ANOTHER GREAT INVENTION.

Colonist, Volume XXV, Issue 2925, 5 August 1881, Page 3

ANOTHER GREAT INVENTION.

Sib William THojisox, F.R.S., of the .University of Glasgow, has received" M. Camilla Faure, of Paris, the great discoverer, a box of '^electric energy." A gentleman 'writes to the " Times " as follows: —On Monday last, in Paris, a Faure battery or pile secondaire was charged with the electric fluid, direct from an ordinary' Grove battery, in my presence. The 'receptacle consisted of four'Faure batteries, each about live'inches ,in diameter and ten incbe* high, formingia cylindrical leaden vessel and containing alternate sheets ,ot metallic lead and aluaiuium, wrapped

in felt and rolled in spirals wetted with accidulated water, and the whole placed in a square wooden box, measuring .about one cubic foot, and weighing some s°venty-five pounds. Tbis was protected by a loose wooden cover, through which the electrodes in lead protruded, and were flattened downior the convenience of transportation. This box of electric energywas handed to me by M. Faure with the object of submitting it to examination and measurement at the hands of Sir William Thomson. "In about seventy-two hours from the time of charging the jar in Paris I had the satisfaction of presenting Faure's rare offering of a box of electricity intact. This is the patent compression within the small upace of one cubic foot of a power equivalent to nearly one million feet. Tiie wonderful box is now deposited in the laboratory of Glasgow University, and is being submitted to a series of tests and measurements." 'ihe" results of some of these made Sir William exclaim: 'Why, it's a little giant!' Ths advantage to seieuce and humanity which this discovery, or rather the perfection of; Plaute'a ' discovery, is destined to afford, is of such transcendent importance that we cannot for the present form .any correct eatiinaie of its magnitude. Whatever may be the practical' result obtained, I have the satisfaction of recording | that for the first time, to my knowJudge in the history of the universe a boxof electric energy nearly equivalent to a million feet, contained within less than a cubic foot of space, intact and potential, has been transported froth France or elsewhere ,to Great Britain."

SoMB: of the members of; theT Eoyal Irish Constabulary: are resigning, as they will not submit to be ,kept leaning on their arms while cowardly insurgents ; are crushing them with stones. They cay they are shunned as if stricken with leprosy; are refused a drink of water, though parched.with thirac; are'doing duty to the Queen, as they always have done* and yet are looked on with suspicion by those oyer them. Yalitable Pla.nt.—lf what a San Francisco paper says ia true, a really great discoveryT has been made, which may convert the far western deserts, where nought but the cactus now grows, into the chief wine-growing districts of the American continent. A man inserted cuttings from some vines into the trunks of the cactus plants, and the result was that the vines grew-forth as luxuriantly as on the most fruitful land, and this without cultvation or watering. Not only did he succeed in raising fine grapeß, but he also found that melons, tomatoes, and cucumberd could be grown on the cactus. That hitherto muchabused plant may ; now prove one of the greatest, blessings of man, and the arid and sandy defert may yet become more productive than the rich, wellwatered prairie. Caedinal Manning.—The Cardinal is really a good man; and, according to his lights, to be good one mv.it fast and deny oneself all sorts of pleasures. He is a rigid teetotaller, and has induced thousands of poor Irishmen to take the pledge, His table is that of a hermit j for be considers it almost sinful, in this world of sorrow, to take any other food than ia absolutely necessary for the sustenance of the body. It will have been guessed that smoking finds s.mail favor in his ejes. In fact, he has done, his best to discourage the practice among the clergy of his diocese, though with moderate success. Old priests like their pipe, and grumbb that there are few enough enjoyments left them in all conscience. But what grieved tbe Cardinal to the heart was that Simeoni—-a brother Cardinal —smoked like a chimney when he came to London, and in the pure precincts of the '* Archbishop's House" too. Simeoni gave other cause of dissatisfaction/ 'In an almost brutal way—for an Italian—he declared he had small hope for the conversion ol Englaud, at any rate till the church substituted the worship of Mammon for ;that of the Biased Virgin; Simeoni'a opinion of Manning, translated into our vernacular, was" this': "They are soi'terribly in earnest; those-English. "'Even after dinner they go ou." There has just died a lady whose name was often enough in men's mouth's during the course of tbe Crimeanwar. The name was Seacole, and the history of its owner was singular enough. She was a Creole by birth, and had received an education in her youth which developed her ruling passion:—a desire to, nurse the sick. The Crimean1 war'gaVe her'the opportunity, and when the campaigu was over there were many to testify to her noble self-devotion and unwearied kindness and careA Amateur hursiug has since .taken Tits .place amongst other illustrations of fashion patronising duty; but Mrs Seacole herself carried Hthe wounded off the field "of battle, "and when the cholera made its appearance in the camp before Sebastopol/took charge of one of toe wards. She had other work to do than to be interesting in a costume. It was found when the peace came that her health was broken down, and any fortune she had utterly dissipat- . dd.' But sucff claims oh public recog- ' nition could not be overlooked. Many military men, including the commandar in chief, interested themselves ia procuring subscriptions to a,fund, on the interest of which she has been able to end her days ia comfort.—-Hew*