178 



Philosophical, Chemical, and Scientific Miscellanies. [ Fe*. 



posed of both stones and earth ; and on 

 the heads of Jonathan's Creek, in Morgan 

 county, there are some whose bases are 

 formed of well-burnt bricks, of about four 

 or five inches square. There were found 

 Ijdnp; on the bricks, charcoal, cinders, and 

 bits of calcined bones, and above them the 

 superstructure of earth composing the body 

 of the mound ; evidently shewing that the 

 dead had been here reduced to ashes, after 

 the manner of several ancient nations, and 

 that the mound of earth had been erected 

 over the remains, to peqietuate the memory 

 of some companion or friend. 



Useful to Gardeners. — The following 

 method of driving worms, caterpillars, and 

 all other sorts of insects from trees, has 

 lately been practised in America with sin- 

 gular success -. bore a hole into the trunk 

 of the tree as far as the heart, fill this 

 hole with sulphur, and place in it a well- 

 fitted plug ; a tree of from four to eight inches 

 in diameter requires a hole large enough to 

 admit the little finger, and in the same 

 proportion for larger or smaller trees. This 

 will usually drive the insects away in the 

 course of forty-eight hoiu-s, but uniformly 

 succeeds, perhaps sometimes after a longer 

 time. 



American Coals. — The scarcity, if not 

 total want in America, of coal, having been 

 a frequent cause of complaint, led to a 

 more close examination of the mineral pro- 

 ductions of that quarter of the globe, and 

 finally to the discovery of such an im- 

 mense formation of anthracite in Pensyl- 

 vania, as will render this state the most 

 productive in the Union. The coal-beds 

 are situated in hills from 300 to 600 feet 

 above the level of the rivers and canals, and 

 the strata being inclined at a pretty high 

 angle from the horizon, may all be wrought 

 by subterranean canals going from the 

 rivers, made navigable by dams, and being 

 worked every where above the water-level 

 at little or no expense ; the whole field 

 may, at the same time, be drained effec- 

 tually. As soon as a good method of 

 smelting iron -ore wth the anthracite can 

 be contrived, this will become one of the 

 greatest iron countries on the globe, from 

 its having so much fine magnetic iron, 

 and the natural state of the combustible 

 rendering it capable of producing a very 

 strong heat, without any preparation of 

 working, or adulterating with any mixture 

 injurious to the making of iron : these cir- 

 cumstances constitute so many advantages 

 as are scarcely to be met with in any one 

 locality as yet known. 



Italian Antiquities. — Antiquarian con- 

 jecture has been much employed lately 

 concerning a very large number of flattened 

 leaden bullets, which have been discovered 

 by persons digging near the ruined walls of 

 a very ancient town in the southern part 

 of Italy. It is supposed that they were 

 missiles employed by the army of Han- 

 nibal, who, in Itis expedition into Italy, 



is known to have besieged the place in 

 question. 



Sound. — The velocity of sound, accord- 

 ing to Derham, is ] 111 "78 feet in a second 

 of time. Arago estimated it at 1086, and 

 others again at 1150. Recent experiments 

 have led to the conclusion that 1110 is a 

 nearer approximation ; or that sound moves 

 at the rate of one mile in 4 7-9 seconds, or 

 during 5 5-9 beats of the pulse of a person 

 in good health, estimating 70 pulsations to 

 a minute. If t = the interval of time be- 

 tween the flash of a gun or of lightning being 

 seen and the corresponding report being 

 heard, 370 t = the distance in yards of the 

 sounding body from the observer. If t =• 

 time elapsed during the fall of a stone or 

 other heavy body, and till the sound of its 

 striking against the bottom reaches the ear, 

 d^the distance fallen, the height of the 

 building, depth of the well, &c^ 



d = 1110t— .■54-5 (V'7I42ti-28t -(-1232100' —1110). 



Improved Hydrostatic Press. — Next to 

 the steam-engine, Bramah's hydrostatic 

 press has proved the most generally useful 

 mechanical invention of modern times ; 

 but, valuable as this instrument is, it has, 

 when applied in the ordinary manner to 

 certain purposes, an imperfection, which 

 consists in the great variation in the power 

 necessary to work the press at different 

 periods of the operation, in consequence of 

 the variable resistance of the materials un- 

 der pressure at the different states of com- 

 pression. In any hydro-mechanical press 

 the power is proportional to the quantity 

 of water injected at a stroke of the pump 

 multiplied into the resistance : therefore, 

 when the resistance is small, the quantity 

 of water injected at a stroke should be in- 

 creased, in order that the power necessary 

 to work the press may be as uniform as 

 possible, which is the object of a patent 

 lately obtained by Mr. Fuller, in conjunction 

 with Messrs. Bramah. It is effected by mak- 

 ing the wheels by which motion is com- 

 municated to the cranks working the pumps 

 of unequal diameter ; and if the consequent 

 difference of the velocities of the cranks be 

 made small enough, a given power may be 

 made capable of producing any assignable 

 degree of pressure at the completion of the 

 time when the smaller wheel has gained 

 half a revolution on the larger wheel. It 

 is obvious that the number of revolutions 

 to produce this effect must be greater, the 

 smaller the difference between the veloci- 

 ties of the wheel is made. 



Animal Heat. — From numerous obser- 

 vations on the temperature of man and 

 other animals, made in England, Ceylon, 

 and during a voyage to India, by Dr. Davy, 

 he has confirmed and established the fol- 

 lowing results : — that the temperature of 

 man increases in passing from a cold, or 

 even temperate climate, into one that is 

 warm — that the temperature of the inha- 

 bitants of warm climates is permanently 

 higher than the temperature of those of 



