classes the workers in metal, and those in to fit some other part; and if this accuracy is wood; the former being employed in making not gained, the engine will either not work at locomotives' wheels, axles, springs, &c., and the latter in constructing the carriages. By far the greatest number of hands are employed in the former. all, or work very imperfectly. It must be remembered that it is hard metal, like iron and brass, that has thus to be wrought on, not comparatively soft material, like wood and stone. But That our hasty inspection may begin at the beginning, let us peep at the foundry. Both But the machinery employed at Crewe seems brass and iron are cast here, but to-day it is capable of cutting any thing, even though it iron. The sandy floor is covered with moulds were a rock of adamant. You pass into a shed of all descriptions, and swarthy workmen are full of little machines, standing separate from preparing them to receive the melted iron. each other, with all manner of curious wheels Occasionally you are startled by the shout of and belts, driven by steam, of course, and each "Mind your eye!" which must be taken in with a man stationed by its side, gazing attenits literal signification, for it comes from a tively at the little machine, as if he were moulder blowing away with a bellows the absorbed in thought; and, indeed, were it not superfluous grains of fine sand, which, if once for an occasional quick movement of his hands, in the eye, will give some trouble. The and a rapid change of position, you might almost moulds are ready, the furnace is opened, and a suppose that he was sleeping on his legs. stream of bright white metal rolls out into the go close up, and you notice that the machine is pots prepared for its reception, and is speedily slowly moving backward and forward, and still poured into the moulds. In an adjoining shed more slowly at the same time in a lateral direcare blacksmiths plying forehammers; but their tion. Some curious piece of mechanism is placed greatest efforts are entirely eclipsed by the on it, and the movements of the machine cause mighty steam-hammer that is seen at work in a sharp steel-cutter to pass over the iron surface, another part of the shed. This hammer is the which cuts it as easily and truly as a joiner invention of Mr. Nasmyth, of the Bridgewater planes a piece of fir. The side motion brings Foundry, near Manchester. It moves up and all the surface gradually under the instrument, down in a strong frame, at a speed subject to but the machine, clever and powerful though it such nice regulations, that, according to the willis, requires to be constantly watched and reguof its director, it can gently drive a nail, or crush lated, and hence the fixed attention of the man to splinters a log of wood. When Lord John in charge. At a large machine, you will see Russell lately visited Manchester, the delicate those long, curious rods called "eccentrics" touch of this hammer was strikingly displayed undergoing this operation; at another, a cylinder before him an egg was procured, and placed is being planed; and at a third, the rims of in a wine-glass, and such was the power wheels are being cut. The filings thus made possessed over this giant, that after a little are preserved, and will be seen in large heaps adjustment, the mighty hammer was brought in a yard, ready to be melted down, and “used repeatedly down so as just to chip the egg as up" again. In some cases both iron and brass gently as by a spoon in the hands of a child, filings are produced, which, of course, are mixed while the glass was not in the slightest degree with each other; but in a quiet corner of one injured or disturbed. The labor saved by this of the sheds you will find a boy with a heap hammer is immense. One man sits perched up of these filings before him, separating the brass in the frame to direct it, and another stands from the iron by means of a magnet. Only below to guide the iron on the anvil. The great imagine a boy of fourteen or fifteen doing nothing long bar, white with heat, is pulled out of the all day long except raking a magnet through a furnace, laid on the massive piece of iron under heap of black and yellow dust, and brushing the frame, and, with a dull, heavy sound, down into a separate heap the iron filings off his comes the hammer, swiftly or slowly, according magnet! You will also see a series of three to the wishes of the director. From the forge iron rollers working on each other, by means and the foundry the "rough-hewn" iron-work of which plate iron can be twisted into any passes to be planed, and its surface to be made given form; a mighty "punch" which will "true." The wheel of an engine or a carriage, make a hole an inch in diameter through iron for example, after being forged by the black- an inch in thickness as easily as though it were smith, requires