THE MOSQUITO 75 



near the apparatus, and were, in fact, precipi- 

 tated from the air with a quite extraordinary 

 force, hurling their frail bodies against the 

 buzzing machinery. This machinery formed, 

 in conjunction with sticky fly-paper, an excel- 

 lent means of capturing them. Mr. Weaver 

 then devised a means of electrocuting the 

 pests. He used a section of unpainted wire 

 screen mounted on a board with pins driven 

 through the meshes, the heads of the pins 

 being flush with the surface of the screen. 

 The bodies of the pins were then electrically 

 connected together, the whole forming one 

 electrode of the secondary coil of an induc- 

 tion coil, whilst the wire screen formed the 

 other electrode. An alternating current of 

 high potential was passed, and when the note 

 was sounded the insects precipitated them- 

 selves to their doom, being electrocuted the 

 moment they touched the apparatus. 



A somewhat similar story is told by Sir 

 Hiram Maxim in The Times of October 29, 

 1901. One of the lamps in an installation 

 which was put up in Saratoga Springs, New 

 York, hummed in an agreeable manner, and 

 he noticed that night after night this lamp 

 was covered with small insects. On closer 

 examination he found that they were all 

 mosquitos, and all males. 



