mitted to enter the gates, we drove through the suburbs for a confiderable way along a wooden road, entered one of the interior circles of the town, called Bielgorod, and took up our quarters at an inn kept by a Frenchman, at which fome of the nobility hold affemblies. Our apartments were convenient and fpacious; we alfo found every accommodation in abundance, except beds and fheets; for as no one thinks of travelling in this country without thofe articles, inns are feldom provided with them. With much trouble, however, we were able to obtain from our landlord two bedsteads with bedding, and one matrafs to place upon the floor; but we could not procure more than three sheets, one whereof fell to my share: we had been fo long accustomed to fleep in our clothes upon ftraw, that we thought ourfelves in a state of unheard-of luxury, and bleffed ourselves for our good fortune." Mr. Coxe, like other travellers, defcribes Moscow as extremely large and ill-built, holding a midway between an European and an Afiatic city. He fpeaks very highly of the hofpitality with which he was treated there: "Nothing (fays he) can exceed the hofpitality of the Ruffians. We could never pay a morning vifit to any nobleman without being detained to dinner; we alfo conftantly received feveral general invitations; but as we confidered them in the light of mere compliments, we were unwilling to intrude ourselves without further notice. We foon found, however, that the principal perfons of diftinction kept open tables, and were highly obliged at our reforting to them without ceremony. Prince Volkonski, in particular, having cafually discovered that we had dined the preceding day at our inn, politely upbraided us; repeating his affurances, that his table was ours, and that whenever we were not particularly engaged, he fhould always expect us for his guests." of Germany, was born in 1705, at Herforden, in the circle of Weftphalia. He came into Ruffia during the reign, of Catharine I. and was not long afterwards admitted into the Imperial Academy of Sciences, of which fociety he is one of the most ancient members. In 1731, foon after the acceffion of the Emprefs Anne, he commenced, at the expence of the crown, his travels over European Ruffia, and into the extreme parts of Siberia. He was absent several years upon this expedition; and did not return to Petersburgh until the reign of Elizabeth. The prefent Emprefs, an able judge and rewarder of merit, conferred upon him a very ample falary, and appointed him counsellor of ftate, and keeper of the archives of Moscow, where he has refided about fixteen years. He collected, during his travels, the most ample materials for the hiftory and geography of this extenfive empire, which was fcarcely known to the Ruffians themselves, before his valuable refearches were given to the world in various publications. His principal work is a "Collection of Ruffian Hiftories*," in nine volumes octavo, printed at different intervals at the prefs of the Imperial Academy of Sciences. The firft part came out in 1732, and the laft made its appearance in 1764. This ftorehouse of information and literature, in regard to the antiquities, hiftory, geography, and commerce of Ruffia, and many of the neighbouring countries, conveys the moft indifputable proofs of the author's learning, diligence, and fidelity. To this work the accurate and indefatigable writer has fucceffively added many other valuable performances upon fimilar fubjects, both in the German and Ruffian languages, which elucidate various parts in the hiftory of this empire. "Mr. Muller fpeaks and writes the German, Ruffian, French, and Latin tongues with furprifing fluency; and reads the English, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, and Greek with great facility. Mr. Coxe is now introduced to Mr. His memory is ftill furprifing: and his Muller, the famous Ruffian historian, accurate acquaintance with the miof whom he gives this account: nuteft incidents of the Ruffian annals "Gerard Frederick Muller, a native almoft furpaffes belief." LOND. MAG. March 1 1785. D d * Samlung Ruffifcher Gefchichte, Mr. Mr. Coxe mentions a very curious market for the fale of houfes in this city: "It is held in a large open fpace in one of the fuburbs, and exhibits a great variety of ready-made houses, thickly ftrewed upon the ground. The purchafer who wants a dwelling, repairs to this fpot, mentions the number of rooms he requires, examines the different timbers, which are regularly numbered, and bargains for that which fuits him. The house is fometimes paid for upon the fpot, and taken away by the purchafer: or fometimes the vender contracts to tranfport and erect it upon the place where it is defigned to ftand. It may appear incredible to affert, that a dwelling may be thus bought, removed, raifed, and inhabited, within the fpace of a week; but we fhall conceive