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metals, as steel, manufactured into springs, are used The application of the natural strength of man in the construction of watches or chronometers; and must have preceded the employment of all other the contractile force of springs is employed for many moving powers; and we know, from history, that other purposes, as in roasting-jacks, and weigh-ever since a very remote period, brute animals have ing-machines. Liquids, though compressed with likewise been rendered subservient to the purposes difficulty, display a high degree of power when thus of art and industry. The employment of oxen and treated; and machines of vast energy have been in- horses in the labours of the field must have originvented, the effect of which depends on the expan- ated in the earliest ages; and the art of training sive or elastick force of compressed water. The beasts of different kinds to exert their strength for elasticity of air is likewise an abundant source of the benefit of man, has been known and practised moving power. Steam-engines, such as were used among almost all nations, except those in the very in the early part of the last century, were made to rudest state of society. act through atmospherick pressure, arising from the joint influence of the weight and elasticity of the air; but since the vast improvements in machines of this description, in consequence of the researches of Fulton and others, steam or elastick vapour is employed as the sole moving power, and so managed as to produce effects far beyond those of the old at-water-wheel; but there are modes of obtaining data mospherick engines.

Heat must be regarded as a moving power, the efficacy of which depends on its tendency to dilate different kinds of matter. It also converts solid bodies to the liquid state, and liquids, under its influence, are changed into vapours or gases. Hence, indeed, is to be explained the operation of the steamengine, in which alternating motion is produced by the expansive force of steam, or water raised to the state of vapour by means of heat. Combustion is a chemical process often excited by heat, and during the progress of which, heat is always developed; and from this source is derived moving power of vast intensity, as occurs in the discharge of shot or balls from fire-arms, through the explosion of gunpowder. In this case the moving power arises from the sudden expansion of gases formed by the combustion of solid matter; but engines have recently been constructed, the action of which depends on the formation of a partial vacuum, by the inflammation of oxygen and hydrogen gases, in close vessels, and the consequent production of water.

Machines may be set in motion by means of electricity, galvanism, or magnetism; and forces, which have been chiefly regarded as objects of curiosity, may be extensively applied to useful and important purposes. In a French periodical publication, some account is given of an electrick clock, invented by M. Bianchi of Verona. The timekeeper has neither weight nor spring, instead of which, the constant vibration of the pendulum is maintained by the impulse of electricity, which it receives by moving between two galvanick piles, the ball or bob being furnished with a conductor, which, in its oscillations, approaching either pile, alternately, is repelled by the discharge of the electrick fluid; and the regular action of the whole of the machinery is kept up.

These cursory observations will afford some general ideas of the nature and extent of the moving powers originating from the influence of elastick fluids, heat, and electricity; but the further discussion of these topicks must be referred to the subsequent portion of this work, where the phenomena connected with these subjects will be distinctly noticed. There are, however, besides those moving powers, other mechanical agents, the effects of which arise from the vital energy of animated beings; and, concerning these, some details may here be properly introduced.

The mechanical effects produced by the muscular exertions of living beings cannot be subjected to calculation on precisely the same principles as the moving power of a weighing-machine or a steamengine; nor even can they be estimated with as much precision as the efficient power of a windmill or

whence to determine the value of animal strength, as a mechanical agent, which may serve to indicate the comparative product of labour from that and other sources, and enable us to discover their relative importance for any given purpose.

The usual method of computing the mechanical value or efficiency of labour is from the weight it is capable of elevating, to a certain height, in a given time; the product of these three measures, (weight, space, and time,) denoting the absolute quantity of performance. But these measures have obviously a mutual relation which will affect the result; for great speed will occasion a waste of force, and shorten the period during which it can be exerted. It was computed by Daniel Bernoulli and Desaguliers that a man could raise two millions of pounds avoirdupois one foot in a day. And some writers have calculated that a labourer will lift ten pounds to a height of ten feet every second, and continue to work at that rate during ten hours in a day, raising, in that time, 3,600,000 pounds. But these estimates are certainly incorrect, and appear to have been founded on inferences drawn from momentary exertions under favourable circumstances. Smeaton states that six good labourers would raise 21,141 cubick feet of sea-water to the height of four feet in four hours; so that they would raise about 540,000 pounds each, to the height of ten feet in twenty-four hours.

