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prevailed, and in the convention Mr. Gaston withdrew his name. The ticket was as follows: For Governor, Charles Francis Adams, of Quincy; Lieutenant-Governor, William R. Plunkett, of Pittsfield; Secretary of State, Edwin H. Lothrop, of Springfield; Auditor, John E. Fitzgerald, of Boston; Treasurer, Weston Howland, of Fairhaven; AttorneyGeneral, Richard Olney, of Boston.

The following platform was adopted:

The Democrats of Massachusetts and their compatriots hail with satisfaction the auspicious action of the recent national council at St. Louis. Its declaration of principles, together with the letters of acceptance of its nominees, composes an harmonious and beneficent body of political doctrine which, wisely applied, by the statesmer. happily chosen for that great trust, to the existing critical condition of the country, would speedily result in a reinvigoration of our enfeebled industries, a purgation of the corruptions that dishonor the public service, financial soundness and good government, with tranquillity and well-regulated liberty in all parts of the Union. The national honor and credit demand exact justice to all creditors of the Government, the pensioner, the laborer, and the bondholder, and the payment in coin of the debt represented by legal-tender notes, held by the people at large, equally with the bonded debt held by capitalists. After eleven years' experience of Republican neglect and incapacity to formulate and carry out a financial policy for the resumption of specie payments, the people of the country should intrust to the party that never in the history of its power gave sanction to the dishonest system of an inconvertible paper currency the accomplishment of this vital need of our commerce.

To the national House of Representatives the gratitude of the country is especially due for its courageous and largely successful efforts, in spite of the impla cable hostility of an improvident Administration and its supporters, to reduce the expenses of Government to a scale adjusted to the economic necessities of a period of unexampled industrial distress, and the requirements of republican simplicity and frugality. Also, for its resolute inquests into official mal-administration, whereby gross corruptions have been exposed to popular execration, unfaithful officers expelled in disgrace from the exalted places of authority they defiled, and the honest sentiment of the country aroused to a knowledge of evils and the imperative need of reform. The action of the Democratic House, in the measures that met its sanction, conclusively refutes the absurd charges of a malevolent opposition, and that the Democratic party entertains any feeling or purpose disloyal to the national spirit or to the integrity of the republic, or to the letter or spirit of the Federal Constitution in any of its parts. We rejoice in the social order, rapidly-reviving prosperity, and established cordial relations between the races, which have followed as the result of the restoration of Democratic control of affairs in the several lately disturbed States. Wherever honest government has gone, violence, disorders, and raceconflicts, have disappeared, and the theatre of outrages upon public order and private right that shock the humane sense and blot our institutions is confined to those narrow limits of the South where Republican misrule still obtains and the ruffian elements of society are left free from the restraints of law enforced by competent authority.

That we hold the position so well expressed by the late Governor Andrew in his valedictory address in 1866: "There ought now to be a vigorous prosecution of the peace-just as vigorous as our recent prosecution of the war. We ought to extend our hands with cordial good-will to meet the proffered hands of the South; demanding no attitude of humiliation from any, inflicting no acts of humiliation upon any; reVOL. XVI.-88 A

specting the feelings of the conquered, notwithstanding the question of right and wrong between the and religion alike forbid one act, one word, of venparties belligerent. In this hour of triumph, honor geance or resentment. Patriotism and Christianity unite the arguments of earthly welfare and the motive of heavenly inspiration to persuade us to put citizens and as men in the work of social and ecooff all jealousy and all fear, and to move forward as nomic reorganization, each one doing with his might whatever his hand findeth to do."

That among the misdeeds of the Republican party not the least conspicuous is the mismanagement of the Freedmen's Savings and Trust Company, chartered by a Republican Congress, without sufficient safeguards to protect the interests of its depositors, which has resulted in the robbery of many thousands of confiding freedmen, and that it is therefore the duty of Congress to take all legal measures to secure to the sufferers full indemnity for their losses. That the prostration of the industries of this State, the depression in its trade and commerce, are the natural results of the maladministration and misgovernment of the Republican party, and the continuance of that party in power will increase the this State, spread the poverty now threatening our present deplorable waste of the invested capital of laboring-classes, and bring misery, ruin, and ill-health heretofore been able to bear up against the hard to the hearths of those careful artisans who have times under which this State now suffers.

