Volume 11 (1865) (424 pages)

aps. Ghe Mining nul Seientifie Dregs. Z Mining and Srientific Heese, W. B. EWER, seseess-. SENIOR EDITOR. O. W. M. SMITH. W. 8. EWER. A. T. DEWEY. DEWEY & CO., Publishers. Orrice—No. 505 Clay street, corner of Sansome, 2d floor. Terms of Sabscription: One copy, per annum, inadvanee,. One eepy, six months, in advancc,. kay For sale by Carriers and Ne -»»B5 00 + 300 { Xt is Xmpossible for editors to know atx the merits and demerits of their correspondence, consequently the reader must vot reeeive the opinions of our contribulors as ourown. Intelligent discussion is invited upon al) sides and the evidence uf any error which may appear will be re ceivedin friendship and treated with respect. American snd Foreign Patents.—Letiers Patent for Inventors can be seeured in The United States and foreign countries through the Minine awp Scienzivse Press PATENT Acescy. We offer applicants reasonable terms, and they can rest assnred of a strict compliance with our obligations, and afaithful performance of all contracts. For reterenve, wwe wii) furnish the names of numerous parties tor whom we have -obtained patents during the past two years. ¥avorable to Inventors.—Persons bolding new in. Fentions of machinery and important improvemenls, can have che same illustrated and e. ined in the Mining ann Scimsmrie Puuss, free of charge, lfin our judyinent the discovery is one of real werit, and of sulticient interest to our readers to warrant publication. Payment in Adv:nce.---This paper will not be sent . to snbseribers beyond the term paid for. The publishers well know that a good journal cannot be sustained on the credit system. 1 San Francisco: Saturday Morning, Nov. 25, 1865. Agent Wanted. A good Ganvassing Agent can secure permanent and re: . munerative employment by calling at the office of the Minune anv Screntiric Press, 505 Clay street. DEWEY & €O., Publishers and Job Printers, Office Mining and Scientifie Press, San Francisco, THE PITTSBURG RALLROAD—-MOUNT DIABLO. The eonstruction of this railroad, whieh is being built to carry coal from the Mount Diablo eal mines to the steamboat.landing on the San Joaquin, is being rapidly pushed } ahead. Most of the grading is done, a portion of the rails are down and several cars are already on tbe track. Messrs. Booth & Co., of the Union Foundry, of this city, have the locomotive well uuder way which is to do the traetion business of this road. It is to be a six-driver tank engine, to run without a tender—the whole weight of the eugine and tank being placed npon the driving whecls. This locomotive is to be built to run up a maximum grade of two hundred and seventy four feet to the mile /—the highest grade, we believe, with one exception, yet overcome without a stationery engine. The road is five and onequarter miles ip length; the total elevation gained in the distauce being eight hundred and forty-seven feet, as follows: First section, half a mile, level; second, one mile, seventyfive feet to the mile; third, one and onequarter miles, eighty-five feet; fourth, threequarters of a mile, 104 feeb; fifth, one and three-quarters, 274 feet to the mile; 300 feet of this section passes through a tunnel which is already completed. ‘’his important enterprise has heen commenced and carried forward, thus near to its completion, with very little stir; but with a degree of energy which augurs well for the future prosperity of the road aud its management. he road will go into operation in about two months, just in time to keep up the winter supply of coal from that important coal inining region. Tue Taty.—The late rain commenced most opportune, aid continued just long enough to accomplish tbe greatest goud with the least evil, Unlike the usual~advent of the rainy season, Which generally comes on in sparing installments, rendering it difficult to determine whether the miner should make immediate arrangzements for winter’s washing, or expect a month or two of half-way work ; the present has come upon us with no uncertain importBoth the miuer and the farmer can now go to work with a will, and with tbe full knowledge of a plenteous supply of the aqueous element The ditches and 1ivers will be full from this time on for the miners; and the farmers can start their plows and get in an early crop, with the saine prospect of an abundaut harvest. . THE NEW METAL, MANGANESE, AND ITS ORES, We have given in another column of the present issue an incidental notice of the progrees recently made in redneing the niineral, manganese, to its metallic furm ; and the im-portant commercial advantages which ure likely to grow out of its use as an alloy for iron and eopper. ‘Ihe experiments of Dr. Vrieger, there relerred to, and the faet that the ores of Notwithstanding . tbe metal inanganese oecur in alinost nnlimited . qnantities, even in the very Bay of San Fran-. cisco, to say nothing of its discovery in numer. ons