Marvels of Modern Science Part 6

If higher speed is demanded, increased size is essential, since with even the best result every 100 horse-power added involves an addition to machinery weight of approximately 14 tons and to the area occupied of about 40 square feet. To accomplish this the ship must be as much larger in proportion.

The ship designer has to work within circ.u.mscribed limits. If he could make his vessel of any depth he might build much larger and there would be theoretically no limit to his speed: 40 knots an hour might be obtained as easily as the present maximum of 26, but in designing his ship he must remember that in the harbors of New York or Liverpool the channels are not much beyond 30 feet in depth. High speed necessitates powerful engines, but if the engines be too large there will not be s.p.a.ce enough for coal to feed the furnaces. If the breadth of the ship is increased the speed is diminished, while on the other hand, if too powerful engines are put in a narrow vessel she will break her back.

The proper proportions must be carefully studied as regards length, breadth, depth and weight so that the vessel will derive the greatest speed from her engines.

CHAPTER VII

WONDERFUL CREATIONS IN PLANT LIFE

Mating Plants--Experiments of Burbank--What he has Accomplished.

In California lives a wonderful man. He has succeeded in doing more than making two blades of gra.s.s grow where grew but one. Yearly, daily in fact, this wizard of plant life is playing tricks on old Mother Nature, transforming her vegetable children into different shapes and making them no longer recognizable in their original forms. Like the fairies in Irish mythology, this man steals away the plant babies, but instead of leaving sickly elves in their places, he brings into the world exceedingly healthy or l.u.s.ty youngsters which grow up into a full maturity, and develop traits of character superior to the ones they supplant. For instance he took away the ugly, th.o.r.n.y insipid cactus and replaced it by a beautiful smooth juicy one which is now making the western deserts blossom as the rose. The name of this man is Luther Burbank whose fame as a creator of new plants has become world wide.

The basic principle of Burbank's plant magic comes under two heads, viz.: breeding and selection. He mates two different species in such a way that they will propagate a type partaking of the natures of both but superior to either in their qualities. In order to effect the best results from mating, he is choice in his selection of species--the best is taken and the worst rejected. It is a universal law that the bad can never produce the good; consequently when good is desired, as is universally the case, bad must be eliminated. In his method, Burbank gives the good a chance to a.s.sert itself and at the same time takes away all opportunity from the bad. So that the latter cannot thrive but must decay and pa.s.s out of being. He takes two plants--they may be of the same species, but as a general rule he prefers to experiment with those of different species; he perceives that neither one in its present surroundings is putting forth what is naturally expected from it, that each is either retrograding in the scale of life or standing still for lack of encouragement to go forward. He knows that back of these plants is a long history of evolutions from primitive beginnings to their present stage just as in the case of man himself. 'Tis a far cry from the cliff-dweller wielding his stone-axe and roaming nude through the fields and forests after his prey--the wild beast--to the lordly creature of to-day--the product of long ages of civilization and culture, yet high as the state is to which man has been brought, in many cases he is hemmed in and surrounded by circ.u.mstances which preclude him from putting forth the best that is in him and showing his full possibilities to the world. The philosopher is often hidden in the ploughman and many a poor laborer toiling in corduroys and fustian at the docks, in the mills, or sweeping the streets may have as good a brain as Edison, but has not the opportunity to develop it and show its capabilities. The same a.n.a.logy is applicable to plant life. Under adverse conditions a plant or vegetable cannot put forth its best efforts. In a scrawny, impoverished soil, and exhausted atmosphere, lacking the const.i.tuents of nurture, the plant will become dwarfed and unproductive, whereas on good ground and in good air, which have the succulent properties to nourish it the best results may be expected. The soil and the air, therefore, from which are derived the const.i.tuents of plant life, are indispensably necessary, but they are not the primal principles upon which that life depends for its being.

The basis, the foundation, the origin of the life is the seed which germinates in the soil and evolves itself into the plant.

A dead seed will not germinate, a contaminated seed may, but the plant it produces will not be a healthy one and it will only be after a long series of transplantings, with patience and care, that at length a really sound plant will be obtained. The same principle holds good in regard to the human plant. It is hard to offset an evil ancestry. The contamination goes on from generation to generation, just as in the case of the notorious Juke family which cost New York State hundreds of thousands of dollars in consequence of criminality and idiocy. It requires almost a miracle to divert an individual sprung from a corrupt stem into a healthy, moral course of living. There must be some powerful force brought to bear to make him break the ligatures which bind him to ancestral nature and enable him to come forth on a plane where he will be susceptible to the influence of what is good and n.o.ble. Such can be done and has been accomplished.

