886 



Popular Science Monthly 



vessel ready for sea, her engines and equip- 

 ment being found in very good condition. 

 The two thousand tons of phosphate in 

 her hold were left in place. Her cargo 

 of 1,300 tons of coal was used on the trip 

 to San Francisco. Before departing the 

 vessel was christened Republic, and given 

 American registry. 



When she reached San Francisco the 

 ship was thor- 

 oughly over- 

 hauled and re- 

 paired at a cost, 

 including the 

 salvage, of $255- 

 000. Yet such 

 was the scarcity 

 of ships that 

 she soon paid 

 all expenses in- 

 curred. On one 

 trip alone she 

 netted $360,000. 

 She was. finally 

 sold for the sum 

 of $825,000. 



The cofferdam after it had been lowered in place. The 

 thickness of the planks increased with the depth of immersion 



A Camera Timing-Release Which 

 Enables You to Photograph Yourself 



NUMEROUS methods, electric and 

 otherwise, have been devised to enable 

 a person to photograph himself. Some 

 have proved to be successful, but they are 

 usually tedious and difficult processes in 

 which there is little certainty 

 of success. Few equal in 

 simplicity a method brought 

 out by ElHs E. Bjorling, 

 of Salt Lake City, Utah. 

 The entire mechanism con- 

 sists of a modified watch 

 which can be carried about 

 in the pocket. After the 

 camera has been placed in posi- 

 tion, the watch is set for the 

 time it takes you to get into place, 

 when the picture will be snapped 

 immediately. 



The watch has a moving plunger 

 mounted in a small cylinder at its 

 side. A flexible cable attached to 

 the end of the plunger leads to the 

 shutter-release on the camera. When 

 the plunger is pressed inward to- 

 wards the end of its cylinder, it 

 compresses a spring. The plunger 

 is held at the end of the cylinder by a 



der from the inside of the watch. The 

 moving inward of the plunger will have 

 also moved the cable, so that the camera- 

 shutter is now set for the picture. 



After this adjustment, the watch can 

 be set to trip the plunger with any period 

 of time not exceeding forty-five minutes. 

 During this interval, in which you are get- 

 ting into position in front of the camera, 



the spring-latch 

 will be gradu- 

 ally pressed 

 down by a lever. 

 This lever is 

 slowly turned 

 by a pin on the 

 minute-hand 

 gear. It is pro- 

 vided with a 

 cam at its end. 

 If the watch 

 has been ad- 

 justed for forty- 

 five minutes, 

 after three 

 quarters of an 

 hour the cam 

 spring in from 



will have pressed the 

 the cylinder. The plunger will be tripped 

 and it will jump back, pulling the cable 

 along with it. This operates the shutter. 



Ten Thousand Medical Officers Are 

 Needed for a Million-Man Army 



THERE are about one 

 hundred and fifteen 

 thousand physicians in 

 the United States to care 

 for the civil population 

 and provide medical of- 

 ficers for the Army and 

 Navy. In the event of 

 an army of one million 

 men being called to the 

 colors, seven thousand 

 medical officers, or about 

 six per cent of the physi- 

 cians who are in the actual 

 practice of their profes- 

 sion, will be needed at 

 once, and three thousand 

 will later be needed for 

 emergencies. This means 

 that ten thousand phy- 

 sicians will have to be 

 entirely detached from 

 It will require seven 



The plunger connected 

 with the shutter is pressed 

 in against the spring by 

 the turning of the watch 



their home practice 



spring-latch which projects into the cylin- hundred others a year to replace losses. 



