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The Wonder Book of Knowledge

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Title: The Wonder Book of Knowledge

Editor: Henry Chase Hill


        
Release date: October 19, 2012 [eBook #41111]
                Most recently updated: October 23, 2024

Language: English

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WONDER BOOK OF KNOWLEDGE ***
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  | Transcriptions used: italic and bold texts are transcribed between |
  | underscores and equal signs respectively: _text_ and =text=. Texts |
  | printed in small capitals are transcribed as ALL CAPITALS.         |
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[Illustration: HOW COLOR PRINTING IS DONE

A plate is made for each of the three printing colors, yellow, red
and blue, as explained on page 382. First, yellow is printed, then
red on the yellow, and last, blue on the yellow and red combination.
Combinations of these three colors in various proportions produce all
the other tints which appear in the original subject. Above are shown
the separate plates and also the combined result of all three. Extreme
care is necessary to make all the plates register exactly together.]




  THE WONDER BOOK
  OF KNOWLEDGE

  THE MARVELS OF MODERN INDUSTRY AND INVENTION
  THE INTERESTING STORIES OF COMMON THINGS
  THE MYSTERIOUS PROCESSES OF NATURE
  SIMPLY EXPLAINED

  COMPILED AND EDITED
  BY
  HENRY CHASE HILL
  WITH THE CO-OPERATION OF EXPERTS
  REPRESENTING EACH INDUSTRY

  Illustrated with
  780 Photographs and Drawings

  PHILADELPHIA
  THE JOHN C. WINSTON COMPANY
  PUBLISHERS


  COPYRIGHT, 1921
  BY L. T. MYERS
  COPYRIGHT, 1917-19




Preface


This book is presented to those, both young and old, who wish to have a
non-technical account of the history, evolution and production of some
of the every-day wonders of the modern industrial age; coupled with
occasional glimpses of the wonderful object-lessons afforded by nature
in her constructive activities in the animal, vegetable and mineral
kingdoms; and simple, understandable answers to the myriad puzzling
questions arising daily in the minds of those for whom the fascination
of the “Why” and “How” is always engrossing.

Although not intended primarily as a child’s book, the
interest-compelling pictures and clear, illuminating answers to the
constant avalanche of questions suggested by the growing mind, unite in
making far happier children in the home and brighter children at school.
Parents and teachers will also recognize the opportunity to watch for
subjects by which the child’s interest appears to be more than
ordinarily attracted, and, in so doing, will be enabled to guide the
newly-formed tendencies into the proper channels. With the greatest
thinkers of the age advocating vocational training, and leading
educators everywhere pointing out that the foundation of a practical
education for life must be laid in the home, thoughtful parents will not
overlook the fact that a book which both entertains and instructs is of
supreme importance in the equipment of their children.

In the preparation of this book its function has been considered as that
of gathering up some of the multitudinous bits of information of
interest, both to the inquiring child and the older reader, and putting
them in shape to be digested by the ordinary searcher after knowledge.
The book is intended, not for a few technical specialists, but for the
larger number of men, women and children who are not interested in
exhaustive treatises, but who are seeking to gain some fair idea about
the numberless every-day subjects that arise in ordinary conversation,
or that they meet with in reading and about which they desire some
definite and satisfactory information.

Most of us realize that we live in a world of wonders and we recognize
progress in industries with which we come in personal contact, but the
daily routine of our lives is ordinarily so restricted by circumstances
that many of us fail to follow works which do not come within our own
experience or see beyond the horizon of our own specific paths.

The workman who tends the vulcanizer in the rubber factory has come to
take his work as a matter of course; the man who assembles a watch, or a
camera, is not apt to appreciate the fact that there have been marvelous
developments in his line of manufacturing; the operator of a shoe
machine, or of an elevator, does not see anything startling or absorbing
in the work--and so we find it almost throughout the entire list of
industries.

The tendency of the seemingly almost imperceptible movement marking
onward development in the work that is familiar is to dull the mind
toward opportunities for improvement in the accustomed task. With the
exception of the man who is at times impressed with the remarkable
advances made in some strikingly spectacular industry, because such
knowledge comes to him suddenly, the average workman is often too much
inclined to regard himself as a machine, and performs his duties more or
less automatically, without attempting to exercise imagination or those
powers of adaptation upon which all progress has been builded.

A single volume is of necessity too limited a space for anything
approximating a complete record of the vast progress which has been made
in American Industry. Consequently it has only been possible to select
the more characteristic features of the twentieth century and point out
the strides by which some of the prominent industries have advanced to
their present proportions. If the hitherto undisputed maxim that “the
more the individual knows the more he is worth to himself and his
associates” still prevails, the chronicling of the developments in some
fields should stimulate thought and experiment toward the adaptation of
similar methods in others. It is to that end that authorities in each of
the industries presented have co-operated in the compilation of this
interesting and instructive volume.

THE EDITOR.




Table of Contents


                                                                    PAGE

  =THE STORY OF THE SUBMARINE=                                       =9=

  Origin of Submarine Navigation, 9. The American Types, 10. Twentieth
  Century Submarines, 11. Engine Power, 12. The Periscope, 13. Voyage of
  the “Deutschland,” 14. Submarine Dredging, 15.


  =THE STORY OF THE PANAMA CANAL=                                   =17=

  The United States to the Rescue, 17. The Canal and the Navy, 20. The
  Great Canal, 20. The Hydroelectric Station, 20. Gigantic Obstacles,
  30. Gatun Dam, 33. Meeting all Emergencies, 33. A Battle Won, 36.

  =What is a Geyser? 40. What Kind of Dogs are Prairie-Dogs? 42. What is
  Spontaneous Combustion? 42.=


  =THE STORY IN THE TALKING MACHINE=                                =43=

  The Early Machines, 43. Invention of the Spring Motor, 47. Change from
  Cylinder to Disc, 47. Making the Record, 49.

  =What are Petrified Forests? 49. What Animals are the Best Architects?
  51.=


  =THE STORY OF THE MOTORCYCLE=                                     =52=

  Austin’s Steam Velocipede, 52. Motor-paced Racing, 55. First Practical
  Machine, 54. Modern Refinements, 57. Side Cars and Commercial Bodies,
  58.

  =How is the Weather Man Able to Predict Tomorrow’s Weather? 58. How
  does a Siren Fog Horn Blow? 60.=


  =THE STORY IN A WATCH=                                            =61=

  The Standard of Time, 61. Candles as Time-Keepers, 63. Galileo’s
  Pendulum, 63. Balance Wheel as a Pendulum, 65. The Time Train, 65. How
  a Watch Works, 67. What Causes Variation in Watches, 71.

  =How does a Monorail Gyroscope Railway Operate? 72. Why are
  Finger-prints used for Identification? 74.=


  =THE STORY IN A RIFLE=                                            =75=

  The Earliest Hunters, 75. The Use of Slings, 77. A Fortunate Accident;
  77. As to Arrows, 81. A Shooting Machine, 81. And Now for Chemistry,
  81. Playing with Fire, 83. The Coming of the Matchlock, 83. Caps and
  Breech-Loaders, 85. From Henry VIII to Cartridges, 85. The Beginning
  of Precision in Mechanics, 87. Making Barrels, 92. Taking off 2/1000
  of an Inch, 92. The Making of Ammunition Today, 94. Handling Deadly
  Explosives, 96. Extreme Precautions, 96.

  =How does an Artesian Well Keep up its Supply of Water? 96. Where do
  Dates come from? 97.=


  =THE STORY OF RUBBER=                                             =98=

  How was Rubber First Used? 98. What is a Rubber Camp Like? 100. How is
  Rubber Gathered by the Natives? 103. How is Rubber Smoked? 104. How
  was Vulcanizing Discovered? 105. How did Rubber Growing Spread to Other
  Places? 108. How is Rubber Cured on Modern Plantations? 110. How is
  Crude Rubber Received Here? 112. How is Rubber Prepared for Use? 112.
  How are Rubber Shoes Made? 116. How are Automobile Tires Made? 119.

  =How did the Expression “Before you can say Jack Robinson” Originate?
  119. What is an Aerial Railway Like? 119. Why are they called
  Newspapers? 121. How did the Cooking of Food Originate? 121. How Far
  away is the Sky-Line? 121.=


  =THE STORY OF ROPE=                                              =122=

  Civilized Rope Makers, 122. Hand Spinning, 124. Machine-made Ropes,
  128. American Hemp, 128. Manila and Sisal Fibers, 130. Wire Ropes,
  132. Pine Tar for Ropes, 134. Why does Rope Cling Together? 136. What
  is Rope Used for? 136.

  =How did the Expression “A-1” Originate? 136. How has Man Helped
  Nature give us Apples? 136. What kind of a Crab Climbs Trees? 138. How
  are Files Made? 138.=


  =THE STORY OF SELF-LOADING PISTOLS=                              =139=

  Colt Pistols, 139. Machine Guns, 145.

  =How does the Poisonous Tarantula Live? 146. How do the Indians Live
  Now? 146. How does the Beach get its Sand? 149. How did Nodding the
  Head Up and Down Come to Mean “Yes”? 149. Why do We Call a Man “a
  Benedict” When He Marries? 149.=


  =THE STORY IN FIRECRACKERS AND SKY-ROCKETS=                      =150=

  The Need for Noisemakers, 150. Chinese Firecrackers, 150. Popular ever
  since the Invention of Gunpowder, 154. Beautiful Displays, 158.

  =What makes a Chimney Smoke? 158. What are Dry Docks Like? 161. Why
  does a Lightning Bug Light Her Light? 161.=


  =THE STORY IN THE MAKING OF A PICTURE=                           =162=

  The Image is Upsidedown, 162. Effect of Light on the Film, 163. Early
  Photographic Efforts, 164. Modern Photography, 168.

  =How Deep is the Deepest Part of the Ocean? 169. Why do We say “Get
  the Sack”? 169. Why do We call them X-Rays? 169. How did the Term
  “Yankee” Originate? 171. Why do We say “Kick the Bucket”? 171. When
  does a Tortoise move Quickly? 171.=


  =THE STORY IN A NEWSPAPER=                                       =172=

  Gutenberg’s Press in 1450, 172. Cylinder Presses, 173. Curved Plates,
  175. Printing, Folding and Counting 216,000 Papers an Hour, 175. Color
  Printing, 180.

  =What do We Mean by the “Flying Dutchman”? 180. Why does a Duck’s Back
  Shed Water? 180. Why doesn’t the Sky ever Fall Down? 180. How are
  Sand-Dunes Formed? 180. What do We Mean by an Eclipse? 181. What are
  Dreams? 182. What makes Our Teeth Chatter? 182.=


  =THE STORY IN A HONEY COMB=                                      =183=

  Sixty Thousand Bees in a Hive, 183. Modern Bee-Keeping, 187.
  Profitable Anywhere, 193.

  =Where do Figs Come from? 199. What are Fighting Fish? 199. How is the
  Exact Color of the Sky Determined? 199. What is a Divining Rod? 199.=


  =THE STORY OF ELECTRICITY IN THE HOME=                           =200=

  A Modern Aladdin’s Lamp, 200. Electric Hot Irons the First Appliances,
  201. How They are Made, 202. Electric Cooking Appliances, 205.
  Electric Toaster, 206. Electric Coffee Percolator, 206. Baking and
  Roasting, 210. Vacuum Cleaners, 212.

  =Why is there Always a Soft Spot in a Cocoanut Shell? 214. How does a
  Gasoline Motor Run an Electric Street Car? 214. How do Carrier Pigeons
  Carry Messages? 216. What Family has Over 9,000,000 Members? 216.=


  =THE STORY IN THE TELEPHONE=                                     =217=

  Invention, 217. Essential Factor in American Life, 218. America Leads
  in Telephone Growth, 220. American Telephone Practice Superior, 222.
  The First Transcontinental Line, 225. Wireless Speech Transmission,
  226. The Mobilization of Communication, 228.

  =Why do they Call Them “Fiddler-Crabs”? 229. How Far can a Powerful
  Searchlight Send its Rays? 229. What Started the Habit of Touching
  Glasses Before Drinking? 231. Why are Windows Broken by Explosions?
  231. What does the Expression “Showing the White Feather” come from?
  231.=


  =THE STORY IN ELEVATORS AND ESCALATORS=                          =232=

  From Novelty to Necessity, 232. The Escalator, 235. The Cleat
  Escalator, 239. The Moving Platform, 239.

  =What Happens when Animals Hibernate? 241. How do Peanuts get in the
  Ground? 241. How did Your State get its Name? 243.=


  =THE STORY OF COAL MINING=                                       =244=

  The World Depends on Coal, 244. Dangers of Mining, 244. How Coal Grew,
  247. The Vast Quantities Produced, 253.

  =How can We Hear through the Walls of a Room? 251. What is a Diesel
  Engine Like? 252. What does the Sheep-grower get for the Wool in a
  Suit of Clothes? 252.=


  =THE STORY IN A SILVER TEASPOON=                                 =253=

  The Spoon is Older than History, 253. Development of Various Shapes,
  254. Plating Re-Discovered, 256. Electro-plating, 257. Stages in
  Manufacture, 258. Evolution of a Knife, 259.

  =How do Chimes Strike the Hour? 260. How is Electricity Brought into a
  House? 262. What was the Origin of Masonic Signs? 262. What is a
  Dictograph? 262.=


  =STORY OF THE WIRELESS TELEGRAPH=                                =263=

  Stretching a Dog, 263. Marconi’s Method, 263. Tuning the Instruments,
  264. Interferences, 265.

  =What is Forestry Work? 267. How did the Fashion of Wearing Cravats
  Commence? 270. How does the Gas Meter Measure Your Gas? 270. What is a
  Game Preserve? 270.=


  =THE STORY OF THE BUILDING OF A SILO=                            =271=

  What is a Silo? 271. The First Silo, 271. What is put in a Silo? 271.
  Elements of Success or Failure, 271.


  =THE STORY OF THE ADVANCE OF ELECTRICITY=                        =273=

  The First Commercial Central Station, 273. Edison and the Electric
  Light, 273. Electricity a Living Factor, 279. In the Printing Trade,
  279. Construction, 279. Loft Manufacturing, 281. Electric Heating,
  281. Electricity and Safety, 281. Electricity in Medicine, 281.
  Electric Vehicles, 282. Electricity and the Home, 282. Decreased Cost
  of Electricity, 285.

  =How is Die-Sinking Done? 285.=


  =THE STORY IN THE MAKING OF A MAGAZINE=                          =286=

  Printing in Millions, 286. Color Printing, 289.

  =How Did the Ringing of Curfew Originate? 289.=


  =THE STORY OF AMERICA’S FIRST HORSELESS CARRIAGE=                =290=

  The Problems of Weight and Vibration, 290. The First Demonstration,
  290.


  =THE STORY IN A SAUSAGE=                                         =292=

  The First “Roast Pig,” 292. Smoking Ham, 292. Salt Pork, 293. The Era
  of Refrigeration, 295. An Up-to-date Packing Plant, 295. Dressing
  Meat, 298. By-Products, 298.

  =Why do We call them “Dog Days?” 301. How is a Five Dollar Gold Piece
  Made? 303. How does a Bird Fly? 303.=


  =THE STORY OF THE BIG REDWOOD TREES=                             =304=

  Long Life of the Great Trees, 304. Valuable Qualities of the Redwood,
  304. Fire Retardance, 306. Magnificent Tones for Decoration, 306.

  =How did the Expression “Forlorn Hope” Originate? 306. Why is “Wall
  Street” known Around the World? 308. What makes a Stick Seem To Bend
  in Water? 308. What causes a Lump in a Person’s Throat? 308. How are
  We Able to Hear through Speaking Tubes? 308. Why do We Always Shake
  Hands with our Right Hand? 308.=


  =THE STORY IN A BILLIARD TABLE=                                  =309=

  An Ancient Game, 309. Modern Manufacture, 311. The Cue is a work of
  Art, 314. The Finest Ivory for Balls, 314.

  =What is the Hottest Place in the United States? 315. What are White
  Blackberries Like? 317. Why do They Have a Dog-Watch on Shipboard?
  317. How Much Gold has a 14-Carat Ring? 317. What is an Electro
  Magnet? 317.=


  =THE STORY IN A PIN=                                             =318=

  Once a Luxury of the Wealthy, 318. Formerly made in Parts, 319. Making
  25,000,000 Pins a Year, 321.

  =How are Glaciers Formed? 324. How Large are Molecules? 324.=


  =PICTORIAL STORY OF THE FISHING INDUSTRY=                        =325=

  Episodes in the Game, 325. Modern Fishing Vessels, 326. The Trawl,
  327. Drawing the Net, 328. Fish Curing, 329. Preparing for Market,
  330.


  =THE STORY IN A BOX OF CALIFORNIA ORANGES=                       =331=

  Picked with Gloves, 331. Grading, 331. Shipped in Refrigerators, 333.

  =What Kind of Steel Knives do not Stain or Rust? 333. Why is it
  Necessary to Keep Quiet when Fishing? 333. First Apartment Houses in
  this Country, 336. Why do we Call 32° above Zero Freezing? 336. How is
  Fresco Painting Done? 336.=


  =THE STORY OF A PIECE OF CHEWING GUM=                            =337=

  Juice of the Chicle Tree, 337. Treatment in the Factory, 342.

  =Where did the Ferris Wheel get its Name? 342. What is Done to Keep
  Railroad Rails from Breaking? 342. How does a “Master Clock” Control
  others by Electricity? 342.=


  =THE STORY OF THE CALCULATING MACHINE=                           =345=

  How did Men Learn to Count? 345. The First Adding Machine, 345. The
  Slide Rule Principle, 348. The “Difference Engine,” 348. Present-Day
  Models, 349. The Largest Adding Machine, 354. How are Adding Machines
  Used? 355.

  =Where does Ermine Come from? 356. What is the Principle of “Foreign
  Exchange?” 356. What do We Mean by “The Old Moon in the New Moon’s
  Arms”? 356.=


  =THE STORY IN A BOWLING ALLEY=                                   =357=

  Bowling Green, New York City, 357. How the Alley is Built, 358.
  Composition Balls, 361.

  =How are Artificial Precious Stones Made? 361. What is a Mexican
  Bull-Fight Like? 363. What is the Difference between “Alternating” and
  “Direct” Current? 363. What was the “Court of Love”? 363.=


  =THE STORY OF THE ADDRESSOGRAPH=                                 =364=

  Birth of Mechanical Addressing, 364. The First Addressograph, 364.
  Greater Speed, 366. A Card Index that Addresses Itself, 367.

  =What is Dry Farming? 372. What is a Drying Machine Like? 372. How
  does the New York Stock Exchange Operate? 374. How did the term
  “Cowboys” Originate? 374.=


  =THE STORY IN A CHEMICAL FIRE EXTINGUISHER=                      =375=

  Smothering Fire with a Gas Blanket, 375. The Soda and Acid
  Extinguisher, 376.

  =How is Gold Leaf Made? 377. What is the Natural Color of Goldfish?
  377. When was “Liquid Fire” first used in Warfare? 377. How did the
  Greyhound get his Name? 377. Why is It Called “Battery Park”? 379. How
  do we Know that the Earth is Round? 379. What were “Ducking Stools?”
  379.=


  =THE STORY IN PHOTO-ENGRAVING=                                   =380=

  Pictures are the Universal Language, 380. What a Halftone is, 380.
  Line Engravings, 381. Color Engraving, 382.

  =Where are Milk-Pails Filled from Trees? 383. How did the Wearing of a
  Crown Originate? 384. Why do Lobsters change Color? 384. How do Fishes
  Swim? 384. Where do Pearls Come from? 385. What is Cork? 385.=


  =THE STORY IN A GIANT CANNON=                                    =386=

  Origin of the Cannon, 386. Modern Cannon, 392. How Cannon are Now
  Made, 393. Built-Up and Wire-Wound Guns, 394. Feats of Modern Guns,
  406.

  =What is a Deep-Sea Diver’s Dress Like? 411. Why do We Smile when We
  are Pleased? 412. Why do Some of Us have Freckles? 412.=


  =PICTORIAL STORY OF THE STEEL INDUSTRY=                          =413=

  Mining Ore, 413. Open-Hearth Furnaces, 416. Blast Furnaces, 417. A
  15,000 Ton Forge, 418. Oil-Tempering, 420. Bending Armor Plate, 422.
  Largest Steel Casting in the World, 424. Casting Steel, 431. Rolling
  Rails, 432.

  =What do We Mean by “Deviation of the Compass?” 435.=


  =THE STORY IN THE MAKING OF A PAIR OF SHOES=                     =436=

  Shoemaking by Machine, 436. Cross-Section of a Shoe, 437. Lasting
  Machine, 440. Details of the Process, 442. Evolution of a Shoe, 447.

