PLANING MILLS.-There are three planing mills in the city, two only of which have been at work during the entire year. The three are capable of planing from six to eight million feet of lumber, per annum. The capital invested is $60,000, and the number of workmen employed is 55. CARRIAGE MAKING.-We have some most accomplished workmen in this branch of manufacture in our city. Various specimens of their skill may be seen daily upon the streets, which, in beauty of design and exquisiteness of finish, will favorably compare with those manufactured in the best establishments of the East. The following is the business in this line : Capital invested... Sales of 1851..... $30,500 | Value of material $14,000 82 BRASS FOUNDRIES, BELL CASTING, AND LOCKSMITHING.-In these several branches there is invested capital to the amount of $22,500. The business of the year foots up to $43,000; the material consumed was $14,500, and some 38 men were employed. These manufactures are yet in their infancy. Nevertheless, the men engaged in them have already convinced the people of Chicago, that for anything in their respective lines, there is no need to go to the East to procure a superior article. LARD OIL, CANDLES, SOAP, AND STEAM MELTING.-There has been a large increase in this branch of business within a short period; and the large number of cattle annually slaughtered here, together with the facilities for obtaining material from abroad, leads us to expect a still greater increase. The capital now invested is $125,000. The aggregate business of the year amounted to $233,375, and the number of hands employed was 80. COOPERAGE. We are not sure that we have found the whole of this business. What we did fall in with, however, amounted to $16,500 in capital invested; $33,500 in the aggregate business of the year-$19,000, value of material, and 56 workmen employed. MARBLE SHOPS, STONE DRESSING, AND MILL STONES.-The whole amount of capital invested in the above, is $15,500. Aggregate business of the year, $28,000. Material used, $12,500. Workmen employed, 44. ICE. This luxury is now furnished us in great abundance. The capital invested is, $10,000. During the winter 90 workmen are engaged; during the summer, 20. Some 10,000 tons have been packed during the present winter BRICK MAKING.--The large amount of building which was done last year, exhausted the entire supply of brick, and some buildings commenced had to be discontinued in consequence. The total number of bricks manufactured, was 15,750,000; the capital invested in the business, is about $30,000, and the number of hands employed last year, 215. In the above list we have not included the manufacturé of boots and shoes, harness, trunks, clothing, plumbing, gas fitting, sheet tin and copper ware, pump making, black-smithing, silver and gold smithing and plating, and a variety of other branches of manufacturing. We have given sufficient, however, to enable the reader, at a distance, to form a pretty correct idea of the extent to which these various branches of industry are engaged in. THE COAL PRODUCTIONS OF OHIO. The statistical editor of the Cincinnati Gazette furnishes the subjoined statement of the production of coal in Ohio :— Ohio has coal enough in its bosom to supply the nation through an indefinite period. In fact, it is apparently inexhaustible. But a country must be comparatively old, wealthy, and populous, before the treasures of iron and coal are fully developed, for they require a very large capital in order to be mined, and carried to market. Some of the great iron factories of Wales and Scotland have a capital of ten millions-a thing in this country not thought of. The coal of Ohio lies very accessible, and requires comparatively little capital to handle it; but we have as yet, (except in Cincinnati,) little manufacturing, and in a large portion of the State, the people are not sufficiently near the mines, or public works, to use coal in competition with wood. Time and the axe are, however, rapidly destroying the forest, and wood is fast rising in price. The period is near when nearly the whole people of the Central West will use coal. It is only within a few years that the coal trade of Pennsylvania has largely increased, and the effect of it on the population and wealth of the State is very remarkable. The county of Schuylkill doubled in population the last ten years, and the city of Philadelphia has almost kept up with the city of New York. We copy the following return of the coal product of Eastern Pennsylvania, from the North American, taking four periods, at intervals of five years. From this statement it appears that the Pennsylvania coal trade has increased at more than 100 per cent in each five years. Supposing a bushel of coal to be 80 pounds, which is the legal weight, we find that the Pennsylvania production of 1851 was one hundred and ten millions of bushels. The marketable production of coal in Ohio, may be determined approximately by the last report of the Board of Public Works. The principal points of coal mining in Ohio are at Tallmadge, Summit county; Pomeroy, Meigs county; Nelsonville, Athens county; and some points in Stark and Coshocton counties. The amount brought to market from these several points in 1850-51 was as follows, viz:— .bushels 3,052,850 From Akron, Summit county. Massillon, Stark county... 