912 



Popular Science Monthly 



Above: The stairway 

 closed. At right: The 

 stairway lowered. The 

 pulleys are fastened to 

 rafters in the attic 



Want to Go to the Attic? Just Pull 

 Down the Stairs 



IN a house in which every inch of space 

 was utilized to advantage, a novel plan 

 was worked out to reach the attic. In fact, 

 no stairway was provided, so far as eye 

 could see. But the ceiling in the hallway 

 of the second story had an unusual panel 

 with a brass handle at one end. 



If you desired to visit the attic the 

 secret would soon be made clear. You 

 would simply be advised to take a curved- 

 handled cane which stood in the corner 

 nearby, hook it into the brass handle in 

 the panel, and then pull down on it. 

 Immediately the panel would be lowered 

 and you would find on the upper side a 

 ladder-like stairway leading directly in- 

 to the attic. 



The . panel-stairway is operated by 

 a pulley attached to the rafters in the 

 attic and to the inner side of the „ 

 panel, as shown in the illustration 

 above. The arrangement was found 

 desirable in this case because the 

 attic was used only occasionally. 



Something New in Industry — A Mouse 

 Spins Cotton Thread 



A THRIFTY Scotchman, David Hutton, 

 conceived the idea of using mouse 

 power commercially. He experimented 

 with mice and found that a mouse will run 

 on an average of ten and one half miles a 

 day. One mouse in Mr. 

 Hutton's collection actually 

 ran eighteen miles in one 

 day. The power of a mouse 

 is not much when compared 

 to horse power; yet it is 

 enough to spin cotton 

 thread. 



The cost of mouse upkeep 

 is not very high. One 

 mouse was kept in fine 

 working condition for 

 thirty-five days on one-half 

 penny's worth of oatmeal. 

 During those thirty - five 

 days that mouse ran three 

 hundred and sixty - two 

 miles. Mr. Hutton built a 

 thread mill for his mice 

 which was so constructed 

 that the mouse was able to 

 twist, and reel from one 

 hundred to two hundred 

 and twenty threads a day. 

 The mouse ran ten and a half miles every 

 other day. Two mice were kept constantly 

 engaged in the spinning of thread for more 

 than a year. 



In five weeks, on a half-penny's worth of 

 oatmeal, one mouse spun three thousand, 

 three hundred and fifty threads, twenty-five 

 inches long. Counting the earnings of the 

 mouse at the rate paid to women for making 

 thread, it was found that the mouse earned 

 nine pence every six weeks. After deducting 

 the yearly cost of the mouse's rations and 

 the wear on machinery, the profits from the 

 mouse were about a dollar and a half. 



A spinning mill designed to utilize the now wasted 

 mouse power of the world. A mouse operating the 

 machinery can spin three thousand, three hundred and 

 fifty threads, twenty-five inches long, in five weeks 



