Popular Science Monthly 



17 



Buttons Are Now Made as 

 a By -Product of Beer 



THE spent yeast which 

 collects in breweries and 

 distilleries is put through a 

 process which turns it out in 

 the form of buttons, door- 

 bell plates and knife handles. 

 Formerly this left-over ma- 

 terial was considered to be a 

 bothersome waste; now it is 

 utilized, every bit of it. As 

 it is gathered from the vats 

 the yeast is of a dirty, gray- 

 brown color. The first op- 

 eration is to dye rt and the 1 

 to work it over until it 

 assumes the form of pow- 

 der and can be hot-presssi 

 into any form. In this 

 stage it is called "ernolith." 

 It may be sawed, scraped, 

 filed, drilled, engraved, 

 turned to an edge, and 

 polished. The material 

 has a particularly close 

 and fine structure, and 

 possesses sufficient hard- 

 ness and elasticity for 

 all ordinary purposes. 



Where the rigid teeth of a 

 steel gear would scrape to- 

 gether those of the gears 

 made from cotton yield 



A hydraulic pressure of 

 from six to eight thou- 

 sand tons is required to 

 make the fiber gears 



This Truck Loader Will Lift One Ton 

 Ten Inches Per Second 



MECHANICAL loading devices are not 

 rare, but the one shown in the 

 illustration below has several novel features. 

 It is in three parts: a supporting frame, a 

 traveling crane and a dynamo for generat- 

 ing the necessary electricity. The travel- 

 ing crane comprises a motor, a clutch, a 

 driving mechanism and a lifting winch. 

 The hoist is carried 

 on a transverse track 

 which is part of the 

 traveling crane, so 

 that it can lift a load 

 from any point across 

 the width of the ma- 

 chine. It can be 

 locked in any position 

 desired. The winch 

 has a capacity lift of 

 o;i3 ton at the rate of 

 ten inches per second. 

 E. Fourhee, of Paris, 

 is the inventor. 



A brewer's wagon supplied with a travel- 

 ing hoisting crane, which is electrically 

 driven by a dynamo under the floor 



Gear Wheels Made of Cotton. They 

 Outlast Steel Gears 



GEARS are now being made of ordinary 

 cotton which outwear those made 

 from the finest steel. It seems incredible, 

 but it is true. 



The very hardness of the metal gears 

 causes the teeth surfaces to scrape over each 

 other when they mesh, producing hideous 

 screeches and groans. Every one of these 

 scrapings means a cer- 

 tain amount of wear. 

 Teeth made out of 

 compressed cotton 

 yield. They are there- 

 fore perfectly noise- 

 less. Compared with 

 the metal gears, they 

 are indestructible. 

 To make these fiber 

 gears, a large cylinder 

 built up of cotton 

 disks is compressed to 

 but one sixteenth of 

 its former length ! 



