Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 92.djvu/361

 Popular Science Monthhf

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��Here Is Another "Shortest Road in the World"

YOU have heard of shortest railroads before. Always they're the most abbreviated ever. But ofif-hand one would grant the prize to Missoula, Montana. It has a railroad only one hundred feet long. It connects the Northern Pacific with the C. M. & St. P. and is used as a transfer. It has no equipment, no employees, and no stations, yet the company that owns it gets fifty cents for every car that passes over its rails. Sixteen thousand have done so thus far. Think of it!

���© UndtTwood and Underwood

The clock now forming the front of a British Tommy's hut was part of a church tower destroyed by the Germans

��Steaming Frozen Coal Out of Freight Cars

THE advantages of persuasion over force have received mechanical ap- plication in removing coal which ice had frozen into an immovable mass while it was waiting in freight cars on one of the sidings of a big New York terminal.

Some railways tried to blast the much needed fuel out of the cars, then a rail- road man conceived the idea of inserting steam pipes into the coal to thaw it into an amenable state. This persuasive measure was successful, and the coal was soon quite loose and ready for quick re- moval.

��Time Is with the Allies— The Strange Fate of a Clock

THE German's have tried many un- successful expedients to catch pro- gressive Father Time and force him back into his medieval trappings, which they believe to be still in fashion.

When the picturesque old church at Etrelliers fell before the enemy's artillery, though the shell of the symbolically sacred structure was absolutely ruined, the clock escaped destruction.

Now it forms the front wall of a British Tommy's hut which is perched in front of the sheltering pile of debris. Time is with the Allies.

���) Int. Film Serv.

Steam pipes are inserted into the frozen mass to thaw the much needed coal loose. The plan is eminently successful

��Louisiana Has Adopt- ed Cactus Candy

10UISIANA has a ^ new product. It is cactus candy. The cactus is peeled, dipped in hot syrup or molasses, and coated with pow- dered sugar. Many cane syrups and other similar products are common in every home in the south, so the confection is easily made. Sugar mills are also taking it up as a side product to be turned out during the slack seasons of the year.

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