Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 91.djvu/567

 Popular Science Monthly

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��springs. It is evident that the passengers are tossed up and down for greater dis- tances than the car itself when an obstruc- tion is overridden.

The records seem to show that on the whole the passenger in the rear seat is better off than the man in the front seat. The man in front gets two jolts for each bump, first when the front wheels pass over the obstruction, and second, when the rear wheels pass over it.

On the other hand, it is'evident that the passenger in the rear seat, represented by the top line, is jolted once only by the ob- struction, the wave in the line showing the spring action. It is clear that the passenger in the rear seat is thrown up appreciably higher than the passenger in the front seat.

At last it becomes possible to analyze exactly the performances of different auto- mobiles, or of the same automobile, with variations in such accessories as the leaf- springs, cushion-springs, inflation pressure of the tires, shock absorbers, stiffness of the frame, weight of the axles, etc. So that the unproved statements of the manufac- turers need no longer be all that accom- pany such appliances.

���What's This? A Mosque? No, Just a Flag- man's Shelter

A FLAGMAN'S shelter house, made up of old loco- motive parts, guards a street crossing on the Southern Pa- cific at San Jose, Cal. The shelter was constructed by the consulting engi- neer from old engine wheels, springs, tires and other parts of discarded locomo- tives.

Besides being an oddity in appear- ance, it is solidly built and one of the most elaborate shelters for flagmen in the state. It is the curiosity of the locality.

���Ah, yes, a little Mosque where pious Moham- medans may pray. San Jose knows better. It is a flagman's shelter made of old scrap

��The skull is made of paper and was used by Army Medical Students for anatomical study

The Army Medical Museum's , Giant Skull

COMPARED with the man standing be- side it, the huge skull shown in the accompanying photograph would appear to have belonged to a person about thirty feet high and to be reminiscent of the times when "There were giants in those days." As a matter of fact, it is not a real skull, but a papier mache representation of one, a little over four feet high. It stands in the Army Medical Museum at Washington, and was greatly exag- gerated for pur- poses of anatomical study.

The skull is per- fect in every detail. The students study not only the con- struction of the hu- man skull but meth- ods of trepanning and of mending all the different varie- ties of fractures. It is also used in in- structing the classes in dental surgery.

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