INVENTIONS DUE TO DREAMS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7293, 4 January 1902, Page 1

INVENTIONS DUE TO DREAMS.

Everyone has now heard of the' "whale • back" type of ships, first used on t&e American lakes some five or six years ago, and since adapted successfully to the transAtlantic carrying trade. .The inventor says the idea came to him while asleep. He dreamt that he was sailing in a small boat across an unknown and tempestuous sea, when he became suddenly aware of the approach of what he at first took to be a marine monster, but which, on closer investigation, proved to be a ship. It was, however, of a kind such as had never been seen by mortal eyes before. It looked very much like, a huge cigar, and the dreamer noted that its deck curved upwards towards the centre, and that there were practically no bulwarks, the result being that the water which broke aboard <lid no damage, but swirled off again almost immediately into the ocean whence it came. No living creature was apparently aboard the strange craft, but the glare from her furnaces could be plainly seen as she drove onwards through the fast-gathering gloom. The sleeper followed her with his eyes as long as he was able, and when she had disappeared he cried out. aloud : " Splendid ! I will build such a ship as that myself some day." In the morning he had forgotten entirely his strange vision of the previous night, but his wife, who had been lying awake by his side, and had overheard his ejaculation, repeated it to him and questioned him concerning its meaning. Then, like a flash, the whole scene came back -to him — the stormy sea, himself adrift in the ope#boat, and the queer-looking craft with the round* ed deck and cigar-shaped prow. Jumping up from the breakfast-table, he flew to his s tudy_he was an engineer's draughtsman by professi on-^and ere evemimg dawned he had the plans drawn up for a ship designed in exact accord with the phantom vessel which had been evolved by a disordered imagination in the dead hours of the night. DREAMT IT RAINED MAD SHOT. Before Watts, the Bristol workman, dreamt the dream which has since become historical, the making of shot was a slow, laborious, and consequently costly, process. Watts himself was a shot-maker, and he knew. He had first to take great bars of lead and pound them out into sheets, of a thickness nearly equal to- the diameter w the shots he desired to make. He then had to cut these sheets into little cubes, place the cubes in a revolving barrel, and roll the barrel round and round until, by the constant friction, the edges wore off from the little cubes, and they became spheroids. Watts had often racked his brain trying to discover seme better and Jess costiy scheme, but in vain. Finally, after spending an evening with some boon companions, a*j/i.n ale house, he went home and to bed. H. soon fell into a profound slumber, biit the stimulants he had imbibed apparently disagreed with him, for his sleep was disturbed by unwelcome dreams. He imagined he was "out again' with the "boys," and that, as they were stumbling homeward in the dark, it began to rain shot. Beautiful globules of lead, polished and shining, fell in a torrent, and compelled him and his

