Rensselaer Journal, Volume 10, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 May 1901 — Keeping Track of a Vacuum. [ARTICLE]

Keeping Track of a Vacuum.

There was once a chief engineer in the British Navy, a patient man who had spent so many nights by the bedside of an expiring boiler, which never expired, but kept on bursting blood vessels and getting a death rattle iy its thousand throaty, that he had become reconciled to knowing that he would be called upon to stop leaks at all hours of the day and night for the rest of his natural life. His only envy was the man who could sleep undisturbed through the whole night This man was Bulstrode, chief engineer of another ship. , One night the assistant engineer sent a man up to Bulstrode to report the gradual disappearance of the vacuum in the air pumps. Knocking at the door the man sang out: “Please, sir, the vacuum is decreasing.” The answer came back in a drowsy voice: “All right. Report to me if it gets lower.” Half an hour later the man rapped again at the door. “The vacuum is much lower, sir.” “Very good. Tell me if it gets still lower.” After another half hour: “Mr. Bulstrode, the vacuum’s gone, sir.” “All right; report to me if it comes back.” —Waverley Magazine.