It is our pride, then, to take part week by week in the diffusion of mechanical science, To these classes we may address a few quesand we hope it is also the pride of not a few of tions which deserve their attention. They are our readers to follow with us the steps and certainly as much interested in the science of strides with which the mechanists of the world National Defence as in the science of Political march onward along their happy path. The Economy, and we therefore ask, Who has extension and multiplication of railroads, steam-studied the question of national power? ships, electric telegraphs, steam-ploughs, sew- What are its elements? Who are its deposiing machines, and the like these are the hopes taries? Through whom should it be exerted? of the world. A race which gives daily and When should it be employed? and, How may hourly development to these which delves it be put forth most economically and advanundaunted beneath the earth, and sweeps tageously? courageously over the sea-which neither torrid suns nor thick-ribbed ice can deter from the knowledge gives-such a race, we say, may pursuit of knowledge and of the power that

The powerful political-economy party in and out of Parliament never cease to urge a reduction of our enormous annual expenditure. Some of them will, no doubt, shortly descend to nibble at and condemn many of the items in our last annual bill for nearly seventy-two millions of pounds sterling. And the millions spent in cannon will not escape their notice. But the nation want cannon; they demand the best cannon. At any price we must have the means of defence, and we grumble only when we do not get value for our money. But have we adopted the wisest means for obtaining what we need? We do not speak against Government dockyards, or Government factories of any kind. To a certain extent, and for certain purposes, they are necessary. We only ask the public to consider to what purposes they should be applied. How can we make them most serviceable now that we have got them? What is the cheapest method of increasing the military and naval power of a nation?

bly it was not altogether a sense of justice that
impelled this grant, any more than a sense of pro-
priety that called it a monopoly, which it is not,
being truly a quid pro quo, or bargain, and
sometimes a very scurvy one for the inventor,
who, in popular phraseology, gets more kicks
"than halfpence."

66

national triumph when all classes, from that Boadicea-looking lady downwards, were mingled together, foreign and native, to share in the world's knowledge the tales of the thousandand-one nights realised by the accumulated inventions of successive ages.

offensive war by its own servants, or to encourage their manufacture by private citizens? Could we not have obtained more and better cannon than Sir William Armstrong has provided for us, and at half the expense, if there had been no Government factory for their manufacture? Should we not have had war And they who set this ball rolling pondered ships much superior to the Gloire long ago, and The inventor very early had to pay fees to long how to render the greatest amount of instead of being behind the French, have led officers about the court, or to give some great novelty. They had an idea that there was a the way in this manufacture, if private enter-man a share in his brain-commuted after- countless amount of invention lying dormant prise had received at the proper time the wards into specific sums from Chancillor to in the brains of the working classes especially, encouragement which it merited? Chaffwax, running up to £100 for the four- and they desired to get at some means of exteen years. Subsequently Irish courtiers, hibiting it. With the existing patent law, to before and after the Union, contrived to make an invention known was to lose the claim obtain another specific lot of fees amounting to it, and those in high places were appealed to; to some £120, and then the Scottish law officers and so it was proclaimed that all men and put in a claim to some £50, and finally another women might exhibit the wonders of their minds £10 was secured out of any would-be Archi- in a practical form for six months without medes, for the colonies, running the cost up losing their right to a patent. Out of this grew by one contrivance and another to about £300. the alteration of the patent law, called the new Fortunately, the moderate modest inventor, who law. What does it amount to? First, to did not wish to grasp the whole world, and the appointment of a body called the Comcould not see any particular Golconda or El-missioners of Patents, consisting of the Lord dorado in Ireland or Scotland or the colonies, Chancellor, the Master of the Rolls, the could get off for £100, and for that sum he Attorney-General, and the Solicitor-General, obtained his scheme and system if he had one, and an engineer having charge of the specificawhole and entire, a "perfect chrysolite," if his tions, who may be considered in the light of an brain was clear enough to make one; and if it assistant commissioner. To them are added an was an article of manufacture for which English official clerk. An inventor applying for a patent art only was competent, he had a practical or six months' protection, pays £5 preliminarily, monopoly against all the world until such time and does not get it back whether his protection as the external world should improve its arts be refused or not. The Attorney-General and of manufacture, and against all his countrymen Solicitor-General take it in turn to examine for fourteen years. There was one very pecu- whether any application shall pass current or not; liar arrangement. If he made oath that he and if any mechanical or other doubt arises, they only intended to take a patent for England, he call in their engineer assistant or others to help was allowed two months to mature and specify them in their profound study. If he gets the If making oath that he intended to take a his invention or make it patent to the world. protection, after some time-but not more than four months-the inventor pays another £5 with patent for Ireland also, he was allowed five notice to proceed; and when he lodges his months, and if for Scotland he was allowed six specification complete, his costs of fees and months, to specify. But he was not compelled stamps will amount to £25, without reckoning to take Scotch or Irish patents till the last day his drawings and agent's help, and so on. But for this he has not obtained a fourteen years he compelled to take Scotch or Irish at all. before filing his English specification, nor was The result was that the conscientious inventor, being moderate also, went in for two months; and he of elastic conscience went in for six, making a salve to himself that he meant to have Irish and Scotch simply if he could find the money to get them. And so this arrangement went on with a kind of grumbling, but on the whole very satisfactory to the inventor who could muster £100 to purchase fourteen years' privilege of an entire system.

