676 
A VISIT TO MR. CROSSE AT HIS RESIDENCE. 
so short a time, and to establish that cele- 
brity of his hospital which now exists, so 
that patients come actually from several 
marches distant for relief. Mr. Brett’s suc- 
cess, alone, owing to his extraordinary zeal, is 
sufficient to entitle his measures to the highest 
support, patronage, and confidence of the 
exalted head of the Government. 
A VISIT TO MR. CROSSE, AT HIS RE- 
SIDENCE ON THE QUANTOCK 
HILLS, SOMERSET. 
We extract a valuable communication 
from Sir R. Phillips to the scientific institu- 
tion lately established at Brighton, descrip- 
tive of a visit to the celebrated mineralogist 
Mr. Crosse. The imperfect notices hitherto 
given of Mr. Crosse’s extraordinary experi- 
ments will render the present communica- 
tion valuable, as it will e.xcite the wonder of 
our scientific friends. 
“ On reaching the handsome mansion of 
Mr. Crosse, situated in an undulating park, 
studded with trees of great bulk and age, I 
was received with much politeness, and 
found that I was the first visitor from Bris- 
tol. As I was preparing to retain my 
conveyance to convey me back to Bridge- 
water, I was requested to return it, and 
pressed to stay to dinner and take a bed. 
Breakfast being well served, Mr. Crosse 
then conducted me into a large and lofty 
apartment, built for a music -room, with a 
capital organ in the gallery, but I could 
look at nothing but the 7 or 8 tables which 
filled the area of the room, covered with 
extensive voltaic batteries of all forms, 
sizes, and extents. They resembled batta- 
lions of soldiers in exact rank and file, and 
seemed innumerable. They were in many 
forms, some in porcelain troughs of the 
usual construction, some like the couronnes 
des lasses, others cylindrical, some in pairs 
of glass \essels, with double, metallic cylin- 
ders ; besides them, othei's of glass jars, 
with stripes of copper and zinc. Altogether 
there were 500 voltaic pairs at work in this 
great room, and in other rooms about 500 
ready for new experiments. It seemed like 
a great magazine for voltaic purposes. 
“ There are also two arge workshops, 
with furnaces, tools., and implements of all 
description, as much as would load two or 
three waggons. 
“ In the great room there is also a very 
large electrical machine, wuth a 20 -inch 
cylinder, and a smaller one, and in several 
cases all the appai’atus in perfect condition, 
as described in the best books on electricity. 
The prime conductor stood on glass legs, 
two feet high, and there was a medical dis- 
charger on a glass leg of five feet. No- 
thing could be in finer order, and no private 
electrician in the world could, perhaps, 
show a greater variety, both for experi- 
ments and amusement. 
“ Beneath the mahogany cover of a 
table, on which stood the prime conductor, 
&c., was enclosed a magnificent battery of 
50 jars, combining 73 square feet of coat- 
ing. Its construction, by Cuthbertson, was 
in all respects most perfect. To charge it 
required 250 vigorous turns of the wheel, 
and its dischai'ge made a report as load as 
a blunderbuss. It fuses and disperses wires 
of various metals ; and the walls of the 
apartment are covered with framed impres- 
sions of the radiations from the explosion 
taken at sundry periods. Mr. Crosse struck 
one while I was present, and he has pro- 
mised me one as an electrical curiosity ^and 
a memento of my visit. 
“ But Mr. Crosse’s greatest electrical 
curiosity was his apparatus for measuring, 
collecting, and operating with, atmospheric 
electricity. He collects it by wires, of 
the 16th of an inch, extended from elevated 
poles to poles, or from trees to trees, in his 
grounds and park. The wires are insulated 
by means of glass tubes well contrived for 
the purpose. At present he has about a 
quarter of a mile of wire spread abroad, and 
in general about the third of a mile. A 
French gentleman had reported to the sec- 
tion at Bristol, that the wires extended twen- 
ty miles, filling the entire neighbourhood 
with thunder and lightning, to the great ter- 
ror of the peasantry, who, in consequence 
left Mr. Crosse in the free enjoyment of 
his game and rabbits. This exaggeration, 
Mr. Crosse laughed at most heartily, 
though he acknowledged that he knew that 
no small terror prevailed in regard to him 
and his experiments. 
“ The wires are connected with an appa- 
ratus in a window of his organ gallery, 
which may be detached at pleasure, when 
too violent, by simply ttxrning an insulated 
lever; but in moderate strength- it maybe 
conducted to a ball suspended over the 
great battery, which, connected with it, is 
charged rapidly, and is then discharged by 
means of an universal discharger. He told 
me that sometimes the current was so great 
as to charge and discharge the great battery 
