Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 90.djvu/864

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��Popular Science Monthly

���carried ble of desired

��A reaper boat cutting aquatic growths. The blades lie near the bottom of the pond and operate automatically by motor-power

��irregularities of the stream beds. The frame which sup- ports the cutting blades is constructed of two vertical irons and may be swung from a lever pivoted in an upright.

The paddle wheel is on a frame capa- adjustment to any depth. The wheel is driven from the gas- oline motor by a gearing and chain device. Two sep- arate countershafts are used for this purpose so as to give the necessary speed reduc- tion when cutting. The cut- ting frame may be lifted out of the water when not in use. The blades fold up alongside the frame.

��Clearing Out Ponds and Lakes with a Reaper

��A Willow Basket as Large as a House

��WE are familiar with all sorts of reap- 'T^HIS huge basket, a product of a tribe ing and harvesting machines de- X of the Ponca Indians of California, signed for use on land, but a reaper boat weighs 325 pounds when empty, notwith- is something decidedly new. A Frenchman standing that it is made of light osiers, by the name of Amiot has devised a boat skillfully intertwined. It is six feet from which is equipped with a set of bottom to rim, and its top

cutting blades for use in re- ^^:^r^ ~^^-\ is three feet higher

moving aquatic grow from ponds and arti ficial lakes.

The cutting blades, which are modeled after the fashion of reaper blades, are operated by a motor on the boat. The boat is about twenty feet in length, flat bot- tomed and narrow at the front and rear. A paddle wheel placed in the front of the boat is driven by a gasoline engine.

The cutting bars are placed at the rear end of the boat on a vertical frame. The blades are

made in different lengths. ^- r -i u u u i*. j •

J. , j.„ ° An entire family could be sheltered in

and with dltterent curva- ^hjs great basket, which was formerly

tures to adapt them to the used by the Indians as a granary

���5 now the property the Institute of ^rts and Sciences of Brooklyn, New York. Before it could be loaded on a box car for ship- ment east it was necessary to widen the floor of the car.

These huge willow "gran- aries" of the Poncas are gen- erally mounted on rude platforms reached by ladders to keep them dry. Each basket has a rain-shedding cover made of grass or cedar bark. The grain kept in them remains dry and in perfect condition indefinitely.

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