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About The Maupin times. (Maupin, Or.) 1914-1930 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 22, 1918)
NEED SEXTANTS FOR NAVIGATORS United States Swept Bare of In struments Used to Guide i " Ships. OLD CAPTAINS TO RESCUE Out of Closet and Attics Are Dug Sextants That Have Not Been Used ' for Years Navigators' Aid Co ; lumbus Did Not Have. Washington. One of the early ef fects of the war was an acute short age of the instrument most used In navigating ships at sea, the sextant In a few weeks after the United States became a party to the great struggle, the market was swept bare of what might be termed the floating supply of these Important Instruments. jSince then, Importations from Eng land, Canada and France have eased the Amerlcun market somewhat, but there Is still a sufllclent shortage to hold the price far above what it for merly was. In the early months of this coun try'gpartlcipatlon in the wur, when the United States shipping board was establishing the chain of navigation schools at which It Is training offi cers for the new merchant marine, there was such a scarcity of these necessary Instruments which are used dally In the schools to teach methods of determining a ship's posi tion at sea that an appeal was made for the loan of instruments. The result was striking. Out of the closets and attics of former captain's homes, particularly In New England, sextants appeared tliut had not seen the light, in some cases, since the days of the cllpper-shlp era, when the Unit ed States was supreme on the sea. Many of these Instruments had been on long voyages to the mysterious Bast J others had been In the whale fishery to the far North; a few had been carried among the Cannibal Islands of the South Pacific, others among the pirates of the China seas. It had not been thought, when these Instruments were stowed away by careful hands, years ago, that they would ever again serve the merchant marine. Today many of them are be ing used by young men who will qual ify as officers on the new and greater merchant marine, while others, which have been presented to the shipping board, are actually making voyages again, this time among the pirates of the submarine zone. A sextant, unlike a watch or any Instrument with constantly moving parts, Is very slow to wear out. There Is not much difference In the sextant of today and the original sextants pro duced In England when the Instru ment was first perfected by John Badley.'bnek In 1731. First Was an Octant Hadley culled his Instrument at first an octant, because It represented In Its scale of degrees but an eighth part of the circle, that Is, 45 degrees. Later Instruments were termed quadrants, as they represented a quarter of a cir cle, 00 degrees. The sextant, or sixth of a circle, 60 degrees, was found to be most practical, and In time came Into general use. The practical dis tinction between these three Instru ments la slight, however. The first sextunt was not an lnven- tlon, as might be supposed, but an adaptation of ancient Instruments used by astronomers from time Imme morial to determine the sun's eleva tlon, or latitude. The oldest of these ancient Instruments was the astrolabe, a disk of copper or brass, cut to the full circle of 300 degrees. This was fitted with a plumb line, and on Its face a bar pivoted on the center, and having at one end a pin. One man held up the disk by the line, another sighted the sun over the pin in the end of the bur, and another noted where the shadow cast by the pin fell on the scalo of degrees marked on the disk. It thus took three men to mnke an observation, which wns usually faulty, while the use of such an Instrument on a moving ship was almost an Im possibility. Another ancient observing Instru ment wus the cross-stuff. This consist ed of a bar of wood some of them were seven feet long fitted with a sliding upright bar, or cross. The long bar was held toward the sun, and the observer wus posted at ono end. The shorter bur wus then moved buck or forth until tho observer saw the sun over Its upper tip and the horl ion at the same time under Its lower tip. Tho ungle thus determined was murkod on a scale on the long bar. A grave objection to this Instru ment wus that the observer was obliged to look at the sun and the horizon ut the sume time. Columbus used both Instruments on his voyage to the new world, but ap parently neither helped him much in determining the position of his ships, which ho could only guess at until he made u landfall In the West Indies. Hadley Invents Instrument John Hadley conceived the Idea of employing the principle of the cross stun In an Instrument that would en able the observer to see both the sun and the horizon when looking at the latter. This he accomplished by ariuiigluK n series of mirrors In such a way that the observer by the move ment of an arm, or lever, attached to an arc brought