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1798.]

New Patents.-Mr. Carpenter's.

ple operation of cutting a pudding, "that he had better take his trowel to it!" he fet the whole corporation in a

roar.

As a man of pleasure, he facrificed to his paffions, not unfrequently, at the expence of his happiness, and even of his character. The fcandal attached to the order of St. Francis, of which he was a member, operated confiderably against the influence of his politics; it is not a little remarkable, however, that men, not the most famous for the chastity of their manners, fuch as the lords Sandwich and March (the latter is the prefent duke of Queensbury) fhould have been the most eager to detect and expofe the follies of his loofer moments.

It cannot be denied, that his conduct as a magiftrate was not only unexceptionable, but fpirited and exemplary; and as a guardian of the morals of the city youth, he has not been excelled by any of his predeceffors. The fame candour that dictates thefe obfervations, obliges the author at the fame time to confefs that he was dilatory in the production of the city accounts, and rather too attentive to the emoluments of office.

As an author, he poffeffed the fingular merit of always writing to, and for, the people. His fuccefs was proportionate, and he actually wrote down at least one administration, which is more than can be faid of any man of the prefent age. His merits can only be appreciated by the benefits he has conferred on his country. It was he who first taught the public to confider the "king's fpeech" as the mere fabrication of his minifters, and as fuch, proper to be commented on, ap

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plauded, or treated with contempt. By his bold and determined conduct, in the cafe of the city printers, he annihilated the power of commitment affumed by the fpeaker's warrant, and rendered the jurifdiction of the fergeant at arms, fubject to the control of a conftable." He punished defpotic fecretaries of state, by holding them up to public fcorn, abolished general warrants, and obliged

even lord Mansfield to declare them unlawful. But this was not all; he contributed to render an Englishman's house his castle, for it is to him we are indebted for the benefit of having our papers confidered as facred, in all cafes fhort of high treafon. The most daring minifter muft now particularife his victim by name, and he cannot attempt to rob us of our fecrets, without at the fame. time endeavouring to bereave us of our lives!

In fhort, with all his faults, Mr. Wilkes poffeffed fomething more than the vapour of patriotism; he could face poverty and banishment, despise a jail, refift corruption, attack and overcome tyranny. Had his exiftence ceased at the clofe of the American war, his memory, however, would have been more refpected; he outlived his reputation, and it is painful to add, that when he died at his daughter's houfe in Grosvenor fquare, on Tuesday, December 27, 1797, in the 73d year of his age, he was nearly forgotten. Distance blends and foftens the fhades of large objects: Time throws her mantle over petty defects. The prefent age already confeffes that he was a perfecuted, the next will pro bably confider him as a great, man. A: all events, his name will be connected with our hiftory, and if he does not occupy the chief place, a niche, at least, will be tenanted by him in the temple of Fame.

THE NEW PATENTS, Enrolled in October, November, &c.

MR. CARPENTER'S, FOR BLEACHING

PAPER.

THE difcovery made in France, by

M. Bertholet, of the efficacy of oxygenated muriatic acid in expediting the procefs of bleaching, has been fuccefsfully carried into effect by many of our own manufacturers and artists. Mr. CoOPER, late of Manchefter, now of Northumber land, in America, was, we believe, the MONTHLY MAG. XXVII.

first perfon in this country who applied the difcovery to practife his example was foon followed by many manufacturers in Lancashire and Scotland, who have obtained patents for different contrivances to regulate the application of the acid gas the most important of thefe have been already detailed in our former numbers, under the head of bleaching, in which it will be found, that not

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New Patents.-Mr. Wedgwood's.

50 only the linen, but the paper manufacture has been effentially benefited hereby.

Formerly writing paper could be made of unprinted linen alone, but by means of the procefs of Mr. Bertholet even printed linen may be made into the fineft and whiteft paper. The prefent patent is the last that we fhall detail on this fubject, except in cafe of fome effential improvement in the procefs or inftrument made ufe of. It was granted to Mr. ELIAS CARPENTER of Bermondfey, Surrey, and is entitled a Method of Bleaching Paper in the Water Leaf, and fixing it without drying.

