sudden changes of temperature, produces no “wasters” from these causes, and the bricks can also be burnt in a much more moist state than in ordinary kilns, as the heat is very gradually brought to bear upon them. The extraordinary and widespread success of the patent annular kilns, the beauty of the scientific principles they so ingeniously embody, and the many fresh applications of which they are capable, are well deserving a careful study. In all there are not less than five hundred of these kilns at work in different parts of the world--Europe, the United States, India, and Australia. In England and her colonies alone there are upwards of ninety in use, and the power of production, within merely England and Ireland, can be reckoned at nearly one million of bricks _daily_. Our Admiralty use five, the Indian Government already six. In the Patent Kiln there is an important source of saving in the fact that the moisture is driven into the chimney, and is never carried over the fuel, uselessly conveying away, as it would do, enormous amounts of latent heat. The chimney, which rises from the centre of the kiln, is of a circular form, about 160 feet in height, 21 feet 6 inches in diameter at the base, and 7 feet 6 inches at the top.” The analysis of the clay, as reported by Dr. Arthur E. Davis, is as follows:--silica, 56·74; alumina, 31·66; oxide of iron, 6·96; lime, 3·43; magnesia, trace; alkaline salts, 0·53; loss in analysis, 0·68; total, 100·00. The rustic terra-cotta ware produced at these works is of a very superior quality, and the designs are so true to nature as to be faultless in every respect. In this ware garden-seats, flower-pots, and flower-vases, mignonette and other boxes, spill-cases, and a variety of other articles have been made, and all are equally good in design. Among the rustic flower-pots and stands some are excellent representations of the gnarled root of a tree; the small branches of trees nailed to the sides of the vessel; and the bole of a tree beautifully modelled, and apparently hollowed out to receive the plant. In these cases the grain of the wood is well copied. Mr. Barker’s great forte in these designs seems to have been the accurate and truthful copying of nature in the barks and peculiarities of growth of various trees. Mr. Barker manufactures the ceramic part of Beckitt’s patent photographic apparatus--an apparatus consisting of an earthenware cylinder and a series of troughs of the same material, in which the cylinder is made to revolve by means of a handle; the troughs being intended for the hyposulphate bath, the gold solution, and wash, respectively. Ordinary flower-pots and other horticultural ware, of good quality and excellent material, are extensively made, and form a staple branch of the St. George’s trade. STOURBRIDGE.