Part 88

This edifice, which is one of the best of its class, is situated at the foot of Fifty-fourth street, on the East river, in the city of New York. It is hexagonal in form, and rises to the hight of one hundred and seventy-five feet; being sixty feet in diameter at the base, and gradually growing smaller as it rises toward the top. It forms a most striking object of interest; and is remarked by the multitudes who pass by it going up and down the sound, to and from New York. When we consider the small size of the article to the manufacture of which this lofty structure is devoted, the means appear greatly out of proportion with the result. Formerly in casting shot, the apparatus was merely a plate of copper, in the hollow of which were punched a number of holes. This was placed a few feet above a kettle of water, into which the melted lead descended, after passing through the holes in the plate. But in falling so short a distance, and being so suddenly cooled and hardened, the shot did not acquire a perfectly globular form, a desideratum which is now attained by means of shot-towers. In the tower of Mr. McCullough, the largest shot falls from the summit of the tower to the bottom of a well twenty-five feet below the surface of the earth, making the descent one hundred and seventy-five feet. The size of the shot is determined by the size of the holes through which it passes. The furnaces for melting the lead are situated near the top of the tower; three or four tuns of shot are manufactured per day. This method of casting shot was invented by Mr. Watt, the celebrated engineer, in consequence, it is said, of a dream. He tried the experiment from the tower of the church of St. Mary, Radcliffe, and finding it very successful, obtained a patent, which he afterward sold for ten thousand pounds. There are now several shot-towers in the vicinity of London, and different parts of the world; but none more worthy of notice than the one of which we are now speaking. An iron staircase ascends from the base to the summit of the tower. Arsenic is mingled with the lead in proportion of forty pounds to one tun. In casting, the metal is poured through a tube, but descends through the open space of the tower in a continual stream of silvery drops. As the weight of the lead prevents it from scattering or being blown about like water-drops, the workmen pass to and fro, without danger, close by this fiery cascade. The shot is of different sizes, from number one, swan shot, to number twelve, dust shot. Mr. James McCullough has brought the art of the manufacture of the shot to perfection. Certain portions of his factory are kept entirely secret; and the shot manufactured in New York are not surpassed in the world. The cause of most of the imperfections in the manufacture of lead shot, is the too rapid cooling of the spherules by their being dropped too hot into the water, whereby their surfaces form a solid crust, while the interior remains fluid, and in its subsequent concretion shrinks so as to produce the irregularities of the shot. The patent shot-towers originally constructed in England, obviate this evil, by exposing the fused spherules, after they pass through the cullender, to a large body of air during their descent into the water-tub placed on the ground. The greatest erection of this kind is probably at Villach, in Carinthia, being two hundred and forty Vienna, or two hundred and forty-nine English feet high. The following is the process. Melt a tun of soft lead, and sprinkle round the sides of the iron pot about two shovelfuls of wood ashes, taking care to leave the center clear. Then put into the middle about forty pounds of arsenic, to form a rich alloy with the lead. Cover the pot with an iron lid, and lute the joints quickly with loam or mortar, to confine the arsenical vapors, keeping up a moderate fire to maintain the mixture fluid for three or four hours; after which, skim carefully, and run the alloy into ingots or pigs. The composition thus made is in proportion of one pig to one thousand pounds of melted lead. Two or three tons are usually melted at once in large establishments. A crust of oxyd of a white spongy nature, sometimes called cream by the workmen, covers the surface of the lead, which is of use to coat over the bottom of the cullender. The cullenders are hollow hemispheres of sheet-iron, about ten inches in diameter, perforated with holes perfectly round and free from burs. These must be of a uniform size in each cullender; but, of course, a series of different cullenders, with sorted holes for every different size of lead shot, must be prepared. The operation is always carried on with three cullenders at a time, which are supported upon projecting grates of a kind of chafing-dish made of sheet-iron, somewhat like a triangle. This chafing-dish should be placed immediately above the fall; while at the bottom there must be a tub half-filled with water, for receiving the granulated lead. The cullenders are not in contact, but must be parted by burning charcoal, in order to keep the lead constantly at the proper temperature, and to prevent its solidifying in the filter. The hight from which the particles should be let fall, varies likewise with the size of the shot; as the congelation is the more rapid, the smaller they are. The workman then puts the filter stuff into the cullender, pressing it well against the sides; he next gently pours lead into it with an iron ladle. The center of the cullender being less hot, affords larger shot than the sides. Occasionally, also, the three cullenders employed together, may have holes of different sizes; the shot will then be of different magnitudes. These are separated by square sieves of different fineness, and after passing through other minute processes, are ready for sale and use.

