SI4 Steam-Engines.— Pil'alUe.-^Selenium.—MagJielic Needle. 



time it had passed under the stern, within thirty yards of the ship,- 

 which afforded us an excellent opportunity of observing this won-* 

 derful phzenomenon. 



*' The space it occupied upon the sea was apparently about 

 thirty feet in circumference, and the water so much agitated in 

 the centre, as to be quite frothy, ascendivg in a spiral form in 

 visible par,ticles like rain, and making a rushing noise about as 

 loud as the blowing of a whale continued, and communicating 

 with a spout* depending from a black cloud over head, gradually 

 passing to leeward, and disappearing about a mile oiF." 



STEAM ENGINES IN CORNWALL. 



From Messrs. Leans' Report for March 1818, it appears that 

 during that month, the following was the work performed by 

 the engines reported with each bushel of coals. 



Vounds of water lifted 

 'IJ'vot high with each bushel. 



25 common engines averaged 21,898,644 



VVoolf 's at Wheal Vor . . 29,5 11,211 



Ditto Wh. Abraham . . 30,445,224 



Ditto ditto .. .. 26,978,054 



Dalcouth engine .. .. 40,499,113 



Wheal Abraham ditto .. 35,715,298 



United Mines engine .. 31,427,373 



Treskirby ditto .. .. 41,867,601 



Wheal Chance ditto . . 33,594,548 



Load per square 

 inch in cylinder. 

 various. 

 17-2 lib. 

 16-8 

 5-45 

 10-5 

 109 

 13-6 

 10-6 

 8-9 



PETALITE. — SELENIUM. 



M. Ardvison, assistant to M. Berzelins, has discovered a new 

 alkali, in a stone known to mineralogists by the name of petaliie. 

 The new alkali is named lithion. The experiments have been 

 repeated and confirmed by Vauquelin. Berzelius has also dis- 

 covered a new metal in sulphur, to which he has given the natjie 

 of selenium. As it occurs only in the proportion of 13 grains 

 in 500 lbs. it is not surprising it should hitherto have escaped the 

 notice of chemists. This new metal has not yet been obtained 

 in France, 



MAGNETIC NEEDLE. 



In the meeting of the Royal Society of Sciences at Copenhagen, 

 on the 27th of March, Chevalier Vlengel read an essay contain- 

 ing observations on the magnetic needle, from which it seems 

 probable, that its western variation has already been at its max- 

 imum. 



* We could not perceive the communication with the spout, the particles 

 teing too minute for the eye to discern much above the sea, but we had 

 no doubt of the fact. 



LIST 



