Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 91.djvu/610

 594

��Popular Science Monthly

���Even in the dark you would know that the bottle above with its skull and cross-bones mold contained poison

��The points over the cork of the bottle on the right would warn you that you had the poison bottle in hand

��in the glass, so that when the bottle is taken up at night in the dark it is easily distinguished by the sense of touch. There is a smooth space left on the side of the glass on which labels telling the kind of poison that is contained in the bottle may be pasted. But should the label drop off or become defaced, the fact that the contents of the bottle are poisonous will be obvious from the shape and design of the bottle itself.

Another design is the invention of Worth R. Barringer, of Colorado. A metal clamp fits around the neck of the bottle and pro- jects two pointed segments over the cork, holding it in place and by a slight prick warning the person attempting to withdraw the cork that the contents of the bottle are poisonous.

��These Bottles Warn You That They Contain Poison

IN a bulletin on poisons, issued from the Surgeon General's Office at Washing- ton, D. C, it is stated that every year five thousand people, on an average; take poison by mistake. The Surgeon General recommends that poison be sold and kept only in bottles of dis- tinctive shape. The bottle shown in the illustration seems to be ideal for the purpose. Even little children and the most illiterate adults usually know that the skull and cross-bones indicate danger. The pattern is molded deep

��I

��A finger print showing imprint of the words "Chicago" and Wilson

��Is This the Secret of Curious Lettered Finger Prints?

N the April issue of Popu- lar Science Monthly, on page 517, there ap- peared an article de- scribing a curious fin- ger print. A Nation- al Guardsman had his finger print taken and was surprised to see the letters "UO P L E" on the ball of his right fore-finger. He was unable to give a reason for their pres- ence; furthermore, he did not know they were there until an imprint was taken of the finger. Now comes an exolanation of the method by which the mysterious letters were imprinted on his finger. W. K. Evans, director of Evans University, in Chicago, 111., offers us the following:

"In order that you may enlighten those

who may have wondered how the lettering

got on to the print, I send a finger print

with the words 'Chicago' and

'Wilson' plainly visible on the

ridges.

"A rubber stamp was pressed down on the glass slab after the ink had been rolled on it, and the tip of the finger had been lightly inked. The inked finger was then pressed down on the lettering of thestamp. Thismade the imprint.

��� �