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Underground London

HE AMERICAN

TOURIST

visiting London for the first time, is almost certain to leave the city, which Englishmen believe is the heart of the world, without knowing that another London, in many respects more wonderful than the one he sees, lies beneath his feet. In this buried city are hundreds of miles of streets; a river fed by a score of streams flows quietly along between its shadowy banks; baths, bakeries, and restaurants carry on their work where daylight never enters, and safely removed from the dust and bustle of the traffic above them. In a certain district are wine vaults, which, if ranged in a line, would extend over thirty miles.

If you doubt the existence of a subterranean London, inquire of some Englishman who has explored this buried city, and he will tell you of clean, well-paved, well-ventilated, well-lighted subways, along which you may walk for hours. At your side run high pipes carrying the electric wires, pneumatic tubes, etc., for the use of the millions of human beings in the London above. In your walk you may stop and look down through a grating on a railway station far beneath you,

and at the same time hear the thunders of an underground train just above your head. Deep down beneath where you stand, are other passages through which run enormous gas and water mains; and between, at different levels, is "the most wonderful network of underground railways in the world." In this buried London are hundreds of miles of sewers, the exploration of which is by no means a pleasant task, as rats are there in thousands. The old Fleet River, about which we read in the doings of bygone centuries, flows to the Thames through a channel over twelve feet in depth, and, after heavy rains, thunders along in great volume. Beneath St. Paul's churchyard is a large, well-equipped restaurant where hundreds take their meals every day. To gain an entrance to this restaurant, you must walk under a large block of warehouses.

While on this subterranean trip, you will be shown many interesting historical relics-for example, an arch and doorway built about the time Pompeii was destroyed, and the bath in which the Roman Emperor Severus took his morning dip seventeen centuries ago.

W

The Outlook for Trained Men

HATEVER CRITICISM may be directed against the courses of engineering study given by our American schools, there is no escape from the fact that their graduates now fill a very large proportion of the most important and best paying positions open to engineers. Such a condition cannot result from chance or mere good fortune; on the contrary, it has come about because employers have found it to their advantage to employ such men in preference to others who have not received similar training. As these graduates themselves become employers, they turn naturally to the schools for their assistants, and the next gener

ation is likely to find the graduate engineers in full control, from highest to lowest.

The technically trained engineer is to-day exerting a mighty influence in the development of the country and its resources, and in the future will perhaps play an even more important part. Our engineering schools may well feel proud of the results of their labor, and he will be foolish, indeed, who, in the light of what their graduates have accomplished and are accomplishing, will say that the training which they have given is far wrong in its conception or its attainment. -Proceedings of the Society for the Promotion of Engineering Education.

Noon Hour Talks

Has "Success" an Age Limit?

ΝΕ OF

THE COMMON "SAWS" of to-day is that "this is the age of young men." This phrase we are constantly meeting in the literature put forth by a certain class of magazines, and it has also become a part of the stock in trade of popular lecturers. Analyzed, it is meant to express the belief that in all the active pursuits of life, the young man is in the saddle; that the young man of this age has his hand on the throttle of the world.

Youth Successful in All Ages

And yet young men play no greater, no more prominent part in this generation than they did in others. Luther in the sixteenth century, Newton in the seventeenth, Napoleon and Pitt in the eighteenth, and thousands of others-dating from the present back to Alexander the Great, who conquered the then known world before he was thirty-bear witness that the young man of ability, of initiative, is not the peculiar creation of this generation, but common to all time. In estimating the success of young men in past centuries, we must judge them by the achievements which meant success in their own age, not by what means success in ours.

The secret of success has never been a matter of age. A man may be old or young, and fail. Success depends upon the quality of a man's ability and the steadfastness of his purpose. Men of ability and moral strength have won success at 50 as often as have men of 25. It is simply a question of paying the price. If a man is unwilling to pay in time, skill, patience, the price demanded

to attain a certain end-no matter whether he be twenty-five or seventy, he will fail. The young man who starts out with the idea that in the active affairs of life the old men are on the shelf, makes a mighty big mistake.

What Old Men Have Done

Doctor Johnson wrote his famous. "Lives of the Poets" at seventy-eight. Galileo was seventy when he wrote on the "Laws of Motion." Bismarck ruled Germany at seventy-five. General Grant was unknown at forty-two. In the active affairs of the world, it is not a question of How Old Are You? but What Can You Do? It is true, "A man at fifty is too old to run up and down on the icy top of a freight car in winter;" but as a man with an active, productive brain, he should be at his best. If he has profited by his opportunities, he should be even better off and more useful at sixty than at fifty.

Another Popular Fallacy

It is said that youth is the best time to study. Quite true. In youth the average boy's most important work is to attend school. Under ordinary circumstances there is nothing else for him to do. But the statement that youth is the best time to study does not mean that a grown man is incapable of being a good student. If the truth were told, we should discover that old men are among the best of students. Some people talk as if a man at forty were incapable of mastering a science, art, or trade; that to take up any serious study after thirty-five or forty, is only a waste of time and money. But

listen! Noah Webster mastered seventeen languages after he was fifty. James Watt, the inventor of the Condensing Engine, learned to speak and read German at eighty-seven. George Stephenson did not learn to read and write until he had reached manhood. Richard Baxter did not know a single letter at eighteen. "Men are like wine-age sours the bad and improves the good."