186,893 59,150 260,256 930,150 2,000,000 6,489,299 This is but a sixteenth part of the coal brought to market in Eastern Pennsylvania; yet it is a large amount, and a large increase on the production a few years since. It is about the production of Pennsylvania fifteen years ago. May not the increase of the coal trade in Ohio be nearly as rapid as that in Pennsylvania? If so, what an immense effect it will have on the business of the State, and especially on Cincinnati ! The great difficulty with our coal mines is that we have so very little capital applicable to that business. The opening of the Pomeroy mines has been of great utility to this city; but it has been accomplished only by the uncommon energy, perseverance, and intelligence of the spirited proprietors. Time and labor were the substitutes for capital. The mines of Tallmadge have also been many years in arriving at important results. Notwithstanding the unpromising effects of the tariff on the manufacture of iron, there is a wide and profitable field for the employment of capital in Ohio, in developing its mineral resources. The consumption of coal in the interior towns, is gradually increasing. The consumption of some of these is known by the receipts from the canals, as follows: These are comparatively small quantities, but the increase (50 per cent) in one year, is quite remarkable, and proves what we have said, that as wood rises in price, the consumption of coal rapidly increases. Within a few years past coal has been extensively substituted for wood in steamboats. This has largely increased the consumption on the rivers. We have seen a steamboat on the Mississippi take poor coal on board at 30 cents per bushel. It is obvious that coal will be entirely used in steamboats, and it is equally obvious that coal must be almost the only motive power of machinery. The numerous railroads will soon facilitate the introduction of coal into numerous towns now inaccessible to the coal trade. All these things will soon afford an active demand for our coal-mineral lands will be in demand-and capital will develop the wealth now lying dormant in the earth. The coal of Pennsylvania carried to market last year came to twenty millions of dollars. An income like this, dug out of the earth, in a single article, is alone enough to make a State prosperous and independent. CANNEL COAL OF THE KENAWHA VALLEY. There are on the Kenawha and its tributaries five veins of common bituminous coal and two of Cannel coal, all capable of being worked, and all above the level of the river. The largest and best is said, in a letter from Edward Kenna, published in the Richmond Examiner, to be on the Coal River, where its aggregate thickness is twenty-four feet. The floor of the coal measures in this region is of fire clay or rock, and the roof of solid sand-stone. The dip inclines to the northwest at a very low angle. Professor Rogers gives the bituminous coal a rank quite equal to the best Pittsburg coal. The Cannel coal is said to be equal to any of this kind of coal in the world; like all coal of this description it is free from any intermixture of sulphur. Mr. Kenna says: "I may add, that from the close grain and compact character of this coal, it bears transportation and exposure to the weather better than any other coal. It contains from three to four thousand cubic feet per ton more gas than the best English or American bituminous coals; (vide Parnell's Applied Chemistry, Appleton's edition.) It raises steam to the desired point in thirty minutes-the best bitumen coals taking over two hours, (vide Prof. W. R. Johnson's report to Congress on American coals.) In short, its superiority for many practical purposes is so manifest, that there can be no doubt but that as soon as a sufficient quantity of the coal can be sent to market, it will supersede all other kinds of fuel." The thickest vein of Cannel coal in England or Scotland is said not to measure more than twenty-two inches; the Kenawha Cannel coal has an average thickness of six feet. Mr. Kenna says, that when the Central Railway is completed, it may be sent to Richmond at a cost not exceeding four dollars a ton. GOLD MINES IN VIRGINIA. Within the past three years several rich mines have been opened and worked successfully in different parts of the State. Machinery has been introduced for the purpose of crushing the quartz rock, and it has been demonstrated that a profitable business could be done in that branch of mining. The Richmond Whig thinks, that as the country becomes settled and improved machinery is introduced, an amount of the precious metal will be produced that will go far towards furnishing the State with a solid basis for her currency. A returned