Machines. — Tliermometcr. 395 



very fairly written in uncial letters, such as were in use during 

 the time of the Ptolemies, and under the earlier Roman Em- 

 perors. The lines are ninnbered, and there are Scholia in the 

 margin. A copy is to be made from this valuable MS. at 

 Cairo, that it may serve as a duplicate, in case of any accident 

 befalling the original in its voyage to England. The jjcrson 

 who procured this treasure for Mr. Bankes, is a young man 

 who has been employed for some years to make researches 

 into the antiquities and geography of the East in such parts 

 as were left unascertained by Mr. Bankes himself 



MACHINES PUT IN MOTION BY EXPLODING GASES. 



According to the Edinburgh Journal, 1821. April, p. 4-27. 

 Mr. Cecil, a clergyman, exhibited in the Philosophical Society 

 at Cambridge, on the 15th of November 1820, an engine which 

 was put in motion by repeated explosions of gas. It is known 

 that Dr. Romershansea long ago invented engines for lifting, 

 &c. which may be put in "i-apid motion by firing small car- 

 touches filled with gunpowder. 



Dr. Lamb, F. L. S. of Newbury, the fortunate possessor of 

 the only Tantalus Falcincllus (Bay Ibis) ever killed in En- 

 gland, has lately had brought to him the Lestris crcpidatus 

 (the Black-toed Gull) killed at Shaw, Berks. It is a rare bird 

 in the south, and is thought by some ornithologists to be only 

 a variety of the L. parasitticus. 



AI.KOHOMETRICAL APPLICATION OF THE THEPvMOMETER. 



Mr. F. Groaning, of Copenhagen, has discovered that the 

 thermometer may be successfully used in distillation, as an al- 

 kohometer. He observed, while comparing the temperature 

 of the interior of the rectifier with that of the water about it, 

 in a distilling apparatus invented by himself, that the thermo- 

 meter always rose to a certain point, — for example, 65° Reau- 

 mur, or \ii)° Fahrenheit, — before the first drop of the distilled 

 licjuor appeared ; and likewise, that it remained at that point 

 till about half the fluid in the retort was evaporated; butdien, 

 by degrees, at first slowly, afterwards more rapidly, rose to 

 80° Reaunmr, or 212° Falir. 



By trials with the alkohometer, he found that as long as the 



thermometer remained iit a certain jioint, the licjUor which 



came over was of an uniform strength ; but wiien it rose, the 



lifjuor grew weaker and weaker, till at last mere water came 



;j D 2 over, 



