LESSON XXXIII.
1. Minerals.—The mountainous parts of these states abound in coal and iron, Pennsylvania and West Virginia are great coal and iron states.
In some of the Pennsylvania coal mines the passageways from which coal has been taken are miles in length.
New York furnishes from its salt beds much of our salt and most of our baking soda.
In the coal mines of Pennsylvania.
2. Iron.—As we travel through the mountains of Pennsylvania, we often see tall chimneys rising up among the tree-tops.
At night these chimneys are like giant lighthouses, with a flame many feet in length coming out of them.
They belong to smelting-furnaces. In such furnaces iron ore is smelted. The iron is then run off into little channels made in sand. Here it cools in bars about two feet long, and becomes what we call pig-iron. The "pigs" are melted again and made into steel, and the steel is at last rolled into rails for railroads or made into other useful things.
3. Petroleum. or rock oil, from which kerosene is made, is obtained in Pennsylvania, New York, and West Virginia.
Here are to be seen wells from which petroleum is pumped up instead of water. Sometimes, when an oil well is first opened, the oil spouts up in a column twenty-five or thirty feet high.
Pennsylvania and New York are famed for their natural gas.
Interior of a sewing-machine, factory at Newark, N.J. In this room the machines are put together.
4. Manufactures.—Many of the cities and towns of the Middle Atlantic states are extensively engaged in manufacturing.
In their foundries and machine shops, railroad engines and machinery of all kinds are made. There are also manufactures of cotton, silk, and woolen goods.
Manufacturing Cities.—New York, Philidelphia, and Baltimore take the lead in manufacturing. Pittsburg is celebrated for its iron and glass works; Buffalo, for its enormous shipping business. Rochester, near the falls of the Genesee, manufactures large quantities of clothing, Troy makes railroad cars, stoves, and shirts, collars, and cuffs.
Newark manufactures rubber, sewing machines, and leather-goods; Jersey City, glassware, lead pencils, and a great variety of metal goods.
Paterson is noted for its silk manufactures. Wilmington is famed for its manufacture of gunpowder, cars, and iron and steel steamships.
Wheeling, W, Va., showing factories along the Ohio river.
Norfolk, in Virginia, has one of the best harbors in the United States. It manufactures cotton and ships oysters and vegetables.
Wheeling, on the Ohio, contains large iron and glass works.
For Recitation.—What are the chief products of the Middle Atlantic states? From which of these states do we get much of our coal, ironware, and petroleum? What are the leading manufacturing cities of the Middle Atlantic states? Mention other cities in this section.
