The Locomotive - Lighthouse Survival Blog

189:1] THE L() C () .M o TI V K. 59.
biiiidiiig over the exhibits, and far above the lieads of pedestrians. The platform which
carries the passengers does not interfere with the hoisting mechanism, so that tliis crane
may be employed to hoist and transport goods and passengers at the same time, or
alternately, if desired.— Journal 0/ the Fninkiin Institute.
OxE of this company's inspectors sends tlie following item, which touchr-s upon a
point that often does not receive sutficient attention from boiler owners : •' We had a
serious accident here this winter, and although you may have full particulars of it, I
will give a brief account of it. In a certain mill some of the men were in the habit of
going up on the top of the boiler settings to eat their dinners. The boilers are 60 inches
in diameter and 16 feet long, and carry 80 pounds of steam. They are fitted with
common lever safety-valves, 3^ inches in diameter, blowing off into the boiler room.
The weights were hung close to the ends of the levers, with no hook or catch to prevent
them from slipping off. One day. while several men were sitting in front of the
discharge opening of one of the valves, somebody, in climbing up, knocked off the ball,
and of course the valve immediately opened wide, discharging the steam and half the
water in the boiler directly upon the men. Two of them were scalded to death, and
others were seriously but not fatally burned. Now a hook on the end of the lever
would probably have prevented this accident and saved the men's lives. Too little
attention is paid to this point. Only the other day I found a 100-pound weight hung
close to the end of a frail, shaky, three-foot lever, and the lever was inclined down-
wards by from four to six inches, with no hook to prevent the ball from drop])ing off.
I called attention to it, and the owner of the boiler had the lever changed at once. This
job was new — was just finished, in fact, — and had been left this way by mechanical
men who claim to know their business. It is quite a common thing about here to
find levers inclined upward and downward by from three to six inches, and very many^
of them have no hooks to retain the ball."
The Early Days of Photography in America.
Ix the April issue of the Journal of the FrnnlUn Institute, is an interesting article,
by Mr. Julius F. Sachse, on "Philadelphia's Share in the Development of Photo-
graphy." It appears that when the French deputies awarded a pension to M. Daguerre
for the disclosure of his process, there was considerable popular opposition to the grant,
and to satisfy the people, Daguerre was ordered to give three jiublic demonstrations of
his process, which he did. An account of the process, as shown and explained at the
Grand Hotel, Paris, on Sept. 17, 1839, appeared in the Xeir York Star of Oct. 14. 1839.
This article was also copied in the American Daily Advertiser of October 16th. Among
others who read the account, was Joseph Saxton, an employe in the Mint; and he was
so much impressed by it that he improvised a photographic outfit, and determined to try
the experiment. For the camera, he used a cigar Ijox. and his lens was a common burning
glass. A pasteboard seidlitz-powder box containing iodine, and having a hole cut in the
lid. served as a coating box. His mercury bath was made by mortising out a block of
wood and fitting a .sheet-iron liOttom to it, so that the bath might be heated by a spirit
lamp. This, with a piece of polished ribbon silver which he obtained at the Mint, com-
pleted the outfit. ""When all these preparations were completed," says Mr. S.ichse,
"the ingenious Saxton set his apparatus on the window-siil of one of the second-story