served respecting the Arabians. If they were in the habit of using the compass by land, they do not appear to have thought of applying it to a passage over the seas; and most of their voyaging was found to be merely coasting, even in the sixteenth century. The Portuguese, when they first visited the Indian seas, found that the Arabians, whose vessels chiefly traversed those waters, steered wholly by observations of the stars, or of the land, and that they were quite ignorant of the compass. CAPTAIN COOK. THE discoveries of the great circumnavigator were owing to a particularly marked shilling. Young Cook was a native of Yorkshire, and served as apprentice to a merchant and shopkeeper in a large finishing town in that county. Some money had been missed from the till, and, to detect the delinquent, a very curiously marked shilling was mixed with the silver, which was accurately counted. On examining the till shortly after, this peculiar shilling was missing, and Cook was taxed with taking it out; this he instantly acknowledged, stating that its particular look had caught his eye, but affirmed at the same time that he had put another of his own in its place. The money was accordingly counted over again, and found exactly to agree with his statement. Although the family was highly respectable, and therefore capable of advancing him in his future prospects, and also much attached to him, and very kind, yet the high spirit of the boy could not brook remaining in a situation where he had been suspected; he therefore ran away, and, having no other resource, entered as a cabin boy in a collier. FOOD FOR ANTIQUARIES. We were shown the other day while at Jackson, the impression of a coin which was recently found in digging a well five miles west of Telulahoma, in Marshall county, in this state. The devices on both sides of the coin are very distinct and exact, evidencing that its fabricators must have attained a high pitch in the arts. The devices appear hieroglyphical. The only approach to figures is in the centre of one side, where are three characters very much resembling the figures 619. They are preceded by what resembles a comma turned in the wrong direction. We are told that several instances have occurred of the finding of similar coins in excavating in the northern parts of this state.-Natchez Courier. OPERATIONS OF THE U. S. MINT FOR 1838. THE official report of the Director shows that the coinage at the Mint, in 1838, amounted to $3,979, 217, comprising $1,622,515 in gold, $2,293,000 in silver, and $63,702 in copper, and composed of 15, 336,518 pieces of coin. The deposites of gold within the year amounted to $1,624,500, of which $171,700 were derived from the mines of the United States. The deposites of silver amounted to $2,301,200 and were derived principally from Mexico and South America. In order to meet the demand for small coins, there were struck during the year, 11,449,700 pieces, all under the value of the half dollar, including cents. The branch mint at New Orleans received its first deposites of bullion on the 8th of March, and commenced operations immediately afterward. The demand for silver change led the officers to confine the coinage to dimes, of which 367,434 were struck before the end of July, when the work was interrupted. Two of the officers, and nearly all the workmen of this mint were from the north, and it was deemed unsafe for them to remain in New Orleans during the first sickly season. The value of the bullion received at this mint was $40,600 in gold, and $237,000 in silver.-The coinage amounted to $40,243, all in dimes. The branch mint at Charlotte commenced its operations in December, 1837, and has received deposites of gold to the value of $130,600. The amount of coinage has been $84,165, composed of 12,886 half eagles, and 7,894 quarter eagles. The branch mint at Dahlonega commenced its operations in February, and has received deposites of gold to the value of $141,800. The amount of its coinage has been $102,915, composed of 20,583 half eagles. THE MORAL EFFECTS OF RAILROADS. "THE steam engine, in its effective state, is not half a century old. The railway, in its present power, is not ten years old, yet it is already spreading, not merely in Europe, but over the vast savannahs of the new world: What will this come to in fifty years? What must be the effect of this gigantick stride over the ways of this world? What the mighty influence of that niutual communication, which even in its feeblest state, has been, in every age, the grand instrument of civilization? Throw down the smallest barrier between two civilized nations, and from that hour both become more civilized. Open the close-shut coast of China or Japan to mankind, and from that hour the condition of the people will be in progress of improvement. The barbarian and despot hate the stranger. Yet for the fullest of civilization, freedom and enjoyment of which earth is capable, the one thing needful is the fullest intercourse of nation with nation, of man with man. The European passion for the railroad is certainly one of the most singular, as it is one of the most cheering characteristicks of the age. Like all instruments of national power, it may be made an instrument of national evil; it may give additional strength to the tyrannical, and accumulate force against the weak, pour resistless invasion against the unprepared, and smite the helpless with unexampled rapidity of ruin. to make nations feel the value of peace; and unless But its faculties are made for peace, its tendency is some other magnificent invention shall come to supersede its use, and obliterate the