Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 91.djvu/395

 Popular Science Monthly

Desert Sand-Shoes for the British Troops in Palestine

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��THE, British troops in the Sinai desert, in Palestine, have found a way to make their feet as sand-worthy as the camel's. By weaving a stiff network of heavy wire and attaching it to their shoes, they are able to travel over the finest desert sand without sinking ankle - deep in it. They have adopted the principle of the snowshoe.

It is said to be physically impossi- ble for a man to walk over desert sand for more than two days with or- dinary shoes. At the end of that time the toes and heels become pain- fully inflamed and the skin comes off. No doubt the troops suffered untold agony be- fore they devised the sand-shoes.

���The snow-shoe principle applied to sand- shoes for traveling over the blistering desert

��Loading Coal-Baskets Automatically From a Motor-Truck

MANY residences, particularly those in the suburbs of cities, are built far back from the sidewalk so as to leave a neat lawn. Coal cannot be shot into the cellars of such houses directly from a vehicle. It must be carried in in baskets. That necessity brought forth the new motor coal-truck illustrated below.

The vehicle has a table at the rear

��on which are carried four large baskets, each holding two hundred pounds of coal. The table is lowered by gravity so that the baskets are level with four spouts in the rear of the truck body. Gates in these spouts are opened and the baskets ^ filled in one operation.

After this the table and baskets are lifted up to the height of a man's shoulder by means of ropes and pulleys operated from the driver's seat by an hy- draulic hoist driven, from the truck en- gine. The men place the baskets on their backs with- out any lifting, carry them to the residence cellar and return with the empty baskets, after which the op- eration is repeated. The rear of the body is tapered to an angle of seventy-five degrees so that the coal will run out without difficulty. The entire operation of filling the baskets and lifting them shoulder high takes seven seconds. Five tons of coal are disposed of over a sixty-foot carry, in less than twenty minutes.

With this novel- body the truck is able to deliver coal at the rate of thirty-two cents a ton for labor, whereas by the former horse methods it cost fifty- two cents.

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���The inside of the truck body tapers down to an angle at the rear so that the coal will run out easily. When the baskets are filled the pulleys lift them up shoulder high

��Five Billions to United States Is Like Three Cents to a Man With a Dollar

HO shall say how many ten- figure loans a nation can make before she will be bankrupt? England, with an estimated wealth of eighty-fivebillions,hasmade three great loans, aggregating ten billions, the last one being the largest single loan ever floated. Germany has made five loans since the beginning of the war, yet her wealth probably does not exceed eight billions. Con- sidering these figures, a five- billion-dollar loan in the United States, having an estimated national wealth of two hundred and twenty bil- lions seems small.

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