The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, June 21, 1896, Page 28

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, JUNE 21, 1896 THE DISCOVERY OF A SAN" FRANCISCAN. Frederick H. Johnson the| First to Make Nickel | Hold Mercury. The Story of the Building of§ the Oregon Told in | Numbers. Over Three Million Hours of Labor | Expended in Completing the } Big Battle-Ship. i For many vears it has been the belief metal that would not | and when Frederick H. tevenson sireet visited a | plater in City ana nickel was a ked, | Ca coated with quicksilver?’ he was at ¢ nformed that it could not, a at ment after experiment had bout such a result. a mining engineer, who i » makes experiments with re He took from his pocket | ing it before the | stioned asked, rou call that om it w presented ex- | 1t to the light | examimne it for many | “Why, that's plated with mercury, but if 1 had not seen it with my own eyes I would not have believed it,” as he returned it. nt,” said Mr. John- | n regard toc the process | ccomplishes that which it | uld not be done. *““A pure I was 1 ig an experiment vo different solution ids ak n each wcipated ng which 1 had placed | nd foll into a solution of that, to When I picke > : yvered that orin other e ieces of & roduced e result as was prod on the coin ved in mining I can only is discovery that is in con- | 1 In each mill th b tom he battery a -plated for the the m iy, that is gold that comes from hed. Ina five- yver a space a little 3 1 these n the oaly » ore tha plate is eru amp will ¢ ates now in u 1in batteries the cost red ier the cos to my on at this time my aiscovery will ke branche eave for others to determi That I will The Oregon fn Units. | ly speaking all that the public »f an immense floating fortress like | St Oregon isthat es war vessel she feet in length and weighs—co ent,crew and everything eise incl ed—at of 10,690 tons, and that the con- tract price to the Government was §. - 900, but few stop to consider the enormous ar wolved ha m at in the construc- The contractors, cost of | who have toc 1 a vessel, keen account of every from this data the small, and absolute cost to them can be quickly esti- mated. From these figures can be acquired an intelligent idea of the such a job, and an examir results, which are called the Oregon,” will prove interesting reading. First of all is the cost of labor, and a close computation shows that there were 288,000 hours spent in building the great % ship, and that 328,800 days of ten hours ach were consumed in her construction, No less an amount than 10,175,352 pounds of construction steel was used id in ad- s ition 607,100 pounds of bra. pounds of wrought-iron and 812,712 pot of castiron was used. It took 4,500 pounds of rivets to fasten all her plates to- gether and 87,600 pounds of copper pipe was used for her steam conductors. The Oregon is an ironclad, but the large qua tity of 680,000 feet of lumber had to be used to finish her flooring and cabins, and inci- dental 00,000 feet of common lumber for scaffolding, blocking, protected by coffer-dams filled with cellu lose, and of this material 126,000 pounds were used. If all of her big guns were all together, 6800 pounds. Her engines, of which there are 106, develop a power of 11,000 horse, and to rush her through the water at seventeen knots the propeller must make 130 revolutions each minute. The Oregon will ve four great ch- thing vi e ch will candle- lights, which will make every within a radius of five miles, and es > equal to 40,000 power. 1891, but owing to the de in furnishing the piates the constructors’ trial did not ake place until August, 1894. The fi trial trip occurred in May, 1896, She will be turned over to the Government fully equipped for war on the 6th of July next. For the Fruit Pickers. A Massachusetts man, Henry Edgar- ton, of Shirley, has invented and patented Anat appears to be an easy and useful frait gatherer. The claim of the inventor isa pole provided in its upper end with a notch, a ring mortised on one side in the notch and projected laterally from the pole he sides of the Oregon are additionally | od at one time the shots would weigh, | Her keel was laid in November, | T flexible chute attached at its upper end %0 the ring; a picking frame