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degrees of strength. When the bone is thus reduced into substances, resembling bristles, it must be laid in a convenient place, that it may become perfectly dry, and then it may be worked up into brushes: those that are to be set with pitch, may be seared or singed at one end with a hot iron, to make them resemble the roots, and beat at the other to make them resemble the flag of the bristle.

MR. RALPH DODD'S (CHANGE ALLEY, LONDON), for improved Bridge Floorings, or Platforms, and Fire Proof Floorings, for extensive Dwelling Houses, Warehouses and Mills.

This invention consists of a certain method of applying malleable iron, and other metals, and condensed earth, or artificial stone. As the right understanding of this specification depends on figures, which we cannot introduce into this work, the most we can do is to describe the objects of the figures. The first is meant for a tubical rib, to be used either empty or filled, or partly filled with condensed earth, or artificial stone, to be applied from one pier to another, or bearings, either straight triangular, or curved. The second represents an upright shaft, or column, for sus taining heavy weights strengthened with condensed earth or artificial stone. Another figure shows the same with flanges or joints for attaching one to each other, to stand upright, or to be laid horizontal, for bearing heavy pressures,or conducting fluids, or air, in a cold or heated state, through them, when part of the centre is left void of condensed earth, or artificial stone. The next figure shews a square tube, to be coated internally, or externally, with condensed earth, or artificial stone, to be used as a beam, rafer, joist, girder, pile, &c. This is varied in its shape, size, and other particulars, and is represented with the variations in other figures. We have likewise the figure of a tubical beam, made of the same materials, with two upper ears or flanges, to fasten down platforms, decks, and floorings, or other attached parts, to be formed of any figure, from the square to the segment, taper, twisting, angle-wise, made watertight to prevent their sinking. The thirteenth figure shews the various parts when combined in the formation of houses, ware-houses, or mills, coated or not, internally, or externally, with condensed earth or artificial stone; and the fast figure is the representation of the va

rious parts, when combined and applied to vessels floating in, or on water, or to contain any fluid, coated or not, internally, or externally with condensed earth, or artificial stone.

MR. ZACHARIAH BARRATI'S (CROYDON) for a Machine for washing Linen, &c. to which may be attached a Contrivance for pressing the Water from them, instead of wringing them.

The machine consists of a wooden trough, of a convenient size, for one person to stand at, with an inclined bottom, the inside surface is made uneven, by grooves, or projections, about an inch assunder. The ribs of the grooves are hollowed, so as to give them a wavy appearance, and into the hollows may be introduced small pieces of buff or other elastic substance, which in the operation of washing are supposed to act in a similar manner to the human fingers. A hole is made in the bottom of the trough to let off the suds when done with. On the inside of the trough, and parallel with its ends, a roller is fixed on centres, covered with cork, leather, or other soft substance, to prevent noise in the operation of washing, which operation is performed by a person pressing the cloaths in the trough, with a loose board called an agitator, the under side of which is supported by, and moves on the roller above-mentioned. This agi tator is constructed of one or more pieces of board, two feet six inches long, framed together so as to form a flat surface, nearly of the width of the interior, having two holes or spaces cut out in the upper end, for the operator's hands. The lower end, about an inch high, is covered with leather, cork, or other fit elastic soft ma terial, with one or two pieces projecting at the bottom, similar to those in the hollow parts of the grooves, in the inside of the trough. Across the top of the trough is a strong bar, or shelf of wood, on which inay be placed an apparatus of any proper construction for pressing out the water, to be used as a substitute for wringing: this apparatus is a box, or tube, into which the wet things may be put, and the water pressed out by a piece of wood, of the size nearly of the interior of the box, attached to the end of a screw fixed in a frame. A lever, or other means of creating a pressure, may be adopted, but if a screw is used, it should be encircled with a cylinder of leather, to keep it free from wet, which would render its action stilf and unpleasant.

