1317 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Motors and Waterworks 
The Original Gasoline Motor 
Cut at right shows the first practical 
gasoline-propelled vehicle which proved to 
have the “go” in it. It was built in 
Rochester, N. Y., in 1877, by George B. 
Selden, then a lawyer. In 1875 he built 
and operated a new kind of combustible 
engine, in which the explosive vapor was 
supplied by mixing, through an atomizing 
jet, a combination of nitrous oxide or 
laughing gas and kerosene. This engine 
had the advantage of great power with 
light weight, but it also could not over¬ 
come the insuperable difficulty of com¬ 
bustion. The explosions took place in an 
external chamber, and the expanding gas 
had to be introduced into the cylinder 
proper through a valve. The heat of the 
explosive gases always fused this valve 
after a short use and killed the engine. 
After some time and experimentation, 
Selden overcame this difficulty by devising 
a means of exploding the gas in the cylin¬ 
der itself. This innovation became known 
as the internal combustion type of en¬ 
gine. A. H. PULVEB. 
A House of Tile 
On page 73G I noticed an article in re¬ 
gard to building a house of tile. Having 
had some experience with this I may be 
able to help others. You will notice by 
the picture that it is a semi-bungalow, 
and no one who has not investigated a 
semi-bungalow will believe that there is 
so much room with so little waste under 
one roof. Our house was built in 1916 
on the site of the old farmhouse. The 
old house took a trip to town to spend its 
old age, and is doing its bit each month 
as rent day comes. The new house is 
built of hollow tile, laid with a black mor- 
A Satisfactory Tile House 
tar. Each tile is 5 in. wide, 10 in. long 
and 7 in. deep, with four dead-air spaces 
in each tile. There is also an air space 
between the tile and the plaster of % in. 
The face of each tile is burnt very hard, 
with a rough appearance. The joists for 
both floors are laid in the tile as it is laid 
up. The gables of this house begin at 
the second floor and are built of wood. 
The gables are sheeted ; over the sheeting 
I use a dovetail wooden lath on the out¬ 
side, and on this put two coats of stucco. 
This house is never damp; warm in Win¬ 
ter, cool in Summer, and it is almost im¬ 
possible to hear any noise from the out¬ 
side. W. N. SLAWSON. 
Chautauqua Co., N. Y. 
More About Hollow Tile 
On page 736 F. E. G. had the success 
with a hollow tile building that might be 
expected and that one should have, while 
from accounts J. O. B. had something go 
wrong or something overlooked. I think 
J. O. B. will have to fur off and replaster 
his house, but before he does it I hope he 
will try to overcome the trouble from the 
outside, for all the furring in the world 
will not stop the trouble or give him a dry 
house unless he stops the water from the 
outside. Perhaps lime was used in the 
outside stucco, as I advised not to on page 
736, or perhaps some patent interior plas¬ 
ter was used for the first or second coat. 
In times past, while connected with the 
architectural profession, it was my object 
to have the masons lay the block as 
straight to a line and as plumb from 
foundation to roof as possible, bedding in 
pure sharp sand and cement mortar only 
the outside and inside webs or walls of 
the blocks, thereby overcoming the con¬ 
tinuous mortar joints both for horizontal 
and vertical joints. Then after the walls 
were built, the building wa6 plastered 
with pure sand and cement mortar, using 
grounds where necessary to bring the 
whole side of the building to a true and 
even surface. Then before the second 
coat was applied, the wall was thoroughly 
wet down and the second coat applied, to 
which had been added a waterproofing 
compound which in addition to making 
the whole waterproof, also overcame the 
shrinkage in cement and prevented crack¬ 
ing. Last the dash coat was applied, and 
even if this can be called a coat, has in 
any case very little if anything to do 
with making a building waterproof. 
As for C. O. O., the height that hollow 
tile is to be used for walls depends upon 
the thickness of block used. Single walls 
are cheaper and every bit as good as 
triple walls. As to hollow tile floor con¬ 
struction, this can only be done satisfac¬ 
torily where structural steel is used for 
every five or six feet, and then special 
floor block made for this construction are 
to be used, and a four-inch concrete floor 
laid on this. But for dwelling houses I 
should only fill the corners and lintels 
over openings and place reinforcing rods 
in them. As for these reinforced lintels, 
they do not cost must and are safest. 
