carefully measured, with the result that the alcohol burner furnished illumination

equal to 30.35 candle-power for 57 hours

and 5 minutes, with one gallon of alcohol. With a gallon of kerosene, the oil lamp furnished a light equal to 30.8 candlepower for a period of 28 hours and 40 minutes. Consequently the tests establish the fact that, with lamps of the patterns referred to, a gallon of alcohol would furnish nearly twice as much illumination as a gallon of kero

sene.

In connection with the possible use of alcohol as an illuminant after it has been denaturized, the result of these experiments which have recently been conducted at the Electric Testing Laboratories of New York is of considerable interest in the discussion as to the comparative merits of alcohol and oil for illumination. The photograph, which was taken when both lamps were ignited, gives an

Millions for Rubber

NO other country in the world nuts In

dia rubber to so many uses as does the United States, which consumes onehalf of the total production. If it were not for the modern methods of cultivating rubber trees now in use in Mexico and South America, the supply would not nearly equal the demand, and, even

idea of the dimensions of the oil flame, also of the Welsbach burner, but, of course, not of the brilliancy.

Jap's Frisco Dwelling AMONG the finest dwellings in San

Francisco are several which have been constructed by the wealthier Japanese residents of that city. This picture shows one which was designed and built by a Japanese banker. Fortunately it escaped the fire, and as the photograph shows, is one of the most picturesque residences in the city. It is composed entirely of wood except the brick foundation, but represents a far greater cost than even original stone on account of the elaborate carvings and the fact that it is made of redwood which is the most valuable timber on the Pacific coast, as it is almost fire proof and never decays. The Oriental, apparently, carries with him, wherever he goes, some of the distinct characteristics of his home in the East.

as it is, there is no over-production. The demand for the highest grade of rubber for automobile tires has raised the value of crude rubber considerably. The total imports of crude rubber into the United States during 1906 amount to about 60,000,000 pounds, valued at $50,000,000. In one month-October-rubber to the value of $5,000,000 was brought into the country.

The Agricultural Department is of the opinion that a large amount of the rubber needed in America could be raised in the Philippines and Hawaiian Islands, and will doubtless soon undertake some experimental and educational work along this line. A scientifically conducted rubber plantation is enormously profitable, and begins to show results in two or three years.

In spite of the opening up of new fields of supply it would seem that the time must ultimately come when there will be a real shortage of the commodity, unless artificial rubber comes to be generally manufactured and used.

Brussels Wharf Rats BRUSSELS is enlarging its port and

in a few years' time large steam boats will be able to reach the Belgian capital. Its canals have been deepened, and an important water traffic is being carried on. Coal from the industrial dis

tricts of Mons and Charleroi is brought in big barges, the cheapest method of transportation. Sand, tiles, bricks are daily being floated in to build the new part of Greater Brussels, which is fast springing up. Cheap transportation is the motto in this country, where long

BELGIAN PORTERS AT WORK. UNLOADING SAND FROM A CANAL BOAT. AN EXAMPLE OF THE LACK OF LABOR-SAVING MACHINERY IN EUROPE.

working-hours and small wages reign supreme. Cheap labor must be used, no machinery, no cranes. Barges are unloaded by porters, and it is a curious sight for an American familiarized with modern working-methods to see these tall, strongly built Flemish porters unloading sand, coal, bricks and tiles. They

work hard, and both bosses and workers are strongly opposed to up-to-date methods of unloading. Time is no object to them, and they stick to old traditions. They earn from six to eight cents, in American money, per hour.-FRITZ MORRIS.

Whistle as Clock EAST ST. LOUIS is said to have the

biggest steam whistle in the world. With the wind, it may be heard to a distance of twenty miles, and furnishes the correct time for 100,000 people. It is blown four times a day-at seven o'clock in the morning, at twelve and one o'clock, and at six o'clock in the evening. An electric clock warranted not to vary five seconds in a year's time controls the whistle. One dollar is the cost each time it is blown.

HE United States Army expects to adopt something entirely new in the way of a small arm-that is to say, an automatic pistol, to take the place of the revolver now in use in the service. President Roosevelt has taken a good deal of personal interest in the matter, and under his directions a board of army officers was recently appointed, to meet at the Springfield Arsenal and consider, with incidental experiments, such patterns of this kind of weapon as might be available-the object in view being to 'select the best.

The present service revolver, which is of thirty-eight caliber, is open to a number of objections from a military point of view. For one thing, the projectile it fires is not large enough, and on this account lacks "stopping power." In other words, a man hit by such a bullet is not put out of action quickly enough.

If one fires a pistol and hits his man, the latter should drop in his tracks instantly. It is not necessary that he should be mortally hurt -in fact, modern civilized warfare rather discourages killing people, when avoidablebut the shock, if nothing more, must render him for the time being incapable of fighting.

slaying, or at least disabling, the party of the first part.

Hence the decision to change the caliber of the army revolver from thirtyeight to forty-five-a modification which has been practically determined upon. Up to about fifteen years ago, indeed, the service weapon was of forty-five caliber; but it was thought that the arm could be. made lighter and handier by reducing the size of the bullet, and so the diameter of the barrel was cut down. Experience has shown that this alteration was decidedly a mistake.

But the main point is that the revolver is to be dropped and replaced by a pistol of the automatic kind. There is, as will presently be explained, a radical difference between the two. The revolver has a cylinder with six chambers contain

NEW AUTOMATIC PISTOL.

