168 



Popular Science Monthly 



Steam-Driven Models Made by a 

 Handless Mechanic 



OiSIE of the chief exhibits at the 

 Home for Aged and Disabled Rail- 

 road Employees of America, Highland 

 Falls, 111., is a collection of model steam 

 engines made by handless Joseph J. Bel- 

 laire. 



gines, some of which are remarkable bits 

 of machinery. Working models of 

 steam engines predominate in his col- 

 lections, and most of them run on 

 steam or compressed air. The various 

 tubes and cylinders are soldered together 

 instead of being riveted. All the models 

 work like clockwork. Mr. Bellaire has 

 exhibited his models many 

 times and has received a 

 large number of prizes and 

 medals. 



Tearing Up Rails with a 

 Motor Truck 



PULLING up the half- 

 buried track of an old 

 railroad much in the same 

 way as a dentist extracts an 

 obstinate tooth, is the novel 

 use to which a heavy motor 

 truck, armed with a derrick, 

 was recently put in a small 

 Ohio town. The boom of 

 the derrick was secured by 

 a heavy braced pillar, which acted as a 

 pivot, to the floor of the truck. Tongs 

 were used to clutch the rail, and the 

 pull exerted through a steel cable and 

 pulleys. This wrecking equipment "ex- 

 tracted" between one hundred and sixty 



All these miniature engines are driven by steam or air, 

 and were made by the "handless mechanic" 



Thirty-four years ago Mr. Bellaire, a 

 young and healthy locomotive fireman, 

 swung down from his cab and crawled 

 under his engine to take the ashes from 

 the firebox. The engineer, forgetting 

 that his mate was beneath the wheels, 

 received the signal from the brakeman and one hundred and seventy rails per 

 and set his engine in motion. The un- day, which is equivalent to a length of 

 fortunate fireman, hearing the creak of track a half-mile long, 

 the wheels, made a wild 

 plunge for safety, and suc- 

 ceeded in freeing himself — 

 all but his hands. When 

 they took him to the hospital 

 they saved one thumb on his 

 right hand. 



With infinite patience Mr. 

 Bellaire succeeded in mak- 

 ing his artificial hands use- 

 ful. On his right hand is a 

 thumb and a metal plate. On 

 the left wrist is strapped a 

 wooden attachment, in the 

 center of which is a thread- 

 ed hole for the insertion of 

 various handy devices, the 

 most useful of which is a 

 steel hook. 



Since his accident he has 

 spent much of the time in 

 constructing models of en- This truck pulls up a half-mile of track during a working day 



