Sir, To corroborate my statements made in one of your late numbers respecting" railway mileage," I subjoin those sections of the "London and Birmingham Railway Act," that appear to have been, either misunderstood, or overlooked.

"Section 171. And be it further enacted, that all persons shall have free liberty to pass along and upon, and to use the said railway, with carriages properly constructed, as by this act directed, upon payment only of such rates and tolls as shall be demanded by the said company, not exceeding the respective rates or tolls by this act authorized, and subject to the rules and regulations which shall from time to time be made by the said company, or by the said directors, by virtue of the powers to them respectively by this act granted.

"Section 173. And be it further enacted, that it shall be lawful for the said company to demand, receive, and recover, to and for the use and benefit of the said company for and in respect of passengers, beasts, cattle, and animals conveyed in carriages any toll not exceeding the following: (that is to say,)

"For every person conveyed in or upon any such carriage, the sum of two pence per mile. For every horse, mule, ass, or other beast of draught or burthen, and for every ox, cow, bull or neat cattle, conveyed in or upon, &c. &c. &c. 14d. per mile. For every calf or pig, conveyed in or upon &c. &c. d. per mile. For every sheep, lamb, or other small animal conveyed in or upon &c. &c. d. per mile.

"For every carriage of whatever descripnot being a carriage adapted and used for travelling on a railway and not weighing

more than one ton, carried or conveyed on a truck or platform the sum of four pence per mile.

"Section 175. And be it further enacted, that it shall be lawful for the said company, and they are hereby authorized to convey upon the said railway all such passengers cattle and other animals, goods, wares, &c., merchandize, articles, matters, and things, as shall be offered to them for that purpose, and to make such reasonable charges as they may from time to time determine upon, in addition to the several rates or tolls by this act authorized to be taken; provided always that it shall not be lawful for the said company, or for any persons using the said railway to charge for the conveyance of any passenger upon the said railway any greater sum than the sum of 34d. per mile including the rate or toll herein before granted.

[By Sections 180 and 181, the company are allowed to reduce tolls but not to reduce them partially in relation to persons or things.]

"Section 216. And be it further enacted, that in all cases on which the said company of proprietors shall carry for their own profit any passengers, cattle, or other animals, goods, wares, or merchandize, articles, matters or things, a separate accompt shall be duly kept, shewing the amount of rates or tolls which would have been received by the said company for the use of the said railway in respect of such passengers, cattle or other animals, goods, wares, or merchandize, articles, matters or things if carried by any other party or parties; and the overseers of the poor of the several parishes and townships through which the said railway shall pass, shall have free access to, and liberty to inspect the same at any times during the first fourteen days in the months of February and August in each year."

I am, Sir, your's &c.

CHRIS. DAVY.

NOTES AND NOTICES.

Comparison of Speed.-The comparative speed per second is, of a man 4 feet-a horse 12-a rein-deer 26 -a race horse 43-a hare 88-agood ship 19-the wind 82-a cannon ball 1,800. The comparison says the Railway Times, might, we think, be carried with advantage a little further. A railway steamer, travelling at the ordinary rate rate of 30 miles an hour, performs 44 feet per second, which is eleven times the speed of the man walking, nearly four times that of the good horse, twice that of the rein-deer, and only about one-half less than the swiftness of the wind itself. But man, horse, aud rein-deer, all become soon exhausted-even Boreas is sure to "crack his cheeks" before long; while the railway steamer is as fresh and strong at the end of a long journey as at first starting. Miles to it are but as

paces to others. A racer, such as the Flying Childers, might possibly rival the steamer for the last half of a single mile heat; but we know a Firefly that would do more miles in one day than 360 Fiying Childerses. Again, a racer doing one mile in two minutes, and no more, can but carry a feather weight for that brief time and distance, while the steamer could draw the Grand Stand, and half the sporting world along with it, from Doncaster to Newmarket, and thence to the Hippodrome in one day.

