Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 91.djvu/404

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��Popular Science Monthly

��Subduing the Cow's Tail with a Simple Wire-Clip Device

NIGHT after night Arthur J. Thomp- son, of Argyle, Mich., was flogged by cows' tails. He milked two cows, which stood side by side. When milking the out- side cow he got but one tail in his face, but when he milked the inside cow he got the combined swishes of both tails. Needless to say, this an- gered him. So thoroughly tail-flogged was he that he decided then and there to subdue the cow's tail.

Taking a piece of wire and a pair of pliers he worked for two hours on his subduer. His first model completed he tried it on the cow "and got a crack on the head," as he tells us in a letter. But he did not stop. He worked another two hours, improved his model, tried it on the cow for the second time and lo! it kept the tail where it belonged. Several months later the Government issued him a patent.

His device is a simple U-shaped wire loop loosely fastened round the right leg of the cow, with the exterior side bent and twisted so as to form a clip to hold the tail. When placed in the clip end of the loop, the cow's tail can not be moved, nor can the cow kick with that foot.

���The cow's tail is fastened in the clip end of the U-shaped loop

��Each pocket of the pool table is provided with a V-hinge baseplate at the top. Electric contacts are held on the ends of both of the halves of these baseplates. The contacts lead to dry bat- teries and an electromag- net in the spinning de- vice. Thus, when you succeed in starting a ball towards any pocket, the weight of the ball as it passes over the baseplate forces the hinge arms to- gether and closes the circuit. Instantly, the armature of the electro- magnet is sharply pulled down. By means of the ratchet-and-pawl ar- rangement at the end of this armature, the hand on the spinning device is set whirling around in front of the score dial. The number at which the hand stops is the num- ber of points which your pocket scores. While the scored will depend solely skill is always required to start the hand going. The device also aids in keeping the score without individual calculations.

��number on your

��thus luck,

��Combining Luck with Skill in a New Game of Pocket Billiards

TO win in the game of pocket billiards devised by William Heffley, of Penn- sylvania, you will have to be lucky as well as skillful. His invention adds to the age- old game an electric spinning device which is operated by the ball entering into its pocket. The spinning device is likely to score you almost anything, so that a closely matched game can be made not only a matter of skill, but one which is in- tensely exciting.

Heffley *s device can be attached to any pool table without altering its construction.

���The weight of a ball traveling towards any one of the pockets closes an electric circuit

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