Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1916-08-03
JACK STONES LUCK.
Former BurlinetOninn Ncaping Money
from n Gun Pntcnt.

George Miner writes as follows in the
Washington Herald:
1t will be remembered that tho last
Yep" that attempted TO raid London lid
not do It. The big airshlD did not cYeu get
over her would-he quarry. She was shot in
pieces and fell mass Of wrcckage near
the mouth of the Thames along with
many hundred pounds Of dynamite which
would have blown half of London off the
map if 1t had ever been let loose the way
it was intended to he.
Since then no "Zeps" have ATTEMPTED to
raid London, although 'Icp' raids had
been up to that time If almost weekly
occurrence there for more than a year.
The reason is that the English now have
an airshp gun which is an effective Yep
pelin destroyer It has no recoil and
therefore can be mounted and fired from
an airship with accuracy
And thereby hangs a tale.
This recolless gun is now owned by an
American who sold the rights to il to the
English government after orr government
had been pleaded with 90 buy it and had
turned it down.
There is just one of those guns in this
country. 1t was first given practical
test here recently in the scout boat ma
neuvers of the naval militia off Block
island. The navy officers in charge of
these maneuvers, Commander Nelson and
Lieut. Commander Kimberly, were highly
enthused over the effectiveness of the
weapon. SO. too. were the civilians who
took part in the cruise, among them Mr.
Orson Mum. the owner Of the Scientific
t,,,r IL, IT.,
The naval officers We're still overlooking
with talk about it when they got back to
New York It seems that the secret of
the nonrecol lies in the fact that the gun
shoots from both ends at once so that
the recoil i" nullihed. The rear end of
the gun discharges sand or bird shot which
is caught and STOPPED by a steel screen
while the business end let's loose a ball
or shell as the case may be.
They tell me that this double explosion
so counteracts itself that a glass of wa
ter alongside the gun is not even spilled
by the shock. For this reason the gun can
he fired from soaring airship without
knocking It to pieces or from a scouting
little speed boat without turning it turtle.
In other words, it is exactly the weapon
that airships and fast scout boats have
been hunting for But England now
owns the patent and not the United states,
Jack Stone gets the royalties from Eng
land. after begging our government for
nearly n year to take the gun or at least
give il trial. All the satisfaction he
could get was a series of postponements
and the unwindinG of n prodigious amount
of red tape
England bought the rights to its manu-
facture one week after the gun was pre-
alties that are piling up SO fast they
make him dizzy. He will probably reap
in nearly 100000 from that gun patent.
Jack Stone comes from burlington,
Vt. and started life as drummer
hoy in tho Sherman band there Then
he was the drummer in a circus band.
Then he got n job as advertising clerk
in tho business office Of the New York
Herald. From there he was transferred
to the business office Of the Paris Herald.
And 1t was there. in tho stuffy little
coop at 20 Avenue de rOpera. that good
fortune came and lit on both his shoulders
at once.
1t was Sunday and very much 10 his
disgust he was assigned to do the sunday
trick Only ono clerk was kent on duty
on Sunday, for hardly any one ever came
in, while on week days the place was al
ways busy with visiting Americans who
came to register and get their mail. Only
one man came in all that Sunday. He was
a stranger 10 Paris and he needed lOts of
Jack was only too willing
to give it to him, for while he is naturally
polite on this particular Sunday he was
very glad to have some one to talk with
to kill time
The visitor stayed for a couple Of hours
and was SO Impressed with Jacks CHEEKY
manner and bright talk that he took n
great fancy to him and asked him to dine
with him at his hotel When it came
to exchanging names Jack found he had
made a friend OF Dan O'Day. tho attorney
for the Standard OIL. He dined with the
Of Legislatures, met Judpe
O'Days daughter and subsequently mar
ried her. As every one knows, Miss ODay
was millionaress But the funny part
Of it was that the day after the menor-
able Sunday James Gordon Bennett saw
1T to dispense With Jacks services he-
cause he closed up the office an hour
earlier than the specified time to kcep
his dinner engagement with O'Dav.
His future father-in-law was so Impress
ei with Jacks business ability that he
hacked him In manufacturing tvpe-setting
machines out of which Jack made a small
fortune, After that he was prosperous IN
everything he undertook. so | doubt II
he really ever very much regretted losing
that sos a week job as advertising clerk
on the Herald.
When the war broke out he became tho
agent at the front for the big
banking house of Parr Brothers of Lon
don, than which there is none bigger I'm
England eXcoVt the Rothschilds. The
commissions ON this work for the last
year and half have Melted him "A large
sum, Then he heard of this recoilless
gun and promptly bought it.
The rest of the story have already told.
Jack Stone is to-day probably worth
about S2,oo6,Go0, but he doesn't act as
though 1t had hurt him in the least.