ould be something new in the
application of metal. Metallurgy generally is being further
investigated by Leonhard of Heidelberg, who has just called on
manufacturers to aid him in his researches, by sending him specimens
of scoriae, particularly of those which are crystallised. Then there is
Mr Hesketh's communication to the Institute of British Architects, 'On
the Admission of Daylight into Buildings, particularly in the Narrow
and Confined Localities of Towns;' in which, after shewing that the
proportion of light admitted to buildings is generally inadequate to
their cubical contents, and means for estimating the numerical value
of that which really does enter, he states that the defect may be
remedied by the use of reflectors, contrived so as to be 'neither
obstructive nor unsightly.' He explains, that 'a single reflector may
generally be placed on either the outside or inside of a window or
skylight, so as to throw the light from the (perhaps small) portion of
sky which remains unobscured overhead, to any part in which more light
is required.' Such difficulties of position or construction as present
themselves, 'may be overcome in almost every case, by, as it were,
cutting up the single reflector into strips, and arranging them one
above the other, either in the reveal of the window, or in some other
part where it will not interfere with ventilation, or the action of
the sashes.' This is adopting the principle on which improved
lighthouse reflectors are constructed; and we are told, that 'the
combinations may be arranged horizontally, vertically, or obliquely,
according to the positions of the centre of the unobscured portion of
sky, and of the part into which the light is to be thrown, and
according to the shape of the opening in which the combination is to
be placed.' As a case in point, it was mentioned that a reflector 'had
been fitted to a vault (at the Depot Wharf, in the Borough) ninety-six
feet in depth from front to back. The area into which the window opens
is a semicircle, with a heavy iron-grating over it; and the result is,
that small print can be easily read at the far end of the vault.' It
is a fact worth knowing, that reflectors may be so constructed as to
throw all the available daylight into any required direction; and in
one instance the reflector may be made to serve at the same time as a
dwarf venetian window-blind. Instead of wooden splats or laths, flat
glass tubes or prisms are used, fitted in