The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-11-16 00:00:00

" Grace me no Grace—nor uncle me no uncleF."

THE ACOEN.—If an acorn be suspended by a piece of
thread within half an inch of the surface of some water con-
tained in a hyacinth glass, and so permitted to remain with-
out being disturbed, it will, in a few months, burst and throw
a root down into the water, and shoot upwards its straight
and tapering stein; with beautiful little green leaves. A
young oak tree growing in this way on the mantel-shelf of a
room is a very elegant and interesting object. I have seen
several oak trees, and also a chesnut tree, thus growing; but
all of them, however, have died after a few months, probably
owing to the water not being changed sufficiently often to
afford them the necessary quantity of nourishment from the
matter contained in it.—Gardener's Gazette.

MINING AND MINERS.—The total ignorance of almost
every thing relating to the sciences of geology and minera-
logy, and, above all, of chemistry, in the conductors of mines
and their agents, is not only matter of regret, but, it can
hardly be doubted, is also the cause of much loss to the ad-
venturers in mines, to the lords of the soil. and to the buyers
of the ore. If a spirit of inquiry had existed, which some
knowledge of these sciences could not have failed to produce,
much cobalt would not have been thrown away upon the heaps
of Dolcoath, and some other mines; nor would bismuth in
Wheal Sparnon have been mistaken for cobalt; nor would
the roads have been mended with copper ore; nor would the
ponderous ore which contained silver, in Herland mine, have
been left to the chance that discovered its value • nor would
many miners, in opposition to the known principles and pro-
perties of mineral bodies, believe, even to this day, in the re-
generation of metals. While in France and Germany there
are national institutions for the education of those intended
to conduct the workings of mines in the three important
branches of science above alluded to, and which are so inti-
mately connected with their occupation, in this country all is
left to accident; and the rich girls which nature has bestowed
upon us are consequently often neglected, or lavishly thrown
away.—Geological Transactions.
DIALS OF CHURCH CLOCKS.—One considerable feature in
erecting church clocks, is the manner of constructing the
dials, many of which are made of copper; but these are now
found objectionable, so far as regards the cost, for if large
and hammered out of a single piece of copper of sufficient
strength, without being made very
'convex, they are exceed-
ingly expensive. The section of a copper dial is necessarily
elliptical; the consequence therefore is, that the sun takes
more effect upon the upper than the lower part of the dial,
and copper being, like other metals, a good conductor of heat,
and no absorbent, the paint soon perishes by the joint influ-
ence of sun and rain, especially on the upper half; and this
inconvenienee is often aggravated by a disproportionate in-
crease of convexity commonly resorted to in order to obtain
a certain degree of strength with an inadequate quantity of
material. Having of late made several large clock dials of
sheet zinc, I am convinced, if made of good malleable zinc,
and well managed, they will answer the purpose quite as well
as copper, and at not more than one-third of the expense.
But by far the best kind of dial is that made of the fine grit-
stone forminc, part of the building—stone being a better ab-
sorbent, and not so good a conductor of heat—therefore the
paint adheres better and lasts longer. Another advantage of
the stone-dial is, that the centre can be sunk, and the hour-
hand made to traverse in the hollow ; this alloys the minute-
band to lie closer to the figures, and the effect of parallax is
avoided, which on flat dials is considerable, especially when
the minute-hand lies near to 15 and 45 minutes. In the case
of brick buildings, economy might be considered, by making
the dial of mastic or roman cement, and the centre and figure
sunk as described. This sort of clock-dial would cost com-
paratively little, and would be very durable. In my opinion
the dials of many of the church clocks which are now made,
are much too small to have a good effect in showing the time;
and it is a curious fact that even the largest of them are con-
siderable smaller than the common run of public clock faces
formerly executed, and much smaller than the faces of the
public clocks which are made on the continent, particularly
in Italy. The dial in the Piazza de St. Marco, at Venice,
which is elevated 45 feet from the ground, is about 17 feet 7
inches diameter.—Abbott's Treatise on the Management of
Public Clocks: