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Scientific American, Volume XXXVI., No. 8, February 24, 1877 by Various, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . Business and Personal here Business and Personal The Charge for Insertion under this head is One Dollar a line for each insertion. If the Notice exceeds four lines, One Dollar and a Half per line will be charged. Manufs. of Scissors address J.W.D.E., Harmony Grove, Ga. For Sale—36 in. Lathe, $4.00; 72 in. Lathe, $4.50; 10 in. Pratt Whiting Shaper, $2.75; 35 H.P. Loco. Boiler, $300; 12 in. Lathe, $65; at Shearman's, 132 N. 3d St., Phila. Iron Tubing—Wanted, a yearly supply of 1-4 in. light Iron Tubing. Address P.O. box 1250, New York city. Baxter's Adjustable Wrenches—The best for Farmers, Householders and Mechanics. Greene, Tweed & Co., 18 Park Place, N.Y. For Sale—Baldwin No. 4 Foot Lathe and fittings; in perfect order. Address P.O. Box 196, Clinton, Mich. National Steam Pump—Simple, durable, economical. Reduced price. National Iron Works, N. Brunswick, N.J. Manufs. and dealers in Cotton Gins, Grist Mills, and Rice Hullers and Polishers, address with terms, Y.L. Ridley, Liberty, Texas. For Sale—Patent Combination Fruit Press, Filter and Funnel. An indispensable article in every household. For circulars, address G.A. Newsam, 118 3d Pl. Brooklyn. Mill Stone Dressing Diamonds. Simple, effective, and durable. J. Dickinson, 64 Nassau St., N.Y. Will purchase or introduce, on a reasonable royalty, some good, useful article. Address, with description and full particulars, A.E. Lowison, Boston, Mass. Mechanical inventors familiar with Envelope Manufacturing. L.J. Henry, 615 Kearny st., San Francisco, Cal. Set of Mechanical Curves, as illustrated in Sci. Am. Supplement, No. 50, mailed on receipt of $5.25, by Keuffel & Esser, New York. Hyatt & Co.'s Varnishes and Japans, as to price, color, purity, and durability, are cheap by comparison than any others extant. 246 Grand st., N.Y. Factory, Newark, N.J. Send for circular and descriptive price list. Lightning Screw Plates. A perfect thread at one cut adjustable for wear. Frasse & Co., 62 Chatham St., N.Y. Wire Needle Pointer, W. Crabb, Newark, N.J. Power & Foot Presses, Ferracute Co., Bridgeton, N.J. Superior Lace Leather, all sizes, cheap. Hooks and Couplings for flat and round Belts. Send for catalogue. C.W. Arny, 148 North 3d St., Philadelphia, Pa. F.C. Beach & Co., makers of the Tom Thumb Telegraph and other electrical machines, have removed to 530 Water St., N.Y. For Best Presses, Dies, and Fruit Can Tools, Bliss & Williams, cor. of Plymouth and Jay Sts., Brooklyn, N.Y. Water, Gas, and Steam Pipe, Wrought Iron. Send for prices. Bailey, Farrell & Co., Pittsburgh, Pa. Walrus Leather and supplies for polishing Iron, Steel, and Brass. Greene, Tweed & Co., 18 Park Place, N.Y. Hydraulic Presses and Jacks, new and second hand. Lathes and Machinery for Polishing and Buffing metals. E. Lyon, 470 Grand St., N.Y. Solid Emery Vulcanite Wheels—The Solid Original Emery Wheel—other kinds imitations and inferior. Caution.—Our name is stamped in full on all our best Standard Belting, Packing, and Hose. Buy that only. The best is the cheapest. New York Belting and Packing Company, 37 and 38 Park Row, New York. Steel Castings from one lb. to five thousand lbs. Invaluable for strength and durability. Circulars free. Pittsburgh Steel Casting Co., Pittsburgh, Pa. M. Shaw, Manufacturer of Insulated Wire for galvanic and telegraph purposes, &c., 259 W. 27th St., N.Y. Shingle, Heading, and Stave Machine. See advertisement of Trevor & Co., Lockport, N.Y. For Solid Wrought iron Beams, etc., see advertisement. Address Union Iron Mills, Pittsburgh, Pa., for lithograph, etc. Articles in Light Metal Work, Fine Castings in Brass, Malleable Iron, &c., Japanning, Tinning, Galvanizing. Welles Specialty Works, Chicago, Ill. See Boult's Paneling, Moulding, and Dovetailing Machine at Centennial, B. 8-55. Send for pamphlet and sample of work. B.C. Mach'y Co., Battle Creek, Mich. Wanted—Novel and practical invention, by a reliable house, for manufacturing. Address Post Office, Box 25, Chillicothe, Ohio. Chester Steel Castings Co. make castings twice as strong as malleable iron castings, at about the same price. See their advertisement on page 125. Hand Fire Engines, Lift and Force Pumps for fire and all other purposes. Address Rumsey & Co., Seneca Falls, N.Y., U.S.A. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Various (2006). Scientific American, Volume XXXVI., No. 8, February 24, 1877. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/19406/pg19406-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at , located at www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

