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diff --git a/6139.txt b/6139.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..71f9d32 --- /dev/null +++ b/6139.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5057 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Marvels of Modern Science, by Paul Severing + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Marvels of Modern Science + +Author: Paul Severing + +Release Date: July, 2004 [EBook #6139] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on November 19, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MARVELS OF MODERN SCIENCE *** + + + + +Produced by Emily Ratliff, Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + +MARVELS OF MODERN SCIENCE + +By PAUL SEVERING + +Edited by THEODORE WATERS + +1910 + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER I +FLYING MACHINES +Early attempts at flight. The Dirigible. Prof. Langley's +experiments. The Wright Brothers. Count Zeppelin. Recent aeroplane +records. + +CHAPTER II +WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY +Primitive signalling. Principles of wireless telegraphy. Ether +vibrations. Wireless apparatus. The Marconi system. + +CHAPTER III +RADIUM +Experiments of Becquerel. Work of the Curies. Discovery of Radium. +Enormous energy. Various uses. + +CHAPTER IV +MOVING PICTURES +Photographing motion. Edison's Kinetoscope. Lumiere's +Cinematographe. Before the camera. The mission of the moving +picture. Edison's latest triumph. + +CHAPTER V +SKY-SCRAPERS AND HOW THEY ARE BUILT +Evolution of the sky-scraper. Construction. New York's giant +buildings. Dimensions. + +CHAPTER VI +OCEAN PALACES +Ocean greyhounds. Present day floating palaces. Regal +appointments. Passenger accommodation. Food consumption. The one +thousand foot boat. + +CHAPTER VII +WONDERFUL CREATIONS IN PLANT LIFE +Mating Plants. Experiments of Burbank. What he has accomplished. + +CHAPTER VIII +LATEST DISCOVERIES IN ARCHAEOLOGY +Prehistoric time. Earliest records. Discoveries in Bible lands. +American explorations. + +CHAPTER IX +GREAT TUNNELS OF THE WORLD +Primitive Tunnelling. Hoosac Tunnel. Croton aqueduct. Great Alpine +tunnels. New York subway. McAdoo tunnels. How tunnels are built. + +CHAPTER X +ELECTRICITY IN THE HOUSEHOLD +Electrically equipped houses. Cooking by electricity. Comforts and +conveniences. + +CHAPTER XI +HARNESSING THE WATER-FALL +Electric energy. High pressure. Transformers. Development of +water-power. + +CHAPTER XII +WONDERFUL WAR SHIPS +Dimensions, displacements, cost and description of battleships. +Capacity and speed. Preparing for the future. + +CHAPTER XIII +A TALK ON BIG GUNS +The first projectiles. Introduction of cannon High pressure guns. +Machine guns. Dimensions and cost of big guns. + +CHAPTER XIV +MYSTERY OF THE STARS +Wonders of the universe. Star Photography. The infinity of space. + +CHAPTER XV +CAN WE COMMUNICATE WITH OTHER WORLDS? +Vastness of Nature. Star distances. Problem of communicating with +Mars. The Great Beyond. + + + + +Introduction + +The purpose of this little book is to give a general idea of a few of +the great achievements of our time. Within such a limited space it was +impossible to even mention thousands more of the great inventions and +triumphs which mark the rushing progress of the world in the present +century; therefore, only those subjects have been treated which appeal +with more than passing interest to all. For instance, the flying machine +is engaging the attention of the old, the young and the middle-aged, +and soon the whole world will be on the wing. Radium, "the revealer," +is opening the door to possibilities almost beyond human conception. +Wireless Telegraphy is crossing thousands of miles of space with +invisible feet and making the nations of the earth as one. 'Tis the +same with the other subjects,--one and all are of vital, human interest, +and are extremely attractive on account of their importance in the +civilization of today. Mighty, sublime, wonderful, as have been the +achievements of past science, as yet we are but on the verge of the +continents of discovery. Where is the wizard who can tell what lies +in the womb of time? Just as our conceptions of many things have been +revolutionized in the past, those which we hold to-day of the cosmic +processes may have to be remodeled in the future. The men of fifty +years hence may laugh at the circumscribed knowledge of the present +and shake their wise heads in contemplation of what they will term our +crudities, and which we now call _progress_. Science is ever on the +march and what is new to-day will be old to-morrow. We cannot go +back, we must go forward, and although we can never reach finality in +aught, we can improve on the _past_ to enrich the _future_. If this +volume creates an interest and arouses an enthusiasm in the ordinary men +and women into whose hands it may come, and stimulates them to a study +of the great events making for the enlightenment, progress and elevation +of the race, it shall have fulfilled its mission and serve the purpose +for which it was written. + + + + +CHAPTER I + +FLYING MACHINES + + Early Attempts at Flight--The Dirigible--Professor Langley's + Experiment--The Wright Brothers--Count Zeppelin--Recent Aeroplane + Records. + + +It is hard to determine when men first essayed the attempt to fly. In +myth, legend and tradition we find allusions to aerial flight and from +the very dawn of authentic history, philosophers, poets, and writers +have made allusion to the subject, showing that the idea must have +early taken root in the restless human heart. Aeschylus exclaims: + + "Oh, might I sit, sublime in air + Where watery clouds the freezing snows prepare!" + +Ariosto in his "Orlando Furioso" makes an English knight, whom he names +Astolpho, fly to the banks of the Nile; nowadays the authors are trying +to make their heroes fly to the North Pole. + +Some will have it that the ancient world had a civilization much higher +than the modern and was more advanced in knowledge. It is claimed that +steam engines and electricity were common in Egypt thousands of years +ago and that literature, science, art, and architecture flourished as +never since. Certain it is that the Pyramids were for a long time the +most solid "Skyscrapers" in the world. + +Perhaps, after all, our boasted progress is but a case of going back +to first principles, of history, or rather tradition repeating itself. +The flying machine may not be as new as we think it is. At any rate +the conception of it is old enough. + +In the thirteenth century Roger Bacon, often called the "Father of +Philosophy," maintained that the air could be navigated. He suggested +a hollow globe of copper to be filled with "ethereal air or liquid +fire," but he never tried to put his suggestion into practice. Father +Vasson, a missionary at Canton, in a letter dated September 5, 1694, +mentions a balloon that ascended on the occasion of the coronation of +the Empress Fo-Kien in 1306, but he does not state where he got the +information. + +The balloon is the earliest form of air machine of which we have record. +In 1767 a Dr. Black of Edinburgh suggested that a thin bladder could +be made to ascend if filled with inflammable air, the name then given +to hydrogen gas. + +In 1782 Cavallo succeeded in sending up a soap bubble filled with such +gas. + +It was in the same year that the Montgolfier brothers of Annonay, near +Lyons in France, conceived the idea of using hot air for lifting things +into the air. They got this idea from watching the smoke curling up +the chimney from the heat of the fire beneath. + +In 1783 they constructed the first successful balloon of which we have +any description. It was in the form of a round ball, 110 feet in +circumference and, with the frame weighed 300 pounds. It was filled +with 22,000 cubic feet of vapor. It rose to a height of 6,000 feet and +proceeded almost 7,000 feet, when it gently descended. France went +wild over the exhibition. + +The first to risk their lives in the air were M. Pilatre de Rozier and +the Marquis de Arlandes, who ascended over Paris in a hot-air balloon +in November, 1783. They rose five hundred feet and traveled a distance +of five miles in twenty-five minutes. + +In the following December Messrs. Charles and Robert, also Frenchmen, +ascended ten thousand feet and traveled twenty-seven miles in two +hours. + +The first balloon ascension in Great Britain was made by an experimenter +named Tytler in 1784. A few months later Lunardi sailed over London. + +In 1836 three Englishmen, Green, Mason and Holland, went from London to +Germany, five hundred miles, in eighteen hours. + +The greatest balloon exhibition up to then, indeed the greatest ever, +as it has never been surpassed, was given by Glaisher and Coxwell, two +Englishmen, near Wolverhampton, on September 5, 1862. They ascended +to such an elevation that both lost the power of their limbs, and had +not Coxwell opened the descending valve with his teeth, they would +have ascended higher and probably lost their lives in the rarefied +atmosphere, for there was no compressed oxygen then as now to inhale +into their lungs. The last reckoning of which they were capable before +Glaisher lost consciousness showed an elevation of twenty-nine thousand +feet, but it is supposed that they ascended eight thousand feet higher +before Coxwell was able to open the descending valve. In 1901 in the +city of Berlin two Germans rose to a height of thirty-five thousand +feet, but the two Englishmen of almost fifty years ago are still given +credit for the highest ascent. + +The largest balloon ever sent aloft was the "Giant" of M. Nadar, a +Frenchman, which had a capacity of 215,000 cubic feet and required for +a covering 22,000 yards of silk. It ascended from the Champ de Mars, +Paris, in 1853, with fifteen passengers, all of whom came back safely. + +The longest flight made in a balloon was that by Count de La Vaulx, 1193 +miles in 1905. + +A mammoth balloon was built in London by A. E. Gaudron. In 1908 with +three other aeronauts Gaudron crossed from the Crystal Palace to the +Belgian Coast at Ostend and then drifted over Northern Germany and was +finally driven down by a snow storm at Mateki Derevni in Russia, having +traveled 1,117 miles in 31-1/2 hours. The first attempt at constructing +a dirigible balloon or airship was made by M. Giffard, a Frenchman, +in 1852. The bag was spindle-shaped and 144 feet from point to point. +Though it could be steered without drifting the motor was too weak to +propel it. Giffard had many imitations in the spindle-shaped envelope +construction, but it was a long time before any good results were +obtained. + +It was not until 1884 that M. Gaston Tissandier constructed a dirigible +in any way worthy of the name. It was operated by a motor driven by +a bichromate of soda battery. The motor weighed 121 lbs. The cells +held liquid enough to work for 2-1/2 hours, generating 1-1/3 horse +power. The screw had two arms and was over nine feet in circumference. +Tissandier made some successful flights. + +The first dirigible balloon to return whence it started was that known +as _La France_. This airship was also constructed in 1884. The +designer was Commander Renard of the French Marine Corps assisted by +Captain Krebs of the same service. The length of the envelope was 179 +feet, its diameter 27-1/2 feet. The screw was in front instead of +behind as in all others previously constructed. The motor which weighed +220-1/2 lbs. was driven by electricity and developed 8-1/2 horse power. +The propeller was 24 feet in diameter and only made 46 revolutions to +the minute. This was the first time electricity was used as a motor +force, and mighty possibilities were conceived. + +In 1901 a young Brazilian, Santos-Dumont, made a spectacular flight. +M. Deutch, a Parisian millionaire, offered a prize of $20,000 for the +first dirigible that would fly from the Parc d'Aerostat, encircle the +Eiffel Tower and return to the starting point within thirty minutes, +the distance of such flight being about nine miles. Dumont won the +prize though he was some forty seconds over time. The length of his +dirigible on this occasion was 108 feet, the diameter 19-1/2 feet. It +had a 4-cylinder petroleum motor weighing 216 lbs., which generated +20 horse power. The screw was 13 feet in diameter and made three hundred +revolutions to the minute. + +From this time onward great progress was made in the constructing of +airships. Government officials and many others turned their attention +to the work. Factories were put in operation in several countries of +Europe and by the year 1905 the dirigible had been fairly well +established. Zeppelin, Parseval, Lebaudy, Baidwin and Gross were +crowding one another for honors. All had given good results, Zeppelin +especially had performed some remarkable feats with his machines. + +In the construction of the dirigible balloon great care must be taken +to build a strong, as well as light framework and to suspend the car +from it so that the weight will be equally distributed, and above all, +so to contrive the gas contained that under no circumstances can it +become tilted. There is great danger in the event of tilting that some +of the stays suspending the car may snap and the construction fall to +pieces in the air. + +In deciding upon the shape of a dirigible balloon the chief +consideration is to secure an end surface which presents the least +possible resistance to the air and also to secure stability and +equilibrium. Of course the motor, fuel and propellers are other +considerations of vital importance. + +The first experimenter on the size of wing surface necessary to sustain +a man in the air, calculated from the proportion of weight and wing +surface in birds, was Karl Meerwein of Baden. He calculated that a man +weighing 200 lbs. would require 128 square feet. In 1781 he made a +spindle-shaped apparatus presenting such a surface to the resistance +of the air. It was collapsible on the middle and here the operator was +fastened and lay horizontally with his face towards the earth working +the collapsible wings by means of a transverse rod. It was not a +success. + +During the first half of the 19th Century there were many experiments +with wing surfaces, none of which gave any promise. In fact it was not +until 1865 that any advance was made, when Francis Wenham showed that +the lifting power of a plane of great superficial area could be obtained +by dividing the large plane into several parts arranged on tiers. This +may be regarded as the germ of the modern aeroplane, the first glimmer +of hope to filter through the darkness of experimentation until then. +When Wenham's apparatus went against a strong wind it was only lifted +up and thrown back. However, the idea gave thought to many others years +afterwards. + +In 1885 the brothers Lilienthal in Germany discovered the possibility +of driving curved aeroplanes against the wind. Otto Lilienthal held +that it was necessary to begin with "sailing" flight and first of all +that the art of balancing in the air must be learned by practical +experiments. He made several flights of the kind now known as _gliding_. +From a height of 100 feet he glided a distance of 700 feet and found he +could deflect his flight from left to right by moving his legs which +were hanging freely from the seat. He attached a light motor weighing +only 96 lbs. and generating 2-1/2 horse power. To sustain the weight he +had to increase the size of his planes. + +Unfortunately this pioneer in modern aviation was killed in an +experiment, but he left much data behind which has helped others. His +was the first actual flyer which demonstrated the elementary laws +governing real flight and blazed the way for the successful experiments +of the present time. His example made the gliding machine a continuous +performance until real practical aerial flight was achieved. + +As far back as 1894 Maxim built a giant aeroplane but it was too +cumbersome to be operated. + +In America the wonderful work of Professor Langley of the Smithsonian +Institution with his aerodromes attracted worldwide attention. Langley +was the great originator of the science of aerodynamics on this side +of the water. Langley studied from artificial birds which he had +constructed and kept almost constantly before him. + +To Langley, Chanute, Herring and Manly, America owes much in the way +of aeronautics before the Wrights entered the field. The Wrights have +given the greatest impetus to modern aviation. They entered the field +in 1900 and immediately achieved greater results than any of their +predecessors. They followed the idea of Lilienthal to a certain extent. +They made gliders in which the aviator had a horizontal position and +they used twice as great a lifting surface as that hitherto employed. +The flights of their first motor machine was made December 17, 1903, +at Kitty Hawk, N.C. In 1904 with a new machine they resumed experiments +at their home near Dayton, O. In September of that year they succeeded +in changing the course from one dead against the wind to a curved path +where cross currents must be encountered, and made many circular +flights. During 1906 they rested for a while from practical flight, +perfecting plans for the future. In the beginning of September, 1908, +Orville Wright made an aeroplane flight of one hour, and a few days +later stayed up one hour and fourteen minutes. Wilbur Wright went to +France and began a series of remarkable flights taking up passengers. +On December 31, of that year, he startled the world by making the +record flight of two hours and nineteen minutes. + +It was on Sept. 13, 1906, that Santos-Dumont made the first officially +recorded European aeroplane flight, leaving the ground for a distance +of 12 yards. On November 12, of same year, he remained in the air for +21 seconds and traveled a distance of 230 yards. These feats caused +a great sensation at the time. + +While the Wrights were achieving fame for America, Henri Farman was +busy in England. On October 26, 1907, he flew 820 yards in 52-1/2 +seconds. On July 6, 1908, he remained in the air for 20-1/2 minutes. +On October 31, same year, in France, he flew from Chalons to Rheims, +a distance of sixteen miles, in twenty minutes. + +The year 1909 witnessed mighty strides in the field of aviation. +Thousands of flights were made, many of which exceeded the most sanguine +anticipations. On July 13, Bleriot flew from Etampes to Chevilly, 26 +miles, in 44 minutes and 30 seconds, and on July 25 he made the first +flight across the British Channel, 32 miles, in 37 minutes. Orville +Wright made several sensational flights in his biplane around Berlin, +while his brother Wilbur delighted New Yorkers by circling the Statue +of Liberty and flying up the Hudson from Governor's Island to Grant's +Tomb and return, a distance of 21 miles, in 33 minutes and 33 seconds +during the Hudson-Fulton Celebration. On November 20 Louis Paulhan, +in a biplane, flew from Mourmelon to Chalons, France, and return, 37 +miles in 55 minutes, rising to a height of 1000 feet. + +The dirigible airship was also much in evidence during 1909, Zeppelin, +especially, performing some remarkable feats. The Zeppelin V., +subsequently re-numbered No. 1, of the rigid type, 446 feet long, +diameter 42-1/2 feet and capacity 536,000 cubic feet, on March 29, +rose to a height of 3,280, and on April 1, started with a crew of nine +passengers from Frederickshafen to Munich. In a 35 mile gale it was +carried beyond Munich, but Zeppelin succeeded in coming to anchor. +Other Zeppelin balloons made remarkable voyages during the year. But +the latest achievements (1910) of the old German aeronaut have put all +previous records into the shade and electrified the whole world. His +new passenger airship, the _Deutschland_, on June 22, made a 300 +mile trip from Frederickshafen to Dusseldorf in 9 hours, carrying 20 +passengers. This was at the rate of 33.33 miles per hour. During one +hour of the journey a speed of 43-1/2 miles was averaged. The passengers +were carried in a mahogany finished cabin and had all the comforts of +a Pullman car, but most significant fact of all, the trip was made on +schedule and with all regularity of an express train. + +Two days later Zeppelin eclipsed his own record air voyage when his +vessel carried 32 passengers, ten of whom were women, in a 100 mile +trip from Dusseldorf to Essen, Dortmund and Bochum and back. At one +time on this occasion while traveling with the wind the airship made +a speed of 56-1/2 miles. It passed through a heavy shower and forced +its way against a strong headwind without difficulty. The passengers +were all delighted with the new mode of travel, which was very +comfortable. This last dirigible masterpiece of Zeppelin may be styled +the leviathan of the air. It is 485 feet long with a total lifting +power of 44,000 lbs. It has three motors which total 330 horse power +and it drives at an average speed of about 33 miles an hour. A regular +passenger service has been established and tickets are selling at $50. + +The present year can also boast some great aeroplane records, notably +by Curtiss and Hamilton in America and Farman and Paulhan in Europe. +Curtiss flew from Albany to New York, a distance of 137 miles, at an +average speed of 55 miles an hour and Hamilton flew from New York to +Philadelphia and return. The first night flight of a dirigible over +New York City was made by Charles Goodale on July 19. He flew from +Palisades Park on the Hudson and return. + +From a scientific toy the Flying Machine has been developed and +perfected into a practical means of locomotion. It bids fair at no +distant date to revolutionize the transit of the world. No other art +has ever made such progress in its early stages and every day witnesses +an improvement. + +The air, though invisible to the eye, has mass and therefore offers +resistance to all moving bodies. Therefore air-mass and air resistance +are the first principles to be taken into consideration in the +construction of an aeroplane. It must be built so that the air-mass +will sustain it and the motor, and the motor must be of sufficient +power to overcome the air resistance. + +A ship ploughing through the waves presents the line of least resistance +to the water and so is shaped somewhat like a fish, the natural denizen +of that element. It is different with the aeroplane. In the intangible +domain it essays to overcome, there must be a sufficient surface to +compress a certain volume of air to sustain the weight of the machinery. + +The surfaces in regard to size, shape, curvature, bracing and material, +are all important. A great deal depends upon the curve of the surfaces. +Two machines may have the same extent of surface and develop the same +rate of speed, yet one may have a much greater lifting power than the +other, provided it has a more efficient curve to its surface. Many +people have a fallacious idea that the surfaces of an aeroplane are +planes and this doubt less arises from the word itself. However, the +last syllable in _aeroplane_ has nothing whatever to do with a flat +surface. It is derived from the Greek _planos_, wandering, therefore the +entire word signifies an air wanderer. + +The surfaces are really aero curves arched in the rear of the front +edge, thus allowing the supporting surface of the aeroplane in passing +forward with its backward side set at an angle to the direction of its +motion, to act upon the air in such a way as to tend to compress it +on the under side. + +After the surfaces come the rudders in importance. It is of vital +consequence that the machine be balanced by the operator. In the present +method of balancing an aeroplane the idea in mind is to raise the lower +side of the machine and make the higher side lower in order that it +can be quickly righted when it tips to one side from a gust of wind, +or when making angle at a sudden turn. To accomplish this, two methods +can be employed. 1. Changing the form of the wing. 2. Using separate +surfaces. One side can be made to lift more than the other by giving +it a greater curve or extending the extremity. + +In balancing by means of separate surfaces, which can be turned up or +down on each side of the machine, the horizontal balancing rudders are +so connected that they will work in an opposite direction--while one +is turned to lift one side, the other will act to lower the other side +so as to strike an even balance. + +The motors and propellers next claim attention. It is the motor that +makes aviation possible. It was owing in a very large measure to the +introduction of the petrol motor that progress became rapid. Hitherto +many had laid the blame of everything on the motor. They had +said,--"give us a light and powerful engine and we will show you how +to fly." + +The first very light engine to be available was the _Antoinette_, +built by Leon Levavasseur in France. It enabled Santos-Dumont to make +his first public successful flights. Nearly all aeroplanes follow the +same general principles of construction. Of course a good deal depends +upon the form of aeroplane--whether a monoplane or a biplane. As these +two forms are the chief ones, as yet, of heavier than-air machines, +it would be well to understand them. The monoplane has single large +surfaces like the wings of a bird, the biplane has two large surfaces +braced together one over the other. At the present writing a triplane +has been introduced into the domain of American aviation by an English +aeronaut. Doubtless as the science progresses many other variations +will appear in the field. Most machines, though fashioned on similar +lines, possess universal features. For instance, the Wright biplane +is characterized by warping wing tips and seams of heavy construction, +while the surfaces of the Herring-Curtiss machine, are slight and it +looks very light and buoyant as if well suited to its element. The +Voisin biplane is fashioned after the manner of a box kite and therefore +presents vertical surfaces to the air. Farman's machine has no vertical +surfaces, but there are hinged wing tips to the outer rear-edges of +its surfaces, for use in turning and balancing. He also has a +combination of wheels and skids or runners for starting and landing. + +The position to be occupied by the operator also influences the +construction. Some sit on top of the machine, others underneath. In +the _Antoinette_, Latham sits up in a sort of cockpit on the top. +Bleriot sits far beneath his machine. In the latest construction of +Santos-Dumont, the _Demoiselle_, the aviator sits on the top. + +Aeroplanes have been constructed for the most part in Europe, especially +in France. There may be said to be only one factory in America, that +of Herring-Curtiss, at Hammondsport, N.Y., as the Wright place at +Dayton is very small and only turns out motors and experimenting +machines, and cannot be called a regular factory. The Wright machines +are now manufactured by a French syndicate. It is said that the Wrights +will have an American factory at work in a short time. The French-made +aeroplanes have given good satisfaction. These machines cost from +$4,000 to $5,000, and generally have three cylinder motors developing +from 25 to 35 horse power. + +The latest model of Bleriot known as No. 12 has beaten the time record +of Glenn Curtiss' biplane with its 60 horse power motor. The Farman +machine or the model in which he made the world's duration record in +his three hour and sixteen minutes flight at Rheims, is one of the +best as well as the cheapest of the French makes. Without the motor +it cost but $1,200. It has a surface twenty-five meters square, is +eight meters long and seven-and-a-half meters wide, weighs 140 kilos, +and has a motor which develops from 25 to 50 horse power. + +The Wright machines cost $6,000. They have four cylinder motors of 30 +horse power, are 12-1/2 meters long, 9 meters wide and have a surface +of 30 square meters. They weigh 400 kilos. In this country they cost +$7,500 exclusive of the duty on foreign manufacture. + +The impetus being given to aviation at the present time by the prizes +offered is spurring the men-birds to their best efforts. + +It is prophesied that the aeroplane will yet attain a speed of 300 +miles an hour. The quickest travel yet attained by man has been at the +rate of 127 miles an hour. That was accomplished by Marriott in a +racing automobile at Ormond Beach in 1906, when he went one mile in +28 1-5 seconds. It is doubtful, however, were it possible to achieve +a rate of 300 miles an hour, that any human being could resist the air +pressure at such a velocity. + +At any rate there can be no question as to the aeroplane attaining a +much greater speed than at present. That it will be useful there can +be little doubt. It is no longer a scientific toy in the hands of +amateurs, but a practical machine which is bound to contribute much +to the progress of the world. Of course, as a mode of transportation +it is not in the same class with the dirigible, but it can be made to +serve many other purposes. As an agent in time of war it would be more +important than fort or warship. + +The experiments of Curtiss, made a short time ago over Lake Keuka at +Hammondsport, N.Y., prove what a mighty factor would have to be reckoned +with in the martial aeroplane. Curtiss without any practice at all hit +a mimic battle ship fifteen times out of twenty-two shots. His +experiment has convinced the military and naval authorities of this +country that the aeroplane and the aerial torpedo constitute a new +danger against which there is no existing protection. Aerial offensive +and defensive strategy is now a problem which demands the attention +of nations. