The Harris-Ingram Experiment Part 18

"Do you think this possible?" inquired Colonel Harris.

"Oh, yes, quite possible," answered Bessemer, "our necessities beget our inventions and discoveries. Thorough investigation in the near future on this and kindred lines must be fruitful of astonishing results in the interests of a higher civilization." The colonel and George took their leave. Truly the fire-fly, like the whirling hot nail, is suggestive of great possibilities, thought George.

That evening it was planned to visit on the morrow the extensive telegraphic works of Siemens Brothers & Co., Limited. George retired to sleep, but his mind was never more active. On warm summer evenings he had often held in his hand glow-worms and studied them as they emitted bright phosph.o.r.escent light. He had learned that this faculty was confined to the female which has no wings, and that the light is supposed to serve as a beacon to attract and guide the male. The light proceeds from the abdomen, and its intensity seems to vary at will. He had also read of a winged, luminous insect of South America, which emits very brilliant light from various parts of its body.

When George reflected that under even the most favorable conditions there was realized in mechanical work of the energy stored in coal only 10%, he was convinced that the extravagant waste of 90% of energy was in itself sufficient argument against the present method as being the best possible. Ever since his graduation, he had believed that the greatest of all technical problems was the production of cheaper power. That it was the great desideratum in cities in the production of food, and in food transportation from farms to trunk lines, on railways and on the ocean.

While in America he had discussed the matter of cheaper power with Edison, Thompson, Tesla, and others.

George and his father, James Ingram, experimenting with chemical energy, had already discovered a galvanic element which enabled them to furnish electrical energy direct from coal and the oxygen of the air, but this important discovery was kept a secret. The chief object of George Ingram's visit abroad was to follow the footsteps of other great scientists and manufacturers to the edge or frontier of their discoveries and practical workings.

It was two o'clock that night before George could close his eyes, but promptly at 6:30 o'clock next morning he was ready for his bath and shave, and later he and the colonel ate the usual European breakfast of eggs, rolls, and coffee. The eight o'clock train was taken for the great works of Siemens Brothers & Co., Limited, which are located at Woolwich, down the Thames.

This firm, the pioneers of ship lighting by electricity, has already fitted out hundreds of vessels with electric lights. They also manufacture submarine and land telegraphs in vast quant.i.ties, having aided largely in enclosing the globe in a network of cables. All the Siemens brothers have shown much ability. Charles William was born at Lenthe, Hanover, in 1823, and has received high scientific honors. The world recognizes the valuable services that Dr. Siemens has rendered to the iron and steel trade by his important investigations and inventions.

Dr. Siemens, like Mr. Bessemer, labored to make iron and steel direct from the ores. By the invention of his regenerative gas furnace, which makes the high grade and uniform steel so desirable in the construction of ships, boilers, and all kinds of machines, Dr. Siemens has rendered signal service. This visit at Siemens Brothers & Co.'s works was of great interest, and many valuable ideas were gained.

Several days were next spent in Birmingham, and at the centers of steel making in northwest England. Birmingham is called the "Toy Shop of the World" for there almost everything is manufactured from a cambric needle to a cannon.

Colonel Harris and George Ingram studied the workings of the English "Sat.u.r.day half-holiday," which employees earn by working an extra half-hour on the five previous days. A visit was made to the Tangye Bros.

Engine Works at Soho, near Birmingham, which absorbed the engine works of Boulton and Watt. It was Boulton who said to Lord Palmerston visiting Soho, "Sir, we have here for sale what subjects of his Majesty most seek, viz., Power."

The Tangyes employ thousands of men, manufacturing engines and other products. Steam engines of all sizes, in enormous quant.i.ties are stored, ready at a moment's notice to be shipped broadcast. It was the invention of the powerful Tangye jack-screw that finally enabled the famous engineer Brunel to launch his "Great Eastern" steamship which he had built on the Thames, and which had settled on her keel.

