8 
the stindatd of vale that wé dismiss with little thought dthets 
equally rare, and sometimes more beautiful, as for example osmium, 
osmiridium, palladium, and platinum. The latter is, however, 
now much used in the most costly and elaborate jeweller’s work, 
but from its extreme rarity and hardness it is even more costly 
than gold itself. In the event of platinum ever superseding gold 
coinage, its hardness would of course be a great point in its favor. 
A new metal, which has not yet been named, has been discovered 
by Dr. Kruss. By igniting fresh oxide of either nickel or cobalt 
with potassium hydrate, he got a solution from which a white oxide 
was obtained. From this oxide (by means of a blow-pipe) was 
obtained a brown, malleable metallic powder, soluable in hydro- 
chloric acid. This oxide resembles zinc and aluminium oxides, 
although it distinctly differs from them or any other known metal; 
it is therefore supposed to be a new element. 
Mr. Matthew Williams has shewn, by an interesting experiment, 
that by heating certain kinds of coal in an iron or brick retort, it 
is possible to obtain real petroleum and also a porous coke, which 
by pressure becomes anthracite. This he assumes was the way in 
which petroleum was formed in the coal beds, above and below 
which are porous strata, through which the petroleum percolates 
and ultimately rises to the surface, where it is sooner or later found 
by some lucky individual, who, in the words of the famous Gilead 
P. Beck, “strikes ile.” 
The following extract from a report by Mr. Findlay, Manager 
of the L.N.W. Railway, will show you to what perfection one 
branch of practical engineering has been brought. He writes: 
“The engines of this one Company ran one and three-quarters of 
a mile every second, and, in effect, put a girdle round the earth 
every four hours. Yet such is the perfection of mechanism at- 
tained in the present day that engines are able to run a distance 
equal to twice rcund the world for every single case which occurs 
of a hot axle, the loss of a split pin, or anything to throw the 
engine out of gear!’’ Contrast this most interesting statement 
with an extract from the ‘‘ Quarterly” of 1425, when George 
Stephenson was using every effort to get the Bill passed for 
making the first railway line iv England. ‘The reviewer wrote : 
‘‘What can be more palpably absurd and ridiculous than the 
prospect held out of locomotives travelling twice as fast as stage 
coaches. We trust that Parliament will, on all railways it may 
sanction, limit the speed to eight or nine miles an hour, which is 
as great as can be ventured on with safety.” Imneed not remind 
you that the Bil! was thrown out, although it passed, after great 
opposition, the following year, but so great was the national preju- 
dice against the use of steam power, that the surveyors of the line 
