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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 1, 1890)
188 WEST SHORE. A good opening exist for the establishment of nw mill it Lebanon, Oregon. ' Since the flrat of tbe year buildings' have b)en erecied in Olympia, Washington, aggregating $588,500 in valae. The value of taiible property In Union county, Oregon, ba increased (573,695 during the past year, making a total for 1893 of $3,414,455. A Urge establishment for the manufacture of fire-brick and tile is to be erected at Toledo, Washington. The machinery has been ordered from the east and it is expected work will be commenced early in the spring. The Toledo Mill & Manufacturing company has been incorporated at Toledo, Oregon, with a capital of 1150,000, for the purpose of building a ca nal from the Hlleti river to Toledo to supply water power for manufacturing purposes. An effort is being made to establish a circulating library at Baker City. No better evidence of the growth of Intelligence in a community can be found than in the fact that there is a demand for good literature. Toe en terprise should meet with success. Tbe Oales Peak Water Company filed articles of incorporation last week, filing Die capital stock of the concern at $100,000. The object of the company Is to furnish the towns of Forest Grove, Cornelius and Hiltsboro, Oregon, with a supply of pure water. A new national bank is to be opened soon in Albina, $40,000 of the stock having already been subscribed by residents of that place. It is the purpose of the projectors of the enterprise to have all the stock owned at home, and have all officers and employes selected from among the city's residents. The temporary bridge constructed over the Nookaack river, in Whatcom county, Washington, by the Fairhaven A Northern Kailroad Co., was de stroyed by a Jam of logs last week, seriously delaying work on the line and entailing a loss of about $8,000. A second structure will be erected as soon as possible and work pushed with renewed vigor. The Clackamas salmon hatchery will not turn out as many fry this year ai was anticipated, and not nearly half as many as it should. The high water In February destroyed a portion of the dam across the river, to gether with racks, weirs, etc., and this with the usual congressional delay In appropriating money for repairs, has prevented securing more spawn than for turning out about 3,000,000 fish, while there should have been 10, 000,000. The repairs should have been made by the first of May, whereas the money was not available until the first of July, and by the time the apparatus was ready for operation the best part of the season was past. The entire cost was not over '-'00, but the loss of fWh through delay can not be estimated. Then, too, the government has no representative here now. Commissioner Stone who waa here for a time has gone, and no one has been sent to take his place. The government certainly can not accomplish any good In attempting artificial propagation of salmon unless a representa tive is kept here all the time, supplied with funds necessary (or proper pros ecution of the work. The fast and loose policy which has thus far charac terited the work in this section Is all wrong, and should be terminated as speedily as possible. Artificial propagation is an absolute necessity if the supply of salmon Is not to be totally exhausted, and unless some more sys tematic method is pursued the salmon Industry may be considered to be on the decline. Probably the most universally distributed metal known to-day is alumi num, aa it is found in clay deposits of all kinds. The extraction of it from the clay has been the only hindrance to its general use, as the processes by which It Is secured have all been of such a nature as to render it too expen sive. The study of this metal Is attracting almost aa much attention as does the development of electrical science, and a solution of the vexing problem of its successful reduction may be looked for any day ei there are perhaps a thousand men busy in their laboratories In various parts of the world seek ing for some means by which to make the metal as cheap as Iron. When they shall hare found It, who can calculate the change there will be in the construction of railroads and steamships, the building of houses and bridges and the making of thousands of things where Iron and steel are now used? Take for Instance steel rail, such as Is used In the construction of the modern standard gauge railroad. The usual length .d . rail 1st thirty feet, and the weight is twenty pounds to the foot, or 690 pounds to the rail; the Ll rJ rVil madeoUluminum would weigh but 200 pound, and would be stronger and better, much easier handled and a great deal cheaper for transportation. Aluminum is of a bright silver color, and is suscepUble of a bidhpollBh It is non-corrodible, is both malleable and ductile to a high deuree and is almost as good a conductor of electricity as copper. Itreadily unL with other metals , and as an alloy reduces the melting point of steel, and