Our object is not to answer these inquiries, but to point out the necessity that exists for a scientific treatment of the whole subject. These are scientific questions as well as practical, but unfortunately we have no science of national security, and no one has attempted to settle the principles on which a reply should be based. The true theory of national power and defence seems to be unknown, and the whole practice is without rule, order, guide, or compass. England walks by faith, not by sight; precedent not science is our guide, and it is well that our faith in our own power has never failed us in the hour of trial, and we have never known when we were beaten.

INVENTIONS AND PATENTS.

Ir is a practically admitted proposition that
new and useful ideas emanating from the brain
of man are the life of human progress, provided It went on till 1850. In that year, when rail-
those ideas can obtain promulgation and ap- way making grew dull, and railway publications
plication. The perception of this proposition would not pay, as railway contractors would no
first obtained in England as regards physical pro- longer subscribe, a lot of vacant brains-not
gress, and also as to the best mode of getting the vacant in ideas, but vacant of work-took the
owners of those brains, fertile in the germination Society of Arts by storm and galvanized it into
of new ideas, to work at them consecutively a more intense life than it had ever before
and get them to use; and so the king, or leader known, and so by hook and by crook the Great
of men, for the time being, of his mero motu or Exhibition had birth. What had been an
sheer will, extended the practice of granting Adelphi shed was cultivated into a world's
rewards and distinctions in the shape of mono- fair. The manufacturers, great and little, were
polies and titles from mere favourites to another taken with the value of exhibiting their goods
class of men typified by the many-facultied gratis in the most magnificent shop in the
Marquis of Worcester, and to some extent by world, and they subscribed their guarantees for
that half-pirate half-inventor, Prince Rupert, its movers. And so Prince Albert and the
whose name is made permanent in the curious Queen gave it their sanction, and carried to it
glass drop erewhile sold at street corners, and the patronage of rank and fashion. All the
by mischievous boys designated as a "hand ins and outs, the triumphs and disappointments,
"cracker." The inventor of useful things did not the ambition and the tricks, the joys and the
get a patent of nobility, but what was called a sorrows, the genius and the ignorance, the vul-
patent of monopoly-i.e., an exclusive right for garity and assumption, generosity and treachery
a term of years, shorter or longer, which gradu--in short, the evil and the good of humanity
ally became stereotyped into fourteen years, not
from any exact calculation of value, but proba-
bly from the habit which most human beings
-and especially official human beings-have of
falling into imitation and routine. And possi-

under a new and strange excitement, have yet
to be written by some Boz or Horace Walpole,
or scandal monger, or others who walked behind
the scenes and stored up the details and the
gossip: all this has yet to be written. It was a

patent as under the old regime, but one only for three years.

he is called upon for another £50, which carries At the expiration of that termi him on to the end of seven years, and then his patent closes unless he can find £100, the payment of which will carry him on to the full term of fourteen years, being a total of £175. Well, for this he gets England, Scotland, and Ireland, but the colonies are clean swept out of the category, and he has got for the £175 what he formerly paid £270 for, but he is deprived of the option of taking England only, which he could formerly do for £100. The lot has been cheapened by £95, but the valuable part of it has been made dearer by £170.

