davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The San Francisco call., 1898-01-09

mutations would be placed unon vortax atoms or any conceivable shane: hence. says Professor Dolbear, if the vortex theory be true, there must be an upper limit or temperature. When the vortex atom has reached its limit of vibration. neat cannot become more excessive
 NOW, the physicists have long held that there IS lower limit of temperature-a so-caIIed absolute Zero-reached when the atom altogether ceases to vibrate. and the question has highly interesting bearings, because it brings into consider atlon no less problem than the age of the solar system. Astronomers and phy- siclsts are agreed that the sun, the earth. and the other bodies of our system are cooling globes, and the calculations of the age or our system are based on the rate or loss Of heat, an. estimate of which is derived from direct observation of the sun In its present relatively cool state. These estimates have been made most carefully by Lord Kelvin himself, but neither he nor any one else thought of taking into account the possibility that the original nebulous body which was ul- timately to become our solar system may have had limited temperature Yet this possibility is most important one, since of course the rate of cooling of any body depends in part upon its degree of tenn perature.
The San Francisco call., 1898-01-09

In the neighborhood of the engine room. Is quite sufficient to stop any merchant steamer, while thanks to the high explosives now in use, two or three shots would probably send her to the bottom.
 All the battle-ships, monitors, crui- sers or other ships of war which could be gathered together in San Francisco harbor would be powerless against such a little vessel. A clean pair of heels is the best of all defenses, and she would never stay to fight an enemy of superior force. Her mission would be to attack only unarmed commercial vessels. When man-of-war with real guns came along she would sim ply run away, and seek shelter in her own port, or with the fleet to which she was attached.
 Nelson, in the old days when his
The San Francisco call., 1898-01-09

connected with them is in equally good condition. They need to be, for when going at full speed the engines make 40 revolutions a minute, using steam at an initial pressure of 2S0 pounds.
 In two other compartments. sepa- rated by water-tight bulkheads, you will find the four water-tube boilers which take up the largest portion of the ship. Each boiler has its own smokestack, low, raking affair. and they simply eat coal, so that if the boat travels at full speed she will ex- haust her supply of fuel in twenty four hours. But in that time she will have travelled 76S knots, or over S7O land miles. In fact. she cuts through
The San Francisco call., 1898-01-09

space at rate equal to an ordinary train, short of the fast expresses.
 Herein lies the great value of these boats, which are destined to play a leading part in the naval warfare of the future.
 The torpedo-boat destroyer, or torpe- do-catcher, as she is more commonly though erroneously called, was devel- cped from the torpedo gunboat, a ves- sel designed to protect battle-ships from the insidious attacks of the wasp like torpedo-boa But the gunboat was found too slow for the service, and so, some three years ago, the torpedo catcher came into existence, the main idea being a sea-going vessel in which every other consideration should be sacrificed to that of speed. She was hrst put to practical test during the British naval maneuvers of 1895, and
The San Francisco call., 1898-01-09
NEW TERROR OF THE NAVY-TFIE TORPEDO CHASER

torpedo catchers is far in advance of all other torpedo boats.
 We made over thirty-two knots on our trial trip" the engineer went on. Vibration, of course. she shook just like that" and he waved his arm to and fro like a tree branch shaken by a gale.
 Still, you see, the hull is built in such an elastic way that the vibration doesn't matter, nor does it affect the engines; they run just as smoothly as clockwork. No racing nor heating. Look at that bearing; it's been in use all the voyage"
 He pointed to big piece of shining brass, which certainly showed no signs of wear. There are two sets of triple expansion engines, on either side of the narrow passage, and the enthusiastic engineer assures me that every bearing
The San Francisco call., 1898-01-09

every sea-some are in the Mediterra- mean, some on the Atlantic coast, others in China, and already there are two in Pacific waters.
 The European nations. though a long way behind, are following suit, and l wonder if the people of San Francisco, prosperous in their huge coastwise commerce, really realize the terrible power of the insignificant lit- tie vessel which lay so peacefully in the waters of the bay last week. Search the whole of the United States coast from Cape Cod to the Rio Grande, from Puget Sound to San Diego, and you will not find a single sea-going vessel with anything like the same speed. In the event of a war with England the whole commerce of the Pacific Coast would be at the mercy of one of these little vessels.
The San Francisco call., 1898-01-09

