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Title: The Romance of Modern Mechanism

Author: Archibald Williams

Release date: June 25, 2014 [eBook #46094]
Most recently updated: October 24, 2024

Language: English

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Transcriber's Note:
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THE ROMANCE OF
MODERN MECHANISM

A MECHANICAL SCULPTOR
The lower illustration shows the Wenzel Sculpturing Machine at work on two blocks
of stone ranged one on each side of a model. This machine can make four copies
simultaneously from one original. The upper illustration shows the quality of work
done by the automatic sculptor.

THE ROMANCE OF
MODERN MECHANISM
WITH INTERESTING
DESCRIPTIONS IN NON-
TECHNICAL LANGUAGE OF
WONDERFUL MACHINERY
AND MECHANICAL DEVICES
AND MARVELLOUSLY
DELICATE SCIENTIFIC
INSTRUMENTS, &c., &c.

BY

ARCHIBALD WILLIAMS,
B.A., Oxon., F.R.G.S.

AUTHOR OF
"THE ROMANCE OF MODERN INVENTION," "THE ROMANCE OF MODERN
MINING," "THE ROMANCE OF MODERN ENGINEERING,"
"THE ROMANCE OF MODERN EXPLORATION,"
&c. &c.

WITH THIRTY ILLUSTRATIONS

LONDON
SEELEY AND CO. LIMITED

38 GREAT RUSSELL STREET

1910

UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME

THE LIBRARY OF ROMANCE
Extra Crown 8vo. With many illustrations. 5s. each
"Splendid volumes."—The Outlook.
"This series has now won a
considerable and well deserved
reputation."—The Guardian.
"Each volume treats its allotted
theme with accuracy, but at the
same time with a charm that will
commend itself to readers of all
ages. The root idea is excellent, and
it is excellently carried out, with full
illustrations and very prettily
designed covers."—The Daily
Telegraph.

By Prof. G. F. SCOTT ELLIOT, M.A., B.Sc.
THE ROMANCE OF SAVAGE LIFE
THE ROMANCE OF PLANT LIFE
THE ROMANCE OF EARLY BRITISH LIFE

By EDWARD GILLIAT, M.A.
THE ROMANCE OF MODERN SIEGES

By JOHN LEA, M.A.
THE ROMANCE OF BIRD LIFE

By JOHN LEA, M.A., & H. COUPIN, D.Sc.
THE ROMANCE OF ANIMAL ARTS AND CRAFTS

By SIDNEY WRIGHT
THE ROMANCE OF THE WORLD'S FISHERIES

By the Rev. J. C. LAMBERT, M.A., D.D.
THE ROMANCE OF MISSIONARY HEROISM

By G. FIRTH SCOTT
THE ROMANCE OF POLAR EXPLORATION

By ARCHIBALD WILLIAMS, B.A. (Oxon.), F.R.G.S.
THE ROMANCE OF EARLY EXPLORATION
THE ROMANCE OF MODERN EXPLORATION
THE ROMANCE OF MODERN MECHANISM
THE ROMANCE OF MODERN INVENTION

THE ROMANCE OF MODERN ENGINEERING
THE ROMANCE OF MODERN LOCOMOTION
THE ROMANCE OF MODERN MINING

By CHARLES R. GIBSON, A.I.E.E.
THE ROMANCE OF MODERN PHOTOGRAPHY
THE ROMANCE OF MODERN ELECTRICITY
THE ROMANCE OF MODERN MANUFACTURE

By EDMUND SELOUS
THE ROMANCE OF THE ANIMAL WORLD
THE ROMANCE OF INSECT LIFE

By AGNES GIBERNE
THE ROMANCE OF THE MIGHTY DEEP

By E. S. GREW, M.A.
THE ROMANCE OF MODERN GEOLOGY

By J. C. PHILIP, D.Sc., Ph.D.
THE ROMANCE OF MODERN CHEMISTRY

SEELEY & CO., LIMITED

INTRODUCTION

I
n the beginning a man depended for his subsistence entirely upon his
own efforts, or upon those of his immediate relations and friends. Life
was very simple in those days: luxury being unknown, and necessity the
factor which guided man's actions at every turn. With infinite labour he
ground a flint till it assumed the shape of a rough arrow-head, to be attached
to a reed and shot into the heart of some wild beast as soon as he had
approached close enough to be certain of his quarry. The meat thus obtained
he seasoned with such roots and herbs as nature provided—a poor and
scanty choice. Presently he discovered that certain grains supported life
much better than roots, and he became an agriculturist. But the grain must
be ground; so he invented a simple mill—a small stone worked by hand
over a large one; and when this method proved too tedious he so shaped the
stones' surfaces that they touched at all points, and added handles by which
the upper stone could be revolved.
With the discovery of bronze, and, many centuries later, of iron, his
workshop equipment rapidly improved. He became an expert boat- and
house-builder, and multiplied weapons of offence and defence. Gradually
separate crafts arose. One man no longer depended on his individual efforts,
but was content to barter his own work for the products of another man's
labour, because it became evident that specialisation promoted excellence
of manufacture.
A second great step in advance was the employment of machinery,
which, when once fashioned by hand, saved an enormous amount of time
and trouble—the pump, the blowing bellows, the spinning-wheel, the loom.
But all had to be operated by human effort, sometimes replaced by animal
power.
With the advent of the steam-engine all industry bounded forward again.
First harnessed by Watt, Giant Steam has become a commercial and
political power. Everywhere, in mill and factory, locomotive, ship, it has

increased the products which lend ease and comfort to modern life; it is the
great ally of invention, and the ultimate agent for transporting men and
material from one point on the earth's surface to another.
Try as we may, we cannot escape from our environment of mechanism,
unless we are content to revert to the loincloth and spear of the savage.
Society has become so complicated that the utmost efforts of an individual
are, after all, confined to a very narrow groove. The days of the Jack-of-all-
trades are over. Success in life, even bare subsistence, depends on the
concentration of one's faculties upon a very limited daily routine. "Let the
cobbler stick to his last" is a maxim which carries an ever-increasing force.
The better to realise how dependent we are on the mechanisms controlled
by the thousand and one classes of workmen, let us consider the
surroundings, possessions, and movements of the average, well-to-do
business man.
At seven o'clock he wakes, and instinctively feels beneath his pillow for
his watch, a most marvellous assemblage of delicate parts shaped by
wonderful machinery. Before stepping into his bath he must turn a tap, itself
a triumph of mechanical skill. The razor he shaves with, the mirror which
helps him in the operation, the very brush and soap, all are machine-made.
With his clothes he adds to the burden of his indebtedness to mechanism.
The power-loom span the linen for his shirts, the cloth for his outer
garments. Shirts and collars are glossy from the treatment of the steam
laundry, where machinery is rampant. His boots, kept shapely by machine-
made lasts, should remind him that mechanical devices have played a large
part in their manufacture, very possibly the human hand has scarcely had a
single duty to perform.
He goes downstairs, and presses an electric button. Mechanism again.
While waiting for his breakfast his eye roves carelessly over the knives,
spoons, forks, table, tablecloth, wall-paper, engravings, carpet, cruet-stand
—all machine-made in a larger or less degree. The very coals blazing in the
grate were won by machinery; the marble of the mantelpiece was shaped
and polished by machinery; also the fire-irons, the chairs, the hissing kettle.
Machinery stares at him from the loaf on its machine-made board.
Machines prepared the land, sowed, harvested, threshed, ground, and
probably otherwise prepared the grain for baking. Machines ground his salt,

his coffee. Machinery aided the capture of the tempting sole; helped to cure
the rasher of bacon; shaped the dishes, the plates, the coffee-pot.
Whirr-r-r! The motor-car is at the door, throbbing with the impulses of its
concealed machinery. Our friend therefore puts on his machine-made gloves
and hat and sallies forth. That wonderful motor, the product of the most up-
to-date, scientific, and mechanical appliances, bears him swiftly over roads
paved with machine-crushed stone and flattened out by a steam-roller. A
book might be reserved to the motor alone; but we must refrain, for a few
minutes' travel has brought the horseless carriage to the railway station. Mr.
Smith, being the holder of a season ticket, does not trouble the clerk who is
stamping pasteboards with a most ingenious contrivance for automatically
impressing dates and numbers on them. He strolls out on the platform and
buys the morning paper, which, a few hours before, was being battered
about by one of the most wonderful machines that ever was devised by the
brain of man. Mr. Smith doesn't bother his head with thoughts of the
printing-press. Its products are all round him, in timetables and
advertisements. Nor does he ponder upon the giant machinery which
crushed steel ingots into the gleaming rails that stretch into the far distance;
nor upon the marvellous interlocking mechanism of the signal-box at the
platform-end; nor upon the electric wires thrumming overhead. No! he had
seen all these things a thousand times before, and probably feels little of the
romance which lies so thickly upon them.
A whistle blows. The "local" is approaching, with its majestic locomotive
—a very orgy of mechanism—its automatic brakes, its thousand parts all
shaped by mechanical devices,—steam saws, planes, lathes, drills,
hammers, presses. In obedience to a little lever the huge mass comes
quickly to rest; the steam pump on the engine commences to gasp; a minute
later another lever moves, and Mr. Smith is fairly on his way to business.
Arrived at the metropolis, he presses electricity into his service, either on
an electric tram or on a subterranean train. In the latter case he uses an
electric lift, which lowers him into the bowels of the earth, to pass him on to
the current-propelled cars, driven by power generated in far-away stations.
His office is stamped all over with the seal of mechanism. In the lobby
are girls hammering on marvellous typewriters; on his desk rests a
telephone, connected through wires and most elaborately equipped

exchanges with all parts of the country. To get at his private and valuable
papers Mr. Smith must have recourse to his bunch of keys, which, with their
corresponding locks, represent ingenuity of a high degree. All day long he
is in the grasp of mechanism; not even at lunch time can he escape it, for
the food set before him at the restaurant has been cooked by the aid of
special kitchen machinery.
And when the evening draws on Mr. Smith touches a switch to turn his
darkness into light, wrung through many wonderful processes from the
stored illumination of coal.
Were we to trace the daily round of the clerk, artisan, scientist, engineer,
or manufacturer, we should be brought into contact with a thousand other
mechanical appliances. Space forbids such a tour of inspection; but in the
following pages we may rove here and there through the workshops of the
world, gleaning what seems to be of special interest to the general public,
and weaving round it, with a machine-made pen, some of the romance
which is apt to be lost sight of by the most marvellous of all creations—
Man.

AUTHOR'S NOTE
The author desires to express his indebtedness to the following gentlemen
for the kind help they have afforded him in connection with the gathering of
materials for the letterpress and illustration of this book:—
The proprietors of Cassier's Magazine, The Magazine of Commence, The
World's Work, The Motor Boat; The Rexer Automatic Machine Gun Co.;
The Diesel Oil Engine Co.; The Cambridge Scientific Instrument Co.; The
Marconi Wireless Telegraphy Co.; The Temperley Transporter Co.; Messrs.
de Dion, Bouton and Co.; Messrs. Merryweather and Sons; Mr. A. Crosby
Lockwood; Mr. Dan Albone; Mr. J. B. Diplock; Mr. W. H. Oatway; The
National Cash Register Co.; The Wenzel Sculpturing Machine Co.; Mr. E.
W. Gaz; Sir W. G. Armstrong, Whitworth and Co.; The International
Harvester Co. and Messrs. Gwynne and Co.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE

INTRODUCTION v

AUTHOR'S NOTE xi

CHAPTER I

DELICATE INSTRUMENTS — WATCHES
AND CHRONOMETERS — THE
MICROTOME — THE DIVIDING ENGINE —
MEASURING MACHINES 17

CHAPTER II

CALCULATING MACHINES 42

CHAPTER III

WORKSHOP MACHINERY — THE LATHE
— PLANING MACHINES — THE STEAM
HAMMER — HYDRAULIC TOOLS —
ELECTRICAL TOOLS IN THE SHIPYARD 59

CHAPTER IV

PORTABLE TOOLS 90

CHAPTER V

THE PEDRAIL: A WALKING STEAM-
ENGINE 97

CHAPTER VI

INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES — OIL
ENGINES — ENGINES WORKED WITH
PRODUCER GAS — BLAST FURNACE GAS
ENGINES 112

CHAPTER VII

MOTOR-CARS — THE MOTOR OMNIBUS
— RAILWAY MOTOR-CARS 130

CHAPTER VIII

THE MOTOR AFLOAT — PLEASURE BOATS
— MOTOR LIFEBOATS — MOTOR FISHING
BOATS — A MOTOR FIRE FLOAT — THE
MECHANISM OF THE MOTOR BOAT —
THE TWO-STROKE MOTOR — MOTOR
BOATS FOR THE NAVY 150

CHAPTER IX

THE MOTOR CYCLE 175

CHAPTER X

FIRE ENGINES 185

CHAPTER XI

FIRE-ALARMS AND AUTOMATIC FIRE
EXTINGUISHERS 191

CHAPTER XII

THE MACHINERY OF A SHIP — THE
REVERSING ENGINE — MARINE ENGINE
SPEED GOVERNORS — THE STEERING
ENGINE — BLOWING AND VENTILATING
APPARATUS — PUMPS — FEED HEATERS
— FEED-WATER FILTERS — DISTILLERS
— REFRIGERATORS — THE SEARCH-
LIGHT — WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY
INSTRUMENTS — SAFETY DEVICES —
THE TRANSMISSION OF POWER ON A
SHIP 203

CHAPTER XIII

"THE NURSE OF THE NAVY" 236

CHAPTER XIV

THE MECHANISM OF DIVING 240

CHAPTER XV

APPARATUS FOR RAISING SUNKEN SHIPS
AND TREASURE 248

CHAPTER XVI

THE HANDLING OF GRAIN — THE
ELEVATOR — THE SUCTION PNEUMATIC
GRAIN-LIFTER — THE PNEUMATIC BLAST
GRAIN-LIFTER — THE COMBINED
SYSTEM 252

CHAPTER XVII

MECHANICAL TRANSPORTERS AND
CONVEYERS — ROPEWAYS —
CABLEWAYS — TELPHERAGE —
COALING WARSHIPS AT SEA 258

CHAPTER XVIII

AUTOMATIC WEIGHERS 274

CHAPTER XIX

TRANSPORTER BRIDGES 277

CHAPTER XX

BOAT- AND SHIP-RAISING LIFTS 283

CHAPTER XXI

A SELF-MOVING STAIRCASE 295

CHAPTER XXII

PNEUMATIC MAIL TUBES 301

CHAPTER XXIII

AN ELECTRIC POSTAL SYSTEM 315

CHAPTER XXIV

AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY — 318
PLOUGHS — DRILLS AND SEEDERS —

REAPING MACHINES — THRESHING
MACHINES — PETROL-DRIVEN FIELD
MACHINERY — ELECTRICAL FARMING
MACHINERY

CHAPTER XXV

DAIRY MACHINERY — MILKING
MACHINES — CREAM SEPARATORS — A
MACHINE FOR DRYING MILK 330

CHAPTER XXVI

SCULPTURING MACHINES 335

CHAPTER XXVII

AN AUTOMATIC RIFLE — A BALL-
BEARING RIFLE 345

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

A CARVING MACHINE Fron
tispie
ce

MEASURING MACHINES 34

A CASH REGISTER 45

LATHE TURNING A BIG GUN 59

LATHE FOR BORING 16-INCH GUN 65

A STEAM HAMMER 72

A HUGE HYDRAULIC PRESS 82

A PEDRAIL TRACTION ENGINE 108

GREAT GAS ENGINE FOR BLAST
FURNACES 128

MOTOR-CAR AND MOTOR-BOAT 151

A MOTOGODILLE 156

A MOTOR LAWN MOWER 182

UP-TO-DATE FIRE BRIGADE ENGINES 186

HOISTING A HEAVY GUN ON BOARD
MAN-OF-WAR 204

FIXING A RAM TO A BATTLESHIP 228

A TRIPOD CRANE 237

MODERN DIVING APPARATUS 245

COALING AT SEA 271

A TRANSPORTER BRIDGE AT BIZERTA 278

A CANAL LIFT 289

AN AMERICAN CUTTER AND BINDER 322

A MOTOR PLOUGH 327

GIRL CARVING BY MACHINERY 343

THE REXER GUN 352

THE ROMANCE OF
MODERN MECHANISM

CHAPTER I

DELICATE INSTRUMENTS

WATCHES AND CHRONOMETERS — THE MICROTOME — THE DIVIDING ENGINE —
MEASURING MACHINES

O
wing to the universal use of watches, resulting from their cheapness,
the possessor of a pocket timepiece soon ceases to take a pride in the
delicate mechanism which at first added an inch or two to his stature.
At night it is wound up mechanically, and thrust under the pillow, to be safe
from imaginary burglars and handy when the morning comes. The
awakened sleeper feels small gratitude to his faithful little servant, which all
night long has been beating out the seconds so that its master may know
just where he is with regard to "the enemy" on the morrow. At last a hand is
slipped under the feather-bag, and the watch is dragged from its snug
hiding-place. "Bother it," says the sleepy owner, "half-past eight; ought to
have been up an hour ago!" and out he tumbles. Dressing concluded, the
watch passes to its day quarters in a darksome waistcoat pocket, to be
hauled out many times for its opinion to be taken.
The real usefulness of a watch is best learnt by being without one for a
day or two. There are plenty of clocks about, but not always in sight; and
one gradually experiences a mild irritation at having to step round the
corner to find out what the hands are doing.

A truly wonderful piece of machinery is a watch—even a cheap one. An
expensive, high-class article is worthy of our admiration and respect. Here
is one that has been in constant use for fifty years. Twice a second its little
balance-wheel revolves on its jewelled bearings. Allowing a few days for
repairs, we find by calculation that the watch has made no less than three
thousand million movements in the half-century! And still it goes ticking
on, ready to do another fifty years' work. How beautifully tempered must be
the springs and the steel faces which are constantly rubbing against jewel or
metal! How perfectly cut the teeth which have engaged one another times
innumerable without showing appreciable wear!
The chief value of a good watch lies in its accuracy as a time-keeper. It
is, of course, easy to correct it by standard clocks in the railway stations or
public buildings; but one may forget to do this, and in a week or two a loss
of a few minutes may lead to one missing a train, or being late for an
important engagement. Happy, therefore, is the man who, having set his
watch to "London time," can rely on its not varying from accuracy a minute
in a week—a feat achieved by many watches.
The old-fashioned watch was a bulky affair, protected by an outer case of
ample proportions. From year to year the size has gradually diminished,
until we can now purchase a reliable article no thicker than a five-shilling
piece, which will not offend the most fastidious dandy by disarranging the
fit of his clothes. Into the space of a small fraction of an inch is crowded all
the usual mechanism, reduced to the utmost fineness. Watches have even
been constructed small enough to form part of a ring or earring, without
losing their time-keeping properties.
For practical purposes, however, it is advantageous to have a timepiece of
as large a size as may be convenient, since the difficulties of adjustment and
repair increase with decreasing proportions. The ship's chronometer,
therefore, though of watch construction, is a big affair as compared with the
pocket timepiece; for above all things it must be accurate.
The need for this arises from the fact that nautical reckonings made by
the observation of the heavenly bodies include an element of time. We will
suppose a vessel to be at sea out of sight of land. The captain, by referring
to the dial of the "mechanical log," towed astern, can reckon pretty
accurately how far the vessel has travelled since it left port; but owing to

winds and currents he is not certain of the position on the globe's surface at
which his ship has arrived. To locate this exactly he must learn (a) his
longitude, i.e. distance E. or W. of Greenwich, (b) his latitude, i.e. distance
N. or S. of the Equator. Therefore, when noon approaches, his chronometers
and sextant are got out, and at the moment when the sun crosses the
meridian the time is taken. If this moment happens to coincide with four
o'clock on the chronometers he is as far west of Greenwich as is represented
by four twenty-fourths of the 360° into which the earth's circumference is
divided; that is, he is in longitude 60° W. The sextant gives him the angle
made by a line drawn to the sun with another drawn to the horizon, and
from that he calculates his latitude. Then he adjourns to the chart-room,
where, by finding the point at which the lines of longitude and latitude
intersect, he establishes his exact position also.
When the ship leaves England the chronometer is set by Greenwich time,
and is never touched afterwards except to be wound once a day. In order
that any error may be reduced to a minimum a merchant ship carries at least
two chronometers, a man-of-war at least three, and a surveying vessel as
many as a dozen. The average reading of the chronometers is taken to work
by.
Taking the case of a single chronometer, it has often to be relied on for
months at a time, and during that period has probably to encounter many
changes of temperature. If it gains or loses from day to day, and that
consistently, it may still be accounted reliable, as the amount of error will
be allowed for in all calculations. But should it gain one day and lose
another, the accumulated errors would, on a voyage of several months,
become so considerable as to imperil seriously the safety of the vessel if
navigating dangerous waters.
As long ago as 1714 the English Government recognised the importance
of a really reliable chronometer, and in that year passed an Act offering
rewards of £10,000, £15,000, and £20,000 to anybody who should produce
a chronometer that would fix longitude within sixty, forty, and thirty miles
respectively of accuracy. John Harrison, the son of a Yorkshire carpenter,
who had already invented the ingenious "gridiron pendulum" for
compensating clocks, took up the challenge. By 1761 he had made a
chronometer of so perfect a nature that during a voyage to Jamaica that

1
year, and back the next, it lost only 1 min. 54 2 sec. As this would enable a
captain to find his longitude within eighteen miles in the latitude of
Greenwich, Harrison claimed, and ultimately received, the maximum
reward.
It was not till nearly a century later that Thomas Earnshaw produced the
"compensation balance," now generally used on chronometers and high-
class watches. In cheap watches the balance is usually a little three-spoked
wheel, which at every tick revolves part of a turn and then flies back again.
This will not suffice for very accurate work, because the "moment of
inertia" varies at different temperatures. To explain this term let us suppose
that a man has a pound of metal to make into a wheel. If the wheel be of
small diameter, you will be able to turn it first one way and then the other
on its axle quite easily. But should it be melted down and remade into a
wheel of four times the diameter, with the same amount of metal as before
in the rim, the difficulty of suddenly reversing its motion will be much
increased. The weight is the same, but the speed of the rim, and
consequently its momentum, is greater. It is evident from this that, if a
wheel of certain size be driven by a spring of constant strength, its
oscillations will be equal in time; but if a rise of temperature should
lengthen the spokes the speed would fall, because the spring would have
more work to do; and, conversely, with a fall of temperature the speed
would rise. Earnshaw's problem was to construct a balance wheel that
should be able to keep its "moment of inertia" constant under all
circumstances. He therefore used only two spokes to his wheel, and to the
outer extremity of each attached an almost complete semicircle of rim, one
end being attached to the spoke, the other all but meeting the other spoke.
The rim-pieces were built up of an outer strip of brass, and an inner strip of
steel welded together. Brass expands more rapidly than steel, with the result
that a bar compounded of these two metals would, when heated, bend
towards the hollow side. To the rim-pieces were attached sliding weights,
adjustable to the position found by experiment to give the best results.
We can now follow the action of the balance wheel. It runs perfectly
correctly at, say, a temperature of 60°. Hold it over a candle. The spokes
lengthen, and carry the rim-pieces outwards at their fixed ends; but, as the
pieces themselves bend inwards at their free ends, the balance is restored. If

the balance were placed in a refrigerating machine, the spokes would
shorten, but the rim-pieces would bend outwards.
As a matter of fact, the "moment of inertia" cannot be kept quite constant
by this method, because the variation of expansion is more rapid in cold
than in heat; so that, though a balance might be quite reliable between 60°
and 100°, it would fail between 30° and 60°. So the makers fit their
balances with what is called a secondary compensation, the effect of which
is to act more quickly in high than in low temperatures. This could not well
be explained without diagrams, so a mere mention must suffice.
Another detail of chronometer making which requires very careful
treatment is the method of transmitting power from the main spring to the
works. As the spring uncoils, its power must decrease, and this loss must be
counterbalanced somehow. This is managed by using the "drum and fusee"
action, which may be seen in some clocks and in many old watches. The
drum is cylindrical, and contains the spring. The fusee is a tapering shaft, in
which a spiral groove has been cut from end to end. A very fine chain
connects the two parts. The key is applied to the fusee, and the chain is
wound off the drum on to the larger end of the fusee first. By the time that
the spring has been fully wound, the chain has reached the fusee's smaller
extremity. If the fusee has been turned to the correct taper, the driving
power of the spring will remain constant as it unwinds, for it gets least
leverage over the fusee when it is strongest, and most when it is weakest,
the intermediate stages being properly proportioned. To test this, a weighted
lever is attached to the key spindle, with the weight so adjusted that the
fully wound spring has just sufficient power to lift it over the topmost point
of a revolution. It is then allowed a second turn, but if the weight now
proves excessive something must be wrong, and the fusee needs its
diameter reducing at that point. So the test goes on from turn to turn, and
alterations are made until every revolution is managed with exactly the
same ease.
The complete chronometer is sent to Greenwich observatory to be tested
against the Standard Clock, which, at 10 a.m., flashes the hour to other
clocks all over Great Britain. In a special room set apart for the purpose are
hundreds of instruments, some hanging up, others lying flat. Assistants
make their rounds, noting the errors on each. The temperature test is then
applied in special ovens, and finally the article goes back to the maker with

a certificate setting forth its performances under different conditions. If the
error has been consistent the instrument is sold, the buyer being informed
exactly what to allow for each day's error. At the end of the voyage he
brings his chronometer to be tested again, and, if necessary, put right.
Here are the actual variations of a chronometer during a nineteen-day
test, before being used:—
Gain in Gain in
tenths tenths
Day. Day.
of of
seconds. seconds.

1st ½ 11th 4
2nd 3 12th 3
3rd 4 13th 3
4th 4 14th 4
5th ½ 15th 5
6th 3 16th 2
7th 0 17th 3
8th 0 18th 5
9th 4½ 19th 1
10th 3
An average gain of just over one quarter of a second per diem! Quite
extraordinary feats of time-keeping have been recorded of chronometers on
long voyages. Thus a chronometer which had been to Australia viâ the Cape
and back viâ the Red Sea was only fifteen seconds "out"; and the
Encyclopædia Britannica quotes the performance of the three instruments
of s.s. Orellana, which between them accumulated an error of but 2·3
seconds during a sixty-three-day trip.
An instrument which will cut a blood corpuscle into several parts—that's
the Microtome, the "small-cutter," as the name implies.
For the examination of animal tissues it is necessary that they should be
sliced very fine before they are subjected to the microscope. Perhaps a tiny
muscle is being investigated and cross sections of it are needed. Well, one

cannot pick up the muscle and cut slices off it as you would off a German
sausage. To begin with, it is difficult even to pick the object up; and even if
pieces one-hundredth of an inch long were detached they would still be far
too large for examination.
So, as is usually the case when our unaided powers prove unequal to a
task, we have recourse to a machine. There are several types of microtomes,
each preferable for certain purposes. But as in ordinary laboratory work the
Cambridge Rocking Microtome is used, let us give our special attention to
this particular instrument. It is mounted on a strong cast-iron bed, a foot or
so in length and four to five inches wide. Towards one end rise a couple of
supports terminating in knife-edges, which carry a cross-bar, itself provided
with knife-edges top and bottom, those on the top supporting a second
transverse bar. Both bars have a long leg at right angles, giving them the
appearance of two large T's superimposed one on the other; but the top T is
converted into a cross by a fourth member—a sliding tube which projects
forward towards a frame in which is clamped a razor, edge upwards.
The tail of the lower T terminates in a circular disc, pierced with a hole to
accommodate the end of a vertical screw, which has a large circular head
with milled edges. The upper T is rocked up and down by a cord and spring,
the handle actuating the cord also shifting on the milled screw-head a very
small distance every time it is rocked backwards and forwards. As the screw
turns, it gradually raises the tail of the lower member, and by giving its
cross-bar a tilt brings the tube of the upper member appreciably nearer the
razor. The amount of twist given to the screw at each stroke can be easily
regulated by a small catch.
When the microscopist wishes to cut sections he first mounts his object
in a lump of hard paraffin wax, coated with softer wax. The whole is stuck
on to the face of the tube, so as to be just clear of the razor.
The operator then seizes the handle and works it rapidly until the first
slice is detached by the razor. Successive slices are stuck together by their
soft edges so as to form a continuous ribbon of wax, which can be picked
up easily and laid on a glass slide. The slide is then warmed to melt the
paraffin, which is dissolved away by alcohol, leaving the atoms of tissue
untouched. These, after being stained with some suitable medium, are ready
for the microscope.

A skilful user can, under favourable conditions, cut slices one twenty-five
thousandth of an inch thick. To gather some idea of what this means we will
imagine that a cucumber one foot long and one and a-half inches in
diameter is passed through this wonderful guillotine. It would require no
less than 700 dinner-plates nine inches across to spread the pieces on! If the
slices were one-eighth of an inch thick, the cucumber, to keep a
proportionate total size, would be 260 feet long. After considering these
figures we shall lose some of the respect we hitherto felt for the men who
cut the ham to put inside luncheon-bar sandwiches.
In the preceding pages frequent reference has been made to index screws,
exactly graduated to a convenient number of divisions. When such screws
have to be manufactured in quantities it would be far too expensive a matter
to measure each one separately. Therefore machinery, itself very carefully
graduated, is used to enable a workman to transfer measurements to a disc
of metal.
If the index-circle of an astronomical telescope—to take an instance—
has to be divided, it is centred on a large horizontal disc, the circumference
of which has been indented with a large number of teeth. A worm-screw
engages these teeth tangentially (i.e. at right angles to a line drawn from the
centre of the plate to the point of engagement). On the shaft of the screw is
a ratchet pinion, in principle the same as the bicycle free-wheel, which,
when turned one way, also twists the screw, but has no effect on it when
turned the other way. Stops are put on the screw, so that it shall rotate the
large disc only the distance required between any two graduations. The
divisions are scribed on the index-circle by a knife attached to a carriage
over and parallel to the disc. The Dividing Engine used for the graduation of
certain astronomical instruments probably constitutes the most perfect
machine ever made. In an address to the Institution of Mechanical
Engineers,[1] the President, Mr. William Henry Maw, used the following
words: "The most recently constructed machine of the kind of which I am
aware—namely, one made by Messrs. Warner and Swasey, of Cleveland,
U.S.A.—is capable of automatically cutting the graduations of a circle with
an error in position not exceeding one second of arc. (A second of an arc is
approximately the angle subtended by a halfpenny at a distance of three
miles.) This means that on a 20-inch circle the error in position of any one
1
graduation shall not exceed 20,000 inch. Now, the finest line which would be

of any service for reading purposes on such a circle would probably have a
width equal to quite ten seconds of arc; and it follows that the minute V-
shaped cut forming this line must be so absolutely symmetrical with its
centre line throughout its length, that the position of this centre may be
determined within the limit of error just stated by observations of its edges,
made by aid of the reading micrometer and microscope. I may say that after
the machine just mentioned had been made, it took over a year's hard work
to reduce the maximum error in its graduations from one and a-half to one
second of arc."
The same address contains a reference to the great Yerkes telescope,
which though irrelevant to our present chapter, affords so interesting an
example of modern mechanical perfection that it deserves parenthetic
mention.
The diameter of a star of the seventh magnitude as it appears in the focus
1
of this huge telescope is 2,500 inch. The spiders' webs stretched across the
1
object glass are about 6,000 inch in diameter. "The problem thus is," says Mr.
Maw, "to move this twenty-two ton mass (the telescope) with such
1
steadiness in opposition to the motion of the earth, that a star disc 2,500 inch
1
in diameter can be kept threaded, as it were, upon a spider's web 6,000 inch in
diameter, carried at a radius of thirty-two feet from the centre of motion. I
think that you will agree that this is a problem in mechanical engineering
demanding no slight skill to solve; but it has been solved, and with the most
satisfactory results." The motions are controlled electrically; and respecting
them Professor Barnard, one of the chief observers with this telescope,
some time ago wrote as follows: "It is astonishing to see with what perfect
instantaneousness the clock takes up the tube. The electric slow motions are
controlled from the eye end. So exact are they that a star can be brought
from the edge of the field and stopped instantaneously behind the
micrometer wire."
Dividing engines are used for ruling parallel lines on glass and metal, to
aid in the measurements of microscopical objects or the wave-lengths of
light. A diffraction grating, used for measuring the latter, has the lines so
close together that they would be visible only under a powerful microscope.

Glass being too brittle, a special alloy of so-called speculum metal is
fashioned into a highly polished plate, and this is placed in the machine. A
delicate screw arrangement gradually feeds the plate forwards under the
diamond point, which is automatically drawn across the plate between
every two movements. Professor H. A. Rowlands has constructed a parallel
dividing engine which has ruled as many as 120,000 lines to the inch. To
get a conception of these figures we must once again resort to comparison.
Let us therefore take a furrow as a line, and imagine a ploughman going up
and down a field 120,000 times. If each furrow be eight inches wide, the
field would require a breadth of nearly fourteen miles to accommodate all
the furrows! Again, supposing that a plate six inches square were being
ruled, the lines placed end to end would extend for seventy miles!
Professor Rowlands' machine does the finest work of this kind. Another
very perfect instrument has been built by Lord Blythswood, and as some
particulars of it have been kindly supplied, they may fitly be appended.
If a first-class draughtsman were asked how many parallel straight lines
he would rule within the space of one inch, it is doubtful whether he would
undertake more than 150 to 200 lines. Lord Blythswood's machine can rule
fourteen parallel lines on a space equivalent to the edge of the finest tissue
paper. So delicate are the movements of the machine that it must be
protected from variations of temperature, which would contract or expand
its parts; so the room in which it stands is kept at an even heat by automatic
apparatus, and to make things doubly sure the engine is further sheltered in
a large case having double walls inter-packed with cotton wool.
In constructing the machine it was found impossible, with the most
scientific tools, to cut a toothed wheel sufficiently accurate to drive the
mechanism, but the errors discovered by microscopes were made good by
the invention of a small electro-plating brush, which added the thinnest
imaginable layer of metal to any tooth found deficient.
During the process of ruling a grating of only a few square inches area,
the machine must be left severely alone in its closed case. The slightest jar
would cause unparallelism of a few lines, and the ruin of the whole grating.
So for several days the diamond point has its own way, moving backwards
and forwards unceasingly over the hard metal, in which it chases tiny
grooves. At the end the plate has the appearance of mother-of-pearl, which

is, in fact, one of nature's diffraction gratings, breaking up white light into
the colours of the spectrum.
You will be able to understand that these mechanical gratings are
expensive articles. Sometimes the diamond point breaks half-way through
the ruling, and a week's work is spoilt. Also the creation of a reliable
machine is a very tedious business. Ten pounds per square inch of grating is
a low price to pay.
The greatest difficulty met with in the manufacture of the dividing engine
is that of obtaining a mathematically correct screw. Turning on a lathe
produces a very rough spiral, judged scientifically. Some threads will be
deeper than others, and differently spaced. The screw must, therefore, be
ground with emery and oil introduced between it and a long nut which is
made in four segments, and provided with collars for tightening it up
against the screw. Perhaps a fortnight may be expended over the grinding.
Then the screw must undergo rigid tests, a nut must be made for it, and it
has to be mounted in proper bearings. The explanation of the method of
eliminating errors being very technical, it is omitted; but an idea of the care
required may be gleaned from Professor Rowlands' statement that an
1
uncorrected error of 300,000 of an inch is quite sufficient to ruin a grating!

In the Houses of Parliament there is kept at an even temperature a bronze
rod, thirty-eight inches long and an inch square in section. Near the ends are
two wells, rather more than half an inch deep, and at the bottom of the wells
are gold studs, each engraved with a delicate cross line on their polished
surfaces. The distance between the lines is the imperial yard of thirty-six
inches.
The bar was made in 1844 to replace the Standard destroyed in 1834,
when both Houses of Parliament were burned. The original Standard was
the work of Bird, who produced it in 1760. In June, 1824, an Act had been
passed legalising this Standard. It says:—
"The same Straight Line or Distance between the Centers of the said Two
Points in the said Gold Studs in the said Brass Rod, the Brass being at the
temperature of Sixty-two Degrees by Fahrenheit's Thermometer, shall be
and is hereby denominated the 'Imperial Standard Yard.'"

To provide for accidents to the bar, the Act continues: "And whereas it is
expedient that the said Standard Yard, if lost, destroyed, defaced, or
otherwise injured, should be restored to the same Length by reference to
some invariable natural Standard: And whereas it has been ascertained by
the Commissioners appointed by His Majesty to inquire into the subject of
Weights and Measures, that the Yard hereby declared to be the Imperial
Standard Yard, when compared with a Pendulum vibrating Seconds of
Mean Time in the Latitude of London in a Vacuum at the Level of the Sea,
is in the proportion of Thirty-six Inches to Thirty-nine Inches and one
thousand three hundred and ninety-three ten-thousandth Parts of an Inch."
The new bar was made, however, not by this method, but by comparing
several copies of the original and striking their average length. Four
accurate duplicates of the new standard were secured, one of which is kept
in the Mint, one in the charge of the Royal Society, one at Westminster
Palace, and the fourth at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. In addition,
forty copies were distributed among the various foreign governments, all of
the same metal as the original.
The French metre has also been standardised, being equal to one ten-
millionth part of a quadrant of the earth's meridian (i.e. of the distance from
the Equator to either of the Poles), that is, to 39·370788 inches. Professor A.
A. Michelson has shown that any standard of length may be restored by
reference to the measurement of wave lengths of light, with an error not
exceeding one ten-millionth part of the whole.
It might be asked "Why should standards of such great accuracy be
required?" In rough work, such as carpentry, it does not, indeed, matter if
measurements are the hundredth of an inch or so out. But when we have to
deal with scientific instruments, telescopes, measuring machines, engines
for dividing distances on a scale, or even with metal turning, the utmost
accuracy becomes needful; and a number of instruments will be much more
alike in all dimensions if compared individually with a common standard
than if they were only compared with one another. Supposing, for instance,
a bar of exact diameter is copied; the copy itself copied; and so on a dozen
times; the last will probably vary considerably from the correct
measurements.

Hence it became necessary to standardise the foot and the inch by
accurate subdivisions of the yard. This was accomplished by Sir Joseph
Whitworth, who in 1834 obtained two standard yards in the form of
measure bars, and by the aid of microscopes transferred the distance
between the engraved lines to a rectangular end-measure bar, i.e. one of
which the end faces are exactly a yard apart.
He next constructed his famous machine which is capable of detecting
length differences of one millionth of an inch. Two bars are advanced
towards each other by screw gearing: one by a screw having twenty threads
to the inch, and carrying a graduated hand-wheel with 250 divisions on its
rim; the other by a similar screw, itself driven by a worm-screw, working on
the rim, which carries 200 teeth. The worm-screw has a hand-wheel with a
micrometer graduation into 250 divisions of its circumference. So that, if
1 1
this be turned one division, the second screw is turned only 250 × 200 of a
1 1 1 1
division, and the bar it drives advances only 20 × 200 × 250 = 1,000,000 of an
inch. The screw at the other end of the machine (which in appearance
somewhat resembles a metal lathe) is used for rapid adjustment only.

DELICATE MEASURING MACHINES
The upper illustration shows a Pratt-Whitney Measuring Machine in
operation to decide the thickness of a cigarette paper, which is one-
thousandth of an inch thick. This machine will measure variations of
length or thickness as minute as one hundredth-thousandth of an inch.
The lower illustration shows a Whitworth Measuring Machine which
is sensitive to variations of one-millionth of an inch.

"He (Sir J. Whitworth) obtained the subdivision of the yard by making
three foot pieces as nearly alike as was possible, and working these foot
pieces down until each was equal to the others, and placing them end to end

in his millionth measuring machine; the total length of the three foot pieces
was then compared with a standard end-measure yard. These three foot
pieces were ground until they were exactly equal to each other, and the
three added together are equal to the standard yard. The subdivision of the
foot into inch pieces was made in the same way."[2]
A doubt may have arisen in the reader's mind as to the possibility of
determining whether the measuring machine is screwed up to the exact
tightness. Would the measuring bars not compress a body a little before it
appeared tight? Workmen, when measuring a bar with callipers, often judge
by the sense of touch whether the jaws of the callipers pass the bar with the
proper amount of resistance; but when one has to deal with millionths of an
inch, such a method would not suffice. So Sir Joseph Whitworth introduced
a feeling-piece, or gravity-piece. Mr. T. M. Goodeve thus describes it in The
Elements of Mechanism: The gravity-piece consists of a small plate of steel
with parallel plane sides, and having slender arms, one for its partial
support, and the other for resting on the finger of the observer. One arm of
the piece rests on a part of the bed of the machine, and the other arm is
tilted up by the forefinger of the operator. The plane surfaces are then
brought together, one on each side of the feeling-piece, until the pressure of
contact is sufficient to hold it supported just as it remained when one end
rested on the finger. This degree of tightness is perfectly definite, and
depends on the weight of the gravity-piece, but not on the estimation of the
observer.
In this way the expansion due to heat when a 36-inch bar has been
touched for an instant with the finger-nail may be detected.
One of the most beautiful measuring machines commercially used comes
from the factories of the Pratt-Whitney Co., Hartford, Connecticut, the
well-known makers of machine tools and gauges of all kinds. It is made in
1
different sizes, the largest admitting an 80-inch bar. Variations of 100,000 of an
inch are readily determined by the use of this machine. It therefore serves
for originating gauge sizes, or for duplicating existing standards. The
adjusting screw has fifty threads to the inch, and its index-wheel is
1
graduated to 400 divisions, giving an advance of 20,000 inch for each
division: while by estimation this may be further subdivided to indicate
one-half or even one-quarter of this small amount. Delicacy of contact

between the measuring faces is obtained by the use of auxiliary jaws
holding a small cylindrical gauge by the pressure of a light helical spring
which operates the sliding spindle to which one of these auxiliary jaws is
attached.
On one side of the "head" of the machine is a vertical microscope
directed downwards on to a bar on the bed-plate, in which are a number of
polished steel plugs graved with very fine central cross lines, each exactly
an inch distant from either of its neighbours. A cross wire in the microscope
tells when it is accurately abreast of the line below it. Supposing, then, that
a standard bar three inches in diameter has to be tested. The "head" is slid
along until the microscope is exactly over the "zero" plug line, and the
divided index-wheel is turned until the two jaws press each other with the
minimum force that will hold up the feeling-piece. Then the head is moved
back and centred on the 3-inch line, and the bar to be tested is passed
between the jaws. If the feeling-piece drops out it is too large, and the wheel
is turned back until the jaws have been opened enough to let the bar through
without making the feeling-piece fall. An examination of the index-wheel
shows in hundred-thousandths of an inch what the excess diameter is.
On the other hand, if the bar were too small, the jaws would need to be
closed a trifle: this amount being similarly reckoned.
We have now got into a region of very "practical politics," namely, the
subject of gauges. All large engineering works which turn out machinery
with interchangeable parts, e.g. screws and nuts, must keep their
dimensions very constant if purchasers are not to be disgusted and
disappointed. The small motor machinery so much in evidence to-day
demands that errors should be kept within the ten-thousandth of an inch. An
engineer therefore possesses a set of standard gauges to test the diameter
and pitch of his screw threads and nuts; the size of tubes, wires; the
circumference of wheels, etc.
Great inconvenience having been experienced by American railroad-car
builders on account of the varying sizes of the screws and bolts which were
used on the different tracks—though all were supposed to be of standard
dimensions—the masters determined to put things right; and accordingly
Professors Roger and Bond and the Pratt-Whitney Co. were engaged to
work in collaboration in connection with the manufacture of tools for

1
minute measurements, viz. to 50,000 inch. "To give an idea of what is implied
by this, let it be supposed that a person should take a pair of dividing
1
compasses and lay off 50,000 prick-marks 8 inch apart in a straight line. To
do this the line would require to be over 520 feet, or nearly a tenth of a mile
long. Imagine that many prick-marks compressed into the space of an inch,
and you have an imperfect idea of the minuteness of the measurements
which can now be made by the Pratt and Whitney Co."[3]
The standard taps and dies were supplied to tool-makers and engineers,
who could thus determine whether articles supplied to them were of the
proper dimensions. Nothing more was then heard of nuts being a "trifle
small" or bolts "a leetle large." And so beautifully tempered were the dies
made from the standards that one manufacturer claimed to have cut 18,800
cold-pressed nuts without any difference being perceptible in their sizes.
To appreciate what the difference of a thousandth of an inch makes in a
true fit, you should handle a set of plug and ring gauges; the ring a true half-
inch internally, the plugs half-inch, half an inch less one ten-thousandth of
an inch, and half an inch less one-thousandth, in diameter.
The true half-inch plug needs to be forcibly driven into the ring on
account of the friction between the surfaces. The next, if oiled, will slide in
quite easily, but if left stationary a moment will "seize," and have to be
driven out. The third will wobble very perceptibly, and would be at once
discarded by a good workman as a bad fit.
For extremely accurate measurements of rods, calliper gauges, shaped
somewhat like the letter Y, are used, the horns terminating in polished
1
parallel jaws. Such a gauge will detect a difference of 20,000 inch quite easily.

So accurately can plug gauges be made by reference to a measuring
1
machine, that a gold leaf 30,000 inch thick would be three times too thick to
insert between the gauge and the jaws of the machine!
You must remember that in high-class workmanship these gauges are
constantly being used. As time goes on, the "limit of error" allowed in many
classes of machine parts is gradually lessened, which shows the
simultaneous improvement of all machinery used in the handling of metal.

James Watt was terribly hampered, when developing his steam-engine, by
the difficulty of procuring a true cylinder for his pistons to work in with any
approach to steam-tightness. His first cylinder was made by a smith of
hammered iron soldered together. The next was cast and bored, but stuffing
it with paper, cork, putty, pasteboard, and "old hat" proved useless to stem
the leakage of steam. No wonder, considering that the finished cylinder was
one-eighth of an inch larger in diameter at one end than at the other. Watt
was in advance of his time. Neither machinery nor workmanship had
progressed sufficiently to meet the requirements of the steam-engine. To-
day an engineer would confidently undertake to bore a cylinder five feet in
diameter with a variation from truth of not more than one five-hundredth of
an inch.
Before passing from the subject of measuring machines, which play so
important a part in modern mechanism, we may just glance at the electrical
method of Dr. P. E. Shaw. He discovered recently that two clean metal
surfaces can, by means of an electric current, feel one another on touching
with a delicacy that far transcends that of the purely mechanical machine.
The mechanism he employs is thus devised: A finely cut vertical screw
having fifty threads to the inch has a disc graduated into 500 parts. The
screw can be turned by means of a pulley string from a distance, and it is
1
thus possible to give the top end of the screw a movement of 25,000 inch,
when a movement corresponding to one graduation is made.
This small movement is reduced by a train of six levers, the long arm of
each bearing on the short arm of the one before it. The movement of the last
1
lever of the train is thus reduced to 4,000 of that of the screw point, so a
1 1 1
movement of 4,000 × 25,000 × = 1,00,000,000 inch is obtained!

How can such a movement be judged? A telephone and voltaic cell are
joined to the last lever of the train and to the object whose movement is
under examination. If they touch, the telephone sounds. An observer listens
in the telephone, and if the object moves for any reason he can find out how
much it moves by turning the screw until contact is made again.
Out of the many applications of this apparatus three may be given.

1
(1) A short bar of iron when magnetised elongates about 1,000,000 of its
length. If further magnetised it contracts. These changes can readily be
measured with the instrument.
(2) The smallest sound audible in the telephone is due to a movement of
1
the diaphragm of the telephone by about 50,000,000 of an inch. This has been
actually measured by Dr. Shaw and is by far the smallest distance ever
directly recorded. It is about twice the diameter of the molecules of matter.
(3) Dispensing with levers, the screw alone is used for rougher work. Dr.
Shaw has shown that one hundred-thousandth of an inch is the smallest
dimension visible under a microscope. By fitting an electric measuring
apparatus to the microscope carriage it becomes quite easy to measure
minute distances. The microscope contains a cross wire which, when the
object has been laid on the microscope stage, is centred on one side of the
object. The electric contact screw is then advanced till it makes contact with
the stage and a sound arises in the telephone. A reading of the screw disc
having been taken, the screw is drawn in and the microscope stage is
traversed sufficiently to bring the wire in line with the other side of the
object. Once more the operator makes electrical contact and gets a second
reading, the difference between the two being the diameter of the object. In
this manner the bacillus of tuberculosis has been proved to have an average
31
diameter of 250,000 of an inch.

