Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 92.djvu/92

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��Popular Science Monthly

��covered. Following these tests, ten thou- sand of these trucks will be put together in a dozen or more plants before June 1 and shipped abroad in time to take their places behind the trenches with our armies, now in training. It will be simple to keep them in repair in France — simpler than any of the allied armies have found it with their trucks, burdened as the Allies are with several makes, each having its own peculiar characteristics and each re- quiring a sep- arate supply of spare parts. This follows because our trucks are standardized. Now do you see what st and- ardization means? There is nothing tech- nical about it. It's just com- mon sense — that's all. It simply means that every en- gine, every front axle, every rear axle, every change- speed mechan- ism or gearbox is interchange- able with every other similar part in every other truck. If the engine of one truck is shot away by a small shell and the chassis frame remains intact, no drilling, boring or other changes will be necessary in order to drop another engine in place and put the vehicle on the road at once. This standardization is carried down to every part of the entire vehicle, including such accessories as magnetos, carbureters, bat- teries, head lamps and fuel tanks. Even the various sizes of Ijolts and nuts have been reduced to a minimum, some being made a trifle stronger than necessary just so thai the number to be carried is small.

���In the standardized truck every part is iiitti changeable with a similar part in every other truck — front axle, rear axle, chanse-speed mechanism, gearbox and other parts, big and little. If the engine of one truck is entirely demolished and the chassis frame remains intact, another engine con easily be substituted without the necessity of any exhausting delays in making the new parts fit

��The engine is fitted with two inde- pendent sets of ignition apparatus, one a battery unit and the other a magneto, so that if one gets out of repair, the gas can still be exploded in the cylinders by sparks from the other source. In brief, the truck is characterized by the ruggedness of its parts, the combination of the best ideas in its design and their mounting

so as to be ex- tremely acces- sible for re- pairs.

It is to be remembered that this truck is intended solely for the use of the Quartermaster Corps and that other stand- arized trucks arc being built for the Ord- nance Depart- ment, the Sig- nal Corps, the Engineering forces and the Medical Corps. The tests of the truck which have already been made have proved so satisfactory that late re- ports indicate that contracts will be let for its construction in large numbers without waiting for the more extensive trials.

��The Heart Is an Astonishingly Powerful Pump

Your heart is a very busy organ. While you breathe once, it beats four times. At each beat it sends four pounds of blood through your veins and arteries. The weight of the circulating blood is twenty- nine pounds. When you run, your legs
 * ui(l the other parts of your body need

more blood, so your heart must pump faster.

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