other localities throughout the State, is cousidered of sufficient interest to warrant for it a inore extended notice. When the dark-colored mineral, known to commerce as mangauese, was first diseovered, and for a long time afterwards, it was ealled black magnesia, in contradistiuction from Magnesia proper, which occurs as a while mineral. The faet that this earthy base (black Magnesia, Dow nmianganese) contained a meial, was made known, and that metal named magnesium, before Sir Humphrey Davy discovered that magnesia (the white mineral) could also be reduced to a metal. When it thns became known that both these two earthy minerals eontained, each, a metal altogether different in their characteristics, is became necessary to make a change in their nomenelature, and the . white miueral, with its metal, was thenceforth known respectively as magnesia and magnesium; while the name of the dark-eolored mineral waschanged to manganese. ‘Ihe term munganesium, tbe proper derivative name for the metal, is seldom used; but it is nsually spoken of as “ the metal manganese.” But first with regard to the miueral, whieh usnally occurs as a black oxide. ‘This mineral is in eonsiderable demand lor employment in the arts. It is almost universally used iu the production of chlorine gas lrom coninion sult, for bleaching purposes. It has been eonsiderably empluyed in this State lor making chlorine iu eonneetion with the “chlorine process” for extracting gold from auriferous pyrites in Nevada, Grass Valley, in this city and in Mariposa and Amador counties. It 1s employed by glass mannfacturers to destroy the green, olive and yellow tints which are almost invariably present in the componnds used for making glass. It has been and still is extensively used iu this cityin the manufacture of inineral paints. It has also been uséd to some extent in other parts of the world for mixing with paintsand also in the manufacture of printer's iuk. It is employedin a peculiarly prepared state, by calico printers, to produce what is called a niangauese brown, or bronze It isalso sometimes, though rarely, used us a medicine for cutaneous diseases. Persons. working with nianganese, or iu a manganese inine, are never subject to the ich. It was estimated, some ten or twelve years ago, that the annnal consumption of inanganese, for all purposes throughout the world,was about 25,000 tons. The demand has greatly increased of late, and this rate of increase will doubtless hereafter be very much accelerated. r A. very fair quality of this mineral is found upon Red Rock, a well knowu islaud about ten milesup the Bay, from this city. The island, we believe, is almost or entirely made up of this inineral. Large quantities are brougbt to this city for various purposes. Some thirty or forty tons were shipped to New York, last winter, hy tbe ship Cremorne, with tbe view, we have understood, of proving its value for being refiued for commercial purposes. We have not learned the result of the speculation, although there is little doubt of its success. Manganese is never found native. It always occurs as an ore—ir oxyds, carbonates, sulphurets, etc. The metal manganese is dark grey, in eolor, very brittle and exceedingly hard, even scratching steel. Isolated or alloyed, it po-sesses many very remarkable characteristics. It is almost impossible to obtain the metal direct from its ores, iu an isolated * poses only as an alloy, formerly witb iron alone; hut latterly with copper as well. It cau be obtained as a free metal, only in small buttous and with the aid of a great heat, kept up by a bot blast. Itis even then very impure, resembling pig iron, and mueb contaminated witb carbon and silielum. Its earbon may be separated by fusion with borax, when the . eondition. It is obtained, for commercial pur. the California trade: metal is extremely oxydizable ; 80 mueh so that it must, like sodium,be kept under naptha. the metal ig so easily oxydizable of itself, yet when alloyed only to the extent of fGfteen or twenty per eent. with iron tis next to gold’in resisting oxydization ; and will retain a bright polish for an indefinite length of time. Another pecaliarity of this metal is the fact that while in the condition of a free metal, it requires the strongest attainable fnreace heat to melt it; when it is alloyed with iron, even to an cxtent which eonstitutes eighty per cent. and more of the alloy, it is as easily melted as ordinary east iron. When combined, by fusion, with five or six per eent. of silieium, it will not oxydize even aS a red heat, and-witlistands the actiou of nitro-hydrochloric acid. ‘The remarkable changes in its properties which this metal undergoes, with so slight foreign admixtures, is deemed by some ehemists as unaccountable, except upvn tbe supposition that it possesses an allotropie character ; » conditiou in ehemistry applied to any substance whieh possesses the power of