Projected Improvements at Deal.-Strenuous exertions are to be made this summer for the revival of the prosperity of Deal, a town which has been in a declining state ever since the return of peace. The principal improvement projected is the erection of a commodious pier, giving every facility for landing and embarking, with a view of attracting some part of the shoals of Londoners, who at present get no further than Margate and Ramsgate, in their summer pleasurings. Arrangements have been made with the Commercial Steam Navigation Company, for running a packet daily to and from the metropolis, as soon as the pier-which is to be of wood-is ready to accommodate the passengers. By these means Deal hopes to recover some of its importance in the scale of towns, and commence a race with its neighbour Dover, which has sprung up into consequence as a watering-place within these few years, aided not a little, it must be acknowledged, by local advantages and poetical associations of which Deal cannot boast. Deal has indeed a castle, but she possesses no "Shakespeare's Cliff;"-nor perhaps will Dover ere long, should the South-Eastern Railway Company continue operations on the scale they have begun upon.

The Prepared-Charcoal" Stove.-The question as to the healthfulness of the prepared fuel burned in the new stove, whose exhibition at the Jerusalem Coffee-house and the principal scientific societies of the metropolis has excited so much attention, will soon be set at rest. The patentees announce that they are now ready to supply the demands of the public; so that the new wonder will soon be brought to the test of experience, which has proved fatal to so many wonders of the kind. We shall give an engraving and description of the stove next week. The inventor, Mr. Joyce, has just taken out a second patent, for further improvements in the apparatus.

Subterranean Travelling.-The line of railway between Lyons and St. Etienne, the largest manufacturing town and richest coal district in France, is only thirty-four miles in length;-yet, such is the unevenness of the country, and so great has been the anxiety of the engineers to preserve as complete a level as possible, that there are actually no less than twenty tunnels between the two termini! One of these is a mile in length, while another, which is half a mile long, is carried under the bed of a river which crosses the line.

Wonderful Changes.-The Swedish City of Gottenburgh is built principally of stone from Aberdeen, and it is a well-known fact that the dust-heap which was wont to grace the top of Gray's Inn Lane, is now a component part of the city of Moscow, to which it was exported as a material for brick-making, after the conflagration of that city. Greater changes than these are daily brought about by our extended commerce. The first mile out of London of the Kingsland Road is actually mac-1 adamized with Chinese stone; a fact which appears incredible until it is explained that the material was brought over in the shape of ballast in the ships

of the East India Company, and disposed of to the road-contractor (who little cared how far it had come) at a cheap rate. In return for this, it is said that the Chinese are indebted for a part of the ma terials for their porcelain to the English ships, which take out in a similar way the fine chalk of Northfleet and its neighbourhood, which is found to be particularly well suited for the purposes of the manufactures of the Celestial Empire.

The Rocket Safety Apparatus.-A Mr. Gyngell made experiments on the Green near Brecon, with some rockets of his invention for communicating with stranded vessels. He discharged several rockets of different weights. The rope was coiled on a cone formed of light rails of wood, and was carried out the distance of from 3 to 5 hundred yards according to the size of the rocket attached to it. The 2lb. rockets carried nearly 300 yards, and one 6lbs. conveyed the rope a distance of 500 yards, into the fields over the river Usk. Mr. Byers, of Swansea, in a letter on this subject which we inserted a few weeks since, remarks that if rockets could have been obtained at the time of the wreck of the Killarney Steamer, a number of lives might have been saved and the survivors would have been delivered from their dreadful sufferings. He also adduces another case in which they would have been of great service -that of a small vessel seen in distress off the Steep Holmes, by the Lady Charlotte steamer, but after the most strenuous exertions was obliged to proceed on her voyage without being able to effect an approach. It is very seldom that an instance occurs of a vessel striking on a lee shore a greater distance than a quarter of a mile from land; a convict ship was lost about three years since off Boulogne, within 400 yards of the shore, and more than 200 lives were lost. We need hardly point out the utility of the rocket in such cases, and we hope that ere long no vessel will leave port without being provided with this simple and cheap apparatus, the outside cost of which does not exceed 21.; indeed we do not see why the legislature should not make it compulsory.-Silurian.

English Linens in France.-The French manufacturers complain bitterly of the great increase wbich has taken place of late years in the importation of English and Irish linens and linen thread, and call loudly on their government for a higher rate of duty on the foreign goods. It appears from their statements that the quantity has increased upwards of two hundred fold between 1831 and 1837, and that the value in the latter year amounted to something more than seventeen millions of francs, or over seven hundred thousand pounds sterling!

