The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, May 20, 1906, Page 4

— THE SAN FRANCISCO SUNDAY CAL America’s First Automobile Discovered by Paul Morton e 1n Tells How as a Boy He Played Around the team Wag’on His Fatherqs stories in Ame New York 1 otted by e next taken one of frontier State pon- n 1 re- from nd of a position that he remem- steam wag ted in transportation, I sent ng him to meghime and sc from Osborn for several being very busy, I forgot ntil one day I picked up & and read in glaring head- Dave Osborn Gets Drunk ** Osborn's explana was fairly well writ- sermonized on 2 moral life.” was the wer to the paragraph getting “drunk on Morton's stated that the check the benefits of and ‘@id not get s many a Weestern pienic. After ex- advantages of living a proceeded to t to Nebraska City in the —who manufactured it, its en- gineer, its object, purpose, etc. First— Brevet Major General Joseph R. Brown of the Sioux in Minnesota and Mankato, who, with chariah Taylor of the United States army, afterward major geeneral and later President of the United States . went to Minnesota to build or General J. R. Brown was ate to Congress from Min- nesota he came to New York in 1857 to John A. Reed's machine p. located where the Novelty Iron Works were, on the East River, near the big drydock Reed was at that time consulting engi- neer of New York City. The writer of this was his master mechanic and fore- man. We built a line of marine engines, among them the englnes of the ocean steamer Adriatic, of the historic E. K. Collins line, plying between New York and Liverpool. They were osclllating engines, compound duplex, of 2500 horse- power, consiuered wonders in those days. “‘General Brown conceived the idea of building a wagon or a road traction ve- hicle with oscillating engine to haul In- dian supplies from the river towns to the agency and ordered J. A. Reed to draw designs and specifications for the sald. steam .wagon. During the interval of construction Geneeral Brown went to the inaugural of President Buchanan, in 1857. While in Washington the Gen- eral succeeded In wire-working and ma- nipulating Congress, obtaining an appro- priation of $106,000 for bullding school- houses, churches, agricultural implements and other things I do not now remember, including a steam wagon to haul the supplies between Mankato and New Ulm, the- two agencles. This steam wagon .Y, A, Reed bullt in 1858, and I learned that it did make several trips between the agencies. Afterward the engine was utilized for running a grist mill. General J. R. Brown returned to New York City In 1860 and ordered Reed to bulld the second Improved steam wagon. It was named the ‘Prairle Motor' and cost $12,000. FEighteeen months’ time was allowed for building the wagon. “J. A. Reed gave me the drawings, with to construct the motor. General had opened correspondence with vour father, J. Sterling Morton, who sald there was & blg opening for hauling sup- plies aross the prairies to mining camps. Reed’s contract with General Brown was that he weuld accompany the steam wagon to Nebraska City and install it for 'a trip to Denver, Col, across the great plains. It should be remembered that there were then no Pacific raflroads. “That times marked the opening of our civil war. During the interval between 1860 and 1862 Reed contracted to bufld a United States gunboat of the Ericsson model—a moniter—and could not leave the city so under these circumstances the general released him, and the writer, a9 — L L [N 1 Plesand, [ Sre’ representing him, was ordered to take charge of the steam wagon and bring It to Nebraska City. “I left New York June 7, 1862. I steered the machine from the shops at East River along Twenty-third street to Madison avenue, thence across Fifth ave- nue and down to Eighteenth street, where we broke a wheel (the pavements in Fifth avenue in those days would break anything—a bank or a yoke of steers— and some of the old Fifth avenue paving stones are still exhibited as souvenirs in Brooklyn. “The event provea a sensatlon, and the Mayor—I think it was ¥Fernando Wood— served an injunction prohibiting us to run the wagon by daylight. It was a very huge affalr, I must confess, unsightly in appearane, and it naturally scared horses, even those not running away. “The driving wheels were ten feet in diameter, four feet taller than Abraham Lincoln, and the rims two feet wide. No wonder the vehicle darkened the streets sround - the old and stopped public traffic. The forward wheels were six feet high and eighteen inches wide. A seventy-two inch upright boiler, eighty-six inches long, connect2d with a water tank ten feet long and thir- ty inches in diameter, was secured to the boiler. “The forward end of the tank connect- ed with the forward axle,” which