Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 92.djvu/403

 Popular Science Monthly Why Not Take Your Nightly Rest in Your Library Table ?

NOT so many years ago, when apartment dwell- ers first began to feel the pinch of space limitation in their diminutive quarters, combination furniture was all the rage. Anyone visiting a flat dweller could never feel quite sure whether the book case he admired in the parlor was really what it seemed to be or a bed in disguise. Beds are such cumbersome things. Put a bed in a room and the room becomes a bedroom, the privacy of which excludes outsiders as a matter of course. From the very be- ginning, inventors have therefore concen- trated their efforts upon the problem, how to disguise the bed, as it was clearly im- possible to eliminate it altogether. Some of the attempts were quite remarkable, but few were practicable. Rather original is the combination of a library table and bed shown in the picture, an invention by E. T. Bronsdon, Chicago. By a few simple operations, the solid-looking li- brary table in the parlor or studio can be changed into a comfort- able and sanitary double bed fitted with sagless springs and felt mattress. This seems to be one of the most practical sug- gestions, so far, for sav- ing space.

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����A few simple operations convert the table into a comfortbale bed

��The loom that weaves a diagonally reinforced fabric is a complicated piece of machinery, yet remarkably compact

A Fabric With Diagonal Reinforcing Threads, Useful for Automobile Tires

THE urgent need of a cotton material which will meet the requirements of a tire foundation (flexibility, strength and resistance to strains in the direction of the threads and diagonally) stimulated Mr. William G. Trautvetter of Paterson, N. J., to invent a loom by which it is possible to weave a cotton fabric with diagonal re- inforcing threads. The picture shows the per- fected loom, which is remarkably compact. The diagonal threads are carried in spools mounted in a large reel. As the reel revolves, the threads of the upper half are moved across the fab- ric in one direction, while those of the low- er half are carried in the opposite direction, diagonally across the fabric. The filling or weft threads always pass under the warp threads, and over the bias threads. Since the diagonal threads are interlaced with the warp threads, while the weft threads are intermeshed with the warp and with the diagonal threads, a fabric is produced which is remarkably strong in every direction.

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