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The Exeter Times, 1919-7-3, Page 2Keep Your Eye on the Garage Man. Getting good work done on your ear is a problem, I have been up against it at times when I have, been too busy to do anything on the ma- chine myself, and I know what it is When it comes to finding ordinary trouble I believe I am as good as the average. But when it comes to some which of thecar I have no tools to fit and cannot afford to get them for what little work I have to do, I am ready to take the jobto a garage man who is properly equipped. I have found ways to get around high-priced and unreliable garage workers. There are a good many efficient men who fix automobiles, and there are a lot more who work on your car to put in time and charge you for it, A small garage started up in our town about ten years ago which does no advertising, and no one would know it was there except by hear- say. I found out about it, and had some work done and liked it. I have sent others there. I am going there within a few days for some valve - grinding. This man says he gets enough to do without advertising. I once had a car run tight in the trans- mission. He worked nearly a day on it. After two days it tightened up worse than ever. I got it back in his shop. He fixed it again, and found the real trouble. I asked him what I was to be charged. He said it was his fault, and no charge, of course. There are probably such men in your town. They usually own their own buildings, and do not bother with' gasoline sales. That takes time from a regular garage man. and does not pay very well. Besides this there is another op-, portunity to get first-class work done' by a good man for less money—the private chauffeur. He often has time on his hands, and is an expert in most cases. Perhaps he has room for another car, and usually the owners do not object to his making a! little on the side so long as it does: not interfere with their own driving and care of ears. Bill's "Hit -and -Miss Engine." While over at BillMorgan's the e other day something was said by me about power farming. ''"Talking about farm power," said Bill, "I've got one of the blanredest 1 engines you ever saw. I call it 'hit- ' and -miss engine,' and the miss is so much in the maj �orltS that I guess i I'll have to get a new one." f"How does it act?" I asked. I" Well, Well, I can start it up all right," i Bill replied, "but after it runs about ten minutes it will stop and I can't { get it started again for about an hour. It used to be all right and I only went to the bad recently. I had I Bud Simpkins, who 'works at George ' Watson's blacksmith shop, to come down and look it over, and he said it was spavined or windbroken, I forget which, and that I would have to buy j a new engine." i "When an hour has passed can you start it again without any trouble?" I inquired. ' "Goes off like a pet lamb," replied Bill. I `Looks as if the gasoline feed -pipe might be clogged," I suA Bested. "Let's Ilook at it." We went out to the shed where the 1 engine was mounted and Bill started ; it on the first turn. True to his word, it ran about ten minutes and then stopped. We disconnected the gas - 1 oline feed-pipe'and made an examina- L tion. Sure enough, it was almost i completely stopped up near the tank outlet. We washed it out thorough- ly and then reconnected it. The whole operation took about fifteen minutes. We again started the engine and it ran on past the regular ten-minute period and did not show signs of stop- ping. It was evident, therefore, that we had hit the trouble. The engine would simply run till it used all the gasoline in the carbureter and then stop because it could not get fuel enough. The pipe was not entirely stopped, however, and enough gas- oline would seep through in an hour to gain fill the carbureter bowl. IWING ! INVENTED BY SPIN -31 I` wa.. claimed that the diving bell was invented by a spider. At least. we are certain that if it was not actually invented by him it was used by him long before our hydraulic engineers made one for the same purposes. The diving bell is, as is ne11 known, a cup shaped body with open end down which is let into the water. The air is caught in the bell and keeps the water from rising beyond a certain level at any specified depth and of course allowing any one inside' to breathe and act as if he were on dry land. The improvement of the diving bell known as the caisson is a huge pipe which has compartments, into which air is pumped from above. The ,spider's bell is filled more in this man- ner than in the other. The name given to these little spi- ders is very appropriate—the naiads, of the family of -Arachnida. A naiad will build a little house of waterproof silk held fast by strands fixed to neighboring blades of grass and stones several feet under