had a universal ball joint, allowing the wheels every kind of action in all directions. The tank held two thousand gallons. “The motive power of the machine was four ten-horse duplex oscillating engines, two engines to a driving wheel, so con- structed that one engine would hold the other over the center; and one independ- ent steam pump with a cab on top of the connecting tank, and platform with fire- box in the rear of the boilers—these were features of the machine that called out the Mayor and stopped business along Fifth avenue. The total weight of the automobile was twelve tons, about one- fifth the weight of the locomotive of that Stleam waday day. ‘“After making repairs on Fifth avenue I ran the machine by night to the Chris- topher-street ferry, which landed us in Hoboken. Thence it ran the engine in- der her own steam down Montgomery street to the New Jersey Central Rail- road, where we shipped .he steam wagon t ston. vur route to Nebraska was a the Reading ‘> Harrisburg, thence to Pittsburg by the Pennsylvania Central, thence to Chicago by the Fort Wayne, thence by the Burlinngton to Quincy, where we crossed the Mississippi by ferry and reached home by the way of It. Joe and the steamboat West Wind, which plied between Omaha and St. Joe fer years. I arrived in Ncoraska City on July 14, 1862, forty-three yedrs ago last July. “‘General Brown had accompanied me from Chicago and introduced me to you~ father, J. Sterling Morton. We left the wagon on the bluffs overlooking the city and the great winding Missouri River. ODIOUS QUARTERS#~JONAH. The National Museum has long desired posses for exhibition purposes the d the worid. This am- 1 has at last been gratified, and in ts gre Hall of Mammals in Washington & now on view a veritable sulphur bottom whale—its counterfeit presentment, that to s to say—exactly reproducing the origins which in life was ninety feet ong weighed thirty tons. counterfeit 1s a shell of papler- e, cast from moulds taken from the le when the latter had been newly d and towed for this purpose to Ba- ena Station, on the south coast of New- foundland. More than twenty barrels of aster of paris were used in making the ulds, which were shipped in sections to Washington, there to be employed in the production of the paper pulp replica, which was finished by painting it in close nitation of the beautiful dapple gray of the huge animal's coat Thus for the first time an opportunity is given to the public to look upon the most gigantic of existing creatures, compared with which the largest elephant is but a plgmy, and it is noticed that nine out of every ten persons who view the great whale make the remark that Jonah cer- tainl might have found ample accommoda- tion in the interior of such a monster. It is, indeed, undeniable, and one might €0 S0 far as to say that there would have been room enough in the cetacean's “midst” for Mrs. Jonah (If there was such a person) and quite a family of little Jonahs. One has only to figure on the matter a bit in order to perceive that the body cavity of a ninety-foot “sulphur bottom™ such as this one might afford quite satis- factory quarters for a gentleman of Jonah’s austere habits, with rooms ar- ranged en suite—a bedroom, dining-room and kitchen, say, with possibly a small bathroom in the rear. It would be rathe! compact, of course, but not more so than meny a modern flat. Besides, in this case the prophet was traveling—a whale of the epecies in question frequently covers sixty miles in an hour—and in such eircum- stances one is usually willing to make some temporary sacrifice of comfort. When poor Jumbo of cherished memory fell foul of a locomotive and was killed P. T. Barnum, his owner, with characteristic ingenuity, converted his precious remains into two Jumbos—one the skeleton and the other the stuffed hide of the original elephant In the case of this glant whale and 1ts skeletan an equivalent thing has been done, the bones (alone weighing two tons) being put together and separately mounted to exhibit the complete osseous framework of the creature, while the papler mache cast shows what the brute looked like when he was alive. The cast referred to is Interesting for The great 90-fodt whale Nmety foot mg how the’ - mght hawve another reason, inasmuch as it is made wholly of paper money, which, being withdrawn from circulation by the Treas- ury, was reduced to pulp by bolling, in the customary manner and given for the purpose to the National Museum. Uncle Sam’s greenbacks are manufactured from linen rags, and the pulp into which they Sulphur bottom whale d Iwving quarters of the been arranged are converted is fine. tough stuff for such a use as that here described. But it took several millions of dollars, in value con- structively represented, to furnish the requiste material. It is, when one thinks of it, most inter- esting to know that the remote ancestors of those (as well as other) whales hun- dreds of thousands of vears ago were land animals—quadrupeds; that is to say, walking on all fours. But they found it easier to get food in the sea than on terra firma, and, like the fur seals and hair seals of today, they became amphibious, spending most of their time in the water, but “hauling up” on shore to breed. As time went on they abandoned the land altogether and developed a swimming tail —which, however, is very different from the tail of a fish, being horizontal instead of vertical. 