Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 92.djvu/210

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��Popular Science Monthly

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��Faithful women workers learning how to operate a knitting machine which turns out ninety-six pairs of socks daily

��Ejiit, and Let the Red Cross Machine Knit Too

EVEN with the women knitting on every permissible occasion, as well as on many unpermissible ones, the supply of knitted articles for the soldiers already in France and the many thousands in the large cantonments never equals the demand. Socks are especially needed. But, even if the click of knitting needles invades our dreams, and during our waking hours disturbs us at the theater or even at church, the average woman worker, be she ever so assiduous, can produce only one sock a day.

To meet the demand which the hand knitters are unable

��to supply, the Cin- cinnati Red Cross has had the first mechanical Red Cross knitter set up in its workroom. This machine turns out one hundred and ninety-two socks, or ninety-six pairs, in an eight hour day. In spite of its complicated appearance, it is comparatively sim- ple to operate and it never drops a stitch.

��■Signal light

��Wire connection to other side of light socket and ground

���Connection with drain plug hole under crank casa

��How the engine is automatically stopped when the oil supply becomes too low

��No Oil? Your Car Will Stop Automatically

F the engine of an auto- mobile is not properly lubricated, the piston will in mechanical parlance "seize" the cylinder walls. The interior of an engine cylinder is highly poRshed, and so is the piston that fits within it. Between the piston and the cylinder wall is a clear space of about three-one-thousandths of an inch, which is about the thickness of the paper on which the Popular Science Monthly is printed. This minute space is filled with a film of oil. If that film should be destroyed, the piston would become locked to the wall, and an ex- pensive repair bill would show the extent of the damage.

H. M. Dickerson, an automobile me- chanic of Evansville, Ind., has invented an automatic device which keeps a check on the oil supply and takes the place of a faulty memory. The driver may be careless and negligent — but not Dicker- son's automatic gage.

Within the gage is a float connected by a rod with a small disk above which is a large disk. As the float rises and falls the large and small disks rise and fall with t he float. As the oil is consumed, the float descends. When the danger point is reached, the large disk touches the first of two sets of electrical contacts. A warning signal light flashes up on the dash; the driver is told that the oil is low. If the

supply is not re- plenished, the float descends still fur- ther. The small disk then touches with the second set of contacts and the engine is automati- cally stopped be- fore trouble results.

��Binding post

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��Wire attached to main ignition from binding post

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