Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 91.djvu/642

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Another method is as follows: Get the chosen card to the top of the pack. Slightly moisten the first and second fingers of the right hand, and take hold of the pack with the fingers above, thumb below. Jerk the hand containing the pack smartly down- wards, at the same time relaxing the fingers, and it will be found that the entire pack falls to the floor, with the exception of the chosen card, which will stick to the moistened fingers. This will be the only card left and the card selected.

The third method is very similar to the preceding. The chosen card is worked to the bottom of the pack. Moisten the fingers slightly and take hold of the pack with the fingers below, thumb above. With the disengaged hand strike the pack smartly and at the same moment slightly relax your hold on the pack. It will be found that the entire pack will fall to the floor with the exception of the bottom card which adheres to the fingers.

Piping Automobile Engine Exhaust Gas from Garage

ASPHYXIA caused many deaths in A garages before it became generally known that a garage must be well ventilated and the doors left open if the automobile engine is kept running any length of time.

��Popular Science Monthly

���v Rain water pipe An old drain pipe on a garage floor to remove poisonous gases from the automobile engine

One owner of a private garage avoided the necessity of keeping the doors open by piping the exhaust outside, as shown in the illustration. An old drain pipe was used for the purpose. It was connected in such a way that when the automobile was backed into the garage the end of the exhaust pipe entered the end of the drain pipe. This led down to the floor, where a long piece ran through the wall to the out- side and carried all unpleasant or dangerous fumes to the outside, leaving the interior free from the poisonous carbon monoxide gas. — P. P. Avery.

��Edging Flower Beds with Old Bottles

VARIOUS methods are used to con- struct edging for flower beds that will produce an effect in keeping with surround- ings. One simple way is to use a number of

���The edging around a flower bed made up of bottles buried part way in the ground.

bottles, all the same size, set with their necks in the ground, outlining the shape of the bed. Bottles of different colors may be used, or alternate ones let into the ground deeper, making two levels for the bottoms, which have become the tops, similar to a paling fence.

Flat bottles, shaped on the order of a flask, can be set in zigzag fashion, or like shingles on the siding of a house, to present a very pleasing appearance as a border for a small bed. — Louis M. Wahrer.

��Repairing a Broken Test Tube or Beaker

WHEN you have broken the top of a test-tube or beaker, do not throw it away, for there is a simple way to cut it off smoothly and make a new lip on it.

Take a three-cornered file and heat the small end that goes into the handle. Now place the red-hot file on a spot below the break, which has been dipped in water, and hold it there until a slight snap is heard. Now lift the file off. You will see a tiny crack Y% in. long. Reheat the file and repeat the operation, following the crack around in a circle. The broken part can be lifted off and a clean-cut rim is the result. To make a flare, rotate the test-tube or beaker over a Bunsen flame until the glass commences to soften, then with a charcoal block, still rotating the tube, press the edges out.

In a similar way a lip can be made by pressing down with one edge of the char- coal block. The hardest part of the work is to get the crack started. Sometimes filing starts it. — Malcolm Macurda.

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