Clocks With "Wheels"

1901

"Clocks are certainly queer things," said the man who was tinkering at the hall clock in a suburban house the other day. "They get cranky spells just like people. Sometimes they really act as though they were bewitched. A friend of mine had a little clock that had behaved itself and kept good time for years. One day it took a notion to lay off for awhile, and they couldn't get it started again. My friend's wife was cleaning the room several days afterward, and she took the clock and laid it down flat on its back on a chair. It started to go at once and ticked away at a great rate, but as soon as she placed it on end it stopped again. Well, they set it, and for a time it acted all right as long as it remained on its back. But it soon got cranky again and refused to go. The other day, just for fun, they turned it upside down, and, would you believe it, that crazy clock started off again. Now it only runs when it is standing on its head, and they are wondering what new foolishness it will develop next." — Boston Record.

Mustn't "Own" Their Engines

1901

The railroad engineer who "owns" his engine is not in favor with his superiors. Complaints about trivial matters are likely to be made against him and soon he finds himself without a berth. The phrase "owning an engine" does not mean that the engineer has acquired title to his iron horse. The expression is used of a man who has been with a certain engine so long that he becomes a part of it. He knows its every peculiarity, he feels its every protest against a heavy load, and he nurses it and coddles it as if it were his child. He dislikes to run the engine at top speed for fear something will happen to it, and in consequence his train is frequently behind time. He takes a grade at half the rate he should, and he runs cautiously down hill. In a word, he "owns" his engine.

Of course this is all very nice and idyllic, and it is the kind of thing a person likes to read about in stories of the railroad. But plain, practical rail road men look at it differently. They argue that the best engineer is the man who never fails to run his train according to his running time, the man who is never behind and seldom ahead. So it comes about that the engineer who makes a master of that which should be his servant wonders who has a grudge against him. But it isn't a grudge; it's business. — New York Mail and Express.

Comment: I've been thinking about this article for a couple of days. It's a real mindworm! Think of any equipment that you operate, and how you may "coddle" it so it will keep going. My first thought would be that's exactly what you want. But according to this article, just let it rip! And don't worry whether it will stand the test of time.

The Story of a Mean Man

1901

This is the story of a mean man. He may not be the meanest on record, but he carries a very fair brand of closefistedness. He had a contract to supply a certain amount of crushed stone. The machine he used could turn out all the work he could get by running eight hours a day.

The mean man had an engineer who was a genius. The genius went to his employer one day and said he thought he could make some improvements in that machine so it would do more work in less time. The genius was paid by the month.

He worked on the machine for several days, taking it apart and putting it together again. When reconstructed, it proved to have greater efficiency than before, so much so that it did the same amount of work in one minute and a half that it used to take four and a half to do.

The mean man, however, could get no more contracts than before. He could fill all his orders by running about three hours a day. The mean man then went to the genius and said: "See here, Henry, I've been paying you by the month, but there isn't as much work as there used to be — not enough to keep you busy. I shall have to pay you by the hour after this." Henry demurred. He had been too faithful, but he didn't think that ought to reduce his earnings over one-half. His employer was firm, however, and Henry resigned. — New York Mail and Express.

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.

Device Will Interest Children Fond of Playing Marbles

1905

Science in the Nursery

This is a country of inventors and an age of machinery. Labor-saving devices enter not only into our work, but also our play, and in our nurseries as well as our shops.

The great American game of baseball has now a special piece of apparatus for nearly every player, and the mechanical ball tosser threatens to supplant the human pitcher. Elaborate devices are used in automobile speed contests, for accurate timing and mechanical starters are to be found on every race track.

The craze for mechanics has reached the nursery. One of the latest contrivances is a device for shooting marbles more accurately and with greater force than can be done by the bare knuckles of even the most expert youngster. The device consists of an arrangement of spring wire of a shape adapted to fit the hand and to engage the marble. By means of a thumb trigger the sphere is ejected as desired.

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.

Gun Fires Million Bullets an Hour

1910

NEW YORK. — A gun that, its inventor says, can shoot a million bullets an hour at a cost of $20, that uses neither powder nor compressed air, and that fires bullets that do not require shells, was shot for the enlightenment of a delegation of New York reporters. The reporters saw the gun shoot, but they were not permitted to see that part of the gun out of which the little steel bullets came with such rapidity.

A Swiss named Bangerter was introduced as the inventor. In order that the secret should be maintained, that part of the mechanism that it is said causes the rapid shooting was covered with oilcloth. Only the motor that operates the gun and the little bucket-like receptacles into which the bullets are poured by the quart were visible to the reporters.

There were targets made of a series of big boards arranged in box fashion, each plank about a foot behind the one in front of it. There were four boards in each target. When the bullets started to fly, they riddled the target into a pile of splinters a foot high, and they did it in less than a minute. All in all, it was estimated that no less than 15,000 bullets pierced the target.

The reporters were permitted then to enter the gunroom. They saw a motor from the wheel of which a belt was operated. The belt connected the motor with another wheel which was a part of the mechanism on the top of which was the oilcloth covered weapon out of which the bullets came. They also saw the little buckets, on either side of the gun, into which the bullets are poured as they are needed. The reporters asked to see the gun in operation. Mr. Bangerter ordered another target swung into position. There was another whirl and a second storm of bullets struck the target. The fusillade lasted about ten seconds. Again was the target demolished.

But Mr. Bangerter and his associates refused to say anything about what was under the oilcloth in the little gunroom. They did give out a typewritten statement, however, saying that one of those guns "could face an army of thirty regiments of soldiers or 30,000 men, and could mow down that entire body of men as easy as a knife cuts the grass. There is no earthly possibility for any army to successfully face the fire from a gun of this kind which pours a veritable hailstorm of bullets into the attacking forces, who must either sacrifice their lives or turn in retreat."

