Popular Science Monthly 



385 



The first aerial fire-fighting company in the world. The equipment consists mainly 

 of chemical extinguishers. Extinguishing bombs are suggested for forest fires 



Is You 



Clang! Clang! The Fire-Chief 

 Coming in His Airplane 



THE fire department chiefs of every city 

 of this country have their eyes on 

 Chief Louis Almgren, of the San Diego, 

 California, fire department. Chief Almgren 

 has discarded the horse and buggy and the 

 automobile and now races through the air 

 in an airplane when chasing fires. 

 When a fire box is pulled in an 

 outlying section, the chief jumps 

 into his flying machine and is at 

 the scene of the blaze before the 

 horse - drawn equipment gets 

 around the first corner or the fire 

 boat is going full steam ahead. 

 His is the first aerial fire-fighting 

 company in the world. In test 

 flights made with the new air- 

 plane, which is a one-hundred 

 horsepower machine of the hydro- 

 plane type, trips that ordinarily 

 took the fire boats from twenty to 

 thirty minutes to make were made 

 by airplane in from two to five _ 

 minutes, counting the necessary porting^tSe ardi'and 



Will Never Be Efficient While 

 Your Feet Hurt You 



ACCORDING to some of our best physi- 

 Jl\ cians many of our bodily ills are di- 

 rectly attributable to improperly-cared-for 

 feet. This does not refer particularly to 

 fashionable footgear, but rather to fallen 

 arches, which are more common than is 

 realized, and to the painful callous 

 spots which prevent comfort in 

 shoes of almost any make. 



An adjustable device for sup- 

 porting the arch of the foot and 

 for removing such callouses on the 

 sole is shown in the accompanying 

 photograph. It consists of a num- 

 ber of supports which can be 

 placed in any desired position and 

 adjusted as needed from time to 

 time. To remove callouses, rubber 

 inserts in a pocket are placed un- 

 der and around the affected spot. 

 There are no metal parts, 

 the material used being soft 

 flexible leather and rubber. The 

 cure is not an overnight one, but 



time in getting the engine started, removing callous spots the relief is said to be immediate. 



Those of us interested in science, engineering, invention, form a kind of guild. 

 We should help one another. The editor of The POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY is 

 willing to answer questions. 



