The Portland daily press., 1894-05-23

| scale. The same idea is varied by a combi-
nation of piano and violin, the strings of
the latter being fingered by the use of a pi-
ano-like keyboard. OF course, that is the
difficult playing, the handling of the bow
being simple enough. The bow is held in
the right hand, while the fingers of the left
hand, strike.the keys.
Within the last few years many musical
instruments that play themselves have
been invented. These ought to be God
send in non-musical households not to men
ton the saving of money for teaching and
OF distress to the nerves of those who are
not doing the practicing. For example,
there is the piano organ, which is operated
by strips of perforated paper like an Or
gulnette. 1t is either piano OF an organ,
OF both together, and it plays itself much
better than most people who understand
the piano could play it, because the mechan-
ical arrangement is made with a high de-
gree of musical skill. The performer SIM
ply works the bellows. But there is a con-
trivance with mechanical hands which may
be showed up in front of any piano and will
do the playing.
CONTRIv ANCEs FOR THE PIANO.
Another patented continuance for the pi-
ano furnishes the instrument with auxil-
larry strings, which sound in sympathy with
the ordinary strings though they are not
struck. They are tuned in harmony with
the primary strings and augment the vol
! ume of tone. There is a kind of piano that
holds note as long as the finger is kept on
the keys;the string is kept vibrating by an
electromagnetic. The Janko keyboard is al
ready becoming we'll known. Its arrange
ment enables the player to reach several
octaves with single hand, thus rendering
certain effects of execution possible which
could not be obtained Oh an ordinary key
board. There are several devices by which
the performer is enabled to improvise on
the piano and to have the improvisations
recorded with self-inking pens or other
wise. Afterward the record may be trans
lated into the common notation.
Music boxes nowadays are made in all
sorts of queer shapes. The glass water
bottle on the dinner table plays tune
while the guest fills his tumbler. The CT
gar holder becomes tuneful when a match
is struck upon it. Toilet sets have music
boxes concealed in them. Fruit plates, on
being placed upon the festive board, start
up with jigs and waltzes. Photograph al
buns become harmonious when opened.
Clocks, instead of striking, emit operatic
fragments every hour. Artificial singing
birds run by clockwork with bellows and
whistles, carol melodiously. One may buy
an imitation canary, robin or nightingale
in cage. Music boxes run all the way from
40 cents up to $1,000 for a complete orchestra
in box, with reeds, bells and rolling
drums. One sort will play any number of
operas, the music being fed to the machine
in the shape of a perforated strip.
QUEER THINGS FROM PAPER
Patents have been granted for making
innumerable queer things out of paper :
such as carpets, electric conduits, lead PEN
ellis, roofing material, car wheels. boats,
pals, collins, brushes and combs. Mattress
ses are manufactured out of paper pulp
anu ordinary sponge, springs being embedded
in the composition. A cloth paper for bank
notes has been invented, the notion being
to render such money less perishable and
more difficult to counterfeit. Paper is used
nowadays for architectural decorations in
terror and exterior. Cornices, panels and
friezes are nodded out of the pulp. Paper
collars, which used to be produced in such
enormous numbers, seem to have gone out
of fashion. Only the other day rural-look-
Ing pCISOA Will d SIApooSh elOOi WdAooIAuS
up and down Pennsylvania avenue for a
long time, walked into the Metropolitan
Hotel, and, addressing the clerk, re-
marked:
''This is hi of town! I have been to
fifty stores, and not one paper collar could
l get. What do you wear here-celluloid?'
One of the most successful of recent in
ventions is process for making artificial
81 fo,, Irir, Jyip
erages. Everybody knows that real straws
are apt to be defective; but the imita-
lions are always satisfactory and never
fail to draw. After they are rolled, they
are treated with paraffine, to render them
water-tight and non-absorbent. The same
patent covers mouthpieees for cigarettes,
which are manufactured in similar fash
ion.
Medals are made out of paper and colored
to.imitate silver or bronze. Cigar boxes are
manufactured from the same material fla
vored with cedar oil to give them the Gus
tomary smell. Hollow telegraph poles of
paper pulp are new invention. They are
coated with silicate of potash to preserve
them. The making of paper bags is an enor-
GUS industry in this country. -Four billions
of paper bags are used in the United States
every year. VI GnoSe Ino paper Dag IruSU
turns out sixty-five per cent. Not long ago
process was devised by which g. of an
inch of material could be saved in the cut
ting of each bag. On this account the trust
obtained complete new equipment of ma
chinery at an immense cost, but saving the
first year by that small economy of three
-eighths of an inch was $4,000. One ma
chine for making paper bags will cut and
finish 10000 bags day. The business of
manufacturing envelopes is even greater.
The envelopes are cut, printed, gummed
and folded by the same machine.
FOR MAKING PAPER.
Many strange materials are utilized for
making paper. One of these is peanut
shells. Tobacco stems are reduced to pulp
and made into paper that is stained with
tobacco juice. This paper is employed for
cigarette wrappers and for wrappers and
filters of cheap cigars.
One of the oldest inventions recorded at
the patent office Is a sort of gun intended
to be fixed upon the head of a steer that is
to be slaughtered. The stroke of hammer
on pin fires cartridge and discharges
bullet into the brain of the animal 1t is
almost noIseless and death is instantaneous
There are several ideas for death alarms,
to give notice in case a person comes to