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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (July 1, 1877)
July. THE WEST SHORE 213 A FIELD FOR AMERICAN ENTERPRISE. A communication from Mr. James V. Thomas in the New York Times presents the following facts bearing on the proposed isthmus canal: "Yon have perceived that in this comniuuica tionl address myself to two arguments; the first, that of navigation, and the other what I may call colonial development A Niearaguan canal would make Now York the central com mercial city of the world, and make San Fran cisco her associate. But it would do more; it would give American planters, mechanics aud merchants an immediate and a near field to cre ate another India in place of that which is rap idly forestalling even our domestic productions. Hot and heathen India, as we presume to call it, sent nearly 3,300,000 hundred-weight of wheat to England last year one-sixth as much aa the United States, one-third as much as Russia, No land can compete with the infi nitely versatile comment of England in the East, except tropical America. With a fore- economy the British government began, at the close of the American revolution, to compen sate in India for the loss of North America. The year of Cornwall's defeat at Yorktowu signalized the final defeat of Ryder Ali, and the Marquis Cornwallis was sent to preside oyer India before the adoption of our Constitu tion. In 1858 the East India Company ceased to exist, and 18 years thereafter the queen added to the jewels of her crown that of the 'Great Mogul,' No portion of her dominions is more easily ruled; none gives so extensive a field of investment and return. The British revenue from India is $250,000,000 a year, or nearly the total cost of operating the United States Government The British army in India employ! and subsists 200,000 of Her Majesty's subjects, aud controls 240,000,000 human be ings. They make a commerce of 300,000,000 a year, cotton, jute, rice, tea and indigo lead ing. They give employment to 19,000 vessels and to (i,,r)00 miles of Indian railroad, in which $500,000,000 find profitable investment. In dia at first was a most discouraging region for enterprise, with its terrible climate and dense and fierce population. In Spanish America, which repeats nearly every natural production of India, aud adds many others exclusively its own, there are less than 30,000,000 people, more than two-thirds of whom live on the Pa cific slope; they are weary of revolutions, ripe for orderly government, hospitable to strangers and more frugal than ourselves. They lack those things in which we are most redundant organizing power, machinery, practical purpose and intlueuco over European commerce. SUSPENSION BRIDGES TIMES. IN ANCIENT The most remarkable evideuce of the me chanical science and skill of tho Chinese at this early period is to be found in their suspended bridges, the invention of which is assigned by "Thornton's History of China" to the Han dy nasty. According to the concurrent testimony of all their historical and geographical writers, Shang-leang, the commander-in-chief of the army under Kaou-tsoo, the first of the Hans, undertook and completed the formation of roads through the mountainous province of Shen-se, to the west of the capital. Hitherto its lofty hills and deep valleys had rendered communica tion difficult and circuitous. With a body of 100,000 laborers lie cut passages over the moun tains, throwing the removed soil into the val leyB, and where this was not sufficient to raise tho road to the required bight he constructed bridges, which rested on pillars or abutments. In other places he conceived and accomplished the daring project of suspending a bridge from one mountain to another across a deep chasm. These bridges, which are called by the Chinese writers, very appropriately, "Hying bridges," aud represented to be numerous at the present day, are sometimes so high that they cannot lie traversed without alarm. One still existing in Shen-se stretches 400 feet from mountain to mountain, over a chasm of 500 feet. Most of these Hying bridges are so wide that four horse men can ride on them abreast, and balustrades are placed on each side to protect travelers. It is by means improbable (as M. Pauthier sug gests), that as the missionaries in China made known the fact more than a century and a half ago, that the Chinese had a us tension bridges, and that many of them were of iron, the hint may nave neon taken from thence tor similar constructions by BuropBU engineers. Rnuos an a Niw Youk Oavb. The Oreonta (N. I .) Uemla tells of a cave which some hunt ers found by accident near that place. Aftci procuring lights, rope, etc., they again entered me tuniii'i, wnicn, though damp ami dripping at the entrance, soon grew dry and dustv, pro tected by the sheltering rock above, and was filled with pure air. At a distance of 50 feet it terminated in a cave