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through mail to New Orleans, once a day, since the 1st July, 1858. Now that these two links are completed, we hope soon to see the Department, if it is ever again in a position to pay contractors, to carry out the original plan of two daily mails, in 75 hours, between Washington City and New Orleans, which is the schedule time proposed by the different companies when the contract was awarded.

COTTON AND RAILROADS.

The transportation of cotton is an important element of business for the railroads, of which the freight receipts are considerable. The proportion and the profits of the seventeen leading Southern roads were as follows:

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ABOLITION OF CANAL TOLLS IN CANADA.

The project for abolishing tolls on merchant vessels passing through the Provincial canals has passed the Canadian Legislature, and is now a law. Henceforth the produce of the Western States and of Upper Canada, taking the St. Lawrence route to the ocean, will have the advantage of free transit through a long line of artificial navigation. The government have sacrificed a hundred and fifty thousand dollars of revenue; or, rather, that amount is made up by general tax from other sources. Last year the number of vessels passing through the canals of Canada was 26,466, with a tonnage of 2,455,021. Of these, 22,800 were Canadian, with a tonnage of 1,828,383. Deduct 300,000 tons for the traffic on the local canals, from which the tolls are not removed, and there is still a balance of Canadian over American tonnage of 926,638. The predominance of benefit to Canadian commerce from abolition of the tolls will not be, however, in anything like so large a proportion; for, small as may be the difference produced in favor of the St. Lawrence route by remission of these dues, it will still attract a large diversion of trade from the States, unless counteracted by a corresponding diminution of charges upon American routes.

JOURNAL OF MINING, MANUFACTURES, AND ART.

IRON PRODUCTION FOR 1859 IN EASTERN PENNSYLVANIA.

The following statements, made up by the Secretary of the Board of Trade, will show the extent of the iron production of Eastern Pennsylvania :—

The proprietors of works in the Schuylkill and Lehigh regions have, in most cases, been personally consulted for the results given below for 1859, and they are very near to absolute accuracy. For the Susquehanna regions, upper and lower, this accuracy was naturally unattainable, and the statistics are made up from the best judgment of such proprietors as have their headquarters in this city.

In the Schuylkill region nearest this city, there were nineteen steam anthracite blast furnaces, out of a total of twenty-eight existing there, in blast during 1859. This includes five furnaces at Lebanon, the location of which is somewhat nearer the Schuylkill than the Susquehanna, and of which the production is divided in seeking a market-part going to Pittsburg. There were also five charcoal furnaces in blast in the same district, producing about 1,000 tons of iron each. Several establishments, embracing two or more furnaces, had but one continuously in blast, so that nearly all the separate proprietary interests were more or less active.

The following was the production of this district in 1859:Anthracite furnaces of the Schuylkill proper.....

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46 at Lebanon....

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tons

48,500

25,000

5,500

79,000

For 1858 the exact production could not be obtained, but it was variously estimated at 38,000 to 45,000, and was probably about half that obtained in 1859. During the former year most of the furnaces going out of blast in 1857 remained idle, and did not resume until late in that year, or early in 1859.

In the Lehigh region the anthracite steam furnaces were unusually active in 1859, producing an aggregate of nearly 135,000 tons of pig iron. The stacks here built are the largest in use, several being more than 18 feet across the bosh, and producing proportionally more iron than the furnaces of the Schuylkill, which last do not exceed 14 feet, and are generally but twelve.

But three or four furnaces remained idle in the Lehigh region during 1859, and one new rolling mill was built for the business of 1860. Several of these furnaces produced the enormous quantity of 10,000 tons each during the yeara considerable excess over any previous production. The Thomas furnaces, and part of the Lehigh Crane Company's works, produced at the rate here named, and the works last mentioned made up a total of nearly 42,000 tons as its aggregate for the year.

From the Susquehanna iron-making region we have less definite information. Many furnaces were put in blast in 1859 which had been out for 1858, and the general testimony is that the aggregate of anthracite iron made was about the same as in 1857. As near as may be estimated for furnaces for which positive

information is not attainable, the anthracite production of the vicinity of the Susquehanna was about 75,000 tons for 1859. The charcoal iron made in this district is much more difficult of access for the last year; but as the area is large, and timber often abundant, it was probably 20,000 tons. Taking this estimate, with the better known production of the Schuylkill and Lehigh, we roughly state the total of charcoal iron for Eastern Pennsylvania at 39,000 tons. The following is a tabular statement of the iron production for 1859 and previous years:

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The value of this quality of iron, at the low average price for anthracite of $22 per ton, which was the ruling quotation for the year, is $4,649.304, to which the value of the charcoal iron produced would add enough to make up the sum of $5,000,000.

ANALYSIS OF PLATINA AND GOLD IN MISSOURI.

BY DR. THEODORE WEISZ.

[Translated from the Mississippi Handel Zeitung.]

My investigations upon the average value of the precious metals found in the mineral of Madison County, Mo., being now completed, enables me to publish the result of my labor.

