The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1892-06-25
AN INDIA RUBBER NAVY.

An Indiana Man Thinks tronciads Have
Got TO Give Way TO Rubber
As the man was going out Of the big
hotel he whispered TO me in sepulehral
tones, Colonel Rice IL not right In his
upper story-he Is clean daft"
Ina few minutes saw the jocund face
OF Colonel James II. Rice, ex-auditor OF
Indiana, coming from the elevator. He
looked perfectly sane, and asked him who
his friend was that had Just departed
THAT man, said the colonel "is pro.
moter, and has not given me a moments
rest since arrived In the city, I've just
let him In on the ground floor Of an idea OF
mine and have shown him illustrations OF
IL, offered to have him elected vice presi.
dent Of a company that is not formed. II
my idea is put into execution II will rcvo.
lutioni1e naval warfare, and an ironclad
will be as harmless rs n barge carrying a
load of Sunday school oXcursionists."
The colonel invited me to his room,
where saw a number OF illustrations In
the rough of queer looking ships. asked
him to explain them. His eyes beamed
with pleasure as he proceeded TO elucdato
his ideas. "The cuts" he said, represent
war vessels armored with tough india rub.
Der, Each vessel Is protected with rubber
seven feet in thickness and with enough
give or elasticity TO IL to send the largest
ball ever fired against il bounding back
into the water, admit that the common
rubber is not Of sufficient toughness to re.
sist the impact Of the ordinary cannon
ball, but the rubber intend to use is not
common. Every man who makes an in.
an1 oh ii Ia.
ods to the past is in the beginning consid.
cred crank. But do not mind any
little epithet OF that kind"
"What is the tall spire in the vessels"
That" said the scientific colonel, 'is
the lookout. 1t Is tower that can be tele-
scoped in n second to the surface Of the
vessels deck and erected in the same space
of time. II is 500 feet high. There is only
one smokeStack and il can be taken down
in a minute. CannonI All! that Is Sc.
cret, but | shall tell you because you are
not promoter In the rear of the vessel
there is a turret tower with four destruc.
tive guns. You don't see it, eh9 Well,
neither do |, but ifthe enemy appeared, by
manipulating machinery there would rise
from the hull of the vessel u turret, pro-
tected by india rubber and ready to sink a
fleet of ironclads. Everything on the deck
of my india rubber vessel can be dropped
below in few moments"
Have you ever studied that branch Of
mathematics which treats of trajectory
The colonel had, and added: MY boy,
ball dropped on the deck of one of my YES
sells would bound mile high. There
is absolutely no powder or force strong
enough to drive ball into the rubber"
"One more question, colonel How long
have you had this peculiar elastic ideap
st came TO me as an inspiration five
years ago. | was in Chicago and wea-
zened faced man with voice that sounded
like the noise made by tearing calico made
life miserable to me- He had scheme,
and for week he became my shadow, try
ing to get me to go into it. | worked out
the india rubber vessel and for three hours
l earnestly explained to him the fortune in
it If he would accept the vice presidency.
From that time he has never said scheme
to me again. have shown 1t to dozens Of
promoters and have talked so much about
it that really think some kind of rubber
can be made TO resist and throw back can
non balls. New York Herald.