even in unskilled hands; but it possesses the disadvantage that it is sometimes impossible to find room for such a system. Then, too, the batteries must be attended to occasionally, and the apparatus should be overhauled each season.

The writer is decidedly prejudiced in favor of ignition by means of the alternating-current magneto. The alternating-current magneto, from an electrical standpoint, is the simplest electrical generator made. For ignition purposes, it al

for every revolution of the armature. The above, it is obvious, would be the proper speed for four-cylinder engines. If eight cylinders are to be fired from one magneto, the magnetos are run twice as fast as the engine shaft.

The magneto alternator, when used. with either make and break or jump spark, permits of the ordinary spark timing, except that the timing mechanism for the jump spark is very greatly simplified. Since the spark is generated at certain points in the revolution of the armature of the magneto, it is necessary, in order to change the time, only to change the relation of the armature to the engine crank; and this is accomplished by a simple construction made a part of the magneto. Probably the

JUMP SPARK COIL, WITH VIBRATOR.

lows of the most simple, positive installation in use. When used with the jump spark, a coil without vibrator is used with it, and but one coil for single or multicylinder engines. When used with the make and break spark, no coil is used. Owing to the very efficient designs of these magnetos, they will furnish a satisfactory spark at any speed between 30 and 3,000 revolutions per minute. An alternating-current magneto, not like the direct-current machine, generates its current only at certain points in the revolution of the armature. It is evident, then, that a magneto of this type must be driven by the engine through some positive mechanism, such as gears, chain, or pitman rod, and that the magneto and engine must be so connected mechanically that the spark will be generated at the required point of the engine's revolution. Owing to the ability of this magneto to generate a large spark at so low a speed as 30 r. p. m., engines can be readily started from it with the magneto driven at the same speed as that of the engine, at which speed it is usually driven. The magnetos now in use generate two sparks

VERTICAL MAGNETO.

greatest advantage in the magneto alternator system of ignition, lies in its simple and positive construction. The magneto, not having either commutator or collector rings and brushes, conducts its current through the simple bronze bearings of the machine, which are oiled in the usual manner. There are no adjustments, and oil and dirt cannot damage the apparatus.-FRANK REMY in Automobile Review.

FORGED RIBBON-BACKED CHIPPENDALE CHAIR.

tery. At first the Italians told the tourists there were no antiques left; but, finding the truth of no avail, and being an obliging people, they invented a new industry-the counterfeiting of antiques which has to-day become almost a fine

art.

An English gentleman of many years' residence in Italy, says: "I have stood in more than one sculptor's studio, both

BOWL WITH COVER. Imitation of Imari Porcelain.

formed me that the greater part of his output was shipped to an agent in New York, who judiciously distributed it to dealers all over America." So clever is this mode of giving age, that the combination of acids applied is absorbed by the marble and turns it yellow right through, so that even experts can be deceived by those ingenious imitations of Michael Angelo, Donatello, and other celebrated sculptors.

At Athens there is a factory busy all the year round turning out by the score "ancient" Tanagra terra-cottas. One of these imitations will be sold for fifteen hundred dollars when fifteen dollars is every penny it is worth.

When old silver became the fashionable craze, the little stores on the Ponte Veccheio contained many genuine chalices, goblets, sugar basins, and the like

for

a genuine piece-say a fine old gobletand produce exact copies. By a chemical process they give them an appearance of age that would deceive the eyes of an expert. For years there has been an increasing demand by collectors mediæval armor and arms. In a back street of a prosperous Italian city is the workshop of a man who is a genius at manufacturing every conceivable kind of armor, from breastplates to gauntlets, from halberds to swords and daggers, all stamped with the monograms of some famous Spanish or Italian armorer.

The steel is treated with acids; the bronze hilts of swords are dipped in some kind of solution to give the appearance of age and use; then the pieces are placed in boxes of damp earth to induce rust; and in a week or two they are ready to be sold to the dealers at so much a dozen.

such an extent is this counterfeiting carried on that after a Russian nobleman had spent twenty-five thousand dollars in

**

FORGED CANDELABRA OF THE 17TH CENTURY.

forming a collection of cameos, so many when carefully examined proved to be forgeries, that, despairing of separating

the false from the true, he sold the entire collection for what it would bring.

