Newspaper Page Text
NEW GRIST FOR AN AGED MILL. An old colonial grist mill that ground corn for Washington's army in the days of the Revolution has just begun grinding again for the farmers near the upper portion of Wissahickon Creek, four miles northeast of Chestnut Hill, in Pennsylvania. It is more than a hundred and twenty-live years old; yet the old Piper mill is as strong and steadfast apparently, as when the Colonies were fighting for their lib erty. Nowadays the place where it Is lo cated is known as the Thomas estate, and the big three story gray stone structure looms up just as do the mem ories of Lexington and Sunker Hill. Every one of its ereat cross-joists and beams were hewn by hand from solid quartered oak logs. Tha' 1- the kind of timber that lasts. In olden times this was the only mill anywhere near the section of country where it stands, and therefore about all the grain that was raised for miles and miles around it was brought there to be ground. In fact until the day of steam power In grist mills, its wheels whirled merrily every day, and the miller and his men had that satisfied appearance of those who have plenty to do. It is now a little more than fifty years since the mill ceased operations. The old wooden shafting and quaintly wrought oak cogs nnd angle wheels stood motionless and covered with dust, left just as they were in the days when prosperity smiled on the miller. The spider wove his web and the birds sought shelter from storms in the old mill, year after year and decade r.fter decade. A few weeks ago it was decided that so substantial a structure, thoroughly adapted to even modern milling, should no longer remain in disuse. It would not do to attempt to operate with the old fashioned gear and plant, so it was decided to bring it up to date by the removal of the ancient running gear, and by substituting modern steel shafting and steel cogs. Down came the old square and octa gonal main shaft, together with the quaint old paddle mill-wheel,—just the same wheel that poets have ritten of, just the same as the one of which our grandfathers have told us. Up in their places went a modern iron tur bine and a six-inch steel main shaft. The mill looked the same on the out side, to be sure, but the spiders had gone from the old interior and the birds nested there no longer. This was not all. In the old days, the mill race, as it was first built, was quite big enough. Not so now. It was found necessary both to widen and deepen it. The old temi-circular dam was discovered to have outlived its usefulness, and this, too. was recon structed. The true American spirit, while it may rebuild, has no love of de stroying the old-time landmarks, and the few changes which have been made have, except so far as was unavoida ble, not been allowed to alter the gen eral appearance of the old mill. The changes were completed a few days ago. The great doors that have been closed to the public for a half a century were again opened; and now, after a silence of fifty years, the old mill again vibrates to the power that grinds the grain. Copyright, 1597, by Bacheller Syndicate. ! Crucible to Beat the Klondike. There are just two fur aces in ex istence avowedly built for the purpose of manufacturing gold. They are lo cated at 39th street and Lowe avenue. Chicago, and the man who has built them, E. C. Brice. claims that they will, before long, with the other apparatus used in connection therewith, bring in $10,000 a week. Think of the flood of .told that these new fashioned crucibles will bring into existence, if Mr. Brice is correct. They APPARATUS BY MEANS OF WHICH IT IS CLAIMED GOLD CAN BE MANUFACTURED—From a Photograph. are only just fairly in operation, for it was not until November 2- that fires were lighted in them for the first time. Mr. Brice declares that the only rea son gold has not been manufactured before is because no one hitherto has ever been able to learn just exactly what prold consists of. He says that it was borne in upon him that the reason investigators had failed to learn the secret of the trans mutation of metals, was that they had never stopped to consider that the re duction of gold itself or silver was not at all likely to result in showing the exact proportion of the elements that went to constitute each. Mr. Brice, therefore, experimented in ways that he keeps to himself, and one day, al most by accident, he succeeded in making both gold and silver at the same time. So he claims. The particular ore used by Mr. Brice in the creation of the most precious of metals is known as the ore of anti mony, and it costs about Sls a ton. The 10,000 tons of ore a day which it is pro posed to prepare from the ore of