Burbank is accomplishing such miracles in the vegetable kingdom, in fact he is recreating species as it were and developing them to a full fruition. Of course as in the case of the conversion of a sinner from his evil instincts, much opposition is met and the progress at first is slow, but finally the plant becomes fixed in its new ways and starts forward on its new course in life. It requires patience to await the development Burbank is a man of infinite patience. He has been five, ten, fifteen, twenty years in producing a desired blossom, but he considers himself well rewarded when his object has been obtained.

Thousands of experiments are going on at the same time, but in each case years are required to achieve results, so slow is the work of selection, the rejecting of the seemingly worthless and the eternal choosing of the best specimens to continue the experiments.

When two plants are united to produce a third, no human intelligence can predict just what will be the result of the union. There may be no result at all; hence it is that Burbank does not depend on one experiment at a time. If he did the labors of a life-time would have little to show for their work. In breeding lilies he has used as high as five hundred thousand plants in a single test. Such an immense quant.i.ty gave him a great variety of selection. He culled and rejected, and culled and rejected until he made his final selection for the last test.

Sometimes he is very much disappointed in his antic.i.p.ations. For instance, he marks out a certain life for a flower and breeds and selects to that end. For a time all may go according to his plans, but suddenly some new trait develops which knocks those plans all out of gear. The new flower may have a longer stem and narrower leaves than either parent, while a shorter stem and broader leaves are the desideratum. The experimenter is disappointed, but not disheartened; he casts the flower aside and makes another selection from the same species and again goes ahead, until his object is attained.

It may be asked how two plants are united to procure a third. The act is based on the procreative law of nature. Plant-breeding is simply accomplished by sifting the pollen of one plant upon the stigma of another, this act--pollenation--resulting in fertilization, Nature in her own mysterious ways bringing forth the new plant.

In order to get an idea of the Burbank method, let us consider some of his most famous experiments, for instance, that in which by uniting the potato with the tomato he has produced a new variety which has been very aptly named the pomato. Mr. Burbank, from the beginning of his wonderful career, has experimented much with the potato. It was this vegetable which first brought the plant wizard into worldwide prominence. The Burbank potato is known in all lands where the tuber forms an article of food. It has been introduced into Ireland and promises to be the salvation of that distressed island of which the potato const.i.tutes the staple diet. The Burbank potato is the hardiest of all varieties and in this respect is well suited for the colder climates of the Temperate Zone. Apart from this potato which bears his name, Mr. Burbank has produced many other varieties. He has blended wild varieties with tame ones, getting very satisfactory results. Mr.

Burbank believes that a little wild blood, so to speak, is often necessary to give tone and vigor to the tame element which has been long running in the same channels. Probably it was Emerson, his favorite author, who gave him the cue for this idea. Emerson pointed out that the city is recruited from the country. "The city would have died out, rotted and exploded long ago," wrote the New England sage, "but that it was reinforced from the fields. It is only country that came to town day before yesterday, that is city and court to-day."

In Burbank's greenhouses are mated all kinds of wild and tame varieties of potatoes, producing crosses and combinations truly wonderful as regards shape, size, and color. One of the most palatable potatoes he has produced is a magenta color approaching crimson, so distributed throughout that when the tuber is cut, no matter from what angle, it presents concentric geometric figures, some having a resemblance to human and animal faces.

Before entering on any experiment to produce a new creation, Burbank always takes into consideration the practical end of the experiment, that is, what the value of the result will be as a practical factor in commerce, how much it will benefit the race. He does not experiment for a pastime or a novelty, but for a purpose. His object in regard to the potato is to make it a richer, better vegetable for a food supply and also to make it more important for other purposes in the commerce of the nations.

The average potato consists of seventy-five per cent. water and twenty-five per cent. dry matter, almost all of which is starch. Now starch is a very important article from a manufacturing standpoint, but only one-fourth of the potato is available for manufacturing, the other three-fourths, being water, is practically waste matter. Now if the water could be driven out to a great extent and starchy matter increased it is easy to understand that the potato would be much increased in value as an article of manufacture. Burbank has not overlooked this fact in his potato experiments. He has demonstrated that it is as easy to breed potatoes for a larger amount of starch, and he has really developed tubers which contain at least twenty-five per cent. more starch than the normal varieties; in other words, he has produced potatoes which yield fifty per cent. of starch instead of twenty-five per cent. The United States uses about $12,000,000 worth of starch every year, chiefly obtained from Indian corn and potatoes. When the potato is made to yield double the amount of starch, as Burbank has proved it can yield and more, it will be understood what a large part it can be made to play in this important manufacture.

