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In the article on this subject in the " New Amsrican Cyclopaedia," just publishing, there is considerable information in relation to what has been done in this branch of the engineering art in Europe, but there is nothing said about what has been done in America. This is to be regretted, as considerable information might have been obtained to have redeemed the work from the charge of " an incompetent compilation," and which might have made its character more in accordance with its name, as an American work. If the pages of the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN had been consulted, the editors would have found Ira Avery's atmospheric railroad illustrated on page 273, Vol. Ill, for which an American patent was granted in September, 1847; and on page 265, Vol. VIII, they would also have been enlightened with an illustrated description of Richardson's atmospheric tubular railway, which made considerable noise in Congress a few years since on account of appropriations being askejl, for to construct a government line.
