It is 72½ feet in diameter, and is supposed to develop 150 horse-power, which is transmitted several hundreds of feet by means of wooden rods supported at regular intervals. The power thus transmitted operates a system of pumps in a lead mine, raising 250 gallons of water per minute, to an elevation of 1,200 feet. The driving water is brought some distance to the wheel in an underground conduit, and is carried up the masonry tower by pressure, flowing over the top into the buckets on the circumference of the wheel.
The little cut in the upper corner represents a Pelton wheel drawn on the same scale, which, given an equal supply of water at the same pressure, would develop the same power as the Laxey monster. By the side of the giant the other appears a mere toy.
THE CREAM SEPARATOR.
In 1864 Denmark went to war with Germany, and emerged from the short struggle shorn of the provinces of Lauenburg, Holstein, and Schleswig. The loss of the two last, the fairest and most fertile districts of the kingdom, was indeed grievous. The Danish king now ruled only over a land consisting largely of moor, marsh, and dunes, apparently worthless for any purpose. But the Danes, with admirable courage, entered upon a second struggle, this time with nature. They made roads and railways, dug irrigation ditches, and planted forest trees; and so gradually turned large tracts of what had been useless country into valuable possessions. Agriculture being much depressed, owing to the low price of corn, they next gave their attention to the improvement of dairy farming. Labour-saving machinery of all kinds was introduced, none more important than the device for separating the fatty from the watery constituents of milk. It would not be too much to say that the separator is largely responsible for the present prosperity of Denmark.