THE EMPEROR FOUNTAIN.

This splendid fountain, a view of which is given in the cut beyond, is one of the most remarkable in the world, and in commemoration of a visit paid to it in 1844, by the emperor of Russia, it was called the Emperor fountain, though since the outbreak of the war between Great Britain and Russia, the name is said to have been changed to that of the Victoria fountain. It is situated in Chatsworth, one of the most luxurious seats of the English nobility; famous for its exceeding beauty and its costly embellishments. Its walks, lawns, parterres, mimic Alpine scenery, conservatories, gardens, cascades, halls, pictures, and sculpture, and music, and fountains, have all been constructed and arranged with consummate taste and with lavish expense. A month would scarcely suffice to visit all that is worthy of observation in this wonderful place, and perhaps few sights could produce a deeper impression of the wealth possessed by the English aristocracy. We have from this munificent storehouse selected a single object to be delineated by the pencil. The Emperor fountain is fed by immense artificial reservoirs on the hills above Chatsworth, covering eight acres of ground, into which various springs and streams have been diverted. Our American ideas of a fountain are usually limited to a beautiful jet of water forced twenty or thirty feet in hight; hence it is with amazement, if not incredulity, that we hear of the fountain of Chatsworth, which throws its jet to the hight of two hundred and sixty-seven feet! Such is the velocity with which the water is ejected, that it is calculated to escape at the rate of one hundred miles a minute!

[Illustration: THE EMPEROR FOUNTAIN.]

THE UNITED STATES MINT IN PHILADELPHIA.

The United States mint was founded in 1790; and the business of coining commenced in 1793, in the building now occupied by the Apprentice’s library. In 1830, it was removed to the fine building it now occupies, on Chestnut street, above Olive street. The edifice is of white marble; and the north front, opposite to Penn square, is one hundred and twenty feet long, with a portico of sixty feet long, having six Ionic columns; while the south front, on Chestnut street, has a similar portico. Since the enormous influx of gold from California, the United States mint has become an object of more than common interest and attention; and the place is usually filled with visitors, watching the various processes the metal goes through before it comes out in finished coin. The machinery and apparatus by which these are accomplished, are of the most complete and perfect character. The rooms in which the smelting, refining, and alloying are done, are spacious apartments in which a large number of workmen are employed. Heaps of the rich ores are to be seen lying around, just as they were extracted from the mines, or gathered in dust from the sands of the mountain-streams of California. Bars of the pure metal, of thousands of dollars’ value, are passing through hands, which like those of the fabled Midas, seem to turn all they touch into gold. The heat of this place is very great; the fires glow with the intensity of those in a foundery; the men, in appearance, resemble the workmen in a smithy; and there is a suffocating sensation of hot air, steam, and perspiration, penetrating the atmosphere, which is anything but pleasant to experience, especially when one is palpitating under the heat of a summer temperature, without the freshness of the open air to modify and alleviate it. Crucibles are handled with iron tongs, and cotton or woolen mittens; and the metal is shaped into bars, and then reduced to the requisite fineness. All this takes place in one apartment.

In another room, is seen a most beautiful steam-engine, which drives all the rolling and stamping machinery. It is of one hundred horse-power, and works the rolling machinery, the draw-benches, and the cutting presses. It is called a steeple-engine, and has two cylinders; its boilers are forty feet long, and forty inches in diameter; and the steam from them also moves a ten horse, and a five horse engine, in the separating and cleaning apartments. This main engine is of the most elegant workmanship, polished like a piece of cutlery, and works with the most admirable precision and regularity, without the least perceptible jar, and with scarcely a noise. From this room, the visitor walks into that where the rolling machines are at work, turning out the metal to the proper degree of thickness which each particular kind of coin requires. The metal is cast into ingots fourteen inches long, and about five-eighths of an inch thick; and these are rolled to very near the proper thickness, when they are passed through the draw-benches to equalize them. The strips are then cut at the presses, which is done at the rate of about two hundred to two hundred and sixty per minute. There are fourteen men employed in this room, two at each pair of rolls. The pieces, as thus cut, then pass to the adjusting room, where each piece is weighed separately, and if too heavy, filed down, or if too light, or any way imperfect, thrown back to be remelted. There are fifty-four females employed in this room. The pieces are next taken to the milling and coining room, where from two hundred to four hundred are milled in a minute, according to their size. In another apartment, the coins are cut with a punch to the desired size, and then stamped. For this purpose they are placed, by a person seated at the machine, in a perpendicular tube, down which they descend, one at a time, being seized as they drop by a part of the machinery, which pushes the coin under the stamp, whence it falls beneath the machine into a glass-covered box. This part of the process used formerly to be performed by a press which required eight men to work its lever and screw; but now the process requires scarcely any manual labor except handling the various pieces of coin. The rapidity with which the pieces are executed, is surprising; being at the rate of from seventy-five to two hundred per minute. Cents, dimes, dollars, eagles and double-eagles are turned out with equal facility, the process being the same in all. Some idea of the extensiveness of these operations may be had, when it is stated, that, in a single month, lately, nearly three million pieces of gold, silver and copper were coined, and that over four million dollars in value are coined every month.

