Oic RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1381 
Farm Mechanics 
More About Belting 
Will Robert II. Smith, page 1258. ex¬ 
plain how to make a belt run as shown in 
upper cut of Fig. COO without using an 
idler? We have used a long belt. 70 feet, 
for many years, and no matter whether 
crossed or straight, it will run either way 
at times. We tind that a clamp for hold¬ 
ing the belt firmly is advantageous when 
lacing in the lap, for if one pass of the 
lace is a little tighter than the rest it 
Avill soon break. D. D. s. 
Oswego, N. Y. 
In fuller explanation of sag in belt. 
Fig. 600, page 1258, if a belt could be 
cut and a spring balance fastened between 
the ends it would be found to have an 
equal or nearly equal tension or pull on 
both sides, so long as it stood stationary. 
Immediately the driving pulley began to 
revolve, however, there would be a pull 
along one side of the belt, resulting in an 
increase of tension along that side, and a 
lessening of the tension on the other side. 
The balance would no longer show an 
equal pull on both sides of the belt. This 
difference in ten.sion between the two 
sides of a working belt is known as the 
effective pull, and is the pull that can be 
utilized in driving a machine. 
The cut. Fig. COO, page 1258, is pur¬ 
posely exaggerated to show clearly the ef¬ 
fect of properly arranging the belt and 
pulleys. By a little careful study it will 
be readily seen that with the driving pul¬ 
ley rcA'olviug in the direction shown by 
the arrow, the under side of the belt will 
be carrying tbe power, and will conse¬ 
quently be drawn up more taut than will 
the upper side, which is cai'ryiug no load. 
A belt transmits power by pulling only, 
one side doing all of the work. Power 
cannot be transmitted by pushing on the 
belt. 
This condition is taken advantage of, 
and the belt and pulleys arranged as 
shown with the taut driving side beneath 
and the slack side at the top where it 
can sag down, increase the arc of contact 
with the pulleys and lessen slipping. The 
lower part of the cut shows by exaggera¬ 
tion tbe effect when the upper side of the 
belt is arranged to do the driving. 
The belt clamp mentioned b.y D. p. S. I 
is an excellent device for use in lacing a | 
belt, and its use should have been given 
in the article under disciussion. It not 
only provides a means for doing better 
work at lacing, as D. I). S. states, but it 
relieves the necessity of running the belt | 
onto the pulleys after it is laced, a pro- ' 
cess by which many a belt is ruined, one 
side being either stretched or the edge I 
chafed and crimped. With portable ma¬ 
chines, as usually found in farm pi’actice, 
the distance between pulley centers should 
always be lessened before the belt is run 
on, so that it may be applied slack. This 
same condition can be secured between 
machines with fixed distance between pul¬ 
leys by the use of an idler. 
A good sub.stitute for the belt clamp, 
and one always I’eady at hand, is to tack 
the ends of the belt across the top of an 
open box, using a straight edge to line it 
up properly, and seeing that the ends just 
meet squarely. The writer has found this 
method very convenient. To avoid driv¬ 
ing nails through the belt, strips about 
one by two inches in cross section may 
be laid across it and screwed or nailed 
to the edge of the box just outside the 
edges of the belt. This makes an effective 
clamp and holds the belt firmly in place. 
R. II. S. 
Mending a Leaky Tank 
When I built this home eight years ago 
I built in on the top floor a 4x4 ft. circu¬ 
lar galvanized tank for a house gravity 
system. As I use rain water I thought 
its life -w’ould be indestructible. Now it 
has began a creeping leak when full; at 
half full it stops leaking, but the leak is 
in the bottom or around the bottom 
seams. I dried it out and closely exam¬ 
ined the solder from the inside wdthout 
finding any leak. It is in a room ft- 
square and no head-room to speak of, so 
there is no chance to disconnect and turn 
over for examination, and it rests flat 
on the floor. Of course I can cut it up 
and remove it piecemeal, though that is 
a miserable job, and I wondered if I could 
pour some form of waterproof concrete 
on the bottom, about iy 2 inches thick, 
that would make a tight bottom. Can 
you advise as to the practicability of this, 
also ingredients and proportions of mix¬ 
ture? I am entirely familiar with the 
ordinary concrete construction as used on 
a farm, but whether I can make a tight 
band with the galvanized iron I do not 
know. D. w. I. 
Chestertown, Md. 
Sooner or later trouble is almost sure 
to develop with an ovei'head tank of this 
kind. Even when it does not leak, an 
overhead tank will sometimes give trouble 
through “sweating.” As a precautionary 
measure they are sometimes set up in 
a large galvanized iron pan which is ar¬ 
ranged to drain to the sink or discharge 
out of doors. This ^of ..coui’se takes care 
of the “sweating” and minor leaks. 
In many cases the leaking is caused by 
uneven settling of the frame upon which 
the tank rests. WIkui building the car¬ 
penter fails to take into account the im- 
mense weight of the tank when it is 
filled with water; a tank the size of yours, 
four feet in diameter and four feet high, 
having a capacity of about 50 gallons, 
weighs more than 1% tons, if level full. 
