[Two cables' length, discovered at 4, A. M., blowing a S. E. gale, ship going 9 knots. Narrowly escaped shipwreck.-Sydney Herald.] Island.. Charlotte island 171 55 W. [18 miles S. E. of the island Amagura lies a small low island, and about West from it, at 4 miles distance, lies a dangerous reef, two cables' length, E. by N. from Robert's island.] Greenwich island..... A small island...... A small island....... 188 5 S. 50 S. 3 15 S. 54 30 E. 155 46 E. 154 41 E. 1019 [Sydness, 35 miles to the Eastward of its position on the chart.] Pickerton's reef.. Farnham's island. Reef near the Equator. Favorite reef... 18 34 S. 26 20 S. 164 32 E. 164 10 E. 169 18 E. .. 150 0 W. 23 35 S. 15 35 S. [Surrounded by a reef, 8 or 9 miles off shore.] Kound Killy harbor..... [The harbor of Ascension being very indefinitely laid down, and a great many exceptions, extends to the North-east of the island, 40 miles long.] Reef 80 miles long.... [This reef the ship Isabella was lost upon, bound to Manilla, observed on the reef.] Grimes' island, ship Jean....... 9° 16' N. 145° 43' E. [Six miles in circumference.] Mumford's shoal, 18 miles S. by W. W. from Vetthone island. ENGLISH AND AMERICAN IRON COMPARED. We have received a letter from a highly responsible house in Philadelphia, extensively engaged in the manufacture of iron in Pennsylvania, calling our attention to an extract we made of an article from the "Ledger" of that city. Our correspondent says:-" It gives so unjust and unfair a representation of the case and of the facts, as stated by the Ledger's correspondent, that we herewith mail you the Ledger, containing the article in question. By a reperusal of this, you will perceive that the difference in value between English and American iron, according to the experience of the Reading Railroad Company, is thirteen dollars and fifty cents per ton, and not, as would appear by your extract, fifty-four cents. This arises from your stopping in the midst of the statement-fifty-four cents is the difference in the labor cost of repairs, in laying down so much more of the inferior iron. The statement was prepared by the Engineer of the Reading Railroad for Mr. Tucker, the President. We do not know how it fell into the hands of the Ledger, but recognize the statement as the same as the one we had previously received from Mr. Tucker." In order to correct an error of " omissior" rather than one of "commission," and set the matter right, we cheerfully comply with the request of our correspondent by transferring to the pages of the Merchants' Magazine the whole article as follows: READING, October 26th, 1851. I promised, in my last letter, to furnish you with a comparative statement of the wear and tar of English and American rails, for the purpose of showing that the iron used in English rails has for the last five or six years materially deteriorated, a very inferior quality of the metal having been substituted for that formerly employed, with a view, probably, of "circumventing" the Tariff of 1846. On the other hand, our own improvements in the manufacture of railroad iron have kept pace with those in other branches of industry, so that, though the first cost of American rails is greater than that of imported English rails, yet, in the long run, the use of American rails proves to be cheaper and more economical. Unfortunately for new companies, the cheap article, at first cost, competes but too successfully with the superior high-priced one, and an immense amount of tribute is, in consequence, annually paid to the British ironmasters, that had much better, and much more profitably, be invested at home. The Reading Railroad, doing a larger business than any other railroad in the country, and carrying at all times and hours heavy freights, is probably better qualified to test the use of different kinds of rails, and I have accordingly procured from the officers on the road the following statistics of their respective wear and tear. The average yearly per centage of rails worn out on the road for the two years ending on the 1st of December, 1849, has been as follows: This statement, however, does not exactly indicate the relative value of the several kinds of iron mentioned. The 45 and 52 lbs. rail, are both on the light track; yet it is the ten and eleven years' wear of the former which compares with the seven and eight years of the latter, and the five and six years of the 60 lbs. rail, which are compared, with the average of the first three years' wear of the Phoenixville American 60 lbs. rails; both of which latter patterns are on the loaded (coal) car track. The 45 lbs. rail is composed of a double refined English E. V. iron,* and, from several indications, has lost much of its original strength by eleven years' use under a heavy trade; yet it compares favorably with the 52 Ibs. rail lately manufactured and brought to this country; notwithstanding the superior weight and freshness of the latter, which experience can only be accounted for by the inferior quality of the metal used in its manufacture. The 52 lbs. English rail is also a very good English iron, corresponding, in quality, nearly with the American iron from Phoenixville and Danville; whilst the English 60 lbs. rail (last employed on the road,) is of an inferior quality, similar to the present low priced importations, as it is only the low-priced English iron that can be thrown on the American market at prices calculated to impair the vigor of American competition. About 33 per cent, or one-third of the wear of the Phoenixville 60 lbs. rail is due to its having to sustain the loaded instead of the light trains; and by continuing the assumption that the best American iron is equal to that used in the English 52 lbs. rail, the following may be considered as the comparative wear of rails on the Reading railroad. English, 4 1-10 per cent per annum. American, 1 4-10 per cent per annum. Difference in favor of the American, 2 7-10 per cent; or, otherwise stated, the cost of repairing these rails per annum, (considering the damaged iron taken out as worth half as much as the new iron put on the track,) will be as follows: Repairing English iron, per ton, per yard... Do. American, Difference in favor of American rails....... 