Today the Tangye Brothers are fond of saying, "We launched the 'Great Eastern,' and the 'Great Eastern' launched us." One of the Tangye Brothers took the two Americans through James Watt's old home, and into his famous garret, where Watt invented the parallel motion and other parts of the steam engine. So important were Watt's engine inventions that he alone should have the honor of inventing the modern engine which has so elevated the race.

George was greatly interested in what the Tangye Brothers were doing for their employees. Instructive lectures by capable men were given weekly to their workmen, while they ate their dinners. Medical aid was furnished free, and in many ways practical a.s.sistance was rendered their working force.

After a most interesting journey among the steel firms, including Bocklow & Vaughn of Middleborough, John Brown at Sheffield, and others, Reuben Harris and George crossed over into busy Belgium, and thence they journeyed via historic Cologne to Westphalia, Germany. Here are some of the most productive coal measures on the earth, which extend eastward from the Rhine for over thirty miles, and here one wonders at the dense network of railways and manufacturing establishments, unparalleled in Germany.

At Essen are the far-famed Krupp Works, one of the greatest manufacturing firms on the globe. These works are the outgrowth of a small old forge, driven by water power, and established in 1810 by Frederick Krupp. His short life was a hard struggle, but he discovered the secret of making cast-steel, and died in 1828. Before his death, however, he revealed his valuable secret to his son Alfred, then only 14 years of age. After many years of severe application, Alfred Krupp's first great triumph came in 1851 at the London World's Fair, where he received the highest medal. At the Paris Exposition of 1855, as well as at Munich the year before, he also won gold medals.

Abundant orders now flowed in for his breech-loading, cast-steel cannons.

In severe tests which followed, the famous Woolwich guns were driven from the field. The Krupp guns won great victories over the French cannon at Sedan, which was an artillery duel. At Gravelotte and Metz the Krupp guns surpa.s.sed all others in range, accuracy, and penetrating power, and Herr Alfred Krupp became the "Cannon King" of Europe. Americans remember well his gigantic steel breech-loading guns at the expositions held in Philadelphia, and Chicago.

Alfred Krupp, however, delighted more in improving the condition of his army of employees. He provided for them miles of roomy, healthful homes.

He formed a commissariat, where his employees could secure at cost price all the necessaries of life. He also established schools where the children of his employees could receive education if desired in technical, industrial, commercial, and mechanical pursuits, and in special and cla.s.sical courses as well. He devised a "Sick and Pension Fund," for disabled workmen, which scheme Emperor William II. has made a law of the German Empire. He likewise created life insurance companies, and widow and orphan funds. The golden rule has been Alfred Krupp's guiding star. He was always kind and considerate, and never dictatorial.

When asked to accept a t.i.tle, he answered, "No, I want no t.i.tle further than the name of Krupp." Alfred Krupp died July 14, 1887, in the 75th year of his age. His request was that his funeral should take place, not from his palatial mansion, but in the little cottage within the works, where he was born, which is to-day an object of great reverence to the 25,000 workmen who earn their daily bread in the vast Krupp foundries.

Alfred Krupp lived to see Essen, his native village, grow from a population of 4,000 to a busy city of 70,000, where annually hundreds of engines and steam hammers produce thousands of tons of steel castings and forgings. Alfred Krupp built his own monument in the vast mills and benevolences of Essen, a monument more useful and enduring than marble or bronze. His son Frederick Alfred Krupp, his successor, married the beautiful Baroness Margarette von Ende. Colonel Harris and George visited other great works in Europe, and finally started to rejoin their friends in Paris.

CHAPTER XVII

THE HARRIS PARTY VISITS PARIS

The distance is two hours from London to Dover. Half-way is Gad's Hill, famous as the residence of the late Charles d.i.c.kens. Further on is Canterbury, which is celebrated as the stronghold of Kentishmen and the first English Christian city. Its prime attraction of course is its fine cathedral, which in 1170 was the scene of Becket's murder.

Dover on the English Channel lies in a deep valley surrounded by high chalk hills. On one of these, which is strongly fortified, may be seen evidences of Norman, Saxon, and Roman works.

