Popular Science Monthly 



393 



A Folding Walking-Stick with an 

 Electric Flashlight 



THE walking-stick is a favorite object 

 of experiment with the inventors — 

 or it seems s<9.. Efforts are constantly 

 being made to lift it into the ranks of the 

 really useful. The one equipped with the 

 little electric lamp is no longer a cane 

 oddity. It made its debut fully three 

 years ago. But the same cane in the new 

 folding shape is certainly the first of its 

 kind to come our way. The light switches 

 on and oflf just as the light in the old cane 

 did. You simply twist the metal covering 

 over the light socket and the bulb comes to 

 life. But the new cane has a decided 

 advantage over its predecessor. You can 

 pack it in your trunk and traveling bag and 

 take it along wherever you go. 



The tsvo parts of the cane are connected 

 by a steel rod with two pivoted elbows. 

 Thus the cane can be taken apart and the 

 upper and lower sections placed parallel 

 with each other. 



The lamp is located at the most con- 

 venient part of the stick — just a hand's 

 length from the cur\'ed handle of the cane. 

 Here it is not in any danger of being turned 

 on accidentally as it would be if it were 

 further up or down, and it is in just the 

 proper position to throw light on the key- 

 hole or on other near or distant objects. 



The folding cane which is equipped with an 

 electric flashlight in a most convenient location 



Thirty-nine lengths of pipe were coupled 

 together to make a compressed air con- 

 tainer of about fifty cubic feet capacity 



Improvising a Compressed Air Tank 

 from Pipes 



IT is particularly difficult with the present 

 shortage of freight cars to obtain equip- 

 ment of any kind. Long delays are the rule 

 before even standard apparatus can be 

 delivered. But sometimes, in a pinch of 

 this kind, mechanical ingenuity comes to 

 the front and solves the problem without 

 delay. For instance, a contractor needed 

 a compressed air-storage reserv^oir quickly. 

 An eight-inch well, two hundred and 

 twenty feet deep had been cased all the 

 way down and screened. Quicksand then 

 entered. To remove it, compressed air had 

 to be employed. No suitable air-tank was 

 available, and no manufacturer would 

 promise delivery for weeks. So the con- 

 tractor hooked up lengths of ordinary pipe, 

 as shown in the illustration. 



Thirty-nine lengths of pipe w'ere used, 

 each six feet long and six inches in diameter. 

 Their combined storage capacity amounted 

 to about fifty cubic feet. The makeshift 

 served its purp>ose admirably. There was 

 very little delay and the pipe was usable 

 for other purposes when it was no longer 

 needed to supply compressed air. 



