The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1855-10-08
Science and Art.

| , 1t has beon aseertapcd that in birmingham
England, not less than thousand ounces Of fine
goid are used weekly, equivalent to some 5000 COO
annually and that tho consumption of gold leaf in
sisnt manufacturing towns is equal to five hundred
ahd eghtyfour ounces weekly For gilding metals
1y eiectrotype and the water gliding processes not
ess thnn ten thousand ounces of gold are required
anhuaily A recent English writer states the con-
nption OF gold and silver at Paris at 1e 000
o.of francs. At the present time the consunir-
non ct fine gold and silver i'm Europe and the United
States Is estimated at $50, 600 annually.
NJ Roby, of Paris deposited in the great Exh;bi
soh, AT Paris. on the 22d August, where it was in
spected by the Queen and Prince Albert a time
piece made entirely Of clay. All the works plates
cogs and wheels arc made of aluminium: and NJ
hoby believes that it is much better for these pur
poses than tho metals generally employed. 1t is
ihuch lighter, does not require much power to
condnct the wheels, and, therefore, with a heavy
ba!ance, viii obtain better result of regularity
i, IL very hard and smooth when hammered, and
inc friction will be reduced to almost nothing.
Some of the effects of ignited gunpowdcr are
wonderful. When it is heaped up in the open air
ana nfiamed, there is report and but little effect
produced a small quantity open and ignited in a
room forces the air outward as to blow out tho
WINDOWS; but the same quantity confined within a
p'frei within the same room and ignited tears in
pieces and sets ON fire the whole house Count
fuinford loaded mortar with l-2Oth of an ounce of
powder and placed upon it "a Id. cannon he then
closed mp every opening as completely as possible
and firei the charge, which burst the mortar with
tremendous explosion and lifted up its enormous
weight. In another experiment he confined %
grains of powder in cylindrical space which it
Just filled, and upon being fired it tore asundcr
piece OF iron which would have resisted strain of
100000 pounds
Artificial granite is article prepared bv a
MIR. Parsons of Buffalo, On. y and of which much
is thought just now. 1t is made of common sand
mixed with slack lime i'll the proportions of ten to
one and subjected to pressure of one hundred tons
or more i'll 4 smooth steel mould The mass Thus
formed Is then suffered gradually to harden bv the
absorption OF carbonic acid from the atmosphere
until 1t carbOniZes and becomes 4 perfect granite
By another newly discovered process this granite
can be plated with marble so to present the two
compositions i'll one block This marbling is By
chemical combination of pure oxydc of calcium with
pulyerized carbonate of lime.
According to "The Leeds Mercury" Col Rawlin.
son has just discovered among the ruins of ancient
Babylon, an extensive library-not, indeed printed
on paper, but impressed on baked brcks-contain-
ing many and yOluminous treaties astronomy,
mathematics, ethnoogy and several other most i'm
portant branches Of knowledge. These treatiscs
contain facts and arguments which, in his opinion
will have no small operation on the study of the
sciences to which they relate, and indeed, on al
most every branch of learning, and which throw
great light upon Biblical history and criticism and
the history of our race.
1t was proved before one of the courts in New
York, recently, in examining into the cause of a
fire Ill Maiden Lane that colored fireworks take
fire by spontaneous combustion, unless properly
prepared at certain temperatures of the atmos.
pherc,