226 Progress of Invention. 



the purchaser's hands, and was broken into fragments. Cockney- 

 Bill took the pieces home, returned the urn perfect, and was rewarded 

 for his trouble. A few days afterwards, in sweeping the corners of 

 the room where the urn fell, a large portion of the bottom and side 

 of the original urn was found. This opened the gentleman's eyes, 

 and convinced him that Cockney Bill was an imposter. One of this 

 man's chief occupations was collecting fossils, and even in this he is 

 said to have become notorious for his deceptions. 



The newspapers announce, aftqr some of the local papers, ap- 

 parently interesting discoveries of Roman remains brought to light at 

 Cirencester. In excavating for some works at the New Cattle 

 Market, the excavators came upon what had evidently been part of 

 the Roman cemetery, and dug up two rather small stone sarcophagi, 

 each containing the remains of a child, and three sepulchral urns, 

 containing burnt bones. In one of the urns several objects were 

 found, including a terra-cotta lamp, ornamented with figures, what 

 is described in the newspaper as " a safety-pin, on the same principle 

 as those in use at the present day," a bronze fibula, four coins, and 

 one of the small glass unguent bottles, commonly called lachryma- 

 toria. In another part of the town, some men engaged in excavating 

 for cellars, on land in the New Road, came on what is described as 

 the remains of a hypocaust, and found a number of small works in 

 metal and bronze, and other relics of the Roman period. It is to be 

 hoped that some more careful and intelligent account of these dis- 

 coveries will be published. T. W. 



PROGRESS OF INVENTION. 



The Oxyhydrogen Lime Light. — The applicability of this very 

 brilliant light is greatly limited by the very considerable size of the 

 reservoirs required for the gases, and the cost of the latter. An 

 ingenious American appears to have very much lessened, if not 

 removed, these difficulties. He uses for reservoirs iron cylinders 

 capable of sustaining very great pressure, and condenses each of the 

 gases into that one destined for it. Gasholders of this kind, 

 able to sustain a pressure of fifty pounds to the square inch, and 

 large enough to hold each fifty cubic feet of gas, are of a very 

 moderate size and weight. Cylinders two and a half feet long and 

 nine inches in diameter cost about a dollar for every fifteen pounds 

 to the square inch pressure they are capable of sustaining. They 

 can be filled with the gases at a very moderate cost ; with "oxygen at 

 the rate of little more than a shilling per cubic foot, and with hydro- 

 gen at one-tenth of that price. He has also improved the jet used 

 for burning the mixed gases. The compactness of this apparatus 

 promises to greatly extend the sphere of utility of the oxyhydro- 

 gen lime light, the appliances for which have hitherto been so 

 cumbersome and inconvenient. 



New Mode of Constructing Barrels. — It is difficult to prevent 



