Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 90.djvu/928

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��Popular Science Montlily

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��Loading and unloading heavy barrels with an electrically-operated crane

��A Pigmy Electric Crane with the Strength of a Giant

TIME is the all-important factor in the dehvery system of any large distribut- ing company. That is one reason why motor-trucks have superseded the horse and wagon. But it sometimes happens that more time is consumed in loading or un- loading a vehicle than in transporting the material to its destination. Thus there is a persistent demand at present for cranes and lifting machinery which will serve the truck without delay The illustration shows a novel type of electric crane employed to load and unload three hun- dred-pound barrels on a truck. It does its work in one fifth the time required to roll the barrels and lift them on the truck by hand. Another advan tage is that the barrels are not damaged or handled roughly in unloading and there is little or no danger from accidents. It requires the services of only two men.

��What the Zeppelins Have Cost London in Acci- dents and Deaths

OME Secretary Cave, in a recent speech in the House of Commons, gave the total number of fatal accidents in the London streets between sunset and sunrise since the beginning of the war and the total num- ber of persons killed by Zep- pelins. According to him the number of fatal accidents in the Metropolitan Police Dis- trict during the hours of darkness between August i, 1914, and January 31 last, was nine hundred and fifty- four. The number of persons killed by Zeppelins in the same district was one hundred and thirty- seven. In the city proper there were twenty-nine fatal accidents and thirteen persons killed by Zeppelins.

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����Serving Individual Portions of Butter by Machinery

AN automatic butter-serving machine, such as is shown in the illustration, will cut and deposit the individual squares of butter on their respective plates in a fraction of the time required by a waiter for the task, and in a man- ner more satisfactory to the health experts.

The butter is placed in a cylinder inside the machine, from which it is forced through an opening in the bottom by means of a plunger geared to a handle. A downward throw of the handle moves the plunger the length of a notch. A cutting wire is simultane- ously swung into position. The upward ii*reTr of the ha^idie reverses the cutter shaft and forces the wire through the butter, thus 4ividing it into individual portions. These It throws forward on to the plates set to receive them. A separate chamber in the- center of the machine is filled with ice to keep the butter at the proper temperature.

��There are eight storage cylinders and a compart- ment for iee

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