AN IMPROVED DOUBLE SURFACE PLANER.
GLEASON’S DOUBLE SURFACE PLANER.
A four‐roll machine that is simple and durable, and all geared with the most improved extension gearing, is shown in the accompanying illustration, as made by Messrs. E. & F. Gleason, manufacturers of improved wood tools, American Street and Susquehanna Avenue, Philadelphia, Pa. Both heads are driven with one counter, and only two belts are required, the adjustment of bed and control of feed being both on left‐hand side of machine, at B C, within immediate reach of the operator. The bottom head is quite as easy of adjustment as the top head, having large screws, F, one at each box, to regulate cut or chip and keep it in line with bed and top head, both heads having self‐oiling boxes. The machine will double‐surface stuff from one‐eighth inch to six inches in thickness. It occupies a floor space of about four feet by forty inches. The counter shaft has patent self‐oiling hangers and patent self‐oiling loose pulleys.
Foundations in Wet Ground.
A new method of making foundations in wet ground has been devised by M. Bonnetond, a French military engineer. His plan is to bore a hole 10 ft. or 12 ft. deep and 1½ ft. in diameter in the damp ground, and in this a series of dynamite cartridges are placed, and finally exploded. The expansion of the gases generated drives the water far out beyond the sides of the hole, into which it does not return for at least half an hour. The time thus gained is utilized in rapidly excavating the cavity, which is then filled with a cement concrete, which sets before the return of the water. The method has been adopted in the construction of a fortified enceinte at Lyons, and is said to have led to very rapid work.