Manufactultes. 8.] [$3.00 a YEAH

(Entered at tbe Post Office of New York. N. Y., as Second Class Matter. Copyrhzbt.1OOO. by Munn & Co.] A WEEKLY JOURNAL OE J:lltACTICAL INFOHMATION. AnT, SCIENCE, MECHANICS, CHEMISTRY, AND MANUFACTUltES. Vol. LXXXIII.-No. 8.] [$3.00 A YEAH. ESTABLISHED 1845. NEW YORK, AUGUST 25, 1900. WEEKLY. Detail ot the Panoramas. 'l'.Ile Wreck Scene in •. Ben Hur," S.Ilow.ing we SimpLe Mechanism Employed. The Chariot Race in the CirCUli of Antioch-Ben Hur Destroys Melllala'lI Chariot and Winl the Race. SOltE OF THE STAGE J[ECRANISlIrl OF THE PRODUCTION OF "BEN HUR" AT THE BROADWAY THEATER, NEW YORX,-[See pal:e 119.) 114 jn its turn is raised to the upper level. Plans were alISO with the stipulation that if it undertakes to !'upply Jtitntifit �mtritan. inspected, which have been presented by Messrs. Morse armor, it shall receive a contract for the large amount & Brown, for two distinct designs of locks; one worked of 20,000 tons. This reservation is due to the very on a cable counterpoise system,and the other calling natural desire of the company to make sure that, as ESTABLISHED 1845 for a system of hydraulic-lift locks. The design provides soon as it erected its costly armor plate mills, it would MUNN & CO., EDITORS AND PROPRIETORS. for balancing one lock chamber with another which is be enabled to make sufficient armor to recoup itself for PUBLISHli;D WEEKLY AT exactly similar, the two being connected, not as in the the outlay. At the same time it was simply impossible for the government to tie itself up to a delay of twenty No. 361 BROADWAY, NEW YORK. case of the Dutton system by large air pipes, but by a number of wire cables which pass over a system of six months in the receipt of this particular consign� TERMS TO SUBS/'RIBERS sheaves and are provided with safety appliances to pre ment of armor. We sincerely trust that the new bids Une copy, one year. for the United Stutes. Canada. or Mexico ... , ..... $3.00 will include some provision which may include the One copy, one year. to any foreign country, postage prepaid. £0 16s. 00. 4.0'J vent a sudden drop in the case of the failure of any THE SCIENTIFIC A MERIOAN PUBLICATIONS. part of the balancing gear. The plans for the hydraulic Midvale plant and be mutuallY agreeable to the com ......... ............••.. Scientific American (E8tab1i�hed 1845). $.1.00 a year... lift call for two lock chambers, each of which is raised pany and the government. SCIenti-ficAmerican Supp)ement. \.I£stablished 18.6) . .. ..... ':'.00 Scientific American Building Edition (Established 188.')). .... ... 2.50 and lowered by means of three hydraulic plungers and • •• • Scientific Americen Export Edition (Established 18i3), .. ... '3.00 'The com ined su scription rates and rates to foreign countries will cylinders, the locks being arranged to counterbalance be furnishedb upon application.b LOWERING OF THE ATLANTIC RECORD. Remit y postal or express money order. or by ank draft or check. each othel' by means of the suitable manipulation of b b Not a little excitement is prevalent just now in ship MUNN &; CO.,361 Broadway. corner Franklin Street, New York. connections between the two sets of cylinders. There ping circles over the steady reduction which is being is also undel' consideration, by the Board, plans of Mr. made in the time of trans-Atlantic passage. The NEW YORK, SATURDAY, AUGUS'r 25, 1900, William R. Davis for a counterpoise lift lock, in which "Kaiser Wilhelm del' Grosse" and the new" Deutsch· a pair of counterbalancing tanks are raised and lowered land" have been cutting down the time of the passage PROGRESS OF THE NEW YORK RAPID TRANSIT upon a dozen steel towers. at the top of which are 24- between New York and the English ports by hours at TUNNEL. foot sprocket wheels, on which travel the flat link a t.rip. The former vessel. which prior to the advent Although fh'e months have passed since the contract chains which support the tanks. The latter, which of the"Deutschland," held all records across the At· for the construction of the New York Rapid Transit weigh about 5,500 tons each when loaded, are to be lantic, made a magnificent run on her last trip to Tunnel was signed, there is as yet but little evidence raised and lowered by electric power, which is to be the eastward. She left Sandy Hook at 12 : 23 P. M. of the general upheaval of the streets of this city, developed by turbine wheels operating under the head on Tuesday, August 7, and