  =What is Standard Gold? 448. What are Cyclones? 450. What Metals can
  be Drawn into Wire Best? 450. How are Cocoanuts Used to Help our
  Warships? 450. How did the Dollar Sign Originate? 450.=


  =PICTORIAL STORY OF FIRE APPARATUS=                              =451=

  Aerial Truck, 451. Motor Fire Engine, 451. Old-time Apparatus, 452.
  Chemical Engine, 455.


  =STORY OF THE TAKING OF FOOD FROM THE AIR=                       =458=

  Nitrogen and Oxygen in the Air, 458. Fixation of Nitrogen, 459. Liquid
  Air, 460. Fertilizer, 461. Ammonia, 466.

  =What is a Drawbridge Like Today? 466.=


  =THE STORY OF A DEEP-SEA MONSTER=                                =468=

  A Thirty-nine Hour Battle, 468. Five Harpoons and 151 Bullets needed,
  468. An Unknown Leviathan, 470.

  =What is an Armored Railway Car Like? 470. What is an Electric Eel?
  472.=


  =THE STORY OF SALT=                                              =473=

  Natural Salt, 473. The Polish Mines, 474. Refining, 476.

  =Why do We Call it “Denatured Alcohol”? 478. What is the Difference
  between a Cruiser and a Battleship? 478.=


  =THE STORY OF THE GROWTH OF THE MOTOR TRUCK=                     =481=

  Practically Developed since 1905, 481. Cheaper Transportation, 489.

  =What is a Diving Bell? 489. How are Harbors Dredged Out? 491. How is
  a Razor Blade Made? 491.=


  =THE STORY OF THE TUNNELS UNDER THE HUDSON RIVER=                =492=

  Bold Engineering, 492. 40,000 Men, 492. How the Tunneling Shield
  Works, 494. Air Pressure, 496. Extraordinary Adventures under the
  River, 501.

  =What Causes Floating Islands? 504.=


  =PICTORIAL STORY OF THE AIRSHIP=                                 =505=

  Well-known Aviators, 505. Military Monoplane, 506. NC-4, First Plane
  to Cross the Atlantic, 507. Vickers-Vimy, First Flier to make
  Non-Stop Atlantic Flight, 508. Chart of Transatlantic Fliers, 509. The
  Wright Brothers, 510. British Transatlantic Dirigible, R-34, 511.
  Examples of Military Uses, 512.


  =THE STORY OF AN AUTOMOBILE FACTORY=                             =518=

  A half-million Cars a year, 518. Overhead Cranes Cut Costs, 520.
  Safety First, 521. One thing at a Time, 524. Quick Assembling, 526.
  The Body Chute, 530. Motion Picture Advertising, 537.

  =How do Big Buildings get their Granite? 539.=


  =RAILROAD SCENES FROM SHOP AND ROAD=                             =541=

  All Steel Train, 541. Electric Train, 542. Train of 120 Cars, 543. An
  Observation Car, 544. Electric Baggage Truck, 545. Terminal Stations,
  546. Paint Drying Oven, 547. Locomotive Building, 548. Types of
  Locomotives, 550.


  =THE STORY OF AN UP-TO-DATE FARM=                                =556=

  Luxuries of Farm Life, 556. Plenty of Food, 557. Reaping Hook, 558.
  The Cradle, 559. Early Attempts to Harvest with Machines, 561. The
  First Successful Reaper, 563. Development of the Reaper, 564. The
  Self-Binder, 568. The Twine Binder, 570. Other Machines Follow, 574.

  =What Causes an Echo? 574.=


  =THE STORY OF THE MOTION-PICTURE PROJECTING MACHINE=             =575=

  Spectacular Rise of Motion Pictures, 575. How the Projector Operates,
  578. Varied Uses of the Pictures, 579.


  =THE STORY OF LEATHER=                                           =580=

  Tanning, 580. Oiling, 582. Finishing Coats, 583. Currying, 583.

  =What is a “Glass Snake?” 583.=


  =THE STORY IN DIAMOND-CUTTING=                                   =584=

  Where Diamonds Come from, 584. Famous Diamonds, 585. Methods of
  Cutting, 585. Defects in Diamonds, 586. Brilliancy, 587.

  =Why do We get Hungry? 588.=


  =THE STORY IN THE MODERN LIFTING MAGNET=                         =589=

  What a Magnet is, 589. How an Electric Magnet Works, 590. Will Lift 30
  Tons, 592.

  =Why is the Thistle the Emblem of Scotland? 593. How are Animals
  Identified on Cattle Ranges? 594. How is Glue Made? 594. Why does a
  Hot Dish Crack if we put Ice Cream in It? 594.=


  =ALPHABETICAL INDEX OF TITLES AND SUBJECTS=                      =595=


  =ACKNOWLEDGMENTS=                                                =607=




The Story of the Submarine[1]

Origin of Submarine Navigation.


The history of invention has no chapter more interesting than that of
sailing under the ocean’s waves. The navigation of the air approaches it
in character, but does not present the vital problems of undersea
travel. Both these new fields of navigation have been notably developed
within recent years, largely as a result of the great European war. It
is the story of sailing in the depths beneath the ocean’s surface with
which we here propose to deal. The problem was settled easily enough for
his purpose by Jules Verne, in his “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the
Sea.” But that was pure fiction without scientific value. It is with
fact, not fiction, that we are here concerned.

[Illustration: A SUBMARINE ABOUT TO SUBMERGE]

The story takes us back three hundred years, to the reign of James I, of
England, when a crude submarine boat was built, to be moved by oars, but
one of no value other than as a curiosity. At a later date a man named
Day built a similar boat, wagering that he would go down one hundred
yards and remain there twenty-four hours. So far as is known, he still
remains there, winning the wager which he has not come up to claim.

Other such boats were constructed at intervals, but the first undersea
boat of any historical importance was the “American Turtle,” built by a
Yankee named David Bushnell during the time that the British held New
York in the Revolutionary War. He sought to blow up the British frigate
“Eagle” with the aid of a torpedo and nearly succeeded in doing so,
seriously scaring the British shippers by the explosion of his torpedo.

The next to become active in this line of discovery was Robert Fulton,
the inventor of the first practical steamboat. He, like Bushnell, was an
American, but his early experiments were in France, where Napoleon
patronized him. With his boat, the “Nautilus,” he made numerous
descents, going down twenty-five feet in the harbor of Brest and
remaining there an hour. He said that he could build a submarine that
could swim under the water and destroy any war vessel afloat. But the
French Admiralty refused to sustain him, one old admiral saying, “Thank
God, France still fights her battles on the surface, not beneath it.”

Fulton finally went to England and there built a boat with which he
attached a torpedo to a condemned brig, set aside for that purpose. The
brig was blown up in the presence of an immense throng, and Fulton
finally sold his invention to the British government for $75,000.
Nothing further came of it.

The submarine next came into practical view during the American Civil
War, when the Confederate government built several such vessels, known
usually as “Davids” from their inventor. Now, for the first time, did
such a craft demonstrate its powers. On the night of February 17, 1864,
one of the “Davids,” the “Hunley,” blew up the steamship “Housatonic” in
Charleston harbor. The wave caused by the explosion swamped the
submarine and it and its crew found a watery grave.

Other submarines were built and experimented with, not only in the
United States but in European countries. One of the later inventors was
an Irish-American named John P. Holland, who, in 1876, built a submarine
called the “Fenian Ram.” The “Ram” collapsed with the collapse of the
Fenian movement. Other boats were built and tried, but the successful
period of the submarine was deferred until after 1893, when the United
States Congress appropriated $200,000 to encourage such an enterprise
and invited inventors to submit designs. This, and a similar movement in
France, formed the first official recognition of the value of vessels of
this class.

The prize offered by Congress brought out three designs, one by Mr.
Holland, the “Ram” inventor, one by George C. Barker, and a third by
Simon Lake. The names of Holland and Lake have since been closely
associated with the history of the submarine. Mr. Holland’s device
secured approval and in 1894 he received a contract to build a submarine
vessel. This, named the “Plunger,” was begun in 1895, but was finally
abandoned and a vessel of different type, the “Holland,” was built in
its place. It was accepted by the government in 1900. A number of others
similar to the “Holland” were subsequently built.


The American Types.

The type of these vessels was what became known as the “diving.” They
were controlled by a rudder placed at the stern of the vessel and acting
in both a horizontal and a vertical direction, the force of the screw
propeller driving the boat forward in the direction desired. In 1904 the
navy of the United States possessed eight Holland boats and there were
also a number of them in the British navy.

Mr. Lake’s design, offered in 1893 but not accepted, had as its novel
feature a plan by which a door could be opened in the bottom of the ship
and the crew leave and enter it in diving suits, the water being kept
out by the force of compressed air. To maintain the vessel on an even
keel he introduced four vanes, called “hydroplanes,” for regulating the
depth of descent. By aid of these and the horizontal rudder it was found
that the vessel would run for hours at a constant depth and on a level
keel. There were other devices for diving or rising to the surface.

In 1901 Mr. Lake built a large vessel of this type which was sold to the
Russian government and was in commission at Vladivostock during the
Russian-Japanese War. He afterwards received orders from this and other
governments for a number of vessels of the even-keel type, and his
principles of control have since been generally adopted as the safest
and most reliable controlling agency for under-water craft.

We have not in the above brief statement described all the efforts to
invent a satisfactory under-water boat. In several of the nations of
Europe experiments, more or less available, had been tried, but the most
practical results were achieved by the American inventors, Bushnell,
Fulton, Davy, Holland and Lake. It will suffice here to say that the
most successful of submarines were those constructed by Holland and
Lake. An important addition was made in 1901 in a French boat, the
“Morse,” built at Cherbourg. The difficulty of navigators telling where
they were when under water, and of changing their course safely without
coming to the surface to reconnoitre, was in a large measure overcome by
the addition of a “periscope.” This, rising above the water, and
provided with reflecting lenses, enabled the steersman to discover the
surface conditions and see any near vessel or other object. The “Morse”
was able to sink in seventy seconds and her crew could remain under
water for sixteen hours without strain.

[Illustration: A MINE-PLANTING SUBMARINE DESIGNED IN BERLIN BY SIMON
LAKE IN 1895 FOR THE RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT]


Twentieth Century Submarines.

We have given an epitome of the development of the submarine vessel up
to the opening of the twentieth century. It had now reached a successful
status of achievement and during the early years of that century was to
display a remarkable progress. Holland and Lake may be looked upon as
the parents of the modern development of the submersible boat, their
designs being at the base of the great European progress.

France took up the work actively, its most successful early vessel being
the “Narval,” built in 1899. This was 118 feet long by 8 feet 3 inches
beam, 106 tons surface and 168 submerged displacement. She was a
double-deck vessel controlled by Lake hydroplanes, and had installed
steam power for surface travel and electric power for undersea work. The
French at this time kept their methods secret, and no useful type had
been developed in England, the result being that a plant was provided
for the building of Holland boats in that country. Germany used the Lake
devices, which had not been patented in that country and were made use
of by the Krupps. Thus it appears that the modern submarines, as now
built and used in the navies of the world, owe their success to
principles of construction and devices for control originated and
developed by American inventors.


Engine Power.

The internal-combustion engine is the heart of the submarine. Steam,
with its heavy engine, has been long set aside, and electricity, derived
from the storage battery, yet awaits sufficient development. Gasoline
succeeded them. The internal-combustion engine became essential from its
light weight and the fact that it could be started and shut down
instantly. This is of prime importance, as permitting quick submergence
or emergence, either to escape from a high-speed destroyer or to capture
a merchantman. It weighs less per horse power, takes up less room and
requires less fuel per hour than any other reliable motor. It was early
used in both the Holland and Lake boats and is still the chief prime
motor.

[Illustration: A PROTECTOR FITTED FOR EXPERIMENTAL WORK UNDER ICE]

The difficulty with the early boats was that they were slow in speed,
making only from eight to nine knots per hour. Increased speed was
demanded by governments and more powerful engines, within a fixed limit
of weight, were demanded. In doing this engines were built of such
flimsy construction that they soon went to pieces. The gasoline used
also gave off a gas of highly explosive character and one very likely to
escape from leaky tanks or joints. Several explosions took place in
consequence, in one of which twenty-three men were killed. As a result
all the nations demanded that a non-explosive fuel should be used, and
builders turned to the Diesel engine as offering a solution to the
difficulty.

This heavy oil engine, weighing about five hundred pounds per
horse-power, was not adapted to the submarine, and efforts have been
made to decrease the weight. These have not as yet had a satisfactory
result and experiments are still going on.


The Periscope.

As the engine is the heart of the submarine, the periscope is its eye.
This is, in its simpler forms, a stiff, detachable tube from fifteen to
twenty feet long and about four inches in diameter. On its top is an
object glass which takes in all objects within its range and transmits
an image of them through a right-angled prism and down the tube. By
means of other lenses and prisms an image of the external object is thus
made visible to those within the submarine. In this process of
transmission there is a certain loss of light, and to allow for that the
image is magnified to about one-quarter above natural size.

[Illustration: A SUBMARINE UNDER ICE]

To obtain in this manner a correct idea of the distance of the object
seen proved difficult, but by continued experiment this difficulty has
been overcome. Mr. Lake developed an instrument suited to this purpose
and one which gave a simultaneous view of the entire horizon. There is
one fault in the periscope not easy to obviate. It is an instrument for
day use only. When dark comes on it becomes useless, and this does away
with the possibility of a successful submarine attack by night.

The periscope is the one part of the submarine scout equipment that is
open to vision from the surface. But while the outlook of the undersea
captain, aided by his telescopic sights, has a radius of several miles,
the periscope tube, of only four or five-inch diameter and painted of a
neutral tint, is not easily seen. If the sea is a little choppy it is
difficult to discover it with the naked eye at about 300 or 400 yards
away, or in a smooth sea at over 500 yards.

The idea that a submarine may be located by an aeroplane is looked upon
by Mr. Lake as a fallacy, except in water of crystal-like clearness,
like that of the Mediterranean or the Caribbean, and periscopes are now
being made to scour the heavens as well as the horizon, so that the
presence of an enemy aeroplane can easily be seen. An attack by an
aeroplane bomb, therefore, can readily be avoided, in view of the
difficulty of hitting such an object from the upper air.

The submarine is the guerrilla of the sea. Its tactics are like those of
the Indian who fights under cover or lies in ambush for his enemy. It is
the weaker party and can hope for success only through strategy. The old
adage that “all is fair in love and war” applies to this new weapon of
destruction as to every warlike instrument. It is its invisibility that
makes the submarine the terror of the seas. This has been well proved
during the European war. The North Sea and the English Channel have been
invaded by German submarines which have made great havoc among merchant
ships. And it is well to draw attention to the fact that submarines are
safe from each other. In no case has a battle taken place between two of
these armed sharks except in the one instance reported of an Austrian
sinking an Italian submarine. But in this case the Italian boat was on
the surface and was at the time practically a surface ship.

During the war the Germans were especially active in the use of the
submarine, and did much in making them an effective terror of the seas.
With no mercantile marine of their own to guard, they had a free field
for attack in the abundant shipping of their foes. The loss of ships was
so numerous and became such a common occurrence that little attention
was finally paid to them except when great loss of life took place, as
in the signal instance of the “Lusitania.”

[Illustration: TYPE OF HIGH SPEED OCEAN-GOING SUBMARINE]


The Voyage of the “Deutschland.”

The great mission of the submarine during the European war was as a
commerce destroyer. Many ships were sunk and many lives, with cargoes of
great value, were lost, and it was not until the summer of 1916 that the
submarine appeared in a new rôle, that of a commerce carrier. On July
9th of that year the people of Baltimore were astounded by the
appearance in their port of a submarine vessel of unusual size and novel
errand. Instead of being a destroyer of merchandise, this new craft was
an unarmed carrier of merchandise. It had crossed the Atlantic on a
voyage of 4,000 miles in extent, laden with dyestuffs to supply the
needs of American weavers.

This new type of vessel, the “Deutschland,” was an undersea craft of 315
feet length and a gross tonnage of 701 tons, its cargo capacity being
more than 1,000 tons. It had crossed the ocean in defiance of the wide
cordon of enemy warships which swarmed over part of its route, and
reached port in safety after a memorable voyage, to the surprise and
interest of the world. Leaving the port of Bremenhaven on June 18th, and
halting at Heligoland for four days to train its crew, it made its way
across the Atlantic in sixteen days. During this voyage it lay for two
hours on the ocean bottom in the English Channel and was submerged in
all not over ninety hours, the remainder of the voyage being made on the
surface.

Its crew, composed of twenty-six men and three officers, found their
novel voyage rather agreeable than otherwise. Supplied with plenty of
good food, a well-selected library, a graphophone with an abundance of
music records, and other means of convenience and enjoyment, their
voyage was more of a holiday then a hardship, and they reached their
transatlantic port none the worse for their hazardous trip. It was not
the longest that had been made. Other submarines had voyaged from German
ports to the eastern limit of the Mediterranean, but it was the most
notable and attracted the widest attention.

[Illustration: THE GERMAN MERCHANT SUBMARINE “DEUTSCHLAND” WHICH CROSSED
THE ATLANTIC IN 1916, AFTER ELUDING THE BRITISH BLOCKADE

_Courtesy of Baltimore American and C. & P. Telephone Co._]

The return voyage promised to be more perilous then the outgoing one. A
fleet of British and French ships gathered around the outlet of
Chesapeake Bay, alert to capture the daring mariners and their ship, if
possible. Ready to leave Baltimore on July 20th, with a return cargo of
gold, nickel and rubber, the captain of the “Deutschland” shrewdly
awaited a favorable opportunity and on August 1st began his voyage,
plunging under sea as he left the American coast-line and easily evading
the line of floating foemen. The return to its home port a success, a
second round-trip voyage was made and completed on December 11th, in the
course of which a convoying tug-boat was rammed and sunk with the loss
of several lives, shortly after leaving New London, Conn. The
“Deutschland” was sent out by private parties, for purely commercial
purposes, not as a military enterprise.

Such is the story of a pioneer enterprise, that of the use of submarine
vessels as commerce carriers. It is one not likely to be supplemented in
times of peace, since surface boats would be cheaper and more available.
But in future wars--if such there are to be--it may point to a future of
advantageous trade.


Submarine Dredging.

Commerce is not the only peaceful mission of the submarine. In 1895 was
organized an association known as the Lake Submarine Company, its
purpose being to use the Lake type of submarine boat for the recovery of
lost treasures from the sea bottom and for other possibilities of
undersea work. This company is still in existence, its various purposes
being to recover sunken ships and their cargoes, to build breakwaters
and other submerged constructions, to aid in submarine tunnel building,
to dredge for gold, to fish for pearls and sponges, and for similar
operations.

The first vessel adapted to these purposes was the “Argonaut,” built by
Simon Lake in 1894. The important feature of this boat was a diver’s
compartment, enabling divers to leave the vessel when submerged, for the
purpose of operating on wrecks or performing other undersea duties. This
vessel and its successors have bottom doors for the use of divers, as
previously stated. They are now used for numerous purposes for which
they are much better adapted then the old system of surface diving, the
sea bottom being under direct observation and within immediate reach.

This sea bottom, in localities near land, is abundantly sown with
wrecks, old and new, and in many cases bearing permanently valuable
cargoes, such as gold and coal. The Lake system greatly simplifies the
work of search for sunken ships, the vessels being able in a few hours’
time to search over regions which would have taken months in the old
method. Many wrecks have been found by these bottom-prowling scouts and
valuable material recovered. Thus vessels laden with coal have been
traced that had been many years under the water and deeply covered with
sand and silt, and their cargoes brought to the surface.

[Illustration: A SEMI-SUBMERSIBLE WRECKING APPARATUS]

The gold-dredging spoken of refers to the working of gold-bearing sands
found at the mouth of certain rivers in Alaska and South America. Places
on the Alaskan coast, laid bare at high tide, are said to have yielded
as much as $12,000 per cubic yard. With the Lake system it is possible
to gather material from such localities to a depth of 150 or more feet,
the material being drawn up by suction pumps into the vessel and its
gold recovered.

Another important application is that of fishing for pearl shells,
sponges and coral. This is blind work when done by divers from the
surface, the returns being largely matters of chance. By aid of
submerged boats, with their powerful electric lights, the work becomes
one of certainty rather than of chance. The recovery of the oyster, clam
and other edible shell-fish is also a feature of the work which the Lake
Company has in view. The present method of dredging is of the “hit or
miss” character, while the submarine method is capable of thorough work.
Vessels have been designed for this purpose with a capacity of gathering
oysters from good ground at the rate of 5,000 bushels per hour. In
regard to submarine engineering, of its many varieties, the Lake system
is likely to be a highly useful aid and assistance.

These particulars are given to show that the submarine vessel is not
wholly an instrument of “frightfulness,” as indicated by its use in war,
but is capable of being made useful for many purposes in peace. Some of
these have here been very briefly stated. With continued practice its
utility will grow, and by its aid the sea bottom up to a certain depth
may become as open to varied operations as is the land surface.




