Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1859-03-25
WASHINGTON NEWS AND GOSSIP.


True PRoGREss-Wel learn that the right to
control and use Salisbury's brick, tile and drain
making machine 1.-THE invention described ut
length in the Star of Tuesday last) in this Dis
trict, has been disposed Of to three citizens OF
Washington city, and that in a month one or
more of them will be in full operation in our
midst. We are glad of the fact, because
sincerely believing that it is destined to effect
changes in current methods and modes of build
ing, tiling. sewage, agricultural land draining,
&C., of great value to the future of society.
Since our late notice of it, we have carefully
inspected more of its working and results and
can state positively, from our own experiments.
that the beautiful and finished work it turns
ont Is from the slightly moist clay just as taken
up from the earth, without being subjected to
any ''tempering' whatever. We arc persuaded
further, from the solidity, faultlessness, and
polish Of the bricks as coming from its dies,
that, for the inside of walls, they can hardly
fail to answer unburned, as well as other brick
burned. They are nodded with grooves, in
which slight portion Of cement may be run or
placed, which will give the mass a tension
throughout all its parts quite equal to that Of
brick walls laid in mortar
The surfaces of the unburned bricks made by
Salisbury's machine are SO smooth that by ap-
plying varnish with brush face is given to
them (the unburned bricks thus laid, equal to
that Of painted plastered walls. That is, without
any lathing or plastering whatever. As a mat
ter Of course, without the Intervention even of
a coat of varnish, such unburned brick surfaces
arc admirable for papering, the pressure with
which the bricks are moulded making their
surfaces harder after few days air drying,
than the hardest plastering How much the
use Of unburncd bricks of such capabilities is
destined in time to save to those building, we
cannot estimate; but all who have had occasion
to pay for building are aware that it must
amount to heavy per centage. We believe,
too, that the use of this machine will not long
hence cause adobe buildings to be we'll nigh as
common in North, as in South America. That
is, for cheap houses. If the unburned bricks
OF South America, exposed directly to the
action OF the elements there, will withstand
them for centuries, by resorting to the shelter
roof Of that quarter of the globe, they will do
so here, Notwithstanding the difference of eli
mate. Such frOsts as are common here would
soon destroy the softer (more penetrable) adobe
bricks of Chilli, for instance. But those made
with this machine are 80 hard as that one must
examine them critically after they are air dried,
to comprehend that they have really not been
burned. The fact is knawn chiefly through
the high polish upon them-it,elf great pre-
ventitive of the action of frost upon them.
The South American roofs referred to above
the adobe houses being chiefly of a single story
walls, are great prcventitives of the action of
beating rains, it will be remembered
But We confess that our chief interest in this
machine, is in what is probably destined TO be
ITS ultimate effect ON the agriculture of the
country. From experiments we have made
Ourself with it, we firmly believe that by the
use of small machines made on Mr. Salisbury's
patent, occurring the power of but two horses
to drive them, two inch land draining pipes
can be made better than any other such pipe to
be made IN any other way, to cOst-burned-at
most, not moro than half a cent per foot, or
SO per mile including every conceivable OK
pense; and that the farmer and his hands can
manage it as well as they manage the reaper or
the wheat drill.
We have firm belief that putting it in
drain tile at their own time, for half a cent per
running foot, will be promptly followed by the
invention, somewhere, of plow or other dig
ger, which in running three or four times along
ditch, say foot wide, will loosen the soil 10
the depth of two or two and half feet Nav
pillow to that end, is already in use Mt the
North, though not having seen it, or drawings
OF 1T. we know not how far il answers the pur-
pose With that plow, hand labor is required
to throw the loOsened earth out of the bitches
and then to shovel il back again after tile or
other drains may he laid in it,
Now. why cannot some one skilled in the
inventive art get up N machine which will
follow the drain pillow and relieve the ditch
of the lOosened earth a. fast as the former
rravels-Say, machine upon the inclined plane
oi the mould board of which, the IOOsened earth
will bo worked up, perhaps a foot high until
falling upon or into something attached to an
endless belt, it may be carried up TO a point
from two to four feet above the earth $ surface
ard there emptied upon the apex of inclined
surfaces which will distribute il on the sides &c
the bitches as though laid there with the shovel
ready to be scOOped back into the ditch nv q
SIMPLE iron shovel scraper with proper mould
board, drawn by single horse working on one
side OF 1t, as the horses of all machine reapers
work! Though no inventor. we believe in tho
entire feasibility of such a combination of i'm
PIGMENTS as we attempt to describe above,
which will reduce the cost of UNDERTAKING.
any land where stones or rock are not eneoun
tered, to a maximum Of $50 per mile for under.
drains so laid, that will last throughout time.
Ii 80, the nett profits Of the cultivation of eyery
acre of land so drained will at least be doubIeI
at an average cost of perhaps not more than one
dollar per acre; as an acre of wel-drained land.
upland as well as low land, may generally be
relied on to average double the nett profits Of
the cultivation Of an undrained acre LAYING
next it, with equal expenditure for fertilization
and culture.
The address of the patentee is J. C. Sails
bury, Novelty Iron Works. New York city.
lHR CURRENT FIREs.-There can be no