598 Transactions of tee American Institute. 



This year he is organizing, with aid of the Austrian government, 

 three large silk-producing establishments in Moravia and Slavonia. 

 Thuo far, the Chinese silkworms have enjoyed the best of health in 

 Austria. The silk hitherto obtained is of the best quality. Speci- 

 mens of it are now to be seen at the Paris Exposition. 



COMPRESSED GUN COTTON. 



This article is manufactured for mining purposes, by first making 

 the cotton explosive in the usual way; this is placed in a pulping 

 machine, and reduced completely to pulp. It is then compressed 

 by hydraulic machinery, so that one inch length of charge of any 

 given diamater, is equal in explosive force to six inches of gun- 

 powder filling the same bore. The cotton could not be put into a 

 more portable form, and by bringing the charge nearer the bottom 

 of the hole, it is apparent that its use will considerably lessen the 

 labor of drilling, for the drill-hole need not be so deep as when gun- 

 powder is employed. 



]\Ii*. S. H. Maynard said. Col. T. V. Shaifner had invented a gun- 

 cotton which consisted of three kinds, exploding at diflerent times, 

 quick, quicker, quickest, which had been found very efiective. 



THE THAMES EMBANKMENT. 



The great work of sewerage in London is progi'essing very satis- 

 factorily. The chief engineer of the Metropolitan Board of Works 

 reported, at the first meeting in April last, that, as regarded that 

 portion of the northern embankment between Westminster and 

 Waterloo bridges, 3,216 feet of the low level sewer, 2,477 feet of 

 subway, 2,925 feet of small drains, and 320 feet of Westminster 

 steamboat pier had been constructed. 



NEW PORCELAIN GLAZE. 



Messrs. Anthoin & Gonourd have produced singularly beautiful 

 efiects by a new glaze. It is made by dissolving platinum and 

 aluminum together in aqua regia. The double chloride of the two 

 metals is then mixed with finely-ground Limoges glaze, which is a 

 potash-alumina glass prepared from pure pegmatite, graphic 

 granite, a quartz of feldspar rock. This mixture is applied to the 

 porcelain in the ordinary way. In the glazing oven some peculiar 

 changes take place by means of heat and the reducing action of 

 the oven gases, the result being a glaze of remarkable metallic 

 luster, exhibiting beautiful rainbow colors. 