The Story of the Panama Canal


America has captured the forces of Nature, harnessed the floods and made
the desert bloom, builded gigantic bridges and arrogant skyscrapers and
bored roadways through solid rock and beneath water, but the most
spectacular of all spectacular accomplishments is the Panama Canal.

Some four centuries ago, Balboa, the intrepid, the persevering, led his
little band of adventurers across the Isthmus of Darien, as it was then
called, and, leaving their protection, gave rein to his impatience by
going on ahead and climbing alone, slowly and painfully, the continental
divide, from which vantage point he discovered the world’s largest
ocean.

We are told that, later, gathering his followers, he walked out into the
surf and with his sword in his right hand and the banner of Castile in
his left gave the vast expanse of water its present name and claimed all
the land washed by its waves the lawful property of the proud country to
which he owed allegiance.

The narrowness of the Isthmus naturally suggested the cutting of a
waterway through it. It interposed between Atlantic and Pacific a
barrier in places less than fifty miles wide. To sail from Colon to
Panama--forty-five miles as the bird flies--required a voyage around
Cape Horn--some ten thousand miles. Yet it was nearly four centuries
before any actual effort was made to construct such a canal.

In 1876 an organization was perfected in France for making surveys and
collecting data on which to base the construction of a canal across the
Isthmus of Panama, and in 1878, a concession for prosecuting the work
was secured from the Colombian Government. In May, 1879, an
international congress was convened, under the auspices of Ferdinand de
Lesseps, to consider the question of the best location and plan of the
canal.

The Panama Canal Company was organized, with Ferdinand de Lesseps as its
president, and the stock of this company was successfully floated in
December, 1880. The two years following were devoted largely to surveys,
examinations and preliminary work. In 1889 the company went into
bankruptcy and operations were suspended until the new Panama Canal
Company was organized in 1894.


The United States to the Rescue.

The United States, not unmindful of the advantages of an Isthmian Canal,
had from time to time, made surveys of the various routes. With a view
to government ownership and control, Congress directed an investigation,
with the result that the Commission reported, on November 16, 1901, in
favor of Panama and recommended the lock type of canal, appraising the
value of the rights, franchises, concessions, lands, unfinished work,
plans and other property, including the railroad of the new Panama Canal
Company, at $40,000,000. An act of Congress, approved June 28, 1902,
authorized the President of the United States to acquire this property
at this figure, and also to secure from the Republic of Colombia
perpetual control of a strip of land not less than six miles wide across
the Isthmus and the right to excavate, construct and operate and protect
thereon a canal of such depth and capacity as would afford convenient
passage to the largest ships now in use or which might be reasonably
anticipated.

Later on a treaty was made with the Republic of Panama whereby the
United States was granted control of a ten-mile strip constituting the
Canal Zone. This was ratified by the Republic of Panama on December 2,
1903, and by the United States on February 23, 1904. On May 4, 1904,
work was begun under United States control.

[Illustration: UNCLE SAM’S BIG WORK AT PANAMA

A bird’s-eye view of the great canal, showing how the Atlantic and
Pacific Oceans are here joined.]

[Illustration: _Courtesy of The Ingersoll Rand Company._

DRILLING ROCK, PANAMA CANAL

These powerful steam drills are capable of sinking holes in the solid
rock at the rate of seven feet per hour.]


The Canal and the Navy.

The opening of the canal has greatly increased the effectiveness of the
Navy of the United States. It has reduced the distance between the
central points of the Atlantic and Pacific coasts from 13,000 to 5,000
miles and greatly reduced the problem of coaling on a cruise from coast
to coast. It has made possible the concentration of a fleet at either
entrance of the canal which, with a cruising speed of fifteen knots,
could reach the center of the Pacific coast in nine days and the center
of the Atlantic coast in five days.

Where, formerly, the fleets stationed opposite the middle of each coast
were, from a cruising point of view, as far apart as opposite sides of
the world, they are now as near as if one were off New York and the
other off Buenos Aires.

With regard to the monetary saving to the United States resulting from
the availability of the canal for naval use, it is apparent that the
distance and time between the coasts have been reduced to less than
two-fifths of the former figures. The cost of coast-to-coast movements
is reduced accordingly, for though vessels of the Navy pay tolls, such
payment is in effect a transfer of money from one branch of the
government to another.

The strategic importance of the canal is inestimable from a monetary
standpoint.


The Great Canal.

The Isthmus of Panama runs east and west and the canal traverses it from
Colon on the north to Panama on the south in a general direction from
northwest to southeast, the Pacific terminus being twenty-two miles east
of the Atlantic entrance. The principal features of the canal are a
sea-level entrance channel from the east through Limon Bay to Gatun,
about seven miles long, five-hundred-foot bottom width and
forty-one-foot depth at mean tide. At Gatun the eighty-five-foot lake
level is obtained by a dam across the valley. The lake is confined on
the Pacific side by a dam between the hills at Pedro Miguel, thirty-two
miles away. The lake thus formed has an area of 164 square miles and a
channel depth of not less than forty-five feet at normal stage.

At Gatun ships pass from the sea to the lake level, and vice versa, by
three locks in flight. On the Pacific side there is one lowering of
thirty feet at Pedro Miguel to a small lake fifty-five feet above sea
level, held by dam at Miraflores, where two lowerings overcome the
difference of level to the sea. The channel between the locks on the
Pacific side is five hundred feet wide at the bottom and forty-five feet
deep, and below the Miraflores locks the sea-level section, about eight
miles in length, is five hundred feet wide at the bottom and forty-five
feet deep at mean tide. Through the lake the bottom widths are not less
than one thousand feet for about sixteen miles, eight hundred feet for
about four miles, five hundred feet for about three miles and through
the continental divide from Bas Obispo to Pedro Miguel, a distance of
about nine miles, the bottom width is three hundred feet. The total
length of the canal from deep water in the Caribbean, forty-one-foot
depth at mean tide to deep water in the Pacific, forty-five-foot depth
at mean tide, is practically fifty miles, fifteen miles of which are at
sea level.


The Hydroelectric Station.

The hydroelectric station uses water from Gatun Lake for driving three
turbo-generators of 2,000-kilowatt capacity each, which supply
electricity for the operation of the lock and spillway machinery, the
terminal shops and adjacent facilities, and for the lighting of the
locks and the canal villages and fortifications. Transmission over the
Zone is effected through four substations and a connecting high voltage
transmission line which follows the main line of the Panama Railroad.

[Illustration: SUBMARINES USED IN DEFENDING THE PANAMA CANAL

The vessels here shown are used in defense of the Pacific side of the
canal. They appear as anchored in the new concrete docks at Colon,
preparatory to their passage through the canal, after having made the
longest sea voyage then on record for submarines.

_Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y._]

[Illustration: _Copyright by the International News Service._

THROUGH THE PANAMA CANAL

The U. S. battleship “Ohio” in the east chamber of the Pedro Miguel
Locks. On the left is seen the electric locomotive used in drawing
vessels through.]

[Illustration: LADDER DREDGE, PANAMA CANAL]

[Illustration: SUCTION DREDGE, PANAMA CANAL

The upper view shows a ladder dredge, which operates by means of buckets
on a continuous chain, dipping the contents of the buckets into the scow
which lies alongside. The lower view shows a suction dredge, which
operates on soft mud or sands, pumping the discharge through the pipe
seen at the left of the illustration. The pipe may be carried to any
desired point and used for filling.]

[Illustration: _Copyright, C. H. Graves Co._

GATUN LOCKS

A. Sea-level section of canal, seven miles long, from Atlantic Ocean to
Gatun Locks, where by a series of three locks vessels are raised to
Gatun Lake, eighty-five feet above sea level. B. Small area of land
dredged away as soon as Gatun Locks were completed. C. Electric towing
motor, four of which tow each vessel entirely through the locks. They
run on cog rail along the lock walls. D. Lock gate under construction.
E. Floor of first lock from Atlantic side. Note holes in floor for
admitting the water. F. Lock for vessels coming from Pacific side. G.
Base on which concrete posts were erected for electric lights. A row of
lights on all sides of the locks making operation at night as safe as
day. H. Incline from locks of different levels up and down which the
towing motors run on cog rails.]

[Illustration: GAILLARD CUT LOOKING SOUTH FROM BEND IN EAST BANK NEAR
GAMBOA

The train and shovel are standing on the bottom of the cut. The water in
the drainage canal is about ten feet below the bottom of the canal, or
at elevation +30.]

[Illustration: A CYLINDRICAL VALVE MACHINE, MOTOR AND LIMIT SWITCH

This machine is one of many which are used to regulate the flow of water
to the locks. All valves are controlled from a central operating station
on each of the three sets of locks. The limit switch automatically shuts
off the power and stops the motor when the valve is entirely open or
shut.]

[Illustration: CUCARACHA SLIDE ATTACKED BY A FLEET OF DREDGES

This great slide was the source of much trouble to the engineers. At one
time it entirely blocked the canal at the narrow point shown in this
photograph, but the seven dredges of the ladder, suction and dipper
type, made short work of cutting the 150-foot channel shown here, and
then proceeded with the work of entirely clearing the cut. The view
looks north from the slide past Gold and Contractor’s Hills.

_Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y._]

[Illustration: STEAM SHOVEL BURIED UNDER FALL OF ROCK]

[Illustration: THE GREAT GAILLARD CUT

At this point the canal is cut through what is practically a mountain
range. The material excavated consisted largely of rock and formed one
of the hugest engineering problems in the world’s history. The cut is
nine miles long, 300 feet wide, 272 feet greatest depth and required the
excavation of 100,000,000 cubic yards of material.]

Gatun Lake, impounded by Gatun Dam, has an area of 164 square miles when
its surface is at the normal elevation of eighty-five feet above sea
level, and is the largest artificially-formed lake in the world. The
area of the water-shed tributary to the lake is 1,320 square miles.
During the rainy season, from April to the latter part of December, the
run-off from this basin exceeds considerably the consumption of water,
and the surplus is discharged through the spillway of Gatun Dam. Toward
the end of the rainy season the surface of the lake is raised to about
eighty-seven feet above sea level, in order to afford a surplus or
reserve supply to keep the channel full to operating depth during the
dry season, in part of which the consumption and evaporation are in
excess of the supply. It is calculated that when this level has been
attained at the beginning of the dry season the reserve is sufficient to
assure a surface elevation of at least seventy-nine feet at the end of
the dry season in spite of the consumption at the hydroelectric station,
and allowing forty-one passages of vessels through the locks each day
with the use of the full length of the chambers, or fifty-eight lockages
a day when the shorter sections of the chambers are used and cross
filling is employed, which would usually be the case. This is a greater
number of lockages than can be made in one day.

[Illustration: STEAM SHOVEL LOADING ROCK

These great machines, which are able to dig out and load several tons of
material at each operation, made the rapid progress in digging the canal
possible.]


Gigantic Obstacles.

The greatest difficulty encountered in the excavation of the canal was
due to slides and breaks which caused large masses of material to slide
or move into the excavated area, closing off the drainage, upsetting
steam shovels and tearing up the tracks. The greatest slide was at
Cucaracha, and gave trouble when the French first began cutting in 1884.
Though at first confined to a length of 800 feet, the slide extended to
include the entire basin south of Gold Hill, or a length of about 3,000
feet. Some idea of the magnitude of these slides can be obtained from
the fact that during the fiscal year 1910 of 14,921,750 cubic yards that
were removed, 2,649,000 yards, or eighteen per cent, were from slides or
breaks that had previously existed or that had developed during the
year.

[Illustration: ONE OF THE GUARD GATES, GATUN LOCKS, PANAMA CANAL

Each lock is provided with four gates. This shows the method of
construction, the gate being only partially finished.]

[Illustration: GATUN UPPER LOCKS, EAST CHAMBER

The view is looking north from the forebay showing the upper guard gates
and emergency dam.]

The one greatest undertaking of the whole excavation was the Gaillard
Cut. Work had been in progress on this since 1880, and during the French
control over 20,000,000 cubic yards were removed. On May 4, 1904, when
the United States took charge, it was estimated that there was left to
excavate 150,000,000 cubic yards. Some idea of the size of this big cut
may be formed from the fact that this division has within its
jurisdiction over 200 miles of five-foot-gage track laid, about
fifty-five miles of which is within the side slopes of the Gaillard Cut
alone.


Gatun Dam.

The great dam at Gatun is a veritable hill--7,500 feet over all, 2,100
feet wide at the base, 398 feet through at the water surface, and 100
feet wide at the top, which is 115 feet above sea level. The dimensions
of the dam are such as to assure that ample provision is made against
every force which may affect its safety, and while it is made of dirt, a
thing before unheard of, it is of such vast proportions that it is as
strong and firm as the everlasting hills themselves.

Fluctuations in the lake due to floods are controlled by an immense
spillway dam built of concrete. The front of the dam is the arc of a
circle 740 feet long with fourteen openings which, when the gates are
raised to the full height, permit a discharge of 140,000 cubic feet per
second. The water thus discharged passes through a diversion channel in
the old bed of the Chagres River, generating, by an enormous electric
plant, the power necessary for operating the locks.

The locks of the canal are in pairs, so that if any lock is out of
service navigation will not be interrupted, also, when all the locks are
in use the passage of shipping is expedited by using one set of locks
for the ascent and the other for descent. These locks are 110 feet wide
and have usable lengths of 1,000 feet. The system of filling adopted
consists of a culvert in each side wall feeding laterals from which are
openings upward into the lock chamber. The entire lock can be filled or
emptied in fifteen minutes and forty-two seconds when one culvert is
used and seven minutes and fifty-one seconds, using both culverts. It
requires about ten hours for a large ship to make the entire trip
through the canal.


Meeting all Emergencies.

Many extraordinary feats of engineering were accomplished to overcome
the difficulties presented. Special contrivances, wonderful in their
operation, were invented to meet exigencies and emergencies.

The first and greatest problem attempted by the United States was to
make the Canal Zone healthful. This strip of land from ocean to ocean
abounded in disease-breeding swamps and filthy habitations unfit for
human beings. The death-rate was appalling and the labor conditions
terrible. During the first two and a half years, therefore, all energies
were devoted to ridding the Isthmus of disease by sanitation, to
recruiting and organizing a working force and providing for it suitable
houses, hotels, messes, kitchens and an adequate food supply. This work
included clearing lands, draining and filling pools and swamps for the
extermination of the mosquito, the establishment of hospitals for the
care of the sick and injured and the building of suitable quarantine
quarters. Municipal improvements were undertaken in Panama and Colon and
the various settlements in the Canal Zone, such as the construction of
reservoirs, pavements and a system of modern roads. Over 2,000 buildings
were constructed besides the remodeling of 1,500 buildings turned over
by the French company.

[Illustration: LOCK GATE OPERATING MACHINERY

_Photograph, Underwood & Underwood, N. Y._

The great gear wheel, known as a “bull wheel,” is connected with one
leaf of the gate on the right by means of a strut so that revolving the
bull wheel by means of an electric motor through a train of gears
results in opening or closing the gate.]

[Illustration: PANAMA, PAST AND PRESENT

Scene showing the repaving of one of Panama’s old muddy streets with
vitrified brick. Sewers and water pipes were laid throughout the city,
resulting in a great reduction of disease.]

It was only after all this preliminary sanitation was accomplished that
the real work of digging the canal could go forward with any hope of
success. These hygienic conditions had the result of making the Canal
Zone one of the most healthful spots in the world, and work on the canal
became so popular that it was no longer necessary to enlist recruits
from the West Indies, the good pay, fair treatment and excellent living
conditions bringing thousands of laborers from Spain and Italy. The
greatest number employed at any one time was 45,000, of which 5,000 were
American.


A Battle Won.

The completion of this herculean task marked an epoch in the history of
the world. A gigantic battle against floods and torrents, pestilence and
swamps, tropical rivers, jungles and rock-ribbed mountains had been
fought--and won! Well worthy a place in the halls of immortal fame are
the names of the thousands of sturdy sons who, with ingenuity, pluck and
perseverance never before equaled, succeeded in making a pathway for the
nations of the world from ocean to ocean.

This great and daring undertaking, which had for its object the opening
up of new trade routes and lines of commerce, annihilating distance and
wiping out the width of two continents between New York and Yokohama and
making the Atlantic seaboard and the Pacific coast close neighbors, is
the climax of man’s achievement and the greatest gift to civilization.
It will help in the consummation of man’s loftiest dreams of world
friendship and world peace.[2] So far, in the use of the canal, over
forty per cent of the vessels which have passed through it have been
engaged in the coastwise trade of the United States--each of them saving
about 7,800 miles on each trip. If their average speed be taken at ten
knots, they have averaged a saving of over a month at sea on each voyage
from coast to coast. Where formerly the round trip of a ten-knot vessel
required about fifty-five days’ actual steaming, the time at sea for the
same trip for the same vessel is now reduced to about twenty-two days.

The canal makes San Francisco nearer to Liverpool by 5,666 miles, a
saving of two-fifths of the old journey by Magellan. The distance
between San Francisco and Gibraltar has been reduced from 12,571 miles
to 7,621 miles, a saving of 4,950 miles, or thirty-nine per cent of the
former distance.

From San Francisco to Buenos Aires, via Valparaiso and Magellan, is
approximately 7,610 miles, which is shorter than the route through the
canal, by which the distance is 8,941 miles. To Rio de Janeiro, the
distance via Magellan is 8,609 miles; by the canal 7,885 miles. To
Pernambuco, on the eastern promontory of South America, the distance via
Magellan is 9,748 miles; via the canal 6,746 miles. To Para the
distances via Magellan and via the canal are 10,852 and 5,642 miles,
respectively.

From San Francisco to Freetown, on the west coast of middle Africa, the
distance by the most practicable route, using the Strait of Magellan, is
11,380 miles. Through the canal and by way of the island of Barbados,
the distance is 7,277 miles. The new route is less than two-thirds of
the former.

With reference to the trade between the Atlantic coast of the United
States and the west coast of South America, New York is nearer to
Valparaiso by 3,717 miles by virtue of the canal; to Iquique, one of the
great nitrate ports, by 4,139 miles; and to Guayaquil by 7,405 miles.
From New York to Guayaquil the present distance of 2,765 miles is
approximately twenty-seven per cent of the former distance--10,270
miles.

[Illustration: FORTY TONS OF DYNAMITE DESTROY THE LAST BARRIER BETWEEN
THE OCEANS

The blowing up of Gamboa Dike, the last of the dikes in the Panama
Canal. This dike separated the water in the Gatun locks from Gaillard
Cut. The removal of the dike by a discharge of forty tons of dynamite,
set off by President Wilson, from Washington, was the last stage in the
completion of the great waterway. Dredges were put to work immediately
widening the channel at Cucaracha slide in Gaillard Cut, so that within
a short time the canal was ready for use throughout its entire length.

_Copyright by Underwood & Underwood._]

[Illustration: STEAM SHOVEL AT WORK IN GAILLARD CUT, WITH LARGE ROCK IN
MOUTH OF SHOVEL

The great progress made in digging the Panama Canal was largely due to
the steam shovels.]

As to the Far East, New York is nearer to Yokohama by 3,768 miles than
formerly by way of the Suez Canal, but the latter route is eighteen
miles shorter than the Panama route for vessels plying between New York
and Hongkong. New York is forty-one miles nearer Manila by Panama than
by Suez, and 3,932 miles nearer Sydney by Panama. New York is now, by
virtue of the Panama Canal, nearer than Liverpool to Yokohama by 1,880
miles, and nearer than Liverpool to Sydney by 2,424 miles.

When the ship enters the harbor of either of the terminal ports it is
boarded by officers of the canal who examine its bill of health and
clearance, see that its certificate of canal measurement is properly
made out, and ascertain any of the vessel’s needs in the matters of
fuel, supplies, extra men to handle the lines during the passage of the
locks, etc. These matters are immediately reported to the Captain of the
Port, who gives the necessary orders to insure proper attendance on the
vessel’s needs and directs its start through the canal whenever it is
ready.

In all stages of its transit of the canal the vessel must have on board
a government pilot. There is no charge for pilotage on vessels going
directly through the canal without stopping to discharge cargo or
passengers at the terminal ports. The pilot is on board in an advisory
capacity and is required to confer with the master of the vessel, giving
him the benefit of his knowledge and advice as to the handling of the
vessel in the various reaches, but the master, who is best acquainted
with the peculiarities of his vessel and her ways of answering the helm,
is responsible for the navigation of the vessel, except when she is
passing through the locks.

The handling of a vessel during its transit of the canal is like the
handling of a railway train on its “run.” The course is equipped with
all requisite signals, facilities for mooring, like sidings, and a
system of communication between points along the line, which includes a
special telephone system connecting all the important points of control
in series.

As soon as the vessel starts on its transit of the canal, the Captain of
the Port at the point of entrance telephones its starting to the other
stations along the course. As the vessel arrives and departs from each
of these points, the fact is telephoned along the line, so that there is
exact knowledge at each station all the time of the status of traffic,
and complete co-operation from the several points of control.

