MANY INVENTIONS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1566, 9 October 1912, Page 7

MANY INVENTIONS.

AMERICAN INGENUITY. Bespits the exceptionally low temperatures prevailing throughout the United States during the past summer, ti.e American Press has not failed to give its readers a good variety of the "liltht yarns" which aro considered by editors there to l>o about the only class of literature people are inclined to read with the thermometer touching the ninety mark (writes tho New York coricsnondent of the London "Daily Telegraph"). Inventions forai the best basis of niieli ilcms of "news," «nd now we ore told that Dr. Percy Hridiniian, of tlie> DepaKiiienl of Physics at. 11-irvard University, lias made the startling anuoumomeiit that, he bos succeeded in making "lint ice." According (o (clegrapliod reports from Boston, Mas.-achupetts. the doctor has manuf.iaJiiivd some of this remarkable eommodilv having a temperature of 17:1 degrees Fnhrenlicit. and lie is toiifiilont that he can make it: even holler. Hot ici , ' is ptfldliccd by putting;- water under extraordinary heavy pressure, and nl. th l . , same time resmlatinf; the temperature of the water. The apparatus used includes a hydr.tulic nre« and .1 very tliiak tube of steel to hold the water. There is nl«o n i provision by ine.ins of packed on the tube I for keeping the contents eonstantly at any dcMiwl ten)peratlire in studying Ibo forms of ic«. Wα arn told the doctor Jccnt the stnol bottle filled with woter nnd ice until he had obtained ft pressure of morn Ilian 20,000 atmospheres—i.e., over 300,0001b. to tho square inch—nnd n temperature of 17.1 degrees Fahrenheit. In appearance "hot" ico is similar to tho brand in general Another amusing storr" printed Jiprc in thnt a certain municipal official casually remarked 'lo n newspaper man that hn wanted a good rat-trap with which to rid Hie Town Hall of its rodents. A few days later, says the story, this official has a room filled with rat-irops of every description, sent from every point of tho United States. The rnt-trnps. it is said, embrace, ovory form of killing known to humanity. They kill by electricity, by guillotining, by drowning, by sneezing, nnd by suicide. The scheme of a Renins, who declares that he can force the rats to take their own lives, is to sprinkle lve or. the outside of the rat-holes. The raU gel the lye on their feel, nnd it. will bum sn much, he claims, that they will be glad to lick it off, and thereby poison thomselvM. ' Another Iran, it is asserted I>\- the inventor, catches the rat in a vicelike grip and automflticiill.T flings the animal with terrific force against ;i wall fifteen feel: away. The ritv official sflid he van sorry he mentioned rat-trans, as li« had «o much eml><irr/;R«ment of choice that ho could not. decide.