Oil vs. Dust SEVERAL years ago the idea of oiling roadways, to lay the dust, was originated in California; but it took the energy and push of the Central States to put this method to all practical tests. Experiments were made with differ

Net Saves Scorchers

A WIRE net near Monte Carlo has

saved the lives of several reckless cyclists and autoists. A road down a steep hill abruptly leads across a chasm spanned by a narrow bridge. The net catches the scorchers at the turn as deftly as does that in a circus tent.

House Travels Far

RECENTLY a man moved into a

stone house in Massachusetts that he had occupied in Michigan three years before. Stone by stone the building was demolished, and rebuilt in precisely its original manner. A11 stones, except those in the body of the house, were numbered, and the corresponding arch pier lettered. To insure that no mistake should be made in reassembling the parts, photographs were taken before demolition. Thirty-five men were employed in the work, and 190 cars were required for the shipments. The total distance that the materials were hauled was 1,200 miles. The cost of the complete operation was $30,000. The new

outcome favored the use of a certain asphaltum oil, a crude product of the oil wells about Lexington, Kentucky. This accomplishes. the best results as a preventive of dust and mud and as a preservative of the highway, on macadam roads. Moreover, the cost is moderate.

Cincinnati was the first large city to adopt this new street improvement, and the roads of that city and vicinity are now in better condition than they have ever been before. The accompanying illustrations give some idea of the results accomplished. Unlike water sprinkling, the oil is applied only once each year, and it hardens the road instead of converting the dust into soft mud.-L. W. FAHNESTOCK.

RAISING CLOUDS OF DUST.

other photo taken after road was oiled.

H this dust! Where does it all come from?" sighs the tidy housekeeper. "I'm sure there will be no dust in heaven."

No doubt she is right. But there is no getting away from the dust while she remains on earth.

It might be supposed there would be some place for instance, amid the fresh white snows of St. Bernard Pass in Switzerland-where there would be absolutely no dust. But the men of science tell us otherwise. In fact the celebrated M. Jung collected snow at this very spot, 8,100 feet above the level of the sea; and when he had evaporated some fifteen liters of water produced by melting the snow, he found a very considerable quantity of dust; and this dust proved to be minute particles of iron!

Another scientist, M. Nordenskjold, in search of some place where dust would not be found contaminating the air, examined the greatest fall of snow in the memory of man (1871) at Stockholm, and likewise found a dust which proved to be metallic iron. Fearing that this might have come from neighboring roofs or chimneys, he had his brother examine the snow in a desolate plain surrounded by the forests of Finland. The black powder proved to be there also, and to be the same.

The fact is, the earth's atmosphere everywhere teems with dust. In the cities there is more than in the country; but not so much more as might be supposed. It has been estimated that the weight of dust suspended in the air above an ordinary city block is in the neighborhood of 33 pounds. At this rate the dust overhanging such cities as New York, Pittsburg, or Chicago would weigh several tons.

What keeps it up? The movement of the air. It is always falling. Some of it lodges, and some is again swept into the stream of moving currents. But new dust is found to take the place of that which finds a permanent resting place in old church towers, or the dustrag of the housekeeper. And it is the origin of this new and ever present dust that first interested and puzzled the men of science.

It has finally been concluded that part of the dust comes from the burning up of meteors. These fragments of other earth systems wander around in space until they happen to come within the orbit of our earth, when they set up a great friction with the air, and appear for an instant as shooting stars. The metals which they contain become fused; and then they drop to our earth, sometimes as good-sized stones, but more often as the fine dust which is found in "pure" snows, in hail, and in rain water.

Practically all atmosphere contains some iron dust. Other metals, such as cobalt, nickel, etc., are found, but iron is the most common and plentiful of the metals in atmospheric dust. Some salt is caught up in the evaporating waters of the sea; there are carbon, calcium, silica, and clay in ordinary dust. But the iron and cobalt and nickel are the only metals which are supposed to be of extra-terrestrial origin.

Ordinary city dust is made up of about three quarters cinders. The other quarter is organic matter. This means vegetable and animal, living and dead. For

unpleasant as is the thought-the dust contains its share of germs. Rains and snows reduce the quantity of dust in the air. In Paris it was found that an eight days' dry spell increased the quantity of dust in the air to three or four times the normal amount, which is from 6 to 8 milligrams to a cubic meter of air.

AN apparatus intended for automati

cally recording the sounds given off by a key-instrument has recently been invented by Laurence Kromar, of Vienna, Austria. Musical composers will be able to register their inprovisations merely by the playing of the instrument. The invention is analogous to the typewriter and shorthand writing machine, which both give a record of language as it is spoken, the main difference being the automatic working of the new apparatus.

The instrument comprises a system of rollers, between which a paper tape is carried, coming in contact with the types actuated by the keys and a special roller tracing the system of five lines used in note writing. Each key of the instrument corresponds with one of a system of 87 electro-magnets controlling the types referred to, and which work with extreme precision. The system of note writing used in the apparatus greatly resembles the ordinary method, except for some notes which have the same acoustical value which coincide in the new system. The record is thus easily read, and whenever desired readily transcribed to ordinary note writing.

In the place of the dots constituting the ordinary system of note writing, the "Kromarograph" (as the apparatus is called) traces single or double dashes corresponding to the black and white keys respectively, the length of which accurately represents the duration of the notes. All features of the musical performance are faithfully reproduced by the relative length of the note dashes,

addition with the aid of a set of dots produced at will by means of a special pedal controlled by the performer.

Apart from its use as a recorder of musical composition, the Kromarograph will prove useful for the purposes of musical instruction, reproducing, as it does, any features and defects of a given musical performance.-DR. A. GRADEN

FOR AUTOMATICALLY RECORDING MUSIC.

MINIATURE YACHT "ZULEIKA."

particularly the case when directions are being sent back from the man at the nozzle. A Canadian inventor has perfected a scheme by which signals may be sent back and forth by wire. Each section of hose contains an electric wire, the circuit being made by the couplings. A push-button is placed near the nozzle of the hose. A code of signals can thus very easily be put into operation.

Miniature Yacht

TWO

VO boys named Connolley, living at Beverly Farms, Massachusetts, are the proud owners of what is, doubtless, the smallest sailing yacht in the world. It is so small that either of the boys can pick it up and carry it under his arm after the mast has been taken out, for it is less than five feet in length and draws but a few inches of water. It will hold but one of the boys; and, after he gets aboard, he is obliged to remain in the same position, as there is not room enough for him to turn around; yet the Zuleika, as the tiny craft is named, makes cruises in the bay off Beverly Farms, of two and three miles in length, and in several races has actually beaten larger

boats sailing more closely to the windward. The secret of the boat's stability is its width in proportion to its length, for it is about two feet beam; but it is of such a peculiar model that the weight of the young yachtsman sinks it in the water but a short distance, and it carries a surprisingly large spread of canvas considering its. size. The accompanying photograph shows the Zuleika on one of its Voyages. It will be noticed that the young navigator is steering with a paddle; ordinarily, however, the boat is guided by a rudder.

Lightning's Withering

Breath

SEVERAL apples fastened to a branch

of a tree are shown in the accompanying cut. Apparently the smaller fruit are also apples, and, as a matter of fact, both grew on the same tree. The picture illustrates one of the freakish effects of lightning. The tree was struck by a bolt which ran down the trunk and out upon several branches projecting from the same side. Every one of these