Business and Personal

THE CORPORATION

MR. SQUERCUM IS EMPLOYED

ON THE CARE OF HEALTH.

THE LAST CHRONICLE OF BARSET LEAVING THE POST OFFICE—ST. PAUL'S MAGAZINE.

Five Weeks in a Balloon by Jules Verne, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . Chapter XXXIII here CHAPTER THIRTY-SECOND. The Capital of Bornou.—The Islands of the Biddiomahs.—The Condors.—The Doctor’s Anxieties.—His Precautions.—An Attack in Mid-air.—The Balloon Covering torn.—The Fall.—Sublime Self-Sacrifice.—The Northern Coast of the Lake. Since its arrival at Lake Tchad, the balloon had struck a current that edged it farther to the westward. A few clouds tempered the heat of the day, and, besides, a little air could be felt over this vast expanse of water; but about one o’clock, the , having slanted across this part of the lake, again advanced over the land for a space of seven or eight miles. Victoria The doctor, who was somewhat vexed at first at this turn of his course, no longer thought of complaining when he caught sight of the city of Kouka, the capital of Bornou. He saw it for a moment, encircled by its walls of white clay, and a few rudely-constructed mosques rising clumsily above that conglomeration of houses that look like playing-dice, which form most Arab towns. In the court-yards of the private dwellings, and on the public squares, grew palms and caoutchouc-trees topped with a dome of foliage more than one hundred feet in breadth. Joe called attention to the fact that these immense parasols were in proper accordance with the intense heat of the sun, and made thereon some pious reflections which it were needless to repeat. Kouka really consists of two distinct towns, separated by the “Dendal,” a large boulevard three hundred yards wide, at that hour crowded with horsemen and foot passengers. On one side, the rich quarter stands squarely with its airy and lofty houses, laid out in regular order; on the other, is huddled together the poor quarter, a miserable collection of low hovels of a conical shape, in which a poverty-stricken multitude vegetate rather than live, since Kouka is neither a trading nor a commercial city. Kennedy thought it looked something like Edinburgh, were that city extended on a plain, with its two distinct boroughs. But our travellers had scarcely the time to catch even this glimpse of it, for, with the fickleness that characterizes the air-currents of this region, a contrary wind suddenly swept them some forty miles over the surface of Lake Tchad. Then then were regaled with a new spectacle. They could count the numerous islets of the lake, inhabited by the Biddiomahs, a race of bloodthirsty and formidable pirates, who are as greatly feared when neighbors as are the Touaregs of Sahara. These estimable people were in readiness to receive the bravely with stones and arrows, but the balloon quickly passed their islands, fluttering over them, from one to the other with butterfly motion, like a gigantic beetle. Victoria At this moment, Joe, who was scanning the horizon, said to Kennedy: “There, sir, as you are always thinking of good sport, yonder is just the thing for you!” “What is it, Joe?” “This time, the doctor will not disapprove of your shooting.” “But what is it?” “Don’t you see that flock of big birds making for us?” “Birds?” exclaimed the doctor, snatching his spyglass. “I see them,” replied Kennedy; “there are at least a dozen of them.” “Fourteen, exactly!” said Joe. “Heaven grant that they may be of a kind sufficiently noxious for the doctor to let me peg away at them!” “I should not object, but I would much rather see those birds at a distance from us!” “Why, are you afraid of those fowls?” “They are condors, and of the largest size. Should they attack us—” “Well, if they do, we’ll defend ourselves. We have a whole arsenal at our disposal. I don’t think those birds are so very formidable.” “Who can tell?” was the doctor’s only remark. Ten minutes later, the flock had come within gunshot, and were making the air ring with their hoarse cries. They came right toward the , more irritated than frightened by her presence. Victoria “How they scream! What a noise!” said Joe. “Perhaps they don’t like to see anybody poaching in their country up in the air, or daring to fly like themselves!” “Well, now, to tell the truth, when I take a good look at them, they are an ugly, ferocious set, and I should think them dangerous enough if they were armed with Purdy-Moore