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PROVINCIAL MUSEUMS AND INSTITUTIONS.

serving of attention, that we were induced to request the attendance of Mr. Crawfurd (the late resident at Singapore, and the author of a valuable work on the Indian Archipelago), for the purpose of obtaining such information as he could furnish with respect to the supply of those vegetable oils which might be obtained from the East Indies. Mr. Crawfurd appears to have directed his attention, during a long residence in India, very closely to the productions of that country, with a view of extending its commerce with Great Britain, and it will be seen from his evidence, that a very large field may be opened for a mutual trade, especially with reference to the articles more particularly wanted for the manufacture of soap. He states, that there are no less than fifteen plants in ordinary cultivation, in the continent and islands of India, from which an abundant supply of oil is obtained for the purposes of food and light; and he adds, that from the general facility with which this cultivation may be extended, he sees no limits to the quantity which may be furnished for the demands of this country. He particularly points out the advantage which may be derived from the cultivation of the Palma Christi, or castor-oil plant, which grows in any soil, however barren, and yields a most abudant crop of oil.

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The present rate of duty on castor-oil, sesamum, cocoa-nut, palm-oil, poppy-oil, mustard, and pig-nut oil, and the amount received for the last five years, will be found in the appendix. The ad valorem duty on pig-nuts, sesamum, and poppy-seed, and on the oil made from them, is so high (viz. 20 and 50 per cent.), as to amount to a virtual prohibition of their extensive employment in any branch of manufacture. The duty on castor-oil" from any British possession, but not the produce thereof," is also so high as to prevent its use in manufactures. We are aware of the reductions which have been lately made in the duties on some of the vegetable oils; but it has been almost impossible for the manufacturers to avail themselves of these reductions, on account of the Excise regulations. When these are removed, we anticipate the best effects from these reductions.

Our other trades and manufactures, the materials of which are subject to import duties, are not so much injured by them as to deprive us of the means of carrying on a profitable competition in foreign markets. But our inferiority in the manufacture of soap, in so far as it arises from the duties on oils, gives the foreign manufacturer the power of excluding us from large portions of the globe, and this certainly is a state of things from which so important a manufacture ought

to be relieved. We feel it to be our duty not to lose this opportunity of again representing the strong impression which has so often been made upon us by the consequences of the impolicy of taxing the raw materials of industry, because we are fully satisfied that our commercial and manufacturing prosperity, great as it is, would be still more increased if the principle of exempting all raw materials from taxation were strictly adhered to. Whatever the loss of revenue might be which would take place in consequence of repealing these duties, it would soon be made good by the additional means of payment which would follow from increased national wealth.

PROVINCIAL MUSEUMS AND INSTITUTIONS.

Sir,-1 beg to transmit to you the form of a petition to Parliament on a subject lately noticed in your Magazine, in the hope that it may prove serviceable to these useful establishments. At a future opportunity I intend to offer to your readers a list of the permanent and public district institutions in the United Kingdom.*

I am, Sir,

Your obedient servant,

S. S.

To the Honourable the Commons of the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland in Parliament assembled.
The Humble Petition of the undersigned
Managers of the

Showeth,-That your petitioners beg to express their gratification at the appointment of a Committee of your Honourable House to inquire into the condition, management, and affairs of the British Museum, hailing it as a promise of the future extension of the usefulness of that national institution.

That your petitioners have reason to believe that the British Museum is, at present, possessed of many duplicate printed books, coins, prints, objects of natural history, and other curiosities; and that such duplicates are likely to continue, from time to time, to accrue therein; and, that the said Museum is also possessed of a large remaining stock of its own publications, printed at the public expense, which remaining stock is, at present, useless to the public.

We beg to add our earnest recommendation of the subject of this petition to the attention of our readers.

THE SUPPLY OF ELECTRIC CURRENTS TO PLANTS, &c.

