Ran Six Cents To 15 Millions In Few Months

1920

Charles Ponzi, "Coupon Wizard," Defies U. S. to Learn Secret of His Alleged Legal Scheme.

1920

BOSTON, Mass. — "It is my secret. Let the United States find it out if it can."

This is the challenge of Charles Ponzi, the "coupon wizard," who leaped into international fame over night when the world discovered that he had run 6 cents into $15,000,000 in less than a year by an astoundingly simple — yet astoundingly mysterious — scheme. Ponzi insists that his business is perfectly legal and so far has paid off every investor who demanded his money back. He declares that he has neither fear of a financial crash or of punishment.

Ponzi's remarkable business is, so far as is known, based on the use of the international reply coupon, authorized under the international postal agreement as the medium for taking advantage of the difference in rates of exchange.

"I simply buy international coupons," explained Ponzi to the district attorney. "They are exchangeable into stamps and I take care to buy them where the rates of exchange are such that $1 of American currency is really worth $4 or more in the native currency. I therefore get $3 clear on the transaction and can well afford to pay back the original $1 and 50 cents additional as interest to the investor. My margin of profit is enormous, but I have the system and the offices abroad. The investor's margin of profit is tremendous in proportion and he has no responsibility and is entirely certain of his money.

Hit on Scheme Year Ago.

"I hit upon the scheme just a year ago in August, when I thought of issuing an export publication on a small scale. I wrote to a friend in Spain regarding it, and in reply received an international coupon, which I was to exchange for stamps to send a copy of the publication to my friend.

"The coupon cost about 1 cent in United States money in Spain and I could get 6 cents in stamps for it here.

"My secret is how I cash the coupons," says Ponzi. "I do not tell it. Let the United States Government find it out if it can. I do not think that it can."

Will Make $40,000,000 More?

The "wizard" asserted that he intended to open an office in New York city immediately and probably in other big cities. He coupled this declaration with the assertion that "there is thirty or forty million dollars more, to be made out of his scheme, but it must be made quickly." And since difficulties have arisen here he says he will have to go outside New England for the money he needs to use. He said he "feared the postal conference in October would formulate an effective check" to his operations.

All day long clerks in the modest office of Ponzi poured cash into the hands of customers who had lost faith in his international postal exchange scheme.

It was after 4 o'clock when one of Ponzi's attaches stuck his head out the door and shouted inquiringly to the crowd:

"Anybody else today?"

Nobody answered and no one else entered the open door. The door was shut and locked.

Paid Back $500,000 in Day.

It is estimated the total returned to clients in one day was in the neighborhood of half a million dollars. The cash was brought from the banks by the "wizard's" employes, under heavy guard, and a huge businesslike revolver rested at the elbow of one of the clerks who "stood guard" over the paying-teller.

Ponzi's secretary, Miss Lucy Meli, says the office has paid back $2,000,000 to investors this week. About forty per cent of this amount, however, was on accounts that had "matured," meaning that the customers were returned their own money and the promised 50 per cent profit agreed within ninety days, but which had been paid steadily in forty-five days.

In spite of close search the nature of Ponzi's business remains a secret to public officials, and he stoutly maintains that he will continue. While he is busy paying off an army of claimants the authorities are searching the files of the telegraph offices to determine if Ponzi has cabled orders of purchase or sale to representatives in Continental Europe.

Scheme May Soon Be Known.

Uncle Sam has set in motion every Federal governmental investigating agency.

Uncle Sam has called to work with him the United States embassies and consulates in Europe and in all the countries that are included in the international postal agreement and deal in international reply coupons.

"I came to this country seventeen years ago and landed in Boston with $2.50. My family is a fine old Italian family and I am university educated.

"Landing in Boston with such a small sum of money, I was downcast I didn't have a friend in the city nor a relative in the country, so I went on where my ticket carried me — to New York. There I did manual labor. Then I moved on to Pittsburgh in search of some friends who I believed were there. I didn't find them, so I went on from place to place, working now as a clerk in a business office, next as a grocery clerk and often at more menial tasks.

"Back to Boston I came again in January, 1917. I went to work for the J. R. Poole Company, merchant brokers. My salary was $16 a week. It might interest you to know that I own the company today, and intend to incorporate it for $10,000,000.

