The gross receipts on the several lines of canal and railroad for the fiscal year ending November 30, 1851, amounted to $1,793,624 82, being an increase over 1850 of $25,417 36. The expenditures for the same period amounted to $1,054,893 99. Included in these expenditures are the following: The rebuilding of the Conestoga Bridge, $17,854 50; the rebuilding of the Clark's Ferry Bridge, $21,922 30; the rebuilding of the Shamokin Shute, $4,678 50; the extraordinary repairs to the planes on the Alleghany Portage railroad, per act of 1850, $15,420 06; the building of an addition to the wharf at Bristol, $1,500; the repair of road and farm bridges, $25,000; and new depot at Parkersburg, $10,000-not being fairly chargeable to the repair account of the year, are not included in the statement of expenditures. Receipts for all purposes on the Columbia Railroad. Portage Railroad.. Main line of canal, from Columbia to Pittsburg North and west branch, and Susquehanna divisions. Total..... Deduct drawbacks paid at Philadelphia... $698,982 53 249,088 88 375,204 75 253,873 43 289,941 05 $1,817,090 64 23.465 82 $1,793,624 82 Total gross receipts on all the lines... The amount of anthracite and bituminous coal shipped from the several offices on the line of the State improvements for the year 1851, is as follows: The main line-Philadelphia and Columbia-is 82 miles in length, extending from the city of Philadelphia to the borough of Columbia. This division of the improvements has been in successful operation during the year. The freight passed over the road in 1851 amounted to 260,860 tons, being an increase over 1850 of 6,805 tons, exclusive of the tonnage from Reading Railroad in that year. The number of cars passed over the road was 146,226, of which 17,066 were passenger cars. Increase over 1850, 9,271 cars. Number of trips made by locomotive engines, 8,280. Number of miles traveled by passengers, 9,838,287-equal to 119,979 through passengers. Amount of toll received on passengers and passenger cars, $216,719 61. The motive power department is now in good condition, and fully equal to the business of the next year. Five first class locomotive engines were purchased during the past year. There are forty-six engines of all classes upon the road. Seven of these are undergoing repairs, and will be ready for service in the spring. There are twelve sets of trucks for section boats in order. As the transportation of boats over the road appears to be on the decrease, this number will be sufficient for present use. The Alleghany Portage Railroad is thirty-six miles in length, and extends from Holidaysburg to Johnstown. Transportation was resumed on this road on the 25th of February. There are twenty locomotive engines on this road; seven of these are of the first class, ten are adapted to short levels with light grades, and three are nearly worn out and of but little service. Two of the first class engines were purchased during the year. New ropes were placed on planes 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 10, at a cost of $18,624 94 PROGRESS OF RAILWAYS IN THE UNITED STATES. PREPARED FOR THE MERCHANTS' MAGAZINE BY DAVID M. BALFOUR, ESQ., OF MASSACHUSETTS. The Quincy Railway was chartered March 4th, 1826, and was opened in April, 1827. Its operations are not included in the annual report to the 1828. 1829. 1835. 1836. 1837. 1838. 1839. 1840. Miles Railroads. Miles....... Railroads.. Miles Railroads. Miles .... Railroads..... Miles Railroads.......... Railroads........ Miles Miles Railroads......... 12 1 12 12 1 126 5 126 7 144 7 2 1 39 2 39 2 39 3 34 1 34 co:: 52 11 212 13 311 13 123 77 77 3 108 318 13 1 16 1 16 1 16 31 58 1 137 1 137 1 137 1 137 South Carolina.. Georgia. Alabama. Louisiana. Kentucky Total ..... ....... ....... ..... PROGRESS OF RAILWAYS IN THE UNITED STATES-CONTINUED. 9 219 ..... 1 50 11 ... 3 212 8 15 496 17 186 5 1 87 South Carolina.. 1 204 Georgia. 4 271 435 13 465 13 465 13 467 17 1 Massachusetts Rhode Island. Connecticut New York... ....... 1841. 1842. 1843. 1844. 1845. 1846. 1848. 1849. 