Chapter XIV: Part 14

If the performance of Bushnell’s “Turtle” was such as described, it seems strange that our new government did not immediately take up his ideas and make an appropriation for further experiments in the same line. When the attack was made on the “Eagle,” Dr. Bushnell’s brother, who was to have manned the craft, was sick, and a sergeant who undertook the task was not sufficiently acquainted with the operation to succeed in attaching the torpedo to the bottom of the frigate. Had he succeeded the “Eagle” would undoubtedly have been destroyed and the event would have added the name of another “hero” to history and might then have changed the entire art of naval warfare. Instead of Bushnell being encouraged in his plans, however, they were bitterly opposed by the naval authorities. His treatment was such as finally to compel him to leave the country, but he returned after some years of wandering, and under an assumed name, settled in Georgia, where he spent his remaining days practicing his profession.

Robert Fulton, the man whose genius made steam navigation a success, was the next to turn his attention to submarine boats, and submarine warfare by submerged mines. A large part of his life was devoted to the solution of this problem. He went to France with his project and interested Napoleon Bonaparte, who became his patron and who was the means of securing sufficient funds to build a boat which was called the “Nautilus.” With this vessel Fulton made numerous descents, and it is reported that he covered 500 yards in a submerged run of seven minutes.

~HOW SUBMARINES WERE DEVELOPED~

In the spring of 1801 he took the “Nautilus” to Brest, and experimented with her for some time. He and three companions descended in the harbor to a depth of 25 feet and remained one hour, but he found the hull would not stand the pressure of a greater depth. They were in total darkness during the whole time, but afterward he fitted his craft with a glass window 1¹⁄₂ inches in diameter, through which he could see to count the minutes on his watch. He also discovered during his trials that the mariner’s compass pointed equally as true under water as above it. His experiments led him to believe that he could build a submarine vessel with which he could swim under the surface and destroy any man-of-war afloat. When he came before the French Admiralty, however, he was met with blunt refusal, one bluff old French admiral saying: “Thank God, France still fights her battles on the surface, not beneath it,” a sentiment which apparently has changed since those days, as France now has a large fleet of submarines. After several years of unsuccessful efforts in France to get his plans adopted, Fulton finally went over to England and interested William Pitt, then chancellor, in his schemes. He built a boat there, and succeeded in attaching a torpedo beneath a condemned brig provided for the purpose, blowing her up in the presence of an immense throng. Pitt induced Fulton to sell his boat to the English government and not bring it to the attention of any other nation, thus recognizing the fact that if this type of vessel should be made entirely successful, England would lose her supremacy as the “Mistress of the Seas.”

Fulton consented to do so, but would not pledge himself regarding his own country, stating that if his country should become engaged in war, no pledge could be given that would prevent him from offering his services in any way which would be for its benefit.

The English Government paid him $75,000 for this concession. Fulton then returned to New York and built the “Clermont” and other steamboats, but did not entirely give up his ideas of submarine navigation, and at the time of his death was at work on plans for a much larger boat.

Fulton had a true conception of the result of submarine warfare, and in a letter he says: “Gunpowder has within the last three hundred years totally changed the art of war, and all my reflections have led me to believe that this application of it will, in a few years, put a stop to maritime wars, give that liberty on the seas which has been long and anxiously desired by every good man, and secure to Americans that liberty of commerce, tranquillity, and independence which will enable citizens to apply their mental and corporeal facilities to useful and humane pursuits, to the improvement of our country and the happiness of the whole people.”

After Fulton’s death spasmodic attempts were made by various inventors looking to the solving of the difficult problem, but no very serious efforts were put forth until the period of the Civil War, and then a number of submarine boats were built by the Confederates. These boats were commonly called “Davids,” and it was one of them that sank the United States steamship “Housatonic” in Charleston Harbor on the night of the 17th of February, 1864. This submarine vessel drowned four different crews, a total of thirty men, during her brief career. At the time she sank the “Housatonic” her attack was anticipated, and sharp lookout was kept at all times; but, notwithstanding their vigilance, she succeeded in getting sufficiently close to plant a torpedo on the end of a spar, and sink this fine, new ship of 1400 tons displacement.

It will be seen from the above description that these vessels, while able to go under water, were not controllable.

After the Civil War several other inventors took up the problem of trying to design a submarine vessel that could be controlled as to maintenance of depth and direction under water.

In Europe, Gustave Zede, Goubet and Drzwiezki, and in this country Mr. Baker and Mr. John P. Holland, built experimental vessels.

In 1877 Mr. Holland built a small boat which was called the “Fenian Ram.” It is stated that this vessel was built with capital furnished by the “Clan-na-Gael,” with the idea of using it against the British fleet in an attempt to free Ireland.

While some slight success was met with by these inventors, it was not until about 1897 that any real progress was made.

