22 



MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



[1854. 



no suspicion at all rested of being in error to any thing like that 

 amount. 



Mr. J. R. Hind, Loudon, has discovered another new planet. It is 

 like a star of the tenth magnitude, and is situated almost exactly upon 

 the ecliptic, about midway between two stars of the fifth magnitude — 

 29 and 32 of Hamsteed in Capricoruus. 



The Earl of Rosse says, that he does not believe there is any 

 known photographic process, which is sufficiently sensitive to give 

 details of the Moon's surface in the least degree approaching to the 

 way in which they are brought out by the eye. 



The same Nobleman in a letter to the Astronomer Royal, a portion 

 of which is published in the Athenneiim of June 17th, says, in relation 

 to specula for telescopes : — " You recollect, no doubt, how greatly 

 superior silver would be to speculum metal, if it could be as well and 

 and as easily polished as speculum metal. At the Ipswich meeting of 

 the British Association, I described ai'process which had been, to a 

 certain extent, successful. It is difficult, however, and uncertain ; 

 and as a silver surface is very perishable, it would scarcely be worth 

 while to employ it, except under special circumstances. Another 

 method which I have very recently tried is perfectly easy, and pro- 

 mises well. A plate of glass is coated with silver by precipitation from 

 saccharate of silver. The silver film is then varnished with tincture 

 of shell-lac, and when dry, the temperature of the glass is gradually 

 raised to the fusing point of shell-lac. Pieces of shell-lac are then laid 

 upon it, and over them a piece of thick glass. A slight weight presses 

 out the superfluous shell-lac, and the whole having gradually cooled, 

 the silver film adheres permanently to the shell-lac, the glass upon 

 which it had been originally precipitated being easily removed without 

 injuring it. We have thus a silver sui'face apparently as true as the 

 glass upon which it has been precipitated, and with a Ijeautiful polish. 

 The experiment is imperfect so far as this, that as yet merely common 

 plate glass has been tried, and not a true glass surface ; and as I am 

 about to set out for London, I shall have no opportunity for some time 

 of completing these experiments. With the view of applying Mr. 

 Lassell's levers to one of our 6-foot specula, should there be a reasonable 

 prospect of improving its performance in that way, I have tried some 

 experiments as to the practicability of drilling speculum metal. I find 

 it can be drilled by a tubular drill of soft iron and emery, the core 

 being from time to time removed b3- a pointed chisel, and a very light 

 hammer, by which it can be safely broken up gradually. A drill with 

 diamonds set in a groove, cuts it well also ; and even a drill of per- 

 fectly hard steel, revolving slowly, cuts it well ; so that there can be 

 no serious difficulty in making the necessiry perforations." 



At the Fort Pitt works, Pittsburg, the proprietors are engaged on 

 a Government order for 21 guns of the heaviest calibre, called 

 " Columbiades," having a ten-inch bore and throwing a 124 pound 

 shot. Lieutenant Rodman is the inventor of a new principle in cast- 

 ing ordnance. The cannon is cast hollow, and a constant and ever- 

 renewed stream of water forced in, thus cooling the interior first in- 

 stead of, as was the old plan, casting solid and allowing the outside to 

 cool first. Cannon cast by both methods have been subjected to 

 powerful tests, and it is found that those cast on the new principle 

 bear five and six times the number of charges of those cast by the 

 old method. 



In the year 1806 the total number of Iron Furnaces in Great 

 Britain was 216 and the production 243,851 tons; in 1852 the total 

 number of Furnaces was 655 and the production 2,701,000 tons. 



A Parliamentary paper just printed contains the following satis- 

 factory statements relative to the Revenue, Expenditure and Com- 

 merce of the United Kingdom, 



In the year 1853 the surplus of revenue was 3,254,505Z, being 

 the largest excess for ten years. The net amount of the several 

 branches of the revenue of the United I^ingdom paid in the ex- 

 chequer was 54,430,344Z. The expenditure out of the revenue paid 

 in the same ye-ar was 51,174,839Z. In 1853 the taxes' repealed or 

 reduced amounted to 3,247.474/, and the estimated amount imposed 

 was 3,356,383Z. At the end of last year the balances in the exchequer 

 were 4,485,230/. The capital of the national debt last year wns 770,- 

 923,001/. The quantity of raw cotton imported last year was 895,266,- 

 780/, and of wool, lll",396,445/. The total declared value of British 

 and Irish produce exported last year was 93,357.306/. Last year the 

 number of vessels built and registered was 798. of 293,171 tons. 