The same method is employed to gauge the distance between the lines on
a diffraction grating.

FOOTNOTES:

1. April 19th, 1901.

2. G. M. Bond in a lecture delivered before the Franklin Institute, February 29th, 1884.

3. Report on Standard Screw Threads, Philadelphia, 1884.

CHAPTER II

CALCULATING MACHINES

T
he simplest form of calculating machine was the Abacus, on which the
schoolboys of ancient Greece did their sums. It consisted of a smooth
board with a narrow rim, on which were arranged rows of pebbles, bits
of bone or ivory, or silver coins. By replacing these little counters by sand,
strewn evenly all over its surface, the abacus was transformed into a slate
for writing or geometrical lessons. The Romans took the abacus, along with
many other spoils of conquest, from the Greeks and improved it, dividing it
by means of cross-lines, and assigning a multiple value to each line with
regard to its neighbours. From their method of using the calculi, or pebbles,
we derive our English verb, to calculate.
During the Middle Ages the abacus still flourished, and it has left a
further mark on our language by giving its name to the Court of Exchequer,
in which was a table divided into chequered squares like this simple school
appliance.
Step by step further improvements were made, most important among
them being those of Napier of Merchiston, whose logarithms vex the heads
of our youth, and save many an hour's calculation to people who understand
how to handle them. Sir Samuel Morland, Gunter, and Lamb invented other
contrivances suitable for trigonometrical problems. Gersten and Pascal
harnessed trains of wheels to their "ready-reckoners," somewhat similar to
the well-known cyclometer.
All these devices faded into insignificance when Mr. Charles Babbage
came on the scene with his famous calculator, which is probably the most
ingenious piece of mechanism ever devised by the human brain. To describe
the "Difference Engine," as it is called, would be impossible, so
complicated is its character. Dr. Lardner, who had a wonderful command of
language, and could explain details in a manner so lucid that his words
could almost always be understood in the absence of diagrams, occupied
twenty-five pages of the Edinburgh Review in the endeavour to describe its

working, but gave several features up as a bad job. Another clever writer,
Dr. Samuel Smiles, frankly shuns the task, and satisfies himself with the
following brief description:—
"Some parts of the apparatus and modes of action are indeed
extraordinary—and, perhaps, none more so than that for ensuring accuracy
in the calculated results—the machine actually correcting itself, and
rubbing itself back into accuracy, by the friction of the adjacent machinery!
When an error is made the wheels become locked and refuse to proceed;
thus the machine must go rightly or not at all—an arrangement as nearly
resembling volition as anything that brass and steel are likely to
accomplish."[4]
Mr. Babbage, in 1822, entered upon the task of superintending the
construction of a machine for calculating and printing mathematical and
astronomical tables. He began by building a model, which produced forty-
four figures per minute. The next year the Royal Society reported upon the
invention, which appeared so promising that the Lords of the Treasury
voted Mr. Babbage £1,500 to help him perfect his apparatus.
He looked about for a first-rate mechanician of high intelligence as well
as of extreme manual skill. The man he wanted appeared in Mr. Joseph
Clement, who had already made his name as the inventor of a drawing
instrument, a self-acting lathe, a self-centring chuck, and fluted taps and
dies. Mr. Clement soon produced special tools for shaping the various parts
of the machine. So elaborate was the latter, that, according to Dr. Smiles,
"the drawings for the calculating machinery alone—not to mention the
printing machinery, which was almost equally elaborate—covered not less
than four hundred square feet of surface!"
You will easily imagine, especially if you have ever had a special piece
of apparatus made for you by a mechanic, that the bills mounted up at an
alarming rate; so fast, indeed, that the Government began to ask, Why this
great expense, and so little visible result? After seven years' work the
engineers' account had reached £7,200, and Mr. Babbage had disbursed an
additional £7,000 out of his own pocket. Mr. Clement quarrelled with his
employer—possibly because he harboured suspicions that they were both
off on a wild-goose chase—and withdrew, taking all his valuable tools with
him. The Government soon followed his example, and poor Babbage was

left with his half-finished invention, "a beautiful fragment of a great work."
It had been designed to calculate as far as twenty figures, but was
completed only sufficiently to go to five figures. In 1862 it occupied a
prominent place among the mechanical exhibits at the Great Exhibition.

A MECHANICAL CASHIER
The printing apparatus of a National Cash Register. It impresses on a paper
strip the amount and nature of every money transaction; and also prints a
date, number, advertisement, money value, and nature of business done on
a ticket for the customer.

We learn, with some satisfaction, that all this effort was not fated to be
fruitless. Two scientists of Stockholm—Scheutz by name—were so
impressed by Dr. Lardner's account of this calculating machine that they
carried Babbage's scheme through, and after twenty years of hard work
completed a machine which seemed to be almost capable of thinking. The
English Government spent £1,200 on a copy, which at Somerset House
entered upon the routine duty of working out annuity and other tables for
the Registrar-General.
From Babbage's wonderfully and fearfully made machine we pass to a
calculator which to-day may be seen at work in hundreds of thousands of
shops and offices.
It is the most modern substitute for the open till; and, by the aid of
marvellous interior works, acts as account-keeper and general detective to
the money transactions of the establishment in which it is employed.
There are very many types of Cash Register, and as it would be
impossible to enumerate them all, we will pass at once to the most perfect
type of all, known to the makers and vendors as "Number 95."
This register has at the top an oblong window. Dotted about the surface
confronting the operator are, in the particular machine under notice, fifty-
seven keys; six bearing the letters A, B, D, E, H, K; three the words "Paid
out," "Charge," "Received on Account"; and the others money values
1
ranging from £9 to 4 d.

These are arranged in vertical rows. At the left end of the instrument is a
printing apparatus, kept locked by the proprietor; at the right end a handle
and a small lever. Below the register are six drawers, each labelled with an
initial.
A customer enters the shop, and buys goods to the value of 6s. 11d. An
assistant, to whom belongs the letter H, receives a sovereign in payment. He
goes to the register, and after making sure that his drawer is pushed in till it
is locked, first presses down the key H, and then the keys labelled "6s." and
"11d." Suddenly, like two Jacks-in-the-box, up fly into the window two
tablets, with "6s. 11d." on both their faces, so that customer and assistant
can see the figures. Simultaneously a bell of a certain tone rings, drawer H

flies open (so that he may place the money in it and give change, if
necessary), and a rotating arm in the window shows the word "cash."
The assistant now revolves the handle and presses the little lever. From a
slot on the left side out flies a ticket, on the front of which is printed the
date, a consecutive number, the assistant's letter, and the amount of the sale.
The back has also been covered with an advertisement of some kind. The
ticket and change are handed over to the customer, the drawer is shut, and
the transaction is at an end, except for an entry in the shop's books of the
article sold.
A carrier next comes in with a parcel on which five-pence must be paid
for transport. Mr. A. receives the goods, goes to the register, presses his
letter, the key with the words "paid out" on it, and the key carrying "5d.,"
takes out the amount wanted, and gives it to the carrier.
Again, a gentleman enters, and asks for change for half a sovereign. Mr.
B. obliges him, pressing down his letter, but no figures.
Fourthly, a debtor to the shop pays five shillings to meet an account that
has been against him for some time. Mr. K. receives the money and plays
with the keys K, "Received on account," and "5s.," giving a ticket receipt.
Lastly, a customer buys a pair of boots on credit. Mr. D. attends to him,
and though no cash is handled, uses the register, pressing the letter
"Charge," and, say, "16s. 6d."
Now what has been going on inside the machine all this time? Let us lift
up the cover, take off the case of the printing apparatus, and see.
A strip of paper fed through the printing mechanism has on it five rows
of figures, letters, etc., thus—

s. d.
H 6 11
Pd
A 0 5
.
B 0 0
Rc
K 5 0
.
Ch
D 16 6
.
The proprietor is, therefore, enabled to see at a glance (1) who served or
attended to a customer, (2) what kind of business he did with him, (3) the
monetary value of the transaction. At the end of the day each assistant sends
in his separate account, which should tally exactly with the record of the
machine.
Simultaneously with the strip printing, special counting apparatus has
been (a) adding up the total of all money taken for goods, (b) recording the
number of times the drawer has been opened for each purpose. Here, again,
is a check upon the records.
This ingenious machine not only protects the proprietor against
carelessness or dishonesty on the part of his employés, but also protects the
latter against one another. If only one drawer and letter were used in
common, it would be impossible to trace an error to the guilty party. The
lettering system also serves to show which assistant does the most business.
Where a cash register of this type is employed every transaction must
pass through its hands—or rather mechanism. It would be risky for an
assistant not to use the machine, as eyes may be watching him. He cannot
open his drawers without making a record; nor can he make a record
without first closing the drawers; so that he must give a reason for each use
of the register. If he used somebody else's letter, the ear of the rightful
owner would at once be attracted by the note of his particular gong. When
going away for lunch, or on business, a letter can be locked by means of a
special key, which fits none of the other five locks.
The printing mechanism is particularly ingenious. Every morning the
date is set by means of index-screws: and a consecutive numbering train is

put back to zero. A third division accommodates a circular "electro" block
for printing the advertisements, and a fourth division the figure wheels.
The turn given to the handle passes a length of the ticket strip through, a
slot—prints the date, the number of the ticket, an advertisement on the
back, the assistant's letter, the nature of the business done, and feeds the
paper on to the figures which give the finishing touch. A knife cuts off the
ticket, and a special lever shoots it out of the slot.
The National Cash Register Company, for prudential reasons, do not
wish the details of the internal machinery to be described; nor would it be
an easy task even were the permission granted. So we must imagine the
extreme intricacy of the levers and wheels which perform all the tasks
enumerated, and turn aside to consider the origin and manufacture of the
register, which are both of interest.
The origin of the cash register is rather nebulous, because twenty-five
years ago several men were working on the same idea. It first appeared as a
practical machine in the offices of John and James Ritty, who owned stores
and coalmines at Dayton, Ohio. James Ritty helped and largely paid for the
first experiments. He needed a mechanical cashier for his own business, and
says that, while on an ocean steamer en route to London the revolving
machinery gave him the suggestion worked out, on his return to Dayton, in
the first dial-machine. This gave way to the key-machine with its display
tablet, or indicator, held up by a supporting bar moved back by knuckles on
the vertical tablet rod.

Fig. 1

The cut (Fig. 1) shows the right side of this key register, the action of
which is thus described by the National Cash Register Company. The key
A, when pressed with the finger at its ordinary position—marked 1—went
down to the point marked 2. Being a lever and pivoted to its centre,
pressing down a key elevated its extreme point B. This pushed up the tablet-
rod C, having on its upper part the knuckle D. This knuckle D, pushed up,
took the position at E; that is, the knuckle pushed back the supporting-bar F,
and was pushed past it and held above it. If the same operation were
performed on another key, the knuckle on its vertical rod, going up, would
again push the supporting bar back, which would release the first knuckled
rod, and leave the last one in its place. This knuckled rod had on its upper
end the display tablet, or indicator G. James and John Ritty claimed and
proved that they invented this, but the attorney for the Dayton Company
(formed by them) in the Supreme Court was compelled to admit that this
mechanism was old. Yet if machines built like this were exhibited
elsewhere, they were at most only experimental models, and none of them
had ever gone into practical or commercial use. In fact, at this time nothing

had been really contributed which was useful to the public or used by the
public.
The trouble was that the knuckles, being necessarily oiled, held dust and
dirt which interfered with their free movement. And again, a "five-cent" or
"ten-cent" key would be used more than others, and hence would become
more worn. As a practical result the tablets did not drop when wanted, and
the whole operation was thrown into confusion. When one tablet went up
the other tablet stayed up, leaving a false indication. The most valuable
modification now made by these Dayton inventors was to cease to rely on
the knuckle to move back the supporting bar, and to supply the place of this
function by what became known as "connecting mechanism," especially
designed for this purpose. This was placed at the other, or say the left, side
of the machine as you faced it. Cut No. 2 shows this new connecting
mechanism. The keys, when pressed, performed the functions as before, on
the right side of the machine, viz. to ring an alarm-bell, etc.; but on the
other, or left, side the key, when pressed, operated the connecting
mechanism marked M, N, O, P, and Q. The key pressed down by its
leverage pushed back a little lever (Q), the further end of which pressed
back the supporting bar F, and released the previously exposed indicator G,
without relying on the knuckle to perform this function.
The Supreme Court of the United States said that the suggestion or idea
to correct the old trouble and to drop the display tablet with certainty, and to
accomplish this by dividing the force used, and applying a portion of it to
the new connecting mechanism on the left side of the machine, "was fine
invention," and that "the results are so important, and the ingenuity
displayed to bring them about is such that we are not disposed to deny the
patentees the merit of invention. The combination described in the first
claim was clearly new."
To revert for a moment to the origin of the invention. Mr. John Ritty
gives an account differing from that of his brother; but the two can probably
be reconciled by supposing that the first ideas occurred simultaneously and
were worked out in common.
Late one summer night, before dispersing home, a group of men were in
his store. One of them said to the proprietor, "If you had a machine there to
register the cash received, you would get more of it," and to the statement

both owner and his clerks assented. This raised a laugh. But Ritty who, in
spite of a large business, which ranged over everything from a needle to a
haystack, did not make much profit by his sales, took the suggestion
seriously, and put on his thinking-cap, with the result that the first machine
was patented, and profits became very greatly increased.

Fig. 2

Before his machine had been perfected a rival was in the field. Mr.
Thomas Carney, a man who had seen much life as a lumber merchant,
captain during the Civil War, explorer, and railroad promoter, settled down
in 1884, at Chicago, to the manufacture of coin-changers. "When in various
businesses," he says, "we used gold and silver only, and it seemed to be a
sheer necessity to have something of a money-changer to assist us in
handling it and making change. The custom then was to throw the different
coins into a special receptacle marked for each. I invented, and in my own
shop built this coin-changer, the keys of which, when touched, would,
through the tube, drop the coin into the hand as wanted. At Chicago we

made five or six hundred of these coin-changers, but by mistake placed the
price too low, and after some conference I became assured that there was
not enough money in it. A rich Chicago manufacturer had become familiar
with the urgent need of a cash register, and the losses which followed in
business without one. The National, at Dayton, had then been invented, but
had not then been perfected as it has been since. Parties at Chicago agreed
to put up the money if I would invent what would answer the purpose of a
cash register and make a marketable machine. I went home and gave the
matter some hard thinking, and talking with my son about the matter one
night, I looked up at the clock and said, 'Why, Harry, there is the right thing.
Sixty minutes make an hour; one hundred cents make a dollar. All I have
got to do is to change the wheels a little, put some keys into it, and there
will be a thing which will register cents, dimes, and dollars, just as that
clock will register time in minutes and hours.' In clocks the minute wheel,
when it has revolved to its sixty point, throws its added result of sixty
minutes over on to another wheel, which takes up the story, with one hour
in place of the old sixty minutes. The first wheel then begins again and goes
its round. A second complete revolution of the minute wheel throws another
sixty minutes on to the hour, and gives one more hour registered, making
two hours, and so on. I took some wheels, and with pasteboard made hands
and a machine. It was very rough, but I took it to my friends and explained
it to them. We went on, but encountering difficulties and obstacles, we
merged our whole enterprise in the National. I followed it, and have since
invented, worked, and helped along in the National Cash Register service. I
developed the No. 35 machine which the company began on and uses yet. It
is now in use in every civilised country, for it can be made to register
English money and any decimal currency."
In 1883 Dayton contained five families. The following year Colonel
Robert Patterson bought a large property in the neighbourhood, and helped
to develop a small town, which has since grown into a thriving
manufacturing centre. His two sons, John H. Patterson and Frank J.
Patterson, bought out all the original proprietors of the National Cash
Register, greatly improved the machine's mechanism, and built the huge
factory which employs about 4,000 men, women, and girls, and is one of
the best-equipped establishments in the world to promote both an
economical output and the comfort of the employés. The Company's
buildings at Dayton cover 892,144 square feet of floor-space, and utilise

140 acres of ground. In convenience and attractiveness, and for light, heat,
and ventilation, and all sanitary things, these structures are designed to be
models of any used for factory purposes. A machine is made and sold every
1
2 2 minutes in the Dayton, Berlin, and Toronto factories collectively.
According to its destination, it records dollars, shillings, marks, kronen,
korona, francs, kroner, guildens, pesetas, pesos, milreis, rupees, or roubles.
Registers are also made to meet the needs of the Celestials and the
Japanese.
So necessary is it for these machines to be ever improving, that the
Company, with a wisdom that prevails more largely, perhaps, in the United
States than elsewhere, offer substantial rewards to the employé who records
in a book kept specially for the purpose any suggestion which the
committee, after due examination, consider likely to improve some detail of
mechanism or manufacture. Five departments are entirely devoted to
experiments carried out by a corps of inventors working with a special body
of skilled mechanics. New patents accrue so fast as a result of this organised
research that the National Company now owns 537 letters patent in the
United States and 394 in foreign countries.
Many ideas come from outside. If they appear profitable they are bought
and turned over to the Patents Department, which hands them on to the
experimenters. These build an experimental model, which differs in many
respects from the types hitherto manufactured. A cash register must be
above all things strong, so that it can bear a heavy blow without getting out
of order, and must retain its accuracy under all conditions.
The model finished, it goes before the inspectors, who thump it, hammer
it, almost turn it inside out, and send it back to the Factory Committee with
reports on any defects that may have come to light. If the inspectors can
only knock the machine out of time they consider that they have done their
duty; for they argue that, if weaknesses thus developed are put right, no
purchaser will ever be able to dislocate the machinery if he stops short of an
actual "brutal assault with violence."
Next comes the building of the commercial type, which will be sold by
the thousand. The machine goes down to the tool-makers, a select board of
seventy-five members, who list all the parts, and say how many drill-jigs,
mills, fixtures, gauges, etc., are necessary to make every part. Then they

draw out an approximate estimate of the cost of producing the tools, and
after they have listed the parts, they turn them over to the various
departments, such as the drafting-room, blacksmiths' shop, pattern shop,
foundry, etc., after which the various parts are machined up. Then the tool-
maker assembles together the various tools, and makes a number of the
parts that each tool is designed for; so that when all the tools have done
their preliminary work, the makers possess about fifty machines "in bits."
These are assembled, to prove whether the tools do their business
efficiently. If any part shows an inclination "to jam," or otherwise
misbehave itself, the tool responsible is altered till its products are
satisfactory.
Then, and only then—a period of perhaps two years may have elapsed
since the model was first put in hand—the Company begins to entertain a
prospect of getting back some of the money—any sum up to £50,000—
spent in preparations. But they know that if people will only buy, they won't
have much fault to find with their purchase. "Preparations brings success" is
the motto of the N.C.R. So the Company spares no money, and is content to
have £25,000 locked up in its automatic screw-making machines alone!
Human as well as inanimate machinery is well tended under the roof of
the N.C.R. The committee believe that a healthy, comfortable employé
means good—and therefore profitable—work; and that to work well,
employés must eat and play well.
They therefore provide their boys with gardens, 10 feet wide by 170 feet
in length; and pay an experienced gardener to direct their efforts. To
encourage a start, bulbs, seeds, slips, etc., are supplied free; while prizes of
considerable value help to stimulate competition.
One day, ten years or more ago, Mr. Patterson saw a factory girl trying to
warm her tin bucket of cold coffee at the steam heater in the workshop. He
is a humane man, and acting on the unintentional hint he built a lunch-room
which contains, besides accommodation for 455 people, a piano and
sewing-machine which the women can use during their noon recess of
eighty minutes. A cooking school, dancing classes, and literary club are all
available to members. The Company encourages its workers to own the
houses they inhabit, and to make them as beautiful as their leisure will
permit. Mr. Mosely, who took over to America an Industrial Commission of

Experts in 1902, and an Educational Commission in the following year,
paid visits on both occasions to the National Cash Register Works. In a
speech to the Committee he said: "I do not know of any institution in the
world which offers so beautiful an illustration of the proper working
conditions as the National Cash Register Company. Your President has
asked me to criticise. I cannot find anything to criticise in this factory. I
have never seen such conditions in any other factory in the world, nor have
I ever seen so many bright and intelligent faces as we have seen at luncheon
in both the men's and women's dining rooms. I believe this factory is as
nearly perfect as social conditions will permit."
Note.—The author desires to express his thanks to the National Cash
Register Company for the kind help given him in the shape of materials for
writing and illustrating this chapter.

FOOTNOTE:

4. Industrial Biographies, chap. xiii.

By permission of The Sphere.

The jacket of a 12-inch gun being turned in a monster lathe at Messrs. Vickers Maxim's works.
Notice the long spiral strip coming off the edge of the cutting tool.

CHAPTER III

WORKSHOP MACHINERY
THE LATHE — PLANING MACHINES — THE STEAM HAMMER — HYDRAULIC TOOLS —
ELECTRICAL TOOLS IN THE SHIPYARD

W
" hen I first entered this city," said Mr. William Fairbairn, in an
inaugural address to the British Association at Manchester in 1861,
"the whole of the machinery was executed by hand. There were
neither planing, slotting, nor shaping machines, and with the exception of
very imperfect lathes and a few drills, the preparatory operations of
construction were effected entirely by the hands of the workmen. Now,
everything is done by machine tools, with a degree of accuracy which the
unaided hand could never accomplish. The automaton, or self-acting,
machine tool has within itself an almost creative power; in fact, so great are
its powers of adaptation, that there is no operation of the human hand that it
does not imitate."
If such things could be said with justice forty-five years ago, what would
Mr. Fairbairn think could he see the wonderful machinery with which the
present-day workshop is equipped—machinery as relatively superior to the
devices he speaks of as they were superior to the unaided efforts of the
human hand? Invention never stands still. The wonder of one year is on the
scrap-heap of abandoned machines almost before another twelve months
have passed. Some important detail has been improved, to secure ease or
economy in working, and a more efficient successor steps into its place. In
his curious and original Erewhon, Mr. Samuel Butler depicts a community
which, from the fear that machinery should become too ingenious, and
eventually drain away man's capacity for muscular and mental action, has
risen in revolt against the automaton, broken up all machines which had
been in use for less than 270 years—with the exception of specimens
reserved for the national museums—and reverted to hand labour. His
treatment of the dangers attending the increased employment of lifeless
mechanisms as a substitute for physical effort does not, however, show
sympathy with the Erewhonians; since their abandonment of invention had

obviously placed them at the mercy of any other race retaining the devices
so laboriously perfected during the ages. And we, on our part, should be
extremely sorry to part with the inanimate helpers which in every path of
life render the act of living more comfortable and less toilsome.
So dependent are we on machinery, that we owe a double debt to the
machines which create machines. A big factory houses the parents which
send out their children to careers of usefulness throughout the world. We
often forget, in our admiration of the offspring, the source from which they
originated. Our bicycles, so admirably adapted to easy locomotion, owe
their existence to a hundred delicate machines. The express engine,
hurrying forward over the iron way, is but an assemblage of parts which
have been beaten, cut, twisted, planed, and otherwise handled by mighty
machines, each as wonderful as the locomotive itself. But then, we don't see
these.
This and following chapters will therefore be devoted to a few peeps at
the great tools employed in the world's workshops.
If you consider a moment, you will soon build up a formidable list of
objects in which circularity is a necessary or desirable feature—wheels,
shafts, plates, legs of tables, walking-sticks, pillars, parts of instruments,
wire, and so on. The Hindu turner, whose assistant revolves with a string a
wooden block centred between two short spiked posts let into the ground,
while he himself applies the tool, is at one end of the scale of lathe users; at
the other, we have the workman who tends the giant machine slowly
shaping the exterior of a 12-inch gun, a propeller shaft, or a marble column.
All aim at the same object—perfect rotundity of surface.
The artisans of the Middle Ages have left us, in beautiful balusters and
cathedral screens, ample proofs that they were skilled workmen with the
Turning-Lathe. At the time of the Huguenot persecutions large numbers of
French artificers crossed the Channel to England, bringing with them lathes
which could cut intricate figures by means of wheels, eccentrics and other
devices of a comparatively complicated kind. The French had undoubtedly
got far ahead of the English in this branch of the mechanical arts, owing, no
doubt, to the fact that the French noblesse had condescended to include
turnery among their aristocratic hobbies.

With the larger employment of metal in all industries the need for
handling it easily is increased. Much greater accuracy generally
distinguishes metal as compared with woodwork. "In turning a piece of
work on the old-fashioned lathe, the workman applied and guided his tool
by means of muscular strength. The work was made to revolve, and the
turner, holding the cutting tool firmly upon the long, straight, guiding edge
of the rest, along which he carried it, and pressing its point firmly against
the article to be turned, was thus enabled to reduce its surface to the
required size and shape. Some dexterous turners were able, with practice
and carefulness, to execute very clever pieces of work by this simple
means. But when the article to be turned was of considerable size, and
especially when it was of metal, the expenditure of muscular strength was
so great that the workman soon became exhausted. The slightest variation in
the pressure of the tool led to an irregularity of surface; and with the utmost
care on the workman's part, he could not avoid occasionally cutting a little
too deep, in consequence of which he must necessarily go over the surface
again to reduce the whole to the level of that accidentally cut too deep, and
thus possibly the job would be altogether spoiled by the diameter of the
article under operation being made too small for its intended purpose."[5]
Any modern worker is spared this labour and worry by the device known
as the Slide-Rest. Its name implies that it at once affords a rigid support for
the tool, and also the means of traversing the tool in a straight line parallel
to the metal face on which work is being done.
The introduction of the slide-rest is due to the ingenuity of Mr. Henry
Maudslay, who, at the commencement of the nineteenth century, was a
foreman in the workshop of Mr. Joseph Bramah, inventor of the famous
hydraulic press and locks which bear his name. His rest could be moved
along the bed of the lathe by a screw, and clamped in any position desired.
Fellow-workmen at first spoke derisively of "Maudslay's go-cart"; but men
competent to judge its real value had more kindly words to say concerning
it, when it had been adapted to machines of various types for planing as
well as turning. Mr. James Nasmyth went so far as to state that "its
influence in improving and extending the use of machinery has been as
great as that produced by the improvement of the steam-engine in respect to
perfecting manufactures and extending commerce, inasmuch as without the
aid of the vast accession to our power of producing perfect mechanism

which it at once supplied, we could never have worked out into practical
and profitable forms the conceptions of those master minds who, during the
last half century, have so successfully pioneered the way for mankind. The
steam-engine itself, which supplies us with such unbounded power, owes its
present perfection to this most admirable means of giving to metallic
objects the most precise and perfect geometrical forms. How could we, for
instance, have good steam-engines if we had not the means of boring out a
true cylinder, or turning a true piston-rod, or planing a valve face? It is this
alone which has furnished us with the means of carrying into practice the
accumulated results of scientific investigation on mechanical subjects."
The screw-cutting lathe is so arranged that the slide-rest is moved along
with its tool at a uniform speed by gear wheels actuated by the mechanism
rotating the object to be turned. By changing the wheels the rate of "feed"
1
may be varied, so that at every revolution the tool travels from 64 of an inch
upwards along the surface of its work. This regularity of action adds greatly
to the value of the slide-rest; and the screw device also enables the
workman to chase a thread of absolutely constant "pitch" on a metal bar; so
that a screw-cutting lathe is not only a shaping machine but also the
equivalent of a whole armoury of stocks and dies.
Some lathes have rests which carry several tools held at different
distances from its axis, the cuts following one another deeper and deeper
into the metal in a manner exactly similar to the harvesting of a field of corn
by a succession of reaping machines. The recent improvements in tool-steel
render it possible to get a much deeper cut than formerly, without fear of
injury to the tool from overheating. This results in a huge saving of time.
For the boring of large cylinders an upright lathe is generally used, as the
weight of the metal might cause a dangerous "sag" were the cylinder
attached horizontally by one end to a facing-plate. Huge wheels can also be
turned in this type of machine up to 20 feet or more in diameter; and where
the cross-bar carrying the tools is fitted with several tool-boxes, two or
more operations may be conducted simultaneously, such as the turning of
the flange, the boring of the axle hole, and the facing of the rim sides.

A Gun Lathe. 154 feet long between centres, for boring and turning guns which, with their
mountings, weigh 165 tons when complete. The makers are the Niles-Bement-Pond Co. of New
York.

Perhaps the most imposing of all lathes are those which handle large
cannon and propeller shafts, such as may be seen in the works of Sir W. G.
Armstrong, Whitworth, and Company; of Messrs. Vickers, Sons and
Maxim; and of other armament and shipbuilding firms. The Midvale Steel
Company have in their shops at Hamilton, Ohio, a monster boring lathe
which will take in a shaft 60 feet long, 30 inches in diameter, and bore a
hole from one end to the other 14 inches in diameter. To do this, the lathe
must attack the shaft at both ends simultaneously, as a single boring bar of
60 feet would not be stiff enough to keep the hole cylindrical. The shaft is
placed in a revolving chuck in the central portion of the lathe—which has a
total length of over 170 feet—and supported further by two revolving ring
rests on each side towards the extremities. With work so heavy, the feeding

up of the tool to its surface cannot be done conveniently by hand control,
and the boring bars are therefore advanced by hydraulic pressure, a very
ingenious arrangement ensuring that the pressure shall never become
excessive.
Perhaps the type of lathe most interesting to the layman is the turret
lathe, generally used for the manufacture of articles turned out in great
numbers. The headstock—i.e. the revolving part which grips the object to
be turned—is hollow, so that a rod may be passed right through it into the
vicinity of the tools, which are held in a hexagon "turret," one tool
projecting from each of its sides. When one tool has been finished with, the
workman does not have the trouble of taking it out of the rest and putting
another in its place; he merely turns the turret round, and brings another
instrument opposite the work. If the object—say a water-cock—requires
five operations performing on it in the lathe, the corresponding tools are
arranged in their proper order round the turret. Stops are arranged so that as
soon as any tool has advanced as far as is necessary a trip-action checks the
motion of the turret, which is pulled back and given a turn to make it ready
for the next attack.
One of the advantages of the turret lathe, particularly of the automatic
form which shifts round the tool-box without human intervention, is its
power of relieving the operator of the purely mechanical part of his work.
Those who are familiar with the inside of some of our large workshops will
have noticed men and boys who make the same thing all day and every day,
and are themselves not far removed from machines. The articles they make
are generally small and very rapidly produced, and the endless repetition of
the same movements on the part of the operator is very tedious to watch,
and must be infinitely more so to perform. Such an occupation is not
elevating, and those engaged in it cannot take much interest in their work,
or become fitted for a better position. When this work is done by an
automatic lathe the machine performs the necessary operations, and the man
supplies the intelligence, and, by exercising his thinking powers, becomes
more valuable to his employers and himself. The introduction of new
machines and methods generally has a stimulating effect on the whole shop,
whatever the Erewhonians might say. The hubs and spindles of bicycles are
cut from the solid bar by these automata; the tender has merely to feed them
with metal, and they go on smoothing, shaping, and cutting off until the

material is all used up. The existence of such lathes largely accounts for the
low price of our useful metal steeds at the present time.
A great amount of shaping is now done by milling cutters in preference to
firmly-fixed edged tools. The cutter is a rod or disc which has its sides, end,
or circumference serrated with deep teeth, shaped to the section of the cut
needed. Revolving at a tremendous speed, it quickly bites its way into
anything it meets just so far as a stop allows it to go.
One of the most ingenious machines to which the milling tool has been
fitted is the well-known Blanchard lathe, which copies, generally in wood,
repetitive work, such as the stocks for guns and rifles. The lathe has two
sets of centres—one for the copy, the other for the model—parallel on the
same bed, and turned at equal speeds and in the same direction by a train of
gear wheels. The milling cutter is attached to a frame, from which a disc
projects, and is pressed by a spring against the model. As the latter revolves,
its irregular shape causes the disc, frame, and cutter to move towards or
away from its centre, and therefore towards or away from the centre of the
copy, which has all superfluities whisked off by the cutter. The frame is
gradually moved along the model, reproducing in the rough block a section
similar to the part of the model which it has reached.
The self-centring chuck is an accessory which has proved invaluable for
saving time. It may most easily be described as a circular plate which
screws on to the inner end of the mandrel (the spindle imparting motion to
the object being machined) and has in its face three slots radiating from the
centre at angles of 120°. In each slot slides a stepped jaw, the under side of
which is scored with concentric grooves engaging with a helical scroll
turned by a key and worm gear acting on its circumference. The jaws
approach or recede from the centre symmetrically, so that if a circular
object is gripped, its centre will be in line with the axis of the lathe.
Whether for gripping a tiny drill or a large wheel, the self-centring chuck is
indispensable.

PLANING-MACHINES

Not less important in engineering than the truly curved surface is the true
plane, in which, as Euclid would say, any two points being taken, the
straight line between them lies wholly in that superficies. The lathe depends

for its efficiency on the perfect flatness of all areas which should be flat—
the guides, the surface plates, the bottom and sides of the headstock, and,
above all, of the slide rest. For making plane metal superficies, a machine
must first be constructed which itself is above suspicion; but when once
built it creates machines like itself, capable of reproducing others ad
infinitum.
Many amateur carpenters pride themselves on the beautiful smoothness
of the boards over which they have run their jack planes. Yet, as compared
with the bed of a lathe, their best work will appear very inaccurate.
The engineer's planing-machine in no way resembles its wooden relative.
In the place of a blade projecting just a little way through a surface which
prevents it from cutting too deep into the substance over which it is moving,
we have a steel chisel very similar to the cutting tools of a lathe attached to
a frame passing up and down over a bed to which the member holding the
chisel is perfectly parallel. The article to be planed is rigidly attached to the
bed and travels with it. Between every two strokes the tool is automatically
moved sideways, so that no two cuts shall be in the same line. After the
whole surface has been "roughed," a finishing cutter is brought in action,
and the process is repeated with the business edge of the tool rather nearer
to the bed.
Joseph Clement, a contemporary of Babbage, Maudslay, and Nasmyth, is
usually regarded as the inventor of the planing-machine. By 1825 he had
finished a planer, in which the tool was stationary and the work moving
under it on a rolling bed. Two cutters were attached to the overhead cross
rail, so that travel in either direction might be utilised. The bed of the
machine, on which the work was laid, passed under the cutters on perfectly
true rollers or wheels, lodged and held in their bearings as accurately as the
best mandrel could be, and having set screws acting against their ends,
totally preventing all end-motion. The machine was bedded on a massive
and solid foundation of masonry in heavy blocks, the support at all points
being so complete as effectually to destroy all tendency to vibration, with
the object of securing full, round, and quiet cuts. The rollers on which the
planing-machine travelled were so true, that Clement himself used to say of
them, "If you were to put a paper shaving under one of the rollers it would
at once stop the rest." Nor was this an exaggeration—the entire mechanism,
notwithstanding its great size, being as true and accurate as a watch.[6] Mr.

Clement next made a revolving attachment for the bed, in which bodies
could be revolved under the cutter, on an axis parallel to the direction of
travel. According to the wish of the operator, the object was converted into
a cylinder, cone, or prism by its movements under the planing-tool. So
efficient was the machine that it earned its maker upwards of ten pounds a
day, at the rate of about eighteen shillings a square foot, until rivals
appeared in the field and finally reduced the cost of planing to a few pence
for the same area.
There are two main patterns of planes now in general use. The first
follows the original design of Clement; the second has a fixed bed but a
moving tool. Where the work is very heavy, as in the case of armour-plates
for battleships, the power required to suddenly reverse the motion of a vast
mass of metal is enormous, many times greater than the energy expended
on the actual planing. For this reason the moving-bed machines have had to
be greatly improved; and in some cases replaced by fixed-bed planers.
It is an impressive sight to watch one of these huge mechanisms reducing
a rough plate, weighing twenty tons or more, to a smoothness which would
shame the best billiard table. The machine, which towers thirty feet into the
air and completely dwarfs the attendant, who has it as thoroughly under
control as if it were a small file, bites great shining strips forty feet long,
maybe, off the surface of the passive metal, and leaves a series of grooves
as truly parallel as the art of man can make them. There is no fuss, no
sticking, no stop, no noise; the force of electricity or steam, transmitted
through wonderfully cut and arranged gear-wheels, is irresistible. The tool,
so hard that a journey through many miles of steel has no appreciable effect
on its edge, shears its way remorselessly over the surface which presently
may be tempered to a toughness resembling its own. If you want to
resharpen the tool, it will be no good to attack it with any known metal. But
somewhere in the works there is a machine whose buzzing emery-wheels
are more than a match for it, and rapidly grind the blunted edge into its
former shape, so that it is ready to flay another plate, one skin at a time.
Planing-machines are of many shapes. Some have an upright on each
side of the bed limiting the width of the work they can take; others are
open-sided, one support of extra strength replacing the two, enabling the
introduction of a plate twice as broad as the bed. Others, again, are built on
the verge of a pit, so that they may cut the edges of an up-ended plate, and

make it fit against its fellows so truly that you could not slip a sheet of
paper edgeways between them. Thus has man, so frail and delicate in
himself, shaped metal till it can torture its kind to suit his will, which he
makes known to it by opening this valve or pulling on that lever. Not only
does he flay it, but pierces it through and through; twists it into all manner
of shapes; hacks masses off as easily as he would cut slices from a loaf;
squeezes it in terrible presses to a fraction of its original thickness; and
otherwise so treats it that we are glad that our scientific observations have
as yet discovered no sentience in the substances reduced to our service.

THE STEAM HAMMER

The Scandinavian god Thor was a marvellous blacksmith. Thursday
should remind us weekly of Odin's son, from whose hammer flashed the
lightning; and, through him, of Vulcan, toiling at his smithy in the crater of
Vesuvius. In spite of the pictures drawn for us by pagan mythologists of
their god-smiths, we are left with the doubt whether these beings, if
materialised, might not themselves be somewhat alarmed by the steam
hammer which mere mortals wield so easily.
The forge is without dispute the "show-place" of a big factory, where
huge blocks of metal feel the heavy hand of steam. As children we watched
the blacksmith at his anvil, attracted and yet half-terrified by the spark-
showers flying from a white-hot horseshoe. And even the adult, long used
to startling sights, might well be fascinated and dismayed by the terrific
blows dealt on glowing ingots by the mechanical sledge.

A steam hammer at work in Woolwich Arsenal, forging a steel
ingot for the inner tube of a big gun. It delivers a blow
equivalent to the momentum of a falling mass weighing 4000
tons. As speech is inaudible, the foreman gives hand signals to
direct his men, who wear large canvas fingerless gloves to
protect their hands from the intense heat.

James Nasmyth, the inventor of this useful machine, was the son of a
landscape painter, who from his earliest youth had taken great interest in
scientific and mechanical subjects of all kinds. At fifteen he made a steam-
engine to grind his father's paints, and five years later a steam carriage "that

ran many a mile with eight persons on it. After keeping it in action two
months," he says in an account of his early life, "to the satisfaction of all
who were interested in it, my friends allowed me to dispose of it, and I sold
it—a great bargain—after which the engine was used in driving a small
factory. I may mention that in that engine I employed the waste steam to
cause an increased draught by its discharge up the chimney. This important
use of waste steam had been introduced by George Stephenson some years
before, though entirely unknown to me."
This interesting peep at the infancy of the motor carriage reveals
mechanical capabilities of no mean order in young James. He soon entered
the service of Mr. Joshua Field, Henry Maudslay's partner, and in 1834 set
up a business on his own account at Manchester.
At this date the nearest approach to the modern steam hammer was the
"tilt" hammer, operated by horse-, water-, or steam-power. It resembled an
ordinary hand hammer on a very large scale, but as it could be raised only a
small distance above its anvil, it became less effective as the size of the
work increased, owing to the fall being "gagged." In 1837 Mr. Nasmyth
interviewed the directors of the Great Western Steamship Company with
regard to the manufacture of some unusually powerful tools which they
needed for forging the paddle-shaft of the Great Britain. As the invention of
the steam-engine had demanded the improvement of turning methods, so
now the increase in the size of steamboats showed the insufficiency of
forging machinery.
Mr. Nasmyth put on his thinking-cap. Evidently the thing needed was a
method for raising a very heavy mass of metal easily to a good height, so
that its great weight might fall with crushing force on the object between it
and the anvil. How to raise it? Brilliant idea! Steam! In a moment Nasmyth
had mentally pictured an inverted steam cylinder rested on a solid upright
overhanging the anvil and a block of iron attached to its piston-rod. All that
would then be necessary was to admit steam to the under side of the piston
until the block had risen to its full height, and to suddenly open a valve
which would cut off the steam supply and allow the vapour already in the
cylinder to escape.
By the next post he sent a sketch to the company, who approved his
design heartily, but were unable to use it, since the need for the paddle-shaft

had already been nullified by the substitution of a screw as the motive
power of their ship. Poor Nasmyth knew that he had discovered a "good
thing," but British forge-masters, with a want of originality that amounted
to sheer blind stupidity, refused to look at the innovation. "We have not
orders enough to keep in work the forge-hammers we have," they wrote,
"and we don't want any new ones, however improved they may be."
His invention, therefore, appeared doomed to failure. Help, however,
came from France in the person of Mr. Schneider, founder of the famous
Creusot Iron Works, notorious afterwards as the birthplace of the Boer
"Long Toms." Mr. Nasmyth happened to be away when Mr. Schneider and a
friend called at the Manchester works, but his partner, Mr. Gaskell, showed
the French visitors round the works, and also told them of the proposed
steam hammer. The designs were brought out, so that its details might be
clearly explained.
Years afterwards Nasmyth returned the visit, and saw in the Creusot
Works a crank-shaft so large that he asked how it had been forged. "By
means of your steam hammer," came the reply. You may imagine Nasmyth's
surprise on finding the very machine at work in France which his own
countrymen had so despised, and his delight over its obvious success.
On returning home he at once raised money enough to secure a patent,
protected his invention, and began to manufacture what has been described
as "one of the most perfect of artificial machines and noblest triumphs of
mind over matter that modern English engineers have developed." A few
weeks saw the first—a 30-cwt.—hammer at work. People flocked to watch
its precision, its beauty of action, and the completeness of control which
could arrest it at any point of its descent so instantaneously as to crack
without smashing a nut laid on the anvil. "Its advantages were so obvious
that its adoption soon became general, and in the course of a few years
Nasmyth steam hammers were to be found in every well-appointed
workshop both at home and abroad."[7]
Nasmyth's invention was improved upon in 1853 by Mr. Robert Wilson,
his partner and successor. He added an automatic arrangement which raised
the "tup," or head, automatically from the metal it struck, so that time was
saved and loss of heat to the ingot was also avoided. The beauty of the
"balance valve," as it was called, will be more clearly understood if we

remember that the travel of the hammer is constantly increasing as the piece
on the anvil becomes thinner under successive blows. Under the influence
of this very ingenious valve every variety of blow could be dealt. By simply
altering the position of a tappet lever by means of two screws, a blow of the
exact force required could be repeated an indefinite number of times. "It
became a favourite amusement to place a wine-glass containing an egg
upon the anvil, and let the block descend upon it with its quick motion; and
so nice was its adjustment, and so delicate its mechanism, that the great
block, weighing perhaps several tons, could be heard playing tap, tap upon
the egg without even cracking the shell, when, at a signal given to the man
in charge, down would come the great mass, and the egg and glass would be
apparently, as Walter Savage Landor has it, 'blasted into space.'"[8]
Later on Mr. Wilson added an equally important feature in the shape of a
double-action hand-gear, which caused the steam to act on the top as well as
the bottom of the piston, thus more than doubling the effect of the hammer.
The largest hammer ever made was that erected by the Bethlehem Iron
Company of Pennsylvania. The "tup" weighed 125 tons. After being in use
for three years the owners consigned it to the scrap-heap, as inferior to the
hydraulic press for the manufacture of armour-plate, though it had cost
them £50,000. They then erected in its stead, for an equal sum of money, a
14,000-ton pressure hydraulic press, which fitly succeeds it as the most
powerful of its kind in the world.
The change was made for three reasons. First, that the impact of so huge
a block of metal necessitates the anvil being many times as heavy, and even
then the shock to surrounding machinery may be very severe. Secondly, the
larger the forging to be hammered, the less is the reaction of the anvil, so
that all the force of the blow tends to be absorbed by the side facing the
hammer; whereas with a small bar the anvil's inertia would have almost as
much effect as the actual blow. Thirdly, the blow of the hammer is so
instantaneous that the metal has not time to "flow" properly, and this leads
to imperfect forgings, the surface of which may have been cracked. For
very large work, therefore, the hammer is going out of fashion and the press
coming in, though for lighter jobs it is still widely used.
Before leaving the subject we may glance at the double-headed
horizontal hammer, such as is to be found in the forge-shop of the Horwich

Railway Works. Two hammers, carried on rails and rollers, advance in
unison from each side and pound work laid on a support between them.
Each acts as anvil to the other, while doing its full share of the work. So that
not only is a great deal of weight saved, but shocks are almost entirely
absorbed; while the fact that each hammer need make a blow of only half
the length of what would be required from a single hammer, enables twice
as many blows to be delivered in a given time.

