294 New Southern Railroad Connections. [June, expensive, the estimated cost being less than twenty millions. The real intention in this project, of course, is to benefit the strip of country lying between the mouth of the Tennessee and Ocmulgee: as merely to reach the Atlantic, it would be much cheaper to use the present outlet, or cut a canal through to Lake Ponchartrain. -THE Pennsylvania Central railroad having achieved its purpose of connecting its southern leased lines with itself and its northern and western connections, by the Baltimore and Potomac railway, is now, according to the Baltimore papers, engaged in multiplying those connections by, among other things, endeavoring to infuse a little vigor into the movements now making for the construction of the Virginia Valley railroad. At latest advices this road was to be built, two contractors having already commenced operations on the section between Harrisburg and Staunton, and that this whole section will be under contract within sixty days. The engineers, it is said, have discovered a line by which the road can enter Lexington at the required grade-seventy-five feet to the mile; and if this is so, the main difficulty in the construction of the road to Salem vanishes. The Shenandoah railroad will make Staunton one of its points, thence on the line of the Chesapeake and Ohio road westerly to Covington, thence through south-west Virginia to the Tennessee line. This will give the Pennsylvania company one connection with its southern lines, notwithstanding Gen. Mahone. In addition to this, it is said that the Pennsylvania railroad will probably construct a road from Penningtonville (forty-seven miles west of Philadelphia) south-west, crossing the Susquehanna at Peach Bottom, to a junction with the Northern Central railway at Monkton, twenty-three miles north of Baltimore. This would form a route from Philadelphia to Baltimore, only about fifteen miles longer than the present line, which would be entirely controlled by the Pennsylvania Central. The length of the proposed road to be built will be about sixty miles, and in view of the fact that the Pennsylvania Central controls quite a net-work of southern lines converging at Baltimore, it would seem that there will be plenty of business for the new road. In this connection, however, it is proper to observe that the Pennsylvania road is rumored to be making renewed efforts to lease the Philadelphia and Baltimore road, and the fact that the former company has received permission from the city authorities of Phila delphia to lay a double track on Delaware avenue, and so to possess ample facilities for trans-shipping freight to steamers lying at the wharves, and that the company is making preparations to immediately avail itself of the privilege, would indicate that the managers were expecting a large southern business at no very distant day, and if so, one line between Philadelphia and Baltimore will not beenough. -THE Camden and Atlantic Railroad Company have reason to congratulate themselves upon the result of last year's business. The length of the road is fifty-nine miles. Gross receipts of the road for 1871, $364,500—a little more than $6000 per mile; operating expenses, $184,120-about fifty-one per cent.; surplus, $180,379. Of this excess $78,789 went for interest on the bonded debt, $49,265 to renewal for May's Landing road, $28,393 to increase of rolling stock, and $16,326 to construction, insurance, taxes, &c. There were 29,797 more miles run, and $30,056 more income received in 1871 than the previous year. The company has purchased the Cooper's Point and Philadelphia Ferry Company's stock, boats and property of every character for $82,800, preferred stock at par, and propose to run the ferry under the charter of the railroad company. The May's Landing branch road, about seven miles long, it is expected, will be ready for use early in the coming summer. The branch from Atco to Williamstown, about ten miles long, is in course of construction, and will soon be completed. Another short branch, from White Horse to Blackwoodtown, about four miles, is under contemplation. These branch roads, together with the connection already formed with the Vineland road at Winslow, are tributaries that must eventually materially increase the business of the road. The capital of the company is $1,130,700, and the funded debt in first and second mortgage bonds, $990,000. The president, in concluding his report, said: "There were sufficient receipts during the 1872.1 Reports, Etc. 295 year, after deducting running expenses, interest, insurance, and taxes, to have paid a dividend of about nine per cent on the entire stock. The balance, however, was appropriated to renewals, construction, and additions to the rolling stock. As these are permanent, they will not have to be renewed this coming year, and the stockholders have reasonable grounds for the expectation of receiving a dividend." -THE report of the comptroller of New Jersey, lately made public, shows the condition of its railways to be exceptionably sound and healthy. The total cost of the United Companies, their branches, and equipment, up to the close of 1871, is $37,276,371. This includes the total property of