Bullet Proof Devices In Plenty

1895

The invention of bullet-proof shields is enlarging, and the patent office will soon, if it goes on at the present rate, be compelled to establish a special subdepartment for the exposition of devices in this direction. A point is laid down by a New York engineer, which is that the outer surface of such material should be of soft, yielding material. This breaks the blow, and then the resisting material is apt to ward off effectually the force of the projectile. If the outer surface is hard and unyielding, the blow is sometimes so great as to overpower the recipient of the shock, and instances are on record that men on the battlefield have actually been killed by this shock. The whole subject is an intricate one, and the progress made in it is not such as to deter the inventor from thinking out new devices. — Hardware.


Wheat Harvest

There is no month in the year in which a wheat harvest is not going on in some quarter of the globe.


Ellis Island

Ellis island has also been called Oyster, Bucket and Gibbet island.

One Thousand Years Hence

1895

"Tell my daughter that she must not forget that dinner will be an hour earlier today. She is in Egypt."

"Yes, mum," (Telephones a phonographic signal to Pyramid station No. 99,999.)

"I see the airship from Market street, Japan, nearing the window. Bring my husband's slippers and dressing gown."

"Yes, mum."

"Now touch the buttons A, L, R, T, V, and X. I think that will be all we want for dinner. Here comes my daughter on her biwind flier just in time. Call up No. 8888."

"Yes, mum." — Boston Globe.

Mechanical Music

1895

The Wail of a Professor Who Declares That Learning Is a Lost Art.

"What for I look blue?" said the professor. "I will tell you. I look blue because my beezness is being — what you call him? — keeked out. No — ah, yes — knocked out by the maker of those stupid mechanique instruments of music. There is no longer any need to learn the piano, for, see, all you do now is bring in the telegraphique wires from the street, and the piano will play itself. Organ — no. Buy some rolls of papaire and put him in the organ and turn the crank, so, and out will come anything you wish from Strauss to Cherubini. Mandolin — no. For some much too clever Yankee has make another something which you shall button to the piano, and there, my faith, you have your mandolin. Zither — no. For there are the zithers now that you play with a steek. Chord of F, press this steek; cord of B, press that steek, and so on. There is no more need to learn anything.

"Mademoiselle say to me, 'Ah, professor, why should I practice any more when Mees So-and-so, who nevaire took the lesson in her life, has an electrique piano which can play everything as well as you do when she press a leedle button?' And I say, 'Why, indeed?' Then madame say to me, 'Ah, professor, I shall geeve up the mandolin, for I can put a leedle thing to the piano and make it play like the mandolin weeth two fingers.' And I say, `Ah, so?' Then monsieur say, 'Professor, I guess I give up the organ and buy one of those windyphones like Billee Sweetzer have, where all you have to do is to move the feet, and the music come out joost as good as you play,' and I say, 'Was that so?'

'And it ees so. The mechanique music have knocked me out. There is no heart any more to learn anything that take time and patience when you can have all the good music that you like by pressing the leedle button and moving the feet. It ees not the music of the soul, to be sure; maybe it ees not the music of the expression; maybe it ees not music at all. Bah! Who cares? All you want is the tune, just like the organ man and piano woman on the street. Arteest be dam. Vive la mechanique! I am going home to invent a violin electrique and an automatique flute that you shall play with your knees." — New York Sun.

New Gun to Shoot Eighty Miles.

1920

LONDON, England. — A gun is being built at the Vickers Works at Sheffield 80 feet long that will hurl an 8-inch shell between seventy and eighty miles. Announcement to this effect has been made by the Lord Mayor of Sheffield.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Aug. 7, 1920, p. 3.

Pictures Now Sent by the Wireless Telegraph

1901

You can have your picture taken now by wireless telegraphy, says a New York dispatch to the Boston Herald. You can have it wafted through space on the crest of an electrical wave without the intervention of even a wire as a medium, and faithfully reproduced in a few minutes for publication in your favorite newspaper.

You may even have your physiognomy hurled through, an eight-inch brick wall with the speed of a series of lightning flashes, and received in good condition for recognition, on the far side of the wall, without serious detriment to your cherished lineaments.

All this can be done, for the New York Herald has demonstrated it in a series of experiments, concluded the other day, whereby it has successfully applied the principles of wireless telegraphy to the accurate transmission from point to point of portraits, sketches, maps and other pictures.

This practical achievement should be feasible not only to report without connecting wires the progress of a yacht race off Sandy Hook, as has already been done successfully, but to transmit almost instantaneously and by wireless devices actual illustrations made at sea depicting the critical moments of the struggle.

