A SIMPLE FORM OF THE ADDING MACHINE.

dressed the fire is burning briskly and the kettle-if there is one on it-humming merrily.

The mechanism of the contrivance is simple enough. From the back of the alarm clock extends a shaft on which is mounted a rotary friction disk or pulley, the periphery of which is so designed as to create friction when rotated in contact with a stationary member. By the operation of a pivotal arm, a lug, spring and other attachments in connection with the disk, the mechanism is set in motion when the alarm is released. At the same instant a fuse, which has at its end an easily ignited fulminate, and which is held in place in a slot opening against the friction, is ignited. The flame, which is confined within the metallic slot, travels

stove, or on a table beside the bed. It is a boon to the early winter riser.

A machine which splits wood and carries it off is another contrivance which simplifies the making of fires. A machine of this sort is in operation near Spokane. It is capable of splitting wood two feet long and eighteen inches thick. It is run by a three-horse power gasoline engine, and consists of a huge knife working through the knottiest wood at a rate of sixty strokes a minute.

Many other machines of minor importance but almost human in their capacity for intricate performance might also be mentioned. The topodict is one of these. It is a combination of a pantograph and telescope, and by means of it any person can make a drawing, in correct perspective, of any scene before him, even if he knows nothing whatever about drawing. By means of the telemeter the exact distance of far-away objects can be measured and recorded. By means of the "telephone-ears" a ship is automatically warned of submarine dangers.

A machine which far surpasses human fingers for deftness has recently been invented for decorating crockery. This machine applies to the china by a single

operation the border patterns and monogram centers which formerly required a whole

process of handwork. The

machine is operated by compressed air, and has a max

imum capacity of decorating, in this manner, 120 dozen pieces of crockery in a single hour, with the assistance of two boys. A new speed indicator has been added to locomotive practice

A DIFFERENT STYLE OF ADDING MACHINE.

which not only indicates the varying speed of the engine, but automatically applies the brakes when the speed exceeds the established safety limit, thus successfully replacing the "speed feel" of engineers.

The logic machine which Professor Charles H. Rieber, of the University of California, is perfecting does not seem very convincing to the ordinary person, yet it is said to be capable of wonderful performances. This machine will follow what logicians know as "circle notation," in which all premises having separate symbols and conclusions are produced by a combination of these symbols. The machine is something like an adding machine, which by the manipulation of circles and electric lights will, when the proper keys are pressed down, throw into relief all formulae that are possible answers to logical questions, without the chance of an error.

How impossible it would be to do the work now done by machinery, by any quantity of manual labor which could be crowded upon this planet! A modern ocean steamer is propelled by a force of

30,000 horse-power. Counting six men to the horse-power, and with three shifts every twenty-four hours, 540,000 men would be required for the mere driving of the ship! And as the ship could not carry enough men to propel it, neither could a passenger train accommodate a sufficient number of human laborers to move itself at present speeds, not to mention the item of freight.

A wireless torpedo boat, which lifts its own anchor, blows its own whistle, signals, fires a gun and steers itself, is a thing which does a good deal of imitation thinking. Such a boat has been invented by a New York sculptor, Charles E. Alden, and has been successfully operated in experiments off the island of Martha's Vineyard. The boat carries no crew, being handled from the shore by a mysterious apparatus which is the invention of Mr. Alden, and is obedient to the Hertzian waves used in the various systems of wireless telegraphy.

The device is comparatively simple, the operator standing on the shore with his transmitting apparatus, launching the boat; and, with a touch here and there on the instrument, as one might operate a typewriter, transmitting electric impulses through the ether to the craft. Obedient to the impulses the torpedo boat then weighs its anchor, whistles, starts its propeller, turns to starboard or to port or keeps straight course ahead, turns on its searchlight, fires a cannon in its bow, drops and hoists its anchor, backs and goes ahead again, lights signals, and discharges a torpedo from its tubes. The possible value of torpedo craft of this kind in coast defence operations is considerable.

O

ONE of the most impres

sive views which has ever been made with the camera lens has been called "the Sky Line of New York." A better title would be the "Top of New York," for the roof of the row of great buildings which project heavenward are in reality the top of the city, since they contain so much of the humanity that has created the community. Some of the single ones, accommodating as they do thousands of people, ranging from the millionaire to the elevator boy, can be termed cities in themselves, for their population exceeds that of many urban settlements outside of New York. The visitor who sees Manhattan Island for the first time as he crosses from Jersey City, is always impressed with the series of gigantic steel boxes which so vary the line of the horizon that they have been likened to different objects. It was Maxim Gorky who said they reminded. him of a huge jaw filled with cruel teeth; but whatever may be the resemblance

called to mind, the height of some of the narrower structures is so lofty that from the deck of the ferry they seem perilously insecure. Especially does the Park Row building stand out conspicuously. It is like a mammoth chimney or funnel in proportion as it looms up beside its huge neighbor, the St. Paul building, whose twin towers reach farther into the zenith than any other about it. One instinctively watches this shaft which is all up and down, wondering what would happen if the wind should blow it over.

But soon these hundred and more "sky scrapers" will appear dwarfed by the enormous structures that are now rapidly growing upward as each day adds more and more ribs and columns to their steel skeletons. They mark a new era in American architecture-the era of the Sky Piercer. Well can they be called sky piercers, since they will actually be twice the height of any of the present buildings and higher than that monolith to the memory of Washington that rises above the Potomac river 555 feet.

That man would attempt such an undertaking seems incredible when we

remember that the Washington monument is the tallest masonry erected by human ingenuity. Yet the sky piercers of New York will each extend over 600 feet from the street, being actually twothirds of the height of France's famous Eiffel tower. True, there are elevators in the latter and in the Washington obelisk. Daily people ascend to the top of each, but they cannot be called inhabited. They are not intended for persons to occupy while at their usual vocations. The capitalists who are putting their millions into these buildings on Manhattan Island are doing so to get a revenue from their rental. Yes, they are intended for office buildings where one can transact business so far above the world that he is practically beyond the noise even of hustling, bustling Broadway. They are not being built for amusement resorts or to determine how far we can pile our steel and stone and wood above the earth, but are cold, hard, business propositions. Land is so costly that it is better to go up in the air than over the ground. Sc say the men whose money is placed in these daring ventures. Their architects assure them that the work can be done and done safelyand they rely on their assurance. What an illustration of confidence in human ability!

One of these spectacular structures is the Singer building, as it is called. Perhaps a few figures about it will give the reader a clearer conception of its hugeness. It will contain when completed no less than forty-one stories, the top of its cupola being 612 feet from the base. It will be in the shape of a tower sixty-five feet square. It will form an addition to the present

office building which can be well classed among the "sky scrapers," as its metal skeleton contains fourteen stories, but the present pile will seem like a pigmy to a giant when contrasted with the enormous tower, which will not only have its fourteen stories, but twentyseven in addition. In fact its total height is so great that its floor space added to that of the main building will be greater, with a single exception, than that of any other building in New York City, the total area amounting to nine and one-half acres. The elevator well will be oblong in plan and placed in the center of the building. For the service of the lower portion of the building there will be sixteen elevators, and as the upper floors are reached they will decrease in number, until there will remain four eleva