Sometimes the support is built amply 
strong, but a good foundation is not se¬ 
cured, or consideration is not given to 
the unequal shrinkage of the longitudinal 
and transverse fibers of wood, so that 
after a time the floor upon which the 
tank rests is thrown out of alignment and 
there is a consequent twisting of the 
tank. This throws a great stress on the 
seams, which are frequently weakened by 
corrosion if the acid flux used by the 
plumber is not_ washed off immediately 
after the soldering is done. If the tank 
rests on a foundation that may be r.t- 
fected by frosts the heaving and settling 
caused by it adds to the trouble. 
As you .say that the tank does not leak 
when only half full it indicates that 
either the leak is in the top half of a 
vertical seam or that the water pressure, 
when the tank is full, is great enough to 
distort the floor upon which the tank 
rests, and to open a seam slightly which 
may be somewhat weakened by corrosion 
as before spoken- of, and I am inclined to 
think that this second case is the cause 
of your trouble. If the tank is filled or 
emptied by a pipe fitted into the bottom 
the connection should be carefully exam¬ 
ined, as tbe continual working of the pipe 
due to expansion and contraction and the 
use of the faucets below makes this a 
fruitful source of trouble. If tbe connec¬ 
tion is made by the use of a gasket this 
may have deteriorated to an extent where 
a leak has developed, while if the connec¬ 
tion is made by the use of a nipple sol¬ 
dered in the constant wmrking spoken of 
may have loosened this slightly. 
I would suggest that the tank be emp¬ 
tied, thoroughly dried and examined care¬ 
fully, paying special attention to the 
points mentioned. If no particular leak 
could be found I would have the seams 
thoroughly soldered all around on the in¬ 
side, scraping them clean and bi’ight and 
making sure that the flux used, if of the 
ordinary acid type, was thoroughly 
Avashed off as soon as the job was com¬ 
pleted. If the leak is caused by heaving 
-and settling, however, as I suspect it is, 
this treatment will not remove the cause, 
and it is probable that the leaking will 
be resumed again after a time. Painting 
the inside of the dry tank with a Avarm 
asphaltum paint of good quality, such 
as may be obtained at any reliable hard¬ 
ware store, will make a cheap and easy 
repair, but like the solder cannot be relied 
upon to hold for any great length of time 
if the tank is subjected to stresses so that 
its form is changed. 
In regard to the use of concrete, it 
would be_ very difficult, if not impossible, 
to place it in the bottom of your tank as 
you suggest and secure a perfect enough 
band with such a yielding material as the 
galvanized iron would be, to prevent the 
water from working down around it. 
R. TI. s. 
The Bookshelf 
Seaten Legs Across the Sea, by Sam¬ 
uel Murray. The title of this book will 
be a puzzle to the landsman at first, but 
those among us who have some knowledge 
of the sea know that a “leg,” in marine 
parlance, is the course or distance made 
by a vessel in one tack to windward. Mr. 
Murray is a printer traveling with little 
beyond his earnings and his union card, 
but his travels include England, South 
America, Australia, New Zealand, Poly¬ 
nesia, Africa, India, the Philippines, Jap¬ 
an and Hawaii. The book gives the fresh 
impressions of an intelligent observer who 
possesses tne power of expression com¬ 
bined with a great deal of practical knowl¬ 
edge ; it holds the reader with its breezy 
style, and conveys a vast fund of enter¬ 
taining information. The author is 
unique among globe-trotters, and his trip 
around the world was an enviable one. 
Published by Moffat, Yard & Co., New 
York; 408 pages, well indexed and at¬ 
tractively illustrated; price $2.50. 
“They say,” remarked the moralizer, 
“that aggressive and impulsive people 
usually have black e.ves.” “That’s 
right,” rejoined the demoralizer. “If they 
are not born AV'ith them they manage to 
acquire them later.”—Indianapolis Star. 
Do you think there is 
no competition? 
If anyone thinks there is no cqm- 
petition amongst the big packers 
he ought to go through a day’s 
work with Swift & Company. 
Let him begin at the pens when 
the live stock comes in; let him try 
to buy a nice bunch of fat steers 
quietly and at his own price, with¬ 
out somebody’s bidding againsthim. 
Let him realize the scrupulous 
care taken at the plant that not one 
thing is lost or wasted in order that 
costs may be held to a minimum. 
Let him go up into the office 
where market reports are coming 
in — and reports of what other 
concerns are doing. 
Let him watch the director of 
the Swift refrigerator fleet, ma¬ 
neuvering it over the face of the 
country like a fleet of battleships 
at sea. 
Let him take a trip with a Swift 
85 Company salesman and try to 
sell a few orders of meat. 
Let him stay at a branch house 
for an hour or two and see the 
retail meat dealers drive their 
bargains to the last penny as 
they shop around among the 
packers’branch houses, the whole¬ 
sale dealers, and the local packing 
plants. 
And then, when the day is over, 
let him have half an hour in the 
accounting department, where he 
can see for himself on what small 
profits the business is done. 
(Less than 4 cents on each dollar 
of sales.) 
If he still thinks there is no 
competition in the meat business 
it will be because he wants to 
think so. 
Swift & Company, U. S. A. 
A nation-wide organization owned by more than 23,000 stockholders 
ms 