A plan for copying the outline of mouldings, &c., similar to that with which Mr. Heineken has favoured us, was published in our fifth vol. p. 57. Errata.-Page 4, 2d column, 19th line from top, for importent" read "impotent;" page 6, first column, 15th line from top, after the word "of," supply the following omission:-" those on board, which ended in the discovery of" flames issuing,&c.; page 5, 2d column, 17th line from top, for "striking" read "strikingly."

Mechanics' Magazine, Complete sets.-The proprietor of the Mechanics' Magazine has now effected the repurchase of the earlier portions of the stock of this journal from the parties who were possessed of the same in the right of his first publishers; and he is now able to supply several complete sets of the work. Price, twenty-seven volumes, half-cloth, £11 78.

HARPER AND JOYCE'S STOVE.

66

We give on our front page an engraving of this much-talked-of stove, though we can add but little to the information of which our readers are in possession with respect to it, the specification of the patentees not having been as yet enrolled. A correspondent ("Honestas") very fairly expresses some surprise that the Monthly Chronicle, from which we extracted the laudatory notice of this invention inserted in our Journal of March 17, No. 762, did not in its last number contain any thing on the subject, although the said stove has been on sale for some time, and consequently, the writer of the article (Dr. Lardner?) might have had it in his power to speak from actual experiment, which it appears he had not, when he penned his first notice." Our correspondent expresses also a very reasonable desire to know, whether "any experiinent has been made with the stove by persons capable of passing a sound judg ment upon its merits, and in particular with respect to the gases evolved by the combustion of the (said to be) prepared fuel." The words we have marked in italics point to what we apprehend will be found to be the great-perhaps fataldrawback on the value of this invention.

It is not a little curious, however, that the correspondent who guesses so shrewdly where the defect of this stove lies, happens to be the same gentleman who lately quarreled with us for objecting, chiefly on the same ground, to Dr. Arnott's. Both of these nine days' wonders" seem to us to be more or less faulty on this score. In a printed explanation which Messrs. Harper and Joyce furnish along with their stoves, some paragraphs from which we subjoin, they assert that "it is smokeless and gives out neither smell nor vapour." Now this we can, of our own knowledge, attest not to be the fact. When we visited their shop and inspected the stove kept burning there, we felt instantly sensible of the escape of carbonic acid gas from the stove; and to remove all doubt on the point, we requested permission to test the vapour issuing from the dome, but this was declined-for what reason we leave our readers to judge. For our own parts, we would not, after this, sleep with one in our bedchamber for one night for ten times the sum we have heard mention

ed as having been offered to the patentees for the invention.

The engraving on our front page is a perspective view of the stove with a part of the side removed to show the interior. A, is the body, consisting of a metallic cylinder. B, a tube for the admission of air to the fuel to support combustion. C, an inverted cone placed on the top of the tube B, perforated with holes round its sides, whereby the air is carried to the centre of the burning fuel. E, a circular regulating valve, by which the egress of the hot vapour into the interior of the dome D is controuled. The dome D is perforated with holes to allow of the escape of the hot vapour into the atmosphere. Fig. 2 is a ladle for supplying. the preprepared fuel in an ignited state, as mentioned in the subjoined extract from the circular:

Extract from Messrs. Harper and Joyce's Circular.

This Apparatus is simple and economical, and possess the following advantages over all other stoves.

1. It feeds itself.

2. It is smokeless and gives out neither smell nor noxious vapour.

3. It is perfectly portable, and can be placed on a table or side-board, or may be suspended, as most convenient.

4. It throws out no dust whatever.

5. Nothing which may come into contact with it will burn.

6. It will continue burning from twelve to forty-eight hours, or longer if required. 7. During that time it does not require any attention whatever.

Its treatment is as follows:-If a single cylinder, place a ladleful of the fuel on any fire, and when it arrives at a red heat, which will be in three or four minutes, take off the lid of the apparatus and place the heated fuel at the bottom; then fill the apparatus to its top with the cold fuel, and replace the lid, leaving the regulator raised to its highest point till the temperature of the room be increased to the degree desired; then lower it about two-thirds of its length, and the same temperature will be preserved so long as the machine shall be in action.

