t was described as the discovery
that a solution of cold but caustic soda acts peculiarly on cotton fibre,
immediately causing it to contract; and although the soda can be readily
washed out, yet the fibre has undergone a change. Thus, taking a coarse
cotton fabric, and acting upon it by the proper solution of caustic soda,
this could be made much finer in appearance; and if the finest calico made
in England--known as one hundred and eighty picks to the web--be thus acted
on, it immediately appears as fine as two hundred and sixty picks.
Stockings of open weaving assume a much finer texture by the condensation
process; but the effect of the alteration is most strikingly shown by
colors: the tint of pink cotton velvet becomes deepened to an intense
degree; and printed calicoes, especially with colors hitherto applied with
little satisfaction--such as lilac--come out with strength and brilliancy,
besides producing fabrics finer than could be possibly woven by hand. The
strength, too, is increased by this process; for a string of calico which
breaks with a weight of thirteen ounces when not soaked, will bear twenty
ounces when half condensed by the caustic soda.

At a recent meeting of the Paris _Academy of Sciences_, M. YVART read an
important practical Memoir on the production of Wool, in the Merino race.
He teaches that the only means of obtaining fine wool--taking into account
the weight of the sheep's body,--is the employment of races of small size.
When the skin is very delicate, it secretes less of wool than when it is
otherwise;--the fineness of the wool is proportioned to that of the skin.
Those countries in which the winter is long or cold, or where the sheep
remains in the fold the greater part of the year, and does not lie on
ploughed lands, are especially suited to the production of the finest and
most elastic wools, those chiefly sought after for manufacture of cloth.

Experiments on the application of electro-magnetism as a motive power,
have been made with some striking results in Paris, as well as in this
country. M. Dumont, in a paper on the subject submitted to the _Female
Academy_, states, "that if in the production of great power the
electro-magnetic force is inferior to that of steam, it becomes equal to
it, and perhaps superior in the production of small power, which may be
subdivided, varied, and introduced into employments or trades requiring
but little capital, and where the absolut