of Faber, which created considerable sensation four or five years ago. It is thus described by a German correspondent of the Athenæum :-"You are aware that the attempts of Cagniard la Tour, Biot, Muller, and Steinle, to produce articulate sounds, or even to imitate the human voice, have not been very successful; in fact, our knowledge of the physiology of the larynx and its appendices has been so limited, that we have not even an explanation of the mode in which the falsetto is produced. Mr Faber's instrument solves the difficulties. I can only give you a very imperfect idea of the instrument. To understand the mechanism perfectly, it would be necessary to take it to pieces, and the dissection naturally is not shown the visitor, less from a wish to conceal anything, than from the time and labour necessary for such a purpose. The machine consists of a pair of bellows, at present only worked by a pedal similar to that of an organ, of a caoutchouc imitation of the larynx, tongue, nostrils, and of a set of keys by which the springs are brought into action. The rapidity of utterance depends of course upon the rapidity with which the keys are played; and though my own attempts to make the instrument speak sounded rather ludicrous, Mr Faber was most successful. There is no doubt that the machine may be much improved, and more especially that the timbre of the voice may be agreeably modified. The weather naturally affects the tension of the India-rubber; and although Mr Faber can raise the voice or depress it, and can lay a stress upon a particular syllable or a word, still, one cannot avoid feeling that there is room for improvement. This is even more evident when the instrument is made to sing; but when we remember what difficulty many people have to regulate their own choreæ vocales, it is not surprising that Mr Faber has not yet succeeded in giving us an instrumental Catalani or Lablache. Faber is a native of Freybourg, in the Grand Duchy of Baden; he was formerly attached to the observatory at Vienna, but owing to an affection of the eyes, was obliged to retire upon a small pension: he then devoted himself to the study of anatomy, and now offers the result of his investigations, and their application to mechanics, to the world of science."

CALCULATING MACHINES.

Closely allied to automata, but evincing a greater degree of scientific skill, are the various machines which have from time to time been invented to lessen the drudgery of long and continuous calculation. The principles upon which the increase and decrease of numbers depend, are as fixed as nature herself; and these once known, wheel-machinery of determinate proportions may be constructed to perform every operation in arithmetic with the utmost facility and accuracy. It is well known that in calculations involving the powers and roots of numbers, progression, equations, logarithms, and the like, it not only requires

great expertness, but accuracy-an accuracy which is scarcely attainable under the strictest human attention. Such calculations are of indispensable utility in astronomy, navigation, and geography, as well as in general mathematics; and, for application, are usually printed in tabular forms, embracing many hundred pages of thick-set figures. To complete such tables with perfect accuracy would require the life-work of several calculators; and yet, by well-arranged machinery, Mr Babbage has demonstrated that they could be calculated and printed, free from errors, in the course of a few weeks.

The most extensive and ingenious of calculating machines are undoubtedly those invented, and so far perfected, by Mr Babbage. That constructed at the expense of government for the calculation of astronomical and nautical tables, is, we believe, not yet completed, in consequence of some misunderstanding which caused a suspension of its progress in 1833. This employed 120 figures in its calculation. At a later period, Mr Babbage began another on his own account, intended to compute with 4000 figures! Of the former invention, Sir David Brewster, in 1832, speaks in the following terms:-"Of all the machines which have been constructed in modern times, the calculating machine is doubtless the most extraordinary. Pieces of mechanism for performing particular arithmetical operations have been long ago constructed; but these bear no comparison, either in ingenuity or in magnitude, to the grand design conceived and nearly executed by Mr Babbage. Great as the power of mechanism is known to be, yet we venture to say that many of the most intelligent of our readers will scarcely admit it to be possible, that astronomical and navigation tables can be accurately computed by machinery-that the machine can itself correct the errors which it may commit-and that the results of its calculations, when absolutely free from error, can be printed off without the aid of human hands, or the operation of human intelligence. All this, however, Mr Babbage's machine can do; and as I have had the advantage of seeing it actually calculate, and of studying its construction with the inventor himself, I am able to make the above statement on personal observation. The machine consists essentially of two parts-a calculating part, and a printing part, both of which are necessary to the fulfilment of Mr Babbage's views; for the whole advantage would be lost if the computations made by the machine were copied by human hands, and transferred to types by the common process. The greater part of the calculating machinery is already constructed, and exhibits workmanship of such extraordinary skill and beauty, that nothing approaching to it has been witnessed." At a later period, we find Dr Lardner stating that the principle on which this machine was founded was one of a perfectly general nature, and that it was therefore applicable to numerical tables of every kind, and that it was capable not only of computing and printing, with per

