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[Illustration]




SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN




A WEEKLY JOURNAL OF PRACTICAL INFORMATION, ART, SCIENCE, MECHANICS,
CHEMISTRY, AND MANUFACTURES.




NEW YORK, JANUARY 1, 1870.

Vol. XXII.--No. 1. [NEW SERIES.]

$3 per Annum [IN ADVANCE.]


       *       *       *       *       *

Contents: (Illustrated articles are marked with an asterisk.)

  *Engines of the Spanish Gunboats

  The Torpedo Problem

  Sugar Making in Louisiana

  Sticking, or Court Plaster

  *An Improved Hoisting Pulley Wanted

  *Ferdinand De Lesseps--Chief Promoter of the Suez Canal

  *An Ingenious Vent Peg

  *A New English Patent Pulley Block

  Plants in Sleeping Booms

  *Improved Treadle Motion

  *Improved Method of Catching Curculios

  Remains of a Megatherium in Ohio

  Artificial Ivory

  American and English Kailway Practice Contrasted

  Boiler Covering

  Attachment of Saws to Swing Frames

  Patent Decision

  Inventions Patented in England by Americans

  *Russ Improved Wood Molding Machine

  A Lost Civilisation

  *Girards "Palier Glissant"

  A Happv New Year

  The Suez Canal not yet a Failure

  Tubular Boilers and Boiler Explosions

  Professor Fiske's Lecture at Harvard

  The Brighter Side

  The American Institute Prizes Awarded to Steam Engines

  A Protest against the Canadian Patent Law

  American Railway Management

  Scientific Lecture before the American Institute

  The Battle Fields of Sceence

  How French Bank Notes are Made

  What the Newspapers Say

  Chinese Method of Preserving Eggs

  Steam Boiler Explosion

  Editorial Summary

  The Steven Breech Loading Rifle

  * A Novel Improved Hand Vise

  The Mound Builders of Colorado

  *The Woven-Wire Mattress

  Flouring Mill Hazards

  Fire-Proof Building

  The Decline of American Shipping

  Aerial Navigation-A Suggestion

  Putty Floors of Jewelers Shops and otherwise

  Western Demand for Agricultural Implements

  Economical Steam Engine

  Friction and Percussion

  Oiling a Preservative of Brownstone

  Interesting Correspondence from China

  Commumcation Between Deaf and Blind Mutes

  Cheap Cotton Press Wanted

  A Singular Freak of a Magnet

  Preservation of Iron

  The Bananas and Plantains of the Tropics

  Putting Up Stoves

  The Magic Lantern

  The Largest well in the World--Capacity 1,000,000 gallons
  of water per Day

  Paper for Building

  *Improved Muzzle-Pivoting Gun

  Stock Feeding by Clock Work

  Milk and What Comes of It

  *Improved Hay Elevator

  *Improvement in Lamp Wicks

  Great Transformation

  Answers to Correspondents

  Recent American and Foreign Patents

  New Books and Publications

  List of Patents

       *       *       *       *       *




Engines of the Spanish Gunboats.


In our description of these boats in No. 25, Vol. XXI., special mention
was made of the compactness of the engines.

It has frequently been urged as an objection against the twin screw
system that the double set of engines, four steam cylinders with
duplicates of all the working parts called for on this system, render
the whole too complicated and heavy for small vessels, preventing, at
the same time, the application of surface condensation. In the engines
of the Spanish gunboats, of which we annex an illustration from
_Engineering_, the designer, Captain Ericsson, has overcome these
objections by introducing a surface condenser, which, while it performs
the function of condensing the steam to be returned to the boiler in the
form of fresh water, serves as the principal support of the engines,
dispensing entirely with the usual framework. Besides this expedient,
each pair of cylinders have their slide frames for guiding the movements
of the piston rods cast in one piece. Altogether the combination, is
such that the total weight and space occupied by these novel twin screw
engines do not exceed the ordinary single screw engines of equal
power. Several improvements connected with the working gear have been
introduced.

[Illustration: ENGINES OF THE TWIN SCREW SPANISH GUNBOATS]

The outer bearings of the propeller shafts, always difficult to regulate
and keep in order on the twin screw system, are selfadjusting and
accommodate themselves to every change of the direction of the shafts.
This is effected by their being spherical externally, and resting in
corresponding cavities in the stern braces or hangers. The spring
bearings for supporting the middle of the shafts are also arranged on a
similar self-adjusting principle.

The thrust bearing is of peculiar construction, the arrangement being
such that the bearing surfaces remain in perfect contact however much
the shaft may be out of line. The reversing gear likewise is quite
peculiar, insuring complete control over the movement of the two
propellers under all circumstances. It is claimed that these engines are
the lightest and most compact yet constructed for twin screw vessels.

       *       *       *       *       *




The Torpedo Boat Problem.


The _Army and Navy Journal_ thinks the problem of a torpedo boat
capable of firing rapidly and with certainty, has at length reached a
satisfactory solution. It says:

"A boat has been completed which is proved by experiment to be faultless
in machinery and arrangement. On the 2d of December, Secretary Robeson,
Vice-Admiral Porter, and Commodore Case, Chief of the Bureau of
Ordnance, went to the Navy Yard at Washington, to witness the experiment
with this new engine of destruction. After examining the workings of the
machinery, and the manner of firing, one of the destructives was put in
the frame and the party proceeded to the shore to witness the result. A
torpedo of only thirty-six pounds was first run out with rapidity and
fired; but the result showed that this small amount of powder, even,
would have been sufficient to destroy any ship, by lifting her out of
the water and breaking her back, even if her bottom was not knocked out
altogether. Mud and water were thrown up together, and the concussion
was felt far up in the Navy Yard, the ground being shaken by the shock
of the powder against the bed of the river. The concussion felt on board
the torpedo-boat was not more than that caused by a wave striking a
vessel at sea.

"Several torpedoes were fired from the vessel, the explosion of
which the party witnessed on board, as they desired to ascertain for
themselves the effect of the shock. The result seemed satisfactory,
as no change whatever is contemplated in the machinery, which is very
simple, and 'works to a charm.' The torpedo vessel is the _Nina_, a very
strong iron boat of three hundred and fifty tuns burden, capable of
crossing the ocean, and having a speed of seventeen knots an hour. She
is not impervious to heavy shot, but can be made so, and is capable of
resisting any ordinary projectile that could be brought to bear on her
from the decks of a ship of war. Her decks will be made torpedo and
shot-proof, and several arrangements will be applied, now that it is
known that the torpedo system is a success. Such a vessel as the _Nina_,
attacking an enemy's squadron on our coast some dark night, or entering
an enemy's port, could destroy half the vessels in the harbor, and
easily escape as few vessels could overtake her. Such a vessel could,
for instance, enter the harbor of Havana, and destroy every vessel of
war in the port, under cover of darkness. A squadron supplied with such
boats to be used to attack, after the fight began, and the ships were
enveloped in smoke, would have a most decided advantage against an enemy
not thus armed for torpedo warfare. It is reported that our torpedo navy
will consist of twenty vessels, none of which will have a less speed
than twelve knots, and the fastest of them will go seventeen knots."

       *       *       *       *       *




SUGAR MAKING IN LOUISIANA.


The New Orleans _Times_ contains, in a late number, an account of the
manufacture of sugar as conducted on the Poychas estate, from which we
extract portions containing the essential particulars of cane sugar
making as conducted in the southern portions of the United States.

"Reaching the Cane shed, the crop, dumped into piles, is received by a
crowd of feeders, who place it (eight or ten stalks at a time) on the
cane carrier. This is an elevator, on an endless band of wood and iron,
which carries them to the second story, where the stalks drop between
the rollers. An immense iron tank below, called a juice box, receives
the liquid portion, and another elevator bears the bruised and broken
fragments to the opposite side of the building, where they are dropped
into the bagasse burner.

"This invention, at its introduction, caused more scientific inquiry
and dispute, probably, than any other of the age, and settled beyond
question the possibility of combustion, without the use of atmospheric
air. The process consists in dropping the wet, spongy mass into a fire
of wood or coal, and closing the furnace doors. The steam arising from
the drying matter passes to a chamber in the rear, where, by the intense
heat, it is decomposed. Oxygen and hydrogen (both strong combustibles)
unite with the carbon, reaching there in the form of smoke, and a white
heat is the result.

"Cane juice, as it escapes from the mill, could scarcely be considered
inviting to either palate or vision. The sweet, slimy mass of fluid,
covered with foam, and filled with sticks, has more the appearance of
the water in a brewer's vat than anything which now suggests itself. A
small furnace, containing a quantity of burning sulphur, sends through a
tube a volume of its stifling fumes, and these, caught by jets of steam,
thoroughly impregnate the contents of the juice box. Having received its
first lesson in cleanliness, the liquid now rises through a tube to the
series of clarifiers on the second floor. They are heated by a chain of
steam pipes running along the bottom, and being filled, the juice slowly
simmers Much of the foreign substance rises in a scum to the surface
and is skimmed off by the sugar maker. It is further purified by the
addition of Thomaston or what is called sugar lime. At one half a peck
is considered sufficient for seven hundred and fifty gallons of juice,
but much depends upon the quantity of saccharine matter it contains.
Another set of pipes now permit the liquor to run into the evaporators,
in the boiling room below. These are also heated by circles of steam
pipes, and the liquid is first gently simmered, to enable any additional
foreign substance to rise to the surface and be skimmed off.

"After that the steam is turned on fully, and the juice boils until
it reaches the solidity of twenty-five degrees, as measured by the
saccharometer. This point attained, more pipes conduct it to a series
of square iron tanks called filterers. Each is provided with a false
bottom, covered with thick woolen blankets, and through these the juice
slowly drips into an immense iron vessel called a sirup tank.

"The process of cleaning has now been completed, and the sirup is pumped
into the covered vessel previously alluded to, called the vacuum pan.

"This is also heated by layers of steam pipes, and here the liquor boils
until the process of crystallization is completed. This end achieved,
another conductor permits the substance to slowly descend to a large
square iron tank, called a strike-pan. The process of emptying the
vacuum pan is technically called a "strike." We now find a reddish brown
substance, having somewhat the appearance of soft mortar.

"Men are at hand with square wooden boxes, and while the sugar is still
warm, it is placed in rotary cylinders, protected on the inside by wire
guards, called centrifugals.

"Placed on a horizontal, they revolve with a velocity which frequently
reaches 1200 a minute. The damp, dingy looking pile instantly spreads, a
broad circle of yellow is first visible on the inner rim of the machine,
and this slowly whitening finally becomes a shining ring of snowy sugar.
To effect this result requires the aid of nine steam boilers, three
steam engines, a vacuum pan, three large evaporators, five clarifiers,
five filters, an immense sirup tank, the juice box, mill, bagasse
furnace, and fifteen coolers.

"With the engineers, sugar makers, firemen, and laborers, thirty-eight
persons are constantly on duty in this sugar-house.

"Doubling this number, to give each the necessary rest, swells the
gathering to seventy-six souls, who, during the grinding season, find
employment at the sugar-house alone. This of course does not include the
laborers employed in gathering and bringing in the crop, and the
great number occupied in odd jobs and the extensive repairs which are
constantly going on."

       *       *       *       *       *




Sticking, or Court Plaster.


This plaster is well known from its general use and its healing
properties. It is merely a kind of varnished silk, and its manufacture
is very easy.

Bruise a sufficient quantity of isinglass, and let it soak in a little
warm water for four-and-twenty hours; expose it to heat over the fire
till the greater part of the water is dissipated, and supply its place
by proof spirits of wine, which will combine with the isinglass.
Strain the whole through a piece of open linen, taking care that the
consistence of the mixture shall be such that, when cool, it may form a
trembling jelly.

Extend the piece of black silk, of which you propose making your
plaster, on a wooden frame, and fix it in that position by means of
tacks or pack-thread. Then apply the isinglass (after it has been
rendered liquid by a gentle heat) to the silk with a brush of fine hair
(badgers' is the best). As soon as this first coating is dried, which
will not be long, apply a second; and afterwards, if you wish the
article to be very superior, a third. When the whole is dry, cover it
with two or three coatings of the balsam of Peru.

This is the genuine court plaster. It is pliable, and never breaks,
which is far from being the case with many of the spurious articles
which are sold under that name. Indeed, this commodity is very
frequently adulterated. A kind of plaster, with a very thick and brittle
covering, is often sold for it. The manufacturers of this, instead of
isinglass, use common glue, which is much cheaper; and cover the whole
with spirit varnish, instead of balsam of Peru. This plaster cracks, and
has none of the balsamic smell by which the genuine court plaster is
distinguished. Another method of detecting the adulteration is to
moisten it with your tongue _on the side opposite to that which is
varnished_; and, if the plaster be genuine, it will adhere exceedingly
well. The adulterated plaster is too hard for this; it will not stick,
unless you moisten it on the varnished side.--_The Painter, Gilder, and
Varnisher's Companion_.

       *       *       *       *       *




AN IMPROVED HOISTING PULLEY WANTED.


A gentleman of this city has sent us the accompanying diagram of an
improved hoisting pulley, for which he say she would be willing to pay
any reasonable price provided he knew where to obtain it--the wheel, not
the price. It is a pulley within a pulley, the friction of the outer one
upon the inner one--the latter being held by a ratchet and pawl-acting
as a brake in lowering weights, while both would turn together in
elevating weights. The idea is rather an ingenious one, but we are
confident our inventors can attain a like object by simpler means.

[Illustration]

       *       *       *       *       *

THE VACUUM METHOD OF MAKING ICE.--An ice and cold producing machine has
been invented by Herr Franz Windhausen, Brunswick. The action of the
machine is based on the principle of producing cold by the expansion of
atmospheric air, which is accomplished by means of mechanical power. The
machines require no chemicals, nothing being used in them but water and
atmospheric air. They may be wrought by steam, water, or wind, and they
produce from 100 to 1,000 lbs. of ice per hour, according to size, at a
cost of from 2d. to 5d. per 100 lbs., this difference resulting from the
varying prices of fuel and the mode of working chosen. One of their uses
is to cool rooms, cellars, theaters, hospitals, compartments of ships,
etc.--_Builder_.

       *       *       *       *       *




FERDINAND DE LESSEPS--CHIEF PROMOTER OF THE SUEZ CANAL.

[From the Phrenological Journal.]


The scheme of re-opening the canal of the Pharaohs between the
Mediterranean and Red seas, and thus connecting by a short cut across
the Isthmus of Suez the commerce of Europe and Asia, though long
entertained by the first Napoleon, may fairly be claimed for M. de
Lesseps. His attention was doubtless first drawn to it by reading the
memorable report of M. la Pere, who was employed by Bonaparte to make
a survey in 1798. The credit of designing and executing the great work
belongs alike to him. With the general plan, progress, and purpose of
the Canal, the American reader has, during the past few months, been
made tolerably familiar.

He is the son of Jean Baptiste Barthelemi, Baron de Lesseps, who was
born at Cette, a French port on the Mediterranean, in 1765. Jean
Baptiste was for five years French Vice-Consul at St. Petersburg. In
1785 he accompanied La Perouse on a voyage to Kamtchatka, whence he
brought by land the papers containing a description of the expedition.
In 1788 he was Consul at Kronstadt and St. Petersburg. From St.
Petersburg he was called, in 1812, by the Emperor Napoleon, to Moscow,
as _intendant_. From the latter city, in 1814, he proceeded to Lisbon,
and was stationed there as Consul until 1823. He died at Paris, May 6,
1834.

Ferdinand, the subject of this sketch, was born at Versailles in 1805,
and is consequently in his sixty-fourth year, though his appearance is
that of a man little past the meridian of life. Early in life he evinced
peculiar aptitude for the diplomatic career in which he has since
distinguished himself--a career as varied and romantic as it is
brilliant. In 1825 he was appointed _attache_ to the French Consulate at
Lisbon. Two years later found him engaged in the Commercial Department
of the Minister of Foreign Affairs. During the latter part of 1828
he was _attache_ to the Consul-General at Tunis; and in 1831 he was
dispatched by his Government as Consul to Alexandria. Hard work and
rapid promotion for _le jeune diplomat!_ But the most eventful period of
his long and wonderfully active career lay yet before him.

Seven years subsequent to his appointment at Alexandria, and
consequently when he was in his thirty-fifth year, he was sent as
Consul to Rotterdam. From Rotterdam he proceeded to Malaga in 1839, to
negotiate in behalf of French commerce with the Spanish Government. In
the latter part of the same year he was transferred to the Consulate
at Barcelona, where during the two subsequent years he was especially
active, and signally distinguished himself against the reign of
Espartero. In 1844 we again find him in Alexandria, whither he was sent
to take the place of Lavalette. But the time for the development of his
great project had not yet come. He did not long remain in the Egyptian
capital. Returning to his former position in Barcelona he was witness
to some of the scenes of the revolution of February. In 1848 he was
appointed French Minister at the court of Madrid. Remaining in the
Spanish capital about a year, he returned to Paris immediately after the
revolution of '48, and in May of the following year was dispatched as
Envoy of the French Republic to the Republican Government of Mazzini at
Rome, where he took a leading part in the abortive negotiations which
preceded the restoration of the Pope by a French army.

[Illustration]

In 1854 he received a commission from the _Societe d'etudes du Canal de
Suez_ at Paris to negotiate with Saeid Pacha for the construction of the
canal projected in 1816. Accordingly, toward the close of that year, we
again find him on the Isthmus, preparing for his great work. This time
he came to conquer. His mission was crowned with success, and the
necessary concession made in November of that year. A palace and a
retinue of servants were assigned to his use, and he was treated, as
a guest of the Viceroy, with the utmost respect. Great opposition
followed, especially from England; and it was not till January, 1856,
that the second and fuller concession was granted by Saeid Pacha, and a
_Compagnie International_ fully organized.

In 1858 M. Lesseps succeeded in raising two hundred millions of francs
in France, and in 1859 he proceeded to Egypt and planted the Egyptian
flag in the harbor of the ancient Pelusium, the great sea-port of Egypt
thirty centuries ago, where Port Saeid now stands. He laid, at the same
time, the foundation of a lighthouse, and proudly proclaimed the
work commenced. Fresh difficulties--chiefly of a political
nature--interposed, but the indefatigable Lesseps never despaired. In
1859 he had the satisfaction of seeing his company and work placed upon
a firm footing, though the final decision of the French Emperor was not
given till July, 1864. From that time to the present hour the Canal has
steadily progressed toward completion.

The personal appearance of M. de Lesseps is very striking. Though long
past middle age, he has a fresh and even youthful appearance. Both face
and figure are well preserved; his slightly curling gray hair sets off
in pleasing contrast his bronzed yet clear complexion, his bright eye,
and genial smile. He is somewhat over the medium stature, possessed of
a compact and well-knit frame, carries his head erect, and moves about
with a buoyancy and animation perfectly marvelous in one of his years
and experience. His address is that of the well-bred, well-educated
French gentleman that he is. His manner is winning, his voice clear and
under most excellent control, as all those who have listened to his
admirable lectures on the Canal at the late Paris Exposition cannot
fail to remember. What is perhaps most remarkable in a man so bred and
constituted, is that with great gentleness of speech and suavity of
manner he combines a strength of will and fixity of purpose worthy of
Napoleon or Caesar himself. Beneath that calm exterior lay a power which
needed but the stimulus of a great idea to develop.

Though beset by difficulties, laughed at, and maligned, he has never for
a moment swerved from his purpose or relaxed his efforts to accomplish
it. Neither the sneers of Stevenson and his associate engineers, the
heavy broadside of the "Thunderer," or the squibs of _Punch_, ever made
any visible impression on the purpose or action of Lesseps.--"My purpose
from the commencement was to have confidence," said he.

How bravely he has maintained his principle and redeemed his pledge let
the ceremonies which marked the completion and inauguration of his great
work tell--when sea sent greeting to sea; and let the keels of richly
laden argosies from Cathay and from Ind, which plow the waters of the
Canal, declare.

       *       *       *       *       *




AN INGENIOUS VENT PEG.


The engraving illustrates an English invention of value in that it
provides a means of giving vent to casks from which liquids are to
be drawn, at the same time excluding the air when the drawing is
discontinued, and thus preventing deterioration in the liquid by undue
exposure to air.

[Illustration]

The principle on which it operates is that of admitting just so much air
as may be required to fill the vacant space produced by the withdrawal
of the liquor from time to time, and affording this air no egress, thus
hermetically sealing the barrel. This is effected by means of a valve
opening inward, at the upper portion of the peg, so long as the density
of the exterior air is in excess of that within. This action takes place
at the very instant of the flow of the liquid, and ceases with it; for
at that instant all further supply is shut off, there being no further
pressure.

       *       *       *       *       *

THE LARGE TREES OF TEXAS.--The large court-house of Navarro county is
said to have been covered with shingles made from a single cedar tree.
The oaks, pecans, and cedars of that section of the country attain
an immense size. A pecan tree in Navarro county, on the banks of the
Trinity, measured twenty-three feet in circumference. The cedars are
often more than 100 feet high.

       *       *       *       *       *

ELECTRIC MESSAGES.--Although it may require an hour, or two or three
hours, to transmit a telegraphic message to a distant city, yet it
is the mechanical adjustment by the sender and receiver which really
absorbs this time; the actual transit is practically instantaneous,
and so it would be from here to China, so far as the current itself is
concerned.

       *       *       *       *       *




A New English Patent Pulley Block.


The following description of a new pulley block, which we take from the
_Ironmonger_, does not give as clear an idea of the invention as could
be desired, but it shows that invention in this field has not yet
exhausted itself:

[Illustration]

"The block is made on the differential principle. The lifting chain is
passed over two sheaves, each of which is geared internally, the one
having one or more teeth in excess of the other. Revolving around these
internal teeth is a pinion, actuated by an eccentric, which is keyed on
to a shaft passing through the center of the block, with a bearing at
each end in the outside frame of the block. At one end of this shaft
is a wheel with an endless hand chain passing over it; this gives the
motion to the eccentric shaft. The teeth of the internal pinion are
broad enough to gear into the teeth of both the sheaves, but as there is
more teeth in one than in the other, they (the teeth) are not exactly
opposite each other, and therefore will not admit the teeth of the
revolving pinion without moving; but the tooth of the pinion, acting as
a wedge, and entering with great power, pushes the one tooth forward and
the other tooth back; and this continually occurring, a continual rotary
motion is given to the sheaves, in opposite directions, with a power
which is proportioned to the number of the teeth, the throw of
eccentric, and the leverage gained by the diameter of the hand wheel.
The lifting chain is passed over the one sheave, then down, and up over
the other, the two ends being attached to a powerful cross bar, to which
is connected the lifting hook. By this means the weight is distributed
over the two sheaves and the two parts of the chain, increasing the
safety and diminishing the friction of the block.

"The blocks are very simple in construction, and are not at all liable
to get out of order; the construction being such that the weight cannot
run down, though the men lifting let go the chain. They hang quite plumb
when in action, and the men are able to stand clear away from under the
load, as the hand-wheel chain can be worked at any angle."

       *       *       *       *       *




Plants In Sleeping Rooms.


The following from the able pen of Dr. J.C. Draper, in the January
number of the _Galaxy_, will answer some inquiries lately received on
the subject, and is a brief, but clear exposition of the injurious
effects of plants in sleeping apartments:

"Though the air is dependent for the renewal of its oxygen on the action
of the green leaves of plants, it must not be forgotten that it is only
in the presence and under the stimulus of light that these organisms
decompose carbonic acid. All plants, irrespective of their kind or
nature, absorb oxygen and exhale carbonic acid in the dark. The quantity
of noxious gas thus eliminated is, however, exceedingly small when
compared with the oxygen thrown out during the day. When they are
flowering, plants exhale carbonic acid in considerable quantity, and at
the same time evolve heat. In this condition, therefore, they resemble
animals as regards their relation to the air; and a number of plants
placed in a room would, under these circumstances, tend to vitiate the
air.

"While the phanerogamia, or flowering plants, depend on the air almost
entirely for their supply of carbon, and are busy during the day in
restoring to it the oxygen that has been removed by animals, many of the
inferior cryptogamia, as the fungi and parasitic plants, obtain their
nourishment from material that has already been organized. They do not
absorb carbonic acid, but, on the contrary, they act like animals,
absorbing oxygen and exhaling carbonic acid at all times. It is,
therefore, evident that their presence in a room cannot be productive of
good results.

"Aside from the highly deleterious action that plants may exert on the
atmosphere of a sleeping room, by increasing the proportion of carbonic
acid during the night, there is another and more important objection to
be urged against their presence in such apartments. Like animals, they
exhale peculiar volatile organic principles, which in many instances
render the air unfit for the purposes of respiration. Even in the days
of Andronicus this fact was recognized, for he says, in speaking of
Arabia Felix, that 'by reason of myrrh, frankincense, and hot spices
there growing, the air was so obnoxious to their brains, that the
very inhabitants at some times cannot avoid its influence.' What the
influence on the brains of the inhabitants may have been does not at
present interest us: we have only quoted the statement to show that long
ago the emanations from plants were regarded as having an influence on
the condition of the air; and, in view of our present ignorance, it
would be wise to banish them from our sleeping apartments, at least
until we are better informed regarding their true properties."

       *       *       *       *       *

PATENT OFFICE ILLUSTRATIONS.--We are indebted to Messrs. Jewett &
Chandler, of Buffalo, N.Y., for advance sheets of the illustrations
designed to accompany the Report of the Commissioner of Patents for the
year 1868. We have frequently had occasion to commend the skill and
fidelity of these illustrations. They are most admirably done, and the
value of our Patent Office Reports is much enhanced thereby. In fact
without these illustrations the reports would be of little value.

       *       *       *       *       *




Improved Treadle Motion.


It is well known that the ordinary means employed to propel light
machinery by the foot are fatiguing in the extreme and although the best
of these is the rock shaft with foot pieces, employed almost universally
in modern sewing machines, this requires the operator to sit bolt
upright, a position very trying to the back, and one which has been
shown to be productive of weakness and even permanent disease.

The device shown in the engraving employs only the swinging motion of
the leg to generate the required power.

[Illustration: GOODES' IMPROVED TREADLE MOTION.]

A pendulum, A, is pivoted to the underside of the table and carries a
heavy disk, B. To the central pivot of B is attached a foot piece, C.
The bottom of B is slotted, and through the slot passes a stationary
rod, D, which holds the bottom of the disk from vibrating while it
causes the upper part to reciprocate with the swinging of A.

To the upper part of B is pivoted a pitman which actuates the crank as
shown.

In operation the foot is placed upon the foot piece, and a swinging
motion is imparted by it to the pendulum, which is ultimately converted
into rotary motion by the crank as described. The heavy disk, B, gives
steadiness to the motion, and acts in concert with the fly wheel on the
crank shaft for this purpose; but it is not essential that this part of
the device should be a disk; any equivalent may be substituted for the
same purpose.

Patented, through the Scientific American Patent Agency, Oct, 26, 1869,
by E. A. Goodes For further information address Philadelphia Patent and
Novelty Co., 717 Spring Garden street, Philadelphia, Pa.

       *       *       *       *       *




Improved Method of Catching Curculios.


This is a novel and curious invention, made by Dr. Hull, of Alton, Ill.,
for the purpose of jarring off and catching the curculio from trees
infested by this destructive insect. It is a barrow, with arms and
braces covered with cloth, and having on one side a slot, which admits
the stem of the tree. The curculio catcher, or machine, is run against
the tree three or four times, with sufficient force to impart a jarring
motion to all its parts. The operator then backs far enough to bring the
machine to the center of the space between the rows, turns round, and in
like manner butts the tree in the opposite row. In this way a man may
operate on three hundred trees per hour.

A bag and a broom are carried by the operator by which the insects are
swept from the cloth and consigned to destruction.

[Illustration: CURCULIO CATCHER.]

       *       *       *       *       *




Remains of a Megatherium in Ohio.


The Columbus _State Journal_, of Dec. 6, says "there is now on
exhibition at the rooms of the State Board of Agriculture, or
headquarters of the Geological Corps, a section of the femur or thigh
bone of an animal of the mastodon species, the fossilized remains of
which were recently discovered in Union county. These remains were found
in a drift formation about three feet below the surface, and are similar
to the remains of the Megatherium found in other parts of the State.
Arrangements were made by Mr. Klippart, of the Geological Corps, to
have the skeleton or the parts thereof removed with proper care. Before
excavations had proceeded far bad weather set in, and work has been
abandoned. The section of the femur, upper part, with socket ball, is
about twenty inches in length, or about half the length of the thigh
bone. This would make the aggregate length of the bones of the leg about
ten feet. The ball is twenty-two inches in circumference, and the bone
lower down, of course, much larger. From the part of the skeleton
secured, it is estimated that the hight of the animal was twelve and a
half feet, and the skeleton entire much larger than the specimen now in
the British Museum. As this particular species, or remains thereof, have
been found only in Ohio, this specimen has been named the _Megatharium
Ohioensis_. The animals lived, it is supposed, in the period immediately
preceding the human period, and were after the elephant type."

Exhuming operations will be resumed in the spring, and if the skeleton
is removed in good shape or a good state of preservation, it will be set
up in the Echo room at the Capitol, where the fossils collected by the
Geological Corps are now being arranged and stored.

       *       *       *       *       *




Artificial Ivory.


A process for producing artificial ivory has been published in a German
journal. The inventor makes a solution of india-rubber in chloroform and
passes chlorine gas through it. After this, he heats the solution to
drive off any excess of chlorine, and also the solvent, whereupon he has
left behind a pasty mass with which it is only necessary to incorporate
sufficient precipitated carbonate of lime or sulphate of lead, or,
indeed, any other dense white powder, to obtain a material which may be
pressed into molds to form whatever articles may be desired. The details
of this process are obviously incomplete, and the success of it may be
doubted. Only good and well masticated rubber could be employed, and
even then a dilute solution must be made, and any earthy impurities
allowed to deposit. In the next place, we are doubtful of the bleaching
action of chlorine on rubber, and, moreover, chloroform is, under some
circumstances, decomposed by chlorine. Lastly, it is clear that, to
obtain a hard material at all resembling ivory, it would be necessary to
make a "hard cure," for which a considerable proportion of sulphur
would be required. The simple purification of india-rubber by means of
chloroform, would, however, furnish a mass of a very fair color.

       *       *       *       *       *

An iron car made of cylindrical form is now used on the Bengal Railway,
for the carriage of cotton and other produce. It is much lighter and
safer than the ordinary car. We believe in iron cars.

       *       *       *       *       *

ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND.--At the rate old subscribers are renewing, and new
ones coming in, there is a prospect that our ambition to increase the
circulation of this paper to one hundred thousand will be gratified.

       *       *       *       *       *




AMERICAN AND ENGLISH RAILWAY PRACTICE CONTRASTED.


A paper on "American Locomotives and Rolling Stock," read before the
Institution of Civil Engineers, in England, with an abstract on the
discussion thereon, has been forwarded to us by the publishers, William
Clowes and Sons, Stamford street and Charing Cross, London.

We have seldom met with a pamphlet of greater interest and value. The
whole subject of American as contrasted with English railroad practice
is reviewed, and the differences which exist, with the necessities for
such differences ably discussed. Mr. Colburn shows these differences
to be external rather than fundamental, and traces many of the
peculiarities of American construction to the "initiative of English
engineers." The cause for the adoption and retention of these
peculiarities he attributes to "the necessities of a new country and the
comparative scarcity of capital," and thinks that but for these causes"
American railways and their rolling stock would have doubtless been
constructed, as in other countries, upon English models, and worked, in
most respects, upon English principles of management.

He reviews the origin and introduction of American features of railway
practice, and points out as the distinguishing feature of American
locomotives and rolling stock the bogie, or swiveling truck. "Keeping
in mind the distinguishing merits of the bogie, the other differences
between English and American locomotives are differences more of costume
and of toilet than of vital principles of construction."

The author attributes the origin of the greater subdivision of rolling
weight and consequent coupling of wheels on American roads to the
comparatively weak and imperfect permanent way, estimating the maximum
weight per wheel as being for many years four English tuns, while three
tuns he considers, as more than the average for each coupled wheel of
American locomotives.

To follow the author through the whole of his able paper, and the
discussion which it elicited, would occupy more of our space than we
can spare for the purpose. We will, however, give in the author's own
language, an account of an experiment conducted by him in 1855 on the
Erie Railroad.

"In the autumn of 1855, the author, at the request of Mr. (now
General) M'Callum, the manager of the Erie Railroad, took charge of an
experimental train, which he ran over the whole length of the line and
back, a total distance of nearly 900 miles. The same engine was employed
throughout the run, occupying in all nearly three weeks, making an
average for each week day of about 50 miles. The line is divided into
four divisions, varying considerably in respect of gradients, and the
utmost load the engine could draw was taken in both directions over each
division. The maximum inclinations were 1 in 88. The results of the
experiments were so voluminous, that it will be sufficient to detail
the particulars of what may be termed crucial tests of adhesion and
resistance to traction.

"The engine had four coupled wheels and a bogie, the total weight in
working trim being 291/2 tuns, of which 17-7/8 tuns rested on the coupled
wheels available for adhesion. The coupled wheels were 5 feet in
diameter; the outside cylinders were 17 inches in diameter, and the
stroke 24 inches. The safety valves were set to blow off at 130 lbs.,
and the steam, as observed by a Bourdon gage, was seldom allowed to
exceed that limit. No indicator diagrams were taken, nor was any measure
taken of the wood burnt, all that could be consumed by the engine, in
maintaining the requisite steam, being supplied. The tender, loaded,
weighed 181 tuns. The train drawn consisted of eight-wheel wagons fully
loaded with deals. The average weight of each wagon was 5 tuns 8 cwt. 3
qrs., and of each wagon with its load 15 tuns 5 cwt. 3 qrs. nearly. The
wagons had cast-iron chilled wheels, each 2 feet 6 inches in diameter,
with inside journals 3 7/8 inches in diameter, and 8 inches long. All
the wagons had been put in complete order, and the journals, fitted with
oil-tight boxes, were kept well oiled. The gage of the line was 6 feet.
The weather was most favorable, clear and dry, with the exception of a
single day of heavy rain.

"Upon about one hundred miles of the line, forming a portion of the
Susquehanna division, a train of one hundred wagons, weighing, with
engine and tender, 1,572 tuns was taken. The train was a few feet more
than half a mile in length.

"At one point it was stopped where the line commenced an ascent of 24
feet in four miles, averaging 1 in 880 up for the whole distance. There
were also long and easy curves upon this portion. The train was taken up
and purposely stopped on the second mile, to be sure of starting again
with no aid from momentum. The average speed was 5 miles an hour, and
neither was the pressure of steam increased nor sand used except in
starting from the stops purposely made. The engine, even were its full
boiler pressure of 130 lbs. maintained as effective pressure upon the
pistons throughout the whole length of their stroke, could not have
exerted a tractive force greater than (17 x 17 x 130 lbs. x 2 ft.)/ 5
ft = 15,028 lbs.; nor is it at all probable that the effective cylinder
pressure could have approached this limit by from 10 lbs. to 15 lbs. per
square inch. Supposing, however, for the sake of a reductio ad absurdum,
that the full boiler pressure had been maintained upon the pistons for
the whole length of their strokes, the adhesion of the coupled driving
wheels, not deducting the internal resistances of the engine, would have
been 15028/40050 3/8 of the weight upon them. In any case there was
a resistance of 4,011 lbs. due to gravity, and if even 120 lbs. mean
effective cylinder pressure be assumed, corresponding to a total
tractive force of 13,872 lbs., the quotient representing the rolling and
other resistances, exclusive of gravity, would be but 6.27 lbs. per tun
of the entire train; a resistance including all the internal resistances
of the engine, the resistance of the curves, easy although they were,
and the loss in accelerating and retarding the train in starting and
stopping. This estimate of resistance would correspond, at the observed
speed of 5 miles an hour (upwards of 3/4 of an hour having been consumed
on the 4 miles), to 185 indicated H.P., which, with the driving wheels,
making but 28 revolutions per minute, would be the utmost that an engine
with but 1,038 square feet of heating surface could be expected to
exert. This was the highest result observed during the three weeks'
trial, but one or two others are worthy of mention. On the Delaware
division of the same line, the train, of 1,572 tuns' weight, was run
over 5 consecutive miles of absolutely level line, at a mean rate of
9.23 miles an hour, and during the same day, over 5 other consecutive
miles of level at a mean rate of 9.7 miles per hour. On both levels
there were 141/2 chain curves of good length, and the speed, from 9 to 12
miles an hour, at which the train entered the respective levels, was not
quite regularly maintained throughout the half hour expended in running
over them. But if even 7 lbs. per tun of the total weight be taken as
the resistance at these speeds, the tractive force will be 11,004 lbs.,
which is more than one fourth the adhesion weight of 40,050 lbs. On
the next day, the same engine drew 30 wagons weighing 4661/2 tuns, or,
including engine and tender, 514 tuns nearly, up a gradient of 1 in
1171/2, three miles long, at a mean speed of 101/4 miles an hour. The
resistance due to gravity was 9,814 lbs., and supposing the other
resistance to traction to amount to no more than 7 lbs. per tun, the
total resistance would be 13,412 lbs., corresponding to a mean effective
cylinder pressure of 117 lbs. per square inch, and to a co-efficient of
adhesion of almost exactly one third.

