UNCLE SAM'S LATEST SCIENTIFIC TRIUMPHS

...It is said of this new ievention that it will "make a corpse breathe," meaning that it will compel the diaphragm to move in a body in which life is wholly extinct...

...Tests and experiments have been carried on with a view to disclosing new capabilities in instruments and apparatus that rank as commercial products and as such may be bought in the open market...

...Time-Saving Devices GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS have within the past few months invented several new machines for quickening and cheapening the manufacture of paper money and postage stamps...

...The telephone served to eliminate entirely the "needle noise...

...This last-mentioned invention is suggestive in appearance of the familiar cash register and its function is to mechanically fill out the deposit slips of the lately-established "poor man's bank," a work that had formerly to be done by hand...

...When the magnet is charged with its full electric current of 125 amperes a piece of metal weighing hundreds of pounds might be suspended at the pole pieces and the leakage, that is, the "stray magnetic field" way out at the ends of the magnet, is sufficient to support in all sorts of positions wrenches and bars of iron weighing as much as five or six pounds apiece, whereas wire nails in series of half a dozen or more, end to end, are supported in horizontal position...

...The music of a phonograph or grapha-phone was the particular form of melody transmitted and the results were really surprising in many respects...

...The new device costs $800, making it one of the world's most expensive pieces of rescue equipment as it is certainly one of the most effective...

...A third is a machine for automatically wetting the sheets of paper used in printing our currency...

...The Pulmotor is, in effect, an automatic breathing machine, its function being to draw the poisonous gases out of the lungs and to force into the lungs in turn the life-giving oxygen...

...Frederick Bates, the government expert who is at the head of the Division of Polarimetry at the Bureau of Standards, had, in conjunction with other government scientists, just worked out the detailed plans for such a magnet when he discovered that the foreign instrument makers, who ultimately built this one, had been covering the same ground at the same time, each inventor unconscious of the activities of his rival on the opposite side of the Atlantic...

...In the experiments with multiplex telephony the graphaphone music was employed to demonstrate still further the possibility of using a single wire for the transmission of various messages simultaneously, each independent of the others...

...Comparatively little experience is required for its successful operation...

...Many May Phone on One Wire ONE OF THE MOST NOTABLE of Uncle Sam's scientific triumphs of the present year is the new system of multiplex telephony, which, by its disclosure of a method of transmitting a number of telephone messages simultaneously over the same wire, is expected greatly to reduce the cost of long distance telephone conversation...

...The Department is on the eve of perfecting a remarkable new machine for the use of every postmaster throughout the country who conducts a branch of the new Postal Savings Bank...

...However, there is one invention, newer than any of the others, regarding which little has been said...

...The circumstances connected with the designing of the magnet illustrate how inventive minds may run in the same direction...

...The machine is operated by electricity and the sorting is done through the medium of sensitive needles which seek out the holes which have previously been punched in each card to record biographical facts and distribute the cards according to the location of these holes...

...One of the most amazing tricks performed by the magnet is to support a glass dish by means of a small piece of iron placed inside the dish, the power of magnetic attraction being exerted upon the iron through the thickness of the layer of glass...

...As though whisked in by an invisible hand, and almost more quickly than the eye can follow the operation, these nails are one and all drawn to the highly magnetized surface...

...And it is pleasing to note that there is an increasing disposition on the part of the men on Uncle Sam's payroll to regard as Federal property inventions from which they might otherwise reap a fortune...

...This magnet is, in effect, an enlarged edition of the familiar toy from which small boys derive so much enjoyment and it may be whispered that the government scientists are getting a proportionate amount of excitement from its almost miraculous powers...

...The government provided the first of these new miracle workers for the use of the newly-established U. S. Bureau of Mines in its work of rescuing men overcome by the poisonous gases in coal mines, but the advert of the invention is opening up life-saving possibilities in other fields, as, for instance, at bathing beaches and in city hospitals,—in short in any case where death is threatened through the filling of the lungs with gas or water...

