VOL. 4.] Useful Arts.-Important Application of Steam. 121 The same important advantages will manship, and the arrangement of its be found in boiling and evaporating all appendages, are such as to obviate evekinds of vegetable, oily, or saline sub- ry danger from mismanagement, or stances; and any operation requiring a from its wearing out by long use. heat considerably above that of boiling The following vessels are attached water may be performed with certainty to the steam-boiler for boiling sugar and safety. It is particularly applica- and distilling rum :-Two clarifiers, ble to many chemical operations, and each holding 500 gallons. They are various other branches of business; placed at an elevation allowing of their such as soap-boiling, salt-refining, dy- being supplied with cane-juice from the ing, tallow-melting, chandling, &c. mill. The index cocks regulate the Then follows a description of the ap- heat admitted into the steam coils placparatus for boiling sugar and distilling ed at the bottom of the clarifiers ;— rum by the heat of steam :-the steam- there are likewise two cocks to carry off boiler may be placed in any small build- the condensed water. Large cocks ing adjoining either the boiling-house are inserted in the clarifiers to draw off or the still-house. It is represented in the clarified cane-juice into the grand an engraving accompanying Mr. Tay- evaporator. Openings with screwlor's pamphlet, as placed in the shed plugs are also provided to discharge the which covers the fire-places of the impurities which settle at the bottom of teaches,* &c. now generally used. the clarifiers, and render these vessels The fire-place of the steam-boiler, coneasy to clean. A scum funnel and structed to burn cane-trash, wood, or pipe is attached to receive and carry off coals, according to the situation in the scummings. The grand evaporawhich it is to be employed. The mer- tor, capable of containing 620 gallons. curial guage, which at the same time The index cock, by which heat is adshows the state of the steam in the mitted into the steum coil of the grand boiler, and provides for its escape long evaporator, and by whieh the rate of before it can attain a pressure which boiling is regulated. A discharging would incur risk. The safety-valve, valve, opened and closed with a lever through which any superfluous steam handle, empties the contents of the passes off. The float guage, indicating grand evaporator into the second evapthe quantity of water in the boiler, and pointing out when it requires to be supplied. A cast-iron box rivetted to the boiler, containing a perfect safetyvalve, which limits the pressure of the steam in the boiler, and is so secured as to be inaccessible to the workmen. ora or in a few minutes. The second evaporator, capable of containing 380 gallons, furnished with steam coil, reg. ulating cocks, scum-funnel, and a discharging valve with lever handle, by which the teache can be supplied with syrup. The teache, containing 145 The boiler may be supplied with gallons, provided with steam coil and water by a pump worked by hand or regulating cocks, by which the boiling attached to the steam-engine; or an of the sugar is completed. The sugar apparatus is furnished, if desired, which when boiled to its proper proof can be feeds the boiler without labour or ma- drawn off into the coolers by means of chinery. In either case, the water for a cock in the teache. this purpose is drawn from a cistern The whole of the apparatus is supplaced over the fire-flue at the end of the boiler; and, by returning the con- ported on a handsome and substantial densed water from the boiling and dis- frame work of cast iron, with steps and tilling apparatus into the cistern, heat platforms conveniently placed to get at and labour are œconomised. The principle on which the steam-boiler is constructed, the mode in which it is executed both as to material and work The name of the pans used for boiling sugar in the West-Indies. Q ATHENEUM. Vol. 4. the various vessels. Two stills, capable of working 500 gallons each, provided with copper heads, man-holes, and discharging cocks and index cocks, coils placed in the stills, and by adjust❤ by which heat is admitted to the steam 122 Proceedings of Public Societies-Stones from the Moon. [VOL. 4 ing which the rate of their working is liable to wear out. Their first cost and regulated. the expense of erecting them are much These stills may be used with a com- less than of those in present use. Lamon worm or with the patent refrigera- bour, fuel, and time, are most materialtor, by means of which distillation may ly œconomised by this mode of workbe carried on without requiring water ing. The quality and quantity of the for condensation, and with great con- sugar produced will be improved and omy of time, heat, and labour. increased. The flavour of the rum disThis apparatus takes very little room, tilled by the heat of steam will be finer and is not liable to be out of repair, and cleaner than that which has been the stills and refrigerator may be placed exposed to the action of fire. No subin distinct buildings, and yet be heated stance is more liable to be wasted or by the same steam-boiler. The fol- spoiled during its manufacture than sulowing advantages will be found to re- gar; and it is beyond the reach of art sult from the adoption of this appara- to remedy the most common injuries tus :-The vessels employed are not done to it. IN FALLING STONES FROM THE MOON. From the London Monthly Magazine, August 1818. ROYAL INSTITUTION. 