It was stated that Col. Rogers Birnie and Maj. Tracy C. Dickson, ordnance department, United States army, who are stationed at the Sandy Hook proving grounds, and Maj. William G. Haan, coast artillery corps, U.S.A., had witnessed a test of the gun and that they had pronounced it a wonderful invention, and had requested that a gun be made for testing purposes at Sandy Hook.

Advantages of the Spanking Machine

1905

"I see," said the mother of five, "that out in Peoria, Ill., they've invented a machine for spanking children. She cast a meaning glance at her son Willie, who shifted uneasily in his chair, but said nothing.

"I was thinking," she went on, speaking to no one in particular, "that I would send on to the inventor and get one of the machines. It would come in handy for me, and I could rent it out among some neighbors I know and make money on it. That is, of course, if I didn't use it all the time, which I might." Willie squirmed again, and thanked his stars the machine wasn't there yet. His mother went on.

"I s'pose they have various sized hands for the machine, to be used in accordance with the gravity of the spankee's offense and the spanking area presented to the spanker. For instance, for such offenses as hanging to the tall end of ice carts, about a No. 2 hand, with spikes in it would do. For riding up in the dumbwaiter and scaring the life out of the cook so that she gives notice, a No. 9 hand, with explosive torpedoes in the palm, wouldn't be any too big or heavy. If the machine works with a crank, as I imagine it does, the rapidity of the stroke could be regulated, too, and the severity of the punishment thus graded according to what the young man ought to have coming to him. "Of course, I'm merely talking from hearsay, now, but I think one of those machines on every street corner would be a good thing. They could build a little booth around it and charge admission. Then when a small boy, out with his mother, insisted on running across a crowded street ahead of her, and giving her heart disease by nearly getting run over by cars and automobiles, she could just lead him into the corner spankorium and attend to him good and plentiful. I think the city ought to know about this and provide such places.

"It would be a great machine to act as a deterrent. If a boy was bad you could say to him: 'Be good, now, or I will put papa's hand with the cast-iron fingers on it into the spanker and turn it loose on you.' That would do some good, and I don't think the small boy would think it a bluff either."

—Oakland Tribune, Oakland, CA, Dec. 2, 1905, p. 7.

Latest Progress: Phonograph Croons Baby Lullabies, Cradle Rocks

1903

Brass Lullabies for Babies.

Further cause for indignation among the cult, that is for getting back to nature and old-fashioned ideals as fast as possible will be supplied by the newly invented machine of a Swiss mechanic.

It is an automatic nurse for babies, and is attached to the cradle. If the baby cries, the air waves cause specially arranged wires to operate a phonograph, which croons a lullaby, while clockwork released simultaneously causes the cradle to rock.

How the heart will be stirred at the sight of the motherly brass phonograph bending over the grieving pink and white mite in the cradle, "crooning" a lullaby. Did you ever hear a phonograph croon? It croons in a sad, low tone like an X-ray machine and a torn cat singing a duet. It ought to cultivate a taste for music in the infant mind that might materially affect the voice quality.—St, Louis Globe-Democrat.

—Davenport Daily Republican, Davenport, Iowa, March 5, 1903, page 6.

They're Smoking Cigarettes to Match the Gown

1920

Cigarets Same Color As Gown

Paris. — Cigarets rolled in paper dyed delicate shades of rose, blue, green or orange are declared by the Daily Mail to be the latest vogue for women. Women wishing to be really smart fill their cases with cigarets of a tint harmonizing with the color of their gowns.


Missing Navy Balloon Is Found

Rockaway, N. Y.—The missing navy balloon A-5598 landed 10 miles northwest of Moose Factory, Ontario, and the crew of three men is safe at a Hudson Bay trading post, according to a telegram received at the naval air station here. The balloon had been missing since December 13.


Manager Caught In Machinery

New Castle, Pa.— Robert Hengst, manager of the Universal Sand Company, was caught in machinery and his left arm was mangled. He was removed to the Shenango Valley Hospital, where an effort is being made to save the arm.

—Bedford Gazette, Bedford, Pennsylvania, January 9, 1920, page 4.

No Lunatic Asylums in Antiquity

1912

Insane Asylums

The great Greek physicians had devoted much attention to insanity, and some of their precepts anticipated modern discoveries, but no lunatic asylum appears to have existed in antiquity. In the first period of the monastic life a refuge is said to have been opened for the insane at Jerusalem, but this appears to have been a solitary instance, arising from exigencies of a single class, and it may be said that no lunatic asylum existed in Christian Europe until about the time of the fifteenth century.


Birds Worthy of Gratitude

It has been estimated that the birds in the United States save $200,000,000 worth of crops each year. The tree sparrows in Iowa eat 4,666 pounds of weed seed daily. One full-fledged robin will eat 16 feet of caterpillar daily, or about 4,569 individuals a month.


Happiness

Those who have the most of happiness think the least about it. But in thinking about and in doing their duty happiness comes — because the heart and mind are occupied with earnest thought that touches at a thousand points the beautiful and sublime realities of the universe. — Thackeray.


Mechanical Typesetting

Seventy years ago type was set by machine. December 17. 1842, James Young of London set type for his paper, The Family Herald, with a type composing-machine. It was a crude affair and was scoffed at by the type-setters of that day. In spite of ridicule, Young kept on and others took up the idea. The present method of rapid machine type-setting tell the story of success. — From an ad for a bank.

—The Daily Commonwealth, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, December 17, 1912, page 5.

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.