thus keeps each pair of rail-bearers at the proper | rail. A few holes are punched here and there iron to the use of cast steel, it was no longer but in the horizontal arm of the rail-bearer to assist iron parts is practically unlimited. The only steel which railways have hitherto allowed themselves to use. The weight of the new system, as per dimensions shown in fig. 6, is 223 tons per mile, the cost, inclusive of laying at 9d. per yard, about £3,100. The weight of system No. 7 is 193 tons, and the cost about £2,700 per mile of single railway. But these prices are based upon the use of high-class Prussian iron, at £12 to £14 per ton, and bolts from £24 to £30 per ton; with the use of English iron the cost per mile should not exceed £2,200 per mile. I would finally urge, in favour of the iron permanent way, the consideration that wood is getting scarcer and dearer every year, and may well be saved from decaying in the ballast in order to fulfil the nobler mission of meeting the numerous wants of our domestic and social habits and dwellings. And if railways in Eng land and its colonies were generally to adopt the iron permanent way, an immense impulse would again be given to an industry now unfortunately languishing, but the prosperity of which forms the back-bone of the wealth and power of this country. BOILER EXPLOSIONS. TN flue tube. This boiler was under the re Weight and Cost of System No. 6 per Mile, calcu- the association's written reports to the lated on the price of Prussian Iron. s. d. 3 cross-bars 170 13s. 6d. 1 9 12s. Od. 0 3 0 62 bolts and nuts 48 30s. Od. 0 12 9 24s. Od. 0 1 9 member on the condition of his boilers. sented shows one of these handy combination implements, simple in construction, cheap in price, and effective in operation. It is a combination of hammer, pincers, nail-drawer, tongs, and hooks, and can be applied to varied uses about the house. The jaws A are intended to pull tacks and nails, to grasp covers of stoves, handle cooking utensils, &c. The hammer B is for driving tacks, and the hooks C for lifting pots, kettles, sad-irons, and other household appliances. The working part is of iron, and the handle of wood. It was patented through the Scientific American Patent Agency, and is manufactured by Messrs. J. C. Longshore and Brother, Mansfield, Ohio. The boiler was of patent construction, having two furnace tubes, which, instead of running right through the shell, as in those of the ordinary flued class, united behind the fire bridge in a single flue or combustion chamber of oval shape. This oval flue was strengthened by ver. tical conical water tubes, which, at the same time that they acted as stays, promoted the circulation of the water. The boiler was 7ft. in diameter and 28ft. long, while the oval flue or combustion chamber measured about 4ft. 11in. in width, and 2ft. 8in. in height, the thickness of the plates being 7-16in. in the shell, 3-8in. in the furnace tubes, and 5-16in. in the sides of the oval flue or combustion chamber, while the pressure of the steam was 50lb. per square inch. the construction of the boiler and character FIC. 1. arisen from this cause, this construction, as already stated, has for years past been given up, while thicker plates have been used, which is most important in consideration of the increase of pressure which has of late years taken place. Millowners using boilers of this patent class, if of early date, should therefore ascertain whether the oval flue is of the original or improved construction, and should it prove to be of the former, then it should either be strengthened or removed altogether. Such were the remarks in the report for December of last year, and they are equally appli. cable in the present case, while the occurrence of this explosion shows the necessity of the recommendations contained therein. The construction of the flue in question will perhaps be the better understood on reference to the following cuts:-Fig. 1 is a cross section of the boiler, showing the shape that the sides of the flue assumed after collapse. Fig. 2 is simply a diagram giving a profile view of the objectionable form of flue with the sides struck from two centres. This is now discarded in all new boilers. shows the flue adopted in the placimproved form of the now in one sweep throughout, and struck from a single centre only. It will be clear from the foregoing that this explosion is no reflection on the inspections of this association, but rather a vindication of their FIG. 3. truthfulness, since the danger was fully anticipated and faithfully pointed out in the associa tion's reports to the owner of the boiler, who frankly acknowledges the service rendered, and had ordered a new boiler in consequence, about a week before the explosion occurred, and is now rapidly removing all others on his works of similar construction to the exploded one. A letter from the Grisons reports the fall of red snow to the depth of 3in. The fall lasted about two tween Delhi and Meerut is nearly completed, as also done had their curve been struck from a single hours, and was succeeded by white to double that depth. The phenomenon in question is not uncommon, and is due to the presence of a microscopic mushroom, the proto-coeus nivalis. ment. ECONOMIC USE OF COAL. the making of iron tubing has been in the past. Where there is a demand, or where