Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 91.djvu/580

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The Massaging Chair. Sit in It and Let Two Rollers Knead Your Spine

BY means of a chair that has recently been invented by Halbert L. Hoard, of Fort Atkinson, Wis consin, a person suffer- ing from spinal trouble or from any of the nu- merous complaints due to "nerves," is enabled to perform the otherwise dif- ficult task of massaging the back and especially the spinal column without the assistance of a profes- sional. A number of hard rubber rollers are pressed against your back by strong springs attached to the roller carriage. By moving a pair of handles up and down, the rollers are similarly moved up and down, the springs keeping them pressing uniformly against your back. With every stroke, the circula- tion through the blood vessels is increased, and unquestionably, some good is attained.

��Popular Science Monthly

���The massaging rollers, pressed in by strong springs, are moved up and down against the spine by means of the handles

��How One Furnace Can Save a Big Slice of the Country's Coal Bills

FULLY one fourth of the coal used in heating our country's homes is wasted, simply because the average furnace is not properly designed to burn the highly combustible gases that are contained in the coal. The great- est part of our country's coal supply is what is called bitumi- nous, or soft coal, which contains on an average forty- five per cent of highly combustible gases which in themselves form a large por- tion of the heat value of the coal. Gases are distilled from the coal at low temperatures and must be thoroughly mixed with a sufficient supply of air and raised to the proper temperature before com- plete combustion takes place. In other words, prevent the gases from escaping before complete

��combustion has taken place — that is the solution of the problem.

This idea has been carried out in a furnace, the boiler and foundation of which differ not at all from those of other furnaces, except that the as the proper air- e area so that the oper amount of air is admitted to burn all of the gases completely. As the air erters under the grate and penetrates upward through the incandes- cent coals or hot bed, it mixes thor- oughly with the gases and all pass through the hot bed of coal between the grate and the lower extremities of an arch. The arch is directly over the hottest part of the fuel bed, hence, the gases are liberated immediately back of the arch at the highest possible temperature and come in contact with the heating surface of the boiler after complete combustion has taken place. Thus all the available heat is expended directly upon the boilers, almost none of it escaping up the chim- ney or out into the room.

Since all the carbon burns, no soot will collect on the fire tubes. Thus still another saving results from the keeping of the tubes free from this heat-insulating substance.

��chimney

���Wa

air and coal gas

��Arch-heated gases begin hereto burn

��The grate has the proper air-space area into which suffi- cient air is admitted to burn all gases thoroughly

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