Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1883-11-26
rHE BANDITS VISIONS.


ting Marvellous Inventions In Prison.
Joliet, ILL.,, October ae,--rrank
Randc, better known MS the brilliant
Bandit ofthc wa.ash,n who Il sery-
ing a life term at Joliet for Milling Ave
men at st. Elmo, Ill.,, In 1870, and who
~ also called the "St. Louis pawnshop
Fiend,m for numbering n policeman
while at st. Louis, has become great
inventor since he was placea he
hind the bars On the subject
of invention he has become n
crank, and puts In his hours of
prison life when not nj work
In drawing up the specifications
and plans OF great wonders in the way
OF invention. On paper he has in
vented train OF cars that has as a mo-
tive power perpetual notion He
also has wonderful iirc-cscape aud an
entirely new system of telegraphy,
which is TO work at any distance with.
out the aid Of battery or wires. Ii he
could only have the chance he would
talk a patent att,rney into the grave
His latest hobby is guns aud he
claims 10 have invented one that will
shoot thirt, miles, the machinery TO
handle II being so simple that IL can
he operated by child. He has al
ready demonstrated the fact that he IL
n dead shot with either lille or re-
volver having been born with a
brace OF "popsh In his pistol
pocket. AT st. Elmo, while
he was surrounded by posse of shcr-
ifs In the attempt TO capture him ho
fired his revolver only five times, but
at each shot he dropped his man, aud
was only captured after being riddled
with bullets himself. 10 the Herald
correspondent he thus describes his
latest wonder IN the line of invention.
81 have during the last ten days iu-
vented THE Big-Un.' It's gun, to
be about eighty feet long, twenty feet
in diameter at the breech aud about
sixteen feet at the muzzle, average
eighteen feet, with TWEEN y-four inch
caliber, and acute cone-pointed,
turned steel shot or bolt, about eight
feet long, TO contain about twenty-lour
cubic feet of steel, which;nt 100 pounds
TO the cubic foot, would be 5000
pounds. The bolt to he driven
by ut least two thousand pounds OF
quiclS-burning common powder, and
which would probably throw IL 10 II
distance of thirty miles, and would
pass through any modern iron-platcd
war vessel, nj three TO five miles, dis
lance, like n halfounce rifle ball would
pierce sheet-iron at fifty yards. be-
lieve such n powerful gun would
pierce ten feet of steel plate at one
mile rs easily MS n squirrel
rifle will drop n squirrel out of n tree
tor. IL would contain about nineteen
hundred or two Thousand tons of steel
The means of calculation, with almost
exactitude, are in Greenleaf' y Arlth-
metic, pages 306.307, don't know
the number of pounds In cubic foot
of steel, but will get n book soon that
contains II. But you'll say
How can IL be cast and managed :?
Wen, that Is my invention, | hav,
invented the application of tire,
nover-used principles in the making %
very heavy cannon. IL will bc the
acme of power 10 which gun-makinp
can he raised, for accuracy unsur
passed by small riiles--because OF my
invention.
III was called by the Minnesota from
tier hunters the best gunsmith In tina
state In 1864; could put "A one-thir,
ounce rifle ball in the dead center n
forty yards with plain sights, ever,
other shot, and with fine globe sight
| could hit the dead center nj lllt,
wards almost every crack. OF cours,
| il would cost something nice 10 max,
| n two thousand ton steel gun, bnt on,
| such gun To load aud fire every two %
three minutes would protect any liar
Dor in America from amy steel-cla,
| fppl ~