The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, April 4, 1897, Page 19

SAN ffiAchéco, SUNDAY MORNING, - Call APRIL 4, 1897. binks that he has discovered the sanical “why”” for gravitation; whose existence Sir Isaac New- ceded and at the same time con- fessed that he could not find it. M Houghan has been working over the nrobiem for forty years, and he now be- lieves that he Ras solved it and that suc- cesd has ally crowned his labors. The scientist was visited in his home across the bay by & SUNDAY CALL report to whom he talked mest interestingly con- cerning his supposed discovery of a new principle in mechan: cience. ““After forty vears of experimenting a 3 me wi study,” Houghan, *I claim to have discovered the mechanical and mathematical principles in which elec- t ty, heat and other forces matter, both miatcrialized and etherealized operate to produce many of the phenomena that we see in nature as we call i as T be- lieve there is an economic value in my discovery I can only give you some of the cardinal points leading up to it at present “When Newton picked out the Latin words, ‘centrum peto and centrum fueo,’ out of wrich he coin the two English words centripetal and cent; o the fugal and ap- piied them as nar t¥o motions or fo which he claimed to have d covered and explained that always exist in a t revolving on an axis, he as- rearth was endowed ame condition of force and mo- 1 as he found that the centrifugal rom the center at a right angle adia of tnat center, he found that to be in harmony with world- d then claimed to have dis- t be called the law of gravi- ateract bis other force— a law that ciotbes matter with ywerof acting at a distance, although ted that he believed that there echanical ‘why’ for gravitation, ¢ be cou!d not tind it and only claimed edit of discovering the mathematical The mechanical ‘why’ is what I im to have discovered, and I do not im it as a theory alone. sumed at once that o wita the “I would not give a fig for any man’s | theory or a cent for my own if I had one if I did not have something tangible be- indit. I claim in describing it I can liy demonstrate, mechanically te and mathematicallv prove it. 10 I should go into-my mill to put in me sdditional machinery and 1 should ruhning the wrong way to suit the new pulleys, what would I do? Reverse the engine and sbafiing? By no means. I would cross the belt and the new pulley would run the right way. Now, that is just what nature does. She crosses her Le'ts. But one may s: hat there is no such thing as a visible tangible pelt in the nebular hypothesis. I grant it; but what is the operation of a visible tangible belt? Nothing but force operating the Linés of least resistance on 4 that some of the old pulleys were | belt, and that 1s what electricity | and'all other forces in nature do; always | act on the lines of least resistance within | the form and substance of whatever they are acting 1n, and the forces in their op- | erations in nature as we call it, cross these lines of least resistance and the sci- | entist has never been able to explain their mechanism. They point out the many crossed lines in physical geogra- phy, and the crossing of the nerves as they pass from the spinal cord to the brain at the medulla oblongata, the motor optic and nearly all the nerves of the human and animal body on which flow the nervous fluid, but they huve never boen able to explain the mathematical and mechanical operation of these sys- | tems of vibratory energy, and like our | earth, the cyclone, waterspout, the shot | falling from the shot-tower, hail, rain and many otker sysiems of enersy that scem | be able to explain! | "“The explanation carries with it no | puzzle or seemin inconsistencies, as there |is in some of Newton’s theories. Take | one of his theories that space has three | dimensions, then just consider a body of | matter like our earth, 8000 miles through, | with all its mountain ranges and inequal- | ities, with free access to this space revolv- | | ing upon but one axis, what is there to | keep it from deviating or turning on some | | other axis, and if it should what is there | 10 stop it or bring it back? Within the | last few years 1 have read a number of | pamphlets from different authors wherein | they claim tnat there is the fourth aimen- sion to space, and our failure to compre- | hend itis the cause of our ignorance of the mechanism of the universe. Now, 1 deny that there is any such thing as dimension to space. What we | catl apace is a condition between forms, | and is notan entity, and has no existence | in fact, and you cannot give dimensions | toa non-existing nothing. What seems | to designate to us the condition we call isplce 18 nothing but the