400 
A MINIATURE STEAM ENGINE. 
ELECTRICAL EXPERIMENT. 
A salad, consisting of mustard and cress, 
may be produced in a few minutes by an elec- 
tric experiment. The process is to immerse 
the seed for a few days previously in diluted 
oxymuriatic acid, then sow it in a very light 
soil, letting it be covered with a metallic 
cover, and next bring it in contact with the 
electric machine. By the same agents em- 
ployed in this process, eggs which require 
from nineteen to twenty-one days’ application 
of animal heat to hatch them, maybe hatch- 
ed in a few hours. Rain water, apparently 
free from any noxious animalcula, in an hour 
can be rendered full of living insects. Water, 
in a short period, decomposed of its two com- 
ponent parts, oxygen and hydrogen, and by 
the same power restored to its former state ; 
and platina, the most difficult of all metals to 
melt, in a moment can be fused and calcined 
by the discharge of an electric battery. An 
iron bar, by the discharge of a sufficient ac- 
cumulation of the electric fluid, will become 
magnetic to such a degree as to lift more 
than its owm weight ; and if a pound of red 
lead and a pound of sulphur be mixed toge- 
ther into a mass, which no human ingenuity 
can separate, a stream of the electric fluid 
will do it at once. — Cambrian, 
INGENIOUS PIECE OF MECHANISM. 
A very ingenious piece of mechanism, 
a miniaUrre steam-engine, has been con- 
structed by Mr. Richard Corfield, a young 
man in the employment of Messrs. Gittins and 
Cartwright, at the Eagle Foundery, Shrews- 
bury. It consists of an engine not exceeding 
an half inch cylinder, for the purpose of pro- 
pelling a steam-boat, working its propelling 
shaft at the enormous speed of five hundred 
and fifty revolutions per minute — travelling a 
distance of thirty miles in one hour. The 
boiler is so constructed as to admit a spirit- 
lamp in the centre of the w'ater, which affords 
sufficient fuel and steam for one hour. We 
should add, that the above is only one of many 
extraordinary specimens of useful, though 
miniature and elaboi’ate, works of art made 
by Mr. Corfield. — Ibid. 
BERLIN IRON ORNAMENTS. 
Some of these are so fine, consisting of 
rosettes, medallions, &c., that nearly ten 
thousand go to the pound. In the coarse 
fabrics the value of the mateidal is increased by 
manufacturing eleven hundred times, and in 
the finer nearly ten thousand times . — Arcana 
of Science. 
THE QUADRANT. 
In 1734 it was said, “ as soon as the com- 
mon prejudice against new things is worn off, 
and the instrument is well known, 1 do not 
believe any ship will go on a long voyage 
without one of these excellent quadrants.” 
THE RAILWAY SYSTEM. [i 
A railway between Liverpool and Man- 
chester, two towns of imuien.se population, at 
a distance of little more than 30 miles, one the 
commercial, and the other the manufacturing I 
capital of tlie great “ northern line” of Kng- i- 
land,— has succeeded to such an extent, that I 
(aided by the attraction of its novelty, which j* 
draws pa-sengers to it not only fiom all parts 
of Great Britain, but of the Continent,) it pays | 
the shareholders between 9 and 10 per cent, 
on their capital.* | 
.And this amazing result has been sufficient 
to transform us all into a nation of specula- ! 
tors! Encouraged by this dazzlingly brilliant 
success, having this proof positive before us that 
a line of railway, in perhaps the most advanta- 
geous situation that could possibly be selected, 
vill actually yield a something over and above 
its expenses, we are ready at t!ie first blush to ! 
yield assent to the very reasonable proposition, 1; 
that every peddling market-town ought forth- \ 
with to be accommodated with a road, costing li 
the trifling sum of 30,000/, a mile If If the li 
Liverpool and Manchester has paid 100 per jj 
cent., instead of 10, the rage for railways could 
hardly have been greater than it is at present. |! 
” Can these things be, and overcome us like i 
a summer cloud, without our special won- 1 
der?” |l 
*■ * * * * # !| 
In point of cheapness, steaming by land \ 
can hardly ever equal steaming by water. |i 
We cannot expect, either on common road or i 
railway, to be conveyed to Hull for two shil- | 
lings — the presetit fare by sea (a distance of i 
at least 300 miles ;) nor, even if the suspen- 
sion-bridge across the British Channel were 
fairly erected, could the journey to Boulogne 
well be effected for less than five shillings, 
the present rate per steamer. Notwithstand- 
ing this. I believe it seldom happens that a 
railway projector does not calculate upon 
securing every particle of traffic on his line. 
♦ We do not think this is by any means a 
fair view of the case. The Liverpool and 
Manchester Railway is by no means the only 
one which has furnished an example of great 
success to stimulate and justify the jirevailing 
fondness for railway speculations. The Stock 
ton and L arlington has paid still better than 
the Liverpool and Manchester, and is the older 
line of the two, (can it be that our intelligent 
correspondent has never heard of it?, the 
Edinburgh and Dalkeith, and the Publin and 
Kingstown, are also yielding handsome re- 
turns to their respective proprietors. It de- 
serves further to be observed, that the divi- 
dends of the Liverpool and Manchester Rail- 
way Company are limited by their Act of Par- 
liament to 10 per cent, (a limitation intro- 
duced through the influence, and for the pro- 
tection, of certain canal-owners) : and that 
but for this circumstance, they might be a 
great deal higher than they are. Thelimita- I 
tion of the dividends has the natural effect of 
keeping up the rates of conveyance, and these j 
again of restricting the amount of traffic.— Ed. 
M M. 
+ This is the maximum rate. In many cases 
the expense does not amount to IO,OOOZ. a mile ; 
in some it is as low as 6,000/. and 7,000/ — 
Ed.M. M. 
