Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1913-01-07

miles the right Of way lies over salt
water and at certain points passengers
are actually out Of sight of land. BY II
"a hours are saved between New York
and Cuba, and Key West, 55 miles out
In the ocean, is riveted to the main
land.
January 2s saw the first message
flung of across the Atlantic from the
wireless station at Aranjuez, Spain.
Scarce a land but now Is linked to
sister states in the world around by
this unseen Mercury. Colombia and
Nicaragua have installed services, and
the far regions Of the Upper Amazon
basin are now reached by II. The re-
cesses of darkest Africa are to be link
ed with civilization, and ere long the
Pamirs will be gossiping with Dawson
City and Buenos Aires. Late in Octo-
ber the globe encircling system of our
Federal. naval department at Arlington
was inaugurated, cracking and sput-
tering, the most powerful plant In the
world scattered its first greeting from
the top Of its lofty aerials. In Febru-
ary Admiral Thomas, commanding the
Pacific feet (then at Honolulu), was In
with Washington, via
Mare Island Yard and Key West 1908
miles, while a span almost identically
as great was covered by wireless when
Astoyria, Ore, talked" With the Ja-
panese steamer, the Yokohama Maru.
In March a message from London to
New York had been received only few
seconds over ten minutes after its fl
ing In the British metropolis. In June
a Turin youth, DeBernocchi by name,
conducted highly successful expert
,,,a-to haxwaan hto hnv,na 0ffu ond MI
Ian (92 miles) with his monograph,
which transmitted besides ordinary
wireless message, autographs, short
hand and all sorts Of designs.
The wireless outfit may now be oper-
ated from bicycle, a motor car or an
aeroplane. Messages have been trans
mitted over distances of from 80 to 40
miles from planes at an elevation OF
some 1,600 feet.
We think nothing Of 1t that 1912
should have seen eleven Of the man.
bird" species crossing the British Chan
mel aloft, within few moments Of each
other, lighting at Dover like flock OF
giant gulls. But the point to be en-
phasized In such chronicle as this is
that swifter airships, lighter ones,
those to climb higher or convey great
er passenger weights, are no longer
the chief objects Of those inventors
whose speciality Is the development of
Safer aeroplanes dirigt-
bles-that is the goal aimed at, and
with increasing success.
Aeroplane stabilizators have been
exhibited satisfactorily by two Of the
French experts, Moreau in May and
Roger Sommer in October. The Tag
liche Rundschau of Berlin, In closest
touch with German aviation circles,
an even more laudible ad-
vance In a plane which may be ar
rested in its flight and held stationary
at any point desired. In the matter OF
safety for operators In case Of accident,
the parachute Is being used by Russian
experimenters; q device which opens
automatically should need arise, and
the American, w. /. Twombly, has per-
fected what he calls safety harness,
which holds the aviator in his seat in
the toughest kind Of weather, but re-
leases him instantly on the pulling Of
single cotter pin.
Wings have been given the motor
car, too. On July IL, a successful trial
run was made between Paris and Ly-
ons 1921 miles) by car driven by re-
volving arms. Skimming the earth like
some uncanny bird 1t reached speed
Of above 80 miles an hour, till even the
placid pigs shuddered in their pens.
Another road advance fitly to be re-
corded tells Of the beginnings OF cycles
plus planes, or wings; "aviettes," the
French call them. Lavalade, at Juvisy
in June, and Gabriel Poulin, near Paris
in July, have each done enough in this
sort to prove that a next step In rapid
mechanical locomotion may lie along
this path.
OF greater popular interest than this
and falling in much the same category
is the announced perfecting Of device
for preventing head-on collisions In
railroad travel, which has been patent
ed by A. R Angus, an Australian. The
demonstration in Somerset, England
last July, was thus described:
Two trains without engineers ap-
preaching each other at high speed on
the same line, automatically stopped
when collision seemed inevitable. The
portion of the railway to be used had
been fitted with steel ramps on inclined
planes between the rails. A shoe, fitted
to the engine, touches these with a
slight impact, and the engineer Is warn
ed IL the section ahead Is not clear by
q combined disc and whistle. Should
he not himself stop his train the elec-
trical apparatus automatically shuts
off steam and applies the brakes.
An apparently successful attempt to
solve another Of those problems which,
now and then, have led to horrible loss
of life through lack Of solution, Is an
emergency door for theaters, invented
by a Chicago man. This can be open
ed from without, only by use Of spe-
cial key, though the slightest pressure
on any part Of Its inner surface opens
1t instantly.
Another prize of $500 for life saving
though 1t be Of horses not humans, has
been won this year by Dr. G. w. Kin
nell, of New York city, who has work
ed out a device which, when attached
to the shoe, prevents the animals slip
ping on greasy pavements.
A "Signagraph" has made Its com
mercial appearance, by means Of which
the movements of a pen held in a writ
er's hand are exactly duplicated over
other checks or bonds or what not A
Philadelphia financier Is said to have
affixed in his signature to 5000 docu-
ments in this way in thirty eight min
utes.
After the mechanical piano-playeI
comes the automatic yiolinist; another
of Germany's contributions to the
twelve-month's wonders. Three violins
are used, each with a single string
played by a revolving circular bow
composed Of 5000 horsehairs, which,
it Is said, will reproduce practically any
effect to be attained by the most ac-
complished virtuoso.
A. ]. Weinland, a retired chemist OF
Santa Monica, Cal, has a concoction
he says, which, fed to ambitious roos-
ters, prevents early morning Growing.
A French agriculturist has gone fur
ther than this, however. Knowing that
canary breeders obtain a delicate rose
pink tinge in the plumage Of their birds
by mixing cayenne pepper with their
feed, he subjected some white hens to
a like diet. The result went somewhat
beyond his expectation. For the bid
dies coral pink under steady baro-
meter, flushed violent scarlet whenever
there was dampness in the air. After
this "stingless bees sounds tame and
unpoetic, though a Loughton eng
land) apiarist has obtained some by
crossing Cyprian drones and Italian
uuaana