824 



Popular Science Monthly 



In recreation hours, Fritz, the 

 dummy, has bouts with the 

 goat, the mascot of the camp 



The instructor in bayonet 

 practice manipulates 

 the dummy's bayonet 



Keeping the Trains from Being 

 Blown Off the Tracks 



THERE is a stretch of railway- 

 along the west coast of Ireland 

 where it was formerly not an un- 

 common occurrence for the trains 

 to be blown from the rails by the 

 winds from the ocean. These disas- 

 ters are now prevented by the 

 use of an ingenious form of anemom- 

 eter which rings an alarm-bell when 

 the velocity of the 

 wind reaches 65 

 miles an hour. Each 

 station on the line 

 keeps on hand a 

 stock of movable 

 ballast, a ton of 

 which is placed 

 aboard every car ar- 

 riving at the station 

 after the bell 

 sounds. 



mounted 



How a Fighting Dummy Teaches Men 

 to Use the Bayonet 



THIS war is not being fought entirely at 

 long distance. Hand to hand en- 

 counters in which the bayonet is used are 

 something every soldier must be taught 

 to expect. Hence, straw dummies have 

 been used for bayonet practice ever since 

 the war began. But the best dummy thus 

 far produced is one made by Company 

 Sergeant- Major McKenna, of the British 

 Army Gymnastic Staff. 



His realistic dummy 

 wheels and is made to 

 retaliate to bayonet 

 charges by wielding a 

 stick which it grasps in 

 its hands. The instruc- 

 tor in bayonet practice 

 manipulates the dum- 

 my's bayonet from be- 

 hind the figure. 



When the boys them- 

 selves get tired of ex- 

 changing bayonet 

 blows with Fritz, as 

 the dummy is called, 

 they let their mascot 

 have a bout with him. 

 This mascot happens 

 to be a goat of a bel- 

 ligerent nature. He 

 takes delight in buck- 

 ing the dummy. 



A ball of cotton twine that weighs 80 

 pounds. There are 40 miles of twine 

 in it, saved during seventeen years 



The Largest Ball of Twine that 

 Has Ever Been Wound 



SEVENTEEN years ago, H. L. Springer, 

 1 of Richmond, California, decided to 

 make a large ball of twine. He is now the 

 proud possessor of what he thinks is the 

 largest ball of cotton twine in the world. 

 Other large balls of twine have been wound 

 by persons who had a great deal of patience, 

 but they generally have been made of all 

 sorts and kinds of string. Mr. Springer's 

 ball is made of cotton twine only. Almost 

 every yard of twine in it came 

 from laundry bundles delivered 

 at his laundry. 



The ball has grown 

 to such proportions 

 that it is difficult to 

 handle it. It weighs 

 80 pounds and meas- 

 ures about two and 

 one-half feet in diam- 

 eter. The string in it 

 would stretch a dis- 

 ance of forty miles. 



Needless to say, Mr. 

 Springer is not worry- 

 ing over whether or 

 not the war will cause 

 a shortage of twine. 

 His ball will supply 

 him for many weeks, if 

 he should be forced to 

 use it in his business. 



