however, that its fruit cannot be eaten raw, like the banana's, and that
it is much larger in size. Almost every portion of the banana tree is
useful. First of all, the nutritious fruit. The plantains when green and
hard, are boiled in water or with meat like our potatoes, or they are
cut in slices and fried in fat, when they are soft and ripe. There is a
singularity about the boiled plaintain, worthy of being mentioned. Pork
especially, and other meats are so exceedingly fat in the tropics that
they would be most disgusting or even impossible to eat with either
bread or potatoes, but the plaintain seems to neutralize or absorb all
the greasy substance, and the fattest meat is thus eaten by natives and
foreigners without the least inconvenience.
Ripe bananas are mashed into a paste, of which the natives bake a sort
of bread, which is very nourishing, though somewhat heavy. This paste,
which contains much starch, can be dried, and thus kept for a length of
time, which is often of great service to mariners. The young sprouts are
used and prepared like vegetables, and the fibrous parts of the stalks
of the majestic leaves are used like manilla for ropes and coarse cloth.
The utility of the leaves is a theme rich enough to fill a volume; they
are used to cover the huts, for table-cloths and napkins, or wrapping
paper. The dough of bread, instead of being put in a pan, into the oven,
is spread on a piece of plantain leaf; it will neither crisp nor adhere
to the bread when taken out. The Indians of America carry all their
products, such as maize, sugar, coffee, etc., in bags made of this leaf,
which they know how to arrange so well, that they transport an "arroba,"
or twenty-five pounds any distance without a single grain escaping, and
without any appliance other than a liana or creeper to tie it up with.
As to the medicinal qualities of the leaves, they are numerous. Indeed,
a book has been written upon them. I speak, however, from my own
experience. The young, yet unrolled leaves are superior to any salve
or ointment. If applied to an inflamed part of the body, the effect is
soothing and cooling, or if applied to a wound or ulcer, they excite
a proper healthy action, and afterwards completely heal the wound.
Decoctions made of the leaves are used among the natives for various
diseases.
Since the beginning of the world this plant has ranked among the first
in the Flora of Asia. The Christians of the orient look upon it as the
tree of Paradise which bore the forbidden fruit, and they think its
leaves furnished the first covering to our original parents. According
to other historians, the Adam's fig was the plant, which the messengers
brought from the promised land to Moses, who had sent them out to
reconnoitre. "It is under the shade of the _musa sapientium_, that," as
recorded by Pliny, "the learned Indians seated themselves to meditate
over the vicissitudes of life, and to talk over different philosophic
subjects, and the fruit of this tree was their only food." The Oriental
Christians, up to the present date, regard the banana almost with
reverence; their active fancy beholds in its center, if a cut is made
transverse, the image of the cross, and they consider it a crime to use
a knife in cutting the fruit.
In the holy language of the Hindoo, the Sanscrit, the Adam's fig is
called "modsha," whence doubtless, the word "musa" is derived. It is
generally believed that the plant came from India to Egypt in the
seventh century; it still forms a most important article of commerce in
the markets of Cairo and Alexandria. In the year 1516, the banana was
brought to the West Indian Islands by a monk, since which time it
has rapidly spread over the tropics of America, and is found to the
twenty-fifth degree north and south of the equator. It is equally
indispensable and is appreciated by the immigrant and by the native as
a beautifier of the landscape; affording shelter from the sun and rain,
and giving bread to the children; for if every other crop should fail,
the hungry native looks up to the banana tree, like a merchant to his
well-filled storehouse.
* * * * *
PUTTING UP STOVES.
BY MARK TWAIN.
We do not remember the exact date of the invention of stoves, but it was
some years ago. Since then mankind have been tormented once a year, by
the difficulties that beset the task of putting them up, and getting the
pipes fixed. With all our Yankee ingenuity no American has ever invented
any method by which the labor of putting up stoves can be lessened. The
job is as severe and vexatious as humanity can possibly endure, and gets
more so every year.
