1913. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
ees 
FARM ENGINEERING. 
Flooded Cellars. 
Could you inform me how to prevent my 
cellars from being flooded each Spuing? 
One of them has a fine concrete floor that 
was properly done, yet from March 15 to 
May 1 there will be two to four inches of 
water on the floor. How can it get 
through the asphalt floor? c. y. w. 
Nyaek, N. Y. 
I’robably the water comes through the 
walls rather than the floor. This is a 
coxnman fault with concrete and cement 
work, as it requires the best of material 
and the greatest care in mixing and laying 
the concrete in order to have it water 
proof. Even with the best work, unless 
some special materials, such as soap and 
alum, have been mixed in, the concrete is 
very apt to be porous. The fine tubes in 
the cement suck up the water. To prevent 
this one end or the other of the tubes 
is stopped up, preferably the outside end, 
so that the moisture cannot get into the 
wall. This is usually somewhat of an 
undertaking, so that the inside ends can 
be stopped up, preventing anv moisture 
passing through. To do this, there are two 
methods. One is to plaster on the inside 
of the wall a thing coating of “neat” ce¬ 
ment ; that is, cement mixed without sand 
or stone. If this can be made to stick 
on, it does very well. The second method 
is to paint the inside of the wall with 
a good coating of asphaltum paint, hot tar 
or some similar substance. n. p. c. 
Fire Extinguishing Materials. 
Is it true that common baking soda, in 
water, or in water and vinegar, will ex¬ 
tinguish fire? If so, in what proportion 
must it be combined to be effectual ’ 
New York. G . L . B> 
Water alone will extinguish lire, and it 
is not clear from your question what the 
object of adding baking soda and viuegar 
can be. The way in which anv substance 
as sand or water, acts is to cut off the 
supply of oxygen or air from the burning 
material. Burning of anything means, 
chemically, the rapid oxidation of the 
thing; that is, the rapid combination of 
the burning body with the oxygen of the 
air. If you put the lire in a box and shut 
tlic box up airtight the fire will go out. 
?ou often speak of “smothering” a blaze, 
such as by throwing a rug or carpet around 
a person whose clothing, has caught fire. 
R. P. C. 
Use of Small Ram. 
IIow small a ram can be obtained? Can 
one be had for to fill U or %-ineb dis¬ 
charge pipe, with a two-foot head? How 
high can water be pushed? Does a water¬ 
wheel take as much water as a ram? m. 
I.orane, I’a. 
The small rams are the No. 2, which re¬ 
quires at least from 1 % to two gallons of 
water to operate it, has a 94 -inch supply 
pipe and a %-incli discharge pipe, weighs 
about 25 pounds and costs about $5; and 
the No. 3 ram, which needs a supply of 
at least 1 Vi to four gallons per minute, 
has a one-inch supply and a Vi-inch de- 
1 ivory pipe, weighs about 35 pounds and 
costs about $0. For every foot head of 
water the ram, under good conditions, will 
raise to feet. The supply pipe should be 
at least five times as long as the fall. A 
lain will not work well on less than a two- 
foot head. From one to two gallons of 
water are raised for every 20 gallons sup¬ 
plied to the ram, in ordinary service. A 
Hater-whed is not used for raising water, 
out is used for giving power, so the sec¬ 
ond part of your question cannot be an¬ 
swered with out a little more knowledge 
of what you mean. R . P . c . 
Engine and Pump for Irrigation. 
, °^ buying a gasoline engine and 
pump to I )um P water out of a 
ell „,> feet deep, and would like your idea. 
