Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 92.djvu/343

 Popular Science Monthly

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��Let This New Chair Add to Your Bathing Convenience

MR. FRANK BEHM, of Toledo, Ohio, has invented an adjustable chair for the bathtub. As the accompanying cut shows, it can be hooked on the end of the tub, the user reclining somewhat at ease, above tide level, while he performs his ablu- tions at leisure.

But the use of this appurtenance is not necessarily confined to the bath. Hooked on the rail of the back piazza it would do for a small-tub stand while washing out baby's stockings. Attached to a rail fence at a Sunday School picnic it might save the lunch from the ants.

��A New Automobile Cigar-Lighter

THE new type of electric cigar-lighter shown in the accompanying illus- tration is designed to be mounted either on the dash or on the rear of the front seat

of an auto- mobile. In

either case it x^sttH^^ is attached

���to a cord which is automatically wound up on a reel, enclosed in a case which forms the back of the plate on which the cigar- lighter is held.

The lighter is prevented from rattling while the car is in motion by means of a small spring-clip attached to the face plate of the mounting. Current is obtained from the bat- tery in the car.

��This legless chair hooks over the edge of the tub

���A reel in the rear of the case winds up the cord when the cigar-lighter is not in use

��The Germs in a Swimming Pool

PUBLIC baths and swim- ming pools are a source of both bene- fit and pleasure to a community, but they are exceedingly dan- gerous to health un- less they are kept in a sanitary condition. Water which has been contaminated by sewage is al- ways unsafe for bath- ing purposes. An- other source of con- tamination is from the bathers them- selves. The water of a Liverpool bath was examined to determine how much the bathers contaminated it. It was found that each bather contriblited about 4,000,000 germs to the water of the swim- ming pool in ten minutes. In the second- class baths which are patronized by small boys, it was found that each bather added 6,000,000,000 germs to the pool during a similar period. At the end of the day, the water held no less than 4,676 germs per cubic centimeter.

The germs which are a danger to health are those of intestinal origin. The pres- ence of other bacteria does not make the swimming pool unsafe. If the water is treated with chloride of lime it can be rendered perfectly sterile. When certain precautions are taken and the bathers themselves instructed in the rudiments of personal cleanliness, there is no reason public swimming pools should not be of great benefit to a crowded community, especially during the uncomfortably hot summer months when cool baths do so much to make the heat bearable.

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