the companies, embracing investment in auxiliary works, $8,328,170.00 cash on hand, &c. Their receipts were: from passengers, $2,780,434; freights, $2,805,229; mails, $41,916; miscellaneous, 72,638; canal tolls, towing, rents, &c., $1,863,458; total, $7,563,678. The operating expenses foot up $4,944,700; other expenses, interest, taxes, &c., $1,548,212, leaving a surplus of $1,070,766. These receipts do no, include $129,206.32, paid by the Philadelphia and Trenton company out of earnings of 1871 to equalize dividends; nor $150,000 from dividends of auxiliaries for the same time. Apparent expenses are also increased by payment of about $300,000 for those of 1870, I while the whole of 1871 are included. The aggregate capital stock of all New Jersey roads is $66,304,544; funded debt, $46,877,760; other debts, $5,926,379; cost of roads, $87,822,845. Their total earnings were $18,435,851; operating expenses, $12,256,267, leaving a net surplus of $6,179,584. Only a few of the roads failed to pay a dividend, and among those paying, the average was about six and a half per cent., the lowest four, and the highest ten per cent. To those who only think of the size of the State and limited internal resources, this seems an extraordinary exhibit; but it must be remembered that its location more than compensates for the want of these. -THE auditor-general's railroad report, showing the operations of the Pennsylvania railroads for the year 1871 is at hand. It is merely the reports of the different railroad, canal, and telegraph companies, arranged in alphabetical order, without comment or recommendation, containing, however, much valuable information. There are 3,908, miles of main line laid within the limits of the State, the cost of which and equipments we estimate from data given at $300,000,000, in round numbers. These roads report having carried during the year on the main line 3,152,309 through passengers, 31,548,996 passengers of all classes, and a gross tonnage of 58,807,802, at 2000 lbs. to the ton, 16,375,294 tons of which was through freight on the main line. The gross amount received from all sources was $117,900,281.01, and the gross amount expended for maintaining the roads and real estate of the corporations, repairs of machinery, and operating the roads, was $73,212,372.42, about sixty-one per cent.-leaving $44,687,908.59, about twenty-nine per cent. profit. The rate per cent. of dividends paid by the different companies ranges from nothing up to twelve, and the rate of interest on their bonds is from six to eight per cent. -THE following is a condensation from the report of the New York and New Haven railroad for the year ending Sept. 30, 1871: Length of main line, sixty-two miles, extending from New Haven to Williams bridge, on the Harlem railroad, by which latter road it enters New York: income, $2,358,926.88; total expenditures, $1,500,261.26; balance, $848,665.62. There were received in addition for a new issue of stock, $750,000, and expended, for permanent improvements (real estate, new iron bridges, steel rails, &c.), $1,364,098. Two five per cent. dividends were paid on the stock. The consolidation of this company with the Hartford and New Haven, under the name of the New York New Haven, and Hartford Railroad Company, has been authorized by law, and an agreement to that effect will soon be submitted to the stockholders. The Shore Line railroad, leased by this company, seems to have earned just about enough to pay rent and running expenses. 296 Items. [June, -THERE is a prospect of a new through route from New York to Montreal. The combination for this purpose embraces the New York and Boston, the Duchess and Columbia, the Harlem extension, and the Vermont Central, and will be known as the New York, Boston, and Montreal Railway Company. The only unfinished part of the route is the New York and Boston road, and this is nearly all graded, and the rails will probably be laid during the coming summer. The new company labors under the usual difficulty of obtaining an entrance into the city of New York, but is stated to have made arrangements with one of the proposed underground quick transportation companies to use its road, if it gets a suitable charter, which arrangement seems to us rather a visionary foundation for a first-class road. The line will also connect at Montreal with the Grand Trunk and the projected Northern Pacific road. Indeed, Montreal and the Grand Trunk both seem to be making energetic efforts to connect by shorter routes with New York and the Atlantic seaboard. The Portland and Ogdensburg road is being pushed rapidly forward, and there is to be a branch constructed from Swanton to Montreal. The St. Lawrence is to be bridged at Ogdensburg, the surveys having been already completed, and this gives the Ogdensburg branch a connection with the Grand Trunk. -THE Texas and Pacific railway has finally emerged from the apparent state of stagnation in which it has been involved, and under the new regime and the late beneficial legislation of congress, will at once be placed under construction. President Scott has signalized his accession to the leadership by the appointment of Gen. G. M. Dodge, formerly the chief engineer of the Union