In addition to the other attractions of the mint, there is a most extensive cabinet of coins, ancient and modern, of various nations, which is one of the greatest of curiosities to be found, probably, in any part of the world. Here, too, are exhibited specimens of all the existing or past coins of the mint itself, and models or specimens of any intended coins. The officers and attendants of the mint are polite and attentive to all visitors, and endeavor to make their visit one of instruction as well as amusement; and any one, by calling at appointed hours, can go through the various apartments of the building, and see the various processes which have thus been described.

THE AIR BALLOON.

From the earliest ages, the notion of flying in the air, either by wings or by supernatural agency, seems to have been in the minds of at least some of mankind; but the idea of the _balloon_, consisting of an envelope containing something light enough to make it rise and float in common air, is comparatively of much later date. It is said that the first definite notion of the balloon originated with a Jesuit, by the name of Francis Lana, who in 1670 conceived the idea of raising metal balls in the atmosphere, which had previously been exhausted of air, but which should be at the same time so thin, as to weigh less than their bulk of air. The experiment, however, he never tried, as, in his age, it was not believed that God would allow an invention to succeed, by means of which civil government could so easily be disturbed. Later experiments have proved that strength to resist the external air is incompatible with the necessary degree of thinness in the material. From this period, one hundred years elapsed, before the idea of raising a body in the air, by means of its being lighter than the air whose space it occupies, was pursued any further. In 1782, an attempt was made to raise bodies filled with hydrogen gas, a substance which, as is well known, is lighter than atmospheric air. The experimenter succeeded, however, in raising nothing heavier than a soap-bubble. In the same year, the brothers Montgolfier, paper-makers at Lyons, attempted to raise a paper balloon by means of hydrogen gas. Being unsuccessful in this, they conceived the idea of applying fire underneath a large balloon of paper built upon a framework of wood, and containing a receptacle for fire in the place where, in modern balloons, the car is suspended. This experiment being so far successful as to show the correctness of the principle, they next made a balloon of linen cloth, and kindled under it a fire made and fed by bundles of chopped straw, apparently with the impression that it was the smoke rather than rarefied air which had the ascending power. The balloon, thus inflated, rose about a mile in a direct line, and then described a horizontal line of about seven thousand feet, after which it gradually sunk. The next attempt was upon a balloon of lutestring dipped in a solution of India rubber, and filled with hydrogen gas. The experiment at first failed, but on the twenty-seventh of August, the same year, at Paris, the balloon rose beautifully to a great hight, and fell about twelve miles off. Soon after, animals (sheep, ducks, &c.) were sent up; and on the fifteenth of October, the first human aeronaut made an ascent of a hundred feet. The balloon, however, was held by a rope, and connection with the earth not entirely severed. A month later, on the twenty-first of November, the daring feat of completely leaving the earth was performed by two gentlemen, one of whom was M. Rosier, and the other the Marquis d’Arlandes. The balloon was a _Montgolfier_, or one in which the elevating power was air rarefied by fire. The signature of Benjamin Franklin, who at that time was American minister to Paris, is upon the official paper describing the balloon, its dimensions, &c. It was seventy feet high, forty-six in diameter, and carried a weight of from sixteen to seventeen hundred pounds; it rose to the hight of five miles in twenty-five minutes. When the aeronauts wished to ascend still higher, they shook a bundle of straw into the flame; when they wished to sink, they let the fire smolder, or extinguished it with a wet sponge. The attempt was successful, and the voyagers alighted in safety, after an absence of a little less than an hour.

