382 Miscellaneous Infelligenre. 



Scotland, and much is also obtained by distilling coal-tar. 

 When pure, it is limpid and colourless, and closely resembles, 

 if it be not identical with, naphtha. A large district' about 

 Fitzroy-square and Charlotte-street has been lighted by this 

 fluid, burned in lamps particularly constructed for it by Major 

 Cochrane ; they are patent, as well also as the application of 

 the oil to this purpose. The flame in these lamps is very short, 

 but extremely bright, and certainly far surpasses a common 

 street gas flame in that respect, if it does not also an Argand 

 burner supplied by coal-gas. It has happened now and then, 

 when the wick has been too high, and the oil used has been ob- 

 tained from coal-tar, that the flame has smoked, the wick be- 

 come charred, and at times so much vapour has collected in the 

 lamp as at last to explode and burst it to pieces; but this has 

 not happened with the Scotch oil. The lamps in the district 

 before mentioned, have now been in use for a considerable time, 

 and are found to be attended with perfect success. 



3. Lithography. — A society has been formed at Munich for the 

 imitation of oriental MSS. ; the object is by means of lithogra- 

 phy to multiply copies of the best works which are extant in the 

 Turkish, Arabic, Persian, and Tartar tongues, and to dispose of 

 them in the East, by the port of Trieste. The cabals of those, 

 whose business it is to write MSS., and the different ornaments 

 with which the Turks and Arabs adorn their writings, have been 

 obstacles to this design hitherto ; but by the aid of Lithogra- 

 phy, the difficulty it is thought may be overcome. Thus the 

 cheapness of that mode of engraving will contribute to spread 

 to an unlimited extent, the treasures of the best writers of the 

 East. 



A lithographic establishment has also been formed in London, 

 for the purpose of facilitating the progress of this branch of art, 

 at No. 1, Wellington-street. Series of the impressions taken from 

 copies of the pictures in the Munich gallery are to be seen 

 there, and give an idea of the powers of the art, far beyond what 

 could possibly be imagined by those who know of it only from 

 description. It contains also a large deposit of Foreign and 

 British Materials, for the prosecution of this pursuit, and many 

 of the finest results that have been produced by it. 



4. On the Potash to be obtained from the Staffers of Potatoes. 



[In a Letter to the Editor.] 

 Dear Sir, 



In TillocKs Journal for November 1817, there is inserted 

 an article on the manufacture of potash from the stalks of 

 potatoes. The experiments are said to have been executed 

 tirst in France, and the results are all given in weight, from 



