venient; for, we may use the same substance several times, by taking care that each succeeding pressure exceeds that of the preceding, in the same manner as Wedgewood's pyrometers are used to measure any greater degree of heat than what they have been formerly exposed to.

It may be observed, that the application of these leaden balls to determine the actual pressure will not interfere with the regular operation of a press, as the articles under pressure may be in the press at the same time the balls are used, which of course must be placed between separate plates.Phil. Mag.

PASSAGE OF CARBONIC ACID GAS THROUGH
A BLADDER.

Observed by THOMAS GRAHAM, Esq., of Glasgow.

In the course of an investigation respecting the passage of mixed gases through capillary openings, the following singular observation was made.

A sound bladder, with stop-cock, was filled about two-thirds up in this flaccid state, into a bell-jar receiver, filled with carbonic acid gas, and standing over water. The bladder was thus introduced into an atmosphere of carbonic acid gas. In the course of twelve hours, instead of being in the flaccid state in which it was left, the bladder was found distended to the utmost, and on the very point of bursting, while most of the carbonic acid gas in the receiver had disappeared. The bladder actually burst in the neck, in withdrawing it from under the receiver. It was found to contain thirty-five parts of carbonic acid gas by volume in one hundred. The substance of the bladder was quite fresh to the smell, and appeared to have undergone no change. The carbonic acid gas, remaining without in the belljar, had acquired a very little coal gas..

The conclusion is unavoidable, that the close bladder was inflated by the insinuation of carbonic acid gas from without.

Jn a second experiment, a bladder containing rather less coal gas, and similarly placed in an atmosphere of carbonic acid gas, being fully inflated in fifteen hours, was found to have acquired forty parts in one hundred of this latter gas. A small portion of coal gas left the bladder as before.

A close bladder, half filled with common air, was fully inflated in like manner in the course of twenty-four hours. The entrance of carbonic acid gas into the bladder depends, therefore, upon no peculiar property of coal gas. The bladder, partially filled with coal gas, did not expand at all in the same bell-jar containing common air or water merely.

The jar of carbonic acid gas standing over water, the bladder was moist, and we know it to be porous. Between the air in the bladder and the carbonic acid gas without, there existed capillary canals through the substance of the bladder, filled with water. The surface of water at the outer extremity of these canals being exposed to

carbonic acid, a gas soluble in water would necessarily absorb it. But the gas in solution, when permeating through a canal, it arrived at the surface of the inner extremity, would rise, as necessarily, into the air in the bladder, and expand it. Nothing but the presence of carbonic acid gas within could prevent the disengagement of that gas. The force by which water is held in minute capillary tubes might retain that liquid in the pores of the bladder, and enable it to act in the transit of the gas, even after the pressure within the bladder had become considerable.

HEIGHT OF THE PATAGONIANS.

AN officer of Captain King's expedition communicated to us the following interesting notice.

Measurement of the largest Patagonian in a tribe of about 150 in number.

The shortest man in their party was five feet ten inches and as half high; the generality of them appeared to be about six feet, with large bodies. The women, I thought, were larger in proportion to the men than is observed in civilized society.

CHRONOMETERS. -The annual public trial of these beautiful pieces of mechanism closed on the 31st of July, when the prize was awarded to a chronometer, Dent, No. 114.

From the above, it will be seen that its variation between any two months during the year is O" 54, being a trifle more than half a second! The reward, though now comparatively small, answers, the proposed end-the gradual improvement of the chronometer.

LEVEL OF THE CASPIAN.-Mr. William Monteith lately made a series of observations with Fahrenheit's thermometer in boiling water, at different heights on the shores of the Black Sea and theCaspian Sea. At the level of the Caspian Sea, water boiled at 212 deg. 75 min., the barometer stood at 28°. 7." 1'.; hence the surface of the Caspian is 375 feet below the level of the sea.

