The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1903-09-13
STRANGE TALES
Of LOST SECRETS
Wonderful Inventions
and Their Peculiar
FateS.
Insanity, Fire and Theft Gan
Gel the Results Of
Genius.

A recent issue of the most prominent
exponent Of the steam engineering indus
try-Power-reviews a number Of inter
esting instances which cannot do other
wise than convince even the most doubt
full that engineering is to-day very. very
far from having reached a pinnacle Of
perfection Among other notes It states
that II is hardly twenty years since John
Weymouth the Wolverhampton engineer
and designer, discovered the motive power
Of heat, exhibited 1t in one of the sim
plest. cheapest and most useful engines
imaginable, and then deprived the world
of it's benefit.
He had produced beforehand a round
dozen Of excellent inventions which still
bear his name, including the modern re-
volving chimney oowl; and, having made
a large fortune, he devoted himself to
Harvesting the ordinary heat Of a fire
and making a new power of 1t. The idea
was laughed at by all his friends; but,
after four years of study and experiment
Ing, he produced a stationary engine that
gave double the power of any steam
driven mechanism at about one-third of
the cost, and also a small model heat
! locomotive large enough to draw a truck
with a man on it.
/ He invited a committee of scientists and
/ engineers, including PTois, Huxley and
/ Forbes Brown, and showed them that his
! two machines worked to perfection The
/ affair made a great stir and 1t was proved
/ that great power of unlimited scope
! had been discovered. Weymouth was
! flooded with offers Of huge sums for his
/ invention, but, for no apparent reason,
/ except, perhaps, the alleged madness of
/ genius, he absolutely refused to either
/ bring it out himself or sell the secret. He
announced himself satisfied with the tri-
umph of the invention and before his
death, year later, he destroyed all the
papers and plans explaining the system
and removed the essential parts of the
/ two engines. These engines are still pos
/ sessed by his heirs. but nobody has been
( able to make anything of them.
Z LOST ART OF DIAMOND MAKING.
Still stranger was the famous loss of
the recipe for the manufacture Of dfa-
monds some fifteen years ago
Herbert Warner. who alone discovered
and held the secret of diamond making,
/ did not live TO wreck the diamond indus
try as people thought he would, and the
circumstances Of the loss were mysteri-
Gus and tragic. Inferior diamonds can
still be produced artihcially, but only at
d cost Of about ten times their value.
Warner. after years of experimenting,
A was dple 10 turn out genuine diamond
Of large size and of the first water at the
cost Of small fraction of the complete
stones worth.
He, like Weymouth Of heat power fame,
manufactured his diamonds before an au-
dience Of scientists and produced three
fine stones, which were tested and pro-
4 nounced faultless. Two of them are still
I IN existence and are the greatest curiosi-
ties the jewel world has ever seen. But
within fortnight of this triumph, before
any new stones were put on the market
Warner utterly disappeared from his
house on Harley street. London, leaving
no trace whatever.
So complete was his disappearance that
from that day 70 this not the smallest ex-
PLANTATION has been hit upon
"TALIUM."