Zurich Herald, 1921-10-06, Page 7Accidents That Made History
"A burning 'hayrick was responsible who was amusing herself with the ob-
i'•or starting me on my running career," Jocks lying about, exclaimed,, "Olt, see
how near, the steeple comes!"
She was looking through two lenses,
one held• close to, her eye, the other at
arm's length, one being eonvex, the
other concave. The optician saw in
this a wonderful discovery, and lie set
about making use of his new know-
ledge of lenses. In this way the tele-
scope was invented.
Rontgeres Rays. -
The discovery of saccharine, that
sweetening agent so much used as a
Substitute for sugar during the war,
reads like a romance.
Dr. Fahlberg had entered the Johns
Hopkins University in America to
study the chemistry of coal -tar deriva-
tives. After some months he noticed
an intensely sweet flavor upon his
bread and butter. He traced the
sweetness to his hands and his coat -
sleeves and it dawned upon him that
it must have been derived from one of
the new compounds he had succeeded
in producing.
He hurried back to his laboratory
and tasted the contents of every vessel
with which he had been working. One
of the beakers contained saccharine, a
substance whose sweetness is three
hundred times greater than that of
cane sugar,
Professor Rontgen came upon his
marvellous X-rays quite by chance. He
was experimenting in the dark with a
Crookes vocuum tube, which, .was
covered with some sort of cloth. A
strong electric current was passing
through it, while close by was some
prepared photographic paper, but no
camera. Nextday he noticed several
lines on this paper, By restoring
everything to exactly the same con-
dition as on the preceding day, he was
able to ascertain the real origin of
these mysterious marks.
So declared Alfred Shrubb, the
world-famous runner.
Apart from sport, many things of,
the greatestservice to mankind have
been discovered by accident. The'
rubbing of a piece of amber "evoked,"
to use Faraday's. words, "an invisible
agent which has done for mankind
far more wonderful thi,lgs than the
genie of Aladdin did or could have
done for him"; the up•fokeing of tho
lid of a kettle discovered the marvel.
lous power of steam, and the falling
of an apple demonstrated the law of
natural attraction. The swinging to
and fro of a suspended lamp gave birth.
to the application of the pendulum, to
which the precision of modern as-
tronomy owes so much.
The manufacture of gunpowder was
discovered by accident. An Augus-
tinian monk, Berthold Schwartz, hav-
ing put a composition of sulphur and
saltpetre in a "mortar, it took fire, and
the stone that covered it was blown
off with great violence,. The accident
led the chemist to think that it might
he used to advantage In attacking
fortified places.
Seen in a Dream.
Leaden shot is attributed to a Bris-
tol plumber who, in 1783, dreamed
that he was out in a shower of molten
lead which fell in the form of spheri-
cal drops. His curiosity being
aroused, he went next day to the top
of: a church and poured some molten
lead into a vessel of water lying be-
low.
To, his. great delight, he found that
the lead had gathered into globular
halls, and at once be took out a patent.
One day, about 'three hundred years
ago, a poor •optician was working in
his shop in the town of Middleburg, in
the Netherlands, when his little girl,
JED CARTER, OF
SHADOW DELL FARM
By William Johnson
x, should like to have seen what
some great fictionist would have done
with Jed Carter. Here in our quiet
little neighborhood, Jed has lived a
story that thrilled every one of us. He
Is a dark, lean, silent man of about
thirty-seven, with a reputation, years
back, of permanently retiring from cir-
culation ninety five cents of every dol-
lar he got.
Twelve years ago Jed bought a hun-
dred acres of swamp and hills that no
one else wanted. He has' made as
pretty a little farm out of it as a real-
estate dealer would want to picture on
.• •the cover of hiss catalogue.- • Work
seemed to be the only thing Jed knew.
They say he wore out an alarm clock
and two lantern every six months;
clearing up that farm, but in nine
Years he did a magnificent job.