rifles,” admitted Kennedy. “They have no need of such weapons,” said Ferguson, looking very grave. The condors flew around them in wide circles, their flight growing gradually closer and closer to the balloon. They swept through the air in rapid, fantastic curves, occasionally precipitating themselves headlong with the speed of a bullet, and then breaking their line of projection by an abrupt and daring angle. The doctor, much disquieted, resolved to ascend so as to escape this dangerous proximity. He therefore dilated the hydrogen in his balloon, and it rapidly rose. But the condors mounted with him, apparently determined not to part company. “They seem to mean mischief!” said the hunter, cocking his rifle. And, in fact, they were swooping nearer, and more than one came within fifty feet of them, as if defying the fire-arms. “By George, I’m itching to let them have it!” exclaimed Kennedy. “No, Dick; not now! Don’t exasperate them needlessly. That would only be exciting them to attack us!” “But I could soon settle those fellows!” “You may think so, Dick. But you are wrong!” “Why, we have a bullet for each of them!” “And suppose that they were to attack the upper part of the balloon, what would you do? How would you get at them? Just imagine yourself in the presence of a troop of lions on the plain, or a school of sharks in the open ocean! For travellers in the air, this situation is just as dangerous.” “Are you speaking seriously, doctor?” “Very seriously, Dick.” “Let us wait, then!” “Wait! Hold yourself in readiness in case of an attack, but do not fire without my orders.” The birds then collected at a short distance, yet so near that their naked necks, entirely bare of feathers, could be plainly seen, as they stretched them out with the effort of their cries, while their gristly crests, garnished with a comb and gills of deep violet, stood erect with rage. They were of the very largest size, their bodies being more than three feet in length, and the lower surface of their white wings glittering in the sunlight. They might well have been considered winged sharks, so striking was their resemblance to those ferocious rangers of the deep. “They are following us!” said the doctor, as he saw them ascending with him, “and, mount as we may, they can fly still higher!” “Well, what are we to do?” asked Kennedy. The doctor made no answer. “Listen, Samuel!” said the sportsman. “There are fourteen of those birds; we have seventeen shots at our disposal if we discharge all our weapons. Have we not the means, then, to destroy them or disperse them? I will give a good account of some of them!” “I have no doubt of your skill, Dick; I look upon all as dead that may come within range of your rifle, but I repeat that, if they attack the upper part of the balloon, you could not get a sight at them. They would tear the silk covering that sustains us, and we are three thousand feet up in the air!” At this moment, one of the ferocious birds darted right at the balloon, with outstretched beak and claws, ready to rend it with either or both. “Fire! fire at once!” cried the doctor. He had scarcely ceased, ere the huge creature, stricken dead, dropped headlong, turning over and over in space as he fell. Kennedy had already grasped one of the two-barrelled fowling-pieces and Joe was taking aim with another. Frightened by the report, the condors drew back for a moment, but they almost instantly returned to the charge with extreme fury. Kennedy severed the head of one from its body with his first shot, and Joe broke the wing of another. “Only eleven left,” said he. Thereupon the birds changed their tactics, and by common consent soared above the balloon. Kennedy glanced at Ferguson. The latter, in spite of his imperturbability, grew pale. Then ensued a moment of terrifying silence. In the next they heard a harsh tearing noise, as of something rending the silk, and the car seemed to sink from beneath the feet of our three aëronauts. “We are lost!” exclaimed Ferguson, glancing at the barometer, which was now swiftly rising. “Over with the ballast!” he shouted, “over with it!” And in a few seconds the last lumps of quartz had disappeared. “We are still falling! Empty the water-tanks! Do you hear me, Joe? We are pitching into the lake!” Joe obeyed. The doctor leaned over and looked out. The lake seemed to come up toward him like a rising tide. Every object around grew rapidly in size while they were looking at it. The car was not two hundred feet from the surface of Lake Tchad. “The provisions! the provisions!” cried the doctor. And the box containing them was