The transit of the canal requires about ten hours, of which
approximately three hours are spent in the locks. In the sea-level
channels and Gaillard (formerly “Culebra”) Cut the speed of vessels is
limited to six knots; through Gatun Lake they may make ten, twelve and
fifteen knots, according to the width of the channel. A vessel may clear
from the canal port at which it enters and, after passing through the
last of the locks, put direct to sea without further stop.

The handling of a vessel all through the canal, except in the locks, is
essentially the same as its handling through any charted channel where
observance of signals, ranges and turns is necessary. The canal channel
throughout is very accurately charted, fully equipped with aids to
navigation, and governed by explicit rules with which the pilots, of
course, are thoroughly familiar.

In the locks, the vessel is under the control of the lock-operating
force. As the vessel approaches the locks, the operator in charge at the
control house indicates by an electrically operated signal at the outer
end of the approach wall if the vessel shall enter the locks and, if so,
on which side; or if it shall keep back or moor alongside the approach
wall. If everything is ready for the transit of the locks, the vessel
approaches the center approach wall, which is a pier extending about a
thousand feet from the locks proper, lines are thrown out, and
connections are made with the electric towing locomotives on the
approach wall.

The vessel then moves forward slowly until it is in the entrance
chamber, when lines are thrown out on the other side and connections are
made with towing locomotives on the side wall. Six locomotives are used
for the larger vessels, three on each wall of the lock chamber. Two keep
forward of the vessel, pulling and holding her head to the center of the
chamber; two aft, holding the vessel in check; and two slightly forward
of amidships, which do most of the towing of the vessel through the
chamber. The locomotives are powerful affairs, secured against slipping
by the engagement of cogs with a rack running along the center of the
track, and equipped with a slip drum and towing windlass, which allow
the prompt paying out and taking in of hawser as required. No trouble
has been experienced in maintaining absolute control over the vessels.

The water within the lock chamber proper, beyond the entrance chamber,
is brought to the level of that in the approach, the gates toward the
vessel are opened, the fender chain is lowered, and the locomotives
maneuver the vessel into the chamber and bring it to rest. The gates are
then closed, the water raised or lowered, as the case may be, to the
level of that in the next chamber, the gates at the other end are
opened, and the vessel moved forward. Three such steps are made at
Gatun, two at Miraflores, and one at Pedro Miguel.

When the vessel has passed into the approach chamber at the end of the
locks, the lines from the towing locomotives on the side wall are first
cast off, then those from the locomotives on the approach wall, and the
vessel clears under its own power.

Towing is not ordinarily required in any part of the canal, except in
the locks, for steam or motor vessels. Tug service for sailing ships or
vessels without motive power is at the rate of $15 per hour. If the
channel in the cut has been disturbed by a slide, tugs may be used to
handle vessels past the narrow places, but in such cases there is no
charge for the service to vessels of less than 15,000 gross tonnage.

       *       *       *       *       *


What is a Geyser?

The famous geyser shown in the illustration is called “Old Faithful”
because of the clock-like regularity of its eruptions. For over twenty
years it has been spouting at average intervals of sixty-five minutes.

Geysers were first observed in Iceland and the name, therefore, comes
from that language, being derived from the word “geysa,” meaning “to
gush” or “rush forth.” That is just what they do.

There are really three different kinds of geysers; one which throws up
hot water, either continually or, like “Old Faithful,” at intervals; one
which simply emits steam and no water and one which is a sort of a
hot-water cistern.

The “Grand Geyser” at Firehole Basin in Yellowstone Park is the most
magnificent natural fountain in the whole world. The “Great Geyser” and
the “New Geyser” are the most remarkable ones in Iceland, where there
are about a hundred altogether. The basin of the former is about seventy
feet in diameter, and at times it throws up a column of hot water to the
height of from eighty to two hundred feet in the air.

The hot-lake district of Auckland, New Zealand, is also famous in
possessing some of the most remarkable geyser scenery in the world. It
was formerly noted for the number of natural terraces containing hot
water pools, and its lakes all filled at intervals by boiling geysers
and hot springs, but the formation of the country was considerably
altered by a disastrous volcanic outbreak in 1886, its beautiful pink
and white terraces being destroyed. It still has, however, a circular
rocky basin, forty feet in diameter, in which a violent geyser is
constantly boiling up to the height of ten to twelve feet, emitting
dense clouds of steam. This is one of the natural wonders of the
southern hemisphere and is much visited by tourists traveling through
New Zealand.

[Illustration: _Photo by Brown Bros._

“OLD FAITHFUL” IN ERUPTION]


What Kind of Dogs are Prairie-Dogs?

Prairie-dogs are not really dogs at all, but a kind of a squirrel called
a marmot. As the visitors to city Zoological Parks already know, these
animals make little mounds of earth, and a great many of these are found
in one locality, which is known as a “dog-town.” It is possible to
travel for days at a time through country which is dotted over with
mounds, every one of which is the home of a pair or more of
prairie-dogs. These mounds are usually about eighteen feet apart, and
consist of about as much earth as would fill a very large wheelbarrow.
This is thrown up by the prairie-dog when he digs out his subterranean
home. His dwelling sometimes has one entrance and sometimes two, and
there are many much-traveled paths between the different hillocks,
showing that they are very neighborly and sociable with one another.

In choosing a town site, they select one which is covered with short,
coarse grass, such as is found especially in fields on high ground and
mountain sides, for it is on this grass and certain roots that the
prairie-dogs feed. On the plains of New Mexico, where for miles you will
not find a drop of water unless you dig down into the earth for a
hundred feet or so, with no rain for several months at a time, there are
many very large “dog-towns,” and it is, therefore, clear that they are
able to live without drinking, obtaining enough moisture for their needs
from a heavy fall of dew.

At about the end of October, when the grass dries up and the ground
becomes frozen hard, so that digging is out of the question, the
prairie-dog creeps into his burrow, blocking up the opening in order to
keep out the cold and make everything snug, and goes to sleep until the
following spring, without having had to lay up a store of food, as some
animals do, to last him through the long, hard winter months. If he
opens up his house again before the end of cold weather, the Indians say
it is a sure sign that warmer days are near at hand.

If one approaches very cautiously so as not to be observed, a large
“dog-town” presents a very curious sight. A happy, animated scene
stretches away as far as the eye can see. Little prairie-dogs are found
everywhere, on the top of their mounds, sitting up like squirrels,
waving their tails from side to side and yelping to each other, until a
most cheerful-sounding concert is produced. If you listen carefully, as
you draw nearer, however, you will notice a different tone in the calls
of the older and more experienced animals, and that is the warning
signal for the whole population to disappear from view into their
burrows. Then, if one hides quietly in the background and waits
patiently for some time, sentinels will mount up to their posts of
observation on top of the mounds and announce that it is safe to come
out of their burrows and play about again, as the danger is past.


What is Spontaneous Combustion?

Spontaneous combustion is the burning of a substance or body by the
internal development of heat without the application of fire.

It not infrequently takes place among heaps of rags, wool and cotton
when sodden with oil; hay and straw when damp or moistened with water;
and coal in the bunkers of vessels.

In the first case, the oil rapidly combines with the oxygen of the air,
this being accompanied by great heat. In the second case, the heat is
produced by a kind of fermentation; and in the third, by the pyrites of
the coal rapidly absorbing and combining with the oxygen of the air.

The term is also applied to the extraordinary phenomenon of the human
body, which has been told of some people, whereby it is reduced to ashes
without the application of fire. It is said to have occurred in the aged
and persons that were fat and hard drinkers, but most chemists reject
the theory and altogether discredit it.




The Story in the Talking Machine[3]


As far back as 1855 inventors were experimenting with talking machines;
but nothing practical was accomplished till 1877, when Thomas A. Edison
constructed a primitive machine capable of recording and reproducing
sounds. In the early Edison phonograph the sound vibrations were
registered on a tinfoil-covered cylinder. Busy with other inventions, he
postponed developing the idea of a talking machine; and meantime other
brains were at work on the problem.

[Illustration: FIRST PRACTICAL TALKING MACHINE]

[Illustration: ONE OF THE EARLIER TYPES OF SPRING MOTOR GRAPHOPHONES]

In 1885 Chichester A. Bell (cousin of Alexander Graham Bell, of
telephone fame) and Charles Sumner Tainter invented the “graphophone.”
This was the first practical and commercially usable talking machine.
The experiments and discoveries resulting in the production of the Bell
and Tainter graphophone were made in the laboratories of Alexander
Graham Bell, near Washington, D. C., and the latter assisted and advised
with the inventors, and on his own behalf conducted experiments which
were productive of highly important results in the art of recording and
reproducing sound.

The Bell and Tainter patent was granted in 1886, and although the
subject of much controversy, it has been repeatedly sustained by the
United States courts, and in one case (87 F. R. 873) Judge Shipman had
to consider all that other inventors had done or attempted to do, and he
there decided that Bell and Tainter were the first to make “an actual
living invention which the public was able to use.”

[Illustration: OSCAR SEAGLE, THE WELL-KNOWN SOLOIST, RECORDING

The artist stands before the horn and his every note is recorded with a
fidelity startling in the extreme.]

This method covered “a method of engraving records of sound, producing
records of sound by engraving in a wax-like material which would permit
of the handling, using and transporting of the record.” Another United
States patent, covering a method of duplicating or copying sound
records, was granted to Charles Sumner Tainter in 1886.

[Illustration: THE MACDONALD GRAPHOPHONE GRAND]

Of course the talking machine of to-day is a long way removed from the
early Edison and the early Bell and Tainter machines, because many
master minds have been working on the problem of developing and maturing
the art of sound recording and reproducing, and in perfecting machines
to be used in reproducing the sound records after they have been made.

Disk records have taken the place of the old-style cylinder records, the
latter being confined for the most part to dictating machines for office
use, as the Dictaphone, which has largely displaced the shorthand writer
in many business houses.

[Illustration: IN BAND AND ORCHESTRA RECORDING EACH INSTRUMENT IS AT A
DIFFERENT ELEVATION]

[Illustration: LEOPOLD GODOWSKY, ONE OF THE WORLD’S GREATEST PIANISTS,
MAKING A RECORD

The bell at the left is rung to advise the artist that the recorder is
ready and the flashing of the light at the right is the signal to begin
playing.]

Since the original Thomas A. Edison patents and the Bell and Tainter
patent there have been many thousands granted, but only a few need be
referred to as constituting the milestones in the evolution and
development of the art and industry.

First in point of time and importance is the Macdonald Spring Motor, the
invention of Thomas Hood Macdonald, a prolific inventor and contributor
of many valuable improvements to the talking machine art and industry.
The Bell and Tainter machine was operated by a storage battery and this
was an inconvenient and expensive form of power. To meet this condition
the Macdonald Spring Motor was invented and from the start proved a
tremendous success. Today most of the clockwork motor talking machines
are built upon the principles disclosed in the Macdonald Spring Motor
patent.

[Illustration: AN UP-TO-DATE TALKING MACHINE MODEL]

The next important step was the discovery by Macdonald that a critical
speed for the surface of the record must be obtained in order to secure
best results, and this wonderful principle in the art of sound recording
was protected by United States patent issued to Macdonald covering what
is known as the Macdonald Graphophone Grand. This discovery and
invention has been largely instrumental in the rapid development of
sound recording.

Although Bell and Tainter disclosed a method of recording sound on a
flat surface, all of the earlier forms of talking-machine records were
what are known as cylindrical, records in a cylindrical form. Later the
disc record came into use and is now the most popular form. Relatively
very few cylinder records are manufactured at the present time. The
process of sound recording, as applied to disc records, is covered by
United States patent to J. W. Jones, and marks a further important stage
in the development of the art and industry.

In present-day sound recording the operation is briefly as follows: A
recording machine is employed on which is mounted a rotating turntable
carrying a wax-like disc blank. Suspended above, but in contact with the
surface of the blank, is a recording needle or stylus, attached to a
diaphragm which, in turn, is connected to an amplifying horn. The horn
extends beyond the machine and the singer, band or orchestra is
stationed in front of the mouth of this horn. As the singer interprets
the song the vibrations set up by the singer’s voice are communicated to
the diaphragm by the passage of the sound through the horn. These
vibrations, striking upon the diaphragm, set in motion the recording
needle or stylus, causing it to move rapidly, and its motion is traced
upon the surface of the rotating disc in a line which is known as the
sound line. Looked at with the naked eye this line has the appearance of
a spiral traced upon the surface of the wax-like blank, but examined
under a magnifying glass it shows myriad little indentations or grooves
in the wall of the sound line. These indentations correspond to the
vibrations imparted to the needle through the diaphragm, and are the
recorded sounds made by the singer or band. When the song or selection
is finished the surface of the wax-like blank has been covered over with
this spiral sound line. The blank has become the “master record,” and
the first stage of producing a talking-machine record has been passed.
The next step is to secure from this master record a metallic
counterpart or shell. This is done by the electro-plating process. When
the shell is secured the next step is to provide a matrix which serves
as a die or stamp from which to press copies or duplicates of the master
record. These copies or duplicates are the talking-machine records which
the public ultimately purchases. The matrix or die is placed in a power
press and the records pressed from the material used in making the sound
records. This material is prepared in a plastic form so that it can be
forced under pressure into every line and indentation on the face of the
matrix.

[Illustration: INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC IS RECORDED AS FAITHFULLY AS VOCAL

Barrere, the great flute player and orchestra leader, is shown making a
popular record.]

The discovery of the art of recording and reproducing sound; the
development of that art into a giant industry, and the present-day
universal sovereignty of the talking machine are tributes to American
inventive genius and American industrial enterprise. The contributions
to the art and the improvements in the manufacture of talking machines
and talking-machine records from sources outside of the United States
have been very unimportant. The industry employs many thousands of
people in the manufacture of these instruments and records which afford
entertainment, instruction and amusement to the entire world.

       *       *       *       *       *


What are Petrified Forests?

In the first place, petrification is the name we give to the animal and
vegetable bodies which have, by slow process, been converted into stone.
We mean very much the same thing when we refer to “Fossil Forests.”

Although in most instances there are comparatively few traces of its
vegetable origin left, coal owes its existence primarily to the vast
masses of vegetable matter deposited through the luxuriant growth of
plants in former epochs of the earth’s history, and since slowly
converted into a petrified state.

Coal fields today present abundant indications of the existence of huge
ancient forests, usually in the form of coal formed from the roots of
the trees. Several such forests have been uncovered, of which one in
Nova Scotia is a good example, remains of trees having been found there,
six to eight feet high, one tree even measuring twenty-five feet in
height and four feet in diameter.

The remains of a fossil forest have been found in an upright position in
France, and in a colliery in England, in a space of about one-quarter of
an acre, there have been found the fossilized stumps of seventy-three
trees, with roots attached, and broken-off trunks lying about, one of
them thirty feet long and all of them turned into coal.

A remarkable group of petrified trees, some of them twelve feet in
diameter, exists in California, and another in Yellowstone Park, in
which the trees are still erect, though converted into stone. An
extraordinary forest of such trees has been found in Arizona, lying over
a wide space of ground, some of them six feet in diameter and perfectly
preserved.

These trees are rather mineralized than fossilized. They are found in
volcanic regions and are supposed to be due to the action of hot water,
which carried off the organic material and deposited dissolved silica in
its place. In some instances the wood has been converted into solid
jasper or has been changed into opal or agate, or filled with chalcedony
or crystallized quartz, with beautifully variegated colors.

[Illustration: TREES THAT HAVE TURNED TO STONE

A scene in one of the Petrified Forests of Arizona. Broken trunks of
trees are lying all about.]


What Animals are the Best Architects?

Animals of a great many different kinds have helped show man the way, in
taking advantage of the opportunities which nature affords him to feed,
clothe and protect himself, but one of the smallest of the animal
kingdom is probably the cleverest of all--the spider. Spiders have many
different kinds of enemies, ranging from man down to the very smallest,
but dangerous, insects, and most of their enemies possess enormous
advantages over them in either strength or agility, or both combined;
enemies with wings, swift in movement and able to retreat where the
spider cannot follow them; enemies clad in an impenetrable coat of
armor, against which the spider’s weapons are powerless, while the
spider’s own body is soft and vulnerable. These handicaps have been met
by the spider with a multitude of clever contrivances, and if invention
and skill are to be regarded as an index to intellectual development, it
should be very significant to realize how far spiders are ahead of our
near relatives, the almost human members of the monkey family.

One of the most interesting of the spider race is the “trap-door” spider
which inhabits warm countries all over the earth. The “trap-door” spider
not only builds a home for herself by digging a deep hole in the ground
and lining it with silk to prevent the sides from falling in, but she
also adds a neat little door to keep out the rain and other troublesome
things. She usually chooses sloping ground for her homestead so that the
door, which she fastens at the edge of its highest point by a strong
silk-elastic hinge, swings shut of its own weight after being opened.
She disguises the entrance to her home in a manner superior to the
famous art of concealment practiced by the Indians, by planting moss on
the outside of the door--living moss taken from the immediate
neighborhood--so that the entrance to her house harmonizes perfectly
with its surroundings, its discovery being made more difficult by the
fact that in her careful selection of a site for her dwelling she also
appears to be influenced by the presence of patches of white lichen
which distract the eye.

The male spider does not seem to take any part in designing,
constructing or decorating the home and does not even share its
occupancy, leaving it to the mother and her family--often forty or more
children at a time--and living a vagrant life, camping out in holes and
ditches when he is not tramping around over the whole countryside. The
mother spider, however, like many other animals, takes excellent charge
of her children, and guards them carefully from all harm. At the first
sign of a commotion going on outside her front door she is known to
invariably assemble her family behind her, out of harm’s way, and then
place her back against the swinging door, holding it shut with some of
her feet and clinging tightly to the inner walls of her home with the
others.

There is one kind of spider which has developed an even more elaborate
style of architecture, digging another room and adding an upper side
gallery to her main residence, and placing a second door at the junction
of the two tunnels. The doors are made to swing back and forth in both
directions, and she constructs a handle on the outer one, by which she
fastens it open with a few threads attached to any convenient grass
stems or little stones, when she expects to come home from a hunting
expedition with her arms full. If a dangerous enemy threatens her home
she usually retreats to the second room, in the hope that he will decide
she is out and depart in search of another victim elsewhere, but if he
discovers her secret, she slams the second swinging door in his face.
Should she be beaten in the pushing match at that point, she slips into
the upper side gallery opening above the door, and her enemy’s presence
within the inner room automatically blocks the entrance to her hiding
place by holding up the swinging door across its only opening.




The Story of the Motorcycle[4]


Interest in the development of mechanically propelled two-wheel vehicles
began soon after the introduction of the bicycle in its first
practicable form. Man’s natural dislike for manual labor quickly found
objection to the physical effort of bicycle travel, and accordingly
sought to devise mechanical means of overcoming it.

[Illustration: COPELAND MODEL, 1884]

The earliest known attempt to construct a two-wheel vehicle which would
proceed under its own power was made by W. W. Austin, of Winthrop,
Mass., in the year 1868. This crude affair consisted of a small
velocipede upon which was mounted a crude coal-burning steam engine. The
piston rods of the engine were connected directly with cranks on the
rear wheel. The boiler was hung between the two wheels and directly back
of the saddle, while the engine cylinders were placed slightly above
horizontal just behind the boiler. Despite the crudity of this outfit,
Austin claimed that he had traveled some 2,200 miles on this, the
“granddaddy” of all motorcycles.

[Illustration: AUSTIN STEAM VELOCIPEDE, 1868]

[Illustration: ROPER’S MACHINE, 1886]

L. D. and W. E. Copeland, two Californian experimenters, are credited
with the next known effort to produce a two-wheeler which would travel
by its own power. Their first model appeared in 1884. The bicycle to
which this miniature steam-power plant of the Copeland brothers’
invention was attached was one of the old high-wheel models with the
small steering wheel forward. The steam engine of this truly ingenious
contrivance, together with the boiler and the driving pulley, weighed
only sixteen ounces. The Copeland model was probably the first
motorcycle to use belt drive. It should be understood that propulsion of
this first Copeland model was not intended to depend solely upon
mechanical power, but to be operated in connection with the foot pedals.

The Copeland brothers are to be credited with the first attempt to
produce the motorcycle upon a commercial basis, but their efforts were
unsuccessful. Their invention seemed to be far ahead of the times, and
their project passed by unappreciated.

In 1886, S. H. Roper, of Roxbury, Mass., appeared with a steam-propelled
bicycle which consisted of a specially designed engine placed in a
bicycle frame of the type with which we are familiar today. This
invention was awkward, and its weight of 150 pounds made it difficult to
handle, but in spite of that its inventor is said to have obtained
considerable use from it.