Every morning and evening the royal mail steamers leave Dover for Calais.

The channel ride of twenty-one miles was made by the Harrises without the dreaded _mal de mer_. In the railway restaurant at Calais, Lucille volunteered to order for the party, but she soon learned, much to the amus.e.m.e.nt of her friends, that the French learned in Boston is not successful at first in France.

The express to Paris is through Boulogne, an important sea town of fifty-thousand inhabitants, which combines much English comfort with French taste. From there hundreds of fishing boats extend their voyages every season to the Scotch coast and even to far-off Iceland.

The scenery in the fertile valley of the Somme is beautiful. The route lies through Amiens, a large city of textile industries, thence across the Arve; the Harrises reached the station of the Northern Railway, in the Place Roubaix, in northern Paris as the sun faded in the west.

Carriages were taken for the Grand Hotel, Boulevard des Capucines, near the new opera house, which is centrally located, and offers to travelers every comfort. The carriages enter a court, made inviting by fountains, flowers, and electric light.

The first day or evening in Paris is bewildering. Early in the morning the Harrises drove along the inner and the outer boulevards that encircle Paris. Many miles of fine boulevards were built under Napoleon III. Most from the Madeleine to the July Column are flanked with ma.s.sive limestone buildings, palatial mansions, and glittering shops, the architecture of which is often uniform, and balconies are frequently built with each story. Early every morning the asphalt and other pavements are washed.

At midday a busy throng crowds all the main streets.

Parisians favor residence in flats, and they enjoy immensely their outdoor methods of living. At sundown the wide walks in front of brilliant cafes are crowded with well dressed men and women, who seek rest and refreshment in sipping coffee, wine, or absynthe, scanning the papers for bits of social or political news, and discussing the latest fad or sensation of the day. The English hurry but the French rarely.

Paris under electric light is indeed a fairyland. The boulevards are brilliant and the scenes most animating. Everybody is courteous, and all seen bent on a pleasurable time. Cafes, shops, and places of entertainment are very inviting, and you easily forget to note the pa.s.sage of time. Midnight even overtakes you before you are aware of the lateness of the hour. This is true, if you chance to visit, as did the Harris party, some characteristic phases of Parisian life.

Near the east end of the Champs-Elysees, under the gas light and beneath the trees, they found open-air theaters, concerts, crowded cafes, and pretty booths supplied with sweets and drinks. Every afternoon if the weather is favorable, tastefully dressed children appear in charge of nursemaids in white caps and ap.r.o.ns, and together they make picturesque groups in the shade of elm and lime trees.

At breakfast, Leo proposed a study of Paris, as seen from the Arc de Triomphe de l'Etoile, so named from the star formed by a dozen avenues which radiate from it. The location is at the west end of the Avenue des Champs-Elysees. This monument is one of the finest ever built by any nation for its defenders. It is 160 feet in height, 145 in width, was begun in 1806 by Napoleon and completed thirty years afterwards by Louis Philippe. Figures and reliefs on the arch represent important events in Napoleon's campaigns. Arriving at the arch, Leo led the way up a spiral staircase, 261 steps to the platform above which commands fine views of Paris.

The Champs-Elysees, a boulevard one thousand feet in width, extends east over a mile from the monument of the Place de la Concord. Handsome buildings flank the sides, and much of the open s.p.a.ce is shaded with elm and lime trees. Grand statues, fountains, and flowers add their charm.

Between three and five o'clock every pleasant afternoon this magnificent avenue becomes the most fashionable promenade in the world. Here you will behold the elite in attendance at Vanity Fair; many are riding in elegant equipages, many on horseback, and almost countless numbers on foot.

The popular drive is out the Avenue du Bois de Boulogne, 320 feet in width, to the Bois de Boulogne, a beautiful park of 2250 acres, containing several lakes and fringed on the west side by the River Seine. In the southwest part of this park is located the Hippodrome de Longchamp, which is the princ.i.p.al race-course near Paris, where races attract vast crowds, especially when the French Derby or the Grand Prix of twenty thousand dollars is competed for early in June.

