Newspaper Page Text
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Electric Welding in Essen.
(Prepared by the National Geographic So
ciety, Washington. D. C.)
Once more the Jluhr valley, Ger
many’s beehive of Industry, has come
to the fore in world interest, with the
suggestion that France may seize this
region to force the payment of repara
tions.
Merely as a river, this Ruhr, barely
1150 miles long, is not Important. Down
the Rhine, below where Caesar bridged
It at Andernach, below where Yankee
doughboys now wash their shirts in
Its green flood and British Tommies
play at soccer above the hones of bish
ops, the small crooked stream flows in
from the east. But it flows through
and lends its name to a tiny region
not equaled anywhere for intensity of
Industry and potential political impor
tance.
Viewed in the light of events since
the war, it seems safe to predict that
the course of life in Europe for the
next generation- may depend on what
Is happening now along this short,
crooked, but busy stream.
The Ruhr, as this famous region Is
commonly called, is not a political sub
division of Germany; it is merely an
industrial district, smaller in area than
Rhode Island, hut crowded with mines
and factories from end to end and
settled, in spots, with 1,800 people to
the square mile. • .
Tiny as it is, a mere speck on the
map, it produces in normal times over
]00,000,000 tons of coal a year; it
mines much of the iron ore its many
mills consume, and the steel wares of
Sol Ingen have been famous since the
Middle nges.
Front Essen there is trundled out,
month after month, n parade of fin
ished engines, cars, and farm imple
ments, to say nothing of tools, shaft
ing, ship-frames, bridge steel, and
plates, that compete in the markets
of the world from Java to Jerusalem.
One German writer, with character
istic racial precision, figures out that
the volume of raw and finished prod
ucts handled in the Ruhr every work
ing day would load a trnin of cars
80 miles long!
What the Ruhr Is Like.
To grasp quickly just what the Ruhr
would look like if painted in on n
map, take your pencil and draw a
horseshoe-shaped figure, starting north
enst from Duisburg, on the Rhine ; then
curve east and southeast, so that Dort
mund stands at the toe of the shoe;
thence south at Hagen, southwest to
Barmen, and thence straight on to
strike the Rhine again at a point north
of Cologne.
Then think of the Pennsylvania coni
fields pm kcd into this tiny area ; pour
In the combined populations of Phil
adelphia, Baltimore, Cleveland and St.
Louis. Then take a flock of the big
gest American steel mills and railroad
shops you cnn think of and set them
down along the Ruhr. Fill In the re
maining smaller gnps with paper, silk
and cotton mills, glass factories, tan
neries, dye, chemical and salt works.
Now put every man, woman and child
from the cities named hard at work
digging coal, firing boilers, running
lnthes or rolling steel rails, and you
will get a graphic, accurate mental
picture of what this ronrlng, rushing
Ruhr really Is.
Plunging suddenly into this teeming
Industrial field on the train ride from
Cologne to Berlin, and passing through
Dusseldorf, where 130 trains a day
puff in and out, you are amazed at the
solid procession of busy towns, at the
almost endless forest of chimneys, and
the pall of somber smoke that hangs
over the flat, unattractive couutry.
In this small but highly mineralized
region, where men have dug coal for
GOO years, over 400 concerns now op
erate mines or hold concessions for
their exploitation. And the Ruhr in
dustrial region is even larger than
the mining area, for it overflow's to the
southwest and includes the famous
factory towns of Barmen, ElberfelQ
and Sol ingen.
Essen’s Sudden Rise.
“Boom” towns of mushroom growth
are not peculiar to America, as the
startling rise of Essen proves. Though
founded away back in the Ninth cen
tury, it slumbered along for hundreds
of years, an obscure, unimportant ham
let. Even ns late as 1850 it had hard
ly more than 10,(MM) people. Then the
Krupp boom—the rise of the greatest
machine shop the world has ever seen
—struck it, and today the city houses
half a million.
Set in the heart of the coal fields,
crowded with endless industrial plants
whose tall chimneys belch eternal
smoke and fumes, the great workshop
fairly throbs with power and energy.
The roar and rattle.of ceaseless wheels
and the din of giant hammers pound
ing on metal. seem to keep the whole
town atremble.
Here every form of iron and steel
article is made, from boys’ skates to
giant marine engine shafts. Curious
ly enough, even some of the smoke,
or the fumes from the smokestacks,
is caught and converted into a gas
that furnishes more power to run the
mills!
More than a hundred years ago the
first Krupp set up his small, crude
shop and began to make by hand the
tools, the drills and chisels, used by
tanners, blacksmiths and carpenters
along the Ruhr and the Rhine. He al
so made dies for use in the mint of
the* government. Within 30 years, due
to the. old ambition for expansion,
Krupp tools were known and used as
far away as Greece and India.