1850. R. R. Miles. R. R. Miles. R. R. Miles. R. R. Miles. R. R. Miles. R. R. Miles. R. R. Miles. R. R. Miles. R. R. Miles. R. R. Miles. R. R. Miles, R. R. 1847. 1851. 1852. 626 19 718 22 790 28 948 33 1,095 37 1,145 37 1,153 95 3,819 102 8,877 106 4,174 107 4,311 109 4,511 117 4,870 127 5,336 130 5,682 149 6,350 171 7,855 210 9,090 253 11,631 OPENING AND CLOSING OF THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE ERIE CANAL AND LAKE ERIE. THE FOLLOWING TABLE EXHIBITS THE DATE OF THE OPENING AND CLOSING OF THE HUDSON RIVER, AND THE NUMBER OF DAYS OPEN-ALSO THE TIME OF COMOPENING OF LAKE ERIE SINCE 1827. MENCEMENT AND CLOSE OF EACH NAVIGABLE SEASON OF CANALS, AND THE NUMBER OF DAYS OF NAVIGATION SINCE 1824-ALSO THE DATE OF THE RAILROAD SPEED FORTY MILES AN HOUR. A correspondent of the Albany Journal, in an article under the title of "Railroad Accidents and Legislation thereon," gives the following statistical analysis of speed on railroads, at forty miles an hour. He says: Men who are used to the railroad, and to the working of the rolling stock, know what such a rate of speed is and how wonderful is the operation. Let us examine it. An engine, tender, and train of four passenger cars and one baggage car, when prop erly loaded will not be much less than eighty tons weight. This body, at the rate of forty miles an hour, moves about sixty feet in a second. That is, between two beats of a clock, it flies across a common street. The driving-wheels, if six feet in diameter, revolve three times in a second. The common wheels of the cars revolve about eight times in a second. The revolutions of the driving-wheels are produced by the motion of the piston in the cylinder. To each revolution of this wheel there are two motions of the piston. Thus there are six motions of the piston to the second, and at each of these motions a valve is opened or closed, for the taking or exhausting steam from the cylinder. This must be a complete and perfect operation, each time, to produce the speed. But there are two cylinders, working at opposite sides of the engine, and at different points on the crank of the wheel, or axle, as may be, and they do not move at the same instant, or, rather, they alternate, and thus, each performing the same office, they divide a second into twelve equal parts or periods, in each of which the perfect and complete operation of taking or 'exhausting steam is performed, and at the end of each motion the piston actually stops and turns the other way. Now, the eye could not count or comprehend these motions. The ear could not distinguish the exhausts though each is as perfect and distinct as when the engine is drawing a heavy load four or five miles an hour, when it seems to labor and to cough as if struggling with its load. This is a speed of forty miles an hour analyzed. Now must there not be very greatly increased liability to accident at such a rate of speed? Who can see the strains upon parts of machinery that may result in a fracture when moving at this rate? CONSUMPTION OF OIL ON RAILROADS IN MASSACHUSETTS. The subjoined table, furnished by a writer in the New Bedford Mercury, gives the cost of sperm oil used on several railroads in 1851, as follows: 14. Fitchburg & Worcester Lowell & Lawrence Nashua & Lowell ..... 699 75 1,795 07 $77,293 80 The total length of the roads enumerated is 1,012 miles, and the total cost of oil used by them in 1851, $77,293 80. The number of miles of railroad in operation in in the United States, is 10,814. Reckoning the cost of oil on all the roads in the same ratio as that paid by the Massachusetts railroads, we have the snug little sum of $825,943 82, as the amount paid by all the railroads in the United States for oil in 1851. BRITISH REGULATIONS FOR STEAMBOATS. The British Board of Trade have issued a notice that the provisions of the amended Steam Navigation Act, 14 and 15 Vic., c. 79, would be strictly enforced on and after the 31st inst. On the 31st inst. all steamers will be required to display in a conspicuous part of the vessel their certificate to run, and the number of passengers they |