the water. He com- pletes the entire structure before fill- ing it with air—as if he knew that the air would tend to make it rise to the top and thus hinder the attaching of the anchors. But the method of getting air into their houses in perhaps the most pe- culiar and interesting of all instinc- tive acts of animals. Their abdomens are so made that a bubble of air can be caught underneath them. This the naiad does, and swims to his house with it and turns it loose in the airy structure. The process is repeated several times until the little house is full of air. Of course the open end of this house is down and this has to act also as the entrance to it. In the Iittle water house the spider spends the winter and rears its young. The house also acts as a lair from which the spider can jump on unsuspecting prey. A;iother peculiar thing about naiads is that they never. get wet. They have thousands of small hairs on their bodies which hold and keep the air MIPIIII51.PLITA11011110 711141M 50.,40. A from being washed off when they en- ' ter a ater and so the air sticks and 1waier cannot approach. E'ckntists are acquainted with many other insect engineers but with none ;that approach naiads in intelligence and skill. The water beetle is prob- ably the only other one in their class. It builds a waterproof nest under water but does not live in it. It mere- ly lays its eggs in the nest, seals it up and leaves. The Mason bee. as its name implies, is a builder of structures of stone and mortar. The nest is attached to al- most any solid structure and actually does consist of small stones cemented together with mortar. The house con- sists of many cells of oval shape, and into each an egg is laid. The cell is lined with silken webs by the mother, which gets out of it by a hole in its top. Before leaving, however, she hermetically seals up the cell and leaves the youngster to its fate. However, such are the arrange- ments of nature, as soon as he gets to feeling his oats and consumes the food Ieft him by his mother he finds him- self supplied with tools hard and sharp enough to cut through the walls to freedom. A member of this family found in England makes its own bricks, select- ing brown clay for the purpose, which it mixes with saliva, rolls into small balls, which soon become hard, and then cements them together. These pellets are as large as small peas and one bee has been known to prepare as many as one hundred and fifty in a single day. Could Probably Go. "She seems a timid, flowerlike girl." "Well?" "Do you think her mother would al- low her to go to the theatre without a chaperon?" "Why, I think so, my boy. She drove a supply wagon in France dur- ing the war," Two asbestos mats together will serve as a good flatiron rest. ENGLISH SURNAMES. Some Cognomens That Cause a Smite When. Heard, "If a party had a voice," to quote an unkind rhyme. "what mortal would be Ilugg by choice?" And yet the pioneer Bugg was. a man of substance, Wo dwelt in a manor house, from wha he derived his name. The first Coward was nUoltroo cow -herd, who n n, buta v w - rd, tended his cattle; just as the first Ras- cal was no knave, but a man who 'probably bore some resemblance to a lean stag or rascal; and the original Sneaks hailed from Sevenoaks, whose corrupted name he bore. Hobson, a name at which some affect to scoff, is as venerable as it is re- spectable, actable for � we read of a Lowrie Hobbesune, a Suffock landowner, in the days of Edward the Confessor; and the Buggins and Boggs, if they did not come over with the Conqueror, at least came over with some of his race. Gottobed is no name to smile at, for it is a variant of Cuthbert, which means "war -bright," and the first Gotobed was probablly a warrior of fame. Miggs is a synonym for "strength"; and Wildgoose signifies a "resolute hostage." Devil_.is-merely De Ville, of honorable French ances- try, and bears no relationship to Hell- man, whose ancestor was a Helier, or roof -maker, and probably a good Christian. The Doctor. He entered; and the sunshine seemed A golden graciousness he brought; As if the room, from eyes that beamed Benevolence, their warmth had caught. The air, that all night long had been A fevered breath, became as cool As ferns that swing, a fretting screen Of shade, above a sleeping pool. And. tender as a child's caress His fingers touched the burning skin With sympathetic tenderness; And cooled the scorching fire within. I felt that I could sleep; and closed My eyes in one long sigh of rest; And calmly, for a moment dozed Like infants at their mother's breast. Refreshing sleep, a breath's span long, I had; and dreamed of sunny rills That romped in radiance, lilting song To heathered moors and brackened hills. And sometimes came, from voice or eyes, An influence that seemed to swathe The soul with hope; like