Turbines Reversed.
For many years turbines have proved themselves better than other water-wheels, so that wherever an old-fashioned breast-wheel still goes its creaking round, there the sketcher seizes the picturesque outlines of a motor whose remaining days are few. A turbine in carefully curved vanes gets from falling water all the power it holds; when the task is to lift water, then this very turbine, reversed in direction, is the Worthington pump, the most efficient water-lifter known. The rules for construction are the same whether we start with falling water and derive power from it, or begin with power and raise water thereby. Quite as pictorial as a breast-wheel is a wind-mill, the older the better, thinks the artist as he views its weather-beaten frame. Much later than the wind-mill as a device is its counterpart, the fan-blower; the lines most effective for the one are also best for the other. Much more effective than the old-time mills of but four arms are new mills whose whole circle is covered by blades. Fan-blowers with a like multiplicity of vanes, yield most duty.