The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, January 24, 1897, Page 25

4 THE SAN FRANCISCU CALL, 9 2 SUNDAY, JANUARY 4, 1891. 25 N the general hospital at Vienna a re- ) m been made. It} tair people ‘ in tubs of ", many of them up to which is kept at pass a s have and full of interest. foris om any of the good things of they had, possibly asa result of en to waterasa last re- stained e unt h living, t 1 i : | e And ret c This jolly party was intent on a good | it so adapted is humanity to game of pinoc They were playing | | that contentment r with the re ple deck in vogue | spirit is compat tub e experts, and exhibited con- le finesse in their desperate deter- | ¢ cedent for this latter-day on to hang on to & jack of diamonds | 1d in ¢! the gueen of ade ne along te | obhical Dio, elp him count forty, or gamely letting er trick be taken, with the be- ling hope that the one ace needful to | make up the four and score a hundred would come in the next ar: The least careful of the quartet of card players was the jolly German fran, whose dimpled pink and white and fat bare arms and shoulders attracted more attention from the visitors than did the game. It| was evident that she was in more for the fun she could get out of it first to score a thousa points. cherished score was the number of hea 1ghs which she could evoke and join in. ery time it came her deal she would and sail cards 80 v that | tment v ad- where ter in the | did not injure use they make, having a neral induigence | the men smoked general preference was for kish tobacco. chibouques, as rted their tobacco-smoke he cigarette-smokers was a young nan, whose dark lustrous eyes black ha which rang re fea- | conspired against her com- to make beautiful. sian’s complexion detrimental, and in fact jer treatment for a humor of t and hope- exceedir v amphivi- devoted—it to were, n se Lere he heroisin vomun w hers who v bad had in resc had been for- were selfish and been a great iden old One member c last experien ced G pain and d br were 1 epth, ree months’ immer- | Night and Day, Up to Their Chins in Water, They Pass a Strange Though Not Colorless Existence A Happy Existence Night and Day in Tubs of Water. The young Austrian’s youth, perfect| health, vigor and determination to sur- vive had made it possible for the water | cure to save him. | Zolnay said in French, which he spoke | like an edncated Parisian: “Idonot think I am over tive or faint of beart, but I | grew to have such a terror of physical pain that my resolution gave way and 1] nerves that I fainted, but gradually I be- could not hear to have my wounds dressed. | came accustomed to the water, and now No lint could be made of such gossamer | its vielding softness seems like heaven in lightness nor oil of such smoothness be | the ireedom from pain which I sometimes found- that I could endure. The idea of | happily enjoy for longintervals. The in- being condemned to life in a tub was conveniences of this life in a tub seem odious, but it was that or death. My | greater than they really are. Itiswonder- first plunge so irritated my wounds and | ful how a man can get used to anything. Sometimes 1 feel ready to die of ennui; but, God willing, I shall be out of this in | & year, as new skin 1s beginning to grow and some other poor people must live here, until, as one did last month, they literally die in the tubs they have so long 1mhabited.” Zolnay was an ardent musician. student he had been a devoted pianist, but bud always played the violin, and | since his immersion has been able to use | his arms sufficiently to take up again his | beloved violin. He, without excuse, | Dlayec several selections when asked—| one exquisite one, solemn and tender, | irom Mozart, and some Hungarian music. He played qne waltz, and the German frau and one of the other pinochle play- ers—a German commercial traveler— waltzed in a sort of porpoise fashion, to the great amusement of every one. At 1o'clock in the afternoon lunclieon is served to the bathers. Their breakfast in most cases is very light cereals with fruit fignring]largely in the simple menu. Those whose ills are not incidental to the | quality of the biood enjoy coffee. The | luncheon was a more imposing affair. | | Its menu comprised about the dishes | which might be served at a good hotel, excepting that well-demonstrated rules for hygienic pabulum were observed. The | patients were unrestricted in their de-| sires excepting by the dictum of the doc- | tors and the limits of their private purse | The tables were flat boards laid across | the tops of the circular tubs. The boards | were neatly covered with white oilcloth. | | Light sour wines were in favor as bever- | ages, but these in most cases were con- siderably diluted, and it was noticeable | that the patients were inclined to drink a zood deal, to some extent as one is when | | in a Turkish bath. One of the trifling in- | cidents of life which it was demonstrated | coald be made unusually annoying under | | peculiar circumstances was when a bather | | | accidentally knocked nis salt-cellar into | his tub. He instantly disappeared be- | neath the surface and quickly recovered | the bottie; but most of his