Miscellanies. 197 



1 1 . Storms. — It appears from the following notice that the mode of 

 investigation by which Mr. Red field has developed the true charac- 

 ter of American storms, has been adopted with success by the me- 

 teorologists of Europe. 



Meteorological Society, Dec. 13. — Dr. Birkbeck, President, in 

 the chair. Several highly interesting communications were read on 

 the tremendous gale that visited this island on the 29th of November 

 last. The most important were from the Rev. W. B. Clarke, of 

 Poole, Captain W. H. Smyth, R. N., of the Observatory, Bedford, 

 the Rev. W. T. Bree, of Allersley Rectory, near Coventry, Mr. W. 

 H. Campbell, Secretary to the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, and 

 Mr. S. G. Tatem, of High Wycombe. 



From the manner in which the wind was observed to change its 

 direction at various places during the gale, it was considered to belong 

 to that class of hurricanes which traverse the western Atlantic. 

 These hurricanes consist of a large body of air moving with conside- 

 rable velocity round an axis which advances in such a direction as 

 to describe an elliptic or parabolic curve, the apex of the curve being 

 situated about the parallel of the thirtieth degree of north latitude. 

 It was requested, that on future occasions observers would be careful 

 to note particularly the phases of the storms, and the time when any 

 change in the direction of the wind takes place. — Loudoii's Maga- 

 zine of JVat. Hist., January, 1837. 



12. Galvanism. — Dr. Charles G. Page, of Salem, Mass., has 

 lately made the valuable discovery that iron, lead, or any metal, may 

 be substituted for the expensive article of copper in galvanic batte- 

 ries, whereby the cost of this apparatus will be diminished by about 

 one half. In order that a battery of this construction should equal 

 one of copper and zinc, it is necessary that the exciting liquid should 

 be some acid, holding the oxide of copper in solution, such as the 

 nitrate or sulphate of copper. A solution of blue vitriol or the sul- 

 phate of copper, is preferable from its cheapness. A small plate of 

 lead and zinc, each the size of a cent, immersed in a wine glass of 

 the above solution, will give bright sparks, strong shocks, and produce 

 decompositions when connected with a spiral coil of copper ribbon 

 three hundred and twenty feet long, which is, for convenience, now 

 generally called a dynamic multiplier. The superior action of such 

 batteries appears to be owing to the greater readiness with which 

 copper deposits upon another metal than itself. He has further found 



