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diff --git a/44188-h/44188-h.htm b/44188-h/44188-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e378e76 --- /dev/null +++ b/44188-h/44188-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,7258 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + +<head> + +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=UTF-8" /> + +<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Boys' Second Book of Inventions, by Ray Stannard Baker</title> + +<link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> + +<style type="text/css"> + +body {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + +h1,h2 {text-align: center; clear: both; font-weight: normal;} +h1 {font-size:250%; line-height:1.5;} +h2 {font-size:150%; line-height:1.5; margin-top: 5em;} + +.floatl { + float: left; + clear: left; + text-align: center; + border: 0px solid black; + padding: 5px; + margin: 0 4px 0 0;} + +.floatr { + float: right; + clear: right; + text-align: center; + border: 0px solid black; + padding: 5px; + margin: 0 0 0 4px;} + +p { + text-indent:1em; + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em;} + +.caption { + margin-top: 0.5em; + font-size: 90%; + text-align: center; + text-indent:0;} + +.captionleft { + font-size: 90%; + text-align: justify; + margin-left: 1em; + text-indent: -1em;} + +.captionsub { + font-size: 80%; + text-align: center; + text-indent:0;} + +.captionsubleft { + font-size: 80%; + text-align: justify; + margin-left: 1em; + text-indent: -1em;} + +img {border: 1px solid black; padding: 0;} +.plain {border: none; padding: 0;} +.center {text-align: center; text-indent:0; clear: both;} +.center img {text-align: center; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} +.centercaptionbroad {max-width: 22em; text-align: center; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} +.centercaptionnarrow {max-width: 11em; text-align: center; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + +.front { + text-align: center; + text-indent: 0; + margin-top:1.5em; + margin-bottom:1.5em;} + +.margintop6 {margin-top: 6em;} +.marginleft1 {margin-left: 1em;} +.noindent {text-indent:0;} +.smcaps {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.xsmall {font-size: x-small;} +.small {font-size: small;} +.large {font-size: large;} + +table { margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} +.tdcenter {text-align: center;} + +.tdleft { + padding-left: 1.5em; + text-indent: -1.5em; + vertical-align: bottom; + padding-top: 0.8em;} + +.tdright { + text-align: right; + vertical-align: bottom;} + +.tdaddit { + text-align: justify; + padding-left: 1.5em; + text-indent: -1.5em; + font-size: small; + vertical-align: top; + padding-bottom: 0.5em;} + +.tdchap { + text-align: center; + vertical-align: bottom; + height:3em;} + +.tnote { + padding: 10px; + background: rgb(220, 220, 220) none repeat scroll 0% 50%; + margin-top: 2em;} + +a[title].pagenum {position: absolute; right: 3%;} + +a[title].pagenum:after { + content: attr(title); + border: 1px solid silver; + display: inline; + font-size: x-small; + text-align: right; + color: #808080; + background-color: inherit; + font-style: normal; + padding: 1px 4px 1px 4px; + font-variant: normal; + font-weight: normal; + text-decoration: none; + text-indent: 0; + letter-spacing: 0;} + +.footnotes {border: dashed 1px; margin-top: 4em;} +.footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} +.fnanchor {vertical-align: top; font-size: .7em; text-decoration: none;} + +</style> +</head> + + + + +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44188 ***</div> + +<p class="front">BOYS' SECOND BOOK OF<a class="pagenum" name="page_i"> </a><br /> +INVENTIONS</p> + +<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_ii"> </a></p> + +<div class="center"> + <img src="images/i_001a.jpg" width="331" height="476" alt="" /> +</div> + +<div class="center" style="text-indent: -10em;"> + <img class="plain" src="images/i_001b.jpg" width="155" height="53" alt="" /> +</div> + + +<h1>BOYS' SECOND BOOK<a class="pagenum" name="page_iii"> </a><br /> +OF INVENTIONS</h1> + +<p class="front"><span class="large">BY RAY STANNARD BAKER</span><br /> +<i>Author of<br /> +Boys' Book of Inventions, Seen in<br /> +Germany</i></p> + +<div class="center"> + <img class="plain" src="images/i_002a.jpg" width="22" height="31" alt="" /> +</div> + +<p class="front">FULLY ILLUSTRATED</p> + +<div class="center"> + <img class="plain" src="images/i_002b.jpg" width="78" height="108" alt="" /> +</div> + +<p class="front">NEW YORK<br /> +DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY<br /> +MCMIX</p> + + +<p class="front"><a class="pagenum" name="page_iv"> </a> +<i>Copyright, 1903, by</i><br /> +McCLURE, PHILLIPS & CO.<br /> +Published, November, 1903, N</p> + + + + +<h2>TABLE OF CONTENTS<a class="pagenum" name="page_v"> </a></h2> + + +<table summary="contents" border="0"> + +<tr> + <td colspan="3" class="tdchap">CHAPTER I</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td colspan="3" class="tdright xsmall">PAGE</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td colspan="2" class="smcaps">The Miracle of Radium</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_003">3</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td> <span class="marginleft1"> </span></td> + <td>Story of the Marvels and Dangers of the New Element<br /> + Discovered by Professor and Madame Curie.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> + <td colspan="3" class="tdchap">CHAPTER II</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td colspan="2" class="smcaps">Flying Machines</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_027">27</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td> </td> + <td>Santos-Dumont's Steerable Balloons.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> + <td colspan="3" class="tdchap">CHAPTER III</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td colspan="2" class="smcaps">The Earthquake Measurer</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_079">79</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td> </td> + <td>Professor John Milne's Seismograph.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> + <td colspan="3" class="tdchap">CHAPTER IV</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td colspan="2" class="smcaps">Electrical Furnaces</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_113">113</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td> </td> + <td>How the Hottest Heat is Produced—Making Diamonds.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> + <td colspan="3" class="tdchap">CHAPTER V</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td colspan="2" class="smcaps">Harnessing the Sun</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_153">153</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td> </td> + <td>The Solar Motor.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> + <td colspan="3" class="tdchap">CHAPTER VI + <a class="pagenum" name="page_vi" title="vi"> </a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td colspan="2" class="smcaps">The Inventor and the Food Problem</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_173">173</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td> </td> + <td>Fixing of Nitrogen—Experiments of Professor Nobbe.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> + <td colspan="3" class="tdchap">CHAPTER VII</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td colspan="2" class="smcaps">Marconi and his Great Achievements</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_207">207</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td> </td> + <td>New Experiments in Wireless Telegraphy.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> + <td colspan="3" class="tdchap">CHAPTER VIII</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td colspan="2" class="smcaps">Sea-Builders</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_255">255</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td> </td> + <td>The Story of Lighthouse Building—Stone-Tower Lighthouses,<br /> + Iron Pile Lighthouses, and Steel Cylinder Lighthouses.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> + <td colspan="3" class="tdchap">CHAPTER IX</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td colspan="2" class="smcaps">The Newest Electric Light</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_293">293</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td> </td> + <td>Peter Cooper Hewitt and his Three Great Inventions<br /> + — The Mercury Arc Light—The New Electrical<br /> + Converter—The Hewitt Interrupter.</td> +</tr> +</table> + + + + +<h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS<a class="pagenum" name="page_vii" title="vii"> </a></h2> + + +<table summary="illustrations"> +<tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdright xsmall">Page</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">Guglielmo Marconi<span style="margin-left:10em;"> + <a href="#page_i"><i>Frontispiece</i></a></span></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">M. Curie Explaining the Wonders of Radium at<br /> + the Sorbonne</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_005">5</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">Dr. Danlos Treating a Lupus Patient with Radium<br /> + at the St. Louis Hospital, Paris</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_013">13</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">Radium as a Test for Real Diamonds</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_019">19</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdaddit"><i>At the approach of Radium pure gems are thrown into great<br /> + brilliancy, while imitations remain dull.</i></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">M. and Mme. Curie Finishing the Preparation of<br /> + some Radium</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_025">25</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">M. Alberto Santos-Dumont</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_029">29</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">Severo's Balloon, the "Pax," which on its First<br /> + Ascent at a Height of about 2,000 feet,<br /> + Burst and Exploded, Sending to a Terrible<br /> + Death both M. Severo and his Assistant</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_033">33</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">The Trial of Count Zeppelin's Air-Ship, July 2, 1900</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_037">37</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">M. Santos-Dumont at Nineteen</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_041">41</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">M. Santos-Dumont's First Balloon (Spherical)</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_043">43</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">M. Santos-Dumont's Workshop</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_045">45</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">"Santos-Dumont No. 1"</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_049">49</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">Basket of "Santos-Dumont No. 1" + <a class="pagenum" name="page_viii" title="viii"> </a></td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_052">52</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdaddit"><i>Showing propeller and motor.</i></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">"Santos-Dumont No. 1"</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_053">54</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdaddit"><i>Showing how it began to fold up in the middle.</i></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">"Santos-Dumont No. 5" Rounding Eiffel Tower,<br /> + July 13, 1901</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_057">57</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">The Interior of the Aërodrome</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_061">61</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdaddit"><i>Showing its construction, the inflated balloon, and the pennant<br /> + with its mystic letters.</i></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">The Fall into the Courtyard of the Trocadero Hotel</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_065">65</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdaddit">"<i>Santos-Dumont No. 5.</i>"</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">"Santos-Dumont No. 6"—The Prize Winner</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_069">69</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">Air-Ship Pointing almost Vertically Upward</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_073">73</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">Falling to the Sea</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_073">73</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">Just Before the Air-Ship Lost all its Gas</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_074">74</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">Losing its Gas and Sinking</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_074">74</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">The Balloon Falling to the Waves</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_075">75</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">Boats Around the Ruined Air-Ship</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_075">75</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">Manœuvring Above the Bay at Monte Carlo</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_077">77</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">Professor John Milne</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_080">80</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdaddit"><i>From a photograph by S. Suzuki, Kudanzaka, Tokio.</i></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">Professor Milne's Sensitive Pendulum, or Seismograph,<br /> + as it Appears Enclosed in its Protecting Box</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_081">81</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">The Sensitive Pendulum, or Seismograph, as it<br /> + Appears with the Protecting Box Removed + <a class="pagenum" name="page_ix" title="ix"> </a></td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_081">81</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">Gifu, Japan, after the Earthquake of 1891</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_085">85</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdaddit"><i>This and the pictures following on pages 89, 101, 111, are from<br /> + Japanese photographs reproduced in "The Great Earthquake<br /> + in Japan, 1891," by John Milne and W. K. Burton.</i></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">The Work of the Great Earthquake of 1891 in<br /> + Neo Valley, Japan</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_089">89</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">Diagram Showing Vertical and Horizontal Sections<br /> + of the More Sensitive of Professor<br /> + Milne's Two Pendulums, or Seismographs</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_092">93</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">Seismogram of a Borneo Earthquake that Occurred<br /> + September 20, 1897</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_094">94</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">Effect of the Great Earthquake of 1891 on the<br /> + Nagara Gawa Railway Bridge, Japan</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_101">101</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">Pieces of a Submarine Cable Picked Up in the<br /> + Gulf of Mexico in 1888</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_108">108</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdaddit"><i>The kinks are caused by seismic disturbances, and they show<br /> + how much distortion a cable can suffer and still remain<br /> + in good electrical condition, as this was found to be.</i></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">Record made on a Stationary Surface by the<br /> + Vibrations of the Japanese Earthquake of<br /> + July 19, 1891</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_111">111</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdaddit"><i>Showing the complicated character of the motion (common to<br /> + most earthquakes), and also the course of a point at the<br /> + centre of disturbance.</i></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">Table of Temperatures + <a class="pagenum" name="page_x" title="x"> </a></td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_115">115</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">Mr. E. G. Acheson, One of the Pioneers in the<br /> + Investigation of High Temperatures</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_125">125</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">The Furnace-Room, where Carborundum is Made</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_131">131</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdaddit">"<i>A great, dingy brick building, open at the sides like a shed.</i>"</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">Taking Off a Crust of the Furnace at Night</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_135">135</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdaddit"><i>The light is so intense that you cannot look at it without<br /> + hurting the eyes.</i></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">The Interior of a Furnace as it Appears after the<br /> + Carborundum has been Taken Out</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_143">143</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">Blowing Off</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_147">147</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdaddit">"<i>Not infrequently gas collects, forming a miniature mountain,<br /> + with a crater at its summit, and blowing a magnificent<br /> + fountain of flame, lava, and dense white vapour high<br /> + into the air, and roaring all the while in a most terrifying<br /> + manner.</i>"</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">Side View of the Solar Motor</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_155">155</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">Front View of the Los Angeles Solar Motor</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_159">159</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">The Brilliant Steam Boiler Glistens in the Centre</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_163">163</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">The Rear Machinery for Operating the Reflector</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_167">167</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">Trees Growing in Water at Professor Nobbe's<br /> + Laboratory</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_187">187</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">Experimenting with Nitrogen in Professor Nobbe's<br /> + Laboratory</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_191">191</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">Mr. Charles S. Bradley</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_198">198</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">Mr. D. R. Lovejoy</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_199">199</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">Eight-Inch 10,000-Volt Arcs Burning the Air for<br /> + Fixing Nitrogen + <a class="pagenum" name="page_xi" title="xi"> </a></td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_200">200</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">Machine for Burning the Air with Electric Arcs<br /> + so as to Produce Nitrates</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_201">201</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">Marconi. The Sending of an Epoch-Making Message</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_206">206</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdaddit"><i>January 18, 1903, marks the beginning of a new era in<br /> + telegraphic communication. On that day there was sent by<br /> + Marconi himself from the wireless station at South Wellfleet,<br /> + Cape Cod, Mass., to the station at Poldhu, Cornwall,<br /> + England, a distance of 3,000 miles, the message—destined<br /> + soon to be historic—from the President of the United<br /> + States to the King of England.</i></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">Preparing to Fly the Kite which Supported the<br /> + Receiving Wire</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_213">213</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdaddit"><i>Marconi on the extreme left.</i></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">Mr. Marconi and his Assistants in Newfoundland:<br /> + Mr. Kemp on the Left, Mr. Paget on the Right</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_217">217</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdaddit"><i>They are sitting on a balloon basket, with one of the Baden-Powell<br /> + kites in the background.</i></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">Marconi Transatlantic Station at Wellfleet, Cape<br /> + Cod, Mass.</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_229">229</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">At Poole, England</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_231">231</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">Nearer View, South Foreland Station</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_235">235</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">Alum Bay Station, Isle of Wight</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_237">237</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">Marconi Room, S.S. Philadelphia</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_241">241</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">Transatlantic High Power, Marconi Station at<br /> + Glace Bay, Nova Scotia + <a class="pagenum" name="page_xii" title="xii"> </a></td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_247">247</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">Work on the Smith Point Lighthouse Stopped by<br /> + a Violent Storm</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_254">254</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdaddit"><i>Just after the cylinder had been set in place, and while the<br /> + workmen were hurrying to stow sufficient ballast to secure<br /> + it against a heavy sea, a storm forced the attending<br /> + steamer to draw away. One of the barges was almost<br /> + overturned, and a lifeboat was driven against the cylinder<br /> + and crushed to pieces.</i></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">Robert Stevenson, Builder of the Famous Bell<br /> + Rock Lighthouse, and Author of Important<br /> + Inventions and Improvements in the System<br /> + of Sea Lighting</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_256">256</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdaddit"><i>From a bust by Joseph, now in the library of Bell Rock Lighthouse.</i></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">The Bell Rock Lighthouse, on the Eastern Coast<br /> + of Scotland</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_257">257</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdaddit"><i>From the painting by Turner. The Bell Rock Lighthouse was<br /> + built by Robert Stevenson, grandfather of Robert Louis<br /> + Stevenson, on the Inchcape Reef, in the North Sea, near<br /> + Dundee, Scotland, in 1807-1810.</i></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">The Present Lighthouse on Minot's Ledge, near<br /> + the Entrance of Massachusetts Bay, Fifteen<br /> + Miles Southeast of Boston</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_260">260</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdaddit">"<i>Rising sheer out of the sea, like a huge stone cannon, mouth<br /> + upward.</i>"—Longfellow.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">The Lighthouse on Stannard Rock, Lake Superior</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_261">261</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdaddit"><i>This is a stone-tower lighthouse, similar in construction to the<br /> + one built with such difficulty on Spectacle Reef, Lake + Huron.</i></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">The Fowey Rocks Lighthouse, Florida<br /> + <a class="pagenum" name="page_xiii" title="xiii"> </a></td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_264">264</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">Fourteen-Foot Bank Light Station, Delaware<br /> + Bay, Del.</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_268">268</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">The Great Beds Light Station, Raritan Bay, N. J.</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_270">270</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdaddit"><i>A specimen of iron cylinder construction.</i></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">A Storm at the Tillamook Lighthouse, in the<br /> + Pacific, one mile out from Tillamook Head,<br /> + Oregon</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_275">275</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">Saving the Cylinder of the Lighthouse at Smith<br /> + Point, Chesapeake Bay, from being Swamped<br /> + in a High Sea</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_279">279</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdaddit"><i>When the builders were towing the unwieldy cylinder out to set<br /> + it in position, the water became suddenly rough and<br /> + began to fill it. Workmen, at the risk of their lives,<br /> + boarded the cylinder, and by desperate labours succeeded<br /> + in spreading sail canvas over it, and so saved a structure<br /> + that had cost months of labour and thousands of dollars.</i></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">Great Waves Dashed Entirely Over Them, so that<br /> + They had to Cling for Their Lives to the<br /> + Air-Pipes</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_285">285</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdaddit"><i>In erecting the Smith Point lighthouse, after the cylinder was<br /> + set up, it had to be forced down fifteen and a half feet<br /> + into the sand. The lives of the men who did this, working<br /> + in the caisson at the bottom of the sea, were absolutely<br /> + in the hands of the men who managed the engine<br /> + and the air-compressor at the surface; and twice these<br /> + latter were entirely deluged by the sea, but still maintained<br /> + steam and kept everything running as if no sea<br /> + was playing over them.</i></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">Peter Cooper Hewitt + <a class="pagenum" name="page_xiv" title="xiv"> </a></td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_292">292</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdaddit"><i>With his interrupter.</i></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">Watching a Test of the Hewitt Converter</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_299">299</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdaddit"><i>Lord Kelvin in the centre.</i></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">The Hewitt Mercury Vapour Light</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_304">305</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdaddit"><i>The circular piece just above the switch button is one form of<br /> + "boosting coil" which operates for a fraction of a second<br /> + when the current is first turned on. The tube shown<br /> + here is about an inch in diameter and several feet long.<br /> + Various shapes may be used. Unless broken, the tubes<br /> + never need renewal.</i></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleft">Testing a Hewitt Converter</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#page_311">311</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdaddit"><i>The row of incandescent lights is used, together with a voltmeter<br /> + and ammeter, to measure strength of current, resistance,<br /> + and loss in converting.</i></td> +</tr> +</table> + + + + +<p class="front large margintop6"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_001" title="1"> </a> +BOYS' SECOND BOOK OF<br /> +INVENTIONS</p> + +<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_002" title="2"> </a></p> + + + + +<h2>CHAPTER I<a class="pagenum" name="page_003" title="3"> </a><br /> + +<small>THE MIRACLE OF RADIUM<br /> + +<i>Story of the Marvels and Dangers of the New Element +Discovered by Professor and Madame Curie</i></small></h2> + + +<p>No substance ever discovered better deserves +the term "Miracle of Science," given it by a +famous English experimenter, than radium. +Here is a little pinch of white powder that +looks much like common table salt. It is one +of many similar pinches sealed in little glass +tubes and owned by Professor Curie, of Paris. +If you should find one of these little tubes in +the street you would think it hardly worth +carrying away, and yet many a one of them +could not be bought for a small fortune. For +all the radium in the world to-day could be +heaped on a single table-spoon; a pound of it +would be worth nearly a million dollars, or +<a class="pagenum" name="page_004" title="4"> </a> +more than three thousand times its weight in +pure gold.</p> + +<p>Professor and Madame Curie, who discovered +radium, now possess the largest amount +of any one, but there are small quantities in +the hands of English and German scientists, +and perhaps a dozen specimens in America, +one owned by the American Museum of +Natural History and several by Mr. W. J. +Hammer, of New York, who was the first +American to experiment with the rare and +precious substance.</p> + +<div class="center"> + <a class="pagenum" name="page_005"> </a> + <img src="images/i_005.jpg" width="476" height="333" alt="" /> + <div class="centercaptionbroad"> + <p class="caption">M. Curie Explaining the Wonders of Radium at the Sorbonne.</p> + </div> +</div> + +<p>And perhaps it is just as well, at first, not +to have too much radium, for besides being +wonderful it is also dangerous. If a pound +or two could be gathered in a mass it would +kill every one who came within its influence. +People might go up and even handle the +white powder without at the moment feeling +any ill-effects, but in a week or two the mysterious +and dreadful radium influence would +begin to take effect. Slowly the victim's skin +would peel off, his body would become one +great sore, he would fall blind, and finally +die of paralysis and congestion of the spinal +<a class="pagenum" name="page_007" title="7"> </a> +cord. Even the small quantities now in hand +have severely burned the experimenters. Professor +Curie himself has a number of bad +scars on his hands and arms due to ulcers +caused by handling radium. And Professor +Becquerel, in journeying to London, carried +in his waistcoat pocket a small tube of radium +to be used in a lecture there. Nothing happened +at the time, but about two weeks later +Professor Becquerel observed that the skin +under his pocket was beginning to redden and +fall away, and finally a deep and painful sore +formed there and remained for weeks before +healing.</p> + +<p>It is just as well, therefore, that scientists +learn more about radium and how to handle +and control it before too much is manufactured.</p> + +<p>But the cost and danger of radium are only +two of its least extraordinary features. Seen +in the daylight radium is a commonplace white +powder, but in the dark it glows like live fire, +and the purer it is the more it glows. I held +for a moment one of Mr. Hammer's radium +tubes, and, the lights being turned off, it +<a class="pagenum" name="page_008" title="8"> </a> +seemed like a live coal burning there in my +hand, and yet I felt no sensation of heat. But +radium really does give off heat as well as +light—and gives it off continually <i>without +losing appreciable weight</i>. And that is what +seems to scientists a miracle. Imagine a coal +which should burn day in and day out for +hundreds of years, always bright, always giving +off heat and light, and yet not growing +any smaller, not turning to ashes. That is the +almost unbelievable property of radium. Professor +Curie has specimens which have thus +been radiating light and heat for several years, +with practically no loss of weight; and no +small amount of light and heat either. Professor +Curie has found that a given quantity +of radium will melt its own weight of ice +every hour, and continue doing so practically +for ever. One of his associates has calculated +that a fixed quantity of radium, after throwing +out heat for 1,000,000,000 years, would +have lost only one-millionth part of its bulk.</p> + +<p>What is the reason for these extraordinary +properties? Is it not "perpetual motion"? +All the great scientists of the world have been +<a class="pagenum" name="page_009" title="9"> </a> +trying in vain to answer these questions. Several +theories have been advanced, of which I +shall speak later, but none seems a satisfactory +explanation. When we know more of radium +perhaps we shall be better prepared to say +what it really is, and we may have to unlearn +many of the great principles of physics and +chemistry which were seemingly settled for all +time. Radium would seem, indeed, to defy the +very law of the conservation of energy.</p> + +<p>The practical mind at once sees radium in +use as a new source of heat and light for mankind, +a furnace that would never have to be +fed or cleaned, a lamp that would glow perpetually—and +the time may really come, the +inventor having taken hold of the wonder that +the scientist has produced, when many practical +applications of the new element may be +devised. At present, however, the scarcity and +cost and danger of radium will keep it in the +hands of the experimenter.</p> + +<p>Another astonishing property of radium is +its power of communicating some of its +strange qualities to certain substances brought +within its influence. Mr. Hammer kept his +<a class="pagenum" name="page_010" title="10"> </a> +radium tubes for a time in a pasteboard box. +This being broken, he removed the tubes and +threw the pasteboard aside. Several days +later, having occasion to turn off the lights in +the laboratory, he found that the discarded box +was glowing there in the dark. It had taken +up some of the rays from the radium. Nearly +everything that comes in contact with radium +thus becomes "radio-active"—even the experimenter's +clothes and hands, so that delicate +instruments are disturbed by the invisible shine +of the experimenter. Photographs can be +taken with radium; it also makes the air +around it a better conductor of electricity. +And still more marvellous, besides being an +agency for the destruction of life, as I shall +show later, it can actually be used in other +ways to prolong life, and the future may show +many wonderful uses for it in the treatment +of disease. Already, in Paris, several cases of +lupus have been cured with it, and there is evidence +that it will help to restore sight in certain +cases of blindness. I held a tube of +radium to my closed eye and was conscious of +the sensation of light; the same sensation was +<a class="pagenum" name="page_011" title="11"> </a> +present when the tube was held to my temple, +thus showing that the radium has an effect on +the optic nerve. A little blind girl in New +York, who had never had the sensation of +light, began to see a little after one treatment +with radium, and experiments are still going +on, but cautiously, for fear that injuries may +result.</p> + +<p>We now come to the fascinating story of +the discovery and manufacture of radium. It +has long been known that certain substances +are phosphorescent; that is, under the proper +conditions they glow without apparent heat. +Everybody has seen "fox-fire" in the damp +and decaying woods—a cold light which scientists +have never been able to explain.