The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1885-06-18
A sTRANm CLmNT.
He Describes HIs Adventure With . ROCK
ct and Dumb6ounds bis Lawyer.

sauntering down Broadway recently
when he was accosted by cripple In
clearly garb. 81 am told that you are
a lawyer" the cripple said. 'tMr.
George Hopcraft, of Franklin street,
recommended you TO me-"
Mr.. Williams was unusually pleas
ant. fancying he was securing q valu-
able client. ''Yes," he replied. ''Pm
at your service" He took the cripple
into his office, invited him to take 8
chair, crossed his own legs, assumed q
Chauncey Shaffer expression of coun-
tenance, and in a deep and forensic
tone of voice invited the man to Estate
his case"
The cripple hesitated. He cleared
out his throat, and began: 'tMr. Hop
craft told me you had invented mon
key-wrench, and that you were inter-
ested in inventions. ! would like to
tell you bit of the unwritten history /
of scientific devotion. There was once |
a young machinist's apprentice who |
worked hard by day TO earn q living.
and at night pursued his studies. Aft |
er five years of steady application he
was considered one of the best men in
the shop, and was in position to lay by |
money to conduct those experiments
on which his heart was set His pas
sion was the invention OF projectlles
for use in time of war, but his mind
was especially bent on improving the
modern rocket While bordering
over the value of rockets as signals he
was suddenly seized with a desire to
know whether rockets could not be
made large enough to rise mile in the
air, and-it was q wild thought-carry
the weight of a man. He was fasci-
mated by the idea. 1t was of little
practical value, but the more he thought
about it the more he became convinced
that it could be done. You will say
that If it were possible for a man to
rise up with q rocket he would be
dashed to pieces when he came down
with the stick. This thought also oc-
CURED to the young inventor, but he
was ready to overcome that objection.
He began by making an experiment by
which he demonstrated that common
ten-ounce rocket which would rise to
height of 500 feet, when loaded with
rod of iron weighing eight ounces,
would rise to 100 feet. Then he con-
structed cylinder of the best sheet
steel 20 feet long, pointed at the top,
and foot in diameter. To fill this he
made q compound which would exert
q pressure of 100 pounds to the square
inch on the air without, through the
whole 115 square inches of what will
call the muzzle of the rocket. In 9th
er words, the rocket would have a lift
ing force of p tons. The figures seem
startling, but they are accurate.
81 should say here that the construc-
| ton of this cylinder caused much COM
ment in the shop where he worked, but
as there are always numbers of invent
ors in every shop he was not interrupt
| ed. When his cylinder was completed.
he placed it up against an unused wing
of the shop. Instead of the ordinary
| rocket-stick, he prepared a slender
| piece of gas-pipe, at the end of which
| was a conica1 sheet-iron basket, point
up, with wire grating across the
bottom, through which a man could
| enter. Hero was the place in which
the inventor intended to crouch while
the rocket shot up through the clouds
$50 far he had taken no one into his
confidence, but when he was ready to
fill the cylinder with explosives, and
attach the stick with its basket, and
the apparatus which was to ease the
fall, he needed help. Two trustworthy
comrades gave it. They helped hin
secure parachute around the huge
cylinder which was intended to open
to a spread of forty feet as he fell
They rammed home the explosive tina
was to send the whole flying upward
and when all was ready, hoisted the
whole up SO that it leaned over the tor
of the high factory just as common
rocket leans on a common guide.
long fuse ran down and came up under
the basket SO that the inventor coulC
fire it himself. The last touches of the
work were completed at night, and the
two tired assistants went homo antici
pating a wonderful exhibition in thu
morning.
'It was just midnight as the inventor
saw his companions pass out through
the yard gate and heard their footsteps
die away down the street. 1t was {
beautiful starlight night, and right il
line with the huge rocket Mars shown
with unwonted beauty. The supreme
moment of the inventors life haC
come. He was to see the fruition o
his labors alone, with none to chez
his success and none to taunt him if ht
failed. He raised the wire screeI
across the bottom of his narrow rest
| ing place and climbed in, drew mattel
, down the steel rib of his basket, anC
fired the end of the fuse. 1t smoldereC
for moment, and then the brigh
, scintillation broke out, and, sputtering
} disappeared from his view. His hear
leaped into his throat with suspense
and then in sea of flame and smok
the earth sank out of sight. Gaspini
! for breath in the suffocating gas AM
delirious with pain, he crouched on hi
grating and prayed for death. An ag
! seemed to have passed, when sudden
ly the roar ceased, the smoke was gone
and the pure air of heaven was cooling
his brow. He recovered instantly, an,
3 for moment, as the rocket of its ow1
| inertia scared aloft, he was able +
look around. The city was a dar
blotch scanned and checkered with tn
lighted streets far below. The river
and the bay sparkled starlight. The
he began to descend, gently for tim
as the parachute caught the air, but
moment later his basket began to sway
He had forgotten to leave a hole TO
= the escape of the compressed air in tn
apex of the parachute. 1t was awfu
8 His basket was like hugo pendulum
increasing its motions with every foe
l. it descended. He was thrown froI
It side to side, and dazed by the rapi
motion. Then in the hurried descen
. as he began to distinguish the tall TEN
ments of the East side, q new per
arose. He would be dashed sidewaJ
J. ~
The lawyer held up his hands. Tt
cripple hesitated, flushed slightly, an
continued:
Eyes, sir, am the man. The era
u ing gave way when the basket strucl
My arm was cut off as if by a knit
4 and my leg was broken. It has new
been as good as before. Money wei
for Doctors bills. can no long
q work at my trade am wholly di
heartened, and only when looking
the triumphs of other scientific me
g do feel a relief from the constant mi
re- cry of my existence. If you could
e Thanks"
Mr.. Williams had given the cripple
stranger q quarter, taking his Gig
II from his mouth meanwhile, and sa
d ing: Don't mention it." The cri
a pie inquired the way to the elevat
and disappeared.-NesO York Sun.