~THE FIRST SUCCESSFUL SUBMARINE WITH HYDROPLANES~

In 1893, Simon Lake, an American inventor, submitted plans to the United States Naval authorities at Washington for a submarine boat that would navigate between the surface and the bottom by the use of what he called “hydroplanes,” which were designed to cause the vessel to submerge on an even keel. Mr. Lake’s design of vessel was also provided with wheels to enable it to navigate on the water bed. It was also provided with a diving compartment to enable the crew to don diving suits and leave the vessel, in working on wrecks, cutting cables, planting mines, etc.

In 1904 and 1905 he built a small vessel to demonstrate his principles and succeeded in successfully navigating the vessel on the bottom of New York Bay. He then built a larger vessel of about 50 tons displacement for further experimental purposes. This vessel was called the “Argonaut,” and was built in Baltimore in 1906 and 1907. This boat was successful from the start and covered thousands of miles in the Chesapeake Bay and along the Atlantic Coast, New York Bay and Long Island Sound, and was the first successful submarine boat to navigate in the open sea and on the water bed of the ocean.

Mr. Holland had, in 1894, received a contract for a submarine vessel for the United States Navy, and her construction was started in 1895. This vessel was called the “Plunger.” This was the first official recognition given to a submarine boat in the United States.

The Government of France had also given an order for a submarine boat which was under construction at this period.

The “Plunger” was never submerged, her construction covering a period of several years, and she was finally abandoned. Mr. Holland had, however, in the meantime prepared the designs of another vessel which he called “The Holland.” This vessel was accepted by the United States Government in 1900, and a number of other vessels of this type were built. These vessels were known as submarines of the diving type. They were controlled by means of a horizontal and vertical rudder placed at the stern of the vessel and the boat was, by means of these rudders, inclined down by the bow, and driven under the water by the force of their screw propeller.

England also built a number of submarines of the diving type.

In 1901 Mr. Lake brought out a larger vessel of his type, which was controlled by hydroplanes, which vessel was sold to the Russian Government, was shipped across the Atlantic to Kronstadt, and from there by rail to Vladivostok, and was in commission off Vladivostok just before the close of the Russian-Japanese War.

Mr. Lake then received orders from the Russian and other Governments for a number of additional boats of the even keel type, to be controlled by hydroplanes.

Mr. Lake’s principles of control have been now generally adopted by all Governments, as providing the safest and most reliable means of control of the vessel when navigating under the surface.

The United States Government has recently adopted this type to be built in their Navy Yards, and most other builders have adopted the hydroplanes as the means of maintaining depth when running beneath the surface.

This is one of the services to which submarine boats of this type lend themselves with peculiar fitness. It is possible for them to carry on this work with deliberation and to success, under the very guns and searchlights of a vigilant foe, without the slightest danger of being detected.

This would be accomplished preferably by the co-operation of two boats. They would take opposite sides in the channel, with a connecting rope extending out through the diving compartment. It is obvious that as they move along the rope will sweep the whole mine-field and gather in the connecting cables. This would be indicated at once to the operators in the diving compartment by the load upon the sweeping line. A grapple may then be attached to the rope and sent out of one boat and hauled into the other, and thus drag the mine so near that a diver could go out and destroy its electrical connections or cut it adrift. Should the latter operation be the aim, the grapple may be so fashioned as to accomplish this without the diver leaving the compartment. This latter method is one strongly recommended by some of the most prominent military authorities on submarine defense.]

There is no trim or equilibrium to maintain. When the propelling machinery stops the boat comes to rest. A cyclometer attached to these wheels gives a fairly reliable reading of the distance traveled under normal circumstances. As the currents do not carry her out of her course, and as her gauges give an absolute record of changing depths, it is possible to so navigate upon the bottom with remarkable precision. In shallow waters this method has many advantages.]

SHOWING TUBE HANDLING CARGO IN SUNKEN SHIP.]

Recovering Cargo or Submerged Objects Without the Aid of Divers.

The operating tube is here shown within the body of a hulk and co-operating with the lifting derrick on the surface craft in the removal of the submerged cargo. A grab-dredge bucket of well-known construction is used, the jaws of which, when being lowered by one rope, open, and when strain is brought on the lifting rope, the jaws close. The working end of the tube is placed in the immediate neighborhood of the cargo to be lifted and, as the grab is being lowered from the boat above, the operator in the compartment controls the grab by means of the guide line shown attached to the small derrick boom, and leads it directly over the cargo to be lifted. The grab is then dropped and the signal sent to the vessel above to hoist. The moment the lifting line tautens the bucket grasps a load and fills itself with material in the manner common to this type of dredge. This method of directing intelligently and deliberately the dredge bucket may be applied as well to the removal of rock or any other obstruction or to any of those various services of kindred character familiar to submarine engineers. The great and prime advantage of the system is the fact that no divers are required, and the work is under the perfect control of an operator subject only to atmospheric pressure. In consequence, therefore, the only limit to the effective operating of this apparatus is the length of the tube, and, as has been said, this can be made long enough to reach depths denied to the diver simply by interposing additional sections.

LIVING QUARTERS ABOARD A SUBMARINE.]

Where Do Sponges Come From?