"It is needless to repeat instances of much the same kind, as occurring
during the experiment referred to. The author is bound to say that they
were, no doubt, influenced by the favorable circumstances of weather,
and something is to be allowed also for the great length of train drawn,
very long trains having a less tractive resistance per tun on a level
than short ones, and something, possibly more than is commonly supposed,
may have been due to the use of oil-tight axle boxes, the saponaceous
compound known as 'railway grease' being nowhere in use on railways in
the States. It could not possibly be used, except in a congealed form,
in the severe American winters; and Messrs. Guebhard and Dieudonne's
experiments (_vide_ "De la resistance des trains et de la puissance des
machines." 8vo. Paris, 1868, p. 36) made in 1867, on the Eastern Railway
of France, showed a very considerable diminution in the resistance of
oil-boxed rolling stock as compared with that fitted with grease boxes.
But, weighed upon the other hand, are the facts, first, that the line
was of 6-feet gage, and, _pro tanto_, so much the worse for traction;
secondly, that the wheels were comparatively small, and the inside
journals of comparatively large diameter, the ratio of the former to the
latter being as 73/4 to 1, instead of 12 to 1 as on English lines. It is
difficult to believe that the length and steadiness of the double bogie
goods wagons, scarcely liable as they are to lateral vibrations, had not
something to do with the result, which is in some respects unique in the
history of railway traction. The result, although not absolutely showing
the real resistance to traction, nor the real adhesion of the engine,
presents this alternative; namely, that the resistance must have been
unusually small, or the adhesion unusually large."

In the discussion which followed some doubts were expressed as to the
accuracy of Mr. Colburn's conclusions, drawn from the experiments
described; but it was conceded by some who took part in the discussion
that some of the features of our practice might be advantageously copied
in England. For the most part, however, the opinion prevailed that the
features of our system, which are here regarded as almost indispensable,
could not be introduced into English practice with advantage.

       *       *       *       *       *




BOILER COVERING.

BY C.M. O'HARA, C.E.


At the regular weekly meeting of the Polytechnic Association of the
American Institute, held on Thursday evening, the 25th ult., the subject
of boiler clothing was discussed at some length, but without any
decisive conclusion being arrived at respecting the most serviceable and
economical material for that purpose. It appeared from the testimony
adduced, that though there is a variety of substances in use, even those
which are practically acknowledged as being the most efficient are
far from coming up to the required standard of utility, and are
characterized by defects which are at once forced upon us by a little
close examination. Felt is an admirable non-conductor of heat, but owing
to its combustible nature it is quite unreliable when subject to the
heat of a high pressure of steam. A large fragment of this material
which had been taken off the boiler of a North River steamboat was
exhibited at the meeting, scorched and charred as if it had been exposed
to the direct action of fire. For these reasons felt covering is,
generally speaking, confined to boilers in which a comparatively low
pressure of steam is maintained. But even under the most favorable
circumstances of actual wear its durability is limited to a short
period.

Powdered charcoal possesses the elements of efficiency as a
non-conductor in an eminent degree; but its susceptibility of taking
fire militates strongly against its adoption as a boiler covering.

Besides the materials above mentioned, there are some which come under
the denomination of cements; but the use of such is somewhat at variance
with what a dull world would call "facts." Employing them as a clothing
for a vessel in which it is necessary to retain heat is certainly the
wrong way of doing a light thing, if the evidence of distinguished
experimenters be worth anything.

The researches of most well-informed physical philosophers go to prove
that the conducting properties of bodies are augmented by cohesion, and
that heat is conveyed profusely and energetically through all solid and
ponderable substances. Thus gold, silver, and others of the most solid
metals are the best conductors. Next to the pure metals in conducting
powers are rocks, flints, porcelain, earthenware, and the denser liquids
as the solutions of the acids and alkalies. As a further evidence to
prove that the passage of heat through all substances is increased
by cohesion, even some of those which are known to be among the best
conductors are deprived of this property by a division or disintegration
of their particles. Pure silica in the state of hard, rock crystal is
a better conductor than bismuth or lead; but if the rock crystal be
pulverized, the diffusion of heat through its powder is very slow and
feeble. Heat is conducted swiftly and copiously through transparent
rock salt, but pulverization converts the solid mass into a good
non-conductor. Caloric has for the same reason a stronger affinity for
pure metals than for their oxides.

Again, wood is known to be a better non-conductor when reduced to
shavings or sawdust than when in the solid state. It is probably on this
account that trees are protected by bark, which is not nearly so dense
and hard a body as the wood. Wool, silk, and cotton are much diminished
in conducting qualities when spun and woven, for the reason that their
fibers are brought closer together.

Count Rumford discovered that hot water, at a given temperature, when
placed in a vessel jacketed with a clothing of twisted silk, and plunged
into a freezing mixture, cooled down to 185 deg. Fah. in 917 seconds. But
when the same vessel was clothed with an equal thickness of raw silk,
water at the same heat and under the same process required 1,264 seconds
before it reached the same decrease of temperature. It was also found
by Sir Humphry Davy that even metals became non-conductors when their
cohesion was destroyed by reducing them to the gaseous state.

It is now generally admitted that, heat being motion, anything, which,
by the cohesion of particles, preserves the continuity of the molecular
chain along which the motion is conveyed, must augment calorific
transmission. On the other hand, when there is a division or
disintegration of atoms, such as exists in sawdust, powdered charcoal,
furs, and felt, the particles composing such bodies are separated from
each other by spaces of air, which the instructed among us well know are
good non-conductors of heat. The motion has, therefore, to pass from
each particle of matter to the air, and again from the air to the
particle adjacent to it. Hence, it will be readily seen, that in
substances composed of separate or divided particles, the thermal
bridge, so to speak, is broken, and the passage of heat is obstructed
by innumerable barriers of confined air. The correctness of
these assumptions has been so abundantly proved by experimental
demonstrations, that every mind that is tolerably informed on the
subject must be relieved of every shade of doubt respecting the greatly
superior non-conducting powers which bodies consisting of separate atoms
possess over those of a solid concrete nature.

The next matter of interest connected with the subject under notice is
its relation to the philosophy of radiation. It has long been known that
the emission of heat from a polished metallic surface is very slight,
but from a surface of porcelain, paper, or charcoal, heat is discharged
profusely. Even many of the best non-conductors are powerful radiators,
and throw off heat with a repellent energy difficult to conceive.

"If two equal balls of thin, bright silver," says Sir John Leslie, "one
of them entirely uncovered and the other sheathed in a case of cambric,
be filled with water slightly warmed and then suspended in a close room,
the former will lose only eleven parts in the same time that the latter
will dissipate twenty parts." The superior heat-retaining capacity which
a clean tin kettle possesses over one that has been allowed to
collect smoke and soot, lies within the compass of the most ordinary
observation.

The experiments of the eminent philosopher just mentioned furnish a
variety of suggestions on the radiation from heated surfaces. He found
that, while the radiating power of clean lead was only 19, it rose to 45
when tarnished by oxidation, that the radiating power of plumbago
was 75, and that of red lead 80. He also discovered that, while the
radiating power of gold, silver, and polished tin was only 12, that
of paper was 98, and lamp black no less than 100. He further says: "A
silver pot will emit scarcely half as much heat as one of porcelain. The
addition of a flannel, though indeed a slow conductor, far from checking
the dissipation of heat, has directly a contrary tendency, for it
presents to the atmosphere a surface of much greater propulsive
energy, which would require a thickness of no less than three folds to
counterbalance."

It is safe to infer from this analogy that the felt covering of boilers
should not only be of considerable thickness, but should be protected
by an external jacketing of some sort; for, though felt is a good
non-conductor, it is a powerful absorber and radiator, more especially
when it has been allowed to contract soot and dust.

Various experiments have lead to the general conclusion that the
power of absorption is always in the same proportion as the power of
radiation. It must be so. Were any substance a powerful radiator and at
the same time a bad absorber, it would necessarily radiate faster than
it would absorb, and its reduction of temperature would continue without
limit. It has, furthermore, been proved that the absorptive property of
substances increases as their reflecting qualities diminish. Hence, the
radiating power of a surface is inversely as its reflecting power. It is
for this reason that the polished metallic sheathing on the cylinders
of locomotive engines, and on the boilers of steam fire engines, is
not only ornamental but essentially useful. Decisive tests have also
established the fact that radiation is effected more or less by color.
"A black porcelain tea pot," observes Dr. Lardner, "is the worst
conceivable material for that vessel, for both its material and color
are good radiators of heat, and the liquid contained in it cools with
the greatest possible rapidity; a polished silver or brass tea urn is
much better adapted to retain the heat of the water than one of a dull
brown, such as is most commonly used."

A few facts like those above stated afford more decisive information
regarding the nature of heat than columns of theory or speculation. Yet
it is rather strange that when so many learned and reliable men have,
experimented so much and commented with such persuasiveness upon the
subtile agency of heat and the vast amount of waste that must accrue by
injudicious management, comparatively few have availed themselves of the
united labors of these indefatigable pyrologists; manufacturing owners
and corporations still persisting in having their steam boilers painted
black or dull red and leaving them exposed to the atmosphere. Some
persons, who pass themselves off very satisfactorily as clever
engineers, affect a contempt for the higher branches of science, and
assert, in a very positive and self-sufficient manner that experiments
made in a study or laboratory are on too trifling and small a scale to
be practically relied upon; that a tin kettle or a saucepan is a very
different thing to the boiler of a steam engine.

This may be so in one sense, but the same chemical forces which operate
upon the one will be just as active in a proportionate degree in their
action upon the other. It was said by Aristotle that the laws of the
universe are best observed in the most insignificant objects; for the
same physical causes which hold together the stupendous frame of the
universe may be recognized even in a drop of rain. The same observation
may be applied to the laws of heat in all their ramifications; for,
after all, our experiments are, in many instances but defective copies
of what is continually going on in the great workshop of nature.

It would be needless to insist on the wasteful and destructive effects
produced by the exposure of boiler surfaces to the open atmosphere.
Such a practice can be neither supported by experience nor justified by
analogy; and it is to be hoped that it may before long be consigned to
the limbo of antiquated absurdities and be satisfactorily forgotten.
Seeing that it cannot with any show of reason be affirmed that the
boiler covering materials in present use possess the requirements
necessary to recommend them; the question arises as to what is the best
means of achieving the object required. This is an inquiry which it is
the office of time alone to answer. As the problem is obviously one of
primary importance, and well worthy of the attention of inventors, it
is hazarding nothing to predict its satisfactory solution at no distant
date.

The plain truth is, boilers have of late become gigantic foes to
human life. Explosions have increased, are increasing, and should be
diminished; and they are, in many instances, caused by boilers being
strained and weakened by sudden contraction from having their surfaces
exposed when the fire has been withdrawn from them. Boilers are also
materially injured by the excessive furnace heat which it is necessary
to maintain to compensate for the large amount of caloric which
is dissipated from their surfaces, not only by radiation but from
absorption by the surrounding atmosphere.

As the views here laid down are drawn exclusively from the region of
fact and experiment, it is to be hoped that an enlightened sense of
self-interest may prompt those whom the subject may concern, to give it
that special attention which its importance demands.

       *       *       *       *       *




Attachment of Saws to Swing-Frames.


To insure the efficiency of mill-saws, it is highly important to have
them firmly secured in the frames by which they are reciprocated.
Swing-frames for carrying saws are ordinarily of wrought iron or steel,
and made up of several pieces mortised and tenoned together in the form
of a rectangular frame or parallelogram, of which the longest sides are
termed verticals and the shortest crossheads or crossrails. In the case
of deal frames, the swing frame differs somewhat from that of a timber
frame, in having two extra verticals, which separate it into two equal
divisions. These are necessary in order that two deals may be operated
upon simultaneously, each division being devoted to a separate deal, and
likewise to enable the connecting-rod which works the frame to pass up
the center and oscillate on a pin near the top, thereby avoiding the
deep excavations and costly foundations required where the rod is
engaged with the pin at the bottom. The rack that advances the deals to
the saws passes through a "bow" in the connecting-rod and the middle
of the frame, the deals are placed on either side of it, on rollers
purposely provided. In sawing hard deals, the saws require to be
sharpened about every tenth run or journey, and every twentieth for
soft. Fifty runs, or one hundred deals, are reckoned an average day's
work; this is inclusive of the time required for changing the saws,
returning the rack for another run, and other exigencies. For attachment
to swing-frames the saws have buckles riveted to them; these are by
various modes connected to the crossheads. Each top buckle is passed
through the crosshead and is pierced with a mortise for the reception
of a thin steel wedge or key, by whose agency the blade is strained and
tightened. The edge of the crosshead upon which the keys bed is steeled
to lessen the wear invariably ensuing from frequently driving up the
keys. The distances between the blades are adjusted by interposing
strips of wood, or packing pieces, as they are termed, of equal
thickness with the required boards or leaves; the whole is then pressed
together and held in position by packing screws. The saws themselves are
subsequently tightened by forcing home the keys until a certain amount
of tension has been attained, this is ascertained only by the peculiar
sound which emanates from the blade on being drawn considerably tight
and tense. Great experience is required to accustom the ear to the
correct intonation, as in general the tensile strain on the saws
approximates so closely to the breaking point that one or two extra taps
on the keys are quite sufficient to rupture them.

Mr. Brunel, in the government saw-mills at Woolwich, adopted a method
of hanging saws by means of a weighted lever, like a Roman steelyard.
A cross-shaft affixed above the saws to the cornice of the main frame
carried a lever, weighted at one end and provided with a hook or shackle
at the other for engagement with the saw buckle. In using this apparatus
the blades were strained one at a time by linking the lever to the
buckle and then adjusting the movable weight until the desired tension
was acquired, after which the key was inserted into the mortise and the
lever released. This arrangement is not now in common use on account of
the trouble attending its employment, and at present the saws are merely
strained by hammering up the keys. The saw blades had usually a tensile
strain of upwards of one tun per inch of breadth of blade. It is to
be further observed that the cutting edges of the saws are not quite
perpendicular, but have a little lead, or their upper ends overhang the
lower about three eighths of an inch or one half of an inch, according
to the nature of the material to be sawn. The object of this is that the
saws may be withdrawn from the cuts in the ascending or back stroke, and
allow the sawdust free escape. The eccentric actuating the mechanism for
advancing the timber to the saws is generally set in such a manner that
the feed commences just at the moment when the frame has attained half
its ascending stroke, and continues until the entire stroke has been
completed. By this regulation the saws are not liable to be suddenly
choked, but come smoothly and softly into their work.--_Worssam's
Mechanical Saws_.

       *       *       *       *       *




PATENT DECISION.


_In the matter of the application of William N. Bartholomew, assignor
to J. Reckendorfer, for letters patent for a design for Rubber
Eraser_--Letters patent for designs have increased in importance within
the past few years. Formerly but few were granted, now many are issued.
To this day they have made so little figure in litigation that but
three reported cases are known in which design patents have come into
controversy. With their increase, questions have arisen concerning their
scope and character, which have given rise to dispute and to inquiry as
to the correctness of the current practice of the office in this branch
of invention. While on the one hand, it is insisted that the practice
has always been uniform, and is therefore now fixed and definite; on the
other, it is asserted, that there has never been, and is not now, any
well-defined or uniform practice, either in the granting or refusal of
design patents.

The act of 1836 made no provision for the patenting of designs. The
earliest legislation upon this subject is found in the act of August 29,
1842, section 3; and the only legislation upon the subject is found
in this section and in section 11, of the act of March 2, 1861. The
definition of the subject matter, or, in other words, of a "design," is
the same in both acts. It is is follows:

"That any citizen, etc., who, by his, her, or their own industry,
genius, efforts, and expense, may have invented or produced any new and
original design for a manufacture, whether of metal or other material
or materials, any original design for a bust, statue, bas-relief, or
composition in alto or basso-relievo, or any new and original impression
being formed in marble or other material, or any new and useful pattern,
or print, or picture, to be either worked into or worked on, or printed,
or painted, or cast, or otherwise fixed on any article of manufacture,
or any new and original shape or configuration of any article of
manufacture not known or used by others, etc."

This definition embraces five particulars.

1. A new and original design for a manufacture.

2. An original design for a bust, statue, etc.

3. A new and original impression or ornament to be placed on any article
of manufacture.

4. A new and useful pattern, print, or picture to be worked into or
worked on, or printed, or painted, or cast, or otherwise fixed on any
article of manufacture.

5. A new and original shape or configuration of any article of
manufacture.

The first three of these classes would seem to refer to ornament only;
the fourth to ornament, combined with utility, as in the case of trade
marks; and the fifth to new shapes or forms of manufactured articles,
which, for some reason, were preferable to those previously adopted.

The disputed questions which have thus far arisen under these
definitions are:

1. What variations may be claimed or covered by the patent consistently
with unity of design.

2. Is a new shape of an article of manufacture, whereby utility is
secured, a subject of protection under this act; and

3. Is mechanical function of any kind covered by it.

As to the first of these questions, it seems to have been assumed that
the design spoken of in all parts of the sections referred to covered a
fixed, unchangeable figure, that the protection of letters patent did
not extend to any variation, however slight, but that such variation
constituted a new design, might be covered by a new patent, and might
safely be used without infringement of the first. This, it is said, is
the correct theory of the law, and has been the uniform adjudication of
the Office.

Neither of these statements is absolutely correct. The law by no means
defines a design with such strictness. The language is, "new and
original design for a manufacture," "new and original impression or
ornament," "new and original shape or configuration." It would seem to
be too plain for argument, that the new design, or impression, or shape,
might be so generic in its character as to admit of many variations,
which should embody the substantial characteristics and be entirely
consistent with a substantial identity of form. Thus, if the invention
were of a design for an ornamental button, the face of which was grooved
with radial rays, it would seem that the first designer of such a button
might properly describe a button of five rays, and, having stated that
a greater number of rays might be used, might claim a design consisting
generally of radial rays, or of "five or more" rays, and, that it could
not be necessary for him to take out a patent for each additional
ray that could be cut upon his button. So, if the design were the
ornamentation of long combs by a chain of pearls, it would seem that a
claim for such a design might be maintained against one who arranged
the pearls, either in curved or straight lines, or who used half pearls
only, and that such modifications if they had occurred to the designer,
might properly have been enumerated in his specification as possible and
equivalent variations. In short, I can see no reason, under the law, why
designs may not be generic, why what are called "broad claims," may
not be made to them, and why the doctrine of artistic or aesthetic
equivalents may not be applied to them.

This has been recognized to a greater or less extent in the
adjudications of the courts and in the practice of the Office.

One of the reported cases is that of Booth _vs_. Garelly 1, Blatch 247.
The design is described as consisting of "radially formed ornaments on
the face of the molds or blocks of which the button is formed, combined
with the mode of winding the covering on the same, substantially as
set forth, whether the covering be of one or more colors." The
specification, in "substantially" setting forth the design, contained
this language: "It will be obvious from the foregoing that the figures
can be changed at pleasure by giving the desired form to the face of the
mold by depressions and elevations which radiate from a point, whether
in the center of the mold or eccentric thereto."

In the consideration of the case by the Court no objection was made to
this statement or claim. In the case of Root _vs_. Ball, 4 McLean 180,
the learned judge instructed the jury that "if they should find that the
defendants had infringed the plaintiff's patent by using substantially
the same device as ornamental on the same part of the stove they would,
of course, find the defendant guilty. To infringe a patent right it
is not necessary that the thing patented should be adopted in every
particular; but if, as in the present case, the design and figures
were substantially adopted by the defendants, they have infringed the
plaintiff's right. If they adopt the same principle the defendants are
guilty. The principle of a machine is that combination of mechanical
powers which produce a certain result. And in a case like the present,
where ornaments are used for a stove, it is an infringement to adopt the
design so as to produce substantially the same appearance."

It has been the constant practice to grant patents for designs for fonts
of type, for sets of silver plate, for a series of printers' flourishes,
and the like. This class of cases has always passed without objection.

Two other cases which have arisen within the Office deserve notive.
The first was for a series of miniature shoulder straps, with emblems
denoting rank, provided with a pin, to be worn under an officer's coat,
upon his vest, or as a lady's breastpin. The drawing shows eight of
these pins with emblems of rank, varying from that of second lieutenant
to major-general, specification describing the brooch for a second
lieutenant goes on to say: "I propose to introduce, on some of them, the
different ornaments showing the respective ranks of the army, from a
major-generalship to a second lieutenancy. See Figs. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,
8."

The second case was that of an application for a monogram visiting
card, on which the name was to be inscribed or printed in the form of a
monogram. The applicant filed a drawing, showing a card upon which was
a monogram of his own name. In his specification he gives certain rules
for forming such monograms, and then says: "It is manifest that the
form of the letters as well as the letters themselves can be changed as
required by circumstances or the taste of the individual for whom the
monogram is designed; and that the general form and outline of the
monogram may be varied; and indeed, must vary to be adapted to the
particular name it is required to represent."

The claim was for "a monogram, visiting card, or visiting card upon
which the name is inscribed or printed in the form of a monogram,
substantially as herein specified."

This application was rejected by the Examiner and Board of
Examiners-in-Chief, but was allowed by the Commissioner upon appeal.

It is true that, before and since this patent was issued, many patents
have been refused for what I have called generic designs. One man having
designed a tack head, ornamented with radial lines, was compelled to
take out one patent for his tack with six radial lines, and another for
the same tack with eight. There are other instances of like character,
but they only serve to show that the practice of the Office has not been
uniform, and that the true practice is still to be adopted and followed.

I have no hesitation in saying, in view of the premises, that a valid
patent may be granted for a new genus or class of ornaments as well as
for specific ornaments, though I do not doubt that, under the statute,
every species, variety, and individual having distinct characteristics
under such a genus might also be patented, the patent being subordinate
and tributary to that which covered the class. From the nature of this
subject-matter there must always be more latitude in the issue of
patents for trifling changes, or form, or outline, since it is only
necessary that such changes should constitute a new "design" to entitle
them to a patent of this class.

The second question relates to the elements of utility in patents for
designs.

Upon this point, it is said by my predecessor, in Jason Crane _ex parte_
Commissioners, December-May, 1869, p. 1, that the construction which has
been given to the act of 1842, by the Office, ever since its passage, is
that it relates to designs for ornament merely; something of an artistic
character as contradistinguished to those of convenience or utility.

The Board of Examiners-in-Chief, in the present case, say "The practice
of the Office has been uniform from the beginning, and has always
excluded cases like the present from the benefit of the laws relating to
designs." And, again, "The general understanding has always been that
the acts of 1842 and 1861 were intended to cover articles making
pretensions to artistic excellence exclusively."

In thus denying that a new "shape or configuration" of an article,
whereby utility or convenience is promoted, is the proper subject of
a patent under the acts referred to, the Office would seem to have
involved itself in the absurdity that if a design is useless it may be
patented; whereas, if it be useful, it is entitled to no protection.

Fortunately no such "uniform practice" has existed, and the Office is
relieved from so grievous an imputation. The practice seems to have been
taken for granted by the appellate tribunals, and, so far from being
as stated, is, as nearly as possible, the reverse of it. Articles have
been, and are being, constantly patented as designs which possess no
element of the artistic or ornamental, but are valuable solely because,
by a new shape or configuration, they possess more utility than the
prior forms of like articles Of this character are designs for ax heads,
for reflectors, for lamp shades, for the soles of boots and shoes, which
have been heretofore patented as designs, and to this class might be
added, with great propriety, that class of so-called "mechanical"
patents, granted for mere changes of form, such as plowshares, fan
blowers, propeller blades, and others of like character.

When, therefore, my learned predecessor in Crane's case added to this
number a box so designed as to hold with convenience a set of furs, he
did but confirm and not alter the practice of the Office, so far as it
can be gleaned from the patented cases. I am of opinion that the class
of cases named in the act as arising from "new shape or configuration"
includes within it all those mere changes of form which involve increase
of utility. This I take to be the spirit of the decision in Wooster
_vs_. Crane, 2 Fisher 583. The design was of a reel in the shape of a
rhombus. The learned Judge says "In this case, the reel itself, as an
article of manufacture, is conceded to be old and not the subject of
a patent. The shape applied to it by the complainant is also an old,
well-known mathematical figure. Now although it does not appear that
any person ever before applied this particular shape to this particular
article, I cannot think that the act quoted above was intended to secure
to the complainant an exclusive right to use this well known figure in
the manufacture of reels. The act, although it does not require utility
in order to secure the benefit of its provisions, does require that
the shape produced shall be the result of industry, effort genius, or
expense, and must also, I think, be held to require that the shape or
configuration sought to be secured shall, at least, be new and original
as applied to articles of manufacture. But here the shape is a common
one in many articles of manufacture, and its application to a reel
cannot fairly be said to be the result of industry, genius, effort,
and expense. No advantage whatever is pretended to be derived from the
adoption of the form selected by the complainant, except the incidental
one of using it as a trademark. Its selection can hardly be said to be
the result of effort even; it was simply an arbitrary chance selection
of one of many well-known shapes, all equally well adapted to the
purpose. To hold that such an application of a common form can
be secured by letters patent, would be giving the act of 1861 a
construction broader than I am willing to give it"

It would seem from this language that if there had been "advantage,"
that is, utility in the adoption of the form of the rhombus, that it
would have found more favor in the eyes of the Court.

This subject has been well discussed in the opinion of Commissioner
Foote in Crane _ex parte_. I concur in that opinion, except as to
the recital of the former practice of the Office, which a careful
examination has shown to be erroneous.

The third question may be readily disposed of. Modes of operation or
construction, principles of action, combinations to secure novelty or
utility of movement, or compositions of matter, can hardly be said to be
"shapes, configurations, or designs," but where the sole utility of the
new device arises from its new shape or configuration, I think it may
fairly be included among the subjects which the act of 1842 was designed
to protect.

The present case may, in view of the foregoing consideration, be
disposed of without difficulty. Letters patent are asked, by applicant,
for a new design for a rubber eraser, which consists in giving to the
eraser a cylindrical body, with ends beveled to an edge. The claim is
for the "cylindrical rubber eraser provided with a wrapper or case, as
herein shown and described"

In the body of the specification the applicant describes the mode of
making the eraser, and he also enumerates its advantages over erasers of
the ordinary forms.

The Examiner does not object to the application because of the utility
of the eraser, although the Board of Examiners in Chief seem to base
their decision upon that point alone, but he pronounces the form already
old in its application to artists' stumps, and he insists that the mode
of composition or construction can form no element, for the claim for a
design patent.

In the latter statement he is undoubtedly right. These patents are
granted solely for new shapes or forms, and the form being new it is
immaterial by what process that form is attained. The composition of
matter or the mode of construction is neither "design," "shape," nor
"configuration," and must be protected, if at all, under a patent of
another kind. I cannot say that the presence of such matter in the
specification would be objectionable if description merely, but it could
in no way be allowed to enter into, or to modify the claim.

As to the first ground of rejection, I think the Examiner is in error.
This purports to be a new form or shape of a distinct article of
manufacture, to wit: rubber erasers. If it be new, as thus applied, it
is immaterial whether pencils, or stumps, or pen holders, or anything
else may or may not have been made cylindrical. If they are not
substantially the same article of manufacture as erasers, the old form
applied to this new article is unquestionably entitled to protection.

The applicant has not defined his invention with entire accuracy. He
should strike from his claim the words "provided with a wrapper or
case," as those relate to construction and not configuration, and he
should insert the words "having the ends beveled to an edge" in lieu
of the phrase erased, or he should adopt the usual form of claim for
designs, viz: "The design for a rubber eraser, as shown and described."

As the claim stands, it ought not to be allowed, and the decision must
be affirmed, but the applicant will be allowed to amend as suggested.

(Signed) S.S. FISHER.

Commissioner of Patents

       *       *       *       *       *




Inventions Patented In England by Americans.

[Compiled from the "Journal of the Commissioners of Patents."]

PROVISIONAL PROTECTION FOR SIX MONTHS.


3,201.--SEWING MACHINE.--H.A. House, Bridgeport, Conn. November 4, 1869.

3,211.--BORING TOOL.--Alexander Allen, New York city. November 5 1869.

3,215.--MODE OF AND DEVICES FOE SECURING STAIR RODS.--H. Uhry, New York
city. November 6, 1869.

3,229.--TRANSPORTATION OF LETTERS, PARCELS, AND OTHER FREIGHT BY
ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE, AND IN APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH.--A. E.
Beach, Stratford, Conn. November 9, 1869.

3,303.--RELOADING CARTRIDGE SHELL.--R.J. Gatling, Indianapolis, Ind.
November 16, 1869.

3,342.--WOODEN PAVEMENT.--I. Hayward and J.F. Paul, Boston, Mass.
November 20, 1869.

3,358.--MACHINERY FOR DISTRIBUTING TYPE.--O.L. Brown, Boston, Mass.
November 20,1869.

3,219.--WEIGHING MACHINE.--M. Kennedy, New York city. November 10, 1869.

3,260.--BRAN DUSTER.--W. Huntley and A. Babcock, Silver Creek, N.Y.
November 12, 1869.

3,339.--RAILWAY CARRIAGE.--E. Robbins, Cincinnati, Ohio. November 19,
1869.

3,341.--REVOLVING BATTERY GUN.--R.J. Gatling, Indianapolis, Ind. Nov.
19, 1869.

3,360.--SASH FASTENER.--S.L. Loomis, South Byron, N.Y. November 20,
1869.

3,363.--MAGNETIC MACHINES AND MAGNETS.--J. Burroughs, Jr., Newark N.J.
November 20, 1869.

       *       *       *       *       *




Russ' Improved Wood Molding Machine.


A comprehensive description of this excellent machine was given upon
page 230, Vol. XVIII., of the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN. We now present our
readers with an engraving of it and a summary of its important features,
which doubtless render it equal if not superior to any machine of the
kind in market. The frame in which the feed rollers are arranged is so
hung to the frame-work of the molding machine, that it can be raised or
lowered at pleasure, in order to properly adjust the feed rollers for
action upon the "stuff," and it is also so constructed as to permit the
feed rollers to yield in case of variations in the thickness of the
"stuff" passing under them. The spindle of the side cutter-heads is hung
in a vertical frame arranged to be moved up and down, and laterally, to
adjust the cutter-head for action, and is provided at its upper end with
a box or bearing, whereby the bearing of the box is always kept upon the
spindle instead of at different points of the same as in other machines,
and this without interfering with the adjustability of the side
cutter-head. Thus uneven wear is avoided.

[Illustration: RUSS' MONITOR MOLDING MACHINE.]

The bed of the machine is formed with a series of slots or openings
provided with bridge bars so that the cutters may act upon the edges of
the stuff without danger of injury from striking the bed. The presser
shoe is also made adjustable for different thicknesses of the "stuff"
and self-yielding to variations in thickness, by a peculiar method of
hanging the bar, which carries the presser shoe, to the framework of the
machine.

The clamp which holds the press block which acts upon the "stuff" after
it has passed through the cutter, is of novel construction, and the
spindle of the side cutter-heads is so arranged in connection with a
loose pulley and the pulley-drums, that both cutter-heads are driven by
one belt and in the same direction.

The bed plate is provided with springs through which the side
cutter-heads are arranged, to move laterally or transversely with a
bridge-plate or plates, susceptible of adjustment independent of the
cutter-heads, whereby an adjustable support to the "stuff" is given as
it passes over the line of the openings in the bed.

Most machines have weighted pressure feed, but this having steel springs
adjustable by a screw and hand wheel, a heavy or light pressure can be
applied according to the work done or size of molding. The cutter-heads
are square and slotted so that any style of molding can be stuck by
putting cutters on all sides of the head, thus equalizing the cost and
lessening the power. The pressure shoe is arranged to hold the "stuff"
at the very point of contact with the cutters, and, as we have shown, is
readily adjusted to a long or short cutter, so that a small molding can
be made as smooth as a large one, and so as not to require any finishing
with sandpaper or a hand tool.

The machine has also a bevel track very useful for picture frame
molding, and a patent cap of great value for the cutters, and readily
applied to any slotted head or common head. The wrenches that go with
the machine, and the common malleable iron caps for the top cylinder,
are shown in detail. These machines are now running in Worcester,
Boston, and Fitchburg, Mass.; Chicago, Ill.: Philadelphia, Pa.;
Brattleboro, Vt.; Whitesboro, N. Y.; Charleston, S. C., and other
places, and, it is claimed, are capable of doing better work and more of
it than any machine now in use.

This machine is covered by several patents taken through the Scientific
American Patent Agency. It is manufactured by R. Ball & Co., of
Worcester, Mass, to whom write for further information.

       *       *       *       *       *




A Lost Civilization.


At the last regular meeting of the American Geographical and Statistical
Society at its rooms in the Cooper Institute, Professor Newberry,
of Columbia College, delivered an address on the subject of his
explorations in Utah and Arizona Territories. The speaker commenced
by giving a short history of the circumstances under which the two
government expeditions to which he was attached were organized. He then
confined his remarks to the subject of the latter expedition, no account
of which has yet been published. Its aim was principally to explore the
region embraced by what is known as the old Spanish trail from Santa Fe
to California. After giving an interesting account of the topography of
the region traversed, he proceeded to speak of the traces which were
found on every hand of a former occupancy by a numerous population now
extinct. These were most numerous near the course of the San Juan river.
There were found ruins of immense structures, a view of one of which he
exhibited, built regularly of bricks, a foot in thickness, and about
eighteen inches in length, with the joints properly broken, and as
regularly laid and as smooth as any in a Fifth Avenue mansion. This
structure he said was as large as the Croton reservoir. Inside were
rooms nicely plastered as the walls of a modern house. There were also
traces of extensive canals, which had been constructed to bring water to
these towns, which were received into large cisterns. The lecturer also
exhibited pieces of pottery which he said abounded everywhere, showing
that in a former age all this vast region had been inhabited. He gave it
as his opinion that the depopulation of this region was attributable to
the fact that both to the north and the south were warlike hordes, and
from the incursions of one and the other of these, the peaceable Aztecs,
who had been the former denizens of the country, had been gradually
wiped out. The only people left here now were the Mokies, who lived
in towns inclosed within high, thick walls, and who were almost
inaccessible. These people were visited, and the explorers were received
by them with great hospitality. The speaker concluded by giving a short
account of the manners of the people and their customs, as far as an
opportunity was had to observe them.

       *       *       *       *       *




GIRARD'S "PALIER GLISSANT."


