Letting his feet breathe
Walking-shoes should not be worn in the house, neither should the same pair be worn on consecutive days, thus giving them a chance to air. Abraham Lincoln used to slip off his shoes when he had the chance, “ letting his feet breathe,” as he said.
Bell's Telephone in March, 1876
Curved Stereotype Plate
Howe's Improved Sewing Machine
Lock Stitch (above) and Chain Stitch (below)
Stock Indicator or 'Ticker'
Dom Pedro II
Alexander Graham Bell in 1900
Cheapside in London
Kitchen in which Goodyear made his Experiments
Daniel Webster
Wellesley College in 1886
Jonathan and his Uncle William in the One-horse Chaise
Elias Howe
Edison's First Phonograph
Sextuple Perfecting Press
Birthplace of Charles Goodyear
McCormick's Reaping Machine
The Old Way of Reaping
The Earliest Printers at Work
A Monk Copying Manuscript Books
Charles Goodyear
Faneuil Hall, Boston, Adjoining Quincy Market
Edison in his Library
Engineers in Camp
A full surveying party consists of the front flag-man, with his corps of axe-men to cut away trees and bushes; the transit-man, who records the distances and angles of the line, assisted by his chain-men and flag-men; and lastly the leveller, who takes and records the levels, with his rod-men and axe-men. The chief of the party exercises a general supervision over all, and is sometimes assisted by a topographer, who sketches in his book the contours of the hills and direction and size of the watercourses. One tent contains the cook, the commissary, and the provisions; another tent or two the working party, and another the superior engineers, with their drawing instruments and boards. In a properly regulated party the map and profile of the day's work should be plotted before going to bed, so as to see if all is right. If it turns out that the line can be improved and easier grades got, or other changes made, now is the time to do it.
Howe's First Sewing Machine
Natives Drying Rubber
Making an Embankment
After the railway line has been finally located, the next duty of the engineers is to prepare the work for letting. Land-plans are made, from which the right of way is secured. From the sections, the quantities are taken out. Plans of bridges and culverts are made; and a careful specification of all the works on the line is drawn up. The works are then let, either to one large contractor or to several smaller ones, and the labor of construction begins. The duties of the engineers are to stake out the work for the contractors, make monthly returns of its progress, and see that it is well done and according to the specifications and contract. The line is divided into sections, and an engineer, with his assistants, is placed in charge of each. Where the works are heavy, the contractors build shanties for their men and teams near the heavy cuttings or embankments. It is the custom to take out heavy cuttings by means of the machine called a steam shovel, which will dig as many yards in a day as 500 men.
Pope's Cantilever in Process of Erection
The most notable invention of latter days in bridge construction is that of the cantilever bridge, which is a system devised to dispense with staging, or false works, where from the great depth, or the swift current, of the river, this would be difficult, or, as in the case of the Niagara River, impossible to make. The first design of which we have any record was that of a bridge planned by Thomas Pope, a ship carpenter of New York, who, in 1810, published a book giving his designs for an arched bridge of timber across the North River at Castle Point, of 2,400 feet span. Mr. Pope called this an arch, but his description clearly shows it to have been what we now call a cantilever. As was the fashion of the day, he indulged in a poetical description: "Like half a Rainbow rising on yon shore, While its twin partner spans the semi o'er, And makes a perfect whole that need not part Till time has furnish'd us a nobler art." Note : This bridge was never built - it would be impossible in wood.
Franklin's Printing Press
Silhouettes of Grandfather and Grandmother
Figure from the Liberal Arts Building
Horizontal Bar and Chest-bars, for Home Use
All that people need for their daily in-door exercises is a few pieces of apparatus which are fortunately so simple and inexpensive as to be within the reach of most persons. Buy two pitchfork handles at the agricultural store. Cut off enough of one of them to leave the main piece a quarter of an inch shorter than the distance between the jambs of your bedroom door, and square the ends. On each of these jambs fasten two stout hard-wood cleats, so slotted that the squared ends of the bar shall fit in snugly enough not to turn. Let the two lower cleats be directly opposite each other, and about as high as your shoulder; the other two also opposite each other, and as high above the head as you can comfortably reach.
