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THE BANKS OF VERMONT.

TABULAR VIEW OF THE CONDITION OF THE SEVERAL BANKS OF VERMONT, COMPILED FROM THE REPORT OF THE BANK COMMISSIONERS TO THE Legislature, OCTOBER, 1847.

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Battenkill Bank. $50,000

Bennington... Stark Bank...... $50,000 | Manchester...
Burlington.... Commerci'l Bank 100,000 Windsor...... Ascutney Bank.

50,000

THE COPPER COIN OF THE UNITED STATES.

It has been proposed in the Senate of the United States to take the copper coin out of circulation, and to substitute 24 cent pieces of an alloy of silver and copper. A writer in the Washington News, asks, "if it would not be better to substitute 2 or 3 cent pieces, than pieces of the value of 2 cents?" In our judgment it would, and for the reasons assigned by the correspondent of the News, which we think entirely conclusive :

Suppose the 64 cent pieces out of circulation, (which will soon be the case,) the poor could not pay with 2 cent pieces less than 24 cents for anything; but with 2 or 3 cent pieces they could purchase anything, either the value of one cent or upwards, with nearly the same facility that they do now. For instance, suppose 3 cent pieces to be substituted, and it is desired to purchase the value of 1 cent-give the seller two 3 cent pieces and receive back a 5 cent piece as what is called the change, or, if he has not a 5 cent piece, give him a dime, and receive the three 3 cent pieces as your change.

Upon examination, will be found that 2,4, or 7 cents may be paid with equal facility. Or, if 2 cent pieces were substituted, the same facility would exist. Indeed, it does not often happen even now that we have the exact change to pay for an article-we almost always give a larger sum and receive back a smaller one. If, then, it is found not inconvenient under the present system to give and receive change, it would not be inconvenient in the new system, even if the giving and receiving should become more general than at present-which is not at all probable, because many persons do not now avail themselves of the facility which coppers afford, in consequence of their troublesome weight and the offensive nature of the metal.

In order to establish the decimal system here in its perfection, Congress should pass a law reducing the value of Spanish 64 and 12 cent pieces to value corresponding with the American dimes and half-dimes.

Redeem their circulation, at par, at the Suffolk Bank, Boston, and are exempt from the payment of taxes to the State.

JOURNAL OF MINING AND MANUFACTURES.

DOINGS OF THE UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE IN 1847.

THE HON. EDMUND BURKE'S THIRD ANNUAL REport.

WE have received a copy of the "Annual Report of the Commissioner of Patents for the year 1847;” and we have no hesitation, after a careful examination, in pronouncing it one of the most able and valuable documents that have ever emanated from the Patent Office at Washington. No department of the public service of the United States is more ably represented than that of the Patent Office, in the person of the Hon. EDMUND BURKE, a gentleman of the most untiring industry.

From this report, we learn that the whole number of applications for patents during the year ending December 31st, 1847, is 1,531; the number of caveats filed during that period, 533; the number of patents issued in 1847, 572, including fourteen re-issues, three additional improvements, and sixty designs. Within the same period, 580 patents have expired. The number of applications for patents examined and rejected during the year was 557, nearly as many as were granted. The total receipts of the office from all sources amounted to $63,111 19, of which sum $8,008 43 have been paid on applications withdrawn, &c. The expenses of the office, for salaries and other purposes connected with its management, amounted to $41,878 35; leaving a balance to be carried to the credit of the Patent Fund, of $21,232 84. The amount of money in the Treasury on the first day of January, 1847, to the credit of the Patent Fund, was $186,565 14; which, with the balance paid during the year 1847, increased the amount of that fund on the first of January, 1848, to $207,797 98. The surplus carried to the credit of the Patent Fund in 1847 is much greater than that of any former year. In the year 1844, the year preceding Mr. Burke's appointment to the office of Commissioner, the number of applications for patents was 1,045, and the caveats filed 380. In 1845, the number was 1,246, and caveats 452. In 1846, the number was 1,272, caveats 448. The business of the office has increased 100 per cent since the last addition was made to the examining corps in 1839; and since Mr. Burke's appointment to the office in 1845, the business has increased in the ratio of 33 per cent. During the five years commencing with 1840, and ending with 1844, embracing the five last years preceding Mr. Burke's appointment, the amount paid into the Treasury to the credit of the Patent Fund was $25,200. During the three years since that gentleman's appointment, the amount paid in is $37,018, showing an increase of surplus over expenditures in a much greater ratio than 33 per cent. The increase of business in this office renders the call made by Mr. Burke not only reasonable, but absolutely necessary; and we earnestly hope that Congress will not withhold the required appropriations to one of our most important objects, connected as it is with the industrial interests of the whole American people. The accompanying documents, and the appendix to this report, contain a vast amount of useful information; and it is our intention to communicate hereafter to the readers of the Merchants' Magazine, in a condensed form, the prominent facts and statements thus brought to light, in this model of official documents.

