the bed of that stream. If Nature had been "working to order," says a late report of the Directors," a more favorable combination of circumstances could hardly have been desired than is here presented." We have before us a statement of the amount of copper taken from this mine in the months of June, July, and August, 1849, from which it appears that the total taken from the mine in June, amounted to 506,936 lbs. ; in July, 550,317 lbs.; in August, 798,239 lbs., exhibiting a total for the three months of one million, eight hundred and fifty-two thousand, five hundred and seventy-two pounds. The total taken from the mine in the corresponding quarter of 1848, was 1,551,402 lbs., giving an increase in the three months of 1849, over 1848, of 301,170 lbs. A dividend of $10 per share was paid to the stockholders, on the 21st of May, 1849. It also appears from a statement in the Boston Journal, that about one third of the entire product of the mine is of sufficient purity to ship to market in the shape in which it comes from the mine; producing, when refined, about 60 per cent of pure copper. The poorer ores are crushed and washed at the mine, and brought up to a value of 60 a 70 per cent. Masses of pure copper have been found in all parts of the vein, as far as it has been penetrated, some weighing as much as sixty and eighty tons. These are cut into manageable dimensions, by means of the cold chisel. Eight hundred and thirty tons of mineral, averaging 60 per cent, were shipped from the mine in 1848. Valuable deposits of silver are also found to exist in the mine, mechanically associated in fine particles with the copper, in the matrix of the vein. One thousand dollars' worth was selected from 88 tons of the stampings, which were sent to Pittsburg last season. MANUFACTURING ESTABLISHMENTS OF MAINE. We give below a table which we have compiled from Pratt's Business Directory, of the cotton, woolen, etc., manufacturing establishments of Maine, showing the name and location of each company, capital invested, kind of goods manufactured, and the annual amount of goods manufactured: Name and location. Casco Manuf. Co., Gorham. Annual amount of yards Kind of goods manufactured. manufactured. Capital. Printing cloths & sheet's Printing cloths. Colored & white cottons 85,000 500,000 200,000 150,000 4,000,000 160,000 7,550,000 1,000,000 27,000 500,000 200,000 Sheet'g & strip'd shirt'gs 2,108,000 184 500 600,000 183,200 600,000 45,000 1,000,000 50,000 7,080,000 1,000,090 MANUFACTURE OF WATCHES AND RIBBONS. A correspondent of the Independent, residing in England, gives the following brief account of the method of manufacturing the above articles: Watchmaking and ribbon weaving are extensively carried on in Coventry. I visited the works of Richard Rotherham and Sons, who have a great number of hands employed. The different processes are very interesting. They make use of electro-galvanism, in coating the internal works of watches. They dip, for a moment only, those parts which they wish to coat, into a saturated solution of nitro-muriate of gold in which is kept continually suspended a piece of metallic gold, and the coating is done. The curious engraving which is put on the back of watches, and which appears to be carried from the center to the circumference, is done by a turning machine in which the operation is commenced on the outside and approaches the center. The inequality of surface is given to it by an unequal movement of the graver. A very narrow strip is engraved at each revolution, and then the machine requires to be set a new. If it could be so constructed that the machine would set itself at each revolution, the work might go on continuously and be very rapidly accomplished In weaving ribbons, which is generally done at private houses, eight are woven at once. There are eight shuttles, one to each ribbon, and they are so attached that they are worked as though there were but one shuttle. They weave very fast. The size and general appearance of the looms is much the same as that of the old looms of our country. A NEW ALLOY RESEMBLING GOLD. The London Mining Journal describes an ingenious and interesting discovery in the manipulation of metaliferous substances, by which an alloy is produced that is likely to come into very general use for numerous articles hitherto manufactured in gilt work, ormolu, and other more expensive metals. It is a mixture in certain proportions of copper, tin, zinc, &c., perfectly homogenous, close in texture, highly ductile, rolls into sheets, and is manufactured with the greatest facility. It can be had of various tints, to represent gold of different degrees of color and purity, takes a high degree of polish, and cleans easily when tarnished. The editors of the Mining Journal have inspected some small articles, pencil-cases, &c., manufactured from this alloy, and express the opinion that it would be difficult for the most practised eye to discover they were not gold, without having recourse to the acid test, or ascertaining the specific gravity, which is of course less than the precious metal. TO UNITE WROUGHT AND CAST IRON. A cast iron and wrought iron beam may be united by immersing the wrought iron beam in weak nitric acid, and then make it red hot, and plunge it into the weak bath of nitric acid again, and free it from all the oxide that is upon it. It is then dipped in a weak solution of sal-amoniac, and immersed in a bath of melted tin, until it is well tinned all over. It is then coated, where it has been united with the cast iron, with an alloy composed of copper, 5 parts, and tin, 95 parts. It is then placed in a mould and made fast with tinned nails, when the cast iron, in a molten state is poured into the mould, and a fusion takes place between the wrought and cast iron, through the action of the interposed alloy. Steel and cast iron may be united in the same way. MANUFACTURE OF WOVEN IRON. Messrs. Wickershaw & Walker, of Philadelphia, as we learn from the Journal of Commerce, have a patent right for the manufacture of woven