Popular Science Monthly 



Illuminated Muffs— They Rob London 

 Fog of Its Terrors 



ILLUMINATED wearing apparel hereto- 

 fore has been designed chiefly for men; 

 now the women may 

 blaze forth in glory. 



Take, for example, 

 the muff illustrated here. 

 It is adorned with an 

 animal's head having 

 two eye sockets into each 

 of which a small electric 

 bulb is screwed. A bat- 

 tery nestles comfortably 

 in a pocket in the bottom 

 of the muff. Wires con- 

 nect eyes to eyes, and 

 eyes to battery. A 

 push button is inserted 

 in the circuit — and the 

 muff is ready for opera- 

 tion. 



If, on a dark night, 

 our lady drops a coin, 

 loses her way, can't 

 find the keyhole — she 

 need only press the but- 

 ton and lo! there will be plenty of light. 



When the fog settles down over London, 

 during these times when the streets remain 

 unlighted at night on account of air raids, 

 the wearer of one of these muffs will not 

 be likely to become confused or disturbed. 



Above: The muff 

 illuminated. At 

 right: Diagram of 

 the wiring plan 



881 



many Europeans live. But when the 

 canals freeze over, the youngsters flock to 

 the ice with the instinct of ducklings for 

 water. They make a kind of sled out of 

 odds and ends of wood— and wood is a 

 luxury in China — and 

 then add to their equip- 

 ment a long pole having 

 a spike in one end. 



Standing on the sled, 

 they push themselves 

 along at a fair rate of 

 speed, and their screams 

 of enjoyment are not 

 less hearty than those of 

 boys in other parts of 

 the world. 



Generally speaking,. 

 China is a cold country 

 compared with western 

 territories in the 

 same latitude. The 

 winters are much more 

 ,. Electric severe and of 

 ^^s, bulbs 



Wiring 



Battery 



longer dura- 

 tion than 

 ours, so that 

 the little 

 Chinese boys 

 get a great 

 deal of enjoy- 

 ment out of 

 their impro- 

 vised sleds. 



The Homemade Ice Sleds of the 

 Chinese Boys 



BOYS are boys the world over, and they 

 will find a way to enjoy the ice and 

 snow, whether they know anything about 

 skates or not. In China, skates are a great 

 novelty, and are seen only in cities in which 



The Chinese boys fashion their sleds out of 

 odds and ends of wood and push them over 

 the glassy surface with spiked poles 



Mysterious Sounds That Continually 

 Baffle Science 



MYSTERY still attaches to certain ex- 

 plosive sounds, heard in various parts 

 of the world and known to science as 

 "brontides." On the coast of Belgium 

 these sounds seem to come from the sea, 

 and are called locally "mistpoeffers." In 

 the Ganges delta, of India, similar sounds 

 are called "Barisal guns." Brontides are 

 well known in some parts of Italy, where 

 they bear a great variety of names. In 

 Haiti a sound of this character is known as 

 the "gouffre," while in parts of Australia it 

 is called the "desert sound." Brontides 

 mostly take the form of muffled detona- 

 tions, of indefinite direction. Probably 

 they are of subterranean origin. Studies of 

 eccentricities in the transmission of sound 

 through the atmosphere, lead to the con- 

 clusion that some of the sounds hitherto 

 reported as brontides were really due to 

 cannonading or blasting. 



