54 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



cupied in replenishing, thus furnishing the necessary light for this 

 operation." At the same time, the removal of the flame to a distance 

 from the body of the lamp containing the fluid greatly diminishes the 

 danger of explosion, as the explosion of this species of lamps results 

 chiefly from the accumulation of a highly explosive vapor in the 

 space above the fluid.* The committee, therefore, strongly recom- 

 mend the use of these lamps. It is possible, however, that they may 

 be more readily extinguished by a sudden movement than the old 

 lamps. 



COOKING BY GAS. 



AMONG the novelties produced at the great agricultural meeting at 

 Exeter, England, was one which excited great curiosity ; it was the 

 cooking of the monster joint, weighing 535lbs. For the first time in 

 the annals of cookery, this was subjected to a new process of roasting, 

 by use of an agent which has been discovered half a century, that is 

 to say, gas. To gratify the curiosity of the public, it was placed in 

 the middle of the castle-yard, resting upon a dripping pan, environed 

 with bricks and surrounded by 216 jets of gas, and covered with sheet- 

 iron. It took five hours to roast, and consumed 700 feet of gas of the 

 value of 4s. 5|<7. It weighed, after being cooked, 4971bs. ; the drip- 

 ping SSslbs. ; the osmazome 3lbs. ; thus losing by evaporation only 

 ll^lbs. To cook this piece of beef by an ordinary fire would have 

 taken fourteen hours. 



IMPROVEMENTS IN VENEERING. 



MR. JOHN MEADOWS has obtained a patent for improvements in 

 veneering, which consist in effecting the union of the ordinary veneer 

 in such a manner that it may be applied to irregular surfaces in one 

 piece, instead of joining it at the angles and forming it in several 

 pieces as usual. In illustration of this mode of applying veneers, a 

 number of ogee-mouldings, joined with several curved and flat sur- 

 faces, meeting at sharp or right angles, are shown in the drawings, 

 but a description of one will suffice for the whole. The frame or other 

 piece of work to be veneered is prepared of the form required ; and, 

 supposing it to be first of an ogee-form, the veneer is laid on a bed of 

 that form, placed in a machine somewhat like an ordinary screw-press. 

 This bed is hollow, for the purpose of heating it by steam or other 

 medium ; pressure is then exerted by the screw on the frame, which 

 is thereby pressed down on the veneer, and into the form required, 

 between the heated bed and the frame or piece of wood to be veneered. 

 So far, the process is very similar to the ordinary one. The next sur- 

 face presented, or that adjoining the ogee, is a hollow curve, meeting 

 in a right angle the edge of the ogee ; the veneer is of sufficient width 

 to cover this as well as any other portion of the frame service required. 

 On the edge of the ogee-bed a hollow bolster is hinged, having a 



* See Annual of Scientific Disco-eery, 1850, p. 192. 