iron. This improvement does away with the necessity of pivots for the purpose of fastening iron work together where it is used for grating of any description. The manufacturers are enabled to weave iron as large as railroad bars, or the smallest description of wire. They are now applying it to the following purposes: iron railings of endless varieties, embracing beauty, strength, and style of finish, never surpassed, for public grounds, buildings, cottages, verandahs, lawns, cemeteries, &c., iron bridges, galleries for churches, gratings for prisons, window shutters, and gratings for stores, columns, and cornices for cottages, tree boxes, summer houses, guards for decks of steamboats and vessels, &c., being cheaper than wood or cast iron, CINCINNATI LARD AND OIL MANUFACTURE. We learn from the Cincinnati papers, that there are upwards of thirty large establishments in that city employed in the manufacture of lard oil, which is accomplished by divesting the lard of one of its constituent parts-stearine. The largest of these, whose operations are probably more extensive than any other in the United States, has manufactured heretofore into lard oil and stearine 140,000 pounds monthly, all the year round, and the great increase of hogs for the present season will probably enlarge that business this year 50 per cent. It is calculated that 11,000,000 lbs. lard will be run into lard oil this year, two sevenths of which aggregate will make stearine, the residue oil, say about 24,000 barrels of 42 gallons each. Much the larger share of this is of inferior lard, made of mast fed and still fed hogs, the material, to a great extent, coming from a distance-hence the poor quality of western lard oil. Lard oil, besides being sold for what it actually is, is also used for adulterating sperm oil, and in France serves to materially reduce the cost of olive oil, the skill of the French chemists enabling them to incorporate from 60 to 70 per cent of lard oil with that of the olive. There is also an establishment in that city which, besides putting up hams, &c., is extensively engaged in extracting the grease from the rest of the hog, and will probably this year operate in this way on 30,000 hogs. It has seven large circular tanks, six of capacity to hold each 15,000 lbs., and one 6,000 lbs. These receive the entire carcasse, with the exception of the hams, and the mass is subjected to steam process, under a pressure of 70 lbs. to the square inch, the effect of which operation is to reduce the whole to one consistence, and every bone to powder. The fat is drawn off by cocks, and the residuum, a mere earthy substance, is taken away for manure. Besides the hogs which reach this factory in entire carcasses, the great mass of heads, ribs, back bones, tail-pieces, feet, and other trimmings of the hogs cut up at different pork-houses are subjected to the same process, in order to extract every particle of grease. This concern alone is expected to turn out this season 3,600,000 lbs. of lard, five-sixths of which is No. 1. Six hundred hogs daily pass through these tanks one day with another. The stearine expressed from the lard is used to make candles by being subjected to hydraulic pressure, by which three-eights of it is discharged as an impure oleine; this last is employed in the manufacture of soap; 3,000,000 lbs. of stearine have been made in one year into candles and soap in these factories, and they can make 6,000 lbs. of candles per average day throughout the year. NEW METHOD OF MANUFACTURING SHOT. In a recent number of the New York Pathfinder, we find a description of Leroy & Co.'s establishment for manufacturing shot by a new method, without the aid of the usual tower employed for that purpose: It is the invention, say the Pathfinder, of the junior partner of the firm, Mr. Smith, cousin to the celebrated John Smith, to whom the exclusive right has been invested by letters patent, both in this country and in Europe. Its distinguishing features consist in the simplicity with which the lead, after being dropped from a perforated vessel in a fluid state, is congealed before reaching the reservoir of water into which it is deposited. This is performed in the ordinary process, by causing the drippings of lead to fall a great distance, from the top of a tower to its base, and up to the period of this beautiful invention, no other substitute for the tower could be devised to accomplish this indispenable object in the manufacture of shot, although various attempts have heretofore been made. The mode adopted by Mr. Smith simply to cause the fluid lead to descend from the upper part of the establishment through an upright circular pipe arranged over a reservoir of water, and in which a strong blast of air, produced near its lower extremity by a revolving fan, is constantly passing in such a manner as to meet the lead drippings in their descent; and while it tends to break their fall by slightly buoying them up, imparts to them a degree of cold sufficient to change their state, from a liquid to a solid, before they reach the reservoir of water into which they fall, and from which they are taken to the drying table by an endless band of buckets or elevators. When it is understood that this simple process performs the office of the expensive towers and their complicated adjuncts now in use, we think the reader will agree with us in the opinion that the immense shot towers now seen peering to the skies in the various large cities of our country, will, ere long, be numbered among the 37 VOL. XXI.