USA > Pennsylvania > The Register of Pennsylvania : devoted to the preservation of facts and documents and every other kind of useful information respecting the state of Pennsylvania, Vol. III > Part 17
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The Female Hospitable Society has existed twenty years; the subscription is two dollars .per annum. It has 107 subscribers. The total receipts last year were 555 dollars.
The "Female Society of Philadelphia for the relief and employment of the poor," consists of 131 subscri- bers. There is no fixed annual contribution; the amount is optional with the members. The annual subscrip- tions of last year amounted to 282 dollars; the total re- ceipts were 1563 dollars. This society has high claims on the liberality of the benevolent; as it affords exten- sive aid to distressed objects, and is managed with great industry and uncommon attention.
The Philadelphia Society for alleviating the miseries of Public Prisons, consists of 73 members. The annual subscription is only one dollar. The annual subscriptions last year (deducting commissions) amounted to 67 dol- lars 96 cts. The total receipts of the year were $238 96 cts.
. The Indigent Widows' and single women's Society has about 260 a 280 subscribers. The annual subscrip- tion is three dollars. The total receipts of last year were 2730 dollars; of which 745 were for annual sub- scriptions; life subscriptions and admissions, 175 dollars; donations, 665 dollars; board of persons in the asylum, 270 dollars; legacies, 347 dollars; for work done, 147 dollars; dividends and ground rent, 381 dollars.
The Board of Managers of this Society in their Re- port, dated January 10, 1828, state, that
"The funds are altogether insufficient for the support of the large family dependent on them. The legacies which have been received, will be funded, according to the requirements of the constitution, which will make a small addition to the permanent fund. There has been some increase from annual subscriptions. The in- , come arising from this fluctuating source amounts to 745 dollars. The expenses of the establishment, with the present size of the family, will average 2000 dollars .- The income of the Society, so far as can be ascertained from such sources as can be depended upon, falls very short of this amount of necessary expenditure, and the de- ficiency can only be made up by such incidental contri- butions as a kind Providence may dispose the people to cast into the widow's treasury. Those whose lives have been crowned with every blessing, will not forget that they have been thus constituted the guardians of their destitute fellow creatures. They will recollect that the aged and bereaved are still among them; and considering with gratitude the difference of their con- dition, will, in the exercise of their high privileges, promote His purpose of goodness and mercy, who has assured them 'it is more blessed to give than to re- ceive.""'
The Association for the care of coloured orphans was instituted in the year 1822, and consists of thirty-five ladies, chiefly, if not wholly, of the Friends' Society .-- Their receipts last year were 709 dollars; of which 211 dollars were for annual subscriptions ; the remainder was from donations and interest.
The receipts of the Orphan. Society of Philadelphia, last year, were 3546 dollars; of which 549 dollars were for annual subscriptions. The remainder arose from
dividends on stock, donations, life subscriptions, and from work done by the orphans. There are 104 chil- dren of both sexes in the house.
The Abolition Society consists of 130 members. The subscription is two dollars a year. The amount received for annual subscriptions last year was 248 dollars, To- tal receipts 919 dollars.
The Clothing Association is composed of twenty-six ladies, who meet at each others' houses once a fortnight, to make up clothing principally for destitute children. The subscription is two dollars per annum.
The Roman Catholic Orphan Society of St. Joseph was instituted in 1808, and has educated and apprenti- ced about 100 children. There were originally 300 sub- scribers; of whom some few have commuted and become life subscribers. Only five subscribers paid last year! The total receipts of the year were 1298 dollars, arising chiefly from interest and property recovered. There are thirty children in the house at present.
HAMILTON,
CANAL DOCUMENTS.
We have received from Harrisburg the documents accompanying the Canal Commissioners' Report; the most interesting of which we will insert. The follow- ing is a "Report on the survey of canaland rail-way routes between the waters of Delaware and Susquehanna, by MONCURE ROBINSON, Engineer."
To the Canal Commissioners of the state of Pennsylva- nia.
GENTLEMEN,
I have the honour to submit to you the following as a part of my report, on the different surveys and examina- tions which have been made by me during the past sea- son, with a view to rail-roads, and to a water communica- tion between the North branch of the Susquehanna river and the Delaware. The late period at which my field duties were closed, prevents my furnishing at this. time accompanying draughts and estimates. These are in preparation, and will be transmitted to your ho- nourable board as soon as completed.