fect accuracy, an unlimited number of copies of every numerical table which has ever hitherto been wanted, but also that it was capable of printing every table that can ever be required. It appears that the front elevation of the calculating machinery presents seven upright columns, each consisting of eighteen cages of wheelwork, the mechanism of each cage being identically the same, and consisting of two parts, one capable of transmitting addition from the left to the right, and the other capable of transmitting the process of carrying upwards; for it seems that all calculations are by this machinery reduced to the process of addition. There will, therefore, be one hundred and thirty-six repetitions of the same train of wheelwork, each acting upon the other, and the process of addition with which the pen would be going on successively from figure to figure, will here be performed simultaneously, and, as the mechanism cannot err, with unfailing accuracy. The results of the calculating section are transferred by mechanical means to the printing machinery, and the types are moved by wheelwork, and brought successively into the proper position to leave their impressions on a plate of copper; this copper serving as a mould from which stereotyped plates without limit may be taken.

It has been hinted at in the above description, that various calculating machines have been invented-all, however, of inferior pretensions to that of Mr Babbage. Thus, Louis Forchi, a Milanese cabinetmaker, constructed a machine capable of performing the simple rules of arithmetic with exactitude. This invention is of recent date: its author was awarded the gold medal of the Milan Institute for his ingenuity. In 1838, an instrument called the Surveyors' Calculator was invented by a Mr Heald, for the purpose of avoiding the necessity of long calculations in surveying estates. This instrument, which is somewhat upon the principle of the sliding scale, can also be used in extracting the roots of numbers, and in ordinary operations of multiplication and division.

MINIATURE MACHINERY.

Much skill and perseverance have been displayed by the ingenious in all ages in the construction of miniature objects-the purposes to be gained being minuteness of proportions with delicacy of finish. Veritable watches have been set in finger-rings; a dinner-set, with all its appurtenances, placed in a hazel-nut; and a coach and four enclosed in a cherry-stone. Beyond the mere training of the hand and eye to the accomplishment of delicate work, there can be nothing gained by such exhibitions of ingenuity; and were it not for this acquirement, we might safely pronounce all these tiny inventions as the offspring of ingenious trifling.

Cicero, according to Pliny's report, saw the whole Iliad of Homer written in so fine a character that it could be con

tained in a nut-shell; and Ælian speaks of one Myrmecides, a Milesian, and of Callicrates, a Lacedæmonian, the first of whom made an ivory chariot, so small and so delicately framed that a fly with its wing could at the same time cover it and a little ivory ship of the same dimensions; the second formed ants and other little animals out of ivory, which were so extremely small that their component parts were scarcely to be distinguished with the naked eye. He states also, in the same place, that one of those artists wrote a distich, in golden letters, which he enclosed in the rind of a grain of corn.

The tomb of Confucius, a miniature model, of Chinese workmanship, is considered as the most elaborate, costly, and beautiful specimen of Oriental ingenuity ever imported into Europe. It is chiefly composed of the precious metals and japan work, and adorned with a profusion of gems; but its chief value consists in the labour expended on its execution. Its landscapes, dragons, angels, animals, and human figures, would require several pages of description, which, after all, would, without a view of the model, prove tedious and unintelligible. The late Mr Cox of London declared it to be one of the most extraordinary productions of art he ever beheld, and that he could not undertake to make one like it for less than £1500.

