The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1886-08-14
A LUMBER FLUME.
A LIGHTNING TRIP DOWN A NEVADA
d MOUNTAIN SIDE.

The Speed OF the Fastest Engine Outdors
Getting Aboard the Yacht" - A
Plunge to ugh the Air
~ II Blown from u CStapult.
Whenever Vanderbilt takes a railway
tide 1t seems to be the stock In trade Of some
reporters to tell how fast he travelled
When old William h. was alive the public
used to read with great interest how he
would harness up the tieetest engine at his
command and reel of q mile q minute and
all tnat, but fast railway travelling is now
given to the common multitude. There are
several trains that 90 out Of Chicago daily
that between stations and on level places 60
Q mile in sixty seconds There Is nothing
novel in the sensation" said an old news
paper man the other night at the Press
club. III you want to feel that you are 60
ing fast over the ground you want to ride
ON Nevada lumber hume picked up a
paper the other day and caught this item:
THE residents along lumber ilume in
the mountains above Chico, Cal, have a
novel way Of getting their mail 1t is
started on a raft from the head of the tiume
at regular dates and the people below watch
for it, take out what belongs to them, and
then send the raft with its precious cargo
on its way.
"That isn't quite true, but it illustrates
the general use of those fumes. Lumber
fumes in the Sierra Nevada are all the way
from five to forty miles long. They are
built on q regular engineers grade. The
bed of the fume is made Of two inch plank
in the form OF V, the sides Of the being
from eighteen to twenty six inches high
They are built on grade Of about sixteen
feet drop to the thousand They carry
eight inches of water in the acute angle, and
discharge it ut the rate of 400 miners inches
0 minute. In other words, turn in your
water at the head Of the tlume, and it will
carry a log weighing 400 pounds with ve-
locity greater than the fastest engine that
was ever made The logs displacement Just
above fills the V, without any more friction
than necessary to keep it in place
about nine years ago was up at Lake
Tahoe" said the velocity sharp, with L.
w. Snlalley, of The New YorkTribune, and
w. H. Patton, Of the Mackey & Fair Lum
Der company. Patton was showing us the
sights. We had come up from Carson City,
sixteen miles by stage, and it was a hot and
tedious ride About shutdown Patton said,
Boys wsll 60 home by the fiume, and we'll
got there little quicker, think
GOING HOME BY THE FLUME
He directed man to bring out tho
yacht as he called it This was a V
shaped canoe about fourteen feet long, very
shallow, and made to tit the fume and just
about ill it with the displacement Of GOO
pounda The yacht had 'brake'-two
rubber pads on either side, worked with q
lever, and so applied against the sides Of
the v tiume that on pressure it would lift
the yacht gradually and allow the lightning
current to pass under her. She also had
two small rubber wheels, one on either bow,
to keep her nose from grinding the side OF
the fume as she went by curves Now,
boys, said Mr.. Patton, button up your
coats, tie down your hats, and hold on
Don't get scared. Trust your lives to Inc
for tho next half hour. I've sailed in this
yacht before, and l know she's stanch. ,
There were three seats Patton took the
front one, to handle the brake. Smalley
took the next one, and | took the rear and
worked the 'tiller.' That was rugged just
like ships rudder, with rubber wheel to
ease off her stern against the side of the
hume IL she got to yawing. Patton told
his men to put on two inches more of water,
and then, with wave OF his hat, we
thing jumped Smaley got sea sick |
damned my helm hard down, but Patton
yelled through the air, Let her 60. I've
got her! and with one hand on his brake,
his hat crushed down on his head, and his
teeth set, he looked the incarnation of cour
age.
1--WE plunged down the mountain with q
speed that no steam could give. Trees flew
hi In.
row thread like tume it seemed like a
plunge to destruction Several times the
fIume carried us over high trcstle, 1t
seemed like leapng over precipice. Small
lev held his breath, but the little yatch
Jumped it through the air apparently with
a swish. Curves would show themselves
ahead. The rudder wheel would squeak on
either side and the good ship would round
that curve like flash. Sometimes an I'M
eveness in the tume would occur, and then,
as the craft sped over it, the spray would
rise fifty feet in the air. keep on your
hats shouted Patton; then, as we struck
straight five mile stretch. Now hold on to
your teeth | don't exactly know what the
next sensation was, but tried to peep out
from under the rim of my hat, and my soul,
it was all blur-trtes, rocks, landscapes,
were all mingled in an indistinguishable
mass 1t was as if one was blown through
the air from a catapult.
Well from the time we weighed anchor
up at Lake Tuhoe until Patton put on his
brakes lust outside the lumber field at Car
son City it seemed like minute or two
We all looked at our watches. We had
made just sixteen miles in eight minutes and
forty seconds. | never in all my life had
such an illustration of the force of water.
II have always recognized it, said third
party, who had listened to the tale, and
never much believed it Let us go and get
something else. chicago Herald Walks
and Talks"
Americans Meddling with the Weather.
1t is not alone Guibollard-the present butt
of the French wits-who thinks Columbus
made mistake in discovering America, since
it is from this country that Europe gets it
bad weather. The London correspondent of
The Iron Age, speaking of the favorable
crop prospects in England should the good
weather continue another week or two, says:
That. however, is doubtful, seeing that the
inevitable American storm has been tele-
graphed. and is due with us two or three days
hence Your storm warnings are no doubt
sent to us with the most beneficent intentions,
but there are those who wish you would
leave our weather alone | remember a