about 20 feet square and nine feet high, with a very irregular roof of dinty rock; ami here came the remarkable part of the discovery. In one corner lay a heap of seemingly small rocks, covered with dust, but which on examination proved to be nuggets of pure lead weighing in all about a ten. Beside it, half buried in dry earth, a partly decayed skeleton, the skull aud larger lionea almost per fect, and scattered uliout were several curious copper implements. There has long been a legend extant among the old settlers here of a lead mine in the neighliorhood, and of the Indians bringing in lumps of lead but refusing to tell where they were obtained. Probably it was brought from the lake region, and this cave was made a Btere-house, and the skeleton wis that of an Indian. The Washington Monimest. - At a recent meeting of tiic Washington Monument Assoc. uv tion, (ieucral Meigs sufiiuitted a plan to tenni oate the present structure with a metallic spin 140 . t high, making a total length of 442 bet and a column resembling the tower iu the pub!' square of Venice. The additional weight v be 4, 147,000 pounds. General Meigs also ii proved the plan of Irkin 0. Mead, tocomp'. I the monument by placing a colossal statu Washington upon the present structure, figure of Washington will be 85 feet in high . IRON AND STEEL. " What is iron and what is steel T " we might have said iu the above head, with the same application of reply. In all the tests of iron aud steel, their character and constitutions, there Beern to have been facts of what each specimen contains in the way of iugredients, hut only in a small way has any attempt been made to discover what and how much of each ingredient is necessary for the production of certain kinds of metals. If the metallurgist will preface all his experiments with mixing the different ingredients found in Bteel and irou, and thai discover what is necessary to and what is not necessary or injurious to, then his further operations will be intelligible to himself aud others. The questions, what is steel aud what is iron? are not yet answered. It may bo known what certain specimens contain by way of mineral characteristics, but while we know the character thus far, there is something else lackiug to enable u uniiorin production, except by using such and such uative-found ingredi ents in proportions found to produce, without being able to eliminate from or add to other ingredients differing in a small degree. To knowingly produce uniform iron aud of a desired character is not yet possible. When w iii it oc, : To know where and htm- far t. , m ,. ttvui ,.,! how far steel, or both, is in the same unknown future as the production of these perfectly adapted metals. If their characteristics, as related to heat and cold, hardness and softness, streugh or brittleness, were perfectly known, then the use of either or both would be readily determined. The only definition yet to lie given to irou is that it is one of tlio metallic elements, and which exists under various cir cumstances and m connection with various chemical ingredients, some beneficial and sonic hurtful. The term steel indicates that this metallic element has lost or taken nn anm additional ingredients better adapting it to lueviuuuuai uses, .ah steel is iron, but uot all irou is steel. There are no chemical ingredients In steel not found in iron, but many in iron not good in steel. The only knowledge thus far is tho Blow one of experience. A bridge falls, but the reason is hard to discover. An iron or steel boiler or tire-box hums and corrodes and bulges and crys tallizes, and years of time, and perhaps fortunes and lives are lost to learn that the iron or steel was not of a character to stand tho labor against it Direct tests for direct knowledge is post poned year by year, when all tho expense of such tests would be regained iu a short time were tlie tests Unown. It is a simple matter to construct a boiler of a part of two or three kinds of iron, two or three kinds of Bteel, and steel and iron variously combined, and at once ap ply tho test If iron is better than steel, o steel better than iron, or steel outside or Inairis of iron butter than either alone, then let us nave the knowledge. H high or low steel or iron of different eh actor for structures will best resist thu action of a jarnng burden, and the heat and cold of climate, and fierce compression or tensile strain, then let us know it Tho St Louis bridire is built to resist compression, as the spans are arches; the Brooklyn bridge is built to resist tensile strain, as the spans are suspension. It has been proved that the finer tho metal the greater the resistance from compression, hut it can nanny no irue MM me Hardest steel will bettor resist strain than a liner quality of hoino geneous iron. The Niagara bridiro is of iron. and aside from a slight corrosion is in perfect These tests are the coiniinr points to be