Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-07-05

F. w. Mitchell, one of the stockholders in
the Van Week refinery. was exhibiting
samples Of oil said to have been refined by
this process. They were clear and bright.
and it was said the process extracted 75 per
cent Of IL lminant from Lima crude product.
The market, of course, broke as a result.
Some time after met in Bradford another
stockholder in the Van Week refinery, and
he told me it hadn't done q thing yet. 1t
hasn't been heard of since, but undoubted-
ly some one was enabled to turn an honest
penny by the break in the market.
Eyes, our agreement with the Standard is
at an end, the transfer OF the oil on which
profit was guaranteed has been made,
and it's now every man for himself. That
accounts for the activity in the oil fields.
but it isn't swelling the production much. :"
*%x
Those of us not yet so years of age have
probably lived in the most important and
intellectually progressive period of human
history. Within this half century the fol-
lowing inventions and discoveries have been
among the number: Ocean steamships,
street railways, elevated railways, telegraph
lines. ocean cables, telephones, photograph,
photography, and a score Of new methods of
picture making, aniline colors, kerosene
oil, electric lights, steam fire engines,
chemical fire extinguishers, aneesthetics
and painless surgery, gun cotton, nitro
glycerine, dynamite, giant powder, alumni
ium, magnesium ana other new metals,
alactro- plotinu enectrum ona1rs;s ond
spectroscope, audiphone. pneumatic tubes,
electric motor, electric railway, electric
bells, typewriter. cheap postal system, steam
heating, steam and hydraulic elevators,
vestibule cars, cantalever bridges. These
are only part. All positive knowledge of
the physical constitution of planetary and
stellar worlds has been attained within this
period.
A great d cal of good taste is being shown
in the constru ction of houses in the suburbs,
concern ing which builder said yesterday:
"a great change has taken place in house
building since commenced the business %
or 80 years ago. Then the rage was for square
houses, with plain porch and roof. Now
a square house is seldom seen. People want
as many corners as they can get, and high
roofs broken as much as possible, with
plenty of gables and dormer windows are
all the go. Bay windows, too, and large
porches are the rule. A house Of any pre-
tensions without these Accomplishments
would be rarity.
"These things are expensive, butthey add
wonderfully to the appearance of build
ing, making even a small one look roomy
and comfortable The country in all direc-
tions around Pittsburg is filling up very
fast, and it will soon be full of houses that
would be an ornament to any city,"
The Ice Trade Journal, on the strength
of reports from all parts of the country,
says: while the country has escaped
threatened ice famine, it is proper to add
that the crop of the entire country is largely
short of the average of former years, while
it is in most cases inferior in quality, thus
making higher prices inevitable, and SUBJ
ject to variation"
Topeka, Kan, claims to have the longest
electric railway system in the world now in |
operation. The plant is owned BY the |
Rapid Transit Railway Company, of To-
peka, and cost to establish about $500, 900.
1t operates 16H miles of track, requiring
the use of nine powerful dynamos, driven |