MISCELLANY. MANUFACTURES OF SPRINGFIELD. Sheep-1300-average fleece, three and a half pounds to a sheep-making 4500 pounds. Springfield Republican. ADVANTAGES OF TOOLS. IN obedience to a law of the last legislature, the assessors of this town have recently collected its principal manufacturing statisticks. From the sta- "To arrange twenty thousand needles thrown protisticks of all the towns of the commonwealth, the miscuously into a box, mixed and entangled with secretary of the state will prepare an interesting each other in every possible direction, in such a and valuable document. As soon as we can obtain form that they shall be all parallel to each other, the statisticks of the county, we shall publish them. would, at first sight, appear a most tedious occupaCotton Manufacture. Seven mills-four at Chic- tion; in fact if each needle were to be separated opee factory, and three at Cabotville-have 35,026 | individually, many hours must be consumed in the spindles, consume annually 3,495,000 pounds of process. Yet this is an operation which must be cotton, make 11,062,000 yards of cloth, of the gross performed many times in the manufacture of needles; value of $1,089,500. They employ 330 males and 1300 females. The capital stock is $1,400,000. About 29,000 gallons of oil are consumed in manufacturing purposes. and it is accomplished in a few minutes by a very simple tool, nothing more being requisite than a small flat tray of sheet iron, slightly concave at the bottom. The needles are placed in it and shaken in a peculiar manner, by throwing them up a very little, and giving at the same time a slight longitudinal motion to the tray. The shape of the needles assists their arrangement; for if two needles cross each other (unless, which is exceedingly improbable, they happen to be precisely balanced) they will, when they fall on the bottom of the tray, tend to place themselves side by side, and the hollow form of the tray assists this disposition. As they have no Paper Mills-four-consumes 400 tuns of stock projection in any part to impede this tendency, or annually, and make $200,000 worth of paper-to entangle each other, they are, by continually shamales employed, 75, females, 150. Capital, $120,-king, arranged lengthwise, in three or four minutes. United States Armory. Capital invested, including lands, buildings, dams, bridges, &c., $210,133 -in machinery $50,000-in ordnance, military stores, and stock unmanufactured, $80,000. Annual expenditures, $180,000-14,000 muskets annually made, at an average cost of $11,007. Finished muskets in store, 170,000, of the estimated value of $2,040,004-260 men are employed, and 1373 gallons of oil are annually used. 000. Cotton Machinery-80 hands employed, who manufacture to the value of $60,000 annually. Shuttle and Bobbin Factory-make $4,500 worth, with six hands. Paper Machinery-10 hands, $12,000 worth annually made. Hardware and Cutlery-value of goods manufactured, $51,000-capital employed, $23,700--hands 71. Sword Factory and Cutlery-capital $30,000hands employed, 35-gross value manufactured, $50,000. Brass Cannon-hands employed, 25-gross value of the manufacture, $50,000. Cochran Rifles-1800 made by 18 hands-capital, $8000. Card Manufacture-capital, $32,000-19 hands employed-$40,000 worth annually manufactured. Boots and Shoes-boots, 2,275 pairs-shoes, 13,700 made annually-value, $16,050-males employed, 45, females, 11. Tanneries-1860 hides tanned annually-value, $10,200. The direction of the shake is now changed, the needles are but little thrown up, but the tray is shaken endwise; the result of which is that in a minute or two the needles which were previously arranged end wise become heaped up in a wall, with their ends against the extremity of the tray. They are now removed by hundreds at a time, by raising them with a broad iron spatula, on which they are retained by the fore-finger of the left hand. During the progress of the needles toward their finished state. this parallel arrangement must be repeated many times; and, unless a cheap and expeditious method had been devised, the expense of manufacturing needles would have been considerably enhanced. "Another process in the art of making needles furnishes an example of one of the simplest contrivances which can come under the denomination of a tool. After the needles have been arranged in the manner just described, it is necessary to separate them into two parcels, in order that their points may be all in one direction. This is usually done by women and children. The needles are placed sidewise in a heap, on a table, in front of each operator, just as they are arranged by the process above described. From five to ten are rolled towards this person by the forefinger of the left hand; this separates them a very small space from each other, and each in its turn is pushed lengthwise to the right or to the left, according as its eye is on the right or the Joiner's Tools-to the value of $12,000 a year-left hand. This is the usual process, and in it every made by 19 hands, capital, $5000. needle passes individually under the finger of the Furnaces-3, make annually 500 tuns of cast-operator. A small alteration expedites the process ings, of the value of $43,800-hands employed, 30 considerably; the child puts on the forefinger of its -capital, $35,000. Hats-1500-value, $4,500. Tin Ware-manufactured in a year, $15,000 value-14 hands, and $12,000 capital. Stoves-manufactured in a year, $12,000-capital, $9000-hands employed, six. Chairs and Cabinet Ware-hands, 28, who ufacture annually, $16,000 worth. Ploughs-200 made-value, $13,000. right hand a