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| Christiaan de Wet. |
Cortland Evening Standard, Friday, Dec. 27, 1901.
DEWET ROUTS BRITISH.
Boer General Captures 400 Men and Two Guns.
CASUALTIES REPORTED HEAVY.
Made Night Attack on Colonel Firman's Camp at Zeefontein and Successfully Rushed the British Position. Cavalry Pursuing the Wily Burghers.
LONDON, Dec. 27.—The following dispatch has been received from Lord Kitchener, dated Johannesburg:
"General Rundle reports that the night of Dec. 24 Colonel Firman's camp at Zeefontein, consisting of three companies of yeomanry and two guns, was successfully rushed by a strong Commando under Dewet.
"It is feared the casualties were heavy. Two regiments of Light Horse are pursuing the Boers."
Boer resistance has always been very strong in that part of the Orange River colony, which was the scene of General Dewet's Christmas coup. A great quadrangle of block houses is being built there, the four points of which are Vereeniging, Volkarust, Harrismith and Kroonstadt. At the southeast corner of this quadrangle is a long open space, from Bethlehem to Lindley, where the square of blockhouses is still incomplete and here Dewet made his attack. Colonel Firman's force probably amounted to 400 men and the disaster, especially the loss of the guns, the possession of which may enable Dewet successfully to attack the blockhouses, creates a disturbing impression.
WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY.
Initial Steps Taken for Its Adoption on American War Vessels.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 27.—The navy department has taken the initial step toward the adoption of wireless telegraphy as a means of signaling between warships at sea. To this end Admiral Bradford, of the bureau of equipment, has asked that the armored cruisers of the Pennsylvania class have their masts and rigging so arranged that the wireless system can be introduced. This will necessitate the lengthening of the masts of the ships and the insulation of the metal rigging by the use of hoop covering for halyards.
It is intended to get sets of instruments of the various wireless systems now being operated. These included the Marconi system,. Thus far, however, the navy department has not adopted definitely any system, but the construction of the new ships is regarded as a preliminary to the adoption of a system whenever its practicability is established fully. The British navy already has a number of its ships equipped with the wireless system, but this is the first move on the part of the American navy to make use of a wireless plan.
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| Guglielmo Marconi. |
PAGE FOUR—EDITORIAL.
Wireless Telegraphy.
Many people are wondering just how wireless telegraphy operates and have not a very clear conception of it. The simplest explanation that has come to our notice of how messages are sent and are received by this method and the theory upon which it is all based is contained in a recent issue of the Springfield Republican, as follows:
It may be said that a certain kind of electricity tends to travel like waves made by dropping a stone in a pond—in all directions. But it travels farthest and with least resistance in those directions where it finds the best conductors for it. Some substances are better conductors than others. Glass and rubber are non-conductors so-called, as you may see by looking at the rubber covering of wires on the street car system, or the glass insulators on a telegraph pole. Metals, such as iron, steel and copper, are first-class conductors, and that is why wire is used for telegraph and telephone and electric light purposes. Water and the earth are conductors of electricity, and so is the atmosphere. When Benjamin Franklin, by his famous experiment with the kite, proved that lightning is nothing but electricity, he also proved that the atmosphere is a conductor, for a bolt of lightning may travel many miles before striking the earth. Mere space, finally, is a conductor of electricity, as you can prove by passing a current through a vacuum.
As soon as one comprehends that electrical waves can move in space without the conventional wire conductors, it is evident that the question of telegraphy with wires or without wires must depend largely upon the transmitting and receiving apparatus. Wires hitherto have been used because, with the apparatus available for sending and receiving electric currents, they have afforded the best results; indeed, for considerable distances they afforded the only results that could be depended upon. Even with wire as a conductor, far more delicate receiving instruments have to be used on an Atlantic cable than on a circuit between Springfield and Buffalo.
Now Marconi is by no means the first one to experiment with wireless telegraphy. Many men have been working at the problem for years. And essentially their problem has been to perfect apparatus at one end which would generate electric waves strong enough to travel long distances, with mere space as the conductor, and apparatus at the other end sensitive enough to receive and record those waves.
