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The Increase Of Population

The Increase Of Population image
Parent Issue
Day
5
Month
January
Year
1846
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

A pamphlet is now circulating in this community, published by the Executive committee of the : American Home Missionary Society, entitled "Our Country." In this pamphlet is the following article on the increase of population in the United States.The President of the United States estimates that the population doubles every twenty-three years. Statistical tables show that since the year 1770,the rate of increase has never been less than 32 percent, every ten years, while the average rate has been more than 34 percent. But is it likely that this rate will be sustained? There are certainly many things that sanction such an expectation - for example: the homogeneousness of the people who have the present possession of it, and the rapidity of foreign immigration. the condition of men is constantly receiving improvements from science, the arts, and the diffusion of better principles of education and government. These causes will not only promote the increase of our native population, but will bring incalculable numbers from the old world to our shores, and the physical and intellectual power thus imparted will exert itself to better advantage in developing the means of subsistance, than it can do under the burdens of European society and good government. Taking the rate of increase of population at one third every ten years, (i.e. doubling in thirty years) and we shall have in round numbers the total result of 275,200,000 in 1880. I have carried on the same calculation 1000 years with the following results: America contains nearly 15,000,000 square mi!es, or 418,176,000,000,000 square feet. According to the aforesaid ration of increase of population in the U.S., supposing the population of America, in A D 2845, or 1000 years from this time, would be 61, 481,236,766,666,975,132: which divided by the number of square feet, would give 147,644 persons to every square foot of land. Kyanizing. - Doubts have recently been expressed in Europe of the advantages of Kyanizing. The following is from the Railroad Journal: 'In 1843 I prepared 1,400 spruce-ties by immersion in a solution of sulphate of copper. - One of these days, when sufficient time has elapsed, you shall know the result.' The Taunton and New Bedford railroad company, in Massachusetts, prepared, in the spring and summer of 1840, about 1,700 spruce cross-ties, 7 feet long, 6x6 inches, by Mr. Kyan's process. During the past summer, 1845, they were carefully inspected, and no evidence of decay was perceptible; a single stick selected indiscriminately, was taken out of the track with a view to a critical examination. It was split open and appeared in every respect as new wood. - The spike holes were as sound and the wood as elastic as the first day the spikes were driven. Spruce is probably the least durable wood which could be selected for track, and it can not be questioned that without being submitted to some preserving process it would rot in the situation of a cross-tie in five years. The writer of this article has watched the history of Kyanizing with much interest, and does not recollect any authentic statement of its failure, while he has seen a great many of its success. The Mode of Manufacturing the T. Rail - The Danville American gives description of the mode of manufacturing railroad iron at the Montour rolling mill, which may be new to many of our readers: 'In order to make the T rail, the iron is first rolled trough one set of rollers into heavy flat bars, about three inches in width and three-fourths of an inch in thickness. these bars are then put into pieces, something less than three feet in length. A number of the pieces, probably fifteen or twenty, are then placed together, making a square bundle or faggot, weighing nearly four hundred pounds. This faggot is then placed into one of the furnaces and brought to white heat, when it is drawn out on a small iron hand cart and conveyed to the rollers. The great weight and intense heat of such a heavy mass requires considerable skill as well as strength in passing it through the rollers. The bar, as it passes through, is caught and supported by iron levers fastened to chains that are suspended on pullies from above. The bar first passes through the square grooves of the rollers three or tour times, before it is run through the different grooves it passes five or six times before it is completed. - It is then placed on a small railway carriage, on a track 18 feet wide, and hauled up about twenty feet, when the rails come in contact with two circular saws, one of which is placed on each side of the railway. These saws revolve with great rapidity, until the moment the rail, still red hot, reaches them, the red, sparkling iron saw dust is scattered in every direction. The rails are thus cut off square at each end, exactly 18 feet Iong, apparently as easy as if they were made of tough hickory wood. The rail is then dragged lo the pile and left to cool, perfectly finished.'