linder at the other end of the axle, and in so doing connects the other two magnets with the battery, and they pull the next iron bar in the same manner. At the other end of the carriage there are other four magnets, and wooden cylinder, with iron bars arranged in the same manner.

The battery which is used for propelling the machine is composed of iron and zinc plates immersed in dilute, sulphuric acid, the iron plates being fluted so as to expose greater surface in the same space. The weight propelled was about six tons.

(We are glad to see that the value of the electro-magnetic agency, as a moving power, is at length likely to have a fair trial. The plan of Mr. Davidson is precisely the same as that of Captain Taylor, described in vol. xxxii. page 694; but it will no doubt be in the recollection of our readers, that Mr. Davidson claims to have adopted that plan before it was patented by Captain Taylor.-See Mech. Mag. vol. 33, pp. 53, 92.-ED. M. M.)

(MECHANIC'S MAGAZINE.)

PUFFING. Some may have imagined, in their simplicity, that Sheridan in the « Critic, had exhausted all the varieties of this multiform art, but experience shows that we had formerly much more imaginative puffers than the modern dramatists. Richard Brinsley never dreamed of a paragraph like the following extract from the bookseller's address to the reader, prefixed to the second part of Dr. Echard's Works, published in 1797and dedicated to the then Archbishop of Canterbury.

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And now, reader, tell me, art thou so void of all con, science, reason, and thy own benefit, as not to carry home this book? Read but five pages of it, spring and fall, and for that year thou art certainly secured from all fevers, agues, coughs, catarrhs, &c. Champ three or four lines of it in a morning, it scours and clarifies the teeth, it settles and confirms the jaws, and brings a brisk and florid colour into the cheeks. The very sight of the book does so scare all cramps, bone-aches, running gouts, and the like, that they won't come within a stone's-cast of your house.

« Hast thou a wife and children, and are they dear to thee? Here's a book for that dear wife and for those dear children, for it does not only sing, dance, play on the lute, and speak French, ride the great horse, &c.; but it performs all family duties. It runs for a midwife, it rocks the cradle, combs the child's head, milks the cows, turns the hogs out of the lays the cloth, grinds corn, beats hemp, brews, bakes,

sweeps the house,
corn, whets knives,
winds up the jack,

washes, and pays off servants their wages exactly at quarterday; and all this it does at the same day, and is never out of breath..

Were such an omnifarious work to be published in these days of comprehensive compendiums, it ought to be entitled, Every Body's every-thing Book. »

H

PROF. VIGNOLES' LECTURES ON CIVIL ENGINEERING. A DARK DAY.-An interesting account is given of a day of this sort, in North America, in a paper read at a late meeting of the Meteorological Society, by Major Stack. The darkness on the day referred to did not partake of the nature of cloud or smoke, but was a closeness in the air, which appeared to thicken, and to descend from above, till the bright noonday brilliancy was converted into darkness that might be felt. It came on between 11 and 12 a. m.; extreme darkness, half-past 1; at 5 p. m. it was sufficiently clear for persons to return to their occupations, as all labour was necessarily suspended, and the phenomenon soon disappeared.

or

METEORIC STONE.- Dr. J. Magill (of Cookstown) has communicated an account of a phenomenon that occurred in Harrowgate on the 5th inst., from which it appears that at five o'clock, p.m., during a heavy squall, accompanied by vivid flashes of lightening, from the south-east, some persons at work in draining the common in High Harrowgate, heard a hissing sound in the air, and almost at the same moment observed a dark object falling at a short distance from them, which, on examination, proved to be a large aerolite, meteoric stone, similar to those which fell a few years since near Cardiff. On examining it the following morning, in company with Messrs. Thompson, J. M'Caw, and J. Montgomery, they found it had the same appearance as the basalt of the Giant's Causeway, with this extraordinary difference, that it is interspersed with small particles of silver or flint, and what geologists term white Greek stone. The men who first saw it state that it was warm to the touch, but the Doctor doubts that such was the case. It weighs about half a ton.

BLASTING BY GALVANISM. The following is an extract from the letter of a Dunbar correspondent of the Edinburgh Evening Courant, dated September 19.- Mr. Lyon. of Glasgow, the contractor for the new harbour here, has lately introduced that wonderful agent, the galvanic battery, to aid him in his extensive blasting operations. Several explosions of considerable magnitude have recently taken place. The largest contained 60 lbs.of powder, distributed in five bores of great depth. The bores were placed so as mutually to assist each other, and the conducting wires so arranged, that the whole five were fired simultaneously by one battery. It was expected that by this method the effect would be much greater than exploding the shots singly, and the almost incredible quantity of rock thrown down showed the correctness of the anticipation, In another iustance, in order to throw down a part of the celebrated Castle of Dunbar, three bores (15 feet in depth) were run obliquely into the rock below the foundation. They were exploded together; and lifted from its bed, in one unbroken and compact mass, a body of masonry weighing not less than 150 tons. These experiments have been conducted by Mr. Robert Thomson, a young engineer in Mr. Lyon's employment.

PERMITTED TO BE PRINTED,

St. Petersburg, December 1st, 1842.

P. KORSAKOFF, CENSOR.

Printed at the Office of the Journal de St. Pétersbourg.

"

TO OUR READERS.

Having now arrived at the last number of our first year, we hope our readers will excuse our trespassing on their time in order to say a few words on the original project of this Review, stating how far this project has been carried into execution, and what ameliorations we hope to introduce in future: we will, at the same time, answer some objections which have been made to us by persons, not only capable of forming a sound judgment on a literary work, but also warmly interested in the future success of this publication; leaving those of that captious and crabbed class who can find nothing good, and are incapable of comprehending the difficulties we have to surmount, together with the ignorant and unlettered, to answer themselves as they best may.

As we announced when commencing publication, and when we solicited the patronage of the public, which we had the good fortune to obtain in so distinguished a manner, the principal object of the St. Petersburg English Review was to be a selection of the best and most popular articles, to be extracted from the periodical publications of Great Britain, embracing

VOL. IV.

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