Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 91.djvu/606

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ANY deaths have occurred in mountain touring due to the engine going dead while on a steep grade because of the driver's attempt to go up in a higher gear than he should. When the engine stops, the car slides backwards and in many cases goes over the edge of the road if the brakes are not in the best possible condition and the driver does not apply them without losing his head.

Built along lines very similar to the harrow used by farmers and drawn over plowed land to level it and break the clods, the novel brake device shown in the accompanying illustration is designed to prevent automobiles used in mountain touring from running backwards down steep roads should anything go wrong with the regular brakes.

It is the invention of George Stickney, of Oregon. It consists of a harrow-like frame suspended from a cross-wise shaft pivoted to the chassis frame directly back of the engine and lowered into contact with the road by means of a system of levers controlled by a hand lever and notched quadrant in the driver's cab. The sharp, tooth-like points of the harrow dig into the ground and hold the car in place until the engine can be started again and the clutch thrown in. They also serve to hold the car until it gets under way. This eliminates the danger of starting under the same conditions without the device, in which case the conventional brakes must be released before the clutch is thrown in. This might allow the car to gain sufficient backward momentum to prevent the engine from starting and permit the car to drop off the road if the brakes cannot hold it.

HE smoker will welcome the appearance of a pipe which not only cools the smoke before it reaches the pipe stem but purifies it as well. Clarence J. Graham and Joseph A. Farris, of Chicago, Ill., are the inventors.

The secret of the cooling and purifying pipe is the bowl of water situated directly below the bowl which contains the tobacco. A metal tube extends from the tobacco bowl down into the water bowl. At the top of the water bowl is an outlet pipe. By puffing the pipe, smoke is drawn through the metal tube, down through the water and out of the outlet pipe through the stem. Thus all smoke passes through the bowl of water before it reaches the smoker's mouth.