Part 4

At dinner that night we were waited upon by the great wizzened-faced servant, and my uncle, who was taken with a sleepy, tongue-tied mood, had attired himself in such a brilliantly faded costume that he resembled nothing less than one of the pictures that looked down at us.

Before the meal was half finished, however (it was exceedingly well cooked and toothsome), I received a shock.

Monsieur de Brienne suddenly and without a warning gave a little cry and fell back in his arm-chair (a home-made affair, cut from a barrel of some sort), and I, frightened, ran to his side.

But the old servant appeared quite used to this, and together we got my uncle into his bed, where we rubbed and chafed his limbs until I grew so tired I could hardly move. The next day I thought he was like to die. He would not let me leave him, and talked so incoherently that I could make no sense out of his maunderings at all.

Now begins such a strange existence that if it were told to me by any one who claimed to have led it I should be most doubtful. It would make a volume in itself, maybe, but I intend to hasten over this period, and to get quickly into that from which has developed the present, and which is leading up to whatever future there is before me.

To this end I shall do my best to resist any temptation to dwell at too great length on the life I led at the lonely farm-house on Mountain Brook.

[TO BE CONTINUED.]

HARNESSING NIAGARA.

BY ELIZABETH FLINT WADE.

Two men were once boasting of their wonderful physical powers, and a story told by one would be immediately capped by the other by the relation of a capability far more marvellous. Suddenly one of them pointed to a church spire which could be seen across the valley, and said,

"Do you see that church spire yonder?"

"I do," replied the other.

"Well, I can see a fly crawling on it! Can you?"

His companion looked at it attentively a moment, and said, slowly,

"No, I can't see it, but," placing his hand behind his ear and leaning forward, "I can hear it walk!"

Something quite as remarkable as the hearing the foot-step of a fly on a church steeple a mile distant was accomplished a few weeks ago, when, by means of a slender wire attached to an ordinary telephone, the sound of the "voice of many waters," situated 500 miles away, was distinctly heard in New York city.

The National Electric Light Association held its last annual meeting in New York, and in the Industrial Arts Building were exhibited the latest appliances of electricity; but of all the wonderful demonstrations of that strange power which slips so swiftly and silently along a slender wire, the most novel, if not the most wonderful, was the transmitting the roar of the Falls of Niagara through the long-distance telephone by means of the power generated by the cataract itself.

The meaning of the Indian name Niagara is "thunder of the waters," and it certainly was a most original idea to place this thunder on exhibition--"thunder on tap," a humorist might call it. The point chosen for collecting the sound was near the Cave of the Winds, where at the foot of the cliff one can get nearer to the waterfall than at any other point. The Cave of the Winds is between Goat and Luna islands, and is reached by the Biddle Stairway, a frail-looking structure built on the face of the cliff, and the adventurous tourist who ventures down this winding stair is almost deafened by the noise of the water as it strikes the great rocks that lie just below him.

The mechanical arrangements for sending the sound were very simple. An ordinary telephone, with the necessary apparatus, was placed in a tight wooden box, so that the instrument might be protected from the spray. Wires connected with the long-distance telephone were carried down the side of the cliff and attached to the telephone in the box. From one side of the box projected an immense tin funnel. This was the sound-collector. The rest of the operation was very easy. The current was turned on, and in a few seconds the sound was heard at the extreme end of the line. In the centre of the hall where the electric exposition was held was a working model of the Niagara Falls electric plant; around this model were twenty-four telephone transmitters, and the visitor could not only see the machinery moved by the power generated at the Falls, but hear the ceaseless roar of the great waters.

The greatest distance that electric power had ever before been transmitted was from the Falls of Neckar, in Germany, to a point 110 miles distant. Power for the exposition was to come nearly five times that length, and the occasion was so momentous a one that the gold key which President Cleveland used to set in motion the machinery for the World's Fair was used by Governor Morton to turn on the electric current generated by the Falls. As soon as the exposition was declared open, Governor Morton, according to a previously arranged plan, turned on a current from the Falls power which discharged a piece of government artillery simultaneously in the public squares of Augusta, Maine; St. Paul, Minnesota; San Francisco, California; and New Orleans, Louisiana.

The capturing of Niagara and setting it to work is one of the greatest feats of modern engineering. For years engineers have watched the power going to waste down the great cataract, and studied how it could be made available for mechanical purposes. The only device for using it was the building of a hydraulic canal opening out of the river above the Falls, and emptying into it at the edge of the bluff a mile or two below the Falls. Power was thus carried to several mills built on the bank, but it was a mere cipher compared to the great force daily poured over the great precipice, a force which has been scientifically estimated to equal nearly 6,000,000 horse-power, enough to drive all the machinery on the American continent.