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We view with indignation the supineness of the party in power in neglecting to take measures against the causes of the decline of our commerce and manufactures. We look in vain in the platform of that party for the indications of any comprehensive policy of statesmanship for the emergency. And we see nothing in the qualifications of those nominated by them to national and State leadership that indicates any relief from the consequences of the feeble statesmanship, careless, do-nothing policy, and ring-control, which now paralyze the energies of the country.

That amid the depression of all business among us there is an imperative demand for a reduction of State, county, and municipal expenses in this Commonwealth; the cutting down of salaries to a more reasonable relation to the general profit of industry among the tax-paying citizens, the dispensing with unnecessary offices, the abolishing of sinecures, the suppression of all unnecessary appropriations, and the return from extravagance to simplicity and econ-omy. We view with alarm the rapid increase at

the same time of public taxation and public indebtedness, and desire to awaken the honest instincts of our citizens to limit and restrain the growing evils. That it is the right and duty of the Commonwealth to protect its industrial interests from the oppression of any system which deprives the laborer of the legitimate fruits of his toil, or of the means of the proper development of his physical and mental pow

ers.

That the elective franchise is a right the exercise of which should not be abridged by the payment of any money price as a condition.

That we pledge our united support to the candidates this day nominated, and we invite all citizens who deplore the present evils to join with us in their support.

That, in presenting to the people of this Commonwealth Charles Francis Adams as candidate for Governor, we make the principles of our platform a reality in practice. The public services and private virtues of this illustrious citizen need no recital here, and we believe his election will but subserve the interests of the Democratic party in Massachusetts. Mr. Adams accepted the nomination for Governor in the following letter:

The Hon. W. W. Warren, President Convention of Delegates, etc.

PHILADELPHIA, September 12, 1876. DEAR SIR: Your letter informing me of my nomination by a convention of voters of Massachusetts opposed to the present administration of national and State affairs, held at Worcester on the 6th inst., has been forwarded to me at this place.

Fully appreciating the honor conferred upon me by the manner as well as the substance of the call so unanimously made upon me, I cannot in principle do otherwise than obey. I never in my life have solicited an office, but when summoned to it I have never dared to refuse. The time for service on my part is fast passing away, but my interest in the prosperity and the honor of the country will cease only with my life. Convinced as am that the policy of the ruling party will not tend to the eradication of the great evil that prevails, the tendency to corruption in official station; neither will it promote the restoration of internal peace and harmony, a vital object in my opinion to the complete restoration of the country: I can only say that whatever service I may be able to render to the attainment of these ends, how ever feeble it may be, is entirely at your command. With great respect,

CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS.

Mr. Lothrop declined the nomination for Secretary of State, and the name of Weston Howland was substituted on the ticket by the

State Central Committee.

A Woman-Suffrage Convention was held in Boston, on the 12th of September, and accepted the ticket of the Prohibitionists. The following address to the people was issued:

The woman-suffragists of Massachusetts, in delegate convention assembled, respectfully submit to the people of the Commonwealth the reasons which compel them for the first time to make independent nominations for State officers.

For many years they have appealed to both the great political parties of the State to rectify the injustice which taxes and governs women without their consent, and which subjects them to cruel legal disabilities as wives, mothers, and widows. But their appeals have been disregarded. The Republican party of Massachusetts, after repeatedly indorsing woman-suffrage in its platform and repudiating it in the Legislature, has just refused to invite Republican women to take part in the nomination of their candidates, and has framed a platform which they declare

has a double meaning on the suffrage issues. The Democratic party of the State has refused to take any action on the subject. The Prohibitory party of the State, on the contrary, has invited women to take part in its primary meetings, with an equal voice and vote in the nomination of candidates and the transaction of business. It has made the establishment of woman-suffrage one of its avowed objects, and has nominated candidates all of whom are suffragists.