sunset skies Whose golden calms are creeds of faith. I know that, soon, my song I'd sing, Of joyous life to sun and sky; And hear the litanies of Spring Which gladden as they. glorify. Morley Isn't Everything. "looney isn't everything," says the spendthrift as he scatters his wages to the four winds. • Then he reaches middle life, with old age in the foreground, vainly wish- ing for the return of the misspent coin. It may be true that money isn't everything, but one thing is absolutely certain, Old Man Money, if he is cul- tivated through life, will not desert the friend who has cultivated him. When every human friend has fled Old Man Money sticks. You can start him off with five or ten cents a day in ear- ly life and keep feeding him that amount all through life, and in old age you will have on your hands a rich old gentleman, albeit a pleasant and high- ly agreeable one. " If you find the rigors of the north- ern winter too severe, you may simply tap Old Man Money on the shoulder, and he hies you to Bermuda; if' you are sick another tap on the shoulder brings you the best nurses e,nd special- ists the world affords. He's an agree- able old man, never disputes orders and is always ready for duty. He makes the proverbial busy -bee and the equally industrious ant look like pikers, for he never rests. He's one size when you go to sleep and larger when you wake up. The older he Vets the stronger he becomes.: If you are a stranger in a large city, with no earthly friend to call upon, Old Man Money opens the doors of the best hotels and stakes you to the best the town affords. But money isn't everything at that. Among all the women of European royalty none has traveled so widely as Queen Mary' of England, who has visited every continent, with the ex- ception of South America, and almost every country of any importance. • ALCOCK AND BROWN • WAR MR VETERANS' BOTH HAVE HAD ,TI-IRILLINQ EX- PERIENCIfS IN BATTLE. Capt. Alcock Was First to Bomb Con Stantinople—Lieut, Brown Fought on Western Front, The Vickers-Vimy 'trans -atlantic at tempt was a success because the en- gines and the structure of the plane proved 1 ov d as reliable during the flight' 'as the men guiding the big bomber have shown themselves in the past. Both men have war records and ren- dered much valiant service before finally being brought down as prison- ers during aerial exploits almost as hazardous as their marvellous air journey across the Atlantic. Capt. John Alcock, leader of the ex- pedition, is one of the comparatively few Britons who could fly before the outbreak of the war, His knowledge of aviation made him exceedingly valuable as an instructor, when Bri tain, unprepared, set out in 1914 to build 'up an air service to repel the raids of Zeppelins and big German bi- planes. Capt. Alcock, who was born in Manchester in 1892, took out his first flying license in 1912. His prin- cipal pre-war exploit was the winning of second place ' in a great sporting event, the flight from Loudon to Man- chester and return, which awoke many Englishmen to the realization 'that flying was a fact and not a theory: When war flamed out Capt. Alcock became an instructor at the army fly- ing school at Eastchurch. His skill and daring in the air soon won for him a more important, if more' dangerous post, that of chief of the "stunt" flying section. At that time "stunt" flying had not been so greatly developed, but it was realized nevertheless that a pilot must know how to manoeuvre his plane skillfully and intricately to con- fuse his opponent in an aerial battle. Capt. Alcock's risky -task was to teach the young cadets these aerial acrobat-, ics, hazardous in themselves, but pos- sibly the means of avoiding the ma- chine gun fire of the enemy. Designed a Fighting Plane. Later in the war Capt. Alcock was transferred to the Turkish front, where he was the first man to bomb Constantinople. Light scout planes -were not furnished the, aviators on this front, so Capt. Alcock designed and built a high speed fighting plane. This is said to be the only plane built by a flyer on active service with the British forces during the war. It was whilel harassing the 'Turks from the air that Capt. Alcock established a re- cord for a long distance bombing raid. He remained in the, air seven hours and flew.460 miles. On one of his trips over the Turkish lines in a heavy bomber Capt. Alcock s engine failed and he was compelled . glide down. He was taken prisoner and was held until after the signing of the armis- tice. He returned to Erfgland in the middle of December, 1918., His experience with. bombing ma- chines during the war convinced him that the two engine type was capable of covering much greater distances than they had made on raids during the war. - He expressed confidence that the Vickers-Vimy plane would take hila across and finish the flight in Ireland with both engines running. In appearance Capt. Alcock is typic cally Anglo-Saxon. He is fair-haired, with a round ruddy face, and is sturdi- ly built. He is seemingly perpetually cheerful and gives absolutely no, symp- toms of temperament that sometimes haunt fliers as well as prima donnas. He is never addressed by his friends except as Jack, for the formality of John does .not fit his joyful, easy going disposition. Observer in Royal Flying Corps. Lieut. Arthur Whitten Brown, who fulfills the triple duty of navigator, wireless man and relief pilot on the Viekers craft, is almost the physical opposite of his companion, although both are quick thinking and quick act- ing, traits picked up, or at least strengthened, by their experience in the war. kieut. Brown, who was born in Glasgow in 1886, is quiet, slimly built and sharp of features. His com- plexion is dark and his eyes gray. He resembles his chief in that he, too, is of a cheerful disposition. Indeed, all the flyers who intend to dare the At- lantic may be described as constitu- tionally optimistic, for the spanning of Vickers Vir 'FISHING IN TIE Atlantic Airplane, Was Built For GREAT YUON RIVER anib 'ng Berlin. *Both the Vickers-Yimy , and the Handley -Page- machines •° were con- structed in D land duringthe war ng with a single object in view, to rain bombs upon Berlin with: the frequency and, terrific destruction that the,Ger- mans had hoped to reach in their Zep- pelin raids on the British .capital. Their outstanding characteristics as bombing planes, groat cruising range; heavy wet ht carrying capacit y, reliability and swift speed, made them almost ideal machines for 'the trans- atlantic flight, toward which the eyes of British flying men turned when the necessity for bombing Berlin was past. The Vickers-Yimy, although over- shadowed by the huge Handley -Page, in turn dwarfs the little. Sopwith in which Harry Hawker set out 'to blaze the North Atlantic trail. The Vickers- Vimy.wing spread is 67 feet, while that 'of the Sopwith was 46 feet 6 inches. The plane, like the Australian's, is a land 'machine. Capt. Alcock and Lieut.' Brown took- the stinee chance as did Hawker, with the exception that in their case they had two engines to rely upon and did drop their land- ing carriage and wheels as he did. On the other hand, they carried no col- lapsible boat, Capt. Alcock and Lieut. Brown sat side by side in the rounded nose of the machine, with an instrument board containing all the oil; gasolene, air and engine speed and altitude gauges in front of them. The cockpit is just in front of the wings. On either side of it, mounted between the wings, are the two Rolls-Royce engines, with their spinning, invisible, four -bladed propellers in front of them acting as tractors. Gasolene Instead of Bombs. Equipped as a bomber, with a crew of three men, a bomb load of 1,146 pounds; 470 gallons of gasolene and other military material. such 'as a ma- chine gun, ammunition. etc., the ma- chine weighed 12,500 pounds and could fly at 100 miles an hour. The weight of the armament and bombs is now used for the great gasolene suppl-y necessary. Both the gunner's cockpit, behind the wings, and the bomb rack have been replaced by great tanks. Even with one engine out of com- mission the Vimy-Vickers could "limp" along at seventy miles an hour. Cap- tain Alcock. before starting, firmly ex- pressed the opinion that his plane could finish the flight even if one en- gine failed many miles from land. In any event, he -could stay in the air long enough to call by wireless for aid and to hunt for a ship near which to land if motor trouble hit the plane midway in the journey. Great strain was taken off the pilot in the long journey by the fact that the machine is exceedingly stable. Its' inherent stability is such, it is said, that, being fitted with a compensatizig mechanism, it cep be flown upward, downward or on the level without a hand on the "stick." In other words, the plane will fly itself, although the pilot cannot, of course, relax his men- tal as well as his physical exertions. The motors are Rolls-Royce pro- ducts, as are those of all the other British n. aof .contestants. Theyare 350 horse -power each and are generally believed to be the most reliable Bri- tish airplane motor - at the present. time., They spin the great four -bladed propellers at the rateepf 1,080 revolu- tions per minute. The, diameter o the four -bladed propelldrs is ten feet five inches. The engines are built with a stream- line casing fitted about them so that they offer the least possible resist- ance to the great rush of the plane through the air. The radiators, just behind the propellers are. octagonal, The great bomber had its trial flight in Newfoundland on June 9. At that time Capt. Alcock said his plane made 112 miles an. hour, although this, of course, was not with the full load with which he headed easirward. Lost Wireless Apparatus. The breaking away of the propeller generating current for the wireless apparatus soon after the start pre- vented the men from communicating with the shore. . When it happened,, Lieut. Brown noticed that the propel- ler had carried away with it part of the stay wires, but hedid not tell Captain Alcock until after they had landed at Clifden. When Alcock learned of the accident, he said: "We would have turned back had known.': Weather conditions were very bad during the trip and Lieut. Brown had to climb from his seat to clear the ice away from the petrol gauge. The two aviators said they were only once in real danger, when the machine went into a flat spin owing to the pilot being unable to know how the machine was moving. Lieut. Brown, noticing that the compass needle was swinging from side to side was the first indication that some- thing,was wrong, managed to get Cap- tain Alcock to understand the difficul- ty. The machine traveled at a rate of 140 miles an hour at times, and the pilot once found himself diving straight toward the surface of the ocean. He was so near the water that he had to "snatch" the machine from its' dive so quickly that it almost loop- ed the loop. He says the machine would have crumbled up had it touch- ed the water at the speed it was then traveling. First Atlantic Postman. CHIEF SUPPLIER' OF FOOD IN THE ALASKAN REGIONS, Traps For Ice Fishing Set in Holes Dug by the Patient Indian in Blocks Five Feet Thick. f The Yukon River is the one big, out- t standing supplier of food in Alaska. Without it the Indians inhabiting the alt. v e s alongthe e lower stretches of I + es the river would either have to move to the coast, go further inland toward the headquarters of the river or die of starvation. Fishing goes on the year around, in the Yukon. The summer catch of sal- mon is far the most valuable, but the winter ice fishing is' most picturesque and gives, the Indians variety from what would otherwise be a steady diet of dried salmon. Eels, ling, whitefish, pickerel and other species are caught. The methods of ice fishing vary in different localities, but the more im- portant methods described my travel- lers are practised between Anvik and Tanana, ' While the ice is still thin holes are cut through it at the mouths of the tributaries of the Yukon and nets aro set for the great whitefish which weighs from fifteen to twenty-five pounds. Toward the end of Noovember the annual migration of eels up stream takes place. Fishing for them is one of the picturesque and often exciting features of autumn life along the great river. As, the eels are able to move but slowly upstream against the swift current, news of their approach is passed from village to village and the Indians are ready and waiting for them when they approach. How Eels Are Caught. I The eels swim just under the ice A. large hole is cut through the ice and as the eels swim across the holes the fishermen jerk them out of the water. But little fishing gear is neces sary. The Indian makes a sort of rude hook, consisting of a slender stick about six feet long, at one end of which is tied at right angles another short stick about five inches long, making -a sort of capital "L." The fisherman passes the arm of the "L" under the long eel, jerks up quickly with the handle and the eel is landed, flopping and wriggling upon the ice, where it soon freezes. The day's catch' is thrown into sleds and taken to the village. The run lasts only one or two days, but in that time an expert fisherman often catches one thousand pounds of eels. The flesh is good for the table, but the eel is more valuable for its oil, which is used for food and for llighting purposes. The fish traps for ice fishing are nQt set until the winter is more advanced, but when the ice is frozen thick the traps are set in favorable places along the Yukon and in the smaller streams which empty into it. These traps are something like a. wire rat trap in con- struction, only much larger. They aro from five to ten feet long and three or four feet high and cylindrical in shape. The fish enters the trap, much like a rat, through 'a funnel like mouth, a yard or two square• which runs down to a point in the trap,. leaving just enough space for the fish to, get through, Once in the trap there is no likelihood of the piscatorial prisoner ever escaping, . Traps Catch 50 Pounds a Week. Zhe trap is -,set with the current and s made fast by tying it to stakes driven into the Ice, It is taken up every week or two, emptied and again owered into the stream. The waters of the Yukon are very muddy and the fish cannot see the traps, The catch Varies from twenty to two hundred pounds a week. ' Fifty