contained inside the same, and a third set laid upon the floating or other rubbers at the bottom of the tank. A series of any of the rubbers shown at Figs. 1, 2, 3, and 4, may be connected by cords in the form of an endless band of rubbers, and placed on the surface of the cylinder to be used in combination with other rubbers in the tank or wash ing vessel. Fig. 14 represents a washing machine composed of circular brushes, 4, 4, acting in combination with in endless travelling net, B, of open or large mesh, and net is carried on rollers, C, C, and has the articles to be washed attached thereto in any convenient manner, whilst the brushes, 4, will act through the net so as to cleanse or rub both sides of the linen simultaneously. In place of rotatory brushes a reciprocating rubber in combination with the open net may be employed, and fitted either with benches or with any of the other rubbers.

combined or not with rubbers as before referred to. This

ON A QUICK-WORKING POWER-ENGINE. ABOUT two years since, an English Baronet addressed us a manuscript bearing the above title, requesting that it might be printed in our columns. Believing it unsound, we refused the communica tion, and were at some pains to satisfy the author, who had spent much time and energy upon the invention, that he was incorrect in some of his views. After much further study and research, the author has again addressed us upon the subject in the following note, which was accompanied by the As his request is a moderate, and, all things considered, a very natural one, we have consented to comply with it. Should any of our readers feel disposed to offer any observations upon the author's paper, it will be convenient for them to defer doing so until the publication of the document itself is completed :

paper in a revised form.

| because the amount of resistance is small, as is the volume of the water forced in.

But, in the same proportion, the quantity supplied is small to fill up the space through which the large piston is moved; and the consequence is slowness. The quantity is very small, and the movement very slow, because the injection proceeds from a piston as small as the thread of water, and further, because the injection, which is by pressure against a valve that shuts itself between the strokes of the pump, is intermittent. Another imperfection is, that the working must be discontinued to get back the large piston, by letting out the water. Slowness, and the necessity for suspending the work, may be scarcely inconveniences for many purposes; but if the natural and gratuitous power intrinsic, as is above explained, to the hydraulic press, could be employed to give rapid and continuous action, the improvement would be of incalculable value, and really wonderful. The common hydraulic press is wonderful. The most eminent proof of how much more it returns than it receives in amount a property belonging to it alone of all engines or machines-was displayed in lifting the tubes of the Britannia Bridge at the Menai Straits, by a twenty-horse steam engine forcing a small finger's breadth of water against and loaded with that enormous weight. a tight-fitted piston, twenty inches in diameter,

Then for the supply to the reservoir to be copious enough to give quick motion, it would be necessary that the forcing piston should be large; which would not prevent the volume that entered being very small, if the discharge were contracted in a finely-tapering pipe But, for the forcing piston to be large, it would be necessary to prevent a reaction taking place against it on the principle of the hydraulic paradox above described.

Every attempt of this kind by a mechanical method was sure to fail, because what could be gained in time must be lost in power. The method now proposed is dynamical, with no reliance on mechanical gain for either speed or power. The principle is founded on the law that what is called the hydrostatic paradox can be realised only in a vessel which is both full of water and close, excepting where it is open to admit of pressure from without on the contents.

I enclose my card, and have only to add that I shall most willingly give explanations asked for by any of your correspondents, if you will be so good as to answer applications for my name and Your obedient servant,

address.

Dec., 1858.

G. B.

ON A QUICK-WORKING POWER-ENGINE, BY A VARIETY IN THE APPLICATION OF THE NATU

HAL PRINCIPLE OF THE HYDRAULIC PRESS.

The Principle.

It was long ago conceived by reason and proved by experiment that a peculiar and gratuitous power may be derived, with some appliance of force by art, from confined water; and at a later time, the discovery was turned to account in the invention of the hydraulic press. Water, confined in a pipe a small section of one inch in diameter, and pressing from a high level on the liquid contents of a close and full barrel, may cause it to burst as if the volume pressing were of the diameter of the barrel itself. This is accounted for by the incompressibility of water by less than thirty thousand atmospheres, and by its faculty of pressing with equal force in all directions; so that a very small extent or amount of pressure from without may cause an equal degree of pressure within to the extent of all the inner surfaces of a close and full vessel. And thus, if a piston forms a part of the inclosure, it is pressed on the whole of its exposed surface, however large, by a multiplication of the amount of pressure from a thread of water, which may be injected easily against a very great degree of resistance,

the reservoir open at one place. With an hydraulic press, the passage is closed throughout; and, therefore, if the piston that forces were as large as the other, the degree of reactionary resistance to the injection would be multiplied in amount against it according to the extent of its surface, and no advantage could be gained. But it would not be so if the pipe conveying the discharge were divided by a narrow aperture, to be closed and opened by a sliding valve, and through which the water should be driven down upon the contents of a tapering perpendicular part of the pipe beneath. The tapering, as it accelerated the motion, would at once ensure plentiful supply and a great intensity of pressure; nor could any increase of resistance from it be communicated to the forcing piston on the principle of the paradox if the opening were between, and such increase would be a very slight drawback on the benefit from the reduction of volume and the intensifying of force.

(To be continued.)