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY + + Primitive Signalling--Principles of Wireless Telegraphy--Ether + Vibrations--Wireless Apparatus--The Marconi System. + + +At a very early stage in the world's history, man found it necessary +to be able to communicate with places at a distance by means of signals. +Fire was the first agent employed for the purpose. On hill-tops or +other eminences, what were known as beacon fires were kindled and owing +to their elevation these could be seen for a considerable distance +throughout the surrounding country. These primitive signals could be +passed on from one point to another, until a large region could be +covered and many people brought into communication with one another. +These fires expressed a language of their own, which the observers +could readily interpret. For a long time they were the only method +used for signalling. Indeed in many backward localities and in some +of the outlying islands and among savage tribes the custom still +prevails. The bushmen of Australia at night time build fires outside +their huts or kraals to attract the attention of their followers. + +Even in enlightened Ireland the kindling of beacon fires is still +observed among the people of backward districts especially on May Eve +and the festival of mid-summer. On these occasions bonfires are lit +on almost every hillside throughout that country. This custom has been +handed down from the days of the Druids. + +For a long time fires continued to be the mode of signalling, but as +this way could only be used in the night, it was found necessary to +adopt some method that would answer the purpose in daytime; hence +signal towers were erected from which flags were waved and various +devices displayed. Flags answered the purposes so very well that they +came into general use. In course of time they were adopted by the army, +navy and merchant marine and a regular code established, as at the +present time. + +The railroad introduced the semaphore as a signal, and field tactics +the heliograph or reflecting mirror which, however, is only of service +when there is a strong sunlight. + +Then came the electric telegraph which not only revolutionized all +forms of signalling but almost annihilated distance. Messages and all +sorts of communications could be flashed over the wires in a few minutes +and when a cable was laid under the ocean, continent could converse +with continent as if they were next door neighbors. + +The men who first enabled us to talk over a wire certainly deserve our +gratitude, all succeeding generations are their debtors. To the man +who enabled us to talk to long distances without a wire at all it would +seem we owe a still greater debt. But who is this man around whose +brow we should twine the laurel wreath, to the altar of whose genius +we should carry frankincense and myrrh? + +This is a question which does not admit of an answer, for to no one +man alone do we owe wireless telegraphy, though Hertz was the first +to discover the waves which make it possible. However, it is to the +men whose indefatigable labors and genius made the electric telegraph +a reality, that we also owe wireless telegraphy as we have it at +present, for the latter may be considered in many respects the resultant +of the former, though both are different in medium. + +Radio or wireless telegraphy in principle is as old as mankind. Adam +delivered the first wireless when on awakening in the Garden of Eden +he discovered Eve and addressed her in the vernacular of Paradise in +that famous sentence which translated in English reads both ways the +same,--"Madam, I'm Adam." The oral words issuing from his lips created +a sound wave which the medium of the air conveyed to the tympanum of +the partner of his joys and the cause of his sorrows. + +When one person speaks to another the speaker causes certain vibrations +in the air and these so stimulate the hearing apparatus that a series +of nerve impulses are conveyed to the sensorium where the meaning of +these signals is unconsciously interpreted. + +In wireless telegraphy the sender causes vibrations not in the air but +in that all-pervading impalpable substance which fills all space and +which we call the ether. These vibrations can reach out to a great +distance and are capable of so affecting a receiving apparatus that +signals are made, the movements of which can be interpreted into a +distinct meaning and consequently into the messages of language. + +Let us briefly consider the underlying principles at work. When we +cast a stone into a pool of water we observe that it produces a series +of ripples which grow fainter and fainter the farther they recede from +the centre, the initial point of the disturbance, until they fade +altogether in the surrounding expanse of water. The succession of these +ripples is what is known as _wave_ motion. + +When the clapper strikes the lip of a bell it produces a sound and +sends a tremor out upon the air. The vibrations thus made are air +waves. + +In the first of these cases the medium communicating the ripple or +wavelet is the water. In the second case the medium which sustains the +tremor and communicates the vibrations is the air. + +Let us now take the case of a third medium, the substance of which +puzzled the philosophers of ancient time and still continues to puzzle +the scientists of the present. This is the ether, that attenuated fluid +which fills all inter-stellar space and all space in masses and between +molecules and atoms not otherwise occupied by gross matter. When a +lamp is lit the light radiates from it in all directions in a wave +motion. That which transmits the light, the medium, is ether. By this +means energy is conveyed from the sun to the earth, and scientists +have calculated the speed of the ether vibrations called light at +186,400 miles per second. Thus a beam of light can travel from the sun +to the earth, a distance of between 92,000,000 and 95,000,000 miles +(according to season), in a little over eight minutes. + +The fire messages sent by the ancients from hill to hill were ether +vibrations. The greater the fires, the greater were the vibrations and +consequently they carried farther to the receiver, which was the eye. +If a signal is to be sent a great distance by light the source of that +light must be correspondingly powerful in order to disturb the ether +sufficiently. The same principle holds good in wireless telegraphy. +If we wish to communicate to a great distance the ether must be +disturbed in proportion to the distance. The vibrations that produce +light are not sufficient in intensity to affect the ether in such a +way that signals can be carried to a distance. Other disturbances, +however, can be made in the ether, stronger than those which create +light. If we charge a wire with an electric current and place a magnetic +needle near it we find it moves the needle from one position to another. +This effect is called an electro-magnetic disturbance in the ether. +Again when we charge an insulated body with electricity we find that +it attracts any light substance indicating a material disturbance in +the ether. This is described as an electro-static disturbance or effect +and it is upon this that wireless telegraphy depends for its operations. + +The late German physicist, Dr. Heinrich Hertz, Ph.D., was the first +to detect electrical waves in the ether. He set up the waves in the +ether by means of an electrical discharge from an induction coil. To +do this he employed a very simple means. He procured a short length +of wire with a brass knob at either end and bent around so as to form +an almost complete circle leaving only a small air gap between the +knobs. Each time there was a spark discharge from the induction coil, +the experimenter found that a small electric spark also generated +between the knobs of the wire loop, thus showing that electric waves +were projected through the ether. This discovery suggested to scientists +that such electric waves might be used as a means of transmitting +signals to a distance through the medium of the ether without connecting +wires. + +When Hertz discovered that electric waves crossed space he unconsciously +became the father of the modern system of radio-telegraphy, and though +he did not live to put or see any practical results from his wonderful +discovery, to him in a large measure should be accorded the honor of +blazoning the way for many of the intellectual giants who came after +him. Of course those who went before him, who discovered the principles +of the electric telegraph made it possible for the Hertzian waves to +be utilized in wireless. + +It is easy to understand the wonders of wireless telegraphy when we +consider that electric waves transverse space in exactly the same +manner as light waves. When energy is transmitted with finite velocity +we can think of its transference only in two ways: first by the actual +transference of matter as when a stone is hurled from one place to +another; second, by the propagation of energy from point to point +through a medium which fills the space between two bodies. The body +sending out energy disturbs the medium contiguous to it, which +disturbance is communicated to adjacent parts of the medium and so the +movement is propagated outward from the sending body through the medium +until some other body is affected. + +A vibrating body sets up vibrations in another body, as for instance, +when one tuning fork responds to the vibrations of another when both +have the same note or are in tune. + +The transmission of messages by wireless telegraphy is effected in a +similar way. The apparatus at the sending station sends out waves of +a certain period through the ether and these waves are detected at the +receiving station, by apparatus attuned to this wave length or period. + +The term electric radiation was first employed by Hertz to designate +waves emitted by a Leyden jar or oscillator system of an induction +coil, but since that time these radiations have been known as Hertzian +waves. These waves are the underlying principles in wireless telegraphy. + +It was found that certain metal filings offered great resistance to +the passage of an electric current through them but that this resistance +was very materially reduced when electric waves fell upon the filings +and remained so until the filings were shaken, thus giving time for +the fact to be observed in an ordinary telegraphic instrument. + +The tube of filings through which the electric current is made to pass +in wireless telegraphy is called a coherer signifying that the filings +cohere or cling together under the influence of the electric waves. +Almost any metal will do for the filings but it is found that a +combination of ninety per cent. nickel and ten per cent. silver answers +the purpose best. + +The tube of the coherer is generally of glass but any insulating +substance will do; a wire enters at each end and is attached to little +blocks of metal which are separated by a very small space. It is into +this space the filings are loosely filled. + +Another form of coherer consists of a glass tube with small carbon +blocks or plugs attached to the ends of the wires and instead of the +metal filings there is a globule of mercury between the plugs. When +electric waves fall upon this coherer, the mercury coheres to the +carbon blocks, and thus forms a bridge for the battery current. + +Marconi and several others have from time to time invented many other +kinds of detectors for the electrical waves. Nearly all have to serve +the same purpose, viz., to close a local battery circuit when the +electric waves fall upon the detector. + +There are other inventions on which the action is the reverse. These +are called anti-coherers. One of the best known of these is a tube +arranged in a somewhat similar manner to the filings tube but with two +small blocks of tin, between which is placed a paste made up of alcohol, +tin filings and lead oxide. In its normal state the paste allows the +battery current to get across from one block to another, but when +electric waves touch it a chemical action is produced which immediately +breaks down the bridge and stops the electric waves, the paste resumes +its normal condition and allows the battery current to pass again. +Therefore by this arrangement the signals are made by a sudden breaking +and making of the battery circuit. + +Then there is the magnetic detector. This is not so easy of explanation. +When we take a piece of soft iron and continuously revolve it in front +of a permanent magnet, the magnetic poles of the soft iron piece will +keep changing their position at each half revolution. It requires a +little time to effect this magnetic change which makes it appear as +if a certain amount of resistance was being made against it. (If +electric waves are allowed to fall upon the iron, resistance is +completely eliminated, and the magnetic poles can change places +instantly as it revolves.) + +From this we see that if we have a quickly changing magnetic field it +will induce or set up an electric current in a neighboring coil of +wire. In this way we can detect the changes in the magnetic field, for +we can place a telephone receiver in connection with the coil of wire. + +In a modern wireless receiver of this kind it is found more convenient +to replace the revolving iron piece by an endless band of soft iron +wire. This band is kept passing in front of a permanent magnet, the +magnetism of the wire tending to change as it passes from one pole to +the other. This change takes place suddenly when the electric waves +form the transmitting station, fall upon the receiving aerial conductor +and are conducted round the moving wire, and as the band is passing +through a coil of insulated wire attached to a telephone receiver, +this sudden change in the magnetic field induces an electric current +in the surrounding coil and the operator hears a sound in the telephone +at his ear. The Morse code may thus be signalled from the distant +transmitter. + +There are various systems of wireless telegraphy for the most part +called after the scientists who developed or perfected them. Probably +the foremost as well as the best known is that which bears the name +of Marconi. A popular fallacy makes Marconi the discoverer of the +wireless method. Marconi was the first to put the system on a commercial +footing or business basis and to lead the way for its coming to the +front as a mighty factor in modern progress. Of course, also, the honor +of several useful inventions and additions to wireless apparatus must +be given him. He started experimenting as far back as 1895 when but +a mere boy. In the beginning he employed the induction coil, Morse +telegraph key, batteries, and vertical wire for the transmission of +signals, and for their reception the usual filings coherer of nickel +with a very small percentage of silver, a telegraph relay, batteries +and a vertical wire. In the Marconi system of the present time there +are many forms of coherers, also the magnetic detector and other +variations of the original apparatus. Other systems more or less +prominent are the Lodge-Muirhead of England, Braun-Siemens of Germany +and those of DeForest and Fessenden of America. The electrolytic +detector with the paste between the tin blocks belongs to the system +of DeForest. Besides these the names of Popoff, Jackson, Armstrong, +Orling, Lepel, and Poulsen stand high in the wireless world. + +A serious drawback to the operations of wireless lies in the fact that +the stations are liable to get mixed up and some one intercept the +messages intended for another, but this is being overcome by the +adoption of a special system of wave lengths for the different wireless +stations and by the use of improved apparatus. + +In the early days it was quite a common occurrence for the receivers +of one system to reply to the transmitters of a rival system. There +was an all-round mix-up and consequently the efficiency of wireless +for practical purposes was for a good while looked upon with more or +less suspicion. But as knowledge of wave motions developed and the +laws of governing them were better understood, the receiver was "tuned" +to respond to the transmitter, that is, the transmitter was made to +set up a definite rate of vibrations in the ether and the receiver +made to respond to this rate, just like two tuning forks sounding the +same note. + +In order to set up as energetic electric waves as possible many methods +have been devised at the transmitting stations. In some methods a wire +is attached to one of the two metal spheres between which the electric +charge takes place and is carried up into the air for a great height, +while to the second sphere another wire is connected and which leads +into the earth. Another method is to support a regular network of wires +from strong steel towers built to a height of two hundred feet or more. + +Long distance transmission by wireless was only made possible by +grounding one of the conductors in the transmitter. The Hertzian waves +were provided without any earth connection and radiated into space in +all directions, rapidly losing force like the disappearing ripples on +a pond, whereas those set up by a grounded transmitter with the +receiving instrument similarly connected to earth, keep within the +immediate neighborhood of the earth. + +For instance up to about two hundred miles a storage battery and +induction coil are sufficient to produce the necessary ether +disturbance, but when a greater distance is to be spanned an engine +and a dynamo are necessary to supply energy for the electric waves. + +In the most recent Marconi transmitter the current produced is no +longer in the form of intermittent sparks, but is a true alternating +current, which in general continues uniformly as long as the key is +pressed down. + +There is no longer any question that wireless telegraphy is here to +stay. It has passed the juvenile stage and is fast approaching a lusty +adolescence which promises to be a source of great strength to the +commerce of the world. Already it has accomplished much for its age. +It has saved so many lives at sea that its installation is no longer +regarded as a scientific luxury but a practical necessity on every +passenger vessel. Practically every steamer in American waters is +equipped with a wireless station. Even freight boats and tugs are +up-to-date in this respect. Every ship in the American navy, including +colliers and revenue cutters, carries wireless operators. So important +indeed is it considered in the Navy department that a line of shore +stations have been constructed from Maine on the Atlantic to Alaska +on the Pacific. + +In a remarkably short interval wireless has come to exercise an +important function in the marine service. Through the shore stations +of the commercial companies, press despatches, storm warnings, weather +reports and other items of interest are regularly transmitted to ships +at sea. Captains keep in touch with one another and with the home +office; wrecks, derelicts and storms are reported. Every operator sends +out regular reports daily, so that the home office can tell the exact +position of the vessel. If she is too far from land on the one side +to be reached by wireless she is near enough on the other to come +within the sphere of its operations. + +Weather has no effect on wireless, therefore the question of meteorology +does not come into consideration. Fogs, rains, torrents, tempests, +snowstorms, winds, thunder, lightning or any aerial disturbance +whatsoever cannot militate against the sending or receiving of wireless +messages as the ether permeates them all. + +Submarine and land telegraphy used to look on wireless, the youngest +sister, as the Cinderella of their name, but she has surpassed both +and captured the honors of the family. It was in 1898 that Marconi +made his first remarkable success in sending messages from England to +France. The English station was at South Foreland and the French near +Boulogne. The distance was thirty-two miles across the British channel. +This telegraphic communication without wires was considered a wonderful +feat at the time and excited much interest. + +During the following year Marconi had so much improved his first +apparatus that he was able to send out waves detected by receivers up +to the one hundred mile limit. + +In 1900 communication was established between the Isle of Wight and +the Lizard in Cornwall, a distance of two hundred miles. + +Up to this time the only appliances employed were induction coils +giving a ten or twenty inch spark. Marconi and others perceived the +necessity of employing greater force to penetrate the ether in order +to generate stronger electrical waves. Oil and steam engines and other +appliances were called into use to create high frequency currents and +those necessitated the erection of large power stations. Several were +erected at advantageous points and the wireless system was fairly +established as a new agent of communication. + +In December, 1901, at St. John's, Newfoundland, Marconi by means of +kites and balloons set up a temporary aerial wire in the hope of being +able to receive a signal from the English station in Cornwall. He had +made an arrangement with Poldhu station that on a certain date and at +a fixed hour they should attempt the signal. The letter S, which in +the Morse code consists of three successive dots, was chosen. Marconi +feverishly awaited results. True enough on the day and at the time +agreed upon the three dots were clicked off, the first signal from +Europe to the American continent. Marconi with much difficulty set up +other aerial wires and indubitably established the fact that it was +possible to send electric waves across the Atlantic. He found, however, +that waves in order to traverse three thousand miles and retain +sufficient energy on their arrival to affect a telephonic wave-detecting +device must be generated by no inordinate power. + +These experiments proved that if stations were erected of sufficient +power transatlantic wireless could be successfully carried on. They +gave an impetus to the erection of such stations. + +On December 21, 1902, from a station at Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, Marconi +sent the first message by wireless to England announcing success to +his colleagues. + +The following January from Wellsfleet, Cape Cod, President Roosevelt +sent a congratulatory message to King Edward. The electric waves +conveying this message traveled 3,000 miles over the Atlantic following +round an arc of forty-five degrees of the earth on a great circle, and +were received telephonically, by the Marconi magnetic receiver at +Poldhu. + +Most ships are provided with syntonic receivers which are tuned to +long distance transmitters, and are capable of receiving messages up +to distances of 3,000 miles or more. Wireless communication between +Europe and America is no longer a possibility but an accomplishment, +though as yet the system has not been put on a general business basis. +[Footnote: As we go to press a new record has been established in +wireless transmission. Marconi, in the Argentine Republic, near Buenos +Ayres, has received messages from the station at Clifden, County Galway, +Ireland, a distance of 5,600 miles. The best previous record was made +when the United States battleship _Tennessee_ in 1909 picked up a +message from San Francisco when 4,580 miles distant.] + + + + +CHAPTER III + +RADIUM + + Experiments of Becquerel--Work of the Curies--Discovery of + Radium--Enormous Energy--Various Uses. + + +Early in 1896 just a few months after Roentgen had startled the +scientific world by the announcement of the discovery of the X-rays, +Professor Henri Becquerel of the Natural History Museum in Paris +announced another discovery which, if not as mysterious, was more +puzzling and still continues a puzzle to a great degree to the present +time. Studying the action of the salts of a rare and very heavy mineral +called uranium Becquerel observed that their substances give off an +invisible radiation which, like the Roentgen rays, traverse metals and +other bodies opaque to light, as well as glass and other transparent +substances. Like most of the great discoveries it was the result of +accident. Becquerel had no idea of such radiations, had never thought +of their possibility. + +In the early days of the Roentgen rays there were many facts which +suggested that phosphorescence had something to do with the production +of these rays It then occurred to several French physicists that X-rays +might be produced if phosphorescent substances were exposed to sunlight. +Becquerel began to experiment with a view to testing this supposition. +He placed uranium on a photographic plate which had first been wrapped +in black paper in order to screen it from the light. After this plate +had remained in the bright sunlight for several hours it was removed +from the paper covering and developed. A slight trace of photographic +action was found at those parts of the plate directly beneath the +uranium just as Becquerel had expected. From this it appeared evident +that rays of some kind were being produced that were capable of passing +through black paper. Since the X-rays were then the only ones known +to possess the power to penetrate opaque substances it seemed as though +the problem of producing X-rays by sunlight was solved. Then came the +fortunate accident. After several plates had been prepared for exposure +to sunlight a severe storm arose and the experiments had to be abandoned +for the time being. At the end of several days work was again resumed, +but the plates had been lying so long in the darkroom that they were +deemed almost valueless and it was thought that there would not be +much use in trying to use them. Becquerel was about to throw them away, +but on second consideration thinking that some action might have +possibly taken place in the dark, he resolved to try them. He developed +them and the result was that he obtained better pictures than ever +before. The exposure to sunlight which had been regarded as essential +to the success of the former experiments had really nothing at all to +do with the matter, the essential thing was the presence of uranium +and the photographic effects were not due to X-rays but to the rays +or emanations which Becquerel had thus discovered and which bear his +name. + +There were many tedious and difficult steps to take before even our +present knowledge, incomplete as it is, could be reached. However, +Becquerel's fortunate accident of the plate developing was the beginning +of the long series of experiments which led to the discovery of radium +which already has revolutionized some of the most fundamental +conceptions of physics and chemistry. + +It is remarkable that we owe the discovery of this wonderful element +to a woman, Mme. Sklodowska Curie, the wife of a French professor and +physicist. Mme. Curie began her work in 1897 with a systematic study +of several minerals containing uranium and thorium and soon discovered +the remarkable fact that there was some agent present more strongly +radio-active than the metal uranium itself. She set herself the task +of finding out this agent and in conjunction with her husband, Professor +Pierre Curie, made many tests and experiments. Finally in the ore of +pitchblende they found not only one but three substances highly +radio-active. Pitchblende or uraninite is an intensely black mineral +of a specific gravity of 9.5 and is found in commercial quantities in +Bohemia, Cornwall in England and some other localities. It contains +lead sulphide, lime silica, and other bodies. + +To the radio-active substance which accompanied the bismuth extracted +from pitchblende the Curies gave the name _Polonium_. To that which +accompanied barium taken from the same ore they called _Radium_ and to +the substance which was found among the rare earths of the pitchblende +Debierne gave the name _Actinium_. + +None of these elements have been isolated, that is to say, separated +in a pure state from the accompanying ore. Therefore, _pure radium_ +is a misnomer, though we often hear the term used. [Footnote: Since +the above was written Madame Curie has announced to the Paris Academy +of Sciences that she has succeeded in obtaining pure radium. In +conjunction with Professor Debierne she treated a decegramme of bromide +of radium by electrolytic process, getting an amalgam from which was +extracted the metallic radium by distillation.] All that has been +obtained is some one of its simpler salts or compounds and until +recently even these had not been prepared in pure form. The commonest +form of the element, which in itself is very far from common, is what +is known to chemistry as chloride of radium which is a combination of +chlorin and radium. This is a grayish white powder, somewhat like +ordinary coarse table salt. To get enough to weigh a single grain +requires the treatment of 1,200 pounds of pitchblende. + +The second form of radium is as a bromide. In this form it costs $5,000 +a grain and could a pound be obtained its value would be +three-and-a-half million dollars. + +Radium, as we understand it in any of its compounds, can communicate +its property of radio-activity to other bodies. Any material when +placed near radium becomes radio-active and retains such activity for +a considerable time after being removed. Even the human body takes on +this excited activity and this sometimes leads to annoyances as in +delicate experiments the results may be nullified by the element acting +upon the experimenter's person. + +Despite the enormous amount of energy given off by radium it seems not +to change in itself, there is no appreciable loss in weight nor +apparently any microscopic or chemical change in the original body. +Professor Becquerel has stated that if a square centimeter of surface +was covered by chemically pure radium it would lose but one thousandth +of a milligram in weight in a million years' time. + +Radium is a body which gives out energy continuously and spontaneously. +This liberation of energy is manifested in the different effects of +its radiation and emanation, and especially in the development of heat. +Now, according to the most fundamental principles of modern science, +the universe contains a certain definite provision of energy which can +appear under various forms, but which cannot be increased. According +to Sir Oliver Lodge every cubic millimeter of ether contains as much +energy as would be developed by a million horse power station working +continuously far forty thousand years. This assertion is probably based +on the fact that every corpuscle in the ether vibrates with the speed +of light or about 186,000 miles a second. + +It was formerly believed that the atom was the smallest sub-division +in nature. Scientists held to the atomic theory for a long time, but +at last it has been exploded, and instead of the atom being primary +and indivisible we find it a very complex affair, a kind of miniature +solar system, the centre of a varied attraction of molecules, corpuscles +and electrons. Had we held to the atomic theory and denied smaller +sub-divisions of matter there would be no accounting for the emissions +of radium, for as science now believes these emissions are merely the +expulsion of millions of electrons. + +Radium gives off three distinct types of rays named after the first +three letters of the Greek alphabet--Alpha, Beta, Gamma--besides a +gas emanation as does thorium which is a powerfully radio-active +substance. The Alpha rays constitute ninety-nine per cent, of all the +rays and consist of positively electrified particles. Under the +influence of magnetism they can be deflected. They have little +penetrative power and are readily absorbed in passing through a sheet +of paper or through a few inches of air. + +The Beta rays consist of negatively charged particles or corpuscles +approximately one thousandth the size of those constituting the Alpha +rays. They resemble cathode rays produced by an electrical discharge +inside of a highly exhausted vacuum tube but work at a much higher +velocity; they can be readily deflected by a magnet, they discharge +electrified bodies, affect photographic plates, stimulate strongly +phosphorescent bodies and are of high penetrative power. + +The radiations are a million times more powerful than those of uranium. +They have many curious properties. + +If a photographic plate is placed in the vicinity of radium it is +almost instantly affected if no screen intercepts the rays; with a +screen the action is slower, but it still takes place even through +thick folds, therefore, radiographs can be taken and in this way it +is being utilized by surgery to view the anatomy, the internal organs, +and locate bullets and other foreign substances in the system. + +A glass vessel containing radium spontaneously charges itself with +electricity. If the glass has a weak spot, a scratch say, an electric +spark is produced at that point and the vessel crumbles, just like a +Leyden jar when overcharged. + +Radium liberates heat spontaneously and continuously. A solid salt of +radium develops such an amount of heat that to every single gram there +is an emission of one hundred calories per hour, in other words, radium +can melt its weight in ice in the time of one hour. + +As a result of its emission of heat radium has always a temperature +higher by several degrees than its surroundings. + +When a solution of a radium salt is placed in a closed vessel the +radio-activity in part leaves the solution and distributes itself +through the vessel, the sides of which become radio-active and luminous. + +Radium acts upon the chemical constituents of glass, porcelain and +paper, giving them a violet tinge, changes white phosphorous into +yellow, oxygen into ozone and produces many other curious chemical +changes. + +We have said that it can serve the surgeon in physical examinations +of the body after the manner of X-rays. It has not, however, been much +employed in this direction owing to its scarcity and prohibitive price. +It has given excellent results in the treatment of certain skin +diseases, in cancer, etc. However it can have very baneful effects on +animal organisms. It has produced paralysis and death in dogs, cats, +rabbits, rats, guinea-pigs and other animals, and undoubtedly it might +affect human beings in a similar way. Professor Curie said that a +single gram of chemically pure radium would be sufficient to destroy +the life of every man, woman and child in Paris providing they were +separately and properly exposed to its influence. + +Radium destroys the germinative power of seeds and retards the growth +of certain forms of life, such as larvae, so that they do not pass +into the chrysalis and insect stages of development, but remain in the +state of larvae. + +At a certain distance it causes the hair of mice to fall out, but on +the contrary at the same distance it increases the hair or fur on +rabbits. + +It often produces severe burns on the hands and other portions of the +body too long exposed to its activity. + +It can penetrate through gases, liquids and all ordinary solids, even +through many inches of the hardest steel. On a comparatively short +exposure it has been known to partially paralyze an electric charged +bar. + +Heat nor cold do not affect its radioactivity in the least. It gives +off but little light, its luminosity being largely due to the +stimulation of the impurities in the radium by the powerful but +invisible radium rays. + +Radium stimulates powerfully various mineral and chemical substances +near which it is placed. It is an infallible test of the genuineness +of the diamond. The genuine diamond phosphoresces strongly when brought +into juxtaposition, but the paste or imitation one glows not at all. + +It is seen that the study of the properties of radium is of great +interest. This is true also of the two other elements found in the +ores of uranium and thorium, viz., polonium and actinium. Polonium, +so-called, in honor of the native land of Mme. Curie, is just as active +as radium when first extracted from the pitchblende but its energy +soon lessens and finally it becomes inert, hence there has been little +experimenting or investigation. The same may be said of actinium. + +The process of obtaining radium from pitchblende is most tedious and +laborious and requires much patience. The residue of the pitchblende +from which uranium has been extracted by fusion with sodium carbonate +and solution in dilute sulphuric acid, contains the radium along with +other metals, and is boiled with concentrated sodium carbonate solution, +and the solution of the residue in hydrochloric acid precipitated with +sulphuric acid. The insoluble barium and radium sulphates, after being +converted into chlorides or bromides, are separated by repeated +fractional crystallization. + +One kilogram of impure radium bromide is obtained from a ton of +pitchblende residue after processes continued for about three months +during which time, five tons of chemicals and fifty tons of rinsing +water are used. + +As has been said the element has never been isolated or separated in +its metallic or pure state and most of the compounds are impure. Radium +banks have been established in London, Paris and New York. + +Whenever radium is employed in surgery for an operation about fifty +milligrams are required at least and the banks let out the amount for +about $200 a day. If purchased the price for this amount would be +$4,000. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +MOVING PICTURES + + Photographing Motion--Edison's Kinetoscope--Lumiere's + Cinematographe--Before the Camera--The Mission of the Moving + Picture. + + +Few can realize the extent of the field covered by moving pictures. +In the dual capacity of entertainment and instruction there is not a +rival in sight. As an instructor, science is daily widening the sphere +of the motion picture for the purpose of illustration. Films are rapidly +superseding text books in many branches. Every department capable of +photographic demonstration is being covered by moving pictures. +Negatives are now being made of the most intricate surgical operations +and these are teaching the students better than the witnessing of the +real operations, for at the critical moment of the operation the picture +machine can be stopped to let the student view over again the way it +is accomplished, whereas at the operating table the surgeon must go +on with his work to try to save life and cannot explain every step in +the process of the operation. There is no doubt that the moving picture +machine will perform a very important part in the future teaching of +surgery. + +In the naturalist's domain of science it is already playing a very +important part. A device for micro-photography has now been perfected +in connection with motion machines whereby things are magnified to a +great degree. By this means the analysis of a substance can be better +illustrated than any way else. For instance a drop of water looks like +a veritable Zoo with terrible looking creatures wiggling and wriggling +through it, and makes one feel as if he never wanted to drink water +again. + +The moving picture in its general phase is entertainment and instruction +rolled into one and as such it has superseded the theatre. It is +estimated that at the present time in America there are upwards of +20,000 moving picture shows patronized daily by almost ten million +people. It is doubtful if the theatre attendance at the best day of +the winter season reaches five millions. + +The moving picture in importance is far beyond the puny functions of +comedy and tragedy. The grotesque farce of vaudeville and the tawdry +show which only appeals to sentiment at highest and often to the base +passions at lowest. + +Despite prurient opposition it is making rapid headway. It is entering +very largely into the instructive and the entertaining departments of +the world's curriculum. Millions of dollars are annually expended in +the production of films. Companies of trained and practiced actors are +brought together to enact pantomimes which will concentrate within the +space of a few minutes the most entertaining and instructive incidents +of history and the leading happenings of the world. + +At all great events, no matter where transpiring, the different moving +picture companies have trained men at the front ready with their cameras +to "catch" every incident, every movement even to the wink of an +eyelash, so that the "stay-at-homes" can see the _show_ as well, and +with a great deal more comfort than if they had traveled hundreds, +or even thousands, of miles to be present in _propria persona_. + +How did moving pictures originate? What and when were the beginning? +It is popularly believed that animated pictures had their inception +with Edison who projected the biograph in 1887, having based it on +that wonderful and ingenious toy, the Zoetrope. Long before 1887, +however, several men of inventive faculties had turned their attention +to a means of giving apparent animation to pictures. The first that +met with any degree of success was Edward Muybridge, a photographer +of San Francisco. This was in 1878. A revolution had been brought about +in photography by the introduction of the instantaneous process. By +the use of sensitive films of gelatine bromide of silver emulsion the +time required for the action of ordinary daylight in producing a +photograph had been reduced to a very small fraction of a second. +Muybridge utilized these films for the photographic analysis of animal +motion. Beside a race-track he placed a battery of cameras, each camera +being provided with a spring shutter which was controlled by a thread +stretched across the track. A running horse broke each thread the +moment he passed in front of the camera and thus twenty or thirty +pictures of him were taken in close succession within one or two seconds +of time. From the negatives secured in this way a series of positives +were obtained in proper order on a strip of sensitized paper. The strip +when examined by means of the Zoetrope furnished a reproduction of the +horse's movements. + +The Zoetrope was a toy familiar to children; it was sometimes called +the wheel of life. It was a contrivance consisting of a cylinder some +ten inches wide, open at the top, around the lower and interior rim +of which a series of related pictures were placed. The cylinder was +then rapidly rotated and the spectator looking through the vertical +narrow slits on its outer surface, could fancy that the pictures inside +were moving. + +Muybridge devised an instrument which he called a Zoopraxiscope for +the optical projection of his zoetrope photographs. The succession of +positives was arranged in proper order upon a glass disk about 18 +inches in diameter near its circumference. This disk was mounted +conveniently for rapid revolution so that each picture would pass in +front of the condenser of an optical lantern. The difficulties involved +in the preparation of the disk pictures and in the manipulation of the +zoopraxiscope prevented the instrument from attracting much attention. +However, artistically speaking, it was the forerunner of the numerous +"graphs" and "scopes" and moving picture machines of the present day. + +It was in 1887 that Edison conceived an idea of associating with his +phonograph, which had then achieved a marked success, an instrument +which would reproduce to the eye the effect of motion by means of a +swift and graded succession of pictures, so that the reproduction of +articulate sounds as in the phonograph, would be accompanied by the +reproduction of the motion naturally associated with them. + +The principle of the instrument was suggested to Edison by the zoetrope, +and of course, he well knew what Muybridge had accomplished in the +line of motion pictures of animals almost ten years previously. Edison, +however, did not employ a battery of cameras as Muybridge had done, +but devised a special form of camera in which a long strip of sensitized +film was moved rapidly behind a lens provided with a shutter, and so +arranged as to alternately admit and cut off the light from the moving +object. He adjusted the mechanism so that there were 46 exposures a +second, the film remaining stationary during the momentary time of +exposure, after which it was carried forward far enough to bring a new +surface into the proper position. The time of the shifting was about +one-tenth of that allowed for exposure, so that the actual time of +exposure was about the one-fiftieth of a second. The film moved, +reckoning shiftings and stoppages for exposures, at an average speed +of a little more than a foot per second, so that a length of film of +about fifty feet received between 700 and 800 impressions in a circuit +of 40 seconds. + +Edison named his first instrument the kinetoscope. It came out in 1893. +It was hailed with delight at the time and for a short period was much +in demand, but soon new devices came into the field and the kinetoscope +was superseded by other machines bearing similar names with a like +signification. + +A variety of cameras was invented. One consisted of a film-feeding +mechanism which moves the film step by step in the focus of a single +lens, the duration of exposure being from twenty to twenty-five times +as great as that necessary to move an unexposed portion of the film +into position. No shutter was employed. As time passed many other +improvements were made. An ingenious Frenchman named Lumiere, came +forward with his Cinematographe which for a few years gave good +satisfaction, producing very creditable results. Success, however, was +due more to the picture ribbons than to the mechanism employed to feed +them. + +Of other moving pictures machines we have had the vitascope, vitagraph, +magniscope, mutoscope, panoramagraph, theatograph and scores of others +all derived from the two Greek roots _grapho_ I write and _scopeo_ I +view. + +The vitascope is the principal name now in use for moving picture +machines. In all these instruments in order that the film projection +may be visible to an audience it is necessary to have a very intense +light. A source of such light is found in the electric focusing lamp. +At or near the focal point of the projecting lantern condenser the +film is made to travel across the field as in the kinetoscope. A water +cell in front of the condenser absorbs most of the heat and transmits +most of the light from the arc lamp, and the small picture thus highly +illuminated is protected from injury. A projecting lens of rather short +focus throws a large image of each picture on the screen, and the rapid +succession of these completes the illusion of life-like motion. + +Hundreds of patents have been made on cameras, projecting lenses and +machines from the days of the kinetoscope to the present time when +clear-cut moving pictures portray life so closely and so well as almost +to deceive the eye. In fact in many cases the counterfeit is taken for +the reality and audiences as much aroused as if they were looking upon +a scene of actual life. We can well believe the story of the Irishman, +who on seeing the stage villain abduct the young lady, made a rush at +the canvas yelling out,--"Let me at the blackguard and I'll murder +him." + +Though but fifteen years old the moving picture industry has sent out +its branches into all civilized lands and is giving employment to an +army of thousands. It would be hard to tell how many mimic actors and +actresses make a living by posing for the camera; their name is legion. +Among them are many professionals who receive as good a salary as on +the stage. + +Some of the large concerns both in Europe and America at times employ +from one hundred to two hundred hands and even more to illustrate some +of the productions. They send their photographers and actors all over +the world for settings. Most of the business, however, is done near +home. With trapping and other paraphernalia a stage setting can be +effected to simulate almost any scene. + +Almost anything under the sun can be enacted in a moving picture studio, +from the drowning of a cat to the hanging of a man; a horse race or +fire alarm is not outside the possible and the aviator has been depicted +"flying" high in the heavens. + +The places where the pictures are prepared must be adapted for the +purpose. They are called studios and have glass roofs and in most of +them a good section of the walls are also glass. The floor space is +divided into sections for the setting or staging of different +productions, therefore several representations can take place at the +same time before the eyes of the cameras. There are "properties" of +all kinds from the ragged garments of the beggar to kingly ermine and +queenly silks. Paste diamonds sparkle in necklaces, crowns and tiaras, +seeming to rival the scintillations of the Kohinoor. + +At the first, objections were made to moving pictures on the ground +that in many cases they had a tendency to cater to the lower instincts, +that subjects were illustrated which were repugnant to the finer +feelings and appealed to the gross and the sensual. Burglaries, murders +and wild western scenes in which the villain-heroes triumphed were +often shown and no doubt these had somewhat of a pernicious influence +on susceptible youth. But all such pictures have for the most part +been eliminated and there is a strict taboo on anything with a degrading +influence or partaking of the brutal. Prize fights are often barred. +In many large cities there is a board of censorship to which the +different manufacturing firms must submit duplicates. This board has +to pass on all the films before they are released and if the pictures +are in any way contrary to morals or decency or are in any respect +unfit to be displayed before the public, they cannot be put in +circulation. Thus are the people protected and especially the youth +who should be permitted to see nothing that is not elevating or not +of a nature to inspire them with high and noble thoughts and with +ambitions to make the world better and brighter. + +Let us hope that the future mission of the moving picture will be along +educational and moral lines tending to uplift and ennoble our boys and +girls so that they may develop into a manhood and womanhood worthy the +history and best traditions of our country. + + * * * * * * + +The Wizard of Menlo Park has just succeeded after two years of hard +application to the experiment in giving us the talking picture, a real +genuine talking picture, wholly independent of the old device of having +the actors talk behind the screen when the films were projected. By +a combination of the phonograph and the moving picture machine working +in perfect synchronism the result is obtained. Wires are attached to +the mechanism of both the machines, the one behind the screen and the +one in front, in such a way that the two are operated simultaneously +so that when a film is projected a corresponding record on the +phonograph acts in perfect unison supplying the voice suitable to the +moving action. Men and women pass along the canvas, act, talk, laugh, +cry and "have their being" just as in real life. Of course, they are +immaterial, merely the reflection of films, but the one hundred +thousandth of an inch thick, yet they give forth oral sounds as +creatures of flesh and blood. In fact every sound is produced +harmoniously with the action on the screen. An iron ball is dropped +and you hear its thud upon the floor, a plate is cracked and you can +hear the cracking just the same as if the material plate were broken +in your presence. An immaterial piano appears upon the screen and a +fleshless performer discourses airs as real as those heard on Broadway. +Melba and Tettrazini and Caruso and Bonci appear before you and warble +their nightingale notes, as if behind the footlights with a galaxy of +beauty, wealth and fashion before them for an audience. True it is not +even their astral bodies you are looking at, only their pictured +representations, but the magic of their voices is there all the same +and there is such an atmosphere of realism about the representations +that you can scarcely believe the actors are not present in _propriae +personae_. + +Mr. Edison had much study and labor of experiment in bringing his +device to a successful issue. The greatest obstacle he had to overcome +was in getting a phonograph that could "hear" far enough. At the +beginning of the experiments the actor had to talk directly into the +horn, which made the right kind of pictures impossible to get. Bit by +bit, however, a machine was perfected which could "hear" so well that +the actor could move at his pleasure within a radius of twenty feet. +That is the machine that is being used now. This new combination of +the moving picture machine and the phonograph Edison has named the +_kinetophone_. By it he has made possible the bringing of grand +opera into the hamlets of the West, and through it also our leading +statesmen may address audiences on the mining camps and the wilds of +the prairies where their feet have never trodden. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +SKY-SCRAPERS AND HOW THEY ARE BUILT + + Evolution of the Sky-scraper--Construction--New York's Giant + Buildings--Dimensions. + + +The sky-scraper is an architectural triumph, but at the same time it +is very much of a commercial enterprise, and it is indigenous, +native-born to American soil. It had its inception here, particularly +in New York and Chicago. The tallest buildings in the world are in New +York. The most notable of these, the Metropolitan Life Insurance +Building with fifty stories towering up to a height of seven hundred +feet and three inches, has been the crowning achievement of +architectural art, the highest building yet erected by man. + +How is it possible to erect such building--how is it possible to erect +a sky-scraper at all? A partial answer may be given in one +word--_steel_. + +Generally speaking the method of building all these huge structures +is much the same. Massive piers or pillars are erected, inside which +are usually strong steel columns; crosswise from column to column great +girders are placed forming a base for the floor, and then upon the +first pillars are raised other steel columns slightly decreased in +size, upon which girders are again fixed for the next floor; and so +on this process is continued floor after floor. There seems no reason +why buildings should not be reared like this for even a hundred stories, +provided the foundations are laid deep enough and broad enough. + +The walls are not really the support of the buildings. The essential +elements are the columns and girders of steel forming the skeleton +framework of the whole. The masonry may assist, but the piers and +girders carry the principal weight. If, therefore, everything depends +upon these piers, which are often of steel and masonry combined, the +immense importance will be seen of basing them upon adequate +foundations. And thus it comes about that to build high we must dig +deep, which fact may be construed as an aphorism to fit more subjects +than the building of sky-scrapers. + +To attempt to build a sky-scraper without a suitable foundation would +be tantamount to endeavoring to build a house on a marsh without +draining the marsh,--it would count failure at the very beginning. The +formation depends on the height, the calculated weight the frame work +will carry, the amount of air pressure, the vibrations from the running +of internal machines and several other details of less importance than +those mentioned, but of deep consequence in the aggregate. + +Instead of being carried on thick walls spread over a considerable +area of ground, the sky-scrapers are carried wholly on steel columns. +This concentrates many hundred tons of load and develops pressure which +would crush the masonry and cause the structures to penetrate soft +earth almost as a stone sinks in water. + +In the first place the weight of the proposed building and contents +is estimated, then the character of the soil determined to a depth of +one hundred feet if necessary. In New York the soil is treacherous and +difficult, there are underground rivers in places and large deposits +of sand so that to get down to rock bottom or pan is often a very hard +undertaking. + +Generally speaking the excavations are made to about a depth of thirty +feet. A layer of concrete a foot or two thick is spread over the bottom +of the pit and on it are bedded rows of steel beams set close together. +Across the middle of these beams deep steel girders are placed on which +the columns are erected. The heavy weight is thus spread out by the +beams, girders and concrete so as to cause a reduced uniform pressure +on the soil. Cement is filled in between the beams and girders and +packed around them to seal them thoroughly against moisture; then clean +earth or sand is rammed in up to the column bases and covered with the +concrete of the cellar floor. + +In some cases the foundation loads are so numerous that nothing short +of masonry piers on solid rock will safely sustain them. To accomplish +this very strong airtight steel or wooden boxes with flat tops and no +bottoms are set on the pier sites at ground water level and pumped +full of compressed air while men enter them and excavating the soil, +undermine them, so they sink, until they land on the rock and are +filled solid with concrete to form the bases of the foundation piers. + +On the average the formation should have a resisting power of two tons +to the square foot, dead load. By dead load is meant the weight of the +steelwork, floors and walls, as distinguished from the office furniture +and occupants which come under the head of living load. Some engineers +take into consideration the pressure of both dead and live loads gauging +the strength of the foundation, but the dead load pressure of 2 tons +to the square foot will do for the reckoning, for as a live load only +exerts a pressure of 60 lbs. to the square foot it may be included in +the former. + +The columns carry the entire weights including dead and live loads and +the wind pressure, into the footings, these again distributing the +loads on the soil. The aim is to have an equal pressure per square +foot of soil at the same time, for all footings, thus insuring an even +settlement. The skeleton construction now almost wholly consists of +wrought steel. At first cast-iron and wrought-iron were used but it +was found they corroded too quickly. + +There are two classes of steel construction, the cage and the skeleton. +In the cage construction the frame is strengthened for wind stresses +and the walls act as curtains. In the skeleton, the frame carries only +the vertical loads and depends upon the walls for its wind bracing. +It has been found that the wind pressure is about 30 lbs. for every +square foot of exposed surface. + +The steel columns reach from the foundation to the top, riveted together +by plates and may be extended to an indefinite height. In fact there +is no engineering limit to the height. + +The outside walls of the sky-scraper vary in thickness with the height +of the building and also vary in accordance with the particular kind +of construction, whether cage or skeleton. If of the cage variety, the +walls, as has been said, act as curtains and consequently they are +thinner than in the skeleton type of construction. In the latter case +the walls have to resist the wind pressure unsupported by the steel +frame and therefore they must be of a sufficient width. Brick and +terra-cotta blocks are used for construction generally. + +Terra-cotta blocks are also much used in the flooring, and for this +purpose have several advantages over other materials; they are +absolutely fire-proof, they weigh less per cubic foot than any other +kind of fire-proof flooring and they are almost sound-proof. They do +equally well for flat and arched floors. + +It is of the utmost importance that the sky-scraper be absolutely +fire-proof from bottom to top. These great buzzing hives of industry +house at one time several thousand human beings and a panic would +entail a fearful calamity, and, moreover, their height places the upper +stories beyond reach of a water-tower and the pumping engines of the +street. + +The sky-scrapers of to-day are as fireproof as human ingenuity and +skill can make them, and this is saying much; in fact, it means that +they cannot burn. Of course fires can break out in rooms and apartments +in the manufacturing of chemicals or testing experiments, etc., but +these are easily confined to narrow limits and readily extinguished +with the apparatus at hand. Steel columns will not burn, but if exposed +to heat of sufficient degree they will warp and bend and probably +collapse, therefore they should be protected by heat resisting agents. +Nothing can be better than terra-cotta and concrete for this purpose. +When terra-cotta blocks are used they should be at least 2 inches thick +with an air space running through them. Columns are also fire-proofed +by wrapping expanded metal or other metal lathing around them and +plastering. + +Then a furring system is put on and another layer of metal, lathing +and plastering. This if well done is probably safer than the layer of +hollow tile. + +The floor beams should be entirely covered with terra-cotta blocks or +concrete, so that no part of them is left exposed. As most office +trimmings are of wood care should be taken that all electric wires are +well insulated. Faulty installation of dynamos, motors and other +apparatus is frequently the cause of office fires. + +The lighting of a sky-scraper is a most elaborate arrangement. Some +of them use as many lights as would well supply a good sized town. The +Singer Building in New York has 15,000 incandescent lamps and it is +safe to say the Metropolitan Life Insurance Building has more than +twice this number as the floor area of the latter is 2-1/2 times as +great. The engines and dynamos are in the basement and so fixed that +their vibrations do not affect the building. As space is always limited +in the basements of sky-scrapers direct connected engines and dynamos +are generally installed instead of belt connected and the boilers +operated under a high steam pressure. Besides delivering steam to the +engines the boilers also supply it to a variety of auxiliary pumps, +as boiler-feed, fire-pump, blow-off, tank-pump and pump for forcing +water through the building. + +The heating arrangement of such a vast area as is covered by the floor +space of a sky-scraper has been a very difficult problem but it has +been solved so that the occupant of the twentieth story can receive +an equal degree of heat with the one on the ground floor. Both hot +water and steam are utilized. Hot water heating, however, is preferable +to steam, as it gives a much steadier heat. The radiators arc +proportioned to give an average temperature of 65 degrees F. in each +room during the winter months. There are automatic regulating devices +attached to the radiators, so if the temperature rises above or falls +below a certain point the steam or hot water is automatically turned +on or off. Some buildings are heated by the exhaust steam from the +engines but most have boilers solely for the purpose. + +The sanitary system is another important feature. The supplying of +water for wash-stands, the dispositions of wastes and the flushing of +lavatories tax all the skill of the mechanical engineer. Several of +these mighty buildings call for upwards of a thousand lavatories. + +In considering the sky-scraper we should not forget the role played +by the electric elevator. Without it these buildings would be +practically useless, as far as the upper stories are concerned. The +labor of stair climbing would leave them untenanted. No one would be +willing to climb ten, twenty or thirty flights and tackle a day's work +after the exertion of doing so. To climb to the fiftieth story in such +a manner would be well-nigh impossible or only possible by relays, and +after one would arrive at the top he would be so physically exhausted +that both mental and manual endeavor would be out of the question. +Therefore the elevator is as necessary to the skyscraper as are doors +and windows. Indeed were it not for the introduction of the elevator +the business sections of our large cities would still consist of the +five and six story structures of our father's time instead of the +towering edifices which now lift their heads among the clouds. + +Regarded less than half a century ago as an unnecessary luxury the +elevator to-day is an imperative necessity. Sky-scrapers are equipped +with both express and local elevators. The express elevators do not +stop until about the tenth floor is reached. They run at a speed of +about ten feet per second. There are two types of elevators in general +use, one lifting the car by cables from the top, and the other with +a hydraulic plunger acting directly upon the bottom of the car. The +former are operated either by electric motors or hydraulic cylinders +and the latter by hydraulic rams, the cylinders extending the full +height of the building into the ground. + +America is pre-eminently the land of the sky-scraper, but England and +France to a degree are following along the same lines, though nothing +as yet has been erected on the other side of the water to equal the +towering triumphs of architectural art on this side. In no country in +the world is space at such a premium as in New York City, therefore, +New York _per se_ may be regarded as the true home of the tall building, +although Chicago is not very much behind the Metropolis in this respect. + +As figures are more eloquent than words in description the following +data of the two giant structures of the Western World may be +interesting. + +The Singer Building at the corner of Broadway and Liberty Street, New +York City, has a total height from the basement floor to the top of +the flagstaff of 742 feet; the height from street to roof is 612 feet, +1 inch. There are 41 stories. The weight of the steel in the entire +building is 9,200 tons. It has 16 elevators, 5 steam engines, 5 dynamos, +5 boilers and 28 steam pumps. The length of the steam and water piping +is 5 miles. The cubical contents of the building comprise 66,950,000 +cubic feet, there are 411,000 square feet of floor area or about 9-1/2 +acres. The weight of the tower is 18,300 tons. Little danger from a +collapse will be apprehended when it is learned that the columns are +securely bolted and caissons which have been sunk to rock-bed 80 feet +below the curb. + +The other campanile which has excited the wonder and admiration of the +world is the colossal pile known as the Metropolitan Building. This +occupies the entire square or block as we call it from 23rd St. to +24th St. and from Madison to Fourth Avenue. It is 700 feet and 3 inches +above the sidewalk and has 50 stories. The main building which has a +frontage of 200 feet by 425 feet is ten stories in height. It is built +in the early Italian renaissance style the materials being steel and +marble. The Campanile is carried up in the same style and is also of +marble. It stands on a base measuring 75 by 83 feet and the +architectural treatment is chaste, though severe, but eminently +agreeable to the stupendous proportions of the structure. The tower +is quite different from that of the Singer Building. It has twelve +wall and eight interior columns connected at every fourth floor by +diagonal braces; these columns carry 1,800 pounds to the linear foot. +The wind pressure calculated at the rate of 30 lbs. to the square foot +is enormous and is provided for by deep wall girders and knee braces +which transfer the strain to the columns and to the foundation. The +average cross section of the tower is 75 by 85 feet, the floor space +of the entire building is 1,080,000 square feet or about 25 acres. + +The tower of this surpassing cloud-piercing structure can be seen for +many miles from the surrounding country and from the bay it looks like +a giant sentinel in white watching the mighty city at its feet and +proclaiming the ceaseless activity and progress of the Western World. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +OCEAN PALACES + + Ocean Greyhounds--Present Day Floating Palaces--Regal + Appointments--Passenger Accommodation--Food Consumption--The One + Thousand Foot Boat. + + +The strides of naval architecture and marine engineering have been +marvelous within the present generation. To-day huge leviathans glide +over the waves with a swiftness and safety deemed absolutely impossible +fifty years ago. + +In view of the luxurious accommodations and princely surroundings to +be found on the modern ocean palaces, it is interesting to look back +now almost a hundred years to the time when the _Savannah_ was +the first steamship to cross the Atlantic. True the voyage of this +pioneer of steam from Savannah to Liverpool was not much of a success, +but she managed to crawl across the sails very materially aiding the +engines, and heralded the dawn of a new day in transatlantic travel. +No other steamboat attempted the trip for almost twenty years after, +until in 1838 the _Great Western_ made the run in fifteen days. +This revolutionized water travel and set the whole world talking. It +was the beginning of the passing of the sailing ship and was an event +for rejoicing. In the old wooden hulks with their lazily flapping +wings, waiting for a breeze to stir them, men and women and children +huddled together like so many animals in a pen, had to spend weeks and +months on the voyage between Europe and America. There was little or +no room for sanitation, the space was crowded, deadly germs lurked in +every cranny and crevice, and consequently hundreds died. To many +indeed the sailing ship became a floating hearse. + +In those times, and they are not so remote, a voyage was dreaded as +a calamity. Only necessity compelled the undertaking. It was not travel +for pleasure, for pleasure under such circumstances and amid such +surroundings was impossible. The poor emigrants who were compelled +through stress and poverty to leave their homes for a foreign country +feared not toil in a new land, but they feared the long voyage with +its attending horrors and dangers. Dangerous it was, for most of the +sailing vessels were unseaworthy and when a storm swept the waters, +they were as children's toys, at the mercy of wind and wave. When the +passenger stepped on board he always had the dread of a watery grave +before him. + +How different to-day. Danger has been eliminated almost to the vanishing +point and the mighty monsters of steel and oak now cut through the +waves in storms and hurricanes with as much ease as a duck swims through +a pond. + +From the time the _Great Western_ was launched, steamships sailing +between American and English ports became an established institution. +Soon after the _Great Western's_ first voyage a sturdy New England +Quaker from Nova Scotia named Samuel Cunard went over to London to try +and interest the British government in a plan to establish a line of +steamships between the two countries. He succeeded in raising 270,000 +pounds, and built the _Britannia_, the first Cunard vessel to cross the +Atlantic. This was in 1840. As ships go now she was a small craft +indeed. Her gross tonnage was 1,154 and her horse power 750. She carried +only first-class passengers and these only to the limit of one hundred. +There was not much in the way of accommodation as the quarters were +cramped, the staterooms small and the sanitation and ventilation +defective. It was on the _Britannia_ that Charles Dickens crossed +over to America in 1842 and he has given us in his usual style a pen +picture of his impressions aboard. He stated that the saloon reminded +him of nothing so much as of a hearse, in which a number of half-starved +stewards attempted to warm themselves by a glimmering stove, and that +the staterooms so-called were boxes in which the bunks were shelves +spread with patches of filthy bed-clothing, somewhat after the style +of a mustard plaster. This criticism must be taken with a little +reservation. Dickens was a pessimist and always censorious and as he +had been feted and feasted with the fat of the land, he expected that +he should have been entertained in kingly quarters on shipboard. But +because things did not come up to his expectations he dipped his pen +in vitriol and began to criticise. + +At any rate the _Britannia_ in her day was looked upon as the _ne plus +ultra_ in naval architecture, the very acme of marine engineering. The +highest speed she developed was eight and one-half knots or about nine +and three-quarters miles an hour. She covered the passage from Liverpool +to Boston in fourteen and one-half days, which was then regarded as a +marvellous feat and one which was proclaimed throughout England with +triumph. + +For a long time the _Britannia_ remained Queen of the Seas for speed, +but in 1852 the Atlantic record was reduced to nine and a half days by +the _Arctic_. In 1876 the _City of Paris_ cut down the time to eight +days and four hours. Twelve years later in 1879 the _Arizona_ still +further reduced it to seven days and eight hours. In 1881 the _Alaska_, +the first vessel to receive the title of "_Ocean Greyhound_," made the +trip in six days and twenty-one hours; in 1885 the _Umbria_ bounded over +in six days and two hours, in 1890 the _Teutonic_ of the White Star line +came across in five days, eighteen hours and twenty-eight minutes, which +was considered the limit for many years to come. It was not long +however, until the Cunard lowered the colors of the White Star, when the +_Lucania_ in 1893 brought the record down to five days and twelve +hours. For a dozen years or so the limit of speed hovered round the +five-and-a-half day mark, the laurels being shared alternately by the +vessels of the Cunard and White Star Companies. Then the Germans entered +the field of competition with steamers of from 14,500 to 20,000 tons +register and from 28,000 to 40,000 horse power. The _Deutschland_ +soon began setting the pace for the ocean greyhounds, while other +vessels of the North German Lloyd line that won transatlantic honors +were the _Kaiser Wilhelm II., Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse, Kronprinz +Wilhelm and Kronprinzessin Cecilie_, all remarkably fast boats with +every modern luxury aboard that science could devise. These vessels +are equipped with wireless telegraphy, submarine signalling systems, +water-tight compartments and every other safety appliance known to +marine skill. The _Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse_ raised the standard +of German supremacy in 1902 by making the passage from Cherbourg to +Sandy Hook lightship in five days and fifteen hours. + +In 1909, however, the sister steamships _Mauretania_ and _Lusitania_ of +the Cunard line lowered all previous ocean records, by making the trip +in a little over four and a half days. They have been keeping up this +speed to the present time, and are universally regarded as the fastest +and best equipped steamships in the world,--the very last word in ocean +travel. On her last mid-September voyage the _Mauretania_ has broken all +ocean records by making the passage from Queenstown to New York in 4 +days 10 hours and 47 minutes. But they are closely pursued by the White +Star greyhounds such as the _Oceanic_, the _Celtic_ and the _Cedric_, +steamships of world wide fame for service, appointments, and equipment. +Yet at the present writing the Cunard Company has another vessel on the +stocks, to be named the _Falconia_ which in measurements will eclipse +the other two and which they are confident will make the Atlantic trip +inside four days. + +The White Star Company is also building two immense boats to be named +the _Olympic_ and _Titanic_. They will be 840 feet in length and will be +the largest ships afloat. However, it is said that freight and +passenger-room is being more considered in the construction than +speed and that they will aim to lower no records. Each will be able +to accommodate 5,000 passengers besides a crew of 600. + +All the great liners of the present day may justly be styled ocean +palaces, as far as luxuries and general appointments are concerned, +but as the _Mauretania_ and _Lusitania_ are best known, a description of +either of these will convey an idea to stay-at-homes of the regal +magnificence and splendors of the floating hotels which modern science +places at the disposal of the traveling public. + +Though sister ships and modeled on similar lines, the _Mauretania_ and +_Lusitania_ differ somewhat in construction. Of the two the _Mauretania_ +is the more typical ship as well as the more popular. This modern +triumph of the naval architect and marine engineer was built by the firm +of Swan, Hunter & Co. at Wellsend on the Tyne in 1907. The following are +her dimensions: Length over all 790 feet. Length between perpendiculars +760 feet. Breadth 88 feet. Depth, moulded 60.5 feet. Gross tonnage +32,000. Draught 33.5 feet. Displacement 38,000 tons. + +She has accommodation space for 563 first cabin, 500 second cabin, and +1,300 third class passengers. She carries a crew of 390 engineers, 70 +sailors, 350 stewards, a couple of score of stewardesses, 50 cooks, +the officers and captain, besides a maritime band, a dozen or so +telephone and wireless telegraph operators, editor and printers for +the wireless bulletin published on board and two attendants for the +elevator. + +The type of engine is what is known as the Parsons Turbine. There are +23 double ended and 2 single ended boilers. The engines develop 68,000 +horse power; they are fed by 192 furnaces; the heating surface is +159,000 square feet; the grate surface is 4,060 square feet; the steam +pressure is 195 lbs. to the square inch. + +The highest speed attained has been almost 26 knots or 30 miles an +hour. At this rate the number of revolutions is 180 to the minute. The +coal daily consumed by the fiery maw of the furnaces is enormous. On +one trip between Liverpool and New York more than 7,000 tons is required +which is a consumption of over 1,500 tons daily. + +There are nine decks, seven of which are above the water line. Corticine +has been largely used for deck covering, instead of wood as it is much +lighter. On the boat deck which extends over the greater part of the +centre of the ship are located several of the beautiful _en suite_ +cabins. Abaft these at the forward end are the grand Entrance Hall, +the Library, the Music-Room and the Lounging-Room and Smoking-Room +for the first cabin passengers. + +There is splendid promenading space on the boat deck where passengers +can exercise to their hearts' content and also indulge in games and +sports with all the freedom of field life. Many life boats swing on +davits and instead of being a hindrance or obstacle, act as shades +from the sunshine and as breaks from the wind. + +In the space for first-class passengers are arranged a large number +of cabins. What are known as the regal suites are on both port and +starboard, and along each side of the main deck are more _en suite_ +rooms. + +On the shelter deck there are no first-class cabin quarters. At the +forward end of this deck are the very powerful Napier engines for +working the anchor gear. Abaft this on the starboard side is the general +lounging room for third-class passengers, while on the port-side is +their smoking room with a companion way leading to the third-class +dining saloon below and to the third-class cabins on the main and lower +decks. The third-class galleys are accommodated on the main deck house +and close by is a set of the refrigerating machinery used in connection +with the rooms for the storage of supplies for the kitchen department. +The side of the ship for a considerable distance aft of this is plated +up to the promenade deck level so that the third-class passengers have +not only convenient rooms but a protected promenade. Abaft this +promenade is another open one. Indeed the accommodations for the third +class are as good as what the first-class were accustomed to on most +of the liners some dozen years ago. + +To the left of the grand staircase on the deck house is a children's +dining saloon and nursery. + +On the top deck are dining saloons for all three classes of passengers, +that for the third being forward, for the first amidships and for the +second near the stern; 470 first-class passengers can be seated at a +time, 250 second class and more than 500 of the third class. + +The main deck is given up entirely to staterooms. The whole of the +lower deck forward is also arranged for third-class staterooms. The +firemen and other engine room and stokehold workers are located in +rooms above the machinery with separate entrances and exits to and +from their work. Promenade and exercise space is provided for them on +the shelter deck which is fenced off from the space of the second and +third class passenger. Amidships is a coal bunker with a compartment +under the engines for the storage of supplies. + +The coal trimmers are accommodated alongside the engine casing and +abaft this are the mailrooms with accommodation for the stewards and +other helpers. The "orlop" or eighth deck is devoted entirely to +machinery with coal bunkers on each side of the boilers to provide +against the effect of collisions. + +The general scheme of color throughout the ship is pleasing and +harmonious. The wood for the most part is oak and mahogany. There are +over 50,000 square feet of oak in parquet flooring. All the carving +and tracing is done in the wood, no superpositions or stucco work +whatever being used to show reliefs. + +The grand stairway shows the Italian renaissance style of the 16th +century; the panels are of French walnut; the carving of columns and +pilasters is of various designs but the aggregate is pleasing in effect. + +The Library extends across the deck house, 33 by 56 feet; the walls +of the deck house are bowed out to form bay windows. When you first +enter the Library the effect is as though you were looking at shimmering +marble, this is owing to the lightness of the panels which are sycamore +stained in light gray. The mantelpiece is of white statuary marble. +The great swing doors which admit you, have bevelled glass panels set +in bronze casings. The chairs have mahogany frames done in light plush. + +The first class lounging room is probably the most artistic as well +as the most sumptuous apartment in the ship. The panels are of beautiful +ingrained mahogany dully polished a rich brown. The white ceiling is +of simple design with boldly carved mouldings and is supported by +columns embossed in gold of exquisite workmanship. Some of the panels +are of curiously woven tapestries, the fruit of oriental looms. +Chandeliers of beautiful design in rich bronze and crystal depend from +the ceiling. The curtains, hanging with their soft folds against the +dull gold of the carved curtainboxes, are of a charming cream silk and +with their flower borders lend a tone both sumptuous and refined. The +carpet is of a slender trellis design with bluish pink roses trailing +over a pearl grey ground and forms a perfect foil to the splendid +furniture. The chairs are of polished beech covered with 18th century +brocade. + +The smoking-room of the first-class is done in rich oak carving with +an inlaid border around the panels. An unusual feature in the main +part of the room is a jube passageway extending the whole length and +divided into recesses with divans and card tables. Writing tables may +be found in secluded nooks free from interruption. The windows of +unusual size, are semicircular and give a home-like appearance to the +room. + +The dining saloon is in light oak with all carvings worked in the wood. +A children's nursery off the main stairway in the deck house is done +in mahogany. Enameled white panels depict the old favorite of the Four +and Twenty Blackbirds baked in a Pie. + +An air of delicate refinement and rich luxury hangs about the regal +rooms. A suite consists of drawing-room, dining-room, two bedrooms, +bathroom and a private corridor. The drawing- and dining-rooms of +these suites are paneled in East India satin-wood, probably the hardest +and most durable of all timber. The bedrooms are in Georgian style +finished in white with satin hangings. + +The special staterooms are also finished in rich woods on white and +gold and have damask and silk hangings and draperies. An idea of the +richness and magnificence of the interior decorations may be obtained +when it is learned that the cost of these decorations exceeded three +million dollars. + +The galleys, pantries, bakery, confectionery and utensil cleaning rooms +extend the full length of the ship. Electricity plays an important +part in the culinary department. Electric motors mix dough, run grills +and roasters, clean knives and manipulate plate racks and other articles +of the kitchen. The main cooking range for the saloon is 24 by 8 feet, +heated by coal. There are four steam boilers and 12 steam ovens. There +are extensive cold storage compartments and refrigerating chambers. + +In connection with the commissariat department it is interesting to +note the food supply carried for a trip of this floating caravansary. +Here is a list of the leading supplies needed for a trip, but there +are hundreds of others too numerous to mention: Forty thousand pounds +of fresh beef, 1,000 lbs. of corned beef, 8,000 lbs. of mutton, 800 +lbs. of lamb, 600 lbs. of veal, 500 lbs. of pork, 4,000 lbs. of fish, +2,000 fowls, 100 geese, 150 turkeys, 350 ducks, 400 pigeons, 250 +partridges, 250 grouse, 200 pheasants, 800 quail, 200 snipe, 35 tons +of potatoes, 75 hampers of vegetables, 500 quarts ice ream, 3,500 +quarts of milk, 30,000 eggs and in addition many thousand bottles of +mineral water and spirituous liquors. + +The health of the passengers is carefully guarded during the voyage. +The science of thermodynamics has been brought to as great perfection +as possible. Not alone is the heating thoroughly up to modern science +requirements but the ventilation as well, by means of thermo tanks, +suction valves and exhaust fans. All foul air is expelled and fresh +currents sent through all parts of the ship. + +There is an electric generating station abaft the main engine room +containing four turbo-generators each of 375 kilowatts capacity. + +There are more than 5,000 electric lights and every room is connected +by an electric push-bell. There is a telephone exchange through which +one can be connected with any department of the vessel. When in harbor, +either at Liverpool or New York, the wires are connected to the City +Central exchange so that the ships can be communicated with either by +local or long distance telephone. + +By means of wireless telegraphy voyagers can communicate with friends +during almost the entire trip and learn the news of the world the same +as if they were on land. A bulletin is published daily on board giving +news of the leading happenings of the world. + +There is a perfect fire alarm system on board with fire mains on each +side of the ship from which connections are taken to every separate +department. There are boxes with hydrant and valve in each room and +a system of break glass fire alarms with a drop indicator box in the +chartroom and also one in the engine-room to notify in case of any +outbreak. + +The sanitation is all that could be desired. There are flush lavatories +on all decks in marble and onyx and with all the sanitary contrivances +in apparatus of the best design. + +The vessel is propelled by four screws, rotated by turbine engines and +the power developed is equal to that of 68,000 horses. Now 68,000 +horses placed head to tail in a single line would reach a distance of +90 miles or as far as from New York to Philadelphia; and if the steeds +were harnessed twenty abreast there would be no fewer than 3,400 rows +of powerful horses. + +Such is the steamship of to-day but there is no doubt that the thousand +foot boat is coming, which probably will cross the Atlantic ocean in +less than four days if not in three. But the question is, where shall +we put her, that is, where shall we dock her? + +To build a thousand foot pier to accommodate her, appears like a good +answer to this question, but the great difficulty is that there are +United States Government regulations restricting the length of piers +to 800 feet. Docking space along the shore of New York harbor is too +valuable to permit the ship being berthed parallel to the shore, +therefore vessels must dock at right angles to the shore. Some +provisions must soon be made and the regulations as to dock lengths +revised. + +The thousand footer may be here in a couple of years or so. In the +meantime the two 840 footers are already on the stocks at Belfast and +are expected to arrive early in 1911. Before they come changes and +improvements must be made in the docking and harbor facilities of the +port of New York. + +If higher speed is demanded, increased size is essential, since with +even the best result every 100 horse-power added involves an addition +to machinery weight of approximately 14 tons and to the area occupied +of about 40 square feet. To accomplish this the ship must be as much +larger in proportion. + +The ship designer has to work within circumscribed limits. If he could +make his vessel of any depth he might build much larger and there would +be theoretically no limit to his speed: 40 knots an hour might be +obtained as easily as the present maximum of 26, but in designing his +ship he must remember that in the harbors of New York or Liverpool the +channels are not much beyond 30 feet in depth. High speed necessitates +powerful engines, but if the engines be too large there will not be +space enough for coal to feed the furnaces. If the breadth of the ship +is increased the speed is diminished, while on the other hand, if too +powerful engines are put in a narrow vessel she will break her back. +The proper proportions must be carefully studied as regards length, +breadth, depth and weight so that the vessel will derive the greatest +speed from her engines. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +WONDERFUL CREATIONS IN PLANT LIFE + +Mating Plants--Experiments of Burbank--What he has Accomplished. + + +In California lives a wonderful man. He has succeeded in doing more +than making two blades of grass grow where grew but one. Yearly, daily +in fact, this wizard of plant life is playing tricks on old Mother +Nature, transforming her vegetable children into different shapes and +making them no longer recognizable in their original forms. Like the +fairies in Irish mythology, this man steals away the plant babies, but +instead of leaving sickly elves in their places, he brings into the +world exceedingly healthy or lusty youngsters which grow up into a +full maturity, and develop traits of character superior to the ones +they supplant. For instance he took away the ugly, thorny insipid +cactus and replaced it by a beautiful smooth juicy one which is now +making the western deserts blossom as the rose. The name of this man +is Luther Burbank whose fame as a creator of new plants has become +world wide. + +The basic principle of Burbank's plant magic comes under two heads, +viz.: breeding and selection. He mates two different species in such +a way that they will propagate a type partaking of the natures of both +but superior to either in their qualities. In order to effect the best +results from mating, he is choice in his selection of species--the +best is taken and the worst rejected. It is a universal law that the +bad can never produce the good; consequently when good is desired, as +is universally the case, bad must be eliminated. In his method, Burbank +gives the good a chance to assert itself and at the same time takes +away all opportunity from the bad. So that the latter cannot thrive +but must decay and pass out of being. He takes two plants--they may +be of the same species, but as a general rule he prefers to experiment +with those of different species; he perceives that neither one in its +present surroundings is putting forth what is naturally expected from +it, that each is either retrograding in the scale of life or standing +still for lack of encouragement to go forward. He knows that back of +these plants is a long history of evolutions from primitive beginnings +to their present stage just as in the case of man himself. 'Tis a far +cry from the cliff-dweller wielding his stone-axe and roaming nude +through the fields and forests after his prey--the wild beast--to the +lordly creature of to-day--the product of long ages of civilization +and culture, yet high as the state is to which man has been brought, +in many cases he is hemmed in and surrounded by circumstances which +preclude him from putting forth the best that is in him and showing +his full possibilities to the world. The philosopher is often hidden +in the ploughman and many a poor laborer toiling in corduroys and +fustian at the docks, in the mills, or sweeping the streets may have +as good a brain as Edison, but has not the opportunity to develop it +and show its capabilities. The same analogy is applicable to plant +life. Under adverse conditions a plant or vegetable cannot put forth +its best efforts. In a scrawny, impoverished soil, and exhausted +atmosphere, lacking the constituents of nurture, the plant will become +dwarfed and unproductive, whereas on good ground and in good air, which +have the succulent properties to nourish it the best results may be +expected. The soil and the air, therefore, from which are derived the +constituents of plant life, are indispensably necessary, but they are +not the primal principles upon which that life depends for its being. +The basis, the foundation, the origin of the life is the seed which +germinates in the soil and evolves itself into the plant. + +A dead seed will not germinate, a contaminated seed may, but the plant +it produces will not be a healthy one and it will only be after a long +series of transplantings, with patience and care, that at length a +really sound plant will be obtained. The same principle holds good in +regard to the human plant. It is hard to offset an evil ancestry. The +contamination goes on from generation to generation, just as in the +case of the notorious Juke family which cost New York State hundreds +of thousands of dollars in consequence of criminality and idiocy. It +requires almost a miracle to divert an individual sprung from a corrupt +stem into a healthy, moral course of living. There must be some powerful +force brought to bear to make him break the ligatures which bind him +to ancestral nature and enable him to come forth on a plane where he +will be susceptible to the influence of what is good and noble. Such +can be done and has been accomplished. + +Burbank is accomplishing such miracles in the vegetable kingdom, in +fact he is recreating species as it were and developing them to a full +fruition. Of course as in the case of the conversion of a sinner from +his evil instincts, much opposition is met and the progress at first +is slow, but finally the plant becomes fixed in its new ways and starts +forward on its new course in life. It requires patience to await the +development Burbank is a man of infinite patience. He has been five, +ten, fifteen, twenty years in producing a desired blossom, but he +considers himself well rewarded when his object has been obtained. +Thousands of experiments are going on at the same time, but in each +case years are required to achieve results, so slow is the work of +selection, the rejecting of the seemingly worthless and the eternal +choosing of the best specimens to continue the experiments. + +When two plants are united to produce a third, no human intelligence +can predict just what will be the result of the union. There may be +no result at all; hence it is that Burbank does not depend on one +experiment at a time. If he did the labors of a life-time would have +little to show for their work. In breeding lilies he has used as high +as five hundred thousand plants in a single test. Such an immense +quantity gave him a great variety of selection. He culled and rejected, +and culled and rejected until he made his final selection for the last +test. + +Sometimes he is very much disappointed in his anticipations. For +instance, he marks out a certain life for a flower and breeds and +selects to that end. For a time all may go according to his plans, but +suddenly some new trait develops which knocks those plans all out of +gear. The new flower may have a longer stem and narrower leaves than +either parent, while a shorter stem and broader leaves are the +desideratum. The experimenter is disappointed, but not disheartened; +he casts the flower aside and makes another selection from the same +species and again goes ahead, until his object is attained. + +It may be asked how two plants are united to procure a third. The act +is based on the procreative law of nature. Plant-breeding is simply +accomplished by sifting the pollen of one plant upon the stigma of +another, this act--pollenation--resulting in fertilization, Nature in +her own mysterious ways bringing forth the new plant. + +In order to get an idea of the Burbank method, let us consider some +of his most famous experiments, for instance, that in which by uniting +the potato with the tomato he has produced a new variety which has +been very aptly named the pomato. Mr. Burbank, from the beginning of +his wonderful career, has experimented much with the potato. It was +this vegetable which first brought the plant wizard into worldwide +prominence. The Burbank potato is known in all lands where the tuber +forms an article of food. It has been introduced into Ireland and +promises to be the salvation of that distressed island of which the +potato constitutes the staple diet. The Burbank potato is the hardiest +of all varieties and in this respect is well suited for the colder +climates of the Temperate Zone. Apart from this potato which bears his +name, Mr. Burbank has produced many other varieties. He has blended +wild varieties with tame ones, getting very satisfactory results. Mr. +Burbank believes that a little wild blood, so to speak, is often +necessary to give tone and vigor to the tame element which has been +long running in the same channels. Probably it was Emerson, his favorite +author, who gave him the cue for this idea. Emerson pointed out that +the city is recruited from the country. "The city would have died out, +rotted and exploded long ago," wrote the New England sage, "but that +it was reinforced from the fields. It is only country that came to +town day before yesterday, that is city and court to-day." + +In Burbank's greenhouses are mated all kinds of wild and tame varieties +of potatoes, producing crosses and combinations truly wonderful as +regards shape, size, and color. One of the most palatable potatoes he +has produced is a magenta color approaching crimson, so distributed +throughout that when the tuber is cut, no matter from what angle, it +presents concentric geometric figures, some having a resemblance to +human and animal faces. + +Before entering on any experiment to produce a new creation, Burbank +always takes into consideration the practical end of the experiment, +that is, what the value of the result will be as a practical factor +in commerce, how much it will benefit the race. He does not experiment +for a pastime or a novelty, but for a purpose. His object in regard +to the potato is to make it a richer, better vegetable for a food +supply and also to make it more important for other purposes in the +commerce of the nations. + +The average potato consists of seventy-five per cent. water and +twenty-five per cent. dry matter, almost all of which is starch. Now +starch is a very important article from a manufacturing standpoint, +but only one-fourth of the potato is available for manufacturing, the +other three-fourths, being water, is practically waste matter. Now +if the water could be driven out to a great extent and starchy matter +increased it is easy to understand that the potato would be much +increased in value as an article of manufacture. Burbank has not +overlooked this fact in his potato experiments. He has demonstrated +that it is as easy to breed potatoes for a larger amount of starch, +and he has really developed tubers which contain at least twenty-five +per cent. more starch than the normal varieties; in other words, he +has produced potatoes which yield fifty per cent. of starch instead +of twenty-five per cent. The United States uses about $12,000,000 +worth of starch every year, chiefly obtained from Indian corn and +potatoes. When the potato is made to yield double the amount of starch, +as Burbank has proved it can yield and more, it will be understood +what a large part it can be made to play in this important manufacture. + +Also for the production of alcohol the potato is gaining a prominent +place. The potato starch is converted into maltose by the diastase of +malt, the maltose being easily acted upon by ferment for the actual +production of the alcohol. Therefore an increase in the starch of the +potato for this purpose alone is much to be desired. + +Of course the chief prominence of the potato will still consist in its +adaptability as an article of food. Burbank does not overlook this. +He has produced and is producing potatoes with better flavor, of larger +and uniform size and which give a much greater yield to the area. +Palatability in the end decides the permanence of a food, and the +Burbank productions possess this quality in a high degree. + +Burbank labored long and studied every characteristic of the potato +before attempting any experiments with the tomato. Though closely +related by family ties, the potato and the tomato seemed to have no +affinity for each other whatever. In many other instances it has also +been found that two varieties which from a certain relation might +naturally be expected to amalgamate easily have been repellant to each +other and refused to unite. + +In his first experiment in trying to cross the potato and tomato, +Burbank produced tomatoes from the seeds of plants pollenated from +potato pollen only. He next produced what he called "aerial potatoes" +of very peculiar twisted shapes from a potato vine grafted on a +Ponderosa or large tomato plant. Then reversing this operation he +grafted the same kind of tomato plant upon the same kind of potato +plant and produced underground a strange-looking potato with marked +tomato characteristics. He saw he was on the right road to the +production of a new variety of vegetable, but before experimenting +further along this line he crossed two distinct species of tomatoes +and obtained a most ornamental plant, different from the parent stems, +about twelve inches high and fifteen inches across with large unusual +leaves and producing clusters of uniform globular fruit, the whole +giving a most pleasing and unique appearance. The fruit were more +palatable than the ordinary tomatoes, had better nutritive qualities +and were more suitable for preserving and canning. + +Very pleased with this result he went back to his experiments with the +potato-tomato, and succeeded in producing the most wonderful and unique +fruit in the world, one which by a happy combination of the two names, +he has aptly called the pomato. It may be considered as the evolution +of a potato seed-ball. It first appears as a tiny green ball on the +potato top and as the season progresses it gradually enlarges and +finally develops into a fruit about the size and shape of the ordinary +tomato. The flesh is white and the marrow, which contains but a few +tiny white seeds, is exceedingly pleasant to the taste, possessing a +combination of several different fruit flavors, though it cannot be +identified with any one. It may be eaten either raw or cooked after +the manner of the common tomato. In either case it is most palatable, +but especially so when cooked. It is exceptionally well adapted to +preserving purposes. + +The production of such a fruit from a vegetable is one of the crowning +triumphs of the California wizard. Probably it is the most novel of +all the wonderful crosses and combinations he has given to the world. + +It would be impossible here to go into detail in regard to some of the +other wonders accomplished in the plant world by this modern magician. +There is only space to merely mention a few more of his successful +achievements. He has given the improved thornless and spiculess cactus, +food for man and beast, converting it into a beautifier and reclaimer +of desert wastes; the plum-cot which is an amalgamation of the plum +and the apricot with a flavor superior to both; many kinds of plums, +some without pits, others having the taste of Bartlett pears, and still +others giving out a fragrance as sweet as the rose; several varieties +of walnuts, one with a shell as thin as paper and which was so easily +broken by the birds that Burbank had to reverse his experiment somewhat +in order to get a thicker shell; another walnut has no tannin in the +meat, which is the cause of the disagreeable flavor of the ordinary +fruit; the world-famed Shasta daisy, which is a combination of the +Japanese daisy, the English daisy and the common field daisy, and which +has a blossom seven inches in diameter; a dahlia deprived of its +unpleasant odor and the scent of the magnolia blossom substituted; a +gladiolus which blooms around the entire stem like a hyacinth instead +of the old way on one side only; many kinds of lilies with chalices +and petals different from the ordinary, and exhaling perfumes as varied +as those of Oriental gardens; a poppy of such dimension that it is +from ten to twelve inches across its brilliant bloom; an amaryllis +bred up from a couple of inches to over a foot in diameter; several +kinds of fruit trees which withstand frost in bud and in flower; a +chestnut tree which bears nuts in eighteen months from the time of +seed-planting; a white blackberry (paradoxical as it may appear), a +rare and beautiful fruit and as palatable as it is beautiful; the +primusberry, a union of the raspberry and the blackberry; another +wonderful and delicious berry produced from the California dewberry +and the Cuthbert-raspberry; pieplants four feet in diameter, bearing +every day in the year; prunes, three, four, and five times as large +as the ordinary and enriched in flavor; blackberries without their +prickly thorns and hundreds of other combinations and crosses of fruits +and flowers too numerous to mention. He has improved plums, pears, +apples, apricots, quinces, peaches, cherries, grapes, in short, all +kinds of fruit which grow in our latitude and many even that have been +introduced. He has developed hundreds of varieties of flowers, improving +them in color, hardiness and yield. Thus he has not only added to the +food and manufacturing products of the world, but he has enriched the +aesthetic side in his beautiful flower creations. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +LATEST DISCOVERIES IN ARCHAEOLOGY + + Prehistoric Time--Earliest Records--Discoveries in Bible Lands-- + American Explorations. + + +For the earliest civilization and culture we must go to that part of +the world, which according to the general belief, is the cradle of the +human race. The civilization of the Mesopotamian plain is not only the +oldest but the first where man settled in great city communities, under +an orderly government, with a developed religion, practicing +agriculture, erecting dwellings and using a syllabified writing. All +modern civilization had its source there. For 6,000 years the cuneiform +or wedge-shaped writing of the Assyrians was the literary script of +the whole civilized ancient world, from the shores of the Mediterranean +to India and even to China, for Chinese civilization, old as it is, +is based upon that which obtained in Mesopotamia. In Egypt, too, at +an early date was a high form of neolithic civilization. Six thousand +years before Christ, a white-skinned, blond-haired, blue-eyed race +dwelt there, built towns, carried on commerce, made woven linen cloth, +tanned leather, formed beautiful pottery without the wheel, cut stone +with the lathe and designed ornaments from ivory and metals. These +were succeeded by another great race which probably migrated into Egypt +from Arabia. Among them were warriors and administrators, fine +mechanics, artisans, artists and sculptors. They left us the Pyramids +and other magnificent monumental tombs and great masses of architecture +and sculptured columns. Of course, they declined and passed away, as +all things human must; but they left behind them evidences to tell of +their prestige and power. + +The scientists and geologists of our day are busy unearthing the remains +of the ancient peoples of the Eastern world, who started the waves of +civilization both to the Orient and the Occident. Vast stores of +knowledge are being accumulated and almost every day sees some ancient +treasure trove brought to light. Especially in Biblical lands is the +explorer busy unearthing the relics of the mighty past and throwing +a flood of light upon incidents and scenes long covered by the dust +of centuries. + +Babylon, the mightiest city of ancient times, celebrated in the Bible +and in the earliest human records as the greatest centre of sensual +splendor and sinful luxury the world has ever seen, is at last being +explored in the most thorough manner by the German Oriental Society, +of which the Kaiser is patron. Babylon rose to its greatest glory under +Nebuchadnezzar, the most famous monarch of the Babylonian Empire. At +that period it was the great centre of arts, learning and science, +astronomy and astrology being patronized by the Babylonian kings. The +city finally came to a terrible end under Belshazzar, as related in +the Bible. The palace of the impious king has been uncovered and its +great piles of masonry laid bare. The great hall, where the young +prophet Daniel read the handwriting on the wall, can now be seen. The +palace stood on elevated ground and was of majestic dimensions. A +winding chariot road led up to it. The lower part was of stone and the +upper of burned bricks. All around on the outside ran artistic +sculptures of men hunting animals. The doors were massive and of bronze +and swung inward, between colossal figures of winged bulls. From the +hall a stairway led to the throne room of the King, which was decorated +with gold and precious stones and finished in many colors. The hall +in which the infamous banquet was held was 140 feet by 40 feet. For +a ceiling it was spanned by the cedars of Lebanon which exhaled a sweet +perfume. At night a myriad lights lent brilliancy to the scene. There +were over 200 rooms all gorgeously furnished, most of them devoted to +the inmates of the king's harem. The ruins as seen to-day impress the +visitor and excite wonder and admiration. + +The Germans have also uncovered the great gate of Ishtar at Babylon, +which Nebuchadnezzar erected in honor of the goddess of love and war, +the most renowned of all the mythical deities of the Babylonian +Pantheon. It is a double gateway with interior chambers, flanked by +massive towers and was erected at the end of the Sacred Road at the +northeast corner of the palace. Its most unique feature consists in +the scheme of decoration on its walls, which are covered with row upon +row of bulls and dragons represented in the brilliant enamelled bricks. +Some of these creatures are flat and others raised in relief. Those +in relief are being taken apart to be sent to Berlin, where they will +be again put together for exhibition. + +The friezes on this gate of Ishtar are among the finest examples of +enamelled brickwork that have been uncovered and take their place +beside "the Lion Frieze" from Sargon's palace at Khorsabad and the +still more famous "Frieze of Arches of King Darius" in the Paris Louvre. + +The German party have already established the claim of Herodotus as +to the thickness of the walls of the city. Herodotus estimated them +at two hundred royal cubits (348 feet) high and fifty royal cubits +(86-1/2 feet) thick. At places they have been found even thicker. So +wide were they that on the top a four-horse chariot could easily turn. + +The hanging gardens of Babylon, said to have been built to please +Amytis the consort of Nebuchadnezzar, were classed as among the Seven +Wonders of the World. Terraces were constructed 450 feet square, of +huge stones which cost millions in that stoneless country. These were +supported by countless columns, the tallest of which were 160 feet +high. On top of the stones were layers of brick, cemented and covered +with pitch, over which was poured a layer of lead to make all absolutely +water-tight. Finally, on the top of this, earth was spread to such a +depth that the largest trees had room for their roots. The trees were +planted in rows forming squares and between them were flower gardens. +In fact, these gardens constituted an Eden in the air, which has never +since been duplicated. + +New discoveries have been recently made concerning the Tower of Babel, +the construction of which, as described in the Book of Genesis, is one +of the most remarkable occurrences of the first stage of the world's +history. It has been found that the tower was square and not round, +as represented by all Bible illustrators, including Dore. The ruins +cover a space of about 50,000 square feet and are about ten miles from +the site of Babylon. + +The ruins of the celebrated synagogue of Capernaum, believed to be the +very one in which the Saviour preached, have been unearthed and many +other Biblical sites around the ancient city have been identified. + +Capernaum was the home of Jesus during nearly the whole of his Galilean +ministry and the scene of many of his most wonderful miracles. The +site of Capernaum is now known as Tell Hum. There are ruins scattered +about over a radius of a mile. The excavating which revealed the ruins +of the synagogue was done under supervision of a German archaeologist +named Kohl. This synagogue was composed of white limestone blocks +brought from a distance and in this respect different from the others +which were built of the local black volcanic rock. The carvings +unearthed in the ruins are very beautiful and most of them in high +relief work, representing trailing vines, stately palms, clusters of +dates, roses and acanthus. Various animal designs are also shown and +one of the famous seven-branched candlesticks which accompanied the +Ark of the Covenant. + +Most of the incidents at Capernaum mentioned in the Bible were connected +with the synagogue, the ruins of which have just been uncovered. The +centurion who came to plead with Jesus about the servant was the man +who built the synagogue (Luke VII:1-10). In the synagogue, Jesus healed +the man with the unclean spirit (Mark I:21-27). In this synagogue, the +man with the withered hand received health on the Sabbath Day (Matthew +XII:10-13). Jairus, whose daughter was raised from the dead, was a +ruler of the synagogue (Luke VIII:3) and it was in this same synagogue +of Capernaum that Jesus preached the discourse on the bread of life +(John VI:26-59). The hill near Capernaum where Jesus fed the multitude +with five loaves and two fishes is also identified. + +The stoning of St. Stephen and the conversion of St. Paul are two great +events of the New Testament which lend additional interest to the +explorations now being carried on at the ancient City of Damascus. +Damascus lays claim to being the most ancient city in the world and +its appearance sustains the claim. Unlike Jerusalem and many other +ancient cities, it has never been completely destroyed by a conqueror. +The Assyrian monarch, Tiglath Pileser, swept down on it, 2,700 years +ago, but he did not succeed in wiping it out. Other cities came into +being long after Damascus, they flourished, faded and passed away; but +Damascus still remains much the same as in the early time. Among the +famous places which have been identified in this ancient city is the +house of Ananias the priest and the place in the wall where Paul was +let down by a basket is pointed out. The scene of the conversion of +St. Paul is shown and also the "Street called Straight" referred to +in Acts IX:II. + +Jerusalem, birthplace and cradle of Christianity, offers a vast and +interesting field to the archaeologist. One of the most remarkable of +recent discoveries relates to the building known as David's castle. +Major Conder, a British engineer in charge of the Palestine survey, +has proved that this building is actually a part of the palace of King +Herod who ordered the Massacre of the Innocents in order to encompass +the destruction of the Infant Saviour. + +The tomb of Hiram is another relic discovered at the village of Hunaneh +on the road from Safed to Tyre; it recalls the days of David. Hiram +was King of Tyre in the time of David. The tomb is a limestone structure +of extraordinary massiveness Unfortunately the Mosque of Omar stands +on the site of Solomon's Temple and there is no hope of digging there. +As for the palace of Solomon, it should be easy to find the foundations, +for Jerusalem has been rebuilt several times upon the ruins of earlier +periods and vast ancient remains must be still buried there. The work +is being pushed vigorously at present and the future should bring to +light many interesting relics. At last the real site of the Crucifixion +may be found with many mementoes of the Saviour, and the Apostles. + +Professor Flinders Petrie, the famous English archaeologist, has +recently explored the Sinaitic peninsula and has found many relics of +the Hebrews' passage through the country during the Exodus and also +many of a still earlier period. He found a remarkable number of altars +and tombs belonging to a very early form of religion. On the Mount +where Moses received the tables of the law is a monastery erected by +the Emperor Justinian 523 A.D. Although the conquering wave of Islam +has swept over the peninsula, leaving it bare and desolate, this +monastery still survives, the only Christian landmark, not only in +Sinai but in all Arabia. The original tables of stone on which the +Commandments were written, were placed in the Ark of the Covenant and +taken all through the Wilderness to Palestine and finally placed in +the Temple of Solomon. What became of it when the Temple was plundered +and destroyed by the Babylonians is not known. + +Clay tablets have been found at Nineveh of the Creation and the Flood +as known to the Assyrians. These tablets formed part of a great epic +poem of which Nimrod, the mighty hunter, was the hero. + +Explorers are now looking for the palace of Nimrod, also that of +Sennacherib, the Assyrian monarch who besieged Jerusalem. The latter +despoiled the Temple of many of its treasures and it is believed that +his palace, when found, may reveal the Tables of the Law, the Ark of +the Covenant, the Seven-branched candlestick, and many of the golden +vessels used in Israelitish worship. + +Ur of the Chaldees, birthplace of Abraham, father and founder of the +Hebrew race, is a rich field for the archaeologist to plough. Some +tablets have already been discovered, but they are only a mere +suggestion as to future possibilities. It is believed by some eminent +investigators that we owe to Abraham the early part of the Book of +Genesis describing the Creation, the Tower of Babel and the Flood, and +the quest of archaeologists is to find, if not the original tablets, +at least some valuable records which may be buried in this neighborhood. + +Excavators connected with the American School at Jerusalem are busy +at Samaria and they believe they have uncovered portions of the great +temple of Baal, which King Ahab erected in honor of the wicked deity +890 B.C. When the remains of this temple are fully uncovered it will +be learned just how far the Israelites forsook the worship of the true +God for that of Baal. + +The Germans have begun work on the site of Jericho, once the royal +capital of Canaan, and historic chiefly from the fact that Joshua led +the Israelites up to its walls, reported to be impregnable, but which +"fell down at the blast of the trumpet." Great piles have been unearthed +here which it is thought formed a part of the original masonry. One +excavator believes he has unearthed the ruins of the house of Rahab, +the woman who sheltered Joshua's spies. Another thinks he has discovered +the site of the translation of Elijah, the Prophet, from whence he was +carried up to heaven in a fiery chariot. + +Every Christian will be interested in learning what is to be found in +Nazareth where Jesus spent his boyhood. Archaeologists have located +the "Fount of the Virgin," and the rock from which the infuriated +inhabitants attempted to hurl Christ. + +In the "Land of Goshen" where the Israelites in a state of servitude +worked for the oppressing Pharaoh (Rameses II), excavators have found +bricks made without straw as mentioned in Scripture, undoubtedly the +work of Hebrew slaves, also glazed bead necklaces. They are looking +for the House of Amran, the father of Moses, where the great leader +was born. + +The site of Arbela, where Alexander the Great won his mightiest victory +over Darius, has been discovered. It is a series of mounds on the +Western bank of the Tigris river between Nineveh and Bagdad. All the +treasures of Darius were taken and Alexander erected a great palace. +Bronze swords, cups and pieces of sculpture have been unearthed and +it is supposed there are vast stores of other remains awaiting the +tool and patience of the excavator. The famous Sultan Saladin took up +his residence here in 1184 and doubtless many relics of his royal time +will be discovered. + +The remains of the city of Pumbaditha have been identified with the +immense mound of Abnar some twenty miles from Babylon, on the banks +of the Euphrates. This was the centre of Jewish scholarship during the +Babylonian exile. One of the great schools in which the Talmud was +composed was located here. The great psalm, "By the waters of Babylon, +we sat down and wept." was also composed on this spot, and here, too, +Jeremiah and Isaiah thundered their impassioned eloquence. Broken tombs +and a few inscribed bowls have been brought to light. Probably the +original scrolls of the Talmud will be found here. Several curiously +wrought vases and ruins have been also unearthed. + +Several monuments bearing inscriptions which are sorely puzzling the +archaeologists have recently been unearthed at the site of Boghaz-Keni +which was the ancient, if not original capital, of the mysterious +people called the Hittites who have been for so long a worry to Bible +students. Archaeology has now revealed the secret of this people. There +is no doubt they were of Mongolian origin, as the monuments just +discovered represent them with slant eyes and pigtails. No one as yet +has been able to read the inscriptions. They were great warriors, great +builders and influenced the fate of many of the ancient nations. + +In many other places throughout these lands, deep students of Biblical +lore are pushing on the work of excavation and daily adding to our +knowledge concerning the peoples and nations in whom posterity must +ever take a vital interest. + +A short time ago, Professor Doerpfeld announced to the world that he +had discovered on the island of Ithaca, off the west coast of Greece, +the ruins of the palace of Ulysses, Homer's half-mythical hero of the +_Odyssey_. The German archaeologist has traced the different rooms +of the palace and is convinced that here is the very place to which +the hero returned after his wanderings. Near it several graves were +found from which were exhumed silver amulets, curiously wrought +necklaces, bronze swords and metal ornaments bearing date 2,000 B.C., +which is the date at which investigators lay the Siege of Troy. + +If the ruins be really those of the palace of Ulysses, some interesting +things may be found to throw a light on the Homeric epic. As the +schoolboys know, when Ulysses set sail from Troy for home, adverse +winds wafted him to the coast of Africa and he beat around in the +adjacent seas and visited islands and spent a considerable time meeting +many kinds of curious and weird adventures, dallying at one time with +the lotus-eaters, at another braving the Cyclops, the one-eyed monsters, +until he arrived at Ithaca where "he bent his bow and slew the suitors +of Penelope, his harassed wife." + +In North America are mounds, earthworks, burial sites, shell heaps, +buildings of stone and adobe, pictographs sculptured in rocks, stone +implements, objects made of bone, pottery and other remains which +arouse the enthusiasm of the archaeologist. As the dead were usually +buried in America, investigators try to locate the ancient cemeteries +because, besides skeletons, they usually contain implements, pottery +and ornaments which were buried with the corpses. The most +characteristic implement of early man in America was the grooved axe, +which is not found in any other country. Stone implements are plentiful +everywhere. Knives, arrow-points and perforators of chipped stone are +found in all parts of the continent. Beads and shells and pottery are +also found in almost every State. + +The antiquity of man in Europe has been determined in a large measure +by archaeological remains found in caves occupied by him in different +ages, but the exploration of caves in North America has so far failed +to reveal traces of different degrees of civilization. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +GREAT TUNNELS OF THE WORLD + + Primitive Tunneling--Hoosac Tunnel--Croton Aqueduct--Great Alpine + Tunnels--New York Subway--McAdoo Tunnels--How Tunnels are Built. + + +The art of tunnel construction ranks among the very oldest in the +world, if not the oldest, for almost from the beginning of his advent +on the earth man has been tunneling and boring and making holes in the +ground. Even in pre-historic time, the ages of which we have neither +record nor tradition, primitive man scooped out for himself hollows +in the sides of hills, and mountains, as is evidenced by geological +formations and by the fossils that have been unearthed. The forming +of these hollows and holes was no indication of a superior intelligence +but merely manifested the instincts of nature in seeking protection +from the fury of the elements and safety from hostile forces such as +the onslaughts of the wild and terrible beasts that then existed on +the earth. + +The Cave Dwellers were real tunnelers, inasmuch as in construction of +their rude dwellings they divided them into several compartments and +in most cases chose the base of hills for their operations, boring +right through from side to side as recent discoveries have verified. + +The ancient Egyptians built extensive tunnels for the tombs of their +dead as well as for the temples of the living. When a king of Thebes +ascended the throne he immediately gave orders for his tomb to be cut +out of the solid rock. A separate passage or gallery led to the tomb +along which he was to be borne in death to the final resting place. +Some of the tunnels leading to the mausoleums of the ancient Egyptian +kings were upwards of a thousand feet in length, hewn out of the hard +solid rock. A similar custom prevailed in Assyria, Mesopotamia, Persia +and India. + +The early Assyrians built a tunnel under the Euphrates river which was +12 feet wide by 15 high. The course of the river was diverted until +the tunnel was built, then the waters were turned into their former +channel, therefore it was not really a subaqueous tunnel. + +The sinking of tunnels under water was to be one of the triumphs of +modern science. + +Unquestionably the Romans were the greatest engineers of ancient times. +Much of their masonry work has withstood the disintegrating hand of +time and is as solid and strong to-day as when first erected. + +The "Fire-setting" method of tunneling was originated by them, and +they also developed the familiar principle of prosecuting the work at +several points at the same time by means of vertical shafts. They +heated the rock to be excavated by great fires built against the face +of it. When a very high temperature was reached they turned streams +of cold water on the heated stone with the result that great portions +were disintegrated and fell off under the action of the water. The +Romans being good chemists knew the effect of vinegar on lime, therefore +when they encountered calcareous rock instead of water they used vinegar +which very readily split up and disintegrated this kind of obstruction. +The work of tunneling was very severe on the laborers, but the Romans +did not care, for nearly all the workmen were slaves and regarded in +no better light than so many cattle. One of the most notable tunnels +constructed by the old Romans was that between Naples and Pozzuoli +through the Posilipo Hills. It was excavated through volcanic tufa and +was 3,000 feet long, 25 feet wide, and of the pointed arch style. The +longest of the Roman tunnels, 3-1/2 miles, was built to drain Lake +Fucino. It was driven through calcareous rock and is said to have cost +the labor of 30,000 men for 11 years. + +Only hand labor was employed by the ancient people in their tunnel +work. In soft ground the tools used were picks, shovels and scoops, +but for rock work they had a greater variety. The ancient Egyptians +besides the hammer, chisel and wedges had tube drills and saws provided +with cutting edges of corundum or other hard gritty material. + +For centuries there was no progress in the art of tunneling. On the +contrary there was a decline from the earlier construction until late +in the 17th century when gunpowder came into use as an explosive in +blasting rock. The first application of gunpowder was probably at +Malpas, France, 1679-1681, in the construction of the tunnel on the +line of the Languedoc Canal 510 feet long, 22 feet wide and 29 feet +high. + +It was not until the beginning of the nineteenth century that the art +of tunnel construction, through sand, wet ground or under rivers was +undertaken so as to come rightly under the head of practical +engineering. In 1803 a tunnel was built through very soft soil for the +San Quentin Canal in France. Timbering or strutting was employed to +support the walls and roof of the excavation as fast as the earth was +removed and the masonry lining was built closely following it. From +the experience gained in this tunnel were developed the various systems +of soft ground subterranean tunneling in practice at the present day. + +The first tunnel of any extent built in the United States was that +known as the Auburn Tunnel near Auburn, Pa., for the water +transportation of coal. It was several hundred feet long, 22 feet wide +and 15 feet high. The first railroad tunnel in America was also in +Pennsylvania on the Allegheny-Portage Railroad, built in 1818-1821. +It was 901 feet long, 25 feet wide and 21 feet high. + +What may be called the epoch making tunnel, the construction of which +first introduced high explosives and power drills in this country, was +the Hoosac in Massachusetts commenced in 1854 and after many +interruptions brought to completion in 1876. It is a double-track +tunnel nearly 5 miles in length. It was quickly followed by the +commencement of the Erie tunnel through Bergen Hill near Hoboken, N.J. +This tunnel was commenced in 1855 and finished in 1861. It is 4,400 +feet long, 28 feet wide and 21 feet high. Other remarkable engineering +feats of this kind in America are the Croton Aqueduct Tunnel, the +Hudson River Tunnel, and the New York Subway. + +The great rock tunnels of Europe are the four Alpine cuts known as +Mont Cenis, St. Gothard, the Arlberg and the Simplon. The Mont Cenis +is probably the most famous because at the time of its construction +it was regarded as the greatest engineering achievement of the modern +world, yet it is only a simple tunnel 8 miles long, while the Simplon +is a double tunnel, each bore of which is 12-1/4 miles. The chief +engineer of the Mont Cenis tunnel was M. Sommeiler, the man who devised +the first power drill ever used in such work. In addition to the power +drill the building of this tunnel induced the invention of apparatus +to suck up foul air, the air compressor, the turbine and several other +contrivances and appliances in use at the present time. + +Great strides in modern tunneling developed the "shield" and brought +metal lining into service. The shield was invented and first used by +Sir M. I. Brunel, a London engineer, in excavating the tunnel under +the River Thames, begun in 1825 and finished in 1841. In 1869 another +English engineer, Peter Barlow, used an iron lining in connection with +a shield in driving the second tunnel under the Thames at London. From +a use of the shield and metal lining has grown the present system of +tunneling which is now universally known as the shield system. + +Great advancement has been made in the past few years in the nature +and composition of explosives as well as in the form of motive power +employed in blasting. Powerful chemical compositions, such as +nitroglycerine and its compounds, such as dynamite, etc., have +supplanted gunpowder, and electricity, is now almost invariably the +firing agent. It also serves many other purposes in the work, +illumination, supplying power for hoisting and excavating machinery, +driving rock drills, and operating ventilating fans, etc. In this +field, in fact, as everywhere else in the mechanical arts, the electric +current is playing a leading part. + +To the English engineer, Peter Barlow, above mentioned, must be given +the credit of bringing into use the first really serviceable circular +shield for soft ground tunneling. In 1863 he took out a patent for +such a shield with a cylindrical cast iron lining for the completed +tunnel. Of course James Henry Greathead very materially improved the +shield, so much so indeed that the present system of tunneling by means +of circular shields is called the Greathead not the Barlow system. +Greathead and Barlow entered into a partnership in 1869. They +constructed the tunnel under the Tower of London 1,350 feet in length +and seven feet in diameter which penetrated compact clay and was +completed within a period of eleven months. This was a remarkable +record in tunnel building for the time and won for these eminent +engineers a world wide fame. From thenceforth their system came into +vogue in all soft soil and subaqueous tunneling. Except for the +development in steel apparatus and the introduction of electricity as +a motive agent, there has not been such a great improvement on the +Greathead shield as one would naturally expect in thirty years. + +The method of excavating a tunnel depends altogether on the nature of +the obstruction to be removed for the passage. In the case of solid +rock the work is slow but simple; dry, hard, firm earth is much the +same as rock. The difficulties of tunneling lie in the soft ground, +subaqueous mud, silt, quicksand, or any treacherous soil of a shifting, +unsteady composition. + +When the rock is to be removed it is customary to begin the work in +sections of which there may be seven or eight. First one section is +excavated, then another and so on to completion. The order of the +sections depends upon the kind of rock and upon the time allotted for +the job and several other circumstances known to the engineer. If the +first section attacked be at the top immediately beneath the arch of +the proposed tunnel, next to the overlying matter, it is called a +heading, but if the first cutting takes place at the bottom of the +rock to form the base of the tunnel it is called a drift. + +Driving a heading is the most difficult operation of rock tunneling. +Sometimes a heading is driven a couple of thousand feet ahead of the +other sections. In soft rock it is often necessary to use timber props +as the work proceeds and follow up the excavating by lining roof and +sides with brick, stone or concrete. + +The rock is dislodged by blasting, the holes being drilled with +compressed air, water force or electricity, and, as has been