principles that | govern the possibilities and impossibili- ties of the vibratory energy of the avsolute | of the form, togsther with the joint proa- uct of that vibratory energy governed by | all the possibilities and impossibilities of | the mation of the form itselt. | “The reason why, as I claim, 1hat there 1 is stability apparent in our planet, is that | the motion that we see is the elusive mo- tion of form, that is, the combined prod- uct of the invisible mathematical mechan- | icaliy organized systems of the vibratory | energy of the absoiute of matter or t.e | mathematically arranged units of form, | “In asystem thatI can show is a spon- | taneity in nature wherein all the systems so arranged themseives as in the snow- | flake that the vibratory energy is con- stantly recurring back to itself or back to | first primary motion, so that when the | system is once created, like a waterspout over the ocean, for instance, every system a puzzle to them—that is what I claim to H.D. HOUGHAN of Oskland | within the form and substance of the (of vibratory enercy embodies within itself | both cause and effect, for the kinetic en- | ergy of each system is so utilized by cross- | ing the lines of least resistance, that ali the generative forces in the form are turned in upon itself, and create a pres- sure toward a common center. I can show that that system is in harmony with world building without the invention of any law of gravitation or any other law separate from matter or force, for a law is nothing and does nothing. “Laws do not execule themselves. It takes force to create motion. “To show how easily Newtc. might bave been deceived I will illustrate. I will | place you ina boat with a man rowing | you due west. You know the bost is going west; you see the man rowing you west at the same time that a wind is | blowing you due morth. You know | tne boat is going north. You feel the | wind blow:ng you north. Now yeur julgment and understanding, governed by your reasoning faculties, tell you that the 1 | whose existence Newion conceded with its identity. H. D, HOUGHAN, SCIENTIST, OF OAKLAND. | This discoverer claims that he bas found the mechanical *Why ?” of gravitation, boat cannot go north and west at the | same tiwe in separate paths; that the | two systems of vibratory energy, created | within the form and substance of the boat by the two forces, the man and the | the wind, impei the boat 1o form s re- | sultant motion, and grant, for this illus- | tration, that the force of the wina was equal to the force of the man, that re- sultant motion would be due northwest. ““Now suppose you could not see the man nor feel the wind and the existence of those two separate and distinct causes were unknown to you and couid not be recognized by any of yonr senses or modes of observation, what would you say was the cause of the motion of the boat north- west which you could sge 2 Would you | say, as Newton did abcut that apple. that there was something in the northwest that | attracted it ? “You see in this illustration out of the | many possible motions of the form of the | boat I have only employed two, and out of the possible number of systems of vi- | the confession that he could not establish | tion and that vibration was within the | is but one condition, or system of vibra- bratory energy that could be created with- in the form and substance of the boat by force I have only employed two. “Now I want to say about Newton’s ap- ple that the apple before it fell from the tree was fulfilling all the possibilities of | motion and vibration and was only a part of a system the forces of which zre so mechanically and mathematicaliy ar- ranged that the system controls and utilizes all of the centrifugal and kinetic energies in such a way as to recur them back to the system and create a motion and pressure, and when the ap- ple fell it was obeying a force and not a law, and that forca was a product of vibra- i substance of the apple and not ourside of t. Nature never gets outside of itself. If t could Newton might put his centrifugal force where nature could not handle it. “If you are a contractor ard [ give you a job tolay a stone sidewalk, about the first question you will ask is, what shape do I want the block put down in. I will tell you that there are but three shapes that will fita superficial area without in- terstices between, and they are the eqni- lateral triangle, the hexagon and square. You may make forms all your life and make untold millions of them, but you never can make forms that will fit a super- ficial area without leaving interstices be- tween but the three, but all the millions that you could make only equal the three, for the three embody all their