davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1898-11-30
A Chance for Business.

The Fisher Sash Factory and water
power at Drewsville is to he pnt up at
auction Saturday, November 26, at P. M.
The best water power on Cold River.
H. E. PUTNAM.
Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1898-11-30
SHAVING PAPER HOLDER.
A Useful Christmas Gift For a Bach
eIOr Friend.

1t Is always difficult to think of an
appropriate Christmas gift for man,
especially if one wishes to make the
gift with ones own fingers. The ao-
companying sketch shows an amusing
and useful little article, easy to con
struct and serviceable to any man whs
shavss himself. It is holder for shaw
Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1898-11-30
Government Bonds

q. 8. 2 per cent bonds,
U S. new per cent bonds, registered,
U. S. new per cent bonds. coupon.
u S. old per cent bonds, registered,
q. S. old per cent bonds, coupon,
The herald., 1898-12-26

of track, which would girdle the globe
nearly seven times, or would traverse
it's diameter more than twenty one
the roads which make up the total were
hitched together in a single line, with
their tenders, they would compose q
train 357 miles long, extending from
Boston in a straight line to a point
thirty-six miles south of Philadelphia.
The freight cars of the country in line
would stretch from Boston to San
Francisco, from San Francisco back to
Boston, and again as far west as Chi
cago. The men employed to keep all
these roads, with their rolling stock,
etc., in running order, compose a body
as large as the active army of Ger
many, and more than half as large as
that of Russia.
In railway collisions people are very
apt to be imprisoned in the cars, which
frequently catch fire under such cir
cumstances, roasting their occupants to
death. Or else, If the train goes off a
bridge into a river, the unfortunates
are drowned like rats in trap. AS a
precaution against such misfortunes, T..
Powers of New York City has patent
ed a car which has a huge pan, as it
might be called, set in the roof. If the
car is overturned, the pan simply falls
out, and the passengers make their
exit through the big hole thus provid-
ed. Another style Of car, invented by
Albert Potts of Philadelphia has a roof
made separate from the body of the We
The herald., 1898-12-26

pected to approach. A steel spring
gives it the necessary motive power to
go mile, and it carries lighted torch
to give warning to the engineer Of the
approaching train.
Nearly all passenger trains are now
provided with automatic brakes and
driving wheel brakes for the locomo-
tives. For economy's sake, however.
most freight trains are deprived of
these appliances, without which they
are helpless masses when under way,
the engineer having no power to stop.
Through this helplessness occur near
ly all Of the frightful rear-end collis-
ions. AS is we'll known, trainmen are
most commonly killed when coupling
cars. 1t is reckoned that the average
life of switchman in a freight yard
is only seven years. About 500 men
lose their lives every year by being
blown or otherwise swept from the tops
of cars. One thing specially needed Is
that all "frogs"-i. e., V-shaped OPEN
ings between rails-shall be properly
blocked. Many people are killed annu-
ally by having their feet caught in
such places, being run over before they
can extricate them.
Copyright, 1898.
The herald., 1898-12-26

climbed trees It is asserted by pale
ontologists, and accepted as fact by
science generally, that "the first birds
were reptiles"-in other words, that GER
tain primitive reptiles learned to lear
from bough to bough on the trees, the
best of these arboreal jumpers surviv-
ing, until bird-like creatures We're
evolved. Light on this subject has been
thrown by the discovery of the fossil
"archaeopteryX," which seems to have
been half bird and half reptile. Even
at the present day certain birds, no
tably the ostrich. possess marked rep
lillian characteristics in respect to
structure.
AS is we'll known, all species of birds
do not fly equally well. Some, like the
"apteryx" of New Zealand and the ex-
tinct dodo, cannot fly at all. The os-
trich, for that matter, is a familiar ex-
ample of flightless birds. On the other
hand, the best of all flyers are the con-
dor and the man-o'war hawk, which
remain aloft for many hours together
without a perceptible motion Of their
wings. These birds weigh about 1000
times as much as the atmosphere by
which they are upheld, and the secret
of their buoyancy is simply that they
oppose their wings, like boys kite. to
the current of air, using the latter to
give the power for maintaining their
suspension. A man. relatively to the
air, weighs hardly more.
1t Is believed by Professor Langley
that properly constructed aerodrome
would have no trouble to uphold itself
while in motion. supposing that the en-
gineer in control knew how to defect
properly it's supporting wings. How
ever, he is not disposed to take unnec-
essary risks, and is inclined to recon-
mend that the first flying machines
that carry people shall be run on a
wire. but above the latter, floating
The herald., 1898-12-26
An Inventors Scheme to Avoid Telescoping.

Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge
and Orchard Knob combined. The
number of them injured annually is
greater than that of the wounded and
missing at Shiloh, Antietam and First
and Second Bull Run put together. In
the bloody Crimean conflict the British
lost $1,000 in killed and wounded-not
so many as are slain, manned and man
gled among the railroad men of the
United States in a single year. At the
famous battle of Sedan, which de-
stroyed the empire Of the last Ma
poleon, the loss on both sides in killed
and wounded was only a trifle more
than the killed and wounded among
our trainmen during the last twelve
month.
In view of such facts as these, how
important is the invention of H. l..
Simmons Of Wickes, (Mont.,) which en-
ables one train to pass another, going
in opposite directions on the same
track! A locomotive, according to his
idea, ought to carry in front of it an
inclined, plane-like, prolonged cow
catcher up which runs a pair Of rails.
These rails, of standard gauge, are
continued along the tops of the cars,
and descend to the track at the rear
end of the train by another inclined
plane. Thus. when two trains rush
upon each other, with every seeming
prospect of disastrous meeting, No.
simply mounts upon No. 2, runs over
the roof of the latter, and down at the
end, resuming it's journey just as If
The herald., 1898-12-26

There are several kinds Of patented
balloon railways, which are represent
ed to furnish a maximum Of safety for
passengers. One of these, invented by
A. j. Morrison Of Buffalo, Is upheld in
the air by series Of balloons-a whole
chain of them, stretching for as great
distance as may be desired. From
balloon to balloon is extended a wire.
from which the cars are hung, the lat
ter traversing the wire on a sort Of
trolley principle. But the beauty of this
contrivance is that no motive power Is
required, except such as is furnished
by gravity. Each balloon is connect
ed with the earth below by a cable,
which is wound and unwound by
means Of a drum, so that the gas bag
can be raised or lowered at will. Thus,
by altering the relative heights of the
balloons, the road to be Travelled can
always be made downhill, and the cars
move themselves.
To return to safety appliances for
railway use, J. C. Grass of Scranton.
Pa, has originated a device which Is
precaution against the carelessness
of engineers who fail to pause at cross
ings where the regulations require
them to stop. A little "trip" Is set on
the track, which makes instant con-
nection with the mechanism Of a loco
motive passing over it, so as to sound
the bell and whistle, set the brakes,
and shut off the steam, bringing the
train to a halt without any interven-
ton by the people on board.
When one thinks of it, there is much
interest in observing the fact that the
cowcatcher of to-day Is practically just
what it was when this safety contriv-
ance was first adopted. This is be-
cause it is of no use worth mentioning,
and it might fairly be regarded as a
mere conventional ornament of a loco
motive. Inventors have suggested vari-
Gus devices as substitutes, to catch
people up and hold them unharmed, or
else to throw them gently out of the
way, but none Of them has been found
satisfactory.
Railway signals, Of course, come un-
der the head of safety appliances, and
one Of the most novel of these is tiny
car that, in the event Of a collision or
accident, is hastily attached to one rail
of the track and set running in the
direction of a train that may be ex-
The herald., 1898-12-26

tie animal-will do better some day, 1t
is hoped. But, when the practical fly
ing machine has at length been devised,
1t will be something the management
of which has to be learned by the in
dividual. A person does not know how
to skate at birth, nor how to walk for
that matter. The normal mode of hu-
man locomotion is crawling on all
fours; the erect attitude is artificial
and condition of unstable equilibrium.
Walking on stills is another and a su-
perior art. How is 1t to be imagined
then, that a human being is to acquire
the art of flying otherwise than by
practice? The birds, whose ancestors
have flown for millions of generations
are carefully taught by their parents
how to do 1t. They go at it gradually
and after awhile become expert. AS a
matter Of fact, they would hardly be
able to learn at all IL it were not for
that inherited experience which is vul'
carly termed instinct" Now, man
has no instincts" in this sense, except
those which tell him at birth to suck
and to hold on with his hands, the lat
ter being supposed to be an inheritance
from the ape. So, on this account, the
problem seems more difficult from his
point Of view. But. in the long run,
intelligence is a great deal better than
instinct, and this is the bottom reason
for believing that the problem of aerial
volitation for human beings will be
solved eventually.
The earliest birds had to learn to fly,
which must have been an extremely
difficult matter from their point Of
view. Unquestionably, the purpose Of
this accomplishment was to enable
them to escape from their carnivorous
foes that walked on the earth and
The herald., 1898-12-26