Coulomb has furnished some of the most exact and varied observations on the measure of human labour. A man will climb a staircase from seventy to one hundred feet high, at the rate of forty-five feet in a minute; and hence, reckoning the man's weight at one hundred and fifty-five pounds, the animal exertion, for one minute, would be 6975, and would amount to 4,185,000, if continued for ten hours. But such exercise would be too violent to be thus continued. A person might ascend a rock five hundred feet high by a ladder-stairs in twenty minutes, or at the rate of twenty-five feet in a minute: his efforts are thus already impaired, and the performance reduced to only 3875 in a minute.

But, with the encumbrance of a load, the quantity of action must be yet more remarkably diminished. A porter, weighing one hundred and forty pounds, who could climb a staircase forty feet high two hundred and sixty-six times in a day, was able to carry up only sixty-six loads of fire wood, each weighing

carguero is eagerly embraced by all the robust young men who live at the foot of the mountain.

one hundred and sixty-three pounds. In the former case, his daily performance was very nearly 1,500,000; while in the latter it amounted to only The different races of mankind display much 808,000. The quantity of permanent effect in the diversity of muscular strength; though in all cases latter case, therefore, was only about 700,000, or much must depend on the constitution and habits of scarcely half the labour exerted in mere climbing. the individual. M. Peron, in his "Voyage de DeA man, drawing water from a well by means of a couvertes aux Terres Australes, fait par ordre de double bucket, may raise thirty-six pounds one hun- Gouvernment [Francaise] pendant les Années 1800 dred and twenty times a day, from a depth of one-4," has stated the results of some interesting exhundred and twenty feet, the total effect being periments which he made to discover the relative 518,400. A skilful labourer, working in the field mechanical power of individuals of different nations. with a large hoe, produces an effect equal to 728,000. For that purpose, he used an instrument called a When the agency of a winch is employed in turning dynamometer, which, by the application of spiral a machine, the performance is still greater, amount-springs to a graduated scale, afforded the means of ing to 845,000.

estimating the forces exerted by the persons who were the subjects of his experiments. He collected by this method a number of facts, which he conceived sufficient to enable him to deduce from them the medium forces or powers of exertion of the inhabitants of the island of Timor, of New Holland, and of Van Dieman's Land, and to compare them with those of the English and the French. The following is the order of arrangement, commencing with the weakest: Manual force-Van Dieman's Land, New Holland, Timor, French, English. proportion between the extremes is nearly as five to seven.

The

The effective force of human exertion differs according to the manner in which it is applied. From some experiments made by Mr. Buchanan, it was ascertained that the labour of a man employed in working a pump, turning a winch, ringing a bell, and rowing a boat, might be represented respectively by the numbers 100, 167, 227, and 248. Hence it appears that the act of rowing is an advantageous method of applying human strength. The Greek seamen in the Dardanelles are said to excel most others in skill and vigour; and the Chinese, who use both their hands and feet, surpass all other people in giving impulse to boats by sculling. The labour of a horse in a day is usually reckonA London porter is accustomed to carry a burdened equal to that of five men; but then the horse of two hundred pounds at the rate of three miles an works only eight hours, while a man can easily conhour; and a couple of Irish chairmen will walk four tinue his exertions for ten. Horses display greater miles an hour, with a load of three hundred pounds. power in carrying than drawing; yet an active walker But these exertions are by no means equivalent to will beat them in a long journey. Their effective those of the sinewy porters in Turkey, the Levant, force in traction seldom exceeds one hundred and and other parts bordering on the Mediterranean. At forty-four pounds, but they are able to cary six times Constantinople, an Albanian will carry eight or nine that weight The pack-horses in the West Riding hundred pounds on his back, stooping forward, of Yorkshire are accustomed to convey loads of four and assisting his steps by a short staff. At Mar- hundred and twenty pounds over a hilly country; seilles, four porters commonly carry the immense and in many parts of England, the mill-horse will load of nearly two tuns, by means of soft hods pass- carry the burden of even nine hundred and ten ing over their heads, and resting on their shoulders, pounds, for a short distance. The most advantawith the ends of the poles from which the goods are geous load for a horse must be that with which his suspended. The most extraordinary instances of speed will be greatest in proportion to the weight muscular exertion in the carriage of burdens are carried. Thus, if the greatest speed at which a those exhibited by the cargueros or carriers, a class horse can travel unloaded be fifteen miles an hour, of men in the mountainous parts of Peru, who are and the greatest weight he could sustain without employed in carrying travellers. Humboldt, in re-moving be supposed to be divided into two hundred lating the circumstances of his descent on the west- and twenty-five parts, then his labour will be most ern side of the Cordillera of the Andes, gives some effective when, loaded with one hundred of those account of the cargueros. It is as usual in that parts, he travels at the rate of five miles an hour. country for people to talk of going a journey on a The common estimate of horse-power, adopted in man's back, as it is here to speak of going on horse- calculating the effect of steam-engines, is wholly back. No humiliating idea is attached to the occu- hypothetical. It is stated to be that which will pation of a man-carrier; and those who engage in raise a weight of thirty-three thousand pounds the it are not Indians, but Mulattoes, and sometimes height of one foot in a minute of time, equal to raising whites. The usual load of a carguero is from one about ninety pounds four miles in an hour. Another hundred and sixty to one hundred and eighty pounds estimate reduces the weight to twenty-two thousand weight, and those who are very strong will carry as pounds raised one foot in a minute, equivalent to one much as two hundred and ten pounds. Notwith-hundred pounds two and a half miles an hour. This standing the enormous fatigue to which these men mode of calculation seems to have been introduced are exposed, carrying such loads for eight or nine as a matter of convenience, when the use of horses hours a day, over a mountainous country; though in mills and factories was superseded by that of their backs are often as raw as those of beasts of burden; though travellers have sometimes the cruelty to leave them in the forests when they fall sick, and though their scanty earnings, during a journey of fifteen or even thirty days, are not more than from twelve to fifteen dollars, yet the employment of a

