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COPPER MINING IN CORNWALL.

It was not until the middle of the last century, that copper mining in Cornwall received its greatest impulse. Mines were sunk to greater depths; new hydraulic engines were constructed; the machinery improved; and the operations generally systematized, and reduced to method. Hence it was not long before this important branch of mining enterprise assumed its true position in the valuable produce of the country. Sir CHARLES LEMON has computed that for fourteen years previous to 1758 the yearly value of Cornish copper was £160,000. Half a century later the same annual produce had increased to £550,000; and now the copper works of Cornwall and Devonshire are undertakings of enormous magnitude. They are sunk in some cases to the enormous depth of 300 fathoms, and are drained by means of the celebrated Cornish engines, which, for size and power, are unparalleled in any country in the world. They are generally worked by companies of adventurers. If the mine be on waste land, it belongs to the revenues of the Duchy of Cornwall, and the lease is obtained from the crown. If on private property, it is let from time to time on special terms, and these consist of a payment in kind, varying from 1 25th to 1 10th part of the produce. It is proper to state, however, that these rates, or "lord's dues," as they are termed, are modified with the facilities or the diffi culties of working the mine. Some copper mines pay thousands of pounds sterling of rent; others, again, pay no rent whatever. The profits arising from them, however, are occasionally very large. Sir HENRY DE LA BECHE mentions a copper mine-that of Wheal Alfred, in Cornwall-having afforded at one time a net profit of £140,000.

FERRUM, OR TRUE IRON.

Ferrum is the Latin as well as the chemical name for iron. In its chemical sense it means pure iron, in distinction to the common word, iron; because all the iron of commerce is not pure iron, but a compound of iron and charcoal. Iron and steel vary only according to the quantity of charcoal combined with the iron. Pure iron, i. e., ferrum, is never seen but in a laboratory or chemical museum; there is, however, no substance perhaps so widely and universally dif fused as ferrum, in combination with this and that, throughout the world's surface. Iron exists in almost every soil; it can be traced in almost every plant and fruit. It not only exists in animals, but its quantity is so regular in the human blood, that ferrum is now considered one of its natural constituents; in fact, physicians distinguish healthy blood by the amount of iron it contains. The manifold uses of this truly precious metal render it more valuable to man than any other metal, and from the numerous and important applications to which it is put, it appears almost indispensable to the condition of civilization. Its frequent mention in Scripture indicates the early period at which man became acquainted with its qualities. All kinds of tools and implements, such as the ax and the harrow, are mentioned in the Bible; and also even some things which are almost considered to be modern inventions. Thus, King OG, of Bashan, is described as having a "bedstead of iron." The " iron pen" is also twice spoken of, but that refers to an instrument used for "graving," not writing, in one case, and is used figuratively in the other. Iron gates, iron chariots, and iron pillars, are also mentioned, sufficient to show that nearly all the appli

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cations of iron of our day date from ages ago. The mechanical uses of iron are innumerable, from the ponderous engine to the lady's needle; from the pit saw to the surgeon's lancet. The chemical properties of iron are equally nuIts presence gives color to many precious stones; the garnet, the ruby, the lapis-lazuli, the topaz, all owe their tint to ferrum. Many artificial colors and pigments owe their brilliancy to iron, such as Prussian blue, which is a compound of iron. Even the ink with which we now write is a compound of iron; and so we may go on enumerating its value to the currier, dyer, and druggist-a long chain of many curious links. Independently of the precious mechanical qualities and chemical properties of iron, there appears something so mystical in its nature, that man's study of it reveals only the more to his astonishment. Of these mystical qualities, none is more mysterious than that of its magnetical properties, and its power, when poised, to set itself at right angles to the motion of the earth's rotation which we call "polarity." What a mass of mystery is there in that little balanced needle by which the mariner directs his course over the foaming wave to a port unseen and unknown :

"Hail. adamantine steel, magnetic lord,

King of the plow, the plowshare, and the sword!"

Ferrum yields up its strength and its might to water made sour with sulphuric acid. In this liquor iron dissolves and becomes invisible. When the solution is saturated with iron and then evaporated, a beautiful salt (sulphate of iron) is produced, which crystalizes like bits of broken frozen sea.

A SOUTHERN SHOE FACTORY.

A joint-stock manufactory has been organized in New Orleans for the manufacture of shoes. The machine is calculated principally for coarse work, or plantation brogans, and an idea can be formed of the advantages represented by the following calculations:-With a force of forty-two men and fifty boys, representing a daily expense of $125 75, it is expected to manufacture 1,600 pairs of brogans per day. The same article cannot be manufactured in Massachusetts for less than 21 cents per pair. The difference in favor of this manufacture by machinery would, therefore, be over ten cents on each pair of shoes, without counting the important items of freight, commissions, and insurance on the shoes imported from the North. The trial was a successful one. A workman can make a common stout brogan in fifteen minutes-more than double the time that would be necessary if, the manufacture being in operation, with its requisite number of workmen, the shoe had passed from hand to hand during the finishing process. The upper leather being cut and sewed with a sewing machine, the sole leather used in strips of the required length, by a cutting machine, it passes through three different sets of rollers, which makes it smooth, and compresses it to an even thickness. Another machine, with assorted dies, then cuts the soles, which are drilled all around by another piece of machinery. It is then adjusted with the upper leather on a last and pegged by hand work, after which the heels and soles are smoothed in a finishing machine, and the string holes drilled. A new pegging machine has been lately invented, which is said to be very successful. If adapted to this machine it would be a further saving of over five minutes per shoe. It is of French invention, having been, we are informed, in operation for many years in the city of Lyons, France. Mr. DE VEUVE has the patent-right in the United States.