The transmitting and receiving apparatus thus far developed is complicated, and one needs some technical knowledge to understand it. You will read much about Hertzian waves in this connection. Hertzian waves are waves of electricity. Hertz was a German professor who died in 1894. He was the first man to prove by experiment that whenever in any circuit electro-magnetic changes are brought about, as when an induction coil is in action, the disturbances are transmitted in all directions, bringing about similar changes in neighboring conductors. His great work was to show that these disturbances are transmitted by means of vibrations of the luminiferous [sic] ether (which is assumed by physicists to fill all space), and also to show the character and measure the velocity of those waves. The wireless telegrapher, therefore, first generates Hertzian waves of electricity into space. General Greely, head of the United States army signal service, in describing the transmitter used by the signal corps in experiments over two years ago, reported that he used a coil in oil, "energized by a three-quarter horse-power rotary transformer, furnishing 125 volts alternating potential," an arrangement making "a very powerful and efficient source of Hertzian radiation." Marconi used at that day a Ruhmkorff coil. According to present methods, the Hertizian waves are transmitted by the generator through a wire to the top of a high pole, and that is where the jumping-off place is.
From the top of the pole, the Hertzian waves are radiated off into space. About one-fifth of a horse-power is necessary to send them 60 miles to sea, and a 1000-mile range, it is said, ought not to require much more than 3 ½ horse-power, provided the energy can be utilized. To send the waves across the Atlantic, the problem of transmission is a question of propelling force. The Hertzian waves follow the curvature of the earth.
Marconi improved the receiving apparatus by discovering, or inventing, what is known as the "decoherer," which consists of a ball working on an arm attached to the armature of an electro-magnet in the circuit of the "coherer," or receiver. But that aside. Enough has been said to show that this apparatus, both sending and receiving, is highly technical, and difficult to be understood in detail by one who is no electrician, or has never witnessed experiments in wireless telegraphy. Suffice it to say that when Marconi, the other day in Newfoundland, received the wireless message from the coast of England, he flew a kite in the air, and from the kite was suspended a wire connecting with his receiving instrument. The Hertzian waves had passed over the ocean from the tall pole on the England coast, and had struck the wire on the kite in Newfoundland. The electric vibrations were thus transmitted to Marconi's delicately adjusted receiver, and read by him exactly as they had been sent across 1,800 miles of ocean.
Marconi's system uses the atmosphere as a conductor. Nicola Tesla, it is understood, is experimenting on a system that uses the earth as a conductor. It seems safe to predict that science will completely master the field of wireless communication through long distances before many years have passed. Evidently the experimenters are only in the infancy of the art.
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| James McLachlan. |
A RAID ON TURKEY.
MINISTER, CONGRESSMAN, NORMAL PRINCIPAL AND INSURANCE AGENT.
Congressman "Shoo'd" the Flock of Turkeys from the Straw Stack—Minister Got the Biggest Gobbler of All, and Reluctantly Relinquished it for the Agent's Bird—Owner Invited to be a Guest in Eating His Own Turkey—Four Big Boys Renew Their Youth.
Hon. James McLachlan of Pasadena, member of congress from the Sixth district of California, with his family is spending the Christmas vacation with relatives in Cortland and vicinity. Yesterday the whole family together with Rev. John McLachlan of Binghamton, Mr. Duncan McLachlan of Syracuse and Dr. Archibald C. McLachlan, principal of the Jamaica Normal school, all paid a visit to the McLachlan homestead 2 miles south of Groton, N. Y. Here they had dinner and spent a couple of hours or more in looking over the once familiar scenes and in recalling the "days to memory dear.'' The time passed all too quickly, but before their return they decided to make a call at the home of their uncle Mr. John McKellar, who lives about a mile and a half from the McLachlan farmhouse, on the farm where the grandparents of the McLachlans first settled when they came from Scotland and which was their Uncle Archibald McKellar's home when they were boys. Here they often used to visit before they left home and they looked forward with scarcely less pleasure to the visit here than to the visit at their old home itself. In their anticipation in reference to seeing the members of the McKellar household they were doomed to disappointment for when they arrived the house was closed and no one was found about the premises except the hired man, who with a look of surprise at the large and formidable delegation which had come upon him so unexpectedly and all unannounced, informed them that the family was away for the day.
They were about starting away, more than a little disappointed, when the minister, accustomed to keep an eye on his own flock, caught sight of a flock of turkeys, feeding on a straw stack near the barn. "Let's take a turkey home with us," he suggested, "and have a turkey dinner tomorrow and invite Uncle John over to help us eat it." The suggestion was no sooner offered than all entered heartily into the scheme and the fun began. Overcoats and mittens were thrown aside and if those turkeys had any thought of escape their ideas must soon have been dispelled. The congressman was ordered to climb the stack and "shoo" the turkeys down while the other members of the party stood ready to surround them or give chase as the case might be.