tablished, and the fact that certain uses are made of certain metals of unknown character istics, and certain results produced bom such use, is no definite idea of what would result at another time or in another way. Good and bad usage, ami unknown characteristics, are tlim leaving the true knowledge of iron and steel ii doubt Experiments by private individuals are always attended with delay ami distrust, for tin A SUBSTITUTE FOR BRASS. A very beautiful new alloy, Intended to re place brass in various ornamental uses, espec ially in window and door furniture, has been invented by Mr. W. A. Hopkins, of Paris. The alloy is composed of copper, tin, spelter or sine and lead, which metals are manipulated. A crucible is placed in tho furnace and tired to a red heat, and iuto tho crucible thus heated the metals are placed in the proportions of tin 1 1 (say) 1 ot; spelter or zinc, & oz. ; lead, 5-Uiths of an oz. These are the proportions he prefers to use, as he has found them to give excellent and satisfactory results, but he does not intend 10 ooonne nimeeu rigidly to the precise propor tion! named, as they may, perhaps, be slightly j tuui-ii in mum paravuan without materially detracting from the beautiful color of the alloy which it is intended to produce, The molten metals are kept well stirred, and any Impur ities therein should U removed. When thor oughly mixed this alloy, which is termed the urn anoy, is poured oil into ingot molds and left to cool. Copper in the proportion of eight parts to one of this first alloy is then planed in the crucible aud brought to a melting heat, when the tin or first alloy is added and inti mately mixed with the copper, for which purpose thu molten mass must be well stirred for sev eral minutes, it is then pound into ingot molds for sale iu the form ot moot, or it miv lie poured iuto pattern molds, so as to produce the articles required. I his is the mode of man ipulation which it is preferred to emplov. as an Opportunity is thus afforded of removing any iuiuiinm uuiu uio him muvy ucioro mixing it with the copper, but all the metals mav. if preferred, be mixed together iu the nronortious given ana incited at one operation, m this means an alloy is ulit.iinnl .t -iv.U strcneth and of a very beautiful appearance, aud which is particularly suitable for small work. such, for instance, as window ami door furniture other house furniture, which is usually made iu orass or oiuer alloy ot copier, though it is not iiuciuieu hi colonic us use lo suen articles. eliiig ot conservatis broad. Aij? o SttL ibn The Cost ok LUBRICATION. A few davs aui a gentleman well known as a manufacturer of railroad material called at tnOOraOO Ol the Rail road OautU and projxmnded the question "What does it cost to oil railroad cars?" Wi referred to Mr. Kink's reisirts of the liuisvilhi ami Nashville railroad, and found there that the cost of oil aud lalxir of applying it is given iu the report of 187-7H both for passenger ami freight cars, and also the total distances run bv each, from which the cost per car mile is of course easily deducible. I his cost is as follows Cost of oil and waste per car per mile, ikwscii ger, 0.331 cents; freight, 0.011 cents. Cost of UDOr per ear per mile, passenger, freight, 0.039. Total eojt of lubrication per car per mile, paooongcr, laatn cents; might, 0.133 cents. The Mah iie Batteuy. -The inventor statu that when his platinized carbon battery is charged with water acidulated with 10 par cent, ol suipnunc acni, a alio surface of Jta square centimeters is sufficient for the produc tion of electric light. Tho electromotive force is, however, only alxnit two-thirds as great Bunseu's. By charging with hichromite of ti ash, he makes his battery the most intense of all, for the tWO b rces an- combined, and it ih susses an electromotive force superior to that of the bichromate, wtuie lurmnhing a douhlequan titv of electricity. His battery has, therefore. the advantage of either being charged with simple acidulated water, or with the addition of the bichromate, which makes it the most powerful known electro-generator. Pnicas Paw fok DtOOUra Coal- The Coal Trml? Journal says: W ilkinsburg, Pa., twoand i hall cents per tmshei. alt-liirj, I'a.. tw, ind three quarters cents per bushel. Saw Mill Run, Pa., 48 cents per ton. Vienna, ()., 50 cents a ton, cutting three feet of coal, aud move half as much slate free. Neshannock, Pa., one pUcc reported as working at $l.'i per day. Sewickley, Pa., two and a quarter cents per inisheL A PROBLEM FOB INVENTORS. The American Philosophical Sociotv. of Phil adelphia, in tho year lHo'ti, offered a prem urn of $.r00 for a process for the successful utiliza tion ot anthracite oal dust, to be conineted for unuer tne uireetion oi tlio officers ot tlio society. This prize, says the Iron An?, is still open for inventors. .Attention is now caned to tne fact because Mr. J, K. Wooten gives notice to the Bociety that