existing in two or more conditions, entirely distinet io their physical relations. ‘To illustrate—carbon is nn allotropic, elementary substanee, inasmuch as it occurs extremely hard in the diamond, in oetahedron crystals; while it is also Yound quite soft, as graphite, in hexagonal erystals, and very soft, as lamp-black, in au amorphous state. Oxygen is also allotropie, being identieal ia element with ozone. The method adopted by D1. Preiger, for obtaining the alloy of this metal is by taking the oxyd ure, finely pulverizing it with charcoal and mixing this mixture with pulverized cast iron or iron turnings, and plaeing this triple mixture in a graphite erueible, holding thirty or forty pounds, cover with earbon and salt, and expose for several hours to a white heat; on eooling there will se found a homogenous alloy of mangauese and iron. ‘The molten iron seizes the particles of manganesium, as fast as they are set free, preveuting their combining with the carbon, or becomiug instantly oxydized again,as they would du if the iron were not present. Dr. Prieger has already produced some hundreds of tons of this alloy, by his improved process. Notz—In the paragraph treating upon this alloy, on page 327 of this issne, the Inct tine but one in the coluinn, for *' the same purpose,” read commercial purposes? A. Roman & Co.—We would invite the attention of our readers to the cafd of this enterprising House which appears in our present issue. This isthe only tirmin tbe State devoted exclusively to the book trade, and the amount of business which they transact proves this to be a country in whicb such a husiness tay be made highly profitable. Among tle publications in which the mining commnnity will be particularly interested may be mentioned, nstel’s Metallurgy, of which . Messrs. . . R. & Co., are uow sole publishers, besides a long list of works on patural seience, mining, agriculture, and petroleum, on whicli last sub. ject a large number of books have lately been published iu the East, and all of whicb can be obtained of Messrs. Roman & Co. They bave just received one hundred and fity cases of standard works selected hy Mr. Roman in the eastern markets, including Historical, Religious, Scientific und Miscellaueous works of every character. Their long experience and high character for enterprise and integrity, warraut us in assuring our friends in the interior that by sending their orders fur books to this firm they will be filled as well and promptly, and at the same price as if they were personally present. Do not forget the address, A. Roman & Co.,417 Montgomery street, San Francisco, where you will find one of the largest stocks of standard and miscellaneous books on the coast, selected with special reference to A New anxp Coxvesienr Hircmno Posr. It has often been notieed of Culifornia inventors, that they always appear te bring ont precisely the invention that is wanted and that, too, just at the proper time. In other words they do not invent for the mere novelty of the tbing, or go into tbe business for the sole purpose of inaking money, ‘Their inventions are nsually brought out to meet a pressing, present want. Hence they are generally novel and ciminently practieal. We might inention a number of iniportant iustances where these remarks are peculiarly applicable. Our pres~ent purpose, ‘however, is to eall attention to the invention nained in the heading of this article. A great inquiry has recently been made in this eity for some kind of a “ bitching post” whieh shall be no obstruction to the sidewalk ; which shall be sufficiently elevated above the street to render it impossible for horses to entangle their feet in the halter, and whieh shall also possess the requisite strength and durability. Chief Burke, and the: entire munieipal government of the city, have been looking and iuquiring for sneh a thing for the past three months, witb the view of legislating it into general introduction in our priueipal streets, to prevent the frequent ruuaways, whieh almost daily place in peril the lives and limbs of pedestr.ans. As if designedly to illustrate our introductory remarks, just in the nick of time a genileman of this city has invented precisely tbe thing needed—a hitching post which, when wanted as such, stands firm and erect for the purpose ; but as soon ns it is uot needed, by a slight kick with the foot, presto, it suddenly drops out of sight, and all that is seen is ating in the sidewalk,-and ready to be pulled up again, by the next comer who, may need it. The post eonsists ofa wrought iron shaft, witb a ring on the top, the shaft being inclosed in a box sunk underneath the pavement, where it remains out of sight when uot in use. When needed for hitching borses it can be pulled up out of thé box with the ring, and is kept upright by a spring at tbe lower end of the shaft, which eatches on the edge of the box. ‘Tbus ihe objection to the ordinary hitching posts thattbey are an obstruction to the street is obviated, and all the advantages of a stationary post are secured. A sathple will soon be exhibited on Montgomery street. Inthe meantime a patent bas been applied for throngh the Munine axp Sciuntiric Parss Parent Aorncy. Tne Bucs Leper, Et Dorapo.