MISCELLANEOUS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume V, Issue 1363, 30 March 1868, Page 8

MISCELLANEOUS.

Improvements in Steam-Engines —An invention, which it is considered will result in a saving of fully one-half of the fuel now used has been exhibited recently at the engine factory of 3fr. Smith, of Holborn. As the inventor Alexander Ctesar Frederick Franklin, a most intelligent youth, thirteen years of age, has not jet finally specified his patent, he prefers for the present keeping the details secret, but he states, according to the JWhiing Journal, tliat he applies "the steam on one side of the piston onl\', and ■creates a vacuum in the cylinder without condensation. That he applies the steam on one side of the piston seems certain, but owing to the inventor's very justifiable prudence, it is impossible to discover in what part of the evlindt r the vacuum is produced. I o all outward appearance the engine is of the ordinary low-pressure construction, except that the steam instead of being eondensed, is permitted to blow off at the Teturn, stroke, and from the general working it would be judged that the feed is cut off rather late in the stroke, and the exhaust opened very rapidly. The engine which is horizontal, has two cylinders, aboutsinchesin diameter and 9 inches in stroke, the steam being introduced at the back end of one and the forward end of the other. The engine is undoubtedly beautifully made, and •works very smoothly. With steam at 451b. pressure, it was working one of Barrett and Exall's 8-horse centrifugal pumps with ease, and its action was generally admired. As soon as the specification is completed, we shall publish the details of the invention, and in the mean time •wish, the juvenile inventor every success. Makt Jones, hee (X) Make.—" A London Incumbent " writes to say that the extent of popular ignorance is not shown as conclusively as Earl Kussell supposes, by the number of people who sign the marriage registers with a mark instead of with their names. "I am rather an old hand now," says the rev. gentleman, " and 1 am afraid t<l say how many couples I have made happy, or otherwise, in my time, beginning with Jack at a seaport, who used to disturb me in the greenness of my curatehood by kissing his bride in the middic of the service, a ceremony not contemplated by the Rubric. Jack now and then could not sign his name in the register: but Jack now and then had found it necessary to ' keep up the system ' before coming to_ church—a process which did not tend to steadiness of hand. My later experience has given me some further insight into the matorial of which Lord .Russell's mark-making percentages are composed. ' I'm so nervous, and my hand shakes so ; I can't write, I'll make a mark please, it is rather the correct thing to say in certain circles. In all these cases, however, if there is time to spare, a restorative may be applied, the effects of which I have found remarkable and immediate. You tell the ' trembling ' young creature that you are sure she can write her name very nicely, and that if she makes a mark instead the Registrar General will put it down in a list of people that don't knoT? how to write. Upon which it commonly happens that the name goes down, amid much laughing of the young folks. But as mark-making economises time m the vestry, it is sometimes as well to accept the situation."

Large Landed Properties in England Accumulating in Fewbb Hands.—Tliere can be no doubt that the ownership of the soil in England is not only accumulated, but tends to still further accumulate in a ferr bands " I know," said Mr. Bright, in his -speech, to the electors of Birmingham, "I know the case of a noble personage who is supposed to have an annual income of £120,000. He sp ends £40,000 a year, and the £80,000 which remains he lays out in rounding his property by buying up which is for sale." Examples of this kmu>abound. The eastern portion of the county of Sussex, which contains 800 square miles, is almost entirely the property of two noblemen—the Duke of Kichmond and Lord Beconfield. The city of London, a city astonishing through its immensity, belongs "to a mere handful of individuals. Such a great lord may possess a quarter as extensive as the capital of certain kingdoms. The wealth of the Grosvenor iamily shines with a splendour which mates eventhat of the throne look pale by its side; and it is as yet nothing in comparison with what it will be at the expiration of the leases in Belgravia. The domains of Dudley, Buccleuch, Brownlow assume monstrous proportions. The other diy we read in the public journals that the guardians of the Marquis of Bute, a youth 16 years of age, had expended £2,000,000 in improving the estate of the house of Crick ton .JYLountstuart, Cardiff. We may form some idea oi the value of property when, in order to improve it, and only to improve it, two millions sterling are expended.— Louis Mane's Letters on England, second series.