the sun down, to touch the horizon. When the observer using the sex tant gets the sun down to the horizon. he fixes the arm on the scale by means of a screw, and proceeds to read the scale, which gives him the sun's alti tude In degrees. When Hadley brought bis sextant out in 1731, It was given a trial by the British authorities, on the yacht Chatham, off Splthead, on a gusty day In August. We read that the weather "was too rough for a satisfac tory test." Rough weather is a fre quent cause for trouble In handling the sextant, as It is difficult to "catch" the sun and bring It down when on 5EA TO MAKE UP SHORTAGE IN FATS as- Even Oleomargarine Is Now Be ing Manufactured in Norway From Fish Oil. TROPICS TO BE DEVELOPED 8ubJugatlon of the Sea Not the Only Important 8tep Being Contem plated Toward More Effective Utilization of Nature. London. The world's supply of oils and fats Is going to be derived in rap Idly Increasing measure hereafter from the seas. This Is the conclusion to which Investigators of this problem, which was one of the first to become acute after the war started, have brought themselves. The problem Indeed was beginning to be a real one before the war start ed. The production of live stock for a long time had not been keeping puce with the world's requirements. Tls has been in considerable part because of the Increasing number of peoples that are requiring more and more meat In their diet, and partly from other causes. The net result is that in the search for new oils and fats, and Indeed for. new uses of fish as a substitute for meat, Important progress has been made. Some recent developments sug gest that the seas are altogether likely In coining generations to take the place of the great ranges of the Americas and Australia for the production of some Important food articles. Butter Substitute From Fish. The announcement recently from Norway that a satisfactory substitute for oleomargarine had been produced from fish oils, while It was regarded as extremely important, is In fuct only one evidence of this Increasing de pendency of the world upon the seas' sources of supply for various neces saries. Now It is asserted that the denizens of the deep waters are pres ently going to be put under contribu tion for a variety of new foods and substitutes for leuther in many uses. The subjugution of the sea is not the only great step that men are con templating toward a more effective utilization of nature's bounty. The tropics are going to be developed, after this war, at a rute never before Ima gined, unless all signs fall. Not only are the governments prepnrlng to give more systematic and scientific encour agement to proper colonial develop ment In the tropical areas but the col onizing spirit has been receiving a great revival. One hears soldiers from every army, Englishmen, Scotchmen, Frenchmen, Itullans and. It Is said, Germnn prisoners, talking of the pos sibilities of South America, Africa, the Pacific Islands, in fact, the whole great undeveloped empires of the world. Price Will Be Higher. In Norway milk and butter supplies are very short, but the Morgenhlutt annouuees that tho problem of a sub stitute for oleomargarine has been solved and Hint the Norwegian oleo margarine could be made' of purely CUBAN SHIPBUILDERS t tVotrin .ScftiiMpor Unking. T The shipyards of Cuba have been scenes of much activity since Cuba entered the war. The construction of wooden ships, so as to release steel ships for war requirements. Is going on without delay. The photograph shows one of the wooden ships under construction. the uncertain platform of a moving deck. The value of Hadley's Instrument was not at once recognized by mari ners, but Its worth has been amply dem onstrated by the fact that no essen tial change has been made in It since It first appeared, nearly two centuries ago. With the sextant perfected, the ap paratus used by a navigator was greatly reduced in bulk. Some of the ancient ships, bound on" long voyages, took along a great variety of appli ances that today would be valuable only as Junk or curios. Now the American officer, ready to ship for service overseas, takes his sextant, the most Important of all nav igating instruments next to the com pass, In a neat mahogany case only nine Inches square by five Inches deep, and needs nothing further, except the ship's chronometer, to enable him to tell where he Is every day on his voy age across the vasty deep. Norwegian materials without the ad mixture of foreign vegetable oils, which experts had declared to be es sential. The discovery Is due to the research es of a committee appointed by Hr. Vlk, the minister of supply. For the present the Vera fat refinery will manufacture the article, and It Is as serted that the factory will be able to meet the requirements of the whole country. The secret is the use of different kinds of fish oil, of which there Is plenty on hand, both of whale and