Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 92.djvu/121

 Popular Science Monthly 105

A New Joint Box Which Prevents How the First Potatoes Were Made

Submarine Gable Breaks Popular in France

THE new type of joint box, shown in the A LTHOUGH potatoes were early intro- accompanying illustrations, has just l\ duced into Europe by the Spaniards, been devised to prevent breaks at the joints, they did not come in any quantity for many or splices of sub- marine telegraph and telephone ca- bles, caused by the severe me- chanical stresses set up in the cable because of the constant move- ment carried on by the tides and currents.

The box, which is made in two halves, is bolted together with a gasket between the two parts, in order to make it waterproof. Two double clamps are attached to the cable, one on each side of the joint and outside of the joint box proper. These two clamps are held in the proper relation to each other by means of four long take-up rods and nuts, which, when tightened up against the

���The new joint box which prevents breakage of sub- marine telegraph and telephone joints or splices

��watentiqn^ jacK^l nere

���Details of the joint box. Two double clamps are fixed to the cable, one on each side of the joint

��ends of the box, bridge over the joint and transfer any stress on one side to the other without causing any strain in the lead sheathing over the actual cable joint.

��Bury the Coffee-Grounds in the Gar- den. They Fertilize the Soil

THE question of what to do with the coffee-grounds has at last been satis- factorily answered. Just pour them out into the sink-strainer and dump them into the garden. They contain some valuable fertilizing properties, including a large per- centage of nitrogen and a fair amount of potassium and phosphorus.

��years. The Eng- lish found them in Virginia, but it is believed that the Spanish brought them to that colony from further south.

The first at- tempt to intro- duce them into France was due to a well known scientific author- ity named Par- mentier. This was in the seventeenth century. He im- ported some of the plants, set them out in a field near Paris, and by means of learned pam- phlets and talk with the people, tried to have the new vegetable brought into cul- tivation and the market.

But it was all in vain. Potatoes did not prove at- tractive; and when the planted ones matured, it seemed that they would rot in the ground on account of the prejudice against them.

Then some wise man who knew human nature — a student of psychology, with prac- tical ideas — suggested that peasants could not be made to try potatoes by persuasion, but might be led to adopt them if they were forbidden to eat them.

His idea was adopted. Many signs were painted and erected in plain sight, forbidding under severe penalties any one from taking any potatoes from the field.

The peasants at once began to raid the hills; and before long most of the ripe tubers were stolen and eaten with relish.

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