The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-05-11

OL CtOChS are Sel lEOlIl lHe CLOCK gun fired by electricity from Greenwich observatory. but everybody is arware that rifles have supplied moisture in desert countries to travellers dying of thirst and thus saving their lives.
 In the great Sahara some time ago, says Pearson's Weekly, globe trotter, who wanted water badly, found it pos sible to collect drink out of the mere dampness of the sand. He sunk the barrel of his gun into the ground and it collected enough moisture in the bore to stay his thirst. A timely suck at a gun muzzle has saved many lives in the sun scorched deserts of the tropics. Water ran short on merchant ves- sel in mid-Atlantic not long ago. and the crew did not know what to do to obtain drink. The captain, however. Init upon brilliant idea.
 He had a number of sporting guns lin his cabin, and, taking them on deck,
 he plugged up the breech ends, filled the bores with sea water and set them end up among the coals of the galley fire.
 I As the steam gathered he ran it through other gun barrels until it cool ed. The steam collected In the shape lof excellent fresh water, and in this
 way the crew were supplied with suf- tficient moisture until the vessel touch- ed port I If you were to drop into the houses of the French peasants you would be
 struck with the fact that practically
 every man and woman poked his or her fire with boyonet.
 Some 100000 bayonets-co condemned
 stores of the French army and used in < the Franco-Prussian war-have found their way into the homes of poor peas
 ants who use them as fire irons,
 The bark Ruth. bound from Demera- Ira to Oban with sugar, neglected to
 procure a chart of the Scottish coast when setting sail, The captain had
 never been to Oban before, and, not wishing to return to Demerara to get a
 chart, he looked about the vessel for a substitute.
 He discovered a Caledonian railway time table, with the railway map at
 tached. This helped him out of his dif-
 fieulty. for it acted splendidly as a sea
 guide. The Ruth cut across the Allan , tic and after sailing up the west coast of Scotland dropped her anchor safely
 in Oban bay.
 Without this railway map the cap-
 tain would never have got his vessel safely through the intricate channels.
 Good steel wasn't obtainable when , the Germans wished to manufacture
 ,as, cs, lxy
 purchased tons of horseshoe nails which had been kicked about the roads i of the world by horses innumerable.
 The gunmakers found them perfect substance for the manufacture of rifle barrels for the nails made originally of the best metal obtainable, had re- ceived from the constant pounding of } the horses feet on hard roads a pecul- 3 far annealing and toughening.
 } It is quite possible that you are wear l ing on your hands today drawn up ! lawyers briefs or ancient title deeds. When kid leather was at a premium t the French gloyemakers hunted high
 and low for a substitute. One firm, more ingenious than the rest bought up old parchments of all descriptions.
 They carefully removed the ink marks
 and eventually turned the cleaned
 parchment into gloves.
 Ever since that particular firm has
 supplied Britain with finest French kid gloves made of parchment. The vellum clippings left over when the
 gloves are made are boiled down and turned into letter cases and purses. The British forces were about tc cross the EIands river during the lat
 Boer war when it was discovered that
 it was impossible to construct a trestle t bridge across it, for the bed of the e river was nothing but quicksand. Piles n had to be driven, but no pile driver : was handy.
 vi The officers of the engineers, how
 ever, overcame the difficulty in a way t. that startled the general in command
 of the troops. The sappers waded into : the water, set up the piles and laid iror
 plates on each one On these small charges of dynamite were placed and ! fired.
 After the explosion the piles were as
 firm as if they had been driven in by g : steam hammer. Dynamite explodes downward with a terrific force, anG
 lanythin below it is pounded deeply in !, to the earth. '=" 1j MT. Fosdyke engineer in charge o1
 1the Aska dam on the Nile, scuttled 2
 ship to save his cherished earthworks 2 from ruin. The dam partly burst, ana ' the great rush of water was forcing ' the banks from below.
 1T Something had to be done to stop tht
 flow, for terrible disaster was inmi 0 nent MT. Fosdyke boarded a cargt '- steamer tied to the bank some distance : away and, getting up steam, steeret .- lher down the rapid stream.
 I When she was broadside on the trem ie bling dam the engineer had her scut
 tiled, and as she sank in the rushin, b waters MT. Fosdyke and his men cheer
 led themselves hoarse. The scuttlet ,. lcargo steamer had saved the dam IS This remarkable nakeshift for .;
 lbreak-water cost nearly G7,000. )rj A POLITE DISCHARGE