Popular Science Monthly 



217 



Twelve Blind Men Go Bicycling on 



Curious Machine 

 ■AT the Royal Normal College for the 

 l\ BHnd at Upper Norwood, London, 

 England, a multicycle is in use which will 

 carr\^ a team of twelve cyclists. It is com- 

 posed of six two- wheeled members, each 

 adapted for two persons, coupled together. 

 There is a connecting bar between each 

 successive pair of wheels to form a complete 

 train twenty-eight feet in length. 



Obviously the machine must be 

 guided by a person who can see. 

 This person is in the second seat. 

 The slightest deviation to either 

 side of the front wheels is trans- 

 mitted through the coupling bar 

 to the second pair of wheels, the 

 drivers of which can act in 

 concert, thereby conveying the 

 same information to the third 

 unit, and so on to the end. The 

 sharpest curves can easily be 

 rounded. Often long excursions 

 are taken into the country. On 

 one occasion blind men made 

 trip to Brighton, one hundred miles 

 distant, in ten and three-quarter hours 

 of actual running time, or an average 

 speed of nine and three-quarter miles per 

 hour. 



In this way, although each man has all 

 the enjoyment and freedom of motion 

 which is obtained in riding a separate 

 bicycle, the balance is preser\-ed just as 

 surely as it would be in a long, narrow, 

 twelve-wheeled truck. Moreover, the ap- 

 pearance presented is not that of blind 

 men being conducted on an outing. To 

 the average observer, the riders are twelve 

 normal men working individually and in 

 perfect unison. None but the afflicted can 

 realize what this means to the blind. 



Twelve blind men enjoying an outing on their 

 The element of danger from falls is practically 



By drawing the 

 magnet over the 

 face of the plate the 

 metal semicircles 

 may be made to 

 slide along and ar- 

 range themselves in 

 any desired design 



Plate for Making Designs 

 with a Magnet 



ANEW game that takes advantage of 

 the child's delight in playing with a 

 magnet is so constructed that letters, 

 numerals, and other designs may be worked 

 out. The essential part is a slotted metal 

 plate. In each slot there is suspended a 

 semicircle of silvered sheet metal, which 

 slides freely through the slot but cannot 

 drop out. The semicircles are all turned 

 in the same direction. By drawing the 

 magnet over the face of the plate they may 

 be drawn to the front so as to make the 

 design desired. 



The game is not only amusing but also 

 may be used to teach the younger children 

 the form of the different 

 letters and numerals. An 

 ingenious boy with some 

 knowledge of the rudiments of 

 constructional drawing can 

 make any number of designs 

 with the device and will 

 derive much pleasure and 

 practise from it. As an 

 amusement for a youngster 

 convalescing from an illness 

 the idea is excellent, for it 

 will keep his mind employed 

 without in the least tiring 

 multicycle. ^ini or over-exciting his im- 



eliminated agination. 