</p> + +<p>To M. Henri Becquerel of the French Institute +is generally given the credit for having +begun the real study of radio-activity, +although, as in every great discovery and invention, +many other scientists and practical +electricians had paved the way by their investigations. +In 1896 M. Becquerel was +conducting some experiments with various +phosphorescent substances. He exposed some +<a class="pagenum" name="page_012" title="12"> </a> +salts of the metal uranium to the sunlight +until they became phosphorescent, and then +tried their effect upon a photographic plate.</p> + +<p>It rained, and he put the plate away in a +drawer for several days. When he developed +it he was surprised to find on it a better image +than sunlight would have made. And thus, +by a sort of accident, he led up to the discovery +of the Becquerel rays, so called.</p> + +<p>Uranium is extracted from a metal or ore +called uranite by mineralogists, and popularly +known as pitch-blende. Every young college +student who has studied geology or chemistry +has heard of pitch-blende.</p> + +<p>Two years after Becquerel's discovery of +the radio-activity of uranium Professor Pierre +Curie and Madame Curie, of Paris, made the +discovery that some of the samples of pitch-blende +which they had were much more powerful +than any uranium that they had used.</p> + +<p>Was there, then, something more powerful +than uranium within the pitch-blende? They +began to "boil down" the waste rock left at +the uranium mines, and found a strange new +element, related to uranium but different, to +<a class="pagenum" name="page_015" title="15"> </a> +which Madame Curie gave the name polonium, +after her native land, Poland.</p> + +<div class="center"> + <a class="pagenum" name="page_013"> </a> + <img src="images/i_013.jpg" width="317" height="501" alt="" /> + <div class="centercaptionbroad"> + <p class="caption">Dr. Danlos Treating a Lupus Patient with Radium at the + St. Louis Hospital, Paris.</p> + </div> +</div> + +<p>Then they did some more boiling down, and +succeeded in isolating an entirely new substance, +and the most radio-active yet discovered—radium. +Shortly after that Debierne +discovered still another radio-active substance, +to which he gave the name actinium.</p> + +<p>Thus three new elements were added to the +list of the world's substances, and the most +wonderful of these is radium. In a day, +almost, the Curies became famous in the scientific +world, and many of the greatest investigators +in the world—Lord Kelvin, Sir +William Crookes, and others—took up the +study of radium.</p> + +<p>Very rarely have a man and woman worked +together so perfectly as Professor Curie and +his wife. Madame Curie was a Polish girl; +she came to Paris to study, very poor, but possessed +of rare talents. Her marriage with +M. Curie was such a union as <i>must</i> have produced +some fine result. Without his scientific +learning and vivid imagination it is doubtful +if radium would ever have been dreamed of, +<a class="pagenum" name="page_016" title="16"> </a> +and without her determination and patience +against detail it is likely the dream would +never have been realised.</p> + +<p>One of the chief problems to be met in finding +the secrets of radium is the great difficulty +and expense, in the first place, of getting any +of the substance to experiment with. The +Curies have had to manufacture all they +themselves have used. In the first place, +pitch-blende, which closely resembles iron in +appearance, is not plentiful. The best of it +comes from Bohemia, but it is also found in +Saxony, Norway, Egypt, and in North Carolina, +Colorado, and Utah. It appears in small +lumps in veins of gold, silver, and mica, and +sometimes in granite.</p> + +<p>Comparatively speaking, it is easy to get +uranium from pitch-blende. But to get the +radium from the residues is a much more complicated +task. According to Professor Curie, +it is necessary to refine about 5,000 tons of +uranium residues to get a kilogramme—or +about 2.2 pounds—of radium.</p> + +<p>It is hardly surprising, therefore, considering +the enormous amount of raw material +<a class="pagenum" name="page_017" title="17"> </a> +which must be handled, that the cost of this +rare mineral should be high. It has been +said that there is more gold in sea-water than +radium in the earth. Professor Curie has an +extensive plant at Ivry, near Paris, where the +refuse dust brought from the uranium mines +is treated by complicated processes, which +finally yield a powder or crystals containing +a small amount of radium. These crystals +are sent to the laboratory of the Curies where +the final delicate processes of extraction are +carried on by the professor and his wife.</p> + +<p>And, after all, pure metallic radium is +not obtained. It could be obtained, and Professor +Curie has actually made a very small +quantity of it, but it is unstable, immediately +oxidised by the air and destroyed. So it is +manufactured only in the form of chloride and +bromide of radium. The "strength" of radium +is measured in radio-activity, in the power +of emitting rays. So we hear of radium of +an intensity of 45 or 7,000 or 300,000. This +method of measurement is thus explained. +Taking the radio-activity of uranium as the +unit, as one, then a certain specimen of radium +<a class="pagenum" name="page_018" title="18"> </a> +is said to be 45 or 7,000 or 300,000 times as +intense, to have so many times as much radio-activity. +The radium of highest intensity in +this country now is 300,000, but the Curies +have succeeded in producing a specimen of +1,500,000 intensity. This is so powerful and +dangerous that it must be kept wrapped in +lead, which has the effect of stopping some of +the rays. Rock-salt is another substance which +hinders the passage of the rays.</p> + +<p>English scientists have devised a curious +little instrument, called the spinthariscope, +which allows one actually to <i>see</i> the emanations +from radium and to realise as never +before the extraordinary atomic disintegration +that is going on ceaselessly in this strange +metal. The spinthariscope is a small microscope +that allows one to look at a tiny fragment +of radium supported on a little wire over +a screen.</p> + +<div class="center"> + <a class="pagenum" name="page_019"> </a> + <img src="images/i_019.jpg" width="326" height="508" alt="" /> + <div class="centercaptionbroad"> + <p class="caption">Radium as a Test for Real Diamonds.</p> + <p class="captionsub"><i>At the approach of Radium pure gems are thrown into great + brilliancy, while imitations remain dull.</i></p> + </div> +</div> + +<p>The experiment must be made in a darkened +room after the eye has gradually acquired +its greatest sensitiveness to light. Looking +intently through the lenses the screen appears +like a heaven of flashing meteors among which +<a class="pagenum" name="page_021" title="21"> </a> +stars shine forth suddenly and die away. Near +the central radium speck the fire-shower is +most brilliant, while toward the rim of the circle +it grows fainter. And this goes on continuously +as the metal throws off its rays like +myriads of bursting, blazing stars. M. Curie +has spoken of this vision, really contained +within the area of a two-cent piece, as one of +the most beautiful and impressive he ever +witnessed; it was as if he had been allowed to +assist at the birth of a universe. Radium +emits radiations, that is, it shoots off particles +of itself into space at such terrific speed that +92,500 miles a second is considered a small +estimate. Yet, in spite of the fact that this +waste goes on eternally and at such enormous +velocity, the actual loss sustained by the radium +is, as I have said, infinitesimal.</p> + +<p>We now come to one of the most interesting +phases of the whole subject of radium—that is, +the influence which its strange rays have upon +animal life. Mr. Cleveland Moffett, to whom +I am indebted for the facts of the following +experiments, recently visited M. Danysz, of +the Pasteur Institute in Paris, who has made +<a class="pagenum" name="page_022" title="22"> </a> +some wonderful investigations in this branch +of science. M. Danysz has tried the effect of +radium on mice, rabbits, guinea-pigs, and +other animals, and on plants, and he found +that if exposed long enough they all died, +often first losing their fur and becoming blind.</p> + +<p>But the most startling experiment performed +thus far at the Pasteur Institute is one +undertaken by M. Danysz, February 3, 1903, +when he placed three or four dozen little larvæ +that live in flour in a glass flask, where they +were exposed for a few hours to the rays of +radium. He placed a like number of larvæ +in a control-flask, where there was no radium, +and he left enough flour in each flask for the +larvæ to live upon. After several weeks it was +found that most of the larvæ in the radium +flask had been killed, but that a few of them +had escaped the destructive action of the rays +by crawling away to distant corners of the +flask, where they were still living. But <i>they +were living as larvæ, not as moths</i>, whereas in +the natural course they should have become +moths long before, as was seen by the control-flask, +where the larvæ had all changed into +<a class="pagenum" name="page_023" title="23"> </a> +moths, and these had hatched their eggs into +other larvæ, and these had produced other +moths. All of which made it clear that the +radium rays had arrested the development of +these little worms.</p> + +<p>More weeks passed, and still three or four +of the larvæ lived, and four full months after +the original exposure one larva was still alive +and wriggling, while its contemporary larvæ +in the other jar had long since passed away +as aged moths, leaving generations of moths' +eggs and larvæ to witness this miracle, for +here was a larva, venerable among his kind, +that had actually lived through <i>three times +the span of life accorded to his fellows</i> and +that still showed no sign of changing into a +moth. It was very much as if a young man +of twenty-one should keep the appearance of +twenty-one for two hundred and fifty years!</p> + +<p>Not less remarkable than these are some +recent experiments made by M. Bohn at the +biological laboratories of the Sorbonne, his +conclusions being that radium may so far +modify various lower forms of life as to actually +produce new species of "monsters," abnormal +<a class="pagenum" name="page_024" title="24"> </a> +deviations from the original type of +the species. Furthermore, he has been able to +accomplish with radium what Professor Loeb +did with salt solutions—that is, to cause the +growth of unfecundated eggs of the sea-urchin, +and to advance these through several +stages of their development. In other words, +he has used radium <i>to create life</i> where there +would have been no life but for this strange +stimulation.</p> + +<p>So much for the wonders of radium. We +seem, indeed, to be on the border-land of still +more wonderful discoveries. Perhaps these +radium investigations will lead to some explanation +of that great question in science, "What +is electricity?"—and that, who can say, may +solve that profounder problem, "What is +life?"</p> + +<p>At present there are two theories as to the +source of energy in radium, thus stated by +Professor Curie:</p> + +<p>"Where is the source of this energy? Both +Madame Curie and myself are unable to go +beyond hypotheses; one of these consists in +supposing the atoms of radium evolving and +<a class="pagenum" name="page_025" title="25"> </a> +transforming into another simple body, and, +despite the extreme slowness of that transformation, +which cannot be located during a +year, the amount of energy involved in that +transformation is tremendous.</p> + +<div class="center"> + <img src="images/i_025.jpg" width="346" height="329" alt="" /> + <div class="centercaptionbroad"> + <p class="caption">M. and Mme. Curie Finishing the Preparation of some Radium.</p> + </div> +</div> + +<p>"The second hypothesis consists in the supposition +<a class="pagenum" name="page_026" title="26"> </a> +that radium is capable of capturing +and utilising some radiations of unknown nature +which cross space without our knowledge."</p> + + + + +<h2>CHAPTER II<a class="pagenum" name="page_027" title="27"> </a><br /> + +<small>FLYING MACHINES +<a name="FNanchor_1" id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a><br /> + +<i>Santos-Dumont's Steerable Balloons</i></small></h2> + + +<p>Among the inventors engaged in building +flying machines the most famous, perhaps, is +M. Santos-Dumont, whose thrilling adventures +and noteworthy successes have given him +world-wide fame. He was the first, indeed, +to build a balloon that was really steerable +with any degree of certainty, winning a prize +of $20,000 for driving his great air-ship over +a certain specified course in Paris and bringing +it back to the starting-point within a +specified time. Another experimenter who +has had some degree of success is the German, +Count Zeppelin, who guided a huge air-ship +over Lake Geneva, Switzerland, in 1901.</p> + +<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_028" title="28"> </a> +Carl E. Myers, an American, an expert balloonist, +has also built balloons of small size +which he has been able to steer. And mention +must also be made of M. Severo, the +Frenchman, whose ship, Pax, exploded in the +air on its first trip, dropping the inventor and +his assistant hundreds of feet downward to +their death on the pavements of Paris.</p> + +<p>It will be most interesting and instructive +to consider especially the work of Santos-Dumont, +for he has been not only the most +successful in making actual flights of any of +the inventors who have taken up this great +problem of air navigation, but his adventures +have been most romantic and thrilling. In +five years' time he has built and operated no +fewer than ten great air-ships which he has +sailed in various parts of Europe and in +America. He has even crowned his experiences +with more than one shipwreck in the +<a class="pagenum" name="page_031" title="31"> </a> +air, an adventure by the side of which an ordinary +sea-wreck is tame indeed, and he has +escaped with his life as a result not only of +good fortune but of real daring and presence +of mind in the face of danger.</p> + +<div class="center"> + <a class="pagenum" name="page_029"> </a> + <img src="images/i_029.jpg" width="333" height="453" alt="" /> + <p class="caption">M. Alberto Santos-Dumont.</p> +</div> + +<p>For an inventor, M. Santos-Dumont is a +rather extraordinary character. The typical +inventor—at least so we think—is poor, starts +poor at least, and has a struggle to rise. M. +Santos-Dumont has always had plenty of +means. The inventor is always first a dreamer, +we think. M. Santos-Dumont is first a +thoroughly practical man, an engineer with a +good knowledge of science, to which he adds +the imagination of the inventor and the keen +love and daring of the sportsman and adventurer, +without which his experiments could +never have been carried through.</p> + +<p>It would seem, indeed, that nature had especially +equipped M. Santos-Dumont for his +work in aërial navigation. Supposing an inventor, +having all the mental equipment of +Santos-Dumont, the ideas, the energy, the +means—supposing such a man had weighed +two hundred pounds! He would have had to +<a class="pagenum" name="page_032" title="32"> </a> +build a very large ship to carry his own weight, +and all his problems would have been more +complex, more difficult. Nature made Santos-Dumont +a very small, slim, slight man, weighing +hardly more than one hundred pounds, but +very active and muscular. The first time I +ever saw him, in Crystal Palace, London, +where he was setting up one of his air-ships +in a huge gallery, I thought him at first glance +to be some boy, a possible spectator, who was +interested in flying machines. His face, bare +and shaven, looked youthful; he wore a narrow-brimmed +straw hat and was dressed in +the height of fashion. One would not have +guessed him to be the inventor. A moment +later he had his coat off and was showing his +men how to put up the great fan-like rudder +of the ship which loomed above us like some +enormous Rugby football, and then one saw +the power that was in him. Brazilian by nationality, +he has a dark face, large dark eyes, +an alertness of step and an energetic way +of talking. His boyhood was spent on his +father's extensive coffee plantation in Brazil; +his later years mostly in Paris, though he has +<a class="pagenum" name="page_035" title="35"> </a> +been a frequent visitor to England and America. +He speaks Spanish, French, and English +with equal fluency. Indeed, hearing his +English one would say that he must certainly +have had his training in an English-speaking +country, though no one would mistake him in +appearance for either English or American, +for he is very much a Latin in face and form. +One finds him most unpretentious, modest, +speaking freely of his inventions, and yet +never taking to himself any undue credit.</p> + +<div class="center"> + <a class="pagenum" name="page_033"> </a> + <img src="images/i_033.jpg" width="498" height="324" alt="" /> + <div class="centercaptionbroad"> + <p class="captionleft">Severo's Balloon, the "Pax," which, on its First Ascent at a Height of about 2,000 feet, + Burst and Exploded, Sending to a Terrible Death both M. Severo and his Assistant.</p> + </div> +</div> + +<p>Santos-Dumont is still a very young man to +have accomplished so much. He was born in +Brazil, July 20, 1873. From his earliest boyhood +he was interested in kites and dreamed of +being able to fly. He says:</p> + +<p>"I cannot say at what age I made my first +kites; but I remember how my comrades used +to tease me at our game of 'Pigeon flies'! All +the children gather round a table, and the +leader calls out: 'Pigeon flies! Hen flies! +Crow flies! Bee flies!' and so on; and at each +call we were supposed to raise our fingers. +Sometimes, however, he would call out: 'Dog +flies! Fox flies!' or some other like impossibility, +<a class="pagenum" name="page_036" title="36"> </a> +to catch us. If any one should raise a +finger, he was made to pay a forfeit. Now +my playmates never failed to wink and smile +mockingly at me when one of them called +'Man flies!' For at the word I would always +lift my finger very high, as a sign of absolute +conviction; and I refused with energy to pay +the forfeit. The more they laughed at me, the +happier I was."</p> + +<p>Of course he read Jules Verne's stories and +was carried away in imagination in that author's +wonderful balloons and flying machines. +He also devoured the history of aërial navigation +which he found in the works of Camille +Flammarion and Wilfrid de Fonvielle. He +says, further:</p> + +<p>"At an early age I was taught the principles +of mechanics by my father, an engineer +of the École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures +of Paris. From childhood I had a passion +for making calculations and inventing; +and from my tenth year I was accustomed to +handle the powerful and heavy machines of +our factories, and drive the compound locomotives +on our plantation railroads. I was constantly +taken up with the desire to lighten +<a class="pagenum" name="page_039" title="39"> </a> +their parts; and I dreamed of air-ships and +flying machines. The fact that up to the end +of the nineteenth century those who occupied +themselves with aërial navigation passed for +crazy, rather pleased than offended me. It is +incredible and yet true that in the kingdom of +the wise, to which all of us flatter ourselves we +belong, it is always the fools who finish by +being in the right. I had read that Montgolfière +was thought a fool until the day when +he stopped his insulters' mouths by launching +the first spherical balloon into the heavens."</p> + +<div class="center"> + <a class="pagenum" name="page_037"> </a> + <img src="images/i_037.jpg" width="329" height="477" alt="" /> + <div class="centercaptionbroad"> + <p class="caption">The Trial of Count Zeppelin's Air-Ship, July 2, 1900.</p> + </div> +</div> + +<p>Upon going to Paris Santos-Dumont at +once took up the work of making himself familiar +with ballooning in all of its practical +aspects. He saw that if he were ever to build +an air-ship he must first know all there was to +know about balloon-making, methods of filling +with gas, lifting capacities, the action of +balloons in the air, and all the thousand and +one things connected with ordinary ballooning. +And Paris has always been the centre of +this information. He regards this preliminary +knowledge as indispensable to every air-ship +builder. He says:</p> + +<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_040" title="40"> </a> +"Before launching out into the construction +of air-ships I took pains to make myself familiar +with the handling of spherical balloons. +I did not hasten, but took plenty of time. In +all, I made something like thirty ascensions; +at first as a passenger, then as my own captain, +and at last alone. Some of these spherical +balloons I rented, others I had constructed +for me. Of such I have owned at least six +or eight. And I do not believe that without +such previous study and experience a man +is capable of succeeding with an elongated +balloon, whose handling is so much more delicate. +Before attempting to direct an air-ship, +it is necessary to have learned in an ordinary +balloon the conditions of the atmospheric medium; +to have become acquainted with the caprices +of the wind, now caressing and now brutal, +and to have gone thoroughly into the difficulties +of the ballast problem, from the triple +point of view of starting, of equilibrium in +the air, and of landing at the end of the trip. +To go up in an ordinary balloon, at least a +dozen times, seems to me an indispensable preliminary +for acquiring an exact notion of the +<a class="pagenum" name="page_043" title="43"> </a> +requisites for the construction and handling of +an elongated balloon, furnished with its motor +and propeller."</p> + +<div class="center"> + <a class="pagenum" name="page_041"> </a> + <img src="images/i_041.jpg" width="308" height="454" alt="" /> + <p class="caption">M. Santos-Dumont at Nineteen.</p> +</div> + +<div class="center"> + <img src="images/i_043.jpg" width="277" height="256" alt="" /> + <div class="centercaptionbroad"> + <p class="caption">M. Santos-Dumont's First Balloon (Spherical).</p> + </div> +</div> + +<p>His first ascent in a balloon was made in +1897, when he was 24 years old, as a passenger +with M. Machuron, who had then just returned +from the Arctic regions, where he had +helped to start Andrée on his ill-fated voyage +in search of the North Pole. He found the +sensations delightful, being so pleased with the +experience that he subsequently secured a small +<a class="pagenum" name="page_044" title="44"> </a> +balloon of his own, in which he made several +ascents. He also climbed the Alps in order to +learn more of the condition of the air at high +altitudes.</p> + +<p>In 1898 he set about experimentation in the +building of a real air-ship or steerable balloon. +Efforts had been made in this direction by former +inventors, but with small success. As far +back as 1852 Henri Gifford made the first of +the familiar cigar-shaped balloons, trying +steam as a motive power, but he soon found +that an engine strong enough to propel the +balloon was too heavy for the balloon to lift. +That simple failure discouraged experimenters +for a long time. In 1877 Dupuy de Lome tried +steering a balloon by man power, but the man +was not strong enough. In 1883 another +Frenchman, Tissandier, experimented with +electricity, but, as his batteries had to be light +enough to be taken up in the balloon, they +proved effective only in helping to weigh it +down to earth again. Krebs and Renard, military +aëronauts, succeeded better with electricity, +for they could make a small circuit with +their air-ship, provided only that no air was +<a class="pagenum" name="page_047" title="47"> </a> +stirring. Enthusiasts cried out that the problem +was solved, but the two aëronauts themselves, +as good mathematicians, figured out +that they would have to have a motor eight +times more powerful than their own, and that +without any increase in weight, which was an +impossibility at that time.</p> + +<div class="center"> + <a class="pagenum" name="page_045"> </a> + <img src="images/i_045.jpg" width="510" height="320" alt="" /> + <p class="caption">M. Santos-Dumont's Workshop.</p> +</div> + +<p>Santos-Dumont saw plainly that none of +these methods would work. What then was +he to try? Why, simple enough: the petroleum +motor from his automobile. The recent +development of the motor-vehicle had produced +a light, strong, durable motor. It was +Santos-Dumont's first great claim to originality +that he should have applied this to the +balloon. He discovered no new principles, invented +nothing that could be patented. The +cigar-shaped balloon had long been used, so +had the petroleum motor, but he put them together. +And he did very much more than +that. The very essence of success in aërial +navigation is to secure <i>light weight with great +strength and power</i>. The inventor who can +build the lightest machine, which is also strong, +will, other things being equal, have the greatest +<a class="pagenum" name="page_048" title="48"> </a> +success. It is to Santos-Dumont's great +credit that he was able to build a very light +motor, that also gave a good horse-power, and +a light balloon that was also very strong. The +one great source of danger in using the petroleum +motor in connection with a balloon is +that the sparking of the motor will set fire to +the inflammable hydrogen gas with which the +balloon is filled, causing a terrible explosion. +This, indeed, is what is thought to have caused +the mortal mishap to Severo and his balloon. +But Santos-Dumont was able to surmount this +and many other difficulties of construction.</p> + +<p>The inventor finally succeeded in making +a motor—remarkable at that time—which, +weighing only 66 pounds, would produce 3½ +horse-power. It is easy to understand why a +petroleum motor is such a power-producer for +its size. The greater part of its fuel is in the +air itself, and the air is all around the balloon, +ready for use. The aëronaut does not have to +take it up with him. That proportion of his +fuel that he must carry, the petroleum, is comparatively +insignificant in weight. A few +figures will prove interesting. Two and one-half +<a class="pagenum" name="page_051" title="51"> </a> +gallons of gasoline, weighing 15 pounds, +will drive a 2½ horse-power autocycle 94 miles +in four hours. Santos-Dumont's balloon +needs less than 5⅓ gallons for a three hours' +trip. This weighs but 37 pounds, and occupies +a small cigar-shaped brass reservoir near +the motor of his machine. An electric battery +of the same horse-power would weigh 2,695 +pounds.</p> + +<div class="center"> + <a class="pagenum" name="page_049"> </a> + <img src="images/i_049.jpg" width="329" height="439" alt="" /> + <p class="caption">"Santos-Dumont No. 1."</p> +</div> + +<p>Santos-Dumont tested his new motor very +thoroughly by attaching it to a tricycle with +which he made some record runs in and around +Paris. Having satisfied himself that it was +thoroughly serviceable he set about making +the balloon, cigar-shaped, 82 feet long.</p> + +<p>"To keep within the limit of weight," he +says, "I first gave up the network and the outer +cover of the ordinary balloon. I considered +this sort of second envelope, holding the first +within it, to be superfluous, and even harmful, +if not dangerous. To the envelope proper I +attached the suspension-cords of my basket directly, +by means of small wooden rods introduced +into horizontal hems, sewed on both +sides along the stuff of the balloon for a great +<a class="pagenum" name="page_052" title="52"> </a> +part of its length. Again, in order not to pass +the 66 pounds weight, including varnish, I was +obliged to choose Japan silk that was extremely +fine, but fairly resisting. Up to this time +no one had ever thought of using this for balloons +intended to carry up an aëronaut, but +only for little balloons carrying light registering +apparatus for investigations in the upper +air.</p> + +<div class="center"> + <img src="images/i_052.jpg" width="318" height="262" alt="" /> + <p class="caption">Basket of "Santos-Dumont No. 1."</p> + <p class="captionsub"><i>Showing propeller and motor.</i></p> +</div> + +<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_053" title="53"> </a> +"I gave the order for this balloon to M. Lachambre. +At first he refused to take it, saying +that such a thing had never been made, +and that he would not be responsible for my +rashness. I answered that I would not change +a thing in the plan of the balloon, if I had to +sew it with my own hands. At last he agreed +to sew and varnish the balloon as I desired."</p> + +<p>After repeated trials of his motor in the +basket—which he suspended in his workshop—and +the making of a rudder of silk he was +able, in September, 1898, to attempt real flying. +But, after rising successfully in the air, +the weight of the machinery and his own body +swung beneath the fragile balloon was so great +that while descending from a considerable +height the balloon suddenly sagged down in +the middle and began to shut up like a portfolio.</p> + +<p>"At that moment," he said, "I thought that +all was over, the more so as the descent, which +had already become rapid, could no longer be +checked by any of the usual means on board, +where nothing worked.</p> + +<div class="center"> + <img src="images/i_054.jpg" width="342" height="388" alt="" /> + <div class="centercaptionbroad"> + <p class="caption">"Santos-Dumont No. 1."</p> + <p class="captionsub"><i>Showing how it began to fold up in the middle.</i></p> + </div> +</div> + +<p>"The descent became a rapid fall. Luckily, +<a class="pagenum" name="page_054" title="54"> </a> +I was falling in the neighborhood of the soft, +grassy <i>pélouse</i> of the Longchamps race-course, +where some big boys were flying kites. +A sudden idea struck me. I cried to them to +<a class="pagenum" name="page_055" title="55"> </a> +grasp the end of my 100-meter guide-rope, +which had already touched the ground, and to +run as fast as they could with it <i>against the +wind</i>! They were bright young fellows, and +they grasped the idea and the guide-rope at +the same lucky instant. The effect of this help +<i>in extremis</i> was immediate, and such as I had +expected. By this manœuvre we lessened the +velocity of the fall, and so avoided what would +otherwise have been a terribly rough shaking +up, to say the least. I was saved for the first +time. Thanking the brave boys, who continued +to aid me to pack everything into the air-ship's +basket, I finally secured a cab and took +the relic back to Paris."</p> + +<p>His life was thus saved almost miraculously; +but the accident did not deter him from going +forward immediately with other experiments. +The next year, 1899, he built a new air-ship +called Santos-Dumont II., and made an ascension +with it, but it dissatisfied him and he at +once began with Santos-Dumont III., with +which he made the first trip around the Eiffel +Tower.</p> + +<p>He now made ready to compete for the +<a class="pagenum" name="page_056" title="56"> </a> +Deutsch prize of $20,000. The winning of +this prize demanded that the trip from Saint-Cloud +to the Eiffel Tower, around it and back +to the starting place, a distance of some eight +miles, should be made in half an hour. For +this purpose he finished a much larger air-ship, +Santos-Dumont V., in 1901. After a trial, +made on July 12, which was attended by several +accidents, the inventor decided to make +a start early on the following morning, July +13. As early as four o'clock he was ready, and +a crowd had begun to gather in the park.</p> + +<p>At 6.20 the great sliding doors of the balloon-house +were pushed open, and the massive +inflated occupant was towed out into the open +space of the park. The big pointed nose of the +balloon and its fish-like belly resembled a shark +gliding with lazy craft from a shadow into +light waters. In the basket of the car stood +the coatless aëronaut, who laughed and chatted +like a boy with the crowd around him.</p> + +<div class="center"> + <a class="pagenum" name="page_057"> </a> + <img src="images/i_057.jpg" width="335" height="556" alt="" /> + <div class="centercaptionbroad"> + <p class="caption">"Santos-Dumont No. 5" Rounding Eiffel Tower, July 13, 1901.</p> + </div> +</div> + +<p>From the very first the conditions did not +show themselves favourable for the attempt. +The wind was blowing at the rate of six or +seven yards a second. The change of temperature +<a class="pagenum" name="page_059" title="59"> </a> +from the balloon-house to the cool morning +air had somewhat condensed the hydrogen +gas of the balloon, so that one end flapped +about in a flabby manner. Air was pumped +into the air reservoir, inside the balloon, but +still the desired rigidity was not attained. But, +more discouraging yet, when the motor was +started, its continuous explosions gave to the +practised ear signs of mechanical discord.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, Santos-Dumont, with his +sleeves rolled up, fixed himself in his basket. +His eye took a careful survey of the entire air-ship +lest some preliminary had been overlooked. +He counted the ballast bags under +his feet in the basket, he looked to the canvas +pocket of loose sand at either hand, then saw +to his guide-rope.</p> + +<p>There is a very great deal to look after in +managing such a ship, and it requires a calm +head and a steady hand to do it.</p> + +<p>"Near the saddle on which I sat," he writes, +"were the ends of the cords and other means +for controlling the different parts of the mechanism—the +electric sparking of the motor, the +regulation of the carburetter, the handling of +<a class="pagenum" name="page_060" title="60"> </a> +the rudder, ballast, and the shifting weights +(consisting of the guide-rope and bags of +sand), the managing of the balloon's valves, +and the emergency rope for tearing open the +balloon. It may easily be gathered from this +enumeration that an air-ship, even as simple +as my own, is a very complex organism; and +the work incumbent on the aëronaut is no +sinecure."</p> + +<p>Several friends shook his hand, among them +Mr. Deutsch. The place was very still as the +man holding the guide-rope awaited the signal +to let go. Then the little man in the basket +above them raised his hands and shouted.</p> + +<div class="center"> + <a class="pagenum" name="page_061"> </a> + <img src="images/i_061.jpg" width="333" height="509" alt="" /> + <div class="centercaptionbroad"> + <p class="caption">The Interior of the Aërodrome.</p> + <p class="captionsub"><i>Showing its construction, the inflated balloon, and the pennant with + its mystic letters.</i></p> + </div> +</div> + +<p>At first it did not look like a race against +time. The balloon rose sluggishly, and Santos-Dumont +had to dump out bag after bag of +sand, till finally the guide-rope was clear of +the trees. All this gave him no opportunity to +think of his direction, and he was drifting toward +Versailles; but while yet over the Seine +he pulled his rudder ropes taut. Then slowly, +gracefully, the enormous spindle veered round +and pointed its nose toward the Eiffel Tower. +The fans spun energetically, and the air-ship +<a class="pagenum" name="page_063" title="63"> </a> +settled down to business-like travelling. It +marked a straight, decided line for its goal, +then followed the chosen route with a considerable +speed. Soon the chug-chugging of the +motor could be heard no longer by the spectators, +and the balloon and car grew smaller and +smaller in its halo of light smoke. Those in +the park saw only the screw and the rear of the +balloon, like the stern of a steamer in dry dock. +Before long only a dot remained against the +sky. Gradually he came nearer again, almost +returning to the park, but the wind drove him +back across the river Seine. Suddenly the motor +stopped, and the whole air-ship was seen to +fall heavily toward the earth. The crowd +raced away expecting to find Santos-Dumont +dead and his air-ship a wreck. But they found +him on his feet, with his hands in his pockets, +reflectively looking up at his air-ship among +the top branches of some chestnut trees in the +grounds of Baron Edmund de Rothschild, +Boulevard de Boulogne.