- Bessemer Converting Vessel
a, a, a, tuyères; b, air-space; c, melted metal A very important development of the manufacture of steel followed the introduction of the 'Bessemer process,' by means of which a low carbon or mild cast-steel can be produced at about one-tenth of the cost of crucible steel. It is used for rails, for the tires of the wheels of railway carriages, for ship-plates, boiler-plates, for shafting, and a multitude of constructional and other purposes to which only wrought iron was formerly applied, besides many for which no metal at all was used. - Rifle-calibre Maxim Gun
Rifle-calibre Maxim Gun Its rate of firing—770 shots a minute—is at least three times as rapid as that of any other machine gun.
It has only a single barrel, which, when the shot is fired, recoils a distance of three-quarters of an inch on the other parts of the gun.
This recoil sets moving the machinery which automatically keeps up a continuous fire at the extraordinary rate of 12 rounds a second.
Each recoil of the barrel has therefore to perform the necessary functions of extracting and ejecting the empty cartridge,
or bringing up the next full one and placing it in its proper position in the barrel, of cocking the hammer, and pulling the trigger.
As long as the firing continues, these functions are repeated round after round in succession.
The barrel is provided with a water jacket, to prevent excessive heating;
and is so mounted that it can be raised or lowered or set at any angle, or turned horizontally to the left or to the right.
The bore is adapted to the present size of cartridges; and the maximum range is eighteen hundred yards.
The gun can therefore be made to sweep a circle upwards of a mile in radius. - La France
One of the largest sailing-ships afloat is the French five-master, La France, launched in 1890 on the Clyde, and owned by Messrs A. D. Bordes et Fils, who possess a large fleet of sailing-vessels. In 1891 she came from Iquique to Dunkirk in one hundred and five days with 6000 tons of nitrate; yet she was stopped on the Tyne when proceeding to sea with 5500 tons of coal, and compelled to take out 500 tons on the ground that she was overladen. - Rush For the gold fields
Rush For the gold fields - Edison with his Phonograph
Edison with his Phonograph In 1878 Mr Edison made a number of phonographs, which were exhibited in America and Europe, and attracted universal attention. The records were made in these on soft tinfoil sheets fastened around metal cylinders. For a while Mr Edison was compelled to suspend work on this invention, but soon returned to it and worked out the machine as it exists practically to-day. It occupies about the same space as a hand sewing-machine. A light tube of wax to slide on and off the cylinder is substituted for the tinfoil, which had been wrapped round it, and the indenting stylus is replaced by a minute engraving point. Under the varying pressure of the sound-waves, this point or knife cuts into the tube almost imperceptibly, the wax chiselled away wreathing off in very fine spirals before the edge of the little blade, as the cylinder travels under it. Each cylinder will receive about a thousand words. In the improved machine Mr Edison at first employed two diaphragms in 'spectacle' form, one to receive and the other to reproduce; but he has since combined these in a single efficient attachment. - The Dandy-horse
The Dandy-horse of 1818, the two wheels on which the rider sat astride, tipping the ground with his feet in order to propel the machine, was laughed out of existence. - The Duke of Wellington
One of the 'Wooden Walls of Old England.' The Duke of Wellington Screw Line-of-Battle Ship. One hundred and thirty-one Guns. - Lord Armstrong
Armstrong, during the Crimean War, made an explosive apparatus for blowing up ships sunk at Sebastopol. This led him to turn his attention to improvements in ordnance. He invented a kind of breech-loading cannon, and soon had an order for several field-pieces after the same pattern. He began with guns throwing 6 lb. and 18 lb. shot and shells, and afterwards 32 lb. shells; and the results at the time were deemed almost incredible. He had both reduced the weight of the gun by one-half, reduced the charge of powder, and his gun sent the shell about three times farther. His success led to his offering to government all his past inventions, and any that he might in the future discover. A post was created for him, that of Chief Engineer of Rifled Ordnance for seven years provisionally. - Nordenfelt-Palmcrantz Gun mounted on Ship's Bulwark
