Popular Science Monthly 



721 



A Thirty-Five Acre Island of 

 Mud Near Memphis 



THE Mississippi River rises every year. 

 Sometimes the overflow causes a 

 great deal of damage and occasionally 

 creates very unusual conditions. After 

 the overflow of 191 1 the citizens of 

 Memphis, Tenn., noticed a small place in 

 the harbor where mud rose above the 

 water. No attention was paid to this 

 condition until 1915 when the river again 

 overflowed. After the water subsided 

 Memphis found a thirty-five acre island 

 in her harbor. This large tract of land 

 threatened to cut off the 

 city from the river trade. 

 Dipper dredges are now at 

 work removing the unwel- 

 come land acquisition. 



A Temporary Tombstone for the 

 Unexploded Shell 



The combination heater- 

 cooker. Details of the device 

 are shown at left. Above: Eggs 

 being cooked over the flame 



Cook Over the Gas Lamp with This 

 Combination Heater-Cooker 



WHEN unexploded shells are found on 

 the battlefield they are generally left 

 alone. The soldiers have no desire to pick 

 them up and carry them to camp, or even 

 to examine them. But the shells are not 

 entirely ignored. They are given part of 

 the ceremony of a burial, in the way of a 

 tombstone warning those who may pass by 

 to keep on going and not to pay any atten- 

 tion to what lies under the 

 ground. *p 



Very, few shells fail to explode. 

 However, it is often impos- 

 sible for a gunner or a range 

 finder to know at all time 

 whether every shell sent 

 over the enemy's lines is 

 exploding. 



In Russia's great Ga- 

 lician campaign of 19 16, 

 when General Brusiloff 

 captured more than one 

 hundred thousand pris- 

 oners, several hundred 

 Russian shells did not 

 explode when they fell 

 on enemy ground. It 

 was not until the Rus- 

 sians captured these ad- 

 vanced positions that 

 they found the defec- 

 tive shells, which are 

 said to have been sold 

 to the Russians by the 



A 



Japanese themselves. 



LITTLE device has been invented 

 which will permit hall room boys and 

 girls to cook their evening meal without 

 incurring the displeasure of their land- 

 ladies. This miniature stove consists of 

 clamps which may be fastened to either a 

 ceiling or wall fixture, and two supports on 

 which rests a disk of sheet iron strong 

 enough to bear the weight of a small cooking 

 utensil. You can easily fry eggs 

 or cook a "rabbit" with it. 

 In case the room is not warm 

 enough, the temperature may 

 be raised by using the device 

 as a heater. The heat from 

 the gas light will make the 

 iron disk so hot that 

 it will raise the tem- 

 perature considerably in 

 the chilliest room. Of 

 course it will not thor- 

 oughly heat a large room 

 or even a medium-sized 

 one, but it will help out 

 between seasons before 

 the janitor sends up 

 steam, or later on when 

 the fire in the furnace 

 is low. 



This convenient heater 

 was invented by Will- 

 iam H. Ketler of Cam- 

 den, N. J. The entire 

 heater weighs a little 



where lies buried an unexploded shell - less than one pound. 