it practicable, by confidering that thefe ready-made houfes are in general merely collections of trunks of trees, tenanted and mortifed at each extremity into one another, fo that nothing more is required than the labour of transporting and re-adjufting them. "But this fummary mode of building is not always peculiar to the meaner hovels; as wooden structures of very large dimenfions and handfome appearance are occafionally formed in Ruffia, with an expedition almost inconceivable to the inhabitants of other countries. A remarkable inftance of this difpatch was difplayed the laft time the Emprefs came to Mofcow. Her Majefty propofed to refide in the manfion of Prince Galitzin, which is efteemed the completeft edifice in this city; but as it was not fufficiently fpacious for her reception, a temporary addition of wood, larger than the original houfe, and containing a magnificent fuite of apartments was begun and finished within the fpace of fix weeks. This meteor-like fabric was fo handfome and commodious, that the materials, which were taken down at her Majesty's departure, were to be re-conftructed, as a kind of imperial He Our author is very elaborate in his difquifition concerning the famous Demetrius, who was looked upon as an impoftor by many of his countrymen, but who, he is inclined to believe, was the true Prince Demetrius. takes great pains to vindicate the character of the Princess Sophia, fifter to Peter the Great, from the obloquy that has been thrown upon it, in confequence, as he fays, of her heading a party in oppofition to Peter. He mentions, from an anecdote communicated to him by a Ruffian nobleman of great diftinction, Peter's own opinion of his fifter: "What a pity (he was frequently heard to fay) that the perfecuted me in my minority, and that I cannot repofe any confidence in her;" otherwife, when I am employed abroad, fhe might govern at home." Mr. Coxe fays of her, "She deferves the veneration of pofterity for the patronage which the afforded to perfons of genius and learning, and for encouraging, by her own example, the introduction of polite literature into Ruffia, then plunged in the deepest ignorance. At a period, when there was no national theatre, and when the lowest buffoonries, under the name of moralities, were the fole dramatic reprefentations even at court; this elegant princefs tranflated the Medicin malgre Lui of Moliere into her native tongue, and performed one of the characters herself. She alfo compofed a tragedy, probably the first extant in the Ruffian language; and the compofed it at a time, when the moft violent cabals were excited against her miniftry, and when the moft weighty affairs feemed to engross her fole attention." Having dispatched these digreffions, occafioned by viewing the tomb of Demetrius at Mofcow, and the nunnery where the Princess was confined, Mr. Coxe proceeds on his journey to Petersburgh: but for particulars, we muft refer to our next. (To be continued.) ART. CX. Premiere Suite de la Defcription des Experiences Aeroftatiques; i. e. First Continuation of the Defcription of the Aeroftatic Experiments of Meffrs. 'de Mont golfier, golfier, and of thofe occafioned by their Discovery. By M. Faujas de St. Fond. Paris. 1784. 8vo. with five Cuts. THIS work confifts of upwards of fifty different articles, moft of which have already appeared in various periodical publications. They are here collected in a chronological order, but their feveral contents are, in the titlepage, fpecified under the four following heads: 1. Accounts of all the Aeroftatic Experiments made fince the publication of the first volume. 2. Sundry Papers on the Theory of Aeroftats, the Manner of directing them, &c. 3. Different Methods of procuring inflammable Air. 4. A Memoir on the Caoutchouc, or elastic Gum, with a Method of making, at a fmall Expence, a Varnish fimilar to that prepared from the faid Gum. By the Editor of this Work. 1. Very little remains for us to fay on the firft head; all the experiments of any note here defcribed, having already been recorded in former numbers of our work. Among a great number of fecondary ones here mentioned, we fhall only felect that which was made at Windfor, by Mr. Argand of Geneva, in the prefence of their Majefties, with a balloon of gold-beater's fkin, about thirty inches in diameter. -Two experiments made by the Abbé Bertholon and M. de Sauffure, with a view to explore the electricity of the atmofphere, in which the balloons were used as kites, but afcended to a much greater height than the latter could have done. And one made January 13th laft, by the Count d'Albon, at Franconville, near Paris, with an inflammable air-balloon of twenty-four feet perpendicular, and fixteen horizontal diameter, to which were fufpended, in a wicker cage, a rabbit and two guinea pigs, which, after having been raised to a very great height, were landed among ice and fnow, without feeming to have been any ways affected during the voyage, nor at the defcent. A cat that was fent up at Macon in Burgundy, on the 15th of February laft, was not fo fortunate, fince, after having traverfed between fifteen and fixteen leagues of atmofphere, it was found dead about two hours after the afcent: the cause of its difafter is not known. 