The Locomotive - Lighthouse Survival Blog

^50 THE L C OMOTIVE. |October,
HARTFORD, OCTOBER 15, 1901.
J. M. Allen, A.M., M.E.. Editor. A. D. Risteen, Associate Editor.
The Locomotive can be obtained free by calling at any of the company's agencies.
Subscript ion price 50 cents per year when mailed from this office.
Bound volumes one dollar each. (Any volume can lie supplied. |
In our issue for August, under the heading "Laid down his Life for his Friend,"
we told what we supposed was a true story of the death of "William Phelps, of Richmond,
Ky. Phelps was a negro laborer, and he was inside a boiler with another man,
when somebody accidentally turned steam in upon them from an adjacent boiler. The
story went that Phelps could have made his escape, but that he voluntarily remained
behind, so that his companion, who was married, could go first. The accident occurred
in the Cerealiue Mills, at Indianapolis, Ind.. and we printed the account of it because
we thought it was but just to the negro to spread the knowledge of his self-sacrifice.
We are now credibly informed that while Phelps was indeed killed, the self-sacrifice
part of the story is not true. Our informant adds that this feature " emanated from the
brain of a sensational newspaper reporter." "We are sorry to have to make this correc-
tion, but we do so in the interests of accuracy.
Early Hot Water Heating- in Greenland.
When we investigate the early history of any invention, unless it is one which has
been made possible only by recent discoveries, we are likely to unearth some surprising
facts. One would hardly suppose, for example, that the heating of dwellings and
churches by hot water originated in Greenland, yet such is the fact, if we may rely on
the data given by a recent number of Cassier ,
8 Magazine, from which we quote below.
•An interesting example of the antiquity of the system of heating by means of hot
water is cited by Mr. Frederick Tudor in a diminutive treatise on 'Heating for Health,
or How to Heat a House." which he prepared about ten years ago. Mr. Tudor tells that
the announcement of the discovery of Greenland by Davis, in 1587. brought to light the
fact that the territory had been discovered and colonized by the Norwegians, centuries
before. The first European to land upon its shores was probably Leif, in the year 984,
whose glowing accounts of its attractions led to the founding of a colony a year or two
later. This flourished until, in the fourteenth century, it contained 190 villages,
divided into twelve parishes with one bishop's see. Christianity had been introduced in
the twelfth century, and a considerable intercourse was maintained with the mother
country, Norway. The transfer of the latter to the crown of Denmark in 1387, its at-
tachment to Sweden dating only from 1814. was the cause, probably, of neglect of the arctic
colony, and eventually intercourse ceased altogether, and the country and its people
were forgotten. Doubtless there were occasional winters of great severity, and the in-
habitants, languishing under the attacks of disease superadded to their hardships, per-
ished without being able to make known their distressing condition.
"Davis found no trace of any previous occupation of Greenland, nor in later years