The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, April 12, 1896, Page 15

¥ 1—Movable Seacoast Battery. Oven and Kitchen. THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, APRIL 12, 1896 @ = "‘*Z//W ;:%%; 2 ,%}M\ 2l 2—Nordenfeldt Boat Submerged. 3—Nordenfeldt Boat Above Water. 4—Movable Torpedo-Boat. 8—Bicycle for Transporting Wounded. 27 12477747 i %——\ =z P — 5—Transporting a Portable Field-Oven. Field Oven. 9. 6—Movable Torpedo-Boat on Cars With Platforms. 7—Traveling Field- 10—The Nautilus Submarine Boat. {18! VER since the War of the Rebel- | at any depth. he usual position in dri lion gave rise to American inven- | 118 forward wou 1d be at a de tion in destructive weapons there :‘\f:‘fe i:?a(l:e':o”:fiacwm‘mg tower alone | hour, carry two tons, J bas been a wide field thrown oven | where to direct the boat. he ingenuity of all mankind. | tower are instruments to show the depth, The most wonderful ideas have taken shape | the level and the course. The lighting is and most preposterous notions have been | done by electricity. In the bow are tor- spread around as to what some of these | €40 tubes, and when near a vessel the erful inventions will do, or what they | (0l a3 €Ptirely submerged and approaches : o 1Y | to a distance sufficient to insure accuracy, I notdo. Still, though the majority of | and d; 4 them have been failures under the test of | effect. acte service conditions, enough have | Another successful form of submarine been developed so efficiently as to well | ;ggfifd‘?;‘?‘;flt = ca“e’? _mel “'&:uldiim.ztmii ead us to believ ime of il- | i s inventor. It isaboat of sma iean u el e inat the Hme of the mil | gimensions, only 36 040, faet 1 Iorssh nn cannot be very far distant, since | ang 6 in width, and is divided into three the destructive powers of new inventions compariments by two bulkheads. The end are so terrible that men cannot survive chambers are filled with compressed air, under their action. It is possible now to | Which may be needed for either resniration fizht not only on iand but in the air above ;’Ji"’:‘i’ :‘l‘:“‘sl'.‘“i'»' motive poner m!l!hlc q ey “ipal motive power is electricity, whic u asdin the watarbenonth it 1 |5t iip sn R A od e N ypose to give here descriptions of a few | hours each, there being forty-five boxes . ore wonderful weapons — not | arranged in the central chamber, as seen it may be stated that while in | in the illustration. The torpedo propelled one or two cases the development has mnot :’ga‘r“c‘sh‘:;’;“l‘l 5 '5":‘1‘?"“- Itis °f,“‘f "S“fldl yeer ot Es se i | shape, ie motive power is derive :;N:w) SR _h{.. gone far enougt;_“f | from the combustion of Jl’n‘ee rows of four S osolute periection atnovery dis- | 100.pound rocket-tubes filled with rocket tant day. | powder. The gas generated the com- Among the types of craft to fight under | bustion escapes through a nozzle and acts water, the N rfeldt boat seems to baye | on & small turbine which revolves the fore achieved the greatest success. There are )gf;}g;fl?g"“;od 3} speed of t?lvenh'-lonr ¥ v pes o - D - I 1 run one i fwo types in thiscountry, the Peacemaker, | rate a5 ety secured and demoensl:truttlelgf and another invented by a Chicago man, | Like the Nordenfeldt, this boat may be that hay emed to be excellent' till | entirely submerged or only partially. vlaced under water in working conditions, | Another form called the Nautilus, which when it was found they could not reach | is submerged, runs forward and discharges that point their inventors Lad claimed for | :‘rzc‘i?:vpedoe! entirely by accumulated elec- them. The Z\rvl’mune]dl boat is ab_om 125§ * An interesting design shown is that for feet long by 12 feet beam and displaces | an aerial ship, which the inventor pro- when submerged about 230 tons, but when | poses not only to propel and direct against light1ts displacement is reckoned at 165 | the wind or wherever he pleases, but he tons. it is driven by 1000-horsepower | 850 Sxpegie to.caryonp o "xl:e ailr ith engines at a speed of 15 k e sur- | Dim a large squad of men, who shall be 5 v i " | Of an enem army or fortress or town submerged. (ts boilers contain about 27 | high explosives. This is one of the prob- tons of hot water, while tanks on board | abilities of the future that has not yet contain 35 tons of cold water, | proved an entire success, but which m. p When the tanks are full, the boat is sub- | Eioubtedly will ere long. Thus, for in- merged, and by the action of sinking pro- | stance, it is reported to us that the Prus. pelters can be kept iz a horizontal position | sian general staff is enthusigstic ever ? | | I i | 1 - | Count Zeppelin’s steerabie balloon, which pth just suffi- | can rise 1200 yards, travel eleven miles an siay up fully a week the captain can see | and then descend without throwing out In the conning | either ballast or gas. ‘When such success is attained as seems in this case undeniable, then the day is not