MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. Ill 



ful dolls, half a metre in height, showing models of the various fashions 

 of the last winter. 



NEW METHOD FOR TAKING IMPRESSIONS OF STAMPS, SEALS, &C. 



To TAKE exact impressions of stamps, or in fact of any device, 

 raised or imprinted, that is sunk upon paper, cut a piece of card-board, 

 say to the breadth of half an inch, with which form a ring just the 

 dimensions of the impression to be taken ; then pour within the said 

 ring, which surrounds the spot, melted fusible metal ; the carding will 

 prevent the metal from running away, and in a feAv minutes it 

 will cool and take the impression, without the slightest injury to the 

 paper from Avhich it was taken. It need not be said that the impres- 

 sion, &c., taken, must be the same as the original. Fusible metal is a 

 compound of eight parts of bismuth, five of lead,' and three of tin, 

 which liquifies at 212, and below that if one part of quicksilver be 

 added. London Chemist. 



IMMENSE MANUFACTURING ESTABLISHMENT IN ENGLAND. 



THE London Times gives the following account of a new and 

 immense establishment now erecting at Bradford, England, for the 

 manufacture of alpacas. The magnitude of this concern, says 

 the Times, may be inferred from the fact that it is calculated to cover 

 six statute acres of ground. The principal building will be a massive 

 stone edifice, with considerable architectural pretensions, having a 

 single room in it of 540 feet long, and the machinery will include the 

 latest inventions of acknowledged merit. The engines to move the 

 immense mass of machinery required are calculated at 1,200 horse 

 power. The gas works alone will be equal to those of a small town, 

 and will be erected upon White's hydro-carbon system, at a cost 

 of 4,000 ; it is estimated that 5,000 lights will be required, and the 

 gas works are constructed for a supply of 100,000 cubic feet of gas 

 per diem. In addition to this extensive factory, Mr. Salt is building 

 seven hundred cottages for the workpeople in the immediate neigh- 

 borhood. The site is at a place which has been named Salt-Aire, 

 being on one of the banks of the river Aire, and will be approached 

 by a tubular bridge over the river, which is also to be of elegant 

 construction. The estimated cost of the whole is not known, but has 

 been spoken of as upwards of half-a-million sterling. Unrivalled for 

 extent as these works are at present, perhaps, in the world, and with 

 masonry also of the most substantial character, and machinery the 

 most perfect, it is said that a cotton mill is in contemplation at Bolton, 

 of nearly, if not quite equal magnitude. 



REDUCTION OF PRICES BETWEEN 1810 AND 1851. 



AMID the busy innovations of this active time, it is very difficult to 

 appreciate as it deserves the great social progress which has been 



