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 



