1802] 
Mr. Droz, who was for a'confiderable 
time in the employ of Mr. Boulton, at the 
manufactory of Soho, near Birmingham, 
has lately conftruéted, at Paris, a machine 
for coining, which has attracted ‘the no 
tice of the French Government. 
The Indian Hand-mill for grinding 
grain is, like moft other Indian inven- 
_tions, charaéterifed by confiderable fim- 
plicity and effe&t, and merits the public 
attention. Its cheapnefs and gencral uti- 
lity are fuch, that the meaneft hut in In- 
dia is never without one. The whole 
grain ufed by the natives of India is 
ground in thefe mills, and chiefly by wo- 
men, who appear to execute the tafk with 
aftonifhing eafe. A woman will continue 
grinding with this mill feveral hours, and 
in this time fhe will reduce a very confi- 
derable quantity of grain into flour. 
Our Lady of Loretto.—The ftatue re- 
ftored by the French remains ftill at Rome, 
whilft her throne at Loretto is ufurped by 
another; and their contending partizans 
have not yet been able to fettle which of 
them is genuine. Soon after the Virgin 
was carried away from Loretto by the 
facrilecious French ravifhers, a holyMonk 
of that town introduced another into the 
chapel, afferting that, having been fore- 
warned of her danger in a vifion, he had 
concealed the genuine miraculous ftatue, 
and delivered a fubftitute into the hands 
of the enemy. ‘The queftion is now ve- 
hemently agitated, wheter the ftory of 
the French or of the Monk be deferving 
of credit.’ 
Citizen CoquzBerRTt has lately com- 
municated to the Philomathic Society of 
Paris a very fimple procefs for taking a 
copy of a’ recent manufcript. The pro- 
cefs is the more interefting, as it requires 
neither machine nor preparation, and may 
be employed in any fituation. It confifts 
in putting a little {ugar into common 
writing ink, and with this the writing is 
executed upon common paper, fized as 
ufual: when a copy is required, unfized 
paper is taken, and lightly moiftened 
- with a fponge. The wet paper is then 
applied to the writing, and a flat-iron 
(fuch as is ufed by laundreffes) of a mo- 
derate heat, being lightly pafled over the 
unfized paper, the copy is immediately 
produced. 
Citizen Hauy having compared the 
methods of writing and calculating of 
feveral celebrated blind men, has digefted 
into a bedy of doétrine the belt produc- 
tions of experience in this art. His me- 
thod of writing confifts in ufing an iron pen, 
thé point of which is not fplit: ‘by wri- 
Literary‘and Philofophical Intelligence. 
435 
ting without ink, and preffing on a ftrong 
paper, the blind man produces a charac- 
ter in relief, which he ‘can immediately 
read by paffine his fingers over the pro- 
jetting charaéters on the oppofite fide of 
the paper, in the contrary direétion. The 
relief is fufficient, provided a foft furface 
be placed under the paper, fuch as leather, 
blotting paper, &c. 
Citizen Picrer gives an account of 
experiments to prove, that light and heat’ 
are not the fame. Oppofite to each other he 
places two concave metallic mirrors ; in 
the focus of one he places a lighted can- 
dle, and in the focus of the other a very 
fenfible air-thermometer: he then places 
between the focia piece of very thin and 
tranfparent glafs ; the thermometer indi- 
cating the tranfmiffion of heat, ftopped 
that inftant. The two mirrors were placed 
at the diftance of about twenty-five yards 
one from the other, in order to determine 
whether the time of the propagation of 
the radiant heat, from one focus to the 
other, could be appreciated. A heated, 
but not luminous, ball, was fufpended at 
one of the foci, before which a {creen was 
placed. At the inftant that this obftacle 
was removed, the fluid in the thermome- 
ter, which was before perfectly at reft, 
began to move, and no fenfible interval 
could be perceived, between the fuppref- 
fion and the effects of the tranfmiffion of 
heat. 
From fome experiments in eleétricity, 
Citizen TREMERY concludes, that the 
atmofpheric air, in its ordinary ftate, 
refilts the paflage of ‘the negative, more 
than the pofitive, fluid, and that the infu- 
lating property of non-conduStors cannot 
be the fame for both eleétricities. 
. The vaccine-inoculation continues to 
make rapid progrefs in Spain and Italy. 
In Catalonia zooo perfons were inocu- 
lated in the courfe of nine months ; and, 
by its means, the fatal ravages of the 
imail-pox have been ftopped in the depart- 
ment of Milla, where, during three months 
only, 12,000 perfons have fubmitted to 
the vaccine operation. 
It is of importance to be known, that 
relief may be expected to navigators fhip- 
wrecked on a defert coaft, by means of in- 
clofing an account of their cafe in a bottle, 
well-corked, and committed to the waves. 
A letter, put in a bottle, and thrown 
overboard at the entrance of the Bay of 
Bifcay, was,.in nine months taken up on 
the coaftot Normandy. Ancther, aban- 
doned to the waves at 42° iatitude eaft of 
the meridian’ of Teneriffe, travelled 120 
leagues in three weeks, and was taken up 
on 