anti mony by means of peculiar processes which are Mr. Brice's own. when re fined by the usual processes of refining base bullion, will yield $2,800 to the ton. One of the features Mr. Brice's method consists in the use of artificial volcanos, the principle of which Mr. Brice learned by living ;ix months on the slopes of Vesuvius while that mountain was in eruption. The ore of antimony contained in crucibles is al lowed to remain in these volcanos forty-eight hours. It is then crushed, the powdered ore placed on the remov THINGS OLD AND NEW AND INTERESTING THE WORLD OVER. Most Potent X-Ray Yet Produced. MOST POWERFUL X-RAY MACHINE IN EXISTENCE- There has recently been placed in the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard College the greatest X-ray mat in I the world. It possesses the astonish ;ing t:ectric motive 'Tee of 1,200,000 ! volts. This voltage, if utilized upon an | electric railway, would be sufficient to ' keep 2,400 cars constantly in motion for a single day. This great machine—for great it is In size as well as foree —is operated under the supervision of Professor Trow bridge, director of Jefferson physical laboratory of Harvard, and one of the best known of modern electricians. Professor Trowbridge describes his machine —shown in the accompanying ill :tration with the Professor himself standing beside it —as a modification of Plante's so-called rheostati" ma chine, but it is far more practical and more powerful. Sixty plates of glass which form con densers are the really essential part of the machine. These plates are charged in multiple by ten thousand storage cells, and are discharged in series, giv ing intense disruptive discharges over four feet in length. Just imagine a stream of electric sparks four feet long, snapping, crackling, buzzing, in that same weird, uncanny fashion in which the lightning sometimes plays for an in stant along its zig-zag track from cloud to cloud. The length of the electric spark is exactly proportional to the voltage lengths over one inch. To those who have ever seen an X ray machine in operation, the size of Professor Trowbridge's giant can best be explained by advising them to com able bottom of a metallurgical furnace, and a quantity of scrap lead thrown on top of it. The fearful heat melts the lead and it eventually vaporizes, the vapor pass ing up through the ore, forming a cor- , rosive substance which transforms into what is called a "watte" everything In the powdered ore except the gold and silver. The gold and silver sink into the molten lead and are drawn off with it. The combination is placed in j ! molds about eight Inches long and four inches wide of pyramidal form. The rellning process continues until the gold and silver are all extracted. Mr. Brice claims that his first week's work resulted in the production of more than $18,000 worth of gold and sll -1 ver. The wealth, therefore, that must pass through these furnaces, according jto his statements, is likely to be as ! great as that hoped for by the man i who Is trying to extract all the gold there is in sea-water by means of an apparatus now in course of erection up at Passamaquoddy Bay on the coast of Maine. Copyright, 1597, by Bacheller Syndicate. Jack McAuliffe's Superstition. Jack McAullfCe was superstitious to a marked degree when on the race track, and firmly believed in the won derful winning powers of an old blue serge coat, which was quite out of keeping with the rest of his tasteful outiit. Whenever he had lost heavily and felt something must be done, the old coat would be taken from the ward robe, brushed, and donned. This coat enveloped the pugilist's bunches of QIUSCIeS the day Reolare won the Sap phire Stakes at Bheepshead Bay, Mc- Auliffe laying ¥10.000 to win $8,000 on j tho race. Feared the Anarchists. Just after the execution, Diebier, ,the French executioner who guillotined Kavaohol, was turned out of his house by his landlord, who was very much : afraid the Anarchists would blow up I the property. pare the electric disruptive charge with that of the ordinary machine. Per haps the largest X-ray machine in the country next to that owned by Prof. Trowbridge is the property of Prof. W. J. Morton, of New York. The distance between the positive and negative poles in this machine is not more than a foot; it is over this distance that the disruptive electrical discharges pass from pole to pole. Imagine, therefore, a machine where the positive and neg ative poles are four feet apart, and some idea of the immense superlority of Prof. Trowbridge's machine can be gained. The X-ray that this giant machine can make possible is more powerful than any of which Prof. Roentgen ever talked—or