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Memoirs of the Progress of MANUFACTURES, CHEMISTRY, SCIENCE, and the FINE ARTS.

MR B. Cook, of Birmingham, con

sidering the superior advantage which would result from a discovery of some method of providing security against fires within doors, conceives that this desirable end might be, in a great measure, answered by the introduction of iron stair-cases. Common ones, he thinks, might be afforded as cheap as any kind of wood; or where ornament is required they might be made quite as elegant and handsome as those of the most costly materials. He also suggests the forming of the joists, rafters, and beams, which might be cast hollow, of the same metal; by which means, fire could not be easily communicated from one room to another.

M. Franconi has invented a travelling carriage, containing a complete habitation and of very simple construction. It is composed of a body, fifteen feet long, seven and a half wide, and six high, being raised three feet from the ground upon the wheels of

a common curricle. Racks are placed upon the four sides, so as to be able to feed sixteen or twenty horses; canvas, which covers the body of the vehicle, while it is going, may be raised to shelter the horses, and exhibits the appearance of a large tent, placed round a pavilion, surmounted with a lightning conductor. Doors open on the right and left, where six steps enable the traveller to get in and out with ease. The interior is divided by a partition, into two apartments, one of which serves for an antichamber, kitchen, or sitting room, and the other for a bed-chamber. A gallery in front of the vehicle is useful for driving, and enables the traveller to go abroad, as it were, without alighting. Four horses are sufficient for travelling post with this carriage.

The acid, denominated pyrolignite of iron, obtained by the distillation of wood, is employed with great success in the arts. It has already been extracted from vinegar, without any em

pyre

pyrematic smell, also from oil; and with it may be formed the base of a great number of solvents. M. Vitalis has applied it to the dying of thread and cotton, and this practice is now followed in the manufactories of Rouen, where black cottons for mourning, which used formerly to be procured from Holland, are dyed in a solid and cheap manner, by means of the pyrolignite of iron. This colour lasts very long, and is not liable to turn rusty like common blacks.

M. Rochoux, of Issoudun, in the department of Indre, has long used the expressed juice of the barberry in dying. The root of the plant boiled in water, gives a beautiful green, applicable to goat and sheep-skins.

M. Alexandre, of Bourdeaux, employs a simple method of filtering water, without either sand, sponge, or pounded charcoal. It consists in merely causing the liquid to pass thro' the capillary tubes, of a piece of half worn-out cotton. It is well known that a skain of thread, or a ribbon, one end of which is put into a vessel, while the other hangs over the side, will very soon become a conductor of the liquid, which filters and runs off, till the vessel is nearly empty. This experiment, M. Alexandre has applied on a large scale, to the purification of the water of the Garonne.

Mr Jefferson, late president of the United States, has sent to the class of natural history of the Institute a fine collection of fossil bones, dug up on the banks of the Ohio. The greater number belong to the large animal, improperly called Mammoth, by the Americans, and to which M. Cuvier gives the name of Mastodonte; but there are likewise some belonging to the genuine Mammoth of the Russians, or the other land-animal, much resembling the Indian elephant, the remains of which are so common in Siberia. These two gigantic creatures, therefore, formerly inhabited together e northern parts of our globe.

The following new patents were £nally passed on the 18th July :

To M. Barthelemy Baron-Canson, paper-maker, of Annonay, for five years, for the application of a colouring principle of perfect equality, and of a solidity, proof against every test to the manufacture of paper.

To Messrs. Jecker, brothers, of Paris, for five years, for making frames of spectacles.

To M. François Nicolas Henault, of Douai, for five years, for an economical stove for burning pit-coal.

To M. Zacharie Adam, of Montpellier, for additions and improvements in the apparatus for distilling, of his brother Edward Adam.

To Messrs. Dervieu and Piaud, of St Etienne (dep. of Loire) for ten years, for a loom for making the ground of lace.

To M. Duval, of Paris, for five years, for various processes relative to the construction of fire arms and the manner of using them.

To M. Albert Sakosky, of Paris, for five years, for a mechanical last, for lengthening, widening, and enlarging, shoes, according to their inconveniencies, or the conformation of the feet.

To M. Marcel, of Paris, for ten years, for an apparatus, by which the vapors that are disengaged from turf, during carbonisation, may be turned to advantage.

To M. Couder, of Paris, for ten years, for a preparation which he applies to common paper, and which he therefore calls Syrian paper.

To Messrs. Pouillet, Fayolle, and Hullin, of Paris, for five years, for a machine for making the lace, called tricot de Berlin, toile d'araignée, oeil de perdrix.

To Messrs. Albert and Martin, for ten years, for a fire and steam engine of double power.

To M. Desouches, locksmith, of Paris, for five years, for improvements in portable iron bedsteads.

To

To M. Lange, of Paris, for ten years, for a new lamp, with a double current of air, which he calls, melasstatique.

To M. Keyser Delisle, of Paris, for five years, for a musical instrument, which he denominates, harpe-harmonico-forte.

To M. Elzeard Degrand, of Marseilles, a patent of importation for fifteen years, for a machine for cutting nails, and striking the head at the same time.

