342 



can be used after wetting ; and the noise is also considerably 

 less. The preparations were nitrate and sulphuric acid. Dr. 

 Scoresby said that the cotton might ultimately be applied 

 instead of steam to machinery, inasmuch as one difficulty 

 would be obviated, namely, the corrosion of the cylinder into 

 which gunpowder was made to act. 



The Rev. Doctor concluded by remarks on Fauvelle's plan 

 of making bore-holes for minerals and Artesian wells for 

 water. At Perpignan, M. Fauvelle had bored by his mode 

 a depth of 560 feet in fourteen working days of ten hours 

 each ; and this he did beside a place where the attempt had 

 been made by the ordinary mode during eleven months in 

 vain. M. Fauvelle had not tried to get through any extra- 

 ordinary obstruction ; but if he met with one, he took up his 

 apparatus and tried elsewhere. An Artesian well had been 

 tried at Southampton, where, by the old mode, a depth of 

 1200 feet had been obtained at a cost of £20,000, or nearly 

 £16 per foot ; whereas by M. Fauvelle's system, four feet might 

 be penetrated in an hour. Dr. Scoresby proceeded to notice 

 the Chinese mode of boring, and recommended as an addition 

 to it a plan something like that of the patent corkscrew. He 

 anticipated from these operations a great improvement in the 

 processes of boring, which v/ould be a very great advantage 

 to a mining country like ours. 



Wm. Sykes Ward, Esq., of Leeds, said with regard to 

 the first subject mentioned by Dr. Scoresby, platina was 

 almost the only substance that would bear sufficient heat 

 to resolve water into its elements. He regretted that the 

 secret of the gun cotton had come out prematurely; and 

 the exhibition of it at the British Association, and the 

 statement of the fact that it was cotton, had no doubt con- 

 duced to this. Six English chemists, he believed, discovered 

 it almost simultaneously, but kept it secret, that they might 