overhead. One of the most remarkable
of his conclusions is that the cost of
transportation by aerodrome dimin-
ishes proportionately with the distance.
The greater the speed the less the
power required, so that on a transcon-
tinental line of aerial cars, a ticket by
the lightning express would cost only
q fraction of the rate for slow freight
One accepted theory which the profess
sor has overthrown Is that a swallow
in flying 400 miles, develops one horse
power OF course, such a notion is an
absurdity.
The experiments performed by Pro-
fessor Langley for the war department
will be in the line of developing the
aerodrome, which he is confident rep
resents, although in primitive form. the
flying machine of the future Hitherto
it has been considered that the great
difficulty of aerial navigation lay in the
tenuous nature of the atmosphere. But
Langley holds that air, which is capa-
BILE of upholding large and heavy birds
like the condor and the eagle, can lie
made to sustain human beings with
the aid Of rigidly-extended wings of
great size, the whole apparatus being
so constructed as to be extremely light
and provided with engines that develop
the maximum of power with mini
mum Of weight. Gas engines, it is like
ly, will furnish the driving energy for
future flying machines. 1t is only nee
essary to make the properly designed
propellers revolve fast enough in order
to force the airship along at a rate of
speed indefinitely rapid.
1t is the soaring bird Of the condor
/, fUnn that 10 ta1xQn q modal in the
construction of the aerodrome. Pro-
fessor Langley has found that the re-
sistance offered to the atmosphere to
such machine Is only one-fiftieth Dart
of what has hitherto been supposed
implying that SO much less motive force
Is needed. He has also discovered that
the power Of the propeller for produc-
ing speed in air is vastly greater than
has been dreamed of up to this time
Fortunately for the purpose in view,
the weight of engines is being steadily
and surprisingly reduced, per horse
power. The four horsepower Copeland
marine engine now on the market
weighs only twenty-seven pounds, and
occupies floor space of but ten inches
square, it's height being twenty-one
inches. Boiler included, it weighs much
less than the average man. There is no
reason, it is claimed, why many parts
of such engines should not be made of
aluminium instead of steel. However,
if the aerodrome runs on a wire in the
manner already described, it need not
carry any engine at all, inasmuch as it's
propellers can be worked from dy-
namo station at a distance by means of
an electric current passing along the
wire referred to. Thus it would appear
that there is good deal of hope ahead
for the flying machine, for use in peace
or war. 1t is the last transportation
problem remaining for man to solve
and that solution for it will be found
eventually seems reasonably certain.
Copyright, 1898.
The herald., 1898-12-26
Mr. James Idea Of How Collisions May Be Robbed Of Danger

gift conferred by the corporation,
honoris causa. 1t is this honorary free
dom which has been conferred upon
the Sirdar. The ceremonial of admis-
sion used in regard to the honorary
freedom is very old and very quaint
Six citizens, selected from the chairman
of committees on the corporation, give
their testimony as "compurgators" to
the worthiness of the person about to
be admitted. This is the formula;
"That General Herbert Horatio Kitch-
ener is a man Of good name and fame;
that he does not desire the freedom Of
this city whereby to defraud the city
or the queen of any Of their rights,
customs or advantages, but that he
will pay his scot and bear his lot; and
so they all say"
After he has made the declaration of
allegiance to the British crown, the re-
cipient is addressed by the chamber
lain, and in turn replies. To close the
ceremony the chamberlain presents him
with the box or the sword, whichever
may have been voted. together with an
illuminated copy, heraldically decorat-
ed, of the official record Of the freedom
Of the chamberlain's court. Had it not
been for the fact that the oath of alle-
6lduCS W tllc IIu6llSu IuTOIIt Is d ueCeS-
sary part of the ceremony, many for
eigners Of distinction would have been
admitted to the honor. But though the
actual comforting Of the freedom has
never been given to any than an Eng
lishman, there are several cases on rec
ord during recent years of distin-
guished personages from other lands to
whom the freedom has been voted and
an address has been made by the cham
berlain, copy Of the vote being pre-
sented as we'll. Thus while in strict
sense these recipients have not been
freemen of London, yet in the eyes of
all the honor has been conferred in a
great measure. Among the names thus
enrolled at the register at the Guildhall
there are the names Of General u. S.
Grant and George Peabody. Besides
these there are only two other foreign
ers, one an Indian and the other a
Frenchman, who have received the
freedom of the city Of London. On the
register there are names Of many royal
persons known to history. In the pres
ent century there have been inscribed
the names of the late Prince Consort
the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Edin-
burgh, the Duke Of Connaught and the
late Duke Of Albany and, very recent
| ly, of the Duke Of York. There is only
one lady's name to be seen. and that is
| that Of the Baroness Burdett-Coutts.
The herald., 1898-12-26
Langley's Aerodrome in Flight