Until within comparatively recent years, the sponge was regarded as a plant; it is now known to belong to the animal kingdom, and to the order spongida of the class of rhizopoda. Sponge is an elastic, porous substance, formed of interlaced horny fibers, which produce by their numerous inosculations, a rude sort of network, with meshes or pores of unequal sizes, and usually of a square or angulated shape. Besides these pores there are some circular holes of large size scattered over the surface of most sponges, which lead into sinuous canals that permeate their interior in every direction. The oscula, canals, and pores, communicate freely together. The characteristic property of the sponge is the facility with which it absorbs a large quantity of any fluid, more especially of water, which is retained amid the meshes until forced out again by a sufficient degree of compression, when the sponge returns to its former bulk. From this peculiarity, combined with its pleasant softness, arises the value of the sponge for the purposes to which it is applied. In domestic economy and in surgical practice, there is no other product that can be satisfactorily substituted for it.

Sponge is an aquatic production, indigenous to almost every sea and shore. It is abundant and varied between the tropics, but becomes less so in temperate latitudes and continues to diminish in quantity, variety, and size, as it is traced into European and colder seas, until it almost disappears in the vicinity of the polar circles. Some sponges are known to be hermaphrodite, but that the individual at one period produces chiefly male elements, and later, chiefly female elements. Fertilization takes place in the body of the mother, and the egg here undergoes its early development. The embryo eventually bursts the maternal tissue and, passing into one of the canals, is caught by the current sweeping through the canal system and is discharged into the surrounding water through one of the large apertures on the surface of the sponge. In the Bahama Islands and along the coast of Florida, the breeding time of many sponges covers the period from mid-summer on through early Autumn.

There is propagation sometimes by ciliated gemmules, yellowish and oval, arising from the sarcode mass, and carried out by the currents. These are mostly formed in the spring, and after swimming freely about for a time, become fixed and grow. In its natural state, the sponge is a very different looking object from the article of commerce. The entire surface is covered with a thin, slimy skin, usually of a dark color, and perforated to correspond with the apertures of the canals. The sponge of commerce is in reality only the home or the skeleton of the sponge.

There are a few sponges that inhabit ponds and sluggish rivers; the others are marine. Of these, many of the calcareous and siliceous kinds inhabit the shores between tide-marks, preferring a site near the low ebb, where, nevertheless, they are daily alternately submerged, and left exposed to the atmosphere. The figured sponges with a fibrous texture, to whatever genus they belong, are denizens of deeper water, and are never left uncovered. They grow usually in groups, on rock shells, shellfish, corallines, and seaweeds, and either have no power of selection, or the quality of the site is indifferent to them.

How Do Sponges Grow?

In their growth, some sponges assume a determinate figure or at least one whose variations are confined within certain limits. The greater number are irregular and variable, their shape depending in a great measure upon the peculiarities of their state, to which they easily accommodate themselves. They will incrust a shell, or a crab, a rock, or seaweed, following every projection and sinuosity. The offshoots will spring up with a more luxuriant growth in the deeper sheltered places until the original shape of the foundation they grow upon is lost to sight.

Sponges are unmoving and inirritable. They never remain rooted to the places of the germination, and are incapable either of contracting or dilating themselves or even of moving any fiber or portion of their mass. The functions which distinguish them as living beings are few, and faintly imaged.

How Do Sponges Eat?

Although sponges lack the power of motion possessed by most animals, being nearly always attached, in one position or another, to some object, the study of their habits in captivity brings out many of their animal characteristics in a striking manner. Small specimens taken from the sea and placed in dishes of salt water may be kept alive for several hours if well cared for; and by using finely powdered coloring matter, such as carmine or indigo, the manner of their feeding may be readily observed. Sponges are more active in fresh sea water than in stale; they cannot be kept alive out of water and soon die if exposed to the air. Being unable to go in search of food, as a natural result, they can grow only in places where there is always an abundance of food suited to their wants. The great sponging grounds of the world are wholly confined within waters having a relatively high temperature during the entire year. The Old World sponges grow principally in the Mediterranean and the Red seas; the New World sponges are found about the Bahamas, southern and western Florida, and parts of the West Indies. The finest sponges come from the East, but one of the American species, the so-called “sheep’s wool,” stands high in favor.

The commercial sponges are separated into six species, three of which are European and three American. They are all referred to a single genus called spongia, and though having much in common as regards structure, their texture varies to such an extent as to make them of very unequal value for domestic purposes.

The Old World species may be arranged as follows, in order of their grade of excellence, beginning with the best quality: The Turkey cup sponge, Levant toilet sponge, the horse, honey comb, or bath sponge, and the Zimoca sponge. The American species include the sheep’s wool sponge, the yellow glove, violet, and grass, sponges. A very close relationship exists between the species of the two continents.

All known regions in which useful specimens abound contribute to the world’s supply. The trade is extensive. The demands upon the fisheries are great. In the Mediterranean, the fishing is carried on in some places at a depth of forty fathoms. Divers, naked, or in armor, go down to the bottom and tear off the sponges from their places of growth. In some places drag dredges are employed.

How Are Sponges Caught?

