The Oakes times., 1907-03-21
.THEHUMAN MACHINE

lMAN's BODY AND ITS WONDERS OF
MECHANICAL DEVICES.
Many Of the Inventions of the Day
Are Infringement ON the Clever
and Ingenious Devices Registered
I'm Natures Patent once.
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. A
good deal of trouble and worry in the
past could have been avoided had in
ventors made careful study Of the
devices employed in making these hu-
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. IS
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 were 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 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
tion 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 safe
temperature. We cannot stand q rise
of more than 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 a most important
organ Of the body. although for cen
turies 1t was considered superfluous
attachment. 1t regulates the how OF
blood between the heart and the brain
When 1t ceases to operate. somebody
dies of apoplexy or rush of blood ta
the brain. When the heart sends up
too much blood to the head. the Adam s
| 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 cistern is given H.,
and sent to the brain. The perfect
working Of this little device is appar-
ent when we consider how compara,
lively few die of rush of blood to the
brain or from deficiency of supply.
The eye has score of small invcll-
tions worthy of recording. the eal
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
foou and they are Immediately neld III
at this quarantine station and destroy
ed by 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 hydr0chloric acid from the salts
eaten. This acid is made in exact pro
portion to the amount of food consum-
ed and suffices to destroy the microbes
which we swallow. But there is even
q third quarantine station located in
the mouth. Millions of microbes are
destroyed in the mouth daily by the
Juices elaborated there for this very
purpose. If it was not for these three
quarantine stations working continu-
ously night and day, we should be kill
ed off by microbes within an hour aft
er eating u meal.
In the. ear there is a little device
which might have been the original of
our modern compressed air inventions.
The delicate drum Of the ear must have
an equal pressure from the outside and
inside to receive and transmit the
sound vibrations. To make this pos
sible the eustachian tube was devised.
ITS function is to regulate. the air pres
sure inside the ear. Let it fail to work,
| aud one becomes stone deaf.