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three ladders, so combined as to admit of their being slid out, like the tubes of a pocket telescope, to the height of from forty to fifty fect, if required; carrying up, at the same time, a box to receive females or children, or small valuables, while the less timid can descend the lad. der. This box, by means of a chain and pulley, worked by the people below, descends to the ground, where being instantly unhooked, another box is sent up while the first is emptying. All this is performed in about two minutes. This apparatus is erected on a carriage with four wheels, nine feet long and five wide, furnished with the usual apparatus and harness for yoking a horse to it, for the more speedy removal to the scene of danger.

Mr.KNIGHT, in his Report of the Transactions of the Horticultural Society, mentions an improved method of cultivating the alpine strawberry. The process consists of sowing the seed on a moderate hot-bed, in the beginning of April, and removing the plants, as soon as they have acquired sufficient strength, to beds in the open ground. They will begin to blossom after Midsummer, and afford an abundant late autumnal crop. Mr. K. thinks, that this strawberry ought always to be treated as an annual plant.

SWEDEN.

FAHLUN has lately witnessed an ind dent which partakes of the romante. In opening a communication between two mines, the corpse of a miner ws found in complete preservation, and in a soft state, being impregnated with the vitriolic water of the mine. Whea exposed to the open air, it became stili, The features were not recognized by asy person present, but tradition had preserved the recollection of the accident by which he had been entombed more than haif a century ago. All farther enquiry was dropped, when suddenly a decrcod old woman advanced upon cretcies, and discovered that the deceased was a young man to whom she had been engaged by promise of marriage fifty years before. She threw herself on the body of Ler lover, and bedewed it with tears, at the same time thanking Heaven for having once more granted her a sight of the object of her affection before she descended to the grave. The contrast between tirese persons, one of whom had been so long huried and yet retained the features of youth, while the other was bowed down by the weight of years, may be more easily conceived than described.

GERMANY

Mr. de Luc has invented a machine An officer in the Bavarian service, which he denominates the Electric who had made a variety of experiments Column, and which, by some of our na- to ascertain the ingredients used in the tural philosophers, is considered the most composition of the Greek fire, while important discovery in the science of recently engaged at Munich in an analy electricity since that of the Voltaic pilesis for that purpose, was, by the expi He is preparing an account of it for publication."

RUSSIA.

The cranium of a horned animal, the race of which seems to be extiner, has been recently dug up near Minava. From the description given of this part of the skeleton, the animal must have been at least ten or twelve feet long. The horns, which are attached to the head and have partly passed into a fossil state, far exceed in size those of the oxen of the present day. They are a foot and a half in circumference at the root, and two feet and a half long. It was hoped that the entire skeleton would be recovered; but on further search, two teeth only were found. Foreign naturalists are of opinion, that this head must have belonged to the race of Urus or Aurochs, mentioned by Cæsar in his Commentaries, and which some even suppose still to exist in the mountains of Siberia and in the forests of Poland.

sion of the article he was decomposing, propelled through the window, with les arms torn off, and his face so dreadfully burnt, that he expired a few minutes after being taken up.

The following account of the present state of the universities, and other seminaries of education in the new kingdom of Westphalia, has been published: The universities of Halle, Gottingen, Helmstadt, Marburg, and Rinteln, contai 1207 students. There are besides in the kingdom 52 gymnasia or classical schools, at which are educated 6851 chil dren. The inferior schools, at which are taught reading, writing, and arithmetic, amount to 3600, and are attended by 253,338 children of both sexes. In each of the two cities of Brunswick and Magdeburg, there are thirty-five pub e institutions for every branch of education, besides private seminaries. In the public schools, the hours of teaching are

so arranged, that the children who attend them are generally able to earn their livelihood in the intervals. On a moderate computation, there is a teacher for every fifty children throughout the kingdom.

FRANCE.

The archives of the different states brought from Ratisbon, Rome, and Vienna, to Paris, are to be deposited in a new building erected on purpose for them, to be called the Palace of the Archives of the Empire. The arrangement will include three divisions, French, German, and Italian. All the papal archives, including the different documents relative to the donations of Constantine and other emperors, are now on their way from Rome to Rheims.

The repairs of the church of St. Genevieve, lately the Pantheon, are continued with activity. The pavement of black and white marble, in compartments, is begun. The repairs and embellishments of the subte; raneous church, destined to the interment of eminent men, will soon be completed. At the entrance of this vault are the tombs of Rousseau and Voltaire. The towers of this church, which, during the revolution, were almost entirely demolished, will be rebuilt as speedily as possible.

ITALY.

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LUCIEN BONAPARTE, who possesses fine villa in the vicinity of Rome, and devotes his attention to the arts and sciences, has recently made some valuable discoveries. Several houses belonging to the ancient Tusculum have been discovered, in which have been found, besides various pieces of furniture, seven large statues, one of them a Muse of singn'ar beauty. The Roman antiquaries estimate this treasure at 22,000 rix dollars.