Pacific, to the position of chief engineer of this road. Gen. Dodge left Washington with his assistants the latter part of April, for Texas, to take preliminary steps to organize the work. A full working force will be on the line early in the fall, and it is expected 200 or 300 miles will be completed by next spring. It is the intention to prosecute the work from four different points. -THE building of new, and the extension of old, railroads continues with unabated speed. We have only space to chronicle one or two. The Mississippi Central and the Mobile and Ohio railroads are to be extended to Cairo immediately, and it is said the former will be aided by the Illinois Central. The Oil Producers' road, to be constructed from Titusville and intersect the Buffalo and Jamestown road at the State line, has been located, and contractors will soon be at work; and the New York and Canada road, to be constructed on the New York side of Lake Champlain, from Whitehall to Rouse's Point. This company has been recently organized, which, as the plan is an old one, evidently means an early construction of the road. -THE Panama railroad report shows earnings for fifteen months, ending March 31, 1872, $421,223.39, out of which there has been paid one dividend and another payable April 8th of five per cent. The company show a cash balance of $595,023, and in addition own real estate, steamers, tugs, &c., amounting to $973,000, and about 300,000 acres of land on the isthmus of an uncertain value. -THE legislature of New Jersey, at its late session, passed an act permitting the consolidating in one corporation of the Camden and Amboy and New Jersey railroads, and the Delaware and Raritan canal, and the directors of those corporations, at a late meeting, decided to accept the privilege, and consolidated the companies. We are not informed as to the name of the new corporation. -THE Northern Pacific railroad sold bonds to the amount of $1,891,900 during the months of March and April; and when we consider that the Alabama treaty has, during that time, almost entirely closed the European market for them, this argues that the popular confidence in them remains undiminished. -THE Southern Railway Security Company has elected Mr. H. B. Plant president of the consolidated lines of railway from Bristol, on the Virginia border, to Memphis, on the Mississippi. Mr. Plant is a member of the company and president of the Southern Express Company, and from long experience, is probably the most capable man for the place available to the company. In June, in accordance with the contract, the Charleston road will be turned over to him as the representative of the lessees. 1872.] Economical Production of Oxygen, Etc. 297 PATENTS, ARTS, AND SCIENCE. [This Department is under the editorial charge of C. ELTON BUCK, Analytical and Consulting Chemist, Wilmington, Del.] ECONOMICAL methods of producing oxygen gas have been the aim of chemical inven tors for several years. The ordinary sources of this gas are either the binoxide of manganese, or chlorate of potassa, or what is more commonly used, a mixture of the two. But the expense of these materials has stood in the way of the economical manufacture of the gas on a large scale. M. Tessie Du Mothay, a few years ago, apparently succeeded in obtaining a supply of oxygen from atmospheric air, which he applied to the purpose of artificial illumination-not indeed by burning the oxygen, as some might suppose, but-by affording a stream of this gas to ordinary coal gas which had been carburetted by being passed through some volatile hydrocarbon liquid. In the application of his process to the purposes of artificial illumination, burners consisting of two concentric pipes are used, the inner one serving for the distribution of oxygen, while through the outermost pipe, ordinary street gas, carburetted, is conducted. At a small distance below the orifices from which these gases exude, there is a perforated vertical disk, the use of which is to prevent danger, as it is well known that a mixture of these two gases is highly explosive. Prior to the adoption of Du Mothay's light, cylinders of lime or zirconia were introduced into the flame of the oxy-hydrogen blowpipe-whence the name, the calcium light, or the zirconia light; the former being improperly conferred. The light introduced by Du Mothay, according to a description by Dr. Adolph Ott, of not merely one brilliant point, but of a steady flame of a slightly bluish-white, somewhat resembling that of the stars. But contrary to the effects produced by other artificial lights, the most delicate colors may be distinguished by this. In Paris the Boulevard des Italiens and the Place de l'Opera were lighted by Du Mothay's method, and many encomiums were passed upon the brilliancy of the light and its supposed success, but recent information states that it has been abandoned-having been found far more expensive than was supposed by its projectors, and it has been laid aside-perhaps only temporarily—until cheaper modes of administering it may be provided. -THE burning of coal, especially anthracite, gives out mainly carbonic acid gas, which is commonly thought to be poisonous, but is really no more so than water. We may be