Popular Science Moiithlij 381 



Making Two Wheels Take the Place Shock-Absorbers for Eggs on Freight 



Cars Fill a Great Need 



of Three 



NECESSITY is the mother of inven 

 tion. When the wheel of the side 

 attached to 



car 



the motorcycle of 

 Mr. John E. Hogg 

 was crushed be- 

 yond repair by a 

 skidding truck, 

 while Mr. Hogg 

 was riding with his 

 wife near Pamona, 

 Calif., on his way 

 to Los Angeles, 

 the cyclist did not 

 abandon his trip, 

 but completed his 

 journey in the 

 manner shown in 

 the picture. First 

 he removed the 

 broken wheel and 

 then he lashed a 

 skid, improvised of 

 a heavy board, 

 under the chassis 



of the sidecar. A run of a few feet was 

 sufficient to enable him to lift the car, 

 with his wife sitting in it, off the ground 

 and maintaining his balance by tilting his 

 wheel and keeping it at the required 

 angle. The run of twenty-five miles to Los 

 Angeles was made without mishap, and at 

 an average speed of thirty to thirty-five 

 miles an hour. Much can be accom- 

 plished by a combination of necessity and 

 ingenuity. 



After a skidding truck had smashed the 

 sidecar wheel, this cyclist tilted his outfit 

 and rode twenty-five miles on two wheels 



COIL 

 f_ /SPRINGS 



BUMPER 

 EhD 



WITH eggs selling at from sixty to 

 eighty cents a dozen and with the 

 food shortage 

 caused by the in- 

 sufficient number 

 of railway cars, 

 the new design of 

 shock-absorbing 

 car device, shown 

 in the accompany- 

 ing illustration, 

 should prove a 

 boon, because it 

 will reduce the 

 breakage in transit 

 and therefore re- 

 duce the cost of 

 the eggs. A sec- 

 tional platform on 

 rollers is pushed 

 into the ordinary 

 refrigerator freight 

 car so that it bears 

 up against a series 

 of coil springs at 

 each end of the car next to the ice chamber. 

 The shocks that attend the coupling 

 and uncoupling of cars are not transferred 

 directly to the cases of eggs, but are 

 taken up by the play of the platform 

 against the coil springs at each end. The 

 sectional floor is several inches above the 

 main car floor. When the water from 

 the ice boxes at the ends of the car over- 

 flows, the cases are not flooded, as the 

 water runs off under the sectional plat- 

 form, which stands above the car floor. 



A sectional platform on rollers is pushed into the ordrnary refrigerator freight car, so that it 

 bears against coil springs. This absorbs the shocks and obviates much breakage during transit 



