Part 20

Happy indeed is it for the interests of this country that so immense a capital has found its way into steam hammers, saws, lathes, and all the mighty elements which mechanical genius has called into the service of man. We are on the right track at last, and people who want to judge of the real progress of this place should visit the workshops of the Western Railway. Within the last few years this grand mart of mechanical industry has sprung into existence. We recollect Buenos Ayres without a railway—still more without a workshop—unless the humble smith's forge may be dubbed by this title; but on last Wednesday it was with agreeable astonishment we witnessed the foundries, shops, forges, warehouses, &c., all in full play, and every man at his post; in fact, the only alloy to our feelings of satisfaction was the utter absence of the youth of the country from these, the finest and best schools for boys and young men. The whole mechanical work going on is in the hands almost exclusively of foreigners, and hardly a single native boy as apprentice for the entire length and breadth of the establishment is to be seen. We trust when the great advantages of these shops are brought properly before the public that we shall see some change in this respect.

At one o'clock a select party attended at the Railway Station in the Parque, to witness the working of some new machinery sent out recently by Mr. Thomas Allen, the Government engineer abroad. We noticed, amongst those present, Dr. Rawson, Sres. Gonsalez, Santa Maria, Coghlan, Gowland, Fleming, Aguirre, Velez, Castro, Gutierrez, Dr. Seguel, and several other leading men whose names we forget. A beautiful model locomotive was, with the aid of a small kerosene lamp, set a-going; it worked on a tray, and fairly astonished with the precision of its movements some Cordova friends present. A portable galvanic telegraphic apparatus was next introduced, and one of the operatives in charge showed the working of it, the great merit of which appeared to us to be its extreme simplicity. On the table lay drawings of the new fountains for the Water Works; the “jet d'eau” for the Plaza Victoria is a truly magnificent and useful ornament; it will cost when put up about £1,500, but those for the other Plazas are less expensive.

At the Parque Station they have now a complete set for twelve stations of Morse's Printing Telegraph. Everything has arrived in first-rate order for connecting Rosario with this city. There are over 500 wrought iron posts, with twelve tables. The whole affair will cost, we believe, about £11,000. The manager, or chief electrician, is expected out in the packet; at present M. Ringallé is in charge. Four telegraph clerks have also been engaged in England.

About half-past one we proceeded to the special train in waiting to convey us to the Once Setiembre depots. We noticed that the Bragge roof is completely worn away, but we understand that the new iron and glass roof, from England, has arrived, and will be put up immediately. Every day materials are arriving from abroad, owing to the convenience of having such a practical agent as Mr. Thomas Allen, who, from his lengthened experience on the road, knows precisely what is wanted and what will suit. A large turning table is now coming out, upwards of forty-two feet. It will be the largest in the country; it was made at Birmingham, and will be put up at the Parque Central Station; also a large travelling truck, to carry railway carriages, waggons, &c., from one line to another. We entered Governor Alsina's state coach, being accompanied by the guests, and pushed on for the depots. The coach is elegantly fitted up with every convenience, and we are surprised his Excellency the Governor does not take a trip out twice a week to Chivilcoy or Mercedes.

Arriving at the depots, we first entered the foundry department, and came on a hydraulic press used for taking the wheels off axles; it works up to a pressure of fifty tons; three men work it, and it is one of the most useful machines in the shop, doing in ten minutes the work of ten men for a whole day.

Next we inspected a hydraulic pump for trying the state of boilers to 500 lbs. per square inch, which is constantly in use.

A large planing machine next met the eye. This machine planes up to nine feet, and is used for making points and crossings, or any large planing, and is worked by a boy.

Alongside is a small screw cutting lathe, twelve inch centres. This machine is useful for all kinds of work.

Then we have a small lathe for brass turning, eight inch centres, worked by apprentices.

Further on is a screwing machine, patented by Messrs. Sharpe, Stewart & Co., of Manchester, to screw from ¼ to 1½ inches; also worked by a boy.

Another machine, patented by the same firm, called a shaping machine, for all kinds of work; one of the most useful in the shop, and worked by apprentices.

Next comes a break lathe; will turn up to six feet for screw cutting and for all other kind of work; attended to by operatives.

The shaft pump supplies the great tank with water from a huge algibe, throwing up 3,500 gallons 18 feet high. This water is used for washing boilers, &c.

The large wheel lathe, a ponderous machine, turns wheels six feet diameter: this is used to repair wheels, which, being in constant use, require continued attention—worked by an operative.

Then comes a double-faced wheel lathe, turning two wheels at one time; turns up to 4 feet diameter—worked by an operative.

The large stationary engine, the great motive power of the whole shop, drives all the shafts, is 12-horse power, burning about three quarters of a ton of slack and ashes per day—attended by one operative.

The patent silent fan, which is used to supply six blacksmiths' forges, making 2,000 evolutions per minute.

Then comes the monarch of the shop, the steam hammer. Here we witnessed the strokes of this huge machine, at which even Vulcan himself would stare. The noise of this hammer striking on the red hot bars echoed around the whole square. Mr. Daniel Gowland remarked that the first steam hammer he ever saw in South America was in the ill-fated Paraguay.

There are six blacksmiths' forges constantly at work, fed by the steam fan, and always occupied in repairing locomotives, coaches, waggons, &c.

Mr. Manier is the foreman of this shop. Before, however, we leave it, we must notice the casting or blast foundry. Whilst we were present we witnessed the workmen casting old brass into new plates, which latter arrangement realised an immense saving, and redounds to the credit of the indefatigable Emilio Castro, who perceived the great loss in selling old brass and buying new; and last, not least, we must not omit the huge punching machine, very useful in its way, but little used. It punches quarter inch to an inch, and cuts up to three quarter boiler plates.

The repairing shop is large (50 metres by 50), and capable of holding thirty locomotives; we noticed four locomotives under repair. Damaged engines are here turned out as good as new; and, indeed, Mr. John Allen, who is the moving genius of the whole mechanical department, assures us that they can make their own locomotives, so replete with every utensil are the shops; but, of course, it is cheaper to import them. Two damaged engines were landed not long ago, and were about to be sold by auction, but Mr. Allen took them in hand, and now they are in excellent working order. Owing to the great falling off of traffic on the line, there are now only eight engines daily under steam, whereas this time last year they had sixteen; but in this shop all kinds of repairs can be done. Already the shops have built several first and second-class coaches—genuine native industry.

We next pass to the coach and waggon shop, (50 by 12), capable of holding about twelve carriages. Here all the coaches are overhauled, repaired, varnished, and even the upholstery attended to, and coaches built. The only thing which as yet baffles the mechanics are the wheels, which must be imported.

And now we come to the new carpenter's shop, where the new machines sent out by Mr. Allen have been just put up.

The chief attraction is the new machine which, as it does every imaginable kind of work, is called the “General Joiner.” None of the gentlemen present could give us the exact name in Spanish for this machine, so we call it the “Nuevo Carpintero General.” A facetiously disposed writer might opine that as President Mitre has given to the Republic a new cavalry major, Governor Alsina, not to be outdone, has given his country a new “General,” the best and most potent general in the Republic; and we congratulate the Governor on the acquisition of the new “Carpintero General.”

We all stood astonished at the work it did, and have not now time to explain its varied powers; it plains, moulds, and saws planks of every size in a few moments; and beside it we noticed the new endless saw; also the jigger saw for pattern making; also the new wood turning lathe, and the large drilling machine, the largest in this country for drilling wheels.

In the yard we noticed sixty pair of extra wheels from the States, but at these depots they have an immense extra supply of everything.

And if we were to stop to detail all we saw in those wondrous workshops it would fill half-a-dozen _Standards_.

The works are a credit to Buenos Ayres, and an honour to the present Administration. We left these busy haunts with the most favourable impressions, well recollecting that but a few years ago this very site was a rude brick-kiln.

Yes, there is vitality, after all, in Buenos Ayres, and if any man doubts it, let him pay a visit on a working day to these shops. The store-rooms, under the charge of Mr. Tucker, are replete with everything, and the wool depots are the grandest and most extensive in the country, capable of holding at one time 100 waggons.

There are sixty-eight mechanics in the workshops constantly employed; 600 men engaged in working the line.

Mr. Emilio Castro, head director; Don Luis Elordi, second in command; Mr. John Allen next; and Mr. Zimmermann head electrician.

SANITARY CHARACTER OF THE ANDINE HEIGHTS.

We have made the following extracts from an article published in the “Revista de Buenos Ayres,” on the climates of the Andine Heights, and mountains of Cordova, written by Dr. Scrivener, who has himself resided for many years in those countries. The “Revista de Buenos Ayres” is a most valuable publication, and those who are interested in South America will find much reliable information in it. It contains many curious articles on the history and literature of the country. It has now reached its 13th volume, each book containing 640 pages, 8vo.:—

The sky at the Andine Mountains is pure azure, and the atmosphere bright and clear, and is so very transparent that it enables you to see objects at a distance, making them apparently close at hand, although in reality it would require a journey of several days to reach them.

The climate is fine and healthy, the lightness of the atmosphere produces an exhilarating effect, and an increase of energy and activity. The grandeur and magnificence of the mountains fill the mind with sentiments of veneration and awe.

