BUBBLING FOUNTAIN THAT A CUTS CHIN SANITARY fountain that is in reality "sanitary" was recently installed in the District Building, the home of the government of the District of Columbia. It is being experimented with by the governments of other municipalities. The fountain in question represents an improvement on the now popular "bubbling" kind, which did away with the aid of cups and glasses. The model which the District government has adopted is similar to the other "bubbling" kinds in several respects, but differs in an important point. Four sharp knife. blades are crossed horizontally over the fountain top. No mouth is big enough to go over them. Any attempt to bite the fountain nozzle results in a sharply cut or indented chin. The person drinking cannot get the mouth upon the fountain, but must drink from the bubbling-up stream. The disposition of small boys to bite the nozzle of the original bubbling fountain is curbed and broken by the new improvement. The superintendent of the District Building is the inventor of the fountain. THE EDGED BLADES OF THE BUBBLING FOUNTAIN. the extraordinary demand for all freight cars. Many a time box cars have been used for this purpose, but this year has been the first flat cars were called into requisition. On arrival at the winery, these grapes were forked on an elevator belt, which was brought directly to the side of the car. The grapes were conveyed directly to the crushers, and thence the crushed mass went to the fermenting vats by mechanical conveyance. The only time the grapes were touched by hand was when they were picked. The necessity for handling grapes by this method very significantly indicates what a great shortage of cars prevails in this country during the harvest season. P UT a battery of rapid-fire Gatling guns into a long, flat tub; fasten a short step-ladder, with wide steps, lengthwise, to the bottom of the tub; set the guns to roaring in chorus and turn the whole thing loose on the surface of the terrified ocean, over which it tears in a welter of spray, racket, gasoline and confusion-like a gigantic water-bug, gone crazy with the heat and trying to run away from the devil, with his satanic majesty just two feet behind and gaining with every jump! Thus one gains a faint, far-off idea of a modern hydroplane or racing motorboat in action. The faster a hydroplane goes the more it climbs the step-ladder and stands up above the surface of the water, until it jumps from wave to wave in a way which has given it the nick-name of the jackrabbit of the wave. This name becomes somewhat inappropriate, however, when -as not infrequently happens-the ton and a half of gasoline engine gets too far towards the front of the boat and the whole apparatus takes a sudden divehead-foremost-into the depths of the ocean; in which case the owner and the driver of the craft usually find other nick-names coming more quickly to their tongues! The idea of the hydroplane as a racing machine is that it shall go on the surface of the water, instead of through it; the faster it goes, the more of the boat sticks out above the sea, so that it has only the resistance of the air to overcome. So fast can these craft be driven that the Maple Leaf IV, the British-built, Canadianowned hydroplane, which won the international trophy at Huntington Bay, Long Island, last summer, covered the thirtymile course in a fraction less than 48 minutes, which is about a mile in a minute and a half. The Maple Leaf was built at Cowes, England. It is forty feet long, by nine feet in width, with five "steps" beneath its keel and five projecting planes on either side. The thin keel is of veneered mahogany. The power plant consists of two 380-horsepower engines, with twelve cylinders each. Disturber III, another racing hydroplane, owned by J. A. Pugh, of Chicago, is a second forty footer, with a total displacement of 8,500 pounds. Her two twelve-cylinder motors develop 275 horsepower each, when running 1,700 revolutions to the minute. Each motor weighs 1,600 pounds. The cost of one of these freak racing machines is enormous. Their utility consists only in enabling the owner to rush frantically over the surface of the water at a terrific rate of speed. Most of the builders and a few of the owners of these odd craft talk enthusiastically of a great future for the hydroplane. They say it is not a passing freak, but that in the coming seasons this water rabbit will possess greater size and power. Still, to what use, other than that of racing, can it be put? many have asked. But, on the other hand, it is pointed out, the remarkable performances of the hydroplane thus far illustrate the present extraordinary development of the gasoline engine, and give a hint of the possibilities of its future develop ment. The hydroplane seems to the uninitiated to have burst into life with all of the abruptness, if not altogether with the romanticism, of Venus rising from the waves. As a matter of fact it had a prosaic origin years ago. Among others, an English clergyman saw the advantages of a boat propelled by planes. No suitable engine with power enough, however, could be obtained, so the idea, as it was many times subsequently, had to be abandoned. Then, finally, with the demonstrated efficiency of the gasoline engine in automobile, flying-machine and motor boat, the idea of the hydroplane burst forth anew. UNSORTED FISH JUST DUMPED IN THE BIN FROM THE TRAWL. 66 NAVAL BATTLE WITH FRANCE "T By BERTRAND SHERBURNE HERE were twenty odd sail of French otter trawlers on Bank Quere. One of these One of these otter trawlers dragged through all our trawls and cut and carried away on his otter boards about two-thirds of our nets, so that we had to put in to Sidney to refit. The following day I went aboard the Frenchy and complained about the destruction of our nets. He said he could not avoid our trawls and had a perfect right to fish his way of fishing on the high seas, even though it did destroy other people's property. On the next day he dragged through the balance of our gear, within about seventy yards of our vessel, making a complete circle and I fired three rifle shots at him. One ball lodged in the woodwork on his bridge and then he went away and left us. But we had to put back in to Sidney and refit again, costing us $580 for new nets." The cool old Yankee skipper, who made that report of a bloodless naval battle with France before the Fisheries Committee of Congress, is one of many thousands of deep-sea fishermen, sailing out of New England ports, who are up in arms against the ravages of French and English fishing steamers, which, having exhausted and ruined the fishing in |