Kitabı oku: «The Great Round World and What Is Going On In It, Vol. 1, No. 48, October 7, 1897», sayfa 6

Various

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INVENTION AND DISCOVERY

Tennessee has the latest thing in bicycles.

It seems that the wheel craze is just as rampant there as it is in our own fair city of New York, but that the facilities for owning machines are not as great there as here.

To overcome this, a bright-minded individual has invented a new device, which is certainly the most ingenious we have yet heard of.

It is a "nickel-in-the-slot" bicycle, and probably works somewhat on the principle of the "quarter-in-the-slot" gas-meter, which for every twenty-five cents put in, releases just that coin's worth of gas to illuminate your house.

The bicycle, however, is arranged in such a manner that for every five-cent piece dropped in the slot it will run exactly five miles.

There is not the slightest fear of the rider forgetting to renew the nickel when he has ridden his five cents' worth; nor is there any chance of his cheating the wheel out of an extra mile—or half inch, for the matter of that.

When the end of the five miles is reached the honest wheel stops dead. Whether it throws its rider over its head or not is a matter of no moment to it. It stops then and there, and refuses to move another foot until it is re-fed with a fresh nickel. Then it will bound along again as peacefully as before.

The story does not say whether a device in the form of a small red flag shoots out from any portion of the wheel to give a warning when the next "lap's" rent is due. But without some such plan we should doubt whether this kind of wheel would ever become very popular; for while four miles and three quarters might be ridden with much peaceful enjoyment, the last quarter of a mile would be filled with terrors that would spoil the pleasure of the nicest ride ever attempted.

G.H.R.

LETTERS FROM OUR YOUNG FRIENDS

Dear Editor:

Where can the "pocket protector" and scissors-sharpening machine, mentioned in The Great Round World, be obtained. Mrs. M.F.
Northfield, Minn., Aug. 4th, 1897.

Dear Madam:

We are not able to tell you where the above articles are manufactured, but you could obtain them through the agency of any reliable, first-class hardware store. In all such stores they have illustrated catalogues of the various articles manufactured in their line of goods, and you should have no difficulty in finding both the pocket protector and the scissors sharpener.

Editor.

Dear Editor:

I have never written to you before, so you don't know my name. Papa is on the school committee, so you sent him a sample copy. I saw it, and was very much interested in it. I am extremely fond of reading and have read at least ten different histories. And with one exception I like your little book best of all. You can imagine how well I like to read when I tell you I am eleven years old, and have read over seven hundred prose books, and the books of ten different poets. I could read primary lessons when I was three years old.
Yours truly,
Eleanor J.L.

P.S.—I am going to earn money so I can subscribe.
Newburyport, Mass., Sept. 7th, 1897.

Dear Eleanor:

We are delighted to hear from you, and to have the indorsement of such a bright little critic as you must be after all that you have read.

Would you not like to have our premium list and learn the easiest way for you to become a subscriber?

Editor.

Dear Editor:

Your little magazine is of great interest to me, as I am sure it is to many others. I am especially interested in the accounts you give of the search for the North Pole. I do hope that soon somebody will succeed in reaching it, so as to tell us just what kind of a region it is.
I hope that the Cubans will soon gain their liberty for I think they surely deserve it.
Wishing The Great Round World great success, and a long life, I remain,
Your most devoted reader,
Alison H.