—-This company has recently removed their mill from tbeir former location, on the original Blue Ledge, to another mine, which the eompany has porchased about four miles distant, and about two iniles from Spanish Flat. In changing the location of the mill important improvements have beeu made in its reconstruc tion, by whieh it is now believed to be one of tbe most perfect in the State, calculated for thirty stumps, twenty of whicb have already been put up, leayiug the other ten to he added as:they nay be wanted. It is expected that the mill will commence regular crusbing on Monday next. The mill is located directly upon the main vein (the company having two, one ahove the other), so that when it is prop‘erly opened, the rock can be delivered from the cars direct upon the platform of the mill. About 300 tons of rock have beeu taken out of this vein, some 100 tons of which have been worked with a yield cf from $12 to $15 to tbe ton. ‘he veiu proper is about forty feet wide ; but it is the intention of the conipany, lor the present, to work only about seven ‘feet from tbe west or foot-wall. It will be seen from the above that the cost of taking out the rock will be but a trifle,and tbe pay iudicated, if continued into regular working, must be very profitable. The company intend to prosecute the work of development with the utmost energy. , Compuimentary.— We acknowledge the reception of a complimentary ticket to the seyenth anniversary ball of the “Light Guard,’ . which is to be held at Platt’s Music Hall, oo . Thankseiviug evening, Wednesday, Dec. 6tb.

aps. Ghe Mining nul Seientifie Dregs. Z Mining and Srientific Heese, W. B. EWER, seseess-. SENIOR EDITOR. O. W. M. SMITH. W. 8. EWER. A. T. DEWEY. DEWEY & CO., Publishers. Orrice—No. 505 Clay street, corner of Sansome, 2d floor. Terms of Sabscription: One copy, per annum, inadvanee,.. One eepy, six months, in advancc,.. kay For sale by Carriers and Ne -»»B5 00 + 300 { Xt is Xmpossible for editors to know atx the merits and demerits of their correspondence, consequently the reader must vot reeeive the opinions of our contribulors as ourown. Intelligent discussion is invited upon al) sides and the evidence uf any error which may appear will be re ceivedin friendship and treated with respect. American snd Foreign Patents.—Letiers Patent for Inventors can be seeured in The United States and foreign countries through the Minine awp Scienzivse Press PATENT Acescy. We offer applicants reasonable terms, and they can rest assnred of a strict compliance with our obligations, and afaithful performance of all contracts. For reterenve, wwe wii) furnish the names of numerous parties tor whom we have -obtained patents during the past two years. ¥avorable to Inventors.—Persons bolding new in. Fentions of machinery and important improvemenls, can have che same illustrated and e. ined in the Mining ann Scimsmrie Puuss, free of charge, lfin our judyinent the discovery is one of real werit, and of sulticient interest to our readers to warrant publication. Payment in Adv:nce.---This paper will not be sent . to snbseribers beyond the term paid for. The publishers well know that a good journal cannot be sustained on the credit system. 1 San Francisco: Saturday Morning, Nov. 25, 1865. Agent Wanted. A good Ganvassing Agent can secure permanent and re: . munerative employment by calling at the office of the Minune anv Screntiric Press, 505 Clay street. DEWEY & €O., Publishers and Job Printers, Office Mining and Scientifie Press, San Francisco, THE PITTSBURG RALLROAD—-MOUNT DIABLO. The eonstruction of this railroad, whieh is being built to carry coal from the Mount Diablo eal mines to the steamboat.landing on the San Joaquin, is being rapidly pushed } ahead. Most of the grading is done, a portion of the rails are down and several cars are already on tbe track. Messrs. Booth & Co., of the Union Foundry, of this city, have the locomotive well uuder way which is to do the traetion business of this road. It is to be a six-driver tank engine, to run without a tender—the whole weight of the eugine and tank being placed npon the driving whecls. This locomotive is to be built to run up a maximum grade of two hundred and seventy four feet to the mile /—the highest grade, we believe, with one exception, yet overcome without a stationery engine. The road is five and onequarter miles ip length; the total elevation gained in the distauce being eight hundred and forty-seven feet, as follows: First section, half a mile, level; second, one mile, seventyfive feet to the mile; third, one and onequarter miles, eighty-five feet; fourth, threequarters of a mile, 104 feeb; fifth, one and three-quarters, 274 feet to the mile; 300 feet of this section passes through a tunnel which is already completed. ‘’his important enterprise has heen commenced and carried forward, thus near to its completion, with very little stir; but with a degree of energy which augurs well for the future prosperity of the road aud its management. he road will go into operation in about two months, just in time to keep up the winter supply of coal from that important coal inining region. Tue Taty.