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Show acters pass in front of a small slot In , the face of the cabinet, and the actuating actu-ating mechanism is geared down to a point which makes the characters i pass the slot slow enough to be easily caught by the eye, even when the sheet of names is traveling at its 1 highest rate of speed. When the proper character is reached the corresponding cor-responding section of the sheet is presented pre-sented behind the glass face of the cabinet. Provision is also made for the insertion of periodical sheets of. -corrections and changes of address, and the machine may be so arranged , as to permit the free use of the pages or as a penny-in-the-slot information, WOKK OF SCIENTISTS INVENTIONS AND DISCOVERIES OF PRACTICAL VALUE. Steam Joint Clamp That Will Prevent Leakage "Safety" Fire Crackers New Mechanical Directory an Ingenious In-genious Device Moonlight Aurora. A Moonlight Aurora. A correspondent of the London Graphic Gra-phic write! as follows from Winchester, Winches-ter, Eng.: Notwithstanding a bright gibbous moon in a cloudless sky, a well marked aurora occurred this (Wednesday) evening from 9 to near 10 o'clock. The most and brightest of the beams were to the east. They did not scintillate, but merely slowly "paled their ineffectual fire" and brightened up again. One beam in particular extended through Cassiopea delta and gamma and moved eastward; east-ward; it was almost met by a thin, bright line from the south through Canis Minor, hence close to the moonlight, moon-light, yet it scintillated distinctly, but soon disappeared. The air was mild and the wind southeast, yet the stars glittered brilliantly as they would in frost. A Steam Joint Clamp. Leakage of steam around joints in pipes is often a serious waste. The device shown herewith is Intended to serve a double purpose; first, to rtop this waste, and, second, to enable the operator to apply it while the plant is running without stopping for repairs. The device is in three part3, having a, general outward resemblance to each other. Each is a split clamp, which can be put around the pipe and then bolted on in place. The first Is a plain clamp, which butts up against she shoulder of the pipe elbow, at Revolving Sheet Replaces Book. bureau. This mechanism might with advantage be applied to dictionaries and other works of reference. A "Safety" Firecracker. The average small boy generally wants to investigate the cause of the non-explosion of a firecracker altogether alto-gether too soon, with the result that he has a blackened face and perhaps a blinded eye to show for his curl-osity. curl-osity. Antonio Delgrande of Peters- - -. burg, Va., has designed the firecracker shown in the drawing with the intention inten-tion of eliminating the danger of accident ac-cident from this cause. To accomplish accom-plish this result the cracker is mada with a preliminary alarm arrangement which, while not sufficient to injure the face or hands, explodes with enough force to frighten the child and cause it to jump back in time to escape es-cape the effect of the main explosion. As will be seen by a glance at the picture the fuse is similar to that hitherto employed for discharging the cracker, but instead of passing directly direct-ly through the packing wad into the main charge of the explosive it enters j a primary division of the tube, con- 'r taining a small charge of powder or illuminating compound. After pass- j ing through this compartment the ! fuse extends to the main explosive j charge. ! In one form of the safety cracker ! the preliminary signal takes the form 1 of red, blue or green fire, this being I especially designed for night use, j i A Sleam Joint Clamp tfoywri in the cut. It is bored a little larger than the pipe, and contains a soft, pliable metal ring inside, next the pipe. The next ring ha3 an offset, off-set, just the depth of this soft metal ring and butting against it; also a female fe-male thread which engages with another an-other thread on the outside of the third clamp. All are clamped in place. The third clamp is pressed up against the other two and held firm by set screws. Then a spannar, shown in the lower part of he cut, is used to screw up the middle clamp against the first one, setting the soft lead down hard into the leak nnd closing clos-ing it. The pipe is then, to all intents in-tents and purposes, as "good as now." New Mechanical Directory. The inventor who originated the mechanical directory, which is here shown, contemplates one of the most complete and convenient arrangements arrange-ments for finding a name that can be imagined, as the simple turning of a crank In either direction rapidly exposes ex-poses page after page of names on an endless sheet of paper. The speed which it is possible to attain in the movement of the sheet permits an entire revolution in a few moments. Thus, no matter what the position of the directory, a turn of the crank will in a short time present any other part, In much less time than is required re-quired to turn the pages of a book. The chief feature of this idea, however, how-ever, lies In the index arrangement, as, were it not for this index. It would be necessary to slow down the revolution of the sheet to scan the names from time to time, in order to locate the desired words. This index Is a narrow printed strip, whose char- f ' CIVES WARNING BEFORE THE EXriSION, when the color of the preliminary display dis-play adds not a little to the amusement amuse-ment of the child. |