Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 89.djvu/588

 574

���Popular Science Monthly

��In Victor Hugo's " Les Mistrablcs " Jean Valjean crawled through a sewer. An engineer in Pasadena used a motorcycle

A Six -Mile Trip Through a Sewer on a Motorcycle

NOT since the fictional days of Jean Valjean has a trip through a sewer occupied so much space in print as the one made recently by the engineer of the newly constructed six and one-half miles of sewer at Pasadena, Cali- fornia. The trip was an inspection tour and was made on a motorcycle. To have walked the full distance would have taken several liours. So the engineer conceived the plan of lowering a motorcycle into the jiipc at the dean-out hole in the beginning of the main artery and making a tri]) de luxe. I le had never before ridden a By lininR a

motorcyile. 1 lence he gallons were

��chose one equipped with a tandem seat and selected an experienced driver.

A gas headlight on the motorcycle illuminated the passage. The distance was traversed in two hours, in spite of the numerous stops made to investigate walls antl manholes. The only un- pleasantness experienced was the noise of the motor exhaust, which was almost deafening on account of the narrow con- fines. Otherwise the plan worked per- fectly, the headlight on the motorcycle making the passage as bright almost as daylight.

Transforming a Beauty Spot Into a Public Utility

TWV. water-works of Salt Lake City was recently augmented by the completion of the five-million-gallon Pleasant Valley Reservoir. This was obtained by the simple operation of lining with concrete an old pond. The cost was onh' 53,744 per million gallons. That the name — Pleasant Valley — is de- served is apparent from the accompany- ing view^

Nature is the great resource; she supplies the material. Man is the manu- facturer. He transforms a mere scene into a public utility, yet preserves the beauty of the scene. The neglected pond had but one customer — Old Sol — while the concrete-lined city reservoir supplies water to thousands.

���useless old pond with concrete live million added to the city's storage water supply

�� �