Nordenfelt-Palmcrantz Gun mounted on Ship's Bulwark Machine guns have succeeded one another with extraordinary rapidity, and a gun seems only to be adopted in order to be superseded. Thus we have had during the last few years a series of these weapons bearing the names of Gatling, Gardner, Nordenfelt, and Maxim, - Gatling Gun on Field Carriage
Gatling Gun on Field Carriage These weapons are, as part of the regular equipment of armies, quite modern, though the idea of binding together a quantity of barrels and then discharging them at once, or with great rapidity one after another, is not altogether novel. Sometimes, instead of a number of barrels, one only is required, and the cartridges are discharged from short barrels or chambers which are brought in turn into position with the longer one. - The Great Harry
Some of the earliest three-deckers, or, as we may almost call them, five-deckers, were built at this dockyard; and of these the most famous was the Great Harry, so named after the king, which was launched here in 1514. For the period, the ship was a large one, being of a thousand tons burden; though we should not think much of her size now, when we have ironclads of over eleven thousand tons. There are models of her in the Greenwich Naval Museum, which is not far from Woolwich; and a curious lofty wooden castle she is, rising far up above the water-line, and offering a fair target, if the cannon of those days had any accuracy. - Prospecting for Gold
Prospecting for Gold - Wool-sorters at Work
Wool-sorters at Work In 1886 the pastoral wealth of the whole of the Australian colonies consisted of 84,222,272 sheep. At only ten shillings per head, this represents a capital of over forty-two millions sterling, without counting the value of the land. The number of sheep in 1894 was over 99,000,000. - Chinese Porcelain Vase
It was in 1751 that Dr Wall, a chemist and artist, completed his experiment in the combination of various elements, and produced a porcelain which was more like the true or natural Chinese porcelain than any ever devised. This was the more remarkable because kaolin had not then been discovered in this country. - Portland Vase
Portland Vase Wedgwood's copy of the Barberini or Portland Vase was a great triumph of his art. This vase, which had contained the ashes of the Roman Emperor Alexander Severus and his mother, was of dark-blue glass, with white enamel figures. It now stands in the medal room of the British Museum alongside a model by Wedgwood. It stands 10 inches high, and is the finest specimen of an ancient cameo cut-glass vase known. It was smashed by a madman in 1845, but was afterwards skilfully repaired. Wedgwood made fifty copies in fine earthenware, which were originally sold at 25 guineas each. One of these now fetches £200. The vase itself once changed hands for eighteen hundred guineas, and a copy fetched two hundred and fifteen guineas in 1892. - Wedgwood at Work
Wedgwood at Work He was bound apprentice to his brother Thomas in 1744, when in his fourteenth year; but this weak knee, which hampered him so much, proved a blessing in disguise, for it sent him from the thrower's place to the moulder's board, where he improved the ware, his first effort being an ornamental teapot made of the ochreous clay of the district. - Josiah Wedgewood
Josiah Wedgewood More than once it has happened that the youngest of thirteen children has turned out a genius. It was so in the case of Sir Richard Arkwright, and it turned out to be so in the case of Josiah Wedgwood, the youngest of the thirteen children of Thomas Wedgwood, a Burslem potter, and of Mary Stringer, a kind-hearted but delicate, sensitive woman, the daughter of a nonconformist clergyman. The town of Burslem, in Staffordshire, where Wedgwood saw the light in 1730, was then anything but an attractive place. Drinking and cock-fighting were the common recreations; roads had scarcely any existence; the thatched hovels had dunghills before the doors, while the hollows from which the potter's clay was excavated were filled with stagnant water, and the atmosphere of the whole place was coarse and unwholesome, and a most unlikely nursery of genius. - Krupp's 15.6 Breech-loading Gun (breech open)
Amongst the class of modern cannon, one of the most powerful is Krupp's seventy-one-ton gun. This, like all others of his make, is a breech-loader. Its dimensions are—length, thirty-two feet nine inches; diameter at breech end, five feet six inches; length of bore, twenty-eight feet seven inches; diameter of bore, 15.75 inches; diameter of powder-chamber, 17.32 inches. The internal tube is of two parts, exactly joined; and over this are four cylinders, shrunk on, and a ring round the breech. Its rifling has a uniform twist of one in forty-five. It cannot possibly be fired until the breech is perfectly closed. Its maximum charge is four hundred and eighty-five pounds of powder, and a chilled iron shell of seventeen hundred and eight pounds. - Bessemer Process