steam-engines; and must have been adopted in order to show the superiority of steam-engines over horses, according to the most exaggerated statement of the power of the latter.

The ass, though far inferiour to the horse in strength, is yet a most serviceable beast of burden to the poor,

as he is easily maintained at little cost. In England, known to ride express from Cairo to Mecca, seven an ass will carry about two hundred and twenty pounds twenty miles a day; but in warmer climates, where he becomes a larger and finer animal, he may be made to trot or amble briskly with a load of one hundred and fifty pounds. Mules are much used as beasts of burden in Spain, South America, and some other parts of the world. In the West Indies a mule will work two hours out of about eighteen, with a force of about one hundred and fifty pounds, walking three feet in one second.

The Kamtschatdales, Esquimaux, and some other northern people, employ teams of dogs to draw sledges over the frozen surface of snow. They are harnessed in a line, sometimes to the number of eight or ten, and they perform their work with speed, steadiness, and perseverance. Captain Lyon, when he visited the Arctick regions, had nine of these dogs, who dragged sixteen hundred and ten pounds a mile in nine minutes, and worked in this manner during seven or eight hours in a day. Such dogs will draw a heavy sledge to a considerable distance at the rate of thirteen or fourteen miles an hour; and they will travel long journeys at half that rate, each of them pulling the weight of one hundred and thirty pounds.

hundred and fifty miles upon a dromedary, in five days. Twelve miles an hour is the utmost trottingpace of the smaller camel; and though it may gallop nine miles in half an hour, it cannot continue for a longer time that unnatural pace. It ambles easily at the rate of five and a half miles an hour; and if fed properly every evening, or even once in two days, it will continue to travel at that rate five or six days.

The lama, or guanaco, is a kind of dwarf-camel, which is a native of Peru; and it was the only beast of burden employed by the ancient inhabitants of that country. It is easily tamed, feeds on moss, and being admirably adapted for traversing its usual haunts, the lofty Andes, it is still employed to carry goods. The strongest of these animals will travel, with a load of from one hundred and fifty to two hundred pounds, about fifteen miles a day over the roughest mountains. There is a smaller animal of a similar nature, called the pacos, which is also now used by the Peruvians in transporting merchandise over the mountains; but which will carry only from fifty to seventy pounds.

Oxen have been, in many countries, employed in the labours of husbandry, instead of horses. They The elephant was used by the Romans for the are, however, inferiour, not only on account of the purposes of war, as it is still in India, and other ori- softness of their hoofs, which renders them unfit for ental countries. His strength is reckoned equivalent any except field-work, but likewise as being comto that of six horses, but the quantity of food he con- paratively unprofitable. A team of oxen capable of sumes is much greater in proportion. An elephant ploughing as much land as a pair of horses will rewill carry a load of three or four thousand pounds;quire for support the produce of one-fourth more his ordinary pace is equal to that of a slow-trotting land, after allowing for the increase of weight and horse; he travels easily forty or fifty miles a day; value. and has been known to go a hundred and ten miles in that time.

The camel is a most valuable beast of burden on the sandy plains on both sides of the Red sea; for traversing which, the animal might seem to have been expressly created. Some camels are able to carry ten or twelve hundred pounds; others not more than six or seven hundred, and with such loads they will walk at the rate of two and a half miles an hour, and travel regularly about thirty miles a day, for many days together, being able to subsist eight or nine days without water, and with a very scanty supply of the coarsest provender.