other fish. The price will be slightly higher than the former oleomargarine, because there Is a duty on fish oils higher than that on the vegetable oils previously used. A representative of the Morgenblatt has been given the opportunity of tast ing the new product and asserts that In flavor and appearance It Is equal to the best oleomargarine. It Is expected to be on the market as soon as a sup ply can be manufactured. MISS EMMA FROHMAN ... . : Miss Kiiimu Frohmnn, sister of Dan iel Frohmnn, the famous theatrical manager who went down with the Lu situniu, Is sponsoring the work of making woolen undergarments for sol diers. Through her efforts, a special undergarment has been designed here after a French model, and is being turned out in quantity at the work rooms of the Vacation War Itellef In New York city. Whisky Prices Soar In England. London. Three years ago a bottle of whisky containing about twenty eight ounces could be purchased for 84 cents, but as the government pro hibited the distilling of whisky and the vending of spirits under three years of age, the price has since that time been steadily rising. Where supplies are still available the price has ranged between J'.'.CO nud $3. AID IN WAR WORK v. " - B tit 4 ti Ft tin ill AivJL ?J IS 7 ill L OF Brief Resume Most Important Daily News Items. COMPILED FOR YOU Events of Noted People, Governments and Pacific Northwest and Other Things Worth Knowing. Many persons have been injured and more than 100 houses collapsed by earthquake shocks at Amoy, China, Wednesday. The Prussian budget for 1918 calls for 2,250,000 marks to be devoted to German propaganda in Polish terri tory, according an official dispatch Wednesday from Switzerland. Women who can qualify will be em ployed as ship draftsmen in the Navy department and in the navy-yard serv ice throughout the country, the Civil Service commission announces. The first woman and child in the Eastern states to be interned as enemy aliens were placed in & detention camp at Gloucester, N. Y. They are Mrs. Matilda Hansen and her 12-year-old daughter. Private J. W. Boucher, of the 257th Canadian Railway Battalion, has been sent home from France because he is "too old to fight." He is 78 and fought in the American Civil War with the 23d Michigan Volunteers. Twenty-five thousand Filipinos are under arms and drilling in the hope of being called into the United States Army for service in France, according to C. W. O'Brien, an attorney, who has just returned to San Francisco from Manila. President Willson's intervention has terminated the Eastern shipyard strikes. Reports Monday night to the Shipping Board from union heads in all districts in which carpenters are out said the strikers would be back at work by noon Tuessday. With the Yolande, Castle and Searles mines idle, strikes of coal min ers in the Birmingham district of Ala bama had spread to three new com panies, with approximatey 15,000 min ers idle. The miners claim the Gar field proposals are not being lived up to. Count Emerich Karolyi, according to a dispatch from Budapest to the Am sterdam Frankfurter Zeitung, has sub mitted to the Hungarian military au thorities a charge of alleged high trea son against his cousin, Count Michael Karolyi, president of the Hungarian Independence party. At a private conference of leaders of the Farmers' Nonpartisan League in Sioux Falls, S. D Tuesday, at tended by A. C. Townley, National president of the organization, it was decided not to enter the South Dakota primary race next May, according to reliable information. Arthur Soule, a wealthy rancher of banders county, Mont., who is await ing trial at Thompson Falls for the murder of Ben Soule, his neighbor and nephew, last month, is charged with the murder of his own baby daughter 21 years ago. . The information was filed by the county attorney. Discharge of E. Dana Durand, for mer director of the census, from his position in the economics department of the University of Minnesota was demanded at a meeting of the regents of that institution Wednesday by a delegation of representatives of organ ized labor and the Nonpartisan League, a farmers political organization. The necessity for increased wrwj for railroad employes was concedeed Wednesday by representatives of i majority of the railroads of the Unit ed States, appearing for the first time before the government's railroad wage commission. They said they came, not to oppose requests of the emnloves. but merely to aid the commission by giving information. A big raid was carried out Wednes day by the French southwest of Butte Mesnil. lhe Uerman positions were entered up to the third line and many aetenses and shelters were destroyed. Sir William Goode, who, since the entry of the United States into the war has occupied the important post of liason officer between the British food ministry and the United States food administration, discussed the present food situation in