The Harrises standing on the monument, looked eastward, and Leo pointed out the River Seine shooting beneath more than a score of beautiful stone and iron bridges, and making a bold curve of seven miles through Paris.

Then the Seine flows like a ribbon of silver in a northwesterly direction into the English Channel. On the right bank is seen the Palais du Trocadero of oriental style, which was used for the International Exposition of 1878. On the left bank stands the Palais du Luxembourg, rich in modern French art, the Hotel des Invalides, where rests Napoleon, and the Church of St. Genevieve, or the Pantheon, where Victor Hugo is buried.

Beyond the Place de la Concord are the Royal Gardens of the Tuileries, where Josephine and Eugenie walked among cla.s.sic statues, vases, fountains and flowers; the Louvre filled with priceless art treasures, the beautiful Hotel de Ville or city-hall, majestic Notre Dame, and the graceful Column of July. Paris is truly an earthly Paradise. For centuries it has been the residence of French rulers, and the mecca of her pleasure loving citizens. Fire, famine, foreign invasion, civil war, and pestilence have often swept over this, the fairest of cities, yet from each affliction, Phoenix-like, Paris has risen brighter and gayer than ever.

Gertrude, May, and Lucille were charmed with the fair vision before them, and were anxious to leave the Arch of Triumph and become a part of the gay city. The carriages drove back to the Place de la Concord, one of the finest open places in Europe. Around this place the chief cities of France are represented by eight large stone figures. That of Strasburg the French keep in mourning. In the center stands the Obelisk of Luxor, of reddish granite, which was brought at great expense from Egypt and tells of Rameses II. and his successor. Other ornaments are twenty rostral columns, bearing twin burners. On grand occasions this place and the avenue are illuminated by thirty thousand gas lights.

In the Place de la Concord the guillotine did its terrible work in the months between January 21st, 1793, and May 3rd, 1795, when thousands of Royalists and Republicans perished. Two enormous fountains adorned with Tritons, Nereids, and Dolphins beautify the court. No wonder the brilliant writer Chateaubriand objected to the erection here of these fountains, observing that all the water in the world could not remove the blood stains which sullied the spot.

How beautiful the vista up the broad and short Rue Royale, which conducts to the cla.s.sic Madeleine! Alfonso was entranced with the beauty of this rare temple, which was begun and finally dedicated as a church, though Napoleon earnestly hoped to complete it as a temple of glory for his old soldiers. Its cost was nearly three million dollars. A colonnade of fifty-two huge fluted Corinthian columns and above them a rich frieze surround the church. The approach is by a score and more of stone steps and through enormous bronze doors on which the Ten Commandments are ill.u.s.trated.

Entering the Madeleine, one sees an interior richly adorned, floors of marble, and lofty columns supporting a three-domed roof, through which light enters. On either side are six confessionals of oak and gilt, where prince and peasant alike confess their sins. Beyond is the altar of spotless marble. How beautiful the group of white figures, which represents Madeleine forgiven, and borne above on angels' wings! This artistic group cost thirty thousand dollars.

On Sunday morning Leo and his friends came to the Madeleine which is the metropolitan church of Paris. Here every Sunday exquisite music is rendered, and here come the elite to worship and to add liberal gifts. It is a broad policy that no Catholic Church on the globe, not even splendid St. Peter's of Rome, is considered too good for rich and poor of all nationalities to occupy together for the worship of the Master.

All the Parisian churches are crowded on Sunday mornings, but Sunday afternoons are used as holidays, and all kinds of vehicles and trains are burdened with well dressed people in pursuit of pleasure.

Traveling by omnibus and tramway in Paris is made as convenient to the public as possible; n.o.body is permitted to ride without a seat, and there are frequent waiting stations under cover. This is as it should be.

Nearly a hundred lines of omnibuses and tramways in Paris intersect each other in every direction. Inside the fares are six cents, outside three cents. A single fare allows of a transfer from one line to another.