Also for the production of alcohol the potato is gaining a prominent place. The potato starch is converted into maltose by the diastase of malt, the maltose being easily acted upon by ferment for the actual production of the alcohol. Therefore an increase in the starch of the potato for this purpose alone is much to be desired.

Of course the chief prominence of the potato will still consist in its adaptability as an article of food. Burbank does not overlook this.

He has produced and is producing potatoes with better flavor, of larger and uniform size and which give a much greater yield to the area.

Palatability in the end decides the permanence of a food, and the Burbank productions possess this quality in a high degree.

Burbank labored long and studied every characteristic of the potato before attempting any experiments with the tomato. Though closely related by family ties, the potato and the tomato seemed to have no affinity for each other whatever. In many other instances it has also been found that two varieties which from a certain relation might naturally be expected to amalgamate easily have been repellant to each other and refused to unite.

In his first experiment in trying to cross the potato and tomato, Burbank produced tomatoes from the seeds of plants pollenated from potato pollen only. He next produced what he called "aerial potatoes"

of very peculiar twisted shapes from a potato vine grafted on a Ponderosa or large tomato plant. Then reversing this operation he grafted the same kind of tomato plant upon the same kind of potato plant and produced underground a strange-looking potato with marked tomato characteristics. He saw he was on the right road to the production of a new variety of vegetable, but before experimenting further along this line he crossed two distinct species of tomatoes and obtained a most ornamental plant, different from the parent stems, about twelve inches high and fifteen inches across with large unusual leaves and producing cl.u.s.ters of uniform globular fruit, the whole giving a most pleasing and unique appearance. The fruit were more palatable than the ordinary tomatoes, had better nutritive qualities and were more suitable for preserving and canning.

Very pleased with this result he went back to his experiments with the potato-tomato, and succeeded in producing the most wonderful and unique fruit in the world, one which by a happy combination of the two names, he has aptly called the pomato. It may be considered as the evolution of a potato seed-ball. It first appears as a tiny green ball on the potato top and as the season progresses it gradually enlarges and finally develops into a fruit about the size and shape of the ordinary tomato. The flesh is white and the marrow, which contains but a few tiny white seeds, is exceedingly pleasant to the taste, possessing a combination of several different fruit flavors, though it cannot be identified with any one. It may be eaten either raw or cooked after the manner of the common tomato. In either case it is most palatable, but especially so when cooked. It is exceptionally well adapted to preserving purposes.

The production of such a fruit from a vegetable is one of the crowning triumphs of the California wizard. Probably it is the most novel of all the wonderful crosses and combinations he has given to the world.

It would be impossible here to go into detail in regard to some of the other wonders accomplished in the plant world by this modern magician.

There is only s.p.a.ce to merely mention a few more of his successful achievements. He has given the improved thornless and spiculess cactus, food for man and beast, converting it into a beautifier and reclaimer of desert wastes; the plum-cot which is an amalgamation of the plum and the apricot with a flavor superior to both; many kinds of plums, some without pits, others having the taste of Bartlett pears, and still others giving out a fragrance as sweet as the rose; several varieties of walnuts, one with a sh.e.l.l as thin as paper and which was so easily broken by the birds that Burbank had to reverse his experiment somewhat in order to get a thicker sh.e.l.l; another walnut has no tannin in the meat, which is the cause of the disagreeable flavor of the ordinary fruit; the world-famed Shasta daisy, which is a combination of the j.a.panese daisy, the English daisy and the common field daisy, and which has a blossom seven inches in diameter; a dahlia deprived of its unpleasant odor and the scent of the magnolia blossom subst.i.tuted; a gladiolus which blooms around the entire stem like a hyacinth instead of the old way on one side only; many kinds of lilies with chalices and petals different from the ordinary, and exhaling perfumes as varied as those of Oriental gardens; a poppy of such dimension that it is from ten to twelve inches across its brilliant bloom; an amaryllis bred up from a couple of inches to over a foot in diameter; several kinds of fruit trees which withstand frost in bud and in flower; a chestnut tree which bears nuts in eighteen months from the time of seed-planting; a white blackberry (paradoxical as it may appear), a rare and beautiful fruit and as palatable as it is beautiful; the primusberry, a union of the raspberry and the blackberry; another wonderful and delicious berry produced from the California dewberry and the Cuthbert-raspberry; pieplants four feet in diameter, bearing every day in the year; prunes, three, four, and five times as large as the ordinary and enriched in flavor; blackberries without their p.r.i.c.kly thorns and hundreds of other combinations and crosses of fruits and flowers too numerous to mention. He has improved plums, pears, apples, apricots, quinces, peaches, cherries, grapes, in short, all kinds of fruit which grow in our lat.i.tude and many even that have been introduced. He has developed hundreds of varieties of flowers, improving them in color, hardiness and yield. Thus he has not only added to the food and manufacturing products of the world, but he has enriched the aesthetic side in his beautiful flower creations.