I drove by with Uncle Dave Dayton
the day ,Ted nailed the name he had
given his farm over the arched gate-
way opening on to the curved, cedar -
bordered drive. Shadow Dell, it read,
and neither of us could have been
more surprised if it had been an an-
nouncement of a free chicken dinner
to the entire neighborhood. We hadn:.t
thought that there was a streak of
sentiment that size in Jed's iron make-
up.
"Now, I wonder who he'll marry,"
Uncle Dave said, He was driving with
one hand while he stroked his pointed
Calver beard with the other, and think-
ing so intently that he absent-minded-
ly steeyped on the accelerator instead
of the brake, nearly running the car
Into a ditch.
"You've got a lot of faith in signs,"
-1 laughed, when we were once more
Skimming safely down a smooth
stretch -of macadam. "Jed wouldn't
consideranything but an heiress, which
Bay Port hasn't got."
"Don't you fool yourself," Uncle
Dave said. "Jed isn't a miser, He's
lust a one -idea man. He goes after
ine thing at a time, like that farm,
with all there is in him. He's ready
for a mate now, and- it'll be the same
way, Tbat little chap with the bow
has arrows with special long points on
'em for Jed's sort."
It turned out much as Uncle Dave
said. Dora Lorring came to teach our
school that fall, and from the begin-
ring it was plain to see that see was
the centre of the universe to Jed.
What is more, a half-dozen other
young and old Bay Port bachelors
were full of the same idea.
Dora had the time of her merry
young life. Wherever she wanted to
go .she had the pick of every sort of
conveyance from Hank Newberry's
spavined old sorrel and buckboard to
Jed Carter's shiny new "six." And
she was as likely to take one, as the
other. She played her suitors pretty
evenly, though we did think Jed was
a Iittle in the lead. We could never
be sure, for Dora was one of those
golden -headed, laughing little witches
that a man can understand about as
he can gather up a bucket of moon-
light.
Jed followed her' around at parties
and picnics, looking as mournful as
an orphan lamb on a windy hillside.
Sometimes it is funny, but always it
is pathetic to see a big, strong man.
who would stand. a good show in a
bare-handed Sght with a wild .cat -made
prabtieally useless by a little mite of
a woman. It lasted during the entire.
school term, then, woman-like, Dora
ignored all' the farms and fine houses
laid at her feet, and married .George
Hess, the fat, bald, pug-nosed, poverty-
stricken freight agent in town. I don't
pretend to know why to any further
extent than that she and Jed had a
passing quarrel, and that George could
make a violin laugh and cry.
Except for the night the engagement
was announced you couldn't see much
change in Jed. Maybe he was a little
silenter than before and worked hard-
er, but he could scarcely have beaten
his previous records in either way
enough to be noticeable.•
The announcement came as a sur-
prise at a. party the Ellisons gave,
which was where Dora boarded. Jed
was among the first to congratulate
the smiling, flustered pair, but 1 didn't
hear what he said. I only saw the
corners of his mouth twitching, his
big hands fumbling with his vest front
and the sham of a smile he managed
to hide Ms hui't behind.
I thought of him going back to his
little house and finding a silence as of
death in its still rooms. In his dreams
it had been a home, warm and glowing
with such pictures as only the love of
a clean man for a good woman can
paint. And now it was just walls and
a roof, and the man war standing
there with that desolation in his
heart, hiding it with the little pretense
he knew. It is the heritage of the
country ---that stoic power learned
from frost and flood and drought—to
take your pain calmly, as it comes.
"Words won't help him," said Uncle
Dave when he and I sat out on the
porch a little later, "They never do
help much. Every man ha's his own
Discouragerr a at h a Disease -
The moment you yield to discourage-
ment all your mental faculties become
depressed. They lose power. There
is no co-ordinationof effort among
them; consequently they fail to do
• vigorous team work. Your initiative
is paralyzed, your. executive ability
strangled: You are in no condition• to
lo 'anything effectively. Tour whole•
mentality is placed at -a tremendous
dlsadvantage, and until this enemy is
dilven out of your mind, neutralized
by the affirmation and the conteenpla-
tion. of its • opposites• --•• of courage,
sli,eer,• trope, and a vigorous expecta-
tion of splendid things to coins—you
are in no condition to do good work.