INSTANTANEOUS TRANSMISSION TO DISTANT PLACES.-Mr.T.W.C. Edwards, lecturer on experimental philosophy and chemistry, states that he has invented an instrument for the instantaneous conveyance of intelligence to any distance.' After noticing some of the greatest inventions of preceding times, Mr. Edwards" undertakes to demonstrate, clearly and briefly, in the work which he has now in the press, the practicability and facility of transmitting from London, instantaneously, to an agent at Edinburgh, Dublin, Paris, Vienna, St. Petersburg, Constantinople, the Cape of Good Hope, Madras, Calcutta, &c. any question or message whatever, and of receiving back again at London, within the short space of one minute, an acknowledgement of the arrival of such question or message at the place intended, and a distinct answer to it in a few minutes." He adds, "In principle this engine is altogether different from every kind of telegraph or semaphor, and requires neither intermediate station nor repetition. In its action it is totally unconnected with electricity, magnetism, galvanism, or any other subtle species of matter; and although the communication from place to place is instantaneous, and capable of ringing a bell, firing a gun, or hoisting a flag, if required; yet this is not effected by the transit of any thing whatever to or fro; or in the operation is aught either audible or visible, except to the persons communicating. It may be proper, however, to state, that a channel or way must previously be prepared, by sinking a series of rods of a peculiar description in the ground, or dropping them in the sea; but these, after the first cost, will remain good for ages to come, if substantial when laid down."

HARDY KINDS OF OLIVES.-Two new species of the Olive have been discovered in the southern district of the Crimea; this discovery will render it practicable to rear this useful tree in much more northerly climes than has been hitherto possible. The shoots which were planted in the botanical garden of Nikitæ, have lived through one of the hardest winters ever known, though the severity of the weather would have been fatal to the French or Italian olive.

EAST INDIAN LEAD AND COPPER REDUCTION.-The native method of reducing the metal is at once simple and economical. The ore is pounded very small. It is then mixed with wet cow-dung, and rolled into balls; and these, after having been dried in the sun, are with the addition of a small quantity of charcoal, set on fire. The heat produced by this process, with the assistance of the bellows, is sufficient to separate the inetal, which is then collected for com

merce.

LAUREL. The butchers of Geneva have a singular mode of preventing flies from attacking the meat in their shops. They rub the walls and boards upon which the meat is placed with the essential oil of laurel, the smell of which keeps away this troublesome insect.

LIST OF NEW PATENTS SEALED.

MACHINERY.-To T. J. Fuller, of the Commercial Road, Limehouse, Civil Engineer, for an improved mechanical power applicable to machinery of different descriptions.-Dated 28th October, 1829.-Specification to be enrolled in Six months.

GAS REGULATOR.-To G. Danre, of Birmingham, Manufacturer, for a self acting air or gas regulator, which may be applied to other purposes.Dated 2nd November, 1829.-Six months.

MILLS.-To J. M'Curdy, of Great James Street, Bedford Row, Gentleman, for certain improvements in the method of constructing mills and mill stones for grinding. Communicated by a foreigner.-Dated 2nd November, 1829.-Two months.

STEAM BOILERS.-To J. Viney, of Piccadilly, Colonel in the Royal Artillery, for certain improvements in steam boilers, &c.-Dated 2nd November, 1829.-Six months.

LIGHT.-To J. Soames, Junr. of Wheeler Street, Spitalfields, Soap Maker, for a new preparation or manufacture of a certain material produced from vegetable substance, and the application thereof to the purposes of affording light.-Dated 2nd November, 1829.-Six months.

PROJECTILE.-To J. Tucker, of Hammersmith, Brewer, for an exploding shot or projectile.-Dated 2nd November, 1829.-Six months.

PIANO FORTES.-To J. Stewart, of George Street, Euston Square, Piano Forte Maker, for certain improvements on piano fortes.-Dated 2nd November, 1829.-Two months.