ALLAN'S ATLANTIC CABLE. ON Wednesday, the 26th, Mr. Thos Allan, C.E., of London, addressed a numerous meeting of merchants in the Underwriter's Room, in this town, in explanation of his system of submarine telegraphy. Mr. William Brown, M.P., presided. Mr. Allan exhibited a specimen of his patented light cable. The core or conductor is composed of solid copper wire, surrounded with steel wires, covered with two coatings of gutta percha, and an outer one of a mixture partly made from gutta percha, but having the toughness of leather. The lost Atlantic was a type of the heavy cables, and his of the light ones; and although his was less strong than the other, it was for the purposes required probably four or five times stronger, because, from its lightness, it could be so easily payed out, and would sustain seven miles of itself hanging vertically from the ship, if it were possible that could occur. As to strength, it was not so much the breaking point as that at which the cable stretched that had to be considered. When the

gutta percha was stretched, insulation was impaired, and that must affect the working of the cable; and a spiral wire must yield under a strain. Instead of sinking 2,000 fathoms in 20 minutes, this cable would take two hours; but of course it would sink, as it was heavier than water. This increased the facility of paying out, which might be done at the rate of eight or ten miles an hour. As compared with the lost cable, this had 120 per cent. more conductibility and about double the insulation. He would go direct from this country to Halifax; and he thought Liverpool ought to be the starting point. The route had not been sounded yet, but it would be desirable that it should be. Mr. Allan said he was promised that the American Congress would vote a subsidy equal to that voted to the last cable, if his was landed on American soil, and he had been in close communication with our Government; and he referred to the confidence with which his plan was submitted so far back as 1853, and to the influential and scientific support it had received, and still possessed. A conversation followed, in which questions were asked by the Chairman, Mr. Bushell, Mr. Heath, Mr. Mondel, and others, and the plan was further elucidated in the answers given by Mr. Allan. Mr. Allan's statement and explanations were listened to with great attention and interest, and some gentlemen expressed their decided preference for Mr. Allan's system as compared with others.-Liverpool Paper.

STEAMERS WANTED FOR INDIA, THE Calcutta correspondent of the Times writes as follows:

"Is there no enterprise left among the shipbuilders of England? We hear month after month that steamers are coming and coming, but they do not come; and the India General Steam Navigation Company declares this month at home seems able to comprehend that there is a a dividend of 100 and upwards per cent. Nobody traffic on the Ganges such as has never been seen Home Government do not understand it. They were there since the days of the Hindoo sages. Even the indented on the other day for six river steamers. They sent one, which they said would be sufficient. Next month the Indian Government had to engage all the freight of six for two trips at a price which would have bought the new vessels they wanted

twice over.

I saw a professional estimate the other day which proved that there was room and work for 300 steamers on the Ganges alone. Nor is the figure wonderful if you will recall the the Ganges is smaller, it flows through a territory number on the Mississippi, and remember that if with a population of 350 to the square mile, an export trade of £16,000,000, and an internal trade which no man can measure."

THE IRON TRADE OF THE NORTH.

Tur iron trade of the North is in a tolerably satisfactory condition-70 furnaces, out of 87, being in blast, The following statement on the subject will be found interesting: Locality. Furnaces in blast. Out of blast. 0

Wylam..

Eston

12

Middlesborough..

3

Felling

2

0

2

3

2

2

0

Washington Stockton Norton Darlington Stanhope

Lemington Birtley Walker.

Wallsend

Jarrow Bedlington

0

Other furnaces will be shortly in operation.

MESSRS. W. G. ARMSTRONG AND Co. of Elswick, near Newcastle-on-Tyne, have decided on extending their gun-factory to the extent of 180 feet beyond the original plans, and have given orders for the immediate execution of the work,-North of England Advertiser.

MR. JOHN TAYLOR, farm bailiff, of Swanton Novers, Thetford, Norfolk, has patented "an improvement in horse-hoes, applicable also as drills," which deserves the notice of agriculturalists. The chief object of this invention is to simplify the construction of horse-hoes, and to give to the attendant more complete command than heretofore over the implement when in work, so that while guiding the hoes he may instantly throw them up out of action, and thus avoid the liability common to horse-hoes, of even the most approved construction, of their swaying about and cutting ep the crop during the time requisite for lifting the hoes free of the ground. These advantages are attained by mounting the hoes on independent levers, which are severally jointed to the forward end of a balance frame, which is both capable of rocking and sliding upon its fulcrum, and can, therefore, be moved both vertically and horizontally by the same guiding shaft or lever.

use.

