Part 11
Darwin gives an interesting description of these extraordinary animals: “I have before alluded to a crab which lives on cocoanuts; it is very common on all parts of the dry land, and grows to a monstrous size. The front pair of legs terminate in very strong and heavy pincers, and the last pair are fitted with others weaker and much narrower. It would at first be thought quite impossible for a crab to open a strong cocoanut covered with husk, but Mr. Liesk assures me that he has repeatedly seen this effected. The crab begins by tearing the husk, fiber by fiber, and always from that end under which the three eye-holes are situated. When this is completed, the crab commences hammering with its heavy claws on one of the eye-holes till an opening is made. Then turning round its body, it extracts the white albuminous substance with its posterior and narrow pair of pincers.
“Every night it is said to pay a visit to the sea, no doubt for the purpose of moistening its gills. The young are likewise hatched, and live for some time, on the coast. These crabs inhabit deep burrows, which they hollow out beneath the roots of trees, and there they accumulate surprising quantities of the picked fibers of the cocoanut husk, on which they rest as a bed. To show the wonderful strength of the front pair of pincers, I may mention that Captain Moresby confined one in a strong tin box, the lid being secured with wire; but the crab turned down the edges and escaped. In turning down the edges, it actually punched many small holes through the tin!”
How are Files Made?
A good tool-kit holds a number of files of various shapes. Some are flat, others half-round, three-sided, square and round. They are generally thickest in the middle, while their teeth are of various degrees of fineness and of different forms.
A file whose teeth are in parallel ridges only is called single-cut or float-cut. Such are mostly used for brass and copper. When there are two series of ridges crossing each other the file is double-cut, which is the file best suited for iron and steel.
Rasps are files which have isolated sharp teeth separated by comparatively wide spaces, and are chiefly used for soft materials such as wood and horn.
Each of these three classes of files is made in six different degrees of fineness, the coarsest being called rough, the next middle, followed by bastard, second-cut, smooth and superfine or dead-smooth, each a degree finer than that which precedes it.
Files are usually made with the hand, file-cutting machines not having been as yet perfectly successful on account of the delicacy of touch required in the work.
The blanks, as the steel before it has teeth is called, are laid on the anvil and struck with the chisel, which rests obliquely on the blank, each blow raising a ridge or tooth. The strength of the blow depends on the hardness of the metal, and when one part is harder than another the workman alters his blows accordingly. When one side is covered with single cuts if the file is to be double cut he adds in the same manner a second series, crossing the others at a certain angle.
In making fine files a good file-cutter will cut upwards of two hundred teeth within the space of an inch. The files, except those that are used for soft substances, are hardened by heating them to a cherry-red color and then dipping them in water. They are then finished by scouring and rubbing over with olive oil and turpentine.
The Story of Self-Loading Pistols[8]
Colt Pistols.
The machine gun of the present day, the murderous weapon which has numbered its victims by the hundreds of thousands during the European war, had its origin in the mind of a man whose birth dates back to almost exactly one hundred years before this war began, that of Samuel Colt, born at Hartford, Conn., on July 19, 1814.
[Illustration: CUSTER’S LAST STAND
The revolver played a large part in Indian warfare.]
The small arm of the previous period, the old “Brown Bess,” used in the British army for 150 years, was a muzzle-loading, flint-lock musket of the crudest make. The only important improvement made in it during that long term of service was the substitution of the percussion cap for the flint lock. This took place in the last period of its use. A breech-loading rifle was also invented about this time. This was the “Needle Gun,” of which 60,000 were issued to the Prussian army in 1841, and which was first used in 1848, in the German war with Denmark.
The Colt pistol had appeared before this date. The idea of it grew in the mind of young Colt when he left his father’s silk mill and shipped as a boy sailor in the ship “Carlo,” bound from Boston to Calcutta. While on this voyage the conception of a revolving pistol came to him, and he whittled out a rude model of one with a penknife from a piece of wood.
[Illustration: SINGLE ACTION ARMY AND FRONTIER REVOLVER--THE “COWBOY’S FRIEND”]
[Illustration: THE ORIGINAL PATTERSON MODEL, 1836]
[Illustration: OLD MODEL “POWDER AND BALL” REVOLVER USED IN MEXICAN AND CIVIL WARS]
[Illustration: GUN MOUNTED ON LANDING CARRIAGE WITH SHAFT ATTACHMENT]
When he returned he sought in vain to interest his father and others in his idea of a pistol with a revolving cylinder containing six chambers to be discharged through a single barrel. This boyish notion won no converts, and at the age of eighteen he went on a lecture tour on chemistry, under the dignified title of Dr. Coult. These lectures met with success, and he used the money made by them in developing his pistol, which was in a shape to patent by 1835. Patents were taken out by him in this and the following year in the United States, Britain and France, and in 1836 he established the “Patent Arms Company” at Paterson, N. J., with a paid-in capital stock of about $150,000. This was a bold move by the young inventor, then just escaped from boyhood.
[Illustration: PACK SADDLE FOR CARRYING AUTOMATIC MACHINE GUN AND COMPLETE EQUIPMENT]
[Illustration: AUTOMATIC MACHINE GUN MOUNTED ON LIGHT LANDING CARRIAGE, AMMUNITION CHESTS OPEN, SHOWING HOW FEED BOXES, ETC., ARE CARRIED]
Young Colt tried in vain to interest government officials in his new weapon, their principal objection being that he used in it the new percussion caps instead of the time-honored flint-lock. But success came during the Seminole War of 1837, when some of the officers, who had seen the new revolving pistol, decided to give it a trial and sent to the factory for a supply.
Its value was soon proved. The Indians looked on this weapon that could be fired six times after one loading, as something magical. It was too much for their philosophy and the war soon came to an end. At a later date it was used by the Texans in their war against Mexico, and from that time on every Texas ranger wanted a revolver. It has ever since been the favorite weapon of the cowboy and frontiersman.
[Illustration: AUTOMATIC PISTOL--GOVERNMENT MODEL, CALIBER .45
In this model the slide remains open after firing the last cartridge. When reloading the arm in this position, insert the magazine, then press downward the slide stop (to the rear of the trigger as illustrated). The slide goes forward, inserting a cartridge without any movement of the slide by hand. The slide stop is operated by the thumb of the hand holding the pistol.]
[Illustration: POLICE-POSITIVE REVOLVER
Adopted by the Police Departments of the principal cities of the United States and Canada.]
[Illustration: AUTOMATIC PISTOL--POCKET MODEL, HAMMERLESS
The action of this pistol is automatic except that the trigger must be pulled to fire each shot; continued discharge will not result from one pull of the trigger.]
But wars ran out, the market closed, and the “Patent Arms Company” failed. What put Colt on his feet again was the Mexican war a few years later. General Taylor offered Colt a contract for one thousand revolvers at $24 each, and though the young inventor was looked upon as a ruined man he took the contract, got together the necessary capital, and built a factory on the Connecticut at Hartford. From that time on there was no want of a market. The “Forty-Niners” took revolvers to California, foreign governments sent orders for them, and armories were built in England and in Russia for their manufacture. Colt died in 1862, but the Civil War had previously opened a great market for his pistols, and before the conflict ended the Colt factory at Hartford was in a highly flourishing state. In the following years the revolver became a prime necessity in dealing with the Indians of the West, and a school-book statement of that date was to the effect that: “The greatest civilizer of modern times is the Colt revolver.” Another writer, speaking of the “Peacemaker,” an effective weapon produced after 1870, said: “It has the simplicity, durability, and beauty of a monkey-wrench.”
[Illustration: AUTOMATIC MACHINE GUN MOUNTED ON TRIPOD, SHOWING BELT PASSING OUT (RIGHT SIDE)]
Machine Guns.
The revolving idea was applied to guns about 1861 by Richard J. Gatling, the first Gatling guns fitted for use with metalling ammunition being produced by the Colt Company in 1870. These guns had ten barrels revolving around a central shaft and in their developed form were capable of being fired at the rate of one thousand shots a minute. The first of these to be used prominently in warfare was the French mitrailleuse, used by France in the war of 1870-71. The Gatling soon made its way widely, and its rapidity of fire became a proverb. If anything moved quickly it was said to “go like a Gatling” or “sound like a Gatling.”
[Illustration: AUTOMATIC GUN MOUNTED ON AUTOMOBILE]
Other guns of this type are the Hotchkiss, the Nordenfeldt and the Gardner, and a more recent one is the Maxim, which, after the first shot is fired by hand power, continues to fire shot after shot by means of the power derived from the explosion of each successive cartridge. In the early form of the revolver the empty cartridge cases had to be ejected from the cylinder singly by an ejector rod or handy nail. In 1898 a new type was introduced with a lateral swinging cylinder which permitted the simultaneous ejection of all the empty shells.
Near the time of the Spanish-American War appeared what is known as the Colt automatic gun, operated by the action of the powder gases on a piston and lever near the muzzle of the barrel. This could be fired at the rate of 400 to 500 shots a minute, and by reason of its light weight could be very easily carried. The British used it effectively in the Boer War.
Today the Colt Company manufacture revolvers in which the simultaneous ejection of the cartridge-cases and recharging of the chambers is combined with a strong, jointless frame; automatic magazine pistols in which the pressure of the powder gases, as above said, is utilized after giving the proper velocity to the projectile, it requiring only a slight continued pressure on the trigger for each shot; automatic machine guns firing at will single shots or volleys while requiring only a slight pull upon the trigger; and the improved manually-operated Gatling gun firing the improved modern ammunition. The cartridges are carried on a tape which feeds them with the necessary rapidity into the barrel.
What would be the history of the European War without the machine gun is not easy to state, but as a highly efficient weapon of war its quality has been abundantly proved.
* * * * *
How does the Poisonous Tarantula Live?
When the National Guardsmen from all over the Union were concentrated along the Mexican border, many reports were sent home of thrilling experiences with tarantulas, to whose bite the natives of Mexico, Italy and many other warmer countries have ascribed a disease called “tarantism.” The Italian peasants believe that this disease can only be cured by a certain kind of music.
The tarantula, like many other members of the spider family, is an expert in the making of burrows. Its burrows are artfully planned. At first there is a sheer descent four or five inches in depth, but at that distance below the surface the tunnel turns aside before dipping straight down again to its termination. It is at the angle or elbow of the tunnel that the tarantula watches for the approach of enemies or prey, like a vigilant sentinel, never for a moment off its guard, lying hidden during the day, if nothing disturbs it, and coming out at nightfall to seek its prey.
Unlike most other spiders, it hunts its game without the aid of webs or snares. It does, however, possess the ability to spin the silk which we have all seen other spiders make, for, in digging its hole, it makes neat little packages of the dirt it has scraped up, bound together with silk and slime from its mouth, and flips them to one side out of the way. When it comes to hunting, it makes sure that it can pounce on its prey, by building the entrance of its hole about two inches in diameter and up from the surface an inch or so, so that it can spread its legs for the leap.
How do the Indians Live Now?
The Indians of the United States are now largely gathered into reservations and their former dress, arms and habits are being gradually changed for those of the whites. Civilization is invading their homes and driving out their older characteristics. This is especially the case with the large numbers now dwelling in the former Indian Territory, now Oklahoma, although those confined in the reservations of Arizona, New Mexico and Montana are clinging more to their old modes, as is shown in the accompanying illustrations.
In ancient times the body was covered with furs and skins according to the seasons, but now the white man’s clothes and blanket have generally superseded the native dress; though the moccasin of deer or moose hide, and, in the wilder tribes, the ornamental leggings and head-dresses are still retained. Their dwellings are made of bark, skins and mattings of their own making, stretched on poles fixed in the ground. The arms of the wilder tribes consist of the bow and arrow, the spear, tomahawk and club, to which have been added the gun and knife of the whites. Canoes are made of logs hollowed out, or of birch bark stretched over a light frame, skilfully fastened with deers’ sinews and rendered water-tight by pitch.
[Illustration: MORE PICTURESQUE THAN BEAUTIFUL
The Apaches, formerly one of the most powerful and warlike of the Indian tribes, are now confined to reservations in Arizona and New Mexico.]
[Illustration: A PICTURESQUE CAMP
Blackfeet Indians in camp on St. Mary Lake.]
The American Indian is described as of haughty demeanor, taciturn and stoical; cunning, brave and often ferocious in war; his temperament poetic and imaginative, and his simple eloquence of great dignity and beauty. They have a general belief in Manitous, or spiritual beings, one of them being spoken of as the Great Spirit. They believe in the transmigration of the soul into other men and into animals, and in demons, witchcraft and magic. They believe in life after death, where the spirit is surrounded with the pleasures of the “happy hunting grounds.” They adopt a “totem” or symbol of the family and this is generally some animal, the turtle, bear and wolf being favorites.
The number of Indians in the United States at the taking of the Federal Census in 1910, was 265,683; and there are about 130,000 in the British possessions, 1,500,000 in Central America and 4,000,000 in Mexico. In all North America there are somewhere about 6,000,000 and there are probably 10,000,000 more in South America, many of them being more or less civilized.
How does the Beach Get Its Sand?
Most of the sands which we find on the beaches and in other places are the ruins of rocks which have come apart, usually as the result of the action of water. A large part of the ocean bottom is made up of “sandstone” and the continual washing of the water over this causes particles to break away and float off, whereupon they are swept up upon the beaches by the waves.
Sands differ in color according to the rocks from which they are derived. In addition to the sands on the beaches, they occur very abundantly in many inland locations, which were formerly sea bottoms, and very extensively in the great deserts of the world.
Valuable metallic ores, such as those of gold, platinum, tin, copper and iron, often occur in the form of sand or mixed with that substance. Pure siliceous sands are very valuable for the manufacture of glass, for making mortar, filters, ameliorating dense clay soils, for making molds in founding and for many other purposes.
The silica, which is the principal ingredient of sand, as well as of nearly all the earthy minerals, is known as “rock crystal” in its naturally crystallized form. Colored of a delicate purple, these crystals are what we call “amethysts.” Silica is also met with in the “carnelian” and we find it constituting jasper, agate, cat’s-eye, onyx and opals. In the latter it is combined with water. Many natural waters present us with silica in a dissolved state, although it is not soluble in pure water. The resistance offered by silica to all impressions is exemplified in the case of “flint” which consists essentially of silica colored with some impurity.
How did Nodding the Head Up and Down Come to Mean “Yes”?
Like a multitude of other things, the signs which we give by the movements of our heads to indicate “yes” and “no” were copied from animal life.
When the mother animal brought her young a choice morsel of food she would hold it up temptingly before its mouth and the quick forward movement of the head, with mouth open, showed the young animal’s desire and acceptance of the offer. Even today when we make a forward movement of our heads to indicate “yes” it is observed that the lips are usually quite unconsciously opened a little.
In much the same manner, when the young had been well fed and were no longer hungry, a tightly closed mouth and a shaking of the head from side to side were resorted to, to keep the mother from putting the food into their mouths. Our natural impulse now is to slightly clinch our teeth when we shake our heads to mean “no.”
Why do We Call a Man “a Benedict” When He Marries?
We call men “benedicts” when they become married because that was the name of a humorous gentleman in Shakespeare’s play, “Love’s Labor Lost,” who was finally married to a character named “Beatrice.”
The Story in Firecrackers and Sky-Rockets[9]
The blaze and noise, indispensable to patriotic celebrations among all peoples, was produced a century ago in America by simple agencies. Washington’s Birthday was ushered in by cannon salutes in every garrisoned place in the United States, and boys the country over built bonfires as they still do in old New England towns to celebrate the day. But the Fourth of July was the great hurrah time of the year, when every youth who owned a gun or could borrow one, brought it into use as a contribution to the general noise. He might lack shoes and be short of shot and bullets for hunting, but for this occasion no young man was so poor as to have failed to lay in a hornful of powder, and at the stroke of twelve midnight, which began the day, he and his companions blazed away with guns loaded to the danger point, and kept up their fusillade as long as ammunition lasted. For demonstrations on a larger scale, a small cannon was secured if possible, but lacking this, two blacksmith’s anvils were made to do the same service, the hole in the top of one being filled with powder, a fuse laid into it and the second anvil placed as a stopper upon the first before the charge was exploded.
A favorite firearm for celebration purposes was one of the old “Queens Arm” muskets which were common in country communities, being trophies captured from the British during the Revolutionary War. One of these cumbersome flint-lock pieces might be loaded halfway to the muzzle and fired without bursting, and would roar in the discharge in a way highly pleasing to patriotic ears.
It was near the close of the eighteenth century that Chinese firecrackers first came into use in celebrating the American Independence Day. For many years they were used sparingly and only in large cities. They had been known in the New England coast cities ever since the year 1787, when Elias Haskett Derby’s ship of Salem, the first American vessel to engage in deep-water commerce, returned from her voyage to Calcutta, China and Isle of France. Among the things she brought back--more as a curiosity than as an article of cargo--was a consignment of Chinese firecrackers. Their capabilities in aiding the uproar on the Fourth of July were quickly recognized, and thereafter every ship that made the voyage from Massachusetts Bay to India or China brought back firecrackers with the tea, silks and rice. In time, rockets, squibs and torpedoes were included in the consignment, but it was not until the middle of the nineteenth century that their use became general in America.
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF ROCKET FINISHING SHOP]
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF SHELL FINISHING SHOP]
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF TORPEDO SHOP]