Men always put their stoves up on a rainy day. Why, we know not; but we
never heard of any exception to this rule. The first step to be taken is
to put on a very old and ragged coat, under the impression that when he
gets his mouth full of plaster it will keep the shirt bosom clean. Next,
the operator gets his hand inside the place where the pipe ought to go,
and blacks his fingers, and then he carefully makes a black mark down
the side of his nose. It is impossible to make any headway, in doing
this work, until this mark is made down the side of the nose. Having got
his face properly marked, the victim is ready to begin the ceremony.
The head of the family--who is the big goose of the sacrifice--grasps
one side of the bottom of the stove, and his wife and the hired girl
take hold of the other side. In this way the load is started from the
woodshed toward the parlor. Going through the door, the head of the
family will carefully swing his side of the stove around and jam his
thumb nail against the door post. This part of the ceremony is never
omitted. Having got the family comfort in place, the next thing is to
find the legs. Two of these are left inside the stove since the spring
before. The other two must be hunted after, for twenty-five minutes.
They are usually found under the coal. Then the head of the family holds
up one side of the stove while his wife puts two of the legs in place,
and next he holds up the other while the other two are fixed, and one of
the first two falls out. By the time the stove is on its legs he gets
reckless, and takes off his old coat, regardless of his linen.
Then he goes for the pipe and gets two cinders in his eye. It don't make
any difference how well the pipe was put up last year it will always be
found a little too short or a little too long. The head of the family
jams his hat over his eyes and taking a pipe under each arm goes to the
tin shop to have it fixed. When he gets back, he steps upon one of the
best parlor chairs to see if the pipe fits, and his wife makes him get
down for fear he will scratch the varnish off from the chairs with the
nails in his boot heel. In getting down he will surely step on the cat,
and may thank his stars that it is not the baby. Then he gets an old
chair and climbs up to the chimney again, to find that in cutting the
pipe off, the end has been left too big for the hole in the chimney. So
he goes to the woodshed and splits one side of the end of the pipe with
an old axe, and squeezes it in his hands to make it smaller.
Finally he gets the pipe in shape, and finds the stove does not stand
true. Then himself and wife and the hired girl move the stove to the
left, and the legs fall out again. Next it is to move to the right. More
difficulty now with the legs. Move to the front a little. Elbow not even
with the hole in the chimney, and the head of the family goes again to
the woodshed after some little blocks. While putting the blocks under
the legs, the pipe comes out of the chimney. That remedied, the elbow
keeps tipping over, to the great alarm of the wife. Head of the family
gets the dinner table out, puts the old chair on it, gets his wife to
hold the chair, and balances himself on it to drive some nails into the
ceiling. Drops the hammer on wife's head. At last he gets the nails
driven, takes a wire swing to hold the pipe, hammers a little here,
pulls a little there, takes a long breath, and announces the ceremony
concluded.
Job never put up any stoves. It would have ruined his reputation if he
had. The above programme, with unimportant variations, will be carried
out in many respectable families during the next six weeks.
* * * * *
THE MAGIC LANTERN.
The invention of the magic lantern dates back to 1650, and is attributed
to Professor Kircher, a German philosopher of rare talents and extensive
reputation. The instrument is simple and familiar. It is a form of the
microscope. The shadows cast by the object are, by means of lenses,
focussed upon something capable of reflection, such as a wall or screen.
No essential changes in the principles of construction have been made
since the time of Kircher; but the modern improvements in lenses,
lights, and pictures, have raised the character of the instrument from
that of a mere toy to an apparatus of the highest utility. By its
employment the most wonderful forms of creation, invisible, perhaps, to
the eye, are not only revealed but reproduced in gigantic proportions,
with all the marvelous truth of nature itself. The success of some of
the most celebrated demonstrations of Faraday, Tyndall, Doremus, Morton,
and others, was due to the skillful use of the magic lantern. As an
educator, the employment of this instrument is rapidly extending. No
school apparatus is complete without it; and now that transparencies
are so readily multiplied by photography upon glass, and upon mica, or
gelatin, by the printing press or the pen, it is destined to find
a place in every household; for in it are combined the attractive
qualities of beauty, amusement, and instruction.
The electric light affords, probably, the strongest and best
illumination for the magic lantern; then comes the magnesium light; but
their use is a little troublesome and rather expensive; next to these
in illuminating power is the oxy-hydrogen or Drummond light. The
preparation of the gases and the use of the calcium points involve
considerable skill.