CHANGES IN LABOR VALUE.

At a celebration in a factory at North Adams, Massachusetts, last week, Mr. BRAYTON remarked that when he opened his mill in 1832, girls' wages were 42 cents a week, and calico cost $1 a yard; now some of his girls receive $6 a week, and calico is sold at 8 cents a yard.

This is an exceedingly interesting fact. In 1832, twenty-eight years ago, a girl worked in that same factory in North Adams for 42 cents a week, or twenty-six weeks to pay for a calico dress, of eleven yards, at one dollar a yard. Now a girl receives $156 for an equal service, and pays for a calico dress, of eleven yards, at eight cents a yard, eighty-eight cents, leaving of her wages over and above what the girl twenty-eight years ago bad, after paying for the calico dress, $155 12.

This presents a striking contrast between then and now. Whether the girl with the advanced price for her labor really saves any more money at the end of a series of years, now than then, is a matter of doubt-or whether she with the advanced wages will make a man any better wife than the girl who wrought for 42 cents a week, is also quite uncertain-the probabilities being altogether in favor of the true, womanly qualities of the maid of earlier times. Formerly mothers educated and trained their daughters to become helps meet for man. Now it is far otherwise. If a young man gets a wife, he soon finds out that he has not secured a help meet for him-he being a working man—but one that involves upon him the necessity of hiring a domestic to take care of his household affairs and his wife.

One word further in regard to wages. They are high or low, not according as the sums received or paid are large or small, relatively, but according to what they will purchase of the necessaries of life. If a mechanic receives two dollars a day, and pays ten dollars a barrel for flour, and all other articles of provisions being at the same rate, he is no better off than when he received one dollar a day, and bought his flour for five dollars a barrel, and other things necessary for his family at the same reduced rate. But those who furnish two dollars in bank bills for circulation, are decidedly better off than when they can circulate but one dollar. The prices of provisions seem at times to be kept up above what the supply would require, by an understanding between the wholesale dealers and bankers. Hence, it often happens that heavy operators can get large notes discounted when accommodations cannot be obtained by those desiring small sums for a retailing business, or for other purposes.

But our purpose was to invite the attention of our readers to the difference of wages at different periods, and a comparison between them and the things to be bought for food and clothing, and to impress the minds of mechanics, operatives, and farmers, that the quantity of the necessaries of life, bought by a day's, week's, or month's wages is the true scale for determining the question of wages, whether high or low.

TIDAL MOTIVE POWER.

Dr. SEGUIN, of Paris, has proposed a novel and ingenious application of tides as a motive power, applicable to machinery and agriculture. He proposes to construct, at the water tide, two monster basins-one being furnished with gates, permitting the entry of tide water, but preventing its exit-the other, having

gates, permitting the exit of water, but opposing its entrance from the tide. By this means, the first basin would be filled with water at high tide, and the other would be completely emptied to the level of ebb tide. A canal or race being constructed between the two basins, would thus become the seat of a continuous current in one direction. By this means the alternating motion of the water will be converted into a continuous action, calm, as easily regulated and sus ceptible of the same applications as natural water-courses. The only question to be settled, in considering the applicability of this scheme, is its economy.

LAKE SUPERIOR MINES.

From a speech delivered before the Senate of Minnesota, we obtained the following statistics of the products of Lake Superior mines:—

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The product of coal in England is as follows, by counties:—

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8,302,150

4,710,750

56,500

6,680,780

8,050,000

695,450

769,360

1,121,250

1.022,500

7,495,289

8.926,249

120,750

65,008,649

MINING FORTUNE.

They have a "poet" at Pike's Peak, who has perpetrated the following:-

"Luck varies with the men who hunt

For gold, as I'll explain:

Some find the ore in creases!

While others seek in vein !"

RAILROAD, CANAL, AND STEAMBOAT STATISTICS.

CONNECTICUT RAILWAYS.

The Seventh Annual Report of the Railway Commissioners of the State of Connecticut is received, from which we tabulate the following information, placed for comparison along side of the operation of the Massachusetts roads for the same year, 1859 :—

Number of railways..
Length in miles..
Cost of same.
Capital paid in...

Funded debt....

Floating debt.
Total debt......
Annual revenue
Working expense..
Net income....

16,4 6.716
7,055,348

$1 64

Connecticut.

Massachusetts.

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45,822,852 15,166,121

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$1.63

1 01

93

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Revenue per mile run...
Expense per mile run....
Net income per mile run
Number of miles run.

6.8

The Boston and New York Central Railway has, in the above, been omitted, as no return of its operation is made.

RAILWAYS IN INDIA.

A valuable history of the Indian railway system has been furnished in a report to the president of the Indian Council, by Mr. JULAND DANVERS, the secretary of the Railway Department at the Indian office. It describes, amongst a vast number of other details, the progress of each company from its commencement, the natures of the guaranties accorded, the amounts of capital still to be raised, the scale of receipts and fares, and extent of traffic in each instance, the number of persons employed, European and native, and the respective rates of mortality among them. The system dates from 1845, when the East Indian and Great Indian Peninsula Companies were respectively projected, and the number of companies now in existence is eight, employed to open 4.917 miles of communication, exclusive of the navigation of the Indus from Kotree to Moultan, a further distance of 570 miles. The largest of the companies is the East Indian, which will require a capital of £19.000,000, and the smallest the Calcutta and Southeastern, with a capital of £250.000. The total capital already sanctioned to be raised under guaranty is £34.133,000, and the total estimated to be necessary for these companies is £52,430,000. Of the amount authorized

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