American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1875-07-24
INDUSTRIAL.

THIS year the Southern peach crop is
so prolific that limbs of the trees are fire.
queptly broken off by the weight of the
fruit.
An engine has been invented in Paris
which is driven by the alternate expansion
and contraction of oil, or some other
liquid contained in cylinders.
IT is said that the ants have gone to
work chewing tobacco. The growers in
East CRANKY. Conn, complain that they
have attacked their plants, and in some
cases have entirely destroyed them.
THE New England boot and shoe trade
is getting on better footing. The ship
ments from Boston since the beginning of
the year exceed those of last year by more
than Al 900 cases, or nearly 10 per cent.
The Springfield Union says 1t is cheer
ing sign that the farmers of Western
Massachusetts, who of late years have
been diverted from the raising of corn and
potatoes by quicker profits on tobacco, are
returning this year to growing those
orthodox crops.
AND now eft is claimed that gentle
plan of New Orleans has invented or dis
covered process by which cotton can be
manufactured into silk The inventor
vention to the silk manufacturers. and its
adoption, it is predicted, will largely in
crease the consumption of cotton"
A SUBSTITUTE for ink has been devised
in Berlin, which consists of points, like
the leads of ordinary pencils, that can be
fitted into holders. The writing at first
very much resembles lead-pencil marks,
but when moistened Immediately assumes
a violet tint, and then adheres to the paper
like ink. As many as six good copies can
be taken from it by means of an ordinary
copying press. ..9- s7s..s.. =.
SALEM, N. c., is great headquarters
for the blackberry trade, the gathering and
curing of berries being one of the princi-
pal sources of business in that town. Last
year over 5000, 900 pounds of dried black
berries were shipped to Chicago alone.
The cost of picking and curing varies
from seven to twelve cents per pound and
the cost of transportation to Chicago is
one cent; the city dealers give fifteen
cents per pound, SO that the profit to the
pickers is quite large. usually about 81 20
per bushel of green fruit. The demand is
unlimited, and the production is increas-
ing.
IT is stated that in the best Russian man.
ufactories of sheetiron no article of that
kind is considered of passable quality that
will not bend four times without break
ing, some of it, indeed, being capable of
nine bendings without showing any
break. The general weight per sheet is
from six to twelve pounds, the larger de-
mand being for those of ten to eleven
pounds, but they are made weighing as
much as thirty pounds, and may then al
most be called thin boiler-plates, being
used for stoves, etc. The power running
the sheet rolls is equivalent to forty horses,
the rolls making seventy to eighty revolu-
tions minute.
THE cutting and dressing of stone is now
done by the new diamond-toothed saw,
which is regarded as one of the most i'm
portant mechanical inventions of the age
1t is said to execute in stone almost what
the common circular saw does in wood"
The speed of this saw may be varied
from five to five hundred revolutions per
minute. Stone may be sawn to any length
up to fourteen feet and of any angle or
depth to five feet. 1t is claimed that one
circular saw in this machine will do the
work of more than 100 hand-saws, and
this accurately, true and out of wind.
The machine has already sawn 125 super
fetal feet of actual cutting in one hour, of
the hardest kind of Beurea sandstone.