HYDRAULIC TOOLS

Before discussing these in detail we shall do well to trace the history of
the Bramah press, which may be said to be their parent, since the principle
employed in most hydraulic devices for the workshop, as also the idea of
using water as a means of transmitting power under pressure, are justly
attributed to Joseph Bramah.
If you take a dive into the sea and fall flat on the surface instead of
entering at the graceful angle you intended, you will feel for some time
afterwards as if an enemy had slapped you violently on the chest and
stomach. You have learnt by sad experience that water, which seems to offer
so little resistance to a body drawn slowly through it, is remarkably hard if
struck violently. In fact, if enclosed, it becomes more incompressible than
steel, without in any way losing its fluidity. We possess in water, therefore,
a very useful agent for transmitting energy from one point to another. Shove
one end of a column of water, and it gives a push to anything at its other
end; but then it must be enclosed in a tube to guide its operation.
By a natural law all fluids press evenly on every unit of a surface that
confines them. You may put sand into a bucket with a bottom of cardboard
and beat hard upon the surface of the sand without knocking out the bottom.
The friction between the sand particles and the bucket's sides entirely
absorbs the blow. But if water were substituted for sand and struck with an
object that just fitted the bucket so as to prevent the escape of liquid, the
bottom, and sides, too, would be ripped open. The writer of this book once
fired a candle out of a gun at a hermetically sealed tin of water to see what
the effect would be. (Another candle had already been fired through an iron
1
plate 4 of an inch thick.) The impact slightly compressed the water in the
tin, which gave back all the energy in a recoil which split the sheet metal

open and flung portions of it many feet into the air. But the candle never got
through the side.
This affords a very good idea of the almost absolute incompressibility of
a liquid.
We may now return to history. Joseph Bramah was born in 1748 at
Barnsley, in Yorkshire. As the son of a farm labourer his lot in life would
probably have been to follow the plough had not an accident to his right
ankle compelled him to earn his living in some other way. He therefore
turned carpenter and developed such an aptitude for mechanics that we find
him, when forty years old, manufacturing the locks with which his name is
associated, and six years later experimenting with the hydraulic press. This
may be described simply as a large cylinder in which works a solid piston
of a diameter almost equal to that of the bore, connected to a force pump.
Every stroke of the pump drives a little water into the cylinder, and as the
water pressure is the same throughout, the total stress on the piston end is
equal to that on the pump plunger multiplied by the number of times that
the one exceeds the other in area. Suppose, then, that the plunger is one inch
in diameter and the piston one foot, and that a man drives down the plunger
with a force of 1,000 lbs., then the total pressure on the piston end will be
144 × 1,000 lbs.; but for every inch that the plunger has travelled the piston
1
moves only 144 of an inch, thus illustrating the law that what is gained in
time is lost in power, and vice versâ.
The great difficulty encountered by Bramah was the prevention of
leakage between the piston and the cylinder walls. If he packed it so tightly
that no water could pass, then the piston jammed; if the packing was eased,
then the leak recommenced. Bramah tried all manner of expedients without
success. At last his foreman, Henry Maudslay—already mentioned in
connection with the lathe slide-rest—conceived an idea which showed real
genius by reason of its very simplicity. Why not, he said, let the water itself
give sufficient tightness to the packing, which must be a collar of stout
leather with an inverted U-shaped section? This suggestion saved the
situation. A recess was turned in the neck of the cylinder at the point
formerly occupied by the stuffing-box, and into this the collar was set, the
edges pointing downwards. When water entered under pressure it forced the
edges in different directions, one against the piston, the other against the

wall of the recess, with a degree of tightness proportioned to the pressure.
As soon as the pressure was removed the collar collapsed, and allowed the
piston to pass back into the cylinder without friction. A similar device, to
turn to smaller things for a moment, is employed in a cycle tyre inflater, a
cup-shaped leather being attached to the rear end of the piston to seal it
during the pressure stroke, though acting as an inlet valve for the suction
stroke.
What we owe to Joseph Bramah and Henry Maudslay for their joint
invention—the honour must be divided, like that of designing the steam
hammer between Nasmyth and Wilson—it would indeed be hard to
estimate. Wherever steady but enormous effort is required for lifting huge
girders, houses, ships; for forcing wheels off their axles; for elevators; for
advancing the boring shield of a tunnel; for compressing hay, wool, cotton,
wood, even metal; for riveting, bending, drilling steel plates—there you will
find some modification of the hydraulic press useful, if not indispensable.
However, as we are now prepared for a consideration of details, we may
return to our workshop, and see what water is doing there. Outside stands a
cylindrical object many feet broad and high, which can move up and down
in vertical guides. If you peep underneath, you notice the shining steel shaft
which supports the entire weight of this tank or coffer filled with heavy
articles—stones, scrap iron, etc. The shaft is the piston-plunger of a very
long cylinder connected by pipes to pumping engines and hydraulic
machines. It and the mass it bears up serves as a reservoir of energy. If the
pumping engines were coupled up directly to the hydraulic tools, whenever
a workman desired to use a press, drill, or stamp, as the case might be, he
would have to send a signal to the engine-man to start the pumps, and
another signal to tell him when to stop. This would lead to great waste of
time, and a danger of injuring the tackle from over driving. But with an
accumulator there is always a supply of water under pressure at command,
for as soon as the ram is nearly down, the engines are automatically started
to pump it up again. In short, the accumulator is to hydraulic machinery
what their bag is to bagpipes, or the air reservoir to an organ.
In large towns high-pressure water is distributed through special mains
by companies who make a business of supplying factories, engineering
works, and other places where there is need for it, though not sufficient
need to justify the occupiers in laying down special pumping plant. London

can boast five central distributing stations, where engines of 6,500 h.p. are
engaged in keeping nine large accumulators full to feed 120 miles of pipes
varying in diameter from seven inches downwards. The pressure is 700 lbs.
to the square inch. Liverpool has twenty-three miles of pipes under 850 lbs.
pressure; Manchester seventeen miles under 1,100 lbs. To these may be
added Glasgow, Hull, Birmingham, Geneva, Paris, Berlin, Antwerp, and
many other large cities in both Europe and the United States.
For very special purposes, such as making metal forgings, pressures up to
twelve tons to the square inch may be required. To produce this
"intensifiers" are used, i.e. presses worked from the ordinary hydraulic
mains which pump water into a cylinder of larger diameter connected with
the forging press.
The largest English forging press is to be found in the Openshaw Works
of Sir W. G. Armstrong, Whitworth, and Company. Its duty is to consolidate
armour-plate ingots by squeezing, preparatory to their passing through the
rolling mills. It has one huge ram 78 inches in diameter, into the cylinder of
which water is pumped by engines of 4,000 h.p., under a pressure of 6,720
lbs. to the square inch, which gives a total ram force of 12,000 tons. It has a
total height of 33 feet, is 22 feet wide, and 175 feet long, and weighs 1,280
tons. On each side of the anvil is a trench fitted with platforms and
machinery for moving the ingot across the ingot block. Two 100-ton electric
cranes with hydraulic lifting cylinders serve the press.

A HUGE HYDRAULIC PRESS
The 12,000-ton pressure Whitworth Hydraulic Press, used for
consolidating steel ingots for armour-plating. Water is forced into
the ram cylinder at a pressure of three tons to the square inch.
Notice the man to the left of the press.

The Bethlehem Works "squeezer" has two rams, each of much smaller
1
diameter than the Armstrong-Whitworth, but operated by a 10 2 tons
pressure to the square inch. It handles ingots of over 120 tons weight for
armour-plating. In 1895 Mr. William Corey, of Pittsburg, took out a patent

for toughening nickel steel plates by subjecting them, while heated to a
temperature of 2,000° F., to great compression, which elongates them only
slightly, though reducing their thickness considerably. The heating of a
large plate takes from ten to twenty hours; it is then ready to be placed
between the jaws of the big press, which are about a foot wide. The plate is
moved forward between the jaws after each stroke until the entire surface
has been treated. At one stroke a 17-inch plate is reduced to 16 inches, and
subsequent squeezings give it a final thickness of 14 inches. Its length has
1
meanwhile increased from 16 to 18 2 feet, or in that proportion, while its
breadth has remained practically unaltered. A simple sum shows that metal
2
which originally occupied 32 3 cubic inches has now been compressed into
31 cubic inches. This alteration being effected without any injury to the
surface, a plate very tough inside and very hard outside is made. The plate
is next reheated to 1,350° F., and allowed to cool very gradually to a low
temperature to "anneal" it. Then once again the furnaces are started to bring
it back to 1,350°, when cold water is squirted all over the surface to give it a
proper temper. If it bends and warps at all during this process, a slight
reheating and a second treatment in the press restores its shape.
The hydraulic press is also used for bending or stamping plates in all
manners of forms. You may see 8-inch steel slabs being quietly squeezed in
a pair of huge dies till they have attained a semicircular shape, to fit them
for the protection of a man-of-war's big-gun turret; or thinner stuff having
its ends turned over to make a flange; or still slenderer metal stamped into
the shape of a complete steel boat, as easily as the tinsmith stamps tartlet
moulds. In another workshop a pair of massive jaws worked by water
power are breaking up iron pigs into pieces suitable for the melting furnace.
The manufacture of munitions of war also calls for the aid of this
powerful ally. Take the field-gun and its ammunition. "The gun itself is a
steel barrel, hydraulically forged, and afterwards wire-wound; the carriage
is built up of steel plates, flanged and shaped in hydraulic presses; the
wheels have their naves composed of hydraulically flanged and corrugated
steel discs, and even the tyres are forced on cold by hydraulic tyre-setters,
the rams of which are powerful enough to reduce the diameter of the
welded tyre until the latter tightly nips the wheel. The shells for the gun are
punched and drawn by powerful hydraulic presses, and the copper driving-

bands are fixed on the projectiles in special hydraulic presses. Quick-firing
cartridge-cases are capped, drawn, and headed by an hydraulic press, whose
huge mass always impresses the uninitiated as absurdly out of proportion to
the small size of the finished case, and finally the cordite firing charge is
dependent on hydraulic presses for its density and shape."[9]
The press for placing the "driving-band" on a shell is particularly
interesting. After the shell has been shaped and its exterior turned smooth
and true, a groove is cut round it near the rear end. Into this groove a band
of copper is forced to prevent the leakage of gas from the firing charge past
the shell, and also to bite the rifling which imparts a rotatory motion to the
shell. The press for performing the operation has six cylinders and rams
arranged spoke-wise inside a massive steel ring; the rams carrying concave
heads which, when the full stroke is made, meet at the centre so as to form a
complete circle. "Pressure is admitted," says Mr. Petch, "to the cylinders by
copper pipes connected up to a circular distributing pipe. The press takes
3
water from the 700-pounds main for the first 8 -inch of the stroke, and for
1
the last 8 -inch water pressure at 3 tons per square inch is used. The total
pressure on all the rams to band a 6-inch shell is only 600 tons, but for a 12-
inch shell no less than 2,800 tons is necessary."

ELECTRIC TOOLS IN A SHIPYARD

Of late years electricity has taken a very prominent part in workshop
equipment, on account of the ease with which it can be applied to a
machine, the freedom from belting and overhead gear which it gives, and its
greater economy. In a lathe-shop, where only half the lathes may be in
motion at a time, the shafting and the belts for the total number is constantly
whirling, absorbing uselessly a lot of power. If, however, a separate motor
be fitted to each lathe, the workman can switch it on and off at his pleasure.
The New York Shipbuilding Company, a very modern enterprise,
depends mainly on electrical power for driving its machinery, in preference
to belting, compressed air, or water. Let us stroll through the various shops,
and note the uses to which the current has been harnessed. Before entering,
our attention is arrested by a huge gantry crane, borne by two columns
which travel on rails. From the cross girder, or bridge, 88 feet long, hang

two lifting magnets, worked by 25 h.p. motors, which raise the load at the
rate of 20 feet per minute. Motors of equal power move the whole gantry
along its rails over the great piles of steel plates and girders from which it
selects victims to feed the maw of the shops.
The main building is of enormous size, covering with its single roof no
less than eighteen acres! Just imagine four acres of skylights and two acres
of windows, and you may be able to calculate the little glazier's bill that
might result from a bad hailstorm. In this immense chamber are included
the machine, boiler, blacksmith, plate, frame, pipe, and mould shops, the
general storerooms, the building ways, and outfitting slips. "The material
which enters the plate and storage rooms at one end, does not leave the
building until it goes out as a part of the completed ship for which it was
intended, when the vessel is ready to enter service; there are installed in one
main building, and under one roof, all the material and machinery necessary
for the construction of the largest ship known to commerce, and eight sets
of ship-ways, built upon masonry foundations, covered by roofs of steel and
glass, and spanned by cranes up to 100 tons lifting capacity, are practically
as much a part of the immense main building as the boiler shop or machine
shop."[10]
A huge 100-ton crane of 121-foot span dominates the machine-shop and
ship-ways at a height of 120 feet. It toys with a big engine or boiler, picking
it up when the riveters, caulkers, and fitters have done their work, and
dropping it gently into the bowels of a partly-finished vessel. A number of
smaller cranes run about with their loads. Those which handle plates are,
like the big gantry already referred to, equipped with powerful electro-
magnets which fix like leeches on the metal, and will not let go their hold
until the current is broken by the pressing of a button somewhere on the
bridge. Sometimes several plates are picked up at once, and then it is pretty
to see how the man in charge drops them in succession, one here, another
there, by merely opening and closing the switch very quickly, so that the
plate furthest from the magnets falls before the magnetism has passed out of
the nearer plates.
Another interesting type is the extension-arm crane, which shoots out an
arm between two pillars, grips something, and pulls it back into the main
aisle, down which it travels without impediment.

On every side are fresh wonders. Here is an immense rolling machine,
1
fed with plates 27 feet wide, which bends the 1 8 -inch thick metal as if it
were so much pastry; or turns over the edges neatly at the command of a 50
h.p. motor. There we have an electric plate-planer scraping the surface of a
sheet half the length of a cricket pitch. As soon as a stroke is finished the
bed reverses automatically, while the tool turns over to offer its edge to the
metal approaching from the other side. All so quietly, yet irresistibly done!
1
Now mark these punches as they bite 1 4 -inch holes through steel plates
over an inch thick, one every two seconds. A man cutting wads out of
cardboard could hardly perform his work so quickly and well. Almost as
horribly resistless is the circular saw which eats its way quite
unconcernedly through bars six inches square, or snips lengths off steel
beams.
What is that strange-looking machine over there? It has three columns
which move on circular rails round a table in the centre. Up and down each
column passes a stage carrying with it a workman and an electric drill
working four spindles. Look! here comes a crane with a boiler shell, the
plates of which have been bolted in position. The crane lets down its load,
end-up, on to the table, and trots off, while the three workmen move their
columns round till the twelve drills are opposite their work. Then whirr! a
dozen twisted steel points, ranged in three sets of four, one drill above the
other, bite into the boiler plates, opening out holes at mathematically correct
intervals all down the overlapping seam-plates. This job done, the columns
move round the boiler, and their drills pierce it first near the lower edge,
then near the upper. The crane returns, grips the cylinder, and bears it off to
the riveters, who are waiting with their hydraulic presses to squeeze the
rivets into the holes just made, and shape their heads into neat hemispheres.
As it swings through the air the size of the boiler is dwarfed by its
surroundings; but if you had put a rule to it on the table you would have
found that it measured 20 feet in diameter and as many in length. A few
months hence furnaces will rage in its stomach, and cause it to force tons of
steam into the mighty cylinders driving some majestic vessel across the
Atlantic.
We pass giant lathes busy on the propeller shafts, huge boring mills
which slowly smooth the interior of a cylinder, planers which face the valve

slides; and we arrive, eye-weary, at the launching-ways where an ocean
liner is being given her finishing touches. Then we begin to moralise. That
600-foot floating palace is a concretion of parts, shaped, punched, cut,
planed, bored, fixed by electricity. Where does man come in? Well, he
harnessed the current, he guided it, he said "Do this," and it did it. Does not
that seem to be his fair share of the work?

FOOTNOTES:

5. Industrial Biographies, Dr. S. Smiles.

6. Industrial Biographies.

7. Industrial Biographies.

8. Chambers's Encyclopædia.

9. Mr. A. F. Petch in Cassier's Magazine.

10. Cassier's Magazine.

CHAPTER IV

PORTABLE TOOLS

I
" f the mountain won't come to Mahomet," says the proverb, "Mahomet
must go to the mountain."
This is as true in the workshop as outside;—Mahomet being the tool,
the mountain the work on which it must be used. With the increase in size
of machinery and engineering material, methods half a century old do not,
in many cases, suffice; especially at a time when commercial competition
has greatly reduced the margin of profits formerly expected by the
manufacturer.
To take the case of a large shaft, which must have a slot cut along it on
one side to accommodate the key-wedge, which holds an eccentric for
moving the steam valves of a cylinder, or a screw-propeller, so that it
cannot slip. The mass weighs, perhaps, twenty tons. One way of doing the
job is to transport the shaft under a drill that will cut a hole at each end of
the slot area, and then to turn it over to the planer for the intermediate metal
to be scraped out. This is a very toilsome and expensive business, entailing
the use of costly machinery which might be doing more useful work, and
the sacrifice of much valuable time. Inventors have therefore produced
portable tools which can perform work on big bodies just as efficiently as if
it had been done by larger machinery, in a fraction of the time and at a
greatly reduced cost. To quote an example, the cutting of a key-way of the
kind just described by big machines would consume perhaps a whole day,
whereas the light, portable, easily attached miller, now generally used, bites
it out in ninety minutes.

PNEUMATIC TOOLS

The best known of these is the pneumatic hammer. It consists of a
cylinder, inside which moves a solid piston having a stroke of from half an
inch to six inches. Air is supplied through flexible tubing from a
compressing pump worked by steam. The piston beats on a loose block of

metal carried in the end of the tool, which does the actual striking. The
piston suddenly decreases in diameter at about the centre of its length,
leaving a shoulder on which air can work to effect the withdrawal stroke.
By a very simple arrangement of air-ports the piston is made to act as its
own valve. As the plane side of the piston has a greater area than that into
which the piston-rod fits, the striking movement is much more violent than
the return. Under a pressure of several hundreds of pounds to the square
inch a pneumatic hammer delivers upwards of 7,000 blows per minute; the
quick succession of comparatively gentle taps having the effect of a much
smaller number of heavier blows. For the flat hammer head can be
substituted a curved die for riveting, or a chipping chisel, or a caulking iron,
to close the seams of boilers.
The riveter is peculiarly useful for ship and bridge-building work where
it is impossible to apply an hydraulic tool. A skilled workman will close the
rivet heads as fast as his assistant can place them in their holes; certainly in
less than half the time needed for swing-hammer closing.
Even more effective proportionately is the pneumatic chipper. The writer
has seen one cut a strip off the edge of a half-inch steel plate at the rate of
several inches a minute. To the uninitiated beholder it would seem
impossible that a tool weighing less than two stone could thus force its way
through solid metal. The speed of the piston is so high that, though it scales
but a few pounds, its momentum is great enough to advance the chisel a
fraction of an inch, and the individual advances, following one another with
inconceivable rapidity, soon total up into a big cut.
Automatic chisels are very popular with ornamental masons, as they lend
themselves to the sculpturing of elaborate designs in stone and marble.
Their principle, modified to suit work of another character, is seen in
percussive rock drills, such as the Ingersoll Sergeant. In this case the piston
and tool are solid, and the air is let into the cylinder by means of slide
valves operated by tappets which the piston strikes during its movements.
Some types of the rock-drill are controllable as to the length of their stroke,
so that it can be shortened while the "entry" of the hole is being made and
gradually increased as the hole deepens. For perpendicular boring the drill
is mounted on a heavily weighted tripod, the inertia of which effectively
damps all recoil from the shock of striking; for horizontal work, and

sometimes for vertical, the support is a pillar wedged between the walls of
the tunnel, or shaft. An ingenious detail is the rifled bar which causes the
drill to rotate slightly on its axis between every two strokes, so that it may
not jam. The drills are light enough to be easily erected and dismantled, and
compact, so that they can be used in restricted and out-of-the way places,
while their simplicity entails little special training on the part of the
workman. With pneumatic and other power-drills the cost of piercing holes
for explosive charges is reduced to less than one-quarter of that of
"jumping" with a crowbar and sledgehammers. With the hand method two
men are required, usually more; one man to hold, guide, and turn the drill;
and the other, or others, to strike the blows with hammers. The machine,
striking a blow far more rapidly than can be done by hand, reduces the
number of operators to one man, and perhaps his helper. So durable is the
metal of these wonderful little mechanisms that the delivery of 360,000
blows daily for months, even though each is given with a force of perhaps
half a ton, fails to wear them out; or at the most only necessitates the
renewal of some minor and cheap part. The debt that civilisation owes to
the substitution of mechanical for hand labour will be fully understood by
anyone who is conversant with the history of tunnel-driving and mining.
Another application of pneumatics is seen in the device for cutting off the
ends of stay bolts of locomotive boilers. It consists of a cylinder about
fifteen inches in diameter, the piston of which operates a pair of large
nippers capable of shearing half-inch bars. The whole apparatus weighs but
three-quarters of a hundredweight, yet its power is such that it can trim
bolts forty times as fast as a man working with hammer and cold-chisel, and
more thoroughly.
Then there is the machine for breaking the short bolts which hold
together the outer and inner shells of the water-jacket round a locomotive
furnace. A threaded bar, along which travels a nut, has a hook on its end to
catch the bolt. The nut is screwed up to make the proper adjustment, and a
pneumatic cylinder pulls on the hook with a force of many tons, easily
shearing through the bolt.
We must not forget the pneumatic borer for cutting holes in wood or
metal, or enlarging holes already existing. The head of the borer contains
three little cylinders, set at an angle of 120°, to rotate the drill, the valves
opening automatically to admit air at very high pressures behind the

pistons. Any carpenter can imagine the advantage of a drill which has
merely to be forced against its work, the movement of a small lever by the
thumb doing the rest!
Next on the list comes the pneumatic painter, which acts on much the
same principle as the scent-spray. Mechanical painting first came to the fore
in 1893, when the huge Chicago Exposition provided many acres of
surfaces which had to be protected from the weather or hidden from sight.
The following description of one of the machines used to replace hand-
work is given in Cassier's Magazine: "The paint is atomized and sprayed on
to the work by a stream of compressed air. From a small air-compressor the
air is led, through flexible hose, to a paint-tank, which is provided with an
air-tight cover and clamping screws. The paint is contained in a pot which
can be readily removed and replaced by another when a different colour is
required. This arrangement of interchangeable tins is also important as
facilitating easy cleaning. The container is furnished with a semi-rotary
stirrer, the spindle passing through a stuffing-box in the cover, and ending
in a handle by which the whole thing complete may be carried about. The
compressor is necessarily fixed or stationary, but the paint-tank, connected
to it by the single air-hose, can be moved close to the work, while the length
of hose from the tank to the nozzle gives the freedom of movement
necessary. Air-pressure is admitted to the tank by a bottom valve, and forces
the paint up an internal pipe and along a hose from the tank to the spraying
nozzle, to which air-pressure is also led by a second hose. The nozzle is
practically an injector of special form. The flow of paint at the nozzle is
controlled by a small plug valve and spring lever, on which the operator
keeps his thumb while working, and which, on release, closes
automatically. When it is required to change from one colour to another, or
to use a different material, such as varnish, the can, previously in use, is
removed, and air, or, if necessary, paraffin oil, is blown through the length
of hose which supplies the paint until it is completely clean." The writer
then mentions as an instance of the machine's efficiency that it has covered
a 30 feet by 8 feet boiler in less than an hour, and that at one large bridge
yard a 70 feet by 6 feet girder with all its projecting parts was coated with
boiled oil in two hours—a job which would have occupied a man with a
brush a whole day to execute. Apart from saving time, the machine
produces a surface quite free from brush marks, and easily reaches surfaces
in intricate mouldings which are difficult to get at with a brush.

The pneumatic sand-jet is used for a variety of purposes: for cleaning off
old paint, or the weathered surface of stonework; for polishing up castings
and forgings after they have been brazed. At the cycle factory you will find
the sand-jet hard at work on the joints of cycle frames, which must be
cleared of all roughness before they are fit for the enameller. The writer, a
few days before penning these lines, watched a jet removing London grime
from the face of a large hotel. Down a side street stood a steam-engine
busily compressing air, which was led by long pipes to the jet, situated on
some lofty scaffolding. The rapidity with which the flying grains scoured
off smoke deposits attracted the notice of a large crowd, which gazed with
upturned heads at the whitened stones. A peculiarity about the jet is that it
proves much more effective on hard material than on soft, as the latter, by
offering an elastic surface, robs the sand of its cutting power.
After merely mentioning the pneumatic rammer for forcing sand into
foundry moulds, we pass to the pneumatic sand-papering machine, which
may be described briefly as a revolving disc carrying a circle of sand-paper
on its face revolved between guards which keep it flat to its work. The disc
flies round many hundreds of times per minute, rapidly wearing down the
fibrous surface of the wood it touches. When the coarse paper has done its
work a finely-grained cloth is substituted to produce the finish needful for
painting.

CHAPTER V

THE PEDRAIL: A WALKING STEAM-ENGINE

H
ave you ever watched carefully a steam-roller's action on the road
when it is working on newly laid stones? If you have, you noticed that
the stones, gravel, etc., in front of the roller moved with a wave-like
motion, so that the engine was practically climbing a never-ending hill. No
wonder then that the mechanism of such a machine needs to be very strong,
and its power multiplied by means of suitable gearing.
Again, suppose that an iron-tyred vehicle, travelling at a rapid pace,
meets a large stone, what happens? Either the stone is forced into the
ground or the wheel must rise over it. In either case there will be a jar to the
vehicle and a loss of propulsive power. Do not all cyclists know the fatigue
of riding over a bumpy road—fatigue to both muscles and nerves?
As regards motors and cycles the vibration trouble has been largely
reduced by the employment of pneumatic tyres, which lap over small
objects, and when they strike large ones minimise the shock by their buffer-
like nature. Yet there is still a great loss of power, and if pneumatic-tyred
vehicles suffer, what must happen to the solid, snorting, inelastic traction-
engine? On hard roads it rattles and bumps along, pulverising stones,
crushing the surface. When soft ground is encountered, in sink the wheels,
because their bearing surface must be increased until it is sufficient to carry
the engine's weight. But by the time that they are six inches below the
surface there will be a continuous vertical belt of earth six inches deep to be
crushed down incessantly by their advance.
How much more favourably situated is the railway locomotive or truck.
Their wheels touch metal at a point but a fraction of an inch in length;
consequently there is nothing to hamper their progression. So great is the
difference between the rail and the road that experiment has shown that,
whereas a pull of from 8 to 10 lbs. will move a ton on rails, an equal weight
requires a tractive force of 50 to 100 lbs. on the ordinary turnpike.

In order to obviate this great wastage of power, various attempts have
been made to provide a road locomotive with means for laying its own rail
track as it proceeds. About forty years ago Mr. Boydell constructed a wheel
which took its own rail with it, the rails being arranged about the wheel like
a hexagon round a circle, so that as the wheel moved it always rested on
one of the hexagon's sides, itself flat on the ground. This device had two
serious drawbacks. In the first place, the plates made a rattling noise which
has been compared to the reports of a Maxim gun; secondly, though the
contrivance acted fairly well on level ground, it failed when uneven
surfaces were encountered. Thus, if a brick lay across the path, one end of a
plate rested on the brick, the other on the ground behind, and the
unsupported centre had to carry a sudden, severe strain. Furthermore, the
plates, being connected at the angles of the hexagon, could not tilt
sideways, with the result that breakages were frequent.
Of late years another inventor, Mr. J. B. Diplock, has come forward with
an invention which bids fair to revolutionise heavy road traffic. At present,
though it has reached a practical stage and undergone many tests
satisfactorily, it has not been made absolutely perfect, for the simple reason
that no great invention jumps to finality all at once. Are not engineers still
improving the locomotive?
The Pedrail, as it has been named, signifies a rail moving on feet. Mr.
Diplock, observing that a horse has for its weight a tractive force much in
excess of the traction-engine, took a hint from nature, and conceived the
idea of copying the horse's foot action. The reader must not imagine that
here is a return to the abortive and rather ludicrous attempts at a walking
locomotive made many years ago, when some engineers considered it
proper that a railway engine should be propelled by legs. Mr. Diplock's
device not merely propels, but also steps, i.e. selects the spot on the ground
which shall be the momentary point at which propulsive force shall be
exerted. To make this clearer, consider the action of a wheel. First, we will
suppose that the spokes, any number you please, are connected at their
outer ends by flat plates. As each angle is passed the wheel falls flop on to
the next plate. The greater the number of the spokes, the less will be each
successive jar (or step); and consequently the perfect wheel is theoretically
one in which the sides have been so much multiplied as to be infinitely
short.

A horse has practically two wheels, its front legs one, its back legs the
other. The shoulder and hip joints form the axles, and the legs the spokes.
As the animal pulls, the leg on the ground advances at the shoulder past the
vertical position, and the horse would fall forwards were it not for the other
leg which has been advanced simultaneously. Each step corresponds to our
many-sided wheel falling on to a flat side—and the "hammer, hammer,
hammer on the hard high road" is the horsey counterpart of the metallic
rattle.
On rough ground a horse has a great advantage over a wheeled tractor,
because it can put its feet down on the top of objects of different elevations,
and still pull. A wheel cannot do this, and, as we have seen, a loss of power
results. Our inventor, therefore, created in his pedrail a compromise
between the railway smoothness and ease of running and the selective and
accommodating powers of a quadruped.
We must now plunge into the mechanical details of the pedrail, which is,
strictly speaking, a term confined to the wheel alone. Our illustration will
aid the reader to follow the working of the various parts.
In a railway we have (a) sleepers, on the ground, (b) rails attached to the
sleepers, (c) wheels rolling over the rails. In the pedrail the order, reckoning
upwards, is altered. On the ground is the ped, or movable sleeper, carrying
wheels, over which a rail attached to the moving vehicle glides
continuously. The principle is used by anyone who puts wooden rollers
down to help him move heavy furniture about.
Of course, the peds cannot be put on the ground and left behind; they
must accompany their rollers and rails. We will endeavour to explain in
simple words how this is effected.
To the axles of the locomotive is attached firmly a flat, vertical plate,
parallel to the sides of the fire-box. Pivoted to it, top and bottom, at their
centres, are two horizontal rocking arms; and these have their extremities
connected by two bow-shaped bars, or cams, their convex edges pointing
outwards, away from the axle. Powerful springs also join the rocking arms,
and tend to keep them in a horizontal position. Thus we have a powerful
frame, which can oscillate up and down at either end. The bottom arm is the
rail on which the whole weight of the axle rests.

The rotating and moving parts consist of a large, flat, circular case, the
sides of which are a few inches apart. Its circumference is pierced by
fourteen openings, provided with guides, to accommodate as many short
sliding spokes, which are in no way attached to the main axle. Each spoke
is shaped somewhat like a tuning-fork. In the V is a roller-wheel, and at the
tip is a "ped," or foot. As the case revolves, the tuning-fork spokes pass, as
it were, with a leg on each side of the framework referred to above; the
wheel of each spoke being the only part which comes into contact with the
frame. Strong springs hold the spokes and rollers normally at an equal
distance from the wheel's centre.
It must now be stated that the object of the framework is to thrust the
rollers outwards as they approach the ground, and slide them below the rail.
The side-pieces of the frame are, as will be noticed (see Fig. 3), eccentric,
i.e. points on their surfaces are at different distances from the axle centre.
This is to meet the fact that the distance from the axle to the ground is
greater in an oblique direction than it is vertically, and therefore for three
spokes to be carrying the weight at once, two of them must be more
extended than the third. So then a spoke is moved outward by the frame till
its roller gets under the rail, and as it passes off it it gradually slides inwards
again.
It will be obvious to the reader that, if the "peds" were attached inflexibly
to the ends of their spokes they would strike the ground at an angle, and, of
course, be badly strained. Now, Mr. Diplock meant his "peds" to be as like
feet as possible, and come down flat. He therefore furnished them with
ankles, that is, ball-and-socket joints, so that they could move loosely on
their spokes in all directions; and as such a contrivance must be protected
from dust and dirt, the inventor produced what has been called a
"crustacean joint," on account of the resemblance it bears to the overlapping
armour-plates of a lobster's tail. The plates, which suggest very thin quoits,
are made of copper, and can be renewed at small cost when badly worn. An
elastic spring collar at the top takes up all wear automatically, and renders
the plates noiseless. This detail cost its inventor much work. The first joint
made represented an expenditure of £6; but now, thanks to automatic
machinery, any number can be turned out at 3s. 6d. each.
A word about the feet. A wheel has fourteen of these. They are eleven
inches in diameter at the tread, and soled with rubber in eight segments,

with strips of wood between the segments to prevent suction in clay soil.
The segments are held together by a malleable cast-iron ring around the
periphery of the feet and a tightening core in the centre. These wearing
parts, being separate from the rest of the foot, are easily and cheaply
renewed, and repairs can be quickly effected, if necessary, when on the
road. The surface in contact with the ground being composed of the three
substances—metal, wood, and rubber, which all take a bearing, provides a
combination of materials adapted to the best adhesion and wear on any
class of road, or even on no road at all.

Fig. 3

Motive power is transmitted by the machinery to the wheel axle, from
that to the casing, from the casing to the sliding spokes. As there are

alternately two and three feet simultaneously in contact with the ground, the
power of adhesion is very great—much greater than that of an ordinary
traction-engine. This is what Professor Hele-Shaw says in a report on a
pedrail tractor: "The weight of the engine is spread over no less than twelve
feet, each one of which presses upon the ground with an area immensely
greater—probably as much as ten times greater—than that of all the wheels
(of an ordinary traction-engine) taken together on a hard road. Upon a soft
road all comparison between wheels and the action of these feet ceases. The
contact of each of the feet of the Pedrail is absolutely free from all slipping
action, and attains the absolute ideal of working, being merely placed in
position without sliding to take up the load, and then lifted up again without
any sliding to be carried to a new position on the road."
It is necessary that the feet should come down flat on the ground. If they
struck it at all edgeways they would "sprain their ankles"; otherwise,
probably break off at the ball joint. Mechanism was, therefore, introduced
by which the feet would be turned over as they approached the ground, and
be held at the proper angle ready for the "step." Without the aid of a special
diagram it would be difficult to explain in detail how this is managed; and it
must suffice to say that the chief feature is a friction-clutch worked by the
roller of the foot's spoke.
To the onlooker the manner in which the pedrail crawls over obstacles is
almost weird. The writer was shown a small working model of a pedrail,
propelled along a board covered with bits of cork, wood, etc. The axle of
the wheel scarcely moved upwards at all, and had he not actually seen the
obstacles he would have been inclined to doubt their existence. An ordinary
wheel of equal diameter took the obstructions with a series of bumps and
bounds that made the contrast very striking.

Fig. 4

An extreme instance of the pedrail's capacity would be afforded by the
ascent of a flight of steps (see Fig. 4). In such a case the three "peds"
carrying the weight of an axle would not be on the same level. That makes
no difference, because the frame merely tilts on its top and bottom pivots,
the front of the rail rising to a higher level than the back end, and the back
spokes being projected by the rail much further than those in front, so that
the engine is simply levered over its rollers up an inclined plane. Similarly,
in descending, the front spokes are thrust out the furthest, and the reverse
action takes place.
With so many moving parts everything must be well lubricated, or the
wear would soon become serious. The feet are kept properly greased by
being filled with a mixture of blacklead and grease of suitable quality,

which requires renewal at long intervals only. The sliding spokes, rollers,
and friction-clutches are all lubricated from one central oil-chamber,
through a beautiful system of oil-tubes, which provides a circulation of the
oil throughout all the moving parts. The central oil-chamber is filled from
one orifice, and holds a sufficient supply of oil for a long journey.
We may now turn for a moment from the pedrail itself to the vehicles to
which it is attached. Here, again, we are met by novelties, for in his engines
Mr. Diplock has so arranged matters, that not only can both front and back
pairs of wheels be used as drivers, but both also take part in the steering. As
may be imagined, many difficulties had to be surmounted before this
innovation was complete. But that it was worth while is evident from the
small space in which a double-steering tractor can turn, thanks to both its
axles being movable, and from the increased power. Another important
feature must also be noticed, viz. that the axles can both tip vertically, so
that when the front left wheel is higher than its fellow, the left back wheel
may be lower than the right back wheel. In short, flexibility and power are
the ideals which Mr. Diplock has striven to reach. How far he has been
successful may be gathered from the reports of experts. Professor Hele-
Shaw, F.R.S., says: "The Pedrail constitutes, in my belief, the successful
solution of a walking machine, which, whilst obviating the chief objections
to the ordinary wheel running upon the road, can be made to travel
anywhere where an ordinary wheel can go, and in many places where it
cannot. At the same time it has the mechanical advantages which have made
the railway system such a phenomenal success. It constitutes, in my belief,
the solution of one of the most difficult mechanical problems, and deserves
to be considered as an invention quite apart from any particular means by
which it is actuated, whether it is placed upon a self-propelled carriage or a
vehicle drawn by any agency, mechanical or otherwise.... The way in which
all four wheels are driven simultaneously so as to give the maximum
pulling effect by means of elastic connection is in itself sufficient to mark
the engine as a most valuable departure from common practice. Hitherto
this driving of four wheels has never been successfully achieved, partly
because of the difficulty of turning the steering-wheels, and partly because,
until the present invention of Mr. Diplock, the front and hind wheels would
act against each other, a defect at first experienced and overcome by the
inventor in his first engine."

A PEDRAIL TRACTOR ENGAGED IN WAR OFFICE TRIALS
The inventor, Mr. J. B. Diplock, is standing on the left of the group. Observe the manner in
which the feet gradually assume a horizontal position as they approach the ground.

On January 8th, 1902, Mr. Diplock tried an engine fitted with two
ordinary wheels behind and two pedrails in front. The authority quoted
above was present at the trials, and his opinion will therefore be interesting.
"The points which struck me immediately were (1) the marvellous ease
with which it started into action, (2) the little noise with which it worked....
Another thing which I noticed was the difference in the behaviour of the
feet and wheels. The feet did not in any way seem to affect the surface of
the road. Throwing down large stones the size of the fist into their path, the
feet simply set themselves to an angle in passing over the stones, and did
not crush them; whereas, the wheel coming after invariably crushed the
stones, and, moreover, distorted the road surface.
"Coming to the top of the hill, I made the Pedrail walk first over 3-inch
planks, then 6-inch, and finally over a 9-inch balk.... One could scarcely
believe, on witnessing these experiments, that the whole structure was not

permanently distorted and strained, whereas it was evidently within the
limits of play allowed by the mechanism. As a proof of this the Diplock
engine walked down to the works, and I then witnessed its ascent of a lane,
beside the engineering works, which had ruts eight or ten inches deep, and
was a steep slope. This lane was composed in places of the softest mud, and
whereas the wheels squeezed out the ground in all directions, the feet of the
Pedrails set themselves at the angles of the rut where it was hard, or walked
through the soft and yielding mud without making the slightest disturbance
of the surrounding ground.... I came away from that trial with the firm
conviction that I had seen what I believe to be the dawn of a new era in
mechanical transport."
Mr. Diplock does not regard the pedrail as an end in itself so much as a
means to an end, viz. the development of road-borne traffic. For very long
distances which must be covered in a minimum of time the railway will
hold its own. But there is a growing feeling that unless the railways can be
fed by subsidiary methods of transport more effectively than at present, and
unless remote country districts, whither it would not pay to carry even a
light railway, are brought into closer touch with the busier parts, our
communications cannot be considered satisfactory, and we are not getting
the best value out of our roads. For many classes of goods cheapness of
transportation is of more importance than speed; witness the fact that coal is
so often sent by canal rather than by rail.
Here, then, is the chance for the pedrail tractor and its long train of
vehicles fitted with pedrail wheels, which will tend to improve the road
surfaces they travel over. Mr. Diplock sets out in his interesting book, A
New System of Heavy Goods Transport on Common Roads, a scheme for
collecting goods from "branch" routes on to "main" routes, where a number
of cars will be coupled up and towed by powerful tractors. With ordinary
four-wheeled trucks it is difficult to take a number round a sharp corner,
since each truck describes a more sudden circle than its predecessor, the last
often endeavouring to climb the pavement. Four-wheeled would therefore
be replaced by two-wheeled trucks, provided with special couplings to
prevent the cars tilting, while allowing them to turn. Cars so connected
would follow the same track round a curve.
The body of the car would be removable, and of a standard size. It could
be attached to a simple horse frame for transport into the fields. There the

farmer would load his produce, and when the body was full it would be
returned to the road, picked up by a crane attached to the tractor, swung on
to its carriage and wheels, and taken away to join other cars. By making the
bodies of such dimensions as to fit three into an ordinary railway truck, they
could be entrained easily. On reaching their destination another tractor
would lift them out, fit them to wheels, and trundle them off to the
consumer. By this method there would be no "breaking bulk" of goods
required from the time it was first loaded till it was exposed in the market
for sale.
These things are, of course, in the future. Of more present importance is
the fact that the War Office has from the first taken great interest in the new
invention, which promises to be of value for military transport over ground
either rough or boggy. Trials have been made by the authorities with
encouraging results. That daring writer, Mr. H. G. Wells, has in his Land
Ironclads pictured the pedrail taking an offensive part in warfare. Huge
steel-plated forts, mounted on pedrails, and full of heavy artillery and
machine guns, sweep slowly across the country towards where the enemy
has entrenched himself. The forts are impervious alike to shell and bullet,
but as they cross ditch or hillock in their gigantic stride, their artillery works
havoc among their opponents, who are finally forced to an unconditional
surrender.
Even if the pedrail is not made to carry weapons of destruction, we can,
after our experiences with horseflesh in the Boer War, understand how
important it may become for commissariat purposes. The feats which it has
already performed mark it as just the locomotive to tackle the rough country
in which baggage trains often find themselves.
To conclude with a more peaceful use for it. When fresh country is
opened up, years must often pass before a proper high road can be made,
yet there is great need of an organised system of transport. Whither ordinary
traction-engines, or carts, even horses, could scarcely penetrate, the pedrail
tractor, thanks to its big, flat feet, which give it, as someone has remarked,
the appearance of "a cross between a traction-engine and an elephant," will
be able to push its way at the forefront of advancing civilisation.
At home we shall have good reason to welcome the pedrail if it frees us
from those terrible corrugated tracks so dreaded by the cyclist, and to bless

it if it actually beats our roads down into a greater smoothness than they
now can boast.

CHAPTER VI

INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES
OIL ENGINES — ENGINES WORKED WITH PRODUCER GAS — BLAST FURNACE GAS
ENGINES

I
f carbon and oxygen be made to combine chemically, the process is
accompanied by the phenomenon called heat. If heat be applied to a
liquid or gas in a confined space it causes a violent separation of its
molecules, and power is developed.
In the case of a steam-engine the fuel is coal (carbon in a more or less
pure form), the fluid, water. By burning the fuel under a boiler, a gas is
formed which, if confined, rapidly increases the pressure on the walls of the
confining vessel. If allowed to pass into a cylinder, the molecules of steam,
struggling to get as far as possible from one another, will do useful work on
a piston connected by rods to a revolving crank.
We here see the combustion of fuel external to the cylinder, i.e. under the
boiler, and the fuel and fluid kept apart out of actual contact. In the gas or
oil-vapour engine the fuel is brought into contact with the fluid which does
the work, mixed with it, and burnt inside the cylinder. Therefore these
engines are termed internal combustion engines.
Supposing that a little gunpowder were placed in a cylinder, of which the
piston had been pushed almost as far in as it would go, and that the powder
were fired by electricity. The charcoal would unite with the oxygen
contained in the saltpetre and form a large volume of gas. This gas, being
heated by the ignition, would instantaneously expand and drive out the
piston violently.
A very similar thing happens at each explosion of an internal combustion
engine. Into the cylinder is drawn a charge of gas, containing carbon,
oxygen, and hydrogen, and also a proportion of air. This charge is squeezed
by the inward movement of the piston; its temperature is raised by the
compression, and at the proper moment it is ignited. The oxygen and carbon
seize on one another and burn (or combine), the heat being increased by the

combustion of the hydrogen. The air atoms are expanded by the heat, and
work is done on the piston. But the explosion is much gentler than in the
case of gunpowder.
During recent years the internal combustion engine has been making
rapid progress, ousting steam power from many positions in which it once
reigned supreme. We see it propelling vehicles along roads and rails,
driving boats through the water, and doing duty in generating stations and
smelting works to turn dynamos or drive air-pumps—not to mention the
thousand other forms of usefulness which, were they enumerated here,
would fill several pages.
A decade ago an internal combustion engine of 100 h.p. was a wonder;
to-day single engines are built to develop 3,000 h.p., and in a few years
even this enormous capacity will doubtless be increased.
It is interesting to note that the rival systems—gas and steam—were
being experimented with at the same time by Robert Street and James Watt
respectively. While Watt applied his genius to the useful development of the
power latent in boiling water, Street, in 1794, took out letters patent for an
engine to be worked by the explosions caused by vaporising spirits of
turpentine on a hot metal surface, mixing the vapour with air in a cylinder,
exploding the mixture, and using the explosion to move a piston. In his, and
subsequent designs, the mixture was pumped in from a separate cylinder
under slight pressure. Lenoir, in 1860, conceived the idea of making the
piston suck in the charge, so abolishing the need of a separate pump; and
many engines built under his patents were long in use, though, if judged by
modern standards, they were very wasteful of fuel. Two years later
Alphonse Beau de Rochas proposed the further improvement of utilising
the cylinder, not only as a suction pump, but also as a compressor; since he
saw that a compressed mixture would ignite very much more readily than
one not under pressure. Rochas held the secret of success in his grasp, but
failed to turn it to practical account. The "Otto cycle," invented by Dr. Otto
in 1876, is really only Rochas's suggestion materialised. The large majority
of internal combustion engines employ this "cycle" of operations, so we
may state its exact meaning:—
(1) A mixture of explosive gas and air is drawn into the cylinder by the
piston as it passes outwards (i.e. in the direction of the crank), through the

inlet valve.
(2) The valve closes, and the returning piston compresses the mixture.
(3) The mixture is fired as the piston commences its second journey
outwards, and gives the "power" stroke.
(4) The piston, returning again, ejects the exploded mixture through the
outlet or exhaust valve, which began to open towards the end of the third
stroke.
Briefly stated, the "cycle" is—suction, compression, explosion,
expulsion; one impulse being given during each cycle, which occupies two
complete revolutions of the fly-wheel. Since the first, second, and third
operations all absorb energy, the wheel must be heavy enough to store
sufficient momentum during the "power" stroke to carry the piston through
all its three other duties.
Year by year, the compression of the mixture has been increased, and
improvements have been made in the methods of governing the speed of the
engine, so that it may be suitable for work in which the "load" is constantly
varying. By doubling, trebling, and quadrupling the cylinders the drive is
rendered more and more steady, and the elasticity of a steam-engine more
nearly approached.
The internal combustion engine has "arrived" so late because in the
earlier part of last century conditions were not favourable to its
development. Illuminating gas had not come into general use, and such coal
gas as was made was expensive. The great oil-fields of America and Russia
had not been discovered. But while the proper fuels for this type of motor
were absent, coal, the food of the steam-engine, lay ready to hand, and in
forms which, though useless for many purposes, could be advantageously
burnt under a boiler.
Now the situation has altered. Gas is abundant; and oil of the right sort
costs only a few pence a gallon. Inventors and manufacturers have grasped
the opportunity. To-day over 3,000,000 h.p. is developed continuously by
the internal combustion engine.
Steam would not have met so formidable a rival had not that rival had
some great advantages to offer. What are these? Well, first enter a factory
driven by steam power, and carefully note what you see. Then visit a large

gas- or oil-engine plant. You will conclude that the latter scores on many
points. There are no stokers required. No boilers threaten possible
explosions. The heat is less. The dust and dirt are less. The space occupied
by the engines is less. There is no noisome smoke to be led away through
tall and expensive chimneys. If work is stopped for an hour or a day, there
are no fires to be banked or drawn—involving waste in either case.
Above all, the gas engine is more efficient, or, if you like to express the
same thing in other words, more economical. If you use only one horse-
power for one hour a day, it doesn't much matter whether that horse-power-
hour costs 4d. or 5d. But in a factory where a thousand horse-power is
required all day long, the extra pence make a big total. If, therefore, the
proprietor finds that a shilling's-worth of gas or oil does a quarter as much
work again as a shilling's-worth of coal, and that either form of fuel is easily
obtained, you may be sure that, so far as economy is concerned, he will
make up his mind without difficulty as to the class of engine to be
employed. A pound of coal burnt under the best type of steam-engine gives
but 10 per cent. of its heating value in useful work. A good oil-engine gives
20-25 per cent., and in special types the figures are said to rise to 35-40 per
cent. We may notice another point, viz. that, while a steam-engine must be
kept as hot as possible to be efficient, an internal combustion engine must
be cooled. In the former case no advantage, beyond increased efficiency,
results. But in the latter the water passed round the cylinders to take up the
surplus heat has a value for warming the building or for manufacturing
processes.
Putting one thing with another, experts agree that the explosion engine is
the prime mover of the future. Steam has apparently been developed almost
to its limit. Its rival is but half-grown, though already a giant.
Some internal combustion engines use petroleum as their fuel, converting
it into gas before it is mixed with air to form the charge; others use coal-gas
drawn from the lighting mains; "poor gas" made in special plants for power
purposes; or natural gas issuing from the ground. Natural gas occurs in very
large quantities in the United States, where it is conveyed through pipes
under pressure for hundreds of miles, and distributed among factories and
houses for driving machinery, heating, and cooking. In England and Europe
the petroleum engine and coal-gas engine have been most utilised; but of
late the employment of smelting-furnace gases—formerly blown into the air

and wasted—and of "producer" gas has come into great favour with
manufacturers. The latest development is the "suction" gas engine, which
makes its own gas by drawing steam and air through glowing fuel during
the suction stroke.
We will consider the various types under separate headings devoted
(1) To the oil-fuel engine,
(2) The producer-gas engine and the suction-gas engine,
(3) Blast-furnace gas engines,
with reference to the installations used in connection with the last two.
All explosion engines (excepting the very small types employed on
motor cycles) have a water-jacket round the cylinders to absorb some of the
heat of combustion, which would otherwise render the metal so hot as to
make proper lubrication impossible, and also would unduly expand the
incoming charge of gas and air before compression. The ideal engine would
take in a full charge of cold mixture, which would receive no heat from the
walls of the cylinder, and during the explosion would pass no heat through
the walls. In other words, the ideal metal for the cylinders would be one
absolutely non-receptive of heat. In the absence of this, engineers are
obliged to make a compromise, and to keep the cylinder at such a
temperature that it can be lubricated fittingly, while not becoming so cold as
to absorb too much of the heat of explosion.

