Popular Science Monthly 



7V, 



How a Tiny Screw Held Up a Great 

 City's Business 



A DIMINUTIVE screw worked loose 

 in one of the big steel safes in the 

 treasury de[)artnient of Cinciiniati re- 

 cently, and drojiped into the mechanism 

 operating the combination. Thereafter 

 there was trouble. The screw took its 

 tumble on a Thursday night and it 

 was not until the following Tuesday that 

 thesafe was opened. On Friday morning, 

 when five hundred people were standing 

 in line waiting for §25,000 in pay en- 

 \'elopes reposing behind sixteen inches 

 of steel, the paymaster discovered that 

 something was wrong. He asked the 

 people to wait until he found a Jimmy 

 Valentine. 



After several men who admitted that 

 they knew uncanny things about opening 

 safes were tested out, the big .safe was 

 just as obdurate as ever, and the line 

 of watchful waiting ones was dismissed. 



Frida}- night the safe was ordered 

 drilled open. A crew of four men 

 worked from that time until Tuesday 

 morning before they undid the mischief 

 caused by that one little screw when it 

 dropped out of its allotted place. The 

 additional work cost the city S75, besides 

 the patience of fi\e hundred citizens. 



A screw fell into the combination of the 

 safe and held up the Cincinnati treasury 

 five days, defying skilled safe-openers 



Thestudbut- 

 tons clamped 

 in place 

 through the 

 ear of the 

 animal to be 

 ident i f ied 



Detail of a 

 simple type 

 of clamp but- 

 ton showing 

 the two parts 

 separ at ed 



Branding Animals with a Clamp- 

 Button Monogram 



MARKING of animals for the purpose 

 of identification has long been 

 accomplished by means of the branding 

 iron. The branding of stable stock, 

 howe\"er, means a marred coat. .A new 

 method of marking with metal buttons 

 offers several advantages. The buttons 

 are clamped through the ear l)y nK'ans 

 of a c>lindcr and split shank. 



.Animal stealing would be rendered 

 unprofitable, for the removal of a button, 

 or its defacement, would be extremely 

 (iifficult. The detail drawing shows a 

 simiJJe tN'pe and design of clamp-button. 

 The stud I has a short c\lin(ler-slee\e // 

 into which the split shank 6' of stud 2 

 passes — the long enfl of the shank 

 [jrojecting through cylinder-end O is 

 spread outwardly by pincer pressure, 

 the spread ends fitting neatly into the 

 depression D in the surface of stud 1 

 thus clamping on the stud buttons. 



