SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE.

FREEZING OF ALCOHOL.

Mr. Hutton, of Edinburgh, has read to the institute of that city a notice respecting Some experiments on the freezing of alcohol, which requires a degree of cold that had never before been produced by any means, and which is stated by him as 116 degrees below zero of Fahrenheit. The fluid was frozen into a perfectly solid mass, composed of 3 strata, the uppermost of a yellowish green, the second of a pale yel low colour, and the third, which greatly exceeded the rest in quantity, and was the pure alcohol, nearly transparent, and colourless. It was proved that the alcohol was not decomposed in the process, but merely separated from two foreign substances which it had held in solution; these are highly volatile, and cannot be separated but by freezing; to them the alcohol owes its peculiar flavour. Mr. Hutton has not made public the method of producing such a degree of artificial cold, but he has stated his sanguine hopes that it will be sufficient to congeal the gases which are at present considered as permanently elastic.

We are informed that Sir H. Davy is now making a series of successful experiments on fluoric acid, (a hitherto undecompounded substance,) the result of which will confirm his doctrine respecting chlorine, the oxymuriatic gas of the French school of chymistry. This gas, Sir H. Davy holds to be a simple, and distinct acidifying substance, while the French school maintain it to be a peculiar compound of oxygen.

MARINE TRANSIT.

Mr. Wm. Chavasse, a lieutenant in the British East-India Company's Madras establishment, has invented an instrument, which he calls the Marine Transit, for ascertaining the longitude at sea. The principle is this: that equal quantities of mercury will pass through a given aperture in equal times, if the same height of column, reckoned from the discharging aperture, can be uniformly maintained, provided that changes of temperature have no effect on the result; or if they have, that the quantity of the deviation may be estimated, and added or subtracted as the case may require.

SAWING CAST IRON WITH A CARPENTER'S SAW.

M. Dufaud, in a letter to M. d'Arcet, director of the iron works at Montalaire, published in the eighty-second volume of Ann, de Chim. announces that he has succeeded in sawing cast iron with a carpenter's saw, and that all that is necessary to insure its being sawed as easily and in the same space of time as dry wood, is that the iron be heated to a cherry red. For heating the iron a furnace is preferable to a forge fire, as the temperature is thus rendered more uniform throughout the mass. The iron should be so placed as to have a firm bearing every where, except where the saw is to pass, to prevent any part from being torn off by the saw; and the iron should be cut briskly, using the whole length of the saw, the teeth of which should be set fine. By this simple method not only plates but mill-gudgeons, and even anvils, have been cut with great facility. When the piece to be cut is large, two saws should be employed, for the convenience of using and cooling them alternately the saws receive little or no injury. This useful process, though not generally known, is not new; several years ago M. Pictet observed a workman saw a hot cast iron pipe in the workshop of Mr. Paul of Geneva.

On Saturday the 20th of February, this useful process was tried in the presence of several gentlemen, at the iron-foundry of Mr. Williams, in Waterford, and the success of the experiment was complete. The operation was repeated several times, and always with facility. The iron, as stated above, should be heated to a cherry red, and the saw need only be selected according to the fineness of the pieces into which the metal is to be cut. The operation is perfectly easy, and the saw remains uninjured.

THE TRITON.

Didot, the famous French printer, lately published "A memoir on the properties of a new diving-machine called a Triton," by which a person may, 1. Remain in the water as long as he pleases; 2. He may descend into the water to as great a depth as the column of water displaced by his bulk permits; 3. He may use his arms, legs and body at pleasure; he may walk or labour with ease, at that depth to which he has descended; 4. He runs no hazard; he may give notice when he thinks proper to those who, on the surface, attend his operations; 5. He is not enclosed in the machine, which is but small, and does not prevent his entering into fissures, or narrow clefts; 6. The sea being often dark, as Halley informs us, he may carry a lantern down with him to the depths of the sea, to enlighten the sub-marine grottoes, or the holds of vessels, into which he may have penetrated; 7. The machine is not costly. The principal novelty in this machine is the adoption of artificial lungs, by which the difficulty hitherto found of breathing in the sea is remedied.

HUMBOLDT'S VOYAGE.

M. DE HUMBOLDT has just completed the astronomical part of his celebrated voyage. His last number consists principally of the preliminary Dissertation, which explains all the means he had taken for making his observations, and which means he has employed with such remarkable advantage. There is another Discourse, by M. Oltmauns, in which he states all the modes of calculation which he adopted, in order to derive from the observations of M. Humboldt, and astronomers in general, the most accurate and important results. For this Discourse M. Oltmanns was awarded the Lalande Medal, by the French Institute,

LITERARY INTELLIGENCE.

[From late London publications.]

An edition of Livy, in four volumes 8vo. is printing under the direction of a gentleman of the University of Oxford, from the text of Drakenborch, with the various readings, and the whole of the notes of Crevier's editions.

The Moniteur has announced a new work, the Foreign Mercury; to contain pieces in prose and verse, with copious extracts from the Spanish, Portuguese, italian, Russ, Swedish, Dutch, English, Arabic, Persian, Greek, and all the oriental languages.

M. Pigault Lebrun has a new romance in the press, entitled A Picture of Society. In the press, a translation of the unedited Letters of Voltaire, addressed to the Countess of Sutzelbourg. The original is said to possess the genius of the author, the magic of his style, and his satirical touches.

A third volume of the Calamities of Authors wil shortly be published.

The Rev. Doctor Bidlake is engaged on a poem, entitled The Year, which is nearly ready for publication.

A new work has been announced, to be continued annually, entitled Historical Sketches of Politics and Public Men for the Year 1812. The following are the subjects proposed to be discussed; 1. General view of the Character of the Different Parties. The Ministerial Party; The Opposition Party; The Popular Party. 2. Ministerial and Party Changes during the Year. 3. The Foreign Policy of Great Britain. 4. Bonaparte and the French Empire. 5. The Campaign in the Peninsula. 6. Russian Politics and Campaign in the North. 7. America, and the Orders in Council. 8. Ireland, and the Catholic Question. 9. The East-India Company. 10. Finances. 11. The Question of Peace. 12. Observations on some Public Institu tions.

Mr. Montgomery's new poem of the World before the Flood, is now printing by the Ballantynes, of Edinburgh.

END OF THE FIEST VOLUME.

MA