The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-12-11 00:00:00

SCIENCE AND ART.

REAL CEUENT.—What a sad state we poor moderns
are reduced to in architecture. This morning, one of
the cement vases on a neighbouring house came to
pieces, and fell into the street in lumps several pounds
weight. If any person had been beneath, the conse-
quences might have been as fatal as the round shot or
shell at Sebastopol. There are several more vases up
in the same place. It is to be hoped they will not
come down in a similar manner. There are also vases
in Belgrave and other squares. Cement ! real cement !
But joking apart this cement work is the bane of us
weak and flashy moderns. Cement fronts, cement
columns, cement balustrades, cement cornices, and
cement vases ; the latter ready at any moment to fall
and break our heads. Pray take warning, gentlemen.
If we must have cement, life and limb at least ought
to be safe. A jury would give heavy damages against
the builder or owner of such cement abortions.—The
Builder.

CEMENT FOR WOOD AND METAL.—The following
cement (says Mr. Wentworth L. Scott, of the College
of Chemistry,) will unite porcelain, glf - and, as I
have lately found, iron and other meta,,,
most effectually. Two parts by weight of Portianu
cement, and the same amount of clean " silver sand,"
both sifted very finely, must be intimately mixed with
one quart of glass dust. This compound may be made
in quantity, and preserved for any length of time in
air-tight vessels. When required for use, it should
be worked up with a little of the clear serum of blood
(or white of egg, diluted with two-thirds of its bulk of
water), with every fluid ounce of which have been
previously incorporated twelve to fourteen drops of
white vinegar. It is better first to moisten the sur-
faces it is intended to unite, with this albuminous
menstruum, and then apply the cement, kneaded into
a thick paste with the same, than at once to employ
the latter, made of a much thinner consistency.
Whenever possible, the points of contact should be
made to dovetail into each other in some way, to
ensure a perfect junction; and where the surfaces
must be plain, they might be roughened with consi-
derable advantage. A good deal of cement should be
used, and every crack filled up, the superfluity being
squeezed out by strong pressure,.continued for forty-
eight hours. In about four or five days the junction
will bear hot or cold water and vibration with impu-
nity.—The Builder.
LAVA GAS-BURNERS.—The corrosion or rusting
and choking up of metallic gas-burners is an old
grievance, of which there has long seemed but little
chance of getting rid, unless, indeed, by the use of
some such unrusting metal as platinum or gold,—the
sulphur in ordinary gas rendering even the less costly
silver ineligible, though otherwise incorrodible. Some
one, however, appears to have at length hit upon, and
realised, the at least feasible idea of substituting a
stony, incombustible substance, which had already not
only passed through the fire, but had lived, as it were,
in, and been nourished and matured by, the fire itself,
as may be said of lava, above all other stony matter.
The gas-fitters and others are accordingly now, it
seems, in course of being supplied, with burners of
this description, made of a close-grained and firm

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lava, which admits of being turned, polished, and
bored, to the requisite fish-tail, batswing, Aror'mnd, or
other form, and either fitted with brass sockets, or
simply shaped in the material itself, for mere insertion
into the extremity of the branch-pipe or pendant.
They are only of recent introduction, but have now been
tested in the City, we are told, by nearly half a year's
constant use, without being either cleaned or touched,
yet continuing, all that time, to yield the same full,
clean, and well-shaped flame as at first, so as to be
still equal to new, and, in fact, it is said, rather im-
proved than otherwise by the action of the heat.
Should the idea thus prove to be as practically useful
as it certainly is feasible, metallic burners may at
length be dispensed with.--- The Builder.
METHOD OF PRESERVING FLOWERS.— Fill an
earthen, copper,or wooden vessel half full of sifted sand,
and then fill it up to the brim with clear spring water,
stirring the sand well with a stick so as to detach the
earthy particles. When the sand has thoroughly
settled itself pour off the turbid water, and continue to
wash the sand till all the water that runs on its sur-
face remains perfectly clear and transparent. The
sand being thus perfectly cleansed, expose it to the
heat of the sun a sufficient length of time to exhale
entirely its humidity. For every different kind of
flower you wish to preserve prepare an earthen or tin
vessel of a proper size. Make choice of the finest,
most perfect, and driest flowers of their respective
kinds, and be careful to leave the stalks of a good
length. Place them with one hand as lightly as
possible, upright in the vessel, about two inches below
the rim, taking care that they neither touch the sides
of the vessel nor each other. Then, with the other
hand, pour on them the purified sand till the stalk is
quite covered. This being done, slightly cover the
flower itself, separating the leaves a little the one from
the other. The tulip requires a further operation.
The triangular top which rises from the centre of the
cup must be cut off, by which means the leaves of the
flower will adhere better to the stalk. When the
vessel is filled with flowers leave it for a month or two
exposed to the rays of the sun, and the flowers when
taken out, though dry, will be very little inferior in
beauty to new-blown flowers, but will have lost their
seent.—Lady's Newspaper.
THE METROPOLITAN CATHEDRAL OF NOTBE DAME,
PARIS.—The first stone of the Notre Dame of to-day
was laid in 1163, in place of a more ancient church ;
but it was more than fifty years after that, namely,
-newhere about 1215, that the west front, as we now
see it, 'was commenced. About the, year 1223, it had
been carried up as high as the underside of the gallery
which connects the two towers. About 1257, the
front of the south transept was rebuilt to accord with
the western portion, and the two topmost storeys of
the towers belong also to that period. The erection of
the side chapels occupied the remainder of the century.
A more majestic specimen of the architecture of the
thirteenth century than this west front is not to be
found. It is at once severely grand and delicately
beautiful. In mass it is overwhelming, in detail
charming a grand monument, and a marvellous
story-book in stone ! The building was much muti-
lated at the beginning of the eighteenth century by
those who desired to improve it, and more so under
Souffiot, the well-known architect, in 1771, Who even
destroyed some of the extraordinary sculptures in the
central, doorway of the front. In 1793, the time of
trouble, the destruction of all the effigies of kings was
ordered, and was only prevented by the readiness of
one lover of the arts in the fanatical band, who declared
that the astronomer Dupuis had discovered the plane-
tary system in one of the doorways of the church : and
so forthwith Dupuis was added to the administration
of public works, in order that he might preserve the
monuments worthy to be left for posterity : and thus
the statues that remained were saved. The doorways
contain an immense amount of curious sculpture, dis-
posed in six concentric receding orders around the
openings, and in the space between the horizontal
doorhead or transom and the outline of the arch. The
wooden doors are covered with very elaborate wrought
ironwork. The Abbe Sauval, in his " Antiquities of
Paris," says this ironwork was executed by Biscornette,
a famous smith of the sixteenth century. " The iron
of the doors," says Sauval, " has been admirably bent
(roule') by Biscornette. The sculpture, the birds, and
the ornaments, are marvellous : they are made of
wrought iron, the invention of Biscornette, which died
with him. He- melted (Condoit) the iron with an

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almost incredible industry, rendering it flexible and
tractable, and gave it all the forms and scrolls
(enroulentents) he wished with a douceur et tine
sentilesse which surprised and astonished all the iron-
workers." Full of romance and poetry is this sugges-
tive old building. The history of Paris is associated
with its venerable aisles, and Quasimodo looks out
from the belfry window.—The Builder.