inches square, dowelled together and spiked, and some of them were secured to the adjoining piles by heavy iron bolts, 21 inches diameter, and pressed together by tapering piles, in the form of wedges driven in between at certain intervals for the purpose of making water-tight joints. The machine was applied, and after sundering a few times the heavy iron grapplings by which it was made fast, complete success attended the operation; the power of the machine, completely overcoming the adhesion of the moist ground, tearing the piles loose from the joinings by the dowelling and spikes, and breaking in twain the heavy iron bolts; exerting a lifting power of over three hundred tons, with an applied force of from four to six hands!! The following letter in regard to the merit of Mr. Dick's invention, is from a very reliable source, and will be read with interest:

JOSEPH E. HOLMES,

NEW-YORK, November 10, 1810.

Agent for Dick's Anti-Friction Press.

Dear Sir-Your favor of the 23d ult. is received. Your Press is now in daily use at the Trenton Iron Works, straightening railroad iron, and it works to our entire satisfaction. In fact, we are most agreeably disappointed in regard to its operation, for in consequence of the peculiarly stiff form of the rail we are making, we feared that a machine of adequate power could not be obtained. The rail is 73 inches high, with a flange 4 inches wide, and weighs 93 lbs. per lineal yard. The ordinary mode of straightening rails by the sledge is entirely unavailable on the bar. And yet the machine does the work with the utmost ease, and with so much expedition, and so little derangement of the fibres of the iron, that we should never think of using the sledge again.

Some idea of the stiffness of the rail may be formed, from the following experiments tried by the Camden and Amboy Railroad Company.

The rail was placed on bearings 67 inches apart in the clear; a weight of 24,000 lbs. was then placed in the centre between the bearings, and the deflection of the bar was of an inch. A second experiment with another bar, under precisely similar circum[Assembly. No. 199.1

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stances, gave a deflection of, of an inch, and a permanent set of of an inch. The bearings in your machine are only about twenty-eight inches apart, so that the power required to make the deflection is very much increased, and yet the machine does not seem to feel the work.

We have no hesitation in recommending the machine in the highest terms, for straightening rails, and for all purposes where great pressure is required. Its simplicity and comparative cheapness must certainly bring it into very extensive use, and for an immense variety of applications.

With our best wishes for your success, we are,

Very respectfully,

Your ob't servants,

COOPER & HEWITT.

EQUATORIAL TELESCOPE,

Made by Henry Fitz, New-York.

Telescopes date no farther back than about the commencement of the 17th century. With the aid of a telescope of rude and imperfect construction, Galileo observed the satellites of Jupiter about the year 1610. Telescopes are of two kinds, refracting and reflecting. Refracting telescopes were constructed first, but the compound nature of light presented difficulties, which for a time were regarded as insurmountable. Reflecting telescopes therefore were for a long time used, during which they attained a degree of perfection. The difficulties attending the construction of the refracting telescope, were at length overcome through the persevering efforts of John Dolland of London, who produced an achromatic refracting telescope about the year 1757. The discoveries of Frauenhofer have contributed to the improvement of telescopes. At the present time they are extrensively made in London by the descendants of Mr. Dolland and others. We are credibly informed that they rely for their glasses principally on the manufacturers on the continent, Merz, the successor of Frauenhofer, and one or two besides.

An emergency of recent occurrence, brought Mr. Fitz conspicuously before the public as a manufacturer of achromatic telescopes. A series of astronomical observations in the southern hemisphere, were about to be made by direction of Congress. Those in charge of the expedition having received information from the successor of Frauenhofer, that it was impossible to make a nine feet equatorial in the time specified, Mr. Fitz volunteered to make an object glass from Guinand's discs, of the same dimensions as that at the High School Observatory at Philadelphia, viż: 6 inches clear aperture, and 6 feet focal length, which should be compared with that instrument, and if it proved equal to it, he would charge for it only the cost of a similar lens at Munich, (about $500,) otherwise the Smithsonian Institute, which had consented to the loan of their instrument for the use of the expedition, should have the use of it free of charge until another could be obtained from Germany. Mr. W. J. Young, of Philadelphia, guaranteed to furnish the mountings in the required time, and the glass was made. Professor Kendall, director of the High School Observatory, after trying it by the test proposed, gave the following decision :

PHILADELPHIA, May 1st, 1849.