The term "_palier glissant_," which does not admit of being very happily
translated into an English term of equal brevity, is the name given by
the inventor, Mr. Girard, to a frictionless support, or socket, designed
to sustain the axes of heavy wheels in machinery. Since it is a
contrivance deriving its efficacy from hydraulic pressure, it may,
without impropriety, be considered here. The friction of axles in their
supports is the occasion of a considerable loss of power in every
machine.

[Illustration]

The loss of power itself, though a real disadvantage, is nevertheless a
matter of secondary consequence compared with the attendant elevation
of temperature, which, were not means carefully provided for reducing
friction to the lowest point possible, might soon be so great as to
arrest the operation of the machine itself. It was stated in a public
lecture delivered in May, 1867, before the Scientific Association of
France, that, in a certain instance within the lecturer's knowledge, the
screw shaft of a French naval propeller became absolutely welded to its
support, though surrounded by the water of the sea, in consequence of
the great heat developed by its revolution.

The ordinary means of reducing friction is to apply oil, or some other
unctuous substance, to the parts which move upon each other. Some
disadvantages attend this expedient, but till a better is suggested
they have to be endured. The cost of the oil expended in maintaining in
proper condition the axles of the machinery in a foundery, or of the
rolling stock of a railroad, amounts to a large sum annually; while the
want of neatness which its use makes, to a certain extent, inevitable,
and the labor which must be constantly employed to prevent this want of
neatness from becoming much greater than it is, are serious items to be
set off against its positive usefulness.

The object of Mr. Girard is to get rid of all these drawbacks by the
simple expedient of substituting water for oil. It would not avail to
apply water precisely as oil is applied. Though any one's experience may
tell him that two smooth pieces of metal will slide more smoothly on
each other when they are wet than when they are dry, yet every one knows
also that oil facilitates the movement much more perceptibly than water;
and also, that in the case of oil there is no difficulty in maintaining
the lubricating film, whereas water easily evaporates, and in case of
the accident of even a moderate elevation of temperature, it would be
expelled from the joint entirely. Mr. Girard proposes, therefore, to
employ the water to act, first, by its pressure, to lift the Journal to
be lubricated; and secondly, by its fluidity, to form a liquid bed or
cushion between the journal and its box, on which the journal may rest
in its revolution, without touching the metal of the box at all.

The construction will be understood by referring to the figure. One of
the journals is represented as removed, and in the cylindrical surface
of the socket are seen grooves occupying a considerable part of the area
exposed. These grooves communicate, by an aperture in the middle, with
a tube which is represented externally, and which sends a branch to the
other journal, through which water under a heavy pressure is introduced
into the box beneath the journal. The effect of the hydraulic pressure
is to lift the axle, opening a passage for the escape of the compressed
water, which at the same time, because of its release from compression,
loses the power to sustain the weight. If, therefore, by the first
impulse, the axle is thrown upward to any sensible distance, it will
immediately fall back again, once more confining more or less completely
the water. After one or two oscillations, therefore, the axle will
settle itself at length in a position in which, while the water will
escape, it will escape but as a film of inappreciable thickness. In this
condition the journal turns upon a liquid bed, and the resistance to its
revolution is so excessively small that a slow rotation given by hand
to a wheel sustained by it will be maintained for many minutes without
perceptible retardation. In fact, the most striking illustration which
can be given of the immense superiority of the _palier glissant_ over
a support lubricated in in any other way, is furnished by placing two
precisely similar wheels or disks side by side, weighing five or six
pounds each, with a diameter of seven or eight inches, and journals
of half an inch in diameter; one of them furnished with _paliers
glissants_, and the other with boxes lubricated with fine oil. Give each
of them a velocity of rotation of about one revolution in a second; the
one lubricated with oil will come to rest before the other begins to
give evidence of any sensible retardation; but if at any moment the
stop-cock which supplies the water to the second be turned, this one
will also stop, and its stopping will be instantaneous.

It might be supposed that a journal supported in the manner above
described would be unsteady and liable to injurious vibrations. This is
not the case, and it is easy to see why not. When the journal is truly
in the middle of the socket, that is to say when there is an equal
distance between it and the wall of the socket on either side, it will
be equally pressed from both sides. But if it is in the least displaced
laterally, the pressure on the side toward which it moves will instantly
increase, while that on the other side will correspondingly diminish:
both causes transpiring to resist the displacement, and to maintain the
journal in the position of true equilibrium.

The water pressure by which these "slippery supports" are supplied must
be created by a force pump worked by the machine itself. The reservoir
need not be large as the expenditure of water is very minute in volume.
To the objection which may naturally be made, that the working of the
pump must be a tax on the motive power without return, a reply at once
simple and satisfactory is found in the experience of Mr. Girard, that
the working of the pump does not consume so much as half, and sometimes
not more than one one quarter, of the power which is lost in friction
when the ordinary modes of lubrication are employed; so that by the
adoption of this expedient the available power of the machine is
very sensibly increased after deducting all that is expended in the
performance of this additional work.

       *       *       *       *       *

BEES BENEFICIAL TO FRUIT.--Dr. A. Packard, editor of the _American
Naturalist_, replies to a query in regard to the effects produced upon
fruit by the agency of honey bees, that all the evidence given by
botanists and zoologists who have specially studied the subject, shows
that bees improve the quality and tend to increase the quantity of
fruit. They aid in the fertilization of flowers, thus preventing the
occurrence of sterile flowers, and, by more thoroughly fertilizing
flowers already perfect, render the production of sound and well
developed fruit more sure. Many botanists think if it were not for bees,
and other insects, many plants would not bear fruit at all.

       *       *       *       *       *

Steamboats on the American plan are to be introduced on Lake Geneva,
Switzerland. This will add very greatly to the comfort and pleasure of
tourists on that beautiful lake.

       *       *       *       *       *




SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN

MUNN & COMPANY, Editors and Proprietors.


PUBLISHED WEEKLY AT NO. 37 PARK ROW (PARK BUILDING), NEW YORK.

O.D. MUNN. S.H. WALES. A.E. BEACH.

       *       *       *       *       *

"The American News Company," Agents, 121 Nassau street, New York

"The New York News Company," 8 Spruce street

       *       *       *       *       *

VOL. XVII., No. 1....[NEW SERIES.]...._Twenty-fifth Year_.

NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JANUARY, 1, 1870.

       *       *       *       *       *




A HAPPY NEW YEAR!


Is the heartfelt wish conveyed in this beautiful and unusually large
number, to each and all of our friends and readers This holiday number
is worthy of note not only on account of its size, its rich table of
contents, and profuse illustrations, but because we publish this week
the largest edition ever sent out from this office.

Our readers may be surprised at our publishing the title page of the
volume again this week but they will please observe it is the title page
of Vol XXII, which we are now commencing The title pages will hereafter
be published with the first instead of the last number of each volume,
so as to bring it in its proper place for binding.

Subscriptions are pouring in from all parts of the country in the most
encouraging manner. Many have already secured the prize engraving, by
sending in the requisite number of names-but we feel obliged to confess
that there is now a considerable want of vitality in the competition
for the cash prizes. We expect however, that as soon as the new year's
greetings are fairly exchanged, that this opportunity to receive some
purse money will attract the attention of our enterprising readers The
times may be a little close just now, but we are confident that the
spring will open joyously, and we are quite sure that the people will
still want to know what is going on in the GREAT WORLD OF INDUSTRY,
which, it will be our duty to chronicle.

All lists intended to compete for the cash premium must be marked "Cash
prize list."

Once more we say a "Happy New Year" to all.

       *       *       *       *       *




THE SUEZ CANAL NOT YET A FAILURE.


The daily press is giving currency to a great many facts in regard to
the present incomplete condition of the Suez Canal, and some journals
are arguing therefrom that it is a failure. As yet, ships of heavy draft
are unable to get through it. Some disasters to shipping have occurred
in the Red Sea after the canal has been passed, and it is not at
all improbable that more troubles will arise before everything goes
smoothly.

The Red Sea is comparatively unknown to navigators. It contains hidden
rocks which must be charted and buoyed before its navigation can be
rendered safe. Surely this ought not to take the world by surprise.
As to the canal itself, we are only surprised that it has reached its
present state of perfection and we advise those who now make haste to
prophesy ignominious defeat for one of the greatest enterprises of the
century, to suspend judgment for a time. New York journalists might
certainly call to mind with profit, the annual troubles attending the
opening of the canals in this State. Frosts heave and rats undermine,
and banks annually give way, yet these things are not regarded as
surprising. But upon the opening of a work, to which all the minor
canals in the world are like the rods of the magicians to Aaron's rod
which swallowed them up, it is expected that everything shall move
without difficulty, and that no oversight will have been committed.
Truly this would be to attribute a power of prevision to M. Lesseps
beyond what is human. The world can afford to wait a little till this
huge machine gets oiled. Great enterprises move slow at the outset. We
have yet unshaken faith in the ultimate success of the Suez Canal.

       *       *       *       *       *




TUBULAR BOILERS AND BOILER EXPLOSIONS.


In our description of the novel steam boiler, published on page 209,
last volume, we made a quotation from several eminent writers and
experimenters on the subjects of heat and steam, to the effect that
the tubular system in steam boilers was wrong in theory and unsafe in
practice, and although this system has hitherto been extensively used on
account of some advantages which it secures, it has long been a serious
question with thinking men whether these advantages were not obtained at
too dear a rate.

While not prepared to admit all the force of the objections made to the
tubular system, there are arguments against it that it will not do to
treat lightly and which seem to us more and more forcible the more we
candidly reflect upon the subject. One of the most forcible of these
which occurs to us is, that in the tubular system the disruptive force
of unequal expansion is far more likely to become a cause of danger than
in the plain cylinder boiler. In such boilers the tension of expanded
tubes is transmitted to the shell, which are greatly strained without
doubt, often nearly to the verge of rupture. When this occurs it is
evident an unusual strain, caused by sudden generation of steam, would
act in concert with the expansion of the tubes, and we have no doubt
these causes combined have given rise to many an explosion when the
steam, acting singly, could never have produced rupture.

But while we give due weight to this argument, there is one often
referred to by our correspondents, and which we often see stated in
newspapers, as ridiculous as the one we have noticed is forcible. It
is that when, in such boilers, water, by carelessness or otherwise, is
allowed to fall below any of the tubes, the steam which surrounds them
is decomposed, and becomes an explosive mixture of hydrogen and oxygen
gases, ready to explode with terrible violence whenever the temperature
of the tubes shall have reached the proper point.

This argument is ridiculous, because it rests on no experimental basis.
It is a flimsy theory, entirely unsupported by any facts. Never has it
been proved that hot iron, at any temperature likely to be obtained in
steam boiler tubes, decomposes steam except by itself appropriating
the oxygen of the steam, and leaving the hydrogen, by itself no more
explosive than any other heated gas.

The sole object of the tubular boiler is to increase the heating
surface, without corresponding increase in other particulars. That it is
not the only means whereby this object can be secured has already been
demonstrated and we believe will hereafter be shown in divers ways. We
have no more doubt that the next fifty years will witness the total
abandonment of the tubular system, than we have that the world will last
that length of time.

       *       *       *       *       *




AMERICAN RAILWAY MANAGEMENT.


There seems a growing opinion among railway managers that the sole
end and purpose of a railroad is to line the 6 pockets of, if not its
stockholders, at least its directors. In fact we not long since saw a
statement in a widely-circulated journal, that, as the sole purpose of
railroads is that the companies who own them should make money, it
is absurd to suppose they would be content to manage them in any way
whereby such a result would not be most likely to accrue.

The journal referred to, in making this statement a basis for an
argument in favor of railway consolidation, entirely ignored the rights
of the public from which railway corporations have obtained their
charters. In these charters certain privileges were granted, not out of
pure generosity, but with the understanding that certain benefits
were to accrue to the public. Its safety and convenience were to be
considered as well as the profits to the owners.

Every charter granted to these roads involves a contract on their part
to do the public a certain service, and in a large majority of cases
these contracts are to-day unfulfilled. Day after day sees the power to
control more and more centered in a few unscrupulous wily managers, and
the comfort and safety of passengers more and more disregarded; yet
still the people submit.

But they do not submit without complaint. Now and then a newspaper
correspondent grumbles, and the news of smashes that may be almost daily
seen in the papers gives a text for an occasional editorial blast, as
little heeded by the delinquent companies, as a zephyr is felt by an
oak.

Thus the New York _Times_, on the occasion of a recent railway disaster,
gives vent to a little mild denunciation. It says:

"The general rule in this country (to which there are indeed exceptions)
in regard to the purchase of railway materials is simply this: buy the
cheapest. First cost is the controlling and often the only question
entertained. The nature of the materials and processes to be used in the
manufacture of rails, for instance, are not mentioned. The buyers for
some of our roads, especially new roads, never make the slightest
allusion to quality, and never specify tests and inspections, but
simply go about among the mills, comparing and beating down prices, and
accepting the very lowest. More than one of our rail makers are to-day
rolling, under protest, rails upon which they decline to put their
trade-mark--rails made from the very cheapest materials, in the very
meanest manner--for all that is required is that they shall stick
together till they are laid. And if American makers will not roll them,
Welsh makers will. The late report of the State Engineer of New York
says: 'American railway managers, instead of offering anything like a
reasonable price for good iron rails, have made themselves notorious by
establishing as standard, a brand of rails known all over the world as
"American rails," which are confessedly bought and sold as the weakest,
most impure, least worked, least durable, and cheapest rails that can be
produced.' The State Engineer refers, in confirmation of this opinion,
to the statement of Mr. A.S. Hewitt, United States Commissioner to the
Paris Exposition, a statement not yet controverted; and to a statement
of Mr. Sandberg, an English engineer of note, in the London _Times_.
A leading American railway president and reformer has publicly said:
'There is a fear on my part that railway companies will themselves tempt
steel makers to send a poor article by buying the cheapest--first cost
only considered--_as they did with the ironmasters_.'"

This certainly is a blessed state of affairs. We have given privileges
to giant corporations, which they have improved so profitably, that they
now can defeat, in our Legislatures, any attempt to revoke them, and can
laugh at any demand for better management.

Disguise it how we may, the railroads have got the upper hand of the
people, and they seem likely to keep it, unless, indeed, their rapacity
shall react against themselves.

At the moment of this writing accounts reach us of the officers of a
prominent railway line intrenching themselves against the officers of
the law, and employing force to resist the service of precepts calling
them to account for alleged frauds upon the stockholders.

That the Legislature of this State has the power to put a stop to these
disgraceful proceedings, is certain; what it will do remains to be
demonstrated.

       *       *       *       *       *




THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE PRIZES AWARDED TO STEAM ENGINES.


If there is anybody satisfied with the action of the managers of the
American Institute, in the matter of awarding prizes to the competing
engines exhibited at the recent fair, we have yet to meet that
complacent individual. Neither the exhibitors nor the general public
could be expected to accept with equanimity such a report as the
managers have made, because it is inadequate to give any real idea of
the relative merits of the engines tested. The exhibitors, at a large
expense, took their engines to the hall of exhibition, placed them in
position, and with them drove the machinery exhibited there; and now,
when in return they had a right to expect a decided, manly course on the
part of the managers, the oyster is swallowed and the contestants are
each politely handed a shell.

The conditions on which the general test was to be made contained, among
other specifications, these: that "the water supplied to and evaporated
in the boiler will be measured by means of a meter, and the coal burned
may also be weighed."

Only one of the conditions quoted was properly complied with. The coal
was weighed, but though a meter was used to measure the water, tests
made, we are informed, _after the trial of the engines_, showed that
the meter was so inaccurate as to completely invalidate any calculation
based upon its record of the water supplied. Nevertheless this has,
we are credibly informed, been made the basis of calculation; and the
amount of coal consumed during each trial has been rejected either as a
basis of calculation or a check on the inaccuracy of the meter.

Other prescribed regulations were observed with great care. The engines
were indicated in a masterly manner by a gentleman of great experience,
as the cards--tracings of which we have seen--bear ample testimony. The
temperature of the feedwater was 47 degrees; it should, in our opinion,
have been heated, but we waive this point. The state of the barometer
and temperatures of engine room and fire-room were observed; but
we respectfully submit, that with coal consumption left out of the
calculation, and the water consumption an unascertained quantity, the
question of relative economy, the vital point to be settled, is as
uncertain today as it was before the test.

In the _Tribune_ of December 20, appeared a statement of the test to
ascertain the accuracy of the meter used, which showed that in an
aggregate of twelve tests it varied nearly three per cent in its record
from the actual quantity delivered, while at times it was so erratic
that it varied in one instance over _ten per cent_.

Truly, considered in connection with this fundamental error,
temperatures of engine and boiler rooms, and states of barometer, will
not count for much with engineers.

An oversight like this would, however, never have been laid at the door
of the managers, however it might invalidate the test; but when the
utterly absurd decision announced in the papers, after a tedious delay
had led the public to expect an exhaustive statement, gave rise to
general disappointment and excited the utmost dissatisfaction, it became
manifest that a manly, straightforward course on their part was not to
be hoped for, and that any protest against the consummation of the farce
would be vain.

It is not for us to decide on the merits of the engines submitted to
test. It was for the judges to do this. We maintain that nothing that
the public will accept as a decision has been reached, and on behalf of
the public we protest that the managers have not only placed themselves
in a very unenviable position by their action in the premises, but have
done a lasting injury to the American Institute, the results of which
will be disastrously felt in future exhibitions.

The studied ambiguity of the report which awards two first prizes to
the competing engines, is no less apparent than the desire to shun
responsibility.

       *       *       *       *       *




A PROTEST AGAINST THE CANADIAN PATENT LAW.


In July, 1869, the New Dominion Patent Law went into operation, but it
has not yet been approved by the Queen, and if rejected the Canadian
Parliament will perhaps try its hand again. Although Canadians may
freely go to all parts of the world and take out patents for their
inventions, they have always manifested a mean spirit and adopted a
narrow policy, in reference to inventors of other nations. Their present
patent laws are so framed as practically to debar all persons except
Canadians from taking patents; and the result is that American and
English inventions are pirated and patented in the Dominion, without so
much as a "thank you, sir," to the _bona fide_ originators.

A protest has been presented to her Majesty's Secretary of State for the
Colonies, asking that the new law may be rejected, on the ground that it
deprives the subjects of the Crown of their equal rights throughout
the empire. There is force in this objection, and Lord Granville has
promised that it shall be duly considered before the Queen is advised to
sign the law.

The probable result will be a revision of the Dominion patent code so as
to let in Englishmen but exclude the Yankees, from whom the Canadians
derive whatever of improvement, progress, and energy they possess.

       *       *       *       *       *




THE BRIGHTER SIDE.


Ingratitude seldom enters into the composition of a true inventor, and
nothing in our business career has afforded us more pleasure than the
frequent letters addressed to us by those who have, during more than
twenty years, employed the Scientific American Patent Agency. We cannot
find room for all the pleasant missives that come to us from our
extensive list of clients, but we may give a few as samples of the many.

Mr. Daniel J. Gale, of Sheboygan, Wis., has recently secured through our
Agency Letters Patent for a "Perpetual and Lunar Calendar Clock." In the
fullness of his satisfaction he thus writes: "The fact is, I shall never
be able to thank you sufficiently for what you have done for me. I
sent you a copy of the paper printed here, which favorably notices my
improvement and your great Agency. The fees charged me for my patent
have been low enough. Already, by one of my own townsmen, I have been
offered $4,000 for my interest in the patent. But I must not take up too
much of your I time. Please allow me to add that I regularly receive
your valuable paper, the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, and that you may number me
as one of its stanch friends."

Mr. Edwin Norton, of Brooklyn, N.Y., in a recent note, says: "Allow me
to express my thanks for the promptness and efficiency with which the
business of obtaining a patent for my 'Cinder and Dust Arrester' has
been conducted through your Agency--and not only in this case but in
several previous ones. This is the _fourth_ patent obtained by me
through four Agency within nine months. It gives me pleasure to add my
testimony to that of many others, with respect to the very satisfactory
manner in which your Patent Agency is conducted."

Mr. E. J. Marstens says, in reference to his improved "Field Press"--"I
find everything correct. You certainly accomplished more than I expected
after the first examination by the Primary Examiner. I hope soon to be
able to give you another case."

Mr. S. P. Williams, an old client, writes as follows: "I received the
patent on my 'Trace Lock for Whiffletrees,' and I am truly pleased with
the prompt manner in which you have done the business. It is only a few
weeks since I made the application, and I expected that it would be as
many months before the patent could be granted."

       *       *       *       *       *




PROFESSOR FISKE'S LECTURES AT HARVARD.


It certainly argues well for the intellectual character of the readers
of the New York _World_ that during the prevalent taste for sensational
journalism, it has found the publication of a series of philosophical
lectures acceptable. We thank our neighbor for thus making these
lectures available to the general public. Their ability is
unquestionable; and the calmness and candor which Professor Fiske brings
to the treatment of the subject is such as to add greatly to the force
of his logic.

The "positive philosophy" has been shown by Professor Fiske to be much
misunderstood, misapprehension not being confined solely to the ranks of
its opponents.

His exposition of some of the misconceptions on which Professor Huxley
has based some criticisms upon the writings of Comte, strikes us as
especially forcible; and the whole course of lectures proves Professor
Fiske to be one of the clearest and most able of American thinkers.

These lectures are followed as they appear, with great interest, and
their publication in the World we regard as a real and permanent benefit
to the public.

       *       *       *       *       *




SCIENTIFIC LECTURES BEFORE THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE.


The announcement of these lectures came to hand too late for our last
issue, and the first has already been delivered. The course is as
follows: Friday, Dec. 17, The Battle Fields of Science, by Andrew D.
White, President of the Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. Friday, Dec.
24, How Animals Move, by Professor E. S. Morse, of the Peabody Academy
of Science, Salem, Mass. Friday, Dec. 31, The Correlation of Vital and
Physical Forces, by Professor G. F. Barker, of Yale College, New Haven.
Friday, Jan. 7, The Air and Respiration, by Professor J. C. Draper, of
the College of the City of New York. Friday, Jan. 14, The Connection
of Natural Science and Mental Philosophy, by Professor J. Bascom, of
Williams College, Williamstown, Mass. Friday, Jan. 21, The Constitution
of the Sun, by Dr. B. A. Gould, of Cambridge, Mass. Friday, Jan. 28,
The Colorado Plateau, its Canyons and Ruined Cities, by Professor J. S.
Newberry, of Columbia College, New York.

The course is a good one, and ought to be, and doubtless will be, well
attended. Abstracts of the lectures will appear as delivered, in the
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN.

       *       *       *       *       *




THE BATTLE FIELDS OF SCIENCE.

LECTURE BY PROFESSOR WHITE, BEFORE THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE.


This lecture did not disappoint the expectations of those familiar with
the subject of the discourse, which, considering the difficulty of
restating familiar historical facts in such a manner as to clothe them
in a garb of originality, is high praise. Many, however, found great
difficulty in hearing the speaker at the back part of the hall, and some
left the room on that account. This was unfortunate, as the lecture will
scarcely be exceeded in interest by any subsequent one of the course.
The speaker said that "In all modern history, interference with science
in the supposed interest of religion--no matter how conscientious such
interference may have been--has resulted in the direst evils both to
religion and science, and _invariably_. And on the other hand all
untrammeled scientific investigation, no matter how dangerous to
religion some of its stages may have seemed, temporarily, to be, has
invariably resulted in the highest good of religion and science. I say
_invariably_--I mean exactly that. It is a rule to which history shows
not one exception. It would seem, logically, that this statement could
not be gainsaid. God's truth must agree, whether discovered by looking
within upon the soul or without upon the world. A truth written upon the
human heart to-day in its full play of emotions or passions, cannot be
at any real variance even with a truth written upon a fossil whose poor
life was gone millions of years ago. And this being so, it would also
seem a truth irrefragable; that the search for each of these kind of
truths must be followed out in its own lines, by its own methods, to its
own results, without any interference from investigators along other
lines by other methods. And it would also seem logically that we might
work on in absolute confidence that whatever, at any moment, might seem
to be the relative positions of the two different bands of workers, they
must at last come together, for truth is one. But logic is not history.
History is full of interferences which have cost the earth dear.
Strangest of all, some of the most direful of them have been made by
the best of men, actuated by the purest motives, seeking the noblest
results. These interferences and the struggle against them make up the
warfare of science. One statement more to clear the ground. You will not
understand me at all to say that religion has done nothing for science.
It has done much for it. The work of Christianity has been mighty
indeed. Through these 2,000 years it has undermined servitude, mitigated
tyranny, given hope to the hopeless, comfort to the afflicted, light to
the blind, bread to the starving, life to the dying, and all this
work continues. And its work for science, too, has been great. It has
fostered science often and developed it. It has given great minds to it,
and but for the fears of the timid its record in this respect would have
been as great as in the other. Unfortunately, religious men started
centuries ago with the idea that purely scientific investigation is
unsafe--that theology must intervene. So began this great modern war."

Professor White next reviewed the battle between science and theology
on the subjects of the "earth's shape, surface, and relations," "the
position of the earth among the heavenly bodies," in which Copernicus
and Galileo struggled so bravely and successfully for truth.

The lecturer said:

"The principal weapons in the combat are worth examining. They are very
easily examined; you may pick them up on any of the battle-fields of
science; but on that field they were used with more effect than on
almost any other. These weapons were two epithets--the epithets
'Infidel' and 'Atheist.' These can hardly be classed with civilized
weapons; they are burning arrows; they set fire to great masses of
popular prejudices. Smoke rises to obscure the real questions. Fire
bursts out at times to destroy the attacked party. They are poisoned
weapons. They go to the heart of loving women; they alienate dear
children; they injure the man after life is ended, for they leave
poisoned wounds in the hearts of those who loved him best--fears for his
eternal happiness, dread of the Divine displeasure. The battle-fields
of science are thickly strewn with these. They have been used against
almost every man who has ever done anything for his fellow-men. The list
of those who have been denounced as Infidel and Atheist includes almost
all great men of science--general scholars, inventors, philanthropists.
The deepest Christian life, the most noble Christian character has not
availed to shield combatants. Christians like Isaac Newton and Pascal,
and John Locke and John Howard, have had these weapons hurled against
them. Nay, in these very times we have seen a noted champion hurl these
weapons against John Milton, and with it another missile which often
appears on these battle-fields--the epithets of 'blasphemer' and 'hater
of the Lord.' Of course, in these days these weapons though often
effective in disturbing the ease of good men and though often powerful
in scaring women, are somewhat blunted. Indeed, they do not infrequently
injure assailants more than assailed. So it was not in the days of
Galileo. These weapons were then in all their sharpness and venom.
The first champion who appears against him is Bellarmine, one of the
greatest of theologians and one of the poorest of scientists. He was
earnest, sincere, learned, but made the fearful mistake for the world
of applying direct literal interpretation of Scripture to science. The
consequences were sad, indeed. Could he with his vast powers have taken
a different course, humanity would have been spared the long and fearful
war which ensued, and religion would have saved to herself thousands
on thousands of the best and brightest men in after ages. The weapons,
which men of Bellarmine's stamp used, were theological. They held
up before the world the dreadful consequences which must result to
Christian theology were the doctrine to prevail that the heavenly bodies
revolve about the sun, and not about the earth.

"The next great series of battles were fought on those great fields
occupied by such sciences as _Chemistry and Natural Philosophy_. Even
before these sciences were out of their childhood--while yet they were
tottering mainly towards, childish objects and by childish steps--the
champions of that same old mistaken conception of rigid Scriptural
interpretation began the war. The catalogue of chemists and physicists
persecuted or thwarted would fill volumes."

After alluding to many other battle-fields of science which might not
for want of time be dwelt upon at length the lecturer reviewed the
battle grounds of medicine and anatomy on which some of the severest
warfare has been waged.

The speaker here remarked that "perhaps the most unfortunate thing that
has ever been done for Christianity is the tying it to forms of science
and systems of education, which are doomed and gradually sinking. Just
as in the time of Roger Bacon excellent but mistaken men devoted all
their energies to binding Christianity to Aristotle. Just as in the time
of Reuchlin and Erasmus they insisted on binding Christianity to Thomas
Aquinas, so in the time of Vesalius such men gave all efforts to linking
Christianity to Galen. The cry has been the same in all ages. It is the
same which we hear in this age against scientific studies--the cry
for what is called '_sound learning_.' Whether standing for Aristotle
against Bacon, or Aquinas against Erasmus, or Galen against Vesalius,
or making mechanical Greek verses at Eton, instead of studying the
handiwork of the Almighty, or reading Euripides with translations
instead of Leasing and Goethe in the original, the cry always is for
'sound learning.' The idea always is that these studies are _safe_."

The speaker next proceeded to show that not alone in Catholic countries,
has such warfare been waged, and that even now in Protestant America the
fight is going on.

One of the fields on which the severest warfare had raged in Protestant
countries was that of Geology. "From the first lispings of investigators
in this science there was war. The early sound doctrine was that fossil
remains were _lusus naturae_--freaks of nature--and in 1517 Fracastor
was violently attacked because he thought them something more. No less a
man than Bernard Palissy followed up the contest, on the right side, in
France, but it required 150 years to carry the day fairly against this
single preposterous theory. The champion who dealt it the deadly blow
was Scilla, and his weapons were facts obtained by examination of
the fossils of Calabria, (1670). But the advocates of tampering with
scientific reasoning soon retired to a now position. It was strong, for
it was apparently based upon Scripture--though, as the whole world now
knows, an utterly exploded interpretation of Scripture. The new position
was that the fossils were produced by the deluge of Noah. In vain had
it been shown by such devoted Christians as Bernard Palissy that this
theory was utterly untenable; in vain did good men protest against the
injury sure to result to religion by tying it to a scientific theory
sure to be exploded--the doctrine that the fossils were remains of
animals drowned at the flood continued to be upheld by the great
majority as '_sound_' doctrine. It took 120 year for the searchers
of God's truth, as revealed in nature--such men as Buffon, Linnaeus,
Woodward, and Whitehurst--to run under these mighty fabrics of error,
and by statements which could not be resisted, to explode them.

"Strange as it may at first seem, the war on geology was waged more
fiercely in Protestant countries than Catholic, and of all countries
England furnished the most bitter opponents. You have noted already that
there are generally two sorts of attacks on a new science. First,
there is the attack by pitting against science some great doctrine in
theology. You saw this in astronomy, when Bellarmine and others insisted
that the doctrine of the earth's revolving about the sun is contrary to
the doctrine of the Incarnation. So now against geology it was urged
that the scientific doctrine that the fossils represented animals which
died before Adam was contrary to the doctrine of Adam's fall, and that
death entered the world by sin. Then there is the attack by the literal
interpretation of texts, which serves a better purpose generally in
arousing prejudice. It is difficult to realize it now, but within the
memory of the majority of those before me, the battle was raging most
fiercely in England, and both these kinds of artillery were in full play
and filling the civilized world with their roar. Less than thirty years
ago, the Rev. J. Mellor Brown was hurling at all geologists alike, and
especially at such Christian divines as Dr. Burkland, Dean Conybeare,
and Pye Smith, and such religious scholars as Professor Sedgwick, the
epithets of 'Infidel,' 'Impugner of the Sacred Record,' and 'Assailant
of the Volume of God.' His favorite weapon was the charge that these
men were 'attacking the Truth of God,' forgetting that they were simply
opposing the mistaken interpretations of J. Mellor Brown. He declared
geology 'not a subject of lawful inquiry;' he speaks of it as 'a dark
art,' as 'dangerous and disreputable,' as a 'forbidden province.' This
attempt to scare men from science having failed, various other means
were taken.

"To say nothing about England, it is humiliating to human nature to
remember the trials to which the pettiest and narrowest of men subjected
such Christian scholars in our country as Benjamin Silliman and Edward
Hitchcock. But it is a duty and a pleasure to state here that one great
Christian scholar did honor to religion and to himself by standing
up for the claims of science despite all these clamors. That man was
Nicholas Wiseman, better known afterward as Cardinal Wiseman. The
conduct of this pillar of the Roman Catholic Church contrasts nobly with
that of timid Protestants who were filling England with shrieks and
denunciations. Perhaps the most singular attempt against geology was
that made by a fine specimen of the English Don, Dean Cockburn of York,
to _abuse_ its champions out of the field. Without apparently the
simplest elementary knowledge of geology, he opened a battery of abuse.
He gives it to the world at large by pulpit and press; he even inflicts
it upon leading statesmen by private letters. But these weapons did not
succeed. They were like Chinese gongs and dragon lanterns against rifled
cannon. Buckland, Pye Smith, Lyell, Silliman, Hitchcock, Murchison,
Agassiz, Dana, and a host of of noble champions besides, pressed on the
battle for truth was won. And was it won merely for men of science?
The whole civilized world declares that it was won for religion; that
thereby has infinitely increased the knowledge of the power and goodness
of God."

The lecturer classed the present opposition of the Catholics to the Free
School system in this country among the long list of battles between
science and theology and concluded his lecture as follows:

"But, my friends, I will not weary you with so recent a chapter in the
history of the great warfare extending through the centuries. There
are cheering omens. The greatest and best men in the churches--the men
standing at centers of thought--are insisting with power, more and more,
that religion shall no longer be tied to so injurious a policy--that
searchers for truth, whether in Theology or Natural Science, shall work
on as friends, sure that, no matter how much at variance they may at
times seem to be, the truths they reach shall finally be fused into each
other. No one need fear the result. No matter whether science shall
complete her demonstration that man has been on the earth six thousand
years or six hundred thousand. No matter whether she reveal new ideas of
the Creator or startling relations between his creatures--the result,
when fully thought out, will serve and strengthen religion not less than
science. The very finger of the Almighty has written on history that
science must be studied by means proper to itself, and in no other way.
That history is before us all. No one can gainsay it. It is decisive,
for it is this: There has never been a scientific theory framed for the
use of Scriptural texts, which has been made to stand. This fact alone
shows that our wonderful volume of sacred literature was not given for
any such purpose as that to which so many earnest men have endeavored
to wrest it. The power of that volume has been mighty indeed. It has
inspired the best deeds our world has known. Despite the crusts which
men have formed about it--despite the fetters which they have placed
upon it--Christianity has blessed age after age of the past, and will go
on as a blessing through age after age of the future. Let the Warfare
of Science, then, be changed. Let it be a warfare in which religion
and science shall stand together as allies, not against each other as
enemies. Let the fight be for truth of every kind against falsehood of
every kind--for justice against injustice--for right against wrong--for
beauty against deformity--for goodness against vice--and the great
warfare which has brought so many sufferings, shall bring to the earth
God's richest blessings."

       *       *       *       *       *




HOW FRENCH BANK NOTES ARE MADE.


When a new batch of French notes is to be printed, an equivalent number
of the choicely prepared and preserved sheets of paper is handed over
to the superintendent of the printing office. This office is among the
inner buildings of the Bank of France, and is governed by very rigorous
rules in all things. The operatives are all picked men, skillful,
active, and silent. The sheets, the ink, and the matrixes of the plates
are kept securely under lock and key until actually wanted. The
printing is effected by steam-worked presses. The ink is blue, and its
composition known only to a few of the authorities. An inspector goes
his rounds during the continuance of the operations, watching every
press, every workman, every process. A beautiful machine, distinct from
the press, is employed to print the variable numbers on the note; fed
with sheets of paper, it will number a thousand of them in succession,
changing the digits each time, and scarcely requiring to be touched
meanwhile; even the removal of one note and the placing of another are
effected by automatic agency. At every successive stage the note is
examined. So complete is the registration of everything that a record is
always at hand of the number of sheets rejected ever since the Bank of
France was established, be its defects in the paper, the printing, or
the numbering. When the master-printer has delivered up his packets of
printed and numbered sheets, each note is stamped with the signature of
the Secretary-General and the Comptroller. This completes the _creation_
of notes. The notes so created are kept in a strong box, of which the
Secretary-General and the Comptroller have keys, and are retained until
the day of _issue_. The chief cashier tells the Governor that he wants a
new supply of a particular denomination of notes, the Governor tells the
council, the council tell the secretary-general and the comptroller, and
these two functionaries open their strong box, and hand over the notes
demanded. The notes at this time are not really money; they do not
become so until the chief cashier has put his signature to each, and
registered its number in a book.

