Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 90.djvu/217

 Popular Science Montldy

��Did the French Borrow this Idea from the Ancient Druids?

THERE are a number of trees in France which harbor picturesque Httle chapels. One of the most unusual is the oak of Allouville, a Norman village in the depart- ment of Seine Inferieure, in which the oak stands on a level piece of ground some distance from the church. Its trunk, which is now almost com- pletely hollow, has a cir- cumference at about three and a half feet above the soil of more than thirty feet, and its top- most branches are nearly six- t\- feet from the ground. This oak con- tains two al- tars, one above the other; the lower one is dedicated to Our Lady of Peace and was constructed towards the end of the seventeenth centur\' by a former priest of the parish, the Abbe du De- t roi t. The chapel above the one to Our Lady of Peace is of much later date and is called the Chapel of the Cross.

The yew tree of La Haye-de-Routout, in the Department of Eure, is of an equally venerable age. The circumference of the trunk is about twenty-nine feet and its greatest height is fifty-seven feet. The little altar with a cross above the pedi- ment is placed within the hollow trunk of the famous tree and the interior of the chapel is reached by ascending a step. On certain days a priest comes to celebrate mass at the altar, which is decorated with a group in car\ed wood representing Saint Anne 'of the Yews" and the Virgin. Other districts of France also contain tree chapels.

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���An altar in a giant oak in Allouville, a village of Normandy. The tree is nearly sixty feet tall and about thirty feet around

��Why Are Abandoned Flour Mills Utilized as Lighting Stations?

WHY are abandoned flour mills not used for lighting stations? Water- power is to be had freely and abundantly, since the flour mill is nearly always the nucleus around which the oldest of our rural settlements have been built.

The question suggested itself to the editor of this magazine who, in turn, asked one of the largest electric manufac- turing companies in the country- to give an answer. After an inquiry- among engineers in this plant and letters from more than six hundred mill- ing establish- ments all over the country-, if was proved that no abandoned flour mills had e\-er been transformed into lighting stations.

On the other hand the can- vass brought forth the in- formation that many milling firms furnish electric light and power in addition to the regular products.

In this con- nection it is various reasons for not using of waterpower.

��interesting to note the given by mill owners electric power in lieu Replies gathered from an extensive circular letter campaign show conclusively that the average miller would like to avail himself of the electric drive, but the economy of waterpower, the real or imaginary' high cost of electricity, or the sacrifice of an expensive steam plant holds him back.

Out of six hundred and fift>'-eight replies only ten wrote that they did not see the need for electric drive or were not in- terested in statistics concerning it.

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