I have traversed these mountains on many occasions, and am therefore enabled to form an opinion of the salubrity of the climate, as also of that on the route from the Province of Cordova to the banks of the Pacific. All over this vast tract of land, that fatal enemy of man, the tubercular phthisis, so justly feared by the inhabitants of Lima, and Buenos Ayres, is entirely unknown.

During a residence of nearly ten years in different and widely spread districts of the whole country, I never saw nor heard, either directly or indirectly, through my intercourse with others, of the existence of that disease.

Doctor Smith remarks,[10] “that incipient and tubercular phthisis, usually attended with more or less hemoptysis, is one of the most common pulmonary affections known in Lima and other parts of the coast of Peru.

“Besides, it is a disease almost certainly cured if taken in time, by removing the _coast_ patient to the open inland valley of Jauja, which runs from ten to eleven thousand feet above the sea level.

“This fact has been known and acted upon from time immemorial by the native inhabitants and physicians, and I have,” observes that physician, “sent patients from the capital to Jauja, in a very advanced state of phthisis, with open ulcerations and well marked caverns on the lungs, and have seen them again after a lapse of a little time, return to their homes free from fever, and with every appearance of the disease being arrested; but in many instances it would, after a protracted residence on the coast, again become necessary to return to the mountains, to prevent a recurrence of the disease.”

We thus learn from the preceding extract, that the influence of the atmosphere in the mountains of Peru will remove pulmonary consumption in its first stage, and arrest its progress when far advanced. That such is the fact, I can also myself vouch from my own experience during a residence of sixteen years in that country.

Dr. Jourdant remarks,[11] “that consumption is very rare in high elevations, which is not to be attributed to the latitude of the place, but to its elevation; that Mexico and Puebla, which are almost free from this disease, are in the same latitude as Vera Cruz, where it prevails; and that the condition of the patient who suffers from consumption is considerably relieved in elevated districts, which he attributes to a less amount of oxygen in the rarified air.”

From these facts we can assert with safety, that those who unfortunately suffer from incipient tubercular phthisis, will almost with certainty obtain a cure in the mountainous districts which extend at a higher or lower elevation from the province of Cordova to the valley of Rimac, whilst, on the other hand, those in the later stages of that malady will find it will be arrested, and that their lives will be prolonged for years.

It becomes a matter for most serious consideration, whether it would not be well for patients suffering from pulmonary complaints to seek the renovation of their health in these salubrious regions, in preference to the Island of Madeira, Italy, and the South of France, where these diseases are known to originate, and where hundreds have gone to without obtaining any advantages, and many with positively evil results.

“There is something,” says Mr. Burkhardt,[12] “like the sound of a death-knell in the physician's mandate sending the sick patient to those places and scenes where so many fellow-sufferers have preceded him, in vain search for health, and found—a grave.”

The invalid will not find this in these healthy districts. In the mountains of Cordova, as well as on the Andine Heights, the patient will find his disease alleviated, and in time removed, (let him come from what quarter of the globe he may) by the hand of Nature. There pulmonary complaints are never known to originate, and there those who suffer from it, on the borders of the Parana and the River Plate, seek and find a permanent cure for their ailments proceeding from all affections of the lungs. “He will not have before his imagination the phantoms of numberless victims, his predecessors in the same hopeless career, to cast the shadow of death upon a being already depressed in mind by disease and loneliness, and pining after the familiar sights and sounds he may perhaps never hear again.” There, on the contrary, he will be in the midst of all that is grand—a thousand magnificent objects will excite his attention, and divert his mind from his unhappy malady, on which he will not dwell, but, on the contrary, on well founded hopes of a perfect recovery and a speedy return to his family and friends.

We believe, that when the benefits to be derived from a residence in the climate of these mountains are more generally known in Europe, very many who suffer from pulmonary complaints will visit these regions for a renovation of their health and system.

We would recommend the mountains of Cordova to consumptive patients, in preference to the Andine Heights of Bolivia, as being the nearest to the River Plate, and containing a greater variety of objects to divert the attention and amuse. The facility of transport, the shortness of the passage, combined with a well-founded hope of renovating the health, will be of themselves sufficient reasons for undertaking the journey.

The passage from England can be made in thirty-four days. There are several lines of merchant steamers, from London and Liverpool, as well as the Government vessels from Southampton and Bordeaux, which arrive at Buenos Ayres every month. From this port you can embark in a steamer for the city of Rosario, which is most beautifully situated on the banks of the river Parana, and is the finest port in the Argentine Confederation, at which you arrive in about twenty-six hours.

From thence you take the Argentine Central Railway, and arrive at the city of Cordova on the same day.

Here commence the serraicias or mountainous districts, which extend to the valley of Rimac, comprising an area of about 1,000 leagues.

