742 



Popidar Science Monthly 



A compact self-contained vermin-destroyer. It gives the 

 men a shower bath at the same time that their clothes 

 are being subjected to the disinfecting vapor treatment 



Writing Paper Made from 

 Spinach Stems! 



THE chemists are even con 

 templating using the stems 

 of spinach for making paper. 

 According to a French horti- 

 culturist, Monsieur de Noyer, 

 spinach stems contain forty- 

 six per cent of cellulose. He 

 claims to have actually made 

 paper from the vegetable, 

 following the methods of the 

 Grenoble paper-making school. 

 If the waste portions of spinach 

 are used for this purpose, he 

 believes it will produce a most 

 satisfactory writing paper, 

 which will cost considerably 

 less than the present high- 

 quality grades. 



Getting Rid of Vermin Which Make 

 Life Miserable in the Trenches 



IT would seem that fighting a human 

 enemy and being bombarded with shrap- 

 nel and rapid fire guns would be sufficient to 

 make life miserable for the fighters in the 

 war zone without any additional annoy- 

 ances. But the soldiers have still another 

 enemy to fight, in the form of vermin. 

 These are considered to be not only a 

 nuisance but a menace to health. 



Radical means have been employed to 

 get rid of the vermin; but the usual 

 methods involve the installation of cumber- 

 some apparatus which it is difficult to 

 transport from place to place. A device 

 which has re- 

 cently been de- 

 signed to meet 

 the need, how- 

 ever, is mounted 

 on a small truck, 

 which takes care 

 of the transpor- 

 tation problem. 

 The apparatus 

 consists of bar- 

 rels of disinfect- 

 ant and a vapor- 

 izing condenser, 

 liquid is heated to io6 

 degrees and vaporized 

 under a pressure which 

 is determined by the size of the article being 

 subjected to the vapor bath. At the back 

 of the truck are two pipes for shower baths 

 leading from the hot water tanks. 



Combining the Sword and Pistol in 

 One Weapon 



A 



PENNSYLVANIA man has evolved a 



combination sword and pistol, in 

 which the barrel of the pistol is part of the 

 sword blade, which is made a little thicker 

 in the center to allow a hole to be bored, 

 through which the bullet passes. 



Between hilt proper and blade is mounted 

 a revolver cylinder, with trigger and guard 

 below it, and regular revolver firing 

 mechanism, all part of the hilt, the 

 trigger guard being within the hand-guard 

 of the sword. 



The user may cut and thrust to his 

 heart's content with a weapon 

 that is practically a sword, but 

 when the other fellow proves a 

 bit better fencer, the user has 

 merely to slip 

 his finger into 

 the guard of the 

 trigger, give a 

 pull, and shoot 

 his astonished 

 opponent with 

 what seemed 

 to be only a 

 sword. 



The barrel of the sword-pis- 

 tol is part of the sword blade 



■GROOVE BORE BARRELIN SWORD BLADE 



The blade-barrel and the cylinder are 

 fastened to the hilt with hinges in such a 

 manner as to allow the gun to be "broken" 

 to eject the shells. 