</p> + +<p>"This," he says, "was near the <i>hôtel</i> of Princesse +Ysabel, Comtesse d'Eu, who sent up to +me in my tree a champagne lunch, with an invitation +<a class="pagenum" name="page_064" title="64"> </a> +to come and tell her the story of my +trip.</p> + +<p>"When my story was over, she said to me:</p> + +<p>"'Your evolutions in the air made me think +of the flight of our great birds of Brazil. I +hope that you will succeed for the glory of our +common country.'"</p> + +<p>And an examination showed that the air-ship +was practically uninjured.</p> + +<p>So he escaped death a second time. Less +than a month later he had a still more terrible +mishap, best related in his own words. He +says:</p> + +<p>"And now I come to a terrible day—August +8, 1901. At 6.30 <span class="small">A.M.</span>, I started for the Eiffel +Tower again, in the presence of the committee, +duly convoked. I turned the goal at the end of +nine minutes, and took my way back to Saint-Cloud; +but my balloon was losing hydrogen +through the automatic valves, the spring of +which had been accidentally weakened; and it +shrank visibly. All at once, while over the fortifications +of Paris, near La Muette, the screw-propeller +touched and cut the suspension-cords, +which were sagging behind. I was obliged to +<a class="pagenum" name="page_067" title="67"> </a> +stop the motor instantly; and at once I saw my +air-ship drift straight back to the Eiffel +Tower. I had no means of avoiding the terrible +danger, except to wreck myself on the roofs +of the Trocadero quarter. Without hesitation +I opened the manœuvre-valve, and sent my +balloon downward.</p> + +<div class="center"> + <a class="pagenum" name="page_065"> </a> + <img src="images/i_065.jpg" width="309" height="512" alt="" /> + <div class="centercaptionbroad"> + <p class="caption">The Fall into the Courtyard of the Trocadero Hotel.</p> + <p class="captionsub">"<i>Santos-Dumont No. 5.</i>"</p> + </div> +</div> + +<p>"At 32 metres (106 feet) above the ground, +and with the noise of an explosion, it struck +the roof of the Trocadero Hotels. The balloon-envelope +was torn to rags, and fell into +the courtyard of the hotels, while I remained +hanging 15 metres (50 feet) above the ground +in my wicker basket, which had been turned +almost over, but was supported by the keel. +The keel of the Santos-Dumont V. saved my +life that day.</p> + +<p>"After some minutes a rope was thrown +down to me; and, helping myself with feet and +hands up the wall (the few narrow windows +of which were grated like those of a prison), +I was hauled up to the roof. The firemen +from Passy had watched the fall of the air-ship +from their observatory. They, too, +hastened to the rescue. It was impossible to +<a class="pagenum" name="page_068" title="68"> </a> +disengage the remains of the balloon-envelope +and suspension apparatus except in strips and +pieces.</p> + +<p>"My escape was narrow; but it was not +from the particular danger always present to +my mind during this period of my experiments. +The position of the Eiffel Tower as +a central landmark, visible to everybody from +considerable distances, makes it a unique winning-post +for an aërial race. Yet this does +not alter the other fact that the feat of rounding +the Eiffel Tower possesses a unique element +of danger. What I feared when on the +ground—I had no time to fear while in the +air—was that, by some mistake of steering, +or by the influence of some side-wind, I might +be dashed against the Tower. The impact +would burst my balloon, and I should fall to +the ground like a stone. Though I never seek +to fly at a great height—on the contrary, I +hold the record for low altitude in a free balloon—in +passing over Paris I must necessarily +move above all its chimney-pots and steeples. +The Eiffel Tower was my one danger—yet +it was my winning-post!</p> + +<div class="center"> + <a class="pagenum" name="page_069"> </a> + <img src="images/i_069.jpg" width="329" height="506" alt="" /> + <p class="caption">"Santos-Dumont No. 6"—The Prize Winner.</p> +</div> + +<p>"But in the air I have no time to fear. I +<a class="pagenum" name="page_071" title="71"> </a> +have always kept a cool head. Alone in the +air-ship, I am always very busy. I must not +let go the rudder for a single instant. Then +there is the strong joy of commanding. What +does it feel like to sail in a dirigible balloon? +While the wind was carrying me back to the +Eiffel Tower I realised that I might be killed; +but I did not feel fear. I was in no personal +inconvenience. I knew my resources. I was +excessively occupied. I have felt fear while +in the air, yes, miserable fear joined to pain; +but never in a dirigible balloon."</p> + +<p>Even this did not daunt him. That very +night he ordered a new air-ship, Santos-Dumont VI., +and it was ready in twenty-two +days. The new balloon had the shape of an +elongated ellipsoid, 32 metres (105 feet) on +its great axis, and 6 metres (20 feet) on its +short axis, terminated fore and aft by cones. +Its capacity was 605 cubic metres (21,362 +cubic feet), giving it a lifting power of 620 +kilos (1,362 pounds). Of this, 1,100 pounds +were represented by keel, machinery, and his +own weight, leaving a net lifting-power of +120 kilos (261 pounds).</p> + +<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_072" title="72"> </a> +On October 19, 1901, he made another attempt +to round the Eiffel Tower, and was at +last successful in winning the $20,000 prize. +Following this great feat, Santos-Dumont +continued his experiments at Monte Carlo, +where he was wrecked over the Mediterranean +Sea and escaped only by presence of mind, +and he is still continuing his work.</p> + +<p>The future of the dirigible balloon is open +to debate. Santos-Dumont himself does not +think there is much likelihood that it will +ever have much commercial use. A balloon +to carry many passengers would have to be +so enormous that it could not support the +machinery necessary to propel it, especially +against a strong wind. But he does believe +that the steerable balloon will have great importance +in war time. He says:</p> + +<p>"I have often been asked what present +utility is to be expected of the dirigible balloon +when it becomes thoroughly practicable. +I have never pretended that its commercial +possibilities could go far. The question of the +air-ship in war, however, is otherwise. Mr. +Hiram Maxim has declared that a flying +<a class="pagenum" name="page_076" title="76"> </a> +machine in South Africa would have been +worth four times its weight in gold. Henri +Rochefort has said: 'The day when it is established +that a man can direct an air-ship in a +given direction and cause it to manœuvre as he +wills ... there will remain little for the +nations to do but to lay down their arms.'"</p> + +<div class="center"> + <a class="pagenum" name="page_073"> </a> + <img src="images/i_073a.jpg" width="394" height="352" alt="" /> + <p class="caption">Air-Ship Pointing almost Vertically Upward.</p> +</div> + +<div class="center"> + <img src="images/i_073b.jpg" width="395" height="352" alt="" /> + <p class="caption">Falling to the Sea.</p> +</div> + +<div class="center"> + <a class="pagenum" name="page_074"> </a> + <img src="images/i_074a.jpg" width="391" height="340" alt="" /> + <p class="caption">Just Before the Air-Ship Lost all its Gas.</p> +</div> + +<div class="center"> + <img src="images/i_074b.jpg" width="396" height="348" alt="" /> + <p class="caption">Losing its Gas and Sinking.</p> +</div> + +<div class="center"> + <a class="pagenum" name="page_075"> </a> + <img src="images/i_075a.jpg" width="394" height="358" alt="" /> + <p class="caption">The Balloon Falling to the Waves.</p> +</div> + +<div class="center"> + <img src="images/i_075b.jpg" width="393" height="342" alt="" /> + <p class="caption">Boats Around the Ruined Air-Ship.</p> +</div> + +<p>But such experiments as Santos-Dumont's, +whether they result immediately in producing +an air-ship of practical utility in commerce or +not, have great value for the facts which they +are establishing as to the possibility of balloons, +of motors, of light construction, of air +currents, and moreover they add to the world's +sum total of experiences a fine, clean sport in +which men of daring and scientific knowledge +show what men can do.</p> + +<div class="center"> + <a class="pagenum" name="page_077" title="77"> </a> + <img src="images/i_077.jpg" width="487" height="312" alt="" /> + <p class="caption">Manœuvering Above the Bay at Monte Carlo.</p> +</div> + + + + +<h2>CHAPTER III<a class="pagenum" name="page_079" title="79"> </a><br /> + +<small>THE EARTHQUAKE MEASURER<br /> + +<i>Professor John Milne's Seismograph</i></small></h2> + + +<p>Of all strange inventions, the earthquake recorder +is certainly one of the most remarkable +and interesting. A terrible earthquake +shakes down cities in Japan, and sixteen minutes +later the professor of earthquakes, in his +quiet little observatory in England, measures +its extent—almost, indeed, takes a picture of +it. Actual waves, not unlike the waves of the +sea blown up by a hurricane, have travelled +through or around half the earth in this brief +time; vast mountain ranges, cities, plains, and +oceans have been heaved to their crests and +then allowed to sink back again into their +former positions. And some of these earthquake +waves which sweep over the solid earth +are three feet high, so that the whole of New +<a class="pagenum" name="page_080" title="80"> </a> +York, perhaps, rises bodily to that height and +then slides over the crest like a skiff on an +ocean swell.</p> + +<div class="center"> + <img class="plain" src="images/i_080.jpg" width="259" height="257" alt="" /> + <div class="centercaptionbroad"> + <p class="caption">Professor John Milne.</p> + <p class="captionsub"><i>From a photograph by S. Suzuki, Kudanzaka, Tokio.</i></p> + </div> +</div> + +<p>At first glance this seems almost too strange +and wonderful to believe, and yet this is only +the beginning of the wonders which the earthquake +camera—or the seismograph (earthquake +writer, as the scientists call it)—has +been disclosing.</p> + +<div class="center"> + <a class="pagenum" name="page_081"> </a> + <img class="plain" src="images/i_081a.jpg" width="461" height="272" alt="" /> + <div class="centercaptionbroad"> + <p class="caption">Professor Milne's Sensitive Pendulum, or Seismograph, + as it Appears Enclosed in its Protecting Box.</p> + </div> +</div> + +<div class="center"> + <img src="images/i_081b.jpg" width="464" height="268" alt="" /> + <div class="centercaptionbroad"> + <p class="caption">The Sensitive Pendulum, or Seismograph, as it Appears + with the Protecting Box Removed.</p> + </div> +</div> + +<p>The earthquake professor who has worked +<a class="pagenum" name="page_083" title="83"> </a> +such scientific magic is John Milne. He lives +in a quaint old house in the little Isle of +Wight, not far from Osborne Castle, where +Queen Victoria made her home part of the +year. Not long ago he was a resident of +Japan and professor of seismology (the science +of earthquakes) at the University of +Tokio, where he made his first discoveries +about earthquakes, and invented marvellously +delicate machines for measuring and photographing +them thousands of miles away. +Professor Milne is an Englishman by birth, +but, like many another of his countrymen, he +has visited some of the strangest nooks and +corners of the earth. He has looked for coal +in Newfoundland; he has crossed the rugged +hills of Iceland; he has been up and down the +length of the United States; he has hunted +wild pigs in Borneo; and he has been in India +and China and a hundred other out-of-the-way +places, to say nothing of measuring earthquakes +in Japan. Professor Milne laid the +foundation of his unusual career in a thorough +education at King's College, London, +and at the School of Mines. By fortunate +<a class="pagenum" name="page_084" title="84"> </a> +chance, soon after his graduation, he met +Cyrus Field, the famous American, to whom +the world owes the beginnings of its present +ocean cable system. He was then just +twenty-one, young and raw, but plucky. He +thought he was prepared for anything the +world might bring him; but when Field asked +him one Friday if he could sail for Newfoundland +the next Tuesday, he was so taken +with astonishment that he hesitated, whereupon +Field leaned forward and looked at him +in a way that Milne has never forgotten.</p> + +<p>"My young friend, I suppose you have read +that the world was made in six days. Now, +do you mean to tell me that, if this whole +world was made in six days, you can't get together +the few things you need in four?"</p> + +<div class="center"> + <a class="pagenum" name="page_085"> </a> + <img src="images/i_085.jpg" width="498" height="331" alt="" /> + <div class="centercaptionbroad"> + <p class="caption">Gifu, Japan, after the Earthquake of 1891.</p> + <p class="captionsubleft"><i>This and the pictures following on pages + <a href="#page_089">89</a>, + <a href="#page_101">101</a>, + <a href="#page_111">111</a>, + are from Japanese photographs reproduced + in "The Great Earthquake in Japan, 1891," by John Milne and W. K. Burton.</i></p> + </div> +</div> + +<p>And Milne sailed the next Tuesday to begin +his lifework among the rough hills of +Newfoundland. Then came an offer from +the Japanese Government, and he went to the +land of earthquakes, little dreaming that he +would one day be the greatest authority in the +world on the subject of seismic disturbances. +His first experiments—and they were made +<a class="pagenum" name="page_087" title="87"> </a> +as a pastime rather than a serious undertaking—were +curiously simple. He set up rows of +pins in a certain way, so that in falling they +would give some indication as to the wave +movements in the earth. He also made pendulums +made of strings with weights tied at +the end, and from his discoveries made with +these elementary instruments, he planned +earthquake-proof houses, and showed the engineers +of Japan how to build bridges which +would not fall down when they were shaken. +So highly was his work regarded that the +Japanese made him an earthquake professor +at Tokio and supplied him with the means for +making more extended experiments. And +presently we find him producing artificial +earthquakes by the score. He buried dynamite +deep in the ground and exploded it by +means of an electric button. The miniature +earthquake thus produced was carefully measured +with curious instruments of Professor +Milne's invention. At first one earthquake +was enough at any one time, but as the experiments +continued, Professor Milne sometimes +had five or six earthquakes all quaking together; +<a class="pagenum" name="page_088" title="88"> </a> +and once so interested did he become +that he forgot all about the destructive nature +of earthquakes, and ventured too near. A +ton or more of earth came crashing down +around him, half burying him and smashing +his instruments flat. All this made the Japanese +rub their eyes with astonishment, and by +and by the Emperor heard of it. Of course +he was deeply interested in earthquakes, because +there was no telling when one might +come along and shake down his palace over +his head. So he sent for Professor Milne, +and, after assuring himself that these experimental +earthquakes really had no serious intentions, +he commanded that one be produced +on the spot. So Professor Milne laid out a +number of toy towns and villages and hills in +the palace yard with a tremendous toy earthquake +underneath. The Emperor and his +gayly dressed followers stood well off to one +side, and when Professor Milne gave the word +the Emperor solemnly pressed a button, and +watched with the greatest delight the curious +way in which the toy cities were quaked to +earth. And after that, this surprising Englishman, +<a class="pagenum" name="page_091" title="91"> </a> +who could make earthquakes as easily +as a Japanese makes a lacquered basket, was +held in high esteem in Japan, and for more +than twenty years he studied earthquakes and +invented machines for recording them. Then +he returned to his home in England, where he +is at work establishing earthquake stations in +various parts of the world, by means of which +he expects to reduce earthquake measurement +to an exact science, an accomplishment which +will have the greatest practical value to the +commercial interests of the world, as I shall +soon explain.</p> + +<div class="center"> + <a class="pagenum" name="page_089"> </a> + <img src="images/i_089.jpg" width="496" height="321" alt="" /> + <div class="centercaptionbroad"> + <p class="caption">The Work of the Great Earthquake of 1891 in Neo Valley, Japan.</p> + </div> +</div> + +<p>But first for a glimpse at the curious earthquake +measurer itself. To begin with, there +are two kinds of instruments—one to measure +near-by disturbances, and the second to measure +waves which come from great distances. +The former instrument was used by Professor +Milne in Japan, where earthquakes are frequent; +the latter is used in England. The +technical name for the machine which measures +distant disturbances is the horizontal +pendulum seismograph, and, like most wonderful +inventions, it is exceedingly simple in +<a class="pagenum" name="page_092" title="92"> </a> +principle, yet doing its work with marvellous +delicacy and accuracy.</p> + +<p>In brief, the central feature of the seismograph +is a very finely poised pendulum, which +is jarred by the slightest disturbance of the +earth, the end of it being so arranged that a +photograph is taken of every quiver. Set a +pendulum clock on the dining-table, jar the +table, and the pendulum will swing, indicating +exactly with what force you have disturbed +the table. In exactly the same way the delicate +pendulum of the earthquake measurer +indicates the shaking of the earth.</p> + +<div class="center"> + <img class="plain" src="images/i_093.jpg" width="435" height="326" alt="" /> + <div class="centercaptionbroad"> + <p class="captionleft">Diagram Showing Vertical and Horizontal Sections of the + More Sensitive of Professor Milne's Two Pendulums, + or Seismographs.</p> + </div> +</div> + +<p>The accompanying diagram gives a very +clear idea of the arrangement of the apparatus. +The "boom" is the pendulum. It is +customary to think of a pendulum as hanging +down like that of a clock, but this is a horizontal +pendulum. Professor Milne has built +a very solid masonry column, reaching deep +into the earth, and so firmly placed that nothing +but a tremor of the hard earth itself will +disturb it. Upon this is perched a firm metal +stand, from the top of which the boom or +pendulum, about thirty inches long, is swung +<a class="pagenum" name="page_093" title="93"> </a> +by means of a "tie" or stay. The end of the +boom rests against a fine, sharp pivot of steel +(as shown in the little diagram to the right), +so that it will swing back and forth without +the least friction. The sensitive end of the +pendulum, where all the quakings and quiverings +are shown most distinctly, rests exactly +over a narrow roll of photographic film, which +is constantly turned by clockwork, and above +this, on an outside stand, there is a little lamp +which is kept burning night and day, year in +and year out. The light from this lamp is +<a class="pagenum" name="page_094" title="94"> </a> +reflected downward by +means of a mirror +through a little slit in +the metal case which +covers the entire apparatus. +Of course this +light affects the sensitive +film, and takes a continuous +photograph of the +end of the boom. If +the boom remains perfectly +still, the picture +will be merely a straight +line, as shown at the +extreme right and left +ends of the earthquake +picture on this page. +But if an earthquake +wave comes along and +sets the boom to quivering, +the picture becomes +at once blurred +and full of little loops +and indentations, slight +at first, but becoming +more violent as the +<a class="pagenum" name="page_095" title="95"> </a> +greater waves arrive, and then gradually subsiding. +In the picture of the Borneo earthquake +of September 20, 1897, taken by Professor +Milne in his English laboratory, it will +be seen that the quakings were so severe at the +height of the disturbance that nothing is left +in the photograph but a blur. On the edge +of the picture can be seen the markings of the +hours, 7.30, 8.30, and 9.30. Usually this time +is marked automatically on the film by means +of the long hand of a watch which crosses the +slit beneath the mirror (as shown in the lower +diagram with figure 3). The Borneo earthquake +waves lasted in England, as will be +seen, two hours fifty-six minutes and fifteen +seconds, with about forty minutes of what are +known as preliminary tremors. Professor +Milne removes the film from his seismograph +once a week—a strip about twenty-six feet +long—develops it, and studies the photographs +for earthquake signs.</p> + +<div class="center"> + <img src="images/i_094.jpg" width="517" height="112" alt="" /> + <div class="centercaptionbroad"> + <p class="caption">Seismogram of a Borneo Earthquake that Occurred September 20, 1897.</p> + </div> +</div> + +<p>Besides this very sensitive photographic +seismograph Professor Milne has a simpler +machine, not covered up and without lamp or +mirror. In this instrument a fine silver needle +<a class="pagenum" name="page_096" title="96"> </a> +at the end of the boom makes a steady mark +on a band of smoked paper, which is kept +turning under it by means of clockwork. A +glance at this smoked-paper record will tell +instantly at any time of day or night whether +the earth is behaving itself. If the white line +on the dark paper shows disturbances, Professor +Milne at once examines his more sensitive +photographic record for the details.</p> + +<p>It is difficult to realise how very sensitive +these earthquake pendulums really are. They +will indicate the very minutest changes in the +earth's level—as slight as one inch in ten miles. +A pair of these pendulums placed on two +buildings at opposite sides of a city street +would show that the buildings literally lean +toward each other during the heavy traffic +period of the day, dragged over from their +level by the load of vehicles and people pressing +down upon the pavement between them. +The earth is so elastic that a comparatively +small impetus will set it vibrating. Why, +even two hills tip together when there is a +heavy load of moisture in a valley between +them. And then when the moisture evaporates +<a class="pagenum" name="page_097" title="97"> </a> +in a hot sun they tip away from each +other. These pendulums show that.</p> + +<p>Nor are these the most extraordinary things +which the pendulums will do. G. K. Gilbert, +of the United States Geological Survey, argues +that the whole region of the great lakes +is being slowly tipped to the southwest, so that +some day Chicago will sink and the water outlet +of the great fresh-water seas will be up +the Chicago River toward the Mississippi, +instead of down the St. Lawrence. Of course +this movement is as slow as time itself—thousands +of years must elapse before it is hardly +appreciable; and yet Professor Milne's instruments +will show the changing balance—a marvel +that is almost beyond belief. Strangely +enough, sensitive as this special instrument is +to distant disturbances, it does not swerve nor +quiver for near-by shocks. Thus, the blasting +of powder, the heavy rumbling of wagons, +the firing of artillery has little or no effect +in producing a movement of the boom. The +vibrations are too short; it requires the long, +heavy swells of the earth to make a record.</p> + +<p>Professor Milne tells some odd stories of +<a class="pagenum" name="page_098" title="98"> </a> +his early experiences with the earthquake +measurer. At one time his films showed evidences +of the most horrible earthquakes, and +he was afraid for the moment that all Japan +had been shaken to pieces and possibly engulfed +by the sea. But investigation showed +that a little grey spider had been up to pranks +in the box. The spider wasn't particularly +interested in earthquakes, but he took the +greatest pleasure in the swinging of the boom, +and soon began to join in the game himself. +He would catch the end of the boom with his +feelers and tug it over to one side as far as +ever he could. Then he would anchor himself +there and hold on like grim death until the +boom slipped away. Then he would run after +it, and tug it over to the other side, and hold +it there until his strength failed again. And +so he would keep on for an hour or two until +quite exhausted, enjoying the fun immensely, +and never dreaming that he was manufacturing +wonderful seismograms to upset the scientific +world, since they seemed to indicate +shocking earthquake disasters in all directions.</p> + +<p>Mr. Cleveland Moffett, to whom I am indebted +<a class="pagenum" name="page_099" title="99"> </a> +for much of the information contained +in this chapter, tells how the reporters for the +London papers rush off to see Professor +Milne every time there is news of a great +earthquake, and how he usually corrects their +information. In June, 1896, for instance, the +little observatory was fairly besieged with +these searchers for news.</p> + +<p>"This earthquake happened on the 17th," +said they, "and the whole eastern coast of +Japan was overwhelmed with tidal waves, and +30,000 lives were lost."</p> + +<p>"That last is probable," answered Professor +Milne, "but the earthquake happened on the +15th, not the 17th;" and then he gave them +the exact hour and minute when the shocks +began and ended.</p> + +<p>"But our cables put it on the 17th."</p> + +<p>"Your cables are mistaken."</p> + +<p>And, sure enough, later despatches came +with information that the destructive earthquake +had occurred on the 15th, within half a +minute of the time Professor Milne had specified. +There had been some error of transmission +in the earlier newspaper despatches.</p> + +<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_100" title="100"> </a> +Again, a few months later, the newspapers +published cablegrams to the effect that there +had been a severe earthquake at Kobe, with +great injury to life and property.</p> + +<p>"That is not true," said Professor Milne. +"There may have been a slight earthquake at +Kobe, but nothing that need cause alarm."</p> + +<p>And the mail reports a few weeks later confirmed +his reassuring statement, and showed +that the previous sensational despatches had +been grossly exaggerated.</p> + +<p>Professor Milne is also the man to whose +words cable companies lend anxious ear, for +what he says often means thousands of dollars +to them. Early in January, 1898, it was +officially reported that two West Indian cables +had broken on December 31, 1897.</p> + +<p>"That is very unlikely," said Professor +Milne; "but I have a seismogram showing +that these cables may have broken at 11.30 +<span class="small">A.M.</span> on December 29, 1897." And then he +located the break at so many miles off the +coast of Haiti.</p> + +<p>This sort of thing, which is constantly happening, +would look very much like magic if +<a class="pagenum" name="page_103" title="103"> </a> +Professor Milne had kept his secrets to himself; +but he has given them freely to all the +world.</p> + +<div class="center"> + <a class="pagenum" name="page_101"> </a> + <img src="images/i_101.jpg" width="492" height="334" alt="" /> + <div class="centercaptionbroad"> + <p class="caption">Effect of the Great Earthquake of 1891 on the Nagara Gawa Railway Bridge, Japan.</p> + </div> +</div> + +<p>Professor Milne has learned from his experiments +that the solid earth is full of movements, +and tremors, and even tides, like the +sea. We do not notice them, because they are +so slow and because the crests of the waves +are so far apart. Professor Milne likes to +tell, fancifully, how the earth "breathes." He +has found that nearly all earthquake waves, +whether the disturbance is in Borneo or South +America, reach his laboratory in sixteen minutes, +and he thinks that the waves come +through the earth instead of around it. If +they came around, he says, there would be two +records—one from waves coming the short +way and one from waves coming the long +way round. But there is never more than a +single record, so he concludes that the waves +quiver straight through the solid earth itself, +and he believes that this fact will lead to some +important discoveries about the centre of our +globe. Professor Milne was once asked how, +if earthquake waves from every part of the +<a class="pagenum" name="page_104" title="104"> </a> +earth reached his observatory in the same +number of minutes, he could tell where the +earthquake really was.</p> + +<p>"I may say, in a general way," he replied, +"that we know them by their signatures, just +as you know the handwriting of your friends; +that is, an earthquake wave which has travelled +3,000 miles makes a different record in +the instruments from one that has travelled +5,000 miles; and that, again, a different record +from one that has travelled 7,000 miles, +and so on. Each one writes its name in its +own way. It's a fine thing, isn't it, to have +the earth's crust harnessed up so that it is +forced to mark down for us on paper a diagram +of its own movements?"</p> + +<p>He took pencil and paper again, and dashed +off an earthquake wave like this:</p> + +<div class="center"> + <img class="plain" src="images/i_104.jpg" width="366" height="82" alt="" /> +</div> + +<p>"There you have the signature of an earthquake +wave which has travelled only a short +<a class="pagenum" name="page_105" title="105"> </a> +distance, say 2,000 miles; but here is the signature +of the very same wave after travelling, +say, 6,000 miles:"</p> + +<div class="center"> + <img class="plain" src="images/i_105.jpg" width="410" height="96" alt="" /> +</div> + +<p>"You see the difference at a glance; the +second seismogram (that is what we call these +records) is very much more stretched out than +the first, and a seismogram taken at 8,000 +miles from the start would be more stretched +out still. This is because the waves of transmission +grow longer and longer, and slower +and slower, the farther they spread from the +source of disturbance. In both figures the +point A, where the straight line begins to +waver, marks the beginning of the earthquake; +the rippling line AB shows the preliminary +tremors which always precede the +heavy shocks, marked C; and D shows the +dying away of the earthquake in tremors similar +to AB.</p> + +<p>"Now, it is chiefly in the preliminary tremors +<a class="pagenum" name="page_106" title="106"> </a> +that the various earthquakes reveal their +identity. The more slowly the waves come, the +longer it takes to record them, and the more +stretched out they become in the seismograms. +And by carefully noting these differences, +especially those in time, we get our information. +Suppose we have an earthquake in +Japan. If you were there in person you +would feel the preliminary tremors very fast, +five or ten in a second, and their whole duration +before the heavy shocks would not exceed +ten or twenty seconds. But these preliminary +tremors, transmitted to England, would keep +the pendulums swinging from thirty to thirty-two +minutes before the heavy shocks, and each +vibration would occupy five seconds.</p> + +<p>"There would be similar differences in the +duration of the heavy vibrations; in Japan +they would come at the rate of about one a +second: here, at the rate of about one in +twenty or forty seconds. It is the time, then, +occupied by the preliminary tremors that tells +us the distance of the earthquake. Earthquakes +in Borneo, for instance, give preliminary +<a class="pagenum" name="page_107" title="107"> </a> +tremors occupying about forty-one minutes, +in Japan about half an hour, in the +earthquake region east of Newfoundland +about eight minutes, in the disturbed region +of the West Indies about nineteen or twenty +minutes, and so on. Thus the earthquake is +located with absolute precision."</p> + +<p>Most earthquakes occur in the deep bed of +the ocean, in the vast valleys between ocean +mountains, and the dangerous localities are +now almost as well known as the principal +mountain ranges of North America. There is +one of these valleys, or ocean holes, off the +west coast of South America from Ecuador +down; there is one in the mid-Atlantic, about +the equator, between twenty degrees and forty +degrees west longitude: there is one at the +Grecian end of the Mediterranean; one in the +Bay of Bengal, and one bordering the Alps; +there is the famous "Tuscarora Deep," from +the Philippine Islands down to Java; and +there is the North Atlantic region, about 300 +miles east of Newfoundland. In the "Tuscarora +Deep" the slope increases 1,000 fathoms +<a class="pagenum" name="page_108" title="108"> </a> +in twenty-five miles, until it reaches a depth +of 4,000 fathoms.</p> + +<div class="center"> + <img class="plain" src="images/i_108.jpg" width="248" height="148" alt="" /> + <div class="centercaptionbroad"> + <p class="caption">Pieces of a Submarine Cable Picked Up in the Gulf of + Mexico in 1888.</p> + <p class="captionsubleft"><i>The kinks are caused by seismic disturbances, and they show how much + distortion a cable can suffer and still remain in good electrical + condition, as this was found to be.</i></p> + </div> +</div> + +<p>And this brings us to the consideration of +one of the greatest practical advantages of the +seismograph—in the exact location of cable +breaks. Indeed, a large proportion of these +breaks are the result of earthquakes. In a recent +report Professor Milne says that there +are now about twenty-seven breaks a year for +10,000 miles of cable in active use. Most of +these are very costly, fifteen breaks in the Atlantic +cable between 1884 and 1894 having +<a class="pagenum" name="page_109" title="109"> </a> +cost the companies $3,000,000, to say nothing +of loss of time. And twice it has happened +in Australia (in 1880 and 1888) that the +whole island has been thrown into excitement +and alarm, the reserves being called out, and +other measures taken, because the sudden +breaking of cable connections with the outside +world has led to the belief that military operations +against the country were preparing by +some foreign power. A Milne pendulum at +Sydney or Adelaide would have made it plain +in a moment that the whole trouble was due to +a submarine earthquake occurring at such a +time and such a place. As it was, Australia +had to wait in a fever of suspense (in one +case there was a delay of nineteen days) until +steamers arriving brought assurances that neither +Russia nor any other possibly unfriendly +power had begun hostilities by tearing up the +cables.</p> + +<p>There have been submarine earthquakes in +the Tuscarora, like that of June 15, 1896, that +have shaken the earth from pole to pole; and +more than once different cables from Java +have been broken simultaneously, as in 1890, +<a class="pagenum" name="page_110" title="110"> </a> +when the three cables to Australia snapped in +a moment. And the great majority of breaks +in the North Atlantic cables have occurred in +the Newfoundland hollow, where there are +two slopes, one dropping from 708 to 2,400 +fathoms in a distance of sixty miles, and the +other from 275 to 1,946 fathoms within thirty +miles. On October 4, 1884, three cables, lying +about ten miles apart, broke simultaneously at +the spot. The significance of such breaks is +greater when the fact is borne in mind that +cables frequently lie uninjured for many +years on the great level plains of the ocean +bed, where seismic disturbances are infrequent.</p> + +<p>The two chief causes of submarine earthquakes +are landslides, where enormous masses +of earth plunge from a higher to a lower +level, and in so doing crush down upon the +cable, and "faults," that is, subsidences of +great areas, which occur on land as well as at +the bottom of the sea, and which in the latter +case may drag down imbedded cables with +them.</p> + +<p>It is in establishing the place and times of +these breaks that Professor Milne's instruments +<a class="pagenum" name="page_111" title="111"> </a> +have their greatest practical value; scientifically +no one can yet calculate their value.