State governments have jurisdiction over matters with which the national Government has no concern. We maintain that State officers should be elected upon State issues, independent of national politics. And, whereas woman-suffrage is purely a question of State policy, it is the duty of the woman-suffragists of Massachusetts so to cast their ballots next November as to represent their principles in the choice of State officers.

Believing that "governments are just only when they rest on the consent of the governed," and that the establishment of a truly representative government is vastly more important than the success of Rice or Adams, we commend the nominees of this Woman-Suffrage State Convention to the suffrages of the people, irrespective of party, as the candidates who represent impartial suffrage and equal rights to all.

Resolutions were also adopted as follows; Whereas, Neither the Republican nor Democratic party cares for the cause of woman-suffrage; whereas, the Republican party, through the chairman of its convention Committee on Resolutions, the Hon. John D. Long, has made the declaration that its resolutions for woman-suffrage meant nothing; and, whereas, the Prohibitory party, national and State, has adopted woman-suffrage as one of its cardinal principles:

Resolved, That we send hearty greeting to the Prohibitionists.

Resolved, That we hereby urge our friends to vote for that long-tried friend of woman-suffrage, the Hon. John I. Baker, for Governor of Massachusetts, and for the other nominees of this convention.

Resolved, That we pledge ourselves as suffragists to vote for no person for Senator or Representative to the General Court who is not fully committed to the suffrage-movement, and that the State Central Committee be instructed to take measures to enable suffragists to carry out the resolution at the polls.

The ticket of the Prohibitionists was also taken up by the Labor-Reformers and the candidates for presidential electors at a thinly"Greenback party." The latter nominated attended convention in Boston, October 11th.

The election took place on the 7th of Notors was 259,619, of which 150,063 were for vember. The total vote for presidential elecTilden and Hendricks, and 779 scattering: Rethe Hayes and Wheeler ticket, 108,777 for publican majority, 41,286. The vote for Governor was 256,904, of which Mr. Rice received 137,665, Mr. Adams 106,850, Mr. Baker 12,274, and 115 were scattering. The plurality of Rice over Adams was 30,815; majority over all others, 18,426. The largest Republican vote was 142,210 for Treasurer, and Endicott's majority over Skillings was 27,751. Executive Council chosen, seven were Republicans and one Democrat. Thirteen Representatives to Congress were chosen, all being Republicans except Leopold Morse in the Fourth District. In the Seventh District there were three candidates: Benjamin F. Butler, who

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had the regular Republican nomination; John K. Tarbox, Democrat; and E. R. Hoar, who was supported as an Independent candidate by the Republicans opposed to Butler. The vote stood 12,100 for Butler, 9,379 for Tarbox, and 1,955 for Hoar. The Legislature of 1877, chosen at the same time, consists of 33 Republicans in the Senate and 178 in the House, and 7 Democrats in the Senate and 62 in the House, making the Republican majority 26 in the Senate, 116 in the House, and 142 on joint ballot. MECHANICAL IMPROVEMENTS AND INVENTIONS. The chief problem which enlists the ingenuity of mechanicians at present relates rather to the economy of fuel and its more complete utilization in the steam-engine than to the construction and the adjustment of parts of our motors. Still important improvements in governors and prime movers have lately been introduced; while the fallacy of the rotary engine is coming to be understood, and the question of superheated steam, the question of safety-compartment boilers, and the matter of boiler material, are undergoing liberal and full experimentation. The long experiment made by the Government upon the ship Gallatin on the relative merits of simple and compound engines for sea-going purposes have reasonably demonstrated the superiority of the latter. The subject of the utilization of the force of falling water, its application at a distance, and its storage, is not neglected. It is calculated that in the best-constructed furnaces 80 or 85 per cent. of the mechanical effect of the combustion is wasted; and the economization of this enormous loss is the burning question of the age in mechanics. Its solution lies, it is thought, in the intermediation of some further chemical process, or perhaps in the supplementation or substitution of another force-evolving chemical transformation, perhaps in the ready generation and successful domination of electrical force. In the first connection hopes are entertained of the new Lowe water-gas process, which can demonstrably be applied to the generation of heat with a vast saving over the coal-furnace, but only with the evolution of a terribly subtile and deadly gas-poison. Of electrical motors several different forms have been developed, and there is promise of the cheap generation of electricity on a large scale: the mechanical generation of magneto-electricity is the method which most engages the attention of experimentalists. The possibility of conserving and transporting mechanical force by means of compressed air and otherwise is being utilized in various novel ways. In telegraphy the grand invention of the age is the duplex system, described in the last volume. A still more wonderful invention, sound - telegraphy, will vastly increase the utility of the telegraph for rapid correspondence. In railroad-engineering the urgent need of a safety-coupling has impressed itself upon the public mind. A safety-coupling of Belgian invention finds

