Ink Bottle.—1. Mineralogists apply the term “pyrites” to a large group or family of minerals, compounds of metals with sulphur, or with arsenic, or with both. The name was originally given to the sulphuret of iron, known as iron pyrites, in consequence of its striking fire with steel (from the Greek pyr, fire), and it was used for kindling powder in the pans of muskets before gun-flints were introduced. Iron pyrites is commonly of a bright brass-yellow color, and is found crystallized in cubes, dodecahedrons and many other forms. It is a very widely diffused and plentiful mineral, and seems to belong almost equally to all geological formations. 2. Eagle cents issued in 1858 are of no value to collectors, because they lack rarity. 3. Your exchange is too trivial.
J. B. D., of Chicago, kindly informs us that he has been able to get a slight shock from a telegraph battery in the following manner: “On every learner’s instrument there are two binding-posts, and to one of them is joined a wire from the battery; a small file is fastened to the other; the key is closed,
and then the other wire of the battery is taken in your wet fingers, and, with the other hand, also wet, upon the file, the wire is run along the surface of the file, and a shock results.”
Walter R.—What is known as the registry system is intended to secure to valuable mail-matter in its transition through the mails the utmost security within the province of the Post Office Department. The fee on any registered matter, domestic or foreign, is fixed at ten cents on each parcel or letter, to be affixed in stamps, in addition to the postage. The money-order system is intended to promote public convenience, and to secure safety in the transfer through the mails of small sums of money. The rates may be ascertained by inquiring at a local office.
An Admirer of G. D.—1. Two French scientists, Captain Renard and M. Tissaudier, have invented a balloon whose motive power is electricity. The dynamo machine used by them is an intensely concentrated bichromate battery of one and a half horse-power. It is very light, weighing but 121¼ pounds. Several successful experimental trips have been made in this machine, and the inventors claim that by using all the battery power, they were enabled to navigate against the wind. They may be over-sanguine, but expect, after making some improvements in the balloon, to attain a speed of from fifteen to twenty miles an hour. 2. Constant base-ball practice will harden the hands. No artificial preparation is used by professionals.
Parxie.—John Howard, an Englishman, made on May 8, 1854, the greatest running long-jump, with weights, 29 feet 7 inches; without weights, the highest record is 23 feet 3 inches, made by M. W. Ford, August 14, 1886. Standing long-jump with weights, 14 feet 5½ inches, G. W. Hamilton, October 3, 1879; without weights, 10 feet 10½ inches, M. H. Johnson, September 4, 1884. Running hop-step-and-jump. 48 feet 8 inches, T. Burrows, October 18, 1884; standing hop-step-and-jump, with weights, 40 feet 2 inches, D. Anderson, July 24, 1865; without weights, 31 feet 10 inches, Gavin Tait, 1862. These are world’s records. The best one-mile amateur bicycle record—2.35 2-5—was made by W. A. Rowe, October 23, 1885. He has beaten this record—2.29 4-5—since he became a professional.
H. C. H.—In early days the coining of copper money for New Jersey was given by law to Walker Mould, Thomas Goodsby and Albion Cox. There were two mints, one at Elizabethtown and the other at Morristown. These coins display on their obverse a horse’s head, usually facing right, with a plow below it, and the legend is “Nova Cæsarea.” The date is placed in several positions. On the reverse is a shield, with the motto “E Pluribus Unum” around the border. In ordinary condition, these coppers are worth from ten to fifty cents. The rarest varieties are those having the date under the beam, which are worth $100 each: with the General Washington bust, $150 each; and with “Immunis Columbia, 1786” for obverse, $50. Doubtless the one in your possession is a common variety.
Grape City.—1. The modern express traffic was originated by William F. Harnden, on March 4, 1839. At first he carried the packages himself from place to place in a satchel; but his patrons grew in number until he had to establish an office in each city, with a daily messenger each day. Previous to this, all such packages had been sent by friends, or by special messengers. 2. The precise time of the invention of the telescope, as well as the name of its inventor, is unknown. Prior to the end of the thirteenth century, glass lenses were in use for the purpose of assisting the eye in obtaining distinctness of vision. Galileo is generally credited with being the first who constructed a telescope by which he was enabled to make many of the great discoveries upon which the science of astronomy stands for its foundation. 3. By good business methods you can doubtless build up a trade such as that stated. 4. Inquire at a book store.
Kickapoo.—1. At the beginning of the eleventh century it is said that the Northmen attempted to plant a settlement in the locality known as Rhode Island. In 1614, Block, the Dutch navigator, explored it, and the Dutch traders afterward, seeing the marshy estuaries red with cranberries, called it Roode Eylandt, “red island,” afterward corrupted into the name it now bears. Roger Williams, a Welsh-Puritan minister, pastor of a church at Salem, was banished from the colony of Massachusetts, fled to the head of Narraganset Bay, and there, with a few followers, planted the seed of the commonwealth of Rhode Island in 1636. The place selected by him for settlement he called Providence. 2. The first wife of Julius Cæsar was named Cornelia; the second was Pompeia, a relative of the noted Pompey; and the third was Calpurnia. 3. Napoleon Bonaparte was born at Ajaccio, Corsica, August 15, 1769, and died May 5, 1821, at St. Helena, to which island he had been exiled after the battle of Waterloo.
Nemo.—The recipe for making a copying-pad and the ink used thereon was given in No. 2, vol. V. —E. D. and Author. We are fully supplied with literary material by experienced writers. —Solomon C. Acrobats do not use any artificial preparation to increase their suppleness. Constant practice is the secret of the agility displayed by them. —W. B. The construction of a photographic camera was detailed in No. 13, Vol. IV; while the making of blue prints formed the subject of an article in No. 51, Vol. II. —Ninth Avenue. Interesting articles on the subject of electricity have been presented in Nos. 3 and 4, Vol. VI, and 16, Vol. VII. —Subscriber. An ingenious, painstaking boy can construct a very neat æolian harp by following out the directions given in No. 16 of the fifth volume. —Copperhead. 1. The drawing of the binder shows considerable ingenuity, and is doubtless novel and useful enough to warrant patenting. 2. One of the simplest and best forms of the canvas canoe was illustrated and described in No. 37, Vol. VI. In this and the previous number another kind is represented. —W. C. H. Any study can be mastered if the student is persevering and ordinarily intelligent. —D. P. H. 1. None of the curiosities in your possession are of any special value. 2. The gold coin will pass at its face value. 3. Nos. 2 and 18, Vol. II, are out of print. Three dollars per year is the regular subscription price of Golden Days. 4. The magazine is out of print. —Buckskin Bob. This paper has always been sold by us at a uniform rate of six cents per copy. —W. M. K. Tan the small skins according to the directions published in No. 7, Vol. IV. —S. C. Yes. —J. A. W. Place the matter in the hands of a lawyer. —W. G. W. The addition of a small quantity of japan dryer to printing ink will make it dry quickly. —Chestnuts. A boy of eleven should confine his reading to more useful literature than novels, leaving those to be perused at a maturer age. —Cow Boy. There is such a series of juvenile books. Make inquiry at a book store. —Golden Cross. A first class bookseller can obtain for you the books of travels written by Stanley and Livingstone. —Middy (Washington). The length of a ship’s cable is about 720 feet. —B. O. S. No premium is offered for 1819 quarter-dollars, Hong-Kong coins or French centimes.