In consequence of the novelty of rail-roads in our country, misapprehensions appear to have existed as to the class of cases in which they are applicable. It may not be out of place, before proceeding to a description of field operations, to bestow some consideration on this subject.
It has been suggested that the cheapness of timber gave to us an advantage in the construction of rail-roads," which would so far diminish their first cost, as to recom- mend their construction in many situations, where in Europe they would be deemed unsuitable improve- ments; and it has been thought not only that a much smaller trade would justify a rail road in our country, than has heretofore been deemed requisite in England, but likewise that much bolder experiments might be made by us in overcoming ascents by graduation.
It is very readily admitted that the first cost of a plate rail road in Pennsylvania, on which a horse will exert nearly the same useful effect as on the best constructed rail roads of England, will require in general a much - smaller investment of capital, and notwithstanding the necessity of more frequent repairs, would be justificd by a trade proportionally smaller. It is believed, how- ever, that there is nothing in this circumstance which will authorize a very material* deviation from the princi-
* A very material deviation. Undoubtedly deviations impairing in some degree the value of an improvement are allowable where the cost of the improvement is di- minished, but these deviations, as will be seen, must be slight, or the objects of the improvement in a great de -. gree lost,
55
CANAL DOCUMENTS.
1829.]
ples adopted by the most distinguished British engineers in the plan and location of such works.
With them there is some difference of opinion as to the relative cost of transportation by locomotive engines and by horses, and the problem is complicated by the necessity of incurring an increased expense in the con- struction of rail-ways on which locomotive machinery is proposed. There is, however, and ought to be, but one opinion as respects graduation.
- This is, that if horse power is to be employed, that graduation should be adopted on a rail road as nearly as practicable, which is best suited to the anticipated trade; or in other words, which will render necessary the same number of horses to transport each way, with equal facility, the anticipated tonnage. If any facility beyond this point is afforded in one direction, it neces- sarily, and to the same extent, operates as a difficulty in the way of transportation in the opposite direction.
On the Stockton and Darlington rail-way, it has been found by experiments with the Dynamometer, that a de- scent of one-eighth of an inch per running yard, or of eighteen feet per mile, is that on which it requires the same muscular effort of a horse to descend at a given rate with loaded wagons, or to return with empty. The wagons in these experiments were reduced to their mini- mum weight, and constituted about twenty-five per centum of the whole load. This of course forms the extreme point of advisable graduation in a rail-road. As the inequality between the ascending and descending traffic of a rail road becomes diminished, the road-way should in the same ratio approach to a level.
It will be agreed that the extent to which rail roads could be introduced in most countries would be but small, were the ascent they could overcome, limited by the graduation which would accord with these positions; and the ground over which they could be located, would be in general that on which a canal would be preferable. Accordingly public attention had been but very little drawn to them in England until within a few years past. ''The application of locomotive machinery in the beautiful experiment of the Stocktonand Darling- ton rail-way, and the introduction of inclined planes and stationary power on other lines of rail-way, have enlarged the scope and capability of rail-ways to a degree which some years since could not have been predicted without incurring the reproach of an overshare of enthusiasm. (A)
(A) The expensiveness of horse power for raising trains of wagons on the inclined planes of rail-ways, may be appreciated by the reflection, that if one pound sus- pended over a sheave will keep in motion two hundred pounds when started, on a level rail road; a horse can with equal facility draw two hundred pounds, or raise one: or what is in other words the same proposition; that as great an expenditure of power is required to raise a given tonnage one mile, as to transport it two hundred miles.
Fixed steam engines, where a trade is sufficient to jus- tify powerful machinery, and to keep it constantly em- ployed, diminish in a very large proportion, the cost of overcoming ascents. Was the business of a rail road considerable enough, they would likewise present a far cheaper power than either locomotive engines or horses, for overcoming the resistance produced by friction. In but one instance, however, that of the Hetton Colliery rail-way, have they been recommended exclusively of other power, by considerations of economy. The enor- mous bu siness of this rail road, and the regularity to which ithas been found possible to reduce it, render them for every service on the line, the most economical, and on other considerations, the most advisable power.