The life of a French bank note is said to average two or three
years, and does not terminate until the condition is very shaky
indeed--crimpled, pierced with pinholes, corner creases torn, soft,
tarnished, decrepit while yet young. Some have been half-burned; one has
been found half-digested in the stomach of a goat, and one boiled in a
waistcoat-pocket by a laundress. No matter; the cashier at the bank will
do his best to decipher it; he will indeed take an infinity of trouble
to put together the ashes of a burned note, and will give the owner a
new note or the value in coin, if satisfied of the integrity of the
old one. The bank authorities preserve specimens of this kind as
curiosities, minute fragments gummed in their proper position on a sheet
of paper. Very few of the notes are actually and irrevocably lost.
During the last sixty-seven years 24,000 bank notes of 1,000 francs each
have been issued, and of this number 23,958 had been returned to the
bank by the month of January 1869, leaving only 42 unaccounted for.
Whether these 42 are still in existence, or have seen burned into
uncollected ashes, or are at the bottom of the sea, or elsewhere, is not
known. Of 500-franc notes, 24,935 have been returned out of 25,000. The
bank holds itself morally and financially responsible for the small
number of notes unreturned, ready to cash them if at any time presented.

The bank sends the old notes again and again into circulation, if
verified and usable; but they are examined first, and any that are found
too defective are canceled by stamping a hole in them. These canceled
notes pass from one official to another, and are grouped in classified
bundles; the book that records the birth of each note now receives a
notification of its civil death, and after three years incarceration in
a great oak chest, a grand conflagration takes place. A huge fire is
kindled in an open court; the defunct notes are thrown into a sort of
revolving wire-cage over the fire; the cage is kept rotating; and the
minute fragments of ash, whirled out of the cage through the meshes,
take their flight into infinite space--no one knows whither. The Bank of
France prints a certain number of notes per day, and destroys a smaller
number, so as to have always in reserve a sufficient supply of new notes
to meet any emergency; but the actual burning, the grand flare-up takes
place only about once a month, when perhaps 150,000 will be burned
at once. The French go down to lower denominations than the Rank of
England, having notes of 100 francs and 50 francs, equivalent to L4 and
L2. There must be a great deal of printing always going on in the Bank
of France, seeing that in 1868 they issued 2,711 000 notes, of an
aggregate value of 904,750,000 francs (averaging about L13 each), and
burned 1,927,192, value 768,854,900 francs.

It _sounds_ a very dreadful thing for 30,000,000 sterling in bank notes
to be willfully burned in one year. But there is always a phoenix to
rise from its ashes; the bank can regenerate as fast as it kills. The
Bank of France, in 1846, put in circulation a beautiful crimson printed
note for 5,000 francs; but the French people did not like notes of so
high a denomination, and all but a very few of this kind have been
returned and canceled. On one occasion, a superb individual, wishing to
pay a dowry in handsome style, obtained twelve notes of 5,000 francs
each for the purpose; but they were returned the very next day by the
banker, who much preferred smaller notes for his general purposes. The
notes now regularly kept in circulation in France are those of 1,000,
500, 100, and 50 francs.

       *       *       *       *       *




WHAT THE NEWSPAPERS SAY.


A VALUABLE PAPER.--Of all the journals published in the United States,
for the mechanic and scientific man, there is nothing that will in any
way compare with the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, published by Munn & Co., of 37
Park Row, New York. Whether as a work of reference, a record of current
scientific development, or as an organ and exponent of our inventors, it
stands alone for the general ability of its conduct, the voluminousness
and variety of its contents, the exactitude and extent of its knowledge,
and the correctness of its information. The SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN is a
credit at once to the press and our country, and the small price of
a yearly subscription ($3), purchases, it is quite safe to say, the
largest amount of solid value to be procured for a like expenditure in
the world. With our more intelligent mechanics it has long been a great
favorite, while to the inventor it is absolutely indispensable. It has
had many imitators and competitors in its day, but they have nearly all
died the natural death of a feeble inferiority.--_Argus_ (Brooklyn, N.
Y.)

       *       *       *       *       *

THE GREAT JOURNAL OF ARTS AND SCIENCE.--There is a place in the
periodical literature of America which is occupied by only one journal;
namely, the well-known SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN.

It is almost indispensable to a well-balanced intelligence, that a
certain proportion of its reading should be devoted to the industrial
arts and sciences, those natural manifestations of the high mental
development of the age. Every number of the journal has sixteen imperial
pages, embellished with engravings, as illustrations, which are gems of
art in themselves. It is most ably edited, and its usefulness is not
impaired by technical terms nor dry details.--_Milwaukee Sentinel._

       *       *       *       *       *

THE SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN.--This paper is the oldest in its peculiar
province in the United States, and was, for many years, the only one.
More recently others have arisen, and are following in its footsteps;
but the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN still maintains its position as the best
American journal of the inventive arts. Its Patent Office department
alone is invaluable to inventors, while its editorial articles,
illustrations, etc., give not only information, but a constant stimulus
to the productive faculty.--_Mobile Register_.

       *       *       *       *       *

Among the papers which we could not very well do without is the
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, issued from the well-known office of Munn & Co., 37
Park Row, New York. Carefully edited, nicely printed, well illustrated,
it is not only a complete record of the progress of useful inventions,
but a trustworthy guide to many of the scientific topics that enlist
attention at the present day. No one can be a reader of this most
valuable journal, without being kept well informed as to current matters
of scientific discovery.--_Congregationalist_ (Boston).

       *       *       *       *       *

THE SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN.--In another column we publish the prospectus of
this great paper, and would direct our readers to it. It should be on
the work bench of every mechanic, and particularly the young men of our
country, upon whose intelligence and mechanical skill depends the
future dignity of labor and prosperity of American arts and
sciences.--_Monitor_ (Huntington, Pa.)

       *       *       *       *       *

We could fill our pages with similar notices, but will close with the
following from our cotemporary _De Hope_, published at Holland, Mich.,
which we doubt not will be read with interest:

Wij plaatsen in dit Nummer het prospectus van den SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN.
Het is een zeer schoon blad, dat vooral behoort gelezen te worden door
Handwerkslieden. Nieuwe uitvindingen, verbeteringen op het terrein van
werktuigkunde, enz, worden daar steeds in vermeld en beschreven. De
prijs is zeer matig voor zulk cen blad; drie dollars per jaar. Dat
belangstellenden de advertentie lezen.

       *       *       *       *       *




CHINESE METHODS OF PRESERVING EGGS.


As much has been said of late about the mode of preserving eggs, it may
not be uninteresting to say a few words about the Chinese methods, as
related by a French chemist, M. Paul Champion, who has lately visited
that country, and published a very interesting book on the ancient and
modern industries of that curious people. A very common method is to
place the eggs in a mixture of clay and water; the clay hardens around
the eggs, and is said to preserve them good for a considerable time. But
another and much more elaborate method is also commonly practiced. An
infusion of three pounds of tea is made in boiling water, and to this
are added three pounds of quicklime (or seven pounds when the operation
is performed in winter), nine pounds of sea-salt, and seven pounds of
ashes of burnt oak finely powdered. This is all well mixed together
into a smooth paste by means of a wooden spatula, and then each egg is
covered with it by hand, gloves being worn to prevent the corrosive
action of the lime on the hands. When the eggs are all covered with the
mixture, they are rolled in a mass of straw ashes, and then placed in
baskets with balls of rice--boiled, we presume--to keep the eggs from
touching each other. About 100 to 150 eggs are placed in one basket. In
about three months the whole becomes hardened into a crust, and then the
eggs are sent to market; the retail price of such eggs is generally less
than a penny each. These eggs are highly esteemed in China, and always
served in good houses; but they have undergone a strange transformation,
which certainly would not recommend them to English palates; the yolk
has assumed a decidedly green tinge, and the white is set. When broken,
they emit that unpleasant sulphurous smell which would certainly cause
their instant banishment from our breakfast-tables. However, the Chinese
are admitted, even by Frenchmen, to be great _gourmets_; and we can
only say, therefore, that in questions of eating there is certainly no
disputing about tastes.

       *       *       *       *       *




STEAM BOILER INSPECTION.


Mr. Alfred Guthrie, U.S. Inspector, informs us that the following
resolution was recently adopted by the Board of Supervising Inspectors:

Resolved, That a special committee be appointed, to whom shall be
referred the subject-matter of steam boiler explosions, who shall be
requested to take up the subject in all its varied complications, and
present the result of their inquiries, with their opinions of the real
causes of such explosions, accompanied by such information as may be
of practical benefit and general interest, to be reported at the next
annual meeting of the board for its consideration.

Mr. Guthrie, whose address will be at Washington, D.C. until January 10,
desires to receive suggestions from practical engineers upon the subject
of boiler explosions.

       *       *       *       *       *




EDITORIAL SUMMARY.


Darkness of complexion has been attributed to the sun's power from
the age of Solomon to this day. "Look not upon me because I am black,
because the sun hath looked upon me." And there cannot be a doubt that,
to a certain degree, the opinion is well founded--the invisible rays in
the solar beams, which change vegetable color, and have been employed
with such remarkable effect on the daguerreotype, act upon every
substance on which they fall, producing mysterious and wonderful changes
in their molecular state, man not excepted.

       *       *       *       *       *

The three companies under whose protection Chinese are brought into
California, keep an accurate account of the condition and employment
of the persons they import. From these books it appears that 138,000
Chinese have been brought into California. Of these, 10,426 have died,
57,323 have returned to China, and about 91,000 still remain on the
Pacific coast. But only 41,000 live in California. Of these 41,000,
9,300 are women, children, old and decrepit, or criminals confined in
the jails. The California authorities have at length decided to admit
Chinese testimony in the courts.

       *       *       *       *       *

One of our subscribers residing in Maine has read our article "How to
Spend the Winter Evenings," and writes to us that up in his section they
have no trouble on that score. As soon as the day's work is over the
inhabitants commence the job of trying to get their rooms warm, and as
soon as a comfortable temperature is reached it is time to go to bed.

       *       *       *       *       *

DESIGN PATENT DECISION.--We publish elsewhere a recent elaborate
decision of Commissioner Fisher, in which he reviews the laws and
former practice of the office in regard to applications for patents for
designs, with the view to the establishment of a uniformity of practice
in regard to design patents. The decision is one of much interest to
inventors and agents, and fully warrants its publication.

       *       *       *       *       *

OIL PAPER HANGINGS.--A kind of oil paper hangings called "Oleo Charta"
is now made in England, which, it is asserted, is impervious to wet, may
be placed on new or damp walls without risk of damage or discoloration,
may be washed with soap and water as often as required, and will last
twenty years. The process of manufacture is not explained.

       *       *       *       *       *




THE STEVENS BREECH-LOADING RIFLE.


This new arm, a patent on which, was obtained through the Scientific
American Patent Agency, June 11, 1867, is destined, in our opinion,
to become a formidable rival to the breech-loading rifles which have
already attained popularity. It is one of the most simple and effective
guns we have yet seen. Only three motions are required to load,
discharge the piece, and throw out the shell of the cartridge. The
breech-block is side-hinged, and it is opened and the shell is thrown
out by simply bringing the gun to half cock. The gun may, however, be
cocked without opening the breech by pressing the trigger while cocking.

The gun, when held in position, may be fired at the rate of forty shots
per minute. All the movements of the parts are directly backward and
forward; in our opinion the best that can be employed for this purpose,
and the least liable to get out of order. In short, the gun possesses
all the essentials of a first class rifle, and has advantages which we
think are not ordinarily met with in arms of this character.

       *       *       *       *       *




A NOVEL FRENCH HAND VISE.


In using ordinary hand vises several inconveniences are met with. For
instance, if it is desired to work a piece of metal of a certain length,
it must necessarily be presented obliquely on the side of the jaw of the
vise, because of its screw, which is horizontal and forms a knob in the
axis of the vise. The consequences are, first, that on tightening the
nut of the horizontal screw vise the pressure is only exerted on the
side, and greatly tries the vise itself while obtaining an irregular
pressure; secondly, that as the piece to be worked is held obliquely,
however skilled the workman may be, he always finds himself cramped in
the execution of his work, particularly if of a delicate nature.

To avoid these inconveniences a Parisian mechanic has designed and
lately patented in England the neat form of hand vise of which we annex
illustrations, Fig. 1 being an elevation and Fig. 2 a longitudinal
section. In these views, A, is a wooden or metal handle pierced
throughout its length; this handle of metal may be made in one piece,
with the nut, and the conical ferrule. B is the ring or ferrule of the
handle; and C are the jaws of the vise worked by the adjusting screw,
D, and the springs, r r. E is a conical ferrule or shoulder, fixed or
movable, and serving to open or close the jaws of the vise accordingly
as the handle is turned right or left; this conical shoulder is
protected from wear by a tempered steel washer, v. G is a nut with
collar carrying the conical ferrule or shoulder, E, and the steel
washer, v, while H H are the joints of the jaws of the vise held by a
screw, I, which serves as a support to the adjusting screw.

[Illustration: FIG. 1. FIG. 2.]

This hand vise may be applied to a number of uses, and among others it
may be readily converted into a haft or handle for any kind of tailed
or shanked tool, such as files, wrenches, olive bits, chisels, or
screwdrivers, and may also serve as pincers or nippers. It is of very
simple construction.

       *       *       *       *       *




THE MOUND-BUILDERS IN COLORADO.


New evidence of the existence of the Mound-Builders in the mountain
ranges of Colorado, similar to those in Montana, Utah, and Nevada, have
recently been discovered by Mr. C.A. Deane, of Denver. He found upon
the extreme summit of the snow-range structures of stone, evidently of
ancient origin, and hitherto unknown or unmolested. Opposite to and
almost north of the South Boulder Creek, and the summit of the range,
Dr. Deane observed large numbers of granite rocks, and many of them as
large as two men could lift, in a position that could not have been
the result of chance. They had evidently been placed upright in a line
conforming to a general contour of the dividing ridge, and frequently
extending in an unbroken line for one or two hundred yards. The walls
and the mounds are situated three thousand feet above the timber line.
It is, therefore, hardly supposable that they were built for altars of
sacrifice. They were not large enough for shelter or defense. The more
probable supposition is that, like the large mounds in Montana and
elsewhere, they were places of sepulture.

       *       *       *       *       *




THE WOVEN-WIRE MATTRESS.


Most of our readers who attended the last Fair of the American
Institute, will recall an article in the furniture department, which
attracted much attention on account of its novelty and utility. We refer
to the wire mattress, or bed, manufactured by the Woven Wire Mattress
Company, of Hartford, Conn. To the ordinary mind a new invention is
interesting or not, in proportion to the probability of its coming into
every-day use, and many a good housewife lingers in admiration over an
improved sewing machine or cooking stove, to whom a new steam engine has
no attraction. For this reason it was that the wire mattress was sat on
and lain on by the numerous visitors at the Fair.

[Illustration]

The engraving presented herewith will give the reader, who has not seen
the article, a good idea of its appearance. It consists of a fabric
represented below, half an inch thick, composed of fine wire springs,
each one the length of the bed; all the three hundred spirals, being so
woven and braided together, in a double "weave," by machinery, that
a sort of wire cloth is produced. It differs from any other material
hitherto made, in that it has great strength and elasticity. There is,
in fact, no other device, except the air or water bed, which can compare
with it in its elastic properties.

[Illustration]

We are informed that nine hundred pounds of dead weight of wire were
placed on it for nearly five days, without injurious effects. This
fabric is stretched on a frame, as seen in the first engraving, the
proper tension is secured to suit the fancy, and the mattress is ready
for use. It is then set into the bedstead, like the ordinary spring bed,
except that only two slats are used to support it. Thus, with a slight
covering in summer, and a thin hair mattress for warmth in winter, a
most perfect sleeping arrangement is secured.

The first adaptation of the wire mattresses was for private houses, but
they have been found to have special advantages for hospital use. They
have been largely introduced into the Hartford Hospital, the Bellevue
Hospital, New York, and the Marine Hospital, Brooklyn, and have proved
to be, after months of the severest use, with all classes of patients,
a very great success for such purposes. The elastic flexible mattresses
yield to every motion and part of the body, much to the relief of the
suffering patient.

Another very great advantage is, that when carefully painted they are
always clean.

Pillows of the same materials are made soft and pliable by using a fine
wire and small coil. They are always cool, and afford the opportunity of
placing bags of ice under the head in case of sickness.

One of these mattresses and a bedstead and pillows complete--all of
which the Company make--furnish, with the addition of a folded blanket
or comfortable, a perfect outfit for hospital use.

They are particularly useful for ships' berths, as they dispense with
the ordinary bottom, and the sacking and thick mattress. Shippers know
this.

We are assured that a coating of paint, carefully applied to the
well-tinned wires will protect them from rust.

There can be no question but that these beds, with a light
covering--scarcely more than a sheet--are especially adapted for hot
climates. The Company have already orders for them for the Brazilian
market, and they have been introduced into many of the Southern States.

This wire fabric is adapted to other articles of furniture, and is used
in place of the ordinary springs in chairs, sofas, etc. For out-door
settees, lounges, car seats, and other like purposes, it is well
adapted.

Three patents have been issued to the Company on the wire mattress,
through the Scientific American Patent Agency. [See advertisement of the
Woven Wire Mattress Company on another page.]

       *       *       *       *       *




Flouring Mill Hazards.


A correspondent, in discussing the causes of fires in flour mills, gives
the following facts and queries:

"F. Bertchey's mill, at Milwaukee, burned in September last. The fire
originated from a candle held near a bran or feed spout, reaching from
the upper to a lower floor. The ignition was instant, and attained
different points of the building at about the same moment.

"On November 20, 1868, Schmidt & Co's mill, at St. Louis, burned in a
similar manner, the light in this case being in a globe lamp, but the
conflagration was, nevertheless, quite as sudden and general as in the
first case cited. Other instances of like character have occurred quite
recently. And now the query is, What caused the disaster? Whence the
combustion?

"It has been conjectured that the bran-dust, or fine and dry powder,
passing down or up these conductors, may be the kindling cause of the
fire in these cases; but bran is not over combustible in itself, nor
do we know why it should become so when thus reduced to an impalpable
powder.

"Another theory is that a gas arises from the transmuting grain, which,
excluded from surrounding atmosphere in these close conduits, becomes
inflammable, and hence the results, as recited above, whenever a lighted
flame is brought in contact therewith.

"Be the cause gas or dust, the disaster is the same: and is it not a
phenomenon worth studying and remedying, so far as within the province
and control of those most interested?"

Some similar instances came under our personal observation while
adjuster for the Aetna at its western branch. The Star Mills at
Mascoutah, Ill., burned about the year 1864. They were grinding
middlings. About three o'clock in the morning the miller in charge went
up to the chamber (a large box extending through several stories), as he
had often done before, to jar the middlings down, they having clogged.
He carried a small, open oil lamp, which he placed on a beam, just
behind and above his head. He then opened a slide and thrust in a
shovel, which started the middlings down with a thump, raising a great
dust. As this dust issued in a thin cloud from the slide, it approached
and touched the lamp, when instantly, as if it had been coal gas, it
flashed, burning the miller's hair and beard, and filling the middlings
box with a sheet of flame, which spread with great rapidity and
destroyed the mill.

A mill at Dover, Ky., had accumulated a large quantity of middlings in
an upper story, when the weight caused some sagging, and a man was sent
up with a shovel to "even" the bin. His pressure was the "last straw,"
and the floor under the man broke through, pouring out a cascade of
middlings, which flowed down from story to story, filling the mill with
its dust. In a very few minutes it reached the boiler room, and the
instant it touched the fire it ignited with a flash, and the mills was
in flames instantly. It was totally destroyed.

In this last named case the gas theory will not apply. The dust was not
confined in a spout, but was floating free in the air throughout the
mill. The phenomenon was like the others mentioned, and seems to
indicate that the fine dust itself, when floating in the air, is the
fatal incendiary.

The subject is worthy of a scientific analysis, such as we have never
seen bestowed upon it. The facts are well authenticated, but the
philosophy of such ignition is not generally understood.--_Insurance
Monitor_.

       *       *       *       *       *




Fire-Proof Buildings.


"It has long been a vexed problem with architects and builders, how to
make a building completely fire-proof without the enormous expense of
iron beams and girders, and even this has sometimes failed to prove a
complete protection. In the building of the National State Bank, the
architect estimated that it could not be made fire-proof in the ordinary
style for less than $6,000, and while hesitating as to the expense and
seeking to provide some remedy against the dampness incident to iron
beams, Mr. Fowler learned from the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN that Edwin May,
of Indianapolis, the well-known architect of our county jail, had taken
letters patent on a fire-proof lath for ceilings and inside partition
walls, together with a concrete floor for the protection of the upper
edge of the joist which by actual test had been demonstrated to be
fire-proof. After a critical examination of the invention upon its
merits, it was adopted, and the workmen are now engaged in putting
it in. Our citizens engaged in, or contemplating building, will be
interested in an examination of the work while in progress."

[We copy the above from the _Lafayette_ (Indiana) _Courier_, and in this
connection we make the following extract from a letter just received by
us from Mr. May, the inventor:

"You will see by the above notice one result of my advertisement in the
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN. This is only a _mite_. I have more than I can do,
and I would say to inventors who are not realizing what they expected
from their patents, that one _illustrated advertisement_ in the
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN will effect more than a notice in all the newspapers
in the United States. This is saying a good deal but such is my belief."]

       *       *       *       *       *




The Decline of American Shipping.


At a meeting of the New York Chamber of Commerce, held December 16, to
consider means for reviving American commerce, the following resolutions
were adopted:

Resolved, That this Chamber recommend to the Congress of the United
States, about to assemble, the modification of existing laws, so that

I. Foreign-built steamers may be imported free of duty, and privileged
to carry the American flag, provided they are American owned and not to
be employed in our coastwise trade.

II. That iron plates and such other material for the construction of
steamers as may be deemed advisable, be admitted free of duty.

III. That on all ship stores procurable in bond, drawback be returned,
as upon goods shipped for sale to foreign lands; and

Finally, That ample subsidies be granted to lines of steamers built
in American yards, to the end that competition with powerful foreign
organizations may be successfully inaugurated and sustained.

The Chamber ordered the resolutions engrossed, accompanied by a memorial
forwarded to Congress.

These resolutions, in our opinion, embody the solution of the question
under consideration, and we trust they may be speedily and favorably
acted upon by Congress.

       *       *       *       *       *

Young men out of employment can easily obtain enough subscribers for the
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN to receive a cash prize of sufficient magnitude to
insure them a good salary for six weeks' work. Send for prospectus and
circulars.

       *       *       *       *       *




CORRESPONDENCE.


_The Editors are not responsible for the Opinions expressed by their
Correspondents_.

       *       *       *       *       *




Aerial Navigation--A Suggestion.


Messrs. Editors:--As a constant reader of your invaluable paper, many
subjects of deep interest come under my observation, and doubtless no
journal throughout the land contains more instructive reading--that
which tends to accelerate the progress of scientific investigation,
and promote the general interest of the people--than the SCIENTIFIC
AMERICAN. The series of articles under the head of "Aerial Navigation,"
commenced on page 309, volume XXI., has, perhaps, been read with as much
pleasure and interest as anything published in your valuable journal. I
say with pleasure--because it is really gratifying to mark the advancing
steps which inventors are making in this branch of science; and with
interest--because every new idea set forth, calculated to further the
success of aerial navigation, should be, and no doubt will be, regarded
as of great importance by every one. And, as the more suggestions placed
before the minds of those working for the improvement of any invention,
the greater number will they have from which to choose or experiment
upon, I would like to make one suggestion here, which may be of some
importance in the construction and operation of the "Aeroport," under
the supervision of Mr. Porter, of your city, a description of which is
given on pages 346-7, volume XXI., of your paper.

I suggest that the propelling wheels be placed in some other position
than that given in the said description. From what little knowledge I
possess of aerial navigation, I am persuaded that it would take less
power to propel the "Aeroport" at a given speed, if the wheels were
placed at the rear or front portion of the flying ship. My reason for
being thus persuaded is, that as the forward and aft halves of the float
are cone-shaped--the center being the base, and the front and rear
ends being the vertexes--there must be an increased velocity of the
atmosphere from front to aft as the aeroport advances. Consequently the
driving wheels being placed under the center or largest diameter of the
float, they must evidently revolve with greater rapidity in the current
of air passing between the float and the saloon, going in opposite
direction to that in which the aeroport is flying at a given speed, than
they would were they placed in front or behind where the atmosphere is
comparatively at rest. I take this view from the fact that steamboats
and other vessels proceed with greater speed, with a given power, _down_
stream than they do _up_ stream, mostly on account of the paddles
striking against the current flowing in the same direction in which the
vessel is rowing. The propelling wheels placed either at the front or
rear may have the axle extended through the end of the float to the
center, and the cog-wheel, for the chain, placed on the inner end of
the axle, and the chain descending through the bottom of the float, and
connected to the engine in the same manner as given in your paper. The
chain should be inclosed from the float to the saloon below, with a pipe
of the same material as the float, and sufficiently large to insure the
free action of the chain, and the axle of the propellers should be made
tight with suitable packing to prevent the escape of gas. However there
may be different arrangements employed for connecting the engine to the
wheels. A shaft extending directly under the float, and reaching
from the center to the axle supporting the propellers, and connected
therewith by means of side cog-wheels, might be used; and as the shaft
would necessarily diverge from a straight line with the said axle, the
shaft having the chain-wheel on the end directly over the engine and
connected therewith in the manner proposed by Mr. Porter, I would
suggest further that it would, perhaps, be preferable to place the
wheels at the front end, that the rudder might remain in its original
position, and the aeroport could swing behind the propellers on
encountering side currents of air, and could thus be more easily guided.
I firmly believe that Mr. Porter has taken "the right step in the right
direction" to accomplish that which has been so long sought, and which
evidently will be accomplished at some future time. The air will yet be
navigated by numerous flying ships, going from one city to another like
those that now cover the broad bosom of our oceans.

HIRAM VAN METER.

Macomb, Ill.

       *       *       *       *       *




Puttying Floors of Jewelers Shops and Otherwise.


Messrs. Editors:--I am a reader of your valuable paper and find in
it much to interest, and many practical hints that are useful in my
vocation; I would not be without it for any consideration and I think
every mechanic in the land should take it, read it, and profit by the
reading.

I notice, in Vol. XXI, page 371, a communication headed, "Watch
Repairers' Shop," in which directions are given to fill the chinks in
the floor around the work-bench with soft pine and putty, etc., etc.;
this is all well enough, but will not prevent the breaking of pivots
should a balance wheel be dropped, neither will it prevent the wheel
being stepped upon and so rendered useless, as often happens.

I am a watch-maker and jeweler, and I never drop a wheel or part of a
watch on the floor. I have an apron about one yard wide, and in the
corners of it are eyelet-holes, so that I can pin it to the bench when I
am working; I have strings to it, but do not generally tie them around
me, but let it be loose in my lap as I have to jump up, to attend to
customers in the shop. In the shop where I learned my trade (in London,
England), every workman was _compelled_ to wear an apron, and so much
waste of property and valuable time was saved; the saving of _time_ in
_one week_ will more than pay the cost of the aprons.

Sidney Plains, N. Y,

GEO. C.L. KENT.

       *       *       *       *       *




Western Demand for Agricultural Implements.


Messrs. Editors:--I often think, on perusing your very valuable journal
of science, and the numerous mechanical and scientific problems it
unfolds, that the tendency of the age is to supersede all manual labor
by machinery. Whether such a thing is possible is not the question for
me to consider; I only know that the tendency of universal human genius
seems directed to that end.

I make the above observation casually, in order to introduce a few ideas
on the subject of improvement in agricultural implements--the great
_desideratum_ of the West at this moment. Here nature has opened her
stores so munificently, that all the husbandman has to do is to plow,
sow, and garner the fruits of his labor. But two great improvements are
needed to enable the western farmer to keep pace with improvements in
the mechanic arts and other kindred employment. Indeed, we at the
West, particularly, need a good, cheap, steam plow that can be made
practicable for at least the better grade of farmers. The English plan
of moldboards, that overcome all possible traction and necessitate the
duplex stationary engines, with the cumbrous "artillery of attachments,"
may do for sluggish people but will never meet the wants of the Yankee
nation.

The steam plow suited to the genius of our people, must, to use a
vulgarism, "get up and go." It must possess sufficient power of
propulsion and traction to pulverize the ground better, deeper, and
more rapidly than the "old way." Such is the want of the great West
in reference to preparing the soil for crops. I do not know of such a
machine in use, nor do I believe in the theory of Dr. Brainard, that the
moldboard is the only plan for properly pulverizing the soil; for I am
satisfied that such plan is wholly inadmissible in steam plowing in
this country, for want of sufficient traction for self-propulsion, and
observation has taught me that a self-propelling plow is the only steam
plow our people will tolerate.

I have lately examined the drawings of a steam plow invented by a
gentleman of this city (which I am not at liberty to explain in detail)
that seems to meet the great want I have spoken of. The invention
consists in a very simple device, by which the whole force of
pulverizing the ground is applied to propel the machine, and if this be
not sufficient, an independent force may be applied, so arranged as to
govern the speed of the machine at the will of the operator. You will,
no doubt, in due time hear more of this machine, which seems to me to
meet the great want so long experienced in Western cultivation.

The next great want of the West is a practical grain binder, that shall
securely bind the grain as cut. The scarcity and high price of labor
renders such a machine an absolute necessity. The efforts to supply this
great want have been numerous, but with no flattering success so far as
I am able to learn, except the machine invented by a citizen of this
place, which has already made its mark by demonstrating that automatic
machinery can and does bind the grain as fast as cut. The machine I
speak of is yet in a chrysalis state, so to speak, but it has been
worked two years in the field, the last season without missing a bundle,
though not without the usual difficulties of all new machines in respect
to the workings of some parts--too weak, etc. It is believed that
the coming harvest will witness its triumphant success. If so, the
production of our staple cereal will be greatly cheapened. I shall
be glad to renew "old acquaintance," by a more detailed statement
hereafter.

I send enclosed the pay for another year of the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN,
which I can no more do without than my accustomed dinner.

C.

Madison, Wis.

       *       *       *       *       *




Economical Steam Engine.


Messrs. Editors:--Permit me now to make a few remarks in regard to an
article on page 844, last volume of the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, entitled
"Which is the Most Economical Steam Engine?" The principles laid down in
that article, I think are correct.

I run a saw-mill with an engine which fills those conditions nearer than
I ever saw, and I would like to give your readers a brief description
of it. The cylinder is 10-inch bore, and 14-inch stroke; steam chest
extends enough beyond the ends of the cylinder so that the steam travels
only 21/2 inches, the shortest distance possible, after leaving the valve
before it reaches the piston-head, and the space between the piston-head
and cylinder-head is only one-fourth of an inch, the bolt heads
being counter-sunk until even. Other things about this engine are in
proportion. With this engine attached to a direct acting circular mill,
I can saw 2,000 feet of hard-wood inch boards in one hour.

If any of your readers can beat this, I would like to hear from them.

JOHN CARNES.

       *       *       *       *       *




Friction and Percussion.


Messrs. Editors:--In reply to "Spectrum," page 358, of last volume,
I will be brief. In his third paragraph he claims that he has merely
_suggested_ that friction and percussion may often be one and the same
thing; and immediately claims that in the case of the polished button
rubbing a planed pine board, the force which overcomes and levels the
undulations of the wood, is percussion, and that percussion is also the
cause of the heat; the microscopic hills and hollows on the shining
brass button skipping and jumping along the pine, produces little
infinitesimal bumpings, and so pound out the heat. This _little_ theory
should be known to the homeopaths--they could illustrate infinitesimal
quantities by it!

"Spectrum" treats my hammered horsenail illustration shabbily. After
indirectly acknowledging that there is a point where hammering will
no longer produce heat, he puts it on the grindstone, subjects it to
friction, and when it burns his fingers, throws his hat in the air and
shouts "Hurrah for _percussion!_" We agree perfectly, except that he
calls hammering, _condensation_; calls friction, _percussion_; and drops
friction from the mechanical dictionary altogether.

A railway car axle often heats and sets fire to the packing, when the
journal is smooth as polished glass; but I never heard of those parts
of the car which are constantly undergoing percussion, even getting
uncomfortably warm. The natives of the South Pacific produce fire by
rubbing pieces of dry wood together, but I never heard of their rapping
sticks for the same purpose. I have seen a new, sharp knife made hot
enough to raise a blister, whittling a clean dry stick of pine, and
I would like to have "Spectrum" tell us, if in all the above cases
percussion is the cause of the evolution of of heat, and what is
friction doing in the mean time.

New Albany, Ind.

C.C.H.

       *       *       *       *       *




Oiling a Preservative of Brown Stone.


Messrs. Editors:--I have read the article entitled, "What is to Become
of our Brown Stone Fronts," and have waited to see what others have to
say. But with so much at stake, no body seems to know what to do or say.
Being a practical painter, it has been my lot to oil some of the best
fronts in New York, namely corner of 23d Street and 5th Avenue, No. 2,
West 23rd Street, also No. 1, West 30th Street; also the residence of
E.S. Higgins, the carpet manufacturer, done by other journeymen.

They were very dark in color for a few weeks, but now after two years,
they are bleached almost as light as they were at first.

These fronts were cleaned whenever necessary, and then oiled with fresh
raw linseed oil from the press, put on pretty much as carefully as in
ordinary varnish work. No second coat or lapping over of the oil. All
was put on at once that it would take without running down in streams.

The result: the oil penetrates into good dry stone probably 11/2 inches,
making the stone hard and flinty, as any stone cutter will soon find out
if he tries to trim it.

It keeps the damp and therefore the frost out of the stone, as will be
seen any foggy day, the damp running down in streams on the oiled stone,
and the unoiled stone absorbing the dampness. It is therefore necessary
to oil during dry weather.

The oil is especially beneficial to balustrades and carvings, as they
are generally got out of soft stone. It is also beneficial underneath
balconies and porches, as the sun never has a chance to dry the stone in
such situations before the frost flakes it.

This I send in part payment for the great deal I have learned from your
paper.

T.H. Rilley

New York City.

       *       *       *       *       *




Interesting Correspondence from China.


Messrs. Editors:--Your paper seems to increase in interest. I brought
the back volumes from Madras to Pekin, and am glad to refer to them here
where I must depend upon myself.

I have been building and repairing premises since I came here last year.
I find the carpenters and masons are very much delighted with our tools,
especially our saws, planes, borers, vise, and hammers. Our lathe is a
wonder. They use only the ancient spindle turned backwards and forwards
by a treadle or by the left hand while the right guides the chisel or
turning-tool, which cuts only half the time. They use only the turning
saw, which often fails them because it cannot be used in splitting wide
boards in the middle, and in many other places. They are great sawyers,
however. They stand heavy pine spars on end, if rather short, say 8
feet, the common length of many intended for making coffins, and cut
them up into three-eighths or half-inch stuff with great patience. A
longer one they will lean over and prop up, raising it towards the
perpendicular as they advance. They must have some hard jobs. I have
just measured a poplar plank in front of a coffin manufactory, which I
found to be 5 ft. 3 in. at the butt, 3 ft. 10 in. at the top, 8 feet
long, and about 8 inches thick. For a crosscut saw they rig one like
our wood-saw. I am sure it would deeply interest you to make a visit to
Pekin and see how this ancient, patient, and industrious people do their
work. It is truly painful to see how much time they spend in making
the simplest tool for want of at least a few labor-saving appliances.
Doubtless you have their tools on show in New York. They are to me an
interesting study, though I have been long familiar with the rude tools
of the Hindoos. It is constantly suggested to me that we must have got
many hints from the Chinese, or else indeed they have taken hints from
the West; or again, which is perhaps the true solution, implements like
words have a common origin. I should think from what I have observed in
a short time, that the Chinese resemble the Europeans in their tools
more than the Hindoos--a thing I did not at all anticipate. A clever man
could write you an interesting chapter on the ways of the Pekinese,
the Chinese Manchus, Mongols, and the rest mixed together, though the
Chinese are confessedly the workers in wood, iron, and everything else.
The Manchus are mostly hangers on of the government, living mainly upon
a miserable monthly stipend.

