Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 92.djvu/249

 Popular Science Monthly

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��Conserve Your Gasoline — By Pouring Water Into It

IN spite of the fact that gasoline is becoming so scarce, until lately refiners have paid but little atten- tion to the immense amount they lose through evaporation from stor- age tanks. At "tank farms," as they are called, it is not uncommon to see a fog over the tops of the tanks due to gases escaping from vents. Usually the best grade of gasoline escapes, which, if it were recovered, could be used to enrich many gallons of ordinary kinds. Vacuum systems to recover this gas have been tried, but as a rule prove expensive and not very practical.

Now comes Frederick G. Farr, of Detroit — where they use lots of gasoline — with a system de- signed to prevent all this waste. He would fill all space in gasoline and crude oil tanks with water. Oil and water do not mix, of course — and water always assumes the lower level. Thus the oil is al- ways pushed up against the top of the tank where it may be drawn off. Should gases form, they do not burst the tank — but their pressure simply pushes on the water, causing it to overflow through an "automatic water lev- el tank" into a drain. When some of the oil is drawn off, water takes its place from this tank, a suitable float valve permitting more to enter from the plant water sys- tem, or other source.

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���Various oil outlets in refinery

noat_:i_f Overflow pipe "to dram ^Automatic water level tanK

Tank car-5

��Above, Fair system applied to a garage gasoline reservoir. At left it is con- trolling a much larger supply tank

��*-Oil intaKe

����Around the recess are flex

ible bristle or cardboard

=- filaments which counter

feit the action of grass

��You Can Now Practice Putting In Your Own Parlor

DD RING stormy weath- er, or in the winter, it will no longer be necessary for the golfer to forego his putting practice.

Eugene McLean Long, of New York, has invented a device for catching and hold- ing a ball in such a manner that when you use it you almost imagine you are on a putting green instead of on the parlor floor.

The indoor putting green is a circular de- vice having a recess in the center. The re- cess is surrounded by flexible filaments which tip when struck like blades of grass. The underlying idea is to reproduce outdoor conditions as closely as possible.

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