VARIETIES,

A

VARIETIES, LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL.
Including Notices of Works in Hand, Domestic and Foreign.
Authentic Communications for this Article will always be thankfully received.

NEW edition is in the press, and will speedily be published, of the Works of the Poets, from Chaucer to Cowper; including the best Translations of the Classics. It will form twenty-two volumes, royal octavo, printed in two columns, and will, in every respect, constitute one of the handsomest library books that has appeared for several years.

Mr. BEWICK, of Newcastle, so deservedly celebrated for his skill in engraving in wood, has for a considerable time, been engaged on a System of Economical or Useful Botany, which will include about 450 plants, the most useful in the Materia Medica, in Diet and Manufactures. The text has been prepared by Dr. THORNTON, and will contain a body of valuable information relative to the History and Uses of the several Plants. There will be two editions, one on royal paper, of which only a small number has been printed; and the other on demy, neither of them inferior in beauty to Mr. Bewick's former productions.

Mr. Rose has announced some Observations on the Historical Fragment of of Mr. Fox, and an Original Narrative of the Duke of Argyle's Insurrection in

1685.

Mr. ALEXANDER WALKER, of Edinburgh, has in the press a compendious, but very complete, System of Anatomy; of which report speaks highly.

Mr. MARTIN, who has been diligently employed in the study of extraneous fossils for some years back, is about to publish under the patronage of Sir Joseph Banks, a 4to Volume of Plates and Descriptions of the Petrifactions of Derby shire. A work, by the same author, has just been printed off, containing an Elementary Introduction to the Knowledge of Extraneous Fossils; an attempt to establish the study of these bodies on scientific principles. It forms an 8vo. volume, and will be given to the public in the course of the succeeding month.

A work will be published in March, under the title of the Ecclesiastical and Universal Annual Register; the object of which is to furnish an opportunity for the preservation of documents which may obtain permanent interest with the

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body, for whose use it appears to be so immediately designed.

Mr. PARK's edition of Warton's History of English Poetry, is in a state of great forwardness. The editor's plan is not only to revise both text and notes, and free the extracts from the charge of inaccuracy to which they have hitherto been subjected, but also to supply a Continuation in furtherance of Mr. Warton's plan.

The very copious Annotations on Warton's History by the late learned antiquary, the Rev. GEORGE ASHBY, together with various Manuscript Observations left by that acute critic Mr. Ritson, are in the hands of the present editor; and so far as the purposes of correction and illustration can be served will be appended to the notes of Mr. Warton.

Anew edition, corrected and enlarged, of Dr. Milner's History of Winchester, will be published in the course of the ensuing month.

The Reverend Mr. DIEDIN's new edition of Ames's Typographical Antiquities, by Herbert, is gone to press. The first volume will be devoted to the books printed by Caxton; with copious notes including the mention of almost all contemporaneous foreign publications which have any connection with Caxton's pieces. New and curious extracts from some of the rarer Caxtonian books will be introduced to the reader's notice. The whole of Lewis's Life of Caxton, a scarce work, will be incorporated in this first volume; as well as the Lives of Ames and Herbert; with a preliminary Disquisition on the Introduction of the Arts of Printing and Engraving into this country; adorned with fac-simile cuts.

A Society of Physicians in London has been engaged, for some time past, in collecting materials for a new work, to be entitled the Annual Medical Register. They propose to comprise, in one volume, a complete account of the medical literature of the preceding year, together with an historical sketch of the discoveries and improvements in medicine and the collateral sciences; a report of the general state of health and disease in the metropolis; and a brief

detail

detail of such miscellaneous occurrences within the same period, as may be deemed worthy of record.

Mr. RYLANCE is composing a romance, to be entitled, Francesco, or the Fool of Genius, founded on the extraordinary life of Mazzuoli, celebrated as a painter, by the name of Parmegiano.

