The Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century Part 29

The Livermore-Russell gun, patented October 28, 1879, No. 221,079, had a magazine opening transversely in the upper edge of the stock behind the bolt, and the cartridges were fed to the barrel beneath the bolt. The important feature of the gun, however, was a cartridge case slotted on its side and detachable from the gun, and each bearing a group of five cartridges, which were to be thus made up in small packets and carried in the belt or cartridge box of the soldier. This idea was subsequently developed by Livermore and Russell in patent No. 230,823, August 3, 1880, and this feature, viewed in the light of the importance subsequently attained by the "clip" in the Mauser and Mannlicher guns, may be fairly considered the pioneer of this idea of grouping cartridges in made-up packets for bolt guns. Its great advantage is the large number of shots that may be fired in a short s.p.a.ce of time without an excessive weight in the gun itself.

Subsequent patents for improvements were taken by Lee as follows: No.

513,647, January 30, 1894, and No. 547,583, October 8, 1895, and the gun used by the United States Navy is modeled along the lines of Lee's invention.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 280.--KRAG-JORGENSEN MAGAZINE RIFLE.]

_The Krag-Jorgensen Magazine Rifle_ was patented June 10, 1890, No.

429,811, and February 21, 1893, No. 492,212. It is the arm adopted by the United States infantry service, and is seen in Fig. 280. The fixed magazine chamber, shown in the cross section, pa.s.ses through the breech laterally below the barrel, and is filled with cartridges on one side of the gun, which cartridges pa.s.s through the breech laterally, and, turning a curve, enter the barrel from the opposite side. When the bolt is drawn back by the k.n.o.b handle a cartridge is fed up into position to enter the barrel, and when pushed forward the cartridge is forced into the bore of the gun, and at the same time a spiral spring is put under tension to set the hammer of the gun, which carries a firing pin at its front end. When the trigger is pulled the hammer and firing pin plunge forward to explode the cap in the cartridge, and when the handle of the bolt is drawn back again to extract the empty sh.e.l.l, a fresh cartridge rises to take its place.

_The Mauser Rifle_ is shown in Fig. 281. This is the arm of which so much was heard during the recent war with Spain, and against which our soldiers had to contend. Five cartridges are carried in a magazine immediately in front of the trigger, and are fed up by a subjacent spring, one at a time, centrally through the breech into line with the barrel, as the bolt with the k.n.o.bbed handle is worked back and forth.

The cartridges are carried by the soldier in groups of five in a "clip,"

which is a simple strip of metal with inturned parallel edges, which enclose the f.l.a.n.g.ed heads of the cartridges as they project at right angles to the clip. To transfer the cartridges to the magazine, the clip with its cartridges is placed above the barrel, and the cartridges forced down out of the clip into the magazine. In the Mannlicher gun, adopted by the German army, the clip which holds the cartridges is itself inserted into the magazine, along with the cartridges.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 281.--THE MAUSER RIFLE AND CLIP.]

The modern trend of development in firearms has been toward the reduction of calibre, the standard for small arms being 30/100. The lead bullets are covered with a seamless jacket of harder metal (Geiger's patents, No. 306,738 and 306,739, October 21, 1884), which prevents the "leading" and fouling of the gun, and the distortion of the bullet.

Modern magazine guns permit twenty-five to thirty shots a minute as single loaders, and besides they hold in reserve five cartridges. They have a killing range of a mile, and the cost of the cartridge is 3.2 cents. At a trial at the Was.h.i.+ngton Navy Yard a few years past a steel projectile 1.07 inches long and 32/100 calibre penetrated solid iron 1.15 inch thick, fired at an angle of 80. It also penetrated 50 inches of pine boards, and its range was estimated at three miles.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 282.--THE GREENER HAMMERLESS GUN.]

