Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 92.djvu/822

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��Popular Science Monthly

���The principle of the snowshoe applied in .. • walking on mud when digging shellfish

Shoes that Prevent the Wearer from Being "Stuck in the Mud"

ALONG certain portions of the French x\ coast there are extensive flats of mud that the tide leaves uncovered when it recedes. While these are by no means beautiful, they yet provide the habitants with profitable employment in addition to the usual fishing operations by reason of the various mollusks that live in the mud. To obtain these the fishermen use long-handled rakes and forks, with which to dig the shell-fish out of the mud. How- ever, the mud itself forms a serious obstacle. It is so soft that a man sinks into it and cannot move about with ease. Hence, peculiar wooden shoes are worn which act in the same manner as a snow- shoe. They support the weight by dis- tributing it over a greater area. Similar devices are in use on the east coast of England, where they are called "pattens." The picture shows how simple the shoes are in construction.

��The Process of Making Parchment Paper

BY immersing paper for a short time in a fairly concentrated solution of sulphuric acid, the cellulose is converted into a gelatinous mass which fills up the pores of the paper, and, on being thoroughly v/ashed, the paper is found to be parchmentized, or converted into a non-porous ma- terial resembling parchment (pre- pared skin of the sheep or she-goat). According to Alexander Findlay's "Chemistry in the Service of Man" (Longmans, Green & Co.) such parch- ment paper can also be prepared by immersing paper in a solution of zinc chloride; and by compressing together a number of sheets of such parchment paper, the compressed fiber, or "hard fiber," so largely used in the manufacture of trunks and as an insulating material, is obtained.

���An exhibit of wastefulness which is doubly reprehensible now when economy is a duty

��Raising a Ghost to Prevent Waste] of Commodities

HOW would you like to have the ghosts of your misdeeds and the carcasses of your victims resuscitated for your benefit? This is what a great Pittsburg electrical company did a short time ago as a gentle reminder to its employees that we are at war.

A storage-battery truck was used for an exhibit. On it was accusingly arranged the material rescued from waste-boxes during one day. This included scraps of food' from employees' lunches, and material belonging to the company. The truck was run around the shop, a notice calling attention to what it represented.

The company's officials estimated that from thir- ty-five to fifty dollars' worth of food was wasted daily, and hundreds of dollars' worth of manu- facturing material. Thiswould be a total loss to the company if it were not for the efforts of a staff of "recovery men."

��FOOD MATERIAL

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