to be most carefully cut round clay; and a sharp-cutting instrument that shears the rim, so that the space between the flange-through sheets of iron as easily as a pair of that is, the projecting inner part of the wheel, scissors through a sheet of paper. and the outer part-may be perfectly conical, Go into another shed, and you will see all in order that the least amount of surface may these various parts getting their last touches be exposed to the rail, and consequently the from the hand, and being fitted into each other; least amount of friction produced. Again, when and here also you find two or three men engrava cylinder comes from the foundry, the interior ing, on circular segments of brass, the names must be cut and polished to a perfect circle, the various engines are to be known by. In otherwise it would be useless. In short, there is no part of a locomotive that does not require to be prepared with the most perfect accuracy another shed the engines are being "erected." Here you see from twenty to thirty in all stages of progress. Perhaps the framework only has been laid; or the boiler, with its many rows of long, circular brass tubes, has just been fastened, and is now receiving its outer clothing of long slips of wood; or is complete, merely [From Chambers's Edinburgh Journal. STEAM-BRIDGE OF THE ATLANTIC. N the summer of 1838 the Atlantic Ocean wanting to be tried on the many lines of rail in I was crossed for the first time by vessels ex and around the sheds. There are two classes of engines here, whose difference is observable at a glance: some have six wheels, two of which are very large, about six feet in diameter, and the other four much smaller. The two first only are driven by the machinery, the others being merely what are called "bearing wheels." With this description of engine more speed than power is obtained, and hence it is used for passenger trains, where a high velocity is required, and where there is usually little weight, comparatively speaking, to draw. The others have only four wheels, not so large as the two just described, but all driven by the machinery. Such engines are more remarkable for power than speed, and accordingly they are used for luggage trains. In another shed, “The Hospital,” will be found a number of engines laboring under various disorders, sent here to be repaired. But carriages and wagons are also built here. You enter a shed (of two stories this time), and find wood shavings instead of iron filings, and the hissing of a circular saw instead of the quiet, steady scraping of a "cutter." Here all the woodwork of the carriages is executed, and when ready they are hoisted through a large trap-door in the roof to the second story, where they are painted and varnished, and, if first-class, "upholstered." In a store-room above stairs, are piled heaps of cushions ready for the most expensive carriages; at a table is a boy stuffing with horse-hair the leathern belts that hang by the sides of the windows; and elsewhere an artist is painting the arms of the company on the panels of a door. Here and there are boards placed before a carriage, with the intimation "Wet!" indicating that you must not go too near; and some of the carriages give evidence of having seen service, but are now renewing their youth under the skillful hands of the painter and the upholsterer. When ready to "go on the line," they are let down through the trap-door, fixed on their wheels and axles, and sent to relieve others that require repair. Six o'clock strikes, and work ceases. In walking back leisurely to the station, I saw many of the workmen digging in their little gardens, "bringing themselves," as Emerson phrases it, "into primitive relations with the soil and nature;" others were reading the papers of the day at the Mechanics' Institution; others strolling among the green fields round the town; and others walking to a class-room, to hear a teetotal lecture; while some were proceeding to recreations of a very different kind. I was admitted through the iron gate by the same policeman; the "down" express train arrived, and it conveyed me in an hour and a half to Liverpool, a distance of about forty-five miles, stopping only once at the well-known town of Warrington. clusively propelled by steam-power. These pioneers were the Sirius and the Great Western the former built for another class of voyages, and afterward lost on the station between Cork and London; the latter built expressly for Atlantic navigation, and which has ever since been | more or less employed in traversing that ocean. Other ships followed: the British Queen, afterward sold to the Belgian government; the Great Liverpool, subsequently altered and placed on the line between Southampton and Alexandria; and the President, lost, no man knows how or where, in the year 1841. Then came what is called "Cunard's