Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 91.djvu/244

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��Popular Science Monthly

���A gigantic pencil which when fully extended was seventy-five feet long. Eight of its "points" could not only write but talk. But it's a stingy pencil despite its length ; it hasn't any eraser

��Here Is a Pencil with Nine Good Points

AT a masquerade ball recently given in jTjl Oakland, California, by the advertis- ing men of that city, there appeared eight girls standing in single file and wearing cone-shaped hats which resembled the points of pencils. They were enveloped in a clumsy, bag-like device which had a big point at the front end.

A signal being given, these girls stepped forward one by one. To the amazement of the on-lookers, they presented a gigantic pencil, seventy-five feet long and thirty inches in diameter. For once a pencil became longer with use.

��on all hand derricks, the elevator platform on which the electric saw is mounted can be easily raised up to the level of any rack. A rod on this rack has then to be moved a foot or two to feed it into the saw. In a few minutes the biggest rod is severed by the' hack saw as it mechanically receives its rocking motion from the motor.

In order to cut other pieces of a different size, the platform is merely lowered in its guides to the level of the racks which con- tain the stocks of the proper diameters. It would ordinarily require six men to carry the heavy rods across the room, but by this means one operator can do it alone and in half the time.

��The Latest Enemy of Lost

Motion — the Portable

Elevated Saw

IN all manufacturing plants using steel rods, considerable time and labor were formerly required to carry the heavy rods from their racks to the sawing machine and back again when short pieces were to be cut off. But thanks to a new portable elevator de- signed especially for carrying the electric saw, there is practi- cally no loss at all.

When it is necessary to cut off short pieces of different diameters and shapes from the stock rods, the elevator is simply hauled over to the racks. By means of a system of reducing gears such as are used

���The saw is simply raised or lowered to the racks containing the different sizes of stock. It takes the place of six men

��Deadening Noise by Past- ing Tar Paper on a Concrete Floor

BY pasting heavy tar paper to the con- crete floor of a factory the thundering noise of passing trucks can be eliminated. The floor is first given a coating of gray ce- ment paint and, when that is dry, a second coating is then applied. At the same time one side of a five-ply tar paper is painted and when both paper and floor are wet the paper is laid wet side down on the floor and rolled until all air- pockets disappear. This gives a tar-paper flooring which acting as a muffler, deadens all noise from trucks or heavy vehicles.

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