82 cts. 28 66 54 cts. In addition to this, we must make a proper allowance for the labor of replacing the bars, and for the greater wear of machinery running over constantly failing rails, items which will increase the advantage of the good iron at least 50 per cent on the 82 cents per ton per annum, and correspondingly enhance the advantage resulting from the employment of American rails. Thus it would seem that the dividend-paying capacity of a railroad is the same with English iron at $40 a ton, as with American iron at $534 per ton; or, in other words, it gives American iron an advantage of $13 per ton in quality; and any process of legislation that would favor the employment of American rails instead of the English, though it might add to the first cost of the road, would not increase but diminish its permanent expenditures. OBSERVER. RAILROAD CARS WITHOUT DUST. The only misery of railroad traveling in a dry time is the dust and cinders, but a Yankee is about to do away with that annoyance. He has hit upon a mode of ventilation and has constructed a passenger car that is entirely free from dust and cinders, be the day dry, hot, windy, or dusty as may be. The car has been tested on the Vermont Central Railroad, and the success of the experiment was most triumphant. A long drouth had prevailed, and the road was as dusty as it well could be. The day was hot, and a correspondent of the Boston Atlas who rode in the car from Northfield to the Junction, says: "Not only was the car kept perfectly free from dust and cinders, but there was a constant current of air circulating through it all the while, ventilating and cooling it in the most thorough manner. While all the other cars were uncomfortably hot and dusty, ours continued the whole way most comfortably the reverse, in both respects. This great invention, which should be adopted on every railroad in the country, and for the discovery of which its inventor will deserve the thanks of every railroad traveler, is as simple as its success has been apparent. The air is forced into the car from the top, through boxes so adjusted that the motion of the car drives in a strong current. This is protected from dust and cinders by a network of fine wire. The windows of the car are made to admit light, but not air, and are not to be opened. All the air admitted must be from above, and through the network, and it passes out again through • A celebrated brand. blinds on the sides of the cars, so arranged that their motion may not resist its free passage. The inventor of this valuable improvement is Mr. Hovey of New York city; and, so far as we can judge from the experiment we witnessed, the success of his in vention was most triumphantly demonstrated. It is no exaggeration to say, that on one of the most trying days of the season there was not even the smallest annoyance from the dust. The change from this most comfortable and well ventilated car, to those in common use, was even greater than supposed possible. The rest of our journey was performed with open-windowed cars, admitting clouds of hot dust, smoke and cinders, and at its end we were hardly recognizable, we were so thoroughly covered. Mr. H. has our most hearty good wishes and prayers that he may succeed in introducing his invention upon every line of railroad in the country. WHAT RAILROADS MUST ACCOMPLISH. "Were the railroad trains to keep moving nights and Sundays," says the Commonwealth, very few but laboring people would reside in the city, and by no means all of them." One great advantage that must eventually result from railroads will be the dispersion of the laboring classes of the city among our rural villages and towns. Country life must not long remain the exclusive luxury of the rich, who pursue their business "in town." The men of small means, mechanics and even day lahorers, will find that they can remove their families ten or twenty miles into the country, and have their little vegetable gardens, their fruit trees, their cows, pigs and poultry, their pure air, with healthy rustic employments for their children, and the adjoining forest for a holiday ramble. What a blessed change, physically and morally, for the families now packed in the cellars or garrets of old houses, in filthy alleys, where the breezes of heaven cannot pass without contamination, and where the roses on childhood's cheeks are withered before they can bloom! Every year or two we hear of the departure of some rich man, who leaves princely bequests to some institution, perhaps already liberally endowed, or who sends his money to convert the heathen in distant lands. As soon as we have fifty thousand dollars to give away, we will dispose of it, not in bequests of doubtful utility to take effect after "the pitcher is broken at the fountain," but we will purchase a liberal tract of land, within a radius of twenty miles of Boston, and there create a village for day-laborers, who procure their daily employment in the city. They could live as economically as they now do, in spite of the additional charge of a passage to and fro in the cars. They and their children would soon acquire a taste for country life and agricultural pursuits. If they are Irish and Catholics, they shall have a church and a priest, and a burial ground, (for which they will not have as much use as now,) and this last shall be in a wood remote from their habitation-Bishop Fitzpatrick approving, of course. We have reached the end of our page, and our day-dream shall terminate with it. AMERICAN VS. ENGLISH RAILROADS. "The American people number 23,000,000 of souls, to