quor has been used, and continue the skimming also till the liquor comes up nearly to the boiling point: it is then to be drawn off and suffered to cool.

If the hides or skins be light, the pyroligneous acid should be weakened with as much water or spent liquor as acid: and in all cases the proportions of water and acid must be regulated by the weight or strength of the hides. They are to be handled every day till suffici. ently raised, and then they should be immersed into a pit of clear water, and remain in it one or two days. In order to bring the hides as nearly as possible to the color which is generally given to leather, they should be removed into a pit of strong ooze, or bark liquor, and be suffered to remain there for three or four weeks; or they may be put into two such leys three or four weeks, then they may be taken up and dried for sale. If the hides are very heavy, they must lie longer in the acid and in the bark-liquor.

A second method is this: after the bides are haired, limed, &c. and thoroughly cleaned; then we are to take spent bark, spent fustic, or spent shu mac, such as has had its strength drawn from it by the dyer, and put it, in proper proportions, into a pit, and mix it with pyroligneous acid, into which the hides are to be immersed: they are to be well handled every day, and on each succeeding one to be removed into a pit of water, to which is to be added a proportion of the spent fustic, &c. in the same proportion as that put to the pyroligneous or wood acid, taking care to remove the hides every other day, out of one pit into the other, and to stir up the pit well into which they shall be removed before the hides are put into it. These operations are to be continued for six or eight weeks, until the skins are sufficiently tanned. The acid may be used alone without any other article being added to it, or used with it only in the filtering or clearing it, and it will make very good leather. Heavy hides, not more than half tanned, may be taken out of the bark ooze and immersed in the pyroligneous acid, taking care to handle them well, and they will be tanned through in two or three weeks, after which they may be taken out of the acid and put into a pit with a layer of bark, and remain for two or three weeks in that state until they shall be completely tanned, and of a good color, when they may be taken up and diled for sale. A little bark should be

used after the hides are taken out of the acid, because it tends in some measure to take away the smell of the acid, and gives the leather a better color.

MR.

WILLIAM STRACHAN'S (CHESTER), for a Method of preparing the Ore of Cobalt for Trude, Manufacture, and Painting.

When the ore is taken from the mine, it may be partially freed from the silex and earthy matter with which it is generally combined, by a small pick-axe or hammer, after which it must be exposed to the action of the air, in order to free it from the moisture. A vessel of iron, or other metal, in the form of a boiler, is next to be provided, the bottom of which is to be perforated with holes, of which the size is to be from a quarter to three-eighths of an inch in diameter, and the number of these perforations is to be regulated by the strength and size of the vessel em ployed. A pestle is now to be provided, which is to be put into action by a steam-engine, or other mechanical power, taking care that the vessel is placed upon a strong wooden frame; and, for the purpose of receiving the pounded ore as it falls through the bottom of the vessel, a space must be left below, the square of which may be eighteen inches, and the depth one foot. The ore is to be put into the vessel and pounded until it passes entirely through the holes, after which it must be sifted through a fine® sieve, in order to separate the earth and sand from the ore; and, when ground very fine, the same operation of sifting must be repeated. The ore may now be considered in a fit state to tinge glass of a beautiful blue color, and, when more concentrated, may be used for making blue smalt.

The patentee mentions other methods of clearing the ore-1. By passing it through rollers of iron, &c. 2. By beating it upon a hard substance with a hammer or wooden beater. 3. By pressure. 4. By friction. In these me thods also the ore must be regularly sifted, cleaned, and otherwise properly prepared.

MR. JEREMIAH STEELE'S (LIVERPOOL),' for a new Apparatus, &c. for Distil ling and Rectifying Spirits.

This invention consists of an appara tus, combining two or more stills, to be heated by steam, and so connected to gether that the same steam will heat both, or all the stills, as the same time,

whereby

whereby two or more quantities of the
same, or different kinds of spirits, may
be distilled or rectified at the same
time. The spirits which arise from the
inner and outer stills, as well as from
different compartments, may either be
kept separate, or, by uniting the pipes
from the heads of the stills, be mixed
together, by which latter contrivance a
great advantage may be gained in some
processes of distillation. The method
of working the same is by applying
steam between the stills, by means of
which both, or all the stills, are heated
with the same steam, and at the same
time. Mr. Steele confines the inven.
tion, which he claims as his own, to a
combination of two or more stills, heat-
ed at the same time by the same steam
passing between them. By this method,
we are told, that nearly the same quan-
tity of steam that would be necessary
to work a single still, will perform the
work of five stills: and upon this prin-
ciple any increase which may be inade
in the number of the compartments,
will be attended with the same increase
in the number of the different kinds of
spirits that may be distilled or rectified.

