Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1886-12-10
A Wonderful Invention by shrewd Van
kee which will Prove blessing Z,

many honest though Ignorant men, but
subsequent development verl6es the fact
that the wire fence cutting In Texas is
merely to open up avenues OF escape for
horse and cattle thieves. 1t seems that
In most instances these midnight wire
destroyers have baflled the effoIts of off,
GERS TO capture them, and the act OF the
legislature making fence cutting felony
only served to raise laugh Of derlsion,
and the wires were clipped as bad, or
worse than ever. Recently the state ran
gers have made things lively, and one Of
their number, Ira Aten, has done more
detective work in this line than any other
man IN Texas. But Notwithstanding
caught and quite number shot
and killed, the dirty work still
continues, and 1t has at last been the
active brain of New York Yankee that
has solved the problem, and through his
Ingenuity will either stop fence-cutting
altogether, or make 1t so dangerous a
man will only attempt it once in life
time.
While EN- route from San Antonio to
Temple, this week, 1t was my fortune to
fall in with one Of the sharpest, shrewdest
little gentlemen ever met, and the cool
weather, added TO friendly little flask,
which / produced from my gripsack,
served to open up his conversational
powers, and soon learned that his name
was i. X. Wrenn. He is chemist by
profession, was born In Providence, Il.
l., but for the past three years had re-
tided at 1876 North Ireen street, New
York. During the course of our CONVEX
sation Mr.. Wrenn became confidential
and after pledging me to the profound est
secrecy, he said: 81 have solved the ques-
ton OF fence-cutting in Texas to GER
tainty, and in less than three months you
will never hear Of wire fence being mo-
Tested"
"In what manner do you propose to
stop it, Mr.. WrennY" | inquired.
81 viii show YOU" he answered, and
opening large vslise, he took out
queer looking object, handed it to me and
continued: "There is the angel Maker
patented and manufactured by f. X
Wrenn & Co., aud guaranteed TO kill,
MAIN and demolsh more fence. cutters in
ten minutes than you can haul off in
freight car"
l hastily handed it back to him and told
him wasn't making any experiments In
explosives just then, but he laughed
and assured me the object / held
in my hand was harmless In its
present condition, and proceeded to
explain the object and aims of the inven-
ton. The CANCEL Maker" as Mr. Wrenn
has facetiously christened his terrible
production, is simply pear-shsped, hol-
low bomb, made of cast iron. The cast
ing is one-eighth Of an inch thick, and
the small end can be unscrewed, showing
a cavity capable Of holding something
over quart After unscrewing the top,
and showing me the empty bomb, Mr..
Wrenn continued; "I manufactured the
first of these bombs during the summer,
but l was not able to put them on the
market until few weeks ago, since
which time 1 have sold in Texas alone
over
QUARTER OF A MILLION BOMBS.
They are operated thus The top is
unscrewed ana the bomb poured full of
an explosive geatine (also manufactured
by me-, a compound that is far stronger
than dynamite. This compound will
only explode by heavy shock,
either by electricity, or otherwise.
You notice at the top Of this lid is a small
aperture. This is where the cap or ex-
ploder is inserted. TO this little knob
very fine copper wire IS attached, aud cut
of at any desired length. Then the
owner OF the fence simply makes an ex-
| cavation some twelve or eighteen inches
deep, about every 100 yards along the line
OF his fence, usually near the post, and
places an 'Angel-Maker' in each hole, He
then runs the fine wire up the post, In
order to conceal it, and fastens it to the
bottom wire Of the'fence. The bomb is
utterly harmless up to now. He then
moves this little screw half an inch to the
right, which presses the cap firmly down
INTO the gelatine, replaces the dirt in the
mole, and conceals 1t with trash, etc.
Now suppose Mr.. Fence cutter comes
along some night afterwards, plying his
festive nippers. He will never see or
notice the little gauze-llke wire, but with
MS shears will clip the barbed wire.
when he cuts the wire it always Jerks
violently towards the post, being tightly
stretched, this easily explodes the fric.
ton cap, and Mr.. Fence-cutter will
suddenly imagine h has turned loose
IN Georgia. One of these angel Makers
placed eighteen inches underground, will
blow out an excavation like a cellar, and
hurl rock and dirt hundreds of feet in
every direction. The concussion alone
Will Kill man or beast within sixty feet,
ana man within seventy-hve yards will
not be very likely to escape uniniured.
AT an experiment / made near Little
Rock, stone weighing over 100 pounds
was blown 1900 feet. The destruction
made by this gelatine is simply terrific.
nave seen or correspondent with every
man In Texas who has suffered from fence
cutters, and nearly every one to a man
mas given me an order, and the bombs are
being secretly shipped all over the state.
II won't be long before youth hear from
tnem' After gang of fence.cutters
tackles one Of my Angel Makers, IL
won't be three seconds until they are in
Aoraham's BOSOM l do not have the
least doubt of the rascally work stopping
Just as soon as the fepce-cutters under
sianu the danger they face OF course,
some lew will go ahead and will be blown
into mince meat, but their friends win
soon catch on to the racket, so to speak,
and and then the fence cutting will be at
an end. will give you this empty shell
as a curiosity"
AT this moment the brakeman yelled
"T-e-m-ple," end after bidding the bust