+'very suggestion of diseouragenient,
of fear, o failure, is a destructive
force, and in the degree that we allow
ourselves to be influenced by it will
toar down and retard our •life process-
es, our life' work: It will darken the
mind and cause one to make fatally
wrong decisions, to take steps which 1
may ruin one's happiness, one's whole
life. •
When trials and troubles come to
us, when overwhelmed with sorrow,
when death comes into our home and
snatches away some clear one, it is
very difficult to see through the storm,
to pierce the black clouds and see the
healing sun behind then. Struggling
with the sorrow of that great loss in
our life, it doesn't seen as• if we could
'ever be happy again. When so suffer-
ing we wonder in a sort of dumb re-
sentment how other people can pos-
sibly be laughing, having a good ulna,
going to theatres, dances, enjoying life
as usual, it seems cruel, almost, for
others to enjoy when we feel as if we
caul(' never even smile again,
But we know that time heals the
deepest sorrows, that physical and
mental ills paste away, and that, the
brave soul is the one that adapts itself
to the storms and sunshine ai! life. --•-
New Sueeess.,
isnowaimand the Worst is yet to come
\\,111.,,/up
n
l
rLtaseaenteearlaj
ya-
�ry
ill
00 ,
sources of strength and comfort, and
he's got to go to his own when the
great need comes. Jed'll find his in
the everlasting things he's lived with.
They're full of healing."
A year later George Hess tooksick
with some obscure malady that the
l doctors said could only be cured by an
expensive operation and a rest in a
warm climate. Neither. George's folks
nor Dora's had any money, and no
way to borrow the thousand dollars
that would be needed. While we were
talking the dreary situation oevr, a
joyfully surprising thing happened.
One of the great surgeons from a
hospital in a nearby any came to Bay
Port, explained that he had heard of
George's sickness through a patient
from the next town, and that as the
malady was a rare one he would be
glad to perform the operation for no
other pay than the scientific 'pleasure
it would give him. He would even
bear the expense of the Southern trip—
that being necessary to complete the
cure—and it could be repaid later.
Of course the offer was accepted,
and we waited anxiously far news of
the outcome.
It was six weeks later when we got
word • from • ° a seaport vilIage:- : in
Jamaica. It came to Uncle Dave, as it
naturally would. Just a six -word• tele-
gram, which happened..to' arrive one
evening when he and :I were he the
pest office.
George died this morning, conking
home,
Dora.
Uncle Dave crumpled.the yellow sheet
that carries so much of pain and joy,
and- seemed to be looking at some-
thing a thousand miles away.
"I wonder how anyone can ever "•lose
faith in life," he said. "What queer,
round -about ways it takes." '
More than a little puzzled, "I asked
him what he meant.
"Didn't you know that Jed Carter
went, to the city about a week before
that surgeon came?" he demanded.
"Didn't I tell you he had mortgaged .
his place for a thousand dollars? Cant
you see Providence helping Cupid to.
straighten out a tangle for a real man
in all this?"
Of course I could after I'd got
through gasping and marveling. How
little would the keenest observer have
suspected that close, silent main 'of
such a sacrifice! His toil freely given
to' another who had stepped between
him and ,his happiness, for the sake of
the woman who would not have him.
By littles the story leaked out, and.
when, a year later, Jed and Dora were
married, I don't believe that Bay Port
ever dressed up and forgot its work
for a clay, and had a better time. Such
a wealth of presents was never before
showered on a happier pair.
Just before Uncle Dave got into his
car to drive them to the station he
turned to me and said:
"You go out to Jed's place, John, and
take down that name over tlae gate.