AFRICA.

In addition to the circumstances already detailed respecting the late earthquakes at the Cape of Good Hope, the following particulars are communicated in a letter, dated Cape Town, January, 1810. "My last letter was principally about earthquakes, which have been repeated almost every day since the 4th alt. During the last week we have had five or six shocks, but none except the three on December 4, and two since, have been violent. The Dutch inhabitants begin to console themselves with the idea that the noises we hear are thunder, although not a cloud is to be seen in any part of the sky. These earthquakes have greatly reduced the value of houses, most of which in the

colony are more or less damaged. In every part of the settlement the shocks have been experienced, in some slightly, in others in a more violent degree. Salt water has been thrown up in places at the distance of three or four miles from the sea, without leaving any appearance of springs or openings in the soil. In other parts, where the soil is black, as low down as Our wells have been dug, several spots of white sand, about six feet in diameter, and generally of a circular form, have been thrown up, evidently in union with water, which immediately subsided. Springs of water have also burst out in many parts of the colony where there never were any before. A waggon, which came into Cape Town two days ago, sunk to the top of the wheels in a quicksand, which is thrown up in the middle of a road that was before as hard as a rock. If these are the only effects that will be produced by such subterraneous convulsions, we have great reason to be satisfied with the result, since our climate appears to have been greatly ameliorated by them. Ever since the first shocks, we have experienced cool pleasant weather, and have been free from those violent winds, which at this season of the year, usually prevailed three days out of seven. During the last month, which is our Midsummer, the thermometer has seldom been higher than 729, and the barometer has varied between 29.30 and 30:15. Our winter passed with only one storm of thunder and lightning, and that by no means violent. The first winter of my arrival (1308,) i believe we had thunder two or three times a week, for five weeks successively. If, as some philosophers assert, electricity be the cause of earthquakes, may it not also account for the absence of thunder and lightning, which we have experienced during the last winter?"

AMERICA.

Steam has been applied in the United States, to the purposes of inland navigation, with complete success. The passage-boat between New York and Albany is 16) fect long, and wide in proportion, with accomodation for 100 passengers; and the machine which moves her wheels is equal to the power of 24 horses, and is kept in motion by steam from a copper boiler, 8 or 10 feet in length. Her route i- 150 miles, which she performs regularly twice a week, and sometimes in so little as 32 hours when the wind is fair; light square sails are employed to increase her speed,

PROCEEDINGS

PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES.

ROYAL SOCIETY OF LONDON.

MR

R. DAVY, in his analytical experiments on phosphorus, says, the same analogies apply to this substance as to sulphur. Common electrical sparks, passed through phosphorus, did not evolve from it permanent gas; but when it was acted upon by the Voltaic battery of 500 plates, gas was produced in considerable quantities, and the phosphorus became of a deep red brown colour, like phosphorus that had been inflamed and extinguished under water. The gas examined, proved to be phosphuretted hydrogen; and the light of the Voltaic spark in the phosphorus was at first a brilliant yellow, but as the colour of the phosphorus changed it appeared orange. From certain experiments, Mr. Davy supposes that phosphuretted hydrogen contains a minute proportion of oxygen, and con sequently that phosphorus likewise may contain it; but the action of potassium on phosphorus itself furnishes more direct evidences of the circumstance. One grain of potassium and one grain of phos phorus were fused together: they combined, with the production of the most vivid light and intense ignition. During the process of a cubical inch of phosphuretted hydrogen was evolved. The phosphuret formed, exposed to the action of diluted muriatic acid over mercury, producedths of a cubical inch of phosphuretted hydrogen. In a second expeiment, one grain of potassium was fused with three grains of phosphorus, and a quarter of a cubical inch of phosphuretted hydrogen was generated during the ignition. But from the compound exposed to muriatic acid, only th of a cubical inch could be procured. It is not easy to refer the deficiency of phosphuretted hydrogen in the second case to any other, cause than to the supply of oxygen to the potassium from the phosphorus; and the quantity of phosphurcited hydrogen evolved in the first case, is much less than could be expected, if both potassium and phosphorus consisted merely of pure combustible matter. The phosphoric acid, formed by the combustion of phosphorus through a crystalline sold, may contain water. The hydrogen evolved from phosphorus by electricity proves that this must be the case; and, though the quantity of hydrogen and oxygen in phosphorus may be exceedingly small, yet they may be sufficient to give it peculiar characters; and till the basis is obtamed free, we

shall have no knowledge of the properties of the pure phosphoric element.