he is reody to compote for tho prize. This induces the society to prepare for tho trial and to renew their invitation to all inventors to enter their processes. Mr. Robert BriggS, whom we believe to be an otticor of the society, writes that Mr. Wooten I process burning tho material on a perforated grate, with closed ash nit aud steam-iot blast, the coal slack being spread thin on the grate, thu latter portion of the process being secured by a pa its i it. 1 he following is the form for an aniilieatimi to the committee to take notice of an inventor's process; Tii the Amrrwun I'htl ..utii i.vii Suriflii; 1 linvu Ihtii In tanned that a proBUUm lias beun uHen i Uy thu noddy fur tho utilization at what is imown 11 deal mint, without nfermos to nm u ptwnlwn, I hive had hi operation In thnt til nit ion a igneous, ami tlio MOltl ru WtilfcetOtyi and, I think, conclwlvu. that I (lustre to submit the.ni to a commltteu of thu Nocloty fur examination ami n-ort thereon Hiioiiiii my mem be faemed worthy oi the premium uumtm, i muii i to i iiiKiuy nouureu ii-ueiuiuy, Conoemlng the above, Mr. Brigge eayai This oiler has been a standing one until the present time, but an applicant for tho award having presented ninUMlr, the hi icu ty has now BflOOfntM a committee to consider the subject. Applica tions with evidence and description can be sent to tho society at any time during the next three months, until which time the action of the committee will lo deferred to allow every method proposed or in use to be properly rep resented ill the Competition, Considering the almost national unportauoc of the utilization of the Immense quantity of waste fuel now accu mulated aud accumulating in the form of dust at the mines, this step of one ol the oldest American scientific societies possesses the high est interest, and the premium offered bids fair to bring to publication thu various methods now proposed to accomplish thu desired result The aooompanying form will serve to give an idea of what is necessary for an application. Uionoevuna Osjjuuutiohs. -Father Bor telli, according to the Journal ft ti? franklin fMUfnJf, after discussing mote than JO,OUO ob servations, mode from 1m70 to 1870 reaches the following conclusion: The oscillations of isolated (letidulums are generally parallel or perpendicular to thu axes of valleys or moun tain chains. The oscillations are not dependent ujhiu local vibratory mufeilmutt, nor on the velocity or direction of the wind, nor on rains, nor on thermometric or electric changes. The tromometric movements are most vertical at the time of uarthquakes. Tho positions of thu sun and moon seem to mfldetue the movements of the pendulums, but they are enpecially frequent when the larometer is low. A Nkw Exi'KMTioN. Prof. Nordeuskjold's great expeilition, for which a vessel has already la-en chartered at the price of I.MI.OOO STOWUS, is to leave Gothenburg in June, 1H7K. It is to cir cumnavigate the whole of Asia through thu Polar sea, the Behring straits, along the east aud the south cuast of Asia, ami to return te ftsrope through the Bid sea and the Suer. canal in the autumn of I '' King Oscar has con. trihuted 50,000 crowna towards the expedition. The princiiwl expense of the exwditioti will lu lxinie by Mr. Hickson, a merchant of Gothen burg. MM in Fkanck, -The iron trade of France is improving. The business done in I ", was: IV, 1,40,000 tens; iron, Nil, 000; Bteel, N7, 000 fins, or a total of IMti't.OUU tens. Aa against 1H75, the make of pig was greater by H,aU9 tens; the (unshed mm less by 21,170 tens; that of plates greater uy'juxt tons, and steel, 4,004 tons. OCR MECHANICAL TRIUMPHS. The rapid advance which American median tot and manufactures are making is the theme of frequent comment by tho Knglish press. The Colliery tiuaiilian, after naming at least a SOON of instances in which America is trenching upon markets which have heretofore gained supplies from Knglish sources, remarks as follows : These are a few illustrations of the increasing American competition with which our nicchan. ical industry has to deal upon tho great markets of the world. The Americans arc uot satisfied with having driven our iron and niachiuery out of their markets by means of a prohibitory tariff, but they are also endeavoring to reduce the demand for our steam engines, our locomotives, and our general machinery iu tho leading mar kets of tho world. This was to lie anticipated as an inevitable result ef the great progress which American meteUurn and American coal mining have made during tlio last seven years. Iron and steel of American manufacture have now become so cheap aud are produced upon so large a scale that they must lo worked up somehow; and if the articles into which they are converted cannot find a sale upon American markets, they must be disposed of upon the general markets of the world. This is tho con clusion at which Jonathan has arrived, and it is only a