Popular Science Monthly

��381

��Sleep in Hot Water to Rest Your Nerves

SLEEPING in a bathtub full of wa- ter kept at blood temperature is claimed by some physicians to give the required amount of rest in half the time that sleeping in bed requires. In other words, four hours sleep in a bathtul) filled with water at the proper tempera- ture — and always maintained at that temperature — will result in the exact amount of restfulness that eight hours in bed will give.

The explanation is that warm water completely relaxes the nerves, which or- dinary sleep does not necessarily do. The most difficult part of this treatment is in maintaining the water at a constant tem- perature, and for the purpose of accom- plishing the result, a middle-western manufacturer has recently brought out on the market a thermostatic water con- trol apparatus, which, as its name im- plies, maintains the water at any desired temperature.

In practice, the patient climbs into a bathtub filled with water, his head pro- truding through a hole in a rubber blan- ket, which is strapped around the edges of the tub. Water constantly flows in at one end of the tul), and out at the other.

For the harried business man. who complains that his working day is too short, such a sleeping couch as this should have a distinct appeal. He should be willing to rest four hours at least.

�����Here is a system of heat regulation that

makes it possible to sleep in a bath that

is always at the same temperature

��With this invention, telephone, line work

is as comfortable as sitting or standing in

the shop would be

A Machine Which Climbs Poles

A POLE or stack-climbing appara- tus in which the pole or stack climber sits comfortably wdiile elevating or lowering his position, as the work progresses, by a simple arrangement of clutches, has been constructed and put in use by a young telephone lineman in Arizona. The climber (the machine, not the man) consists of two parts, an upper and a lower. The mechanism in the up- l)er part contains clutches which grasp the pole firmly, being manipulated by ropes from the seat below.

To climb the pole, the lineman or stack-climber takes his seat as far above the ground as possible in order to ex- pedite matters. The clutch mechanism is pushed upwards as far as he can reach ])y means of a wooden pole. The clutch is then set, and with a rope and ])ulley arrangement, he elevates the seat. V,y continually repeating this operation, I)ushing the clutch box upwards as he progresses, he literally crawls to the top of the pole or stack.

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