Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 90.djvu/767

 Playing Baseball with Rifles

An amusement park device that will enable a fan to play his own game

��SOME irate baseball enthusiasts would like to frequent shooting galleries regu- larly, provided the targets were umpires and the rifles powerful enough to do real damage. The game illustrated does not offer that opportunity. It affords a means, however, whereby one may exercise his skill as a marksman and engage an opponent in a brisk baseball contest with the rifle.

The result of every shot, hit or miss, is flashed on the board in base- ball terms by a con- cealed operator, who can readily fol- low the progress of the game by means of a system of target blocks which are vi- brated by the im- pact of the bullet. The baseball field is placed in an upright position in theshoot- ing gallery. The bases consist of openings or slots through which the operator signals the various positions of the "player."

The ball is a cir- cular piece of card- board held in position by a metallic ring fastened to a rod leading down and behind the board. By means of a pantograph arrangement (four light, rigid links joined together in parallelogram form) the operator from his position behind the board can move the ball as he wishes.

The target is located in the batter's posi- tion. It is the same shape and size as the ball, but instead of being in one piece it is divided into seven blocks, each mounted on a separate sleeve running through the board to which is attached the signal devices for the operator. The faces of the blocks toward which the marksman aims his gun are marked first base, second base,

���The baseball rifle target. The operator is shown in the rear

��The pantograph device which moves the card- board ball and signals

��third base, right field, center field and home run.

To play the game the gun is aimed at the most desirable block — the home run block. The shot must not be fired until the operator has caused the cardboard ball to travel toward the catcher. The object is to puncture the ball as it passes over the batter's plate or tar- get and hit the home run block. If the bullet strikes some other block grouped about the ho me run block, the oper- ator scores first base or second base, ac- cording to the block which he succeeds in hitting.

Failure to hit the ball as it passes over the plate registers a strike. If the ball passes the catcher's position without being fired at, it is a "passed ball." By rearranging the tar- get markings and signals a game of football, polo, crosse, cricket pinochle may played with the same apparatus.

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TARGET INDIC AT0R5 VIBRA-; TED BY IMPACT; OF BULLET

��'PIVOT INDICATES POSITION OF BALL I '0NREVER5E SIDE.

��CARDBOARD BALL SUPPORT

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��PANTOGRAPH OPERATING ARM

��A River Which Keeps Warm by Its Own Power

ONE of the hydro-electric power plants of the far north, which uses river water to supply current for its electric gold dredges, has devised a novel scheme to make the river keep itself warm. Electric heating units have been sunk in the bed of the stream and the power generated by the falling water actually raises the tempera- ture of the flowing water enough to prevent the river from freezing during the coldest weather. Thus the stopping of the work during the winter months is avoided.

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