The reading of your unequaled journal makes me interested in you as if
you were personal friends, and so I have run away with these pointless
remarks. I am sure you will excuse me, and not wonder that one wishes to
breathe now and then.

I was an old subscriber in Madras, and hope to be till I can read no
longer. My son, who perished at Andersonville, was a subscriber to the
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN till the day of his capture by Mosby.

Pekin, China.

P.R. Hunt.

       *       *       *       *       *




Communication Between Deaf and Blind Mutes.


Messrs. Editors:--In a recent number of the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN I notice
an ingenious method of teaching deaf and dumb persons to converse in
the dark, which is also applicable to blind mutes, and it brings to my
recollection a method which was in use among the "telegraph boys" some
years ago when I was one of them. Sometimes when we were visiting and
asked to communicate to a "brother chip," anything that it was not
advisable for the persons around us to know, a slight tap-tapping on the
table or chair would draw the attention of the party we asked to talk
to, and then by his watching the forefinger of the writer, if across the
room, or if near enough, by placing the hand of the writer carelessly
on the shoulder of the party we desired to communicate with, the
communication was written out in the telegraph alphabet or by taking
hold of his hand and writing upon the finger.

I think this method will be found much less complicated, if not quite as
rapid, as the method with both hands, and much more convenient, as it is
only necessary to have hold of one hand of the person communicated with,
and is more rapid than writing with a pen.

For the benefit of those not acquainted with the telegraph alphabet, I
give it:

   A    B    C    D     E    F    G     H    I
  .-  -...  ...  -..    .   .-.  --.  ....   ..

   J     K     L    M    N    O     P     Q
  -.-.  -.-   ---   --   -.  . .  .....  ..-.

    R      S     T    U     V     W     X     Y
   . ..   ...    -   ..-   ...-  .--   ..-.  .. ..

   Z
  ... .

The uninitiated will observe that O differs from I in the distance
between the dots, made thus: I by two quick strokes of the forefinger; O
by one quick stroke, slight pause, and another quick stroke; the dashes
are made by holding the finger down for a short space: thus SCIENTIFIC
AMERICAN would be written:

    S    C    I   E  N   T   I   F   I    C
   ...  .. .  ..  .  -.  -  ..  .-.  ..  .. .

    A   M   E    R    I    C     A    N
   .-  --   .   . ..  ..  .. .  .-    -.

In a very short time any one can learn to read by the sight or by the
touch. Anything which can add to the pleasure or comfort of these
unfortunates is of importance.

MAGNET

[Nothing can compensate for want of rapidity in a language designed for
colloquy. Although our correspondent found the Morse telegraph alphabet
a resource on occasion, he would scarcely be content to use it, and it
only for life, even if emancipation from it involved months of labor.
The motions required to spell SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN by the telegraph
alphabet are thirty-nine, but as the short dashes occupy the time of two
dots for each dash, and there are eight of these, eight more ought to be
counted in a comparison of it with an alphabet composed wholly of dots,
this would make forty-seven. To spell the same words in full by the mute
alphabet referred to would require only twenty-three motions. A still
greater disparity in rate would, we think, be found in an entire
colloquial sentence. Thus the sentence "Hand me an apple" would require,
by the mute alphabet, the time of fourteen dots, while with the
telegraph alphabet it would require the time of thirty-nine.--Eds.]

       *       *       *       *       *




Cheap Cotton Press Wanted.


Messrs. Munn & Co.:--Please give us any information of cheap
cotton-presses, such as small neighborhoods, or single planters, in the
South could own. In particular, a press that will put 40 pounds cotton
into each cubic foot. We want cotton better handled, and to that end may
want small bales, say 150 pounds each. But these must be put into three
or four cubic feet, or they will cost too much for covering, ties, etc.
Perhaps you can furnish us with a wood-cut of some, or several, presses
worked by hand, or by horse-power, that will do good service, not cost
too much, be simple in operation, not require too much power, and be
effective as above. It may be for the interest of some of your clients
or correspondents to give us the facts, as we shall put them into
a report for circulation amongst the entire cotton interest of the
country.

Yours very truly,

WALTER WELLS, _Sec'y_.

National Association of Cotton Manufacturers and Planters, No. 11,
Pemberton Square, Boston, Mass.

       *       *       *       *       *




A Singular Freak of a Magnet.


Messrs. Editors:--In my library hangs a powerful horseshoe magnet which
has a keeper and a weight attached of about three ounces. This weight
is sustained firmly by the attracting power of the magnet, and is not
easily shaken off by any oscillating motion, yet through some (to me)
unknown cause during each of the last ten nights the magnet has lost its
power, and the keeper and weight lie in the morning on the bottom of the
case where the magnet has hung for many years without a like occurrence,
except once on the occasion of a severe shock of an earthquake which
took place December 17, 1867.

There is no possible way for this magnet to be disturbed except by the
electric current; then why should its power thus return without the aid
of a battery or keeper? Will some one explain?

FLOYD HAMBLIN.

Madrid Springs, N.Y.

       *       *       *       *       *

Speaking makes the ready man, writing the correct man, and reading the
full man.

       *       *       *       *       *




PRESERVATION OF IRON.

BY PROF. HENRY E. COLTON.


"What is wanted is something equally applicable to large or small pieces
of iron, and which will answer to ward off the attacks not only of the
common atmospheric oxygen, but also remain unaffected by acids or salt
waters."

The above from a late number of the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN states not only
the writer's ideas but also one of the greatest wants of the age. Iron
is daily being put to more and more varied uses. On land the great
question is what will prevent rust; on water, what will prevent rust and
fouling of bottoms of iron vessels. We will briefly summarize the many
patents granted for this purpose.

Eight are for sheathing of various kinds put on in varied modes. The
most practicable of these is a system prepared by Daft. Most iron
vessels are now constructed by every other plate lapping the edges of
the one between. He proposes, instead of having the plates all the same
width, to have one wide and one very narrow plate. This would leave a
trough between the two wide plates of the depth of the thickness of the
plates. He proposes to force into this trough very tightly pieces of
teak, and to the teak, thus embedded, he nails a sheathing of zinc. The
zinc is kept clean by slowly wearing away of its surface from action by
contact with the iron and salt water.

There are four patents, in which various, so-called, non-conducting
coats are put on the iron, and copper pigment in some form put on over
them. These have been specially condemned in England, as no matter how
good the non-conducting substance--and many are so only in name--it will
become rubbed off at some points, and there the bottom will be eaten
both by salt water and action of copper.

Coal tar and asphaltum are the subjects of patents in various forms.

One patent claims rubber or gutta-percha dissolved in linseed oil as a
vehicle in which to grind the pigment; another the same dissolved in
naphtha or bisulphide of carbon as a pigment; another hard rubber,
ground.

Enameling with different materials is proposed by some, while one
proposes to glaze the bottoms so that barnacles and grass would find a
slippery foothold.

Combinations of tallow, resin, and tar--mineral and pine--are patented
mostly to use over other paints.

Coal tar, sulphur, lime, and tallow, are the subject of one patent;
guano, red lead, and oil of another; while sulphur and silica are
claimed by a third.

Paints containing mercury, arsenic, and even strychnine, are the
subjects of several patents. A mixture of coal tar and mercurial
ointment of one.

Galvanism is proposed to be used in various ways--strips of copper and
zinc, or by galvanizing the plates before use. Black lead finds a place
in many compositions.

One patent, by a complicated process, effects a union of metallic zinc
and iron; this, granulated and ground fine, then mixed with red lead
and oil, makes the paint. It is said to be the best of all the patented
stuffs.

It is astonishing how many use oils derived from coal, peat, or resin,
and tars of the same.

There are about fifty patents for this object and with all of them
before their eyes, the British Society for the Advancement of Art still
hold the $5,000 reward for a pigment or covering which will perfectly
protect from rust and fouling. However they may puff their products for
selling, no one has the temerity to claim that they deserve the reward.

We think it would be difficult to find so many expedients ever before
adopted for the accomplishment of any one object. These are all English
patents, England having necessarily been obliged to use iron for vessels
from its cheapness as well as its consequent first introduction there.
In the United States no patents worth mentioning have been granted.

The first requisites for a pigment or coating for iron are, that it
should not contain any copper--the corrosive action of that metal on
iron being intense. Then if for work exposed to air it should form
such a coating as to be impervious to that gaseous fluid, and be
so constituted chemically as not to be oxidizable by it; if under
water--especially sea water--to be impermeable to moisture, so elastic
as not to crack, so insoluble as not to chloridize; to form a perfect,
apparently hard, coating: and yet wear just enough to keep off
incrustation, barnacles, or growth of grass. In fact, this slow wearing
away is the only preventive of fouling in iron vessels. Wooden bottoms
may be poisoned by solutions of copper--and that metal has no superior
for such uses, especially when it is combined in mixture with mineral
or resinous tars and spirits--these compounds, however, are not only
useless on iron bottoms, but also injurious. What then is _the_
substance: 1st. One of the oxides of lead (red lead). 2d. The purest
oxide of iron to be found. If properly made these articles can be
carried to no higher state of oxidation, and respectively, as to order
named, they have no superiors for body and durability. By preference,
1st, red lead, either out of or under water; 2d, Prince's oxide of iron
only, out of water. The color of these paints--the first red, the latter
brown, may be hidden by a coat of white or tinted color. If there were
to be had in combination as a white paint, an oxide of lead and an oxide
of zinc, it would be immensely superior to either, but that such has not
been produced is rather the fault of carelessness than of possibility.
Zinc protects iron with great effect, but it is too rapidly worn in the
effort to be of lasting value. Hence the great desideratum, the yet to
be, the coming pigment is a white oxide of lead or a combined white
oxide of lead and white oxide of zinc, without sulphates or chlorides.

Those materials answer very well for work exposed to atmospheric air,
and perhaps nothing will ever be found better; but a different need is
that for salt water. No mere protector of the iron from rust can be
found superior to pure red lead and linseed oil. We have seen a natural
combination of zinc, lead, and iron, which, in our experience, ranks
next; but the zinc is acted on by the chloride of sodium, and wears away
too much of the material. Red lead, however, while covering the iron
perfectly and effectually preventing rust, and also having but little
disposition to chloridize, when it does, will foul both with grass and
barnacles. Hence, the first desideratum being obtained, how shall we
accomplish the other. The prevention of fouling may be accomplished in
two ways: First, cover the vessel's bottom with two or even three coats
of red lead, and give each time to dry hard. Then melt in an iron pot a
mixture of two parts beeswax, two parts tallow, and one part pine resin;
mix thoroughly, and apply hot one or two coats. This mixture may be
tinted with vermilion or chrome green. It is not necessary to use any
poisonous substance, as it is only by its softness and gradual wear
that it is kept clean. Second, mix red lead and granular metallic zinc,
ground fine, or such a mineral as we have mentioned--crystalline and
granular in its character. Put on two or three coats, and allow each to
set--they will never dry hard. The zinc will slowly wear off, keeping
the whole surface clean, while there will be left enough coating of the
lead to preserve the iron from rust. The oil I would urge for these
pigments is linseed--as little boiled as possible, to be thinned with
spirits of turpentine. There seems to have been a mania for mixtures of
tar and resins, their spirits and oils; my experience fails to show me
any advantage for them on an iron bottom. They have neither elasticity
nor durability, while linseed oil has both in a pre-eminent degree, and
is no more likely to foul than they, when in a combination that does
not dry hard. Besides they are difficult to grind, inconvenient to
transport, and offensive to use.

Perhaps we have not, in the opinion of some, answered the want expressed
in the first paragraph. No pigment with the requisites of durability and
cheapness will resist the attacks of strong acids on iron. The first we
have mentioned will--all such as may float in our air from factories or
chemical works. Chemically it is converted by nitric acid and chlorine
into an insoluble substance--plumbic acid or the cyanide of lead. An
experience of more than three years, with almost unlimited means at our
command for experiment, demonstrates to us that we have indicated
the means of filling the other requisites asked for. It may be that
something new will be discovered, but we doubt it. Let any one tread the
road we have trod, investigate and experiment where and as much as we
have, and, if that place is, where we have not, and their experience
will be the same as ours.

       *       *       *       *       *




THE BANANAS AND PLANTAINS OF THE TROPICS.

[For the Scientific American.]


Poets have celebrated the banana plant for its beauty, its luxuriance,
the majesty of its leaves, and the delicacy of its fruit; but never have
they sufficiently praised the utility of this tropical product.
Those who have never lived in southern countries are unable to fully
appreciate its value. Some look even with indifference upon the gigantic
clusters of this fruit, as they are unloaded from the steamers and
sailing vessels; and yet they deserve special attention and admiration,
for they are to the inhabitants of the torrid zone, what bread and
potatoes are to those of the north temperate zone.

The banana tree is one of the most striking illustrations of tropical
fertility and exuberance. A plant, which in a northern climate, would
require many years to gain strength and size, is there the production of
ten or twelve months. The native of the South plants a few grains, taken
from an old tree, in a moist and sandy soil, along some river or lake;
they develop with the greatest rapidity, and at the end of ten months
the first crop may be gathered, though the cluster and bananas are yet
small; but the following year one cluster alone will weigh some sixty or
more pounds. Even in the South they are always cut down when green, as
they lose much of their flavor when left to ripen or soften on the tree.

The trunk of the tree, if it may be so called, and which grows to a
hight of some fifteen feet, is formed only by the fleshy part of the
large leaves, some of which attain a length of eighteen feet, and are
two and a half feet in width. While from an upper sprout you perceive
the large yellow flowers, or already formed fruits, you see underneath a
cluster, which is bending the tree by its weight.

The plantain tree is much the same as the banana, with the difference,
however, that its fruit cannot be eaten raw, like the banana's, and that
it is much larger in size. Almost every portion of the banana tree is
useful. First of all, the nutritious fruit. The plantains when green and
hard, are boiled in water or with meat like our potatoes, or they are
cut in slices and fried in fat, when they are soft and ripe. There is a
singularity about the boiled plaintain, worthy of being mentioned. Pork
especially, and other meats are so exceedingly fat in the tropics that
they would be most disgusting or even impossible to eat with either
bread or potatoes, but the plaintain seems to neutralize or absorb all
the greasy substance, and the fattest meat is thus eaten by natives and
foreigners without the least inconvenience.

Ripe bananas are mashed into a paste, of which the natives bake a sort
of bread, which is very nourishing, though somewhat heavy. This paste,
which contains much starch, can be dried, and thus kept for a length of
time, which is often of great service to mariners. The young sprouts are
used and prepared like vegetables, and the fibrous parts of the stalks
of the majestic leaves are used like manilla for ropes and coarse cloth.

The utility of the leaves is a theme rich enough to fill a volume; they
are used to cover the huts, for table-cloths and napkins, or wrapping
paper. The dough of bread, instead of being put in a pan, into the oven,
is spread on a piece of plantain leaf; it will neither crisp nor adhere
to the bread when taken out. The Indians of America carry all their
products, such as maize, sugar, coffee, etc., in bags made of this leaf,
which they know how to arrange so well, that they transport an "arroba,"
or twenty-five pounds any distance without a single grain escaping, and
without any appliance other than a liana or creeper to tie it up with.
As to the medicinal qualities of the leaves, they are numerous. Indeed,
a book has been written upon them. I speak, however, from my own
experience. The young, yet unrolled leaves are superior to any salve
or ointment. If applied to an inflamed part of the body, the effect is
soothing and cooling, or if applied to a wound or ulcer, they excite
a proper healthy action, and afterwards completely heal the wound.
Decoctions made of the leaves are used among the natives for various
diseases.

Since the beginning of the world this plant has ranked among the first
in the Flora of Asia. The Christians of the orient look upon it as the
tree of Paradise which bore the forbidden fruit, and they think its
leaves furnished the first covering to our original parents. According
to other historians, the Adam's fig was the plant, which the messengers
brought from the promised land to Moses, who had sent them out to
reconnoitre. "It is under the shade of the _musa sapientium_, that," as
recorded by Pliny, "the learned Indians seated themselves to meditate
over the vicissitudes of life, and to talk over different philosophic
subjects, and the fruit of this tree was their only food." The Oriental
Christians, up to the present date, regard the banana almost with
reverence; their active fancy beholds in its center, if a cut is made
transverse, the image of the cross, and they consider it a crime to use
a knife in cutting the fruit.

In the holy language of the Hindoo, the Sanscrit, the Adam's fig is
called "modsha," whence doubtless, the word "musa" is derived. It is
generally believed that the plant came from India to Egypt in the
seventh century; it still forms a most important article of commerce in
the markets of Cairo and Alexandria. In the year 1516, the banana was
brought to the West Indian Islands by a monk, since which time it
has rapidly spread over the tropics of America, and is found to the
twenty-fifth degree north and south of the equator. It is equally
indispensable and is appreciated by the immigrant and by the native as
a beautifier of the landscape; affording shelter from the sun and rain,
and giving bread to the children; for if every other crop should fail,
the hungry native looks up to the banana tree, like a merchant to his
well-filled storehouse.

       *       *       *       *       *




PUTTING UP STOVES.

BY MARK TWAIN.


We do not remember the exact date of the invention of stoves, but it was
some years ago. Since then mankind have been tormented once a year, by
the difficulties that beset the task of putting them up, and getting the
pipes fixed. With all our Yankee ingenuity no American has ever invented
any method by which the labor of putting up stoves can be lessened. The
job is as severe and vexatious as humanity can possibly endure, and gets
more so every year.

Men always put their stoves up on a rainy day. Why, we know not; but we
never heard of any exception to this rule. The first step to be taken is
to put on a very old and ragged coat, under the impression that when he
gets his mouth full of plaster it will keep the shirt bosom clean. Next,
the operator gets his hand inside the place where the pipe ought to go,
and blacks his fingers, and then he carefully makes a black mark down
the side of his nose. It is impossible to make any headway, in doing
this work, until this mark is made down the side of the nose. Having got
his face properly marked, the victim is ready to begin the ceremony.

The head of the family--who is the big goose of the sacrifice--grasps
one side of the bottom of the stove, and his wife and the hired girl
take hold of the other side. In this way the load is started from the
woodshed toward the parlor. Going through the door, the head of the
family will carefully swing his side of the stove around and jam his
thumb nail against the door post. This part of the ceremony is never
omitted. Having got the family comfort in place, the next thing is to
find the legs. Two of these are left inside the stove since the spring
before. The other two must be hunted after, for twenty-five minutes.
They are usually found under the coal. Then the head of the family holds
up one side of the stove while his wife puts two of the legs in place,
and next he holds up the other while the other two are fixed, and one of
the first two falls out. By the time the stove is on its legs he gets
reckless, and takes off his old coat, regardless of his linen.

Then he goes for the pipe and gets two cinders in his eye. It don't make
any difference how well the pipe was put up last year it will always be
found a little too short or a little too long. The head of the family
jams his hat over his eyes and taking a pipe under each arm goes to the
tin shop to have it fixed. When he gets back, he steps upon one of the
best parlor chairs to see if the pipe fits, and his wife makes him get
down for fear he will scratch the varnish off from the chairs with the
nails in his boot heel. In getting down he will surely step on the cat,
and may thank his stars that it is not the baby. Then he gets an old
chair and climbs up to the chimney again, to find that in cutting the
pipe off, the end has been left too big for the hole in the chimney. So
he goes to the woodshed and splits one side of the end of the pipe with
an old axe, and squeezes it in his hands to make it smaller.

Finally he gets the pipe in shape, and finds the stove does not stand
true. Then himself and wife and the hired girl move the stove to the
left, and the legs fall out again. Next it is to move to the right. More
difficulty now with the legs. Move to the front a little. Elbow not even
with the hole in the chimney, and the head of the family goes again to
the woodshed after some little blocks. While putting the blocks under
the legs, the pipe comes out of the chimney. That remedied, the elbow
keeps tipping over, to the great alarm of the wife. Head of the family
gets the dinner table out, puts the old chair on it, gets his wife to
hold the chair, and balances himself on it to drive some nails into the
ceiling. Drops the hammer on wife's head. At last he gets the nails
driven, takes a wire swing to hold the pipe, hammers a little here,
pulls a little there, takes a long breath, and announces the ceremony
concluded.

Job never put up any stoves. It would have ruined his reputation if he
had. The above programme, with unimportant variations, will be carried
out in many respectable families during the next six weeks.

       *       *       *       *       *




THE MAGIC LANTERN.


The invention of the magic lantern dates back to 1650, and is attributed
to Professor Kircher, a German philosopher of rare talents and extensive
reputation. The instrument is simple and familiar. It is a form of the
microscope. The shadows cast by the object are, by means of lenses,
focussed upon something capable of reflection, such as a wall or screen.
No essential changes in the principles of construction have been made
since the time of Kircher; but the modern improvements in lenses,
lights, and pictures, have raised the character of the instrument from
that of a mere toy to an apparatus of the highest utility. By its
employment the most wonderful forms of creation, invisible, perhaps, to
the eye, are not only revealed but reproduced in gigantic proportions,
with all the marvelous truth of nature itself. The success of some of
the most celebrated demonstrations of Faraday, Tyndall, Doremus, Morton,
and others, was due to the skillful use of the magic lantern. As an
educator, the employment of this instrument is rapidly extending. No
school apparatus is complete without it; and now that transparencies
are so readily multiplied by photography upon glass, and upon mica, or
gelatin, by the printing press or the pen, it is destined to find
a place in every household; for in it are combined the attractive
qualities of beauty, amusement, and instruction.

The electric light affords, probably, the strongest and best
illumination for the magic lantern; then comes the magnesium light; but
their use is a little troublesome and rather expensive; next to these
in illuminating power is the oxy-hydrogen or Drummond light. The
preparation of the gases and the use of the calcium points involve
considerable skill.

Need has long been felt for some form of the magic lantern, having a
strong light, but more easily produced than any of those just mentioned;
and this has at last been accomplished, after several years' study and
experiment, by Prof. L.J. Marcy, 632 Arch St., Philadelphia, Pa.

The "Sciopticon," is the name of his new instrument, and from actual
trial we find that it possesses many superior qualities. Its lenses
are excellent, and in illuminating power its light ranks next to the
oxy-hydrogen. The sciopticon light is produced from ordinary coal oil
by an ingenious arrangement of double flames, intensifying the heat and
resulting in a pencil of strong white light. Prof. Marcy's instrument
is the perfection of convenience, simplicity, and safety. Any one may
successfully work it and produce the most brilliant pictures upon
the screen. It is peculiarly adapted for school purposes and home
entertainment. Those who wish to do a good thing for young people
should provide one of these instruments. Photographic transparencies of
remarkable places, persons, and objects, may now be purchased at small
cost; while there is no end to the variety of pictures which may be
drawn by hand at home upon mica, glass or gelatin, and then reproduced
upon the screen by the sciopticon.

       *       *       *       *       *




The Largest Well in the World--Capacity 1,000,000 Gallons of Water per
Day.


One of the grand necessities of the Prospect Park, Brooklyn, N.Y., that
of providing for a continual supply of water for all the purposes of
the Park developed itself, as the Commissioners progressed with their
stupendous undertaking. Mr. Stranahan, the President of the Board, after
carefully weighing the cost, the practicability, and importance
of having an independent water supply for the Park, advised the
Commissioners of the plan which had suggested itself, and the
calculations which had been made by the engineers relative to the
project, and the work was commenced, the first idea being to secure at
least a partial supply of water by means of a well constructed in the
Park. The subject was thus treated in the last annual report of Mr. C.C.
Martin, the engineer in charge:

"This well has been located on the south side of Lookout Hill, near the
lake, and work was commenced upon it late in the season. After a careful
consideration of various methods for sinking the well, it was decided to
build the wall and then to excavate the material from within, trusting
to the weight of the wall to force it down. Sixteen feet of the wall
were laid securely bolted together, before the excavation was commenced.
A derrick with a boom fifty-five feet in length was set up near the
wall, so that the sweep of the boom commanded the interior of it.
Iron buckets containing fourteen cubic feet each were obtained, and a
six-horse power hoisting engine purchased. With these appliances the
excavation was commenced, and carried on with slight interruption until
the work was suspended on account of the frost."

The well is now completed, and is one of the most important features of
the Park. It is worthy to rank as a feat of engineering skill with, any
of the great works of modern times. The Commissioners decided to put its
powers to the test yesterday afternoon, but owing to the unpropitious
weather of the forenoon the trial was postponed. Nevertheless,
Commissioners Stranahan, Fiske, and Haynes, with Mr. Martin, engineer in
charge, and Mr. John Y. Culyer, his assistant, were at the well. During
the last summer some difficulties were encountered in the sinking of the
wall, which were set down by superficial observers as the utter failure
of the enterprise. Mr. Stranahan received but little encouragement from
his fellow Commissioners, some of whom had never seen greater works
of engineering than the construction of street sewers. He assumed the
responsibility of seeing the work through, feeling that the whole thing
depended entirely upon the ability of the engineers, in which he had
abundant faith. All obstacles were surmounted; the work proceeded and
the well is now finished, and so far as is known, is understood to be
the largest one in the world.

The outer wall is fifty feet in diameter, two feet thick, and fifty-four
feet high. The inner curb, or wall, is thirty-five feet in diameter and
two feet thick, having a depth of ten feet. The masonry, as seen from
the top of the structure, is a marvel of neatness and solidity. The
water surface in the well is thirteen feet above high-tide level, and
the depth of water in the well is fourteen feet. The pump foundations
are entirely independent of the walls. This plan was adopted so as to
obviate any possible difficulty which might arise from displacement. The
pump is the Worthington patent, and, with a pressure of forty pounds, is
capable of raising one million gallons of water every twenty-four hours
a height of 176 feet, and is competent to a lift of 180 feet.

The boiler house is a neat, pressed-brick structure trimmed with Ohio
stone, standing on the surface near the mouth of the well. The interior
of the well is reached by a spiral stairway built in the wall, and
commencing in the boiler house. In this way the engineer is able to
reach the pump. It is a fact worthy of notice in connection with the
construction of the wall, or rather the sinking of it, that the outer
wall rests upon four feet of wooden cribwork, two feet thick, and having
an iron shield. The inner wall is built upon a similar crib only two
feet deep, also shielded with iron.

The Commissioners were led to the construction of this well in presence
of the danger at any time of some accident taking place in connection
with the Brooklyn Water Works which would render it necessary for the
Water Board to cut off the Park supply so as to secure the citizens from
suffering. This well has more than the necessary capacity to supply the
Park abundantly with water, yielding most when most is needed. This is
established by the discovery that the time of drought from which the
well is, or may be, likely to suffer, occurs in the Fall. Besides these
facts, it further appears that in order to furnish the supply of water
to the Park the Water Board would have to go through the process of
pumping their water twice to convey it to the required elevation, equal
to 225 feet from its original level.

The work of the well will be to supply the pools at an elevation of 133
feet. From the pools the water is conducted to the lake. Besides this,
there is an independent connection with the lake by which, as necessity
may suggest, the water can be directed to the lake, a lift of only
seventy feet. The lake, when completed, will occupy an area of fifty
acres, which will be kept continually supplied with fresh water, the
arrangements being such, or to be such, as will insure a permanent
change of water, and prevent any of the evils that may arise from
stagnancy. The well is fed from the earth, consisting of a circuit of
two miles, with a fall of five feet to the mile. For this reason it does
not appear easy to exhaust the supply, as when the water is pumped out
to four or five feet from the surface of the well it is replaced at a
rate equal to the demand. Every allowance has been made for evaporation
from the lake and pools, and the supply is regarded as inexhaustible.
Another important fact here suggests itself; that is, that sufficient
rain falls during the season in the area of two miles around the well
to make the supply perennial. The Prospect Park well is a credit to
Brooklyn.--_New York Times_.

       *       *       *       *       *




PAPER FOR BUILDING.


Our readers will find in another column an advertisement of this new
building material which is now attracting much attention in the West,
and of which we have received very favorable reports. It has been
recently tested in Chicago with the result we are informed of fully
establishing its utility. It is said that a house twenty-two feet long,
sixteen wide, and fourteen high, can be covered on the outside for less
than $9; and a house thirty-six feet by twenty-two, and twenty feet
high, for $20. The building can be done at any season, and can be
finished with great speed, and there are said to be numerous other
advantages connected with the use of the paper. It differs from ordinary
paper in consistency, compactness and solidity. In the manufacture it
is subjected to a pressure of hundreds of tuns, which squeezes out the
liquid matter, leaving a substance of the right thickness. It is said to
be proof against damp and gnawing of vermin, and it being an excellent
non-conductor of heat, must make a warm dwelling in winter and a cool
one in summer. It is used in the place of plastering for inside walls.

       *       *       *       *       *

The Prussian Government has military maps of every foot of its territory
so complete that every hill, ravine, brooklet, field, and forest is
delineated with perfect accuracy. It is a common boast of Prussian
military men, that within the space of eight days 848,000 men can be
concentrated to the defense of any single point within the kingdom, and
every man of them will be a trained and well-equipped soldier.

       *       *       *       *       *




Improved Muzzle-Pivoting Gun.


We are indebted for the following able description and criticism of this
Prussian gun to our able contemporary, _The Engineer_.

Viewed as a piece of mechanism, nothing can well be more beautiful
in mutual adaptation of parts to the fulfillment of given and
rather recondite movements, and in point of execution, than this
muzzle-pivoting arrangement of Herr Gruson's; but having said this we
are compelled to add, as impartial engineering critics, that it is
nothing more.

[Illustration: GRUSON'S SYSTEM OF MUZZLE-PIVOTING APPLIED TO MONITORS.]

A very few words of description, aided by the very clear engraving
annexed, will suffice to make the arrangement plain to every mechanical
reader. The entire structure is metallic, chiefly of cast iron or of
steel. Upon the platform of the casemate, or deck of the ship, or
turret, is laid the heavy bed or traverse plate, cast hollow in iron,
holding the vertical pivot at its forward end, on which the gun slide
traverses in azimuth, and at its rear end the segment plate, bolted down
and separately adjustable as to position upon the bedplate. The slide is
also a ponderous hollow casting, the upper surfaces of which, on which
the gun carriage runs forward or recoils, are curvilinear in a vertical
plane, so that the inclination to the horizon is greatest at the rear
end. At the rear end of the slide it traverses upon two heavy cast-iron
turned conical rollers, which are geared together and actuated by the
winch handle and spur gear, seen in our engraving; by these the slide
is practically held fast in any position on the bedplate. The gun
itself--in the model, a steel breech-loader, on the Prussian regulation
system, very slightly modified--is sustained between two high and
ponderous cheek plates of cast iron, which constitute the sides of the
carriage, and which are connected together strongly at the lower edges
by a heavy base or bottom plate, and at the top by two light cross
distance bolts. The muzzle and breech extremities of the piece project
well beyond those cheeks. Along the bottom of the trough of the
carriage, directly under the gun, lies a nearly horizontal hydraulic
press cylinder, the pump and handle actuating which are seen in the
figures to the proper left of the gun, and the supply of water for which
is contained in the hollow bottom of the carriage. On each side cheek of
the carriage is formed, by curved planing, a circular segmental race,
opening inward or toward each other, rectangular in cross section and
into each of which is fitted a segmental block just filling it up, and
occupying a portion of its length so as to slide easily up or downward
through the whole range of the arc or segment.

The center point of the length of each of those blocks carries one side
of the gun, which is connected also with the two heavy radius bars
seen outside the cheeks, and pivoted close to the segment races on the
outside, and with a system of link work between the gun itself and the
crosshead of the ram of the hydraulic cylinder, which gives motion
to the gun in elevation or depression, through a vertical arc, the
imaginary center of which, and of the segments of the side cheeks, is
situated in the horizontal diameter across the muzzle of the gun. This
is in brief the muzzle-pivoting part of the arrangement, of which, were
it worth while to go into its details, we should need some further
diagrams to make it quite clear. Nor is it worth while to go into
the description of various minor points of refinement about the gun
mounting, such as the very exposed long tangent scale seen in the
figure, by which the elevation or depression is read off, nor the still
more exposed and rather ricketty arrangement by which the rear sight
is arranged to rise and fall with the gun, and allowance for dispart
avoided. The recoil of the gun is resisted through and by the segment
blocks in the side cheeks, and by the heavy radius bars, etc., and
thus transferred to the carriage itself. This moves upon four
eccentro-concentric rollers, in all respects identical with those
brought before the Ordnance Select Committee of Woolwich by Mr. Mallet,
in 1858--then rejected, after some time adopted, and brought into use in
our own service, where they are now universal, and from which they have
been adopted into every artillery in the world, and, we understand,
without the slightest recognition of the inventor's rights. On the axle
of each of these rollers is keyed a circular eccentric cam plate, those
at the same side being connected together by a linking bar so as to move
in concert. Adjustable tripping plates attached to the sides of the
slide, are so arranged that when the loaded gun has been run forward its
carriage base rests hard down, with its full weight upon the top faces
of the slide, and thus the recoil is made under the full resistance due
to the friction of the entire load. Arrived at the highest point, it
rests there until loaded. The cam plates being then given a slight
motion of rotation by the help of socket levers--the rectangular
projections to be received by which are seen on the top edges of the cam
plates in the figure--the carriage, by its own commenced descent, gets
again upon its rollers, and runs forward upon these at once into firing
position. The two elevated horns which are seen standing up at the rear
part of the slide above the roller frame are designed to receive the
thump of the two short buffer-blocks--seen at the rear part of each
carriage cheek--in the event of the recoil not being wholly expended in
raising the weight of gun and carriage, etc., along the curved racers
of the slide. These buffer-blocks bear against plugs of vulcanized
india-rubber secured in the bottoms of the buffer cylinders.

We have thus, though very briefly, described the whole of this mounting.
As a carefully thought out and elaborated piece of elegant mechanical
complication Herr Gruson's muzzle-pivoting carriage attracted much
attention at Paris, in 1867, and its merits were regarded as great by
those whose thoughts went little further perhaps. We should have been
glad had it been in our power to have joined in its praise. We are,
however, obliged honestly to say that, however highly creditable to its
designer as an ingenious and capable mechanism, it shows that he has
never realized to himself as a practical artillerist the primary, most
absolute, and indispensable conditions of construction for a serviceable
muzzle-pivoting gun for either land or sea service.

As to the general merits, or general conditions, of muzzle-pivoting,
however, once in doubt at first, these are admitted now by all; and
the latter resolve themselves almost into this--that system of
muzzle-pivoting must be best which, while preserving the essential point
of leaving the muzzle of the gun free of any direct attachment, i.e.,
with an imaginary, not an actual, pivot of vertical arc motion, shall be
_the simplest possible_ in its parts, have the least details, the fewest
parts capable of being struck by splinters or shot, and all its parts of
such materials and character as to receive the smallest amount of injury
if so struck. In every one of these aspects Herr Gruson's mounting is at
fault. With parts and movements far more ingeniously adapted than those
of the crude and unskillfully designed muzzle-pivoting carriages of
Captain Heathorn, also exhibited at Paris, and much exhibited and
exposed since, the Gruson mounting is even more complicated, expensive,
and liable to injury of every sort to which a gun carriage can be
conceived liable. We may even venture to affirm that ponderous as
was the mass of cast iron, etc., in the Paris model carrying only a
12-pounder gun, were it all enlarged in such ratio as might appear to
suit for a 10-inch 25-tun rifled gun of the British type, the almost
proverbial relations, between weight, velocity of impulse, and
brittleness of cast iron, would show themselves, in the whole machine
going to pieces within a very few rounds.

