510 



Popular Science Monthly 



If Your Fur Coat Is Dingy Steam Will 

 Restore Its Gloss 



WHEN the old fur 

 coat looks as if it 

 were fast approaching the 

 limits of its usefulness do 

 not despair. A fur-coat 

 doctor can put it through 

 a five-minutes course of 

 treatment which will 

 make it fresh and , 

 youthful.- / 



He gets his results / 

 simply by steaming 

 the coat — steaming 

 it inside and outside 

 at the same time and 

 rubbing it briskly 

 while the fur is damp 

 and hot. The coat is 

 placed over a rack. 

 Steam enters the in- 

 side of the coat through 

 a tube attached to the 

 rack. Steam is also sprayed 

 against the outside by a 

 special apparatus held in the 

 hand of the cleaner. As soon 

 as the steam comes through 

 the coat from the inside, the cleaner brushes 

 the fur until it shines. Five minutes after 

 the steam has been cut off the coat is 

 ready to be worn. 



The steam is generated by a gasoline- 

 burning boiler. The sprayer held in the 

 hand is simply a perforated metal disk. 



Steam cleaning by brushing 

 and spraying the coat inside 

 and out at the same time 



Stimulating a Plant's "Digestion" 

 by Electricity 



THERE are several electrical methods 

 in use to-day for stimulating the 

 growth of vegetation. It seems that 

 a plant cannot absorb any food from 

 the soil until some of the fertilizer 

 present has been reduced to its simpler 

 chemical compounds. But an electric 

 current coursing through the soil can 

 hasten the breaking up of the fertil- 

 izer into its component elements. 

 Such a current will therefore release 

 greater food supplies in the soil, and 

 the plant will grow faster and to a far 

 greater size as a result of the great 

 supply of nourishment thus produced. 

 Perhaps the simplest of all methods 

 for stimulating plant growth in this 

 way is that recently devised by 

 Warren J. Anson, of Los Angeles, 



California. In his method, shown in the 

 illustrations, a clay pipe is buried directly 

 under the row of plants. This 

 very porous pipe has a number 

 of electric wires in its 

 walls. The ends of the 

 wires are joined together 

 at the surface of the 

 ground, whence they 

 lead to a source of al- 

 ternating current. It 

 is this current which 

 when carried in the 

 wires courses through 

 the soil surrounding 

 the pipe. The current 

 in this way reaches 

 the fertilizer at the 

 plant roots and stimu- 

 lates the growth. 



There are two ways 

 in which the alternat- 

 ing current can be sup- 

 Dlied. First, the wires 

 the pipes can all be con- 

 nected together and run to a 

 small dynamo. This method 

 is particularly desirable for 

 stimulating the growth of 

 delicate plants, since the comparatively 

 large current serves also to warm the soil. 

 The vegetation raised on an ordinary 

 farm, however, is hardy and this heating 

 is unnecessary. In this case, the current 

 is needed only to act upon the fertilizer. 

 The electricity present in the atmosphere 

 is sufficient. For collecting this electricity, 

 the farmer can erect several wires high in 

 the air. One method of construction is 

 shown in the illustration, although the in- 

 ventor does not mention how high it is nec- 

 essary to carry the wires over the ground. 



An alternating current carried through the clay 

 pipe stimulates the food absorption of the plants 



