610 
IMPORTANT DISCOVERIES. 
THE NEW STEAM-BOAT NOVELTY. 
The recent successful experiment of driv- 
ing this boat, of the largest class, with an- 
thracite coal, against the tide and a strong 
current from heavy rains, at the rate of 16 
miles in the hour, has caused much remark 
in our city, as an astonishing fact of great 
importance on the subject of fuel, which may 
lead to revolutions in steam navigation. Dr. 
Knott, the distinguished President of Union 
College, is the well-known proprietor of the 
Novelty, which he constructed, we believe, 
with machinery modelled after his own inge- 
nious invention, so as to adapt it ultimately 
to the same economical principles of combus- 
tion which have given such deserved celebrity 
to his patented stove. The fact of the practi- 
cability of using anthracite being now ascer- 
tained so as to produce as great a degiee of 
speed as pine-wood, will no longer compel 
steam-boat proprietors to import tlieir wood 
at exorbitant prices from the remote forests 
of Maine and the shores of the Cheasapeake. 
Nearer by, and almost at our own doors, we 
have the anthracite coal-mines of Pennsyl- 
vania, of every possible variety, in exhaustless 
quantities. In the trips to Albany for one sea- 
son the difference in cost between wood and 
anthracite for the Novelty, it is ascertained, 
would be 19,000 dollars, in favour of coal. 
The successful navigation of the Atlantic from 
America to Europe is made certain. Among 
the other great advantages would be the vast 
saving of human life, as it is believed tlie 
steady, intense, radiated heat of anthracite 
will be in some degree a security against 
those sudden accumulations which arise horn 
the inflammable blaze of pine-wood. There 
is also an entire freedom from the annoyance 
of smoke, and the danger of fire from showers 
of sparks. Wood is now selling at the Hud- 
son at five or six dollars a cord. The cost, 
in fact, of pine-wood is about double that of 
anthracite. The passage and freight, there- 
fore, must soon be reduced to half the present 
rates. The Novelty is remarkable for the ease 
with which she glides through the water, the 
motion being without any jarring.— New; 
York Evening Star. 
HOME-GROWN FLAX. 
We understand the agriculture practice of 
sowing flax in this part of the country, for 
domestic purposes, is becoming mucli more 
general than it was formerly. The returns 
from Riga and American seed have, in many 
instances, been very great. The Dutch seed 
has also been found to answer well ; and 
there is every reason to think, if farmers 
woulddirect their attention more to the cul- 
tivation of this crop, it would turn out a 
profitable one, not only for family purposes, 
but as an article for sale. The importance 
of flax crops in Ireland may be judged from 
the fact, that there has lately been brought 
into the mhrket in Derry as much as 200 tons 
per week, averaging in value from 40/. to 80/. 
per ton ; and there has been imported this 
season, at Belfast alone, above 9000 hogsheads 
of flax-seed, Riga, America, and Dutch.— 
Aberdeen Paper. 
EMBOSSING ON WOOD. . 
A new and ingenious method of embossing 
on wood has been invented by Mr. J. 
Straker. It may be used eitlier by itself, or 
in aid of carving, and depends on the fact, 
that if a depression be made by a blunt in- 
strument on the surface of wood, such de- 
pressed part will again rise to its original 
level by subsequent immersion in water, i he 
wood to be ornamented having first been 
worked to its proposed shape, is in a state to 
receive the drawing of the pattern ; this being 
put in, a blunt steel tool, or burnisher, or die, 
IS to be applied successively to all those parts 
of the pattern intended to be in relief, and at 
the same time is to be driven very cautiously, 
without breaking the grain of the wood, till 
the depth of the depression is equal to the 
subsequent prominence of the figures. 'J he 
ground is then to he reduced by planing or 
filing to the level of the depressed part; after 
whiclt the piece of wood being placed in 
water, either hot or cold, the parts previously 
depressed will rise to their former height, and 
will thus form an embossed pattern, which 
may be finished by the usual operation of 
carving. 
MAISE SUGAR. 
Dr. Balias having sent two specimens of 
the maise sugar to the French Academy of 
Sciences, M. Biot has submitted them to 
certain effects of polarisation in order to 
ascertain their precise nature. The deviation 
of the polarised rays to the right of the place 
of polarisation in an aqueous solution of this 
sugar after filtration, and the proportion of its 
inversion to the left by the addition of liquid 
sulphuric acid, have been found by M. Biot 
to agree with the pure sugar derived from the 
cane. — Athenceum. 
BENEFICIAL EFFECTS OF RAIL- 
WAYS. 
Some idea of the employment which rail- 
ways will find for the labouring classes may 
be formed from the fact, that at this moment 
between 10,000 and 11,000 men are employed 
on the London and Birmingham Railway 
only.— Spectator. Taking this number as 
data, the average of accidents which occur 
in the prosecution of the works, is certainly 
under that which happens to an equal num- 
ber of workmen engaged in the ordinary oc- 
cupations of bricklayers, masons, carpenters, 
labourers, and so forth. 
TIME AND TEMPERATURE MEA- 
SURER IN ONE. 
M. Arago announced at the last sitting of 
the French Academy of Sciences, that a 
Danish watchmaker has invented a watch, 
which at the end of the day indicates the mean 
temperature of twenty-four hours. 
