Popular Science Monthly
��679
��Fuel From Waste Paper — A War- Time Economy
A GROUP of Long Island women have devised a means of cutting down their coal bills by using waste paper for fuel. The waste paper — old newspapers, wrapping paper and card-board which may accumulate about a house is torn into small pieces and put into a watertight receptacle. Boiling water is poured over it and it is set aside until the mass becomes soft. If it is put to soak in the evening it will be ready to handle the following morning. The mass is then formed into balls about four inches in diameter. The balls may be dried in the sun or in the oven. As soon as they are thoroughly dry they are ready to use.
These paper briquets are said to be a very satis- factory substitute for coal. At any rate, they are capable of augmenting the regular coal supply to an appreciable extent. They catch quickly and burn more slowly than might be expected.
����A Fountain Ink-Eradicator. It Works Like a Pen
EVERYBODY carries a fountain pen. Why not fountain ink-eradicator also ? That is the underlying idea of an invention patented by Robert G. Mason, of Brooklyn, New York. Two thin tubes holding eradicating solutions, fit in the rubber holder. To make an erasure, the cap on the lower end of the holder must be removed. Then the feeding valves in both tubes are released allowing drops of the solutions (chloride of lime and citric acid, each in its own tube) to moisten the spot and wipe out the ink.
��When the solder is melted, the lifter is inserted in the puncture in the cap of the can, and ring and cap are lifted off together. At left is the hot ring for melting the solder
A New Can -Opener Which Does Not Destroy the Can
THE high cost of cans for preserving fruits and vegetables can be materially reduced by the use of a simple device which unseals the cans so that they can be used again and again.
You first melt the solder around
the cap on the can with the heated
ring as shown in the small circular
photograph above. Before
Non-corroding applying the hot ring, you
��Cork
��^US?
����spring
��Liquid- container
��Valve stem
��The two tubes for the ink-eradicating solutions fit thin holder which is about the size of a fountain-
��into the pen case
��must puncture the cap; for, unless a hole is made in the cap, the atmospheric pres- sure of fifteen pounds to the square inch would hold the cap to the can as if by suc- tion. When the solder is melted, the pick, or lifter, (shown held in the right hand above) is inserted in the puncture made in the cap, and the ring and cap are lifted off together.
The cans should be scalded and well washed with soda.
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