Popular Science Monthly 



543 



The Rising Price of Auto- 

 mobiles — Charge It 

 to the War 



THE policy of automobile 

 manufacturers of yearly 

 reducing the price of their 

 cars has received a severe 

 jolt. With steel, copper and 

 rubber going out of the 

 country as they have, the 

 rising cost of these materials 

 promises to sweep the price 

 of the cars up with them. 



Steel for forgings has gone 

 up nearly three hundred per 

 cent since the beginning of 

 the war. Aluminum quota- 

 tions are trebling those of 

 two years ago. Leather, 

 copper and other finishing 

 materials have advanced 

 from twenty-five to one hun- 

 dred per cent. Even the 

 cost of the labor, the largest 

 single item in the manufac- 

 ture of a motor car, : is con- 

 siderably greater than it ever 

 was before. 



The framework into which the concrete is 

 of the permanent structure and hence need 



poured 

 not be 



is a part 

 removed 



The Overdriven Nail and the High 

 Cost of Living 



ONE wooden packing case is required 

 with every twenty-four of the billions 

 of cans that America uses in her canning 

 industry each year. The expense of the 

 cases, when everything is added up, is so 

 great that packers are availing themselves 

 of every invention or idea which 

 promises to reduce it. One of 

 the facts they have found out 

 is the economy of properly 

 adjusting the automatic 

 case-nailing machines. 

 When the strokes of these 

 machines are even a 

 fraction of an inch too 

 long, the wood fibers 

 are cut and the havoc is 

 wrought which the ac- 

 companying enlarged 

 photograph well illus- 

 trates. It seems a more 

 economical plan to pay 

 a workman to adjust the 

 machine than to stand 

 the expense of repairs. 



A Substitute for Forms in Concrete 

 Roofs and Floors 



THE necessity of erecting temporary 

 wooden forms for concrete roofs and 

 floors is avoided by the use of a metal sup- 

 port which becomes a part of the permanent 

 structure and which not only takes the place 

 of reenforcing material but also helps carry 

 the load. When the framework has 

 been put up, large sheets of the 

 metal work are laid over the 

 supports and fastened ; then 

 the concrete is poured, the 

 under side cement plas- 

 tered, and the job is 

 complete. 



Less time is required 



than with the ordinary 



forms. In addition 



there is less expense for 



labor and material, and 



the concrete work may be 



made lighter. The metal 



material may also be used 



for concrete work in other 



e havoc wrought by an overdriven construction than that of 



nail in the fibers of a packing case roofs and floors. t 



