340 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apu. 15. 



complicated. A few days ago a circular came 

 floating through the malls, something to this 

 efl'ect: 



" Friends, are you in any way interested in 

 the matter of light passenger elevators? If so, 

 will you please let us know?" 



I think there was a picture on the circular; 

 and, just for the fun of it. I wrote them, •' Yes, 

 lam interested. Tell us something more about 

 your light passenger elevator." 



A few days afterward they said there was a 

 man waiting to see Mr. Root, and he said he 

 must see me, and nobody else would answer. 

 I found him; and when he told me he had 

 come clear to Medina on purpose to tell me 

 more about elevators. I was really sorry they 

 had taken so much pains and trouble, for we 

 certainly could not buy one then; but I said we 

 should like to know something more about it 

 out of curiosity. He assured me that it was all 

 right, and that he was quite willing to pay his 

 expenses to Medina and back again just to get 

 a glimpse of A. I. Root and his establishment. 

 He added he had got his pay already. When I 

 began to ask him something about the elevator, 

 I found that he was the inventor of the ma- 

 chine, and one of the most enthusiastic in- 

 ventors I ever saw; and when he told what his 

 elevators would do, and said he woixld put in 

 one and take it all out without any expense to 

 us, I began to laugh at his earnestness. By the 

 way, for several months past I have been dis- 

 covering day by day that I should have to be 

 relieved from so much going up and down 

 stairs, or I should " play out," as the expression 

 is; and this invention seems to be a special 

 providence. Here is a cut of it. 



In the first place, it is not 

 a power elevator at all. It 

 is just a hand elevator. At 

 first thought one would con- 

 clude that it must be very 

 hard work. Now, it is not 

 hard work at all. Under 

 some circumstances it is not 

 any work. It is like going 

 up in a balloon and coming 

 down in one. Did you ever 

 try TO imagine what fun it 

 would be to sail through 

 the air if you did not weigh 

 (inxj thing at all? or have 

 you ever noticed a fish in an 

 aquarium? He rises in the 

 water, or sinks to the bot- 

 tom, without moving a fin; 

 and you can not discover his 

 moving a muscle. He does 

 move a muscle, however — 

 just enough to change his 

 specific gravity. When he 

 wishes to rise in the water 

 he makes himself a little 

 larger; and when he wishes 

 to sink to the bottom he 

 makes himself a little small- 

 er. Now, in this new ele- 

 vator one rises and falls about as easily as the 

 fish does; but he does it mnre (luickly than the 

 fish does. The inventor tried to explain it to 

 us, but none of our expert mechanics could un- 

 derstand how it was possible, until we saw the 

 thing actually at work. Let me try my hand 

 at a description. 



Perhaps when you were a boy you discovered 

 you could throw a rope over the limb of a tree, 

 and get up into the tree by simply pulling one 

 end of the rope while your foot was placed in a 

 noose in the other end. Keep this in mind. 

 You have also seen very deep wells where a 

 chain passed over a roll"r, having a bucket on 

 one end of the chain, and a stone, or some other 



SELF - LIFTING 

 ELEVATOU. 



object for a counterpoise, at the other end 

 When the bucket of water and the weight wert 

 just balanced, almost no power at all was re 

 quired to bring up the water. Now, with thi 

 elevator there is a big iron weight, weighing a 

 much as the carriage and a man inside of it 

 The weight is ."58 inches long and (i inches ir 

 diameter, so it occupies but little space out 

 wardly. Suppose the man and cage just bal 

 ance the sveight, as I have said. You wil 

 readily see that a very little power would mov( 

 the cage and man together up or down. This 

 power is applied by the passenger taking hole 

 of the rope running over the smaller of the twc 

 pulleys seen at the top. This rope, in fact, goe 

 right down through the cage. Very well. Th( 

 man could spin up or down either by simplj 

 pulling on the rope. When he comes to th( 

 getting- off place, the instant he steps from th( 

 cage this iron weight would go down with s 

 rush, and the cage would go up with a crash 

 What must be done to prevent such a catastro 

 phe? Most of you know how the Westinghousf 

 air-brakes, used on railway trains, are man- 

 aged. The normal condition of the brake is 

 such that a powerful steel spring operates or 

 the car-wheels, holding them so rigid that tht 

 cars can not be moved until the engine raises 

 them by pumping air into the proper machin- 

 ery; therefore, when an accident happens tc 

 the engine, or to any part of the train, the 

 brakes operate automatically. A similar brakf 

 is used in this carriage. It is released by thf 

 passenger setting his foot on the lever. He car 

 not move at all until he stands on said projec- 

 tion on the floor of the cage; and the minutf 

 he lifts his foot to step out of the cage, it if 

 locked so firmly that even jumping on it wiT 

 not move it the fraction of an inch. 



Just one thing more. Men and women do noi 

 all weigh alike; but our Quaker friend wht 

 invented the machine makes them weigh alikt 

 by a very simple device. Right near at hand 

 in the cage is a box of rolling weights. They 

 look like small grindstones, only they are made 

 of cast iron. Some are thick and some are thin 

 This makes them weigh differently. Now. 

 when you grasp hold of the rope, and step on 

 to the cage, you roll one or more of these 

 weights out of the box into a similar box in the 

 cage. Put your foot on the brake while you 

 hold on to the rope, and you soon decide what 

 weights will just about make a balance. After 

 having run up and down a little to see that the 

 weight is adjusted, it is as easy to go one way 

 as the other. Y"ou are now ready to travel. 

 Just hold your breath now, and I will stop here 

 to see how long it takes me to go from the 

 ofifice, where I am now writing, down into the 

 seed -room., 30 feet below, and back. 



Here we are! gone just 14 seconds. Our 

 Quaker friend says that one of the men, after 

 the machine had been up several weeks, so 

 that he had had some practice, went up tsofcet 

 and down again in 14 seconds; and I presume 

 Huber or some of the rest of the boys will very 

 socn "break the record" I have just made 

 above. 



Now, if I should stop right here you might 

 say this machine is a most wonderful invention. 

 I told friend Williams I should consider his dis- 

 covery worth Jiitlf (I millinn of (loUors if it 

 were not for one little defect. Unfortunately 

 it rather looks as if man's ingenuity and skill 

 could hardly remedy this defect, trifling as it 

 may seem. If one man or one woman were to 

 use the machine alone, this defect would never 

 appear. It is this: Suppose yon run up to one 

 of the upper floors, and you leave the cage 

 where you step off. There it must stand until 

 either you or somebody else wants to go down 

 again. Why not pull it down with a rope? 



