RECENT INTELLIGENCE IN MAGNETO-ELECTRICAL MACHINES. 469 
and the wafer consequently expelled. The 
puncheons tlius charged with air acquire a 
perpendicular position, and a*'e so buoy, ant, as 
to render certain the raising of any weight pro- 
};ortionafe to the number of them employed. 
'I’he operation of filling the puncheons with 
air will be comparatively easy in this instance, 
as from the favourable circumstance of the 
wreck lying in less than thirteen fathoms of 
water, little more than two atmospheres will 
be required, and scarcely any doubts arp 
entertained of the attempt proving suc- 
cessful. — Dover Telegraph. 
MASSIEAND RAN WELL’S PADDLE- 
WHEELS. 
A few days ago, the first public trial of this 
new paddle-wheel for steam-vessels was made 
on the River. Tt was affixed to the Red Ro- 
ver steamer, belonging to the Herne Bay 
Company, wliich conveyed the female emi- 
grants and agricultural families to the ship 
at Gravesend in which they embarked for Van 
Dieman’s Land. After the emigrants had 
left the steam-vessel, to the starboard side of 
which the new wheel was affixed, the larboard 
side being furnished with the common wheel, 
the Emigration Committee, visitors, and se- 
veral naval officers, proceeded to inspect the 
n^w paddle-wheel, a model of which was sub- 
mitted and familiarly explained by Mr. Massie 
and Mr. Ranwell. 'I'he principle seems to 
consist in the exposure of the entire surface of 
the float to the vvater while in the most ad- 
vantageous position for propelling, which 
upon approaching the suiface becomes divid- 
ed'intoa series of angular bars, which suffer 
the water to pass through the interstices, and 
thus transfer the action of the steam-power to 
the next floats in succe-sion, instead of use- 
lessly wasting it on the water-lift. A consider- 
able ferment in the water (though the swell 
was not so heavy) was apparent, which, how- 
ever, a little alteration m the construction 
will considerably diminish, and which the 
experiment will enable the inventors to ac- 
complish. — Weekly Dispatch. 
COINS IN THE CLOUDS! 
A Brighton physician lately adopted the 
following singular means of preserving some 
ofthecoinsof the realm. He enclosed several 
of the last impiessions in a ball of wax, which 
he placed in a balloon of India-rubber suffi- 
ciently inflated with gas to raise it several 
thousand feet above the earth, where, floating 
in space the memory of our nation and its 
monarch, may be recorded for hundreds of 
thousands of years. Within the ball of wax 
was also placed a slip of parchment with the 
following letters cut out ; — “ Anglia Martis 
X., IS36.'*— Dispatch. 
ON CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN 
THE CONSTRUCTION pF MAG- 
NETO-ELECTRICAL MACHINES, 
AND ON THE USE OF CAOUT- 
CHOUC FOR INSULATION IN 
VOLTAIC BATTERIES. 
By Fred. W. Mullins, Esa., M.P., 
F. S. S. 
To the Editors of the Philosophical Maga^ 
zine and Journal. 
Gentlemen, - I think it important to call 
the attention of the scientific readers of your 
valuable Journal, to some improvements fe- 
cenily made by me in the construction of the 
magneto-electric machine, which go far to 
demonstrate the still very imperfect state of 
these instruments, and form a fo'undation for 
alterations infinitely more important both in 
their mode of construction and application. 
The machine whose power 1 had an op- 
paitunity of testing was constructed on the 
most approved principle, and consists of two 
sets of bar-magnets arranged vertically, each 
set consisting of a do7en bars, and the upper 
poles of one set being unconnected with those 
of the other. I had previously seen and 
examined hoiizontal horseshoe machines, 
and, so far as I was enabled to institute a com- 
parison, considered the other mode of con- 
struction to be preferable. After trial, how- 
ever, it struck me that the power of all 
magneto-electric machines was very imper- 
fectly developed, and that it might be possi- 
ble to obtain considerably greater effects from 
the same number of magnetic bars liy esta- 
blishing a magnetic connexion between the 
poles of the latter, and this withotit much 
difficulty or increased expen.-e. With this 
view I procured two magnetized arcs of the 
shape given in the annexed figure, and of the 
same width and thickness as the bars of the 
machine. (Plate2.fig. 10.) I then applied them, 
one to the opposite poles of the outside pair of 
bars, and one to those of the inside, and on 
giving the shock to a gentleman who was 
present, and who had tried the power of the 
instrument when the poles were unconnected, 
the effect was so much increased that he 
refused to repeat it, and on trying it on my- 
self I found the power to be fully double what 
it had previously been. I was aware that 
connecting pieces of soft iron were sometimes 
used, but that their utility was said to be 
very questionable, and having myself tried 
them, I can safely say that soft iron as a mode 
of connexion is useless; it is evident, there- 
fore. that the increase of power does not 
depend upon connexion, unless when the 
substance forming the connexion is in a peculiar 
state, and thereby capable of exerting a certain 
influence on the poles of each set of magnets., 
which influence, it can be shovvn, does no# 
depend upon the size of the connecting 
magnets, for I have tried large horse-shoe 
magnetic bars, single and in sets, without any 