Put up the one you'll find in my gran
ary. It's 'Sunshine; not 'Shadow
Dell.' "
A Maxim of the Woods.
The hunting season is at hand, and
therefore it is time to recall the old
maxim of the woods, "If you get lost,
stay pat." .A. night in, the open and
twenty-four hours without food need
not hurt anyone' if he does not use all
hiss energy in futile wandering and
shouting. The most conspicuous spot
available suggests itself as the place
to camp, and common sense directs .a
little smoky fire to 'guide the inevit-
able searchers. There is no need to
worry; if you follow nothing 'bat the
rule you cannot be lost long, and your.
rescuer's will not have to run down .a
wild man at the iinisli,
A Master Hand,
Dora—"Do you know, George pro.
posed to me last night."
Flora—"Yes, doesn't he do it beauti-
fully?"
ilei -s ritr s coated with[ alumiriutn
paint will not rust)
ENGLISH ESTATES
UN ER HAMMER
LARGE HOLDINGS NOW
BEING IVIDED.
Ever Inacreasng Taxes, War
Ruined Families and De-
mand for Farm Lands.
Despite all the "stately homes of
England" that have passed under the
hammer within the last few months
and despite the daily page and more
of the Times advertising further splen-
did properties for sale, by far the bulk
of the estates, great and small, will re-
main in the hands of the original
owners.
Up to fifty years ago 2,000 persons
owned half the agricultural land of
England and Wales. Heavy as have
been the sales, past and to come, they
make no serious• dent in the ranks of
these -great property -owning classes-.
In Scotland, a Parliamentary cammit-
tee reported only the other day that
nearly a fifth of the country's total
area was reserved in deer forests.
.There can be no doubt, however,
that the sales have been heavy and es"
tates. of supreme historic and artistic
interest have recently passed into new
hands. They have passed into the
hands of three classes: People of re-
cent wealth, like Lord Leverholme and
Lord Beatty, institutions and hotels
and the housebreaker and lot seller.
Pleasure Lodges Go First. -
The toll has been the heaviest in
the medium sized ' establishments.
That means places used primarily for
pleasure. They have had large houses
and relatively small amounts of agri-
cultural land. In estates where the
agricultural land ran into thousands
of acres sales of part of the land en-
abled proprietors to hold onto the
most valuable sections, with their
mansions, in the face of rising costs
and taxes. Medium sized places have
had to go entire.
When "the stately homes of Eng-
land" changed hands in the Middle
Ages it was often by royal grant or
forfeiture, and the holder literally lost
his head under the axe of the execu-
tioner at the same time. To -day when
he loses his ancestral home under the
hammer .of the auctioneer he does not
lose his head, literally or figuratively,
but re -invests the purchase money in
what are called "gilt edged securities,"
and rejoices at his release from the
burdens of landlordism.
The great country mansions • are ex-
pensive to maintain, and their accom-
modation is in excess of what all but
the wealthiest and most openhanded
require. At the same time, by buying
them or renting them, it has been well
said that a man 'may enter into the
heritage of centuries." At one bound
lie becomes a •person of weight
throughout a district, and niay hope
to assume various interesting and
honorific oiiices., some of which, such
as the position of High Sheriff, are not
coveted by men of restricted means.
A wonderful range of sport awaits
him. --hunting, shooting, flshing and
golf, and of he is a social individual he
will find plenty of friends, men of af-
tains or plain country gentlemen, ac-
cording to his tastes, who will wet-
come him to their houses and be glad
to enjoy his hospitality in turn. An
illimitable range of interestsopens to
him, and we have personally known
many inen• who went as total strangers
to a, Minty, but who soon became
known and liked and a power in their
adopted district. Privileges of no
mean order may, in short, be enjoyed,
by a man who can. afford to cont or
buy an. English country seat, and the
cost is net Prohibitive.
Historlo 1-lor•nes to Lot.
Scores of historic houses may now
be taken at a moderate rental, inclu-
elve in Many oases of the magnificent
INSPECT THE STEERING
APPARATUS
Suppose it should :break—the steer-
ing apparatus of an automobile going
at even ordinary speed? One needs
to have no very vivid imagination to
picture the possibilities of disaster.
The thought brings • up visions of a
ear making wreckage out of itself and
everything in its path, plus horrible
human suffering. A broken steering
apparatus leaves the driver in a more
helpless position than the collapse of
almost any other part of the maehine.
When a motorist thinks of running
without the steering rod he pictures
wheels trying to go in divergent di-
rections, with his ultimate destination
the ditch. As a matter of fact, it is
possible to run a considerable distance
at moderate speed with only one wheel
connected to the steering apparatus,
as experiments have demonstrated.
The front wheels of an automobile
also have other peculiarities not usu
ally understood by the amateur driver.
For instance, most people think that
the front wheels of an auto should be, ease under all circumstances.
there is aconstant resistance against
any extraordinary pressure from
either direction.
This makes it -necessary in steering
to exert a certain pressure to turn the -
boat about. In actual practice it keeps
the boat from wobbling. The same
principle applies to the front wheels
of an automobile. if they are perfectly
aligned there will be no tendency to
give one way more than another and
very little pressure would tend to turn
the wheels aside and- make the ear
wobble, Experience teaches that this
actually occurs.
Keeps Car Steady.
If the wheels toe in a little there.
is exactly the same pressure effect
working from opposite directions,
Each seeks to ga slightly out of true
and each offsets that tendency in the
other, . This naturally keeps the cat
steady and the wheels pass over slight
obstructions without turning them in
the slightest degree. Only a rut or
some large obstruction would cause
them to turn, and this would be the
perfectly true In every way; that
that they should run exactly parallel.
But they do not run parallel from any
viewpoint. The front wheels actually
toe in to a slight degree; that is, the
distance between the front part of
the wheels should be one-quarter to
three -eights of an inch less than the
distance measured between the back
parts.
Variations Necessary.
Theoretically there would be a wear
on the tires if they were at all out
of true, but when it comes to the
practical consideration of an auto
there are certain variations of this
which are necessary to make the op-
eration of the car safe and a matter
of ease.
Of course, there cannot be too great
a difference in the alignment, but a
very slight difference is necessary to
enable the steering to be a natter of
certainty.. There will be an intangible
amount of extra wear, but it does not
cut any particular figure in the life
of the tire and it gives a stability to
the steering which cannot be neglected.
This principle can be illustrated by
referring to two types of boats which
are familiar to most folks. One is the
scow with the square nose, which is
very hard to steer either with or
against the tide. It is :pushing flat
against the water and. there is no Iet-.
eral pressure to keep it steady. The
pointed bow boat, the ordinary type,
has a. pressure on .each bow«so that
In case there is wear due to neglect-
ed lubrication or otherwise, the web.
Wing tendency is especially noticeable.
Sometimes the pins are inclined fore
and aft; that is, the bottom is further
forward than the top, This is to help
the wheels pointed straight ahead St;
making the wheels into a sort of cas-
ter, that they trail easily. The
knuckles are directly over the centres
of the wheels and the line of weight
would be directly downward, but the
pins point forward. In this way the
line of weight is moved forward and
the weight is carried ahead of the
contact point of the tire with the
ground. The pressure exerted on the
knuckle pins keeps Them firmly In
place, even though there be consider-
able wear. The pressure being from
both sides, it naturally takes up the
play in :both knuckles the same as
with a ,chain when it is drawn tight.
It is tremendously important that
automobile owners have, the steering
apparatus regularly inspected to see
that the pins are kept tight and that
the wheels do not get too much out
of alignment. The pin might drop out
when going down a steep hill, or when
running at high :speed. And there is
extra wear on tires when the wheels
are net properly set. And there is, of
course, great possibility of •d'isaster
when anything :happens to the steer-,
ing parts of an automobile. These
parts represent a consideration of
serious -importance.
antique and other furniture with which
so many old mansions, are enriched.
