Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 92.djvu/764

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��Popnlar Science Monthly

��The Traveling Brush-Burner. Orchardists Please Notice

��ONE si]

���This portable brush-burner saves much time in haul- ing and provides valuable potash for the proprietor

��kNE of the simplest and yet the most conve- nient devices built for or- chardists is the sheet-iron brush-burner built by Wm. Miller, of Gypsum, 0. Mr. Miller had this con- structed for use in his own

orchards and therefore did not have it patented. In consequence fruit growers are helping themselves to the result of Mr. Miller's thinking.

The burner is made of one-sixteenth inch sheet iron, riveted together as shown in the accompanying photograph. It is practically a large cyl- inder with top open and both ends closed. The top is opened the entire length, but just wide enough to admit the brush. The heat is forced upwards, rath- er than outwards, thus preserving the nearby trees.

This burner is mounted on sled run- ners. After an orchard has been pruned, the men drive through the orchard with a big blazing fire in the burn- er. The brush is burned as they drive along. In this manner much time is saved. "When the burner gets full of ashes, the own- ers have at their com- mand a product that ranks high in potash, a scarce yet necessary fertilizing element, so that this a|)j)aratus eflects great economies.

���Static electricity is solely responsi- ble for the difference in appearance

��Static Electricity Drawn From Paper by Alternating Charge

ONE of the most an- noying sources of trouble to printers is static electric- ity in the pa- per. It causes the sheets, during the process of printing, to adhere more or less firmly to the cylinder or the delivery mechanism of the press and to other sheets. The speed of the work is reduced, exact registering is made practically im- possible and even stacking, whether by hand or by machine, a matter of the greatest difficulty.

An electric neutralizer has been in- vented which complete- ly does away with all trouble from static electricity. It supplies an alternating charge of electricity by means of a small motor gen- erator which gives an alternating current at about a seventy-volt pressure. This in turn is passed through a transformer where it becomes a current of high pressure and small quantity, ready for de- livery to the paper through distributing bars on the press. These bars are com- posed of a number of fine metal points set in porcelain insulation. A bar is located near the cylinder and drop guides and, if neces- sary, one is attached to the delivery. As the sheets pass under a bar the charge of static electricity is drawn out.

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