much approval in England. The American air and automatic brakes of Westinghouse are acquiring full recognition. A new system of automatic telegraphical signaling invented by one of our citizens has been extensively introduced upon our roads, and is heralded as a triumph of ingenuity and utility.

In the founderies of Terre Noire la Voulte and Bessèges, in France, a process is in use for the conversion of cast-iron, containing phosphoric impurities, into steel. Cast-iron, containing not over .04 per cent. of phosphorus, is smelted in a furnace, of the Martin-Siemens construction usually, and refined by metallic oxides, scoria, or salts. When carbon has been eliminated down to an insignificant quantity, 1 to 2 per cent. of ferro-manganese, containing 50 per cent. or over of manganese, is added. Ferro-silicium may be employed also. The metal obtained by this simple and cheap process contains 1 to 4 per cent. of phosphorus, and some traces of carbon and manganese, and is adapted to most of the uses to which steel is put.

Prof. Reuleaux, the director of the GewerbeAcademie of Berlin, and late commissioner to the Centennial Exhibition, has given great attention to theoretical mechanics, and has contributed important considerations for the understanding of the principles of mechanical motions. He shows that the original elements of mechanisms always go in pairs, bodies allowing each other at the same instant one single motion. These pairs of elements are of two orders, the simpler order, like the screw and nut, hook and eye, etc., in which, when one element is fixed, all the points in the other traverse paths of similar geometrical form, and the higher order, in which the points have different but regular and mathematically determinable paths, which often form curves of great beauty. A mechanism is formed of links, or bodies, generally rigid, containing elements of different pairs linked together. The absolute motion obtained in the mechanism depends upon the particular link which is stationary for the time being. The principles of the direct-acting engine, the oscillating engine, the quick-return action, and others, are demonstrated to be the same, and the different forms of the rotary engine are shown to be only modifications of the direct-acting engine, with a considerable loss of force. Prof. Reuleaux has formed a collection of some thousand models for the illustration of the principles of mechanics. His apparatus shows how, according to the theorem of Poinsot, the relative motion of two bodies may be exemplified by the rolling of two curves upon each other: their point of contact is the momentary centre of the motion, and all the points of each curve are the momentary centres of the motion of corresponding points in the other curve. A number of experimental models, designed by Prof. Reuleaux, demonstrate how advantageously fluids, when inclosed in proper vessels,

might be employed in mechanics. He shows that a column of fluid, with valves, is perfectly analogous to a ratchet-gear.

Among the many methods devised of late for propelling street-cars by other power than that of horses, the invention of M. Mékarski, which was put into practical use this last year in Paris, deserves special notice. The motive power is compressed air, which must be supplied from reservoirs at the end of the line, filled by expansive condensing engines, which work compressing pumps with a power of compressing air to a pressure of 25 or 30 atmospheres. The air is heated as used by passing through a column of hot water, which, when injected into the heater, has a temperature of 170° to 180° C., and thus becomes saturated with steam at a high temperature: 70 or 80 litres of water are sufficient for 1,500 litres of air. As the pressure in the reservoirs is not constant in degree, a special apparatus regulates the supply to the cylinders. The mingled air and steam passes from the heater through a clack valve, which closes over the discharge vent, and which is kept open by a certain degree of pressure upon a piston connected with it; and by the discharge the pressure upon the piston is reversed, and a force is exerted upon the valve which tends to close it. The pressure upon the piston is equal to the pressure of the compressed air in the regulator; and the pressure of the air and steam in the cylinders is thus regulated automatically to a certain point. It is, furthermore, regulated by a small plunger, which the driver works with a hand-wheel. The running-gear is similar to that of a locomotive-engine. Air saturated with steam is highly expansive, and allows of a long run with a small quantity of air: about 11 cubic feet of compressed air per mile, at the pressure of 25 atmospheres, has been found sufficient. The steam does not exhaust, but, condensing in the cylinders, restores to the air its latent heat. After each course the reservoirs, of which there are several, situated under the floor of the car and connected by copper pipes, are pumped full of compressed air, and the water in the heater is reheated by steam conducted through a flexible hose. The management of this tram-car is much more perfect than that of a horse-car; the speed may be increased or slackened, the car stopped or reversed, almost instantly, at the will of the driver.