In the preparation of the pulp, the coarfer rags are to be macerated for two or three days in a cauftic alcaline lev, and wrought into sheets of paper, in the ufual way; a strong wooden box or trough is then to be procured, of a fize proportioned to that of the paper, lined on the infide with white paint, and furnished with feveral ftages of cross bars of glafs: the bottom of the box is to be covered with a ftratum about one inch deep of cauftic ley, and the paper laid by quarter-reams, or lefs, acrofs the glafs bar. A hole must be made in the box to admit the beak of an earthenware retort, into which must be put manganefe and fea falt, in powder, fulphuric acid, and an equal quantity of water impregnated with the teams of burning fulphur (fulphureous acid).The cover of the box is to be made airtight by luting or flips of paper dipped in pafte. The apparatus being thus prepared, the belly of the retort is to be plunged in water, kept boiling, and in a fhort time the oxymuriatic acid gas will be driven into the box, will penetrate the paper, and render it of a dazzling whitenefs, while the alcaline ley at the bottom will, by gradually abforbing it, prevent its becoming fo concentrated as to deftroy or injure the texture of the paper. From three to four pounds of fulphuric acid will fuffice for one hundred weight of paper, and the operation will be completed in about eight hours. The fheets as they are taken out of the box are to be fized with the following mixture:

To ewt of clippings of fkin add

[Jan

14 lb. of allum, 7 of calcined vitrol and 1 lb. of gum arabic, with a fufficer quantity of water to fize 50 reams fools-cap.

The fame method will ferve equ well to clean engravings or printing, though the oxymuriatic acid difcharg all ftains, dirt, &c. yet it is incapable acting on printers' ink.

MR. WEDGWOOD'S, FOR MAKING
GLASS.

IN November, 1796, a patent wa granted to RALPH WEDGWOOD, Burflem, Staffordshire, for a new comp pofition for glass. The two extre quantities for the materials, are gives in the following formula; for accord to the required hardness of the glass be the proportions to be made ufe From 10 to 50 lbs. of pearl-afh are be diffolved in from 12 to 20 quarts water; to which are to be added fra 3 to 10 lbs. of borax, diffolved in fi 10 to 50 quarts of water: of Par plafter, or fime, are to be added from 40 to 100 lbs. ; of flints, or any pur quatzy ftone, powdered, from 50 100 lbs. of pounded barytes from: 10lbs.;and of broken china,or fine eartheware, from 50 to 150 lbs. (Inftead this laft, from 80 to 100 lbs. of bake clay may be added). All these mare rials are to be ground into a fmet cream-like confiftence in the comm mill, then evaporated to drynefs, after-' wards melted in a full white heat, poured into water. The glafs thus pr pared is ufed either by itself, or mix! with different colouring substances.

MR. WEDGWOOD'S, FOR PLATIN EARTHEN WARE.

Together with the above patent enrolled one, taken out at the fan time by the fame perfon, for an inprovement in the manfacture of eartherware. To a plate of foft unbaked coars pottery clay, is applied on each fide thin plate of china, white ware, or creamcoloured; the three plates are the united firmly to each other by means a prefs: afterwards the mafs by rolling is brought to a proper thickness, a fhaped in moulds in the ufual way.

VARIETIES

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VARIETIES,

LITERARY and PHILOSOPHICAL;

Including Notices of Works in Hand, Domestic and Foreign. ***Authentic Communications for this Article are earnestly folicited from all our Friends.

MESSE
ESSRS.
ROBINSONS are about to
publish a Work of confiderable Im-
portance and Curiofity to the political
world: "Letters and Correfpondence,
Public and Private, of the Right Hon.
Henry St. John, Lord Viscount Boling-
broke, during the time he was Secretary
of State to her Majefty Queen Ann,
with State-papers, explanatory notes,
and a tranflation of the foreign letters,
by GILBERT PARKE, Chaplain to his
Royal Higanefs the Prince of Wales." This
work wid appear in 2 volumes quarto,
and at the fame time in 4 volumes octavo,
to fuit the feveral editions of Lord Bo-
lingbroke's Works.

