Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1934-06-21

hair resembles a piece of heavy rope.
1t is all part Of the days work in
this Bloomfield factory to deal with
argon, helium. and neon, an atmos-
pheric pressure of oOOOO1 per cent
and pressures up to Is tons per square
inchl With pardonable pride this plant
adopts the slogan used by the United
States Engineers in France. 1T can't
be done-but here it isl"
In an unpretentious red-brick build
ing that faces on one of the principal
streets of West Orange, an empty
chair sits before an old-fashioned roll
top desk. Here Thomas A. Edison
spent the last years Of his life. His
library and study have been main
tanned just as he left them.
Traffic of Jersey City.
Jersey City, largest of the Hudson
river cities opposite New York, has
industries ranging from soap to print
ing and type-making. Oddly enough.
it is one Of Jerseys 'least-known"
cities to outsiders Railroads skirt its
business district or pass through it
underground, while the main motor
highway to the Holland tunnels runs
in a subsurface roadway through the
residential districts.
Many doughboys recall Jersey Citys
water front, major embarking and
disembarking point during the World
war. "Where do we go from here,
boys, where do we 90 from here: Any
where from Harlem to a Jersey City
pier" ran the words of a popular war
song.
Today Jersey City handles most Of
the freight-car traffic that comes into
the port Of New York from the south
and west One of its printing plants
turns out tons of telephone directories
annually for New York. Philadelphia,
Baltimore, Washington. and other
large eastern cities. In the same plant
hthographing for several widely CIR
culated magazines is also prepared.
A museum attached to a Jersey City
type-manufacturing concern contains
a copy Of the rare Canon Missal. dat
ing from 1853, one of the first books
printed entirely on a press, and many
tiny "thumb-nail" books, exquisite ex-
amples Of craftsmanship. Modern type
faces are measured for accuracy to
one-ten-thousandth Of an inch, the
thickness of cigarette paper.
From Jersey City northward along
the Hudson to Weehawken is one Of
the highest concentrations of railroad
traffic in the world. New Jersey leads
the nation In railroad trackage per
square mile, and the focus of its bust
est lines is this short bit of territory
along the Hudson opposite Manhattan
island.
Freight-car contents are transferred
here into the holds of liners, and re-
Gently a terminal was established
which places loaded cars themselves
within huge vessels called "seatrainS"
More interesting than the manner
In which commodities are transshiped
from rails to boats, however. are the
spilt-second schedules devised for the
waves Of commuters that sweep twice
daily through the half-dozen terminals
In the New Jersey side of the Hud-
son. II Is estimated that 100000 pee-
pie pour into and out of Manhattan on
typical business day. and that more
than Is per cent of them arrive from
New Jersey.
Timing the Commuters.
Stand in the Hoboken terminal tow
er OF the Lackawanna and watch the
big push" of commuters homeward
bound. No major offensive Of the
World war was timed to a greater
nicely than this daily event which has
become as much a part of the com
muter's life as his meals and sleep
Crowded ferry boats and tube trains
from Manhattan have brought armies
OF men and women to the train shed
where long expresses are waiting 10
hurry them to scores of suburban sta.
tons.
Zero Hour" comes from 5:25 to
5:35 p. m, when every commute
wants an express that win get him
home about SIX o'clock. Committing
railroads perform the seemingly i'm
possible by sending several trains TO
the same destination at almost the
same time, one making stops that an
other skips Newark, a metropolis OF
$4,000. may not be even flag-stop
on an express hurrying through-pas-
sengers on to AilIburn or MorristOwn.