Need has long been felt for some form of the magic lantern, having a
strong light, but more easily produced than any of those just mentioned;
and this has at last been accomplished, after several years' study and
experiment, by Prof. L.J. Marcy, 632 Arch St., Philadelphia, Pa.
The "Sciopticon," is the name of his new instrument, and from actual
trial we find that it possesses many superior qualities. Its lenses
are excellent, and in illuminating power its light ranks next to the
oxy-hydrogen. The sciopticon light is produced from ordinary coal oil
by an ingenious arrangement of double flames, intensifying the heat and
resulting in a pencil of strong white light. Prof. Marcy's instrument
is the perfection of convenience, simplicity, and safety. Any one may
successfully work it and produce the most brilliant pictures upon
the screen. It is peculiarly adapted for school purposes and home
entertainment. Those who wish to do a good thing for young people
should provide one of these instruments. Photographic transparencies of
remarkable places, persons, and objects, may now be purchased at small
cost; while there is no end to the variety of pictures which may be
drawn by hand at home upon mica, glass or gelatin, and then reproduced
upon the screen by the sciopticon.
* * * * *
The Largest Well in the World--Capacity 1,000,000 Gallons of Water per
Day.
One of the grand necessities of the Prospect Park, Brooklyn, N.Y., that
of providing for a continual supply of water for all the purposes of
the Park developed itself, as the Commissioners progressed with their
stupendous undertaking. Mr. Stranahan, the President of the Board, after
carefully weighing the cost, the practicability, and importance
of having an independent water supply for the Park, advised the
Commissioners of the plan which had suggested itself, and the
calculations which had been made by the engineers relative to the
project, and the work was commenced, the first idea being to secure at
least a partial supply of water by means of a well constructed in the
Park. The subject was thus treated in the last annual report of Mr. C.C.
Martin, the engineer in charge:
"This well has been located on the south side of Lookout Hill, near the
lake, and work was commenced upon it late in the season. After a careful
consideration of various methods for sinking the well, it was decided to
build the wall and then to excavate the material from within, trusting
to the weight of the wall to force it down. Sixteen feet of the wall
were laid securely bolted together, before the excavation was commenced.
A derrick with a boom fifty-five feet in length was set up near the
wall, so that the sweep of the boom commanded the interior of it.
Iron buckets containing fourteen cubic feet each were obtained, and a
six-horse power hoisting engine purchased. With these appliances the
excavation was commenced, and carried on with slight interruption until
the work was suspended on account of the frost."
The well is now completed, and is one of the most important features of
the Park. It is worthy to rank as a feat of engineering skill with, any
of the great works of modern times. The Commissioners decided to put its
powers to the test yesterday afternoon, but owing to the unpropitious
weather of the forenoon the trial was postponed. Nevertheless,
Commissioners Stranahan, Fiske, and Haynes, with Mr. Martin, engineer in
charge, and Mr. John Y. Culyer, his assistant, were at the well. During
the last summer some difficulties were encountered in the sinking of the
wall, which were set down by superficial observers as the utter failure
of the enterprise. Mr. Stranahan received but little encouragement from
his fellow Commissioners, some of whom had never seen greater works
of engineering than the construction of street sewers. He assumed the
responsibility of seeing the work through, feeling that the whole thing
depended entirely upon the ability of the engineers, in which he had
abundant faith. All obstacles were surmounted; the work proceeded and
the well is now finished, and so far as is known, is understood to be
the largest one in the world.
The outer wall is fifty feet in diameter, two feet thick, and fifty-four
feet high. The inner curb, or wall, is thirty-five feet in diameter and
two feet thick, having a depth of ten feet. The masonry, as seen from
the top of the structure, is a marvel of neatness and solidity. The
water surface in the well is thirteen feet above high-tide level, and
the depth of water in the well is fourteen feet. The pump foundations
are entirely independent of the walls. This plan was adopted so as to
obviate any possible difficulty which might arise from displacement. The
pump is the Worthington patent, and, with a pressure of forty pounds, is
capable of raising one million gallons of water every twenty-four hours
a height of 176 feet, and is competent to a lift of 180 feet.
