Popular Science Monthly 



Alas! It Will Not Work— This Method 

 of Foiling Bomb-Droppers 



AND now come Mary Hannah 

 . Clarke, born Ashton, -v 



banker and British citizen 

 but residing at Paris, France, 

 andMr.DemetrioMaggiora, 

 engineer and Italian subject 

 but residing in the same city, 

 with a new invention. These 

 two secured sole American 

 rights to an anti- airplane 

 ordnance of the most flab- 

 bergasting construction. This 

 ordnance is light of weight — very 

 light, and might be erected on 

 the roof of a house without 

 interfering with insurance and 

 building regulations. 



When the hostile aircraft is di- 

 rectly over the house, this 

 remarkable sheet-iron gun 

 is fired and sends aloft gi- 

 gantic whirling rings of 

 combustion gases 

 which twist the air- 

 craft around, as a cy- 

 clone the oak tree in its 

 path, and forthwith 

 sends it spinning in 

 desperate curves pre- 

 cipitately to the hard 

 pavement below. 

 Whereafter Maggiora 

 and Mrs. Clarke go 

 down the stairs and 

 view the remains with lively and mutual 

 satisfaction at their joint ingenuity. 



Witness the accom- 

 panying drawing. The 

 little thing to the right 

 is the generator of the 

 powerful gas. The gas 

 is admitted by a valve 

 to the explosion cham- 

 ber below in the smoke- 

 stack-gun where it is 

 mixed with air. The 

 choke port above this 

 chamber looks scientific 

 and perhaps has other 

 merits. The charge is 

 ignited by electric spark, 

 of course. 



And now notice the 

 precautions taken for 

 successful operation. 

 The long tube which is 

 supposed to endure the 



247 



explosion from within might collapse from 

 the pressure of the atmosphere when a 

 vacuum is suddenly created inside 

 of it by the 

 eruptive dis- 

 charge of its 

 contents. 

 Hence a series 

 of large valves 

 ; are arranged 

 ' spirally. They 

 open automat- 

 es ically and 

 admit the 

 air to the 

 vacuum 

 gradually 

 and soft- 



u. ly * 



IPE 



BARREL 



The tornado-spurting gun and its gas gener- 

 ator in operation on a housetop. At right 

 above is a diagram of the contrivance 



The ordinary policeman's 

 club with a whistle in the 

 handle. The whistle is 

 concealed by a cap which 

 flies back automatically 



The Policeman's 

 "Billy" Becomes 

 a Whistle 



THE inventors 

 have discov- 

 ered that the or- 

 dinary hardwood 

 club of the police- 

 man is not so effi- 

 cient as it looks. 



James A. Byrne, 

 of West Orange, N. 

 J., has been struck 

 by the fact that 

 when an officer clutches a prisoner with 

 one hand and his club with the other, he is 

 not in a position to take his whistle from 

 his pocket. Mount a whistle on the end 

 of his club and the problem is solved, 

 whistle is inserted in the handle of 

 :lub ; an opening near the top per- 

 mits the escape of air 

 when the whistle is blown. 

 Both the neck and the 

 mouthpiece of the whis- 

 tle project beyond the 

 handle end of the club, 

 but they are concealed 

 from view by a cap held 

 in position by a spring 

 catch. If the police- 

 man wishes to blow the 

 whistle in an emergen- 

 cy, he presses a push 

 button and the cap 

 flies back, exposing the 

 whistle to view. 



opening 



