342 
ELECTROMAGNETISM, AS A MOTIVE POWER. 
may yield hundreds of thousands of bushels of 
wheat yet; they are not there now, most cer¬ 
tainly—where will they come from? Neither 
the wood of our trees, nor the dairy produce of 
our grass lands, nor the grain and meat of our 
arable lands can be supposed to come from the 
soil. If all the wheat, oats, rye, barley, beans, 
peas, bacon, butter, cheese, beef, mutton, and 
so on, that England has produced since it was 
first cultivated, were piled upon the land now, 
it would be more than a foot deep over the 
whole island. Deeper than the soil itself is, 
on the average, over the country. And should 
things remain as they are for another 1,000 
years, the land will have yielded another such 
lot; that is, more food in point of bulk and of 
weight, than the soil itself actually is. Where 
has it, where will it all come from ? That is 
the question. [The answer will appear in our 
next number.— Eds.] 
ELECTRO MAGNETISM, AS A MOTIVE POWER. 
Professor Page, in the lectures which he is 
now delivering before the Smithsonian Institute, 
states that there is no longer any doubt of the 
application of this, power as a substitute for 
steam. He exhibited the most imposing exper¬ 
iments ever witnessed in this branch of science. 
An immense bar of iron, weighing 160 pounds, 
was made to spring up by magnetic action, and 
move rapidly up and down, dancing like a 
feather in the air, without any visible support. 
The force operating upon this bar, he stated to 
average 300 pounds through ten inches of its 
motion. He said he could raise this bar 100 
feet as readily as through ten inches, and he ; 
expected no difficulty in doing the same with a 
bar weighing one ton, or a hundred tons. He 
could make a pile driver, or a forge hammer, 
with great simplicity, and could make an en¬ 
gine with a stroke of six, twelve, twenty, or 
any number of feet. 
The most beautiful experiment we ever wit¬ 
nessed, was the loud sound and brilliant flash 
from the galvanic spark, when produced in a 
certain point in his great magnet. Each snap 
was as loud as a pistol, and when he produced 
the same spark at a little distance from this 
point, it made no noise at all. This recent dis¬ 
covery he stated to have a practical bearing 
upon the construction of an electro-magnetic 
engine. Truly, a great power is here; and 
where is the limit to it? 
He then exhibited his engine, of between four 
and five horse power, operated by a battery, 
contained within a space of three cubic feet. It 
looked very unlike a magnetic machine. It 
was a reciprocating engine of two feet stroke, 
and the whole engine and battery weighed 
about one ton. When the power was thrown 
on by the motion of a lever, the engine started 
off magnificently, making 114 strokes per min¬ 
ute ; though, when it drove a circular saw ten 
inches in diameter, sawing up boards an inch 
and a quarter thick, into laths, the engine made 
but about eighty strokes per minute. There 
was a great anxiety on the part of the specta¬ 
tors to obtain specimens of these laths, to pre¬ 
serve as trophies of this great mechanical tri¬ 
umph. 
The force operating upon the magnetic cylin¬ 
der throughout the whole motion of two feet, 
was stated to be 600 pounds, when the engine 
was moving very slowly, but Professor P. had 
not been able to ascertain what the force was 
when the engine was running at a working 
speed, though it was considerably less. The 
most important and interesting point, however, 
is the expense of the power. 
Professor Page stated that he had reduced 
the cost so far, that it was less than steam under 
many and most conditions, though not so low 
as the cheapest steam engines. With all the 
imperfections of the engine, the consumption of 
three pounds of zinc per day, would produce 
one horse powef. The larger his engine, (con¬ 
trary to what had been known before,) the 
greater the economy. He was himself sur¬ 
prised at the result. There were yet practical 
difficulties to be overcome; the battery had 
yet to be improved; and it remained yet to 
try the experiment on a grander scale, to make 
a power of 100 horses or more. 
Truly, the age is fraught with wonders, and 
we can now look forward with certainty to the 
time when coal will be put to better uses than 
to burn, scald, and destroy .—National Intelligen¬ 
ce !\ 
IMPROVED HAY RAKES. 
Among other improved agricultural imple¬ 
ments, is the revolving hay rake. And from 
the immense saving of labor and of time, I am 
surprised that so few persons in this section of 
the state use it. I say saving of labor, for, if 
ever there was a labor-saving machine, this is 
one of them, as it comes into use just at a sea¬ 
son when lab'or is highest and most wanted for 
other purposes. A man, with a boy and horse, 
can gather as much hay in a given time, as 
eight or ten men can with the common hand 
rake; and at the same time with greater ease. 
I would much rather rake my meadows twice 
over after a revolving horse rake, than once by 
hand before. This, however, is not often nec¬ 
essary where the fields are free from stumps 
and stones. 
Notwithstanding this great improvement, there 
are but few persons, who will not go on from 
year to year and pay their dollar or dollar and 
a quarter a-day for hand hay rakers when they 
might just as well make “ Old Jack ” do it all, 
only by using a little of the right kind of econ¬ 
omy. But enough for the present. 
L. Durand. 
Derby , Ct ., Oct., 1850. 
To Prevent Fermentation in Cider, Wine, 
or Beer.— Add a small quantity of sulphite of 
lime; or bruise mustard seed, 14 ounces to 1 
ounce of cloves, and add to the liquid when 
first put into the cask; or a small portion of 
each may be added. The article is sulph-ite 
and not sulph-ate of lime. It is quite innocuous 
in any quantity. 
