Six thousand an hour is the speed of a new machine for sealing and stamping letters. A steering wheel instead of the familiar handle bars features a new type of bicycle. Switzerland uses a greater proportion of its available water power than any other country. A Spanish syndicate is considering building a railroad across northern Africa, 1,864 miles long. For motorists there has been invented a cloth-lined rubber pail that folds flat when not in use. Rubbing with unsalted butter, followed by bleaching in the sun, will cleanse ivory ornaments. Scientists have estimated that more than fifteen per cent of the earth’s crust is composed of aluminium. To prevent waste of tooth powder or paste is the purpose of a new cup to hold a small amount, into which a brush may be rubbed. Explosions of a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen gases drive the engines in a new French submarine boat. The newest foot rest for a bootblack’s stand is equipped with clamps to hold a patron’s shoe stationary. Lemon juice in water is an excellent tooth wash, as it not only removes tartar but sweetens the breath. Of French invention is a hammock that can be converted into a comfortable seat that holds a person erect. Self-propelled steam machinery for clearing land of stumps after lumbering operations has been invented. Peru is making its own Portland cement, which heretofore it has imported from Europe and the United States. A Missouri inventor’s comb is made of metal and mounted on a block that will retain heat a considerable time. For fumigating books in public libraries there has been invented an airtight case, in which they can be subjected to sulphur fumes. A new cabinet for raising bread dough is provided with the desired temperature by heating a stone and placing it in the bottom. A nonsinkable lifeboat of German invention is equipped with doors that automatically close upon its occupants should it upset. In Japan recently there was completed a railroad bridge nearly seven miles long, built of native materials at a cost of $375,000. Oil Tanker Rides a Sea of Flames. The tale of an oil tanker laden with benzine, which rode through a sea of fire and made the Azores by dead reckoning, was told by Captain Dekker, master of the Holland-American freighter _Zaandyk_, upon landing in New York. He got the story second hand at Horta, but he thought it was true and even more thrilling than the account related to him. He heard also that one of the tanker’s lifeboats, containing the chief officer and seven men, had been blown away and was never seen again. Any man who would take a cargo of benzine from the west coast of South America to London in the winter, and buck through the worst weather of the year, he thought, was capable of fighting his way through a sea of fire.