The San Francisco call. [volume], May 02, 1897, Page 18, Image 18

About The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913

Image provided by: University of California, Riverside; Riverside, CA

                
18
Astonishing Flight of a Carrier Pigeon.
The most wonderful feat ever required of a homing or carrier pigeon is claimed
for a California bird. The opinion is entertained that nothing like it was ever before
projected-; not since the flight of that historical dove which Hew from Noah's ark to
bring bn.'k the tidings of nry land to the lofty top of Ararat, at least. Half in jest
wus the feat discussed at a meeting of the California Homing Club.
'.'My proposition, '* a*id a gentleman of quiet but determined bearing, "is to fly
homing birds over the peaks of the Sierra Ne vada in midwinter."
"Can't be done," responded one.
Not since the fabkd discussion ever Thileas Fogg's proposed tour around the
word in eighty dnys had more incredulity been expressed.
■''They will freeze to death," was another objection.
• "Yes, or Jo;e their way," was another.
"Gentlemen, lam going lo try the experiment," said the quiet, determined man,
who is A. Carlisle of this City.
Considering many things, the chances were that the scoffers were right and that
Mr. Carlisle was wronr. There is no record of any homing bird ever flying over the
Alps, which are lower and not more forbidding in winter than many peaks of the
Sierra Nevada. The flight of Noah's dove was not over the terrible Himalayas, but
irom the mountains to the valleys.
The proposition made as a supreme test of the California flyers was to take them
ov-r east of the Sierras to Carson; to release them at Carson and let them try to find
their way home to the bay of San Francisco, crossing the sky-piercing and almost in
si'.perabie barrier of the Sierra, and possible snowstorms, bowling gales of the moan"
. tain region, lured to rest and refuge only by that love of boite which would seem to
be stronger in the breasts of gentle doves than in any other sentient being.
There was something so alluring in the proposition, so much that was new and
unusual, tnat after it was fairly understood others wished to try the experiment. It
was clearly seen that the winner of a rajce under such conditions would be an even
candidate '. ior fame with the storied "Jackdaw of Rheims" and the bird born of the
luxuriant and fervid imagination of the author of the "Arabian Nights" — the marvel-
ous roc.
Bets were made, lofts were overhauled and the best birds were selected to fly
above the clouds. Six birds went out, four from Mr. Carlisle's loft and two from a
loft in San An<ireas. Of the six only one is known to have survived. That one
reached his li.orue in Berkeley only durinsr the past week.
The idea was to send ihe birds out to Carson at the time of the Corbett-Fitzsim
.mons p riser fight. The four birdb from Berkeley went at one time, in ventilated boxes«
in charge of a skilled attendant to release them at the proper hour, to bring back
news of the somewhat exciting happenir.es of the ringside. The gentleman having
the birds in bis custody was Charles R. Breck, who arrived by the Central overland,
which in crossing the Sierra pursues as sinuous a course as the path of the labied
labyrinth.
When he reached Carson the birds were fairly in terra incognita. The four Car
lisle Lirds had never been farther east than Sacramento before they were carried,
hood wiiiked, to Carson. They were born in Berkeley about two years ago. Their longest
Sight had been over comparatively level country, and they had never b<en compelled
to surmount anything mere lofty than the comparatively insignificant fringe of hilli
constituting the eastern range of the low-lying coast ranee mountains. They were
jaiseri in a land of practically endless summer, and the hills over which they had
(■een flown, carpeted richly with ginns and wiid flowers during much of the year,
were no obstacle, and really seemed as landmarks to guide the feathered messengers.
But when they reached Carson it must have seemed to them like another world.
The air was frosty, and over the slumbering and far Sierra the snow lay deep — a
spotless counterpane, disguising the mountain topography and waving and shifting
in the wind like a wraith.
They had not seen one foot of the road over which they had traveled. From the
ocean level they had climbed and climbed, in the cars, skyward to en altitude of a
mile and a half, and had then descended to the arena wheie winters storms are some
times tbe gla-diators.
