432 



Popular Science Monthly 



The pilot's wheel which 

 controls the direction of 

 the primitive ferry boat 



The force of the current 

 against the side of the boat 

 carries it across stream 



it is propelled by the current of the 

 river at no expense. Two poles, 

 eighty feet high, made of iron pipe, 

 were erected, one on each side of the 

 river. Between them is stretched a 

 steel cable to receive a pulley. Ends 

 of a rope are attached to the bottom 

 of the pulley. The rope is fastened 

 to each end of the ferry boat, then 

 brought along the side of the boat 

 and passed around the hub of a 

 wheel, resembling the steering wheel 

 of a steamboat. 



When the wheel is turned it 

 winds up the rope, so that 

 the length from one end of 

 the boat to the pulley is 

 shorter than the length 

 from the other end. This 

 naturally turns one end 

 of the boat upstream. The 

 force of the current, act- 

 ing against the boat, pro- 

 pels it across the river. To 

 recross, the rope is shortened. 



Making the Missouri River Drive a 

 Ferry Boat 



ALTHOUGH Bellevue was the first 

 settlement in Nebraska, it never 

 constructed a bridge across the Missouri 

 River. In 1810, the American Fur Com- 

 pany had established a post at that 

 place and it seemed as if the 

 village would become a thriv- 

 ing city. But, by a turn 

 of fate, the place re- 

 mained a small town, 

 and no bridge was 

 ever built between 

 Omaha and Platts- 

 mouth, a distance of 

 about twenty-five 

 miles. For some 

 time a gasoline ferry 

 boat was main- 

 tained at Bellevue, 

 but it was not de- 

 pendable and was 

 abandoned years ago, leaving farmers with 

 no means of crossing with their wagons and 

 live stock. An old-fashioned mode of 

 crossing the Missouri river by ferry was 

 then revived. 



The old-new ferry is interesting because 



One squirrel was on the line and the other on 

 the grounded brace when their noses touched 



Alas! The Price of This Kiss Was 

 Instant Death 



THE top of a pole carrying nearly four- 

 teen thousand volts of electric current 

 is a precarious trysting place. The accom- 

 panying photograph of two squirrels en- 

 gaging in what proved to be their kiss 

 of death shows just how dangerous 

 it is to spoon adjacent to elec- 

 tric light feed wires. The 

 two squirrels had 

 evidently made an 

 engagement to meet 

 at the top of the pole 

 and look for the lady 

 in the moon. 



Arrived there, as 

 the latest hedonists 

 say, they were in the 

 act of giving the cus- 

 tomary lover's greet- 

 ing, when the touch- 

 ing of their noses 



caused a short circuit and the souls of both 

 animals were wafted heavenward. It was 

 indeed a kiss of death. From the nature of 

 the burns it was established that one squir- 

 rel was on the line, and the other was on 

 the brace which is grounded. 



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 of the magazine. He will be glad to help you. 