WILLIAM EVERHARD, BARON VON DOOR-
NIK'S (WELLS-STREET), for an Improve-
ment in the Manufacture of Soup to
wash with See water, with hard Water,
and with soft Water.

This manufacture is thus effected:-one hundred bushels of crude or unprepared bones are reduced by grinding, &c. into a pulp, which is put into a shallow iron boiler, with the addition of 500 gallons of weak soap-lees; the mixture is to be kept boiling twenty-four hours, taking care that there is no adhesion of the substance to the metal of the vessel. When the boiling is over, the materials are to rest till the imperfectly soapy matter rises to the top, which is to be taken off, and put into a common soap-pan, and brought to the fair strength of soap, by the successive addition of lees, aud boiling and preparing as commonly practised. During the last process, "I add," says the baron, "ten hundred weight of calcined and pulverized bones, first mixed with, and left to macerate, for twentyfour hours, in about 1000 gallons of water, which I add altogether along with the said pulverized bones. And, after the said addition, I proceed to finish the soap in the common way, only taking care to make it very strong, and to keep it constantly agitated.

To make common soap, or soap to be used in washing with soft water, the

improvement consists in using the im
perfectly soapy matter, either wholly, or
in any required proportion, instead of
tallow, or such other materials as have
been heretofore used in the making of
soap. And, in the manufacture of the
said common soap, the patentee does not
add the macerated powder of bones, but
more or less of the several ingredients, as
oils, resins, &c. commonly used in mak
ing soap, in such proportions as the na
ture and description of the article in-
tended for the market may require.

MR. JAMES ADAM'S (PITKELLONY, IN
THE COUNTY OF PERTH), for a Method
of drying Malt and all Kinds of Grains
and Seeds.

This invention consists in the applica
tion of heat from steam which may be
most conveniently done by confining the
steam within chests or other kind of
vessels, on a floor of metal, pottery or
other substance or substances which most
easily transinit heat, and which, being
formed steam-tight, permit the heat
to pass through the same without any
steam or moisture; and that the malt
and other grain, being spread upon the
floor, is thereby dried in an equable, gen-
tle, and regular manner, and the degrees
of heat may be casily regulated by the
admission of more or less steam through
a cock, valve, &c. so that considerable
precision in the degree of heat given to
all parts of the floor may be always at-
tainable. The material most approved
by Mr. Adam for the floors is cast-iron
made in plates of suitable size and thick-
ness; these are to be joined together by
flanches on the under side, so as to leave
the floor smooth on the upper side, where
Below this upper
the malt or other grain is spread about
four inches thick.
floor may be placed either the hollow
cylinders, chests, &c. for receiving the
steam; and the steamitself will be produced
by a boiler of suitable dimensions, and
conveyed by pipes proper for the purpose.

The stean conducted by one or inore pipes may be introduced, at one or more places of the steam floor, chests, or hollow cylinders, as required, a place bring left therein, or raised therefrom with a pipe, to allow the air to go out while the stream is first admitted, and which may then be shut; and also a safety valve being provided therein, in case of sudden condensation, and a pipe or gutter being provided for carrying off the condensed steam, which may be either returned to the boiler, or let off at any convenient place by a cock, valve, or other contrivance.

THE

PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES.

THE ROYAL SOCIETY.
HIS illustrious Body has just pub-

tions for 1812, containing the following
interesting Papers.

1. On the Grounds of the Method which La Place has given in the second Chapter of the third Book of his Mécanique Céleste for computing the Attractions of Spheroids of every Description. By James Ivory, A: M.

2. On the Attractions of an extensive class of Spheroids. By J. Ivory, A.M.

3. An Account of some Peculiarities in the Structure of the Organ of Hearing in the Balana Mysticetus of Linnæus. By Everard Home, Esq. F.R.S.

