in that country is but a bad trade, as it must be a good hand to make more than at the rate of a barrel a day. The barrels cost the burner about 1s. 3d. British sterling, each. The tar-makers are in general very poor, except here and there one, who has an opportunity of making it near the water-side. Pitch is made by either boiling the tar till it comes to a proper thickness, or else by burning it. The latter is done by digging a hole in the ground, and lining it with brick; it is then filled with tar, and they set fire to it, and allow it to burn till they judge it has burnt enough, which is known by dipping a stick into it, and letting it cool: when burnt enough, they put a cover over it, which stops it close, and puts out the fire. Five barrels of green tar will make two of pitch; and it will take two barrels of other tar to make one of pitch.

N. B. The foregoing observations respecting tar and pitch, are copied from a memorandum made by me at Suffolk, in Virginia, on the borders of North Carolina, April 23, 1792, and are the result of the inquiries and observations I made on the subject whilst in Carolina.

Wilmington, N. C.

April 13, 1792. In conversation with a Mr. Hogg, who had been settled there and at Fayette-ville before the war, I learnt that pitch-pine timber growing on the sands was the best, and that it was reckoned to be better if cut in the winter before the sap rises in the tree.

H. B. WAY.

SIR,

It affords me much pleasure to learn that my communication, on the extraction of turpentine from the Scotch fir, has been thought worthy of the consideration of the society; and it will be highly gratifying to me, if it should induce persons who have considerable plantations to try it on such a scale as to ascertain to what extent it might prove beneficial in this country. The experiment should be tried on trees so situated as to be conveniently examined every day, and the turpentine collected in the hollows removed as often as possible to prevent its being injured, or wasted by the rain. I think, that during the American war, some importations of turpentine were made from Russia and Sweden; and if so, it must have been extracted from what we call the Scotch fir, in a colder climate than this. The article called Venice turpentine, which is brought from Carinthia and Carniola, is extracted there from the larch tree; and it might probably answer to try to produce it from the larch trees grown in Great Britain, in the same way as I have collected the turpentine from the Scotch fir.

Respecting the wood of the Scotch fir being injured by the extraction of the turpentine from it, I should rather think that it would, on the contrary, be the better for it; as all those who use deals from Scotch fir, in this neighbourhood, complain that it is too full of turpentine to work well. The fact might be ascertained by the piece of timber which I sent to the society, as, if it was wished to preserve that Uu 2 part

part in which the hollow is made, the back part, or nearly half of the tree might be sawn into boards without injury, and those boards might be compared with some from a tree taken down in the winter, from whence the turpentine has not been extracted. It must, however, be noted, that from the tree I have sent to the society, the turpentine has only been running one year, whereas, in America,, they collect the turpentine from the same tree for three or four succeeding years. It has been supposed and asserted, that turpentine was only obtainable from the United States; but I have sufficient documents to prove, if required, that a very large quantity of it can be procured from East Florida; and I well remember, that about the year 1782 several cargoes of turpentine were shipped in the river St. John's for Britain; and though that country is at present in the hands of the Spaniards, no doubt arrangements inight be made with the Spanish government for a supply of that necessary article from thence. It is my earnest wish, that through the medium of the Society of Arts I may render any information that may be serviceable to the interest of the united empire, and I will with pleasure furnish further communication on the products of Florida and its commerce, if desired by the society.

I am convinced that tar might be produced from the refuse of firs of English growth to advantage, and that a much better article could be made from them in Britain, than any imported from America. The Scotch firs, in England, from being planted at

greater distances from each other than they are naturally found abroad, have much larger knots, and greater numbers of them, than in Carolina or the north of Europe, and would therefore produce more tar, in proportion, from their refuse wood than the trees of those countries.

The pitch-pines of Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, and the Floridas, grow to an immense size in what are there called pine-barrens, the soil of which is finer and whiter than the sand used as writing-sand in Great Britain, and the trees grow almost to the verge of high-water mark on the sea shores. I think it would answer a good purpose for the society to encourage by premiums the extraction of turpentine from British firs.

I remain, sir, Your obedient and very humble servant,

H. B. WAY.

Bridport Harbour, April 21, 1810. To C. Taylor, M.D. Sec.

Improved Mode of preparing Phosphorus bottles.

[From Mr. Nicholson's Journal of Na tural Philosophy.]

