A Philadelphia University professor has invented a dust-proof, fire-resisting glass case for museum specimens.
Wireless apparatus that weighs but eight pounds, yet will transmit messages twenty-one miles and has received signals more than three hundred miles, has been invented by a New Jersey man.
A sand box for automobiles, like the familiar device on locomotives, to distribute sand under their tires to prevent skidding, has been patented by a Massachusetts inventor.
What is believed to be the largest conveyer belt in the world, 893 feet long by thirty-six inches wide, has been made for an Ohio stone quarry.
To keep the base lines of ball grounds dry when it rains, a Pennsylvanian has patented a canvas cover, easily rolled for removal.
Sue for Wages Earned Back in Slavery Days.
After more than a half century has passed since the freeing of the slaves, a suit was filed a few days ago in the supreme court of the District of Columbia to gain compensation for work performed by them during the years 1859 to 1868.
The suit was filed by H. N. Johnson, of Louisiana; Rebecca Bowers, of Texas; C. B. Williams, of Mississippi, and Mamie Thompson, of Tennessee, against William M. McAdoo in his official capacity as secretary of the treasury.
The plaintiffs claim to be descendants of slaves who worked in cotton fields of the Southern States, and they hold that they are entitled to money their ancestors earned and which is now in the treasury, listed under the title of “internal revenue tax on raw cotton.”
This money, the complaint says, amounts to $68,072,[Pg 59]388.99, acquired from the seizure of cotton gathered by plaintiffs’ ancestors. The plaintiffs contend it should be paid to the descendants of those by whose labor the cotton-yielding revenue was produced.