74 Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



NEW PHENOMENA OF VAPOUR OBSERVED BY CLEMENT 

 DESORMES. 



This philosopher communicated, on the 4th of December, to the 

 Royal Academy of Sciences, some singular results relative to steam. 

 " When compressed in a boiler, and issuing in a violent and hissing 

 jet, through an orifice made in a pretty large plate, if a flat disk of 

 metal be presented to it, at a little distance from the orifice, the 

 disk is strongly repelled 3 but if it be brought near and placed against 

 the plate, as' if to close the orifice, although the steam issues on all 

 sides like artificial fire-works, and presses against the disk more, 

 than before, not only is the disk not driven away, but it adheres to 

 the plate even when the jet is directed downwards. It remains 

 suspended in opposition to its gravity, and can be detached only by 

 force. The same result takes place in an experiment with the wind 

 which issues from the large bellows of a furnace." 



NOTICE OF A FIRE-BALL: — BY THE REV. S. E. DWIGHT. 



This meteor appeared on Saturday evening, March 21, 1813, a 

 little before ten o'clock. The sky was extensively overcast, yet the 

 covering was every where thin : and in the North where the meteor 

 appeared, in various tracts of considerable extent, the stars were in 

 full view. I was standing on a platform on the north side of the 

 house, where I could survey the whole tract of sky over which the 

 meteor passed. When the light first broke upon me, I was looking 

 eastward, and for a moment supposed it to be a flash of very vivid 

 lightning j but from its continuance was led almost instantly to look 

 to the, luminary whence it proceeded. The following are the observa- 

 tions which 1 made at the time with regard to it. 



1 . The meteor, when I first saw it, was about 35° above the horizon -, 

 and from the course of the fence near which 1 stood, I judged its di- 

 rection, at that time, to be about N. 20° E. 



2. Its figure was nearly that of an ellipse, with the ends in a slight 

 degree sharpened or angular. 



3. The length of the transverse diameter appeared to be about 

 equal to the apparent diameter of the moon when on the meridian -, 

 ■and that of the conjugate, about three-fourths of the transverse. 



4. The colour of the body resembled that of the moon, but was evi- 

 dently more yellow. 



5. A trail of light was formed behind it of considerable length, 

 perhaps of ten or twelve degrees. It was broadest near the body, 

 and decreased in breadth very slowly for about two-fifths of its 

 length ; after which it was an uniform stripe of light, about as wide as 

 the apparent diameter of the planet Venus. The direction of the 

 tail was coincident with that of the transverse diameter. 



6. The ball was much more luminous than the tail, so that the end 

 of the ball connected with the tail was scarcely less distinct in its 

 form than the opposite end. 



7. The illumination was so powerful, that all the objects around 



me 