That it appears from the statement of the Principal Librarian of the British Museum, in the evidence (No. 565, 6, 7) taken before the Committee during the last Session of Parliament, that the "bestowing duplicate books or duplicate ob jects of curiosity upon district institutions or libraries, would make the duplicate objects more useful to the community, and might be done, consistently with the Act of 47 Geo. III."

Your petitioners, therefore, humbly pray your Honourable House that they may be allowed to partake, with other institutions, in the disposition of any duplicate books, prints, coins, objects of natural history, and other curiosities, which have already accumulated, or may, from time to time, accumulate in the British Museum, should your Honourable House judge it expedient so to dispose of these objects.

And your petitioners will ever pray, &c.

THE SUPPLY OF ELECTRIC CURRENTS TO
PLANTS, &c.

Sir, The very interesting papers on this subject by Mr. T. Pine, in your Journal, bave particularly engaged my notice, as they happen to coincide, in some degree, with certain speculations in which I have myself indulged at different times. Circumvolving the atmosphere of air, there are good grounds for asserting the existence of a denser fluid orb, generally apparent, and called the sky; but, unfortunately, too hastily deemed in modern days merely an extension of the diaphonous medium we breathe. Imagine, then, this pellucid container of the aerial firmament and nucleus, earth, obedient to the known laws of nature, swiftly whirling its tremendous bulk around that rarer separator from the inner sphere, maintaining the elasticity of the air by the constriction thereof (so that we are in no danger of finding it left, like a comet's tail, to trail in orbicular length in the wake of its planet's path, and dim the passing moon), and we shall at once grant that a vast electrical machine is continually charging the enveloped atmosphere; or, as Messrs. Pine and Sturgeon remark, "allow that the earth actually receives such an influence from the sun, and is thus perpetually whirled round with its immense conducting apparatus for the purpose of imparting a vegetating principle to the

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system of plants, at the same time that light and warmth are conveyed." I would only briefly observe, in support of this theory, that the single tide (diurnal) of the air, and the antipodean tides of ocean, would be results consequent from the presence of such liquid boundary; for, say at the conjunction of the sun and moon (the difficult problem of Newton to La Place), that the surrounder recedes from the average proximity (45 miles, less or more), at the opposite part of this outer sphere, the straitened depth of air and the answering swell of the lower waters would be found to prove the cos mogony of Moses, and the inferential surmise of the" Principia's" desideratum.

I am, Sir, yours respectfully, WM. F. GODOLPHIN WALDRon. 97, White Lion-street, Pentonville.

PRESERVATION OF COPPER SHEATHING.

Sir, The following method of preserving copper under ships' bottoms, for a considerably longer time than usual, is, I believe, but little known :

Tar from wood or tar from coal contains a quantity of acid, which is a particular enemy to metals; this is shown in chemistry, in the course of manufacturing white lead, red lead, verdigris, and other colours, which are made by evaporation of acid, or its combination, with mineral substances. If this acid, which exists in the wood of the ship's bottom, in the tar wherewith the bottom is payed, and in the tar in which the paper or felt is soaked, can be got rid of, it is evident that the copper sheathing would last much longer, Some years ago, the copper covering of a house in the Royal dock-yard at Carl scrona, Sweden, being stripped off in the course of making some repairs, a quan tity of lime-paste was found laid under a few of the plates, which were in an excellent state of preservation, and apparently likely to have lasted double the time of the others. Professor Berzelius, of Stockholm, the eminent chemist, when asked the cause of this, explained that nothing neutralises or kills the acid from wood so effectually as lime. Now, I am of opinion, that if paper or felt were soaked in a mixture of boiled oil, and as much slacked lime as the oil conveniently could contain, it would make a ship's copper bottom last for double the usual time. If oil be considered a too expensive article,

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RISE AND PROGRESS OF HOROLOGY.

the lime may be mixed with tar; but this would not be so effectual, for although the lime would kill the acid in tar, it would not entirely prevent the acid passing from the wood through the paper or felt. It would perhaps be worth while for some shipowner to try the experiment, and sheath one side of a ship's bottom in the common way, and the other in the manner recommend; the result would be ascertained in seven years, or perhaps in a shorter time. The lime would not injure either the wood or the copper.