a demand can be created, there genius will find a means to supply all that is needed or called for. American Artizan. THE GLACIAL PERIOD IN NORTH WELDED BOILER JOINTS. URING the past few years many efforts have been made to do away with the lap and rivet system of joining boiler-plates; one great objection to the system of riveting being the corrosion of the plates on the interior of the boiler, where boilers are made of a single plate bent into a the line of rivets join the plates together. When circle and having only one longitudinal riveted with the longitudinal laps that occur in the lap joint, it is some improvement, as it does away Mr. Thomas Belt before the Nova Scotian This may be called the first step in the improve-teresting information, the result of observations and riveted boilers built up of sectional plates. Institute of Natural Science, contains some inments in boiler making, and seems a sensible made by him during the progress of the exploone, that ought to have been adopted when the ratory works of the Nova Scotia Gold Company, manufacture of boilers first commenced. But carried on under his direction. In alluding to seamless boilers of steel, rolled like a tube upon he maintains that the drift, had it been dropped until the time shall come when we will have the glaciated rocks and drift beds of Nova Scotia, the machinery that "is to be" in the future of from floating icebergs on a submerged land must mechanical skill, we are content to use the old have levelled when, the elevation taking place, it was exposed to the action of the waves on the style of lap and riveted boilers. spreading coast line. Mr. Belt accounts for the We find in this style of boiler two evils to con UCH has been said and written upon the D MC subject of the exhaustion of our coal-fields, and the importance of conserving as much as possible our present supply of black diamonds without effecting any radical change in the existing state of things. Here, however, we have something tangible and practical upon the subject, something, too, that cannot fail to reach the hearths of Englishmen, as it proposes about as plain and self-evident a piece of economy as ever was practised by the most economical. It is embodied in a recent letter from Mr. Recorder Warren to the Mayor of Hull, and is a valuable hint not only for the people of that place but for all people using coal in domestic fire-places. The Recorder writes:-"Wishing you and all the town and corporation a happy and prosperous new year, and many of them, I cannot leave for town without offering a practical suggestion to yourself and every householder in Hull, which may at least show my goodwill. On that suggestion I have profitably acted for tend with; corrosion of the plates by a chemical seven years, and it relates to coal. Do you wish action, and corrosion and mechanical action to have the full benefit-that is, without waste- combined. The first occurs in various parts of the boiler, and we find the surface of the plates of every ounce of coal you pay for; to save But the last-named evil nearly one-third of your ordinary consumption; irregularly pitted. to have a fire lit in the morning, which, with a tudinal as well as the transverse joints, and occurs along the line of the laps, both the longilittle care, will last nearly the whole of the day, with possibly a single replenishing, and so save it is true, can be accounted for by chemical occurs mostly below the water-line. Corrosion, trouble as well as coal, and have warmth equally principles; but when we find annular grooves distributed through your apartment, great or small?—then attend to the following practical the riveted joints, we must look to some other running parallel or in the immediate vicinity of suggestion, upon which I have acted at home cause, and must attribute it to the effects of heat with complete success, for, as I have said, seven years, and have, with a like result, recommended mechanical and chemical action. We will supupon the joints, and to the combined effort of to very many friends. The suggestion is not my pose that a chemical action has commenced own; I met with it seven years ago in a London journal. Ordinary fire-grates have open we find that the effects of heat upon the plates equally over the interior surface of the boiler; bars at the bottom, the result of which, of course, will be such that there will be unequal expansion is to place the coal between the two draughts, where the laps occur; perhaps this may be one from below and the other from above; accounted for in consequence of the plates not up the chimney, and ensure two things, rapid being in the same line of strain, and as the conconsumption and diminished heat in the apart- traction is succeeding expansion the deposit of When I arrived at my hotel last Wednes-scale induced by corrosion is cracked and broken day afternoon-a bitter cold day I found a off. This lays the surface open to a similar suc. large fire, which was twice replenished before I went to bed. The coal was excellent, but I could scarcely get warm. I prevailed on my worthy landlord to try my experiment on my fire-grate here. He has done so, and with what result? Ask him. But I will tell you that to-day my fire was made up at ten a.m. It is now five p.m. I have enjoyed, and am enjoying, a most comfortable warmth, without having to