water on deck it did no harm, and at any rate she passed safely through the worst weather off the Horn. thus demonstrating her sea-going capaci- ties. Even If she be but an enlarged torpedo boat, she differs from others of her class in being able to hold the sea in all weathers, and in this, com bined with phenomenal speed, rests the significance of this most recent freak of naval architecture.
 Climb down another hole in the cen ter of the deck a-d you find yourself in the heart of the ship. A narrow, long room, simply packed with the most complicated machinery. It looks indeed as if you had got inside the works of a big watch; everything is so delicate, so accurately fitted, so mutually dependent, one part upon the other.
The San Francisco call., 1898-01-09

the result may be gathered from the utterance of a distinguished naval of ficer who carefully watched the whole proceedings.
 The impression lett on my mind by the maneuvers was that all the pres ent types of tOrpedo-boats are obso- lete, and that probably no more will be built But 1 believe that boats of the size of the Destroyer will take their place in every navy, and that competi- tion as regards the numbers owned will begin. England has the start"
 Experience has justified the predic- tion, for Great Britain has already a hundred of the boats, either built or building. They are scattered over
The San Francisco call., 1898-01-09

LUST outside Elkton, Mch lives perhaps the oldest
 \ married couple in the ~ 'N'@' u There have been several well authenticated cases of v men reaching a greater than Jacob Hler has seen completed There have been many women who have lived longer Hitler m nearly ip But probably it has happened to any otier youth and maiden, marrying former M , ana the latter IS to together years of welded celebrate their golden brate their diamond wedding have thirteen vea
 or welded life together after ~ SeaiS
 When the Hiltons married the Tinted S+o+a, r.
 puny little nation the point of going war one oroent with England the with France and nsnItad nri brow-beaten by Napoleon was at the heSbt f hi ~N '"S heShl oI nls A I'm 1oS years old' said MT. from the aentbs o, ms capacious chair in speaking his married I,fe
 My birthday was the twentieth October. so you see I m pretty well started going hooIso nc ns toward Mrs Hitler in her chair opposei De iQo next March about 22 when the nS 1Sa M broke out But we the other side you know and lived there till old' .' N@A"ua'
The San Francisco call., 1898-01-09

three-deckers swept the French from the Mediterranean, Use, to speak of the frigates as the eyes of the fleet and in his correspondence he constant " complains or the lack of these handy NesSels' But the very swiftest of fri sdtes was merely snail compared to sne loFpeoo destroyer. Think what Neisoh would have given to have had a vessel al his command which could SCOUT seven or eight hundred miles of ocean III day Keeping him constantly Ill 'ouch With the doings of his en- emy.
 1nls IS a function which the new craIt IS, above all other things. espe- claliy htted to perform, and it is safe
The San Francisco call., 1898-01-09

From Esquimalt to San Francisco Is but a distnce of 75O knots. which the Virago, if pushed to it, could cover in day.
 The fastest mail steamer which tra- verses the ocean would be helpless against her, let alone the mere coast ing boat. Even the record breaking China would be easily overhauled by the Virago, and there would be nothing for it to do but to surrender. or else go to the bottom.
 It is true that the armament of the Virago and her sisters is not heavy, she carries but one 12-pounder gun and five 6-pounders. But shell from even the smallest of these weapons, planted
The San Francisco call., 1898-01-09

The engineer in charge pats the spot less brass and steel of the cylinders lovingly. He has that affection for his machinery which is common to all men in whom the mechanical spirit is fully developed.
 "Steams well. I should say so. I've been with her since she was built at Laird's yard in Birkenhead. Know Laird's?"
 Know Laird's. I should think I did. and so does every American, for the story of the Alabama, and the famous shipbuilding firm which turned her out will never be forgotten. And just as the Alabama was far in advance of the cruisers of her day, so the new type of
The San Francisco call., 1898-01-09

