1802.4 
pleft means ; and there is, I think, little 
to praife or emulate in thé labours of: 
thofe who refolutely feek truth through 
the moft. difficult paths, who love what 
is arduous becaufe it is arduous, and in 
fubje&s naturally difficult toil with initru- 
ments the moft incommodious.”” 
{ The refults of the papers in Natural Hiftory and 
Chemifiry in our next.) 
+ 
ROYAL INSTITUTION OF GREAT BRI- 
TAIN. 
Ata meeting held the’ 26th of April, 
Count RumMFORD informed the Society of 
the progres that had béen made (fince the 
account laid before it the 25th’ of May, 
1801); in the arrangements and the works 
of the houfe. He ftated, that the new 
Je&ture-room had been finifhed, and was 
acknowledged to be one of the moft beau- 
tiful and moft convenient fcientific the- 
atres in Europe; fo favourable to the 
propagation cf found, that, though it is 
fufficiently capacious to contain<goo per- 
fons, a whifper may be diltinétly heard 
from one extremity of it to the other, and 
no echo is ever perceived in it on any oc- 
eafion. It is fo contrived, that day-light 
may be entirely exciuded in.amoment, by 
lowering the moveable ceiling of the Jan- 
tern by which, light enters. the room from 
above, and allowing it’to reft on the cor- 
nice, jul above the leveiof the flat part of 
the ceiling of the room. The windows 
are all double, which renders the tempe- 
rature of the room equal and: pleafant, 
and prevents aH noifes from difturbing the 
filence which reigns in the room. In 
winter this theatre is warmed by fteam, 
conveyed in, covered and concealed tubes 
under the rifing feats of the pit. 
That the repofitory, 44. feet by 33; had 
been finifhed, and already contains a con- 
fiderable number of {pecimens of new and 
uleful mechanical contrivances. 
The chemical laboratory is finifhed, 
and furnifhed with complete apparatus. | 
All the workfhops are finithed, and fur- 
nifhed with the belt tools that could be 
procured, and feveral exceilent workmen 
employed in them. 
he great kitchen, dining-room, mana- 
ger’s room, and converfation-rcom, have 
been fAnifhed and furnifhed. 
The carrying into execution fo great 
and extenfive a plan, has neceflarily been 
attended with very heavy charges ; but, 
by a &ri& regard to order and economy, 
and by the addition of 154 new names 
to the lifts of proprietors and fubicribers, 
during the lait ten months, the funds and 
4 
‘tT 
a 
> 
Proceedings of Learned Sccieties. 
569 
refources of the Inftitution have beea 
found more than adequate to-the ex 
pences. | 
Experiments having been lately made 
before the National Inftitute at Pa- 
ris: by M. Covuztome, with  fmali 
plates of gold, filver, copper, lead, and 
tin, with little cylinders of clals; with 
a bit of chalk, a fragment of bofie, 
and different kinds of wood, in order, to 
fhew that all bodies are fubject to the 
magnetic influence, even in a degree 
which is capable of being meafured, 
in the courfe of his lecture on magnet- 
ifm, at the Royal Inftitution, on the 3oth 
of April, Dr. Younc repeated fome of 
M. Coulomb’s experiments, with wires 
of different kinds : one of them was of 
tin, and fufpended within a cylindricat 
glafs jar by a fingle filkworm’s thread ; 
its ofcillations were fo flow as to occupy 
feveral minutes, and it was fcarcely affe&- 
ed by turning the crofs bar to which the 
thread was attached, fo that the fufpen-. 
fion muft have been fufiiciently delicate: 
under thefe circumftances, the oppofite 
poles of two {trong magnets were applied 
clofe to the jar, and at the diftance of 
about twice the Jength of the fufpended 
wire, but the effect was abfolutely imper- 
ceptible: in the morning, indeed, there 
had been an appearance of ofcillations, 
tending to the direétion of the magnets ; 
thefe perhaps were derived from fome fu- 
perficial particles of iron which had loft 
their magnetic property, by oxidation, in 
the courfe of the day. There muft, at 
any rate, be a doubt, whether the prefence 
of.a quantity of iron, too fmall to be af- 
certained by chemical tefts, might not have 
been the caufe of the effects delcribed by 
M. Coulomb, although they indicate a 
force fomething greater than >55th of 
the weight of the fubftance. 
In the 8th Number of the Journals of 
the Royal Inftitution, we have a detailed 
account of the comparifon of the French 
definitive metre with an Eng}ifh ftandard. 
A. ttandard metre of platina, and ano- 
ther ftandard of iron, belonging to the 
National Inftitute, were thus compared 
with the Englith foot; each of thefe two 
meafures being equal, at the temperature 
of melting ice, to the ‘ten millionth part 
of the quadrant of the meridian. At the 
temperature of §9.5? of Fahrenheit, the 
metre of platina was equal to 39,3775 
Englith inches; and that of iron to 
39,3738. At the temperature of 55°, 
the platina flandard was 39,3781, that of 
iON 3953795- 
From theie and various other experi- 
iments 
