the Lowell Company the people of this country are indebted for bringing this beautiful machine to its present high state of perfection; they have expended nearly $100,000 in building and erecting machines; they have now put up fifty looms, about one-third of which are in active operation; the carpets produced are of excellent quality, and will bear comparison with any manufactured. Mr. Bigelow has likewise completed a machine for the manufacture of Brussels carpets, which is confidently expected to excel all his other inventions in point of simplicity, and from the opinions I have heard from the best mechanics here, there is every prospect of its success. He is now manufacturing coach lace at the cost of 24 cents per yard, which formerly by hand-weaving cost 20 cents, showing a great difference in favor of the power machine of 174 cents per yard. To these great improvements he has added the manufacture of the Marseilles quilt, which is produced with as much facility as cotton cloth, the raised figures on the surface showing every variety of pattern. This description of work has seldom been attempted in this country, having formerly been made by the hand-loom, and required a very experienced workman-now a girl with a few weeks' practice, can manage one of the power-looms with the greatest ease. I am informed that a paragraph has gone the rounds of the papers stating that the inventor had got an offer from England of £80,000 for the patent. A gentleman connected with the Lowell Company assured me that it was not correct, but that Mr. Bigelow had taken out a patent in England."

IMPROVED MACHINE FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF PINS.

Brown and Elton of Waterbury, (Conn.,) have in operation an improved machine for the manufacture of pins, which turns out two barrels of pins per day. A barrel contains 4,000,000 pins, consequently 8,000,000 are manufactured in this little machine each day, or 48,000,000 a week, and 15,024,000,000 per annum, deducting 52 days for Sundays. The machine is perfect and simple in its operation. The wire is run into the machine from a reel, cut to the requisite length, pointed and headed, and made a finished pin by the one simple operation. From this machine they fall into the hopper of the sticking machine, as it is called, in which they are arranged and stuck upon the papers, and come out perfect, only requiring to be packed to be ready for a market. This latter machine, tended by a girl, will do the work of thirty persons by the old hand process. There are four other machines in the United States; a few more would supply not only enough for home consumption, but export to foreign countries, and at a large profit, after paying freight and duty, as it would be out of the question for the "little pin-headers" of England to compete with the ingenious Yankee contrivance.

MANUFACTURE OF BUTTONS AND PENS.

The Haydens, two brothers, commenced the business of making buttons, by hand, at Haydenville, near Northampton, Mass., employing only two or three hands besides themselves. After a few years they enlarged their establishment, and their business is said to have proceeded and increased as follows:

In 1839 they added the business of manufacturing steel pens to that of making buttons, and their operations were as follows:

In 1844 the number of buttons manufactured per day was 1600 gross; and the number of pens manufactured per day was 100 gross.

DISCOVERY IN MANUFACTURING IRON.

The extensive demand for iron, both in Europe and in this country, not only for railroads and ships, but an innumerable variety of purposes, has stimulated the inventive genius of some American, and the result is as important as it is gratifying. Experiments have been made by Mr. W. C. Green of New Jersey, at the Boston Iron Works of Sherman and Atwater of the city of New York, whose extensive iron foundries are in New Jersey. Mr. Green's improvement is in the process of puddling the iron from the pig to the bar. Instead of using the pig iron, which costs about $35 per ton, he is enabled to use a large portion of the ore, which costs but $2 50 per ton, by which he effects, in labor and material, a saving of more than 33 per cent, and he gives a far better quality of iron than that which is obtain ed from the pig; as much better in appearance as china is better than earthenware. We have seen and compared, says the Express, the new specimen with iron made in the old way, and have marked the contrast as very great. Mr. Green's secret consists chiefly in mixing a composition with his ore and white in a modern state, by which the carbon is more rapidly exhausted than it is under the old process, and the iron is thus, in half the time, left tougher and finer.

IMPROVED MANUFACTURE OF AXES.

There is an axe factory at Collinsville, near Hartford, Conn., in which forty-five men turn out eight hundred axes every day. The axes sell for 13 dollars per dozen upon an average. The demand for them is almost illimitable. They labor in seven shops. The sixth shop is sacred-" no admittance" is written upon the door-post. The reason for this is that a new process for tempering the axes has been discovered-a process by which a hundred can be tempered at once, and that, too, after they have been ground. We regard this as an important discovery.

AMERICAN AND FOREIGN HEMP COMPARED.