In the accompanying engravings, Fig. 1 is a vertical section of a horse-hoe, constructed according to this invention; Fig. 2 is an end elevation showing the gearing for giving the lateral motion to the balance frame. a, a, is the balance frame, which has for its fulcrum the axle of the carrying wheels. This axle is composed of three parts, viz., the shafts b, b, and the coupling tube b', and is thus made capable of expansion and contraction to facilitate the adjustment of the wheels breadthwise to the work. This axle carries also the draught frame c of the implement. The balance frame a, it will be understood, is mounted loosely on the axle b, and it receives its motions from a steering rod or lever d, which turns in bearings provided for it on the frame. To the forward end of the balance frame, the slotted bar e is secured for receiving the levers f, which carry the hoes g. On the inner or forward end of the steering rod d is keyed a segment rack h, which gears into a worm rack cast on the tubular coupling b' of the axle, and the outer end of the rod is fitted with a hand wheel or handle for the attendant to grasp while the implement is in When a lateral motion is required to be given to the hoes to get them into the proper position for working, it will not only be necessary to turn the steering rod in its bearings to the right or left as the case may be, and the whole of the hoes will by reason of the segment rack gearing into the fixed worm rack be shogged in the required direction, and to the amount requisite to bring the several pairs of hoes into the proper position relatively to the rows of growing crop. In order to lift the hoes clear of the ground, or for the purpose of changing the angle of inclination of the cutting edge of the hoes, the guide rod is pressed upwards by the attendant, when, acting as a lever, it will raise the hoes, the movement being facilitated by the counterweight of the portion of the frame which lies on the forward side of the axle b, or centre of the rocking motion. Instead of the segment and the straight rack, other gearing, as a pulley and chain, or their equivalent, may be employed for imparting the lateral motion to the balance frame. To facilitate the lateral adjustment of the carrying wheels, the patentee casts the coupling tube b' with an internal worm, and fit on the ends of the shafts b, b, a pin or pins for taking into the worm. In the normal state of the compound axle, the several parts will be held firmly together by the binding screws 1, 1, but when he requires to expand

or contract the axle he slackens these binding screws, and also the binding screws 2, which fix the draught frame c to the axle, and turns the implement round on one or other of the wheels, the effect of which movement will be to rotate the shafts b in the coupling tube to the right or left hand according to the direction of the movement given to the implement, and thus expand or contract the axle to any required amount; 3, 3, are retaining screws for keeping the shafts b, b, within the coupling tube. To keep the hoes free of the ground when the implement is travelling over roads or to its work, a metal loop i is fixed to the steering rod, and the hind end of the tool box k is fitted with a hook to receive the loop. A hasp (Fig. 2), also attached to the box, may be used to prevent the loop being jerked off the hook, the hasp being brought under the clevated steering rod, and secured in position by a pin or redge. The above-described arrangement of balance frame

IMPROVED HORSE COLLARS.

MR. CHARLES LAMBERT, farmer, of Sunk Island, East Riding of York, has obtained a patent for improved collars for horses and other draught animals, which embody some desirable changes in the manufacture of these articles. His invention consists in forming collars of iron, wood, or other hard substance in two halves or parts, united at top by a hinged joint, and secured at bottom by a thumb-screw passed through two projecting pieces, one from each half of the collar, or by other equivalent means. Tug pins or eyes are formed in a piece with, or are attached to the sides of the collar. The traces are connected to these pins or eyes. The improved collar forms at once a collar and harness; and by shaping the inside of the two side-pieces in conformity with the shoulder of the animal for which the collar is intended little or no padding is required. The accompanying engraving is a front elevation of an

iron horse-collar constructed according to this invention. The collar is formed in two parts, and B, united at top by a hinge joint a, and fastened at bottom by a collar 6. The position of the parts of the collar, when placing it on or removing it from the animal, is indicated by the dotted lines. The sides of the collar are adapted to the shoulders of the animal. CC are eyes or sockets on both sides of the collar, which the inventor prefers to cast with the collar, and to place at right angles, or nearly so, thereto. In these sockets he fixes the tug hooks DD, held by screws or springs. EE are hooks attached to the sockets CC.

FF are holes in the collar to pass the reins through. We have seen specimens of the improved collars, and think very highly of them.

HART'S PATENT ECONOMIZING GAS

BURNER.

A GAS-BURNER lately patented by Mr. Hart, and exhibited for some months past on the patentee's premises in Fleet-street, near to our own office, has attracted so much attention, and appears to be selling to so large an extent, that, were it a much less useful article than it is, we should be disposed to gratify public curiosity respecting it. As it is really a very valuable little contrivance -capable of simultaneously economizing the gas, improving the light, and preserving the eyes of those who work or write by gas-light from serious injury-we notice it with pleasure. It does not differ very much in construction from inventions which have previously been brought before the public, but, from all that we can observe and learn, it is more efficient, and less liable to injury of every kind than any burner before produced. That its nature, which is very simple, may be fully understood, we have had the accompanying representations of it engraved. FIG. 2.

FIG.I.

Fig. 1 is an external view, and Fig. 2 a section of it, full size. a is the body or principal piece, b is the burner-jet which is fixed in a, and c is the lower part of it which screws into a. The thread in the lower end of c screws upon the gas pillar or branch like an ordinary burner. Within a is placed a diaphragm, composed of two perforated plates d d, a piece of loose felt or other like material placed between the plates, and a small threaded rod e, with a nut for compressing the felt between the plates. The whole virtue of the burner arises, as we think, from the interposition of the permeable diaphragm, arranged, as shown, between the gas rushing through the pipe and the escapeorifice of the burner. Without the diaphragm the gas rushes out with such a velocity, that it blows the flame out and about, and produces those perpetual variations both in the extent and the position of the flame, which are so fearfully trying to the sight. With the diaphragm, the excessive speed is checked, the gas escapes slowly and steadily, all that so escapes is burnt, and a bright and steady flame results. A small piece of loose felt, f, is placed in the lower piece c, as shown, to receive any deposit which grossly impure gas may leave behind. This piece of felt can be changed at any time if necessary, it being only needful to unscrew the part a from the part e for the purpose. Mr. Hart has already found it necessary to provide large works for the manufacture of the improved burners, in order to meet the very large demand made for them. And as doubts have been felt by some respecting the precise manner in which the burner acts in brightening and steadying the light, and economizing the gas, he has offered £50 for the best essay submitted to him upon the subject.

