Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 89.djvu/601

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Popular Science Monthly
587
The gun is aimed by turning the head and fired by blowing through the tube in the mouth

A Peaceful-Looking Hat Which Makes You a Walking Arsenal


"HANDS UP!" is not such a disconcerting command after all, provided one wears the hat shown in the accompanying illustration. When the highwayman gives directions as to how he would like to have you hand over your valuables, you look him calmly in the eyes and then shoot him by simply blowing a tube passing from the mouth to the trigger of the gun mounted in the top of the hat.

Several cartridges are provided in the magazine, so your aim need not be perfect. Furthermore, the recoil from the explosions will not unseat the hat. It cocks the hammer for the next shot and ejects the used shell. The cartridges are automatically fed to the breech of the gun

The suit is provided with numerous tubes through which air passes to the wearer

and when the magazine is empty the trigger can not be operated. A new magazine is then substituted by removing the hat. The gun is aimed with the turning of the head and by blowing through the tube a bulb is expanded which trips the cocked hammer, exploding the cartridge. When detached from the base of the helmet the crowned section may be inverted and used as a cooking utensil, the elongated hood serving as the handle.


Mechanical Lungs for the Protection of the Fire-Fighter

A SMOKE-MASK suit has been devised which operates on the principle of the human lungs. Two tubes supply the wearer with oxygen from a tank carried in a pocket attached to the suit, one for the mouth and the other for the nose. The suit is provided with numerous air-circulating tubes connected with the nose. The mouth exhalations are carried to the tank and come in contact with the purifying oxygen before the air is again breathed.