894 
PAEIS UNIYEKSAL 
It often happens that streams capable of supplying an im¬ 
mense power, are so hemmed in by rocky shores as to afford 
little or no room for the planting of mills and factories where 
it is necessary to put them, in order to make that power avail- ' 
able. So also, where the banks are low and the contiguous 
lands level and otherwise valuable they can not be occupied 
as mill or factory sites without great sacrifice. And, again, 
when neither of these difficulties lies in the way, it may be . 
impracticable to procure sites that will give proper security 
against destructive freshets. Mr. Hern proposes, therefore, 
first to make his hydraulic machine sure in the place where he 
wants it, and then to plant his manufacturing village where 
security, convenience of access, amplitude of area and cheap¬ 
ness of territory may direct his choice. In a village of fac¬ 
tories now operated on the Rhine, through the intermediate 
agency of his invention, the motive power is transmitted to 
considerable distances with a loss of less than 20 percent,, and 
he feels confident of his ability to operate factories at a dis¬ 
tance from the source of power of over twelve miles ! Appli¬ 
cations of the principles embodied in his invention have also 
been made at other places on the continent, and there seems 
to be a general belief that it will prove a certain success. 
As an American, I naturally thought of Niagara and of the 
mighty city and the thousands of thundering work shops that 
might be eventually built up in the vicinty of that gigantic 
water-power ! 
Munitions of War .—At no former exhibition has there been so 
extensive and attractive a display of engines for the distrac¬ 
tion of hostile armies and navies. Through all the wide range 
of weapons, from the unequalled Colt’s revolver to the great 
-Russian cannon weighing 640,000 pounds, the warring nations 
were represented. It was the opinion, I believe of those com¬ 
petent to judge in such matters, that, in small arms and heavy 
ordnance, as well as in the construction of iron-clad ships of 
war, America ranks before all other nations; while, in the 
matter of light ordnance, the English Whitworth gun is en¬ 
titled to the palm. 