Sometimes a tenancy is granted witb.
an option to purchase, and in the case
of one well known seat, Ragley Hall,
Warwickshire, it has just been an-
nounced that a nominal rental would
be accepted from anyone willing to
expend money on the house.
In the same county is a castle, Max -
stoke, of early medieval date, which
can be rented for a few pounds a week.
There are castles — real baronial
strongholds• and once royal palaces—
with a teeming wealth of history, and
every modern luxury of equipment, to
be had for a few hundreds a year. The
owners cannot keep them for their
own occupation and prefer to let them
at a low rent rather than see them
empty .and neglected, That, then, is
one way in which the great houses of
England are dealt with. There are
others, chiefly conversion to institu-
tional uses, such as schools and sana-
toria; and, happily, still infrequent,
demolition and sale as building ma-
terial.
Ofgreat houses that have been con-
verted to institutional purposes in the
last few weeks or months only a few
can be mentioned. A Berkshire man-
sion has been made into an orphan-
age; auother in Bucks into a training
home for London deaf children;
Bedgebury, a palatial mansion on the
Kent and Sussex borders, has become
a boarding school for girls; Deepdene,
a famous Surrey seat, has just been
turned into a hotel; Cefn Mablys, most
historic of South Wales mansions, is
to be a convalescenthome for the
workers of a Cardiff term, and the late
Mtne. Patti's South Wald castle, Some drink so many healths that
Craig -y -Nos, has been bought for cte agley drink away their own,
version into a sanatorium, and so with
many others•.
Let none infer, however, from the
recital of the extent to which England
is changing hands that everything is
in the melting pot socially. It is not,
and despite the vast number of famous
and ancient estates in the market
there remain yet more that are still
owned and occupied by the bearers of
the names that have been associated
with them for generations. So long as
they can continue their coiihection
with the properties so long will the
ownership of the great English do-
&ains• have amenities such as money
alone is powerless to provide.
The Hay -Fever Weeds.
Adultsufferers from hay fever need
no warning to beware of the wind
blown pollen of the ragweeds; but
children needlessly expose themselves
to infection from hay -fever plants and
so contract "colds" that could be
avoided. Children often pick the daisy
fleabane, the pollen of which is noxi-
ous. The little daisylike fiowers are
about half an inch in diameter and
have a greenish -yellow centre. Oc-
casionally the petals are lilac tinged,
and sometimes they are• extremely
short or altogether absent. When a
child is old enough to play by itself,
it is old enough to learn the numerous,
hay -fever weeds, most of which are
wind pollinated and have inoonspicu
otos flowers., devoid of bright color or
seeht, but forming pollen in great
quantities.
Diplomacy Needed to bid Pole Line
Lack of understanding rather than
maliciousness lies et the bottom of
many international ditilot lties. Es,
pecially is this true in the dealings of
a civilized with an uncivilized people.
So apart aro the ranges of eeperiences
that a mutual ground of apprehension
is hard tte filly, One no longer won-
ders at the reluctance of the Asiatic
tribe to allow the telegraph to pass
tlrxaugh its country when he reads of
the true reason of the native's refusal,
The company, surveying the ground
for the telegraph, wished to bargain
with the Lamuts for deer to be used in
the construction oaf the line. The
chiefs received the agents with great
dignity, and gravely listened to their
proposals. Then they announced that
they had plenty of reindeer and were
perfectly willing to sell theta for any
other purpose, but not for the building
of the telegraph.
Thinking that they did trot under-
.
stand ttee, nature o't the line and its
object„ elle agents carefully explained,
teliir:„ the chiefs it consisted simply
in a series of poles extending through
the country, with a small wire stretch.
ed along the tops. They enlarged au
what advantage the natives Would gain.
fret* the torts and stations establish
ed along the way, from which they
could c't sin supplies and clothes.
Ther agents were puzzled, not being
able to tmelne why they were so ola
posed, is =::