But there is more behind. The inventor of a machine or a system, an "entire and perfect "chrysolite," had the whole included in his patent, and specified accordingly. But now when he comes before the law officers, not paid by salaries but by fees, they or their clerks have the option of splitting his chrysolite into as many facets as they choose. Thus an inventor who had planned a new system of rail transit by steam might have in that general invention twenty four or more separate principles. Under the present system the official mind may compe him to take twenty-four separate patents, or i he takes one general patent it will only be fo his combination, which any one may avoid by leaving out a portion, and all the world may us the separate parts at pleasure, or take out patent for new combinations of them for other ma chinery; therefore, to protect himself in al his original ideas, he must pay £600 for thre years, £1,200 more to complete seven years, and £2,400 for the remaining seven years, being a total of £4,200 for what, before the alteration

of the law, he could have procured for £270, or for all practical purposes for £100. This is not imaginary. Mr. Whitworth was compelled to take two separate patents, one for his gun, and another for his shot, part and parcel of each other.

All the "boon" that is set against this is, that a poor man may get a three years' patent for £25, for the expiration of which his master may wait, knowing that it is very problematic how the next £50 is to come.

brains, and that their taxing ought not to be
more than sufficient to pay for all the expenses
they cause.

They want first of all to have dispensed by specific law, and not out of the mouths of the presiding Commissioners of Patents, what should constitute an invention deserving a patent -what shall be understood new? The inventors think that the law of landed property might well apply. If a squatter can discover in England a piece of land which has no claimant Did any of the legal gentlemen who gave this he may squat thereon, and no man can turn boon of the new patent law try how to save him out; and at the end of thirty years he £25 out of thirty shillings per week, even with- acquires a legal as well as possessional claim. out a wife and family, while trying experiments The inventors think therefore that any maduring hours stolen from sleep? and when chine, or system, or other useful thing that the £25 is paid for the three years' patent, how has not been used by individuals or the public to live, while going about to persuade people for thirty years, is as much without an owner to use the invention ?-for it really is not a as the piece of land, and is as purely the subject matter of course that even the most valuable of appropriation for the purpose of bringing invention is, like a nugget of gold, comprehen- into use, albeit described in old books, in old sible to all. And be it remembered that even libraries, or even included in the list of specifigold nuggets in Australia were long suspected cations. At present every inventor and would-be to be manufactured in Birmingham by friends patentee carefully consults Mr. Woodcroft's of the convicts. And the £50 to carry on to catalogues and specifications, and if he finds the end of the seven years-how is that to that his bona fide invention has been forestalled, come out of the 30s. per week? The £175 he abandons all thought of serving himself and in three instalments is just as difficult to the the public in that direction. Can the public be poor man as the £100 in one payment. He is benefited by this dog-in-the-manger principle? just as much as ever in the hands of the capi- It does not signify one jot to the public what is talist whom it was proposed to secure him from. new or what is old; but it does signify that inAnd now for the workman of another kind ventors and skilled men should get into public -not the hard-handed man, snatching at a use as many things as possible that are useful. contrivance in the intervals of his work, but It does signify, too, both to the inventors and the hard-brained student inventor, long thought the public, that the money accruing from the ful and consecutive-what do you, gentlemen patent tax should be applied for the especial of the long robe, say to excuse yourselves for benefit of the public and the inventors directly. taking from him, in addition to the hundreds First, that there should be a special court of of pounds, the thousands that should enable law for the purpose of settling patent disputes, him to put his inventions in practice? Why in which the judges and law officers should be do you kill the goose for the sake of the golden paid out of the patent fund, and in no niggardly egg? Why induce him to sell his birthright manner, and in which the inventor appealing in for a mess of pottage? Why leave the thought-formá pauperis might have justice done to him ful, the economical, the self-denying, self-sacrificing, earnest student bare to the means of the speculator, by taking from him the means that should make him independent? He does not ask for boons, for charities, but only not to be taxed so as to destroy his utility to himself and the public alike. His is also a labour of love; but he cannot labour if you tax away all his means of living by his brains before he has earned them. If patents be indeed a contrivance to throw all new and profitable inventions into the hands of capitalists, do it at least in a direct way for the benefit of the State. Charge every man a thousand pounds for his patent when he makes his application.