</p> + +<div class="center"> + <img src="images/i_111.jpg" width="405" height="350" alt="" /> + <div class="centercaptionbroad"> + <p class="caption">Record Made on a Stationary Surface by the Vibrations + of the Japanese Earthquake of July 19, 1891.</p> + <p class="captionsubleft"><i>Showing the complicated character of the motion (common to most + earthquakes), and also the course of a point at the centre of + disturbance.</i></p> + </div> +</div> + +<p>In addition to the first instrument set up by +Professor Milne in Tokio in 1883, which is +still recording earthquakes, there are now in +operation about twenty other seismographs in +various parts of the world, so that earthquake +information is becoming very accurate and +complete, and there is even an attempt being +<a class="pagenum" name="page_112" title="112"> </a> +made to predict earthquakes just as the +weather bureau predicts storms. In any event +Professor Milne's invention must within a few +years add greatly to our knowledge of the +wonders of the planet on which we live.</p> + + + + +<h2>CHAPTER IV<a class="pagenum" name="page_113" title="113"> </a><br /> + +<small>ELECTRICAL FURNACES<br /> + +<i>How the Hottest Heat is Produced—Making Diamonds</i></small></h2> + + +<p>No feats of discovery, not even the search for +the North Pole or Stanley's expeditions in the +heart of Africa, present more points of fascinating +interest than the attempts now being +made by scientists to explore the extreme +limits of temperature. We live in a very narrow +zone in what may be called the great +world of heat. The cut on the opposite page +represents an imaginary thermometer showing +a few of the important temperature points +between the depths of the coldest cold and the +heights of the hottest heat—a stretch of some +10,461 degrees. We exist in a narrow space, +as you will see, varying from 100° or a little +more above the zero point to a possible 50° below; +<a class="pagenum" name="page_114" title="114"> </a> +that is, we can withstand these narrow +extremes of temperature. If some terrible +world catastrophe should raise the temperature +of our summers or lower that of our +winters by a very few degrees, human life +would perish off the earth.</p> + +<p>But though we live in such narrow limits, +science has found ways of exploring the great +heights of heat above us and of reaching and +measuring the depths of cold below us, with +the result of making many important and interesting +discoveries.</p> + +<p>I have written in the former "Boys' Book of +Inventions" of that wonderful product of science, +liquid air—air submitted to such a degree +of cold that it ceases to be a gas and becomes +a liquid. This change occurs at a temperature +312° below zero. Professor John Dewar, of +England, who has made some of the most interesting +of discoveries in the region of great +cold, not only reached a temperature low +enough to produce liquid air, but he succeeded +in going on down until he could freeze +this marvellous liquid into a solid—a sort of +air ice. Not content even with this astonishing +<a class="pagenum" name="page_117" title="117"> </a> +degree of cold, Professor Dewar continued +his experiments until he could reduce +hydrogen—that very light gas—to a liquid, +at 440° below zero, and then, strange as it +may seem, he also froze liquid hydrogen into a +solid. From his experiments he finally concluded +that the "absolute zero"—that is, the +place where there is no heat—was at a point +461° below zero. And he has been able to +produce a temperature, artificially, within a +very few degrees of this utmost limit of cold.</p> + +<div class="floatl"> + <a class="pagenum" name="page_115"> </a> + <img src="images/i_115.jpg" width="269" height="533" alt="" /> +</div> + +<p>Think what this absolute zero means. +Heat, we know, like electricity and light, is a +vibratory or wave motion in the ether. The +greater the heat, the faster the vibrations. +We think of all the substances around us as +solids, liquids, and gases, but these are only +comparative terms. A change of temperature +changes the solid into the liquid, or the gas +into the solid. Take water, for instance. In +the ordinary temperature of summer it is a +liquid, in winter it is a hard crystalline substance +called ice; apply the heat of a stove +and it becomes steam, a gas. So with all +other substances. Air to us is an invisible +<a class="pagenum" name="page_118" title="118"> </a> +gas, but if the earth should suddenly drop +in temperature to 312° below zero all the +air would fall in liquid drops like rain and +fill the valleys of the earth with lakes and +oceans. Still a little colder and these lakes +and oceans would freeze into solids. Similarly, +steel seems to us a very hard and solid +substance, but apply enough heat and it boils +like water, and finally, if the heat be increased, +it becomes a gas.</p> + +<p>Imagine, if you can, a condition in which +all substances are solids; where the vibrations +known as heat have been stilled to silence; +where nothing lives or moves; where, indeed, +there is an awful nothingness; and you can +form an idea of the region of the coldest cold—in +other words, the region where heat does +not exist. Our frozen moon gives something +of an idea of this condition, though probably, +cold and barren as it is, the moon is still a +good many degrees in temperature above the +absolute zero.</p> + +<p>Some of the methods of exploring these +depths of cold are treated in the chapter on +liquid air already referred to. Our interest +<a class="pagenum" name="page_119" title="119"> </a> +here centres in the other extreme of temperature, +where the heat vibrations are inconceivably +rapid; where nearly all substances known +to man become liquids and gases; where, in +short, if the experimenter could go high +enough, he could reach the awful degree of +heat of the burning sun itself, estimated at +over 10,000 degrees. It is in the work of exploring +these regions of great heat that such +men as Moissan, Siemens, Faure, and others +have made such remarkable discoveries, reaching +temperatures as high as 7,000, or over +twice the heat of boiling steel. Their accomplishments +seem the more wonderful when we +consider that a temperature of this degree +burns up or vaporises every known substance. +How, then, could these men have made a furnace +in which to produce this heat? Iron in +such a heat would burn like paper, and so +would brick and mortar. It seems inconceivable +that even science should be able to produce +a degree of heat capable of consuming +the tools and everything else with which it is +produced.</p> + +<p>The heat vibrations at 7,000° are so intense +<a class="pagenum" name="page_120" title="120"> </a> +that nickel and platinum, the most refractory, +the most unmeltable of metals, burn like so +much bee's-wax; the best fire-brick used in lining +furnaces is consumed by it like lumps of +rosin, leaving no trace behind. It works, in +short, the most marvellous, the most incredible +transformations in the substances of the earth.</p> + +<p>Indeed, we have to remember that the earth +itself was created in a condition of great heat—first +a swirling, burning gas, something like +the sun of to-day, gradually cooling, contracting, +rounding, until we have our beautiful +world, with its perfect balance of gases, +liquids, solids, its splendid life. A dying volcano +here and there gives faint evidence of +the heat which once prevailed over all the +earth.</p> + +<p>It was in the time of great heat that the +most beautiful and wonderful things in the +world were wrought. It was fierce heat that +made the diamond, the sapphire, and the ruby; +it fashioned all of the most beautiful forms +of crystals and spars; and it ran the gold and +silver of the earth in veins, and tossed up +mountains, and made hollows for the seas. It +<a class="pagenum" name="page_121" title="121"> </a> +is, in short, the temperature at which worlds +were born.</p> + +<p>More wonderful, if possible, than the miracles +wrought by such heat is the fact that +men can now produce it artificially; and not +only produce, but confine and direct it, and +make it do their daily service. One asks himself, +indeed, if this can really be; and it was +under the impulse of some such incredulity +that I lately made a visit to Niagara Falls, +where the hottest furnaces in the world are +operated. Here clay is melted in vast quantities +to form aluminium, a metal as precious +a few years ago as gold. Here lime and carbon, +the most infusible of all the elements, are +joined by intense heat in the curious new compound, +calcium carbide, a bit of which dropped +in water decomposes almost explosively, producing +the new illuminating gas, acetylene. +Here, also, pure phosphorus and the phosphates +are made in large quantities; and here +is made carborundum—gem-crystals as hard +as the diamond and as beautiful as the ruby.</p> + +<p>An extensive plant has also been built to +produce the heat necessary to make graphite +<a class="pagenum" name="page_122" title="122"> </a> +such as is used in your lead-pencils, and for +lubricants, stove-blacking, and so on. Graphite +has been mined from the earth for thousands +of years; it is pure carbon, first cousin +to the diamond. Ten years ago the possibility +of its manufacture would have been scouted +as ridiculous; and yet in these wonderful furnaces, +which repeat so nearly the processes of +creation, graphite is as easily made as soap. +The marvel-workers at Niagara Falls have +not yet been able to make diamonds—in quantities. +The distinguished French chemist +Moissan has produced them in his laboratory +furnaces—small ones, it is true, but diamonds; +and one day they may be shipped in peck +boxes from the great furnaces at Niagara +Falls. This is no mere dream; the commercial +manufacture of diamonds has already had +the serious consideration of level-headed, far-seeing +business men, and it may be accounted +a distinct probability. What revolution the +achievement of it would work in the diamond +trade as now constituted and conducted no one +can say.</p> + +<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_123" title="123"> </a> +These marvellous new things in science and +invention have been made possible by the +chaining of Niagara to the wheels of industry. +The power of the falling water is transformed +into electricity. Electricity and heat are both +vibratory motions of the ether; science has +found that the vibrations known as electricity +can be changed into the vibrations known as +heat. Accordingly, a thousand horse-power +from the mighty river is conveyed as electricity +over a copper wire, changed into heat and +light between the tips of carbon electrodes, +and there works its wonders. In principle the +electrical furnace is identical with the electric +light. It is scarcely twenty years since the +first electrical furnaces of real practical utility +were constructed; but if the electrical furnaces +to-day in operation at Niagara Falls alone +were combined into one, they would, as one +scientist speculates, make a glow so bright +that it could be seen distinctly from the moon—a +hint for the astronomers who are seeking +methods for communicating with the inhabitants +of Mars. One furnace has been built in +<a class="pagenum" name="page_124" title="124"> </a> +which an amount of heat energy equivalent to +700 horse-power is produced in an arc cavity +not larger than an ordinary water tumbler.</p> + +<p>On reaching Niagara Falls, I called on Mr. +E. G. Acheson, whose name stands with that +of Moissan as a pioneer in the investigation +of high temperatures. Mr. Acheson is still a +young man—not more than forty-five at most—and +clean-cut, clear-eyed, and genial, with +something of the studious air of a college professor. +He is pre-eminently a self-made man. +At twenty-four he found a place in Edison's +laboratory—"Edison's college of inventions," +he calls it—and, at twenty-five, he was one +of the seven pioneers in electricity who (in +1881-82) introduced the incandescent lamp in +Europe. He installed the first electric-light +plants in the cities of Milan, Genoa, Venice, +and Amsterdam, and during this time was one +of Edison's representatives in Paris.</p> + +<div class="center"> + <a class="pagenum" name="page_125"> </a> + <img class="plain" src="images/i_125.jpg" width="356" height="557" alt="" /> + <div class="centercaptionbroad"> + <p class="caption">Mr. E. G. Acheson, One of the Pioneers in the Investigation + of High Temperatures.</p> + </div> +</div> + +<p>"I think the possibility of manufacturing +genuine diamonds," he said to me, "has dazzled +more than one young experimenter. My +first efforts in this direction were made in +1880. It was before we had command of the +<a class="pagenum" name="page_127" title="127"> </a> +tremendous electric energy now furnished by +the modern dynamo, and when the highest +heat attainable for practical purposes was obtained +by the oxy-hydrogen flame. Even this +was at the service of only a few experimenters, +and certainly not at mine. My first experiments +were made in what I might term the +'wet way'; that is, by the process of chemical +decomposition by means of an electric current. +Very interesting results were obtained, which +even now give promise of value; but the diamond +did not materialise.</p> + +<p>"I did not take up the subject again until +the dynamo had attained high perfection and +I was able to procure currents of great power. +Calling in the aid of the 6,500 degrees Fahrenheit +or more of temperature produced by +these electric currents, I once more set myself +to the solution of the problem. I now had, +however, two distinct objects in view: first, +the making of a diamond; and, second, the +production of a hard substance for abrasive +purposes. My experiments in 1880 had resulted +in producing a substance of extreme +hardness, hard enough, indeed, to scratch the +<a class="pagenum" name="page_128" title="128"> </a> +sapphire—the next hardest thing to the diamond—and +I saw that such a material, cheaply +made, would have great value.</p> + +<p>"My first experiment in this new series was +of a kind that would have been denounced as +absurd by any of the old-school book-chemists, +and had I had a similar training, the probability +is that I should not have made such an +investigation. But 'fools rush in where angels +fear to tread,' and the experiment was made."</p> + +<p>This experiment by Mr. Acheson, extremely +simple in execution, was the first act in +rolling the stone from the entrance to a veritable +Aladdin's cave, into which a multitude +of experimenters have passed in their search +for nature's secrets; for, while the use of +the electrical furnace in the reduction of +metals—in the breaking down of nature's +compounds—was not new, its use for synthetic +chemistry—for the putting together, +the building up, the formation of compounds—was +entirely new. It has enabled the chemist +not only to reproduce the compounds of +nature, but to go further and produce valuable +compounds that are wholly new and were +<a class="pagenum" name="page_129" title="129"> </a> +heretofore unknown to man. Mr. Acheson +conjectured that carbon, if made to combine +with clay, would produce an extremely hard +substance; and that, having been combined +with the clay, if it should in the cooling separate +again from the clay, it would issue out +of the operation as diamond. He therefore +mixed a little clay and coke dust together, +placed them in a crucible, inserted the ends of +two electric-light carbons into the mixture, +and connected the carbons with a dynamo. +The fierce heat generated at the points of the +carbons fused the clay, and caused portions +of the carbon to dissolve. After cooling, a +careful examination was made of the mass, +and a few small purple crystals were found. +They sparkled with something of the brightness +of diamonds, and were so hard that they +scratched glass. Mr. Acheson decided at once +that they could not be diamonds; but he +thought they might be rubies or sapphires. A +little later, though, when he had made similar +crystals of a larger size, he found that they +were harder than rubies, even scratching the +diamond itself. He showed them to a number +<a class="pagenum" name="page_130" title="130"> </a> +of expert jewellers, chemists, and geologists. +They had so much the appearance of natural +gems that many experts to whom they were +submitted without explanation decided that +they must certainly be of natural production. +Even so eminent an authority as Geikie, the +Scotch geologist, on being told, after he had +examined them, that the crystals were manufactured +in America, responded testily: +"These Americans! What won't they claim +next? Why, man, those crystals have been in +the earth a million years."</p> + +<p>Mr. Acheson decided at first that his crystals +were a combination of carbon and aluminium, +and gave them the name carborundum. +He at once set to work to manufacture them +in large quantities for use in making abrasive +wheels, whetstones, and sandpaper, and for +other purposes for which emery and corundum +were formerly used. He soon found by chemical +analysis, however, that carborundum was +not composed of carbon and aluminium, but of +carbon and silica, or sand, and that he had, in +fact, created a new substance; so far as human +knowledge now extends, no such combination +<a class="pagenum" name="page_133" title="133"> </a> +occurs anywhere in nature. And it was made +possible only by the electrical furnace, with its +power of producing heat of untold intensity.</p> + +<div class="center"> + <a class="pagenum" name="page_131"> </a> + <img src="images/i_131.jpg" width="332" height="483" alt="" /> + <div class="centercaptionbroad"> + <p class="caption">The Furnace-Room, where Carborundum is Made.</p> + <p class="captionsub">"<i>A great, dingy brick building, open at the sides like a shed.</i>"</p> + </div> +</div> + +<p>In order to get a clear understanding of the +actual workings of the electrical furnace, I +visited the plant where Mr. Acheson makes +carborundum. The furnace-room is a great, +dingy brick building, open at the sides like a +shed. It is located only a few hundred yards +from the banks of the Niagara River and well +within the sound of the great falls. Just below +it, and nearer the city, stands the handsome +building of the Power Company, in +which the mightiest dynamos in the world +whir ceaselessly, day and night, while the waters +of Niagara churn in the water-wheel pits +below. Heavy copper wires carrying a current +of 2,200 volts lead from the power-house +to Mr. Acheson's furnaces, where the electrical +energy is transformed into heat.</p> + +<p>There are ten furnaces in all, built loosely +of fire-brick, and fitted at each end with electrical +connections. And strange they look to +one who is familiar with the ordinary fuel +furnace, for they have no chimneys, no doors, +<a class="pagenum" name="page_134" title="134"> </a> +no drafts, no ash-pits, no blinding glow of +heat and light. The room in which they stand +is comfortably cool. Each time a furnace is +charged it is built up anew; for the heat produced +is so fierce that it frequently melts the +bricks together, and new ones must be supplied. +There were furnaces in many stages +of development. One had been in full blast +for nearly thirty hours, and a weird sight it +was. The top gave one the instant impression +of the seamy side of a volcano. The heaped +coke was cracked in every direction, and from +out of the crevices and depressions and from +between the joints of the loosely built brick +walls gushed flames of pale green and blue, +rising upward, and burning now high, now +low, but without noise beyond a certain low +humming. Within the furnace—which was +oblong in shape, about the height of a man, +and sixteen feet long by six wide—there was +a channel, or core, of white-hot carbon in a +nearly vaporised state. It represented graphically +in its seething activity what the burning +surface of the sun might be—and it was almost +as hot. Yet the heat was scarcely manifest +<a class="pagenum" name="page_137" title="137"> </a> +a dozen feet from the furnace, and but +for the blue flames rising from the cracks in +the envelope, or wall, one might have laid his +hand almost anywhere on the bricks without +danger of burning it.</p> + +<div class="center"> + <a class="pagenum" name="page_135"> </a> + <img src="images/i_135.jpg" width="310" height="517" alt="" /> + <div class="centercaptionbroad"> + <p class="caption">Taking Off a Crust of the Furnace at Night.</p> + <p class="captionsub"><i>The light is so intense that you cannot look at it without hurting + the eyes.</i></p> + </div> +</div> + +<p>In the best modern blast-furnaces, in which +the coal is supplied with special artificial draft +to make it burn the more fiercely, the heat may +reach 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit. This is less +than half of that produced in the electrical +furnace. In porcelain kilns, the potters, after +hours of firing, have been able to produce a +cumulative temperature of as much as 3,300 +degrees Fahrenheit; and this, with the oxy-hydrogen +flame (in which hydrogen gas is +spurred to greater heat by an excess of oxygen), +is the very extreme of heat obtainable +by any artificial means except by the electrical +furnace. Thus the electrical furnace has fully +doubled the practical possibilities in the artificial +production of heat.</p> + +<p>Mr. Fitzgerald, the chemist of the Acheson +Company, pointed out to me a curious glassy +cavity in one of the half-dismantled furnaces. +"Here the heat was only a fraction of that in +<a class="pagenum" name="page_138" title="138"> </a> +the core," he said. But still the fire-brick—and +they were the most refractory produced in +this country—had been melted down like butter. +The floors under the furnace were all +made of fire-brick, and yet the brick had run +together until they were one solid mass of +glassy stone. "We once tried putting a fire-brick +in the centre of the core," said Mr. Fitzgerald, +"just to test the heat. Later, when +we came to open the furnace, we couldn't find +a vestige of it. The fire had totally consumed +it, actually driving it all off in vapour."</p> + +<p>Indeed, so hot is the core that there is really +no accurate means of measuring its temperature, +although science has been enabled by +various curious devices to form a fairly correct +estimate. The furnace has a provoking +way of burning up all of the thermometers +and heat-measuring devices which are applied +to it. A number of years ago a clever German, +named Segar, invented a series of little +cones composed of various infusible earths like +clay and feldspar. He so fashioned them that +one in the series would melt at 1,620 degrees +Fahrenheit, another at 1,800 degrees, and so +<a class="pagenum" name="page_139" title="139"> </a> +on up. If the cones are placed in a pottery +kiln, the potter can tell just what degree of +temperature he has reached by the melting of +the cones one after another. But in Mr. +Acheson's electrical furnaces all the cones +would burn up and disappear in two minutes. +The method employed for coming at the heat +of the electrical furnace, in some measure, is +this: a thin filament of platinum is heated red +hot—1,800 degrees Fahrenheit—by a certain +current of electricity. A delicate thermometer +is set three feet away, and the reading is +taken. Then, by a stronger current, the filament +is made white hot—3,400 degrees Fahrenheit—and +the thermometer moved away +until it reads the same as it read before. Two +points in a distance-scale are thus obtained as +a basis of calculation. The thermometer is +then tried by an electrical furnace. To be +kept at the same marking it must be placed +much farther away than in either of the other +instances. A simple computation of the comparative +distances with relation to the two +well-ascertained temperatures gives approximately, +at least, the temperature of the electrical +<a class="pagenum" name="page_140" title="140"> </a> +furnace. Some other methods are also +employed. None is regarded as perfectly +exact; but they are near enough to have +yielded some very interesting and valuable +statistics regarding the power of various temperatures. +For instance, it has been found +that aluminium becomes a limpid liquid at +from 4,050 to 4,320 degrees Fahrenheit, and +that lime melts at from 4,940 to 5,400 degrees, +and magnesia at 4,680 degrees.</p> + +<p>There are two kinds of electrical furnaces, +as there are two kinds of electric lights—arc +and incandescent. Moissan has used the arc +furnace in all of his experiments, but Mr. +Acheson's furnaces follow rather the principle +of the incandescent lamp. "The incandescent +light," said Mr. Fitzgerald, "is produced by +the resistance of a platinum wire or a carbon +filament to the passage of a current of electricity. +Both light and heat are given off. In +our furnace, the heat is produced by the resistance +of a solid cylinder or core of pulverised +coke to the passage of a strong current +of electricity. When the core becomes white +hot it causes the materials surrounding it to +<a class="pagenum" name="page_141" title="141"> </a> +unite chemically, producing the carborundum +crystals."</p> + +<p>The materials used are of the commonest—pure +white sand, coke, sawdust, and salt. The +sand and coke are mixed in the proportions of +sixty to forty, the sawdust is added to keep +the mixture loose and open, and the salt to +assist the chemical combination of the ingredients. +The furnace is half filled with this +mixture, and then the core of coke, twenty-one +inches in diameter, is carefully moulded in +place. This core is sixteen feet long, reaching +the length of the furnace, and connecting at +each end with an immense carbon terminal, +consisting of no fewer than twenty-five rods +of carbon, each four inches square and nearly +three feet long. These terminals carry the +current into the core from huge insulated copper +bars connected from above. When the +core is complete, more of the carborundum +mixture is shovelled in and tramped down +until the furnace is heaping full.</p> + +<p>Everything is now ready for the electric +current. The wires from the Niagara Falls +power-plant come through an adjoining building, +<a class="pagenum" name="page_142" title="142"> </a> +where one is confronted, upon entering, +with this suggestive sign:</p> + +<p class="center"><span class="large">DANGER</span><br /> +2,200 Volts.</p> + +<p>Tesla produces immensely higher voltages +than this for laboratory experiments, but there +are few more powerful currents in use in this +country for practical purposes. Only about +2,000 volts are required for executing criminals +under the electric method employed in +New York; 400 volts will run a trolley-car. +It is hardly comfortable to know that a single +touch of one of the wires or switches in this +room means almost certain death. Mr. Fitzgerald +gave me a vivid demonstration of the +terrific destructive force of the Niagara Falls +current. He showed me how the circuit was +broken. For ordinary currents, the breaking +of a circuit simply means a twist of the wrist +and the opening of a brass switch. Here, +however, the current is carried into a huge +iron tank full of salt water. The attendant, +pulling on a rope, lifts an iron plate from the +<a class="pagenum" name="page_145" title="145"> </a> +tank. The moment it leaves the water, there +follow a rumbling crash like a thunder-clap, +a blinding burst of flame, and thick clouds of +steam and spray. The sight and sound of it +make you feel delicate about interfering with +a 2,200-volt current.</p> + +<div class="center"> + <a class="pagenum" name="page_143"> </a> + <img src="images/i_143.jpg" width="480" height="325" alt="" /> + <div class="centercaptionbroad"> + <p class="caption">The Interior of a Furnace as it Appears after the Carborundum has been Taken Out.</p> + </div> +</div> + +<p>This current is, indeed, too strong in voltage +for the furnaces, and it is cut down, by +means of what were until recently the largest +transformers in the world, to about 100 volts, +or one-fourth the pressure used on the average +trolley line. It is now, however, a current of +great intensity—7,500 ampères, as compared +with the one-half ampère used in an incandescent +lamp; and it requires eight square inches +of copper and 400 square inches of carbon to +carry it.</p> + +<p>Within the furnace, when the current is +turned on, a thousand horse-power of energy +is continuously transformed into heat. Think +of it! Is it any wonder that the temperature +goes up? And this is continued for thirty-six +hours steadily, until 36,000 "horse-power +hours" are used up and 7,000 pounds of the +crystals have been formed. Remembering +<a class="pagenum" name="page_146" title="146"> </a> +that 36,000 horse-power hours, when converted +into heat, will raise 72,000 gallons of +water to the boiling point, or will bring 350 +tons of iron up to a red heat, one can at least +have a sort of idea of the heat evolved in a +carborundum furnace.</p> + +<p>When the coke core glows white, chemical +action begins in the mixture around it. The +top of the furnace now slowly settles, and +cracks in long, irregular fissures, sending out +a pungent gas which, when lighted, burns +lambent blue. This gas is carbon monoxide, +and during the process nearly six tons of it +are thrown off and wasted. It seems, indeed, +a somewhat extravagant process, for fifty-six +pounds of gas are produced for every forty of +carborundum.</p> + +<p>"It is very distinctly a geological condition," +said Mr. Fitzgerald; "crystals are not +only formed exactly as they are in the earth, +but we have our own little earthquakes and +volcanoes." Not infrequently gas collects, +forming a miniature mountain, with a crater +at its summit, and blowing a magnificent fountain +of flame, lava, and dense white vapour +<a class="pagenum" name="page_149" title="149"> </a> +high into the air, and roaring all the while in +a most terrifying manner. The workmen call +it "blowing off."</p> + +<div class="center"> + <a class="pagenum" name="page_147"> </a> + <img src="images/i_147.jpg" width="320" height="518" alt="" /> + <div class="centercaptionbroad"> + <p class="caption">Blowing Off.</p> + <p class="captionsubleft">"<i>Not infrequently gas collects, forming a miniature mountain, with + a crater at its summit, and blowing a magnificent fountain of + flame, lava, and dense white vapour high into the air, and roaring + all the while in a most terrifying manner.</i>"</p> + </div> +</div> + +<p>At the end of thirty-six hours the current +is cut off, and the furnace is allowed to cool, +the workmen pulling down the brick as rapidly +as they dare. At the centre of the furnace, +surrounding the core, there remains a +solid mass of carborundum as large in diameter +as a hogshead. Portions of this mass +are sometimes found to be composed of pure, +beautifully crystalline graphite. This in itself +is a surprising and significant product, +and it has opened the way directly to graphite-making +on a large scale. An important and +interesting feature of the new graphite industry +is the utilisation it has effected of a product +from the coke regions of Pennsylvania +which was formerly absolute waste.</p> + +<p>To return to carborundum: when the furnace +has been cooled and the walls torn away, +the core of carborundum is broken open, and +the beautiful purple and blue crystals are laid +bare, still hot. The sand and the coke have +united in a compound nearly as hard as the +<a class="pagenum" name="page_150" title="150"> </a> +diamond and even more indestructible, being +less inflammable and wholly indissoluble in +even the strongest acids. After being taken +out, the crystals are crushed to powder and +combined in various forms convenient for the +various uses for which it is designed.</p> + +<p>I asked Mr. Acheson if he could make diamonds +in his furnaces. "Possibly," he answered, +"with certain modifications." Diamonds, +as he explained, are formed by great +heat and great pressure. The great heat is +now easily obtained, but science has not yet +learned nature's secret of great pressure. +Moissan's method of making diamonds is to +dissolve coke dust in molten iron, using a carbon +crucible into which the electrodes are inserted. +When the whole mass is fluid, the +crucible and its contents are suddenly dashed +into cold water or melted lead. This instantaneous +cooling of the iron produces enormous +pressure, so that the carbon is crystallised in +the form of diamond.</p> + +<p>But whatever it may or may not yet be able +to do in the matter of diamond-making, there +can be no doubt that the possibilities of the +<a class="pagenum" name="page_151" title="151"> </a> +electrical furnace are beyond all present conjecture. +With American inventors busy in its +further development, and with electricity as +cheap as the mighty power of Niagara can +make it, there is no telling what new and +wonderful products, now perhaps wholly unthought-of +by the human race, it may become +possible to manufacture, and manufacture +cheaply.</p> + + + + +<h2>CHAPTER V<a class="pagenum" name="page_153" title="153"> </a><br /> + +<small>HARNESSING THE SUN<br /> + +<i>The Solar Motor</i></small></h2> + + +<p>It seems daring and wonderful enough, the +idea of setting the sun itself to the heavy work +of men, producing the power which will help +to turn the wheels of this age of machinery.</p> + +<p>At Los Angeles, Cal., I went out to see +the sun at work pumping water. The solar +motor, as it is called, was set up at one end of +a great enclosure where ostriches are raised. +I don't know which interested me more at +first, the sight of these tall birds striding with +dignity about their roomy pens or sitting on +their big yellow eggs—just as we imagine +them wild in the desert—or the huge, strange +creation of man by which the sun is made to +toil. I do not believe I could have guessed the +purpose of this unique invention if I had not +<a class="pagenum" name="page_154" title="154"> </a> +known what to expect. I might have hazarded +the opinion that it was some new and +monstrous searchlight: beyond that I think +my imagination would have failed me. It +resembled a huge inverted lamp-shade, or +possibly a tremendous iron-ribbed colander, +bottomless, set on its edge and supported by +a steel framework. Near by there was a little +wooden building which served as a shop or +engine-house. A trough full of running water +led away on one side, and from within +came the steady chug-chug, chug-chug of machinery, +apparently a pump. So this was the +sun-subduer! A little closer inspection, with +an audience of ostriches, very sober, looking +over the fence behind me and wondering, I +suppose, if I had a cracker in my pocket, I +made out some other very interesting particulars +in regard to this strange invention. The +colander-like device was in reality, I discovered, +made up of hundreds and hundreds +(nearly 1,800 in all) of small mirrors, the +reflecting side turned inward, set in rows on +the strong steel framework which composed +the body of the great colander. By looking +<a class="pagenum" name="page_157" title="157"> </a> +up through the hole in the bottom of the colander +I was astonished by the sight of an +object of such brightness that it dazzled my +eyes. It looked, indeed, like a miniature sun, +or at least like a huge arc light or a white-hot +column of metal. And, indeed, it was white +hot, glowing, burning hot—a slim cylinder of +copper set in the exact centre of the colander. +At the top there was a jet of white steam like +a plume, for this was the boiler of this extraordinary +engine.</p> + +<div class="center"> + <a class="pagenum" name="page_155"> </a> + <img src="images/i_155.jpg" width="329" height="445" alt="" /> + <p class="caption">Side View of the Solar Motor.