Germany Will Protest Against Tanks

1916

London, Sept. 23. — An exchange telegraph despatch from Geneva says it is understood there that the German government proposes to lodge a complaint with the International Red Cross against the use of the so-called "tanks." The complaint will be on the ground that the use of these new engines of war is contrary to recognized methods of civilized warfare.

Proofs of Prosperity

1916

Mr. Boyce's Talks

If there is any one who is in doubt about the general prosperity of the farmers, let him go to the county or State fairs and have his eyes opened. "Seeing is believing," and at the annual agricultural exhibits being held in all parts of the country there is plenty of proof of prosperity and progress.

Where the hitch-racks used to be, the visitor sees parking places for automobiles, filled with cars and frequently "overflowing." In fact, providing adequate facilities for the parking of autos has become one of the big problems at county and State fairs. As an instance of what the auto is doing for the fair, seven cars filled with representatives of twelve families came in a bunch from the little town of Loretto, Neb., to the State fair at Lincoln, a distance of 125 miles. Probably not half of that number of people would have come by train, yet they felt no hesitancy about making the long trip in the autos. This is only one instance. There is no doubt that in many other cases longer journeys are being made, over good roads which the autos have helped to provide.

Attendance has been large at all the fairs that have been held this month and the others which are to open between now and the middle of October are making preparations for record-breaking crowds. This in itself is a big proof of prosperity, to which may be added the reports from manufacturers and merchants telling of unusually good business in the placing of orders, now that the harvests are over.

More and more each season, stress has been laid on quality at the fairs, and progress in quality is especially noticeable in this year of good prices for all farm products. Not only is it to be seen in the exhibits and in the increased number of the educational features of the fairs but in the amusements, which have been put on a much higher plane. "Barkers" still "bark," but the shows that remain are of better class, as a rule, than the old-time tent entertainments. "Bosco, the Snake Eater" has disappeared, along with the sword swallowers and other freaks that used to contest with each other for the dimes and quarters of amusement seekers. Carnival companies which furnish entertainment at many of the fairs have eliminated most of the old objectionable features. Good bands are engaged, to give the people the kind of music they want. Many of the big fairs hire aviators to make day and night flights for the crowds and some of the fairs this year have put on elaborate historical pageants in which the schools have assisted.

For those who view the fairs with understanding and appreciation, the farm exhibits are, of course, the big features of interest. These tell the story of progress not only in methods of raising crops and stock but in the improvement of life on the farm. A visit to the machinery exhibits is an education for the city dweller who may not have kept in touch with the advances that have been made. Thruout these exhibits he will see how the power of motors is being applied to agriculture, to facilitate work, lighten labor and improve results in hundreds of different ways. He will see 1 horse power gasoline engines, selling as low as $25, for pumping water and running electric light plants, and big tractors that do heavy work, such as pulling gang plows. He will see electrical devices for thrashing, cutting up feed, cutting grass, pumping water and for many other purposes, including the family washing and similar domestic uses. He will see how gasoline engines and electrical plants have brought comforts and conveniences to the farmhouse and made it the equal of any city home — and a better place to live in than the average city home.

Then there is the automobile show, which is a feature of every big fair. These exhibits are larger this year than ever before, and the reports on orders, like those of other manufacturers who are selling to the farmer, are proofs of the prosperity of the country.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Sept. 16, 1916, p. 6.

Color-Film Lotion Is Found

1919

Russian Invents Emulsion Designed to Improve Photography.

LONDON, England. — A secret emulsion, invented by a Russian, which, it is asserted, will make color photography possible for everybody, is about to be introduced into this country. The problem of making the process capable of snapshot as well as time work is claimed to have been overcome and the exposure can be as rapid as with the ordinary emulsion, thus fitting the invention for moving picture work also.

Special cameras and plates will be on the market shortly and the cost of a colored film is expected to he only 15 to 20 per cent higher than the ordinary black and white type.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Jan. 3, 1920, p. 9.

Warm Rain On Demand

1901

Luxurious Quarters Provided For the Horticulturist's Favorites.

Everybody knows more or less about the cultivation of flowers, but few have either the time or money to grow such rarities as the orchid, sometimes called the "rich man's flower" because so far its cultivation has been restricted almost entirely to great private estates. These botanical aristocrats, like the famous black tulip which, according to the novelist Dumas, bloomed once and once only in the seventeenth century town of Haarlem, require luxurious surroundings in order to attain their best development. They require also special arrangements for their care and protection during exhibitions. Every new building devoted to horticulture has been the means of adding something to these arrangements, and the new horticultural hall in Boston naturally represents the latest achievements in this direction.