dreamed, probably. It Is believed that through it and the de velopments resulting from its use a new era will dawn so far as the avail ability of the X-ray is concerned. Here is a light powerful enough to test the theories of the experts who have claimed that the possibilities of the X-ray are only limited by the degree of development. Electricians who are studying the X-ray problem in different cities of the United States are discussing the ad visability of inviting Prof. Trowbridge to carry out various proposed tests of the powers of the ray. with a view of settling forever the disputed question as to the effect of a tremendous in crease of the penetrating power. Mr. Edison is authority for the statement that the construction of this machine can best be likened to the dawning of a new day in the world of electricity. Copyright, 1597, by Bacheller Syndicate. PLANS OF THE UNITED STATES WEATHER BUREAU ANENT KITES: I Next spring there is to l a great j change in the foundations of the pre- I dictions of "Old Probabilities." Willis L. Moore, Chief of the United States Weather Bureau, says that by that i | time the Signal Corps will have placed : not less than twenty kite-stations be ' tween the Rocky Mountains and the i ' Atlantic Ocean. At eac't of these, 1 daily readings of the weather pre- j1 dictions will take place at an elevation : i of a mile or more by means of kites. i At present there is only one kite-sta- i tion, that at Washington City. From ! readings taken there at the elevation 1 ;of more than a mile, information has \ '■ been gained by the Signal Service ' ! which has greatly assisted in estimat- : i ing the future direction of a storm J center when all other means of gain- This Melon Is the Record-Breaker of the World. Once a yeir at Rocky Ford, Col., they have wnat they call watermelon day. The accompanying illustration shows the dual lions of the last occa sion The melon, which measures a trifle over five feet in length, is the world's record breaker. Not even in Maumee where potatoes grow so tall, was anything like 'Ms ever accom plished by natur;. Lion number two is State Senator •Swink, the father of Melon and one of that fast disappearing list of "honor men," the Colorado pion eers. Sen: tor Swink and tho watermelon both challenge admira tion for their ex traordinary qual ities. After the water melon shown in the picture had been photographed, it was carved, and the biggest colored man wlt h the greatest appetite ever nown south of Mason and Dix on's line could not have eaten a fiuar ter of it. It is said that fruit mon sters of this sort commonly lose their delicacy, both of flavor and tex ture. 3ut this wa termelon Is an ex ception to all rules: there was any amount of delicacy apparent to the fortunate ones who were given a por tion of it. The melon weighed ex actly 356 pounds, and was three feet and a half in cir cumference. When carved it made ISO slices, and one slice was all that an or dinary person could possibly eat at a meal. Rocky Ford's watermelon A HOLE 10,000 FEET IN DEPTH. The remarkable task is now in pro cess of accomplishment of digging a hole 10,000 feet deep at West Elizabeth, Pa., in which it Is proposed to place a mammoth boiler and to make steam In it through the heat generated at that depth by the earth. At present the depth of 6,350 feet has been reached, and no obstruction has been met which promises permanently to retard progresj of the experiment. There is no hole in the wcrld like this, which will be. when the full depth is attained, nearly two miles from that part of the earth on which the grass grows. The shaft of the Red Jacket mine out in Michigan is said to be three miles in length, but that meas urement by no means refers to a per pendicular shaft, but to one which af ter sinking far U"der around, branches off in horizontal fashion. The work at West Elizabeth is the joint idea of Prof. William Hallock, Adjunct Professor of Physics at the Columbia University, N. V., and *he Forest Oil Company, located at the scene of the digging. The primal sovrce of the inspiration of the idea was the fact that the company is lor"..ing for new oil deposits, and In the search bored down to the three thousand foot level. When that point had been reached, Prof. Hallock heard of It, and sucggested the present scheme In the interests of science. Incidentally, science Is to be made to serve a business purpose, for the power thus obtained will be utilized for various things at a profit. The steam will cost practically nothing, and really the power is unlimited because th supply is exhaustless. There is no reason why the power cannot be util ized for the generation of electricity, and West Elizabeth