salt was in the | | tub in solution, the water having entered | the perforations of the salt-cellar’s metal top. One of the most inexplicable and inter- esting phases of tub-life to the visitor is the sleeping of patients. “Great heavens!” | said an American girl visitor, who was al- | most startled out of her propriety when | | this matter was referred to. “I didn’t | suppose for a moment that they sleptin there, too.” 5 | But they do. The faculty of going to sleep in the water is not inherent with bumanity. It can be acquired. The novice when he tries it is for several | nights a victim to wearisome insomnia, but at last tired nature acknowledzes her need of the sweet restorer, and the new bather succumbs, only to be suddenly iply a gedsend. THESE PEOPLE MUST LIVE AND ACTUALLY DIE IN TUBS startied out of his sleep by his head turn- ing a little and the water touching his mouth. The story has been printed that Benja- min Franklin, who, in his vouth, was fond of natatorial sporteé and accustomed to floating a great deal on his back, once fell asleep on the surface of still water, and so remained for perhaps an hour. Many constant bathers koow that they can easily reach the point of falling asleep while afloat, and even doze off into un- consciousness for a few moments, until the lapping of a wavelet on their lips sig- nals danger, with the result of a sudden awakening. The tub-dwellers have on the floor of their watery habitations a flexible wooden lattice, covered with blankets and sup- plied with rubber pillows. Thereon rests that trifling portion of the weight of the patient’s body that is not sustained by the water. At night when the few electric lights burn dim all issilent in the baths of Hebra save for an occasional suore, | stertorous breathing or the soft splash of the arm of an uneasy sleeper changing his or ber position. The effect of the unremitting soaking of the human body is manifested very mod- erately so far as concerns external and superficial appearances. Tne structire and organs of the body do not suffer or change. Even the skin shows small signs excepting upon the palms of the hands and soles of the feet. There the skin be- comes shriveled, puffed and bloodless like the hands. of a hard worked washer- woman. When pain is caused a little oil soon relieves it. In some cases about the arms and shoulders, where the skin is out of and inthe water alternately, the soak- ing produces a mild form of papular eczema. Three times daily in ordinary cases the whole contents of the tubs, which are copper lined, are changed, A small in- flowing stream of warm water suffices to maintain the temperature at from 95 to 97 degrees Fahrenheit. The surplus water runs off throngh an overflow pipe. The diseases am~nable to this treatment are chiefly those where there is a consid- erable loss of integument, asin distress- ing bedsores, forms of gangrene, univeral exfoliating pemphigns,extensive burns and wounds involving great loss of skin. The diseased part, through constant immer- sion, is relieved of the weight of the body, and frequent painful dressings can be ai pensed with. In the case of severe burns, such as the young hero Zolnay's, the tub life is sim- The sufferer in such a case cannot assume any position that does not cause unspeakable agony from the pressure upon the burned surface. The relief of the bath is so marked thatlives which otherwise would be lost because of shock and suffering are saved and health eventually restored. ‘When they die in the tub these suffer- ers can thank the Creator for the good thougbts of the ingenious inventors of the baths of Hebra, as they are called, who have by this simple use of water made | possible & new, long, comfortable and even bappy life, even though it be spentand sometimes ended in a tub, of some of Europe’s otherwise greatest suffere | TEN THOUSAND MILES This Wheelman Has Gompleted the Most Remarkable Series of Gentury Runs Between Set and Rise Optical lllusions in the Darkness hundred-mile runs were of riding 200 miles in a single | action of a day. i Manly has captured the century and Ross Manly’s Record-Ereaking Ride. I mileage medals offered by the Indiana Hardly a glimpse of daylight did | officers of the Century Riding Club. this strange cyclist catch. He made sixty- | Whiie the other severa! hundred contesi- five centnries at night, which is in itself | ants for these honors were sleeping and an astonishing performance, but it be- | dreaming of them this *owl rider” wa: comes all the more so when the factis | pedaling away and industriously piling experiences were many and often ex- citir & ideration that fourteen of | up the miles and centuries to his credit. | consciousness, scious condition, when the eyes were open | BY NIGHT | of Sun---Gurious | What makes his achievement all the | more int is the fact that e was | employed in b s during ten hours of | the day, and therefore had no chance to ride day. sleeping, that was quite a se matter. What few | winks he did calch were alter or before | his nightly runs. And here is a strange | fact. He slept at times on his wheel, he says. Not as one ordinarily sleeps, with | closed eyes and in a state of complete un- but more in a semi-con- yet saw practically nothing, and the feet | mechanically pushed the pedals around. His own story of his experiences is as fol- lows: I believe I am the only man in the world Who ever rode 10,066 miles at night within so short a space of time. My wheeling for the year, consisting of 219 days of actual riding, has just ended, and Iam happy to say that I have won the century and mileage medals offered by the Indiana officers of the Century Riding Cluh. “Dauring the day I was busy attending 10 business, from which I could not take the time to ide, 50 I was obliged to do my riding at night. 