196 



Popular Science Monthly 



The car-puller is located beside the track and is belted 

 to a motor or to a line-shaft through a clutch-pulley 



Car-Pullers Take the Place of 

 Switch Engines 



SHIFTING railroad freight cars at in- 

 dustrial plants by hand labor is both 

 expensive and slow. With a switch engine 

 it is still more expensive. ' These are two 

 reasons why car-pullers are -coming more 

 and more into use. The car-puller consists 

 of an electric motor which drives a cable 

 drum, winch-head or capstan around which 

 a rope or steel cable attached to one freight 

 car or a string of cars is fastened. When 

 the drum revolves the rope tightens and the 

 cars are slowly pulled toward the machine. 

 In one plant a twenty horsepower motor 

 was strong enough to handle ten loaded 

 freight cars on a slight down grade and to 

 shift from six to ten loaded cars daily. 

 The maximum length of haul is about 

 three hundred feet. The car-puller 

 shown in the accompanying illustra- 

 tion is capable of hauling from 

 three to five loaded cars. It is 

 small and very compact. 



favored blue-black variety 

 and is guaranteed by Nature 

 not to fade. To be sure, it is 

 rather a long way off, being 

 located in Algeria, but that 

 is not much of a considera- 

 tion. 



The ink river is formed 



by the union of two 



streams, the water from one 



of which is impregnated with 



gallic acid and the other with 



iron. These are the two 



necessary elements of the 



best ink. 



The earliest ink of the man- 

 made variety was prepared 

 by suspending a bag of soot 

 or other carbonaceous ma- 

 terial in some sticky solution 

 such as glue or varnish. 

 Later the cuttlefish was found 

 to yield a secretion which could be used for 

 the purpose. But the modern blue-black 

 ink is obtained from gallic acid, usually 

 from China or Turkey galls, mixed with 

 iron sulphate. This is the kind with which 

 the Algerians might flood the market. 



Mahogany Cigarette Mills That Pass 

 the Cigarettes 



A STRIKING and convenient accessory 

 for the smoking room is a cigarette 

 mill. One type is turned by the hand as 

 shown in the illustration; at each revolu- 

 tion it turns out a cigarette from the 

 "hopper." In the stork type the user 

 pushes the button; this causes a panel to 

 open, and the stork puts his 

 head down into the in- 

 terior, takes out a cig- 

 arette and hands it 

 to you politely. 



Is Ink Becoming Scarce ? Not 

 in Algeria 



WITH the price of ink soaring 

 to keep pace with paper, and 

 the cuttle-fish seemingly on strike, 

 the manufacturers of writing fluids 

 will probably be glad to have their 

 attention called to a river of the 

 purest kind of ink waiting to fill the 

 demand from a seemingly inex- 

 haustible source. It is of the 



To get a cigarette you turn the mill at the left 

 or press the button at the side of the stork 