formed of a single length of wire having paraliel ver- | tically-disposed terminals arranged at op- | ar: posite sides of the pole and provided with studs embedded in the pole, the wire being continuously bent from the upper ends of the parallel terminals to form a series of connected V-shaped fiagers nged entirely inside of the ringand projectine a distance above and below if, the portions of the fingers above the ring serving as picking-fingers, and the por- tions below the ring ing to spread the | upper end of the chute; a manually-con- | at substantially right angles thereio; ui trolled cutter arranged on the upper end of the vole directly opposite the space between the paratlel terminals of the pick- ing frame.” —————— A dynamo engineer at Springfield, Mass., recently killed by the pass- age t his body of an. are-light current at a pressure of 2500 volts. The usual methods of resuscitation were used without avail. WHEN THE WORLD COMES T AN END. It May Happen by an En- counter With a Va- grant Comet. There May Be Sudden Changes in the Sun’s Veil, Which Would Burn Us Up. But the Most Likely Fate, Says Gar. rett P. Serviss, Is That of Freezing to Death. Will the world ever come to an ena? If so, when will its end be and in what manner will it be brought about? Will the earth be destroyed by fire or by frost, or how may it be expected to end ? Garrett P. Serviss answers these ques- tionsin an interesting way in the New York World. He says: ‘We can classify the possible accidents by which the heavens might be caused, in scriptural phrase, to ‘‘roll up as a scroll’’ and the ‘“‘earth to melt with fervent heat,” under three principal heads: X First—Encounters with comets. Second—Sudden changes in the sun. Third—Collisions with unknown bodies in space. As to encounters with comets, it should be said, in the first place, that the chance of such an accident occurring is exceed- ingly slight, notwithstanding the fact that comets come soaring into the solar system frov. every possible direction—from above and from below, from the east and from the west—having the most complets inde- pendence of those influences which. govern the direction or the motions of the planets. Yet, as a matter of fact, the earth has actually encountered at least t'wo comets, although in neither case was the meeting a direct collision involving the entire mass of the comet. One of these encounters took place in 1861, when a great comet swished its tail across tbe earth and the moon and there- by created a brief luminosity of the atmosphere at night witbout producing any other recognizable effect. The other instance occurred in 1872, when a part—how large a part we do not know—of Biela's comet met the earth at the crossing poiat of their orbits, and was burned in the upper air, producing a splendid display of fireballs, but doing no damage. Another form of calculation has shown that,.on the average, an encounter between the earth and a comet cannot occur mo than once in 15,000,000 vears. Only we have no means of telling when this pericd of 15,000,000 years began to run. The next species of accident to be con- sidered concerns what is going on in the sun itself. We know that the sun is a globe of matter, resembling the earth in the nature of its materials, but existing at such a temperature that its entire sub- stance must be in a gaseous state. That is to say, the sun contains such metals as iron and silver as well as such gases as hydrogen, but, owing to the tre- mendous heat, the iron and silver, as well as every other substance in the sun, are continually in the form of hot, glowing gases, and are never cool enough to assume the form of solid metallic masses which they take on in the earth, At the surface of this immense sphere of metallic gases, which constitutes the sun, and which is between 800,000 and 900,000 miles in diameter, there is a partial cool- ing and the gases are a little condensed and tend to form a vast, glaring shell of heated clouds, inclosing the blazing nucleus of the sun within. This cloudlike shell absorbs a portion of the radiation poured out from the interior of the sun and the effects of that absorp- tion are visible as black lines in the spec- trum of sunlight. A certain amount of the light and heat of the sun