We did not get any sleep at all last night because our artillery kept firing nonstop. Everything was trembling, and the Germans only gave us a meek response. However, the day is still young and they might send us more artillery. There is nothing to fear because I do not have any chores to complete today.
Thursday, 29 February 2024
Remarkable Picture of World War I
Thursday, 22 February 2024
Mahatma Gandhi's letter to Hitler appealing him to call off the WW2
Hist friends have been urging him to write a letter for the sake of humanity. You will be surprise to see the Mahatma Gandhi's letter to Adlof Hitler appealing him to call of the WW2.
Tuesday, 30 January 2024
Electric Cannon uses no Gunpowder
Silent guns sending their whistling messengers of death into the sky at speeds far beyond those now attained by powder-driven shells seem likely for the next war, using for propulsion magnetic fields so powerful that when they are short-circuited they produce miniature earthquakes. Dr. Kapitza, F. R. S., working at the Cavendish Laboratory of Cambridge University, England, in his attempts to disrupt the atom has produced magnetic fields so powerful that they "explode" the coils that produce them. This man has finally revealed the secret of the magnetic gun so long anticipated by ballistic experts. Dr. Kapitza accomplishes the electric firing of a shell by short-circuiting powerful dynamos for periods of one one-hundredth of a second.
Another English experimenter, Dr. Wall, seeking the same thing, produces ultra-magnetic fields with a more simple apparatus. Dr. Wall simply charges electrostatic condensers and permits them to discharge their powerful currents into specially-made coils immersed in oil baths. Here also magnetic fields so powerful that they tear the coils to pieces have been produced. So great are these magnetic fields that they are capable of pulling iron nails out of shoes. While the magnetic effects produced by both of these experimenters are of very short duration, they could be employed to impart their terrible energy to steel shells. The time limit, which cannot exceed one one-hundredth of a second, is imposed be- cause of the powerful currents used.
If these currents were permitted to flow through wire for a greater period of time, the wire would melt and temperatures greater than those existing in some of the hottest stars would be produced. To produce a magnetic gun-a silent Big- Bertha-it will only be necessary to arrange a series of powerful coils within the gun barrel. Each coil will have its own generator and the shell advancing through the barrel will automatically energize the coil just ahead of it. By the time the shell reaches the end of the barrel it will have attained a speed far in excess of the speeds plosives known. Now attainable with even the highest ex-Owing to the entire absence of internal. pressures these guns may be made of ordinary iron or even purely non-magnetic materials.
The "magnetic explosions' will be initiated by the simple closing of a switch which will energize the first coil and snatch the shell from the breech in the first leg of its journey of destruction. The magnetic gun, pictured on this month's cover, is foreshadowed by achievements of two English experimenters. Powerful currents working through coils around the gun barrel exert a magnetic effect on the steel shell, pulling it through the barrel at tremendous speed. Each coil has its generator, and the shell advancing through the barrel will automatically energize the coil just ahead of it. A rotary switch could be employed to adapt the idea to machine guns.
Monday, 15 January 2024
Octavius: The legendary 18th-century ghost ship
The Octavius was a legendary 18th-century ghost ship. The story goes that it was discovered off the coast of Greenland in 1775.
Initially assumed to be empty upon being sighted, when boarded, a spine-shivering sight awaited. Below the deck, they came across the entire crew, completely frozen.
The captain sat rooted, almost stoically, at the table in front of him with a pen still in hand and his log laid out before him.
Written there was the log’s last entry, dated November 11, 1762, and its last recorded position marked their location about 250 miles north of Alaska’s arctic coast.
The ghost ship had been adrift for thirteen years before its discovery, meandering aimlessly for hundreds of miles. Though it is a great story, there is no proof of whether the ship existed or not.
Monday, 27 November 2023
Pontiac: Ottawa Chief in about 1720
Pontiac was an Ottawa chief, born on the Ottawa River, in Canada, about 1720. While yet a young man he became the principal chief of the allied Ottawas, Ojibways, and Pottawatomies. He was always a firm ally of the French, to whose interests he was devotedly attached, defending them at Detroit against an attack by the Northern tribes, and (it is generally believed) leading the Ottawas in the defeat of Braddock.
