30(5 Scientific Intelligence. [April, 



II. On a Lamp without Flame. By Francis Ellis, Esq. 



(Addressed to Mr. Cary, of the Strand.) 

 DEAR SIR, Bath, Feb. 21, 1818. 



I thank you for the laminated platina. I thank you too for the 

 wire, and the account of the experiment to which it is applicable. 

 Is it not whimsically singular that you should have happened to 

 give me notice of an experiment, which I had devised (and as I 

 thought, the first) more than six months ago ? The idea having 

 occurred that platina wire made red hot might conveniently be 

 kept in that state for an unlimited time, without further applica- 

 tion of heat, you may recollect I wrote to you for some of the 

 wire in August, which I applied, nearly in the manner you 

 describe, to a small spirit-lamp. By my arrangement light 

 sufficient was produced to enable me to distinguish the time by 

 a watch at the distance of a foot from the wire. You may blow 

 on the coil of wire till it ceases to be luminous, and in two or three 

 seconds it again becomes red. 1 showed the experiment to 

 several, and among others, to Dr. Wilkinson, who afterwards 

 exhibited it at his lectures. I have some curiosity to learn 

 whether it was known in London prior to the time I have men- 

 tioned. With good wishes and esteem, 



I remain, dear Sir, your obedient servant, 



Francis Ellis. 



III. Expedition to the Northern Ocean. 



One of the most remarkable natural phenomena that has 

 occurred in modern times, is the disappearance, or breaking up 

 of a large part of the enormous masses of ice, which have for 

 some centuries been accumulating in the different parts of the 

 northern ocean. This accumulation has taken place to the 

 greatest degree, or, at least, its effects havebeenthe most percept- 

 ible on the eastern coast of Old Greenland. This territory was 

 originally colonized from Denmark, towards the end of the tenth 

 century ; for about four centuries it kept up a regular communi- 

 cation with the mother country, until the ice totally blocked up 

 all access to the shore, so that for the last 400 years all com- 

 munication with it has been cut off from the other parts of 

 Europe, and there can be little doubt that the inhabitants 

 must have perished. Since that period an immense barrier of 

 ice has extended from near the southern point of Greenland, along 

 the whole eastern coast, stretching across to Spitzbergen, beyond 

 which vessels have seldom been able to penetrate. There appears, 

 however, to be the most decisive evidence that about two or three 

 years ago this barrier of ice was broken in various parts, and that 

 during the summers of 1816 and 1817, large tracts of the north- 

 ern ocean, that were before completely impassable, became 

 comparatively free from obstruction. We have at the same 

 time equally decisive testimony to the fact, that a similar dis- 

 placement of the ice has taken place in the part of the northern 