_Hammerless Guns._--Among improvements in shot guns the so-called "hammerless" feature is a noteworthy departure. This hides the hammers in the breech and c.o.c.ks them by the act of breaking down the gun. In Fig. 282 is given a section and plan view of the Greener mechanism, which was patented July 6, 1880, No. 229,604, and was one of the first guns of this kind put on the market. The hammers A are constructed as elbow levers. Their upper ends have each a round point adapted to strike through a small hole in the breech onto the cap of the cartridge. The lower front portions of the hammers are extended forward and curved inwardly toward each other, so that their inner ends nearly meet. C is a pendent hook jointed to the barrel, and when the latter is tilted, as shown in dotted lines, the hook acting upon the forwardly projecting arms of the hammers turns them backward to the c.o.c.ked position, in which they are retained by the dogs B engaging with their notches. As the hammers move back the mainspring is compressed, and when the dog B is removed from the notch by pulling on the trigger, the hammers are released and the gun fired.

_The rebounding lock_, now universally applied to shot guns, is another comparatively recent improvement. This promotes safety by causing the hammers to be normally and automatically held away from the firing pins.

The first practical form of this lock was patented by Hailer, July 26, 1870, No. 105,799, in which a single spring serves to deliver the blow of the hammer and also withdraws the hammer from the firing pin. A marked tendency in shot guns in late years is toward a reduction in bore, many sportsmen now using a 28 gauge in preference to the old regulation 12.

Nearly 5,000 patents have been granted in the United States for firearms, and about 2,400 for projectiles. The most important of the latter is the torpedo, of which the Whitehead, or fish torpedo, which supplies its own means of propulsion, is the best known and most used.

It was first brought out in 1866 by Whitehead, at Fiume, a port of Hungary. The Gathmann aerial torpedo, weighing 1,800 pounds and carrying 625 pounds of wet gun cotton, is designed to be fired from a gun 44 feet long and 18 inch bore, and is supposed to have a range of ten miles.

Tests are about to be made under special appropriation of Congress, and if its claim can be substantiated, it may become the most destructive engine of warfare known.

_Explosives._--The invention of gunpowder is ascribed to the Chinese, and at a period so far back that its origin is buried in antiquity. It is believed to have been known since the time of Moses, something very like it being mentioned in the ancient Gentoo laws of India 1,500 to 2,000 B. C. For many years it was thought that Roger Bacon invented it in 1249, but it is now known that he was only a factor in its development. Most likely the saltpetre of the plains of China came first in accidental contact with the charred embers of a prehistoric fire, and to the observant man the oxygen-giving saltpetre furnished the charcoal with its means of energetic combustion for the first time.

Gunpowder consists of about 75 parts of saltpetre (nitrate of potash), 15 of charcoal, and 10 of sulphur, the proportions varying somewhat with the use to which it is to be applied. In ordinary combustion the air supplies the necessary oxygen. In gunpowder the presence of the air is not necessary, as the saltpetre has imprisoned in its composition a large quant.i.ty of oxygen which furnishes to the carbon and sulphur the means for its combustion, gasification and enormous expansion.

Originally, gunpowder was pulverulent, like that used in fire works, and had but little propelling force. The making of it in grains ("corned") is ascribed to Berthold Schwarz, a German monk, about 1320, and this, by promoting the rapidity of its burning, added greatly to its effective force, and gave a new impetus to firearms.

In the early part of the Nineteenth Century there were but few improvements in either the composition or manufacture of gunpowder. The introduction of the percussion cap, which exploded the charge by a blow, in the place of the old flint lock, was, however, a notable advance.