sit with in a yard of the fire. Not an ounce of additional coal has been placed on it, nothing having been required but now and then, at long intervals, a poke from beneath and a pressing down from above. Now, how is this brought about? I will tell you. Send for an ironmonger or black. smith, and order him to take the measure of the bottom of your grate and make you a sheet-iron plate of about the 1-6th of an inch in thickness, or even less, which, if your grate be large, will cost you 28. Simply lay this on the bottom of the grate, then let your servant lay and light your fire as usual. It will soon burn up, but you must keep pretty open the lowest bar, so as to secure a slight draught. When the fire has begun to burn, poke it gently from beneath, and the flame will gradually get through the entire mass of coal, the iron plate beneath gets red hot, and so keeps up a constant combustion, at the same time dispersing the heat through the room, instead of its being sent up the chimney, thus entirely consuming the coal, instead of filling the hearth with ashes. In my own house I tried the experiment for a week in the break fast-room, then in the dining-room, then in the kitchen, with uniform and complete success; and then I had the sheet-iron plate put into every fire-place-and there are many through out the house-with equal success. with the fire-place in my official residence. So I do When the fire is once made up, say about ten a.m., for the day, an occasional poke, and possibly a single replenishment, suffices for the day. In my own case, and also at my hotel here, where three scuttles were required, one now suffices." E. J. Reed, Esq., Chief Constructor of the Navy, will occupy the chair, and S. W. Worssam, Esq., the vice-chair, at the fourteenth anniversary festival of the London Association of Foremen Engineers, to take place at the Freemasons' Tavern on Feb. ruary 16 next. ceeding action, which, in process of time, forms grooves. Upon locomotive boilers this evil is much grooves being formed by corrosion poverty of the gold deposits of Nova Scotia by the absence of true alluvial deposits in that province. He observes that through much of the drift grain gold is sparingly disseminated, and its distribution affords another argument in all the most important deposits of alluvial gold favour of the supra-marine theory. In Australia, above the bed rock, beneath beds of gravel and have been found in valleys lying immediately clay; wherever surface washings have been dia. found in the vicinity. This, indeed, seems to be covered much richer deep sinkings have been a necessary result of the sorting arrangement of auriferous quartz lodes are abundant, no similar water. But in Nova Scotia, though denuded deposits have been found with one exception, to gold, instead of being concentrated at the bottom the consideration of which I will return. The of the superficial deposits, is either distributed throughout them or occurs in greater abundance at the surface than below. The great richness of the gold washings in Australia, and their scarcity and poverty in Nova Scotia, notwithstanding the abundance of auriferous lodes that have been denuded, may be thus explained :-In Australia the denuding agent was water, which carried off so that in the gravel beds nearly all the gold, the ground-up rocks, but left behind the gold; but only a small proportion of the original rock mass, is left. In Nova Scotia the denuding agent was glacier ice, which carried off alike the stony masses and their metallic contents. The drift beds left contain only the same proportion of gold as existed in the original rock mass, excepting where subaerial denudation has concentrated it on the surface. Perhaps in sediments older than the glacial period, and which have escaped destruction during it, or in the beds of existing streams, or on the present sea coast, deposits of grain gold may be found, but they I have mentioned one exception. It belongs to will be only the exceptions to the general rule. the third class; it has been produced by the waves of the sea on the existing coast line. I refer to the gold washings at the Ovens, near Lunenburgh, which, though limited in extent and soon exhausted, for a time largely remune rated some of those employed upon them. From the side of a rocky promontory, traversed by numerous small auriferous quartz veins, spreads out a bed of glacial drift, throughout which grain gold is sparingly disseminated. The sea is slowly eating into this bed, and re-arranging its mate rials. It grinds up the stones to shingle, and finally to sand and mud, which it carries off to deeper water, leaving behind the tough, heavy gold. This is found at the bottom of the shingle between tide marks, on the surface and in the crevices of the bed rock, where the gold formerly distributed throughout a large mass of drift has been concentrated. Now, if the country had been submerged during the deposition of the quent elevation, would at some time have formed glacial drift, every part of it, during its subse a portion of its ever-advancing coast line, and been subjected to the action of the waves; and such deposits as those of Lunenburgh, instead of being confined to the present shore, would have been formed all over the emerging land. The paper contains a vast amount of interesting information, which can be very