MONTHLY, FIVE DOLLARS PER YEAR. SINGLE NUMBERS, FIFTY CENTS. PROF. EDWIN J. HOUSTON, A.M., PH.D., Chairman, PRof. Arthur DR. WM. H. WAHL, Secretary of the Institute. OCTOBER, 1895 No. 4 CONTENTS. Irrigation; with an Example of its Application in the Arid Region of 241 Engineering Education and the State University. By Wm. S. Aldrich, 262 An Account of the Gardiner Lyceum, the First Trade School Established NOTES AND COMMENTS: Self-Propelling Vehicles. Durfee's Hydraulic Vacuum Pump and Blow-pipe. 275 287 309 311 Electrically-Lighted Buoys in the Gedney Channel, New York Harbor 313 Prize for Electric Heaters . . Metallic Sodium from Leakage Currents BOOK NOTICES . . FRANKLIN INSTITUTE: 314 314 315 316 Proceedings of the Stated Meeting, held Wednesday, September 18, 320 PUBLISHED BY THE FRANKLIN INSTITUTE, PHILADELphia. (B) THE Franklin Institute is not responsible for the statements and opinions advanced by contributors to the Journal. IRRIGATION; WITH AN EXAMPLE OF ITS APPLICA TION IN THE ARID REGION OF WESTERN AMERICA. Irrigation antedates authentic history. This statement is proven by the existence of most wonderful ruins in Asia and Africa, of pools or reservoirs, canals and aqueducts, of the construction and use of which only the most indefinite and unsatisfactory traditions can be obtained. Surmises exist in abundance, but no actual knowledge. These great monuments of hydraulic engineering have excited the wonder and admiration of modern scientists. In fact, until within a generation of the present, no practical advance had been made in the science of irrigation for 3,000 years. Many of the great irrigation works of antiquity were destroyed or abandoned as the results of wars or the convulsions of Nature, and as the ancient local civilization disapVOL. CXL. No, 838. 16 peared, the lands again became desert, and the small remnants of the races sank into savagery and barbarism. The extent of some of these great hydraulic works can be conjectured from the ruins remaining. Lake Maeris, in Egypt, was constructed at least 2,000 years before Christ. Its dimensions were sufficient to regulate the annual inundation of the Nile, receiving the surplus waters when there was danger of a flood, and supplying the needed deficiency when the river reached a stage which would not irrigate the crops. This, with other large reservoirs of flood waters, enabled a population of 20,000,000, to exist in the valley of the Nile, while it now supports barely one-fourth of the number. In ancient times the valleys of the Euphrates and Tigris, now almost a desert, were densely populated. Four thousand years ago the rulers of Assyria had converted those sterile plains and valleys into gardens of extreme productiveness, by the construction of immense artificial lakes for the conservation of the flood waters of the rivers, and great distributing canals for irrigation. One of these canals, supplied by the Tigris, was over 400 miles long and from 200 to 400 feet broad, with sufficient depth for the navigation of the vessels of that time. Throughout Judea the ancient Jews constructed many pools, tanks and wells for the irrigation of their fields. The Greeks of that age also understood the science of hydraulics, as is shown by the remains of great aqueducts. The Phoenicians converted a portion of Northern Africa into fields and gardens by extensive irrigation works. The Romans thoroughly mastered this science and drained the Pontine marshes, supplied Rome with the purest water and developed the agricultural resources of Italy. In France, Spain and Portugal they built aqueducts to supply the cities with water, and canals to irrigate the valleys. In India, tanks, reservoirs and irrigating canals were constructed many centuries before the Christian era, and a great part of that country was kept in the highest state of cultivation. Some of the tanks or artificial lakes. covered many square miles, and were often fifty feet in depth. The English Government, in recent years, has re |