140 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
ENGINEERING. 
HYDRAULIC ELEVATORS AND MOTORS. 
B. F. JONES, KANSAS CITY, MO. 
{Read before the American Water Works Association, at Btiffalo, May i6, i8Sj.) 
What I have to say in relation to elevators and motors will be mostly in 
regard to questions that their uses necessarily bring up for settlement at the Water 
Works office; also to show how I have been able in a measure to overcome some 
of the many difficulties that have presented themselves, as well as to discuss and 
seek information as to the best way of meeting others that still have to be dealt 
with. At the outset, therefore, let me state that I am not an hydraulic engineer, 
nor have I sufficient mechanical knowledge to undertake the discussion of the 
construction, or relative merits of either elevators or motors. This I would 
respectfully suggest as a very proper and interesting topic for a paper at some 
future meeting by some one of the many eminent engineers of this Association. 
The Water Works of Kansas City are comparatively young, and my exper- 
ience only dates back six or seven years, or since shortly after their completion. 
At this time it was deemed advisable on account of the probable large revenue 
to be derived from their use, to encourage the putting in of hydraulic elevators 
by low water rates. With this end in view a number of contracts were made for 
their supply at low, special rates for a period of years, and our minimum meter 
rate was charged in all other cases, regardless of the quantity of water consumed. 
In most instances these special rates. have since been found much too low, parties 
paying in this way being exceedingly extravagant in the use of elevators. How- 
ever, the object sought was obtained, and now they are very extensively used. 
In fact so much has their use increased, that the question is no longer how to 
encourage their more general adoption, but how to properly govern those that 
must be supplied. At present our works furnish power to about fifteen passenger 
and eighty freight elevators, and the number is rapidly increasing. 
Before going into details, it seems proper to give, at least a brief description 
of our water-works, as my observations are to a great extent local. 
On account of the peculiar topography of Kansas City, two systems of water 
supply have been provided, the high ground being supplied by direct pumping, 
and a pressure of about ninety pounds maintained in the business portion, and 
the lower part of the city being supplied by gravity, from a reservoir at an eleva- 
tion of 2 ID feet, thus giving the business portions of the city, on high and low 
ground, about the same pressure. By an arrangement of valves, a combination 
of these two systems is effected, so that the Holly machinery can furnish an 
