Popular Science Monthly 



681 



A Jeweler's Daughter Wears a 

 Potato Necklace 



GATHER around, ye wealthy farmers, 

 and gaze upon the first potato-neck- 

 lace! You will perceive that the poor city 

 folk are at last recognizing the 

 true value of your commodities 

 and assigning them a more con- 

 spicuous place in the scheme 

 of things. 



This costly necklace was 

 made by a Cincinnati jew- 

 eler who experienced 

 much difficulty in se- 

 curing enough of the 

 gems to complete the 

 rare bit of jewelry. 



You will observe 

 that the largest of the 

 potatoes js studded 

 with diamonds. The 

 egg suspended from it 

 is also supplied with 

 them. 



No less than 10,000 

 persons were satisfied with 

 only a look at this potato- 

 necklace while it was on ex- 

 hibition in the show-window. 

 No one asked its price. 



The potato raised to the 

 highest degree of importance 

 and studded with "diamonds" 



Testing the Operation of Wooden 

 Feet and Legs 



FRENCH surgeons, in collaboration 

 with manufacturers of artificial limbs, 

 have made remarkable progress in their 

 endeavors to provide mutilated soldiers 

 with satisfactory substitutes for their lost 

 legs. Some of the artificial legs devised, 

 however, tire the user too quickly or cause 



RtCORWN^ DRUM 



The device records every movement of the foot during 

 walking, so that it is possible to determine types of 

 artificial legs best suited to special needs of cripples 



objectionable chafing or perhaps wounds. 

 A Mr. Amar has recently discussed 

 before the French Academy an ingenious 

 invention called the dynamo-graphic side- 

 walk, which promises to be of great ser- 

 vice in the testing of artificial legs and in 

 determining whether new construc- 

 tions of such legs are free from 

 the ordinary defects. Its pur- 

 pose is to record accurately 

 all movements of the foot 

 during walking, their char- 

 acter as well as their 

 intensity, so that it will 

 be possible to ascertain 

 accurately the working 

 of a leg and to choose 

 a type of artificial leg 

 best suited to the in- 

 dividual for whom it 

 is intended. 



The apparatus con- 

 sists chiefly of two 

 boards (each about eight 

 and one-half feet long 

 and about ten inches wide) 

 arranged side by side, but 

 independently of each other. 

 These boards are supported 

 by a system of joints, 

 springs and levers in such a 

 manner that they will re- 

 spond to the slightest pres- 

 sure exerted on them, not only vertically, 

 but longitudinally and laterally as well. 

 These pressures will be received by the 

 respective levers in the exact proportion of 

 their intensity and transmitted to rubber 

 bulbs, which in turn act by means of pneu- 

 matic tubes on recording drums. 



The two boards being independent of 

 each other, the movements of each foot 

 will be conveyed separately to the respect- 

 ive levers, which resolve them 

 into their several components 

 and transmit the result of 

 this analysis to the recording 

 devices, of which there are 

 four for each foot. It will 

 thus be easy to read oflf the 

 vertical pressure of the leg 

 when it comes to rest on the 

 board, the rearward push of 

 the foot before throwing the 

 body forward, and the in- 

 ward and outward pressure it 

 exerts. The data thus ob- 

 tained are complemented by 

 time measurements. 