Temperature, of course, is one of the first things to be taken into consideration. Readers of Dumas will readily remember Van Baerle's famous drying house and the care with which he raised and lowered the windows. The exhibition rooms of the new hall are drying rooms on a larger scale and are so arranged that pressure on a single lever opens all the windows at once, thus filling the rooms at any moment with sunshine and fresh oxygen. But they are an improvement on the seventeenth century tulip fancier's arrangements in that modern science with its fans, heating apparatus and ventilators, has made it possible to keep the atmosphere always exactly regulated.

It is interesting to know also that the watering of plants in the new building is as scientific a process as the regulation of the atmosphere. Each of the exhibition rooms has several hose connections, supplying hot and cold water The temperature of the water may be regulated before it enters the hose and it thus reaches the individual flower at the exact degree of warmth which scientific experience has shown the gardener will produce the best results.

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.

New War Appliance

1917

A newcomer into the family of war appliances is the motorcycle-carrying airplane. A special platform built between the planes juts outside the body of the airplane, carries the motorcycle. The addition of this machine greatly enhances the effectiveness of the airplane and affords a quick means of land travel in case of a shortage of gasoline or disability of the airplane engine. If the aviators who were lost in the Mexican desert during General Pershing's expedition had been equipped with motorcycles their return to headquarters would have been a matter of only a few hours instead of a three days' wait for the searching party.


Learned Too Late

"Much evil comes from bad company," as the man said who found himself on the gallows by the side of the hangman.


The Average Man

It would discourage the average man if he was able to realize how very important he isn't!

You Ought To Have a Wheel Hoe

1917

A wheel hoe is the gardener's best friend; with it one man can do as much work in two hours as he can in six with the old-fashioned common hoe. It saves laborious stooping, makes the work easier and does it better. These hoes have several attachments such as drills, cultivators and different-sized hoes, making it suitable for crops of all kinds and sizes. If a man is too lazy to attend to his own garden, his wife will find the use of the wheel hoe very comforting.


His Dress

When a girl falls in love with a young man she wishes he would wear some other kind of necktie.


Handicapped

"Ernest, were you looking through the keyhole last night at your sister and me?" "Honest, I wasn't. Mother was in the way."

Powerful Aero Engines

1917

In testing an airplane engine of 200 horse power a Detroit company mounted it upon a heavy motor truck, and the aerial propeller sent the track flying along a boulevard at the rate of more than 40 miles an hour. This was a speed that the truck could not begin to develop under its own motive power, and the method furnished a better practical test of the 12-cylinder airplane engine than was possible in the testing laboratory or in any stationary trial on blocks.

As an additional test the rear wheels of the two-ton truck were locked, so that they could not revolve, and in this condition it was driven across a ball park by the airplane engine and propeller through heavy drifts of snow and over ice. The motor weighs 800 pounds and develops power sufficient to drive a 12-passenger airplane at 40 miles an hour. — Popular Mechanics Magazine.


Won His Lost Watch

An extraordinary watch story is told by a Welsh campaigner home on leave from African battlefields. When he was in German West Africa he lost a wristlet watch. It was not very valuable, so he did not worry a lot about it. But many months later, when on active service in German East Africa, he took a share in a raffle for a watch. He won, and to his amazement found that the prize was his own watch.

New Methods of Fighting

1917

Modern Warfare Is Carried On Under Water, Under Ground and in the Clouds

"Digging in" has a new and important significance and the fantastic legend of Darius Green is long forgotten in the light of practical achievement by the bird-man of today. The cavalry of the earth has been supplanted by the cavalry of the air. The actual fighting of modern warfare is conducted under water, under ground and far up among the clouds.

Yes, there have been drastic changes in military tactics and military equipment since the old days when we used to drill in the armory over the grocery store in the little old home town. What we tried so hard to learn of military lore in those days would be classed as low comedy by a recruiting officer of this changeful period. But all the same, one can't help wishing that one were somewhere in France at this minute with good old Company C regiment of the National Guard, and we'd make a reasonable wager that of the survivors of that organization, if given an opportunity to go, there wouldn't be a slacker in the bunch. — Exchange.

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.

Secret Correspondence Using Invisible Ink

1900

Inks Composed Mainly of Salts and Cobalt Are the Best

Of the many invisible and sympathetic inks that have been used for secret correspondence perhaps the best known are those composed mainly of salts of cobalt. Marks made with these fluids remained invisible until they were subjected to heat, and then were revealed in lines of pale green. The phenomenon was transient and entirely dependent on the temperature. As soon as the sheet of paper grew cool writing would disappear.