bibulous companions to drag their heavy limbs to a place of shelter. In the morning, when Watts arose, he remembered bis dream. He turned it over in his mind all day, and wondered what shape' molten lead would assume in falling through the air. These thoughts tormented him so persistently that at last, to set his mind at rest, he carried a ladleful of molten lead to the top of the tower of the Chiurch of St Mary, Redcliffe, and dropped it into tlie meat below. Descending, he took from the bottom of a shallow pool several handfuls of the most perfect shot .ho had ever seen. His fortune was made, for he had conceived the idea of the shotlower, which ever since has been the only means employed in. the manufacture of 'the little missiles so important in sport. NIGHTMAKB GAVE TJS THE SEWINGMACHINE NEEDLE. Even more weirdly romantic is the history of the invention of the .sewing-machine — or, rather, to be strictly exact, of the ijeedle which made the machine a working The unhappy inventor had. practically beggared himself before he discovered where the eye of the needle of ja. sewing-machine should be placed. Naturally, in constructing his experimental working models, he followed the plan adopted for the ordinary needle, and drilled the eye in the heel. Never for an instant did it occur to him that it should be placed hear the point, and, although he expended thousands of pounds and years of labour, he would probably have failed altogether in realising his ideal if he had not one evening, after a toilsome and disappointing day in "his workshop, visited a variety theatre. Here he heard a song sung^ very popular in its day, entitled " The King of the Cannibal Islands.". On' returning to his home he was haunted. by the refrain. His unfinished model also troubled him.- Small Wonder, therefore, that on retiring to rest tie dreamt that he was building a sewingmachine" for the King of the . Cannibal Islands. Also he- was perplexed about. the position of the needle's eye, just as in his actual waking experience. Be tried, and tfrie'd'; but the machine would not stw. At length the King got wild, and gave the inventor twenty-four hours in which to complete his work. If the machine were not finished by then, death was to be the penalty. ' He failed, and as a result was ordered out for execution. As he walked between a ; file of soldiers he noticed that they carried spears that were pierced near the points, and instantly, like a flash, came to Kirn the solution of the problem. While he was begging for an extension of time he awoke. It was four o'clock on a bitter cold winter's morningi, but he jumped out of bed, flew to his workshop clad only in his nightshirt, and by nine the first needle that had ever been forged with the eye at the point was lying before him. After that the rest was easy. A LAUNDRESS WHO WILL MAKE £50,000. There is a woman in North London who owes, not fortune alone, but life itself, to a. dream. The story was related to the writer one day recently by a well-knowii patent agent. The latter was sitting in his office, when a poorly- clad woman called and requested an interview. On its being granted she explained that she had a sick husband dependent upon the few shillings weekly she was able to earn by laundry work. She had, she said, frequently noticed "that a certain machine used in collarjrpm'ng ironed each of the articleg in ques- . tjon txceUeatly^ well 'jat^the^jb^ij^ningj'^bjii^ that, owing to~the" sferaiti upon "thT'rollers caused by six or seven collars being passed through at a time, there was a great falling off towards the end. This defect she set. herself to rectify, but all her efforts.- were in vain, until ono night after watching, by the bedside of her sick husband until she was tired out, she^saw, as in a vision, an entirely novel and perfected collar-ironer turning out innumerable collars, each perfect in glaze, colour and smoothness. She noted, too, that no matter whether one or a dozen were passed between the rollers at once, the results were equally satisfactory ;, and after some study of the mechanism — still, of course, in her. dream — she discovered the : reason why. That discovery has been taken up by a syndicate of capitalists, and shortly a new collarirbner is. to be placed upon the market which is expected to revolutionise that particular branch of the steam-laundry business. Meanwhile its originator had been made happy by the payment -of £1000 in a lump sum, with the promise of a substantial royalty on each one of the pew machines. " And," remarked in conclusion the relater of the story, "if I know anything of laundry machinery, she ought to be^ — and probably will be— worth £50,000 in a few yea«rs' time. Yet, such was her poverty, that she was on the point of committing suicide in despair when the news of her good fortune arrived." HOW WE GOT THE BEVOLVER. One of the most remarkable Jittle milseuais on earth is that Which is hidden away in the Rotunda at Woolwich. It is a museum, not of flint arrow -heads or stone clubs, but of guns and pistols, mortars, cannon, carronades, and other similar comparatively modern death-dealing contrivances. One of the most curious exhibits, and one which invariably attracts the notice and rivets the attention, of the casual visitor, is a curious eight-chambered matchlock revolver, dating from somewhere about the year 1586. Concerning this weapon, the attendant has a curious tale to tell. It appears that it was kept originally — prior to the inauguration of the Rotunda museum — in a private room at the Royal Arsenal. Thither came one day a Yankee stranger, who explained that he had dreamt that there existed there a pistol with a revolving breech, and had journeyed all the way from America in order to verify the truth or otherwise of his vision. At that time the collection of old firearms in the possession of the Government was very carelessly kept. They were stored in boxes in an old lumber-room, which was seldom opened. There was no catalogue. And, as a matter of fact, the aged pensioner, who was supposed to look after them, had no idea that any weapon of the kind was among them. The American, however, was permitted to make a thorough search, and eventually it was unearthed, rusty and covered with' dust, from the very bottom of one of the oldest chests. The stranger, who gave his name as Captain Colt, of the United States Army, went away apparently highly gratified, after handsomely rewarding the attendant. A few months later the first "Colt," as the earlier revolvers were called, was placed upon the markets of the world, and within the next year or so were being sold everywhere by thousands.