FOR

LAYING SUBMARINE TELEGRAPH CABLES.

Ir will be recollected that at the last meeting of the British Association Mr. H. Conybeare, C.E., of Abingdon-street, Westminster, read an interesting paper on a new apparatus devised by him for laying submarine telegraph cables. The paper was shortly after published in our columns, and was as follows:

"My invention consists in the construction of machinery composed of a resilient and articulated series of segments or frames, which extend from the stern of a vessel employed in the submerging of submarine telegraph cables, and over which machinery the cable is to be paid out, being delivered from a trumpet-mouth shaped congeries of friction rollers, situated at the outer extremity of the frame furthest from the stern, in which machinery the resiliency decreases gradually from that part of the apparatus next to the stern to the extreme outer end thereof in a manner similar to that a which the resiliency diminishes from the butt to the top loint of a jointed fishing rod.

"The articulated joints or segments of the apparatus are formed of frames, each frame, starting from the stern, being smaller than that supporting it. Strong springs, such as coach springs, fixed to one frame and linked to the further extremity of the vessel, are employed to give resiliency to the articulations between each frame and that next to it, and the frame furthest from the stern terminates in a semiconoidal or trumpet-mouth shaped debouchure, consisting of rings of friction rollers breaking joint with each other, and so arranged as to present a rolling surface of moderate curvature to the escaping cable, at whatever angle with the course of the ship it is compelled by side currents or leeway to quit the apparatus.

"Over this resilient and articulated series of frames is a rigid spur of wood or metal, having suspended from it outward as many pulleys as there are joints in the apparatus last described. An equal number of pulleys is provided inboard. A rope or chain is connected to the extremity furthest from the ship of each joint, then to a spring or not 2 deemed necessary, and then, passing over one of the outboard pulleys and one of the inboard, in the rigid beam, is attached to a spring apparatus, so arranged as to give a resiliency graduated according to the position of such a particular piece in the series.

"This spring apparatus consists of a series of wheels and axles. The resilient springs act on the axles in each case, and the ropes or chain leading to the various parts of the laying apparatus are attached to the wheels. The ratio of the diameter of the wheel to the axle varies in each case, according to the amount of resiliency required by the particular joint or frame of the fishing-rod apparatus with which such wheel and axle are connected. Thus, as the delivery extremity of the apparatus is required to be moved through a comparatively large space by the exertion of a temparatively small strain, the ratio of the wheel to the aald

taining to this end frame is consequently greater than in that appertaining to any of the frames nearer the stern; and thus a graduated resiliency is obtained; or the same end is obtained by the employment of a spindle. wheel like that of the verge of watch.

"The required resiliency is obtained either by a vacuum or compressed air cylinder, by volute springs, or by springs of vulcanised India-rubber.

"The required graduated resiliency may be wholly obtained by the coach-like springs which give resiliency to the articulation of the frames; the chains or ropes led inboard from each joint over the rigid spar being merely employed to counterbalance the weight of each frame. Or the resiliency may be wholly given by the wheel and axle apparatus inboard."

We are now able to place illustrations of Mr. Conybeare's apparatus before our readers:

Fig. 1 of the annexed engravings represents two ships fitted with the apparatus delivering the joined ends of the cable in mid ocean. Fig. 2 is an isometrical perspective view of the outer frames and trumpet mouth of the apparatus. A A are the articulated frames; B is the trumpet mouth on which several sets of friction rollers n n are fitted; CC are the springs by means of which the resiliency is oUtained; there is a figid spur above the frames

with the pulleys suspended from it, as shown in fig. 1. There are corresponding pulleys inboard. D, D', D', &c., are the ropes or chains which are connected to the several frames at their lower ends and to springs at their upper ends, Fig. 1. From these springs other ropes or chains rise, and passing respectively over the outboard pulleys and the inboard pulleys have their other ends attached to spring apparatuses inboard. The arrangement and action of these spring apparatuses have been already explained in the article above quoted. The cable after leaving the payingout machine passes under a pulley, thence between the pairs of pulleys p p, placed on the articulated frames, then over the outer pulley q, and finally over the friction rollers rr into the sea.

IMPROVED BLACK LEAD.-Among the abstracts of specifications on another page will be found a short description of an invention by Dr. Hicks, for a new mixture to be used as a substitute for black lead. We have had specimens of the material submitted to us, and are able to state that, while the cost is but little if at all increased, the polish produced by means of the new mixture is of a very süperior character.

IMPROVED DRAWER KNOBS AND
HANDLES.

THE looseness of drawer handles, though comparatively a trifling matter, is so very common a source of annoyance and trouble, that we think it desirable to bring to public notice a very simple form of handle which Messrs. Dixon and Sons, of the Steeton saw mills, near Keighley, Yorkshire, have been extensively manufacturing for two or three years, and which entirely gets rid of that cause of irritation. To avoid the necessity for verbal description, we have engraved two handles of

the improved form, and from these it will be seen that the expedient of the inventors (Messrs. Heywood and Dixon) merely consists in screwing into the knob or handle, from the inside of the drawer, a plug or stop to prevent its withdrawal. This device is so simple, and at the same time so useful, that we need not add a word in its favour. The handles can be obtained, we believe, in any quantity, from

Messrs. Dixon and Sons, at the above address.

DIRECT PORTSMOUTH RAILWAY. THE opening of a direct route, by which Ports mouth can be reached in two hours and a quarter by the ordinary express trains, to say nothing of the saving of time, is of too important a nature to be wholly omitted from our columns. The advantages that thus accrue to our marine and military powers are very great, and must be obvious to all reflecting minds; while, by bring ing the coast and the marvellous evidences of England's greatness so much nearer to the metropolis, it affords additional facilities to its inhabitants to visit, either for business or pleasure, that most attractive portion of our isles. By the old routes, a day did not afford sufficient time for even a hurried visit to the dockyards, arsenals, &c.; but, by the present arrangements, the public may leave London even at the advanced period of half-past eleven, and, by returning at half-past seven, p.m., have quite five hours and a half at their disposal. The all-absorbing question of a great city's health is likewise intimately advanced in thus bringing within breathing distance the strength-inspiring breezes of the ocean. Southsea Common, and its admirably-kept promenade, will doubtless see more visitors during the follow ing summers than usual; and the conventional guinea-fee will find its way into the coffers of the South-Western Railway Company rather than into the palm of the physician, in many cases with greater benefit to the patient. The new line turns off at Woking, and, calling at Guildford and Godalming, passes through some of the most

lovely and picturesque scenery in Surrey. Indeed, from the constant succession of rustic bits and extensive views of hill and dale, it might not be inaptly termed, "The Artist's Line."

SPONTANEOUS GENERATION.

WE are indebted to a friend for the following:The question of spontaneous generation, the dangerous ground on which many scientific reputations have been shipwrecked, is now attracting great attention in France, and is likely to become again a cause célèbre before the French Academy. It will be remembered that an English philosopher, Mr. Crosse, endured for many years what may be termed a persecution of scientific orthodoxy on account of his adherence to the doctrine of generation per se. It would by no means be an unprecedented fact if the conclusions of our English savant should become rehabilitated by the researches of subsequent experimenters. When a little clean hay or other organic matter is placed in distilled water, and exposed to the air at ordinary temperatures, numbers of plants and animalcules speedily make their appearance in the fluid. It has been assumed, and not without reason, that these organised bodies proceed from germs floating in the atmosphere, and becoming fecundated under favourable conditions. For if

we allow air to reach the infusions only after passing through a corrosive fluid, such as oil of vitriol, we can then discover no traces of organic life.

It is now, however, affirmed that the conclusions hitherto drawn from this fact are disproved by the experiments of M. M. Pouchet and Houzeau The former sabant, whose researches on fecundation have been crowned with tho completest approbation of the Académie des Sciences, states that, after every imaginable precaution having been taken to exclude the external atmosphere from the air and water contained in a flask, he has clearly witnessed in this water the spontaneous growth of various fungi and infusoria. among others a plant which will in future be designated Aspergillus Pouchetii. According to M. Montagne, this cryptogamic plant belongs to an entirely new species. In a second series of experiments performed in conjunction with M. Houzeau, a chemist well known to the Academy, a portion of hay which had been exposed to a temperature deemed sufficiently high to destroy any animal or vegetable germ, was enclosed with air and water, purified with extreme care. In this mixture, nevertheless, was observed the wonderful generation, not alone of the famous aspergillus, but of many species of infusoria. In considering these experiments, we are forced to admit either that spontaneous generation is an indisputable fact, or, on the other hand, one of those hypotheses, viz.: That organic germs may withstand a considerable elevation of temperature; or that the precautions taken to avoid all contact with the external air in these experiments were inadequate. On this point we may anticipate a long and vehement controversy; but we may hope that ultimately there may be but one opinion respecting the doctrine which is now supported by the names of at least two men eminent in scientific acquirements. The question is the more important, inasmuch as the theory of metamorphosis, which assumed that certain alge might become transformed into various lichens and mosses, or even into infusoria, is now completely disproved.

INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS OF
TOOLS.

THE inventors of tools have been great contributors to the present high state that England occupies in the world. Yet how little do we know of them. If you would open your valuable pages for such a subject, I doubt not that much interesting matter might be forthcoming. He who invented the method of cutting screws with stocks aud dies was a great benefactor of his species; yet his name is not known, though the invention was so recent, About thirty-six years

| ago, I was told by a man of eighty-three years of age, that in his early days they cut up all screws by hand-the small by filing, the large by chipping and filing. They used a taper tap for nuts of several sizes, the tap being worked in until the nut would go on to the screw. At that time very few screws were used, the cotter, cotteril, or forelock, being used instead. Cotters were used to a great extent by millwrights and wheelwrights within the present century.