Iines. And 80 it is with the solid figures. There are but five solid figures that can have an equal mathematical and mechanical divis- | ion with a common center, and they are called the platonic figures, after Plato, | who discovered them. Now you may | make untold millions of solid firures, but you can never make one that can have a mathematical division with a common center but the five, and all the miliions | thatyou can make will only equal the five, for they embody all their lines. “So to with the principles of vibration and life that run this universe. There are | millions of conditions of vibration, as many as there are forms in it, or as many as ail the forms you can create, but there tion, and life, wherein the vibration re. curs back to first cause, or primary mo- tion; but all the millions of conditions of vibration that you can create only equal the “Gne, for the one embodies all the others. Nature never gets outside of itself. And this recurrence of the vital force of life back to the system of life, as I can show, 18 what caused the thud or pulse in the human and animal system or body, and that ever-present pulse can be aetected in every and all forms or organ- | ized life, even back to the protoplasm; and not only in organized life, but in or- ganized force or energy, as in the gal- vanic battery, the waterspout, thunder cloud or storm, and even in the lines of force in the stationary magnet. The ever- present pulse can be detected, and s0 1t is NE | if you had never been undeceived e from the planet on which we live down to the smallest organization of life or force within its grasp. “*‘Some scientists tell us that evolution is a spontaneous change from a uniform struciure, or a change from a homogene- | ous to a heterogeneous condition. Now what I claim is that the spontaneity is in the uniformity and not in the change; thai the chanse is caused by the environ- ments, What makes ii seem to usasa spontaneity is because the environments are ever present within the uniformity of the structure of the vibratory system that runs the planeton which we live and holds in its grasp ail forms that can evolute and binds them within some kind of en- vironment. “The most discouraging part of the work of a student is seeking the truth. After finding something that he thought real he finds that it was only an illusion, and that the real is still further away, and after he has followed his investigations for a lifetime and cleared away illusion after illusion irom his bewildered senses he fails back upon his reasoning faculties and asks himself the question: Is there an absolute reality within and beyond the reach of human ken, and if there is, is all this side of it a world of illusion ? *‘To show you what I mean by illusion I will iliustrate. balis on the arms of a four-foot wheel and give that wheel a certain revolution and it I will place eight cannon | VTON . knowable thing a name gives us no addls tional knowledge of what it is. “I see that lamppost there, and why do Iseeit? Isee it because there isan in- tervening medium between me and the post and the form of that post is vibrating | through that medium on to the retina of my eye, thence across the optic nerve to my brain and makes me cognizant of the fact that the post is there; but if you could take away the intervening medium and create an absolute void between me and the post I never wou!d kunow that the post was there. How many intervening mediums exist between our senses and forms wedo not know. Between the hard- est sieel and the X ray there are many. How many beyond the X ray no ian can answer. “‘What I claim is that there is the last intervening medium, the absolute of form or what we call matter; the absolute re- ality of this universe can act as an inter- vening medium between all the forms it creaies and the human mind, but there is nothing to act as an intervening medium between itself and the human mind. Any 2ross substance cannot act, and a more etherealized or spiritual substance there is noue. Iclaim that no human being will ever know what the absolute reality is; that there always will be an empty void between them, but what it does and how | it does it is a problem that can be solved by the human mind. “You a<k me what itis? I answer it has will look to you like a solid iron rim or balance wheel, but you know it is not and why? Because you huve been undeceived. You have seen it stop and start, or seen some otier wheel stop and start, but you never would know but what this was a | solid iron wheel. All the knowledge that comes to you from the outside world comes to you through some of your five senses. Now there are four of your senses that have nothing to do with the analysis of that