To M. Richard Ward, of New York, captain and proprietor of the American ship, Mentor, a patent of importation for ten years, for a new method of lighting the compass, in the binnacle of a ship.

M. Charles Otto, a paper maker, of Saxony, has discovered a method of sizing paper while it is still in the vat, and in every season of the year, without using either the shreds of skins, or any other animal substance.

At a late meeting of the Academy of Sciences, Literature, and Fine Arts, of Turin, M. Boisarelli, chemist, presented two specimens of artificial cotton thread, made by Messrs. Copps and Parodi, of Genoa. He likewise stated that stockings, cloth, and wicks for candles, had been made of this cotton, but the latter gave only an indifferent light; a defect which he ascribed to the maceration of the material in alkalies, and which washing in water was expected to correct. The academy was satisfied of the resemblance of the specimens to cotton; and Dr Rizzetti, having observed that, by treating tow of hemp with different agents, it might be reduced to a similar substance, he was commissioned to make the necessary experiments at the expence of the academy.

A letter, dated Cape of Good Hope, May 21, 1809, gives the following interesting particulars :-"About ten months ago, Lieutenant Donovan, of the 83d regiment, AssistantSurgeon Cowan, and twelve Hotten

tots, left the Cape with the intention of travelling, if possible, as far as Mosambique. This undertaking, if it be accomplished, will far exceed any African travels that have hitherto been performed, as the regions through which they pass are utterly unknown to any European. Last week, letters dated about two months ago, were received from these gentlemen, at which time they had penetrated to lat. 24° S. long. 28° E. According to the information which they had collected, in about twelve or fourteen days longer travelling to the N. E. they should arrive at a place, to which white people were in the habit of going from Mosambique; so that there is great reason to hope this arduous enterprize may be successfully atchieved. The country which they were then in was fertile. The only discovery of material importance, which they appear to have made, at the time their letters were written, was that they had found wild camels, animals not before known to be inhabitants of South Africa.This unexpected discovery may eventually prove of the highest utility to this colony, in many parts of which, for several succeeding days, a traveller cannot meet with water; and, from the burdens which camels are capable of bearing, they may probably supersede, in a great degree, the use of waggons, each of which requires from eight or ten to sixteen or eighteen bullocks to drag them over the sandy or stony roads, in the vicinity of the Cape." From this account it appears that the travellers had proceeded in a diagonal line, and in a north-easterly direction, from 34° S. lat. and 23° E. lon. (the situation of the Cape) to 24° S. lat. and 28° E. lon. that is 10° to the northward, and 5° to the eastward; and that as Mosambique is situated in 40° E. long. and 15° S. lat. they had still to traverse 9° of latitude, and 13° of longitude, so that their journey was not then nearly half completed.

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1808.

832

RAIN TABLE FOR 1808.

By the Rev. J. BLANCHARD, of Nottingham.

Chichester.

London.

Bristol.

Cheltenham.

West Bridgford,
near Nottingham.

Horncastle,
Lincolnshire.

Chatsworth,
Derbyshire.

Manchester.

Ferriby,
Kingston upon Hull.
Heath, near
Wakefield, Yorkshire.

Lancaster.

Dalton, Lancashire.

Kendal.

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5,67 3,22 2,76

3,04 1,52 1,05 0,80 2,85 0,93 1,39 2,70 0,59 1,14 2,90 3,88 5,25 1,67
0,90 1,12 0,53 0,20 2,23 0,77 1,35 1,48 0,92 1,26 2,00 1,85 2,42 2,31|
1,42 0,20 0,35 0,05 1,30 0,42 0,37 0,24 0,29 0,99 0,00 0,55 0,28 0,65
2,67 2,42 5,37 5,05 2,01 3,58 2,57 1,32 2,47 3,49 1,8 1,78 2,80 3,04
1,72 1,58 2,99 1,30 2,45 1,65 1,68 1,76 2,01 3,08 2,38 4,14 3,95 1,92
1,51 0,78 1,75 5,10 2,20 1,18 3,25 2,05 1,21 2,34 1,25 1,84 2,02 2,61
1,45 2,50 3,71 2,44 3,24 3,44 4,12 3,91 4,85 2,45
1,92 1,69 2,13 2,18 2,44 2,66 3,75 4,87 5,37 7,51
2,45 1,53 3,80 2,71 3,27 3,03 1,23 3,05 2,62 2,50
1,82 2,77 3,98 5,32 2,99 2,49 7,08 6,53 7,25 2,01
0,80 3,20 2,60 3,10 2,51 3,16 4,27 5,20 3,92 0,74
1,74 4,10 1,98 1,79 5,01 2,91 1,69 2,39 2,61 1,93
36,62 22,98 32,08 12,50 23,22 24,32 28,81 27,09 26,95 29,99 32,48 39,99 43,34 29,34
5,6222,9832,08 23,2224,32 28,81|27,09|26,95|29,993
1,99|32,4839,99

August 2,69 0,96 3,06
September 4,87 4,18 4,36
October 6,41 3,82 5,26
November 2,92 2,18 3,08
December 2,80 1,00 1,52

Total

Edinburgh.

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