CHAPTER VIII

LATEST DISCOVERIES IN ARCHAEOLOGY

Prehistoric Time--Earliest Records--Discoveries in Bible Lands-- American Explorations.

For the earliest civilization and culture we must go to that part of the world, which according to the general belief, is the cradle of the human race. The civilization of the Mesopotamian plain is not only the oldest but the first where man settled in great city communities, under an orderly government, with a developed religion, practicing agriculture, erecting dwellings and using a syllabified writing. All modern civilization had its source there. For 6,000 years the cuneiform or wedge-shaped writing of the a.s.syrians was the literary script of the whole civilized ancient world, from the sh.o.r.es of the Mediterranean to India and even to China, for Chinese civilization, old as it is, is based upon that which obtained in Mesopotamia. In Egypt, too, at an early date was a high form of neolithic civilization. Six thousand years before Christ, a white-skinned, blond-haired, blue-eyed race dwelt there, built towns, carried on commerce, made woven linen cloth, tanned leather, formed beautiful pottery without the wheel, cut stone with the lathe and designed ornaments from ivory and metals. These were succeeded by another great race which probably migrated into Egypt from Arabia. Among them were warriors and administrators, fine mechanics, artisans, artists and sculptors. They left us the Pyramids and other magnificent monumental tombs and great ma.s.ses of architecture and sculptured columns. Of course, they declined and pa.s.sed away, as all things human must; but they left behind them evidences to tell of their prestige and power.

The scientists and geologists of our day are busy unearthing the remains of the ancient peoples of the Eastern world, who started the waves of civilization both to the Orient and the Occident. Vast stores of knowledge are being acc.u.mulated and almost every day sees some ancient treasure trove brought to light. Especially in Biblical lands is the explorer busy unearthing the relics of the mighty past and throwing a flood of light upon incidents and scenes long covered by the dust of centuries.

Babylon, the mightiest city of ancient times, celebrated in the Bible and in the earliest human records as the greatest centre of sensual splendor and sinful luxury the world has ever seen, is at last being explored in the most thorough manner by the German Oriental Society, of which the Kaiser is patron. Babylon rose to its greatest glory under Nebuchadnezzar, the most famous monarch of the Babylonian Empire. At that period it was the great centre of arts, learning and science, astronomy and astrology being patronized by the Babylonian kings. The city finally came to a terrible end under Belshazzar, as related in the Bible. The palace of the impious king has been uncovered and its great piles of masonry laid bare. The great hall, where the young prophet Daniel read the handwriting on the wall, can now be seen. The palace stood on elevated ground and was of majestic dimensions. A winding chariot road led up to it. The lower part was of stone and the upper of burned bricks. All around on the outside ran artistic sculptures of men hunting animals. The doors were ma.s.sive and of bronze and swung inward, between colossal figures of winged bulls. From the hall a stairway led to the throne room of the King, which was decorated with gold and precious stones and finished in many colors. The hall in which the infamous banquet was held was 140 feet by 40 feet. For a ceiling it was spanned by the cedars of Lebanon which exhaled a sweet perfume. At night a myriad lights lent brilliancy to the scene. There were over 200 rooms all gorgeously furnished, most of them devoted to the inmates of the king's harem. The ruins as seen to-day impress the visitor and excite wonder and admiration.

The Germans have also uncovered the great gate of Ishtar at Babylon, which Nebuchadnezzar erected in honor of the G.o.ddess of love and war, the most renowned of all the mythical deities of the Babylonian Pantheon. It is a double gateway with interior chambers, flanked by ma.s.sive towers and was erected at the end of the Sacred Road at the northeast corner of the palace. Its most unique feature consists in the scheme of decoration on its walls, which are covered with row upon row of bulls and dragons represented in the brilliant enamelled bricks.

Some of these creatures are flat and others raised in relief. Those in relief are being taken apart to be sent to Berlin, where they will be again put together for exhibition.