The hired man stood as one transfixed at such unheard of proceedings, but protests were unavailing. They were after a turkey and were bound to have it. Reports differ as to which was the fastest runner or which did the best work in cornering the turkeys when they were finally driven from the stack, but it is said that the minister grabbed the big gobbler which Mr. McKellar was saving for a New Year's dinner and it was with difficulty that he was persuaded to let him go when this fact was presented to him in plain language by the hired man. It is farther stated that the once proud gobbler no longer struts proudly about as before, for its lordly tail feathers were left in his captor's hands as he struggled to get away.
The chase was again renewed and this time the insurance agent, Duncan, got after one and in short order another turkey was safely landed and placed in the sleigh. The hired man was sworn to secrecy and given a message for the McKellars to come to Cortland today and eat turkey and then the party started over the hills for Cortland.
The turkey, done to a turn, was served today noon at the home of Mr. F. H. Sears and those who were active in his capture say that Mr. McKellar has no claim upon them, for he was an accessory after the fact.
Pecos Tribe Elects Officers.
Last evening at a regular council of Pecos tribe, No. 357, Improved Order of Red Men, the following officers were elected:
Sachem—Arthur Scudamore.
Senior Sagamore—Edward Hartnett.
Junior Sagamore—Charles Kane.
Prophet—Frank J. Donegan.
Chief of Records—William Hartnett.
Collector of Wampum—George H. Gleason.
Keeper of Wampnm—Thomas Kane.
Trustee, Eighteen Moons— Frank J. Donegan.
Drillmaster—George H. Gleason.
Forest Giant Felled.
Alvah D. Waters of Cuyler cut out of his woods one of the largest trees in this part of the country one day last week. The tree when standing measured over 100 feet from the ground to the top and 5 feet across the stump, and he cut six 12-foot and one 10-foot log from its body and the top end of the last log measured over one foot and if the rings around the stump tell the age, it was 250 years old, for there were that many rings.—DeRuyter Gleaner.
ALEXANDER-REYNOLDS.
Former Cortland Young Man Comes Back to Secure a Fair Bride.
A very pretty December wedding was solemnized at the home of Mrs. Althea Reynolds, 28 Owego-st. last evening when her daughter Miss Grace D. Reynolds, was married to Mr. Leonard Milford Alexander of Jersey City, son of Mr. and Mrs. M. L. Alexander, 17 Clayton-ave., this city. The ceremony was performed by Rev. Dr. David Keppel, pastor of the First M. E. church of this city, in the presence of about thirty of the members of the immediate families of the contracting parties and the intimate friends of the bride.
The wedding took place at 8:30 o'clock in front of a large bank of evergreens and potted plants, and the bridal pair stood underneath a large bell of holly. Miss Florence H. Hamblin of Patchogue was maid of honor, and Mr. Frank E Reynolds, a brother of the bride, was best man. Miss Lillian Merchant played the wedding march, and "O Promise Me" was softly played during the ceremony.
The bride was beautifully gowned in white silk trimmed with chiffon and real lace. Miss Hamblin's dress was an old rose satin foulard.
After congratulations a wedding supper was served. The bride's table was exquisitely trimmed with smilax draperies. The presents were extensive, useful and very beautiful.
At 11:48 Mr. and Mrs. Alexander left for Jersey City, where for the present they will board at 277 Eighth-st. Mr. Alexander has for the past four years held an important position in the office of the Great Bear Springs Co. in Jersey City. He is well known here as an enterprising and painstaking young man. Mrs. Alexander is one of Cortland's charming young ladies, and both have the best wishes of a large circle of friends to go with them to their new home.
Funeral of Henry Kennedy.
The funeral of Mr. Henry Kennedy was held from his residence, 71 Railroad-st., this afternoon at 2 o'clock, Rev. W. Jasper Howell, pastor of the First Baptist church officiating, assisted by Rev. G, H. Brigham. The bearers were Messrs. Robert Bushby, John Miller, H. F. Benton and J. D. Keeler.
The following relatives from outside the city were here to attend the funeral, Mr. and Mrs. R. E. Rindge of Norwich, Mr. and Mrs. G. N. Valentine, Mr. and Mrs. Layton Valentine, Mrs. G. L. Swift and Mrs. Walter Brink of Marathon, Mr. and Mrs. Seth Davis of Messengerville, Mrs. Mark Brownell and Mrs. W. T. Bushby of Binghamton, Mr. William E. Hunt of Hunt's Corners, Mr. and Mrs. C. H. Swift and Dr. James Allen and daughter Mary of Richford and Mr. Charles C. Kennedy of Boston, son of Mr. Fred H. Kennedy, who was unable to come to his father's funeral on account of injuries received by falling on an icy walk recently.
