122 Col. Macdonald on Telegraphic Communication. A pint being equal to a pound, the 73 pounds 8 ounces will make 9 gal. Jons, 1 pint and a half of water remaining in 353 pounds of bread; being nearly one fifth of a pint to each pound of bread, On reference to Bakers of repute, they said, that a sack of the best flour, without such mixtures as they use, ought to yield 360 pounds of bread, when hot, and one experiment gave a few ounces more. They said the best flour might sometimes give above 360 pounds. It was intended to form a gage of measure, in order to shorten the operation of weighing, or scaling the dough into loaves; and though this would have such effect, the flour used in dusting the frame, would be more in value, than the time to be sayed in scaling. To furnish loaves of 15 ounces, the weight in dough of half the number of loaves of the large sort, should be 17 ounces and three quarters of scrimp weight for each loaf; and for each of the small loaves, 12 and three quarters of scrimp weight, to yield loaves of 11 ounces. The other half of the number of loaves respectively, being scaled, or weighed to 17 fully, and 12 ounces fully. The heavier half will be first, ovened, and will lose the small excess of weight, by evaporation, before the other half is put in, and during the time of its being taken out of the oven. Bakers' bread is rendered of standard weight by giving sufficient weight in dough, to compensate for evaporation. By the above expedient of equalizing, the interior half will contain a trifle more of flour, or crust, and less of water, than the external half of the whole of the bread baked. The apparent advantage probably vanishes, on account of heating the oven more frequently, and of additional labour in baking less quantities of flour. The bread in the Hospital is produced from flour unmixed with other substances; and if it were required to ascertain the price, or expense of a loaf of each description, such a calculation could be effected by having as data, the cost of the flour, salt, yeast and furz; NB. During the above experiment, terminated the third day, the baker [Aug. had not possession of the key of the Mr. URBAN, project, now likely to be carried into At the present moment, an explanatory Letter in your extensive work will be conducive to purposes of public utility, in directing the attention of the Gentlemen constituting the Chartered Telegraphic Company, to quarters where information and assistance may be acquired. On this account, it would be a dereliction of a subject, now of vast interest, not to speak out clearly, though it may unavoidably be with some imputation of vanity. This, however, I must encounter, rather than be silent where utility is the object in view. The Dictionary was transmitted to India, along with models of full-powered Telegraphs of various descriptions, and was submitted by the Marquess of Hastings to the consideration of a Committee of scientific men from the Staff of the Army. The following is one extract from their proceedings: of signals, the more arduous task of forming "Having thus secured so great a number a Telegraphic Dictionary remained. For this purpose the author [Colonel Macdenald] appears to have availed himself of every form of speech that industry could collect, or ingenuity devise, as useful in rendering this mode of correspondence at once clear and comprehensive, The labour, perseverance, and ability required to select and arrange this vast mass of materials, cannot be too highly appreciated. On inspection, the Dictionary will be found to contain 150,000 words, phrases, and sentences.* This report farther says, that the science" is brought to a maximum, by telegraphing in two movements, one for 1885.] Col. Macdonald on Telegraphic Communication. for the class, and another for the mar ginal number of the word or phrase;" and it also appeared, that the small or auxiliary words, forming near the half of all sentences, are given by one signal in figures. In comparing this Dietionary with others, as has been done, the Gentlemen concerned can judge for themselves, by converting a page of a book into telegraphic signals, by each Dictionary. This is the only test by which a Telegraphic Dictionary can stand or fall; and this, with other departments of an interesting science, in its infancy, I have fully stated in an APPENDIX to a work on Fuzes and Projectiles, published in 1819. I am induced to mention these books, because in all of them I ventured to prediet, from my long and continued study of the subject in all its branches, that general telegraphic communication by land, must be ere long established. Beyond a brochure, or a few pages, there are no works on the science in this country, except those mentioned, and a few Dictionaries. The French originated the Semaphore, and modern telegraphing; but they have no Dictionary. Monsieur Chappe l'aine published, last year, "Histoire de la Telegraphie," in two volumes, with numerous plates. Finding, from my Treatise, that near one hundred plans had been given in, in this country, he reckons it surprising that none of them had been found superior to the present, which he has no hesitation in condemning. This is not surprising, seeing that it is recéssarily placed on very short lines; that it expresses but one figure at a time; and that from the weakness of the system used, almost every thing is done by the tedious process of spelling. In polite intercourse with Lord Mel ville, to whom I had been introduced by Lord Liverpool, I ascertained, that the whole of the hundred plans had been duly examined; and of course, without discovering any one more eligible than the present, so loudly condemned by Monsieur Chappe. When, during Lord Mulgrave's administration, I, after a similar introduction, offered my three-figured Telegraph, and made experiments evincing its power, his Lordship remarked, that it only remained to calculate the expense of constructing it along the stations. This expense only prevemed the adoption of what was otherwise, highly desirable. 