214 



Scraping a Bat— Why Is It Done? 

 O, Just Because 



BASEBALL players are as superstitious 

 as Zulus. In no way is this more 

 lucidly illustrated than in the care 

 which some of them lavish upon an 

 ordinary baseball bat. Manu 

 facturers oil and shellac their 

 bats to make them sleek and 

 fresh, and the superstitious 

 baseball player proceeds to 

 use glass, bone, sand- 

 paper and what-not to 

 remove thefinish. Why? 

 O, "just because" — to 

 give a woman's reason. 

 He may have a notion 

 that the bat will last 

 longer without it. But 

 the truth is that the 

 shellac really acts as a 

 preservative to the wood. 



Some baseball players 

 imagine that it is impos- 

 sible to make a strong hit 

 with a new bat, because the 

 bat is so sleek that the balls 

 glance off it. Others be- 

 lieve that scraping a bat 

 fills up the crevices and cracks and thus 

 lengthens the life of the bat. The ac- 

 companying photograph shows Cueto, a 

 Cuban who plays an outfield position for 

 the Cincinnati Reds, combing his bat with a 

 calf bone. 



A baseball player may change his bat 

 occasionally for a lighter or heavier one, 

 and when he does so the 

 principal sporting goods 

 stores in the country are at 

 once apprised of the fact. 

 One big store, for instance, 

 has on hand the exact 

 weight and style of bat 

 used by every big league 

 player in the United States. 

 When a player breaks his 

 bat all he need do is to send 

 a telegram such as this: 

 "Express me a bat, quick. 

 Tom Jones," and he will get 

 a duplicate of the bat he 

 broke. Most bats are made 

 of second-growth Northern 

 ash, dried in the sun. This 

 wood is becoming scarce. 



Popular Science Monthly 



Cueto, of the Cincinnati Reds, combs 

 his bat daily with a calf bone 



An Improvised Street Railway 

 Smoking Car 



INCREASED traffic and car shortage on a 

 street railway property in the East 

 during the past winter months made 

 some of the operative heads do quick 

 scheming in order to cope with the 

 situation. As a result, some of 

 the open summer cars were 

 equipped for "shop service" 

 in winter. The company 

 took ordinary fourteen- 

 bench open cars and 

 placed electric heaters 

 under the seats, except 

 the two end seats and 

 the two seats corre- 

 sponding, just inside 

 the bulkheads. The 



heaters have sheet-iron 

 guards on each side 

 to prevent contact 

 with the passengers' 

 shoes or clothing. Tests 

 showed that such a 

 battery of heaters pro- 

 vided a comfortable tem- 

 perature. 



In order to retain the 

 heat thus generated in the car, the sides 

 were equipped with transparent, non-in- 

 flammable windows. These flexible win- 

 dows in the curtains provided ample light 

 for reading. 



To encourage passengers to ride on the 

 cars they were run on express schedules 

 and termed "Express Smoking Car." 



An open summer car equipped with curtains, heaters and 

 windows, for a "smoker." It ran on an express schedule 



All the specialized knowledge and information of the editorial staff of the Popular 

 Science Monthly is at your disposal. Write to the editor if you think he can help you. 