Californian, who was induced to visit the Virginia mines, says of one of them : "I was prepared to examine a strong vein of quartz, but did not, however, expect to see a mammoth vein, rivaling in extent any of the celebrated beds of California. Several shafts have been sunk within half a mile on various parts of the vein, of different depths, which exhibits the same uniform character, and widens as it goes downwards-and at a depth of twenty yards is sixteen feet in thickness, throughout the whole length of the bed, yet the same uniformity, volume, and thickness is found to continue. If fifty tons were taken out per day for crushing, this vein could not be exhausted in a century. I was induced to make experiments to test the value and evenness of yield in the rock, and found gold in all parts, and the fact determined that gold penetrates the whole mass. There are very rich threads leading through the whole length of vein in the galleries opened. Specimens were blasted out while I was in the vein, which for richness is not excelled by the best quartz rock in California." STATISTICS OF THE GREAT EXHIBITION. The London Observer publishes a return of the number of visitors during the time the exhibition remained open to the public. From this we learn that, in the month of May, the number of visitors was 734,782; in June, 1,133,116; in July, 1,314,176; in August, 1,028,435; in September, 1,155,240; in October up to the 11th instant, 841,107; grand total, 6,201,856. The liabilities incurred, so far as they have at present been ascertained, are as follows:-To Messrs. Fox and Henderson for the building, £79,800; to Messrs. Munday for rescinding of contract, £5,000; extra galleries, counters, and fittings, £35,000; management including printing, &c., up to the 1st May, £20,943; police force, £10,000; prize fund, £20,000; management during the exhibition,-; total, £170,743. The income of the establishment is as follows, up to the close of the exhibition:-Public subscriptions, £64,344; privilege of printing £3,200; privilege of supplying refreshments £5,500; amount received for season tickets up to 1st May, £40,000; royalty of 2d. per copy on catalogues,; total funds in hand on the 1st May, £113,044. Amount received at the doors up to August 30th, £252,141 9s. 6d. ; amount received up to the end of September, £62,007 12s.; amount received up to Saturday, the 11th of October, £41,922 11s. 6d.; grand total £469,115 13s. While the exhibition remained open to the public the children of no fewer than 510 schools, amounting to 43,715 pupils, visited it; and the kind feeling exhibited by the wealthy classes towards the poor may be further inferred from the fact, that nearly 11,000 persons, in addition, were treated to a visit to the exhibition at a cost of £2,735 paid for admission, to say nothing of the much larger sums disbursed for their conveyance to and from the Crystal Palace. PRODUCTION OF CALIFORNIA GOLD. The memorial of the Convention of citizens of California lately held in Washington, presented to Congress, gives an exalted idea of the richness of California in minerals, and particularly in gold, quicksilver, silver, &c. The yield of gold dust will steadily increase, every succeeding year, while the supply of gold from the quartz will be inexhaustible. The annual product of gold from auriferous quartz will be, three years hence, two hundred and twenty-five millions. Examples are given to prove the richness of the gold-bearing quartz. The average results of specimens sent to London, was $500 a ton; the picked specimens were equal to $35,000 a ton. An assay of gold-bearing quartz, at the mint, which weighed 188 ounces in its natural state, produced $1,731 in gold, or $9 20 an ounce. The amount of gold dust during the next three years is estimated at one hundred and fifty millions of dollars. The views of the memorialists in regard to the gold deposits, and the minute and extensive diffusion of the metal in the quartz rock, are very interesting. DISCOVERY OF A SILVER MINE IN NEW MEXICO. The National Intelligencer says that a dispatch has been received from an officer of the army stationed in New Mexico, stating that an extensive and rich silver mine has been discovered on the public lands in the vicinity of Fort Fillmore, in that Territory. The main or chief vein is said to be over five inches in width at the surface, and is exposed from the summit of a mountain fifteen hundred feet high to its base, over a thousand yards in length. The eastern slope only of the mountain has been explored, but there is no doubt that the vein passes entirely through it. An analysis of the ore has been made by a Mexican silver worker, who pronounces it very rich. Fort Fillmore is about 20 miles north of El Paso. NEW PROCESS OF WASHING GOLD IN CALIFORNIA. The Calaveras Chronicle says that a miner, at Volcano Diggings, has hit upon a new plan of separating the gold from the earth, and one that is likely to prove suc cessful and be generally adopted. There is a species of auriferous earth