made an electrical supply center. The drill used In this tremendous task of boring is formed of three-quar ter-inoh pipes jointed. It Is estimated that ten feet a day is about the max imum progress. As the drill pounds against the rook and disintegrates it. the water which is force 1 downward through the hole made by the drill trickles into the powder thus formed and transforms it into paste. This is sucked up through the hollow drill to the surface, where it constantly spouts out. If it is found possible to penetrate to the level intended, the hole made by the drill will be gradually enlarged un til It is possible to lower a boiler down through this longest of all shafts. The problem on the lay mind is. how does the company propose to secure the operation of that boiler by human means? When the officials are ques tioned they claim to have found t'.e so lution of the mystery, and say that when the time comes they will demon strate that their plan is entirely feas ible. In the meantime the boring goes steadily on. The experiment is being watched with the keenest Interest by both scientific and commercial ex-1 perts. Copyright, 1897, by Bacheller Syndicate. WHAT ITS CHIEF EXPECTS. ing information of this sort have failed. Nov, after long experiment, the sig nal officers have so improved on kite flying that apparatus necessary to record the facts the signal service offi cers require is now easily sent up to the height of one mile during a mod erate wind. An automatic instrument has been made that, while weighing less than two pounds, will record tem perature, pressure, humidity, and wind velocity. In discussing his hopes and plans for the future, Mr. Moore has this to say in response to a query ad dressed to him:— day is the only festival of the sort ob served anywhere. It is attended every year by from 10,000 to 12,000 persons, and sometimes the governor of the state is among the visitors. Thousands' of the melons are brought in from the ranches and deposited in a big grove within the city limits. At a given sig nal, all the visitors repair to this grove THIS MELON IS A WORLD'S RECORD-BREAKER. America's Oldest Fire Machine. OLDEST EI HE ENGINE IN NORTH AMERICA. The authorities of the town of Shel burne, in Nova Scotia, have Just placed ' on exhibition the oldest fire machine in North America. It was built in Eng- , land in the early part of the last cen tury, and became the property of the ' Crown. When King George 111. as- , cended the throne of England, it was considered a fine machine, and one day . when the monarch's attention hap pened to be called to Shelburne for son. 3 reason or other, he decided that he v-->uld make some sort of a present to the place, and as r result presented the town authorities with the machine. . That was in 1795, a little more thr.n . a hundred years ago; and the p*-ople . of Shelburne thought themselves very fortunate indeed to become possessors . of so modern an aid in the fighting of , flames. It was very handsomely paint- . ed, well built, of lasting material, and , for a long time it was the town's chief protection from fire. As the years went . on, however, genius began to produce Are fighting apparatus that left the poor old machine far away in the rear. They are not quid: to change nor to forget the old loves in Nova Scotia, but about half a century ago It was decided that King George's gift was a i "At an elevation of Aye mtlec b i little effect remains of daily tempera ture variation. At this altitude —or- mile—the atmospher- is free from th'> disturbing influence of immediate sui face radiation, and consequently theie is but little change between the tem perature of midday and midnight. Dis tribution of temperature in the coli wave or rainstorm areas may give i clue to the future direction of thf storm. Indeed, it may be discovered that the storm center at that elevation will not always coincide with the geo gaphi~al storm center at the surface of the earth. The displacement of this center may possibly give some Indica tion of the future direction of the storm." Copyright, 1897, by Bacheller Syndicate. and the watermelon feast begins. It is a poor year inueeii iui water melons when Melon Day sees less than 20,000 of them at the grove. One of the rules of the day is that every person must carve his own melon, there being no exception on account of sex, age, or previous condition of appetite. The re sult is that t'-c spectacle is one never to be forgot ten, for 'either man nor woman appears at best either cutting or eating a water melon. Everyone is sup posed to eat all he can, and the mel ons that are left are divided among those who caro to take the trouble to remove them from the grove. No