Insists Business Is Legal.

"I insist that my business is entirely legal, even tho it may not be strictly ethical. It will continue as long as there is a marked difference in the rates of exchange among the governments of the world. As the rates 'close up' the interest I will be able to pay will decline. But there cannot be any loss, I insist, for I have provided against loss to investors by the creation of a large reserve in stamps and foreign currency.

"My operations are now going on in nine different countries. None of the foreign stamps are now being redeemed in this country, nor do I intend to do so.

I buy international coupons in immense quantities — by hundreds of thousands, by millions — and exchange them for postage stamps.

"I looked around for some connections here and abroad. I explained my plan to a certain party and he was interested. I had a one-room office where I began doing a little exporting business on a small scale, and there, with a few thousand dollars, I began the present concern, the Securities Exchange Company.

Began Last December.

"We really began operations in December. I began as I am still doing; I gave investors a note guaranteeing payment with 50 per cent interest in ninety days. However, I made all payments in forty-five days. I was safe in giving the notes and I am safe in giving them now, for I have built up a reserve.

"Within a month the few thousands had grown to nearly ten thousand dollars. Persons who received their first profits immediately told their friends, and they told their friends — and then the deluge. Everybody wanted us to take their money.

"When the volume of business increased I took three rooms in the building and recently I acquired a large interest in a trust company — really a controlling interest.

"The peak of my business was reached in May, just two months ago. Now my receipts are about two hundred and fifty thousand dollars a day in the Boston offices, and a total of $250,000 daily thru branches in other cities. What I pay out varies from day to day. I have just given my cashier in Boston $200,000 with which to make tomorrow's payments."

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Aug. 7, 1920, p. 1-2.

Note: Unfortunately my copy of this newspaper is missing a couple sections, interesting bits, and I can't figure out entirely what they are. After the paragraph where Ponzi says, "Let the United States Government find it out if it can. I do not think that it can," there is a paragraph, and take into consideration the words of nearly an entire line are missing, "While refraining from giving any clew —— [tran]saction, Ponzi —— said. —— is all very simple. First, the psychology of greed. Then, the psychology of fear. Men and women are children a few years older." Drop down to the paragraph that has the sentence, "Uncle Sam has called to work with him the United States embassies," etc. There is an entire line missing. But the sentence starts off, "It will —————- is a veritable bonanza king or something else." Then that leads into all the Ponzi quotes.

Wire Fence Inventor Dead

1916

ADRIAN, Michigan. — J. Wallace Page, known as the "father of the wire industry," died at his home here, aged 73. Fifty years ago Page first conceived the idea of a wire fence.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Sept. 16, 1916, p. 2.

Hansom and His Cab

1933

After diligent search it might appropriately be possible to find in New York, U. S. A., its last American stronghold, a specimen of the high-wheeled vehicle which will have its centenary celebrated this summer in York, England. For in the English city a century ago Joseph Aloysius Hansom designed the "Patent Safety Cab" which immortalized his name.

Hansom had a talent for construction and design. Born in York in 1803, he left his father's joinery shop to become an architect's apprentice. When he was 28 years old, his designs for the Birmingham Town Hall were accepted, with unfortunate financial results for Hansom. Next he patented the "Safety" cab and sold the rights for $50,000 which he never got. Apparently disgusted with his profession, Hansom founded a newspaper in 1834. Lack of capital put an end to the venture, so he returned to architecture, with success. He obtained commissions for public and private buildings not only in the United Kingdom, but in Australia and South America. Hansom died in London in 1882.

His name lived after this, particularly through the '80s, the era with which the Hansom cab will forever be associated. In the original design the driver's seat was at the side, but eventually only the high wheels and the axle prevailed through various changes of construction.

Consequently it was noted less for its safety than for its elegance. Although the seat tilted at a restful angle and the motion was soothing, there were hazards involved in getting into the cab. The driver had his perch at the top and back, with a little trap-door in the cab's roof which threatened the privacy and seculsion offered by the hooded body and hinged apron shutting the occupants snugly within. The cabbies of those hansoms could tell tall tales to make the modern taxi- driver's life seem spiceless in comparison, if one may believe rumors.