In the past quarter-century the sponge-fishery of the Florida coast has grown remarkably. Its headquarters is at Key West and several hundred sailing vessels are engaged in the industry. The fishing appliances consist of a small boat, a long hook, and a waterglass. The hook is in reality a three-pronged spear attached to a pole thirty-five feet long. In searching for sponge the fishers row about in the small boat. By holding the glass on the surface of the water the bottom is plainly seen and small objects are readily discerned. When a sponge is sighted the pole with the hook attached is shot down and the product deftly gathered. The boat-load is brought to the deck of the schooner, allowed to remain there a few hours, and then is carried down into the hold. On Friday nights, the fishing generally ends for the week, and the vessel sails for some spot on the neighboring coast where there are established crawls, or places for curing the catch. These crawls are about 8 x 10 feet square, their purpose being to hold the sponges while maceration and decomposition take place. The resulting refuse is carried off by the tide.

The fishermen go away for another catch and the sponges are left in the crawls until the end of the following week when a new cargo is brought in. The returning fishermen beat the decomposed sponges with clubs, removing the impurities. The water is squeezed out, then the sponges are allowed to dry on the ground.

After drying, the hold of the large vessel is loaded to the utmost with the product and the voyage to Key West is made. Buyers from New York look over the sponges, and make offers for entire cargoes. The fishermen dispose of their goods rapidly and sail away for more. The buyers store the sponges in some dry building, and cause them to be bleached by lime. A popular manner of bleaching is to wash the sponges thoroughly in water, and then to immerse them in diluted hydrochloric acid to dissolve any of the calcareous substance. Having again been washed they are placed in another bath of dilute hydrochloric acid to which six per cent. of hyposulphite of soda, dissolved in a little warm water, has been added. In this bath the sponges remain for twenty-four hours, or until the bleaching process is completed. After bleaching, the sponges are pressed until their bulk is greatly reduced; they are then baled, and shipped to New York, which is the distributing point for the entire Florida product.

Sponges are by far the most important fishery products of Florida, representing about one-third of the annual value of the fishing industry. In 1899, the yield was over 350,000 pounds of sponges of which the first value was nearly $400,000.

Why Does Yeast Make Bread Rise?

There is a lot of sugar in the dough from which bread is made. Sugar contains three things--carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. When sugar is fermented it amounts practically to burning it. To make good bread from the dough it is necessary to ferment the sugar which is in the ingredients from which it is made. Yeast, which is a simple living plant, has the power to ferment sugar. When sugar ferments, two things are produced. One thing is the formation of carbonic acid gas. A great deal of this carbonic acid gas is caught in the dough in the form of large or small bubbles and some of it escapes into the air. The other part tries to escape into the air also but cannot, and causes the dough to rise, which makes the bread light, as we say. The holes you see in the bread after it is baked are the little pockets where the carbonic acid gas was retained in the dough. These bubbles of gas all through the dough act like a lot of little balloons and lift the dough up with themselves as they try to get to the top and escape into the air.

What Is Yeast?

Yeast is a living plant that is used for the purpose of causing fermentation. The yeast we use in baking bread is an artificial yeast--really a dough made of flour and a little common yeast and made into small cakes and dried. If kept free from moisture it retains the power of causing fermentation for some time. The flour and other matter in a cake of yeast are only used to keep the yeast in a form where it can be preserved. It is necessary to add water to start fermentation and that is why we add hot water when we stir in the yeast for a baking.

Is a Moth Attracted By a Light?

It seems to be a strange contradiction of the nature of living things that a moth should fly deliberately into a light or dash itself to death against the glass surrounding a strong light. This is contrary to the usual law of nature which gives the living thing an instinct to protect itself against enemies.

For a long time we thought that moths did not deliberately burn themselves up by flying right into a light, but our naturalists have proven that not only moths but certain birds, bees, flies and butterflies, burn themselves up by flying into the flame of a light or fire.

SAWING

This was probably man’s first method of producing fire. By rubbing two sticks together in this way sufficient heat was produced to set fire to easily burnable material such as dried grass, etc.]

An improvement came when man learned that by twirling a dry stick in a hole in another piece of dry wood the fire could be started more quickly.]

How Man Discovered Fire

Fire was probably one of man’s first, if not the first, great discoveries, and has been one of his greatest servants as well as one of his greatest dangers. We do not know who discovered fire, or what nation first used it. It is, however, one of the signs that distinguishes man from the other animals. Not any of the lower animals was acquainted with the use of fire, while probably the earliest races of mankind seem to have been acquainted with it.

Mythology tells us wonderful stories of the origin of fire: according to these tales it was stolen from the sun, or the gods, and given to man; and Pandora, the first woman, was sent down to earth to punish man for his theft.

The most popular of these stories is the legend of Prometheus. According to this legend, fire, in the early days, was under the exclusive control of the gods. Prometheus, brother of Atlas, the god who supported the world on his shoulders, determined that the use of fire should be given to the people. He decided by some means to send a spark of fire to the earth, believing that one spark caught by man would start a burning flame that would never go out.

