The inventor of this little typewriter is Eugene McClean Long, son of the late Confederate general, Long, of Charlottesville, Virginia. The feature of this unique little word recorder is its simplicity. Its casing is of hard rubber, and its interior, of aluminum. The dimensions of the casing are four inches by three inches. In the casing are two little spools, that hold rolls of tape quite similar to the white paper in the ordinary ticker. By merely pressing four keys on one side of the casing and by the manipulation of a space key and a number indicator, anything that the human tongue utters can be put down in symbols. In designing this typewriter, the inventor first observed that an instrument must be constructed which would make a separate and distinct sign for each letter of the alphabet, and of such a mechanism that these signs would be produced with greater rapidity than the corresponding words can be written with the pencil. MAKING DIAMONDS BY ELECTRICITY The prospect of the manufacture of diamonds by scientific means is now considered so likely as to be predicted in a government report. T. G. Martin, an expert agent of the census office, has written a long and interesting report on the electrical industries of the United States, in which he makes mention of the attempt to make diamonds by artificial means. In this report Martin recalls the fact that Moissan, the French inventor, pushed the employment of the electric arc so far as to produce minute fragmentary diamonds in his furnaces. Moissan also noted the production of graphite from a diamond heated in the arc, and from the similar treatment of sugar charcoal purified by chlorine, and of purified wood charcoal. In fact, the investigations in this field tended to prove that diamonds are formed by the sudden cooling in mercury or lead, of molten iron saturated with carbon. With these experiments before them, the world's chemists are now cudgeling their brains to ascertain whether, in all our modern electrical furnaces, diamonds may be produced. CHEWING GUM AND ITS MANUFACTURE Cleveland is said to be the headquarters of gum chewing and chewing gum. Probably more gum is made in that city than in any other. Chicago, however, is headquarters for the chewing gum trust and has become a great distributing point. About half the annual product of the trust, The American Chicle Company, is handled in Chicago. The output of the chewing gum combination amounts annually to 8,400,000 boxes of 100 pieces each, which, at one cent a stick, costs the public over $8,000,000 a year for a total of about 4,000 tons of gum. This does not count the amount of white and spruce gum made by druggists and makers outside of the trust. The first gum maker of prominence in this country was named Curtis. He founded a spruce gum factory in Portland, Maine, in 1835, which is still doing business. It is said that the ancient Egyptians chewed gum in the time of the Pharaohs and Cleopatra. The gum sold today is made from a substance called chicle, which exudes from the zapote tree, a tropical fruit cultivated in Mexico and the Central American states. This fruit looks like a russet apple, tastes like custard, and when on ice, is like ice cream. The sap of the zapote tree is obtained by cutting a gash in the bark, and when it is boiled it assumes a heavy elastic quality not unlike rubber. Thomas Adams and his wife, of Brooklyn, on experimenting with it, learned that chicle would produce "rubber gum," and manufactured the celebrated "tutti frutti" gum, from which they made a fortune. Mr. Adams is now a director in the trust and was the first millionaire who made his money in chewing-gum. William J. White, of Cleveland, is the second millionaire of the chewing-gum product. Formerly he used to peddle his own gum about the streets. In 1887, he brought out a gum flavored with peppermint which was very popular. Another man who has made a fortune is Dr. Beeman, of Cleveland, who was formerly a druggist. One day his clerk, Miss Horton, suggested that pepsin be added to gum to aid in digestion. The idea caught well with the public and made the two rich, besides the man who promoted the business. Gum is made by boiling the chicle in a huge kettle of steam. First the raw chicle is shipped to this country very dirty and has to be cleaned. This is done by melting it down before it is sent to the gum factories. When the gum is being boiled, at a certain stage, sugar, cream paste and oil of wintergreen or other flavoring extracts, are added. A revolving paddle keeps the stuff stirred up and it continues to cook until the critical time comes for it to be removed from the fire. It needs a "gum eye" in the cook to tell when the chicle has boiled long enough. If it boils too long the gum is too brittle; while if it is not boiled long enough, it is sticky and soft. It is said there are only twenty-five persons in the world who can boil gum just right, and that the chewing-gum millionaires had this faculty, which tended greatly toward their success. After being cooled the chicle is kneaded like bread, only that the finest pulverized sugar is added instead of flour. When it is just thick enough the loaves are flattened out, cut up, and rolled through a machine. The sticks are then wrapped and are ready for market. The habit of chewing gum has become in recent years one of the most prevalent indulgences observable. It is safe to say that two-thirds of the boys and girls in attendance at the common schools chew gum continually. While it is not a commendable practice, it is not open, fortunately, to the objections that pertain to the chewing of tobacco, or the use of certain other articles that satisfy the taste, but leave their effects upon the system in the shape of nervous disorders and other ailments. If the juvenile element must chew anything, by all means let it have gum. TEA AND COFFEE CULTURE |
