The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-06-26
By Edgar Franklin.

the sole furnishing of the car.
Now, you've seen hydraulic eie.
vator?" Hawkins began. You know
/ how they work-a big steel shaft pushes
up the car from underneath. SO thai
when it is in operation the car is simply
box standing on the end OF pole
which rises or sinks, as the operator
wills"
q believe So" I assented. 81 think
its time now for me to be go"
That principle IS fallacious % the in
ventor exclaimed Consider what il
would mean here-a steel shaft sixteen
stories high, weighing tons and tons. :
WELL"
"Well, sir, / have reversed that idi-
otto ideal" Hawkins announced triun-
phantly. Il have had hole dug six
teen stories deep, and put the steel shaft
down into it"
1t was about what one might have
expected from Hawkins; but despite my
long acquaintance with his bizarre men
tai machinery, | gasped in amszement.
Now, then" pursued the inventor,
Il have had a steel tube made, little
longer than the shaft, you understand
What! Even longer than sixteen
stories?"
1
exactly, Just as an engine cylinder fits
the plunger. The elevator stands upon
the upper end of the tube We let steam
into the tube by operating this lever,
which controls my patent reversible
steam-release What happens? Why,
the tube is forced upward and the ele-
vator rises | let out some OF the steam
and the tube sinks down into the
groundi That iron plate which you see
is the manhole cover of the tube, as it
were-it corresponds, of course, to the
cylinder-head on an engine"
AS the novelists put it, stood aghast
1t overwhelmed me utterly-the idea
that in a great sane city like New York
an irresponsible maniac could be per-
mitted to dig hole sixteen stories deep
under a new office building and then
FIJI up that hole with shaft and a
tube such as Hawkins had just describ-
ed.
"And the people who own this place
did they allow you to do it, or have
you been chloroforming the Waterman
and working at night" I inquired.
Don't be absurd, Griggs," said Haw-
kins. Il pay big rent here. The own
ers were very nice about II.
They must have been-eXceedingly so
I thought; nice to the point of imbecil-
itv Had they known Hawkins as l
know him, they would jcyfully have
handed back his lease, given him a. sub
stantia1 cash bonus to boot, and even
have thrown in a non-transferable Cooks
Tour ticket to Timbuctoo before they
allowed him to embark on the project.
1t would have been low sort OF trick
upon Timbuctoo, but it would have
saved them money and trouble.
We'll" Hawkins said sharply break
ing in upon my REVERE. Don't stand
there incoming. Did you ever see any
thing like it before?"
"Once when / was a child" I con-
fessed, 81 fell while climbing fagpole,
and that night [ dreamed"
Bah! Come along and watch her
work"
mol" 1 protested. ooh, nor
Good Lord, why not?" cried Haw-
kins.
MY wife" I murrnured. "She can
not spare me, Hawkins-not yet"
"Why, there isn't the slightest element
of danger" the inventor argued. Sure
~, Griggs, even you must be able to
grasp that. Can't YOU see that that is.
the chief beauty of the Hydro-Vapor
Lift? There are no cables to break!
That's the great feature This car may
be loaded with ton after ton; but if
she's overloaded, she simply stops. There
are no risky wire-ropes to snap and let
down the whole affair"
Il know, but there are no wire ropes
to hold her up, either, and
Hawkins snorted angriiy Then he
grabbed me bodily and forced me along
toward the door of his Hydro-Vapor
Lift
Actually. you do make me tired"
he said You seem to think that every
body is conspiring to take your wretched
little life! ~
But what have you against me?"
asked mournfully. Why not let me
out and do your experimenting aloneo"
"Because-Lord knows why I'm do
ing it, you're not important enough to
warrant tim bound to convince you
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