A very different case is presented on a rail-way, on which the trade would be but limited and uncertain .- For the inclined planes of such a road, fixed engines would be smaller-of course their attendance more ex- pensive in proportion, than that of larger engines-and
It is to these aids, to the cheapness of stationary power, where a business of considerable extent can be com- - manded, and to the capability which locomotive engines possess within 'certain degrees of graduation, of being made to produce, at all times, their maximum of useful effect, either in power or in velocity, that the rail road system must look for the largest development of its ad- vantages and resources. That it never can be advan- tageous to overcome considerable ascents by graduated rail roads, on which horse power is proposed, the follow- ing considerations abundantly prove.
The force exerted by a horse transporting a weight on a common road in overcoming an ascent, is of two kinds; that necessary to overcome the friction of the road-way, and that expended in lifting his load. It is only in economising the first of these forces, that the rail-way is made a labour-saving machine. The last must always remain the same on an inclined plane of every kind, and continues a fixed quantity at the same angle of ascent on a country road, a McAdamized turn- pike, or the most perfectly constructed rail road.
Though therefore in the case of a level turnpike, its substitution by a rail-way has the effect of reducing the power requisite to produce a given effect to the tenth or twelfth part of what was previously required, yet the result arrived at is widely different, if an ascent be ad- mitted in the rail-way, which would be scarcely sensible in a turnpike, and at any rate be attended with no se- rious disadvantage. The important bearing of this sub- ject, and its susceptibility of being settled with pre- cision, will form an excuse for some further investigation.
Differences of opinion are entertained among profes- sional men as to the power of a horse. The standard fixed by Mr. Watt, in his estimates of steam power is certainly too high, and while some late writers have es- timated the power of a good horse travelling eight hours per day at the rate of 23 miles per hour, as equal to raising 125 pounds suspended oyer a pulley, others have reduced his power of traction to 112 pounds .- However this may be, the experiments of Messrs. Wood & 'Stephenson, with the Dynamometer, have ascertained with certainty the force requisite to overcome friction on well constructed rail roads. The conclusion at which they have arrived after a series of well conducted experiments, under favourable circumstances, but such as are attainable in practice, is-that one pound suspend- ed over a pulley will keep in motion 200 pounds on a level rail-way.
This fact is all that is necessary to determine the pre- cise diminution of useful effect in forces of any kind, exerted on inclined planes, compared with that pro- duced on levels. To ascertain the precise weight which can be kept in equilibrio on a plane, by a given weight suspended over a pulley, we have only to multiply this
they must be kept in readiness to raise trains of wagons, at an annual expense not a great deal less than would be required to keep them constantly at work. Under these circumstances the toll at lifts to indemnify the proprietors of the rail-way, must on a ton of property be nearly in an inverse ratio with the business of the road.
Locomotive engines in this case will generally consti- tute the most advisable power, provided the ascent and descent of the rail-way can be overcome by such a rise and fall per mile as will admit of the engine urging on its load by the mere adhesion of its wheels. A consider- able deduction, it is true, is to be made from their use- ful effect on account of the weight of the engine itself. But this is found to be more than counterbalanced by the expense of attendance, and of dormant power in fix- ed engines not steadily employed; and compared with horse power they not only present a great gain in point of economy, but the important advantage of exerting at all times their full force, on the steeper parts of the road in overcoming its greater inclination, on more gentle ascents, or on descents, in urging forward the load with increased velocity.
56
CANAL DOCUMENTS.
[JANUARY
weight into the length of the plane, and to divide by its height, or in other words, to multiply the weight by the distance in feet in which the plane rises one foot. If we then ascertain by a common proportion the additional weight which must be suspended in order to overcome the friction of this ascertained amount, we have at once the whole power required to produce a given effect.
For example, on a plane rising one foot in one hun- dred, or 52.8 feet per mile, 112 pounds, suspended over a pulley will keep in equilibrio 11,200 pounds, or five tons. To overcome the resistance produced by the friction of this quantity would require (supposing it the same on a level rail-way or an inclined plane, ) 1-200 part of the amount, or 56 pounds more. The whole weight necessary to be suspended would be 168 pounds, and the useful effect of one pound would be equal to overcome the resistance of 66. 2-3 pounds, that is to say one-third of that produced on a level rail-way.
The following table will present the useful effect of a pound weight suspended over a pulley in overcoming resistance on rail roads at different angles of inclination deduced from the foregoing reasoning: a glance at it will show the rapid diminution of useful effect at every increase of velocity.
