The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1892-01-23

4sOE olmRlo 0uu eu1uy VkS@0pvtOoos
Thu metric systen e - much more
convenlents saves 20 much TIME and
has now become so R6nifally} adopted
throughout the word That Tho United
States ought no longer refuSo 10 fall
into line. A very little pressure would
suf1ce- TO bfin7 about the change. 1T
would do the business, probably, u
Congress. were simply to pass . law re.
quiring that estimates, contracts and
bills specifying weights or measures,
when not made out metrically, must
bear o revenue stamp OF one dime.
Rather than pay o small tax, every.
body would at once use the decimal
system. and the change would DO az
smooth as the system itself. -Scien'
tiic American. 1s .g
+, Automatic Delivery Of Letters. 4
An invention which is exciting q
good deal of interest on the Continent,
where the fat system OF residence is
so much in vogue, is an automatic
electric letter and parcel deliverer,
produced by resident. OF Geneva.
As its name implies, the apparatus is
designed to distribute automatically
on each floor, and to all the tenants
of a house, the letters or parcels which
may be addressed to them. A large
box situated on the ground floor con-
floors or tenants in the house. When
q letter or other object is introduced
into one OF these openings the box
rises and, in passing, distributes in
each of the addresses the articles in
tended for them, each tenant being in
turn advised OF the arrival of the
article by the ringing Of an electric bell.
The working of the apparatus 10 ex-
tremely simple, as the following few
details will show, and its cost is in
significant. The object introduced in
to the box on the ground floor effects.
ut the top OF the house, an electric
contact, which opens the valve OF q
water tank. The water fills cylinder,
which serves as counterpoise, and
raises the letter-box, which, while in
the act OF passing each private box,
opens itself by an ingenious yet simple
mechanical arrangement, and depos-
its the respective contents therein.
When the box carrier has arrived at
the top floor the cylinder empties it.
self. and the box descends to its place
and is ready for another trip.
Photos Sent by Wire.
The transmission OF pictures by
electricity is one of the latest applica-
tions OF the subtle but extremely USE
full fluid, and the principle OF this new
discovery is somewhat similar to that
on which the telephone is based, use
being made OF varying degrees of light,
instead OF sound, as in the tele-
phone. In order to send a picture
over wire it is first photographed
on what photographers call a
stripping film, composed OF gelatine
and bichromate of potash. After the
picture is transferred to this finn the
film is washed with lukewarm water,
by which all but the lines of the pict-
ure are removed. leaving the photo
graph in relief.
The point of tracing apparatus,
when drawn across this film from side
to side, rises and falls as it strikes
each line OF the picture. This wave
like motion of the tracer is made use
Of to produce similar motion in
tracing apparatus at the
other end Of the line by means OF
electrical mechanism,
and each depression and elevation in
the picture is reproduced in a waxen
cylinder on the receiving instrument.
To accomplish this it is necessary to
90 entirely over the picture that is
being transmitted, tracing lines across
the surface. A single line conveys no
dea OF the picture, but a. they follow
zach other they gradually outline the
'bject.-From Electricity.
An Electric Fog Consumer.
cat midnight last noticed flashes
If lightning illuminating my bedroom.
4 camera wasloaded and an excursion
nto the country taken, hoping to
obtain q few new photographs OF
loves handivork.
1.-THE night was very fogqy, and the
iashes of light livery frequent and
,ivid) gave only blurred images of
,rees in the foreground.
"At 1:30 in the morning, as I was
about despairing OF obtaining photo
,raphs, a sudden streak OF lightning
hot right through the fog, followed by
! heavy peal of thunder, and in less
han thirty seconds the fog had en-
,irely disappeared, being precipitated
by the electricity in the atmosphere.
"In these rain producing days per-
,aps some inventive genius will take q
hint from this occurrence for the dis
Iipation oil. "a fog on . large scale by
large powder-driven Holtz
on shipboard and sending q
stream OF electricity into the fog-lad-
IN air from various points along the
.iRging, thus producing clear area in
;he neighborhood OF the vessel. And
Who knows, perhaps, by the extension
of the system, some day we may see Q
ogless London, "-Engineering.
eHE Rain Making q Failure.
The latest contribution to the rain
making controversy comes from Pro-
essor Curtis, meteorolosist in charge