Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 91.djvu/540

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��Popular Science Monthly

��Nasty Job This- Customers'

��-Cleaning Ears

��EVIDENTLY the Japanese are a long- suffering people. Take for instance the docility of the occupant of the barber's chair in the accompanying photograph. He has seated himself there to get his hair trimmed and will pay the price, no doubt. But as part of the tonsorial op- eration, the barber, with a contrivance somewhat like a series of blunt knit- ting needles padded on the ends with cotton, proceeds to clean out the ears of his patron. The boy in the backv ground illustrates the oriental's fear of the camera.

���Cleaning out the patron's ears is an im- portant part of the barber's duty in Japan

��Pulling and Pushing to Make the Swing Go

BECAUSE it was impossible to read the evening newspaper and swing his children at the same time, George A. Netcott, of Independence, Iowa, set about to devise a self-operated swing which would enable a child to swing itself without calling on the parent for assistance. After developing three styles of swings he finally adopted the one illustrated on account of the ease of operation.

His swing differs from the ordinary swing in that it has an additional pair of ropes which serve as the propelling force. These ropes are se- cured at their upper ends to hooks placed a few inches in front of the hooks which hold the swing ropes. At their lower ends the ropes terminal ia a pair of handles whic'.i slide freely up and down ths swing ropes. By pulling on

��the handles the swing is set in motion. The harder one pulls the higher the swing goes. The inventor also provides the swing with foot ropes which may be operated in conjunction with the hand ropes or in- dependently of them. These are fastened to the handles in the same manner as the hand ropes.

By working both foot and hand ropes the swing can be set in motion almost immediately. By pulling downward the swing is forced forward, and when the handles are re- leased the weight of the child forces the swing backward.

The foot-ropes

and stirrups also

make it possible for

to

one

the

the

and

��two children swing together operating handles and the stirrups

the hand move- ment. Although designed for the smaller children, the swing is strong enough for a child of any size. Its weight-carrying power depends not so much on the ropes as on the strength of the ceiling hooks.

��other standing in "pumping" in time with

���Hand and foot ropes connected with a pair of hollow handles enable the chil i to operate the swing without assistance

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