My Dear Sir-I had the pleasure to make a trial of the Fitz object glass last evening, and was highly gratified with the result. It was compared with ours (of the same size) upon the Moon, Jupiter, several double stars, and the bright star Vega, with its companion, using a variety of powers.

It is my opinion Mr. Fitz has fully accomplished all he undertook to perform. From this trial I am unable to pronounce which is the better glass the Frauenhofer doing nothing which was not equally done by the Fitz glass.

There was one point only about which a doubt arose, viz: color. On first looking at Jupiter, I thought there was too much violet about the edge; but on applying the other (Frauenhofer) object glass with the same eye-piece, I could not discover any improvement, except that which might justly be attributed to the improved state of the atmosphere.

Mr. Fitz, Mr. Fisher Langstreth, and Mr. Young, with one or two other competent persons, had also made a comparison of the two glasses on the 28th, and perfectly coincide with me in what I have said. I called to see Mr. Langstreth and one of the other gentlemen this morning, and found they each had arrived at the same conclusion as myself as regards the merits of Mr. Fitz; indeed, we are delighted with his success, and I am fully persuaded that between this and one you order from Merz, the chances would be decidedly in favor of the former.

Very truly yours,

E. OTIS KENDALL.

In addition to this testimonial of the merit and success of Mr. Fitz, we are permitted to insert the following extract from a letter written by the Rev. James Curley, Professor of Astronomy at Georgetown College, dated Nov. 7, 1849, addressed to Mr. Fitz:

"It is highly pleasing to hear of the extraordinary result of your efforts in working achromatic glasses. I am much pleased that you get enough to do, and I only regret now that it was not our lot to have an instrument made by you instead of our equatorial made by Simms of London. It cost me about $1500. I do not see much advantage in the size of the circle over yours, but I see a great advantage in the glass of your last instrument being eight-tenths of an inch larger than ours."

Much credit is due to Lieut. Gibbs, in charge of the expedition above alluded to, for the part he took in bringing forward the ability of Mr. Fitz, who is a native of New-York, and self-taught in the art he has so successfully managed.

The equatorial telescope exhibited at our twenty-second Annual Fair, was made to order for Erskine College, Due West Corner, Abbeville district, S. C. The object glass is 5.6 inches aperture, 7 feet focal length. It has 8 eye pieces, magnifying from 84 to 500 times; an achromatic finder 2 feet focus; an hour circle 73 inches diameter, and a declination circle 9 inches diameter. It is furnished with a position and distance micrometer, and a clock for moving the tele

scope corresponding with solar, lunar, and sidereal time, by which the object is kept accurately within the field of view.

Such are the facts connected with the manufacture of telescopes in the United States, and they leave very little room to doubt their equality in all respects with the best productions of Europe. It may not be amiss to state that Mr. Fitz is entirely self-taught in this art, having learned the business of a locksmith, which he pursued for ten years. His first telescope was made for his own use and amusement. He now devotes himself exclusively to this business, and offers to construct telescopes of any size, under a guarantee that they shall be equal to any that can be produced.

To GEN. A. CHANDLER.

LONG ISLAND.

Dear Sir-It may not be uninteresting to you and to the members of the Farmers' Club, and of the American Institute, to know what has been done, if any thing, in the way of cultivating and improving the wild lands through the middle parts of the island, along the borders of the railroad, since the agricultural excursions made by the members of the Institute in 1847. A reference to the account of these visits to the wild regions of Long Island, and of the Agricultural Convention held at Greenport, as given in the Trans. of the American Institute for 1847, will show the opinions then expressed by the Convention, of the practicability of rendering those lands productive; and now a brief statement of facts or results will enable those gentlemen, as well as others, to see how far they are sustained in the judgment formed at that time, and the favorable opinions given, of cultivating that large portion (theretofore considered as barren) of the island, between Farmingdale and Riverhead, a distance of more than forty miles.

A popular belief long entertained by the inhabitants of the island, that those lands were unsusceptible of cultivation, had prevented any attempt, except what little had been done by myself and one or