Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 319 



NOTE BY A. H. H. ON THE SPHEROIDAL STATE OF BODIES. 

 COMMUNICATED BY W. R. H. 



The following account, which does not seem to be generally 

 known, may perhaps be of some interest in connexion with the dis- 

 coveries of M. Boutigny and others relative to the spheroidal state 

 of fluids. The statement is extracted from the Dublin Philosophical 

 Journal (now out of print) for Feb.-November 1826, and appears to 

 have some resemblance to that of Boutigny. 



"Inventions, 59. — Limits to the power of steam. — M.Clement 

 states, that in the conversion of water into steam, there is a certain 

 limit beyond which the elastic force of the steam cannot be increased, 

 however intense the heat applied. When this mechanist visited 

 England, he witnessed some experiments made by Mr. Perkins, who 

 has been so much employed in the construction of high-pressure 

 engines. Mr. Perkins, having procured a cast-iron boiler of very 

 great strength, applied an intense heat for the production of steam, 

 expecting a corresponding increase in the elasticity of the fluid. To 

 his great surprise, however, he found that after a certain degree, the 

 force of the steam, instead of increasing, diminished. M. Clement 

 thinks that this unexpected result may be thus accounted for : — 

 the steam, when submitted to intense heat, repels the remaining 

 water from the internal surface of the vessel, and keeping it sus- 

 pended at a short distance from the heated metal, interrupts the 

 change into the elastic state. Thus, he observes, drops of water 

 will remain unchanged for some time on the surface of red-hot iron ; 

 but if they be struck with a hammer, they are immediately converted 

 into steam, exploding with considerable force. Thus, also, steam- 

 engines may explode, though in good condition, and having the 

 safet5'^-valves acting freely. For if the temperature be lowered 

 quickly after having been previously very high, the water, which 

 according to this theory had been repelled from the internal surface 

 of the boiler, is suddenly brought into contact with it, so that steam 

 is produced in such quantities that it cannot pass off by the safety- 

 valve, and causes the vessel to burst. — Bullet. Un. 1826, No. 3. 

 sect. 6. p. 203." — From the Dublin Philosophical Journal, vol. ii. 

 Feb.-November 1826, p. 433. Inventions, 59. 



ANALYSIS OF A GRANULAR ALBITE. BY PROF. M. H. BOYE. 



[In reprinting Prof. B. Silliman's, jun. Observations on some 

 American Minerals (vol. xxxv. p. 484), we accidentally omitted 

 a note appended to that gentleman's analysis of a granular albite 

 associated with corundum from Westchester, Pennsylvania, in which 

 he alludes to the previous analysis of the same mineral by Dr. Boye. 

 Our attention has since been directed to this omission by Dr. Boye, 

 who has kindly furnished us with the following further information 

 copied from the Proceedings of the American Phil. Soc. vol. ii. p. 190, 

 May 20, 1842.— Ed.] 



" M. Boye made an oral communication relative to a white cry- 



