Whig Republican. [volume] (Lexington, Miss.) 1840-18??, 1840-12-10

our ioy and gratitude than may accord
with q victory which is TO restore tran
Iuuility to distracted councils, peace 10.
an agitated country, hope and happiness
to an afflicted People.
MECHANICAL POWER.
The Paris correspondent of the Amerl-
can (PhiIadelphia) Sentinel communicates
the following facts:
COMPRESSED Air as a Motive Power.
Several distinguished engineers and
other scientific men attended on Saturday
to witness a series ofexperlments on COM
pressed air, at the late establishment of Nj.
Perrier, & Co., at Chaillot The inventor
of the various new and ingenious modes
of applying this power, MI. Andraud, a
gentleman well known i'll the scientific q
literary world, began exhibiting small
carriage, which was set in motion by com
pressed air on small railway laid down
for the purpose of this carriage, was mo-
we'd up and down several times at the rate
of about % miles an hour. The air conf
pressed only at about % atmospheres,
which is little more than one third ofthe
power to which it can be compressed,
without danger of explosion, is contained
in a.proof cylinder or. reservoir, which
supplies the pistons i'll the same way as
for locomotive. nj. Andraud states that
two of these cylinders are sufficient for
thesupply ola locomotive for several miles
of railway; and as air can be compress
sed almost without expense Wlerevert there
is steam or even windmill to work the
machinery, fresh charged cylinders can
be kept at stations, and applied to the To-
comotives, this being the work OF only one
minute. The improvement in III. An
drauds air locomotive, on all others which
have been invented, is in the application
ofaregulator by which air is supplied with
unfailing regularity and certainty, and
which is under the full control of the en-
gineer, and in the mode of dilating the
air by heat, SO us to cause great economy.
In dilating the air it is necessary, for
the purpose of locomotlon, that it should
be done very rapidly, for otherwise the
speed cannot be kept up. 1t cannot be
dilated i'll the cylinder or reservoir with
out great danger of explosion; and by the
ordinary process only the external surface
of the air Immediately exposed to tfe ac-
ton of heat is rapidly diIatcd, the internal
pselae,,lee aig .ha;.a.s la. rsandactRE, Is
curing great Tile Tor dllatlon. vi. an
draud gets rid of all this difficulty by pas
sing the air through a very long spiral
tube immersed in boiling lead, and i'll this
way the whole is dilated in the twelfth part
ola section, and q reservoir of the piston,
the same quantity of air undila-
ted gives only 1900 Another of the ex-
perlments was III an air cannon. Balls
were thrown from it, which at distance
of 260 yards broke III the roof of a build
ing and lodged with great force i'll wall,
although the air was compressed to only
20 atmospheres M. Andraud proposes
thatbatteries in towns shall be worked by
compressed air instead of powder, the ex-
pense, where there is power or wind to !
compress the air, being, according to nj.
Poucelit, only. one 18th of that of powder,
andifcompressed by steam engine about
one 50th. NJ. Andraud ilnagines that
field artillery may be worked in the same
manner, as the horses III drawing the guns
to the field, would, by the motion Of the
wheels fill all the reservoirs necessary for
a long battle. The next experiment. was
onthe powerof compressed air in raising
water either for the supply of towns or
for the draining of marshes, mines, &C.
By verysn1all apparatus, column of
water was thrown to height of Is feet.
From the Canadagua Repository.
THE RAIL ROAD.