Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 92.djvu/750

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��Popular Science Monthly

���The College-Trained Elephant as a Circus Attraction

"TADIES and gentlemen," begins the

I J official barker at a side show, "it is your privilege to see before you the only living college-trained elephant in captivity, engaged at an enormous expense by the manager of this incomparable ag- gregation of world-fa- mous artists and animal shows!"

With this he presents to the ele- phant, who looks inde- scribably bored, a piece of white chalk in an iron holder.

''Will some of the ladies or gentlemen kindly name some small numbers?" suavely urges the barker and from amongst the spectators come calls of "Six- -Two— Five!"

"Six — two — five," repeats the barker slowly and impressively and leads the graduate of the elephant college to the blackboard.

To the astonishment of the spectators the chalk traces a perfectly legible "6" upon the black surface. Underneath he writes a "2," underneath that a "5." Then comes the addition line and the result, 13.

An attendant on the other side of the

blackboard did the trick. For

his benefit the barker repeated the numbers so as to give him time to pick out the same num- bers, cut out of sheet iron, and slip them into grooves provided for them. Then he grasped a powerful magnet and held it against the top of the six. To the same spot, on the other side, the barker directed the trunk of the eU'[)haMt. The chalk holder ))v- ing of iron, followed the magnet.

��Is a Compass Necessary? Not if You Have a Watch

WERE you ever out in the "wild," carrying your map but without a compass? Your watch answers the pur- pose just as well.

Disregard the minute hand altogether.

Then note the arc that the Jwur hand

makes with the noon of the day — not the

midnight — and draw an imaginary line

bisecting this arc. Point this line

towards the sun and the XII will

point toward the south.

Referring to the dia- grams, the first one repre- sents 5.10 A. M. Theimag- i n a r y line falls between the hour hand and the ap- proaching noon, as shown. The second fig- ure shows the time to be 3.45 P. M., so that the imaginary line falling between the noon and the hour hand, practically coincides with the II. In the third it is 7.20 P. M. and the bisecting line still comes between the noon and the hour hand, so that it falls be- tween the III and the IV. The line must always bisect the arc, whether it is more or less than a semicircle.

One's watch makes tiro circuits while the sun makes one. Therefore half the arc be- tween the hour hand and the nearest noon, pointed toward the sun, causes the noon--the XII — to point due south.

��The " intelligent " elephant and the way his brain works, said brain being in the head of the attendant

���Dotted line in each case represents imaginary line bisecting arc between the hour hand and the noon

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