New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1907-01-16
THE HUMAN MACHINE

MANS BODY AND ITS WONDERS OF
MECHANICAL DEVICES.
Many of the Inventions of the Day
Are heterogeneous on the Clever
and Ingenious Devices Registered
I'm Natures Patent Office.
So fearfully and wonderfully is the
human body made that scientists are
beginning to realize that many of the
inventions of the day are infringe
ments on natures patent office. \
rood deal of trouble and worry i'll the
past could have been avoided had in
.eentors made Il careful study OF the
devices employed in making these hui
man bodies of ours the useful things
they are. The principles of the block
and 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
pulleys in the body, notably the one
which moves the eyeball inward to-
ward the nose.
Engineers made exhaustive tests and
experiments before they discovered
that hollow shaft or rod of; iron or
steel is about twice as strong as a
solid one. Yet nature had patented
this 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 We're the forerunners of
the modern ball bearings, and it was
the first automatic oiling machine used
in the world. The value of air pres
sure and 4 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 rival in the
mechanical world.
The principles Of the safety valve
for steam engines are not so new as
they seem Our human bodies carry
with them the first automatic safety
valves ever designed There are up
ward of 100000 Of them. We call
them by the common name of sweat
glands. Each such little gland has a
safety valve which lets off heat from
the body when it gets beyond a safe
temperature. We cannot stand rise
Of more than 8 to 10 degrees of tenn
perature and live. If therefore the
/ 100000 safety valves were closed for
twenty-fOur hours, death would super
vene.
Adams apple was the first storage
cistern ever built. and it works with
automatic regularity through health
and sickness 1t is q most important
organ of the body, although for CELL
turtles it was considered a superiuous
attachment 1t regulates the flow OF
blood between the heart and the brain.
When it ceases to operate, somebody
/ dies of apoplexy Or 4 rush of blood to
! the brain When the heart sends up
too much blood to the head. the Adams
apple steps in to check the flow and
store it up for future emergencies. II
the. heart is temporarily weakened or
put out of good running order. the
blood stored in this cstern 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 deficiency of supply.
1 The eye has score of small inven
lions worthy Of recording, the cal
nearly as many more and the vita
organs an equal number. There is the
/ liver with it's quarantine station. Lei
any poisons enter our systems with
foou and they are Immediately held Ut
at this quarantine station and destroy
ed by a secret process. 1t is only
when poisons enter in large quantities
that the station cannot handle them.
But the stomach co-operates with the
liver and intercepts some Of the poi
sons. There are small machines there
which manufacture minute quantities
of hydrochloric acid from the salt
eaten. This acid is made in exact pro
portion to the amount of food consum
ed and sufices to destroy the microbes
which we swallow. But there is ever
a third quarantine station located il
the mouth. Millions of microbes ar
destroyed in the mouth daily by tai
juices elaborated there for this yer,
purpose If it was not for these tire
4 quarantine stations working confirm
ously night and day, we should be kill
ed off by microbes within an hour aft
er eating a meal.
In the ear there is a little devic
which might have been the original Q
our modern compressed air inventions
The delicate drum Of the ear must hav
an equal pressure from the outside an
inside to receive and transmit tn
n