are thus cut off and does not reach the earth and the the other planets, as it would do but for the absorbing shell surrounding the sun. Thus we may say the sun wears a veil which renders its face less dazzling and its gush of heat less intense for us than they would be if the veil were removed. Now, looking among the other suns of space—the stars—we find some whose veils of metallic vapor are thinner than our sun’s and others which wear thicker veils than that which covers the face of our god of day. One great star, Arcturus, a sun probably hundreds and possibly thousands of times more powerful than ours, 18 fairly choked by the density of its absorbing envelope, or shell. Others still, like the wonderful variable star Mira, show by their changes that they are still further advanced toward extinction, but that they probably experience periodic outbursts during which, for a short time, they blaze forth with a thousand times the fervor and in- tensity of heat and light than that they ordinarily exhibit. The application of all this to our present discussion appears when we consider that the phenomena of sunspots, which at one time increases and at another time de- crease in size and number, indicate that our sun, too, is variable, and that although there is no human record of any alteration | without. | | | | | | | | Shaft for the Corner-Turning Elevator. would be a result of the onward move- ment of the solar system toward the northern quarter of the heavens. The movement is one of the most inter- esting discoveries in modern astronomy, and one of the least understood. Stated broadly, it amounts to this: That the sun, instead of standing still in space while the earth ana the other planets re- volve about it, is really in very rapid mo- tion from the south toward the north. The rate of this motion is not known with certainty, but there is good reason for thinking that it cannot be less than four or five hundred million miles in a year. Suppose we call it five hundred mil- lion miles; then it follows, since the earth must accompany the sun in its journey and partake of the motion described, that we are being hurried through space toward AN ELEVATOR THAT - TORNS THE CORNER. Two Tracks in the Well and a String of Cars. The Lift Takes You Upstairs and Then Down the Hal ways. A New York Device. Something entirely new in the sonstrue- tion of elevators was recently patented | by John R. Hamilton of New York. It comprises a system whereby there is a constant string of elevator cars up and down the same well, if needs be, each one working entirely in bharmony with the | others. The inventor, in describing his | elevator, says: “My improvement, while of very gen- | eral application, relates more especially | to an organization of passenger lifts for | lofty and capacious structures. I pro- vide a pair of vertical trackways, each furnished with a pair of guide-rails and with two pairs of racks. Of these | trackways one is used exclusively for up and the other for down travel. The | trackways communicate with each other at the top and the bottom, and the arrange- ment 1s such that a series of cars ascend- | ing in procession along the up track will be turned as they reach the top of | the up track and shunted over to | the upper part of the down track, while, when they successively reach the bottom, they are returned to the first track. Each car carries its own motor (electric), the gearing of which meshes with the racks in the elevator shafts. The cars are also so arranged and connected that they cannot approach each other near enough for collision, as upon such near approach they are automatically stopped by the making of an electric circuit, and only move again when the interval be- tween them is increased. Long-Distance Transmission. The telegraph line from New York to Niagara, which transmitted power for the electrical exposition model, was 465 miles long, with a resistance of ohms per mile. With a voltage of 450 volts at the Niagara end a current of 0.156 ampere was received in New York at a pressure of volts, aggregating 65.7 watts. @ THE MOST POPULAR INFANT INCUBATOR. Every Effort Made in France to Perfect Them. Used for Weakly Babes That Require an Artificial Atmosphere to Save Them. Baby incubators are a feature