'N Mr. Brande's interesting Lectures on Mineralogical Chemistry, he lately introduced the following observations on meteoric stones. We do not, however, agree with him in the theory of their origin, for many reasons; but we will name one of a couclusive nature viz. that, if they came from the moon, they could never fall beyond the parallel of twenty-seven or twenty-eight degrees of north or south latitude. The first tolerably accurate narration (says Mr. Brande,) of the fall of a meteoric stone, relates to that of Ensisheim, near Basle, upon the Rhine. The account which is deposited in the church was thus :-A. D. 1492, Wednesday, 7 November, there was a loud clap of thunder, and a child saw a stone fall from heaven; it struck into a field of wheat, and did no harm, but made a hole there. The noise it made was heard at Lucerne, Villing, and other places; on the Monday, King Maximilian ordered the stone to be brought to the castle, and, after having conversed about it with the noblemen, said the people of Ensisheim should hang it up in their church, and his royal excellency strictly forbade any body to take any thing from it. His excellency, however, took two pieces himself, and sent another to Duke Sigismund of Austria. This stone weighed 255 lbs. In 1727, 27th November, the celebrated Gassendi saw a burning stone fall on Mount Vaisir,in Provence; he found it to weigh 59lbs. In 1672, a stone fell near Verona, weighing 300lbs. And Lucas, when at Larissa, 1706, describes the falling of a stone, with a loud hissing noise, and smelling of sulphur. In September, 1753, De Lalande witnessed this extraordinary phenomenon, near Pont de Vesli. In 1768, no less than three stones fell in different parts of France. In 1790, there was a shower of stones near Agen, witnessed by Mr. Darcet, and several other respectable persons. And on the 18th of December 1795, a stone fell near Major Topham's house in Yorkshire; it was seen by a ploughman and two other persons, who dug it out of the hole it had buried itself in; it weighed 56lbs. We have various other, and equally satisfactory, accounts of the same kind. All concur in describing a luminous meteor moving through the air in a more or less oblique direction, attended by a hissing noise, and the fall of stony and semi-metallic masses, in a state of ignition. We have, however, evidence of another kind, amply proving the peculiarities of these bodies. It is, that, although they have fallen in very dif ferent countries, and at distant periods, VOL. 4.] Stones from the Moon-Power of Steam, &c. 123 when submitted to chemical analysis, assuming what is impossible; and the they all agree in component parts; the persons who have taken up this conjecmetallic particles being composed of ture, have assumed one impossibility nickel and iron; the earthy of silex and to account for what they conceive to be magnesia. another; namely, that the stony bodLarge masses of native iron have been ies should come from any other source found in different parts of the world, of than our own globe. the history and origin of which nothing The notion that these bodies come very accurate is known. Such are the from the moon, though it has been great block of iron at Elbogen in Bohe- laughed at as lunacy, is, when imparmia; the large mass discovered by Pal- tially considered, neither absurd nor las, weighing 1600lbs. near Krasnojark, impossible. It is quite true,that the quiin Siberia that found by Goldberry, et way in which they visit us is against in the great desert of Zahra, in Africa; such an origin; it seems, however, that probably also that mentioned by Mr. any power which would move a body Barrow, on the banks of the Great Fish 6000 feet in a second, that is, about river in southern Africa; and those three times the velocity of a cannonnoticed by Bruce, Bougainville, Hum- ball, would throw it from the sphere of boldt, and others in America, of enor- the moon's attraction into that of our bus magnitude, exceeding thirty tons earth. The cause of this projective in weight. That these should be of the force may be a volcano, and, if thus imsame source as the other meteoric stones pelled, the body would reach us in seems at first to startle belief; but, about two days, and enter our atmoswhen they are submitted to analysis, phere with a velocity of about 25,000 and the iron they contain found alloyed feet in a second. Their ignition may by nickel, it no longer seems credulous be accounted for, either by supposing to regard them as of meteoric