small cloth cap or finger-stall, and, rolling man-out of the heap from six to twelve needles, he keeps them down by the forefinger of the left hand, while he presses the forefinger of the right hand gently against their ends: those which have the points to- come soft, it must be immersed in boiling water; wards the right hand stick into the finger-stall; and but this should if possible be avoided, for it has an the child, removing the finger of the left hand, slight-injurious effect upon the sponge, particularly in coolly raises the needles sticking into the cloth, and ing; it causes it to shrink and to become hard, and then pushes them toward the left side. Those so tough as to prevent its being bleached; but, if needles which had their eyes on the right hand do the sponge be soaked in cold water, that water should not stick into the finger-cover, and are pushed to the be changed three or four times every day, and every heap on the right side previously to the repetition of time the water is drawn off the sponge should be this process. By means of this simple contrivance pressed perfectly dry; this process being repeated each movement of the finger, from one side to the for five or six days, it will, at the expiration of that other, carries five or six needles to their proper heap; time, be ready for bleaching. whereas, in the former method, frequently only one was moved, and rarely more than two or three were transported at one movement to their place." FRECKLES. FRECKLES are either natural, or proceed accidentally from the jaundice, or the action of the sun upon the part. Heat, or a sudden change of the weather, will often cause the skin to appear of a darker colour than natural, and thereby produce what is called tan, sunburn, &c., which seem to differ only in degree, and usually disappear in winter. Persons of a fine complexion, and those whose hair is red, are the most subject to freckles, especially in those parts which they expose to the air. The origin of freckles has been thus explained: in the spring, the skin, from the warm covering which the body has had in winter, and from various other causes, is peculiarly sensitive. The heat of the sunbeams now draws out drops of moisture, which do not dry as rapidly as in summer. These drops operate like a convex glass, to concentrate the rays, which are thus made to act powerfully on the rete malpighii, and the carbon which it contains is half acidified, and this substance, in this state, always has a dark colour. In the same manner ariscs the dark teint which the skin in general assumes in summer, and which fire communicates to artisans who labour constantly in its immediate vicinity. The only bad effect of freckles is, that they induce ladies to keep themselves shut up from the influence of the weather, or to apply injurious washes to the face to remove them. SPONGE. SPONGE is a marine production, generally to be met with in the shops in pieces only. Its texture is cavernous and porous. Its great elasticity, and its property of imbibing and as readily parting with a large quantity of water, render it useful. Sponge is to be chosen as light as possible, perfectly clean, and free from stone, of as pale a colour as may be, with small holes, and fine and soft to the touch. It grows in the Archipelago, at considerable depths, on the rocks about some of the islands there; and multitudes of people make a trade of diving for it. It is also common in the Mediterranean and many other seas, though in general browner or yellower, and not so fine as that of the Archipelago. It adheres in large masses to rocks and stones, sometimes to large shells, and is either round, flat, or holow like a funnel. There has been much dispute among naturalists concerning the real nature of the sponge. To bleach sponge and render it white, it is necessary to soak it in cold water; but, if it does not be If the sponge, as is frequently the case, should contain small pieces of chalk and shells, which cannot be extracted without tearing it, the sponge must be soaked for twenty-four hours in muriatick acid, with twenty parts of water, which will cause an effervescence to take place, and carbonick acid gas to be liberated, when the shells and chalk will become perfectly dissolved; after that it must be carefully washed in fresh water, and immersed in weak sulphurick acid, the specifick gravity of which must be 1.024, or four degrees on the hydrometer of Beaumé. The immersion of the sponge in this acid should continue for about eight days, but it must occasionally be pressed dry and thoroughly washed. After having been perfectly washed and cleaned, it should be sprinkled with rose-water to give it a pleasant smell which completes the process. THE BATTLE-FIELD.-By W. C. BRYANT Ah, never shall the land forget How gushed the life-blood of her brave- The black-mouthed gun and staggering wain; Soon rested those who fought-but thou, The sage may frown-yet faint thou not! The hissing, stinging bolt of scorn; When those who helped thee flee in fear, Like those who fell in battle here; JOHN PAUL JONES. IT would be impossible within our limits, to do justice to this most extraordinary man, whose exertions, in the dark hours of our country's peril, entitle him to the gratitude of every American. ships bound to the northward. The pilots imagined the Bon Homme Richard to be an English ship-ofwar, and consequently communicated to me the private signal which they had been required to make. I endeavoured by this means to decoy the ships out of the port; but the wind then changing, and with the tide, becoming unfavourable for