Steam tram-cars upon the model of the ones which were first introduced by the Merryweathers, of London, have been in use in Paris for some time. Their construction is light, and their working safe and economical; but the escape of smoke and steam would be a serious objection in most cities. An engine invented by Mr. Hughes, in England, is noiseless, and the steam is condensed into a tank, which can be emptied after each completed course.

Another new method for driving street-cars has been invented by M. L. Rousseau, of Brus

sels. The motive agent is compressed water, whose elasticity, by the aid of an hydraulic capstan, or the numerous similar apparatus, or any other mechanism which is employed to convert hydraulic pressure into motion, is brought to bear on the running-gear of the cars. The water under pressure is supplied by a powerful engine to a reservoir connected with a pipe, which is laid under the track for its entire length, with taps at intervals for supplying the cars with the compressed water. The still greater elasticity of air is utilized in connection with the compressed water. Connecting with the cylinders containing the water, either directly or through a piston, is a receiver containing air, which, when the cylinders are charged, has a pressure of 20 to 30 atmospheres. It is the water which comes in contact with the machinery of the car.

The automatic railway-signal, invented by David Rousseau, has been in use for some time on the New York Central road, and has recently been adopted by other railroads in this country. The weight of a train when passing a signal-station is made to act upon an electrical closing-key placed under one of the rails. By a telegraph-wire and an electro-mechanical signal-apparatus the signal at the last station passed is set at "danger;" and upon passing the next station this is restored to clear," and the next one moved to "danger." Upon single-track lines the system can be applied to blocking ahead as well as in the rear.

George Westinghouse, Jr., inventor of the well-known air-brake which bears his name, has recently developed an instrument by which the speed of a railroad-train at any moment is accurately indicated, and also the diminutions and fluctuations of speed, so that, when experimenting with railroad-brakes, diagrams can be made showing the exact effect of the brake for each instant. The principle of this speed-indicator consists in controlling by the action of centrifugal force the escape of water under pressure. The higher the rate of speed, the greater the pressure exerted upon an escapevalve by certain revolving weights; and the greater the pressure upon the valve, the greater the pressure upon the surface of the chamber by the water detained. This pressure is minutely indicated by a pressure-gauge. This principle is entirely novel in its application, and, although very simple, much study and ingenuity were required to perfect the instru

ment.

A process of manufacturing car-wheels by twisting a long flat plate of metal about one of its ends upon a mandril, then heating it in a furnace and welding it under pressure, has been patented by Herr Krupp, the Prussian engineer. The skelp is grooved below with a rib above, and is wide at both ends which make the hub and rim of the wheel. The product, apart from the facility of its manufacture, is superior to other sorts of wheels in having the fibres of the metal arranged in the di

rection of the periphery, instead of radially or tangentially.

