In the last twenty years the per-capita consumption of paper in the United States has increased about six-fold. Aluminium can be rolled into sheets one-two-thousandth of an inch in thickness that are as strong as tinfoil. Charcoal made of peat and formed into briquettes has been used successfully for melting iron ore in England. A new sanitary holder for tumblers is made of spring wire, so shaped as to touch the glass as little as possible. To enable a man to walk on an inclined roof, spiked frames, to be strapped under the shoes, have been patented. Experts from the United States Department of Agriculture are making an extensive study of the coconut industry in the Philippines. To enable visitors to get a closer view of the whirlpool of Niagara Falls, a passenger-carrying cableway will be built across the river. California possesses more than one-twelfth of the hydroelectric power development of the United States, about 450,000 horse power. A violet-rays water-sterilizing apparatus invented in France automatically opens a valve and diverts the water into a drain if the rays should stop. Experiments are under way with glass for spectacles intended to filter out the injurious rays of artificial light, leaving the effect of sunlight. A new deepest hole in the earth is a well that has been bored in Silesia to a depth of 7,348 feet, 6,848 feet of which has been lined with iron tubing. A New South Wales irrigation dam, which will cost $3,680,000, will impound 33,380,000,000 cubic feet of water, backed up in a lake forty miles long. By authority of the Brazilian government, the railways of that country and Paraguay will be connected, providing another transcontinental line for South America. For finding leaks in motor-cycle tires there has been invented a box to fit over them in compartments of which is cotton that is moved by the escaping air as it passes over a hole. Raise Your Own Food. Sufficient vegetables can be raised on a quarter-acre lot to supply a family of six persons for an entire year if close attention is given to the rotation and succession of crops, says the Federal Department of Agriculture. The same lot will accommodate such permanent crops as asparagus, rhubarb, and small fruits and berries, if care is taken in arranging the garden. It will provide fresh vegetables for the summer and enough for canning for use in the winter. A smaller area, such as is found in the average city back yard, will accommodate several of the smaller crops, such as lettuce, peas, parsley, radishes, beets, and onions, all of which are in constant demand by the average housewife. Pigeons Overrule Solomon. According to an order of Judge Beall, in special sessions court, of Yonkers, N. Y., a flock of pigeons was permitted to determine ownership. The birds were in the cote of William Warholy, who asserted they belonged to him. John Yosko was also a claimant, charging the pigeons had been stolen from his cote.