Mr. BELSHAM, the author of the Hiftory of Geo. III. and of the Houfe of Brunfwick, has juft completed his Hiftory of England, from the Revolution, where Hume ends, to the acceffion of Geo I. It will be published with his preceding works in 4to. and 8vo.

Mr. BLAIR, of Great Ruffel-ftreet, Bloomsbury (Surgeon to the Lock Hofpital and Afylum, and the Old Finsbury Difpenfary) has recently circulated a printed Letter among his medical friends in London, inviting them to concur with him in an attempt to afcertain how far the cure of a genuine fyphilis may be trusted to the anti-venereal powers of nitrous acid, oxygenated muriate of potafh, or any of the other remedies of analogous conftitution, which have been lately recommended by several practitioners as fubftitutes for mercury?

From an hint contained in that letter, it may be expected that Mr. BLAIR will foon prefent the world with fome Obfervations and Cafes on this Interefting fubject. We are informed that he is likewife preparing a much more exten. five work, in which he has been fome time cagaged, viz. an Enquiry into the Natural History and Medical Treatment of the Venereal Difeafe, in all its Forms and Stages, from the earliest period to the prefent time.

Dr. GILLIES has announced for publication, in the course of this month, A Translation from the Greek of Ariftotle's Ethics and Politics, comprifing his Practical Philofophy. Dr. G. has illuftrated

the Work by Introductions and Notes, and by a new analysis of the Speculative Works of the celebrated Greek Philofopher.

Dr. JOHN WILLIAMS has published Propofals, for printing by Subfcription, Græco-Barbara Novi Teftamenti; or, Oriental and other Foreign Words occurring in the New Teftament, selected and illuftrated by MART. PETR. CHEITOMAUS, tranflated out of the Latin Original, with additional Words, and Notes, Critical and Explanatory. To which will be prefixed, a fhort Differtation on the Hebrew Vowel Points.

Mr. J. SYMONS, of Hackney, intends to publifh in a fhort time, A Syftematic Pocket-Flora of indigenous plants, to be intitled Synopfis plantarum infulis Britan nicis indigenarum.

A very useful Medical Work, confifting of Popular Cautions to Young Soldiers, and Gentlemen Volunteers, who may be called into the Field in the prefent Crifis, is in the press, and will be published about the close of February. Mr. DYER has in the prefs a volume of Defcriptive and Rural Odes.

The interefting annual publication, announced in our laft, under the title of "The Spirit of the Public Journals for 1797," will make its appearance in the courfe of February.

A monthly work is announced for publication on the first of March, addressed to ladies of fafhion and quality, and to milliners, &c. &c. to be called The Magazine of the Fashions of London and Paris. Each number, price one fhilling, is to contain fix beautifully coloured figures, three of London and three of Parifian Ladies, in the most prevailing dresses of month.

We mentioned in a former number that Dr. Beddoes had recommended to Meffrs. Bowles and Smyth, furgeons of Bristol, to give a courfe of anatomical lectures.-The principal design of these lectures was to exhibit the structure and economy of the human frame, and to point out thofe accidents and diforders to which it was most liable, together with the best means of guarding against them. But Dr. Beddoes, conceiving that it was

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impoffible these objects should be fully ob-
tained, whilft women, the guardians of
our childhood, were excluded, fuggefted
to the before-mentioned gentlemen, the
plan of a new courfe, accommodated to a
female audience. Many ladies, with a
becoming zeal for ufeful information,
have been forward in promoting this de-
fign, and there is no queftion of its ulti-
mate fuccefs.

Literary News. Spain....Sweden, &c.