far distant wnen pro- tection from overhead fire will be as neces- sary to men in fortresses as on board ships of war. The experience of the English in the ischarges her torpedoes with deadly | Ezyptian war proved that railroad cars might be made into portable batteries, and they constructed several armor-clad cars, which were pushed by a locomotive, and on board of which cars were placed field guns and Maxims. The French have car- ried the idea stili further, proposing to apply the system of carrying guns to sea- coast fortifications. sary is to throw up a long line of earth- works—and since earth is cheap and sand lenty on the seacoast this costs but the abor—and behind these walls lay several tracks on which shall ply cars with the heaviest guns mounted on board. The guns may concentrate quickly at any point desired, and then as auickly be moved to another. Being on the move would make them difficult objects to hit by shot fired from warships, and it is but necessary for | them to stop an instant to fire ere going forward again. But as it is a poor rule that does not work in more than one way the French also have constructed railways for the purpose of transferring torpedo- boats and small vessels from one place to another. : The bicycle has come to stay in modern war and plays an important_part, and not only is it to be used in carrying scouts and intelligence-seekers, but also for the trans- port, ofsmmunition and the wounded. A wheel is shown fitted with a litter for carrying the wounded, ana surely no am- bulance can be more comfortable or ad- justable than this “bike,”” nor move as rapidly, X ¥he providing of bread and other rations for the modern armies is a difficult problem. A number of devices to over- come these difficulties have been devised. A field oven is represented and shows the means by which it can be carried on two vack mules. This oven will provide bread for an entire battalion; but while it is pertable gnd effective and can be taken | anywhere, yet it has to be unpacked and set up when wanted for use. This is a | what kind of men they are or however | drawback in_an army advancing, and to | much patriotism or enthusi: | overcome this the traveling field oven is designed and used by cause they may be imbued with, if they all foreign armies. | cannot have proper sustenance either in | It contains an oven, a hot-water boiler, a | quantity or food. hot-air oven and boilers for coffee and | = Many other wonderful and curious in- soup. Itisintended for a company of 200 | ventions might be enumerated, including ea, and while the army is marching this | the new men-of-war and new guns, but on, drawn by four mules and followed | they are now so well understood that no by a fuel-cart, is in full operation. The | description is needed. apparatus requires four men, one to drive | for throwing dynamite in large masses, the wazon, one to drive the fuel-cart and | torpedoes thems elves, guns that throw out two to cook. The bake oven for bread, | their projectiles a thousand a minute, the roasting ' oven for '~ meats and | powders and explosives so terrible that tha boilers for soup and coffee | the old black gunpowder is mild in com- may all be put 1in full blast parison, armor to_resist terrific blows, and projectiles weighing over a ton, all the wonders that steam and electricity and chemistry can call into play as agents in the awful gareof destruction of that most | precious of possessions—human lite—all for night or noon the meal is ready for the men, and the bread for the next day is baked. And all at a cost of time and labor far less than the old method of every man looking out for himself, and with in- | these are fairiy well understood, ana finitely more comfort. If you can feed |their destructive powers will be small your soldiers well, you can do anything | when the machines above described have with them, provided th are the right n perfected as they ultimate! ill be. INSTINCT IN THE LOWER ANIMALS. NOT INFALLIBLE BY ANY MEANS; with the resuit that on making the halts { brain could possibly do. Tt feels its way N the f rambles this morn- S e through the darkness, underground, avoid- ing I came upon a despoiled nest | New powders, guns | ) kind of men; but-it makes no difference their welfaresneither, on the whole, can it be said that the lower animals excel them asm for their | in this regard. I'he maternal reason would seem to be no greater among them than among us, while the maternal instinct, probably because acting in a certain degree in concert with the reason, is much less infailible than in the vegetable kingdom. As a sho Henry M. Starley is authority for the statement that three out of every five lion cubs die during the process of cutting their teeth. Other famous hunters testify to an almost equal mortality among tiger cubs, and of the grown creatures them- selves it is said that a perfect skin is al- most impossible to secure, so apt are