Would the cunning little brains of these tiny handfuls of feathers conquer such
difficulties in their aerial pathfinding?
On the lvtn of March Mr. Breck released the four birds in his charge. They
weighed only cine pound apiece. So slight did they seem in comparison with the pro
digious.ta«k in view that they had the full admiration of Mr. Brect, who is cbservnnt
and keenly sympathetic. Wherever he looked abroad winter and the Sierra were lost
in clouds and covered with snow. Mr. Breck was not alone in watching and admiring
the birds. Betting on them ran lively, but the general opinion was that they would
never get through alive to the bay of San Francisco.
Like all homing birds, after they had been released from Mr. Breed's bands, flut
tering and undoubtedly surprised at their strante surroundings, the quartet at once
began to circle and taU the air in company, looking for some familiar object to guide
them. North and south and east and west they flew, scaling greater ami greater
heights of air, and necessarily reaching lower and lower temperatures as they flew.
Something as mysterious within them a* the architect-like instincts of the bee finally
told them that to reach home they must fly over the loitie. barrier far to the west.
HERE IS A TELEPHONIC RECORDER.
Probably no greater need ever existed
than that of easy and rapid communica
tion between distant points. It is only a
little while ago when to write a letter to
London and get a reply consumed three
\veek3 of time. Then by the laying of the
cable distance and time were both practi
cally annihilated, and the question may
now be propounded to London and its
answer received in tiie space of a few
minutes. Yet while the telegraph has
solved the problem of rapidity it is never
theless hampered by the burden of re
striction to brevity and is costly. So,
winle the presence of the wonderful mes
senger of electricity tliat has been har
jiessed to do service for man is rightfully
regarded as a marvelous blessing, yet
man— the business one, especially— chafed
under the restriction which the use of the
telegraph placed upon him. He desired
;o exercise more fully the power of speech.
Then came the telephone, and then man
could actually talk with his correspond
ent, unrestrained by tie inexorable "ten
words" of tbe telegraph. No invention
that has blessed the world in all time has
done more, to .humanize mankind than
has that of the telephone.
In the telephone speech is heard in the
receiving portion of th,e apparatus because
the diaphragm of the phone vibrates un
der the jrupulse of the electro-magnetic
current- It was thought, when the teie
l h me first came into use, tbat this vibra
tion miglit be employed to produce a
series of inipressionsor indentations upon
a disK or cylinder of wax, which could be
used as a phonographic converter. But
jppeated experiments have established the
Jacl that the vibrations, of the telephone
diaphragm, while actual mechanical vi
brations, are of so small amplitude and
force as to fender impossible the produc
tion of an impres-ion or indentation.
Inventive genius is not, however, ham
pered by any knowledge of the impossi
ble. From the day when Professor Bell
and Professor Gray exhibited their won
derful telephones at the Centennial Exhi
bition at Philadelphia in 187G down to tbe
present time thousands of brains have
been busily at work conjuring up a means
to accomplish what was wanted, and it is
now believed that the problem has been
solved by the production ol a device
whereby a telephonic message is recorded
at the district station without regard to
the presence of the distant correspondent.
A Mr. Clarke of this city claims to have
devised tbe long-sought apparatus. His
machine, which is shown in the accom
panying sketch, is extremely simple, and
it does not require any changes in exist
ing methods.
It is a we!i-Known fact to competent
electricians that a closed circuit — that is,
a circuit without a break of continuity
and charged with a current — may have its
potential powerfully varied by the intro
duction of very slight resistances. Now
tlje power or "pall" of an electro-magnet
depends upon the potential of the current
that i* passing along the wire forming the
helix of the magnet. On these two condi
tions rests the device of Mr. Clarke. He
has discovered that a liquid — not water
charged with a certain metallic salt iv
solution in capable of having the resist
ance io the passage of an electric current
very markedly changed by the applica
tion of extremely slight degrees of com
pression.
