The we observe in the draught of a grate, the boreas of the north, the hurricane of the tropics. The expansion of air by heat is the propelling force, and the advantages of using this force we will state. great advantage is ECONOMY-economy of money, space, time, and human life. A caloric engine costs one-third less than a steam-engine. It occupies one-third less space. It requires only a sixth as much fuel; the "Ericsson," with an engine of six hundred horse-power, consuming but six tons of coal in twenty-four hours. The very best fuel for the caloric engine is that which Americans have in the greatest abundance, namely, anthracite coal. There is no smoke from the chimneys. The engine-rooms are cool. The action of the engine ventilates necessarily the whole ship, from the keel to the deck. The vessel moves with scarcely any jar or noise. There is absolutely no danger from the engine whatever. The furnaces can be replaced without removing a boiler. Every part of the engine is easily accessible. Only one fireman and one engineer need be on duty at the same time, and even they have little to do; nor can any degree of carelessness on their part endanger the ship. As there is very little friction in the working of the engine, it will last longer than the ship itself. In short, a caloric ship is a steamer with death cast out of it-the millenium—a gentle, safe, and quiet craft, that will go silently yet swiftly over the waves, as poets and Swedenborgians imagine a celestial bark may course her way through space, from sphere to sphere, bearing beatified immortals on errands of love. A few particulars of the life of the distinguished projector may be interesting, now that his name is so prominently before the scientific and commercial world. Mr. Ericsson was born in the province of Vermeland, Sweden, in 1803. He showed a strong taste for mechanics when quite young, and at the age of eleven attracted the attention of Count Platen, who procured him the appointment of cadet in a corps of engineers, and, in 1816, he was made nivelleur on the grand ship canal between the Baltic and the North Sea. From his associations with military men, he acquired a taste for military life, and entered the Swedish army as an ensign,—a step which lost him the favour of his patron, Count Platen. In the army, he rose to the rank of lieutenant, and shortly after his promotion he was employed for some time in the survey of northern Sweden. In the meanwhile he devoted much of his time to his favourite speculations in mechanics, and projected his flame engine, one of the earliest of his inventions, an engine intended to work independently of steam, by condensing flame. În 1826, he obtained permission to visit England, where he hoped to bring his invention into public notice; but he soon discovered that, when the engine was worked by mineral fuel, the experiment was a total failure. He was not discouraged, however, and in 1829, he competed for the prize offered by the Liverpool and Manchester railway for the best locomotive, and produced an engine that attained the then incredible speed of fifty miles an hour. Since his residence in the United States, Mr. Ericsson has been the author of many inventions which have made his name familiar to the public. Ecricsson's propeller, semi-cylindrical engine, centrifugal blowers, besides some improvements in managing guns, were applied to the steamer "Princeton" with successful results. In the American department of the Great Exhibition, he exhibited a distance-instrument, for measuring distances at sea, the hydrostatic gauge, for measuring the volume of fluids under pressure, the reciprocating fluid meter, the alarm barometer, the pyrometer, the rotary fluid meter, and the sea lead, of all which instruments he has given a “brief explanation," in a pamphlet published in 1851. The invention, however, which has lately attracted most attention is, the caloric engine, intended to supersede the use of steam. Mr. Ericsson first brought this remarkable invention before the scientific world, in London, in 1833, when he constructed an engine of five-horse power, and exhibited it to a number of scientific men in the metropolis. But although it met with the approbation of many distinguished men, there were many who pronounced against the feasibility of the scheme; and the English Government, which at first seemed inclined to give the matter their attention, immediately let the subject drop. An experimental trip of the " Ericsson" has already been made with many conflicting opinions, as to the speed and general appliances of the vessel; but we may safely predict that this truly wonderful invention, is but the commencement of a new era in the art of navigation. We have seen how the subject has been received in America, and the result is a magnificent vessel of 2,200 tons on the caloric principle, launched upon the waters, and intended to solve one of those grand problems of science, which are destined to influence the ever-changing features of the world we inhabit. ORIGINS AND INVENTIONS. CHERRIES. Cherries were first planted in Britain one hundred years before Christ; and afterwards brought from Flanders, and planted in Kent with such success, that an orchard of thirty-two acres produced, in the year 1540, 1,000l. Miller has enumerated a great variety; but since his time, their culture has much increased. LOTTERIES. The first lottery in England was drawn in the year 1569. It consisted of 40,000 lots, at 10s. a lot; the prizes were plate, and the profits were to go towards repairing the havens of the kingdom. It was drawn at the west door | of St. Paul's Cathedral. The drawing began on the 11th of January, and continued night and day till the 6th of May following. WORSTED.-Worsted, in the county of Norfolk, though formerly a town of considerable trade, and much celebrity, is now reduced to a village, and the manufactures, which obtained a name from the place, are removed to Norwich and its vicinity. Shakspere has not been very courteous towards the worsted gentry; had he lived in our times, they might have worsted him for a libel; he says, in King Lear, "A base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three suited, hundred pound, filthy worsted stocking knave." ORIGIN OF GLOVES.