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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (May 20, 1904)
"'"' ail Ma M .3$fto ,2 The Commoner MAY 20, 1904. 4 ill il . mm m v 1H 'M Thinks Ho Can Fly. An Associated press dispatch under date of Washington, April 30, says: Professor Alexander Graham Bell today gave at Columbia station, a Vir ginia suburb of Washington, an ex hibition of the tethrahedral kite which he believes is the secret or aerial nav igation. The demonstration was made to the members of the National Geo graphical society, of which Professor Bell was formerly the president The wind was- light and therefore the trials were not as successful as some which have been made in private, but con cerning which much has been written i the inventor and other scientists. Three sixteen-cell kites, each said to. have a sustaining power of seventy Jive pounds, were sent to heights vary ing from 400 to 1,100 feet, but the wind was so uncertain that the tests were not regarded as satisfactory. Preceding the exhibition of kite flying, Professor Bell explained briefly what he is doing at Cape Breton, where ho has his laboratory. He said that the experiments there were on a much larger scale, but that the idea would be apparent from an examina tion of the tethrahedral kites used in the local demonstrations. The man ner of construction of the kites from the first light sticks or aluminum tubes to the finished kite was shown by Professor Bell. The aluminum tubes or sticks are eight inches long. Three are first used to form a triangle and then three more are jointed to the ends of the first triangle and formed together at a common apex, making a figure bounded by four tri angles. Other cells of the same size and weight then are taken until sixteen form the tethrahedral kite the same size as the first coll. Weight is saved in putting the cells together by using one stick only when two cells are fitted together to that, while one tri angle requires three rods, two trian gles can bo made from five rods. When covered with silk, as the kites are, the two triangles have twice the resistance power of one, but one-sixth less weight than two ordinary tri angles. The same principle of saving weight is continued further in forming the tethrahedral, the idea being that by making, the kites large enough And continuing to save weight a sustain ing power will be possible so that a motor and man can be carried. It has been asserted this has been proved at the Cape Breton laboratory, and the trials today have given to the public the first general understanding of how it is done. Professor Bell said the motor eventually would take the place of the -kite string and that, when this had been accomplished, aerial navigation is established. A World University. The philosopher who said that to have seen Paul at Mars Hill and ' Rome in her glory would have been to him the culmination of earthly felicity ought to have lived to visit the World's Fair of 1904. He would hear nothing in St. Louis quite so im pressive as was the apostle's, immor tal discourse to the men of Athens, but he would witness marvels of which the contemporaries of Caesar and Trajan never dreamed. If he were with us these days he would see the peoples and activities of countries which were ancient when Romulus made liis first camp in sight of the Tiber, as well ns those of great na tions on continents not discovered un til centuries after Oadacer and his barbarians had upset the shadow throne of the "Little Augustus" and ended the career; of the Roman em- . pire, Egypt kind China, which wore old and mysterious in the days of Herodotus fu' wjth us, In company with England, Japan, France, Mexico, Germany, Brazil, Italy, New Zealand and other representatives of old and new civilizations, from all climes and from the four quarters of the globo. A few days or weeks in the World's Fair will give a closer acquaintance with the people and .products of Eu rope, Asia, Africa and America than could be gained by as many years of travel over the earth. Here the most typical of all the interests and activ ities of the various peoples of the globe will be displayed. The person who makes a circuit of the exposition in the proper spirit will, for the time, lose all his local identity. His own especial horizon will disappear in tho broader and fuller environment which will encompass him. For the time he will bo no longer an American, an Englishman, a German or an Italian, or bo restricted to the twentieth cen tury. Habitat as well as time will bo dissolved into the universal. Ho will be a contemporary of Confucius, of Rameses, of Augustus, of Charle magne, of Washington, of Bonaparte, as well as of William II., of Edward VII. and of Roosevelt, and will see the centuries pass before him in pano rama. In far less time than the eighty days in which the earth has- been cir cled in these expanse-annihilating times the globe and all its peoples, employments and life can be seen and studied in the great world university at St Louis. St. Louis Globe-Democrat more injury than war, whoso purposo is to kill and maim. Fires, almost always the result of carelessness, are responsible for many deaths. Such dreaded dangers as tornadoes and lightning destroyed 087 lives in the United States last year, while tho ov-ery-day perils of the streots in a sin gle city killed or' Injured nearly 11, 000 persons. Philadelphia Ledger. City Perils. The Civic Federation of Chicago has a committee on public safety which hag been investigating the causes of accidents in that city. From the re port just submitted it appears that there were 10,707 accidents in 1903, resulting in death or serious bodily injury. In order to adopt measures to reduce tho number of casualties, it was necessary to know the causes that led to them. ( An expert was, therefore, employed to examine the police reports, under tho supervision of the city statistician, so that the committee's report might be as au thentic as possible. The committee recommends that the city should clas sify the records of accidents, and make the information readily acces sible. At present and this is prob ably true of most American cities the number of accidents occurring in a givon period