of a good many hospitals. They are an invention for the benefit of weakly infanis or for those imprudent young people who, ha\_r— ing been in too great haste to appear in this vale of tears, require an artificial at- mosphere to keep them alive. In France, where, apart from every other considera- tion, it is very important in the interest of the community that “all possible means should be taken for preserving the lives of every baby citizen, many efforts have been made to perfect the ‘‘couveuse pour en- fants.” Our illustration shows one of the latest of these efforts. It certainly looks as if the young person were having a toler- ably good time in the glass house which it shares only with our friend the ther- mometer, and periodically with a bottle of something good to drink. A Wave Power Prophecy. It would be safe to make a stuvendous prophecy for the people of 1950 to realize. 1t is that the- tides of the ocean on both sides of this continent will be used to transform power into electricity and send it half over the country to be utilized in manufacturing. Mechanicians have many atime remarked that if the power pro- duced by the rise and fall of the tides and the currents of rivers could only be util- ized there would. be enough to run all the factories in North America, with enough to spare to send a balloon Mars if there was any way of steering i there. Now scientific men have seri- ously set about experimenting with a view to getting hold of that power. Cer- tainly machinery can be invented in this age of mechanics that will turn wheels alike when the water of the tides rises and when it falls. It is only a question of time, and not so very longa time either, when this will be done. Every package of this popular dentifrice centains the north at the rate of more than a mil- lion and a quarter miles every day, or about fifteen miles in a second; that is, with seven or eight times the speed of a cannon-shot. Now, it is important to remember that while an enormous distance separates us from the nearest known star, yet we know very little of the contents of space between us and the stars. But every year we are learning more and more about dark and invisible stars. Those that have been dis- covered thus far are intimately associated with bright stars, and it is through the eftects of their attraction upon the bright stars near them that astronomers have become aware of their existence. They are frequently gigantic bodies, equal to or greater than the sun. The star called Algol, for instan ce, consists of such a couple, in which a bright star and a Garx one are linked together, and in this case the dark star is about as large as our sun, vet it gives forth not a ray of light, but un the contrary, when it comes between the bright star and our eyes, causes an eclipse of the former. This is only one instance among many. The most natural conclusion concerning these dark bodies is that they are extin- guished suns—suns which have run their course and perished. And, that being so, there is no apparent reason why they should not exist anywhere in space and singly as well as in combination with bright stars. Such a body, then, invisible with any in- strument yet devised, might exist in that partof space toward which we are moving. In fact its attraction mightbe one cause of the motion of tne solar system toward the north, though probably not the sole cause. A collision with such a body would be a far more serious thing than an encounter with a comet, because it would probably involve the whole earth in its destructive results. Supposing such a renconter to take place, it would probably be the sun, rather than the earth or any planet, that would bear the brunt of the actual collision. But that fact would not save us or help usin the least. The effect of the collision would pe to cause an outburst of heat from the sun great enough to turn all the oceans into steam, if it did not melt the rocks. Only a few years ago a most significant thing, bearing upon this very question, happened in the sky. A new star appeared in the consteilation Auriga. In a short time it was observea that the light of the new star, when examined with the spec- troscope, gave evidence of the existence there of at least two bodies moving in