OCR Text |
Show ODDS AND ENDS. A cycling firm in Cologne has patented patent-ed a new bicycle bell, in which is concealed con-cealed a kind of revolver, which is to serve the double purpose of frightening frighten-ing away vicious dogs and cheeky tramps. By merely pressing a button attached to the side of the bell ten cartridges can be fired off in succession, these giving such a loud report that obnoxious persons and animals would not think twrice of beating a hasty retreat re-treat Machines for treating coffee, used in Brazil, are made in the United States, but require improvements in view of local conditions. Thus the coffee driers are very unsatisfactory, and the inventor of a thoroughly effective ef-fective drier would reap a fortune in Brazil. Driers as now made use too high a temperature, and the product is not uniform. It seems the solution of the problem would lie in the use of comparatively low temperatures and of an exhausting pump. A student of Spanish annals has added add-ed an interesting chapter to the history his-tory of prices by revealing from the archives of the Escnrial what it cost to discover the new world. The stipends sti-pends of the discoverers, at all events, did not amount to much. The pay of an able seaman was only, it seems, 10 francs a month, while a captain drew only SO francs, or about 3 guineas, a month. As for Christopher Columbus himself, his earn in ss were at the rate j of 1,600 francs, or !?.20, per annum. j Even in Spain salaries have risen . since those days. |