an address Thursday to tne London notary club. Enthusiastic applause and cheers for America met the declaration of the Italian Premier Orlanrln it tho Ing of the parliament Wednesday, that tne war situation was growing better, due to help from the United States placing Russia. The Stockholm Aftonbladet says that alter a massacre which occurred Kervo (Kerava) the Red Guard wi to Helsingfors for surgeons and am- nuiances. r ive surgeons who left mediately, adds the paper, were mur dered by the Ked Guards on their rival. ar- D- HAPPENINGS CURRENT WEEK news : T1VT ntlTL'L' ill iJAXiJi Walter Brobect was arrested Satur day at Medford, for failure to support his four children, ranging from 2 to 11 years old. On failure to supply $500 bail he was given a room in the county jail. The Corvallis fire department was presented with a service flag Wednes day. The flag contains 27 stars, one of them being of gold to represent the death of George Watts, of Company K, who died of pneumonia in France. The county court at Pendleton will be required, under three suits filed against the Spokane Flouring Mills company, to determine the damages suffered by three Umatilla county farmers whose grain last year did not come up to expectations. Edward D. Pierce, the 15-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. Alfred D. Pierce, of Blind Slough, near Astoria, fell off logging train on Larkin-Green road Tuesday evening and was run over and so badly crushed that he died before medical attention reached him. The Humburg Manufacturing com pany, of Mount Angel, has shipped a car of 65,000 tent stakes which they made for the government. They are still working on an order of 120,000 to be delivered later. Up to this time they have shipped 475,000 stakes. Insurance Commissioner Harvey Wells has advised the Ford Car Own ers' Protective association, of Chica go, which is transacting business in Portland and other points of the state, to either comply with the insurance laws of Oregon or cease doing busi ness. Seven hundred Lane county farmers had returned agricultural survey blanks, in connection with the plan of the Federal government to obtain knowledge of food resources, Saturday night, according to a statement made by County Agricultural Agent N. S. Robb. Out of 17 men examined last week by the Umatilla Medical Advisory board, only five were passed for serv ice.' The county examiners, on the other hand, have had a much better record, for, out of 20 examined Wed nesday, only one was referred to the advisory board. O. O. Calderhead, of the Washing ton Public Service commission, has been . designated by the Oregon com mission to represent it at a hearing to be held in Chicago within a few days by an Interstate Commerce commis sion examiner to reopen the question of rates on glass bottles from the east to the Pacific Coast. In the foreclosure of delinquent tax certificates issued to counties, service can be obtained on delinquent taxpay ers by publication alone, Attorney General Brown held Wednesday in an opinion to District Attorney Biggs, of Harney county. But the attorney gen eral emphasizes the point that this opinion applies only to cases in which the counties themselves are bringing the foreclosure suits. A drive haB been started throughout the state to secure information about farm crops and farm labor conditions, according by Labor Commissioner Hoff, Follow-up letters have been sent to all of the granges, farmers unions and others interested through out the state, to get this informtion in shape and forward it at the earliest possible moment so that it will be ready for compilation within the next two weeks if possible. The labor com missioner hopes by this census to have a complete and accurate estimate of all crops in the state upon which to" base an estimate of the amount of farm la bor needed to handle the crops for the 1918 season. Information which has been received in Salem is to the effect that the great Horst Brothers hop ranch near Inde pendence, said to be one of the largest in the world, will be converted largely into a vegetable ranch and that the dryers will be used for evaporation of vegetables. It is stated that 400 acres of the ranch are to be leased for vege table growing. W. S. Brown. Oregon Agricultural college extension specialist, will open a pruning school in Dallas next Wed nesday morning. This school is to illustrate the pruning of the Italian prune tree in the formative period in tne young orchard and also the pruning lor fruit in a bearing orchard. Rem venating of old orchards also will be given some attention Fire which annarentlv started frnm an overheated forge Thursday night damaged tools and machinery in the welding and machine shop belonging to n. K. Kiley, of Bend. The build ing was saved. ' Miss Eunice Ramsdell shipped on Monday's outgoing train the last two of the four boxes of ready-to-wear clothing contributed by citizens of Cove