Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 92.djvu/396

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��Popular Science Monthly

��Clopperty, Clopperty, Clopperty! The Hobby Horses Are Galloping!

THE accompanying picture represents the "field" just before the start of a thrilling race between wooden mechanical horses in- ventedby Axel Olfort, of Chi- cago, the man upon the white racer, bearing the number twelve. These remarkable toy horses are able to walk, caper, gallop and kick just like live horses and do not re- quire any food, a fact which will be highly appreciated at the present time with its ab- normally high

prices, by all owners of real horses mechanism which enables the

���part of the framework for the body of the vehicle, put it upon pneumatic wheels taken from German machines, and to the slender mast upon the front truck they at- tached a sail patched together from canvas stripped from the wings of a

captured Ger- man airplane. Other French aviators fol- lowed their ex- ample and soon exciting races in such peculiar ve- hicles became a recognized sport among the daring flyers enjoying a brief respite from their ar- duous and dangerous work at the front.

��SA I L-DRIVEN vehicles have been in use in China for many centuries, but their use upon the fine roads of France is rather a novelty. Some of the French aviators, in their eagerness to devise a moderately exciting method of spending their leisure time while on rest-leave behind the lines, built for themselves a sail- driven vehicle out of parts of German airplanes that had been brought down by them.

They utilized

��<Q) lul. Film 8erv

The mechanism which enables the steeds to perform is hidden, out of the way, in the bodies of the racers

What Imitation Leather Is Made Of

tINSEED oil, certain paints, rosin, gum, _j and a chemical treatment — and we will have a compound as tough and as durable as leather! Such are the won- ders of modern chemistry; from sub- stances inelastic and useless of them- selves, valuable commercial articles are being made.

The process for producing this imita- tion leather is based upon one discovered as long ago as 1864. At this time, Frederick Walton found out how a durable and sanitary floor covering could be made.

��The wooden steeds to perform their surprising move- ments is hidden in the bodies of the racers and acts upon the legs, which are hinged to the bodies as shown.

Sailing Over the Tempestuous Macadam Road

��\

���Land sail-boat German airplane

��made from captured materials and fittings

��This covering— the forerunner of our modern linoleum — consisted of strong canvas cloth cov- ered with an oil- a n d- r o s i n com- pound heated and hardened while ex- posed to the air. A modification gives patent leather.

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