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Lyttelton Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1397, 9 May 1865, Page 3

The recent receipt of an iron letter from Pennsylvania has excited a lively competition in England as to the decree of thinness to which steel can be rolled cold The average thickness of three sheets of steel which have been rolled cold at a Birmingham ironworks has been ascertained to be one ISOOth part of the English standard inch. In other words, 1800 sheets piled upon each other would collectively measure an inch in thickness. Expressed decimally, the average thickness of the three sheets is .00005, and the difference in thickness varies from about .00053 to .0057. The thinnest tissue paper at the stationers' shops measures one 1200 th of an inch, or decimallv .00083 of an inch. These samples of coldrolled cast steel show very fine holes, and have a porous surface, but still are perfectly smooth and easy tc write on, and the porosity can only be when they are held up to a good light. It is behaved that steel may be rollod still finer when other exta. ju.« informed the Chamber, of Commerce in France that communications are now £.n by water between. the MedUemnean B,» Sea, find that a (lnil/ »«™o »« ' lished between Port Said and Suez. A barge, con tainine from 25 to 30 persons, and towed by a small steamer, has already traversed m 24 hou« the 94 miles which separate the two seas. The! isuunw of Suez Canal Company also invites the Chambers stream of water 50 feed wide, and of a minimum depth of 4 feet.