Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 92.djvu/86

 70

��Popular Science MontJdy

��A Little Gasoline Locomotive to Be Used Near Front Lines

IT is so vitally important to bring food and ammunition to the front reg- ularly and quickly that all the armies run whole military trains right up to the trenches. A special locomotive has been designed in America to meet the special needs of the army. It runs on a narrow- gage track two or three feet wide, and hauls a long string of heavily loaded little cars. It is able to turn sharp curves at will. It is pro- pelled by a four-cylinder gasoline en- gine, mount- ed inside the hood, just in front of the cab. The ex- haust is dis- charged through the stack. A gas- oline exhaust gives little or no smoke, and this as- sists in keeping the little engine's move- ments secret. Running in all sorts of difficult places, the locomotive can ac- complish a great deal of work, all without revealing itself to the enemy.

How the gasoline motor is connected with the driving wheels of the locomotive is interesting. Imagine the cab and other superstructure as mounted on the front end of an automobile running backwards, and you have the underly- ing idea. Where the rear wheels would be on an automobile is a small crank mechanism, visible just under the front "steps" of the locomotive. The four cylinders of the motor lie lengthwise under the hood, just as they would in an automobile. They drive this crank through the medium of clutches, trans- mission, and power-shafting in the same way as they would the rear axle of an automobile. Power is transferred from the crank-mechanism to the driv- ing wheels through the aid of connect- ing rods.

���This little locomotive can loaded with supplies for the

��"The Measure of a Man,'* to the Inch — by Photograph

IF you are a busy man and do not like to use up a lot of your valuable time in being measured for your new suit of clothes, you can have your measurements taken in the twinkling of an eye, by photograph.

This is the basic idea of a patent granted to Emery E. Costly, of Walkers- ville, Maryland. His invention will indi- cate not only the measure- ments of a man but his weight as well. The ap- paratus con- sists of a plat- f o r m on which is mounted a camera, a scale, and a height meas- using stand- ard on the end of a plat- form scale.

There is no tiresome standing as there was when the tape mea- sure did its slow work. All the prospec- tive customer has to do is to stand on the platform opposite to the camera. A measuring device behind him will record his height and other measurements and scale his weight. All these details, will appear in the picture.

��haul several cars heavily boys in the front trenches

���Be photographed on this platform and the resulting picture will indicate your height, your weight and youi measurements

�� �