SM 



Popular Science Monthly 



would be a guard in charge of each safe. 



If a ship equipped with such a system of 

 floating safes should 

 sink, the cover of the 

 well would float ofif, 

 thewaterwould enter 

 the steel casing and 

 force the safes to rise 

 to the surface. Once 

 on the surface the 

 safes bob about, to be 

 eventually picked up 

 by a passing craft. 

 The inventor has 

 also provided for 

 hermetically - sealed 

 floats to be placed at 

 the extreme bottom 

 of the well under the 

 last safe. Attached to this float is a cable 

 which serves to indicate the position and 

 identity of the ship. 



It is said that the value of cargos annually 

 lost on the British coast in time of peace is 

 $45,000,000. Of course the loss has in- 

 creased with the war. The Merida, sunk 

 in collision with the Admiral Farragut, in 

 1911, sixty-five miles east of Cape Charles, 

 in three hundred feet of water, had about 

 $200,000 in valuables in the purser's safe. 

 The Oceana, sunk off Beachy Head, in 1912, 

 had on board $5,000,000 in gold and silver. 

 The Lusitania had about $1,000,000 in gold 

 and jewelry and several millions in securi- 

 ties aboard. The .Islander, sunk near 

 Juneau, Alaska, had $2,000,000 worth of 

 Klondike gold aboard. The Pawabiac, 

 sunk in Lake Huron, had $800,000 in 

 treasure. The General Grant, wrecked on 

 the Auckland Islands, in 1866, in eighty 

 feet of water, carried $15,000,000 in gold 

 bars and bullion. The flagship Florentia, 

 lost in Tobermory Bay off the west coast 

 of Scotland, also carried $15,000,000. 



Then, remember the fleet of seventeen 

 Spanish galleons with an accumulated 

 treasureof $140,000,000, which was sunk 

 in Vigo Bay, Spain. Six of the galleons, 

 being in shallow water, were later raised, 

 and about $20,000,000 recovered. But 

 the others, containing $120,000,000, still 

 rest at the bottom of Vigo Bay. 



Ship in the act of sinking, showing two of the safes 

 which have floated immediately to the surface 



Delivering Orders to Conductors and 

 Engineers on Speeding Trains 



A DEVICE for 

 delivering 

 messages and orders 

 to trainmen when 

 the train is traveling 

 at full speed has 

 been invented by 

 Edward Y. O'Con- 

 nor and Carl N. 

 McCaslin of Earl 

 Park, Indiana. The 

 station master simp- 

 ly places the mes- 

 sages in the device 

 and holds it so that 

 the conductor and 

 engineer can catch 

 them as the train rushes by. This is an 

 improvement over present methods, since 

 it eliminates a stop at each station where 

 orders are to be given. 



The device is of wood and consists of 

 three forks with clips or leaf springs attach- 

 ed to them. These clips serve as fasten- 

 ing points for the cord upon which the 

 messages are hung. The cord is thus held 

 firmly in place. 



Two messages can be delivered at the 

 same time, one to the engineer and the 

 other to the conductor, by holding the 

 device so that the engineer may snatch his 

 message and then reversing the position so 

 the conductor may get his. 



The device is of wood and consists of three 

 forks with cUps on which the message is hung 



The editor of the Popular Science Monthly wants to hear from readers who 

 have interesting photographs and interesting articles to sell. New inventions, natural 

 curiosities, queer ways of using old devices — all these make good pictures. Accepted 

 contributions are paid for promptly and liberally. But readers must understand 

 that only unpublished contributions offered exclusively to the POPULAR SCIENCE 

 Monthly are desired. 



