Popular Science Monthly 



489 



Saves Work of the Book 

 Gatherer 



THE gathering or assem- 

 bling of a book in the 

 book bindery is generally 

 done by girls who walk 

 around a large room taking 

 the signatures from one pile 

 after another as they move 

 along. The work is hard 

 and the capacity of the 

 gatherer is limited by her 

 walking ability. Where 

 the character of the work is 

 always the same, special ma- 

 chinery has been made which 

 will do the work, but where 

 there is a variety of work the human 

 gatherer is necessarily resorted to. 



An electric table driven by a two- 

 horse-power motor has recently been de- 

 signed and built by the manager of a 

 Louisville printing establishment which 

 enables the girls to sit at their work, 

 taking the desired sheets from the piles 

 placed on the table as they move by in 



The center of the table revolves and the girls pick off 



the printed units they are gathering for binding 



an endless procession. The table will 

 accommodate ten or twelve girls. It 

 was successfully used in the assembling 

 of a two-thousand-nine-hundred-page 

 legal work, and it is claimed by the in- 

 ventor that by making the table a 

 double-decker, an unabridged dictionary 

 could be handled upon it, so efficient is 

 the rotating arrangement. 



A California fireplace where everyone can sit in front 

 of the blaze, but which has no inglenooks 



A "Center-of-the-Room" Fireplace 



ABITLDKR of Long Beach, Cali- 

 fornia, has constructed a no^'el fire- 

 place in his home, the very lines of which 

 liave the effect of making this dwelling 

 "different." This is a "middle-of-the- 

 room" fireplace and is known as a 

 brazier. It is possible for a family and 

 its friends to sit entirely around the fire, 

 so that a dozen or more persons may 

 toast their toes at the same time. 



The brazier consists of a 

 hood, a basin, a spark-guard 

 and a grate. With the ex- 

 ception of the grate, the 

 parts are made of hammered 

 copper. The basin, the sides 

 of which serve as a foot- 

 rest, is five feet square, six 

 inches deep and four inches 

 from the floor, and is sup- 

 ported by four legs, located 

 at the corners. Within this 

 basin an iron grate has been 

 placed, on which the fire is 

 made, only the ashes falling 

 to the basin. A copper-wire 

 spark-screen, three feet in 

 lieight, has been made to fit 

 within the basin at the foot of the slop- 

 ing sides. This guard has brass posts, 

 top and bottom. It may be instantly 

 remo\-ed when it is desired to clean the 

 basin. 



This home has walls nine feet in 

 height and it is of such a length so that 

 when lowered its upper end extends a foot 

 or so above the ceiling. The neck of 

 this hood is twelve inches wide. At its 

 lower end it flares out to four feet. 