MINERAL PRODUCE OF AUSTRIA.

The latest published government accounts give the following as the mineral produce of Austria-Gold, 35 cwts.; silver, 547 cwts.; mercury, 166 tons; iron, 148,379 tons; copper, 2,753 tons; lead, 6,666 tons; litharge, 1,299 tons; zinc, 227 tons; calamine, 908 tons; tin, 49 tons; antimony, 231 tons; cobalt, 132 tons; manganese, tons; arsenic, 50 tons; plumbago, 1,327 tons; also alum, 1,494 tons; sulphate of iron, 5,354 tons; sulphate of copper, 288 tons; sulphur, 1,259 tons; coal, 524 tons.

RARITAN MINING AND MANUFACTURING COMPANY.

We published in the Merchants' Magazine for May, 1848, a summary account of the operations of this company, based on the first annual report submitted by J. S. GWYNNE, Esq., the intelligent Secretary of the company. Our object at this time, is, to lay before our readers a letter which that gentleman has addressed to us correcting a slight error in our statement, besides annexing information of great value to the mining interests in this country. As the letter of Mr. Gwynne was evidently not designed for publication, we have taken the liberty of omitting a few passages of a personal character, and of no interest to the general reader. It may here be remarked, that Mr. Gwynne has devoted much time to the subject of mining, having been engaged in visiting and examining all mines of any note for the last thirteen years.

NEW YORK, May 27th, 1848.

TO FREEMAN HUNT, Esq., Editor of the Merchants' Magazine. DEAR SIR:-In your notice of our mining operations at the Raritan Mine, published in your May No., you have made some slight mistakes, which I would beg you to correct. First. The mine was never leased by Messrs. Blake and Blewett. They only examined as mining engineers for the present company, who purchased it from Messrs. Lamb and Cammann in July of 1847 for $75,000 cash, and have expended since, in the erection of buildings, three steam engines, pumps, &c., from $15,000 to $16,000 They have now nearly ready to be put up an immense pumping engine of about 300 horse power, being three times the size of any engine ever put up at any mine in this country. Our engines have been at work unceasingly since July 1, 1847, and we have got to the depth of 119 feet through the solid rock, and have a fine vein of solid mineral 2 feet thick, on which we have driven about 120 feet, and will soon cut it again 60 feet deeper than our present levels. This will give us a stope of 60 feet to take down.

Our mode of work is such as is pursued wholly in Cornwall, namely, to take the ore from overhead instead of underfoot, as many mines in this country have done; a circumtance which accounts for our apparent slowness of making returns.

I take the liberty of enclosing a copy of returns of a sample of ore sent to the Baltimore and Cuba Smelting Company. From it you will perceive our average is equal to that of the Burra Burra Mines of Australia, which paid a profit of $375,000 in the first eighteen months' work. It will afford me great pleasure to have you go down any leisure day with me to the mine and judge for yourself. Very truly yours,

JAMES S. GWYNNE, Secretary Raritan Min. and Man. Co.

We here annex the letter of Mr. Keener, the agent of the Baltimore and Cuba Smelting and Mining Company, showing the returns of a sample of ore forwarded to that company:

OFFICE OF THE BALTIMORE AND CUBA SMELTING AND MINING CO.,
Baltimore, March 29, 1848.

J. S. GWYNNE, Esq., Secretary Raritan Min. and Man. Co.

DEAR SIR-Annexed you have sales of three parcels of copper ore, namely, 23 barrels per Lydia, 10 barrels per Hiram Gerard, and 12 barrels per Sarah Ann Roe. Eight barrels of the first lot contained a rich and beautiful purple and grey sulphuret of copper, slightly mixed with green and blue carbonates. The yield was 46 per cent. It is a highly valuable ore, and was received in good order for furnace use. We should be happy to purchase large supplies of such ore.