There was brought forth from the depth of six feet beneath the surface a considerable quantity-this was pulverized, and of this there was taken an average trial specimen for investigation.

The result of the investigation was, that there was found in this ore 0.00043 per cent gold, and 0.00086 per cent platina, which makes an aggregate of 739 grains of gold per ton, and 1,478 grains of platina per ton.

The value of the gold is....

The value of the platina is..

Or a total of.......

$29 56

18 58

$48 14

Although this yield shows a sufficiently large result to make it worthy of

working, there is yet cause to presume that the quantity of precious metals increases in proportion as the shaft is deepened. I will, therefore, publish from time to time communications upon the product.

In order to form an opinion as regards the working ability of this mining concern, I herewith present a table showing the value of the gold ores most known, from which it can be seen that the mines in Madison County belong not to the poorest, and deserve, indeed, such attention that there may be found capitalists who, by participation, i. e., by contributing to the enlargement of pecuniary means, could cause a go ahead," and who would carry on the business upon a large scale, inasmuch as material enough is on hand to last for centuries:

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For copying working drawings, this process is much used in large shops. The government has employed it for some years. Tracings from perfected drawings may be inaccurate-figures especially may be wrongly copied, but a photograph is of course sure to be right, and prevents many mistakes which are not cheaply rectified in the finished work-when unmatched parts come together and do not fit.

The cheaper productions of engravings of machinery, etc., will be of great advantage to the professions and trades concerned. Pictures on blocks for woodcuts are quite commonly made by the photographic process instead of the draftsman's pencil. For perspective representations, this lessens the expense, and perfects the lines. It is of course inapplicable to sectional and strictly mechanical drawings, in either plane elevation or isometrical perspective. Photographing on stone has been used for the same purpose-for making the picture to be engraved. Recently, the engraving itself, or rather the lithotype-the impression on the stone which produces the pictures on paper, has been done by photography without the aid of subsequent engraving. Photography has also been applied to copper printing. These arts are already beginning to be a commercial success, and are rapidly improving.

SAW CAPACITY.

A circular saw, 24 feet in diameter, and making 270 revolutions per minute, will saw 40 square feet of oak and 70 square feet of spruce per hour per horsepower.

PROGRESS-SCALES.

Art has by no means exhausted itself either in the fine or mechanical departments. In the latter, particularly where usefulness and economy are both combined, astonishing progress has been made within the last few years. In this respect it must be conceded that the American artisan excels those of any other country. Weighed in the balance of a just criticism, all are obliged to admit that the scales of FAIRBANKS & Co., New York, who have devoted their time and attention to the science of weighing, as applied to the compound balance, by which it has been brought to the highest perfection, are, without exception, the best ever invented. We know, whereof we affirm, because we have tested their value, and are fully satisfied of their superior merits. The various descriptions of their platform scales embrace every variety of size and form, from the mammoth contrivance of a canal lock scale, capable of weighing 500 tons, to the nice and delicate balance required for chemical analysis and pharmacy. in which the weight of a thousandth part of a grain is marked by a sensible deflection of the beam. The introduction of these scales has wrought a revolution in the transaction of various business, and their accuracy is such that a uniformity in weights has been established all over the country, thus making them a national, legalized standard. Nor are they confined to the United States; they have found their way to almost every part of the civilized world, and are adapted to the standards of all countries, so that it may be said all nations, if not "weighed in these balances," at least weigh by them. They are adapted to every branch of business, and so great is the facility for weighing that measure has given place to weight. Instead of the half bushel measure for wheat, corn, and other cereals, as formerly used, whereby only a small number of bushels could be measured in a day, now, by the apparatus connected with the platform scales, thousands of bushels are weighed in a single hour. Railroad cars. loaded with live stock, coal, iron ore, and other heavy freights, are weighed by platform scales constructed under the tracks; and canal boats, freighted with hundreds of tons, are weighed with dispatch and accuracy. At the company's warehouse in New York may be found every variety and style of platform scales required in business transactions; also, weighing beams, gold balances for banks, brokers, jewelers, druggists, confectioners' scales, letter balances, and every descriptions of weighing apparatus.

UNITS OF POWER.

An active man in the prime of life can raise 100 pounds one foot per second, working 10 hours per day; a horse can raise 550 pounds in the same space of time. These are units of horse and man-powers.

One gallon of water converted into steam will raise 5 gallons of water at 50° up to 212°, which is the sensible heat of the steam; there are, therefore, 944 degrees of latent heat in the steam.

Ꮪ Ꭺ Ꮮ Ꭲ .

In America we have springs of salt water; in Cheshire, England, there are beds of red salt, 30 feet thick; in Poland there are salt mines extending for several miles in caverns, at a depth of 600 feet beneath the surface; at Cordova, in Spain, there is a mountain of salt 300 feet high; and in Peru there are salt mines 10,000 feet above the level of the sea.

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