The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-03-17


soon be too large to be supplied by 1t.
1t is able to supply 25o.OcO.Oco to 800. 90
gallons daily. and its cost. when the Cor
nell dam and Jerome Park reservoir ar,
finished, will be little over s92, 00o0o0.
1t is now suggested to store water II
the Adirondack Mountains, 200 mile:
away. by dams built at the outlet of ter
or twelve lakes. This will equalize the
flow of the Hudson River so as to give
5000, 600 to 4.Oo00oo,0oo gallons daily. II
is then proposed to pump Loco. 0o0,e 900 gal
| Ions daily from the Hudson River at
Poughkeepsie. sixty miles away, to q
height sufficient to supply the city by
gravity through an aqueduct This water
would be filtered al Poughkeepsie. and we
now know that all impurities can be re-
moved.
| IL this scheme Is carried out the total
supply will be about 1900 900. 600 gallons
daily, or enough for a population of from
12,0 600 to 100000 persons. BY putting
in more pumps. filter beds. and conduits.
this supply can be increased 30 per cent,
| or to ], 800. 900, 600 gallons daily. This water
would fill every day lake enc mile square
by ten feet deep. This is 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
VIII 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. 1t 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-
tiers into all the processes of structural.
hydraulic, electrical, and Industrial en-
cheering. The special improvements are:
The almost universal use of rotary mo-
ton and of the reduplication of parts
Ihe 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, Delaval, Curtis, and 9TH
ers. In these jet of steam impinges
upon buckets set upon the circumference
of wheel. IL was clearly indicated by
the italian engineer Bronco, in 1929, but
aud tsere were then no machine tools
giving the perfection of workmanship re-
quired
Their advantages are that their mo-
ton is rotary and not reciprocal. They
can develop speed of from 50oo to 10000
revolutions per minute. while the highest
ever attained by reciprocating engine |
is not over 1000. Their thermodynamic
losses are less, hence they consume less
steam and less fuel.
1t is very interesting fact that the |
basic inv I:Iti2n 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 its orr |
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 time, by sharp-edged
templates, and then fastened together by
sewing machines.
Mechanical engineering is a good ex-
ample of the survival of the fttest 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 either !
from coal or other combinations Of car
bon, such petroleum. or from gravity. |
This may come from falling water snd |
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 very i'm
portant part of the plant.
The other gravity motors are wild-
mills and wave-motors. Windmills are an
old invention, but have been greatly i'm
proved in the United States by the use
of the self-reefng 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 Il 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 Il constant power for four ,
months, and was utilized in saving I
blanks. The action of waves is more ,
constant on the Pacific coast of America | ;