without the law's delay, and without being
overwhelmed by the long purse of the capitalist.

And last, not least, for the credit sake of a
great nation, the patent commission and its
officers should go out of disreputable lodgings
into a house of its own, at least as important as
that of the United States or France, where it is
looked upon as an institution of the country.
It ought to possess the best possible library for
the use of inventors, instead of being thus
dependent on an eleemosynary supply of books
given up to public use by a private individual,
on loan out of a charitable feeling to inventors.
If the state of the patent law be such as to
render it a "mockery, a delusion, and a snare,"
so the state of the building whence patents issue,
and where specifications are enrolled, would be
a disgrace to a fishing village in that swampy
district East of London, known as the "Seven

"Islands."

Many thousands of pounds are levied annually on inventors as a tax on inventions. They feel naturally sore at this, for not many are the inventions that come to success, while many are the inventors who come to grief. But they would not grumble were there fairness in deal- Have any or all of the readers of the ing with the proceeds. They do not grudge MECHANICS MAGAZINE ever been in the patent the fees to the Attorney or Solicitor-General, office? Perchance not. Let them listen then. and still less to the well-deserving Bennet Wood-Up a dreary stone passage running north croft, who has with hard labour given them at least a complete library of all the specifications that ever were enrolled, so that they may know where they are treading-whether on occupied or unoccupied ground-saving them that most troublesome, uncertain, and costly "search" in all former records, that made all patents a mere matter of speculation. They do not grudge the official clerk either his salary, but they do grudge the results of his chief employment-that of lopping off every possible item of needful expenditure from the efficiency of the office in order to pay a goodly sum into the Treasury. The inventors think, as a body, that they give quite enough to the nation in the use of their

stone lobby, with a stone arch above, lighted by a series of melon frames. Suddenly a dreadful-looking door stops the way, and passing through it we find ourselves in an antechamber of the passage with a diaphragm down the middle, which is a bookcase containing specifications in nest boxes, the walls to right and left being lined with similar bookcases, leaving barely passage way for one person on each side. Making way gradually, provided you don't jam with some one coming out, you find the central diaphragm turns itself into a table for standing like a very narrow counter, and here arises very practical difficulties in the pursuit of patent knowledge. Busy inventors and their agents line both sides of the counter, continually pulling down the red boxes from the shelves and piling them on the counter, while attendants make incessant attempts to restore the boxes to order on the shelves when dispensed with. In most libraries the attendants hand down the volumes required, but that is quite out of the question in this Scylla and Charybdis of red boxes, and every one helps himself, and makes of course a rival and dismal confusion. Sitting is out of the question, even were there room for chairs or stools; and as the student people bend over the counter to read or to make notes, the would-be students continually displace them in their attempts to pass by. How the attendants can preserve their extreme civility under such extreme annoyance is a marvel.