Dr. ADAMS's work on Epidemics, is almost through the press. It is an address to the public, particularly the legislative body, on the laws which go. vern those diseases, and on the late proposals for exterminating the small pox. Mr. WEBBE is about to publish an edition of his most admired Glees, in three volumes, folio; containing each about one hundred pages.

Dr. CROTCH intends to read Lectures on Music at the Hanover-square Rooms in April. His third volume of Specimens of the various Kinds of Music will be published shortly; and he is engaged in preparing some other publications which are expected to be interesting to the musical world.

Dr. REID will commence his Lectures on the Theory and Practice of Medicine, at his house in Grenville-street, on the 15th of March.

Dr. CLARKE and Mr. CLARKE will begin their Spring Course of Lectures on Midwifery and the Diseases of Women and Children, on Monday, March the 20th; from a quarter past ten o'clock in the morning till a quarter past eleven, for the convenience of students attend. ing the hospitals.

ing body of the principal blood vessels, nerves, &c. concerned in surgical operations; to be illustrated with plates.

At a meeting of the Wernerian Nătural History Society of Edinburgh, on the 14th of January, Dr. Thomson read an interesting description and analysis of a particular variety of copper-glance, from North America. At the same meeting, Dr. John Barclay communicated some highly curious observations which he had made on the caudal vertebra of the great sea snake, mentioned in a former number, which exhibit in their structure some admirable provisions of nature, not hitherto observed in the vertebræ of any other animal. Mr. Patrick Neill read an ample and interesting account of this new animal, collected from different sources, especially from letters of undoubted authority, which he had received from the Orkneys. He stated, however, that, owing to the tempestuous season, the head, fin, sternum, and dorsal vertebra, promised some weeks ago to the University Museum of Edinburgh, had not yet arrived; but that he had received a note from Gilbert Meason, Esq. on whose estate in Strousa, the sea-snake was cast, intimating, that they might be expected by the earliest arrivals from Orkney. In the mean time he submitted to the Society the first sketch of a generic character. The name proposed for this new genus was Halsydrus, (from λs, the sea, and igos, a water-snake ;) and as it evidently appeared to be the Soe-Ormen described by Pontoppidan, in his Natural History of Norway, it was suggested that its specific name should be H. Pontoppidani.

Dr. KENTISH, of Bristol, has formed an establishment where the faculty may order heat or cold in any proportion to be applied to a patient either locally or ge

A new edition of Lardner's Works is in considerable forwardness, and is to appear in monthly parts. The first part will make its appearance on the first of March, and the others in succession, on the first day of every month, or carlier, at the option of subscribers. It is cal-nerally. culated that the whole works will be comprised in about thirty-two parts, and that this will be the cheapest edition of the Works of Lardner ever published.

The Rev. ROBERT BLAND, author of of Edwyn and Elgiva, and Sir Everard, has in the press a poctical romance in ten cantos, entitled, the Four Slaves of Cythera.

The Rev. J. GIRDLESTONE, is about to publish by subscription all the Odes of PINDAR, translated into English verse, with notes explanatory and critical.

Mr. C. MACARTNEY is preparing for publication a set of rules for ascertain ing the situation and relations in the live

The following account of a shock of an earthquake felt at Dunning in Perthshire, on the 18th of January, about two o'clock, A. M. is given by Mr. Peter Martin, surgeon of that place. He was returning home, at the time, on horseback, when his attention was suddenly attracted by a seemingly subterraneous noise; and his horse immediately stopping, he perceived that the sound proceeded from the north-west. After it had continued for half a minute, it be came louder and louder, and apparently nearer, when, suddenly, the earth heaved perpendicularly, and with a tremulous, waving motion, seemed to roll or move in

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a south-east direction. The noise was greater during the shock than before it, and for some seconds after it was so loud, that it made the circumjacent mountains re-echo with the sound; after which, in the course of about half a minute it gradually died away. At this time the atmosphere was calm, dense and cloudy, and for some hours before and after there was not the least motion in the air. Fahrenheit's thermometer, when examined about half an hour after the shock, indicated a temperature of 15 degrees below the freezing point of water. The preceding day was calm and cloudy, thermometer at 8 A. M. 14°. at 8 P. M. 13°. The morning of the 18th was calm and cloudy, but the day broke up to sun-shine; thermometer at 8 A. M. 190. at 3 P. M. 160. If this shock had been succeeded by another equally violent, it must have damaged the houses; but we have not heard that it occasioned any injury.