Alexander John Forsyth, a Scotch clergyman, was the first to apply a percussion or detonating compound, as set forth in his British patent No. 3,032, of 1807. The embodiment of such compounds in the little copper caps was made about 1818, and has been claimed by various parties. Manton's British patent No. 4,285, of 1818, describes a thin copper tube filled with fulminate and struck sidewise by the hammer to explode it. Joshua Shaw took a United States patent on a percussion gun, June 19, 1822, and the copper percussion cap was said to have been introduced in the United States by him in 1842. The embodiment of the charge of powder and ball in bra.s.s and copper sh.e.l.ls was done in France by Galay Cazalat as early as 1826. Drawn metallic sh.e.l.ls were made by Flobert and Lefaucheux, in 1853, and Palmer, in 1854. Drawn copper cartridges with center fire were introduced in the United States, and patented by Smith & Wesson August 8, 1854, No. 11,496, and solid headed sh.e.l.ls by Hotchkiss, August 31, 1869, No. 94,210.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 283.--SUBMARINE MINE. CHARGE, 250 POUNDS DYNAMITE.]

In 1846 a new and distinct development in explosives was made in the discovery of gun cotton by Schonbein, and of nitro-glycerine in 1847 by Sobrero. The former is made by the reaction of nitric acid, aided by sulphuric acid, on ordinary raw cotton, which, while changing the physical aspects of the cotton but little, gives to it a terrific explosive energy. Nitro-glycerine is made in a somewhat similar way by treating glycerine with nitric and sulphuric acids. At first it found no practical applications, except as a h.o.m.opathic medicine for headache, but about 1864 n.o.bel commenced its manufacture for explosive uses, and since that time nearly all the great blasting operations have been performed through its agency. Its most familiar form is _dynamite_, or giant powder, n.o.bel's patent, No. 78,317, May 26, 1868, which is simply nitro-glycerine held in absorption by some inert granular solid, such as infusorial earth, and is thus rendered safer to handle and more convenient to use. A suggestive application of the terrible power of these explosives is in submarine mines. The instantaneous and dastardly destruction of our battles.h.i.+p, "The Maine," with 250 of her crew, in Havana harbor, February 15, 1898, by one of these agencies, is a harrowing ill.u.s.tration. Fig. 283 represents one of these submarine mines carrying 250 pounds of dynamite, and Fig. 284 is an instantaneous photograph at the moment of explosion.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 284.--EXPLOSION OF A MINE. BASE OF WATER COLUMN, 100 FEET WIDE, HEIGHT, 246 FEET.]

_White gunpowder_, or wood powder, was invented by Captain Schultz, of the Prussian army. It is made by treating granulated wood with a mixture of nitric and sulphuric acids, which, acting upon the cellulose of the wood, convert it into an explosive something of the nature of gun cotton. The grains are afterward saturated with saltpetre. This was patented in the United States June 2, 1863, No. 38,789, and in Great Britain, No. 900, of 1864. Dittmar's powder is another of the same general nature, covered by United States patents No. 98,854, January 18, 1870; No. 99,069, January 25, 1870, and No. 145,403, December 9, 1873.

Among the high explosives of more recent date may be mentioned:

_Tonite_ (gun cotton and barium nitrate), British patents No. 3,612, of 1874, and No. 2,742, of 1876.

_Rack-a-rock_ (pota.s.sium chlorate and nitro-benzene), United States patent No. 243,432, June 28, 1881; British patent No. 5,584, of 1881.

_Bellite_ (ammonium nitrate and nitro-benzene), United States patent No. 455,217, June 30, 1891; British patent No. 13,690, of 1885.

_Melinite_ (picric acid and gun cotton), British patent No. 15,089, of 1885.

_Lyddite_, not patented, but believed to be substantially same as melinite, and containing for its active ingredient picric acid, which is a compound formed by the reaction of nitric acid on carbolic acid.

_Cordite_ (nitro-glycerine, gun cotton, and mineral jelly or oil), British patent No. 5,614, of 1889; United States patent No.

409,549, August 20, 1889.

_Indurite_ (gun cotton and nitro-benzene, indurated), United States patent, No. 489,684, January 10, 1893; British patent, No. 580, of 1893.

In recent years smokeless powders have largely superseded all others.