—The late rain commenced most opportune, aid continued just long enough to accomplish tbe greatest goud with the least evil, Unlike the usual~advent of the rainy season, Which generally comes on in sparing installments, rendering it difficult to determine whether the miner should make immediate arrangzements for winter’s washing, or expect a month or two of half-way work ; the present has come upon us with no uncertain importBoth the miuer and the farmer can now go to work with a will, and with tbe full knowledge of a plenteous supply of the aqueous element The ditches and 1ivers will be full from this time on for the miners; and the farmers can start their plows and get in an early crop, with the saine prospect of an abundaut harvest. . THE NEW METAL, MANGANESE, AND ITS ORES, We have given in another column of the present issue an incidental notice of the progrees recently made in redneing the niineral, manganese, to its metallic furm ; and the im-portant commercial advantages which ure likely to grow out of its use as an alloy for iron and eopper. ‘Ihe experiments of Dr. Vrieger, there relerred to, and the faet that the ores of Notwithstanding . tbe metal inanganese oecur in alinost nnlimited . qnantities, even in the very Bay of San Fran-. cisco, to say nothing of its discovery in numer. ons other localities throughout the State, is cousidered of sufficient interest to warrant for it a inore extended notice. When the dark-colored mineral, known to commerce as mangauese, was first diseovered, and for a long time afterwards, it was ealled black magnesia, in contradistiuction from Magnesia proper, which occurs as a while mineral. The faet that this earthy base (black Magnesia, Dow nmianganese) contained a meial, was made known, and that metal named magnesium, before Sir Humphrey Davy discovered that magnesia (the white mineral) could also be reduced to a metal. When it thns became known that both these two earthy minerals eontained, each, a metal altogether different in their characteristics, is became necessary to make a change in their nomenelature, and the . white miueral, with its metal, was thenceforth known respectively as magnesia and magnesium; while the name of the dark-eolored mineral waschanged to manganese. ‘Ihe term munganesium, tbe proper derivative name for the metal, is seldom used; but it is nsually spoken of as “ the metal manganese.” But first with regard to the miueral, whieh usnally occurs as a black oxide. ‘This mineral is in eonsiderable demand lor employment in the arts. It is almost universally used iu the production of chlorine gas lrom coninion sult, for bleaching purposes. It has been eonsiderably empluyed in this State lor making chlorine iu eonneetion with the “chlorine process” for extracting gold from auriferous pyrites in Nevada, Grass Valley, in this city and in Mariposa and Amador counties. It 1s employed by glass mannfacturers to destroy the green, olive and yellow tints which are almost invariably present in the componnds used for making glass. It has been and still is extensively used iu this cityin the manufacture of inineral paints. It has also been uséd to some extent in other parts of the world for mixing with paintsand also in the manufacture of printer's iuk. It is employedin a peculiarly prepared state, by calico printers, to produce what is called a niangauese brown, or bronze It isalso sometimes, though rarely, used us a medicine for cutaneous diseases. Persons. working with nianganese, or iu a manganese inine, are never subject to the ich. It was estimated, some ten or twelve years ago, that the annnal consumption of inanganese, for all purposes throughout the world,was about 25,000 tons. The demand has greatly increased of late, and this rate of increase will doubtless hereafter be very much accelerated. r A. very fair quality of this mineral is found upon Red Rock, a well knowu islaud about ten milesup the Bay, from this city. The island, we believe, is almost or entirely made up of this inineral. Large quantities are brougbt to this city for various purposes. Some thirty or forty tons were shipped to New York, last winter, hy tbe ship Cremorne, with tbe view, we have understood, of proving its value for being refiued for commercial purposes. We have not learned the result of the speculation, although there is little doubt of its success.

