Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 92.djvu/532

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��Popular Science Monthly

��constant figure in the run of commercial freighters, and may be pretty accurately estimated in the cases of other larger merchant ships or well-known t-'pes of naval vessels. Any coloring that will tend to obliterate the actual waterline or conceal or confuse the top of a steamer's smokestack will deceive the ob- server in his effort to determine the dis- tance or range of his target, and, therefore, throw him out in calcu- lating how far his torpedo must travel in order to score. Also, any coloring that de- stroys the out- lines of the ship and makes it hard to observe her movement across the periscope's vertical lines so as to estimate her speed, will intro- duce another ele- 7zient of error.

It has been de- termined by care- ful investigation that the eye tires in the course of a minute or two when watching a moving target steadily through a periscope even in broad day- light; and the eye so fatigued becomes erratic in judging both range and speed. It should be evident, then, that marine camouflage as we have developed it in this country is calculated to hasten visual fatigue and to so bewilder the U-boat commander, when he can see one of our vessels, that his torpedoes will be likely to go wide of their mark. We may change the old adage "To err is human, to forgive divine" to "To err is human to increase the error is angelic" in this case.

���An arrangement that makes sure of the vapor- ization of the heavier gasoline of these days

���Details of mechanism for actuating the valve from dash

��Save Gasoline With This Device for Controlling Engine Temperature

GASOLINE is not what it was five years ago. It is becoming heavier, so that it is more and more important to control engine temperatures automatic- ally. Otherwise the fuel will not be properly vaporized and gasoline will con- dense in the man- ifolds and cylin- ders and destroy thegreasingprop- erties of the lu- bricating oil. The by -pass arrangement shown in the ac- companying sketches is a simple way of controlling the temperature.

Inside of the radiator at the rear is a separate vertical pipe. This pipe enters the lower radia- tor tank at the bottom. An el- bow at the top of the pipe has a plain shutter valve which can be opened or closed so that the water returning from the engine can be sent to either the verti- cal pipe or to the top tank of the radiator. The

operation of the valve is controlled by the car driver by means of a rod and two meshing gears so that in cold weather only a portion of the cooling water may be sent through the radiator or all of it through in hot weather when additional cooling is required.

This little improvement will add greatly to the starting-up capabilities of the car, particularly in cold weather, as the gasoline is always easily vaporized.

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