Mechanic Arts High School - Artisan Yearbook (Boston, MA)

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.Y ,I 3.1 M ,I ,M v1'.A.,d -av., L,.A 'v X'M THE ARTISAN 31 ROBOT ANSWERS TELEPHONE AND TAKES MESSAGE One of these days a telephone caller, having rung a friend may get this answer: Mr, Blank is not at home. He will be here at eight this evening. If you rare to repeat a message, Mr. lilank will receive it upon his return. An automatic device., the invention of lVilliam Schergens of S-t. Louis, Mo., answers the phone and takes tl1e message. VVl19118V8l' tl1e telephone rings, the device answers. Then it waits for a reply. FIGHT FIRE BY FREEZING IT WITH f'FUZZ GAS The kind of gas that puts the fizz into your soda Water, carbon dioxide, is being' used by the Los Axieles, Calif., fire de- partment to freeze fires. It is carried under high pres ure in cylinders. When released it shoots out in a cloud of below-zero snowflakes that reduce the temperature and absorb much of the oxygen. from the air, thus tending to smother the flames. A special truck has been designed for the department to carry the battery of cylinders that form this latest unit in the battle of science to reduce the huge annual loss by fire. Some time ago a test of carbon dioxide gas as a flame extinguisher was made in Germany. Since then other tests have been conducted in several parts of the United States. Tl1e addition of the gas unit to the california fire-fighting equip- ment tis expe.cted to prove valuable in combating chemical, paint, and oil fires, where streams of water are of little use. AIRSHIPS T0 USE GASES? Tl1e new blimp of the United States Navy, K-1, the largest non-rigid dirigible ever built in America, is to be used as a flying laboratory for testing various gases as motor fuels. The engines of this blimp will drive it iifty-two miles an hour, and it will have a cruising range of 2,000 miles. The new airship will carry a container to hold experimental gases which will replace gasoline as a fuel. A mixture of hydro- gen and ethane will be one of the first gases to be tested. HENRY GAIKTIAANIT, '31. The earliest known remedy for dandruff was the. guillotine!

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If , r' ,f , 5' I IV , f , ,C , ' ' 1 1 f,,cw . - 30 Q THE ARTISAN 25,000 SLICES TO AN INCH The most modern machines for making thin slices can pare them off measuring' one micron thick-or 4-l00,000ths of an inch. These machines, known as microtomes, are used in biological laboratories for cutting fragments of specimens for microscopic examination. Some ot' these. are automatic devices which will prepare from one specimen a series of sections for comparison. WURLIVS HIGHEST SUSPENSION BRIDGE High above the waters of the Arkansas River, across the Royal Gorge, that in places attains a depth of 2,600 feet, cables are being slung for a suspension bridge. This bridge, it is said, will be the highest in the world when completed, Ellld is situated near Canon City, Colo. Huge openwork steel towers sunk into solid concrete masonry on either side of the gorge support the work. The main span of the. bridge will be S80 feet long, while the entire bridge including tl1e approaches will have a total length of 1,200 feet. MOTORS' PLACED IN GREATEST AIRSHIP High amid what appears to be a mass of tangled stee.l girders, mechanics are now installing motors that will drive the Akron, huge Navy airship and largest in the world, now nearing completion at the tloodyear-Zeppeli11 dock at Akron, 0. They will break all precedent in airship construction by being placed inside the hull. Earlier airships had their motors on the outside because the ships were lifted by hydrogen gas. An exhaust fiame or electric spark might ignite the highly intiammable. gas. When non- intlammable helium intiates dirigibles, no such precautions are necessary. The engines will drive propellers that can be pointed in any direction to propel the ship up, down, forward or back- ward. p l-..--E. GIANT ELECTRIC LIGHTS FOR NORTH POLE SUB When the. Nautilus, Sir Hubert Wilkins' submarine, plunges under the Arctic ice cap on its voyage to the Pole this summer, it will not be entirely blind. Two huge electric headlights of 1,000,000 candlepower each will cast beams of light nearly 100 feet ahead of the vessel. The lamps were tested to a pressure of 100 pounds to the square inch.

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'PI I IC AH'l'I,S S. STUDENT COUNCIL M. A. H.