1 86 Miscellanies. 



leather bag is rendered very tight and strong by means of copper 

 rivets. — Idem. 



6. Extinguishment of fires in chimnies. — A few pinches of flow- 

 ers of sulphur thrown at short intervals upon the coals or wood burn- 

 ing in the fire place, will speedily extinguish the most raging fire in 

 a chimney. A wet cloth should be hung before the fire place. This 

 method has been effectually tried at the mint in Paris, and has re- 

 ceived the sanction and recommendation of D'Arcet, Huzard, La- 

 barraque, Pelletier, Berard and other reporters. The sulphurous 

 vapor has also the advantage of pervading the crevices and ramifica- 

 tions of the chimney and completely finishing the combustion. A 

 pound of sulphur has effectually put out, in a few minutes, a fire in 

 a tall chimney when the flame rose three or four yards above the top. 

 — Idem. 



7. Lightning rods. — It is proposed by John Murray of London, 

 in a recent treatise on Atmospherical Electricity, that every lightning 

 rod should be composed of four wires, each one fifth of an inch in 

 thickness, bound together by rings of copper. This compound rod 

 should extend several feet above the highest part of the building, and 

 at the top each wire should branch out at an angle of 45° and end 

 in a point. The rod should be fastened to the building by wooden 

 clamps. At two feet from the ground, it should incline outwards and 

 on entering the earth each wire should branch out again, and termin- 

 ate in a moist situation. In order to preserve the rods from oxidation 

 he recommends that before they enter the ground they should pass 

 through a cylinder of zinc. 



The author supposes that an extensive multiplication of these rods 

 might have an effect of meliorating the climate, and also that in hop 

 fields, if wires of copper were made to project upwards from a suffi- 

 cient nnmber of the poles, they would operate as a preservation 

 against that dampness which, by weakening the vegetative powers of 

 the plant, invites the attacks of the Aphis or fly, which so often proves 

 destructive. — Rev. Encyc. Fev. 1830. 



8. Indian corn. — This grain, so important to the agricultural in- 

 terests of the United States, appears to be of uncertain origin. Fuchs 

 very early maintained that it came from the east, and Mathioli affirm- 

 ed that it was from America. Regmir and Gregory have presented 



