the sleepy house- study his victim by tration shown is THESE two illus that of an acetytrations show lene generative gas two remarkable lamp, as used to contrasts of the advantage in the system of lighting city of Heidelberg as it was carried on as a supplemenin the French capi- tary lighting systal between three tem. USED TO LIGHT THE CENTURY. The Most STUPID OF ANIMALS, Pigs, TRAINED BY A GERMAN, FOR PUBLIC EXHIBITION IN BERLIN AND ELSEWHERE. A GENERATIVE GAS LAMP USED IN and four hundred years ago and as it is PUNCTURE PROOF AUTO TIRE today in the city of Heidelberg, Germany. The first and the last have one feature in A CHICAGO architect, John B. Fiscommon, however, they are not con cher, thinks he has perfected what nected with any central system to furnish countless other inventors have endeavthe source of illumination—a curious ored to produce ever since the automobile indication of how, to a certain degree, became a common form of conveyancecivilization, even of the material sort a pneumatic tire which is practically imseems to move in a circle, more or less. mune from puncture. He has worked In the days of the Louis's a basket made a long time on his idea, which is unusuof iron was hung out from a stout post, ally ingenious. into this basket or brazier resinous fag Unlike the ordinary tire, which is comgots were placed from time to time, as posed of a single case tube, the new tire is formed with a plurality against 1,000 square inches or series of cavities, round in the ordinary tire. ed or spherical in shape, Among other advantages located within within the tube claimed for the new tire around the circumference are: freedom from nipping and separated by intermedi of the air tube by the tire ate walls or spacers. The removing lever; prevention tube containing these cavi of rim cutting and blow ties is constructed by tak outs, for the reason that ing a plurality of layers of the tire never flattens, and fabric and rubber applied prevention of what is to a mold or form to give known as the side roll, the desired corrugated or which results from turning rounded shape for cavities. corners and in skidding. In the depressions between If this tire but partially the corrugations are located achieves its inventor's purtriangular or crescent pose it will be a great boon shaped pieces of what is to the autoist. There is known as cushion stock, NEW PUNCTURE-PROOF TIRE FOR nothing more annoying AUTOMOBILES. which is inclosed in a cov The inner tube is composed of a than a puncture. ering of several layers of series of inflated balls sepa rated by rubber walls. fabric and rubber, while over all additional layers of fabric and rubber are then applied, mak HUGE BUCKET EXCAVATOR ing a substantially smooth external appearance with the two lips or flanges at THE construction of railways and the inner periphery. canals entails the design of more and Resilient balls are inserted in the more powerful bucket excavators. The spherical cavities where they are securely one illustrated has been recently installed held by the walls of the spacing pieces. in Germany and claims the honor of In order to remove or introduce a ball, being the largest in the world. It is a the casing is detached for a convenient gigantic gantry excavator with two disportion of its length and the flanges and charge openings, the valves of which are lower portions of the spacers spread operated by oscillating compressed air apart to the extent required. After a cylinders fed by an electrically driven air ball has been thus introduced and the pump. Its maximum dredging depth is casing parts released, the ball will be about 70 feet. The opening of the gantry completely enveloped in the casing, and is 10/2 feet above the level of the track by it securely held in place. and about 119/2 feet in width. The speed On account of the location of the balls of the bucket chain is so designed that it will be difficult for a puncturing object 32 buckets are discharged per minute, to reach them, but in case one is actually resulting in a theoretical output of 960 punctured it alone will become deflated, cubic meters and only a very The buckets are small portion of the discharged altertire is affected. nately into either Under ordinary of the two railway circumstances the trains installed in tire would not be the opening of the put out of commis gantry and behind sion even if a num it respectively, the ber of the balls direction of diswere punctured. charge being conBut 50 square trolled by means of inches of the tire a valve, which is are are subject GIGANTIC BUCKET EXCAVATOR IN USE IN GERMANY. operated by by the to puncture as hand. It is asserted to be the biggest in the world. per hour. AEROPLANE STARTS FROM RISK LIVES FOR 12 CENTS A WIRE DAY THE navy's new Curtiss hydro-aero- IN the graphite mines of Ceylon men, plane was recently launched from a women and children are employed, wire cable. This experiment was under and the pay they receive would astonish the direction of Lieut. T. G. Ellyson of an American miner, being about 12 to 24 the navy, who was the first member of cents a day for men; women receive that branch of the military service to about 6 to 16 cents per day for their become a qualified aviator. services, all work being done under a The object of this unusual method of contractor who keeps the wages down starting an aeroplane was to demonstrate as low as possible. The iron law of comthe practicability of