Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 92.djvu/75

 Popular Science Monihhi

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��You Aren't Spilled Out With This Life-Boat Launching Device

HERE is one of those "do-it-with-a- t\vist-of-the-wrist" inventions, which, though not at all complicated, seems capable of solving an exceedingly troublesome problem. To launch a life- boat right side up, is the special mission of the invention. Dr. Charles Hunt of New York conceived it. Having crossed the ocean many times, he naturally be- came interested in life-boat problems. And the machine he produced has been proven by Government tests to be one of the most successful thus far devised.

The trouble with life-boat launching de- vices at present, is that it is difficult to unhook the tackle blocks, once the boat reaches the water, especially in a heavy sea. Dr. Hunt's contrivance consists of the mechanism which he is shown holding in his hand, one of which is fastened at each end of a life-boat. Ropes run from these to a lever centrally located. If a man in control of the boat pulls this lever even when the boat is but a few feet above the water, the tackle blocks are quickly and safely released, and the craft launches itself right side up, even in a rough sea.

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����This cylindrical barricade can be rolled over but it cannot easily be surmounted

A New Barbed -Wire Fence to Hold the Germans in Check

THE latest barbed-wire fence which the French have designed to check the advance of the enemy, employs a series of immense barrel hoops, on which barbed wire is strung. The hoops are securely fastened to a wooden fence-form — hoops to a section of fence — so that it is possible for each entanglement sec- tion to roll over and over like a string of lopsided pushballs joined together to form a solid unit.

When the sections are to be set up, they are dragged out under cover of darkness and so ar- ranged that the natural land formations of the vicinity conceals them from advancing troops.

��Pulling a lever in the center of the craft releases this life-boat upon reaching water

��Walls Are Suspended from the Roof of This Building

ONE of the queerest structures in the world is an electric-station building at Cristobal, in the Panama Canal Zone. The roof is supported by powerful central columns and the side walls bear no weight whatsoever but are suspended from the eaves by means of cantilever beams. On one side of the building, the wall is made fast to the foundation with anchor bolts. This unique construction was adopted to prevent the building from settling at a dangerous angle, should an earthquake tremor shift the foundation.

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