1855.] 



MISCELLANEOUS IXTELLIGENCE. 



149 



Copper Smoke and Copper Men. — The vocation of the copper man 

 is distinguished from that of almost every other craftsman in this par- 

 ticular — that working in the face of an intense fire, high temperature, 

 and its consequences, are superadded to hard labour. Exposed for 12 

 hours to a heat alternating between 130° and 05°, the fumace-man, 

 working before an intense fire, or sitting in a cold draught, will 

 constantly within that period consume a quantity varying from two to 

 three gallons of water. This raises a curious question, applicable to 

 many of our operatives, whether a mau who loses gallons of fluid by 

 perspiration every day throughout the year is liable to waste ? Statis- 

 tics, if rigorously compiled on this subject, would occupy 3'ears ; but 

 general observation, and the assurances of the men themselves, will 

 sufiBce to set all doubt at rest. In all the works of the district it is 

 quite common to find men hale, florid, and even corpulent, in personal 

 appearance ; and those who have passed 20, 30, and even 40 years 

 before the furnace livingly solve the problem. Emaciated and lean 

 are not more commonly met with amongst those veteran furnace-men 

 who have perspired 600 gallons within the year, than amongst labour- 

 ers in general ; 50 such men lately assured our author that they were 

 precisely the same weight as they were twelve months ago, although, 

 as a counterpoise to such perspiration they had consumed within that 

 period 800 or 1000 gallons of water. The conclusion arrived at is, 

 that the sweating of the workman labouring before the fire does not 

 affect the frame, when that frame is saturated with water ; that the 

 nutrition of the body proceeds, even though deluged with the fluid. — 

 The fusing point of copper is 1500°, and often, in the midst of a heat 

 radiating from such a temperature, the furnace-man works bravely for 

 two consecutive hours, and then retires to cool himself and to drink. — 

 While direct experience supports what is physiologically reasonable, 

 that it is by alternately drinking and sweating that the man is enabled 

 to sustain the heat of an intensely powerful furnace, and the fatigue 

 of very exhausting labour, indigestion is found to prevail amongst them. 

 This Thomas Williams, M.D. of Swansea, attributes to drinking large 

 quantities of cold water too soon after meals ; but he assures us that 

 organic diseases of the stomach are not more common amongst them 

 than amongst other men who support themselves by their labour. — 

 Mining Journal. 



Railw.iy Suspension Bridge at the Falls. — ^This noble struc- 

 ture is expected to be completed by the first of January, and the first 

 train will prob.ably pass over it on that day. The Rochester American 

 gives the following dimensions of the Bridge, as furnished by the Arch- 

 tect, Mr. J. A. Roebling : 



Length or distance from the centre of the towers - - - feet 822 



Height of the towers above the rocks on the New York side feet 98 



Height on the Canada side ---------- feet 37 



Height to the railroad track ---------- feet 60 



Height of the track above the water ------- feet 260 



Number of wire cables -------------- 4 



Diameter of cables ------------ inches 10 



Number of strands of No. 9 wire in cable ------- 3,659 



Total power of the cables --.-.--.-. tons 12,400 



Weight of the entire bridge ---------- tons 750 



Weight of the bridge and of the heaviest load that can be put 



upon it ..-- --...-.---. tons 1,250 



Greatest weight which the cables and supports can bear - tons 7,300 



The Railways of JIaine. — The State of Maine says, that upon the 

 completion of the Somerset and Kennebec and the Penobscot and Ken- 

 nebec roads, which may be looked for at an early day in January, the 

 Railway system for Maine, including its Canadian connections, will em- 

 brace the following aggregate of Railway lines, continuing at or radi- 

 ating from Portland. 



Length, miles. Cost. 



Portland, Saco and Portsmouth - - - - 51 $1,459,384 



Portland and Montreal - - 292 11,419.000 



Quebec Branch - - 100 3,152,000 



Androscoggin and Kennebec ------ 55 2,200,000 



Kennebec and Portland - 72 2,605,365 



Androscoggin Railroad - 20 about 350,000 



Somerset and Kennebec 21 about 400,000 



Penobscot and Kennebec -------55 1,100,000 



Buckfield Branch - - - 13 250,000 



York and Cumberland 18 800,000 



Bangor and Piscataquis 12 138,000 



Totals .-.-•--- 709 24.064,749 



Expansive Force of Steam. — Taking the "Lord of the Isles" 

 locomotive, which attracted so much attention at the Exhibition of 

 1851, and the steam at 120 lbs. per square inch above the atmosphere, 

 it gives an aggregate force of 17,438 tons, as calculated from the 

 surface it acts against within the boiler. 



