The Stere, which is a cube of the metre, is the unit of solid measure, that is used for fire-wood, stone, &c. The Stere is equal to 35.31714 English cubic feet; it is the same as the chilolitre in measures of capacity.

10 decisteres

10 Steres

1 STERE.

The Gramme, which is the weight of a cubic centimetre of distilled water of the temperature of melting ice, is the unit of all weights. The Gramme is equal to 15.434 grains Troy,

A milligramme is 1000th part of a gramme,
A centigramme is 100th part of a gramme,
A decigramme is 10th part of a gramme,
A GRAMME

A decagramme is 10 grammes,

A hectogramme is 100 grammes,
A chilogramme is 1000 grammes,
A myriagramme is 10000 grammes,

=

Grains Troy.

0.0154

0.1543

1.5434

15.4340

154.3400

1543.4000

15434.0000

154340.0000

All the preceding French weights and measures are deduced from some decimal proportion of the metre. Thus, the chilogramme corresponds with the contents of a cubic vessel of pure water at the lowest temperature, the side of which vessel is the tenth part of the metre, (the decimetre,) and the gramme answers to the like contents of a cubic vessel, the side of which is the hundredth part of the metre, (the centimetre ;) for the contents of all cu bic vessels are to each other in the triplicate ratio of their sides.

100 lb. of HAMBURGH
The ship fund is 280 lb.
1 foot, Hamburgh
The Hamburgh ell is 2 feet
The Hamburgh mile
The fass of Hamburgh
The last of grain is 60 fasses
The ahm of Hamburgh
100 lb. of AMSTERDAM
4 shipfunds is 1 ship-pound
The Amsterdam last
The Aam (liquid)
The Amsterdam foot
The ell of Amsterdam
The ell of the Hague
The ell of Brabant
100 lb. of PORTUGAL
An arroba is 32 pounds
The moyo, a dry measure
The almude, a liquid measure
The pe, or foot, long measure
The palmo, or standard span
The vara is 5 palmos
The Portuguese mile

1593 cubic inches, U. S. =69.09 gallons wine, U. S. = 7.42 bushels, U. S. =90.26 lb. avoirdupois. = 361.04 lb. avoirdupois. = 36.1054 lb. avoirdupois. = 5.952 bushels, U. S. =3.246 gallons, U. S. = 1 inch, U. S.

4

168 lb. avoirdupois.
135 10-16 lb. avoirdupois.

13 gallons, U. S.

27 inches, U. S.

= 500 lb. avoirdupois. 34

NAVIGATION.

RECKLESSNESS OF HUMAN LIFE

Recklessness of life has been said to be a characteristic of the American people-a bold assertion, which we would fain discredit, but in all candor and honesty we cannot, S grave, so serious a charge, should be repelled at once, if it can be, and the escutcheon of our country cleansed of so foul a stain. Human life is not a thing to play chuckfarthing with, or to hazard idly: it is the property of the omnipotent, entrusted to mankind for a great purpose, and he who rashly or recklessly perils it, games with what is not his own. The suicide defrauds his creator, and his sacrificed existence is a solemn trust betrayed.

But infinitely greater is his turpitude, who is wantonly, and without reason, accessory to the loss of the lives of others! This consideration seldom occurs to a majority of our citizens, if the occurrence of so many maimings and murders by duels, quarrels, steamboat explosions, shipwrecks, etc. is the criterion by which we may judge. Must we not infer from this, that the public feeling in this country has become callous to the appalling frequency of careless, and too often wanton, destruction of life, fresh accounts of which daily teem in our public journals. The faculties of wonder and of horror seem to have grown hardened and impenetrable with our people, and we look, with equal indifference, upon a mercantile failure, a shipwreck, or a steamboat explosion, unless personally interested in the event.

That this morbid state of feeling is morally wrong, no one can doubt, and it must be a matter of the deepest regret to the philanthropist and christian. So long as this hardened feeling possesses us, just so long will our country be retarded in its progress to civilization.

Carelessness of human life is an insult to the God who gave it. And is there no way to stop the red and swelling current of murder which is gaining strength every day? (for surely all loss of life is murder, where there is an easy and available preventive.) Shall commanders of steamboats and sailing ships be allowed to make their voyages with unnecessary peril? Shall not every possible effort be used to ensure safety to the lives entrusted to their care?

We have been induced to make these remarks, by the fact that there is a culpable neglect on the part of a majority of our ship owners, to avail themselves of the labors of an American citizen, who has brought to perfection an invention, which, taking everything, into consideration, is scarcely second to that of the immortal Fulton-we mean the life boat of Francis.

How frequently do we read the most distressing accounts of shipwrecks, and the sad tale of human life suddenly swept away, in many cases accompanied by the too often repeated remark, that from two to twenty men were drowned by the swamping

of the boat."

66

When it has been ascertained that the master or owner of a vessel have committed felony by wilfully wrecking such vessel in order to defraud the underwriters, we all know the odium which is ever after attached to such person's name. And the very men who look with holy horror upon such an act, will, voyage after voyage, send their ships to sea, with boats which are wholly unfit for any useful purpose in case of emergency; thus perilling, for the saving of a few dollars, the invaluable lives of the crew.

It would be easy to adduce multitudes of reasons why these superior life preservers should be adopted by every vessel in the navy and merchant service of our country; as they have already been eulogised and patronised by several foreign governments. But we only intend, by this article, simply to direct attention to the subject, and trust that those who have the management of our forests of ships, will no longer wickedly trifle with the lives of those who are accidentally or from necessity temporarily placed in their

power.

In conclusion, we put this simple question to every ship-owner and master in the country, "Have you a single long boat under your control in which you would be willing to place your wife or children, and start them even in fine weather, from New York for Sandy Hook ?" We know that in 49 cases in 50, the answer would be, "No."

MARCH OF STEAM.

In 1814, but one steamboat, of sixty-nine tons burthen, floated in solitude on the British waters. Now there are about six hundred, with a tonnage of 67,969. The first steamboat used for practical purposes in our country, or indeed in any part of the

world, was in 1807, on the Hudson river. She was built by Fulton, and called the North River," with an engine of only eighteen horse power, and made the passage between New York and Albany in thirty-six hours. The whole number of steamboats ascertained and estimated to be now in the United States, is nearly nine hundred. The following table we have compiled from a statement of the Liverpool Statistical Society, published in the Liverpool Mail. It exhibits the number and increase of steam vessels belonging to the British Empire, (including the plantations,) from 1814 to 1836 inclusive. Tonnage. Year.

No. Vessels.

No. Vessels.

Year.

Tonnage.

1814

2

456

1826

243

28,958

A new kind of sheathing has been invented in England, and the manufacture of it commenced on an extensive scale. We find the following article relative to its manufacture, and the advantages of it, in an English paper :

"We feel bound to acknowledge the polite attention and the readiness to furnish information evinced by Mr. G. F. Muntz, (the patentee,) on the occasion of our visit, and although from the nature of the manufacture it is simple in its details, the advantages must be so apparent to the ship-owner, that any remarks we may make cannot be otherwise than acceptable to that wealthy and important class. The use of zinc is not only 'progressing,' but is likely to compete in the proportion of 40 to 60 with copper in the sheathing of vessels. The works are situated within a mile of the town of Swansea, immediately in the neighborhood of the copper works, and are at present capable of manufacturing a considerable quantity of sheathing and bolts - there being four pair of rollers, with the machinery necessary for drawing rods, worked by an engine of 54 inch cylinder, 8 feet stroke. The metal is a combination of copper and zinc, the best admixture being found to be 60 per cent. of the former and 40 per cent. of the latter. The metal is delivered on the works, and is then submitted in these proportions to the action of a reveberatory furnace, or melted in pots, from which it is cast in plates or bars, according to the object for which the metal is required, whether 'bolts' or sheathing. It is subsequently submitted to heat, and when, as it appeared to us, of a 'cherry red,' is worked in the cylinder of rollers, or drawn out in rods. The process is in itself exceedingly simple, and affords little novelty to any one accustomed to the manufacture

of iron.

"Many opinions have been advanced, and doubts expressed, of the advantages (if any) which this metal possessed, while its ductility was questioned, and its permanence only admitted when it had been submitted to the test of some years application.

"It is satisfactory to find that the results have fully realised the sanguine expectations of the patentee; one vessel having made three voyages to India without repairs being required, and another having been sheathed for the past five years with the yellow metal,' and now in good condition; while in the port of Swansea, at the present time, two Hamburgh vessels, the Kate and Anna Louise, have adopted it. In the instance of the Kate, we take the words of the owner-" -'He has effected a saving on a 400 ton vessel of full £80.' The difference in the price of copper and Muntz's (or yellow) metal sheathing, being three half pence per pound less, and the difference in the specific gravity eight to nine per cent. With respect to the bolts, we have it on the statements of the shipwrights employed, that they are far superior in driving to those of copper, as possessing more tenacity and firmness. Such are the advantages of the combination of the two metals-copper and zinc; and we may, therefore, hope, that with these advances in metalurgical science, we shall, whatever may be the influx of copper ores from foreign climes, be able still to look at home for our supply of mineral, which shall furnish employment to the population in our mining districts, but yield, as it has heretofore done, so considerable a proportion of our national wealth."