cannot be ascertained without much laborious research. The committee says that this is the kind of information which should bo read ily accessible and published periodic ally; that the knowledge of the causes of accidents would suggest remedies for their prevention, and the effect of publication would, no doubt, be to make the people themselves more careful. Of the 10,707 accidents, 2,000 are at tributed to the operation of the street railways and 914 to the steam and elevated railways. There is no at tempt made to apportion the fault in the railway mishaps. Doubtless, in the great majority of instances, they were due to the carelessness of pas sengers. Nearly 1,000 are chargeable to teams. Injuries wero caused in 1, 15G cases by personal violence, by pure lawlessness, for the prevention of which the police establishment Is largely responsible. If the data were at hand, it would be interesting to compare the records of the great cit ies of the country in this respect, hav ing due regard to population. Explosions are sensational causes of accidents, and occupy much space in the newspapers: but the deaths and injuries from such caused during the year numbered only 117, not half as many as were caused by "falling ob jects." It is believed that it will ba found in the last analysis that by far the greater number of ..accidents were due to preventable causes, though the report does not undertake such an alysis. Malice, carelessness, inatten tion, destroy more lives and inflict Facts Concerning Oyster Farms. "How We Aro Fed," by James Franklin Chamberlain (tho Macmillan Company), is a book for children, but contains much information that would be unfamiliar to most adult readers, one particularly interesting chapter being on oyster farming. Oyster farms, says Mr. Chamber lain, aro far more profitable than aro those upon which corn and wheat aro raised. This is a now industry in our country, but it Is very old In somo parts of tho world. As longr ago as the seventh century, a Roman knighl raised oysters for tho market, and it is said that the business made him very wealthy. Except for the first few days of their lives, oysters aro prisoners, be ing attached to rocks, to tho shells of their dead relatives and, to other objects. They grow in Immense num bers, and crowd one another more than people do in the tenement houses. In fact, most of them are soon crowded out and die. Oyster beds aro not found in very deep water, but rather along tho shore, generally near the mouth of some river. Tho oysters often live where they are uncovered when tho tide goes out, and on this account, partly, man has used them for food for' ages. When tho Pilgrim Fathers landed on the shores of New England thoy found that tho Indians used oy sters very commonly, and all along tho coast wore great heaps of shells. At tho very first Thanksgiving din ner given in America oysters were served. In a single year an oyster will pro duce more than a million young ones. Tho young oysters are called spat, and most of them are drifted away by waves and currents or devoured by large sea animals. Oysters used to be so plentiful on the natural beds that they were very cheap, but by gathering them at all times of the year, so that they had no chanco to produce tholr young, as well as by the catching of the young themselves, many of tho natural beds were destroyed. In order to keep up the supply of this food men began oyster farming. The oyster farmer prepares his farm In various ways. He places clean oy ster shells, stones, trays, bundles of sticks and other things on the bot tom, so that the oysters may find something to which to attach them selves. Then he places the young oy sters, or spat, on these objects. When trays are used, several are placed, ono upon another, and bound together by means of a chain. These trays are taken up from time to time, in order to gather the oysters that are ready for market. Sometimes stakes are planted in a somewhat circular form, cords are' attached to the stakes, and bundles of sticks are fastened to the cords in such a way as to keep them a little above the bottom. Young oy sters attach themselves to these sticks', which may bo drawn up when the proper time comes. Oysters grow at very different rates. In two years they may grow to he six Inches in length, or It may take them several years to reach that size. They grow most rapidly on the artificial beds, and are also of a better quality than on the natural beds. The starfish is ono of the greatest enemies of the oyster, large numbers of which it destroys every year. New York Tribune. There aro mora than a hundred reasons why folka who try it lika tho Empire Cream Separator better than any other, but tho reasons may all bo summed up in this) TheEmiirtdoitltiteriwrlc. Ctvti Utt troulU and maktt more tnont for the farmtr. Our books about the Empire Way of dairying aro free tory tho asking, bona ror tncm. Empire Cresss Separator Ce. BIoewtltW.N.J. Chkap.UL MlaMspellft Mm. iiBBBWoiiii Wt fell the celebrated IMPERIAL. DU- crt FONT and MARCEAU Band r-HNl Instruments at .about tn. I i'ar . WiiY M M Fv f irT I m i, ssnrfcSL rAsV- half tho arlces otliors ,(uk forthosonio high frrado Kootia. For our rree Sana Instrument Cataletfue, also our Free Beeklat entitled. , Flow to Tlur Dand Initru ments." for lanro illustrations anil complete descriptions of our throo largo linos of brass lnatru tnonta, also everything In Drums, Clarionet, Flutes, Saxophones, etc, eta., (or the frco catalogues, our Euarantco and refund proposition, for the most liberal and Instrument offer orer beard of, for the new method of eelllng Instrument! fully explained, for something now and Immensely Interesting to erery bandman, cut thli ad out and mail to us today. SEARS, ROEBUCK & CO., CHICAGO, ILLINOIS. - . MaMM Are Ye latcrestc in raining chicks In an up-to-date way? If you arc and aro looking for something cheap ata cheap price don't write us. If you yrant as good ns tho bent at reasonable price, we have It to oiler you. Wrilo for frco catalogue of the "ONLY" INGUOATOR AND BROODED Manufactured by Lincoln Incubator Co., Lin coin, Neb. i ) i wmmmm i Li !Mggcsr vm I Ft Wi RE Si. 40 KK 1O0 LIIS. 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