Europe watches every move of the Emperor's with the greatest interest and with curiosity as to whether it has a political significance.
| Progress | Invention and Discovery |
A NEW SPRING-POST FOR BICYCLES.—This post does not seem to have the objectionable features that other spring-posts have. It is small, neat, compact, and at the same time does its work admirably, as we have reason to know, having had it tested. The illustration shows quite clearly how it is constructed. To the ordinary observer, when it is attached to a bicycle it appears to be an common seat-post; the spring, however, prevents the constant vibration which is so trying to the rider and so hard on the machine, especially in riding over cobblestones.
Riding a machine with this spring-post, as compared with one without it, is very much like riding in a spring carriage as compared with the ordinary springless cart.
A clever invention, which originated in France, is a life-saving buoy that has been used on the River Seine in Paris. Persons falling into the water at night often lose their lives because it is impossible to ascertain their whereabouts; or, if a life-saving apparatus of any kind is thrown to them in the darkness, they frequently drown before they can find it. This small apparatus consists of a combination of a buoy with an electric light; when the buoy is thrown into the water the light is lighted automatically. In connection with this invention the life-savers in Paris use a grappling-hook which we illustrate. This has an electric light near the end in the oval space; this light makes it possible to grapple for persons who may have gone down beneath the water.