A plan for the establishment of a Caledonian Asylum in London, for the maintenance and education of the sons and daughters of Scottish soldiers, sailors and marines, has been brought forward by the Highland Society. It is proposed that in this institution, besides reading, writing, and arithmetic, the boys shall receive such preparatory instruction as may be necessary to qualify them for the royal uavy, the army, merchant-service, or the fisheries. The girls are to receive an education suited to their condition in life; and it is proposed to' introduce into the establishment certain manufactures or mechanical arts, adapted to their subsequent pursuits.

MEUX's Brewery, a concern, which for magnitude, is scarcely equalied in the world, is soon to be sold by auction under a decree of the Court of Chancery. The following particulars will afford some idea of the extent of this establishment. The first lot comprizes the whole of the plant, that is, the brew-houses, ware-houses, mills, coppers, vats, with the dwellinghouse, counting-houses, stables, and every other building upon the premises. These cost the proprietors £200,000. But the buyer of this lot will not purchase the buildings alone; he will also secure an establishment which has brewed 190,000 barrels of porter in the year, the sale of the greatest part of which, will in all probability, remain with the house, while it continues to supply good beer. One third of this quantity is sent into the country; and this part consists of high-priced porter, which yields a much better profit to

the brewer than the inferior kinds. The present owners have actually bought and pulled down three breweries, the whole trade of which is now accumulated in this in addition to their original customers, and the good will of the conceru goes with this lot. 10l. per cent is required as a deposit at the time of pur chase; 401. per cent additional on the 13th February, 1810, and two years more are given for completing the payment. The stock of beer, hops, malt, &c. on hand; the horses, drays, butts, casks, to be taken at a valuation, and twelve months credit to be given on the amount of these if required. The present proprietors possessing a great number of freehold, copyhold, and leasehold public-houses, have had a valuation put upon them: the purchasers of the first lot may either buy a part or the whole of them. The amount of the freehold houses is 14,2001.; that of the leasehold 47,160l. The very patronage of this concern is an object. The proprietors appoint broad-coopers, appraisers, sur veyors, &c. who are paid by the customers, without any charge to the house, and get nett incomes of 5001. or 1,000l. and one of them it is said, 2,000l. per annum. The house has for these ten years paid annually into their bankers hands from half a million to 800,000l.

The premium of a piece of plate of the value of fifty guineas, proposed by the African Institution for the greatest quantity of cotton, the growth of the west coast of Africa, imported into this country, has been adjudged to Messrs. John and Alexander Anderson, of Philpotlane. The quantity imported by them was upwards of ten thousand weight, and it sold for 25. 8d. per lb. These gentle men have determined greatly to enlarge their cotton plantations on the river Sierra Leone, and their example is likely to be extensively followed. By means of the African institution a large supply of the Georgia Sea-island cotton seed, by far the most valuable kind, having been sent to the coast, it may be hoped that at no distant period, the importations from this quarter will fill up that chasm in the cotton market which the interruption of our commerce with America has occasioned. This is not the only benefit which we are likely to derive from an increased attention to Africa. A considerable quantity of African rice has been already imported into the West Indies, and a much larger importation may speedily be effected. In the present state of our West India colonies, this new and unexpected resource must

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prove of the very first importance, and ought to be anxiously cherished.