Opportunities for Old and Young

How many times will a mature man say to a younger friend or fellow-worker, "I wish when I was young I had had your opportunities to get an education, and I should have made something of myself." He seldom, if ever, realizes that the same educational opportunity is waiting at his own door. There is a certain excuse for a man of fifty-five or sixty feeling that it is little use at his time of life to start a course of study; but when a man of thirty-five or forty deliberately refuses to enter upon a course of study, the accomplishment of which would be certain to bring him promotion in his trade or profession, such a man commits a positive crime against himself. A large number of the men whose names are associated with some famous invention or industrial development, received their education late in life. We would not for one moment depreciate the educa

tional advantages of youth; but the man who sets earnestly to work to educate himself in something he knows that he needs, will find such an education of infinitely greater value than two-thirds of the information forced into him in youth.

Ripened Genius

You will be surprised by the reading, more especially of literature, to see the age at which many of the world's great authors put forth their masterpieces. Sophocles was nearly ninety years old when he produced the greatest of Greek dramatic poems, "Antigone." While it is not certain, Dante is thought to have been close on fifty-six when he finished his "mediæval miracle of song." It was when John Milton, the blind Puritan, was fifty-six that he sat down to write his immortal epic. Wordsworth in his eightieth year was composing noble poems. The older men of this generation are not receiving the credit they deserve for what they are doing. The young men of to-day make such a noise, that the quiet, mature, experienced work of the older men is too often passed without notice; but look deeply into the world's life, and you will find that success has no age limit. The men who in this generation are guiding the world's work, cover a period from young manhood to old age.

"Each petty hand

Can steer a ship becalmed; but he that will Govern her and carry her to her ends, must know

His tides, his currents; how to shift his sails: What she will bear in foul, what in fair

weathers;

What her springs are, her leaks, and how to

stop them;

What strands, what shelves, what rocks to

threaten her;

The forces and the natures of all winds, Gusts, storms, and tempests; when her keel

plows hell,

And deck knocks heaven-then to manage her Becomes the name and office of a pilot."

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In order to receive attention, all inquiries must be addressed to the Consulting Department, and must be accompanied
with the full name and address of the sender. In view of the fact that the inquiries already received have
far exceeded the available space, the Editors reserve the right to select for publication

only those inquiries likely to be of greatest interest to the readers of the mag-
azine in general. Other inquiries will be answered by letter.

Compressed Air

Question 1: If air at 32° F. be compressed to 75 pounds (gauge), what will be the temperature at the latter pressure, providing no heat is given or conducted during compression?

Question 2: How many pounds of steam per I. H. P. per hour are consumed by the theoretical engine, the boiler pressure being 100 pounds (absolute) and exhausting into the atmosphere?

Question 3: At what temperature at atmospheric pressure does air become liquid, and how many B. T. U. are given off during liquefaction?-I. A. H.

Answer 1: The temperature of air when compressed with no heat loss, is determined by means of the formula:

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T, being the absolute temperature of the intake air, and p1 being the absolute pressure of the same. T, and p2 are the corresponding final temperature and pressure. From this we see that the final temperature is 370° F.

Answer 2: About 13 pounds is the quantity of steam consumed per horsepower of actual work done per hour. This is on the assumption that there is no back pressure of exhaust or of compression, and that there is no loss of steam by cylinder condensation or leakage. A

clearance of 7 per cent, however, has been assumed.

The above, then, you see, indicates what the possibilities are of steam at 100 pounds' absolute pressure (85 pounds' gauge pressure). If the steam is not allowed to expand, but is taken in at full pressure throughout the entire stroke, the economy is much lower. Under these conditions, about 34 pounds are required per horse-power per hour.

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Answer 3: Air has not yet been liquefied at atmospheric pressure. There is a certain "critical" temperature for all gases, above which they cannot be liquefied by pressure alone. This temperature for air is given as 220° F., and at this temperature it takes about 39 atmospheres to liquefy air. Its latent heat, or the number of B. T. U. given off during its change from a gaseous to a liquid state, is not known with certainty. It is, however, supposed to be about 123 B. T. U.

Explosion of Gasoline Engines Question: Why do so many gasoline and naphtha engines explode?-J. W. H.

Answer: If the operation of explosive motors have one or several mis-fires, the cylinder becomes overcharged with com

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CURRENT CURVES OF 3-PHASE BALANCED SYSTEM.

a three-phase balanced system. Now, the direction and magnitude of current in each one of the three phases may be determined at any given instant by drawing a line such as A B at any point, such as for instance 150°. Let us consider that the current in one direction is positive, as represented by the curves above the line; and in the opposite direction negative, as represented by the curves below the line. Then, at A B, the currents in phases I and 2 are in a positive direction and equal, while the current in phase 3 is in the negative direction. Again, at C D, the current in phase 2 is zero, while that in phase I is positive and exactly equal to that in phase 3, which is negative. In the same way, by passing lines through the curves, similar to A B and C D, it is possible to investigate the direction and value of currents at any desired point.

The algebraic sum of the ordinates of the three curves is equal to zero at any point. For instance, at C D, the ordinate

Operation of Cream Separator Question: How does a cream separator work?-W. B.

Answer: Centrifugal force is used to separate the cream from the milk. The receptacle for the milk is arranged with a spindle passing through the casing, so that it can be revolved at the rate of from 1,000 to 1,500 revolutions per minute. The centrifugal force throws the heavier milk near the outer part of the receptacle, where it is drawn off through a pipe for the purpose. The lighter cream, remaining near the center, is drawn out through another pipe. There is also a supply pipe so that the original milk can be run in while the machine is in operation.

Manufacture of Citric Acid

Question: How is citric acid made?—H. K. Answer: Citric acid is made on a large scale from the juice of the lime and the lemon, chiefly in the months of November and December. The juice is fermented for some time, to free it from mucilage; then boiled, filtered, and neutralized with powdered chalk and a little milk of lime. The precipitate of calcium citrate so obtained is decomposed with dilute sulphuric acid; and the resulting

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