Popular Science Monthly 



Motor Car Mows Railroad Weeds 



A PRACTICAL railroad man has 

 invented a weed cutting machine, 

 which derives its energy from the source 

 that runs the gasoHne-driven handcars 

 running up and down sections of every 

 track. 



There are a number of advantages in 

 the new weed destroyer. The cost of 

 labor has been cut enormously. A sec- 

 tion crew with scythes working all day 

 can cut no more than a mile. The usual 

 price for this work is $1.75 per man per 

 day. Thirty cents is the cost of cutting 

 the same amount of weeds with the 

 motor weed cutter, which mows down 

 heavy weeds and grass at the rate of a 

 mile every twenty minutes, averaging 

 twenty-five miles a day. 



Cutter bars are so arranged at the 

 sides of the car that they can be raised 

 by the operator in case of obstruction 

 on the roadbed, but when down follow 

 the angle of the ground perfectly. The 

 blades can be stopped or started without 

 raising, and the little gasoline driven 

 traveler can pull itself along whether it 

 is on or off the track. 



Traveling at the rate of three miles 

 per hour the gasoline scythes cut a 

 swath six feet wide on each side of the 

 track. If the lay of the ground varies 

 on either side of the track, as is often 

 the case, the blades can be handled by 

 the operator to conform to this condi- 

 tion. 



A regular crew of three men is re- 

 quired, and this number accomplishes the 

 work that formerly required one hun- 

 dred men. 



79 



I 



Three men on this motor hand-car can mow as many 

 weeds in a day as a hundred men working in the old way 



With this simple device the stm's rays 

 are utilized to heat water 



Using the Sun's Heat to Heat Water 



N the Southwest, where the sun at 

 noontime is extremely warm, all 

 sorts of heaters have been invented to 

 catch and utilize the sun's rays. In the 

 case illustrated here, the coils of pipe, 

 which are connected with the water sys- 

 tem in the house, are arranged on a 

 framework in a position where they are 

 exposed to the sun during the hottest 

 part of the day, and so great 

 is the heat that the water be- 

 comes A\arm in a short time. 



Still Enough Coal 



ACCORDING to the In- 

 ternational Geological 

 Congress, there is coal 

 enough yet unmined to last 

 the world nearly six thou- 

 sand years at the preser.t 

 rate of consumption. There 

 is a reserve of .unmined coal 

 estimated at 7,398,5()1.000.- 

 000 tons, of which two- 

 thirds are in the eastern 

 United States. 