origin. the heat generated by their motion in We find nothing of the kind in the earth. our atmosphere sufficient to ignite them, To account for these uncommon vis- or by considering them as combustibles, itations of metallic and lapideous bod- ignited by the mere contact of air. ies, a variety of hypotheses have been While we are considering the possisuggested. bility of these considerations, it may be Are they merely earthly matter fused remembered that, in the great laboraby lightning? Are they the offspring tory of the atmosphere, chemical changes of any terrestrial volcano? These were may happen, attended by the produconce favourite notions; but we know tion of iron and other metals; that, at of no instance in which similar bodies all events, such a circumstance is withhave in that way been produced, nor in the range of possible occurrences; do the lavas of known volcanos in the and that the meteoric bodies, which least resemble those bodies, to say no- thus salute the earth with stony showthing of the inexplicable projectile force ers, may be children of the air, created. that would here be wanted. This is by the union of simpler forms of matter. merely explaining what is puzzling, by INTELLIGENCE: WITH CRITICAL REMARKS. Τ LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL: From the London Monthly Magazine, Aug. 1818. IT has been our rare fortune, in the prog- it is our glory, in regard to several of them, ress of this miscellany, to be the harbingers that, in recommending them, we have often of the various important discoveries which, stood alone, and have generally been opposduring the last twenty-five years, have done ed by contemporary journalists, and not unhonour to the genius of man. Notwithstand- frequently by professors of science. We have ing the lofty pretensions of learned bodies now to announce another application of phiand societies, we have, with few exceptions, losophy to the arts of life, so pregnant with been the first to draw these discoveries from advantages, and so extensive in its purposes, obscurity, and exhibit to the world their as to threaten an entire revolution in the claims in a clear and popular manner; and economy and formation of our domestic es 124 Intelligence.-Power of Steam, &c. [VOL. 4 The The Oolite, or freestone, found at Bath, is very soft and porous, is easily penetrated by, ter. It has of late been formed into wineand absorbs à considerable quantity of, wacoolers and butter-jars, in place of the common biscuit ware, and, from the facility with mit of evaporation at the surface, it succeeds which the water passes through it, so as to advery well. But the most ingenious application of this stone is in the formation of circular pyramids, having a number of grooves cut one above the other on its surface; these hole made in the centre filled; salad seed is pyramids are soaked in water, and a small then sprinkled in the grooves, and, being sup plied with water from the stone, vegetate and, in the course of some days, produces a crop of salad ready to be placed on the table. The hole should be filled with water daily, and, when one crop is plucked, the seeds are brushed out and another sown. The number of persons executed for Forgery, in England, from 1790 to 1818, is 146! tablishments. In the Number for April last, er triumph of philosophy than philosophers we introduced the details of a system of themselves have ever contemplated. warming houses, by means of the steam generated in a small boiler, worked in any out- vented an instrument for freeing the shaft Mr. W. Aust, of Gray's-Inn Road, has inbuilding, and conveyed by pipes to hollow-borse when fallen with a loaded cart. sided cylinders placed in the rooms of a instrument consists of the simple addition house; and we stated in such clear terms the to the common props of the cart, of an iron advantages of this elegant mode of propagat- bar and hook, about half their length, attaching beat, that the work-shops engaged in the ed to the top of each prop, and a bent iron manufactories have had more orders than they can execute. prong at the bottom, to prevent their slipThe experiments made in the course of these erections have, howevping the props are strengthened with an er, determined a fact which cannot fail to iron ferule at each end. lead to a great extension of the system. It appears that steam, conveyed in pipes nearly half a mile in length, has suffered at the extremity no sensible diminution of heat; consequently, hot steam may be diffused for purposes of heating houses, in a radius from the boiler of at least half a mile; and perhaps even of two, three, or more miles. Here then is a principle by which heat may be conveyed from a public boiler or magazine, where it is generated, to any desirable distance; and thence may be conveyed into houses for the purpose of keeping the rooms at any temperature, just as gas for light, or water for culinary purposes, is now conveyed into them. We thus divest ourselves at once of coal or wood fires, of all their smoke, filth, and