The southern enterprise. [volume] (Greenville, S.C.) 1854-1870, 1869-11-10
The Right Use of Brains.


following history Of common
mechanic, who differed from his
fellows only in the use he made of
the powers given to him; but the
paragraph contains the whole phi.
losophy of success and usefulness
in life: ---- 80 'H. 81 .r-sa ~. -.
"Working as an ordinary hand
in q Philadelphia shipyard, until
within a few years, was a man
named John L. Knowlton. His
popularity was that, while others
of his claas were at the ale-houses,
or inGulging in jollification, he
was necessarily engaged in study.
ing upon mechanical combination.
One Of his companions secured q
poodle dog, and spent six months
in teaching the quadrpped to ex-
ecute q jig upon his hind legs.
Knowlton spent the same term in
discovering a method by which he
could saw out ship-timbcr in bev-
elled FORM The first man taught
his dog to dance. Knowlton, in
the same time, discovered q me-
chanical combination that enabled
him to do in two hours the work
that would occupy a dozen men,
by a slow and laborious process,
an entire day. That saw is now
in nse in all the ship yards in the
country 1t cuts a beam to a
curved shape as quickly as an ordi.
nary saw mill saw rips up straight
plank. Knowlton continued his
experiments. He took no part in
parades or target shootings, and in
short time afterwards he secured
patent for a machine that turns
any material whatever into a per-
feet spherical form. He sold a
portion of his patent for a sum
that, is equivalent to a fortune
The machine was used for cleaning
off cannon balls for the Govern
ment. When the ball comes from
the mould the surface is encrusted,
and the eordinary process of smooth
ing it was slow and wearisome.-
This machine. almost in an instant,
and with mathematical accuracy,
peels it to the surface of the metal,
at the same time smoothing out
any deviation from the perfect
speroidal form. The same unas-
suming man has invented boring
machine that was tested in the
presence Of a number of scientific
gentlemen. 1t bored at the rate
of % inches an hour, through q
block Of granite, with a pressure
OF but 800 pounds upon the drill.
A gentleman present offered him
$4,000 upon the spot for a part
interestin the invention, in Europe,
4 and the offer was then accepted
The moral of all this is, that peo
pie who keep on Studying are sure
to achieve -something-..Mr-Know
ton, doesn't consider himself by
any means brilliant, but if once
inspired with an idea, he pursue:
it until he forces it into tangible
shape. If everybody would fol
low copy, the world would be less
filled with idlers, aud the streets
with grumblers and malcontents.
CURIOUS FAoTs ABOUT. IcE.-Be
sides the fact that ice is lighte
than wafer, there is another curl
ous thing aboht It which most pei
sons do not know, perhaps, name
ly--7its purity A lump of ic
melted, will become pure distille,
water. When tile early naviga
tors Of the Artic seas got out o
u. water, they melted fragments @
those vast mountains of ice calle,
ice bergs, and were astonished +
find that they yielded ouly fresI
water. They thought they wer
only frozen sea water. not KNOWN,
!, that they were formed on the Ian,
and in some way launched into th
sea. But if they had been ri lht
: the result would have boen til
| same.
The fact is, the water in free;
, ing, turns out of it all that is nc
} water; salt, air, coloring matte
, and all impurities. Frozen Sc
l. water makes fresh water ice.
you freeze basin of indigo wi
: ter IL will make ice as clear and q
/ white as that made Of pure raj
, water. When the cold is yer
: sudden,' these foreign matters hav
no time to escape either by risin
!, or sinking, and are thus eRtangle
: with the ice, but Do not make an
t part Of it. >..s