480 



MESSIAH, OHUKOH OF. 



METALS. 



combustion; arhile, further, such damp fuel 

 protracts the hours of boiling into the night, 

 leading to evils well known to the proprietors ; 

 and the logics, filled with the cane-stalks, are 

 liable at any time, from accident or design, to 

 disastrous conflagration. The attempt, on the 

 .other hand, to dry the cane by spreading it on 

 the ground, exposed to the sun, renders neces- 

 sary the work of a large number of extra hands. 



To obviate these disadvantages, Mr. H. War- 

 ner has invented a machine for rapid drying of 

 the crushed canes, and which he calls a ' ; Me- 

 gassicator." A large, upright, cylindrical cham- 

 ber which, along with a fan-blower, is driven 

 by a small independent engine is so placed as 

 to receive the megass directly from the rollers, 

 and upon the uppermost one of a succession of 

 three or four ways or webs of iron, along which 

 during the movement of the machine the canes 

 advance automatically and slowly, being mean- 

 while exposed to a current of hot air from the 

 chimney leading from the boilers, thrown in by 

 the blower (an adjustable damper admitting so 

 much external air as to avoid combustion of 

 the megass), until, finally, the dried stalks are 

 delivered below, at or near the mouth of the 

 furnace for the boilers. 



With a small machine, webs 6 feet wide and 

 of a total length of 60 feet, and a suitable blower 

 making 250 revolutions per minute, the megass, 

 advancing 5 to 7 inches per minute, and taking 

 If to 2 hours to go through, was delivered a 

 quite dry material of woody fibre and sugar, 

 ready and in place for immediate use. The 

 machine thus adds 50 per cent, to the fuel se- 

 cured ; requires very little attendance ; by the 

 fan-blower would save the erection of a tall 

 chimney; and, in use, economizes labor and 

 time, and of course expense. Even with it, 

 however, the highest economy is to be secured 

 only when the greatest possible percentage of 

 sugar is at first extracted from the cane. 



MESSIAH, CHTJECH OF THE, a religious sect 

 in the United States, which, in 1866, attracted 

 considerable attention by establishing an agri- 

 cultural colony at Jaffa, in Palestine. Of the 

 founder of the sect, the Boston Congregation- 

 alist gives the following information : 



" Parson Adams," as he is called, was, twenty 

 years ago, or thereabout, a lecturing Mormon elder. 

 Citizens of Boston may remember eulogies on the 

 martyr-prophet of Nauyoo, near the time of Smith's 

 death. He gained in this school, undoubtedly, much 

 of that skill in manipulating impressible characters, 

 which he really manifests in a remarkable degree. 

 Perhaps it was no disadvantage, either, to his future 

 character as the founder of a new fanatic movement, 

 that he next appears in the character of an actor on 

 the stage. Less promising was the qualification of 

 notorious drunkenness, which, somewhat later, he 

 eminently possessed. But for this, perhaps, he re- 

 garded himself as no longer reproachable, when, 

 after some kind of preliminary experiences, be came 

 out as he asserts a regularly ordained Methodist 

 minister. It was some time in 1863 that Parson 

 Adams appeared in Eastern Maine, accompanied by 

 his wife, the professed partner with him in some por- 

 tion of his inspiration. In the midst of a rather 

 illiterate and religiously-destitute community at 



Jonesport, Maine, he began to preach and to establish 

 the " Church of the Messiah." The only conditions 

 of membership were immersion and belief in his 

 apostolic character. The Parson gained a good deal 

 of ascendency over many minds, and fully persuaded 

 them of his inspired authority. Like Mohammed, 

 time and space were sometimes annihilated in his 

 favor. Frequently absenting himself from his fol- 

 lowers for a day or two, he would return, having 

 mean time visited Jerusalem, and received new com- 

 munications respecting the great colonial enterprise ! 

 To defray the expenses of this enterprise, he per- 

 suaded his people to give their money into his exclu- 

 sive control. Good farms were sold, and their pro- 

 ceeds lodged in his custody. Families were divided 

 Young women, in some instances, left their unwilling 

 parents and followed him. Rumors unfavorable to 

 his veracity, his chastity, his sobriety, seemed to 

 have no effect on the hold he had on his disciples. 

 Their faith in the most extravagant of his claims was 

 unbounded. He had the gift of the Holy Ghost. A 

 touch of his hands was as efficient as the apostles'. 

 He was in immediate communication with the 

 coming Messiah, and had authority to "bind and 

 loose at his will. 



The " Church of the Messiah " holds, among 

 other peculiar points of faith, that its members 

 are of the tribe of Ephraim, and that, as " the 

 curse is now taken off from Palestine," the time 

 has come for the lost ten tribes to return to the 

 land of their fathers. They anticipate the re- 

 establishment at Jerusalem of the throne of 

 David, in greater than Solomonic splendor. 

 In expectation of the near advent of the Mes- 

 siah, one hundred and fifty-six members of the 

 sect, from the State of Maine, went, in 1866, to 

 Palestine, and established a colony at Jaffa, the 

 seaport of Jerusalem. Through the kind inter- 

 ference of the English and American consuls 

 in Jerusalem, the Turkish pacha saw it to be 

 for his own personal interest to do the colonists 

 every favor in his power. Accordingly, when 

 they landed, all Jaffa rose to meet them. All 

 their goods and chattels, lumber and furniture, 

 were allowed to be landed free of duty, and 

 facilities were furnished them for getting settled 

 in their new homes. They had secured land 

 before their arrival, through the American 

 vice-consul in Jaffa, who bought it in the name 

 of a subject of the Sultan, as is the custom in 

 Turkey, foreigners not being allowed to hold 

 property there in their own name. The colo- 

 nists soon found that they had to encounter many 

 difficulties. Nine of the members died within 

 three months of their landing, and several 

 others had to be removed to the hospital for 

 treatment. Some, also, expressed disappoint- 

 ment and dissatisfaction with the president of 

 the colony, and desired to return to Maine. 



METALS, SOME Porsrrs nsr THE WORKING OF. 

 Manufacture of Cast Steel at Essen. The 

 largest and most complete manufactory of cast 

 steel in the world is probably that of Mr. Krupp 

 at Essen (Rhenish Prussia). The building 

 where the great castings are run, has about 

 1,200 crucibles arranged in furnaces by four, 

 eight and twelve, according to size, and the 

 moulds to receive the melted metal are disposed 

 in line along a trench situated between two 

 pairs of rails upon which runs a movable crane- 