profitably studied by all engaged in the search for and treatment of gold. A quick process for getting drying linseed oil is The "Melbourne Cup" day of the late Spring given by Dr. Dullo. He boils the raw oil for two Meeting of the Victoria Racing Club afforded a hours with binoxide of manganese and bydrochloric | notable instance of the extraordinary operations in acid, and so gets a rapidly drying oil in very much the shape of news-distribution which mark this less time than by the processes generally employed. telegraphic era. Within five minutes of the race The first locomotive made in New South Wales being run the names of the horses gaining first, sewas tested on Thursday, November 15, on the cond, and third places were known at Sydney and branch line between the Redfern Railway station Adelaide, and within a few minutes more at all the and Pyrmont. This locomotive, which is upwards large towns of Victoria. of 70-horse power, was made by Messrs. Vale and The Derby Mercury is informed "that the new Lacy, engineers and boiler-makers, Druitt-street, structure to replace the viaduct at Apperley Bridge, and is to be employed on the steep inclines or zig which was swept away by an extraordinary flood zags on the Great Western Railway. The trial about two months since, was completed and opened was pronounced by the scientific gentlemen present for traffic on Thursday last. The destruction of this to be very satisfactory. means of communication has occasioned a heavy diminution in the traffic receipts of the company; but the rapidity with which the new viaduct has been constructed is almost marvellous, and the design exhibits great skill; both reflect high honour on Mr. Crossley, the engineer." Geological and botanical sciences have lost an energetic observer by the untimely death of Frederick James Foot, Esq., M.A. &c., of the Geological Survey of Ireland, at the early age of 37, drowned on the 17th January, at Lough Key, near Boyle, Ireland, in endeavouring to save the lives of two people who had fallen through the ice while skating. So far as is known, there are but two mines of emery in the world, one in Chester, in Rampden county, Massachusetts, and the other in the island of Naxos, in the Ægean Sea. A letter written from Boutourlinovka, in the Russian " government" of Voronege, states that on the critical night of the 14th of November last, the phenomenon of falling stars assumed a peculiar form. A cross, composed of these meteorites of extraordinary brilliancy, appeared in the eastern part of the heavens. Around this cross there was a ring displaying the colours of the rainbow, within which a Lumber of shooting stars was observed. Two of these stars were peculiarly remarkable: they came from two opposite points, one from the east and the other from the west, met within the circle, struck against each other, and burst with a loud explosion. After this the circle and cross became iainter and fainter, and then disappeared entirely. The observatory connected with St. Gregory's College, Downside, near Bath, has been destroyed by fire. The fire originated apparently in the heating apparatus, and was rapidly communicated to the equatorial room above, in which was a magnificent refracting telescope of 15in. diameter and 20ft. focal length. The loss of the glass and astronomical plant attached to the telescope is the more unfortunate, as the observatory had only just been placed in full working order. The loss to the College of the antiquities, curiosities, and natural history collections in the museum cannot be esti mated, for they contained many unique and invaluable specimens, and were the result of fifty years' accumulation. Three pounds of amalgam, from which the liquid metal has been carefully pressed out, are said to yield 1lb. of gold. The gold remaining after the quicksilver has been driven off by the heat from the amalgam is a porous mass, somewhat resembling sponge-cake in appearance. The Montreal Gazette notices the first bloom made in that part of the world with pure peat fuel, and pronounces it of the very highest quality, equal to the best Swedish iron. The bar was bent cold by a vice, and doubled up close at right angles with an edge, without a crack or flaw appearing, the outer corners remaining smooth and sharp: a test which it is said no coal iron made in Canada will stand. The fact is of great importance to Canada, in view of her large supplies of peat and iron. The long-looked-for lions have at last made their appearance in public at the base of the Nelson Column, and grand old beasts they really lookno discredit to their designer nor to the Column they at last adorn. Mr. H. C. Sorby, whose researches with the spectrum microscope, have been recognised as of much scientific importance, has made a further advance, and, after persevering endeavours, succeeded in devising a method of measuring the spectra produced by the instrument, and of printing them in types by a simple process. The images can thus be rendered available for comparison and reference, a fact which will be appreciated alike by microscopists and spectroscopists. We shall probably hear more of Mr. Sorby's investigations before the present season closes. The skeletons of a horse and its rider, and a long rust-eaten lance lying close by, have been discovered in the midst of a tuft of bushes of extraordinary