LAN 



509 



LAN 



Recent mi- 



^H* nrnt 

 n limp*. 



A very neat improvement upon the lamp has lately 

 been introduced into this country from France. The 

 oil H contained in a circular rim, in the centre of which 

 is placed the burner, which is supported upon a ver- 

 !. This circular rim is supported by two 

 slender arms, proceeding to the stand ; and as the rim 

 answers the purpose of a support for a hemispherical 

 shade of paper on ground glass, the lamp has the ap- 

 pearance of being supplied with its oil, either hydro 

 statically or mechanically, from the lower part of the 

 stand 



ilh - It would be foreign to the present article to enter 

 into any account of the recent and beautiful discove- 

 ries of Sir Humphrey Davy, respecting flame and com- 

 bastion, or to describe the ingenious safety lamps 

 which he has invented. There is one invention, how- 

 ever, which has arisen from these discoveries, namely, 

 a lamp without Jlame, which we shall here describe, as 

 it may be of great use even for domestic purposes. If 

 a c\ lindrical coil of thin platina wire, about the hun- 

 dredth of an inch in diameter, is placed so that part of 

 rounds the cotton wick of a spiral lamp, and part 

 of it is above the wick, and if the lamp is lighted so as 

 to heat the wire to redness ; then if the flame is blown 

 out, the vapour which ascends from the alcohol will 

 keep the upper part of the wire red hot, as long as 

 there is any alcohol remaining in the lamp. This red 

 hot coil of wire is capable of kindling d'erman fun- 

 gus, or paper prepared with nitre, so that a sulphur 

 match, &c. may beat any time lighted. It is of great 

 importance that the wire should be as nearly as possi- 

 ble the lOOdth of an inch in diameter, as a wire of a 

 larger size yields only a dull red light, and a smaller 

 ne is very difficult to use. About 12 turns of the 

 wire coiled round a cylindrical body, a little larger 

 than the diameter of the wick, will be sufficient. Four 

 or five coil* should be placed on the wick, and the 

 remaining seven or eight coils above it. Mr. Thomas 

 Gill, who has been the first to give a description of this 

 Imp, found, by experiment. Out .1 wnk. composed of 

 12 thread, of the ordin iry sized lamp cotton yarn, 

 with the platina wire coiled round it, will require half 

 an ounce of alcohol to keep it red hot for eiglit hours. 

 During the ignition of the lamp, a slightly acid smell 

 is given out, arising from the decomposition of the al- 

 cohol. This lamp has in one case been kept burning 

 for upwards of sixty hours. Mr. dill used it for seve- 

 ral nights in hi< bed-room with great convenience, and 

 we have no doubt that it will not only come into gene- 

 ral use as a night lamp for domestic purposes, but will 

 be of some utility in the arts. See the Annalt of I'ht. 

 feamAv/ur March 1818, vol. xi. p. 217. 

 Ml'. 



See Coal MINES and SAFETY 



I \N \I:K. the county town of Lanarkshire, is si- 

 tuated on the northern bank of the Clyde, on an ele- 

 lation, 39 agile* south- west of Edinburgh, and 

 25 mile* south-east from the _">\v. in .55 34' 



udc, and 3" V of West Longitude from 

 drccna irh. 



; - Lanark is a place t>f great antiquity. It is supposed 



to be the Cvlaniaaf Ptolemy, a Roman road having passed 

 either through or near the town to the site of its castle, 

 a station of that people, in th>' direction of 

 Ion-hill into Ayrshire. At an after period, it semi* 

 to have been a place of some importance; for here, ac- 

 corii ichanan, Kenneth II. in the year 



bild a parliament, or meeting of the estates of the realm, 

 the first mentioned in Scottish history. 



Lanark was erected into a royal burgh by Alex- Lanark. 

 ander the First, whose charter, together with those S ""~Y"'~"' 

 granted by Robert I. and James V. were confirmed by " lsto 'J'' 

 Charles 1. in 1632. These charters, from the ample 

 privileges they confer upon the burgesses, prove that 

 it was at least, in the time of Alexander, the princip.il 

 place in this district of the country, and even then, the 

 county town, and as such, its inhabitants had the sole 

 right of carrying on commercial business within the 

 shire, all others being prohibited from buying " wool 

 or leather within our said sheriffdom of Lanark, or exer- 

 cising any other merchandize," " or making and dye- 

 ing cloths" " except burgesses of our said burgh." 

 Charier r,f Alexander I. 



In 1 2 14, Lanark, according to Fordun, was almost 

 entirely destroyed by fire, but from what cause it pro- 

 ceeded i now unknown. 



At this town, in 1-97, Wallace made his first effort 

 to redeem his country from a foreign sway, by taking 

 the place, with a few of his friends, and killing Hesil- 

 rig, the governor or sheriff, and upwards of 200 of his 

 countrymen, in consequence of his wife having been 

 unjustly put to death by Hcsilrig's orders. The castlr- 

 of Lanark, which was erected upon the site of the Ro- 

 man station, or caslrlliim, has undergone several sieges- 

 It was built by David I. and, at times, was the residence 

 of that monarch. From this castle, in the year 11<)7. 

 is dated the charter granted by William the Lion to the 

 town of Ayr, erecting it into a royal burgh. In the 

 ncgociatiun which took place between Philip of France 

 and John Haliol, relative to the marriage of Philip's 

 neice to Ballot's son, Balioj, in security of the lady's 

 jointure, mortgaged this castle along with his estate* 

 in France and some other lands. 



rk has, from a very remote period, had the pri- 

 vilege of keeping the standard for all weights that are 

 used in Sciitbnd, as appears from several authentic do- 

 cuments ; particularly an act of parliament in 1617, 

 narrating, that of old, the keeping and outgiving of the 

 weights to the burghs and others, was committed to this 

 and again ot new committing to it " the care of 

 the weights," for the public use of the realm. In con- 

 nequence of enjoying this privilege, new standard 

 .its were sent from London to Lanark at the Union, 

 by which the other weights in Scotland should be re- 

 gulated. 



This town is built nearly in the form of the letter K, 

 hs streets diverging from the centre in a similar man- 

 ner : These are, the IIii;!i X'rect, which runs east and 

 west in a line with the Bloomgate, and terminates at 

 the cro* a little below which the Bloomgate begins, 

 and extends west to the 'extremity of the town the lVell~ 

 gale, which branches from the cross in a south-east di- 

 rection and the Caillegale and Broomgate, which lik 

 wisedivergefrom the same pointtowards the south-west. 



Lanark is governed by a provost, two bailies, a dean 

 of guild, and 13 councillors; and has seven incorpo- 

 rations. It is classed with Linlithgow, Selkirk, and 

 Peebles, in sending a member to the British senate. 

 The number of inhabitants has increased greatly since 

 the introduction of the cotton manufacture, and amount 

 at present to about 3000. The general aspect of the Public 

 town is now much superior to what it was formerly, buildings- 

 such new houses as are built being erected in the mo- 

 dern style, and in every respect more agreeable and 

 commodious. In Lanark are several public buildings, 

 such as a town-house, near the centre of the town, 

 with a county-hall, a council-room, court-hall, and 

 weigh-house. Immediately adjoining is the prison, 



