USA > Pennsylvania > The Historical journal : a quarterly record of local history and genealogy devoted principally to Northwestern Pennsylvania > Part 8
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The cast iron frames, upon which the engines are placed. which have been substituted in lieu of frames of wood, and the water cylinder, for regulating the velocity of the descending cars, add considerably to the expense of the engine and machinery. But they add also to the permanency of the engine, and the security of the descending cars.
The ropes* provided for the inclined planes are of various lengths, from three thousand six hundred and sixteen, to six thous- and six hundred and thirty-two feet ; seven of them, including one extra rope, are each seven inches in circumference, and five. includ- ing one extra rope, are each six and a fourth inches in circumfer- ence. The ropes are shroud laid ; those of seven inches in cir- cumference contain each about four hundred and fifty yards. and those of six and a fourth inches in circumference contain about three hundred and sixty yards. Four of these ropes are made cach in one piece ; the others are made in pieces, and are to be spliced to- gether. They are made, a part of them of Italian, and a part of Russian hemp.
* They were what were called "white ropes," made of Russian and Italian hemp. The aggregate length of the twelve was eleven miles and seven hundred and eight yards. Their whole weight was 18,649 pounds, and they cost from 14 to 18 cents per pound, or altogether, when delivered at Hollidaysburg, $20,531.05.
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THE HISTORICAL JOURNAL.
TABLE OF LENGTHS, &c., OF ROPES.
No. of plane.
rope.
Circumference of
Length of rope.
Weight of ropes.
rope.
Working strain of
No. of yards.
ft. per minute.
Pounds raised 352
Single engine.
Pounds raised by
engine.
Horse power of
1
7 in.
3616 ft. : 7608 1bs.
9800 lbs.
449
6562
3231
35
2
61
3920
6044
7812
353
5625
2812
30
3
7
3360
6935
9800
449
6562
3281
35
1
4790
S304
9800
449
6562
32$1
35
5
61
5657
8001
7812
358
5625
2812
30
6
7
5828
11668
9800
449
6562
3281
35
1
7
5710
11281
9800
449
6562
3281
35
8
7
6632
13221
9800
449
6562
:
3281
35
9
61
5842
9240
7812
35%
5625
2812
30
10
63
4992
9499
7812
358
5625
2812
30
1
:
1
1
The machinery for working the rope is placed in a pit, under the railway, at the head of the inclined plane. The cast iron sheaves or wheels, that give motion to the rope, are placed, the one 913 feet, and the other 873 feet from the head of the plane, or the point where the road begins to descend. These sheaves are 8 feet in diameter, at the bottom of the groove, and 83 feet in diameter at the extremity of the flanges ; after they are cast they are put into a lathe, and the grooves turned out so as to fit the rope in- tended for each plane, and to give both sheaves the same diameter. These sheaves are placed vertically, and revolve in opposite direc- tions. The end of the shaft of each sheave opposite the engine which works it, has a cog-wheel four feet in diameter, strongly secured upon it. The teeth of these wheels work into each other, and regulate the motion of the vertical sheaves. A cast iron sheave, nine feet seven inches in diameter, in the bottom of the groove, is fixed on a movable carriage between the vertical wheels and the commencement of the descent of the plane. The groove in this sheave is also turned smooth and true, but it is longer than the rope. The movable carriage may be drawn backwards and forwards about fifteen feet, but it is intended generally to be kept at the end of the pit nearest to the inclined plane, by a weight connected with it by a chain. The weight is suspended in a well : the chain with which it is connected with the carriage passes over a small sheave at the top of the well, which allows it to ascend
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THE HISTORICAL JOURNAL.
and descend as the carriage is drawn backward and forward. The short distance which this sheave and carriage is permitted to move would not be a sufficient allowance for the contraction and expansion of the rope, but the sheave at the foot of the plane, around which the rope passes, is also placed in a carriage fixed upon ways, and can be moved backwards and forwards upwards of fifty feet. The ascending side of the rope passes over and around one of the vertical sheaves; then through an opening in the wall that separates the pits, and around the large horizontal sheavo ; then back through another opening in the wall, and under and around the other vertical sheave ; then down the plane. The rope is pressed into a little more than one-half of the groove of each verti- . cal sheave. The groove at the bottom is a little smaller than the rope, so that when the rope is drawn into the groove, it is pressed by the sides and the bottom. The machinery is designed for two engines-one on each side of the railroad.