memory of its services, we cannot suffer ourselves to doubt that the with such ardour throughout Europe, will yet be ac whole system, which is now in course of adoption knowledged as having given the mightiest propulsion to the general improvement of mankind." Black wood. THE following was originally published in the Cincinnati Journal several years ago, and was at the time copied extensively into other periodicals, accompanied by high commendations by the editors. The author was then our room-mate in a literary institution of the west, and had long been an intimate friend and fellow student. We were fellow travellers on our journey to the west, and both labored at the same oar on one of those immense rafts of lumber which annually float down the Belle Reviere. Our friend was prone to melancholy, and in one of his hours of despondency, he composed the DEIt has many beauties. The author had a mind which, had he lived to cultivate it, would have been of a high order; but he was cut down in the morning of life. LUGE. He was only eighteen years old when he wrote the DELUGE, and two years thereafter he slept in the silent tomb. PUBLISHER OF THE F. M. THE DELUGE. THRICE fifty years the preacher toiled- The holy patriarchs were in their graves of peace ;- No bleeding goat lay on the altar now No guilty one would come and pray to be forgiven— And sit and feast at sin's carnival. The maiden I said the patriarchs were dead. Yet there was one Who toiled, and prayed, and wept, and groaned To bring the wanderers back. Alas! 'twas vain. His tears fell on the ground unheeded, His age was mocked, and oft precocious guilt Seemed loth to let him pass in safety by. Shall tell the tale of wo, till thy great Maker's hand shall blot them out. The sun went down among the isles that deck The sea; and as it sunk away the preacher stood -At midnight, in the tents of sin, A strange unearthly cry of terror cameThe voice of mirth was hushed-the dancers In the hall stood still. The bridegroom's song Of gladness ceased with all its beauteous minstrelsy ; The moon had hid her face as if she wept; And each lone star that treads its pathway In the skies, now veiled its face as if afraid To look. Again the sound came on the palsied air. Ask ye what it meant? It was the voice Of vengeance, coming in his iron chariot To tread the the wine-press of the world. Oh! such a night as this earth ne'er had seen: The winds that make their beds among The pillar'd clouds of heaven now waked Their giant energies, and came as laborers In the harvest field of ruin; and thunder Raised his maddening voice amid the storm, And lightning lit his baleful fires to show the way Of death; and earthquake, that had slumbered In his gloomy cave, awoke and did his work. Oh, earth! thy watery grave is made, and God Has wove thy winding-sheet of waters— The stars have put their weeds of mourning on, And come to lay thee in thy sepulchre. The morning dawned at last;— The sun arose to meet his bride. He looked Not with the smile of holy gladness that used To dance upon his golden forehead. No! His brow was dark and stormy, and the light Came darting on the air, as flash the flames Of hell upon the midnight of the pit. Alone Upon the flood the ark in safety rodeAn angel's hand was on the helm Oh, earth! a fearful time had come in thy dark history! The inmates of its chambers sung and prayed Upon thy giant brow it yet recorded stands. Thy mountains, hills, and even the ocean's voice For God had come, and in their hearts Had kindled up a little heaven. JAPHETH. WESTERN STEAMBOATS. (Continued from page 153.) V. Is gas of any kind ever generated in boilers, and especially are explosive mixtures of gases ever produced? when the bursting of the first one has opened the cient indeed to demolish it if it were empty; but, When a principle is true in kind, it is frequently applied theoretically to account for phenomena without reference to the quantity, which may be altogether inadequate. So it has been with regard to the gaseous theories of explosions. Hot iron will decompose water and evolve hydrogen, but hydrogen alone is not explosive, besides the heat required for this de-cessively, yet probably within the fraction of a secomposition is far above that attained in cases of ex- stood within two hundred feet of the Moselle when cond of each other. Mr. Graham, a boat builder, who plosions attributed to the presence of gases. Nor is hydrogen explosive when mixed with oxygen, un- tinct reports exceedingly near to each other, "like she exploded, informed me that there were two disless within certain limits not likely to be attained in those produced by firing a double barrelled gun by steam boilers. Theoretically, gaseous explosions of drawing both triggers at once." In the case of the boilers are improbable, and practically they have been Moselle, the engine had been started, and the wheel quite disproved. It is possible for a small quantity had given one or two revolutions, when the accident of feebly combustible, not explosive, gas to be pro-occurred. It is not improbable that the sides of the duced from the packing of a boiler when it is first boilers had become unduly heated, and that the foam heated, if the heat be very great. The committee dashed upon them on starting, formed suddenly new of the Institute injected water into a red hot boiler, steam; but a much greater agency is undoubtedly due without its being in the least decomposed. towards the engine, and its sudden interruption by to the undulation of the steam occasioned by its rush the closing of the valve. This always creates a visible concussion in boilers. VI. Can the violent explosions by which large boilers have been blown into small fragments, and even whole suits of boilers, four to six, placed side by side, have been simultaneously blown to pieces, and the boat itself containing them, made a complete wreck, the strain, is often wonderful. as in the case of the Moselle, be accounted for on the supposition of an expansive force gradually increased according to the laws of steam already laid down? These effects are so gunpowder-like, that they excite a common impression of some sudden and violent expansion, beyond that produced by a gradually increasing temperature; and it was not until I had applied the principles of calculation, revolved the subject repeatedly in my mind, and conversed with intelligent, practical men, that I came to an opposite conclusion myself.