ill ness ever results from this whole sale consumption of melons, because no melon Is eaten that Is not perfect ly ripe. It is probable that many of those who read this ar ticle hay? unknow ingly eaten a Rocky Ford melon, because the melons from that section of Colorado are shipped all over the United States and sold as the product of various localities. It is a peculiar Industry, the raising of wa termelons; but so great has it be come at Rocky Ford that a wa termelon growers' association has been formed. All sorts of experi ments are tried to :.iake the melons grow large, and the melon In the picture shows the best that has be dp. accomplished. Copyright, 1897, ■BBBSSBBIBBBBBBSBSBBSBSBSBI trifle too ancient, and that the safety of the townspeople demanded a more modern fire machine. Like the famous old engine down at Asbury Park, N. J., which Founder Bradley bought for the little ones of the place, the old Are machine when mustered out, became the plaything of the boys of Shel burne, —and their sisters too, for that matter. It continued to serve this purpose for a number of years, but finally it was dismantled, the tub filled with earth and placed In the front yard of a resi dent of Shelburne, where It served as a flower garden. For a very long time the flowers grew thriftily In It during the summer and the bulbs nestled close to the old oaken surface during the winter months. At last, however, relic hunters discovered It, learned Its his tory, withdrew It from mother earth's bosom, restored It to fully as good a condition as it exhibited the day that His Brittanic Majesty bestowed it as an evidence of his {""d will upon the people of Shelburne, and turned it over to the officials of the town to be placed where everyone could see Just how Are was fought In "ye olden tyme." ■Copyright, 1897, by Bacheller Syndicate. Beginning of Our Biggest Gun. How many people are there who I now just how the biggest gun the | 'nited States government ever ordered I ooks In Its Initial stage? Here la a 'Icturo of the great Ingot, just as It vac east at the big steel worka at Bethlehem. Pa. When It Iβ all com pleted It will be six tons heavier, than ■he monster Krupp gun shown at the , World's Fair In Chicago, and five feet 'onger than the German gun. The diameter of the Ingot as It Is , "INGOT" OF THE BIGGEST GUN EVE CONSTRUCTED. shown in the picture is 6 feet, 2 inches. ( Its length is 49 feet, 2 inches. It will ' be by far the most powerful gun ever constructed. Lieutenant John F. Meigs, formerly of the United States Army, under whose supervision the gun is being built, says of it: "Its projectile will weigh about 2,300 pounds and Its velocity will be in the neighborhood of 2,000 feet per second. The range of such a gun would be very great,—not less than ten miles; and its extreme range, or the utmost distance to which it could throw a projectile, would be In the neighborhood of 15 miles, according to Lieut. Meigs. Its power is so great from the weight of i the projectile that no armor-clad could ! receive a blow from it without perfora j tlon of her armor." Picture to yourself a gun that weighs ! 126 tons. When that gun Is placed in a position to defend New York Harbor, which it will be one of these days, one shot, if It struck fairly, would sink the best war vessel that ever was built. This is what is known as a 16-Inch gun, while the United States has never before attempted any heavier piece of ordnance than a 12-inch gun. The new cannon, as stated above, would throw a projectile 15 miles; the nearest ap- I proach to this distance heretofore was the so-called Jubilee shot in England, where the projectile traveled 12 miles. All the metal used Is fluid and pressed. The specifications, which are being adhered to strictly, call for the most exacting tests. It is necessary that the gun should be composed en tirely of forged metal. The actual cost of the gun itself will be 1120,000. The cost of the gun carriage and the tur ret for the gun when it Is finally set up will be about as great as that of the weapon Itself. Beneath a gun of this sort there must be a foundation of fifty feet of solid concrete. While this huge ingot is oast at Bethlehem, the finishing touches will be auded at the Watervllet Arsenal, HARD FATE FOR LUCKLESS DOGS. At Point Brcese, Just outside of the limits of Philadelphia, at a bend of the Schuylkill river that is found by every breath of winter, 270 dogs are being trained to draw large sledges in the Klondike. They will be shipped there as early as possible next spring and it Is intended they shall form a line from the gold Melds to some point on the coast not yet determined. It has been ascertained that the sup ply of