t^ARMERS' REGISTER— NEW POWER FOR MACHINERY, &c. 



with the rapidity of lightning. The larger pines, 

 Avhich were about a hundred feet long, and ten in- 

 clies thick at their smaller cxtremit}', ran through 

 the space of three leagues, or nearly 7? ;'nc miles, in 

 two minutes and a half, and during their descent, 

 they appeared lo be only a few feet in length. The 

 arrangements for this part of the operation were 

 extremely simple. From the lov/er end of the 

 slide to the upper end, where the trees were intro- 

 duced, workmen were posted at regular distances, 

 and as soon as every tiling was ready, the work- 

 man at the lower end of tiie slide cried out to the 

 one above him, '■'■Ladicz" (Let go.) The cry 

 was repeated from one to another, and reached the 

 top of the slide in three minutes. Tlie workmen 

 at the top of the slide then cried out to the one be- 

 low him, "^IlvienV^ (It comes,) and the tree v/as 

 instantly launched down the slide, preceded by the 

 cry which was repeated from post to post. As 

 soon as the tree had reached the bottom ; and 

 plunged into the lake, the cry of Lachez was re- 

 peated as before, and a nev/ tree was launched in a 

 similar manner. By these means a tree descended 

 every five or six minutes, provided no accident 

 happened to the slides, which sometimes took 

 place, but v/hich was instantly repaired v/hen it did. 



"In order to show the enormous force which the 

 trees acquired from the great velocity of their de- 

 scent, M. Rupp made arrangements for causing 

 some of the trees to spring from the slide. They 

 penetrated by their thickest extremities no less 

 than from eighteen to twenty-four leet into the 

 earth ; and one of the trees having by accident 

 struck against the other, it instantly cleft it through 

 its whole length, as if it had been struck by light- 

 ning. 



"After the trees had descended the slide, they 

 were collected into rafts upon tlie lake, and con- 

 ducted to Lucerne. From thence they descended 

 the Reuss, then the Aar to near Brugg, after- 

 wards to Waldshut by the Rhine, then to Basle, 

 and even to tlie sea, when it was necessary. 



" In order that none of the small wood might be 

 lost, M. Rupp established in the forest large manu- 

 factories of charcoal. He erected magazines for 

 preserving it when manuiijctured, and had made 

 arrangements for the construction of barrels lor the 

 purpose of carrying it to the market. In winter, 

 when the slide was covered v/ith snov/, the barrels 

 were made to descend on a kind of sledge. The 

 wood which was not fit for being cai'bonized, was 

 heaped up and burnt, and the ashes packed up and 

 carried away, during the v/inter. 



" A few days before the author of the preceding 

 account visited the slide, an inspector of the navy 

 had come for the purpose of examining the quality 

 of the timber. He declared that he liad never seen 

 any timber that was so strong, so fine, and of such 

 a size; and he concluded an advantageous bargain 

 for 1000 trees. 



" Such is a brief account of a work undertaken 

 and executed by a single individual, and which has 

 excited a very high degree of interest in every part 

 of Europe. V/e regret to add, that this magnifi- 

 cent structure no longer exists, and that scarcely 

 a trace of it is to be seen upon the flanks of Mount 

 Filatus. Political circumstances having taken 

 away the principal source of the demand for timber, 

 and no other market having been found, the opera- 

 tion of cutting and transportmg the trees necessa- 

 rily ceased." 



Professor Playfair, who visited this singular 

 slide, states, that six minutes v/as the usual time 

 occupied in tlic descent of a tree ; but that in Avet 

 weather, it reached the lake in three minutes. 



&i3.pp&sUiGn of a J%*ew Potter 



FOR MACi-lINERY. 



The rnost portal)le form in which power can be 

 condensed is, perhaps, by the liquefoction of the 

 gases. It is known that, under considerable pi-es- 

 sure, several ol" these became liquid at ordinary 

 temperatures. Carboriic acid, ibr example, re- 

 quires a pressure of sixty atmospheres to reduce it 

 to a liquid state. One ot tlia advantages attending 

 the use of these fluids is, that the pressure exerted 

 by them remains constant until the last drop of li- 

 quid becomes gaseous. If either of the elements 

 of common air should be found to be capable of re- 

 duction to a liquid state before it unites into a cor- 

 rosive fluid with the other ingredient, then we 

 shall possess a ready means of conveying power in 

 any quantity and to any distance. Probably liy- 

 drogen will require the strongest compressing 

 force to render it liquid, and may, therefore, pos- 

 sibly be applied where still greater condensation 

 of power is wanted. In all these cases the con- 

 densed gases may be looked upon as enormous 

 springs, which liave been wound up by the exer- 

 tion of power, and v/liich will deliver the whole of 

 it back again v/hen "required. These springs of 

 nature differ in some respects from the steel 

 springs formed by our art ; for in the compression 

 of the natural springs an enormous quantity of la- 

 tent heat is forced out, and in their return to the 

 state of gas an equal quantity is absorbed. May 

 not this very property be employed with advan- 

 tage in these applications } 



The mechanical difficulty which v/ill remain to 

 be overcome, Vv ill consist in the valves and packing- 

 necessary to retain the fluids under the pressures to 

 which they v/ill be submitted; and the effect of 

 heat on these gases has not yet been sufficiently 

 tried to lead us to any very precise notions of the 

 additional power which its application to them 

 v/iil supply. 



The elasticity of air is sometimes employed as 

 a spring instead of steel : in one of the large print- 

 ing presses the momentum of a considerable mass 

 of matter is destroyed, by making it condense the 

 air included in a cylinder, by means of a piston 

 against which it impinges. — \_Ibid. 



Public "WorliS for Ifacilitatiiig Traiisyortatlou.. 



I^etcrsMwg Mail M&ad. 



Petersburg, 6th Dec. 1832. 



Sir — I am requested by the president and di- 

 rectors of the Petersburg rail road company, tO' 

 communicate to you, for the information of the 

 board of public works, an account of the condi- 

 tion and cost, and my own impressions of the pros- 

 jjects of the v/ork committed to my charge. 



Its objects, as the board are no doubt apprized, 

 were to connect the Roanoke river at a point 

 where there must be necessarily a trans-shipment 

 of produce from one description of boats to another, 

 with the town of Petersburg to accojnmodate much 

 better, and of course to command the trade of the 

 vippcr Roanoke, and to afford the lower Roanoke 

 country and a large part of the interior of North 



