82 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERT. 



We may just state that the method proposed consists in employing 

 musical notes in different positions on the staff to represent radical 

 notions, with sundry strokes, curves and dots, to indicate the various 

 modifications of these ideas ; so that a page of the new writing pre- 

 sents very much the same appearance as a page of printed music. 

 The symbols denote not sounds, but ideas ; and the language is 

 therefore a representation of thought, not of speech, in fact, a very 

 elaborate and complicated system of hieroglyphics. It is scarcely 

 necessary to say we regard the work rather as an ingenious curiosity 

 than as of any practical value. London Athenceum. 



INTERESTING ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE FORCE OF GUNPO \VDEU. 



In the town of Erith, England, on* the 1st of October, 1864, 

 150,000 pounds of gunpowder were accidentally exploded, causing 

 a report heard at the distance of over 90 miles, and a shock which 

 people living 25 miles away thought to be the effect of an earth- 

 quake. The gunpowder was contained in two barges, and a large 

 and a small magazine. 



As this is one of the greatest explosions of powder (over 70 tons) 

 which has ever happened at one time, it is a matter of no little 

 interest to note the results of the occurrence. Fortunately the loss 

 of life was small, 12 killed and 20 wounded ; but the damage to prop- 

 erty was very great. 



At more than two miles from the spot not only were doors and 

 windows smashed in, but houses were partially destroyed. One resi- 

 dence was injured to the amount of $5,000. 100 yards of river 

 e.nbankment were blown away; fortunately the tide was low and 

 the damage was repaired with groat celerity, else a large and 

 populous region would have been submerged. A watchman at 

 G-ravesend, some miles off, one of the very few who saw from a 

 distance the great catastrophe, as well as heard the awful thun- 

 der and felt the shock, says: "On turning round I saw as it were 

 a pillar of tire rising to the clouds, which it appeared to strike, and 

 then spread out like a huge fan, presenting a most beautiful and 

 grand spectacle." 



The destruction of houses and other material near the scene of 

 explosion was of course complete. One report says : "The buildings 

 that lately covered some acres are heaps of tumbled earth and bricks 

 and massive fragments of timber; 4>ea.n-> of h.ilf a ton^ weight have 

 been blown like feathers across the adjacent liclds/' The property 

 destroyed in the surrounding district is estimated at $3,000,000. 

 A clock i.i a house seven miles away was stopped by the explo- 

 sion. At Woolwich, four miles from the magazines, a shower 

 of letters, invoices, and other papers fell, shortly after the explosion, 

 and an examination of these first informed the people there of the 

 scene of the accident. Persons at that place report: "Immediately 

 after the calamity an immense pillar of smoke ro.se from the spot high 

 into the air, thick, black, and palpable, with a huge spreading top, 

 and about a quarter of an hour elapsed before it died away." 



In arid near Erith, two or three miles from the magazines, for 

 some minutes after the explosion, "the earth heaved and trembled." 

 Men were thrown violently from their beds ; scarcely a house in the 