Many plans for using this power were made, only to be abandoned, till Mr. Thomas Evershed, a division engineer on the Erie Canal, devised the scheme of digging wheel-pits above the Falls, placing turbine-wheels at the bottom of the pits, conveying water from the river to turn the wheels--which should be used to furnish the power to generate electricity--and carrying off the waste water through a large tunnel and emptying it into the river. The plan was found feasible, and in 1886 the Niagara Falls Power Company was incorporated by the Legislature of New York. Millions of dollars and the service of the most skilful engineers in the world were employed in carrying out the plan. Work was begun in 1887, and in January, 1894, the first great turbine-wheel was set at work.

The manner of using a part of the tremendous power of the cataract, though constructed on so gigantic a scale, is as simple to understand as the mechanism of a toy water-wheel, which, placed under a tiny fall of water, turns a miniature windmill on the bank of the stream. An inlet canal 1500 feet long, 500 feet wide, and 12 feet deep opens from the river at a point about a mile and a half above the Falls. A short distance from the side of the canal nearest the Falls, and near the end farthest from the river, are two wheel-pits 160 feet deep, and at the bottom of each pit is a 5000 horse-power Girard double turbine-wheel. From the canal to these pits are head-races fitted with sluices through which the water is admitted to the wheel-pits. Both the canal and the head-races are lined with solid masonry, and the gates which regulate the supply of water are open and shut by automatic levers. In each wheel-pit is an immense iron tube reaching from top to bottom of the pit, made of boiler iron. This tube, called a penstock, is seven feet in diameter, and the water pours down this huge pipe into the wheel-case in which the turbine revolves. A turbine-wheel is a vertical wheel which revolves from side to side like a top, the name being derived from the Latin word _turbo_, whirling, or spinning like a top.

Now a stream of water seven feet in diameter, falling from a height of 140 feet, must cause this mammoth water-top to spin round in its case at rather a lively rate, and so it does, for the turbine shaft revolves at the rate of 250 times a minute, and the speed can be increased to twice that number of times. The vertical shaft of the turbine is attached to a propeller shaft which rises to the floor of the power-house--built over the wheel-pits--where it is attached to a dynamo. Though the dynamos are the largest in the world, they are not the size originally designed, owing to the fact that no cars were large or stout enough to transport them, so the size of the base-plate of the dynamo was limited to one which could be carried by rail from the manufactory to the Falls.

Standing in the visitors' gallery of the power-house and watching these great dynamos whirling round so swiftly that the eye can scarcely perceive their motion, and remembering that it is caused by the expenditure of but a fraction of the power flowing over the Falls, one can form some idea of the great force which it has so long been the dream of engineers to turn to account.

Almost as great a feat as the digging of the wheel-pits and placing the turbines at the bottom, was the excavating of the tunnel to carry off the waste water. This tunnel, which is 7000 feet long, starts near the bottom of the wheel-pits, runs under the city, and empties into the river just below the suspension-bridge. It is horseshoe shaped, is 21 feet high, and 19 feet wide, in the curve. It is lined with brick, overlaid with rubble above, and the outlet is lined for 200 feet back with heavy cast-iron plates. The water does not run directly into the tunnel from the wheel-pits, but flows into it through a lateral tunnel or tail-race. This tail-race enters the main tunnel at an angle of sixty degrees. Both tunnels are horseshoe shaped, and where they unite they each curve differently, and it required a skilful mathematician to calculate the cutting and fitting of the stone for the bisecting of the arches.

It is interesting to see how this powerful machinery is kept in working order. From a circular opening in the floor of the power-house a winding staircase descends to the elevator landing. From this landing one may pass directly under the electric generators and see the various pipes which convey oil and water to the different parts of the machinery. One pipe carries oil to the upper, and a second pipe oil to the lower, bearings of the dynamos. A third pipe allows water to pass to the cooling chamber of the upper bearings, and a fourth, water to a similar chamber in the lower bearings.

The tank which holds the oil supply is placed near the roof of the power-house. After the oil has passed to the bearings of the dynamos and shafts it is conducted into a filtering cylinder; the clean oil runs into a tank below the cylinder, from which a pump forces it back into the supply tank. The pumps are run by the waste water in the bottom of the wheel-pits.

The main-shaft bearings are oiled in a novel manner. An immense iron cup, large enough to serve as a drinking-cup for the greatest of Gulliver's Brobdingnagians, is attached to the revolving shaft below the bearings. A pipe dips into the oil with which the cup is filled, and the centrifugal force of the revolving shaft is so great that it forces the oil up through the pipe to the top of the bearings, which it thoroughly oils, and the waste oil finds its way back into the cup. All that is necessary to supply the cup with fresh oil is to open a valve at the bottom, the dirty oil runs into the filtering cylinder, and the cup is filled with fresh oil from the supply tank.