OIL ENGINES

These fall into two main classes:—
(a) Those using light, volatile, mineral oils—such as petrol and benzoline
—and alcohol, a vegetable product.
(b) Those using heavy oils, such as paraffin oil (kerosene) and the denser
constituents of rock-oil left in the stills after the kerosene has been driven
off. American petroleum is rich in burning-oil and petrol; Russian in the
very heavy residue, called astakti. Given the proper apparatus for
vaporisation, mineral oils of any density can be used in the explosion
engine.

The first class is so well known as the mover of motor vehicles and boats
that we need not linger here on it. It may, however, be remarked that
engines using the easily-vaporised oils are not of large powers, since the
fuel is too expensive to make them valuable for installations where large
units of power are needed. They have been adopted for locomotives on
account of their lightness, and the ease with which they can be started.
Petrol vaporises at ordinary temperatures, so that air merely passed over the
spirit absorbs sufficient vapour to form an explosive mixture. The "jet"
carburetter, now generally employed, makes the mixture more positive by
atomising the spirit as it passes through a very fine nozzle into the mixing
chamber under the suction from the cylinder. On account of their small size
spirit engines work at very high speeds as compared with the large oil or
gas engine. Thus, while a 2,000 h.p. Körting gas engine develops full power
at eighty-five revolutions a minute, the tiny cycle motor must be driven at
2,000 to 3,000 revolutions. Speaking generally, as the size increases the
speed decreases.
Of heavy oil engines there are some dozens of well-tried types. They
differ in their methods of effecting the following operations.
1. The feeding of the oil fuel to the engine.
2. The conversion of the oil into vapour.
3. The ignition of the charge.
4. The governing of speed.
All these engines have a vaporiser, or chamber wherein the oil is
converted into gas by the action of heat. When starting-up the engine, this
chamber must be heated by a specially designed lamp, similar in principle
to that used by house painters for burning old paint off wood or metal.
Let us now consider the operations enumerated above in some detail.
1. The oil supply. Fuel is transferred from the storage tank to the
vaporiser either by the action of gravity through a regulating device to
prevent "flooding," or by means of a small pump, or by the suction of the
piston, which lifts the liquid. In some engines the air and gas enter the
cylinder through a single valve; in others through separate valves.

2. Vaporisation. As already remarked, the vaporising chamber must be
heated to start the engine. When work has begun the lamp may be removed
if the engine is so designed that the chamber stores up sufficient heat in its
walls from each explosion to vaporise the charge for the next power stroke.
The Crossley engine has a lamp continuously burning; the Hornsby-
Ackroyd depends upon the storage of heat from explosions in a chamber
opening into the cylinder. The best designs are fairly equally divided
between the two systems.
3. Ignition of the compressed charge is effected in one of four ways: by
bringing the charge, at the end of the compression stroke, into contact with
a closed tube projecting from the cylinder and heated outside by a
continuously burning lamp; by the heat stored in some part of the
combustion chamber (i.e. that portion of the cylinder not swept by the
piston); by an electric spark; or by the mere heat of compression. The
second and third methods are confined to comparatively few makes; and the
Diesel Oil Engine (of which more presently) has a monopoly of the fourth.
4. Governing. All engines which turn machinery doing intermittent work
—such as that of a sawmill, or electric generating plant connected with a
number of motors—must be very carefully guarded from overrunning.
Imagine the effect on an engine which is putting out its whole strength and
getting full charges of fuel, if the belt suddenly slipped off and it were
"allowed its head." A burst fly-wheel would be only one of the results. The
steam-engine is easily controlled by the centrifugal action of a ball-
governor, which, as the speed increases, gradually spreads its balls and lifts
a lever connected with a valve in the steam supply pipe. Owing to its elastic
nature, steam will do useful work if admitted in small quantities to the
cylinder. But a difficulty arises with the internal combustion engine if the
supply of mixture is similarly throttled, because a loss of quantity means
loss of compression and bad ignition. Many oil engines are therefore
governed by apparatus which, when the speed exceeds a certain limit, cuts
off the supply altogether, either by throwing the oil-pump temporarily out
of action, or by lifting the exhaust valve so that the movement of the piston
causes no suction—the "hit-and-miss" method, as it is called.
The means adopted depends on the design of the engine; and it must be
said that, though all the devices commonly used effect their purpose, none
are perfect; this being due rather to the nature of an internal explosion

engine than to any lack of ingenuity on the part of inventors. The steadiest
running is probably given with the throttle control, which diminishes the
supply. On motor cars this method has practically ousted the "hit-and-miss"
governed exhaust valve; but in stationary engines we more commonly find
the speed controlled by robbing the mixture of the explosive gas in inverse
proportion to the amount of the work required from the engine.

THE DIESEL OIL ENGINE,

on account of some features peculiar to it, is treated separately. In 1901 an
expert wrote of it that "the engine has not attained any commercial
position." Herr Rudolph Diesel, the inventor, has, however, won a high
place for his prime-mover among those which consume liquid fuel, on
account of its extraordinary economy. The makers claim—as the result of
many tests—that with the crude rock-oil (costing in bulk about 2d. a gallon)
which it uses, a horse-power can be developed for one hour by this engine
for one-tenth of a penny. The daily fuel bill for a 100 h.p. engine running
ten hours per day would therefore be 8s. 4d. To compete with the Diesel
engine a steam installation would have to be of the very highest class of
triple-expansion type, of not less than 400 h.p., and using every hour per
3
horse-power only 1 4 lbs. of coal at 9s. per ton. Very few large steam-
engines work under conditions so favourable, and with small sizes 3-4 lbs.
of coal would be burnt for every "horse-power-hour."
The Diesel differs from other internal combustion engines in the
following respects:—
1. It works with very much higher compression.
2. The ignition is spontaneous, resulting from the high compression of
the charge alone.
3. The fuel is not admitted into the cylinder until the power-stroke begins,
and enters in the form of a fine spray.
4. The combustion of the fuel is much slower, and therefore gives a more
continuous and elastic push to the piston.
The engine works on the ordinary Otto cycle. To start it, air compressed
in a separate vessel is injected into the cylinder. The piston flies out, and on

its return squeezes the air to about 500 lbs. to the square inch, thus
rendering it incandescent.[11] Just as the piston begins to move out again a
valve in the cylinder-head opens, and a jet of pulverised oil is squirted in by
air compressed to 100 lbs. per square inch more than the pressure in the
cylinder. The vapour, meeting the hot air, burns, but comparatively slowly:
the pressure in the cylinder during the stroke decreasing much more
gradually than in other engines. Governing is effected by regulation of the
amount of oil admitted into the cylinder.
In spite of its high compression this engine runs with very little vibration.
The writer saw a penny stand unmoved on its edge on the top of a cylinder
in which the piston was reciprocating 500 times a minute!

ENGINES WORKED BY PRODUCER-GAS

These engines are worked by a special gas generated in an apparatus
called a "producer." If air is forced through incandescent carbon in a closed
furnace its oxygen unites with the carbon and forms carbonic acid gas,
known chemically as CO2, because every molecule of the gas contains one
atom of carbon and two of oxygen. This gas, being the product of
combustion, cannot burn (i.e. combine with more oxygen), but as it passes
up through the glowing coke, coal, or other fuel, it absorbs another carbon
atom into every molecule, and we have C2O2, or 2 CO, which we know as
carbon monoxide. This gas may be seen burning on the top of an open fire
with a very pale blue flame, as it once more combines with oxygen to form
carbonic acid gas.
The carbon monoxide is valuable as a heating agent, and when mixed
with air forms an explosive mixture.
If along with the air sent into our furnace there goes a proportion of
steam, further chemical action results. The oxygen of the steam combines
with carbon to form carbon monoxide, and sets free the hydrogen. The latter
gas, when it combines with oxygen in combustion, causes intense heat; so
that if from the furnace we can draw off carbon monoxide and hydrogen,
we shall be able to get a mixture which during combustion will set up great
heat in the cylinder of an engine.

In 1878 Mr. Emerson Dowson invented an apparatus for manufacturing a
gas suitable for power plant, the gas being known as Producer or Poor Gas,
the last term referring to its poorness in hydrogen as compared with coal
and other gases. While the hydrogen is a desirable ingredient in an
explosive charge, it must not form a large proportion, since under
compression it renders the mixture in which it takes part dangerously
combustible, and liable to spontaneous ignition before the piston has
finished the compression stroke. Water-gas, very rich in hydrogen, and
made by a very similar process, is therefore not suitable for internal
combustion engines.
There are many types of producers, but they fall under two main heads,
i.e. the pressure and the suction.
The pressure producer contains the following essential parts:—
The generator, a vertical furnace fed from the top through an air-tight
trap, and shut off below from the outside atmosphere by having its foot
immersed in water. Any fuel or ashes which fall through the bars into the
water can be abstracted without spoiling the draught. Air and steam are
forced into the generator, and pass up through the fuel with the chemical
results already described. The gases then flow into a cooler, enclosed in a
water-jacket, through which water circulates, and on into a scrubber, where
they must find their way upwards through coke kept dripping with water
from overhead jets. The water collects impurities of all sorts, and the gas is
then ready for storage in the gas-holders or for immediate use in the
engines.
A pound of anthracite coal thus burnt will yield enough gas to develop 1
h.p. for one hour.
Suction Gas Plants.—With these gas is not stored in larger quantities
than are needed for the immediate work of the engine. In fact, the engine
itself during its suction strokes draws air and steam through a very small
furnace, coolers, and scrubbers direct into the cylinder. The furnace is
therefore fed with air and water, not by pressure from outside, but by
suction from inside, hence the name "suction producer." At the present time
suction gas engines are being built for use on ships, since a pound of fuel
thus consumed will drive a vessel further than if burnt under a steam boiler.
Very possibly the big ocean liners of twenty years hence may be fitted with

such engines in the place of the triple and quadruple expansion steam
machinery now doing the work.

BLAST-FURNACE GAS ENGINES

Every iron blast-furnace is very similar in construction and action to the
generator of a producer-gas plant. Into it are fed through a hopper, situated
in the top, layers of ore, coal or coke, and limestone. At the bottom enters a
blast of air heated by passing through a stove of firebrick raised to a high
temperature by the carbon monoxide gas coming off from the furnace.
When the stove has been well heated the gas supply is shut off from it and
switched to the engine-house to create power for driving the huge blowers.
The gas contains practically no hydrogen, as the air sent through the
furnace is dry; but since it will stand high compression, it is very suitable
for use in large engines. Formerly all the gas from the furnace was expelled
into the open air and absolutely wasted; then it was utilised to heat the
forced draught to the furnace; next, to burn under boilers; and last of all, at
the suggestion of Mr. B. H. Thwaite, to operate internal combustion engines
for blowing purposes. Thus, in the fitness of things, we now see the biggest
gas engines in the world installed where gas is created in the largest
quantities, and an interesting cycle of actions results. The engine pumps the
air; the air blows the furnace and melts the iron out of the ore; the furnace
creates the gas; the gas heats the air or works the engines to pump more air.
So engines and furnace mutually help each other, instead of all the
obligation being on the one side.
When, a few years ago, the method was first introduced, engines were
damaged by the presence of dust carried with the gas from the furnace. Mr.
B. H. Thwaite has, however, perfected means for the separation of injurious
matter, and blast-furnace gas is coming into general use in England and on
the Continent. Some idea of the power which has been going to waste in
ironworks for decades past may be gathered from a report of Professor
Hubert after experiments made in 1900. He says that engines of large size
do not use more than 100 cubic feet of average blast-furnace gas per
effective horse-power-hour, which is less than one-fourth of the
consumption of gas required to develop the same power from boilers and
good modern condensing steam-engines, so that there is an immense

surplus of power to be obtained from a blast-furnace if the blowing engines
are worked by the gas it generates, a surplus which can be still further
increased if the gas is properly cleaned. It is estimated that for every 100
tons of coke used in an ordinary Cleveland blast-furnace, after making
ample allowance for gas for the stoves and power for the lifts, pumps, etc.,
and for gas for working the necessary blowing engines, there is a surplus of
at least 1,500 h.p.; so that by economising gas by cleaning, and developing
the necessary power by gas engines, every furnace owner would have a
very large surplus of power for his steel or other works, or for selling in the
form of electricity or otherwise.
Yet all this gas had been formerly turned loose for the breezes to warm
their fingers at! Truly, as an observant writer has recorded, the sight of a
special plant being put up near a blast furnace to manufacture gas for the
blowing engines suggests the pumping of water uphill in order to get water-
power!
Messrs. Westgarth and Richardson, of Middlesbrough; the John Cockerill
Company, of Seraing, Belgium; and the De la Vergne Company, of New
York, are among the chief makers of the largest gas engines in the world,
ranging up to 3,750 h.p. each. These immense machines, some with fly-
wheels 30 feet in diameter, and cylinders spacious enough for a man to
stand erect in, work blowers for furnaces or drive dynamos. At the works of
the manufacturers mentioned the engines helped to make the steel, and turn
the machinery for the creation of brother monsters.

GIGANTIC GAS ENGINES
Five of sixteen 2,000 h.p. Körting Gas Engines built by the De la Vergne Company of New York
City for blowing the blast furnaces of the Lackawanna Steel Company. The gas-engine plant at
these works is the largest in the world. Notice the man to the left.

This use of a "bye-product" of industry is remarkable, but it can be
paralleled. Furnace slag, once cast away as useless, is now recognised to be
a valuable manure, or is converted into bricks, tiles, cement, and other
building materials. Again, the former waste from the coal-gas purifier
assumes importance as the origin of aniline dyes, creosote, saccharine,
ammonia, and oils. We really appear to be within sight of the happy time
when waste will be unknown. And it therefore is curious that we still burn
gas as an illuminant, when the same, if made to work an engine, would give
more lighting power in the shape of electric current supplying incandescent
lamps.

FOOTNOTE:

11. The fact that air is heated to combustion point by compression has long been known to the
Chinese. In The River of Golden Sand, Captain Gill writes: "The natives have an apparatus by which
1
they strike a light by compressed air. The apparatus consists of a wooden cylinder 2 inches long by
2
3
inch in diameter. This is closed at one end; the bore being about the size of a stout quill pen, an air-
4
tight piston fits into this with a large flat knob at the top. The other end of the piston is slightly
hollowed out, and a very small piece of tinder is placed on the top thus formed. The cylinder is held
in one hand, the piston inserted and pushed about half-way down; a very sharp blow is then delivered
with the palm of the hand on to the top of the knob; the hand must at the same time close on the
knob, and instantly withdraw the piston, when the tinder will be found alight. The compression of the
air produces heat enough to light the tinder; but this will go out again unless the piston is withdrawn
very sharply. I tried a great many times, but covered myself with confusion in fruitless efforts to get a
light, for the natives never miss it."

CHAPTER VII

MOTOR-CARS
THE MOTOR OMNIBUS — RAILWAY MOTOR-CARS

T
he development of the motor-car has been phenomenal. Early in 1896
the only mechanically moved vehicles to be seen on our roads were the
traction-engine, preceded by a man bearing a red flag, the steam-roller,
and, in the towns, a few trams. To-day the motor is apparent everywhere,
dodging through street traffic, or raising the dust of the country roads and
lanes, or lumbering along with its load of merchandise at a steady gait.
As a purely speed machine the motor-car has practically reached its limit.
With 100 h.p. or more crowded into a vehicle scaling only a ton, the record
rate of travel has approached two miles in a minute on specially prepared
and peculiarly suitable tracks. Even up steep hills such a monster will career
at nearly eighty miles an hour.
Next to the racing car comes the touring car, engined to give sixty miles
an hour on the level in the more powerful types, or a much lower speed in
the car intended for quieter travel, and for people who are not prepared to
face a big bill for upkeep. The luxury of the age has invaded the design of
automobiles till the gorgeously decorated and comfortably furnished
Pullman of the railway has found a counterpart in the motor caravan with its
accommodation for sleeping and feeding. While the town dweller rolls
along in electric landaulet, screened from wind and weather, the tourist may
explore the roads of the world well housed and lolling at ease behind the
windows of his 2,000-guinea machine, on which the engineer and carriage
builder have lavished their utmost skill.
The taunt of unreliability once levelled—and with justice—at the motor-
car, is fast losing its force, owing to the vast improvements in design and
details which manufacturers have been stimulated to make. The motor-car
industry has a great future before it, and the prizes therein are such as to
tempt both inventor and engineer. Every week scores of patents are granted
for devices which aim at the perfection of some part of a car, its tyres, its

wheels, or its engines. Until standard types for all grades of motor vehicles
have been established, this restless flow of ideas will continue. Its volume is
the most striking proof of the vitality of the industry.
The uses to which the motor vehicle has been put are legion. On railways
the motor carriage is catering for local traffic. On the roads the motor
omnibus is steadily increasing its numbers. Tradesmen of all sorts, and
persons concerned with the distribution of commodities, find that the petrol-
or steam-moved car or lorry has very decided advantages over horse
traction. Our postal authorities have adopted the motor mail van. The War
Office looks to the motor to solve some of its transportation difficulties. In
short, the "motor age" has arrived, which will, relatively to the "railway
age," play much the same part as that epoch did to the "horse age." At the
ultimate effects of the change we can only guess; but we see already, in the
great acceleration of travel wherever the motor is employed, that many
social institutions are about to be revolutionised. But for the determined
opposition in the 'thirties of last century to the steam omnibus we should
doubtless live to-day in a very different manner. Our population would be
scattered more broadcast over the country instead of being herded in huge
towns. Many railways would have remained unbuilt, but our roads would be
kept in much better condition, special tracks having been built for the rapid
travel of the motor. We have only to look to a country now in course of
development to see that the road, which leads everywhere, will, in
combination with the motor vehicle, eventually supplant, or at any rate
render unnecessary, the costly network of railways which must be a
network of very fine mesh to meet the needs of a civilised community.
In the scope of a few pages it is impossible to cover even a tithe of the
field occupied by the ubiquitous motor-car, and we must, therefore, restrict
ourselves to a glance at the manufacture of its mechanism, and a few short
excursions into those developments which promise most to alter our modes
of life.
We will begin with a trip over one of the largest motor factories in the
world, selecting that of Messrs. Dion and Bouton, whose names are
inseparable from the history of the modern motor-car. They may justly
claim that to deal with the origin, rise, and progress of the huge business
which they have built up would be to give an account, in its general lines, of

all the phases through which the motor, especially the petrol motor, has
passed from its crudest shape to its present state of comparative perfection.
The Count Albert de Dion was, in his earlier days, little concerned with
things mechanical. He turned rather to the fashionable pursuit of duelling,
in which he seems to have made a name. But he was not the man to waste
his life in such inanities, and when, one day, he was walking down the Paris
boulevards, his attention was riveted by a little clockwork carriage exposed
for sale among other New Year's gifts. That moment was fraught with great
consequences, for an inventive mind had found a proper scope for its
energy. Why, thought he, could not real cars be made to run by some better
form of motive power? On inquiring he learnt that a workman named
Bouton had produced the car. The Count, therefore, sought the artisan; with
whom he worked out the problem which had now become his aim in life.
Hence it is that the names "Dion—Bouton" are found on thousands of
engines all over the world.
The partners scored their first successes with steam- and petrol-driven
tricycles, built in a small workshop in the Avenue Malakoff in Paris. The
works were then transferred to Puteaux, which has since developed into the
great automobile centre of the world, and after two more changes found a
resting-place on the Quai National. Here close upon 3,000 hands are
engaged in supplying the world's requirements in motors and cars. Let us
enter the huge block of buildings and watch them at work.
The drawing-office is the brain of the factory. Within its walls new ideas
are being put into practical shape by skilled draughtsmen. The drawings are
sent to the model-making shop, where the parts are first fashioned in wood.
The shop contains dozens of big benches, circular saws, and planing
machines, one of them in the form of a revolving drum carrying a number
of planes, which turns thousands of times a minute, and shapes off the
rough surface of the blocks of hard wood as if it were so much clay. These
blocks are cut, planed, and turned, and then put into the hands of a
remarkably skilled class of workmen, who, with rule, calliper, and chisel,
shape out cylinders and other parts to the drawings before them with
wonderful patience and exactness.
After the model has been fashioned, the next step is to make a clay mould
from the same, with a hole in the top through which the molten metal is

poured. The foundry is most picturesque in a lurid, Rembrandtesque
fashion: "It is black everywhere. The floor, walls, and roof are black, and
the foundry hands look like unwashed penitents in sackcloth and ashes. At
the end of the building there is a raised brickwork, and when the visitor is
able to see in the darkness, he distinguishes a number of raised lids along
the top, while here and there are strewn about huge iron ladles like buckets.
On the foreman giving the word, a man steps up on the brickwork and
removes the lid, when a column of intense white light strikes upwards. It
gives one the impression of coming from the bowels of the earth, like a hole
opening out in a volcano. The man bestrides the aperture, down which he
drops the ladle at the end of a long pole, and then pulling it up again full of
a straw-coloured, shining liquid, so close to him that we shudder at the idea
of its spilling over his legs and feet, he pours the molten metal into a big
ladle, which is seized by two men who pour the liquid into the moulds. The
work is more difficult than it looks, for it requires a lot of practice to fill the
moulds in such a way as to avoid blow-holes and flaws that prove such a
serious item in foundry practice."
In the case-hardening department, next door, there are six huge ovens
with sliding fronts. Therein are set parts which have been forged or
machined, and are subjected to a high temperature while covered in
charcoal, so that the skin of the metal may absorb carbon at high
temperatures and become extremely tough. All shafts, gears, and other
moving parts of a car are subjected to this treatment, which permits a
considerable reduction in the weight of metal used, and greatly increases its
resistance to wear. After being "carbonised," the material is tempered by
immersion in water while of a certain heat, judged by the colour of the hot
metal.
We now pass to the turning-shop, where the cylinders are bored out by a
grinding disc rapidly rotating on an eccentric shaft, which is gradually
advanced through the cylinder as it revolves. The utmost accuracy, to the
1/10,000 part of an inch, is necessary in this operation, since the bore must
be perfectly cylindrical, and also of a standard size, so that any standard
piston may exactly fit it. After being bored, or rather ground, the walls of
the cylinder are highly polished, and the article is ready for testing. The
workman entrusted with this task hermetically closes the ends by inserting
the cylinder between the plates of an hydraulic press, and pumps in water to

a required pressure. If there be the slightest crack, crevice, or hole, the
water finds its way through, and the piece is condemned to the rubbish
heap.
In the "motor-room" are scores of cylinders, crank-cases, and gears ready
for finishing. Here the outside of bored cylinders is touched up by files to
remove any marks and rough projections left by the moulds. The crank-
cases of aluminium are taken in hand by men who chisel the edges where
the two halves fit, chipping off the metal with wonderful skill and precision.
The edges are then ground smooth, and after the halves have been
accurately fitted, the holes for the bolts connecting them are drilled in a
special machine, which presents a drill to each hole in succession.
Having seen the various operations which a cylinder has to go through,
we pass into another shop given up to long lines of benches where various
motor parts are being completed. Each piece, however small, is treated as of
the utmost importance, since the failure of even a tiny pin may bring the
largest car to a standstill. We see a man testing pump discs against a
standard template to prove their absolute accuracy. Close by, another man is
finishing a fly-wheel, chipping off specks of metal to make the balance true.
We now understand that machine tools cannot utterly displace the human
hand and eye. The fitters, with touches of the file, remove matter in such
minute quantities that its removal might seem of no consequence. But
"matter in the wrong place" is the cause of many breakdowns.
We should naturally expect that engines cast from the same pattern,
handled by the same machines, finished by the same men, would give
identical results. But as two bicycles of similar make will run differently, so
do engines of one type develop peculiarities. The motors are therefore taken
into a testing-room and bolted to two rows of benches, forty at a time. Here
they run under power for long periods, creating a deafening uproar, until all
parts work "sweetly." The power of the engines is tested by harnessing them
to dynamos and noting the amount of current developed at a certain speed.
We might linger in the departments where accumulators, sparking plugs,
and other parts of the electrical apparatus of a car are made, or in the
laboratory where chemists pry into the results of a new alloy, aided by
powerful microscopes and marvellously delicate scales. But we will stop
only to note the powerful machine which is stretching and crushing metal to

ascertain its toughness. No care in experimenting is spared. The chemist,
poring over his test tubes, plays as important a part in the construction of a
car as the foundry man or the turner.
The machine-shop is an object-lesson among the tools noticed in
previous chapters of this book. "Here is a huge planing machine travelling
to and fro over a copper bar. A crank shaft has been cut out of solid steel by
boring holes close together through a thick plate, and the two sides of the
plate have been broken off, leaving the rough shaft with its edges composed
of a considerable number of semicircles. The shaft is slowly rotated on a
lathe, and tiny clouds of smoke arise as the tool nicks off pieces of metal to
reduce the shaft to a circular shape. Other machines, with high-speed tool
steel, are finishing gear shafts. Fly-wheels are being turned and worm shafts
cut. All these laborious operations are carried out by the machines, each
under the control of one man whose mind is intent upon the work, ready to
stop the machine or adjust the material as may be required. As a contrast to
the heavy machines we will pass to the light automatic tools which are
grouped in a gallery.... The eye is bewildered by the moving mass, but the
whirling of the pulley shafts and the clicking of the capstan lathes is
soothing to the ear, while the mind is greatly impressed by the ingenuity of
man in suppressing labour by means of machines, of which half a dozen can
be easily looked after by one hand, who has nothing to do but to see that
they are fed with material. A rod of steel is put into the machine, and the
turret, with half a dozen different tools, presents first one and then the other
to the end of the rod bathed in thick oil, so that it is rapidly turned, bored,
and shaped into caps, nuts, bolts, and the scores of other little accessories
required in fitting up a motor-car. On seeing how all this work is done
mechanically and methodically, with scarcely any other expense but the
capital required in the upkeep of the machines and in driving them, one
wonders how the automobile industry could be carried on without this
labour-saving mechanism. In any event, if all these little pieces had to be
turned out by hand, it is certain that the cost of the motor-car would be
considerably more than it is, even if it did not reach to such a figure as to
make it prohibitive to all but wealthy buyers. Down one side of the gallery
the machines are engaged in cutting gears with so much precision that,
when tested by turning them together on pins on a bench at the end of the
gallery, it is very rare indeed that any one of them is found defective. This
installation of automatic tools is one of the largest of its kind in a motor-car

works, if not in any engineering shop, and each one has been carefully
selected in view of its efficiency for particular classes of work, so that we
see machines from America, England, France, and Germany."
In the fitting-shops the multitude of parts are assembled to form the
chassis or mechanical carriage of the car, to which, in a separate shop, is
added the body for the accommodation of passengers. The whole is painted
and carefully varnished after it has been out on the road for trials to
discover any weak spot in its anatomy. Then the car is ready for sale.
When one considers the racketing that a high-powered car has to stand,
and the high speed of its moving parts, one can understand why those parts
must be made so carefully and precisely, and also how this care must
conduce to the expense of the finished article. It has been said that it is easy
to make a good watch, but difficult to make a good motor; for though they
both require an equal amount of exactitude and skill, the latter has to stand
much more wear in proportion. When you look at a first-grade car bearing a
great maker's name, you have under your eyes one of the most wonderful
pieces of mechanism the world can show.
We will not leave the de Dion-Bouton Works without a further glance at
the human element. The company never have a slack time, and
consequently can employ the same number of people all the year round.
They pride themselves on the fact that the great majority of the men have
been in their employ for several years, with the result that they have around
them a class of workmen who are steady, reliable and, above all, skilful in
the particular work they are engaged upon. There are more than 2,600 men
and about 100 women, these latter being employed chiefly in the
manufacture of sparking plugs and in other departments where there is no
night work. They are mostly the wives or widows of old workmen, and in
thus finding employment for them the firm provides for those who would
otherwise be left without resource, and at the same time earns the gratitude
of their employés.
Note.—The author gratefully acknowledges the help given by Messrs. de
Dion-Bouton, Ltd., in providing materials for this account of their works.

THE MOTOR OMNIBUS

Prior to the emancipation of the road automobile in 1896, permission had
been granted to corporations to run trams driven by mechanical power
through towns. The steam tram, its engine protected by a case which hid the
machinery from the view of restive horses, panted up and down our streets,
drawing one or more vehicles behind it. The electric tram presently came
over from America and soon established its superiority to the steamer with
respect to speed, freedom from smell and smoke, and noiselessness: the
system generally adopted was that invented in 1887 by Frank J. Sprague, in
which an overhead cable supported on posts or slung from wires spanning
the track carries current to a trolley arm projecting from the vehicle. The
return current passes through the rails, which are made electrically
continuous by having their individual lengths either welded together or
joined by metal strips.
In America, where wide streets and rapidly growing cities are the rule,
the electric tramway serves very useful ends; the best proof of its utility
being the total mileage of the tracks. Statistics for 1902 show that since
1890 the mileage had increased from 1,261 to 21,920 miles; and the number
of passengers carried from 2,023,010,202 to 4,813,466,001, or an increase
of 137·94 per cent. It is interesting to note that electricity has in the United
States almost completely ousted steam and animal traction so far as street
cars are concerned; since the 5,661 miles once served by animal power have
dwindled to 259, and steam can claim only 169 miles of track.
Next to the United States comes Germany as a user of electricity for
tractive purposes; though she is a very bad second with only about 6,000
miles of track; and England takes third place with about 3,000 miles. That
the British Isles, so well provided with railways, should be so poorly
equipped with tramways is comprehensible when we consider the
narrowness of the streets of her largest towns, where a good service of
public vehicles is most needed. The installation of a tram-line necessitates
the tearing up of a street, and in many cases the closing of that street to
traffic. We can hardly imagine the dislocation of business that would result
from such a blockage of, say, the Strand and High Holborn; but since it has
been calculated that no less than five millions of pounds sterling are lost to
our great metropolis yearly by the obstructions of gas, water, telegraph, and
telephone operations, which only partially close a thoroughfare, or by the
relaying of the road surface, which is not a very lengthy matter if properly

conducted, we might reckon the financial loss resulting from the laying of
tram-rails at many millions.
Even were they laid, the trouble would not cease, for a tram is confined
to its track, and cannot make way for other traffic. This inadaptability has
been the cause of the great outcry lately raised against the way in which
tram-line companies have monopolised the main streets and approaches to
many of our largest towns. While the electric tram is beneficial to a large
class of people, as a cheap method of locomotion between home and
business, it sadly handicaps all owners of vehicles vexatiously delayed by
the tram. At Brentford, to take a notorious example, the double tram-line so
completely fills the High Street that it is at places impossible for a cart or
carriage to remain at the kerbstone.
Another charge levelled with justice at the tram-line is that the rails and
their setting are dangerous to cyclists, motorists, and even heavy vehicles,
especially in wet weather, when the "side-slip" demon becomes a real terror.
English municipalities are therefore faced by a serious problem.
Improved locomotion is necessary; how can it best be provided? By
smooth-running, luxurious, well-lighted electric trams, travelling over a
track laid at great expense, and a continual nuisance to a large section of the
community; or by vehicles independent of a central source of power, and
free to move in any direction according to the needs of the traffic? Where
tramways exist, those responsible for laying them at the rate of several
thousand pounds per mile are naturally reluctant to abandon them. But
where the fixed track has not yet arrived an alternative method of transport
is open, viz. the automobile omnibus. Quite recently we have seen in
London and other towns a great increase in the number of motor buses,
which often ply far out into the country. From the point of speed they are
very superior to the horsed vehicle, and statistics show that they are also
less costly to run in proportion to the fares carried, while passengers will
unanimously acknowledge their greater comfort. To change from the
ancient, rattling two-horse conveyance, which jolts us on rough roads, and
occasionally sends a thrill up the spine when the brakes are applied, to the
roomy steam- or petrol-driven bus, which overtakes and threads its way
through the slower traffic, is a pleasant experience. So the motor buses are
crowded, while the horsed rivals on the same route trundle along half
empty. Since the one class of vehicles can travel at an average pace of ten

miles an hour, as against the four miles an hour of the other, no wonder that
this should be so. Even if the running costs of a motor bus for a given
distance exceed that of an electric tram, we must remember that, whereas a
bus runs on already existing roads, an immense amount of capital must be
sunk in laying the track for the tram, and the interest on this sum has to be
added to the total running costs.
The next decade will probably decide whether automobiles or trams are
to serve the needs of the community in districts where at present no
efficient service of any kind exists. In London motor buses are being placed
on the roads by scores, and the day cannot be far distant when the horse will
disappear from the bus as it is already fast vanishing from the front of the
tram.
Both petrol and steam, and in some cases a combination of petrol and
electricity, are used to propel the motor bus. It has not yet been decided
which form of power yields the best results. Petrol is probably the cheaper
fuel, but steam gives the quieter running; and could electric storage
batteries be made sufficiently light and durable they would have a strong
claim to precedence. There has lately appeared a new form of accumulator
—the von Rothmund—which promises well, since weight for weight it far
exceeds in capacity any other type, and is so constructed that it will stand a
lot of rough usage. A car fitted with a von Rothmund battery scaling about
1,500 lbs. has run 200 miles on one charge, and it is anticipated that with
improvements in motors a 1,100-lb. battery will readily be run 150 miles as
against the 50 miles in the case of a lead battery of equal weight.
There is a large sphere open to the motor bus outside districts where the
electric tram would enter into serious competition with it. We have before
us a sketch-map of the Great Western Railway, one of the most enterprising
systems with regard to its use of motors to feed its rails. No less than thirty
road services are in operation, and their number is being steadily
augmented. In fact, it looks as if in the near future the motor service will
largely supplant the branch railway, blessed with very few trains a day. A
motor bus service plying every half-hour between a town and the nearest
important main-line station would be more valuable to the inhabitants than
half a dozen trains a day, especially if the passenger vehicles were
supplemented by lorries for the carriage of luggage and heavy goods.

In this connection we may notice an invention of M. Renard—a motor
train of several vehicles towed by a single engine. We have all seen the
traction-engine puffing along with its tail of trucks, and been impressed by
the weight of the locomotive, and also by the manner in which the train
occupies a road when passing a corner. The weight is necessary to give
sufficient grip to move the whole train, while the spreading of the vehicles
across the thoroughfare on a curve arises from the fact that each vehicle
does not follow the path of that preceding it, but describes part of a smaller
circle.
M. Renard has, in his motor train, evaded the need for a heavy tractor by
providing every vehicle with a pair of driving wheels, and transmitting the
power to those wheels by a special flexible propeller shaft which passes
from the powerful motor on the leading vehicle under all the other vehicles,
engaging in succession with mechanism attached to all the driving axles. In
this manner each car yields its quotum of adhesion for its own propulsion,
and the necessity for great weight is obviated. Special couplings ensure that
the path taken by the tractor shall be faithfully followed by all its followers.
A motor train of this description has travelled from Paris to Berlin and
drawn to itself a great deal of attention.
"Will it," asks a writer in The World's Work, "ultimately displace the
conventional traction-engine and its heavy trailing waggons? Every
municipality and County Council is only too painfully cognisant of the dire
effects upon the roads exercised by the cumbrous wheels of these unwieldy
locomotives and trains. With the Renard train, however, the trailing coaches
can be of light construction, carried on ordinary wheels which do not cut up
or otherwise damage the roadway surface. Many other advantages inherent
in such a train might be enumerated. The most important, however, are the
flexibility of the whole train; its complete control; faster speed without any
attendant danger; its remarkable braking arrangements as afforded by the
continuous propeller shaft gearing directly with the driving-wheels of each
carriage; its low cost of maintenance, serviceability, and instant use; and the
reduction in the number of men requisite for the attention of the train while
on a journey."
Were the system a success, it would find plenty of scope to convey
passengers and commodities through districts too sparsely populated to
render a railway profitable. People would talk about travelling or sending

goods by the "ten-thirty motor train," just as now we speak of the "eleven-
fifteen to town."
As a carrier and distributer of mails, the motor van has already
established a position. To quote but a couple of instances, there are the
services between London and Brighton, and Liverpool and Manchester. In
the Isle of Wight motor omnibuses connect all the principal towns and
villages. Each bus is a travelling post-office in which, by an arrangement
with the Postmaster-General, anybody may post letters at the recognised
stopping-places or whenever the vehicle has halted for any purpose.
In Paris, London, Berlin, the motor mail van is a common sight. It has
even penetrated the interior of India, where the Maharajah of Gwalior uses
a specially fitted steam car for the delivery of his private mails. And, as
though to show that man alone shall not profit by the new mode of
locomotion, Paris owns a motor-car which conveys lost dogs from the
different police-stations to the Dogs' Home! In fact, there seems to be no
purpose to which a horse-drawn vehicle can be put, which either has not
been, or shortly will be, invaded by the motor.

RAILWAY MOTOR-CARS

In the early days of railway construction vehicles were used which
combined a steam locomotive with an ordinary passenger carriage. After
being abandoned for many years, the "steam carriage" was revived, in 1902,
by the London and South Western and Great Western railways for local
service and the handling of passenger traffic on branch lines. Since that year
rail motor-cars have multiplied; some being run by steam, others by petrol
engines, and others, again, by electricity generated by petrol engines. The
first class we need not describe in any detail, as it presents no features of
peculiar interest.
The North Eastern has had in use two rail-motors, each fifty-two feet
long, with a compartment at each end for the driver, and a central saloon to
carry fifty-two passengers. An 80 h.p. four-cylindered Wolseley petrol
motor drives a Westinghouse electric generator, which sends current into a
couple of 55 h.p. electric motors geared to the running-wheels. An air
compressor fitted to the rear bogie supplies the Westinghouse air brakes,

while in addition a powerful electric brake is fitted, acting on the rails as
well as the wheels. The coach scales thirty-five tons.
The chief advantage of this "composite" system of power transmission is
that the engine is kept running at a constant speed, while the power it
develops at the electric motors is regulated by switches which control the
action of the armature and field magnets. When heavy work must be done
the engine is supplied with more gaseous mixture, and the generators are so
operated as to develop full power. In this manner all the variable speed
gears and clutches necessary when the petrol motor is connected to the
driving-wheels are done away with.
The latter system gives, however, greater economy of fuel, and the Great
Northern Railway has adopted it in preference to the petrol-electric. This
railway has many small branch lines running through thinly populated
districts, which, though important as feeders of the main tracks, are often
worked at a loss. A satisfactory type of automobile carriage would not only
avoid this loss, but also largely prevent the competition of road motors.
The car should be powerful enough to draw an extra van or two on
occasion, since horses and heavy luggage may sometimes accompany the
passengers. Messrs. Dick, Kerr, and Company have built a car, which, when
loaded with its complement of passengers, weighs about sixteen tons. The
motive power is supplied by two four-cylinder petrol engines of the
Daimler type, each giving 36 h.p. These are suspended on a special frame,
independent of that which carries the coach body, so that the passengers are
not troubled by the vibration of the engines, even when the vehicle is at
rest. The great feature of the car is the lightness of the machinery—only two
tons in weight—though it develops sufficient power to move the carriage at
fifty miles per hour. After travelling 2,000 miles the machinery showed no
appreciable signs of wear; so that the company considers that it has found a
reliable type of motor for the working of the short line between Hatfield and
Hertford.
Since one man can drive a petrol car, while two—a driver and a stoker—
are necessary on a steam car, a considerable reduction in wages will result
from the employment of these vehicles.
Engineers find motor-trolleys very convenient for inspecting the lines
under their care. On the London and South Western Railway a trolley driven

by a 6–8 h.p. engine, and provided with a change-gear giving six, fifteen,
and thirty miles per hour in either direction, is at work. It seats four persons.
In the colonies, notably in South Africa, where coal and wood fuel is scarce
or expensive, the motor-trolley, capable of carrying petrol for 300 miles'
travel, is rapidly gaining ground among railway inspectors.
Makers are turning their attention to petrol shunting engines, useful in
goods yards, mines, sewerage works. Firms such as Messrs. Maudslay and
Company, of Coventry; the Wolseley Tool and Motor Car Company;
Messrs. Panhard and Levassor; Messrs. Kerr, Stuart, and Company have
brought out locomotives of this kind which will draw loads up to sixty tons.
The fact that a petrol engine is ready for work at a moment's notice, and
when idle is not "eating its head off," and has no furnace or boiler to require
attention, is very much in its favour where comparatively light loads have to
be hauled.

CHAPTER VIII

THE MOTOR AFLOAT
PLEASURE BOATS — MOTOR LIFEBOATS — MOTOR FISHING BOATS — A MOTOR FIRE
FLOAT — THE MECHANISM OF THE MOTOR BOAT — THE TWO-STROKE MOTOR —
MOTOR BOATS FOR THE NAVY

H
aving made such conquests on land, and rendered possible aerial feats
which could scarcely have been performed by steam, the explosion
motor further vindicates its versatility by its fine exploits in the water.
At the Paris Exhibition of 1889 Gottlieb Daimler, the inventor who made
the petrol engine commercially valuable as an aid to locomotion, showed a
small gas-driven boat, which by most visitors to the Exhibition was
mistaken for an ordinary steam launch, and attracted little interest. Not
deterred by this want of appreciation, Mr. Daimler continued to perfect the
idea for which, with a prophet's eye, he saw great possibilities; and soon
motor launches became a fairly common sight on German rivers. They were
received with some enthusiasm in the United States, as being particularly
suitable for the inland lakes and waterways with which that country is so
abundantly blessed; but met with small recognition from the English, who
might reasonably have been expected to take great interest in any new
nautical invention. Now, however, English manufacturers have awaked
fully to their error; and on all sides we see boats built by firms competing
for the lead in an industry which in a few years' time may reach colossal
proportions.

A MODERN CAR AND BOAT
In the background is the racing motor boat "Napier II.", which on a trial trip
travelled over the "measured mile" at 30·93 miles per hour. In the foreground is a
"Napier" racing car, which has attained a speed of 104·8 miles per hour.

Until quite recently the marine motor was a small affair, developing only
a few horse-power. But because the gas-engine for automobile work had
been so vastly improved in the last decade, it attracted notice as a rival to
steam for driving launches and pleasure boats, and soon asserted itself as a
reliable mover of vessels of considerable size. To promote the development

of the industry, to test the endurance of the machine, and to show the weak
spots of mechanical design, trials and races were organised on much the
same lines as those which have kept the motor-car so prominently before
the public—races in the Solent, across the Channel, and across the
Mediterranean. The speed, as in the case of cars, has risen very rapidly with
the motor boat. When, in February, 1905, a Napier racer did some trial spins
over the measured mile in the Thames at Long Reach, she attained 28·57
miles per hour on the first run. On turning, the tide was favourable, and the
figures rose to 30·93 m.p.h., while the third improved on this by over a
2
mile. Her mean speed was 29·925 m.p.h., or about 3 m.p.h. better than the
previous record—standing to the credit of the American Challenger. The
latter had, however, the still waters of a lake for her venue, so that the
Napier's performance was actually even more creditable than the mere
figures would seem to imply. At a luncheon which concluded the trial, Mr.
Yarrow, who had built the steel hull, said: "To give an idea of what an
advance the adoption of the internal combustion engine really represents, I
should like to state that, if we were asked to guarantee the best speed we
could with a boat of the size of Napier II., fitted with the latest form of
steam machinery of as reliable a character as the internal combustion engine
in the present boat, we should not like to name more than sixteen knots. So
that it may be taken that the adoption of the internal combustion engine, in
place of the steam-engine, for a vessel of this size, really represents an
additional speed of ten knots an hour. I should here point out that the speed
of a vessel increases rapidly with its size. For example: in what is termed a
second-class torpedo boat, sixty feet in length, the best speed we could
obtain would be twenty knots; but for a vessel of, say, 200 feet in length,
with similar but proportionately larger machinery, a speed of thirty knots
could be obtained. Therefore, the obtaining of a speed of practically twenty-
six knots in the Yarrow-Napier boat, only forty feet in length, points to the
possibility, in the not far-distant future, of propelling a vessel 220 feet in
length at even forty-five knots per hour. All that remains to be done is to
perfect the internal combustion engine, so as to enable large sizes to be
successfully made."
Boats of 300 h.p. and upwards are being built; and the project has been
mooted of holding a transatlantic race, open to motor boats of all sizes,
which should be quite self-contained and able to carry sufficient fuel to

make the passage without taking in fresh supplies. In view of the perils that
would be risked by all but large craft, and in consideration of the prejudice
that motor boats might incur in event of any fatalities, the Automobile Club
of France set its face against the venture, and it fell through. It is possible,
however, that the scheme may be revived as soon as larger motor boats are
afloat, since the Atlantic has actually been crossed by a craft of 12 h.p.,
measuring only forty feet at the water-line. This happened in 1902, when
Captain Newman and his son, a boy twelve years old, started from New
York, and made Falmouth Harbour after thirty days of anxious travel over
the uncertain and sometimes tempestuous ocean. The boat, named the Abiel
Abbot Low, carried auxiliary sails of small size, and was not by any means
built for such a voyage. The engine—a two-cylinder—burned kerosene.
Captain Newman received £1,000 from the New York Kerosene Oil Engine
Company for his feat. The money was well earned. Though provided with
proper navigating instruments—which he knew how to use well—Newman
had a hard time of it to keep his craft afloat, his watches sometimes lasting
two days on end when the weather was bad. Yet the brave pair won through;
and probably even more welcome than the sense of success achieved and
the reward gained was the long two-days' sleep which they were able to get
on reaching Falmouth Harbour.

PLEASURE BOATS

We may now consider the pleasure and commercial uses of the motor
boat and marine motor. As a means of recreation a small dinghy driven by a
low-powered engine offers great possibilities. Its cost is low, its upkeep
small, and its handiness very great. Already a number of such craft are
furrowing the surface of the Thames, Seine, Rhine, and many other rivers in
Europe and America. While racing craft are for the wealthy alone, many
individuals of the class known as "the man of moderate means" do not mind
putting down £70 to £100 for a neat boat, the maintenance of which is not
nearly so serious a matter as that of a small car. Tyre troubles have no
counterpart afloat. The marine motor dispenses with change gears. Water
being a much more yielding medium than Mother Earth, the shocks of
starting and stopping are not such as to strain machinery. Then again, the
cooling of the cylinders is a simple matter with an unlimited amount of
water almost washing the engine. And as the surface of water does not run

uphill, a small motor will show to better advantage on a river than on a
road. Thus, a 5 h.p. car will not conveniently carry more than two people if
it is expected to climb slopes at more than a crawl. Affix a motor of equal
power to a boat which accommodates half a dozen persons, and it will
move them all along at a smart pace as compared with the rate of travel
given by oars. After all, on a river one does not want to travel fast—rather
to avoid the hard labour which rowing undoubtedly does become with a
craft roomy enough to be comfortable for a party.
The marine motor also scores under the heading of adaptability. A
wagonette could not be converted into a motor-car with any success. But a
good-sized row-boat may easily blossom out as a useful self-propelled boat.
You may buy complete apparatus—motor, tanks, screw, batteries, etc.—for
clamping direct on to the stern, and there you are—a motor boat while you
wait! Even more sudden still is the conversion effected by the Motogodille,
which may be described as a motor screw and rudder in one. The makers
are the Buchet Company, a well-known French firm. "Engine and
carburetter, petrol tank, coil, accumulator, lubricating oil reservoir, exhaust
box, propeller shaft, and propeller with guard are all provided, so that the
outfit requires no additional accessories. For mounting in position at the
stern of the boat, the complete set is balanced on a standard, and carries a
steering arm, on which the tanks are mounted; and also the stern tube and
propeller guard, which are in one solid piece, in addition to the engine. In
order that no balancing feats shall be required of the person in charge, there
is, on the supporting standard, a quadrant, in the notches of which a lever on
the engine frame engages, thus allowing the rigid framework, and therefore
the propeller shaft, to be maintained at any angle to the vertical without
trouble."[12]
1
The 2 h.p. engine drives a boat 16 feet long by 4 feet 6 inches beam at 6 2
miles per hour through still water. As the Motogodille can be swerved to
right or left on its standard, it acts as a very efficient rudder, while its action
takes no way off the boat.
For people who like an easy life on hot summer days, reclining on soft
cushions, and peeping up through the branches which overhang picturesque
streams, there is the motor punt, which can move in water so shallow that it
would strand even a row-boat. The Oxford undergraduate of to-morrow will

explore the leafy recesses of the "Cher," not with the long pole laboriously
raised and pushed aft, but by the power of a snug little motor throbbing
gently at the stern. And on the open river we shall see the steam launch
replaced by craft having much better accommodation for passengers, while
free from the dirt and smells which are inseparable from the use of steam-
power. The petrol launch will rival the electric in spaciousness, and the
steamer in its speed and power, size for size.
Some people have an antipathy to this new form of river locomotion on
account of the risks which accompany the presence of petrol. Were a motor
launch to ignite in, say, Boulter's Lock on a summer Sunday, or at the
Henley Regatta, there might indeed be a catastrophe. The same danger has
before now been flaunted in the face of the automobilist on land; yet cases
of the accidental ignition of cars are very, very rare, and on the water would
be more rare still, because the tanks can be more easily examined for leaks.
Still, it behoves every owner of a launch to keep his eye very widely open
for leakage, because any escaping liquid would create a collection of gas in
the bottom of the boat, from which it could not escape like the gas forming
from drops spilled on the road.

