The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1876-05-11
INDUSTRIAL, STATISTICAL AND
TECHNICAL.

BooT and shoe manufacturing has been
carried on in Rochester, N. Y, for about
forty years, but has increased greatly for
ten years past, and now there are about
twenty-five firms whose aggregate product
is fully $1,000, 900 yearly.
BOTANIsTs assert that Europe cannot
claim 10 have done everything for America
gratis, when the latter gave her the sun.
flower, tobacco, potatoes. jalap, red pep.
per, tomatoes, quinine, guano and corn
not to mention cotton, petroleum and
other things.
THE Mining Journal says that one o.
the great objections raised against the
Channel Tunnel scheme is the length OF
time it will take to execute; but, if WE
are to believe the Li6erte, this objection
has now disappeared. In fact, according
to that paper, the tunnel can be completed
in less than six months! 1t tells us thai
machine has just been invented by
which fifty meters of ground may be
pierced through per diem, and it calcu
lates if both the English and the French
begin piercing at the same time the tun
mel can be cut out in IA days.
The statistical Office of the German rail
way lines has published the returns of the
accidents which happened during the
year 1875 on all German railways except
the Bavarian lines. There were 755 ruI,
nings-otf the rails and collisions of trains
on the outside, and 1876 trimmings off the
rails and collisions inside the stations, and
1850 accidents of divers natures by which
the regular service was interrupted. These
accidents have caused the loss of the lives
of 500 persons; 1,545 persons were hurt.
The proportion of accidents to the num-
Der of passenger trains was one to 1894
and to that of freight trains one to 1890.
SCIENTIFIC eXperimenters appear conf
dent Of the practicability and value of the
expansion of liquids as a motor. 1t is
well known that with gases the expansion
times the liquid, but the elasticity of the
gas is also great, while, with the liquid
itself. the expansion is small, but the de-
velol>ed forces enormous. In London, oil
is expanded by heat, and a slowly NOV
ing pressure of ten thousand pounds to
the square inch obtained without danger
of explosion. Printing presses and rivet-
ing and punching machines have already
been successfully run by this process.
Rapid steam pressure by gearing can be
converted into slow high pressure; and
now, to complement theadvs tages of this
achievement, it is suggeS6cdthat invention
ought to transpose the operation and trans
form a slow high pressure into rapid mo-
ton and less force.
MIR. 7. S. Hunt, of Boston, has COM
piled some statistics concerning the min
eral wealth of the country which are
really interesting. He divides the country
by a north aud south line at the eastern
base of the Rocky Mountains, upon the
Atlantic side of which are coal, iron, cop
per, lead salt and petroleum, and upon
the Pacific side the more precious miner
ais. The grand total of coal for 1878 he
finds to be about 50,0O0000 tons. In
1872, iron reached its highest figures of
production, the total being 1850, 070 tons.
In 1874 the Lake Superior mines alone
turned out 1891 tons of copper. The
product of petroleum rose from 500, 900
barrels in 1853 to 10, S67 $50 barrels in
1874. West of the Rocky Mountains the
official figures show that California, Ne
vada, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Colorado,
Oregon, Washington and New Mexico
yielded of the precious metals, $72, 1923 ,205
in 1874, and in 1875 $50, $50, 037.