together and ground up for the purpose of making a powder, to be used in the manufacture of bronze paper. In making wall paper by hand, as it is termed, a block is necessary for color and shade to be placed upon the paper, and as these blocks have to be cut by artists, our readers may have some idea of the cost necessary in producing paper which is purchased at so small a sum. The paper made to represent oak and marble is furnished by men who pursue only this branch of the business, the demand for it being so limited that it would not justify the regular manufacturers to go to the expense necessary for its production. There is no branch of this business but what is successfully carried on in Philadelphia; and so expert have the manufacturers become in the business, that a great deal of the paper sold to wholesale dealers in New York is resold by them as the production of Frenchmen.

Ꭱ Ꭺ Ꮐ Ꮪ .

England is discussing at the present time, the interesting topic of rags. This article would be of little account if we had no printing presses, but the enormous increase of printed matter render rags a material of first rate importance throughout the civilized world. The repeal of the excise duties on paper and of the tax on newspapers will increase the consumption of rags very much in England, and the English, fearing a great scarcity, begin to look around for the means of supplying the demand, and are complaining of the prohibitory export duty of France. It was expected that under the new treaty, French rags, the exportation of which has been absolutely prohibited, would be exported free, but a duty has been laid upon their exportation which amounts to prohibition. This has caused great excitement among the English paper manufacturers, and negotiations have been actively commenced with other ragged countries of Europe, Holland, Germany, Belgium, Spain, and Portugal, which prohibit the exportation of their worn-out garments.

There are now about seven hundred paper mills in England, and from seventy to eighty in Scotland, besides no inconsiderable number in Ireland. The annual value of the paper manufactured, exclusive of the tax, is from £1,600,000 to £1,700,000. The Scottish mills are much more extensive than the English, for while not more than one-tenth in number, they pay a sixth part of the paper revenue. Until a very recent period the tax on paper amounted to more than three times as much as the total wages paid to the workpeople employed.

The English writing papers are made of their own rags, but printed paper is made chiefly of rags imported from the tattered cities of the continent-Hamburg, Bremen, Bostock, Ancona, Leghorn, Messina, Palermo, and Trieste.

With the increased activity of the printing press under the free system adopted in England, they must increase their purchases, and as the supply was short previously, the British Government are extremely auxious to remove the obstructions to free trade in rags throughout Europe, and they naturally complain of the difficulties that beset them. The editor of Bell's Life in London ought to pitch into Louis NAPOLEON vigorously for the want of" fair play" he has shown in this contest for rags.

It is probable enough that the price of rags, and consequently of paper, will

be increased in this country when paper-making is materially increased in England under their new system, and our own government should bring their diplo macy to bear upon those countries who refuse to part with their rags, in order to induce free exportation if possible. We consume enormous quantities of printing paper in this country already, and the consumption is increasing, year by year, and it will become a question of great importance within a few years how we are to be supplied with rags. We manufacture the best paper machinery in the world, the original design having been stolen by a Yankee mechanic who worked in a paper mill in England several months, and obtained drafts of the machinery and the secret of heating the revolving cylinders by steam. The original machine was immensely improved by the Yankees when they began to make paper by machinery, and they soon began to export to England the improved machines, the rough model of which they had stolen from that country. The Yankees ought now to help the world out of this rag difficulty by inducing those countries which refuse to abandon their "old habits" to export rags without restrictions. They may exercise some diplomatic influence, without doubt, on the other side of the water, in concert with England.

COTTON SPINDLES.

The following is a table of the recent increase in the number of spindles in cotton factories at the East:

INCREASE OF SPINDLES SINCE SEPTEMBER 1, 1859.

Pounds per day.

Linen mill*

30,000 30

4,000

Print cloth

10,000 32

1,250

Fine shirting

5,000 35

536

66

46

5,000 36

521

Fine, coarse, fancy

2,000

14

857

Light sheeting

5,000

Many other extensions are projected-among them by the Neamkeag Manufacturing Company, about 33.000 spindles-also Wamsutta, Blackstone, Pacific, etc., about 70,000 spindles more.

* Changed to print cloths, and now in operation.

SILVERING LEAD TUBING.