RESCUED A BRIDGE
But it Was Badly Twisted—To be Used in Another Place.
On the western outskirts of the village of McGraw, N. Y., were two bridges, one of wood and the other of iron, near to each other before the flood. Both were washed away. The wooden bridge went down stream and was lost. The iron bridge was swept from its foundations fifteen feet down stream and landed in the bed of the creek fifteen feet below its former altitude. Much of the bridge was covered with gravel. Commissioner of Highways W. A. Smith has had twenty-two men constantly at work since the great storm in different places in the town of Cortlandville erecting temporary bridges and making the roads passable. Last night he was able to cut that force down to fifteen. For two or three days the men have been trying to rescue the iron bridge referred to. Every rod was bent and many of the girders were twisted. The bridge had been 65 feet long and 16 feet wide. It will not be possible to put this bridge back in the old place, because it will not be long enough as the creek is now washed out, but it can be and will be used where the wooden bridge was. A. new bridge 75 feet long will be required to replace the iron one. This, however, will not be secured till spring.
This flood will cause a great boom in the iron bridge business. A great many will be required in this and nearby counties. Commissioner Smith has not yet taken any steps toward contracting for new bridges. As soon as the roads can be made passable by temporary bridges he will begin making specifications for the bridges required in the town of Cortlandville and will then get figures from different companies for replacing them all.
Kenyon-Riley.
Mr. Frank Kenyon and' Miss Mary Riley were married at 5:30 o'clock last night at the parochial residence by Rev. J. J. McLoghlin. They were attended by Mr. and Mrs. William R. Riley. The bride looked very charming indeed in a handsome gown of blue broadcloth with hat to match. After the ceremony an elaborate dinner was served at the home of the bride, 33 Lincoln-ave., only the immediate families being present. Mr. and Mrs. Kenyon left last night for a brief trip which will include Syracuse and Rochester, and after Jan. 12 will be at home at 49 Madison-st. The presents were very numerous and costly, and included among other things a valuable purse from the bride's father.
A MILITARY FUNERAL
For the Late William S. Hoxie—Held at the First Baptist Church.
The funeral of William Smith Hoxie was held from his late residence, 71 Railroad-st., at 10:30 o'clock yesterday and from the First Baptist church at 11 o'clock, and was largely attended by many friends and neighbors of this city and by many from different parts of the county where Mr. Hoxie was well and favorably known. His sister, Mrs. Frank Brown of Waterloo, Ia., arrived in Cortland in time for the funeral.
Grover Post, No. 98, G. A. R., of which Mr. Hoxie was a prominent member, attended the service in a body, both at the house and at the church. The burial services were conducted by the order. The Woman's Relief Corps, of which Mrs. Hoxie is a beloved member, also attended in a body.
The services at the house were very brief, consisting of a prayer by Rev. W. Jasper Howell, pastor of the First Baptist church. At the church Rev. G. H. Brigham offered prayer and the pastor made appropriate remarks. The bearers were his three sons, Messrs. Vernon, Frank and Eugene Hoxie, and his nephew, Mr. Horace Wallace of Texas Valley. The American flag, which always signified so much to the veteran, was draped over the coffin. The military form of the burial ceremony was entirely in keeping with the military training and disposition of the dead soldier. He had always been pleased to be in line with his comrades, to obey the orders and to hear the salutes, and so it was eminently fitting that these should be observed at his grave.
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| Sage College, Cornell University campus. |
BREVITIES.
—All the children of the Cornell university faculty had a Christmas tree in the Sage college gymnasium Wednesday afternoon and had a fine time.
—The fourth dancing party in a series of five to be given by the Assembly club will be held this evening in Red Men's hall. McDermott's orchestra will furnish music.
—New display advertisements today are— M. A. Case, Cloak sale, page 6; Glann & Clark, Shoes, page 4; W. J. Perkins, Prescriptions, etc., page 4; S. P. Smith, Meats, page 6; Mitch's, New Year's meats, page 5.
—State Prison Commissioner Jaeckel of Auburn has again Inspected and condemned the Chenango county jail and recommends that if action towards a new building is not taken by the board of supervisors, the authority of the courts should be invoked.
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