Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 April 1896 — Some Modern “Big Things.” [ARTICLE]

Some Modern “Big Things.”

One of the largest checks ever drawn in this country was $16,000,000, by President Roberts, of the Pennsylvania Railroacl, in payment, of 200,000 shares of P., W. & B. R.?R. Mock. V The English Royal Naval architect says that a. “perfect” modern rnan cfwar should not weigh less than 25,000 tons, and cost at least £2,000,000 or sl9000.000., _ .. , y The pavement in front of the William H. Vanderbilt residence In New York City Cost over $40,000. The single stone lying directly in front is the largest known paving stone, and cost, transportation and all, $9,000. A redwood plank exhibited at the Kansas City exposition. was 16 feet long, 7 feet 9 inches wide and 5 inches thick. The largest bronze casting ever rjiade in America is the buffalo’s head which hangs at the eastern entrance of the Union Pacific bridge between Omaha and Council Bluffs. The largest statue in the United States is Bartholdi’s “Liberty Enlightening the World,” which stands on Bedloe Island, New York harbor. The Statue alone, without base or pedestal, weighs 400,000 pounds. The highest building in the world, monuments and towers not considered, is the Cologne Cathedral. The height of this building from the pavement to the copper tip on the spire is 511 feet. The great hammer at the Woolwich Gun Works, Woolwich, England, weighs forty tons, and its drop is a sheer fall of forty-four feet three inches. The 5,000-horse-power pumping engine in the mines at Freidensville, Pa., raises 17,900 gallons of water at each revolution of its gigantic fly-wheel.— St. Louis Republic.