that were best adapted to their en-
vironment have survived. This ac-
counts for the disappearance of most
Of the species of plants and animals
that formerly lived In the construc-
tion of flying animals, Nature took the
best material that was available and
produced the bird; but this does not
imply that man, with his God-given in
telligence, cannot start with something
else in the way of mechanical princi-
pies and do better.
The fact remains, as must be ad-
mitted, that man is as yet far behind
Nature in respect to the art of flying.
Nevertheless, he has so far surpassed
her in the navigation of the water and
in travelling on the land that he may
reasonably hope to catch up in the
business Of aerostation. Professor
Langley has discovered that the skele-
ton of a bird is wonderfully like that
of a man, bone for bone, the evidence
all going to show that the man and
the bird are descended originally from
the same type of animal. In no other
conceivable way can the striking SINH
larity be accounted for. AS we'll claim
that monkey and man are not related.
The wing of the soaring bird, such as
the eagle or condor, deprived of feath-
ers, is, as to it's bony structure, mans
arm, slightly modified. Yet it Is OBJ
vious that the arm of a man would be
a very poor piece of mechanism with
which to begin an apparatus for !ly-
ing. This fact, indeed, has been suf-
ficiently demonstrated by many freak
inventions on record at the patent Of
flee in Washington. There could be no
better tribute to the resources of Ma
ture than the fact that she has been
able to develop q satisfactory flying
machine out of what we now call
bird.
Man-that marvelously ingenious lit
The herald., 1898-12-26

in other words, that these workers
would make a city nearly twice the
size of Boston.
OF course, it is of the utmost i'm
portance to be able to stop a train
quickly in case of threatening accident,
and for this purpose several inventors
have thought out methods Of utilizing
the resisting power of air. For in
stance, H. w. Kirchner of Pasadena,
Cal, has series of aeroplanes ar
ranged along the tops of the cars. I'm
der ordinary circumstances these are
horizontal, so as to offer no resistance
to the atmosphere. but the touch of
lever in an emergency turns them up
The herald., 1898-12-26
TRA|NMEN SOON TO Be PROTECTED
The Needless Killing and Manning Of
Freight Car Workers Must Stop on
the First Of January,

nothing untoward had occurred.
1t is beginning to be realized lately
that the safety of the railroad work.
ers of the country is worth looking out
for. They number more men than the
entire voting population of New Hamp-
shire, Vermont, Rhode Island, Della
ware, Florida, North Dakota, South
Dakota, Nevada and Colorado-nine
sovereign states combined. If they had
a proportionate representation, they
would have fifteen members in Con-
gress and eighteen senators. While
undergoing such perils and losses, this
vigilant army during the last twelve
month has handled nearly 600, ,0000 900
passengers with SO much care and skill
that only one in 100000 was killed.
This great army of peace, including Of
ficers and office clerks numbers about
100000 individuals. which means that
there is in the United States one rail-
way employe for every seventy-nine
men. women and children. 1t signifies,
The herald., 1898-12-26
nicle. If the latter is upset. the roof