said, +powerful explosives are used, nitroglycerine or some nitro-compound +being the most common. Many charges can be electrically fired at the +same time. If the tunnel is to be long, shafts are sunk at intervals +in order to attack the work at several places at once. Sometimes these +shafts are lined and left open when the tunnel is completed for purposes +of ventilation. + +In soft ground and subaqueous soil the "shield" is the chief apparatus +used in tunneling. The most up-to-date appliance of this kind was that +used in constructing the tunnels connecting New York City with New +Jersey under the Hudson River. It consisted of a cylindrical shell of +steel of the diameter of the excavation to be made. This was provided +with a cutting edge of cast steel made up of assembled segments. Within +the shell was arranged a vertical bulkhead provided with a number of +doors to permit the passage of workmen, tools and explosives. The shell +extended to the rear of the bulkhead forming what was known as the +"tail." The lining was erected within this tail and consisted of steel +plates lined with masonry. The whole arrangement was in effect a +gigantic circular biscuit cutter which was forced through the earth. + +The tail thus continually enveloped the last constructed portion of +this permanent lining. The actual excavation took place in advance of +the cutting edge. The method of accomplishing this, varied with +conditions. At times the material would be rock for a few feet from +the bottom, overlaid with soft earth. In such case the latter would +be first excavated and then the roof would be supported by temporary +timbers, after which the rock portion would be attacked. When the +workmen had excavated the material in front of the shield it was passed +through the heavy steel plate diaphragm in center of the shell out to +the rear and the shield was then moved forward so as to bring its front +again up to the face of the excavation. As the shell was very unwieldy, +weighing about eighty tons, and, moreover, as the friction or pressure +of the surrounding material on its side had to be overcome it was a +very difficult matter to move it forward and a great force had to be +expended to do so. This force was exerted by means of hydraulic jacks +so devised and placed around the circumference of the diaphragm as to +push against the completed steel plate lining of the tunnel. There +were sixteen of these jacks employed with cylinders eight inches in +diameter and they exerted a pressure of from one thousand to four +thousand pounds per square inch. By such means the shield was pushed +ahead as soon as room was made in front for another move. + +The purpose of the shield is to prevent the inrush of water and soft +material while excavating is going on; the diaphragm of the shields +acts as a bulkhead and the openings in it are so devised as to be +quickly closed if necessary. The extension of the shield in front of +the diaphragm is designed to prevent the falling or flowing in of the +exposed face of the new excavation. + +The extension of the shell back from the diaphragm is for the purpose +of affording opportunity to put in place the finished tunnel lining +whatever it may be, masonry, cast-iron, cast-iron and masonry, or steel +plates and masonry. Where the material is saturated with water as is +the case in all subaqueous tunneling it is necessary to use compressed +air in connection with the shield. The intensity of air pressure is +determined by the depth of the tunnel below the surface of the water +above it. The tunnelers work in what are called caissons to which they +have access through an air lock. In many cases quick transition from +the compressed air in the caisson to the open air at the surface results +fatally to the workers. The caisson disease is popularly called "the +bends" a kind of paralysis which is more or less baffling to medical +science. Some men are able to bear a greater pressure than others. It +depends on the natural stamina of the worker and his state of health. +The further down the greater the pressure. The normal atmospheric +pressure at the surface is about fourteen pounds to the square inch. +Men in normal health should be able to stand a pressure of seventy-six +pounds to the square inch and this would call for a depth of 178 feet +under water surface, which far exceeds any depth worked under compressed +air. For a long time one hundred feet were regarded as a maximum depth +and at that depth men were not permitted to work more than an hour in +one shift. The ordinary subaqueous tunnel pressure is about forty-five +pounds and this corresponds to a head of 104 feet. In working in the +Hudson Tunnels the pressure was scarcely ever above thirty-three pounds, +yet many suffered from the "bends." + +What is called a freezing method is now proposed to overcome the water +in soft earth tunneling. Its chief feature is the excavating first of +a small central tunnel to be used as a refrigerating chamber or ice +box in freezing the surrounding material solid so that it can be dug +out or blasted out in chunks the same as rock. It is very doubtful +however, if such a plan is feasible. + +The greatest partly subaqueous tunnels in the world are now to be found +in the vicinity of New York. The first to be opened to the public is +known as the Subway and extends from the northern limits of the City +in Westchester County to Brooklyn. The oldest, however, of the New +York tunnels counting from its origin is the "McAdoo" tunnel from +Christopher Street, in Manhattan Borough, under the Hudson to Hoboken. +This was begun in 1880 and continued at intervals as funds could be +obtained until 1890, when the work was abandoned after about two +thousand feet had been constructed. For a number of years the tunnel +remained full of water until it was finally acquired by the Hudson +Companies who completed and opened it to the public in 1908. Another +tunnel to the foot of Cortlandt Street was constructed by the same +concern and opened in 1909. Both tunnels consist of parallel but +separate tubes. The railway tunnels to carry the Pennsylvania R. R. +under the Hudson into New York and thence under the East River to Long +Island have been finished and are great triumphs of engineering skill +besides making New York the most perfectly equipped city in the world +as far as transit is concerned. + +The greatest proposed subaqueous tunnel is that intended to connect +England with France under the English Channel a distance of twenty-one +miles. Time and again the British Parliament has rejected proposals +through fear that such a tunnel would afford a ready means of invasion +from a foreign enemy. However, it is almost sure to be built. Another +projected British tunnel is one which will link Ireland and Scotland +under the Irish Sea. If this is carried out then indeed the Emerald +Isle will be one with Britain in spite of her unwillingness for such +a close association. + +England already possesses a famous subaqueous tunnel in that known as +the Severn tunnel under the river of that name. It is four and a half +miles long, although it was built largely through rock. Water gave +much trouble in its construction which occupied thirteen years from +1873 to 1886. Pumps were employed to raise the water through a side +heading connecting with a shaft twenty-nine feet in diameter. The +greatest amount of water raised concurrently was twenty-seven million +gallons in twenty-four hours but the pumps had a capacity of sixty-six +million gallons for the same time. + +The greatest tunnel in Europe is the Simplon which connects Switzerland +with Italy under the Simplon Pass in the Alps. It has two bores twelve +and one-fourth miles each and at places it is one and one-half miles +below the surface. The St. Gothard also connecting Switzerland and +Italy under the lofty peak of the Col de St. Gothard is nine and +one-fourth miles in length. The third great Alpine tunnel, the Arlberg, +which is six and one-half miles long, forms a part of the Austrian +railway between Innsbruck and Bluedenz in the Tyrol and connects +westward with the Swiss railroads and southward with those of Italy. + +Two great tunnels at the present time are being constructed in the +United States, one of these which is piercing the backbone of the +Rockies is on the Atlantic and Pacific railway. It begins near +Georgetown, will pass under Gray's peak and come out near Decatur, +Colorado, in all a length of twelve miles. The other American +undertaking is a tunnel under the famous Pike's Peak in Colorado which +when completed will be twenty miles long. + +It can clearly be seen that in the way of tunnel engineering Uncle Sam +is not a whit behind his European competitors. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +ELECTRICITY IN THE HOUSEHOLD + + Electrically Equipped Houses--Cooking by Electricity--Comforts and + Conveniences. + + +Science has now pressed the invisible wizard of electricity into doing +almost every household duty from cleaning the windows to cooking the +dinner. There are many houses now so thoroughly equipped with +electricity from top to bottom that one servant is able to do what +formerly required the service of several, and in some houses servants +seem to be needed hardly at all, the mistresses doing their own cooking, +ironing, and washing by means of electricity. + +In respect to taking advantage of electricity to perform the duties +of the household our friends in Europe were ahead of us, though America +is pre-eminently the land of electricity--the natal home of the science. +We are waking up, however, to the domestic utility of this agent and +throughout the country at present there are numbers of homes in which +electricity is employed to perform almost every task automatically +from feeding the baby to the crimping of my lady's hair in her scented +boudoir. + +There is now no longer any use for chimneys on electrically equipped +houses, for the fires have been eliminated and all heat and light drawn +from the electric street mains. A description of one of these houses +is most interesting as showing what really can be accomplished by this +wonderful source of power. + +Before the visitor to such a house reaches the gate or front door his +approach is made known by an annunciator in the hall, which is connected +with a hidden plate in the entrance path, which when pressed by the +feet of the visitor charges the wire of the annunciator. A voice comes +through the horn of a phonograph asking him what he wishes and telling +him to reply through the telephone which hangs at the side of the door. +When he has made his wants known, if he is welcome or desired, there +is a click and the door opens. As he enters an electrically operated +door mat cleans his shoes and if he is aware of the equipments of the +house, he can have his clothes brushed by an automatic brush attached +to the hat-rack in the hall. An escalator or endless stairway brings +him to the first floor where he is met by the host who conducts him +to the den sacred to himself. If he wishes a preprandial cigar, the +host touches a segment of the wall, apparently no different in +appearance from the surrounding surface, and a complete cigar outfit +shoots out to within reach of the guest. When the gong announces dinner +he is conducted to the dining hall where probably the uses to which +electricity can be put are better exemplified than in any other part +of the house. Between this room and the kitchen there is a perfect +electric understanding. The apartments are so arranged that electric +dumbwaiter service is operated between the centre of the dining table +itself and the serving table in the kitchen. The latter is equipped +with an electric range provided with electrically heated ovens, +broilers, vegetable cookers, saucepans, dishes, etc., sufficient for +the preparation of the most elaborate house banquet. The chef or cook +in charge of the kitchen prepares each dish in its proper oven and has +it ready waiting on the electric elevator at the appointed time when +the host and his guest or guests, or family, as the case may be, are +seated at the dining table. The host or whoever presides at the head +of the table merely touches a button concealed on the side of the +mahogany and the elevator instantly appears through a trap-door in +the table, which is ordinarily closed by two silver covers which look +like a tray. In this way the dish seemingly miraculously appears right +on top of the table. When each guest is served it returns to the kitchen +by the way it came and a second course is brought on the table in a +similar manner and so on until the dinner is fully served. Fruits and +flowers tastefully arranged adorn the centre of the dining table and +minute electric incandescent lamps of various colors are concealed in +the roses and petals and these give a very pretty effect, especially +at night. + +Beneath the table nothing is to be seen but two nickel-plated bars +which serve to guide the elevators. + +Down in the kitchen the cooking is carried on almost mechanically by +means of an electric clock controlling the heating circuits to the +various utensils. The cook, knowing just how long each dish will require +to be cooked, turns on the current at the proper time and then sets +the clock to automatically disconnect that utensil when sufficient +time, so many minutes to the pound, has elapsed. When this occurs a +little electric bell rings, calling attention to the fact, that the +heat has been shut off. + +Another kitchen accessory is a rotating table on which are mounted +various household machines such as meat choppers, cream whippers, egg +beaters and other apparatus all electrically operated. + +There is also an electric dishwasher and dryer and plate rack +manipulator which places the dishes in position when clean and dried. + +The advantages of cooking by electricity are apparent to all who have +tested them. Food cooked in an electric baking oven is much superior +than when cooked by any other method because of the better heat +regulation and the utter cleanliness, there being absolutely no dust +whatever as in the case when coal is used. The electric oven does not +increase the temperature nor does it exhaust the pure air in the room +by burning up the oxygen. The time required for cooking is about the +same as with coal. + +The perfect cleanliness of an electric plate warmer is sufficient to +warrant its use. It keeps dishes at a uniform temperature and the food +does not get scorched and become tough. + +Steaks prepared on electric gridirons and broilers are really delicious +as they are evenly done throughout and retain all the natural juices +of the meat; there is no odor of gas or of the fire and portions done +to a crisp while others are raw on the inside. In toasting there is +no danger of the bread burning on one side more than on the other, or +of its burning on either side and a couple of dozen slices can be done +together on an ordinary instrument at the same time. The electric +diskstove, flat on the top, like a ball cut in two, can be also utilized +as a toaster or for heating any kettles or pots or vessels with flat +bottoms. + +Very appetizing waffles are made with electric waffle irons, because +the bottom and top irons are uniformly heated, so that the irons cook +the waffles from both sides at the same time. + +Electric potato peeling machines consist of a stationary cylinder +opened at the top for the reception of the potatoes and having a +revolving disk at the bottom. The cylinder has a rough surface or is +coated with diamond flint, so that when the disk revolves the potatoes +are thrown against the sides of the cylinder and the skin is scraped +off. There is no deep cutting as when peeled by a knife, therefore, +much waste is avoided. While the potatoes are being scraped, a stream +of water plays upon them taking away the skins and thoroughly cleansing +the tubers. + +Among other electric labor savers connected with the culinary department +may be mentioned floor-scrubbers, dish-washers, coffee-grinders, meat +choppers, dough-mixers and cutlery-polishers, all of which give +complete satisfaction at a paltry cost and save much time and labor. +A small motor can drive any of these instruments or several can be +attached and run by the same motor. The operation of an ordinary snap +switch will supply energy to electric water-heaters attached to the +kitchen boiler or to the faucet. The instantaneous water heater also +purifies the water by killing the bacteria contained in it. + +The electric tea kettle makes a brew to charm the heart of a +connossieur. In fact all cooking done by electricity whether it is the +frying of an egg or the roasting of a steak is superior in every way +to the old methods and what accentuates its use is the cleanliness +with which it can be performed. And it should be taken into +consideration that in electric cooking there is no bending over hot +stoves and ranges or a stuffy evil smelling smoky atmosphere, but on +the contrary, fresh air, cleanliness and coolness which make cooking +not the drudgery it has ever been, but a real pleasure. + +Let us take a glance at the laundry in the electrically equipped house. +There is a large tub with a wringer attached to it and a simple +mechanism by which a small motor can either be connected with the tub +or the wringer as required. The washing is performed entirely by the +motor and in a way prevents the wear and tear associated with the old +method of scrubbing and rubbing done at the expense of much "elbow +grease." The motor turns the tub back and forth and in this way the +soapy water penetrates the clothes, thus removing the dirt without +injuring or tearing the fabric. In the old way, the clothes were moved +up and down in the water and torn and worn in the process. By the new +way it is the water which moves while the clothes remain stationary. +When the clothes are thoroughly washed, the motor is attached to the +wringer and they are passed through it; they are completely dried by +a specially constructed electric fan. Whatever garments are to be +ironed are separated and fed to a steel roll mangle operated by a motor +which gives them a beautiful finish. The electric flat iron plays also +an important part in the laundry as it is clean and never gets too hot +nor too cold and there is no rushing back to replenish the heaters. +One is not obliged to remain in the room with a hot stove, and suffer +the inconveniences. No heat is felt at all from the iron as it is all +concentrated on the bottom surface. It is a regular blessing to the +laundress especially in hot weather. There is a growing demand in all +parts of the country for these electric flat-irons. + +Electricity plays an important role in the parlor and drawing-room. +The electric fireplace throws out a ruddy glow, a perfect imitation +of the wide-open old-fashioned fireplaces of the days of our +grandmothers. There are small grooves at certain sections in the +flooring over which chairs and couches can be brought to a desired +position. When the master drops into his favorite chair by the fireplace +if he wishes a tune to soothe his jangled nerves, there is an electric +attachment to the piano and he can adjust it to get the air of his +choice without having to ask any one to play for him. In the +drawing-room an electric fountain may be playing, its jets reflecting +the prismatic colors of the rainbow as the waters fall in iridescent +sparkle among the lights. Such a fountain is composed of a small +electric motor and a centrifugal pump, the latter being placed in the +interior of a basin and connected directly to the motor shaft. The +pump receives the water from the basin and conveys it through pipes +and a number of small nozzles thus producing cascades. The water falling +upon an art glass dome, beneath which are small incandescent lamps, +returns to the basin and thence again to the pump. There is no necessity +of filling the fountain until the water gets low through evaporation. +When the lights are not in colored glass, the water may be colored and +this gives the same effect. To produce the play of the fountain and +its effects, it is only necessary to connect it to any circuit and +turn on the switch. The dome revolves by means of a jet of water driven +against flanges on the under side of the rim of the dome and in this +way beautiful and prismatic effects are produced. The motor is noiseless +in operation. In addition to the pretty effect the fountain serves to +cool and moisten the air of the room. + +The sleeping chambers are thoroughly equipped. Not only the rooms may +be heated by electricity but the beds themselves. An electric pad +consisting of a flexible resistance covered with soft felt is connected +by a conductor cord to a plug and is used for heating beds or if the +occupant is suffering from rheumatism or indigestion or any intestinal +pain this pad can be used in the place of the hot water bottle and +gives greater satisfaction. There is a heat controlling device and the +circuit can be turned on or off at will. + +There are many more curious devices in the electrically equipped house +which could they have been exhibited a generation or so ago, would +have condemned the owner as a sorcerer and necromancer of the dark +ages, but which now only place him in the category of the smart ones +who are up to date and take advantage of the science and progress of +the time. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +HARNESSING THE WATER-FALL + + Electric Energy--High Pressure--Transformers--Development of + Water-power. + + +The electrical transmission of power is exemplified in everything which +is based on the generation of electricity. The ordinary electric light +is power coming from a generator in the building or a public +street-dynamo. + +However, when we talk in general terms of electric transmission we +mean the transmission of energy on a large scale by means of overhead +or underground conductors to a considerable distance and the +transformation of this energy into light and heat and chemical or +mechanical power to carry on the processes of work and industry. When +the power or energy is conveyed a long distance from the generator, +say over 30 miles or more, we usually speak of the system of supply +as long distance transmission of electric energy. In many cases power +is conveyed over distances of 200 miles and more. When water power is +available as at Niagara, the distance to which electric energy can be +transmitted is considerably increased. + +The distance to a great extent depends on the cost of coal required +for generation at the distributing point and on the amount of energy +demanded at the receiving point. Of course the farther the distance +the higher must be the voltage pressure. + +Electrical engineers say that under proper conditions electric energy +may be transmitted in large quantity to a distance of 500 miles and +more at a pressure of about 170,000 volts. If such right conditions +be established then New York, Chicago and several other of our large +cities can get their power from Niagara. + +In our cities and towns where the current has only to go a short +distance from the power house, the conductors are generally placed in +cables underground and the maximum electro-motive force scarcely ever +exceeds 11,000 volts. This pressure is generated by a steam-driven +alternating-current generator and is transmitted over the conductors +to sub-stations, where by means of step-down transformers, the pressure +is dropped to, say, 600 volts alternating current which by rotary +converters is turned into direct current for the street mains, for +feeders of railways and for charging storage batteries which in turn +give out direct current at times of heavy demand. + +That electric transmission of energy to long distances may be +successfully carried out transformers are necessary for raising the +pressure on the transmission line and for reducing it at the points +of distribution. The transformer consists of a magnetic circuit of +laminated iron or mild steel interlinked with two electric circuits, +one, the primary, receiving electrical energy and the other the +secondary, delivering it to the consumer. The effect of the iron is +to make as many as possible of the lines of force set up by the primary +current, cut the secondary winding and there set up an electromotive +force of the same frequency but different voltage. + +The transformer has made long distance the actual achievement that it +is. It is this apparatus that brought the mountain to Mohammed. Without +it high pressure would be impossible and it is on high pressure that +success of long distance transmission depends. + +To convey electricity to distant centres at a low pressure would require +thousands of dollars in copper cables alone as conductors. To illustrate +the service of the transformer in electricity it is only necessary to +consider water power at a low pressure. In such a case the water can +only be transmitted at slow speed and through great openings, like +dams or large canals, and withal the force is weak and of little +practical efficiency, whereas under high pressure a small quantity can +be forced through a small pipe and create an energy beyond comparison +to that developed when under low pressure. + +The transformer raises the voltage and sends the electrical current +under high pressure over a small wire and so great is this pressure +that thousands of horse-power can be sent to great distances over small +wires with very little loss. + +Water power is now changed to electrical power and transmitted over +slender copper wires to the great manufacturing centres of our country +to turn the wheels of industry and give employment to thousands. + +Nearly one hundred cities in the United States alone are today using +electricity supplied by transmitted water-power. Ten years ago Niagara +Falls were regarded only as a great natural curiosity of interest only +to the sightseer, today those Falls distribute over 100,000 horse-power +to Buffalo, Syracuse, Rochester, Toronto and several smaller cities +and towns. Wild Niagara has at last indeed been harnessed to the +servitude of man. Spier Falls north of Saratoga, practically unheard +of before, is now supplying electricity to the industrial communities +of Schenectady, Troy, Amsterdam, Albany and half a dozen or so smaller +towns. + +Rivers and dams, lakes and falls in all parts of the country are being +utilized to supply energy, though at the present time only about +one-fortieth of the horse-power available through this agent is being +made productive. The water conditions of the United States are so +favorable that 200,000,000 horse-power could be easily developed, but +as it is we have barely enough harnessed to supply 5 million +horse-power. + +Eighty per cent. of the power used at the present time is produced +from fuel. This percentage is sure to decrease in the future for fuel +will become scarcer and the high cost will drive fuel power altogether +out of the market. + +New York State has the largest water power development in the Union, +the total being 885,862 horsepower; this fact is chiefly owing to +the energy developed by Niagara. + +The second State in water-power development is California, the total +development being 466,774 horsepower over 1,070 wheels or a unit +installation of about 436 H.P. + +The third State is Maine with 343,096 horse-power, over 2,707 wheels +or an average of about 123 horse-power per wheel. + +Lack of space makes it impossible to enter upon a detailed description +of the structural and mechanical features of the various plants and +how they were operated for the purpose of turning water into an electric +current. The best that can be done is to outline the most noteworthy +features which typify the various situations under which power plants +are developed and operated. + +The water power available under any condition depends principally upon +two factors: First, the amount of fall or hydrostatic head on the +wheels; second, the amount of water that can be turned over the wheels. +The conditions vary according to place, there are all kinds of fall +and flow. To develop a high power it is necessary to discharge a large +volume of water upon properly designed wheels. In many of the western +plants where only a small amount of water is available there is a great +fall to make up for the larger volume in force coming down upon the +wheels. So far as actual energy is concerned it makes no difference +whether we develop a certain amount of power by allowing twenty cubic +feet of water per second to fall a distance of one foot or allow one +cubic foot of water per second to fall a distance of twenty feet. + +In one place we may have a plant developing say 10,000 horse-power +with a fall of anywhere from twenty to forty feet and in another place +a plant of the same capacity with a fall of 1,000, 1,500 or 2,000 feet. +In the former case the short fall is compensated by a great volume of +water to produce such a horse-power, while in the latter converse +conditions prevail. In many cases the power house is located some +distance from the source of supply and from the point where the water +is diverted from its course by artificial means. + +The Shawinigan Falls of St. Maurice river in Canada occur at two points +a short distance apart, the fall at one point being about 50 and at +the other 100 feet high. A canal 1,000 feet long takes water from the +river above the upper of these falls and delivers it near to the +electric power house on the river bank below the lower falls. In this +way a hydrostatic head of 125 feet is obtained at the power house. The +canal in this case ends on high ground 130 feet from the power house +and the water passes down to the wheels through steel penstocks 9 feet +in diameter. + +In a great many cases in level country the water power can only be +developed by means of such canals or pipe lines and the generating +stations must be situated away from the points where the water is +diverted from its course. + +In mountainous country where rivers are comparatively small and their +courses are marked by numerous falls and rapids, it is generally +necessary to utilize the fall of a stream through some miles of its +length in order to get a satisfactory development of power. To reach +this result rather long canals, flumes, or pipe lines must be laid to +convey the water to the power stations and deliver it at high pressure. + +California offers numerous examples of electric power development with +the water that has been carried several miles through artificial +channels. An illustration of this class of work exists at the electric +power house on the bank of the Mokelumne river in the Sierra Nevada +mountains. Water is supplied to the wheels in this station under a +head of 1,450 feet through pipes 3,600 feet long leading to the top +of a near-by hill. To reach this hill the water after its diversion +from the Mokelumne river at the dam, flows twenty miles through a canal +or ditch and then through 3,000 feet of wooden stave pipe. Although +California ranks second in water-power development it is easily the +first in the number of its stations, and also be it said, California +was the first to realize the possibilities of long distance electrical +energy. The line from the 15,000 horsepower plant at Colgate in this +State to San Francisco by way of Mission San Jose, where it is supplied +with additional power, has a length of 232 miles and is the longest +transmission of electrical energy in the world. The power house at +Colgate has a capacity of 11,250 kilowatts in generators, but it is +uncertain what part of the output is transmitted to San Francisco, as +there are more than 100 substations on the 1,375 miles of circuit in +this system. + +Another system, even greater than the foregoing which has just been +completed is that of the Stanislaus plant in Tuolumme County, +California, from which a transmission line on steel towers has been +run in Tuolumme, Calaveras, San Joaquin, Alameda and Contra Costa +Counties for the delivery of power to mines and to the towns lying +about San Francisco Bay. The rushing riotous waters of the Stanislaus +wasted for so many centuries have been saved by the steel paddles of +gigantic turbine water wheels and converted into electricity which +carries with the swiftness of thought thousands of horse power energy +to the far away cities and towns to be transformed into light and heat +and power to run street cars and trains and set in motion the mechanism +of mills and factories and make the looms of industry hum with the +bustle and activity of life. + +It is said that the greatest long distance transmission yet attempted +will shortly be undertaken in South Africa where it is proposed to +draw power from the famous Victoria Falls. The line from the Falls +will run to Johannesburg and through the Rand, a length of 700 miles. +It is claimed the Falls are capable of developing 300,000 electric +horse power at all times. + +Should this undertaking be accomplished it will be a crowning +achievement in electrical science. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +WONDERFUL WARSHIPS + + Dimensions, Displacements, Cost and Description of Battleships-- + Capacity and Speed--Preparing for the Future. + + +All modern battleships are of steel construction. The basis of all +protection on these vessels is the protective deck, which is also +common to the armored cruiser and many varieties of gunboats. This +deck is of heavy steel covering the whole of the vessel a little above +the water-line in the centre; it slopes down from the centre until it +meets the sides of the vessel about three feet below the water; it +extends the entire length of the ship and is firmly secured at the +ends to the heavy stem and stern posts. Underneath this deck are the +essentials of the vessel, the boilers and machinery, the magazines and +shell rooms, the ammunition cells and all the explosive paraphernalia +which must be vigilantly safe-guarded against the attacks of the +enemy. Every precaution is taken to insure safety. All openings in the +protective deck above are covered with heavy steel gratings to prevent +fragments of shell or other combustible substances from getting through +to the magazine or powder cells. + +The heaviest armor is usually placed at the water line because it is +this part of the ship which is the most vulnerable and open to attack +and where a shell or projectile would do the most harm. If a hole were +torn in the side at this place the vessel would quickly take in water +and sink. On this account the armor is made thick and is known as the +water-line belt. At the point where the protective deck and the ship's +side meet, there is a projection or ledge on which this armor belt +rests. Thus it goes down about three feet below the water and it extends +to the same distance above. + +The barbettes, that is, the parapets supporting the gun turrets, are +one forward and one aft. They rest upon the protective deck at the +bottom and extend up about four feet above the upper deck. At the top +of the barbettes, revolving on rollers, are the turrets, sometimes +called the hoods, containing the guns and the leading mechanism and +all of the machinery in connection with the same. The turret ammunition +hoists lead up from the magazine below, delivering the charges and +projectiles for the guns at the very breach so that they can be loaded +immediately. + +An athwartship line of armor runs from the water line to the barbettes, +resting upon the protective deck. In fact, the space between the +protective and upper deck is so closed in with armor, with a barbette +at each end, that it is like a citadel or fort or some redoubt +well-guarded from the enemy. Resting upon the water-belt and the +athwartship or diagonal armor, and following the same direction is a +layer of armor usually somewhat thinner which is called the lower +case-mate armor; it extends up to the lower edge of the broadside gun +ports, and resting upon it in turn is the upper case-mate armor, +following the same direction, and forming the protection for the +broadside battery. The explosive effect of the modern shell is so +tremendous that were one to get through the upper case-mate and explode +immediately after entering, it would undoubtedly disable several guns +and kill their entire crews; it is, therefore, usual to isolate each +broadside gun from its neighbors by light nickel steel bulkheads a +couple of inches or so thick, and to prevent the same disastrous result +among the guns on the opposite side, a fore-and-aft bulkhead of about +the same thickness is placed on the centre line of the ship. Each gun +of the broadside battery is thus mounted in a space by itself somewhat +similar to a stall. Abaft the forward turret there is a vertical armored +tube resting on the protective deck and at its upper end is the conning +tower, from which the ship is worked when in action and which is well +safe-guarded. + +The tube protects all the mechanical signalling gear running into the +conning tower from which communication can be had instantly with any +part of the vessel. + +To build a battleship that will be practically unsinkable by the gun +fire of an enemy it is only necessary to make the water belt armor +thick enough to resist the shells, missiles and projectiles aimed at +it. There is another essential that is equally important, and that is +the protection of the batteries. The experience of modern battles has +made it manifest, that it is impossible for the crew to do their work +when exposed to a hail of shot and shell from a modern battery of rapid +fire and automatic guns. And so in all more recently built battleships +and armored cruisers and gunboats, the protection of broadside batteries +and exposed positions has been increased even at the expense of the +water-line belt. + +Armor plate has been much improved in recent years. During the Civil +War the armor on our monitors was only an inch thick. Through such an +armor the projectiles of our time would penetrate as easily as a bullet +through a pine board. It was the development of gun power and +projectiles that called forth the thick armor, but it was soon found +that it was impossible for the armor to keep pace with the deadliness +of the guns as it was utterly impossible to carry the weight necessary +to resist the force of impact. Then came the use of special plates, +the compound armor where a hard face to break up the projectile was +welded to a softer back to give the necessary strength. This was +followed by the steel armor treated by the Harvey process; it was like +the compound armor in having a hard face and a soft back, but the +plates were made from a single ingot without any welding. + +The Harvey process enabled an enormously greater resistance to be +obtained with a given weight of armor, but even it has been surpassed +by the Krupp process which enables twelve inches of thickness to give +the same resistance as fifteen of Harveyized plates. + +The armament or battery of warships is divided into two classes, viz., +the main and the second batteries. The main battery comprises the +heaviest guns on the ship, those firing large shell and armor-piercing +projectiles, while the second battery consists of small rapid fire and +machine guns for use against torpedo boats or to attack the unprotected +or lightly protected gun positions of an enemy. The main battery of +our modern battleships consists usually of ten twelve-inch guns, mounted +in pairs on turrets in the centre of the ship. In addition to these +heavy guns it is usual to mount a number of smaller ones of from five +to eight inches diameter of bore on each broadside, although sometimes +they are mounted on turrets like the larger guns. + +A twelve-inch breech-loading gun, fifty calibers long and weighing +eighty-three tons, will propel a shell weighing eight hundred and +eighty pounds, by a powder charge of six hundred and twenty-four pounds, +at a velocity of over two thousand six hundred and twenty feet per +second, giving an energy at the muzzle of over forty thousand foot-tons +and is capable of penetrating at the muzzle, forty-five inches of +iron. + +During the last few years, very large increases have been made in the +dimensions, displacements and costs of battleships and armored cruisers +as compared with vessels of similar classes previously constructed. +Both England and the United States have constructed enormous war vessels +within the past decade. The British _Dreadnought_ built in nineteen +hundred and five has a draft of thirty-one feet six inches and a +displacement of twenty-two thousand and two hundred tons. Later, vessels +of the _Dreadnought_ type have a normal draft of twenty-seven +feet and a naval displacement of eighteen thousand and six hundred +tons. Armored cruisers of the British _Invincible_ class have a +draft of twenty-six feet and a displacement of seventeen thousand two +hundred and fifty tons with a thousand tons of coal on board. These +cruisers have engines developing forty-one thousand horse-power. + +Within the past two years the United States has turned out a few +formidable battleships, which it is claimed surpass the best of those +of any other navy in the world. The _Delaware_ and _North Dakota_ each +have a draft of twenty-six feet, eleven inches and a displacement of +twenty thousand tons. Great interest attached to the trials of these +vessels because they were sister ships fitted with different machinery +and it was a matter of much speculation which would develop the greater +speed. In addition to the consideration of the battleship as a fighting +machine at close quarters, Uncle Sam is trying to have her as fleet as +an ocean greyhound should an enemy heave in sight so that the latter +would not have much opportunity to show his heels to a broadside. The +_Delaware_, which has reciprocating engines, exceeded her contract speed +of twenty-one knots on her runs over a measured mile course in Penobscot +Bay on October 22 and 23, 1909. Three runs were made at the rate of +nineteen knots, three at 20.50 knots, and five at 21.98 knots. + +The _North Dakota_ is furnished with Curtis turbine engines. Here is a +comparison of the two ships: + + North + Delaware Dakota + Fastest run over measured mile......... 21.98 22.25 + Average of five high runs.............. 21.44 21.83 + Full power trial speed................. 21.56 21.64 + Full power trial horsepower............ 28,600. 31,400. + Full power trial, coal + consumption, tons per day............ 578. 583. + Nineteen-knot trial + coal consumption, tons per day....... 315. 295. + Twelve-knot trial coal + consumption, tons per day.............111. 105. + +The _Florida_, a 21,825 ton boat, was launched from the Brooklyn Navy +Yard last May 12. Her sister ship, the _Utah_, took water the previous +December at Camden. + +Here is a comparison of the _North Dakota_ of 1908 and the _Florida_ of +1910: + + N. Dakota Florida + Length 518 ft. 9 in. 521 ft. 6 in. + Beam 85 ft. 2-1/2 in. 88 ft. 2-1/2 in. + Draft, Mean 26 ft. 11 in. 28 ft. 6 in. + Displacement 20,000 tons 21,825 tons + Coal Supply 2,500 tons 2,500 tons + Oil 400 tons 400 tons + Belt Armor 12 in. to 8 in. 12 in. to 8 in. + Turret Armor 12 inches 12 inches + Battery armor 6 in. 6-1/2 in. + Smoke stack protection 6 inches 9-1/2 inches + l2-inch guns Ten Ten + 5-inch guns Fourteen Sixteen + Speed 21 knots 20.75 knots + +The _Florida_ has Parsons turbines working on four shafts and generates +28,000 horse-power. + +The United States Navy has planned to lay down next year (1911) two +ships of 32,000 tons armed with l4-inch guns, each to cost eighteen +million dollars as compared with the $11,000,000 ships of 1910. + +The following are to be some of the features of the projected ships, +which are to be named the _Arkansas_ and _Wyoming_. + +554 ft. long, 93 ft. 3 in. beam, 28 ft. 6 in. draft, 26,000 tons +displacement, 28,000 horse-power, 30 1/2 knots speed, 1,650 to 2,500 +tons coal supply, armament of twelve l2-inch guns, twenty-one 5-inch, +four 3-pounders and two torpedo tubes. + +Fittings in recent United States battleships are for 21-inch torpedoes. +The armor is to be 11 inch on belt and barbettes and on sides 8 inches, +and each ship is to carry a complement of 1,115 officers and men. Two +of the turrets will be set forward on the forecastle deck, which will +have 28 feet, freeboard, the guns in the first turret being 34 feet +above the water and those of the second about 40 feet. Aft of the +second turret will be the conning tower, and then will come the fore +fire-control tower or lattice mast, with searchlight towers carried +on it. Next will come the forward funnel, on each side of which will +be two small open rod towers with strong searchlights. Then will come +the main fire-control tower and the after funnel and another open +tower with searchlight. The two lattice steel towers are to be 120 +feet high and 40 feet apart. The four remaining turrets will be abaft +the main funnel, the third turret having its guns 32 feet above water; +those in the other turrets about 25 feet above the water. The guns +will be the new 50-calibre type. All twelve will have broadside fire +over a wide arc and four can be fired right ahead and four right astern. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +A TALK ON BIG GUNS + + The First Projectiles--Introduction of Cannon--High Pressure + Guns--Machine Guns--Dimensions and Cost of Big Guns. + + +The first arms and machines employing gunpowder as the propelling +agency, came into use in the fourteenth century. Prior to this time +there were machines and instruments which threw stones and catapults +and large arrows by means of the reaction of a tightly twisted rope +made up of hemp, catgut or hair. Slings were also much employed for +hurling missiles. + +The first cannons were used by the English against the Scots in 1327. +They were short and thick and wide in the bore and resembled bowls or +mortars; in fact this name is still applied to this kind of ordnance. +By the end of the fifteenth century a great advancement was shown in +the make of these implements of warfare. Bronze and brass as materials +came into general use and cannon were turned out with twenty to +twenty-five inch bore weighing twenty tons and capable of hurling to +a considerable distance projectiles weighing from two hundred pounds +to one thousand pounds with powder as the propelling force. In a short +time these large guns were mounted and carriages were introduced to +facilitate transportation with troops. Meantime stone projectiles were +replaced by cast iron shot, which, owing to its greater density, +necessitated a reduction in calibre, that is a narrowing of the bore, +consequently lighter and smaller guns came into the field, but with +a greater propelling force. When the cast iron balls first came into +use as projectiles, they weighed about twelve pounds, hence the cannons +shooting them were known as twelve-pounders. It was soon found, however, +that twelve pounds was too great a weight for long distances, so a +reduction took place until the missiles were cut down to four pounds +and the cannon discharging these, four pounders as they were called, +weighed about one-quarter of a ton. They were very effective and handy +for light field work. + +The eighteenth century witnessed rapid progress in gun and ammunition +manufacture. "Grape" and "canister" were introduced and the names still +cling to the present day. Grape consisted of a number of tarred lead +balls, held together in a net. Canister consisted of a number of small +shot in a tin can, the shots being dispersed by the breaking of the +can on discharge. Grape now consists of cast iron balls arranged in +three tiers by means of circular plates, the whole secured by a pin +which passes through the centre. The number of shot in each tier varies +from three to five. Grape is very destructive up to three hundred yards +and effective up to six hundred yards. Canister shot as we know it at +present, is made up of a number of iron balls, placed in a tin cylinder +with a wooden bottom, the size of the piece of ordnance for which it +is intended. + +Towards the close of the eighteenth century, short cast-iron guns +called "carronades" were introduced by Gascoigne of the Cannon Iron +Works, Scotland. They threw heavy shots at low velocity with great +battery effect. They were for a long time in use in the British navy. +The sailors called them "smashers." + +The entire battery of the Victory, Nelson's famous flag-ship at the +battle of Trafalgar, amounting to a total of 102 guns, was composed +of "carronades" varying in size from thirty-two to sixty-eight +pounders. They were mounted on wooden truck carriages and were given +elevation by handspikes applied under the breech, a quoin or a wedge +shaped piece of wood being pushed in to hold the breech up in position. +They were trained by handspikes with the aid of side-tackle and their +recoil was limited by a stout rope, called the breeching, the ends of +which were secured to the sides of the ship. The slow match was used +for firing, the flint lock not being applied to naval guns until 1780. + +About the middle of the nineteenth century, the design of guns began +to receive much scientific thought and consideration. The question of +high velocities and flat trajectories without lightening the weight +of the projectile was the desideratum; the minimum of weight in the +cannon itself with the maximum in the projectile and the force with +which it could be propelled were the ends to be attained. + +In 1856 Admiral Dahlgren of the United States Navy designed the +_Dahlgren_ gun with shape proportioned to the "curve of pressure," +which is to say that the gun was heavy at the breech and light at the +muzzle. This gun was well adapted to naval use at the time. From this, +onward, guns of high pressure were manufactured until the pressure +grew to such proportions that it exceeded the resisting power, +represented by the tensile strength of cast iron. When cast, the gun +cooled from the outside inwardly, thus placing the inside metal in a +state of tension and the outside in a state of compression. General +Rodman, Chief of Ordnance of the United States Army, came forward with +a remedy for this. He suggested the casting of guns hollow and the +cooling of them from the inside outwardly by circulating a stream of +cold water in the bore while the outside surface was kept at a high +temperature. This method placed the metal inside in a state of +compression and that on the outside in a state of tension, the right +condition to withstand successfully the pressure of the powder gas, +which tended to expand the inner portions beyond the normal diameter +and throw the strain of the supporting outer layers. + +This system was universally employed and gave the best results +obtainable from cast iron for many years and was only superseded by +that of "built up" guns, when iron and steel were made available by +improved processes of production. + +The great strides made in the manufacture and forging of steel during +the past quarter of a century, the improved tempering and annealing +processes have resulted in the turning out of big guns solely composed +of steel. + +The various forms of modern ordnance are classified and named according +to size and weight, kind of projectiles used and their velocities; +angle of elevation at which they are fired; use; and mode of operation. + +The guns known as breechloading rifles are from three inches to fourteen +inches in calibre, that is, across the bore, and in length from twelve +to over sixty feet. They weigh from one ton to fifty tons. + +They fire solid shot or shells weighing up to eleven hundred pounds +at high velocities, from twenty-three to twenty-five hundred feet per +second. They can penetrate steel armor to a depth of fifteen to twenty +inches at 2,000 yards distance. + +Rapid fire guns are those in which the operation of opening and closing +the breech is performed by a single motion of a lever actuated by the +hand, and in which the explosive used is closed in a metallic case. +These guns are made in various forms and are operated by several +different systems of breech mechanism generally named after their +respective inventors. The Vickers-Maxim and the Nordenfeldt are the +best known in America. A new type of the Vickers-Maxim was introduced +in 1897 in which a quick working breech mechanism automatically ejects +the primer and draws up the loading tray into position as the breech +is opened. This type was quickly adopted by the United States Navy and +materially increased the speed of fire in all calibres. + +What are known as machine guns are rapid fire guns in which the speed +of firing is such that it is practically continuous. The best known +make is the famous Gatling gun invented by Dr. R. J. Gatling of +Indianapolis in 1860. This gun consists of ten parallel barrels grouped +around and secured firmly to a main central shaft to which is also +attached the grooved cartridge carrier and the lock cylinder. Each +barrel is provided with its own lock or firing mechanism, independent +of the other, but all of them revolve simultaneously with the barrels, +carrier and inner breech when the gun is in operation. In firing, one +end of the feed case containing the cartridges is placed in the hopper +on top and the operating crank is turned. The cartridges drop one by +one into the grooves of the carrier and are loaded and fired by the +forward motion of the locks, which also closes the breech while the +backward motion extracts and expels the empty shells. In its present +state of efficiency the Gatling gun fires at the rate of 1,200 shots +per minute, a speed, by separate discharges, not equaled by any other +gun. + +Much larger guns were constructed in times past than are being built +now. In 1880 the English made guns weighing from 100 to 120 tons, from +18 to 20 inches bore and which fired projectiles weighing over 2,000 +pounds at a velocity of almost 1,700 feet per second. At the same time +the United States fashioned a monster rifle of 127 tons which had a +bore of sixteen inches and fired a projectile of 2,400 pounds with a +velocity of 2,300 feet per second. + +The largest guns ever placed on board ship were the Armstrong one- +hundred-and-ten-ton guns of the English battleships, _Sanspareil_, +_Benbow_ and _Victoria_. They were sixteen and one-fourth inch calibre. +The newest battleships of England, the _Dreadnought_ and the +_Temeraire_, are equipped with fourteen-inch guns, but they are not one- +half so heavy as the old guns. Many experts in naval ordnance think it a +mistake to have guns over twelve inch bore, basing their belief on the +experience of the past which showed that guns of a less calibre carrying +smaller shells did more effective work than the big bore guns with +larger projectiles. + +The two titanic war-vessels now in course of construction for the +United States Navy will each carry a battery of ten fourteen-inch +rifles, which will be the most powerful weapons ever constructed and +will greatly exceed in range and hitting power the twelve-inch guns +of the _Delaware_ or _North Dakota_. Each of the new rifles will weigh +over sixty-three tons, the projectiles will each weigh 1,400 pounds and +the powder charge will be 450 pounds. At the moment of discharge each of +these guns will exert a muzzle energy of 65,600 foot tons, which simply +means that the energy will be so great that it could raise 65,600 tons a +foot from the ground. The fourteen-hundred-pound projectiles shall be +propelled through the air at the rate of half a mile a second. It will +be plainly seen that the metal of the guns must be of enormous +resistance to withstand such a force. The designers have taken this into +full consideration and will see to it that the powder chamber in which +the explosion takes place as well as the breech lock on which the shock +is exerted is of steel so wrought and tempered as to withstand the +terrific strain. At the moment of detonation the shock will be about +equal to that of a heavy engine and a train of Pullman coaches running +at seventy miles an hour, smashing into a stone wall. On leaving the +muzzle of the gun the shell will have an energy equivalent to that of a +train of cars weighing 580 tons and running at sixty miles an hour. Such +energy will be sufficient to send the projectile through twenty-two and +a half inches of the hardest of steel armour at the muzzle, while at a +range of 3,000 yards, the projectile moving at the rate of 2,235 feet +per second will pierce eighteen and a half inches of steel armor at +normal impact. The velocity of the projectile leaving the gun will be +2,600 feet per second, a speed which if maintained would carry it around +the world in less than fifteen hours. + +Each of the mammoth guns will be a trifle over fifty-three feet in +length and the estimated cost of each will be $85,000. Judging from +the performance of the twelve-inch guns it is figured that these greater +weapons should be able to deliver three shots a minute. If all ten +guns of either of the projected _Dreadnoughts_ should be brought +into action at one time and maintain the three shot rapidity for one +hour, the cost of the ammunition expended in that hour would reach the +enormous sum of $2,520,000. + +Very few, however, of the big guns are called upon for the three shots +a minute rate, for the metal would not stand the heating strain. + +The big guns are expensive and even when only moderately used their +"life" is short, therefore, care is taken not to put them to too great +a strain. With the smaller guns it is different. Some of six-inch +bore fire as high as eight aimed shots a minute, but this is only under +ideal conditions. + +Great care is being taken now to prolong the "life" of the big guns +by using non-corrosive material for the charges. The United States has +adopted a pure gun-cotton smokeless powder in which the temperature +of combustion is not only lower than that of nitro-glycerine, but +even lower than that of ordinary gunpowder. With the use of this there +has been a very material decrease in the corrosion of the big guns. +The former smokeless powder, containing a large percentage of +nitro-glycerine such as "cordite," produced such an effect that the +guns were used up and practically worthless, after firing fifty to +sixty rounds. + +Now it is possible for a gun to be as good after two or even three +hundred rounds as at the beginning, but certainly not if a three minute +rate is maintained. At such a rate the "life" of the best gun made +would be short indeed. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +MYSTERY OF THE STARS + +Wonders of the Universe--Star Photography--The Infinity of Space. + + +In another chapter we have lightly touched upon the greatness of the +Universe, in the cosmos of which our earth is but an infinitesimal +speck. Even our sun, round which a system of worlds revolve and which +appears so mighty and majestic to us, is but an atom, a very small +one, in the infinitude of matter and as a cog, would not be missed in +the ratchet wheel which fits into the grand machinery of Nature. + +If our entire solar system were wiped out of being, there would be +left no noticeable void among the countless systems of worlds and suns +and stars; in the immensity of space the sun with all his revolving +planets is not even as a drop to the ocean or a grain of sand to the +composition of the earth. There are millions of other suns of larger +dimensions with larger attendants wheeling around them in the +illimitable fields of space. Those stars which we erroneously call +"fixed" stars are the centers of other systems vastly greater, vastly +grander than the one of which our earth forms so insignificant a part. +Of course to us numbers of them appear, even when viewed through the +most powerful telescopes, only as mere luminous points, but that is +owing to the immensity of distance between them and ourselves. But the +number that is visible to us even with instrumental assistance can +have no comparison with the number that we cannot see; there is no +limit to that number; away in what to us may be called the background +of space are millions, billions, uncountable myriads of invisible suns +regulating and illuminating countless systems of invisible worlds. And +beyond those invisible suns and worlds is a region which thought cannot +measure and numbers cannot span. The finite mind of man becomes dazed, +dumbfounded in contemplation of magnitude so great and distance so +amazing. We stand not bewildered but lost before the problem of +interstellar space. Its length, breadth, height and circumference are +illimitable, boundless; the great eternal cosmos without beginning and +without end. + +In order to get some idea of the vastness of interstellar space we may +consider a few distances within the limits of human conception. We +know that light travels at the rate of 186,000 miles a second, yet it +requires light over four years to reach us from the nearest of the +fixed stars, travelling at this almost inconceivable rate, and so far +away are some that their light travelling at the same rate from the +dawn of creation has never reached us yet or never will until our +little globule of matter disintegrates and its particles, its molecules +and corpuscles, float away in the boundless ether to amalgamate with +the matter of other flying worlds and suns and stars. + +The nearest to us of all the stars is that known as _Alpha Centauri_. +Its distance is computed at 25,000,000,000,000 miles, which in our +notation reads twenty-five trillion miles. It takes light over four +years to traverse this distance. It would take the "Empire State +Express," never stopping night or day and going at the rate of +a mile a minute, almost 50,000,000 years to travel from the earth to +this star. The next of the fixed stars and the brightest in all the +heavens is that which we call _Sirius_ or the Dog Star. It is +double the distance of Alpha Centauri, that is, it is eight "light +years" away. The distances of about seventy other stars have been +ascertained ranging up to seventy or eighty "light years" away, but +of the others visible to the naked eye they are too far distant to +come within the range of trigonometrical calculation. They are out of +reach of the mathematical eye in the depth of space. But we know for +certain that the distance of none of these visible stars, without a +measurable parallax, is less than four million times the distance of +our sun from the earth. It would be useless to express this in figures +as it would be altogether incomprehensible. What then can be said of +the telescopic stars, not to speak at all of those beyond the power +of instruments to determine. + +If a railroad could be constructed to the nearest star and the fare +made one cent a mile, a single passage would cost $250,000,000,000, +that is two hundred and fifty billion dollars, which would make a +94-foot cube of pure gold. All of the coined gold in the world amounts +to but $4,000,000,000 (four billion dollars), equal to a gold cube of +24 feet. Therefore it would take sixty times the world's stock of gold +to pay the fare of one passenger, at a cent a mile from the earth to +Alpha Centauri. + +The light from numbers, probably countless numbers, of stars is so +long in coming to us that they could be blotted out of existence and +we would remain unconscious of the fact for years, for hundreds of +years, for thousands of years, nay to infinity. Thus if _Sirius_ +were to collide with some other space traveler and be knocked into +smithereens as an Irishman would say, we would not know about it for +eight years. In fact if all the stars were blotted out and only the +sun left we should still behold their light in the heavens and be +unconscious of the extinction of even some of the naked-eye stars for +sixty or seventy years. + +It is vain to pursue farther the unthinkable vastness of the visible +Universe; as for the invisible it is equally useless for even +imagination to try to grapple with its never-ending immensity, to +endeavor to penetrate its awful clouded mystery forever veiled from +human view. + +In all there are about 3,000 stars visible to the naked eye in each +hemisphere. A three-inch pocket telescope brings about one million +into view. The grand and scientifically perfected instruments of our +great observatories show incalculable multitudes. Every improvement +in light-grasping power brings millions of new stars into the range +of instrumental vision and shows the "background" of the sky blazing +with the light of eye-invisible suns too far away to be separately +distinguished. + +Great strides are daily being made in stellar photography. Plates are +now being attached to the telescopic apparatus whereby luminous heavenly +bodies are able to impress their own pictures. Groups of stars are +being photographed on one plate. Complete sets of these star photographs +are being taken every year, embracing every nook and corner of the +celestial sphere and these are carefully compared with one another to +find out what changes are going on in the heavens. It will not be long +before every star photographically visible to the most powerful +telescope will have its present position accurately defined on these +photographic charts. + +When, the sensitized plate is exposed for a considerable time even +invisible stars photograph themselves, and in this way a great number +of stars have been discovered which no telescope, however powerful, +can bring within the range of vision. Tens of thousands of stars have +registered themselves thus on a single plate, and on one occasion an +impression was obtained on one plate of more than 400,000. + +Astronomers are of the opinion that for every star visible to the naked +eye there are more than 50,000 visible to the camera of the telescope. +If this is so, then the number of visible stars exceeds 300,000,000 +(three hundred millions). + +But the picture taking power of the finest photographic lens has a +limit; no matter how long the exposure, it cannot penetrate beyond a +certain boundary into the vastness of space, and beyond its limits as +George Sterling, the Californian poet, says are-- + + "fires of unrecorded suns + That light a heaven not our own." + +What is the limit? Answer philosopher, answer sage, answer astronomer, +and we have the solution of "the riddle of the Universe." + +As yet the riddle still remains, the