dii- ferent direct ions. One of these bodies was approaching the earth; the other was receding. One of them was so heated that its atmosphere, or whatever the envelope may be called that surrounded it, appeared as if on fire, and glowed with a more intense heat than that which prevailed in the interior. The other showed by its spectrum that while it was blazing with solar heat, yet like our sun it was hotter within than It had a shell of absoihing in the amount of the sun’s radiation suffi- | yapors surrounding 1t. cient to affect life on the earth, yet the example of other stars shows that such an alteration is possible. To be sure, it is not likely to come about suddenly, yet we cannot be absolutely cer- tain on that point. There is considerable historic evidence in favor of the view which some astronomers have adopted that the great star Sirius has, since the be- ginning of the Christian era, changed in color from red to white. Analogy would lead us to believe that such a change must imply an alteration in the spectrum of the star’s light, such as would be produced if the vast absorbing veil that covers the face of Arcturus were removed and that great sun permitted to send forth its tremendous radiant energy unimpeded. That thing happening to Arcturus would, I think, result in the de- struction of life on every planet circling its rays. Asto the probability of such an occur- rence—the chances for and against it—no data exist for making a calculation. The third form of aceident to which the earth might be subjected is collison with some unknown body in space. This case differs from that of an encounter with a comet, because the latter is an interloper wandering into the solar system, and gov- erned principally, when in our neigibor- hood, by the attraction of the sun, while an encounter with one or the huge invis- ible bodies which we have reason to think exist, more or less abundantly, in space After a few weeks minor outbursts of light suddenly appeared in the new star and then died away again, and one sug- gested explanation of these was that they were caused by the running down of plan- ets revolying around one of the suns that had been concerned in the original col- lision, and which planets had escaped the direct consequences of the encounter until the invader, which was darting across their system, met them and trod them down, so to speak, in its career of destruc- tion. Looking broadly at the whole subject, however, one is led to conclude that the most probable fate that awaits the earth is the fate of freezing. All the methods by which it has been imagined that Nature might perpetuate the existence of the sun are based upon unsound speculations. The present condition of the solar sys- tem is only a passing stage in its history, and it is certain that when the sun ceases toshine, or when it reaches such a stage as that represented by Mira, alternately blaz- ing with fiery intensity and then dying out almost to extinction, the earth as a habit- able world must come to an end. Barring accidents, then, the world has at least 5,000,000, and probably 10,000,000 years of life before it. And if an accident should oceur, such as a collision, astronomers have the means of giving warning; and even though a great invisible body should draw near, its attraction would betray it long in advance of an actual meeting. e liquid Sozodont daily powder twice you menion this publication and s nd three c City, Proprietors of Sozodont, NEW TO-DAY. Spaldin A large bottle of liquid Sozodont A box of Sozodont Powder A sample cake of Sozoderma Soap, for the : skin of liquid Sozodont by mail. provided Address Hari & RUCKEL, New York A sampl stage. s Glue and other well ions. RAILROAD TRAVEL] | BIG REDUCTION IN RATES Y RALL RO PORTL.ANID., OX. MONDAY...... __JUNE 22, | 1 ‘And Every Fifth Dav Thercafter. Leave from 8. P. Co.’s Ferry landing, {00t of Market st., at 8P, —Including Berth in - ist Sleeper. class toxets jrALS0: e | First-class tickets, including "berth 1n @7 (). PullmanStandard sleep;‘f 2 8102 SPECIAL NOTICE. | This train will 1ot stop to deliver or take on pas- sengers at intermed iate stations, nor will tickets ba sold or baggage checked to such points. Through Tickets for Puget Sound oints on Sale at Reduced Kates. For further information a . Pullman Tour. | at (Grana Hotel 613 MARKET STR. Tick i Francisco. RICHARD GRAY, T. H. GOODMAN, Gen. Tratlic'Mgr. Gen. Pass. Agt. SOUTHERN PACIFIC COMPANY. (PACIFIC SYSTEM.) to arrive at Y. #8:304 Peters and Milton 9:004 Los Angeles Express, Fresno, Sania. Barbara and Los Augeles. 