Sir Henry Bessemer says: 'It is this new material, so much stronger and tougher than common iron, that now builds our ships of war and our mercantile marine. Steel forms their boilers, their propeller shafts, their hulls, their masts and spars, their standing rigging, their cable chains and anchors, and also their guns and armour-plating. This new material has covered with a network of steel rails the surface of every country in Europe, and in America alone there are no less than 175,000 miles of Bessemer steel rails.' These steel rails last six times longer than if laid of iron.' - Nasmyth's Steam-hammer
This machine enlarged at one bound the whole scale of working in iron, and permitted Maudsley's lathe to develop its entire range of capacity. The old 'tilt-hammer' was so constructed that the more voluminous the material submitted to it, the less was the power attainable; so that as soon as certain dimensions had been exceeded, the hammer became utterly useless. - Section of the Goubet Submarine Boat
The Goubet class are of iron, sixteen feet long, three feet wide, and about six feet deep. The motive power is a Siemens motor driven by storage batteries. Fifty of these boats were purchased by the Russian government. They have no rudder, but a universal joint in the screw shaft permits of the screw being moved through an arc of ninety degrees. The torpedo is carried outside the boat, secured by a catch worked from inside. On arriving under the enemy, the torpedo is released, and striking the ship's bottom, is held there by spikes. The boat then withdraws, unreeling a connecting wire; and when at a safe distance, fires. The absence of a rudder, however, causes erratic steering, and the spikes with which the torpedo is fitted might fail to stick in steel-bottomed ships. - Christopher Columbus
Taken from the marble bust on his monument at Genoa - Bison
Bison - Ni-co-man
Among the Delawares was a chief, who bade fair to equal in fame, the most distinguished of his predecessors. Not many moons before, Ni-co-man had awakened from a dream of conquest and beheld, in the pale light, a shadowy figure wrapped in a blanket of snowy white. - No Fool
Wa-hon-ga-shee (No Fool) There had been frequent, hard-fought battles with the Pawnees, who, being superior in numbers, had usually obtained the victory. However, the Great Spirit punished them when, at last, a small band was discovered, just at nightfall, by a strong party of Kaws. Revenge, always sweet to the barbarian, was now assured. Surrounding the foe under cover of darkness, the Kaws, commanded by Wa-hon-ga-shee (No Fool), waited patiently for daylight. - Sioux Infant
Sioux Infant - Sitting Bull
Ta-ton-ka-I-yo-ton-ka (Sitting Bull) Sitting Bull, the famous commander at the Custer massacre, was, during his prosperous years, the chief of chiefs, or supreme head of the nation. He first inherited the office, and was able to retain it because of mental superiority and by reason of the fact that, until the last hope was gone, he assumed an uncompromising position in regard to the encroachment of the whites. Then, too, Ta-ton-ka-I-yo-ton-ka was a medicine man, capable of arousing religious fervor. That he was cruel toward the enemies of his people cannot be denied; but, according to the red man's philosophy, that was simple bravery and loyalty. - Tecumseh
On a picturesque cliff overlooking the Mad River, in what is now the State of Ohio, was located, more than a century ago, the Indian village of the Piqua Shawnees. The settlement was prosperous and fully two hundred acres of land were in cultivation. A log fort, surrounded with pickets, had been built, and the Shawnees were prepared for defense in the event of an attempt to capture the town. This beautiful spot was the birth-place of the famous Tecumseh—Shooting Star—the most illustrious Indian that ever battled for the rights of his people. Eloquent, powerful in mind and body, and possessing the soul of a hero, the patriotic chief was, at the opening of the nineteenth century, deep in plans for the advancement of his race. Is it a matter of surprise that he should oppose, with ceaseless energy, the encroachment of the white man? That his talents should be unsparingly used in the hopeless endeavor to stay the westward progress of civilization? He had seen the red man repeatedly deprived of land, under almost compulsory treaties with the Government. His independent spirit rebelled - The Shawnee Prophet