Each vertical sheave has a cast iron shaft eight inches in diameter, to the end of which the crank by which the engine com- inunicates motion to the machinery is affixed. A second crank is connected by a short shaft, with this, which works at right angles to it. The shafts of the vertical sheaves are in two parts, so that by removing a coupling box, which is moved backwards and for- wards by a lever, the sheaves may move when the engine is at rest, or the engine may be put in motion when the sheaves are at rest.
The engines are of the high pressure kind ; they have each two cylinders, the pistons of which work the cranks above mentioned. Those for inclined planes No. 1, 3, 4, 6, 7 and 8 have cylinders of fourteen inches in diameter, and the stroke or distance which the piston moves is five feet. The engines for inclined planes No. 2, 5, 9 and 10 have cylinders of thirteen inches in diameter, and the stroke or distance which the piston moves is five feet. The number of revolutions required, to produce a velocity for the ascending cars of four miles per hour, will be about fourteen, and with this number, when the engine works under a pressure of steam of about seventy pounds to the inch. The power of the larger engines, computed in the common way, would be that of about thirty-five horses; and the power of the smaller ones that of about
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THE HISTORICAL JOURNAL.
thirty horses. But as the power of the engines depends upon the quantity of steam produced, and the degree to which it is heated, they might, by increasing the quantity and elastic power of the steam, be made to do the work of forty, fifty or sixty horses each, without injury to the engines. This would produce a correspond- ing increase in the velocity of the ascending cars, or admit of an increase in the load. Each of the large engines have three cylin- drical boilers, each thirty inches in diameter, and twenty feet long. Each of the smaller engines have three cylindrical boilers, thirty inches in diameter, and eighteen feet long; all the boilers are made of rolled iron, one-fourth of an inch thick.
The engines have no fly-wheel; the second cylinder, which works a crank at right angles to the main crank, and connected with it, supplies the place of a fly-wheel, in regulating the motion of the machinery. With a fly-wheel, if a car is thrown off the railway, or if any derangement takes place with the rope that will cause it to stop, the machinery or the rope must break, before the fly-wheel can be stopped ; and when this takes place, all the cars upon the plane will run down, and be injured or entirely de- stroyed. Without the fly-wheel, the rope is strong enough to stop the engine without danger of being broken.
Whenever the descending train of cars preponderates in weight, over the ascending train, sufficiently to overcome the resistance by friction of the machinery, rope, &c., or when there is no ascending train, the coupling boxes upon the shafts of the vertical wheels are thrown back, by which the engine is disengaged, and the sheaves and rope are put in motion, by the gravity of the descending load. The velocity of the descending . train of cars is regulated in the following manner: A cylinder fourteen inches in diameter and about six feet long, with a small air vessel upon each end, and a pipe upon one side, is placed upon a cast iron frame, secured to the walls, between the engine and the large sheaves. The cylinder is filled with water, and the piston, which works in the same manner as the piston of a steam cylinder, and which is connected by gear- ing with the shafts of the vertical sheaves, drives the water back- wards and forwards through the side pipe. In the centre of the side pipe a sliding valve is fixed, by which the engine tender can regulate the size of the aperture through which the water must
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THE HISTORICAL JOURNAL.
pass, and by this regulate the velocity of the cars. When the vertical or working sheaves are driven by the engine, the ma- chinery connected with the water cylinder is disengaged from the other machinery by the aid of a clutch. When the inclined plane is used as a self-acting plane, the train of cars are stopped, when they arrive at the head or foot of the plane, by a friction wheel fixed upon the shaft, by which the water cylinder is worked. When the machinery is worked by the engine, the cars are stopped by letting steam into the end of the cylinder, towards which the piston is moving.
The railway at Hollidaysburg, and at Conemaugh (Johnstown). passes along parallel with the side of the basins, and distant from them one hundred feet. The space between the railway and the basins is to be formed into slips and piers. The former will be eighty feet deep, or they will extend from the basin towards the railway eighty feet, and thirty-one feet wide. The pier between every two slips will be about fifty-six feet wide, and will extend from the railway to the basin. A branch railway is to be laid along the side of each slip, on the pier. They will be connected with the main railway by turning platforms. Two boats can load and unload in each slip. each one upon the pier alongside of which it lies. The cars, when receiving and discharging their load, will stand upon the branch railways, alongside of the boats, and the load will be transferred from the cars to the boats, or vice versa. with the aid of cranes. Most of the piers owned by individuals will have ware-houses upon them. The cranes can be so arranged as to place loading from either cars or boats into the doors of the ware-houses. Several of the slips, both at Conemaugh and at Hol- lidaysburg, are already constructed, and two or three ware-houses are built at each place.