With this idea in mind, Prometheus visited Zeus, the great ruler, to carry out his purpose, for Zeus controlled fire. While Zeus was not looking, Prometheus “stole some brands of fire from the hearth, which he hid in the stalk of a fennel and sent it down to the earth.” Through this Prometheus gave to man his first knowledge of fire.

But while this story of fire may or may not be true, the use of fire rests entirely with man and his ingenuity. Through his ingenuity man was able to subject fire to his will; making it perform certain of his labors; and to a certain extent making it his servant; although it always did and always will get beyond his control at times.

Our ancestors were not satisfied with preserving the fire which the gods gave them; they tried and succeeded in producing it. One day one of them discovered that by rubbing two sticks together rapidly, the friction would create a fire. It was a most useful discovery. Before long the whole of mankind had learned this trick; others improved on this crude method until step by step men learned that by striking two pieces of flint or other hard mineral together, quicker action was obtained.

Man’s ingenuity soon taught him that if he tied one end of a string to something and wrapped it around his drilling stick, one end of which was in a hole as in the first drilling picture, he could increase the rapidity of making fire.]

With some other to hold the drilling stick while he operated the string he was able to produce fire more quickly than he had ever done before.]

All kinds of methods were devised to increase knowledge of producing fire. The early Greeks found out how to catch the rays of the sun on a burning-glass and produce fire; the Romans achieved the same results through the use of mirrors.

This is another method man used for rubbing two pieces of wood together. In following this plan he usually used one stick of bamboo and rubbed it back and forth in a slot he had made in another piece of bamboo.]

In some places it was discovered that if you struck a piece of hard stone, like flint, against another, a spark was produced which could be caught on a bunch of dry grass or moss and so start a fire.]

In about A.D. 900, an Arab, named Bechel, discovered phosphorus, but it took almost 800 years more for Haukwitz to learn that when phosphorus was brought into friction with sulphur, fire would result. In another hundred years the world was benefited by the invention of the friction match--and since that time about one-half the people have been carrying matches about with them, able thus to start a fire easily any time.

~FIRE A MARK OF CIVILIZATION~

Fire and man’s knowledge of it have had much to do with man’s progress in civilization. Before man had fire, his life and movements were much like those of other animals. When man had learned to make a fire he was free to move and live anywhere and, therefore, people began to cover more territory.

THE INTRODUCTION OF THE FLINT AND STEEL METHOD

Because fire was so important to him, man kept on trying to make this task easier. He finally contrived a tinder box when iron and steel became known. The tinder box is where he kept his flint and the piece of steel which he struck upon the flint. He also kept in the box pieces of cloth or paper on which he caught the sparks so produced.]

This is a picture of a tinder box in the form of a pistol. It enabled man to produce sparks in greater numbers and more rapidly.]

This shows the method for striking the piece of steel against the flint to make the sparks fall on the cloth or paper in the box.]

This picture shows a very complete tinder box set used by the wealthy people in the old days. A man carried this outfit with him just as today he carries matches.]

THE OXYMURIATE MATCH

This match, the first, was introduced in 1505. It was a slip of wood tipped with a chemical mixture. To light it it was necessary to stick its head into a bottle containing acid.]

This was a paper cigarette dipped in a mixture of sugar and potash. Rolled within the paper was a tiny glass bulb filled with sulphuric acid. To light the match you pressed the bulb with pincers hard enough to break the bulb. This released the acid which set fire to the paper.]

What Would We Do Without Matches?

If one were to ask the man in the street what invention of the nineteenth century is his most constant and invaluable ally he might be mystified for the moment, but the undoubted answer would surely come in the single word “Matches.” These familiar objects, apart from their luxurious use by smokers, are the indispensable servants of mankind from the moment of rising in the morning till the household is wrapped in sleep, and it is to them we turn when disturbed in the hours of darkness.

Invented by John Walker in 1827. It consisted of a stick of wood tipped with sulphur and then with a chlorate mixture. To ignite it the match was drawn rapidly through a folded piece of sandpaper.]

The first practical match was made less than a century ago.]

No doubt “familiarity breeds contempt,” and it is difficult to imagine how man would fare, bereft of his box of matches. It might help the world to realize how much it owes to the inventors of the Lucifer Match, were it possible to cut off the supply of these magic fire producers for only one brief day. It requires no very vivid imagination to picture the consternation and confusion that such a step would produce, and there is a grim humor in wondering how the primitive methods of obtaining a light would serve the public convenience in these days of strenuous hustle.

Seeing that fire has been employed by man since prehistoric days, one would expect that easy means of obtaining it would have been devised in the early ages. We find, however, that until the beginning of the nineteenth century nothing in the nature of a match was available, and the crudest methods were still in use. We know from Virgil that in the reign of the Emperor Titus fire was obtained by rubbing decayed wood with a roll of sulphur between two stones, but it is not till Saxon times that we have evidence of the use of the tinder box with its flint and steel. That this latter was still regarded as something remarkable, as late as the fifteenth century, is proved by its representation in the collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece, which was founded in 1429. Burning glasses had, of course, been employed from the most primitive times, but one can imagine the despair of an early Briton who had to wait for a sunny day before he could boil his kettle.