2. Among the theoretical papers we diftinguish one of Mr. Stephen Montgolfier, on the mechanifm that may be applied for directing the aeroftatic machine.-Oars appear to him to be the only means likely to fucceed; and he deduces from an analytical theorem, that two perfons working each an oar of 100 feet fuperficies, may, in a perfect calm, impel a fire-balloon feventy feet in diameter, at the rate of 994 French toifes (about 2000 English yards) in an hour, and an air-balloon of twenty-fix feet diameter, at the rate of 2434 toifes, fomewhat lefs than three miles in an hour, but that the leaft current of air will overfet the whole theory, and that there is no probability of ever being able to navigate under any confiderable angle with the direction of the wind, A paper of M. de Sauffure of Geneva is by no means the least valuable article in this collection. That acute philofopher, wishing to ascertain that the fwelling of the fire-balloons is merely owing to the dilatation of the common air by heat, in oppofition to M. Pilatre de Rozier, who still afcribed that effect to the production of a particular gas, contrived means to raise by pullies, in the infide of the large Lyons balloon when inflated, a number of thermometers, with the upper ends of the tubes cut off to the 160th degree of the fcale*, and finding that they had all loft a part of the liquid they contained, he concluded that the heat must have exceeded that degree, Whilft thefe experiments were making on the 15th of January laft, four days before the departure of the balloon, the machine was in perfect order, and its power ought therefore to be eftimated by the effect it then produced; its own weight was 10,400lb. and it raised a weight of 6100lb. It is hence inferred, that as inferred, that as a balloon of taffety, Dd 2 * The author does not tell us what fcale. of of 100 feet diameter, would weigh only 400lb. it would be able to raise a weight of 16,100lb.-A balloon of this fort, we are told, is actually preparing by Meffrs. Montgolfier, at the expence of the Prince of Ligne, at Bel Oeuil, one of his country feats in Flanders. M. de Sauffure approves highly of the project, and thinks that a balloon zco feet in diameter would fucceed as well. He makes no doubt but that means will foon be devised for guiding thefe machines. The Count de Milly, in two memoirs of fome length, propofes, inftead of the ftraw now ufed for inflating the fire-ballcons, to fubftitute a certain number of lamps, fed by rectified oil, or fpirit of wine; the number of which might be increafed or diminifhed at pleasure, and thus facilitate a vertical afcent or defcent. Having been informed of the excellence of the lamps lately invented by M. Argand, he gives them the preference, and defcribes their conftruction: he likewife recommends the ufe of oars for guiding the balloon. The paper on the production of inflammable air that feems to intereft this country moft, is that which defcribes the method of extracting it from pit-coal. The difcovery, if it really be a difcovery, which we have fome reafon to doubt, was made by M. Thyfbaert and two other profeffors of the univerfity of Louvain; and the process is thus, rather imperfectly, described: "A common forge, and three common gun barrels, about one inch in bore, were the whole of the apparatus; the breech ends of two of the barrels were conftantly kept in the fire, whilft the third, being cooled and emptied, was loaded about fix inches high with powdered pit coal, and the reit filled with fand. A tin tube conveyed the air under a funnel, placed beneath a barrel filled with water, which stood upon a tub likewife filled with water, which the air extracted from the coal replaced, after having traverfed it." Fifteen ounces of pow dered pit coal yielded in about three quarters of an hour 100 quarts (pots) of air, of fo pure a quality, that on trial it was found to raise a balloon as rapidly, and as high as if it had been filled with the ufual inflammable air. The operation is foon to be repeated on a larger fcale; and large iron retorts are making for the purpose. M. Morveau, of Dijon, has produced inflammable air from potatoes, by mere diftillation. He hopes foon to improve his method; and we shall probably hear more of it in the next volume of this collection. M. Hamann, an artift, at Paris, has found means to make air-balloons of a fubftance that prevents the difperfion of the inflammable air fo effectually, that one of them hath been kept floating in a room for ten fucceffive days without any fenfible diminution. --M. de Fourny made an experiment with one of these balloons, from which he had reafon to conclude that the inflammable air not only expands in its dimenfions, but alfo acquires fpontaneoufly a fenfible energy. He obferved, that having filled the balloon about two thirds, inftead of contracting gradually, as was expected, it kept fwelling for twenty-feven hours, when it was fo completely diftended as to endanger its burfting. It then began to diminish, though in very flow degrees. 