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Show I Scientific Notes of 1,000,000,000 suns. Youth's Companion. Com-panion. Rapid Envelope Opener. e The ordinary envelope opener must be inserted under the edge of the flap with great care, lest the contents ol the envelope be damaged in ripping ths flap, and if a man is in a hurry he generally gen-erally tears the letter open with his hand instead of bothering with the In Southern California an iDgenious Inventor has constructed a huge combination com-bination of lenses and reflectors whereby where-by the heat of the sun is made to run machinery, pump water and do other hard labor. In various parts of the world inventors have built machines to utilize the wave motions of the ocean. The next thing, you will be saying, someone will have harnessed cyclones and made them do man's work. That very thing has already been done. At least, so an Inventor claims. According Accord-ing to this man, Prof. B. B. Britts, his machine is far superior to any other means of using natural forces. The secret of tho construction of his contrivance con-trivance Is carefully guarded, but, as soon as the patents are thoroughly established, es-tablished, he promises to give a public pub-lic exhibition with the first stiff breeze that comes along. One of the most remarkable re-markable claims nf the invenlor is that his apparatus is applicable to locomotives, and that It will displace eletricity and compressed air in propelling pro-pelling street cars. All sorts of loco-motiororTiavigation loco-motiororTiavigation are possible, says Prof. Britts, and he promises to make steam power a thing of the past. Boot and Shoe Drier. When the farmer or laboring man oomes in from a day's work in the wet he wants a safe and convenient place to dry out the boots which he must pufr on again in the morning. Sometimes Some-times he uses the stove shelf or the oven, but the housewife is apt to complain com-plain or the boots may accidentally cutter. Perhaps the ingenious devics here pictured will recommend itself to the busy man as a handy complement to his desk outfit. The inventor is Harry H. Bowerman of Loreley, Md., and he claims that his arrangement will clip the end of an envelope Instantly In-stantly without danger to the contents. As will be seen by a glance at the cut, a rotary cutting blade is pivoted underneath under-neath the V-shaped ough which carries car-ries tho envelope. Ail that is necessary neces-sary to put the cutter In operation is to strike the envelope a smart blow to Hi I r. II in it t slide the contents to one side, insert the oppposite end in the trough and press the wire bale attached to the two gear wheels. As these wheels are geared to the small wheels at either end of the revolving cutter the latter Is rotated by the depression of the bale, causing the s-piral blade to clip the edge from the envelope projecting through the slot in the trough. A spring raises the bale as soon as the finger is lifted, and the cutter is then ready for the next envelope. A Handy Plow-Scraper. A combination snow plow and road scraper may be largely constructed from material to be found on nearly every farm, the services of the blacksmith black-smith being needed only to place the strips of sheet iron over the points of the runners. Fig. 1 in the cut shows the skeleton of the combination tool; Fig. 2, how the point is ironed after the two pieces are joined; Fig. 3, the formation for-mation of the cross braces, and Fig. 4, the tuol complete. Little explanation is needed of the illustration, but cars should be used that the material selected select-ed is tough, yet light, that the tool will not be cumbersome to handle. If desired, de-sired, the runners or shoe3 may ba scorcii. In the picture Is to be seen an apparatus designed especially for this work which may be put up in any convenient place and can be left in operation all night, if desired, thus providing warm boots to put on in the morning. The drier consists of an inverted pau, with two tubes projecting project-ing vertically from the upper side, and provided with projecting fingers to hold tho boot high enough to prevent shutting oft the current of air circulated circu-lated from the flame below. It will be noticed that arrangement is made for adjusting the drier at different heights from the lamp and with the aid of this and the variation of the flame the apparatus ap-paratus can be fixed to maintain a small amount of heat throughout the night. The inventor is Henry C. Mansfield Mans-field of Cbico, Cal. A Thonsand Million Snn. At the Glasgow meeting of the British Brit-ish Association Lord Kelvin interested a large audience with his calculations of the probable total amount of gravitational grav-itational matter in the visible universe. uni-verse. He showed that if, 25,000,000 years ago, 1,000,000,000 masses, each equal to our sun, had been distributed through a sphere about IS. 000,000, 000,-000,000 000,-000,000 miles In radius, they would now have acquired velocities about equal to those known to be possessed by the stars visible to us. Therefore It is probable that the total amount of gravitational grav-itational maUcr in the visible universe uni-verse does net differ much from that ironed to add to the durability of the tool. Kiplorers In Good Health. The British Antarctic exploration ship, Discovery, arrived at Littleton, New Zealand, November 29. All on board were well and in good spirits. The pack ice was encountered in latitude lati-tude 63.5 and longitude 14.1 east, but pressure of time prevented a thorough investigation of the ice. Interesting collections had been made, however, during the voyage. |