Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 91.djvu/564

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��Popular Science Monthly

��Potted Plants as a Part of a Plumber's Equipment

IT often happens that plumbers are com- pelled to tear up sidewalks and streets, and otherwise muss things up in making repairs or pipe connections. Usually they are little concerned about the ap- pearance of the street during the repairingprocess. But R. H. Slay- ton, of Los Ange- les, California, is an artist at heart although a plumbing con- tractor by trade. When he is com- pelled to tear up a street he puts a barricade of growing plants around the spot. This not only serves to shut off the sight of the piled- up dirt but diverts traffic.

���These potted plants say with a graceful nod: "Go the other way. Repairs are in progress here"

��Delivering Tires by Motor-Truck from Akron to Boston

ANEW era in vehicular transportation has been inaugurated by one of the large tire companies of Akron, Ohio, which is now running a line of five-ton motor-

��trucks between that city and Boston, Mass., a round trip distance of 1,540 miles. The truck runs on a regular railroad schedule, carrying completed tires from Akron and taking back cotton tire fabric from the company's cotton mills in Connecticut.

Three round trips have just been completed, the last in seven and one-half days. The truck used is a regular five-ton model. It is equipped with a special body having a closed-in driver's cab with a sleep- ing compartment directly behind it and extending clear across the frame from one side to the other. This is used for sleeping quarters by the two drivers, who work in relays.

It might be supposed that sleeping on a motor truck would be difficult and very un- comfortable, but the giant pneumatic tires provide a wonderful cushioning effect that makes the truck ride almost as comfortably as a passenger car. The truck load is carried in a stake body aft of the cab and is covered with canvas to protect the goods in inclement weather.

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��One of the five-ton motor-trucks now running regularly between Akron, Ohio, and Boston, Mass., carrying completed tires from Akron and taking back cotton tire fabrics from the company's mills

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