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this run some litkofracteur was put on the rails, for the wheels 
of the trucks to pass over, which they did, simply squashing the 
cartridges, and in one or two instances snapping little fragments, 
like hoys’ crackers, the stains on the metals not being bigger 
than half-crowns, the residue, spread in contiguity around, not 
being fired in any way whatever. Iron to iron was not tried in 
the experiments of last year, as Professor Engels, the inventor, 
stated that the lithofracteur would explode confined between 
metals under such very violent blows. In the recent official 
experiments not only were those wood to wood and iron to wood 
experiments repeated with identical results, but a truck was 
launched having both buffers plated with iron and charged 
with three cartridges each, and run at the same terrific speed 
against a scotched waggon with iron plated buffers also. The 
truck hit true, and, of course, all six cartridges exploded, send- 
ing smokeless jets of gas straight up like pistol discharges, in 
the instant of impact, some 12 ft. or 14 ft. into the air. No 
splinters were scattered from this discharge, but the iron plates 
were bent about and much distorted. Our plate (Plate 
LXXXIII.) shows the incline at Mr. France’s quarries, and 
the wreck of the trucks in this last experiment, which took 
place on February 24 last. 
During the past month lithofracteur has further shown its 
capabilities under water. The Alarm , a schooner belonging to 
Brixham, capsized in January, in the river Parratt, about three 
miles below Bridgewater, and in the attempts to raise her she 
was drawn, heeled over, right across the stream in such a way 
as not only to fill with sand but to cause banks obstructive to 
the navigation to be formed. The Company in which she was 
insured were not only threatened by shipowners with actions, 
but the town authorities, under a clause in their Act of Parlia- 
ment, gave notice that if she was not forthwith got out of the 
way they should clear the wreck themselves and recover the 
cost. Under these circumstances Mr. France, who has had 
sufficient practical experience of the explosive in his own 
quarries, undertook to blow up the wreck, which he did most 
completely on the 18th ultimo with two charges of 50lbs. 
each. The first charge was put in a tarred water-tight box, 
and pushed in atop of the sand under the deck close to the 
mizen-mast, and by this the after half of the vessel was 
destroyed and the sand much cleared out of the forward portion. 
In the second charge the cartridges were put in a mere broken 
wood case, all loose, with the water running in between them. 
This was placed under the side of the vessel heeled over ; and 
it effected complete demolition, a deep hole of upwards of ten 
feet being made in the river-bed where the obstruction pre- 
viously existed. In the first explosion a fountain of water was 
