Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 91.djvu/609

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T looks as if the ideal garbage can had been invented at last. William Dowie, of New York city, is the inventor and his can is about everything that a garbage can can be. It is dustless, odorless and noiseless. You can turn it over without spilling it because the lid is clamped tight across the top. The lid prevents flies, dogs, cats, mice and rats from touching the contents. It is strictly a non-disease spreading can.

There are rubber bumpers on the top and bottom which make it practically noiseless when it is being rolled across the sidewalk or street and dumped in a wagon. Furthermore, the rubber prolongs the life of the can, protecting it against rough handling.

LECTRICITY is rapidly taking all the back-breaking exertion out of every kind of work. If all the inventions based upon it turn out satisfactorily and as many more are brought out in the future the old axiom about earning our bread by the sweat of our brow will lack pungency. Look at the electric drill shown in the accompanying photograph, for instance. It is patterned somewhat after a pistol and by its use a hole can be drilled iron or steel with the ease of shooting a pistol.

This electric drill has a trigger-like on-and-off switch which makes it possible to handle the instrument without fatigue. The trigger switch also prevents the breakage of drill bits for the reason that it is possible to control the drill without releasing the grip to the slightest extent and allowing the weight of the device to sag on the drill bit.

The workman instinctively pulls the trigger to shut off the current when the drill bit passes through the metal being drilled, thereby saving current expense. The chuck spindle can be adjusted to fit all sizes of bit stocks so that the drill can be used in nooks and corners where there is not much room, and in hard-to-reach spots, as shown in the accompanying illustration.

The cover of the motor armature of the drill is perforated for cooling to prevent over-heating. The drill weighs a trifle over thirteen pounds complete and drives the bit at nine hundred revolutions per minute with no exertion on the part of the operator.

The ease with which it is operated is not the only attraction of the electric drill, however. The hole is made in a small fraction of the time required by the ordinary method and is perfectly clean and true.