Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 91.djvu/870

 854

��Popular Science Monthly

��How Merchant Ships Hide Themselves from Submarines

��Plenty of Rice for Food and Face Powder!

��W

��HEN the sinister little periscope of a \ MERICAN women may powder their submarine is sighted aboard a mer- ±\ faces in comfort without fearing that

��chant ship an order is given to throw out the smoke boxes. These boxes contain material which, when burning, gives off dense clouds of black smoke, completely screening the vessel from the attacking submarine.

The smoke boxes are about two feet square and are filled with oakum, waste, or other inflammable stuff soaked with hy- drocarbon material that will give off heavy black smoke when ignited. The exact nature of the material used is a secret.

One box which has been used very successfully has a top slightly smaller than the opening it is to cover. It is supported by means of lugs fastened on the inside of the box. The in- tervening space between the top and the edge of the box is covered with a piece of adhesive tape which contains a part of the igniting mixture. The match or fuse which sets fire to the contents of the box is placed at one corner and projects slightly through the slit.

When the order comes to hurl the smoke boxes overboard the sailor grasps the tape and throws the box into the sea. The friction of the ad- hesive tape across the fuse ignites it in much the same way as you light a safety match by striking it on the box. The fuse carries the flame to the interior of the box and sets the inflammable material afire. The slit around the top causes the smoke to spread out freely.

Several of these boxes are lighted and thrown overboard at the same time. They create such a dense cloud of smoke that the vessel can make her escape before the submarine can launch her torpedo.

���The smoke screen rising from the ignited waste in the smoke-boxes hides the ship

��they are robbing the Allies of food. For some unknown reason people generally pre- fer to use the white, polished rice, rather than the more whole- some brown rice.

When rice is pol- ished it is first hulled, then scoured to re- move the bran and cuticle. Every barrel of rice loses about six pounds in this proc- ess. The "polish" as the hull and bran are called, is sold for cat- tle food at three- fourths of a cent a pound. Some of it is pulverized and sold as cosmetic powder.

��A Disappearing Crutch. It Telescope to Scabbard Length

ANEW crutch has made its appearance in London which may be worn on a belt. The legs are made of telescopic tubular steel and may be adjusted to any height or locked into the first section, when the wearer is seated.

���Int. Film Serv.

A new crutch for British soldiers. The legs are made of tubular telescopic steel fitted to a belt

�� �