these fierce carnivora to be afflicted with mange. Among sheep and cattle, even in the semi-wildness of great herds on the plains, maternal instinct is frequently so feeble as to endanger the lives of the young. Let 2 mother-ewe lose sight of her lambkin for even a brief period, and she does not recog- nize it again. Not even human mother- hood can show stupidity exceeding that of the cows of In These creatures are so excessively maternal in_their feeling that one of them will notlet down her milk unless her calf is beside her. So the In- dian calf is not weaned, as is the custom in other countries, but if it dies, or is slain, a frequent occurrence, the skin is pre- served, and, wrapped about a bundle of rags or straw, is exhibited to the mother- cow at milking time. Smelling it, she is quite satisfied, and will not hold back her milk. Such is the marvelous efficacy of maternal reason and feeling in the brute ng for the king of beasts, | All that seems neces- | lying beside the pathway. 1 knew whose home it had been, | for I had watched the labors of the pair of goldfinches building it and had longed at the time to tell them they were not building wisely. To all appearances they had chosen well, but I knew what they, as recent settlers, could not be ex- pected to know—that the scruboak in | ing every obstruction, creeping under and about every barrier, sending out branches at every available coign of vantage, until the tree or plant is securely anchored, deep down where the roots can not only hold it firmly, but can find moisture and food for the growing stem above ground. The root of a tree has been known to twist upon itself and push its way towara a well dug years after it started upon its un- derground jourrey. creation. Herbert Spencer cites as a ridiculously unmaternal act the fact that he once saw a mother shake her baby because it would not nurse. Unreasonlzle the act certainly seems, but I have often seen a mare kick her foal or a cat box her kitten’s ears for the same offense. Many curiousinstances of failure of both instinct and reason along these lines occur whose sheltering branches they had lo- cated stood on the bank of a little gully, up which at rare intervals the north wind tore madly, shaking and twisting the growing tnings in its track until one might fancy them shrieking for mercy. But alas! I am not versed in the lan- guage of birds, and I was forced to leave them to nature’s not always tencer teach- ing. They completed their nest just in | time for the visit of our last norther and the inevitable result confronted me this Some months ago, during one of the congresses which the women of this State are so fond of holding, a speaker made the statement that of all the human children born half die before they reach the age of five years, and of these halt die before they are one year old. 1t is probable that this statement could not be successfally denied. The infant mortality of the hu- man race is deplorably large, despite the rapid progress science has made in the last quarter-century. But the further statement of the clever speaker, in this connection, is, beyond a among the birds, really the most intelli- gent, next to humankind, of all the crea- tures. The reasonableness manifested by pirds in the building of their nests and the rearing of their young broods is one of the most interesting things in nature. The oriole will tie strings together, attach the ends to the projecting twigs of a suitable branch and swing its nest therefrom in a fashion that has an almost uncanny sug- | gestion of human wisdom. But the bird will sometimes miscalculate in the selec- tion of a branch and choose one that is not strong enough to hold the nest securely morning as I strolled that way. The owners of the little house had fled, so [ brought it with me and it lies upon my desk now, a pathetic reminder of the instinct that failed. Or, no, instinct never fails its posseasor. If the birds had been governed by instinct in their choice of a location for their nest they would have made no mistake, but their blunder alone is sufficient proof, were one needed, that they are guided by reason. For reason implies the possibility of error. Perhaps itis not too much to say that the more highly developed the reasoning faculty the reater the possibility of its going astray. {L is to those orders that have no real con- sciousness, that are governed wholly by instinct, that we must look for perfect adaptation of life. We do not find the tap-root of a tree making mistakes. It ex- ercises an ingenuity so subtle that Darwin has likened it to the brain of animals. But it does better for the plant thana eradventure, : . 8 and the wee birdlings will be spilled pre. maturely to the ground. 