172 Description of Mr Perkins’s New Steam-Engine. 
rection. Thus, if the needle C deviated to the east , the needle 
D deviated to the west. In general the deviation of the exterior 
needle D was about one-half of those of the interior one C. If, 
for example, C would deviate 90° to the east , the deviation of D 
was 45° to the east. 
16. Finally I subjoin a method of repeating Oersted’s experi- 
ment in the most simple manner. Baron Van Zuylen took one 
slip of copper and one of zinc, and twisted the ends C and D to- 
gether, as in Fig. 1 5. This part of the metal was dipped in sul- 
phuric acid and water. The other ends A, B, were bent round 
a needle, placed above the cup containing the fluid. When these 
ends were made to touch, the needle was immediately disturbed 
from the magnetic meridian. 
I regret that business will prevent me, for some time to come, 
from prosecuting this matter any farther, nor do I for the present 
presume to offer any comment on these extraordinary facts. As 
the experiments require no extensive apparatus, I hope they 
may be repeated by others, and I shall be happy to learn the 
result. 
Utrecht, %5th April 1826. 
Art. XIX. — Description of Mr Perkins' s New Steam-Engine , 
and of the application of his Invention to Engines of' the 
Old Construction. 
E have already communicated to our readers in the two last 
Numbers of this Journal, all the authentic information which we 
could obtain respecting Mr Perkins’s new Steam-Engine ; and 
we have used the utmost diligence to obtain such farther infor- 
mation as may, in some measure, gratify that curiosity which 
these imperfect notices have excited. There never has been in 
our day an invention which has created such a sensation in the 
scientific and in the manufacturing world. The steam-engine of 
Mr Watt had been so long considered as the greatest triumph 
of art and science, that it was deemed a sort of heresy to re- 
gard it as capable of improvement ; and, notwithstanding all that 
has been done by Mr Woolff, and other eminent engineers, the 
undoubted merit of their engines has scarcely yet been admitted 
by the public. Under such circumstances, Mr Perkins’s claims 