launched into space. Their descent became less rapid, but the luckless aëronauts were still falling, and into the lake. “Throw out something—something more!” cried the doctor. “There is nothing more to throw!” was Kennedy’s despairing response. “Yes, there is!” called Joe, and with a wave of the hand he disappeared like a flash, over the edge of the car. “Joe! Joe!” exclaimed the doctor, horror-stricken. The thus relieved resumed her ascending motion, mounted a thousand feet into the air, and the wind, burying itself in the disinflated covering, bore them away toward the northern part of the lake. Victoria “Lost!” exclaimed the sportsman, with a gesture of despair. “Lost to save us!” responded Ferguson. And these men, intrepid as they were, felt the large tears streaming down their cheeks. They leaned over with the vain hope of seeing some trace of their heroic companion, but they were already far away from him. “What course shall we pursue?” asked Kennedy. “Alight as soon as possible, Dick, and then wait.” After a sweep of some sixty miles the halted on a desert shore, on the north of the lake. The anchors caught in a low tree and the sportsman fastened it securely. Night came, but neither Ferguson nor Kennedy could find one moment’s sleep. Victoria About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Jules Verne (2002). Five Weeks in a Balloon. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022 https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/3526/pg3526-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at , located at . www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

The Capital of Bornou

WINTER DREAMS

This article is copublished with Grist. . Read on our collaborator's site This story was published in partnership with , a nonprofit media organization covering climate, justice, and solutions. You can subscribe to its weekly newsletter . Grist here New York State toward curbing the power of Big Tech when lawmakers passed the Digital Fair Repair Act, giving citizens the right to fix their phones, tablets, and computers. took a historic step For years, advocates for the “right to repair” have pushed for such legislation in statehouses nationwide. They argue that making it easier to repair gadgets not only saves consumers money but also reduces the environmental impact of manufacturing and electronic waste. Most of those bills have failed amid intense opposition from tech companies that want to dictate how and where their products are serviced. The passage of the Digital Fair Repair Act last June caught the tech industry off guard, but it had time to act before Gov. Kathy Hochul would sign it into law. Corporate lobbyists went to work, pressing Albany for exemptions and changes that would water the bill down. reportedly They were largely successful: While the bill Hochul in late December remains for the right-to-repair movement, the gives consumers and independent repair shops less access to parts and tools than the original proposal called for. (The state Senate still has to vote to adopt the revised bill, but it’s widely expected to do so.) signed a victory more corporate-friendly text The new version of the law applies only to devices built after mid-2023, so it won’t help people to fix stuff they currently own. It also exempts electronics used exclusively by businesses or the government. All those devices are likely to become electronic waste faster than they would have had Hochul, a Democrat, signed a tougher bill. And more greenhouse gases will be emitted manufacturing new devices to replace broken electronics. Draft versions of the bill, letters, and email correspondences shared with Grist by the repair advocacy organization reveal that many of the changes Hochul made to the Digital Fair Repair Act are identical to those proposed by , a trade association that includes Apple, Google, Samsung, and HP among its members. Repair.org TechNet Jake Egloff, the legislative director for Democratic New York state assemblymember and bill sponsor Patricia Fahy, confirmed the authenticity of the emails and bill drafts shared with Grist. “We had every environmental group walking supporting this bill,”  Fahy told Grist. “What hurt this bill is Big Tech was opposed to it.” That New York passed any electronics right-to-repair bill is “huge,” Repair.org executive director Gay Gordon-Byrne told Grist. But “it could have been huger” if not for tech industry interference. Reached for comment, the governor’s office sent Grist a copy of a statement that Hochul released when she signed the bill, outlining