Omaha daily bee., 1897-01-04
UNIQUE RIDE.
A Trolley Journey Through tn
Sewers of puris.

Sewers of Paris.
The main sewers of Paris are periodically
cleared by means OF scrapers carried ON
boats or cars, writes a Paris correspondent
These conveyances are also used for convey
ing visitors through the large sewers under
the Rue de Rivoli and the Boulevards
Sebastopol and De Malesherbes. These ex-
Deditions take place fourteen times year,
in spring and autumn, and about S400
visitors are admitted yearly. Until 1894
these cars and boats were drawn by men,
but the labor and expense were found to be
so excessive that now the traction is done
entirely by electric motors, taking current
from accumulation batteries on the boats
or cars. The Genie Civil" which de-
scribes and illustrates the plant, says these
main sewers are in section very similar to
an ordinary tunnel, but in the floor is
formed the rectangular channel for the
sewage, while round the roof are fixed the
water and compressed air mains, the tele-
graph and telephone wires, etc.
The sewer under the Boulevard des Male
sherbes is the largest; it is Is feet Az
inches wide, 10 feet high from floor to roof
and the sewage channel in the floor is 3
feet 5A inches deep and feet 10 inches
wide. Boats are used in this channel. The
other sewers are smaller, the channels in
them being only feet IL inches wide, and
from feet IL inches to feet inches deep,
In these cars are run, the flanged wheels
channel, which are protected by angie-bars
and form the rails. The approximate weight
of a train of five cars with 100 passengers
on board is about tons twelve hundred
weight, and this travels at the rate of three
and three -fourths miles per hour The
accumulation battery consists of twenty
eight elements and weighs fourteen hundred
weight, and its capacity is 100 ampere-hours
with a mean discharge of twenty-five am
peres at fifty or sixty volts The motor,
which is seres-wound develops two horse
power and runs at 1000 revolutions per
minute. this speed being reduced to eighty
by means of pinion and wheel and chain
gearing to the driving axle the wheels
being 15A inches in diameter on the tread.
The boats are towed by means OF chain
sunk in the sewage channel. which is
brought to the surface and passes around
a pulley driven by means OF a double re-
duction gear from the motor The chain,
by means of guide pulleys makes three
quarters Of a turn around the driving pull
ley, this pulley being a magnetic one, mag
netized by means of two coils, one on each
side of it, on the axle.
Each passenger train consists of six boats
in the first of which is carried the accumu-
lator battery and towing apparatus, while
In the last boat. which Is smaller, there is
another towing apparatus. The battery
consists OF sixty elements, giving an out
put OF sixty amperes for two and one-half
hours. at from ninety-eight to 1876 volts;
IL is divided into two parts, which can be
connected in series or parallel, as required.
The motors run at $50 revolutions per
minute, but this speed is reduced by means
OF the gearing, so that the boats travel at
about one and half miles per hour The
power required for this is from about two
horsepower to five and one-half horse
power, according as the boats are travelling
with or against the current. The total
length Of the sewers open in this way to the
public is about two miles, and they are
lighted partly by lamps on the footpaths or
by oil lamps on the boats.