At Conemaugh the Commonwealth have at the end of the basin, and between it and the railroad, a piece of ground one hundred feet long. The pier and slips are constructed and ready for use, except the branch railway, which is not yet laid down. The end of a street of the town lies alongside of one of the slips: this is used as a landing place, which makes the ground occupied by the Commonwealth equal in length to one hundred and fifty feet. At the other end of the basin, and between it and the railroad. there
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THE HISTORICAL JOURNAL.
is appropriated to the use of the Commonwealth a piece of ground two hundred feet in length, but no improvements have as yet been made upon it. At Hollidaysburg there is of the ground between the basin and railway, one hundred and fifty feet at one end, and two hundred feet at the other end, appropriated to the use of the Commonwealth.
The slip and piers authorized by the board to be made upon the first mentioned of these lots can be constructed while the water is out of the canal during the winter. No improvements have been authorized to be made upon the other.
The amount of tonnage that will be conveyed over the Portage Railroad during the transporting season of 1834, from Hollidays- burg to Conemaugh, will probably exceed the amount that will be carried in the opposite direction. I have, however, no information in my possession from which an estimate, that would approximate to truth, could be made of either.
As soon as this railroad is opened for public use, the cost of transporting merchandise from Philadelphia to Pittsburg will probably be reduced to less than twenty dollars per ton ; * and the price of transporting produce from Pittsburg to Philadelphia will be reduced to twelve or thirteen dollars per ton. ,
The cost of transporting merchandise during the present season, from Hollidaysburg to Blairsville, a distance of about fifty-three miles, is from twelve to sixteen dollars per ton.
The expense of transporting merchandise by railroad and canal from Hollidaysburg to Blairsville will not exceed four dollars per ton, and this sum includes a toll upon the railroad one-half greater than that upon the canal. The inconvenience heretofore resulting from delay will be entirely obviated; and the chances of injury by the weather to merchandise will be greatly reduced, and will be far less than when transported in road-wagons. There will also be a reduction in the time required for conveyance. If the Schuyl- kill and Union canals constitute a part of the line of communica- tion, ten days is an ample allowance of time to carry a load from Philadelphia to Pittsburg; but if the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad is substituted, the time will be reduced to about eight or
* The speculations of the engineer regarding the cost of transporting freight, compared with the rates of to-day, show a great contrast.
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THE HISTORICAL JOURNAL.
nine days .* With the advantage of this reduction in expense and time, a considerable portion of the trade which now passes through other channels will be transferred to the Pennsylvania Canal. This change will probably be gradual. except so far as it relates to the turnpike roads through Pennsylvania.
From these the transportation will probably be transferred im- mediately to canals and railroads.
The annual expense of the stationary engines at the inclined planes will be nearly the same, whether the number of tons car- ried over the railroad be fifty or one hundred thousand. The same number of men will be required in both cases to take care of the engines and machinery, and to manage the cars. The quantity of fuel consumed will not be more than one-fourth greater to produce power for raising the larger quantity. With the smaller quantity the fire must be constantly kept up, in order to be ready at all times to put the engine in motion. Ropes suffer more from ex- posure to the weather than from wear. The latter would be nearly in proportion to the number of tons transported. But a rope cannot be considered safe to work upon the inclined planes more than one season, and it is believed that one will sustain the wear which takes place in the transit of one hundred thousand tons. When the trade increases to an amount equal to three or four hundred thousand tons per annum, then the expense for ropes, oil, and wear of machinery will be nearly in proportion to the number of tons transported.
The average expense of the engines, machinery, ropes, &c., at each inclined plane, for the ensuing season, will be as follows:
Coal, 60 bushels per day, 276 days-16,560 bushels, at 4 cents. S 662 40
Oil at 25 cents per day, 276 days. 69 00
Engine tender, at $1.50 per day, 365 days 547 50
Two men at 75 cents per day, 276 days. 414 00
One man at 75 cents per day, 365 days. 273 75
Wear, &c., equal to one new rope, mean length 1,600 00
Total
$ 3,566 65
Add for incidental expenses.
600 00
Total $ 4,166 65
Number of inclined planes
10
Total
$41,666 50
* At the present time it does not require much more than one day.