Photo Branger & Cie, Paris.

THE MOTOGODILLE
The Motogodille, or Motor Rudder, consists of a screw propeller fitted to a small Buchet motor.
The whole apparatus is mounted on a standard in the stern, and the operator, by moving the
inboard arm to right or left, can steer the boat as he wishes. A 2-h.p. motor gives a speed of 5 to
6 miles an hour.

The future popularity of the motor boat is assured. The waterside dweller
will find it invaluable as a means of carrying him to other parts of the
stream. The "longshoreman" will be able to venture much further out to sea
than he could while he depended on muscles or wind alone, and with much
greater certainty of returning up to time. A whole network of waterways
intersects civilised countries—often far better kept than the roads—offering
fresh fields for the tourist to conquer. River scenery and beautiful scenery
more often than not go together. The car or cycle may be able to follow the
course of a stream from source to mouth; yet this is the exception rather

than the rule. We shoot over the stream in the train or on our machines; note
that it looks picturesque; wonder vaguely whither it flows and whence it
comes; and continue our journey, recking little of the charming sights to be
seen by anyone who would trust himself to the water. Hitherto the great
difficulty has been one of locomotion. In a narrow stream sailing is
generally out of the question; haulage by man or beast becomes tedious,
even if possible; and rowing day after day presupposes a good physical
condition. In the motor boat the holiday maker has an ideal craft. It
occupies little room; can carry fuel sufficient for long distances; is
unwearying; and is economical as regards its running expenses. We ought
not to be surprised, therefore, if in a few years the jaded business man turns
as naturally to a spin or trip on the rivers and canals of his country as he
now turns to his car and a rush over the dusty highway. Then will begin
another era for the disused canal, the vegetation-choked stream; and our
maps will pay more attention to the paths which Nature has water-worn in
the course of the ages.
To the scientific explorer also the motor affords valuable help. Many
countries, in which roads are practically non-existent, can boast fine rivers
fed by innumerable streams. What fields of adventure, sport, and science
would be open to the possessor of a fast launch on the Amazon, the Congo,
the Mackenzie, or the Orinoco, provided only that he could occasionally
replenish his fuel tanks!

MOTOR LIFEBOATS

Turning to the more serious side of life, we find the marine motor still
much in evidence. On account of its comparatively short existence it is at
present only in the experimental stage in many applications, and time must
pass before its position is fully established. Take, for instance, the motor
lifeboat lately built for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. Here are
encountered difficulties of a kind very different from those of a racing craft.
A lifeboat is most valuable in rough weather, which means more or less
water often coming aboard. If the water reached the machinery, troubles
with the electrical ignition apparatus would result. So the motor must be
enclosed in a water-tight compartment. And if so enclosed it must be
specially reliable. Also, since a lifeboat sometimes upsets, the machinery

needs to be so disposed as not to interfere with her self-righting qualities.
The list might easily be extended.
An account of the first motor life-saver will interest readers, so we once
again have recourse to the chief authority on such topics—the Motor Boat
—for particulars. The boat selected for experiment was an old one formerly
stationed at Folkestone, measuring thirty-eight feet long by eight feet beam,
pulling twelve oars, double-banked, and of the usual self-righting type,
rigged with jib, fore-lug, and mizzen. After she had been hauled up in Mr.
Guy's yard, where some of the air-cases under the deck amidships were
taken out, a strong mahogany case, measuring four feet long by three feet
wide and as high as the gunwales, lined with sheet copper so as to be water-
tight, with a close-fitting lid which could be easily removed on shore, was
fitted in place, and the whole of the vital parts of the machinery, comprising
a two-cylinder motor of 10 h.p., together with all the necessary pumps,
carburetter, electric equipment, etc., were fitted inside this case. The engine
drives a three-bladed propeller through a long shaft with a disconnecting
clutch between, so that for starting or stopping temporarily the screw can be
disconnected from the engine. The petrol, which serves as fuel for the
engine, is carried in a metal tank stored away inside the forward "end" box,
where it is beyond any possibility of accidental damage. Sufficient fuel for
a continuous run of over ten hours is carried. The engine is started by a
handle fitted on the fore side of the case, which can be worked by two men.
The position and size of the engine-case is such that only two oars are
interfered with, but it does not follow that the propelling power of the two
displaced men is entirely lost, because they can double bank some of the
other oars when necessary.
Fitted thus, the lifeboat was tested in all sorts of weather during the
month of April, and it was found that she could be driven fairly well against
a sea by means of the motor alone; but when it was used to assist the sails
the true use of the motor as an auxiliary became apparent, and the boat
would work to windward in a way previously unattainable. Neither the
pitching or rolling in a seaway, in any weather then obtainable, interfered at
all with the proper working or starting of the motor, which worked steadily
and well throughout. Having been through these preliminary tests, she was
more severely tried. Running over the measured mile with full crew and
stores on board, she developed over six knots an hour. The men were then

replaced by equivalent weights lashed to the thwarts, and she was capsized
by a crane four times, her sails set and the sheets made fast, yet she righted
herself without difficulty. An interesting feature of the capsize was that the
motor stopped automatically when the boat had partly turned over. This
arrangement prevents her from running away from the crew if they should
be pitched out. The motor started again after a few turns of the handle, so
proving that the protecting compartment had kept the water at bay.
From this account it is obvious that a valuable aid to life-saving at sea
has been found. The steam lifeboat, propelled by a jet of water squirted out
by pumps below the water line, is satisfactory so long as the boat keeps
upright. But in event of an upset the fires must necessarily be extinguished.
No such disability attends the petrol-driven craft, and we shall be glad to
think that the brave fellows who risk their lives in the cause of humanity
will be spared the intense physical toil which a long row to windward in a
heavy sea entails. The general adoption of this new ally will take time, and
must depend largely on the liberality of subscribers to the fine institution
responsible for lifeboat maintenance; but it is satisfactory to learn that the
Committee has given the boat in question a practical chance in the open sea
by stationing her at Newhaven, Sussex, as a unit in the lifeboat fleet.

MOTOR FISHING BOATS

It is a pretty sight to watch a fishing fleet enter the harbour with its catch,
taken far away on the waters beyond the horizon while landsmen slept. The
sails, some white, some brown, some wondrously patched and bearing the
visible marks of many a hard fight with the wind, belly out in graceful lines
as the boats slip past the harbour entrance. No wonder that the painter has
so often found subjects for his canvas and brushes among the toilers of the
deep.
But underlying the romance and picturesqueness of the craft there is stern
business. Those boats may be returning with full cargoes, such as will yield
good profits to owner and crew; or, on the other hand, the hold may be
empty, and many honest hearts be heavy at the thought of wasted days. A
few years ago the Yarmouth herring fleet is said to have returned on one
occasion with but a single fish to the credit of the whole fleet! This might

have been a mere figure of speech; it stands, at any rate, for many
thousands of pounds lost by the hardy fishermen.
When the boats have been made fast, the fish, if already disentangled
from the nets, is usually sold at once by auction, the price depending largely
on the individual size and freshness of the "catch." Now, with the increase
in the number of boats and from other causes, the waters near home have
been so well fished over that much longer journeys must be made to the
"grounds" than were formerly necessary. Trawling, that is, dragging a large
bag-net—its mouth kept open by a beam and weights—along the bottom of
the sea for flatfish, has long been performed by powerful steam vessels,
which may any day be seen leaving or entering Hull or Grimsby in large
numbers. Surface fishing, wherein a long drift-net, weighted at its lower
edge and buoyed at the upper edge to enable it to keep a perpendicular
position, is used for herring and mackerel, and in this industry wind power
alone is generally used by British fishermen.
The herring-boat sets sail for the grounds in the morning, and at sundown
should be at the scene of action. Her nets, aggregating, perhaps, a mile in
length, are then "shot," and the boat drifts along towing the line behind her.
If fish appear, the nets are hauled in soon after daybreak by the aid of a
capstan. The labour of bringing a mile of nets aboard is very severe—so
severe, in fact, that the larger boats in many cases employ the help of a
small steam-engine. During the return voyage the fish is freed from the
meshes, and thrown into the hold ready for sale as soon as land is reached.
Fish, whether for salting or immediate consumption, should be fresh. No
class of human food seems to deteriorate so quickly when life is extinct as
the "denizens of the deep," so that it is of primary importance to fishermen
that their homeward journey should be performed in the shortest possible
time. If winds are contrary or absent there may be such delay as to need the
liberal use of salt, and even that useful commodity will not stave off a fall in
value.
It therefore often happens that a really fine catch arrives at its market in a
condition which spells heavy loss to the catchers. A slow return also means
missing a day's fishing, which may represent £200 to £300. For this reason
the Dogger Bank fishing fleet is served by steam tenders, which carry off
the catches as they are made, and thus obviate the necessity for a boat's

return to port when its hold is full. Such a system will not, however, be
profitable to boats owned by individuals, and working within a
comparatively short distance of land.
Each boat must depend on its particular powers, the first to return getting
rather better prices than those which come "with the crowd." So steam
power is in some cases installed as an auxiliary to the sails, though it may
entail the outlay of £2,000 as first cost, and a big bill for upkeep and
management. "Small" men cannot afford this expense, and they would be
doomed to watch their richer brethren slip into the market before them had
not the explosion motor come to their aid. This just meets their case; it is
not nearly so expensive to install as steam, occupies much less room, is
easier to handle, and therefore saves the expense of trained attendants.
Fishermen are notoriously conservative. To them a change from methods
sanctioned by many years of practice is abhorrent. What sufficed for their
fathers, they say, should suffice for them. Their trade is so uncertain that a
bad season would see no return for the cost of the motor, since, where no
fish are caught, it makes little difference whether the journey to port be
quick or slow.
However, the motor is bound to come. It has been applied to fishing
boats with marked success. While the nets are out, the motor is stopped, and
costs not a penny more till the time comes for hauling in. Then it is geared
up with a capstan, and saves the crew much of their hardest work. When all
is aboard, the capstan hands over the power to the screw, which, together
with the sails, propels the vessel homewards at a smart pace. The skipper is
certain of making land in good time for the market; and he will be ready for
the out voyage next morning. Another point in favour of the motor is that,
when storms blow up, the fleet will be able to run for shelter even if the
wind be adverse; and we should hear less of the sacrifice of life which
makes sad reading after every severe gale.
As to the machinery to be employed, Mr. F. Miller, of Oulton Broad, who
first applied the gas-motor to a fishing smack—the Pioneer—considers that
a 12 h.p. engine would suffice as an auxiliary for small craft of the class
found in the northern parts of Great Britain. The Norfolk boats would
require a 30 h.p.; and a full-powered boat—i.e. one that could depend on
the motor entirely—should carry a three-cylinder engine of 80 h.p. In any

case, the machinery must be enclosed and well protected; while the
lubrication arrangements should be such as to be understood easily by
unskilled persons, and absolutely reliable. Owing to the moisture in the
atmosphere the ordinary high-tension coil ignition, such as is used on most
motor-cars, would not prove efficient, and it is therefore replaced by a low-
tension type which makes and breaks the primary circuit by means of a
rocking arm working through the walls of the cylinder. Lastly, all parts
which require occasional examination or adjustment must be easily
accessible, so that they may receive proper attention at sea, and not send the
vessel home a "lame duck" under sail.
The advantages of the motor are so great that the Scotch authorities have
taken the matter up seriously, appointing an expert to make inquiries. It is
therefore quite possible that before many years have elapsed the motor will
play an important part in the task of supplying our breakfast tables with the
dainty sole or toothsome herring.

A MOTOR FIRE FLOAT

As a good instance of this particular adaptation of the explosion engine to
fire-extinction work, we may quote the apparatus now in attendance on the
huge factory of Messrs. Huntley and Palmer, the famous Reading biscuit
makers. The factory lies along the banks of the river Kennet, which are
joined by bridges so close to the water that a steamer could not pass under
them. Messrs. Merryweather accordingly built the motor float, 32 feet long,
1
9 2 feet beam, and drawing 27 inches. Two engines, each having four
cylinders of a total of 30 h.p., drive two sets of three-cylinder "Hatfield"
pumps, which give a continuous feed to the hose. Engines and pumps are
mounted on a single bed-plate, and are worked separately, unless it be
1
found advisable to "Siamese" the hoses to feed a single 1 2 -inch jet, which
can be flung to a great height.
One of the most interesting features of the float is the method of
propulsion. As its movements are limited to a few hundred yards, the fitting
of a screw was considered unnecessary, its place being taken by four jets,
two at each end, through which water is forced against the outside water by

the extinguishing pumps. These will move the float either forward or astern,
steer her, or turn her round.
So here once again petrol has trodden upon the toes of Giant Steam: and
very effectively, too.

THE MECHANISM OF THE MOTOR BOAT

In many points the marine motor reproduces the machinery built into
cars. The valve arrangements, governors, design of cylinders and water-
jackets are practically the same. Small boats carry one cylinder or perhaps
two, just as a small car is content with the same number; but a racing or
heavy boat employs four, six, and, in one case at least, twelve cylinders,
which abolish all "dead points" and enable the screw to work very slowly
without engine vibration, as the drive is continuous.
The large marine motor is designed to run at a slower rate than the land
motor, and its cylinders are, therefore, of greater size. Some of the cylinders
exhibited in the Automobile Show at the London "Olympia" seemed
enormous when compared with those doing duty on even high-powered
cars; being more suggestive of the parts of an electric lighting plant than of
a machine which has to be tucked away in a boat.
Except for the reversing gear, gearing is generally absent on the motor
boat. The chauffeur has not to keep changing his speed lever from one
notch to another according to the nature of the country. On the sea
conditions are more consistently favourable or unfavourable, and, as in a
steamboat, speed is controlled by opening or closing the throttle. The screw
will always be turned by the machinery, but its effect on the boat must
depend on its size and the forces acting in opposition to it. Since water is
yielding, it does not offer a parallel to the road. Should a car meet a hill too
steep for its climbing powers, the engines must come to rest. The wheel
does not slip on the road, and so long as there is sufficient power it will
force the car up the severest incline; as soon as the power proves too small
for the task in hand the car "lies down." In a motor boat, however, the
engine may keep the screw moving without doing more against wind and
tide than prevent the boat from "advancing backwards." The only way to
make the boat efficient to meet all possible conditions would be to increase
the size or alter the pitch of the screw, and to install more powerful engines.

"Gearing down"—as in a motor-car—being useless, the only mechanism
needed on a motor boat in connection with the transmission of power from
cylinders to screw is the reversing gear.
Though engines have been designed with devices for reversing by means
of the cams operating the valves, the reversal of the screw's movement is
generally effected through gears on the transmission apparatus. The
simplest arrangement, though not the most perfect mechanically, is a
reversible screw, the blades of which can be made to feather this way or that
by the movement of a lever. Sometimes two screws are employed, with
opposite twists, the one doing duty while the other revolves idly. But for
fast and heavy boats a single solid screw with immovable blades is
undoubtedly preferable; its reversal being effected by means of friction
clutches. The inelasticity of the explosion motor renders it necessary that
the change be made gradually, or the kick of the screw against the motor
might cause breakages. The clutch, gradually engaging with a disc revolved
by the propeller shaft, first stops the antagonistic motion, and then converts
it into similar motion. Many devices have been invented to bring this about,
but as a description of them would not be interesting, we pass on to a
consideration of the fuel used in the motor boat.
Petrol has the upper hand at present, yet heavier oil must eventually
prevail, on account both of its cheapness and of its greater safety. The only
objection to its use is the difficulty attending the starting of the engine with
kerosene; and this is met by using petrol till the engine and carburetter are
hot, and then switching on the petroleum. When once the carburetter has
been warmed by exhaust gases to about 270° Fahrenheit it will work as well
with the heavy as with the light fuel.
Since any oil or spirit may leak from its tanks and cause danger, an effort
has been made to substitute solid for liquid fuel. The substance selected is
naphthalene—well known as a protector of clothes against moths. At the
"Olympia" Automobile Exhibition of 1905 the writer saw an engine—the
Chenier Leon—which had been run with balls of this chemical, fed to the
carburetter through a melting-pot. For a description of this engine we must
once again have recourse to the Motor Boat. The inventors had decided to
test its performance with petrol, paraffin, and naphthalene respectively.
"The motor, screwed to a testing bench, was connected by the usual belt to a
dynamo, so that the power developed under each variety of fuel might be

electrically measured, and was then started up on petrol. As soon as the
parts were sufficiently warmed up by the exhaust heat, the petrol was turned
off, and the motor run for some time on paraffin, until sufficient
naphthalene was thoroughly melted to the consistency of a thick syrup. The
naphthalene was then fed to its mixing valve through a small pipe dipping
into the bottom of the melting-pot, and thence sprayed into the induction
chamber to carburate the air therein. Hitherto, the motor had given an
average of 12 electrical h.p. at 1,000 revolutions per minute, and it was
noticed that as soon as the change was made, this was fully maintained.
This test, when continued, bore out others which had previously been made
by the firm, and showed the consumption of each of the three fuels to be a
little over 12 lbs. per hour for the 12 electrical h.p. given by the motor. Still,
the paraffin and naphthalene worked out about equal as to cost, and
considering that the latter was in its purest form, as sold for a clothes
preservative, we have yet to see how much better its commercial showing
will be with lower grades, assuming beforehand that its thermal efficiency
and behaviour are as good.
"On the ground of convenience naphthalene, as a solid, is a very long
way in front of its liquid rival, kerosene. Its exhaust, too, was much freer
from odour, and it appears that, unlike paraffin, it forms neither tar, soot,
nor sticky matter, but, on the contrary, has a tendency to brighten all valves,
cylinders, walls, etc., any little deposit being a light powder which would be
carried into the exhaust."

THE TWO-STROKE MOTOR

In the ordinary "Otto-cycle" motor an explosion occurs once in every two
revolutions of the crank. With a single cylinder the energy of the explosion
must be stored up in a heavy fly-wheel to carry the engine through the three
other operations of scavenging, sucking in a fresh charge, and compressing
it preparatory to the next explosion. With two cylinders the fly-wheel can be
made lighter, as an explosion occurs every revolution; and in a four-
cylinder engine we might almost dispense with the wheel altogether, since
the drive is continuous, just as in a double-cylindered steam-engine.
The two-stroke motor, i.e. one which makes an explosion for every
revolution, is an attempt to unite the advantages of a two-cylindered engine

of the Otto type with the lightness of a single-cylindered engine. As it has
been largely used for motor boats, especially in America, a short description
of its working may be given here.
In the first place, all moving cylinder valves are done away with, their
functions being performed by openings covered and opened by the
movements of the piston. The crank chamber is quite gas-tight, and has in it
a non-return valve through which vapour is drawn from the carburetter
every time the piston moves away from the centre. There is also a pipe
connecting it with the lower part of the cylinder, but the other end of this is
covered by the piston until it has all but finished its stroke.
Let us suppose that an explosion has just taken place. The piston rushes
downwards, compressing the gas in the crank chamber to some extent.
When the stroke is three-parts performed a second hole, on the opposite
side of the cylinder from the aperture already referred to, is uncovered by
the piston, and the exploded gases partly escape. Immediately afterwards
the second hole is uncovered also, and the fresh charge rushes in from the
crank case, being deflected upwards by a plate on the top of the piston, so
as to help drive out the exhaust products. The returning piston covers both
holes and compresses the charge till the moment of explosion, when the
process is repeated. It may be said in favour of this type of engine that it is
very simple and free from vibration; against it that, owing to the imperfect
scavenging of exploded charges, it does not develop so much power as an
Otto-cycle engine of equal cylinder dimensions; also that it is apt to
overheat, while it uses double the amount of electric current.

MOTOR BOATS FOR THE NAVY

A country which, like England, depends on the command of the sea for
its very existence may well keep a sharp eye on any invention that tends to
render that command more certain. In recent years we have heard a lot said,
and read a lot written, about the importance of swift boats which in war
time could be launched against a hostile fleet, armed with the deadly
torpedo. The Russo-Japanese War has given us a fine example of what can
be accomplished by daring men and swift torpedo craft.
For some reason or other the British Navy has not kept abreast of France
in the number of her torpedo vessels. Reference to official figures shows

that, while our neighbours can boast 280 "hornets," we have to our credit
only 225. In the House of Commons, on August 10th, 1904, Mr. Henry
Norman, M.P., asked the Secretary of the Admiralty whether, in view of the
proofs recently afforded of trustworthiness, speed, simplicity, and
comparatively low cost of small vessels propelled by petrol motors, he
would consider the advisability of testing this class of vessel in His
Majesty's Navy. The Secretary replied that the Admiralty had kept a watch
on the recent trials and meant to make practical tests with motor pinnaces.
In view of the danger that would accompany the storage of petrol on board
ship, the paraffin motor was preferable for naval purposes; and an 80 h.p.
four-cylindered motor of this type has been ordered from Messrs. Vosper, of
Portsmouth.
Mr. Norman, writing in The World's Work on the subject, says: "There
can be no question that such high speed and cheap construction (80 h.p.
giving in the little boat as much speed—to consider that only—as eight
thousand in the big boat) point to the use of motor boats for naval purposes
in the near future. A torpedo boat exists only to carry one or two torpedoes
within launching distance of the enemy. The smaller and cheaper she can
be, and the fewer men she carries, provided always she be able to face a
fairly rough sea, the better. Now the ordinary steam torpedo boat carries
perhaps twenty men, and costs anything from £50,000 to £100,000. A motor
boat of equal or greater speed could probably be built for £15,000, and
would carry a crew of two men. Six motor boats, therefore, could be built
for the cost of one steamboat, and their total crews would not number so
many as the crew of the one. Moreover, they could all be slung on board a
single vessel, and only set afloat near the scene of action. A prophetic friend
of mine declares that the most dangerous warship of the future will be a big
vessel, unarmoured and only lightly armed, but of the utmost possible
speed, carrying twenty or more motor torpedo boats slung on davits. She
will rely on her greater speed for her own safety, if attacked; she will
approach as near the scene of action as possible, and will drop all her little
boats into the water, and they will make a simultaneous attack. Their hulls
would be clean, their machinery in perfect order, their crews fresh and full
of energy, and it would be strange if one of the twenty did not strike home.
And the destruction of a battleship or great cruiser at the cost of a score of
these little wasps, manned by two-score men, would be a very fine naval
bargain."

Mr. Norman omits one recommendation that must in active service count
heavily in favour of the motor boat, and that is its practical invisibility in
the day or at night time. The destroyer, when travelling at high speed,
betrays its presence by clouds of smoke or red-hot funnels. The motor boat
is entirely free from such dangerous accompaniments; the exhaust from the
cylinders is invisible in every way. The very absence of funnels must also
be in itself a great advantage. The eye, roving over the waters, might easily
"pick up" a series of stumpy, black objects of hard outline; but the motor
boat, riding low and flatly on the waves, would probably escape notice,
especially when a search-light alone can detect its approach.
It may reasonably be said that the Admiralty knows its own business best,
and that the outsider's opinion is not wanted. The "man in the street" has
become notorious for his paper generalship and strategy, and fallen
somewhat into disrepute as an adviser on military and naval matters. Yet we
must not forget this: that many—we might say most—of the advances in
naval mechanisms, armour, and weapons of defence have not been evolved
by naval men, but by the highly educated and ingenious civilian who,
unblinded by precedent or professional conservatism, can watch the game
even better in some respects than the players themselves, and see what the
next move should be. That move may be rather unorthodox—like the
application of steam to men-o'-war—but none the less the correct one under
the circumstances. We allowed other nations to lead us in the matter of
breech-loading cannon, armour-plate, submarines, the abolition of
combustible material on warships. Shall we also allow them to get ahead
with motor boats, and begin to consider that there may be something in
motor auxiliaries for the fleet when they are already well supplied? If there
is a country which should above all others lose no time in adding the motor
to her means of defence, that country is Great Britain.

FOOTNOTE:

12. The Motor Boat, March 16th, 1905.

CHAPTER IX

THE MOTOR CYCLE

I
n 1884 the Count de Dion, working in partnership with Messrs. Bouton
and Trépardoux, produced a practical steam tricycle. Two years later
appeared a somewhat similar vehicle by the same makers which attained
the remarkable speed of forty miles an hour. Mr. Serpollet, now famous for
his steam cars, built at about the same time a three-wheeled steam tricycle,
which also proved successful. But the continuous stoking of the miniature
boilers, and the difficulty of keeping them properly supplied with water,
prevented the steam-driven cycle from becoming popular; and when the
petrol motor had proved its value on heavy vehicles, inventors soon saw
that the explosion engine was very much better suited for a light automobile
than had been the cumbrous fittings inseparable from the employment of
steam.
By 1895 a neat petrol tricycle was on the market; and after the de Dion
machines had given proof in races of their capabilities, they at once sprang
into popular favour. For the next five years the motor tricycle was a
common sight in France, where the excellent roads and the freedom from
the restrictions prevailing on the other side of the Channel recommended it
to cyclists who wished for a more speedy method of locomotion than
unaided legs could give, yet could not afford to purchase a car.
The motor bicycle soon appeared in the field. The earlier types of the
two-wheeled motor were naturally clumsy and inefficient. The need of a
lamp constantly burning to ignite the charges in the cylinder proved a much
greater nuisance on the bicycle than on the tricycle, which carried its
driving gear behind the saddle. The writer well remembers trying an early
pattern of the Werner motor bicycle in the Champs Elysées in 1897, and his
alarm when the owner, while starting the blowlamp on the steering pillar,
was suddenly enveloped in flames, which played havoc with his hair, and
might easily have caused more serious injuries. Riders were naturally
nervous at carrying a flame near the handle-bars, so close to a tank of
inflammable petrol liable to leak and catch fire.

The advent of electrical ignition for the gaseous charges opened the way
for great improvements, and the motor bicycle slowly but surely ousted its
heavier three-wheeled rival. Designs were altered; the engine was placed in
or below the frame instead of over the front wheel, and made to drive the
back wheel by means of a leather belt. In the earliest types the motive force
had either been transmitted by belt to the front wheel, or directly to the rear
wheel by the piston rods working cranks on its spindle.
The progress of the motor bicycle has, since 1900, been rapid, and many
thousands of machines are now in use. The fact that the engines must
necessarily be very small compels all possible saving in weight, and an
ability to run continuously at very high speeds without showing serious
wear and tear. Details have therefore been perfected, and though at the
present day no motor cyclist of wide experience can claim immunity from
trouble with his speedy little mount, a really well-designed and well-built
machine proves wonderfully efficient, and opens possibilities of locomotion
to "the man of moderate means" which were beyond the reach of the rider
of a pedal-driven bicycle.
In its way the motor cycle may claim to be one of the most marvellous
products of human mechanical skill. Weight has been reduced until a power
equal to that of three horses can be harnessed to a vehicle which, when
stored with sufficient petrol and electricity to carry it and rider 150 miles,
scales about a hundredweight. It will pursue its even course up and down
hill at an average of twenty or more miles an hour, the only attention it
requires being an occasional charge of oil squirted into the air-tight case in
which the crank and fly-wheels revolve. The consumption of fuel is
ridiculously small, since an economical engine will cover fifteen miles on a
pint of spirit, which costs about three-halfpence.
Practically all motor-cycle engines work on the "Otto-cycle" principle.
Motors which give an impulse every revolution by compressing the charge
in the crank-case or in a separate cylinder, so that it may enter the working
cylinder under pressure, have been tried, but hitherto with but moderate
success. There is, however, a growing tendency to compass an explosion
every revolution by fitting two cylinders, and from time to time four-
cylindered cycles have appeared. The disadvantages attending the care and
adjustment of so many moving parts has been the cause of four-cylindered
cycle motors being unsuccessful from a commercial standpoint, though

riders who are prepared to risk extra trouble and expense may find
compensation in the quiet, vibrationless drive of a motor which gives two
impulses for every turn of the fly-wheel.
The acme of lightness in proportion to power developed has been
attained by the "Barry" engine, in which the cylinders and their attachments
are made to revolve about a fixed crank, and perform themselves the
function of a fly-wheel. So great is the saving of weight that the makers
1
claim a horse-power for every four pounds scaled by the engines; thus, a 3 2
h.p. motor would only just tip the beam against one stone. As the writer has
personally inspected a Barry engine, he is able to give a brief account of its
action.
It has two cylinders, arranged to face one another on opposite sides of a
central air-tight crank-case, the inner end of each cylinder opening into the
case. Both pistons advance towards, and recede from, the centre of the case
simultaneously. The air-and-gas mixture is admitted into the crank-case
through a hole in the fixed crank-spindle, communicating with a pipe
leading from the carburetter. The inlet is controlled by a valve, which opens
while the pistons are parting, and closes when they approach one another.
We will suppose that the engine is just starting. The pistons are in a
position nearest to the crank-case. As they separate they draw a charge—
equal in volume to double the cubical contents of one cylinder—into the
crank-case through its inlet valve. During the return stroke the charge is
squeezed, and passes through a valve into a chamber which forms, as it
were, the fourth spoke of a four-spoked wheel, of which the other three
spokes are the cylinders and the "silencer." This chamber is connected by
pipes to the inlet valves of the cylinders, which are mechanically opened
alternately by the action of special cams on the crank-shaft. The cylinder
which gets the contents of the compression chamber receives considerably
more "mixture" than would flow in under natural suction, and the
compression is therefore greater than in the ordinary type of cycle motor,
and the explosion more violent. Hence it comes about that the cylinders,
which have a bore of only 2 in. and a 2-in. stroke for the piston, develop
nearly 2 h.p. each.
It may at first appear rather mysterious how, if the cranks are rigidly
attached to the cycle frame, any motion can be imparted to the driving-

wheel. The explanation is simple enough: a belt pulley is affixed to one side
of the crank-case, and revolves with the cylinders, the silencer, and
compression chamber. The rotation is caused by the effort of the piston to
get as far as possible away from the closed end of the cylinder after an
explosion. Where a crank is movable but the cylinder fixed, the former
would be turned round; where the crank is immovable but the cylinder
movable, the travel of the piston is possible only if the cylinder moves
round the crank. A series of explosions following one another in rapid
succession gives the moving parts of the Barry engine sufficient momentum
to suck in charges, compress them, and eject the burnt gases. The plan is
ingenious, and as the machine into which this type of engine is built weighs
altogether only about 70 lbs., the "sport" of motor cycling is open to those
people whose age or want of strength would preclude them from the use of
the heavy mounts which are still to be seen about the roads. In the future we
may expect to find motor cycles approach very closely to a half-
hundredweight standard without sacrificing the rigidity needful for fast
locomotion over second-class roads.
For "pace-making" on racing tracks, motor cycles ranging up to 24 h.p.
have been used; but these are essentially "freak" machines of no practical
value for ordinary purposes. Even 3-4 h.p. cycles have set up wonderful
records, exceeding fifty miles in the hour, a speed equal to that of a good
express train. In comparison with the feats of motor-cars, their
achievements may not appear very startling; but when we consider the
small size and weight, and the simplicity of the mechanisms which propel
cycle and rider at nearly a mile a minute, the result seems marvellous
enough.
During the last few years the tricycle has again come into favour, but
with the arrangement of its wheels altered; two steering-wheels being
placed in front, and a single driving-wheel behind. The main advantage of
this inversion is that it permits the fixing of a seat in front of the driver, in
which a passenger can be comfortably accommodated. The modern "tricar,"
with its high-powered, doubled-cylindered engines, its change-speed gears,
its friction clutch for bringing the engines gradually into action, its forced
water circulation for cooling the cylinders, and its spring-hung frame, is in
reality more a car than a cycle, and escapes from the former category only
on account of the number of its wheels. To the tourist, or to the person who

does not find pleasure in solitary riding, the tricar offers many advantages,
and, though decidedly more expensive to keep up than a motor bicycle,
entails only very modest bills in comparison with those which affect many
owners of cars.
The development of the motor cycle has been hastened and fostered by
frequent speed and reliability contests, in which the nimble little motor has
acquitted itself wonderfully. A hill a mile long, with very steep gradients,
1
has been ascended in considerably less than two minutes by a 3 4 h.p. motor.
We read of motor cycles travelling from Land's End to John-o'-Groats; from
Calcutta to Bombay; from Sydney to Melbourne; from Paris to Rome—all
in phenomenal times considering the physical difficulties of the various
routes. Such tests prove the endurance of the motor cycle, and pave the way
to its use in more profitable employments. Volunteer cycling corps often
include a motor or two, which in active service would be most valuable for
scouting purposes, especially if powerful enough to tow a light machine-
gun. Commercial travellers, fitting a box to the front of a tricar, are able to
scour the country quickly and inexpensively in quest of orders for the firms
they represent. The police find the motor helpful for patrolling the roads.
On the Continent, and especially in Germany, town and country postmen
collect and deliver parcels and letters with the aid of the petrol-driven
tricycle, and thereby save much time, while improving the service. Before
long, "Hark 'tis the twanging horn" will once again herald the postman's
approach in a thousand rural districts, but the horn will not hang from the
belt of a horseman, such as the poet Cowper describes, but will be secured
to the handle-bars of a neat tricar. Thus history repeats itself.

Photo] [Cribb, Southsea.

A MOTOR LAWN-MOWER
A machine of this kind will cut several acres a day, and also acts as an efficient roller. The
operator is able to empty the contents of the catch-box without leaving his seat.

That the motor cycle is still far from perfect almost goes without saying;
but every year sees a decided advance in its design and efficiency. The
messy, troublesome accumulator will eventually give way to a neat little
dynamo, which is driven by the engine and creates current for exploding the
cylinder charges as the machine travels. When the cycle is at rest there
would then be no fear of electricity leaking away through some secret
"short circuit," since the current ceases with the need for it, but starts again
when its presence is required. The proper cooling of the cylinders has been
made an easier matter than formerly by the introduction of fans which
direct a stream of cold air on to the cylinder head. Professor H. L. Callendar
has shown in a series of experiments that a fan, which absorbs only 2 to 3

per cent. of an engine's power, will increase the engine's efficiency
immensely when a low gear is being used for hill climbing, and the rate of
motion through the air has fallen below that requisite to carry off the
surplus heat of the motor. If an engine maintains a good working
temperature when it progresses through space two feet for every explosion,
it would overheat if the amount of progression were, through the medium of
a change-gear attachment, reduced to one foot, a change which would be
advisable on a steep hill. The fan then supplies the deficiency by imitating
the natural rush of air. As Professor Callendar says: "The most important
point for the motor cyclist is to secure the maximum of power with the
minimum of weight. With this object, the first essentials are a variable
speed gear of wide range, and some efficient method of cooling to prevent
overheating at low gears.... It is unscientific to double the weight and power
of the machine in order to climb a few hills, when the same result can be
secured with a variable gear. It is unnecessary to resort to the weight and
complication of water cooling when a light fan will do all that is required."
Thus, with the aid of a fan and a gear which will give at least two speeds,
the motor cyclist can, with an engine of 2 h.p., climb almost any hill, even
without resorting to the help of the pedals. His motion is therefore
practically continuous. To be comfortable, he desires immunity from the
vibration which quick movement over any but first-class roads sets up in
the machine, especially in its forward parts. Several successful spring forks
and pneumatic devices have been invented to combat the vibration bogy;
and these, in conjunction with a spring pillar for the saddle, which can itself
be made most resilient, relieve the rider almost entirely of the jolting which
at the end of a long day's ride is apt to induce a feeling of exhaustion. The
motor tricycle, which once had a rather bad name for its rough treatment of
the nerves, is also now furnished with springs to all wheels, and
approximates to the car in the smoothness of its progression.
Assuming, then, that we have motor vehicles so light as to be very
manageable, sufficiently powerful to climb severe gradients, reliable,
comfortable to ride, and economical in their consumption of fuel and oil,
we are able to foresee that they will modify the conditions of social
existence. The ordinary pedal-driven cycle has made it possible for the
worker to live much further from his work than formerly. "To-morrow, with
a motor bicycle, his home may be fifteen miles away, and those extra miles

will make a great difference in rent, and in the health of his family. In fact,
it almost promises to reconcile the Garden City ideal with the industrial
conditions of to-day, by enabling a man to work in the town, and have his
home in the country. This advantage applies, of course, less to London than
to other great cities, on account of the seemingly endless miles of streets to
be traversed before the country is reached. In most manufacturing centres,
however, the motoring workman could get to his cottage home by a journey
of a few miles. Even in London, moreover, this disadvantage will be
overcome to a large extent in the future, for it is as certain as anything of
the kind can be that we must ultimately have special highways, smooth,
dustless, reserved for motor traffic, leading out of London in the principal
directions.... My own conviction is that motor cycling, the simplest, the
quickest, the cheapest independent locomotion that has ever been known, is
destined to enjoy enormous development. I believe that within a few years
the motor bicycle and tricycle will be sold by hundreds of thousands, and
that many of the social and industrial conditions of our time will be greatly
and beneficially affected by them."[13]

FOOTNOTE:

13. Henry Norman, Esq., M.P., in The World's Work.

CHAPTER X

FIRE ENGINES

A
good motto to blazon over the doors of a fire-brigade station would
be "He gives help twice who gives help quickly." The spirit of it is
certainly shown by the brave men who, as soon as the warning signal
comes, spring to the engines and in a few minutes are careering at full speed
to the scene of operations.
Speed and smartness have for many years past been associated with our
fire brigades. We read how horses are always kept ready to be led to the
engines; how their harness is dropped on to them and deft fingers set the
buckles right in a twinkling, so that almost before an onlooker has time to
realise what is happening the sturdy animals are beating the ground with
flying hoofs. And few dwellers in large cities have not heard the cry of the
firemen, as it rises from an indistinct murmur into a loud shout, before
which the traffic, however dense, melts away to the side of the road and
leaves a clear passage for the engines, driven at high speed and yet with
such skill that accidents are of rare occurrence. The noise, the gleam of the
polished helmets, the efforts of the noble animals, which seem as keen as
the men themselves to reach the fire, combine to paint a scene which lingers
long in the memory.
But efficient as the "horsed" engine is, it has its limitations. Animal
strength and endurance are not an indefinite quantity; while the fireman
grudges even the few short moments which are occupied by the inspanning
of the team. In many towns, therefore, we find the mechanically propelled
fire engine coming into favour. The power for working the pumps is now
given a second duty of turning the driving-wheels. A parallel can be found
in the steam-engine used for threshing-machines, which once had to be
towed by horses, but now travels of itself, dragging machine and other
vehicles behind it.
The earlier types of automobile fire engines used the boiler's steam to
move them over the road. Liverpool, a very enterprising city as regards the

extinction of fire, has for some time past owned a powerful steamer, which
can be turned out within a minute of the call, can travel at any speed up to
thirty miles an hour, and can pump 500 gallons per minute continuously. Its
success has led to the purchase of other motor engines, some fitted with a
chemical apparatus, which, by the action of acid on a solution of soda in
closed cylinders, is enabled to fling water impregnated with carbonic acid
gas on to the fire the moment it arrives within working distance of the
conflagration, and gives very valuable "first aid" while the pumping
apparatus is being got into order.

Two Motor Fire-engines built by Messrs. Merryweather, London. That on the left is driven by
petrol, and in addition to pumping-gear carries a wheeled fire-escape. That on the right is driven
by steam. Both types are much faster than horses, being able to travel at a rate of over 20 miles
an hour.

As might reasonably be expected, the petrol motor has found a fine field
for its energies in connection with fire extinction. Since it occupies
comparatively little space, more accommodation can be allowed for the
firemen and gear. Furthermore, a petrol engine can be started in a few
seconds by a turn of a handle, whereas a steamer is delayed until steam has

been generated. Messrs. Merryweather have built a four-cylindered, 30 h.p.
petrol fire engine capable of a speed of forty miles an hour. It has two
systems of ignition—the magneto (or small dynamo) and the ordinary
accumulator and coil—so that electrical breakdowns are not likely to occur.
A fast motor of this kind, with a pumping capacity of 300 gallons per
minute, is peculiarly suited for large country estates, where it can be made
to perform household or farm duties when not required for its primary
purpose. Considering the great number of country mansions, historically
interesting, and full of artistic treasures, which England boasts, it is a matter
for regret that such an engine is not always included among the appliances
with which every such property is furnished. How often we read "Old
mansion totally destroyed by fire," which usually means that in a few short
hours priceless pictures, furniture, and other objects of art have been
destroyed, because help, when it did come, arrived too late. Owners are,
however, more keenly alive to their responsibilities now than formerly. The
small hand-worked engine, or the hydrant of moderate pressure, is not
considered a sufficient guard for the house and its contents. In many
establishments the electric lighting engines are designed to work either the
dynamo or a set of pumps as occasion may demand; or the motor is
mounted on wheels so that it may be easily dragged by hand to any desired
spot.
The "latest thing" in motor fire engines is one which carries a fire-escape
with it, in addition to water-flinging machinery. An engine of this type is to
be found in some of the London suburbs. A chemical cylinder lies under the
driver's seat, where it is well out of the way, and coiled beside it is its reel of
hose. The "escape" rests on the top of the vehicle, the wheels hanging over
the rear end, while the top projects some distance in front of the steering
wheels. The ladder, of telescopic design, can be extended to fifty feet as
soon as it has been lowered to the ground. Since the saving of life is even
more important than the saving of property, it is very desirable that a means
of escape should be at hand at the earliest possible moment after an
outbreak. This combination apparatus enables the brigade to nip a fire in the
bud, if it is still a comparatively small affair, and also to rescue any people
whose exit may have been cut off by the fire having started on or near the
staircases.

The Wolseley Motor-Car Company has established a type of chemical
motor fire engine which promises to be very successful. A 20 h.p. motor is
placed forward under the frame to keep the centre of gravity low. When
fully laden, it carries a crew of eight men, two 9-foot ladders, two portable
chemical extinguishers, a 50-gallon chemical cylinder, and a reel on which
is wound a hose fifty-three yards long. The wheels are a combination of the
wooden "artillery" and the wire "spider," wires being strung from the outer
end of the hub to the outer ends of the wooden spokes to give them
increased power to resist the strain of sudden turns or collisions. An artillery
wheel, not thus reinforced, is apt to buckle sideways and snap its spokes
when twisted at all.
England has always led the way in matters relating to fire extinction, and
to her is due the credit of first harnessing mechanical motive power to the
fire engine. Other countries are following her example, and consequently
we find fire apparatus moved by the petrol motor in places so far apart as
Cape Town, Valparaiso, Mauritius, Sydney, Berlin, New York, Montreal.
There can be no doubt but that in a very few years horse-traction will be
abandoned by the brigades of our large towns. It has been suggested that the
fire-pump of the future will be driven by electricity drawn from switches on
the street mains; enough current being stored in accumulators to move the
pump from station to fire. In such a case it would be possible to use very
powerful pumps, as an electric motor is extremely vigorous for its size and
weight. Even to-day steam fire engines can fling 2,000 gallons per minute,
and fire floats (for use on the water) considerably more. Possibly the engine
of to-morrow will pour 5,000 gallons a minute on the flames if it can get
that amount from the water mains, and so render it unnecessary to summon
in a large number of engines to quell a big conflagration. Three hundred
thousand gallons an hour ought to check a very considerable "blaze."
The force with which a jet of water leaves the huge nozzle of a powerful
engine is so great that it would seriously injure a spectator at a distance of
fifty yards. The "kick-back" of the water on the nozzle is sometimes
sufficient to overcome the power of one man to hold the nozzle in position
with his hands, and it becomes needful to provide supports with pointed
ends to stick into the ground, or hooks which can be attached to the rungs of
a ladder. For an attack on the upper storeys of a house a special "water
tower" is much used in America. It consists of a lattice-work iron frame,

about twenty-five feet long, inside which slides an extensible iron tube five
inches in diameter. The tower is attached to one end of a wagon of unusual
length and breadth, and is raised to a vertical position by a rack gearing
with a quadrant built into its base below the trunnions or pivots on which it
swings. Carbonic acid gas, generated in a cylinder carried on the wagon,
works a piston connected with the racks, and on a tap being turned slowly
brings the tower to the perpendicular, when it is locked. The telescopic tube,
carrying the hose inside it, is then pulled up by windlasses, until the
1
2 2 -inch nozzle is nearly fifty feet from the ground. The nozzle itself can be
rotated from below by rods and gearing, and the angle of the stream
regulated by a rope. If several engines simultaneously deliver their water to
the tower hoses 1,000 gallons a minute can be concentrated in a continuous
1
2 2 -inch jet on to the fire.

The ordinary horsed fire engine is simple in its design and parts. The
vertical boiler contains a number of nearly horizontal water tubes, which
offer a great surface to the furnace gases, so that it may raise steam very
quickly. The actual water capacity of the boiler is small, and therefore it
must be fed continuously by a special pump. The pumps, two or three in
number, usually have piston rods working direct from the steam cylinders
on the plungers of the pumps. Between cylinders and pumps are slots in the
rods in which rotate cranks connected with one another and with a fly-
wheel which helps to keep the running steady. After leaving the pumps the
water enters a large air vessel, which reduces the sudden shocks of delivery
by the cushioning effect of the air, and causes a steady pressure on the water
in the hoses.

CHAPTER XI

FIRE-ALARMS AND AUTOMATIC FIRE EXTINGUISHERS

A
ssuming that a town has a well-appointed fire brigade, equipped with
the most up-to-date engines, it still cannot be considered efficiently
protected against the ravages of the fire-fiend unless the outbreak of a
fire can be notified immediately to the stations, and local mechanical means
of suppression come into action almost simultaneously with the
commencement of the conflagration. "What you do, do quickly" is the
keynote of successful fire-suppression; and its importance has been
practically recognised in the invention of hundreds of devices, some of
which we will glance at in the following pages.
The electric circuit is the most valuable servant that we have to warn us
of danger. Dotted about the streets are posts carrying at the top a circular
box, which contains a knob. As soon as a fire is observed, anyone may run
to such a post, smash the glass screening the knob, and pull out the latter.
This action flashes the alarm to the nearest fire-station, and a few minutes
later an engine is dashing to the rescue. Help may also be summoned by
means of the ordinary telephone exchanges or from police-stations in direct
telephonic communication with the brigade depôts.
All devices depending for their ultimate value on human initiative leave a
good deal to be desired. They presuppose conditions which may be absent.
For instance, an electric wire in a large factory ignites some combustible
material during the night. A passer-by may happen to see flames while the
fire is in an early stage. On the other hand, it is equally probable that the
conflagration may be well established before the alarm is given, with the
result that the fire brigade arrives too late to do much good.
What we need, therefore, is a mechanical means of calling attention to
the danger automatically, with a quickness which will give the brigade or
people close at hand a chance of strangling the monster almost as soon as it
is born, and with a precision as to locality that will save the precious time
wasted in hunting for the exact point to be attacked.

