Popular Science Monthly 



How Fast Is Your Typist? This Inge- 

 nious Machine Will Time Her 



INVENTORS have tried for years to put 

 a counter on the typewriter to estimate 

 the speed of the typist, but the efforts have 

 always been confined to a count of the 

 words written. A recently patented device, 

 called a cyclometer, counts every 

 stroke which the typist makes 

 on the keyboard. It is 

 fastened to the escapement 

 wheel of the typewriter. 

 This wheel does not move 

 when the carriage is 

 shoved backward and 

 forward. 



One firm employing 

 fifty typists found that 

 its work was below nor- 

 mal by cyclometer cou nt 

 and later that it had 

 some very rapid typists 

 and; some very slow ones. 

 The rate of pay had always 

 been based on the number 

 of years of service, and 

 many of the slow ones were 

 being paid for the work 

 done by the rapid operators. 

 This of course was quickly adjusted 



The timing device records not 

 only the number of words written 

 but the number of strokes made 



The Grave-Digger Beetle — Nature's 

 Sanitary Policeman 



WHEN an animal dies in a garden or 

 in the woods and decomposition be- 

 gins, carrion bugs come from far and near. 

 A dead bird, a mouse or a harmless snake 

 wantonly killed by some wanderer pro- 

 vides a banquet for hundreds of insects. 

 Among these the "grave-diggers" are found, 

 embracing forty-three species, twelve of 





The beetles dig the earth away from under the dead body 

 so that it sinks into its grave. Then they cover it over 



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which are found in Europe, the rest in 

 America. 



You can identify these beetles by the 

 two jagged yellowish-red or reddish trans- 

 verse bands upon their black wing-covers. 

 Their scientific name (Necrophorus) means 

 no more than "buriers of the dead." As 

 undertakers, the insects have legs 

 especially adapted for digging. 

 A grave-digger beetle has 

 a most extraordinary sense 

 of smell. He can detect 

 the peculiar odor of de- 

 composition a long dis- 

 tance away and flies to 

 the dead thing as 

 straight as an arrow. 

 His remarkably keen 

 nose is situated in his 

 club-like feelers. 

 As a rule several grave- 

 diggers are found near a 

 dead body. They crawl 

 under it and scratch the 

 supporting earth away, so 

 that the body soon lies in a 

 hollow. Gradually the body 

 is lowered until it sinks below 

 the surface. Then it is 

 covered with earth. The female lays her 

 eggs around the interred form, thus insur- 

 ing for the newly hatched larvae a plentiful 

 food supply. 



It is interesting to note that these grave- 

 diggers can produce a curious creaking 

 noise, by rubbing the fifth abdominal ring, 

 which has two longitudinal projecting bars, 

 on the under edge of both wing-covers. 

 This noise is only made when the bug 

 is attacked; it has therefore been con- 

 sidered an expedient to frighten away 

 Nature further fortifies the 

 beetle with a general musk- 

 like odor and by a particu- 

 larly strong smelling juice 

 which it exudes like a skunk 

 if touched. This odor serves 

 as a protection from human 

 beings, especially, as it is 

 peculiarly unpleasant and 

 penetrating. If the beetle is 

 handled it requires several 

 washings to remove the odor 

 from the fingers. 



The grave-diggers are 

 among the most useful of 

 beetles. They have been 

 designated Nature's sanitary 

 police. — Dr. E. Bade. 



its enemies. 



