at night. In fogs, a steam whistle near the lighthouse is sounded ten seconds every minute. Near the harbour mouth are three batteries mounting nineteen guns.
The water supplied to the city contains only 312 grains solid matter in a gallon, with a hardness of about 2 degrees. It is brought by gravitation, in a close brick culvert, from the Dee, 21 miles W.S.W. of the city, to a reservoir, which supplies nine-tenths of the city. The other tenth, or higher part of the city, is supplied by a separate reservoir, to which part of the water from the culvert is forced up by a hydraulic engine. Nearly 40 gallons water per head of the population are consumed daily for all purposes. The new water works cost £160,000, and were opened by Her Majesty, 16th October 1866.
The gas is made of cannel coal, and is sent through 71 miles of main pipes, which extend 5 miles from the works.
The manufactures, arts, and trade of Aberdeen and vicinity are large and flourishing. Woollens were made as early as 1703, and knitting of stockings was a great industry in the 18th century. There are two large firms in the woollen trade, with 1550 hands, at £1000 weekly wages, and making above 1560 tons wool in the year into yards, carpets, hand-knit hosiery, cloths, and tweeds. The linen trade, much carried on since 1749, is now confined to one firm, with 2600 hands, at £1200 wages weekly, who spin, weave, and bleach 50 tons flax and 60 tons tow weekly, and produce yarns, floorcloths, sheetings, dowlas, ducks, towels, sail-canvas, &c. The cotton manufacture, introduced in 1779, employs only one firm, with 550 hands, at £220 weekly wages, who spin 5000 bales of cotton a-year into mule yarn. The wincey trade, begun in 1839, employs 400 hands, at £200 weekly wages, who make 2,100,000 yards cloth, 27 to 36 inches broad, in the year. Paper, first made her in 1696, is now manufactured by three firms in the vicinity. The largest has 2000 hands, at £1250 weekly wages, and makes weekly 75 to 80 tons of writing paper, and 612 millions of envelopes, besides much cardboard and stamped paper; another firm makes weekly 77 tons coarse and card paper; and a third, 20 tons printing and other paper. The comb works of Messrs Stewart & Co., begun in 1827, are the largest in the world, employing 900 hands, at £500 weekly wages, who yearly convert 1100 tons horns, hoofs, india-rubber, and tortoise-shells into 11 millions of combs, besides spoons, cups, scoops, paper-knives, &c. Seven iron foundries and many engineering works employ 1000 men, at £925 weekly wages, and convert 6000 tons of iron a-year into marine and land steam engines and boilers, corn mills, wood-preparing machinery, machinery to grind and prepare artificial manures, besides sugar mills and frames and coffee machinery for the colonies.
The Sandilands Chemical Works, begun in 1848, cover five acres, and employ over 100 men and boys, at £90 to £100 weekly wages. Here are prepared naphtha, benzole, creosote oil, pitch, asphalt, sulphate of ammonia, sulphuric acid, and artificial manures. Paraffin wax and ozokerite are refined. An Artesian well within the works, 421 feet deep, gives a constant supply of good water, always at 51° Fahr. Of several provision-curing works, the largest employs 300 hands, chiefly females, in preserving meats, soups, sauces, jams, jellies, pickles, &c., and has in connection with it, near the city, above 230 acres of fruit, vegetable, and farm ground, and a large piggery. The products of the breweries and distilleries are mostly comsumed at home. A large agricultural implement work employs 70 or 80 men and boys. Nearly 200 acres of ground, within three miles of the city, are laid out in rearing shrub and forest-tree seedlings. In 1872 about 145 acres of strawberries were reared within three miles of Aberdeen, and 80 tons of this fruit are said to have been exported.
Very durable grey granite has been quarried near Aberdeen for 300 years, and blocked and dressed paving, kerb, and building granite stones have long been exported from the district. In 1764, Aberdeen granite pavement was first used in London. About the year 1795, large granite blocks were sent for the Portsmouth docks. The chief stones of the New Thames Embankment, London, are from Kemnay granite quarries, 16 miles north-west of the city. Aberdeen is almost entirely built of granite, and large quantities of the stone are exported to build bridges, wharfs, docks, lighthouses, &c., elsewhere. Aberdeen is famed for its polishing-works of granite, especially grey and red. They employ about 1500 hands in polishing vases, tables, chimney-pieces, fountains, monuments, columns, &c., for British and foreign demand. Mr Alexander Macdonald, in 1818, was the first to begin the granite polishing trade, and the works of the same firm, the only ones of the kind till about 1850, are still the largest in the kingdom.
In 1820, 15 vessels from Aberdeen were engaged in the northern whale and seal fishing; in 1860, one vessel, but none since. The white fishing at Aberdeen employs some 40 boats, each with a crew of 5 men. Of the 900 tons wet fish estimated to be brought to market yearly, above a third are sent fresh by rail to England. The salmon caught in the Dee, Don, and sea are nearly all sent to London fresh in ice. The herring fishing has been prosecuted since 1836, and from 200 to 350 boats are engaged in it.
Aberdeen has been famed for shipbuilding, especially for its fast clippers. Since 1855 nearly a score of vessels have been built of above 1000 tons each. The largest vessel (a sailing one) ever built here was one in 1855, of 2400 tons. In 1872 there were built 11 iron vessels of 9450 tons, and 6 wooden of 2980 tons, consuming 5900 tons iron, and costing £252,700, including £70,700 for engines and other machinery. 1400 hands were employed in shipbuilding in that year, at the weekly wages of about £1230.
In 1872, there belonged to the port of Aberdeen 236 vessels, of 101,188 tons, twenty-four of the vessels, of 7483 tons, being steamers. They trade with most British and Irish ports, the Baltic and Mediterranean ports, and many more distant regions. In 1872, 434,108 tons shipping arrived at the port, and the custom duties were £112,414. The export trade, exclusive of coasting, is insignificant. The shore or harbour dues were £126 in 1765, and £1300 in 1800. In the year ending 30th September 1872, they were £25,520; while the ordinary harbour revenue was £37,765, expenditure £28,598, and debt £324,614. The introduction of steamers in 1821 greatly promoted industry and traffic, and especially the cattle trade of Aberdeenshire with London. These benefits have been much increased by the extension of railways. Commodious steamers ply regularly between Aberdeen and London, Hull, Newcastle, Leith, Wick, Kirkwall, and Lerwick.
The joint railway station for the Caledonian, Great North of Scotland, and Deeside lines, was opened 1867, and is a very handsome erection, costing about £26,000. It is 500 feet long, and 102 feet broad, with the side walls 32 feel high. The arched roof of curved lattice-iron ribs, covered with slate, zinc, and glass, is all in one span, rising 72 feet high, and is very light and airy.
The Medico-Chirurgical Society of Aberdeen was founded in 1789. The hall was built in 1820 at a cost of £4000, and is adorned with an Ionic portico of four granite columns, 27 feet high. It has 42 members, and a library of 5000 volumes. The legal practitioners of Aberdeen have been styled advocates since 1633, and received royal charters in 1774, 1779, and 1862. They form a society, called the Society of Advocates, of 127 members in 1873, with a
