Popular Science Monthly 



A Boy's Wonderful Working 

 Locomotive Model 



A MINIATURE railway locomotive, 

 complete in every detail, which has 

 attracted the attention of the railroad 

 officials of several Pacific Coast lines, is 

 the handiwork of Arthur Johnson, of 

 Portland, Ore. 



This tiny locomotive, only forty-five 

 inches in length, was built to test a new 

 invention of his on a firebox. It is op- 

 erated by steam, generated by oil fuel, 

 and is equipped with air brakes, an in- 



A working model of a locomobile, built 



by this boy, which develops one-quarter 



horse power and will haul a ton 



terior throttle and reverse levers and 

 gears. 



The engineering department of the 

 Southern Pacific Company borrowed the 

 model and figured out its weight, power, 

 and all other statistics in the same man- 

 ner that they would figure on a full-size 

 locomotive. To their surprise they 

 found that the tiny engine developed 

 one-quarter horsepower, and on a level 

 track had a haul capacity of one and a 

 quarter tons. 



How Savages Prepare Poisoned 

 Arrows 



TME savage tribes of interior Af- 

 rica have attained an extraordinary 

 degree of skill in preparing poisons 

 with which to make their arrow heads 

 the dread of their enemies. Although 

 they use a variety of substances in mak- 

 ing the poisonous fluids, such as animal 

 extracts, and products of decay, the 

 most common source of the most vio- 



25 



lent poisons is found in several species 

 of tropical plants. One of these, the 

 Strophantus, is extensively employed by 

 the tribes of West Africa. They boil 

 the fruits of this plant in water for about 

 twenty- four hours, frequently adding to 

 the liquid heads of serpents, tainted 

 blood and a mixture of dead frogs. 

 When this devilish mixture has cooled 

 to a thick mass, they dip the heads of 

 their arrows into the poison, and then 

 allow them to dry in the sun. They re- 

 peat this process every few months so 

 as to retain as much of the deadly efifect 

 as possible. The action of these poisons 

 is very violent, death resulting, with in- 

 tense agony, in five or ten minutes. 



Two- Year-Old Eggs. 



THE accompanying photograph 

 shows a batch of eggs on sale in 

 the native market at Nanking, China. 

 China like other nations, consumes a 

 large number of eggs, but the Chinese 

 have very extraordinary methods of 

 preserving them, by which they are 

 kept for long periods. Eggs can be 

 found in various inland towns of China 

 that were known to be two to three 

 years old. Like those in the photo- 

 graph they were almost jet black and 

 very hard, but nevertheless eatable. 



When fresh, the eggs are covered in 

 a thin coat of clay or similar mixture 

 and then cooked until they are quite 

 hard. They are then immersed for 

 several hours ;n water. Treated in 

 this way the eggs may be kept almost 

 indefinitelv. 



These eggs are two years old — and good 



The February Popular Science Monthly will be on sale Saturday, January 

 fifteenth. (West of Denver on Thursday, January twentieth.) 