J want a pump and engine to furnish me 20 
square inches of water. What size engine 
and pump will I need? Is a friction clutch 
pulley serviceable on gasoline engine? How 
many gallons of water will it take to water 
acre of land > flooding or in potato 
H. B. 
It is not clear how much water you want 
"hen you speak of “20 square inches,” be: 
cause you do not say how thick the water 
If t0 be over those 20 square inches, nor 
how much time you want it to take to 
pump the water. A small rotary force 
pump having a lV4-inch suction pipe and 
one-inch discharge pipe will give you 13 
gallons of water per minute, or thereabouts, 
running at 100 revolutions per minute. It 
nnM r Httle over eight gallons to make a 
that is - a box 12 inches square 
and 12 inches deep would hold 8 1-3 gal- 
ious. Such a rotary pump will cost about 
r \ centrifugal pump to lift water 25 
Ket will cost a little more than this. The 
smallest gas engine you can buy will oper¬ 
ate such a pump. A friction clutch operates 
very well with gasoline engines. All gaso¬ 
line automobiles have friction clutches to 
connect the engine to the driving wheels, 
i he amount of-water used to cover an acre 
♦ I ai Mr ,d°P eu ds upon the soil to some ex- 
w. t s * n f roin one end of the 
: awa - , Ia loose porous soil quite a river 
must be started at one end of a row for 
aa Y water whatever to reach the other 
, If sprinkling systems or drain pipes 
;, ltn broken joints are used you can figure 
t ie amount of water by the amount of rain 
which you want to take the place of. For 
example, it you want the equivalent of one 
inch of rainfall, figure on a sheet of water 
one acre in surface and one inch thick. 
£>uch a sheet of water would be 30,250 gal-* 
ons or 3,(>30 cubic feet. This is the equiv- 
iin urn a Y er y heavy rain lasting all day. 
One-fifth of this would tit 1 a very good 
. hower From this you can figure" the 
amount of water needed. a. p. c. 
Frost Protection for Filter. 
I wish to build a cistern filter outside 
the house, and am puzzled about preventing 
it from freezing in the Winter. If I put it 
below the usual depth of the frost line it 
will be too low to supply the cistern prop; 
erly, so I conclude that I will have to cover 
it with a bank of earth. How many feet 
of earth will make it secure, and is* there 
any other material better? I can get plenty 
of sawdust, but sawdust rots and harbors 
Insects. a. b. 
The earth should be banked up for four 
feet above it, and the banking should ex¬ 
tend for five or six feet on each side. This 
forms a cheap and convenient protection, 
and the earth is as good a material as any. 
Sawdust would not be satisfactory, and you 
probably do not wish to build a frost-proof 
building over the cistern. r. p. c. 
Trouble With Telephone. 
I have a short telephone line which fre¬ 
quently gets kinks which I cannot under¬ 
stand. The following is common : I can 
reach my neighbor, but he cannot ring me 
up. If I ring him up and take down the 
receiver I can talk perfectly when he an¬ 
swers and hear him, but cannot hear a 
sound when he rings, and vice versa. These 
conditions will obtain for some time and 
then all will be right without any warning. 
Our line runs six miles and then connects 
with another private line of about 14 miles 
at about the middle; this line belongs to 
a logging company and connects the office 
at the camp on salt water with the camps 
in the woods. Frequently the office could 
not get the camps directly, but would call 
me up and I would ring up the camp and 
then they could talk. In some way the cur¬ 
rent does not appear strong enough to ring, 
but will carry the voice perfectly. What 
is the remedy? We use the slack wire sys¬ 
tem in use in timbered sections, the wire 
passing through an insulator with a hole 
in it -which is hung to a tree by a short 
length of wire, with a solid glass petticoat 
insulator every few hundred yards. If a 
tree falls across the line the wire is not 
broken. A short time ago we had a very 
severe windstorm followed by heavy snow 
and the line was down for half a mile or 
more and covered with snow, and yet we 
talked perfectly. w. T. p. 
Washington. 
To find out the trouble with telephone 
lines is bad enough when you can handle 
them and go over them yourself, but to give 
this "absent treatment” is little short of 
guessing. As you can ring up your neigh¬ 
bor your magneto and his bell are all right. 
When he cannot ring you, either your bell 
or his magneto are out of order. But as 
you say the office can call you up, your bell 
must be all right, and hence it is his mag¬ 
neto that is out of order. Without any 
warning everything is all right. That indi¬ 
cates a loose electrical connection and it is 
evidently on your neighbor's magneto. A 
binding post is loose or a wire is nearly 
broken off. Go over it carefully. The 
trouble between the office and the camp ap¬ 
pears to be due to the magneto at the office. 