I remain, your very obedient,
J. F. OLANDER.

43, Fore-street, Limehouse, London,

April 4, 1836.

RISE AND PROGRESS OF HOROLOGY.

Mr. E. Henderson, to whom our pages have been indebted for some valuable contributions on clock-work and planetary machinery, has lately published a short

Historical Treatise on Horology," which we have great pleasure in recommending as deserving the notice of all who, from business or taste, are interested in this most scientific and curious of all the branches of mechanics. The author states, that "should it meet the approbation of the public in general and the trade in particular, it is intended that the subject of horology shall be entered upon in theory and practice, in all its branches, illustrated with numerous engravings." Of its meeting with "approbation" we make no doubt; we only wish we could be as sure, that the approbation would be such in degree, as to encourage our worthy correspondent to pursue his la bours. One important thing we must take leave to tell him is wanting to ensure success-not certainly talent, nor research, nor information-but simply the elerical skill requisite to present the results of all these in a readable (not to say attractive) shape to the public. What would Mr. Henderson, or any other horological amateur, say of a chronometer the hands of which were seldom by any chance in the right-the second-hand at one time doing the office of the minutehand-the minute-hand at another returning the favour-and the hour-hand (as it were) provoked by the excessive eccentricity of its young friends, coming

every now and then to a dead stop, when it should keep moving? Would he not at once throw it aside-were even the excellence of the interior mechanism such as human skill never before surpassed? Even so it is with a very ill-pointed book. A book, like a watch, is but made to be read; and if, from ill pointing, it cannot be read with ordinary facility, it will be as certainly thrown aside as the other. After all, perhaps, our brethren of the type are in the present case moré to blame than the author of the treatise; they might have volunteered some useful assistance, and we think should have done so. Be this as it may, the blemish is one which, if not remedied in the proposed continuation of the work, will, we apprehend, be fatal to its prospects of success. We subjoin an extract that will serve to show at once the substantial worth of the treatise and its accidental defects; and lest our printers should think of doing for Mr. Henderson what his own have deemed superfluous, we beg that they will give the extract as they find it, verbatim et literatim :

"According to Dr. Derham, the oldest English made clock extant is the one placed in the principal turret of the Palace Royal, Hampton Court, near London, it was con structed in the year 1540 by a maker of the initials of N. O. The editor of the article "Clock-work" in Dr. Rees' Ency. very proz perly observes, that when we consider that this clock contains mechanism for represent ing the motions of some of the heavenly bodies, and that the celebrated Copernicus was living at the time of its date, and had not yet published his work "On the Revolu tions of the Celestial Orbs," when we reflect also that more than a century elapsed after this time before the invention of the pendulum was applied as the regulator of clocks, these considerations appear sufficiently inter esting for a minute examination of the wheelwork of this ancient clock, particularly of that part of it which constitutes its celestial mechanism. Dr. Derham, in his Artificial Clock Maker, third edit. Lond. 1714, states, that the Hampton Court clock shows the time of the day, and the motions of the Sun and Moon, through all the degrees of the zodiac, together with the matters depending thereon, as the day of the month, the Sun and Moon's place in the ecliptic, the Moon's southing, &c. &c. To show how completely (for that age) the wheel-work was arranged, will be best known from the following short detailed extract from the same little work:In the centre of all, both the dial-plate and

RISE AND PROGRESS OF HOROLOGY.

