quiet. There was no boisterousness, no indecorum, no extravagant merriment, no loud laughter, much less those contentions, and babblings, and wounds without cause, which are the invariable accompaniments of our more civilized festivities. The reason of the difference is to be found in the habitual moderation and self-command of Turks, and in the absence among them of the grand source of the woe and sorrow which generally follow our own seasons of hilarity. Special care is exercised by the Turkish authorities during Bairam to keep Mussulmans from the grog shops, which, I am sorry to add, are chiefly tenanted by Christians. The only part of the population which give free vent to their mirth are the boys. You may see them riding double on donkeys, racing on horses, or turning on swings, of which there are at least four kinds in use at Constantinople. You may see them playing and tumbling in the courts of the mosques, firing crackers and eating sweetmeats, as New England boys do on the fourth of July. By some, certain hours of the festival are devoted to more serious purposes. The bereaved visit the graves of friends, and sit by them and turn up the sod throughout, as if the sight of the new earth brought into fresh recollection the hour when the loved ones that repose beneath were shut from their eyes.-Southgate.

IMPROVEMENTS IN ELECTROGRAPHY.

IN the Visitor for 1840, pp. 187. 273, a description was given of Mr. Spencer's newly-discovered process of taking impressions of coins, medals, and engravings, by the agency of voltaic electricity. During the past year this gentleman has been engaged in bringing his invention to a more perfect state, and in extending its applications. The results of his labours we shall attempt to explain, in a popular manner, for the benefit of our readers. The art has been named by some of its admirers, electrotype; but it has been termed, with more propriety, electrography by Mr. Spencer himself. This term seems to us exceedingly appropriate, as conveying a notion of its resemblance, in its general purposes, to lithography, zincography, and other arts in which the representations of objects, on prepared surfaces, are transferred for the purpose of multiplication. By the transference of a drawing

to the prepared surface of a particular kind of stone, and by subsequent processes, it is possible to obtain a number of such figures on paper; and so, by the deposition of metal by electricity, a similar multiplication is effected. As therefore the one art is called lithography, the other may be termed electrography.

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But little alteration has been made in the process of taking copies of engraved plates. There are two methods: one is to submit the plate, which is to be copied, to the action of the electricity in a suitable apparatus, and to form mould by depositing the copper on it in the manner already described in the Visitor. The other method is to form a mould of lead, by pressing the engraved plate and the plate of lead together in a strong press, and then depositing copper upon it in the usual way. The latter process is most readily performed; but the experimenter must be careful that the lead is perfectly clean. It will be found of advantage to plane the metal before it is used, which may be easily done with the tool called by carpenters a jack plane.

The method of separating the electrographic plate from that on which it has been deposited, as recommended by Mr. Spencer, is exceedingly ingenious, and will be found, in most cases, sufficient, if the precautions mentioned in the Visitor have been attended to. The plate on which the deposit is formed, should be held over a spirit lamp, if of small dimensions, or otherwise over a charcoal fire; and when it has been raised to a temperature of about three hundred degrees Fahrenheit, cold water should be poured on the deposited plate, which causes a sudden contraction, and consequently loosens its contact with the mould. It will also be found of advantage to produce å vibration in the mould, by striking it with some metallic substance. When the plates are separated at the edges, a small wedge may be inserted, which will facilitate the disunion.

To obtain facsimiles of medals and coins, the impressions of both sides may be taken on lead, which are employed, in the voltaic process, by the same arrangement as engraved plates. Another method of obtaining a suitable mould, is to cast the coin in Newton's fusible metal, which is a compound of three parts of tin, five of lead, and eight of

bismuth, and is reduced to a liquid state | at so low a temperature, that it is melted in boiling water. This substance, however, is liable to crystallize in cooling, which must injure the sharpness of the casting, and on this account an amalgam called "Smith's solder for tin" will be preferable. Still more recently it has been discovered, that plaster moulds may be used, provided they are previously prepared with plumbago, for a metallic surface is thus presented, and the deposition goes on as rapidly as if a solid mass of metal were employed.

The deposition of solid voltaic plates having the lines in relief, is easily effected by the process employed by Mr. Spencer in his first experiments; but it has not proved very useful to the printer, as the lines are thick and coarse. It might, however, be employed to take impressions of geometrical figures, in which a strength of line is desirable, and the plates might then be introduced with the type, and printed from in the same manner as wood blocks. Another method of forming this kind of voltaic plate, has since been recommended by the same author, as one which will probably be found useful in the hands of the practical engraver. "Take a copper or brass plate, and give it a coating of fine plaster of paris, or other substance. When dry, let the surface of the plaster be rubbed down level, until there is as much thickness left as the lines are required to be in relief to print from. It must now be smoked with the flame of a lamp, and the lines drawn on the surface thus prepared. The brass or copperplate will prevent the point used from going deeper than is necessary, consequently the lines will be all of the same depth. When the engraving is completed, let the plaster surface be metalized, a process which will be explained presently. A solid plate of copper may then be deposited on it, and all the raised parts will be perfectly level. These are the principal improvements made in the process of taking impressions in copper from metallic plates, and no further considerable alteration will probably be made until the art comes into the hands of practical men."