frees both iron and steel castings from the bubbles or "blows." It hirdens silver and copper. Aluminum's chief use just now is for mixing with bronze, producing what is known as aluminum-bronze, used In the highest grades of arts. A short time ago ite price exceeded that of silver, but one discovery has succeeded another in the matter of cheapening its production until now it can be secured, considering the difference In weight, at but a slight advance over the cost of iron. This, however, is not the aim of the chemist! who are working on the problem. It is considered by them all as probable that it will be produced at less expense, pound for pound, than Iron, when the proper process of reduction shall have been dis covered, and until then the industry will be limited chiefly to experiment. A Chicago chemist recently secured letters patent on a process whereby he claims he can produce the metal at a cost of about five cents a pound, which, as compared with iron, allowing for difference in weight, is equal to one and three quarters cents a pound. Even at that price it is cheaper than steel, and will in a great measure enter into the construction of many articles now made of the latter metal, on account of it being lighter. A company has been organized in Chicago and capitalized at $2,000,000 for the purpose of establishing a plant for the production of aluminum, and a bank of clay has been secured which it Is estimated will furnish material for operation of the works for nearly a hundred years to come. To assist In improving the channels of the Columbia river and its tribu taries, the United States engineer in charge of that work in this section has constructed a large snag boat for removing loose rocks, logs, snags and oth er obstructions which have lodged in the path traveled by the vessels ply ing on these waters. In pursuing this work many articles are fished up from the bottoms of streams which have incidents of great interest connected with them, many ot them recalling the pioneer days of Oregon and Wash ington, when both were united, together with-Idaho, under the one name of Oregon. One of the obstructions of this nature now receiving the atten tion of tills new snag boat la the wreck of the Sylvia de Grace, which for nearly halt a century has laid at the bottom ot the Columbia river near Astoria. The wreck, says the Columbian, lies nearly abreast of Hanthorn's cannery, and most of the timbers are still visible at low tide, notwithstand ing the fact that foity-one years have passed since the vessel came to her last anchorage. The Sylvia dt Grace was a clipper ship built along in the forties to ply between New York and England, but when news of the dis covery of gold in California was received, she was sent around the horn with a cargo of general merchandise and passengers for San Francisco. On arriving there her master found that lumber was selling at fabulous prices, and was impossible to be obtained in that country. He accordingly set sail for the Columbia river, where he had been informed lumber was plentiful and comparatively cheap. Oa arriving at Astoria, he proceeded to Hunt's mill, which was located nearly opposite where Cathlamet now stands. It waa a small mill and the vessel was a long time receiving her load, In fact a portion of it bad to be rafted down from Love's old mill above Vancouver, and from mill at Oregon City. At last the cargo was completed and on a pleasant July morning, in 1849, she moved down the river with what was probably the most valuable cargo of lumber that ever ft Mted. She carried 300,000 feet, tor which the captain was to receive $500 per thousand In San Francisco. Ia the afternoon the vessel reached Astoria, and the pilot in charge, a young man named Johnston, let go anchor just above a ledge of rocks abreast of Hanthorn's cannery. On the ebb tide the ship dragged anchor and drilted broadside against the reef, knocking a hole In the bot tom from which the hull gradually sank never to rise until the advent of the snag puller forty-one years later. The weather was calm and the vessel did not break up, In fact she never was broken up, but was hacked to pieces by wreckers. For nearly two months she was undisturbed j but in Septem ber her cargo was removed and loaded on other vessel! which took it to San Francisco where it was still worth over $100 per thousand. The people of Astoria In those days showed no disposition to take possession of every thing they could get hold ot, consequently the wreck remained almost in tact for a long time, and whenever an Astoria boat builder needed piece of seasoned oak he could paddle out to the wreck with a hand saw and a hatchet and cut out just what he needed. In this way the wreck waa grad ually cut down until nothing was left above water, and the aand settled around it, making the place a serious obstruction to navigation. In this condition It has laid for a generation, but at last Uncle 8am bas concluded to remove it and in a tew days the " wreck ot the Sjhia dt Grace " will ex ist only in the memory ot the old residents.