changes made to the text. Her staff declined to address questions about the potential negative impacts of those changes, or about the process behind them. For years, consumer technology companies like Apple have effectively monopolized the repair of their devices by limiting access to parts, tools, and manuals to “authorized repair partners,” which often only perform a small number of manufacturer-sanctioned fixes. Those limited services often force consumers to choose between continuing to use a broken device or obtaining a brand-new one. The that passed New York’s Senate and Assembly last spring sought to level the playing field for independent shops by requiring that companies make parts, tools, and documents available to everyone on fair and reasonable terms. version of the Digital Fair Repair Act A broad coalition of manufacturers opposed the bill in the spring, and its sponsors had to make significant compromises in order to pass it. “We made a lot of changes to get it over the finish line in the first day or two of June,” Fahy said. Those changes included explicit exclusions for everything from home appliances to police radios to farm equipment. Fahy says she was willing to omit those devices because she thought focusing on small electronics would give consumers “the biggest bang for their buck.” Data from the repair guide site iFixit shows that eight of the top 10 devices New Yorkers attempted to repair in 2020 were small consumer electronics, with cellphones and laptops topping the list. The passed the Assembly by a vote of 145 to 1, after clearing the Senate 59 to 4. Despite that overwhelming support, the tech industry was surprised by its passage, said Democratic state senator Neil Breslin, who sponsored the bill. Digital Fair Repair Act “There’s a number of people who were advocating on the parts of the [manufacturers] who really, in private chats, were not expecting it would be passed,” Breslin told Grist. At that point, the bill’s opponents approached Hochul seeking concessions. In particular, show TechNet held frequent meetings with the governor between June and December, when she signed the bill. state lobbying records Lobbyists representing Apple, Google, and Microsoft also met with the governor, state records show. All of these organizations have right-to-repair bills in other states, often citing intellectual property and cybersecurity concerns. lobbied against But some, most , have in recent years. Fahy said Microsoft “constantly tried to reach out” to her office to cooperate on the bill. notably Microsoft softened their stance In a letter sent to the governor in November, the company requested several edits but did not ask for a veto. (Microsoft, Google, and Apple declined to comment.) In letters sent to Hochul in July and August, Apple, IBM, and TechNet all asked the governor to veto the bill. (IBM also declined to comment.) When a veto didn’t immediately happen, TechNet sent Hochul a with edits attributed to , the trade organization’s vice president of state policy and government relations. trimmed-down version David Edmonson Among other things, TechNet requested that the law apply only to future products sold in the state, that it exclude products sold only through business-to-business or government contracts, and that it exclude printed circuit boards on the grounds that they could be used to counterfeit devices. It also sought a stipulation allowing manufacturers to offer consumers and independent fixers assemblies, such as a battery pre-assembled with other components, if selling individual parts could create a “safety risk.” Additionally, TechNet wanted a requirement that independent repair shops provide customers with a written notice of U.S. warranty laws before conducting repairs. Hochul’s office sent TechNet’s revised draft to repair advocates to get their reaction. Those advocates shared the TechNet-edited version of the bill with Fahy’s staff, which gave it to the Federal Trade Commission, or FTC, the agency charged with protecting American consumers. Documents that Repair.org shared with Grist show that FTC staff were highly critical of many of the changes. The parts assembly provision, one commission staffer wrote in response to TechNet’s edits, “could be easily abused by a manufacturer” to create a two-tiered system in which individual components like batteries are available only to authorized repair partners. Another of TechNet’s proposed changes—deleting a requirement that manufacturers give owners and independent shops the ability to reset security locks in order to conduct repairs—could