In considering the states of the carbo naceous principle in plumbago, charcoal, and the diamond, Mr. Davy notices the experiments of Messrs. Ailen and Pepys, which have proved that plumbago, char coal, and the diamond, produce very nearly the same quantities of carbonic acid, and absorb very nearly the same quantties of oxygen in combustion. “Hence it is evident," says Mr. Davy, “that they must consist principally of the samne krud, of matter; but minute researches upon their chemical relations when examined. by new analytical methods, will, 1 am unclined to believe, shew that the great difference in their physical properties does not merely depend upon the differences of the mechanical arrangement of them parts, but likewise upon ditrances ut their intimate chemical nature. From the experiments mentioned, the professor infers that in plumbago the carbonaceous principle exists merely in combination with iron, and in a form which may be regarded as approaching to that of a me tal in its nature, being conducting in a high degree opaque, and possessing cou siderable lustre. Charcoal appears to contain a minute quantity of hydrogen in combination. Perhaps the alkabes, and earths produced during its combustion, exist in it not fully combined with oxy gen, and hence it is a very compounded substance, though in the main it consists of pure carbonaceous element. The experiments on the diamond render at probable that it contains oxygen, but the quantity must be exceedmgly minute, though perhaps sufficient to render the compound non-conducting and if the carbonaceous element in charcoal and the diamond be considered as united to still less foreign matter in quantity than in plumbago, which contains about of iron, the results of their combustion will not differ perceptibly."

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In his experiments on the decompastion and composition of boracic acid, Mr. Davy had noted in a former paper thru it appeared to be decomposed by Voltage electricity, a dark-coloured inflammable substance separating from it on the ne gative surface. He now attempted to collect quantities of it by means of the battery of 500 double plates, and au olive-brown matter immediately began to form on the negative surface, which gradually increased in thickness, and at last

appeared

appeared almost black. It was permanent in water, but soluble with effervescence in warm nitrous acid. When heated to redness upon the platina it burnt slowly, and gave off white fumes, which slightly reddened moistened litmus-paper, and it left a black moss, which, when examined by the magnifier, appeared vitreous at the surface, and evidently contained a fixed acid. In another experiment the boracic acid, heated in contact with potassium in a gold tube, was converted into borate of potash, at the same time that a dark coloured matter, similar to that produced by electricity, was formed. Thus the evidence for the decomposition of the boracic acid is easily obtained, but the synthetical proofs of its nature involve more complicated circumstances. Mr. Davy found that, when equal weights of potassium and boracic acid were heated together, there was a most intense ignition before the temperature was nearly raised to the red heat; the potassium eritered into vivid inflammation when it was in contact with the boracic acid. When this acid had been heated to whiteness, before it was introduced into the tube, and powdered and used while yet warm, the quantity of gas given out in the operation did not exceed twice the volame of the acid, and was hydrogen. He only used twelve or fourteen grains of each of the two substances in this mode of conducting the experiment; for when Jarger quantities were employed, the glass tube always ran into fusion from the intensity of the heat produced during the action. In many experiments in which he used equal parts of the acid and metal, he found that there was always a great quantity of the former in the residuum; and by various trials he ascertained that twenty grains of potassium had their inflammability entirely destroyed by about eight grains of boracic acid. For collect ing considerable portions of the matters formed in the process, he used metallic tubes furnished with stop-cocks, and exhausted after having been filled with hy drogen. When tubes of brass or copper were employed, the heat was only raised to a dull red; but when iron tubes were used, it was pushed to whiteness. In all cases the acid was decomposed, and the products were scarcely different. When the result was taken out of a tube of brass or copper, it appeared as an olivecoloured mass, having opaque dull olivebrown specks diffused through it: in this way he collected the largest quanti ties. It appears as a pulverulent mass of MONTHLY MAG, No, 200..

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the darkest shades of olive; is perfectly opaque; very friable; and its powder does not scratch glass. It is a non-conductor of electricity. It gives off moisture by increase of temperature, and if heated in the atmosphere takes fire at a temperature below the boiling point of oil, and burns with a red light, and scintillations like charcoal. The phenomena of its combustion are best witnessed in a retort filled with oxygen gas. When the bottom of the retort is gently heated by a spirit lamp, it throws off most vivid scintillations, like those from the combustion of the bark of charcoal, and the mass burns with a brilliant light. A sublimate rises from it which is boracic acid. In oxymuriatic acid gas, the peculiar inflammable substance occasi ons some beautiful phenomena; when brought in contact with the gas it instantly takes fire and burns with a bril liant white light, a white substance coats the interior of the vessel, and the substance itself is found covered by a white film, which, by washing, affords boracic acid, and leaves a black matter behind. The properties of this matter are enumerated; and the inference drawn is, that it is different from any other known species of matter, and is the same as that procured from it by electricity thus is established the decomposition and recom "position of the acid. From other expe riments it would seem that boracic acid consists of one part of inflammable mat ter and 18 of oxygen, and the dark sidual substance, supposing it to be simply the inflammable matter "combined with less oxygen than is sufficient to constitute boracic acid, would be an oxide consisting of about 4:7 of inflammable matter to 1.55 of oxygen. Mr. D. likewise thinks that the combustible matter obtained from boracic acid, bears the same relation to that substance as sulphur and phosphorus do to the sulphuric and phosphoric acids; but it is still question whether it is an elementary body, the pure basis of the acid? or whether, like sulphur and phosphorus, it is compounded? There are many cir cumstances which favor the idea that the dark olive substance is not a simple body; its being non-conducting, its change of colour by being heated in hydrogen gas, and its power of combining with al kalies; for these properties, in general, belong to primary compounds that are known to contain oxygen. Some of this olive inflammable matter he treated in a different way, and the result led Mr. D.

