Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 92.djvu/237

 Popular Science Monthly

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��electricity the plants were capable of turning out. The cables were connected up by concealed wires with all the bits of metal, the machine guns, the field pieces and the corrugated armor. Safety zones were left for the escape of the de- fenders of the first trench, but all other parts were connected with the electric cables.

The next morning the German mass attack came, driving the first. trench defend- ers back re- morselessly. The huge body of men swept over the first trench, and on to the second.

Something radically %vrong appeared there. Men jumped in- to the trench, and it appeared to be evacuated, yet the invaders did not re-appear. The charging Germans behind could not know what was wrong. They came on and on, seizing the machine guns, the old field pieces and whatever they could lay hands on. It is needless to say that none of these lived to tell the tale of their captured trophies, for each was electrocuted where he first entered the trench.

All along the eight miles, the condition was the same. Of course the German command soon found out what was wrong, but not until nearly eight thou- sand of ■ the very best of Germany's troops were dead — and all without a single Italian casualty! And besides, the attack was halted for a day giving the Italians time to reorgan- ize their defenses, on the other side of the Piave.

���The electrical slaughter was silent and terrible. The German regiments coming up behind could not know what was wrong

��The Seal Which Is Used on Our Paper Money

A RELIC of the Revolutionary days when we were not yet a nation still remains on our paper money. The seal which appears on every bill issued by the Government contains the abbreviated

words "Thesaur. Amer. Septent. Sigil. The full phrase is "The- sauri Americana Septentriomalis Sigillum," which simply means, "Seal of the Treasury of North Ameri- ca." Our distin- guished ances- tors felt that if a thing were to be said with dig- nity, it had to be said in Latin.

���Disks treated with a radium compound are placed at the five- minute points and on the hands

��Don't Light a Match. Read Your Clock in the Dark

SMALL, flat disks treated with a radium compound are now being glued on the dials of clocks at the five- minute points and also to the hands so that the clock can be read in the dark. A complete set of eleven disks and a pair of hands can be affixed to a clock in a few minutes.

The glow is practical- ly everlasting and the disks, according to the manufacturer, will out- last the mechanism of the clock itself. The disk is omitted from the 6 of the clock so that the dial may be read instantly.

For automobilists, campers, hunters, doc- tors, nurses and soldiers this clock is a great convenience.

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