Popular Science Monthly 



189 



Imagine a skyscraper hotel miles in height — say five hundred miles — and fully equipped with 

 every modern convenience. Now lay this skyscraper carefully on its side on the ground, so 

 that its elevators will be subways running in a trench under the building which will extend, in a 

 straight line or in serpentine coils, miles out into the open country. This is Roadtown 



efficiency of the public utilities contained 

 therein. 



Being operated on the plan of an im- 

 mense hotel, individual kitchens will not 

 be necessary — the Roadtown kitchen near- 

 est you will take your telephone order, and 

 by means of automatic carriers running on 

 a horizontal track, deliver your favorite 

 dish right into your dining-room. These 

 carriers will be arranged to preserve the 

 heat in the food during transit, one section 

 of the carrier remaining chilled for cold 

 dishes. The meal finished, the carriers will 

 be returned to the community dish- 

 washer. The carriers will run along a single 

 track and will be automatically switched to 

 its proper recipient by a trip-key, similar 



in action to the type-distributing feature 

 of the Linotype machine. 



Evidently, to make doubly certain that 

 our new "city farmer" will have every 

 advantage of civilization, the inventor of 

 Roadtown proposes to instal a number of 

 utilities some of which are at present avail- 

 able only to the rich. For a better idea of 

 this intention, it may be well to describe 

 briefly those at present under consideration. 



The temperature of each room will be 

 automatically regulated to suit its particu- 

 lar occupant, by the use of the thermostat 

 attached to the steam radiators. In very 

 hot weather the refrigerating plants will 

 pump cooled water through the radiators. 

 Running distilled water, cooled to a health- 



