Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 91.djvu/737

 Popular Science Monthly

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��A Thirty-Five Acre Island of Mud Near Memphis

THE Mississippi River rises every year. Sometimes the overflow causes a great deal of damage and occasionally creates very unusual conditions. After the overflow of 191 1 the citizens of Memphis, Tenn., noticed a small place in the harbor where mud rose above the water. No attention was paid to this condition until 1915 when the river again overflowed. After the water subsided Memphis found a thirty-five acre island in her harbor. This large tract of land threatened to cut off the city from the river trade. Dipper dredges are now at work removing the unwel- come land acquisition.

����A Temporary Tombstone for the Unexploded Shell

��The combination heater- cooker. Details of the device are shown at left. Above: Eggs being cooked over the flame

��Cook Over the Gas Lamp with This Combination Heater-Cooker

��WHEN unexploded shells are found on the battlefield they are generally left alone. The soldiers have no desire to pick them up and carry them to camp, or even to examine them. But the shells are not entirely ignored. They are given part of the ceremony of a burial, in the way of a tombstone warning those who may pass by to keep on going and not to pay any atten- tion to what lies under the ground. *p

Very, few shells fail to explode. However, it is often impos- sible for a gunner or a range finder to know at all time whether every shell sent over the enemy's lines is exploding.

In Russia's great Ga- lician campaign of 19 16, when General Brusiloff captured more than one hundred thousand pris- oners, several hundred Russian shells did not explode when they fell on enemy ground. It was not until the Rus- sians captured these ad- vanced positions that they found the defec- tive shells, which are said to have been sold to the Russians by the

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��Japanese themselves.

��LITTLE device has been invented which will permit hall room boys and girls to cook their evening meal without incurring the displeasure of their land- ladies. This miniature stove consists of clamps which may be fastened to either a ceiling or wall fixture, and two supports on which rests a disk of sheet iron strong enough to bear the weight of a small cooking utensil. You can easily fry eggs or cook a "rabbit" with it. In case the room is not warm enough, the temperature may be raised by using the device as a heater. The heat from the gas light will make the iron disk so hot that it will raise the tem- perature considerably in the chilliest room. Of course it will not thor- oughly heat a large room or even a medium-sized one, but it will help out between seasons before the janitor sends up steam, or later on when the fire in the furnace is low.

This convenient heater was invented by Will- iam H. Ketler of Cam- den, N. J. The entire heater weighs a little

���where lies buried an unexploded shell - less than one pound.

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