Popular Science Monthly 



805 



liarly romantic about the work 

 of these telephone and telegraph 

 men in France. To begin with, 

 they are extraordinarily efficient. 

 Suppose you want to get a mes- 

 sage through from some tiny 

 unit at Ypres to another equally 

 insignificant at Albert — a 

 distance of some one hundred 

 miles. They will do it for you 

 in less than four minutes. In New 

 York or Chicago, with all modern 

 appliances, with up-to-date, 

 comfortable quarters, you could 

 not obtain an equivalent con- 

 nection in less time than that. 

 It may be romantic todo battle. 

 Battle rouses your blood, and the 

 instinct of self-preservation will 

 always help you in a fight. No 

 disparagement of the fighters — 

 but I take my hat off to the man 

 who can do a cable-laying job 

 under fire. 



Gustave manicuring the nails of the employees of the 

 dining-room, kitchen and pantry of a New York hotel 

 with as much care as if they were patrons 



Another Inventor's Idea for Speeding 

 Up the Automobile 



SOME patents suggest mainly the idea 

 that somebody somehow is making a 

 little money out of somebody by getting the 

 patents issued. Until September 19, 1916, 

 we could all, for example, freely mount two 

 42-inch, 8-bladed propeller-screws in front 

 of our motor-cars and connect them with 

 the hubs of the rear wheels by means of six 

 pairs of bevel gears, two long rods and two 

 universal joints; but on that date Edward 

 VVintermute of Exeter, Nebraska, had such 

 an arrangement re- 

 served for himself 



alone and those -^^ --**,< 



on whom he may propellers 



see fit to confer 

 the same privi- 

 lege. 



The illustra- 

 tion shows one 

 of the ways 

 in which this 

 conception can 

 be presented 

 by pen and 

 ink without 

 chall enging 

 the appoint- 

 ment of a com- 

 m i ssi on in 

 lunacy. 



N 



The propeller- screws in front of the car are intended to 

 increase its hill-climbing ability seventy-five per cent 



New York Restaurant Waiters and 

 Cooks Must Now Be Manicured 



MONG the many innovations which 

 the age has produced, none seems 

 more novel or extreme than one of the regu- 

 lations in reference to health and hygiene 

 recently introduced by the management of 

 a great New York hotel. 



Under the new rules, an official manicure 

 has been installed to take care of the hands 

 of the cooks and waiters. Every day each 

 employee who is in any way connected with 

 the serving of food must report to the official 

 manicure to have his hands 

 thoroughly scrubbed in hot 

 water and his nails cleaned 

 and polished. 



The mani- 

 cure is per- 

 haps the busi- 

 est of the ho- 

 tel employees. 

 When his first 

 dutiesareover, 

 his task of in- 

 spection be- 

 gins. At no 

 time of the day 

 or evening is a 

 careless waiter 

 or cook safe 

 from his scru- 

 tiny. 