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to suppose, that in it the basis of boracic acid exists in union with a small portion of oxygen. "From the colour of the oxides," says Mr. D. " their solubility in alkalies, and from their general powers of combination, and from the conducting nature and lustre of the nfatter produced by the action of a small quantity of pot assium upon the olive-coloured substance, and from all analogy, there is strong reason to consider the boracic basis as me. tallic in its nature, and I venture to propose for it the name of Boracium."

In experiments made upon the fluoric acid, the professor obtained an inflammable chocolate-coloured sub. stance; but as he had acted only on very small quantities, he was not able to gain decided evidence that the inflammable part was the pure basis of the fluoric acid; but with respect to the decomposition of this body by potassium, and the existence of its basis, at least combined with a smaller proportion of oxygen in the solid product generated, and the regeneration of the acid by the ignition of this product in oxygen gas, he has no doubt whatever. The decomposition of the fluoric acid by potassium, scens analogous to that of the acids of sulphur and phosphorus. In neither of these cases are the pure buses, or even the bases in their common form, evolved; but new compounds result, as in one case sulphurets and sulphiter, and in the other phosphurets and phosphites, of potash are generated.

Mr. Davy is less confident respecting the decomposition of the muriatic acid. We shall mention one of his experiments on it. When a piece of potassium is introduced into the substance that distils over during the action of heated sulphur úpon oxymuriatic acid, it at first produces a slight effervescence, and if the volume of the potassium considerably exceeds that of the liquid, it soon explodes with a violent report, and a most intense light. He endeavoured to colJect the result, which he was able to do with a quarter of a grain, but in this sinall quantity he could not ascertain that any gaseous matter was evolved; but a solid compound was forined of a very deep grey tint, which burnt, throwing off bright scintillations when gently heated, which inflamed when touched with water, and gave most brilliant sparks, like those thrown off by iron in oxygen gas. Its properties differed from those of any compound of sulphur and potassium, but whether it contained the

muriatic basis, must be still a matter of enquiry.

Mr. Davy infers, that the experiments detailed in this elaborate paper, offer some new views with respect to the na ture of acidity. All the fluid acids that contain water, are excellent conductors of electricity. When he first examined muriatic acid in its combinations, free from moisture, he hoped he should be able to decompose them by electricity; but there was no action without contact of the wires, and the spark seemed to separate no one of their constituents, but only to render them gaseous. The circumstance likewise applies to the boracic acid, which is a good conductor as long as it contains water; but which, when freed from water, and made fluid by heat, is then a non-conductor. The alkalies and earthy compounds, and the oxides, as dry as can be obtained, are non-conductors when solid, but if rea dered fluid by heat, they become conductors. In mixing muriatic acid gas with carbonic acid, or oxygen, or hydrogen, the gases being in their common states, as to moisture, there was always a cloudiness produced, which was owing to the attraction of their water to form liquid muriatic acid. On fluoric acid gas no such effect was occasioned, which might be supposed to shew that the bydrogen, evolved by the action of potas sium upon fluoric acid gas, is owing to water in actual combination with it, like that in muriatic acid gas, and which may be essential to its elastic state; or the moisture may be in that state of diffusion, or solution, in which it exists in gases in general.

"The facts advanced in this lecture," says the author, "afford no new arguments in favour of an idea to which I referred in my last communication—that of hydrogen being a common principle in all inflammable bodies, and except in instances which are still under investigation, and concerning which no precise conclusions can as yet be drawn, the generalization of Lavoisier happily ap plies to the explanation of all the new phenomena. In proportion as progress is made towards the knowledge of pure combustible bases, so in proportion is the number of metallic substances increased; and it is probable that sulphur and phosphorus, could they be perfectly deprived of oxygen, would belong to this class of bodies. Possibly the pure ele mentary matter may be procured by distillation, at a high heat, from metallic

alloys,

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