24 NOTICES OF THE MEETINGS [Feb. 28, 
stearine also makes good lamp-candles: but the great use of Palm- 
oil as a candle-stuff is when distilled for this purpose. The crude 
oil is first treated with acid to bring it into an acid state, and the 
same is then distilled by means of steam, which in its passage from 
the boiler passes through a series of pipes heated by a furnace, by 
which the steam becomes very highly heated (600° Faht.) and 
in that state it enters into the still, and amongst and below the 
chemically prepared palm-oil, which is thereby caused to distil over, 
and is condensed in suitable apparatus ; the product is preserved: and 
by these means a most beautiful material closely resembling spermaceti 
is obtained, and from which those modern manufacture of candles 
now so largely and so well known as Belmont sperm and Belmont 
Wax are produced. 
The table was largely supplied with candles of every description 
of manufacture, by which the peculiarities of each class could be 
readily pointed out, and examined. 
In the Library were exhibited :— Views of Alpine Passes [by 
George Barnard, Esq ]— Ancient Greek Lamps [by the United 
Service Institution] — Mr. Thomson’s Letter Copier [by Mr. Thomp- 
son, ]—And from the Royat [nstitutron Museum, Models of a Mode 
of raising stones for building (suggested by Mr. Perigal to have been 
employed in constructing the Pyramids); Candles employed by 
Colliers before the invention of the Safety Lamp; Model showing 
circulation of fluids; Minerals, Animal Concretions, &c. 
WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, 
Friday, February 28. 
Tue Duxze or NortTHuMBERLAND, President, in the Chair. 
Proressor CowPEr, 
On Lighthouses. 
Tue difficulties so successfully surmounted in the construction of the 
Eddystone, the Bell Rock, and the Skerrevore Lighthouses, and the 
philosophy of their brilliant light, renders them eminent objects of 
that scientific interest which belongs to all similar structures. 
The Eddystone Lighthouse, having been built of wood in 1698, was 
carried away five years after its erection. It was shortly afterwards re- 
constructed of the same material, the lower part being filled with stone 
or concrete; it then lasted for forty years, when it was consumed by 
fire. In 1759 Smeaton completed the present lighthouse, which is 