Galileo's time, may safely be affirmed from the That the joiner's plane was not invented in following words in his "Dialogues on Motion." Speaking of his experiments on the descent of bodies on inclined planes, he says, "In a rule, or rather, plank of wood, about 12 yards long, half a yard broad one way and 3 inches the other, little more than an inch wide: we cut it very we made upon the narrow side or edge a groove a glued upon it a piece of vellum, polished and straight, and to make it very smooth and steek, we smoothed as exactly as possible, and in that we let fall a very hard, found, and smooth brass ball, raising one of the ends of the plank a yard of two at pleasure above the horizontal line. Now, had the flat plane then been invented, Galileo would have placed two flat boards together angularwise, to make a trough, if he had not had a hollow plane. What an amount of labour must have been required in the ancient palaces and temples before

the invention of the plane!

J. SIMON HOLLAND. P.S.-Can any of your readers give the origin of that very useful tool to engineers, the hanging tool for turning?

THE CASE OF HENRY CORT.-At a late meeting of the South Wales Institute, Thomas Webster, Esq., M.A., F.R.S., the eminent patent-law barrister, read a very interesting paper on "Henry Cort's Invention of the Puddling Furnace and the Grooved Rollers in the Manufacture of Iron," with the official report of which we are now favoured. We shall not publish this report, because the series of papers on the Cort case by the same author, of which the first was published in No. 2, New Series, (and which has been somewhat delayed by the pressure of the author's professional duties) will probably contain all that is essential in it. It is a source of great satisfaction to know that so distinguished a lawyer as Mr. Webster has, in several instances, afforded great inventors and their successors the advantage of his skill and experience in placing their claims dispassionately and truthfully before the public. We do not often meet with like liberality and patriotism among gentlemen at the bar. We hope to resume the publication of Mr. Webster's articles in our next number, and to continue them without material delay.

YATES' PATENT FURNACE-A furnace which is now, and has for some time been, in operation at the large distillery, Bromley, near Bow, well deserves the attention of persons interested in the modern question of smoke prevention. It is the invention of Mr. W. Yates, the Engineer of the works, a man of fifty years' experience in the profession. The remarkable facts connected with the furnace are, that nothing but coal screenings are burnt, and yet no smoke whatever is produced. The coal, no matter how small, is fed into a hopper or upon a front plate, and by means of a simple apparatus driven by a small shaft from the steam engine, is forced gradually forward into the furnace. The gases distilled from it pass the whole length of the fire-bars over the incandescent fuel, meeting as they pass along with the air rising through the bars, where alone it is admitted. That a good deal of carbonic oxide may escape unburnt from the furnace we do not doubt; but that the emission of smoke is prevented, and great economy obtained by the use of nothing but the cheap screenings of coal, is beyond question. The furnace is also worked with great ease, requiring but a very moderate amount of attention from the stoker.

Numbers 1845 and 1846 of the MECHANICS' MAGAZINE (original series), containing the paper read at the Society of Arts, Dec. 15, 1858, "ON THE MODIFICATIONS WHICH THE SHIPS OF THE ROYAL NAVY HAVE UNDERGONE DURING THE PRESENT CENTURY IN RESPECT OF DIMENSIONS, FORM, MEANS OF PROPULSION, AND POWERS OF ATTACK AND DEFENCE," by one of the EDITORS' of this Magazine, ogether with the discussion upon the same, are still on sale.

The MECHANICS' MAGAZINE will be sent free by post to all subscribers of £1 1s. 8d., annually, payable in advance. Post Office Orders to be made payable to R. A. Brooman, at the Post Office, Fleet Street, London, E.C.

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TO CORRESPONDENTS.

X. Y. Z.-We have expressed no opinion respecting the merits of "A Mechanic's" articles on the "Conservation of Force;" nor have we shown any anxiety to shelter the writer from adverse criticism. We have, however, resolved to admit no such criticism until the series of letters is completed; and this we have done to prevent confusion. We have no desire to avoid the thorough discussion of the subject; on the contrary, we court it. But while no severity of reasoning will lead to the exclusion of correspondence, mere severity of language alone will find no place in our columns. There must be a careful conservation of the force f argument in your letter, or it will not appear. All letters must be privately authenticated by the writer's name. ENGINEER. Our statement relative to the further enlargement of this Magazine referred merely to a probable increase in the number of pages. We find the present form of the Magazine so much approved that we have not the least desire to alter it.

The practice of publishing a vast quantity of fictitious Notices to Correspondents has become so general in cheap joarnals, that the public, who are not in the secret, have come to consider it the duty of Editors to answer any and every question that may be put to them by readers. This cannot, however, be done in a journal like our own without entailing an immense amount of labour (often of a very unnecessary character) upon us. We, therefore, beg most respectfully to decline the task. But in order that our correspondents may not be deprived of all advantage in this respect, we shall, as a rule, publish such queries as may be sent in good faith to us, though not such as appear to be sent merely for the sake of giving trouble. To the published queries other correspondents will, we hope, reply, and their replies shall likewise be published. By this arrangement we shall save ourselves much inconvenience, and at the same time secure, we trust, to our readers all the information they may desire. All questions must be stated simply, clearly, and without circumlocution of any kind; and we shall feel grateful to those correspondents who kindly take the trouble to send such information by way of reply as they may possess. Mere questions of business we shall of course answer ourselves; but whenever calculation, reference to published works, &c., are necessary, we shall dispose of the questions sent as stated

above.

