The times., 1901-03-17

soon be too large to be supplied by 1t.
1t is able to supply 800 O00.O 600 TO Soo,0o0.0oo
gallons daily, and its cost. when the Cor
nell dam and Jerome Park reservoir are
finished, will be a little over S92. .00o.0o0.
1t is now suggested to store water in
the Adirondack Mountains. 2o3 miles
away, by dams built at the outlet of ten
or twelve lakes. This will equalize the
flow of the Hudson River so as to give
8. 900. 900 600 to 4,O00 o,00o gallons daily. 1t
is then proposed to pump 1,ooo,Oeo0oo gal
Ions daily from the Hudson River at
Poughkeepse sixty miles away, to
height sufficient to supply the city by
gravity through an aqueduct. This water
would be filtered at Poughkeepsie, and We
now know that all impurities can be re-
moved
Ii this scheme Is carried out. the total
supply will be about f,300, ,CO0. 600 gallons
daily, or enough for population of from
II, 900, 900 to 13,000,000 persons. By putting
In more pumps. filter beds and conduits,
| this supply can be increased 30 per cent,
or to 1,S00, ,O00, 600 gallons daily. This water
would fill every day a lake Cne mile square
by ten feet deep. This is a fair example
of the scale of the engineering works of
the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
BY the application of modern labor-sav-
ing machinery the cost of this work can
be so far controlled that the cost TO the
city of New York per 100000 gallons
would be no greater than that OF the
present Croton supply.
All works of hydraulic engineers depend
on water. But what will happen if the
water all dries up? India, China, Spain,
Turkey, and Syria, have suffered from
droughts, caused clearly by the destruc-
ton of their forests The demand for pa
per to print books and newspapers upon,
and for other purposes, is fast convert
ing our forests into pulp We cannot even
say, after us the deluge," for it will
seldom rain in those evil days. When
the rains do come the sponge-like vegeta-
tion of the forests being gone, the streams
will be torrents at one time of the year
and dried up during the rest, as we now
see in the arid regions of the West.
MECHANICAL ENGINEERING.
This is employed in all dynamical en-
gineering. it covers the designs of prime
motors of all sorts, steam, gas, and gas
oline reciprocating engines; also steam
and water turbines, wind-mills, and
wave-motors.
1t comprises all means of transmitting
power, as by shafting, ropes. pneumatic
pressure, and compressed air. all of which
seem likely to be superseded by cleo
tricity.
1t covers the construction of machine
| tools and machinery of all kinds 1t en-
ters into all the processes of structural,
| hydraulic, electrical. and Industrial en-
gineering. The special improvements are:
The almost universal use of rotary mo-
| tion and of the reduplication of parts
The steam engine is a machine of re-
| ciprocating, converted into rotary, motion
| by the crank. The progress OF mechani-
| cal engineering during the nineteenth
| century is measured by the improve
ments of the steam engine. principally
| In the direction of saving fuel, by the in
vention of internal combustion or gas en-
| gines, the application Of electrical trans
mission, and. latest, the practical de-
velopment of steam turbines, by Parsons,
Westinghouse, DeIavaI. Curtis, and 9TH
ers. In these a jet of steam imDinges
upon buckets set upon the circumference
| of a wheel. 1t was clearly indicated by
/ the Italian engineer Bronca, in 1923, but
| he was too early. The time was not ripe,
| and there were then no machine tools
| giving the perfection Of workmanship re-
| quired.
| Their advantages are that their mo-
tion is rotary and not reciprocal. They
| can develop speed of from 5,0O0 to 10000
revolutions per minute, while the highest
| ever attained by "A reciprocating engine
is not over 1000. Their thermodynamic
| losses are less, hence they consume less
steam and less fuel.
1t is a very interesting fact that the
basic invention upon which not only
| steam turbines and electric dynamos. but
! indeed all other parts of mechanical en-
| gineering, depend, is of such remote an
| tiquity that we know nothing OF it's ori-
| gin This is the wheel, which Gladstone
said was the greatest of mans mechan-
! ical inventions, as there is nothing in ma
| ture to suggest it.
Duplication of parts has lowered the
cost Of all products. Clothing is one of
| these. The parts of ready-made gar
ments and shoes are now cut into shape
| in numbers at q time, by sharp-edged
| templates, and then fastened together by
sewing machines.
4
ample of the survival of the fittest. Mil
lions of dollars are expended on ma
chinery when suddenly a new discovery
or invention casts them all into the scrap
| heap, to be replaced by those of greater
| earning capacity.
| Prime motors derive their energy ether
| from coal or other combinations of car
bon, such as petroleum, or from gray ity.
| This may come from falling water. end
| the old-fashioned water wheels of :he
| eighteenth century We're superseded in
the nineteenth by turbines, first invented
| in France and since greatly Perfected.
| These are used in the electrical trans
mission OF water power at Niagara of
| 5000 horse power. and form a very i'm
! portant part of the plant.
! The other gravity motors are wird-
mills and wave-mOtors Windmilis are an
old invention. but have been greatly inn
proved in the United States by the use
! of the self-reefing wheel The great
plains of the West are subject to sudden,
violent gales of wind, and unless the
| wheel was automatically self-reefing it
would often be destroyed. Little has
been written about these wheels, but
| their use is very widely extended and
they perform a most useful function in
| Industrial engineering.
| There have been vast numbers of pat
ents taken out for wave-motors. one was
! invented in Chile South America, which
furnished a constant power for four
| months, and was utilized in saving
! planks The action of waves is more
constant on the Pacific coast of America
| than elsewhere and some auxiliary now