Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 92.djvu/632

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��Popular Science Monthly

��Making a Simple Press of Boards for Trousers

WHY not let this simple board device press your trousers while you sleep ? Two pine boards, cleated as at A, are hinged together, and the inside surface

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��Clamping your trousers between boards for creasing them by pressure overnight

covered with canvas. The latter is slightly dampened before the trousers are put in. The bolts, B, are tightened by means of wing nuts, which rest upon washers, as shown. Simply lay the article to be pressed flat and close the two sections of the press like a book. After the wing nuts are turned down tightly, the press may be hung up out of the way. Either clear white pine or cypress is suitable for making the press. Fasten with brass screws. — H. Adlon.

An Interesting Demonstration of Spontaneous Combustion

A VERY simple and effective dem- onstration of spontaneous com- bustion can be made as follows:

Dissolve a piece of yellow phosphorus, about the size of a pea, in a small bottle containing a tablespoonful of the liquid

��carbon disulphide. Pour the solution over a small, thin piece of porous paper. After waving the paper back and forth for about thirty seconds, it suddenly bursts into flame. The carbon disulphide

quickly evaporates, leaving the phos- phorus, in a finely divided state, spread over the surface of the paper. Since phosphorus oxidizes very rapidly and has a low kindling temperature, the heat of oxidation quickly brings it to this point with the result already described.

Phosphorus produces very severe burns and must be kept and cut under water. Do not handle it with the fingers — use forceps. Keep the carbon disulphide away from a free flame. If care is exercised, no danger attends this experi- ment. It is rather odoriferous, though.

Temporary Repair on a Broken Front Wheel Spindle

IF a front wheel spindle of an automo- bile, or any axle of a similar type, or a shaft or rod becomes broken, a semi- permanent repair may be made by the following method.

Remove the axle or spindle A by dis- connecting the steering arm from B and removing the spindle bolt from the hole C. Place A and its broken member D in a clamp with the broken and rough edges E in their original places; then drill out a hole and tap it to receive a 7 16 in. S. A. E. bolt of sufficient length to be about equally distant from .4 and D. Do not tap threads in D, but ream to just sufficient clearance for the bolt.

Draw the bolt up snugly. The wheel may then be replaced after the spindle is connected. The outside cone is adjusted by the locknuts on the threads F. To further insure safety, drill a ] ^m. hole G

���Fastening the end of a broken front wheel spindle to its shank with a standard machine bolt

��in the bolt head //and insert a long cotter. The hub cap may then be replaced and the car used as before, or until a new part arrives. — P. P. Avery.

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