Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 91.djvu/127

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

Popular Science Monthly

��111

��A Community Garage Comprises Fifty Buildings on One Lot

FIFTY garages, set as closely together as possible, occu- py a vacant lot in New York city. Each one is rented to a car owner living in the neigh- borhood. The fireproof struc- tures are uniform in design, being made out of gal- vanized iron with the framework formed of an- gle steel.

The doors are of wood, sheathed with metal, and the windows are of wire glass. Each tenant is provided with keys and has access to his garage at any time of the day or night. The build- ings are ten feet by eighteen feet, with cement floors. They are large enough to accom- modate the car and pro- vide additional room for a workbench. Facilities for cleaning are provided in the court yard, and there, too, may be found a supply station for gas, oil, etc.

The garages may be provided with heat- ing devices if desired. Care service is ren- dered at a moderate charge, though this is optional with the owner. The lot measures x 55 by l 75 f eet an d besides the individual garages, which are placed back to back in the center of the lot, there is ample space provided for driveways.

���The oil passes over the flame and every particle of it becomes vaporized. The burners concentrate the heat where it is wanted

��Making the Kitchen Range One Hundred Per Cent Efficient

THE oil-burning stove of Gar- ritt Van Daam, a combustion engineer of Buffalo, New York, is a recently invented rival of the modern coal range. The usual kerosene heater is a good little stove, but it is known to smoke and to smell generally. This shows that some per- fectly good oil is being wasted. Van Daam's heater neither smokes nor smells, which means that it is practically one hun- dred per cent effi- cient. The coal stove is seldom bet- ter than fifty per cent efficient.

The secret of this burner's high effi- ciency is in the heat- ing of the kerosene before it burns. From the supply tank near the stove,

���One city lot accommodates fifty buildings placed back to back, with room for driveways, as a community garage

��the kerosene feeds by gravity through a heating chamber placed directly over an ordinary gas-burner jet. Two minutes after the kerosene has been lit, the chamber will be so hot that all the kerosene that fol- lows will be vaporized. In this state, every bit of the kerosene is combustible and burns fiercely. In the ordinary oil burner this is impossible because all the oil does not get the chance to vaporize. The portion that does not is wasted, because it merely changes into soot.

With the oil-burner made practical, there will be no more working in an overhot kitchen to accomplish a little cooking in the summer. The burners are placed to direct the heat only where it is wanted. For baking, the oven burner will concentrate the heat in the oven and neither the whole stove nor the room will need to be made hot along with it. Equally as comforting is the _ fact that the stove cools off immediate-

��ly after the oil is turned off.

�� �