1 have seen the nest of a small bird, be- side whose eggs the unmaternal cowbunt- ing had deposited one of her own. This is a favorite trick of the cowbunting, who builds no nest and broods no young. But, detecting the intruder, the owners ha gone to work and built a new bottom to the structure, cutting off not only the alien egg, but the rightful eggs of the little hen whose nest it was. A clever device, certainly, but how about the open to question. No other order of creatures, she added, makes sv shameful a showing. 3 It is rather a popular sort of thing, nowadays, to decry the human race. We are wont to speak of poor human nature with a shake of the head, and an air_of deprecating the outlook for its future. We have got our government into hopeless confusion. Our men are deteriorating morally, our women are too ignorant and too willful to bring up their children prop- erly, and the demfi rate among the young € a t of the race is in shameful contrast to the | wisdom and maternal feeling that deliber- showing among other creatures. So, too, | ately destroys its own offspring rather we are constantly hearing of the physical | than aid in rearing that of a stranger? In ills to which human beings, above all j other instances the mother bird has not races, are subject. even been so clever, but has sat upon and This would be a' terrible arraignment, | hatched the intending egg, at the expense were it true. As it is, the showing is not | of her own, which, being smaller, were flattering to the most highly endowed race | kept from the feathered warmth of the in the scaleof being. Butif human parents | brooding breast until they were addled do not know how care for their little | and came to naught. Nay, more, I ones, and to make the best provision for | have known of & case wkers all the eggs hatched, but the fledgling of the cows bunting being larger and more vigorous than those of its foster-mother, it seized | upon all the food the parent birds brought, and crowded and overrode its nest mates until they suffocated or starved. But the devoted mother went right on feeding the selfish creature, who, so soon as it was able, flew off without so much as thank you. A careful watching of birds and their ways has not afforded me any evidenca that the parent birds are able to discrimi- nate in feeding their young between the gaping mouth that caught the last worm | or seed brought and the one beside it that has had none. The morsel, so far as [ have been able to judge, 1s popped into the beak that is thrust the highest, and there is always a scramble for first place among the birdlings, who, most distinctly and despite the good Dr. Watts’ assertion, do not “‘in their little nests agree.”’ There 1s no occasion here to speak at length of those animals that are known not infrequently to kill and devour their own young. I am not endeavoring to make any point of failure of maternal care through” viciousness, but only through blunder and stupidity, the two offenses most frequently brought against hu- manity. Nor am I contending that there is any real parallelism in this regard between the human race and the lower animals. They only presuppose such parallelism who criticize and” judge humanity by the lower standard. 'I‘he possibility of exer- cising reason presupposes the possibility of error in its exercise. The human being possesses reason, intelligence, in a far higher degree than does the brute. Ha possesses, moreover, the power of learning from experience and of handing on the wisdom thus gained. And out of the ac- cumulated knowledge of the ages has grown the sense of moral obligation;which, among other things, prompts such super- ficial criticism of the race as I have quoted. rompts other things as weli, and through obedience to those other prompt- ings ‘the human race, the wretched, groveling, feeble human race, makes the best showing of any order on earth, in the | intelligent rearing and care of its young. It most certainly should do so.. Iam not offering this statement as a source of pride. There is little enough occasion for pride in the progress we have yet made, | but the statement can be made in contra- diction to sweeping comparisons between | man and the brutes. But my wee goldfinches were not dis- heartened by the failure of their first building enterprise. I am fairly certain that it was the same pair I saw, as I con- tinued my stroll, hard at work making a new nest, this time, as nearly as I could judge, in a thicket of wild briar-rose, wild blackberry and megarrhiza, and there, should fate be propitious; should no soar- ing hawk swoop down upon the parent birds; should no steaithy snake or prying squirrel discover and dine off the eggs; should no wanton schoolboy find and bear off the nest, or, should no chance passer frighten away the little hen, they will rear their brood and send them forth to glad- den the streamside willows with their sunny color and cheery song. ADELINE KNAPP. _— The bank statistics of Ireland for 1895 are the most satisfactory ever recorded, and show that Ireland has but to be let alone to attain a thoroughly sound ecoe 1 Bomic condition, But it