The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1893-02-04
1 FORGOTTEN STORY OF INVENTION.

/ FORGOTTEN STORY OF INVENTION.
Solomon Caus Put in q Madhouse
for Discovering Steam Power.
There lived in Normandy, where
he was born, in 1875, q man named
Solomon Caus. He was an engi-
neer and architect, and had held
several important positions. He
wrote a great many scientific works
and papers, Of which, however, no
one took much notice during his
life, and finally was seized with an
idea which made his friends and
relatives think he was mad. After
pestering the King and the Cardi-
nal at Paris, he was ordered to be
taken to Bicetre-the mad house
and there shut up. This was done.
They had just one way with mad
people in those days. They shut
them in iron cages and fed them
through the bars like wild beasts.
They did this with Solomon Caus.
For long time he stood behind
those bars all day and called to
those who would listen, and to
them repeat the story he had told
the Cardinal. He became the jest
of the place. Some of them even
gave him writing materials, and
then, amid the misery Of his sur
roundings, he wrote down his ideas
and amused his jailers so much the
more. However it could not be
long before such a life, such sur
roundings, would shatter the brain.
In time Solomon Caus was as mad
as every one believed him.
It was in 1924 that an English
nobleman, Lord Worcester, went to
Paris and visited Bicetre. AS he
was passing through the great court
accompanied by the keeper, a hid
eous face with matted beard and
hair appeared at the grating and q
voice shrieked wildly, stop! stop!
I am not mad, am shut up here
most unjustly. / have made an in
vention which would enrich coun-
try that adopted it," "What does
be speak of" the Marquis asked his
guide. "Oh, that is his madness" +"
said the man, laughing. "That is
man called Solomon Caus; he
is from Normandy; he believes that
by the use of the steam of boiling
water he can make ships 60 over
the ocean and carriages travel by
land in fact, do all sorts of Won
derful things. He has even writ
ten book about it which | can
show you" Lord Worcester asked
for the book, glanced over it, and
desired to be conducted to the cell
of the writer. When he returned
he had been weeping. "The poor
man is certainly mad now" he said,
"but when you imprisoned him
here he was the greatest genius OF
the age. He has certainly made a
very great discovery" After this
Lord Worcester made many efforts
to procure the liberation of the
man, who doubtless would have
been restored to reason by freedom
and ordinary surroundings, but in
vain; the Cardinal was against him,
and his English friends began to
fancy that he himself had lost his
senses, for one wrote to another
MY lord is remarkable for never
being satisfied with any explana-
tions which are given him, but al
ways wanting to know for himself,
although he seems to pierce the
very center of a speakers thoughts
with his big blue eyes that never
leaves theirs. At a visit to Bicetre
be thought he had discovered a
genius in a mad man, who declares
that he would travel the world over
with kettle of boiling water. He
desired to carry him away to Lon
don that he might listen to his ex-
travagances from morning till
night, and would, l think, if the
maniac had not been actually raw
ing and chained to the WALL"
Thus in Bicetre died the man to
whom, after his works were pub
lished, many people gave the credit
of being the discoverer Of steam
power, and it is said that from the
manuscript written in his prison
Lord Worcester gathered the idea
of machine spoken of as a ''water.
commanding engine" which he af-
terwards invented. Historians have
denied that Caus died in prison
but there exists letter written by
Marion de Lorme, who was with
Lord Worcester at the time of hif
interview with Caus, which estab.
fishes the fact beyond doubt.-Ex
Nutmeg is Poisonous.
Cases are not infrequently re
ported in which children, and some
| times grown nersOng. are poisoned