193 If the Chartered Company resolve to erect a Telegraph that can convey but one figure at a time, their communications in such a clinate as ours will be interrupted, even with a comprehensive dictionary, three days out of five: bet the case will be far different, if they provide a Telegraph capable of expressing any three figures simul taneously. The system will be complete, if two pairs of semaphoric arms of wings are placed over the lower Telegraph, by which means, the utmost celerity of effect will be produced, by expressing the class and marginal number of the word, phrase, or sentence, contemporaneously. To express any three figures at once, six semaphoric wings, or six strutters out of twelve, must be in action; and if the shutters were somewhat insulated, they might be probably better seen, on account of their greater area. But as shutters are expensive, I prefer a telegraph consisting of six balls moving up and down, on iron rods, as they are better seen, are more durable, appear of the same size in every direction, and ate much cheaper than shutters; because six do the service of twelve of the latter. In the above-mentioned Appendix, there is a plate and description of this BallTelegraph, which I deem the best of the six kinds of my invention. When I invented my Semaphore, with three pairs of arms, expressive of units, tens, and hundreds, an officer of rank, in no measured terms, claimed it as his own; and persevered in his error subsequently, in a Pamphlet re commending a single-figured Tele graph. I had no difficulty in replying to this gentleman, with more urbanity than he merited. The letters appear in the Appendix alluded to. I also wrote to himself; sending a copy to the India House and Admiralty, whither the Pamphlet had been forwarded. I proved that my Semaphore was dis tinctly different from the other, in prin ciple, machinery, power, mode of working, and application to practice. I would recommend to the Chartered Company the union of the Semaphore and Ball-Telegraph, as the cheapest and most durable, and efficient plan. That is, over the two balls expressing tens, let there be two Semaphoric wings on my simple constraction, to express the place of units; and over the two balls expressing hundreds, let there be two pairs of my wings, to express 124 Remarks on an early Edition of Terence. express the class containing the word or phrase indicated. It may not, Mr. Urban, be saying too much, that the insertion of this Letter in your valuable publication, cannot but be, subservient to promote the interests of a science of great prominence and importance, at the present moment. Monsieur Chappe's volumes treat the Telegraphic plan of this country with a criticism bordering on contempt, I sent Lord Melville a sketch of the contents, in case the Admiralty might deem it expedient to reply through some eligible medium: and a retort on the imperfection of the French system, would, to any one understanding the subject, be a facile task. JOHN MACDONALD. Mr. URBAN, Aug. 4. A have of late years so much enS the early annals of Typography grossed the attention of the curious, and as every information connected with that subject seems to have become daily more interesting, you may perhaps render an agreeable amusement to many of your readers, by inserting a brief notice of a recently discovered volume, not only in itself unknown, but by a printer of whom no notice appears in any bibliographical work I have been able to consult. This volume contains the seven Comedies of Terence, with the four commentaries of Donatus, Guido, Calphurnius, and Ascensius, and was printed, according to the Colophon, in the year 1499, at Venice, by Lazarus de Soardis, who subjoins an exclusive privilege granted him by the Senate for issuing the works of that writer, and which is dated November the 7th, of the above year. Prefixed to the Comedies, is a life of Terence, accompanied by two engravings in outline; the former of which represents the Poet himself mounted on a rostrum or pulpit, reading his Comedies aloud, whilst his commentators are seated below, in the act, as it appears, of noting down the text itself for the purpose of adding their own observations. The second engraving presents us with the interior of a Roman Theatre; the audience are seated, and one of the performers is addressing them, whilst a second appears on the point of entering from behind a curtain or tent-door on one side of the stage. These engravings [Aug: have somewhat the appearance of copper-plate impressions; and the latter one may be considered as highly valuable, on account of the scanty infor- . mation we have hitherto received re-> specting the interior architecture and arrangement of a Roman Theatre; and still more so, as there is reason to believe that some antiquarian remains of this nature did actually exist in Italy.. up to the period in question, which. have since been destroyed, or suffered to fall into total decay. But the most prominent feature in this curious volume still remains to be noticed. I allude to a vast number of small engravings, probably from wooden blocks, one or more of which accompanies almost every scene of every play. Although in point of elaborate finishing and detail, as well as in actual size, they are not to be equally esteemed with those in the celebrated Strasburg Terence and Horace, put forth by Grüninger some years earlier, yet in spirit and expression I doubt if they rank in any degree below those extraordinary productions. The names of the characters are engraved over the figures themselves; and we have frequently the curtain introduced in the back ground, through which faces are.. seen to peep, with an effect remarkably striking and expressive; as is the case in "Le Grant Therece en Francoys," printed at Paris, in 1539. It only remains to add, that the volume is on a folio size, containing 236 leaves, and that the printer's device is subjoined. The whole is arranged in the square Roman type, and with an accuracy and distinctness very unusual at this early period of the art. After all the pains I have in vain taken to discover another copy of this edition, or some other work from the same press, still I can hardly persuade myself either that the present copy is unique (since it is scarcely of antiquity enough to become so from that cause, and I know not what other reason could be assigned), nor can I readily imagine that any printer who had the means of publishing so expensive a work would be content with having only once distinguished himself. However this may be, I can gain no information on the subject, either from the books I have referred to, or from my own immediate acquaintance. If any of your Correspondents can throw light upon the subject, the investigation, I trust, 1825.] Rage for Improvements in a Parsonage-house. trust, will not prove unacceptable to It may be as well to mention, that the copy here described (which is tolerably fine as well as perfect) was lately procured from Germany at a price proportionate to its rarity and curiosity. Mr. URBAN, Aug. 12. SI look to you more than to all other literary men for sympathy, I cannot forbear communicating the following facts. Having very lately completed some repairs of my Parsonage-house, and reduced its contiguous grounds from a wilderness to a garden fit for the residence of myself and my family, I found rather more room in my study for all my books that used to fill it in the old house; this room adjoins the vestry of the Church, to which my parish officers are admitted on Sunday morning; at all other times it serves as a room in the house, and sometimes we breakfast there en famille. After an absence of three weeks, I returned home late on Saturday evening last; my son came in from All Souls but a few minutes afterwards, where he greeted me with the news that he had gone out first wrangler; we sat down together to supper, and I enjoyed peculiar gratification in seeing upon the countenances of my wife and daughters very agreeable smiles, which I ascribed wholly to their kind affections on seeing us both at home, and in good health and spirits; and as I had travelled with some diligence, that I might be ready for my duty in the morning, we all separated for the night, and I was better disposed for rest than for any preparations, which I therefore deferred until next morning at an early hour. As I went up stairs I perceived the girls whispering something with great earnestness to their brother, but it never occurred to me to take any notice of it at that time. I counted upon two hours at least before the service to turn over my stock, and to select my sermon. I had no sooner crossed the hall to the studydoor, than I found myself surrounded by all the party; and my wife put a new key into my hands, and the girls waited to see my surprise with no small expectation. When I entered the room, 125 I lifted up my hands to see the altera: tions which had been made in my short: absence. A Brussels carpet had been laid down instead of the old floorcloth, which I do confess had been worn out long since; the old rectorial chair, the venerable gift of its more venerable donor Archbishop Secker, in which many an abstruse text had been deeply studied, and many an unruly youth of either sex had been reproved, had given place to a square-armed red leather seat and back lounge, moving me away upon brazen castors. The old inkstand, which had served the vestry-room from the overthrow of the round heads, now disappeared, and a handsome silver standdish, with cat glasses, and wax taper; a small mahogany stand for my watch, and a letter bracket for "post and delivery," had insensibly found their way upon a single-claw mahogany writing table, too