Incredible as it may seem, it was not a time well within the memory of many people living to-day that matches in anything approaching the form now familiar were offered to the public. The way for their manufacture had been prepared by two discoveries; one by a German who isolated phosphorus in 1669; the other by a Frenchman who produced chlorate of potash in 1786. From this latter date the production of fire was much facilitated, and a few years before Queen Victoria came to the throne, John Walker--a chemist of Stockton-on-Tees--produced the first friction matches of which there is any certain record. These, called “Congreves,” were sold in boxes of fifty for 2/6, and their success soon led others to experiment in match manufacture, so that improvements were rapidly invented and factories sprang up in all parts of the country.

It would be a difficult task to compute accurately the value to the human race of the introduction to general use of this little article. At the present writing, in America the consumption of matches amounts to over a billion of matches a day.

How Matches Are Made.

To-day matches are in such demand that the ingenuity of man has devised a machine which makes complete matches without the help of the human hand.

At the very start of operations a man feeds blocks of wood into the jaws of the machine, and thenceforth the mechanical monster does its own work. Seizing the block from the man’s hand, the machine grips it between rollers and forces it against rows of keen-edged cutters, which are so arranged that there is little or no waste. Each of these cutters (and there are usually forty-eight in a machine) severs a piece of wood of exact size and shape. At the same moment a plate rises from beneath, which thrusts these little pieces of wood into a moving flexible cast-iron band, or rather into small holes in this band, from which the embryo matches project like bristles. This traveling band is about 700 feet in length, and follows a serpentine course in its journey, which occupies about an hour from start to finish, the speed being regulated according to temperature so that the matches may be quite dry when they reach the boxes.

When the band arrives at the finishing point, a steel bar punches out the matches stuck in its surface and they fall into the inside boxes placed ready to catch them. These boxes are kept continually shaking, to that no spaces are left and the matches fill them completely. As the inside boxes fill, a steel arm presses them forward into their covers, and they are passed along a trough in dozens, quickly wrapped in paper and sealed by a machine. Quick-fingered girls then wrap twelve of these dozen packages and we have the gross packages of boxes so familiar in the stores. It will be seen, that in spite of the marvellous machines which do so much, there is still plenty of work for human hands.

How Match Boxes Are Made.

The machines for making the wooden box which contain the matches are in themselves wonderful. First, a section of the trunk of an aspen tree, about 30 inches in length, is made to revolve in what is known as a peeling machine. After a few revolutions the rough outer surface is removed, and thin rolls of smooth-surfaced wood are peeled off or veneered. The machine at the same time scores the wood ready for folding by the boxmaking machine. Cut into skillets, i. e., into pieces of the size required for box covers or insides, the ends are next dipped in pink dye to cover the edge of the wood which is not covered by the label. The skillets then go to the box machines, which fold and label them, and after half an hour in a cleverly devised drying chamber they are ready for use. In one room alone sixty machines are labelling and folding the skillets to the number of several thousand gross a day. To see these machines take a strip of wood, push it forward to receive the pasted label, fold it, fasten the joint, wipe off the superfluous paste, and, finally, toss the finished “outside” into a receiving basket, is as fascinating an example of mechanical ingenuity as the industrial world can afford.

Are Matches Poisonous?

A non-poisonous “strike anywhere” safety match, made from selected, clear, strong cork pine is now made in this country, and is the first satisfactory non-poisonous match. It is also the first match to be endorsed by the country’s recognized leaders and authorities in fire prevention and the conservation of human life and property.

The Hughes-Esch Anti-White Phosphorus Match Bill, which became a law during the administration of President Taft, was drafted by the attorneys of the American Association of Labor Legislation, and is the most drastic that our National Constitution will permit. It would be unconstitutional to absolutely prohibit the manufacture of white phosphorus matches, but the Hughes-Esch bill obtains the same result, viz.: absolute prohibition by means of excessive taxation. No match manufacturer in these days of keen competition can afford to pay a tax of ten cents on each box of white phosphorus matches made, and place his factory under government surveillance, for this tax of ten cents is over three times as much as his present selling price to the wholesale trade.

As soon as man learned to make fire and light, he began to appreciate how much more comfortable he could be if he could keep his lights burning and to have his light independent of his fire, because it was at times very uncomfortable to sit by a fire on a hot night simply because he wished to use the light which it made. The first schemes devised for lighting purposes merely were the camp-fire torch and the rushlight. With these as a basis, man was enabled to fashion more convenient forms of lighting. He invented the candle and the lamp, and grown “enlightened,” boxed his light in iron and in other metals.

Did Candles Come Before Lamps?

The candle is in appearance a primitive affair, yet there is little doubt that its predecessor was the lamp. Those old Egyptian tombs, which have unlocked many mysteries, held lamps, and through them evidence of ancient burial customs. Lamps played a part in the solemn feasts of the Egyptians, who on such occasions placed them before their houses, burning them throughout the night. Herodotus, in one of his numerous references to Xerxes, alludes to the hour of lamp-lighting, and evidences abound regarding the use of lamps among the ancient Greeks. Lamps, indeed, are pictured upon some of their oldest vases, indicating the symbolic significance which attached to them.

