PNEUMATIC TIRE.--It is hard upon bicyclists that the early summer
season, when everything should be most favorable for cycling, is just
the time chosen to mend the country roads.
Woe to the tires of the unwary cycler who comes suddenly upon such a
mended road! There was one the other day, a lady, coming home hot and
tired after a long run. She slackened her speed, gazed in despair at the
wicked little sharp-pointed stones which lined her path for many yards
to come, and finally, hot and tired as she was, she dismounted and
carried her bicycle to a spot where the road was again worn to a
comfortable smoothness.
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All cyclists meet with the same experience, and it has set the clever
heads among tire-makers thinking how the inconvenience can be remedied.
There are several new kinds of tires suggested, and one seems to be
quite a good idea. It is to be composed of a series of inflated balls,
with an outer rim to protect them from the stones, nails, etc., which
are the nightmare of the bicycle-rider. In this way, should an accident
happen to one ball, the others need not be in any way injured, and the
horror of a punctured tire would be greatly lessened.
SEWING-MACHINE THAT WILL CUT AND MAKE BUTTON-HOLES.--Here is an
invention that will delight the girls.
Our sewing-machines do so much of the work for us nowadays that one
quite resents the idea, after a garment is otherwise completed, of
sitting patiently down to make button-holes, just as our grandmothers
used to do, and their grandmothers before them. Some one has come to the
help of busy workers with a machine that has a double action. It not
only sews button-holes but cuts them. It is provided with an appliance
which stops the sewing while the hole is being cut, and again stops the
cutting movement to give place to the sewing.
[Illustration]
This ought to be a great and successful invention.
SILK MADE FROM WOOD-FIBRE.--A new process of making silk has just been
put on the market, and if it is as successful as is claimed for it,
silk may soon be as cheap as cotton.
The secret was discovered by a Frenchman, but it was no accidental
discovery--he only achieved his success after forty years of patient
study.
This Frenchman, Count Hilaire de Cordonnet, had watched and studied the
work of the silkworm, and had long thought that there ought to be some
simpler process of spinning silk than the tedious and complicated method
employed by the worms.
The Count had noticed the preference silkworms have for the leaves of
the mulberry and osage-orange trees, and, after experimenting with these
plants for some time, he decided that if he could reduce them to pulp
and treat them in certain ways, the result would be silk-fibre. But the
result was not altogether satisfactory. He found that something was
wanting to make his silk like that the silkworm produced.
He studied their work again, and found that they covered the fibre with
a kind of gum, which gave it gloss and strength.
After years of patient study he discovered the materials of which this
gum was composed, and then made another trial to see whether he had not
learned the secret at last.
By the aid of machines he tore the plants bit from bit, until they were
reduced to pulp, just as the insect reduced the leaves in the process of
eating and swallowing.
He then added the gum, and with the aid of more machinery spun out the
threads of fibre, imitating the methods of the insect as closely as
possible.
This time the experiment proved a great success. His fibre silk was as
strong, as glossy, and as brilliant as the silkworm silk, and had one
advantage over it, that when woven into breadths it did not crease so
readily.
NEW CAR.--Here is a new form of street car which is interesting.
The closed cars and the open cars have heretofore been made on different
patterns, and the companies have had to provide two kinds of cars, one
for summer and one for winter. This new car is built with movable sides,
which can be taken out with ease.
[Illustration]
The car companies should welcome this invention, for, if it is as simple
and practical as it seems, it will save them large sums of money.