its wheel-work are placed on a fixed arbor, which hath a pinion on the end of it which drives both the solar and lunar motions, by means of a large wheel of 288 teeth turning once round upon it every 24 hours, which large wheel is drawn round by a pinion of 12 leaves, fixed on the arbor of the great wheel within the clock frames, which turneth once round in an hour; the wheel 288 thus turning round in 24 hours, carries about with it a wheel of 37 teeth and its pinion of 7 leaves, this pinion of 7 leaves turning round with wheel 37, drives another wheel having 45 teeth which carries round the Moon's ring and circle; on the opposite side of this wheelwork, a pinion of 8 leaves extends, and did drive a wheel, but said wheel and its pinion being taken away, the numbers of the wheel and pinion is unknown, the pinion of this wheel, however, turned round a wheel having 29 teeth, furnished with a pinion of 12 leaves, which turned round a large wheel having 132 teeth which carries round the Sun and the zodiacal matter. These were the numbers of the wheel-work remaining in the year 1711, but the before-mentioned wheel and its pinion were taken out formerly by some ignorant workman that was not able to amend the clock; they were however supplied, and the whole movement repaired by Mr. Lang Bradley, Fenchurch Street, London, vide Dr. Derham's Artificial Clock Maker, 3d edit. Lond. 1714, p. 121 and 122. This description gives a very clear idea how the several movements were actuated; but the numbers of a wheel and pinion in the solar train being unknown, leaves that movement incomplete, thus, X 23 × 12, so that the original combination of wheels and pinions for the annual motion unfortunately cannot with certainty be ascertained. The writer of the article Clock-work in Dr. Rees' Ency. (before referred to,) states, that after he had drawn up the various particulars re garding this clock, he felt an inclination to inspect it; this was on the 8th day of May, 1805, when he embraced an opportunity which occurred of gaining permission to ascend the lofty situation in which the clock is placed. It proved on a minute and careful examination of its several parts, that the whole of both the annual and lunar movements are different from the original ones iecorded by Dr. Derham; the lunar movements was found to be % × 45: 29 days for a synodical lunation, the annual train was found to be × 42 × 150 = 365 days exactly; the central pinion was a double one consisting of a 10 and a 12, fixed as the former one of 8 is described to have been, and pinned together; they are of the wood called box, as are also the pinions 7 and 9, to prevent their cankering, (oxiding) the wheel 42 is made of brass, but the rest being

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very large are made of iron; the gre at whee of 288 teeth which connects the clock work with the astronomical movements, appeared to be the only portion of the original work, both by its marks of antiquity and the number of its teeth, which are cut on its inner edge (interior circumference,) there are two cross bars rivetted to this indented rim to carry the celestial movements, and as there was no counterpoise to them, it was suspected that their rising and falling weight would alternately accelerate and retard the going of the clock, which is connected with it by means of a horizontal arbor of about three feet long by estimation, an enquiry into this matter proved the accuracy of this conjecture, for it appeared that the time of the day indicated was sometimes about five minutes too slow, and at other times as much too fast; the inscription "L. Bradley, 1711," is engraved on the frame of the going part of the clock, which has evidently been new, either the whole of it at that time, or some part of it since, so that what the original regulator was does not appear, the initials of the maker's name "N. O," are now not to be found; there are three barrels and weights, one for the going part which has a very long heavy pendulum, one for the striking part, and one for the quarters, the present scapement is a pair of pallets acting alternately into pins projecting from the plane of a wheel with a horizontal arbor or axis; according to Berthoud, this kind of scapement was invented by a Mr. Amant, a clock-maker at Paris, late in the eighteenth century. So it would seem that this clock had been again altered and repaired, somewhere between the years 1760 and 1800; in Grose's Antiquities, it is stated, that the astronomical furniture of this clock was invented by Thomas Tompion, the celebrated clock-maker; this account can. not be correct, for that ingenious artist lived in Dr. Derham's time. Tompion died in 1669, which period is about 129 years after its construction; it is probable, however, that he might have been employed upon it, and thus given circulation to this current account; the hands and circles are in the following order upon the dial-plate, 1st or in. terior circle is divided into 24 hours for the Moon's southings, after this manner, 12, 11, 10, &c. 2d, Moon's age circle divided into 29 equal parts; 3d circle is furnished with the ecliptic with its signs, and days of the month; 4th, Sun or hour hand revolving in 24 hours; 5th, the dial circle divided into 24 hours in the usual manner, thus, 12, 1, 2, &c. the Moon's phase is exhibited in a circular opening in the hour-hand, which covers more or less of a plate, part of which is blackened elliptically, placed under it; thẻ form and action of this plate will be readily understood from a perusal of either Ferguson's

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Select Mechanical Exercises, or to the London Mechanics' Magazine, vol. xiv. page 289, which gives a short detail of my tide-table."

