(See Encycl.). Sir George Staunton informs us, that of the Chinese lanterns, some were such as we have described, viz. composed of thin silk gauze, painted or wrought in needle-work with figures of birds, insects, flowers, or fruit, and stretched on neat frames of wood. Others, however, were very different, being entirely made of horn. These were so thin and transparent, that they were taken at first for glass; a material to which, for this purpose, the horn is preferable by the Chinese, as cheaper, lighter, less liable to accident, and, in case of accident, more easily repaired; many of them were about two feet in the diameter, and in the form of a cylinder, with the ends rounded off, and the edges meeting in the point to which the suspending cords were tied. Each lantern consisted of an uniform piece of horn, the joints, or seams, being rendered invisible by an art found out by the Chinese; among whom, the vast number of such lanterns used in their dwelling houses and temples, as well as on the occasions of their festivals and processions, have led to many trials for improving their construction. The horns generally employed are those of sheep and goats. The usual method of managing them, according to the information obtained upon the spot, is to bend them by immersion in boiling water, after which they are cut open and flattened; they then easily scale, or are separated into two or three thin laminae or plates. In order that these plates should be made to join, they are exposed to the penetrating effect of steam, by which they are rendered almost perfectly soft. In this state the edges of the pieces to be joined are carefully scraped and fluted off, so that the pieces overlapping each other shall not together exceed the thickness of the plate in any other part. By applying the edges, thus prepared, immediately to each other, and pressing them with pincers, they intimately adhere, and incorporating, form one substance, similar in every respect to the other parts; and thus uniform pieces of horn may be prepared to almost any extent. It is a contrivance little known elsewhere, however simple the process appears to be; and perhaps some minute precautions are omitted in the general description, which may be essential to its complete success.

Such lanterns as these would be very proper for military storehouses; and Rochon of the National Institute was employed, since the commencement of the present war, to make them, if he could, for the marine storehouses of France. While he was thus engaged, however, it occurred to him, that he might supply the pressing wants of the navy without horn, merely by filling up the interstices of wire-cloth with fine transparent glue. In carrying this thought into execution, he at first tinned the iron wires of the sieve cloth he made use of; but afterwards found it more convenient, in every respect, to give it a slight coating of oil paint to preserve it from rust. The glue he made use of was afforded by boiling the clippings of parchment with the air-bladders and membranes of sea fish; materials which he used, not from any notion that they were preferable to flax, but because they were the cheapest he could procure. He added the juice of garlic and cider to his composition, in such proportions as he found to communicate great tensility, and somewhat more of transparency than it would have possessed without them. Into this transparent and very pure glue or size he plunged his wire cloth, which came out with its interstices filled with the compound. It is requisite that the size should possess a determinate heat and consistence, concerning which experience alone must guide the operator.

When this prepared wire cloth is fixed in the lantern, it must be defended from moisture by a coating of pure drying linseed oil; but even in this state it is not fit to be exposed to the weather. The ease with which these lanterns are repaired in case of accident, by a flight flight coating of glue, is pointed out as a great advantage by the inventor; who likewise informs us, that they were used in the expedition to Ireland as signal lanterns, though contrary to his wishes.