The 7 barrels marked No. 2 contained also a desirable ore, and gave 214 per cent of copper. It is a washed ore, and consists of some fine or broken sulphurets, mixed with green and blue carbonates, in an earthy gangne. The No. 3 was also a washed ore, and consisted mostly of carbonates of copper diffused in a clayey and silicious gangne. The washed ores should have been dried previously to their being shipped, as they came in almost a fluid state, which rendered it necessary for us to have them dried before they could be used. It would also be a saving of freight to the shipper. Hoping the above may prove satisfactory, and lead to larger transactions, I remain very truly yours, DAVID KEENER, Agent.

DAHLONEGA, OR GEORGIA GOLD REGION.

The following letter to the National Intelligencer furnishes some interesting particulars of Dahlonega, its history, with a few anecdotes of the gold-diggers, and of the Branch Mint at that place. It is dated Dahlonega, (Geo.) April 30th, 1848.

The Cherokee word Dah-lon-e-ga signifies the place of yellow metal, and is now applied to a small hamlet at the foot of the Alleghany Mountains, in Lumpkin county, Georgia, which is reputed to be the wealthiest gold region in the United States. It is recorded of De Soto and his followers that, in the sixteenth century, they explored this entire southern country in search of gold, and unquestionable evidences of their work have been discovered in various sections of the State. Among these testimonials may be mentioned the remains of an old furnace and other works for mining, which have been brought to light by recent explorations. But the attention of our own people was first directed to this region while yet the Cherokees were in possession of the land, though the digging of gold was not made a regular business, until after they had been politely banished by the general government. Soon as the State of Georgia had become the rightful possessor of the soil, (according to law) much contention and excitement arose among the people as to who should have the best opportunities for making fortunes; and, to settle all difficulties, it was decided by the State Legislature that the country should be surveyed and divided into lots of forty and one hundred and sixty acres, and distributed to the people by lottery. For several years subsequent to that period, deeds of wrong and outrage were practised to a great extent by profligate adventurers who flocked to this El Dorado. In the year 1838, however, the Government established a branch mint at this place, since which time a much better state of things has existed at Dahlonega.

The appearance of this village, though not more than a dozen years old, is somewhat antiquated, owing to the fact that the houses are chiefly built of logs, and, having never been painted, are particularly dark and dingy, but uncommonly picturesque in form and location. The population of the place about five hundred. It is located upon a hill, and though the country around is quite uneven, having been deeply ravined by atmospheric agents, when viewed in connexion with the mountains, (soine ten or fifteen miles off,) which seem to hem it on three sides, presents the appearance of a pit to a magnificent amphitheatre. On approaching Dahlonega I noticed that the water-courses had all been mutilated with the spade and pickaxe, and that their waters were of a deep yellow; and having explored the country since then, I find that such is the condition of all streams within a circuit of many miles. Large brooks (and even an occasional river) have been turned into a new channel, and thereby deprived of their original beauty. And of all the hills in the vicinity of Dahlonega which I have visited, I have not yet seen one which is not actually riddled with shafts and tunnels. The soil is of a primitive character, quite yellowish in color, composed of sand and clay, and uncommonly easy to excavate with the spade. Heretofore the gold ore of Lumpkin county has been obtained from what is called the deposite beds, but the miners are now beginning to direct their attention to the veined ore, which is supposed to be very abundant in all directions. It is generally found in quartz and a species of slate stone. The gold region of Georgia, strictly speaking, is confined to a broad belt, which runs in a north-eastern and south-western direction from Dahlonega, which may be considered its centre. Several auriferous veins traverse the town, and it is common after a rain to see the inhabitants busily engaged in hunting for gold in the streets. That huge quantities are thus accumulated in these days I am not ready to believe, whatever may have been done in former years. I know not that any very remarkable specimens of gold ore have been found in the immediate vicinity of Dahlonega, but an idea of the wealth of the State in this particular may be gathered from the fact, that several lumps have heretofore been found in different sections which were worth from five hundred to one thousand dollars. More valuable specimens have been found in North Carolina; but while Virginia, the Carolinas, and Alabama have all produced a goodly amount of gold, I have heard it conceded that Georgia has produced the largest quantity and decidedly the best quality.

