BETTER GRANITE PAVEMENTS

COLLECTOR FOR VALUABLE DUST

FAN effectively

AFAN

collects the filings and grindings in a shop where valuable metals are worked, and saves the portion usually lost in the cracks in the floor. The electric motor and controller operates the grinding wheel. At the left is a small motor - operated exhaust fan which draws the particles into a funnel-shaped opening, placed as near the work as possible. This discharges into a sack on the floor, The simplicity of this arrangement and the savings resulting from its use recommend it highly wherever precious or semi-precious metals are worked. Most jewelers do not need the arrangement because the saving would be too small, but manufacturers have found the investment paid beyond all expectations.

OLD AND NEW GRANITE

PAVEMENTS

SIDE by side in Market Street, Phila

delphia, are to be found two kinds of granite pavement, the one in big rough blocks and the other in split form. They were laid in this fashion for experimental purposes. It has been found that the big granite blocks wear very well but are hard on horses' feet and on automobile tires, besides being difficult to clean. Asphalt not being suitable for very heavy traffic, the split rocks of granite were declared to be the very best substitute that could be found. This material presents a smooth surface, can be washed off with a hose, and wears fully as well as the old-style stone blocks which were responsible for the greatest percentage of the noise in any district where they were laid. The city is discarding the big blocks.

SAVING VAL-
UABLE DUST

When precious

metals are

worked, the fan sucks the filings into the bag.

SWIM IN

BASEBALL PARK

WHEN the tide is

high at Ketchikan, Alaska, swimming races are held in the baseball park. The grounds are on the tide flats along the beach, and the tide is so high at certain times that the sandy ball grounds are covered to a sufficient depth for swimming.

CURLING IRON FOR TRAVELING

E ITHER direct or alternating cur

rent can be used to operate this electric curling iron, so that, in traveling, ladies can always use it no matter which current is available.

The attachment plug fits any lamp socket and the iron becomes sufficiently hot for use in thirty seconds after the

current is turned on. The heating element, the same in principle as that used in electric flatirons, is hermetically enclosed in the iron and, not being exposed to the air, will last indefinitely.

The iron cannot become overheated, so there is no danger of scorching the hair. The handle is of a nonconducting material and there is a button of this same material for opening the curler. The length of the iron is nine inches, and it weighs only fourteen ounces; it can, therefore, be conveniently carried in a handbag.

A

MERICAN horse breeders now have a golden opportunity for attaining the supremacy of the world in horse breeding, and in controlling the horse markets. That is the opinion of George M. Rommel, chief of animal husbandry of the Department of Agriculture. At the close of the great war which is now devastating Europe, the nations involved will find themselves badly in need of horses, as the number of animals being destroyed in the combat is enormous.

Reports from the warring nations are to the effect that the countries which have been foremost in improving the thoroughbred - England, France, and Austria-have commandeered most of the racers of the European turf. Dispatches state, however, that France has reserved from military use the best of the breeding animals, for it is appreciated that when the war terminates there will be need for desirable types of animals to build up the depleted stock.

According to a prominent horseman of Sheepshead Bay, the horses which are parading around the racetracks of our own country are mere ghosts of what we had five years ago, and there

is hardly a really good horse at this time on the American turf, whereas a dozen years ago there were scores. On the other hand, it is the contention of the horse specialists of the Government that there are just as good horses bred in this country as abroad, and that it is only because of the fact that they are imported stock that European animals. are given preference over our own, just as imported millinery may be preferred to the domestic.

Wise horse breeders will undoubtedly take quick advantage of the terrific destruction of horseflesh going on in Europe, and confidently build up a stock with which to supply the depletion of war. That war uses up horseflesh is shown by the records. of our Civil War, during the last year of which nearly one hundred and ninety thousand horses were purchased. General Sheridan's army, during his campaign in the Shenandoah Valley, used up horses at the rate of one hundred fifty a day.

Although the Census figures show about twenty-three million horses in the United States, only a few are suitable for army use; most of our horses are either light roadsters, which lack the strength and endurance required

Of late, under a small appropriation by Congress, a number of remount stations have been established through co-operation of the Department of Agriculture and the War Department, thereby encouraging the breeding of suitable army types. According to General Leonard Wood, the thoroughbred army horse is fast disappearing, and he has evinced a strong interest in the preservation of the riding horse for military purposes. The cavalry is a most important accessory of the land force in time of battle. Possibly no mechanical force can

purposes. August Belmont, chairman of the Jockey Club of New York, presented the stallions Footprint and Vestibule. Both were sired by Rock Sand, who won many prizes in England, including the Derby and the St. Leger, and who was purchased for the Belmont stables for one hundred fifty thousand dollars. Later Mr. Belmont presented Octagon and Henry of Navarre, both well known thoroughbreds.

Ten years ago the British in South Africa bought about one hundred thousand horses in the United States, and these have not been replaced except by the draft type. It is exceedingly

ing horse is not to be supplied in sufficient numbers from the breeding farms of the nation, it is hoped that these remount stations will be able to furnish the cavalry horses of the future. Long before Congress appropriated money for the establishment of the re

OF AMERICA'S BEST BLOOD: HENRY OF NAVARRE

He was presented to the army by August Belmont for use as a remount stallion.

doubtful whether so large a number of horses could be secured in the country today, according to Mr. Rommel. How, then, says he, could the United States mount an army? If with draft horses, or horses of draft breeding, how could it meet a hostile army prop

police horses.

erly mounted? Indeed, the corps of mounted police of large cities like New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia, who pride themselves on the excellence of their mounts, find no little difficulty in securing the few thousands of horses with which to meet the requirements of the mounted patrolman. The price paid by the New York mounted police is three hundred twenty dollars a head. The city of Philadelphia has made a price limit of one hundred eightyseven dollars a head for

However, anticipating the foreign demand for cavalry horses and assured of good prices, it is believed that breeders will quickly set about raising a stock of war horses, of which stock our own army will take first advantage.

T

HE daily issues of one of the great newspapers of the country are now being printed by way of experiment on paper manufactured by the Government from woods which, in the opinion of paper men, are not at all suitable for paper making. The great bulk of the paper used by American daily newspapers is made from spruce wood, ground into pulp and chemically treated, and the amount of forest land which must be cut over daily to supply the twentyfour thousand or more papers published in the United States is enormous. It re

quires an army of axmen to perform this single preliminary work which leads up to the purchase of the morning or evening paper on whose pages we read the world's news. No accurate estimate has been attempted of the number of acres annually cut over for all the newspapers, which range in size from the single sheet with a few hundred circulation to the great Sunday issues of sometimes more than a hundred pages, with circulations of half a million copies; but a daily newspaper of twenty pages with an average circulation of one hundred thousand copies