Attempts have been made to deposit gold, silver, platinum, and other metals, in the same manner as copper; but these have been but partially successful. Gold may be precipitated from the state of a

chloride, by a process similar to that adopted for copper; but with all the care that can be used, and employing weak and pure solutions, which are found to succeed best, the effects are not such as are desired. The experiment frequently requires to be repeated several times and then the coating is so exceedingly thin, that it may be removed by the friction of the finger. It might, however, be supposed an easy matter to correct this disadvantage, by continuing the operation until a sufficiently thick coating of the metal was obtained; but it is found, by experiment, that gold cannot be deposited on gold. "Whenever the silver or copper,' says Mr. Spencer, "becomes completely covered with a thin film of gold, it ceases to be silver or copper, as respects the surrounding solution, or its electrical properties; and no more than this one coating can be deposited in the solid state, by any electrical process as yet discovered. It will, under these circumstances, at once be obvious, that the coating must be chemically thin. Were we able, by this process, to deposit a second coat, there would be nothing to prevent a third, and so on; in that case flowers of gold, or other ornaments in relief, might be deposited on silver, or vice versa. I have been, however, more successful with silver under certain modifications."

M. de la Rive, a foreign philosopher of great celebrity and genius, has proposed a method of gilding, by a similar process to that already mentioned; but it offers no advantages over the mode now in common use. The experiments with platinum have been even more unsuccessful; for although it may be deposited from its chloride, in the same manner as gold, it appears in the form of a brittle black powder, at present affording small hope of usefulness."

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During the past year, many attempts have been made to form electrographs of other metals than copper and silver, and some persons, having either deceived themselves, or wishing to deceive others, have asserted, that they had succeeded in so doing. Upon a repetition of their experiments, the fraud has been detected. At the very commencement of this important art, an attempt of this kind was made, and it has been so continued, that it is necessary to caution the reader against these disgraceful impositions, and to recommend a repetition of the pretended experiments.

The boys had nothing vulgar about them, and judging by their dress and general deportment, I doubted not they were the sons of gentlemen residing in the neighbourhood. Walking quietly among the graves, I soon came to the place where they stood. "Young gentleman!" said I, mildly to the eldest of them, “if that were your father's tombstone, should you like to see me throwing stones at it?" He looked surprised, and after a little hesitation, said, " No, sir." "Then," said I, "though it is not your father's, how do you know that it is not mine?" With somewhat of confusion in his face, he dropped the stone he had in his hand, and walked, with his companion, to the churchyard gate. Much more gladly would I have sent him away with a happy heart, than with a clouded brow; but perhaps it was best as it was for when next he passes the tombstone, my reproof may again rise up in his remembrance, and prevent the recurrence of such thoughtless indiscretion.

OBSCURE PASSAGES IN THE BIBLE.

A GENTLEMAN who visits with great regularity the Philadelphia Penitentiary, the inmates of which his piety prompts him to instruct, had given a Bible to a convict, who would ask him, at each visit, with much shrewdness, some difficult question formed from passages of the sacred volume; each time declaring he would not go on, if this was not first explained to him. The gentleman was unable to persuade him that it would be best for him first to dwell upon those passages which he could easily understand, and which plainly applied to his situation. After many fruitless trials to induce the convict to this course, his friendly teacher said, "What would you think of a very hungry man, who had not eaten a morsel of food for the last twenty-four hours, and was asked by a charitable man to come in and sit down at a richly covered table, on which were large dishes of choice meat, and also covered ones, the contents of which the hungry man did not know. Instead of satisfying his exhausted body with the for

ACCIDENT AT THE FALLS OF NIAGARA.

THERE are so many instances wherein the daring actions of bold men are held up to public admiration, though the motive that occasioned them was any thing but commendable, that it becomes a kind of duty to give publicity to acts of a similar kind, when the desire that inspires them is creditable to humanity. The bravery manifested in defending the oppressed, in protecting the property of another, and in rescuing those who are in danger from destruction, is entitled to the homage of mankind. An instance of this latter description is as follows. According to the "Buffalo Commercial Advertiser," an occurrence of the most thrilling interest took place at Niagara Falls, attended with imminent peril to the lives of two individuals, but resulting in a most happy and providential deliverance. The new bridge to Iris Island, is planted in a frightful rapid, where the current is from twenty to thirty miles an hour, and is only about one hundred, or one hundred and fifty yards above the brow of the great precipice or perpendicular fall. A carpenter, of the name of Chapin, was engaged with others in covering the bridge, and while at work upon the staging, about one hundred feet from Iris Island, accidentally lost his footing, and was precipitated into the rapids, and in the twinkling of an eye swept away toward the great cataract. Speedy and inevitable destruction seemed to await him; but, happily, he was uninjured by the fall, and even in this most helpless condition, retained perfect self-possession. Turning his eye toward the only point of hope above the fearful precipice, he succeeded, by great dexterity in swimming, in effecting a landing upon a little island some twenty feet in width and length, the outermost of a group of little