natural conseqiienco of the recent course men oy ine industrial history ot tho United states. Thedrennutanoes to which wo have been adverting appear to us to demand tho gravest attention on the part of both tho CSpt talists ami the workmen of the Old World. We have always fancied thnt Belgian OOtn petition was a bugbear rather than otherwise! It is true that iron has been produced at marvel ously cheap rates upon the Belgian mnrkulB, and that some of it has found its way into this country, and has displaced a corresponding amount of Knglish iron. But the coiniH-tition of Belgian mechanical ami metallurgical indus try with our own differs from the competition of American meohanloal ami metallurgical in dustry in this important particular it is com paratively limited in extent, and consequently it does not do us the mischief which some wri ters have supposed, Thu case seems wholly different with the American competition with which wo are now threatened. Tho productive powers of the Americans, to whatever branch of human effort tlioy may devote themselves, appear to be only limited by thu demand which may Bpring up for their products. Their sup plies of ironstone are practically boundless ; their supplies of coal are practically boundless ; their supplies of lalmrare practically boundless. They greatly excot tho liolgians in the extent and importance of the mercantile marine, by means of which they are enabled to scatter their manufactures all over tho world. They also share with us apparently the faculty of de veloping a world-wide commerce. Under tho cireumsUuicos, wo fancy that it is high timo that both our capitalist and our workers should lie Biitlicioutly impressed with thu fact, that iu dealing with American OOtnpOtitors they have to confront OOmpetiton of first rate ability, energy and resources. The only means by which they can hope toSSrapnle eueotttaUy with puch Competitors, la by stamling well together, and acting upon the principle of thoroughly harmonious action. Without such harmonious action the industrial future of the couutry must bo regarded as gravely compromised. Loss from Oxidation; In advocating the use of letter machinery iu iron making, Mr. Hoi ley, in a recent address, said : "Do iron- makers realise the enormous loss due to oxida tion ? An iron-rail mill making 40,000 tons of pi "In. t. hoatiuu all tho material twice and oxidizing not loss than K ; of it at each heat, would, at present prices, burn up morn than $'.'00,000 worth of iron a year. Utnn ver- aging a uumoer oi results, i unil the saving in tne oxidation of iron in regenerative gas-furnaces, as compared witli coal-furnaces, to Ihi over '.I ' in one case of Ant-rate practice with both furnaces, mi small iron billets, it is 88B in another case of apod average practice on largo iron piles it is 4.4.) '. In heating irou piles for 1 dates, the waste iu tho ordinary furnace haa been in somu cases as high as If), while in Siem One's furnaces, which have buun substi tute! in the same works, it has been as low as 4. Tho smaller of these savings would a Out, in the rail practice we are considering, to some $70,000 pel year, which would pay for half the labor on rails, or it would pay alsive JO on thu cost f a rail-mill. The oxidation of steel is somewhat less in either furnace, beoauee the required temperature is lower; but the proportion of bin .q.p. , . to m alMiut the same, so that the aOOOOOlV of the gas-furnace is also very important in heating steel. FRMOUUal DlSOO VBUin, It appears from thu recent im-Mirtaut discoveries of new oil prodoejng region, that the supply iu Pennsyl vania is far from being exhausted, This now development is tho most iinjmrtant that has taken place In years, aud has already caused a considerable decline in prices. A Pittsburg jaK:r says: The most prominent features iu the business interest of Pittsburg this week are thu remarkable development of new wells and the downward plunge of prices consequent thereon. The strikes at Bullion run have been of wonder ful richness, and recall the strikes at Pithole in juist years, when thousand Urrel gushers were the ordinary pri s iu this lottery of en terprise. A rough calculation slum s that tho strikes at Bullion run com ti lute an increase of production equal to IW or 3ti'uuf the average of last month. In that view of the case it is i ot remarkablu that thu prices should give way from fj.'."), the quotation at the oeuing of tho month, to $2 at the first of the week, and then take a sudden plunge to $1.50. It is not alone the increase, of production thus ilevvloHd, but the largo addition of possible producing terri tory which BSods prices down and makes it pos sible that prices this summer will seek the level they reached iu IH73. As some of thu banks have loaned quite freely on certificates as cut lateral at ?! -n they will be obliged U call fur more margins, which is likely to further aeaist the demoralization.