Page:Popular Mechanics 1928 01.pdf/59

 

Work on another bridge for New York City, to link the boroughs of Manhattan, the Bronx and Queens, and to cost approximately $30,000,000 has started and is expected to be finished in four years. The structure will be 16,850 feet in all, the main part will have facilities for the operation of eight lines of vehicles and the Manhattan connection, six lines. There will be two five-foot walks for pedestrians. The bridge has been designed to harmonize with the Hell Gate arch bridge and will have a central span, 1,100 feet long, and two side spans, each 500 feet. The portion over the Harlem river will consist of a double-leaf bascule affording two channels, each 150 feet wide, and a vertical clearance of fifty feet at mean high water. Toll will be charged for passage across the viaduct, which is expected to prevent a traffic-congestion crisis that might develop, due to the increase in communication between Manhattan and Queens with the opening of the new artery at West 178th street.

 

Addition of a foot lever by which the water is turned on, is the latest improvement on the circular wash basin popular in large industrial plants. It leaves both hands free to use the liquid soap which is supplied from nozzles in a center rack, automatically shuts the water off when the foot is released, to prevent waste, and simplifies the cleaning of the basin. Water is poured forth as a fine circular spray, and is so distributed that ten men at one time can wash conveniently and thoroughly with no more water than ordinarily would be used by one man with an old-type single nozzle, continuously running.



 



To hide the bare outlines of tall smokestacks on a power plant near a residential district in New York city, a framework of steel has been built around them. This feature, with careful smoke control, makes the plant much less objectionable to persons living in the neighborhood.

Ice and snow are said to be removed from the windshield as easily as moisture, with a wiper that is electrically heated. In most respects, it resembles the ordinary unit, but has a resistance element that comes in contact with the glass, keeping frost from accumulating and also expediting the removal of water.

