594 



Popular Science Monthly 



Even in the dark you 

 would know that the 

 bottle above with its 

 skull and cross-bones 

 mold contained poison 



The points over the 

 cork of the bottle on 

 the right would warn 

 you that you had the 

 poison bottle in hand 



in the glass, so that when the bottle is 

 taken up at night in the dark it is easily 

 distinguished by the sense of touch. There 

 is a smooth space left on the side of the 

 glass on which labels telling the kind of 

 poison that is contained in the bottle 

 may be pasted. But should the label drop 

 off or become defaced, the fact that the 

 contents of the bottle are poisonous will 

 be obvious from the shape and design of 

 the bottle itself. 



Another design is the invention of Worth 

 R. Barringer, of Colorado. A metal clamp 

 fits around the neck of the bottle and pro- 

 jects two pointed segments over the cork, 

 holding it in place and by a slight prick 

 warning the person attempting to withdraw 

 the cork that the contents of the bottle are 

 poisonous. 



These Bottles Warn You That They 

 Contain Poison 



IN a bulletin on poisons, issued from the 

 Surgeon General's Office at Washing- 

 ton, D. C, it is stated that every year five 

 thousand people, on an average; take poison 

 by mistake. The Surgeon General 

 recommends that poison be sold 

 and kept only in bottles of dis- 

 tinctive shape. The bottle shown 

 in the illustration seems to be 

 ideal for the purpose. Even little 

 children and the most illiterate 

 adults usually know that the skull 

 and cross-bones indicate danger. 

 The pattern is molded deep 



I 



A finger print 

 showing imprint 

 of the words 

 "Chicago" and 

 ''Wilson'' 



Is This the Secret of Curious Lettered 

 Finger Prints? 



N the April issue of Popu- 

 lar Science Monthly, 

 on page 517, there ap- 

 peared an article de- 

 scribing a curious fin- 

 ger print. A Nation- 

 al Guardsman had 

 his finger print taken 

 and was surprised to 

 see the letters "UO 

 P L E" on the ball 

 of his right fore-finger. 

 He was unable to give 

 a reason for their pres- 

 ence; furthermore, he 

 did not know they were 

 there until an imprint was 

 taken of the finger. 

 Now comes an exolanation of the 

 method by which the mysterious letters 

 were imprinted on his finger. W. K. Evans, 

 director of Evans University, in Chicago, 

 111., offers us the following: 



"In order that you may enlighten those 



who may have wondered how the lettering 



got on to the print, I send a finger print 



with the words 'Chicago' and 



'Wilson' plainly visible on the 



ridges. 



"A rubber stamp was pressed 

 down on the glass slab after the 

 ink had been rolled on it, and the 

 tip of the finger had been lightly 

 inked. The inked finger was then 

 pressed down on the lettering of 

 thestamp. Thismade the imprint. 