Now, supposing that an electric circuit
bo constructel having in its series an
electro-magnet and a tube or tank of this
Itquid. Then a slight compression of the
l:quid would diminish the resistance and
: allow the cjrrent to flow through the cir
j cult with greater facility and strength,
land the consequent effect of the current
i upon tbe elec:ro-magnet would be to
strengthen it and to cause it to attract an
armature with greater force. When tbe
p re sure on the liauid was removed the
liquid would then offer its greatest resist
ance, thus hindering the flow of the cur
rent, and so weakening the "pull" of the
electro-magnet. Thus by varying the
pressure upon or compression of tbe
THE SAX FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, MAY 2, 1897.
Once falriy under way, it is the habit of homing pigeons to fly in a straight line.
So it probably was with these birds. From Carson to San Francisco, in an air line, is
a distance, approximately, of about 180 miles. This is no distance for a homer to fly
under ordinary conditions and a very lew hours would suffice to traverse it. The
seq ci shows conclusively that the conditions wera very far from the ordinary.
The first information received in this City concerning an 7of the nomine quartet
came from Copperopoiis, in Calaveraa County, which is in the foothills of the Sierras,
upon the western slope. At that place, on tiie morning of March 21, flying wearily,
nearly iamished, brave Mme. Ro-e alighted and suffered herself, out ot pure ex
haustion, to bo captured. So nearly spent was she that after she hud been fed she
slept nearly twenty-four hours without waking. She had been on her perilous way
between three and four days.
Let those who respect human courage, dnuntless will and persevering enerzy re
flect lor a minute upon what this rli«ht of nearly four days signified. During two of
the three days while Mme. Rose was beating the thin, cold air With her eager wings
blinding snows were fulling. Mountain streams were hushed under depths of ice.
The temperature, according to meteorologists, sank at times to 22 degrees below the
freezing Doint. With the snow came high and battling winds. In all the Sierras,
snow-covered and desolate, was no food for this wonderful little messenger and path
finder.
The lowest pass in the route selected by Mme. Rose was a mile and a half above
sea level. To reach this elevation the bird had to scale a height above Carson of over
half a mile, .Professor George Davidson of this City, who is familiar with the Sierras,
says that the pass must be at least 3700 feet above the altitude of Carson and 7000 feet
above the level of the ocean. Half blinded in that awful solitude, imrled hither and
yon from its true course by the winds which eddied in and out of the fastnes«es of
the Sierras, night overtook the bird three times. There was no rest for it excepting
upon the trees laden with their winter load of ice and snow. Be it to the credit of
the pluck of the bird, as it must be to its sure purpose, that it did not turn back after
the first arctic night to seek the comparative comfort of Carson.
The next morning she was off a^ain, and the next and the next, all the time
drawing nearer, but by a devious course, to its own home a"nd dove-hearled mates in
their cozy cote on the warm and green Berkeley hillside. When it finally, still trav
eling toward the blue Pacific, reached Copperopolis. it had flown only what amount
to 110 miles in an airline. The time consumed shows conclusively that it had been
compelled to My many times that distance, or that the winds were fiercer and ihe
storms even more terrible than herein appears. The significant thing is that it had
departed little out of its direct course between Caraon and San Francisco, when, hav
ing actually crossed the Sierra, its overtired wings cams to rest.
It will be naturally asked how it was that Mme. Rose, having been at Copperopo
lis in Calavera< County on March 21, has only been back home a few days. This was
on account of her being detained by parties who had to be persuaded by prolonged
argument to restore her to her original owner. The other three birds of the quartet
are dead or lost. So are the other two mentioned.
Hatched March 17, 1894. The wonderful fly from Carson Oily was becun on her birth
day. Was awarded tirst prize at y.ige<ri show held at San Francisco In January, 1895.
