Posted inDaily News Iron & Steam Labor & Unions Local Histories

Fatal Colliery Explosion

An explosion of fire-damp took place in a colliery at Pemberton, near Wigan, on Friday evening last, by which no less than ten lives have been sacrificed, and six other colliers have been placed on beds of suffering, with scarcely a possibility of recovery.

The colliery is that called Norley-hall, and is worked by the executors of the late Mr. Danglish, of Pemberton. The coal-bed is one of considerable extent, and belongs partly to Reece Bevan, Esq., and partly to the estate of the late Duke of Bridgwater; but Mr. Daglish had power only to take the coal to the boundaries of Mr. Bevan’s estate.

Posted inDaily News Iron & Steam Transportation

London’s First Car Show?

The facilities offered by the great building and extensive grounds of the Crystal Palace have many times, since its primary employment as the domicile of the first Great International Exhibition of all Nations in 1851, been turned to good account in fostering the industries of this nation.

There exists at the moment in this country an industry—that of the manufacture of self-propelling vehicles for use upon common roads—which is scarcely yet beyond its nascent condition, but which is far more advanced, and indeed has assumed considerable magnitude, in other countries, and in regard to which proper publicity and demonstration cannot be given in this country under existing legislation, except in extensive private grounds such as those attached to the Crystal Palace.

Posted inDaily News Engineering Iron & Steam Maritime & Naval History Ship Histories

Silvertown Has Finished

Cable laying ship CS Silvertown, seen from the starboard side at anchor

Work of Cable to Be Completed Tomorrow.

LANDING OF CABLE LAST FEATURE

Staff May Get Away for Home Next Week—Station Ship Now Under Discussion.

When, tomorrow morning, the cable ship Silvertown completes coaling and hauls over from the Hackfeld wharf to the Railroad slip for the purpose of finishing the transfer of the cable from the tanks of the vessel to the tanks ashore, the last portion of the business of the great steamer will be on.

The transferring of the 100 miles of cable which still remains in the ship will be a matter of interest, and will occupy the greater portion of the day. The ship will be laid alongside the Railroad wharf and the cable led across to the tanks which have been carefully constructed for the purpose of keeping the cable intact until it may be needed for the purpose of repairs on the line, should there be a break. The cable must be kept under water, and the tank is arranged specially for the purpose of keeping the materials in the best shape until a call for a length comes.

Posted inEngineering Iron & Steam

Electro-Magnetic Telegraph

We understand that the business of the electro-magnetic telegraph between Washington and this city, since it became a branch of the Post Office Department, has far exceeded expectation. The correspondence between the merchants of the two cities, we are informed, is constantly carried on by means of this important invention; and we learn that it is frequently the case that orders, received here at 1 o’clock, P. M. from Washington, are filled and the goods placed in the freight train of cars at 3 o’-clock tho same afternoon, at which hour the reception of heavy goods ceases for the day. Orders for small packages, received at half-past 4, are attended to promptly, and the goods forwarded by the passengers train which leaves here at 5 o’clock, and reaches Washington at half past 7 o’clock.

Posted inDaily News Iron & Steam Railroads Travelers' Tales

N. P. Willis on the “Baltimore and Ohio Railroad”

ldlewild, August 8, 1859

Dear Morris : There is one class of sights upon a new railroad which are very interesting while their freshness lasts—the places that have been taken by surprise. On the line of the streak of lightning that was thrown over the Alleghanies by the Baltimore thunder-cloud of thirty-one million dollars, is a succession of far-hidden remotenesses—wild valleys, cascades, solitary shanties and mountain fastnesses—many of which were thought by the hunter, or by the pioneer settler, wholly unreachable by common thoroughfares, and, in fact, inaccessible to all visitings but the eagle’s, but which have been laid open, almost with the suddenness of a thunderbolt, and are now daily looked at from crowded freight trains and expresses, as familiar to the man in the locomotive as the signs of a street!

Posted inDaily News Iron & Steam Railroads

American Locomotives

The best manufactory of Locomotive Engines in this country, is the establishment owned by Baldwin, Vail & Hussey, Broad street, Philadelphia. Since this company began their labors, few short years ago, they have manufactured one hundred and twenty-nine locomotive engines. Of this number twenty-six have been for the Columbia and Philadelphia Railway, twelve for the Utica and Schenectady, and ten for the Georgia Rail Road.