Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 92.djvu/592

 576 Popular Science Monthly

The One-Man Animal Ambulance Wood That Gives a Wonderful

and What It Does Fluorescence to Water

��AN ambulance for

��animals which was recently placed into active service by the Humane Animal Commission of Los Angeles, Cali- fornia, presents many novel and ingenious features. The ambulance body is mounted on a motor truck, with the driver's seat in front, and the enclosure for the animal pa- tients in the rear. Both parts are protected by a roof. The rear en- closure has side doors and a rear door, hinged at the bottom, so as to form, when let down, inclined gangways, reach- ing the ground. The sides of the enclosure are heavily padded and the floor consists of a removable plat- form which rests on rollers and which is also padded.

The platform is removed from the car and rolled alongside the prostrate animal. A rope is attached to the feet and, by means of a windlass worked by the motor, the animal is pulled upon the platform. Then, by the same method, the platform is rolled into the car. The windlass will also raise the rear door after the loading is completed. Ani- mals able to walk, are led into the en- closure by the rear incline and leave the ambulance at their destination through the side door. One man can operate the amViulance, and the animals are moved in com-

��R^

����parative comfort.

��Roller platform being drawn, with its bur- den, into the car by the power windlass

��lECENT investigations have led to the rediscovery of two species of trees known centuries ago, but never definitely identi- fied and sub- sequently for- gotten, the wood of which gives to water a most re- markable fluores- cence. One of the trees with the scientific name Ey se nhar df ia , poJysfachya, is a small bushlike tree with small, fra- grant white blos- soms and is found in Mexico, while the other, Pfero- carpus in die us, known to the na- tives under the name of nana or naga, is a giant tree growing in the forests of the Phil- ippine Islands. Chips of the wood of these trees, placed in water over night, cause it to become highly fluorescent and to display, accord- ing to the degree of illumination, a won- derful variety of opalescent colors, ranging from golden yellow and rich red through green to a deep blue. The fluorescence becomes particularly pronounced under the influence of the ultraviolet rays of the spectrum. The active substance con- tained in the wood of the two trees which causes the fluores- cence has not yet been determined or isolated. The first mention of this remarkable wood is found in a book printed in Seville in 1574. It was there spoken of as being a native of Mexico and was called lig- niitn ncphriticHtn.

��Shows end door and standing horse Shows side door for walking animals

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