In some parts of Europe the goat is made to labour, by treading a wheel to raise ore or water from a mine. In England they are sometimes harnessed to miniature carriages for children; and in Holland, the children of the rich burghers are thus drawn by goats, gayly caparisoned, and yoked to light chariots. The reindeer of Lapland is a most servicable beast of draught in the frozen regions of the north. Two of these deer, harnessed to a sledge for one person, will run fifty or sixty miles on the stretch; and they have been known to travel thus one hundred and twelve miles in the course of a day.

PLANTS OF NEW HOLLAND.

The dromedary is a smaller species of camel, chiefly used for riding, being capable of travelling with greater speed than the larger camel, but not THE New Holland Lily (Doryanthes excelsa) is equally proof against exhaustion. The best Arabian one of the most stately of the vegetable kingdom. camel or dromedary, after three whole days abstinence It grows to the height of twenty or twenty-five feet, from water, shows manifest symptoms of great dis-bearing on its crown blossoms of the richest crimtress; though it might possibly be able to travel five son, each six inches in diameter, from which beaudays without drinking; which, however, can sel-tiful birds sip a delicious honey. The leaves are dom or never be required, as it appears that, in the different routes across the desert of Arabia, there are wells not more at the utmost than three and a half days' journey from each other. Exaggerated statements have been given of the speed of this animal; the most extraordinary performance of which the traveller Burkhardt ever obtained authentick information having been a journey of one hundred and fifteen miles in eleven hours, including two passages across the Nile in a ferry-boat, requiring twenty minutes each. The same traveller conjectured that the animal might have travelled two hundred miles in twenty-four hours. A Bedouin Arab has been

very numerous, sword-shaped, and sometimes six feet long. The Pitcher-plant (Cephelotus follicularis) is remarkable for having among its leaves ascidia, or pitcher-shaped vessels, holding several ounces of a slightly-sweet watery fluid; the lid of the pitcher is sometimes found accurately closed, at other times it has an erect position, leaving the vessel quite open, probably to receive rain or dew for the nourishment of the plant. Of the genus Urtica, there are numerous species: and several specimens of the extraordinary nettle-tree are twenty feet high, while its leaves are so highly stimulating as to blister severely on the slightest touch.

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AMERICAN LANDSCAPE.

[Falls of Montmorency.]

AMONG the many attractions which are presented to the traveller in America, the different falls are not the least interesting. The falls of Niagara are celebrated throughout the civilized world, as one of the grandest and the most sublime spectacles to be found in the universe. Among falls of a secondary character, those represented in the illustration, the falls of Montmorency, deserve notice; and although the scenery around them is by no means as impressive as at Niagara, yet the true lover of nature-he who looks with the eye of an enthusiast upon the sublime and the beautiful, as it came from the hand of the Creator-can spend many an hour of pleasure and delight, in watching the Montmorency, as it comes rushing and thundering down the steep precipice, sending forth its rainbows of light spray, in token of joy that the rough way is passed over, and that its waters may afterward roll on in peace and quiet.

The falls of Montmorency are situated in the river of the same name, distant from six to seven miles below Quebeck. The river shoots in a sheet over a vast precipice; its breadth at the top of the cascade is about one hundred feet; its perpendicular descent is about two hundred and forty feet. The banks on each side of it are smooth and precipitous; their summits are crowned with trees, while a mill is perched high upon the verge of the fall.

RESOURCES OF ILLINOIS.

A COARSE freestone, much used in building, is dug from quarries near Alton, on the Mississippi, where it exists in large bodies. Large masses of rock, of granite formation, and roundish in form, are scattered over the surface of the prairies. They are usually called by the inhabitants "lost rocks." They weigh from one thousand to ten or twelve thousand

pounds are entirely detached, and are frequently found at the distance of several miles from any quarry. But there never has been a quarry of granite discovered in the state. These stones are denominated in mineralogy, boulders. The fact of their existence in several parts of the state; that they are a species of granite; that they are usually found of the prairies, which is considered, by some, of dion the surface, or are partially imbedded in the soil luvial formation; have given rise to a question of difficult solution concerning their history.