thickness, in the Forest of Cinglais, near Caen. An examination has led to the conclusion that the remains are those of a Cossack and his steed. The supposition is, that the animal, being wounded, fell with its rider into the thicket, which lies low, and that they were unable to extricate themselves. A company is said to be forming, for the construction of a steam tram road of about 250 miles in the province of Bahia, and 200,000 acres of Brazilian forest are to be conceded to the company. A volcano in the moon is said to be in an active state. The crater called Linné, on the Mare Serenitatis, was noticed by an astronomer at Athens, a M. Schmidt, during the months of October and November to be obscured. English photographs taken during the same time show the crater very faintly marked. The same darkness was observed on this spot by the eminent astronomer Schroeter, in November, 1788. The impression is that an erup: tion is going on, but, says the Spectator, if so, must not the moon have an atmosphere? Could combustion take place without oxygen? Would the smoke-the carbonic acid gas-rise without some heavier gas, like atmospheric air, to rise in. It is apparent that the Italian Government is both anxious and willing to give its support to the development of the mineral riches of the country, which have hitherto attracted but little attention, and not nearly so much as they deserve. In the year 1866 alone fifteen mining concessions have been granted, viz. :- Six for iron mines, one for copper, one for gold, one for lignite, one for sulphur, two for lead, and three for petroleum. Seven very im. portant petroleum deposits have been discovered in the southern part of the province of Naples." The Hobart Town Mercury states:-"The last of the male aboriginal natives called at the office on Thursday, and informed us that he was leaving the colony, and going 'home' to England in the ship Ethel. His name is William Lanney, aged about twenty-nine years. He says he was born at Laun ceston." It appears that castor oil is much better to soften and to redeem old leather than any other oil known. When boots or shoes are greased with it, the oil will in the case with lard, olive, or any ether oil. In not at all interfere with the polishing afterwards, as Harrisburg, Pensylvania, the old leather hose of some of the fire companies was greased with it, and found to become almost as soft and flexible as new leather. Leather belts for transmitting motion in machinery will usually last from three to five years, according to the wear and tear they are exposed to; when greased with castor oil it is said they will last ten years or more, as they always remain flexible and do not crack. Besides this advantage, castor oil will prevent slipping, so that a belt 3in. wide, impregnated with it, will be equal to a belt 4in. wide without castor oil. The American papers, referring to the statistics of the productions of the oil regions during the past year, express a hope that science may soon do something to bring petroleum into use for purposes in addition to those of illumination. The yield of 1866 was so far in excess of the demand that it is calculated the present year commenced with a surplus on hand in the various markets of the world of 733,000 barrels of refined, "which will have to be consumed before the production of 1867 can be brought forward." Atlantic yacht race, was Mr. Steer, an Englishman, The builder of the "Henrietta," the winner of the formerly of Plymouth. The Eastern Railway Company, France, has just adopted a new third class carriage. It is two stories high, and contains seats for 80 persons. Notwithstanding the repeated cautions which the public have received against the use of green paper for covering the walls of rooms, &c., from the dangerous effects so insidiously produced by the arsenic which forms the basis of the colouring matter of the most attractive hues, another death from this cause has just taken place at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London. The Manchester statue of the Prince Consort was unveiled on Wednesday week. The statue, 9ft. high, is in Sicilian marble, the Prince being repreThe magnesium light has for some time been ap-sented in the robes of the Order of the Garter. It plied to photographing places where the light of has been executed by Mr. Noble. day cannot penetrate, such as the interior of the Pyramids. The director of the Polytechnic School of Lemberg has just taken by this means some very successful sketches of the ancient tombs in the crypt of the Dominican church in that city. The annual value of the madder cultivated in Vaucluse and Alsace is estimated at £480,000. The plant is used as a dye for the red trousers of the French soldiers. In England a large amount of madder is annually used in cotton printing. Patents for Inventions. ABRIDGED SPECIFICATIONS OF PATENTS THE Abridged Specifications of Patents given below are classified, according to the subjects to which the respective inventions refer, in the following Table. By the system of classification adopted, the numerical and chronological order of the specifications is preserved, and combined with all the advantages of a division into classes. It should be understood that these abridgements are prepared exclu sively for this Magazine from official copies supplied by the