smothered in the one just as we may be drowned in the other; in each case merely by the exclusion of air for breathing. But when fuel is burned with an insufficient access of air, carbonic oxide-which is semi-oxidized carbon-is formed instead. This is a virulently poisonous, asphyxiating gas. A small proportion of it in the air we breathe causes stupor; a larger quantity, death. It passes readily through red-hot iron, even when not hot enough to look red by daylight, and more slowly through iron of a somewhat lower temperature. In a close stove or furnace much of this gas is formed and, part escapes through the hot iron into the surrounding air. The bad effects of this have long been noticed, but were formerly attributed to the drying of the air, or to the burning of floating 298 Anti-Lamina-The Position of Thermometers. [June, organic particles. But dry air is invigorating, and the burning of even innoxious organic matter cannot produce unwholesome products, but rather the reverse-all charred organic matter being disinfectant. Free access of air through the stove door at once prevents the formation of carbonic oxide, or causes it to be burned into harmless carbonic acid, and then the stove may continue red-hot without injury to health. Carbonic acid, too, does not readily pass through hot iron; or the stove may remain closed without causing any ill effects, if cooled, until it will not appear red in the dark. The latter method is the most saving of fuel, but requires a larger stove or furnace to afford the same amount of heat; the heating surface having to be increased in proportion to the reduction of its temperature. The open grate entirely prevents harm from this cause, and, when fuel is cheap, should be preferred for household use, not only for that reason and for its cheering glow, but also for the increased ventillation it produces, and because its heat is almost wholly radiated, like the health-giving rays of the sun itself. So, too, we conform more nearly to what our ancestors have been accustomed to in all ages, and suit the hereditary habits thus aquired. -WE recently alluded to the subject of boiler incrustations, a matter which is brought home to nearly all the users of steam power, by reason of the annoyances and direct loss caused by the formation of scale. Almost all natural waters contain enough lime, salts, and other impurities to create a crust on the interior of boilers, which, if neglected, may result in very serious consequences. Frequently these accumulations collect in such quantity as to seriously impair the efficiency of the boiler, and as the crustwhether composed of carbonate or sulphate of lime, or a mixture of the two-is a nonconductor of heat, its formation involves a loss of fuel, corresponding to the thickness which the deposit may have assumed. Various remedies have been proposed to obviate this trouble: substances which act either chemically or mechanically have been used, and in a majority of instances, after having been fully tested, have been set aside as worthless. Our attention has been called to the patent Anti-Lamina of Mr. Josiah J. Allen, of Philadelphia which has been used for several years with great success. We have taken some trouble to inquire into the record of this remedy, and we are pleased to state that our impressions of its merits are most favorable. Its cheapness puts it within the reach of all who need its benefits, while its character insures its perfect harmlessness. Its action is purely mechanical, and while-from the testimony of many who have used it—its efficacy cannot be doubted, it may be tried with a comparatively trifling outlay. From our knowledge of its composition, we can state that it cannot exert any corrosive or other injurious effect on boilers, which so many other patented remedies have been proved to involve. -ORDINARY thermometers, especially those of cheap construction, frequently give very variable results when compared with the indications of other instruments of the same class. This is not always due to any imperfection in the thermometer itself, but sometimes to the casing, and often to the manner in which it is placed, being subjected to radiation from other bodies. Signal officer, Singleton, of St. Louis, who has had a very large experience in meteorological investigations, makes the following suggestions: "A thermometer should be placed in an open space, out of the vicinity of high buildings, or any object that impedes a free circulation of air. It should face the north, should be always in the shade, should be twelve inches from every neighboring object, should be fifteen inches from the ground, and should be protected against its own radiation to the sky, and against the light reflected from neighboring objects, or the ground itself. The thermometer should be read as quickly as possible, as the heat from the body or the breath influences the instrument. I have taken a thermometer belonging to a gentleman in this city, that read seven degrees above the standard instrument in this office, and after removing the back, which was of metal, painted black and varnished, (with a radiating power of seventy seven degrees at night), placed it in my instrument shelter, after ascer |