Mr. G. H. Oatway, M.I.E.E., in a valuable paper read before the
International Congress of Fire Brigades in London in 1903, says that the
difference between the damage resulting from a fire signalled in its early
stage, and the same fire reported when it has spread to two or three floors, is
often the difference between a nominal loss and a "burn out." The reformer,
he continues, who aims at reducing fire waste must turn his attention
primarily to hastening the alarm. The true cure of the matter is, not what
quantity of gear it takes to deal with huge conflagrations, but how to
concentrate at the earliest stage upon the outbreaks as they occur, and to
check them before they have grown beyond control. He cites the fire record
of Glasgow of 1902, from which it appears that three fires alone accounted
for 40 per cent. of the year's total loss, ten fires for 73 per cent., and the
other 706 for only 27 per cent., or an average of £72 per fire. Had the first
three fires only been notified at an earlier stage, nearly £72,000 would have
been saved. Captain Sir E. M. Shaw, late Chief of the London Fire Brigade,
has put the following on record: "Having devoted a very large portion of the
active period of my working life in bringing into general use mechanical
and hydraulic appliances for dealing with fires after they have been
discovered, I nevertheless give and have always given the highest place to
the early discovery and indication of fire, and not by any means to the
steam, the hydraulic, or the numerous other mechanical appliances on
which the principal labours of my life have been bestowed."
A fire given fifteen minutes' start is often hard to overtake. Imagine a
warehouse alight on three floors before the alarm is raised! Engines may
come one after another and pour deluges of water on the flames, yet as
likely as not we read next morning of "total destruction." No stitch in time
has saved nine!
The sad part about fires is that they represent so much absolute waste. In
commercial transactions, if one party loses the other gains; wealth is merely
transferred, and still remains in the community. But in the matter of fire this
is not the case. Supposing that a huge cotton mill is burnt down. The re-
erection will, it is true, cause a lot of money to change hands; but what has
resulted from the money that has already been put into the mill? Nothing.
So many hundred thousands of pounds have been dematerialised and left
nothing behind to represent them. The great Ottawa fire of a few years ago
may be remembered as a terrible example of such total loss of human effort.

THE HISTORY OF FIRE-ALARMS

The first recorded specification for an automatic detecting device bears
the date 1763. In that year a Mr. John Greene patented an arrangement of
cords, weights, and pulleys, which, when the cord burnt through, caused the
movement of an indicating semaphore arm. As this action appealed only to
the eye, it might easily pass unnoticed, and we can imagine that Mr. Greene
did not find a gold mine in his invention.
Twenty-four years later an advance was made when William Stedman
introduced a "philosophical fire alarum." "His apparatus consisted of a
pivoted bulb having an open neck, and containing mercury, spirit or other
liquid. As the heat of the room increased, the expansion of the fluid caused
it to spill over, release a trigger, and allow a mechanical gong to run down.
This arrangement, whilst an advance upon the first referred to, is quite
impracticable. Evaporation of fluid, expansion of mercury, a stiff crank, or
other causes which will readily occur to you, and the thing is useless."[14]
In 1806 an automatic method for sprinkling water over a fire appeared.
The idea was simplicity itself: a network of water mains, with taps
controlled by cords, which burnt through and turned on the water. William
Congreve patented, three years later, a sprinkler which was an
improvement, in that it indicated the position of the fire in a building by
dropping one of a number of weights. But string is not to be relied upon. It
may "perish" and break when no fire is about, and any system of extinction
depending on it might prove a double-edged weapon.
The nineteenth century produced hundreds of devices for alarming and
extinguishing automatically. All depended upon the principle of the
expansion or melting of metal in the increased temperature arising from a
fire. At one time the circuit-closing thermometer was popular on account of
its simplicity. "Its drawback," says Mr. Oatway, "is the smallness of its heat-
collecting surface, its isolation, and, last and worst of all, its fixity of
operation. In thermometer or fuse-alarm practice it is usual to place the
detectors at intervals of about ten feet or so, so that a room of any size will
contain a number. If a fire breaks out, the ceiling is blanketed with heat, and
every detector feels its influence. Each is affected, but none can give the
alarm until some one of the number absolutely reaches the set point or melts
out. Having no means of varying the composition of the solder or shifting

the wire, an actuating point must be selected which is high enough to give a
good working margin over the maximum industrial or seasonal heat of the
year; and thus it comes about that if the fire breaks out in winter, or when
the room is at its lowest temperature, the amount of loss is considerably and
quite unnecessarily increased. In a device set to fuse at 150° Fahrenheit, it
will be clear to every one that the measure of the damage will depend upon
the normal temperature of the room at the time of the outbreak. If the
mercury is in the nineties, there is only some sixty degrees of a rise to wait
for; whilst if it happens to be a winter's night, the alarm is held back for a
rise of perhaps 120°. What chance is there in this case for a good stop?"
Mr. Oatway has examined the fuses under different conditions, and his
conclusions are drawn from practical tests. Great intelligence will not be
required to appreciate the force of his arguments. Inasmuch as the rise of
temperature caused by a fire is relative, during the early stages at least, to
the general heat of the atmosphere, it becomes obvious that an automatic
fire-alarm should be one which will keep parallel, as it were, with
fluctuations of natural heat. Thus, if the "danger rise" be fixed at 100°, the
alarm should be given on a cold night as certainly as at midday in summer.
It was the failure of early patterns in this respect that led to their being
discredited by the fire-brigade authorities.
The writer already quoted has laid down the functions of a perfect alarm:
—
(a) To detect the fire at a uniformly early period, under all atmospheric
and industrial conditions.
(b) To give the alarm upon the premises, and simultaneously to the
brigade, by a definite and unmistakable message.
(c) To facilitate the work of extinction by indicating the position of the
outbreak in the building attacked.
The "May Oatway" alarm has got round the first difficulty in a most
ingenious manner by adapting the principle of the compensation methods
already described in connection with watches.
The alarm consists of a steel rod of a section found to be most suitable
for the purpose. To the side is attached by screws entering the rod near the
ends a copper wire, which is long enough to sag slightly at its centre, from

which depends a silver chain carrying a carbon contact-piece. A short
distance below the carbon are the two terminals of the electric circuit
which, when completed by the lowering of the carbon, gives the alarm.
Now if there be a very gradual change of temperature the steel rod
lengthens slowly, and so does the copper wire, so that the amount of sag
remains practically what it was before. But in event of a fire the copper
expands much more quickly than the steel, and sags until the carbon
completes the circuit. The whole thing is beautifully simple, very durable,
quite consistent, and reliable. As soon as the temperature diminishes, on the
extinction of the fire, the alarm automatically returns to its normal position,
ready for further work.
Now for the second function, that of giving the alarm in many places at
once. The closed circuit does not itself directly cause bells to ring: it works
a "relay," that is, a second and more powerful circuit. In fact, it is the
counterpart of the engine driver, who does not himself make the locomotive
move, but merely turns on the steam. An installation has been introduced in
the Poplar Workhouse—to quote an instance. Were a fire to break out, one
of the 276 detectors would soon set twenty-five bells in action, one in each
officer's room. Similarly, in the Warehousemen's Orphanage at Cheadle
Hulme, every dormitory would be aroused, and every officer, including the
Principal in his house some distance away. Messrs. Arthur and Company, of
Glasgow, have a warehouse fortified with 600 of these "nerve centres," all
yoked to four position indicators, three of which actuate a "master"
indicator connected with the central fire-station. There is no hole or corner
in this huge establishment where the fire-demon could essay his fell work
without being at once spied upon by a detector.
We may glance for a moment at the mechanism which sends an
unmistakable message for help. At the brigade station there is a number of
small tablets, each protected by a flap, on the outside of which is the word
SAFE, on the inside FIRE. Normally the flap is closed. As soon as the
circuit is completed, a magnet releases the flap, and a bell begins to ring.
Now, it is possible that the circuit might be closed accidentally by contact
somewhere between the premises it serves and the fire-station. So that the
official on guard, seeing "J. Brown and Company" on the uncovered tablet,
might despatch the engines to the place indicated on a wild-goose chase.

To prevent such false alarms the transmitter not only rings the station up,
but automatically sends an unmistakable message. When a fire occurs an
automatic printing machine is set in motion to despatch a cipher in the
Morse code four times to the station. An accidental circuit could not do this;
therefore, when the officer sees on the receiving tape the well-known
cipher, he turns out his men with all speed.
On arriving at their destination the firemen receive valuable help from
the "position indicator," which guides them to their work. On a special
board is seen a row, or rows, of shutters similar to those already mentioned.
Each row belongs to a floor; each unit of the row to a room. A glance
suffices to tell that the trouble is, say, in the most southerly room of the
second floor. No notice is therefore taken of smoke rolling out of other parts
of the building, until the danger spot has been attacked.
That the firemen appreciate such an ally goes without saying. Every fire
extinguished is a point to their credit. Also, the risks they run are greatly
diminished, while the wear and tear of tackle is proportionately reduced.
The fireman is noted for his courage and unflinching performance of duty.
The discomforts of his profession are sometimes severe, and its dangers as
certain as they are at times appalling. Therefore we welcome any
mechanical method which at once shortens his work, lessens his peril, and
protects property from damage.
Mr. Oatway draws special attention to the need for simultaneous warning
on the premises and at the fire-station. "I remember," he says, "many cases,
but perhaps no better illustration need be looked for than the case of a
cotton mill in Lancashire about two years ago (1901). The fire was seen to
start at a few minutes past seven; a fuse blew out, and sparked some cotton;
but it looked such a simple job that the operatives elected to deal with it. At
twenty minutes to eight it dawned upon somebody that the brigade had
better be sent for, because the fire was getting away; and in due course they
arrived; but the mill, already doomed, became a total loss. In every centre
similar instances can be quoted. There is nothing in any automatic system to
discourage individual effort. Inmates can put the fire out, if able; but in any
case the brigade gets timely and definite notice, and if on their arrival they
find the fire extinguished, as Chief Superintendent Thomas put it when we
opened the Dingle Station after the fatal train-burning, 'So much the better,
we shall get to our beds all the quicker.' This is the common-sense view of

it. Helpers work none the less intelligently because they know the brigade is
coming; and it is necessary to provide some automatic method of calling
them, because you can never rely upon anybody who is unfamiliar with fire
doing the right thing at the proper time."
Messrs. May and Oatway, who give their name to the alarm described
above, first introduced their apparatus in New Zealand, from which country
it has spread over the British Empire. The largest installation is at Messrs.
Clark and Company's Anchor Mills, Paisley. The whole of the immense
block of buildings, the greater part of which was previously protected by
"sprinklers" only, is now electrically protected also; and connected up with
the fire brigade, and through their station with the sleeping quarters of every
fireman. Some figures will be interesting here. There are 119 miles of
1
internal alarm circuits; 5 4 miles of underground cable between buildings; 19
automatic telegraphs; 21 automatic position indicators; 20 alarm gongs a
foot in diameter.
Early in January, 1905, a fire broke out in these buildings during the
dinner hour, when most of the works' firemen were at their midday meal.
The alarm sounded simultaneously at the works' fire-station and at the
firemen's houses, which are situated on the other side of the street from the
mill. The firemen were on the spot immediately, and were enabled to
subdue the flames, which had broken out in the building occupied as
warehouse and office, before it had got a firm hold of the inflammable
material, although not before one of the large stacks of finished thread was
ablaze. The brigade, however, were soon masters of the situation, and the
damage done was under £100. There is little doubt, had the alarm been left
to the ordinary course, the building would have been totally destroyed.[15]
In those few minutes the installation saved its entire cost many times
over. Truly
"A little fire is quickly trodden out,
Which, being suffered, rivers cannot quench."

Here, in a Shakespearean nutshell, is the whole science of fire protection.

AUTOMATIC SPRINKLERS

As these have been referred to several times a short description may
appropriately be given. The building which they protect is fitted with a
network of mains and branches ramifying into each room. At the end of
each branch is a nozzle, the mouth of which is bridged over by a metal arch
carrying a small plate. Between the bridge and a glass plug closing the
nozzle is a bar of easily fusible solder. When the temperature has risen to
danger point the solder melts, and the plug is driven out by the water, which
strikes the plate and scatters in all directions.
This device has proved very valuable on many occasions. The
Encyclopædia Britannica (Tenth Edition) states that, in the record of the
1
American Associated Factory Mutual companies for the 5 2 years ending
January 1, 1900, it appears that out of 563 fires where sprinklers came into
play 129 were extinguished by one jet; 83 by two jets; 61 by three; 44 by
four; 40 by five.
The fire-bucket is the simplest device we have as a first aid; and very
effective it often proves. Insurance statistics show that more fires are put
out by pails than by all other appliances put together. The important point to
be remembered in connection with them is that they should always be kept
full; so that, at the critical moment, there may be no hurried rushing about
to find the two gallons of liquid which each is supposed to contain
permanently. In Cassier's Magazine (vol. xx. p. 85) is given an account of
the manner in which an ingenious mill superintendent ensured the pails on
the premises being ready for duty. The hooks carrying the pails were fitted
up with pieces of spring steel strong enough to lift the pail when nearly
empty, but not sufficiently so to lift a full pail. Just over each spring, in such
a position as to be out of the way of the handle of the pail, was set a metal
point, connected with a wire from an open-circuit battery. So long as the
pails were full, their weight, when hung on their hooks, kept the springs
down, but as soon as one was removed, or lost a considerable part of its
contents by evaporation or otherwise, the spring on its hook would rise,
come into contact with the metal point, thus close the battery circuit and
ring a bell in the manager's office, at the same time showing which was the
bucket at fault. The bell continued to ring till the deficiency had been made
right; and by this simple contrivance the buckets were protected from
misuse or lack of attention.

FOOTNOTES:

14. Mr. W. H. Oatway.

15. Glasgow Evening News.

CHAPTER XII

THE MACHINERY OF A SHIP
THE REVERSING ENGINE — MARINE ENGINE SPEED GOVERNORS — THE STEERING
ENGINE — BLOWING AND VENTILATING APPARATUS — PUMPS — FEED HEATERS —
FEED-WATER FILTERS — DISTILLERS — REFRIGERATORS — THE SEARCH-LIGHT —
WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY INSTRUMENTS — SAFETY DEVICES — THE TRANSMISSION
OF POWER ON A SHIP

W
ith many travellers by sea the first impulse, after bunks have been
visited and baggage has been safely stored away, is to saunter off to
the hatches over the engine-room and peer down into the shining
machinery which forms the heart of the vessel. Some engine is sure to be at
work to remind them of the great power stored down there below, and to
give a foretaste of what to expect when the engine-room gong sounds and
the man in charge opens the huge throttle controlling some thousands of
horse-power.
By craning forward over the edge of the ship, a jet of water may be seen
spurting from a hole in the side just above the water-line, denoting either
that a pump is emptying the bilge, or that the condensers are being cooled
ready for the work before them.
Towards the forecastle a busy little donkey engine is lifting bunches of
luggage off the quay by means of a rope passing over a swinging spar
attached to the mast, and lowering it into the nether regions where
stevedores pack it neatly away.
In a small compartment on the upper deck is some mysterious, and not
very important-looking, gear: yet, as it operates the rudder, it claims a place
of honour equalling that of the main engines which turn the screw.
To the ordinary passenger the very existence of much other machinery—
the reversing engines, the air-pumps, the condensers, the "feed" heaters, the
filters, the evaporators and refrigerators, and the ventilators—is most
probably unsuspected. The electric light he would, from his experience of
things ashore, vaguely connect with an engine "somewhere." But the

apparatus referred to either works so unobtrusively or is so sequestered
from the public eye that one might travel for weeks without even hearing
mention of it.
On a warship the amount of machinery is vastly increased. In fact, every
war vessel, from the first-class battleship to the smallest "destroyer," is
practically a congeries of machines; accommodation for human beings
taking a very secondary place. Big guns must be trained, fed, and cleaned
by machinery; and these processes, simple as they sound, need most
elaborate devices. The difference in respect of mechanism between the King
Edward VII. and Nelson's Victory is as great as that between a motor-car
and a farmer's cart. It would not be too much to say that the mechanical
knowledge of any period is very adequately gauged from its fighting
vessels.

Photo] [Cribb, Southsea.

A gigantic sheer-legs used for lowering boilers, big guns, turrets, etc., into
men-of-war. The legs rise to a height of 140 feet, and will handle weights up
to 150 tons.

During the last twenty years marine engines have been enormously
improved. But the advance of auxiliary appliances has been even more
marked. In earlier times the matter considered of primary importance was
the propulsion of the vessel; and engineers turned their attention to the
problem of crowding the greatest possible amount of power into the least

possible amount of space. This was effected mainly by the "compounding"
of engines—using the steam over and over again in cylinders of increasing
size—and by improving the design of boilers. As soon as this business had
been well forwarded, auxiliary machinery, which, though not absolutely
necessary for movement, greatly affected the ease, comfort, and economy
of working a ship, got its share of notice, with the result that a tour round
the "works" of a modern battleship or liner is a growing wonder and a
liberal education in itself.
This chapter will deal with the auxiliaries to be found in large vessels
designed for peaceful or warlike uses. Many devices are common to ships
of both classes, and some are confined to one type only, though the "steel
wall" certainly has the advantage with regard to multiplicity.
We may begin with

THE REVERSING ENGINE

All marine engines should be fitted with some apparatus which enables
the engineer to reverse them from full speed ahead to full speed astern in a
few seconds. The effort required to perform the operation of shifting over
the valves is such as to necessitate the help of steam. Therefore you will
find a special device in the engine-room which, when the engineer moves a
small lever either way from the normal position, lets steam into a cylinder
and moves rods reversing the main engine. By a link action (which could
not be explained without a special diagram) the valves of the auxiliary are
closed automatically as soon as the task has been performed; so that there is
no constant pressure on the one or the other side of its piston. To prevent the
reversal being too sudden, the auxiliary's piston-rod is prolonged, and fitted
to a second piston working in a second cylinder full of glycerine or oil. This
piston is pierced with a small hole, through which the incompressible liquid
passes as the piston moves. Since its passage is gradual, the engines are
reversed deliberately enough to protect their valves from any severe strains.
These reversing engines can, if the steam serving them fails, be worked by
hand.

MARINE ENGINE SPEED GOVERNORS

When a ship is passing through a strong sea and pitches as she crosses
the waves, the screw is from time to time lifted clear of the water, and the
engines which a moment before had been doing their utmost, suddenly find
their load taken off them. The result is "racing" of the machinery, which
makes itself very unpleasantly felt from one end of the ship to the other.
Then the screw, revolving at a speed much above the normal, suddenly
plunges into the water again, and encounters great resistance to its
revolution.
A series of changes from full to no "load," as engineers term it, must be
harmful to any engines, even though the evil effects are not shown at once.
Great strains are set up which shake bolts loose, or may crack the heavy
standards in which the cranks and shaft work, and even seriously tax the
shaft itself and the screw. On land every stationary engine set to do tasks in
which the load varies—which practically means all stationary engines—are
fitted with a governor, to cut off the steam directly a certain rate of
revolution is exceeded. These engines are the more easily governed because
they carry heavy fly-wheels, which pick up or lose their velocity gradually.
A marine engine, on the other hand, has only the screw to steady it, and this
is extremely light in proportion to the power which drives it; in fact, has
scarcely any controlling influence at all as soon as it leaves the water.
Marine engineers, therefore, need some mechanical means of restraining
their engines from "running away." The device must be very sensitive and
quick acting, since the engines would increase their rate threefold in a
second if left ungoverned when running "free"; while on the other hand it
must not throttle the steam supply a moment after the work has begun again
when the screw takes the water.
Many mechanisms have been invented to curb the marine engine. Some
have proved fairly successful, others practically useless; and the fact
remains that, owing to the greater difficulty of the task, marine governing is
not so delicate as that of land engines. A great number of steamships are not
fitted with governors, for the simple reason that the engineers are sceptical
about such devices as a class and "would rather not be bothered with them."
But whatever may have been its record in the past, the marine governor is
at the present time sufficiently developed to form an item in the engine-
rooms of many of our largest ships. We select as one of the best devices yet

produced that known as Andrews' Patent Governor; and append a short
description.
It consists of two main parts—the pumps and the ram closing the throttle.
The pumps, two in number, are worked alternately by some moving part of
the engine, such as the air-pump lever. They inject water through a small
pipe into a cylinder, the piston-rod of which operates a throttle valve in the
main steam supply to the engines. At the bottom of this cylinder is a by-
pass, or artificial leak, through which the water flows back to the pumps.
The size of the flow through the by-pass is controlled by a screw
adjustment.
We will suppose that the governor is set to permit one hundred
revolutions a minute. As long as that rate is not exceeded the by-pass will
let out as much water as the pumps can inject into the cylinder, and the
piston is not moved. But as soon as the engines begin to race, the pumps
send in an excess, and the piston immediately begins to rise, closing the
throttle. As the speed falls, the leak gets the upper hand again, and the
piston is pushed down by a powerful spring, opening the throttle.
It might be supposed that, when the screw "races," the pumps would not
only close the throttle, but also press so hard on it as to cause damage to
some part of the apparatus before the speed had fallen again. This is
prevented by the presence of a second control valve (or leak) worked by a
connecting-rod rising along with the piston-rod of the ram. The two rods are
held in engagement by a powerful spring which presses them together, so
that a hollow in the first engages with a projection on the second.
Immediately the pressure increases and the piston rises, the second valve is
shut by the lifting of its rod, and so farther augments the pressure in the
cylinder and quickens the closing of the throttle valve. This pressure
increase must, however, be checked, or the piston would overrun and stop
the engines. So when the piston has nearly finished its stroke the
connecting-rod comes into contact with a stop which disengages it from the
piston-rod and allows the second control valve to be fully opened by the
spring pulling on its rod. The piston at once sinks to such a position as the
pressure allows, and the action is repeated time after time.
The governing is practically instantaneous, though without shock, and is
said to keep the engine within 3 per cent. of the normal rate. That is, if 100

be the proper number of revolutions, it would not be allowed to exceed 103
or drop below 97. Such governing is, in technical language, very "close."
The idea is very ingenious: pumps working against a leak, and as soon as
they have mastered it, being aided by a secondary valve which reduces the
size of the leak so as to render the effect of the pumps increasingly rapid
until the throttle has been closed. Then the secondary valve is suddenly
thrown out of action, gives the leak full play, and causes the throttle to open
quickly so that the steam may be cut off only for a moment. By the turning
of a small milled screw-head a couple of inches in diameter the pace of
5,000 h.p. engines is as fully regulated as if a powerful brake were applied
the moment they exceeded "the legal limit."

STEERING ENGINES

The uninitiated may think that the man on the bridge, revolving a spoked-
wheel with apparently small exertion, is directly moving the rudder to port
or to starboard as he wishes. But the helm of a large vessel, travelling at
high speed, could not be so easily deflected were not some giant at work
down below in obedience to the easy motions of the wheel.
Sometimes in a special little cabin on deck, but more often in the engine-
room, where it can be tended by the staff, there is the steering engine,
usually worked by steam-power. Two little cylinders turn a worm-screw
which revolves a worm-wheel and a train of cogs, the last of which moves
to right or left a quadrant attached to the chains or cables which work the
rudder. All that the steersman has to do with his wheel is to put the engine
in forward, backward, or middle gear. The steam being admitted to the
cylinders quickly moves the helm to the position required.
A particularly ingenious steam gear is that made by Messrs. Harfield and
Company, of London. Its chief feature is the arrangement whereby the
power to move the rudder into any position remains constant. If you have
ever steered a boat, you will remember that, when a sudden curve must be
made, you have to put far more strength into the tiller than would suffice for
a slight change of direction. Now, if a steam-engine and gear were so built
as to give sufficient pressure on the helm in all positions, it would, if
powerful enough to put the ship hard-a-port, evidently be overpowered for
the gentler movements, and would waste steam. The Harfield gear has the

last of the cog-train—the one which engages with the rack operating the
tiller—mounted eccentrically. The rack itself is not part of a circle, but
almost flat centrally, and sharply bent at the ends. In short, the curve is such
that the rack teeth engage with the eccentric cog at all points of the latter's
revolution.
When the helm is normal the longest radius of the eccentric is turned
towards the rack. In this position it exerts least power; but least power is
then needed. As the helm goes over, the radius of the cogs gradually
decreases, and its leverage proportionately increases. So that the engine is
taxed uniformly all the time.
Some war vessels, including the ill-fated Russian cruiser Variag, have
been fitted with electric steering gear, operated by a motor in which the
direction of the current can be varied at the will of the helmsman.
All power gears are so arranged that, in case of a breakdown of the
power, a hand-wheel can be quickly brought into play.

BLOWING AND VENTILATING APPARATUS

A railway locomotive sends the exhaust steam up the funnel with
sufficient force to expel all air from the same and to create a vacuum. The
only passage for the air flying to fill this empty space lies through the fire-
box and tubes traversing the boiler from end to end. Were it not for the
"induced draught"—the invention of George Stephenson—no locomotive
would be able to draw a train at a higher speed than a few miles an hour.
On shipboard the fresh water used in the boilers is far too precious to be
wasted by using it as a fire-exciter. Salt water to make good the loss would
soon corrode the boilers and cause terrible explosions. Therefore the
necessary draught is created by forcing air through the furnaces instead of
by drawing it.
The stoke-hold is entirely separated from the outer air, except for the
ventilators, down which air is forced by centrifugal pumps at considerable
pressure. This draught serves two purposes. It lowers the temperature of the
stoke-hold, which otherwise would be unbearable, and also feeds the fires
with plenty of oxygen. The air forced in can escape in one way only, viz. by
passing through the furnaces. When the ship is slowed down the "forced

draught" is turned off, and then you see the poor stokers coming up for a
breath of fresh air. In the Red Sea or other tropical latitudes these grimy but
useful men have a very hard time of it. While passengers up above are
grumbling at the heat, the stoker below is almost fainting, although clad in
nothing but the thinnest of trousers.
In the engine-room also things at times become uncomfortably warm.
Take the case of the United States monitor Amphitrite, which went into
commission in 1895 for a trial run.
Both stoke-hold and engine-room were very insufficiently ventilated. The
vessel started from Hampton Roads for Brunswick, Georgia. "The trip of
about 500 miles occupied five days in the latter part of July, and, for sheer
suffering, has perhaps seldom been equalled in our naval history. The fire-
room (stoke-hold) temperature was never below 150°, and often above
170°, while the engine-room ranged closely about 150°. For the first
twenty-four hours the men stood it well, but on the second day seven
succumbed to the heat and were put on the sick list, one of them nearly
dying; before the voyage was ended, twenty-eight had been driven to seek
medical attendance. The gaps thus created were partially filled with
inexperienced men from the deck force, until there was only a lifeboat's
crew left in each watch.... On the evening of the fourth day out our men had
literally fought the fire to a finish and had been vanquished; the watch on
duty broke down one by one, and the engines, after lumbering along slower
and slower, actually stopped for want of steam.... At daybreak the next
morning we got under way and steamed at a very conservative rate to our
destination, fortunately only about ten miles distant. The scene in the fire-
room that morning was not of this earth, and far beyond description. The
heat was almost destructive to life; steam was blowing from many defective
joints and water columns; tools, ladders, doors, and all fittings were too hot
to touch; and the place was dense with smoke escaping from furnace doors,
for there was absolutely no draught. The men collected to build up the fires
were the best of those remaining fit for duty, but they were worn out
physically, were nervous, apprehensive, and dispirited. Rough Irish firemen,
who would stand in a fair fight till killed in their tracks, were crying like
children, and begging to be allowed to go on deck, so completely were they
unmanned by the cruel ordeal they had endured so long. 'Hell afloat' is a
nautical figure of speech often idly used, but then we saw it. For a month

thereafter the ship was actively employed on the southern coast, drilling
militia at different ports, and sweltering in the new dock at Port Royal. One
trip of twenty-nine hours broke the record for heat, the fire-room being
frequently above 180°. All fire-room temperatures were taken in the actual
spaces where the men had to work, and not from hot corners or overhead
pockets."[16]
The ventilators were subsequently altered, and the men enjoyed
comparative comfort. The words quoted will suffice to establish the
importance of a proper current of air where men have to work. One of the
greatest difficulties encountered in deep mining is that, while the
temperature approaches and sometimes passes that of a stoke-hold, the task
of sending down a cool current from above is, with depths of 4,000 ft. and
over, a very awkward one to carry out.
On passenger ships the fans ventilating the cabins and saloons are
constantly at work, either sucking out foul air or driving in fresh. The
principle of the fan is very similar to that of the centrifugal water pump—
vanes rotating in a case open at the centre, through which the air enters, to
be flung by the blades against the sides of the case and driven out of an
opening in its circumference. Sometimes an ordinary screw-shaped fan,
such as we often see in public buildings, is employed.

PUMPS

Every steamship carries several varieties of pump. First, there are the
large pumps, generally of a simple type, for emptying the bilge or any
compartment of the ship which may have sprung a leak. "All hands to the
pumps!" is now seldom heard on a steamer, for the opening of a steam-cock
sets machinery in motion which will successfully fight any but a very
severe breach. It is needless to say that these pumps form a very important
part of a ship's equipment, without which many a fine vessel would have
sunk which has struggled to land.
The pumps for the condensers form another class. These are centrifugal
force pumps; their duty is to circulate cold sea-water round the nests of
tubes through which steam flows after passing through the cylinders. It is
thus converted once more into water, ready for use again in the boiler.
Every atom of the water is evaporated, condensed, and pumped back into

the boiler once in a period ranging from fifteen minutes to an hour,
according to the type of boiler and the size of the supply tanks.
Some condensers have the cooling water passed through the tubes, and
the steam circulated round these in an air-tight chamber. In any case, the
condenser should be so designed as to offer a large amount of cold surface
to the hot vapour. A breakdown of the condenser pumps is a serious mishap,
since steam would then be wasted, which represents so much fresh water—
hard to replace in the open sea. It would be comparable to the
disarrangement of the circulating pump on a motor-car, though the effects
are different.
We must not forget the feed-pumps for the boilers. On their efficient
action depends the safety of the ship and her passengers. Water must be
maintained at a certain level in the boiler, so that all tube and other surfaces
in direct contact with the furnace gases may be covered. The disastrous
explosions we sometimes hear of are often caused by the failure of a pump,
the burning of a tube or plate, and the inevitable collapse of the same. The
firms of Weir and Worthington are among the best-known makers of the
special high-pressure pumps used for throwing large quantities of water into
the boilers of mercantile and war vessels.

FEED HEATERS

As the fuel supply of a vessel cannot easily be replenished on the high
seas, economy in coal consumption is very desirable.
If you put a cold spoon into a boiling saucepan ebullition is checked at
once, though only for a moment, while the spoon takes in the temperature
of the water. Similarly, if cold water be fed into a boiler the steam pressure
at once falls. Therefore the hotter the feed water is the better.
The feed heater is the reverse of the condenser. In the latter, cold water is
used to cool hot steam; in the former, hot steam to heat cold water. There
are many patterns of heaters. One type, largely used, sprays the cold water
through a valve into a chamber through which steam is passed from the
engines. The spray, falling through the hot vapour, partially condenses it
and takes up some of its heat. The surplus steam travels on to the
condensers. A float in the lower part of the chamber governs a valve
admitting steam to the boiler pumps, so that as soon as a certain amount of

water has accumulated the pumps are started, and the hot liquid is forced
into the boiler.
Another type, the Hampson feeder, sends steam through pipes of a wavy
form surrounded by the feed water, there being no actual contact between
liquid and vapour.
An ally of the heater is the

FEED-WATER FILTER,

which removes suspended matter which, if it entered the boiler, would form
a deposit round the tubes, and while decreasing their efficiency, make them
more liable to burning. The most dangerous element caught by the filters is
fatty matter—oil which has entered the cylinders and been carried off by the
exhaust steam.
The filter is either high pressure, i.e. situated between the pump and the
boiler; or low pressure, i.e. between the pump and the reservoir from which
it draws its water. The second class must have large areas, so as not to
throttle the supply unduly.
Many kinds of filtering media have been tried—fabrics of silk, calico,
cocoanut fibre, towelling, sawdust, cork dust, charcoal, coke; but the ideal
substance, at once cheap, easily obtainable, durable, and completely
effective, yet remains to be found.
A filter should be so constructed that the filtering substance is very
accessible for cleansing or renewal.

DISTILLERS

We now come to a part of a ship's plant very necessary for both machines
and human beings. Many a time have people been in the position of the
Ancient Mariner, who exclaimed:—
"Water, water, everywhere,
But not a drop to drink!"

Water is so weighty that a ship cannot carry more than a very limited
quantity, and that for the immediate needs of her passengers. The boilers, in

spite of their condensers, waste a good deal of steam at safety valves
through leaking joints and packings, and in other ways. This loss must be
made good, for, as already remarked, salt water spells the speedy ruin of
any boiler it enters.
The distiller in its simplest form combines a boiler for changing water
into vapour, with a condenser for reconverting it to liquid. Solids in impure
water do not pass off with the steam, so that the latter, if condensed in clean
vessels, is fit for drinking or for use in the engine boilers.
A pound of steam will, under this system, give a pound of water. But as
such procedure would be extravagant of fuel, compound condensers are
used, which act in the following manner.
High-pressure steam is passed from the engine boilers into the tubes of
an evaporator, and converts the salt water surrounding it into steam. The
boiler steam then travels into its own condenser or into the feed water
heater, while the steam it generated passes into the coils of a second
evaporator, converts water there into steam, and itself goes to a condenser.
The steam generated in the second evaporator does similar duty in a third
evaporator. So that one pound of high-pressure steam is directly reconverted
to water, and also indirectly produces between two and three pounds of
fresh water.
The condensers used are similar to those already described in connection
with the engines, and need no further comment. About the evaporators, it
may be said that they are so constructed that they can be cleaned out easily
as soon as the accumulation of salt and other matter renders the operation
necessary. Usually one side is hinged, and provided with a number of bolts
all round the edges which are quickly removed and replaced.
The United States Navy includes a ship, the Iris, whose sole duty is to
supply the fleet she attends with plenty of fresh water. She was built in 1885
by Messrs. R. and W. Hawthorn, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, and measures 310
1
feet in length, 38 2 feet beam. For her size she has remarkable bunker
capacity, and can accommodate nearly 2,500 tons of coal. Fore and aft are
huge storage tanks to hold between them about 170,000 gallons of fresh
water. Her stills can produce a maximum of 60,000 gallons a day. It has
been reckoned that each ton of water distilled costs only 18 cents; or, stated

otherwise, that 40 gallons cost one penny. At many ports fresh water costs
three or four times this figure; and even when procured is of doubtful
purity. During the Spanish-American War the Iris and a sister ship, the
Rainbow, proved most useful.

REFRIGERATORS

Of late years the frozen-meat trade has increased by leaps and bounds.
Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Canada, and the United States send
millions of pounds' worth of mutton and beef across the water every year to
help feed the populations of England and Europe.
In past times the live animals were sent, to be either killed when
disembarked or fatted up for the market. This practice was expensive, and
attended by much suffering of the unfortunate creatures if bad weather
knocked the vessel about.
Refrigerating machinery has altered the traffic most fundamentally. Not
only can more meat be sent at lower rates, but the variety is increased; and
many other substances than flesh are often found in the cold stores of a ship
—butter and fruit being important items.
Certain steamship lines, such as the Shaw, Savill, and Albion—plying
between England and Australasia—include vessels specially built for the
transport of vast numbers of carcases. Upwards of a million carcases have
been packed into the hull of a single ship and kept perfectly fresh during the
long six weeks' voyage across the Equator.
Every passenger-carrying steamer is provided with refrigerating rooms
for the storage of perishable provisions; and as the comfort of the
passengers, not to say their luxury, is bound up with these compartments, it
will be interesting to glance at the method employed for creating local frost
amid surrounding heat.
The big principle underlying the refrigerator is this—that a liquid when
turned into gas absorbs heat (thus, to convert water into steam you must
feed it with heat from a fire), and that as soon as the gas loses a certain
amount of its heat it reverts to liquid form.
Now take ammonia gas. The "spirits of hartshorn" we buy at the
chemist's is water impregnated with this gas. At ordinary living

temperatures the water gives out the gas, as a sniff at the bottle proves in a
most effective manner.
If this gas were cooled to 37·3° below zero it would assume a liquid
state, i.e. that temperature marks its boiling point. Similarly steam, cooled
to 212° Fahr., becomes water. Boiling point, therefore, merely means the
temperature at which the change occurs.
Ammonia liquid, when gasifying, absorbs a great amount of heat from its
surroundings—air, water, or whatever they may be. So that if we put a
tumbler full of the liquid into a basin of water it would rob the water of
enough heat to cause the formation of ice.
The refrigerating machine, generally employed on ships, is one which
constantly turns the ammonia liquid into gas, and the gas back into liquid.
The first process produces the cold used in the freezing-rooms. The
apparatus consists of three main parts:—
(1) The compressor, for squeezing ammonia gas.
(2) The condenser, for liquefying the gas.
(3) The evaporator, for gasifying the liquid.
The compressor is a pump. The condenser, a tube or series of tubes
outside which cold water is circulated. The evaporator, a spiral tube or
tubes passing through a vessel full of brine. Between the condenser and
evaporator is a valve, which allows the liquid to pass from the one to the
other in proper quantities.
We can now watch the cycle of operations. The compressor sucks in a
charge of very cold gas from the evaporator, and squeezes it into a fraction
of its original volume, thereby heating it. The heated gas now passes into
the condenser coils and, as it expands, encounters the chilling effects of the
water circulating outside, which robs it of heat and causes it to liquefy.
It is next slowly admitted through the expansion valve into the
evaporator. Here it gradually picks up the heat necessary for its gaseous
form: taking it from the brine outside the coils, which has a very low
freezing-point. The brine is circulated by pumps through pipes lining the
walls of the freezing-room, and robs the air there of its heat until a
temperature somewhat below the freezing-point of water is reached.

The room is well protected by layers of charcoal or silicate cotton, which
are very bad conductors of heat. How the chamber strikes a novice can be
gathered from the following description of a Cunard liner's refrigerating
room. "It is a curious and interesting sight. It may be a hot day on deck,
nearing New York, and everyone is going about in sun hats and light
clothes. We descend a couple of flights of stairs, turn a key, and here is
winter, sparkling in glassy frost upon the pale carcases of fowls and game,
and ruddy joints of meat, crystallising the yellow apples and black grapes to
the likeness of sweetmeats in a grocer's shop, gathering on the wall-pipes in
scintillating coats of snow nearly an inch deep. You can make a snowball
down here, if you like, and carry it up on deck to astonish the languid
loungers sheltering from the sun under the protection of the promenade-
deck roof. Such is the modern substitute for the old-time salt-beef cask and
bags of dried pease!"
The larder is so near the kitchen that while below decks we may just peep
into the kitchens, where a white-capped chef presides over an army of
assistants. Inside a huge oven are dozens of joints turning round and round
by the agency of an invisible electric-motor. But what most tickles the
imagination is an electrical egg-boiling apparatus, which ensures the correct
amount of cooking to any egg. A row of metal dippers, with perforated
bottoms, is suspended over a trough of boiling water. Each dipper is marked
for a certain time—one minute, two, three, four, and so on. The dippers,
filled with eggs, are pushed down into the water. No need to worry lest they
should be "done to a bullet," for at the expiry of a minute up springs the
one-minute dipper; and after each succeeding minute the others follow in
due rotation. Where 2,000 eggs or more are devoured daily this ingenious
automatic device plays no mean part.

THE SEARCH-LIGHT

All liners and war vessels now carry apparatus which will enable them to
detect danger at night time, whether rocks or an enemy's fleet, icebergs or a
water-logged derelict. On the bridge, or on some other commanding part of
the vessel's structure, is a circular, glass-fronted case, backed with a mirror
of peculiar shape. Inside are two carbon points almost touching, across
which, at the turn of a handle, leaps a shower of sparks so continuous as to
form a dazzling light. The rays from the electric arc, as it is called, either

pass directly through the glass lens, or are caught by the parabolic reflector
and shot back through it in an almost parallel pencil of wonderful intensity,
which illumines the darkness like a ray of sunshine slanting through a crack
in the shutter of a room. The search-light draws its current from special
dynamos, which absorb many horse-power in the case of the powerful
apparatus used on warships. At a distance of several miles a page of print
may be easily read by the beams of these scrutinisers of the night.
The finest search-lights are to be found ashore at naval ports, where, in
case of war, a sharp look-out must be kept for hostile vessels. Portsmouth
boasts a light of over a million candle-power, but even this is quite eclipsed
by a monster light built by the Schuckert Company, of Nuremberg,
Germany, which gives the effect of 816,000,000 candles. An instrument of
such power would be useless on board ship, owing to the great amount of
current it devours, but in a port, connected with the lighting plant of a large
town, it would serve to illumine the country round for many miles.
In addition to its value as an "eye," the search-light can be utilised as an
"ear." Ernst Ruhmer, a German scientist, has discovered a method of
telephoning along a beam of light from a naval projector. The amount of
current passing into the arc is regulated by the pulsations of a telephone
battery and transmitter. If the beam be caught by a parabolic reflector, in the
focus of which is a selenium cell connected with a battery and a pair of
sensitive telephone receivers, the effect of these pulsations of light is heard.
Selenium being a metal which varies its resistance to an electric circuit in
proportion to the intensity of light shining upon it, any fluctuations of the
search-light's beams cause electric fluctuations of equal rapidity in the
telephone circuit; and since these waves arise from the vibrations of speech,
the electric vibrations they cause in the selenium circuit are retransformed
at the receiver into the sounds of speech. This German apparatus makes it
possible to send messages nine or ten miles over a powerful projector beam.
In the United States Navy, and in other navies as well, night signals are
flashed by the electric light. The pattern of lamp used in the United States
Navy is divided transversely into two compartments, the upper having a
white, the lower a red, lens. Four of these lamps are hung one above the
other from a mast. A switch-board connected with the eight incandescent
lamps in the series enables the operator to send any required signal, one
letter or figure being flashed at a time. During the Spanish-American War

the United States fleet made great use of this simple system, which on a
clear night is very effective up to distances of four miles.
Large arc-lamps slung on yards over the deck give great help for coaling
and unloading vessels at night time. The touch of a switch lights up the
deck with the brilliancy of a well-equipped railway station. The day of the
"lantern, dimly burning," has long passed away from the big liner, cargo
boat, and warship.

WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY INSTRUMENTS

Solitude is being rapidly banished from the earth's surface. By solitude
we mean entire separation from news of the world, and the inability to get
into touch with people far away. On the remote ranches of the United
States, in sequestered Norwegian fiords, in the folds of the eternal hills
where the only other living creature is the eagle, man may still be as
conversant with what is going on in China or Peru as if he were living in the
busy streets of a capital town. The electric wire is the magic news-bringer.
Wherever man can go it can go too, and also into many places besides.
We must make one exception—the surface of the sea. Cables rest on
ocean's bed, but they would be useless if floated on its surface to act as
marine telegraph offices. Winds and waves would soon batter them to
pieces, even if they could be moored, which in a thousand fathoms may be
considered impracticable.
So until a few years back the occupants of a ship were truly isolated from
the time that they left port until they reached land again, except for the rare
occasions when a passing vessel might give them a fragment of news.
This has all been changed. Stroll into the saloon of one of our large
Atlantic liners and you will see telegram forms lying on the tables. In the
'nineties they would have been about as useful aboard ships as a mackintosh
coat in the Sahara. A glance, however, at pamphlets scattered around
informs you that the ship carries a Marconi wireless installation, and that a
Marconi telegram, handed in at the ship's telegraph office, will be
despatched on the wings of ether waves to the land far over the horizon.
Inside the cabin streams of sparks scintillate with a cracking noise, and
your message shoots into space from a wire suspended on insulators from

one of the mast heads. If circumstances favour, you may receive a reply
from the Unseen before the steamer has got out of range of the coast
stations. The immense installations at Poldhu, Cornwall, and in
Newfoundland, could be used to flash the words to a ship at any point of the
transatlantic journey. Owing to lack of space, and consequently power, the
steamer's transmitting apparatus has a limited capacity.
The first shipping company to grasp the possibilities of the commercial
working of the Marconi system was the Nord-Deutscher-Lloyd, whose mail
steamer, Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse, was fitted in March, 1900. At the
present time many of the large Atlantic steamship companies carry a
wireless installation as a matter of course, ranking it among necessary
things. The Cunard, American Atlantic Transport, Allan, Compagnie
Transatlantique, Hamburg-American, and Nord-Deutscher-Lloyd lines
make full use of the system, as the conveniences it gives far outweigh any
expense. A short time since maritime signalling was extremely limited in its
range, being effected by flags, semaphores, lights, and sounds, which in
stormy weather became uncertain agents, and in foggy, useless. Also the
operations of transmitting and receiving were so slow that many a message
had to remain uncompleted.
The following paragraph, which appeared in The Times of December
11th, 1903, is significant of the very practical value of marine wireless
telegraphy. "The American steamer Kroonland, from Antwerp for New
York, which, as reported yesterday, disabled her steering gear when west of
the Fastnet, and had to put back, arrived yesterday morning at Queenstown.
The saloon passengers speak in the highest terms of praise of the utility of
the Marconi wireless telegraphy with which the liner is fitted, and of the
facility with which, when the accident occurred, the passengers were able to
communicate with their friends, in England, Scotland, and the Continent,
and even America, and get replies before the Irish coast was sighted. The
accident occurred on Tuesday about noon, when the liner was 130 miles
west of the Fastnet, and communication was at once made with the Marconi
station at Crookhaven. Captain Doxrud was enabled accordingly to send
messages to the chief agents of the American line, at Antwerp, stating the
nature of the damage to the steering gear of the steamer, and that he would
have to abandon the idea of prosecuting the western voyage. Within an hour
and a half a message was received by the captain from the agents

instructing him what to do, and at once the Kroonland was headed for
Queenstown. Three-fourths of the total number of the saloon passengers
and a goodly number of the second cabin sent messages to their friends in
various parts of the world, and replies were received even from the
Continent before the Fastnet was sighted. Seven or eight passengers
telegraphed to relatives for money, and replies were received in four
instances, authorising the purser to advance the amounts required, and the
money was paid over in each case to the passengers."
The possibility of thus communicating between vessel and land, or vessel
and vessel, removes much of the anxiety attending a sea voyage. Business
men, for whom even a few days' want of touch with the mercantile markets
may be a serious matter, can send long messages in code or otherwise
instructing their agents what to do; while they can receive information to
shape their actions when they reach land. The "uncommercial traveller" also
is pleased and grateful on receiving a message from home. The feeling of
loneliness is eliminated. The ocean has lost its right to the term bestowed by
Horace—dissociabilis, "the separator."

Photo] [Cribb, Southsea.

FIXING A BATTLE-RAM
The ram of a battleship being placed in position with the aid of a
huge crane. The size of the ram will be appreciated from the
dwarfing effect it has on that of the man perched near the lifting
tackle.