4. The beft varnish hitherto known for glazing the filk of air-balloons, is prepared from the elaftic gum, known by the name of Caoutchouc *; but this fubftance, though cheaper now than it was during the war, is ftill too dear to be brought into common ufe for that purpofe.-M. Faujas de St. Fond has applied himself to find fome subftitute for it, and gives the following receipt for preparing common gluet as a fubititute: "Put one pound of glue in a new or very clean earthen pot; make it boil gently till it ceafes to crackle, or, which is the fame thing, till a drop of it thrown into the fire, blazes. Pour then upon the glue, conftantly ftirring it with a wooden fpatula, one pound of fpirit of turpentine, removing the pot from the fire, to prevent the inflammation * For an account of this fubftance fee a former number of ur Magazine. flammation of this effential oil; boil all together during fix minutes, and pour upon the whole three pounds of boiling oil of walnuts, of linfeed or poppies, rendered deficcative by litharge: ftir this well, boil it during a quarter of an hour, and the varnifh is made. "After it has fettled about twentyfour hours, and that a fediment is formed, pour the liquor off into another pot, and when you mean to use it, warm it, and then apply it with a thick brush on the ftretched taffety: one thick layer may fuffice; but if you mean to apply two, take care that the filk be ftretched very tight; lay on the varnish in a tranfverfe direction of the former, and dry it, thus diftended, in the open air.' رو ART. CXI. An exact and authentic Narrative of M. Blanchard's third aerial Voyage from Rouen in Normandy, on the 18th of July, 1784, accompanied by M. Boby; in which they traverfed a Space of forty-five Miles in two Hours and a Quarter, inclufive of the Time employed in raifing and depreffing the Machine in the Air. Tranflated from the French of M. Blanchard. 4to. Is. 6d. Heydinger, &c. London. THE facts mentioned in this title are certified by feveral authentic affidavits. In the narrative, M. Blanchard mentions feveral circumftances which feem to put the power of directing the machine by wings out of all doubt. Se veral queries, however, have been addreffed to M. B. on the fubject of these and fome other circumstances contained in the narrative, to which an answer fhould be given before we form any opinion on the matter. ART. CXII. An Account of the firft aerial Voyage in England, in a Series of Letters to his Guardian, by Vincent Lunardi, Efq. Secretary, to the Neapolitan Ambassador. Lond. 1784. 8vo. Price 5s. with three cuts, and 2s. 6d. without the plates: one of thefe is Mr. Lunardi's picture, by way of frontispiece, engraved by Bartolozzi. Bell. THE account is here taken up from the adventurer's firft intention of executing fuch an experiment, and all the previous fteps, difappointments, and difcouragements that attended the enterprize: it is written in a fentimen tal ftrain; and we must confefs, contains many things which we did not expect to meet with on this occafion. The circumftances of this voyage are too well known to need our entering here into any detail concerning them. ART. CXIII. Hints of important Uses to be derived from aeroftatic Globes, with a Print of an aeroftatic Globe and its Appendages, originally defigned in 1783. By Thomas Martyn. Folio. 2s. White, Becket, &c. 1784. TO expedite the communication of important events by fignals; to increase the means of fafety both to fleets and armies, by affording expedients to explore, from a great elevation, adjacent coafts or regions, fleets or armies; to furnish facts to meteorology, and to facilitate the discoveries of aftronomy: fuch are the objects to which Mr. Martyn wishes to apply the aeroftatic ma chine. He is aware that the means of directing it is an effential requifite toward the fuccefs of feveral of these projects, and he gives a plate of the apparatus he conceives to be effectual for that purpose; it confifts of a mainfail, a fore-fail, and a rudder, all fixed to the boat. In many of the instances he propofes balloons retained by cords. ART. CXIV. Confilia; or, Thoughts upon several Subjects; affectionately fubmitted to the Confideration of a young Friend. Small 8vo. THESE confilia-but why the affectation of a Latin title? are divided into the fubjects of religion, in two Cadell. |