Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1885-01-03
AN INVENTORS PERIL.

The lane, leading east from Chatham
street, is sometimes called Golosh
street. It is greasy, sodden, dirt-laden
place, crowded with junk shops and sec
ond-hand clothing stores. ST. Vrain,
the inventor, for q long time occupied
the top floor of No. 10. 1t was large
unfinished loft, with naked, smoke
stained, cobwebbed rafters overhead,
and two dingy windows looking down on
the Goloshian pavement, with its seven
distinct strata of dirt. Since St. Nrain
had hired this comfortless garret, ten
years before, no foot of stranger had
lord. Only after nightfall did the IN
ventor himself leave the place, nor, even
then, until he had locked and double
locked both his trap-door and the door
at the foot of the stair. Occupying the
central portion of the attic, aud reach
ing from window to window, was the
machine upon which ST. Vrain had spent
his fortune. At each end of the room
was an upright, cylindrical mass of
metal, covered with polished knobs Of
silver, connected together by wires, and
insulated from the floor by plates of
glass. The metal was steel, but it was
steel which had been submitted to q
costly and secret process, and treated
with VARIOUS chemicals, for q purpose
now to science. In the space between
these huge cylinders, each one fifteen
feet high, were retorts, blowpipes, work
benches, and all the tools of an expert
chemist, also forge, and the tools Of o
worker in metal. When one examined
moro closely the huge steel cylinders, it
was seen that they were made of small
plates riveted together, and, huge as
the task seemed, it was evident that one
mans unaided labor had produced it.
st. Vrain sat beside his workable,
one night in August, and looked at the
cylinders of steel. He touched knob,
close at hand, and soft, lambent flame
began to play about each. The dull
metal became fairly luminous. and a
delicate sound, clear and vibrant as that
of an E,lian harp, stirred the dull air.
at is DONE" said st. Vrain, "and the
forty million dollars that my grandfather
rifed from the treasure-vault Of the
Incas. i'll the heart of the Andes, are
nearly spent for the sake Of this, my
Gift to poor, struggling humanity.
Never yet have I said word, and so, ii
[ died tonight, and careless hands
wrested apart my cylinders, half OF New
York might perish; l must write down
the outline"
He found a large sheet of coarse
brown wrapping paper, and began te
write. Steadily for several hours, the
words flowed. from his pen till both
sides of the sheet were covered with III
most microscopic writing. Then he lef
It ON the table and went into the stree;
below. returning with q miserable cur,
which he had cajoled upstairs with
bit of bread.
ST yrain now touched another knot
The light that shone from one o. 'o'
tall cylinders grew brighter and ITS color
varied from pale pearl and clear opal &c
lemon and orange, rose and crimson and
tremulous violet: the light that shont
from the other changed to somhre and
inexpressibly mournful tint, from one
came sense of Joy and warmth and vi
tality, from the other sense oi pam
and cold, and decay.
Life and Death, North and South
Pole" cried St. Vrain, exultingly
Now, let me test the invention that an
initiates time and space and sets the
human race free from its bonds, and
makes us gods on earth. and gives Us 9
thousand years of life y
He picked mp the crouching dog al
his feet, ana hastily scrawling lev
~or5a on a spran aG manor tied IL by