Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 89.djvu/322

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308

��Popular Science Monthly

���The inconveni- ence of painting overhead is ob- viated by using a shield brush which prevents the paint from dripping and splashing on the painter

��Protecting the Painter from Paint

WMKN it is necessary to paint a window or any object overhead the paint or Hquid usually runs off the handle of the brush and then over the worker's hands. If you will lake two pieces of tin soldered at the ends, and tack them on either side of the brush below the bristles, you will have a little cup which catches this overflow paint. Each time the brush is dipped into the paint-can the shield is autt)matically emptied. — C. H. TiU)MAS.

Uses for Wire-Glass on the Farm

THl-lRI^ are main i)la(is in and about the farm buildings where a stout, tough glass can be used to advantage. Wire-glass answers the purpose.

It is exceedingly strong, resists high winds, hail storms, and is an acknowl- edged jjrotection against fire. Imbedded within the body of the glass is a meshed

��wire made of iron which has a higher fusing point than glass. When glass is exposed to fire it becomes more or less plastic. Ordinary glass will crack, bend or shatter. With wire-glass the mesh which acts as a skeleton holds it in place. E\en if the glass cracks, the pieces are prevented from falling, and sf)arks will not find an entrance.

When made wire-glass is poured over a red-hot iron table to the desired thick- ness. Red-hot woven wire-netting is then fed out from a machine, rolled, and pressed into this glass surface. The surface is smoothed or corrugated, r.ccording to the finish desired. It is then annealed to give it high resisting (jualities. Wire-glass has the further advantage of not being readily affected by vibrations, and its great strength enables it to hold up unusual weights of snow and ice.

Many buildings on the farm would be improved by more light, but an ordinary pane of glass would not be strong enough. Here wire-glass can be used to advantage, giving more light from the roof or sides of the chicken-house, stable, or barn.

The farmhouse attic is often a dark, inaccessible place, which, if properly lighted, would serve as a valuable store- room or a delightful playhouse for the children in stormy weather. Here wure- glass can be used for skylights or partitions. — E. G. Wallace.

���A tobacco or coffee can when cut and bent

into the proper shape, makes a useful

scoop with an old paint-brush handle

A Home-Made Scoop

A HANDY little scoop may be matlc by trimming an empty tobacco or vegetable can to the shape in the chaw- ing. To make the handle, take an old r)aint-brush, cut its handle off, and screw it to the bottom of the can with a round-headed screw and nut.

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