hicle. If the latter is upset, the roof
falls off,
AS yet no device for the prevention
of telescoping has been proved satis-
factory on railways. Nevertheless.
quite number of anti-telescoping con-
trivances are on record at the patent
office. Several of these suggest bevel-
ended cars-i. e., cars with ends built
on slant, instead of square. A hori-
zontal section of such a car is a paral-
telegram, but not a rectangfe-thus:
According to the notion of Max Goetz
of Fort Meade, S. D., train thus con-
structed could not be telescoped, mas
much as the cars, instead of crashing
into each other, would pass by one
another in case of collision. On the
other hand, the patent office experts
are inclined to think that they would
swing clear around and ram each other
disastrously with their sharp corners.
However, the experts are not always
right.
A. c. Maron of Philadelphia is the
inventor of a species of buffer, which
extends from the end of the car. When
it is struck. the impact causes the top
of the vehicle to fly up, and the pas
sengers have chance to escape. This
seems somewhat more practical than
the idea of C. B. Guy Of Lybrand,
Iowa, who proposes that each locomo-
tive shall push in front of it huge
contrivance on wheels with tracks rum
ming up it before and behind. In case
Of collision the engine runs upon an
inclined plane and stands on it's tail,
so to speak, being thus brought to
pause most effectually. The opposing
locomotive likewise runs up an inclined
plane on the other side of this remark
able buffer, and stands on it's tail.
The herald., 1898-12-26

vertically, and the force Of the air.
push against them is great help to the
brakes. Similar in it's object is an "air
plow" of sheet metal, carried like a
cowcatcher in front of a locomotive.
This is the idea Of G. ]. Capewell of
Hartford, Conn.,, who explains that his
device "cuts" the atmosphere in front
of the moving train and enables the
latter to go faster. But, raised into
its secondary position by the engineer.
it opposes an inverted funnel to the
air and exerts resistance which
quickly brings the engine and cars to
a pause.
The territory of the United States Is
gridironed with more than 10000 miles
The herald., 1898-12-26
AERIAL NAVIGATION WORK
BY THE GOVERNMENT.
How Professor Langley Will Utilize the
Appropriation to Make Official Experi>
ments With an Aerodrome

Twenty-Five thousand dollars have
been placed by the war department dt
the disposal Of Professor s. p. Lang
ley for the prosecution Of experiments
respecting flying machines for recon-
noitering and for purposes of destruc-
tion incidental to military operations.
This Is the first step that has been talk
en- by the United States government to-
ward recognizing apparatus for aerial
volitation, other than gas balloons, as
possibly practical, and therefore it is
extremely interesting. The money has
been placed nominally in the hands Of
the signal corps, but 1t is understood
that the Smithsonian secretary will di-
rect its expenditure. His work in this
line up to date has been notably sue
The herald., 1898-12-26

record in the patent office an immense
number of safety appliance inventions
for railroads. OF patented car-couplers
alone there are nearly nine thousand
different patterns. The more sensible
ones are not particularly interesting
from the point of view of the every
day newspaper reader, but some of the
freaks in this line are very striking and
original. Take. for example, the idea
of Jack w. James of Cuba, (Tenn.,)
which is an elaborate spring buffer
thirty feet long, carried in front of the
locomotive. When a collision occurs
the spring collapses, in this way taking
up the dangerous energy of the con-
The herald., 1898-12-26

The law requiring that all freight
trains shall be equipped with automatic
couplers and train brakes, and all loco
motives with wheel brakes, will soon
go into force, and an immense saving
of life among railroad employees will re-
suit. This measure, when it was be-
fore Congress, was bitterly opposed by
some of the railway companies, which
had no regard for the fact that SO per
cent. of the deaths and 70 per cent Of
the minor injuries suffered by the men
who work for such corporations are at
tributable to a lack Of these common
sense contrivances. After the passage
of the bill they did their best to per-
suade the President to veto it, and
when 1t had become law, they tried to
have it upset by the Supreme Court on
grounds of constitutionality. Appli-
ances Of the kind cost money, and hu-
man lives are cheap; hence the pro-
tests of the companies.
AS might be expected. there are on
The herald., 1898-12-26

has made mistake in taking the bird,
unmodified, as his model in building
flying machines. Could the modern type
Of swift steamship have been evolved
by following slavishly the pattern of
the whale? Would it have been desir-
able to initiate the structural lines OF
the ox-the first draft animal-in order
to arrive at the locomotive that was
to be? Well, echo answers, Hardly.
The supposition that Nature always
knows best persists in holding the place
Of an accepted truth in the human
mind, but 1t is a fallacy. Nature has
never had what can properly be
termed plans, according to Professor
Langley; she has made multitude OF
experiments. and those among them