A weapon of the sort that will not do this much is obviously ineffective. For, if one shoots an adversary, and, after being hit, even though fatally perhaps, if he still is able to keep on comingthough it be for only a short distancehe may succeed before succumbing, in

ing as many cartridges. When these cartridges have been fired, the cylinder must be displaced, so as to disconnect it from the barrel, the spent cartridges must be removed, and fresh ones have to be put in.

All of this takes a good deal of time. The enemy may be coming on, and the half minute or so expended in emptying

and reloading the cylinder may signify the difference between life and death to the owner of the weapon. Moments were never so valuable in warfare as they are today.

The automatic pistol is constructed quite otherwise. There are a number of patterns, but a typical one may be described as having no cylinder at all, its cartridges being carried in the hollow stock of the weapon. This stock, in other words, serves as a magazine, holding ammunition for ten shots usually.

The cartridges for the automatic pistols, in packages of ten each, so to speak, are contained in small tin cases, twenty or more of which may be worn in the soldier's belt. When one case is spent, it is dropped out of the stock of the weapon by a mere touch upon a spring, and is instantly replaced by a fresh case, ready loaded. If there be time, the fighting man preserves the tin cases for reloading; otherwise he throws them away.

The tin case fits exactly into the hollow stock, in such a manner that the cart

ridges it contains lie horizontally, one on top of another. When the weapon is fired, the recoil of the barrel throws out the discharged cartridge, the next underneath rising to take its place. This process repeats itself as often as the trigger is pulled, until the ten cartridges are used up when the empty case is withdrawn and replaced by a fresh one.

It will easily be seen that such an arrangement permits the fighting man to fire the two hundred cartridges he carries practically without stopping-only an instant being required to exchange a spent case for a fresh one. In actual practice he would not have occasion to do this, but the matter of importance is that he shall not be compelled to quit at any particular moment. At no time is his weapon not available for immediate use. Besides, he is able-and this is a point of extreme consequence-to load his automatic pistol while running; a thing which cannot be done to advantage with a revolver, and which is likely to be very important to the soldier under fire in the field.

OU may but you can't," is practically what Uncle Sam has said to farmers of the United States in regard to the home-making of denatured alcohol. A theatrical man would say that the lawmakers at Washington have "handed the farmers a lemon."

Permission to manufacture and use, but permission so hedged about with conditions as to make it practically worthless, is what the law amounts to so far as the small would-be maker and user of denatured alcohol is concerned. The idea which grew at first in the minds of the men who need the newly cheapened commodity, and who would most promptly make use of it if they could, has been that

a veritable boon was bestowed upon them by the new law and that straightway all that any man need do to avail himself of its benefits was to build himself a still in his barnyard, decide on the denaturant his business would permit him to use and make his own supply as his demand called for it. But, unfortunately, this is not the case. Whether through the schemes of the enemies of the law or the errors of its friends, the individual who would make denatured alcohol for his own exclusive use is just as effectively prohibited from doing so as if the law had never been passed.

In simple language, the law provides that every distillery, even the smallest, must be registered and must have its separate bonded warehouse, constructed

like a fortress to protect its contents from illegitimate handling. The warehouse must have a denaturing room of which "the ceiling, inside walls and floor must be constructed of brick, stone or tongueand-groove planks. If any windows, they must be secured by gratings or iron bars, and to each window must be affixed solid shutters of wood or iron, constructed in such manner that they may be securely barred and fastened on the inside." With equally secure entrance, the place must be made proof against anyone and everyone except the government officials themselves. Moreover, no distillery mashing less than one hundred bushels of grain per day, producing about two hundred and fifty gallons of commercial alcohol, will be licensed to manufacture and the proof of the alcohol must not be less than 188% United States standard, equivalent to 94% alcohol. This will require double distillation to produce.

Now, as it isn't every man who can afford to have a little fort of his own at home, even for the sake of saving some dollars per month or per year in production of his particular class of article for the market, the outlook for a widespread epidemic of still-building is not very good. In Germany there are many little stills of from two to twenty gallons a month capacity, and it is in these that much of the country's whole supply is manufactured. But no such conditions as the too-careful legislators have placed. about the law in America hamper the people there.

Besides, troubles multiform are pro

vided for the inexperienced distiller in the myriad forms of violation of the law which are made possible to him. If he undertakes to build his "fort" in the hope that there the handicap will end, he will find, when he comes to give his bond, that imprisonment for a five-year term or a fine of $5,000 hang over him in perpetual threat as possible penalties for breaking the complex provisions of the law, and. that, incidentally, confiscation of his property is one of the minor details which would follow in the train of a conviction.

Of course such penalties are legitimate, as applied to the enforcement of a law which gives the individual some latitude in attempting to manufacture under it, but with the tangle of red tape that has somehow twined itself about this particular industry, there will be few who will want to undertake all the responsibilities and expenses involved, fearing “a worse condition than before" in their commercial economies.

It is greatly to be hoped that amendments to the new law may soon be made which will do away with absurdities that now practically prevent the private manufacture of this extremely valuable agent upon a small scale. The probabilities, based on the tremendous demand which the roused hopes of the people have created, are that such changes will soon be effected.

Hon. John W. Yerkes, commissioner of internal revenue, Washington, D. C., will furnish a copy of the law and regulations to anyone who asks for it.