22 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



the factories of Alsace. The method is very simple, yet the 

 application has been attended with almost endless difficulty. The 

 principle is that of transmitting the power in the form of velocity 

 of motion. Endless steel wire ropes are employed for this pur- 

 pose, running at great speed 10, 20, 30, or 50 miles per hour 

 over end pulleys 13 or 14 feet in diameter for short distances, 

 without intermediate support ; or for long distances, over pulleys 

 of 6 or 7 feet diameter, at intervals of 160 yards. 



The first achievement of M. Him was to transfer 12 horse- 

 power from a waterfall to a distance of 88 yards ; the next, to 

 transmit 50 horse-power 264 yards. In 1857, he transmitted 45 

 horse-power 1100 yards; in 1858, 50 horse-power 126 yards; in 

 1859, 100 horse-power was carried 1,080 yards, and 60 horse- 

 power 1,320 yards ; and altogether, he records more than 400 suc- 

 cessful applications of this sort. He has now no hesitation in 

 undertaking to carry power 12 miles, and calculates to lose not 

 over 20 per cent, in the transmission. 



The system which is in operation at Schaffhausen, as well as at 

 a number of other places in Europe, the invention of Mr. 

 Him, is to avoid the necessity for the construction of costly 

 works, by the substitution of a single or a small number of large 

 wheels, in close proximity to the waterfall, and thence to dis- 

 tribute the power in a cheap manner over the entire district occu- 

 pied by the town. The means employed are remarkable, not so 

 much for their novelty as for the patient thought and experience 

 that have been expended in bringing the system into a practical 

 form, a task which now appears to be successfully accomplished. 

 The town with its factories is located about two miles above the 

 Falls of the Rhine. The river where it passes through the town 

 is broken into a series of rapids, with a depth of water almost 

 equal to that at Niagara, and a width of about 350 feet. In the 

 midst of these, near the left bank of the river, is situated the 

 wheel-house, which contains a single turbine wheel of large size, 

 and giving sufficient power to drive all the mills in the town. 

 The vertical shaft of this wheel carries a large bevel gear at its 

 upper end, by means of which its motion is transmitted to a hori- 

 zontal one by its side, the gearing being so arranged that the latter 

 makes a little more than 2 revolutions to 1 of the wheel, the 

 speed being about 100 revolutions per minute. On this shaft are 

 placed 2 wheels of cast iron, about 14 feet in diameter, with a 

 deep groove formed in their face. In this groove are secured seg- 

 ments of hard wood, with a slight depression for the wire rope to 

 run in. The grain of the wood in some cases runs lengthwise, 

 and in others across the face of the wheel. These wheels are 

 made in 4 sections, so that they ma} 7 be readily taken apart 

 when required for repairs. They are free to turn on the shaft, 

 and are driven by an equalizing coupling placed between them. 

 It consists of a strong sleeve of cast iron, secured to the shaft at 

 its centre, and having projecting from it, on opposite sides, 2 

 stout arbors, each carrying a heavy bevel gear. These gears 

 take into similar ones secured to the large pulleys, and transmit 

 the motion of the shaft to them. If the rope on one wheel pulls 



