Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 90.djvu/903

 Popular Science Monthly

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��A Combined Automobile Spring and Shock Absorber

A CANADIAN, Henry Dixon, has invented a device which combines the functions of an ordinary automobile spring and a shock absorber. The same degree of elasticity may be main- tained between the lightest and heaviest loads in order to reduce the sudden bound and rebound so uncomfortable to the passen- gers of a car.

The apparatus consists of one \ertical air cylinder and piston mounted on a yoke, at the bot- tom of which are pivoted two inclined spring cylinders. These in turn are connected with two other oppositely inclined cylin- ders pivoted to a top yoke and with two other similar horizontal spring cylinders spaced on either side of the vertical air cylinder.

Each of the cylinders has a piston, that in the air cylinder being provided with a ball valve by which air may pass from one side to the other, and those in the spring cylinders with washers at the ends which serve to compress the springs under action.

The device is inserted between the vehicle frame and each of the springs. When subjected to an excess load or to concussion, as when the vehicle passes over ruts or car tracks, the four inclined spring cylinders straighten out in the manner of a toggle and exert great endwise pressure, to compress the springs and increase their nat- ural force in the ratio of their compression. This compression is retarded, however, by the resist- ance of the air in the center vertical cylinder and by the springs in the two horizontal cyl- inders. The return of the cylinders to their normal position is ef- fected by a gradually diminishing force, this action tending to reduce sudden bounds and re- bounds of the body.

���The switchboard and operators were raised by easy stages to the floor above and not a call was missed. This was naade possible by lengthening the switchboard cable

��Moving a Telephone Switchboard Without Interrupting the Service

��A

��TELEPHONE company at West Palm Beach, Florida, recently added a

��frame

��5prin9 CyliryJer

���Air Cylinder

��In this combined automobile spring and shock absorber the same degree of elasticity is maintained between the lightest and heaviest loads

��floor to its building and raised the operating switchboard one flight up into the new addition.

The switchboard was moved to a temporary platform, to which p)ow- erful chain falls were attached. A half dozen rafters of the new floor had not been placed in position, so that the platform could be raised through that space.

During the movement the three telephone girls continued their work unconcerned, an- swering calls and asking for numbers as usual.

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