Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1891-04-27
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at dinner party at Washington aston
ished the distinguished guests present,
including the President, the Chief JUS
tice, and Speaker Reed, by statements he
made, based on his California experience.
of the power of water in motion, as IL
Illustrated by hydraulic mining. Justice
Field, giving ex-senator Fair, of Nevada.
rs authority, stated that under vertical
pressure of 100 or 200 feet, the force of
the stream is sometimes so great as 10
hurl away or hold boulders weighing a
thousand pounds: and that it would be
no more possible TO cut through such a
stream with a crowbar or an axe. where
it issued from the nozzle, than 20 sever
eight inches of solid iron with penknife.
The distinguished guests were incredu-
lous, and Justice Field promised to coli
lect evidence in support of his statements
that would satisfy the doubters. He has
done SO, and the New York Sun has had
the opportunity of collating some Of tho
wonders of practical hydraulics gathered
by Justice Field. We think they viii
astonish the general reader who has paid
little attention TO this branch of me-
chanics.
MIR. Louis Glass, for 16 years the super
intendent of the Spring Valley mine, as
sures Justice Field that he has seen an 3
inch stream, under 3ll feet of vertical
pressure. move in sluggish way 2 ton
boulder at distance of 20 feet from the
nozzle; and that the same stream strik-
ing rock of 500 pounds would throw it
rs a man would throw a 20 pound weight.
:" No man that ever lived, adds Mr..
Louis Glass, "could strike bar through
one of these streams within 20 feet OF
disclarge and human being struck by
such stream would be killed--pounded
into shapeless mass Mr.. Augustus
j. Bowie, of SSa Francisco, the author
of a standard book ON hydraulic mining,
estimates that the stream from q inch
nozzle, under 450 feet vertical pressure,
delivers blow of 5SS, ,735 foot pounds
every second, equivalent to 1,070 horse
power. 1t is absolutely impossible,
says Mr.. Bowie, to cut such stream
with an axe or 10 make an impression ON
1t with any other implement. Mr..
Bowie adds that, although never to his
knowledge has man been struck by
such stream as il comes from the pipe,
several accidents have occurred where
miners We're killed by very much smaller
streams at distances of $50 or 200 feet
from the nozzle. After elaborate series
of computations, Professor Samuel b,
Christy, of the University of California,
an eminent authority on mining and
metallurgy, reports to Justice Field
| that
" If nozzle of from six to nine inches
diameter were specially arranged to throw
stream vertically upward against
| spherical boulder of quartz weighing
| 1000 pounds, the vertical head being any
where from 100 to 500 feet, the boulder
would be forced up until the diminished
velocity of the stream established an
equilibrium of pressure. There would be
point at which the upward pressure OF
the stream would exactly balance the
| gravity pressure of the boulder. holding
| 1t, the half ton rock, there suspended.
In practice, of course, the boulder could
not be balanced accurately upon the axis
of the stream, but would fall to one side
or the other. But if large conical bas-
ket of iron bars were arranged about the
nozzle so as to catch the boulder when
everit should be DETECTED from the stream
and return it to the nozzle, the 1,000pounds
of quartz would be kept in play like
ball in fountain. As to cutting these
streams, Professor Christy says that he
has often tried to drive crowbar into
one of them. The stream felt as solid as
bar of iron, and, although he could feel
the point of the crowbar enter the water
for perhaps half an inch, the bar was
thrown forward with such force that il
was almost impossible to retain it in the
grasp. An axe swung by the most power
full man alive could not penetrate the
stream: yet it might be cut by the finger
of child, if the child were seated on
railway train moving parallel with the
stream in the same direction and with
the same velocity. That velocity would
be considerably more than a mile a
minute.
Mark TwaIn's BoyhOod.
Sic was always a rascal, said r. e.
Norris, the painter, at 500 South Fourth
street, speaking of Mark Twain. Il was
born and raised in Hannibal, and know
when Mrs. Clemens Marks mother,
moved from Florida, Monroe county, to
4 AduulDai. MdTk Was q bbuptu, uuitt
slow going fellow, but he was full Of
pranks, and while he didn't do the mean
ness he planned it and got other boys to
do it. We went to school to DIR. Mere
dith, and Mark always sat near the foot
of the class. He never took any interest
in books, and / never saw him study his
lessons. He left school and went to
learn the printing business, and soon
after that left Hannibal and went TO
steamboating.
II staid at school, got good educa-
ton, and am painter, while Mark is a
millionaire. It is scandalOus fact that,
as boy from 10 to II years of age, Mark
was dull, stupid fellow, and it was the
wonder of the town as to what end
would be his. He was pointed out by
mothers as a boy that would never
/ amount to nothin', if he did not actually
come to some bad end. And he was the
most homely lad in school, too Franks !.
l can think of dozen Of 'em. And his
sHuckleberry Finn is full of Hannibal
episodes worked over. / read that with
as much interest as would a diary OF
Hannibal kept during my school days
Mark is three years older than myself, but
1 a ..Ia Of