Popular Sn'cnrr Moiithhi 



907 



A New Use for the Little 



Tractor: Spotting Freiglit 



Cars for Large Plants 



A SMALL industrial "creeper" 

 tractor can "spot" a carload 

 of coal having a total weight of 

 45,000 pounds. The illustration 

 proves it. One of these tractors 

 has taken the place of a switch- 

 engine or a gang of workmen with 

 pinch bars for spotting or switch- 

 ing cars at a large industrial plant 

 in Ohio. As the engine is rail- 

 road property, it is available only 

 for a comparatively short time 

 each day, while the tractor, 

 which is always on the premises, can be 

 utilized at all times. 



The tractor does not travel on wheels, 

 but lays its own track, and consequently 

 can pass over obstacles and move material 

 from one department to another without 

 marring the surface over which it travels. 

 The over-all width of the tractor is fifty 

 inches and it is but two inches more in 

 height, so that it can pass through or- 

 dinary sized factory doors easily. The 

 tractor is used for bringing material from 

 the factory to the shipping room or to 

 cars that are ta be loaded and for the 

 unloading of incoming shipments, and it 

 also transports material between the 

 various buildings of the plant. 



This little caterpillar tractor can pull without trouble a 

 loaded car weighing 45,000 pounds, ,and do it easily 



uitTwood aud Underwood 



The protective power of the armorplate of the turret 

 is greatly enhanced by a layer of sandbags as shown 



Sandbags Used as Protective Cover- 

 ing Even on War Ships 



THE use of sandbags or wicker baskets 

 filled with sand as a protection 

 against hostile projectiles in warfare is 

 by no means new, but the present war has 

 probably seen the most extensive use 

 ever known of this means of defence. 

 Against the enormous force of the modern 

 explosives neither steel nor concrete offers 

 adequate protection. It was found that 

 earth or sand, either in a loose state or 

 in bags, formed a more efficient protection 

 against shells, shrapnel or the projectiles 

 of small arm.s or machine guns than barri- 

 cades of other material. 



The accompanying picture 

 taken on board of a British 

 monitor preparing to go into 

 action shows that sandbags 

 as a means of protection are 

 by no means confined to the 

 warfare in the trenches. A 

 covering of sandbags is placed 

 on the roof of the turret to 

 give additional protection to 

 the big guns and the gun 

 crew, should they come with- 

 in range of a hostile battle- 

 ship, or be attacked by a hos- 

 tile airplane. Without these 

 sandbags the roof of the tur- 

 ret would offer little protec- 

 tion against missiles dropping 

 upon them almost vertically. 

 This applies to projectiles 

 fired from guns with a high 

 angle of elevation and to 

 bombs dropped from aircraft. 



