Miscellanies. 179 



Mr. Whitaker, a gentleman who resides with Mr. Reigart, on wiping 

 the dust from the shelf with a wet cloth, took up the pieces of wood, 

 and after having dusted the shelf, laid them as before. Three days 

 after this it was discovered that one of the pieces had ignited, and 

 combustion was progressing so rapidly that the shelf would have been 

 in a few minutes on fire. On examination, a portion of one of the 

 pieces was found reduced to ashes of a dark grey color, and from 

 some of the outer fibres being sound, and ashes lodged in the inte- 

 rior, under them, it would appear that combustion had commenced, 

 not upon the outer part of the wood, nor upon the sides which lay- 

 in contact with the shelf, but in the interior of the stick — the sur- 

 rounding fibres being disintegrated by the action of the fire within, 

 and ready to fall to pieces. 



17. Wood set on Jire hy the heat of the Sun. — The Hartford 

 (Conn.) Review states, that on Tuesday, the 5th of August, three 

 men being at work at hay in a meadow about one mile east of 

 Winchester, (Conn.) about 2 o'clock, P. M., they discovered, a few 

 rods from them on a piece of barren upland, which had been cleared 

 some seven years since, a small smoke arising ; the sun shining ex- 

 cessively hot at the time, they were induced to go and examine it. 

 They found the fire was just kindled, and had not commenced 

 blazing, nor consumed any of the fuel in which it commenced, which 

 was the remains of an old, decayed hemlock log. It immediately 

 burst into a blaze and burned vividly ; and when the writer of this 

 saw it, more than twenty hours after, it had consumed most of the 

 old log and mulch for more than four feet square, and was then burn- 

 ing. From the locality of the place, and all the other circumstances, 

 the fire cannot be accounted for at all, but from the direct influence 

 of the rays of the sun, which shined brighter and hotter at that time 

 than any time previous, this season. The men who saw it, are res- 

 pectible men, of the strictest integrity. 



18. Substitute for linen. — The following communication is from a 

 a gentleman of very high respectability in Salem, Mass., and at his 

 request it is inserted. — Ed. 



There has recently been discovered, in Salem, Mass., and patent- 

 ed, a new and beautiful material, resembling silk and linen, which 

 holds out to the manufacturers of this country the high promise of an 

 original, beautiful and invaluable fabric, far surpassing in strength and 