[Illustration: THE PENNINGTON MOTORCYCLE, 1895]

The year 1895 saw the first public exhibition of mechanically operated
two-wheel vehicles held at Madison Square Garden, New York City. The
sensation of the show was a motorcycle which was presented by E. J.
Pennington of Cleveland. This was the first public appearance of a cycle
propelled by a combustion engine, and in that regard it may be called
the first appearance of the motorcycle in the form that it is known
today. The Pennington machine was the first-known vehicle to attempt the
use of gasoline. History fails to relate a great deal about the
mechanical detail of the Pennington model, but it is said to have made a
very creditable performance in exhibition. It appeared at the Madison
Square Garden in two forms, as a single motorcycle and as a motor
tandem.

[Illustration: HEDSTROM MOTOR TANDEM, 1898]

There was little or no interest in motor vehicles of any description in
that period of the early nineties, consequently the Pennington efforts
were fruitless. Shortly after the public exhibition of his models,
financial difficulties are said to have overtaken Pennington and he is
reported to have departed suddenly for foreign climes, bringing his
experiments to an abrupt end.

[Illustration: A BIG TWIN MODEL]

[Illustration: AN UP-TO-DATE “FEATHERWEIGHT” MODEL]

Along in the late nineties a keen interest in bicycle racing led to the
introduction of what is known as the motor-paced tandem. This consisted
of a regulation tandem bicycle on which was mounted a gasoline motor
geared up to the rear wheel with a chain drive. The tandem rider on the
forward seat did the steering and the foot pedaling, and the rear rider
operated the motor. It is believed that the first of these tandems came
over here from France.

By 1898 the popularity of the motor-paced racing bicycle became so great
that attention was soon directed toward their manufacture. Chief among
the bicycle manufacturers who took up the making of the motor-paced
tandem was Oscar Hedstrom, a racer with many notable victories to his
credit. He believed that he could make a motor tandem which would prove
far superior to any other American machine made, if not better even than
any foreign machine.

[Illustration: CRADLE SPRING FRAME CONSTRUCTION]

The machine which he produced with a motor of his own design was entered
in some big races at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo in 1901
where nearly every record was broken. Mr. Hedstrom’s partner on this
tandem outfit was Henshaw, a bicycle racer of some repute. Following
their début on the motor tandem at Buffalo, this pair proceeded to make
records throughout the country, several of which still stand today.

In 1901 a bicycle manufacturer of Springfield, Mass., foresaw a future
for a motorcycle designed for pleasure purposes instead of exclusively
for racing. Hitherto, all motor-propelled cycles had used the power of
the engine of whatever form it was merely as an aid to locomotion. None
had been successful in producing a machine that could proceed anywhere
solely under its own power. Convinced that such a machine could be
produced, and certain that it would find a ready market, this
manufacturer set about to put his ideas into execution.

[Illustration: FIRST HEDSTROM MOTORCYCLE WITH TRI-CAR, 1902]

He recognized in Oscar Hedstrom, as the leader of the motor tandem
racing field, the man who knew more about combustion engines than any
other man in America, and accordingly enlisted his services. Oscar
Hedstrom retired to a little mechanical laboratory in Middletown, Conn.,
and in a short four months emerged with a completed motorcycle which he
had not only designed himself, but had constructed entirely by his own
labor. Its performance on its first trial trip was absolutely astounding
to every observer. In road tests under every conceivable condition, this
first motorcycle of Oscar Hedstrom’s displayed a perfection of
mechanical operation which had to that time never been approached. It
moved entirely under its own power, could climb hills and could travel
on the level road at speeds which had never before been exhibited by
vehicles of that type.

By reason of the successful performance of his first motorcycle, Oscar
Hedstrom is given the credit, in many quarters, for producing the first
motorcycle of practicable construction. All successful machines of this
type since then are said to have been modeled more or less on the
fundamental principles of that first Hedstrom machine. Part of
Hedstrom’s success was due to his mastery of the important problem of
carburetion, and a carburetor expressly designed for that first machine
constituted a marked step in motorcycle development. The leading
carburetors of today are said to be based upon the principles of the
first Hedstrom carburetor. The date of the appearance of the first
Hedstrom motorcycle was 1901.

Manufacture of the motorcycle upon a commercial scale forthwith
commenced in the bicycle manufactory at Springfield, Mass. Such is said
to have been the humble beginning of the motorcycle.

[Illustration: MODERN “SIDE-CAR” MODEL]

Their first motorcycle was offered to the public in 1902. Its mechanical
detail is worthy of note for the sake of comparison with the models of
the current year. Its motor was the Hedstrom single-cylinder motor of
1-3/4 horse-power; frame, 22 inches; tires, 1-3/4 inches, single tube;
chain drive; weight, 93 pounds. From the year 1902 to 1909, the style of
their motorcycle remained substantially the same in appearance. The
models of that period are referred to as “camel backs” by reason of the
location and shape of the gasoline tank on the rear mud guard. In 1909,
the loop frame was introduced to provide additional strength to the
machine, being required by the increased weight of the motor; 1906 saw
the introduction of twin cylinders for racing models, and the following
year they appeared in the regular models.

Motorcycle design has made wonderful progress. The powerful, easy-riding
machines of today with their many refinements are truly marvelous pieces
of mechanism. Mechanical perfection is as nearly approached as it is
possible for the best brains and the most approved methods of
manufacture to attain. There are numerous modern refinements which have
contributed materially to the present-day popularity of the motorcycle
that are worthy of special note. Chief of these is the kick-starter,
which enables the rider to start the engine of his machine without
mounting it upon a stand or pedaling on the road. Improved clutches,
gear ratios which permit varying speeds, double-braking systems and
electric lights are present-day refinements which add zest to the sport
of motorcycling.

One of the greatest of all motorcycling comfort creations is a device
known as the cradle spring frame which consists of pairs of cushion-leaf
springs of the semi-elliptical type, which are located at the rear of
the frame just beneath the saddle. This affords the maximum of riding
comfort by the elimination of all jar and jolt occasioned by an uneven
roadway.

Magneto ignition first appeared in 1908; previous to that date all
ignition had been dependent upon batteries of the ordinary dry-cell
variety.

The last two years has seen the introduction of what is known as the
light-weight model. This style of motorcycle has a smaller motor, which
is usually of the two-stroke type, single cylinder. The frame is of
lighter construction, the mechanism is simpler, and of course the speed
is reduced. This type of two-wheeler, however, finds favor among those
who like power and speed but in modified form. Lower initial cost and
lower operation expense are factors which especially recommend the
light-weight models.

[Illustration: MODERN DELIVERY VAN FOR GROCERS, DRUGGISTS, ETC.]

There has been considerable difference of opinion as regards the
comparative efficiency of chain drive and belt drive. The consensus of
opinion, however, seems to favor the chain drive, as evidenced by its
use on most of the leading makes of present-day machines. Some of the
light-weight models are using belt drive, but chain drive is generally
conceded to be superior. In the early days of motorcycling, belt drive
was rather generally used, but the heavy duty required soon brought
about the change to present usage.

Motorcycle manufacture is today carried on in some of the largest and
most up-to-date manufactories that can be found in the United States.
The oldest and the largest factory devoted to motorcycle manufacture is
said to be that which has been built up under the direction of the
Springfield manufacturer, the man who first saw the great commercial
possibilities in the development of the motorcycle for pleasure and
business purposes. His company had a capitalization of $12,500,000 in
1916. Some 2,400 skilled workmen were employed in its two big
Springfield plants. Its output, said to be the largest in the industry,
is over 25,000 machines per year. Numerous models meeting varying
requirements are produced.

Soon after the first practicable motorcycle appeared in 1902 there arose
a demand for a contrivance that would accommodate an additional
passenger. Consequently, there was produced an attachment called a
tri-car. This was mounted on two pneumatic-tired wheels which were
fitted to the front fork together with necessary steering devices. Later
it was found that the passenger conveyance could better be carried at
the side mounted upon a springed chassis which was supported by a third
wheel. That form was thereupon generally adopted, and remains today the
general practice in the manufacture of motorcycle side-cars, as they are
called.

Naturally enough, interest in motorcycles was quickly directed toward
their application to commercial uses, and to that end there were
produced numerous styles of side vans and parcel carriers intended for
parcel delivery.

The use of the motorcycle for commercial purposes was for a time
overshadowed by the abnormally rapid development of the automobile, but
the factor of upkeep and operation costs of an automobile is bringing
the motorcycle into prominence now. In this respect the motorcycle is
said to have the advantage overwhelmingly. The tendency, however, among
business houses is to investigate their individual requirements for
delivery service and determine to what purposes either form of motor
vehicle is best adapted. For light parcel system there is said to be no
form of delivery that excels the motorcycle in speed and efficiency and
nothing with operation costs so low. The commercial motorcycle is said
to be gaining widespread favor, and therein lies its greatest future.

Foreign countries have contributed little or nothing to the development
of the motorcycle. To be sure, efforts were made to produce two-wheel
motor vehicles, but little success is recorded. Record of the earliest
known effort was found in an English newspaper of 1876. This report,
however, was very meager and lacking in any profusion of mechanical
detail. Moreover, beyond the newspaper reports there is little
verification that any steps were really taken at that time. The French
contribute the only known features that are credited to foreign
inventors. The DeDion motor was used in some of the racing motor tandems
which appeared in this country in the late nineties. Other French racing
bicycles were no doubt in existence, but there is no history which can
ascribe any truly constructive innovations in motorcycle making to any
foreign country. The motorcycle in its form of today was designed and
built by America.

       *       *       *       *       *


How is the Weather Man Able to Predict Tomorrow’s Weather?

The Weather Bureau was founded in 1870 by the United States Government,
its purpose being to make daily observations of the state of the weather
in all parts of the country, and to calculate from the results a
forecast for each section of the country, based on the information thus
obtained, these predictions being published so that the people of each
district may know in advance the kind of weather likely to occur.

While these forecasts are of great convenience to practically everyone,
and of importance to the agriculturist, they are frequently of still
more importance to ship masters, storm warnings being given that may
keep them in port when storms are expected and thus save their ships
from the danger of injury or shipwreck. This system has made great
progress since its institution, and reports are now received daily from
more than 3,500 land stations and about fifty foreign stations, while by
means of wireless telegraphy, under normal conditions, some 2,000 ships
send reports of the weather conditions at sea.

[Illustration: WEATHER BUREAU BOX KITE

The Government Weather Bureau uses large box kites carrying recording
barometers, thermometers and other apparatus to ascertain weather
conditions high in the air. This view shows a kite about to be sent up
from an observatory.]

Study of results has led to the belief that more than eighty per cent of
winds and storms follow beaten paths, their movements being governed by
physical conditions, a knowledge of which enables the Weather Bureau
officials to estimate very closely their probable speed and direction
and send warning of their coming in advance. Within two hours after the
regular morning observation at eight o’clock, the forecasts are
telegraphed to more than 2,300 principal distributing points, from which
they are further sent out by mail, telegraph and telephone, being mailed
daily to 135,000 addresses and received by nearly 4,000,000 telephone
subscribers.

One of the most valuable services rendered is that of the warnings of
cyclonic storms for the benefit of marine interests. These are displayed
at nearly three hundred points on the ocean and lake coasts, including
all important ports and harbors, warnings of coming storms being
received from twelve to twenty-four hours in advance. The result has
been the saving of vast amounts of maritime property, estimated at many
millions of dollars yearly.

Agriculturists also derive great advantage from these warnings,
especially those engaged in the production of fruits, vegetables and
other market garden products. Warnings of frosts and of freezing weather
have enabled the growers of such products to protect and save large
quantities of valuable plants. It is said that on a single night in a
small district in Florida, fruits and vegetables were thus saved to the
amount of more than $100,000. In addition, live stock of great value has
been saved by warnings a week in advance of the coming of a flood in the
Mississippi; railroad companies take advantage of the forecast for the
preservation, in their shipping business, of products likely to be
injured by extremes of heat or cold, and in various other ways the
forecasts are of commercial or other value.

One of the chief stations for observations is that at Mount Weather, in
the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. This is equipped with delicate
instruments in considerable variety for the study of varying conditions
of the upper air. Kites and captive balloons are sent up every favorable
day, ascending to heights of two or three miles, and equipped with
self-registering instruments to record the temperature and other
conditions of the atmosphere. At other times, free balloons are
liberated, carrying sets of automatic registering instruments. Some of
these travel hundreds of miles, but nearly all are eventually found and
returned.


How does a Siren Fog Horn Blow?

There are a great many different kinds of signals for the guidance of
vessels during fogs, when lights or other visible signals cannot be
perceived.

One of the most powerful signals is the siren fog horn, the sound of
which is produced by means of a disk perforated by radial slits made to
rotate in front of a fixed disk exactly similar, a long iron trumpet
forming part of the apparatus. The disks may each contain say twelve
slits, and the moving disk may revolve 2,800 times a minute; in each
revolution there are of course twelve coincidences between the slits in
the two disks; through the openings thus made steam or air at a high
pressure is caused to pass, so that there are actually 33,600 puffs of
steam or compressed air every minute. This causes a sound of very great
power, which the trumpet collects and compresses, and the blast goes out
as a sort of sound beam in the direction required. Under favorable
circumstances this instrument can be heard from twenty to thirty miles
out at sea.

Fog signals are also used on railways during foggy weather; they consist
of cases filled with detonating powder, which are laid on the rails and
exploded by the engine when it runs over them.




The Story in a Watch[5]


Clocks and watches are often called “timekeepers,” but they do not keep
time. Nothing can keep it. It is constantly flying along, and carrying
us with it, and we cannot stop it. What we call “time keepers” are
really time measures, and are made to tell us how rapidly time moves, so
that we may regulate our movements and occupations to conform to its
flight.

Of course, you understand that measurement of anything is the comparing
of it with some established standard. So that if you want to measure the
length of anything you use a rule or a yard stick, or some other scale
which is graduated into fractions of the whole standard measure. Do you
know that the United States government has in a secure, fireproof vault,
in one of the government buildings in Washington, a metal bar which is
the authorized standard “yard” of this nation? It is a very carefully
made copy of the standard yard of Great Britain. I believe that each one
of the United States has also a standard which must agree in length with
the government, or national standard. The same thing is true concerning
standards of capacity, and standards of weight. But no vault can contain
the authorized standard of time. Yet there is such a standard. And it is
as accessible to one country as to another, and it is a standard which
does not change. But, because all other time measures are more or less
imperfect, our government tries to compare its standard clock with the
ultimate standard every day.

The first mention of time which we have is found in the Book of Genesis,
where it is written “and the evening and the morning were the first
day.” That statement gives a “measure” which was sufficient for the
purpose intended, but there is nothing very accurate in it. If it had
said “the darkness and the light” were the first day, it would have been
just as accurate. The people who lived in those far-off days had no
special occasion to know or to care what time it was. We may suppose
that they were hungry when they waked at sunrise, and if they had no
food “left over” from the previous day’s supply they would have to
hustle and find some, and if possible secure a little surplus beyond
that day’s needs, and so they would work, or hunt, until the “evening”
came and the sun disappeared. When a man was tired, and the sun was hot,
he sat down under a tree for shelter and rest. As he sat under the tree
and looked about him he could not fail to notice that upon the ground
was a shadow of the tree under which he sat. And as he was tired and
warm he lay down and fell asleep, and when he woke, he again saw the
shadow, but in another place. He noticed that the same thing occurred
every day. He saw also that in the morning the shadow was stretched out
in one direction, and that in the evening it lay in exactly the opposite
direction, and that every day it moved very nearly the same, so he put a
mark on the ground about where the shadow first appeared, and another
mark at the place where it disappeared. Then one day he stuck his staff
in the ground about half-way between the places of the morning and the
evening shadows, which served as a noon mark. As the staff cast a shadow
as readily as did the tree, the man found that it was really a better
index of time than was the tree shadow, for it was much smaller and more
clearly defined, and so he put up a straight stick in the ground near
the hut in which he lived, and as the ground was level and smooth he
drove a lot of little stakes along the daily path of the shadow, and in
that way divided the day into a number of small parts. That was a crude
“sun dial.” (The Bible tells of the sun dial in the thirty-eighth
chapter of Isaiah.) But there was nothing very accurate in the sun dial.
Several hundred years later the days were divided into sections which
were called “hours,” such as the “sixth hour” (noon), the “ninth hour”
(three o’clock), the “eleventh hour” (five o’clock), etc. There was,
however, nothing very accurate in those expressions, which simply
indicate that there were recognized divisions of time, but with no
suggestions as to the means used to determine their limits or
boundaries. It is recorded of Alfred the Great, who lived in the ninth
century, A. D., that he was very methodical in his employment of time,
and in order to insure a careful attention to his religious duties as
well as his kingly duties, he divided the day into three parts, giving
one part to religious duties, one to the affairs of his kingdom, and the
remainder to bodily rest. To secure an equal division of the day he
procured a definite quantity of wax which he had made into six candles,
of twelve inches in length, and all of uniform weight, for he found that
each inch in length of candle would burn for twenty minutes--one candle
for each four hours. This was an approach toward accuracy and it was
effective for night use as well as for the daytime.

[Illustration: ASSEMBLING DEPARTMENT IN A FAMOUS AMERICAN WATCH
FACTORY]

Perhaps the earliest mechanical time measure was the clepsydra, or water
clock. It is quite probable that, in its earliest form it consisted of a
vessel containing water, which was allowed to escape through a small
orifice. Suitable marks, or graduations, on the sides of the vessel
served to indicate the lapse of time as the water gradually receded.
This device was constructed in a variety of forms, some of which
employed some simple mechanism also; but from their nature they could
not give very accurate indications concerning the passage of time. The
“hour glass” was another form of time indicator, which was capable of
uniform, though extremely limited, action. It is said that its original
use was to limit the length of sermons.

It is interesting to note that discoveries and inventions, which may
seem slight in themselves, sometimes form the basis of, or contribute
to, other important inventions. In the year 1584 a bright young Italian
was sitting in the gallery of the cathedral, in the City of Pisa, and as
the lofty doors of the building opened to admit the incoming worshipers,
a strong draft of air caused the heavy chandelier, which was suspended
from the lofty ceiling, to swing quite a distance from its position of
rest. This unusual movement attracted the attention of the young man,
and as he continued to watch its deliberate movements, he did more than
watch. He thought--for he noticed that the time occupied by the movement
of the chandelier from one extreme position to the opposite point,
seemed to be exactly uniform. He wondered why. It is the careful
observation of things, and the trying to learn why they are as they are,
and why they act as they do, that enables studious people to discover
the laws which govern their actions. This young man, Galileo, was a
thinker, and while some of his conclusions and theories have since been
found erroneous, his thinking has formed the basis of much of the
scientific thought and theory of later years. Galileo’s swinging
chandelier was really a sort of a pendulum, and we have made mention of
it because it has been found that no mechanical means for obtaining and
maintaining a constant and accurate movement will equal the free
movement of a vibrating pendulum. This fact has led to its adoption as a
means of regulating the mechanism of clocks. For, when operated under
the most favorable conditions, such a clock constitutes the most
accurate “time measure” yet made.

[Illustration: VIEW OF ESCAPEMENT MAKING DEPARTMENT]

Watches are made to measure time. If anything is to be measured there
must be some standard with which to compare it, for we have seen that
measuring is a process of comparing a thing with an appropriate or
acknowledged and fixed standard. The only known standard for the
measurement of time is the movement of the earth in relation to the
stars. It has taken thousands of years for mankind to learn what is now
known concerning time. It has also taken hundreds of years to secure the
wonderful accuracy in the measuring of time which has now been attained.
We have said that nothing has been devised which will equal the accuracy
of a “pendulum clock.” A story was told of a professor of a theological
seminary who was one day on his way to a jeweler’s store, carrying in
his arms the family clock, which was in need of repairs. He was accosted
by one of his students with the question, “Look here, Professor, don’t
you think it would be much more convenient to carry a watch?” A pendulum
clock must of necessity be stationary, but it is now needful that people
should be able to have a timepiece whenever and wherever wanted. This
need is supplied by the pocket watch.

[Illustration: TIME TRAIN OF A WATCH]

If Galileo watched the swinging of the big chandelier long enough he
found that the distance through which it swung was gradually
diminishing, till, at last, it ceased to move; what stopped it? It was
one of the great forces of nature, which we call gravitation, and the
force which kept it in motion we call momentum. But gravitation overcame
momentum.

In order to maintain the constant vibration of a pendulum it is needful
to impart to it a slight force, in a manner similar to that given by a
boy who gives another boy a slight “push,” to maintain his movement in a
swing. A suspended pendulum being impossible of application to a pocket
watch, a splendid substitute has been devised--in the form of the
balance wheel of the watch, commonly called the “balance.” The balance
is, in its action and adaption, the equivalent of the vibrating, or
oscillating, pendulum; and the balance spring (commonly called the
hairspring), which accompanies it, is in its action equivalent to the
force of gravity in its effect upon a pendulum. For the tendency and (if
not neutralized by some other force) the effects of the hairspring upon
the watch balance, and of gravitation on the pendulum, are to hold each
at a position of rest, and consequent inaction.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

But we have in a pocket watch a “mainspring” to actuate the train of
gear wheels which by their ultimate action give the delicate “push” to
the balance wheel at distinct intervals, and so keep the balance in
continued motion. In the same manner, the “weight” of a clock, acting
through the force of gravity, carries the various wheels of the clock
train, and gives the slight impulse to the swinging clock pendulum.