Steamship companies vie with one another in their efforts to keep their
passengers well posted in the latest news. Bulletins, or small newspapers,
are issued daily during the voyage, which give, in very condensed form,

accounts of events interesting to those on board. "The amount of fresh news
a steamer gathers during a passage is considerable, and is greatly relished
by the passengers, who are invariably ravenous for signs of the busy life
they left behind, more especially when they have departed on the verge of
some important event taking place; and the bulletins are eagerly sought for
when it is announced that an inward-bound ship is in communication. The
shipowners realise the importance and usefulness of being able to
communicate with their commanders before the huge vessels enter narrow
waters, and issue instructions concerning their movements.
"The stations, which are placed at carefully-selected points at well-
adapted distances around the coast, are connected with either the land
telegraph or telephone line, or are close to a telegraph office. They are kept
open night and day, as the times of the ships passing are, of course, greatly
dependent on the weather encountered during the voyage. For those on
shore who are anxious to greet their friends on arrival—with good or bad
news, as the case may be—this arrangement enables them to be informed of
the exact time of the ship's expected arrival, and they are left free to their
own devices, instead of enduring long waits on draughty piers and docks—
which, on a wet or windy day, are almost enough to damp the warmest and
most enthusiastic welcome.
"Cases have occurred where a telegram, sent from the American side to
an outlying English land-station two days after a ship has left, has been
transmitted to an outgoing steamer, which in turn has re-transmitted it to the
astonished passenger two days prior to his arrival off the English coast; and
it has now become quite a common thing for competing teams on vessels
many miles apart, and out of sight of each other, to arrange chess matches
with each other, some of these interesting events taking two or more days to
be played to a finish."[17]
For naval purposes, wireless telegraphy has assumed an importance
which can hardly be overestimated, as the whole efficiency of a fine fleet
may depend upon a single message flashed through space. All navies are
fitting instruments, the British Admiralty being well to the fore. Even in
manoeuvres and during the execution of tactical formations the apparatus is
constantly at work. The admiral gives the word, and a dozen paper tapes
moving jerkily through Morse machines, pass the message round the fleet.
The Japanese naval successes have, doubtless, been largely due to their up-

to-date employment of this latest development of Western electrical science.
No one knows how soon the time may come when the fate of a nation may
depend on the proper working of a machine covering a few square feet of a
cabin table; for, rapid as has been the growth of wireless telegraphy, it is yet
in its infancy.

SAFETY DEVICES

A ship is usually divided into compartments by cross bulkheads of steel.
In event of a collision or damage by torpedoes or shell, the water rushing
through the break can be prevented from swamping the ship by closing the
bulkhead doors.
Messrs. J. Stone and Company, of Deptford, have patented a system of
hydraulically operated bulkhead doors, which is finding great favour among
shipbuilders on account of its versatility. Each door is closed by an
hydraulic cylinder placed above it. The valves of the cylinder are opened
automatically by a float when the water rises in the compartment, and every
cylinder is also controllable independently from the bridge and other
stations in the ship, and by separate hand levers alongside the bulkhead.
The doors can therefore be closed collectively or individually. Should it
happen that, when a door has been closed, someone is imprisoned, the
prisoner can open the door by depressing a lever inside the compartment,
and make his escape. But the door is closed behind him by the action of the
float.

THE TRANSMISSION OF POWER ON A SHIP

There are four power agents available on board ship, all derived directly
or indirectly from the steam boilers. They are:—
(1) Steam.
(2) High-pressure water.
(3) Compressed air.
(4) Electricity.
On some ships we may find all four working side by side to drive the
multifarious auxiliaries, since each has its peculiar advantages and

disadvantages. At the same time, marine engineers prefer to reduce the
number as far as possible, since each class of transmission needs specially
trained mechanics, and introduces its special complications.
Let us take the four agents in order and briefly consider their value.
Steam is so largely used in all departments of engineering that its
working is better understood by the bulk of average mechanics than
hydraulic power, compressed air, or electricity. But for marine work it has
very serious drawbacks, especially on a war vessel. Imagine a ship which
contains a network of steam-pipes running from end to end, and from side
to side. The pipes must, on account of the many obstacles they encounter,
twist and turn about in a manner which might be avoided on land, where
room is more available. Every bend means friction and loss of power.
Again, the condensation of steam in long pipes is notorious. Even if they
are well jacketed, a great deal of heat will radiate from the ducts into the
below-deck atmosphere, which is generally too close and hot to be pleasant
without any such further warming. So that, while power is lost, discomfort
increases, with a decided lowering of human efficiency. We must not forget,
either, the risk attending the presence of a steam-pipe. Were it broken, by
accident or in a naval engagement, a great loss of life might result, or, at
least, the abandonment of all neighbouring machinery.
For these reasons there is, therefore, a tendency to abolish the direct use
of steam in the auxiliary machinery of a modern vessel.
High-pressure water is free from heating and danger troubles, and
consequently is used for much heavy work, such as training guns, raising
ashes and ammunition, and steering. One of its great advantages is its
inelasticity, which prevents the overrunning of gear worked by it. Water,
being incompressible, gives a "positive" drive; thus, if the pump delivers a
pint at each stroke in the engine-room a pint must pass into the motor,
assuming that all joints are tight, and the work due from the passage of one
pint is done. Air and steam—and electricity too, if not very delicately
controlled—are apt to work in fits and starts when operating against varying
resistance, and "run away" from the engineer.
An objection to hydraulic power is, that all leakage from the system must
be replaced by fresh water manufactured on board, which, as we have seen,
is no easy task.

Compressed air, like steam, may cause explosions; but when it escapes in
small quantities only it has a beneficial effect in cooling and freshening the
air below decks. The exhaust from an air-driven motor is welcome for the
same reason, that it aids ventilation. On a fighting ship it is of the utmost
importance that the personnel should be in good physical condition; and
when the battle-hatches have been battened down for an engagement any
supply of fresh oxygen means an increased "staying power" for officers and
crew. Poisoned air brings mental slackness, and weakening of resolve; so
that if the motive power of heavy machinery can be made to do a second
duty, so much the better for all concerned.
Compressed air also proves useful as a water-excluder. If a vessel
contain, as it should, a number of water-tight compartments, any water
rushing into one of these can be expelled by injecting air until the pressure
inside is equal to that of the draught of water of the vessel outside.
On land compressed-air installations include reservoirs of large size in
which air can be stored till needed, and which take the place of the
accumulator used with hydraulic power. On shipboard want of space
reduces such reservoirs to minimum dimensions, so that the compressors
must squirt their air almost directly into the cylinders which do the work.
When the load, or work, is constantly varying, this direct drive proves
somewhat of a nuisance, since the compressors, if worked continuously at
their maximum capacity, must waste large quantities of air, while if run
spasmodically, as occasion demands, they require much more attention. It is
therefore considered advisable by some marine engineers to make
compressed air perform as many functions as possible when it is present on
a vessel. The United States monitor Terror is an instance of a warship which
depends on this agency for working her guns and turrets, handling
ammunition, and—a somewhat unusual practice—controlling the helm. The
last operation is performed by two large cylinders placed face to face
athwart the ship. They have a common piston-rod, in the middle of which is
a slot for the tiller to pass through. Air is admitted to the cylinders by a
valve which is controlled by wires passing over a train of wheels from
different stations on the ship. An ingenious device automatically prevents
the tiller from moving over too fast, and also helps to lessen the shocks
given to the rudder by a heavy sea.

We now come to electricity, the fourth and most modern form of
transmission. Its chief recommendation is that the wires through which it
flows lend themselves readily to a tortuous course without in any way
throttling the passage of power. And as every ship must carry a generating
plant for lighting purposes, the same staff will serve to tend a second plant
for auxiliary machinery. Electric motors work with practically no vibration,
are light for their power, and can be very easily controlled from a distance.
They therefore enjoy increasing favour; and are found in deck-winches,
anchor-capstans, ammunition hoists, ventilation blowers, and cranes. They
also control the movements of gun-turrets, having been found most suitable
for this work.
If the current were to get loose in a ship it would undoubtedly cause more
damage than an escape of compressed air or water. Electricity, even when
every known means of keeping it within bounds has been tried, is suspected
of causing deterioration to the metalwork of ships. But these disadvantages
are not serious enough to hamper the progress of electrical science as
applied to marine engineering; and the undoubted economy of the electric
motor, its noiselessness, its manageableness, and comparatively small size
will, no doubt, in the future lead to its much more extensive use on board
our floating palaces and floating forts.

FOOTNOTES:

16. F. M. Bennett, in the Journal of the American Society of Naval Engineers.

17. Charles V. Daly, in The Magazine of Commerce.

CHAPTER XIII

"THE NURSE OF THE NAVY"

J
ust as a navy requires floating distilleries, floating coal stores and
floating docks, so does it find very important uses for a floating
workshop, which can accompany a fleet to sea and execute such repairs
as might otherwise entail the return of a ship to port.
The British Navy has a valuable ally of this kind in the torpedo depôt
ship Vulcan, which contains so much machinery, in addition to the
"auxiliaries" already described, that a short account of this vessel will be
interesting.
The Vulcan, known as "The Nurse of the Navy," was launched in 1889.
She measures 350 feet in length, 58 feet in beam, and has a displacement of
6,830 tons. Her bunkers, of which there are twenty-one, hold 1,000 tons of
coal, independently of an extra 300 tons which can be stowed in other
neighbouring compartments. When fully coaled she can cruise for 7,000
miles at a speed of 10 knots; or travel at first-class cruiser speed for shorter
distances.
The most striking objects on the Vulcan are two huge hydraulic cranes,
placed almost amidships abreast of one another. They have a total height of
65 feet, and "overhang" 35 feet, so as to be able to lift boats when the
torpedo-nets are out and the sides of the vessel cannot be approached. The
feet of the cranes sink 30 feet through the ship to secure rigidity, and the
upper deck, which bears most of the strain, is strongly reinforced. Inside the
1
pillar of each crane is the lifting machinery, an hydraulic ram 17 2 inches in
diameter and of 10-foot stroke. By means of fourfold pulleys the lift is
increased to 40 feet. When working under the full pressure of 1,000 lbs. to
the square inch, the cranes have a hoisting power of twenty tons. In addition
to the main ram there is a much smaller one, the function of which is to
keep the "slings" (or cables by which the boat is hoisted) taut after a boat
has been hooked until the actual moment of lifting comes. But for this
arrangement there would be a danger of the slings slackening as the boat

rises and falls in a seaway. The small ram controls the larger, and the latter
cannot come into action until its auxiliary has tightened up the slings, so
that no dangerous jerk can occur when the hoisting begins.
The cranes are revolved by two sets of hydraulic rams, which operate
chains passing round drums at the feet of the cranes, and turn them through
three-quarters of a circle.
On the Vulcan's deck lie six torpedo boats and three despatch boats. The
former are 60 feet long, and can attain a speed of 16 knots an hour. When an
enemy is sighted these would be sent off to worry the hostile vessels with
their deadly torpedoes, and on their return would be quickly picked up and
restored to their berths, ready for further use.
The cranes also serve to lift on board heavy pieces of machinery from
other vessels for repair.

Photo Cribb.

A 12-inch gun being lowered into its place in the turret of a warship by a gigantic sheer-leg
crane, one leg of which is partly visible on the left of the picture.

Down below decks is the workshop, wherein "jobs" are done on the high
seas. It has quite a respectable equipment: five lathes, ranging from 15 feet
1
to 3 2 feet in length; drilling, planing, slotting, shaping, punching machines;
a carpenter's bench; fitters' benches; and a furnace for melting steel. There
is also a blacksmith's shop with an hydraulic forging press and a forge
blown by machinery; not to mention a large array of tools of all kinds.
Special engines are installed to operate the repairs department.
The Vulcan also carries search-lights of 25,000 candle-power; bilge
pumps which will deliver over 5,000 tons of water per hour; two sets of
engines for supplying the hydraulic machinery; air-compressing engines to
feed the Whitehead torpedoes; a distilling plant; and last, but by no means
least, main engines of 12,000 h.p. drawing steam from four huge cylindrical
boilers 17 feet long and 14 feet in diameter.
Altogether, the Vulcan is a very complete floating workshop, sufficiently
speedy to keep up with a fleet, and even to do scouting work. Her guns and
her torpedo craft would render her a very troublesome customer in a fight,
though, being practically unarmoured, she would keep as clear of the
conflict as possible, acting on the offensive through the proxy of her
"hornets." She constitutes the first of a type of vessel which has been
suggested by experts, viz. one of high speed and unarmoured, but capable
of carrying a swarm of torpedo boats which could be launched in pursuit of
the foe. Even if 50 per cent. of the craft were destroyed, the price would be
small if a single torpedo were successfully fired at a battleship. The naval
motor boat, to which reference has already been made, would just "fill the
bill" for such a cruiser; and in the event of a score of them being dropped
into the water at a critical moment, they might easily turn the scale in
favour of their side.

CHAPTER XIV

THE MECHANISM OF DIVING

D
iving being a profession which can be carried on in its simplest form
with the simplest possible apparatus—merely a rope and a stone—its
history reaches back into the dim and inexplorable past. We may well
believe that the first man who explored the depths of the sea for treasure
lived as long ago as the first seeker for minerals in the bosom of the earth.
Even when we come to the various appliances which have been gradually
developed in the course of centuries, our records are very imperfect.
Alexander the Great is said to have descended in a machine which kept him
dry, while he sought for fresh worlds to conquer below the waves. Aristotle
mentions a device enabling men to remain some time under water. This is
all the information, and a very meagre total, too, that we get from classical
times.
Stepping across 1,500 years we reach the thirteenth century, about the
middle of which Roger Bacon is said to have invented the diving-bell. But
like some other discoveries attributed to that Middle-Age physicist, the
authenticity of this rests on very slender foundations. In a book published
early in the sixteenth century there appears an illustration of a diver wearing
a cap or helmet, to which is attached a leather tube floated on the surface of
the water by an inflated bag. This is evidently the diving dress in its crudest
form; and when we read how, in 1538, two Greeks made a submarine trip
under a huge inverted chamber, which kept them dry, in the presence of the
great Emperor Charles V. and some 12,000 spectators, we recognise the
diving-bell, now so well known.
The latter device did not reach a really practical form till 1717, when Dr.
Halley, a member of the Royal Society, built a bell of wood lined with lead.
The divers were supplied with air by having casks-full lowered to them as
required. To quote his own words: "To supply air to this bell under water, I
caused a couple of barrels of about thirty gallons each to be cased with lead,
so as to sink empty, each of them having a bunghole in its lowest parts to let
in the water, as the air in them condensed on their descent, and to let it out

again when they were drawn up full from below. And to a hole in the
uppermost parts of these barrels I fixed a leathern hose, long enough to fall
below the bunghole, being kept down by a weight appended, so that the air
in the upper parts of the barrels could not escape, unless the lower ends of
these hose were first lifted up. The air-barrels being thus prepared, I fitted
them with tackle proper to make them rise and fall alternately, after the
manner of two buckets in a well; and in their descent they were directed by
lines fastened to the under edge of the bell, which passed through rings on
both sides of the leathern hose in each barrel, so that, sliding down by these
lines, they came readily to the hand of a man, who stood on purpose to
receive them, and to take up the ends of the hose into the bell. Through
these hose, as soon as their ends came above the surface of the water in the
barrels, all the air that was included in the upper parts of them was blown
with great force into the bell, whilst the water entered at the bungholes
below and filled them, and as soon as the air of one barrel had been thus
received, upon a signal given that was drawn up, and at the same time the
other descended, and by an alternate succession, provided air so quick and
in such plenty that I myself have been one of five who have been together at
the bottom, in nine to ten fathoms water, for above an hour and a half at a
time, without any sort of ill-consequence, and I might have continued there
so long as I pleased for anything that appeared to the contrary." After
referring to the fact that, when the sea was clear and the sun shining, he
could see to read or write in the submerged bell, thanks to a glass window
in it, the Doctor goes on to say: "This I take to be an invention applicable to
various uses, such as fishing for pearls, diving for coral or sponges and the
like, in far greater depths than has hitherto been thought possible; also for
the fitting and placing of the foundations of moles, bridges, etc., in rocky
bottoms, and for cleaning and scrubbing ships' bottoms when foul, in calm
weather at sea. I shall only intimate that, by an additional contrivance, I
have found it not impracticable for a diver to go out of an engine to a good
distance from it, the air being conveyed to him with a continued stream by
small flexible pipes, which pipes may serve as a clue to direct him back
again when he would return to the bell."
We have italicised certain words to draw attention to the fact that Dr.
Halley had invented not only the diving bell, but also the diving dress.
Though he foresaw practically all the uses to which diving mechanism
could be put, the absence of a means for forcing air under pressure into the

bell or dress greatly limited the utility of his contrivances, since the deeper
they sank below the water the further would the latter rise inside them. It
was left for John Smeaton, of Eddystone Lighthouse fame, to introduce the
air-pump as an auxiliary, which, by making the pressure of the air inside the
bell equal to that of the water outside, kept the bell quite free of water.
Smeaton replaced Halley's tub by a square, solid cast-iron box, 50 cwt. in
weight, large enough to accommodate two men at a time. The modern bell
is merely an enlarged edition of this type, furnished with telephones,
electric lamps, and, in some cases, with a special air-lock, into which the
men may pass when the bell is raised. The pressure in the air-lock is very
gradually decreased after the bell has reached the surface, if work has been
conducted at great depths, so that the evil effects sometimes attending a
sudden change of pressure on the body may be avoided.
Diving bells are very useful for laying submarine masonry, usually
consisting of huge stone blocks set in hydraulic cement. Helmet divers
explore and prepare the surface on which the blocks are to be placed. Then
the bell, slung either from a crane on the masonry already built above
water-level, or from a specially fitted barge, comes into action. The block is
lowered by its own crane on to the bottom. The bell descends upon it and
the crew seize it with tackle suspended inside the bell. Instructions are sent
up as to the direction in which the bell should be moved with its burden,
and as soon as the exact spot has been reached the signal for lowering is
given, and the stone settles on to the cement laid ready for it.
The modern diver is not sent out from a bell, but has his separate and
independent apparatus. The first practical diving helmet was that of
Kleingert, a German. This enclosed the diver as far as the waist, and
constituted a small diving bell, since the bottom was open for the escape of
vitiated air. Twenty years later, or just a century after the invention of
Halley's bell, Augustus Siebe, the founder of the present great London firm
of Siebe, Gorman, and Company, produced a more convenient "open" dress,
consisting of a copper helmet and shoulder-plate in one piece, attached to a
waterproof jacket reaching to the hips.
The disadvantage of the open dress was, that the diver had to maintain an
almost upright position, or the water would have invaded his helmet. Mr.
Siebe therefore added a necessary improvement, and extended the dress to
the feet, giving his diver a "close" protection from the water.

We may pass over the gradual development of the "close" dress and
glance at the most up-to-date equipment in which the "toilers of the deep"
explore the bed of Old Ocean.
The dress—legging, body, and sleeves—is all in one piece, with a large-
enough opening at the shoulders for the body to pass through. The helmet,
with front and side windows, is attached by a "bayonet joint" to the
shoulder-plate, itself made fast to the upper edge of the dress by screws
which press a metal ring against the lower edge of the plate so as to pinch
the edge of the dress.

Photo Cribb.

THE DIVER AT WORK
Note the telephone attachment, the wires
of which are embedded in the life-line
held by the bluejacket on the left. By
means of the telephone the diver can give
and receive full instructions about his
work.

At the back are an inlet and an outlet valve. Between the front and a side
window is the transmitter of a loud-sounding telephone, and in the crown

the receiver and the button of an electric bell. The telephone wires, and also
the wires for a powerful electric light, working on a ball-and-socket joint in
front of the dress, are embedded into the life-line. The air-tube, of canvas
and rubber, has a stiffening of wire to prevent its being throttled on coming
into contact with any object. A pair of weighted boots, each scaling 17 lbs.,
two 40-lb. lead weights slung over the shoulder, and a knife worn at the
waist-belt, complete the outfit of the diver, which, not including the several
layers of underclothing necessary to exclude the cold found at great depths,
totals nearly 140 lbs. Of this the copper helmet accounts for 36 lbs.
On the surface are the air-pumps, which may be of several types—single-
cylinder, double-acting; double-cylinder, double-acting; or three or four
cylinder, single-acting—according to the nature of the work. All patterns
are so constructed that the valves may be easily removed and examined.
1
The pressure on a diver increases in the ratio of about 4 4 lbs. for every
ten feet he descends below the surface. A novice experiences severe pains in
the ears and eyes at a few fathoms' depth, which, however, pass off when
the pressures both inside and outside of the various organs have become
equalised. On rising to the surface again the pains recur, since the external
pressure on the body falls more quickly than the internal. The rule for all
divers, therefore, is "slow down, slow up." Men of good constitution and
resourcefulness are needed for the profession of diving. Only a few can
work at extreme depths, though an old hand is able to remain for several
hours at a time in sixty feet of water. The record depth reached by a diver is
claimed by James Hooper, who, when removing the cargo of the Cape
Horn, wrecked off the coast of South America, made seven descents to 201
feet, one of which lasted forty-two minutes.
In spite of the dangers and inconveniences attached to his calling, the
diver finds in it compensations, and even fascinations, which outweigh its
disadvantages. The pay is good—£1 to £2 a day—and in deep-sea salvage
he often gets a substantial percentage of all the treasure recovered, the
percentage rising as the depth increases. Thus the diver Alexander Lambert,
who performed some plucky feats during the driving of the Severn Tunnel,
[18] received £4,000 for the recovery of £70,000 worth of gold from the
Alphonso XII., sunk off Grand Canary. Divers Ridyard and Penk recovered
£50,000 from the Hamilla Mitchell, which lay in 160 feet of water off

Shanghai, after nearly being captured by Chinese pirates; and we could add
many other instances in which treasure has been rescued from the maw of
the sea.
The most useful sphere for a diver is undoubtedly connected with the
harbour work and the cleaning of ships' bottoms. For the latter purpose
every large warship in the British Navy carries at least one diver. After ships
have been long in the water barnacles and marine growths accumulate on
the below-water plates in such quantities as to seriously diminish the ship's
speed, which means a great waste of fuel, and would entail a loss of
efficiency in case of war breaking out. Armed with the proper tools, a gang
of divers will soon clean the "foul bottom," at a much smaller cost of time
and money than would be incurred by dry-docking the vessel.
The Navy has at Portsmouth, Sheerness, and Devonport schools where
diving is taught to picked men, the depth in which they work being
gradually increased to 120 feet. Messrs. Siebe and Gorman employ
hundreds of divers in all parts of the world, on all kinds of submarine work,
and they are able to boast that never has a defect in their apparatus been
responsible for a single death. This is due both to the very careful tests to
which every article is subjected before it leaves their works, and also to the
thorough training given to their employés.
In the sponge and pearl-fishing industries the diving dress is gradually
ousting the unaided powers of the naked diver. One man equipped with a
standard dress can do the work of twenty natural divers, and do it more
efficiently, as he can pick and choose his material.
This chapter may conclude with a reference to the apparatus now used in
exploring or rescue work in mines, where deadly fumes have overcome the
miners. It consists of an air-tight mask connected by tubes to a chamber full
of oxygen and to a bag containing materials which absorb the carbonic acid
of exhaled air. The wearer uses the same air over and over again, and is able
to remain independent of the outer atmosphere for more than an hour. The
apparatus is also useful for firemen when they have to pass through thick
smoke.

FOOTNOTE:

18. Vide The Romance of Modern Engineering, p. 212.

CHAPTER XV

APPARATUS FOR RAISING SUNKEN SHIPS AND
TREASURE

I
t is somewhat curious that, while the sciences connected with the
building of ships have progressed with giant strides, little attention has
been paid to the art of raising vessels which have found watery graves in
comparatively shallow depths. The total shipping losses of a single year
make terrible reading, since they represent the extinction of many brave
sailors and the disappearance of huge masses of the world's wealth. A life
lost is lost for ever, but cargoes can be recovered if not sunk in water deeper
than 180 feet. Yet with all our modern machinery the percentage of vessels
raised from even shallow depths is small.
There are practically only two methods of raising a foundered ship: first,
to caulk up all leaks and pump her dry; and secondly, to pass cables under
her, and lift her bodily by the aid of pontoons, or "camels."
The second method is that more generally used, especially in the
estuaries of big rivers where there is a considerable tide. The pontoons,
having a united displacement greater than that of the vessel to be raised, are
brought over her at low tide. Divers pass under her bottom huge steel
cables, which are attached to the "camels." As the tide flows the pontoons
sink until they have displaced a weight of water equal to that of the vessel,
and then they begin to raise her, and can be towed into shallower water, to
repeat the process if necessary next tide. As soon as the deck is above water
the vessel may be pumped empty, when all leaks have been stopped.
In water where there is no tide the natural lift must be replaced by
artificial power. Under such circumstances the salvage firms use lighters
provided with powerful winches, each able to lift up to 800 tons on huge
steel cables nearly a foot in diameter. The winches can be moved across a
lighter, the cables falling perpendicularly, through transverse wells almost
dividing the lighter into separate lengths, so as to get a direct pull. If the
wreck has only half the displacement of the lighters, the cables can be

passed over rollers on the inner edges of the pontoons, the weight of the
raising vessel being counteracted by water let into compartments in the
outer side of the pontoons.
There are ten great salvage companies in the British Isles and Europe.
The best equipped of these is the Neptune Company, of Stockholm, which
has raised 1,500 vessels, worth over £5,000,000 sterling even in their
damaged condition, among them the ill-fated submarine "A1." Yet this total
represents but a small part of the wealth that has gone to the bottom within
a short distance of our coasts.
Turning from the salvage of wrecks to the salvage of precious metal and
bulky objects that are known to strew the sea-floor in many places, we must
notice the Hydroscope, the invention of Cavaliere Pino, an Italian.
In 1702 there sank in Vigo Bay, on the north-west coast of Spain, twenty-
five galleons laden with treasure from America, as the result of an attack by
English and Dutch men-of-war. Gold representing £28,000,000 was on
those vessels. Down it went to the bottom, and there it is still.
So rich a prize has naturally not failed to attract daring spirits, among
whom was Giuseppe Pino. This inventor has produced many devices, the
most notable among them the hydroscope, which may best be described as a
huge telescope for peering into the depths of the sea. A large circular tank
floats on the top of the water. From the centre of its bottom hangs a series of
tubes fitting one into the other, so that the whole series can be shortened or
lengthened at will. Through the tubes a man can descend to the chamber at
their lower extremity, in the sides of which are twelve lenses specially made
by Saint Gobain, of Paris, which act as submarine telescopes.
Pino's hydroscope has been at work for some time in Vigo Bay, its
operations closely watched by a Spanish war vessel, which will exact 20 per
cent. of all treasure recovered. While the hydroscope acts as an eye, the
lifting of an object is accomplished by attaching to it large canvas bags
furnished with air-tight internal rubber bladders. These have air pumped
into them till its pressure overcomes that of the water outside, and the bag
then rises like a cork, carrying its load with it. An "elevator"—nine sacks
fixed to one frame—will raise twenty-five to thirty tons.

So far Cavaliere Pino has salvaged old Spanish guns, cannon-balls, and
pieces of valuable old wood; and presently he may alight on the specie
which is the main object of his search.
Another Spanish wreck, the Florida, which was a unit of the Spanish
Armada, and sank in Tobermory Bay, the Isle of Mull, has many times been
attacked by divers. The last attempt made to recover the treasure which that
ill-fated vessel was reputed to bear is that of the steam lighter Sealight,
which employed a very powerful sand pump to suck up any objects which it
might encounter on the sea-bottom. Many interesting relics have been
raised by the pumps and attendant divers—coins, bones, jewels, timbers,
cannon, muskets, pistols, swords, and a compass, which is so constructed
that pressure on the top causes the legs to spread. One of the cannon, fifty-
four inches long, has a separate powder chamber, the shot and wad still in
the gun, and traces of powder in the chamber. It is curious that what we
usually consider so modern an invention as the breech-loading cannon
should be found side by side with stone balls. The heavier objects were, of
course, raised by divers. In this quest also the treasure deposit has not yet
been tapped.

CHAPTER XVI

THE HANDLING OF GRAIN
THE ELEVATOR — THE SUCTION PNEUMATIC GRAIN-LIFTER — THE PNEUMATIC
BLAST GRAIN-LIFTER — THE COMBINED SYSTEM

THE ELEVATOR

O
n or near the quays of our large seaports, London, Liverpool,
Manchester, Bristol, Hull, Leith, Dublin, may be seen huge buildings
of severe and ugly outline, utterly devoid of any attempt at decoration.
Yet we should view them with respect, for they are to the inhabitants of the
British Isles what the inland granaries of Egypt were to the dwellers by the
Nile in the time of Joseph. Could we strip off the roofs and walls of these
structures, we should see vast bins full of wheat, or spacious floors deeply
strewn with the material for countless loaves. The grain warehouses of
Britain—the Americans would term them "elevators"—have a total capacity
of 10,000,000 quarters. Multiply those figures by eight, and you have the
number of bushels, each of which will yield the flour for about forty 2-lb.
loaves.
In these granaries is stored the grain which comes from abroad. With the
opening up of new lands in North and South America, and the exploitation
of the great wheat-growing steppes of Russia, English agriculture has
declined, and we are content to import five-sixths of our breadstuffs, and an
even larger proportion of grain foods for domestic animals. It arrives from
the United States, India, Russia, Argentina, Canada, and Australia in vessels
often built specially for grain transport; and as it cannot be immediately
distributed, must be stored in bulk in properly designed buildings.
These contain either many storeys, over which the grain is spread to get
rid of superfluous moisture which might cause dangerous heating; or huge
bins, or "silos," in which it can be kept from contact with the air.
Experiments have proved that wheat is more successfully preserved if the
air is excluded than if left in the open, provided that it is dry. The ancient

Egyptians used brick granaries, filled from the top, and tapped at the
bottom, in which, to judge by the account of a grievous famine given in the
book of Genesis, their wheat was preserved for at least seven years. During
last century the silo fell into disrepute; but now we have gone back to the
Egyptian plan of closed bins, which are constructed of wood, brick, ferro-
concrete, or iron, and are of square, hexagonal, or round section. They are
set close together, many under one roof, to economise space; as many as
2,985,000 bushels being provided for in the largest English storehouse.
Such vast quantities of grain require well-devised machinery for their
transport from ship to bin or floor, weighing, clearing, and for their
transference to barges, coasting vessels, or railway trucks. The Alexander
Grain Warehouse of Liverpool may be taken as a typical example of a well-
equipped silo granary. It measures 240 by 172 feet, and contains 250
hexagonal bins of brickwork, each 80 feet deep and 12 feet in diameter. The
grain is lifted from barges by four elevators placed at intervals along the
edge of the quay. The elevator is a wooden case, 40 or 50 feet high, in
which an endless band furnished with buckets travels over two rollers
placed at the top and bottom. These are let down into the hold and scoop up
the grain at the rate of from 75 to 150 tons per hour, according to their size.
As soon as a bucket reaches the top roller it empties its charge into a spout,
which delivers the grain into a bin, whence it is lifted again 32 feet by a
second elevator to a bin from which it flows by gravity to a weighing
hopper beneath; and as soon as two tons has collected, the contents are
emptied automatically into a distributing hopper. After all this, the grain still
has a long journey before it; for it is now shot out on to an endless, flat
conveyer belt moving at a rate of 9 to 10 feet per second. It is carried
horizontally by this for some distance along the quay, and falls on to a
second belt moving at right angles to the first, which whisks it off to the
receiving elevators of the storehouse. Once more it is lifted, this time 132
feet, to the top floor of the building, and dropped on to a third belt, which
runs over a movable throwing-off carriage. This can be placed at any point
of the belt's travel, to transfer the grain to any of the spouts leading to the
250 bins.
Here it rests for a time. When needed for the market it flows out at the
bottom of a bin on to belts leading to delivery elevators, from which it may
be either passed back to a storage bin after being well aired, or shot into

wagons or vessels. From first to last a single grain may have to travel three
miles between the ship and the truck without being touched once by a
human hand.
The vertical transport of grain is generally effected by an endless belt, to
which buckets are attached at short intervals. The grain, fed to the buckets
either by hand or by mechanical means, is scooped up, whirled aloft, and
when it has passed the topmost point of its travel, and just as the bucket is
commencing the descent, it flies by centrifugal force into a hopper which
guides it to the travelling belt, as already described.
Of late years, however, much attention has been paid to pneumatic
methods of elevating, by which a cargo is transferred from ship to
storehouse, or from ship to ship, through flexible tubes, the motive power
being either the pressure of atmospheric air rushing in to fill a vacuum, or
high-pressure air which blows the grain through the tube in much the same
way as a steam injector forces water into a boiler. Sometimes both systems
are used in combination. We will first consider these methods separately.

THE SUCTION PNEUMATIC GRAIN-LIFTER

is the invention of Mr. Fred E. Duckham, engineer of the Millwall Docks,
London. The ships in which grain is brought to England often contain a
"mixed" cargo as well; and that the unloading of this may proceed
simultaneously with the moving of the wheat it is necessary to keep the
hatches clear. As long as the grain is directly under a hatchway, a bucket
elevator can reach it; but all that is not so conveniently situated must be
brought within range of the buckets. This means a large bill for labour, even
if machinery is employed to help the "trimming." Mr. Duckham therefore
designed an elevator which could easily reach any corner of a ship's interior.
The principal parts are a large cylindrical air-tight tank, an engine to
exhaust air from the same, and long hoses, armoured inside with a steel
lining, connected at one end to the tank, and furnished at the other with a
nozzle. These hoses extend from the receiving tank to the grain, which,
when the air has been exhausted to five or six pounds to the square inch,
flies up the tubes into the tank. At the bottom of the tank are ingenious air-
locks, to allow the grain to pass into a bin below without admitting air to
spoil the vacuum. The locks are automatic, and as soon as a certain quantity

of grain has collected, tip sideways, closing the port through which it
flowed, and allowing it to drop through a hinged door. Two locks are
attached together, the one discharging while the other is filling. An elevator
of this kind will shift 150 tons or more an hour. Mr. Duckham claims for his
invention that it has no limit in capacity. It is practically independent of
everything but its own steam power; and the labour of one man suffices to
keep its flexible suckers buried in grain. No corner is inaccessible to the
nozzle. The pipes occupy only a very small part of the hatchway. They can
be set to work immediately a vessel comes alongside. As many as a quarter
of a million bushels are handled daily by one of these machines.
The pneumatic elevator is often installed on a floating base, so that it
may be moved about in a dock.

THE PNEUMATIC BLAST GRAIN-LIFTER

differs from the system just described in that the grain is driven through the
pipes or hoses by air compressed to several pounds above atmospheric
pressure. A small tube attached to the main hose conveys compressed air to
the nozzle through which grain enters the tube. The nozzle consists of a
short length of metal piping which is buried in the grain. One half of it is
encased by a jacket into which the compressed air rushes. As the air escapes
at high speed past the inner end of the piping into the main hose, it causes a
vacuum in the piping and draws in grain, which is shot up the hose by the
pressure behind it. As already remarked, the action of this pneumatic
elevator is similar to that of a steam injector.

THE COMBINED SYSTEM

Under some conditions it is found convenient to employ both suction and
blast in combination: suction to draw the grain from a vessel's hold into
elevators, from which it is transferred to the warehouse by blast. Special
boats are built for this work, e.g. the Garryowen, which has on board
suction plant for transferring grain from a ship to barges, and also blowing
apparatus for elevating it into storehouses or into another ship. The
Garryowen has the hull and engines of an ordinary screw steamer, so that it
can ply up and down the Shannon and partly unload a vessel to reduce its

draught sufficiently to allow it to reach Limerick Docks. Floating elevators
of this kind are able to handle upwards of 150 tons of grain per hour.

CHAPTER XVII

MECHANICAL TRANSPORTERS AND CONVEYERS
MECHANICAL CONVEYERS — ROPEWAYS — CABLEWAYS — TELPHERAGE —
COALING WARSHIPS AT SEA

A
man carrying a sack of coal over a plank laid from the wharf to the
ship's side, a bricklayer's labourer moving slowly up a ladder with his
hod of mortar—these illustrate the most primitive methods of shifting
material from one spot to another. When the wheelbarrow is used in the one
case, and a rope and pulley in the other, an advance has been made, but the
effort is still great in proportion to the work accomplished; and were such
processes universal in the great industries connected with mining and
manufacture, the labour bill would be ruinous.
The development of methods of transportation has gone on
simultaneously with the improvement of machinery of all kinds. To be
successful, an industry must be conducted economically throughout. Thus,
to follow the history of wheat from the time that it is selected for sowing till
it forms a loaf, we see it mechanically placed in the ground, mechanically
reaped, threshed, and dressed, mechanically hauled to the elevator,
mechanically transferred to the bins of the same, mechanically shot into
trucks or a ship, mechanically raised into a flour-mill, where it is cleaned,
ground, weighed, packed, and trucked by machinery, mechanically mixed
with yeast and baked, and possibly distributed by mechanically operated
vehicles. As a result we get a 2-lb. loaf for less than three-pence. Anyone
who thinks that the price is regulated merely by the amount of wheat grown
is greatly mistaken, for the cheapness of handling and transportation
conduces at least equally to the cheapness of the finished article.
The same may be said of the metal articles with which every house is
furnished. A fender would be dearer than it is were not the iron ore cheaply
transported from mine to rail, from rail to the smelting furnace, from the
ground to the top of the furnace. In short, to whatever industry we look, in
which large quantities of raw or finished material have to be moved, stored,

and distributed, the mechanical conveyer has supplanted human labour to
such an extent that in lack of such devices we can scarcely conceive how
the industry could be conducted without either proving ruinous to the
people who control it or enhancing prices enormously.
The types of elevators and conveyers now commonly used in all parts of
the world are so numerous that in the following pages only some selected
examples can be treated.
Speaking broadly, the mechanical transporter can be classified under two
main heads—(1) those which handle materials continuously, as in the case
of belt conveyers, pneumatic grain dischargers, etc.; and (2) those which
work intermittently, such as the telpher, which carries skips on an aerial
ropeway. The first class are most useful for short distances; the latter for
longer distances, or where the conditions are such that the material must be
transported in large masses at a time by powerful grabs.
Some transporters work only in a vertical direction; others only
horizontally; while a third large section combine the two movements.
Again, while some are mere conveyers of material shot into or attached to
them, others scoop up their loads as they move. The distinctions in detail
are numerous, and will be brought out in the chapters devoted to the various
types.

MECHANICAL CONVEYERS

We have already noticed band conveyers in connection with the
transportation of grain. They are also used for handling coal, coke, diamond
"dirt," gold ore, and other minerals, and for moving filled sacks. The belts
are sometimes made of rubber or of balata faced with rubber on the upper
surface, which has to stand most of the wear and tear—sometimes of metal
plates joined together by hinges at the ends.
A modification of the belt is the continuous trough, with sloping or
vertical sides. This is built of open-ended sections jointed so that they may
pass round the terminal rollers. While travelling in a straight line the sides
of the sections touch, preventing any escape of the material carried, but at
the rollers the ends open in a V-shape.

Another form of conveyer has a stationary trough through which the
substance to be handled is pulled along by plates attached to cables or
endless chains running on rollers. Or the moving agency may be plates
dragged backwards and forwards periodically, the plates hanging in one
direction only, like flap valves, so as to pass over the material during the
backward stroke, and bite it during the forward stroke. The vibrating
conveyer is a trough which moves bodily backwards and forwards on
hinged supports, the oscillation gradually shaking its contents along. As no
dragging or pushing plates are here needed, this form of conveyer is very
suitable for materials which are liable to be injured by rough treatment.

ROPEWAYS

A certain person on asking what was the distance from X to Y, received
the reply, "It is ten miles as the crow flies." The country being mountainous,
the answer did not satisfy him, and he said, "Oh! but you see, I am not a
crow." Engineers laying out a railway can sympathise with this gentleman,
for they know from sad experience that places only a few miles apart in a
straight line often require a track many miles long to connect them if
gradients are to be kept moderate.
Now a locomotive, a railway carriage, or a goods truck is very heavy, and
must run on the firm bosom of Mother Earth. But for comparatively light
bodies a path may be made which much more nearly resembles the
proverbial flight of the crow, or, as our American cousins would say, a bee-
line. If you have travelled in Norway and Switzerland you probably have
noticed here and there steel wire ropes spanning a torrent or hanging across
a narrow valley. Over these ropes the peasants shoot their hay crops or
wood faggots from the mountain-side to their homes, or to a point near a
road where the material can be transferred to carts. Adventurous folk even
dare to entrust their own bodies to the seemingly frail steel thread, using a
brake to control the velocity of the descent.
The history of the modern ropeway and cableway dates from the 'thirties,
when the invention of wire rope supplied a flexible carrying agent of great
strength in proportion to its weight, and of sufficient hardness to resist
much wear and tear, and too inelastic to stretch under repeated stresses. To
prevent confusion, we may at once state that a ropeway is an aerial track

used only for the conveyance of material; whereas a cableway hoists as well
as conveys. A further distinction—though it does not hold good in all cases
—may be seen in the fact that, while cableways are of a single span,
ropeways are carried for distances ranging up to twenty miles over towers
or poles placed at convenient intervals.
Ropeways fall into two main classes: first, those in which the rope
supporting the weight of the thing carried moves; secondly, those in which
the carrier rope is stationary, and the skips, or tubs, etc., are dragged along it
by a second rope. The moving rope system is best adapted for light loads,
not exceeding six hundredweight or so; but over the second class bodies
scaling five or six tons have often been moved. In both systems the line
may be single or double, according to the amount of traffic which it has to
accommodate. The chief advantage of the double ropeway is that it permits
a continuous service and an economy of power, since in cases where
material has to be delivered at a lower level than the point at which it is
shipped, the weight of the descending full trucks can be utilised to haul up
ascending empty trucks. Spans of 2,000 feet or two-fifths of a mile are not
at all unusual in very rough country where the spots on which supports can
be erected are few and far between; but engineers naturally endeavour to
make the span as short as possible, in order to be able to use a small size of
rope.
Glancing at some interesting ropeways, we may first notice that used in
the construction of the new Beachy Head Lighthouse, recently erected on
the foreshore below the head on which the original structure stands. For the
sake of convenience, the workshops, storage yards, etc., were placed on the
cliffs, 400 feet above the sea and some 800 feet in a direct line from the site
of the new lighthouse. Between the cliff summit and a staging in the sea
were stretched two huge steel ropes, the one, six inches in circumference,
for the track over which the four-ton blocks of granite used in the building,
1
machinery, tools, etc., should be lowered; the other, 5 2 inches in
circumference, for the return of the carriers and trucks containing workmen.
The ropes had a breaking strain of 120 and 100 tons respectively; that is to
say, if put in an hydraulic testing machine they would have withstood pulls
equal to those exerted by masses of these weights hung on them. Their top
ends were anchored in solid rock; their lower ends to a mass of concrete
built up in the chalk forming the sea-bottom. When a granite block was

attached to the carrier travelling on the rope, its weight was gradually
transferred to the rope by lowering the truck on which it had arrived until
the latter was clear of the block. As soon as the stone started on its journey
the truck was lifted again to the level of the rails and trundled away. A
brakesman, stationed at a point whence he could command the whole
ropeway, had under his hand the brake wheels regulating the movements of
the trailing ropes for lowering and hauling on the two tracks.
Another interesting ropeway is that at Hong-Kong, which transports the
workmen in a sugar factory on the low, fever-breeding levels to their homes
in the hills where they may sleep secure from noxious microbes. The
carriers accommodate six men at a time, and move at the rate of eight miles
an hour. The sensation of being hauled through mid-air must be an
exhilarating one, and some of us would not mind changing places with the
workmen for a trip or two, reassured by the fact that this ropeway has been
in operation for several years without any accident.
In Southern India, in the Anamalai Hills, a ropeway is used for delivering
1
sawn timber from the forests to a point 1 4 miles below. Prior to the
establishment of this ropeway the logs were sent down a circuitous
mountain track on bullock carts. Its erection was a matter of great difficulty,
on account of the steep gradients and the dense and unhealthy forest
through which a path had to be cut; not to mention the dragging uphill of a
cable which, with the reel on which it was wound, weighed four tons. For
this last operation the combined strength of nine elephants and a number of
coolies had to be requisitioned, since the friction of the rope dragging on
the ground was enormous. However, the engineers soon had the cable
stretched over its supports, and the winding machinery in place at the top of
the grade. The single rope serves for both up and down traffic; a central
crossing station being provided at which the descending can pass the
ascending carrier. Seven sleepers at a time are sent flying down the track at
a rate of twenty miles an hour: a load departing every half-hour. The saving
of labour, time, and expense is said to be very great, and when the saw mills
have a larger output the economy of working will be still more remarkable.
The longest passenger ropeway ever built is probably that over the
Chilkoot Pass in Alaska, which was constructed in 1897 and 1898 to
transport miners from Dyea to Crater Lake on their way to the Yukon

goldfields. From Crater Lake to the Klondike the Yukon River serves as a
natural road, but the climb to its head waters was a matter of great
difficulty, especially during the winter months, and accompanied by much
suffering. But when the trestles had been erected for the fixed ropes, two in
number, miners and their kits were hauled over the seven miles at little
physical cost, though naturally the charges for transportation ruled higher
than in less rugged regions. The opening of the White Pass Railway from
Skagway has largely abolished the need for this cable track, which has
nevertheless done very useful work. The Chilkoot ropeway has at least two
spans of over 1,500 feet. As an engineering enterprise it claims our
consideration, since the conveyance of ropes, timber, engines, etc., into so
inhospitable a region, and the piecing of them together, demanded great
persistence on the part of the engineers and their employés.

CABLEWAYS

For removing the "over-burden" of surface mines and dumping it in
suitable places, for excavating canals, for dredging, and for many other
operations in which matter has to be moved comparatively short distances,
the cableway is largely employed. We have already noticed that it differs
from the ropeway in that it has to hoist and discharge its burdens as well as
convey them.
The cableway generally consists of a single span between two towers,
which are either fixed or movable on rails according to the requirements of
the work to be done. In addition to the main cable which bears the weight,
and the rope which moves the skips along it, the cableway has the "fall"
rope, which lowers the skip to the ground and raises it; the dumping rope,
which discharges it; and the "button" rope, which pulls blocks off the horn
of the skip truck at intervals as the latter moves, to support the "fall" rope
from the main cable. If the fall rope sagged its weight would, after a certain
amount had been paid out, overcome the weight of the skip, and render it
impossible to lower the skip to the filling point. So a series of fall-rope
carriers are, at the commencement of a journey from one end of the
cableway, riding on an arm in front of the skip carriage. The button-rope,
passing under a pulley on the top of the skip carriage, is furnished at
intervals with buttons of a size increasing towards the point at which the
skip must be lowered. The holes in the carriers are similarly graduated so as

to pass over any button but the one intended to arrest them. If we watched a
skip travelling to the lowering point, we should notice that the carriers were
successively pulled off the skip carriage by the buttons, and strung along
over the main cable and under the fall rope.
When the skip has been lowered and filled the fall and hauling ropes are
wound in; the skip rises to the main cable, and begins to travel towards the
dumping point. As long as the dumping rope is also hauled in at the same
rate as the hauling rope it has no effect on the skip, but when its rate of
travel is increased by moving it on to a larger winding drum, the skip is
tipped or opened, as the case may be, without being arrested.
The skip may be filled by hand or made self-filling where circumstances
permit.
The cableway is so economical in its working that it has greatly advanced
the process of "open-pit" mining. Where ore lies near the surface it is
desirable to remove the useless overlying matter (called "over-burden")
bodily, and to convey it right away, in preference to sinking shallow shafts
with their attendant drawbacks of timbering and pumping. An inclined
railway is handicapped by the fact that it must occupy some of the surface
to be uncovered, while liable to blockage by the débris of blasting
operations. The suspended cableway neither obstructs anything nor can be
obstructed, and is profitably employed when a ton of ore is laid bare for
every four tons of over-burden removed. In the case of the Tilly Foster
Mine, New York, where the removal of 300,000 tons of rock exposed
600,000 tons of ore from an excavation 450 ft. long by 300 ft. wide, the
saving effected by the cableway was enormous. Again, referring to the
Chicago Drainage Canal, "the records show that while labourers, sledging
1
and filling into cars, averaged only 7 to 8 2 cubic yards per man per day, in
filling into skips for the cable ways the labourers averaged from 12 to 17
cubic yards per day."[19] The first cableway erected by the Lidgerwood
Manufacturing Company for the prosecution of this engineering work
handled 10,821 cubic yards a month, and proved so successful that nineteen
similar plants were added. The cableways are suspended in this instance
from two towers moving on parallel tracks on each bank of the canal, the
towers being heavily ballasted on the outer sides of their bases to counteract

the pull of the cable. From time to time, when a length had been cleared, the
towers were moved forward by engines hauling on fixed anchors.
The cableway is much used in the erection of masonry piers for bridges
across rivers or valleys. Materials are conveyed by it rapidly and easily to
points over the piers and lowered into position. Spans of over 1,500 feet
have been exceeded for such purposes; and if need be, spans of 2,000 feet
could be made to carry loads of twenty-five tons at a rate of twenty miles an
hour.