Your children scattered?"
 we have had children" replied Mir IJiuar and seven of them still oldest is S5 and the youngest IS 5S years old One of call on her" " ~ ' van o'ei 'o ..s5 N99 do % not seem like so old man." Meii Said he with shrl laugh. Why was SS years yea % old before lost first tooth, cut two new ones since then. I've glasses in m life and can thread a needle as you can | don't sleep as well as used to, though"
 And Mrs.
 o,a iE Ee Kept house eghtyeght years. piped up the olu ,euy put I don't do much I'm pretty teeDie pretty feeble can't much, I'm most ranS ana can read: but dearly people % tinas to me get lonesome sitting here long Some sitles nIy sranochildren come and read And h are sent to me for them to read always keep What & kind Of reading do you like best?" Poetry"
 With all thy Qutckening powers;
 Come shed abroad
 And that shall quicken ours.
The San Francisco call., 1898-01-09

with all the emphasis that characterizes his delivery:
 The vortex theory is only a dream-it is only a dream"
 Was ever there a more astounding pronouncement than that? Was ever there finer test of the true greatness of any man? A lesser man than Lord Kel- win, having propounded a theory that found favor with the world would have dwelled and harped upon that theory all his life, twisting facts if need were to correspond with it, warping everything into shape to fit its needs. Such is the history of almost every theory, true or false. Yet here was the author of the vortex theory treating that theory as if it were a chance spark from his brain which might quite as well be allowed to die away and disappeari
The San Francisco call., 1898-01-09
THE VORTEX
 THEORY.

 ever been propounded. The thinking world so regarded it, and took 1t up with acclaim, and made 1t the foundation of all manner of other beautiful specula- tions. It had a simplicity that appealed to every philosophical mind for it en- abled the thinker to reduce the entire universe to ether in motion
 One had but to assume a few different kinds of vortices (the simplest of them circular in form, but others perhaps va riously convoluted) to account for the diff ferent chemical and physical properties of the elementary bodies; and in the minds eye, one had in the ether that ul- tinate, unique matter, the foundation substance of the universe.
 If then man may take pride in his achievements, 1t would seem that the author of this theory might well be ex- cused if he held this child of his brain in little more tender regard than any other of his mental offspring and the astonishment of his interviewer may well be imagined when the vortex theory be- ing mentioned Lord Kelvin exclaimed
The San Francisco call., 1898-01-09
SCIENCE OF
 THE FUTURE.

 mind. His freedom from prejudice is pef< haps the very highest of mental endow- ments. One feels glad that he answered just as he did about all these half-vision- ary and half-scientific speculations But all the same there is pleasure and some times profit in the occasional unleashing of the imagination. and the scientific world is to be congratulated that once upon time Sir William Thomson per mitted himself to dream the dream of the vortex atom. Nor is it at all certain that future generations will decide that it was "only a dream" Certainly the main body of scientists of our day could by no means be persuaded to hold the vortex theory as lightly as 1t is held byits author. When genius dreams, they say, there is always a chance that it may dream true" De- spite Lord Kelvin's modest estimate therefore, the vortex theory certainly will not be discarded until some better theory shall have come to take it's place and of that there is as yet no sign of promise
The San Francisco call., 1898-01-09

perfectly understood until the precise nature of the atoms of matter themselves Is made clear.
 But Professor Dolbear has pointed out
The San Francisco call., 1898-01-09

