Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 92.djvu/208

 192

��Popular Science Monthly

��At Last the Breakfast Egg Broken Into Art

THE Nouveau Art movement has reached San Domingo. There is a pine tree in front of the thatched domicile occupied by the dusky family im- mortahzed in the ac- companying photo- graph, but even its own mother would not recognize it now. In an effort to express their feeling for Art in its relation to Life, (observe that we use the customary capi- tals), these natives have decorated the pine needles with the shells of the eggs which they have eaten. The family seems thor- oughly satisfied with the striking result.

��Has

���^^k^^^:fi:M

��No wonder there is an egg short- age. San Domingo natives use the shells for decorative purposes

��Work the Brake— Quick! Or You'll Hit the Dummy

"APPLY your brakes, man, or you'll £\ hit the dowager crossing the street." Remember when the automobile instructor shouted that command? And remember how you mistook the accelera- tor for the brake and shot past the fat lady at express train speed?

Such an experience was unnecessary. Study the ac- companying picture and you'll be con- vinced. You could h ave substituted a dummy for the fat lady and with your auto- mobile jacked up on all four

wheels, you A pulley draws the

could safely dummy forward,

have Struck her \^^ novice driver

.J, , strives to stop the

amidships. automobile before

The apparatus the figure reaches it

���is the invention of John G. Torr, of Syd- ney, New South Wales, Australia.

In the car's jacked up position the

front wheels may be

turned at will and the rear wheels may be re- volved by the power of the car engine just as if they were running over the road. A small transverse shaft under- neath the rear end of the car is provided with a pulley over which the belt may run and with two fric- tion drums which may be pushed into contact with the sides of the rear wheels to trans- mit the power and make the belt run. This is done by means of two small pedals, one on each end of the shaft.

One of these pedals is worked by the in- structor so that the belt is set in motion toward the front of the car, carrying with it a life-sized figure of a man by means of a small stop on the belt. If the novice does not apply the brakes in time to prevent the figure from striking the car, by stopping the motion of the belt, the instructor may stop it by throwing the friction drums out of play by releasing the pedal.

If the skill of the novice is not sufficient to prevent the figure from striking the car,

the figure is not broken but is simply folded down horizon- tally on the hinge on which it is mounted so that it can pass on under the car and travel back to the front of the con- veyor, ready for the next trial of the novice driver's skill.

�� �