frequently met with that is so extremely stiff and tenacious that the ordinary methods of washing have but little effect upon it. The discoverer of the new process was working in this kind of earth, when the idea occurred to him to boil the dirt. He tried it, and found all difficulty in extracting the gold removed. Parties have already commenced constructing machinery for working by this method on a large scale. IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF OXALATE OF POTASH. We notice in a recent number of the London Mechanics' Magazine, that a patent has been issued to Mr. George I. Firman, of Lambeth street, for improvements in the manufacture of oxalate of potash, which consist in employing oxalic acid and water to act on salts of potash, such as the tartrate, sulphate, or muriate of potash. When tartrate of potash is the salt employed, the patentee takes cream of tartar, and neutralizes the excess of acid contained in it by the addition of carbonate of lime; he thus obtains a neutral tartrate in solution to every 100 lbs. to which he adds 60 lbs. of crystalized oxalic acid dissolved in water. This quantity of acid is sufficient to combine with about half of the potash; the remaining half being acted on by the liberated tartaric acid and converted to tartrate of potash, which may serve for a subsequent operation, or may be purified by passing its solution through animal charcoal. The neutral oxalate of potash is subsequently treated by adding a sufficient quantity of oxalic acid to convert it to a superoxalate, which is filtered, evaporated, and crystalized in the ordinary manner. In operating on sulphate of potash, the patentee dissolves it in water, heated about 180 deg. Fahr., and to every 100 lbs. thereof he adds 160 lbs. of crystalized oxalic acid dissolved in water, or a sufficient quantity of oxalic acid to convert the potash of the salt into superoxalate of potash (sulphuric acid being liberated.) He then stirs the mixture well, keeping up the temperature to about 180 deg. Fahr., and allows it to cool, when the superoxalate of potash will be found adhering to the sides and bottom of the vessel. It is subsequently dissolved, filtered, evaporated, and crystalized in the usual manner. When muriate of potash is operated on, the patentee dissolves it in water, heated to about 180 deg. Fahr., and having added to every 100 lbs. thereof 140 lbs. of crystalized oxalic acid dissolved in water, or a sufficient quantity of acid to convert the potash of the salt to a superoxalate, he proceeds as above directed when operating on sulphate of potash. The muriatic acid resulting from this process may be utilized by evaporating the liquor left in the vessels after the crystals of superoxalate of potash have been removed, and the residue of the evaporation may be returned, to be again operated on with fresh quantities of muriate. In order to prevent the escape of muriatic acid, it is recommended to conduct the operation in a closed vessel, (which should be composed of earthenware, although lead vessels may be used when operating on the tartrate and sulphate of potash,) having a pipe leading from it to another vessel containing water, by which the water will be absorbed. ONONDAGA AND TURK'S ISLAND SALT. An interesting experiment, ordered by the Secretary of War, for the purpose of testing the relative merits of Onondaga and Turk's Island salt, has been made here. The occasion of this experiment is, that there has existed a strong prejudice against salt of home manufacture; and for all orders for beef and pork for the use of the government it has been expressly stipulated that it should be packed in Turk's Island salt. The experiment was the packing of eight hundred barrels of pork in the two varieties of salt, about two or three months since, which was unpacked and examined by competent judges, and the result is, that the meats packed in the two kinds of salt were precisely the same, both being compact and of the same color. There are two kinds of salt made at Syracuse, and the pork was packed in the pure, large crystal kind. BRICK MAKING IN THE SOUTH, We learn from a contemporary, that the brick manufactory of Mr. Kendall, situated on the Bay of Biloxi, is doing a very extensive business. It was constructed in furtherance of a contract made by its enterprising proprietor with the United States Government, to supply brick wherewith to build a custom-house in the city of New Orleans. It commenced July twelve months ago, since which time it has grown in size so rapidly that it now resembles one of those busy, bustling, thriving little manufacturing towns, that always attract the attention, and inspire the admiration of the traveler in certain parts of New England. It is, perhaps, one of the most extensive brick making establishments in the Union. improved dry brick preses; each throws up making a sum total of 50,000 bricks daily. It employs two of Culbertson and Scott's per day, 25,000 brick of super or quality, The establishment is capable of producing |