lessor Dewar and other investigators have liquefied the gases, and even re- duced many of them to a solid condition, producing an almost unima ginable degree of cold. It having been shown that the same body changes from gaseous to liquid and from liquid to solid states, simply in virtue of changed temperature, the ques- ton has naturally arisen to what will happen when body is reduced to con- dition in which the vibration of it's atoms altogether ceases. The particles of a gas are so active that they fly asunder, re- duce their activity (that is to say, de- crease their temperature), and they move freely over one another and assume the liquid condition, make them still more quiescent and a solid results. Will there, then, be another change of state when they are made absolutely quiescent at the absolute zero point?
 But, regarding this point also, Lord Kelvin's scientific caution asserted itself. "The experiments now being made are most interesting and most important" but as to what they would show beyond the range of present experiment he de- clared himself utterly unable to surmise. ''NNe must wait and see,' he said.
 eve must wait and seei" If every scientific worker would adopt that for his maxim how much less there would be of crude speculation in the world?
The San Francisco call., 1898-01-09
THE HIGHEST
 TEMPERATURE.

ature. As most people know nowadays.
 the condition we term heat is held by
 the physicist to be merely a mode of motion, vibration or quiver among the particles of matter. The precise nature or this vibration cannot, of course, be
The San Francisco call., 1898-01-09
HIS IDEA OF
 GRAVlTATlON.

familiar of phenomena, yet most inscrut- able of mysteries. Before the advent of the vortex theory the only plausible at tempt to explain gravitation was that of the Swiss philosopher, Le Sage, who sup posed that myriads of what he called "ultramundane corpuscles" are flying through space everywhere, and having the effect of pushing all bodies toward one another. But of late the thought of the vortex atom has suggested that gray itation may be in fact what it seems, pull due to a sort of suction of the whirl- ing atoms.
 When asked whether this theory ap- pealed to him as it does to many think CTS of our time, or whether he preferred the rival theory of Le Sage. Lord Kelvin said, with even more than wonted em- phasis: NO, no, no; l accept neither theory; I accept no theory of gravitation. Present science has no right to attempt to explain gravitation. We know nothing about 1t; we simply know nothing about it'
 To convey by words the peculiar em- phass and intonation with which that verdict was pronounced would be im- possible. It would require hardihood, in- deed. in any one who heard it to attempt an explanation of gravitation until such time as new data shall have come to our aid. A subject about the cause of which Gin the opinion of Lord Kelvin we know absolutely nothing is not likely to be illuminated by any other person speaking from the basis of present knowledge This, of course, is far from saying that new data may not come to hand to-mor- row, or next year, or next century, which will solve the problem. Lord Kelvin. gifted with perennial freshness of imagi- nation, would be the last person to assert the finality of present knowledge. But it is certainly a salutary check upon the egotism of our time to be told that the wisest living physicist, the man who has been called the Newton of our age, knows as little of the cause why a stone tossed into the air falls back 10 the earth, as the boy who losses the stone.
The San Francisco call., 1898-01-09

brate to the extent of becoming com
 pletely collapsed-just as a tuning fork can only vibrate to the extent of bringing its two prongs in contact. Corresponding
The San Francisco call., 1898-01-09

that if the vortex theory be true, then
 there must be peculiar limitations to the atoms possibilities of vibration. A ring shaped atom, for example, could only vii
The San Francisco call., 1898-01-09
T h s question

T his question is one that appears to have had pecul- far interest for l. O r d Kelvin. It even brought him almost to the point
The San Francisco call., 1898-01-09

Another most fn- teresting specula- tion in which Lord Kelvin is interest ed has reference to the 6 b s or bin g question O f { h e limits of temper
The San Francisco call., 1898-01-09
HER OTHER NAME.

A lady who wanted a servant so badly that she took one without a recommendation, or even an introduce tion. happened one day to look into a book which belonged to the girl, and immediately thereafter went to her with some uneasiness expressed in her face.
 "Is this your book, Susie?" she asked.
 ''Yes'm''
 How is this tAen? When vou came you told me your name was Susie stokes, but here in this book is the name Bridget Lafferty.'"
 It's all right, ma'am," said the girl.A that's me nondy-plume!"
The San Francisco call., 1898-01-09

LOrd Kelvin WAS asked if he leaned toward the ac- ceptance of any
 particular theory in explanation of gravitation - that most universal and
The San Francisco call., 1898-01-09