If a current of electricity be communicated to a wire at A, it being discontinued at B, would the current pass on to C, the wire maintaining its position; and would a great power be necessary to maintain the wire in the position as shown to a certain charge could be ascertained!

LIST OF PATENTS FOR PRESERVING STONE, &c.

Date. Patentee. Analysis of Prozess. 1838. BETHEL. Treating with coal tar, oil, caoutchouc, or rosin, &c.

1841. NEWTON. Treating with silicate of soda or potash. 1846. TEYCHENNE. Treating with coal tar, bituminous matter, tallow, or other fatty substances, linseed or other drying oils, rosins and gums.

1847. HUTCHINSON. After being dried in a chamber, the stone or other substance is immersed in a boiling solution of rosin admixed with oils, tallow, or other gummy or fatty matter; or pitch admixed with oils, tallow, or other gummy or fatty matter; or coal tar, with or without pitch or other bituminous substances; or glue, gums, and other cohesive and hard substances boiled into a solution with oil, &c.

1848. BETHEL. Immersing in hot tar, bitumen, or rosin with bituminous or tarry oil.

1832. MOREAU. Treating with silicate of potash. 1853. BARRETT. Treating with sulphur dissolved in vinegar or acetic acid, or shell lac, seed lac, common turpentine, and pyroligneous spirits; or gutta percha dissolved in coal-tar naptha; or limestone, water, alum, beer grounds, gall, &c.

firing at to-day with the men, very well, two centres-two outers. The four with small cavities, nail at the base, one miss-one centre-two outers-the miss not the fault of the bullet.

"Five with large cavity or hollow, two misses-three outers. I think you have hit the right nail on the head in the first mentioned.-In haste, very truly yours, "GEORGE R. LEMPRIERE." "N.B.-All the above-mentioned shot were papercoated, and without any plug at the base, they were cast in a mould made by Mr. Lancaster according to my order to correspond with the elliptic bore of his rifle. Specimens are to be seen at the Museum of the United Service Institution.

"Any kind of lead answers for casting these shots, but it requires the purest lead for casting the expanding-shot for the Enfield rifle. For the above reasons, and the greater facility of cleaning out, and the interior of the barrel receiving no injury from the use of the ramrod, I prefer the Lancaster to the Enfield rifle as a military arm. "Rosherville, 29th January.

J. NORTON."

CURRENT EVENTS

IN THE CENTRES OF THE IRON, COAL, MACHINE, AND SHIPPING TRADES. [COMPILED BY OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.]

1855. BELLFORD. Treating with silicate of potash. 1855. GILBEE. Treating with silicate of potash applied by means of suitable pumps.

1855. PAGE. Treating with calcined bee's-wax dissolved in coal-tar naptha.

1856.

RANSOME. Treating with a solution of silicate of potash or soda, and afterwards with a solution of choride of calcium, producing silicate of lime in the pores of the stone; or solutions of alumina and baryta; or any two solutions, which, by mutual decomposition, produce by deposition an insoluble mineral precipitate in the pores, or on the surface of the stone, &c.

1856. CLARK. Treating with gelatine, isinglass, fish glue, &c., and afterwards with a solution of tanin or nutgall, sumac or oak bark, &c.

1856. BROOMAN. Coating first with a mixture of flour, water, and carbonate of lime, then with a mixture of silicate of potash, phosphate of soda, sulphuret of baryta, zinc-white, and borate of manganese. 1857. SZERELMEY. Coating with a mixture of water, blood, ground bricks, powdered copper slag, powdered iron slag, argillaceous earth, and caseous matter produced from milk, boiled together, and afterwards with a mixture of gas or coal tar, or linseed oil, or rosin, or asphalte, with hydraulic lime, grit, and calcined flint, boiled together.

1857. PAUL. Treating with aluminates of potash, soda, or any other aluminates, or zincates of potash or soda, or phosphates of alumina, or zinc in solution by alkalies; also similar preparations of lead or molybdenum.

CAPTAIN NORTON'S RIFLE BULLET. THE following paragraph respecting Captain Norton's bullet, which was described and illustrated in our last volume, appeared in the Times of yesterday :

"Several experiments have been made at Chatham with a new description of rifle bullet for firing at long ranges, the invention of Captain J. Norton, the result of which has been very satisfactory. The superiority of the balls invented by Captain Norton lies in his coating the bullet with a small film of paper, which considerably lessens the tremendous friction which the ordinary rifle bullets undergo before they leave the rifle, thereby materially diminishing their propelling force and affecting the accuracy of aim. Captain Norton also does away with the ordinary plug' at the base, one description of bullet having a nail or screw inserted at the base, and in the other kind the hollow for the powder being very large. More than a dozen of the new bullets were fired at the target, the rifle used being the elliptical bore rifle of Mr. Lancaster, which is in use by the Royal Engineers. The range tried was 250 yards, at which distance the accuracy with which the new bullets carried was exceedingly satisfactory,

