Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1886-11-28

general inquiry has been very heavy, and
those mills which make a speciality OF
muck have had about all the orders they
can we'll attend to.
Oil and gas companies are organizing
right and left this fall, and it looks now as
If West Virginia, and the border counties
in Ohio and Pennsylvania would be
punched full of holes as soon as spring
opens. In fact, we'll sinking in the terri
tory mentioned has scarcely had a fair
start as vet, and within the next twelve
months derrieks will dot the valleys OF our
rivers at very frequent intervals Of course
this is pleasant outlook for
the owners of pipe mills, and affords food
for thought 10 Wheeling men who have
the money and practical knowledge to
build and operate an industry oil TINS
kind.
-
have often thought our iron and steel
men were not getting the cream OF the
business when they were content to put
all their substance into nails at S2.2o per
100 pounds, when such stuff as bridge
iron, steel berams, shape iron, etc, Is sell
ing at something like $50 per hundred.
Many of our mills have surplus power and
room enough to add to their works de-
partment covering this ground, and this
new industry could he introduced to very
good advantage.
| learn that the New England nail
manufacturers have become seriously
alarmed for the safety of their business
during the last few months, and some OF
them are rushing into print with plans for
the Improvement of their condition. One
of these plans embraces the starting of q
large steel plant at some central point on
the New England coast, the product OF
which shall he usedby all the mills in
common. This plant is to have It's ma
chinery propelled by water power, rs the
best possible means of competing with
the natural gas of the Ohio Valley, and II
is fondly hoped that with the advantage
thus gained the far Eastern mills will be
once more enabled to compete with East
ern Pennsylvania, and perhaps even send
some of their surplus product
into the boundless West. To render
this plan absolutely certain in its results,
il is proposed that there shall be perma-
nent difference in wages between New
ENGLAND and Eastern Pennsylvania, and 1t
is calculated that il the Eastern workmen
are cut 10 per cent. lower than the Penn
sylyania standard the New England manu-
flcturers can turn out nails at the same
cost rs the Keystone people, while II cut
of Is per cent. is made they will he able
TO compete with the upper Ohio Valley.
This is a pleasant outlook for the employees
of the mills of all three sections, for II the
New England employees can be induced or
forced to accept n reduction OF I'D per cent.
and nails are brought into the Pennsylva-
aia market, the manufacturers there VIII
likewise ask for reduction of wages to
restore the old difference and enable them
to hold their market, and this done, the
Ohio Valley manufacturers will be com
PEELED to follow suit to keep the Pennsyl-
yania mills out of the West.
Verify it looks rs if there was trouble
ahead for somebody.
While Mr.. Archibald Fairlie, Of London,
was in Wheeling, o few weeks ago, had
very pleasant chat with him upon rail-
road matters in general, and particularly
upon the question of rapid transportation
for passengers and mails Mr.. Fairlie ex'
pressed an abiding confidence that the day
| would come when locomotives would travel
one hundred miles an hour, and said, ~ 4
practical railroad man and machlniSt oil
| large experience, that he believed
such a speed to be perfectly practicable.
| He was inclined to think, however, that
| guages would have to be windened to per
haps ten feet to secure this result. A
writer in leading scientific journal has
recently taken up the same subject, propos
inc guage of fifteen feet, with driving
wheels twelve feet in diameter. of course
all the other component parts OF u road,
| from rails to brake-rOdS, would have to be
correspondingly increased in size and
weight, and the cost of laying down high
speed line would be 80 enormous
AS to forbid its use, save
between verv important points, like
\ New York and Philadelphia. Perhaps in
another generation or so, when we have
one hundred and fifty millions of people,
such line Of railway will become a pay
ing investment, but am inclined to think
that by that time the inventive genius OF
the aye will have devised some better
means of transportation.
-
Mr.. Fairlie, in common with many Other
practiced men, is inclined to think the
pneumatic tube may yet he de
veloped into something adopted to tho
rapid transportation needs of the age. II
is well known that, in London and Paris
pneumatic tubeS two feet in diane
ter are used by the postal authorities iOl
the transfer of mails between the general
postofiice and branch offices, and Mr.. Fair.
lie. by way Ofexperiment, once took an un
derground trip of mile shut up in one OF
the coffn-like slides in which mail-pouches
are transported He laid down upon his
back, with his feet pointed toward his deS-
tinatiOn, the cap was screwed on, q handle
pulled, and he was of like the wind, reach
ing his destination without damage in eX,
actly one minute Given tube say six feet in
diameter, cylindrical carriages fitted with
seats. lighted by electricity, and furnished
with reservoirs in which air can be stored
at high pressure to supply passengers, with
quick lime or other chemicals for the alb
Sorption Of earbOnic acid gas, and we only
need powerful air pumps to obtain tremen,
dOus velocity. To be sure there would he
no opportunity to enjoy the scenery along
the route, but rs passenger travel is, wear
nv year. becoming more and more an after,
dark AFFAIR, this objection has little weight