4. Chemical Researches on the Blood, and

some other Animal Fluids. By William Thomas Brande, Esq. F R.S.

5. Observations of a Comet, with Remarks en the Construction of its different Parts. By William Herschel, LL.D. F.R.S.

6. On a gaseous Compound of carbonic Oxide and Chlorine. By John Davy, Esq."

7. A Narrative of the Eruption of a Volcano in the Sea off the Island of St. Michael. By S. Tillard, Esq. Captain in the Royal Navy.

8. On the primitive Crystals of Carbonate of Lime, Bitter-Spar, and Iron-Spar. By William Hyde Wollaston, M.D. Sec. R.S. 9. Observations intended to show that the progressive Motion of Snakes is partly performed by means of the Ribs. By Everard Home, Esq. F.R.S.

10. An Account of some Experiments on the Combinations of different Metals and Chlorine, &c. By John Davy, Esq.

11. Further Experiments and Observations on the Action of Poisons on the Animal Sys. tem. By B. C. Brodie, Esq. F.R.S.

From among these papers we have in the present month selected the Narra. tive of the Eruption of a Volcano in the Sea off the Island of St. Michael. By S. TILLARD, Esq. Captain in the Royal

Naty.

་་

Approaching the island of St. Michael's, on Sunday the 12th of June, 1811, in his Majesty's stoop Sabrina, under my command, we occasionally observed, rising in the horison, two or three columns of smoke, such as would have been occasioned by an action between two ships, to which cause we universally attributed its origin. This opinion was, however, in a very short time changed, from the smoke increasing and ascending in much larger bodies than could possibly have been produced by such an event; and, having heard an acCount, prior to our sailing from Lisbon, that in the preceding January or Fe bruary a volcano bad burst out within MONTHLY MAG. No, 230,

the sea near St. Michael's, we immedi ately concluded that the smoke we saw proceeded cause, and, on our

anchoring the next morning in the road of Ponta del Gada, we found this conjecture correct as to the cause, but not to the time; the eruption of January having totally subsided, and the present prior to our approach, and about three one having only burst forth two days miles distant from the one before, alluded to.

Desirous of examining as minutely as possible a contention so extraordinary between two such powerful elements, I set off from the city of Ponta del Gada on the morning of the 14th, in company with Mr. Read, the Consul General of the Azores, and two other gentlemen. After riding about twenty miles across the NW. end of the island of St. Michael's, we came to the edge of a cliff, from whence the volcano burst suddenly upon our view in the most terrific and mile from the base of the cliff, which was awful grandeur. It was only a short nearly perpendicular, and formed the margin of the sea; this cliff being as nearly as I could judge from three to four hundred feet high. To give you an adequate idea of the scene by description is far beyond my powers; but for your satisfaction I shall attempt it.

rising from the sea, the surface of which Imagine an immense body of smoke was marked by the silvery ripling of the breezes incidental to those climates in waves, occasioned by the light and steady summer. In a quiescent state, it had the appearance of a circular cloud rewolving on the water like an horizontal wheel, in various and irregular involu tions, expanding itself gradually on the lee side, when suddenly a column of the blackest cinders, ashes, and stones would shoot up in form of a spire at an angle of from ten to twenty degrees from a perpendicular line, the angle of inclination being universally to windward; this was rapidly succeeded by a second, third, and fourth, each acquiring greater velocity, and overtopping the other till they had attained an altitude as much above the level of our eye, as the sea

was below it.

"The great eruptions were generally attended with a noise like the continued fring of cannon and musquetry intermixed, as also with slight shocks of earthquakes, several of which having been felt by my companions, but none by myself, I had become half sceptical, and thought their opinion arose merely from the force of imagination; but, while we were sitting within five or six yards of the edge of the cliff, partaking of a slight repast which had been brought with us, and were all busily engaged, one of the most magnificent bursts took place which we had yet witnessed, accompanied by a very severe shock of an earthquake. The instantaneous and involuntary move ment of each was to spring upon his feet, and I said "This admits of no doubt." The words had scarce passed my lips, before y bserved a large portion of the face he cliff, about fifty yards on our left, using, which it did with a violent

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