Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 90.djvu/596

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��Popular Science Monthly

���It took five men to throw Moses to the ground, "hog tie" him and then shoe him properly

Moses Didn't Want to be Shod. So They '*Hog-Tied" Him

WHEN forest rangers and government engineers are in the field many miles away from the nearest town, they frequent- ly have to do their own horseshoeing. This is a comparatively easy task if the animal is tractable and accustomed to the opera- tion. But often the men have to "hog-tie" their horses — that is, throw them to the ground and tie their feet together. To throw a horse to the ground without injur- ing him is no tenderfoot's job. It requires much patience and muscular power.

The horse shown in the illustration is Moses, one of the animals attached to a topographical engineering party in Oregon. Moses wouldn't stand and allow his captors to shoe him. Consequently he was forced to submit to all the indignities of the hog- tie. Three men are holding his feet by ropes, one is holding his head and the other, leaning over him, is doing the shoeing under difficulties. The sixth man in the party has a cub bear skin which he is tacking to a dead tree. When the men have finished shoeing Moses they will roll him over so that he will be on the down-hill side. This is the only position in which he can regain his newly-shod feet without considerable danger of hurting himself.

��An Alarm That Warns You of a Leaking Tire

IT frequently happens that air leaks slowly from a tire without the driver's knowing it. The tire becomes flat and the rims of the wheel cut into it. To warn drivers in time, GeOrge F. Young, of Indianapolis, Indiana, has invented an electric alarm which can be attached to any wheel. It consists of an electric switch which is mounted on the axle of a wheel. The blade of this switch projects toward the spokes of the wheel." The end of the blade stops very close to the spokes, though enough space is left to enable the blade to barely clear them.

Working in conjunction with the blade of the switch is a metal finger mounted on one of the spokes of the wheel. This finger can slide radially to the wheel, but a spring normally holds it away from the axle, with one end up against the underside of the inflated tire. The other end of the finger will clear the projecting blade when the tire is properly inflated. Just as soon as the tire begins to flatten, the finger is pressed radially inward and it strikes against the projecting blade. The switch is thereby closed, and an alarm, such as a well located light or a buzzer which is very easily heard, is operated.

The various switches are mounted so that they do not rotate with the wheels with which they are associated; but they are placed in a position so that they will be thrown to one or the other of their closed positions when* the tire is punctured or if the air suddenly leaves it. This method of mounting may be carried out in several different forms. The one most convenient is shown in the accompanying illustration.

��GROUNDED SWITCH

���PLUNGER LOWtREO INFLATED TIRE

��A flattened tire presses a switch-finger in- ward. The electric switch is thus closed, and an alarm in the circuit at once gives warning

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