Distance in feet in which a Rise pr. rail-way" mile. rises one foot.
Useful effect Useful effect of one pound suspended ovér a pulley
of a horse supposing his power 112 lbs. in pounds.
Useful effect of a horse in tons.
1000
5.28
166.67
18.667
8.33
900
5.87
163.64
18.327
8.18
800
6.60
160.00
17.920
8.00
700
7.54
155.56
17.422
7.78
600
8.80
150.00
16 800
7.50
500
10.56
142.864
16.000
7.14
400
13.20
133.33
14.933
6.67
300
17.60
120.00
13,440
6.00
200
26.40
100.00
11.200
5.00
100
52.80
66.67
7.467
3.33
60
88.00
46.15
5.169
2.31
The allowance for horse power given in the preceding table may possibly be supposed too small, whilst it will in general be deemed quite sufficient. It may however be a matter of some doubt whether on such rail roads as it will be for a long time advantageous to constructin Pennsylvania, (wooden rails plated with iron bars, ) as large a proportion of useful effect may be anticipated, as on the cast and wrought iron railways of England. The following formula presenting a more abstract view of the subject is therefore subjoined.
Supposing D the distance in which a railway rises 1 foot. .
H the power of a horse, or number of pounds ' he can raise, travelling 23 miles per hour.
T the number of pounds he can draw when travelling at the same speed.
DH2
Then H+DH2= the performance of -a horse.
T
A comparison of the results of this formula with those given in the last column of the preceding table .will serve to establish its correctness.
. It must be observed that the preceding reasoning does not apply to the case of an undulating railway, or. one of short as well as slight ascents and descents. . On such a railway the greater occasional efforts of the horse are compensated by his alternations of light labour, and the advantage of bringing into play new muscles, balances the injurious effects arising from his being. occasionally overloaded.
It may be worth while to add before leaving this sub- ject, that experience, in the only case in our country in which it has been attempted to overcome considerable ascents by graduations, is in perfect accordance with the foregoing views. The railway of the Lehigh com- pany at Mauch Chunk, overcomes a rise of 767 feet in eight and a quarter miles, averaging about one degree of acclivity per mile. I was informed by the intelligent gentleman to whom the affairs of the company are in- trusted, that the fair performance of three mules is to transport up the plane seven empty wagons, weighing about 1450 pounds each, or making an aggregate of -43 tons, each set of mules making 2} trips per day .- Two very strong horses he thought would be equal to the same task which would give 24 tons for the perfor- mance of each horse. This is less than the useful effect of an average horse given in case 10th of the preceding table. The difference may be ascribed to the unequal dis- tribution of the rise of the plane, & some other disadvan- tages. Constructed as the Mauch Chunk railway was for a trade altogether descending, motives of economy might have recommended this large declivity. In a rail- way, however, intended for a promiscuous commerce, enough has been said to show that such a location would promise and perform but little.
Under these views, it has been deemed important to conduct the examinations with a view to rail roads, in such a manner as to ascertain with certainty,
" 1st. The least possible elevation necessarily to be overcome between the points specified in instructions as points of termination.
2d. Where horse power alone could be employed. The least ascent per mile necessarily to be overcome by graduation between the Susquehanna and the dividing ground, that is to say, in the direction of greatest trans- portation.
The survey first to be attended to, was "that from some point on the Schuylkill canal to a point or points on the Susquehanna river, between Cattawissa and Sun- bury, with a view of connexion of these points by a rail road."
The difficulties in the way of this connexion arise from the depth and direction of the valleys of the Mahanoy and Little Mahanoy. Heading with the most easterly branch of the Schuylkill, the first of these streams pur- sues a general course of S 11º W, and in consequence crosses a tolerably direct line from the head of the Schuylkill navigation to a point within the range ad- mitted by the law, nearly at right angles. The Little Mahanoy has a shorter course, but the same direction, and at their junction these streams present a gulf 700 feet lower than the most depressed point of the Broad mountain. Formidable as is the obstacle thus presented in the way of a rail-road, it nevertheless appeared that this was the most favourable point for crossing the Ma- hanoy valley. A line crossing lower would of course have to pass over a point still more depressed, and one crossing higher must necessarily traverse two valleys in- stead of one, and an intervening ridge, unless traced around the sources of the lesser stream. It was discov- ered also on a survey and level of the Broad mountain, that its most depressed points were in the neighbourhood of the forks of. the stream, and the same fact was so evi- dent on a view of the Mahanoy mountain, or the ridge dividing the tributaries of the Mahanoy and those of Roaring creek and Shamokin, that it was deemed un- necessary to establish the precise difference with instru- ments.