Both clocks and watches are “machines” for the measurement of time, and,
therefore, it is absolutely imperative that their action must be
constant, and, if accurate time is to be indicated, the action must be
uniform.

[Illustration: INTERIOR OF ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORY, SHOWING TRANSIT
INSTRUMENT. USED TO OBTAIN CORRECT LOCAL TIME, BY OBSERVING THE PASSAGE
OF STARS ACROSS THE MERIDIAN]

[Illustration: BALANCE COCK AND PATENT MICROMETRIC REGULATOR; ALSO
BALANCE WHEEL AND HAIR SPRING, SHOWING PATENT HAIR SPRING STUD]

The illustration shows the “time train” of an ordinary pocket watch. The
various wheels are here shown in a straight line, so that their
successive order may be seen, but for economy and convenience they are
arranged in such way as is most convenient when constructing a pocket
watch. The large wheel at the left is the “main wheel,” called by
watchmakers the “barrel.” In it is coiled the mainspring--a strip of
steel about twenty-three inches long, which is carefully tempered to
insure elasticity and “pull.” The outer end of the mainspring is
attached to the rim of the barrel, and the inner end to the barrel
arbor. Bear in mind the fact that the power which is sufficient to run
the watch for thirty-six hours or more, is not in the watch itself. It
is in yourself, and by the exertion of your thumb and finger, in the act
of winding, you transfer that power to the spring, and thereby store the
power in the barrel, to be given out at the rate which the governing
mechanism of the watch will permit. The group of wheels here shown are
known as the “time train,” and the second wheel is called the “center,”
because that, in ordinarily constructed watches, is located in the
center of the group, and upon its axis are put the “hour hand” and the
“minute hand.” On the circumference of the barrel are gear teeth, and
those teeth engage corresponding teeth on the arbor of the center. These
arbor teeth are in all cases called, not “wheels” but “pinions,” and in
watch trains the wheels always drive the pinions. Next to the center
comes the third pinion and wheel, and then the fourth, which is the last
wheel in the train which has regular gear teeth. Now let us look back a
little and see that the wheel teeth of the barrel drive the center
pinion, and the center wheel drives the third pinion and the third wheel
drives the fourth pinion, etc. The speed of revolution of the successive
wheels increases rapidly. The center wheel must revolve once in each
hour, which is 6-1/2 times faster than the barrel. The third wheel turns
eight times faster than the center, and the fourth wheel turns 7-1/2
times faster than the third, or 60 times faster than the center, so that
the fourth pinion, which carries the “second hand,” will revolve 60
times while the “center,” which carries the minute hand, revolves once.
If we should put all the wheels and pinions in place, and wind up the
main spring, the wheels would begin to turn, each at its relative rate
of speed, and we should find that, instead of running thirty-six hours,
it would have run less than two minutes. What was needed was some device
to serve as an accurate speed governor--and the attainment of this
essential device is the one thing on which accurate time measuring
depends. Without any mention of the various attempts to produce such a
device, let us, as briefly as possible, describe the means used in most
watches of American manufacture. While there are several distinct parts
of this device, each having its individual function, they may be
considered as a whole under the general term of “the escapement.”
Returning now to the fourth pinion, we see that it also carries a wheel,
which engages another little pinion, called the escape pinion. This
escape pinion also carries a wheel, but it is radically different in
appearance, as well as in action, from any of the previously mentioned
wheels. An examination of the “escape wheel” would show that it has a
peculiarly shaped piece, which is called the “pallet,” the extended arm
of which is called the “fork.” The fork encloses a sort of half-round
stud or pin. This stud projects from the fact and near the edge of a
small steel disc. The stud is formed from some hard precious stone and
is called the “jewel pin,” or “roller pin,” and the little steel disc
which carries it is called the “roller.” In the center or axial hole of
the roller fits the “balance staff,” which staff also carries the
“balance wheel,” and the balance spring, commonly called the “hair
spring.” The ends of the balance staff are made very small so as to form
very delicate pivots which turn in jewel bearings. The balance wheel
moves very rapidly, and, therefore, its movement must be as free as
possible from retarding friction, so its bearing pivots are made very
small.

[Illustration: A DEVICE FOR THE GOVERNING OF SPEED IS THE ONE THING ON
WHICH ACCURATE TIME MEASURING DEPENDS]

[Illustration: _WALTHAM TAPER SHOULDER DETACHABLE BALANCE STAFF._]

Now that we have given the names of each of the different parts which
compose the escapement, let us see how they perform their important work
of governing the speed of the little machine for measuring time. In the
escape wheel, the left arm of the pallet rests on the inclined top of
one of the wheel teeth. This is the position of rest. If we wind up the
mainspring of the watch it will immediately cause the main wheel to
turn, and, of course, that will turn the next wheel, and so on to the
escape wheel. When that wheel turns to the right, as it must, it will
force back the arm of the pallet which swings on its arbor. In swinging
out in this way it must also swing in the other pallet arm, and that
movement will bring it directly in front of another wheel tooth, so that
the wheel can turn no further. It is locked and will remain so until
something withdraws it. When the pallet was swung so as to cause this
locking, the fork was also moved, and as it enclosed the roller pin,
that too was moved and carried with it the roller and the balance wheel,
and in so doing it deflected the hair spring from its condition of rest.
And as the spring tried to get back to its place of rest it carried back
the balance also. In going back, the balance acquired a little momentum,
and so could not stop when it reached its former position, but went a
little further, and, of course, the roller and its pin also went along
in company, the pin carrying the fork and the pallet swinging in the
other direction, which unlocked the escape wheel tooth. Its inclined
top gave the pallet a little “push” so that the first pallet was locked,
forcing the fork and roller, and the balance and hair spring, to move in
the opposite direction. And so the alternate actions proceed, and the
balance wheel travels further each time, until it reaches the greatest
amount which the force of the mainspring can give. But before this
extreme is reached, the momentum of the revolving balance carries the
roller pin entirely out of the fork. As the fork is allowed to move only
just far enough to allow the pin to pass out, it simply waits until the
fork returns and enters its place, only to escape again on the other
side. And so the motions continue to the number of 18,000 times per
hour. If that number can be exactly maintained, the watch will measure
time perfectly. But if it should fall short of that exact number only
once each hour, it would result in a loss of 4.8 seconds each day, or
2.4 minutes in one month. A watch as bad as that would not be allowed on
a railroad.

[Illustration: ACCURATE MEASUREMENTS ARE ESSENTIAL TO CORRECT TIME
KEEPING]

Isn’t it wonderful that such a delicate piece of mechanism can be made
to run so accurately? And the wonder is increased by the fact that the
little machine is, to a great extent, continually moved about, and
liable to extreme changes in position and in temperature. Watches of the
highest grades are adjusted to five positions as well as to temperature.
Some are adjusted to temperature and three positions, and still others
to temperature only. The way in which a watch is made to automatically
compensate for temperature changes is interesting. Varying degrees of
heat and cold always affect a watch. It is a law of nature that all
simple metals expand under the influence of heat and therefore contract
when affected by cold. Alloys, or mixtures of different metals, act in a
similar manner, but in varying degrees. Some combinations of metals
possess the quality of relatively great expansibility. Another natural
law is that the force required to move a body depends upon its size and
weight. So it follows that with only a certain amount of available force
a large body cannot be moved as rapidly as a small one. The force of 200
pounds of steam in a locomotive boiler might be sufficient to haul a
train of six cars at a speed of thirty miles per hour, but if more cars
be added it will result in a slower speed. The same principle applies to
a watch as to a railway train. Therefore if the balance wheel becomes
larger as it grows warmer, and the force which turns the wheel is not
changed, the speed of movement must be reduced. One other natural law
which affects the running of watches is this: Variations in temperature
affect the elasticity of metals. Now the balance spring of a watch is
made from steel, and is carefully tempered in order to obtain its
highest elasticity. Increase in temperature therefore introduces three
elements of disturbance, all of which act in the same direction of
reducing the speed. First, it enlarges the balance wheel; second, it
increases the length of the spring; third, it reduces the elasticity of
the spring. To overcome these three disturbing factors a very ingenious
form of balance has been devised.

[Illustration: 170 PARTS COMPOSE A 16 SIZE WATCH MOVEMENT. (A LITTLE
MORE THAN 1/2 ACTUAL SIZE)]

A watch balance is made with a rim of brass encircling and firmly united
to the rim of steel. In order to permit heat to have the desired effect
upon this balance, the rim is completely severed at points near each of
the arms of the wheel. If we apply heat to this balance the greater
expansion of the brass portion of its rim would cause the free ends to
curl inward.

In order to obtain exactly 18,000 vibrations of the balance in an hour,
it will be seen that the weight of the wheel and the strength of the
hair spring must be perfectly adapted each to the other. The shorter the
spring is made the more rigid it becomes, and so the regulator is made a
part of the watch, but its action must be very limited or its effect on
the spring will introduce other serious disturbances. The practical
method of securing the proper and ready adaptation of balances to
springs is to place in the rims of the balance a number of small screws
having relatively heavy heads. Suppose now that we have a balance fitted
with screws of the number and weight to exactly adapt it to a spring, so
that at a normal temperature of, say, 70 degrees, it would vibrate
exactly 18,000 times per hour. When we place the watch in an oven the
heat of which is 95 degrees, we might find that it had lost seven
seconds. That would show that the wheel was too large when at 95
degrees, although just right at 70 degrees. Really, that is a very
serious matter--it would lose at the rate of 2-4/5 minutes in a day. But
after all it need not be so very serious, because if we change the
location of one screw on each half of the balance so as to place it
nearer the free end of the rim when the heat curls the rim inward, it
will carry a larger proportion of the weight than if the screws had not
been moved. It may require repeated trials to determine the required
position of the rim screws, and both skill and good judgment are
essential. It will be readily understood that numerous manipulations of
this kind constitute no small items in the cost of producing high-grade
watches.

Large quantities of the cheaper class of watches are now made by
machinery in the United States, Switzerland, France, Germany and
England. They are generally produced on the interchangeable system, that
is, if any part of a watch has become unfit for service, it can be
cheaply replaced by an exact duplicate, the labor of the watch repairer
thus becoming easy and expeditious.

       *       *       *       *       *


How does a Monorail Gyroscope Railway Operate?

The last decade has brought a railway with a single line of rails, on
which the car is kept erect by the steadying power of a pair of heavy
gyroscopes, or flywheels, rotating in opposite directions at very high
velocity. There are two recent inventions of this kind, an English and a
German, practically the same in character.

The English, the invention of an Australian named Brennan, had its first
form in a model, a small car on which the gyroscopes rotated at the
enormous speed of seventy-five hundred revolutions per minute. They were
hung in special bearings and rotated in a partial vacuum, the friction
being so slight that the wheels would continue to revolve and give
stability to the car for a considerable time after the power was shut
off. Also, in such a case, supports at the side kept the car from
overturning. This model showed itself capable of traveling at high speed
on a single rail, rounding sharp curves and even traversing with ease a
wire cable hung in the air.

In 1909 a car was tried fourteen feet long and ten feet wide, capable of
carrying forty passengers. The gyroscopes in this, moved by a gasoline
engine, revolved in a vacuum at a speed of three thousand rotations a
minute. They were three and a half feet in diameter and weighed together
one and a half tons. With a full load of passengers, this car sped
easily around a circular rail two hundred and twenty yards long and
proved that it could not be upset, since when all the passengers crowded
to one side the car remained firmly erect, the gyroscopes lifting it on
the weighted sides. It is claimed that in the monorail system so
equipped with the gyroscope, a speed of more than a hundred miles an
hour is possible with perfect safety.

[Illustration: A MONORAIL GYROSCOPE CAR]

The German invention, displayed by Herr Schorl, a capitalist of Berlin,
is in many respects like the English one. The experimental car was
eighteen feet long and four feet wide, the gyroscopic flywheels being
very light, weighing but a hundred and twenty-five pounds each, while
their speed of rotation was eight thousand per minute. The same success
was attained as in the English experiments, and there seems to be a
successful future before this very interesting vehicle of travel. There
is also another type of monorail of overhead construction, the wheels
running on the rail from which the car hangs.

The fundamental principle of the gyroscope lies in the resistance which
a flywheel in rapid motion presents to any change of direction in the
axis of rotation.

The gyroscope has been utilized to give steadiness to vessels in rough
seas, and Sperry has made considerable progress in this country in
applying it to give stability to an aeroplane. One of the most
successful of the recent applications of the gyroscope is in its
connection with the marine compass. All battleships in the United States
Navy are now fitted with the gyroscopic compass. As a gyro compass is
independent of the magnetism of the earth and of the ship, and, when
running properly, always points to the North Pole, its great convenience
in vessels carrying heavy guns and armor, the attraction of which would
materially interfere with the operation of the ordinary type of compass,
is at once apparent. Another important use of the gyroscope is found in
its relation to the vertical and horizontal steering gear of the naval
torpedo, especially the Whitehead pattern. Its first application to this
purpose was made by an officer in the Austrian navy in 1895, and this
device, or an improved modification of it, such as the Angle Gyroscope,
invented by Lieut. W. I. Chambers of the United States Navy, is in use
on all torpedoes.


Why are Finger-prints Used for Identification?

The plan of identifying people by their finger-prints, although at first
used only on criminals, is now put to many other uses. It was introduced
originally in India, where it was of very great assistance to the
British authorities in impressing the natives with the fact that at last
no evasion of positive identification of culprits was possible. It was
later taken up by the Scotland Yard authorities in England, and its use
has since spread to practically every country in the civilized world.

It has been proven, to the entire satisfaction of everyone who has ever
made a careful study of the subject, that every human being has a
marking on his or her fingers which is different from that of any other
person on earth. Not only is it sure that no one else has a thumb or
finger marked like yours, but it has also been established beyond
dispute that every little detail will continue peculiar to your fingers
as long as you have them.

There are many ways in which this knowledge is used to advantage; two
methods now employed are particularly valuable. It is seldom that an
unpremeditated crime is committed without its author leaving
finger-marks on some object which is unconsciously touched, such as
silver plate, cash boxes or safes, glassware or windows, polished
wood-work, etc., and very often the professional criminal also neglects
to take precautions against leaving his signature behind him. It is then
a simple matter for the police to collect such marks for comparison with
the finger-prints of anyone to whom suspicion may be directed.

The plan has also been utilized a great deal in recent years for the
identification of enlisted men in the army and navy. Finger-prints are
made, immediately upon enlistment, of each separate finger and thumb of
both hands. Group impressions are also taken with the four fingers of
each hand pressed down simultaneously. When needed for any particular
purpose, such finger-prints are usually enlarged by means of a special
camera, to five times their natural size.




The Story in a Rifle[6]


How It Began.

A naked savage found himself in the greatest danger. A wild beast,
hungry and fierce, was about to attack him. Escape was impossible.
Retreat was cut off. He must fight for his life--but how?

Should he bite, scratch or kick? Should he strike with his fist? These
were the natural defenses of his body, but what were they against the
teeth, the claws and the tremendous muscles of his enemy? Should he
wrench a dead branch from a tree and use it for a club? That would bring
him within striking distance to be torn to pieces before he could deal a
second blow.

There was but a moment in which to act. Swiftly he seized a jagged
fragment of rock from the ground and hurled it with all his force at the
blazing eyes before him; then another, and another, until the beast,
dazed and bleeding from the unexpected blows, fell back and gave him a
chance to escape. He knew that he had saved his life, but there was
something else which his dull brain failed to realize.

_He had invented arms and ammunition!_

In other words, he had needed to strike a harder blow than the blow of
his fist, at a greater distance than the length of his arm, and his
brain showed him how to do it. After all, what is a modern rifle but a
device which man has made with his brain permitting him to strike an
enormously hard blow at a wonderful distance? Firearms are really but a
more perfect form of stone-throwing, and this early Cave Man took the
first step that has led down the ages to the present-day arms and
ammunition.

This strange story of a development that has been taking place slowly
through thousands and thousands of years, so that today you are able to
take a swift shot at distant game instead of merely throwing stones.


The Earliest Hunters.

The Cave Man and his descendants learned the valuable lesson of
stone-throwing, and it made hunters of them, not big-game hunters--that
was far too risky; but once in a while a lucky throw might bring down a
bird or a rabbit for food. And so it went on for centuries, perhaps.
Early mankind was rather slow of thought.

At last, however, there appeared a great inventor--the Edison of his
day.

He took the second step.


A Nameless Edison.

We do not know his name. Possibly he did not even have a name, but in
some way he hit upon a scheme for throwing stones farther, harder and
straighter than any of his ancestors.

The men and women in the Cave Colony suddenly found that one bright-eyed
young fellow, with a little straighter forehead than the others, was
beating them all at hunting. During weeks he had been going away
mysteriously, for hours each day. Now, whenever he left the camp he was
sure to bring home game, while the other men would straggle back for the
most part empty-handed.

Was it witchcraft? They decided to investigate.

[Illustration: THE FIRST MISSILE

The Cave Man of prehistoric times unconsciously invented arms and
ammunition.]


What They Saw.

Accordingly, one morning several of them followed at a careful distance
as he sought the shore of a stream where water-fowl might be found.
Parting the leaves, they saw him pick up a pebble from the bank and
then, to their surprise, take off his girdle of skin and place the stone
in its center, holding both ends with his right hand.

Stranger still, he whirled the girdle twice around his head, then
released one end so that the leather strip flew out and the stone shot
straight at a bird in the water.

The mystery was solved. They had seen the first slingman in action.


The Use of Slings.

The new plan worked with great success, and a little practice made
expert marksmen. We know that most of the early races used it for
hunting and in war. We find it shown in pictures made many thousands of
years ago in ancient Egypt and Assyria. We find it in the Roman army
where the slingman was called a “funditor.”

We find it in the Bible where it is written of the tribe of Benjamin:
“Among all these people there were seven hundred chosen men left-handed;
_every one could sling a stone at an hair breadth and not miss_.”
Surely, too, you remember the story of David and Goliath when the young
shepherd “prevailed over the Philistine _with a sling and with a
stone_.”

Today shepherds tending their flocks upon these same hills of Syria may
be seen practicing with slings like those of David. Yes, and slings were
used in European armies until nearly a hundred years after America was
discovered.


Something Better.

Yet they had their drawbacks. A stone slung might kill a bird or even a
man, but it was not very effective against big game.

What was wanted was a missile to pierce a thick hide.

Man had begun to make spears for use in a pinch, but would you like to
tackle a husky bear or a well-horned stag with only a spear for a
weapon?

No more did our undressed ancestors. The invention of the greatly
desired arm probably came about in a most curious way.

Long ages ago man had learned to make fire by patiently rubbing two
sticks together, or by twirling a round one between his hands with its
point resting upon a flat piece of wood.

In this way it could be made to smoke, and finally set fire to a tuft of
dried moss, from which he might get a flame for cooking. This was such
hard work that he bethought him to twist a string of sinew about the
upright spindle and cause it to twirl by pulling alternately at the two
string ends, as some savage races still do. From this it was a simple
step to fasten the ends of the two strings to a bent piece of wood,
another great advantage, since now but one hand was needed to twirl the
spindle, and the other could hold it in place. This was the “bow-drill”
which also is used to this day.


A Fortunate Accident.

But bent wood is apt to be springy. Suppose that while one were bearing
on pretty hard with a well-tightened string, in order to bring fire
quickly, the point of the spindle should slip from its block. Naturally,
it would fly away with some force if the position were just right.

This must have happened many times, and each time _but once_ the
fire-maker may have muttered something under his breath, gone after his
spindle, and then settled down stupidly to his work. He had had a golden
chance to make a great discovery, but didn’t realize it.

[Illustration: THE SLING MAN IN ACTION

Practice developed some wonderful marksmen among the users of this
primitive weapon.]

But, so it has been suggested, there was one man who stopped short when
he lost his spindle, for a red-hot idea shot suddenly through his brain.

He forgot all about his fire-blocks while he sat stock still and
thought.

Once or twice he chuckled to himself softly. Thereupon he arose and
began to experiment.

He chose a longer, springier piece of wood, bent it into a bow, and
strung it with a longer thong. He placed the end of a straight stick
against the thong, drew it strongly back and released it.

The shaft whizzed away with force enough to delight him, and, lo, there
was the first bow-and-arrow!


What Came of It.

After that it was merely a matter of improvement. The arrow-end was apt
to slip from the string until some one thought to notch it. Its head
struck with such force that the early hunter decided to give it a sharp
point, shaped from a flake of flint, in order that it might drive deep
into the body of a deer or bear.