The boiler house is a neat, pressed-brick structure trimmed with Ohio
stone, standing on the surface near the mouth of the well. The interior
of the well is reached by a spiral stairway built in the wall, and
commencing in the boiler house. In this way the engineer is able to
reach the pump. It is a fact worthy of notice in connection with the
construction of the wall, or rather the sinking of it, that the outer
wall rests upon four feet of wooden cribwork, two feet thick, and having
an iron shield. The inner wall is built upon a similar crib only two
feet deep, also shielded with iron.
The Commissioners were led to the construction of this well in presence
of the danger at any time of some accident taking place in connection
with the Brooklyn Water Works which would render it necessary for the
Water Board to cut off the Park supply so as to secure the citizens from
suffering. This well has more than the necessary capacity to supply the
Park abundantly with water, yielding most when most is needed. This is
established by the discovery that the time of drought from which the
well is, or may be, likely to suffer, occurs in the Fall. Besides these
facts, it further appears that in order to furnish the supply of water
to the Park the Water Board would have to go through the process of
pumping their water twice to convey it to the required elevation, equal
to 225 feet from its original level.
The work of the well will be to supply the pools at an elevation of 133
feet. From the pools the water is conducted to the lake. Besides this,
there is an independent connection with the lake by which, as necessity
may suggest, the water can be directed to the lake, a lift of only
seventy feet. The lake, when completed, will occupy an area of fifty
acres, which will be kept continually supplied with fresh water, the
arrangements being such, or to be such, as will insure a permanent
change of water, and prevent any of the evils that may arise from
stagnancy. The well is fed from the earth, consisting of a circuit of
two miles, with a fall of five feet to the mile. For this reason it does
not appear easy to exhaust the supply, as when the water is pumped out
to four or five feet from the surface of the well it is replaced at a
rate equal to the demand. Every allowance has been made for evaporation
from the lake and pools, and the supply is regarded as inexhaustible.
Another important fact here suggests itself; that is, that sufficient
rain falls during the season in the area of two miles around the well
to make the supply perennial. The Prospect Park well is a credit to
Brooklyn.--_New York Times_.
* * * * *
PAPER FOR BUILDING.
Our readers will find in another column an advertisement of this new
building material which is now attracting much attention in the West,
and of which we have received very favorable reports. It has been
recently tested in Chicago with the result we are informed of fully
establishing its utility. It is said that a house twenty-two feet long,
sixteen wide, and fourteen high, can be covered on the outside for less
than $9; and a house thirty-six feet by twenty-two, and twenty feet
high, for $20. The building can be done at any season, and can be
finished with great speed, and there are said to be numerous other
advantages connected with the use of the paper. It differs from ordinary
paper in consistency, compactness and solidity. In the manufacture it
is subjected to a pressure of hundreds of tuns, which squeezes out the
liquid matter, leaving a substance of the right thickness. It is said to
be proof against damp and gnawing of vermin, and it being an excellent
non-conductor of heat, must make a warm dwelling in winter and a cool
one in summer. It is used in the place of plastering for inside walls.
* * * * *
The Prussian Government has military maps of every foot of its territory
so complete that every hill, ravine, brooklet, field, and forest is
delineated with perfect accuracy. It is a common boast of Prussian
military men, that within the space of eight days 848,000 men can be
concentrated to the defense of any single point within the kingdom, and
every man of them will be a trained and well-equipped soldier.
* * * * *
Improved Muzzle-Pivoting Gun.
We are indebted for the following able description and criticism of this
Prussian gun to our able contemporary, _The Engineer_.
Viewed as a piece of mechanism, nothing can well be more beautiful
in mutual adaptation of parts to the fulfillment of given and
rather recondite movements, and in point of execution, than this
muzzle-pivoting arrangement of Herr Gruson's; but having said this we
are compelled to add, as impartial engineering critics, that it is
nothing more.
[Illustration: GRUSON'S SYSTEM OF MUZZLE-PIVOTING APPLIED TO MONITORS.]
