Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 90.djvu/911

 Popular Science Monthly

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��This Contractor Carries His Power Shop to His Job

IT is not always the fault of the contractor when a house is not completed on schedule time. Often exasperating delays are caused when woodwork must be sent to factories to be cut, or when different kinds of special work require power machinery.

B. F. Brown, an architect and builder of Brookfield, Mo., has found it an advantage to build his own power shop and to mount it on a truck so that wher- ever he goes it may go, carrying with it gas-engine, rip-saw, plow, rabbet, dado, planer, swing cut-off saw, 1 8-inch sandpaper drum and five special machines. Other equipment includes a cut-ofT table provided with a frame roller at- tachment. This table also answers as a workbench.

The little shop on wheels is storm- proof, so that it provides a convenient locker for tools. It was designed and built by Mr. Brown, himself, who claims that almost any kind of work in the way of framing, cutting and smoothing may be done in it as conveniently as in a great power factory.

The doors of the portable shop open up in such a way that they form a kind of shed under which the workmen and the machines may be somewhat pro- tected from rain and sun when the work is to be done just outside of the shop. There are six of these doors in all — two on each side and one at each end.

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��The Intelligent Trough. It Measures Out Water to the Thirsty Animal

T'S a wise trough that knows how- much an animal wants to drink. But that such wisdom is not impossible is shown in the trough illustrated. There is a platform which w^orks in conjunction with valves on the supply and drain-pipes of the trough. When a horse steps on the

����i.i^ pv.. i.c.L.i._ power workshop. Like Mary's little lamb it goes wherever its owner goes

��The weight of the animal presses the platform down and turns on the water

��platform the valves are opened and a stream of water pours in. As he slakes his thirst and steps ofT the platform the inlet is closed and the surplus water is drained oflf.

The credit for the device belongs to Victor A. Millen, of Ohio. The valve mechanism of his device is mounted in a concrete well in the ground. The valve of the supply-pipe and the valve of the drain- pipe are mounted side by side. The stems of both valves fit into a single operating lever as shown in the illustration. Hinged above this mechanism at the level of the ground is the platform. The front end of the platform is raised slightly by a pair of springs and is con- nected with the lever of the valves. The water trough lies just in front of the platform. You can see at once that as soon as a horse walks on the platform, he presses the front end down and opens the valves of the trough pipes. The water gushes in at just the rate that the average horse will drink. His thirst quenched, the horse leaves the platform, the springs raise it up and close the valves. Very little water is wasted, and the drink furnished the thirsty animal is as cool and fresh as that which is supplied to the farmer and his men.

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