Popular Science Monthly 



859 



nus- 



m 



"Let There Be Light— Enough to 

 Blind the Enemy," Said Cadorna 



THERE have been thrilling happenings 

 galore in this war of wonders, but noth- 

 ing more dramatic has been reported than 

 the manner in which the Italians under 

 Cadorna, by a piece of engineering dare- 

 deviltry, crossed a great 

 gorge in the Alps and 

 brought their troops, 

 guns and entire equip- 

 ment right up under the 

 Austrians' noses without 

 losing a man. 



The feat was accom- 

 plished by sheer audacity 

 — made possible by blind- 

 ing the enemy with floods 

 of light from searchlights 

 strung along the Italian 

 side of the gorge and con- 

 centrated on the Aus- 

 trians all during 

 the momentous 

 night, so that 

 they were unable 

 to see what the 

 Italians were do- 

 ing. When the 

 morning dawned, 

 the sun revealed 

 a number of 

 bridges which the 

 daring Italians 

 had erected over 

 the terrible chasm 

 during the night. 



Naturally the Austrians suspected that 

 something was going on while the powerful 

 searchlights were making noonday glare all 

 around them and leaving the Italians and 

 the surrounding country wrapped in mid- 

 night blackness. They fired their guns 

 ceaselessly, but the booming only served to 

 conceal the noise of the bridge-building. 



The engineers had to drop their pontoon 

 boats down a forty-foot wall on wooden 

 skids, then join them across as treacherous a 

 stream of running water as was ever en- 

 countered anywhere, plank them over so 

 that the troops could cross, and provide 

 ladders to enable the troops to scale the 

 precipice on the Austrian side. Time and 

 again the current swept the boats away 

 before they were properly joined. But in 

 the morning the Austrians fell back in con- 

 sternation before the entire Italian unit, 

 not a hundred yards away. 



The Details of the Valve-Turning Device 



The valve-rotator consists of four main parts: a threaded boss 

 slipped over the valve stem near the bottom; a hollow sleeve rigidly 

 attached to the cylinder water-jacket and internally threaded 

 to fit the thread of the boss; a ball-bearing joint the bottom half 

 of which is attached to the valve push-rod and the upper half 

 of which has a small projection with saw teeth to contact similar 

 teeth on the bottom of the boss around the valve stem; and a 

 coil-spring between the hollow sleeve and the ball-bearing joint 



Turning Valves on Their Seats 

 Automatically 



A SIMPLE device has just been designed 

 and patented for the purpose of auto- 

 matically rotating the valves of gas engines 

 on their seats while the motors are running, 

 thereby bringing a different portion of the 

 valve head and stem into 

 the path of the flame on 

 each up and down stroke. 

 This rotative action is 

 positive and reduces the 

 pitting on the valve seat 

 or valve head, this in 

 turn requiring less valve 

 grinding and making for 

 less fuel and oil wasted, 

 since it is impossible 

 for either to work its 

 way past the valve seat. 

 As shown in the dis- 

 assembled unit pictured 

 and the cross-sectional 

 view, the valve rotator 

 consists of four 

 main parts, a 

 threaded boss 

 slipped over the 

 valve stem near 

 the bottom ; a 

 hollow sleeve rig- 

 idly attached to 

 the cylinder 

 water-jacket and 

 internally 

 threaded to fit 

 the thread of the 

 boss ; a ball-bearing joint the bottom half of 

 which is attached to the valve push-rod and 

 the upper half of which has a small projec- 

 tion with saw teeth to contact with similar 

 teeth on the bottom of the boss around the 

 valve stem ; and a coil-spring between the 

 hollow sleeve and the ball-bearing joint. 



In operation, the upward movement of 

 the valve push-rod causes the teeth in the 

 ball-bearing joint member to mesh with 

 those on the bottom of the boss, the 

 angularity of the teeth tending to cause the 

 valve stem to move round against the 

 resistance of the coil-spring. As the valve 

 stem drops, the spring brings the ball- 

 bearing joint back to its original position as 

 the teeth are withdrawn from mesh. The 

 next upward movement forces the valve 

 round on its seat a little more until by a 

 succeeding upward stroke it has made a 

 complete revolution on its seat. 



If 