Phosphorus, cut into small pieces and mixed with quick lime in powder, answers the purpose very well. The phosphorus should be carefully dried by filtering p per; a thin slice being cut may be divided into as many pieces as can expeditiously be done, and each piece introduced into a small bottle, with as much lime as will surround it. Lime slacked in the

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Inquiry into the Composition of some Weapons and Utensils of ancient Bronze. By M. Klaproth.

[From Mr. Nicholson's Journal of Natural Philosophy].

WE

E know from ancient authors, as well as from weapons and utensils dug up in modern times, that men in the carliest ages, and even those that succeeded them, employed copper in preference for the fabrication of metallic utensils and weapons. Thus what Herodotus says of the Massagetæ, who used no iron, and whose weapons and utensils were of copper, is more or less applicable to all the nations of antiquity.

The great difference in the exterior characters of the two metals in their crude state leaves no doubt, that men were sooner acquainted with copper, and the method of adapting it to their purposes, than iron. It is probable that they found copper in large masses, and nearly prepared by nature, as we still meet with it in countries, the mineralogical wealth of which has been little explored. Accordingly in treating the ore by fire they could not

fail to observe all the advantages of this metal, both with respect to the richness of its produce, and the facility with which it might be forged. Iron, on the contrary, was not so obvious to men's eyes; and the distinguishing of its various ores, with the art of working them, and forming weapons and instruments of them, could only be the fruit of long experience.

I shall not avail myself of the numerous testimonies of ancient authors to prove, that copper has been employed in preference to iron, as it is sufficient to appeal to Homer. All weapons, both offensive and defensive, as swords, spears-heads, helmets, and shields, as well as various domestic utensils, were of copper, (xaλxos), though in Homer's time iron (odrgos) was used, but less frequently, and hardened by plunging red-hot into water. Even when the advantages of iron, and the modes of fabricating it, were well known, men used copper for their weapons; for instance, in the last ages of the republics of Greece and Rome.

We know that copper is not fit for the purposes for which the ancients employed it. When cast

it is porous and brittle; and, when forged, too soft. The ancient weapons and utensils being of a hardness which this metal does not possess, it was long supposed that the ancients had some method of hardening copper, as we do iron and steel. But chemical analysis has shewn the falsity of this opinion, and demonstrated, that these weapons and instruments were not pure copper, but an alloy of this metal with tin, which we call bronze, and which was the as, brass, of the Romans. The weapons, instruments, and statues, which have been dug out of the ground, evidently prove, that the property of tin to impart hardness and density to the metal alloyed with it, was known and employed by the most ancient na tions. All these objects occur of bronze, but none of pure copper. It is astonishing, that this practice of imparting to copper, by alloying it with a certain portion of tin, a hardness sufficient for sword-blades and other cu ting instruments, should have been so generally followed by the ancients, notwithstanding the want of tinmines. All the tin they used they were obliged to procure from the Cassiterides, the present Cornwall, and the trade was exclusively in the hands of the Phenicians.

Having had an opportunity of assaying several fragments of me tallic antiquities, I conceive it may be of some utility to make public the results, as a supplement to the few accurate analyses hitherto made.

The fragments to be analysed, being first weighed, were put into a phial, into which were poured

six or eight parts of nitric acid of the specific gravity of 122, and digested in a sand-heat till completely dissolved. The contents of the phial were then diluted with a sufficient quantity of water, and the mixture left to stand till all the oxide of tin bad fallen down, and the azure liquid appeared quite clear. This being poured off, the oxide of tin was collected, washed repeatedly with water, dried, heated red-hot, and weighed. It was found, that 100 parts of calcined oxide of tin equalled 80 parts of tin in the metallic state. The nitric solution was tested in the usual way for silver, iron, lead, and zinc. When it was found free from these metals, as in all the follow ing inquiries it proved, it was easy to calculate, by deducting the quantity of tin found, the proportion of copper, which was likewise obtained by the common methods.

1. Analysis of an antique sword.

In a collection of antiquities at Berlin, found on digging into some ancient graves in the march of Brandenburg, among several articles of bronze, as spear-heads, knives, ornaments, &c. are twe swords: but the place where they were found is not known. One of these swords was broken, the other entire. Their composition is the same: they are both covered with the green shining rust called patina. The sword in question weighs seventeen ounces, and is twenty inches long: the blade sixteen and a half, and the hilt, which is rivetted, three and a half. The blade is two-edged, and one inch and a quarter broad for twoU u 4

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