Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 90.djvu/758

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��Popidar Science Monthly

���A compact self-contained vermin-destroyer. It gives the men a shower bath at the same time that their clothes are being subjected to the disinfecting vapor treatment

��Writing Paper Made from Spinach Stems!

THE chemists are even con templating using the stems of spinach for making paper. According to a French horti- culturist, Monsieur de Noyer, spinach stems contain forty- six per cent of cellulose. He claims to have actually made paper from the vegetable, following the methods of the Grenoble paper-making school. If the waste portions of spinach are used for this purpose, he believes it will produce a most satisfactory writing paper, which will cost considerably less than the present high- quality grades.

��Getting Rid of Vermin Which Make Life Miserable in the Trenches

IT would seem that fighting a human enemy and being bombarded with shrap- nel and rapid fire guns would be sufficient to make life miserable for the fighters in the war zone without any additional annoy- ances. But the soldiers have still another enemy to fight, in the form of vermin. These are considered to be not only a nuisance but a menace to health.

Radical means have been employed to get rid of the vermin; but the usual methods involve the installation of cumber- some apparatus which it is difficult to transport from place to place. A device which has re- cently been de- signed to meet the need, how- ever, is mounted on a small truck, which takes care of the transpor- tation problem. The apparatus consists of bar- rels of disinfect- ant and a vapor- izing condenser, liquid is heated to io6 degrees and vaporized under a pressure which is determined by the size of the article being subjected to the vapor bath. At the back of the truck are two pipes for shower baths leading from the hot water tanks.

��Combining the Sword and Pistol in One Weapon

��A

���PENNSYLVANIA man has evolved a

combination sword and pistol, in which the barrel of the pistol is part of the sword blade, which is made a little thicker in the center to allow a hole to be bored, through which the bullet passes.

Between hilt proper and blade is mounted a revolver cylinder, with trigger and guard below it, and regular revolver firing mechanism, all part of the hilt, the trigger guard being within the hand-guard of the sword.

The user may cut and thrust to his heart's content with a weapon that is practically a sword, but when the other fellow proves a bit better fencer, the user has merely to slip his finger into the guard of the trigger, give a pull, and shoot his astonished opponent with what seemed to be only a sword.

��The barrel of the sword-pis- tol is part of the sword blade

��■GROOVE BORE BARRELIN SWORD BLADE

���The blade-barrel and the cylinder are fastened to the hilt with hinges in such a manner as to allow the gun to be "broken" to eject the shells.

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