arrived at Cherbourg at which it was popularly supposed would follow imme of water due to the total difference of the level of the 12 ; 57 P. M. on the following Sunday, covering the diately upon that event. This has not been due to canals. One of the most important subjects under con course of 3,184 miles in five days nineteen hours and any lack of zeal upon the part of the contractor· in sideration by the Board is t.he question of the amount forty-four minutes, at an hourly average speed for the chief, or the sub-contractors, but it is to be laid to the of water and the total tillle wbich are required for whole trip of 22'79 knots an hour. On her best pre charge of the steel works which have undertaken the effecting the entire lift with locks of the different kinds vious record run her average hourly speed was 22'61 task of supplying the 78,000 tons of structural steel abov!l described. knots per hour. The "Deutschland," which, it will and steel rails which are necessary for the tunnel., Whether the proposed enlargement of the Erie Canal be remembered, on its first return trip attained a The plans of the tunnel call for a subway, the side is carried out or not, it would certainly be of enormous speed of exactly 23 knots an hour, left New York on wails and roof of which 'consist of steel posts and gir advantage to the canal system,as it now exists, if the Wednesday, August 8, passing Sandy Hook at 3: 35 ders embedded in and backed with Cl)ncrete. Wjth tile low-lift locks could be abolished at Cohoes and Lock P. M., and arrived at Plymouth at 8:30 A; M., on the exeepfion of three or four miles of straight rock tl1n port and a system of high-lift locks established. At following Monday, having covered the course' in five neling,' the whole of the excavation will lie so near the Lockport there are five locks with an average lift of 1172' days ele\'en and three-quarter hours, at an average surface that it will constitute what is known as cut feet, while at Cohoes there are no less than sixteen speed of 23'32 knots an hour. The best day's run was, and-cover work; that is to say, the excavation will be locks with an average lift of9 feet. At these two locks 552 knots. made froni the surface down, and the side walJs and alone iti� estjmated that over half a day is lost in the An interesting fact in connection with these rec:>rds, the roof will be built in the deep '.cut thus opened up passage of a singl� tow. is that the "fi\'e- day-boat" is now an accomplished through the middle of the various thoroqghfares. As •••• fac't, for a speed of 23 32 knots an hour, if maintained work of this class demands more or less complete, sus RECENT ARMOR PLATE BIDS. over the route from Sandy Hook to Queenstown, would pension of traffic, a clause is inserted in the contract The Secretary of the Navy has rejected the bids bring the record down below five days, or to be exact, by which no section of the tunnel below Sixtieth which wet:e made for furnishing armor for the fourteen to four days twenty-three hours and six minutes. Street is to be kept open for more than thirty days at battleships and I,lrmored cruisers which are either The record over this route is now held by the "Lu a time. buildin g or authorized, and for the three- authorized cania," which covered the distance of 2,778 miles From the very nature of the construction of the tun cruisers of the protected tYl>e. Advertisements for in five days seven hours and twenty-three minutes. nel, it is necessary that the steel should be on the new bids have been issued, and the opening will take The "Lucan ia," however, is now a relat.ively "old ground if only thirty days is to elapse between th!) place within about a Illonth. The bids were rejected, boat," having been built in 1892-1893; and as the in breaking of the ground and the roofing in of the tun not on the question of price, but bec/tuse of the terva;l: between "Lucania" arid "Deutschland", is nel ; and it is mainly for this reason that the sub-con somewhat complicated nature of the three proposals about eight years, we may say that the reduction' in tractors have so far devoted their efforts merely to the which were submitted to the Department. The three the time of the trans-Atlantic passage has been pro lowering of the !'lewers, and the building of storage bidders were the Midvale Steel Company, and the ceeding at the approximate rate of an hour a year.

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