whom, besides the natural yearly native increment, an addition is made by emigration of between 400,000 to 500,000 settlers, mostly in the prime of life, and many with hard cash in their pockets. Wages are in the States so high, and the whole population so well off, that they can afford to spend money in traveling more universally and to a greater extent, than the inhabitants of any other country. Intensely migratory, and proverbially locomotive themselves, the annual influx of strangers and emigrants passing on to their settlement, or traveling through the country, fill every medium of conveyance to every quarter, and to overflowing. Wood is to be had everywhere for the cutting. Irish navigators present themselves on the arrival of every ship. Land may be had for nothing-premiums even offered to railway projectors by proprietors to carry their lines through their properties. There are no lawyers and jobbers to run up enormous bills in Parliamentary contests. Economy is uniformly consulted-cheapness always commended. The result, reluctantly acknowledged, and hastily slurred over, by our stags, our capitalists, and the common jackalls of the press, is neither more nor less than this Twenty-eight millions of British have 7,000 miles of railway, and 24,000,000 of Yankees have 10,000. The English paid £250,000,000 for their 7,000 miles, while the Americans constructed and furnished 10,000 miles for £66,654,000. In a word, British railways cost £35,700 per mile, and Yankee railways average £6,500, or little more than one sixth of the cost of our own. It is obvious from these data, that if the London and North-western can afford to divide 5 per cent, the line from New York to Albany or Buffalo should yield 33 per cent; and it may, on the most assured evidence, be with great safety concluded, that the account contained in our last, of American dividends ranging from 6, 8, and 10 to 15, and even 19 per cent, scarcely comes up to the most moderate estimate of the probabilities of the case.-London Despatch. THE NEW HAMBURG TUNNEL ON THE HUDSON RIVER RAILROAD. The following is a description by the Engineer who superintended the work of the principal tunnel on the Hudson River Railroad. It will interest the engineering fraternity generally, as well as others in this State who are agitating the question of the cost of the Hoosac Tunnel, on the Troy and Greenfield line :- SIR-At the request of the President I furnish you below all the information I can draw together during the short interval before the departure of the mail. The tunnel at New Hamburg is approached on both sides by such heavy rock cutting as rendered it necessary to commence operations through shafts. Firstly. The tunnel is 836 feet long. Secondly. The area of the tunnel is 15,603 cubic yards, (15,603-1,000) per lineal foot. The specification herein quoted gives the outline. Grading for a double track. The tunnel to be twenty-four feet wide at the grade line, eighteen feet high at the center, seventeen feet high at a distance of five and a half feet each side of the center, (these points being nearly perpendicular to the center of the smoke pipe of the locomotive,) and ten feet high at the springing points of the arch, distant twelve feet each side of the center. The bottom to be excavated one foot below grade for ballast to imbed the sleepers, and also side drains two feet below grade. The roof is a curve of three centers. Thirdly. The total time occupied from the removal of the first cubic yard to its completion was sixteen months. The excavation was commenced and carried north and south in the first shaft, during September, 1848. The excavation was commenced and carried both ways in the second shaft in December of the same year. North end of the tunnel commenced early in February, 1849. South end commenced middle of June, 1849. From the middle of June to December 27th, 1849, the time of completion, workmen were employed on an average of four faces. The drifts, ten feet by six feet nearly, at the top center of the tunnel, were driven day and night from the very commencement until their completion in October, 1849. Fourthly. The cost of excavation of 13,011 cubic yards of rock, embracing the tunnel proper, was $4,249-1,000 or nearly $4 25 per cubic yard. Also 6,000 cubic yards hoisted through shafts at 75 cents-$4,500. Also 608 cubic yards of shaft excavation, at $5 00-$3,040; all of which included, made the cost about $4 51 per cubic yard. Fifthly. There were two shafts, one forty-five feet, the other thirty-five feet in depth from the natural surface to the top center of the arch. Distance between the two shafts 245 feet. The work, though expedited by more than half, was increased in its cost by the use of shafts. 1st.-From the fact that all the material thus excavated was hoisted. 2d.-By the removal of 2,000 to 2,500 gallons of water per day, during the greater portion of the spring and autumn months, and perhaps half that quantity during the remaining seasons from each shaft. 3d. The necessity for pumping fresh air to remove the smoke from the blasts and to displace carbonic acid gas, which would have rendered the shafts otherwise untenantable. 4th.-Lights, and higher wages, and time lost in ascending and descending. The rock was throughout a compact limestone of different degrees of purity, free from seams or layers of earth, so much so that every inch was made by blasting. The contour laid down in the specifications was carefully observed by the workmen, and the tunnel is beyond all question safe in every part. I would remark in addition, that had the tunnel been worked only from the extremities, and the time for its completion prolonged for more than another year, the excavations might have been made for $4 per cubic yard, yielding to the contractor nothing more than a fair profit. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, THOMAS C. MEYER, Civil Engineer. |