676 



Popular Science Monthly 



vertical position by means of rings and 

 clarhps screwed into a tall post in such a 

 manner that it can rotate freely. Its height 

 can also be adjusted so that a fixed point on 

 the rod is at the level of the observer's eye. 

 In using the apparatus, the observer sta- 

 tions himself in such a position that the 

 cloud selected for observation is seen in the 

 same straight line as the central spike. He 

 then turns the cross-piece until the cloud 

 appears to travel 

 along the line of 

 spikes, while he 

 remains motion- 

 less. The cross- 

 piece will then be 

 parallel to the 

 line of motion of 

 the cloud, and 

 the direction in 

 which it points 

 can be read off on 

 a graduated cir- 

 cle which is fixed 

 to the rod. The 

 rod may be turn- 

 ed by an observer 

 standing at some 

 distance away 

 from it by means 

 of two cords tied 

 to a second short- 

 er cross-piece at- 

 tached to its 

 lower extremity. 



The observer 

 notes the time 

 the cloud takes to 

 pass from spike to 

 spike. The dis- 

 tance between 

 two spikes is 

 known, and also 

 the altitude of 

 the cross-piece 

 above the ob-. 



server's eye. A rudimentary knowledge 

 of geometry tells us that the ratio of the 

 latter distance to the former is the same 

 as the ratio of the cloud's altitude to the 

 actual distance it travels in apparently 

 passing from one spike to the next. The 

 altitude of the cloud may be assumed to 

 be the average altitude for a cloud of its 

 type. 



The nephometer, shown in another p^- 

 ture, is used to determine "degree of cloud- 

 iness," or relative area of the sky covered 

 by clouds. 



The observer is sighting the image of a cloud 

 reflected into the mirror from an artificial pool of 

 water below the window, to determine its height 



What Is a Man ? Break a Thousand 

 Eggs and You'll Have His Contents 



WHAT is a man? How much is he 

 worth from a scientific viewpoint? 

 According to one way of looking at it a 

 man is worth about $2.50 a day from his 

 shoulders down and anywhere from $50,000 

 to $1,000,000 a year from his shoulders up. 

 This may be said to be the estimate of the 

 average successful business man. 



The scientist, 

 however, looks at 

 the question from 

 another angle. 

 According to him 

 a man is worth 

 $2.45 for illumi- 

 nating purposes, 

 since a man 

 weighing 150 

 pounds contains 

 about 3,500 cubic 

 feet of oxygen, 

 hydrogen and ni- 

 trogen in his con- 

 stitution, which 

 at seventy cents 

 per 1 ,000 cubic 

 feet equals the 

 price above. Also 

 a man contains 

 enough carbon to 

 make 9,360 lead 

 pencils; enough 

 phosphorus to 

 make 800,000 

 matches or 

 enough to kill 500 

 persons, and 

 enough water to 

 fill a thirty-eight 

 quart reservoir. 



Furthermore, 

 it makes no dif- 

 ference how sour 

 a man may look 

 he contains about sixty lumps of sugar, a 

 great deal of starch, chloride of potash, 

 magnesium, sulphur and hydrochloric acid 

 in his system. There are fifty grains of iron 

 in the blood of an ordinary man, enough to 

 make one spike large enough to hold his 

 weight. 



What, is a man? This is the sbmewhat 

 cynical answer of one scientific man: 



"Break the shells of 1,000 eggs into a 

 huge pan or basin and you have ingre- 

 dients from which to form him from his toe 

 nails to the most delicate tissues of his brain . ' ' 



