Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 91.djvu/247

 Popular Science Monthly

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��the main engines, carefully hidden away in the coal bunkers ; the discovery of bolts and nuts which led to a minute examination of the cylinders and steam-chests, where it was disclosed that parts had been removed and other parts carefully substituted to conceal the omission; the location, in other places, of studs and bolts partly sawed through, with the saw slot filled up; the finding of steel wedges fitted into steam- ports, so that any attempt to turn over the engine would have ruined it; the discovery of ob- structions in pipes, smokestacks fj

What would have happened had the damper-chain been pulled. Over one hundred pounds of iron and coal would have fallen on the unsuspecting person

��How the German trap on the Friedrich der Grosse was dis- covered by means of a flashlight and a bit of ingenuity. The light was lowered down the ventilator and its rays played on the iron and coal which had been placed on the damper to fall on the head of the person careless enough to pull the damper chain as shown in the picture above

���Joke No. 1. A device which was thought to be a death-dealing trap. The string enabled the occupant of the stateroom to open the ventilator without un- locking the door. What a relief!

���Blueprints of the important details of the ship were concealed. They were tacked to the underside of bureau drawers and boxes. In cleaning out the drawers they were discovered

and ventilators — lumps of coal and bars of iron placed on top of the closed damper-valve in a ventilator, requiring only a pull on the damper-chain to precipitate the entire load down on the head of the person foolish enough to pull it, and other traps too numerous to mention here.

Down in the engine room and

into the boilers, went the man

with the flashlight, crawling in

through one small manhole and

in and out of the slimy tubes and

shell, where one misstep

would have meant serious

injury. The long disused

��Brass tube caps on end containing nothing

����u

��Empty bomb placed in boiler

Joke No. 2. When the rear man- hole plate of a boiler was re- moved a fake "bomb" was dis- covered in the position shown. Thereafter every boiler was mi- nutely searched for a real one

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