Getting gradually through, the adventurer emerges in what is called the reading roombut which is only the "Try-to-read room"where there is a stand-up frame for papers and periodicals connected with inventions, desks or tables for the officials who are absolutely necessary to keep pace with the daily increasing catalogue of specifications, a moderate centre table occupied with catalogues whereat consultors play the game of catch-who-catch-can, and one or two of the first comers get seats, and the first claim of a small row of hat and coat pegs. The room is about 16 feet square, and is the type of a series of similar rooms connected with it :

"Stone are its walls,
Stone is its floor,
Stone is its ceiling,
And sto ne "

would be its door had stone doors been invented in the days when it was built. All the walls are faced with books on shelves narrowing the space, and the coldness of the floor is ameliorated by cocoa fibre matting, which may contain any quantity of dirt and dust below. It has a fireplace and a window, giving it a considerable advantage over the supplementary approach by the stone passage, where cold is mitigated in winter by poisonous hot air issuing through gratings, and filled with empyreuma. Upon the whole, one feels inclined to say, "Please don't

warm me." It has sometimes occurred to us that "it is a purposed thing, and goes by plot," in some "circumlocution office," in order to kill off as many as possible of the inventive genus, in the hope of destroying amongst them some of the especial offenders who besiege the Admiralty and the War Office with plans of destruction and construction.

and south from Quality-court to Southampton-
buildings are several doors on the western side.
One of these doors goes into the patent office
proper, where stamped documents are received,
and whence protections and patents issue, and are two other stone-boxes in fireproofs--fac
Right and left of this Trying-to-read room
where parchment specifications are enrolled. similes of the other, and also lined with books
Dreary and mysterious enough-but as the-in one of which sits Mr. Woodcroft, the eye
public does little more than make exit and and brain of the establishment, waiting to
enter there we may let it alone, and take one peruse and sign his name to all kinds of papers,
of the neighbouring doors, on which is pasted a and with, fortunately, a private mode of
notice "To the Library." Pushing it open we through another series of stone boxes filled
enter a long stone lobby with stone stairs leading with clerks and officers busied in getting up
up and down-but where we know not on our and comparing lithographs and letter-press of
right; but it seems to say, "Leave all hope, ye the host of new specifications constantly pour-
"who enter here." Onward we go along the ing in. On the south side of the stone passage

escape

are another series of stone boxes, all as like one | may be warded off under the influence of money, | into the merest routine. Inquest after inquest another as the cells of a bee-hive, but chiefly present or to come. conspicuous for the absence of daylight: these are the store-rooms and saleshop of the establishment, and they are, as the Americans say, "a caution;" the floors are laid out into passages scarcely passable, with multiplied stacks of pigeon-holes in vertical ranges holding assortments of specifications, and the shop, with about six square feet, and six-feet square of counter, and standing space for just three customers at one time, and a desk for two salesmen, with a "reflector" above their heads to try to get light through the window, and gaslight to make up for the ineffectual effort, and to wear and waste their poor eyesight away, and help to smoke-dry them into a fishy semblance of humanity, robbing them of half the threescore and ten years assigned by Providence to the denizens of this earth of ours. And to add to all these grievances, they are far from considered in the amount of their salaries when the official clerk makes his periodical round to try how much he can ill-use the Patent Office for the benefit of the Treasury. The whole thing is an offence to the bounties of that Providence which gave man's brains for a blessing to himself and fellows, and not as a mere contrivance to squeeze out taxes.

We have a profound respect for the British constitution and institutions - entertain due reverence for the Queen as represented by her law officers-venerate the person of the Lord Chancellor-think the Master of the Rolls a most important personage, even though there be no longer any patent rolls ornamented with black-letter, but in lieu thereof only folded pages with printers' type thereon-do not well see how we could dispense with either Attorney or Solicitor-General, though inclined to shun any transactions with attorneys and solicitorsin-general-are inclined to a respectable opinion of the Clerk to the Commissioners, though liking him better in the House of Lords than in the Patent Office; but, for all this, we could wish that these magnates were obliged to supervise the Patent Premises once a week all the year round; go down the two side-aisles leading to the "Try-to-read room," receive a bow from Mr. Woodcroft, viewing the lithograph and letter-press department, turn in amongst the specification pigeon-holes, and, while making their exit through the shop by the folding counter, just try to read a brief under the "reflector," with a brief reflection on the commandment "To do unto others as we "would that others should do unto us." But in this weekly perambulation let them not forget to cast aside for the nonce the robes of state, for they will not pass through the Straits of the Specifications. It were easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for Lord Campbell in his robes of state to enter through the Narrows into the "Try-to-read room" of the

Patent Office.

