Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 90.djvu/918

 902

��Popular Science Monthly

���Ball Throwing with a Sling

��An old State of Washington pioneer hollowed out this huge tree stump to make a dwelling. Now it serves as a bandstand

��A Tree That Served as a Home Is Now a Bandstand

A PIONEER homesteader in the State of Washington utihzed a partly hollowed tree for a dwelling. He cut off the top, thus leaving the huge cedar stump. This he completely hollowed to the roomy di- mensions of ten feet square, a palatial abode for the locality and the times. The tree itself is fifteen feet in diameter.

When the old man no longer needed this shelter it was removed to the Seattle Ex- position in 1909, as a curiosity, and at the close of the exposition it was purchased and presented to the city of Tacoma and placed in the city park, A railing was built around the top of the stump to make a platform for band concerts or public speaking. A band of no less than thirty instruments has been accom- modated on it. The interior is fitted with table and chairs for picnickers.

��THE age-old sling has been put on a modern basis by Warren W, Wooster, of New Jersey. A wire clutch in a cup at the end of a pole holds a ball while the pole is swung about the head. A trigger on the handle of the pole is connected with the clutch to release the ball at the proper instant. The ball flies off from the pole toward the target at an enormous speed.

The pole is hollow and contains a sliding rod inside to connect the trigger with the clutch. The ball is placed in the clutch when the rod is moved out furthest from the handle. Then the elastic wire arms which make up the clutch will be above the top of the cup and will spring open to receive the ball. When the ball is pressed down into the cup, the rod is pushed into the handle, and the trigger engages a collar and holds the rod in place. The handle is grasped with the trigger in the rear. It is whirled about the head and the trigger is pressed at the proper moment. A strong spring at the bottom of the clutch causes the clutch to spring out, and the ball flies off towards the target.

When using this device the boy stands twice as far away from the target as he would if throwing from the hand alone.

��Plants Like Animals Need Lime for Subsistence

MOST gardens would grow better if they were given a moderate quantity of slaked lime. Without the proper quantity of lime in the soil, a garden cannot grow hardy vegetables of maximum size. The spreading of very thin layers of the slaked lime during the fall would help considerably. The winter snows and rains would wash it down into the soil so that it would be fully in- corporated with it. A half pound of lime should be used for every fifty square feet of lawn or garden.

���The wire

arms hold

the ball while

the handle is whirled

about the

��head

�� �