Now, to those who had occasion to employ such means of communication it was desirable to know whether any one tampered with their letters or not. So long as the fact of the correspondence was kept secret, of course, there would be no danger. But if that once became known the contents of a private letter might be ascertained by anyone through whose hands the letter passed. Cobalt writing can be made to appear and disappear a dozen times without giving the least evidence of having been read.

But a patent was recently granted in Germany which meets this difficulty, and in some other respects, also, is an improvement on the old system. In the first place the paper used is soaked in the cobalt solution and is prepared in advance. The inventor aims to put his stationery on the market. The writing is done with a solution of common salt and behaves as the cobalt ink did formerly. It can be seen only when warmed and disappears immediately on cooling. Moreover, it appears as often as heat is applied. Its color is a bluish green.

But the German also provides what he calls a "control ink." This may be prepared by adding two grains of resorcin to eight drops of water and six drops of sulphuric acid. When a person has written his letter with salt water he makes a few supplementary remarks, in a spot previously agreed upon, with the control ink. So long as the letter remains cool these test marks are invisible, but when the heat is applied they come out and they come out to stay. They are of a brown hue, different from that of the salt writing, and they will not disappear when the green writing does. If the authorized recipient of a letter finds these marks on a letter before he himself warms it he has reason to suspect that his secret is known. But if they are missing the opposite conclusion is justified.

Beginning of Use of Iron

1910

Origin Thought to Have Been in Central Europe

It is commonly believed that the use of iron commenced in either Africa or Asia. The latest investigations prove that it was not worked in Egypt until the ninth century before the Christian era, or in Libya until 450 B. C., that the Semites adopted its use still later, and that it has been known in Uganda only within the last five or six centuries.

In China iron is first mentioned in 400 B. C. Bronze weapons were employed in China until 100 A.D., and in Japan until 700 A.D. According to a Mr. Ridgeway, who has investigated this subject, the metallurgy of iron must have originated in central Europe, especially in Noricum, which approximately represented modern Austria and Bavaria.

Only at Hallstatt and in Bosnia and Transylvania, from which countries the Achaians and Dorians are supposed to have migrated to Greece, are found evidences of a gradual introduction of iron, at first as an ornament applied to the bronze which it ultimately displaced.

Everywhere also iron was introduced suddenly — a fact which implies a foreign origin. He says that meteoric iron was known in Egypt in remote antiquity, but no doubt it was worked as flints are worked, by cutting or chipping, and was not smelted. In other words, it was metallurgy, not the knowledge, of iron that originated in central Europe.

Horseless Vehicles May Be Used By the Army

1896

War Horses of Steel

Cavalrymen to Be Mounted on Motor Cycles, Artillery Hauled Without Mules

Horseless vehicles will probably be used in our army before very long. General Miles is now studying the question, and later the army may purchase or have built a horseless vehicle to be tested at one of the posts.

Before many generations, it is predicted, battles will be fought by navies, so to speak, patrolling the land as well as the sea, in ironclad vessels. True, the horseless vehicle, as we now know it, cannot be depended upon to climb fences, run over steep rocks or such obstacles, but it is contended that with these machines in use will come good roads.

The value of movable forts was greatly appreciated in ancient warfare, but modern rapid movements in battle made them useless; but with these forts propelled by steam their utility becomes at once apparent. An armored fortress moved by a power from within, and containing a picked body of sharpshooters, could work havoc on an enemy.

The army wagon has always played an important part in the protection of small bodies of men attacked from ambush on the march. Where there is animal power exposed, however, that propelling force is soon exterminated with a single bullet. The horse is much more easily hit than the man. War statistics, including all the world's battles fought between 1800 and 1865, show that for every 100 cavalry or artillery soldiers killed there were 120 horses. But a traveling fort could not be destroyed nearly so quickly as a warship, for the reason that there no water to rush into the former. A hundred holes can be shot clear through it, and yet it will go on unless the vital machinery be broken.

The adoption of the horseless vehicle, as is contemplated, for the simple army train, may lead to the adoption of these armored land vessels some day. At each of its forty-one military posts our army employs two or more wagons. There are two styles of army wagons prescribed by the Quartermaster-General. The larger, the six-mile wagon, is for transporting army supplies to and from railroad stations on the frontier posts. The other, known as the escort wagon, is pulled by two or four mules. It is used in the more thickly settled regions for the same purpose, as well as for official errands.

These wagons have been used in the army since the war, with but little alteration. Both would be important factors of the army train in the event of war with a foreign Power. They are slow, but sure, as are the Government mules which draw them. But the Government mule will not long be use in these advanced days, when all the armies of the world are striving to solve the problem of rapid transit.

