Antimony is to be treated in a similar manner to that described for lead. The chloride of antimony having been obtained, and dissolved in water, antimony itself will be precipitated; or if oxide is desired, about 60lbs. of unslaked lime is necessary to every 90lbs. of chloride of antimony. Important Invention in the Manufacture of Paper Hangings. Ibid. We were favoured a few days since with an opportunity of visiting the extensive paper works of Messrs. J. Evans and Co., at the Alder Mills, near Tamworth, where we had the pleasure of witnessing the application of an ingenious and very beautiful piece of mechanism, the invention of the Messrs. Evans, to the printing of paper hangings, which cannot fail to produce a complete change in this department of our manufactures, from its superiority over the ordinary method of block printing. The Messrs. Evans would have brought their invention into practical operation many years ago, had it not been for the heavy duties imposed on the manufacture of stained papers, which, by limiting the consumption, rendered their invention comparatively useless, a fact which supplies another argument against the imposition of heavy duties upon the manufacturing skill and industry of the country. In connection with the present invention, we may here state that the Messrs. Evans took out a patent in February last, for an important improvement in the manufacture of paper, by the application of a pneumatic pump in the compression of the moisture from the pulp, by which means the substance is almost instantaneously converted into paper. By this invention they are, we understand, enabled to manufacture a continuous sheet of paper six feet in width, and nearly 2,000 yards in length every hour. This paper, as it is taken off the reel, is in every respect fit for immediate use, and is conveyed on rollers to another part of the mill, in which the printing machinery is erected, through which it is passed with great rapidity, and receives the impression of the pattern intended to be produced, with all the precision and beauty of finish which machinery can alone effect. In order to connect the operations of the paper making and printing machines, the Messrs. Evans are at present engaged enlarging their premises, and when this alteration is completed they will be enabled to print, glaze, and emboss, the most complicated and delicate patterns in paper hangings, in every variety of shade or colour, as rapidly as the paper can be manufactured. Some idea may be formed of the power of the machinery, and the importance of the invention, when we state that during our visit to the mill, the machinery was working at a rate which would produce 1,680 yards of paper per hour, consisting of two very beautiful patterns, the only hand labour employed being that of one man, who superintended the machinery, and four girls, employed in rolling up the paper in pieces of the required length. The whole process of manufacturing the paper from the pulp and impressing it with the most complicated patterns, is carried on within a comparatively small space, and with a precision and rapidity which affords another instance of the progress and triumph of science and mechanical skill, in supplying the necessaries and comforts of civilized life. We understand it is the intention of Messrs. Evans to exhibit some specimens of their beautiful manufacture at the forthcoming meeting of the British Association, and we feel confident that amongst the many objects of interest which the mechanical skill and industry of Birmingham afford, the present will excite not the least interest or gratification. We may, perhaps, here observe, that the Messrs. Evans have also executed a very ingenious design of an envel ope, which seems admirably adapted for meeting the views of government in the contemplated change about to be made by the adoption of Mr. Rowland Hill's plan of a uniform penny postage. Specimens of this design have been forwarded to the Chancellor of the Exchequer for examination, and from the security which it affords against any successful attempt at forgery there appears great probability that it will be in part, if not wholly adopted. Midland Counties Herald. Connexion of Geology with the Arts. Civ. Eng. and Arch. Jour. We extract the following passages from the "Report of the Council of the Royal Institution of South Wales," recently published, and obligingly forwarded to us: "In reviewing the transactions of the year which has just expired, there is a subject, which it gives the council much pleasure to place before the meeting, namely, the recent establishment of a scientific intercourse with an institution of a very important description, powerfully promoted by the government of the country, which has sprung into existence in the metropolis, under the title of 'The Museum of Economic Geology.' The immediate aim of this establishment is to make the researches of philosophy available to the pursuit of the useful arts. The foundation of it is well worthy the support of an enlightened nation, and, under proper management, it cannot fail to become the source of valuable information to commercial enterprise, and a school of instruction in all those branches of industry, on the healthful growth of which the happiness and prosperity of this great kingdom mainly depend. To the inhabitants of a mining and manufacturing district its importance readily suggests itself, and they naturally become anxious to participate, with as little delay as possible, in the benefits it will yield. Influenced by a desire to make these available to their own institution, the council addressed to Mr. De la Beche (who, under the direction of the Commissioners of woods and forests, superintends the practical details of the museum in question), an expression of their sentiments on the subject, and they are happy to find that, from the intercourse proposed, advantages are likely to flow that will prove mutually beneficial. It naturally must happen that the opportunities of a well-regulated provincial institution will be ample in its own immediate neighbourhood, and in a district such as the southern part of Wales, which, for mineral wealth and manufacturing industry, yields to none, the facts that come before it, whether illustrative of the materials its mines produce, and its population work into form, or of the state and condition of the arts by which those materials are extracted from the earth and devoted to use, must be of considerable value to a society instituted for the purpose of applying science to the economic objects of life; while, on the other hand, the wide range and powerful means of the metropolitan society, bringing a collection of materials from a multitude of sources, will enable it to effect an extensive and instructive diffusion of the knowledge it obtains, and thus repay what it receives from one locality with the information it derives from another." Barnett's Improved mode of working Gas Retorts. Mining Jour. Sir, I herewith forward you a description of a new mode of working gas retorts which I have had in successful operation here for some time. I shall be much obliged by your publishing it in your Magazine, which has already distributed a