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An improved method of freeing iron stone and other metallic ores from shale has recently been invented by John Harding, of Leeds, England. In preparing some iron ores for the furnace, it has to be separated from the shale, in which it is found imbedded. This has hitherto been performed by spreading the ore upon the surface of the ground, and subjecting it to the aciion of the weather until the shale is sufficiently loosened to allow of its being chipped off the ore by manual labor. This is a work of months and years, and is a costly process, in consequence of the number of men necessarily employed in spreading, chipping, c. The improvement consists in subjecting the ore shales to the action of steam, and accomplishes in a f ewhours results which require months of exposure to the weather to otherwise obtain, and are then very often imperfectly accomplished. DRYING "WOOD.—One of the cheapest and most effectual methods of drying wood is to expose it in a closed chamber to steam heated to about 400 or 500 Fah., which will extract all the moisture.