Off-hand Hansom is scarcely remembered as the name of a man. But the word "hansom" will stand in the English language for the graces and formal elegances of a "nice" age that died with the Nineteenth Century, in which the cab was invented. — Detroit Free Press.

—San Antonio Express, May 20, 1933, p. 10.

Could Not See Into Future

1919

Men of Genius Had Little Idea What Their Inventions Might Mean to the World

It appears that it is not infrequently the case that great inventors do not comprehend the significance of the things they have produced. Here are two examples:

When Hertz first began to obtain satisfactory results from his now famous researches into the possibility of transmitting electric waves certain men of science suggested that some day similar vibrations might serve to transmit messages through space. Hertz laughed at the hypothesis and assured all comers that his experiments were for laboratories only. Now, after a few short years, it is hard to find a single issue of a daily newspaper that does not record some noteworthy example of the use of wireless telegraphy.

Levassor was the great engineer who sketched the automobile with such skill that his design has not been materially changed to this day. After Levassor accomplished his historic trip from Paris to Bordeaux and return at the dizzy speed of about 15 miles an hour his admirers gave him a banquet. During the toasts one of them, stirred by the spirit of the occasion, rose and enthusiastically called on the assembly to drink to the approaching day when carriages should travel at the speed of 60 miles an hour. Levassor turned to his nearest neighbor and asked in a quick undertone:

"Why is it that after every banquet some people feel called on to make fools of themselves?"


Only One Foundation

Men best prove their right to rights by making good in little things. Rights are those things that grow out of universal justice. In the last analysis they are beyond price. Some folks say they have bought the right to certain things. That is only because custom has commercialized them. Such rights savor of monopoly and are as unstable as the dollars with which they are purchased. Right that rests upon divine law may seem very tame, but after all it's the only right that abides amidst the rise and fall of empires and the changing customs of men. To such rights every man is heir. — Exchange.

Chance for Inventive Genius

1910

By Col. J. M. Mabry of Memphis

Many persons wonder why no shrewd inventor has ever yet devised a machine that will pick cotton.

Many an inventive genius has worked at this problem, but as yet it is unsolved. There is no trick in getting up a contrivance that will do the work of picking, but that does not begin to solve the difficulty. The trouble lies mainly in the fact that the cotton does not all mature and open at the same time. A machine that may pick out the locks of the opened bolls cleverly enough will also take along the green and unopened bolls and therefore destroy a big part of the crop. The human pickers will let the unripe cotton alone and return to the fields for it later, on maturity. Then again the machine will take up a lot of trash, dead leaves and pieces of stalk that will cause much trouble and labor to get rid of before the cotton can be carried to the gin.

It is a great pity that some better way of extracting the fleecy stuff cannot be found, but there is apparently nothing to do except continue the old plan of gathering the crop by hand. This is a slow and also an expensive procedure, as in a good year almost every planter raises more than he can gather with his own labor and is thereby forced to hire outside help. Occasionally it is impossible to get this help and as a result much of the cotton is left in the fields to be waited for want of labor to pick it.

Armless Judge Going to Europe to Aid Crippled

1915
Click Photo for Bigger

There He Will Arrange Plans to Help Allies' Maimed

Photo Caption: With only his mechanical arm — designed by himself — Judge Quentin D. Corley dresses and shaves himself, handles his own food, writes his own opinions and handles his own records in the County Court of Dallas County, Texas. He drives an auto, bowls, plays billiards, carries bundles and even helps his wife with the housework.

Over in Europe there are many armless men who feel they are hopelessly helpless. So the Dallas judge is going abroad to do what he can to aid war victims "for humanity's sake," as told in another column on this page.

The top picture shows Judge Corley completing his dressing operations. A contrivance, attached to a suit case, permits him to put on his collar and tie. With an almost similar machine he shaves himself. Below is a photograph of the judge bowling.

DALLAS, Texas, Dec. 16. — Quentin D. Corley, the "armless judge" of this city, will soon take up the burden of the maimed in the European conflict. On Dec. 22 he will leave for Washington, D. C., to confer with an official whose name is not known and who had told the Belgium ambassador to America that Judge Corley, the armless, does the work of a man in everyday life.

It is expected that the judge will sign a contract with the Allies to teach armless soldiers to be happy and to be useful.

