Popular Science Monthly 



Mending Bones with Rivets and Wires 



THE accompanying X-Ray photo- 

 graphs show the result of a nine- 

 teen hundred pound flywheel falling 

 across the legs of a machinist who was 

 handling it. The first radio- 

 graph, taken shortly after 

 the accident, shows how 

 the thigh bone was crushed 

 and splintered by the heavy 

 weight. Such is technical- 

 ly known as a "comminut- 

 ed fracture," It was at 

 first thought that on ac- 

 count of the splintering of 

 the bone it might be neces- 

 sary to amputate the leg, 

 but a surgeon was found 

 who undertook the splicing 

 and reinforcing of the bone 

 as shown in the second ra- 

 diograph. This was made 

 through a heavy plaster 

 cast eight weeks after the 

 bone was set. Three hours 

 were required for the set- 

 ting operation, the thigh 

 bone being laid bare by an 

 incision ten and one-half 

 inches long. A vanadium 

 steel plate secured to the bone by means 

 of the screws bridged the main fracture, 

 which may be clearly distinguished. The 

 dark lines are silver wires which hold 

 splintered pieces to the main bone. These 

 fragments were removed, and holes to re- 

 ceive the wires were bored with a hand 

 drill. Holes to correspond were drilled 



337 



in the main bone and the pieces were 

 then wired in place as shown. A wire 

 passes entirely around the main bone 

 (which was splintered down the center), 

 and this serves to hold the two halves to- 



"Fire, fire, 

 telephone 



Rivets, steel plates and silver wires helped 

 to save this shattered leg 



fire," loudly shrieks this phonograph into the 

 when the flames burn its restraining string 



gether. This wire is bronze. A vanadium 

 steel staple holds the large middle piece 

 to the bone below it. 



Something Is Wrong with this Un- 

 emotional Phonograph Fire Alarm 

 AFIRE alarm apparatus that calls 

 "central," telling her in a calm, 

 dispassionate, mechanical voice that the 

 factory of Smith, Jones & Co., at Xo. 1 

 Jones Street, is in flames, and to please 

 call the fire department immediately, is 

 the proposal of an inventor in South 

 Carolina. A phonograph, with its horn 

 close to the mouthpiece of a telephone, 

 is fitted with a record bearing the fire 

 warning. The phonograph starts when 

 an electro-magnet placed near it draws 

 down the releasing lever. 



The circuit of which the magnets are 

 part, is closed by an automatic switch 

 which is held open by a cord. A fire 

 burns the cord, allows the switch to 

 close, and "central" is promptly notified. 

 I'.ut suppose a fire breaks out in the 

 night and the operator fails to answer be- 

 fore the record is finished. What then? 