Many attempts have been hitherto made to silver the interior of lead and other tubing employed in mineral water apparatus and for other purposes, by the voltaic process, but it has hitherto been found impossible to effect a uniform deposition beyond a short distance from the ends of the tubing. The object of this invention is to obtain by such process a uniform deposition of the silver on every part of the interior of a piece of tubing of any length, and to this end the invention consists in the employment as the bath or decomposition cell of the tube itself; also in the use, for the purpose of conducting the galvanic current and for replenishing the supply of the coating metal, of a rod or wire passing through the tube in the direction of its length; also in the extension or stretching of the tube and central conductor by means of screw threads and nuts, or their equivalents attached to their ends, for the purpose of keeping them straight, and thereby providing for the more ready insertion of the central conductor within the tube, and for the prevention of metallic contact; also in the use of non-conducting supports between the interior of the tube and the exterior of the central conductor, for the purpose of preventing the conductor coming in contact with the tube, and preserving a uniform distance between them in all parts; also in providing for the movement of the central conductor and its nonconducting supports within the tube to permit the deposition of the metal on all parts of the interior of the lead pipe, which could not take place if the sup ports were stationary; and lastly in connecting the poles of the battery at opposite ends of the tube and central conductor to insure uniformity of deposit throughout the whole length of the tube.

GAS-LIGHT COMPANIES OF THE UNITED STATES.

The American Gas-light Journal has the following interesting returns:— The annual tables of gas-light companies will be found in this issue, the most noteworthy features of which are the decrease in the price of gas in several of the cities, and a slight increase in the number of gas-works in operation, as follows:

381 American companies .

23 Companies in British provinces...

19 Cuban, Mexican, and South American companies.

423 companies; aggregate capital ......

$47,911,215

2.112.040 6,500,000

$56,523,255

There is no question that the lower the cost at which good gas--of say twelve candles or higher brilliancy--is furnished, the greater will be the consumption, and necessarily the greater the profits to the manufacturers. This is beginning to be understood by gas companies, and the sooner it is acted upon, the better we are sure it will be for themselves. The paucity of gas-works on this extended continent must strike every reader. Take New York for instance--the Empire State of the North American Confederation, with its area of 46.000 square miles, or 30,030,000 acres, of which 15,000.000 are improved; its extreme length nearly 480 miles, and its breadth 310 miles; with a population of at least 4,000,000, distributed in nearly 800,000 of families, occupying, perhaps, 600,000 dwellings, in 45 counties, with 71 gas-works to light them up. That is not much more than a gas-work to every county in the State.

New York is filled with populous and thriving cities, towns, and villages, every one of which--we need hardly except one, whose inhabitants number 500

persons--can support gas-works. Look at Pennsylvania, with an equal area of territory-46,000 square miles, or 29,440,000 acres, of which some 10,000,000 are improved, and about 4,000,000 of population. Pennsylvania has 63 counties and but 48 gas-works, and yet we believe the actual capital in gas-works owned in Pennsylvania is greater than in any other State, not excepting New York. Massachusetts has 49 gas-works, with a territory to light up of 8,000 square miles, or 5,000,000 of acres, of which, perhaps, 2,500,000 are cultivated, and a population of about 2,000,000.

Illinois has 55,400 square miles of area and 13 gas-works. No State in the Union is more blessed with jaunty little towns and enterprising people. Everybody goes to Illinois to work, and it is time they set to work at striking a light. Ohio measures, in area, 40.000 square miles, and numbers 87 counties. She has 30 gas-works, but then, Ohio is full of pigs, and it would be a reflection upon that useful branch of illuminating material to slight their well tried ability to keep the wick-ed portion of the community from utter darkness; we do not propose. therefore, to grumble at Ohio.

Great Britain, on the other hand, has 88,000 square miles and about 1,100 gas-works. Why is it that Great Britain, with not twice the area of territory contained in the single State of New York, should have fifteen gas-works to our one, and three times as many on her little island as there are in the whole United States combined? We have, surely, plenty of money and abundance of enterprise. The subject of extending the area of gas dom in this country is beginning to attract the attention of moneyed men, and they may rely upon it that a more sure and profitable investment is not to be found here or elsewhere. A hundred thousand dollars invested in three or four village gas-works will yield revenue enough for any reasonable man during his sojourn here below, and be a neat little monument to leave to his affectionate heirs when his own light shall have been extinguished by the waves of relentless Time. We repeat that, in order to moderately light the various towns on this continent, there are not less than twenty thousand gas-works yet to be built, and, instead of concentrating the interest in mammoth corporations, they should be of moderate size and extent, economically built, honestly managed, and, by the reasonable price at which they furnish light, they should and inevitably will become the only means of meeting that universal want.