Manganese is never found native. It always occurs as an ore—ir oxyds, carbonates, sulphurets, etc. The metal manganese is dark grey, in eolor, very brittle and exceedingly hard, even scratching steel. Isolated or alloyed, it po-sesses many very remarkable characteristics. It is almost impossible to obtain the metal direct from its ores, iu an isolated * poses only as an alloy, formerly witb iron alone; hut latterly with copper as well. It cau be obtained as a free metal, only in small buttous and with the aid of a great heat, kept up by a bot blast. Itis even then very impure, resembling pig iron, and mueb contaminated witb carbon and silielum. Its earbon may be separated by fusion with borax, when the . eondition. It is obtained, for commercial pur. the California trade: metal is extremely oxydizable ; 80 mueh so that it must, like sodium,be kept under naptha. the metal ig so easily oxydizable of itself, yet when alloyed only to the extent of fGfteen or twenty per eent. with iron tis next to gold’in resisting oxydization ; and will retain a bright polish for an indefinite length of time. Another pecaliarity of this metal is the fact that while in the condition of a free metal, it requires the strongest attainable fnreace heat to melt it; when it is alloyed with iron, even to an cxtent which eonstitutes eighty per cent. and more of the alloy, it is as easily melted as ordinary east iron. When combined, by fusion, with five or six per eent. of silieium, it will not oxydize even aS a red heat, and-witlistands the actiou of nitro-hydrochloric acid. ‘The remarkable changes in its properties which this metal undergoes, with so slight foreign admixtures, is deemed by some ehemists as unaccountable, except upvn tbe supposition that it possesses an allotropie character ; » conditiou in ehemistry applied to any substance whieh possesses the power of existing in two or more conditions, entirely distinet io their physical relations. ‘To illustrate—carbon is nn allotropic, elementary substanee, inasmuch as it occurs extremely hard in the diamond, in oetahedron crystals; while it is also Yound quite soft, as graphite, in hexagonal erystals, and very soft, as lamp-black, in au amorphous state. Oxygen is also allotropie, being identieal ia element with ozone. The method adopted by D1. Preiger, for obtaining the alloy of this metal is by taking the oxyd ure, finely pulverizing it with charcoal and mixing this mixture with pulverized cast iron or iron turnings, and plaeing this triple mixture in a graphite erueible, holding thirty or forty pounds, cover with earbon and salt, and expose for several hours to a white heat; on eooling there will se found a homogenous alloy of mangauese and iron. ‘The molten iron seizes the particles of manganesium, as fast as they are set free, preveuting their combining with the carbon, or becomiug instantly oxydized again,as they would du if the iron were not present. Dr. Prieger has already produced some hundreds of tons of this alloy, by his improved process. Notz—In the paragraph treating upon this alloy, on page 327 of this issne, the Inct tine but one in the coluinn, for *' the same purpose,” read commercial purposes? A. Roman & Co.—We would invite the attention of our readers to the cafd of this enterprising House which appears in our present issue. This isthe only tirmin tbe State devoted exclusively to the book trade, and the amount of business which they transact proves this to be a country in whicb such a husiness tay be made highly profitable. Among tle publications in which the mining commnnity will be particularly interested may be mentioned, nstel’s Metallurgy, of which . Messrs. . . R. & Co., are uow sole publishers, besides a long list of works on patural seience, mining, agriculture, and petroleum, on whicli last sub. ject a large number of books have lately been published iu the East, and all of whicb can be obtained of Messrs. Roman & Co. They bave just received one hundred and fity cases of standard works selected hy Mr. Roman in the eastern markets, including Historical, Religious, Scientific und Miscellaueous works of every character. Their long experience and high character for enterprise and integrity, warraut us in assuring our friends in the interior that by sending their orders fur books to this firm they will be filled as well