MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue I, 22 April 1843, Page 4

MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS.

Electrical Calico Printing. —On Monday week, at the Polytechnic Institution, a Lecture was delivered by Professor Bachhoffner, on a newly discovered function of electricity, the exercise of which, it is affirmed, may be advantageously applied to the cotton and other piece-goods and manufactures of the country. Mr. Baggs, a gentleman well known in the scientific world for his researches in electrochemistry and other branches of electrical investigation, has discovered a method of applying the oxides of various metals to the purposes of dyeing cotton cloths by the agency of electricity, and in such a way that economy, rapidity, and variety of pattern and tint, are all allied to the "ne plus ultra" of the art — fast colours. In a notice of this kind it will hardly be expected that we should enter into the theory of the invention, which would involve the necessity of describing the numerous kinds of mordants used in the business of dyeing, as well as those peculiar phenomena of volatic electricity which have successfully been brought to bear upon the accomplishment of the end proposed. We prefer, therefore, stating the results of one or two experiments tried in our presence. A piece of white calico, prepared in the ordinary way for the dyer, was extended upon a sheet of metal ; some pattern-stamps, made of various metals (not charged with any colour whatever), were then pressed upon the fabric, but with no result, the lecturer stating that unless a stream of electricity were applied to the metallic pattern, no impression would be left on the cloth. The two wires from the galvanic battery were then connected with the apparatus, one with the metal plate on which the cloth was spread, and the other with the pattern itself, by which the necessary circuit became established. The effect was instantaneous ; the pattern on the stamp was immediately transferred to the cloth, and the impression was made as often as it was possible for the lecturer to remove the stamp from one place to another. The colours, as we have said, depend upon the medals and mordants employed. In order to prove that the invention might be practically carried out, a length of calico cloth was passed under a cylinder in the usual way. It went in white, and came out perfectly printed with a well-defined pattern in colours. Both Professor Bachhoffner and Mr. Baggs, the inventor besought their most attentive and very numerous audience to consider that they were not " dyers ;" their object was not to show how perfectly the thing could be done, but that it could be done at all — and this they fully established. Electricity is daily making many important disclosures, of which this invention of Mr. Baggs appears at once to be the most extraordinary and most useful. A Mistake. — A gentleman meeting a friend who was insolvent, expressed regret for his embarrassment. "You are mistaken, my dear Sir," was the reply, "it is not I, but my creditors who are embarrassed." A Poser. — As a teacher of the "young idea" was employed, the other day, in his " delightful task" of teaching a sharp urchin to cipher on a slate, the young philosopher put the following question to his instructor : — " Whare dis a' the figures gang till when they're rubbit oot?" Not Exactly. — " Do you draw at all?" — " Not exactly ; but I have a blister that does." " Do you owe much?" — " Not exactly ; but I live within the bills of mortality." " Have you ever been among the blacks of Africa?" " Not exactly ; but I've been among the moors in Scotland." — (Punch.) An English lady who went to make purchases, in Jamaica, accompanied by her black maid, was repeatedly addressed by the negro shopman as " massa," whereupon her sable follower exclaimed, with a look of infinite contempt, " Why for you speak sosh bad English no grammar, sabby ? Why for you call my Missus ' massa?' Stupid fellah ! — him's a she." The Fish Market. — Flounders were of course flat, but to the surprise of every one they showed an inclination to come round towards the afternoon, and there were one or two transactions in whelks, but they were all of a comparatively insignificant character. Lobster's claws were lazy at the opening, but closed heavily ; and those who had a hand in them would gladly have been released if such a course had been possible. — (Punch.) " I guess," said a New Yorker to Wallack, the day after his theatre was burnt down, "when your theatre was blazing you sent for the newspapers." — "Why for the newspapers?" " Because they form the most powerful engine in the United States."