Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1858-1860, 1858-08-09

life. The roads which buy cheap British rails
are not safe. and canIfot be made safe, yet the
cdpidity of directors and the folly of the gov
eminent. have stocked more than half our
roads with the cheapest foreign rails that could
be purchased. Now, they can make rails OF
anv weight at the very minimum of price, and
until the times change they can offer what en-
pineers and contractors will call splendid in
ducements, to all American purchasers. Rails,
pipes to the value of a quarter of million OF
doliar for Congress 10 get its supply of water
through. boilers for the steamers built here. or
at Glasgow, for our use-everything, indeed.
is made ready to supply US with iron on such
terms as we had not dared to anticipate.
The New York Mining Journal declares that
the current purchases of cheap rails in Eng
land, for American roads, are made OF one
third cinder and alag. Piles Of this material
have gathered for long years about the Welsh
and Staffordshire furnaces, and now they are
used to tide over the dizziness of Improbable
business in pure iron. The American market
is never so good as in such times of depres-
sion, since il is then far easier to tempt rail-
road companies and government contractors
chain of dependence may be fastened on
! Us at less cost now than in prosperous times,
and the investment of the foreign dealer in
iron. for the purpose OF establishing this de-
pendence may make the fortune of a cOntrac-
of million.
1t is not usual that a conf ssion such as
this of the London journal above quoted,
can be found in public place. Generally
we come to the knowledge of these abuses
through the occurrence of disasters by the
breaking of rails and theexplosion of boilers;
and we know little of the management
which sends purchasers and contractors to
the dealers in Stag mixed and silicious iron.
fha dc M
| a new railroad, is subject of congratulation
with railroad directors. A gigantic contract,
so arranged that single manufacturer will
hesitate at promising to fill it by certain day.
| is filled by a knot of Welsh or Scotch makers,
whose cinder piles have accumulated to un-
| comfortable dimensions, 10 the infinite delight
of those who get nearly dollar ton more
! for it, delivered here. 1t IL small satisfaction
| to paw the best of iron to foreign makers,
| when our hills are teeming with ore and coal
! unused and our men and machinery but halt
| employed; but to get, as such purchases, the
rejected trash of quarter of cetcury :
| iron making, is a business which we propose
| to let enough of light upon to destroy. and
this in the face of its recent triumphs, and OF
its expected success in future.
The following article. from the American
| Mining Chronicle, for July "a is so directly
| pertinent. that we give it entire:
| "ENGLIsH RAUS.-It is now nearly year
| and half since it was currently stated that
the New York and Erie Railroad Company
| had contracted for great qualities OF Amtrl-
! can railroad iron of the best quality, and that
they designed forthwith to remove large guam
titles of the rotten English stuff with which
the road was originally laid, and to replace
| it with reliable American made iron. The
| officers of the company further gave out at
that time that the English rail had worn
/ asst frpnnpntlV
| short, had proved itself so expensive, and yet
! so worthless and dangerous that they never
| intended to lay another mile of il, but to get
| rid of what they had on hand as quickly as
| possible, and thenceiOrward buy none but the
! dom site article.
No one will say This was not good resO-
luton; the only trouble is that it has not been
| acted on. II it had been. we should not have
| been mortified as we were lately. by the fright
! FIJI slaughter caused by one of these rails;
whereby six persons were Immediately killed,
and nearly fifty injured. more or less seriousl y.
| Now the managers were well aware Of the
fact that their whole road from end to end.
! had been originally laid with the cheapest and
most worthless kind of iron that rails could
! he made out of. The losses from broken rails
! every winter since the opening of the road
have always been enormous, owing to the
| frost acting the Stag or cinder that was
worked in with the bar and making them
! extremely brittle. Their own admissions and
| protestations of an intention to do better
more than year since, are conclusive as to
their knowledge Of these facts, and it is there
fore too late for them to set up the plea OF
| ignorance to shield them from the late ter
rible consequences Of their guilty neglect.
There are other presses more able and
more competent than ours, to pour out the
| walls of public Odium and wrath on the heads
| OF these guilty and reckless managers, and
10 them we willingly leave the painful task.
| 1t is only for us to say, that we trust the arm
OF the law will be laid upon them so hot and
heavy, and such exemplary damages given to
every one of the sufferers as will strike terror
| not only into them. but into the managers of
| other roads that are now in nearly rs bad a
condition; aud teach them in the only really
| effectual way such lesson can be taught,
that it is not only much safer, but also much
| cheaper for them to iron their roads with
! good pars of American iron, of known quail
| ity, than with the Welsh and Stafford hire
rubbish that is now lying twisted and bent,
and splnterrd along nearly the whole line
| of the New York and Erie Railroad"