[Illustration: THE AIR BALLOON.]

The first trial of a hydrogen balloon was made a week later, from the garden of the Tuilleries, just after sunset. It ascended two miles with perfect ease; its occupants here came in sight of the sun, which seemed to rise again, as at morning, in the east. The balloon and its two travelers were the only illuminated objects, all the rest of nature being plunged in shadow. During the next two years, many ascensions were made by different persons, and successive improvements and inventions were added. The parachute was invented in 1784, and the first attempt at steering a balloon was made in this year, but without success. In 1802, M. Garnerin descended successfully from a great hight by means of a parachute. In 1806, two aeronauts ascended to such a distance, that they came into an atmosphere so rarefied as to burst the balloon. The remnants, however, broke the fall, and they descended in safety. From the beginning of this century to the present day, but little progress has been made in an art which seems destined to be of little service to mankind. No possible means of guiding the balloon have yet been discovered, or any practicable method of giving it a horizontal motion, so as to withdraw it from the influence of winds and currents. It has now become a mere toy, and for any practical or scientific purpose, has long since ceased to be of the slightest account.

One of the largest balloons ever constructed is that of Mr. Green, a celebrated English aeronaut, which is called the Continent, and has made many ascensions from London and Paris. The following account of an ascent from the Hippodrome at Paris, in 1848, is from a leading French journal. It is from the pen of Theophile Gautier, an eminent Parisian romancer and _feuilletonist_.

“Last Sunday, about five o’clock in the afternoon, Green’s balloon sprung from the inclosure of the Hippodrome into the blue abyss of the heavens. The ascension of a balloon is certainly not a novelty at the present day; but an aerostat, like the one belonging to Green, is not of the ordinary class: its colossal dimensions, the extraordinary care with which it is constructed, the comfort of its arrangements, make it the wonder of aerial navigation, and place it in the rank of a vessel of a hundred guns. To see it swelling its enormous taffeta case under the net-work of cords which holds the car lined with red velvet, one feels perfectly at ease as to the dangerous chances of a voyage through the air. It would seem safer than an excursion in a diligence or upon a railroad. Admitted into the reserved inclosure, we of course saw the departure, being near the spot. Nothing could be more quiet or more gentle. Mr. Green, in a black coat and white cravat, like a gentleman going out to dine, stepped into his carriage—I should say his balloon—with confidence and self-possession. A charming young English girl, accompanied by a friend, had already taken her place in the boat or car. She was calm and smiling; animation tinged her cheeks slightly, but it arose rather from embarrassment at seeing so many eyes fixed upon her, than from any fear whatever. Her intelligent face breathed that confidence in the inventions of human genius, which characterizes the English and American races. A Parisian lady would have screamed loudly.

“The balloon held by cords, trembled, and balanced itself, preparing to take flight. A strong cord still held it to the earth, but soon, upon a signal from Mr. Green, the cable was cut, and the aerial vessel arose steadily, with a movement at once easy, powerful, and of exceeding majesty. As much as the locomotive has an infernal appearance, so has the balloon a celestial one, without any play upon words. The one borrows its auxiliaries from iron, coal, fire and boiling water; the other employs only silk and gas, a thin cloth filled with a light wind. The engine, with its frightful shrieks, its noisy rattling, and its black puffs of smoke, runs upon inflexible rails, roars through the bowels of the earth, and dives into the darkness of tunnels, seeming as if seeking some evil genius who might have invented it; the balloon, without noise and without effort, leaves the earth, where the laws of gravity hold us, and mounts tranquilly up toward heaven. Unhappily, the balloon, like the fancied inspiration of the poet, goes where the wind guides it; this every one knows; while the steam-engine, like prose, goes straight upon its road. Green and his balloon were soon overlooking Paris and all its horizon; long trails of sand, ballast that he threw over to raise himself higher, streaked the heavens with their white tracks, proving, by the time it took them to descend to the earth, the hight to which the intrepid aeronaut had mounted in a few minutes. He had disappeared, while the crowd was still looking for him, in the blue depths of the atmosphere. What a splendid and magnificent spectacle the triumphal arch, and the giant city with its black ants, illuminated by the setting sun, must have afforded him! What greatness, and at the same time what littleness! and how mean, from that distance, must seem the cares and ambitions of the world!