004 Martinez and Stockton. 004 Vallejo. = 0P Niles, San Jose and Livermore 00r Sacramento Liver Steamer: 80p Port Costa and W: i 00p Martinez, 17:450 9:154 | Oroville and Sacra; 4:30r Niles, JSen Jose, Live Stockton .. 10:454 7:5p . 1143 | 4:80r Merced, Berenda, Raymond (for Yosemitc) and Fresno 5:00r Now Orleans Iixpress, & field, Santa Barbara, Deaie .08 Angele: | , El Paso, New Orleans an | . 10:154 | Ronte, ojave and Eas 17:00, i 7:000 Oregon 3 ville, Redding, Portland Sound and Tast TACH “Puget. . 10:454 reion, Fanta Cruz Station . i8:05e n.Jose, Felton, Ider Creek, Santa Cruzand Way Stations. 5:5 *+2:152 Nevark, Ce Almaden, | Benta Cruz a | ations ! §4:151 No s hif COAST SION (Third & Townsond 8 *G:AGA San Jose and Way Stations (New. Almaden Wednesdays only)......e 47:304 Sunday Excursion for San Jos Santa Cruz, Pacific Grove, an 9:474 Principal Way Station: % 8:334 San Jose, Tres Pi Dacilie Grove F.uis Obispo, ~xipal Way Stations {91474 Palo Alto and Way Staiion 0:404 San Jose and Way Statious. 11:304 Palo Alto and Way Stal *2:30r San Mateo, Menlo Park, Giiroy, Tres Pinos, Santa - Or Salinas, Monterey aud PacificGrove *3:30F San Jose, Pacific Grove and Way Stations P s 30r San Jose ail 33300 Sau Jos ita Cruz, Paso’ Robles, Sa iuadalupe and Prin- n Jose 50 San Jos and Wav Stations Melrose, Seminary Park, Fitchburg, San Leandro Q Haywards. © | § Runs through to Niles. Sp ) t From Niles. 1 lm CREEK ROUTE FERRY SAX PRAKIISCO—Foot of Market Street (Sl *7:16 9:00 11:00a.M. 1100 * *0:00e .. P for Afternoon. A for Morning. 1 Saturdays only Sundays excepted. Sundays : t Hondu.l’l':!m‘xm‘lini and é‘:‘;’:rdsu.n nigh ays & 3 Sundays and Mondays trom Santa Oris. | Te Chicago via A. | with the very latesi u SANFRANCISCO & ORTH P1- CIFIC RAILWAY €0, Tiburon Ferry—F ot of Market St. San Francisco to San Rafael. :80, 11:00 a.c; 1:30, 3:30, sco. 11:10 A, ae; 0, . 9:10, Saturdays—Extra tripg P. M. 5, 11:10 A M.; 1:40, 3:40, 5:00, L M. Between San Francisco and Schuetzen Park sama schedule as above. Leave Arrive San Francisco. | B San Franci Davs. | pavs. |Vestination.| ;ve | T v 8:40 axc 10410 axe 6:15 P 10:10 axg [ Hopland & 10:10 axc 30aM| Ukish. | 7:30 P 6:15 Px 10:10 asc 7:30 A Guerneville. | 7:30 ey 6:15 mxe 0 ax| Sonoma |10:40 Ax| 8:40 A 5:00 Py Glen 6:05 x| 6:15 pa TR0 aM o D st 10:10 Ax : 0 Sebastopol. 2 5:00 Py 10 6 nwood, Orr's Hot Sprin Fort Bragg, Westport, Usal velo, Laytonville, Harris, Scotia and Fureka. ets at reduged rates. On Sundays round-trip tic yond San Rafael at half r: Ticket Offi H. C. WHITING, ien. Manager. Atlantic AND Pacific RAILEROAD Trains leave from and arrive i Market-Street Ferry. ronlcle building, R. X. RYAN, Gen. Pass. Agenk. SANTA FE EXP & P. Direct Line ving Pullman pers to Chicago ‘Annex cars for Leaves every day at 5 P. M. Falace Sleepers and Tourist Slee via Kansas City without change. i ROUTE EXCUR- DAY for BOSTO o-date upholstered tourist icod agents, running BIONS leav T sleepers, in charge of through to destination. 5 The best railway from California to the East. New rails, new ties; no dust: interesting scenerys and good meals in Harvey dining-rooms. Ticket Office—644 Market Street, Chronicle Building. NI PAOFC (01T RALEOLD From San Francisco, Commencing jupe 15, 1896, WEEKDAYS, For Mill Valley and San Rafael —7:00, *8:00 o 10:15, 11:45, A. M.: ~1:45, 0, 4:15, 5 Ext el on Mondays, Wednes- ‘aays and Saturday. 1: 11:30 P. M. SUNDAYS. For Mill Valley and San Rafael—*8:00, *9:00, #10:00, . M. #%12:30, £1:30, #2:15, #4:00, 5:30, 6:35, 8:30 P 3. Extra trip 10 Sausalitoa: 11:00 A. M. Trains marked * run to San Quentin. **12:30 P. M. does not run to Mill Valley THROUGH TRAINS. For Point Reyes ana way stations—8:00 A. 3. Saturdays: § a. sundars; 5:15 p, M. weekday For Foini Reves, Cazadero and way Stationye 8:00 A. 3. Sundays’ 1:45 v i NOTARY PUBLIC. CHABLES H. PHILLIPS, ATTORNEY-AT- law and Notary Public, 633 ket st., 0] Palace Hotel. Tel Realdance 163 Sl “Telophone, “Bias 2005 x