The judge says any work he may do will be for the sake of humanity and not for money. "I shall only accept the same salary. I am getting now, and expenses," he says. "If they see fit to honor me if I do their men a service, I shall be glad of that, too."

Story of the Judge's Career

Judge Corley's story is a strange one. He was of a roving disposition when young, and took no qualms at satisfying it as a guest of the railroads. He was riding thru New York State on a freight train when a burly brakeman's head showed over the far end of the car. He slipped and fell as he tried to flee. The trainmen picked him up a poor, mangled youth. One arm was gone at the shoulder and the other just above the elbow.

As he lay in the hospital fighting for life, he began figuring how he would use that life once he was out again.

"I strove to invent and picture in my mind a mechanical hand, but of course I could not get anything but the open and shut movement; no one has," he says. "Then I thought that if I made an arm with an elbow joint in it, and so rigid that it would have both lateral and perpendicular movement, I had the problem solved."

A youth of 23, seemingly handicapped for all time and yet doomed by a healthy body to live a long life, Corley came home to his parents in Dallas with only his idea of a mechanical arm — and a deathless ambition to conquer the terrible odds against him.

How His Plans Worked Out

For four years he studied law with all the mental force of his brilliant mind, and at night he spent hours upon the plan for his mechanical arm. When completed, it was a steel hook made of two steel flanges, which opened and shut on cogs, a little handle which turned them being worked by his teeth. In this way he gripped things tightly, and with the hook he could handle almost anything he could lift.

From then on it was easy. He soon learned to write and then passed the bar examination. He began to practice law and to practice the use of his arm, and study means by which he could use it. His progress was wonderful. He invented other machines, to be used in dressing and sport, until today he can do almost anything a normal being desires to do.

He has a desire bordering on passion to aid the soldiers who have lost both arms in battle. There were more than ten thousand of them in the Allies' armies alone at last count.

Wants to Make Them Useful

"I know I can teach them to use my inventions within a short time, and I want to do it," he says. "I want them to get away from the terrible feeling that they are burdens upon the state and upon their families. If they'll put these men in my hands I can teach a thousand in three months to use this arm and take their places in life and seek happiness."

His friends say he can do it, too. He has pupils all over Texas who are learning from him the secrets. They invariably make good when he turns them loose.

Judge Corley has the inventions he uses patented, but does not sell them. "I have them for humanity," he says.

The plan on which the Belgian ambassador is said to want Judge Corley to work will be a school under his supervision, at which armless men will be equipped and trained by him. It will take him to Europe about four years, if the war continues a year or so longer.

—Saturday Blade, Chicago, Dec. 18, 1915, p. 5.

Porch Lamp is New Novelty

1915

Lights Interior as Well as Exterior of House

A novel porch lamp just announced illuminates both the hall or the front room and the porch. The lamp is mounted inside the house, adjacent to the porch. Part of the light is diffused thru the room, while a part of the horizontal rays is transmitted thru a one and a quarter inch tube to a globe outside the wall.


To Make Electric Controller

Evansville to Get Factory for Local Man's Patent

A $10,000 plant will be built in Evansville, Ind., next spring by a New York electrical concern which paid $40,000 for the patent on an electric controller invented by Michael Burns, of Evansville, according to a statement of James O'Toole, agent for the eastern concern. The plant will be used for assembling the controllers.


Non-Fly-Back Crank Arrives

CRYSTAL FALLS, Mich., Dec. 16. — Archie Liberty has invented a ratchet crank for automobiles which cannot fly back and break the arm of the operator. It consists of an ordinary crank with a flange attachment, with notches in its edge, forming a ratchet. On the outer casing, surrounding this ratchet, are six dogs that drop into the teeth of the ratchet and keep the crank from reversing.

Student Designs Gold Ore Machines

1915

Big Saving in Ore Refinement May Be the Result

New equipment for use of the seniors of the University of Washington, which was designed and is being built under the direction of Fred Porter, a senior will soon be installed, and with it the men will perform a series of experiments of great practical and economic value.

Two complete sets of machinery have been designed by Porter for use in fine grinding and concentration of gold ore, some of the equipment being of the same style as has been used in the Alaska, Idaho and Montana gold fields in the last few years for the purpose of experimentation. The experiments to be performed may, besides being the work necessary to constitute the thesis required to gain a degree, result in a large saving in the refinement of ore.

