Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 June 1894 — MECHANICAL FREAKS. [ARTICLE]

MECHANICAL FREAKS.

QUEER INVENTIONS SENT TO THE PATENT OFFICE. Contrivances for Carraling Boasts and Bugs.--Odd Musical Instru-ments--Paper Put to Many Uses. American invention has given birth to no end of freaks, which have been embalmed at the patent office, in Washington, in order that they may not perish. Some of the queerest of them are devices for entrapping beasts, bugs, fishes and even human beings. What, for example, could be funnier than the notion of using imitation flowers with poisoned honey to attact noxious insects? The artificial blossoms, each containing a small quantity of sugary liquid properly prepared, are to be fastened to twigs. Moths of destructive species sip the deadly nectar and die. A more elaborate device of a similar description is intended for the protection of apple trees. It is a tin can covered as to its upper half with luminous paint. On the outside of the lower half apple blossoms are represented with the same sort of paint. Inside of the receptacle is a small quantity of cider. The can is to be hung on a branch of .an apple tree at night. Insects attracted by the pictured flowers light upon the can. The smell of the cider induces them to enter through holes provided for that purpose; they drop into the cider and are drowned.

It is not always easy to distinguish between a crank idea and a useful’ discovery. The poisoned counterfeits of flowers above described are said to work very well. Many years ago a man got a patent for a method of killing bugs on trees by inclosing the whole tree in a sort of balloon of canvas, into which an asphyxiating gas was to be poured for the purpose of suffocating the insects. Everybody thought he was a lunatic. But now that his patent has run out, the merits of the plan have suddenly obtained appreciation, and its adoption is alleged to have saved the orangegrowing industry in California. Several kinds of luminous baits for fish have been patented. One of these is a minnow of hollow glass coated on the inside partly with a solution of gold or silver and partly with luminous paint. The result is a very brilliant object in the water, calculated to attract any predacious creature with fins. Another interesting contrivance is for making frogbait more seductive. The jerking of the line equipped with this device causes the frog's legs to move as if he were swimming. Much ingenuity has been expended in rat traps. Some of them are so elaborate that no full-witted rodent would go near them. One requires Mr. Rat to come in through a door, which drops behind him and makes him a prisoner. Seeing a bright light above he ascends a flight of little steps and trots across a small plank that is so nicely adjusted as to balance that his weight causes it to tip and throw him into a tank of water. Another contrivance consists of a double chamber. One chamber has a glass end, through which Mr. Rat sees two or three imitation rats having a nice time with a bit of cheese. Wishing to join them, he runs around the box, gets into the other chamber and is caught. Sparrow traps are of many different kinds. Host of them invite the birds to walk in through a door, which drops behind them, making them prisoners. When next seen in the restaurants they are reedbirds on toasts. Of greater interest are contrivances for catching thieves. One of them is designed to discourage bank srAaks. The sneak put his hand in through the teller’s window and unintentionally actuates a mechanism which causes a slide with spikes to close suddenly upon his paw and impales it. A trap of somewhat similar character is a steel shutter for a house window so disguised with covering and fringe as to look like an ordinary curtain. If a burglar tries to enter at night it shuts down upon him, the spikes hidden by the fringe helping to hold him fast. American inventors have been fruitful of queer ideas in musical instruments. Patents have been sought for violins made of metal, of earthenware, of glass, of leather, and even of glue. Plain wood, however, maintains its place as the accepted material for this purpose. How many people have even heard of the “doorophone I” It consists of a frame and sounding board with tuned wires and little metal balls suspended. The contrivance is hung upon a door. When the latter is opened the balls swing back and forth and strike harmonious chords.

There is a patented device for playing the banjo by electricity. It requires no skill, the instrument being operated by a sheet of paper with perforations, which control the making and breaking of a circuit. Mechanical fingers thus actuated pick the strings and depress them at the frets. Another instrument is so arranged that one may play the banjo by manipulating the keys of a keyboard like that of a piano on a small scale. The same idea is varied by a combination of piano and violin, the strings of the latter being fingered by the use of the piano-like keyboard. Of course, that is the difficult part of violin playing, the handling of the bow being simple enough. The bow is held in the right hand while the fingers of the left hand strike the keys. Patents have been granted for making innumerable queer things out of paper, such as carpets, electric conduits, lead-pencils, roofing material, car wheels, boats, pails, coffins, brushes and combs. Mattresses are manufactured out of paper pulp and ordinary sponge, springs being imbedded in the composition. A cloth paper for banknotes has been invented, the notion being to render such money less perishable and more difficult to counterfeit. Paper is used nowadays for architectural decorations, interior and exterior. Cornices, panels and friezes are molded out of the pulp. Paper collars, which used to be produced in such enormous numbers, seem to have gone out of fashion. Medals are made out of paper and colored to imitate silver or bronze. Cigarboxes are manufactured from the same material, flavored with ce-

dar oil to give them the customary smell. Hollow telegraph poles of paper pulp are a new invention. They are coated with silicate of potash to preserve them.

Many strange materials are utilized for making paper. One of these is peanut shells. Tobacco stems are reduced into pulp and made into paper that is stained with tobacco juice. This paper is employed for cigarette wrappers and for wrappers and fillers of cheap cigars. One of the oddest inventions recorded at the patent office is a sort of gun intended to be fixed upon the head of a steer that is to be slaughtered. The stroke of a hammer on a pin fires a cartridge and discharges a bullet into the brain of the animal. It is almost noiseless, and death is instantaneous. There are several ideas for death alarms, to give notice in case a person comes to life after being buried.—[Detroit Free Press.