       *       *       *       *       *




Stock Feeding by Clock Work.


Mr. F. B. Robinson, of North Haven, Conn., has invented a very neat
arrangement, whereby horses or stock can be fed at any time required
with certainty and without personal attention at the time of feeding.
His invention consists of a hopper with a drop bottom in which the
provender is placed. A latch secures the drop bottom, the latch engaging
with a spring catch. A simple arrangement of clock work on the principle
of the alarm clock, may be set to release the spring at any hour or
minute desired, when the drop falls and the provender falls through a
chute into the feeding trough. This invention may be adapted to feeding
any number of horses or cattle, only one clock being required. We regard
the invention as one of much value. By its use much neglect of careless
attendants may be obviated, and a farmer without help, might leave home
for an evening's entertainment, or absent himself on business, without
fear that his stock would suffer. Besides being so convenient the cost
of the apparatus is a mere bagatelle.

       *       *       *       *       *




Milk, and What Comes of It.


Orange County has long been a laud flowing with milk and--butter. Three
or four of these most beautiful autumn days were spent by us, says a
writer in _Harper's Weekly_, among the farmers which are supposed to
butter our New York city bread, and qualify our tea and coffee. Recent
mechanical improvements have taken away much of the traditional romance
of the farm, but, on the whole, the loss is more than made up by the
gain of perfect system and wonderful adaptation. Instead of four or
five cows, known by such names as Brindle, Bess, and Sukey, milked by
rosy-cheeked maidens, we have now droves of fifty or a hundred, milked
by men, who know them only as "good" or "poor milkers."

In some fine farms a large and luxuriant pasture, with running brooks
and border of woodlands, affords, with the herd feeding in it, a
beautiful picture; and the substantial barns constructed to keep the
cattle comfortably cool in summer and warm in winter, with ample
drinking troughs and stalls for fastening up at night, are indicative of
the good shelter at hand when winter storms drive the cows indoors. To
the farmyards the cows are brought night and morning, in summer, to be
milked. The strained milk is put into large cans holding forty quarts,
such as the milkmen use in distributing it through the city. These cans
are then put into tanks made in some cool running stream, where the
water comes nearly to the top of the can. Frequent stirring is necessary
until the animal heat is quite gone. The milk is then fit to be sent
to the cars. This process can never safely be omitted for, paradoxical
though it may seem, milk is "fresher" and sweeter when it reaches the
consumer if it is delayed at the farm for at least twelve hours. Even
in hot weather, it is more certain to keep sweet when twenty-four or
thirty-six hours elapse between the milking and the using in the city.

There has been much discussion as to the best means of cooling milk
for market, and patent pails have been tried in which the milk passes
directly from the cow through small, coiled tubes surrounded by ice.
But this rapid cooling does not work well, and practical experience
indicates that the old simple process is the best. Every well-appointed
farm must have, therefore, a cool and unfailing stream of water. There
are two such streams in one of the farms we visited. One passes through
the barn, furnishing drinking troughs for the cattle, and a tank for
cooling milk in winter. The other, running through the pasture, supplies
a trout-breeding pond, and furnishes a tank for summer use. In a little
hut under the trees, the milk cans are kept in a stream, which even
the severe drought of last summer did not dry, nor the heat raise to a
temperature of 60 deg.

We are assured most positively that none of the spring water finds its
way over the mouth of the can into the milk. Its dilution, of which
there is so much just complaint, must be done, if at all, in the city,
for the wholesale buyer is said to have such means of testing the milk
as effectually protects him against the farmer. May the man be busy at
work who is to give each family such a protection. We have heard it said
that one end of a small piece of common tape placed in a pan of milk
will carry from it all the water into another vessel in which the other
end of the tape should be placed; but we have never found this a safe
test.

Strange to say, no butter is made on these large milk farms. The supply
for the family is obtained from market, or, more rarely, from a neighbor
who churns all his milk for the accommodation of those who send all
theirs to the city. Our notions of the way to make butter were decidedly
overturned on going to such a dairy. No setting of the milk in shallow
pans for cream to rise; no skimming and putting away in jars until
"churning day," when the thick cream was agitated by a strong arm until
the butter came, then worked and salted. Instead, there is a daily
pouring of the unskimmed soured milk into a common churn, perhaps
somewhat larger than ordinary. The dasher is fastened to a shaft, which
is moved by a crank. The crank is turned by means of a nearly horizontal
wheel some eight or ten feet in diameter, which is kept in motion by a
dog, sheep, or calf standing on it, something after the manner of the
old tread-mill.

When taken from the churn, the butter is worked by hand as of old. The
farmer with whom we have talked said he was about determined to send his
milk to the creamery, since butter-making made it so hard for the women.
Surely woman is less a drudge than she used to be. If, after being
relieved from the labor of churning, the remaining working of the butter
is considered too hard for the farmer's wife, the day of a woman's
redemption must be near at hand.

Only one butter farm, have we been able to find, and not enough is made
there to supply the immediate neighborhood. Where, then, does all the
Orange county butter come from? Mostly from the West. Farmers buy
from the vicinity of the Alleghenies, and even further west, large
quantities, which they sell in the original packages or repack in pails.
Since railroads have become so numerous, New York drinks up all the milk
in Orange county, and must butter her bread elsewhere.

The largest institution for the disposition of milk is the Creamery,
which is, in other words, a cheese factory. Here is brought the milk
which the farmers themselves are unable properly to prepare for market,
for want of cool springs or sufficient help. Received here, it is placed
in deep but narrow tin pails holding twelve or fourteen quartz. These
are floated in large tanks of water. From these pails the cream is
carefully taken and sent to market. The skimmed milk is then placed in
a large vat and heated, by means of steam pipes to about 80 deg. Then the
rennet is put in. From twenty to thirty minutes suffices for curdling,
and the mass is then stirred to separate the curd from the whey. After
which it is heated still more; and then the whey, passing off through a
strainer, goes to feed hogs, while the curd remains in the vat, to be
salted and worked before putting into the presses. In two or three hours
the curds become hard enough for the canvas to be put upon them ready
for the shelves. Very carefully they must then be watched, lest the
fly lying in wait for them makes in them a snug house for her family.
Greasing and turning must be a daily labor, and some weeks must pass
before they are sufficiently cured for market.

For the benefit of city consumers, who are paying ten and twelve cents a
quart for milk, from a tenth to a quarter of which is not infrequently
pure Croton, we may add that the highest price the farmer ever gets for
his milk is seven cents a quart; and he sometimes sells it for as low as
two cents and a half. Our friends, the milkmen, have, therefore, it will
be seen, a pretty good margin for freight and profit.

       *       *       *       *       *




Improved Hay Elevator.


The method most generally used for elevating hay is evidently not
the most economical application of the power of horses for the
accomplishment of the purpose desired. The tackle involves a great deal
of friction, and as the quantity which can be thus raised at once is,
probably, on the average, not more than from 150 to 200 lbs, much more
time is employed in re-adjusting the fork, than would be the case if a
larger quantity were elevated.

The invention under consideration supplies a means whereby it is claimed
hay may be unloaded with far greater facility than heretofore, with less
labor to the team and with fewer hands than are at present employed.

A primary gear wheel is propelled horizontally by a lever worked by
a horse. The primary gear impels a pinion keyed to the shaft of a
windlass, upon which is wound the elevating rope, whenever the clutch,
A, is made to operate through the cord and lever, B. This cord runs over
a pulley on the under side the wood framework at C, and its further end
may be held in the hand of the workman on the hay load, who, when he has
properly adjusted the fork, pulls the cord which operates the clutch,
and the "fork-full" of hay is at once elevated. The cylinder of the
windlass, not being keyed to the shaft, only operates when the clutch is
closed by the cord.

The horse, or horses which furnish power to the machine, may, therefore,
keep on traveling in the same direction, and no time is lost in stopping
and backing, as in the method in general use.

[Illustration: DERR'S CAPSTSTAN FOR ELEVATING HAY FORKS.]

There is no doubt but that this is a cheap, durable, and desirable
machine, and one that can be used to great advantage, not only for the
elevation of hay, but for many other purposes. We think it would be
found a decided improvement in discharging cargoes of coal from barges,
and for handling coal in storage yards.

The inventor claims that twice as much hay can be raised in a given time
by its use, as can be done by the old method; and it dispenses with one
hand at the barn or stack.

A coupling at D, enables attachments to be made, which extend the
usefulness of the machine very much. It may be used as a power for
driving wood saws, cutting fuel, thrashing, and other work where a
simple horse power is desirable.

Address for further information, Wm. Derr, Tiffin, Ohio.

       *       *       *       *       *

COMPETITORS FOR PRIZES.--The interest that our friends have taken in
obtaining additional names to send with their own subscriptions to the
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN for the coming year, is without a parallel. The
clubs sent by competitors for the cash prizes are not so many or so
large as we expected, but the number of applicants for the steel plate
engraving exceeds our expectation.

       *       *       *       *       *

The Emperor of France is said to be interested in the art of flying and
to have given money to fledge some inventions.

       *       *       *       *       *




IMPROVEMENT IN LAMP WICKS.


Our engravings show a novel substitute for the cotton lamp wick. The
wick, two forms of which are shown in Figs. 1 and 2, are made of
glass, and are filled preferably with pulverized gypsum, although any
finely-ground stone, mineral, or metal may be employed. The bottom of
the glass tube is closed by wire gauze, or other suitable strainer,
through which the fluid flows; and is carried by the capillary
attraction of the pounded material to the top of the wick.

Thus a permanent wick is obtained, which may be employed with any form
of lamp, and will last for an indefinite time. It may also be used in
connection with an open cup, which the inventor terms a poor man's
lamp. A perforated card is laid upon the top of the cup or tumbler as a
support to the wick.

[Illustration]

It may be used either with or without a chimney, and it is claimed that
with good kerosene oil it is perfectly safe, and consumes less of it,
while it may be also used as a candle.

Patented through the Scientific American Patent Agency, September 14,
1869, by Edward D. Boyd, of Helena, Ark.

Address for rights, etc., the patentee, as above, or Jos. P. Branch, 277
Fulton street, Brooklyn, N.Y.

       *       *       *       *       *




Great Transformation.


Seven years ago, says the Port Said correspondence of the London _News_,
there was nothing to distinguish Ismailla or the smiling lake before you
from the rest of the desert, and all was sand. It is the canal which has
raised up the numerous handsome villas and fine gardens. Fresh water is
all that is needed to turn the arid desert into a fruitful soil; and the
supply of this is provided by the subsidary canal which the company
has formed side by side with that broad salt one which now unites two
worlds. Wonderful stories are told of the productiveness of the gardens,
and a walk through any of those belonging to the leading officials
stationed at Ismailla is to verify them all. Vines with large bunches of
grapes pendent from their branches; orange trees with green fruit just
showing a golden tint; ivy, roses, geraniums from England, and an
endless variety of rich tropical plants are all flourishing. In the
centre of the town is a square with trees and a building clothed with
rich creepers in its midst. Everything here looks French. A handsome
boulevard runs down to the point of embarkation, the streets and squares
are on the true Parisian model, and there are _cafes_, billiard rooms,
and _cafe chantants_ which might easily belong to Nantes or Lyons. There
are of course huge gaps where the houses and shops will be; the roads
are, many of them, still of sand; camels draw carts, and generally
pervade the place in long strings; but with all this you are kept in a
state of wonder during your stay at Ismailla at the marvelous conversion
which has taken, place under your eyes.

       *       *       *       *       *

American agricultural implements are highly praised in newspaper reports
of the Metropolitan Cattle Show, held recently in London.

       *       *       *       *       *




Moore's Rural New Yorker


For Dec. 25 contains a splendid full page Engraving of the PRIZE FOWLS
at the recent State Poultry Show--the Best Poultry Picture ever given in
an American newspaper.--Also, a magnificent CHRISTMAS PICTURE, and other
fine Illustrations. For sale by all Newsdealers; price 8 cents. See
advertisement of RURAL in this paper.

       *       *       *       *       *




BUSINESS AND PERSONAL.


_The Charge for Insertion under this head is One Dollar a Line. If
the Notices exceed Four Lines, One Dollar and a Half per line will be
charged._

       *       *       *       *       *

To ascertain where there will be a demand for new machinery or
manufacturers' supplies read Boston Commercial Bulletin's manufacturing
news of the United States. Terms, $4.00 a year.

Ties, timber, and lumber seasoned by steam, without a building. Costs
$2, worth $20 per M. Stops eramacausis. H.G. Bulkley, N.Y.

Wanted--Light Machinery or Articles to Manufacture. Work done in a neat,
prompt manner. Address W.E. Bradner & Co., 13 Mulberry st., Newark, N.J.

Pyrites wanted--Containing Gold, Silver, or Copper. Address A.G. Hunter,
Jackson, Mich.

Those wishing articles of metal or light machinery manufactured, will
find it for their interest to address J.B. Heald, Milford, N.H.

One horizontal stationary steam engine, with variable cut-off, 60-H.P.;
one plain do., 25-H.P.; one do., 20-H.P.; one Portable 12-H.P., on hand
and for sale low. Albertson & Douglass Machine Co., New London, Conn.

For sale cheap--Good 2d-hand plate iron. 50 plates 3-8 thick, 42 inches
wide, 120 inches long. Been used 3 months for a floor. Price 3 cents per
lb. Address box 1352, Norwich, Conn.

The head draftsman of a locomotive works, just closed, desires another
engagement. Familiar with stationary, marine, or locomotive machinery.
Unexceptionable references. Watkins, 13 Dutch st., N.Y.

Wanted--Iron Planer about 4 ft., describe same and price, Geo. S. Grier,
Milford, Del.

Wanted--Best Water Filter for Household purposes. Frank Alexander, Box
3769, New York.

A Brick Machine wanted. Address A. Hansen, Sumter, S.C.

For Sale for want of use--A 3-Horse portable steam engine and boiler, in
perfect running order. Address B.S. Nichols & Co., Burlington, Vt.

Patent Rights bought and sold by R.T. Bradley & Co., 131 Fourth st.,
Cincinnati, Ohio.

Peck's patent drop press. For circulars, address the sole manufacturers,
Milo Peck & Co, New Haven, Ct.

Every wheelwright and blacksmith should have one of Dinsmore's Tire
Shrinkers. Send for circular to R.H. Allen & Co., Postoffice Box 376,
New York.

For Small Engine Lathes, with foot-power, Hand Lathes, Bolt or Terret
Cutters, Planers, etc., address W.E. Bradner & Co., Newark, N.J

Aneroid Barometers made to order, repaired, rated, for sale and
exchange, by C. Grieshaber, 107 Clinton St., New York.

Foundery and Machine Business.--Experience with some capital, wants an
engagement. South or West preferred. Address Box E.E., Catskill, N.Y.

Foreman in a Machine Shop--A person having ten years experience in
that capacity is desirous of forming a new engagement. Address, with
particulars, Postoffice Box 119, La Crosse, Wis.

Makers of Pipe Cutting and Tapping and Screwing Machines send circulars,
without delay, to Forest City Pipe works, Cleveland, O.

For Best Spring-bed Bottoms address S.C. Jennings, Wautoma, Wis.

Parties having patents or patent goods to sell, send for The National,
Buffalo, N.Y., $1 per year, 10c. single copy.

Back Nos., Vols., and Sets of Scientific American for sale. Address
Theo. Tusch, No. 37 Park Row, New York.

Mineral Collections--50 selected specimens, including gold and
silver ores, $15. Orders executed on receipt of the amount. L. & J
Feuchtwanger, Chemists, 55 Cedar st., New York.

The Babcock & Wilcox Steam Engine received the First Premium for the
Most Perfect Automatic Expansion Valve Gear, at the late Exhibition of
the American Institute. Babcock, Wilcox & Co., 44 Cortlandt st., New
York.

For best quality Gray Iron Small Castings, plain and fancy Apply to the
Whitneyville Foundery, near New Haven, Conn.

Keuffel & Esser, 71 Nassau st., N.Y., the best place to get 1st-class
Drawing Materials, Swiss Instruments, and Rubber Triangles and Curves.

Foot Lathes--E.P. Ryder's improved--220 Center st., N.Y.

Those wanting latest improved Hub and Spoke Machinery, address
Kettenring, Strong & Lauster, Defiance, Ohio.

For tinmans' tools, presses, etc., apply to Mays & Bliss, Brooklyn, N.Y.

Mill-stone dressing diamond machine, simple, effective, durable. Also,
Glazier's diamonds. John Dickinson, 64 Nassau st., New York.

Send 3-cent stamp for a circular on the uses of Soluble Glass, or
Silicates of Soda and Potash. Manufactured by L. & J.W. Feuchtwanger,
Chemists and Drug Importers, 55 Cedar st., New York.

Glynn's Anti-Incrustator for Steam Boiler--The only reliable
preventative. No foaming, and does not attack metals of boiler. Liberal
terms to Agents. C.D. Fredricks, 587 Broadway, New York.

Cold Rolled--Shafting, piston rods, pump rods, Collins pat. double
compression couplings, manufactured by Jones & Laughlins, Pittsburgh,
Pa.

For solid wrought-iron beams, etc., see advertisement. Address Union
Iron Mille, Pittsburgh, Pa., for lithograph, etc.

Machinists, boiler makers, tinners, and workers of sheet metals read
advertisement of the Parker Power Presses.

Diamond carbon, formed into wedge or other shapes for pointing and
edging tools or cutters for drilling and working stone, etc. Send stamp
for circular. John Dickinson, 64 Nassau st., New York.

The paper that meets the eye of manufacturers throughout the United
States--Boston Bulletin, $4.00 a year. Advertisements 17c. a line.

Winans' boiler powder, 11 Wall st., N.Y., removes Incrustations without
injury or foaming; 12 years in use. Beware of Imitations.

       *       *       *       *       *




ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.


_Correspondents who expect to receive answers to their letters must,
in all cases, sign their names. We have a right to know those who seek
information from us; besides, as sometimes happens we may prefer to
address correspondents by mail.

SPECIAL NOTE.--This column is designed for the general interest and
instruction of our readers, not for gratuitous replies to questions of
a purely business or personal nature. We will publish such inquiries,
however, when paid for as advertisemets at $1.00 a line, under the head
of "Business and Personal."

All reference to back numbers should be by volume and page._

       *       *       *       *       *

C.H.G., of N.Y.--To make pure nitrate of silver, dissolve pure silver in
pure nitric acid, evaporate the solution to dryness, or, if crystals are
preferred, evaporate until the solution is sufficiently concentrated
to form crystals. If you can not get pure silver, you may purify it by
dissolving coin in nitric acid, filtering the solution and precipitating
the silver in the form of a chloride by hydrochloric acid. Next wash the
precipitate with hot water until the washings cease to redden litmus
paper. Next mix the pure chloride of silver while yet moist with its own
weight of pure crystallized carbonate of soda, place the mixture in a
covered porcelain crucible and heat very gradually until the fusing
point of silver is reached. The reduced silver will be pure and may be
removed by breaking the crucible. Wash the button thoroughly with hot
water to remove the flux. In dissolving the pure silver thus obtained in
nitric acid, it is better to use an excess of acid; the excess will be
driven off by heat in evaporation.

G.B., of Iowa.--Nominal horse power is merely a conventional expression
for diameter of cylinder and length of stroke, and does not apply to the
actual power of the engine. It is found by multiplying the cube root of
the stroke in feet by the square of the diameter in inches and dividing
the product by 47. This rule is based upon the postulate established by
Watt, that the speed of a piston with two feet stroke is 160 feet per
minute, and that for longer strokes the speed varies as the cube roots
of the length of the stroke. It is needless to say this rule is not
observed in modern practice, yet the expression, nominal horse power, is
like many other relics of past time still retained. The above rule does
not apply to high pressure engines. For such engines Bourne has given
the following rule: Multiply the square of the diameter of the cylinder
in inches by the cube root of the stroke in feet, and divide by 15.6.
The real power of an engine is estimated from the mean effective
pressure in the cylinder--not the boiler--and the speed of the piston.
Your data are insufficient to determine the horse power of your boiler.
The horse power of boilers is estimated from the extent of heating
surface when the grate and all other things are correctly proportioned,
but with them as with engines, only actual test will positively
determine it. The pipe you mention ought to be enlarged as proposed.

W.H.R., of Mass.--Pressure acts independently of the mode of
application. A tun laid upon the head of a wedge would produce the same
effect as though it were applied through toggles. When, however, a
weight is dropped its effect increases as the square of its velocity.

J.B., of N.Y.--We recommend you to get "Appleton's Dictionary of
Mechanics." Also send for descriptive catalogue to Henry Carey Baird,
Philadelphia, from which you will be able to judge for yourself what
works are suited to your requirements.

T.D.H., of Mass.--Ammonia, in a weak solution, may be used to cleanse
the scalp, but is not recommended for the purpose. Borax in solution is
better. The supposed preservation of the color of the hair by its use is
a mistake.

F.B.H., of Ill.--So far as we know, nothing better than the flax seed
bag has been discovered for packing the lower end of tubes in artesian
wells. We have never heard of any trouble arising from the method and
think you will have none.

L.G. of Mass.--Express the decimal ratio of the diameter of a circle to
the circumference to which you refer, as a mixed vulgar fraction, and
you will have what you ask for, if we understand your query.

A.H.S., of Sandwich Islands.--We know of no substance that in our
opinion, could be used advantageously to paint the interior of
sheet-iron evaporating pans for concentrating cane juice.

L.B., of Wis.--We would be glad to assist you but the data you furnish
are not sufficient. The accurate solution of such a problem involves the
higher mathematics.

A.H.M.--All animal and mineral oils are destructive to rubber. Linseed
oil will not dissolve it. Oils should not be allowed to get on rubber
belting.

T.W.J., of Pa.--For your rollers try some emery mixed in a solution of
gum shellac in good alcohol.

E.B., of Mass.--The patent can be corrected by reissue.

J.M.T., of Ind.--To find the proper area for a safety valve port, when
the evaporating surface is properly proportioned to the engine power,
multiply the square of the diameter of the piston in inches by the speed
in feet of the piston per minute, and divide the product by 375 times
the pressure on the boiler per square inch. Having decided upon the
length of the lever, the distance of the valve stem from the fulcrum,
and the point from which the weight will be suspended, the weight
necessary will be found by multiplying the area of the valve port in
inches into the pressure per square inch in the boiler in pounds, and
this product into the distance of the center of the valve stem from
the fulcrum in inches, and dividing the product thus obtained by the
distance from the fulcrum to the point of suspension of the weight in
inches. The quotient will give the weight in pounds.

A.K.S., of Ohio.--The inclination of the poles of a planet to the plane
of its orbit, determines its zones and also its seasons. The inclination
of the earth's axis is twenty-three and one half degrees. This places
the tropics the same distance each side of the equator, and the polar
circles the same distance from the poles. The torrid zone is therefore
forty-seven degrees wide, and the temperate zones each forty-three
degrees wide. As the planets vary in their inclination of their axis
to the planes of their orbits, it follows that their zones and seasons
differ from those of the earth.

W.H.C., of Texas.--The teeth of a circular wood saw to be driven by
foot-power, should be not larger than those of the ordinary hand
crosscut. The fly-wheel ought to have a rim weighing from eighty to one
hundred pounds, and it should be, for a 12-inch saw, not less than a
foot in diameter. It should be placed on the saw arbor. The belt should
not run on the fly-wheel, but on a special pulley, and the treadle and
crank motion should be so adjusted that the foot will move through an
arc of from 10 to 12 inches.

A.H.B., of Pa.--We advise you to use a battery in coating the small
gray castings, of which you write, with copper. It will be all the more
satisfactory in the end. The best polishing material to put in with them
in the tumbler we think would be leather cuttings and sweepings.
They will not need returning to the tumbler after being coppered.
We recommend you to get "Byrne's Practical Metalworkers Assistant,"
published by Henry Carey Baird, Philadelphia.

J.H.G., of Tenn.--Don't put oil in your boiler to prevent incrustation.
It will not probably do any good, and it will cause much foaming, while
besides that it is a waste of heat, it is injurious to engines.

S.S.R., of Tenn.--No ammoniacal engines are, so far as we are aware,
running in this country.

C.E.C., of Ohio.--The varnish for patterns is common shellac varnish. It
is sometimes made black by lampblack.

       *       *       *       *       *




RECENT AMERICAN AND FOREIGN PATENTS.


_Under this heading we shall publish weekly notes of some of the more
prominent home and foreign patents_.

       *       *       *       *       *

MOP.--Philip Cook, Jr., Sioux City, Iowa.--This invention relates to a
new and useful improvement in mops, whereby they are so arranged that
they may be wrung or freed from water when in use by moving the slides
connected with the handle and head of the mop.

VENTILATING HORSE COVER.--Charles P. Eager, Boston., Mass.--This
invention relates to a new horse cover, which is so arranged that it
will be entirely waterproof, and nevertheless permit a free escape of
air from the body of the animal.

CAR COUPLING.--S.O. Campbell, Tipton, Mo.--This invention relates to a
new car coupling, which is so arranged that it will be self-coupling
and retain the coupling pin ready to lock as long as the link is not
inserted.

GAS STOVE.--Wm. J. Hays, New York city.--This invention has for its
object to construct a gas stove, with an extender radiating surface, and
with proper air channels, so that with a comparatively small amount of
heat, the air in an ordinary-sized room can be properly warmed.

SCRIBE HOOK FOR WEATHER BOARDING.--John Nester, Portland, Oregon.--This
invention relates to a new scribe hook for weather-boards, which will be
generally useful and adaptable to the purposes for which it is intended
and to provide an adjustable spur and marker.

RAILROAD SMOKE CONVEYER.--Lemuel Powell, Milford, Conn.--The object of
this invention is to prevent the smoke and ashes, issuing from the smoke
stack of a locomotive, from entering the cars of the train and from
thereby preventing the proper ventilation of the cars.

DRILL FOR BORING POLYGONAL HOLES.--J.C. Broadley, Franklin, N.J.--This
invention relates to a new implement for boring polygonal, oval,
star-shaped, or holes of other suitable form, in metal, wood, or other
material. The invention consists chiefly in arranging the pattern, which
regulates the shape of the hole to be bored, on the upper part of the
drill shank, and in having the bit shanks, which are pivoted to the
lower part of the drill shank, held by means of springs against the
inner edges of the inverted cup-shaped pattern.

ROOFING.--H.G. Noble, Selma, Ala.--This invention relates to
improvements in roofing, and consists in covering roofs with sheet
metal, laid on the rafters and nailed down at the edges, so as to be
considerably concaved between them, the joints on the rafters being
covered by inverted caps or troughs. The concave form of the sheet
is designed to prevent the sheet metal from cracking, to which it is
subject by expansion and contraction when laid on flat.

WASHING MACHINE.--John J. Kimball Naperville, Ill.--This invention
relates to improvements in washing machines, and consists in an improved
arrangement of operating mechanism for revolving a vertically suspended
shaft with a crank at the top, and carrying within the tub a corrugated
or roughened rubber, for action on the clothes. The invention also
comprises an improved arrangement of the rubber, whereby it is made
capable of sliding up or down on the shaft, according to the amount of
clothes to be acted on.

BOLT CUTTER.--O.E. Butler and S.P. Dunham Marshalltown, Iowa.--This
invention relates to improvements in hand instruments for cutting bolts,
and consists in the combination with the handles of an instrument,
such as patented to the inventors, January 19, 1869, as an improved
instrument for sharpening horseshoes, of a cutting pin of peculiar
construction, whereby the said tool is adapted, when this cutter is
applied in substitution of the cutter and jaw, is used for sharpening
horseshoes, to cut off the ends of bolts with great facility.

SHAFT TUG LUGS FOR HARNESS.--T.J. Magruder, Marion, Ohio.--This
invention relates to improvements in the construction and application of
shaft tug lugs for harness, and consists in forming the said lugs with
broad and long plates, properly curved to suit the curve of the pad, and
connecting the latter to the under sides of the skirts and to the
pads in a way to stiffen the skirt and to hold the stud securely from
breaking loose, the said lugs being made solid with a screw nut at the
end to confine the bearing straps, or hollow, with female screw threads
near the base, and bolts screwing into the said female threads to secure
the bearing straps and to admit of readily applying or removing the
straps so that the harness may be adapted for use either as single or
double harness.

HARNESS BUCKLE.--J.W. Burch, Fayette, Miss.--The object of this
invention is to provide buckles for harness and other uses, with tongues
constructed in the form of leather punches, whereby they may be used at
any time required for punching holes.

HUMMING-WHEEL TOY.--A.F. Able, New Orleans, La.--This invention relates
to improvements in humming wheel toys, having for its object to provide
an improved holding apparatus for supporting and maintaining the proper
tension on the cords, and designed to support the cords of two or more
wheels at the same time.

COMBINED CLOTHES IRONING TABLE AND CLOTHES DRYER.--William P. Adams,
Brooklyn, N.Y.--This invention relates to a new and useful improvement
in an article for the laundry, and consists in an adjustable ironing
table, and in combination therewith a clothes dryer.

SEED AND GRAIN STRIPPER.--J.F. King and H.A. Rice, Louisiana, Mo.--The
object of this invention is to provide a seed and grain stripper,
with light and strong fingers, capable of adjustment as to hight, and
arranged in a way to vary the spaces between the teeth at the point of
stripping the heads for straw of different sizes.

CLOTHES WRINGER.--M.M. Follett, Lake City, Minn.--This invention relates
to a new apparatus for applying pressure to the rollers of a wringer
with an object of obtaining equal and adjustable power without any
danger to the rubber of the rollers or to the articles to be dried.

AUGER HANDLE.--James Swan, Seymour, Conn.--The object of this invention
is to provide a cheap, simple, and durable handle for augurs for boring
in wood, one which shall require no fitting except to make the augur
enter the socket, and which shall be of such size and shape that the
shanks of ordinary augurs shall enter without any fitting at all.

CANDLESTICK.--H. Zahn, San Francisco, Cal.--This invention relates to a
new and useful improvement in candlesticks, and consists in the use of a
thumb screw in combination with the candlestick tube, whereby the candle
is kept steady, and in a perpendicular position in the stick, and firmly
held without the use of springs or other attachment.

WASHING MACHINE.--J.S. Merchant, Hopedale, Ohio.--This invention relates
to new and useful improvements in machines for washing clothes.

PACKING CASES FOR OIL CANS.--John McLeod Murphy, New York city.--This
invention consists of an arrangement especially adapted for use with
cans provided with an improved cut off nozzle, which is the subject of
an application for a patent, made by the same inventor and bearing even
date herewith, which said improvement comprises the application to the
ordinary vertical nozzles of a lateral spout connected to the side, and
arranged to open an escape passage for the contents when the said spout
is turned with the right position, which position is that best adapted
for pouring from the can into another vessel, and in which the said
spout projects through a slot in the side of the packing case in closing
it, the said case being provided with an opening and a door for closing
the same adapted for it.

WASHING MACHINE.--Edward Heim, Pittsburgh, Pa.--This invention relates
to a new machine for washing clothes, and consists in the introduction
of several improvements whereby the machine is adapted to thoroughly
clean coarse as well as fine articles without injury to the same, and in
a comparatively short time.

PADLOCK--John S. Rankin, Ann Arbor, Mich.--The object of this invention
is to provide a simple, cheap, and efficient construction and
arrangement of the locking and operating parts of padlocks. The
invention consists in an improved and simple compound tumbler bolt and
relative arrangement thereof with the bow and bow spring.

GRAIN DRILL.--Jacob F. Gibson, Chestnut Level, Pa.--This invention
relates to a seed tube pivoted in its drag bars, in such manner that it
may yield to an immovable obstruction.

PROPELLING MACHINERY OF COTTON GINS.--Wm. L. May, Linwood, Ala.--This
invention has for its object to effect such arrangement of machinery as
will enable a cotton gin to be run at a materially reduced expense.

SNOW PLOW.--Thomas L. Shaw, Omaha, Nebraska.--This invention relates to
a snow plow, for a locomotive engine, which takes up a load of snow, is
then borne back out of the cut by the engine, and dumps its load when
arrived at a clear space.

BEEHIVE.--W.T. Kirkpatrick, Tamarva, Ill.--This invention relates to
improvements in beehives, and consists in the combination with beehives
in a peculiar way, of a moth box, and moth passage thereto, calculated
to entice the moths away from the bee passage and prevent them from
entering thereat.

SEEDING MACHINE.--M.F. Lowth and T.J. Howe, Owatonna, Minn.--This
invention relates to that class of seeders which employ a revolving
cylinder, having pockets in its periphery, and placed at the bottom of
the hopper which contains the seed, the function of the pockets being to
receive seed, when right side up, and drop it when inverted.

UPRIGHT PIANO.--Geo. C. Manner, New York city.--This invention consists
in placing the strings of an upright piano in an inclined position in
the frame instead of a perpendicular one, as heretofore, for the purpose
of enabling the hammer handle to be pivoted so near the strings that
when the hammer head is driven up against them, it shall necessarily
fall back again by its own weight.

CARPET CLEANER.--Alexander Stevenson, New York city.--This invention
relates to new and useful improvements in carpet cleaning devices,
having for its object to provide a simple and efficient apparatus
consisting of a yielding bed, brushing rollers, moving rollers, and a
beating apparatus, whereby the carpet, being bound upon a roller, or
rollers, may be moved along, from time to time, over the said yielding
bed and brushing rollers, and be beaten and brushed.

COTTON CULTIVATOR.--I.W. Burch, Fayette, Miss.--This invention comprises
a pair of plows suspended from the frame of a truck so as to work on
both sides of the row, for "barring off" or scraping the weeds and earth
away from the row, also, a pair of rotary cutters having oblique blades
for throwing away from the plants, and designed, also, to work on both
sides of the rows, and closer to the plants than the plows, both sets of
devices having vertical vibration.

WATER WHEEL--Geo. W. Cressman and Burt Pfleger, Barren Hill, Pa., and
Nice Keely Roxborough, Pa.--This invention relates to improvements in
turbine wheels designed to produce an arrangement of the gates within
the bucket rim (the water being secured from below, and the wheel being
made hollow, for the reception of the water, and to provide space for
the said gate), in a manner calculated to relieve the wheel of pressure
from the water, either in an upward or downward direction.

ATTACHING FLY AND MOSQUITO BARS TO WINDOWS, DOORS, ETC.--James Hebron,
Buffalo, N.Y.--This invention relates to improvements in attaching fly
and mosquito bars to window sashes or frames, doors, or other light
frames to be used in combination with window frames or doors, and
consists in attaching one edge of the cloth to a round or other shaped
bar or rod of wood or metal, by binding thereon and sewing, passing the
thread spirally around the bar or rod, and then securing the rod to the
sill or frame, either on the surface thereof, or in a groove formed
therein, then stretching the cloth across the window and securing it by
clamping another rod down upon it by staples, either in a groove or
not, and, in some cases, securing the ends in a similar way. It is also
proposed to stretch the cloth over or under these rods.

ADJUSTABLE STOVEPIPE THIMBLE.--H.N. Bill, Willimantic, Conn.--This
invention relates to improvements in thimbles for the passage of
stovepipes through the walls into flues, and consists in providing a
vertically-sliding thimble plate in a metallic frame, having a long
opening, and adapted for insertion in an opening through the wall, so as
to support the thin plate at or about the line of the face of the flue
wall, so that the plate may be drawn up or down to vary the hight of the
thimble for pipes of different vertical lengths. The invention, also,
comprises an improved mode of attaching the thimbles to this plate by
means of radial studs at the rim, separated from the main part of the
rim and bent inward so as to pass through slots in the thimble plate
around the hole, to engage behind the edge of the plate by turning the
thimbles on their axes a short distance after being passed through the
slots, while the main part of the rims of the said thimbles bear against
the front face of the thimble plate and cover the slots when so turned.