result in a “hollow right to repair” in which security systems thwart people from fixing their stuff, the staffer wrote. “These particular TechNet edits all have a common theme—ensuring that manufacturers retain control over the market for the repair of their products,” Dan Salsburg, a chief counsel for the FTC’s Office of Technology, Research and Investigation, wrote in an email to Fahy’s office. Despite the agency’s stern warning, all of the changes described above, and numerous other edits TechNet proposed, appeared in Hochul signed—many of them verbatim. the bill Chris Gilrein, TechNet’s executive director for the Northeast, told Grist in an emailed statement that the bill the Legislature passed “presented unacceptable risks to consumer data privacy and safety,” and that his organization’s recommended changes “addressed the most egregious security issues.” Manufacturers often cite cybersecurity as a reason to restrict access to repair, an argument the FTC found “ ” to support in . scant evidence a report to Congress published in 2021 Gilrein disputed the notion that the final version of the bill favored the tech industry. “At its core, the law remains a state-mandated transfer of intellectual property that is unwarranted at a time when consumers have access to more repair options than ever before,” he said. Todd Bone, the president of , a company that maintains and repairs network and data center IT equipment for corporations and the federal government, says the law offers “nothing” to his business because of the governor’s carveout for devices sold under business-to-business or government contracts. XS International “It was very disheartening,” Bone told Grist, “to see the governor working with TechNet and not paying attention to the votes from the Congress and the Senate in the state of New York, [and] what the consumers of the state of New York wanted.” Jessa Jones, who founded iPad Rehab, an independent repair shop in Honeoye Falls, about 20 miles south of Rochester, N.Y., says the original bill included provisions that would have made it far easier for independent shops like hers to get the tools, parts, and know-how needed to make repairs. She pointed to changes that allow manufacturers to release repair tools that only work with spare parts they make while at the same time controlling how those spare parts are used, both of which were requested by TechNet. “If you keep going down this road, allowing manufacturers to force us to use their branded parts and service, where they’re allowed to tie the function of the device to their branded parts and service, that’s not repair,” Jones said. “That’s authoritarian control.” After repair advocates shared TechNet’s draft with Fahy’s office, they collaborated on a counterproposal that pushed back against many of the proposed changes. The last-minute negotiations with the governor’s office were “frustrating,” Fahy said, although she still ultimately wants to see the bill become law. Fahy hopes the New York Department of State will clarify aspects of the bill that got muddied by industry influence. The agency, which plays a role in consumer protection, will craft regulations dictating how the law will be implemented. Ultimately, Fahy says the bill will still help consumers save money and keep old devices out of landfills. And every little bit counts: In New York State alone, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group estimates that Americans discard roughly 23,600 cellphones per day. Fahy also believes the law—imperfect though it may be—will have a ripple effect beyond the state’s borders. It could give momentum to the efforts to pass similar laws in . dozens of other states Eventually, the passage of state bills could lead to a national agreement between electronics manufacturers and the independent repair community, similar to what happened after Massachusetts passed an auto right-to-repair law in 2012. in the car industry Other lawmakers agree that New York has provided a welcome starting point. “When you’re the first state, sometimes you have to pass something very small to get across the finish line,” Washington State representative , a Democrat who is sponsoring a digital in her state’s house, told Grist. Mia Gregerson right-to-repair bill New York’s Digital Fair Repair Act, Gregerson said, “gives us something to work from.” “We’re going to take that now and try to do a better piece of legislation,” Gregerson said. By of Grist Maddie Stone Also published here Photo by on @felipepelaquim Unsplash

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