Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1884-10-16
Literary aud Personal Notes.


Vide Arake the coming year. will be
strong in the element of romantic adventure
demanded BY the healthy American boy.
Charles Egbert Craddock. who is announced
TO furnish the leading serial for the 1thdnft-
Monthly, furnishes also the leading l|,de
.Acake serial. 1t is entitled Down the
Ravine,' and is Il powerful story of life IL
mong the young Tennessee mountainecrs.
The serial by Elbridge S. Brooks, " In Leis-
ler's Times" and its sequel, "The Govern
ors Daughter" is a true tale of exciting e.
vents in the early history of New York CITY.
in which participated more that one brave
Knickerbocker boy, along with Battery
bears, wolves and Colonial guns. There Is
4 Group of Four True Western Stories,
"A Group of -Four New England Stories
" A Group of Four True Plantation Stories
(thc last by Mrs Jessie Benton Frcmontl,
each and all of stirring adventure. Then
there is a Hawaiian Island adventure. How
the Booiums went down the Cra:er," written
by the ten Booiums, and a Buffalo Hunt,
by Lieutenant Wood, and \ Dahahbeih
Wreck" by Julian Arnold, and many other
true records of adventure.
The Christmas Vide licake will have q
superb lrontispiece in eighteen colors. re-
produced from water color by +. III. lun-
gren, by Louis Prang 4 Co, the famous
Christmas card makers, and the foremost
Fine Art Publishers of America. Nothing
so beautiful has ever before been attempted
in magazine publishing.
DALI
Prof Ritchell, of Bridgeport, is quite IA
nous in Connecticut rs the inventor OF
numerous practical labor-saying machines,
and well known in Europe rs the inventor
and builder Of the only flying machine ever
devised that succeeded in flying. He has
perfected a model of a submarine craft, with
which he expects to overcome the obstacles
that 80 long have kept the civilized mariner
ignorant of the surroundings of the North
Pole. He seems to be quite confident that
with this vessel he can navigate the sea with
far less danger below the esurlaec than above,
and make much greater speed. lie CON
siders that his vessel will be Indispensable
to the navy, and for all expeditions in the
Artic or Antartic Ocean.
The first machine will be Of an elongated
cgg-shape, it will be built in compartments
and will be at least two hundred feet long.
1t will have four huge eyes, through which
the look -out can see above. ahead, behind
and below. The propclling power will he Il
screw behind. and the lowering and lifting
power screw beneath the keel, on exactly
the same principle rs that of the ian-wheei
used on the air-ship. whereby the vessel Is
made to rise or fall at the operators desire.
The vessel is made to float. but the vertical
screw will draw it downward 1t whatever
rate of speed il is running.
The Professors plan for reaching the
North Pole from Wranglc Land is to come
to the surface Mt every opportunity IN the
ice openings. and after securing enough
fresh air TO fill the compressed air compart-
mcnts. descend again and continue the voy-
age.
Twenty men, he said, could successfully
operate the machine contemplated. The
principle Of buoyancy Is the same a. that Of
the air-ship, the equipoise being such that
a slight force will govern its upward or
downward movements. Should the vessel
strike the earth or ice it would bound back
in the same way and for the same reason
that football bounds on the earth. II Is
proposed to use oil for fuel and electricity
from primary batteries for light. The vessel
will be of copper.
Prof. RichelI has built 4 working model
Of his submarine craft, which he operates by
means of aprimary battery. This mlnla-
ture is now in operation in large tank of
waite. at his laboratory in the Bridgeport
Savings Bank building.
The model, as said before, is worked now
by electricity, but in every other particular
it is rugged as will be the large vessel. 1t
will be readily seen how radical an i'm
provement Is Prof. Ritchell, plan over
the exploded thories Of former inventors Of
submarine vessels.-E2cctricai Magazine.