Popular Science Monthly 



919 



At the principal division p)oints the hogs are given a 

 shower bath to prevent them from becoming over-heated 



Shower Baths for Hogs — A New 

 Life Saver Used by Railroads 



SHIPPING , 

 hogs to 

 the slaughter 

 house in 

 freight cars is 

 a precarious 

 business. 

 Strange to 

 say, hogs, as 

 a rule, do not 

 suffer while 

 the cars are 

 in motion, 

 but a great 

 many die 

 from over- 

 heating while 

 the cars are 

 not mo\ing. 

 Furthermore, 

 the first 

 warm weath- 

 er of the season is more severe on hogs than 

 the hot weather later in the season. A 

 train may become stalled upon arrival at a 

 division point and within twenty-four 

 hours enough hogs may die from over- 

 heating to cause the shipper or the railroad 

 a great financial loss. 



To afford the shipper the protection he 

 needs and to protect itself against loss, the 

 Saint Louis and San Francisco Railroad has 

 installed a hog-watering device at its 

 principal division points. Immediately upon 

 arriving at these 

 points the freight 

 trains carrying hogs 

 are stopped and the 

 hogs are given an im- 

 promptu shower 

 bath, as the accom- 

 panying illustration 

 shows. As a general 

 thing a stream of 

 water is first turned 

 into the bedding 

 underneath the hogs. 

 After the bedding is 

 well saturated the 

 nozzle of the hose is 

 turned to the roof of 

 the car and the 

 water falls on the 

 hogs. A drain lx)X 

 is provided under 

 the car to carry off 

 the waste water. 



The Simplified Turbine for Small 

 Electric Plants 



ER 



The steam simply flows m a helical path at high 

 speed. During half of its journey it forces itself 

 against the turbine rotor, pushing it around 



W EVER 



electric power 

 is developed, 

 some type of 

 driving unit 

 must be used 

 to turn the 

 generators. 

 In the newest 

 power plants, 

 the steam tur- 

 bine is being 

 used. A 

 steam tur- 

 bine may be 

 considered as 

 nothing more 

 than a wind- 

 mill adapted 

 to special 

 conditions. 

 Instead of wind striking against its curved 

 blades, steam rushes upon them. The 

 steam is directed by a nozzle, producing a 

 compact stream of a tremendously high 

 velocity which glances against one blade 

 cast into the side of one of a number of 

 driving wheels, and shoots into another 

 blade on another driving wheel rotating 

 beside it. 



Such was the old-type turbine. The 

 complexity of mounting a series of driving 

 w heels on one shaft made it an exceedingly 

 expensive engine, 

 practicable only for 

 a large size plant. 

 A new method of 

 guiding the steam so 

 that the series of 

 blades on the same 

 driving w heel can be 

 utilized, adapts it 

 for the small power 

 plant. The blades 

 are sunk into the 

 periphery* of the driv- 

 ing wheel, and after 

 the steam pushes 

 against one, it is 

 guided by a fixed 

 stator in a helical 

 path into another. 

 After expending its 

 energ>- on six blades, 

 the p>ower is con- 

 verted into motion. 