One of the processes to be performed will be that of flotation concentration. the process discovered by Mrs. Everson, described in these columns last week.


Plan to Interest Mechanics

Use Inventor's Tools and Gain Equity in His Patents

William L. Bessola, an experienced mechanic known to practically every one connected with mechanical departments of mines in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan, and who holds patents for many mechanical devices, is endeavoring to interest capitalists and others in a proposition the success of which is assured.

As a forerunner to the manufacture and of the perfected tools on a large scale it is the plan of Mr. Bessola and his associates to secure the cooperation of every user of tools that they seek to replace with the new inventions, and to this end they have permitted a number of the leading plumbers, master mechanics and men generally connected with things mechanical, to purchase equities in the exploitation company, which not only entitles them to substantial interest in that direction, but also secures for each a proportionate right in the patents which Mr. Bessola has taken out.

—Saturday Blade, Chicago, Dec. 18, 1915, p. 9.

New Camera Takes Tall Buildings at Close Range

1915

Aid to Photographic Art

With a new camera, invented and patented by an Elgin, Ill., man, a tall building may be photographed from the ground showing the upper portions as plainly as the lower. Such a building will be the exact size at the top as at the base of the picture. Formerly such a thing was considered impossible and photographers have been hunting some invention for the past twenty years to overcome the fault.

The inventor has many pictures of tall buildings taken from a distance of only a few feet which prove his invention worthy. The invention is simple and requires only the turning of the lens to the proper angle, which is determined by the height of the building and the distance which the camera stands from it.

—Saturday Blade, Chicago, Dec. 18, 1915, p. 9.

Flying Bicycle Given Test; It Works Great

1915

Latest Air Traveler Is Triumph of Chicagoan's Genius — Goes by Foot Power or Motor

Now comes the bicycle of the air — a noiseless and engineless flying machine operated by foot and hand power.

A. C. McClaughry of Chicago, son of former Warden I. W. McClaughry of the Federal penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kan., discovered the craft and its inventor in a basement on the Northwest Side of the city. The identity of the inventor is kept secret. McClaughry is now interested with the inventor in the welfare of the new type of flying craft. He has brought the matter to the official attention of army officers in the Federal building, and before representatives of foreign governments.

Col. H. O. S. Heistand, adjutant general of the central department, turned McClaughry over to M. A. Loosley, master signal electrician of the army, who will inspect the new craft. McClaughry said the first one tried out by the inventor was a success, but that it was torn down and a new one is now being built, which will soon be ready for official tests.

"There is no doubt but that we have a flying machine that can be operated without any power other than that produced by foot and hand and that the craft can be sold dirt cheap," said McClaughry.

The inventor figures that one of the machines can be put up for less than $500, and that in quantities they can even be turned out for $200 each. The craft, for which patents are now pending is operated much like the old fashioned bicycle. A farmer boy can take one of them and he and his lady friend can saunter away thru the air as easily as they can travel on land in an automobile.

"If one wishes he can buy a $50 motor and use it to alternate with foot and hand. In his first test the inventor remained in the air more than half an hour and traveled at a speed of forty miles an hour."

—Saturday Blade, Chicago, Dec. 18, 1915, p. 9.

Introducing the X-Ray

March 1896

From Vienna comes the news of a wonderful discovery in photographic science. It is no less than a means of photographing the interior of solid, opaque bodies.

By the new system the bones of a man's hand were perfectly photographed, the flesh being invisible in the picture. Broken limbs and bullets in human bodies were also successfully revealed, as well as objects placed in a wooden box.

Professor Rontgen, of the University of Wurzburg, is the inventor. The light he uses to photograph by is produced by what is known as a Crooke's pipe, viz: a vacuum glass tube with an induction electric current passing through it. The result is a light that appears to penetrate organic substances just as ordinary light passes through glass. The inventor throws open a wide field for the deduction of new truths in electricity and optics.

Perpetual Motion Machine

1909

Runs Perfectly Without Any Aid, Declares Pennsylvania Inventor

UNIONTOWN, Pa., Oct. 6. — After labor of years Allen S. Snyder believes he has solved the problem of perpetual motion.

He has a model which he declares proves that his principle is right. It runs by force of gravity, and besides being able to put out perpetual motion toys at 50 cents each, he declares that a machine capable of giving 100 horse power is possible under his plans.