The friezes on this gate of Ishtar are among the finest examples of enamelled brickwork that have been uncovered and take their place beside "the Lion Frieze" from Sargon's palace at Khorsabad and the still more famous "Frieze of Arches of King Darius" in the Paris Louvre.

The German party have already established the claim of Herodotus as to the thickness of the walls of the city. Herodotus estimated them at two hundred royal cubits (348 feet) high and fifty royal cubits (86-1/2 feet) thick. At places they have been found even thicker. So wide were they that on the top a four-horse chariot could easily turn.

The hanging gardens of Babylon, said to have been built to please Amytis the consort of Nebuchadnezzar, were cla.s.sed as among the Seven Wonders of the World. Terraces were constructed 450 feet square, of huge stones which cost millions in that stoneless country. These were supported by countless columns, the tallest of which were 160 feet high. On top of the stones were layers of brick, cemented and covered with pitch, over which was poured a layer of lead to make all absolutely water-tight. Finally, on the top of this, earth was spread to such a depth that the largest trees had room for their roots. The trees were planted in rows forming squares and between them were flower gardens.

In fact, these gardens const.i.tuted an Eden in the air, which has never since been duplicated.

New discoveries have been recently made concerning the Tower of Babel, the construction of which, as described in the Book of Genesis, is one of the most remarkable occurrences of the first stage of the world's history. It has been found that the tower was square and not round, as represented by all Bible ill.u.s.trators, including Dore. The ruins cover a s.p.a.ce of about 50,000 square feet and are about ten miles from the site of Babylon.

The ruins of the celebrated synagogue of Capernaum, believed to be the very one in which the Saviour preached, have been unearthed and many other Biblical sites around the ancient city have been identified.

Capernaum was the home of Jesus during nearly the whole of his Galilean ministry and the scene of many of his most wonderful miracles. The site of Capernaum is now known as Tell Hum. There are ruins scattered about over a radius of a mile. The excavating which revealed the ruins of the synagogue was done under supervision of a German archaeologist named Kohl. This synagogue was composed of white limestone blocks brought from a distance and in this respect different from the others which were built of the local black volcanic rock. The carvings unearthed in the ruins are very beautiful and most of them in high relief work, representing trailing vines, stately palms, cl.u.s.ters of dates, roses and acanthus. Various animal designs are also shown and one of the famous seven-branched candlesticks which accompanied the Ark of the Covenant.

Most of the incidents at Capernaum mentioned in the Bible were connected with the synagogue, the ruins of which have just been uncovered. The centurion who came to plead with Jesus about the servant was the man who built the synagogue (Luke VII:1-10). In the synagogue, Jesus healed the man with the unclean spirit (Mark I:21-27). In this synagogue, the man with the withered hand received health on the Sabbath Day (Matthew XII:10-13). Jairus, whose daughter was raised from the dead, was a ruler of the synagogue (Luke VIII:3) and it was in this same synagogue of Capernaum that Jesus preached the discourse on the bread of life (John VI:26-59). The hill near Capernaum where Jesus fed the mult.i.tude with five loaves and two fishes is also identified.

The stoning of St. Stephen and the conversion of St. Paul are two great events of the New Testament which lend additional interest to the explorations now being carried on at the ancient City of Damascus.

Damascus lays claim to being the most ancient city in the world and its appearance sustains the claim. Unlike Jerusalem and many other ancient cities, it has never been completely destroyed by a conqueror.

The a.s.syrian monarch, Tiglath Pileser, swept down on it, 2,700 years ago, but he did not succeed in wiping it out. Other cities came into being long after Damascus, they flourished, faded and pa.s.sed away; but Damascus still remains much the same as in the early time. Among the famous places which have been identified in this ancient city is the house of Ananias the priest and the place in the wall where Paul was let down by a basket is pointed out. The scene of the conversion of St. Paul is shown and also the "Street called Straight" referred to in Acts IX:II.

Jerusalem, birthplace and cradle of Christianity, offers a vast and interesting field to the archaeologist. One of the most remarkable of recent discoveries relates to the building known as David's castle.

Major Conder, a British engineer in charge of the Palestine survey, has proved that this building is actually a part of the palace of King Herod who ordered the Ma.s.sacre of the Innocents in order to encompa.s.s the destruction of the Infant Saviour.

The tomb of Hiram is another relic discovered at the village of Hunaneh on the road from Safed to Tyre; it recalls the days of David. Hiram was King of Tyre in the time of David. The tomb is a limestone structure of extraordinary ma.s.siveness Unfortunately the Mosque of Omar stands on the site of Solomon's Temple and there is no hope of digging there.