Then came the great era of mass
production in steam engines, hammers,
steel tires for railway cars, cast-steel
shafts for river and ocean steamers,
and finally that astonishing output of
guns and armor plate which brought
the militaristic nations of the world
to buy at Essen.
Everybody Is a Worker.
Tills Ruhr Is pre-eminently the habi
tat of labor. Everybody works, and
nearly everybody works with bis hands.
An army of chemists, engineers and
technical men is employed, of course;
but they form merely a small element
of the grimy, dusty, sweaty popula
tion that keeps the coal moving, tlie
furnaces roaring, and the big lathes
turning.
The population, variously etiniated
at from three and one-half to four mil
lions, is not easy to determine, be
cause thousands come and go as the
tide of trade rises and falls; and no
where is the world-wide house short
age more keenly felt than in this
densely populated area. About many
of the mines the government has set
up temporary barracks where thou
sands of miners uro housed.
In the more picturesque and less
crowded spots of the Ruhr the over
lords of Industry have reared their
villas and spacious homes; but a dis
tinctive leisure class, an idle rich, like
tlie groups conspicuous in Charlotten
berg, Dresden or Wiesbaden, is not
found. Hundreds are here who have
retired, but they are the aged ami
pensioned workmen, dozing comfort
ably in the clean, cozy colonies bull
i for them In cities like Essen.
THE OANIELSVILLE MONITOR, DANIELSVILL~Ey GEORGIA.
The United States Post Office Department recently abandoned the use of radio-telegraphy in sending out market
and crop reports, using the radio-telephone exclusively for this purpose. Farmers are thus enabled to receive the
reports in the absence of knowledge of the dots and dashes common to radio-telegraphy. The department’s radio
phone outfit is here shown.
Claims Credit
for Army Tank
British Captain Says Great War
Weapon Was Invented by
Him in 1914.
GOT ORDERS FROM KITCHENER
Credit for Invention Has Been Claimed
in Many Quarters, Notably by Win
ston Churchill —Question in
Parliament.
London. —One of tlie few really new
weapons which the late war developed
was the tank. Credit for this Inven
tion has been claimed in many quar
ters —notably for *'Winston Churchill,
now colonial secretary, who was said
to have submitted It io Mr. Asquith on
January 5. 1915.
Now tlie Morning Post has come
forth With a claim for Lord Kitchener
and a .Captain Bentley, under whose
joint auspices, the newspaper asserts,
tl)e first tank was produced. The con
troversy , laps come to light again
through tlie inability of Captain Bent
ley to obtain from the tanks award
committee of tlie war office any award
or compensation for his work.
The real story of the genesis of the
tank, according to the Morning Post,
Is this:
On October 18, 1914, Captain Bent
ley had just returned to England from
abroad to offer himself for war serv
ice. The next day he received a tele
phone call from Colonel Fitzgerald,
military secretary to Lord Kitchener,
directing him to report at the war of
fice in Whitehall. When he arrived
there he was taken to Lord Kitchener,
under whom he had served in South
Africa and to whom he was well
known.
Real Story of Tank.
Kitchener, the story runs, greeted
him ns follows:
“Downstairs, la the quadrangle,
there’s an armored car Woolwich has
made for me. It’s the result of the
united brains of the army and navy
experts. We want it for this trench
fighting which they’ve begun In
France. Go down, have a look at it
and tell me what you think about It.”
Captain Bentley and Colonel Fitz
gerald inspected the car for about five
minutes and then returned.
THIS VETERAN HAS TWIN BRAINS
Shell Shock and Accident Make
Unusual Case.
Ex-Service Man Writes With Both
Hands Easily, but Left Fingers
Make Letters Backward and
Upside Down.
Denver, Colo. —Thought to have two
brains, one of which Is almost a blank,
and the other directing him to do
strange things, Hayward Thompson of
Kansas City, Mo., a World war veteran,
is being treated in a hospital here,
where he wandered under the alias of
Thomas A. Anderson, fully convinced
that it was his right name.
Operations and hypnotism are being
.esorted to to return Thompson’s nieru
>ry. lost during the World war when
ie was shell shocked. The effect of
he shell shock and a motorcycle acci
ent a few mouths before are thought
Crop and Market Reports, by Radiophone Only
“Well?” Kitchener asked.
“It’s no good for your purpose,” Cap
tain Bentley said. “You can’t take it
off a road.”
“Exactly.” said Lord Kitchener.
“My own opinion, "ow. can you de
sign me one of the right type? It’s
urgent. Let me have it tomorrow."
Captain Bentley, it might ~be men
tioned, was one of the pioneers of mo
tor transport. He had driven automo
biles in sandy wastes, and had devoted
considerable time to tlie attempt to
develop types of motor vehicles suit
able to rough and virgin country. He
went home to work out the idea of the
caterpillar tractor as it would be ap
plied to an armored ear.
