Los Angeles daily herald., 1886-12-02
A LUMBER FLUME.
A Lightning Trip Down
a Nevada Mountain Side.
THE FASTEST ENGINE OUTDONE
A Plunge to Destruction Through
the kir as if Blown from
a Catapult.

Whenever Vanderbilt takes rail
way ride it seems to be the stock In
trade of some reporters to tell how fast
he travelled. When old William II. was
alive the public used to read with great
interest how he would harness up the
heetest engine at his command and reel
off mile minute and all that, but fast
railway travelling is now given to the
common multitude. There are several
trains that go out of Chicago daily that
between stations and level places go a
mile in sixty seconds. ''There is nothing
novel in the sensation, said an old news
paper man the other night at the Press
club. 'If you want to feel that you are
going fast over the ground you want to
ride on Nevada lumber fume. Ipicked
upa paper the other day and caught
this item:
"'The residents along lumber fiume
in the mountains above Chico, CAL,
have a novel way of getting their mail.
1t is started on raft from the head of
the fume at regular dates and the peo.
pie 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 Illus
trates 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 regular en-
gineer's grode The bed of the hume is
made of two inch plank in the form of a
V, the sides of the V being from eight
cen 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 at the rate of 400 miners
inches minute. In other words, turn
in your water at the head of the hume,
and it will carry log weighing 400
pounds with velocity greater than the
fastest engine that was ever made. The
logs displacement just above fills the V,
without any more friction than necessl-
ry to keep it in place.
"About nine years ago l was up at
Lake Tahoe" said the velocity sharp,
"with e. w. Smalley, of the New York
Tribune and w. III. Patton, of the
Mackey & Fair Lumber Company. Pat
ton was showing us the sights. We had
come up from Carson City, sixteen miles
by stage, and it was hot and tedious
ride. About sundown Patton said, Boys,
we'll 90 home by the fume, and we'll
get there little quicker, think"
GOING HOME BY THE FLUME.
"He directed man to bring out the
yacht, as he called it. This was V
shaped canoe about fourteen feet long,
very shallow, and made to fit the fume
and Just about fit it with the displace-
ment of 600 pounds. The yacht had q
'brake'-two rubber pads on either side,
worked with lever, and SO applied
against the sides of the V fiume that on
pressure it would lift the yacht gradual
ly 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 dow yonr hats, and hold on.
Don't get scary. Trust your lives to me
for the next half hour. I've sailed in
this yacht before, and know she's
stanch.' There were three seats. Pat
ton took the front one, to handle the
brake. Smalley took the next one, and
l took the rear one to handle the 'tiller. ,
That was rigged just like ships rud-
der, with rubber wheel to ease off her
stern against the side of the fume if she
got to yawing. Patton told his men to
put on two inches more OF water, and
then, with wave of his hat, we
weighed anchor Great Scott! How
that thing jumped. Smalley got sea sick.
jammed my helm hard down, but Patton
yelled through the air, Let her go 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 courage.
"We plunged down the mountain with
speed that no steam could give. Trees
flew like specters; looking ahead down
the narrow thread like fume it seemed
like plunge to destruction. Several
times the fume carried us over a high
trestle. 1t seemed like leaping over
precipice. Smalley held his breath, but
the little yacht jumped it through the
air apparently with swish. Curv, s
would show themselves ahead. The rud-
der wheel would squeak on either side,
and the good ship would round that
curve like flash. Sometimes an unev-
eness in the fume would occur, and
then, as the craft sped over it, the spray
would rise fifty feet in the ar. keep
on your hats!" shouted Patton; then, as
we struck a 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 q blur-trees, rocks, landscapes, were
all mingled in an indistinguishabie mass.
It was as if one was blown through the
air from catapult.
swell, from the time we weighed
anchor up at Lake Tahoe until Patton
put on his brakes just outside the lum.
ber field at Carson City it seemed like a
minute or two. We all looked at our
watches. We had made Just sixteen
miles in eight minutes and forty seconds
l never in all my life had such an illus
tration 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 60 and get something else. Chicago
Herald "Walks and Talks"
Knnli~ln n1Hd &tmhhnr,r nalscr