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Page 8
ARCANA OF SCIENCE.
* * * * *
_Polar Expedition._
It is known by the experience of all former voyages to the arctic
circle, that towards the end of the season, in consequence of the heat
radiating from the lard, the ice is detached from the shores of these
seas, and floats southward. Ice, therefore, does not detach from other
ice, but from the coast. Taking this principle with us, when we find
that our expedition traversed a surface of some hundred miles, we
conclude, whatever was the extent of that mass drifting south, it must
have left an equal extent of open water in its original place in the
north. We also infer, that there must be land at the north pole, from
which this body was separated; and that if it could have been entirely
crossed, Captain Parry and his companions would have found a clear sea
for the boats, and had little difficulty in reaching Polar
Land.--_Literary Gazette_.
_Pemecan._
This substance (mentioned in our recent abstract of the Polar Expedition
as part of the provision for the crew) consists of meat prepared in the
same way that the Indians prepare their provision of buffalo or deer.
The flesh, _beef_ in this case, is cut into stripes, and dried by
the smoke of wood. It is then beaten into a powder, and an equal
proportion of fat being melted, the whole is mixed up together into a
solid mass. It is evident that more of real sustenance from animal
matter cannot be combined in any less bulky or burdensome compound. It
makes an excellent and very nutritious soup.
_Egyptian Architecture._
It is somewhat surprising, that among the crowd of novelties, and
very especially of attempts to depart from the received models of
architecture, the _Egyptian_ has not taken its share. It is true
that some very partial attempts have been made; in the metropolis, we
believe, not exceeding two; and if we add to these a school recently
erected at Devonport, a mausoleum at Trentham for the Stafford family,
and an iron-manufactory now erecting in Wales, we have probably
enumerated the whole. Such as the examples have been, they have not
spread; and, indeed, we may say, that they have scarcely attracted any
notice, whether for good or evil; though the publicity and singularity
of aspect of the most accessible specimen in Piccadilly might have at
least been expected to distinguish it, in the general eye, from the
buildings by which it is surrounded. As to the public, we find no
difficulty in accounting for this. This style has not been pointed out
to them, and they have not been desired either to admire or dislike it.
Why the architects have neglected it, they must themselves explain,
since we believe there have been but two in that profession who have
been concerned with the buildings to which we have alluded, the last
named of these being an attempt of a dillettante in the art. As to the
specimens where it has been thought fit to introduce the Egyptian window
or doorway in churches of a Greek design, we consider the attempt faulty
and censurable. This is a false and misplaced ambition after novelty,
which marks far too much of what has recently been effected in our new
churches.--_Westminster Review._
_Coinage._
Coins are generally completed by one blow of the coining-press. These
presses are worked in the Royal Mint by machinery, so contrived that
they shall strike, upon an average, 60 blows in a minute; the blank
piece, previously properly prepared and annealed, being placed between
the dies by part of the same mechanism. The number of pieces which may
be struck by a single die of good steel, properly hardened and duly
tempered, not unfrequently amounts at the Mint to between 3 and 400,000.
There are eight presses at the Mint, frequently at work ten hours a day,
each press producing 3,600 pieces per hour; but making allowance for
occasional stoppages, the daily progress of each press may be reckoned
at 30,000 pieces; the eight presses, therefore, will furnish a diurnal
average of 240,000 pieces.--_Quarterly Journal._
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