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victs. The prison contains one hundred and ninety-six cells* 
and it is said* that next autumn the first victims are to be sacri¬ 
ficed to a mistaken philanthropy.* The expense of maintaining 
these prisoners, who are not permitted to earn any thing, will 
necessarily be considerable. 
On the 20th of May I went with Mr. F. Rapp, who still re¬ 
mained in Pittsburgh with Gertrude, to visit some manufacturing 
establishments. We crossed the Monongahela near its mouth, 
in a skiff, to a salt-work on the left bank. With the earth- 
borer invented in England, and improved in America, they found 
salt water at the depth of a hundred feet. As this water was 
thought to be too weak, a pipe was placed in the well, and bored 
in another place, until at the depth of a hundred feet a sufficiently 
strong brine was obtained. The salt water collected and rose 
to the top. It is now pumped out by a small steam-engine into a 
boiler, where it is boiled for four hours. It is then poured into 
a large vat, to the depth of eight inches. It stands in this vat 
four hours; a little alum is added to precipitate earthy impurities. 
Hence, by a cock situated above the level of the precipitated mat¬ 
ters, the fluid is drawn off into various kettles, in which the now 
pure brine is again boiled for four hours. Now the white salt 
begins to form, and is skimmed off with large iron ladles. This 
is a very simple process, saves expense and room, and appears to 
me far better than our great salt-houses. In returning to the city, 
we saw many iron-works, of which there are eight in the city 
and vicinity. One of them is a nail factory; the nail-cutting ma¬ 
chine acts from above, and the workmen holds the rod to be cut 
with a pair of tongs, and has to move it at every stroke; a ham¬ 
mer strikes the nail which falls through in such a manner as to form 
the head. We also saw a steam-engine manufactory of consider¬ 
able extent. I had seen such an establishment previously in Eng¬ 
land, but as most of the machines are made here in parts, one 
cannot see a great deal. What most interested me was a double 
lever, by which the holes are punched in iron plates for the boil¬ 
ers, which are riveted together; a work “which requires a great 
degree of exactness. 
We next visited the Union Rolling-mill, near the city, on the 
bank of the Monongahela; here also is a nail factory. In the 
* [It is to be hoped that the able and luminous report of the commissioners 
appointed by the state, to make inquiries on the subject of penitentiary disci¬ 
pline, will be sufficient to correct the glaring errors of this new system; which 
like most of the new systems of the present day, is clearly proved thereby 
to be more specious than beneficial. The evidence accumulated by the com¬ 
missioners is of a character to satisfy every candid mind, not chained to the sup¬ 
port of a particular theory, that solitary confinement without labour, is unequal 
in operation, inadequate to the end proposed, and promises to be as destructive 
to human life as it is discordant to humane feelings. ]—T»ans. 