[Illustration: FEATHERING THE ARROW]

[Illustration: WINDING THE SHAFT]

But, most of all, it must fly true and straight to its mark. Who of all
these simple people first learned to feather its shaft? Was it some one
who had watched the swift, sure-footed spring of a bushy-tailed squirrel
from branch to branch? Possibly, for the principle is the same. At all
events with its feathers and its piercing point the arrow became the
most deadly of all missiles, and continued to be until long after the
invention of firearms.


A Great Variety.

It is interesting to see how many different forms of bow were used. The
English had a six-foot “long bow” made of yew or ash, in a single
straight piece, that shot arrows the length of a man’s arm. The Indians
had bows only forty inches on the average, since a short bow was easier
to handle in thick forests. They used various kinds of wood, horn or
even bone, such as the ribs of large animals. These they generally
backed with sinew.

Sometimes they cut spiral strips from the curving horns of a mountain
sheep, and steamed them straight. Then they glued these strips together
into a wonderfully tough and springy bow. Once in a while they even took
the whole horns of some young sheep, that had not curved too much, and
used the pair just as they grew. In this case each horn made one-half of
the bow, and the piece of skull between was shaped down into a handle.
This gave the shape of a “Cupid’s Bow,” but it could shoot to kill.

[Illustration: THE “LONG BOW” IN SHERWOOD FOREST

One of Robin Hood’s famous band encounters a savage tusker at close
range.]


As to Arrows.

The arrows were quite as important, and their making became a great
industry with every race. This was because so many must be carried for
each hunt or battle.

Who is not familiar with the chipped flint arrow-heads that the farmer
so often turns up with his plow as a relic of the period when Americans
were red-skinned instead of white? These arrow-heads have generally a
shoulder where the arrow was set into the shaft, there to be bound
tightly with sinew or fiber. Many of them are also barbed to hold the
flesh.


A Shooting Machine.

But the age of machinery was coming on. Once in a while there were
glimpses of more powerful and complicated devices to be seen among these
simple arms.

A new weapon now came about through warfare. Man has been a savage
fighting animal through pretty much all his history, but while he tried
to kill the other fellow, he objected to being killed himself.

Therefore he took to wearing armor. During the Middle Ages he piled on
more and more, until at last one of the knights could hardly walk, and
it took a strong horse to carry him. When such a one fell, he went over
with a crash like a tin-peddler’s wagon, and had to be picked up again
by some of his men. Such armor would turn most of the arrows. Hence
invention got at work again and produced the cross-bow and its bolt. We
have already learned how the tough skin of animals brought about the
bow; now we see that man’s artificial iron skin caused the invention of
the cross-bow.


What It Was.

What was the cross-bow? It was the first real hand-shooting machine. It
was another big step toward the day of the rifle. The idea was simple
enough. Wooden bows had already been made as strong as the strongest man
could pull, and they wished for still stronger ones--steel ones. How
could they pull them? At first they mounted them upon a wooden frame and
rested one end on the shoulder for a brace. Then they took to pressing
the other end against the ground, and using both hands. Next, it was a
bright idea to put a stirrup on this end, in order to hold it with the
foot.

Still they were not satisfied. “Stronger, stronger!” they clamored;
“give us bows which will kill the enemy farther away than he can shoot
at us! If we cannot set such bows with both arms let us try our backs!”
So they fastened “belt-claws” to their stout girdles and tugged the bow
strings into place with their back and leg muscles.

“Stronger, stronger again, for now the enemy has learned to use
belt-claws and he can shoot as far as we. Let us try mechanics!”

So they attached levers, pulleys, ratchets and windlasses, until at last
they reached the size of the great siege cross-bows, weighing eighteen
pounds. These sometimes needed a force of twelve hundred pounds to draw
back the string to its catch, but how they could shoot!


And Now for Chemistry.

Human muscle seemed to have reached its limit, mechanics seemed to have
reached its limit, but still the world clamored, “Stronger, stronger!
How shall we kill our enemy farther away than he can kill us?” For
answer, man unlocked one of the secrets of Nature and took out a
terrible force. It was a force of chemistry.

[Illustration: DEER-STALKING WITH THE CROSS-BOW

This compact arm with its small bolt and great power was popular with
many sportsmen.]

Who first discovered the power of gunpowder? Probably the Chinese,
although all authorities do not agree. Strange, is it not, that a race
still using cross-bows in its army should have known of explosives long
before the Christian Era, and perhaps as far back as the time of Moses?
Here is a passage from their ancient Gentoo Code of Laws: “The
magistrate shall not make war with any deceitful machine, or with
poisoned weapons, or with cannons or guns, or any kind of firearms.” But
China might as well have been Mars before the age of travel. Our
civilization had to work out the problem for itself.


Playing with Fire.

It all began through playing with fire. It was desired to throw fire on
an enemy’s buildings or his ships, and so destroy them. Burning torches
were thrown by machines, made of cords and springs, over a city wall,
and it became a great study to find the best burning compound with which
to cover these torches. One was needed which would blaze with a great
flame and was hard to put out.

Hence the early chemists made all possible mixtures of pitch, resin,
naphtha, sulphur, saltpeter, etc.; “Greek fire” was one of the most
famous.


What Two Monks Discovered.

Many of these were made in the monasteries. The monks were pretty much
the only people in those days with time for study, and two of these
shaven-headed scientists now had a chance to enter history. Roger Bacon
was the first. One night he was working his diabolical mixture in the
stone-walled laboratory, and watched, by the flickering lights, the
progress of a certain interesting combination for which he had used pure
instead of impure saltpeter.

Suddenly there was an explosion, shattering the chemical apparatus and
probably alarming the whole building. “Good gracious!” we can imagine
some of the startled brothers saying, “whatever is he up to now! Does he
want to kill us all?” That explosion proved the new combination was not
fitted for use as a thrown fire; it also showed the existence of
terrible forces far beyond the power of all bow-springs, even those made
of steel.

Roger Bacon thus discovered what was practically gunpowder, as far back
as the thirteenth century, and left writings in which he recorded mixing
11.2 parts of the saltpeter, 29.4 of charcoal, and 29 of sulphur. This
was the formula developed as the result of his investigations.

Berthold Schwartz, a monk of Freiburg, studied Bacon’s works and carried
on dangerous experiments of his own, so that he is ranked with Bacon for
the honor. He was also the first one to rouse the interest of Europe in
the great discovery.

And then began the first crude, clumsy efforts at gunmaking. Firearms
were born.


The Coming of the Matchlock.

Hand bombards and culverins were among the early types. Some of these
were so heavy that a forked support had to be driven into the ground,
and two men were needed, one to hold and aim, the other to prime and
fire. How does that strike you for a duck-shooting proposition? Of
course such a clumsy arrangement could only be used in war.

Improvements kept coming, however. Guns were lightened and bettered in
shape. Somebody thought of putting a flash pan for the powder, by the
side of the touch-hole, and now it was decided to fasten the slow-match,
in a movable cock, upon the barrel and ignite it with a trigger. These
matches were fuses of some slow-burning fiber, like tow, which would
keep a spark for a considerable time. Formerly they had to be carried
separately, but the new arrangement was a great convenience and made the
matchlock. The cock, being curved like a snake, was called the
“serpentine.”

[Illustration: AN UNEXPECTED MEETING

The “Kentucky Rifle” with its flint-lock was accurate, but had to be
muzzle-charged.]


The Gun of Our Ancestors.

Everybody knows what the flint-lock was like. You simply fastened a
flake of flint in the cock and snapped it against a steel plate. This
struck off sparks which fell into the flash-pan and fired the charge.

It was so practical that it became the form of gun for all uses; thus
gunmaking began to be a big industry. Invented early in the seventeenth
century, it was used by the hunters and soldiers of the next two hundred
years. Old people remember when flint-locks were plentiful everywhere.
In fact, they are still being manufactured and are sold in some parts of
Africa and the Orient. One factory in Birmingham, England, is said to
produce about twelve hundred weekly, and Belgium shares in their
manufacture. Some of the Arabs use them to this day in the form of
strange-looking guns with long, slender muzzles and very light, curved
stocks.


Caps and Breech-Loaders.

Primers were tried in different forms called “detonators,” but the
familiar little copper cap was the most popular. No need to describe
them. Millions are still made to be used on old-fashioned nipple guns,
even in this day of fixed ammunition.

[Illustration: THE FIRST REMINGTON RIFLE]

Then came another great development, the breech-loader.


From Henry VIII to Cartridges.

Breech-loaders were hardly new. King Henry VIII of England, he of the
many wives, had a match-lock arquebus of this type dated 1537. Henry IV
of France even invented one for his army, and others worked a little on
the idea from time to time. But it was not until fixed ammunition came
into use that the breech-loader really came to stay--and that was only
the other day. You remember that the Civil War began with muzzle-loaders
and ended with breech-loaders.

Houiller, the French gunsmith, hit on the great idea of the cartridge.
If you were going to use powder, ball and percussion primer, to get your
game, why not put them all into a neat, handy, gas-tight case? Simple
enough, when you come to think of it, like most great ideas. But it
required good brain-stuff to do that thinking.


A Refusal and What Came of It.

Two men, a smith and his son, both named Eliphalet Remington, in 1816,
were working busily one day at their forge in beautiful Ilion Gorge,
when, so tradition says, the son asked his father for money to buy a
rifle, and met with a refusal.

The boy set his wits to work. Looking around the forge, he picked up
enough scrap iron to make a gun barrel, and with this set to work to
make a rifle for himself. At that time gun barrels were made, not by
drilling the bore out of a solid rod of metal, but by shaping a thick,
oblong sheet of metal around a rod the size of the bore, and lapwelding
the edges. When the rod was withdrawn, there was your barrel.

It took him several weeks to work out this job and get it right, but he
succeeded. He had no tools to cut the rifling. There was a gunsmith in
Utica, and he walked there, fifteen miles over the hills, to have his
barrel finished. The gunsmith was so impressed by the boy and his
accomplishment that, after rifling the barrel, he fitted it with a lock.
Then when Remington fitted on a wooden stock his weapon was ready.

This was the first Remington rifle, and it proved a surprisingly good
one.

Neighbors tried it, and wanted guns like it. Remington made them. The
first rifle--or one exactly like the first one, at least--that Remington
made is still in Ilion, the property of Walter Green. Before long the
demand was so brisk that Remington would take as many barrels as he
could carry over to the Utica gunsmith to be rifled, bringing back a
load that had been left there on a previous trip, a journey of thirty
miles on foot.

When a new business grows at that rate, of course, it soon needs power.
So, later, in 1816, the two Remingtons went “up the creek,” building a
shop three miles from home, at Ilion Gulph, which was part of the
father’s farm. That was the actual beginning of the plant and the
industry of which the centennial was celebrated in 1916. During its
early years this shop made anything in its line that could be sold in
the neighborhood--rifles, shotguns, crowbars, pickaxes, farm tools. The
power was taken from a water wheel in Steele’s Creek, and the first
grindstones for smoothing down the welded edges in gun barrels were cut
from a red sandstone ledge up the gorge.

Guns sold better than all other products. Orders came from greater
distances. By and by shipments were made on the new Erie Canal. For a
while, as packages were small, they were taken to the canal bridge, a
board lifted from the floor, and the package dropped onto a boat as it
passed under. There was no bill of lading. Remington took down the name
of the boat and notified his customer by mail, so the latter would know
which craft was bringing his guns.

[Illustration: YOUNG REMINGTON AT WORK ON RIFLE]

When the trade had extended into all the surrounding counties,
however, the new business needed another prime essential of
industry--transportation facilities. Shipments were growing larger, and
materials like grindstones, bought outside, had to be brought from the
canal to Ilion Gulph. In 1828, therefore, the elder Remington bought a
large farm in Ilion proper, and there, on the canal, the present plant
was started. This was also the beginning of Ilion, for at that period
the place was nothing more than a country corner. In 1828 the elder
Remington met his death through accident and the business was carried on
by his son, who brought water for several power wheels from Steele’s
Creek, built a house to live in, and installed in his wooden shop quite
a collection of machinery for gunmaking--the list names a big tilt
hammer, several trip hammers, boring and rifling machines, grindstones,
and so on.


The Beginning of Precision in Mechanics.

Not so many years before that, in England, James Watt was complaining
about the difficulty of boring a six-inch cylinder for his steam engine
with sufficient accuracy to make it a commercial success. No matter how
he packed the piston with cork, oiled rags and old hats, the
irregularities in the cylinder let the steam escape, and it was believed
that neither the tools nor the workmen existed for making a steam engine
with sufficient precision. When a young manufacturer named Wilkinson
invented a guide for the boring tool, and machined cylinders of fifty
inches diameter so accurately that, as Watt testified, they did not err
the thickness of an old shilling in any part, it seemed as though the
last refinement in machinery had been achieved. That was not very
accurate by present-day standards of the thousandth part of an inch, for
a shilling is about one-sixteenth of an inch in thickness.

[Illustration: OLD BORING TOOL]

Remington was right in the thick of development with a gunmaking plant,
of course, for as his business grew he had to invent and adapt machines
to increase output. The lap-welded barrel was standard until 1850, and
he got together a battery of trip hammers for forging and welding his
barrels. Finer dimensions became a factor in his business when the
output grew large enough to warrant carrying a stock of spare parts for
his customers, and so he improved those parts in ways that gave at least
the beginnings of interchangeability.

Materials were very crude. There was no buying of foundry iron by
analysis, no high carbon steels, no fancy tool steels--nor any
“efficiency experts” with their stop watches and scientific
speed-and-feed tables. Iron was secured by sending teams around the
neighborhood to pick up scrap, and when the scrap iron was all cleaned
up, fresh metal was brought from ore beds in Oneida County. Coal was
scarce, and charcoal made the chief fuel, burnt in the hills round about
Ilion.

And the world was fairly swarming with inventors!

That was long before invention became a research department full of
engineers. The individual inventor, with a queer-shaped factory process,
carried on by a head and a rough model in his carpet-bag, had a chance
to influence industry. Few of the useful contrivances had been invented
yet, and almost any one of these chaps might be a genius. So, from the
very first, Remington was interested in inventors. He was an inventor
himself! His pioneer spirit was so strong that Ilion became a place of
pilgrimage for men with ideas. Inventors came from everywhere, and
Remington listened to them all. Some brought models, others drawings,
still others a bare idea, and a few, of course, had just a plain “bug.”

[Illustration: POLE LATHE OF 1800]


The First Government Contract.

The first government contract came in 1845. War with Mexico loomed up on
the horizon. William Jencks had invented a carbine, and Uncle Sam wanted
several thousand guns made in a hurry under the patent. A contract had
been let to Ames & Co., of Springfield, Mass., and they had made special
machinery for the job. Remington took over the contract and the
machinery, added to his power, secured by putting in another water race,
erected the building now known as the “Old Armory,” and made the
carbines.

In 1850 the art of gunmaking began to improve radically. The old
lap-welded barrel gave way to the barrel drilled from solid steel. This
was accomplished for the first time in America at the Remington plant,
in making Harper’s Ferry muskets. Then followed the drilling of
small-bore barrels from solid steel, the drilling of doubled-barrel
shotguns from one piece of steel, the drilling of fluid steel and nickel
steel barrels, all done for the first time in this country at the Ilion
shops. Three-barrel guns were also made from one piece of steel, two
bores for shot and the third rifled for a bullet. A customer wanted some
special barrels with nine bores in a single piece of steel. These were
made at Ilion, and the Remington plant soon became noted for its ability
to bore almost anything in the shape of a gun, from the tiniest squirrel
calibers up to boat guns weighing sixty pounds or more, which were
really small caliber cannon.

[Illustration: SHIPPING REMINGTONS IN THE EARLY DAYS]

Between the time when Remington made his first rifle at Ilion Gulph and
the outbreak of the Civil War, most of the basic things in machine tools
had been adapted to general production--the slide-rest lathe, planer,
shaper, drill press, steam hammer, taps and dies, the vernier caliper
that enabled a mechanic at the bench to measure to one-thousandth of an
inch, and so on.

When Fort Sumter was fired upon, Uncle Sam turned to the Remington
plant, among others, for help out of his dilemma of “unpreparedness.”
The first contract was given for 5,000 Harper’s Ferry rifles, and it
took two years to complete it. Five thousand Harper’s Ferry muskets came
in to be changed so that bayonet or sabre could be attached, and this
particular job was finished in two weeks, every man and boy in Ilion
working at it. There was a big contract for army revolvers, and that had
to be taken care of by starting a separate plant in Utica, which ran
until the end of the war, when its machinery and tools were moved to
Ilion. Steam power was now installed, and the plant, increased by new
buildings and machinery, ran day and night.

[Illustration: MASTER OF THE SITUATION

The modern sportsman with his automatic rifle is prepared for all
emergencies.]

In 1863, the Remington breech-loading rifle was perfected, and proved to
be so great an improvement over previous inventions in military arms
that an order for 10,000 of them was obtained from our government. The
Ilion plant being taxed to its utmost capacity, the contract was
transferred to the Savage Arms Company, of Middletown, Conn., which
completed the job in 1864.

[Illustration: _Illustrations by courtesy of the Winchester Repeating
Arms Co._

TURNING GUN STOCKS

40 YARD RANGE]

The tools and fixtures used in making Remington breech-loading rifles
for the United States were brought back from Connecticut in 1866, and an
inventive genius named John Rider was set to work, with a staff of the
best mechanics obtainable, to develop this gun still further. He devised
the famous system of a dropping breech block, backed up by the hammer.

Uncle Sam had a great number of muzzle-loading Springfield rifles left
from the Civil War. By the Berdan system, these were turned into
breech-loaders at the Ilion plant, the breech being cut out of the
barrel and a breech-block inserted, swinging upward and forward. Spain
had 10,000 muskets to modernize by the same system, and the breech-block
attachments were made at Ilion.

The Berdan system, with a slight alteration, was the foundation of the
Allen gun, made by the United States government for the army until
superseded by the Krag-Jorgensen.

The repeating rifle now seemed an interesting possibility and large sums
were spent in developing a weapon of this type. It did not prove to have
merit, however.

Then James P. Lee designed the first military rifle with the bolt type
of cartridge chamber, the parent of the military rifle of today. The
model was made at Ilion, but another type of bolt gun, the Keene, seemed
to offer still greater possibilities at the moment, and the plant was
being prepared to manufacture this. The Lee gun was taken up at
Bridgeport, but not made successfully, and finally, as the Keene gun had
not met expectations, falling short of government tests, the Lee type
was brought back to Ilion, tools worked out and manufacture undertaken
in quantities. It afterwards became the basis for the famous British
army rifle, the Lee-Metford.

[Illustration: ACTION TESTING

EXTREME CARE IN TESTING IS NECESSARY TO ACCURACY OF AIM
IN THE FINISHED PRODUCT

_Illustrations by courtesy of the Winchester Repeating Arms Co._]

At this period the plant made many other interesting guns. The Whitmore
double-barrel breech-loading shotgun was designed, and later developed
into the Remington breech-loading shotgun. Eliott hammerless
breech-loading pistols with one, two, four and five barrels, discharged
by a revolving firing pin, were made in large quantities, as well as a
single-barrel Eliott magazine pistol. The Eliott magazine pump rifle was
perfected in Ilion, but afterwards made in New England. Vernier and wind
gauge sights, attachable to any rifle, were made, and novelties like the
“gun cane,” which had the appearance of a walking-stick, but was a
perfect firearm, carried as a protection against robbery.

[Illustration: ASSEMBLING REPEATING SHOTGUNS AND RIFLES]


Making Barrels.

One of the most important features is, of course, the making of barrels.
The machines for drilling and boring are the best that money can buy,
and the operatives the most skilful to be found anywhere. Care at this
stage reduces the necessity for straightening later. Every point is
given the minutest attention. In drilling 22-calibers, for example, the
length of the hole must be from 100 to 125 times the diameter of the
drill.

Improvements have made it possible to drill harder steel than formerly.
This reduces the weight of the gun, and is important to the man who
carries it.


Taking off 2/1000 of an Inch.

The boring is an especially delicate task. In choke-boring your shotgun,
for example, the final reamer took off only 2/1000 of an inch. Think of
such a gossamer thread of metal! But it insures accuracy. No pains can
be too great for that.

This exquisite painstaking will be seen still more in the
barrel-inspection department, to which we will go now. In passing, we
must not forget the grinding shop, where is, perhaps, the finest battery
of grinding machines in the United States; or the polishers running at
the dizzy speed of 1,500 to 1,700 revolutions per minute and making the
inside of the barrel shine like glass. This high polish is important,
for it resists rust and prevents leading.

[Illustration: SHOOTING ROOM OF BALLISTIC DEPARTMENT*

* The bullet breaks a metal tape at the moment of leaving
the muzzle. This time and the time of striking target are electrically
recorded on the Chronograph.]