THIMBLE MANUFACTURING.

The process of manufacturing thimbles with the latest improvement, is as follows:

Sheet iron, one twenty-fourth of an inch thick, is cut into strips of dimensions suited to the intended size of the thimbles. These strips are passed under a punch press, whereby they are cut into disks of about two inches diameter, tugged together by a tail. Each strip contains one dozen of these blanks, and these are made red hot, and laid upon a mandrel nicely fitted to their size. The workman now strikes the middle of each with a round faced punch, about the thickness of his finger, and thus sinks it into the concavity of the first mandrel. It is then transferred successively to another mandrel, which has five hollows of successively increasing depth, and, by striking it into them, it is brought to the proper shape. This rude thimble is then stuck into the chuck of a lathe, in order to polish it within; it is then turned outside, the circles marked for the gold ornament, and the pits indented with a kind of milling tool. They are next annealed, brightened, and gilded inside, with a very thin cone of gold leaf, which is firmly united to the surface of the iron by the strong pressure of a smooth steel mandrel. A gold fillet is applied to the outside, in an annular space turned to receive it, being fixed by pressure at the edges into a minute groove formed on the lathe.

COOLING OF METAL CAUSING IT TO HEAT ITSELF.

It is generally known that the cooling of one end of a piece of metal generally cools other parts of the same piece of metal, by the power which the metal has of conducting heat from the warmer to the cooler parts. But when some metallic substance, as steel, cools to some certain temperature, which is different for different substances, some change in the structure of the substance commences at some point or points, which change generates heat; and this change extends from the point or points of beginning, through other parts, and heats other parts of the substance. The temperature at which this spontaneous heating commences in steel, is that at which the steel appears only a little reddish on a cloudy day. This rise of temperature depends on the portions and state of the iron and carbon which compose the steel. Prof. HORSFORD says he used an iron rod, and did not perceive that one end of his rod was warmed by the cooling of another part. Common wrought iron does not contain enough carbon to produce much of this spontaneous heating. But the portion of carbon which exists in common good steel, is large enough to produce a rise of temperature sufficient to be perceived without any thermometer, by the following process. This is seen by using a bar of steel about one-eighth of an inch thick and one inch or more wide. Heat one end of such bar nearly white hot, without warming its other end much, as blacksmiths heat steel, by keeping it somewhat screened from the air while in the fire, to prevent much oxide from forming on it, next move it from the fire into a dark place. After some parts cool from light red to dark red, they will reheat to light red. Such spontaneous heating may be shown less perfectly by heating a knife blade in a common fire, and suddenly moving it into a dark place.

THE AMERICAN PUMP.

'Necessity" is said to be "the mother of inventions ;" be this as it may, Americans are an inventive people, as is shown by the fact that nearly 29,000 patents have been issued by our government; of this vast number, only a small proportion have reached a handsome remunerative eminence. Among those of real merit and general utility, may be placed " The American Pump," owned by Mr. JAMES M. EDNEY, 147 Chambers-street. Though in its infancy, it has gained a wide and durable reputation, not only in America but abroad. The Patrie. a daily Paris paper, gives a very flattering notice of this pump, one of which had been tried by several scientific gentlemen near Paris; it says, "the unanimous opinion of the entire party was, that it was the most perfect pump ever invented, being unequaled in simplicity, economy, and durability." A leading London house has given an order for that market, and the proprietor has just sent one to a town in Turkey of 30,000 inhabitants, where a pump was never seen. Cuba, California, Central America, are ordering it for general use by hand and power. Every State in the Union has more or less of these pumps at work. It is a double-acting force pump, and the whole construction is such as to entitle it to pre-eminent merit, for while it is the simplest, it is the most powerful, either to raise, force, or throw water to any desired height or distance, and is adapted to almost every purpose, and economical in price.