These contain usually nitro-cellulose (gun cotton), or nitro-glycerine, or both, made up into a plastic, coherent, and h.o.m.ogeneous compound of a gluey nature, and fas.h.i.+oned into horn-like sticks or rods by being forced under pressure through a die plate having small holes, through which the plastic material is strained into strings like macaroni, or else is molded into tablets, pellets, or grains of cubical shape.

Prominent among those who have contributed to this art are the names of Turpin, Abel and Dewar, n.o.bel, Maxim, Munroe, Du Pont, Bernadou and others.

In the recent years of the Nineteenth Century great activity has been manifest in this field of invention. In the United States more than 600 different patents have been granted for explosives, the larger portion of them being for nitro-compounds, which partake in a greater or less degree of the qualities of gun cotton or nitro-glycerine. The influence exerted by them has been incalculable. Subtile as is the force imprisoned in inter-atomic relation, it has been the power behind the boom of the cannon; it has lent itself to the driving of great tunnels through the solid rock; it has lifted the coal and ore from the solid embrace of the mountain, and the building stone from its sleep in the quarry; it has opened up channels to the sea, ca.n.a.ls on land, and in both war and peace has been one of the great agencies of civilization.

CHAPTER x.x.xI.

TEXTILES.

SPINNING AND WEAVING AN ANCIENT ART--HARGREAVES' SPINNING JENNY-- ARKWRIGHT'S ROLL-DRAWING SPINNING MACHINE--CROMPTON'S MULE SPINNER--THE COTTON GIN--RING SPINNING--THE RABBETH SPINDLE--JOHN KAY'S FLYING SHUTTLE AND ROBERT KAY'S DROP BOX--CARTWRIGHT'S POWER LOOM--THE JACQUARD LOOM--CROMPTON'S FANCY LOOM--BIGELOW'S CARPET LOOMS--LYALL POSITIVE MOTION LOOM--KNITTING MACHINES--CLOTH PRESSING MACHINERY--ARTIFICIAL SILK--MERCERIZED CLOTH.

Far back in the obscuring gloom of a prehistoric antiquity, man wore probably only the hirsute covering which nature gave him. As he emerged from barbarism, sentiments of modesty marked the evolution of his mind, and this, together with the need for a more sufficient protection against cold and heat, suggested an artificial covering for his body. At first he robbed the brute of his fleecy skin and wore it bodily. Later he learned to spin and weave; next to food and drink, clothing became a fundamental necessity, for without it his life could not extend outside of the limited zone of the tropics. Food and drink were to be found as nature's free gifts, but clothing had to be made, and its manufacture const.i.tuted probably the oldest of all the living arts. The making of cloth may be said to be coeval with history. The Old Testament of the Bible is replete with references to spinning and weaving, and the cloths wrapped about the mummies of ancient Egypt, although thousands of years old, were of exceeding regularity and fineness.

So old an art, and so great and continuous a need for its products necessarily must have resulted in much development and progress. When the Nineteenth Century began, the world already enjoyed the results of Hargreaves' spinning-jenny, Arkwright's roll-drawing spinning machine, the mule spinner, the cotton gin, and the power loom, all of which were most radical inventions, equaling in importance, perhaps, any that have followed.

Prior to the invention of the _spinning-jenny_, the loose fibre was spun into yarns and thread by hand on the old-fas.h.i.+oned spinning wheel, each thread requiring the attention of one person. In 1763 Hargreaves invented the spinning-jenny (see Fig. 285), in which a multiplicity of spindles was employed, whereby one person could attend to the making of many threads simultaneously. For this purpose the spindles were set upright at the end of the frame, and the rovings or strips of untwisted fibre were carried on bobbins on the inclined frame. The rovings extended from these bobbins to a reciprocating "clasp" held in the left hand of the workman, and thence extended to the spindles at the end of the frame. The workman drew out the rovings by moving the clasp back and forth, and at the same time turned the crank with his right hand to rotate the spindles. Hargreaves' machine is shown and described in his British patent, No. 962 of 1770.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 285.--HARGREAVES' SPINNING JENNY.]

