The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, April 14, 1901, Page 2

HE tock on the Golden Gate is to be broken and the key thrown away. The old cannons that have guarded Fort Point are being smashed into bits to go into the melting pot and be recast into plows and reapers. A wrecker has bought them all, in the tame way that he would buy the ma- chinery of & brewery or factory, an old re engine or any other old thing. The old brick fort itself, our Alhambra, es it were, is to go too, but not in this story. A men who would buy a second-hand cennon would buy anything. You see, an old cannon is just as useless as an old ficor plate and less valuable, because the foor plate 4§ worth something to melt up for brass. The cannon is too big to melt; 1t will not go into the cupola furnace. It is also too big to use for an anchor, plledriver, hitching post or anything of that kind. That can be seen by its portrait. It is rge and clumsy. Some of those in ques- tion weighed 45,00 pounds. Twenty-five lons of castiron, all in one chunk—enough metal in one of them, if divided into proper-sized pleces, to simultaneously knock every man, woman and child in Dakland & deadly blow upon the head. You say, perhaps, “Why not break it up tnd then melt 1t?” That is just the trouble. It was par- Hoularly meant and made not.to be broken. Several men have found that sut already. It happens in this way: When your Uncle Samuel has any old ordnance to sell he dazzles the imagina- tions of the iron buyers by sending out carefully prepared circulars stating how many million pounds of nice homogeneous tastiron there is in the lot. Then some would-be foundry purveyor aibbles, bites and takes the bait. The iron is there. He makes some yreat preparations to do smashing work, ets fiy at of the cannons and then looks &s surprised and pained as though be had hit his thumb instead. The gannon is there vet, laughing at him. It is like the time that the Apaches stole the paymaster's safe. They drag- | ged it to a secluded spot, pounded it with sledgehammers until it looked like & plece of repousse work and their hands were blistered as badly as those of the ws in corn hoeing season. » they built a fire around it that made things look as though a volcano had vroken loose, and punched and pried at ‘he red-hot safe with crowbars, Jext the chief got an idea and had the | rest of the Indians draw the safe to the | sdge of a 160-foot cliff which bad sev- eral acres of smooth hard rock at the bot- It made an awful crash. rushed to the bottom and found ali of the none afe in the safe. Disgusted, they tumbled it into the river 10 avoid further temptation and work, and when »ost armorer had two days’ hard labor s all good iron, a hill of clay y ali good aluminum, and I would soon think of buying a sécond- sand hill to get the aluminum out of ft o try to get the iron out of a can- one man who had bought a yard full of monster guns at the wrsenal He had spent six weeks trying to break 3p one of them, and spoke from experi- ence. The Indians | the soldiers finally recovered it the | RURSTING A TWENTYFIVE Tox “Smash a cannon easy tumbler, all to’bits, too. “How? “Just you listen and T'll tell y said the man who does it. “If I didn't bust these cannons they’d bust me. Now, when I bought them I had an iGea in my head. I got it In this wav: When I'was a boy T was always doing something new and queer just to see what would happen. “One of my experiments was pouring water in a shotgun. I put in a cartridge loaded with smokeless powder and then filled the gun to the muzzle with water. “I thought I would fire off a whole rain- storm. “The result wasn't what I expected. When the noise got out of my ears and eyes I found I had the stock of the gun left all right, and I didn’t seem to be out of existence myself, but the gun barrel weas. That was the way I learned to break cannons. “Now there are a lot of fellows who have bought cannons from the Govern- ment and they’ll be Interested in reading this because they've got the guns yet. Good and sound, too. “This is my recipe for a cannon smash: “Take one twenty-five-ton cannon, set on end, muzzle up, fill to the brim with clear, cold water, stuff with waterproofed dynamite cartridges and explode by elec- tric wires. *“The water will not have time to get out of the way until the thing is all over, and in the meantime the cannon will sim- ply have to make room for the very ex- pansive and instantaneous policy of the dynamite. It goes in small pleces, too, for as the pressure of fluids is equal in ‘every direction, the water itself incompressible and the force of the dynamite irresistible, as a glass L e e e e e S T e e e e PECULIAR PLANTS WHOSE ONE OBJECT IN LIFE IS TO CATCH AND EAT |N6E(T6 | ‘ EARLY everybody has read or | H heard of the Venus fly-trap—the