Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 June 1885 — MECHANICAL. [ARTICLE]

MECHANICAL.

An English lockmaker has constructed a key which he claims is capable of opening 22,600 patent lever locks, all of which diner in their wards or combinations. As described, the key weighs three ounces, is nickel-plated, and' is said to be the result of three years’ labor on the part of the inventor in making drawings, of the different wards or combinations. A grooved fly-wheel of remarkable size and weight, says the Hardware Trade Journal, is in course of manufacture by- Messrs. Goodfellow & Matthews,' of Hyde. The diameter is thirty-four feet, and the weight eightythree tons,.while the circumferential velocity will be 5,350 feet, o< over a mile a minute. The face is grooved for thirty-two ropes, each' 1-J inches in diameter and capable of driving 40-horse power. The fly-wheel is intended for the factory of the Astley Mills Company, near Hyde Junction, and is made in fifty pieces. Some ten years ago Mr. Edward Crane defied the Massachusetts Legislature and the railroad men of the State of Massachusetts with a declaration that railroad transportation would yet be made cheaper than water transportation, and that railway competition would drive out lake and canal transportation. In the last quarterly report of the Treasury Review of Statistics (page 418) it is shown that the tonnage transported on the New York State canals has fallen from 6,442,225 tons in 1868 to 5,009,488 tons in 1884, while the tonnage on the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad has increased in the same time from 1,846,599 tons to tons; on the Erie Road, from 3,900,000 to 11,071,000; and on the Pennsylvania, from 4,722,000 to 22,583,000. This is exclusive of the tonnage moved On the leased lines 'bf these companies.- The tonnage transported by rail on the four American trunk lines increased from 44,767 tons in 1880 to 53,549,316 tons in 1884. The total value of the wood used as sawlogs, fuel, railroad ties, fencing, handles, wheel stock, wood pulp,basket; excelsior, ears, shoe-pegs, etc.,-ia-the-United States is estimated for the year 1880 at $400,073,094. The capital invested was $181,184,122, and the number of hands employed was 147,956, The estimated value of the wood consumed as fuel for domestic purposes alone in that year is $305,95’0,040, and the quantity is stated at 140,537,439 cords. The annual loss by forest fires is estimated at $25,462,250. Only the actual value of the material destroyed is included in the estimate. This, however, is insignificant in comparison with the damage inflicted upon the soil itself or with the influence of fire upon the subsequent forest growth. The fertility, or rather the ability of the soil to produce again a similar crop of trees to the one destroyed, is lost, and is only regained, if at all, by the slow growth and decay of many generations of less valuable plants. The condition of the forests in Maine shows that forest preservation is perfectly practicable when the importance of the forest to the community is paramount.