-With regard to the period in which the use of gloves was first introduced, we have, perhaps, no better authority than that of Xenophon, who, in speaking of the Persians, mentions as a proof of their effeminacy, that not content with covering their head and feet, they also wore thick gloves to guard their hands from the effect of cold; but some ascribe to them a much earlier origin, even as far back as the time of Ruth, as in the 4th chapter and 7th verse we read, that it was the custom for a man to take off his shoe and give it to his neighbour, as a token of redeeming anything. The word, they say, which is translated shoe, is by the Chaldean Paraphrast rendered glove. The royal Psalmist also uses the same word in the 108th Psalm, where it is likewise rendered shoe; but for the same reason as above, it should have been glove: "I will cast my shoe over Edom;' 22 yet 66 there is good reason to suppose that the Chaldean Paraphrast has taken an unwarrantable liberty in his version of the text. Casaubon also conjectures that gloves were in use among the Chaldeans, because, in the Talmud Lexicon, the meaning given to the word here mentioned, is 'Clothing of the hands." Varro, an ancient writer of repute, fully proves their antiquity among the Romans, observing in the 2nd book, 55th chapter "De Re Rusticâ," that olives gathered with the naked hand are preferable to those gathered with gloves. Homer represents Laertes working in his garden with gloves on, to secure his hands from the thorns. A famous glutton is mentioned by Athenæus as coming to table with gloves on, that, being thereby enabled to handle the meat while hot, he might devour more than any one else. But though these examples show that the use of gloves was not unknown to the ancients, yet we cannot for a moment suppose that they were at all so commonly worn as now; and we may moreover infer that their use met with some opposition even a century after the establishment of Christianity; for Musonius, the philosopher, in attacking the corruption of the age, says that it is a shame for persons in health to clothe their hands and feet in soft and hairy coverings. We may, however, conclude that their convenience soon rendered their use pretty general, for Pliny the younger, in his account of his uncle's journey to Vesuvius, states that his secretary, who sat by him ready to write down whatever occurred remarkable, had gloves on his hands, that the coldness of the weather might not impede his employment. We then find them gradually become more common; and in the ninth century their use was so universal, that the church thought it necessary to make some regulations with regard to that part of dress; it was therefore ordered by the Council of Aix, in the reign of Louis the First, surnamed "Le Debonnaire," that the monks should wear gloves made of sheep-skin only. Gloves were considered so essential a part of the episcopal habit, that some abbots of France were forbidden their use by the council of Poictiers. This was on the same principle as the ring and sandals, which were peculiar to bishops. SOME THINGS LOVE ME. BY T. BUCHANAN READ. ALL within and all without me And the darkness hangs about me, To my feet the river glideth Through the shadow, sullen dark; On the stream the white moon rideth, Like a bark. And the linden leans above me, Till I think some things there be In this dreary world that love me, Even me ! Gentle flowers are springing near me, And the lone bird comes-I hear it There it swings and sings above me, Now the moon hath floated to me, And the stars bend from the azure, Of the sky. There they hang and smile above me, Till I think some things there be, In the very heavens that love me, Even me! MY PHILOSOPHY. BRIGHT things can never die, Deathless were made; What though the summer day God knows how dear. Childhood can never die- Float on the memory Many a happy thing- Flow, on Time's ceaseless wing, Sweet fancies never die, Stored in the mind- Yet, though these things pass by, As when in glory, through the public place, SACRED QUOTATIONS. GRACE-MERCY-PARDON. MARCY that wipes the penitential tear, THOUGH Nature her inverted course forego, IN the course of justice, none of us Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy, And that same prayer doth teach us all tɔ render By the helpless woe which taught me From the vain appeals for justice And wild efforts of my own, By thy light-thon unseen future, I will hope-though all forsake me In His mercy to the last! MRS. NORTON. WHEN winter fortunes cloud the brows Of summer friends, strange, when eyes grow When plighted faith forgets its vows, O, Thou bounteous Giver of all good, And with Thee rich, take what Thou wilt away! BUT Grace, abused, brings forth the foulest deeds, As richest soil, the most luxuriant weeds. COWPER. INTERESTING VARIETIES. GNATS dance in regular positions, which have been compared to those in a quadrille. IT is said that no fewer than 500 female infants in Boston, U.S., have been named “Eva,” after the interesting young girl of that name in "Uncle Tom's Cabin." IT has been ascertained that 200,000 people daily arrive at and quit London, by rail. The North-Western Company run 300 trains per day, and employ 11,000 servants. THE bill of fare of the poultry at the late metropolitan exhibition, consisted of 70 gal lons of strong ale, 170 quartern loaves, 8 sacks of meal, 100 cabbages, and 1 sack of oats. SOME of the stones in the ruined Temple of Balbec have been recently measured, and found to be of the enormous size of 70 feet long and 12 feet thick. ONE of the most interesting relics in Philadelphia may be seen in North Second-street, viz., the first lightning-rod erected by Dr. Franklin, which still stretches its attenuated fingers towards the heavens. Herapath's Journal states that the damage done by the continued rains, to the London and North-Western Railway, will cost near a million of money to repair; and on the SouthWestern at the rate of £1,000 per mile. TURNPIKES were so called from poles or bars swung on a staple, and turned either way when the dues were paid. A turnpike-road, by law, is sixty feet wide, and parish roads about thirty feet. THE quantity of water discharged into the sea by all the rivers in the world is about thirty-six cubic miles in a day; hence, it would take above 35,000 years to create a circuit of the whole sea through clouds and rivers. THE first number of the Times is dated January, 1788, the heading being, "The Times, or Daily Universal Register, printed logographically." Its price is marked threepence, and its imprint runs, "Printed for J. Walter, at the Logographical press, Printing House-square," &c. It has sixty-three advertisements. A school of a new kind has just been founded in Leipsic. The booksellers of that city have associated to institute a seminary for the forming of skilful assistants in all the aifferent branches of their special commerce. Indigent young men are to be admitted gratuitously,— others to pay a small annual fee. It has been remarked, as a curious circumstance, that Bonaparte and Wellington were born in the same year, and that Burns and Hogg, the Scotch poets, were born on January the 25th; but it is more remarkable that the two greatest dramatic poets of modern Europe, Shakspere and Cervantes, both died on the same day in the same year, April the 23rd, 1616. It is further remarkable that Shakspere, as in the case of the great Raphael and of Sobieski, died on the anniversary of his birth. |