March 9, 1895, flew in h race from Sacramento, being liberated in the presence of a large
number of legislators, and convoyed a message bearing tlie signature of the Governor and
three other State officials and those of all the newspaper representatives then at Sacra
mento. In this race Controller lolgaa acted as timer, Secretary Coglan as flyer and tno
Record-Union representative as scorer. April 9, 18i>">, took t>art in a public fly from Oro
ville. In a trial fly lroru Santa Cruz, June 11. 18i)5, E.I Martin, County Clerk, utilized
Ma'lKm Rose while sending an onier Rttnched to her sartor. Two days later s>hc flew with
eight other birds. a;l being reiecsed by Mir-s Anita Conzales, Queen of the Water Carnival.
The bird, on this occasion carrying a photoprgph of Qu^-en Anita, was shot, but came in
two hours after nil the other birds had arrived. The Cam, gave full accounts of this tiy.
Previous to March 17. 1897, Madam Kose hai not been sent east of Stockton. Owned by
the Blue and Gold lofts.
liquid the electro-magnet would corre
spondingly change its attractive force and
its armature be attracted or released ac
cordingly.
In Mr. Clnrke's machine he employs a
glass box, the ton of which is formed of a
japanned iron plate, used as the dia
phragm of the telephone. The glass
box is completely filled with the liquid,
and consequently the v.brationsof the tel
ephonic diaphragm produce a series of
varying compressions of the Jiquid, small
in amplitude, but sufficient to change the
resistance of the fluid. This box of liquid
is made a part of a local circuit, which
embraces a battery of four cells and an
electro-magnet. The magnet lias an ar
mature provided with a stylus, and as the
attraction of the magnet varies, the con
sequent motion of the armature is by the
stylus indented upon the waxon cylinder
of a phonograph.
When not receiving a message, the
phonographic cylinder is out of ail contact
with the armature stylus; but at the be
ginning of a communicat.on the cylinder
is instantly thrown into contact by the
operation of an exceedingly simple
electro-mechanical devica and so retained
during the transmission of the message,
at Ihe termination of which il is rel ased.
At any time subsequent to the transmis
sion the receiving ope-ator has but to press
a knob, when tne speaking stylus is
thrown into contact with the cylinder,
which then bepins to rerolve, and the
message that whs transmitted a moment
or a hundred years previously is made
audible to the listener iv t:ie exact words
and tone- of the transmitting speaker.
The invention not only promises to sup
ply the wants of a large class of business
men; il bids fair to revolutionize tbe ex
istiug modes of news dissemination. The
morning ami evening newspaper is at
present a necessity, long outgrown Hie
nature of a luxury. The family have by
habit learned to require the newspaper.
With the use of Mr. Clarke's invention it
is possible to place a telephonic recorder
"MADAM ROSE."
in every house, and all the instruments
connected with a "central" office, where
will be collected and edited the news of
the world, precisely in the same manner
as is now done in the central offices of the
Associated Press and the United Press;
but instead of telegraphing a condensed
account of the news to the newspapers to
be published by them several hours after
its occurrence, an operator at the "cen
tral" will speak the news into a transmit
ter and instantly it will be recoided at the
houses of the subscribers, unabridged, full
and complete. Then at breakfast, at din
ner or at tea, when the family are gath
ered around the table, a press of the knob
and 10, from a hole in ihe wall a voice reads
out the startling news of what is going on
in distant places. Should it be desired,
the machine may be made to repeat again
and again its message*. It while deliver
ing a message another one should arrive,
the electro-mechanism instantly switches
the cylinder into the position for its re
ceiving, and the delivery is interrupted
until the transmission of the new message
is completed. The action is purely auto
matic, and effectually provides against
any omission of communication. Proper
provision is also made for renewing the
surface of the cylinder when it is filled or
for replacing it with another. The ordU
nary familiar teleDhonic transmitter and
receiver may if desired be placed side by
side and the same circuit with tbe Clarke
machine, so that complete communication
to and fro may be had.
A curiosity h exhibited by a man in
Blue Rapids, Kan. It is the head of a
rabbit, which has eight horns, ranging
in length Irom 1 '.j to 2] 2 ' inches. One of
the horns sprouts from t -e noae and the
others are round the jaw.