* The effect of concussion on bodies, already on When sophical toys, called Prince Rupert's drops, is an example. These are made by dropping melted glass ed, and the parts left on the strain. The form is tadinto water, where it is suddenly and unequally coolthis drop is enclosed in the hand and gently pressed, pole-like, a drop with a bent slender tail. so as to break the slender fragile tail, the whole explodes into a powder, to the fright, perhaps, of the opIn the same manner, if one of several badly annealerator, and the amusement of the initiated by-stander. It is argued that, as the steam rises, some weaker ed tumblers, on the same shelf, breaks of its own acpart of the boiler will give way, the steam escape, A particle of sand let fall into a badly annealed jar cord, several others will often follow the example. and relieve the other parts, which will remain entire. will often fracture it into several pieces. Few perThis is all true in many cases; and describes what actually happens in numerous instances. But when sons have an adequate idea of the mechanical advanthe boiler is in all parts well made and of good ma-mencement of a rupture in a boiler. Suppose the pres tage which high steam at once attains on the com terial, the expansive force will increase to the full strength of the iron, and the boiler be on the verge of bursting at every point of its surface. It yields at last at some point-when the pent-up force instantly acquires an immense advantage, acting on the broken sides as levers, and producing rents, contortions, and concussions, in all directions; the resistance of the boiler diminishing faster by loss of integrity and cylindrical form, than the expansive force diminishes by enlarging the space which it occupies. But why, it is asked, when one boiler has burst, does the contiguous one burst at the same moment, rent in the boiler, is one foot long each B Here the whole pressure on the four corners included within the diagonals A C, CB, B D and D A, a surface of 289 square inches, is equal to ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY FOUR THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED POUNDS ;* and this, too, acting upon those levers, and throwing that mighty force into the four points A, C, B, and D, where the integrity of the iron is over corners as Captain Pierce, one of the members of this committee, familiar both with ship and with steam navigation, is still, I perceive, of the opinion, that the explosion of the Moselle was produced by low water in the boilers, and the consequent production of some agent producing a more sudden and gunpowder-like expansion than steam. come, point after point, as one army would conquer Capt. Pierce's opinion, which coincides with that of many others, is entitled to every degree of respect and consideration, yet I am compelled, from the evidence before me, to differ from his views. VOL. IV. Equal to the weight of a shaft or column of marble seventeen inches square and five hundred feet high, coil from the danger with horror. Yet they carelessly suffer a more frightful force to impend, because there is no way in which it is made to stare them in the face. another in detail, encountering only a single man at a time, or as a shopman would tear a piece of cloth, thread by thread. No wonder the boiler of the Moselle was torn in fragments and "crumpled," as a man would crumple a wad of paper in his hand. Our community are called upon, for their own From the experiment which the Institute made safety, to furnish the engineer with better means, with small boilers, several of which they exploded, than he now has, of knowing, at all times, both the they came to the conclusion that "ALL THE CIRCUM- quantity of water, and the strength of the steam. STANCES ATTENDING THE MOST VIOLENT EXPLOSIONS There should be presented to him some absolute, MAY OCCUR, WITHOUT A SUDDEN INCREASE OF PRES- definite, and evident mark to admonish him where SURE WITHIN THE BOILER." security ends, and where danger begins. At pres VII. Do boilers ever give way in consequence of ent he has only the imperfect contrivance of the guage accumulations of sediment or deposit? The Institute conclude 66 cock, and one safety valve, loaded so indefinitely, that 1st. "That deposits, consisting of sedimentary matter, carbonate of lime, and other salts, collect in particular parts of boilers, and, preventing the communication of heat to the water, are baked hard, becoming as hard as a brick' when the water is low." 1st. The green glass tube water guage, as recom2d. That these collections of mud, &c. may, by mended in the report of the Institute. It should be causing the undue heating of the bottom of the boil- green glass, because high steam corrodes white glass. er, cause exfoliations which gradually reduce the This should