In pursuance of the resolution of parliament passed in the last session, a national institution for promoting vaccination, is established under the manage ment of a board which consists of the following members: Sir Lucas Pepys, Drs. Mayo, Heberden, Satterly, Bancroft, Sir Charles Blicke, Messrs. Chandler and Keate. The board have appointed the following officers:-director, Dr. Jenner; assistant director, James Moore, Esq. register, Dr. Hervey; principal vaccinator, J. C. Carpue, Esq. vaccinators at the stations, Messrs. T. Hale, Richard Lane, Edward Leese, S. Sawrey, and J. Vincent; and secre.ary, Mr. Charles Murray.

Mr. JAMES SCOTT, of Dublin, states, that he has found by repeated experiments, that platina possesses, ou account of its imperceptible expansion, a great superiority over other materials for making the pendulum-spring of watches; but that arsenic must not be employed in consolidating it, as it would then be liable to expansion. When properly drawn it possesses self-sufficient elasticity for any extent of vibration; it coils extremely well, and if placed when coiled on the surface of a flat piece of metal, making one end of the spring fast, and marking exactly the other extremity, not the slighest expansion is visible when heat is applied. Mr. Scott farther remarks, that he has for a considerable time made use of platina for compensation curbs, and considers it as very superior to steel for every instrument of that kind.

To some enquiries respecting the smal. lest number of Galvanic combinations, and the smallest surface of plates that is sufficient to decompose the fixed alkalis; and also, the best solution for charging a battery so as to produce the greatest power, professor Davy has given the following answer." In my early experiments upon potassium, I often procured it by means of a battery of one thousand pairs of plates of copper and zinc of six inches square, charged with a solution of concentrated nitrous acid in about forty parts of water. This is the lowest power that I employed; but as some of the plates had been much corroded by former processes, I should conceive that a combination of eighty would be sufficient, provided the whole arrangement was perfect. The decomposition of the alkaline earths and ammonia by amalgamation or combination of their bases

may be accomplished by a much weaker combination, fifty plates of six or four inches square being adequate to produce sensible results. The potassium which I have used in various analytical enquiries lately carried on, has been all procured by chemical means, without the application of electricity. Potash may be decomposed by different processes, some of which are described in a paper which I am now reading before the Royal Society, but the best method is that which we owe to the ingenious researches of Messrs. Gay Lussac, and Thenard, and which is the first of this kind, by mere chemical attraction, made known. When melted potash is slowly brought into contact with iron turnings or filings, heated to whiteness, hydrogen gas is evolv ed, holding potassium in solution: and if one part of the iron tube or gun-barrel in which the experiment is made, be preserved cool, the metal is deposited in this part, being precipitated from the hydrogen gas by cooling. The potash is never procured quite so pure in this way as by electricity; but it is fit for analytical purposes, and I have obtained it with so little alloy, as to possess a specific gravity considerably below 8, water. being 10. I have now by me a compact mass produced in an operation, which weighs nearly 100 grains.'

Ninety-two whales of a new species were stranded in Scapay Bay in Pomona, one of the Orkneys, a few days previous to a violent storm in December, 1806. Of this animal, never before figured by any naturalist, Dr. Traill, of Liverpool, gives the following description :-It be longs very clearly to the genus delphinus; the only hitherto described species of that genus which it at all resembles is the delphinus orca, or grampus; but it is distinguished from the latter by the shape. of its snout, the shortness of its dorsal fin, the length and narrowness of its pectoral fins, the form and number of its teeth, and the colour of its belly and breast. Almost the whole body is black, smooth, and shining like oiled silk. The back and sides are jetty black; the breast and belly of a somewhat fighter colour. The general length of the fullgrown ones is about twenty feet. The body is thick, the dorsal fin does not exceed two feet in length, and is rounded at the extremity. The pectoral fins are from six to eight feet in length,narrow and tapering to their extremities. The head is obtuse; the upper jaw projects several inches over the lower in a blunt process.

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