veil still hangs between the +knowable and the unknowable, between the finite and the infinite. +Science stands baffled like a wailing creature outside the walls of +knowledge importuning for admission. There is little, in truth no hope +at all, that she will ever be allowed to enter, survey all the fields +of space and set a limit to their boundaries. + +Although the riddle of the universe still remains unsolved because +unsolvable, no one can deny that Astronomy has made mighty strides +forward during the past few years. What has been termed the "Old +Astronomy," which concerns itself with the determination of the +positions and motions of the heavenly bodies, has been rejuvenated and +an immense amount of work has been accomplished by concerted effort, +as well as by individual exertions. + +The greatest achievements have been the accurate determination of the +positions of the fixed stars visible to the eye. Their situation is +now estimated with as unerring precision as is that of the planets of +our own system. Millions upon millions of stars have been photographed +and these photographs will be invaluable in determining the future +changes and motions of these giant suns of interstellar space. + +Of our own system we now know definitely the laws governing it. Fifty +years ago much of our solar machinery was misunderstood and many things +were enveloped in mystery which since has been made very plain. The +spectroscope has had a wonderful part in astronomical research. It +first revealed the nature of the gases existing in the sun. It next +enabled us to study the prominences on any clear day. Then by using +it in the spectro-heliograph we have been enabled to photograph the +entire visible surface of the sun, together with the prominences at +one time. Through the spectro-heliograph we know much more about what +the central body of our system is doing than our theories can explain. +Fresh observations are continually bringing to light new facts which +must soon be accounted for by laws at present unknown. + +Spectroscopic observations are by no means confined to the sun. By +them we now study the composition of the atmospheres of the other +planets; through them the presence of chemical elements known on the +earth is detected in vagrant comets, far-distant stars and dimly-shining +nebulae. The spectroscope also makes it possible to measure the +velocities of objects which are approaching or receding from us. For +instance we know positively that the bright star called Aldebaran near +the constellation of the Pleiades is retreating from us at a rate of +almost two thousand miles a minute. The greatest telescopes in the +world are now being trained on stars that are rushing away towards the +"furthermost" of space and in this way astronomers are trying to get +definite knowledge as to the actual velocity with which the celestial +bodies are speeding. + +It is only within the past few years that photography has been applied +to astronomical development. In this connection, more accurate results +are obtained by measuring the photographs of stellar spectra than by +measuring the spectra themselves. Photography with modern rapid plates +gives us, with a given telescope, pictures of objects so faint that +no visual telescope of the same size will reveal them. It is in this +way that many of the invisible stars have impressed themselves upon +exposed plates and given us a vague idea of the immensity in number +of those stars which we cannot view with eye or instrument. + +Though we have made great advancement, there are many problems yet +even in regard to our own little system of sun worlds which clamor +loudly for solution. The sun himself represents a crowd of pending +problems. His peculiar mode of rotation; the level of sunspots; the +constitution of the photospheric cloud-shell, its relation to faculae +which rise from it, and to the surmounting vaporous strata; the nature +of the prominences; the alternations of coronal types; the affinities +of the zodiacal light--all await investigation. + +A great telescope has recently shown that one star in eighteen on the +average is a visual double--is composed of two suns in slow revolution +around their common center of mass. The spectroscope using the +photographic plate, has established within the last decade that one +star in every five or six on the average is attended by a companion +so near to it as to remain invisible in the most powerful telescopes, +and so massive as to swing the visible star around in an elliptic +orbit. + +The photography of comets, nebulae and solar coronas has made the study +of these phenomena incomparably more effective than the old visual +methods. There is no longer any necessity to make "drawings" of them. +The old dread of comets has been relegated into the shade of ignorance. +The long switching tails regarded so ominously and from which were +anticipated such dire calamities as the destruction of worlds into +chaos have been proven to be composed of gaseous vapors of no more +solidity than the "airy nothingness of dreams." + +The earth in the circle of its orbit passed through the tail of Halley's +comet in May, 1910, and we hadn't even a pyrotechnical display of fire +rockets to celebrate the occasion. In fact there was not a single +celestial indication of the passage and we would not have known only +for the calculations of the astronomer. The passing of a comet now, +as far as fear is concerned, means no more, in fact not as much, as +the passing of an automobile. + +Science no doubt has made wonderful strides in our time, but far as +it has gone, it has but opened for us the first few pages of the book +of the heavens--the last pages of which no man shall ever read. For +aeons upon aeons of time, worlds and suns, and systems of worlds and +suns, revolved through the infinity of space, before man made his +appearance on the tiny molecule of matter we call the earth, and for +aeons upon aeons, for eternity upon eternity, worlds and suns shall +continue to roll and revolve after the last vestige of man shall have +disappeared, nay after the atoms of earth and sun and all his attending +planets of our system shall have amalgamated themselves with other +systems in the boundlessness of space; destroyed, obliterated, +annihilated, they shall never be, for matter is indestructible. When +it passes from one form it enters another; the dead animal that is +cast into the earth lives again in the trees and shrubs and flowers +and grasses that grow in the earth above where its body was cast. Our +earth shall die in course of time, that is, its particles will pass +into other compositions and it will be so of the other planets, of the +suns, of the stars themselves, for as soon as the old ones die there +will ever be new forms to which to attach themselves and thus the +process of world development shall go on forever. + +The nebulae which astronomers discover throughout the stellar space +are extended masses of glowing gases of different forms and are worlds +in process of formation. Such was the earth once. These gases solidify +and contract and cool off until finally an inhabited world, inhabited +by some kind of creatures, takes its place in the whirling galaxy of +systems. + +The stars which appear to us in a yellow or whitish yellow light are +in the heyday of their existence, while those that present a red haze +are almost burnt out and will soon become blackened, dead things +disintegrating and crumbling and spreading their particles throughout +space. It is supposed this little earth of ours has a few more million +years to live, so we need not fear for our personal safety while in +mortal form. + +To us ordinary mortals the mystery as well as the majesty of the heavens +have the same wonderful attraction as they had for the first of our +race. Thousands of years ago the black-bearded shepherds of Eastern +lands gazed nightly into the vaulted dome and were struck with awe as +well as wonder in the contemplation of the glittering specks which +appeared no larger than the pebbles beneath their feet. + +We in our time as we gaze with unaided eye up at the mighty disk of +the so called Milky Way, no longer regard the scintillating points +glittering like diamonds in a jeweler's show-case, with feelings of +awe, but the wonder is still upon us, wonder at the immensity of the +works of Him who built the earth and sky, who, "throned in height +sublime, sits amid the cherubim," King of the Universe, King of kings +and Lord of lords. With a deep faith we look up and adore, then +reverently exclaim,--"Lord, God! wonderful are the works of Thy Hands." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +CAN WE COMMUNICATE WITH OTHER WORLDS? + + Vastness of Nature--Star Distances--Problem of Communicating with + Mars--The Great Beyond. + + +A story is told of a young lady who had just graduated from boarding +school with high honors. Coming home in great glee, she cast her books +aside as she announced to her friends;--"Thank goodness it is all over, +I have nothing more to learn. I know Latin and Greek, French and German, +Spanish and Italian; I have gone through Algebra, Geometry, +Trigonometry, Conic Sections and the Calculus; I can interpret Beethoven +and Wagner, and--but why enumerate?--in short, '_I know everything_.'" + +As she was thus proclaiming her knowledge her hoary-headed grandfather, +a man whom the Universities of the world had honored by affixing a +score of alphabetical letters to his name, was experimenting in his +laboratory. The lines of long and deep study had corrugated his brow +and furrowed his face. Wearily he bent over his retorts and test tubes. +At length he turned away with a heavy sigh, threw up his hands and +despairingly exclaimed,--"Alas, alas! after fifty years of study and +investigation, I find _I know nothing_." + +There is a moral in this story that he who runs may read. Most of us +are like the young lady,--in the pride of our ignorance, we fancy we +know almost everything. We boast of the progress of our time, of what +has been accomplished in our modern world, we proclaim our triumphs +from the hilltops,--"Ha!" we shout, "we have annihilated time and +distance; we have conquered the forces of nature and made them +subservient to our will; we have chained the lightning and imprisoned +the thunder; we have wandered through the fields of space and measured +the dimensions and revolutions of stars and suns and planets and +systems. We have opened the eternal gates of knowledge for all to enter +and crowned man king of the universe." + +Vain boasting! The gates of knowledge have been opened, but we have +merely got a peep at what lies within. And man, so far from being king +of the universe, is but as a speck on the fly-wheel that controls the +mighty machinery of creation. What we know is infinitesimal to what +we do not know. We have delved in the fields of science, but as yet +our ploughshares have merely scratched the tiniest portion of the +surface,--the furrow that lies in the distance is unending. In the +infinite book of knowledge we have just turned over a few of the first +pages; but as it is infinite, alas! we can never hope to reach the +final page, for there is no final page. What we have accomplished is +but as a mere drop in the ocean, whose waves wash the continents of +eternity. No scholar, no scientist can bound those continents, can +tell the limits to which they stretch, inasmuch as they are illimitable. + +Ask the most learned _savant_ if he can fix the boundaries of space, and +he will answer,--No! Ask him if he can define _mind_ and _matter_, and +you will receive the same answer. + +"What is mind? It is no matter." + + "What is matter? Never mind." + +The atom formerly thought to be indivisible and the smallest particle +of matter has been reduced to molecules, corpuscles, ions, and +electrons; but the nature, the primal cause of these, the greatest +scientists on earth are unable to determine. Learning is as helpless +as ignorance when brought up against this stone-wall of mystery. +_The effect_ is seen, but the _cause_ remains indeterminable. The +scientist, gray-haired in experience and experiment, knows no more +in this regard than the prattling child at its mother's knee. The child +asks,--"Who made the world?" and the mother answers, "God made the +world." The infant mind, suggestive of the future craving for knowledge, +immediately asks,--"Who is God?" Question of questions to which the +philosopher and the peasant must give the same answer,--"God is the +infinite, the eternal, the source of all things, the _alpha_ and +_omega_ of creation, from Him all came, to Him all must return." +He is the beginning of Science, the foundation on which our edifice +of knowledge rests. + +We hear of the conflict between Science and Religion. There is no +conflict, can be none, for all Science must be based on faith,--faith +in Him who holds worlds and suns "in the hollow of His hand." All our +great scientists have been deeply religious men, acknowledging their +own insignificance before Him who fills the universe with His presence. + +What is the universe and what place do we hold in it? The mind of man +becomes appalled in consideration of the question. The orb we know as +the sun is centre of a system of worlds of which our earth is almost +the most insignificant; yet great as is the sun when compared to the +little bit of matter on which we dwell and have our being, it is itself +but a mote, as it were, in the beam of the Universe. Formerly this sun +was thought to be fixed and immovable, but the progress of science +demonstrated that while the earth moves around this luminary, the +latter is moving with mighty velocity in an orbit of its own. Tis the +same with all the other bodies which we erroneously call "fixed stars." +These stars are the suns of other systems of worlds, countless systems, +all rushing through the immensity of space, for there is nothing fixed +or stationary in creation,--all is movement, constant, unvarying. Suns +and stars and systems perform their revolutions with unerring precision, +each unit-world true to its own course, thus proving to the soul of +reason and the consciousness of faith that there must needs be an +omnipotent hand at the lever of this grand machinery of the universe, +the hand that fashioned it, that of God. Addison beautifully expresses +the idea in referring to the revolutions of the stars: + + "In reason's ear they all rejoice, + And utter forth one glorious voice, + Forever singing as they shine- + 'The Hand that made us is Divine.'" + +Our sun, the centre of the small system of worlds of which the earth +is one, is distant from us about ninety-three million miles. In winter +it is nearer; in summer farther off. Light travels this distance in +about eight minutes, to be exact, the rate is 186,400 miles per second. +To get an idea of the immensity of the distance of the so-called fixed +stars, let us take this as a base of comparison. The nearest fixed +star to us is _Alpha Centauri_, which is one of the brightest as +seen in the southern heavens. It requires four and one-quarter years +for a beam of light to travel from this star to earth at the rate of +186,000 miles a second, thus showing that Alpha Centauri is about two +hundred and seventy-five thousand times as far from us as is the sun, +in other words, more than 25,575,000,000,000 miles, which, expressed +in our notation, reads twenty-five trillion, five hundred and seventy- +five billion miles, a number which the mind of man is incapable of +grasping. To use the old familiar illustration of the express train, +it would take the "Twentieth Century Limited," which does the thousand +mile trip between New York and Chicago in less than twenty-four hours, +some one million two hundred and fifty thousand years at the same speed +to travel from the earth to _Alpha Centauri_. _Sirius_, the Dog-Star, is +twice as far away, something like eight or nine "light" years from our +solar system; the Pole-Star is forty-eight "light" years removed from +us, and so on with the rest, to an infinity of numbers. From the dawn of +creation in the eternal cosmos of matter, light has been travelling from +some stars in the infinitude of space at the rate of 186,000 miles per +second, but so remote are they from our system that it has not reached +us as yet. The contemplation is bewildering; the mind sinks into +nothingness in consideration of a magnitude so great and distance so +confusing. What lies beyond?--a region which numbers cannot measure and +thought cannot span, and beyond that?--the eternal answer,--GOD. + +In face of the contemplation of the vastness of creation, of its +boundlessness the question ever obtrudes itself,--What place have we +mortals in the universal cosmos? What place have we finite creatures, +who inhabit this speck of matter we call the earth, in this mighty +scheme of suns and systems and never-ending space. Does the Creator +of all think us the most important of his works, that we should be the +particular objects of revelation, that for us especially heaven was +built, and a God-man, the Son of the Eternal, came down to take flesh +of our flesh and live among us, to show us the way, and finally to +offer himself as a victim to the Father to expiate our transgressions. +Mystery of mysteries before which we stand appalled and lost in wonder. +Self-styled rationalists love to point out the irrationality and +absurdity of supposing that the Creator of all the unimaginable vastness +of suns and systems, filling for all we know endless space, should +take any special interest in so mean and pitiful a creature as man, +inhabiting such an infinitesimal speck of matter as the earth, which +depends for its very life and light upon a second or third-rate or +hundred-rate Sun. + +From the earliest times of our era, the sneers and taunts of atheism +and agnosticism have been directed at the humble believer, who bows +down in submission and questions not. The fathers of the Church, such +as Augustine and Chrysostom and Thomas of Aquinas and, at a later time, +Luther, and Calvin, and Knox, and Newman, despite the war of creeds, +have attacked the citadel of the scoffers; but still the latter hurl +their javelins from the ramparts, battlements and parapets and refuse +to be repulsed. If there are myriads of other worlds, thousands, +millions of them in point of magnitude greater than ours, what concern +say they has the Creator with our little atom of matter? Are other +worlds inhabited besides our own. This is the question that will not +down--that is always begging for an answer. The most learned savants +of modern time, scholars, sages, philosophers and scientists have given +it their attention, but as yet no one has been able to conclusively +decide whether a race of intelligent beings exists in any sphere other +than our own. All efforts to determine the matter result in mere +surmise, conjecture and guesswork. The best of scientists can only put +forward an opinion. + +Professor Simon Newcomb, one of the most brilliant minds our country +has produced, says: "It is perfectly reasonable to suppose that beings, +not only animated but endowed with reason, inhabit countless worlds +in space." Professor Mitchell of the Cincinnati Observatory, in his +work, "Popular Astronomy," says,--"It is most incredible to assert, +as so many do, that our planet, so small and insignificant in its +proportions when compared with the planets with which it is allied, +is the only world in the whole universe filled with sentient, rational, +and intelligent beings capable of comprehending the grand mysteries +of the physical universe." Camille Flammarion, in referring to the +utter insignificance of the earth in the immensity of space, puts +forward his view thus: "If advancing with the velocity of light we +could traverse from century to century the unlimited number of suns +and spheres without ever meeting any limit to the prodigious immensity +where God brings forth his worlds, and looking behind, knowing not in +what part of the infinite was the little grain of dust called the +earth, we would be compelled to unite our voices with that universal +nature and exclaim--'Almighty God, how senseless were we to believe +that there was nothing beyond the earth and that our abode alone +possessed the privilege of reflecting Thy greatness and honor.'" + +The most distinguished astronomers and scientists of a past time, as +well as many of the most famous divines, supported the contention of +world life beyond the earth. Among these may be mentioned Kepler and +Tycho, Giordano Bruno and Cardinal Cusa, Sir William and Sir John +Herschel, Dr. Bentley and Dr. Chalmers, and even Newton himself +subscribed in great measure to the belief that the planets and stars +are inhabited by intelligent beings. + +Those who deny the possibility of other worlds being inhabited, endeavor +to show that our position in the universe is unique, that our solar +system is quite different from all others, and, to crown the argument, +they assert that our little world has just the right amount of water, +air, and gravitational force to enable it to be the abode of intelligent +life, whereas elsewhere, such conditions do not prevail, and that on +no other sphere can such physical habitudes be found as will enable +life to originate or to exist. It can be easily shown that such +reasoning is based on untenable foundations. Other worlds have to go +through processes of evolution, and there can be no doubt that many +are in a state similar to our own. It required hundreds of thousands, +perhaps hundreds of millions of years, before this earth was fit to +sustain human life. The same transitions which took place on earth are +taking place in other planets of our system, and other systems, and +it is but reasonable to assume that in other systems there are much +older worlds than the earth, and that these have arrived at a more +developed state of existence, and therefore have a life much higher +than our own. As far as physical conditions are concerned, there are +suns similar to our own, as revealed by the spectroscope, and which +have the same eruptive energy. Astronomical Science has incontrovertibly +demonstrated, and evidence is continually increasing to show that dark, +opaque worlds like ours exist and revolve around their primaries. Why +should not these worlds be inhabited by a race equal or even superior +in intelligence to ourselves, according to their place in the cosmos +of creation? + +Leaving out of the question the outlying worlds of space, let us come +to a consideration of the nearest celestial neighbor we have in our +own system, the planet Mars: Is there rational life on Mars and if so +can we communicate with the inhabitants? + +Though little more than half the earth's size, Mars has a significance +in the public eye which places it first in importance among the planets. +It is our nearest neighbor on the outer side of the earth's path around +the Sun and, viewed through a telescope of good magnifying power, shows +surface markings, suggestive of continents, mountains, valleys, oceans, +seas and rivers, and all the varying phenomena which the mind associates +with a world like unto our own. Indeed, it possesses so many features +in common with the earth, that it is impossible to resist the conception +of its being inhabitated. This, however, is not tantamount to saying +that if there is a race of beings on Mars they are the same as we on +Earth. By no means. Whatever atmosphere exists on Mars must be much +thinner than ours and far too rare to sustain the life of a people +with our limited lung capacity. A race with immense chests could live +under such conditions, and folk with gills like fish could pass a +comfortable existence in the rarefied air. Besides the tenuity of the +atmosphere, there are other conditions which would cause life to be +much different on Mars. Attraction and gravitation are altogether +different. The force with which a substance is attracted to the surface +of Mars is only a little more than one-third as strong as on the earth. +For instance one hundred pounds on Earth would weigh only about +thirty-eight pounds on Mars. A man who could jump five feet here could +clear fifteen feet on Mars. Paradoxical as it may seem, the smaller +a planet, in comparison with ours and consequently the less the pull +of gravity at its centre, the greater is the probability that its +inhabitants, if any, are giants when compared with us. Professor Lowell +has pointed out that to place the Martians (if there are such beings) +under the same conditions as those in which we exist, the average +inhabitant must be considered to be three times as large and three +times as heavy as the average human being; and the strength of the +Martians must exceed ours to even a greater extent than the bulk and +weight; for their muscles would be twenty-seven times more effective. +In fact, one Martian could do the work of fifty or sixty men. + +It is idle, however, to speculate as to what the forms of life are +like on Mars, for if there are any such forms our ideas and conceptions +of them must be imaginary, as we cannot see them on Mars we do not +know. There is yet no possibility of seeing anything on the planet +less than thirty miles across, and even a city of that size, viewed +through the most powerful telescope, would only be visible as a minute +speck. Great as is the perfection to which our optical instruments +have been brought, they have revealed nothing on the planet save the +so-called canals, to indicate the presence of sentient rational beings. +The canals discovered by Schiaparelli of the Milan Observatory in 1877 +are so regular, outlined with such remarkable geometrical precision, +that it is claimed they must be artificial and the work of a high order +of intelligence. "The evidence of such work," says Professor Lowell, +"points to a highly intelligent mind behind it." + +Can this intelligence in any way reach us, or can we express ourselves +to it? Can the chasm of space which lies between the Earth and Mars +be bridged--a chasm which, at the shortest, is more than thirty-five +million miles across or one hundred and fifty times greater than the +distance between the earth and the moon? Can the inhabitants of the +Earth and Mars exchange signals? To answer the question, let us +institute some comparisons. Suppose the fabled "Man in the Moon" were +a real personage, we would require a telescope 800 times more powerful +than the finest instrument we now have to see him, for the space +penetrating power of the best telescope is not more than 300 miles and +the moon is 240,000 miles distant. An object to be visible on the moon +would require to be as large as the Metropolitan Insurance Building +in New York, which is over 700 feet high. To see, therefore, an object +on Mars by means of the telescope the object would need to have +dimensions one hundred and fifty times as great as the object on the +moon; in other words, before we could see a building on Mars, it would +have to be one hundred and fifty times the size of the Metropolitan +Building. Even if there are inhabitants there, it is not likely they +have such large buildings. + +Assuming that there _are_ Martians, and that they are desirous +of communicating with the earth by waving a flag, such a flag in order +to be seen through the most powerful telescopes and when Mars is +nearest, would have to be 300 miles long and 200 miles wide and be +flung from a flagpole 500 miles high. The consideration of such a +signal only belongs to the domain of the imagination. As an +illustration, it should conclusively settle the question of the +possibility or rather impossibility of signalling between the two +planets. + +Let us suppose that the signalling power of wireless telegraphy had +been advanced to such perfection that it was possible to transmit a +signal across a distance of 8,000 miles, equal to the diameter of the +earth, or 1-30 the distance to the moon. Now, in order to be appreciable +at the moon it would require the intensity of the 8,000 mile ether +waves to be raised not merely 30 times, but 30 times 30, for to use +the ordinary expression, the intensity of an effect spreading in all +directions like the ether waves, decreases inversely as the square of +the distance. If the whole earth were brought within the domain of +wireless telegraphy, the system would still have to be improved 900 +times as much again before the moon could be brought within the sphere +of its influence. A wireless telegraphic signal, transmitted across +a distance equal to the diameter of the earth, would be reduced to a +mere sixteen-millionth part if it had to travel over the distance to +Mars; in other words, if wireless telegraphy attained the utmost +excellence now hoped for it--that is, of being able to girdle the +earth--it would have to be increased a thousandfold and then a +thousandfold again, and finally multiplied by 16, before an appreciable +_signal_ could be transmitted to Mars. This seems like drawing +the long bow, but it is a scientific truth. There is no doubt that +ether waves can and do traverse the distance between the Earth and +Mars, for the fact that sunlight reaches Mars and is reflected back +to us proves this; but the source of waves adequate to accomplish such +a feat must be on such a scale as to be hopelessly beyond the power +of man to initiate or control. Electrical signalling to Mars is much +more out of the question than wireless. Even though electrical phenomena +produced in any one place were sufficiently intense to be appreciable +by suitable instruments all over the earth, that intensity would have +to be enhanced another sixteen million-fold before they would be +appreciable on the planet Mars. + +It is absolutely hopeless to try to span the bridge that lies between +us and Mars by any methods known to present day science. Yet men styling +themselves scientists say it can be done and will be done. This is a +prophecy, however, which must lie in the future. + +As has been pointed out, we have as yet but scratched the outer surface +in the fields of knowledge. What visions may not be opened to the eyes +of men, as they go down deeper and deeper into the soil. Secrets will +be exhumed undreamt of now, mysteries will be laid bare to the light +of day, and perhaps the psychic riddle of life itself may be solved. +Then indeed, Mars may come to be looked on as a next-door neighbor, +with whose life and actions we are as well acquainted as with our own. +The thirty-five million miles that separate him from us may be regarded +as a mere step in space and the most distant planets of our system as +but a little journey afield. Distant Uranus may be looked upon as no +farther away than is, say, Australia from America at the present time. + +It is vain, however, to indulge in these premises. The veil of mystery +still hangs between us and suns and stars and systems. One fact lies +before us of which there is no uncertainty--_we die_ and pass away from +our present state into some other. We are not annihilated into +nothingness. Suns and worlds also die, after performing their +allotted revolutions in the cycle of the universe. Suns glow for a +time, and planets bear their fruitage of plants and animals and men, +then turn for aeons into a dreary, icy listlessness and finally crumble +to dust, their atoms joining other worlds in the indestructibility of +matter. + +After all, there really is no death, simply change--change from one +state to another. When we say we die, we simply mean that we change +our state. There is a life beyond the grave. As Longfellow beautifully +expresses it: + + "Life is real, life is earnest, + And the grave is not its goal, + Dust thou art, to dust returnest, + Was not spoken of the soul." + +But whither do we go when we pass on? Where is the soul when it leaves +the earthly tenement called the body? We, Christians, in the light of +revelation and of faith, believe in a heaven for the good; but it is +not a material place, only a state of being. Where and under what +conditions is that state? This leads us to the consideration of another +question which is engrossing the minds of many thinkers and reasoners +of the present day. Can we communicate with the Spirit world? Despite +the tenets and beliefs and experiences of learned and sincere +investigators, we are constrained, thus far, to answer in the negative. + +Yet, though we cannot communicate with it, we know there is a spirit +world; the inner consciousness of our being apprises us of that fact, +we know our loved ones who have passed on are not dead but gone before, +just a little space, and that soon we shall follow them into a higher +existence. As Talmage said, the tombstone is not the terminus, but the +starting post, the door to the higher life, the entrance to the state +of endless labor, grand possibilities, and eternal progression. + +THE END + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Marvels of Modern Science, by Paul Severing + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MARVELS OF MODERN SCIENCE *** + +This file should be named 6139.txt or 6139.zip + +Produced by Emily Ratliff, Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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