Should it not be convenient to heat the ladle of fuel at a common fire, another ladle may be used of a slightly different construction, in the bottom of which place paper or shavings, and two or three small pieces of wood, and a handful of fuel on the top; and then light the shavings and wood and put the ladle in the draught of the fire place or out of doors, and it will arrive at a red heat

in three or four minutes as before. Care must be taken not to light any fuel, but that prepared, because of the noxious gas and bad smell of all other. A small vessel to contain water will accompany the apparatus if desired; the heat causes the water to evaporate slowly, and supplying the air with a moderate moisture, remedies the too great dryness so generally complained of in close stoves. This vessel requires only to be filled when the apparatus is loaded.

When all the fuel of one loading is consumed, it will be necessary to reverse the apparatus in order to displace a trifling quantity of ash which remains, and which, if allowed to accumulate, might in some degree check the free burning of the fuel.

In the double cylinder the treatment is the same with that of the single, except when the apparatus is large, and then, for convenience, the inner cylinder will be made so that it can be taken out to be loaded as above and then replaced.

In the more common sort of apparatus for cellars, &c., no reversing is necessary when a charge of fuel is consumed. A small receiver will be fixed to the bottom, and in it a door, through which the ash that falls into this receiver may be raked out. But when this sort of apparatus is re-lighted, it will be advisable to place over the holes in the bottom of the cylinder, pieces of fuel a little larger than the holes in order to prevent the fall of any of the ignited fuel which is first put in, into the hot receiver.

As soon as Mr. Joyce's specification is inrolled we shall inform our readers of the method of preparing the charcoal, and correct any inaccuracies into which we may have fallen; unless we are previously enabled so to do by the inventor or some one acquainted with the details of the invention. We understand that none of the most approved construction of stoves have yet been manufactured.

THE INDIA STEAM NAVIGATION
COMPANY."

Sir,-Among the thousand and one new companies of the day the "India Steam Navigation Company" is not the least conspicuous. Its object is to establish a communication by steam with our Indian possessions, by the well known and long-used route of the Cape of Good Hope, instead of that by the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, on which the line of steam vessels supported by government and the East India

Company has at length been established. The chairman of the company is no less a personage than Sir John Ross, the commander of the last North-polar Expedition; and the advantages of the proposed scheme are set forth, under the sanction of his name, with no lack of ingenuity and attractiveness. According to the prospectus, the voyage from Plymouth to Point de Galle, in the island of Ceylon, is to be effected in fifty days, the vessel stopping to take in fuel only at one intermediate station, which, it is proposed, shall be Saldanha Bay, in the Cape of Good Hope territory. The steamers are to be of gigantic size, to carry a large quantity of goods, as well as passengers, and that at so high a freight, in consequence of the certainty attending their transit, as to pay a dividend of nobody-knows-how-much per cent. to the fortunate shareholders, on the subscribed capital of no more than half-a-million sterling,-backed, however, by another quarter of a million to be raised in India!'

All this looks very well on paper, but it is to be feared the " reverse of the medal" would be but too apt to show itself when the plan should be reduced to practice. Above all, the probability of reaching Ceylon in fifty days seems exceedingly problematical,-to say the least of it. Messrs. Seaward, who may be presumed to know as much of the matter as Sir John Ross himself, and who are enthusiastic advocates of the line of the Cape of Good Hope, in preference to that of the Red Sea, calculated upon the voyage to India occupying seventy days, and never ventured to anticipate, as the New Company do, running the whole of the distance at a quicker rate than the fastest Scotch steamers are able to maintain in their short voyages round our own coast, "with all appliances and means to boot." It remains to be proved, also, whether it will be practicable to perform the distance from England to the Cape, and the Cape to Ceylon, without once halting for coals. The Company are apparently aware that some doubt will be felt on this point, for they hasten to assure the public that they are not dependent for success on the ordinary means at present in use, but that they have secured the "exclusive right" to an invention which throws all existing marine steam machinery into the shade.