The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1913-06-12
ENGINES WITH HISTORY.
One Has Covered q Distance Of 2
100000 Miles.

One of the big engines Of the Lon
don and Northwestern Railway COM
pany has just completed distance
of 100000 miles. An English To-
comotive travels, on an everage, only
about 10000 miles year, so this
wonderful performance is equal to
hundred years service on an ordin-
ary basis. As a matter of fact, the
engine in question has been worked
five times as hard as the average.
and has accomplished its task within
period of 20 years.
Quite how long well:built loco
motive will last in running order is
hardly known. Six years ago the
famous Lord of the Isles" was
"scrapped' at Swindon. She was
one of the famous Great Western
broad-guage engines, and was built
in 1912 She was in perfect running
order up to the end of her long life
of more than sixty years.
A carriage, if we'll used has
very long life. In the Museum of
Coaches at Lisbon is a coach in which
King Edward VII drove during visit
to Lisbon ten or twelve years ago.
The coach was built in 1921.
Ex-President Roosevelt owns and
uses a phaeton which was made to
his grand-father's order at least 70
years ago. 1t is very comfortable
and as good almost as the day it was
built.
Motor cars, alas! have no such long
life. A car is old at five years, and,
though there are some single cylin-
ders still on the road which date from
the beginning Of the present century,
they are stared at as curiosities. Of
inventions for purposes of locomotion
none can match ship for long life.
Only last year the Seal left Bide-
ford for Durham, voyage of 5000
miles. The Seal was built at South
ampton in 1916, and in 1928 was
driven from her moorings at Poole
in a fearful gale and found in tur-
nip field.
There are still afioat at least
dozen sailing vessels which have
weathered the storms of a century.
The record is, or rather was, held by
the Italian vessel Anita. Built in
Genoa in 154S, she made her last
voyage in 1902. That was from Ten
eriffe to Naples. She was thus more
than $50 years old. Alas! she has
been broken up-a cruel fate for
such a wonderful old relic.
Steamships seldom last more than
forty years. Of those built between
1915 and 1885 there is not, we be-
lieve, a single one afloat. The life
of the modern steel ship is much
shorter than that of her wooden pre-
decessor. AS for warships, they are
usually scrapped at the age of 20.
Of all machines made by man none
can compare for long life with the
clock. The life of clock is as much
longer than that of any other machln-
cry as the life of a man is longer than
that of dog.
The French city of Rouen has a
great clock which was built in the
year 1889 and is still keeping good
time. Except for cleaning and few
necessary repairs it has never stopped
during a period of more than five
centuries. 1t strikes the hours and
chimes the quarters.
Ornaments last longer than any
thing else that man makes. There
are brooches and necklaces in our
museums more than forty centuries
old. Monuments, perhaps, stand Sec
ond, and houses third. The life of
furniture is shorter still There is
very little furniture left in England
which dates beyond the year 1900.
Pictures last longer than furniture,
and there are paintings still in fair
condition which have weathered six
centuries of life.-New York Press.