.\EW EXPLOSIVE PREPARATIOX. — THE METEOR. 23 



result was an entire revolution in the opinions of the school and the 

 universal adoption of what every one now regards a very simple truth. 



Galileo discovered the most perfect measure of time which we possess 

 by observing the movements of a lamp suspended from the ceiling, 

 which some circumstance had disturbed and caused to vibrate. The 

 plienomenon had been noticed before, but no one had watched it with 

 the philosophic attention with which it was observed by the young Ital- 

 ian who at once saw the important application that might be made of the 

 fact suggested to his mind. 



An accidental circumstance in the life of Priestly — his residence in 

 the vicinity of a brewery, directing his curiosity to the examination 

 and analysis of the several gases and the singular result of his experiment 

 led to others which in his hands soon became Pneumatic Chemistry. 



The falling of an apple, seen by all the world before a thousand times, 

 first suggested to JYewton, that gravitation was the mighty band of the Uni- 

 verse — the principle on which the mechanism of the heavens depends. 



Goclfrerfs invention of the Mariner's quadrant, upon the optical prin- 

 ciple of double reflection, (referred to by a recent correspondent of the 

 Record,) is also an illustration of the facility possessed by some indi- 

 viduals of turning to profit the results of casual observations. 



NEW EXPLOSIVE PREPARATION'. 



Professor Shonbeim has discovered a method of rendering cotton 

 explosive and a substitute for gun powder. The process of its prepara- 

 tion is as yet a secret. It kindles more readily than gun powder, the 

 former requiring a temperature of 400°, whilst the latter requires a tem- 

 perature of 600°. Its combustion is perfect, leaving nothing to stain or 

 deposit upon the substance upon which it is lying when it is inflamed. 

 This is a great desideratum, since in the combustion of even the best 

 gun powder so much resisjJual matter which has not been burned is de- 

 posited as to render its removal from the chamber of fire arms a matter 

 of constant necessity. Its explosive properties are not inferior to those 

 of gun powder, so that in the use of fire arms it will likely be substitu- 

 ted for it. It is not injured by having become wet; for when dried 

 again it will burn as readily as before. 



THE METEOR OF JULY 13tH, 1846. 



Mr. Kirkwood (Linnajan Journal, vol. ii. p. 250) states that this me- 

 teor '' was vertical somewhere between York and Lancaster. " It was 



