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Show 1 '. 'CiENE edge. Still another idea is presented In the illustration, which practically, answers the purpose of the wax seal, but is much more simple to manipulate, manipu-late, than the candle, stick of wax and seal. The picture . shows a' slight change in the shape of the flap, extending ex-tending it parallel with one edse of the envelope until it is long enough to fold clsar across the back and leave a short end -projecting beyond." This end is folded over on the face of the envelope, where j will be seen, it is I Portable Irrigator. Among recent inventions in- gardeners' garden-ers' implements is one worthy of special spe-cial notice, says a writer in the Scientific Sci-entific American. The. implement is a portable irrigator especially adapted adapt-ed for treating the roots of a plant with fertilizing liquid. ' The general shape of the irrigator is similar to that of a pitchfork, the tines and handle of which are hollow. A piston is 'adapted to be operated within the hollow handle, serving as a J just in the rigcj, ptsition to be seale-l by the' postagcv-n&rinp. 'The latter af-' lords still fur.v-er protection, as it will be extremely difficult to loosen the stamp and then detach' the gummed -edge of the flap from both the front and back of the envelope. Edgar C. Thumb of St. Johnsville.. N. Y., is the inventor. Sun Spots and Earth Temperature. , At a recent meeting of the French-Academy French-Academy of Science a paper was read' by M. Ch. "iordmann on the period of the solar spots and the variations of the mean annual temperature of the-earth. the-earth. His discussion is founded on observations obtained at a great number num-ber 6f stations during the years 1870-to 1870-to 1900, ard is, in fact, a continuation cf that of Koppen, which depended on: those from 1830 to 1870. As the lat ter had shown that no regular succes- . sion could be traced from observations outside the tropics, M. Nordmann has-made has-made use only of stations within the tropics, of which a much larger number num-ber are available than were for his-' predecessor. His conclusion is that the variations of mean terrestrial temperature tem-perature do undergo a period sensibly equal to that of the solar spots, and that increase in the frequency of spots corresponds to diminution of temperature tem-perature and vice versa. Koppen "found from the' long series of observations obser-vations that within the tropics the The Irrigator in Use. pump to draw the fertilizing liquid from a supply pipe entering at the top of the fork head and to force it out through the openings in the tines. In operation the tines are buried into the ground, with their lower ends in proximity to the roots to be treated. The liquid can then be forced out in a fine spray at the point where it will do the most good. Watted Power. In his recent presidential address before the American Electrochemical Society, Dr. Joseph W. Richards touched briefly upon the waste of power which is now going on at blast furnaces and coke ovens. About two-thirds two-thirds of the gases given off at a fur- maximum -of heat usually occurred about" a year before the sun spot minimum. mini-mum. The most striking correspondence correspon-dence is that while the interval from maximum to minimum of the spots is greater than that from minimum to-maximum, to-maximum, a similar inequality is man-; ifested- in the variations of tempera- ture. nace are used to raise steam for power and to heat the blast. For a furnace making 500 tons of iron per day this is, on -an average, about 2,500 horse power. If the gas used to develop this were used in a gas engine instead of . under boilers, and that which now goes to waste were saved, it is estimated that there would be an excess of 10,-000 10,-000 horse power, over and above the requirements of this furnace itself. The investment required to develop this power enmn - favorahlv -irffh I For Lawns. 1" 1 , tg water .Ver, j not . prohibitive, scattered over the aftnTi inany cases in every 'uin locations undeveloped pow-, pow-, aggregating over 1,000,000 horse ower, the use of which would not ause any drain on our natural resources. re-sources. This condition of affairs should not be allowed to continue, and, as the price of coal is always rising,' it deserves an increasing attention from those in search of sources of power. Sleepers on Trolley Lines. The International Sleeping Car company com-pany has given orders for building an A new invention is a pair of long-handled long-handled shears for use in trimming lawns. electric autocar, which, by August next, will be running upon the Belgian Bel-gian state railroad, between Brussels and Ostend. The distance of 78 miles will be covered, it is stated, in less than one hour. The car will carry car-ry forty passengers. It is stated that the Apple'yard Syndicate Syn-dicate will operate sleeping cars be tween Columbus and Cincinnati, O. The cars will be constructed so that they will have twenty seats and twenty berths, and will be more convenient con-venient than the sleepers on the steam roads. It is the Intention of the officials offi-cials to operate the through cars on a fast schedule. Light as Aluminum; Cheap as Brass. A' German Journal states that a new -metal has been discovered which will be put on the market under' the name of meteorite. It is-a compound of aluminum, is just as light in weight as aluminum itself and proof against chemical influences. At the same time it is extremely pliable, so that it can be used for pipes, wiring, horseshoes ' and in all cases where brass is now ued. Its weight, is one-third of that of brass and its price the same, Convenient Safety Envelope. As is well known, it is a comparatively compara-tively easy matter to open the flap of the ordinary envelope, for reading or Wonders of Invention. ' Glass models of mines are now made showing, all the workings.. Street railway crossings which are almost noiseless are now made by the use of blocks of wood placed on end. The largest oil ship in the world! the Naragansett, has just been launched In the Clyde. It will hold 10,000 tons of oil, which can be dis- ' charged at the rate of 900 tons an hour. g The government of -Japan now lim- is the number. of emigrants to Hawaii Ha-waii to 226 per steamer, of which the number of men must not exceed 150, the rest being women. - This Is to encourage en-courage the emigration of the married. mar-ried. ' - That automobile racing will be pei manehtly prohibited in France is unlikely. un-likely. Automobile building now en-' gages more than 20,000 skilled workmen work-men in France, and the races give world-wide advertising to French ma chines. Within seven years Germany has laid 7,373 miles of ocean cable at a' cost of $7,000,000. The important ones are: Emden to New York, via the Azores, 4,813 miles; Shanghai to Tsin-tau Tsin-tau and Chefoo, 723 miles; and Germany Ger-many to England, 280 miles. Stamp Seals the End of the-Flsp. appropriating the contents, afterward sealing the letter again so that it is difficult to perceive that it has been tampered with until it reaches its destination and has been examined by the person to whom it was addressed. ad-dressed. Several inventors have produced pro-duced devices designed to prevent thi state of affairs, either by combining a sheet of tissue with the flap, or by adding coloring matter to the gummed |