the hydro-aeroplane petition in labor is enforced to the limit for use on ships of the navy by the in Ceylon. launching of the same quickly and easily The graphite from the mine is hoisted by means of wire cables available on by means of a simple windlass in barrels board any vessel of the navy, and thus and then transported to Colombo, a seado away entirely with anything in the port town, and then prepared for shipway of a platform. ment to the various markets of the It is claimed that this successful test d, where it is manufactured into as carried out removes the most serious goods for various uses. obstacle which hindered the launching of The structural work of the mine is of aeroplanes from warships. A hydro- the most primitive and frailest material, aeroplane may thus be launched at sea and it is remarkable that a far greater under any conditions, without the loss of loss of life does not take place between time in putting it overboard to arise from these great walls of graphite. Artificial the water and without delay because of ventilation is unknown in the galleries rough sea. These experiments may do of these mines and the miner of Ceylon much toward solving certain modern will not venture where a light will not naval problems. burn and for this reason it has been necessary to abandon a great many parts Upon reaching Colombo, the material BUST OF HISTORIC INTEREST. When Napoleon returned from Elba, the French government ordered five busts of the great conqueror to be made, for the five principal provincial cities of France. They were sculptured at Marseille, and were exactly alike. But before they could be delivered the Battle of Waterloo was fought. and the returning Bourbons gave orders that they be destroyed. Fortunately, this was prevented by the American consul at Marseille, whose name was Hodge. He bought all five of the busts for a small price, and brought them to this country. The bust above is at the War College in Washington. THE GRAPHITE MINES OF CEYLON. ODD DESIGNS IN TREES THE Southern countries of Europe, • notably Italy, have long been famous for the beauty of their gardens and the large amount of fine topiary work—as the art of scientific tree-trimming is sometimes, though not often, called—in them. In England, on the other hand, formal gardening on an extensive scale, is of comparatively recent origin. The rigors of the northern climate, the smoke from the factories of the cities and the irregularities of the land were obstacles which the gardeners of southern Europe did not have to overcome. Time, however, has taught the English gardener the trees and shrubs that thrive in his land and the country houses of England now boast of gardens which take their place among the most famous gardens of all Europe. Evergreen trees and shrubs trimmed into odd and sometimes fantastic shapes play an important part in the scheme of general gardening. The pictures of a corner of the noted garden at Levens Hall, Westmoreland, furnish fine examples of topiary art. One illustration, shows the results of continuous clipping and trimming. Another photo shows an odd and quaint design, that of a bottle, complete even to the presence of a stopper. These fantastic shapes, however, are more curiosities than real works of art. HEADQUARTERS OF THE City. adopted. THE RESULT OF CONTINUOUS CLIPPING AND TRIMMING POPULAR SCIENCE 121 NEW WAY TO COAL VESSELS THE coaling vessel here shown repre sents the most improved boat which has been built for that purpose. It eliminates all the inconveniences which had to be endured at the coaling of a steamer on the old style. It prevents the dust ta cover the vessel from one end to the other, soil the sailors' and passengers' clothes and get into the lungs of all. This vessel has a capacity of 400 tons and is fitted with two elevators of a capacity of 100 tons per hour each, together 200 tons per hour. From one end of the coaler to the other is a longitudinal passage which the movable elevators are free to travel. Larger vessels are fitted with more of such elevators. The big A JAPANESE STRONG MAN IN BERLIN, BY RAISING His FEAT IS AN UNUSUAL ONE.. FOR HAULING THE AMERICAN MAIL. This locomotive is one of the heaviest which has yet been built in Great Britain. Its 6-coupled wheels are each 6 ft. 7 in, in diameter and the four bogie wheels are 3 ft. 7 in. The boiler has a barrel 13 ft. 9 in. in length. 4 ft. 10% in. in outside diameter and the working pressure amounts to 200 lb. per square inch, while the grate area is 31.5 square feet, The locomotive has a length over buffers of 63 ft. 0% in, and the tender carries 4,500 gallons of water with a space for 5 tons of fuel. liners, such as the Lusitania and Mauretania, could thus be coaled at a rate of 1,000 tons per hour. A thousand tons per hour may appear a very large quantity of coal to transfer from barge to steamer, and it can only be done by a system such as the barge shown is constructed on. To attempt to pass that quantity of coal down one chute, or even two chutes, would mean that the discharge would have to be so rapid that the delivery of it could not properly be taken. In the arrangement of this barge, however, different chutes are put through the side bunker doors ir different parts of the vessel and the coaling operation is thus going on simultaneously in practically all parts of the vessel's bunkers. A NEW SYSTEM OF BUNKERING STEAM SHIPS. A thousand tons may be delivered hourly. |