And now with regard to the fortunes that have been made in this region. They are very few and far between. But, by way of illustration, I will give two or three incidents which have come to my knowledge. In passing, however, I may repeat the remark made to me by an intelligent gentleman, that the expenses of digging out the gold in this section of country had ever exceeded the gain by about one hundred per cent. Immense amounts of labor, as well as money, have been expended, and, generally speaking, the condition of the people has not been improved; the very wealth of the country has caused the ruin of many individuals.

The following story is a matter of popular history. After the State Legislature had divided the Cherokee Purchase into lots and regularly numbered them, it was rumored about the country that lot No. 1052 was a great prize, and every-body was on tip-toe with regard to its distribution by the proposed lottery. At that time 1052 figured in the dreams of every Georgian, and those figures were then far more popular than the figures 54 40 have been in these latter days. Among the more crazy individuals who attended the lottery was one Mosely, who had determined to draw the much talked of prize or purchase it of the winner, even though it should be at the cost of his entire property, which was quite large. The drawing took place, and 1052 came into the possession of a poor farmer named Ellison. Mosely immediately mounted his horse and hastened to Ellison's farm, where he found the child of fortune following the plough. The would-be purchaser made known the object of his visit, and Ellison only laughed at the impetuosity of his impatient friend. Ellison said he was not anxious to sell the lot, but if Mosely must have it, he might have it for $30,000. Mosely acceded to the terms, and in paying for the lot sacrificed the most of his landed and personal property. The little property which was left him he was compelled to employ in working his mines; he labored with great diligence for several years, but he could never make both ends meet, for his mines were not at all distinguished for their richness. In process of time he was compelled to sell 1052 for what it would bring, and having squandered that remnant of his former wealth, he left the country for parts unknown, a veritable beggar. But, what is more singular than all, the present proprietor of 1052 is that identical man Ellison, who is annually realizing a handsome sum of money from the newly-discovered gold ore found in the bowels of his lottery lot.

Another instance of good fortune, unattended with any alloy, is as follows. Five years ago two brothers, who were at work upon the Georgia railroad, took it into their heads to visit Dahlonega and try their luck in the mining business. They were hard-working Irishmen, and understood the science of digging to perfection. They leased one or two lots in the vicinity, and are now reputed to be worth $15,000.

The deposite gold is extracted from the gravel by means of a simple machine called a rocker, which merely shifts and washes out the metal. The vein gold is brought to light by means of what is called a pounding mill, which reduces the rock to the consistency of sand, when the ore is separated by the use of quicksilver.

The mint establishment is quite large, and has a commanding appearance. It was erected in 1837, at an expense of $70,000, and the machinery cost $30,000. It gives employment to nine men, who receive for their services, collectively, $12,000. The Superintendent is J. F. Cooper, (son of the famous actor,) the Coiner is D. H. Mason, who has a very interesting cabinet of materials, and the Assayer is J. L. Todd. The Dahlonega Branch Mint and the one located at Charlotteville, N. C., are the only ones which coin the gold on the very spot where it is found. The New Orleans Branch, as well as the mother mint in Philadelphia, are chiefly occupied with foreign ores. Of the two first mentioned, Dahlonega thus far has been the most successful, the coinage in one year having amounted to $600,000. At the present time, however, the business of this mint is said to be on the wane. The coinage of the branch mints is uniform with that of the mother mint, and it is all systematically tested there. It thus appears that the whole establishment is a branch of the Treasury Department.

The smallest amount of ore received at the Dahlonega mint has to be worth $100. When the miner has obtained a sufficient amount, he takes it to the mint and receives the allotted sum. The operation of coining is performed by the power of steam, and may be briefly described by the words rolling, drawing, cutting, and stamping. Some of the Dahlonega gold is said to be as pure as any in the world, but it is commonly alloyed with silver; and yet silver ore is no where found in this section. The value of pure gold is one dollar per pennyweight; and every genuine American eagle is made to contain one-twentieth of silver and one-twentieth of copper.

ECKEL'S STEAM GAUGE.

The April number of the Journal of the Franklin Institute describes this invention, a model of which was exhibited and explained by Mr. G. W. Smith. It consists of a small brass cylinder or tube placed outside of the boilers, and connected by tubes furnished with stop-cocks, with the steam space in the boiler above, and with the water space below. These cocks being open, the water level in the gauge will be the same as in the boiler. When the water level is to be tried, the lower cock is stopped, by which the connexion with the water of the boiler is cut off, and the water is then discharged by the pressure of the steam, from the gauge through another stop-cock into a graduated vessel, and the height at which it stood in the tube thus determined.

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