narrow to hold any other books than a red morocco cover for a quire of gilt-edged paper. I sighed to think that I could never study at such a table, or with such apparatus; but on lifting up my eyes in this ejaculation, I beheld all the old shelves removed that had held the whole body of divinity from the Reformation; and above them, alas, instead of the venerable Bezas and the Melancthons; the rectors of the parish in their almost sable grizzels and stiff bands; the cham-.. pions of orthodoxy down to the Horsleys and the Marshs; all these had given place to the more modern worthies of our Episcopal Bench in glazed mezzotinto-Moore, Horne, Vernon, Sutton, Barrington, Howley, Luxmore, Van Mildert, Andrewes, and Kay. But when I cast a hasty glance over the book-shelves, the strength of divinity which they had supported for centuries presented something very alarming to my distressed anticipations! for be it known and acknowledged, that, by force of time and diligent service, all the collection had well done their duty, and their covers were not only become dark brown, but many had lost their ancient red leather lettering. All the copies of Mosheim Du Pin, and Warner, could well correspond with the date of the remotest Ecclesiastical History. Josephus, Athanasius, Theodoret, and a train of carefully collected copies of the Fathersthe Homilies of the Church, and a grave set of Commentaries from Fuller to Hewlett, were all removed to the 126: Compendium of County History,Wiltshire. the dark shades of the room, because they did not correspond with the table, the chair, and the carpet; and in their places I discovered in gorgeous bind ings the Travels into all Nations, Maundrel, Cook, Clarke, Acerbi, Weld, and of every country except our own! My old Collection of Sermons, than which no other Clergyman could boast of so valuable an assortment, and from which I had been accustomed to serve myself most liberally without any fear of detection, (for there is no gallery in my church,) had all taken their flight to the upper shelves, quite out of my occasional reach, and which will oblige me to order from London a mahogany set of library steps; and their places were filled up with all the arrange ments of Dr. Drake's Essayists, Mrs. Barbauld's well-selected novels, with those of Sir Walter Scott, and his edition of Dryden; Johnson, Steevens, and Malone's Shakspeare; and Bell's Poets; Hume and Sinollett in morocco with gilt leaves; Robertson and Laing to correspond; and these being of the same size, superseded a course of Sermons and Holy Living of Jer. Collier, Wm. Sherlock, and his son the Bishop, Ogden, Balguy, Barrow, and Clarke. Indeed I found the Parish Register re-bound in purple Russia, with silver clasps. I did confess this marvellous change, and just as I had (Aug. begun my lamentations at seeing so' many old friends with new faces, my Churchwardens entered to congratulate my return, and my family hastily fled, clapping their hands, that I had not turned them out of doors. Now, my dear friend, let me assure you, that after the duties of the day were closed, I betook myself most seriously to consider how it would be possible to acquit myself next month, when I am appointed to preach the Visitation Sermon; for all my customary materials are so far out of my reach, that I mast suffer great fatigue in resorting to my venerable assistants, and my mind is now too much engaged with my new associates to prepare any thing suitable to my purpose; I am now continually afraid that I am quoting Clarke and Weld, instead of Paul and Stephen! The new system of chemistry, steam, gas, and phlogiston, have already seized upon my brain, and utterly exterminated Hooker and Pearson! I shall think myself very fortunate if my Sermon should pass unnoticed, and the Visitation clase without any censure of it from my Diocesan ; for I am certain that the rage for improvements, or the new mania which has seized all my family, has nearly conquered myself, and for ever shot the door to all my former ambition of obtaining an Episcopal Chair! A. H. COMPENDIUM OF COUNTY HISTORY.—WILTSHIRE. HISTORY. (Continued from p. 414.) "Heard ye the din of battle bray, Lance to lance, and horse to horse?" GRAY. 320. Cerdic laid siege to Banbury Castle, but was so completely defeated by Arthur, as not to be able again to take the field for seven years. 552. Kenric routed the Britons, and established himself at Old Sarum. 556. Kenric again defeated the Britons at Banbury, in consequence of which Wiltshire became incorporated with Wessex. 590. Ceolric rebelling against his uncle Ceaulin, completely defeated him at Wednesbury. 652. A severe battle fought at Bradford between Kenwalph, King of Wessex, and his kinsman Cuthred, in which the King was successful. 658. Cenwellus, King of Wessex, defeated the Britons at Pen. 695. A bloody battle fought at Great Bedwin between Wulfhere, King of Mercia, and Escuin, Governor of Wessex, in which the former was defeated. 821 or 823. Egbert, King of Wessex, fought a successful battle against: Beornwulf the Mercian, at Wilton. 853. Ethelwulf, on his return from an expedition against the Welsh, resided at Chippenham, where the nuptials of his daughter were celebrated. Some Historians write 675. 854. Ethel |