The movement is fast on foot to mount our regular soldiers, as well as militiamen, on bicycles. When these are in use marches of a hundred miles or more will be made in the light of one day. Forced ones of double length will easily be made in twenty-four hours. The bicycle needs but a little oil and is always ready. It is, therefore, apparent to progressive military men that with the advent of the bicycle must come the advent of the horseless carriage in the army provision train.

Another important bearing of the compact road motor upon modern warfare will be the possibility of hauling field cannon without the aid of horses. The field piece is the clumsiest of all instruments of warfare to manage during a retreat. For this reason alone cannon are so often deserted in the field to fall into the hands of the enemy.

When good roads make the horseless conveyance popular we will have to propel our cannon at a rapid rate, on the march, to keep up with the rapid pace of the bicycle cavalry and infantry, and the provision wagons propelled by the storage battery, naphtha, gasoline, petroleum and other motors.

It is said that a New Jersey inventor has prepared plans for an acetyline automobile carriage, soon to be built and run in Washington this winter. This promises to be a very cheap motor, employing the new gas renowned for its low rate of cost.

Developments in the lightness, compactness and power of motors will also probably permit air-ships to be made and utilized in war.

A striking vista of a great military engagement a century hence now begins to appear to the mind's eye. Imagine that a great foreign host is falling in upon us. Myriads of floating fortresses are guarding our shores from far out to sea. Our seacoasts are scattered with impenetrable fortifications built at every point which might prove tempting and beneficial to an enemy.

Our armor covered cavalry fly about the country upon their two-wheeled war horses of steel, propelled by powerful light motors. Rapid monitors patrol the continent, now netted with glazed highways, and flocks of warrior birds, driven by compact engines, soar above the enemy's fleets or forces, dropping death upon them, as did the fabulous rocs, the giant birds told of in the "Arabian Nights." — New York Herald.

Doctors Locate Bullet By Phone

1915

London Surgeons Have New Method of Discovering Presence of Foreign Body

London. — One of the romantic touches in modern surgery which the exigencies of the present war have introduced is a method of detecting bullets and fragments of shell in the human body by means of a telephone. This method is employed in special cases in one of the large London hospitals.

To a telephone receiver two short lengths of wire are attached. One of these ends in a small piece of platinum; this is placed upon any part of the patient's skin which has been moistened with salt water. The other end of the wire terminates in a thread of antiseptic silver, and this is bound around the surgeon's probe or lancet or other instrument. The surgeon then places the receiver to his ear and makes the incision.

The instant the instrument touches the bullet a very distinct rattle is heard, quite different from the faint murmur audible as the instrument merely cuts through the flesh, and in this way when X-rays fail, as they sometimes do, the foreign substance is located.


He Is a War Hero At 13

Youngest Noncommissioned Officer in the French Army

Paris. — The youngest noncommissioned officer in the French army is Marcel Vernier, who is thirteen years and seven mouths old. He followed the artillery as a kitchen helper at the opening of the war and learned to ride a horse and was quickly promoted to be a corporal. He has been named adjutant sergeant major and his name has been proposed for the military medal for valor in action. He was recently wounded and was brought to a Paris hospital.

Vernier is an orphan and is one of a large family of young brothers and sisters.

Time-Telling Inventions

1914

It seems that the invention of clocks and watches was not the fruit of a single discovery, but was really a slow growth, side by side with many other advances in civilization, and of course the earliest clocks and instruments were sun dials.

The invention of the sun dial is generally attributed to a Grecian astronomer who died about 547 B. C.

The dial was followed by the hourglass, and this by the water clock, which marked time by the escape of water through an orifice. These were introduced into Rome about 158 B. C., but are believed to have been in use in Chaldea and Egypt for a hundred years previous to that date.


Ants Build Skyscrapers

West African anthills are veritable giants, frequently standing 40 feet high, says the Wide World.

These anthills are shaped something like a sugar loaf and are divided into hundreds of tiny rooms. They have, needless to say, myriads of inhabitants and these are all busily occupied in various ways, forming tunnels, making roads, gathering food and watching over the eggs and youngsters.

The natives are afraid to touch these hills, except from a distance, with firearms. The ants often make their strongholds around trees, and they are built very solidly, with sides sometimes 20 inches thick.

The inside is hollow, and at the top there is a sort of attic. The "royal cell," where the queen ant lives, is always found on the ground floor. This good lady is a prisoner, but is carefully fed by her busy subjects, the eggs she lays being immediately carried away and deposited in "rooms" set apart for the purpose.