The government agent for the purchase of hemp, at Louisville, Kentucky, Lewis Sanders, Esq., recently made several experiments to test the relative strength of Russian and American hemp, and as will be seen by the following letter of Mr. Sanders, the result has been in favor of the American. HEMP AGENCY For Kentucky.

Commodore Morris, head of the Bureau of Construction and Equipment, caused to be sent to this agency a very perfect apparatus for the purpose of testing the quality of hemp; also, a box containing Riga Rhine hemp, and a box containing American water-rotted hemp, as samples for examination and comparison. The apparatus and samples of hemp were sent from the Boston Navy Yard, and arrived here in October last. The object of the department is to give information to the growers and dealers of hemp. By these samples and tests, bidders for the supply of the Navy can with more certainty submit their proposals.

I caused four parcels of hemp to be accurately weighed, of twenty-five pounds each, and delivered to Mr. Till, a rope-maker of this place, (who learned his trade in Boston,) with directions to make up each parcel separately, into 1 inch rope,

and into yarns.

No. 1. Twenty-five pounds American water-rotted hemp, sent from the Navy Yard, Boston.

No. 2. Twenty-five pounds Riga Rhine hemp, sent from the Navy Yard, Bos

ton.

No. 3. Twenty-five pounds cured and prepared by Mr. James Anderson of this place, intended for naval purposes.

No. 4. Twenty-five pounds of a good lot of Kentucky dew-rotted hemp. The waste and tow returned by Mr. Till from No. 1, was 11 lb.; from No. 2, 6 lb.; from No. 3, 6 lb.; from No. 4, 10 lb. A piece of bolt rope, intended for 1

to the test.

inch, made of yarns running 26, was put

2,705 lb.

2,555 lb.

2,940 lb.

2,415 lb.

Three-thread spun yarn of No. 1, broke at 400 lb.; of No. 2, at 365 lb.; of No. 3, hard twisted, at 352 lb.; of No. 4, at 450 lb.

Marline, two-thread, No. 1 broke at 132 lb.; No. 2 broke at 135 lb.; No. 3, hard twisted, at 112 lb.; No. 4, at 155 lb.

One-thread yarns, running 26-No. 1 broke at 222 lb.; No. 2, at 108 lb.; No. 3, at 140 lb.; No. 4, at 190 lb.

WHITNEY'S RIFLE FACTORY.

The Rifle Factory of Mr. Eli Whitney, situated at the foot of East Rock, on the Hartford and New Haven Turnpike, was founded by the father of the present proprietor, in the year 1778, and was long used by him in the manufacture of arms for the United States Government. This gentleman, distinguished for his talents as a mechanic, for his sound judgment, and for his persevering industry, applied to this branch of business the same skill and ingenuity, the first-fruits of which had been already displayed in the invention of that instrument so important to the agricultural interests of the South-the Cotton Gin. The result was the production of an article superior to that obtained from England, not only in itself, but also in the manner in which it was made. The method of manufacturing muskets then devised by Mr. Whitney, and also many of the different kinds of tools invented and used by him, have been since adopted in the national armories. The estab lishment has, we believe, been exclusively devoted to this business, from the time of its foundation until about three years since, when an alteration was effected, and the manufacture of rifles substituted. The metal is wrought into the most eccentric shapes, without any further intervention of human hands than is requisite for superintending the machine. Owing to this skilful arrangement of machinery only thirty-five men are required to carry on the works, turning out nearly three thousand rifles a year, worth about thirteen dollars a piece. In the manufacture of these about 50,000 pounds of iron, 6,000 pounds of copper, and from 4 to 5,000 pounds of steel, are annually consumed. The steel is worked up into ramrods, springs, and portions of the lock. The iron costs about one hundred and forty dollars per ton, and is obtained from Salisbury, Connecticut-that procured there being found of a superior quality to either the English or Pennsylvania iron. The stocks are made of black walnut, which is brought from Pennsylvania. The rifles, when finished, weigh ten and a half pounds each. A strik

ing advantage gained by the extended use of machinery in making the dif ferent parts of the rifle is the perfect uniformity of the work. So accurately and in so many different ways is every part, even the most minute, guaged, that in putting together the whole, no delay is occasioned from trifling inaccuracies in fitting. Each screw, spring, sight, top-board, or any other piece whatever, is so nicely wrought that it may be applied to and will fit any one of the three thousand rifles made in the course of the year as exactly as it does the one of which it finally forms a part. The rifles are made on contract for the Government, and are not offered for sale.