Government, and are therefore the property of the Proprietors of this Magazine. Other papers are hereby warned not to produce them without an acknowledgeBOILERS AND FURNACES,-1789, 1792, 1811, 1813 BUILDINGS AND BUILDING, MATERIALS,-1768, 1770, 1787, ment: 1794, 1726, 1820 CHEMISTRY AND PHOTOGRAPHY—1778, 1786 FIBROUS FABRICS, including machinery for treating fibres, pulp, paper, &c.,-1769, 1774, 1775, 1790, 1791, 1804, 1814, 1816, 1835 FOOD AND BEVERAGES, Including apparatus for preparing food for men and animals,-1801, 1834 FURNITURE AND APPAREL, including household utensils, time-keepers, jewellery, musical instruments, &c.,1771, 1798, 1799, 1806, 1807, 1821 GENERAL MACHINERY,-1765, 1772, 1773, 1776, 1780, 1785, 1788, 1812, 1816, 1817, 1829, 1832 LIGHTING, HEATING, AND VENTILATING,-1782, 1827 METALS, including apparatus for their manufacture,MISCELLANEOUS, -1795, 1797, 1800, 1809 1823 ROADS AND VEHICLES, including railway plant and car riages, saddlery, and harness, &c.,-1766, 1784, 1815, SHIPS AND BOATS, including their fittings,-1713, 1805, 1833 1818 STEAM ENGINES,-1767, 1777, 1781, 1802, 1808, 1822, 1824, 1830, 1831 WARFARE,-1793, 1810, 1819, 1828 1764 H. TYERMAN. Improvements in reaping and mow. ing machines. Dated July 3, 1866. This invention relates to means of guiding and working the knife or cutting instrument employed in reaping and mowing machines, and the object is to prevent the great wear and tear of the working parts, and the waste of motive power in working them. The invention consists in the application of a slidable joint-piece, which the inventor mounts upon one or more slide bars or rods fixed to the framing, parallel with the knife, to which the knife is attached, and to this joint-piece he attaches the connecting rod. He also applies a spring or springs to this jointpiece, which spring or springs is or are compressed or deflected at each end of the stroke, consequently producing an elastic cushion for receiving the weight and force or momentum of the knife; and it also exerts a reaction thereon, causing it to recoil or rebound, thus returning the crank pin and connecting joints. Patent abandoned. for tapping and cutting screws, and machinery to be em1765 W. ADKINS. Certain improvements in taps and dies ployed in effecting the same. Dated July 3, 1866. Instead of facing the out line of a tap parallel or nearly so with its axis, as now commonly practised, the inventor purposes making the cut line of a spiral form, more or less angular, but he believes a half turn will be found sufficient. Secondly, the improvements consist in fashioning the lower end of the tap with two or more cutting edges, like a drill, so that as the tap is driven into the hole as a plug at the first start, and then turned, as the draught is imparted from the thread to the part to be tapped, so the cutting edges on the lower ends of the tap regulate and clear the hole in the nut for the thread to follow up and complete the work. Patent abandoned. 1766 H. WOOTTON. Improvements in the construction and arrangement of self-acting railway signals. Dated July 3, 1866. This invention has reference to self-acting signals for use in juxtaposition to the rails. The signals employed may on railways, the same being operated by signal levers placed be whistles, bells, or other suitable sounding apparatus. Patent completed. 1767 W. ADOLPH. Improvements in apparatus for obtaining motive power by means of steam. (A communica tion.) Dated July 3, 1866. This invention relates to a machine consisting of two essential parts-first, an apparatus arranged to produce an artificial fall of liquid by means of the pressure of steam second, a turbine upon which this fall, or this compressed liquid, produces its action in the ordinary manner. The invention cannot be described without reference to the drawings. Patent completed. 1768 A. P. J. ALLEMAND and L. G. SPETSER. Improve" ments in machinery for making bricks, which improvements are also applicable for moulding blocks for building, or for artificial fuel, or for other purposes. Dated July 3, 1866. According to this invention the clay or material of which bricks or blocks are to be formed is placed in a hopper which is open at the bottom, and the moulds in which the bricks or blocks are to be formed are caused to pass in succession below the bottom of the hopper, in order to be filled. The moulds are, for this purpose, formed on tracks or carriages linked or connected together so as to form an endless chain, to which a continuous motion is imparted. After the moulds have been filled with brick-making or other material from the hopper, they are carried onwards until they are brought under a roller, which is pressed downwards towards the moulds hy weighted levers or otherwise; this roller, by pressing down on to the top of the materials, compresses them into the moulds. As the moulds move onwards beyond the roller, they pass below knives or scrapers which remove any excess of the materials from above the top of the moulds. The materials in the moulds are next subjected to pressure from below. Each mould is, for this purpose, provided with a movable bottom or piston, capable of rising upwards into the mould, and scrapers these pistons are pressed upwards, whilst at the when the moulds have been moved past the knives or same time the moulds pass under another roller, The |