Line," consisting of a number of majestic steam-ships built in the Clyde, to carry passengers and mails between Liverpool in Europe, and Halifax, Boston, and New York in America; a service they have performed with the most marvelous regularity. The only great misfortune that has befallen this line has been the loss of one of the vessels, the Columbia, which, in nautical phrase, "broke her back" on some rocks on the American shore of the Atlantic. Then came the Great Britain, the greatest of them all, differing from the others in two respects-first, in being built of iron instead of wood; and second, in being propelled by the Archimedean screw instead of by the old paddle-wheels; and, alas! she has differed from them all in a third respect, inasmuch as neither the same good-luck attended her as in general fell to the lot of the ships of the Cunard Line, nor the same irretrievable bad fortune as was met by the President and the Columbia; for, after having made several voyages very successfully, she, to the amazement of all mankind, very quietly went ashore in Dundrum Bay, on the east coast of Ireland, from whence, after spending a most uncomfortable winter, she was brought back to Liverpool, and now lies in the Bramley-Moore Dock there, like a huge mass of iron suffering under premature rust. But all this time these ocean steamers that periodically brought to New York passengers and intelligence from Europe were British built. They had been constructed in the Avon, the Mersey, and the Clyde, the greater number having been launched in the same waters as first received Henry Bell's little Comet. Why did America not embark in such enterprise? As regards steam navigation, Fulton was before Bell; New York before Glasgow; the Fulton's Folly before the Comet; and was "The greatest nation to be outdone in the field of enterprise by the old Britishers? American pride said " No;" American instinct said "No;" and, above all, American capitalists said "No!" Keels were laid down in New York; the shipbuilders' yards became unusually active; and the stately tim. bers of majestic ships gradually rose before the admiring gaze of the citizens of the great republic. The Atlantic remained for nineteen days at Liverpool; and during all that time she had to lie in a part of the river called the Sloyne, in consequence of none of the dock-entrances being wide enough to allow her to pass in. Her breadth, measuring across the paddle-boxes, is 75 feet; of the vessels of Cunard's Line, about 70 feet; and the widest dock-entrance is barely sufficient to admit the latter. The Great Britain, though longer than any other steam-ship that ever entered the Mersey, is not so broad, as, being propelled by the screw, she has no paddlewheels. A dock at the north shore is now in course of construction expressly for the accommodation of the Atlantic and her consorts. But the race of William the Doubter is not yet extinct, and many, as usual, shook their wise heads at the enterprise. It was admitted that in inland navigation the Americans had beaten the world; that except an occasional blow-up, their river steamers were really models of enterprise and skill; but it was gravely added, the Mississippi is not the Atlantic; icebergs are not snags; and an Atlantic wave is somewhat different from an Ohio ripple. These truisms were of course undeniable; but to them was quickly added another fact, about which there could be as little mistake-namely, the For several days during her stay at Liverpool arrival at Southampton, after a voyage which, the Atlantic was open to visitors on payment of considering it was the first, was quite successful, sixpence each, the money thus realized (upward of the American-built steam-ship Washington of £70) being paid over to the trustees of the from New York. There seemed to be a touch Institution for the Blind, whose church and of calm irony in thus making the Washington school are now being removed to give greater the first of their Atlantic-crossing steamers, as space round the station of the London and if the Americans had said, "You doubting Britishers! when you wished to play tyrant over us, did we not raise one Washington who chastised you? and now that you want to monopolize Atlantic navigation, we have raised another Washington, just to let you know that we will beat you again!" The Washington, however, was only the precursor of greater vessels. These were to sail between New York and Liverpool, carrying the mails under a contract with the American government. In size, and speed, and splendor of fittings, these new ships were to surpass the old; even their names were, if possible, to be more grand and expressive. The vessels of Cunard's Line had lately appropriated the names of the four great continents of the globe, but the oceans remained, and their names were adopted; the new steamers being called