We believe that at no very distant time, a public establishment will be founded in the mountains of Cordova for consumptive patients; should this be the case, we can vouch that there would be no lack of visitors willing to support the establishment, and anxious to aid it by their means, in exchange for the benefits they have received there; the natural grandeur and magnificence of the mountain scenery would also contribute, in no small degree, to the attractions of the place, and the benefit of the invalids.

The city of Cordova is situated in a deep valley on the banks of a river, amidst the most beautiful and varied scenery.

Ascending from the city to the mountains, the traveller finds every variety of climate, with a difference of temperature at every additional ascent.

In these varieties of temperature, he will be certain to find one that is suitable to his complaint, and agreeable to himself.

The tops and sides of the mountains are partly covered with trees and shrubs, and the soil in the valley is rich and very fertile, producing Indian corn, wheat, barley, sundry fruits and vegetables, and whatever the husbandman may desire to cultivate. Cattle, horses, mules, with sheep and goats, roam in large herds, on most excellent pasture. Huanacos and other wild animals inhabit the mountains. The wool of the sheep is of a superior quality and highly prized in the European markets.

There are great varieties of trees on the plains, many of which are very lofty, and their branches form an agreeable shade, as well as add to the beauty of the scenery. The timber of these trees is of superior quality, well suited for the construction of houses, and in the manufacture of furniture, &c.

There are mines of gold, silver, copper, and iron; the latter is very abundant and of good quality; there are also marble quarries, and the marble is very fine and of different colours; limestone of an extremely white nature is abundant; in short, there are few spots in the world where nature has lavished such a variety of animals, vegetables, and mineral productions as the province of Cordova.

It must follow, that with all these natural advantages, a country producing every commodity for the subsistence of man, and capable of affording all that tends to the convenience and luxury of life, will become at no distant period the abode of a numerous, industrious and wealthy population.

For a long period the Jesuits held their head-quarters in this province, and they were remarkable for their tact and knowledge in selecting the most healthy and fertile spots for their residences.

They erected in the capital the finest churches in the Argentine Confederation: they acquired large possessions throughout the province, and they also built splendid country mansions, which are models of art, taste, and convenience.

The fine edifices at Santa Catalina, Jesus Maria, and Caraga, are much visited and greatly admired by strangers.

It has been truly remarked by an eminent writer, that the greatest wonder of the age is a locomotive engine; that since its adoption travellers have been multiplied through the facility of transit: and that the greater those facilities, the greater the number of travellers. These facts have become generally known in this Republic, where several railways have already been made, and others are being constructed. The Central Argentine Railway, when completed, will extend from the city of Rosario to Cordova; this will be a great and lasting benefit to the commerce of the country. Cordova is now the grand emporium of the inland provinces; their productions of hides, wool, cotton, indigo, sugar, wine, wheat, tobacco, skins of animals, gold, silver, copper, iron and other valuable productions, are transported thither and conveyed by rail to the port of Rosario and shipped for Buenos Ayres, or direct to Europe. This railway extends 248 miles in length. Passengers have much increased since the opening of this line to Villa Nueva, and will still further increase on its completion to Cordova. In addition to men of business, many will avail themselves of it as a journey of pleasure, to visit the city and its beautiful mountain scenery.

Those who are fond of this kind of scenery will find much to please them. The mineralogist will see minerals, and the botanist plants, to attract their attention. We fully believe that before the lapse of many years strangers from Buenos Ayres, and other provinces, will build cottages in these beautiful and healthy regions, which would only require taste in their erection, and judgment in selecting the sites, to render them all that can be imagined as beautiful and romantic.

BUENOS AYRES AND THE OTHER PROVINCES A FIELD FOR EUROPEAN IMMIGRATION.

The following interesting and reliable statement has been published and circulated under the authority of the Argentine Government:—

The recommendations of the Argentine Republic to Europeans are:—

1. That the climate is as healthy and as favourable to vigour and longevity as that of England, or any other country of Europe.

2. That its cultivable lands are practically of unlimited extent, and require no outlay for clearing.

3. That it contains already, and especially at Buenos Ayres, the Capital, a large and prosperous European population, composed of Italians, French, English, Scotch and Irish, Germans, Portuguese, and others.

4. That the Government is solidly established and perfectly liberal, the aim of all parties being to maintain the financial honour of the country, to preserve peace, and to promote the development of industry and commerce.

5. That, while the State religion is Roman Catholic, complete toleration is upheld, churches of all denominations being established at Buenos Ayres and other places, where a considerable portion of the settlers are English or German Protestants, or Scotch Presbyterians.

6. That there is fortnightly[13] postal communications with England and the Continent by powerful Mail Steamers from Southampton and Bordeaux.

7. That the commercial policy of the country is in the direction of free trade.

8. That there is a treaty of amity, commerce, and navigation between Great Britain and the Republic, and that foreigners are exempted from compulsory military service or forced loans.