Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 90.djvu/766

 750

���All violent vertical move- ments are taken up be- fore reaching the body

��Popular Science Monthly

One of the Longest Tunnels in the World Is Planned for New York

THE plans which Science has conceived for the future, and which are being rapidly proved practical, include develop- ments on land and sea, in the air and even under the land and sea. The tunnel system for carlines and for aqueducts has made the subterranean area of some cities as interest- ing and intricate as any parts of the surface. If present plans of the Board of Water Supply of New York city do not miscarry, one of the longest tunnels in the world will soon be constructed to conduct about three hundred million gallons of water daily to

FRONT AXLE LEVER CHA55I5\ BRACKETv \ ^hc Catslcill aqUCduct.

^^ s=#7?— ?\ 1 he tunnel will be shaped

like a horseshoe and will iCor>;NECfiN& ROD BRACKET >5PRiN& f bc lined with coucrcte.

���A New Automobile Spring Which Takes Up Shocks

ANEW automobile shock-absorber has been invented by Robert E. Olsen, of Seattle, Washington, which is designed to take up the shock before it reaches the body of the car. He provides two springs for the rear and two for the front wheels. Each of the four springs is attached to the chassis frame by two brackets, and the brackets, in turn, are provided with studs upon which are mounted levers which ex- tend to the front and rear axles respectively. The forward end portion of each of the two levers which serve the rear wheels is equipped with rollers mounted on pivot pins — the rollers engaging both sides of the leaf springs. The leaf springs are connected with the chassis by means of brackets for the front portion and arms for the rear portion. Thus, all violent vertical move- ments are communicated from the wheels to the lever and to the leaf springs without directly affecting the chassis. Bumps, therefore, will tend to lower the body of the automobile instead of raising it, but so slightly that the effect will be neutral- ized and the occu- pants of the car will scarcely be conscious of it; which is just what the inventor intended.

��Vacuum Cleaning by Foot Pressure. You Walk on the Bellows

1"^HE fact that there is no electricity in your home need not hinder you from using a vacuum cleaner. A novel cleaner has been brought out which can be oper- ated without electric power and without other exertion than required for walking up and down the floor. Pumping-bellows are attached to your feet, and you are assured of some profitable exercise during the cleaning. A compression spring, pro- vided just under the heel, does the work. The guiding handle is fitted with a nozzle and a dust filter like those on other vacuum cleaners. The air hose which leads from these, runs to the foot-bellows, as the illustration shows. Each of the two bellows has clamps for at- taching it to your foot.

By lifting up and down on the bel- lows, as you would do in walking, air is forced up the nozzle from the car- pet. The dust from the carpet is car- ried up through the apparatus with the air. But on reach- ing the filter the dust falls and settles down in the cylinder.

��� �