Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 92.djvu/742

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��Popular Science Monthly

���Ringing the bells of St. Paul's Cathedral, in London, in honor of the great Allied victory at Carnbrai

Ringing Out the Victory of Cambrai from the Great Bells of St. Paul's

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��OT every one can ring the great bells church towers. It takes skill and it takes strength. In the accom- panying illustration we see the bell ringers of St. Paul's, London, preparing to ring joy bells in honor of the successful Cambrai offensive.

The upward swing of the bells is so strong that the ringers are very often pulled off their feet. On the rebound, each man lands on a small, flat cushion in front of him, by which his fall is broken. The small loops to be seen on the boxes are foot braces.

According to an old English custom, no bell ringer may wear a hat while at work. Judging by the expressions on the faces of the men here pho tographed, they would uncover without any aid from precedent, for they are bring- ' ing to the occasion a deep solemnity, conscious of the cost of victory.

Campanology is one of the most interesting and most intricate arts practised. Change-ring- ing is exceedingly diffi- cult and very exhausting.

���Various peculiar types of feathers in the process of becoming scales

��When Is a Feather Not a Feather? When It's a Hair

OUR picture shows several midground types of feath- ers in course of evolution. They are midway between scales and feathers.

Crossing in the center are two hairlike forms called "filo- plumes." Sloping up to the right is one found in abundance on poultry. It is practically a true hair with its tip divided into several slender prongs, some of which have a suggestion of feather-down near their bases. The one crossing it, noticeably more plumose, is from an owl. The form to the right with the many pointed black tip is from one of the very rare toucans. It is from midway on the neck and shows an intermediate stage between the true feathers on the back and the scalelike forms topping the head where the feathers have changed wholly into thin, horny plates or scales, seen at top of picture. Barely enough feather- down remains to suggest its origin.

To the left side of the picture is a unique intermediate stage between feather and scale — strongly suggesting a fish scale. This would be the normal trend of evolution owing to the aquatic life of the penguin from whose wing this was taken. So nearly midway between scale and feather, it claims both names is called squamipennis scale-feather.

The throat of the humming bird supplies the form at bottom. These are true feathers and take their name not from any mimetic form of structure, but from their col- lective appearance which is strikingly scalelike. They are called squama.

It is such transitory stages as this, observed repeatedly, that lend color to the evolution theory.— C. B. Davis.

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