the Atlantic, Pacific, Arctic, Baltic, and Adriatic. The first of these was dispatched from New York on the 27th of April last, and arrived in the Mersey on the 10th of May, thus making the passage in about thirteen days. The voyage would have been made in a shorter time but for two accidents the bursting of the condenser; and the discovery, after the vessel was some distance at sea, of the weakness of the floats or boards on the paddle-wheels. About two days were entirely lost in making repairs; and the speed was reduced, in order to prevent the floats from being entirely torn away from the paddle-wheels. These things considered, the passage was very successful. The average time occupied during 1849 by the vessels of the old line between New York and Liverpool was 12 days; but their voyages were longer than those of the Atlantic, as they called at Halifax. The shortest passage was that made by the Canada from New York to Liverpool via Halifax in eleven days four hours.* Northwestern Railway. On the day of my visit crowds of people were waiting at the pier for the steamer that was to convey them to the Atlantic. Whitsuntide visitors from the manufacturing districts were hastening on board the numerous vessels waiting to take them on pleasure excursions to the Isle of Man, North Wales, or round the light-ship at the mouth of the river. There was great risk of making mistakes in the hurry; and the remark of an old sailor, that the vessel could "easily be known by the Yankee flag flying at the fore," served only still further to confuse the many, who could not tell one flag from another. However, a small tug-steamer soon appeared with a dirty piece of bunting, just recognizable as the famous "star-spangled banner," flying at the fore; and her deck was in a few minutes so crowded, that orders were issued to take no more on board, and away we steamed, leaving about a hundred people to exercise their patience until the steamer's return. A man at my elbow, who afterward appeared in the capacity of moneytaker, whispered, "There's the captin!" and on looking up the gangway, I saw "A man of middle age, In aspect manly, grave, and sage," looking calmly in the direction of the colossal ship of which he was the commander; his complexion browned by exposure to sun and wind, storm and spray; and his whole demeanor indicating the calm strength acquired by long familiarity with the elements in their roughest moods. As we approached the ship, her appearance was not prepossessing. She is undoubtedly clumsy; the three masts are low, the funnel is short and dumpy, there is no bowsprit, and her sides are painted black, relieved only by one long streak of dark red. Her length between the perpendiculars—that is, the length of her keel-is 276 feet; breadth (exclusive of paddle * The Atlantic has just made the passage direct in ten boxes), 45; thus keeping up the proportion, as days and sixteen hours. old as Noah's ark, of six feet of length to one of breadth. The stern is rounded, having in the centre the American eagle, clasping the starred and striped shield, but no other device. figure-head is of colossal dimensions, intended, The say some, for Neptune; others say that it is the "old Triton blowing his wreathed horn," so lovingly described by Wordsworth; and some wags assert that it is the proprietor of the ship blowing his own trumpet. The huge bulk of the Atlantic was more perceptible by contrast with the steamer-none of the smallest-that was now alongside; for though the latter was large enough to accommodate about four hundred people on deck, yet its funnel scarcely reached as high as the bulwarks of the Atlantic. The diameter of the paddle-wheels is 36 feet; and the floats, many of which, split and broken, were lying about in the water, are nearly 15 feet long. The depth of the hold is 31 feet, and the estimated burden 2860 tons, being about the same as the Great Britain, and about 500 tons more than the ships of the old Cunard Line. stern. 413 fully-burnished plate; crockery of every description, well secured, is seen in great quantities; gilded inscription, full in the sight of every visand the neatness of arrangement shows that the itor-" A place for every thing, and every thing in its place"-has been reduced to practice. Above the tables in the dining-saloon are suspended racks, cut to receive decanters, glasses, &c. so that they can be immediately placed on the table without the risk attendant on carrying them from place to place. The two saloons are fitted up in a very superior manner: rose, satin, and olive are the principal woods that have been used, and some of the tables are of beautifullyvariegated marble, with metal supporters. The carpets are very rich, and the coverings of the sofas, chairs, &c. are of the same superior quality. The panels round the saloons contain beautifully-finished emblems of