The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-11-19

:
compressed air methodsand machinery
here mentioned would not now be avail
able in practical FORM.
1t might bore the lay reader to de-
scribe the new air tight system for
pumping artesian wells, the hundred
and-one handy little inventions, such as
pneumatic track sanders for iocomo-
tives, sand blasting machines for re-
moving the scale from metals of all
kinds, coal cutters, etc. But there are a
few things in the way of air novel;
ties" which are most Interesting.
Take the work of basket making:
Surely no one ever heard of any of the
old machines turning out 1S0 bushel
baskets per hour, or 1.S00 baskets per
day, but q. compressed air basket max
ing machine is now doing it at the
Michigan basket factory Traverse City,
Mich. The slaves of the baskets are
fastened TO the hoops by staples of wire
taken from the coil. Joined and driven
by the machine. The slaves radiate
from a center in a disc-Iike shape. To
bend them into the lines of the basket
form, four processes ormovements are
made by the machine all of which are
automatic and obtained by the medium
of compressed air. The twhoie combi-
nation is very simple. The air is not
cooled, and the machine runs ten hours
SNtiy WOAhiiiS udy. To-.
Painting Pictures With Air.
Then there is the fountain air brush,
which some claim Will soon be adopted
by the leading artists for applying color
on canvas. 1t is shaped like and. is but
little larger than lead pencil, is ham
died in the same manner applies color
in large quantities in a short time, and
is yet adjustable for thesfinest line eve1
drawn on canvas by gifted artist. =
Pneumatic Mail Service.
The pneumatic mail. tube dispatch
system is familiar to most readers. but
the fact that previous to 1894 it was
practically unknown In this country.
swifter strides in that field than Eu-
rope, may not be generally known.
Five years ago when John Wanamaker
as postmaster general opened the first
pneumatic mail tube line, extending
from the postoffice to the house in Phil
adelphia,' the start was made in en-
tirely new lines. While to this day in
Europe they are using little two and
three-inch tubes for kilograms only,
we began at the outset by constructing
six-inch tubes, and usetthem to trans
port mail in large quantities Tubes
had never been used successfully for
the transmission of ordinary mail mat
ter before. IS
The mail tube industry has now de-
so fast in this country that
even eisGlt-inch tubes. with cartridges
carrying COO letters, are in successful
operation in our big cities. The longest
circuit ever built in the world is the
main line recently laid in New York
City extending from the terminal post
office, a distance of three and one-half
miles This is an eigflt-inch tube cir
cult, the cartridges travel at tremend-
Gus speed, the time of transit consumed
in dispatching in either direction being
only seven minutes. Another big cir
cult has been laid across the Brooklyn
bridge, so that you may have the pleas |
ure of knowing that while you are
speeding over the bridge in the cars,
your mail may be making better time
ahead of you shooting away in the
cartridge inside the big tube like an
projectiie from a modern
breech-loader A total Of seventeen
miles of eight-ineh tll&zsshave been laid !
in this csuntry since Aug.
|, 1898, which shows the rapid increase |
Of the system.
A method Of sweeping and cleaning |
railroad depots by compressed air blow |
ers has been instituted by the Central |
of New Jersey. 1t has been |
found there that sweeping and scrub |