M N tenn, the future of the sun, or
 II " the probable length of time
 that life has been possible on our globe, the name of Lord Kelvin is sure to be mentioned as the authority for the opinion given
 But for that matter, there is hardly any other question to which physical science has application, of which about the same thing may not be said for Lord Kelvin's interests and mental activities appear to have no barriers short of the very limits of present human knowledge while the original cast of his thought Is such that almost any topic on which he touches is sure to reveal novel and unexpected relations.
 It was in reference to one of his spec ulatfons, and one that easily takes rank among the foremost scientific imaginings of any age, that he very kindly granted an interview recently. This speculation has to do with that ever fascinating question of the ultimate nature of mat ter.
 When Lord Kelvin (Sir William Thom- son as he was them came forward with his very extraordinary vortex theory 1t was based upon mathematical calcula- tions of that other great physicist, Von Helmholtz, which took tangible form in Lord Kelvip's mind while he was watch ing the activities of some curious little whirling rings of smoke in the air, simi- lar to those with which every tobacco smoker is familiar.
 Helmholtz had shown that such a vor- tex whirl once started in a frictioniess medium must, theoretically, 4o on for ever. The vortex whiIls of smoke in the air of course do not go on forever be- cause their medium is not frictionless; but Lord Kelvin observed that while they last they exhibit Q similar stability and though composed of mere wreaths of smoke. take upon themselves the proper ties of solid bodies, in virtue of the mo- tion, just as a moving bicycle assumes the property of upright rigidity. And the thought came to him that if a vortex whirl were started in the ether, which physicists assume as penetrating space everywhere, such as an ether vortex Gn- fnitesimal in size, of course) would have the properties of a particle of what we term matter. This thought expanded be- came the vortex theory of matter.
The San Francisco call., 1898-01-09

It IS well Within bounds to say that this is the most fascinating and beautiful concep- tion of the ulti- mate nature of matter that has
The San Francisco call., 1898-01-09

And so Lord keI- wins scientific eau ton serves more almost than any thing else visible about him to im- press one with the, greatness O f hi S
The San Francisco call., 1898-01-09

Of the same tenor W e r e t h c g r e a t physicists s comments on the probable outcome of the experiments now being made with low tempera- Aoa-z @A
The San Francisco call., 1898-01-09
IS THE EARTH
 SOLID ?

Ol d controversy at one time with the biologists (and his life has been singularly free from contro- versies), because he could only allow them 100000, 900 years for the existence of life on the globe; and with the geologists because his calculations led him to be- leve that the earth is solid to the core and at least as rigid as steel while they stood out for a fluid interior
 Hence 1t was to be expected that Pro- lessor Dolbear's suggestion. based as it is on one speculation of Lord Kelvin's, and tending, if supported, to vitiate the force of one of his important speculative calculations, should at once interest the author of the vortex theory and the cal- culator of the earth's age. And so it did He either had not chanced to hear of the suggestion before, or else courteously feigned surprise over it. In either case, it unquestionably interested him intense ly; but when 1t came to the expression of an opinion as to the validity of Professor Dolbear's conclusions, that was quite an- other matter
 Tt is interesting he said, "most inter esting: but it Is based solely upon the vortex theory, and the vortex theory, as I have said. is quite improved. and itself can prove nothing-nothing whatever. We must not heap theory on theory, dream upon dream. We must wait and see. If there be an upper limit of temperature. experiment may some time demonstrate 1t, but the vortex theory cannot prove 1t in advance, for the vortex theory is only a dream. It can prove nothing"
 Thus once more did the vortex theory, which is the adopted darling of many scientific imagination of our day, receive the cold shoulder from its rightful sponsor.
The San Francisco call., 1898-01-09

The first deaf-mute school in Great britain was established at Edinburgh in 1772.
The San Francisco call., 1898-01-09
ABSOLUTE
 ZERO POINT.


lures. Every one has heard that Pro
The San Francisco call., 1898-01-09

HENEVER one hears refer
 ence made to such questions as the age of the solar sys- sI tenn, the future of the sun, or " the probable length of time