A rink of artificial ice for summer skating has been provided by a Mr. Gamgee, in England, and has found much favor. The glaciarium, as it is called, differs from the other contrivances of its kind principally in the use of glycerine and water as a refrigerating medium instead of brine, which is destructive to metallic surfaces. Iron pipes of rectangular section are imbedded in a concrete bottom, with their upper surface only exposed. The water to be congealed is contained in this concrete trough, and is about two inches deep. The glycerine and water, which remains fluid at a temperature below zero, after passing through the refrigerator is pumped up into a tank from which it flows steadily through the iron pipes and into the refrigerator again. But, before entering the main refrigerator, its temperature is reduced by letting it flow through a worm surrounded by the powdered ice swept from the rink mixed with salt. The refrigerator is an ether-machine, in which a steam-power airpump exhausts the ether from the refrigerating chamber and forces it into a condenser. The ether is brought into proximity with the glycerine mixture in a copper box with round holes passing through it; the box is surrounded by a wooden tank through which the glycerine mixture is constantly flowing. The ether, as well as the congealing mixture, is in constant motion, passing from the refrigerator into the condenser and back again in a steady flow.

The Lowe water-gas process, in which the difficulties that attended former efforts to obtain illuminating gas by the decomposition of water were sufficiently overcome to give practical value to this method, was first put into successful operation at Phoenixville, Pa., about three years since. Works were built at Utica in 1874, which were afterward destroyed by fire. This year a still larger establishment has gone into operation at Manayunk, near Philadelphia, and others are opening in several large towns of the Northern States and Canada. The Manayunk works produce about 150,000 feet of twenty-candle gas daily, though their capacity is more than double that quantity. The works occupy only a tenth of the space that is required in coal-gas manufacture. The plant consists of three generators ten feet six inches in height, with an internal diameter of forty inches; six superheaters, three to superheat the steam and three to fix the gas, each fifteen feet high with thirty-four inches internal diameter, and condensers, purifiers, etc. The labor of seven men only is employed for the present production, three in the night and four by day. The cost of the gas is, considering its superior quality, something like one-half that of the gas manufactured by the old process. About three gallons of petroleum are consumed in the production of 1,000 cubic feet. The process is very much quicker than the old one. This method

of acquiring a combustible gas, by the action of burning carbon upon superheated steam, easily and cheaply, now sufficiently tested, opens up great possibilities of economical heat as well as light in the future. The problem of the saving of the 80 or 85 per cent. of heateffect, now wasted in the combustion of fuel in the most perfect heat-generators, seems approaching its solution.

The process of toughening glass consists in cooling it rapidly by plunging it in a bath of grease, after it has been shaped, annealed, and reheated to redness. The effect is to cause a different primary arrangement of the molecular particles; toughened glass is less dense than ordinary glass, and when broken does not present sharp edges. To be successfully toughened it must be reduced to a malleable and pasty consistency, but will lose its shape if too soft. The more rapidly the cooling takes place, the more perfectly the glass is toughened: but too low a temperature will cause the glass to break. The temperature at which the toughening can take place varies according to the composition of the material, and the size and thickness of the article. Crystal made of six parts of sand to two of potash and soda and one of red lead succeeds the best. The temperature of the bath for crystal, in which pure grease is used, may be from 60° to 120° centigrade. For glass grease mixed with oil is used, and the hardening is produced at a temperature of 150° to 300° C. The process described is the one of M. de la Bastie. The other process resembles it in all important particulars. Many improvements have been introduced lately.

Julius Bluethner, of Leipsic, whose pianoforte factory is one of the largest and completest in Europe, has made a study of the technical application of the important principles of acoustics recently discovered, preeminently through the investigations of Helmholtz. He has succeeded in making these scientific discoveries practically available in an instrument which he manufactures under the name of the aliquot piano. Among all the important improvements introduced within the last twelve years in the manufacture of this most valuable musical instrument, this of Herr Bluethner will, beyond dispute, take the foremost rank. As the name implies, the aliquot piano renders the quality called timbre in tone, whose nature has been explained by Helmholtz's analysis of musical sounds. The harmonious upper notes detected by Helmholtz, and the so-called combination-tones, into which the lower octave enters, are emphasized in this instrument by the simultaneous vibration, by a mechanical attachment, of their appropriate strings. To successfully accomplish this object, it was necessary to entirely change the construction of the instrument, to change the pedal-arrangement, and to employ seventy-two more strings for pianos of the ordinary size. The difficulties have been so successfully overcome that the new instrument is as easy to tune as the others,

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