going into the presence of King Ahasuerus to plead for the lives of her people, who asked them to fast three days, as she had done, and so had I. As I sat there with my heart in my mouth waiting to be called in to see the big man, the words of that old Sunday school lesson kept running through my mind: 'And so I will go in unto the king, which is not according to law, and if I perish, I perish.' But Mr. Hill, like King Ahasuerus, held out the golden sceptre to me and I and my people were saved."

The man who has put the big ditch through-and it can be judged from the description of the country it has traversed, that it was no very easy job-is W. T. Clark. There have been many private irrigation schemes in the west which have resulted disastrously, both to the investors and to the settlers. There have been some which have made a bare go of

it, and some which have done well. A few have been unqualified successes and it is hardly worth saying that Wenatchee is among the last named. At least, the United States Reclamation Service has taken it as a model. It is as if the once thirst-parched land gave back abundant harvest in very gratitude for water.

Chief Engineer Arthur P. Davis, of the Service, has this to say: "A most valuable object lesson of an instance where private interests have stepped in and made profitable land which went to waste formerly may be found in the Wenatchee valley. The government officials of the Reclamation Service have considered the settlement of this valley so ideal that it has been taken as an example after which to pattern the Okanogan (Washington) irrigation project, which the government now has under construction."

heavier-then, indeed, marine architecture would be utterly revolutionized.

For in such case it would no longer be necessary to increase power eight times merely to double the ship's speed, as is necessary at present. Epoch-making, therefore, are the latest experiments, which have proved to demonstration that speeds up to a hundred miles an hour are possible at sea, giving a clear prospect of a thirty-hour run from New York to Liverpool, with the added marvel that seasickness also will be relegated to

the limbo of forgotten horrors, because no longer possible!

And yet the idea is not new. The tendency of the plane to rise in the direction in which it is propelled has been noticed for centuries by kite-flyers. And forty years ago the British Government was experimenting with a device that showed how craft would lift if it had inclined planes made fast to its hull. So wonderful were the possibilities that private inventors speedily took a hand, among them Raoul Pictet, whose water "flyingmachine" amazed the Swiss about the classic shores of Lac Leman.

But there was one fatal defect in those days the tremendous weight of marine engines which nullified the lifting power of the planes. But an age of gasolene motors that develop the strength of a horse for every three or four pounds of weight revived the old marvel; and three years ago the Count de Lambert-the French are wonders at motors, as Santos Dumont knows-began a new series of trials.

Over thirty-four miles an hour was attained in a craft carrying 3306 pounds, and propelled by a miniature engine of only fifty horse-power. The count used five planes, each ten feet long and four

broad, slightly inclined, and upturned from back to front. Unfortunately some of his planes, while lifting the hull, themselves emerged also, and set up much resistance.

This defect, however, was wholly overcome in the first glider built in this country. Here the planes were not placed directly on the keel, but hung from a framework attached to the hull. So deep were they in the water that when they rose they lifted the boat clear, yet remained quite submerged themselves. In a word the hull hung upon stilts, each terminating in an inclined plane so arranged that the higher the speed the greater the lifting power of the planeswhose angle, by the way, could be automatically altered by an ingenious device.

But the man who has attained the most astounding results of all is Peter Cooper Hewitt of New York, well known for the famous light to which he has given his name, and also for his remarkable automobile inventions. Here is a rare case of an inventor being both cautious and modest; for it is only the ablest of practical engineers that have sung the praises of an invention destined to bring about an utter revolution in water transport. Oddly enough Hewitt started out to build

a flying machine, but like a flash it occurred to him that gigantic success would be his if he made his medium water instead of air.

His first model was a little 27-foot craft, carrying an eight-cylinder gasolene motor. When at rest the boat gave no indication at all of high speed capability; yet when set in motion it fairly flew along the surface of the water, the hull quite clear, the planes skimming like feathering oars at well above forty miles an

hour. And it is as clear as that two and two make four that a 200-foot vessel can be built which will go sixty or eighty miles an hour; while a still larger craft, with nothing like the power put into one of our great ocean liners, would surely bridge the Atlantic in little more than a day!