 The number of vessels belonging to the United Kingdom last year, 

 exclusive of river steamers, was 18,206, of 3,730,087 tons, and 

 the meii employed, exclusive of masters, was 172,525, The 



coinage in the year was 12,664,125/. The births in the year were 

 612,311, the deaths 421,775, and the marriages 162,135. The total 

 paupers relieved were 818,315. 



There appears to be no longer any doubt as to the capabilities of 

 India to supply the United Kingdom with cotton. The London Morn- 

 ing Chronicle considers it as demonstrated beyond all question, that 

 India can furnish cotton for the British Market. The inferiority of 

 Indian Cotton compared with American arises from what befalls it 

 subsequently to its production in the fields. Railways for transporta- 

 tion, and an improved method of collecting, cleaning, and packing are 

 all alone required to enable Central India to fui-nish an immense and 

 continually increasing supply. 



In a list of casualities to British Shipping taken from a Parliamen- 

 tary blue book, the startling fact is announced, that during the four 

 years ending 1850, not less than 204 ships and their crews departed 

 from the various ports of the United Kingdom, of which not one was 

 ever heard of again. 



The Daily News says, that the Egyptian Railroad is in good working 

 order, and answers exceedingly well. The trains do not run on it at 

 present at any stated periods. It is chiefly used when European or 

 Indian passengers arrive in Egypt. English engine drivers are 

 employed on it. The speed is about 20 miles an hour. The railway 

 the whole distance between Alexandria and Cairo will soon be open. 

 It passes through a level and most fertile country. The Arabs do not 

 know what to make of it. They were dancing before it some time 

 since, and having no conception of its speed, they did not get out of 

 the way in time, and an Arab woman was killed. 



Madame Sontag, who died in Mexico, on June 18th, was forty-eight 

 years old, having been born at Coblentz, on the 13th of May, 1805. 

 She was the child of an obscui-e German actor and actress. She mar- 

 ried a foreign geutleman of noble family, and until 1848, did not 

 appear on the public stage. As one of the consequences of the Revo- 

 lution of 1848, jNIadame Sontag was compelled by the vicissitudes of 

 fortune to return to the Opera Houses of Euroije. 



In Hunt's Merchant Magazine, under the head " Foreign Trade of 

 Oswego," we find the following statement : — "There has been a hand- 

 some aggregate increase, although there has been a falling off' in the 

 Importations of Canadian flour, of near one-half, as compared with 

 last year. The cause of this we have before explained, the principal 

 one being the reciprocal free trade adopted between the Provinces, which 

 has tended to divert Canadian Flour from our channels down the St. 

 Laivrence." The deficiency at this point this year, is made up by the 

 increased receipts of Canadian wheat. The receipts of three articles 

 of largest import, from Canada for two seasons, have been as 

 follows : — 



18.52. 1853. 



Flour b.arrels 193,190 113,008 



Wheat bushels 1,362,482 1,781,157 



Lumber feet 75,500,000 121,288,329 



Large amounts of the products of the forests, such as shingles, lath, 

 railroad ties, oak and pine timber, &c., imported at this point, are 

 not embraced in the above lumber figures. 



SnppLTiNQ Locomotives with Watek. — A resident of Fredonia 

 (N. S.), has invented a curious apparatus for supplying locomotives with 

 water, according to which, a cistern must be constructed beneath the 

 track, ha'ving connected ■with it a force pump, which in its turn is con- 

 nected with a series of "fi'iction wheels," inserted above it in the track. 

 The locomotive is run upon these wheels, and then, however swiftly its 

 wheels may revolve, it can go no further, as the friction wheels upon 

 which it stands revolve with those of the engine. The force pump is 

 in this manner set at work, and made to raise from 1500 to 5000 gal- 

 lons per minute. 



Propekties or Ikon. — The Philadelphia Ledger states, that in the 

 concluding lecture of Prof. Smith at the Smithsonian Institute, the 

 lecturer dwelt upon the tendency of iron to undergo a change from a 

 fibrous to a granular condition — thus causing the abstraction of an in- 

 definite amount of its tenacity .and strength. Fibrous iron, by being 

 for a considerable time subjected to concussion, will become gi-anular and 

 therefore weak. A knowledge of this principle has induced the French 

 government to disallow the use of iron axles on their public diligences 

 bevond a certain time ; they must then be removed. Iron cannon, 

 originally veiy strong, become weaker and weaker by use, from the 

 loosening of the texture of their substance. 