He reluctantly acquiesced in the issue of the French and Indian War, although at first strongly disposed to dispute the progress of Major Rogers, the British officer sent to take possession of the western forts. In 1762, he dispatched emissaries to many tribes in order to unite them in an alliance to exterminate the English. His proposals were favorably received, and thus organized what is commonly spoken of as the “Conspiracy of Pontiac.” He himself undertook to lead an assault upon Detroit.
His intention was, however, informed to the garrison and they prepared accordingly. Pontiac thereupon laid siege to the fort but was unable to prevent the ingress of provisions. The Canadian settlers furnished supplies to both the besieged and besiegers with absolute impartiality. Finally, a boatload of ammunition and supplies landed at Detroit from Lake Erie, and the English made an unsuccessful sortie on July 31, 1763.
After a desultory warfare, lasting for nearly three months, the Indians withdrew into Indiana, where Pontiac tried in vain to organize another movement. The Indians did not capture Detroit, but they captured Fort Sandusky, St. Joseph, Miami, Ouiatanon, LeBoeuf, and Venango, along with Mackinaw and Presque Isle. Throughout the country, garrisons were massacred at all of these locations and countless other atrocities occurred.
Additional British troops were sent west, and the Indians were finally brought under control. Pontiac was present at Oswego when a treaty was signed with Sir William Johnson, but remained implacable. His end was tragic. Broken in heart, but still proud in spirit and relentless in purpose, he applied to the former (and last) French Governor of Illinois, the younger St. Ange, who was then at St. Louis, for cooperation and support in another raid against the British.
Being refused aid or countenance, according to a story long popularly received, he returned to the vicinity of Cahokia, where, in 1769, he was murdered by a Kaskaskia Indian in consideration of a barrel of liquor. Col. Joseph N. Bourassa, a Kansas-educated half-breed, is cited as authority for this statement by Matson, author of several volumes pertaining to early history in Illinois. It has been claimed that the Indians killed at Cahokia were imposters and that Kineboo, the Head Chief of Illinois, assassinated the true Pontiac in a council held near Joliet on the Des Plaines River.
So well convinced, it is said, was Pierre Chouteau, the St. Louis Indian trader, of the truth of this last story, that he caused a monument, which he had erected over the grave of the false Pontiac, to be removed. A majority of historians agree that Pontiac's murder, whether it occurred at Cahokia or Joliet, resulted in the extermination of Illinois and the tragedy of the Starved Rock.
Saturday, 11 November 2023
Henry Dangerfield Was kinsman of Gov. Holmes
Tuesday, 7 November 2023
George Hendrick Houghton
George Hendrick Houghton was American Protestant Episcopal clergyman: b. Deerfield, Mass., 1820; d. 1897. He was graduated at New York University in 1842 and at the General Theological Seminary in 1845. He organized and was rector of the church of the Transfiguration in New York city, which bears the sobriquet "The Little Church Around the Corner." The origin of the name is narrated as follows : A certain actor died and was refused burial services by a prominent city pastor. The clergyman referred him to the "little church around the corner" where Dr. Houghton performed the services. Throughout his long pastorate, Dr. Houghton was distinguished for his charitable work.
Sunday, 5 November 2023
When was Grenada Collegiate Institute Established
Grenada Collegiate Institute. This institution is located in the city of Grenada and is a private secondary school for girls, owned by the M. E. Church. It is not endowed and is supported by its own earnings. The college property is valued at about $5,000 and the attendance is in the neighborhood of 100. It was established as Grenada College in 1882.
The history of the college dates back much earlier. It was originally established by the Yalobusha Baptist Association in 1851 at a cost of $30,000, and was known as the "Yalobusha Baptist Female Institute." The Baptists lost control of it after the War of 1861-5 and it passed into private hands, being known for a number of years as the "Emma Mercer Institute." From 1875-1882 it was owned by a joint stock company and called the "Grenada Female College," and was finally purchased by the North Miss. Conference of the Methodist church South in 1882, under whose control it has since remained. It received its present name in 1884, when it was incorporated.