3 There are plenty of satisfactory reasons on which to base this statement, one of them being that whales have pelvic bones, which could have been designed originally only for the attachment of hind legs. The sperm whale, indeed, still possesses rudimentary thigh bones. Again, the body of the unborn cetacean is covered with hair—a fact deemed equivalent to proof that its ancestors rawn “to scale - Show Prophet - Jonah were hairy animals. Of course, as every- body knows, the whale is not a fish, but a mammal. It suckles its young and it Lives in the sea only on the same terms as a man does—that is to say, by swim- ming and by rising to the surface for breath at frequent intervals. Deprived of this opportunity, a whale .s quickly On Sunday we were the guests eof the city, and the whole country turned out to help homor us. ““We were entertained at the Seymour House, kept by Mr. Tuxbury, with his two big daughters and one idolized boy, Fred, who died soon after, poor ooy! Your father was editor of the Nebraska City News. The paper gave us a big send-off in an extra edition. and the peo- ple were assured of prosperity for all time. “So on Monday, July 16, 1862, every- body was on hand to see the sight. Great was the astonishment of the multitude, men, women and hildren, when they saw us moving along the streets turned to- ward the city. After many obstructions and impediments in the shape.of soft, miry ground the vehicle was sidetracked back of the old Block House in the rear of McCann's banking-house. This was to enable us te put her in running order. ‘We repainted the machine, finished her off with ernaments and a new cab and a drowned. Its “flippers” are nothing more nor less than hands—much like our own if the arrangement of their bones be examined. Now the “sulphur bottom,” though a very numerous species, has been practi- cally fmmune hitherto against attack by man because {ts size and enormous strength rendered it too formidable and dangerous. In other words, the risks at- tending its capture were so great that the enterprise did not pay, the boats which engaged in the chase.being fre- quenty destroyed and the occupants drowned. A creature weighing as much as a railway locomotive and capable of exercising about the same amount of power is mighty perilous to tackle in the deep sea with no ‘weapon save a harpoon or bomb lance. Recently, however, a plan has been de- vised by which this morster of the deep can. be hunted with safety and profit. In- stead of us.ng whaleboats, small and stanch steamboats are employed In the chase, and the huge quarry is shot with a lance discharged from a cannon placed at the bow of the vessel. The whale might easily destroy the steamboat by rushing platform, and were soon ready for our proposed trip to Colorado. “As a leave taking send-off your father suggested an excursion, a pleasure trip. through the main streets of the eity. with a string of road wagons coupled on behind. As nearly as I can recollect. there were about twelve vehiclés In the traln and each was packed to the limit with enthusiastic humanity. After this the city fathers, headed by J. Sterling Morton, ‘gsave us a banquet at the Sey mour House, with your father presiding and O. P. Mason holding the exalted of- fice of toastmaster. It was a great time for the steam wagon and everybody suc ceeded In getting acquainted with every other individual in the country. The feast closed with a dance, and all' went home and to bed rejoicing at the great- ness of the future, and steam wagons In particular, which would help bulld up the country. In those days buffalo cov- ered the plains, Indians were everywhere and ‘there were ne transcontinental rai- roads. “‘Then arrangements were made for the trip to Colorado, and all was ready for the ~departure, when the news came of the terrible Indlan massacre at New Ulm. Minn. General Brown was summoned thither, he being the general agent of the Sfoux Indians. So we were left to con- tinue our journey to Colorado with the ateam wagon. We were under a- full head - of steam, bound for the Rocky Mountains, and had reached fhe Nime Mile House, about four miles