problem; you cannot smell it, you cannot taste it, you cannot hear it, you cannot feel it, and the only sense that you have left, your sight, is completely de- | ceived, and if you have never been un- deceived you never would know but what it was a solid iron rim. “Now, if eight cannon balls, large ob- jects that you can ordinarily see with the naked eye, are able to deceive the only sense you have that has anything to do with the problem, and make yon believe that a condition or form is an entity when 1t is not—make you believe that an illu- sion is a reality — how much easier is it for the indescribably small atoms that cannot be seen with the best micro- scope, with an inconceivable velocity, to deceive any and all your senses, ana make you think other things are real when they are not, but only the condition of some- thing that is real. ‘What the something is we do not know. Call it atoms, call it spirit, call it electricity, cali it force, call it mind, call it God; but calling an un- no is. What is it like? It Las no like. | But when you ask me what it does, I say | it does nothing only through form and in {form. That is what 1 claim to be able to | explain; that when it acts in form and | thrcugh form it acts mechanically and | mathematically, and in no other way. The Old-Time Fire. Talk erbout yer buildin’s That's all het up by steam; Give me the 0l oak fire Whar the old foiks uster dream. The rickety dog-irons— One-sided as couid be; The ashes banked with "taters— Roestin’ thar fer me! The dog on one side drowsin’ Or barkin’ nigh (he door; The kitten cuttin’ capers With the knittin® on the floor. An’ me alittle towhead By memmy's side st night, With both my cheeks a-burnin’ From the red flames leapin’ brightl These steam-het buildings make me Jest weary for the blaze That wuz heap more comfortable In childhood mights an’ days. An’ I'd give the finest heater Iu the buildin’s het by steam | . For the old-time chimbly corner Whar the old foiks uster to dream, —Atlanta Constitution, LE BT e There are twenty-three acres of land to every inhabitant of the gloce. 41'{}{ the roar and thunder of ma- { 2 chinery at work in and around {:\ Jobannesburg almost echoing ne's in ears, and still bearing with one a vivid impression of the enter- prise and capacity everywhere in evi- dence there, it is almost startling 1o be suddenly transi village-like capital of Republic, distant only thirty-two miles by road. Thestring of litile iron boxes on . wheels, which tue Netherlands Railway Company cails a train, is run np to the platform of the neat but not striking build- ings of the railway station at Pretoria. Outside the beloved bullock-wagons stand or slowly creak along tha road, which, at the time of my arrival, happened to be deepin mud and pools of water, due to some heavy rainfalls. The hotel omnibus rolled and swayed as it carried us down a tree-bordered road, passing a good many the South African cheap villas in course of erection, and | then between some low verandahed shops and dwellings, above the ignoble roofs of which there rose into view the mass of the new Government buildings, of no archi- tectural merit, but of imposing dimensions, surmounted by a figure said to represent Libérty. The pretentious Government buildings are curiously out of harmony With the character of the town, though there are several substantial buildings in the vicin- ity. The square in (ront, where stands the Reformed Duich Church—an edifice | in plasterers’ and carpenters’ Gothic—is not paved or macadamized, and presents an uneven muddy surface after rain, a| sample of trampied veldt. There is one sireet—Kerk s‘rect—with some rood shops and stores, generally with English names, and goods displayed with English descrip- tions, and I was struck by the amount of English I'heard spok ‘n there. The other streets are but partially if at all con- structed, preserving a rural appearance which sometimes sffords pretty glimpses. The departure of the President from the Government buildings in the afternoon is the occasion for a mild military dis- play. There are always policemen armed with rifles doing “sentry go” around the building, but when the nour approaches for the President to leave a little batch of mounted and armed volicemen is drawn up outside the rather stunted portico which is stuck on to the front of the building, where a brougham driven by a man in livery isin attend- ance. As the clock strikes the hour his Honor makes his appearance from the en- trance attired in a tall hat and long black coat. As soon as he is seated the brougham starts, and the little knot of at- tendant horsemen scatter suddenly around the vehicie, where sits the President with . his chin resting on his chest and