On the evening of October 22, Cap
tain Bentley went o Lord Kitchener’s
house in Carlton Gardens. At the end
of three hours the two men, according
to Captain Bentley, had agreed upon
tlie basic principles of the tank.
AMERICAS ARE JOINED BY RADIO
Five Stations to Bridge 2,000
Miles Between Continents.
Two Big Companies Place Orders for
Equipment Planned to Form New
Air Lines of Communication
in Central America.
New York. —Linking the Americas by
five broadcasting radio stations, two
of which will he erected in the United
States and three in Central America,
each with a radius of 2,000 miles, Is be
ing contemplated by two big western
companies, tlie United Fruit company
and the Tropical Radio Telegraph com
pany. Orders for tlie stations have
been placed, says an announcement
from the Radio Corporation of Amer
ica.
The terminals in the United States
of the proposed system will be at New
Orleans, La., where the present station
of the Tropical Radio Telegraph com
pany is to be enlarged, and at Miami,
Fla., where anew station will be con
structed by the company.
Tlie three stations in the southern
part of the group will be located at the
corners of a triangle embracing Hon
duras, Nicaragua and at Tegucigalpa,
to have separated Thompson’s brain In
to two Individual parts.
Thompson is able to write with both
hands at the same time. Writing pro
duced with his light hand is well
formed, but that of his left hand is up
side down and backward. A mirror has
to be used to read it.
Thompson is also able to draw car
toons with some technical ability, al
though before his Injury he was un
able to draw an Intelligent picture,
friends say.
Thompson's memory is a blank for
the days that preceded the World war.
During the time he was in the service
his wife divorced him and his mother
died, army officials have discovered.
Thompson remembers neither his wife
nor his mother.
The veteran’s skull has been wired
together, physicians say, and this leads
to the theory that the brain is probably
in two distinct parts. The wiring Is
probably the result of injuries suffered
a the motorcycle accident
The case of twin brains is similar to
At the close of the interview, Cap
tain Bentley mentioned that he pro
posed to go at once to the patent of
fice and register his design.
“Wait,” Lord Kitchener said. “Are
you satisfied to leave this in my hands?
I’ll look after you.”
Finds Kitchener Is Dead.
Captain Bentley agreed. The next
week, however, he left for service in
Russia. Upon his return to England,
lie was almost immediately recommis
sioned and sent to German East Africa
with the mechanical transport service.
Here he was wounded, finally return
ing to England In 1917.
Until this time he did not know that
the invention, which by then was
known as tlie “tank,” had ever been
utilized. What lie did know, however,
was that Lord Kitchener had been
drowned in June, 1918, and could not
give his version of the tank’s origin.
Desirous of knowing the official
view of the matter, Captain Bentley
had a question asked in parliament.
The answer gave the credit for the in
vention of the tank to Winston
Churchill, January 5, 1915, a date
which, if Captain Bentley’s claims he
verified, was about two and a half
months after the Kitchener interview.
the capital or Honduras. These stations
will connect with the station of the
United Fruit company at Almirante,
Panama.
Communication between these fire
stations and ship-to-shore communica
tions with them will open up entirely
new routes of intercourse between the
Americas, one of which will be the
opening of a 2,000-mile radio from
Colombia, South America, and the
United States.
The area embraced by tlie five sta
tions covers 54,000 square miles, >'kh
a network of smaller stations joining
the five main offices at the larger gaps.
In the case of the Tegucigalpa sta
tion, the delicate radio apparatus and
heavy steel girders to build the station
must be transported over an SO-nue
mountain trail. This station wil
completed by November 1, 19—> t
planned.
Flood Wipes Out Jap Village.
Kanazawa, Japan.—With the exceP
tion of two men who happened to
gathering firewood on the m ° unt ®
side, the 100 inhabitants of the lift e
village of Ushirotani were drownea
when tlie place was wiped out b.
flood August 4. Hardly a Stic
mained of the village.
twin children, physicians say, who
one body until a short time before •
are born. One of Thompsons
is normal, although a blank cone*
recent years, but the other la
normal mind, which now directs
tions.
Deeds Young Daughter.
Greenville, S. C.—W.
widower with six children, ... s
Inez, his pretty six-year-old da
to his brother, J. H. Gdlaru,
able consideration.’ „h'id's
The specified tht the
uncle is “to have and to bold -
me and any and all person, -
any interest, right or P rh ; !. The
me and in and to the said Inez ,
deed was filed in the <*'***&
ister, with half a doie " l*
ferring real estate. 1 . u .
poor, while his brother t, e r
Inez Is to Inherit equally
uncle's children.
A village snrrojnded “ tia
is all that remains of the
town of Ardea, Italy.