Popular Science Monthly 



345 



Digest Your Food Electrically! You 

 Can Do It with a Wireless Apparatus 



WIRELESS engineers have perfected 

 the "spark" system of wireless teleg- 

 raphy, until now powerful currents are 

 perfectly controlled. These currents have 

 a decided medical value, and physicians 

 were not long in employing them, first 

 of all in the "baked" cautery method for 

 making bloodless operations. Here sets of 

 small electrodes are 

 placed opposite the 

 organ to be operated 

 upon, and a low- 

 voltage current is 

 applied which 

 may change its 

 direction as 

 many as a 

 million times in 

 one second. 

 The current can 

 be directed 

 upon the partic- 

 ular organ until 

 it becomes heated 

 to such an extent 

 that it is actually 

 "baked!" The cauter- 

 ized organ may then 

 be removed, if neces- 

 sary, with little chance 

 of blood poisoning. 



The "wireless apparatus" shown in the 

 accompanying illustration is being used 

 now as an aid to digestion. The patient 

 illustrated was so weak that he could not 

 digest enough food to keep himself alive. 

 The three large electrodes that are shown 

 placed against his side were connected with 

 a branch circuit of the apparatus. The 

 number of times in a second that the 

 current changed its direction was then 

 regulated in the main circuit by the large 

 wire coil seen near the head of the physician. 

 The strength of the current was carefully 

 adjusted, and when the 

 proper values were ob- 

 tained, the electrodes 

 were "thrown in" with 

 the main circuit. The 

 current, as it coursed 

 through the stomach 

 and its connecting 

 organs, so stimu- 

 lated the cells that 

 they were soon 

 able to do their 

 work again. 



The patient could not digest enough food to 

 keep him alive, so electrical stimulation of 

 the organs was resorted to and he recovered 



Will the Gasoline of the Future 

 Be Mined? 



THE latest estimates of the United 

 States Geological Survey show that if 

 gasoline continues to be used up at the 

 present rate, all the petroleum fields now 

 in use will be exhausted before 1950. 

 Where, then, will our future gasoline come 

 from? Billions of dollars are involved in 

 the question. The probable answer is that 

 "mined" gasoline will be used. 

 Colorado, Utah, and other 

 Western and Middle 

 Western states con- 

 tain extensive oil- 

 bearing deposits 

 of bituminous 

 shale. Crude 

 oil can be ex- 

 tracted from 

 them and this 

 can be distilled 

 further to ob- 

 tain gasoline. 

 Enough gasoline 

 could be produced 

 in this way to equal 

 many times the 

 amount obtained from 

 all cur present-day 

 petroleum fields. 



The pigeon-hole idea applied to traveling bags. 

 Every inch of space is utilized, even the flaps 



You Don't Need to Dig in This Bag 

 to Find What You Want 



A TRAVELING bag which is a veritable 

 wardrobe trunk, if one counts its 

 numerous trays and compartments, has 

 been invented by Samuel H. Wallach, of 

 New York city. The trays are placed so that 

 they taper upward toward the top. Access 

 to them is gained by opening or separating 

 the walls of the body portion of the bag. 



The side and end walls of the bag are 

 secureK' fastened together above the upper 

 tray by a buckle. Several large envelope- 

 shaped compartments are provided for 

 soiled linen and small ar- 

 ticles. Only a single lock 

 is necessary to give 

 access to any or 

 all parts of the 

 bag. 



Each wall of 

 the bag is provi- 

 ded with pockets 

 into which articles 

 of various sizes 

 may be tucked. 