The Shawnee Prophet - Routes of the discoverers
Routes of the discoverers - Amerigo Vespucci
Amerigo Vespucci was born in Florence, March 9, 1451, just one hundred and fifty years after Dante was banished from the city in which both first saw the light. The Vespucci family had then resided in that city more than two hundred years, having come from Peretola, a little town adjacent, where the name was highly regarded, as attached to the most respected of the Italian nobility. Following the custom of that nobility, during the period of unrest in Italy, the Vespuccis established themselves in a stately mansion near one of the city gates, which is known as the Porta del Prato. Thus they were within touch of the gay society of Florence, and could enjoy its advantages, while at the same time in a position, in the event of an uprising, to flee to their estates and stronghold in the country. - Marco Polo
Marco Polo, Vespucci's Countryman Marco Polo, the Venetian, exercised a strong and lasting influence upon the minds of Toscanelli, Columbus, Vespucci, and, through them, upon others, although he died in the first quarter of the century in which the first-named of this distinguished triad was born. All these had this birthright in common: they were Italians; and, moreover, it was in Genoa, the reputed birthplace of Columbus, that Marco Polo's adventures were first shaped into coherent narrative and given to the world. - North America from the globe of Johann Schöner
In a pamphlet accompanying "the earliest known globe of Johann Schöner," made in 1515, the new region is described as the "fourth part of the globe named after its discoverer, Americus Vespucius, who found it in 1497." Vespucci did not find it, and he never made the claim that he discovered more than is given in his letters; but this misstatement by another caused him to be accused of falsifying the dates of his voyages in order to rob Columbus of his desserts. - Ojeda's first voyage
There is no doubt whatever that Vespucci made a voyage in 1499-1500, along with Alonzo de Ojeda and the great pilot Juan[Pg 109] de la Cosa, but whether this may be styled his first or his second must be left to the intelligence of the reader, for the historians are at odds themselves, and it might seem presumptuous in the biographer to assume to decide. - Baseball player throwing the ball
Baseball player throwing the ball - Porcupine
The Porcupine lives lonely. Over the day it rests in long, low corridors, which digs it itself into the ground; at night it occurs and wanders around to look for food. This consists of all kinds of vegetable substances, thistles and other herbs, roots and fruits, the bark of different trees and many types of leaves. It bites off its food with the front teeth and holds it with the forelegs, as long as it eats. - Prairie dog
The name "Prairie Dog," which has gradually been given civil rights, was given to this animal by the old Canadian trappers or fur hunters, who discovered it, and whose attention was drawn mainly by the barking sound, which makes it heard. In his external appearance is nothing, which reminds the Dog. His vast abodes, which, because of their size, are called "villages", are regularly found on somewhat low-lying meadows, where an ornate grass species forms a beautiful carpet and also makes it easy for the animals to obtain food. - Rabbit
Rabbit - Rat Beaver
A large part of the temperate regions of South America is the homeland of this animal important to the pelterij trade. The Rat Beavers are located in almost all countries. In the La-Plata States, in Buenos Ayres, Patagonia and the middle part of Chile, they are widespread everywhere. - Red-Rumped Agouti
The Agouti are now small or small groups united in forest-rich plains, especially in the densest forests of the river valleys; some are in the mountains up to an altitude of 2000 M. - Brown Rat
With great probability, it can be assumed that the Brown Rat from India and Persia has come to us. - Squirrel
The Squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) is one of the few Rodents, with which man has befriended, and which he, in spite of some unpleasant qualities, gladly adopts as a roommate, even in the eyes of the poet has a graceful stature. This was already felt by the Greeks, to whom we borrowed the scientific name of the Squirrel. - Tree-porcupine
