470 



FARMERS' REGISTER— PRESERVING JMETALS FROM RUST. 



North Carolina. 



Lake Drummond Canal 5 



North West Canal 6 



Weldon Canal 12 



Clubfoot and Ilarlovv Canal l^- 



South Carolina. 



§700,000 



Georgia. 



Savan. & Ogechee Canal 16 

 Matamaba and Brunswick 12 



Decatur Rail Road 

 Huntsviile Canal 



j^labav.ia. 



62 

 16 



S 165,000 



(in progress) 



3Iississippi. 



St. Francisvillc and Wood- 



vi!le Rail Road 20 



Vicksburg and Weslon 37 



IjGUisiana. 



New Orleans and Pontchar- 

 train Rail Road 5 



Canals. 

 La Fourclie Canal 

 L. Verot Canal 8 



N. O. ,& Pontchartrain Canal 6 



Kentucky. 



380,000 



730,000 



Louisville and Portland Canal 1| 

 Lexino-ton and Ohio Rail 



Road est. 1,000,000 



Ohio. 



Ohio and Eric Canal 

 Miami Canal 



307 

 68 



746,852 



Canada. 



Rideau Canal 129^ (in progress) 



Welland Canal 



In addition to these roads and canals, various 

 others, some of them of great magnitude, are 

 spoken of in several states, ptirticularly in Penn- 

 sylvania, New York, New Jersey, Mar^dand and 

 Kentucky. In the course of a lew years, they 

 will no doubt all be completed. 



From t!i8 Maine Fanner. 

 PRKSKRVIKG METALS FKOM RUST. 



It is strange how slowly improvements and dis- 

 coveries oftentimes creep ov^er the country, ai^.d 

 how long a time it takes ibr an important iact 

 which partakes of a little science, to become gene- 

 rally known and applied to practical purposes. 



Ever}' one knows, or ouiiht to know, that there 

 is such a thmg or power in nature as electricity — 

 that there appears to be either two kinds of this 

 fluid, or that some bodies naturally contain an ex- 

 tra quantity, and some are deficient of it — that ac- 

 cordmg to Franklin's theory, bodies with a surplus 

 of it arc said to be positively electrified, and those 

 bodies which lack are said (o be negativeh^ elec- 

 trified — and those bodies v»'hich are positive attract 

 theTnegative, and repel those that are positive — 

 Avhile those that are negative attract the positive 

 and repel the negative. — or in other \vords. the same 

 kind of electricity repels its own Kind, and attracts 

 the opposite. Every one knows, or ought to know, 

 that there is such a thing as oxygen in the atmos- 

 phere, or ])erhaj:!s better known by the name of 

 vital air. That it is the union of this substance 

 -called oxygen which causes some bodies to become 

 oxidi/ed, or if that term smacks too much of 

 "book larning" you may say they become rust- 

 ed. 



It is several years since Sir Humphrey Davy 

 discovered the fact, that the metals were as it re- 

 gards electricity, positive, and that this vita!, air cr 

 oxygen was by nature negative, and that according 

 to 'the -laws of electricity, the metals had an at- 

 traction for oxygen and become rusted. Pie also 

 discovered tiie liu-.t, that the metals varied some- 

 what in their characters in regard to their electrical 

 states; and that when two j:ieces of metal were 

 put in contact, one of them \vould become positive 

 and the other hetjative; of course according to the 

 laws laid down by Fraiikiin as above mentioned, 

 the metal whicli would become in a positive state 

 of electricity would attract the oxjgen (because it 

 IS negative) and be rusted, and the other metal 

 v/onld repel it and remain unrusted. A piece of 

 zinc about the size of a pea would protect 40 or 

 50 square inches of copper if soldered ujion it and 

 plunged into sea water — whereas if the copper 

 were plunged in alone, it would become corroded. 

 He accordingly concluded that by soldering 

 pieces of zinc to' the cop])er bottom oi" shifis, the 

 copper would be preserved as long as the zinc 

 lasted. The experiment was tried — a ship Vv'as so 

 prepared, and sent out on a long voyage. On her 

 return she was examined — the copper was pre- 

 served accordiiig to expectation, but an unexpect- 

 ed evil had taken ])lace. The worms and barna- 

 cles and sea weeds, which, when it is not thus pro- 

 tected, were prevented Irom attaching themselves 

 by the bad taste of the copper as it became cor- 

 roded and dissolved by the sea water, now finding 

 nothing but a smooth, clean si;riiice, and no bad 

 taste, stuck themselves on in innnense numbers, 

 and retarded the ship's motion. Thus the matter 

 rested for a long time. Some ingenious surgical 

 instrument makers have recently applied slips ol 

 zinc beneath the handles, next to the steel, and^ 

 thus preventing in a great degree the rusting of 

 these articles. ^Bat now, gentle reader — brother 

 farmer — brother chip, or whoever thou art, that._ 

 has gone thus far w ith us in this brief siatcment of 

 i facts, can this principle be put to no other good 



