Popular Science Monthly 



This ancient water wheel in Syria pumps the 

 a wide territory is watered 



Immense Water Wheels Which Lift 

 Their Own Water. 



HAAIA, in Northern Syria, referred 

 to in the Old Testament as 

 Hamath the Great, is justly famous for 

 its huge ^vate^ wheels. The city lies 

 some one hundred and ten miles north- 

 east of Damascus on the River Oron- 

 tes, and upon its banks are four huge 

 water M'heels used for drawing water 

 for irrigating purposes and also for 

 supplying the town. The wheels are 

 driven by the flow of the river on what 

 is known as the undershot principle ; 

 that is to say, the wheel is moved by 

 water passing beneath it. 



The largest, shown in the accom- 

 ing photograph, has a diameter of 

 seventy-five feet. Upon its outer rim 

 is a series of buckets which raise the 

 water and deposit it in the aqueduct at 

 the top. Like its companions, the wheel 

 is built of mahogany, with an axle of 

 iron. The creaking of the wheels is in- 

 cessant, day and night, year in and year 

 out, for they never stop. 



It is interesting to note that wheels 

 built on this same principle are in 

 actual use in this country, in one of 

 the fertile vallevs of California, as de- 



river up into the aqueduct at its top. Thus 

 by other aqueducts and canals 



scribed in the December issue of the 

 Popular Science AIoxtiily. 



A Golf-Tee Fertilizer 



AMONG the hundreds of patents is- 

 sued every week occasionally one 

 stands out above all others as being en- 

 tertainingly original and ingenious. Such 

 a patent is one issued recently for a golf 

 tee. It is intended that the tee shall be 

 shattered to tiny fragments when the 

 l)all is struck, and to act as a fertiUzer 

 after having been broken. 



The tee is manufactured in a conical 

 shape with a cupped top, into which 

 the ball fits. It is made of green gel- 

 atine, so that, contrary to the condi- 

 tion which exists in the paper and rub- 

 ber tees, the golfer can keep his eye 

 on the ball without the usual distraction. 

 AMien the club strikes the ball, the gela- 

 tine tee is simultaneovisly struck and 

 shattered to a veritable powder. These 

 small green fragments scatter on the 

 grass and are dissolved at the earliest 

 rain. 



As gelatine is an excellent fertilizer, 

 the shattered tee serves a very useful 

 secondary purpose. 