BRICKS.-To J. Cowderoy, of Britannia Street, City Road, Gentleman, for certain improvements in machinery for making bricks.-Dated 2nd November, 1829.-Six months.

SILKS.-To F. Nash, of Stoneason, near Wells, Gentleman, for certain improvements in the manufacture or application of silks mixed or combined with other articles-Dated 2nd November, 1829.-Two months.

BATHS.-To W. Gooch, of Mount Street, Berkley Square, for certain improvements on baths of different descriptions.-Dated 7th November, 1829. -Six months.

SYRINGES.-To D. Macdougall, of Edinburgh, Horticulturist, for certain improvements on or additions to syringes applicable to garden and other purposes.-Dated 10th November, 1829.-Six months.

CHANDELIERS.-To T. Osler, of Birmingham, Chandelier Manufacturer, for certain new improvements in the construction of glass and metal chandeliers.-Dated 10th November, 1829.-Six months.

MACHINERY.-To J. Gibbs of Crayford Mills, Timber Merchant, for improvements in machinery for cutting marble, wood, and other substances. -Dated 12th November, 1829.-Six months.

SHIP'S SCUPPERS.-To J. Dodgson, of Lower Shadwell, Pump and Engine Maker. for certain improvements in ship's scuppers.-Dated 17th November, 1829.-Six months.

WOOLLEN CLOTHS.-To T. Gethen, of Furnival's Inn, Gentleman, for certain improvements in dressing woollen cloths.-Dated 21st November, 1829.-Six months.

SHEARS.-To W. Clutterbuck, of Oylebrook, near Stroud, for certain improvements in the shears used for cutting or cropping of woollen cloth and other fabrics requiring shearing.-Dated 21st November, 1829.-Two months.

DESCRIPTIVE ACCOUNT OF ALL THE

PATENTS ENROLLED BETWEEN 20TH NOVEMBER
AND 20TH DECEMBER, 1829.

Particularizing the Offices in which the Specifications may be inspected, with the Dates of Enrolment,

RAILWAY.-TO Maxwell Dick, of Irvine, Airshire, bookseller and publisher, a patent for "an improved rail-road, and method of propelling carriages thereon, by machinery, for the purpose of conveying passengers, letters, intelligence, packets and other goods with great velocity," was granted on the 21st of May, and the specification was deposited in the Enrolment Office on the 21st of November, 1829.

The principal improvement contemplated by the patentee is to obviate the necessity and expense of levelling a country, where it may be proposed to lay down a railway, by supporting the railway upon piers, as proposed by Mr. Palmer in his Patent Railway, only that, instead of a single railway, the patentee proposes to suspend the carriages from a rail on each side, and also to introduce two additional rails, which he denominates "safety rails," against which friction wheels attached to the carriages shall act in case of the carriages receiving from any cause an impulse upwards, There is also an arrangement of wheel-work for communicating great velocity to light carriages, which are impelled upon the rails by any internal power. We fear much that this plan of supporting on pillars these double rails, with safety rails and friction rollers, will not be found so convenient or economical as the patentee anticipates.

FELT.-To Thomas Robinson Williams, of Norfolk Street, Strand, London, a patent for "improvements in the making or manufacturing of felt or a substance in the nature thereof applicable to covering the bottoms of vessels and other purposes," was granted on the 23d of May, and the specification was deposited in the Enrolment Office on the 23d of November, 1829.

Mr. Williams proposes to manufacture felt of hair or wool, cotton, hemp, flax, or other fibrous substance, according to the purposes for which the felt is intended. He employs two endless wire webs passing round revolving cylinders or rollers, and pressed together by being passed, with a layer of the material to constitute the felt between them, through of two rollers, whose distance is regulated by screws acting upon the plummer blocks in which the axis of one of the rollers turns. The materials are to be distributed upon the wire webs in the usual manner; they are brought VOL. IV.NO. 78. 1ST JANUARY, 1830.

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