The Lake County star. [volume] (Chase, Mich.) 1873-current, 1874-02-12
An Ingenious Invention, and It's Sue
cessful Trial.

A man living near Nashville,
Washington county, ILL.,, has recently
invented an apparatus to take place
of whistles for railroad signals, steam
boats fire-alarms, factory-calls, and
the like. He calls IL the Telephon,n
but the popular name Is the s'steam
jackass.n The inventor is q stock
farmer, and has devoted much of his
time to raising mules, whose habits
and anatomy he appears to have
studied carefully. On his farm there
was q mule Of more than ordinary
vocal power, whose voice could be
heard distance flour miles in every
direction, when he once got warmed
up to his work. TheOwner computed
that If he could set In motion all the
air In circle of eight miles in diam
eter or twenty-five miles in circumfer-
ence, or an area of fifty square miles,
or thirty-twO thousand acres, humid
red horse power jackass could, all
other things being equal, rival any
other noise yet discovered. He es-
tablished the fact that the power of
an ordinary ass Is about one twelfth of
an indicated steam power. A steam
engine Of one thousand horse power
would therefore be equal to the power
Of 1900 ordinary asses. Wherefore,
II one ass can fill, circle eight miles
in diameter, $4,000 jackasses or one
1000 horse power jackass would fill
q circle of 81, 900 miles in diameter.
The inventor thought all this over
carefully, arrived at the deduction
that If he could take natures vocal
apparatus and supply tito a greater
power, he could produce larger and
more satisfactory volume of sound.
Filled with this idea, he put the mule
to the death, and carefully severed
the head from the body. He then
injected solutions of chloride of zinc
and arsenic into the veins and arteries
of the head and neck, to prevent de-
cay of the flesh. India-rubber was
dissolved in sulphuric ether and the
solution forced through the trachea
or wind-pipe and through the larynx
or throat. The ether evapOrated,
leaving a Aim of rubber on the men,
brances, and the injection and evap-
ORti0n were continued until the rub
Der film was found of sufficient thick
ness. These organs were then sub
jected to vapor of sulphur, heated
to 800 degrees by which process the
rubber was vulcanized, its elasticity
increased, and the membranes rem
Rdered impervious to steam. These
preparations completed, a short piece
of rubber hose was attached to the
windpipe and connected with steam
boiler.
1t was moment of agony to the in
ventor, as he placed the ass-head in
the hands of an assistant, and slowly
pulled the valves open; moment of
thrilling interest. AS the steam was
turned on, 1t passed into the wind
pipe, expelling the air and producing
a sigh, followed by groan, q snort,
a chuckling, then violent coughing
and sneezing. Asa full head of steam
was turned on, the most frightful
guffaw, the most vociferous bray that
ever assailed mortal ears, were pro-
duced. The lips contracted, disclos-
ing a terrible array of teeth; the feat
ures developed satanic grin; the
jaws raised and fell, as the steam
crowded and passages, and the ears
participated in the general move
ment, giving to the head of the-ass
an animated and excited appearance.
The man who was holding the head
gazed upon it a moment, with dilat-
ed eyes colorless cheeks, knocking
knees and protruding tongue; then,
suddenly losing all interest in the
performance, he emigrated. AS for
the inventor, his success exceeded his
most sanguine anticipations. For an
instant he contemplated the head,
his cOuntenance working with every
manifestation of intense delight; then
he too started probably to learu the
greatest distance to which that voice
would penetrate, leaving it still in
operation, with all steam on. The
head had now got fully warmed up
to its work, and that bray went hurl-
ing through the universe. 1t was
an acoustic earthquakes; a sky shake;
it was storm, hurricane of sound,
tornado, a cylone of noise; it was
donkey carnival, a jackass Fourth of
July. 1t was the greatest success the
world had ever known.-& Louis
Globe.