Government Contracts-Co-operative Society of Brickmakers-Offences against the Factory Act-The Stephenson Monument-Opening of an Iron Church-Threa several Boiler Explosions-Fishermen, and the use of the Rocket Apparatus-Discovery of Fire-brick Clay-Discovery of Ironstone-Railway News-Weekly Tickets on the Oxford, Worcester, and Wolverhampton LineRailway Casualties-Four Men Killed by a Colliery Explosion-Manchester Association for the Prevention of Boiler Explosions-The Imposts upon British Shipping. THE Birmingham Chamber of Commerce have determined to memorialize the Foreign Secretary upon the imitation of English trade marks by foreign manufacturers. The memorialists pray that steps may be taken to obtain for British subjects, by diplomatic convention, the protection of registration in France; and likewise to secure to their manufactures protection from fraudulent imitation in other countries.

As hinted in the MECHANICS' MAGAZINE a fortnight since that they would, the master brickmakers of Birmingham and South Staffordshire have determined not to employ any workmen who belong to the Operative Brickmakers' Union. The same manufactories notices have been posted to the effect that the workmen already employed must cease their connection with the union, or at the expiration of a certain notice leave the works. In defence the Unionists have commenced a movement with the view of establishing co-operative societies for the employment of the men belonging to the Union who may be deprived of work in consequence of this decision of the masters. In Rochdale and other towns, similar societies, it is alleged, exist, and are worked with advantage to the operatives and the profit of the shareholders. The men are holding public meetings of their body in Birmingham and South Staffordshire in advocacy of the movement.-At the instance of the sub-inspector of factories for the district, penalties amounting to £179 98. have been imposed by the Bury magistrates upon Mr. T. B. Crompton, late proprietor of the Prestolee paper mills, for allowing young persons and

women to work after 6 o'clock. At the same time three overlookers were fined £3 and costs each, for obstructing the sub-inspector. The workmen in the employ of Messrs. R. Stephenson and Co., have met, 500 strong, and inaugurated a movement amongst themselves for contributing to the monument to the late George Stephenson, Esq., who was the founder of the works.-The first iron church in Staffordshire was opened on Tuesday last, at Essington, near Wolverhampton. It has been built by voluntary subscription, at a cost of £850 in all, and will accommodate 260 persons. The contractors 36 ft. by 6 ft. 6 in., at the Felling Colliery, Gateshead, has were Messrs. Hemmingsley, of Bow.- -One of three boilers, exploded, and killed the fireman, whose body was found at a distance of 100 yards from the original site of the tained. One of the minor results was the knocking of a boiler. The cause of the explosion has not yet been ascerlocomotive off the neighbouring line of rails.At the brickworks at Wilnecote, near Tamworth, of Mr. Joseph Arnold, a boiler exploded last week, without, however, injury to anyone, the men having just before removed to a distant part of the yard.- -On Saturday, the steam-tug Gleaner, of Sunderland, towed a raft of timber to Cambois, bar, her boiler burst, and five men who were on board were Blyth. On leaving there again, and while crossing the scalded, two of them severely. The steamer's anchor was put down, but she soon parted from it, and went ashore upon the rocks to the northward of Cambois.-At their own request, the fisbermen of Newbiggen, Blyth, have been exercised in the use of the rocket apparatus for saving

LIGHT, HEAT, AND ACTINISM. GENTLEMEN,It is found that the proportion of light, heat, and actinism in the solar ray is not constant, but varies with the different seasons of the year. In the spring the actine principle is most abundant; in the summer, hight and heat are in excess; and when autumn comes the heating rays are most powerful. Now, as the reason of

this is not, I think, understood, and as it appears to me that individual rays of light must conspire to produce these changes, I have thought of the following hypothesis by which to explain them. Suppose that the solar atmosphere is uniformly constituted, and sends forth these various rays as the earth is turned to it. The rotatory motion of the un might harmonize with these considerations, and serve te strengthen the hypothesis. J. ALEX, DAVIS,

being not the fault of the bullet. The superiority of the new bullets over those now in use was very manifest. The ordinary expanding shot for the Enfield rifle requires the purest lead for casting, but in the paper coated ball of Captain Norton any lead will answer. The mould in which the newly invented bullets were cast was made by Mr. Lancaster to correspond with the elliptical bore of his rifle."

Stokesley, on the North Yorkshire and Cleveland Railway.

clay has been made in Commondale, about 12 miles beyond It is 12 feet in thickness, underlies about 12 acres, is without intervening shale, contains only 1 per cent. of diletethe hill-side. The discovery must be good news to the rious substances, is nearly black, and can be drifted out of shareholders of the railway named. Not less so to the shareholders of the Oxford, Worcester, and Wolverhampborough, eight miles from Oxford, where that line has only ton Railway, that iron-stone had been discovered at Handa little agricultural traffic. After being tested, the stone is found to be of about the same quality as the Northamp ton ore. It will soon find its way into the extensive South Staffordshire market, where large quantities of Northamp tonshire "stuff" is now smelted.The directors of the Lancashire and Yorkshire and those of the East Lancashire Railways respectively recommend a dividend upon the half]