Popular Science Monthly 



It's Built Like an Egg, is 

 Barney Oldfield's Racer 



THE ordinan," racing car, 

 because of its shape, 

 creates air eddies and currents 

 that force the car to push a 

 mass of air along in front of it 

 and pull along another mass 

 in back of it by suction. It 

 requires a certain amount of 

 power to move these masses 

 of air. This leaves less for the 

 actual propulsion of the vehi- 

 cle whose speed is correspond- 

 ingly decreased. Hence 

 greater speeds than ever be- 

 fore attained by racing auto- 

 mobiles should be made 

 possible by the unusual egg- 

 shaped body which Barney 

 Oldfield, the famous automo- 

 bile racer, had made for him. 

 Except for the projecting hood 

 over the engine, Oldfield's car 

 is the nearest appro.ximation 

 to a perfect streamline body 

 ever made. Even the pan 

 under the engine is blended 

 into the body in such a man- 

 ner as to present as little 

 t-urface as possible against 

 the propulsion of the car 

 through space. The body is 

 completely enclosed and has 

 none of the usual flat surfaces 

 and angles. 



Automobile makers have 

 learned much from the aero- 

 plane builder concerning the 

 construction of bodies that 

 part the air easily and so cut down wind 

 resistance. The body is made of aluminum 

 and will be mounted on one of the cars to 

 be seen at the racetracks this season. 



Placing the copper 

 eagle at the top of 

 the giant flagpole 



859 



Placing the American Eagle 

 On Its Perch 



IX Baltimore, recently, there 

 came a call for a dare-devil 

 to ascend the fifty-five-foot 

 steel flagpole on the roof of 

 an office building and place 

 upon its top, three hundred 

 and thirty feet and some 

 inches above the street, a 

 gilded eagle that would lord 

 it over every other artificial 

 bird in the city. Two joung 

 steeplejacks tackled the job 

 without delay. One of them 

 carried the copper eagle to the 

 top of the pole and in a high 

 wind made it fast, while the 

 other, as shown in the illustra- 

 tion, stationed himself mid- 

 way up the pole to be near 

 at hand if anything went 

 wrong. 



The eagle weighs thirty 

 pounds, it is five feet high, 

 and the spread of its wings is 

 ten feet. The topmost steeple- 

 jack had to rivet it in place 

 with two bolts, besides work- 

 ing with his pliers and a 

 refracton.- piece of sheet-iron. 

 It wasn't long, however, be- 

 fore he had the eagle fastened 

 to its permanent perch. 

 Most old - time steeplejacks 

 shun steel poles. They sa^' 

 they are treacherous, snap- 

 ping off at the top without 

 the slightest warning. 



ton; 



Wind resistance reduces sp)eed. The air should be smoothly 

 parted by a correctly designed bulk. That is the under- 

 lying theory of this unique racer built for Barney Oldfield 



Our Newspapers Are Wiping out 

 Our Forests 



THE present demand for new» print is 

 estimated to be about six thousand 

 per day. To supply this demand, 

 ut three million cords of woodpulp 

 required annually. To meet the de- 

 mand for magazine and book papei^. 

 stationer>- and business papers of all 

 kinds, w'rapping paper, wall paper, 

 cardboard, fiber board, and the 

 like, four million cords more 

 of wood pulp are needed an- 

 nually. Because the produc- 

 tion barely keeps pace with 

 this consumption, the Federal 

 Trade Commission is consider- 

 ing means for the better dis- 

 tribution of the product. 