The next important step in spinning was the introduction of drawing rolls, which were a series of rolls running at different speeds for drawing out or elongating the roving as it was spun into a thread. This was mainly due to Arkwright, a contemporary of Hargreaves. The principle of the drawing rolls had been foreshadowed in the British patents of Louis Paul, No. 562, of 1738, and No. 724, of 1758, but Arkwright made the first embodiment of it in practically useful machines, which were covered by him in British patents No. 931, of 1769, and No. 1,111, of 1775. Arkwright's spinning machine is shown in Fig. 286, the drawing rolls being shown at the top of the figure.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 286.--ARKWRIGHT'S ROLL-DRAWING SPINNING MACHINE.]

Following these important inventions came the mule spinner. This was invented by Crompton between 1774 and 1779, but was never patented. It combined the leading features of Hargreaves and Arkwright. The spindles were mounted on a wheeled carriage that traveled back and forth a considerable distance from the drawing rolls, which were mounted in bearings in a stationary frame. The long travel of the carriage back and forth, and the simultaneous twisting and drawing of the yarns, produced threads of great fineness and regularity. The value of the long travel of the carriage may be briefly noted as follows: When the threads or slivers emerge from the drawing rolls they are not absolutely of uniform size, and the thick portions do not twist as tightly as the thinner portions. The stretching and drawing of these thicker parts down to a uniform size by the receding of the carriage is the distinctive feature of its action. As the thread has greater tensile strength at the thinner hard-twisted parts than it has at the thicker untwisted parts, it will be seen that the stretching action is localized on the thicker untwisted parts of the thread, which are thus brought down to uniform size by elongation. The drawing and twisting of the thread is effected as the carriage runs out, and when the carriage runs in these twisted lengths are wound around the spindles. The rendering of the action of the mule automatic or self-acting in its travel back and forth was the invention of Richard Roberts, of England, and was covered by him in British patents No. 5,138 of 1825, and No. 5,649 of 1830. The mule spinner shown in Fig. 287 is a good modern example of this machine.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 287.--MULE SPINNING MACHINE.]

One of the most important of the early inventions in the textile art was the _cotton gin_. This was the invention of Eli Whitney, of Ma.s.sachusetts, and was patented by him March 14, 1794. Prior to its use the picking of the cotton fibre from the bean-like seed with which it is compactly stored in the boll was entirely effected by hand, and it was a slow and tedious process, and about 4 pounds per day was the average work of one man. The cotton gin, shown in Fig. 288, is a device for doing this by machinery in a rapid, thorough, and expeditious manner.

The cotton, mixed with seed, is fed to the roll box J, in which a sort of reel F continually turns the cotton. The bottom of the roll box is formed with a grating of parallel ribs E, between which project the teeth of a gang of circular saws C, which pull the fibre through between the ribs and deliver it to the revolving brush B, which beats the fibre off the teeth of the saws and produces a blast that discharges the fleece through the rear of the gin. The cotton seed, which are too large to pa.s.s between the ribs with the fibre, drop out the bottom of the roll-box. With the aid of the cotton gin the efficiency of one man is raised from four pounds per day to several thousand pounds per day, and the culture and manufacture of cotton fibre was revolutionized and greatly stimulated by providing a mode of putting it into merchantable condition at a reasonable price. It is said that the crop of cotton increased from 189,316 pounds in 1791 to 2,000,000,000 pounds in 1859.

The cotton gin, as invented by Whitney more than a hundred years ago, is still in use, substantially unchanged in principle, but its efficiency has been raised from 70 pounds per day to several thousands. The cotton crop of the United States for 1899, which was handled by the modern gins at this rate, amounted to 11,274,840 bales, of about 500 pounds each, or more than five thousand million pounds. But for the cotton gin this great staple would have only a very limited use, and one of the greatest of the world's industries would have practically no existence.