We have in part anticipated the class of vegetable productions, by a notice of the principal trees

Black-walnut

and shrubs that exist in this state. is extensively used for building materials and cabinet work, and is susceptible of a fine polish. It appears to be a general substitute for the pine in the uses of household furniture.

in most parts of the state, yielding grapes which Grape-vines are found indigenous and abundant might be profitably made into excellent wine.-. Foreign vines are easily cultivated. But the indigenous vines are found in every variety of soil; twined with every little grove in the prairies and barrens; and curling themselves to the tops of the loftiest trees that rise in the beauty and luxuriance of their growth from the rich soil of the bottoms. In the infancy of settlement, the French made wine in such abundant quantities, as to make it an article of export to their native country, itself celebrated for its blushing vinehills." But the proper authorities of the old kingdom prohibited the introduction of wine from Illinois, as it might injure the sale of their own staple article. It is stated in one of the magazines of the country, that so prolifick are the vines, one gentleman made twenty-seven barrels of wine with very little labour, in his own immediate neighbourhood. And as it will appear, in a continued consideration of this state, that corn is one of its important productions, we have here the old scriptural standard of prosperity and luxury-a country abounding with "corn and wine." Chicago American.

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PRIDE, like the magnet, constantly points to one object, self; but unlike the magnet, it has no attractive pole, but at all points repels.

AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES.

[Fac-Simile of Dighton Rock.]

The third division is evidently a vessel with bows, THE cut above represents an inscription found stern, quarter-deck, rudder, and cable and anchor; upon a rock at Dighton, Massachusetts, which has the triangle on the starboard-quarter, I believe, degiven rise to much speculation, and to many theories, notes in hieroglyphick language, fighting, or a place all of which, however, are more or less objectiona- to fight from, a fort or battery; there are several ble. The following remarks, in regard to it, are from double and single triangles in the second part. the Philadelphia Saturday Courier. The writer, alluding to a previous communication, says :

Then the writer refers to "Dighton Rock," and believes the Phoenician mariners inscribed thereon their names and epitaphs. The incorrectness of this opinion will, I think, be seen by referring to the accompanying copy of the inscription, which I send you for the double purpose of refuting the said conclusion, and also to give an opportunity for the wisdom of the age to act upon it. I believe it has not been extensively before the publick, at least not for many years, and should you give it a place in your valuable paper, some of your numerous readers might be able to favour us with an explanation.

The "Dighton Rock" lies upon the east side of Taunton river, between high and low water-marks, so that it is covered and exposed at every ebb and flow of the tide. The fac-simile was taken by Mr. Job Gardner, a self-taught artist, well known to the publick as a manufacturer of globes, formerly of this town, but for the last years of his life a resident of Dighton: his method in taking it was to cover the face of the rock with paper, and draw lines over the vacancies: then, with a graduated machine, constructed by himself, he drew and cut it (much reduced in size) upon stone, from which this impression was taken.

The writer of this has visited this rock, and believes the correctness of the fac-simile may be depended upon.

The inscription presents four parts or divisions, and has no appearance of being a mere record of names and epitaphs, but is evidently intended to record some important event, probably a combat.

The first part, commencing on the left, is an Indian armed with bow and arrow, and may represent a body of armed Indians.

In the fourth we see two human figures, evidently differing from that in the first, without bows and arrows; they appear to represent the party connected with the vessel.

The first question that arises is, who were the authors-Asiaticks, Indians, or Phoenicians? The skill displayed in drawing the Indian on the left, and the great falling off when attempting to portray a stranger, with the landsman-like shape of the vessel, is a reason of some weight for ascribing the merit of the work to the Indians.

With no knowledge of hieroglyphicks, I have merely offered a few ideas respecting the inscription, such as would naturally arise in any one upon viewG. M. ing it. Respectfully, yours,

Warren, R. I.

A NAVAL REMINISCENCE.

In the year 1804, when Preble, as commodore of the American squadron in the Mediterranean, was gaining glory before Tripoli, alike for himself, his officers and crews, and for his country, lieutenant commandant Richard Somers had command, under him, of the Nautilus, a schooner of fourteen guns.

During the several fights which had previously occurred with the enemy, this officer had shown great bravery as commander of gunboat number one; and now suggested to the commodore, that a happy result might possibly be obtained by converting the ketch Intrepid, a captured craft of about seventy-five tuns-the identical vessel with which the gallant Decatur had boarded, recaptured, and burned the frigate Philadelphia-into a fireship, and sending her into the harbour under the walls of the bashaw's castle, in direct contact with the entire marine force of the Tripolitans.

The second appears to be all hieroglyphick, and This daring and highly dangerous enterprise beprobably its definition involves the greater part of ing determined upon, Somers, with whom it had the secret, though it doubtless refers more particu-originated, received the orders, to which he was thus larly to the first part. entitled, to conduct it; and the necessary prepara

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