An elevator descends to the bottom of the wheel-pits, where there are four galleries which enable the engineers to pass round the turbines and examine the workings. On the upper elevator landing one may see the gearings which connect the governor with the dynamos and with the turbine shaft, and the perfectly balanced levers which open and close the water-gates.

One of the interesting features of the power-house is a travelling-crane, which commands every portion of the floor of the building, and is capable of handling the largest piece of machinery in the works. If anything goes wrong with any part of the machinery, it can be removed with the greatest expedition, and a similar piece fitted in its place by means of this useful crane.

In July a company was incorporated under the name of the Cataract Power and Conduit Company for the purpose of furnishing electric power to the city of Buffalo from the Niagara Falls plant. Niagara Falls at once became the centre of interest for manufacturers, engineers, electricians, and scientists, and two days after the company was incorporated the electric plant was visited by a large party of distinguished men from different parts of the country.

Among the number was the great electrical magician Nikola Tesla, who believes that sooner or later the electricity in the earth may be pumped out of it at any point where it may be needed. The opinion of Mr. Tesla on the possibility of transmitting the power from the Falls any considerable distance was awaited with a great deal of eagerness.

"The project is sure to be successful," said Mr. Tesla, after inspecting the marvellous electrical machinery and viewing the almost unlimited capacity of the water-power.

The contracts for constructing the transmission line were let at once, and on November 4--two days after the election of the next President--Buffalo will be receiving power from the Falls of Niagara. The lines through which it is to be sent will be capable of transmitting 40,000 horse-power--enough to turn all the wheels in the Minneapolis flour-mills and whirl all the spindles in busy Holyoke.

The present power-station at the Falls, when fully equipped, will contain ten dynamos, the combined capacity of which will be 50,000 horse-power. Besides this station the company has a permit for constructing another canal the same size on the American side, and a franchise for a similar work on the Canadian side, provided the work is begun in three years from the granting of the franchise.

Everything connected with this work is on so gigantic a scale that it will not be surprising to learn that the tunnel through which the waste water is discharged is the largest hydraulic tunnel in the world, and of sufficient size to carry away enough water to develop 120,000 horse-power. Even this great volume of water diverted from its natural channel will not perceptibly lessen the 7000 tons which leap over the precipice every minute.

The end of the tunnel opening into the river is fifty feet lower than at its beginning, and as there are no rocks or stones to impede the passage of the water, it slides over the smooth floor at a tremendous speed, taking but a little over three minutes from the time that it enters the tunnel before it reaches the outlet. It rushes out of the tunnel with such force that it creates a cross-current far out into the river.

Knowing from whence it came and what it has been doing, one cannot but think, as he sees it come tumbling, leaping, and roaring out of the dark underground passage, that it is like a boy who has just finished some irksome task and is at last free to run and shout and play.

RABBIT-HUNTING IN THE SNOW.

BY ANNIE T. ASHMORE.

Jim and Ned were evidently bound to be good business men. Some of their plans for money-making were very peculiar. They lived side by side on Staten Island, in places where there was a magnificent view of the bay and harbor, and whence incoming and outgoing steamers could be seen to great advantage. They fitted up an office in a room in the attic of Jim's house, hung up a sign, "Shipping Office; latest news furnished of incoming and outgoing crafts"; and as they went at it in a systematic manner, had a capital spy-glass, and had been drilled from their earliest infancy in the knowledge of the different boats, they were often called upon by their neighbors to tell when a ship was due, or if it had already entered the Narrows. For this information they charged varying sums; and while not on the high-road to fortune, still made enough to provide many bottles of sarsaparilla, and more chewing-gum and bolivars than were at all good for the digestion.

Another scheme was selling eggs to their respective mothers, and they really had a very good chicken-yard for a time, while a mysterious account-book which bore the heading "JimandNedeggs" occasioned much merriment among their families (of course unknown to the boys). But latterly business had been dull. The best hens had succumbed to an epidemic, nobody wanted to know about the ships; it was early winter, and there were no more walks to be raked; in fact, a financial crisis was fast overtaking the two partners. Something had to be done, for there were Christmas presents to be bought, new bob-sleds to be had, and of a kind more dangerous than any they had yet risked their lives on. It was evident that only serious and concentrated thought could extricate the firm from the situation in which it was placed.

