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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:

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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

Delaware division of canal.....

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

239,941 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:

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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 run by locomotive engines, 678,960.
Number of section boats passed over the road, 238.

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

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 COM-
MENCEMENT AND CLOSE OF EACH NAVIGABLE SEASON OF CANALS, AND THE NUMBER OF DAYS OF NAVIGATION SINCE 1824-ALSO THE DATE OF THE
OPENING OF LAKE ERIE SINCE 1827.

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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 properly 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:

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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

VOL. XXVI.-NO. V.

41

are allowed to carry; each vessel will now be furnished with a safety valve, free from the control of the engineer. Penalties will be enforced on masters and owners for carrying more than their number, and on passengers for forcing their way on board, or traveling beyond the distance for which they have paid. The customs' officers, on and after the 31st inst., will not grant transire or permit any vessels to put to sea unless they are properly found in life-boats, fire-engines, signal lights, and the other requirements for the preservation of life at sea.

THE WESTERN ROUTES OF NEW YORK.

The business of three of the great routes of western travel in 1850 and 1851, was as follows:

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This is a remarkable result, showing gross earnings of 15 per cent on the aggregate cost of the works. Within ten years the increase of traffic upon the leading public works of this country has been immense, no less than $8,410,214. The revenues of the Northern Line, Erie Canal, Pennsylvania Canal, and Baltimore and Ohio Railroad were $3,924.987, in 1841. The revenues of the same routes of travel, together with the Erie Railroad, were $12,335,001 in 1851.

JOURNAL OF MINING AND MANUFACTURES.

CONSUMPTION OF COTTON IN MANUFACTURING COUNTRIES.

COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE QUANTITIES OF RAW COTTON CONSUMED IN THE CHIEF

MANUFACTURING COUNTRIES, FROM 1836 TO 1851, INCLUSIVE, (IN MILLIONS OF POUNDS WEIGHT,) AS DERIVED FROM DU FAY & CO'S CIRCULAR.

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Total.......

639 662 747 649 841 785 846 940 1844. 1845. 1846. 1847. 1848, 1849. 1850. 1851. 513 597 604 425 591 627 584 648 86 96 97 105 112 160 133 118 146 158 159 126 127 186 142

149

...

...

...

...

29

34

11

12

...

26 38 39 143 158 175

31 29 47 45

45

175 209 205 188

158

11

...

...

...

944 1,047 1,074 862 1,068 1,225 1,132 1,175

Notwithstanding the high price of cotton during the first half of the past year, Great Britain worked up 55 per cent of all cotton consumed in the chief manufactur ing countries of the world; while the United States of America consumed considerably

less in 1851 than in any one of the preceding four years; the quantity consumed amounting to only 13 per cent on the total consumption of 1,175 millions of pounds. Although the number of spindles at work in Great Britain has been increased by several hundred thousands since 1850, and is estimated now at 21,400,000, a disproportion still exists between the spinning and the weaving power, which, however, will speedily be rectified if the former continue to offer a so much more profitable investment than the latter. The reverse has been the case, if a number of years be taken as a criterion, and hence the disinclination to build new spinning mills, notwithstanding the present abundance of capital.

THE CLIFF COPPER MINE OF LAKE SUPERIOR.

A correspondent of the Lake Superior Journal furnishes the following statistical view of the Cliff Mine for the year commencing December 1st, 1850, and ending with November 30th, 1851:

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Number of men employed 220, of which 90 are miners, and the remainder surface men, number of stump heads 12.

STEEL PEN MAKING AT BIRMINGHAM.

The special correspondent of the Morning Chronicle, whose well considered and judiciously prepared sketches of various commercial and industrial operations, we have on several occasions transferred to the pages of the Merchants' Magazine, furnishes us with the subjoined sketch of Gillott's celebrated steel pen manufactory at Birmingham:

Mr. Gillott, of Birmingham, who has done so much to improve it, considers the manufacture to be yet in its infancy. The first operations are performed by steam power. The sheets of steel, after they are received from Sheffield, are reduced to the requisite tenuity by successive transits through the rolling mill-operations which are tended by men and boys. When reduced in this manner to the thinness of a steel pen, and to the length of about two feet, and the breadth of two inches and a half or three inches, the sheets of steel are ready for the next processes, which are entirely performed by women and girls. Describing the rooms according to the order of the processes, and not according to the arrangement of the building, the first to be entered is that where the "blanks" are punched out. Ranged in double rows along a large and roomy workshop, with windows at both sides, and scrupulously white and clean in floor, roof, and walls, are seated from fifty to a hundred girls and women, from the age of fourteen to that of forty and upwards. The only sounde to be heard are, the working of the hand press, and the clinking of the small pieces of metal as they fall from the block into the receptacle prepared for them. This process is performed with great rapidity, one girl, of average industry and dexterity, being able to punch or cut out about a hundred gross per day. Each division of the workshop is superintended by a tool-maker, whose business it is to keep the punches and presses in good working condition, to superintend the work generally, and to keep order among the workpeople. The next operation is to place the blank in a concave die, on which a slight touch from a convex punch produces the requisite shape-that of a semi-tube. The slits and apertures, which increase the elasticity of the pen, and the maker's or vendor's

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