of yarn as you have plants. Sufficient moisture will thus be carried to the soil to keep the plants in excellent condition for a long time. — H. C. Franke, Jr.

��Using Dirty Waste Oil from Automobile Crankcases

OLD, dirty and worn out oil, drawn from automobile crankcases, drip- pans and other sources need not be thrown away. It can be mixed with coal dust and screenings and used for fuel. Use a pint or more with each hod of screenings, mixing well, so as to make a dry pasty mass that will barely hang together. In this way two otherwise useless products may be satisfactorily employed as a fuel. — John Hoeck.

��An Adjustable Shingling Jack for Sloping Roofs

THIS jack is arranged so it can be in- stantly fitted to any pitch roof by simply loosening the lock nut on sup- ports and raising the seat to the proper angle, then tightening the lock nut. The roof iron is made from 3^ in. by i in. band iron and shaped like the sketch with the points sharpened to keep it from slipping in the roof. The hinges are cut from an old 4^ in. by ^}4 in. door butt and notched out to receive the adjusting rods, which are made of M-in. gas pipe which has been threaded up about 2 in. and split with a hack saw, as in the sketch. The button adjuster rod is of solid iron ^ in. in diameter and filed to slide into the ^-in. gas pipe. The

���The supports have threaded adjustments like a turnbuckle to raise and lower the seat

hinges are bolted on the seat and roof iron, and the measurements are from center to center. This jack was made with no other tools than a hack saw and a flat file.

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