A room in the castle of Sunonttta, near
Milan, Italy, has a wonderful echo. A
loud noise, such as a pistol shot, will be
repeated sixty times.
A Hitherto Unpublished Military Order From
General Grant.
For twenty-five years Captain Richard P. Thomas has resided on tbirty-two acres of the easterly race of the Berkeley hills,
and during most of that time fee has contemplated ultimately investing the area in some institution which would forever main
tain it to a form of public use. The captain's recent offer of donating the place to the town of Ferfceley as a park i« his ultlmaie
decision alter contemplating two other forms of disposition, one to tiie Soldiers' Home, which tinaliy located at Yountvilly, the
other to the Slate University. The manageis of the home regarded the tract as not sufficiently large for their purposes and the
captain decided that, as between the university and the town, he would fay r the latter.
A unique feature of the captain's place is a log house which the owner built with his own nands, requiring seven years
for its completion. It is two stories in height, has two rooms below and a large apartment above. It is a comfortable lodge, and
the captain uses it as such, having fitted it up for a museum and smoking cabin ; here he lounges during evenings amid hi*
relics of the long past, an apgregation which covers the whole of the captain's li!e — a period of eighty years.
Many of these curios are mementoes of the captain's three years,' career in the army when he was lieutenant and ad jutant
of the First New York Cavalry. The collection includes his pistols and carbine, his saber, his great surtout, army uniforms and
Bats, together with an extensive gallery of rare war pictures taken within tbe Union lines by Brady, the Government photog
rapher, and covering hundreds of scenes and situations during the.entire period of hostilities.
One of the most interesting ol these exhibits is a letter from General Grant to General Sherman, written entirely in the hand
of the former and bearing the indorsement of the latter. The letter strikingly presents the effective means of extinguishing the
opposition writers that were employed in those days. It reads as follows:
Headquarters Army of Tennessee, Corinth, Ausr. 8, 18*32.
Major-General W. T. Sherman. Commanding United States Forces, Memphis, Term.— General: Herewith I send you an article
credited to the Memphis ci rrespondent of the Cnicaqo Times, which is bold false in fact and mischievous in character. You wiil
have the author arrested and sent to the Alton penitentiary under proper escort, for confinement until the close of the war, unless
sooner discharged by competent authority. lam very respectfully your obedient servant, U. 8. Grant, Major-Geoeral.
Upon the lower lefthand corner of the letter is in General Sherman's handwriting the following direction, evidently to tome
subordinate officer, to whom the letter bearing the indorsement was sent:
Do you know the man? Find him out nnd arrest.
August 14, 18H2. W. T. Sherman, Id a jor- General.
The letter was picked up in Memphis on the grounds which had been occupied by the Federal forces, after the withdrawal
of the troops, and ha-; never since gone out of the captain's possession. The captain does not know the identity of the correspon
dent, nor whether he was ever discovered or arrested.
On the highest point of the captain's land, and at an eminence not far from the summit of the mountain, lie has erected what,
he calls a fort, and which he declares to be the only private affair of the kind in the State. On an esplanado snrrounded by a c.r
cular parapet three 20- pound guns have been mounted in embrasures, and they command the eniire country. On the ristit lie San
Pablo Bay and the straits of Carquinez, San Qucntin and the Golden iiflte, while * discuarge from the piece on the lefi raizht rate
tha streets of Oakland. A liotise is built within the inclosure and used as a powder magazine, and every Fourth of July the pow
der in this arsenal is brought out and the guns boom all day long. The Fourth is a great day with the captain. Hesetsas:de
$500 for its celebration, hires a caterer to bring coffee and sandwiches on the mountain, and then invites the town. They coma in
hundreds, and for that day La Loma is a public pleasure ground. JOHN E. BENNETT.
F. M. Close, D.Sc.
CAPTAIN RICHARD P. THOMAS.