COLLIERY EXPLOSIONS.

Boтп at Risca, and in the north, subscriptions are liberally forthcoming in behalf of the widows and orphans whom the two recent calamities deprived of their natural protectors. Local newspapers are warmly eulogistic; and at a first glance at the circumstances involved, charity-profuse, open-handed charity-would seem to be a measure of goodness unalloyed. Now, we differ from those who contemplate the subscriptions raised, and the annuities promised, in this light. We fear that what has come to pass may come to pass again—that the force of money may prove antagonistic to the force of truth; and that a full, searching, exhaustive investigation of the causes of explosions

takes place, and evolves no more than an hypoMembers of the great colliery interest should thesis. The hypothesis is a most valuable one, be given distinctly to understand that they are viz., that if Davy lamps be employed, be in put on their defence before the tribunal of good order, and never tampered with, fire-damp British public opinion. They are accused of explosions cannot occur. Amidst the desolation not doing all that they might have done for of the Risca catastrophe, it is a small source of preventing those terrible accidents which satisfaction to be made aware that some few outvie the casualties of war, and which during tenets of belief were expounded last Saturday the last five years caused no less than eight at Newport in the course of a meeting conhundred and fifty-six deaths. They are accused vened for the purpose of providing funds for of vaunting the safety of a lamp known by many the relatives of the mangled dead. Mr. Brown of them to be unsafe, and of leading the public there and then stated it as his opinion that a to put faith in the dogma that, the Davy lamp coal-mine ought to be maintained by ventilabeing exclusively used, accidents from fire-damp tion in a condition of such purity that naked explosion can only accrue from the maltreat- candles might be employed without fear or posment of it. Finally, they are accused of sup-sibility of accident. He would, if we underpressing evidence that might tend to lay bare stand him rightly, be understood to desire the the causes of some of these disasters by an ex- limitation of the use of safety lamps to the penditure of money at the proper season, osten- purpose of a preparatory exploration conducted sibly as a charitable offering, but virtually as a by an overseer for the purpose of ascertaining bribe. All this has been alleged; and, more- whether the mine were in a fit condition to be over, the opinion has been gaining ground for worked. And now it is most important to some time past that the great coal-owners of observe that Mr. Brown condemns utterly and the North and West have, to say the least, not absolutely the Davy lamp. He tells those ascourted that Parliamentary investigation rela- sembled that the Davy lamp would explode. tive to the immediate cause of colliery explo- The conditions under which explosion could be sions, and the means of preventing them, which brought about he did not mention, but he stated the gravity and the frequency of those calamities the ultimate result as being a fact-one conso imperiously demand. When, this day fort- cerning which he had no doubt whatever; and night, we made some remarks on the Risca the terms of his assurance were such as to conexplosion, we felt it our duty to direct especial vey an assumption on his part that the nonattention to two points-firstly, the non-safety safety of the Davy lamp was a fact too well of Davy's lamp; secondly, the probability that known for doubt or comment. Now, all this is coal-mine safety might be ultimately found, and so identical with our own views with the consecured, by bringing into operation more power-victions we have arrived at and promulgated— ful systems of ventilation than any now com- that we should have felt it our duty to express monly employed. We, moreover, noted the what Mr. Brown expressed had we been in his circumstance, not well heeded hitherto, that to place last Saturday. It is our deliberate cona very considerable extent the Davy lamp and viction that the onus should lie with owners of ventilation are antagonistic. If a mine be coal-mines to assure themselves that each and actually swept clear of explosive gas, then it is every mine should be demonstrated pure day superfluous to announce that the Davy lamp by day. may be safely employed. But so, in like manner, might any source of illumination; and no person would elect to work by the always insufficient light of the Davy lamp, when he could with equal safety employ an ordinary candle. The condition of perfect ventilation being discarded as not concerning our argument, and the state of imperfect ventilation contemplated, there can be no doubt that the explosive tendency of the Davy lamp will be much exaggerated. It is surprising not a little to reflect upon the persistent manner in which the tendency of Davy's lamp to explode under the influence of currents has been ignored, notwithstanding the teaching of good and sufficient evidence. Twenty-five years ago we remember seeing the late Dr. Pereira explode a Davy lamp by simply jerking it; and this experiment was performed as an illustration year by year until Dr. Pereira ceased to lecture on chemistry. That which the lecturer purposely accomplished, the coal-miner may accomplish accidentally at any instant. He has only to jerk the lamp intermittently during his passage along the galleries of a mine, and the deed is done.

