156 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



4. Pottery Painting — An experiment, promising considerable suc- 

 cess, has been made at Paris. It is an attempt to preserve the large 

 paintings of the mostdistinguished artists, by the employment of plates 

 of pottery. The different parts of a large picture are united by a 

 composition, and so coloured as to disguise completely the joints. 

 The artists who work at this experiment propose, by this means, to 

 produce paintings as durable as mosaic, of much easier execution, 

 and at a moderate price. 



5. Extinction of Tires in Chimnies. — M. Cadet Vaux, reflecting on 

 the circumstances of a fire, when it occurs in a chimney, was led to 

 endeavour at its extinction, by rendering the air which passes 

 up the flue unable to support combustion. This object he ob- 

 tained by the simple means of throwing Hour sulphur on the (ire in 

 the grate, and so effectual was it, that a fagot suspended in the 

 chimney, very near the top, and consequently near the external air, 

 whes set on fire, and burning with great fury, was instantly extin- 

 guished on the application of the sulphur below. This process is the 

 more applicable, inasmuch as it docs not require that all the oxygen 

 in the air should be converted into sulphurous acid gas, before it 

 passes up the chimney; on the contrary, a comparatively small pro- 

 portion of the latter gas, mixed with common air, is sufficient to pre- 

 ventits supporting the combustion of common combustible bodies. 



6. Smut inCornprcvcnted. — M.B.Prevost gives the following method 

 of preparing seed corn, to prevent the smut: Into a cistern put one- 

 gallon of water, ale measure, and dissolve in it one ounce of sulphate 

 of copper, for every bushel of corn to be prepared. Having two tubs 

 that will contain about eight bushels ; throw into one of them about 

 two bushels of corn, and then pour on the solution till it covers the 

 corn an inch or two ; carefully remove any thing that Moats on the 

 surface. Put corn into the other tub, and treat it in the same 

 manner. When the corn has reposed half an hour in the first tub, 

 after being well stirred, put it to drain, in a strainer, over the second 

 tub. When it no longer drips, place it in a heap, and it will soon be 

 dry enough to sow. The effect of the solution is more certain, the 

 dryer the corn is before it is immersed. 



II. Chemical Science. 



1. Experiments with certain Substances under high Pressures, bi/ M. 

 Cagnard de la Tour. — One of my tubes of glass, in which I had put 

 water and a little sulphuret of carbon, presented, when heated, the 

 following results : The water became at first milky, then resumed its 

 transparence with a slight tint of green, which increasing with the 

 temperature, at last became almost black. During the experiment 

 the sulphuret of carbon became lighter than the water, and floated 



