197 

 INVENTIONS AND DISCOVERIES. 



COOK'S PLATFORM FOR THE PRACTICE OF SEA-ORDNANCE MURRAY'S MODE 



OF INSTANTANEOUS COMMUNICATION WITH STRANDED VESSELS DAY'S 



COLOPHON PRODUCTION OF MAGNETIC SPARKS, BY SAXTON, FARADAY, AND 



RICHIE PERKINS* NEWLY-INVENTED PROCESS FOR GENERATING STEAM. 



THIS is the age of progression ; we live in an era of e-motion, of com- 

 motion, of cottier-motion, of Zoco-motion, of all, indeed, but that sort of 

 joro-motion in which we, ourselves, are individually interested, or we 

 would, long ere this, have been enjoying our olium cum dignitate over a 

 cool flask of hock and a genuine Havannah. 



This is the age of progression ! the pauper is becoming a peasant- 

 the labourer an artisan the mechanic a man of scientific attainments 

 the artist a philosopher the philosopher a prince ! But then comes 

 " a sad shift o' the scene" princes are becoming powerless nobles 

 decline into nothingness and the politico-social column of long-enslaved 

 nations, is beginning to be shorn of its Corinthian ornaments, its leafy 

 uselessness, and to reveal to the gratified imagination a beautifully pro- 

 portioned shaft, tapering upwards, it is true, but composed throughout 

 of a uniform mass of substantial, plain, unchangeable material the 

 rough but honest granite of popular will, erected by the people based 

 on the people formed of the people and about which are unwreathed 

 their hopes of happinesSj of prosperity, and of peace. 



This is the age of progression ! and although we cannot in all things 

 keep pace with time, nor trace his steps through the windings of the 

 past, we must not always let him outstrip us. We must catch him now 

 and then by leaps, and, turning occasionally from the wordy war of 

 opinion throwing aside the keen weapons of controversy, and doffing 

 our coifs at the temple of science, endeavour to mark, as it were in dotted 

 lines, the progress of the arts, by recording the most useful inventions 

 and discoveries. 



And first, then, what have we from the world of mechanical inven- 

 tion ? what have we of the joint progeny of the organs of order, imagi- 

 nation, and constructiveness ? What have the people been doing for 

 themselves, for their rulers, for their country, for the world ? 



Why, with the usual contrariety (perhaps we ought rather to say, 

 variety) of human nature, she has, at the outset, placed before us two 

 inventions, which appear to be directly in contravention of each other ; 

 the one being to facilitate the destruction of our species, and the other 

 to effect the escape of " fellow man" from impending death. And 

 yet doth the bewildering complication of society compel us to subscribe 

 in opinion to the utility of both. 



Lieut. Cook, of the Royal Navy, has constructed a platform, to which, 

 by a mechanical arrangement, motion is given, so as to produce some- 

 thing like the eccentric tossing about of a vessel of war, when, as the 

 song goes, 



" The tempest raves, 

 And the angry waves 

 Are driven to and fro/' 



Upon such mechanically-enlivened stages, it is proposed to place can- 