He has been working and studying for fifteen years, and has now given up his work here and retired to a farm at Mosley Junction, eighteen miles from Richmond, Va., where he can give more time to the work of building a larger model and overcoming the imperfections that are manifested in the one now completed. He expects to put his completed machine before the public within a year, but at this time he refuses to give out the details of his apparatus.

Snyder is 39 years of age and for many years was a successful school teacher in Dunbar Township, this county. In 1902 he took the mine foreman's examination and has since served as mine foreman and fire boss at various plants throughout the coke region, including the Fairchance plant of the H. C. Frick Coke Company, and the Revere plant of the W. J. Rainey Company.

Before leaving for Mosley Junction Mr. Snyder said: "I will throw my model before the public within a year and it will demonstrate the reality of perpetual motion. My model may admit of many improvements, and it will likely open a wide field for the inventive mind: The machine simply runs by force of gravity."


Kissing Ban Lifted

Baltimore announces that the ban on kissing in the city parks has been lifted. The suffragette movement should "go big" in Baltimore.

Color Photography at Last

1914

British Experts Who Should Know Are Satisfied That the Process Has Been Discovered

What appears to be an almost perfect process of color photography is at length announced. It gives results by which oil paintings are reproduced with startling fidelity. The process has been shown to the British Royal Photographic society and the Royal society.

Five years ago Aaron Hamburger of London began to experiment for the production of photographs in natural colors. After many failures he discovered a process which he now calls the "polychromide system," and which is already beginning to revolutionize photography and all business affecting colored reproductions.

In the opinion of Sir William Crookes, who spent a day examining every detail of the process, the discovery is the "greatest achievement in photography." Sir William Crookes, Sir Archibald Geikle, and the council of the Royal society are being photographed by Mr. Hamburger.

The autochromes of the famous brothers Lumiere were under the disadvantage of being incapable of reproduction. Mr. Hamburger narrated how desperately he had tried every means to reproduce them. Failing, he invented a new camera with special screens, which divided a beam of light into three colors, and the effect of the screens is that no color save those desired find their way to the plate.

By the air of three sensitive gelatino-silver developing papers, which are printed under the red, yellow and blue printing negatives, the final photograph in colors is obtained, and the canvas effect of an oil painting is then easily produced.

Inventors At Work — An Idea in Parachutes

1896

An Italian aeronaut named Copazza has invented two balloon attachments, which are said to have fully realized the expectations formed of them. The one is an enormous parachute stretched over a balloon, and the other a folded parachute hanging under the basket.

If the aeronaut finds that his balloon is rising too fast he opens the folded parachute, which immediately acts as a huge air brake and effectually retards progress.

On the other hand, should the air vessel explode through expansion, fire, or any other cause, the top parachute comes into action and a descent may be made without the slightest inconvenience.


A New Telephone

A Russian electrician named Kiltschewsky has perfected a telephone which practically disregards distance. At a recent test between Moscow and Rostoff, 890 miles, talking, singing and instrumental music at one end of the line were distinctly heard by listeners at the other. An experiment is to be made by land wires and Atlantic cables in talking between London and New York.

A Remarkable Clock – Magnetism Runs It

1878

A Remarkable Clock.

A magnetic clock, invented by Daniel Drawbaugh, of Milltown, Cumberland county, Pa., is sufficiently remarkable to be worth description.

The magnetism of the earth, an inexhaustible source of power, is made to oscillate the pendulum; and the simplicity of all the works gives an assurance of the least possible friction. At a certain point the movement of the pendulum itself shuts off magnetic connection with the earth, and at another point restores the connection, thus securing the conditions necessary to produce its oscillations. The works are so ingenious and simple that it is no wild assertion to make that, were it not for the unavoidable wearing out caused by even the smallest amount of friction, the clock would run as long as the solid earth endures.

This clock is hung against a board partition, with all the works exposed, subject to the jarrings of machinery and obstructions from dust settling upon it, yet since March 1, 1877, it has been running continuously and uniformly, with only slight reported variations, as tested by transit observations at noon.


