The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1905-05-18


Guns have other uses than that of
killing. We all know that hundreds
of clocks are set from the / o'clock gun
fired by electricity from Greenwich
observatory, but not everybody is
aware that rifles have supplied mois-
ture in desert countries to travellers
dying of thirst and thus saved their
lives.
In the great Sahara some time ago,
says Pearson's Weekly, a 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 gun muzzle has saved many lives
in the sun scorched deserts Of the
tropics.
Water ran short on a merchant veS-
sci in mid-Atlantic not long ago, and
the crew did not know what to do to
obtain drink. The captain, however,
| hit upon a brilliant idea.
He had a number Of sporting guns
in his cabin, and, taking them on deck,
he plugged up the breech ends, filled
the bores with sea water and set them
them end up among the Goals Of the
galley fire.
AS the steam gathered he ran it
through other gun barrels until it cool
ed. The steam collected in the shape
of excellent fresh water, and in this
way the crew were supplied with suf-
! ficient moisture until the vessel touch
ed port.
| 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 a bayOnet.
Some 100000 bayonets-condemne
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-
ra 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
| chart. he looked about the vessel for q
substitute.
! He discovered a CaledOnan railway
time table, with the railway map at
tached. This helped him out Of his diff
fculty, for it acted splendidly as 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
some new rifles for their army, so they
! purchased tons Of horseshoe nails
which had been kicked about the roads
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 pecul-
lar annealing and toughening.
1t is quite possible that you are wear
ing on your hands today drawn up
lawyers briefs or ancient title deeds.
When kid leather was at premium
the French glovemakers 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 to
cross the Glands river during the late
Boer war when it was discovered that
it was impossible to construct trestle
bridge across it, for the bed Of the
| river was nothing but quicksand. Piles
had to be driven, but no pile driver
was handy.
The officers Of the engineers, how
ever overcame the difficulty in way
that startled the general in command
Of the troops. The sappers waded into
| the water, set up the piles and laid iron
| 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
steam hammer. Dynamite explodes
downward with q terrific force, ana
anything below it is pounded deeply
into the earth.
Mr.. Fosdyke, engineer in charge OF
the Asaka dam on the Nile. scuttled a
ship to save his cherished earthworks
from ruin. The dam partly burst, and
the great rush Of water was forcing
the banks from below.
Something had to be done to stop the
flow, for terrible disaster was 1mml-
nent Mr.. Fosdyke boarded cargo
steamer tied to the bank some distance
nwav and getting ND steam, SteereO