beyond the old: Morton homestead, when' we broke a erank. It could not be replaced in the ‘West; .50 I'made a trip to New. York Oity for' a new crank, and returned to Ne- braska and made the necessary repalrs. Then it was decided that the locomotive would have to be stored until the returh of General Brown from the Indlan wars. “It was also found necessary to Im- prove ' the roads, bulld culverts across the streams, otherwise the wagon could not . proceed. Because of draw- backs the machine was finally stored on Morten's farm and the trip was aban- doned, the machine never to be used again, because General Brown fafled to return to the city. ‘“The civil war also changed every- thing. Men went to the front and were killed, and finally, when Steriing Morton wrote me that he wished-the steam wagon removed I advised him to sell it for what he could get. L belleve it was finally sold for about $200, and the en- gine utilized In the gas works at Ne- braska City. I suppose, also, there was no demand for steam wagons of this kind In making trips across the plains, for the early completion of the Union Pacific and other lines in the West revelutionized t!;l}‘nspomtloh and business eof every kihd.” Morton sald the chief reason why the < road wagon did not prove a success was because there was no macadamized read- beds for it to travel on. The streams were not bridged. and when it came to a creek or even a small rtvulet fn the soft. miry ground of the prairfe it sank se deep In the mud that progress was im- possible. at it “had on™ and ramming it, but this idea does not occur w0 its pind. The first thing it does usually on being struck is to dive to the bottom, sinking like a stone and actually dragging the dow of the steamer partly under water. Then it will rise to the surface with incredible velocity and leap clear into the air, ex- posing the whole of its mighty body. This sort of performance is continued until the beast is exhausted, when it lies helpless and floating, so as to be easily despatched No wonder that Emperor Willlam, when he tried this kind of hunting in Norway, declared. it was the greatest sport he ever had in his life. It was, he sald, more than exciting; it was stupendous. -Recently the enterprising Japanese have adopted the idea. Hitherto whale meat has been em- ployed only as a fertilizer, being dried and ground for that purpose, but within ‘the last_half dozen years several factories have been established in Europe (one of them- the Normal Company, of Aberdeen) for converting the material into extracts. Such extracts resemble beef extract so closely in flavor that it is said to be fm- possible to tell the difference. - WORLD’S AFFAIRS IN BREVITY. NATAL'S POPULATION In Natal, South Africa, there are, ac- cording to the latest official returns, 97,109 whites, 100,918 Asiatics, 6686 mixed races and 904,041 natives. Of the Europeans 56,758 are males. DIVER'S STRANGE DEATH After ering the sheet anchor of the British battleship Cumberland, which had sunk In twenty-two fathoms of water in the Mediterranean, a diver rose to the surface too quickly, and died after two days from the effects of the pressure. SCHOOL FOR WOMEN FARMERS The woman farmer, it is sald, is in- evitable. In England she has, in fact, arrived. The school has for some time been successfully conducted to give special Instruction in the art of cultivating the flelds, gathering crops and caring for live stock. B PRINCE OF WALES IN INDIA Just before his departure for his Indian tour the Prince of Wales was decorated with the order of the Star of India, as being the decoration most coveted in that English possession. In general the various grades of the or- der of St. and ferred to recognized by the Greek as well as the Protestant churches, But in the Indian Empire the Star of Indla ‘was founded in 1861 by Queen Victoria, to be given to those whom it was especially desired to distinguish. Itis given only to Viceroys. and is the most Al e Xy hlcyprl:ed«_uncolo- FIBRE FOR CLOTH MAKING Fibre from the plantain tree g coming into use in India for cloth making. Yarn made from it js found stronger than that from cotton or jute, and has a slazed ap- Pearance. A native technical ingtitute at Nagpore has taken up the subject, and as the supply of plantain fibre is almost un- Hmited in Bengal it is expected that a large industry may be created for. its production. v — Yz?m TITLE SEEKERS me enthusiastic person has recen figured it out that American women h‘v’f within a few years captured twenty-three titled Englishmen, twenty-six titled Ger- mans, fourteen titled Frenchmen, seven- teen titled Itallans and six titled Russians. MECCA'S SACRED STONE The Caaba, or sacred stone of Mecca, is re-covered every year with damask sent byll.lnlhnorlh;ndin A cover- hm-mmm 3 4