Art. VII. THE GERMAN ZOLLVEREIN AND THE HANSE TOWNS.

COMMERCIAL POLICY OF THE ZOLLVEREIN TOWARDS THE UNITED STATES AND THE HANSE TOWNS.

SEVERAL of the public papers have lately presented discordant views of the commercial policy of the German Zollverein towards the Hanse Towns, and those northern coast states of Germany which have not united with the Zollverein, and of the influence which it is said that Prussia exercises over that policy, which is represented as being prejudicial to the commercial interests of the United States.

These opinions having arisen more or less from the conflict of local interests affected by the Zollverein and its commercial policy, and from false apprehensions with regard to an adverse settlement of the respective interests between the said States and the Zollverein, the following observations, founded on a statement of facts, will no doubt rectify and harmonize the different opinions entertained on the subject, and allow an impartial opinion to be formed.

We have no interest in knowing what are the feelings and opinions of the different parties in Europe concerning the Zollverein. What we should ascertain, is, whether the mercantile policy of the Zollverein States (which contain about twenty-eight millions of customers) is susceptible of increasing our direct commerce with that country, on principles of real and true reciprocity. Such a commerce, few of the other European nations are disposed or enabled to admit; being prevented from doing so, partly by their restrictive commercial policy, and partly by their peculiar relations and obligations to their colonies.

One of the principal objections which have been made to the Zollverein, is, that Prussia is said to exercise an overwhelming influence over the other members of the Union, controlling their constitutional liberties. The question whether such an influence does really exist in the Union, may fairly be answered by the fact that those states whose liberties are said to be affected, voluntarily joined the confederacy. The question whether the organization of the Zollverein system, established by Prussia, offers any ground for such an accusation, should be submitted to a closer examination. The following facts will speak for themselves :

:

According to the treaties on which the Customs Union is founded, no new tariff law, nor the alteration of any existing one, can be made without the agreement of all the members of the said Union. No such act can be passed by any majority of votes. The several states who form the Union, without regard to their population, or the extent of their territory, have all equal votes; and the single vote of the smallest of them, if in

opposition to any measure, will prevent its adoption, even if the votes of all the other members should be in favor of it. Thence Prussia, with a population of over 15,000,000, and Brunswick, with 155,000, have equal votes.

It has been said, in certain quarters, that this complete equality of representation of all the states of the Union had been used by Prussia as a means of inducing the said states to submit to her original customs system, and to maintain her influence over them; but an impartial examination of such an imputation will show that all the German States who have united with Prussia, in the formation of a common system of customs and commerce, have adopted the Prussian system, with slight modifications, always by the way of free treaties, which were submitted beforehand to the examination and ratification of the representatives of the respective countries. If ratification has not been refused by them in any single instance, the reason of it is its conveniency, and not the influence of Prussia. It is the conviction that the Prussian system, whose advantages had been experienced for many years, was the best adapted for the basis of a German Union of Customs and Commerce.

The leading principles of this system, which secured its adoption by the other German States, are as follows:

I. The maintaining a proper medium between the principle of protection and of free trade.

II. Allowing a competition of foreign with the home industry, in the home markets; consequently, the exclusion of prohibitory duties.

III. A complete and true reciprocity with foreign countries.

IV. Facilitating the interior trade, by removing the customs between the states.

V. Protective duties, for the support of home industry, not so great as to prevent commercial intercourse with foreign nations, or their competition.

VI. Establishing and regulating custom duties, with a regard of the interests of every part of the confederacy.

VII. Free importation of the raw materials for the home manufacture; and,

VIII. Convenient duties on those foreign articles, viz: sugar, tobacco, rice, &c., the principal export of other countries, to promote and facilitate the conclusion of reciprocity treaties.

To such a system of customs and commerce, the other German States could join without any hesitation, because Prussia had made the experiment, and the result had been such as to induce imitation. This experiment was the more important for Germany, as Prussia unites under her dominion several provinces very different in climate, production, and other circumstances; and whose interests, although different, found a sufficient protection in the said system, which, having been a blessing to the Prussian provinces, could not be otherwise to other German States which are in the same position.

However, this adoption, by some of the German States, of the Prussian customs system, has not prevented its development and improvement afterwards, by common deliberation and resolution, whenever there was occasion for it. On the contrary, since the Zollverein has extended to its present state, the most important laws, viz: the new custom law, the custom organization, &c., &c., have passed, after a previous examination, at