It will be observed that the trips from Boston to Norwich are performed with much more regularity than those from Norwich to Boston. This is owing solely to the uncertainty of the hour of arrival of the steamboat at Norwich, and the consequent liability of the steamboat train from Norwich to the necessity of waiting, at the turnout stations, for the passing of the regular trains-the railroad consisting, for the chief part of the line, of a single track. All the other trains run at regular hours, and are at the turnout stations at stated times. The outward train from Boston is of course so arranged as to pass the turnouts at these stated times; but the return train, as it leaves Norwich on the arrival of the steamboat, at whatever hour that may be, is subjected to the hazard of delays, in the manner above mentioned. The table shows the frequency of these casual delays, not exceeding usually a quarter to half an hour, but sometimes longer.

It will be perceived that of the outward train, one trip only in the two months exceeded 5 hours, being caused by an accident to

the engine, 7 were from 4 to 5 hours, and 45 were 4 hours, or under. Of the return train, more than half, (from the cause above mentioned, which will be obviated in a great degree when the double track on the Boston and Worcester road shall be completed,) exceeded 4 hours. Two delays were caused by other accidents, which, with that on the outward train, making three in two months, are a very unusual proportion, these being almost the only instances of the kind which have occurred on this train since the Norwich road was opened.

The ordinary passenger trips on the Boston and Worcester railroad, including all except the steamboat trains, are performed in the regular period of two and a half hours, including the stopping in every trip at the intermediate stations, for receiving and discharging passengers. They rarely deviate more than one or two minutes from their regular period. The length of time occupied by the ten stoppings is about half an hour.

On the Boston and Lowell railroad, a part of the trains stop at five stations for receiving and discharging passengers, and part stop once only for fuel and water, and also on the downward trip, to attach the train of the Boston and Portland railroad-this train being detached on the upward trip without the stopping of the main train. The average time of performing the journey between Boston and Lowell for the last twelve months, by the trains which make but one stop, the distance being 26 miles, was one hour and six minutes. This includes all the delays occasioned by the storms of the winter season, as well as by all other causes. The average length of these trips during the favorable seasons, is about 61 minutes. The average duration of all the passenger trains, during the last year, including those which stop at all the stations, was one hour and fourteen minutes.

MISCELLANY.

TANNING LEATHER, NEW DISCOVery.

Mr. S. B. Howd, of Newark, Wayne county, New York, claims to have made an important discovery in the art and process of tanning leather. Leather is a compound of gelatine and vegetable astringent matter, formed by steeping the skins of animals in the infusion of certain barks. Before applying the astringent principles to the skins, they are usually prepared by soaking in lime water, which renders the cuticle and hair easily separable, and discharges the albumen; and are afterwards softened by allowing them to enter into a degree of putrefaction. In this state, they are submitted to the action of the tannin, or astringent principle. And it is at this point that Howd begins his experiment. The next step in the process is to bring the tannin in contact with every portion of every fibre of the skin, or in other words, with the gelatine, in order to form the above-mentioned compound of tannin and gelatine. We copy the following account of the new process from a statement drawn up by a friend of the patentee.

He constructed a cylindrical vat, air tight, with a pipe for the purpose of filling it, inserted at the upper side, and leading to a reservoir below; the pipe being closed by a cock near the inserted end. At the lower side, another cock is inserted, as a discharger. On the upper side is fitted a small vent-cock, for the admission of air at the time of discharging. On the upper side is an orifice, or man-hole, with a stopplate, at which the skins are put in and taken out. And at one end, on the upper side, an air pump is adapted, with a cock below the lower valve, for the purpose of exhausting the air from within the vat.

Having thus arranged his apparatus, he suspended within the vat some skins, prepared in the ordinary way, shut down the stop-plate, closed the proper cocks, and worked the pump until he produced as near as possible a vacuum. This partial vacuum was kept up one hour, when the cold hemlock liquor from the cellar below was admitted into the vat and suffered to remain ten minutes. It was then discharged, and the vat exhausted of air, and kept so for another hour. The liquor was again applied and suffered to remain other ten minutes, and thus repeated alternately until the liquor had been applied to the skins six times ten minutes each; when a piece of calf skin of ordinary thickness was taken out, dried and curried, and by good judges was pronounced to be a first and unequalled quality of leather. Other experiments were tried, by which thicker and heavier pieces of skins were tanned by the same process, having the liquor applied to them from 12 to 18 times, of ten minutes each; and when curried, were declared by experienced shoemakers and tanners, to be handsomer,

stronger, and more flexible leather, than if tanned by the old slow process. By the first experiment, the whole time occupied in tanning a piece of leather was only 12 hours, and by the others, only 24 and 36

hours.