1soon became used to wheeling about in tbe darkness, and be- fore many nights I became so accustomed to it that I might almost say I preferred it to riding by daylight. “It certainly was novel in many respects, and it has been my experience that dark- ness is no bar to speed. On a road with which one is any way familiar and with ever so little moonlight I can ride as fast asT can during the day, and on several occasions I have during my experience as anight rider made a century in seven hours, which would as a rule be consid- ered excellent work by day. *One very peculiar thing in connection with night riding is that one experiences certain optical 1llusions which sometimes bave unique results. The most common of these illusions is the impression that one is constantly riding down hill. I have experienced it sooften that I know it well, and yet I often found myself apply- ing the brake to my machine when speed- ing along a road I knew, if I had thought about the matter, to be perfectly level. “At other times when on an unfamiliar road I have been thinking of something and on coming to a steep incline the machine would get away from me and get half way down the hill before I couid get control of it. This would be due to the fact that although I saw the incline Igave itno second thought, but set it down as the customary iliusion until I found my- self going down an actual hiil much too fast for safety or comfort. At other times I would find myself pedaling along mechanically, being practically asleep on my wheel, and yet having my eyes open and keeping my balauce on the wheel. “When there is no moon or it is cloudy, one has to keep a sharp lookout, or an uely fall is apt to result. During my experience in night riding I tried a dozen or moredifferent kinds of light but found none of them satisfactory. They eitner jar out when one is riding fast, or if they stay lighted, they oniy make tae road f which they cast a light. | “hiorses -invariably shy at the cycle lights at night, and after a number of trials, I found it much better to ride with- out any light and trust to quick eyes and | a good sense of hearing. “1 tried, of course, to take my runs in good weather, but sudden storms would | come np, and to be twenty or thirty miies | awsy from any shelter, on alonely country | road, at midnignt and get caught in a lively and fully developed thunder | shower, is not the pleasantest experience | in the world. I kave had many such experiences, and in a measure have got used to them, but with the rain beating down in torrents, the thunder booming overhead with a sound as if the very hills were being | toppled over one against the other, and Beside its towering height full-grown worst of all the lightning zigzaging about | men look like pigmies. Iis strengthr is so ones wheel, it is hardly a combination of | prodigious that it can only be understood circumstances which one would choose to | wh, is stated rhat it would require the encounter if given any voice in the matter. | combined strength of several regiments of “Not only were these sudden showers | men to hold th ron monster, once steam disagreeable in themselves, but, aside | wasup and the throttle thrown open. from the drenching, the rain would leave | This big engine was built for the Buf- the roads in such a muddy condition that| falo, Rochester and Pittsburg Railrcad getting home was the bardest kind of | and when in service will be what railroad Wwork. | men call-a “pusber.” “Dogs were another fruitful source of | There is a particularly heavy grade on annoyance to me during my night runs. | this line, in the coal regions’ near Mount They seemed to naturally infer that I had | Jewett, and it is here that the services of evil intentions upon the property of their | this giant engine will be required, to ‘nelp owners, and on more than one occasion I|the regular engines up the grade with had to stop, dismount and give battle xoilwded coal trains. % RE is a locomotive of such stu- pendous size as to at once rive 3 the attention of the world. It is fitly named “The Mastodon.” !t has just been Luilt and will be shortly placed in daily operation. 