and promptly, and at the same price as if they were personally present. Do not forget the address, A. Roman & Co.,417 Montgomery street, San Francisco, where you will find one of the largest stocks of standard and miscellaneous books on the coast, selected with special reference to A New anxp Coxvesienr Hircmno Posr. It has often been notieed of Culifornia inventors, that they always appear te bring ont precisely the invention that is wanted and that, too, just at the proper time. In other words they do not invent for the mere novelty of the tbing, or go into tbe business for the sole purpose of inaking money, ‘Their inventions are nsually brought out to meet a pressing, present want. Hence they are generally novel and ciminently practieal. We might inention a number of iniportant iustances where these remarks are peculiarly applicable. Our pres~ent purpose, ‘however, is to eall attention to the invention nained in the heading of this article. A great inquiry has recently been made in this eity for some kind of a “ bitching post” whieh shall be no obstruction to the sidewalk ; which shall be sufficiently elevated above the street to render it impossible for horses to entangle their feet in the halter, and whieh shall also possess the requisite strength and durability. Chief Burke, and the: entire munieipal government of the city, have been looking and iuquiring for sneh a thing for the past three months, witb the view of legislating it into general introduction in our priueipal streets, to prevent the frequent ruuaways, whieh almost daily place in peril the lives and limbs of pedestr.ans. As if designedly to illustrate our introductory remarks, just in the nick of time a genileman of this city has invented precisely tbe thing needed—a hitching post which, when wanted as such, stands firm and erect for the purpose ; but as soon ns it is uot needed, by a slight kick with the foot, presto, it suddenly drops out of sight, and all that is seen is ating in the sidewalk,-and ready to be pulled up again, by the next comer who, may need it. The post eonsists ofa wrought iron shaft, witb a ring on the top, the shaft being inclosed in a box sunk underneath the pavement, where it remains out of sight when uot in use. When needed for hitching borses it can be pulled up out of thé box with the ring, and is kept upright by a spring at tbe lower end of the shaft, which eatches on the edge of the box. ‘Tbus ihe objection to the ordinary hitching posts thattbey are an obstruction to the street is obviated, and all the advantages of a stationary post are secured. A sathple will soon be exhibited on Montgomery street. Inthe meantime a patent bas been applied for throngh the Munine axp Sciuntiric Parss Parent Aorncy. Tne Bucs Leper, Et Dorapo.—-This company has recently removed their mill from tbeir former location, on the original Blue Ledge, to another mine, which the eompany has porchased about four miles distant, and about two iniles from Spanish Flat. In changing the location of the mill important improvements have beeu made in its reconstruc tion, by whieh it is now believed to be one of tbe most perfect in the State, calculated for thirty stumps, twenty of whicb have already been put up, leayiug the other ten to he added as:they nay be wanted. It is expected that the mill will commence regular crusbing on Monday next. The mill is located directly upon the main vein (the company having two, one ahove the other), so that when it is prop‘erly opened, the rock can be delivered from the cars direct upon the platform of the mill. About 300 tons of rock have beeu taken out of this vein, some 100 tons of which have been worked with a yield cf from $12 to $15 to tbe ton. ‘he veiu proper is about forty feet wide ; but it is the intention of the conipany, lor the present, to work only about seven ‘feet from tbe west or foot-wall. It will be seen from the above that the cost of taking out the rock will be but a trifle,and tbe pay iudicated, if continued into regular working, must be very profitable. The company intend to prosecute the work of development with the utmost energy. , Compuimentary.— We acknowledge the reception of a complimentary ticket to the seyenth anniversary ball of the “Light Guard,’ . which is to be held at Platt’s Music Hall, oo . Thankseiviug evening, Wednesday, Dec. 6tb.