THE YOUNG SCIENTIST. 
379 
the market, a new saw, No. 4, which is so arranged 
that it may be attached to table or workbench. 
It is simply a new and cheap arrangement of the 
Challenge Scroll Saw for power, and is easily fas- 
tened with screws or bolts to a work bench or any 
place desired; takes but little room, and is a very 
desirable machine for manufacturing purposes, 
etc. It is driven by a one inch flat belt; has the 
same capacity for cutting, etc., as the Challenge 
machine, but has no drilling attachment. The 
Challenge lathe attachment can be used on this 
machine. 
Besides machines, there were a number of other 
articles exhibited that many of our readers would 
no doubt like to know something of. 
One of the most artistic, and, as it appeared to 
us, a useful and instructive article, was a table 
lamp, exhibited by C. F. A. Hinrichs, of Nos. 29-33 
Park Place, New York. The lamp, handsome in 
itself, and artistically decorated, possessed its 
greatest value, from our point of view, from the 
fact that the shade of semi-transparent glass was 
nearly spherical in shape, and represented a globe 
of about eight inches in diameter, having on 
its face the continents, islands, seas, and oceans, 
shown in colors the same as an ordinary school 
globe. It will readily be seen how useful this 
lamp would be where there are children studying 
geography, after school, during winter evenings. 
We need not add, that older folks would find this 
arrangement useful and pleasing when reading in 
their evening papers of the doings and misdoings of 
the denizens of distant lands. One of these globe 
shades should be in every house. 
Palm & Fechteler, No. 6 West Fourteenth street. 
New York, had on exhibition a beautiful assort- 
ment of silk and decalcomania ornaments suitable 
for decorating odor bottles, tidies, cushions, lamp 
shades, sachets, etc. ; in fact, any article made of 
silk, linen or cotton. The various designs of silk 
ornaments form very attractive decorations in 
themselves. However, more handsome and ex- 
tremely elaborate ornamentations can be made by 
tastefully combining a variety of the designs, or 
parts thereof, to almost any desired shape. This 
method gives considerable scope for a large variety 
of ingenious designs that may be created by the 
personal talent and inventive abilities of the ama- 
teur. 
The Murray Hill Publishing Co., of 129 East 
Twenty-eighth street. New York, exhibited a 
novelty called the Polyopticon," which consists 
simply of a lamp shade made of heavy binder?s 
board, neatly covered with leatherette, and has 
metal parts as required, including two reflectors. 
It is made so as to be easily adjusted to all round- 
wick or argand lamps (those using straight or stu- 
dents-lamp chimneys), and as these are the best 
lights for reading, they are to be had almost every- 
where. It rests on argand (round wick) burners 
in such a way as to permit the regulating of the 
light below. With a good light it is possible to 
show a picture on a screen six feet distant, and a 
circle of hght four feet in diameter. This makes a 
common photograph appear four hundred times 
its real size, or about fifteen times as large as 
life." By shortening the distance of the Polyopticon 
from the screen, the picture becomes brighter and 
smaller, and can be reduced to ''life size," or 
any size that is desired for sketching a portrait. 
Thus it is of use to artists. Anyone handy with a 
pencil can make funny sketches, faces with mov- 
able eyes or tongue, or a donkey that can move 
his ears, and produce effects equal to those made 
by special "shdes" that cost two or three dollars 
a piece. It is certainly fair to say that all magic 
lanterns costing under $25 are outdone by the 
Polyopticon, and that the latter is just the thing 
for every home that wants a private show for its 
own amusement. In no other way can so much 
fun be had for the same amount of money. The 
instrument complete with a number of views 
costs less than six dollars. This instrument is 
capable of afi"ording an immense amount of amuse- 
ment for the "family circle," or even a gather- 
ing of friends. 
— The oldest tree in the world, so far as any one 
knows, is, says Knotoledge, the Bo tree of the 
sacred city of Amarapoora, in Burmah. It was 
planted 288 B.C., and is therefore now 2,170 years 
old. Sir James Emerson Tennent gives reasons 
for believing that the tree is really of this won- 
derful age, a,nd refers to historic documents in 
which it is mentioned at different dates, as 182 