The Mexican Tree Porcupine [Cercolabes (Sphingurus) novae-hispaniae], an animal of 95 cM. total length, of which about a third must be counted for the tail, inhabits the east coast of Mexico. The shiny hairs are very dense and soft, a little frizzy and so long, that many spines are completely covered by them. The spines are also missing from the parts, with the exception of the lower neck, on the inside of the legs, on the snout and on the rear half of the tail, which is covered from above naked, from below with black, on the sides with yellow brushes. - Paca
The Capybara is widespread throughout South America; from the Orinoko to the La Plata, from the Atlantic ocean to the eastern reaches of the Andes, it inhabits low, forest-rich, swampy regions, especially rivers, multi-banks and marshes. She prefers to stop at large currents; it never leaves, unless to follow the course of small streams and watercourses flowing into this flow. In some places it is extremely frequent; in inhabited places, as light can be understood, it is rarer than in the wilderness. - Beaver
In England, the Beaver has been wiped out for 500 years. The Beaver (Castor fiber)is one of the largest Rodents. The body length of the adult male is, without the 30 cM. longtail, 75 to 95 cM., shoulder height 30 cM., weight 20 to 30 KG. The torso is bulky, considerably thicker from behind than from the front, the back arched, the abdomen drooping, the neck short and thick, the head from behind wide, narrowing forward, with flat crown and shortening, the legs are short and very powerful, the rear slightly longer than the front; the feet have five toes; which are from the hind quarters to the claws by a wide swimming membrane. - Black Rat
When this species first appeared in Europe, it cannot be specified with certainty. Albertus Magnus is the first zoologist to mention the Black Rat as a German animal; she was thus native to this in the 13th century. - Blind mouse
The Blind mouse occurs in the south-east of Europe and in western Asia, namely. in South Russia from 50° N.B. to the Ural and caucasus, in Bessarabia, Moldova and part of Hungary and Galicia, further in Turkey, Greece and the north and west of Asia Minor. - Dandelion jump mouse
Dandelion jump mouse - Desert jumping mouse
Although these animals are numerous in the regions they inhabited, they are rarely seen here. They cannot be called shy, but they are restless and fearful and go to their burrows at the slightest, and as soon as they see a foreign object, as possible, to their burrows. - Edible Dormouse and Garden Dormouse
Edible Dormouse and Garden Dormouse - European Ground Squirrel
European Ground Squirrel - European water vole
European water vole - Field Mouse and Wood Mouse
Field Mouse and Wood Mouse - Gopher
Gopher - Guinea pig
The Guinean Piglet is one of the most sought-after pets in the whole rodent order, as it does not set high levels, as because of its harmlessness and benignness. If it is given a fresh and dry berth, it can be easily kept alive everywhere. It feeds on the most diverse plant substances; all parts of the plant from the roots to the leaves, seeds as well as fresh juicy plant parts are to its taste - Hamster
The propagation area of the Hamster extends from the Rhine to the Ob. In the southern and southwestern parts of Germany, he is missing, as well as in East and West Prussia; on the other hand, he is frequently in Thuringia and Saxony. In the countries on the Mediterranean Sea, in England, Denmark and Scandinavian, he is unknown. A soil, which is moderately solid, dry and also fertile, best meets it. He avoids all sandy regions; In order not to encounter too many objections when digging, he does not settle on a very fasting on stony soil. He doesn't like mountain regions and forests, nor does he like wetlands. Wherever he occurs, he is frequently found, sometimes even in unbelievable scissors. - Hare Mouse
The Hare Mouse depicted on this page (Lagidium Cuvieri) inhabits the high plains of southern Peru and Bolivia and is close to the stature and size of a Rabbit. Her coat is very soft and long-haired. - Hare
The members of the genus Hare (Lepus)are distinguished by ears, which are almost as long as the head, by the shortness of the thumb of the forefeet, the large length of the hind legs (almost double those of the forelegs), the upward-facing tail stump, and the 6 molars in each upper jaw half (in the lower jaw there are 5 on each side). - Hazel Dormouse
Over the day, the Hazel mouse is sleeping in one or another shelter, the night she goes to find her food, which consists of nuts, acorns, hard seeds, juicy fruits, berries and buds of trees; prefers, however, to eat hazelnuts, which she artfully opens and empties, without picking them or removing them from the nap. She also seeks thrush berries and is therefore not infrequently caught in thrush snares. - House mouse
House mouse