COMBINED HAY RAKE AND TEDDER.--John C. Mills, Palmyra, N.Y.--This
invention relates to a new and useful improvement in combining two
important agricultural machines in one (or combining a tedder with a
hay rake), and it consists in the construction of the tedder and the
arrangement of the same in combination with the rake. Patented Dec. 7,
1869.

POST-HOLE AUGER.--Geo. Seeger and Chas H. Shaffer, Clark's Hill,
Ind.--This invention relates to a post hole boring apparatus, mounted
upon a wheelbarrow, and the invention consists in providing the barrow
with legs that may be either turned up out of the way or adjusted at any
required angle so as to keep the barrow level when on uneven ground.

SELF-DROPPER FOR REAPERS.--T.F. Lippencott, Conemaugh, Pa.--This
invention has for its object to furnish an improved self-dropper for
reapers, which shall be so constructed as to operate automatically, to
fall and deposit the grain and to rise to receive another supply, making
the gavels all of about the same size.

PLOWING MACHINE.--Albert Bondeli, Philadelphia, Mo.--This invention has
for its object to furnish an improved machine for preparing the ground
to receive seed, and which shall be so constructed and arranged as to
prepare the ground more thoroughly and put it in better condition to
receive seed, and which shall be so constructed and arranged as to
prepare the ground more thoroughly and put it in better condition to
receive the seed than when the ordinary plows are used.

EXPANDING TRIPLE SHOVEL PLOWS.--Edward Wiard, Louisville, Ky.--This
invention has for its object to furnish an improved triple shovel plow,
which shall be so constructed and arranged that the shovels may be
conveniently expanded and contracted, or set at any desired pitch, and,
at the same time, in such a way as to be securely held in any desired
position.

SEWING MACHINE.--L.W. Lathrop, Nyack, N.Y.--This invention relates to
improvements in sewing machines, and consists in certain improvements
in mechanism for forming the loop, and for conveying the binding thread
through the same, in a manner to prevent the contact of the binding
thread spool, or its carrier, with the thread of the needle, and thereby
to avoid wearing the same, and to produce more easily operating parts;
also, a secure, permanent, and reliable arrangement of apparatus, and
calculated also to be more certain to form the stitch.

POETABLE DERRICK.--J.R. Hammond, Sedalia, Mo.--This invention has for
its object to furnish an improved derrick, simple in construction,
effective in operation, and easily moved from place to place, designed
especially for use in connection with the improved rake, thrasher,
loader, and stacker, patented by the same inventor Nov. 30, 1869, but
equally applicable for other uses.

WAGON SEAT FASTENER.--Charles Collins, Vernon Centre, N.Y.--This
invention relates to improvements in means for holding detachable wagon
or sleigh seats to the boxes, and consists in the application to the
seat risers of hooks with spring stops, adapted for engaging staples in
the boxes below the said hooks, and for being held in such engagement
by the spring stops, until disengaged by the operator for removing the
seats.

VELOCIPEDE.--William Volk, Buffalo, N.Y.--This invention relates to a
new three-wheeled velocipede, which is so arranged that the driving
wheels, although mounted on separate axles, will make equal numbers
of revolutions, as long as the machine is to be kept in a straight
direction, while they can be disconnected when the device is to be
turned in a circle.

COFFIN HANDLES.--Clark Strong, Winsted, Conn.--This invention relates
to new and useful improvements in coffin handles, and consists in the
construction, arrangement, and combination of parts.

LOOM.--Lyman Stone, Nelson, N.H.--This invention relates to improvements
in power looms, and has for its principal object to provide an
arrangement and construction of the same, calculated to furnish looms of
equal or greater efficiency than those now in use, but occupying very
much less space, so as to economize materially in room, where large
numbers are used on a floor, as is the case in factories; not only in
respect of the space occupied by the loom itself, but also in respect of
the space required for the passages or aisles between the rows of looms.
The invention also comprises improved let-off and take-up mechanisms,
also, an improvement in cloth beams; also, an improved picker motion,
inducing a novel adjusting arrangement for the picker operating cams,
also, an improved construction of treadle cams, whereby an equal
capacity of throw is obtained with less size and friction, and with
less power, and whereby they are guarded to prevent accidents to the
attendant while cleaning when the loom is in operation.

PAPER FILE.--C.W. West, Shiloh, N.J.--This invention relates to a new
paper file, which is a compound of two bars that can be tied together so
that the paper will be securely clasped between them; the strings for
tying them being arranged in a peculiar manner to draw them firmly
together.

ROLLING BLOTTER.--C.A. Gale, Demopolis, Ala.--This invention has for
its object to provide an improved rolling blotter, which shall be so
constructed and arranged that the blotting pads maybe conveniently
removed when required, and replaced with new ones.

DUMP WAGON.--Daniel Willson, Ishpeming, Mich.--This invention has for
its object to furnish a simple, strong, and convenient dump wagon, which
shall be so constructed and arranged that it maybe dumped when required,
by backing the team.

SEWING MACHINE SOAP HOLDER.--Mary Dewey, New Albany, Ind.--This
invention relates to a new device for soaping the cloth that is fed
under the needle of a sewing machine, and consists in the attachment of
a tubular soap holder to the presser foot of a sewing machine.

MONKEY WRENCH.--Samuel Zarley, Niantic, Ill.--This invention has for its
object to furnish an improved monkey wrench, which shall be simple in
construction, strong, durable, and easily and quickly adjusted to the
nut to be unscrewed.

ANIMAL TRAP.--Adam Brown, Bridgeport, Oregon.--This invention relates
to improvements in traps for rats, squirrels, and other animals, and
consists in the application through an opening in the side of a box,
of a detachable chute extending some distance into the box, forming
a passage thereinto the walls of which are armed with spring points
arranged in the usual way to permit ingress and prevent egress; the
floor of the passage is elevated to form a chamber below for inclosing
the bait, so that it cannot all be readily devoured. The invention also
comprises in connection with the above, the application to the side
walls of the box, which is open at the top, of projecting sheets of
metal to prevent the animals from climbing out; also the application to
the top of tilting shelves for discharging any animals that may climb up
the outside of the box, and on to the same.

SHINGLE PACKER.--Robert Taylor, West Pensaukie, Wis.--This invention
relates to improvements in apparatus for pressing and holding the
bunches of shingles for binding them, and consists of the arrangement on
a suitable bench, having end walls for gaging the piling of the shingles
at the thick ends, of a pair of vertically sliding bars, a transverse
passing bar, and a set of gear wheels, shaft, and hand lever, the said
wheels gearing with the vertically sliding bars which are toothed for
the purpose in such a way that the hand lever may be used to force the
transverse bar, which is connected to the upper end of the sliding bar
down upon the bundle of shingles across the center, pressing and holding
the bundle till fastened.

REGISTERING APPARATUS FOR VEHICLES.--Thomas Ollis, Netherfield road,
South Liverpool, England.--This invention consists in the application of
apparatus similar to that used for stamping or indorsing purposes for
registering or indicating the number of passengers that have traveled by
an omnibus or other vehicle.

STEAM AND CALORIC ENGINES.--Alexander Hendry, Victoria, British
Columbia.--This invention consists in an improved arrangement of
jacketed cylinders, and jacketed furnace, constituting a water space,
for generating steam by the radiating heat of the furnace, and arranged
to envelope the cylinders with water to prevent injury by the gases and
heat; also an improved arrangement of chambered pistons, for keeping the
same filled with water to counteract the action of the heat upon
the same, also, certain improvements in chambered valves, and valve
operating devices, the said chambered valves and rods being supplied
with water, also to prevent injury by the heat and the gases, and the
invention also comprises an arrangement of the furnace calculated
to separate and distribute the gases and effect the most perfect
combustion.

COTTON BASKETS.--R.S. Myers, Washington, N.C.--This invention relates to
improvements in baskets for carrying cotton, especially when ginned
and consists in providing the cotton baskets of the ordinary form and
construction with large holes through the center of the bottom, whereby
in emptying the said baskets the operator may insert his hand and
push the cotton out by one effort in a mass, whereas, by the present
arrangement it must be pulled out from the mouth, which takes much more
time, as in this way it only comes out in small quantities.

NOTE CASE.--Alphonzo Button, Dunkirk, N.Y.--This invention relates
to improvements in note or paper cases or files for inclosing notes,
papers, bills, etc., in a simple, cheap, and convenient portable
package for the use of bankers and other business men. It consists of a
cylindrical case of leather or other light suitable material having an
opening from end to end covered by a flap, a central revolving spool,
and a web of flexible substance connected to and wound on the spool so
as to be drawn out through the opening and wound up again, on which web
any suitable arrangement of narrow flaps folding over from the edges and
connected by elastic bands, in a way to secure papers, notes, etc., in
different and separate sections, may be arranged as now arranged in
pocket books.

PUMP.--A.C. Judson, Grand Rapids, Ohio.--This invention consists in the
arrangement of two dish shaped metal disks with a diaphragm of leather
between them, and another leather diaphragm above, adapted for the
better support of the water in lifting; it also consists of an
arrangement for operating the pump rod without lateral vibration, so
that it may be packed tightly in the tube to prevent foul matter and
vermin from getting in.

PANELING, MOLDING, AND CARVING MACHINE.--A.S. Gear, New Haven,
Conn.--This machine performs all of the work of the well known Variety
Molding Machine, and in addition molds and carves any desired pattern
of panel work, and simultaneously dovetails both mortise and tenon.
The wood to be carved is fastened firmly to the bed of the machine by
movable clamps adjustable to suit any required size of wood, and the
cutters are fastened to a spindle moved by a universal joint in any
direction upon the bed of the machine. The cutter is guided by hand,
the guide resting against the pattern. The carving can be gaged to any
required depth, and made to conform to any required pattern. A fan blows
away chips as fast as they are produced, leaving the work constantly in
view of the operator. The same tool which cuts the mortise also cuts the
tenon, the two pieces of work to be dovetailed being clamped together to
the end of the table. Every kind of finish hitherto made upon the edges
of lumber, and which has heretofore been mitered and glued upon the face
to create a finish, is planed, beaded, and molded upon the piece itself
by this machine.

WASHING BOILERS.--John P. Sherwood, Fort Edward, N.Y.--This invention
has for its object to improve the construction of that class of washing
boilers in which the clothes are washed by the water as it boils being
projected down upon the clothes to percolate through them, and thus
remove the dirt. And it consists in the construction and combination of
the various parts.

TOY VELOCIPEDE.--H.C. Alexander, New York city.--This invention has for
its object to furnish an improved toy velocipede.

BRICK MACHINE.--Thomas Smurfit, Davisville, Mich.--This invention has
for its object to furnish an improved brick machine, which shall be
strong, durable, simple in construction, and effective in operation,
making the bricks rapidly and well.

TRUNKS, ETC.--Thomas B. Peddie, Newark, N.J.--This invention has for its
object to improve the construction of trunks, valises, portmanteaus,
pellesiers, traveling bags, etc., so as to adapt them to receive and
carry a portfolio in such a way that while carrying it safely, it may be
conveniently removed when required for use.

SEED PLANTER.--David C. Woods, Waxahatchie, Texas.--This invention has
for its object the construction of a seed planter, which will deposit
the seeds in the requisite quantities and the proper distances apart,
and which will cover and mark the hills, so that a plowman will not be
at a loss where to start at the commencement of a new row, and after
having passed around tree stumps or other obstructions, as he can always
see the marks on the preceding rows.

WASHING MACHINE.--Joseph Balsley, Bedford, Ind.--This invention has
for its object to improve the construction of the machine known as the
"Egyptian Washing Machine," so as to make it more convenient in use and
more effective in operation.

DENTAL IMPRESSION CUP FOR LOWER JAW.--Robert V. Jenks, Paterson,
N.J.--This invention has for its object to furnish an improved
impression cup for use in taking a cast of the lower jaw, to form a
model of said jaw to fit the plate upon, which shall be so constructed
as to enable the dentist to take a more perfect cast than is possible
with impression cups constructed in the ordinary manner.

SHOW CARD SUSPENSION RING.--H.S. Griffiths, New York city.--This
invention has for its object to furnish an improved suspension ring for
suspending show cards, which shall be simple in construction and easily
attached to the cards, and which shall, at the same time, be so formed
as to take a firm hold upon the card, and not be liable to tear out.

REFRIGERATOR.--Samuel Ayres, Danville, Ky.--This invention relates to
improvements in refrigerators, and consists in certain improvements in
the construction and arrangement for excluding the external atmosphere,
distributing the cold by means of the ice, and also the water resulting
therefrom; for economizing space, and for providing convenient access to
all the different parts.

CINDER AND DUST ARRESTER FOR CAR WINDOWS.--Edwin Norton, Brooklyn,
N.Y.--This invention relates to improvements in apparatus for preventing
the cinders and dust from being blown into the cars, when in motion,
through the open windows, and consists in the application to the cars
at the sides of the windows, on the exterior, by hinging thereto or
by other equivalent connection, small guard plates of wood or other
substance to project outwardly in a right or other suitable or preferred
angle, at the side of the window, to arrest the cinder and dust moving
rearward alongside of the car, and conduct it below the windows, the
said guard plates being arranged so that those on the side of the
windows in the direction of the movement of the train may be adjusted to
the operating position while the others are folded back against the side
of the car.

HOSE COUPLING.--William J. Osbourne, New York city.--This invention
relates to a new and useful improvement in couplings for hose pipe,
whereby the parts of a hose are united in a more perfect manner than by
the ordinary hose coupling.

SAW GUIDE.--John Trunick, Muscatine, Iowa.--This invention relates to
a new and useful improvement in means for guiding circular saws and
keeping them to the true saw line.

SQUARE, GAGE, AND LEVEL.--Josiah Potts, Milwaukee, Wis.--This invention
relates to a new and useful improvement in a tool for mechanics' use and
consists in combining with a try square, a spirit level and a surface
gage.

EXTENSION MUFF BLOCK.--C.F. Butterworth, Troy, N.Y.--This invention
relates to a new and useful improvement in blocks for forming and
stretching muffs in the process of manufacturing that article.

HAY AND GRAIN ELEVATOR.--John Dennis, Oswego, N.Y.--This invention has
for its object to furnish an improved device, to be used in connection
with the improved hay and grain elevator, patented by the same inventor,
September 21, 1869, and numbered 95,006, for the purpose of moving the
whole load of hay or grain when elevated to any desired part of the barn
before unloading it.

MILLER TRAP FOR BEEHIVES.--T.L. Gray, Thomasville, Tenn.--This invention
relates to a device for catching millers, or other insects, in their
attempts to gain entrance into beehives.

VALVE GEAR.--Thomas E. Evans, William R. Thomas, and Joshua Hunt,
Catasauqua, Pa.--This invention relates to a new and useful improvement
in the mode of operating valves of steam engines, more especially
designed for pumping engines, but applicable to other purposes or to
valves of steam and water engines generally.

WATER WHEEL.--Henry W. McAuley, De Soto, Wis.--This invention consists
in certain improvements in the form and arrangements of the buckets and
in chutes for delivering the water thereto.

SELF-LOADING HAY WAGON.--James Capen, Charlton, Mass.--This invention
relates to improvements in hay loaders, and consists in the application
to the rear end of a hay wagon of an endless elevator case and rake, the
latter having spring teeth, and arranged for adjustment by means of
a hand lever at the front and suitable connecting devices; and the
elevator is connected with one or both of the hind wheels of the wagon
by machine chains or belts for operation.

ELEVATOR.--Francis Stein and Henry Haering, New York city.--This
invention consists in the application to a pair of vertical ports or
ways with toothed racks, of a carriage or platform having a shaft
provided with a gear wheel at or near each end, and gearing into the
toothed rack; also, having in suitable cases sliding on the posts a set
of hoisting gears, gearing with the toothed racks and operated by hand
cranks, and provided with ratchet wheels, holding pawls, and friction
apparatus, arranged in a peculiar way for elevating the platform,
holding it in any desired position or governing its descent.

FOLDING AND EXTENSION TABLE.--C. Mayer, Sullivan, Ill.--This invention
relates to improvements in tables, and consists in arranging the side
rails of the top of the frame, which are enlarged at the center and
hinged to the posts for folding against the cross rails, when the top,
which is detachably connected, is removed, for economy of space and
convenience, in packing for transportation or storage; also in arranging
the legs for folding up against the under edge of the cross rails; also
in an improved arrangement of the side rails for extension.

MANUFACTURE OF SCOOPS.--S. Geo. Knapp, Woodhaven, N.Y.--This invention
relates to an improved mode of manufacturing sheet-metal flour, grain,
and other scoops, and consists in forming the bowls in one piece of
metal, without seams or joints, by stamping up sheets of metal into the
form of a trough, with a flange around the top, and cutting the same
transversely in the center, with blanks for the bowls of two scoops, to
be finished by trimming or shaping the cut ends, turning down the flange
at the top, for stiffening either over wire or not and attaching the
handle; the object being to produce scoops with bowls formed in one
piece, and shaped at the base or in the part where the handles are
connected, and to smoothly effect an economy of labor by stamping two
blanks at one blow of the drop press, and also to control the metal
under the action of the drop better in shaping the deep curved part of
the base so as to upset and stiffen the blanks thereat.

BORING MACHINE.--E.C. Barton, Bloomsburg, Pa.--This invention relates to
improvements in wood-boring machines, whereby it is designed to provide
a simple and efficient arrangement of frame operating devices and
feeding table for boring light articles to be presented to the machine
by hand.

HASP LOCK.--E.R. Culver, New London, Conn.--This invention relates
to improvements in that class of locks where the locking devices are
incased within a hasp, and a hook is used in connection with the hasp
for locking, or independently for fastening the door without locking.

WATER WHEELS.--W.J. Thompson, Springfield, Mo.--This invention relates
to improvements in that class of horizontally running wheels, which
receive the water from above or below on curved buckets taking the water
at one side and discharging it at the other, and it consists of an
improved arrangement of vertically oscillating gates, which, when open,
form chutes for the water; it also consists of an improved means for
working the gates.

PIPE COUPLING.--J.D. Ware, Savannah, Ga.--This invention relates to
improvements in pipe couplings, and consists in forming a dovetailed
groove across the end of one part, with an annular recess in the bottom
around the bore for a packing ring, and fitting on the other part a
dovetailed projection for engaging in the groove, and in arranging on
one of the parts an eccentric ring to work against the head of the
projection and force it tightly into the groove.

FIRE GRATES.--G.W. Everhart, Louisville, Ky.--This invention relates to
improvements in that class of fire grates used for heating rooms, and
consists in so arranging them as to provide a clear air space between
the basket and the walls of the fire-place, both at the back and ends,
for the admission of air more directly at these parts, for the better
combustion of the coal and the gases arising therefrom; it also consists
in providing a recess in the hearth or bottom of the fire-place under
the grate, for the reception of ash pans of greater capacity than can be
contained on the top of the hearth, whereby a much larger quantity of
cinders and ashes may be received and retained, so that less frequent
removals of the same will be required.

APPARATUS FOR SEWING SADDLERY AND OTHER LEATHER, OR STRONG
MATERIALS.--Auguste Jacques Hurtu and Victor Joseph Hautin, Paris
France.--This invention relates to apparatus more especially applicable
for sewing leather, saddlery, harness, and other similar work with waxed
thread, and consists first, in the improved apparatus of this invention,
two needles are employed, the one sewing as an awl, and the other
carrying the thread; the two needles have at the same time a vertical
movement and also an adjustable horizontal movement. The needles are
operated alternately, so that the needle may pass the thread through the
hole made just previously by the awl, before the leather has been
moved forward. By this means the sewing may be carried on with great
regularity, and the material be turned in any direction in order to
execute small designs. Secondly, the invention relates to improvements
in the arrangement of the shuttle, whereby it is caused to pass through
the loops formed by the waxed thread without touching it.

PACKING AND ATOMIZING CAN.--F.L. Palmer, Sr., New York city.--This
invention relates to improvements in cans for packing insect powder
and other like finely powdered substances which, in use, require to be
delivered in atomic jets for penetrating crevices where insects secrete
themselves, and it consists in providing such cans with stoppers having
nozzles, through which stoppers or nozzles the passages are temporarily
closed in a way to be readily opened for use; also, in providing the
cans with nozzles at or near the bottom temporarily plugged in which
tubes may be connected so that the powder may, when required for use,
be readily blown out in atomic jets, whereby the said cans are made to
subserve the uses of packing cans and discharging atomizing cans, with
but trifling additional expense, whereas, at the present time, users of
such powders are compelled to buy expensive atomizing cans, to which
the powder must be transferred from the packing cans, before it can be
properly used, or in the absence of such cans the powder is scattered in
an ineffectual and wasteful way in or about the resorts of the insects.

REMEDY TOR RHEUMATISM.--H.H. Munroe, Louisville, Ky.--This invention
relates to a new and useful improvement in a remedy for rheumatism.

       *       *       *       *       *




NEW BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS.



ELOCUTION AND ORATORY. Giving a Thorough Treatise on the Art of Speaking
and Reading. With numerous Selections of Didactic, Humorous, and
Dramatic Styles.

The author of this valuable treatise is Prof. Charles A. Wiley, of Fort
Plain, N.Y. The instructions are valuable and the selections admirable;
and we can very cordially recommend it to all who would improve either
in speaking or reading. Such a book is worthy a place in every family.


SPECIMENS OF FANCY TURNING EXECUTED ON THE HAND OR FOOT LATHE. With
Geometric, Oval, and Eccentric Chucks, and Elliptical Cutting Frame. By
an Amateur. Illustrated by Thirty exquisite Photographs. Philadelphia:
Henry Carey Baird, Industrial Publisher, 406 Walnut Street.

The beauty of these photographs is indescribable; they must be seen to
be appreciated. The designs from which they were taken were executed by
a gentleman well known to us, and who is undoubtedly one of the most
expert turners on this continent. The price of the work by mail, free of
postage, is $3.00.


THE NATIONAL WAGES TABLES, Showing at a glance the Amount of Wages, from
Half an Hour to Sixty Hours at $1 to $37 per Week, also from One Quarter
of a Day to Four Weeks, at $1 to $37 per Week. By Nelson Row, Publisher,
No 149 Fulton street, New York.

This little work, which our readers will find advertised in another
column, must prove an almost indispensable help in the counting rooms of
establishments employing large numbers of workmen at varying rates of
wages. It is one of the best things of the kind we have ever seen, and
we give it earnest commendation.


DIRECTIONS FOR COOKING. By Miss Leslie. Price, by mail, $1.50.

Henry Carey Baird, of Philadelphia, has just published a new edition of
Miss Leslie's "Old Standard and Renowned Cookery," being the sixtieth
edition of a book which has stood the test of time and practice, and is
a valuable aid in every household.


BENNY.

S.R. Wells, of this city, has published in pretty form "Benny," a
Christmas ballad, by Annie Chambers Ketchum, a poem which has already
appeared in the _Phrenological Journal_.


The prospectus of EVERY SATURDAY, for 1870, by Fields, Osgood & Co. of
Boston, promises to give us that excellent journal in a new and enlarged
form, with the additional attraction of illustrations, engraved from
designs by leading European artists. This publication will therefore
hereafter present weekly, not only the cream of European literature, but
the cream of European art. The high character of the publishers of this
journal is an ample guarantee that this promise will be fulfilled in the
most satisfactory manner.


LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE, for January, also presents a varied and select
bill of fare, containing among other things, Part XIII. of Robert
Dale Owen's novel "Beyond the Breakers," "The Fairy and the Ghost,"
a Christmas tale, with six amusing illustrations; a curious and
interesting article on "Literary Lunatics," by Wirt Sikes, "Our
Capital," by William R. Hooper, and very much more excellent matter in
the way of stories poems, and essays.


The "Mobile Weekly Register," the oldest Democratic paper in the South,
is said to have reached a larger circulation than was ever attained by
any journal South of Mason and Dixon's line. It is full of interesting
varied matter, having an able agricultural department, presided over by
the veteran editor and successful agriculturist, Hon. C.C. Langdon. Its
general literature, poetry, stories, etc., make it highly acceptable
to the ladies. The year will open with a new continued story, of deep
interest, by one of the most distinguished writers of the day. The price
was recently reduced to $3.00 per year, which, for so large a paper (12
pages), is extremely cheap.


We have received the January number of "Demorest's Mirror of Fashions,"
a work that interests the ladies. Also "Demorest's Young America," a
fine magazine for boys and girls. Both these serials are well published
by Mr. and Madame Demorest of this city.

       *       *       *       *       *




U.S. Patent Office




How to Obtain Letters Patent for New Inventions.

Information about Caveats, Extensions, Interferences Designs, Trade
Marks; also, Foreign Patents.


For a period of nearly twenty-five years, MUNN & CO. have occupied the
position of leading Solicitors of American and European Patents, and
during this extended experience of nearly a quarter of a century, they
have examined not less than fifty thousand alleged new inventions, and
have prosecuted upward of thirty thousand applications for patents, and,
in addition to this, they have made, at the Patent Office, over twenty
thousand preliminary examinations into the novelty of inventions, with a
careful report on the same.

The important advantages of MUNN & CO.'S Agency are, that their practice
has been ten-fold greater than that of any other Agency in existence,
with the additional advantage of having the assistance of the best
professional skill in every department, and a Branch Office at
Washington, which watches and supervises, when necessary, cases as they
pass through official examination.


CONSULTATIONS AND OPINIONS FREE.

Those who have made inventions and desire a consultation are cordially
invited to advise with MUNN & CO. who will be happy to see them in
person at the office, or to advise them by letter. In all cases, they
may expect an HONEST OPINION. For such consultations, opinion, and
advice, NO CHARGE is made. A pen-and-ink sketch and a description of the
invention should be sent.


TO APPLY FOR A PATENT,

a model must be furnished, not over a foot in any dimension. Send model
to MUNN & CO., 37 Park Row, New York, by express, charges paid, also, a
description of the improvement, and remit $16 to cover first Government
fee, and revenue and postage stamps.

The model should be neatly made, of any suitable materials, strongly
fastened, without glue, and neatly painted. The name of the inventor
should be engraved or painted upon it. When the invention consists of an
improvement upon some other machine, a full working model of the whole
machine will not be necessary. But the model must be sufficiently
perfect to show with clearness the nature and operation of the
improvement.


PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION

is made into the patentability of an invention by personal search at the
Patent Office, among the models of the patents pertaining to the class
to which the improvement relates. For this special search, and a report
in writing, a fee of $5 is charged. This search is made by a corps of
examiner of long experience.

Inventors who employ us are not required to incur the cost of a
preliminary examination. But it is advised in doubtful cases.


COST OF APPLICATIONS.

When the model is received, and first Government fee paid, the drawings
and specification are carefully prepared and forwarded to the applicant
for his signature and oath, at which time the agency fee is called for.
This fee is generally not over $25. The cases are exceptionally complex
if a higher fee than $25 is called for, and, upon the return of
the papers, they are filed at the Patent Office to await Official
examination. If the case should be rejected for any cause, or objections
made to a claim, the reasons are inquired into and communicated to the
applicant, with sketches and explanations of the references; and should
it appear that the reasons given are insufficient, the claims are
prosecuted immediately, and the rejection set aside, and usually WITHOUT
EXTRA CHARGE TO THE APPLICANT.

MUNN & CO. are determined to place within the reach of those who confide
to them their business, the best facilities and the highest professional
skill and experience.

The only cases of this character, in which MUNN & CO. expect an extra
fee, are those wherein appeals are taken from the decision of the
Examiner after a second rejection; and MUNN & CO. wish to state very
distinctly, that they have but few cases which can not be settled
without the necessity of an appeal; and before an appeal is taken, in
any case, the applicant is fully advised of all facts and charges, and
no proceedings are had without his sanction; so that all inventors who
employ MUNN & CO. know in advance what their applications and patents
are to cost.

MUNN & CO. make no charge for prosecuting the rejected claims of their
own clients before the Examiners and when their patents are granted, the
invention is noticed editorially in the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN.


REJECTED CASES.

MUNN & CO. give very special attention to the examination and
prosecution of rejected cases filed by inventors and other attorneys. In
such cases a fee of $5 is required for special examination and report,
and in case of probable success by further prosecution, and the papers
are found tolerably well prepared, MUNN & Co. will take up the case and
endeavor to get it through for a reasonable fee, to be agreed upon in
advance of prosecution.


CAVEATS

Are desirable if an inventor is not fully prepared to apply for a
Patent. A Caveat affords protection, for one year, against the issue
of a patent to another for the same invention. Caveat papers should be
carefully prepared. The Government fee on filing a Caveat is $10, and
MUNN & Co.'s charges for preparing the necessary papers are usually from
$10 to $12.


REISSUES.

A patent when discovered to be defective, may be reissued by the
surrender of the original patent, and the filing of amended papers. This
proceeding should be taken with great care.


DESIGNS, TRADE MARKS, AND COMPOSITIONS

can be patented for a term of years, also, new medicines or medical
compounds, and useful mixtures of all kinds. When the invention consists
of a medicine or compound, or a new article of manufacture, or a new
composition, samples of the article must be furnished, neatly put up.
Also, send a full statement of the ingredients, proportions, mode of
preparation, uses, and merits.


PATENTS CAN BE EXTENDED.

All patents issued prior to 1861, and now in force, may be extended for
a period of seven years upon the presentation of proper testimony. The
extended term of a patent is frequently of much greater value than the
first term; but an application for an extension, to be successful,
must be carefully prepared. MUNN & Co. have had a large experience in
obtaining extensions, and are prepared to give reliable advice.


INTERFERENCES

Between pending applications before the Commissioners are managed and
testimony taken; also, Assignments, Agreements, and Licenses prepared.
In fact, there is no branch of the Patent Business which MUNN & Co. are
not fully prepared to undertake and manage with fidelity and dispatch.


FOREIGN PATENTS.

American inventors should bear in mind that five Patents--American,
English, French, Belgian, and Prussian--will secure an inventor
exclusive monopoly to his discovery among ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY
MILLIONS of the most intelligent people in the world. The facilities of
business and steam communication are such, that patents can be obtained
abroad by our citizens almost as easily as at home. MUNN & Co. have
prepared and taken a larger number of European Patents than any other
American Agency. They have Agents of great experience in London, Paris,
Berlin, and other Capitals.

A Pamphlet, containing a synopsis of the Foreign Patent Laws, sent free.
Address

MUNN & CO., 37 Park Row, New York.

       *       *       *       *       *




Official List of Patents.

Issued by the United States Patent Office

FOR THE WEEK ENDING DEC. 14, 1869.

_Reported Officially for the Scientific American_


SCHEDULE OF PATENT OFFICE FEES:

  On each caveat                                                $10
  On filing each application for a Patent (seventeen years)     $15
  On issuing each original Patent                               $20
  On appeal to Commissioner of Patents                          $20
  On application for Reissue                                    $30
  On application for Extension of Patent                        $50
  On granting the Extension                                     $50
  On filing a Disclaimer                                        $10
  On an application for Design (three and a half years)         $10
  On an application for Design (seven years)                    $15
  On an application for Design (fourteen years)                 $30

In addition to which there are some small revenue-stamp taxes. Residents
of Canada and Nova Scotia pay $500 on application.

_For copy of Claim of any Patent issued within 30 years_ $1

_A sketch from the model or drawing, relating to such portion of a
machine as the Claim covers, from_ $1 _upward, but usually at the price
above-named_.

_The full Specification of any patent issued since Nov. 20,1866, at
which time the Patent Office commenced printing them_ $1.25

_Official Copies of Drawings of any patent issued since 1836, we can
supply at a reasonable cost, the price depending upon the amount of
labor involved and the number of views.

Full information, as to price of drawings, in each case, may be had by
addressing_

MUNN & CO.,

Patent Solicitors, No. 37 Park Row, New York.

       *       *       *       *       *

97,751.--FLUTING MACHINE.--Henry B. Adams, New York city.

97,752.--ELASTIC WASHER FOR CARRIAGES, ETC.--George W. Billings,
Chicago, Ill. Antedated December 4, 1869.

97,753.--ADJUSTABLE WAGON BOTTOM AND CHUTE.--Abraham Bitner, Jr.,
Lancaster, Pa.

97,754.--MODE OF TREATING CONGLOMERATES OF CAST IRON.--Thomas
Schoenberger Blair, Pittsburgh, Pa.

97,755.--ANIMAL TRAP.--John Blume, Mount Pleasant, Md.

97,756.--ELECTRO-MAGNETIC ADVERTISING FRAME.--Joshua Brooks, (assignor
to himself and Benjamin E. Corlew), Boston, Mass., Antedated December 1,
1869.

97,757.--LAMP EXTINGUISHER.--Wm.I.Bunker, Yankton, Dakota Territory.

97,758.--MACHINE FOR POLISHING THE EDGES OF BOOT AND SHOE SOLES.--Robert
F. Burns, Albany, N.Y.

97,759.--BEEHIVE.--Peter Campbell, Carrolltown, Pa.

97,760.--RAILWAY GATE.--Peter Campbell, Carrolltown, Pa.

97,761.--REDUCING ORES.--Thomas J. Chubb, Williamsburg, N.Y. Antedated
June 14, 1869.

97,762.--MACHINE FOR BENDING AND FOLDING SHEET METAL.--James B. Clark
and Lucas C. Clark, Plantsville, Conn.

97,763.--SAW SWAGE.--Joseph S. Clark, New York city.

97,764.--SASH HOLDER.--Nelson C. Cole (assignor to himself and Leverett
H. Marvin), Beaver Dam, Wis.

97,765.--MACHINE FOR CRIMPING AND FORMING THE FRONT OF
BOOTS.--Christopher Day, Mineral Point, Wis. Antedated November 30,
1869.

97,766.--WATER HEATER FOR CULINARY PURPOSES.--Royal E. Deane, Brooklyn,
N.Y.

97,767.--PUMP.--Joseph W. Douglas, Middletown, Conn., assignor to W.& B.
Douglas.

97,768.--DEPURATOR.--S. C. Frink and L. D. Harlan, Indianapolis, Ind.

97,769.--SHUTTER FASTENER.--Charles B. Goodrich, Jr., Boston, Mass.

97,770.--Suspended.

97,771.--MANUFACTURE OF GLUE.--George Guenther, Chicago, Ill., assignor
to himself and E. H. Heymann, New York city.

97,772.--SHADE RINGS FOR LAMP BURNERS.--Hiram W. Hayden (assignor to
Holmes, Booth & Haydens), Waterbury, Conn.

97,773.--LAMP.--Hiram W. Hayden (assignor to Holmes, Booth & Haydens),
Waterbury, Conn.

97,774.--FLUTING MACHINE.--Frederick Hewitt, Bloomfield, N.J.

97,775.--WAGON BRAKE.--Abram C. Jaques, Levenworth, Kansas.

97,776.--WICK-TRIMMER FOR LAMPS.--E.C.Jenkins, Jr., Worcester, Mass.
Antedated December 11, 1869.

97,777.--LUMBER DRYER.--Jesse.B. Johnson and Thomas E. Johnson,
Indianapolis, Ind.

97,778.--TURBINE WATER WHEEL.--Julius H. Jones, Charlton, Mass.

97,779.--HYDRAULIC ENGINE.--Henry J. King and Benton L. Beebe,
Middletown, N. Y.

97,780.--BREECH-LOADING REVOLVING FIREARMS.--Francois Alexandre Le Mat,
New Orleans, La., assignor to Charles Pietroni, London, England.

97,781.--COMPOSITION FOR COVERING STEAM BOILERS AND FOR OTHER
PURPOSES.--Ferdinand Leroy (Ferdinand Leroy, administrator), of
Commercial Road, London, England, assignor to himself and P. A. Victor
Le Luoez, England.

97,782.--WINE AND CIDER MILL.--Edward C. Lewis, Benton Harbor, Mich.

97,783.--EXCAVATOR.--John R. Lewis, Piper City, Ill.

97,784.--BAND TIGHTENER.--Francis M. Lottridge, Portland, Ind., assignor
to himself, James M. Templer, and James C. Jay. Antedated December 14,
1869.