In Manchester, England, a large number of men are employed in making old furniture. The large majority of the supposedly genuine Sheraton, Chippendale, and Happlewhite sold in London, each with a certified pedigree that runs back to the middle of the eighteenth century, are probably not more than three months from the factory. A dealer described the making of a sixteenth century chair in these words: "You make the chair to pattern, soak it in a certain fluid, then shoot a few rounds of small shot into it, to give it a worm-caten appearance, and there you are!"

Grecian terra-cottas, terra-cottas, Louis Louis Seize, Queen Anne furniture, Tanagra statuettes, Egyptian pottery, ancient brasses, pictures, armor, arms-in fact, you have

only to say what particular antique you want, and the London, Paris, or Italian dealer will in a week's time secure it and supply gratis an unimpeachable history, sworn to by the descendant of six generations.

Sacred scarabs, little Egyptian charms, are manufactured by a Connecticut firm. They are carved and chipped by machinery, colored in bulk, made to simulate age, and shipped in casks to the Moslem dealers in Cairo. The Arabian guides are the chief buyers, many of them being adepts at "salting" the sands at the base. of the pyramids or about the sacred temples, where they artfully discover these scarabs before the very eyes of the Yankee tourist, and sell him, for an American dollar, an article manufactured at a cost of less than a cent, perhaps within a stone's throw of his own home.

A

S SOON AS the average man obtains a patent upon any device, he considers that his fortune is made, and that he has only to let people know what he has done and where he lives to be overwhelmed with offers for it at his own price. The facts are that a patent is no more and no less than documentary evidence that the holder of it is entitled to its exclusive use. If he does not wish to use it, and will not sell it at a reasonable price, the inventor holds a piece of paper only, which deteriorates rapidly from the competition of other inventors in the same field. What is a reasonable price for an invention, depends wholly upon circumstances and conditions. If it relates to an article that will have only a moderate sale, a very moderate sum is all that can be expected, if, indeed, a manufacturer be found who desires to take the matter up.

Inventors, however, are often without experience or knowledge in regard to the business side of the question and the difficulties which attend the introduction and marketing of even a meritorious article. Before a patent can make returns to any one, much time and money must be put into it, and all this is to be recovered before the investor can recoup himself for his outlay, to say nothing of making money on the venture. The large sums said to be paid for patents that are not remarkable for novelty, being mere improvements upon existing machines or relating to some unimportant article, are mostly fiction. Inventors are apt to have an exaggerated idea of the value of their patents, and to think that they should receive for their patent what it may be worth after all the work required has been done and the demand has been created.

Occasionally a man who runs for an office wins in a walk.

A brick manufacturer needs the earth in his business.

Some society women have better clothes than manners.

If a man makes no enemies, he has but few friends.

Intellectuality is the cause of baldness. So says a baldheaded scientist.

A thousand-dollar boy with a ten-thousanddollar education is over-capitalized.

Don't get gay. It is easier to keep the lid on than it is to put it back on again.

The next time Russia wants a war loan, she might apply to the St. Louis hotel men.

The trouble with many a young man is that he spends his fortune before he makes it.

Sometimes a man loses his job because he doesn't know enough, and sometimes because he knows too much.

People often make the excuse that they have bad memories, when the truth is, they are too slovenly to use their brains.

One of the greatest mistakes that a man can make is to sit down at a desk and worry himself sick over business and then call it a day's work.

doesn't keep.

Habit may be a man's best friend or his worst enemy.

Expert testimony depends upon who employs the expert.

Nearly all commuters imagine Hades is a suburb of Heaven.

A gentleman is a man who agrees with you; a crank is one who doesn't.

Love is a serious matter the first time a young man bumps into it.

If the average girl doesn't play the harp in the next world any better than she plays the piano in this, there's going to be trouble.

If people would only give as much thought to governing themselves as they do to the government of the nation, the welfare of all would be assured.

THE YEAR ENDING JUNE 30,

1904, marks the best all-round business year in the history of the United States. The exports of American manu-factures were larger than in any preceding year, and the exports of domestic products exceeded those of any other country. This, in a single sentence, is the record of the year's commerce_just announced by the Department of Commerce and Labor through the Bureau of Statistics.

The United Kingdom is, next to the United States, the world's largest exporter of domestic products, and, until within recent years, surpassed the United States in its total. During the past few years, however, the United States has rapidly gained upon and finally overtaken the United Kingdom in the race for supremacy as an exporter of domestic prod