Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1878-02-14
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press engine at the speed Of sixty miles
an hour, the engine developing about
800 horse power An engine drawing
a light train has been known to make
about one hundred miles in one hum
bred minutes, which speed may be
taken as representing the maximum for
the best modern engines on the exist
ing roads.
The life of the locomotive, when we'll
cared for, may be taken as not far from
thirty years. Repairs cost, annually,
ten or fifteen per cent. of the first cost.
While running, each engine requires
about four pints of oil and two tons of
coal for each one hundred miles.
After their introduction, the growth
of railroads and the use Of locomotives
extended trl the United States ana i'm
Europe with great rapid.ty.
The first railroad in the United States
was built near Quincy, Massachusetts,
in 1926.
In 1850 there were about 700 miles in
operation in 1860 there were over &c.
600; and there are to-day about 76,-
600 miles of completed road in the
United States, and the rate of increase
had risen, in 1873, to above 1000 miles
per year, as maximum, and the con-
sumption of rails for renewal alone.
amounts to nearly half million tons
a year.-Pobular Science Monthly.
Handicrdf and Art.-While handi-
craft is content to produce that which
is useful, art aspires to produce that
which is beautiful. And Just in pro-
a
manners and good taste made progress
among men, they desire to combine the /
two, to impart agreeable, decorative,
beautiful forms to those articles of use. |
which no doubt answer in some sense
their primary purpose, however homely /
and inelegant they may be. This state /
ment has been always true, in ancient. |
as in modern times. Continually the I
tendency has been for art to associate 1
itself with mechanical industries to rem /
der them artistic, and from this asso-
citation, even in the most ancient times I
sprang those fine creations in POTTERY. i
IN weaving, in stone-cutting, in wood
work, in metal casting, in decorative
painting, etc, which are accepted even
at the present day as indispensable ex-
amples and models in the several arts
to. In the line thus marked
out by the ancients, the men of the
middle ages and of modern times have
abored onward, and the best industries
IT to-day are assiduously directed with
lhe view of bringing into relations even
Closer and more intimate handiWOrk
md art, the useful and the beautiful.
FIRE and Waterproof Preparation.
Stake common stone-lime in a close
vessel, and when cool pass eight quarts
through fine sieve, add to it one quart
If fine salt and two gallons of pure
water. Boil and skim. Then to every
our gallons of this mixture add one
md quarter pounds of rock alum.
hree-fourths of pound of copperas,
lalf a pound of potash, and five quarts
If fine beach sand. This wash will now
ldmit any coloring matter that may be
lesired, and may be applied with a
)alnt Orwhitewash brush in the same
manner as oil paints. A writer re-
marking on the good qualities of this
for roofs, says at looks
better than paint, will stop leaks in the
'oof, prevent moss from growing, and
when laid upon brickwOrk, will render
t impenetrable to rain or moisture. y
\ wash ofthis kind might be benefcially |
pplled to the roofs of houses, &c, in {
tead of'paint. ]
The experiments of Vplcker show |
hat farmyard manure does not lose 4
auch by exposure to air, heat and light. {
he deterioration which illy-managed
lanure-heaps undergo is principally /
ne to losses by drainage. The dark 4
olored liquid which is often seen flow i
lg away from badly kept dungheaps. /
J rich in nitrogen, phosphoric acid and t
otash. 1t has been found, through i
areful experiment. that 100 loads of Il
ung, kept in the usual wasteful man @
er, were reduced at the end of 81 DAYS a
1913 loads, at the end of 2S5 days, to e
IA loads, 3S4 days to 81 5 loads, while a
the end of 499 days the original 100 o
ads were reduced to 47.2 loads, sus-
lining loss of 52.S loads. Thus in
Xteen months more than one half. and Z
anure had disappeared, leaving a u
ghly carbonaceous matter, poor in all ', "
e elements of fertility. W
Nature sets the husbandman a good w
ample in its methods of returning to
: soil a very large portion of the sSbl- So
aSs inorganic substances, which is u
arly drawn from it by the roots of ~
rest trees during the season of growth. ~
nus an annual top-dressing is natur- n
ly given to the land where forests !,
ow and that which the roots, u
ON Spring to Autumn, are contin- p
lily sucking up, and carefully collect =
g from considerable depths, Winter =
rews again on the surface in the form y
decaying leaves, so as in the lapse of 7
me to form rich and fertile soil.
lch soil must be favorable to veget-
Die growth, since it contains, or is
ade up of, those very materials of q
hich the organic substance of former Il
egetable growth has been almost en- 7
rely composed. :
The Signal Service. The House Mil Il
airy Committee will select a sub-com- a
ittee apropos of the resolution, intro a
lced a few days ago, proposing the
ansfer of the Signal Bureau from the a
Jar Department to the Treasury De- e
Representative CLARK, the "
over of this resolution, claims, and S
her members believe, that half of the /
lnual appropriation of 81, 100000 for k
rs service would be ample if properly il
,pended a
In Paris they are warming the street a
rs by small hot-water pipes connected a
tn little stove placed beneath of Y
G platforms The cost is abont R II
cents a day. the fuel u sed | II