</p> +</div> + +<p>"It is all very simple when you come to see +it," the manager was saying to me. "Every +boy has tried the experiment of flashing the +sunshine into his chum's window with a mirror. +Well, we simply utilise that principle. +By means of these hundreds of mirrors we +reflect the light and heat of the sun on a single +point at the centre of what you have described +as a colander. Here we have the cylinder of +steel containing the water which we wish +heated for steam. This cylinder is thirteen +and one-half feet long and will hold one hundred +gallons of water. If you could see it +cold, instead of glowing with heat, you would +<a class="pagenum" name="page_158" title="158"> </a> +find it jet black, for we cover it with a peculiar +heat-absorbing substance made partly of lampblack, +for if we left it shiny it would re-reflect +some of the heat which comes from the mirrors. +The cold water runs in at one end +through this flexible metallic hose, and the +steam goes out at the other through a similar +hose to the engine in the house."</p> + +<p>Though this colander, or "reflector," as it +is called, is thirty-three and one-half feet in +diameter at the outer edge and weighs over +four tons, it is yet balanced perfectly on its +tall standards. It is, indeed, mounted very +much like a telescope, in meridian, and a common +little clock in the engine-room operates +it so that it always faces the sun, like a sunflower, +looking east in the morning and west +in the evening, gathering up the burning rays +of the sun and throwing them upon the boiler +at the centre. In the engine-house I found a +pump at work, chug-chugging like any pump +run by steam-power, and the water raised by +sun-power flowing merrily away. The manager +told me that he could easily get ten +horse-power; that, if the sun was shining +<a class="pagenum" name="page_161" title="161"> </a> +brightly, he could heat cold water in an hour +to produce 150 pounds of steam.</p> + +<div class="center"> + <a class="pagenum" name="page_159"> </a> + <img src="images/i_159.jpg" width="334" height="441" alt="" /> + <p class="caption">Front View of the Los Angeles Solar Motor.</p> +</div> + +<p>The wind sometimes blows a gale in Southern +California, and I asked the manager what +provision had been made for keeping this +huge reflector from blowing away.</p> + +<p>"Provision is made for varying wind-pressures," +he said, "so that the machine is always +locked in any position, and may only be moved +by the operating mechanism, unless, indeed, +the whole structure should be carried away. +It is designed to withstand a wind-pressure of +100 miles an hour. It went through the high +gales of the November storm without a particle +of damage. One of the peculiar characteristics +of its construction is that it avoids +wind-pressure as much as possible."</p> + +<p>The operation of the motor is so simple +that it requires very little human labour. +When power is desired, the reflector must be +swung into focus—that is, pointed exactly +toward the sun—which is done by turning a +crank. This is not beyond the power of a +good-sized boy. There is an indicator which +readily shows when a true focus is obtained. +<a class="pagenum" name="page_162" title="162"> </a> +This done, the reflector follows the sun closely +all day. In about an hour the engine can be +started by a turn of the throttle-valve. As +the engine is automatic and self-oiling, it runs +without further attention. The supply of +water to the boiler is also automatic, and is +maintained at a constant height without any +danger of either too much or too little water. +Steam-pressure is controlled by means of a +safety-valve, so that it may never reach a dangerous +point. The steam passes from the +engine to the condenser and thence to the +boiler, and the process is repeated indefinitely.</p> + +<p>Having now the solar motor, let us see what +it is good for, what is expected of it. Of +course when the sun does not shine the motor +does not work, so that its usefulness would be +much curtailed in a very cloudy country like +England, for instance; but here in Southern +California and in all the desert region of the +United States and Mexico, to say nothing of +the Sahara in Africa, where the sun shines +almost continuously, the solar motor has its +greatest sphere of usefulness, and, indeed, its +greatest need; for these lands of long sunshine, +<a class="pagenum" name="page_165" title="165"> </a> +the deserts, are also the lands of parched fruitlessness, +of little water, so that the invention +of a motor which will utilise the abundant +sunshine for pumping the much-needed water +has a peculiar value here.</p> + +<div class="center"> + <a class="pagenum" name="page_163"> </a> + <img src="images/i_163.jpg" width="334" height="400" alt="" /> + <div class="centercaptionbroad"> + <p class="caption">The Brilliant Steam Boiler Glistens in the Centre.</p> + </div> +</div> + +<p>The solar motor is expected to operate at +all seasons of the year, regardless of all climatic +conditions, with the single exception of +cloudy skies. Cold makes no difference whatever. +The best results from the first model +used in experimental work at Denver were +obtained at a time when the pond from which +the water was pumped was covered with a +thick coating of ice. But, of course, the length +of the solar day is longer in the summer, giving +more heat and more power. The motor +may be depended upon for work from about +one hour and a half after sunrise to within +half an hour of sunset. In the summer time +this would mean about twelve hours' constant +pumping.</p> + +<p>Think what such an invention means, if +practically successful, to the vast stretches of +our arid Western land, valueless without water. +Spread all over this country of Arizona, New +<a class="pagenum" name="page_166" title="166"> </a> +Mexico, Southern California, and other States +are thousands of miles of canals to bring in +water from the rivers for irrigating the deserts, +and there are untold numbers of wind-mills, +steam and gasoline pumps which accomplish +the same purpose more laboriously. +Think what a new source of cheap power will +do—making valuable hundreds of acres of +desert land, providing homes for thousands of +busy Americans. Indeed, a practical solar +motor might make habitable even the Sahara +Desert. And it can be used in many other +ways besides for pumping water. Threshing +machines might be run by this power, and, +converted into electricity and saved up in +storage batteries, it might be used for lighting +houses, even for cooking dinners, or in fact +for any purpose requiring power.</p> + +<p>These solar motors can be built at no great +expense. I was told that ten-horse-power +plants would cost about $200 per horse-power, +and one-hundred-horse-power plants about +$100 per horse-power. This would include the +entire plant, with engine and pump complete. +<a class="pagenum" name="page_169" title="169"> </a> +When it is considered that the annual rental +of electric power is frequently $50 per horse-power, +whether it is used or not, it will be seen +that the solar motor means a great deal, especially +in connection with irrigation enterprises.</p> + +<div class="center"> + <a class="pagenum" name="page_167"> </a> + <img src="images/i_167.jpg" width="436" height="332" alt="" /> + <div class="centercaptionbroad"> + <p class="caption">The Rear Machinery for Operating the Reflector.</p> + </div> +</div> + +<p>And the time is coming—long-headed inventors +saw it many years ago—when some +device for the direct utilisation of the sun's +heat will be a necessity. The world is now +using its coal at a very rapid rate; its wood, +for fuel purposes, has already nearly disappeared, +so that, within a century or two, new +ways of furnishing heat and power must be +devised or the human race will perish of cold +and hunger. Fortunately there are other +sources of power at hand; the waterfalls, the +Niagaras, which, converted into electricity, +may yet heat our sitting-rooms and cook our +dinners. There is also wind-power, now used +to a limited extent by means of wind-mills. +But greater than either of these sources is the +unlimited potentiality of the tides of the sea, +which men have sought in vain to harness, and +the direct heat of the sun itself. Some time +in the future these will be subdued to the purpose +<a class="pagenum" name="page_170" title="170"> </a> +of men, perhaps our main dependence for +heat and power.</p> + +<p>When we come to think of it, the harnessing +of the sun is not so very strange. In fact, we +have had the sun harnessed since the dawn of +man on the earth, only indirectly. Without +the sun there would be nothing here—no men, +no life. Coal is nothing but stored-up, bottled +sunshine. The sunlight of a million years ago +produced forests, which, falling, were buried +in the earth and changed into coal. So when +we put coal in the cook-stove we may truthfully +say that we are boiling the kettle with million-year-old +sunshine. Similarly there would be +no waterfalls for us to chain and convert into +electricity, as we have chained Niagara, if the +sun did not evaporate the waters of the sea, +take it up in clouds, and afterward empty the +clouds in rain on the mountain-tops from +whence the water tumbles down again to the +sea. So no wind would blow without the sun +to work changes in the air.</p> + +<p>In short, therefore, we have been using the +sunlight all these years, hardly knowing it, +but not directly. And think of the tremendous +<a class="pagenum" name="page_171" title="171"> </a> +amount of heat which comes to the earth +from the sun. Every boy has tried using a +burning-glass, which, focusing a few inches +of the sun's rays, will set fire to paper or cloth.</p> + +<p>Professor Langley says that "the heat +which the sun, when near the zenith, radiates +upon the deck of a steamship would suffice, +could it be turned into work without loss, to +drive her at a fair rate of speed."</p> + +<p>The knowledge of this enormous power +going to waste daily and hourly has inspired +many inventors to work on the problem of the +solar motor. Among the greatest of these was +the famous Swedish engineer, John Ericsson, +who invented the iron-clad Monitor. He constructed +a really workable solar motor, different +in construction but similar in principle +to the one in California which I have described. +In 1876 Ericsson said:</p> + +<p>"Upon one square mile, using only one-half +of the surface and devoting the rest to buildings, +roads, etc., we can drive 64,800 steam-engines, +each of 100 horse-power, simply by +the heat radiating from the sun. Archimedes, +having completed his calculation of the force +<a class="pagenum" name="page_172" title="172"> </a> +of a lever, said that he could move the earth. +I affirm that the concentration of the heat +radiated by the sun would produce a force +capable of stopping the earth in its course."</p> + +<p>A firm believer in the truth of his theories, +he devoted the last fifteen years of his life and +$100,000 to experimental work on his solar +engine. For various reasons Ericsson's invention +was not a practical success; but now that +modern inventors, with their advancing knowledge +of mechanics, have turned their attention +to the problem, and now that the need of the +solar motor is greater than ever before, especially +in the world's deserts, we may look to +see a practical and successful machine. Perhaps +the California motor may prove the solution +of the problem; perhaps it will need +improvements, which use and experience will +indicate; perhaps it may be left for a reader +of these words to discover the great secret and +make his fortune.</p> + + + + +<h2>CHAPTER VI<a class="pagenum" name="page_173" title="173"> </a><br /> + +<small>THE INVENTOR AND THE FOOD PROBLEM<br /> + +<i>Fixing of Nitrogen—Experiments of Professor Nobbe</i></small></h2> + + +<p>No lad of to-day, ambitious to become a scientist +or inventor, reading of all the wonderful +and revolutionising discoveries and inventions +of recent years, need fear for plenty of +new problems to solve in the future. No, the +great problems have not all been solved. We +have the steam-engine, the electric motor, the +telegraph, the telephone, the air-ship, but not +one of them is perfect, not one that does not +bring to the attention of inventors scores of +entirely new problems for solution. The further +we advance in science and mechanics the +further we see into the marvels of our wonderful +earth and of our life, and the more there +is for us to do.</p> + +<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_174" title="174"> </a> +As population increases and people become +more intelligent there is a constant demand +for new things, new machinery which will enable +the human race to move more rapidly +and crowd more work and more pleasure into +our short human life. One man working to-day +with machinery can accomplish as much +as many men of a hundred years ago; he can +live in a house that would then have been a +palace; enjoy advantages of education, amusement, +luxury, that would then have been possible +only to kings and princes.</p> + +<p>And the very greatest of all the problems +which the inventors and scientists of coming +generations must solve is the question—seemingly +commonplace—of food.</p> + +<p>We who live in this age of plenty can +hardly realise that food could ever be a problem. +But far-sighted scientists have already +begun to look forward to the time when there +will be so many people on the earth that the +farms and fields will not supply food for +every one. It is a well-known fact that the +population of the world is increasing enormously. +Think how America has been expanding; +<a class="pagenum" name="page_175" title="175"> </a> +a whole continent overrun and settled +almost within a century and a half! +Nearly all the land that can be successfully +farmed has already been taken up, and the +land in some of the older settled localities, like +Virginia and the New England States, has +been so steadily cropped that it is failing in +fertility, so that it will not raise as much as it +would years ago. In Europe no crop at all +can be raised without quantities of fertiliser.</p> + +<p>While there was yet new country to open +up, while America and Australia were yet +virgin soil, there was no immediate cause for +alarm; but, as no less an authority than Sir +William Crookes pointed out a few years ago +in a lecture before the British Association, the +new land has now for the most part been +opened and tamed to the plough or utilised for +grazing purposes. And already we are hearing +of worn-out land in Dakota—the paradise +of the wheat producer. The problem, therefore, +is simple enough: the world is reaching +the limits of its capacity for food production, +while the population continues to increase +enormously: how soon will starvation begin? +<a class="pagenum" name="page_176" title="176"> </a> +Sir William Crookes has prophesied, I believe, +that the acute stage of the problem will be +reached within the next fifty years, a time +when the call of the world for food cannot be +supplied. If it were not for our coming inventors +and scientists it would certainly be a +gloomy outlook for the human race.</p> + +<p>But science has already foreseen this problem. +When Sir William Crookes gave his +address he based his arguments on modern +agricultural methods; he did not look forward +into the future, he did not show any faith in +the scientists and inventors who are to come, +who are now boys, perhaps. He did not even +take cognisance of the work that had already +been done. For inventors and scientists are +already grappling with this problem of food.</p> + +<p>In a nutshell, the question of food production +is a question of nitrogen.</p> + +<p>This must be explained. A crop of wheat, +for instance, takes from the soil certain elements +to help make up the wheat berry, the +straw, the roots. And the most important of +all the elements it takes is nitrogen. When +we eat bread we take this nitrogen that the +<a class="pagenum" name="page_177" title="177"> </a> +wheat has gathered from the soil into our own +bodies to build up our bones, muscles, brains. +Each wheat crop takes more nitrogen from +the soil, and finally, if this nitrogen is not +given back to the earth in some way, wheat +will no longer grow in the fields. In other +words, we say the farm is "worn out," +"cropped to death." The soil is there, but the +precious life-giving nitrogen is gone. And so +it becomes necessary every year to put back +the nitrogen and the other elements which the +crop takes from the soil. This purpose is accomplished +by the use of fertilisers. Manure, +ground bone, nitrates, guano, are put in fields +to restore the nitrogen and other plant foods. +In short, we are compelled to feed the soil that +the soil may feed the wheat, that the wheat +may feed us. You will see that it is a complete +circle—like all life.</p> + +<p>Now, the trouble, the great problem, lies +right here: in the difficulty of obtaining a sufficient +amount of fertiliser—in other words, in +getting food enough to keep the soil from +nitrogen starvation. Already we ship guano—the +droppings of sea-birds—from South +<a class="pagenum" name="page_178" title="178"> </a> +America and the far islands of the sea to put +on our lands, and we mine nitrates (which contain +nitrogen) at large expense and in great +quantities for the same purpose. And while +we go to such lengths to get nitrogen we are +wasting it every year in enormous quantities. +Gunpowder and explosives are most made up +of nitrogen—saltpetre and nitro-glycerin—so +that every war wastes vast quantities of this +precious substance. Every discharge of a 13-inch +gun liberates enough nitrogen to raise +many bushels of wheat. Thus we see another +reason for the disarmament of the nations.</p> + +<p>A prediction has been made that barely +thirty years hence the wheat required to feed +the world will be 3,260,000,000 bushels annually, +and that to raise this about 12,000,000 +tons of nitrate of soda yearly for the area +under cultivation will be needed over and +above the 1,250,000 tons now used by mankind. +But the nitrates now in sight and available +are estimated good for only another fifty +years, even at the present low rate of consumption. +Hence, even if famine does not +<a class="pagenum" name="page_179" title="179"> </a> +immediately impend, the food problem is far +more serious than is generally supposed.</p> + +<p>Now nitrogen, it will be seen, is one of the +most precious and necessary of all substances +to human life, and it is one of the most common. +If the world ever starves for the lack +of nitrogen it will starve in a very world of +nitrogen. For there is not one of the elements +more common than nitrogen, not one present +around us in larger quantities. Four-fifths of +every breath of air we breathe is pure nitrogen—four-fifths +of all the earth's atmosphere is +nitrogen.</p> + +<p>But, unfortunately, most plants are unable +to take up nitrogen in its gaseous form as it +appears in the air. It must be combined with +hydrogen in the form of ammonia or in some +nitrate. Ammonia and the nitrates are, therefore, +the basis of all fertilisers.</p> + +<p>Now, the problem for the scientist and inventor +takes this form: Here is the vast store-house +of life-giving nitrogen in the air; how +can it be caught, fixed, reduced to the purpose +of men, spread on the hungry wheat-fields? +<a class="pagenum" name="page_180" title="180"> </a> +The problem, therefore, is that of "fixing" the +nitrogen, taking the gas out of the air and +reducing it to a form in which it can be handled +and used.</p> + +<p>Two principal methods for doing this have +already been devised, both of which are of +fascinating interest. One of these ways, that +of a clever American inventor, is purely a +machinery process, the utilisation of power by +means of which the nitrogen is literally sucked +out of the air and combined with soda so that it +produces nitrate of soda, a high-class fertiliser. +The water power of Niagara Falls is used to +do this work—it seems odd enough that Niagara +should be used for food production!</p> + +<p>The other method, that of a hard-working +German professor, is the cunning utilisation +of one of nature's marvellous processes of +taking the nitrogen from the air and depositing +it in the soil—for nature has its own beautiful +way of doing it. I will describe the second +method first because it will help to clear +up the whole subject and lead up to the work +of the American inventor and his extraordinary +machinery.</p> + +<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_181" title="181"> </a> +Nearly every farmer, without knowing it, +employs nature's method of fixing nitrogen +every year. It is a simple process which he +has learned from experience. He knows that +when land is worn out by overcropping with +wheat or other products which draw heavily +on the earth's nitrogen supply certain crops +will still grow luxuriantly upon the worn-out +land, and that if these crops are left and +ploughed in, the fertility of the soil will be +restored, and it will again produce large +yields of wheat and other nitrogen-demanding +plants. These restorative crops are clover, +lupin, and other leguminous plants, including +beans and peas. Every one who is at all familiar +with farming operations has heard of +seeding down an old field to clover and then +ploughing in the crop, usually in the second +year.</p> + +<p>The great importance of this bit of the wisdom +of experience was not appreciated by +science for many years. Then several German +experimenters began to ask why clover +and lupin and beans should flourish on worn-out +land when other crops failed. All of these +<a class="pagenum" name="page_182" title="182"> </a> +plants are especially rich in nitrogen, and yet +they grew well on soil which had been robbed +of its nitrogen. Why was this so?</p> + +<p>It was a hard problem to solve, but science +was undaunted. Botanists had already discovered +that the roots of the leguminous +plants—that is, clover, lupin, beans, peas, and +so on—were usually covered with small round +swellings, or tumors, to which were given the +name nodules. The exact purpose of these +swellings being unknown, they were set down +as a condition, possibly, of disease, and no +further attention was paid to them until Professor +Hellriegel, of Burnburg, in Anhalt, +Germany, took up the work. After much experimenting, +he made the important discovery +that lupins which had nodules would grow in +soil devoid of nitrogen, and that lupins which +had no nodules would not grow in the same +soil. It was plain, therefore, that the nodules +must play an important, though mysterious, +part in enabling the plant to utilise the free +nitrogen of the air. That was early in the +'80s. His discovery at once started other investigators +to work, and it was not long before +<a class="pagenum" name="page_183" title="183"> </a> +the announcement came—and it came, curiously +enough, at a time when Dr. Koch was making +his greatest contributions to the world's +knowledge of the germ theory of disease—that +these nodules were the result of minute +bacteria found in the soil. Professor Beyerinck, +of Münster, gave the bacteria the name +Radiocola.</p> + +<p>It was at this time that Professor Nobbe +took up the work with vigour. If these nodules +were produced by bacteria, he argued that +the bacteria must be present in the soil; and +if they were not present, would it not be possible +to supply them by artificial means? In +other words, if soil, say worn-out farm-soil or, +indeed, pure sand like that of the sea-shore +could thus be inoculated, as a physician inoculates +a guinea-pig with diphtheria germs, +would not beans and peas planted there form +nodules and draw their nourishment from the +air? It was a somewhat startling idea, but all +radically new ideas are startling; and, after +thinking it over, Professor Nobbe began, in +1888, a series of most remarkable experiments, +having as their purpose the discovery of a practical +<a class="pagenum" name="page_184" title="184"> </a> +method of soil inoculation. He gathered +the nodule-covered roots of beans and peas, +dried and crushed them, and made an extract +of them in water. Then he prepared a gelatine +solution with a little sugar, asparagine, and +other materials, and added the nodule-extract. +In this medium colonies of bacteria at once +began to grow—bacteria of many kinds. +Professor Nobbe separated the Radiocola—which +are oblong in shape—and made what is +known as a "clear culture," that is, a culture +in gelatine, consisting of billions of these particular +germs, and no others. When he had +succeeded in producing these clear cultures he +was ready for his actual experiments in growing +plants. He took a quantity of pure sand, +and, in order to be sure that it contained no +nitrogen or bacteria in any form, he heated +it at a high temperature three different times +for six hours, thereby completely sterilising it. +This sand he placed in three jars. To each of +these he added a small quantity of mineral +food—the required phosphorus, potassium, +iron, sulphur, and so on. To the first he supplied +no nitrogen at all in any form; the second +<a class="pagenum" name="page_185" title="185"> </a> +he fertilised with saltpetre, which is largely +composed of nitrogen in a form in which +plants may readily absorb it through their +roots; the third of the jars he inoculated with +some of his bacteria culture. Then he planted +beans in all three jars, and awaited the results, +as may be imagined, somewhat anxiously. +Perfectly pure sterilised water was supplied +to each jar in equal amounts and the seeds +sprouted, and for a week the young shoots in +the three jars were almost identical in appearance. +But soon after that there was a gradual +but striking change. The beans in the first jar, +having no nitrogen and no inoculation, turned +pale and refused to grow, finally dying down +completely, starved for want of nitrogenous +food, exactly as a man would starve for the +lack of the same kind of nourishment. The +beans in the second jar, with the fertilised soil, +grew about as they would in the garden, all +of the nourishment having been artificially +supplied. But the third jar, which had been +jealously watched, showed really a miracle of +growth. It must be remembered that the soil +in this jar was as absolutely free of nitrogen +<a class="pagenum" name="page_186" title="186"> </a> +as the soil in the first jar, and yet the beans +flourished greatly, and when some of the plants +were analysed they were found to be rich in +nitrogen. Nodules had formed on the roots +of the beans in the third or inoculated jar only, +thereby proving beyond the hope of the experimenter +that soil inoculation was a possibility, +at least in the laboratory.</p> + +<p>With this favourable beginning Professor +Nobbe went forward with his experiments +with renewed vigour. He tried inoculating +the soil for peas, clover, lupin, vetch, acacia, +robinia, and so on, and in every case the roots +formed nodules, and although there was absolutely +no nitrogen in the soil, the plants invariably +flourished. Then Professor Nobbe +tried great numbers of difficult test experiments, +such as inoculating the soil with clover +bacteria and then planting it with beans or +peas, or vice versa, to see whether the bacteria +from the nodules of any one leguminous +plant could be used for all or any of the others. +He also tried successive cultures; that is, bean +bacteria for beans for several years, to see if +better results could be obtained by continued +<a class="pagenum" name="page_189" title="189"> </a> +use. Even an outline description of all the +experiments which Professor Nobbe made in +the course of these investigations would fill a +small volume, and it will be best to set down +here only his general conclusions.</p> + +<div class="center"> + <a class="pagenum" name="page_187"> </a> + <img src="images/i_187.jpg" width="334" height="321" alt="" /> + <div class="centercaptionbroad"> + <p class="caption">Trees Growing in Water at Professor Nobbe's Laboratory.</p> + </div> +</div> + +<p>These wonderful nitrogen-absorbing bacteria +do not appear in all soil, although they +are very widely distributed. So far as known +they form nodules only on the roots of a few +species of plants. In their original form in +the soil they are neutral—that is, not especially +adapted to beans, or peas, or any one particular +kind of crop. But if clover, for instance, +is planted, they straightway form nodules and +become especially adapted to the clover plant, +so that, as every farmer knows, the second crop +of clover on worn-out land is much better than +the first. And, curiously enough, when once +the bacteria have become thoroughly adapted +to one of the crops, say beans, they will not +affect peas or clover, or only feebly.</p> + +<p>Another strange feature of the life of these +little creatures, which has a marvellous suggestion +of intelligence, is their activities in +various kinds of soil. When the ground is +<a class="pagenum" name="page_190" title="190"> </a> +very rich—that is, when it contains plenty of +nitrogenous matter—they are what Professor +Nobbe calls "lazy." They do not readily form +nodules on the roots of the plants, seeming +almost to know that there is no necessity for it. +But when once the nitrogenous matter in the +soil begins to fail, then they work more sharply, +and when it has gone altogether they are +at the very height of activity. Consequently, +unless the soil is really worn out, or very poor +to begin with, there is no use in inoculating it—it +would be like "taking owls to Athens," as +Professor Nobbe says.</p> + +<div class="center"> + <a class="pagenum" name="page_191"> </a> + <img src="images/i_191.jpg" width="324" height="333" alt="" /> + <div class="centercaptionbroad"> + <p class="caption">Experimenting with Nitrogen in Professor Nobbe's Laboratory.</p> + </div> +</div> + +<p>Having thus proved the remarkable efficacy +of soil inoculation in his laboratory and +greenhouses, where I saw great numbers of +experiments still going forward, Professor +Nobbe set himself to make his discoveries of +practical value. He gave to his bacteria cultures +the name "Nitragen"—spelled with an +"a"—and he produced separate cultures for +each of the important crops—peas, beans, +vetch, lupin, and clover. In 1894 the first of +these were placed on the market, and they have +had a steadily increasing sale, although such +<a class="pagenum" name="page_193" title="193"> </a> +a radical innovation as this, so far out of the +ordinary run of agricultural operation, and so +almost unbelievably wonderful, cannot be expected +to spread very rapidly. The cultures +are now manufactured at one of the great +commercial chemical laboratories on the river +Main. I saw some of them in Professor +Nobbe's laboratory. They come in small glass +bottles, each marked with the name of the crop +for which it is especially adapted. The bottle +is partly filled with the yellow gelatinous substance +in which the bacteria grow. On the +surface of this there is a mossy-like growth, +resembling mould. This consists of innumerable +millions of the little oblong bacteria. A +bottle costs about fifty cents and contains +enough bacteria for inoculating half an acre +of land. It must be used within a certain number +of weeks after it is obtained, while it is +still fresh. The method of applying it is very +simple. The contents of the bottle are diluted +with warm water. Then the seeds of the +beans, clover, or peas, which have previously +been mixed with a little soil, are treated with +this solution and thoroughly mixed with the +<a class="pagenum" name="page_194" title="194"> </a> +soil. After that the mass is partially dried +so that the seeds may be readily sown. The +bacteria at once begin to propagate in the soil, +which is their natural home, and by the time +the beans or peas have put out roots they are +present in vast numbers and ready to begin +the active work of forming nodules. It is not +known exactly how the bacteria absorb the +free nitrogen from the air, but they do it successfully, +and that is the main thing. Many +German farmers have tried Nitragen. One, +who was sceptical of its virtues, wrote to Professor +Nobbe that he sowed the bacteria-inoculated +seeds in the form of a huge letter N in +the midst of his field, planting the rest in the +ordinary way. Before a month had passed +that N showed up green and big over all the +field, the plants composing it being so much +larger and healthier than those around it.</p> + +<p>The United States Government has recently +been experimenting along the same lines and +has produced a new form of dry preparation +of the bacteria in some cakes somewhat resembling +a yeast-cake.</p> + +<p>The possibilities of such a discovery as this +<a class="pagenum" name="page_195" title="195"> </a> +seem almost limitless. Science predicts the +exhaustion of nitrogen and consequent failure +of the food supply, and science promptly finds +a way of making plants draw nitrogen from +the boundless supplies of the air. The time +may come when every farmer will send for +his bottles or cakes of bacteria culture every +spring as regularly as he sends for his seed, +and when the work of inoculating the soil will +be a familiar agricultural process, with discussions +in the farmers' papers as to whether two +bottles or one is best for a field of sandy loam +with a southern exposure. Stranger things +have happened. But it must be remembered, +also, that the work is in its infancy as yet, and +that there are vast unexplored fields and innumerable +possibilities yet to fathom.</p> + +<p>Wonderful as this discovery is, and much +as it promises in the future, its efficacy, as soon +as it becomes generally known, is certain to +be overestimated, as all new discoveries are. +Professor Nobbe himself says that it has its +own limited serviceability. It will produce a +bounteous crop of beans in the pure sand of +the sea-shore if (and this is an important if) +<a class="pagenum" name="page_196" title="196"> </a> +that sand also contains enough of the mineral +substances—phosphorus, potassium, and so +on—and if it is kept properly watered. A +man with a worn-out farm cannot go ahead +blindly and inoculate his soil and expect certain +results. He must know the exact disease +from which his land is suffering before he +applies the remedy. If it is deficient in the +phosphates, bacteria cultures will not help it, +whereas if it is deficient in nitrogen, bacteria +are just what it needs. And so agricultural +education must go hand in hand with the introduction +of these future preservers of the +human race. It is safe to say that by the time +there is a serious failure of the earth's soil for +lack of nitrogen, science, with this wonderful +beginning, will have ready a new system of +cultivation, which will gradually, easily, and +perfectly take the place of the old.</p> + +<p>Before leaving this wonderful subject of +soil inoculation, a word about Professor Nobbe +himself will surely be of interest. I visited +his laboratory and saw his experiments.</p> + +<p>Tharandt, in Saxony, where Professor +Nobbe has carried on his investigations for +<a class="pagenum" name="page_197" title="197"> </a> +over thirty years, is a little village set picturesquely +among the Saxon hills, about half an +hour's ride by railroad from the city of Dresden. +Here is located the Forest Academy of +the Kingdom, with which Professor Nobbe is +prominently connected, and here also is the +agricultural experiment station of which he is +director. He has been for more than forty +years the editor of one of the most important +scientific publications in Germany; he is chairman +of the Imperial Society of Agricultural +Station Directors, and he has been the recipient +of many honours.</p> + +<p>We now come to a consideration of the +other method—the fixing of nitrogen by machinery: +a practical problem for the inventor.</p> + +<p>Every one has noticed the peculiar fresh +smell of the air which follows a thunderstorm; +the same pungent odour appears in the vicinity +of a frictional electric machine when in +operation. This smell has been attributed to +ozone, but it is now thought that it may be due +to oxides of nitrogen; in other words, the electric +discharges of lightning or of the frictional +machine have burned the air—that is, combined +<a class="pagenum" name="page_198" title="198"> </a> +the nitrogen and oxygen of the air, +forming oxides of nitrogen.</p> + +<div class="center"> + <img src="images/i_198.jpg" width="259" height="374" alt="" /> + <p class="caption">Mr. Charles S. Bradley.