Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 92.djvu/79

 Popular Science Monthlij

What Are Shooting Stars? Where Do They Come From?

OUR knowledge of shooting stars ex- tends into the oldest history of humanity, back into prehistoric times. Yet to-day no one knows exactly what a shooting star is, or from where it comes. An hypothesis proposed in 1875 and generally accepted to-day, is that meteor- ites are fragments broken from small planetary masses by volcanic explosions, brought about by a sudden expansion of gases, steam and probably hydrogen. The broken bits, after their separation, are be- lieved to arrange themselves in swarms which cross the orbit of the earth in ac- cordance with a definite law. Shooting stars, then, undoubtedly come from within our solar system and are broken bits of a world body de- stroyed by volcanic events. Many meteorites have been found in Arizona.

���Serrated wheel Bracket

��Steering p05t

��Formidable Machine Gun for Young America's Trenches

THE most popular toys are those with which real fighting can be done. Cannons must really roar; guns must really crackle as they fire the imaginary bullets, and machine guns must be mounted on wheels, if Young America is to be expected to approve them.

Master M. Churchill Haenke, the man behind the gun in the company illustration, is the proud possessor of a father who can make armored cars that look just like the real thing to the crit- ical juvenile eye. The car in the picture is all the better looking for being homemade. It is equipped \\-ith a miniature mortar and a machine gun which makes a racket like the crackle of gun- fire, when a crank is turned. M aster Haenke supplies his own motive power.

���The stabilizer prevents any serious disarrangement of the steering wheel by keeping it firmly fixed in a given position

��A Stabilizer for the Steering Wheel Makes Driving Easier

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���The homemade pushmobile converted into a sputtering machine gun. It gives the impression of being the real thing

��UCH^of the strain of driv- ing an automobile or mo- tor truck would be eliminated if every motor vehicle were fitted with a new steering wheel stabilizer. The device is the invention of 0. Wm. G. Holmgren of New York city. It is made to hold the steering wheel in the position desired by the driver, without obliging him to keep one hand continually on the wheel. A small wheel with a serrated edge is placed on the steer- ing column beneath the floor-boards, and a spring-tension plunger with a roller- end, is fastened to a bracket which bears against the wheel ser- rations, one at a time. When the steering wheel is turned, the friction caused by the spring tension be- tween the roller and the wheel must be overcome before the roller passes on.

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