Page 174 - Reading Mercury
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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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