</p> +</div> + +<div class="floatr"> + <img src="images/i_199.jpg" width="122" height="183" alt="" /> + <p class="caption">Mr. D. R. Lovejoy.</p> +</div> + +<p>The fact that an electric spark will thus +form an oxide of nitrogen has long been +known, but it remained for two American inventors, +<a class="pagenum" name="page_199" title="199"> </a> +Mr. Charles S. Bradley and Mr. D. +R. Lovejoy, of Niagara Falls, N. Y., to work +out a way by inventive genius for applying this +scientific fact to a practical purpose, thereby +originating a great new industry. I shall not +attempt here to describe +the long process of experimentation +which led up to +the success of their enterprise. +Here was their raw +material all around them +in the air; their problem +was to produce a large +number of very hot electric +flames in a confined space +or box so that air could be +passed through, rapidly burned, and converted +into oxides of nitrogen (nitric oxides and +peroxides), which could afterward be collected. +They took the power supplied by the +great turbine wheels at Niagara Falls and produced +a current of 10,000 volts, a pressure +far above anything ever used before for practical +purposes in this country. This was led +into a box or chamber of metal six feet high +<a class="pagenum" name="page_200" title="200"> </a> +and three feet in diameter—the box having +openings to admit the air. By means of a revolving +cylinder the electric current is made to +produce a rapid continuance of very brilliant +arcs, exactly like the glaring white arc of the +arc-lamp, only much more intense, a great deal +hotter. The air driven in through and around +these hot arcs is at once burned, combining the +oxygen and nitrogen of which it is composed +<a class="pagenum" name="page_203" title="203"> </a> +and producing the desired oxides of nitrogen. +These are led along to a chamber where they +are combined with water, producing nitric or +nitrous acid; or if the gases are brought into +contact with caustic potash, saltpetre is the result; +if with caustic soda, nitrate of soda is +the product—a very valuable fertiliser. And +the inventors have been able to produce these +various results at an expense so low that they +can sell their output at a profit in competition +with nitrates from other sources, thus giving +the world a new source of fertiliser at a moderate +price.</p> + +<div class="center"> + <img src="images/i_200.jpg" width="255" height="264" alt="" /> + <div class="centercaptionbroad"> + <p class="caption">Eight-Inch 10,000-Volt Arcs Burning the Air for Fixing + Nitrogen.</p> + </div> +</div> + +<div class="center"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_201"> </a> + <img src="images/i_201.jpg" width="515" height="334" alt="" /> + <div class="centercaptionbroad"> + <p class="caption">Machine for Burning the Air with Electric Arcs so as to Produce Nitrates.</p> + </div> +</div> + +<p>In this way the power of Niagara has become +a factor in the food question, a defence +against the ultimate hunger of the human +race. And when we think of the hundreds of +other great waterfalls to be utilised, and with +our growing knowledge of electricity this +utilisation will become steadily cheaper, easier, +it would seem that the inventor had already +found a way to help the farmer. Then there +is the boundless power of the tides going to +waste, of the direct rays of the sun utilised +by some such sun motor as that described in +<a class="pagenum" name="page_204" title="204"> </a> +another chapter of this book, which in time +may be called to operate upon the boundless +reservoir of nitrogen in the air for helping +to produce the future food for the human +race.</p> + + +<div class="center margintop6"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_206" title="206"> </a> + <img src="images/i_206.jpg" width="332" height="404" alt="" /> + <div class="centercaptionbroad"> + <p class="caption">MARCONI.<br /> + The Sending of an Epoch-Making Message.</p> + <p class="captionsubleft"><i>January 18, 1903, marks the beginning of a new era in telegraphic + communication. On that day there was sent by Marconi himself + from the wireless station at South Wellfleet, Cape Cod, Mass., + to the station at Poldhu, Cornwall, England, a distance of + 3,000 miles, the message—destined soon to be historic—from + the President of the United States to the King of England.</i></p> + </div> +</div> + + + + +<h2>CHAPTER VII<a class="pagenum" name="page_207" title="207"> </a><br /> + +<small>MARCONI AND HIS GREAT ACHIEVEMENTS<br /> + +<i>New Experiments in Wireless Telegraphy</i></small></h2> + + +<p>No invention of modern times, perhaps, comes +so near to being what we call a miracle as +the new system of telegraphy without wires. +The very thought of communicating across +the hundreds of miles of blue ocean between +Europe and America with no connection, no +wires, nothing but air, sunshine, space, is almost +inconceivably wonderful. A few years +ago the mere suggestion of such a thing would +have been set down as the wildest flight of +imagination, unbelievable, perfectly impossible. +And yet it has come to pass!</p> + +<p>Think for a moment of sitting here on the +shore of America and quietly listening to +words sent <i>through space</i> across some 3,000 +miles of ocean from the edge of Europe! A +<a class="pagenum" name="page_208" title="208"> </a> +cable, marvellous as it is, maintains a real connection +between speaker and hearer. We feel +that it is a road along which our speech can +travel; we can grasp its meaning. But in +telegraphing without wires we have nothing +but space, poles with pendent wires on one side +of the broad, curving ocean, and similar poles +and wires (or perhaps only a kite struggling +in the air) on the other—and thought passing +between!</p> + +<p>I have told in the first "Boys' Book of Inventions" +of Guglielmo Marconi's early experiments. +That was a chapter of uncertain +beginnings, of great hopes, of prophecy. +This is the sequel, a chapter of achievement +and success. What was only a scientific and +inventive novelty a few years ago has become +a great practical enterprise, giving +promise of changing the whole world of men, +drawing nations more closely together, making +us near neighbours to the English and the +Germans and the French—in short, shrinking +our earth. There may come a time when +we will think no more of sending a Marconigram, +or an etheragram, or whatever is to be +<a class="pagenum" name="page_209" title="209"> </a> +the name of the message by wireless telegraphy, +to an acquaintance in England than we +now think of calling up our neighbour on the +telephone.</p> + +<p>Every one will recall the astonishment that +swept over the country in December, 1901, +when there came the first meagre reports of +Marconi's success in telegraphing across the +Atlantic Ocean between England and Newfoundland. +At first few would believe the reports, +but when Thomas A. Edison, Graham +Bell, and other great inventors and scientists +had expressed their confidence in Marconi's +achievement, the whole country, was ready to +hail the young inventor with honours. And +his successes since those December days have +been so pronounced—for he had now sent messages +both ways across the Atlantic and at +much greater distances—have more than borne +out the promise then made. Wireless telegrams +can now be sent directly from the +shore of Massachusetts to England, and +ocean-going ships are being rapidly equipped +with the Marconi apparatus so that they can +keep in direct communication with both continents +<a class="pagenum" name="page_210" title="210"> </a> +during every day of the voyage. On +some of the great ships a little newspaper is +published, giving the world's news as received +from day to day.</p> + +<p>It was the good fortune of the writer to +arrive in St. John's, Newfoundland, during +Mr. Marconi's experiments in December, +1901, only a short time after the famous first +message across the Atlantic had been received. +Three months later it was also the writer's +privilege to visit the Marconi station at Poldhu, +in Cornwall, England, from which the message +had been sent, Mr. Marconi being then +planning his greater work of placing his invention +on a practical basis so that his company +could enter the field of commercial telegraphy. +It was the writer's fortune to have many talks +with Mr. Marconi, both in America and in +England, to see him at his experiments, and to +write some of the earliest accounts of his successes. +The story here told is the result of +these talks.</p> + +<p>Mr. Marconi kept his own counsel regarding +his plans in coming to Newfoundland in +December, 1901. He told nobody, except his +<a class="pagenum" name="page_211" title="211"> </a> +assistants, that he was going to attempt the +great feat of communicating across the Atlantic +Ocean. Though feeling very certain of +success, he knew that the world would not believe +him, would perhaps only laugh at him +for his great plans. The project was entirely +too daring for public announcement. Something +might happen, some accident to the apparatus, +that would cause a delay; people +would call this failure, and it would be more +difficult another time to get any one to put +confidence in the work. So Marconi very +wisely held his peace, only announcing what +he had done when success was assured.</p> + +<p>Mr. Marconi landed at St. John's, Newfoundland, +on December 6, 1901, with his two +assistants, Mr. Kemp and Mr. Paget.</p> + +<p>He set up his instruments in a low room of +the old barracks on Signal Hill, which stands +sentinel at the harbour mouth half a mile from +the city of St. John's. So simple and easily +arranged is the apparatus that in three days' +time the inventor was prepared to begin his +experiments. On Wednesday, the 11th, as a +preliminary test of the wind velocity, he sent +<a class="pagenum" name="page_212" title="212"> </a> +up one of his kites, a huge hexagonal affair +of bamboo and silk nine feet high, built on +the Baden-Powell model: the wind promptly +snapped the wire and blew the kite out to sea. +He then filled a 14-foot hydrogen balloon, +and sent it upward through a thick fog bank. +Hardly had it reached the limit of its tetherings, +however, when the aërial wire on which +he had depended for receiving his messages +fell to the earth, the balloon broke away, and +was never seen again. On Thursday, the +12th, a day destined to be important in the +annals of invention, Marconi tried another +kite, and though the weather was so blustery +that it required the combined strength of the +inventor and his assistants to manage the tetherings, +they succeeded in holding the kite at +an elevation of about 400 feet. Marconi was +now prepared for the crucial test. Before +leaving England he had given detailed instructions +to his assistants for the transmission +of a certain signal, the Morse telegraphic S, +represented by three dots (...), at a fixed +time each day, beginning as soon as they received +word that everything at St. John's was +<a class="pagenum" name="page_215" title="215"> </a> +in readiness. This signal was to be clicked out +on the transmitting instruments near Poldhu, +Cornwall, the southwestern tip of England, +and radiated from a number of aërial wires +pendent from masts 210 feet high. If the inventor +could receive on his kite-wire in Newfoundland +some of the electrical waves thus +produced, he knew that he held the solution of +the problem of transoceanic wireless telegraphy. +He had cabled his assistants to begin +sending the signals at three o'clock in the +afternoon, English time, continuing until six +o'clock; that is, from about 11.30 to 2.30 +o'clock in St. John's.</p> + +<div class="center"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_213"> </a> + <img src="images/i_213.jpg" width="503" height="247" alt="" /> + <div class="centercaptionbroad"> + <p class="caption">Preparing to Fly the Kite which Supported the Receiving Wire.</p> + <p class="captionsub"><i>Marconi on the extreme left.</i></p> + </div> +</div> + +<p>At noon on Thursday (December 12, 1901) +Marconi sat waiting, a telephone receiver at +his ear, in a room of the old barracks on Signal +Hill. To him it must have been a moment of +painful stress and expectation. Arranged on +the table before him, all its parts within easy +reach of his hand, was the delicate receiving +instrument, the supreme product of years of +the inventor's life, now to be submitted to a +decisive test. A wire ran out through the window, +thence to a pole, thence upward to the +<a class="pagenum" name="page_216" title="216"> </a> +kite which could be seen swaying high overhead. +It was a bluff, raw day; at the base of +the cliff 300 feet below thundered a cold sea; +oceanward through the mist rose dimly the +rude outlines of Cape Spear, the easternmost +reach of the North American Continent. Beyond +that rolled the unbroken ocean, nearly +2,000 miles to the coast of the British Isles. +Across the harbour the city of St. John's lay +on its hillside wrapped in fog: no one had +taken enough interest in the experiments to +come up here through the snow to Signal +Hill. Even the ubiquitous reporter was absent. +In Cabot Tower, near at hand, the old +signalman stood looking out to sea, watching +for ships, and little dreaming of the mysterious +messages coming that way from England. +Standing on that bleak hill and gazing out +over the waste of water to the eastward, one +finds it difficult indeed to realise that this wonder +could have become a reality. The faith of +the inventor in his creation, in the kite-wire, +and in the instruments which had grown under +his hand, was unshaken.</p> + +<div class="center"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_217"> </a> + <img src="images/i_217.jpg" width="460" height="323" alt="" /> + <div class="centercaptionbroad"> + <p class="caption">Mr. Marconi and his Assistants in Newfoundland: Mr. Kemp on the Left, Mr. + Paget on the Right.</p> + <p class="captionsub"><i>They are sitting on a balloon basket, with one of the Baden-Powell kites in the background.</i></p> + </div> +</div> + +<p>"I believed from the first," he told me, "that +<a class="pagenum" name="page_219" title="219"> </a> +I would be successful in getting signals across +the Atlantic."</p> + +<p>Only two persons were present that Thursday +noon in the room where the instruments +were set up—Mr. Marconi and Mr. Kemp. +Everything had been done that could be done. +The receiving apparatus was of unusual sensitiveness, +so that it would catch even the faintest +evidence of the signals. A telephone receiver, +which is no part of the ordinary +instrument, had been supplied, so that the +slightest clicking of the dots might be conveyed +to the inventor's ear. For nearly half +an hour not a sound broke the silence of the +room. Then quite suddenly Mr. Kemp heard +the sharp click of the tapper as it struck +against the coherer; this, of course, was not +the signal, yet it was an indication that something +was coming. The inventor's face +showed no evidence of excitement. Presently +he said:</p> + +<p>"See if you can hear anything, Kemp."</p> + +<p>Mr. Kemp took the receiver, and a moment +later, faintly and yet distinctly and unmistakably, +came the three little clicks—the dots +<a class="pagenum" name="page_220" title="220"> </a> +of the letter S, tapped out an instant before +in England. At ten minutes past one, more +signals came, and both Mr. Marconi and Mr. +Kemp assured themselves again and again +that there could be no mistake. During this +time the kite gyrated so wildly in the air that +the receiving wire was not maintained at the +same height, as it should have been; but again, +at twenty minutes after two, other repetitions +of the signal were received.</p> + +<p>Thus the problem was solved. One of the +great wonders of science had been wrought. +But the inventor went down the hill toward +the city, now bright with lights, feeling depressed +and disheartened—the rebound from +the stress of the preceding days. On the following +afternoon, Friday, he succeeded in +getting other repetitions of the signal from +England, but on Saturday, though he made +an effort, he was unable to hear anything. +The signals were, of course, sent continuously, +but the inventor was unable to obtain continuous +results, owing, as he explains, to the fluctuations +of the height of the kite as it was +blown about by the wind, and to the extreme +<a class="pagenum" name="page_221" title="221"> </a> +delicacy of his instruments, which required +constant adjustment during the experiments.</p> + +<p>Even now that he had been successful, the +inventor hesitated to make his achievement +public, lest it seem too extraordinary for belief. +Finally, after withholding the great news +for two days, certainly an evidence of self-restraint, +he gave out a statement to the press, +and on Sunday morning the world knew and +doubted; on Monday it knew more and believed. +Many, like Mr. Edison, awaited the +inventor's signed announcement before they +would credit the news. Sir Cavendish Boyle, +the Governor of Newfoundland, reported at +once to King Edward; and the cable company +which has exclusive rights in Newfoundland, +alarmed at an achievement which threatened +the very existence of its business, demanded +that he desist from further experiments within +its territory, truly an evidence of the belief of +practical men in the future commercial importance +of the invention. It is not a little +significant of the increased willingness of the +world, born of expanding knowledge, to accept +a new scientific wonder, that Mr. Marconi's +<a class="pagenum" name="page_222" title="222"> </a> +announcement should have been so +eagerly and so generally believed, and that +the popular imagination should have been so +fired with its possibilities. One cannot but recall +the struggle against doubt, prejudice, and +disbelief in which the promoters of the first +transatlantic cable were forced to engage. +Even after the first cable was laid (in 1858), +and messages had actually been transmitted, +there were many who denied that it had ever +been successfully operated, and would hardly +be convinced even by the affidavits of those +concerned in the work. But in the years since +then, Edison, Bell, Röntgen, and many other +famous inventors and scientists have taught +the world to be chary of its disbelief. Outside +of this general disposition to friendliness, however, +Marconi on his own part had well earned +the credit of the careful and conservative scientist; +his previous successes made it the more +easy to credit his new achievement. For, as +an Englishman (Mr. Flood Page), in defending +Mr. Marconi's announcement, has pointed +out, the inventor has never made any statement +in public until he has been absolutely certain +<a class="pagenum" name="page_223" title="223"> </a> +of the fact; he has never had to withdraw +any statement that he has made as to +his progress in the past. And these facts unquestionably +carried great weight in convincing +Mr. Edison, Mr. Graham Bell, and others +of equal note of the literal truth of his report. +It was astonishing how overwhelmingly credit +came from every quarter of the world, from +high and low alike, from inventors, scientists, +statesmen, royalty. Before Marconi left St. +John's he was already in receipt of a large +mail—the inevitable letters of those who would +offer congratulations, give advice, or ask favours. +He received offers to lecture, to write +articles, to visit this, that, and the other place—and +all within a week after the news of his +success. The people of the "ancient colony" +of Newfoundland, famed for their hospitality, +crowned him with every honour in their power. +I accompanied Mr. Marconi across the island +on his way to Nova Scotia, and it seemed as +if every fisher and farmer in that wild country +had heard of him, for when the train stopped +they came crowding to look in at the window. +From the comments I heard, they wondered +<a class="pagenum" name="page_224" title="224"> </a> +most at the inventor's youthful appearance. +Though he was only twenty-seven years old, +his experience as an inventor covered many +years, for he began experimenting in wireless +telegraphy before he was twenty. At twenty-two +he came to London from his Italian home, +and convinced the British Post-Office Department +that he had an important idea; at twenty-three +he was famous the world over.</p> + +<p>Following this epoch-making success Mr. +Marconi returned to England, where he continued +most vigorously the work of perfecting +his invention, installing more powerful +transmitters, devising new receivers, all the +time with the intention of following up his +Newfoundland experiments with the inauguration +of a complete system of wireless transmission +between America and Europe. In the +latter part of the year 1902 he succeeded in +opening regular communication between Nova +Scotia and England, and January 18, 1903, +marked another epoch in his work. On that +day there was sent by Marconi himself from +the wireless station at South Wellfleet, Cape +Cod, Mass., to the station at Poldhu, Cornwall, +<a class="pagenum" name="page_225" title="225"> </a> +England, a distance of 3,000 miles, the message—destined +to be historic—from the President +of the United States to the King of England.</p> + +<p>It will be interesting to know something of +the inventor himself. He is somewhat above +medium height, and, though of a highly strung +temperament, he is deliberate in his movements. +Unlike the inventor of tradition, he +dresses with scrupulous neatness, and, in spite +of being a prodigious worker, he finds time to +enjoy a limited amount of club and social life. +The portrait published with this chapter, taken +at St. John's a few days after the experiments, +gives a very good idea of the inventor's face, +though it cannot convey the peculiar lustre of +his eyes when he is interested or excited—and +perhaps it makes him look older than he really +is. One of the first and strongest impressions +that the man conveys is that of intense nervous +activity and mental absorption; he has a way +of pouncing upon a knotty question as if he +could not wait to solve it. He talks little, is +straightforward and unassuming, submitting +good-naturedly, although with evident unwillingness, +<a class="pagenum" name="page_226" title="226"> </a> +to being lionised. In his public addresses +he has been clear and sensible; he has +never written for any publication; nor has he +engaged in scientific disputes, and even when +violently attacked he has let his work prove +his point. And he has accepted his success +with calmness, almost unconcern; he certainly +expected it. The only elation I saw him express +was over the attack of the cable monopoly +in Newfoundland, which he regarded as +the greatest tribute that could have been paid +his achievement. During all his life, opposition +has been his keenest spur to greater effort.</p> + +<p>Though he was born and educated in Italy, +his mother was of British birth, and he speaks +English as perfectly as he does Italian. Indeed, +his blue eyes, light hair, and fair complexion +give him decidedly the appearance of +an Englishman, so that a stranger meeting +him for the first time would never suspect his +Italian parentage. His parents are still living, +spending part of their time on their estate +in Italy and part of the time in London. One +of the first messages conveying the news of +his success at St. John's went to them. He +<a class="pagenum" name="page_227" title="227"> </a> +embarked in experimental research because he +loved it, and no amount of honour or money +tempts him from the pursuit of the great +things in electricity which he sees before him. +Besides being an inventor, he is also a shrewd +business man, with a clear appreciation of the +value of his inventions and of their possibilities +when generally introduced. What is +more, he knows how to go about the task of +introducing them.</p> + +<p>No sooner had Marconi announced the success +of his Newfoundland experiments than +critics began to raise objections. Might not +the signals which he received have been sent +from some passing ship fitted with wireless-telegraphy +apparatus? Or, might they not +have been the result of electrical disturbances +in the atmosphere? Or, granting his ability to +communicate across seas, how could he preserve +the secrecy of his messages? If they +were transmitted into space, why was it not +possible for any one with a receiving instrument +to take them? And was not his system +of transmission too slow to make it useful, or +was it not rendered uncertain by storms? And +<a class="pagenum" name="page_228" title="228"> </a> +so on indefinitely. An acquaintance with +some of the principles which Marconi considers +fundamental, and on which his work has +been based, will help to clear away these objections +and give some conception of the real +meaning and importance of the work at St. +John's and of the plans for the future development +of the inventor's system.</p> + +<p>In the first place, Mr. Marconi makes no +claim to being the first to experiment along +the lines which led to wireless telegraphy, or +the first to signal for short distances without +wires. He is prompt with his acknowledgment +to other workers in his field, and to his +assistants. Professor S. F. B. Morse, the inventor +of telegraphy; Dr. Oliver Lodge and +Sir William Preece, of England; Edison, +Tesla, and Professors Trowbridge and Dolbear, +of America, and others had experimented +along these lines, but it remained for +Marconi to perfect a system and put it into +practical working order. He took the coherer +of Branley and Calzecchi, the oscillator of +Righi, he used the discoveries of Henry and +Hertz, but his creation, like that of the poet +<a class="pagenum" name="page_229" title="229"> </a> +who gathers the words of men in a perfect +lyric, was none the less brilliant and original.</p> + +<div class="center"> + <img class="plain" src="images/i_229.jpg" width="369" height="314" alt="" /> + <p class="caption smcaps"><i>Marconi Transatlantic Station at<br /> + South Wellfleet, Cape Cod, Mass.</i></p> +</div> + +<p>In its bare outlines, Marconi's system of +telegraphy consists in setting in motion, by +means of his transmitter, certain electric waves +which, passing through the ether, are received +on a distant wire suspended from a kite or +mast, and registered on his receiving apparatus. +The ether is a mysterious, unseen, +<a class="pagenum" name="page_230" title="230"> </a> +colourless, odourless, inconceivably rarefied +something which is supposed to fill all space. +It has been compared to a jelly in which the +stars and planets are set like cherries. About +all we know of it is that it has waves—that the +jelly may be made to vibrate in various ways. +Etheric vibrations of certain kinds give light; +other kinds give heat; others electricity. Experiments +have shown that if the ether vibrates +at the inconceivable swiftness of 400 billions +of waves a second we see the colour red, if +twice as fast we see violet, if more slowly—perhaps +230 millions to the second, and less—we +have the Hertz waves used by Marconi in +his wireless-telegraphy experiments. Ether +waves should not be confounded with air +waves. Sound is a result of the vibration of +the air; if we had ether and no air, we should +still see light, feel heat, and have electrical +phenomena, but no sound would ever come +to our ears. Air is sluggish beside ether, and +sound waves are very slow compared with +ether waves. During a storm the ether brings +the flash of the lightning before the air brings +the sound of thunder, as every one knows.</p> + +<div class="center"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_231" title="231"> </a> + <img class="plain" src="images/i_231.jpg" width="444" height="340" alt="" /> + <p class="caption smcaps">At Poole,<br /> + <i>England.</i></p> +</div> + +<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_233" title="233"> </a> +Electricity is, indeed, only another name for +certain vibrations in the ether. We say that +electricity "flows" in a wire, but nothing really +passes except an etheric wave, for the atoms +composing the wire, as well as the air and the +earth, and even the hardest substances, are all +afloat in ether. Vibrations, therefore, started +at one end of the wire travel to the other. +Throw a stone into a quiet pond. Instantly +waves are formed which spread out in every +direction; the water does not move, except up +and down, yet the wave passes onward indefinitely. +Electric waves cannot be seen, but +electricians have learned how to incite them, +to a certain extent how to control them, and +have devised cunning instruments which register +their presence.</p> + +<p>Electrical waves have long been harnessed +by the use of wires for sending communications; +in other words, we have had wire telegraphy. +But the ether exists outside of the +wire as well as within; therefore, having the +ether everywhere, it must be possible to produce +waves in it which will pass anywhere, as +well through mountains as over seas, and if +<a class="pagenum" name="page_234" title="234"> </a> +these waves can be controlled they will evidently +convey messages as easily and as certainly +as the ether within wires. So argued +Mr. Marconi. The difficulty lay in making +an instrument which would produce a peculiar +kind of wave, and in receiving and registering +this wave in a second apparatus located at a +distance from the first. It was, therefore, a +practical mechanical problem which Marconi +had to meet. Beginning with crude tin boxes +set up on poles on the grounds of his father's +estate in Italy, he finally devised an apparatus +from which a current generated by a battery +and passing in brilliant sparks between two +brass balls was radiated from a wire suspended +on a tall pole. By shutting off and turning +on this peculiar current, by means of a device +similar to the familiar telegrapher's key, the +waves could be so divided as to represent +dashes and dots, and spell out letters in the +Morse alphabet. This was the transmitter. +It was, indeed, simple enough to start these +waves travelling through space, to jar the +etheric jelly, so to speak; but it was far more +difficult to devise an apparatus to receive and +<a class="pagenum" name="page_235" title="235"> </a> +register them. For this purpose Marconi +adopted a device invented by an Italian, Calzecchi, +and improved by a Frenchman, M. +Branley, called the coherer, and the very crux +of the system, without which there could be no +wireless telegraphy. This coherer, which he +greatly improved, is merely a little tube of +<a class="pagenum" name="page_236" title="236"> </a> +glass as big around as a lead-pencil, and perhaps +two inches long. It is plugged at each +end with silver, the plugs nearly meeting +within the tube. The narrow space between +them is filled with finely powdered fragments +of nickel and silver, which possess the strange +property of being alternately very good and +very bad conductors of electrical waves. The +waves which come from the transmitter, perhaps +2,000 miles away, are received on a suspended +kite-wire, exactly similar to the wire +used in the transmitter, but they are so weak +that they could not of themselves operate an +ordinary telegraph instrument. They do, +however, possess strength enough to draw the +little particles of silver and nickel in the coherer +together in a continuous metal path. In +other words, they make these particles "cohere," +and the moment they cohere they become +a good conductor for electricity, and a +current from a battery near at hand rushes +through, operates the Morse instrument, and +causes it to print a dot or a dash; then a little +tapper, actuated by the same current, strikes +against the coherer, the particles of metal are +<a class="pagenum" name="page_237" title="237"> </a> +jarred apart or "decohered," becoming instantly +a poor conductor, and thus stopping +the strong current from the home battery. +Another wave comes through space, down the +suspended kite-wire, into the coherer, there +drawing the particles again together, and another +dot or dash is printed. All these processes +<a class="pagenum" name="page_238" title="238"> </a> +are continued rapidly, until a complete +message is ticked out on the tape. Thus Mr. +Kemp knew when he heard the tapper strike +the coherer that a signal was coming, though +he could not hear the click of the receiver itself. +And this is in bare outline Mr. Marconi's +invention—this is the combination of +devices which has made wireless telegraphy +possible, the invention on which he has taken +out more than 132 patents in every civilised +country of the world. Of course his instruments +contain much of intricate detail, of marvellously +ingenious adaptation to the needs of +the work, but these are interesting chiefly to +expert technicians.</p> + +<div class="center"> + <img class="plain" src="images/i_235.jpg" width="315" height="347" alt="" /> + <p class="caption smcaps">Nearer View of<br /> + <i>South Foreland Station.</i></p> +</div> + +<div class="center"> + <img class="plain" src="images/i_237.jpg" width="317" height="352" alt="" /> + <p class="caption smcaps">Alum Bay Station<br /> + <i>Isle of Wight.</i></p> +</div> + +<p>In his actual transoceanic experiments of +December, 1901, Mr. Marconi's transmitting +station in England was fitted with twenty +masts 210 feet high, each with its suspended +wire, though not all of them were used. A +current of electricity sufficient to operate some +300 incandescent lamps was used, the resulting +spark being so brilliant that one could not +have looked at it with the unshaded eye. The +wave which was thus generated had a length +<a class="pagenum" name="page_239" title="239"> </a> +of about a fifth of a mile, and the rate of vibration +was about 800,000 to the second. Following +the analogy of the stone cast in the +pond with the ripples circling outward, these +waves spread from the suspended wires in +England in every direction, not only westward +toward the cliff where Marconi was flying his +kite, but eastward, northward, and southward, +so that if some of Mr. Marconi's assistants had +been flying kites, say on the shore of Africa, +or South America, or in St. Petersburg, they +might possibly, with a corresponding receiver, +have heard the identical signals at the same +instant. In his early experiments Marconi +believed that great distances could not be obtained +without very high masts and long, suspended +wires, the greater the distance the +taller the mast, on the theory that the waves +were hindered by the curvature of the earth; +but his later theory, substantiated by his Newfoundland +experiments, is that the waves somehow +follow around the earth, conforming to +its curve, and the next station he establishes in +America will not be set high on a cliff, as at +St. John's, but down close to the water on +<a class="pagenum" name="page_240" title="240"> </a> +level land. His Newfoundland experiments +have also convinced him that one of the secrets +of successful long-distance transmission is the +use of a more powerful current in his transmitter, +and this he will test in his next trials +between the continents.</p> + +<p>And now we come to the most important +part of Mr. Marconi's work, the part least +known even to science, and the field of almost +illimitable future development. This is the +system of "tuning," as the inventor calls it, the +construction of a certain receiver so that it +will respond only to the message sent by a certain +transmitter. When Marconi's discoveries +were first announced in 1896, there existed no +method of tuning, though the inventor had its +necessity clearly in mind. Accordingly the +public inquired, "How are you going to keep +your messages secret? Supposing a warship +wishes to communicate with another of the +fleet, what is to prevent the enemy from reading +your message? How are private business +despatches to be secured against publicity?" +Here, indeed, was a problem. Without secrecy +no system of wireless telegraphy could +<a class="pagenum" name="page_243" title="243"> </a> +ever reach great commercial importance, or +compete with the present cable communication. +The inventor first tried using a parabolic copper +reflector, by means of which he could radiate +the electric waves exactly as light—which, +it will be borne in mind, is only another kind +of etheric wave—is reflected by a mirror. This +reflector could be faced in any desired direction, +and only a receiver located in that direction +would respond to the message. But there +were grave objections to the reflector; an enemy +might still creep in between the sending +and receiving stations, and, moreover, it was +found that the curvature of the earth interfered +with the transmission of reflected messages, +thereby limiting their usefulness to short +distances.