TICHENOR & WALKER'S IMPROVED STUMP PULLER.
[[FOR DESCRIPTION SEE PAGE 132.]]
The mouth of the frilled shark, as seen in our engraving, is peculiar appearing for a shark, as this important part is usually situated far beneath. In this respect, the anterior aspect of the mouth, there is resemblance to that of the great rhinodon, the largest living fish, measuring 70 feet in length. The general appearance of this shark is, however, extremely different from that of the frilled shark. The rhinodon is immensely bulky, the head being quite as deep and wide as any other portion. A very interesting structure, and one little known, belonging to the latter is a set of whalebone-like fringes along the gills, arranged comb-like. These frills have much the same functions of those in the whalebone or right whales. The food of the creature is mostly of sea jellies and other soft pelagic animals, which are strained into the throat by means of this adaptation. The great basking shark has this structure. This shark has been taken off Block Island measuring, according to authority, nearly seventy feet. It is the Cetorhinus, or bone shark, also so called. Large as these creatures are, they are harmless, most fortunately, their teeth being very small. Their food being of gelatinous animal matter, the masticating apparatus is not required to be of any considerable size or strength. The more harmful sharks are of moderate dimensions, in which the teeth are very large. In the largest species of "maneater" shark living, the teeth are about two inches in length. Some of the great carcharodon-like fossil sharks have teeth measuring five inches and a half in length. One in my possession has that measurement. Judging from the size of the shark, which has a tooth two inches in length, the extinct species here indicated must have been much over one hundred feet in length. Such enormous size can more readily be accommodated in the vast ocean than that of the great land beasts on their appropriate element. I am indebted to papers on this subject by Mr. Garman, of Cambridge, Mass., for material of this account.
J. B. H.
Immediately after eating, a person weighs more than before it.
COMBINED BENCH AND IRONING BOARD.
The bench is composed of side pieces, legs, end pieces, and a central cross brace. At one end it is provided with stationary top pieces having curved inner edges, as shown in the upper view, which are covered with a thin strip of angle iron extending up flush with the top and bent to conform with the curved edge. To the upper ends of the legs are hinged supports adapted to extend upward to form continuations of the legs, to engage with and hold an ironing board in a horizontal position. A tongue formed upon the free end of each support enters a socket box fitted in a recess formed in the board, so that the hinged lids of the boxes are flush with the bench surface of the board. When the board is in position to be ironed upon, the hinged lids rest against the sides of the supports, an opening in the lids receiving pins projecting from the sides of the supports. The lids are held in this position by suitably arranged buttons. By this means the ironing board is securely fixed in its elevated position. The rigidity of each support is promoted by another button attached to its inner side, and which enters a slot in the top edge of the side piece. To convert the ironing board into a bench, the board is lifted up and the supports closed down within the bench, as shown in the lower view. The wraps used upon the board are then placed neatly over the supports. The board itself is then turned over and its narrow end slid under the projection of the angle iron to a bearing upon the upper edges of the bench frame. The board now forms a smooth top for the bench. The under side of the ironing board, when forming a seat, is recessed near each side of its square end. Each recess is covered by a metal plate having a diamond-shaped opening to receive the elongated head of a bolt secured to the inner face of the bench side pieces. The square end of the board is thus held to the bench, the narrow end being held by the angle irons.
WELLER'S COMBINED BENCH AND IRONING BOARD.