97,785.--CLOD FENDER.--Francis M. Lowden and John D. Lowden, Lawrence,
Ind.

97,786.--SHAFT TUG LUG FOR HARNESS.--T.J.Magruder, Marion, Ohio.

97,787.--SHIPS OR VESSELS FOR CARRYING LIQUID CARGO.--John W. Marshall,
Gilman Joslin, and Nelson Curtis, Boston, and Oliver Edwards, Brookline,
Mass.

97,788.--FASTENING FOR CORSETS.--Frank W. Marston, Boston, Mass.
Antedated November 30, 1869.

97,789.--CART SADDLE.--W.B.McClure, Alexandria, Va.

97,790.--POTATO DIGGER.--Philip C. McManus, Troy, N.Y. Antedated
December 7, 1869.

97,791.--WASHING MACHINE.--J.S.Merchant, Hopedale, Ohio.

97,792.--RAILWAY RAIL.--James Montgomery, Croton Landing, N.Y.

97,793.--WASHING MACHINE.--Wm. Morgan, Middlebrook, Va.

97,794.--COMPOUND FOR TREATING RHEUMATISM.--H.H.Munroe, Louisville, Ky.

97,795.--SCRIBE HOOK.--John Nester, Portland, Oregon.

97,796.--ROOFING.--H.G.Noble, Selma, Ala.

97,797.--DEVICE FOR FASTENING PISTONS TO PISTON RODS.--Anthony T.
Norgan, Palo Alto, Pa. Antedated December 7, 1869.

97,798.--ATTACHABLE AND REMOVABLE CALKS FOR HORSESHOES.--G.S. Norris,
Baltimore, Md.

97,799.--HARNESS FOR HORSES.--John Palen, Lockport, assignor to Nathan
T. Healy, Medina, N.Y.

97,800.--RAILWAY CAR BRAKE.--Thomas Payne, Detroit, Mich.

97,801.--SAW MILL.--A. Perin, Paris, France.

97,802.--SPOKE SHAVE.--Joseph A. Perley (assignor to himself and Wm. H.
Perley), Lynn. Mass.

97,803.--ORGAN BELLOWS.--J.R.Perry, Wilkesbarre, Pa.

97,804.--APPARATUS FOR SETTING CATS IN METALLIC CARTRIDGES.--William C.
Pickersgill (assignor to Providence Tool Company), Providence, R.I.

97,805.--CAP-EXTRACTOR FOR CARTRIDGES.--William C. Pickersgill (assignor
to Providence Tool Company), Providence, R.I.

97,806.--APPARATUS FOR SETTING BULLETS IN CARTRIDGES.--William C.
Pickersgill (assignor to Providence Tool Company), Providence, R.I.

97,807.--SMOKE AND SPARK CONVEYER FOR RAILROAD TRAINS.--Lemuel Powell,
Milford, Conn.

97,808.--CONVERTIBLE END-BOARD AND PLATFORM FOR WAGONS.--Thomas T.
Powell and John F. Burroughs, Lawn Ridge, Ill.

97,809.--MACHINE FOR MAKING FLY NETS.--A. Prutzmann, Canton, Ohio.

97,810.--BURGLAR PROOF SAFE.--George W. Putnam, Boston, Mass. Antedated
November 27, 1869.

97,811.--HORSESHOE BEVELER.--Ephraim Quinby, Comstock, Mich. Antedated
Dec. 1, 1869.

97,812.--PADLOCK.--J.S.Rankin, Ann Arbor, Mich.

97,813.--SHIP WINDLASS.--Elisha R. Ritch, South Boston, Mass.
97,814.--REIN-GUIDE FOR HARNESS.--Lemuel Richmond, Derby, Vt.

97,815.--CHURN.--Stacy Risler, Locktown, N. J.

97,816.--PAPER-CUTTING MACHINE.--T. C. Robinson, Boston, Mass., assignor
to G. H. Sandborn, New York city.

97,817.--STONE-POLISHING MACHINE.--Henry Schofield (assignor to himself
and C. D. Clarke). Philadelphia.

97,818.--TWIST DRILL.--Socrates Scholfield, Providence, R. I.

97,819.--SMOKE-CONSUMING FIRE BOXES.--G. H. Smith, Galesburg, Ill.

97,820.--CHURN.--Samuel Smith, Yohogany, Pa.

97,821.--REPEATING FIRE-ARM.--William Sidney Smoot, Washington, D.C.

97,822.--PNEUMATIC ENGINE.--Robert Spear, New Haven, Conn.

97,823.--MACHINE FOR POLISHING WOOD.--W. F. Spear, Worcester, Mass.

97,824.--CARPET BEATER AND CLEANER.--Alexander Stevenson, New York City.

97,825.--MODE OF FORMING "BURNER CONES" OF LAMPS.--C. St. John and C. E.
Marston, Charlestown, Mass.

97,826.--LOOM.--Lyman Stone, Nelson, N. H.

97,827.--COFFIN HANDLE.--Clark Strong, Winsted, Conn.

97,828.--PLOW.--Z. W. Sturtevant, Dunstable, Mass.

97,829.--SAFE.--T. J. Sullivan, Albany, N. Y.

97,830.--AUGER HANDLE.--James Swan, Seymour, Conn.

97,831.--STOVE SHELF.--Gr. L. Swett, Leominster, Mass.

97,832.--RAILWAY RAIL.--J. F. Tallant, Burlington, Iowa.

97,833.--TOOL FOR CABINET MAKERS.--R. W. Tanner (assignor to himself and
Samuel J. Davenport), Albany, N. Y. Antedated Dec. 11,1869.

97,834.--TICKET BOX FOR RAILROAD PASSENGER TRAINS.--Asahel Todd, Jr.,
Pultneyville, N. Y.

97,835.--HYDRANT.--T. Van Kannel, Cincinnati, Ohio.

97,836.--RETICULE WICKER BASKET.--Joseph Venet, New York city.

97,837.--VELOCIPEDE.--Wm. Volk, Buffalo, N. Y.

97,838.--SILVERING GLASS, AND PROTECTING THE SAME.--H. B. Walker, New
York city.

97,839.--STEELYARD.--P. H. Walker (assignor to himself and J. L.
Trowbridge), Boston, Mass.

97,840.--BARREL.--D. H. Waters, Grand Rapids, Mich.

97,841.--BARREL.--D. H. Waters, Grand Rapids, Mich.

97,842.--CAR SPRING.--Cyrenus Wheeler, Jr., Auburn, N. Y.

97,843.--METALLIC CARTRIDGE.--Rollin White, Lowell, Mass.

97,844.--APPARATUS FOR PURIFYING IRON.--S. M. Wickersham, Allegheny, Pa.

97,845.--MAKING PIANO LEGS.--Henry Willoghs, New York city.

97,846.--DUMPING WAGON.--Daniel Willson, Ishpeming, Mich.

97,847.--HARVESTER KNIFE GRINDER.--Edwin L. Yancey, Batavia, N. Y.

97,848.--CANDLESTICK.--H. Zahn, San Francisco, Cal.

97,849.--MONKEY WRENCH.--Samuel Zarley, Niantic, Ill.

97,850.--HUMMING-WHEEL TOY.--A. F. Able, New Orleans, La., assignor to
himself and A. D. Finley.

97,851.--IRONING TABLE AND CLOTHES DRYER.--W. P. Adams, Brooklyn, N. Y.

97,852.--SAWSET.--Daniel Agnew, Vincennes, Ind.

97,853.--MODE OF PROTECTING THE ENDS OF VULCANIZED RUBBER HOSE.--H. A.
Alden, Matteawan, N. Y.

97,854.--LAMP BURNER.--Joseph Bell Alexander, Washington, D.C.

97,855.--GATE FOR SWINGING BRIDGES.--Lauritz Anderson, Chicago, Ill.

97,856.--BUTTONHOLING ATTACHMENT FOR SEWING MACHINES.--S. J. Baird,
Staunton, Va.

97,857.--OIL BLACKING FOR LEATHER.--J. L. Baumer, Columbus, Ohio.

97,858.--HEAD BLOCK FOR SAW MILLS.--C. B. Beall, Hamilton, Ohio.

97,859.--CHURN DASHER.--A. Belt, Newton, Iowa.

97,860.--COMBINED SHOVEL AND SIFTER.--F. S. Bidwell, Mystic Bridge,
Conn.

97,861.--STOVEPIPE THIMBLE.--Horatio N. Bill, Willimantic, Conn.

97,862.--DIVING BELL.--H. C. Billings, Brooklyn, N. Y.

97,863.--HOE.--Lewis Billings, Gallipolis, Ohio.

97,864.--STEAM GENERATOR.--Edward Bourne, Pittsburgh, Pa.

97,865.--STEAM GENERATOR.--Edward Bourne, Pittsburgh, Pa.

97,866.--RIVETS AND WASHERS.--Edward Bourne, Pittsburgh, Pa.

97,867.--WAGON BRAKE.--William H. Bradt, New Scotland, N.Y.

97,868.--DRILL FOR BORING POLYGONAL HOLES.--J.C. Broadley (assignor to
himself and Jas. Stout), Franklin, N. J.

97,869.--WATER WHEEL.--J. D. Bryson and J. H. Hartsuff, Newcastle, Pa.

97,870.--COTTON CULTIVATOR.--I. W. Burch, Fayette, Miss.

97,871.--BUCKLE.--I. W. Burch, Fayette, Miss.

97,872.--CLAMP.--Mathias Burkhardt, Cincinnati, Ohio.

97,873.--DINNER PAIL.--N. C. Burnap, Argusville, N. Y.

97,874.--BOLT CUTTER.--O. E. Butler and S. P. Dunham, Marshalltown,
Iowa.

97,875.--PADLOCK.--S. G. Cabell (assignor to F. B. Cabell), Quincy, Ill.

97,876.--RAILWAY CAR COUPLING.--S. 0. Campbell, Tipton, Mo.

97,877.--WRENCH AND SAW SET COMBINED.--G. J. Capewell, West Cheshire,
Conn.

97,878.--MACHINE FOR DRESSING MILLSTONES.--J. S. Carr, Alliance, Ohio.

97,879.--CAR TANK COVER.--L. C. Cattell, Cleveland, Ohio.

97,880.--MANUFACTURE OF RUBBER SPONGE.--Edwin Chesterman, Tremont, N. Y.
Antedated Nov. 17, 1869.

97,881.--VALVE FOR WATER ENGINES.--Abraham Coates (assignor for one
half, to James Martin Hunt), Watertown, N. Y.

97,882.--SHUTTLE FOR LOOMS.--John H. Coburn, Lowell, Mass.

97,883.--WAGON SEAT FASTENING.--Charles Collins, Vernon Centre, N. Y.

97,884.--HARVESTER.--Robert Conarroe (assignor to himself, H. Young, and
A. C. Stauffer), Camden, Ohio.

97,885.--MOP.--Philip Cook, Jr., Sioux City, Iowa. Antedated Dec. 10,
1869.

97,888.--RAILWAY SWITCH.--J. B. Cox, James O'Connor, and Michael
Cahalan, Columbus, Ga.

97,887.--SLIDE VALVE.--Isaac Craft (assignor to himself, T. J. Williams,
and C. M. Greve), Cincinnati, Ohio.

97,888.--WATER WHEEL.--G.W. Cressman, and Bert Pfleger, Barren Hill, and
Nice Keely, Roxborough, Pa.

97,889.--TREATING WHISKY AND OTHER ALCOHOLIC SPIRITS.--J. C. Crossman
and Obadiah Marland, Boston, Mass., assignors t themselves and A. E.
Tilton, New York city.

97,890.--DISINTEGRATING MILL.--G. B. Davids (assignor to himself and
Talbot Denmead), Baltimore, Md,

97,891.--MACHINE FOR COMPOSING AND DISTRIBUTING TYPE.--Isidore
Delcambre, Paris, France.

97,892.--SOAP-HOLDING ATTACHMENT FOR SEWING MACHINES. Mary Dewey, New
Albany, Ind. Antedated Dec. 10, 1869.

97,893.--CONCRETE FOR PAVING AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES.--J. E. Dotch,
Washington, D. C. Antedated Oct. 14, 1869

97,894.--APPARATUS FOR EXTINGUISHING FIRES BY MEANS OF CHEMICAL
AGENTS.--J. W. Douglas (assignor to W. Douglas and B. Douglas),
Middletown, Conn.

97,895.--LOOM TEMPLE.--Warren W. Dutcher (assignor to Dutcher Temple
Co.), Hopedale, Mass.

97,896.--VENTILATING HORSE COVER.--C. P. Eager (assignor to P. B.
Eager), Boston, Mass.

97,897.--MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL.--Wm. Ennis, Philadelphia, Pa.

97,898.--SEEDING MACHINE.--James Finlayson, Albany, Oregon.

97,899.--CLOTHES WRINGER.--M. M. Follett, Lake City, Minn.

97,900.--BLOTTING PAD.--C. A. Gale, Demopolis, Ala.

97,901.--MANUFACTURE OF NUTS.--J. W. Gaskill and Jas. Christie,
Phillipsburg, N. J.

97,902.--FIRE PLACE.--E. H. Gibbs, New York city.

97,903.--GRAIN DRILL.--Jacob F. Gibson, Chestnut Level, Pa.

97,904.--CARTRIDGE MACHINE.--Jabez H. Gill, Philadelphia, Pa.

97,905.--FIELD ROLLER.--Robert Glover, Tonawanda, N. Y.

97,905.--CORN PLANTER.--Henry Gortner, Nashport, Ohio.

97,907.--HINGE.--D. R. Gould (assignor to himself and O. H. Green),
Chestertown, N. Y.

97,908.--RADIAL DRILLING MACHINE.--G. A. Gray, Jr., Cincinnati, Ohio.

97,909.--BUCKLE.--F. F. Greenwood, Horsney, England. Patented in
England, Sept. 16, 1868.

97,910.--TOOL FOR CARVING WOOD.--L. L. Gunther, Chicago, Ill.

97,911.--PORTABLE DERRICK.--James R. Hammond, Sedalia, Mo.

97,912.--COAL STOVE.--B. R. Hawlev, Normal, Ill.

97,913.--GAS STOVE.--W. J. Hays, New York city.

97,914.--CONDENSING COLUMN FOR STILLS.--A. Hazzard, St. Louis, Mo.

97,915.--STOVEPIPE DRUM.--W. Hearle, Beamsville, Canada, assignor to C.
L. Spencer, trustee, assignor to Wm. Hearle and A. B. Johnson.

97,916.--MEANS FOR ATTACHING MUSQUITO BARS TO WINDOW BLINDS, DOORS,
ETC.--James Hebron, Buffalo, N. Y.

97,917.--WASHING MACHINE.--Edward Heim, Pittsburgh, Pa.

97,918.--RAILWAY CAR COUPLING.--Noah Hill, Leavenworth City, Kansas.

97,919.--FIFTH WHEEL FOR CARRIAGES.--Richard Hoadly, Toulon, Ill.

97,920.--FRUIT JAR.--D. I. Holcomb, Henry county, Iowa.

97,921.--CORN CULTIVATOR.--J. C. Holmes, Wyoming, Pa.

97,922.--FRUIT JAR.--Thos. Houghton and H. H. Houghton, Philadelphia,
Pa.

97,923.--CONDENSER.--John Houpt, Springtown, Pa.

97,924.--PROPELLING APPARATUS.--Robert Hunter, New York city.

97,925.--HEDGE TRIMMER.--A. H. Hussey, Mount Pleasant, Ohio.

97,926.--FENCE.--Daniel Johnson, Cranberry, Ohio.

97,927.--SAW SET.--J. M. Jones, Commerce, Mo.

97,928.--RUBBER SPRING FOR USE IN SHIPS, CARS, AND FOR OTHER
PURPOSES.--J. A. Joyner, New York city.

97,929.--CARPET STRETCHER AND TACK HOLDER.--F. W. Judd, New Britain,
assignor to himself and E. M. Judd, New Haven, Conn. Antedated Dec.
9,1889.

97,930.--PUBLIC URINAL.--William M. Kepler, Cincinnati, Ohio.

97,931.--WASHING MACHINE.--John J. Kimball, Naperville, Ill.

97,932.--GRAIN STRIPPER.--J. O. King and Hiram A. Rice, Louisiana, Mo.

97,933.--BEEHIVE.--W. T. Kirkpatrick, Tamarva, Ill.

97,934.--LATCH.--G. W. Large, Yellow Springs, Ohio.

97,935.--SEWING MACHINE.--L. W. Lathrop, Nyack, N. Y.

97,936.--MANUFACTURE OF DRY WHITE LEAD.--G. T. Lewis, Philadelphia, and
E. O. Bartlett, Birmingham, Pa.

77,937.--CHURN.--F. A. Lindal, Stockton, N. Y.

97,938.--SEEDING MACHINE.--M. F. Lowth and T. J. Howe, Owatonna, Minn.

97,939.--FERTILIZER OR GUANO.--Orazio Lugo, Baltimore, Md.

97.940.--FURNACE FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF ULTRAMARINE.--H. A. Ludwig. New
York city.

97,941.--MANUFACTURE OF ULTRAMARINE.--H. A. Ludwig, New York city.

97,942.--WARDROBE.--A. G. Mack (assignor to himself and George Shelton),
Rochester, N. Y.

97,943.--UPRIGHT PIANO.--G. C. Manner, New York city.

97,944.--BOOT CRIMPER.--F. P. Marcy, Keokuk, Iowa. Antedated Dec. 4,
1869.

97,945.--MECHANISM FOR DRIVING COTTON GINS.--Wm. L. May, Linwood, Ala.,
assignor to W. J. May.

97,946.--MEAT CHOPPER.--Arthur McCarter, Salem, Ohio.

97,947.--GATE.--F. H. McGeorge, Corning, N. Y.

97,948.--CONSTRUCTION OF BUILDINGS.--Alexander McPherson, Santa Cruz,
Cal.

97,949.--GALVANIC BATTERY.--J. R. McPherson, Beloit, Wis.

97,950.--GAGE FOR CIRCULAR SAW TABLE.--R. N. Meriam, Worcester, Mass.

97,951.--SEWING MACHINE FOR SEWING BOOTS AND SHOES.--Daniel Mills, New
York city, assignor to Charles Goodyear, Jr., Ne Rochelle, N. Y.

97,952.--PROPELLER.--S. B. Morey, San Francisco, Cal.

97,953.--CAST-STEEL TUBE OR INGOT.--C. B. Morse, Rhinebeck, N. Y.
Antedated Dec. 8,1869.

97,954.--PACKING CASE FOR OIL CANS.--J. McLeod Murphy (assignor to J. L.
Graham), New York city.

97,955.--TIGHTENING AND GUIDING BELT.--C. K. Myers (assignor, for one
half, to Peter Weybrich), Pekin, Ill.

97,956.--FIRE-PLACE FUEL MAGAZINE STOVE.--J. J. Myers, (assignor to B.
C. Bibb), Baltimore, Md.

97,957.--CORN PLANTER.--J. B. Parker, Knob Noster, Mo.

97,958.--SAWING MACHINE.--Archibald Perry (assignor to himself and Jacob
Fisher), Richland, Ind. Antedated Dec. 3,1869.

97,959.--MECHANICAL MOVEMENT.--Osgood Plummer, Worcester, Mass.

97,960.--TEACHERS' REGISTER.--W. S. Poulson and W. N. Poulson, Cadiz,
Ohio.

97,961.--SIDE-SADDLE TREE.--J. H. Preston, Jefferson City, Mo.

97,962.--PROCESS OF PREPARING PLANTS TO BE USED IN CIGAKS, SNUFF,
ETC.--P. V. Ramel, Paris, France.

97,963.--PIPE COUPLING.--L. W. Reed, East Cambridge, Mass.

97,964.--FRUIT JAR.--S. B. Rowley, Philadelphia, Pa.

97,965.--CLOTHES WRINGER.--E. P. Russell, Manlius, N. Y.

97,966.--COAL STOVE.--Watson Sanford, New York city. Antedated Sept. 3,
1869.

97,967.--BASE BURNING STOVE.--Watson Sanford, New York city. Antedated
Sept. 15, 1869.

97,968.--JOURNAL BOX.--A. H. Sassaman, Scranton, Pa.

97,969.--HOOK AND LADDER TRUCK.--Jacob Schmidlapp, New York city.

97,970.--Suspended.

97,971.--SNOW PLOW FOR RAILWAYS.--T. L. Shaw, Omaha, Nebraska.

97,972.--COMPOSITION METAL FOR TUBING, PIPES, AND SHEETING.--W. A. Shaw
(assignor to Peter Naylor), New York city.

97,973.--PRUNING SHEARS.--J. H. Shehan, Lima, Ind., assignor to himself,
G. W. Edgecomb, and T. J. Bull.

97,974.--PRICE-CALCULATING DEVICE.--Albert Sinclair, West Waterville,
Me.

97,975.--CONSTRUCTION OF BRIDGES.--C. S. Smith, C. H. Latrobe, and F. H.
Smith, Baltimore, Md.

97,976.--CHURN.--Simon Smith, Clarksburg, N. Y.

97,977.--COTTON BALE TIES.--W. M. Smith, Augnsta, Ga.

97,978.--GRAIN MEASURING ATTACHMENT TO THRASHING MACHINES.--W. A.
Workman, Fairfleld, Iowa.

97,979.--SCAFFOLD FOR GATHERING FRUIT, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES.--A. J.
Wright, Cleveland, Ohio.

97,980.--REVOLVING CUPBOARD.--Wendell Wright, Bloomfield, N. J.

97,981.--BARRACK OR HOSPITAL BEDSTEAD.--Chas. S. Snead, Louisville, Ky.

97,982.--PIANO FORTE.--C. F. Th. Steinway, New York city.

97,983.--WATER-PROOFING FABRICS.--John Stenhouse, 17 Rodney street,
Pentonville, London, England, assignor to Arthur Cheney and Alonzo
Milliken, Boston, Mass. Patented in England, Jan. 8, 1862.

97,984.--RAILS FOR ORNAMENTAL FENCE.--Elizabeth Mary Stigale,
Philadelphia, Pa.

97,985.--LATCH FOR DOUBLE DOORS.--J. W. Still, San Francisco, Cal.

97,986.--LATHE FASTENING.--J. G. Stowe, Providence, R. I.

97,987.--VINEGAR APPARATUS.--A. D. Strong, Ashtabula Ohio.

97,988.--WRENCH.--G.C.Taft, Worcester, Mass.

97,989.--BARK MILL.--William Tansley, Salisbury Centre, assignor to
"Starbuck Brothers," Troy, N.Y.

97,990.--CLEVIS FOR PLOWS.--J.H. Tarpley, Greensborough, N.C.

97,991.--HANDLE FOR KNIVES.--A.L. Taylor, Springfield, Vt.

97,992.--MAKING BRICKS, TILES, ETC.--Daniel Thackara, Woodbury, N.J.

97,993.--FOOT AND KNEELING STOOL FOR CHURCHES.--J.P. Tibbits, New York
city.

97,994.--RAILWAY CARRIAGE WHEEL AND AXLE.--C.D. Tisdale (assignor to
himself and J.H. Clapp), Boston, Mass.

97,995.--SUSPENDERS.--C. Van Hoesen, Catskill, assignor to himself, J.H.
Burtis, Brooklyn, and M.W. Staples, Catskill, N.Y.

97,996--BUTTONHOLE CUTTER.--F.H. Walker, Boston, Mass.

97,997.--BED BOTTOM.--C.E. Walkes, Elyria, Ohio.

97,998.--STILL FOR OIL, ETC.--John Warner, Flushing, N.Y.

97,999.--PAPER FILE.--C.W. West, Shiloh, assignor to himself and O.A.
Douglas, Bridgeton, N.J.

98,000.--HOISTING APPARATUS.--T.A. Weston, Ridgewood, N.J., assignor to
William Sellers and John Sellers, Jr., Philadelphia, Pa. Patented in
England, Aug. 28, 1868.

98,001.--COKE WAGON.--Corydon Wheat and Alfred Catchpole, Geneva, N.Y.

98,002.--MACHINE FOR MAKING CARRIAGE CLIPS.--Darius Wilcox and R.
McChesney (assignors to D.M. Basset and Darius Wilcox), Derby, Conn.

98,003.--DOOR FOR FIRE-PLACE STOVE.--W.E. Wood, Baltimore, Md.

98,004.--INTERCHANGEABLE BOOT AND SHOE HEEL.--J.C. Woodhead, Pittsburgh,
Pa.

98,005.--CAMEL FOR RAISING VESSELS.--Samuel Woolston, Vincentown, N.J.

       *       *       *       *       *




REISSUES.


60,192.--STEAM ENGINE GOVERNOR.--Dated Dec. 4,1866; reissue

3,759.--R.K. Huntoon,for himself and J.A. Lynch, assignee, by mesne
assignments, of R.K. Huntoon. Boston, Mass.

72,114.--VARIABLE CRANK FOR BORING MACHINES.--Dated Dec. 10,1867;
reissue 3,760.--Theodore Mace, New York city, assignee of G.C. Taft.

68,782.--SLIDE FOR EXTENSION TABLE.--Dated Sept. 10,1867; reissue
3,761.--H. Olds, Syracuse, N.Y.

89,167.--NOZZLE FOR CANS.--Dated April 20,1869; reissue

3,762.--Charles Pratt, New York city.

84,766.--HORSE POWER.--Dated Dec. 8, 1868; reissue 3,763.--Cyrus Roberts
and J.A. Throp, Three Rivers, Mich.

44,117.--COMPOSITION FOR CONCRETE PAVEMENTS.--Dated Sept. 6,1864;
reissue 3,764.--Edward Seeley, Scranton, Pa.

49,207.--CARPET BAG LOCK.--Dated Aug. 1, 1865; reissue

3,765.--Bernard Steinmetz, Paris, France.

91,800.--STEAM GENERATOR FURNACES.--Dated June 22, 1866; reissue
3,766.--A.J. Warren and D.W. Wilson, assignors to themselves and Noah
Shaw, West Eau Claire, Wis., and U.M. Stone, Augusta, Wis.

       *       *       *       *       *




DESIGNS.


3,784.--STOVE.--D.P. Beckwith, Dowagiac, Mich.

3,785.--PLOW CLEVIS.--Geo. Johnson, administrator of the estate of G.P.
Darrow, deceased, (assignor to J.L. Haven & Co.), Cincinnati, Ohio.

3,786.--STOVE.--S.S. Jewett and F.H. Root, Buffalo, N.Y.

3,787.--MASONIC ORNAMENT.--Daniel Keefer, Attica, Ind.

3,788.--PAPER COLLAR.--W.F. Mosely, Brooklyn, N.Y.

3,789.--FLOWER STAND.--C.H. Waters, Groton, Mass.

       *       *       *       *       *




EXTENSIONS.


CLOTH-STRETCHING ROLLERS.--Seth Simmons, of Providence, R.I.,
administrator of Nathan Simmons, deceased.--Letters Patent No. 13,888;
dated Dec. 4, 1855. BUCKLE.--S.E. Booth, of Orange, Conn., administrator
of S.S. Hartshorn, deceased.--Letters Patent No. 13,907; dated Dec. 11,
1855

       *       *       *       *       *




PATENTS ISSUED FOR THE WEEK ENDING DEC. 21, 1869.


98,006.--MANUFACTURE OF THE METALLIC PARTS OF FIRE ARMS.--Isaac Adams,
Jr.. Boston, Mass, assignor to United Nicke Company.

98,007.--TOY VELOCIPEDE.--H.C. Alexander, New York city.

98,008.--MACHINE FOR MAKING WROUGHT NAILS.--Daniel Armstrong, Chicago,
Ill.

98,009.--WASH BOILER.--James Armstrong, Bucyrus, Ohio.

98,010.--REFRIGERATOR.--Samuel Ayers, Danville, Ky.

98,011.--HYDRANT.--G.C. Bailey, Pittsburgh, Pa.

98,012.--WASHING MACHINE.--Joseph Balsley, Bedford, Ind.

98,013.--SAW MILL.--A.P. Barlow, Kalamazoo, Mich.

98,014.--BORING MACHINE.--E.C. Barton, Bloomsburg, Pa.

98,015.--PADLOCK.--Thomas Bernhard, Hartford, Conn.

98,016.--FENCE.--Inmon Blackaby, Civer, Ill.

98,017.--PLOWING MACHINE.--Albert Bondeli, Philadelphia, Mo.

98,018.--CARRIAGE BRAKE.--A.S. Boyer, Bernville, Pa.

98,019.--LOW-WATER INDICATOR.--William A. Bradford, Cincinnati, Ohio,
assignor to C.G. Pease, trustee for Malone Safety-Valve Company.

98,020.--MACHINE FOR MAKING FERRULES.--Robert Briggs, Philadelphia, Pa.

98,021.--STEAM GENERATOR.--M.S. Bringier, Ascension parish, La.

98,022.--FIRE AND WATER-PROOF PAINT.--Theodor Brinkmann, Greeneville,
Tenn.

98,023.--ANIMAL TRAP.--Adam Brown, Bridgeport, Oregon.

98,024.--HAIR-SPRING ADJUSTMENT FOR WATCHES.--Augustus Brown, Dryden,
N.Y.

98,025.--EXPANDING MUFF BLOCK.--C.F. Butterworth, Troy, N.Y.

98,026.--SAP SPOUT.--G.L. Cady, Lowell, Mass.

98,027.--HAY LOADER.--James Capen, Charlton, Mass.

98,028.--GRINDING MACHINE.--George T. Chattaway, Brooklyn, E.D., and
John Dickinson, New York city, assignors to G.S. Chattaway.

98,029.--COOPERS' TOOL.--John Christy, Clyde, Ohio.

98,030.--NAIL AND PEG DRIVER.--F.0. Claflin, New York city. Antedated
Dec. 18,1869.

98,031.--SELF-CANCELING POSTAL AND REVENUE STAMP.--S.M. Clark,
Washington, D.C.

98,032.--CAPSTAN WINDLASS.--D.N.B. Coffin, Jr., Newton, assignor to
himself and I.D. Spaulding:, Boston, Mass.

98,033.--METAL-CLAD ARTIFICIAL STONE.--Francois Coignet, Paris, France.

98,034.--MAKING ARTIFICIAL STONE AND CONCRETE.--Francois Coignet, Paris,
France.

98,035.--MALAXATOR FOR THE PREPARATION OF PLASTIC MATERIALS FOR
ARTIFICIAL STONE, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES.--Francois Coignet, Paris,
France.

93,036.--HASP LOCK.--E.R. Colver, New London, Conn.

98,037.--DEVICE FOR CONVEYING SAWDUST FROM SAWS.--W.S. Colwell,
Pittsburg, Pa.

98,038.--COMBINATION OF PIANOFORTE AND CABINET.--Edward Cotter, Boston,
Mass.

98,039.--CURTAIN FIXTURE.--J.P. Crawford, Carmichaels, Pa.

98,040.--VISE.--Edwin Crawley and T.L. Baylies, Richmond, Ind.

98,041.--CLOD FENDER.--W.L. Dearth and G.P. Rondebush, Jefferson, Ind.

98,042.--HAY AND GRAIN ELEVATOR.--John Dennis. Oswego, N.Y.

98,043.--DYNAMOMETER.--J. Emerson, Lowell, Mass.

98,044.--DUMPING WAGON.--John Esch, Milwaukee, Wis.

98,045.--FIREPLACE GRATE.--George W. Everhart, Louisville, Ky.

98,046.--VAPORIZING PETROLEUM, ETC.--H.R. Foote, Boston, Mass.

98,047.--TOY GUN.--C.T. Ford and E. Trask, Salem, Mass. Antedated Dec.
7, 1869.

98,048.--SHIFTING RAIL FOR BUGGY.--Harlow French and Robert Meyer,
Buffalo, N.Y.

98,049.--RAILWAY-CAR TRUCK.--Perry G. Gardiner, New York city.

98,050.--CAR SPRING.--P.G. Gardiner, New York city.

98,051.--RAILWAY SWITCH.--M. J. Gaskill, Wm. Yost, and John Ferris,
Pleasant Plain, Ohio.

98,052.--MILLER TRAP FOR BEEHIVES.--T. L. Gray, Thomasville, Tenn.

98,053.--STUFFING Box.--Chas. Green, Philadelphia, Pa.

98,054.--SUSPENSION CLIP.--H. S. Griffiths and J. C. Gary, New York
city.

98,055.--TOY SAFE OR BANK.--John Hall, Watertown, Mass. Antedated Dec.
7,1869.

98,056.--LOUNGE AND BEDSTEAD.--A. R. Harper and C. B. Dake, Hobart, Ind.

98,057.--MACHINE FOR UPSETTING TIRE.--A. S. Hart, San Francisco, Cal.

98,058.--RAILWAY CAR COUPLING.--A. S. Hart, San Francisco, Cal.

98,059.--STOVE GRATE.--David Hathaway, Troy, N. Y.

98,060.--HOLDING DEVICE FOR LAMP CHIMNEYS.--John F Hechtle, Waterbury,
Conn.

98,061.--STEAM AND CALORIC ENGINE.--Alexander Hendry, Victoria, British
Columbia.

98,062.--REIN HOLDER.--Davis Kurd, Lockport, N. Y.

98,063.--SPRING SEAT FOR WAGONS.--A. L. Hurtt, Monticello, Ind.

98,063.--SEWING MACHINE.--A. J. Hurtu and V. J. Hautin, Paris, France.

98,065.--ROOFING COMPOUND.--C. B. Hutchins, Ann Arbor, Mich.

98,066.--DENTAL IMPRESSION CUP.--R. V. Jenks, Paterson. N. J.

98,067.--PUMP.--A. C. Judson (assignor to himself and E. O. Judson),
Grand Rapids, Mich.

98,068.--LEATHER-SPLITTING MACHINE.--Charles Keniston, Somerville, Mass.

98,069.--SPRING BED BOTTOM.--E. S. Kimball, Springfield, Mass.

98,070.--WHIP SOCKET.--C. P. Kimball, Portland, Me.

98,071.--FLOOD GATE.--A. L. King, Farmersville, Ohio.

98,072.--MANUFACTURE OF SCOOPS.--J. Geo. Knapp, Woodhaven, N.Y.,
assignor to the Lalance & Grosjean Manufacturing Co., New York city.

98,073.--DRIVE WELL TUBES.--D. R. Knight, Akron, Ohio. 98,074.--DEVICE
FOR PREVENTING LEAKAGE ABOUT CHIMNEYS.--Abraham Lang, Buffalo, N. Y.

98,075.--HARVESTER DROPPER.--T. F. Lippencott, Conemaugh, Pa.

98,076.--CAR COUPLING.--Joseph Long, Mechanicsburg, Pa.

98,077.--HEAD REST.--C. B. Loveless, Syracuse, N. Y.

98,078.--BURGLAR ALARM.--Moses Lunt, Cambridgeport, Mass.

98,079.--FOLDING AND EXTENSION TABLE.--G. Mayer, Sullivan, Ill.

98,080.--LANTERN.--I. C. Mayo, Gloucester, Mass.

98,081.--WATER WHEEL.--H. W. McAuley, De Soto, Wis.

98,082.--LET-OFF MECHANISM FOR LOOMS.--Ephriam McDaniel, Lowell, Mass.

98,083.--LAMP.--J. K. Mentzer, New Holland, Pa.

98,084.--SURVEYOR'S MARK.--C. C. P. Meyer, Yankton, Dakota Territory.

98,085.--TAILOR'S CRAYON SHARPENER--R. R. Miles, Wabash, Ind.

98,086.--COOKING STOVE.--J. H. Mitchell and T. S. Mitchell, Pittsburgh,
Pa.

98,087.--PRINTING PRESS.--Charles Montague (assignor to C. C. Child),
Boston, Mass.

98,088.--PRINTING PRESS.--Chas. