The Cortland Democrat, Friday, December
26, 1890.
DR. JUSTIN MAKES A HIT.
Dr. Justin made three successful tests with
his dynamite gun Saturday at Perryville, N. Y. About 200 spectators were present. Three
shells were fired, each containing 7 1/2 pounds of dynamite and 80 pounds of
powder.
The effect of the first shot and explosion of
dynamite was to rend the face of the cliff in cracks, break off a number of
large pieces, make a decided hole into the rock face and send a cloud of
pulverized limestone flying over the snow. The next shot hit in the same place
and did yet greater havoc. The third shot left a huge heap of stones at the
base of the cliff with large cracks extending every way over its face and
larger quantities than ever of pulverized rock scattered about for a
considerable distance. Each time, as the shattered rock became more shelving,
the damage was greater.
Dr. Justin was greatly pleased over the result
of the experiments. He is confident that he can
throw a large quantity of dynamite as successfully as a small quantity. Other experiments
will be made at frequent intervals. It is probable that the original plan of
organizing a big stock company to manufacture the shells with a capital stock
of $50,000 will be consummated as all the backers of Dr. Justin are delighted at
the result of the experiment Saturday.—Syracuse Courier.
"Muggs'
Landing."
That brightest and funniest comedy ever
written, "Muggs' Landing," presented by Bishop's
original company of fifteen comedians will be the attraction at the Opera House
Saturday evening. Since the last production of this very popular comedy in this
city, there has been added a line of new and improved specialties which are
seldom if ever equalled in farce comedy. New music, new dancers. The four original
gaiety dancers in the latest craze the skirt dance, and the famous "Muggs'
Landing" double quartette in selections from all the latest and most
popular operas. If you want to have a good laugh, see this beautiful comedy. Prices,
25, 35 and 50 cents.
FROM
EVERYWHERE.
There are about 75,000 persons in prison in
the United States.
New passenger coaches on the Erie have large
doors on the side, and are liked better than the old style.
George Alfred Townsend says both [former
President] Cleveland and [New York State Governor] Hill have an Irish strain in
their blood—Cleveland on the mother's side and Hill on the father's side.
A trust has been formed by all the leading lumber
concerns of Georgia to control the world's supply of long-leaf yellow pine. It
is an immense combination, involving millions of dollars.
The railroad cars which traverse Manhattan Island
over their hundreds of miles of tracks last year carried the enormous number of
over 400,000,000 passengers who paid 4-cent fares.
Nearly all the low class of negroes living
along the levee in Kansas City have been seized with a craze similar to the
Messiah superstition. The negroes have been led astray by a Voodoo doctor who
came from Bismark, Dakota.
There is a slight hitch in the Vermont slate
trust, some of the firms refusing to go into it for another year. Efforts are
being made to bring about a settlement. If the differences cannot be adjusted
there will be no pool another year.
The late Justice Miller is said to have had
a taste almost amounting to a passion for mathematics. He deprecated the amount
of time college students gave to the study of dead languages, and held that
mathematics and scientific studies were of chief importance.
Saturday, as Simeon Miner, of South Otselic,
was riding on a load of wood up a small pitch the draw-pin gave out throwing
him unto the heap and his foot caught in the sleigh and he was dragged to the
bottom of the incline, injuring him so he is confined to the house.
News has been received hereof the death of
William Harrison Schutt, which occurred at his home in Georgetown. D. C., Dec.
10th. He was a former resident of Slaterville and a brother of James H., Ephriam,
and Aaron Schutt. He was a brother of the wife of Ruloff, the murderer, and it
is believed without doubt that the first wife and child of Mr. Schutt came to their
death by poison administered by the same Ruloff.— Ithaca Journal.
A plucky wife was developed in Saratoga last
week. A man came running to the police station, saying that Thomas H. Devan, of
the Dublin section, was drunk, had a loaded revolver, and was about to kill or
harm his family. Officers ran to the house and found all serene there, and Davin
tending the baby. It was learned that Mrs. Davin had taken the pistol from him
and went into the yard and fired its five cartridges, while she had placed
Thomas to the sobering work of nurse pro tem.
A singular piece of treasure-trove was discovered
the other day by Mr. Addison, of Fairfax Court House, Virginia. In the hoof of
one of his cows he found imbedded a gold ring in which is set a stone carved with
the American shield and an inscription. On the inside of the ring was engraved,
"H. J. Hunt, Worth's Division." It proved to be a ring made for the
late General Hunt when in Mexico at the war with that country, and lost by him
during the first battle of Bull Run. The ring has been restored to General
Hunt's family.
Two or three days ago several Lowville parties
claimed to have seen an animal of some sort in the eastern part of the town, but
people regarded the matter as a hoax. Others now claim to have seen the same animal,
and the statement is having credence. John D. Hough and Hiram Gray have seen
the animal near the Wentworth farm east of the village, and were within a few
rods of him. Mr. Hough states that he is positive it is a wild animal of some kind,
and is of the opinion that it is either a panther or lynx. Large numbers of
sheep and calves have been killed in the town of Denmark by a wild animal, and
in one instance a hog left hanging out of doors was found next morning to have
been nearly devoured during the night. The supposition is the animal has
strayed from the Adirondacks.
NEIGHBORING
COUNTIES.
CHENANGO.—Sherburne has organized a Business
Men's Association.
In Norwich milk is selling on the streets at
two cents a quart.
The Board of Supervisors at their late session
appointed a special committee to see if something can be done to check the growth
and spreading of the wild carrot, a noxious weed that threatens to ruin
agricultural lands.
Miller & Foster of DeRuyter, have
purchased Leroy Soule's monster hog, which has created such a furor at Otselic
Center, and will have him on exhibition at their market Christmas day. His
weight is estimated at upwards of a thousand pounds.
F. N. Coville, government botanist, a former
Oxford boy and a graduate of Cornell University, is to make one of the
government expeditions into the "Valley of Death" in the great desert
that extends between the Sierra Nevadas and the Nasatch mountains. The party
will be a large one. They start next March.
MADISON.—Ice boats are out on Oneida Lake.
Hay sells for $6 a ton at DeRuyter.
The Earlville National Bank commences business
January 1.
James Kinney has succeeded C. H. Hickok as
proprietor of the Barker House, Morrisville.
The safe in John A. Bends' store at Oneida was
blown open Monday night and relieved of $160.
A. Stowell and James Lindsley have bought
the Cornell block, Canastota, and will remodel the same into a hotel.
John Cross, a newly married resident of Canastota,
mourns the loss of this wife, who has skipped with a railroad man.
Landlord Livermore of the Bouckville hotel,
had a little misunderstanding with a customer, the other day, and broke two of
the man's ribs.
Miss Jane Scott, who resides with E. D. Jenks,
in DeRuyter, fell and dislocated a hip, the 9th [sic]. Dr. McClellan was called and
the patient is doing nicely.
Patrick Hayes, of North Brookfield, paid $25
for selling adulterated milk. John P. Wirck, one
of the firm owning the milk station at Hubbardsville, plead guilty to a charge
of adulterating the milk shipped from there to New York, and paid a fine of
$200.
TOMPKINS.—Potatoes retailed at forty cents a
peck one day last week in Ithaca.
The Poormaster's bills for the month of
November amounted to $900.
A number of persons walked across Cayuga
lake on the 8th inst.
The ladies of Sage college will give an
exhibition of gymnastics at the armory sometime next term.
Edison has presented a 20 horse power
generator to drive two Sprague motors in the Mechanical department of Sibley
College.
Dana Conklin, telegraph operator and ticket
agent at the D. L. & W. depot in Ithaca,
has received and accepted a call to become the general secretary of the Young Men's
Christian Association at Oneonta, N. Y.
What is
Horse Power?
(N. Y. Times.)
When men first begin to become familiar with
the methods of measuring mechanical power they often speculate on where the breed
of horses is to be found that can keep at work raising 33,000 pounds one foot
per minute, or the equivalent, which is more familiar to some mechanics, of
raising 330 pounds 100 feet per minute. Since 33,000 pounds raised one foot per
minute is called one horse power, it is natural that people should think the
engineers who established that unit of measurement based on what horses really
could do.
But the horse that can do this work does not
exist. The horse power unit was established by James Watt about a century ago,
and the figures were fixed in a curious way. Watt found that the average horse of
his district could raise 22,000 pounds one foot per minute This, then, was an actual
horse power.
At that time Watt was employed in the manufacture
of engines, and customers were so hard to find that all kinds of artificial
inducements were necessary to induce power users to buy steam engines. As a method
of encouraging them, Watt offered to sell engines reckoning 33,000 foot pounds to
a horse power And thus he was the means of giving a false unit to one of the most
important measurements in the world.