Dionaea muscipula of - sclentific botany—and of the extraordinary sensitiveness of its leaves, so delicately | constructed that if a fly or insect lights | upon one the leaf closes upon iiself and | so imprisons the‘unhappy Insect, killing | and actually eating it, for that the insect | really nourishes the plant has been shown | by comparative study; deprived of its in- | sect food, it fails always to umn its best development. The Venus fiy-trap is only one out.of & number of insectivorqus plants, a .cares | ful study of which has been made recentdy Fowler, professor of botany in College, Onzerio, and which re- celve even more practical {llustration in | one of the most interesting, from a pop- ular point of view, of the many cases of glass flowers in the Ware colléction of Harvard University in Cambridge. This collection, the only one of its kind in ths | world, is, as is known to most visitors to Cambridge, the work of the famous Blaschka family, father and son. It was begun at the suggestion cf Dr. Goodale of the university, to whom it first occurred that the skill of these remarkable artists could be applied as well to flowers as to the models of marine invertebrates whicn they were then, in 18%, making for the museums of Eurove, ind secured to Har- vard, through the generosity of Mrs. Eiiz- abeth Ware and Miss Mary L. Ware of the only possible yielding can be on the part of the cannori Dismounting and removing the guns from tke old fort marks the end of the plcturesque in war, the age of black pow- der, brick forts and castiron cannons. Rifled steel breech-loaders, using power- ful smokeless powder, and mounted in open .earthworks, are.now the only de- fense. Just back of the new battery on the cllfl is an cbject lesson in the danger of castiron guns, It s an old twenty-four-pounder fleld plece, with the enfire breech blown off by a charge of modern powder. Three mén were killed by that blow and there is alws ome such danger with a castiron guns. That is one of the reasons why the present batch of cannons were cleared out at a rummage sale, to be broken to bits. They were thought good guns in their good old days. They made more noise than a thunder storm and more smoke than a burning hay stack. They were handy if ships came up alongside, but bashful about long-range work. Som¢ of them were made as early as 1837, others, the larger ones, were cast in the sixties. At that time spherical shot were used, and the only way to get car- rying power was by increasing the diam- eter. So these cannons with a range of less than three miles have a muzszle area larger by half than that of the Oregon's big turret guns. Iron was iron in those days, and these. monumental pleces of ordnance must have cost a barrel of money to make. That may-be estimated from the price of some of the old spherical shells for the Boston. The collection, growing with each succecding vear, is ‘ntended to represent the relations of the varioys flowering plants of North America; and one-quartér of a large case is now devoted to a typical collection of insectivorous plants. The specimens represent neariy all such plants in the United States, and are modeled with a delicacy and truth to life which is almost incredible to the one who has not seen them. These insectivorous piants are intec- esting as an illustration of the scientific fact that between the animal and vege- table kingdoms there is really more in common than is generally supposed; their insect food, although the fact was for a long time unrecognized, is now known to be a necessary part of tkeir life. The bladderwort, for example, of whicn 2 model is shown at Harvard, is familiar to frequenters of ponds and slow streams from Newfoundland to Texas, and is now known 1{o use ‘he small blallers, from which it derives its name, for an- other purpose than that of floating it- self to the surface of the water in which it lives. The little bladders, common to the inland common bladderwort and the purple bladderwort—which last is gener- ally found near the coast and is recog- nizable by its solitary purple flower—ars also traps for insects, in principle not un- like the common form of mousetrap. Each bladder has an opening large enough to admit the small insects, often invisible to THE SUNDAY CALL ODMAN SUN, TAKEN AT INSTANT oF EXPLOSION mm:mm‘x T AND x A FEW BVRITED 'B\Tb fifteen-inch guns. and cost $30 each. These shells were piled like pumpkins about the fort and now'go to the blast furnace along with the cannon. Every floor of the three storles of the fort was packed with guns, placed as close together as possible, allowing room to handle them. On the roof was a dou- ble tier of smaller cannon and mortars, making four stories in all. To get them out was a regular housemover’s plece of work. . They were lowered from their