his hands folded over the handle of his stick. As I witnessed this little bit of ceremony -for the first time it was easy to perceive that time had left its mark on the old red to the comparatively | INTERVIEW WITH man, whom I had seen last in 1881, when he was addressing the Boer forces en- camped over Laing’s Ner, after the pre- liminaries of peace and the independence | of the Transvaal had been arranged with ! the British. At that time Kruger was playing second fiddle, General | beinz the man of the honr. | " Onealternoon I had the honor of call- | ing upon President Kruger, accompanied by Mr. Weinthal, editor of the official Press of Pretor to introduce me. back from the fence bordering the side- walk, the President’s dwelling is a low- built house of the ordinary South African | type, shaded by tress and shrubs, growing | close up to the veranda. At the little | white gateposts lounged two policemen, | booted, spurred, armed with magazine rifles ana bandoliers, the uniform very | similar to that of the Cape Mounted Rifles. One of these men, facetiously imitat- ing “Mr. Punch’'s” squeak, accosted Joubert | , who courteously offered | Situated a few yards | my companion with an impudent familiarity hard to relish, and not par- ticularly edifying on the august threshold of the President's dwelling. Several | Dutchmen siood or sat about the steps aud seemed much amused at the mounte- bank sentry, some of them proving ac- duced me as the representative of the Daily Graphic, aad we exchanged hand- | shakes all round. One of the younger men received my greeting coldly and suspicions- ly, though bis elders were hearty in their salutations, especially a Mr. Malen, a pleasant type of the South African Datch- man, who invited me to take a seat on the bznch near him and entered into conver: sation Wwith my companion and myselt uuntil the President was at liberty to re- ceive us, which, however, was not very long, and we soon found ourselyes in a long room, comfortably furnished but dark, owing to the inadequate size of the windows. LlSTENlNGfi TO TH [From the London Graphic.] PRESIDENT KRUGER quaintanc:s af Mr. Weinthal, who intro- | | Ataround table with a colored cover, | whereon stood conspicuously among other | things & handsome silver-mounted to- | bacco box, sat President Kruger in a com- | fortable padded chair with a massive metal spittoon at his feet. He sat well | back, with his hands folaed over his chest. The light from the nearest window | touched picturesquely on one side of his large face, the ieatures of which were rather dimly discernible 1n the existing semi-obecurity. Three or four men, rela- tives, looking like decent farmers or | tradesmen, sat nearly opposite to the | President, who, after I had been intro- duced by Mr. Weinthal, offered me a bhand to suake, and immediately asked some question regarding my knowl- edge of Mr. Rhodes, which elicited a laugh from the admiring relative with whom I also exchanged handshakes. Mr. Kruger making noobjection I produced my sketch book and set to work to study his features in circumstances rather unfavor- CEFRFRL PRETORIA & E MODERN AT HIS able for drawing on account of the bad light, but most favorable for studying his manners and gestures as he entered into conversation with Mr. Weinthal. His fa- vorite attitude was that already described when we entered the room, but when he spoke a great change in Lis voice and manner took place; he sat forward, some- times roaring rather than speaking when apparently excited, and flourishing his arms vigorousiy—more especially his left, | for in the right hand he usually held a handsome pive. Part of the time he was smoking and would sit silent. Sometimes he would make a humorous remark, his face lighting up under the pleasing in- fluence. Once in a peculiarly abrupt manner, as be puffed out tobacco smoke, he remarked to me that “‘however much he was drawn he was slways the old Kruger,” the sally being received with much hilarity by the zelatives and, of course, by myself, who in the same spirit asked whether I should HOME AT make a noteof that fact under my draw- ing; but my small joke failed to reach the bumorous :ense either of Kruger or bis relative: ana that of a *‘Kooinek. Then the old man meditatively spatinto the spittoon and sat slowly back a Not being a *“Taal” scholar, for Mr. Kruger only spoke in Datch, I could not follow the details of the conversation between him and Mr. Wein- thalithatensued, but the latter enlightened me now and then when the President said anything importani—once he turned to me and said, “Do you hear that? Do you understand? The President says that ‘treaties with Germany only exist in the newspapers.’ "’ The President once grew very eloquent when Mr. Weinthal almost brought on a violent discussion by re- marking that the Roman Catholic Church of " these times 1s not what it was in the days of persecutions, for to put the case mildly Mr. Kruger is a religious fanatic with a great admiration expressed for Moses, the great leader of the Israelites. Behind him on a pedestal is a small copy of Michael Angelo’s cele- brated figure of Moses, but between that conception of the ancient prophet and his modern admirer it was difficult to find | points of outer resemblance. Once reference was made to Dr. Jame- son, and the news that he was ill was re- ceived with incredulity by the relatives who, in the course of conversation, never | let any sense of courtesy prevent them from making a liberal use of the offensive term “‘Rooinek’” when speaking of the British in the presence of a British visitor. Mr. Weinthal was still talking, and I, in- tent on noting down details in my sketch- book when a Government official was an- nounced and we withdrew with prompti- tude. dent, who sat like a sphinx, withouta word in reply to my farewell sentence, and. turning round, I had to penetrate & barricade of chairs left by the flight of the relatives, and so made my way to the stoop, where I almost ran against & pleasant-looking young fellow who was introduced as a son of | the President. The impression made upon me by this interview was that our Charge d’Affaires, Conynzham Greene, has indeed a difficult task before him, nct lesseued at the outset by the unwise action of a portion of the Kritish community that desired him to receive an address, worded in such a way that the acceptance of it would bave implied thatour diplo- matic representative came with hostile in- tentions to Pretoria, when there was really st rong eidence that our Government was still anxious to pursue a conciliatory policy in order to overcome the unfriendly attitude of the Transvaal Government, which alone has been at ths bottom of all the recent troubles. Ocean Steamships. The Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse of the who evidently make a proper | distinction between a Presidential joke | 1 again shook hands with the Presi- | PRETORIA wide and has a depth of 39 feet. The Cam-~ | pania and Lucania of the Cunard line are | each 620 feet long, 65.3 feet wide and 43 feet deep. The Kaiser Frederich of the | North German Lloyd is 600 feet long, 66 | feet wide and 38.6 feet deep. Proportioned | toits I-ngth a steamship is a little thicker than a lead pencil and a little thinner than a cigar. | Babies Who Are Regular Soldiers The oddest juvenile sight or series of spectacles may be found, not, ss some might suppose, in the more densely popu- | lated portions of San Francisco, but at the Presidio. For there are sawed-off sergeant- majors, singularly abbreviated copies of the men who march with glitter- ing batons at the heads of bands, ser- geants and corporals of the three branches of the service—artillery, cavalry and in- fantry. Itis a well-known fact that the United States does not pay muniticent salaries to | any of the military non-commissioned or private subordinates. On thecontrary, glory apart, they appear to be serving more for their health tian many other classes who depend upon stated stipends to meet their current expenses. Never- theless cupid finds them & fair mark and love burns as warmly and brightly in the barracks as elsewhere. Aftera time the men who are fayored by the officers may bring their wives and progeny to “‘soapsuds row,” which is the locality where the married privates and non-commissioned officers reside when at an army post. After a time the boys grow up to wear trousers and coat and | vest. Then it is that tue glory of military dress, stripes and possible chevrons, also, descend from sire to son with speed. The father’s trousers have to be cut down; ditto coats, and so on. The stripes on the trousers canuot well be removed, for if they were there would bs revealed unaer the stripes bright-colored | cloth which would coutrast with that | which has not been covered from the fad- ing effect of the sun’s hot rays. So the boys of the Presid io find them« selves involuntariiy cavalrymen, artile lerymen and infantry, according to the branch of the service in which their fa- thers serve. Very tender children some- times may be seen panoplied in the re- galia of war. “Snoot de cavalry!” says one. “Ah, gwan, shoct the artillery!” says another. They are the most unmilitary acting little fellows of any one who wears army cloth in Uncle Sam’s broad dominion. St Every bicyclist in France is compelled by law to have hisname and address en North German Lloya is @9 feet long, 66 his wheel, on a metallic plate. { i