Whaling News

The American whaling fleet of 1877 was very successful. There were no special disasters, and no changes in the business worthy of note, excepting the continued additions to the fleet. Twelve vessels were built during the year. The present fleet consists of 187 vessels, against 172 on January 1, 1877, 169 in 1876 and 163 in 1875. The North and South Atlantic ocean employ over 100 vessels, while the more fruitful grounds of the Pacific ocean, Japan and New Zealand are almost deserted. The North Pacific fleet lost three vessels, and sixteen vessels came out with an average of 1,065 barrels of oil and 8,550 pounds of whalebone.

Demonstrating Edison's Marvelous Phonograph

1878

A Phonograph At Work

Making a Plate from Which a Perfect Production of Your Speech Can be Made When You Are in Your Grave

The Philadelphia Times has an article describing Professor Edison's marvelous phonograph and how it works. We make the following extract:

The instrument was operated sometimes by Mr. Bentley, but principally by Mr. James Adams, the inventor's representative. Mr. Adams, a highly intelligent Scotchman, with a strongly marked Scotch accent in his speech, has been for five years the assistant of Professor Edison in the latter's electrical and other experiments. The machine occupied no more space than would a Webster's unabridged, and its construction appeared as simple as that of a housewife's coffee mill. It was a fac simile of one which Professor Edison is now constructing, and which is to have a capacity of 48,000 words.

Mr. Adams, before the performance began, thus explained the instrument: "In this gutta percha mouthpiece is a very thin diaphragm, made of tin type metal. The vibrations of the voice jar the diaphragm, which has in its center, underneath, a fine steel point. Around this brass cylinder, which, you see, is closely and finely grooved by a spiral, I wrap a sheet of tinfoil. I shove the mouthpiece up until the steel point touches the tinfoil, just above the first groove on the left. Turning the cylinder with this crank, I talk into the mouthpiece. The diaphragm vibrates, causing the steel point to perforate the tinfoil, leaving little holes of different diameters and resembling the old Morse telegraphic alphabet. The cylinder moves from left to right until the steel point has gone over the entire length of the spiral. Thus we have, as it were, a stereotyped plate of the voice. From this plate a matrix in sulphur (the most desirable substance for the purpose) can be formed, and years from now there can be taken from that matrix other plates capable of the same work which you will presently see this one perform.

"Now I turn the cylinder back to the starting place in order that the steel point may go over the perforations which it made when I talked into the mouthpiece. The steel point, kept down by a rubber spring underneath the diaphragm trips from hole to hole, causing the diaphragm to vibrate as it did when I was talking into the mouthpiece. This causing the corresponding opening and closing of the valves of the diaphragm, the words, intonation and accent are reproduced with perfect accuracy. It would be impossible for any human mimic to do it so well. The small end of this tin funnel is fixed in the mouthpiece to keep the reproduction from scattering. Now listen." Several gentlemen, evidently supposing that they would not be able to hear without having their ears close to the funnel, were putting their heads near the instrument, but Mr. Adams told them that such a proceeding was unnecessary, as they could distinguish the sounds well enough at a distance.

Mr. Adams, Having wrapped a sheet of tin foil around the cylinder, spoke into the mouthpiece in a voice of ordinary pitch and time, but with distinct articulation, meanwhile slowly and regularly turning the crank, the following:

Jack and Jill went up the hill
To get a bucket of water;
Jack fell down and broke his crown
And Jill came tumbling after.

Having reset the cylinder and fixed the funnel in the mouthpiece he turned the crank and the diaphragm repeated the rhyme, not only as distinctly as he had uttered it, but with so perfect a mimicry of the Scotch accent as to cause a general outburst of laughter, in which the genial operator heartily joined.

Causing the steel point to proceed from the ending of "Jack and Jill," Mr. Adams again put his mouth to the diaphragm and uttered in more varying tones, which had a range from almost a whisper up to a screeching soprano, the following:

Hallo! Hoop-la! Ya-hoo!
Nineteen years in the bastile!
I scratched my name upon the wall
And that name was Robert Landr-y-y-y,
Parlee vous Francais? Sprechen sie Deutsch?