places as a house would be conveyed on rollers to a sand bar under the bluff, about a quarter of a mile within the Golden Gate. 3 Here . they were, when purchased by Herman White, a half acre of them, dis- graced, dismounted, wallowing like black pigs In the beach sand. Punning upon his name and presuming upon what troubles were in store for any person who bought second-hand cannon as a speculation, the men who knew all about it by having been there before, called them the “White"” elephants. But it was only an fllustration of the new theory that too much experience is bad for the intelligence. White elephants they would have proven if the bursting experi- ment had failed. It was a success, however, and the re- sult is that Mr. White has considerably They were cast in 1812 the naked eye, that inhabit the same water, but the victim, once entered, finds it impossible to return, since a small valve opening only inward and therefore easily passed in entering, n>w debars him from escape. The insect is therefore in the position of the mouse who has passed the entrance of a mousetrap, and finds on turning that the door is shut close behind him. The principle upon which the bladder- wort catches its prey is only less inter- esting than the means by which the vie- tim is converted into a food product to its captor. The interior of the little blad- der absorbs the decomposed body of the insect much as a human stomach absorbs food, although the action is slower and the plant more nearly comparable to a tiny boa constrictor slowly digesting the meal that he has gluttonously swallowed at a gulp. To be exact, however, the di- gestion of the plant is even slower than that of a serpent, and a single fly will keep a Venus Flytrap busy nearly a month at.a time. It is interesting to know also that in the case of the Venus Flytrap, which, unlike the bladderwort, secretes an acid fluid that alds the decomposition of its victim, the leaf on opening is found to have Jost its treacherous sensitiveness; this, however, soon returns. Yet if the leaf has been forced to close over some object that cannot nourish the plant, such as a particle of earth placed on it for the ralsed the value of old cannons by de- monstrating how they may be prepared for the iron market. A pit was dug some ten feet deep and twenty feet in diameter. This was lined around with cannons set on end, as shown in the photograph. This was for the pur- pose of preventing the walls of the pit from being Wown to pleces and loss of iron from being driven into the earsh. A derrick capable of handling the heav- iest guns was set by the pit, with a steam hoist to operate it. It was an exciting time for the cannon wrecker when he swung the first gun into the pit. It was carefully moved to place and then dropped suddenly to plant its lower end firmly in the clay, so that it would retain its upright position. A hose was run from a steam pump and, the vent hole of the cannon having been plugged, the bore of the gun was filled with water. A rod the length of the bore of the can- non was then taken and around it were tled sticks of glant powder in thick bunches at the bottom, where the gun was nearly five feet in diameter. Up to- sake of experiment, it remains closed no longer than twenty-four hours, and upon opening is still sensitive and immediately ready for its delayed meal, The Sarracenia purpurea, found often in the month of June in peat bogs, from New England to Minnesota, Northeast Towa and southward, east of the Alle- ghanles, is knowr commonly as the side saddle flower, huntsman’s cup. The latter names are more descrintive of its appearance, and it is difficult, indeed, to see any resem- blance in its purple flower and pitcher- shaped green leaves to anything nearer a side saddle than the pillions of our an- cestors. But whatever name it is called, it is a notable example of the carnivo- rous plants and is represented by a strik- ing model in the Harvard collection. It carries on its operations, however, on a larger scale than most, -deriving, like others of its hungry family, a portion of its nourishment from the larger flying as well as creeping insects. The Blaschka model shows a curious leaf stalk forma- tion which furnishes the trap, often in natural specimens found half full of wat- er and dead insects. The snare is more subtle than the bladderwort's in that the entrance to the trap is larger, the exit apparently unimpeded, and the plant se- cretes a sweet liquid which serves as a bait. The victim dles or crawls down- ward into a huge tunnel, then, turning, finds it impossible to escape, for the in- the pitcher plant or the _ THE SUNNERD FAREWEL! ward the muzzle, where the barrel was thinaer, less powder was used. The last cartridge was pinned with an electric de- tonator, the concussion of its