Montour American. (Danville, Pa.) 1866-1920, 1907-03-07
THE HUMAN MACHINE
MANS BODY AND ITS WONDERS OF
MECHANICAL DEVICES.

mESF1FNiNlSfNG - 49,
Many of the Inventions OF the Day
Are heterogeneous on the Clever
and Ingenious Devices Registered
In Natures Patent Office.
So fearfully and wonderfully is the
human body made that scientists are
ueginning to realize that many Of the
Inventions Of the day are infringe
ments on natures patent Office. z
good deal of trouble and worry in the
past could have been avoided had in
centOrs made a careful study Of the
devices employed in making these hui
man bodies of ours the useful things
they are The principles of the block
enl pulley or the tackle could have
been discovered ages before had the
files OF natures patent office been ran
sacked. for there are several complete
puiicy3 ia the body, notably the one
hich moves the eyeball inward to-
ward the nose.
Engineers made exhaustive tests and
experiments before they discovered
that a hollow shaft or rod of iron or
steel Is about twice as strong as
solid one. Yet nature had patented
thi, device in our bones since the birth
of Adam and Eve. and every impOr-
tant bone is practically constructed on
this principle. The ball and socket OF
the hip bones were the forerunners Of
the modern ball bearings, and IT was
the first automatic oiiing machine used
In the world. The value of air pres
/ sure and Il vacuum was unknown to
man until the last century, but every
one Of us carried the secret in the air
tight hip joint which nature had as
signed to lessen the muscular effort to
hold our legs upright in position.
! Engineers have made wonderful
progress in developing compound sue
ton and circular pumps, but all of the
principles contained in them are found
In the heart, and this little pumping
machine Is still without a rival in the
mechanical world.
The principles of the safety valve
they seem our human bodies carry
j with them the first automatic safety
| valves ever designed There are up
I ward of 100000 of them. We call
them by the common name of sweat
glands Each such little gland has
safety valve which let's off heat from
the body when ii gets beyond a safe
rtzN
! Of more than to 10 degrees of tenn
peraturc and live. If therefore the
2.5OO,W0 safety valves were closed for
twenty-four hours, death would super
vpne.
Adams apple was the first storage
clstern ever built. and it works with
automatic regularity through health
and sickness. 1t is a most important
organ OF the body, although for cen
turles 1t was considered a superluOus
attachment 1t regulates the flow Of
blood between the heart and the brain.
/ When 1t ceases to operate, somebody
/ dies of apoplexy or rush of blood to
the brain. When the heart sends up
too much blood to the head, the Adams S
apple steps in to check the flow and
store Il up for future emergencies. If
/ the heart is temporarily weakened or
put out of good running order, the
blood stored in this cistern is given up
and sent TO the brain The perfect
working OF this little device Is appar-
ent when we consider how compare
lively few die Of rush Of blood to the
| brain or from a deficiency of supply.
I The eye has score Of small inven-
tions worthy Of recording the ear
nearly as many more and the vital
organs an equal number. There is the
liver with its quarantine station. Let
any poisons enter our systems with
food and they are Immediately held up
at this quarantine station and destroy
/ ed by secret process. 1t Is only
when poiS0ns enter in large quantities
| that the station cannot handle them.
But the stomach co-operates with the
! liver and intercepts some Of the pol
| sons. There are small machines there
which manufacture minute quantities
| Of hydroch,oric acid from the salts
eaten This acid is made in exact pro-
| portion to the amount of food consum-
| pd gNd cr+fi .oC - destroy thp microbes