A Post Mortem

PRESIDENT INGALLS, of the "Big Four" railway, tells of a system adopted by a division superintendent for eliciting information relative to the destruction of farmers' property along the line of the railway. The superintendent had printed a blank form on which was to be written among other things the name of the animal killed, the kind of animal, etc. A space was reserved for a reply to the following question: "Disposition of carcass?"

A flagman, whose duty it became on one occasion to report concerning the death of a cow, turned in his written report, with the following set opposite the question last referred to: "Kind and gentle."

Rough on Himself

"GENTLEMEN," said the candidate for Congress, "you twit me with having turned my coat. Years ago I supported this measure. Then I had a reason. But now, gentlemen, I have lost my reason." And he wondered at the deafening smile that pervaded the meeting.

Sentiment and Autograph

A PROMINENT member of the Franklin Inn Club, Philadelphia's foremost literary organization, at a gathering of book-writers recently, told a new anecdote of F. Marion Crawford, the novelist.

A certain young lady, so the story runs, wrote to Mr. Crawford requesting that he send her a bit of sentiment and his autograph. The reply was:

"Dear Miss A: When you request a favor that is of interest only to yourself, please inclose a two-cent stamp. There's your sentiment and here's your autograph.-F. Marion Crawford."

As Others See Us

A YOUNG man started in the livery business a few weeks ago, and the first thing he did was to have a sign painted representing himself holding a mule by the bridle. He was particularly proud of this stroke of business enterprise, and straightway asked of his wife:

"Is that not a good likeness of me?"

"Yes," she replied, "it is a perfect picture of you; but who is the fellow holding the bridle?"-Clipped.

Botts Flying Machine PROF. R. H. BOTTS, of San Fran

cisco, California, has invented a new airship, or, rather, a flying machine, on a principle decidedly novel. The machine has no gas inflation whatever, being a purely mechanical self-lifting and self-propelling device.

The professor has given many years' close study to the vexed question of aërial navigation, and confidently believes that he has solved the problem.

The Botts machine consists of a circular aeroplane twenty feet in diameter, stretched very taut within a hoop made of strong steel tubing. In the center of this aeroplane is a small circular opening about five feet in diameter. The inner hoop is made of light, strong wood. There are four "neutralizing" propellers,

two of which revolve horizontally, and two vertically. The former are to uplift the machine, and the latter to drive it through the air. The horizontal propellers are placed at the top-above the central opening of the aeroplane. These propellers are placed one a slight distance above the other, the upper being the smaller of the two. All four propellers are made of light, strong wood and aluminum.

Each set of two propellers revolves in a different direction from the other; but the blades are so geared as to direct the resultant force in one direction; that is, both of the horizontal propellers pull straight upward, while the vertically revolving propellers impel the machine straight forward at the same time.

These neutralizing propellers tend to hold the machine steady, and prevent it

from swinging around when in flight, which would occur if the propellers did not revolve in opposite directions.

In the center of the machine is placed the frame, or car, made largely of bamboo, and aluminum. This contains the boiler, engine, and beveled gearing that drives the propellers, and also the aëronaut himself. The car, the aëroplane, and the braces for the propellers, are all very securely lashed together by steel and aluminum wire and flexible cords. The boiler contains 65 square feet of heating surface. Steam power is used; and the two engines have conjointly about 6 horse-power.

The propellers, each about 5 feet in diameter, can be speeded at as high a rate as 500 revolutions per minute. The engines act almost directly on the propeller shafts, which are of aluminum piping, so that but little power is lost in transmission. The rudder is small a..d light. It works on a sort of hinge-pivot, and can instantly be changed to operate at any angle-vertically or horizontally by a lever. The propellers work in conjunction with the aëroplane, which is inclined at a slight upward angle. The greater the forward speed, the greater the buoyant, sailing qualities of the aeroplane. The latter is made of strong parachute cloth, and is so rigged that it can easily be reefed or furled should the wind prove too strong. The aeroplane may also be used as a parachute whereby a descent can be made safely should the machinery become disabled during a flight.

Strength and lightness are combined. The entire machine weighs only 214 pounds including the aëronaut. Professor Botts does not think that gas inflation is necessary to air-navigation; yet his machine is so arranged that gas could be used in an auxiliary way.-J. M. B.

Birds Photograph Themselves MAKING birds take their own pictures is a new practice of the ornithologist that is proving most fascinating. The process is as simple as it is interesting. A camera is made to take the place of a

Birds, however, may be made to photograph themselves in the fields, in the yard, on the eaves of houses, on fences, or almost anywhere, by merely baiting the piece of string that leads from the shutter. One late device is to place a piece of fat at the end of a wire electrically connected to the shutter of the camera. Timid birds, such as the thrush, will approach the bait and pick it up. At once the shutter is moved by this action, and an instantaneous exposure is obtained. To get photographs of nocturnal birds, the wire is arranged to ignite a little magnesium as it releases the shutter. Still another method of getting the pictures of birds in their natural elements, is for the photographer himself to operate the camera from a hiding place by means of a string or a long rubber tube, the latter being used where the

shutter has a pneumatic release. Food is spread on the ground to attract the birds. By this process the photographer can watch the action of the birds, and take the picture at the most desired moment.

Robert Hegner, an expert bird photographer, recently obtained a very interesting picture of two baby hawks, by making the mother hawk manipulate the camera. Although the young hawks had

single room perched on some ledge, to an extensive communal building numbering as many as 75 rooms and several stories in height. On the canyon bottoms are most interesting pueblo ruins. There are more than 200 of both classes, and at one time they must have housed a population of 15,000 souls. Students of American prehistoric civilization hold that the cliff and pueblo dwellers belonged to the same race and possessed the same characteristics, dwelling in harmony. It is of interest to note that the Indians who now dwell in the canyon show a far less advanced civilization than did its prehistoric occupants. Del Muerto, "the Canyon of Death," takes its name from the fact that at the time of the Spanish conquest a large force moved on the canyon and massacred hundreds of Indians.

Steel, Hard as
Adamant

CHOPPING a cold crowbar into chunks with an ax and whittling a steel rod into shavings with a pocketknife, are made simple performances through a new process of steel tempering that is alleged to have been discovered by a couple of men in the little town of Republic, Washington. In fact, a steel axe and pocket-knives that had been tempered by the process are alleged to have actually been made. to perform these seemingly impossible feats in the presence of newspaper men and other witnesses. Damascus steel

would be of vastly inferior quality to the newly tempered metal, according to the claims of the proprietors of the

secret.

The process consists in the use of certain chemicals in water or oil in the tempering vessel. It is claimed that any kind of tool-from a blunt hammer head to a keen-edged razor-can be tempered to a perfection never before attained. Drills tempered by the process are said to have stood the test of use for forty days without sharpening, in driving the tunnel on the Wasco mine through the hardest kind of rock.

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