A very few words of description, aided by the very clear engraving
annexed, will suffice to make the arrangement plain to every mechanical
reader. The entire structure is metallic, chiefly of cast iron or of
steel. Upon the platform of the casemate, or deck of the ship, or
turret, is laid the heavy bed or traverse plate, cast hollow in iron,
holding the vertical pivot at its forward end, on which the gun slide
traverses in azimuth, and at its rear end the segment plate, bolted down
and separately adjustable as to position upon the bedplate. The slide is
also a ponderous hollow casting, the upper surfaces of which, on which
the gun carriage runs forward or recoils, are curvilinear in a vertical
plane, so that the inclination to the horizon is greatest at the rear
end. At the rear end of the slide it traverses upon two heavy cast-iron
turned conical rollers, which are geared together and actuated by the
winch handle and spur gear, seen in our engraving; by these the slide
is practically held fast in any position on the bedplate. The gun
itself--in the model, a steel breech-loader, on the Prussian regulation
system, very slightly modified--is sustained between two high and
ponderous cheek plates of cast iron, which constitute the sides of the
carriage, and which are connected together strongly at the lower edges
by a heavy base or bottom plate, and at the top by two light cross
distance bolts. The muzzle and breech extremities of the piece project
well beyond those cheeks. Along the bottom of the trough of the
carriage, directly under the gun, lies a nearly horizontal hydraulic
press cylinder, the pump and handle actuating which are seen in the
figures to the proper left of the gun, and the supply of water for which
is contained in the hollow bottom of the carriage. On each side cheek of
the carriage is formed, by curved planing, a circular segmental race,
opening inward or toward each other, rectangular in cross section and
into each of which is fitted a segmental block just filling it up, and
occupying a portion of its length so as to slide easily up or downward
through the whole range of the arc or segment.
The center point of the length of each of those blocks carries one side
of the gun, which is connected also with the two heavy radius bars
seen outside the cheeks, and pivoted close to the segment races on the
outside, and with a system of link work between the gun itself and the
crosshead of the ram of the hydraulic cylinder, which gives motion
to the gun in elevation or depression, through a vertical arc, the
imaginary center of which, and of the segments of the side cheeks, is
situated in the horizontal diameter across the muzzle of the gun. This
is in brief the muzzle-pivoting part of the arrangement, of which, were
it worth while to go into its details, we should need some further
diagrams to make it quite clear. Nor is it worth while to go into
the description of various minor points of refinement about the gun
mounting, such as the very exposed long tangent scale seen in the
figure, by which the elevation or depression is read off, nor the still
more exposed and rather ricketty arrangement by which the rear sight
is arranged to rise and fall with the gun, and allowance for dispart
avoided. The recoil of the gun is resisted through and by the segment
blocks in the side cheeks, and by the heavy radius bars, etc., and
thus transferred to the carriage itself. This moves upon four
eccentro-concentric rollers, in all respects identical with those
brought before the Ordnance Select Committee of Woolwich by Mr. Mallet,
in 1858--then rejected, after some time adopted, and brought into use in
our own service, where they are now universal, and from which they have
been adopted into every artillery in the world, and, we understand,
without the slightest recognition of the inventor's rights. On the axle
of each of these rollers is keyed a circular eccentric cam plate, those
at the same side being connected together by a linking bar so as to move
in concert. Adjustable tripping plates attached to the sides of the
slide, are so arranged that when the loaded gun has been run forward its
carriage base rests hard down, with its full weight upon the top faces
of the slide, and thus the recoil is made under the full resistance due
to the friction of the entire load. Arrived at the highest point, it
rests there until loaded. The cam plates being then given a slight
motion of rotation by the help of socket levers--the rectangular
projections to be received by which are seen on the top edges of the cam
plates in the figure--the carriage, by its own commenced descent, gets
again upon its rollers, and runs forward upon these at once into firing
position. The two elevated horns which are seen standing up at the rear
part of the slide above the roller frame are designed to receive the
thump of the two short buffer-blocks--seen at the rear part of each
carriage cheek--in the event of the recoil not being wholly expended in
raising the weight of gun and carriage, etc., along the curved racers
of the slide. These buffer-blocks bear against plugs of vulcanized
india-rubber secured in the bottoms of the buffer cylinders.