Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 90.djvu/662

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��Popular Science Monthly

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� � ��The protector consists of a mask, flexible tubing, intake funnel and head straps. It supplies fresh air without any pressure furnished by machinery

Breathing Fresh Air in a Manhole through a Protector Mask

��before peeling. Each piece should weigh not less than one and one-half ounce. These pieces are planted in shallow window boxes in leaf mold, coconut fiber or sand. The boxes are kept in the window of a cool but frost-proof room and the sprouts are grown in them until they are from one-half to one inch high. Then they are planted as seed potatoes.

To prevent the cut pieces from shriveling before they are planted, the cut surface is dusted over wdth dry, powdery plaster of Paris, dry slaked lime, or finely powdered char- coal. The rose end of the potatoes is hardly missed, and the seed potatoes are thus obtained at a scarcely appreciable cost.

��A WESTERN manufacturer has put a gas protector on the market which is designed to enable a man to breathe pure air without pressure while he is working in a manhole repairing gas pipes or wire conduits. It has several distinctly novel features. The pure air is drawn through the intake funnel and tubing fastened over the mouth and nostrils, and the used air is expelled through an exhaling valve.

The protector weighs but seven ounces. The mask is constructed of rubber and aluminum. Adjustable head straps hold it firmly in place and make an air-tight fit, as the rim of the rubber mask is inflated through an air valve blown up by the mouth each time a breath is taken. The flexible tubing is twelve feet long and is equipped with an intake funnel at its end.

��Portable Saw and Pump Outfits for Farm Use

���OF great utility about the farm is the small motor and stand shown in the accompanying illustration. It can be carried about in a wheelbarrow and may be used to saw wood, operate a pump, washing machine, churn or even to charge a storage- battery. Its usefulness is further enhanced by the fact that it can be run on either gasoline or kerosene.

The motor may be obtained in two

sizes of three or five horsepower. In

each case it is mounted on a small

wooden stand, as shown, to drive the

desired machine by a belt. The

engine is of the

two-cylinder, two-

e, air-cooled

��A Money-Making Idea! Grow Potatoes in Window- Boxes

IN view of the shortage of potatoes and onions in America, and of the difficulty in supplying the demand for table use, the question of seed potatoes is a se- rious one. The following plan has been adopted by some thrifty housewives to in- crease not only their individual supply of potatoes but their pin money accounts as well by providing some for marketing.

From each batch of potatoes prepared for cooking, a piece from the "rose" end (the end where most of the eyes are) is cut off

��The portable farm motor is run on either gasoline or kerosene

��type, fitted with a high-tension magneto built in the flywheel. It has a standard type carburetor and an integral fuel tank and mufifler. A gallon of gasoline will fur- nish enough power to saw a supply of fire wood that will last for a week, and in an hour sufficient corn can be ground to feed a well-stocked farmyard.

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