19S Miscellanies. 



metal in connexion with the strap, but it is oiled- If you present 



your knuckle to the strap above the point of crossing, brushes of elec- 

 trical light are given off in abundance, and when the points of a prime 

 conductor are held near the strap, most pungent sparks are given off 

 to a knuckle at about two inches ; I charged, says Mr. D., a Leyden jar 

 of considerable size in a kw seconds by presenting it to the prime con- 

 ductor. The gentleman who told nie of this curious strap has fre- 

 quently charged his electrical battery in a very short time from it, 

 and he informed me that it is always the same, generating electricity 

 from morning to night without any abatement or alteration. If this 

 strap had the advantage of silk flaps and a little amalgam, it would 

 rival the machine in the lecture room in Albemarle-street."— 7i. 



20. Great Scheme ft 



—The Joint Phy- 



sical and Meteo'rological Committee of the Royal Society of London 

 — of which Sir J. F. W. Hfii-srhfl i« nrcc^?nr.f »,,„« ^^,.^^a ♦,. rp- 



have anjreed to re- 



commend to her majesty's government the establish menl of regular 

 observations of the magnetical intensity, dip and variation on the fol- 

 lowing stations : 



In Canada, St. Helena, Van Dieman's Land, Ceylon, and the Cape 

 of Good Hope. 



The observations to be made hourly wiih magnetometers during 

 three years from their commencement. 



That on certain selected days, and upon a common plan concerted 

 with each other and with European observatories, " the fluctuations of 

 the same elements shall be observed during twenty-four successive 

 hours, strictly simultaneous with one another, and with intervals of 

 not more than five minutes," &c. &c. 



As it is uncertain whether the government will adopt the plan pro- 

 posed, we omit the remaining details.— JA if tr ^ 



■M. Kuhlmann has described sev- 



n^ol V...... ,. , *'*• ^»-"iii"iaiui lias uescriueu isi>' 



the follw^^^^^^^^^ '^^""^"^'^ ^^ ^^-^^^ P^^tina. Among which are 



^72o Vr'"""'^ ""'^'^ ""'"'^ ^'' '^^ P^^^»"g -t a temperature of about 

 V; *ahr. over spongy platina is decomposed, and the azote which 

 U contains is completely converted into nitric acid by combining with 

 the oxygen of the air. " ' ^ 



formfiin^'Tf " ^''^'^'■' ""•^''' '^"""^^ circumstances, occasion the 

 formation of n.tnc acid and carbonic acid. 



me wf "r^:!'""!" f ^™^'^^^ - - *° f-- a salt, acts in the 



same way as free ammonia. 



't all the'comn'' "r"^* '" ^"^ '"'" ^^ combined with free oxygen, 

 " ine compounds of a-T-nto „r,.T„_ .-l. •» . /^ . 



yield nitric acid. 



spongy 