each of the states in the Union, and a few other devices that savor very strongly of republicanism. For example, Like all the other Atlantic steamers, the run health and energy, wearing a cap of liberty, a young and beautiful figure, all radiant with of the deck is almost a straight line. Around and waving a drawn sword, is represented the funnel, and between the paddle-boxes, is a trampling on a feudal prince, from whose head long wooden house, and another is placed at the a crown has rolled in the dust. The cabin winThese contain the state-rooms of the dows are of beautifully-painted glass, embellishcaptain and officers; and in a cluster are to be ed with the arms of New York, and other cities found the kitchen, the pastry-room, and the bar- in the States. Large circular glass ventilators, ber's shop. The two former are, like similar reaching from the deck to the lower saloon, are establishments, replete with every convenience, also richly ornamented, while handsome mirrors having even a French maître de cuisine; but the multiply all this splendor. The general effect latter is quite unique. It is fitted up with all is that of chasteness and a certain kind of solidnecessary apparatus-with glass-cases contain-ity. There is not much gilding, the colors used ing perfumery, &c.; and in the centre is "the are not gaudy, and there is a degree of elegant barber's chair." This is a comfortable, well- comfort about the saloons that is sometimes wantstuffed seat, with an inclined back. In front is ing amid splendid fittings. There is a ladies' a stuffed trestle, on which to rest feet and legs; drawing-room near the chief saloon full of every and behind is a little stuffed apparatus like a luxury. The berths are about 150 in number, crutch, on which to rest the head. movable, so as to suit people of all sizes; and most novel feature about them is the "weddingThese are leading out, as usual, from the saloons. The in this comfortable horizontal position the pas- berths," wider and more handsomely furnished senger lies, and his beard is taken off in a than the others, intended for such newly-married twinkling, let the Atlantic waves roll as they couples as wish to spend the first fortnight of may. The house at the stern contains a smok- the honeymoon on the Atlantic. Such berths ing-room, and a small apartment completely are, it seems, always to be found on board the sheltered from the weather for the steersman. principal river-steamers in America, but are as The smoking-room communicates with the cabin yet unknown on this side of the water. below, so that, after dinner, those passengers so berth has a bell-rope communicating with a Each disposed may, without the least exposure to the patented machine called the weather, or annoyance to their neighbors, enjoy This is a circular plate about the size of the 66 Annunciator." the weed of old Virginia in perfection. smoking-room is the principal prospect of the bers corresponding with those of the stateThis face of an eight-day clock, covered with numman at the helm, who, however, has to steer rooms. according to his signals. Before him is a painted circular plate, which is removed or turned round Each number is concealed by a semiintimation that one bell means bells mean "starboard;" a like intimation ap- with the corresponding number. A bell is at port," and two as soon as the rope is pulled in the state-room pears on the large bell in the bow of the ship; the same time struck to call the attention of the and according to the striking of the bell, so must stewards, who then replace the plate in its forhe steer. mer position, and attend to the summons. Proceeding below, we come to the great saloon, 67 feet long, and the dining-saloon, 60 feet long, each being 20 feet broad, and divided from each other by the steward's pantry. This pantry is more like a silversmith's shop, the sides being lined with glass-cases stored with beautiVOL. I.-No. 3.-DD sists of two engines, each of 500 horse-power, There are four boilers, each heated by eight thus making the passage in about seventeen furnaces, in two rows of four each. The con- days, in spite of stormy weather and entanglesumption of coal is about fifty tons every twenty-ments among ice; the average time taken four hours; "and that," said one of the en- by the Liverpool steamers during 1849 being gineers, is walking pretty fast into a coal- fourteen days. Her return voyage, however, mine, I guess !" According to the calculations made under more favorable circumstances, was of the very wise men who predicted the failure within this average, the distance being steamed of Atlantic steam navigation, such a vessel as between the 18th May and the 1st June. A the Atlantic ought to carry 3700 tons of coal; vessel called the Viceroy is about to sail from but it will be seen that one-fourth of that quan- Galway to New York, and