214 Miscellanies, 



of an inquiry into the superior sailing qualities of the vessels of war 

 in the French and Spanish services. She was commenced at Wool- 

 wich in 1746, launched in 1756, and, after bearing a very high char- 

 acter as a ship of war for twenty six years, was accidentally sunk at 

 Spithead on the 39th of August, 1782. From an examination of the 

 various [)ortions of the wreck recovered by the operations of Colonel 

 Pasley, Mr. Creuze states, that the great agent in the work of desiruc- 

 tion, during the fifty seven years since the loss of the Royal George, 

 has been " the worm," which has, gradually, by its innumerable per- 

 forations on every exposed portion of the wood work, reduced it to 

 such a state as to enable the constant wash of the tides to abrade it 

 layer by layer. The portion of the ship which has been thus re- 

 moved, is considered to be the whole of the upper part, including the 

 topsides above the line of the middle deck ports. The portions of 

 the recovered timbers which had been buried in the mud were per- 

 fectly sound ; and Mr. Creuze is of opinion, that the bottom of the 

 ship, which is thus protected, and too deeply inhumed to be affected 

 bj' the explosions, will last for ages. Some portions of the cop- 

 per have undergone so little change, that several whole sheets aver- 

 age the same weight per square foot as those now used in the Royal 

 Navy. This state of preservation, Mr. Creuze is of opinion, may be 

 accounted for on the principle applied by Sir Humphry Davy to the 

 protectiim of the sheathing of ships. The cast iron guns which have 

 been recovered, were so much softened as to be easily abraded by the 

 finger-nail, to the depth of one-sixteenth and one-eighth of an inch ; 

 but the}' gradually hardened on exposure to the atmosphere. The 

 brass guns are as sharp in their ornamental castings, and apparently 

 as sound, as at their first immersion. A piece of two and a half inch 

 cable layed cordage, made from a specimen of tarred rope, possibly 

 part of the ship's old junk for sea store, or of one of the cables used 

 in an attempt to weigh her soon after she sunk, was found to bear 21 

 cwt., 3 qrs., 7 lbs. ; while a similar cable, made from yarn spun in 

 1830, bore only 20 cwt., 1 qr., 7 lbs. Mr. Creuze then stales some 

 peculiarities in the structure of the Royal George, and concludes with 

 a descriptive catalogue of a series of specimens which accompanied 

 the paper. — Ihid. 



16. New process for maliing Sulphuric Acid. — M. Frovostaye, of 

 Paris, has proposed the following process : He recommends introdu- 

 cing into the leaden chamber sulphuric acid, nitric acid, and the va- 

 por of water. To understand what takes place under these circum- 

 stances, a current of sulphurous acid may be passed into a flask con- 

 taining nitric acid ; this should be made, by means of a bent tube, to 



