Lancaster gazette. [volume] (Lancaster, Mass.) 1828-1830, 1828-04-22
THE MINUTENEss OF ATOMS.

thousand must be laid upon each other t
produce the thickness of an inch; We
those leaves are perfect or without holes
So that one of them laid upon any sur
face as in gliding, gives the appearance o
solid gold. They are SO thin, that, if form
ed into book, 1900 would occupy thu
space of single leaf of common paper
and an octave volume of an inch thick
would have as many pages as the books o
a well-stocked ordinary library of i5OC
volumes, with 400 pages in each. Still
thinner than this is the coating of gold
upon silver wire of what is called gold lace,
and we are not sure that such coating is
not only one atom thick. Platinum and
silver can be drawn into wire much finer
than human hair. A grain of blue Wit
riol, or carmine, will tinge a gallon of wa
ter 50 that in every drop, the colour may
be perceived. A grain of musk will scent
room for twenty years, and will have lost
little Of its weight. The carbon crow
smells its food many miles off. A burn
ing taper, uncovered for single instant,
during which it does not loose one thou
sandth part Of grain, would fill with light
a sphere of four miles in diameter, so as
to be visible in every part of it. The
thread of the silkworm is SO small that
many ofthem are twisted together to form
our finest sewing thread that of the spi-
der is smaller still for two drachms of it
by weight, would reach from London to
Edinburgh, or four hundred miles. In
the milt of Goldfish, Or in water in which
certain vegetables have been infused, the
microscope discovers animalcules of which
many thousand together do notaequal in
bulk a grain of sand and yet nature, with
a singular prodigality, has supplied many
of these with organs as complex as those
| of the whale or the elephant; and their
bodies consist of the same substance, or
atoms, as that of man himself. In sins
gle pond of such matter there are more
living creatures than of-human beings on
the globe. What scene has the micro
scope opened to the admiration of the
philosophic inquirer Water, mercury,
sulphur, or in general any substance, when
sufficiently heaten, risesas invisible vapour
or gas; that is, it is reduced to the eri-
form state. Great heat, therefore, would
cause the whole of the material universe
to disappear, and the most solid bodies
to become as invisible and as impapable
as the air we breathe. Few have con-
templated an humiliation of the world
more complete than this.-EnghSh paper.
WATER WORKS OF THE ANCIENT Ro-
MANS.
1t is an erroneous, but at the same time
a prevailing, opinion, that the ancient Ro-
mans were unacquainted with some of the
simplest laws of the motion and pressure
of water. This is however unfounded. as
Pliny informs us as general principle,
that, water conducted in pipes or tubes,
will always rise to the same height with
the fountain from which it flows. The
water was conducted by the Romans into
their buildings, either by channels con-
structed ofmasonry, or by means of wood
en- pipes, or even of earthen ware, and al
lowed descent of one foot in sixty for
the flow of water, which was admitted
into a reservoir, divided into the equal
compartments, after it had been brought
within the walls of the city; one to supply
the pools and fountains, second for the
baths, and third for the palaces and pri-
vate houses.
The pipes used by them were of lead,
about ten feet long, seven inches and a
half in the bore, and quarter Of an inch
thick. However, they. were very averse
to the use of leaden pipes, knowing them
to be of an unwholesome nature. They
were made of thin plates of lead, bent in
the form of a cylinder, and soldered at the
edges; casting, as practised at present,
was unknown. The supply of water was
regulated by the dimensions of the spouts
these were of twenty-five descriptions.
The standard spout seems to have been
about nine-tenths of an inch in the bore,
and its length about eight inches and
seven-tenths and if that was also the
height of the column of water, 1870 cubic
feet would be discharged in the space OF
twenty-four hours.
Judge Bacon, an ancestor of Lord B.
Count Verulan, before passing judgment
upon culprit, who had been convicted of
a capital offence, put the usual question to
him :-'Knosc you, or haze you any thing
to sag, why sentence Of death should not
be pronounced against you for the crime
Dhereof you stand convicted 2" The cul-
prit answered, that he hoped his lordship
would refrain from passing so cruel sem
tence upon one of his own relations. One
of my relations inquired the stern Judge
--Culprit how are you and ! related !
Why, my Lord, your name is Bacon and
my name is Hog ; and between hog and
bacon surely your lordship will recognize
a very near relationship. Indeed, retort.
ed the facetious Judge, there is resem.
blance; but YOU know that hog can neye,