Whatever may be the dangers attendant upon coal-mine explorations, there can be no doubt that much could be effected in the way of reducing them to a practical minimum by codifying the principles on which they may depend, and making the result known amongst miners. At present, all relating to this matter is no less vague and unsatisfactory than if the fire-damp were a novelty instead of a source of practical evil, making itself known to the coal-miner in the earliest days of coal-mining, and growing stronger and stronger with every successive year, and every advance of science. Investigation of fire-damp accidents have degenerated

This demonstration may be effected by means of Stephenson's or some other really safe lamp. There are many such lamps which cannot be exploded under any conditions, natural or artificial. These absolutely safe lamps are too delicate for working by, inasmuch as their flames go out on the first touch of dangerous gas; but they might be used as mere testing instruments, and to that application we, in common with Mr. Brown, would restrict them.

made last Saturday by the Chairman of the Not so satisfactory were the observations tended to imply that every measure of precaumeeting, Sir Thomas Phillips. His remarks tion capable of being taken against the dangers of fire-damp had commonly been taken, and its present unsatisfactory state. He deplores that the economy of coal-mines must remain in the casualties not unfrequently arising, of course; but he would seem to desire the public to regard them as inherent, inevitable casualties that, when occurring, should be looked upon in somewhat the same light as the casualties of war. If thus inevitable (which we do not believe), it is high time for the community of coalminers to be made to understand that science in relation to their calling has gone to the end of its tether, and reached its limits. It is time, also, for Parliament to take the coal-mining interest in hand, and lay down some graduated scale of death pensions to be forthcoming hereafter as a right-not in the shape of a mere imaginary constitution.

issued their "Catalogue of Scientific Books" for Messrs. Spon, of Bucklersbury, London, have just January, 1861. They send it, post-free, to any part of the kingdom.

MULLEY'S AUXILIARY STEERING
APPARATUS.

By W. R. MULLEY, Esq., Surveyor to Lloyd's, Plymouth.
Lloyd's Register Office, Plymouth,
December, 1860.

GENTLEMEN,—Will you kindly allow me space for a few remarks on the present insufficient means of steering steamships of large tonnage, and a brief description of my auxiliary rudder as a remedy.

Rudders and the apparatus for moving them have, since the introduction of steam, occupied considerable attention, and many improvements been made in both. But owing to the immense size of the ships now built, and their extreme length in proportion to beam, together with the effect produced upon the rudder by the screw, the difficulty is greatly augmented: indeed, to such an extent does this exist in some ships, that on a recent trial of one of the finest frigates in our navy, she was, when at full speed, quite beyond all control of her helm.

To remedy such deficiencies, and also to provide a reliable resource in the event of damage to the main rudder, I have devised an auxiliary. It is about half the superficial area of the main rudder, oblong-shaped, and formed of separate bars of copper or iron (Fig. 1)-according as the ship may be

FIG. 1.