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THE HISTORICAL JOURNAL.
If thirty thousand tons of merchandise, &c., be assumed as the amount to be carried westward ; twenty thousand tons of produce, &c., as the amount to be carried eastward ; the proportion of the load to the car to be as 6 to 2 3-10: and the number of working days 240, leaving thirty-six days of the time assumed for the sea- son in which no labor will be done; then the number of pounds to be carried westward each day, including the weight of the cars, will be 345,833, equal 172} tons of 2,000 pounds nearly : and the number to be carried eastward will be, including the cars. 262,500, or 131} tons of 2,000 pounds.
If the power of a horse, when traveling at the rate of three miles per hour, for six and two-thirds hours per day, or less (this being his whole day's work), is assumed to be 112 pounds, then it will require, to convey the above amount of tonnage, at the rate of three miles per hour, over the levels between the inclined planes, and between thesc and the basins, 76 horses and 35 men. The horses are supposed to remain upon the levels where they are placed, and to make regular trips backwards and forwards, from one plane to the other, except on the level between planes No. 1 and 2, where their trips should be divided into distances of about 63 miles.
The cost of men and horses, which would constitute the moving power upon the levels, would be as follows :
Thirty-five men employed as drivers, &c., at 75 cents per day, 276
days $72,244 50 Seventy-six horses employed to draw cars, at 50 cents per day, 276 days 10,488 00
Cost of moving power upon levels $18,732 50 Expense of stationary engines. 41,666 50
Expense of moving power to convey 30,000 tons westward and 20,000 tons eastward, making 50,000 tons. $60,398 00
If the number of tons be doubled, or assumed to be 100,000. the expense of moving power will be :
Engine and machinery, about. .$42,000 00
For men, horses, &c., upon levels 37,465 00
Total. $79,465 00
As soon as a double track is completed, locomotive engines ought to be substituted for horses, as the motive power, on three of
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THE HISTORICAL JOURNAL.
the levels, viz., from Hollidaysburg to inclined plane No. 10, 3 74-100 miles: from inclined plane No. 2 to 1, 13 6-100 miles; from inclined plane No. 1 to the basin at Concmaugh, 4 13-100 miles, making in all 20 93-100 miles. The other levels are short and better adapted to the use of horses than locomotive engines.
Estimated cost of the Portage Railroad, grading and work done únder contracts :
For grading.
$472,162 59}
" Viaducts 79,755 81
" Bridge 2,327 44
" Culverts 34,319 392
Cost of grading and masonry
$588,565 24
Cost of stone blocks.
27,195 02}
Timber
46,872 06
Chairs and other castings, American 58,134 26
Rails and other English iron. 192,644 00
Laying railway, &c. 132,297 463
Contingencies and incidental work. 3,000 00
Estimated cost of railway superstructure.
$460,142 802
Walls, houses, sheds, &c., for engines. $ 61,016 41
Stationary engines and machinery 66,912 31
Ropes for inclined planes, including two extra ropes ... 20,314 81
Contingencies and incidental work. 3,500 00
Estimated cost of engines, machinery, and houses and sheds connected with them.
$151,743 53
Estimated cost of single track, including double track on planes and at turnouts, exclusive of office ex- · penses and pay of officers.
$1,200,451 572
Estimated cost of second track, including a second set of engines for all the planes. 325,577 85
Estimated cost when completed with a double track,
. with two engines and the requisite machinery at each inclined plane, exclusive of office expenses and officers' pay
$1,526,029 422
*
The construction of the steam engines and machinery for the in- clined planes is. superintended by Mr. Edward Miller, principal assistant engineer. Mr. Samuel Kennedy, sub-assistant engineer,
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THE HISTORICAL JOURNAL.
is the only officer of the engineer corps employed upon the Western Division of the canal.
I stated in my report of November 1, 1832, that if the rails were delivered in Philadelphia in time to reach Huntingdon be- fore the closing of the canal, a single track could be finished in July. Information had been received that nearly all the rails were manufactured, and that several cargoes had been shipped at Bristol, England, in September, for Philadelphia. Disasters at sea, and perhaps, in some cases, improper management on the part of the agents of the importers, delayed their arrival.
* *
* *
November 1, 1833.
SYLVESTER WELCH, Engineer.
PETER PENCE, THE BRAVE FRONTIER RANGER.
BY C. F. HILL, HAZLETON.