explosion being sufficient to fire all of the cartridges even when they were submerged. The rod with its attached powder charges was then lowered into- the gun full of water, The ‘electric wires, which had been pre- viously lald to a polnt a hundred feet away behind an angle of the bluft, were now connected, and when all was clear the firing dynamo sent the current through the primer. The result of the discharge was not much noise but a vast cloud of steam from the vaporized water and fumes of the powder, together with a small shower of iron hafl in the immediate vicinity of the pit. Breathless, the experimenters rushed to the pit's edge, and as the steam and pow- der smoke cleared away there was re- vealed nothirix of the massive piece of ordnance but a pile of bright shining metal in pleces so small that any of them could be lifted by two men; a nece ary ner surface which he has just travele so easlly is covered with minute hairs pointing downward, and either to walk | or fly against them is Impossible. The | further history of the victim is similar to that of the smaller insects in the blad- der prison of the utricularia; it is decom. posed, absorbed and finally digested by | the treacherous pitcher plant. The old-time practice of catching birds with limed twigs was carried on even earlier by another of the plants modeled by the Blaschkas. This is the drosera, found In peat bogs from Labrador to Min- nesota and southward. It sefs no such complicated trap as does the bladderwort or the pitcher plant, but depends upon a clear glutinous fluid secreted by its leaves and on an action.of these leaves some- what similar to those of the Venus Fly- trap. The secretion has obtained for it the fanciful name of “sundew,” but the fusect 1s unfortunate that attempts any but a visual acquaintance. The glue holds it as the limed twig the bird and the struggles of the captive set in operation a number of fibrous tentacles on the leaves that finally envelop and digest it. To this plant the common round leaved sundew (Drosera rotundifioria), which is found also in the bogs near London, Mr. Darwin devoted nearly half of his book upon the insect-eating plants, and it is therefore Included with special appropria- ateness in such a typlca.l collectlon as that | creased by nearly 30 per cent~the at Harvard, requirement for the foumdry blast fur- naces. Thus in an hour's time = result had been obtained which equaled months of work by the old method. That was to drill rows of holes in the gun a few inches apart and running from breech to musale. Steel wedges were then inserted In each one of the holes and driven, one after an- other, by men with sledges until & crack started. This was opened up by slow and continuous wedging, and each row of holes so treated In turn, by which means the massive casting was finally split into a number of longitudinal sections, which were still too large for handling and ve- quired sawing. It was a great invention, that of the New England Yankes who took s ocon- tract smashing up hollow iron shells and then executed it by fliling them . with water and letting jack frost do the break- ing. But Herman White, a California boy, does not have to walit for frost, and bursts cannons which would not be feased by frappeing. An interesting variation of the gum- blasting was tried by putting in the same blast without water tamping. The result was lots of noise and a cloud of amoke shot to a tremendous distance in the alr, but the gun was not injured. In all over 220 great guns have been blown up, the aggregate weight of metal being more than two thousand tons. Cannons as monumental curiosities wil soon be at a premium. Some years ago these same. canflons were offered for sale, and no bidder was found who would give more than a dollar a ton for them. The result of Mr. White’s Invention has therefore enabled the Government to come out mary thousands of dollars ahead. It is sald that he first got his e for mechanical operations by start- 2 in as a boy to dissect his watch and Then he went in for steam and elec- trical toys. Launches and engines were his amusements as he grew up. It was play for him to take an old wagon and engine and unite them in a moving, breathing automebtle. His play as 2 boy became his business as a man, and now he is ready to convert a useless anything into a useful some- thing. He buys Uncle Sam's cannons of the civil war, and, presto! bang! they are ready to be cast into reapers for the farmer, or parts for the battleships that grow in San Francisco's new shipyards. —————— In New South Wales the number of sheep has shrunk from 61,331.416 in 1891 to 35,782,622 in 1899. In nine years, by natural growth, the sheep of the colony might have been expected to have increased 100 per cent. Instead of this, they have de- but of drought, -