Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 88.djvu/692

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

664

��Popular Science Monthly

���To protect themselves from Russian vermin, the Germans are disinfecting all trains from

Russia. Large cylinders, into which railway cars are run, are closed by tight end-covers,

whereupon poisonous gases are turned on

��Fumigating Tank That Contains a Railway Coach

EX'^ERY railway train which returns to Germany from Russia is usually so infested with vermin that the German Government, in self-preservation, has had to resort to wholesale fumigation methods.

Fumigating tanks so large that stand- ard-sized railroad coaches can be rolled into them, have been installed by the

���Twenty-eight box-elder shoots were planted in a square. They were bent and trained to form a garden-chair

��government at several railway centers. When the car has been placed inside such a tank, gigantic steel disks are clamped tightly over the ends of the enormous tube and fumigating gases forced in. All germs lurking in the car are killed in a few minutes' time.

A Nailless Chair Made by Good Soil, Fresh Air and Sunshine

HERE is a chair made by Mother Nature. Fresh air, sunshine, and fertile soil were her only tools.

In 1903 John Krubsack of Embarrass, Wis., decided to make a chair different from any he had seen. He planted twenty-eight box-elder shoots in a five- foot square. He watched over them carefully; for if a single shoot had died his plan would have been spoiled.

After five years the little shoots at- tained a height of seven feet. Mr. Krubsack Avas then ready to begin real work on his chair. He bent the tender shoots and then fastened them. When, after several years, the joints became solid, the owner cut the shoots and trimmed the branches.

The chair has eighty-seven joints, and weather conditions will never cause it to fall apart.

�� �