Popular Science Monthly
��Mending Bones with Rivets and Wires
THE accompanying X-Ray photo- graphs show the result of a nine- teen hundred pound flywheel falling across the legs of a machinist who was handling it. The first radio- graph, taken shortly after the accident, shows how the thigh bone was crushed and splintered by the heavy weight. Such is technical- ly known as a "comminut- ed fracture," It was at first thought that on ac- count of the splintering of the bone it might be neces- sary to amputate the leg, but a surgeon was found who undertook the splicing and reinforcing of the bone as shown in the second ra- diograph. This was made through a heavy plaster cast eight weeks after the bone was set. Three hours were required for the set- ting operation, the thigh bone being laid bare by an incision ten and one-half inches long. A vanadium steel plate secured to the bone by means of the screws bridged the main fracture, which may be clearly distinguished. The dark lines are silver wires which hold splintered pieces to the main bone. These fragments were removed, and holes to re- ceive the wires were bored with a hand drill. Holes to correspond were drilled
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in the main bone and the pieces were then wired in place as shown. A wire passes entirely around the main bone (which was splintered down the center), and this serves to hold the two halves to-
���"Fire, fire, telephone
����Rivets, steel plates and silver wires helped to save this shattered leg
��fire," loudly shrieks this phonograph into the when the flames burn its restraining string
gether. This wire is bronze. A vanadium steel staple holds the large middle piece to the bone below it.
Something Is Wrong with this Un- emotional Phonograph Fire Alarm AFIRE alarm apparatus that calls "central," telling her in a calm, dispassionate, mechanical voice that the factory of Smith, Jones & Co., at Xo. 1 Jones Street, is in flames, and to please call the fire department immediately, is the proposal of an inventor in South Carolina. A phonograph, with its horn close to the mouthpiece of a telephone, is fitted with a record bearing the fire warning. The phonograph starts when an electro-magnet placed near it draws down the releasing lever.
The circuit of which the magnets are part, is closed by an automatic switch which is held open by a cord. A fire burns the cord, allows the switch to close, and "central" is promptly notified. I'.ut suppose a fire breaks out in the night and the operator fails to answer be- fore the record is finished. What then?
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