her voyage is looked tity is more than enough, even making allow- forward to with considerable interest. The ance for extra stores to provide against acci- Washington and Hermann sail regularly bedents. In the engine-room is a long box with tween Bremen and Southampton and New York, five compartments, each communicating with a and the British Queen has been put on the paswire fastened like a bell-pull to the side of the sage between Hamburg and New York. paddle-box. These handles are marked re- these enterprises seem to indicate that ere long "ahead,' 79 66 spectively, slow," "fast," "back," the Atlantic carrying trade will be conducted and "hook-on;" and whenever one is pulled, a in steamships, and sailing vessels superseded to printed card with the corresponding signal ap- as great extent as has been the case in the pears in the box opposite the engineer, who has coasting trade. to act accordingly. There is thus no noise of human voices on board this ship: the helmsman steers by his bells, the engineer works by the telegraph, and the steward waits by the annunciator. AT [From Sharpe's Magazine.] All THE LITTLE HERO OF HAARLEM. T an early period in the history of Holland, Two traces of national habits struck me very a boy was born in Haarlem, a town remuch. Even in the finest saloon there are, in markable for its variety of fortune in war, but places where they would be least expected, happily still more so for its manufactures and handsome "spittoons," the upper part fashioned inventions in peace. His father was a sluicer like a shell, and painted a sea-green or sky-blue-that is, one whose employment it was to open color, thus giving ample facility for indulging and shut the sluices, or large oak-gates which, in that practice of spitting of which Americans placed at certain regular distances, close the are so fond. Again, much amusement was entrance of the canals, and secure Holland from caused by the attempt of one of the officers in the danger to which it seems exposed, of finding charge of the communication between the small itself under water, rather than above it. When steamer and the Atlantic to prevent the gentle-water is wanted, the sluicer raises the sluices men from leaving the latter until the ladies had more or less, as required, as a cook turns the seated themselves on the former. The appear-cock of a fountain, and closes them again careance of the deck, crowded with ladies only, and a host of gentlemen kept back, some impatient to get down, but the greater part entering into the humor of the thing, was quite new to English ideas. It is but fair to add that the ladies did not seem to like it; and that, when the steamer again came alongside, it was not repeated. Upon the whole, this Atlantic steamer is really worthy of the great country from which she has come. If, in shape and general appearance, she is inferior to the old vessels, she is decidedly equal, if not superior, to them in machinery and fittings. Her powers as regards speed have of course yet to be tried. One voyage is no test, nor even a series of voyages during the summer months: she must cross and recross at least for a year before any just comparison can be instituted. The regular postal communication between Liverpool and the United States will speedily be twice every week-the ships of the new line sailing on Wednesday, and the old on Saturday. But other ports besides Liverpool are now dispatching steamers regularly to America. Glasgow sent out a powerful screw steamerthe City of Glasgow, 1087 tons-on 16th April, for New York, where she arrived on 3d May; fully at night; otherwise the water would flow into the canals, then overflow them, and inundate the whole country; so that even the little children in Holland are fully aware of the importance of a punctual discharge of the sluicer's duties. The boy was about eight years old when, one day, he asked permission to take some cakes to a poor blind man, who lived at the other side of the dyke. His father gave him leave, but charged him not to stay too late. The child promised, and set off on his little journey. The blind man thankfully partook of his young friend's cakes, and the boy, mindful of his father's orders, did not wait, as usual, to hear one of the old man's stories, but as soon as he had seen him eat one muffin, took leave of him to return home. As he went along by the canals, then quite full, for it was in October, and the autumn rains had swelled the waters, the boy now stopped to pull the little blue flowers which his mother loved so well, now, in childish gayety, hummed some merry song. The road gradually became more solitary, and soon neither the joyous shout of the villager, returning to his cottage-home, nor the rough voice of the carter, grumbling at his lazy horses, was any longer to be heard The little fellow now perceived that the blue of |