dangers; and also of chimnies, grates, and their accessories. In cost, the ratio is very high in favour of the heat of steam, as ten to one, and twenty to one, according to circumstances. In effective heat, in wholesomeness, in enjoyment, and in luxury, there can be no comparison. Thus a bushel of refuse coal and cinders, costing eight-pence or a shilling, will boil a copper for fifteen hours, and generate steam enough to keep ten or twelve rooms at a uniform and equally diffused temperature of sixty or seventy degrees. Of course it is the same whether these rooms are in one house, six houses, or twelve houses;* and hence the incalculable advantages of this application of steam. Houses, manufactories, schools, churches, hamlets, villages, cities, and even the great metropolis itself, may thus be heated from Mr. Birkbeck's Letters from the Illinois one or many boilers, or from one or many and benevolence as his former productions. are characterized by the same good sense stations, as may be most convenient. Smoke, the nuisance of towns, will thus at once be Nothing but courage to undertake the voyexterminated; because that which is gener- family, which is not quite devoured by taxes, age appears to be necessary to enable any ated at the public boilers may easily be consumed, or condensed. We thus also clear tythes, and high rents, to settle in social sesociety of the stigma and the crimes of chim-curity, as freeholders, in the most genial cliney-sweeping; and diminish the hazards The two last no country possesses in more enmate and most productive soil on the globe. and the horrors of those conflagrations which viable degrees than England; but, alas! the are as dangerous to our property as our lives. passions of wicked ministers, and of the borIn fine, we expect that these observations ough-faction, have destroyed the bounties of will, in due time, have the effect of render- Heaven. It remains to be seen, whether the ing Steam-heating Societies as general, as pop- unmanageable minority will be able to enular, and as lucrative, as Gas-lighting Socie- force a more just and rational policy, so as ties; and we hope, in consequence, to witness, in the universal success of both, a great- if not, then we fear the political liberty of to keep our industrious population at home: *It is proved, by experiment, that every su- the two Americas will draw from us our life's perficial foot of a metallic hollow cylinder will best blood, in hundreds, and even thousands, heat 250 cubic feet of air, at 60°, 70°, or 80°, of such nobles of nature as Mr. Birkbeck. as may be desirable. A cylinder, four feet All Europe, indeed, without an entire rehigh, and sixteen inches diameter, that is, hav- generation of its social and political system, ing sixteen feet on the inside, will therefore heat must, from the operation of the same cause, 8000 cubic feet of air, or a room thirty feet soon become a mere caput mortuum, like square and nine feet high. It appears, also, modern Greece, or Asia Minor. According that one small boiler will keep four such cy- to Mr. B. in this land of Canaan, land sells linders at 70° of heat; and, therefore, will heat at the rate of two dollars an acre; wheat is twelve rooms, that are eighteen feet square, and 3s. 4d. per bushel; and beef and pork 2d. per eight feet high. pound. The soil is fertile and easy of tillage Mr. Samuel Young's second publication of Minutes of Cases of Cancer, at the Cancer Institution, instituted by the late Mr. Whit bread, merit the notice of the entire body of the faculty; and to the afflicted they will recommend themselves. To the cases Mr. Young has added an appendix, containing a reprint of his valuable dissertation on the nature and action of cancer, with a view to a regular mode of cure, which was first published in 1805. VOL. 4.] Intelligence-British Agriculture, 1818. 125 Miss Thurtle's History of France, from the earliest Periods to the second Return of Louis XVIII,--is a book constructed with ability, for the use of young persons. M. de Chateaubriand's three first volumes of the History of France are, it is said, on the eve of publication. AGRICULTURAL REPORT, AUG. 1818. Harvest there is nothing to be deducted from the of the eye, this spring, a membrane covering Ibid. There are a number of modern Greeks pursuing their studies at Munich, Wurtzburgh, Gottingen, Jena, and other German Universities. At Wurtzburg, one of the students is son to a Prince of Epirus. They purchase many books to take with them to their native country; and great effects may, we think, be anticipated from this importation of enlightening literature, as well as from the acquisition of knowledge in the politics and science of Europe. LADY MORGAN is at present in London superintending the printing of her new work entitled" Florence Macarthy." It is another national tale, belonging, it is said, to present times and manners. Dr. Jacob, demonstrator of anatomy in the University of Dublin, has discovered and demonstrated in his lectures ou the diseases |