688 



Popular Science Monthly 



Fifteen hundred dollars' worth of liquor was poured 

 into the sprinkling wagon, water was added, and 

 the concoction was spread over the streets of the city 



Phoenix, Arizona, Finds a New Use 

 for the " Water Wagon " 



IN Phoenix, Arizona, recently, a city 

 sprinkling wagon filled with two hundred 

 and twelve gallons of beer, one hundred 

 and ninety-six gallons of whiskey, eight 

 gallons of wine and enough water to neu- 

 tralize the intoxicants, was driven through 

 the streets. The fiery concoction was 

 sprinkled over the streets, leaving in its 

 wake an odor which proved its genuine- 

 ness. The county sheriff, his deputies and 

 prohibitionists rode on this "water" wagon. 

 The liquor was collected from bootleggers 

 after the prohibition law had gone into 

 effect. 



Making the Automatic Pistol 

 Practically Foolproof 



THE automatic pistol is peculiarly 

 tricky. It has a magazine that 

 is removable by the touch of a re- 

 tainer catch, which removal is be- 

 lieved by nine persons out of ten, to 

 unload and make the gun entirely 

 safe. He loads it by putting in the 

 magazine, thinks the user, why not 

 unload it by reversing the process? I 

 know of a half-dozen fatal accidents 

 from this misguided opinion. 



When the slide or bolt of the auto- 

 matic goes forward, it carries one 

 cartridge forward out of the removable 

 magazine, and pushes it into the 

 chamber, which is the portion of the 

 barrel in which the cartridge rests 

 when it is in firing position. The 

 cartridge is now entirely out of com- 

 munication with the magazine, and 



removing the magazine affects 

 that cartridge as little as throw- 

 ing away the box in which the 

 ammunition came in the first 

 place. The only way to unload 

 the gun is to remove the maga- 

 zine, then retract the slide or 

 breechbolt by hand, which with- 

 draws the cartridge in the cham- 

 ber and ejects it from the gun. 

 But so common is the belief 

 that removing the magazine re- 

 moves all cartridges, that wise 

 pistol-makers have installed de- 

 vices to prevent the gun from 

 being fired when the magazine 

 is out. In the hands of the ex- 

 perienced man there is no occa- 

 sion for such a precaution. It 

 is purely to cut down the number of acci- 

 dents resulting from this mistaken idea 

 that the pistol with magazine out is 

 necessarily* empty. With such a device in 

 use, the gun-ignorant person can remove 

 the magazine and snap the gun at some 

 innocent bystander without the usual re- 

 grettable sequence to such an act. 



In the usual form, a little catch, held out 

 of the way by the magazine when the maga- 

 zine is in the gun, springs up and locks the 

 trigger the instant the magazine is taken 

 out. The user cannot fire the gun until the 

 magazine is replaced and the catch de- 

 liberately thrown off. Then, of course, the 

 most arrant amateur who ever handled a 

 gun, ought to know that the gun is loaded 

 and ready to fire, and that consequently it 

 must be handled with care and not aimed 

 at a comrade's head in a spirit of fun, lest 

 an accident with dire results happen. 



MAGAZINE REMOVED 

 FROM STOC\ 



A little catch springs up and locks the trigger of 

 the revolver the instant the maeazine is taken out 