-NO. V. things that were, to give place to this evidence of the advancing tide of the inventive genius of our country. In addition to the advantages gained in labor, &c., in the process of manufacture by the improvement, the shot produced by it are more solid, and otherwise superior to those heretofore placed in market. USE OF COLORED GLASS TO ASSIST THE VIEW IN FOGS. The following curious observation is made by M. Luvini, of Turin, in a letter to the editor of L'Institut, of January 4th, at Paris. If verified, it may prove to be of importance to geodetical operations, as well as in observations at sea. "When there is a fog between two corresponding stations, so that the one station can with difficulty be seen from the other, if the observer passes a colored glass between his eye and the eye-piece of his telescope, the effect of the fog is very sensibly diminished, so that frequently the signals from the other station can be very plainly perceived, when, without the colored glass, the station itself could not be seen. The different colors do not all produce this effect in the same degree. The red seems the most proper for the experiment. Those who have good sight prefer the dark red, those who are short-sighted like the light red better. The explanation of this effect seems to depend upon the fact that the white color of the fog strikes too powerfully upon the organ of sight, especially if the glass have a somewhat large field. On the contrary, by placing a colored glass between the eye of the observer and the eyeglass of the instrument, the intensity of the light is much diminished by the intercep tion of a part of the rays; the observer's eye is less wearied, suffers less, and, consequently, distinguishes better the outlines of the object observed." BATHING ROOMS IN THE FACTORIES OF MANCHESTER, N. H. The following extract is from the Lowell Offering-a paper edited by a lady who was formerly an operative in the Lowell mills, and which is the acknowledged organ of the factory girls: Two of the Manchester corporations-the Amoskeag and the Stark-have done a considerate and generous thing for their girls, in fitting up bathing rooms for their exclusive use. Mr. Gillis, agent of the Amoskeag corporation, began the movement. His rooms are fitted up with little expense-such as might be afforded by every corporation in New England-and still they are perfectly convenient. One is better pleased, however, with the appointment of the rooms on the Stark corporation, for there elegance is combined with convenience; the pleasant yard, the neat brick block, and green blinds without; within, the papered walls, mirrors, dressing-tables, the Venetian screens, and behind them the dressing-rooms, with their extensive, neatly kept baths, for showering or immersion, or for both, as one chooses; and then, further on, the long cool room, where is the plunge bath-where are plants; while, moving here and there, wherever she is needed, is the quiet, kind lady who has the rooms, and all who come hither, in her charge. BRITISH IMPORTATION OF GLASS. A return moved in the British Parliament shows that the total imports of foreign glass in the year 1848 were as follows, namely, 31,037 cwt. of white or stoned window glass, of one color only; 90,442 square feet of silver and polished glass; 1,195 feet of painted or otherwise ornamented glass; 38,086 lbs. of white flint glass bottles not cut or engraved; 154,343 lbs. of wine glasses, tumblers, and other white flint glass goods, not cut or otherwise ornamented; 639,967 lbs. of all flint cut glass, flint colored glass, and fancy ornamented glass; and 370 cwt. of glass manufactures not otherwise described. The quantities of British glass exported from this country in the year 1848 were as follows, namely, 15,226 cwt. of flint glass; 19,708 cwt. of window glass; 49,297 feet of plate glass; 194,755 cwt. of common glass bottles, and £6,965 worth of looking glasses and mirrors. RAILROAD, CANAL, AND STEAMBOAT STATISTICS. BOSTON AND MAINE RAILROAD.* This road extends from Boston to South Berwick, a distance of 71 miles, where it connects with the Portland, Saco, and Portsmouth Road, and thus forms a continuous line to Portland, a distance of 111 miles from Boston. It was 'partially opened as early as 1836, and to Dover, New Hampshire, in 1841. The original cost of the road was $2,900,000. The number of shares is 30,000, and the par value $100 each. The following table, which we have compiled from the "Pathfinder Railway Guide," exhibits the stations or principal places on the route from Boston to Portland, the distances, and the present rates of fare: We are indebted to Charles Minot, Esq., the Superintendent of the Boston and Maine Railroad, for a copy of the Report of the Directors of this road made to the stockholders at their annual meeting, September 12, 1849, which exhibits the affairs of the corporation as in a prosperous condition. From the report, it appears that the Boston and Maine Railroad was opened to Dover in the autumn of 1841; down to December, 1841, there was a very regular increase in its business of about 33 per cent per annum, till its gross receipts for the last mentioned year amounted to over half a million of dollars. The directors, finding the income of the road thus increasing, and then so ample, with a prospect of a continued increase from the works commenced or projected at Lawrence, and from new connecting roads, as well as from a continued growth of business in the towns and villages on the main line, reduced the fares and charges for freight about 14 per cent. But unfortunately the money pressure became severe; and about this time began to be felt in a comparative reduction of business and travel upon most of the railroads, the Boston and Maine with others, causing a great falling off in the operations at Lawrence, and reducing the business of the railroad with that place to a small part of what had been calculated upon. In the mean: time, this corporation was making large expenditures for the purpose of being pre * This road has several branches, namely, the Medford Branch, which leaves the main road at Malden, extending to the center of Hedford, five miles from Boston; the Methuen Branch, and the Great Falls Branch, which leaves the main road at Somersworth, and extends to Great Falls Village, a distance of three miles. + The places between South Berwick and Portland, through which this route to the latter place extends (omitted in the "Pathfinder Guide") are North Berwick, Wells, Kennebunk, Saco, and Scarborough. |