TELPHERAGE

On most ropeways the skips or other conveyances are moved along the
fixed ropes by trailing ropes working round drums driven by steam and
controlled by brakes. But the employment of electricity has provided a
system called telpherage, in which the vehicle carries its own motor, fed by
current from the rope on which it runs and from auxiliary cables suspended
a short distance above the main rope. "Telpher" is a term derived from two
Greek words signifying "a far carrier," since the motor so named will move
any distance so long as a track and current is supplied to it. The carrier—for
ore, coal, earth, barrels, sacks, timber, etc.—is suspended from the telpher
by the usual hook-shaped support common to ropeways, to enable the load
to pass the arms of the posts or trestles bearing the rope. The telpher usually
has two motors, one placed on each side of a two-wheeled carriage so as to
balance; but sometimes only a single motor is employed. Just above the
running cable is the "trolley" cable, from which the telpher picks up current
through a hinged arm, after the manner of an electric tram. The carriers are
controlled on steep grades by an electric braking device, which acts
automatically, its effect varying with the speed at which the telpher runs.
The carrier wheels, driven by the motors, adhere to the cable without
slipping on grades as severe as three in ten, even when the surface has been
moistened by rain. "In order to stop the telpher at any desired point, the
trolley wire is divided into a number of sections, each controlled by a
switch conveniently located. By opening a switch the current is cut off from
the corresponding section, and the telpher will stop when it reaches this
point. It is again started by closing the switch. At curves a section of the
trolley wire (i.e. overhead cable for current) is connected to the source of
current through a 'resistance' which lowers the voltage (pressure of the

current) across the motors at this point. Thus, upon approaching a curve, the
telpher automatically slows down, runs slowly around the curve until it
passes the resistance section, and is then automatically accelerated."[20]
The telpher line is very useful (for transporting material considerable
distances) in districts where it would not pay to construct a surface railway.
On plantations it serves admirably to shift grain, fruits, tobacco, and other
agricultural products. Then, again, a wide field is open to it for transmitting
light articles, such as castings and parts of machinery, from one part of a
foundry or manufactory to another, or from factory to vessel or truck for
shipment. When coal has to be handled, the buckets are dumped
automatically into bins.
The telpher has much the same advantages over the steam-worked
ropeway that an electric tram has over one moved by an endless cable. Its
control is easier; there is less friction; and the speed is higher. And in
common with ropeways it can claim independence of obstructions on the
ground, and the ability to cross ravines with ease, which in the case of a
railway would have to be bridged at great expense.

COALING WARSHIPS AT SEA

The war between Russia and Japan has brought prominently before the
public the necessity of being able to keep a war vessel well supplied with
coal: a task by no means easy when coaling stations are few and far
between. The voyage of Admiral Rojdestvensky from Russia to Eastern
waters was marked by occasions on which he entered neutral ports to draw
supplies for his furnaces, though we know that colliers sailed with the
warships to replenish their exhausted bunkers. In the old days of sailing
vessels, their motive power, even if fitful, was inexhaustible. But now that
steam reigns supreme as the mover of the world's floating forts, the problem
of "keeping the sea" has become in one way very much more complicated.
The radius of a vessel's action is limited by the capacity of her coal bunkers.
Her captain in war time would be perpetually perplexed by the question of
fuel, since movement is essential to naval success, while any misjudged fast
steaming in pursuit of the enemy might render his ship an inert mass,
incapable of motion, because the coal supplies had given out; or at least

might compel him to return for supplies to the nearest port at a slow speed,
losing valuable time.

A TEMPERLEY-MILLER MARINE CABLEWAY COALING H.M.S. "TRAFALGAR" AT
SEA
A carrier, from which are slung the sacks of coal, is hauled backwards and forwards by steel
ropes stretching between the foremast of the transport and a mast rigged on the warship.

Just as a competitor in a long-distance race takes his nourishment without
halting, so should a battleship be able to coal "on the wing." The task of
transferring so many tons of the mineral from one ship's hold to that of
another may seem easy enough to the inexperienced critic, and under
favourable conditions it might not be attended by great difficulty. "Why,"
someone may say, "you have only to bring the collier alongside the warship,
make her fast, and heave out the coals." In a perfect calm this might be

feasible; but let the slightest swell arise, and then how the sides of the two
craft would bump together, with dire results to the weaker party! Actual
tests have shown this.
At present "broadside" coaling is considered impracticable, but the "from
bow to stern" method has passed through its initial stages, and after many
failures has reached a point of considerable efficiency. The difficulties in
transferring coal from a collier to a warship by which she is being towed
will be apparent after very little reflection. In the first place, there is the
danger of the cableway and its load dipping into the water, should the
distance between the two vessels be suddenly diminished, and the
corresponding danger of the cable snapping should the pitching of the
vessels increase the distance between the terminals of the cableway. These
difficulties have made it impossible to merely shoot coals down a rope
attached high up a mast of the collier and to the deck of the warship. What
is evidently needed is some system which shall pay the cableway out or
take it in automatically, so as to counterbalance any lengthening or
shortening movement of the vessels.
The Lidgerwood Manufacturing Company of New York, under the
direction of Mr. Spencer Miller, have brought out a cableway specially
adapted for marine work. The two vessels concerned are attached by a stout
tow-line, the collier, of course, being in the rear. To carry the load, a single
3
endless wire rope, 8 inch in diameter and 2,000 feet long, is employed. It
spans the distance between collier and ship twice, giving an inward track
for full sacks, and an outward track for their return to the collier. On one
vessel are two winches, the drums of which both turn in the same direction;
but while one drum is rigidly attached to its axle, the other slips under a
stress greater than that needed to keep the rope sufficiently taut. Since the
rope passes round a pulley at the other terminal, pressure placed at any
point on the rope will tend to tighten both tracks, while a slackening at any
point would similarly ease them. Supposing, then, that the ships suddenly
approach, there will be a certain amount of slack at once wound in; if, on
the other hand, the ships draw apart, the slipping drum will pay out rope
sufficient to supply the need. The constant slipping of this drum sets up
great heat, which is dissipated by currents of air. As the sacks of coal arrive
on the man-of-war they are automatically detached from the cable, and fall
down a chute into the hold.

In the Temperley Miller Marine Cableway the load is carried on a main
cable kept taut by a friction drum, and the hauling is done by an endless
rope which has its own separate winches. In actual tests made at sea in
rough weather sixty tons per hour have been transferred, the vessels moving
at from four to eight miles an hour.

FOOTNOTES:

19. Cassier's Magazine.

20. Cassier's Magazine.

CHAPTER XVIII

AUTOMATIC WEIGHERS

S
carcely less important than the rapid transference of materials from
one place to another is the quick and accurate weighing of the same. If
a pneumatic grain elevator were used in conjunction with an ordinary
set of scales such as are to be found at a corn dealer's there would be great
delay, and the advantage of the elevator would largely be lost. Similarly a
mechanical transporter of coal or ore should automatically register the
tonnage of the mineral handled, to prevent undue waste of time.
There are in existence many types of automatic weighing machines, the
general principles of which vary with the nature of the commodity to be
weighed. Finely divided substances, such as grain, seeds, and sugar, are
usually handled by hopper weighers. The grain, etc., is passed into a bin,
from the bottom of which it flows into a large pan. When the proper unit of
weight—a hundredweight or a ton—has nearly been attained, the flow is
automatically throttled, so that it may be more exactly controlled, and as
soon as the full amount has passed, the machine closes the hopper door and
tips the pan over. The latter delivers its contents and returns to its original
position, while the door above is simultaneously opened for the operation to
be repeated. A counting apparatus records the number of tips, so that a
glance suffices to learn how much material has passed through the weigher,
which may be locked up and allowed to look after itself for hours together.
The "Chronos" automatic grain scale is built in many sizes for charges of
from 12 to 3,300 lbs. of grain, and tips five times a minute. Avery's grain
1
weigher takes up to 5 2 tons at a time.

For materials of a lumpy nature, such as coal and ore, a different method
is generally used. The hopper process would not be absolutely accurate,
since the rate of feed cannot be exactly controlled when dust and large
lumps weighing half a hundredweight or more are all jumbled together.
Therefore instead of a pan which tips automatically as soon as it has
received a fixed weight, we find a bin which, when a quantity roughly equal

to the correct amount has been let in, sinks on to a weigher and has its
contents registered by an automatic counter, which continuously adds up the
total of a number of weighings and displays it on a dial. So that if there be
10 lbs. in excess of a ton at the first charge, the dial records "one ton," and
keeps the 10 lbs. "up its sleeve" against the next weighing, to which the
excess is added. Avery's mineral scale works, however, on much the same
principle as that for grain already noticed, a special device being fitted to
render the feed to the weighing pan as regular as possible. His weigher is
used to feed mechanical furnace stokers. The quantity of coal used can thus
be checked, while an automatic apparatus prevents the stoker bunkers from
being overfilled.
Continuous weighers register the amount carried by a conveyer while in
motion. The recording apparatus comes into action at fixed intervals, e.g. as
soon as the conveyer has moved ten feet. The weighing mechanism is
practically part of the conveyer, and takes the weight of ten feet. The
steelyard is adjusted to exactly counterbalance the unloaded belt or skips of
its length, but rises in proportion to the load. As soon as the conveyer has
travelled ten feet the weight on the machine is immediately recorded, and
the steelyard returns to zero.
Intermittent weighers record the weight of trucks or tubs passing over a
railway or the cables of aerial track, the weigher forming part of the track
and coming into play as soon as a load is fully on it.
Some machines not only weigh material, but also stow and pack it. We
find a good instance in Timewell's sacking apparatus, which weighs corn,
chaff, flour, oatmeal, rice, coffee, etc., transfers it to sacks, and sews the
sack up automatically. The amount of time saved by such a machine must
be very great.
Note.—The author desires to express his indebtedness to Mr. George F.
Zimmer's The Mechanical Handling of Material for some of the
information contained in the above chapter; and to the publishers, Messrs.
A. Crosby Lockwood and Son, for permission to make use of the same.

CHAPTER XIX

TRANSPORTER BRIDGES

W
hen the writer was in Rouen, in 1898, two lofty iron towers were
being constructed by the Seine: the one on the Quai du Havre, the
other on the Quai Capelier, which borders the river on the side of the
suburb St. Sever.
The towers rose so far towards the sky that one had to throw one's head
very far back to watch the workmen perched on the summit of the
framework. What were the towers for? They seemed much too slender for
the piers of an ordinary suspension bridge fit to carry heavy traffic. An
inquiry produced the information that they were the first instalment of a
"transbordeur," or transporter bridge. What is a bridge of this kind?
Well, it may best be described as a very lofty suspension bridge, the
girder of which is far above the water to allow the passage of masted ships.
The suspended girder serves only as the run-way for a truck from which a
travelling car hangs by stout steel ropes, the bottom of the car being but a
few feet above the water. The truck is carried across from tower to tower,
either by electric motors or by cables operated by steam-power.
The transporter bridge in a primitive form has existed for some centuries,
but its present design is of very modern growth. With the increase of
population has come an increased need for uninterrupted communication.
Where rivers intervene they must be bridged, and we see a steady growth in
the number of bridges in London, Paris, New York, and other large towns.
Unfortunately a bridge, while joining land to land, separates water from
water, and the dislocation of river traffic might not be compensated by the
conveniences given to land traffic. The Forth, Brooklyn, Saltash, and other
bridges have, therefore, been built of such a height as to leave sufficient
head-room under the girders for the masts of the tallest ships.
But what money they have cost! And even the Tower Bridge, with its
hinged bascules, or leaves, and bridges with centres revolving horizontally,

devour large sums.
Wanted, therefore, an efficient means of transport across a river which,
though not costly to install, shall offer a good service and not impede river
traffic.
Thirty years ago Mr. Charles Smith, a Hartlepool engineer, designed a
bridge of the transporter type for crossing the Tees at Middlesbrough. The
bridge was not built, because people feared that the towers would not stand
the buffets of the north-easterly gales.
The idea promulgated by an Englishman was taken up by foreign
engineers, who have erected bridges in Spain, Tunis, and France. So
successful has this type of ferry-bridge proved, that it is now receiving
recognition in the land of its birth, and at the present time transporter
bridges are nearing completion in Wales and on the Mersey.

THE LATEST TYPE OF BRIDGE
The Transporter Bridge at Bizerta, Tunis. It has a span of 500 feet, and the suspension girder is
120 feet above high water, so that the largest vessels may pass under it from the Mediterranean

to the inland lakes. The car is seen near the bottom of the right-hand tower.

The first "transbordeur" built was that spanning the Nervion, a river
flowing into the Bay of Biscay near Bilbao, a Spanish town famous for the
great deposits of iron ore close by. A pair of towers rises on each bank to a
height of 240 feet, and carry a suspended trussed girder 530 feet long at a
level of 150 feet above high-water mark. The car, giving accommodation
for 200 passengers (it does not handle vehicles), hangs on the end of cables
130 feet long, and is propelled by a steam-engine situated in one of the
towers. Motion is controlled by the car-conductor, who is connected
electrically with the engine-room. The lofty towers are supported on the
landward side by stout steel ropes firmly anchored in the ground. These
ropes are carried over the girder in the familiar curve of the suspension
bridge, and attached to it at regular intervals by vertical steel braces. The
cost of the bridge—£32,000—compares favourably with that of any
alternative non-traffic-blocking scheme, and the graceful, airy lines of the
erection are by no means a blot on the landscape.
The second "transbordeur" is that of Rouen, already referred to. Its span
is rather less—467 feet—but the suspension girder lies higher by 14 feet.
The car is 42 feet long by 36 broad, and weighs, with a full load, 60 tons. A
passage, which occupies 55 seconds, costs one penny first class, one
1
halfpenny second class; while a vehicle and horses pay 2 2 d. to 4d.,
according to weight. The car is propelled by electricity, under the control of
a man in the conning-tower perched on the roof.
At Bizerta we find the third flying-ferry, which connects that town with
Tunis, over a narrow channel between the Mediterranean Sea and two
inland lakes. It replaced a steam-ferry which had done duty for about ten
years.
The lakes being an anchorage for war vessels, it was imperative that any
bridge over the straits should not interrupt free ingress and egress. This
bridge has a span of 500 feet, and like that at Bilbao is worked by steam.
Light as the structure appears, it has withstood a cyclone which did great
damage in the neighbourhood. It is reported that the French Government
has decided to remove the bridge to some other port, because its
prominence would make it serve as a range-finder for an enemy's cannon in

time of war. Its place would be taken either by a floating-bridge or by a
submarine tunnel.
The Nantes "transporter" over the Loire differs from its fellows in one
respect, viz. that it is built on the cantilever or balance principle. Instead of
a single girder spanning the space between the towers, it has three girders,
the two end ones being balanced on the towers and anchored at their
landward extremities by vertical cables. The gap between them is bridged
by a third girder of bow shape, which is stiff enough in itself to need no
central support. The motive power is electricity.
All these structures will soon be eclipsed by two English bridges: the one
over the Usk at Newport, Monmouthshire; the other over the Mersey and
Manchester Ship Canal at Runcorn "Gap," where the river narrows to 1,200
feet.
The first of these has towers 250 feet high and 685 feet apart. The girders
will give 170 feet head-room above high-water mark. Five hundred
passengers will be able to travel at one time on the car, besides a number of
road vehicles, and as the passage is calculated to take only one minute, the
average velocity will exceed eight miles an hour. The cost has been set
down at £65,000, or about one-thirtieth that of a suspension bridge, and
one-third that of a bascule bridge. The bridge is being built by the French
engineers responsible for the Rouen transbordeur.
Coming to the much more imposing Runcorn bridge we find even these
figures exceeded. This span is 1,000 feet in length. The designer, Mr. John
J. Webster, has already made a name with the Great Wheel which, at Earl's
Court, London, has given many thousands of pleasure-seekers an aerial trip
above the roofs of the metropolis. The following account by Mr. W. G.
Archer in the Magazine of Commerce describes this mammoth of its kind in
some detail:—
"The two main towers carrying the cables and the stiffening girders are
built, one on the south side of the Ship Canal, and the other on the foreshore
on the north bank of the river; and the approaches consist of new roadways,
nearly flat, built between stone and concrete retaining walls as far as the
water's edge, and a corrugated steel flooring, upon which are laid the timber
blocks on concrete, resting on steel elliptical girders and cast-iron columns.
The roadway in front of the towers is widened out to 70 feet, for

marshalling the traffic, and for providing space for waiting-rooms, etc. The
towers are constructed wholly of steel, rise 190 feet above high-water level,
and are bolted firmly to the cast-iron cylinders below. Each tower consists
of four legs, spaced 30 feet apart at the base, and each pair of towers are 70
feet apart, and are braced together with strong horizontal and diagonal
frames. Each of the two main cables consists of 19 steel ropes bound
together, each rope being built up of 127 wires 0·16 inches in diameter. The
ends of the cable backstays are anchored into the solid rock on each side of
the river, about 30 feet from the rock surface. The weight of the main cables
is about 243 tons, and from them are suspended two longitudinal stiffening
girders, 18 feet deep, and placed 35 feet apart horizontally, the underside of
the girders being 82 feet above the level of high water.... Upon the lower
flange of the stiffening girders are fixed the rails upon which runs the
traveller, from which is suspended the car. The traveller is 77 feet long, and
is carried by sixteen wheels on each rail. It is propelled by two electric
motors of about 35 horse-power each.... The car will be capable of holding
at one time four large wagons and 300 passengers, the latter being protected
from the weather by a glazed shelter.... The time occupied by the car in
1
crossing will be 2 4 minutes, so, allowing for the time spent in loading and
unloading, it will be capable of making nine or ten trips per hour. This
bridge, when completed, will have the largest span of any bridge in the
United Kingdom designed for carrying road traffic, the clear space over the
Mersey and Ship Canal being 1,000 feet.... The total cost of the structure,
including Parliamentary expenses, will be about £150,000."
Mr. Archer adds that, in spite of prophecies of disastrous collisions
between transporter cars and passing ships, there has up to date been no
accident of any kind. To those in search of a new sensation the experience
of skimming swiftly a few feet above the water may be recommended.

CHAPTER XX

BOAT AND SHIP RAISING LIFTS

I
n modern locomotion, whether by land or water, it becomes increasingly
necessary to keep the way unobstructed where traffic is confined to the
narrow limits of a pair of rails, a road, or a canal channel. We widen our
roads; we double and quadruple our rails. Canals are, as a rule, not alterable
except at immense cost; and if, in the first instance, they were not built
broad enough for the work that they are afterwards called upon to do, much
of their business must pass to rival methods of transportation. Modern
canals, such as the Manchester and Kiel canals, were given generous
proportions to start with, as their purpose was to pass ocean-going ships,
and for many years it will not be necessary to enlarge them. The Suez Canal
has been widened in recent years, by means of dredgers, which easily scoop
out the sandy soil through which it runs and deposit it on the banks. But the
Corinth Canal, cut through solid rock, cannot be thus economically
expanded, and as a result it has proved a commercial failure.
Even if a canal be of full capacity in its channel-way there are points at
which its traffic is throttled. However gently the country it traverses may
slope, there must occur at intervals the necessity of making a lock for
transferring vessels from one level to the other. Sometimes the ascent or
descent is effected by a series of steps, or flight of locks, on account of the
magnitude of the fall; and in such cases the loss of time becomes a serious
addition to the cost of transport.
In several instances engineers have got over the difficulty by ingenious
hydraulic lifts, which in a few minutes pass a boat through a perpendicular
distance of many feet. At Anderton, where the Trent and Mersey Canal
meets the Weaver Navigation, barges up to 100 tons displacement are raised
fifty feet. Two troughs, each weighing with their contents 240 tons, are
carried by two cast-iron rams placed under their centres, the cylinders of
which are connected by piping. When both troughs are full the pressure on
the rams is equal, and no movement results; but if six inches of water be
transferred from the one to the other, the heavier at once forces up the

lighter. At Fontinettes, on the Neufosse Canal, in France, at La Louvière, in
Belgium, and at Peterborough, in Canada, similar installations are found;
the last handling vessels of 400 tons through a rise of 65 feet.
Fine engineering feats as these are, they do not equal the canal-lift on the
Dortmund-Ems Canal, which puts Dortmund in direct water communication
with the Elbe, and opens the coal and iron deposits of the Rhine and Upper
Silesia to the busy manufacturing district lying between these two localities.
About ten miles from its eastern extremity the main reach of the canal forks
off at Heinrichenburg, from the northward branch running to Dortmund, its
level being on the average some 49 feet lower than the branch. For the
transference of boats an "up" and "down" line of four locks each would
have been needed; and apart from the inevitable two hours' delay for
locking, this method would have entailed the loss of a great quantity of
precious water.
Mr. R. Gerdau, a prominent engineer of Düsseldorf-Grafenburg, therefore
suggested an hydraulic lift, which should accommodate boats of 700 tons,
and pass them from the one level to the other in five minutes.
This scheme was approved, and has recently been completed. The
principle of the lift is as follows:—A trough, 233 feet long, rests on five
vertical supports, themselves carried by as many hollow cylindrical floats
moving up and down in deep wells full of water. The buoyancy of the five
floats is just equal to the combined weight of the trough and its load, so that
a comparatively small force causes the latter to rise or fall, as required. By
letting off water from the trough—which is, of course, furnished with doors
to seal its ends—it would be made to ascend; while the addition of a few
tons would cause a descent. But this would mean waste of water; and, were
the trough not otherwise governed, a serious accident might happen if a
float sprang a leak. Motion is therefore imparted to the trough by four huge
vertical screws, resting on solid masonry piers, and turning in large collars
attached to the trough near its corners. All the screws work in unison
through gearing, as they are sufficiently stout to bear the whole load; even
were the floats removed, no tilting or sudden fall is possible. The screws are
driven by an electric motor of 150 horse-power, perched on the girders
joining the tops of four steel towers which act as guides for the trough to
move in, while they absorb all wind-pressure. Under normal circumstances
the trough rises or sinks at a speed of four inches per second. The total mass

in motion—trough, water, boat, and floats—is 3,100 tons. Our ideas of a
float do not ordinarily rise above the small cork which we take with us
when we go a-fishing, or at the most above the buoy which bobs up and
down to mark a fair-way. These five "floats"—so called—belong to a very
1
much larger class of creations. Each is 30 feet across inside and 46 2 feet
high. Their wells, 138 feet deep, are lined with concrete nearly a yard thick,
to ensure absolute water-tightness, inside the stout iron casings, which rise
82 feet above the bottom.
In view of the immense weight which they have to carry, the piers under
the screw-spindles are extremely solid. At its base each measures 14 feet by
12 feet 4 inches, and tapers upwards for 36 feet till these dimensions have
contracted to 8 feet 10 inches by 6 feet 6 inches. The spindles, 80 feet long
and 11 inches in diameter, must be four of the largest screws in existence.
To make it absolutely certain that they contained no flaws, a 4-inch central
hole was drilled through them longitudinally—another considerable
workshop feat. If shafts of such length were left unsupported when the
trough was at its highest point, there would be danger of their bending and
breaking; and they are, therefore, provided with four sliding collars each,
connected each to its fellow by a rod. When the trough has risen a fifth of
its travel the first rod lifts the first collar, which moves in the guide-pillars.
This in turn raises the second; the second the third; and so on. So that by the
time the trough is fully raised each spindle is kept in line by four
intermediate supports.
1
The trough, 233 feet long by 34 2 feet wide, will receive a vessel 223 feet
long between perpendiculars. It has a rectangular section, and is built up of
stout plates laid on strong cross-girders, all carried by a single huge
longitudinal girder resting on the float columns.
One of the most difficult problems inseparable from a structure of this
kind is the provision of a water-tight joint between the trough and the upper
and lower reaches of the canal. At each end of the trough is a sliding door
faced on its outer edges with indiarubber, which the pressure of the water
inside holds tightly against flanges when pressure on the outside is
removed. The termination of the canal reaches have similar doors; but as it
would be impossible to arrange things so accurately that the two sets of
flanges should be water-tight, a wedge, shaped like a big U, and faced on

both sides with rubber, is interposed. The wedge at the lower reach gate is
thickest at the bottom; the upper wedge the reverse; so that the trough in
both cases jams it tight as it comes to rest. The wedges can be raised or
lowered in accordance with the fluctuations of the canals.
After thus briefly outlining the main constructional features of the lift, let
us watch a boat pass through from the lower to the upper level. It is a
steamer of 600 tons burden, quite a formidable craft to meet so far inland;
while some distance away it blows a warning whistle, and the motor-man at
his post moves a lever which sets the screw in motion. The trough sinks
until it has reached the proper level, when the current is automatically
3
broken, and it sinks no further. Its travel is thus controllable to within 16 of
an inch.
An interlocking arrangement makes it impossible to open the trough or
reach gates until the trough has settled or risen to the level of the water
outside. On the other hand, the motor driving the lifting screws cannot be
started until the gates have been closed, so that an accidental flooding of the
countryside is amply provided against.
A man now turns the crank of a winch on the canal bank and unlocks the
canal gate. A second twist couples the gates between the canal and the
trough together and starts the lifting-motors overhead, which raise the
twenty-eight ton mass twenty-three feet clear of the water-level. The boat
enters; the doors are lowered and uncoupled; the reach gate is locked. The
spindle-motor now starts; up "she" goes, and the process of coupling and
raising gates is repeated before she is released into the upper reach. From
start to finish the transfer occupies about five minutes.
If a boat is not self-propelled, electric capstans help it to enter and leave
the trough. Such a vessel could not be passed through in less than twenty
minutes.
Putting on one side the ship dry docks, which can raise a 15,000 ton
vessel clear of the sea, the Dortmund hydraulic lift is the largest lift in the
world, and the novelty of its design will, it is hoped, render the above
account acceptable to the reader. Before leaving the subject another canal
lift may be noticed—that on the Grand Junction Canal at Foxton,

Leicestershire—which has replaced a system of ten locks, to raise barges
through a height of 75 feet.
The new method is the invention of Messrs. G. and C. B. J. Thomas. In
principle it consists of an inclined railway, having eight rails, four for the
"up" and as many for the "down" traffic. On each set of four rails runs a
tank mounted on eight wheels, which is connected with a similar tank on
the other set by 7-inch steel-wire ropes passing round winding drums at the
top of the incline. The tanks are thus balanced. At the foot of the incline a
barge which has to ascend is floated into whichever tank may be ready to
receive it, and the end gate is closed. An engine is then started, and the
laden tank slides "broadside on" up the 300-foot slope. The summit being
reached, the tank gates are brought into register with those of the upper
reach, and as soon as they have been opened the boat floats out into the
upper canal. Boats of 70 tons can be thus transferred in about twelve
minutes, at a cost of but a few pence each. On a busy day 6,000 tons are
handled.

By permission of] [Mr. Gordon Thomas.

A BOAT LIFT
A canal barge lift which has superseded ten locks at Foxton, Leicestershire. Two tanks,
balancing one another, run on separate tracks up and down an incline. At the bottom and top of
the incline the tank is submerged so that a barge may float in or out.

A SHIP-RAISING LIFT

The writer has treated one form of lift for raising ships out of the water—
the floating dry dock—elsewhere,[21] so his remarks in this place will be
confined to mechanism which, having its foundations on Mother Earth,
heaves mighty vessels out of their proper element by the force of hydraulic
pressure. Looking round for a good example of an hydraulic ship-lift, we
select that of the Union Ironworks, San Francisco.
Some years ago the works were moved from the heart of the city to the
edge of Mission Bay, with the object of carrying on a large business in
marine engineering and shipbuilding. For such a purpose a dry dock, which
in a short time will lift a vessel clear of the water for cleaning or repairs, is
of great importance to both owners and workmen. By the courtesy of the
proprietors of Cassier's Magazine we are allowed to append the following
account of this interesting lift.
The site available for a dock at the Union Ironworks was a mud-flat. The
depth of soft mud being from 80 to 90 feet, would render the working of a
graving dock (i.e. one dug out of the ground and pumped dry when the
entrance doors have been closed) very disagreeable; as such docks, where
much mud is carried in with the water, require a long time to be cleaned and
to dry out. Plans were therefore prepared by Mr. George W. Dickie for an
hydraulic dock, including an automatic control, which the designer felt
confident would meet all the requirements of the situation, and which, after
careful consideration, the Union Ironworks decided to build. Work was
begun in January, 1886, and the dock was opened for business on June 15th,
1887—a very fine record.
This dock consists of a platform built of cross and longitudinal steel
girders, 62 feet wide and 440 feet long, having keel blocks and sliding bilge
blocks upon which the ship to be lifted rests. The lifting power is generated
by a set of four steam-driven, single-acting horizontal plunger pumps, the

1
diameter of the plungers being 3 2 inches and the stroke 36 inches. Forty
strokes per minute is the regular speed.
There is a weighted accumulator, or regulator, connected with the pumps,
the throttle valve of the engines being controlled by the accumulator.[22]
The load on the accumulator consists of a number of flat discs of metal, the
first one about 14 inches thick and the others about 4 inches thick, the
diameter being about 4 feet. The first disc gives a pressure of 300 lbs. per
square inch. This is sufficient to lift the dock platform without a ship, and is
always kept on.
In lifting a ship, as she comes out of the water and gets heavier on the
platform, additional discs are taken on by the accumulator ram as required.
The discs are suspended by pins on the side catching into links of a chain.
The engineer, to take on another disc, unhooks the throttle from the
accumulator rod, runs the engine a little above the normal speed, the
accumulator rises and takes the weight of the disc to be added; the link
carrying that disc is thus relieved and is withdrawn. The engineer again
hooks the accumulator rod to the engine throttle, and the whole is self-
acting again until another weight is required. When all the discs are on the
ram the full pressure of 1,100 lbs. per square inch is reached, which enables
a ship of 4,000 tons weight to be raised.
There are eighteen hydraulic rams on each side of the dock. These rams
are each 30 inches in diameter and have a stroke of 16 feet; and as the
platform rises 2 feet for 1 foot movement of the rams, the total vertical
movement of the platform is 32 feet. When lowered to the lowest limit there
are 22 feet of water over the keel blocks at high tide.
The foundations consist of seventy-two cylinders of iron, which extend
from the top girders to several feet below the mud line. These cylinders are
driven full of piles, no pile being shorter than 90 feet. The cylinders are to
protect the piles from the teredo (the timber-boring worm), which is very
destructive in San Francisco Harbour. A heavy cast-iron cap completes each
of the foundation piers, and two heavy steel girders extend the full length of
the dock on each side, resting on the foundation piers and uniting them all
longitudinally. The hydraulic cylinders are carried by large castings resting
on the girders, each having a central opening to receive a cylinder, which

passes down between the piers. There are thirty-six foundation piers, and
eighteen hydraulic cylinders on each side of the dock.
On the top of each hydraulic ram is a heavy sheave or pulley, 6 feet in
diameter, over which pass eight steel cables, 2 inches in diameter, making
in all 288 cables. One end of each cable is anchored in the bed-plates
supporting the hydraulic cylinders, while the other end is secured to the side
girders of the platform. Each of the cables has been tested with a load of 80
tons, so that the total test load for the ropes has been 21,000 tons.
In lifting a ship the load is never evenly distributed on the platform.
There is, in fact, often more than one ship on the platform at once. Some
rams, therefore, may have a full load and others much less. Under these
conditions, to keep the platform a true plane, irrespective of the irregular
distribution of the load, Mr. Dickie designed a special valve gear to make
the action of the dock perfectly automatic. Down each side of the dock a
shaft is carried, operated by a special engine in the power house. At each
hydraulic ram this shaft carries a worm, gearing with a worm-wheel on a
vertical screw extending the full height reached by the stroke of the ram.
This screw works in a nut on the end of a lever, the other end of which is
attached to the ram. Between the two points of support a rod, working the
valves—also carried by the ram—engages with the lever. If at a given
moment the screw-end is raised, say, six inches, the lever opens the valve.
As the ram rises, the lever, having its other end similarly lifted by the rise,
gradually assumes a horizontal position, and the valve closes.
To lift the dock the engine working the valve shaft is started, and with it
the operating screws. These, through the levers, open the inlet valves. The
rams now begin to move up: if any one has a light load it will move up
ahead of the other, but in doing so it lifts the other end of the lever and
closes the valve. In fact, the screws are continually opening the valves,
while the motion of the rams is continually closing them, so that no ram can
move ahead of its screw, and the speed of the screw determines the rate of
movement of the lifting platform.
To lower the dock, the engine operating the valve shaft is reversed, and
the screws and levers then control the outlet valves as they controlled the
inlet valves in raising. When the platform has reached the limit of its
movement, a line of locks on top of the foundation girders, thirty-six on

each side, are pushed under the platform by an hydraulic cylinder, and the
platform is lowered on to them, where it rests until the work is done on the
ship; then the platform is again lifted, the locks are drawn back, and the
platform with its load is lowered until the ship floats out. All the operations
are automatic.
Since the dock was opened well over a thousand ships have been lifted in
it without any accident whatever; the total register tonnage approaching
2,000,000. The great favour in which the dock is held by shipowners and
captains is partly due to the fact already mentioned, that the ship is lifted
above the level of tide water, where the air can circulate freely under the
bottom, thus quickly taking up all the moisture, and where the workmen can
carry on operations with greater comfort.
When extensive repairs have to be undertaken on iron or steel vessels, the
fact that this dock forms part of an extensive shipbuilding plant, and is
located right in the yard, enables such repairs to be executed with despatch
and economy. Several large steamships have had the under-water portions
of their hulls practically rebuilt in this dock. The steamship Columbia, of
the Oregon Line, had practically a new bottom, including the whole of the
keel, completed in twenty-six days. This is possible, because every facility
is alongside the dock and the bottom of the vessel is on a level with the
yard.
This being the only hydraulic dock controlled automatically (in 1897), it
has attracted a large amount of attention from engineering experts in this
class of work. English, French, German, and Russian engineers have visited
the Union Iron Works to study its working, and their reports have done
much to bring the facilities offered to shipping for repairs by the Union Iron
Works to the notice of shipowners all the world over.

FOOTNOTES:

21. The Romance of Modern Engineering, pp. 383 foll.

22. For explanation of the "accumulator," see the chapter on Hydraulic Tools (p. 81).

CHAPTER XXI

A SELF-MOVING STAIRCASE

A
t the American Exhibition, held in the Crystal Palace in 1902, there
was shown a staircase which, on payment of a penny, transported any
sufficiently daring person from the ground-floor to the gallery above.
All that the experimenters had to do was to step boldly on, take hold of the
balustrade, which moved at an equal pace with the stairs, and step off when
the upper level was reached.
The "escalator" (Latin scalae = flight of stairs) hails from the United
States, where it is proving a serious rival to the elevator. In principle, it is a
continuously working lift, the slow travel of which is more than
compensated by the fact that it is always available. The ordinary elevator is
very useful in a large business or commercial house, where it saves the legs
of people who, if they had to tramp up flight after flight of stairs, would
probably not spend so much money as they would be ready to part with if
their vertical travel from one floor to another was entirely free of effort. But
the ordinary lift is, like a railway, intermittent. We all know what it means
to stand at the grille and watch the cage slide downwards on its journey of,
perhaps, four floors, when we want to go to a floor higher up. Rather than
face the delay we use our legs.
Theoretically, therefore, a large emporium should contain at least two
lifts. If the number be further increased, the would-be passenger will have a
still better chance of getting off at once. Thus at the station of the Central
London Railway we have to wait but a very few seconds before a grille is
thrown back and an attendant invites us to "Hurry up there, please!"
Yet there is delay while the cage is being filled. The actual journey
occupies but a small fraction of the time which elapses between the moment
when the first passenger enters the lift at the one end of the trip and the
moment when the last person leaves it at the other end. In a building where
the lift stops every fifteen feet or so to take people on or put them off, the
waste of time is still more accentuated.

The escalator is always ready. You step on and are transported one stage.
A second staircase takes you on at once if you desire it. There is no delay.
Furthermore, the room occupied by a single escalator is much less than that
occupied by the number of lifts required to give anything like an equally
efficient service.
In large American stores, then, it is coming into favour, and also on the
Manhattan Elevated Railway of New York. When once the little
nervousness accompanying the first use has worn off, it eclipses the lift. A
writer in Cassier's Magazine says: "In one large retail store during the
holiday season more than 6,000 persons per hour have been carried upon
the escalator for five hours of the day, and the aggregate for an entire day is
believed to be 50,000. In the same store on an ordinary day the passengers
alighting at the second floor from the eight large lifts, which run from the
basement to the fifth floor, were counted, likewise the number at the
escalator. This latter was found to be 859 per cent. of the number delivered
by the eight lifts. In another establishment, in a very busy hour, the number
taken from the first floor by the escalator was four times the number taken
from the first floor by the fourteen lifts, which were running at their
maximum capacity. To the merchant this spells opportunity for business.
"The experience at the Twenty-third Street and Sixth Avenue station of
the Manhattan Elevated Railway in New York, during a recent shut-down of
the escalator, which has been in service for some time, is interesting as
showing the attitude of the public, of which many millions have been
carried by the installation during the several years of its operation. The
daily traffic receipts of this station for a period beginning several weeks
before the shut-down and extending as many after, for the years 1903 and
1902, and receipts of the adjacent stations for the same period were
carefully plotted ... and the loss area during the period of shut-down was
determined. The loss area was found to embrace 64,645 fares. It was,
furthermore, daily a matter of observation that numbers of people, finding
that the escalator was not running, refused to climb the stairs, and turned
away from the station.
"In the case of a great store, the escalator may be constructed as one
continuous machine, with landings at each floor, and so arranged that steps
which carry passengers up may perform a like service in carrying others
down; or separate machines may be installed in various locations affording

the best opportunity for displaying merchandise to the customer who may
be proceeding from the lower to the upper floor. In the case of a six-storey
building so equipped with escalator service in both directions, or in all ten
escalator flights, it is obvious that the facilities are equal to an impossible
number of elevators; and as facility of access has a direct bearing upon
opportunities for business, it may well be argued that the relative value,
measured by rent, of the main and upper floors is greatly changed."
Each step in a staircase has two parts—the "tread" or horizontal board on
which the foot is placed, and the vertical "riser" which acts both as a
support to the tread above and also prevents the foot from slipping under
the tread. In the escalator each tread is attached rigidly to its riser, and the
two together form an independent unit.
For the convenience of passengers in stepping on or off at the upper and
lower landings, the treads in these places are all in the same horizontal
plane. As they approach the incline the risers gradually appear, and the
treads separate vertically. At the top of the incline the process is gradually
reversed, the risers disappearing until the treads once more form a
horizontal belt.
The means of effecting this change is most ingenious. Each tread and its
riser is carried on a couple of vertical triangular brackets, one at each side
of the staircase. The base of the bracket is uppermost, to engage with the
tread, and its apex has a hole through which passes a transverse bar, which
in its central part forms a pin in the link-chain by which power is
transmitted to the escalator. Naturally, the step would tip over. This is
prevented by a yoke attached to each end of the bar, at right angles to it and
parallel to the tread. The yoke has at each extremity a small wheel running
on its own rail—there being two rails for each side of the staircase.
Since step, brackets, bar, and yoke are all rigidly joined together, the step
is unable to leave the horizontal, but its relation to the steps above and
below is determined by the arrangement of the rails on which the yoke
wheels run. When these are in the same plane, all the yokes, and
consequently the treads, will also be in the same plane. But at the incline,
where the inner rail gradually sinks lower than its fellow, the front wheel of
one tread is lower than the front wheel of the next, and the risers appear. It
may be added that, owing to the double track at each side of the staircase,

the back wheel of one tread does not interfere with the front wheel of that
below; and that on the level they come abreast without jostling, as the yoke
is bent.
The chain, of which the step-bars form pins, travels under the centre of
the staircase. It is made up of links eighteen inches long, having, in addition
1
to the bars, a number of steel cross-pins 1 2 inches in diameter, their axes
three inches apart, so that the chain as a whole has a three-inch "pitch." The
hubs of the links are bushed with bronze, and have a graphite "inlay," which
1
makes them self-lubricating. Every joint is turned to within 1,000 inch of
absolute accuracy.
The tracks are of steel and hardwood, insulated from the ironwork which
supports them by sheets of rubber. The wheels are so constructed as to be
practically noiseless, so that as a whole the escalator works very quietly.
"It has been observed," says the authority already quoted, "that beginners
take pains to step upon a single tread, and that after a little experience no
attention whatever is given to the footing, owing to the facility of adapting
oneself to the situation. The upper landing is somewhat longer, thereby
affording an interval for stepping off at either side of sufficient duration to
meet the requirements of the aged and infirm. The sole function of the
travelling landing is to provide a time interval to meet the requirements of
the slowest-acting passenger, and not of the alert. The terminal of the exit
landing, be it top or bottom (for the escalator operates equally well for
either ascent or descent), is a barrier, called the shunt, of which the lower
member travels horizontally in a plane oblique to the direction of movement
of the steps, and at a speed proportionately greater, thereby imparting a
right-angle resultant to the person or obstacle on the step which may come
in contact with the shunt. By reason of this resultant motion, the person or
obstacle is gently pushed off the end of the step upon the floor, without
shock or injury in the slightest degree. The motion of the escalator is so
smooth and constant that it does not interpose the least obstacle to the free
movement of the passenger, who may walk in either direction or assume
any attitude to the same degree as upon a stationary staircase."
At Cleveland, U.S.A., there has been erected a rolling roadway,
consisting of an inclined endless belt and platform made of planks eight feet

long, placed transversely across the roadway. The timbers are fastened
together in trucks of two planks each, adjoining trucks being joined by
heavy links to form a moving roadway, which runs on 4,000 small wheels.
At each end the roadway, which is continuous, passes round enormous
rollers. Its total length is 420 feet, and the rise 65 feet. Four electric motors
placed at regular intervals along its length, and all controlled by one man at
the head of the incline, drive it at three miles an hour. It can accommodate
six wagons at a time.

CHAPTER XXII

PNEUMATIC MAIL TUBES

Y
ou put your money on the counter. The shop assistant makes out a
bill; and you wonder what he will do with it next. These large stores
know nothing of an open till. Yet there are no cashiers' desks visible;
nor any overhead wires to whisk a carrier off to some corner where a young
lady, enthroned in a box, controls all the pecuniary affairs of that
department.
While you are wondering the assistant has wrapped the coin in the bill
and put the two into a dumb-bell-shaped carrier, which he drops into a hole.
A few seconds later, flop! and the carrier has returned into a basket under
another opening. There is something so mysterious about the operation that
you ask questions, and it is explained to you that there are pneumatic tubes
running from every counter in the building to a central pay-desk on the first
or second floor; and that an engine somewhere in the basement is hard at
work all day compressing air to shoot the carriers through their tubes.
Certainly a great improvement on those croquet-ball receptacles which
progressed with a deliberation maddening to anyone in a hurry along a
wooden suspended railway! Now, imagine tubes of this sort, only of much
larger diameter, in some cases, passing for miles under the streets and
houses, and you will have an idea of what the Pneumatic Mail Despatch
means: the cash and bill being replaced by letters, telegrams, and possibly
small parcels.
"Swift as the wind" is a phrase often in our mouths, when we wish to
emphasise the celerity of an individual, an animal, or a machine in getting
from one spot of the earth's surface to another. Mercury, the messenger of
uncertain-tempered Jove, was pictured with wings on his feet to convey,
symbolically, the same notion of speed. The modern human messenger is so
poor a counterpart of the god, and his feet are so far from being winged,
that for certain purposes we have fallen back on elemental air-currents, not

unrestrained like the breezes, but confined to the narrow and certain paths
of the metal tube.
The pneumatic despatch, which at the present day is by no means
universal, has been tried in various forms for several decades. Its first
public installation dates from 1853, when a tube three inches in diameter
and 220 yards long was laid in London to connect the International
Telegraph Company with the Stock Exchange. A vacuum was created
artificially in front of the carrier, which the ordinary pressure of the
atmosphere forced through the tube. Soon after this the post-office
authorities took the matter up, as the pneumatic system promised to be
useful for the transmission of letters; but refused to face the initial expense
of laying the tube lines.
When, in 1858, Mr. C. F. Varley introduced the high pressure method,
pneumatic despatch received an impetus comparable to that given to the
steam-engine by the employment of high-pressure steam. It was now
possible to use a double line of tubes economically, the air compressed for
sending the carriers through the one line being pumped out of a chamber
which sucked them back through the other. Tubes for postal work were soon
installed in many large towns in Great Britain, Europe, and the United
States; including the thirty-inch pneumatic railway between the North-
Western District post office in Eversholt Street and Euston Station, which
for some months of 1863 transported the mails between these two points.
The air was exhausted in front of the carriage by a large fan. Encouraged by
1
its success, the company built a much larger tube, nearly 4 2 feet in diameter,
to connect Euston Station with the General Post Office. This carried
fourteen tons of post-office matter from one end to the other in a quarter of
an hour. There was an intermediate station in Holborn, where the engines
for exhausting had been installed. But owing to the difficulty of preventing
air leakage round the carriages the undertaking proved a commercial
failure, and for years the very route of this pneumatic railway could not be
found; so quickly are "failures" forgotten!
The more useful small tube grew most vigorously in America and France.
In, or about, the year 1875 the Western Union Telegraph Company laid
tubes in New York to despatch telegrams from one part of the city to the
other, because they found it quicker to send them this way than over the

wires. Eighteen years later fifteen miles of tubes were installed in Chicago
to connect the main offices of the same company with the newspaper
offices in the town, and with various important public buildings. Messages
which formerly took an hour or more in delivery are now flipped from end
to end in a few seconds.
The Philadelphia people meanwhile had been busy with a double line of
six-inch tubes, 3,000 feet long, laid by Mr. B. C. Batcheller between the
Bourse and the General Post Office, for the carriage of mails. The first thing
to pass through was a Bible wrapped in the "Stars and Stripes." A 30 horse-
power engine is kept busy exhausting and compressing the air needed for
the service, which amounts to about 800 cubic feet per minute. Philadelphia
can also boast an eight-inch service, connecting the General Post Office
with the Union Railway Station, a mile away. One and a half minutes
suffice for the transit of the large carriers packed tightly with letters and
circulars, nearly half a million of which are handled by these tubes daily.
New York is equally well served. Tubes run from the General Post Office
to the Produce Exchange, to Brooklyn, and to the Grand Central Station.
1
The last is 3 2 miles distant; but seven minutes only are needed for a tube
journey which formerly occupied the mail vans for nearly three-quarters of
an hour.
Paris is the city of the petit bleu, so important an institution in the gay
capital. Here a network of tubes connects every post office in the urban area
with a central bureau, acting the part of a telephone exchange. If you want
to send an express message to a friend anywhere in Paris, you buy a petit
1
bleu, i.e. a very thin letter-card not exceeding 4 oz. in weight, at the nearest
post office, and post it in a special box. It whirls away to the exchange, and
is delivered from there if its destination be close at hand; otherwise it makes
a second journey to the office most conveniently situated for delivery.
Everybody uses the voie pneumatique of Paris, so much cheaper than, and
quite as expeditious as, the telegraph; with the additional advantage that all
messages are transmitted in the sender's own handwriting. The system has
been instituted for a quarter of a century, and the Parisians would feel lost
without it.