Dr. Beddoes intends to deliver a courfe of chemical lectures at Bristol; exhibiting on an extenfive apparatus, the general principles of chemistry, with the improvements which have been made at different periods in this valuable branch of ftudy. The propofal was made at the earneft folicitation of a few friends.Doctor B. propofed a courfe of chemical lectures at three guineas the course, to confift of about thirty; but as he withed the point to be speedily decided, he mentioned in his advertifement that unlefs one bundred names were given in the first fortnight, he fhould altogether relinquish the defign. More, however, than that number were given in the first week! Among the books recently published at Madrid, the following are the moft deferving of notice:

Origin of Caftillian Poetry, in one volume, quarto. This work is divided into four parts, the first of which examines the fources from whence the Caftillian poetry has been drawn; namely, the poetry of the primitive Spaniards, and the Latin, Arabic, Provençal or Limofin, Portuguefc, and other poets.

The Origin, Progrefs, and Stages of Caftillian Poetry.

An Examination of whatever belongs to the Origin of Spanish poetry, in each of its principal Kinds in particular.

Collections of Caftillian Poetry, the comments and notes by which it has been illuftrated, and the tranflations in the Caftillian tongue from the poets of other nations. The whole terminated by a complete lift of the Caftillian poets. Index to the work, entitled "Literary Memoirs." This work is published in numbers, making three volumes yearly. It made its firft appearance at the commencement of 1791.

The World, a Dream. This is a fatire on the manners of the prefent age. It defcribes men as they are, and points out to them what they eught to be.

The cultivation of rice is still continued in many parts of the kingdom of Valencia, in Spain, notwithstanding repeated prohibitions. DON ANTONIO Jo. SEPH CAVANILLES, in his valuable work on the Natural Hiftory, Geography, Agriculture, Population and Vegetable Preducts of the Kingdom of Valencia, has entered into a very interefting difcuffion of

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the important queftion, whether the cultivation of this grain ought to be totally profcribed in Spain, on account of the fatal confequences attending it. To determine this point, he takes a review of the maladies occafioned by its cultivation, which requires a fwampy foil, and at the fame time a fultry climate. He gives a table of the births and deaths,from the year 1730 to 1787, in the different places in which the cultivation of rice has been practifed. The refult is, that during the pace of fifty-eight years, there have been born 42,022 children in the places where rice was not cultivated, and only 36,248 where the cultivation of rice was carried

on.

On the other hand, during the fame period of fifty-eight years, 39,595 perfons have died in the places where rice was grown, and only 29,630, in the places where it was not cultivated.

In

Among the branches of science moft fuccefsfully cultivated in SWEDEN, appear to be political history, geography, phyfic, natural history, and rural economy. The Swedes are rich in geographical and ma rine charts. The first volume of the Marine Atlas, published in 1795, by the vice-admiral NORDENANKER, is juftly entitled to particular commendation. the theological department, a new tranflation of the Bible, patronized by the late Swedish monarch, and undertaken at his particular inftance, is preparing for the prefs, and now actually in a state of great forwardness. Of this tranflation, an Eday, by way of profpectus, appeared in 1772. The new verfion of the Pfalms of David, by the learned DR. TINGSTADIUS, may likewife be confidered as a fpecimen and appendage to this grand undertaking. In the fame year (1772) WARM HOLZ published the feventh vo lume of his Bibliotheca Hiftorico-Sueo-Gothi ca, which completes that learned and inftructive work. GANANDER published and there has appeared very recently the at Abo, in 1789, a Mythologia Fennica, first part of the new, edition of PAUL JUSTEN's Chronicle of the Bishops of Finland. As tranflators, the Swedes tranflate a great number of German books, but comparatively very few from the French and English languages. The firft Literary Journal, which made its appearance in Sweden, was published by Doctor OLAUS CELSIUS, in 1742. Since that

* An English translation of Tingstadius's Verfion appeared in London about four years ago. Though little known, it contains many valuable and important novelties.

period

1798.]

