The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-09-07
AfrshiD control.

An English engineer thinks that he
has fallen upon a valuable discovery.
He is demonstrating his power to con-
troll from the ground the movements
of the small Zeppelin balloon by ma
pipulatino the keyboard of an electri-
cal transmitter. 1t is his claim that
he can sit in London, send an airship
of size to the continent and drop flow
ers in the backyard of some friend or
explosives upon the Notifications of an
enemy.
Count Zeppelin has proved that under
favorable conditions he can drive a
dirigible balloon over a given city and
that he can carry enough nigh explo-
siveS to blow up about everything in
sight. But he has not shown that a
balloon can do this at a high rate OF
speed, and speed is necessary if an air
ship is to escape the gunners beneath
For it is not to be presumed that an
army expecting the visit of a hostile
airship of any kind would allow the
aerial craft to hover over a fort long
enough to get the exact bearings and
drop explosives.
Just as the torpedo boat was follow
ed by the torpedo boat destroyer, so the
war balloon will assuredly have to cope
with guns specially invented to reach
it. For scouting purposes the aeroplane
or the dirigible may have important
functions. Dirigibles Of the Zeppelin
type may even be constructed with a
capacity sufficient to transport d con-
siderable number of men. We may
even have whole fleets of aerial trans
ports. But it is quite another thing
to send a balloon over q fort and main
tain it at a level sufficiently low for
the purpose of dropping explosives ac-
curately upon a given object.
Nevertheless, the English engineer s
experiments are interesting. Anything
that tends to make warfare more dan
gerous likewise tends to prevent COM
bats.-Philadelphia Inquirer.
Steel Trust as Cat Buyer.
A rat got tangled up in one of the
dynamos which supply power for the
great blast furnace mill of the United
States steel corporation at Gary, Ind.
1t required several hours to separate
the rats remains from the dynamo,
and in the meantime the corporation
was losing money at the rate of a
thousand dollars a minute. Now the
steel trust is advertising for cats. Ad-
vertisements have been inserted in the
Gary newspapers Offering SO cents
apiece, with no limitations as to age,
sex, size, pedigree or character.
Fifty cents a head is a good price
for cats, and the officials of the steel
trust are likely to have to contend
with an embarrassment of offerings.
When the news percolates to all the
cities and small towns of Indiana
there will be a rush of feline ship
ments to Gary, and the steel trust will
find itself with surplus of cats
scarcely less troublesome than the ov-
erplus of rats with which it has been
contending heretofore. Hundreds of
Indiana families will willingly part
with all their feline possessions at a
compensation of so cents per cat.
Some thousands of small boys will ex-
plore the alleys and woodsheds until
the last backyard fence is denuded
Every express messenger whose run
| extends in the direction of Gary will
be overlooking with packages of liv-
| ing, bowling freight consigned to the
United States Steel Corporation.
The man who put that advertise
ment in the Gary papers evidently
knows more about making steel than
he does about buying cats. Also he
has very Inadequate conception of
| the number of cats in this country,
and the number of cat owners, who
are almost deliriously anxious to sell
at any price whatsoever.-Louisv
Courier Journal.