and vicinity for immediate relief of destitute Belgium children and women. The Beaver Cement company, of Gold Hill, has announced that it is ready to make delivery of four carloads of lime to farmers in Corvallis. The price is $4.55 per ton in bulk and $7.55 in sacks, with a rebate of 121 cents for return of sacks. Miss Evelyn Hanks, of Perdue, a small settlement in Douglas county, has the distinction of being the largest individual buyer of war savings stamps, having purchased $500 worth. A campaign is on among the school children of Roseburg for the war cause and many are investing. STATE TO Battle Line Forming in Ukraine Territory for Onslaught WAR AGAIN CERTAIN Berlin Fears Prisoners Held by Slavs May Be Killed One-Day Strike Called Monday in Poland. Amsterdam German forces are al ready being concentrated in Ukraine to attack the Bolsheviki, aecording to a Berlin dispatch to the Tidd, and dec larations looking to the active prose cution of the war against the Boslshe- viki in North Russia also will be made at Berlin this week. The German authorities are anxious regarding the fate of German prison ers in North Russia, whom the Bol sheviki are holding as hostages and who, Berlin dispatches say, may be killed if the Bolsheviki are driven to desperation. Germany has already served notice on the Boslsheviki au thorities that she will enforce repris als if the German prisoners are harmed. Count Cernin, the Austro-Hungarian foreign minister, has notified Berlin that Austrian troops must not be used against Russia to support any 'policy which Austria has not approved, but only for purposes of self-defense against marauding bands. Amsterdam The Bolsheviki are making wholesale arrests of Germans in Russia and holding them as hos tages, according to a Riga dispatch re ceived by way of Berlin. Three hun dred Germans and many pro-German Esthonians at Dorpat have been ar rested and transferred to Kronstadt. All the food in the Dorpat district has been confiscated and it is almost im possible to feed the German women and children. The lives of those arrested, as well as Germans and German supporters who have not yet been arrested, are hourly in great danger, adds the dis patch, as the Bolsheviki threaten wholesale butchery. The Bolsheviki have officially declared the Baltic no bility outlaws. The Lokal Anzeiger of Berlin says there is great excitement at Warsaw, Cracow and Lemberg as a result of the Ukraine treaty. .The Warsaw news- -papers are appearing in black borders. Soldiers, mounted and on foot, are patrolling the streets to prevent dem onstrations. The director of affairs, Count Rostvorovski, has resigned. At Cracow the papers appeal to Pol ish parties to declare on one-day gen eral strike. A general strike was called at Lemberg for Monday, when work was suspended in all' the Polish factories, shops and government offices and the schools will be closed. HUNS BOMB U. S. HOSPITAL Relief Station is Shelled Without Suc cessNo Fatalities Occur. With the American Army in France An American field hospital in a town within our lines apparently was the target for a German airplane which ' flew over it Sunday night and dropped several unusually heavy bombs. The hospital, in which were a num ber of sick and wounded officers and men, was the building nearest the places where the German airman dropped two different sets of bombs. Fortunately none of the missiles reached their mark, although the hos pital patients and the residents of the town were severely shaken by the ex plosions. American anti-aircraft guns engaged the enemy, but without suc cess. The hospital probably will be moved to a less dangerous spot. Price of Rice to Drop. Washington, D. C. Reduction in the price of rice is in prospect for April 1, the food administration an nounced Sunday. Distribution figures show that there is a surplus, after de ducting the million bags purchased for export to Europe, of 160,000,000 pounds. This is ample for domestic requirements. The increase in the cost of rice dur ing the last few months, the adminis tration explains, has been due to the fact that most rice mills are working to capacity in supplying the allies. Belgian Courts Defiant Washington, D. C Belgian courts and lawyers have defied the Germans in Flanders, an official dispatch re ceived here Sunday said. The trouble began with the instituting of proceed ings in the court of appeals against the members of the council of Flanders, composed of Flemish supporters of the Teutons. The Germans ordered the court of appeals to cease its sessions, and in protest all other courts ad journed and lawyers refused to appear. Glass Found in Candies. Chattanooga, Tenn. Twenty enlist ed men of the 52nd infantry at Camp forest are confined to the base hospital as the result of eating candy contain ing particles of ground glass. At ths camp it was said that the condition of some of the men is serious. GERMANS 1 STRIKE BOLSHEVIK!