P ETER PENCE, * whose name has so often been read in con- nection with that of Moses Van Campen, was a German, or rather a Pennsylvania Dutchman, of the days of seventy-six. It is believed that his proper name was Peter Bentz, t which name at that time was frequently met in Lancaster County, and that he came from there to Shamokin, and that it was changed to Pence. by the well known aptitude of the Pennsylvania Dutchman to cross the sounds of the letters b and p when speaking English. that in this way his name was written Pence.
In one of the Wyoming histories, in relating his and Moses Van Campen's adventures during a captivity with the Indians. Pence is described as a young boy. This is a mistake, as Peter was not only a man, but a very numerous one, both on the North
* This interesting sketch of a brave ranger and frontiersman of over one hun- dred years ago was first published in the Wilkes-Barre Record of April 22d, and is reproduced here on account of its local value. If there are any persons living in Nippenose Valley who can give any information regarding this remarkable man, THE HISTORICAL JOURNAL would be glad to hear from them.
+ Samuel C. Dodson, a highly respected citizen of Huntingdon, Luzerne Coun- ty, who died recently at a very advanced age, says: "I knew the old man Pence ; his right name was Snyder. He was a basket maker. By selling his baskets for so many pence apiece he acquired the sobriquet of "Old Pence," which appears to have been accepted as a family name by at least Peter, of Indian killing fame.
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THE HISTORICAL JOURNAL. 89
and West Branches of the Susquehanna, as an Indian fighter and scout, or, as they were called in those days, a ranger. The first record we have of him is that in June, 1775, he enlisted in Captain John Lowden's company, First Riffe Regiment, commanded by Colonel William Thompson. This company camped at Sunbury. thence marched to Reading and Easton ; thence through the north- ern part of the State of New Jersey, and crossed the Hudson River at New Windsor, a few miles northwest of West Point; thence through Hartford to Cambridge, where it arrived about the 8th of August. Pence's company was now fairly to the front, and he had an opportunity of seeing the British troops whose batteries frowned down upon him from Bunker, Breed and Copp's hills, as also from their war ships in the harbor. The men of the regiment to which Pence belonged were thus described at the time in Thacher's Military Journal :
"Several companies of riffemen have arrived here from Pennsylvania and Maryland, a distance of from five hundred to seven hundred miles. They are remarkably stout and hardy men, many of them exceeding six feet in height. They are dressed in rifle shirts and round hats. These men are remarkable for accuracy of their aim, striking a mark with great certainty at two hundred yards' distance. At a review of a company of them, while on a quick advance. they fired their balls into objects of seven inch diameter, at a distance of 250 yards. They are now stationed on our lines, and their shot have frequently proved fatal to British officers and soldiers."
If this is a fair picture of the kind of a boy Pence was in 1775. then he should have been something more than a boy when, in the month of April. 1780, he, Van Campen and Pike, with the two boys, Jonah Rogers and the boy Van Campen, Moses' little nephew, rose on their captors, near Tioga Point, and slew a por- tion of them, routed the remainder and captured all their guns and blankets. After which they made their way down the North Branch of the Susquehanna River, part of the way on foot and part on a raft, reaching Wyoming on the 4th day of April, 1780.
Here Pike and the boy, Jonah Rogers, left the party, as they were now near their homes. On the evening of the 5th Pence, Van Campen and his little nephew again took the river in a canoe and traveled all night. as at that time the Indians were on the river below Wyoming in force. They reached Fort Jenkins (now Briar Creek. Columbia County,) on the morning of the 6th of
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THE HISTORICAL JOURNAL.
April, where they met Colonel Kelly, with one hundred men, who had come across from the West Branch. Here it was that Moses Van Campen first met his mother and her younger children, who had escaped the massacre in which his father, brother and uncle met their fate just a week before. She had supposed him a victim of the slaughter. The next day Pence and Van Campen left Fort Jenkins in their canoes, and reached Fort Augusta. at Sunbury. where they were received in a regular frontier triumph. On the 9th following, Lieutenant Colonel Ludwig Wettner writes from Northumberland to the board of war, stating that he encloses a deposition, or rather a copy of it, of one Peter Bens, who was taken prisoner by the Indians on the 29th of March. and happily made his escape with three more of his fellow sufferers. Every effort has been made to discover this deposition or a copy of it, but without success. The statement of Moses Van Campen as to this particular event must therefore forever stand alone.
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