</p> + +<div class="center"> + <a class="pagenum" name="page_241"> </a> + <img class="plain" src="images/i_241.jpg" width="441" height="338" alt="" /> + <p class="caption smcaps">Marconi Room<br /> + <i>SS Philadelphia.</i></p> +</div> + +<p>In passing, however, it may be interesting +to note one extraordinary use for this reflecting +system which the inventor now has in +mind. This is in connection with lighthouse +work. Ships are to be provided with reflecting +instruments which in dense fog or storms +can be used exactly as a searchlight is now +employed on a dark night to discover the location +<a class="pagenum" name="page_244" title="244"> </a> +of the lighthouses or lightships. For instance, +the lighthouse, say, on some rocky +point on the New England coast would continually +radiate a warning from its suspended +wire. These waves pass as readily through +fog and darkness and storm as in daylight. +A ship out at sea, hidden in fog, has lost its +bearings; the sound of the warning horn, if +warning there is, seems to come first from one +direction, then from another, as sounds do in +a fog, luring the ship to destruction. If now +the mariner is provided with a wireless reflector, +this instrument can be slowly turned until +it receives the lighthouse warning, the captain +thus learning his exact location; if in distress, +he can even communicate with the lighthouse. +Think also what an advantage such an equipment +would be to vessels entering a dangerous +harbour in thick weather. This is one of the +developments of the near future.</p> + +<p>The reflector system being impracticable for +long-distance work, Mr. Marconi experimented +with tuning. He so constructed a receiver +that it responds only to a certain transmitter. +That is, if the transmitter is radiating 800,000 +<a class="pagenum" name="page_245" title="245"> </a> +vibrations a second, the corresponding receiver +will take only 800,000 vibrations. In exactly +the same way a familiar tuning fork will respond +only to another tuning fork having exactly +the same "tune," or number of vibrations +per second. And Mr. Marconi has now +succeeded in bringing this tuning system to +some degree of perfection, though very much +work yet remains to be done. For instance, +in one of his English experiments, at Poole in +England, he had two receivers connected with +the same wire, and tuned to different transmitters +located at St. Catherine's Point. Two +messages were sent, one in English and one +in French. Both were received at the same +time on the same wire at Poole, but one receiver +rolled off its message in English, the +other in French, without the least interference. +And so when critics suggested that the inventor +may have been deceived at St. John's +by messages transmitted from ocean liners, he +was able to respond promptly:</p> + +<p>"Impossible. My instrument was tuned to +receive only from my station in Cornwall."</p> + +<p>Indeed, the only wireless-telegraph apparatus +<a class="pagenum" name="page_246" title="246"> </a> +that could possibly have been within +hundreds of miles of Newfoundland would be +one of the Marconi-fitted steamers, and the +"call" of a steamer is not the letter "S," but +"U."</p> + +<p>The importance of the new system of tuning +can hardly be overestimated. By it all +the ships of a fleet can be provided with instruments +tuned alike, so that they may communicate +freely with one another, and have +no fear that the enemy will read the messages. +The spy of the future must be an electrical +expert who can slip in somehow and steal the +secret of the enemy's tunes. Great telegraph +companies will each have its own tuned instruments, +to receive only its own messages, and +there may be special tunes for each of the important +governments of the world. Or perhaps +(for the system can be operated very +cheaply) the time will even come when the great +banking and business houses, or even families +and friends, will each have its own wireless +system, with its own secret tune. Having +variations of millions of different vibrations, +there will be no lack of tunes. For instance, +<a class="pagenum" name="page_249" title="249"> </a> +the British navy may be tuned to receive only +messages of 700,000 vibrations to the second, +the German navy 1,500,000, the United States +Government 1,000,000, and so on indefinitely.</p> + +<div class="center"> + <a class="pagenum" name="page_247"> </a> + <img class="plain" src="images/i_247.jpg" width="525" height="343" alt="" /> + <p class="caption smcaps"><i>Transatlantic High Power Marconi Station<br /> + at Glace Bay, Nova Scotia</i></p> +</div> + +<p>Tuning also makes multiplex wireless telegraphy +a possibility; that is, many messages +may be sent or received on the same suspended +wire. Supposing, for instance, the operator +was sending a hurry press despatch to a newspaper. +He has two transmitters, tuned differently, +connected with his wire. He cuts the +despatch in two, sends the first half on one +transmitter, and the second on the other, thereby +reducing by half the time of transmission.</p> + +<p>A sort of impression prevails that wireless +telegraphy is still largely in the uncertain experimental +stage; but, as a matter of fact, it +has long since passed from the laboratory to +a wide commercial use. Its development since +Mr. Marconi's first paper was read, in 1896, +and especially since the first message was sent +from England to France across the Channel +in March, 1899, has been astonishingly rapid. +Most of the ships of the great navies of Europe +and all the important ocean liners are +<a class="pagenum" name="page_250" title="250"> </a> +now fitted with the "wireless" instruments. +The system has been recently adopted by the +Lloyds of England, the greatest of shipping +exchanges. It is being used on many lightships, +and the New York <i>Herald</i> receives +daily reports from vessels at sea, communicated +from a ship station off Nantucket. +Were there space to be spared, many incidents +might be told showing in what curious and +wonderful ways the use of the "wireless" instruments +has saved life and property, to say +nothing of facilitating business.</p> + +<p>And it cannot now be long before a regular +telegraph business will be conducted between +Massachusetts and England, through the new +stations. Mr. Marconi informed me that he +would be able to build and equip stations +on both sides of the Atlantic for less than +$150,000, the subsequent charge for maintenance +being very small. A cable across the +Atlantic costs between $3,000,000 and $4,000,000, +and it is a constant source of expenditure +for repairs. The inventor will be able to +transmit with single instruments about twenty +words a minute, and at a cost ridiculously +<a class="pagenum" name="page_251" title="251"> </a> +small compared with the present cable tolls. +He said in a speech delivered at a dinner +given him by the Governor at St. John's that +messages which now go by cable at twenty-five +cents a word might be sent profitably at a +cent a word or less, which is even much cheaper +than the very cheapest present rates in America +for messages by land wires. It is estimated +that about $400,000,000 is invested in +cable systems in various parts of the world. +If Marconi succeeds as he hopes to succeed, +much of the vast network of wires at the bottom +of the world's oceans, represented by this +investment, will lose its usefulness. It is now +the inventor's purpose to push the work of installation +between the continents as rapidly as +possible, and no one need be surprised if the +year 1902 sees his system in practical operation. +Along with this transatlantic work he +intends to extend his system of transmission +between ships at sea and the ports on land, +with a view to enabling the shore stations to +maintain constant communication with vessels +all the way across the Atlantic. If he succeeds +in doing this, there will at last be no escape +<a class="pagenum" name="page_252" title="252"> </a> +for the weary from the daily news of the +world, so long one of the advantages of an +ocean voyage. For every morning each ship, +though in mid-ocean, will get its bulletin of +news, the ship's printing-press will strike it +off, and it will be served hot with the coffee. +Yet think what such a system will mean to +ships in distress, and how often it will relieve +the anxiety of friends awaiting the delayed +voyager.</p> + +<p>Mr. Marconi's faith in his invention is +boundless. He told me that one of the projects +which he hoped soon to attempt was +to communicate between England and New +Zealand. If the electric waves follow the +curvature of the earth, as the Newfoundland +experiments indicate, he sees no reason why he +should not send signals 6,000 or 10,000 miles +as easily as 2,000.</p> + +<p>Then there is the whole question of the use +of wireless telegraphy on land, a subject +hardly studied, though messages have already +been sent upward of sixty miles overland. +The new system will certainly prove an important +adjunct on land in war-time, for it +<a class="pagenum" name="page_253" title="253"> </a> +will enable generals to signal, as they have +done in South Africa, over comparatively long +distances in fog and storm, and over stretches +where it might be impossible for the telegraph +corps to string wires or for couriers to pass +on account of the presence of the enemy.</p> + + +<div class="center margintop6"> + <a class="pagenum" name="page_254" title="254"> </a> + <img src="images/i_254.jpg" width="333" height="494" alt="" /> + <div class="centercaptionbroad"> + <p class="caption">Work on the Smith Point Lighthouse Stopped by a + Violent Storm.</p> + <p class="captionsubleft"><i>Just after the cylinder had been set in place, and while the workmen + were hurrying to stow sufficient ballast to secure it against a heavy + sea, a storm forced the attending steamer to draw away. One + of the barges was almost overturned, and a lifeboat was driven + against the cylinder and crushed to pieces.</i></p> + </div> +</div> + + + + +<h2>CHAPTER VIII<a class="pagenum" name="page_255" title="255"> </a><br /> + +<small>SEA-BUILDERS<br /> + +<i>The Story of Lighthouse Building—Stone-tower Lighthouses, +Iron Pile Lighthouses, and Steel +Cylinder Lighthouses</i></small></h2> + + +<p>A sturdy English oak furnished the model +for the first of the great modern lighthouses. +A little more than one hundred and forty +years ago John Smeaton, maker of odd and +intricate philosophical instruments and dabbler +in mechanical engineering, was called +upon to place a light upon the bold and dangerous +reefs of Eddystone, near Plymouth, +England. John Smeaton never had built a +lighthouse; but he was a man of great ingenuity +and courage, and he knew the kind +of lighthouse <i>not</i> to build; for twice before +the rocks of Eddystone had been marked, and +twice the mighty waves of the Atlantic had +bowled over the work of the builders as easily +as they would have overturned a skiff. Winstanley, +<a class="pagenum" name="page_256" title="256"> </a> +he of song and story, designed the +first of these structures, and he and all his +keepers lost their lives when the light went +down; the other, the work of John Rudyerd, +was burned to the water's edge, and one of the +keepers, strangely enough, died from the effects +of melting lead which fell from the roof +and entered his open mouth as he gazed upward. +Both of these lighthouses were of wood, +and both were ornamented with balconies and +<a class="pagenum" name="page_259" title="259"> </a> +bay-windows, which furnished ready holds for +the rough handling of the wind.</p> + +<div class="center"> + <img src="images/i_256.jpg" width="213" height="206" alt="" /> + <div class="centercaptionbroad"> + <p class="captionleft">Robert Stevenson, Builder of the Famous Bell Rock + Lighthouse, and Author of Important Inventions + and Improvements in the System of Sea Lighting.</p> + <p class="captionsub"><i>From a bust by Joseph, now in the library of Bell Rock Lighthouse.</i></p> + </div> +</div> + +<div class="center"> + <a class="pagenum" name="page_257"> </a> + <img src="images/i_257.jpg" width="497" height="332" alt="" /> + <div class="centercaptionbroad"> + <p class="caption">The Bell Rock Lighthouse, on the Eastern Coast of Scotland.</p> + <p class="captionsubleft"><i>From the painting by Turner. The Bell Rock Lighthouse was built by Robert Stevenson, grandfather of + Robert Louis Stevenson, on the Inchcape Reef, in the North Sea, near Dundee, Scotland, in 1807-1810.</i></p> + </div> +</div> + +<p>John Smeaton walked in the woods and +thought of all these problems. He tells +quaintly in his memoirs how he observed the +strength with which an oak-tree bore its great +weight of leaves and branches; and when he +built his lighthouse, it was wide and flaring at +the base, like the oak, and deeply rooted into +the sea-rock with wedges of wood and iron. +The waist was tapering and cylindrical, bearing +the weight of the keeper's quarters and +the lantern as firmly and jauntily as the oak +bears its branches. Moreover, he built of +stone, to avoid the possibility of fire, and he +dovetailed each stone into its neighbour, so +that the whole tower would face the wind and +the waves as if it were one solid mass of granite. +For years Smeaton's Eddystone blinked +a friendly warning to English mariners, serving +its purpose perfectly, until the Brothers +of Trinity saw fit to build a larger tower in +its place.</p> + +<p>In England the famous lighthouses of Bell +Rock, built by Robert Stevenson, Skerryvore, +<a class="pagenum" name="page_260" title="260"> </a> +and Wolf Rock +are all stone towers; +and in our +own country, Minot's +Ledge, off +Boston Harbour, +more difficult of +construction than +any of them, Spectacle +Reef light in +Lake Huron, and +Stannard Rock +light in Lake Superior +are good +examples of Smeaton's +method of +building.</p> + +<div class="floatl"> + <img src="images/i_260.jpg" width="182" height="387" alt="" /> + <div class="centercaptionnarrow"> + <p class="captionleft">The Present Lighthouse on + Minot's Ledge, near the Entrance + of Massachusetts Bay, Fifteen + Miles Southeast of Boston.</p> + <p class="captionsubleft">"<i>Rising sheer out of the sea, + like a huge stone cannon, + mouth upward.</i>"—Longfellow.</p> + </div> +</div> + +<p>The mighty +stone tower still +remains for many +purposes the most +effective method +of lighting the +pathways of the +sea, but it is both +<a class="pagenum" name="page_261" title="261"> </a> +exceedingly difficult +to build, and it is +very expensive. +Within comparatively +recent years busy +inventors have +thought out several +new plans for lighthouses, +which are +quite as wonderful +and important in +their way as wireless +telegraphy and the +telephone are in the +realm of electricity.</p> + +<p>One of these inventions +is the iron-pile +or screw-pile +lighthouse, and the +other is the iron cylinder +lighthouse. I +will tell the story of +each of them separately.</p> + +<div class="floatr"> + <img src="images/i_261.jpg" width="159" height="387" alt="" /> + <div class="centercaptionnarrow"> + <p class="caption">The Lighthouse on Stannard + Rock, Lake Superior.</p> + <p class="captionsubleft"><i>This is a stone-tower lighthouse, + similar in construction to the + one built with such difficulty on + Spectacle Reef, Lake Huron.</i></p> + </div> +</div> + +<p>The skeleton-built +<a class="pagenum" name="page_262" title="262"> </a> +iron-pile lighthouse bears much the same relation +to the heavy stone tower lighthouse +that a willow twig bears to a great oak. The +latter meets the fury of wind and wave with +stern resistance, opposing force to force; the +former conquers its difficulties by avoiding +them.</p> + +<p>A completed screw-pile lighthouse has the +odd appearance of a huge, ugly spider standing +knee-deep in the sea. Its squat body is +the home of the keeper, with a single bright +eye of light at the top, and its long spindly +legs are the iron piles on which the structure +rests. Thirty years ago lighthouse builders +were much pleased with the ease and apparent +durability of the pile light. An Englishman +named Mitchell had invented an iron pile having +at the end a screw not unlike a large +auger. By boring a number of these piles +deep into the sand of the sea-bottom, and using +them as the foundation for a small but durable +iron building, he was enabled to construct a +lighthouse in a considerable depth of water at +small expense. Later builders have used ordinary +iron piles, which are driven into the +<a class="pagenum" name="page_263" title="263"> </a> +sand with heavy sledges. Waves and tides +pass readily through the open-work of the +foundation, the legs of the spider, without disturbing +the building overhead. For Southern +waters, where there is no danger of moving +ice-packs, lighthouses of this type have been +found very useful, although the action of the +salt water on the iron piling necessitates frequent +repairs. More than eighty lights of this +description dot the shoals of Florida and adjoining +States. Some of the oldest ones still +remain in use in the North, notably the one +on Brandywine shoal in Delaware Bay; but +it has been found necessary to surround them +with strongly built ice-breakers.</p> + +<p>Two magnificent iron-pile lights are found +on Fowey Rocks and American Shoals, off +the coast of Florida, the first of which was +built with so much difficulty that its story is +most interesting.</p> + +<div class="floatl"> + <img src="images/i_264.jpg" width="201" height="402" alt="" /> + <p class="caption">The Fowey Rocks Lighthouse,<br /> + Florida.</p> +</div> + +<p>Fowey Reef lies five miles from the low +coral island of Soldier Key. Northern storms, +sweeping down the Atlantic, brush in wild +breakers over the reef and out upon the little +key, often burying it entirely under a torrent +<a class="pagenum" name="page_264" title="264"> </a> +of water. Even +in calm weather +the sea is rarely +quiet enough to +make it safe for +a vessel of any +size to approach +the reef. The +builders erected +a stout elevated +wharf and store-house +on the key, +and brought +their men and +tools to await +the opportunity +to dart out when +the sea was at +rest and begin +the work of +marking the +reef. Before +shipment, the lighthouse, which was built in +the North, was set up, complete from foundation +to pinnacle, and thoroughly tested.</p> + +<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_265" title="265"> </a> +At length the workmen were able to remain +on the reef long enough to build a strong +working platform twelve feet above the surface +of the water, and set on iron-shod mangrove +piles. Having established this base of +operations in the enemy's domain, a heavy iron +disk was lowered to the reef, and the first pile +was driven through the hole at its centre. +Elaborate tests were made after each blow of +the sledge, and the slightest deviation from +the vertical was promptly rectified with block +and tackle. In two months' time nine piles +were driven ten feet into the coral rock, the +workmen toiling long hours under a blistering +sun. When the time came to erect the superstructure, +the sea suddenly awakened and +storm followed storm, so that for weeks together +no one dared venture out to the reef. +The men rusted and grumbled on the narrow +docks of the key, and work was finally suspended +for an entire winter. At the very first +attempt to make a landing in the spring, a tornado +drove the vessels far out of their course. +But a crew was finally placed on the working +platform, with enough food to last them several +<a class="pagenum" name="page_266" title="266"> </a> +weeks, and there they stayed, suspended +between the sea and the sky, until the structure +was complete. This lighthouse cost $175,000.</p> + +<p>The famous Bug Light of Boston and +Thimble Light of Hampton Roads, Va., are +both good examples of the iron-pile lighthouse.</p> + +<p>Now we come to a consideration of iron +cylinder lighthouses, which are even more wonderful, +perhaps, than the screw-piles, and in +constructing them the sea-builder touches the +pinnacle of his art.</p> + +<p>Imagine a sandy shoal marked only by a +white-fringed breaker. The water rushes over +it in swift and constantly varying currents, +and if there is a capful of wind anywhere on +the sea, it becomes an instant menace to the +mariner. The shore may be ten or twenty +miles away, so far that a land-light would only +lure the seaman into peril, instead of guiding +him safely on his way. A lightship is always +uncertain; the first great storm may drive it +from its moorings and leave the coast unprotected +when protection is most necessary. +Upon such a shoal, often covered from ten to +<a class="pagenum" name="page_267" title="267"> </a> +twenty feet with water, the builder is called +upon to construct a lighthouse, laying his +foundation in shifting sand, and placing upon +it a building strong enough to withstand any +storm or the crushing weight of wrecks or ice-packs.</p> + +<p>It was less than twenty years ago that sea-builders +first ventured to grapple with the difficulties +presented by these off-shore shoals. +In 1881 Germany built the first iron cylinder +lighthouse at Rothersand, near the mouth +of the Weser River, and three years later +the Lighthouse Establishment of the United +States planted a similar tower on Fourteen-Foot +Banks, over three miles from the shores +of Delaware Bay, in twenty feet of water. +Since then many hitherto dangerous shoals +have been marked by new lighthouses of this +type.</p> + +<div class="floatr"> + <img src="images/i_268.jpg" width="187" height="383" alt="" /> + <p class="caption">Fourteen-Foot Bank Light Station,<br /> + Delaware Bay, Del.</p> +</div> + +<p>When a builder begins a stone tower light +on some lonely sea-rock, he says to the sea, +"Do your worst. I'm going to stick right +here until this light is built, if it takes a hundred +years." And his men are always on hand +in fair weather or foul, dropping one stone +<a class="pagenum" name="page_268" title="268"> </a> +to-day and another +to-morrow, +and succeeding +by virtue of +steady grit and +patience. The +builder of the iron +cylinder light pursues +an exactly opposite +course. His +warfare is more +spirited, more +modern. He +stakes his whole +success on a single +desperate throw. +If he fails, he loses +everything: if he +wins, he may +throw again. His +lighthouse is +built, from foundation +caisson to lantern, a hundred or a thousand +miles away from the reef where it is +finally to rest. It is simply an enormous cast-iron +<a class="pagenum" name="page_269" title="269"> </a> +tube made in sections or courses, each +about six feet high, not unlike the standpipe +of a village water-works. The builder must +set up this tube on the shoal, sink it deep into +the sand bottom, and fill it with rocks and +concrete mortar, so that it will not tip over. +At first such a feat would seem absolutely +impossible; but the sea-builder has his own +methods of fighting. With all the material +necessary to his work, he creeps up on the +shoal and lies quietly in some secluded harbour +until the sea is calmly at rest, suspecting +no attack. Then he darts out with his whole +fleet, plants his foundation, and before the +waves and the wind wake up he has established +his outworks on the shoal. The story +of the construction of one of these lighthouses +will give a good idea of the terrible difficulties +which their builders must overcome.</p> + +<p>Not long ago W. H. Flaherty, of New +York, built such a lighthouse at Smith's Point, +in Chesapeake Bay. At the mouth of the Potomac +River the opposing tides and currents +have built up shoals of sand extending eight +or ten miles out into the bay. Here the waves, +<a class="pagenum" name="page_270" title="270"> </a> +sweeping in from +the open Atlantic, +sometimes drown +the side-lights of +the big Boston +steamers. The +point has a grim +story of wrecks +and loss of life; +in 1897 alone, +four sea-craft +were driven in +and swamped on +the shoals. The +Lighthouse Establishment +planned to set up +the light just at +the edge of the +channel, and 120 +miles south of +Baltimore.</p> + +<div class="floatl"> + <img src="images/i_270.jpg" width="186" height="463" alt="" /> + <p class="caption">The Great Beds Light Station,<br /> + Raritan Bay, N. J.</p> + <p class="captionsub"><i>A specimen of iron cylinder<br /> + construction.</i></p> +</div> + +<p>Eighty thousand +dollars was +appropriated for +<a class="pagenum" name="page_271" title="271"> </a> +doing the work. In August, 1896, the contractors +formally agreed to build the lighthouse +for $56,000, and, more than that, to +have the lantern burning within a single year.</p> + +<p>By the last of September a huge, unwieldy +foundation caisson was framing in a Baltimore +shipyard. This caisson was a bottomless +wooden box, 32 feet square and 12 feet high, +with the top nearly as thick as the height of a +man, so that it would easily sustain the weight +of the great iron cylinder soon to be placed +upon it. It was lined and caulked, painted +inside and out to make it air-tight and water-tight, +and then dragged out into the bay, together +with half an acre of mud and dock +timbers. Here the workmen crowned it with +the first two courses of the iron cylinder—a +collar 30 feet in diameter and about 12 feet +high. Inside of this a second cylinder, a steel +air-shaft, five feet in diameter, rose from a +hole in the centre of the caisson, this providing +a means of entrance and exit when the +structure should reach the shoal.</p> + +<p>Upon the addition of this vast weight of +iron and steel, the wooden caisson, although +<a class="pagenum" name="page_272" title="272"> </a> +it weighed nearly a hundred tons, disappeared +completely under the water, leaving in view +only the great black rim of the iron cylinder +and the top of the air-shaft.</p> + +<p>On April 7th of the next year the fleet was +ready to start on its voyage of conquest. The +whole country had contributed to the expedition. +Cleveland, O., furnished the iron plates +for the tower; Pittsburg sent steel and machinery; +South Carolina supplied the enormous +yellow-pine timbers for the caisson; Washington +provided two great barge-loads of stone; +and New York City contributed hundreds of +tons of Portland cement and sand and gravel, +it being cheaper to bring even such supplies +from the North than to gather them on the +shores of the bay.</p> + +<p>Everything necessary to the completion of +the lighthouse and the maintenance of the +eighty-eight men was loaded aboard ship. +And quite a fleet it made as it lay out on the +bay in the warm spring sunshine. The flagship +was a big, double-deck steamer, 200 feet +over all, once used in the coastwise trade. She +was loaded close down to her white lines, and +<a class="pagenum" name="page_273" title="273"> </a> +men lay over her rails in double rows. She +led the fleet down the bay, and two tugs and +seven barges followed in her wake like a flock +of ducklings. The steamer towed the caisson +at the end of a long hawser.</p> + +<p>In three days the fleet reached the lighthouse +site. During all of this time the sea +had been calm, with only occasional puffs of +wind, and the builders planned, somewhat exultantly, +to drop the caisson the moment they +arrived.</p> + +<p>But before they were well in sight of the +point, the sea awakened suddenly, as if conscious +of the planned surprise. A storm blew +up in the north, and at sunset on the tenth of +April the waves were washing over the top of +the iron cylinder and slapping it about like a +boy's raft. A few tons of water inside the +structure would sink it entirely, and the builder +would lose months of work and thousands +of dollars.</p> + +<p>From a rude platform on top of the cylinder +two men were working at the pumps to keep +the water out. When the edge of the great +iron rim heaved up with the waves, they +<a class="pagenum" name="page_274" title="274"> </a> +pumped and shouted; and when it went down, +they strangled and clung for their lives.</p> + +<p>The builder saw the necessity of immediate +assistance. Twelve men scrambled into a life-boat, +and three waves later they were dashed +against the rim of the cylinder. Here half of +the number, clinging like cats to the iron +plates, spread out a sail canvas and drew it +over the windward half of the cylinder, while +the other men pulled it down with their hands +and teeth and lashed it firmly into place. In +this way the cylinder shed most of the wash, +although the larger waves still scuttled down +within its iron sides. Half of the crew was +now hurried down the rope-ladders inside the +cylinder, where the water was nearly three feet +deep and swashing about like a whirlpool. +They all knew that one more than ordinarily +large wave would send the whole structure to +the bottom; but they dipped swiftly, and +passed up the water without a word. It was +nothing short of a battle for life. They must +keep the water down, or drown like rats in a +hole. They began work at sunset, and at sunrise +the next morning, when the fury of the +<a class="pagenum" name="page_277" title="277"> </a> +storm was somewhat abated, they were still at +work, and the cylinder was saved.</p> + +<div class="center"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_275"> </a> + <img src="images/i_275.jpg" width="413" height="340" alt="" /> + <div class="centercaptionbroad"> + <p class="caption">A Storm at the Tillamook Lighthouse, in the Pacific, one mile out + from Tillamook Head, Oregon.</p> + </div> +</div> + + +<p>The swells were now too high to think of +planting the caisson, and the fleet ran into the +mouth of the Great Wicomico River to await +a more favourable opportunity. Here the +builders lay for a week. To keep the men +busy some of them were employed in mixing +concrete, adding another course of iron to the +cylinder, and in other tasks of preparation. +The crew was composed largely of Americans +and Irishmen, with a few Norwegians, the +ordinary Italian or Bohemian labourer not +taking kindly to the risks and terrors of such +an expedition. Their number included carpenters, +masons, iron-workers, bricklayers, +caisson-men, sailors, and a host of common +shovellers. The pay varied from twenty to +fifty cents an hour for time actually worked, +and the builders furnished meals of unlimited +ham, bread, and coffee.</p> + +<p>On April 17th, the weather being calmer, +the fleet ventured out stealthily. A buoy +marked the spot where the lighthouse was to +<a class="pagenum" name="page_278" title="278"> </a> +stand. When the cylinder was exactly over +the chosen site, the valves of two of the compartments +into which it was divided were +quickly opened, and the water poured in. The +moment the lower edge of the caisson, borne +downward by the weight of water, touched +the shoal, the men began working with feverish +haste. Large stones were rolled from the +barges around the outside of the caisson to +prevent the water from eating away the sand +and tipping the structure over.</p> + +<p>In the meantime a crew of twenty men had +taken their places in the compartments of the +cylinder still unfilled with water. A chute +from the steamer vomited a steady stream of +dusty concrete down upon their heads. A +pump drenched them with an unceasing cataract +of salt water. In this terrible hole they +wallowed and struggled, shovelling the concrete +mortar into place and ramming it down. +Every man on the expedition, even the cooks +and the stokers, was called upon at this supreme +moment to take part in the work. Unless +the structure could be sufficiently ballasted +while the water was calm, the first wave would +<a class="pagenum" name="page_281" title="281"> </a> +brush it over and pound it to pieces on the +shoals.</p> + +<div class="center"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_279"> </a> + <img src="images/i_279.jpg" width="321" height="496" alt="" /> + <div class="centercaptionbroad"> + <p class="caption">Saving the Cylinder of the Lighthouse at Smith Point, + Chesapeake Bay, from being Swamped in a High Sea.</p> + <p class="captionsubleft"><i>When the builders were towing the unwieldy cylinder out to set it in + position, the water became suddenly rough and began to fill it. + Workmen, at the risk of their lives, boarded the cylinder, and by + desperate labours succeeded in spreading sail canvas over it, and + so saved a structure that had cost months of labour and thousands + of dollars.</i></p> + </div> +</div> + +<p>After nearly two hours of this exhausting +labour the captain of the steamer suddenly +shouted the command to cast away.</p> + +<p>The sky had turned black and the waves +ran high. All of the cranes were whipped in, +and up from the cylinder poured the shovellers, +looking as if they had been freshly rolled +in a mortar bed. There was a confused babel +of voices and a wild flight for the steamer. +In the midst of the excitement one of the +barges snapped a hawser, and, being lightened +of its load, it all but turned over in a trough +of the sea. The men aboard her went down +on their faces, clung fast, and shouted for +help, and it was only with difficulty that they +were rescued. One of the life-boats, venturing +too near the iron cylinder, was crushed +like an egg-shell, but a tug was ready to pick +up the men who manned it.</p> + +<p>So terrified were the workmen by the dangers +and difficulties of the task that twelve of +them ran away that night without asking for +their pay.</p> + +<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_282" title="282"> </a> +On the following morning the builder was +appalled to see that the cylinder was inclined +more than four feet from the perpendicular. +In spite of the stone piled around the caisson, +the water had washed the sand from under one +edge of it, and it had tipped part way over. +Now was the pivotal point of the whole enterprise. +A little lack of courage or skill, and +the work was doomed.</p> + +<p>The waves still ran high, and the freshet +currents from the Potomac River poured past +the shoals at the rate of six or seven miles an +hour. And yet one of the tugs ran out daringly, +dragging a barge-load of stone. It +was made fast, and although it pitched up and +down so that every wave threatened to swamp +it and every man aboard was seasick, they +managed to throw off 200 tons more of stone +around the base of the caisson on the side +toward which it was inclined. In this way +further tipping in that direction was prevented, +and the action of the water on the +sand under the opposite side soon righted the +structure.</p> + +<p>Beginning on the morning of April 21st +<a class="pagenum" name="page_283" title="283"> </a> +the entire crew worked steadily for forty-eight +hours without sleeping or stopping for meals +more than fifteen minutes at a time. When +at last they were relieved, they came up out +of the cylinder shouting and cheering because +the foundation was at last secure.</p> + +<p>The structure was now about thirty feet +high, and filled nearly to the top with concrete. +The next step was to force it down 15½ feet +into the hard sand at the bottom of the bay, +thus securing it for ever against the power of +the waves and the tide. An air-lock, which is +a strongly built steel chamber about the size of +a hogshead, was placed on top of the air-shaft, +the water in the big box-like caisson at the +bottom of the cylinder was forced out with +compressed air, and the men prepared to enter +the caisson.</p> + +<p>No toil can compare in its severity and danger +with that of a caisson worker. He is first +sent into the air-lock, and the air-pressure is +gradually increased around him until it equals +that of the caisson below; then he may descend. +New men often shout and beg pitifully +to be liberated from the torture. Frequently +<a class="pagenum" name="page_284" title="284"> </a> +the effect of the compressed air is such +that they bleed at the ears and nose, and for +a time their heads throb as if about to burst +open.