What Were the Earliest Lamps?

It is probable that the earliest lamps were nothing more than convenient vessels, filled with oil and fired by means of rushes. Among the Romans pine splinters, the torch and the flambeau, supplied light until the fifth century before Christ, and even when the Roman began to use the lamp, it was by no means common, finding a place only in the homes of the rich, or on special festival days.

The custom of burning funeral lights beside the dead before interment is a very old one. Gregory, interpreting its significance for the Christian, says that departed souls, having walked here as the children of light, now walk with God in the light of the living. The Roman, Pliny, refers to the use of the pith of brittle rushes in making funeral lights and watch-candles, which were probably the ancient prototype of the old rushlight of England. Again, in speaking of flax, Pliny states that the part of the reed that is nearest to the outer skin is called tow, and is good for nothing but to make lamp-matches or candlewicks.

What Were the Lamps of the Wise and Foolish Maidens Made Of?

When lamps had come into general favor, better attention was given to their form and construction. The first seem to have been made of baked clay, moulded by hand into elongated vessels to contain the oil, and provided at one end with a lip to admit the wick. These are the lamps which artists have pictured in the hands of the wise and foolish virgins, though in the opinion of some scholars they were merely rods of porcelain and iron, covered with cloth and steeped in oil. Another early type, which was less common, presents a simple disc with an aperture in the centre for the oil, and a hole for the wick, at one or both of the sides.

Under the Empire, when the light of the lamp had become general, the better ones were made of bronze, ornamented with heads, animals, and other decorations, attached to the handles, while as life in Rome partook more of luxury and extravagance, gold, silver, or Corinthian brass were the materials, the designs being more elaborate and complicated. Many and beautiful examples of these ancient lamps have been unearthed from the ruins of Herculaneum and Pompeii.

When Were Street Lamps First Used?

Dark must have been the lives of those people who, until comparatively recent times, lived, in the absence of sunlight, by the feeble, uncertain light of the primitive illuminants borne by these lamps. And as for street lighting--that was a luxury but seldom indulged in, and then, not for public benefit, but to enhance the glory of a potentate, or grace the obsequies of some great man. Even Rome, at the height of her luxury and beauty, rarely exhibited more than one or two lanterns in her streets. These were suspended over the baths and places of public resort. Occasionally, however, the streets were illuminated during festivals and other public occasions, while the Forum was sometimes lighted for a midnight exhibition. With these glittering exceptions, and that memorable one when, to satisfy the homicidal impulses of a bad emperor, the bodies of Christians were made living torches, Rome was a city of darkness.

The first street light in America. Early in 1795 several large cressets were placed on the corners of Boston’s most frequented street. Pine-knots were placed in these fire baskets by the night watchman.]

When Were Candles Introduced?

Historical records indicate the prevalent use of candles in the earliest days of Rome, but these candles were of the simplest sort--mere string or rope which had been smeared with pitch or wax. In the early Christian centuries it was the custom to dip rushes in pitch and coat them with wax, a method of candle-making that was long continued, for it was not until the fourteenth century that dipped tallow candles were introduced. In the Middle Ages wax candles provided the usual means of illumination, and these were made, not by common craftsmen, but by monks, or by the servants of the rich. Until the fifteenth century their use was confined to churches, monasteries and the houses of nobles, but the demand for them had become so great that the chandlers of London obtained an act of incorporation. As late as the eighteenth century the candles were made by dipping the wicks into melted wax or tallow, but about this time an ingenious Frenchman conceived the idea of casting them in metal moulds.

It is only within a modern period that the state or city has assumed responsibility in the matter of public lighting, which for the most part had been left to the good will and public spirit of citizens. But in England a proclamation was issued to the effect that every individual should place a candle in each of the lower windows of his house, and keep it burning from nightfall until midnight.

The first “Réverbère”--oil lantern--with a metal reflector, used to light the streets of Paris. It was invented by Bourgeois de Châteaublanc in 1765, and used until the introduction of gas.]

Paris was the first city to improve upon this method of street lighting, and in 1658 huge, vase-like contrivances, filled with resin and pitch, were set up in the principal thoroughfares. The improvement proving, as may readily be seen, both dangerous and expensive, the falct, so-called, were replaced by the lantern. This was at first simply a rude frame, covered with horn or leather, within which a candle burned. For more than one hundred years this was the extent of the illumination which the authorities could provide. But of course it was understood that no honest man would venture abroad without his torch or flambeau, and as London, Berlin, Vienna, and all leading cities of Europe, were in like case, the darkness of Paris could be borne.

But progress had been made, and early in the eighteenth century the Corporation of London entered into contract with a certain individual to set up public lights, giving him permission to exact a sum of six shillings from every householder whose actual rent exceeded ten pounds. In the middle of the same century the Lord Mayor and Common Council applied to Parliament for power to light the streets of London better. From the granting of this permission dates improvement in public lighting.