them, the deception had not the desired effect, and they wisely put back. The entrance of the Humber is exceedingly difficult and dangerous, and as the Pallas was not in sight, I thought it imprudent to remain off the entrance; therefore steered out again to join the Pallas off Flamborough Head. In the night we saw and chased two ships until three o'clock in the morning, when, being at a very small distance from them, I made the private signal of reconnoissance, which I had given to each captain before I sailed from Groix one half of the answer only was returned. In this position both sides lay to till daylight, when the ships proved to be the Alliance and the Pallas. imagined them to be a convoy bound from London for Leith, which had been for some time expected One of them had a pendant hoisted, and appeared to be a ship of force. They had not, however, courage to come on, but kept back, all except the one which seemed to be armed, and that one also kept to the windward, very near the land, and on the edge of John Paul was born at Arbigland, in Scotland, on the dangerous shoals, where I could not with safety apsixth of July, 1747, and the scenery and associations proach. This induced me to make a signal for a piof his birthplace, and its vicinity, doubtless, encour- lot, and soon afterward two pilot-boats came off. aged a restless spirit of adventure, a love of change, They informed me that a ship that wore a pendant was an armed merchantman, and that a king's frigate and an ardent enthusiasm in the objects of his pur- lay there in sight, at anchor, within the Humber, suits, which were so strikingly manifested in his life.. waiting to take under convoy a number of merchantHis first voyage was made before he was thirteen years old; and maritime pursuits brought him to America. While here his feelings became interested in the cause of the colonies, and fully prepared him for the active part he afterward took in their defence. In 1773, John Paul removed to Virginia, to attend to the affairs of his brother who had died childless and intestate. He now assumed the additional surname of Jones. On the twenty-second of December, 1775, by a resolution of Congress, Paul Jones was appointed lieutenant in the American Navy, which then consisted of the Alfred, Columbus, Andrew Doria, Sebastian Cabot, and Providence; the whole mounting one hundred guns, and manned by eleven hundred and fifty seamen; Jones was attached to the Alfred, and was the first to hoist the American flag, which was first displayed on board that vessel. On the twenty-second of February, 1778, he thus wrote to the Marine committee: "I am happy in having it in my power to congratulate you on my having seen the American flag, for the first time, recognised, in the fullest and completest manner by the flag of France." In April, 1778, his memorable visit to White Haven occurred. Time would fail us were we to recount all the various acts of bravery performed by Jones. But we must hasten to one of the bravest actions, in which Jones was ever engaged, and which we shall give in his own words, as contained in his life and correspondence, edited by Miss Jeanette Taylor. "On the morning of that day, the 23d, the brig from Holland not being in sight, we chased a brigantine, that appeared laying to, to windward. About noon, we saw and chased a large ship that appeared coming round Flamborough Head, from the northward, and at the same time I manned and armed one of the pilot boats to send in pursuit of the brigantine, which now appeared to be the vessel that I had forced ashore. Soon after this, a fleet of forty-one sail This induced me to abandon the single ship which appeared off Flamborough Head, bearing N. N. E. had then anchored in Burlington Bay; I also called back the pilot boat, and hoisted a signal for a general chase. When the fleet discovered us bearing down, all the merchant ships crowded sail toward the shore. same time steered from the land, and made the dispoThe two ships of war that protected the fleet at the sition for battle. In approaching the enemy, I crowded every possible sail, and made the signal for the "On the 21st, we saw and chased two sail off Flam-line of battle, to which the Alliance showed no attenborough Head; "the Pallas chased in the N. E. quar- tion. Earnest as I was for the action, I could not ter, while the Bon Homme Richard, followed by the reach the commodore's ship until seven in the evenVengeance, chased in the S. W.; the one I chased, ing, being then within pistol-shot, when he hailed a brigantine collier in ballast, belonging to Scarbo- the Bon Homme Richard. We answered him by rough, was soon taken, and sunk immediately after-firing a whole broadside. His official account of the battle between the Bou Homme Richard and the Serapis, is as follows:— ward, as a fleet then appeared to the southward. "The battle being thus begun, was continued with This was so late in the day, that I could not come unremitting fury. Every method was practised on up with the fleet before night; at length, however, I both sides to gain an advantage, and rake each other; got so near one of them as to force her to run ashore and I must confess that the enemy's ship, being much between Flamborough Head and the Spurn. Soon more manageable than the Bon Homme Richard, after I took another, a brigantine from Holland, be- gained thereby several times an advantageous situalonging to Sunderland, and at daylight next morning, tion, in spite of my best endeavours to prevent it. seeing a fleet steering towards me from the Spurn, I│As I had to deal with an enemy of greatly superiour |