pounds a week to a trap is a good, average yield. Traps are often set under ice that s from. four .to five feet thick. The work of picking out the hole is done y means of a rude instrument like a arrow chisel; • fastened to the end of stout pole, With this! the Indian, with the temperature thirty degrees r more below zero, patiently digs through the ice. Besides whitefish and pickerel, the ing is one of the more important fish aught: ` It is .p. large, smooth skinned sh., similar in appearance to the cod, nd, like the cod; has an enormous iver which is rich in oil. Capt. Alcock exhibited a bunch of rain -soaked letters which he had been asked to mail if the flight was success- ful, saying: "I am the first trans -at- lantic postman. and I think that with- in twelve months we'll have an aerial trans-A'tlanic service." In landing in an Irish bog the py- lons of the centre section, as well as the main spar of the lower planee, were broken, but the steel construc- tion of the fuselage saved the machine from further damage. The two engines ran smoothly throughout the flight, and when the airplane landed there were still 290 gallons of petrol left in the tank, sufficient for a further flight of ten hours. • the ocean by airplane , is at present distinctly a job for anrbptimist. Lieut. Brown's interest in aviation, it is said, was first from an engineer- ing standpoint, when he 'was connect- ed with the British Westinghouse com- pany, which is now associated with Vickers, Ltd. This' is the great Bri- tish manufacturing concern, the avia- tion department of which built the big bomber in whirih they fly, and which entered the machine in the Lon- don Daily Mail contest. When the war began Lieut. Brown joined the university and public school training corps. After "some training he be- came 'attached to a Manchester regi- ment and went into France with this outfit in 1915. Later.he was transfer- red to the Royal Flying Corps, where he served as an l5bserver. Lieut. Brown very early had an op- portunity to show his nerve in the air. While making observations over the German lines the plane in which he was flying was struck by a -shell while at a height of 8,000 feet, more than a mile. The explosion set the plane on fire without bringing it down. While the pilot shot the plane toward the British lines Lieut. Brown fought the flames' in midair, battling to prevent them from reaching ammunition or gasolene or from burning the inflam- mable wings. The plane reached the British lines and descended safely, al- though most of Lieut. Brown's clothes were burned offand he himself suf- fered considerably. Inanother obser- vation cruise Lieut. Brown's plane brought down an Albatross, despite the fact that it was not officially a fighting plane. Accident Led to Imprisonment. In November, 1915, Lieut. Brown get out in a squadron on a long dis- tance reconnaissance far behind the German liner. The carburetor of the plane went wrong in the air and the plane was' compelled to glide to the •' ground. Brown was too busy destroy- ing important military papers to brace himself when the plane landed on rough ground, and the crash landing jammed hint so tightly into a corner of the cockpit that he had to be cut out. His thigh and one leg were broken and he was badly cut. After treatnient in German hospitals he was transferred to a German prison camp and eventually was sent to Swit- zerland. In 1917 he reached England. For the remainder of the war he was occupied in technical work for the Air Ministry, A field marshal never retires, but remains on the active list and draws full pay till the day of his death. 11 WHAT'S THE MAT TEP - MA4GIfi • • A , m-.' A R.. • I CAN'T PRACTICE MY SINGIN4 N,4111-1 THAT CHILD CONSTANTLY PLAYING ON THAT DRUM - i MOPE HE BREAKS IT •r-__ ,I 3E3 Mt XZ T G- IITG1• TTP I'.A.TI3(303Et 4te ARE ALL THEM FOR, ME? • r YEP• AN' IF YOU BREAK THESE -ICL 417 YOU SOMA MORE: ., • • i b n a 0 1 fi a 1 At"' • "Pill Boxes" as Cafes. A Belgian Farmer who has returned - to his shell -shattered fields near Poel- oapelle has solved his own particular housing problem by converting an un- damaged "pial-bx" into a temporary home for himself and family. "Pill -box" was always an t zifortun- ate and misleading term for these con- crete forts, Nearly all were rectangu- lar and 'contained four or more large rooms Very little work Would be necessary to turn them Into comfort- able and everlasting homes Some near Boesinghe are already `being fit- ted up as cafes, in anticipation of the tourist parties which will throng the battlefields as soon as passport and travel restrictions are relaxed, - ti Pie chimneys— to be had in most' china shops for a fe'YV cents—will often save milk from boiling over. The chinnzey should be placed in the centre of the saucepan of ;milk. -�]ohn Ruskin, • •