They write from Gelderland of a very Great Tempest that happen'd there on Easter day, that in many places there fell hail stones weigheing above a pound, that much cattle was kild, & corn spoyl'd & many trees torn up by the Roots. We had <at> the same time likewise a very great Tempest here but it did not <do> so much harm as in other †places deleted parts.

An ingenious Teacher of Mathematicks, having occasion to make a Composition for a new Fire Engine, whereof he was to show his Majesty a Tryal, mingled divers Ingredients in an Earthen Pot over <kindled coals;>replacing 'the Fire' but could not, or did not, do it so warily but that the Matter took Fire & began to blaze furiously, which oblig'd him to stifle the Flame as hastily as he could; & having remov'd the vessel from the Fire, & suffer'd it to <grow> cold, when afterwards he came to look upon it, to see if what remain'd might be of any use to him, he was surpris'd to find it variously & briskly mov'd. Wherefore having set it aside, to be sure that it might be throughly cold, he after some hours visited it again, & found it move as before. And having cast store <of> Seeds upon it, to seealtered from 'obs' if the Liquor would move them also, the Bituminous part of it connected them into a kind of thick scum, that cover'd most of the superficies; but yet left some Intervals, in which the Liquor appear'd, & discover'd that it continu'd its Motions. Two dayes after the Engineer discoursing with me of his Fire work, about which he had advis'd with me before, told me among other things of this odd Accident. And when I had ask'd him if the Motion continu'd still, & had been answer'd affirmatively, thô it was then a dark night & ill Weather, my diffidence or my Curiosity made me †c deleted engage him to send for the Pot as it was, partly to be sure of the matter of fact, & partly to try if the knowledge I had of the Ingredients, which he had before told me, would <afford>replacing 'give' any hint of the Cause of so odd an effect. †Alik deleted Alike to which in kind, thô not in degree, I had many years before devis'd & successfully practis'd the way of producing.

The vessel being come, thô the hasty transportation of it †had appear'd deleted seem'd to have sufficiently disturb'd it, there did appear manifest Signs of such a Motion as the Engineer had ascrib'd to it; & therefore he being willing to leave it with me, I caus'd it to be set †down in deleted aside in a Laboratory, where some Furnaces kept the Air constantly warm, & did there & elsewhere at distant times look heedfully upon it; now and then