Among the many curious works of art produced by the monks and nuns of ecclesiastical establishments, none have been so much admired as their fonts, real and in model. On these were often lavished vast sums, and all the ingenuity which the sculptor, carver, or worker in metal could command. The font of Raphael has long been known and admired; that executed by Acavala in 1562, and presented by an emperor of Germany to Philip II. of Spain, may be considered, however, as the most elaborate of these performances. The model is contained in a case of wrought gold, and is itself of boxwood. The general design may be regarded as architectural, embellished with several compartments of sculpture or carving, consisting of various groups of figures in alto and basso relievos. These display different events in the life of Christ, from the Annunciation to his crucifixion on Mount Calvary. The groups are disposed in panels and niches on the outside, and in different recesses within. Some of the figures are less than a quarter of an inch in height; but though thus minute, are all finished with the greatest precision and skill; and what renders this execution still more curious and admirable, is the delicacy and beauty with which the back and distant figures and objects are executed. Though only twelve inches in height, and from half an inch to four inches in diameter, it is adorned with various architectural ornaments, in the richest style of Gothic, and also figures of the Virgin and child, a pelican with its young, six lions in different attitudes, several inscriptions, and thirteen compositions of basso and alto relievo. The work is said to be of unrivalled merit and

beauty, and will bear the most microscopic inspection. It was offered for sale in England about thirty years ago; but we are ignorant of its after-destination.

We have seen that Arnold, the London watchmaker, constructed a watch for George III., which was set in a finger-ring; but this was nothing uncommon, for the Emperor Charles V., as well as James I. of England, had similar ornaments in the jewels of their rings; and this species of mechanism is sometimes witnessed, on a larger scale, in the bracelets of ladies. In Kirby's Museum, notice is taken of an exhibition at the house of one Boverick, a watchmaker in the Strand (1745), at which were shown, among other things, the following curiosities:-1st, The furniture of a dining-room, with two persons seated at dinner, and a footman in waiting-the whole capable of being enclosed in a cherry-stone; 2d, a landau in ivory, with four persons inside, two postilions, a driver, and six horses-the whole fully mounted and habited, and drawn by a flea; and 3d, a four-wheel open chaise, equally perfect, and weighing only one grain. Another London exhibitor, about the same time, constructed of ivory a tea-table, fully equipped, with urn, teapot, cups, saucers, &c.—the whole being contained in a Barcelona filbert shell.

In 1828, a mechanic of Plymouth completed a miniature cannon and carriage, the whole of which only weighed the twentyninth part of a grain. The cannon had bore and touch-hole complete the gun was of steel, the carriage of gold, and the wheels of silver. The workmanship was said to be beautiful, but could only be seen to advantage through a powerful magnifying glass. In the Mechanics' Magazine for 1845, mention is made of a high-pressure steam-engine-the production of a watchmaker who occupies a stand at the Polytechnic Institution—so small that it stands upon a fourpenny piece, with ground to spare! "It is," says our authority, "the most curious specimen of minute workmanship ever seen, each part being made according to scale, and the whole occupying so small a space that, with the exception of the fly-wheel, it might be covered with a thimble. It is not simply a model outwardly; it works with the greatest activity by means of atmospheric pressure (in lieu of steam); and the motion of the little thing, as its parts are seen labouring and heaving under the influence, is indescribably curious and beautiful."

MONSTER BELLS.

A curious department of art, in which some nations, those of the East in particular, have signalised their ingenuity, is that of founding bells of enormous magnitude. Perhaps of all people, the Chinese manifest the strongest predilection for large bells. At Nanking, we are told, some were cast, about three hundred years ago, of such prodigious size, that they brought down the tower in which they hung: the whole building fell to ruin, and