Turning the crank backward until the steel point touched the beginning of "Jack and Jill," he again gave the forward motion. The diaphragm's elocution of the rhyme was on this occasion as good as before, and the second conglomeration of utterance was delivered by the vibrating metal with all the characteristics of the operator's ejaculations and recitation. For the sake of novelty the steel point was now caused to go along the perforated spiral, while Mr. Adams whistled, yelled and shouted all sorts of ridiculous things into the mouth-piece. As a result the bit of metal strongly affected the risible muscles of the audience by something like this:—

Jack and Jill went—"Cheese it!"—
Up the hill
To get a bucket—"O, wipe off your chin!" —
Of water.
Jack fell down and "Hello, young—"
Broke his crown
"Feller, does your mother know you're out?"
And Jill—"Ya-hoo! I've bottled myself Edison"—
Came tumbling after.

Hallo! hoopla!—"Shut up !"—ya-hoo!
"Go bag your head!"—Nineteen years in the Bastile.
"I'm a"—Scratched my name—"a jolly Irishman "—Upon the wall
And that—"From Dublin town I came"—
Name was—"Ha, ha, ha!"—Robert Landry-y-y.
Parlee vous Francais? -"Go hire a hall!"
Sprechen sie Deutsch?—"Go, give us a rest!

The effect of this was too ludicrous for description, and for a time all hands were uncontrollably merry. Having put on and caused the steel point to perforate a new sheet of tin foil, again speaking "Jack and Jill" into the instrument, Mr. Adams made the point travel backward, and the diaphragm reproduced the recitation, beginning with the last word, "after," and ending with the first word, "Jack." In this way the operator amused his audience for an hour. He became hoarse, but the instrument did not.

There is no electricity about the speaking phonograph, and, like so many other great inventions, its construction is so simple and its operation so easily understood that a person seeing it would probably ask himself, "Now, why didn't I think of that?"

—Daily Star, Marion, OH, April 22, 1878, p. 3.

Scientist Invents Cannon to Shoot Around Corners

1922

(By Central Press)

LOS ANGLELES, Dec. 1. Oh, what a wonderful time the burglars and police are going to have now that Dr. Max Ritterrath has invented a gun that "shoots around corners."

Ritterrath's invention, which has been offered to the war department is a cannon ball, but suppose that he perfects a revolver bullet with the same characteristics.

Police would have no trouble shooting around phone poles, garbage cans or twenty-seven story buildings, and just think what a time the burglars and gunmen would have shooting around corners at their victims and then picking off the pursuing officers as they left the station house by shooting around two or three city blocks.

But Ritterrath is a real inventor of war materials. He has perfected five inventions which will prove exceptionally useful in war. These are: The cannon ball mentioned above; a big gun without recoil; a fourteen Or sixteen inch shell which travels intact to a certain point and then separates into twenty or thirty smaller ones traveling at right angles to the original; a new projectile traveling forty percent farther than any existing type, and an automatic rangefinder.

His inventions prove that airplanes will not be the only important means of defense in the next war.

—The Ada Evening News, Ada, Oklahoma, December 1, 1922, page 8.

Cow Tail Holder Shown at Inventors' Congress

1935

Los Angeles. -- And now the "cow tail holder" has appeared to make this world a better place in which to live.

It and some 500 other doo-dads were on exhibition at the National Inventors' Congress which opened a five-day meeting.

Albert G. Burns, president, said inventors have led an unusually busy year.

The cow tail holder was invented by Albert Giese of Benton Harbor, Mich., who estimated that between 15,000 and 20,000 milkmaids or milkmen receive severe eye injuries each year when bossies switch at flies or just switch to be switching.

Then there is a "psychograph," an intricate apparatus which slips over a person's head, according to its creator, H. C. Lavery of Minneapolis and gives a scientific character reading.

Besides these are an electric steam facial device which does away with hot, steaming towels in beauty parlors and barber shops; "metal mitts" for peace officers; foot warmers; powder puffs that remove double chins and neck wrinkles in addition to the shine from the nose; collapsible flag staff for professional marchers and hundreds of other things.


ORIGIN OF "DARK HORSE"

The phrase "Dark Horse" has been attributed to Sam Flynn, a horse trader of Tennessee. His horse, Dusky Pete, was quietly entered in a country race meet, attracting little attention, and unexpectedly won the prize. The term has thus come to describe one who was not in the race until the last minute, had no expectations of winning, but unexpectedly gained the prize.

--The Chicago Heights Star, Chicago, February 1, 1935, page 7.