Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 72, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 December 1916 — SCRAPS [ARTICLE]

SCRAPS

For temporary use a lemon squeezer made of paper has been invented. According to a British chemist, tobacco ashes contain 20 per cent of potash. A patent has been granted for a trunk that also can he used as a bath tub. The Chinese have taken quickly to the electric toasters sent from this country. Before the war there were 800,000 government employes in the French republic. European soldiers carry small flasks of oxygen to revive gasstricken comrades. No less than 5,000 inventions have been submitted to the naval board in seven months.

Italy is enforcing a series of regulations governing the width of wheel rims allowed on highways. An English woman is the patentee of bunks for ships supported so as to remain level, no matter how much a vessel rolls. Porto Rico has produced more than 483,000 short tons of sugar this year, the greatest output ever recorded for the island. Apparatus that simplifies the .examination of paper money under a magnifying glass has been patented by a California woman. Chinese, ship fresh eggs long distances in good condition bv coating them with a paste made of sea salt, vegetable ashes and water. New apparatus for filling automobile tires with air automatically cuts off the supply when the overinflation danger point is reached. A Danish nerve specialist places convalescent patients on top of a piano so that they may be benefited by its vibrations as it is played. A machine has been . developed for spreading fine rock dust on the passageways of bituminous mines to prevent explosions of coal dust. A new case and observation car has large windows at the tables so that diners may get a broad view of the passing landscape while din ing. A French aviator has placed a pneumatic buffer in front of the seat of his aeroplane to lessen the shock should he strike the ground heavily. For stringing beads quickly an ingenious German has patented a crank operated machine which feeds them on the point of a threaded needle. Fewer ships were built in American yards during the year ending last June than during the previous year, but their total tonnage was greater,

Sanitary advantages as well as safety for their contents are assented for new steel poultry gliipping crates, which can be folded flat when empty. Realizing that bass feel the hot weather, Hibard Raymond placed a cake of ice in a rocky cove in Lake Keuka, New York, and soon caught eight fine fish. An Englishman has invented a device to enable aviators in flight to pick up messages from the ground by dropping a grapnel at the end of a line. A submarine tender built for the Brazilian navy can admit an underwater boat into its hull and carry it, or subject it to extreme water pressure to test it.

Vehicles resembling light automobiles, but without motors, are used in some Swiss mountain resorts for a sport resembling tobogganing in snowless seasons. In a new pipe intended to give a cool, dry smoke the tobacco is loaded from the stem side of the bowl, draft being supplied by a hole in the top of the bowl. So sensitive is electrical apparatus invented by a French scientist" that it will detect the presence of one part of bicromate of potash in 200,000,000 parts of water. For the first time since 1 857 the yearly report of the general board of commissioners in lunacy, shows an absolute decrease in the number of all classes of insane in Scotland. Fuel oil obtained from Scotch 3hale fields has been found highly suitable sfor the British navy, and it is estimated that from 400,000 to 500,000 tons will be available annually for 150 years. An automobile that turns easily in narrow streets that two New York men have patented has a wheel at each side and one at each end, the steering mechanism operating the last two simultaneously. A New York firm has advised Consul Stuart Lupton of Gautemala City of the sale of one of its military aeroplanes to the government of Guatemala. The pride of the •machine wag $11,900. The American builder was put in touch with the Guatemalan officials by Consul Lupton.