172 SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANEA. 



condary Education. — 3. Superior, or University Education — 4. Special, or 

 Professional Education. — 5. Supplementary Education. If their materials 

 are as extensive as they hope, the Committee will issue, periodically, sepa- 

 rate publications, in each of these departments. The Society is to be sup- 

 ported by subscription, and conducted by a committee of management,— a 

 portion of whose members are to retire periodically. 



Partiality of the Garden Owzel (Merula vulgaris) to the 



colour red I am credibly informed, that in the gardens at Scampston 



Hall, near Malton, Yorkshire, the flowers of the red daisies on several of the 

 borders used frequently to be plucked off and scattered about, while those of 

 all other colours remained unmolested. For a considerable time the little 

 manipulators were not discovered, but they were at length seen in the act. 

 The Garden Owzel (or, vulgarly, 4 ' blackbird"), like the Turkey, and some 

 other birds, is known to be partial to the colour red — N. W. 



Light Houses on the Black Sea — Experiments have been made by 

 Mr. Wi H. Barlow, who is resident at Constantinople, by order of Halid 

 Pasha, the sultan's son-in-law, with a view to the establishment of light 

 houses on the Black Sea. The Pasha suggested the use of Drummond's 

 light, with which, however, Mr. Barlow was acquainted only by report. 

 Experiments, however, were made upon the subject, and the delight and 

 astonishment of the Turks, when the light first shone forth in all its bril- 

 liancy, was unbounded. Oil lamps will, however, probably be adopted. It 

 must be generally gratifying to know that the Turks, hitherto so bigotted 

 to old manners and religious prejudices, are availing themselves of the most 

 refined discoveries of modern philosophy. Mr. Barlow is constructing a 

 brass-foundry and boring apparatus, upon a large scale, at Constantinople* 

 with a view of remodelling the Turkish artillery Philosophical Mag. 



Distillation.— A very ingenious apparatus for distilling and rectifying 

 spirits, at one operation, has been invented by Mr. Coffey. A general idea 

 of the principle may be formed by conceiving steam passing through a vast 

 number of small perforations in a series of copper plates, over which wash, 

 previously heated, is flowing. As the boiling point of water is 212°, while 

 that of alcohol is about 172°, the steam condenses, while an equivalent por- 

 tion of spirit evaporates. The wash flows on to the plates in an uninter- 

 rupted stream, and runs off completely exhausted of its alcohol, which passes 

 over sufficiently rectified. For the details we must refer to The Records of 

 Science, vol. iii., p. 37. " According to the common process, it requires 12it>s. 

 of coal to distil a gallon of proof spirit, of which 9ibs. are saved by the new 

 system ; and assuming the whole of the spirit distilled in the empire at 

 36,000,000 gallons, which (Colonies included) we believe is not over the mark* 

 the saving of fuel arising from the new methods of distilling, will amount to 

 140,000 tons of coal per annum ! Our continental readers have no idea of 

 the enormous size of some of the Distilleries of the United Kingdom. The 

 apparatus of Mr. Coffey, at Inverkeithing, distils 2000 gallons of wash per 

 hour ; and one which he has subsequently erected at Leith, for the same 

 proprietors, upwards of 3000 gallons per hour. There are several of equal 

 magnitude, and we have seen a statement, which we have reason to rely on, 

 which shews that those now erected, or being erected, are of capacity to 

 distil half a million of gallons of wash per day ; this wash yielding, on an 

 average, 11 to 12 per cent, of proof spirits." 



