Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 90.djvu/595

 Popular Science Monthly

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��After the patient has been in the bath for about eight minutes his forehead will be covered with a slight moisture and his respiration will become accelerated. After a time, varying from fifteen to thirty minutes, the wax is removed from the entire body and the invalid then lies down and rests.

The fact that he is not burned always causes the patient a great deal of astonish- ment. The real reason is that wax has a very slight capacity for holding heat. Although it becomes ver>- hot during the

��melting process it loses its heat almost immediately upon being removed from the flame or from over the steam. Con- sequently, although it is boiling hot when it leaves the spout, and is still hot enough to be poured when it reaches the body, it is not sufficiently hot at the moment of contact with the flesh to burn it.

This new wax cure has been recom- mended as a means of aiding soldiers to recover the use of joints which have been stiffened through injuries received in the war.

���A patient completely immersed in a wax bath from chin to heels. The basket couch is lined with a material impervious to wax. In this he lies, perspiring freely, for a specified time

��A Perfume Spray from a Penny Slot Machine

ANEW slot machine has made a bid for popularity on some of our street corners and railway stations. For only one penny deposited in the slot you can spray your clothing or your pocket handkerchief with perfume of any preferred odor. The mechanism is simple. After dropping the coin in the slot, you press a lever in the usual way. This operates a bellows, forc- ing air through the perfume container and producing the spray. The weight of the coin passing down through the chute, over- balances a latching device and moves it away from the lever, while a movable arm drops to allow the bellows to operate.

It may be true that those who delight in the perfume of the heliotrope, the violet and the rose, and who occasionally neglect to provide for their olfactor>' satisfaction before leaving home, may bless the ma- chine; but there are those to whom the thought of a dozen diff^erent perfumes mingled with the stagnant air of a crowded car is anything but pleasant. However, the amount obtainable for the penny in- serted In the slot is not likely to be sufficient to be objectionable.

��Why Does Oil Poured on the Waters Calm the Sea ?

WAVES in mid-ocean are caused entire- ly by the action of the wind. The adhesion between the rapidly moving par- ticles of air which compose the wind and the surface particles of the water causes the water's surface to be dragged along with the air. Small ripples are immediately formed. These ripples soon overtake others near them. They unite, and due to the friction between the water particles, each succeed- ing ripple piles up on the top of previous ones.

Just as soon as oil is spread up>on the water, however, the size of the waves is reduced like magic. The reason for this is interesting. Oil, unlike water, has ver>' little internal friction between its particles. The ripples of oil formed by the wind, there- fore, cannot pile upon each other to any con- siderable height. Hence, water waves can- not grow in an area of oil placed about a steamer. They begin to fall down instead. By the time these waves reach the boat they will have lost their formative ripples and the result is a perfectly calm surface over the portion of the sea through whJch the boat is making its way.

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