Page 174 - Reading Mercury
P. 174

of  mercury  heated  to  167  degrees,  and  then  washed  in  distilled  water,  when  the
                   impression is permanently fixed. The apparatus is to be purchased for 400 francs, and
                   the price of each prepared sheet is three francs. The house of Giroux in the Rue du
                   Coq, Paris, will have them soon on sale.

                        th
                   Sat 7  Sept
                                              THE NEW POSTAGE PLAN
                      The Lords of the Treasury have offered a reward of £200 for the proposal which
                   they may consider to be the best suited for carrying into effect the new plan of the
                   Penny Postage, and £100, for the next best proposal. The Act is expected to take place
                           st
                   on the 1  of January next. It is intended that stamped envelopes shall be sold at all
                   Post Offices.

                        THE GALVANIC TELEGRAPH AT THE GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY
                      The  space  occupied  by  the  case  containing  the  machinery  (which  simply  stands
                   upon a table, and can be removed at pleasure to any part of the room) is little more
                   than  that  required  for  a  gentleman’s  hat  box.  The  telegraph  is  worked  by  merely
                   pressing small brass keys (similar to those of a keyed bugle), which acting (by means
                   of galvanic power) upon various hands placed upon a dial-slate at the other end of the
                   telegraphic line, as far as now opened, point not only to each letter of the alphabet (as
                   each  key  may  be  struck  or  pressed),  but  the  numerals  are  indicated  by  the  same
                   means,  as  well  as  the  various  points,  from  a  comma  to  a  colon,  with  notes  of
                   admiration and interjection. There is likewise a cross (x) upon the dial which indicates
                   that when this key is struck a mistake has been made in some part of the sentence
                   telegraphed, and that an “erasure” is intended. A question—such, for instance, as the
                   following:--“How many passengers, started from Drayton by the ten o’clock train?”
                   and the answer could be transmitted from the terminus to Drayton and back in less
                   than  two  minutes.  This  was  proved  on  Saturday  se’nnight  This  mode  of
                   communication  is  as  far  as  the  West  Drayton  station.  There  are  wires  (as  may  be
                   imagined)  communicating  with  each  end,  thus  far  completed,  passing  through  a
                   hollow iron tube, not more than an inch and a half in. diameter, which is fixed about
                   six inches above the ground, running parallel with the Railway, and about two or three
                   feet distant from it.

                            TURNPIKE TOLLS TO LET—WINDSOR FOREST TURNPIKE
                      Notice is hereby given, that the Tolls arising at the several Gates upon the Windsor
                   Forest  Turnpike  Road,  called  or  known  by  the  names  of  the  Loddon  Bridge  Gate,
                   Coppid  Beech  Lane  Gate,  and  Blacknest  Gate,  will  be  Let  by  Auction  to  the  best
                   bidder, at the house of John Wise, the Rose Inn, at Wokingham, in Berks, on Monday,
                   the sixteenth  day of September next  between the hours of Twelve and  Two in  the
                   afternoon, in the manner directed by the Act passed in the third year of the reign of his
                   late Majesty King George the Fourth, “For Regulating Turnpike Roads,” which Tolls
                   produced the last year the sum of One Thousand and Seventy-two Pounds, above the
                   expenses of collecting them, and will be put up at that sum.
                      Whoever happens to be the best bidder, must at the same time pay one month in
                   advance (if required) of the rent at which such Tolls may be let, and give security with
                   sufficient sureties, to the satisfaction of the Trustees of the said Turnpike Road, for
                   the payment of the rest of the money monthly, or in such other proportions as the said
                   Trustees may then and there direct.
                                                     John L. Roberts,

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