Manufacturing, Mining, and Railroad Items

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There is a great probability that a new telegraph cable will be laid between America and Ireland. This will be the sixth cable that is to connect the old world with the new, counting the three that are already laid down. On the 25th of August, 164 cars laden with peaches, arrived in Jersey city, containing 8,2,000 baskets, the largestquantity ever brought in on one day. It is announced that ninety miles have been graded of the trans-isthmian railway on the Spanish Honduras route from Puerto Cabello, on the Gulf of Honduras, to Amcepola, on the bay of Fonseca, on the Paciiicside. The rails for the road are arriving every week, at Puerto Cabello, which has been declared a free port. In crossing from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pa cific Ocean, the railroad, it is stated, overcomes an elevation of three thousand feet. When the road is completed, it is computed that the passage to California will be shortened by a week's time. There are now engaged in the Mississippi trade nine hundred and ten steamers with a capacity of 292,174 tuns, and of an estimated value of $24,556,000. More steamboats are enrolled at St. Paul than at any otherport on the river proper, except St. Louis, New Orleans, and Memphis. The value of the boots and shoes manufactured in Massachusetts this year is expected to exceed $95,000,000. The wholesale dealers in Boston are forming a Shoe and Leather Dealers' Exchange. Since January 1, nearly SOO,OCO cases of goods have been shipped from that city, an excess of fully thirty-three per cent over the corresponding period last year. The Denver, Colorado, News reports some rich silver discoveries made near Blue river, above Breckinridge. Assays made at the mint run from $150 to $200 per tun of ore. The old stone house in Guilford, Connecticut, the oldest one on the continent, "built in 1640 for a fort, where all the inhabitants of the town gathered every night, to be secure from the Indians, is undergoing extensive repairs, the original model, however, being carefully retained. At Stockholm, Sweden, when a sewer was dug recently, the hull of a vessel was found eleven feet under ground, which is thought to have been there about threehundredyears. The great "mass" of property recently found in one of the Superior mines has the following dimensions: length, 65 feet; hight, 32 feet; thickness, about2 feet; giving a total of 4,160 cubic feet. The purity of the mass is estimated at 65 per cent. This would give a total of 832 tuns, making it by far the largest mass of copper ever found on Lake Superior or in the world. Befrigerator cars are to be used in transporting California fruit to the East, to return loaded with butter, oysters, and other articles which the Californians need. A raft of lumber lately passed by Winona down the Mississippi river, which measured over three acres in surface, and contained 2,200,000 feet of lumber. The Maine Central and European and North American Railway Companies have agreed to carry and return stock and other articles for the New England Fair free of expense, and passengers at half price. The Portsmouth Navy yardhas lately received an accession to thework-ing force of sixty carpenters and several joiners, making the number of employe's about 1,500. Business has become somewhat more animated there. The manufacturers of Fall River, Mass., have decided to run the mills but three day sin the week for the present, the price for goods produced not covering the cost of production. A submarine telegraph from Rangoon, by way of Singapore to the island of J ava, and thence to China, is projected. Twenty-six milliongallons of water were pumped into the new reservoir at East New York on the 26th of August. A new pumping engine is nearly Completed. The supply of water is ample for all purposes.

Scientific American Magazine Vol 21 Issue 11This article was published with the title “Manufacturing, Mining, and Railroad Items” in Scientific American Magazine Vol. 21 No. 11 (), p. 172
doi:10.1038/scientificamerican09111869-172a

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