Popular Science Monthly 



27 



Attacking Mail-Car Robbers with 

 Deadly Fumes 



IT would be a sad 

 gang of robbers 

 who tried to break 

 into the railway car 

 invented by George 

 W. Meyers, of the 

 United States Army. 

 They would be 

 greeted with clouds 

 of poisonous gas 

 fumes. 



Meyers' robber- 

 proof car works 

 with extreme sim- 

 plicity. Two tanks, 

 In which fumes of 

 cyanide of potas- 

 sium are stored 

 under pressure, are 

 fitted inside of the 

 car at each end. 

 These are connected 

 with a perforated pipe which extends all 

 around the door of the car, just, in back 

 of the outer framework. Should the train 

 be held up, the locomotive engineer would 

 telephone the guards within the car, who 

 would immediately open the valves of the 

 tank. The fumes would stream out through 

 the pipe perforations and into the robbers' 

 faces. The door being gas-tight, the deadly 

 gas could not penetrate into the car. 



The overhead trolley system and the fastener 

 keep the cow's tail from annoying the milker 



Making the Cow's Tail Behave with 

 a Trolley Restrainer 



JOSUA AERNI 

 and Joseph O. 

 Venden, of Guler, 

 Washington, have 

 come to the rescue 

 of the legion of tail- 

 flogged milkers,with 

 a device which 

 makes the cow's tail 

 behave. 



Briefly, the de- 

 vice consists of a 

 clamp, which holds 

 the ' tail and an 

 overhead trolley 

 system which per- 

 mits the holder to 

 be moved from one 

 cow to another. As 

 the drawing shows, 

 a rod is attached 

 to the wire track 

 in such a way that it can be readily moved 

 and held in a rigid vertical position at the 

 same time. At its lower end it is joined to 

 the tail fastener by a flexible cord. The 

 inventors do not take the trouble to de- 

 scribe their fastener,, but it is evidently 

 designed so that a strong spring grasps 

 the tail. 



•» A -Tank of Cyanide of Potassium 

 fumes, under pressure 



The deadly fumes are turned on from their tanks 

 through the perforated pipe around the door 



Guinea Pigs Were Once Raised 

 Like Chickens for Food 



THE cavy (guinea pig) is typically 

 a pet animal, and has no other 

 excuse for existence than the pleasure he 

 gives those who appreciate his good 

 qualities. . . . But it is to the undeniable 

 edibility of the cavy that we owe the 

 existence of the cheerful little squeaker of 

 today. 



"The Incas of Peru long ago domesticated 

 the wild ancestor of the modern animals 

 — a small, tailless, unicolored member of 

 the genus Cavix, the exact identity of 

 which is a matter of some doubt. These 

 creatures were allowed to run freely about 

 the homes of their owners, whose object 

 in breeding them undoubtedly was for 

 their food value. 



"The time which must undoubtedly 

 have elapsed since this domestication was 

 first begun is evident from the entirely 

 changed color of the present-day cavy." 

 {Pets, by Lee S. Crandall. Henry Holt 

 & Co., New York.) . 



