MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 99 



Society of Arts, and the importance of the trade to the country was illustrated 

 by the following statement. The quantity of bricks made per annum in 

 England is 1,800,000,000; Manchester alone making 130,000,000, London 

 averaging about the same. Taking bricks at the low average of three tons 

 per 1000, the annual weight would be 5,400,000 tons, and the capital em- 

 ployed 2,000,000 pounds sterling or nearly ten millions of dollars. The 

 number of patents connected with the manufacture was stated to be 230. 



PLASTIC ZINC FOR ROOMS. 



At a recent meeting of the French Academy, M. Dumas communicated the 

 particulars of a recent invention by M. Sorel, which promises to be of great 

 advantage to plasterers and workers in stucco. He stated that the invention 

 consisted in the discovery of a property possessed by oxychloride of zinc, 

 which renders it superior to the plaster of Paris for coating the walls of rooms. 

 It is applied in the following manner : " A coat of oxyd of zinc mixedwith 

 size, and made up like a wash, is first laid on the wall, ceiling, or wainscot, 

 and over that a coat of chloride of zinc applied, being prepared in the same 

 way as the first wash. The oxyd and chloride effect an immediate combina- 

 tion, and form a kind of cement, smooth and polished as glass, and possessing 

 all the advantages of oil paint without its disadvantages of smell, &c. The 

 inventor further suggests the employment of oxychloride of zinc as a paint 

 for iron, and also to stop hollow teeth, for which its plasticity and subsequent 

 hardness and impenetrability to the moisture of the mouth, render it particu- 

 larly applicable. 



Painting is now done in London by a hose. A reservoir of the paint or 

 color is set on a parapet, and the workman uses a hollow brush connected 

 therewith by means of a length of half-inch hose. The consequence is, that 

 he works away with a never ceasing supply. 



THE MECHANICAL ARTS IN JAPAN. 



In the practical and mechanical arts the Japanese show great dexterity ; 

 and when the rudeness of their tools and their imperfect knowledge of ma- 

 chinery are considered, the perfection of their manual skill appears marvellous. 

 Their handicraftsmen are as expert as any in the world, and, with a free 

 development of the inventive powers of the people, the Japanese would not 

 remain long behind the most successful manufacturing nations. Their curi- 

 osity to learn the results of the material progress of other people, and their 

 readiness in adapting them to their own uses, would soon, under a less exclu- 

 sive policy of government, which isolates them from national communion, 

 raise them to a level with the most favored countries. Once possessed of the 

 requisitions of the past and present of the civilized world, the Japanese would 

 enter as powerful competitors in the race of mechanical success hi the future. 

 " Every American admired the skilful workmanship of the carpenters as dis- 

 played in the construction of the wood work in the houses, the nice adjust- 

 ment and smooth finish of the jointing, the regularity of the flooring, and the 

 neat framing and easy working of the window casements and movable door- 



