No. 11. 



Pressure of the Atmosphere. — Precious Metals. 



347 



of tlie parish, who were desirous of aiding the 

 exertions of an individual, who has been at 

 the head of this creation of happiness; while 

 an adjoining parish offers an example of the 

 effects of a contrary system of management — 

 here the tradesmen meet on parish business 

 at the ale-house in the evening, many of them 

 generally half drunk; they are headed by an 

 attorney, who has involved the parish in law- 

 suits, and driven every respectable person 

 from the vestry meetings. Here the poor- 

 rates are enormous, the church-rates high in 

 proportion, and the parish is overwhelmed 

 with debts and unemployed poor ! These 

 parishes are cited as proofs of good and bad 

 management; in the former, one active, in- 

 telligent individual, co-operating with a few 

 respectable farmers and tradesmen, has been 

 the means of effecting all the good I have 

 enumerated : in the latter case, interested 

 storekeepers have generally had the disposal 

 of the parish funds; the poor have been ne- 

 glected, and the whole place has become a 

 picture of poverty and wretchedness ! It is 

 not possible to imagine two villages which 

 afford a more striking contrast, and yet, they 

 adjoin each other. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 



Pressure of the Atmosphere* 



Having to transact business some miles 

 from home, and the starting of the cars not 

 suiting my convenience, I determined to walk 

 the distance on the railroad, which offered 

 a very smooth path, by which I expected 

 to reach my destination without inconveni- 

 ence and fatigue, by taking it leisurely. But 

 I was very much surprised to find that I had 

 not proceeded three miles on the road before 

 I felt my feet very tender and beginning to 

 blister: this I could not account for, as the 

 road was as smooth as a floor and quite level; 

 and I began to fear that I must relinquish my 

 intention and wail for the cars, perhaps a 

 couple of hours; when, all at once, I thought 

 of the Dialogue between Frank and his Fa- 

 ther on the subject of the pressure of the at- 

 mosphere, which I had read only the day be- 

 fore, at p. 114 of the 4th vol. of the Cabinet, 

 where it is said, when accounting for the 

 splashing of the mud in the streets of London, 

 " the pavement is worn so smooth, that at 

 every step the shoe fits it so closely that the 

 air is driven forcibly out from under it; and 

 then the foot falls so heavily, in consequence 

 of the pressure of the atmosphere upon it, that 

 the mud is scattered about on all sides;" and 

 when walking in clay, "the foot takes so 

 close an impression, and is pinned so forcibly 

 down by the pressure of the atmosphere, that 

 it is often difficult to raise it." Then I thought 

 X could perceive the cause of the pain of my 



feet; the truth of the conjecture I put to the 

 test of experience at the moment, by chang- 

 ing my road, and walking on a part of the 

 path which was more unequal ; and in about 

 a dozen steps I was convinced of the fact, for 

 I walked more easily, lighter, and without 

 pain ; the inequalities of the ground giving 

 space for the expansion of air under the 

 foot, by which the pressure upon it was at 

 once removed ; and with it, the pain also. 

 After I had made the discovery, it was a 

 source of amusement to witness how suddenly 

 the pressure would become painful on the 

 smooth road, and be as quickly relieved by 

 changing it for that of greater inequalities. 

 The result was, I finished the task 1 had set 

 myself, and reached my destination with far 

 less fatigue than I had ever experienced in 

 the many perambulations which I am called 

 upon to perform in the way of business; and 

 in this single instance, I am indebted to the 

 Farmers' Cabinet for the value of far more 

 than my six years' subscription money, trifling 

 as it may at first appear. D. C. 



May 25, 1842. 



Precious Metals. 



Gold, the most precious of the metals, 

 seems to have been known from the earliest 

 antiquity. It is of an orange red, or reddish 

 yellow colour, and has no perceivable taste 

 or smell. Its lustre is considerable, yielding 

 only to platinum, steel, silver and mercury. 

 It is rather softer than silver — its specific 

 gravity is 16.6. No other substance is equal 

 to it in ductility and malleability. It may be 

 beaten out into leaves so thin that one grain 

 will cover 56| square inches. These are 

 only one 282.003 of an inch thick. But the 

 gold leaf with which silver wire is covered, 

 has only l-12th of that thickness. An ounce 

 of gold upon silver is capable of being ex- 

 tended more than 1,300 miles in length. Its 

 tenacity is considerable, though in this re- 

 spect it yields to iron, copper, platinum and 

 silver. 



From the experiments of Seckingen, it ap- 

 pears that a gold wire, 6,078 of an inch in 

 diameter, is capable of supporting a weight 

 of 150,07 lbs. avoirdupois without breaking. 

 It melts at 32 degrees of Wedgwood's py- 

 rometer. When melted, it assumes a bright 

 bluish-green colour. It expands in the act 

 of fusion, and consequently contracts while 

 becoming solid more than most metals; a cir- 

 cumstance which renders it less proper for 

 casting into moulds. 



The " sons of thunder" make most noise in 

 the world, but the "sons of consolation" lay 

 mankind under the most lasting obligations, 

 and plant their principles deep in human na- 

 ture. 



