Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 92.djvu/111

 Popular Science Monthly

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��The Miniature Farms and Vine- yards of France

ON the islands of Re and Oleron, near La Rochelle, France, are found the smallest farms in the world. Some of them are only one or two square yards in area, yet these tiny domains are carefully planted with a variety of crops, even including vine- yards. The soil is extremely fertile. The repeated subdivision of estates among heirs and the dense population of the islands explain the existence of these Lilliputian properties.

���Light Your Gas with Electricity — It Saves Waste

AN invention recently patented by L Frederick C. Gutenberger, of Sacra- mento, Calif., seeks to do away with the use of matches for lighting the gas in range burners. The de\'ice consists of an electric battery or other source of elec- tricity, one pole of which is connected with the top plate of the range. A wire connects the other pole with a coil to the other end of which is attached a wire of convenient length, ending in a pin. The wire going through the pin is in firm contact with a copper tip, somewhat smaller in diameter than the end of the pin into which it is screwed. When the gas is turned on and the burner touched for a moment with the copper tip of the pin, a spark will be formed by the closing and breaking of the electric circuit, and the gas will be ignit- ed at once.

The coil, enclosed in a protective box, is fastened to a small board, w^hich may be hung upon the wall near the range. A small hook screwed. into the board will accommo- date the lighting pin when it is not in use.

���The concrete box safeguards the tree and very much enhances the beauty of the street

Concrete Flower Boxes to Protect Exposed Tree Roots

WHEN Marengo Avenue in Pasadena was extended recently, the grading incidental to the paving, left a lot of fine old pepper trees with some of their roots "high and dry." In fact, the exposure of the roots was so great that the city forester feared that the trees might be killed or their health seriously impaired. Accordingly, to insure the safety of the trees, concrete boxes were built round the trunks and were then filled with rich earth. Plants with beautiful foliage were after- ward set in the boxes.

��To light gas with a match is slow com- pared with the swiftness of electricity

��Mr. Chinaman Must Have His 'Melican Cigarette

TEN years ago we exported four hundred million cig- arettes to China, which is an average of about one cig- arette a year for each Celestial. This year there has already been an average of ten cigarettes export- ed to each Chinaman, or, in round figures, four billion American cigarettes. Last year our exports in cigarettes alone reached the twelve million dollar mark.

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