The national whig. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1847-1847, 1847-04-07

Lighting the Capitol Congress at lis last
session appropriated large sum of money for
lighting the Capitol Of The United States with
Cfulcheu's Oil Gas. Mr.. Crulchett, the pa
tentee, has already commenced operations.
He is erecting his Gas Holder in the North
West Area of the Capitol Yard, near which
will be built the apparatus for the production
of the Gas. There is to be a lantern elevated
one hundred feet above the Central Dome of
the Capitol, and in this lantern will be a single
Gas burner, which will throw forth light
equal TO that which would flow from
FIVE hundred single bats-wing burners each
equal to six sperm candles. This grand light
will be brilliant enough to illuminate the
whole Of the Capitol Grounds with an inten.
sity almost equal TO the light from the full
IA clear sky. Si.e s,sslssare ff5r fas,
support Of the lantern will be beautiful exhi-
bition of mechanical skill II is proposed TO
light the burner with an electric spark. There
is 10 be single pendant burner with which to
light the Rotunda, one of the same kind with
which to light the Hall Of Representatives.
and similar one for the Senate Chamber. All
the halls and passages of the building and all
the rooms on the second floor are to be lighted
also with Gas. Mr.. Crutchet expects to have
the great lantern over the Dome lighted in
three months from this time. The success
which his Oil Gas has hitherto met with, and
the continued brilliancy of the light from it,
~. IL -. IL 4 a :.
warrant the most sanguine expectations in re-
gard TO its introduction into the vast pile of the
Capitol
Dry Docks, The last Congress made APP
preparations for the erection Of The Basin
and Railway Dock at Kittery, Philadelphia
and Pensacola. We learn that the stupid at
tempts of the inventors of Gilbert's Balance
Dock to persuade the Navy Department that
their machine was the one intended by Con-
gress have signally failed There is but one
Dock of the kind described in the law, and
that is the machine known commonly as
Dakin's Sectional Dock. which is specified in
the letters patent Of that invention as The Ba-
sin and Railway Dock II is said that the Sc
cretary Of the Navy is determined 10 execute
the law as il stands, and to authorize the con-
struc,ion of Dakin's machines at the several
yards designated.
Famine IN the British Isles In the year 272,
the Bfions were compsl!sl- 10 eat the bark of
trees
In 3O6. thousands Of the Scots died from
want Of food.
In 80, 10000 English persisted from the
same ca9se
IN 45oAil we may believe Dufrtsnoy, so
dreadful Was the scarcity Of food in Taly, tina,
parents devoSred their own children.
In 7S9, in $40, and in 954. England Wales,
and Scotland, los. thousands Of their mhab-
iants BY starvation. Famine again desphted
these countries in the years 1887, 1855, k25l
and 1915. During the last visitation, horses,
dogs, cats, and the most loalhsome vcrnln,
were greedily devoured. We find at Intervals
Of time, six other seasons of famine reaching
down as late as 1895.
A most dreadful calamity ofthe same nature
visited the Cape de Verbs in the year i775,
when 10000 persons died of starvation, and
also in 1911, when some of the islands lost
from one third to one half of their population.
In 1922 the potatoe crop proved failure in
Ireland, and the southern countries were In
volyed in extreme distress. The Province Of
Munster was in state Of actual starvation,
Many persons committed misdemeanorsl
which were punishable by confinement,
they might obtain food OF the prisons.
fever followed in the Steps Of huncd
many hundreds were swept away
The subscriptions raised for the d;
in 1929, amounted to $500, 600,
The Rapels. A paragraph Isl
10 the effect that these Tighi
have retired on immense foril
near Toulouse in France
brothers and sisilaG 'fd'n'
the matter is,There were originally only two
brothers Of she Ravels, and one OF them died
in New Orleans last winter, and the rest OF
that celebrated troupe was composed OF psfues
no way related 10 each other. The Iof'uhe
par, Of the story is likewise withosf lounua-
lion, for the Rave Brothers, who employed
the troupe, some few years ego LOST nearly al
their earnings by the Unsed states Danh'-
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