Popular Science Monthly 



Reaching the Wounded Soldiers, 

 Far Up in the Mountains 



THE recent invention of 

 a Massachusetts mili- 

 tiaman, Paul P. Alex, will 

 be appreciated by the fight- 

 ers in the mountain regions. 

 It is an apparatus for carry- 

 ing a wounded man com- 

 fortably on the back of 

 an animal, and consists of 

 two frameworks mounted 

 upon the sides of a special 

 saddle. One framework is 

 stationary. The other, how- 

 ever, can be undamped and 

 be set upon the ground when 

 a soldier needing attention is 

 found. In opening out this 

 framework, a toggle link is 

 extended above the horse. 

 With this link as a supporting 

 member, the wounded soldier 

 can be hoisted up on to his 

 stretcher. Close up the frame- 

 work once more, clamp it 

 back in place upon the'saddle, 

 and the wounded man can be 

 transported in comparative 

 comfort. 



On the journey over the 

 trail to the dressing station, 

 the soldier will be carried flat just as he 

 would be were he in the ordinary ambu- 

 lance. Even the most severely wounded 

 can be moved with no more inconvenience 

 than would be felt in an ambulance. 



839 



Folding Staircase for the Fire- 

 Escape — It Makes Descent Easy 



THE ordinary fire-escape has 

 no attraction for the timid 

 man or the fat woman, principally 

 on account of the lower part, 

 which is nothing more than an iron 

 ladder. Such persons will be 

 glad to hear about the folding 

 staircase illustrated in minia- 

 ture on the left. It opens and 

 closes on much the same 

 principle as an accordion. 

 In place of the accordion's 

 ridges, however, are the 

 steps and backs of the 

 staircase which are hori- 

 zontal and vertical re- 

 spectively. 



The counterweight and 

 tackle of the staircase make 

 it an easy matter to bring 

 it into position in case of a 

 fire. First a push, then a 

 few pounds pull on 

 the counterweight 

 ropes, and the stair- 

 case drops from the 

 balcony under its 

 own weight. What 

 was formerly a hud- 

 dled mass of flat 

 real staircase, by 



A tiny model of the folding stair- 

 case supporting a champion heavy- 

 weight to show its strength 



steel bars becomes a 



means of which it is easy to escape. When 

 not in use the staircase is kept folded up on 

 the first balcony out of sight and out of 

 the reach of burglars. 



The horse ambu- 

 lance carries the 

 wounded down 

 the mountain 

 trails to the 

 dressing station 



Administering the Chloroform 

 to Some Old Sayings 



THE Arctic explorer Stefansson — 

 who ought to know — has 

 knocked the foundation out from 

 under several old sayings which had 

 come to be regarded as solid facts. 

 Among other things he says authori- 

 tatively that frost-bites cannot be 

 remedied by rubbing snow on them ; 

 that there is no harm in eating snow 

 when you are thirsty; that Eskimo 

 houses are v/ell ventilated and are 

 not generally ill-smelling; and that 

 in his whole experience north of the 

 Arctic Circle he has never encountered 

 anything so bad, so sudden or 

 so disconcerting as a typical 

 North Dakota blizzard. 