F. L. B. 
Water System for House 
I have a spring which will run a %-in. 
stream the year around which I wish to 
run to my house, but it must be raised 14 
ft. and run 93 ft. to get it there. There 
is a small brook near by. Is there any 
way that I could use this brook to get 
the spring water to the house? Is there 
a ram or water engine I could use? 
Norwich, N. Y. C. w. D. 
There are probably two ways in which 
the water from the brook could be used 
to force this spring water to the house. 
Whether or not they could be success¬ 
fully used will depend upon the quantity 
of water available and the fall obtain¬ 
able. If the stream is large enough and 
has sufficient fall a small overshot wheel 
could be installed which could be used to 
pump the spring water to a pressure or 
gravity tank and in addition generate 
current for lighting purposes. This, if 
the water supply will permit it, would 
make a very desirable installation. As 
an alternative, a double-acting ram could 
be used. Such a ram has two supply 
pipes, one for the brook water which is 
used to furnish the motive force, and 
the other for the spring water which is 
to be pumped. This installation can be 
used with slightly less water and fall 
probably than the other, although either 
arrangement calls for a constant supply. 
B. H. S. 
Septic Tank Plan 
I notice several designs for septic tanks, 
and am sending a plan of one built by 
myself and in use on my place for four 
years. It has given me good service, with 
no trouble. For the pipe in the settling 
chamber I would use four-inch sewer 
pipe, put a Y at the bottom and set it 
solidly on the bottom for an intake and 
extend a few inches into the filtering 
chamber. The pipe in the drawing ia 
four-inch soil pipe. Sewer pipe is better 
and cheaper if put in right. The filtering 
chamber contains heavy gravel on the 
bottom, and heavy pieces of charcoal with 
finer gravel and charcoal on top. Sand 
seemed to clog the outlet. 
This tank is built with the top on the 
surface of the ground. I struck solid 
rock, and could not go deeper. I put 
a lid on each compartment, but would 
not put a handle on to stay. Someone 
will take a lid off and a child may fall 
in. It is just a case whether you want 
a lid or not. It is not necessary. 
Pennsylvania. isaac black. 
Water Wheel for Pumping 
I have a spring from which during 
about six months of the year is dis¬ 
charged about 20 gals, of water per min¬ 
ute ; during about three months of the 
remaining time about 10 gals., and the 
other three months anywhere from 10 
down to 3 gals, per minute, depending 
on the dryness of the season. My house 
is situated about 250 ft. from the spring 
on an elevation. The perpendicular ele¬ 
vation from the spring to the attic is 
about 55 ft. The spring is so situated 
that by putting a dam across the stream 
below the spring about 25 or 30 ft. and 
then excavating below this I can secure a 
perpendicular fall of 8 or 10 ft. My plan 
is to place an S-ft. overshot steel water 
wheel having a 12-in. face just below the 
dam, and put a concrete pit under the 
wheel, and in this pit set a pump so that 
it would be immersed in the water while 
working, and connect the pump with the 
tank in the attic with a %-in. pipe. 
Will this arrangement do the work? What 
sized pump should be used? IIow much 
water will it put into the tank in 24 
hours? Would a smaller wheel do the 
work, or would a %-in. pipe be just as 
well as the %-iu.? By disconnecting the 
pump from the wheel and having a cog 
gear attached to the wheel near the rim, 
and have it mesh with a small cog on an¬ 
other shaft, would I get power and speed 
enough to run a dynamo that would gen¬ 
erate a 110-volt electric current of suffi¬ 
cient amperage to light house and barn, 
using say 25 16-candlepower lamps? 
Would a storage battery be practical with 
such outfit? About what would be the 
cost of such battery? Should the buck¬ 
ets or water containers on the circumfer¬ 
ence of the water wheel be of any partic¬ 
ular size, and how many of them? 