The First Type of McCormick Reaper
General View of the Poughkeepsie Bridge
The new bridge at Poughkeepsie has three of these cantilevers, connected by two fixed spans, as shown in the illustration. The fixed spans have horizontal lower chords, and really extend beyond each pier and up the inclined portions, to where the bottom chord of the cantilever is horizontal. At these points the junctions between the spans are made, and arranged in such a way, by means of movable links, that expansion and contraction due to changes of temperature can take place. The fixed spans are 525 feet long. Their upper chord, where the tracks are placed, is 212 feet above water. These spans required stagings to build them upon. These stagings were 220 feet above water, and rested on piles, driven through 60 feet of water and 60 feet of mud, making the whole height of the temporary staging 332 feet, or within 30 feet of the height of Trinity Church steeple, in New York. The time occupied in building one of these stagings and then erecting the steel-work upon it was about four months. The cantilever spans were erected without any stagings at all below, and entirely from the two overhead travelling scaffolds, shown in the engraving. These scaffolds were moved out daily from the place of beginning over the piers, until they met in the centre. The workmen hoisted up the different pieces of steel from a barge in the river below and put them into place, using suspended planks to walk upon. The time saved by this method was so great that one of these spans of 548 feet long was erected in less than four weeks, or one-seventh of the time which would have been required if stagings had been used.
An Opium Fiend
Noiseless Pulley-weights
... a sketch of a pair of pulley-weights recently made, designed by Dr. Sargent, which are excellent. Their merits will be seen at a glance. Instead of the weights swaying sideways and banging against the boxes, as they are liable to do in the ordinary old-fashioned pulley-weight boxes, they travel in boxes, A A, between the rods B B. A rubber bed also prevents the weight from making a noise as it strikes the floor, while another capital feature is the arrangement of boxes, in which you may graduate the weight desired by adding little plates of a pound each, instead of the unchanging weight of the old plan.
Tapping a Rubber Tree
Elevated Railroads
The earth with a segment removed to show supposed internal zones
Crust (6-30 miles) Mantle (1800 miles) Outer core (1400 miles) Inner core (750 miles) The core is the innermost zone of the earth. It is mainly iron with some nickel and cobalt. The inner core probably is solid, but the outer core may consist of the same elements in a molten form. The core is the most dense (heaviest) of the three zones.
A summer Concert Garden
Methods Employed by Indians of Hafting Stone Weapons
Appliance for developing the Sides of the Waist
If one prefers to use apparatus made specially, the cut shows a simple device of Dr. Sargent's, which he made purposely to bring up and strengthen these muscles. Standing in front of it, with head and neck erect and chest out, and grasping the ends of the bar A A', the operator simply turns it, first well up to the right, then to the left, and then repeats the movements until he has enough. As he turns, the rubber straps B B stretch more and more, of course getting stiffer the farther the bar is turned. It would scarcely be possible to hit upon a [p.218]better appliance for improving these valuable side muscles, and yet without fear of overdoing them.
Administration Building
Kinzua Viaduct
Cheyenne Types
Group From the Liberal Arts Building
A Dedicatory Scene
Moonlight Excursion
Bird's Eye vie of the World's Fair
Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio
The Opera House, a new and handsome building, is on Euclid avenue. There are, besides, an Academy of Music and the Globe Theatre and several minor theatres. The business portion of Euclid avenue extends from the Park to Erie street, beyond which it is lined with handsome residences, elegant cottages and superb villas, the grounds around each being more and more extensive as it approaches the country. It is one of the finest avenues in the world, and is not less than ten miles in length, embracing during its course several suburbs which a generation since were remote from the city, and are now considerably surprised to find themselves brought so near it. Euclid avenue crosses the other streets diagonally, and was evidently one of the original roads leading into the city before it attained its present dimensions. The majority of the streets are parallel with the lake front, which pursues a course from the northeast to the southwest. But Euclid avenue runs directly eastward for about three miles, to Doane's Corners, one of the historic spots in the neighborhood of Cleveland, and then turns to the northeast, following nearly parallel to the course of the lake. Prospect street runs parallel to Euclid avenue, and is only second to it in the beauty and elegance of its residences. St. Clair street is also a favorite suburban avenue, extending parallel to the lake, a little distance from it, far out into the country, and containing many handsome residences.
Finis—The Author at Rest
Benjamin Franklin
Driving About the Town
A Chest-widener
Dr. Sargent's ingenuity has provided a simple and excellent chest expander. He rigs two ordinary pulleys over blocks some feet above the head, and from five to six feet apart, and attaching weights at the floor ends of the ropes, puts ordinary handles on the other ends, and has the ropes just long enough so that when the weights are on the floor the handles are about a foot above the head. Now stand between and directly under them, erect, with the chest as full as you can make it, and keeping the elbows straight, and grasping the handles draw your hands slowly downward out at arm's-length, say about two feet. Next, let the weights drop gradually back, repeat, and so go on. This is excellent for enlarging the whole chest, but especially for widening it. A better present to a consumptive person than one of these appliances could hardly be devised.
In the Turkish Bath
Chicago is nothing if not metropolitan. The Turkish bath is a feature of metropolitan life which should not be deprived of its proper share of attention.
Scene in the Moorish Village
Flight of Philip from Mount Hope
Commander W.B. Cushing, U.S.N
Music Hath Charms