of wood or iron-in such manner as will allow it to twist (its action resembling that of the fin of a fish) in and out of the quarter where it is hung, at an optional depth below the water-line, and when not in use recessed so as to take the shape of the bottom, leaving no projection whatever, and consequently free from the various risks of injury to which the main rudder is liable-that of being shot away in particular, a casualty, now that rifled cannon will be used and directed with so much precision, infinitely more likely to occur than heretofore. The auxiliary rudder would in such cases be quite efficient for the safe navigation of the ship; whereas without some such substitute immediately available she would be in a far more helpless condition than the loss of her screw would render her, concerning which much has been said and many suggestions made to guard against, as of course while her masts were standing she would still be under control. It would also be highly serviceable for ships, such as iron-cased batteries and others navigating shallow waters and intricate rivers. The auxiliary rudders are worked each by a common steering wheel placed on either side (Fig. 2) and near that of the main rudder, and are operated upon simultaneously with it under the same orders, having, in a case of sudden change of helm, the advantage of being brought to act at once, while the main one has first to pass its neutral point. The other part of the apparatus consists merely of a vertical and horizontal shaft with a pair of wheels and pinion to move a segment-shaft passing through the ship's side and connected to the after end of the rudder, so that it requires but a small quantity of room from the hold.

voyage passenger ships, contributing as it would
so much to the security of life. It may be urged
that such accidents are of rare occurrence, to which
I would reply by asking what amount of money
would be thought too much when they do happen
for such a help at hand?
W. MULLEY.

NICHOLSON'S IMPROVEMENTS IN REAP-
ING MACHINES.

MR. JOSEPH NICHOLSON, agricultural implement
maker, of Chaple-house, Kensingham, White.
haven, has patented certain "improvements in
reaping machines," which he describes as follows:-

"My said invention relates to a peculiar con-
struction and arrangement of reaping machine,
whereby the machine is balanced so as to throw
no unnecessary weight upon the horses, whilst,
from the peculiar position of the draught pole,
side draught is entirely prevented.

"According to this invention the whole of the machinery is carried by one cast-iron bracket, from the outside of which projects the axle-pin, which carries the large driving-wheel. The height of the cutting mechanism can be regulated or adjusted by inserting the axle-pin into one or other of a series of holes made at different heights in the bracket, and shifting the small wheel at the opposite side of the platform of the machine to correspond. The centre of the main driving wheel is placed nearly in a direct line with the cutters, and the draught pole is bolted to the top of the bracket, and can be regulated to suit the different heights to which the machine may be set."

Fig. 1 of the annexed engravings represents a side elevation of the improved reaping machine; Fig. 2 is a corresponding plan of the same. A is the cast-iron bracket before referred to; it is bolted at a a to the draught pole B, and is provided with a stud pin C, which carries the main driving wheel D. This pin may be placed at different elevations, so as to regulate the height of the cutters by inserting it into one or other of the holes b b formed on the bracket, as will be clearly seen on referring to Fig. 1; it is secured in its place by a nut c. The holes 66 are disposed in the arc of a circle struck from the centre Although the auxiliary rudder is undoubtedly of the shaft G, hereinafter referred to. The calculated to be of greater service to ships of war whole of the cutter-actuating mechanism is carried than merchantmen, yet, as they can be carried by the bracket 4. The main driving wheel D, without inconvenience, the comparatively trifling which is supported by the pin C in the side of the cost ought to be no bar to their adoption in long-bracket, is provided with an internal toothed

wheel, a circular rack E, which gives motion on the rotation of the wheel to the spur pinion F fast on the end of the short shaft G. By the peculiar disposition of the adjusting holes bb, in the manner before described, the pinion G will always be in gear with the internal rack, at whatever height the machine may be adjusted. This shaft works in bearings d d, bolted to the base plate of the bracket, and carries a bevel wheel H, which gears into a bevel pinion I fast on the end of the short shaft J; it is protected from clogging by a semicircular casingh on its under side, cast in one piece with the bracket A. The shaft J works in bearings d' d', also bolted to the base plate of the cast-iron bracket 4, and carries at its opposite end a disc and crank pin K, which impart motion through the connecting rod L to the ordinary knife or cutter M; N is a lever handle for throwing the cutting gear out of action when required. The angle of the draught pole B may be regulated by suitably adjusting the bolts a a in one or other of the bolt holes made for that purpose at the back and front ends of the bracket. The end of the finger bar O is bolted at e to a lug cast for that purpose on the bottom of the bracket 4; and, in order to maintain the finger bar and plat form firm and steady at right angles to the draught pole, adjustable stays may be used, as shown at PP; Q is the seat of the attendant.