ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume III, Issue 140, 2 December 1846, Page 4

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

Engraving on Glass. — We have lately < had an opportunity of inspecting some beautiful specimens of printing from designs engraved, or rather etched, upon glass ; the process | is invented by a German, and the specimens far exceed in beauty and clearness any of the kind that we have ever before seen. Glass is a substance formed by the chemical union of several materials : almost the only chemical substance capable of affecting it is the element fluorine, under the form of hydrofluoric acid. When glass is exposed to the action of this agent, it is speedily dissolved, owing to the destruction of its chemical character as glass and the formation of a new substance by the union of the fluorine with its elements. This action may be stopped at pleasure, so that the glass may be either externally affected only or otherwise entirely dissolved. The process employed in the etching is as follows : — The plate glass is covered with a very thin coating of bitumen and wax, a coating of sufficient thickness only to be continuous upon the surface of the plate ; through this the design is traced with a sharp steel needle, and etched as in ordinary etching ; the plate is then subjected to the action of the solvent, the effect of which may be regulated to a nicety ; when this action has continued sufficiently long for the delicate parts, they are stopped out, and the stronger lines further bitten, until the effect is complete. The glass plate is then rendered thicker by plaster of Paris, so as to be able to resist the pressure in printing. The great advantage of this process is in the solivent employed : this is as yet kept secret by the inventor. The engravings by this method possess extraordinary sharpness and delicacy and the plates do not wear like copper or steel. 1 The ExrtosroN at Algiers, in March, i 1845. — In the Place are the principal hotels, the fashionable cafes, and the best shops. As the night closed in, the cafes bl&'zed with light' and the square was thronged with officers, soldiers, sailors, Jews, Modrs, Aihbs, the 1 Wealthy m&chbnt, *nd the poor colonist, the 1

freed negro, tHe awkwtid 1 conscript if the lttt "tirage," tridthc handsome dragoon in the soldier like uniform of the "ChMseufrs d'Afrique," mingled togethier in a scene of picturesque confusion, each, following his own method in search of pleasure after the toils of the past day. The scene of gaiety was, however, soon to change. At ten o'clock, we left the Cafe de la Ferle, and lingering- near the entrance with the sound of the music still ringing in our ears, were startled by a- bright flash in the direction of the harbour ; a sheet of flame rose in the air, instantaneously followed by a loud explosion, and then several smaller ones in rapid succession ; the! ground shook as with an earthquake, and broken glass , from the windows facing the sea fell in showers around us. For a few seconds a dead silence reigned ; the cfowd seemed paralyzed; not a word was spoken ; each looked round upon his neighbours, as if seeking information from those as ignorant as himself. Then, with one impulse, as if the spell that had held the crowd motionless had been suddenly broken, a' rush was made towards the harbour. Everybody spoke at once ; a hundred wonderful and contradictory rumours passed from mouth to mouth with extraordinary rapidity. Abd-el-Kader and the Arabs are attacking the city !" cried one, "Ii is an earthquake.'"* ' No, no, it is the English, it is 'la perfide Albion!'" exclaimed another, " who according to her usual custom, has, without declaring war, seized upon the harbour and the fleet." " Nonsense !" answered another, " I tell you the great magazine on the Mole has exploded, and the lighthouse, the arsenal, the admiralty, the admiral, and all his staff are blown up." This last report, although greatly exaggerated, unfortunately proved to be but too true ; upwards of a hundred fellow-beings had in a few seconds been hurried unwarned into the presence of their j God. Lord Fielding being separated in the confusion from Count de Goltz and myself, was one of the first who reached the scene, and met the survivors of this sad event ; officers, soldiers, and sailors, mixed with ladies, some dressed for an evening party, and others;^ risen from their beds with infants in their ;' arms, as they had rushed from the neighbour- *" ing houses in the first impulse of terror ; the moans of the wounded, alas ! but few in number, were mingled with the screams of the frightened children ; wives were seeking their husbands.parents their children,and friends each other ; no one knew who had perished, or who had escaped, and in some cases this dreadful uncertainty lasted until morning, members of the same family having in the darkness and | confusion taken refuge in different houses. | Next morning, on visiting the scene, we found that a large building, situated between the Admiralty and the lighthouse, was a heap of ruins ; blocks of stone, huge beams, and masses of masonry confusedly thrown together, the portions of the walls that were still standing cracked in various places ; the houses occupied by the flag-captain and the captain of the fort much damaged, the sides nearest the explosion blown down ; the lantern of the " phare" broken, and the admiralty slightly damaged. During this and many succeeding days the troops were busily employed searching for the bodies^raany of which were not discovered for sorae time ; one poor wretch was found alive amid the ruins on the fourth, day ; and in one long room, used as an artillery barrack, and containing rows of beds on either side, nearly fifty bodies were found ly- | ing in death, as they had laid them down to sleep ; and in the centre the crushed and disfigured remains of a party engaged at play, | the stakes before them, and the cards still firmly grasped in their stiffened handt. The I fate of Madame , the wife of the portcaptain, was most melancholy. Whilst in the midst of her friends, who, to the number of thirty, were that evening collected at her house, she heard her child crying in the adjoining room; she hastened to soothe it, and on crossing the passage from one door to the other, the explosion took place ; she was killed instantaneously ; her child in one room, and her husband and friends in the other, escaping unhurt. The daughter of Madame——, a little girl between four and five years of age, was asleep in a room, part of the roof of which was blown down ; she was taken out of bed and carried from the port to the Grand-palace still asleep, neither the noise of the explosion, the falling ruins, nor the removal having awoke her. The total loss by this melancholy accident proved to be 104 killed and 13 wounded. The cause of the explosion will probably for «ver. remain unknown.— -Algiers and Tunis in 1845.