Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 90.djvu/821

 Popular Science Monthly

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��liarly romantic about the work of these telephone and telegraph men in France. To begin with, they are extraordinarily efficient. Suppose you want to get a mes- sage through from some tiny unit at Ypres to another equally insignificant at Albert — a distance of some one hundred miles. They will do it for you in less than four minutes. In New York or Chicago, with all modern appliances, with up-to-date, comfortable quarters, you could not obtain an equivalent con- nection in less time than that. It may be romantic todo battle. Battle rouses your blood, and the instinct of self-preservation will always help you in a fight. No disparagement of the fighters — but I take my hat off to the man who can do a cable-laying job under fire.

���Gustave manicuring the nails of the employees of the dining-room, kitchen and pantry of a New York hotel with as much care as if they were patrons

��Another Inventor's Idea for Speeding Up the Automobile

SOME patents suggest mainly the idea that somebody somehow is making a little money out of somebody by getting the patents issued. Until September 19, 1916, we could all, for example, freely mount two 42-inch, 8-bladed propeller-screws in front of our motor-cars and connect them with the hubs of the rear wheels by means of six pairs of bevel gears, two long rods and two universal joints; but on that date Edward VVintermute of Exeter, Nebraska, had such an arrangement re- served for himself

alone and those -^^ --**,<

on whom he may propellers

see fit to confer the same privi- lege.

The illustra- tion shows one of the ways in which this conception can be presented by pen and ink without chall enging the appoint- ment of a com- m i ssi on in lunacy.

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���The propeller- screws in front of the car are intended to increase its hill-climbing ability seventy-five per cent

��New York Restaurant Waiters and Cooks Must Now Be Manicured

MONG the many innovations which the age has produced, none seems more novel or extreme than one of the regu- lations in reference to health and hygiene recently introduced by the management of a great New York hotel.

Under the new rules, an official manicure has been installed to take care of the hands of the cooks and waiters. Every day each employee who is in any way connected with the serving of food must report to the official manicure to have his hands thoroughly scrubbed in hot water and his nails cleaned and polished.

The mani- cure is per- haps the busi- est of the ho- tel employees. When his first dutiesareover, his task of in- spection be- gins. At no time of the day or evening is a careless waiter or cook safe from his scru- tiny.

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