Thus closes my notes for the month of December and also for the year just passed and gone and now numbered with the things that were. Whether the Almighty will spare me to chronicle the daily events of the incoming year is more than I know but trusting in Him I shall enter upon the pleasing task, which is useful as a reference and may be profitable to those who have an interest in me.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Monday, February 11th, 1861
To day Mr. Hepperla came out to see me and remained all day. We are still at work weatherboarding the mill house. Bill commenced to haul shingles. Mr. Leaverton returned my wheat fan and I paid him $17.50 for ginning cotton. weather clear & cool.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
On this date in 1861 . . . the U.S. House unanimously passes a resolution guaranteeing non-interference with slavery in any state . . .
ReplyDeleteRailway Detentions--The Lesson of the Season
ReplyDeleteFrom the New York Times (New York, New York)
11 February 1861, page 3
If any railway traveler has escaped annoying detention during the cold terms of the present Winter, caused by the inability of the engine to proceed, he has been peculiarly fortunate. The vital features of the locomotive are susceptible to cold in a much great degree than the public imagines. A blockade of snow certainly delays progress, but it does not of itself permanently interrupt it, for if a locomotive can only be made to generate the breath of life, the penetration of the loftiest New-England snow-banks is but a question of time. The trouble is, that the supply of feedwater to the boiler, being dependent upon the locomotion of the engine, is cut off--the alternate charge and retreat of the huge battering-ram does not develop sufficient continuity of the motion to keep the pumps in action--the blood stops flowing through the veins of the iron horse, till half-a-dozen of them together are stalled in the same drift. But a more frequent cause of detention is the freezing of the pump during long stoppages at stations, or while waiting for trains. As the action of this heart of the monster is dependent upon his locomotion, any temporary cessation of the pulsation and flow is likely to result in disaster more or less serious. . . .