392 Foreign and Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



panels which form the walls and partitions are united and secured 

 in the same manner. The author states that he intends to send a 

 house to France ; and it is very desirable that he should do so, as it 

 is impossible to form an accurate idea of the details of the construc- 

 tion from drawings. It appears that success in constructing these 

 houses depends in a great measure on the excellence of the Swedish 

 wood, as well as on the care taken in selecting and preparing the 

 wood proper for the different parts of the edifice, and the nicety and 

 precision of the work ; other architects may, therefore, at first find 

 considerable difficulty in constructing them. It is unquestionable 

 that the mode of building employed by M. Blom is immeasurably 

 superior to that hitherto in use in Sweden and Russia. In conclu- 

 sion, the reporter strongly recommended M. Blom to the approba- 

 tion of the Academy, as having invented and brought to perfection 

 a new and useful branch of industry, which it would be desirable to 

 have known in France. 



FOREIGN AND MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



ft I.-MECHAN1CAL SCIENCE. 



1. ON THE FLEXURE AND FORCE OP CERTAIN WOODS. 



EXPERIMENTS have been made by Mr. Brown, at Newport (Rhode 

 Island), U.S., on the resistance to flexure belonging to three fir 

 woods, pin du lord (Pinus strobus}, spruce fir (Abies 7iigrd), and 

 southern fir (Pinus auslralis, Pinus longifolia) : these were as the 

 numbers 120, 132, 193. The third kind, therefore, deserves the pre- 

 ference and choice of those planters who, especially in large planta- 

 tions, prefer real utility to beauty. The pin du lord is considered 

 worthy of its place in parks ; and, for the improvement of forests, 

 the southern fir may be mingled with the other fir-trees ; but whether 

 it will be more valuable than the Scotch fir (Pinus sylvestris) or the 

 Corsican fir, for size, straightness, and strength, can only be ascer- 

 tained by similar experiments to those above, and observations upon 

 its growth. It may probably be a very valuable addition from Ame- 

 rica to the firs already known in Europe*. 



2. DOUBLE IMAGES OP OBJECTS SEEN THROUGH THE AIR. 



M. Rozet has frequently observed double images of objects seen through 

 the air ; he compares them to the images formed by doubly refracting 

 spar, and goes so far as to say that the atmosphere has the property of 



* Revue Ency., i. p. 173. 