</p> + +<p>In a few minutes these pains pass away, the +workers crawl down the long ladder of the air-shaft +and begin to dig away the sand of the +sea-bottom. It is heaped high around the +bottom of a four-inch pipe which leads up the +air-shaft and reaches out over the sea. A +valve in the pipe is opened and the sand and +stones are driven upward by the compressed +air in the caisson and blown out into the water +with tremendous force. As the sand is mined +away, the great tower above it slowly sinks +downward, while the subterranean toilers grow +sallow-faced, yellow-eyed, become half deaf, +and lose their appetites.</p> + +<p>When Smith's Point Light was within two +feet of being deep enough the workmen had +a strange and terrible adventure.</p> + +<p>Ten men were in the caisson at the time. +They noticed that the candles stuck along the +wall were burning a lambent green. Black +streaks, that widened swiftly, formed along +<a class="pagenum" name="page_287" title="287"> </a> +the white-painted walls. One man after another +began staggering dizzily, with eyes +blinded and a sharp burning in the throat. +Orders were instantly given to ascend, and the +crew, with the help of ropes, succeeded in escaping. +All that night the men lay moaning +and sleepless in their bunks. In the morning +only a few of them could open their eyes, and +all experienced the keenest torture in the presence +of light. Bags were fitted over their +heads, and they were led out to their meals.</p> + +<div class="center"> + <a class="pagenum" name="page_285"> </a> + <img src="images/i_285.jpg" width="329" height="399" alt="" /> + <div class="centercaptionbroad"> + <p class="caption">Great Waves Dashed Entirely Over Them, so that They + had to Cling for Their Lives to the Air-Pipes.</p> + <p class="captionsubleft"><i>In erecting the Smith Point lighthouse, after the cylinder was set up, + it had to be forced down fifteen and a half feet into the sand. + The lives of the men who did this, working in the caisson at the + bottom of the sea, were absolutely in the hands of the men who + managed the engine and the air-compressor at the surface; and + twice these latter were entirely deluged by the sea, but still maintained + steam and kept everything running as if no sea was playing + over them.</i></p> + </div> +</div> + +<p>That afternoon Major E. H. Ruffner, of +Baltimore, the Government engineer for the +district, appeared with two physicians. An +examination of the caisson showed that the +men had struck a vein of sulphuretted hydrogen +gas.</p> + +<p>Here was a new difficulty—a difficulty never +before encountered in lighthouse construction. +For three days the force lay idle. There +seemed no way of completing the foundation. +On the fourth day, after another flooding of +the caisson, Mr. Flaherty called for volunteers +to go down the air-shaft, agreeing to accompany +them himself—all this in the face of the +<a class="pagenum" name="page_288" title="288"> </a> +spectacle of thirty-five men moaning in their +bunks, with their eyes burning and blinded +and their throats raw. And yet fourteen men +stepped forward and offered to "see the work +through."</p> + +<p>Upon reaching the bottom of the tower they +found that the flow of gas was less rapid, and +they worked with almost frantic energy, expecting +every moment to feel the gas griping +in their throats. In half an hour another shift +came on, and before night the lighthouse was +within an inch or two of its final resting-place.</p> + +<p>The last shift was headed by an old caisson-man +named Griffin, who bore the record of +having stood seventy-five pounds of air-pressure +in the famous Long Island gas tunnel. +Just as the men were ready to leave the caisson +the gas suddenly burst up again with +something of explosive violence. Instantly +the workmen threw down their tools and made +a dash for the air-shaft. Here a terrible struggle +followed. Only one man could go up the +ladder at a time, and they scrambled and +fought, pulling down by main force every man +who succeeded in reaching the rounds. Then +<a class="pagenum" name="page_289" title="289"> </a> +one after another they dropped in the sand, +unconscious.</p> + +<p>Griffin, remaining below, had signalled for +a rope. When it came down, he groped for +the nearest workman, fastened it around his +body, and sent him aloft. Then he crawled +around and pulled the unconscious workmen +together under the air-shaft. One by one he +sent them up. The last was a powerfully built +Irishman named Howard. Griffin's eyes were +blinded, and he was so dizzy that he reeled +like a drunken man, but he managed to get +the rope around Howard's body and start him +up. At the eighteen-inch door of the lock the +unconscious Irishman wedged fast, and those +outside could not pull him through. Griffin +climbed painfully up the thirty feet of ladder +and pushed and pulled until Howard's limp +body went through. Griffin tried to follow +him, but his numbed fingers slipped on the +steel rim, and he fell backward into the death-hole +below. They dropped the rope again, +but there was no response. One of the men +called Griffin by name. The half-conscious +caisson-man aroused himself and managed to +<a class="pagenum" name="page_290" title="290"> </a> +tie the rope under his arms. Then he, too, +was hoisted aloft, and when he was dragged +from the caisson, more dead than alive, the +half-blinded men on the steamer's deck set up +a shout of applause—all the credit that he ever +received.</p> + +<p>Two of the men prostrated by the gas were +sent to a hospital in New York, where they +were months in recovering. Another went insane. +Griffin was blind for three weeks. Four +other caisson-men came out of the work with +the painful malady known as "bends," which +attacks those who work long under high air-pressure. +A victim of the "bends" cannot +straighten his back, and often his legs and +arms are cramped and contorted. These terrible +results will give a good idea of the heroism +required of the sea-builder.</p> + +<p>Having sunk the caisson deep enough the +workmen filled it full of concrete and sealed +the top of the air-shaft. Then they built the +light-keeper's home, and the lantern was ready +for lighting. Three days within the contract +year the tower was formally turned over to +the Government.</p> + +<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_291" title="291"> </a> +And thus the builders, besides providing a +warning to the hundreds of vessels that yearly +pass up the bay, erected a lasting monument +to their own skill, courage, and perseverance. +As long as the shoal remains the light will +stand. In the course of half a century, perhaps +less, the sea-water will gnaw away the +iron of the cylinder, but there will still remain +the core of concrete, as hard and solid as the +day on which it was planted.</p> + +<p>It is fitting that work which has drawn so +largely upon the highest intellectual and moral +endowments of the engineer and the builder +should not serve the selfish interests of any +one man, nor of any single corporation, nor +even of the Government which provided the +means, but that it should be a gift to the world +at large. Other nations, even Great Britain, +which has more at stake upon the seas than +any other country, impose regular lighthouse +taxes upon vessels entering their harbours; +but the lights erected by the United States +flash a free warning to any ship of any land.</p> + + + + +<div class="center margintop6"> + <a class="pagenum" name="page_292" title="292"> </a> + <img src="images/i_292.jpg" width="234" height="350" alt="" /> + <p class="caption">Peter Cooper Hewitt.</p> + <p class="captionsub"><i>With his interrupter.</i></p> +</div> + + + + +<h2>CHAPTER IX<a class="pagenum" name="page_293" title="293"> </a><br /> + +<small>THE NEWEST ELECTRIC LIGHT<br /> + +<i>Peter Cooper Hewitt and His Three Great Inventions—The +Mercury Arc Light—The New Electrical +Converter—The Hewitt Interrupter</i></small></h2> + + +<p>It is indeed a great moment when an inventor +comes to the announcement of a new +and epoch-making achievement. He has been +working for years, perhaps, in his laboratory, +struggling along unknown, unheard of, often +poor, failing a hundred times for every +achieved success, but finally, all in a moment, +surprising the secret which nature has guarded +so long and so faithfully. He has discovered +a new principle that no one has known before, +he has made a wonderful new machine—and +it works! What he has done in his laboratory +for himself now becomes of interest to +all the world. He has a great message to give. +His patience and perseverance through years +<a class="pagenum" name="page_294" title="294"> </a> +of hard work have produced something that +will make life easier and happier for millions +of people, that will open great new avenues for +human effort and human achievement, build +up new fortunes; often, indeed, change the +whole course of business affairs in the world, +if not the very channels of human thought. +Think what the steam-engine has done, and +the telegraph, and the sewing-machine! All +this wonder lies to-day in the brain of the inventor; +to-morrow it is a part of the world's +treasure.</p> + +<p>Such a moment came on an evening in +January, 1902, when Peter Cooper Hewitt, of +New York City—then wholly unknown to the +greater world—made the announcement of an +invention of such importance that Lord Kelvin, +the greatest of living electricians, afterward +said that of all the things he saw in +America the work of Mr. Hewitt attracted +him most.</p> + +<p>On that evening in January, 1902, a curious +crowd was gathered about the entrance of the +Engineers' Club in New York City. Over the +doorway a narrow glass tube gleamed with a +<a class="pagenum" name="page_295" title="295"> </a> +strange blue-green light of such intensity that +print was easily readable across the street, and +yet so softly radiant that one could look directly +at it without the sensation of blinding +discomfort which accompanies nearly all brilliant +artificial lights. The hall within, where +Mr. Hewitt was making the first public announcement +of his discovery, was also illuminated +by the wonderful new tubes. The light +was different from anything ever seen before, +grateful to the eyes, much like daylight, only +giving the face a curious, pale-green, unearthly +appearance. The cause of this phenomenon +was soon evident; the tubes were +seen to give forth all the rays except red—orange, +yellow, green, blue, violet—so that +under its illumination the room and the street +without, the faces of the spectators, the clothing +of the women lost all their shades of red; +indeed, changing the very face of the world +to a pale green-blue. It was a redless light. +The extraordinary appearance of this lamp +and its profound significance as a scientific +discovery at once awakened a wide public interest, +especially among electricians who best +<a class="pagenum" name="page_296" title="296"> </a> +understood its importance. Here was an entirely +new sort of electric light. The familiar +incandescent lamp, the invention of Thomas +A. Edison, though the best of all methods of +illumination, is also the most expensive. Mr. +Hewitt's lamp, though not yet adapted to all +the purposes served by the Edison lamp, on +account of its peculiar colour, produces eight +times as much light with the same amount +of power. It is also practically indestructible, +there being no filament to burn out; and it +requires no special wiring. By means of this +invention electricity, instead of being the most +costly means of illumination, becomes the +cheapest—cheaper even than kerosene. No +further explanation than this is necessary to +show the enormous importance of this invention.</p> + +<p>Mr. Hewitt's announcement at once awakened +the interest of the entire scientific world +and made the inventor famous, and yet it was +only the forerunner of two other inventions +equally important. Once discover a master-key +and it often unlocks many doors. Tracing +<a class="pagenum" name="page_297" title="297"> </a> +out the principles involved in his new lamp, +Mr. Hewitt invented:</p> + +<p>A new, cheap, and simple method of converting +alternating electrical currents into +direct currents.</p> + +<p>An electrical interrupter or valve, in many +respects the most wonderful of the three inventions.</p> + +<p>Before entering upon an explanation of +these discoveries, which, though seemingly difficult +and technical, are really simple and easily +understandable, it will be interesting to know +something of Mr. Hewitt and his methods of +work and the genesis of the inventions.</p> + +<p>Mr. Hewitt's achievements possess a peculiar +interest for the people of this country. +The inventor is an American of Americans. +Born to wealth, the grandson of the famous +philanthropist, Peter Cooper, the son of +Abram S. Hewitt, one of the foremost citizens +and statesmen of New York, Mr. Hewitt +might have led a life of leisure and ease, but +he has preferred to win his successes in the +American way, by unflagging industry and +<a class="pagenum" name="page_298" title="298"> </a> +perseverance, and has come to his new fortune +also like the American, suddenly and brilliantly. +As a people we like to see a man deserve +his success! The same qualities which made +Peter Cooper one of the first of American +millionaires, and Abram S. Hewitt one of the +foremost of the world's steel merchants, Mayor +of New York, and one of its most trusted citizens, +have placed Mr. Peter Cooper Hewitt +among the greatest of American inventors and +scientists. Indeed, Peter Cooper and Abram +S. Hewitt were both inventors; that is, they +had the imaginative inventive mind. Peter +Cooper once said:</p> + +<p>"I was always planning and contriving, and +was never satisfied unless I was doing something +difficult—something that had never been +done before, if possible."</p> + +<p>The grandfather built the first American +locomotive; he was one of the most ardent +supporters of Cyrus Field in the great project +of an Atlantic cable, and he was for a score of +years the president of a cable company. His +was the curious, constructive mind. As a boy +he built a washing machine to assist his overworked +<a class="pagenum" name="page_301" title="301"> </a> +mother; later on he built the first lawnmower +and invented a process for rolling iron, +the first used in this country; he constructed +a torpedo-boat to aid the Greeks in their revolt +against Turkish tyranny in 1824. He +dreamed of utilising the current of the East +River for manufacturing power; he even experimented +with flying machines, becoming so +enthusiastic in this labour that he nearly lost +the sight of an eye through an explosion which +blew the apparatus to pieces.</p> + +<div class="center"> + <a class="pagenum" name="page_299"> </a> + <img src="images/i_299.jpg" width="484" height="312" alt="" /> + <p class="caption">Watching a Test of the Hewitt Converter.</p> + <p class="captionsub"><i>Lord Kelvin in the centre.</i></p> +</div> + +<p>It will be seen, therefore, that the grandson +comes naturally by his inclinations. It was +his grandfather who gave him his first chest +of tools and taught him to work with his +hands, and he has always had a fondness for +contriving new machines and of working out +difficult scientific problems. Until the last few +years, however, he has never devoted his whole +time to the work which best pleased him. For +years he was connected with his father's extensive +business enterprise, an active member, +in fact, of the firm of Cooper, Hewitt & Co., +and he has always been prominent in the social +life of New York, a member of no fewer than +<a class="pagenum" name="page_302" title="302"> </a> +eight prominent clubs. But never for a moment +in his career—he is now forty-two years +old, though he looks scarcely thirty-five—has +he ceased to be interested in science and mechanics. +As a student in Stevens Institute, +and later in Columbia College, he gave particular +attention to electricity, physics, chemistry, +and mechanics. Later, when he went +into business, his inventive mind turned naturally +to the improvement of manufacturing +methods, with the result that his name appears +in the Patent Records as the inventor of many +useful devices—a vacuum pan, a glue clarifier, +a glue cutter and other glue machinery. He +worked at many sorts of trades with his own +hands—machine-shop practice, blacksmithing, +steam-fitting, carpentry, jewelry work, and +other work-a-day employments. He was employed +in a jeweller's shop, learning how to +make rings and to set stones; he managed a +steam launch; he was for eight years in his +grandfather's glue factory, where he had +practical problems in mechanics constantly +brought to his attention. And he was able to +combine all this hard practical work with a +<a class="pagenum" name="page_303" title="303"> </a> +fair amount of shooting, golfing, and automobiling.</p> + +<p>Most of Mr. Hewitt's scientific work of +recent years has been done after business hours—the +long, slow, plodding toil of the experimenter. +There is surely no royal road to success +in invention, no matter how well a man +may be equipped, no matter how favourably +his means are fitted to his hands. Mr. Hewitt +worked for seven years on the electrical investigations +which resulted in his three great +inventions; thousands of experiments were +performed; thousands of failures paved the +way for the first glimmer of success.</p> + +<p>His laboratory during most of these years +was hidden away in the tall tower of Madison +Square Garden, overlooking Madison Square, +with the roar of Broadway and Twenty-third +Street coming up from the distance. Here he +has worked, gradually expanding the scope of +his experiments, increasing his force of assistants, +until he now has an office and two workshops +in Madison Square Garden and is building +a more extensive laboratory elsewhere. +Replying to the remark that he was fortunate +<a class="pagenum" name="page_304" title="304"> </a> +in having the means to carry forward his experiments +in his own way, he said:</p> + +<p>"The fact is quite the contrary. I have had +to make my laboratory pay as I went along."</p> + +<p>Mr. Hewitt chose his problem deliberately, +and he chose one of the most difficult in all the +range of electrical science, but one which, if +solved, promised the most flattering rewards.</p> + +<p>"The essence of modern invention," he said, +"is the saving of waste, the increase of efficiency +in the various mechanical appliances."</p> + +<p>This being so, he chose the most wasteful, +the least efficient of all widely used electrical +devices—the incandescent lamp. Of all the +power used in producing the glowing filament +in the Edison bulb, about ninety-seven per +cent. is absolutely wasted, only three per cent. +appearing in light. This three per cent. efficiency +of the incandescent lamp compares very +unfavourably, indeed, with the forty per cent. +efficiency of the gasoline engine, the twenty-two +per cent. efficiency of the marine engine, +and the ninety per cent. efficiency of the +dynamo.</p> + +<div class="center"> + <img src="images/i_305.jpg" width="197" height="311" alt="" /> + <div class="centercaptionbroad"> + <p class="caption">The Hewitt Mercury Vapour Light.</p> + <p class="captionsubleft"><i>The circular piece just above the switch button is one form of "boosting + coil" which operates for a fraction of a second when the current + is first turned on. The tube shown here is about an inch in + diameter and several feet long. Various shapes may be used. + Unless broken, the tubes never need renewal.</i></p> + </div> +</div> + +<p>Mr. Hewitt first stated his problem very +<a class="pagenum" name="page_305" title="305"> </a> +accurately. The waste of power in the incandescent +lamp is known to be due largely to the +conversion of a considerable part of the electricity +used into useless heat. An electric-lamp +<a class="pagenum" name="page_306" title="306"> </a> +bulb feels hot to the hand. It was therefore +necessary to produce a <i>cool light</i>; that is, +a light in which the energy was converted +wholly or largely into light rays and not into +heat rays. This, indeed, has long been one of +the chief goals of ambition among inventors. +Mr. Hewitt turned his attention to the gases. +Why could not some incandescent gas be made +to yield the much desired light without heat?</p> + +<p>This was the germ of the idea. Comparatively +little was known of the action of electricity +in passing through the various gases, +though the problem involved had long been +the subject of experiment, and Mr. Hewitt +found himself at once in a maze of unsolved +problems and difficulties.</p> + +<p>"I tried many different gases," he said, "and +found that some of them gave good results—nitrogen, +for instance—but many of them produced +too much heat and presented other difficulties."</p> + +<p>Finally, he took up experiments with mercury +confined in a tube from which the air +had been exhausted. The mercury arc, as it +is called, had been experimented with years +<a class="pagenum" name="page_307" title="307"> </a> +before, had even been used as a light, although +at the time he began his investigations Mr. +Hewitt knew nothing of these earlier investigations. +He used ordinary glass vacuum +tubes with a little mercury in the bottom which +he had reduced to a gas or vapour under the +influence of heat or by a strong current of +electricity. He found it a rocky experimental +road; he has called invention "systematic +guessing."</p> + +<p>"I had an equation with a large number of +unknown quantities," he said. "About the +only thing known for a certainty was the +amount of current passing into the receptacle +containing the gas, and its pressure. I had to +assume values for these unknown quantities in +every experiment, and you can understand +what a great number of trials were necessary, +using different combinations, before obtaining +results. I presume thousands of experiments +were made."</p> + +<p>Many other investigators had been on the +very edge of the discovery. They had tried +sending strong currents through a vacuum +tube containing mercury vapour, but had +<a class="pagenum" name="page_308" title="308"> </a> +found it impossible to control the resistance. +One day, however, in running a current into +the tube Mr. Hewitt suddenly recognised certain +flashes; a curious phenomenon. Always +it is the unexpected thing, the thing unaccounted +for, that the mind of the inventor +leaps upon. For there, perhaps, is the key he +is seeking. Mr. Hewitt continued his experiments +and found that the mercury vapour was +conducting. He next discovered that <i>when +once the high resistance of the cold mercury +was overcome, a very much less powerful current +found ready passage and produced a very +brilliant light: the glow of the mercury vapour</i>. +This, Mr. Hewitt says, was the crucial +point, the genesis of his three inventions, for +all of them are applications of the mercury arc.</p> + +<p>Thus, in short, he invented the new lamp. +By the use of what is known to electricians as +a "boosting coil," supplying for an instant a +very powerful current, the initial resistance of +the cold mercury in the tube is overcome, and +then, the booster being automatically shut off, +the current ordinarily used in incandescent +lighting produces an illumination eight times +<a class="pagenum" name="page_309" title="309"> </a> +as intense as the Edison bulb of the same +candle-power. The mechanism is exceedingly +simple and cheap; a button turns the light on +or off; the remaining apparatus is not more +complex than that of the ordinary incandescent +light. The Hewitt lamp is best used in +the form of a long horizontal tube suspended +overhead in a room, the illumination filling all +the space below with a radiance much like +daylight, not glaring and sharp as with the +Edison bulb. Mr. Hewitt has a large room +hung with green material and thus illuminated, +giving the visitor a very strange impression +of a redless world. After a few moments +spent here a glance out of the window +shows a curiously red landscape, and red +buildings, a red Madison Square, the red coming +out more prominently by contrast with the +blue-green of the light.</p> + +<p>"For many purposes," said Mr. Hewitt, +"the light in its present form is already easily +adaptable. For shopwork, draughting, reading, +and other work, where the eye is called on +for continued strain, the absence of red is an +advantage, for I have found light without the +<a class="pagenum" name="page_310" title="310"> </a> +red much less tiring to the eye. I use it in my +own laboratories, and my men prefer it to +ordinary daylight."</p> + +<p>In other respects, however, its colour is objectionable, +and Mr. Hewitt has experimented +with a view to obtaining the red rays, thereby +producing a pure white light.</p> + +<p>"Why not put a red globe around your +lamp?" is a common question put to the inventor. +This is an apparently easy solution +of the difficulty until one is reminded that red +glass does not change light waves, but simply +suppresses all the rays that are not red. Since +there are no red rays in the Hewitt lamp, the +effect of the red globe would be to cut off all +the light.</p> + +<p>But Mr. Hewitt showed me a beautiful +piece of pink silk, coloured with rhodimin, +which, when thrown over the lamp, changes +some of the orange rays into red, giving a better +balanced illumination, although at some +loss of brilliancy. Further experiments along +this line are now in progress, investigations +both with mercury vapour and with other +gases.</p> + +<div class="center"> + <a class="pagenum" name="page_311" title="311"> </a> + <img src="images/i_311.jpg" width="428" height="322" alt="" /> + <div class="centercaptionbroad"> + <p class="caption">Testing a Hewitt Converter.</p> + <p class="captionsubleft"><i>The row of incandescent lights is used, together with a voltmeter and an ammeter, to + measure strength of current, resistance, and loss in converting.</i></p> + </div> +</div> + +<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_313" title="313"> </a> +Mr. Hewitt has found that the rays of his +new lamp have a peculiar and stimulating +effect on plant growth. A series of experiments, +in which seeds of various plants were +sown under exactly the same conditions, one +set being exposed to daylight and one to the +mercury gaslight, showed that the latter grew +much more rapidly and luxuriantly. Without +doubt, also, these new rays will have value in +the curing of certain kinds of disease.</p> + +<p>Further experimentation with the mercury +arc led to the other two inventions, the converter +and the interrupter. And first of the +converter:</p> + +<p><i>Hewitt's Electrical Converter.</i>—The converter +is simplicity itself. Here are two kinds +of electrical currents—the alternating and the +direct. Science has found it much cheaper and +easier to produce and transmit the alternating +current than the direct current. Unfortunately, +however, only the direct currents are +used for such practical purposes as driving an +electric car or automobile, or running an elevator, +or operating machine tools or the presses +in a printing-office, and they are preferable +<a class="pagenum" name="page_314" title="314"> </a> +for electric lighting. The power of Niagara +Falls is changed into an alternating current +which can be sent at high pressure (high voltage) +over the wires for long distances, but +before it can be used it must, for some purposes, +be <i>converted</i> into a direct current. The +apparatus now in use is cumbersome, expensive, +and wasteful.</p> + +<p>Mr. Hewitt's new converter is a mere bulb +of glass or of steel, which a man can hold in his +hand. The inventor found that the mercury +bulb, when connected with wires carrying an +alternating current, had the curious and wonderful +property of permitting the passage of +the positive half of the alternating wave when +the current has started and maintained in that +direction, and of suppressing the other half; in +other words, of changing an alternating current +into a direct current. In this process there +was a loss, the same for currents of all potentials, +of only 14 volts. A three-pound Hewitt +converter will do the work of a seven-hundred-pound +apparatus of the old type; it will cost +dollars where the other costs hundreds; and it +will save a large proportion of the electricity +<a class="pagenum" name="page_315" title="315"> </a> +wasted in the old process. By this simple +device, therefore, Mr. Hewitt has in a moment +extended the entire range of electrical +development. As alternating currents can be +carried longer distances by using high pressure, +and the pressure or voltage can be +changed by the use of a simple transformer +and then changed into a direct current by the +converter at any convenient point along the +line, therefore more waterfalls can be utilised, +more of the power of coal can be utilised, more +electricity saved after it is generated, rendering +the operating of all industries requiring +power so much cheaper. Every electric railroad, +every lighting plant, every factory using +electricity, is intimately concerned in Mr. +Hewitt's device, for it will cheapen their power +and thereby cheapen their products to you +and to me.</p> + +<p><i>Hewitt's Electrical Interrupter.</i>—The third +invention is in some respects the most wonderful +of the three. Technically, it is called an +electric interrupter or valve. "If a long list +of present-day desiderata were drawn up," +says the <i>Electrical World and Engineer</i>, "it +<a class="pagenum" name="page_316" title="316"> </a> +would perhaps contain no item of more immediate +importance than an interrupter which +shall be ... inexpensive and simple of +application." This is the view of science; and +therefore this device is one upon which a great +many inventors, including Mr. Marconi, have +recently been working; and Mr. Hewitt has +been fortunate in producing the much-needed +successful apparatus.</p> + +<p>The chief demand for an interrupter has +come from the scores of experimenters who +are working with wireless telegraphy. In +1894 Mr. Marconi began communicating +through space without wires, and it may be +said that wireless telegraphy has ever since +been the world's imminent invention. Who +has not read with profound interest the news +of Mr. Marconi's success, the gradual increases +of his distances? Who has not sympathised +with his effort to perfect his devices, +to produce a tuning apparatus by means of +which messages flying through space could be +kept secret? And here at last has come the invention +which science most needed to complete +and vitalise Marconi's work. By means of +<a class="pagenum" name="page_317" title="317"> </a> +Mr. Hewitt's interrupter, the simplicity of +which is as astonishing as its efficiency, the +whole problem has been suddenly and easily +solved.</p> + +<p>Mr. Hewitt's new interrupter may, indeed, +be called the enacting clause of wireless telegraphy. +By its use the transmission of powerful +and persistent electrical waves is reduced +to scientific accuracy. The apparatus is not +only cheap, light, and simple, but it is also a +great saver of electrical power.</p> + +<p>The interrupter, also, is a simple device. +As I have already shown, the mercury vapour +opposes a high resistance to the passage of +electricity until the current reaches a certain +high potential, when it gives way suddenly, +allowing a current of low potential to pass +through. This property can be applied in +breaking a high potential current, such as is +used in wireless telegraphy, so that the waves +set up are exactly the proper lengths, always +accurate, always the same, for sending messages +through space. By the present method +an ordinary arc or spark gap—that is, a spark +passing between two brass balls—is employed +<a class="pagenum" name="page_318" title="318"> </a> +in sending messages across the Atlantic. Marconi +uses a spark as large as a man's wrist, and +the noise of its passage is so deafening that the +operators are compelled to wear cotton in their +ears, and often they must shield their eyes +from the blinding brilliancy of the discharges. +Moreover, this open-air arc is subject to variations, +to great losses of current, the brass balls +become eroded, and the accuracy of the transmission +is much impaired. All this is obviated +by the cheap, simple, noiseless, sparkless mercury +bulb.</p> + +<p>"What I have done," said Mr. Hewitt, "is +to perfect a device by means of which messages +can be sent rapidly and without the loss +of current occasioned by the spark gap. In +wireless telegraphy the trouble has been that +it was difficult to keep the sending and the +receiving instruments attuned. By the use of +my interrupter this can be accomplished."</p> + +<p>And the possibilities of the mercury tube—indeed, +of incandescent gas tubes in general—have +by no means been exhausted. A new +door has been opened to investigators, and no +one knows what science will find in the treasure-house—perhaps +<a class="pagenum" name="page_319" title="319"> </a> +new and more wonderful +inventions, perhaps the very secret of electricity +itself. Mr. Hewitt is still busily engaged +in experimenting along these lines, both in the +realm of abstract science and in that of practical +invention. He is too careful a scientist, +however, to speak much of the future, but +those who are most familiar with his methods +of work predict that the three inventions he +has already announced are only forerunners +of many other discoveries.</p> + +<p>The chief pursuit of science and invention +in this day of wonders is the electrical conquest +of the world, the introduction of the +electrical age. The electric motor is driving +out the steam locomotive, the electric light is +superseding gas and kerosene, the waterfall +must soon take the place of coal. But certain +great problems stand like solid walls in the +way of development, part of them problems +of science, part of mechanical efficiency. The +battle of science is, indeed, not unlike real war, +charging its way over one battlement after another, +until the very citadel of final secret is +captured. Mr. Hewitt with his three inventions +<a class="pagenum" name="page_320" title="320"> </a> +has led the way over some of the most +serious present barriers in the progress of +technical electricity, enabling the whole industry, +in a hundred different phases of its +progress, to go forward.</p> + +<p class="center margintop6">THE END</p> + + +<div class="footnotes"> +<div class="footnote"> +<p class="noindent"> +<a name="Footnote_1" id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1" class="label">[1]</a>: +In the first "Boys' Book of Inventions," the author devoted +a chapter entitled "Through the Air" to the interesting work of +the inventors of flying machines who have experimented with +aëroplanes; that is, soaring machines modelled after the wings of a +bird. The work of Professor S. P. Langley with his marvellous +Aërodrome, and that of Hiram Maxim and of Otto Lilienthal, were +given especial consideration. In the present chapter attention is +directed to an entirely different class of flying machines—the +steerable balloons.</p> +</div> +</div> + + +<div class="tnote"> +<p class="noindent">Transcriber's Note:</p> +<p class="noindent">Obvious punctuation errors have been silently repaired.</p> +<p class="noindent">Inconsistencies, for example in hyphenation and spelling, have been +retained.</p> +<p class="noindent">Page <a href="#page_182">182</a>: "Burnburg" is actually called "Bernburg".</p> +</div> + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44188 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/44188-h/images/cover.jpg b/44188-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1d3795a --- /dev/null +++ b/44188-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/44188-h/images/i_001a.jpg b/44188-h/images/i_001a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3e5b79c --- /dev/null +++ b/44188-h/images/i_001a.jpg diff --git a/44188-h/images/i_001b.jpg 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