[Illustration: SOME OF THE SHOOTING TESTS]

[Illustration: CHRONOGRAPH FOR MEASURING VELOCITIES]

[Illustration: WEIGHING BULLETS]

That is the atmosphere of the whole place. Every action has its reason.
There is not an unnecessary motion made by any one, and there is not one
necessary thing omitted, whatever the cost or trouble.

[Illustration: BORING GUN BARRELS

_Courtesy of the Winchester Repeating Arms Co._]


The Making of Ammunition Today.

It is no easy matter to secure a pass to the Bridgeport plant. Its great
advantage over other concerns lies, to a large degree, in the exclusive
machinery that has been developed at so much pains and expense and the
secrets of which are so carefully guarded. In our case, however, there
will be nothing to hinder us from getting a few general impressions,
provided we do not go into mechanical details too closely.

The very size of the great manufactory is impressive--sixteen acres of
floor space, crowded with machinery and resounding with activity. In
building after building, floor above floor, the sight is similar: the
long rows of busy machines, the whirling network of shafts and belts
above, the intent operatives, and the steady clicking of innumerable
parts blended into a softened widespread sound. It seems absolutely
endless; it is a matter of hours to go through the plant. Stop at one of
the machines and see the speed and accuracy with which it turns out its
product; then calculate the entire number of machines and you will begin
to gain a little idea as to what the total output of this vast
institution must be.

[Illustration: PUTTING METAL HEADS ON PAPER SHOT SHELLS]

More than once you will find yourself wondering whether there can be
guns enough in the world, or fingers enough to press their triggers, to
use such a tremendous production of ammunition. But there are, and the
demand is steadily increasing. This old world is a pretty big place
after all.

[Illustration: ASSEMBLING AUTO SHOTGUNS]

[Illustration: EXAMINING PAPER SHELLS]

[Illustration: REPEATING SHOTGUN MACHINING DEPARTMENT]

[Illustration: INSPECTING METALLIC SHELLS]


Handling Deadly Explosives.

Operatives, girls in many cases, handle the most terrible compounds. We
stop, for example, where they are making primers to go in the head of
your loaded shell, in order that it may not miss fire when the bunch of
quail whirrs suddenly into the air from the sheltering grasses. That
grayish, pasty mass is wet fulminate of mercury. Suppose it should dry a
trifle too rapidly. It would be the last thing you ever did suppose, for
there is force enough in that double handful to blow its surroundings
into fragments. You edge away a little, and no wonder, but the girl who
handles it shows no fear as she deftly but carefully presses it into
molds which separate it into the proper sizes for primers. She knows
that in its present moist condition it cannot explode.


Extreme Precautions.

Or, perhaps, we may be watching one of the many loading machines. There
is a certain suggestiveness in the way the machines are separated by
partitions. The man in charge takes a small carrier of powder from a
case in the outside wall and shuts the door, then carefully empties it
into the reservoir of his machine, and watches alertly while it packs
the proper portions into the waiting shells. He looks like a careful
man, and needs to be. You do not stand too close.

The empty carrier then passes through a little door at the side of the
building, and drops into the yawning mouth of an automatic tube. In the
twinkling of an eye it appears in front of the operator in one of the
distributing stations, where it is refilled and returned to its proper
loading machine, in order to keep the machine going at a perfectly
uniform rate; while at the same time it allows but a minimum amount of
powder to remain in the building at any moment. Each machine has but
just sufficient powder in its hopper to run until a new supply can reach
it. Greater precaution than this cannot be imagined, illustrating as it
does, that no effort has been spared to protect the lives of the
operators.

       *       *       *       *       *


How does an Artesian Well Keep Up Its Supply of Water?

Artesian wells are named after the French Province of Artais, where they
appear to have been first used on an extensive scale.

[Illustration: ARTESIAN WELL (_D_) IN THE LONDON BASIN]

They are perpendicular borings into the ground through which water rises
to the surface of the soil, producing a constant flow or stream. As a
location is chosen where the source of supply is higher than the mouth
of the boring, the water rises to the opening at the top. They are
generally sunk in valley plains and districts where the formation of the
ground is such that that below the surface is bent into basin-shaped
curves. The rain falling on the outcrops of these saturates the whole
porous bed, so that when the bore reaches it the water by hydraulic
pressure rushes up towards the level of the highest portion of the
strata.

The supply is sometimes so abundant as to be used extensively as a
moving power, and in arid regions for fertilizing the ground, to which
purpose artesian springs have been applied from a very remote period.
Thus many artesian wells have been sunk in the Algerian Sahara which
have proved an immense boon to the district. The same has been done in
the arid region of the United States. The water of most of these is
potable, but a few are a little saline, though not to such an extent as
to influence vegetation.

The hollows in which London and Paris lie are both perforated in many
places by borings of this nature. At London they were first sunk only to
the sand, but more recently into the chalk. One of the most celebrated
artesian wells is that of Grenelle near Paris, 1,798 feet deep,
completed in 1841, after eight years’ work. One at Rochefort, France, is
2,765 feet deep; at Columbus, Ohio, 2,775; at Pesth, Hungary, 3,182, and
at St. Louis, Mo., 3,843-1/2. Artesian borings have been made in West
Queensland 4,000 feet deep. At Schladebach, in Prussia, there is one
nearly a mile deep.

As the temperature of water from great depths is invariably higher than
that at the surface, artesian wells have been made to supply warm water
for heating manufactories, greenhouses, hospitals, fishponds, etc. The
petroleum wells of America are of the same technical description. These
wells are now made with larger diameters than formerly, and altogether
their construction has been rendered much more easy in modern times.

Boring in the earth or rock for mining, geologic or engineering purposes
is effected by means of augers, drills or jumpers, sometimes wrought by
hand, but now usually by machinery, driven by steam or frequently by
compressed air.

In ordinary mining practice a bore-hole is usually commenced by digging
a small pit about six feet deep, over which is set up a shear-legs with
pulley, etc. The boring rods are from ten to twenty feet in length,
capable of being jointed together by box and screw, and having a chisel
inserted at the lower end. A lever is employed to raise the bore-rods,
to which a slight twisting motion is given at each stroke, when the rock
at the bottom of the hole is broken by the repeated percussion of the
cutting tool. Various methods are employed to clear out the triturated
rock.

The work is much quickened by the substitution of steam power, water
power, or even horse power for manual labor. Of the many forms of boring
machines now in use may be mentioned the diamond boring machine,
invented by Leschot, a Swiss engineer. In this the cutting tool is of a
tubular form, and receives a uniform rotatory motion, the result being
the production of a cylindrical core from the rock of the same size as
the bore or caliber of the tube. The boring bit is a steel thimble about
four inches in length, having two rows of Brazilian black diamonds
firmly embedded therein, the edges projecting slightly. The diamond
teeth are the only parts which come in contact with the rock, and their
hardness is such that an enormous length can be bored with but little
appreciable wear.


Where do Dates Come From?

Besides the dried dates which we are accustomed to seeing in this
country, they are used extensively by the natives of Northern Africa and
of some countries of Asia.

It consists of an external pericarp, separable into three portions, and
covering a seed which is hard and horny in consequence of the nature of
the albumen in which the embryo plant is buried.

Next to the cocoanut tree, the date is unquestionably the most
interesting and useful of the palm tribe. Its stem shoots up to the
height of fifty or sixty feet without branch or division, and of nearly
the same thickness throughout its length. From the summit it throws out
a magnificent crown of large feather-shaped leaves and a number of
spadices, each of which in the female plant bears a bunch of from 180 to
200 dates, each bunch weighing from twenty to twenty-five pounds.

The fruit is eaten fresh or dried. Cakes of dates pounded and kneaded
together are the food of the Arabs who traverse the deserts. A liquor
resembling wine is made from dates by fermentation.

Persia, Palestine, Arabia and the north of Africa are best adapted for
the culture of the date-tree, and its fruit is in these countries an
important article of food. It is now being introduced into California.




The Story of Rubber


Rubber is the coagulated sap of more than 300 varieties of tropical
trees and vines--the Landolphia of Africa, the Ficus of the Malay
Peninsula, the Guayule shrub of Mexico and the Castilloa of South
America, Central America and Southern Mexico are all important rubber
producers, but far more important than all of the others together is the
Hevea, a native of Brazil.

Hevea trees are scattered through the dense forests of practically every
part of the Amazon Basin, a territory more than two-thirds as large as
the United States.


How was Rubber First Used?

Down in Brazil, several hundred miles up the Amazon River, there stood a
great forest of trees and in this forest--the same as in forests of
today--were birds and animals and bugs and beetles, etc. All trees are
protected by nature; some are protected from bugs eating their leaves,
by other bugs eating up these bugs; other trees are protected by having
a thorny or bristly bark.

[Illustration: INDIANS PLAYING WITH A RUBBER BALL WHEN COLUMBUS CAME IN
SIGHT

_Courtesy of the United States Rubber Co._]

In these forests in which the rubber tree grows there was a wood-boring
beetle, and this beetle would attack these rubber trees, boring into
them; but the tree, in order to protect itself, had a poisonous juice,
and as soon as the beetle bored into the tree, this juice killed him.
Then the juice would fill up the hole the beetle had made, and the tree
would go on growing as before.

In those days the natives around these forests (who were half Indian and
half Negro) happened to find some of this juice sticking on the tree.
They cut it off, rolled it together and made a ball, with which they
would play games. The first mention of it was made by Herrera in his
account of the second voyage of Columbus, wherein he speaks of a ball
used by Indians, made from the gum of a tree which was lighter and
bounced better than the far-famed balls of Castile.

[Illustration: IN THE JUNGLE

LLAMA, DOMESTIC ANIMAL OF THE ANDES, USED TO CARRY RUBBER OVER MOUNTAINS

RAILROAD AROUND THE RAPIDS OF THE MADEIRA TERMINAL

CRUDE RUBBER “BISCUITS” ON THE BANKS OF THE AMAZON

_Courtesy of the United States Rubber Co._]

The way they gather this rubber is very interesting. When it comes from
the tree it is nothing but a milky juice. The natives of South America
soon discovered that the white man was willing to pay them beads and
other trinkets for chunks of this rubber, so they became active in
gathering it.

[Illustration: ON THE BANKS OF THE RIO GUAPORE--BRAZIL

_Courtesy of the B. F. Goodrich Co._]


What is a Rubber Camp Like?

In this locality the rubber harvest commences as soon as the Amazon
falls which is usually about the first of August. When this date
approaches bands of natives set out from their primitive homes and go,
in many instances, hundreds of miles into the forest lowlands. There,
within easy reach of the rubber trees, they set up their camp and the
actual work of harvesting the rubber crop begins. It usually covers a
period of about six months, extending from August to January or
February.

The camps are usually great distances from the nearest town and
procuring supplies is not only difficult but very expensive as well. The
natives build their huts out of small poles covered with palm thatch and
live in little colonies while the rubber harvest is going on. The
Brazilian name for a rubber gatherer is “seringuero.”

[Illustration: RUBBER GATHERER’S HUT NEAR THE AMAZON

_Courtesy of the B. F. Goodrich Co._]

A roof and floor with the flimsiest of walls, set up on piling for
coolness, defense against animals and insects, and to keep the building
dry during flood season, forms the home of the rubber gatherer. The more
pretentious and better furnished home of the superintendent of the
“estate,” together with the storehouses, etc., are called the
“seringal.”

The buildings are usually grouped together at a favorable spot on the
banks of the Amazon or one of its tributaries.

Furniture is of the most primitive type. The laborers and their families
sleep in hammocks or on matting on the floor. Food is largely made up of
canned goods and the ever-present farina, a sort of tapioca flour.

The climate of the South American rubber country is usually fatal to
white men, and even among the Indians the fevers, the poisonous insects
and reptiles, and the other perils of a tropical forest cause a high
death rate. The production of South American rubber is limited by a
shortage of men rather than a shortage of trees.

In December the rainy season begins. The waters of the Amazon begin to
rise and the work ceases. The superintendent and many of the workers go
down the river to Para and Manaos or to villages on higher ground.
However, a number of the laborers usually remain in the huts, loafing
and fighting the animals and insects that seek refuge from the rising
waters. They have but little to eat, and during the entire season
practically no communication with the outside world.

[Illustration: A HOME OF THE RUBBER GATHERERS

_Courtesy of the United States Rubber Co._]

At the end of the rainy season, early in May, the laborers return to
their task. The quick-growing vegetation has filled the estradas and
this must be cleared away and perhaps new estradas opened. An estrada is
simply a path leading from one Hevea tree to another and circling back
to camp. Each estrada includes about one hundred of the scattered
Heveas.

After having established themselves in camp the natives take up their
monotonous round, which is followed day after day as long as the rubber
trees continue to yield their valuable sap. When the seringuero starts
out he equips himself with a tomahawk-like axe having a handle about
thirty inches long. This is called a “macheadino.”

[Illustration: TAPPING HEVEA RUBBER TREE--BRAZIL

_Courtesy of the United States Rubber Co._]


How is Rubber Gathered by the Natives?

The trees are tapped very much like maple syrup trees. Only the juice is
found between the outer bark and the wood. So these men make a cut in
the tree through the bark, almost to the wood. A little cup is then
fastened to the tree with a piece of soft clay to press the cup against
it, and the juice runs into this cup. Sometimes they have from ten to
thirty cups on one tree and the average yield of a tree is ten pounds of
rubber a year.

Some two hours after the tapping is done the flow entirely ceases and
the tree must be tapped anew to secure a fresh flow.

The film of rubber that forms on the inside of the cup and the bits of
rubber remaining on the tree are collected and sold as coarse Para.

[Illustration: ON THE BANKS OF THE AMAZON

_Courtesy of the B. F. Goodrich Co._]

[Illustration: GATHERING THE RUBBER MILK--BRAZIL

_Courtesy of the United States Rubber Co._]

[Illustration: HOW THE RUBBER MILK DRIPS FROM THE GASH IN THE
TREE--BRAZIL]

The rubber gatherer carries in addition to a macheadino and many small
tin cups, a larger vessel for gathering the liquid and carrying it to
camp. One man will tap as many as 100 trees in a single morning and then
cover the same ground again in the afternoon or on the following
morning, gathering the sap that drips slowly from the cuts made in the
trees. On these journeys the harvester frequently travels long distances
over paths so buried by the undergrowth of the jungle that they are
almost invisible to the untrained eye. On such expeditions rubber
gatherers usually go armed with rifles to protect themselves against
wild animals, reptiles and savage Indians.

[Illustration: A PLANTATION IN BORNEO

_Courtesy of the B. F. Goodrich Co._]


How is Rubber Smoked?

After the juice has been gathered in this way, the native builds a fire;
over it he places a cover shaped like a large bottle with the bottom
knocked out of it. This fire is built of oily nuts found in the forest,
and the thick smoke arises through what would be the neck of the bottle.

[Illustration: SMOKING RUBBER ON THE LOWER AMAZON

_Courtesy of the United States Rubber Co._]

With a stick shaped something like the wooden shovels used at the
seashore, he dipped into the milky juice in the bowl, then turned this
stick or paddle around very rapidly in the smoke until the juice baked
on the paddle. He then added more juice and went through the same
operation again and again until there were between five and six pounds
of rubber baked on this paddle. He then cuts this off with a wet knife
which made it cut more rapidly. That formed what is called a rubber
“biscuit,” and he then started over again for his next five or six
pounds. Later, as the demand for these “biscuits” increased, instead of
the native using the paddle, he erected two short fence-like affairs
about six feet apart, but parallel with each other, and in between was
the smoky fire. Then he obtained a long pole, stretched it across these
two rails and poured a small quantity of this juice on this pole, over
where the smoke came in contact with it, and rolled the pole around
until this juice was baked, adding more, until, instead of a small five-
or six-pound “biscuit,” he would get an immense ball. In order to get
this off his pole, he would jog one end of the pole on the ground until
the “biscuit” would slide off. This is the way crude rubber first came
into our market and the way it comes today.

[Illustration: SMOKING RUBBER--UPPER AMAZON

_Courtesy of the United States Rubber Co._]


How was Vulcanizing Discovered?

Up to this time, these “biscuits,” when exposed to heat, would become
very soft and sticky, and when exposed to the cold, would become hard
like a stone.

[Illustration: REMOVING BISCUIT FROM POLE AFTER SMOKING

_Courtesy of the United States Rubber Co._]

There was an American by the name of Charles Goodyear who had heard how
the natives of the rubber-growing countries used this milky juice in
many ways for their own benefit. One use they put it to was the
waterproofing of their cloaks. How could this be done so that our
clothing would be made water-tight and yet not be sticky in summer or
stiff in winter? Goodyear devoted a great deal of his time to solving
this problem, and, like many other great inventors, he passed through
many trials. His many failures caused his friends to forsake him and he
was put in prison for not paying his debts. He persisted in his quest,
however, and it was accident at last that opened the way to discovery of
the processes of vulcanization for which Goodyear was seeking.

[Illustration: INDIAN WATERPROOFING CLOTH BY “PAINTING” IT WITH RUBBER
“MILK”--BRAZIL

_Courtesy of the United States Rubber Co._]

At Woburn, Mass., one day, in the spring of 1839, he was standing with
his brother and several other persons near a very hot stove. He held in
his hand a mass of his compound of sulphur and gum, upon which he was
expatiating in his usual vehement manner, the company exhibiting the
indifference to which he was accustomed. In the crisis of his argument
he made a violent gesture, bringing the mass in contact with the stove,
which was hot enough to melt India-rubber instantly; upon looking at it
a moment afterwards, he perceived that his compound had not melted in
the least degree! It had charred as leather chars, but no part of the
surface had dissolved. There was not a sticky place upon it. To say that
he was astonished at this would but faintly express his ecstasy of
amazement. The result was absolutely new to all experience--India-rubber
not melting in contact with red-hot iron! He felt as Columbus felt when
he saw the land bird alighting upon his ship and the driftwood floating
by. In a few years more his labors were crowned with success.

This great invention made it possible for us to have rubber boots and
rubber shoes and many other things made of rubber.

[Illustration: _Courtesy of the United States Rubber Co._]

Up to this time, all the rubber was called Para rubber, named from the
town of Para in Brazil, from which all rubber was shipped. The
full-grown tree is quite large, ranging sixty feet and over in height
and about eight feet around the trunk. It has a flower of pale green
color and its fruit is a capsule containing three small brown seeds,
with patches of black. These seeds lose their life very quickly, so a
great deal of care is necessary to pack them if they are wanted to plant
in another place. The safest way is to lay them loosely in a box of dry
soil or charcoal.

[Illustration: RUBBER TWIGS

_Courtesy of the United States Rubber Co._]

The rubber tree grows best in rich, damp soil and in countries where the
temperature is eighty-nine to ninety-four degrees at noon-time and not
less than seventy-four degrees at night, and where there is a rainy
season for about six months in the year, and the soil and atmosphere is
damp the year round.

The name of this species of tree is Hevea, but many years ago it was
called Siphonia on account of the Omaqua Indians using squirts made of a
piece of pipe stuck into a hollow ball of rubber.


How did Rubber Growing Spread to Other Places?

Back in the seventies an English botanist, Wickham by name, smuggled
many Hevea seeds out of Brazil. The tree was found to grow well in the
Eastern tropics and today the rubber plantations of Ceylon, Borneo, the
Malay Peninsula and neighboring regions are producing more than half of
the world’s supply of crude rubber. Here the natives work under pleasant
climatic conditions and the trees under cultivation grow better and
yield better than in the forest.

On these plantations, rubber trees are cultivated just the same as other
crops. All weeds are removed and great care is used with the young
trees. Low-growing plants which absorb nitrogen from the air which
enriches the soil, such as the passion flower and other sensitive
plants, were planted around these small rubber trees, for it was found
that when the weeds were removed to give the trees a chance to grow, the
ground became hard and dry.

[Illustration: _Courtesy of the United States Rubber Co._]

The method of tapping is different, too. Instead of ten to thirty taps,
a series of cuts the shape of a V is made on four sides of the tree,
from the bottom up to as high as a man can reach, and a cup placed at
the point of the V. Another way is to make one long cut down the tree
and then cut out slanting channels about one foot apart into this, and
put a cup at the bottom of the long cut; another is making a spiral
around the tree with the cup at the bottom.


How is Rubber Cured on Modern Plantations?

With these big plantations some other way to cure the rubber had to be
devised from the smoking process used in curing the native rubber which
comes from South America. The milky juice is emptied from the cups into
a tank and lime juice is added and it is then allowed to stand. The
juice, as it comes from the tree, contains considerable water: the lime
juice is added to separate the rubber from the water.

[Illustration: A YOUNG RUBBER PLANTATION

_Courtesy of the United States Rubber Co._]

Sometimes separators are used much like our cream separators; in fact,
the whole process and the appearance of the interior of these rubber
“dairies” very much resembles our own dairies where real milk is made
into butter, curds or cheese.

Para, at the mouth of the Amazon, and Manaos, a thousand miles up, are
both modern cities of more than one hundred thousand population. They
have schools, churches, parks, gardens and museums, and, except for the
Indians, certain peculiarities in 

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