sands of devotees from Persia and Turkestan make the journey to holy Nejef, bringing with them the salted and dried bodies of their dead for burial in the sacred soil outside the city walls. Here a vast city of tombs has grown up.

FINEST PIANO IN UNITED
STATES

HIS piano may be seen in the great

THIS

East Room of the White House in Washington. It was presented to the Government by a piano manufacturer. This manufacturer was once being shown over the White House and when he came to the great East Room, which is the scene of so many splendid social functions, he said that there was one thing the room lacked, and that was a piano in harmony with the other furnishings of the room. He offered to have a piano made if the Government would accept it. It is entirely proper for the Government to accept a gift of this kind for a public building, particularly from an American citizen, and the offer was accepted. The piano he had made is probably the costliest instrument of its kind in the country. It is covered with gold-leaf and all the material used in the construction of the piano is of the most expensive kind.

There is a design in paneling representing the thirteen original States, and the spirit of patriotism is expressed in other parts of the design. It might well be called a patriotic piano. The tone of the instrument is as perfect as it is pos

WITHIN recent years, a great deal has been accomplished in the way of electrifying farms for lighting and power purposes by aid of the gas engine and storage-battery plant. In fact, in order to be really considered up-todate in the modern sense, it seems that a farm must be illuminated and the stationary machinery-such as is used in dairyingbe actuated by electricity.

Near Detroit, Michigan, is a farm where the grain elevators and machine shop are electrically operated, the cows milked by an electric vacuum motor, the cream separated likewise, and the butter churned by the same medium.

The most desirable feature of the electric dairying method is that of cleanliness. Dirty oil lamps make way for rows of clear, brilliant tungstens; unsanitary milk pails and soiled hands are eliminated. Unquestionably, the milk as it arrives to the consumer will be the purest

that can possibly be obtained.

The power plant is unique in a variety of respects, chief among which is the uninterrupted service available the year round. This is quite remarkable considering the coldness of the

with the short distance the water falls a scant eight feet. The The water power is supplied by the River Rouge -a small stream ultimately

empty

ing into the Detroit River.

Current is supplied to the various points of consumption on the farm by power wires strung neatly and inconspicuously along the tops of the barbwire fence.

The waterfall from which all the power is derived is only about eight feet high. Two young men of the distinctively "modern school," have full charge of supervising the farm and its electric plant. The installation has proved a decided success.

GASOLINE TILE DITCHER

THE accompanying illustration shows

a gasoline tile ditcher at work laying 26-inch farm tiles eight feet deep. On this machine a 2-cylinder, 40-horsepower engine is used.

A similar gasoline-driven machine has been used for digging sewer trench ten feet deep at Fort Dodge, Iowa. It is stated that one cylinder of this engine will run the machine with ease, when

ordinary soil, twenty-eight inches to forty-eight inches wide and twelve feet deep. A recent machine has been constructed of this type to dig a trench sixty - one inches wide and twentyone feet deep.

These ditchers give satisfaction.

WIRELESS IN THE BALKANS

THE part that wireless telegraphy

has played in the Balkan War has been more important than any ever taken since that wonderful and mysterious method of communication first was practiced. Operators, inventors. and students of the sound-wave method of word-sending declare that the practical experiments, performed by wireless outfits and from temporary stations during the war, have pushed wireless communication years ahead of what it would be had not the Balkan conflict occurred. Stations, some of which are so small that a horse of ordinary size can carry all the equipments required, were experimented with and perfected during the several weeks of fighting. These portable machines are capable of doing the work of the regular fixed stations.

A

CHEWING-GUM locket and an elevated railroad supported by the branches of growing trees are among the devices which have been granted patents from our Government.

The Patent Office is quite broadminded in its ideas of what ought to be patented.

The chewing-gum locket was patented January 1, 1889, by Christopher W. Robertson of Somerville, Tennessee. The locket resembles the ordinary one which. is used to carry the sweetheart's picture, but instead of a photograph, it is lined with a porcelain glass interior. Into this the chewing gum is neatly slipped for future reference. Its advantages are set forth in the official documents as providing a place where chewing gum may be carried "attached to the person, as lockets are ordinarily worn,' and "not left around carelessly to become dirty and fall

into the hands of persons to whom it does not belong."

The tree-supported elevated railroad is the idea of Jerome Orlay, of Temsche, Belgium, and his patent letters were granted March 19, 1912. In order to build a railroad of this type, all that is necessary to do is to plant trees on both sides of the street and have them lean toward one another until they cross at the top. In the crotch thus provided it would be possible to lay stringers to which the cross ties, etc., would be attached and to build your elevated railroad running under shady branches and supported by living wood. Additional poles, if desired, may be set between the trees, and part of the patent provides for running a double-track road, with one car above the other. The claim for novelty in the application consists in "two rows of inclined poles, interposed; inclined live trees to which the poles are connected;

an elevated track carried by the poles; props engaging the poles; and arched braces engaging the tracks."

When boots were more worn than they are today, the traditional boot-jack became a subject of patents, and in 1885 our Patent Office granted letters to Henry Lightwardt, Jr., of Philadelphia, for a boot-jack which was also an ornamental double-barreled pistol. When closed up, the pistol would fire a paper cap and thus could be used to celebrate on the 4th of July. When unhasped and permitted to open on its hinge, a very fine boot-jack was presented.

One of the most provident inventors is George C. Hale of Kansas City, Mo., who was granted a patent August 4, 1885, for a combination suspenders and fire escape. Woven into the fabric of the apparently innocent galluses, Mr. Hale's patent provided for a string treated with some form of chemicals, so that it would not easily burn. When caught on the upper floors of a burning building, the man provided with the fireescape suspenders had only to pull the end of this string, which immediately unfurled itself for about two or three hundred feet. Then he could let down this string to the street, have it attached to a

substantial rope, pull the rope up to his floor, attach the rope to a firm point and escape from the burning building! The inventor also says in his application that "it is obvious that the cord might be needed for other uses than that heretofore stated.”

Speaking of suspenders, Mark Twain was the grantee of a suspender patent. In December, 1871, he patented an improvement in adjustable and detachable straps for garments. In describing his invention, Samuel L. Clemens classifies it as "an adjustable and detachable elastic strap for vests, pantaloons, or other garments requiring straps," and claims as its novel feature the fact that it is provided with devices for adjusting its length, and with button-holed ends for direct attachment to the clothing. The device appears to consist merely of two pieces of leather with button-holes at the ends and a hook with different holes for adjusting the length.

Speaking of inventions by notables, as recently as 1908 a patent was issued to Lady Maria Gertrude Decies, of Sefton