B. P. H. 
Because of the small amount of water 
available—from 3 to 20 gals, per minute 
—I would not expect a water wheel to be 
satisfactory as a pumping agent. With 
Vent 
the 8-ft. fall which you say you have this 
amount of water could only develop from 
.006 to .04 horsepower even if the wheel 
used were 100 per cent perfect. Perhaps 
a storage reservoir could be used, per¬ 
mitting you to pump for a short time 
each day, but the cost would be high, and 
the water so obtained warm and unsatis¬ 
factory for drinking purposes. Why not 
use a small ram? With a %-in. drive 
pipe equal in length to the vertical lift, 
in this case 55 ft., and having a fall of 
7% ft., such a ram should put into the 
house tank from 240 to 360 gals, per day. 
As a service pipe from the ram to the 
house a %-in. pipe would be bct'.Ci than 
the y 2 - in. for which the ram is fitted, 
although this change would not be neces¬ 
sary. It would simply give a little more 
freedom to the flow, and less trouble from 
corrosion and clogging. If the ram is 
used against a pneumatic tank the pres¬ 
sure carried in the tank must be trans¬ 
lated to head in feet by multiplying each 
pound pressure by 2.3, and adding this 
result to the head in feet, or the distance 
the tank is above the ram. r. h. s. 
Removing Trees with Stump-puller 
On page 1167, the question is asked 
if it will be practicable or economical to 
remove trees from five to 16 inches in 
diameter by cutting the roots upon one 
side and using a stump-puller to pull the 
trees down. If the sole object of cutting 
the trees is to secure wood or lumber, this 
will not be an economical method. But 
if the object is to clear the land and make 
it ready for the plow, or if there is a 
market for the root crowns, either for 
sled runners or ship knees, or any other 
purpose, this is the proper method to em¬ 
ploy. Use a long rope, attach it high 
up in the tree, and use the trunk as a 
lever to pull the roots from the ground. 
c. o. o. 
Motor Speed Reducer 
One of the difficulties attendant upon 
using an electric motor in operating ap¬ 
ple and potato graders, churns, washing 
machines, ice cream freezers and many 
other machines requiring slow motion, has 
been the relatively high speed of the 
motor. The cut shows a recent produc¬ 
tion in a speed reducer designed to over- 
Worm Gear Speed Reducer 
come this difficulty. It is of worm-gear 
construction and on the average motor of 
1,250 revolutions per minute it will re¬ 
duce the speed to 65 revolutions, giving 
thereby just about the cranking average 
of one man. The device was developed in 
Western New York’s fruit belt, where 
generous use of electricity is made in car¬ 
rying on the operation of much small 
machinery. The reducer shaft has both 
pulley and sprocket for belt or chain use. 
A. H. P. 
Utilizing Old Wells 
I have two old wells out in the middle 
of small fields. I do not wish to fill them 
up, as they are handy at times. How 
would it do to dig them out to 2 or 3 ft. 
below the ground, put in pipes running 
to a pump at the edge of the field, and 
then cover them over with slabs of con¬ 
crete and fill in with earth and level over 
so as not to interfere with plowing and 
cultivation? It would of course be nec¬ 
essary to put in an air pipe in order to 
pump from them Would that be enough 
to keep the water sweet? I have under¬ 
stood that a well needed ventilation. 
Would it be necessary to have the con¬ 
crete slab below the frost line? H. A. s. 
Westport, Me. 
If the water in the wells is not below 
practical suction distance (about 20 ft.) 
from the point where the pump is to be 
placed, and the horizontal distance is not 
too great, it would be possible to pipe the 
water and pump from the wells as sug¬ 
gested. I would not consider it a very 
practical method, however, because of the 
expense involved and the small advan¬ 
tages, as I see it, to be derived from it. 
It would seem to the writer to be much 
better practice to locate the pump directly 
over the well, as in ordinary practice, as 
much would be saved in piping, digging 
and concreting, and it seems that there is 
little to be gained by the method sug¬ 
gested. Unless buried very deeply, little 
would be grown over the top of the well, 
because of the soil drying out over the 
concrete slab used as a cover, and the 
necessary vent pipe would be nearly as 
much an obstruction to the use of machin¬ 
ery as would a pump in the same place. 
B. H. s. 
.1 Tractieal Septic Tank 
That Old Time Automobile 