It is not built for such long distance service 
under the conditions That is, if it must 
ring all three of the other bells—the one 
at your house, at your neighbor's and at 
the camp, it takes more current than is 
generated, so the camp, being about four 
miles farther off, the current is not strong 
enough in that branch to ring the bell at 
the camp. To see if this is true, the next 
time that the office cannot call the camp, 
disconnect your 'phone from the line en¬ 
tirely and have them try the camp that 
way. Try it with your neighbor’s 'phone 
disconnected also. Book over your neigh¬ 
bor's 'phone very carefully, as there is a 
possibility that there may be a short circuit 
there which causes the trouble between the 
camp and office. This is not likely, how¬ 
ever. R P C. 
60 Days 
toTry^^l 
BEATS 
The Best 
Engine You Ever Saw 
—because it’s the first quality engine of 
the land. The Witte is conceded the best 
engine in America. Made by E. H. Witte, 
master builder for 25 years. Ask Witte 
users. Any size from 1J4 to 40 horse¬ 
power—all tested to ten per cent over¬ 
load 61 special advantages, 
And You Now Pay Only 
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We cut out dealers—give you their 
profit. Also give you full benefit of our 
natural gas well. No power expense— 
testing, heating, lighting fuel, all free. 
Take a 60 day trial. Five year guar¬ 
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Gasoline Engine”, and complete catalog. 
Our wholesale factory prices will interest 
you mightily. Wrio NOW. telling us 
size engine you need. 
WITTE IRON WORKS CO.. 
1891 Oakland Avo., Kansas City, Mo 
u 
The WITTE 
flits Gasoline 
Bills in Half 
r 
Watch These Tiling s 
By R. E. Olds, Designer 
The leading cars 
this year have these 
features in them. 
They are things you 
should insist on. 
Left Drive 
Practically all the great cars 
of 1913 have the left-side 
drive. That means, of course, 
that others must adopt it. 
They don’t have projecting 
side lamps. They use electric 
set-in dash lights, as used on 
Reo the Fifth. 
They are not under-tired. 
Skimpy tires, which double 
one’s tire bills, are now much 
out-of-date. 
Better Parts 
Then today’s idea among 
leading makers is to build 
enduring cars. To cut down 
cost of upkeep. 
The best cars now, for years 
and years, will run as well as 
new. But that isn’t so with 
cars hurried and skimped— 
cars merely made to sell. 
Note what it means to build 
a really honest car. 
Reo the Fifth is built of 
steel made to formula—steel 
that we analyze twice. 
Its gears are tested in a 
crushing machine of 50 tons’ 
capacity. Its springs are 
tested for 100,000 vibrations. 
Each driving part, as a mar¬ 
gin of safety, is 50 per cent 
overcapacity. 
We use 15 roller bearings, 
costing five times as much as 
common ball bearings. We 
use 190 drop forgings, to 
avoid the risk of flaws. 
A $75 magneto — a doubly- 
heated carburetor — tires 
34x4. 
Parts are ground over and 
over to get utter exactness. 
Engines are tested for 48 
hours. Cars are built slowly 
and carefully. There are 
countless tests and inspec¬ 
tions. 
Every Reo the Fifth marks 
the best I know after 26 years 
of car building. 
New Control 
And it has the new control. 
All the gear shifting is done 
by a single rod between the 
two front seats. It is done by 
moving this rod only three 
inches in each of four direc¬ 
tions. 
There are no levers, side 
or center. Both brakes are 
operated by foot pedals. So 
both front doors are clear. 
Men are coming to cars 
built like this..- Last year’s 
demand was twice our factory 
output. Every man who buys 
a car for keeps ought to 
know this car. 
Write for our catalog and 
we will direct you to the 
nearest Reo showroom. 
They are everywhere. 
R. M. Owen & Co 
Agents for Reo Motor Car Co., Lansing, Mich. 
Canadian Factory, St. Catharines, Ont. 
Reo the Fifth 
The 1913 Series 
$ 1,095 
30-35 
Horsepower 
Wheel Base— 
112 Inches 
Tires— 
34 x 4 Inches 
Center Control 
15 Roller 
Bearings 
Demountable 
Rims 
Three electric 
lights 
190 Drop 
Forgings 
Made with 
5 and 2 
Passenger 
Bodies 
Top and windshield not included in price. We equip this car with moheir top, side curtains and slipcover, windshield. 
Preit-O-Lite gas tank for headlights, speedometer, self-starter. extra run and brackets—all for $100 extra (list price $1 70). 
(Gray & Davis Electric Lighting and Starting System at an extra price, if wanted.) 1194) 
