Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 91.djvu/365

 Popular Science Monthly

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���Did You Hit the Target? This Target Answers

ONE of the objections to rifle shooting from the standpoint of the spectator is that you can't see what is going on — the results of the shot, as you can when you watch shotgun shooters smash clay birds. To make the game more inter- esting to the spectator and to mark the target for the shooter without the necessity for walking out and retrieving the target or hauling it in on its carrier, Frank C. Reed, of Springfield, Ohio, has designed and put on the market what he terms the "spot shot" target. He takes advantage of the fact that if you ex- tinguish all front lighting on a paper and put a strong light be- hind it, any perforation will show plainly in silhouette.

In a strong iron box he puts front lights of suitable strength and arrangement to best light up the small cardboard indoor minia- ture rifle target, and protects these as usual by a steel plate.

Behind the target, which slides into grooves formed in the box, is a funnel- shaped passage leading back from the target to a movable plate at the end of an arm that con- trols a circuit breaker for I ; light circuit and for the normally ex- tinguished light behind the target. This arm also operates a dash-pot or air-jacket that slowly draws the arm and its plate down to place again, breaking the circuit for the backlight as it

��does so, and again lighting the front lights. When the bullet passes through the card- board target in the holder, it continues on down the funnel, striking the steel plate and driving it and its arm into the air. The bullet then continues into a curved bullet- stopper of heavy steel

5fop to break impact and comes to

rest.

Instant- ly, by the action of the arm driven vi- olently upward by the bullet, the front lights are put out a n d a strong light from the rear

At left : A circle of light shows __. . _ _ i c ^ i_ _ the bullet hole. Above: The reveals t tic details of the lighting device target hole.

���Before dropping it into the "Long Tom" the washers toss the sand high in the air to catch the glitter of the gold

��Washing for Gold in the Clayey Soil of the Guianas

IN working for gold in the Guianas, where sluices are impossible because the soil is clayey, the ground is worked with a "Long Tom," a puddling-box about eight feet long. The torn is filled with the gold- containing mass by a spade-man and a hoe- man. The larger stones collect against the perforated iron plate at the end of the box fitted with riffles through which the dirt- bearing water flows. The worker throws the stones high in the air, watching for a glitter of gold. To make sure, he catches them again and perhaps repeats the trick, w h i c h seems simple but really de- mands the highest skill.

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