"Ned, we must think of some way in which we can make money. I was talking to Tom about it the other day, and all he would say was, 'Marse Jim, you leave it to me, and I'll think out a plan.' But not a syllable will he say as to what the plan is. He came up to the dining-room last night and called me out, said he had something of importance to tell me, and all it was, he asked me to ask mother for five dollars. Now you know as well as I do that mother won't let me have another cent for I don't know how long. She's mad because that money she gave us to put into the incubator was all thrown away by our forgetting about it, and leaving the eggs in there till the lamp exploded, and the eggs too. No, there's no use; we've got to find our way out ourselves. What do you think of our going out on a musk-rat hunt, and then selling the skins?"

"All very well," said Ned, the more prudent of the two; "but where are you going to find musk-rats, to begin with? How are you going to catch them when you do find them, and who's going to skin them?"

Blank despair settled down upon the two boys' countenances, and two more unhappy-looking individuals have, fortunately, rarely been seen. Suddenly around the corner of the house appeared a colored boy of about eighteen, black as the ace of spades, but grinning from ear to ear with good humor and amusement.

"What you sitting here in the cold for, you boys? Marse Ned, Marse Jim, you ought to be ashamed of yourselves. If missus found you sitting in the cold, she won't give you no more money for your 'lowance, and you dun bus' now, you tole me."

"Oh, Tom, do tell us a way to get out of this--a way to make money!" said the two boys, simultaneously.

"Well, this nigger ain't much good making money, but you two boys come in the black hole and talk it over, and Tom'll help when he can."

The black hole was in the cellar where the furnace was, and was a favorite resort of Tom's. As they talked now Tom looked up suddenly. An idea had come to him, and he said: "Marse Jim, Marse Ned, you better raise rabbits. Then ask yer mother to let me go to New York jus' befo' Christmas-time; I'll sell 'em in the streets, fifty cents and dollar apiece. Rabbits don't cost nuffin' down hyar, to begin with, and we'll make so much money that you boys will give Tom 'nuf to go down South with an' see his poor old father and mother."

The scheme sounded very plausible, told in Tom's excited way; but then Ned suddenly said, "Tom, where are we going to get the rabbits to start with?"

That was rather a poser. But Tom had his answer ready.

"You boys, now listen to me. I wah just now chasing a rabbit harder'n I ever chased one befo'. Dat ah rabbit, he lives down the big hedge round de garden; he got sisters, brothers, cousins, lots of 'em. We ketch father and mother rabbit, then when we have lots of little rabbits we'se all right. Tom'll build big house for rabbits, keep it outside dar in the coal cellar, and feed 'em every day regular; no trouble at all after we catch father and mother."

The boys knew what rabbit tracks looked like in the snow, and the plan proposed by Tom was that, the first morning after a light snow-fall, they should get up early, and follow the tracks to the part of the hedge where the rabbits lived. He would every night put out some chopped carrots and turnips, and just as soon as the rabbits appeared, they all being in hiding themselves, jump out and catch them. After a long consultation they agreed the old plan was the only safe one--that of tying a string around their big toes, hanging the string out of their respective windows down over the piazza, then Tom would pull the string attached to Massa Jim's toe, and as soon as Jim was dressed, he'd run over and pull the string attached to Ned's. This plan had its disadvantages in summer, for mischievous elder sisters and brothers who sat up late in the evening had a nasty way of pulling the string before they went to bed, and more than once the boys had gotten up in the middle of the night, accordingly, and dressed themselves to go out, only to be met downstairs by the other members of the family with the news that it was still night, and not morning. In December few people sit up on the piazza, so there was less danger, and finally that was settled upon as the best way to do.

Several anxious days passed without any more snow, and the parents of the boys could not understand their sudden interest in the weather, as they generally didn't care at all. They read the weather reports until their eyes ached, but the only snow in sight was out in western Dakota, and it seemed as if it never would come to this region of the country. But as all comes round to him who will but wait, Jim was awakened one night--or as it seemed to him, night--with a hideous dream in which a rabbit was eating off his toe, to find that the string was being violently jerked. It didn't take him half a minute to get to the window, and when he looked out there was the sun just coming up and the ground covered with the loveliest, whitest snow. Jim did not wait to perform a very extensive toilet, and was over at Ned's, pulling the string attached to his toe, in less time than it takes to tell about it. Then as soon as Ned got out the two boys went in search of Tom, who was in a great state of excitement, and who had collected together two other darkies. The air was decidedly cold, but nobody minded it, so great was the excitement; and when some tiny little marks were seen in the snow the boys felt as if it were the greatest moment of their lives, all the more delicious because they all had to keep absolute silence. They went in single file, following down the little footfalls of the rabbit, when suddenly, just ahead of them, they saw the animal they were in search of, and not one only, but three of them. They looked so pretty nibbling away there at the carrots and turnips, and so wise with their long ears, that the boys could not bear to have them interrupted, and watched them for some little time.