|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 7
The president of the company declared that a short cable would not work.
The case is to go to trial. While the worst that can be done to the
company is to be fined $500, people are looking forward to the trial,
because they expect that the witnesses who give evidence will show some
way of getting the car round the curve without shaking everybody who is in
it, and killing or wounding all who cannot jump out of its way.
* * * * *
Did you ever see a house move?
If you have not, you have missed a very funny sight.
Imagine driving along a country road, and meeting a three-story house
making a journey along the highway to new quarters.
There is a good deal of this to be seen just now at Katonah, New York.
A year or so ago the Croton water, which is in use in New York City, was
found to be impure.
A commission was appointed to go and examine the Croton Water-Shed. This
meant that they were to examine the little streams, and brooks, and
rivers, and lakes, which supplied the water to our aqueduct, and see what
the trouble was.
They found that along the banks of these streams and lakes, in villages
and out in the country, a great many dwelling-houses and shanties had been
built, the occupants of which were in the habit of throwing all sorts of
rubbish into the water, making it unfit for drinking.
In consequence of this, all of the houses were ordered to be torn down or
moved away, and one small village of shanties was destroyed. Among others,
the inhabitants of Katonah were ordered to move, that the banks of the
stream might be cleared of dwellings.
Katonah has a railroad depot, and a post-office, and thinks a good deal of
itself.
When the Water-Shed Commission said that it must move or be destroyed,
Katonah gathered its residents together, and decided that rather than be
wiped off the face of the map, it would pick up its houses and move
itself.
So a new Katonah was established, about a quarter of a mile away from the
old one, and just outside the Water-Shed on which it was forbidden to
build, for fear of spoiling the water for New York.
For several months past there has been a procession of houses moving from
old Katonah to new.
[Illustration: HOUSE MOVING]
_The Sun_ gave an amusing account of seeing a barber's shop leading the
parade; this was closely followed by a large yellow cottage, with a cat,
who had refused to leave her home, still seated on the front door-step.
The way that houses are moved is very simple.
You of course understand that only frame or wooden houses can be moved any
distance. Houses of stone or brick would be likely to fall to pieces, and
being so heavy, the difficulty of moving them is greatly increased. They
are therefore seldom moved, and only for very short distances.
Frame houses are always put on stone or brick foundations. If the wood
were put right down on the earth, the damp would soon rot it, and the
house would fall, so strong stone or brick foundations are first laid, and
then the wooden house is built upon them.
When a house is to be moved, a carpenter puts beams across in all the weak
spots, the ceilings are shored up, and all is made snug inside. Then the
house is raised off the foundations on beams, and made all firm
underneath, and then is made to slide off its foundations on some huge
rollers that are laid in the high road.
Ropes are then fastened to some of the heavy beams under the house, and
horses are brought. The ropes are tied to the horses, and as they pull,
the house slips from one roller to another.
Houses can be moved very safely, but not very quickly, and it is of course
much less expensive to move an old house than to build a new one.
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|