4 fect 81¢ inches gauge. The total wheel | | base of the engine is 20 feet 5 inches, which | | means that its wheels stand on a space | longer than the width of a fall city lot. | The driving-wheel base is 15 feet 6 inche | The total wheel base of engine and tend | is 52 fee: 9 inches, while the total length of engine and tender over ail is over 60 feet. This engine 1s a giant, and would in | carrying out the idea of symmetrical pro- | portion have been taller than it is but for | the numerous obstacles, like the roofs of tunnels and bridges, which a locomotive | while traveling is likely to encounter. Tt | |is cheaper to foreshorten the stacks of locomotives than to incur expense for ex- tra rockwork in tunneling and for build- | ing higher abutments and approaches for | wagon-road briages. The top of 139’ stack is 1414 feet from the tops of the rails,over which the mon- | ster runs. From the rails to the center of | most massive type. | driving-wheel outside of tbe tires is GIANT AMONG ENGINES 'The Greatest Sensation in the Railroad World--lts Water-Jank, Large Enough for a Swimming School, Holds 4500 Gallons, and It Weighs 174,000 Pounds and the working pressure carried is 180 pounds to the square inch. It takes considerable foom for the fires which convert the water into steam for 139. The inside of her great firebox is 9 feet 5 inches long and it is 3 feet 2 inches wide. The heating surface in the firebox is 186 square feet, while the graie surface is 29.7 square feet. The total heating surface is square feet. There isa brick arch on tubes and the grates are castiron and of the rocking variety. This engine has twelve wheels of the The diameter of a inches. The diameter and length of tha. journals is $}4x10 inches. The diamer of the engine tender-wheelis 28 inches, ana of the journals of the truck 5 inches. Both engine and tender wueels are of the Krupp variety and are steel- tired. New Monster Engine That Has Crzated a Sensation. some ugly canine, taking as a weapon the | This new grade conqueror's number is first club, fence rail or anything which I | 139 and as she stands in the Buifalo yards could lay my hands on. of the road she is constantly the center of “The owners always took the part of the | an admiring throng who never tire of dis- dog until after matters were explained, and £ the huge machine from all points then, with some flattering remark gener- | of view. aily to the effect that no‘one but a lunatic This same engine has since making its would go scorching about the country on | debut attractgd a great deal of attention a bicycle at midnight, would lead the dis- | in the railway world. appointed dog away, While I would con- | Charles E. Turner, the road’s superin- tinue on my way. tendent of motive power, has consider- “The particularly pleasant features of | able in the way of correspondence added night riding are the perfect rest and quiet | to his duties in replying to the flood of of the country, and when the moon is | queries which is diverted toward him by bright the light throws a weird aspect | the president and general manager who about the most ordinary object. The long | receive them. Some of the letters asking stretches of country road reach out far | about this monarch of all locomotives ahead irto the gloom of the night, while | used in pusher service go into minuie de- the cool breezes which always rise after | tail, and the Mogul’s preprietors begin to the set of sun make riding delightiul. think that all the roads In the country ©] think,” said Mr. Manly in conclusion, | having heavy grades and freight trafic “I may sately say that, all things con- | are going to get a Mogul like No. 139, sidered, I am an advocate of night bicycle No. 139 was constructed to use bitumin- riding.”” ous coal as fuel and to run on a wack of the boiler the distance is 8 feet 93¢ inches, | and when a man of ordinary heizht stands beside the engine the height looks even greater. i The boiler is of the type known to loco- motive-builders as the Belpaire Wagon- top. Itsdiameter at its smallest ring is 5 } feet 8 inches. Its crown is supported by | direct stays. The stay-bolts are 1 inch in | diameter and are spaced not over 414 inches from center to center. The whole | was made with most scrupnious care. ! A man crawling in the manhole ot the boiler would see what resembles a| glant mitrailleuse composed of 324 tubes 2 inches in diameter. Tte length of these tubes over the tubesheet is 12 feel.l 75-16 inches. The heating surface af- fected by the tubes amounts to 2120 square feet. | Powerful cylinders are those beside the Mogul’s boiler. The diameter of each is 21 inckes and the stroke 26 inches. TheJ viston-rods are each 4 inches in diameter, The tank is a level topped one, and is big enough to float a good-sized boat, or it would make an ideal swimming pool for the omnipresent small boy. When filled it holds 4500 gallons of water. ‘When the big Mogul climbs the grade for which it isintended the track inspec- tors and section bosses and gangs are likely to get some extra work in keeping the roadbed in order. The total weight of the engine which bears on'the drivers is 146,000 pounds. The total weight of the engine as ‘it is working orderis 174,000 pounds. The tendeér, when loaded with its black diamond fuel and water, weighs 85,000 pounds. When this weighty mass of metal and material gets going it will acquire a mo- mentum that will not be so easily inter- fered with and overcome. The type of brakes known as the New York have been adopted for No. 139 as most effective. The air brakes have been supplemented with band-wheel brakes of powerful leverage.