INVENTION AND DISCOVERY.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXVII, Issue 5372, 3 September 1904, Page 11

INVENTION AND DISCOVERY.

The most recent claim made for apples is that they improve the disposition and make you good tempered. Further advantages claimed for them are that they not only drive away all disagreeable feelings, but they euro the drink and tobacco habit. . Those acquainted with life on a farm know how savagely cocks will fight and pick at one another’s, eyes. Tho latest idea for the prevention of this mutilation is to fit tho birds with mica goggles; they are made so as to fasten with a spring on the heads of the cocks and remain firmly in position. During the summer many people will try the webbed indiarubber swimming glove, invented by a German. Instead of keeping the fiugers closed when giving the stroke away from the head, the swimmer will spread them out. anil t lie intervening web will aid him in making a more powerful stroke. Mica roofing, for houses, sheds, and all kinds of outbuildings, is the newest thing in the building line. It is a light roofing, and is much cheaper, for'the reason that it does not require the heavy framework to support it and that it can be easily laid. It is sold in rolls or squares, and is being placed on tho market by a Canadian firm. One of tho latest and most curious forms of taxation is now in operation in a small Swedish municipality', and has been recommended to onr own Chancellor of tho Execheauer; this is to tax citizens whose weight exceeds ten stone. There is a graduated scale. It is contended that excess flesh is due to indulgence, and luxuries are always singled out for taxation.

The Electrograph is an instrument which will receive a telephone message and write it down on a record to he used in the phonograph. This will get rid of all danger of misunderstandings, and. if your telephone clerk is busy, the electrograph will take the message for him. There is no mistake with this instrument, and, when you return to your office, you can reel off all the messages thfit ax-rived while your office was closed. _ ■ Silk and brine aro now being made by the military authorities in various countries from smokeless gunpowder. Smokeless powder is a nitro-collulose compound, and its basis is gun-cotton; it can be made glutinous, so as to bo squeezed through fine holes in a metal plate, producing threads after the manner of artificial silk. These gnn-powder threads are woven into silk for holding the powder when placed in the gnn, and also into twine for fastening the necks of the bags; when the charge is fired nothing remains of the bag. A novel idea for bird cages has just been devised. Tho sand with which the bottom of the cage is usually strewn is spread on a tough kind of paper; this paper is part of a continuous roll held under the cage by means of two sup-pox-ts or legs employed when the cage rests on the,table. The paper is wound over the inner surface of the bottom of the cage, and the sand is sprinkled over it as it rolls. When it is desired to clean the bii'd’s dwelling, the paper is rolled out and the used strip torn off, leaving a new strip, freshly sanded, ready for. dicky to disport himself upon. The arrangement makes no difference to the handiness of the cage in other respects; it can be hung up on a chain suspended from the ceiling or placed on the table at will. An American'inventor, who has suffered from the common trouble of having his umbrella misappropriated, has devised a lock which fits round the handle and covers the v catch which you push down in opening. This lock can be easily operated by the owner, who knows the combination, and the proper arrangement otf tlie discs forming this combination can be judged by tho number of clicks. Any stranger taking the umbrella would hare to break it in order to open it. • Invalids and others who make use of. the hot-water bag, or rubber bottle, can now have a hot wire bottle, provided that their dwelling is fitted with electric light. The bottle, instead of being filled with hot watex-, contains a network of fine wires connected in the usual way to the electric supply. This electric heating has the advantage of keeping the bottle always at the same temperature. The stone bottle, tho stopper of which is sometimes apt to work loose, is also superseded by this new device.