great deal of information upon the subject of gas manufacture. By adopting my improved method, about from 2,600 to 2,700 feet of gas, more than by the ordinary method, can be produced from a ton of coals, whatever the kind of coal may be. This increase of gaseous product is effected by the longer time which the material is kept subject to the influence of the heat, so that a great portion of the tar and ammoniacal water is decomposed. The gas produced is also of a greater illuminating power. Fig. 1, is a sectional front view of a retort bed with three retorts. There may however be any desirable or convenient number. Fig. 2, is a sectional back view of the same retort bed. AAA are the retorts, which communicate with each other by means of the pipes B B B B. CC are two hydraulic valves, by which the communication between any two retorts may be cut off. Where three retorts are connected, two of them only need have valves -but where more than three are used every retort must have a valve. D, the position of the furnace, which communicates with the ovens EEE by means of small flues or apertures from the furnace. In fig. 2, A A A are also the retorts; F F F, the pipes leading to the gas main G G. This communication may be closed by means of the valves H H. The mode of operation is as follows: The retort A1 is charged; one hour and a half afterwards the retort A2 is charged; and one hour and a half af ter that, the retort A3 is charged; in one hour and a half more the retort A1 is ready to be recharged; the coal having undergone the usual process of six hours subjection to the heat of the furnace; and so on in succession alternately, each retort being submitted to the action of the fire for the same time. In the retort A1 (supposing the operation to be in full action,) the first hour and a half or quarter time of the charge, the dense volatile matter and ammoniacal water of the coal is set free, and passes into the retorts A2 and A3, where, in connection with the carburetted hydrogen which A is producing, and the sulphuretted and carburetted hydogen which A3 is producing, it is further distilled. Each retort will thus in succession be performing the stage of operation here represented. Previously to a retort being charged, its communication with the other, and with the main G must be cut off, by the valves C and H; and one retort only that is to say, the one of the three (or any other series used) which has been longest subjected to the action of the heat, must communicate with the main. The figures are but roughly drawn, and all the parts except those relating to my improvement, are in skeleton. The exterior dotted lines represent the outline of the brick setting of the retort bed. Should you think this invention of mine of sufficient importance for publication, I shall be happy to send you descriptions of other contrivances relating to the same subject, which I have at various times made, experimented upon and worked. Brighton, November 15, 1839. I am your obedient servant, Economical Portable Hot Bath. WM. BARNETT. Sir,-The following novel plan of heating a bath was communicated to me by Mr. Le Croix, of Upper Norton street, New Road, Regent's Park, whose idea it is; and thinking from its simplicity, it deserved being made public, I respectfully offer it for insertion in your valuable pages, if you think the plan merits a place in them. In any room with a grate c, a fire is to be made, the bath a filled and wheeled towards it, being fitted on large castors d to move readily; the tube b attached to the bath, which is adjusted to the height of the bars is then inserted between them; in a short time the water will be heated to the degree required, when it may be wheeled to any part of the room without the Teast annoyance. G. M. BRAITHWAITE. Ibid. * We should be glad to receive from the readers of our Journal an account of any mode of heating a movable bath, which they may think preferrable to the foregoing. G. Progress of Physical Science. Experiments to determine the Fluency or Viscidity of Different Liquids at the same Temperature, and of the same Liquids at different Temperatures. By DR. URE. Having been employed professionally, Dr. Ure observed, to investigate the operation and merits of a new lamp, recently patented by Mr. Parker, in which the oil is heated by the flame of the lamp to the temperature of from 200° to 250°, before arriving at the wick, it was desirable to determine the degree of fluency imparted to oils by a certain elevation of temperature. The light emitted by this lamp, when supplied with the viscid, and very cheap, but nearly scentless, southern whale oil, surpasses in purity and whiteness the light of the best mechanical lamp, though it be fed with the best vegetable or even sperm oil. This superiority is in part due to the form of the chimney, and to the oil being maintained uniformly at the level of the bottom of the frame; but it must also be ascribed, in a certain measure, to the high temperature and fluency of the oil, by which it enters more readily into complete combustion, than cold and viscid oil could possibly do. The preparatory heating seems to act on the same principle here, as it does in the smelting of iron by the hot blast. Having presented a memoir upon the subject of the lamp to the Society of Civil Engineers, which will appear in their transactions, I shall decline entering at present further into its merits. In that memoir, I stated the results of some experiments which I had then made upon the fluency of liquids, by means of an apparatus, consisting of a small glass syphon, and a platina capsule, containing a measured quantity of the liquid to be run off through the syphon. Having since had reason to imagine that certain numerical errors had been occasioned by variations in the position of the syphon, though the general results are true, I have recently repeated the experiments with another form of apparatus free from that fallacy, and submit the following brief account of them. Upon this occasion I put the liquid, either cold or heated to a certain temperature, into a glass funnel, terminated at its beak with a glass tube of uniform bore, about one-eighth of an inch in diameter, and three inches long. The funnel was supported in a chemical stand, and discharged its contents, on withdrawing a wooden pin from the beak, into a glass goblet placed beneath, alongside of which a chronometer was placed to indicate, in seconds, the time of efflux. The volume of liquid used in each case was the same,-viz. 2,000 grain measure, at 65° Fahr. The times of efflux with liquids of the same specific gravity and bulk, in the same vessel, vary with the viscidity of the liquids, and serve to measure it. A correction ought to be introduced in estimating the times of efflux of hot liquids, on account of the enlargement, by expansion, of the bore of the glass tube; but this, being a point of little consequence in the practical application of this inquiry, has been neglected. 2,000 grain-measures of water, at 60° Fahr., ran off in 14 sec. 13 12 When the funnel and glass tube were faintly smeared with oil, though perfectly pervious, and apparently clean, boiling hot water having been run through them: |