Thus, the pressure on the cylindrical shell round the tubes = 1259'57 tons. 



On the smokebox tube plate -- -= 90'53 " 



On the fire-box and plate .-...-.---,-.= 376-54 " 



On the tn-o outer sides of fire-box - - ^ 502-07 " 



On the outer top plate of fire-bex ..---..-..= 302-16 " 

 On the tube plate of fii e-box --....--..-. ^ 95-10 *' 



Total pressure on outer shell = 2716-27 tons. 



Pressure on the 3i>3 tubes, each 2 inches in* diameter - =-13,569-S7 " 

 Pressure on the inner ropper fire-box ..-...- = 115241 " 



Total pressure as divided over the boiler ...---= 17,-t3S-55 tons. 



confined in about 205 cubic feet of space, of which about 42 cubic feet 

 are filled with steam, and 163 cubic feet with water. This is the 

 quiescent force under ordinary conditions, as it is confined in a space 

 of about 205 cubic feet, but which on release seeks instantaneously to 

 occupy a space of about 277,436 cubic feet, equal to atmospheric pres- 

 sure, which gives some idea of the gunpowder-like expansion of steam 

 and water in explosions. The steam expands with an elastic force 

 equal to that of eight atmospheres, or say to 336 cubic feet, and the 

 water to about 1700 times its own volume, or about 277,100 cubic feet, 

 making a total volume of 277,436 cubic feet, into which they would 

 expand at the moment of explosion. The steam produces only about 

 l-825th part of the expansive force, so that the explosive force of the 

 water is by far the most formidable element in all boiler explosions. 



Coal verscs Sinews. — It has been proved, says Prof, Henry presi- 

 dent of the Mechanic's Institute at Washington, that, on an average, 

 four ounces of coal are sufficient to draw on a railroad, one ton a 

 mile. It has also been found on experiment, that a man working on a 

 treadmill continually for eight hours, will elevate 1,500,000 lbs. one 

 foot high. Now, Cornish engines will perform the same work by the 

 expenditure of 1 Jibs, of coal. ItfoUowsfrom these data that about 5 tons 

 of coal would evolve as much power during its combustion as would 

 be equal to the continued labour of an able bodied man for 20 ye.ars, 

 at the rate of 8 hours per day ; or, in other words to the average 

 power of a man during the active period of life. 



Large Water-wheel. — We see by the local press that a large 

 water-wheel has been recently started at a mine in the Isle of Man. 

 The wheel is 72 feet 6 inches in diameter, and feet wide ; the shaft 

 is of wrougli* iron, forged at the Mersey Forge, Liverpool : it is about 

 21 inches diameter, and 17 feet long, weighing 10 tons. The arms 

 are of wood, and the rim of cast iron. It is a breast-wheel, and the 

 water is conveyed from a reservoir by a cast-iron stand-pipe of 2 feet 

 diameter, around which is built a tower of masonry, which gives a 

 peculiar and picturesque appearance to the wheel. \ crank on the 

 shaft has 10 feet stroke, and the motion is communicated by means of 

 flat rods to the mouth of the pit, where, by means of a bob, a stroke 

 of 8 feet is given to the pumps. We presume that a crank and rods 

 are placed at each end of the shaft. We do not see any utility in em- 

 ploying a wrought-iron shaft for such a purpose. A hollow cast-iron 

 shaft would have been much cheaper and lighter, and less liable to 

 vibration. — Ardzan. 



MvxcFACTURE OF ScGAR IN Frasce. — Thc quantity of sugar mado 

 from beet-root to the end of the fourth month of the season, February, 

 was 73,987,419 kilogrammes, being very ncorly equal to the entire 

 season of September, 1852, to September, 1853. No branch of com- 

 merce in France has been so successful as thc fabrication of sugar 

 from beet-root. The original discovery of the process was due to M. 

 Thiery, a common clerk in the office of the Prefect of Lille, and who 

 shortly after became director of the first beet-root sugar factory 

 erected in France, at Passy, and who, as a reward for his valuable in- 

 vention, received from the .Mini.ster of thc Interior, in tlio year 1810, 

 thc sum of 300 francs. — Brussih llfrald. 



Solvent Action of Common Salt at High Tenperatcres. 



Forchhammer, after a long series of experiments, has come to the 

 conclusion that common salt at high temperatures, such as prevailed 

 at earlier periods of the earth's history, acted as a general solvent 

 similarly to water at common temperatures. The amount of common 

 salt in the earth would suffice to cover its whole surface with a crust 

 ten I'eot in thickness. 