The theory of the process thus shown to be so completely sustained by experiment, is as follows: the exhausting of the air from the vat removes from the skins that atmospheric pressure, which is a prominent component principle of capillary attraction, consequently, greatly diminishing the force of this attraction, which, when uncounteracted, retains the uncharged liquid, and prevents its dripping from the pores of the suspended skins. The exhaustion causes a rapid evaporation, the result of which is to throw off in the form of a vapor, a large propor tion of the uncharged water and acid remaining in and upon the skins; for liquids assume the aeriform state very rapidly, under a diminished pressure, especially if the vapor which is formed be drawn off as soon as it is produced, so as to maintain the vacuum, as in the case of these experiments. The rapid evaporation, caused by the vacuum, produces a very considerable reduction of temperature within the vat, the effect of which is to contract the fibre of the skins, thereby expelling by their contraction much of the uncharged water that may be remaining within and upon the skins. The removal of the air from the surface of the skins causes an expansion of the air within to such a degree, that much of it escapes, and is replaced by the liquor when admitted; and during its escape, it removes all particles of uncharged liquid that in any way impedes its progress towards the surface. The vacuum, when produced over the liquor in the vat nearly full, creates an ebullition, which continues so long as the vacuum is maintained, and which puts in motion every particle of liquor, removing the uncharged particles, and supplying their places by new charged ones, and in consequence of which, there is no necessity for moving the skins about in the vat. The almost total exclusion of light and air, during the process, gives to the leather a bright and lively color.

Such is the theory upon which the experiments were predicated. Experiments than which none were ever more successful, or based upon more philosophical or scientific principles. They were not tried under advantages not possessed by every tanner, but on the contrary, under some disadvantages not usually encountered by them. The apparatus was new, and the principles of the process, though plausible in theory, had to be accommodated to a number of imperfectly known circum

stances.

The apparatus is not complicated or expensive-consisting mainly of an air-tight vat, which any joiner can construct, and an air-pump of the most simple description. Specimens of the leather tanned by Mr. Howd's improved process, may be seen at the stores of Messrs. Ford & Grant, and Coventry & Lewis, in this village. Mr. Howd has taken the necessary steps to procure letters patent, securing to him the benefit of his discovery, and is now ready to dispose of rights to use his improvement.-Newark Daily Advertiser.

AN IMPROVED MUSKET.

Within a few years past, an important change has been made in the military service of some of the countries of Europe, in introducing the copper cap, in place of the lock and flint. In France and in England, the copper cap has been partially introduced. In the meantime, an invention has been made by the Baron Heurteloup, and brought to the notice of the Russian government, of an improved mode of igniting the charge in the musket, which after a long continued series of experiments, has been adopted in the Russian service. The London Times gives the following description of this improvement, and of some of the experiments which have been made for testing its advantages. A meeting took place at Chalk Farm, near London, of several military and scientific gentlemen, for the purpose of testing the comparative merits of this musket, with that of the detonating musket with the copper cap, which has been partially introduced into the British service. The day was wet and boisterous in the extreme: 160 rounds of ball cartridge were fired from the Baron's gun in an inconceivable short space of time, without a single failure or hang-fire; and indeed, from the formation of the piece itself, which has the lock placed under the barrel immediately before the trigger, and which is further, by a most ingenious contrivance, completely secured from the action of the weather, the priming being contained in a continuous thin, flat metal tube, impervious to moisture, and inclosed in the stock of the gun itself, rain or wet can have no effect on the action of a musket so constructed. It is, however, the composition contained in this tube, and the simple manner in which it is acted upon, that gives the invention its great superiority over all the other firearms now in use. The tube in question, which is about eight inches long, by about one eighth of an inch wide, contains detonating powder sufficient for thirty primings, and is in the first place inserted in the body of the stock under the barrel. A very simple mechanism causes the extremity of this tube to advance over a flat-topped nipple ; and the cock which strikes it is so constructed, as to cut from the tube that portion which lies over the nipple, and the hammer acting upon it almost simultaneously, produces the discharge. Leaving out of the question the chemical merits of the composition, which will admit of a part being cut off and exploded, without igniting the remainder of the contents of the tube, the mechanical merits of the gun, as a military engine, are extraordinary. It combines within itself all the desiderata of cheapness, strength, simplicity, certainty of fire in all weathers, and capacity for rapid execution, which are required in a soldier's weapon, and is as great an improvement over the copper cap lock as that is over the old flint and steel principle. Many old officers have doubted the wisdom of adopting the copper cap for soldiers' fire-arms'; and there can be no doubt that, in a military point of