Show C Murder Machine HELLO ELLO EVERYBODY George H. H Dowd of the Bronx N. N Y sends me a aletter aletter aletter letter that starts out This is the first time I have ever tried to put an an experience of mine down on paper Shall ShallI I stop Well the answer to that is For Petes Pete's sake no George Because George has turned in one hum-dinger hum of a yarn Its It's the story of a barrage of flying steel that was set pet off not by powder or any other sort of explosive but by actual 28 horses hell-bent hell for election horsepower 28 galloping drawing behind them a machine that death-dealing death projectiles right left front and center Its It's the only case case I ever heard of where projectiles were thrown by horses Maybe some of those sword-rattling sword dictators dictators dictators dic dic- of Europe will pick up this idea and use horses when their supply of powder runs low I haven't done any experimenting experimenting experimenting with this idea and I dont don't know how well it would work But Ill I'll tell you George Dowds Dowd's story and you can figure it out for yourself It happened along about the middle of July 1913 on the Idaho Falls Development company dry farm a few miles northwest of Idaho Falls Idaho That farm was a thousand seven-thousand acre wheat ranch Out in that section they harvest their wheat t in July and George who was just a young fellow then had hod a job working on one of the big combine harvesters sewing up sacks of grain There were three of those harvesters in the Geld field one one drawn by mules a second drawn by a steam engine or tractor and the tho third on which George was working drawn by 28 head of horses Those combine harvesters have a a. group of or cylinders in them hitched to the wheels and geared up to revolve at great speed when the horses are walking George was vas working on a wooden platform on that harvester directly over those revolving ders But the cylinders weren't revolving at the moment for forthe forthe forthe the big machine was stopped for some minor repairs The repair I fE Y Piece by piece the platform was being shot away man was putting a draper belt into the header and the driver and the header man got down to help him leaving George Georgc alone on the machine Steam Pressure Explodes Safety Valve And then the fun started started but but it wasn't any fun for George It was the steam tractor hauling one of the other harvesters that started all aU the trouble There was too much steam in the boiler and all of a sudden the safety valve popped off with a bang And within the same second says George off of went the 28 horses with the machine I IVas was Vas on in what you ou would call a areal areal areal real runaway Well Vell sir a 28 horse runaway is something to write home home about about but that was only the beginning The men who were putting in the draper belt were knocked clear of the machine at the first jump the horses made Then those animals were off down the field at a full gallop gallop gallop gal gal- lop with the great unwieldy machine careening along behind them And Andas as they dashed along the cylinders of the harvester which revolved at high speed when the horses were just walking began revolving at a speed greater than even steel can stand The horses hadn't gone a dozen feet when steel cylinders began began began be be- gan bursting from centrifugal force Coree and shooting out of the machine machine machine ma ma- chine in all directions The first one ripped up through the boards boardson on which George Gcorge was standing standing ripped ripped up with a deafening crack like the report of a cannon and shot past Georges George's nose straight up in the air Another one followed followed and and another Cylinders gears and bits of broken metal came flying Dying out of that machine in a veritable barrage He Clung to the thc Harvesters Harvester's Reeling Platform I 1 was on the U U. S S. S S. S Leviathan for 22 months during the war George says and I have heard her guns bark a good many times And I would say say that the reports these gears and hunks of metal made when leaving the machine were about as loud as those made by a six- six inch cannon And George standing standing right right in the midst of that hail of flying steel couldn't do 90 anything about it He was having all he could do to cling to the swaying reeling platform of that harvester while the horses galloped galloped galloped gal gal- loped along at breakneck speed Piece by piece and board by board hoard the fir flooring of the platform was shot away until it was even with the heels of ot his shoes If U hed he'd thought of of-it of it he might have jumped but for or the first first few moments he was too loo bewildered He could could feel leel the wind of 01 those deadly metal projectiles as they whizzed by him One of them hit him in the calf of the leg Others ripped great reat holes In Inthe Inthe Inthe the canvas awning over his head There were pieces of steel weighing three or four pounds shot from that harvester he says that were picked up later more than a mile away Help Was Vas Already on the Way But meanwhile help w was s already on the way The repair man had hada a good saddle horse tied nearby and in less than half hah a minute he was in the saddle riding hard The runaways had almost a quarter of a amile amile amile mile head start but gradually he closed up that distance The barrage of steel had stopped by then and George was safe as long as he could cling to his perch on the shattered platform He did cling to to that platform He Hel clung to It for a full mile mUe while the harvester reeled and swayed land and threatened to tip over But at the en end of that mile mUe the repairman caught up with the lead horses and brought them to a stop George Georgc says that harvester was nearly new when it started but it was a total wreck when it stopped George Gcorge on the other hand was lucky His only injury was where that one piece of flying steel had hit his bis right leg And that he says serious Copyright Service |