be so adapted by tubes and screws, that thickness of the metal; or they allow the temperature it can be easily removed, cleaned, and repaired; and of the metal to be raised so high, that it swells out at the ordinary pressure of the steam, and finally bursts; thus leading gradually, or suddenly, to the weakening of the boiler and the discharge of its contents." VIII. Of the collapsing of flues. This is the most common accident on the western waters, and is known to be mostly the effect of carelessness, in letting the water get too low. By this means, the flues become uncovered at the upper side, unduly heated, softened, and bent inward by the full pressure of the steam which acts on the outside of them. The engineer ought to understand the elementary principle, that pressure on the inside of a cylinder, as the boiler, tends to preserve the round or cylindrical form, and will restore it, if it be lost in any degree; but pressure on the outside of a cylinder, as on the flues, tends more and more to increase any imperfection of form, such as oval or flattened, until the sides are brought quite together with the full force of steam, according to the surface. To avoid this accident, the water should be kept to its height, and the boat should never be allowed to be "out of trim," as by passengers all running to one side, to gaze at some object of momentary interest, which causes the water to flow from the upper into the lower boilers, thus leaving the flues of the former dry and exposed to undue heat. there should be several extra ones to supply the loss by accident. This would enable the engineer at all times to have his eye upon the height of the water. A glass water guage has been invented, and applied by our fellow citizen, Mr. Hartshorn, but being made of white glass the steam corroded it. 2d. That there be two safety valves, both acurately adjusted, and made, as far as possible, inconvenient to be loaded beyond the point of security. One of them to be locked up, so as ordinarily to be inaccessible. 3d. That the boilers be furnished with plugs or plates of fusible metal, which, by melting at an unsafe heat, shall either give vent to the steam, or loosen a rod soldered into one of them, and properly connected, to ring an alarm bell as it escapes. 4th. That, if possible, thermometers should be so applied that the engineer may be enabled to read the temperature of the interior of the boilers. If the bulb could be placed near to the top of the flue, it would show the heat arising from a deficiency of water. I hardly need to add, that the temperature is an index to the pressure, which may be known by inspecting the previous table. But, independently of the pressure, the engineer may be guided by the temperature directly. For example, he may be shown that he must never allow the thermometer to rise IX. On the means of security against explosions. above 340 degrees, opposite to which, on the scale, The immediate means of safety, after having well the word DANGER may be engraved, or the pressure constructed machinery, are chiefly of two kinds. First, itself may be engraved on the scale. The thermomto keep a sufficient supply of water in the boilers; eter is a most simple and perfect instrument, and and secondly, to prevent the steam from rising high- when filled with quick-silver, and having a sufficient er than one fourth part of what the tenacity of the length of stem, may be safely used, to indicate any iron of which the boilers are made, would be able, temperature below the boiling of that metal; which if perfect, to bear. The importance of a sufficient is far above the point of unavoidable bursting of our supply of water in the boilers, is generally understood; but we fear that the second means has been mostly disregarded. It is probable that engineers have not a proper knowledge of the fearful force which is accumulating under their hands, and of its rapid and sudden increase by heat, only 123 degrees from security to the most violent and general destruction. Could they see a twenty thousand pound weight suspended over their heads by a riband of boiler iron, one inch wide and one-sixth of an inch thick, they would re high pressure boilers. So fully persuaded am I of the utility of the thermometer, as an indicator of the strength of "high steam," that I beg leave to submit a plan of my own, for its application; differing little, however, from that proposed by the Committee of the Institute. Let the boiler be constructed with an iron tube like a large gun-barrel, say one inch in diameter, passing obliquely into it from the side, not quite horizontal, but sloping a little downward, and terminating in contact with the upper part of the flue, the lower end of the tube being closed and joined, by especially the supposed discovery of the very learna flange, tight to the boiler. Into this tube slide a ed and respectable gentleman, we, with most unfeignsuitable thermometer, with its bulb nearly in contact ed deference beg leave to enter our protest; this though with the bottom of it, and with a circular disk at the with a perfect knowledge, that the same ideas were upper end, just fitted to close the outer opening. suggested not less that one hundred years ago. Is The thermometer would be secure from accidents, it proved to be of vegetable origin by the presence out of the way, and might be easily read by drawing of vegetable productions among its strata? Then are out the stem sufficiently for that purpose. When some of the clays also of vegetable origin; for the the water should become too low, and the flue, al- same kinds of vegetables, or impressions of them, most