. Lines accordingly were traced from dam No. I, of the Schuylkill navigation, across each of the most depressed points of the Broad mountain, to the forks of the Maha- noy. The first of these lines passes through the borough of Pottsville, ascends the valley of Norwegian creek to station No. 54, three miles and seventy-three and a half chains from our point of commencement, and there rises by an inclined plane 108 feet of perpendicular elevation to a depressed point in the ridge between Norwegian
-
.
57
CANAL DOCUMENTS.
1829.]
creek and the west branch of Schuylkill. From this point the line rises eight fcet per mile to the foot of the Broad mountain, which is ascended by a series of in- clined planes and graduated roadway to the summit. At this point we are elevated 950 feet above our point of commencement, and 750 feet above the forks of Maha- noy. From the summit to the forks the descent, is ef- fected down the valley of Rattling run, in the same manner as the ascent of the Broad mountain, by inclined planes and short intervening stages of graduated road- way.
The second line to the forks of Mahanoy diverges from the one above described at station No. 18, imme- diately beyond the borough of Pottsville. This line might perhaps have been most advantageously cominen- ged, near the furnace of Mr. Pott, but it was not deemed essential in a preliminary trace to fix with precision its point of commencement. Passing up the cast branch of Norwegian creek to station No. 8, thirty rods below the North American company's coal mine, it here rises by an inclined plane 110 feet to the level of a depressed point in the dividing ridge between this branch of Nor- wegian and mill creek. Afterwards passing up the val- ley of the last named stream, it attains the most depress- ed point of the Broad mountain, at an elevation of nine hundred feet above our base, near James Stephens', in a distance of six miles and thirty-five chains farther. The whole distance being overcome by four inclined planes, affording an aggregate lift of 605 feet, and something less than six miles of graduated rail-way, rising from ten to twenty feet per mile. From letter C, or our summit at this point, the line is traced along the northern slope of the Broad mountain to a bridge 15 feet high at the forks of the Mahanoy, descending by inclined planes 485 feet, and 200 feet more by a graduation of 30 feet per mile.
From dam No. 1 to the forks of the Mahanoy, the whole distance by the 1st, or westerly line, is 12 miles and 773 chains; by the 2d, or easterly line, the distance is 16 miles and 42 chains. The difference in distance 3 miles 44} chains, is counterbalanced by important ad- vantages in the easterly line. This last line can be more advantageously graded, and its summit is fifty feet more depressed than that of the first or westerly line, and more depressed than any other part of the Broad moun- tain between the Little Schuylkill river and the head of Mahantango creek. A more material recommendation of this line is the extensive accommodation it will afford. to an abundant coal district. The veins of coal which are broken by the Mill creek, and which would be ge- nerally accommodated by it, are represented as the most valuable in the neighbourhood of Mount Carbon, and the point at which this line crosses the Broad mountain, is believed to be the only one by which the valuable bo- dies of coal between the head of the Mahanoy and its tributary the Shenado, could be commanded.
From the forks of Mahanoy, the only feasible route to the Susquehanna, would be in a great degree by the valley of the Shamokin. Rising by three inclined planes, to the most depressed ground between the Mahanoy and the Shamokin, at an elevation of 460 feet above the forks of Mahanoy, the line was afterwards.carried along the valley of this stream, 17 miles and 74} chains to No. 628, falling in this distance by three inclined planes 290 feet, and 393 feet by a graduation varying according to locali- ties between 10 and 30 feet per mile. From this sta- tion (near the Shamokin meeting house) two lines were traced to the Susquehanna. The first, five miles and nine chains long, ascends the Shamokin ridge by two inclined planes to the proposed summit, near the school house, elevated 287 feet above No. 628, and thence descends by a continued inclined plane, to the river at John Boyd's mills. The second line 10 miles and 62 chains long, passes along the Shamokin valley on the north side of the stream to Sunbury, falling in the whole distance 112 feet or between ten and eleven feet per mile. It was 'deemed proper to carry the first line down VOL. III. 8
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