...Another is a machine which automatically trims at one stroke all four edges of a sheet of bank notes...

...It is believed that this disclosure of the possibilities of transmitting music by 'phone will ultimately enable people to enjoy concerts by the best vocal and instrumental talent when seated in their own homes...

...Cards are now sorted at a speed of from 300 to 325 per minute...

...Happily, however, such cases appear to be growing more rare, and to counterbalance the isolated instances we have examples such as recently afforded by Major Squier, Assistant Chief Signal Officer of the U. S. Army, when he dedicated to the free use of the American people the patents eovering his new system of multiplex telephony...

...But much of what has been accomplished recently has been due to new inventions evolved by government officials...

...The national government is, to an extent appreciated by comparatively few citizens, an operator of scientific laboratories, a manufacturer, and a business corporation...

...Uncle Sam's Latest Scientific Triumphs By WALDON FAWCETT THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT has been taking a leading part in scientific mechanical and engineering development to a constantly increasing extent in late years...

...The reader will understand that in speaking of Uncle Sam's current triumphs in the field of invention and experiment, reference is made not to the nation as it embraces the whole American people but rather to the Federal government as represented by its own experts and employes...

...A Machine that "Almost Thinks" MUCH HAS BEEN PRINTED from time to time regarding the "machines that almost think" invented to aid in the big task of counting noses...

...Late novelties in the Post Office Department include an electric canceling machine for canceling the stamps on letters and postmarking the envelopes...

...The World's Most Powerful Magnet SOME OF THE MOST SPECTACULAR of these scientific triumphs are being worked out by the aid of the most powerful magnet in the world which has recently been installed at a cost of $1,200 at the Bureau of Standards...

...There have, from time to time, been charges and rumors putting in question the ethics and honesty of men who derived private wealth from inventions alleged to have been worked out in government time and with the aid of facilities offered by a governmental position...

...Mechanical Lungs OF UNCLE SAM'S recent innovations in technical equipment none bids fair to work greater wonders than the lately introduced Pulmotor...

...Its function is to bring back to life persons supposed to be dead...

...The mechanism includes a cylinder in which oxygen is stored under pressure, a blowing and suction valve actuated by two accordion bellows, and a hood or mask which fits over the mouth and nostrils of the patient, making an air-tight connection between the human lungs and the mechanical lungs of the machine...

...The music heard at the other end of the line was remarkably clear and sweet...

...A fourth is a mechanism which neatly arranges in coils the postage stamps which are to be placed on sale in vending or stamp-selling machines which it is planned to introduce in this country, following the example of Germany and other foreign countries...

...a trolley system for handling mail in city postoiffices and a belt conveyor system for the same purpose...

...For instance, on one occasion Caruso, by means of a "talker," sang on the line while "The Charge of the Light Brigade" (as recited into a separate transmitter close at hand) was carried over the same wire at the same time without in any way interfering with the famous tenor's solo...

...In connection with the development of this new form of telephony which will make one wire do the work of ten, Major Squier and his associates have carried on some experiments which, though originally intended only as a means to an end, now promise to have a distinct value of their own in disclosing the possibilities of transmitting music by telephone...

...Another impressive illustration of the power of this monster magnet is afforded when a handful of nails is thrown in the air perhaps three or four feet away from the magnet...

...This would, of course, prove an especial boon in the case of suburbanites and residents of the rural districts where the use of the telephone has increased so tremendously in recent years...

...Among them is a remarkable combination machine which at one operation stamps the successive serial number on each bank note, impresses in color the official seal, cuts the sheets of money into individual notes and counts the bills...

...This is the automatic card-sorting machine, the function of which is to sort mechanically the ninety-odd million cards representing the people of the United States,—for, under our present system of card-indexing the country the Census office has on file a bit of pasteboard to represent every man, woman and child in the Republic...

...This magnet was constructed for the Government by instrument makers in Switzerland...