Scientific News.--Ruffia.... Araneology.

period the number of works of this defcription has amazingly increased. Sweden boafts two academies of fciences, the one established at Stockholm, the other at Upfal. There is, likewife, a patriotic fciety of Agriculture; another fociety Pro Fide et Chriftianifmo; another for Phyfic and Natural Hiftory, at Lund; a fociety of Fine Arts and Sciences at Gothenburg; another fociety bears the denomination of Uule Dulci; and laftly, there is the Swedith Royal Academy, founded in 1786. The principal object of this latter fociety is to purify and perfect the Swedish language. It likewife caufes a medal to be ftruck regularly every year for fome illuftrious Swede. Of all these various focieties, the two first named are the only enes which publish periodical Memoirs of their tranfa&tions.

RUSSIA, with refpect to the sciences and polite arts, has made aftonishing progrefs within thefe few years. Catharine II created a particular commiflion to fuperintend and direct the fchools, fettle the method of tution, and to take particular care to form good inftructions. Since this arrangeinent, three different schools are established in cach government; an inferior fchool, in which reading, writing, and arithmetic, are taught; an upper fchool, or college, in which written exercifes are compoled, geography, national hiftory, &c. taught; an univerfity, where all species of knowledge may be acquired. There are at prefent universities at St. Petersburg, Mofcow, and Kiov; and the moft celebrated colleges are at St. Petersburg, Mofcow, Kalfan, Riga, and Revel. The college of Mittaw is about to be changed into an univerfity. Several academics, and affemolies of learned men, arduoufly co-operate in diffeminating fcientific intelligence. Thefe are attached to the Imperial Academy of Sciences at Peterfburg, the Academy of the Ruffian Language, the Academy of Arts, the Economical Society at Petersburgh, &c. Catharine II fent to the German univerfities fuch young perfons as manifefted happy difpofitions for learning. She also invited to Ruffia foreigners who were eminent for their erudition. She has, in fact, fo judiciously difpofed of things, that all branches of the fciences are cultivated by the Ruffians. The whole number of Ruffian publications, including fome tranflations, did not, however, four years ago, amount to more than 4000 volumes; the fifth part of thefe works treating of politics, economics, morals, hiftory, and geography.

53

ARANEOLOGY. It is well known, that many animals are influenced by natural clectricity, and extremely fufceptible of every variation of the atmosphere. Of thefe, none are more affected than the garden-fpider. To M. Quatremer d'Ifgonval, aid-de-camp general of the French and Batavian army, the world are indebted for the important difcovery of being able to rely on garden-fpiders, with as much, if not more confidence, than on the catgut or mercurial barometers. The garden-fpider, according to his obfervations, have two ways of working, according to prevailing, or rather future, weather. If the weather is to be rainy, or even windy, they attach fparingly their principal threads, which fufpends their whole fabric, and thus they wait for the effect of a temperature, which is about to be very mutable. Spiders, like barometers, poffefs not only future, but a more diftant prefentiment than thefe, concerning what is about to take place in the the atmosphere. A good barometer will foretel the weather until the next day; but when the fpiders work with long threads, there is a certainty of having fine weather for twelve days, or a fortnight, at least! When they are idle, it denotes rain or wind; when they work fparingly, it prognofticates changeable weather; but when they work abundantly, it may be regarded as a fure forerunner of fine weather. As foon as the ipider is perceived inceffantly renovating the web, deftroyed by the continual effufions of rain, it not only is a criterion of their being of fhort duration, but alfo denotes a fpecdy return of a greater permanence of fine weather. We find, at the end of the Araneological Calendar, of M. Quatremer d'Ifgonval, a declaration, figned by the staff of the French and Batavian army, by which thefe officers certify, that in the month of November, 1795, M. d'Ilgonval announced to general Picnegru, upon the faith of his new difcoveries, that the enfuing fummer would fupply him with all the means of terminating the campaign, and that this bold prediction, in a feafon abounding with fnow and hail-ftones, was realized in the commencement of December, on account of the mildness of the weather. M. Quatremer d'Ifgonval has juft eftablished araneories in Paris.

The municipality of Mantua have given a general invitation to artifts to furnish the defign of a monument intended to be erected in honour of Virgil, at Petcolum, the place where, according to tradition,

that

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