Omaha daily bee., 1906-09-30

II and continued TO dump II Into the river
upon the banks of which he had built his
furnace. Soon the pile OF Stag was SO high
that the top reached above the water, ana
then a curious thing occurred. The water
would siEzic and steam as the Stag was
dumped In. but this day. as the last Of the
alag was poured onto the little island, Some
OF II remained red hot. Suddenly there was
a brilliant burst Of flame. so prolonged and
30 hot that there was danger OF the furnace
catching fire.
Then Wilson began to think The next
day he took some OF the curious looking
substance and wet II with water, but, much
to his surprise. nothing came OF It, Then
ne struck match and held u near tho
mixture, and Immediately a bright flame
was produced. and Wilson knew that he
had discovered something valuable. His
discovery was acetylene gas. and he made
a fortune out OF II.
Another substance that is now used en-
tirely in all places where grinding has to
be done is cnrborundum. the discovery OF
which was also purely accidental. The pro-
prietor of some iron works in Pittsburg had
installed furnace which burned natural
gas, and after a time IT was discovered that
a sort of Stag formed on the inside OF the
furnace finally taking up much room
that the fires had to be drawn and the fur
naces cleaned. There then arose a new
complication, for nothing that they could
do would remove this hard substance; cold
chisels had no effect on II, and finally tho
furnace had to be torn down.
The proprietor, as well as many others.
was naturally curious as to what this sub
stance could be, and one man took some of
| the crystals and ground them into a fine
powder, treated the dust with some ad-
hesive preparations and pressed 1t into
blocks, and the result was carborundum,
the hardest grinding. substance known.
A German manufacturer Of nitroglycefin
was the inventor OF dynamite, but was not
seeking for It at the time he received preof
OF its explosive qualities. Nitroglycerin Is
a liauia which will not explode. but will
burn with steady flame when fire is APP
piled. One day the manufacturer spilled
some OF the stun on the floor, and little
later dropped lighted match IN the same
place The explosion which followed was
| astonishing. and quite little dlsconcerting
but he had discovered dynamite and his
fortune was made. While nitroglycerin will
not explode while in liquid form, II becomes
explosive the instant the particles are sepa-
rated 50 that each has sufficient air about
t. This fluid vaporizes whenever sufaci-
emily shocked. and is then so infiammable
that the mere heat of the shock sets it off.
The name of the German who spilled his
nitroglycerin was Nobel, and he patented
the combination and became immensely
wealthy.
Edison and the Phonograph.
The greatest of our own inventors,
Thomas A. Edison. owes his invention OF
the photograph partly to an accident Ed
son had been working night and day to
1 perfect the telephone. and had constructed
a number Of small sheepsltin drumheads, to
test their value as diaphragms as compared
| with metal and other substances. To some
| of these sheepskin diaphragms he had at
| tached a magnetic needle which was in
tended to project toward the magnet and
assist In conveying the vibration caused by
the human voice.
These did not fulfill Edison's expecta-
| tions, and were discarded as useless. His
assistants coon discovered that by holding
the drumheads close to the mouth, and
| making sort of cultural sound, noise
approaching music could be secured much
the same as when piece Of paper Is
wrapped around a comb. In attempting to
playfuily stop one of the men from playing
| on Il, Edison touched the little needle but
no sooner mad he done so than he gave one
OF his characteristic starts and requested
the operator to repeat the performances. 1t
was repeated. and again he touched the
needle. with evident delight He went
among his assistants asking them to- hum,
sing and talk against the little drunihead,
he keeping his finger ever so lightly on the
little needle.
4 II have iti'' he suddenly exclaimed, and
retreated 10 his office and commenced
drawing diagrams for new machinery.
which his assistants speedily made, and a
few days later the first photograph was
put together. 1t was a crude AFFAIR. the
pin making an impression on wax. It
talked imperfectly, but II showed Edison
that he was on the right track, and he
rapidly improved It until now It is almost