It was a lucky moment for Mr. Hewitt when he chose water for his medium rather than unstable air, which requires wings or planes 800 times the size and power required for the same effective lift as in water. Moreover, experiments are proportionately less costly.

"My first model," Mr. Hewitt told THE TECHNICAL WORLD, "was entirely supported by the planes at sixteen miles. an hour; the flotation hull being entirely out of water at that speed. I found, too, that the area of the planes should decrease with the speed for economy and safety. So far, speed has only been limited by the propeller, but the craft will gradually improve with increased size, and the liner of the future will be practically independent of weather, and have no motion from the waves."

As the surface of the water is uneven, it becomes necessary to straddle the surface, so to speak-that is, to have the main supporting planes well below the surface, and maintain the hull well at rest above the wave-crests, allowing the rollers to play in between. This is perfectly practicable, so that a large ship will, even

THE PLANES AND PROPELLER.

in the roughest weather, glide as smoothly as in a placid lake.

You see, the system is precisely the same as with the flying machine, save that the latter is forced to provide mechanical substitutes for the surface of the water, which is an invariable means of support for the new craft.

And aside from its peace aspect, the possibilities of the invention in war must be considered. Naval architects claim that the larger guns cannot be used with any accuracy on a vessel going faster than thirty miles an hour. For this reason a torpedo boat skimming or gliding at a mile a minute could do pretty well as it pleased and loose its Whiteheads at giant victims that remained entirely helpless. And remember, every experiment has shown that the gliding principle is better adapted to big ships than small boats.

The only problem that remains at present is that of the propeller. Beyond question, however, the engineers will meet this difficulty in view of the marvelous new era of ocean travel now clearly shown to be in the realm of things practical. Wise and far-seeing men have scoffed at the idea of any inventor, much less the general public, flying through the air from the Old World to the New-at any rate in this generation.

For the past two or three years there have been standing offers to inventors aggregating $250,000, at least, for a

flight from London to Paris-a matter of less than four hundred miles. Or even a course from London to Liverpool, entirely over land. But so far no enthusiast has been able to claim this fortune. Not that engineers doubt the great future of the flying machine; but at present stability and absolute certainty are hopelessly lacking because of the precarious medium of support.

But the idea of offering all the advantages of a flying machine with the addition of an absolutely stable medium is one to arouse enthusiasm even in the layman. And besides enormous speed, there will be entire immunity from seasickness, because the giant hull will be lifted clear above the waves, just like the body of a flying albatross that skims over the wavecrests and laughs at the storm.

Of course fogs, icebergs and derelicts will always remain a menace. Still, for all practical purposes water travel will be as rapid as that on land, for the fundamental difficulty has been solved and all resistance overcome by lifting the hull clear out of the water, using the latter merely for the support of the gliding planes. One cannot help shuddering,

however, at the thought of two of these fast planes colliding while running at full speed.

It is little wonder that Peter Cooper Hewitt should be the man of the hour; and very tempting offers are being made to him by capitalists and enthusiastic engineers who have seen the inventor fairly flying over the water in his boat and turning sharp corners around the yachts. in Long Island Sound in a manner altogether amazing to the mariner. A larger craft is already projected, for which seventy miles an hour is expected; and it cannot be long before the great ocean transportation companies take official notice of this revolutionary invention, as they did in the case of the turbine now fitted to giants like the Cunarders, Carmania and Caronia.

It is, therefore, no fantastic theory, but a matter of sober fact that within a few years at most the crossing of the Atlantic, with its 3000 miles of stormy sea, will be a matter no more serious than the journey from New York to Chicago at this hour. Yet it seems but yesterday the bridging of the ocean in a fortnight was a thing to marvel at!

-BOURDILLON,