THE POTATOE.

A plant, second hardly to any in point of importance in furnishing food for man, requiring also the same climates, has been introduced into the same countries. This is the potatoe, for which India as well as the rest of the old world, is indebted to the new world. It has been found in a wild state, in 33° of S. lati. tude, in Chili, in the mountains near Valparaiso and Mendoza, and also near Lima, Quito, and Santa Fé de Bagota; but in these situations it is supposed to have escaped from a state of cultivation, as the illustrious Humboldt argues that it must have travelled north in "the course followed by the Incas in their conquests." But it was introduced into England from Virginia, in 1586, by Sir W. Raleigh, and not known to the Mexicans in the time of Montezuma; he concludes it as probable, that if the English colonies did not receive it from South America, this plant was originally wild in some country of the northern hemisphere, as it was in Chili. This conjecture has been singularly confirmed by the potatoe being found wild on the Pie d'Orizaba by Deppe and Schiede (D. Don).

The potatoe, we are informed by Dr. Ainslie, was introduced into India from the Cape of Good Hope, and some of excellent quality are produced in the Mysore country, particularly at Banga. lore and Nundydroog. They are grown all over India (Roxb.), and of a very fine quality in the cold weather, or from October to March, along the planes of India from Patna to Loondiana. Dr. Wallich states, that "they are planted in the valleys and lower hills of Nepal, so as to afford fresh crops all the year round: the roots are planted in February, June, and November, and gathered after three months." They are introduced into the northern mountains, and grown in the neighbourhood of Simla, at an elevation of 7,500 feet; and by Major Young, on the mountains north of Deyra, at an elevation of 6,700 feet; so that Mussooree made its first appearance on the map by the name of the Potch garden. Their quality was subsequently much improved by Captain Townsend raising some from

seed, which in the third year became of enormous size, and of very good quality. They are now becoming very generally cultivated, both in the hills and plains of northern India; and it is fortunate, both for sellers and consumers, that those grown in the former come in when the others are going out of season.

Potatoes are in some places becoming adopted as food by the natives of India, though more slowly than could be wished; at this we need not be surprised, as even in France their use was not generally adopted until after their introduction into Europe more than two hundred years, and then only owing to the persevering efforts of the philanthropic Pamentier, round whose tomb in Père la Chaise, they are now yearly planted; so that M. Fée remarks, "verité frappante, toujours repetée et toujours nouvelle: il faut déployer plus d'activité et plus de ressources d'esprit pour faire du bien aux hommes que pour leur nuire.”—Royle's Botany of the Himalaya Mountains, No. 8.

VENTILATION OF THE HOUSES OF
PARLIAMENT.

(Extracts from the Evidence of Dr. Reid, F.R.S.E., President of the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh, &c., before a Select Committee.)

Have you at all turned your attention to the subject of ventilating and warming large public buildings, as well as to the practical application of acoustics to the construction of buildings?-I have paid considerable attention to both these subjects; I have had my attention particularly directed towards the subject of ventilating large buildings; more especially from the circumstance, that on some occasions in my class-room there are 2,000 experiments performed within the hour, and unless every thing were managed with the utmost precision, the student would be obliged to retire from the class-room in consequence of the fumes that are disengaged. The means I adopted were simply taking advantage of a current which is determined by means of a column of heated air; a large furnace is kindled, and wherever it is necessary to carry off fumes, or to ventilate an over-crowded or heated room, an aperture is made into that vent, or otherwise connected with it, leading the air or fumes from the place to be ventilated.

Where do you place the heating apparatus for that purpose?-It is placed upon the floor-a few feet above it; it plays into a large vent, and wherever an opening may be made in that vent, an internal current-a current into the vent-is immediately set in

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