Popular Science Monthly 73.5 



Here, Now, Is the "Tappoon"— Fish at Night with an F<:icctric 



Liftht on Your Line 



This is the tappoon. It is the invention of a CaH- 

 fomian rancher and is designed to simplify irrigation 



a Portable Flood -Cate 



UNTIL very recently it has been the 

 practice amonjj ranchmen when ir- 

 rigating a field to dam up the ditch with 

 mud in order to make the water flow into 

 the lateral 

 ditches. How- 

 ard R. Wallace, 

 "a ranchman 

 who lives near 

 Long Beach, 

 California, 

 changed all 

 this by devis- 

 ing a portable 

 irrigation 

 flood-gate. 



The gate is 

 simply a sheet 

 of heavy-gage 

 wrought-iron 

 - — the lower 

 corners are 

 rounded off 

 and a handle is 

 bolted to its 

 upper edge. 



When the gate is pressed down into the 

 mud of a main ditch it holds the water 

 back and diverts it into the lateral ditch 

 immediately behind the dam. When that 

 ditch has sufficient water the gate is 

 pulled up and moved to the next lateral. 

 All the work of making scores of small 

 dams with mud is avoided. 



The tappoon, as Mr. Wallace terms his 

 device, is an inexpensive thing to make, 

 and in the course of a California summer 

 it saves many hours of hard labor. It is 

 very light and can be easily carried about, 

 and obviously has 

 nothing to get out of 

 order. To shift it one 

 merely lays hold of 

 the handles on each 

 end and pulls it up, 

 carrying it to the 

 next location and 

 pressing it in with the 

 foot. This is one of 

 the little things that 

 count. It saves both 

 time and trouble, and 

 lightens the tedium 

 of a thankless job. 



The illuminated fishing line by means 

 of which one can catch fish at night 



WHF:N the fishing fever has fastened 

 upon him and is at its height, the 

 enthusiastic angler would lengthen his 

 day, if he could, to fully forty-eight hours. 



One ingeni- 

 ous American, 

 probably 

 spending an all- 

 too-short vaca- 

 tion in the 

 woods, devised 

 a plan for il- 

 luminating the 

 end of his line 

 and thus 

 tempting the 

 fish to rise even 

 on the darkest 

 night. In the 

 hollow interior 

 of his bamboo 

 rod he placed a 

 small electric 

 battery of suf- 

 ficient power to 

 operate two 

 small lamps, one attached to the rod and 

 one to a buoy just above the baited hook. 

 The purpose of the buoy is to prevent the 

 lamp from being submerged. The electric 

 wires between the end of the rod and the 

 buoy take the place of the fishing line. 

 The light on the buoy not only serves to 

 attract the fish but also by its bobbing 

 informs the angler when a fish takes the 

 hook and is due to be hauled in. 



This is an application of the old method 

 of fishing at night 

 with a light. The 

 usual method, of 

 course, is to go out on 

 the lake in a boat, car- 

 rying with you one or 

 two hurricane lamps. 

 One of these you keep 

 in the boat to see by, 

 and the other you 

 fasten to the gunwale 

 so that the light will 

 attract the fish. In this 

 case one uses an ordi- 

 nary line, of course, 

 and trusts to pure 

 blind luck for results. 