Where Did the Word “Gas” Originate?

A Belgium chemist, Van Helmont, coined the word “gas” in the first half of the seventeenth century. The Dutch word “geest,” signifying “ghost,” suggested the term to him, and his superstitious neighbors hounded him into obscurity for talking of ghosts.

SIX MILLION CUBIC FOOT GAS HOLDER.

Almost every boy and girl has seen the big tank near the gas works, and most of them have wondered what was in it and what it is for. This big tank is a “holder” in which the gas is stored after it is manufactured.

The giant holders are reservoirs from which gas is constantly being taken and the quantity on storage constantly replenished, as the ordinary gas plant never ceases manufacturing its product.

There is little or no danger of an interruption of the supply by reason of accident, as gas plants are always equipped with duplicate apparatus for emergencies.]

When Illuminating Gas Was Discovered.

The first practical demonstration of the value of gas made from coal for lighting was made by a Scotchman--Robert Murdock--who in 1797, after some years of experimenting, fitted up an apparatus in the workshop of Boulton and Watt, in Birmingham, England, which successfully lighted a portion of that establishment. The advantages of this kind of lighting were so apparent that its use was rapidly extended, although in many instances the people were afraid of it. For a time this kind of lighting was confined to street lights. One of the first great structures to be lighted by gas was Westminster Bridge in London, and great crowds gathered to watch the burning jets nightly. It was difficult to remove from the minds of the people the belief that the gas-pipes were filled with fire and the jets were only openings through which the flame in the pipes escaped. People sometimes touched the pipes expecting to find them hot, and when the pipes were put in buildings they made sure that they were placed several feet from the walls lest the fire in them set fire to the buildings.

The use of illuminating gas for lighting private houses developed quite slowly because of this fear of the fire in the gas-pipes. This was not entirely unwarranted, however, because at first the plumbers did not know, as they do now, how to prevent leakage of gas from the pipes. The methods of joining the pipes were oftentimes imperfect and, not realizing the dangers which would follow leaks, causing explosions, the workmen were often careless in installing the pipes.

The first American house in which gas was used for lighting was the home of David Mellville at Newport, R. I. Baltimore, Maryland, was the first American city to use gas for lighting. It was introduced there in 1817.

How Does Gas Get Into the Gas Jet?

If you hold a cool drinking glass over a burning gas jet for a moment, a film of moisture will form on the inside of the glass and remain until the tumbler becomes warm, and then disappear. Now, then, you will remember that water is a mixture of oxygen and hydrogen, and that when hydrogen is burned in the air, water is formed. It is also true that whenever water is formed by burning anything, hydrogen is present in it. You see, therefore, that the gas used for lighting purposes must contain hydrogen.

Let us now learn something more about what gas is made of. Wet a piece of glass with a little fresh lime water and hold this over the lighted gas jet. In a few moments a change takes place in the water. The water turns somewhat milky. This indicates the presence of carbonic acid gas, and the formation of carbonic acid gas, when burning is going on, means the presence of carbon.

From these two experiments we gather that the gas in the jet contains hydrogen and carbon. All kinds of illuminating gas contain these two substances. Sometimes there are small quantities of other substances present, but the value of gas for lighting depends on hydrogen and carbon.

We have already learned about hydrogen, but it would be well to re-learn about carbon.

Carbon is an element, and an extremely important one, for a large part of the composition of every living thing is carbon. It is found in more compounds than any other element. Almost pure carbon can easily be obtained by heating a piece of wood, in a covered utensil, until it is turned into charcoal. Charcoal, which is black, is composed almost entirely of carbon. It is a very interesting product in all ways; in connection with gas we are particularly interested in the fact that carbon will burn when heated in the air or in oxygen.

Charcoal is very much like hard coal, both being formed in practically the same way. Ages of years ago many large forests of trees were buried under a layer of soil and rocks, during changes that occurred in the earth’s surface, and the hot inside earth slowly heated the wood, until almost nothing was left but the carbon.

GENERATOR HOUSE AND 175-FT. STACK.

In the process of gas making, coal is placed in the generator and heated to an incandescent state, then from the top or bottom steam is admitted and forced through the heated coal, producing a crude water gas which is passed on to the carbureter. In this shell enriching oil is produced, but as the oil and the water gas do not effectually unite, they are passed on to the superheater, where, as its name implies, they are subjected to a high temperature which thoroughly gasifies them into a permanent gas.]

* Pictures on Gas Manufacture by courtesy of the Consolidated Gas, Electric Light and Power Co. of Baltimore.

SHAVING SCRUBBERS.

After passing into the scrubbers the gas is cooled, passed into the scrubbers, and by contact with wooden slat trays, made up like screens; a large portion of the tar is removed from the gas, the tar passing off to large receptacles.]

Soft coal was formed in much the same manner, but the process was not so completely finished. Mixed with the carbon in soft coal we find quite a good deal of other substances, of which hydrogen forms the principal part. This is what makes soft coal valuable in the making of illuminating gas.