Esquimaux dogs, dogs obtain able on the way to or in the Klondike regions, is altogether insufficient to meet the demand. This fact is what has caused the curious spectacle that may be seen any day at Point Breese. The dogs are all sorts, none more than two years old, none less than twenty Inches high. Brawny dogs, too, most of them, for a weakling would be of small use In the Klondike. Every one of them Is as young and vigorous as a dog can be, and each day they are all becoming more and more accus tomed to the lack of those things that dogs generally get In civilization. Their quarters, when the dogs are not being driven, are some windowless sheds—windowless because there are only openings where the windows used to be, and the cold and storm come In as they please without effort being made to stop them. This Is for the purpose of hardening the dogs, and ap parently has succeeded. The animals' food consists largely of horsemeat. on the theory that It should make them tough, hardy, and strong, and accus tom them to the diet that is likely to be theirs during their trips to and from the gold fields. , The dogs are driven In teams of five, three wheelers and two leaders, so called even if they are Intended to draw sledges. Just at present, how ever, the sledge consists of a box mounted on wheels, which t. i animals draw over and upon a disused railway tr-ck. Perhaps they may encounter something In their Klondike travels In the way of rough traveling that will be more wearing on them than this, but is very doubtful. It le arduous work for Mr. Wheatley, the trainer, but he Is confident that by the time spring comes he will have every dog thoroughly used to nam js, to traveling under most unpleasant conditions, and subsisting upon raw meat. fish, or whatever he Is so for tunate as to be able to get In the way of food. In this condition the dogs will prove very valuable In the land where they are going. Just as soon as It Is considered ad visable—probably next April—these dogs will be placed in a three story kennel car and shipped to Seattle. From Seattle they will be transported to whatever point from which the Klondike Is accessible that the owners of the sledge line for which they are being trained may decide upon. Copyright, 1897, by Bacheller Syndicate. Stanford's Big Mail. The late E >nator Stanford used to re ceive a larger mail than the President. Once, while on a vacation away from his secretary, he allowed It to accumu late; and when his secretary sat down to his taak of opening it he waa con fronted by six large mail bags full of letters. I located at Weet Troy, N. T. Who- I ever has been aboard of one of the btg I battleships, like the lowa, the Massa chusetts or the Indiana, will probably remember the huge guns forward that Impressed the observer with the Idea that they could annihilate anything. Let It be remembered that they are mere toys as compared with this new est and biggest gun of Uncle Sam's, and a fair Idea of the latter's tremend | ova power and size may be gained. It will be a sorry day for the hostile warship that tries to enter New York harbor after this monstrous engine o< war is mounted. Copyright, 1897, by Bacheller Syndicate. Ice Sailing on Skates. Sailing on skates is very popular in some localities. The skater crosses two sticks, binds them and covers them with canvas, making thewhole about zlx feet by one or two In extent. He places this sail against his back and runs his arms through the sticks so as to hold it. With a good wind he can go twenty miles an hour over smooth ice, and he can tack and beat against the wind, just as in sailing a boat. It is very ex citing, but it requires some daring to start In, as the rapidity of the skater is apt to terrify the man who has never tried It. In skating with the wind one's eyes water, but one can see quite well enough to avoid holes. There would be little chance of being saved If you did blow in. However, It is an easy thing to blow across a three-foot hole in go ing at a high rate of speed. It is very exciting sport, and very little practice is required—though It demands com paratively smooth ice for good Bkatlng. If an obstruction is met your fall Is pretty hard. Gamblers' Jonahs. Every follower of the races firmly be lieves In a Jonah. Every man has his particular Jonah, and there Is great dodging about to avoid meeting the un lucky man, who Is generally a good fellow, but whose tips, while well meant, and given with the best inten tion in the world, Invariably go wrong. Any reader who followß the horses can name his Jonah off-hand, and will tell you how, nine times out of ten, an ap parently sure-money bet Is lost through contact with the unlucky one.