190 



Popular Science Monthly 



tele- 



ful temperature, will be used for drinking. 

 Heavy doors and windows will be moved 

 automatically by compressed air. Gas dis- 

 infecting pipes will lead to each residence. 



Vacuum cleaners will be installed. Bell 

 announcers will signal a few moments in 

 advance the arrival of a train 

 to the nearest station, allowing 

 sufficient time for the resident 

 to be on the platform. This 

 signal device can be made 

 inoperative at will. The 

 dictograph will en- 

 tertain, lecture, sing 

 or play for you when 

 you do not care to 

 go out. By simply 

 phoning central the name 

 of your favorite selection, 

 the entertainment will be 

 wired to your room or to 

 the room of a convalescent 

 patient. 



To the practical-minded 

 man the Roadtown propo- 

 sition may now begin to 

 assume the thinness of a 

 fantastic dream, too good 

 to be true. But, is it? 

 The society recently or- 

 ganized to further the in- 

 terest in Roadtown is re- 

 ceiving the cooperation of 

 architects, engineers, 

 builders and scientists. 

 Among them are level-headed thinkers who 

 are not readily bowled over by a fas- 

 cinating but impractical venture, such 

 men, for instance, as Mr. Boyes, inventor 

 of the monorail, M. K. Turner, inventor of 

 the dictograph, and Thomas A. Edison, 

 electrical wizard, who has donated his 

 cement-pouring patents to the Roadtown 

 Society. 



Estimates, costs and statistics are being 

 rapidly compiled, and in view of the ex- 

 treme economy of build- 

 ing in a continuous line, slots 

 utilizing one mold for hun- 

 dreds of buildings, of pur- 

 chasing building material 

 in wholesale quantities, 

 and the economy of close 

 alinement, it has been es- 

 timated that one of these 

 seven - rooms and bath 

 Roadtown residences 

 could be rented for twenty- 

 one dollars per month. 



assume that 



A New Spur Is Carried on the Reins— 

 Not on the Heel 



IF you dig a horse in the ribs with nicely 

 sharpened spurs, he runs. You naturally 

 if you dig him in the back 

 in like manner, the result 

 will be the same. Herein 

 lies the reason for the 

 rein spurs invented by 

 B. E. Jordan, of Hugo, 

 Okla. 



The spur consists 

 of a circular piece of 

 steel which is at- 

 tached to metal 

 plates that hold it in 

 position on the rein. 

 The sharp points on 

 the edge of the disk 

 complete the spur. If 

 it is sufficiently sharp 

 the driver need only drop 

 it gently on the horse's 

 neck and, as the inventor 

 says, "he will be goaded 

 into activity." The prin- 

 cipal advantage which the 

 rein-spur has over the heel- 

 spur is recognized when 

 the rider has occasion to 

 dismount and walk awhile. 



The spur strikes the horse's 

 neck. It is attached to the 

 rein within easy reach 



A Bottle Opener Which Will Not 

 Break the Cork 



Fc 



The self-opening device is glued 

 to the neck of the bottle. It 

 rolls over to form * thumb-loop 



opening a bottle with the ordinary 

 corkscrew, it often happens that the cork 

 is broken and difficulty is found in removing 

 it without dropping crumbs of cork into the 

 contents of the bottle, or of pushing the 

 broken cork itself down into the bottle. 

 In the illustration below a device is 

 shown which eliminates all the bother con- 

 nected with the 

 opening of the 

 bottle. It is in 

 the form of a 

 ) loop glued to 

 the top and 

 around the 

 sides of the 

 neck of the bot- 

 tle, by means 

 of which 

 stopper, 

 seals and 

 labels may 

 be removed. 



Advertising surface 

 of flap 



flexible strip 



Glue-covered 

 sealing flap 



Flap sealed 