in contact with the thermometer, should become are found, and in the same positions too, in these heated, the temperature would be indicated. The ther- as in the coal. So, too, we may prove sandstone mometer would thus show the danger both from "too of vegetable origin; for in these we find trees and high steam," and "too low water." Whenever the other vegetables completely silicated. We might thermometer should be broken, its place might be in- prove too, in the same manner, that coal is of animal stantly supplied by another. And whenever the origin; for remains of many animals are also found boiler is to be repaired or subjected to violence, it can in coal beds. And if any thing can prove a nega be withdrawn, and laid in a safe place. It has been tive, it is the fact that vast numbers of trees and suggested that the tube would be in the way, in clean- other vegetables, even great deposits of them, have ing out the boiler. If so, unscrew the flange and been found buried in the alluvion of rivers, in the remove it. A thermometer, thus arranged, would in- clay hills, and in the peat-bogs and marl-pits of Euterfere with nothing; and the observing of it would rope, which were neither carbonized nor carbureted, be less inconvenient than the turning of the guage but perfectly natural, except occasionally, some cocks. We do not, however, propose the thermom- symptoms of decay on the surfaces. In some ineter as a substitute for the guage cock, but as an addi- stances however, both animal and vegetable remains tion, to be used at the same time. There is, after all, a are found petrified; but this is only where the article very considerable practical objection to the use of the is completely submerged in waters highly charged thermometer, inasmuch as it is not such an instru- with earth, when, as the shell, or other animal proment as engineers are accustomed to manipulate. duction, or the tree or other vegetable, becomes deIn England, two safety valves are required by law, composed, particle by particle is exchanged for othone of which is ordinarily locked up and inaccessi-ers of the earth contained in the water. But it is ble. In France, in addition to the two safety valves, proposed here to offer a better, because a more ratwo plugs of fusible metal are required to each boi-tional, theory of the formation of coal and salt, ler. These plugs are so prepared at the Mint, that which, sometimes with plaster, are generally contiguthey melt when the temperature becomes too high, ous; and for the reason, that they are produced by make an opening in the boiler, and let off the steam. the same agency, the decomposition of martial pyThe long Syphon Mercurial guage, as figured and rites; and this, not so commonly from large beds of described in the Chev. F. M. G. De Pambour's treatise thein, as from numerous particles of it largely distrion Locomotives, is perfectly applicable to our West-buted in the earth. ern boats, and would, by an index rising and falling The principal constituents of every oil are carbon one inch for every pound of pressure on the square and hydrogen; naphtha (seneka-oil) is composed inch, point out, at every moment, the state of the wholly of these, excepting a very small quantity of steam. Messrs. Harkness and Voorhees propose earth. It has been supposed that naphtha and petroto introduce this instrument into a boat now building leum (mineral tar) are produced from coal; but the for Captain Strader, in such a manner, that the scale very reverse is the fact, of which more instances shall present itself to the passengers in the cabin, and than one might be adduced in proof. We will, howhave done me the honor to ask my assistance in its ever, offer but one at this time. Some vials of construction and application. They propose, also, seneka-oil were collected from the great oil-spring at in addition to the usual fusible plugs inserted in the the head of Oil-creek, a sub-tributary of the Alle"shell" of the boiler, to introduce a set to be insert- gheny. One of these, by accident, had the top ed in the uppper line of the flues, which, by melting broken off, and with its contents, was set in the and giving vent to the steam, will give timely and corner of a shelved case, where it was hidden by a imperative notice of low water and over-heated flues. larger bottle, for two or three years. When discoThis is excellent, and we hail the indication as a fa-vered, it was known by its label, and in the bottom vorable omen. GEOLOGY.NO. VI. Formations of Coal, Salt, &c. WE often hear and read "that the vegetable origin of coal is universally admitted;" but the writer begs to be excepted from the great and respectable class, whose teacher, a learned professor, is indeed so confident of the doctrine, that he thinks he has detected the sphagnum palustre (peat-moss) in the very act of carburization. To this proposition, was contained a hard lump, which, in the teeth, bit like bituminous coal; it burned like coal, and its smoke had the same smell. The exsicated naphtha or seneka-oil, then, is coal. But whence the carbon and the hydrogen? We have seen, that in the decomposition of sulphuretted iron, some water is robbed of its oxygen by the sulphur, to form sulphuric acid; a proportionate quantity of hydrogen must therefore be set free, and will, being lighter, rise through a column of water, often hundreds of feet in depth: for it is immaterial whether it be wholly water, or earth intermingled with water: it is only through the heavier fluid it can rise. Under such a pressure, it is probable that it may combine with the carbon of the carbonic acid, set free by the |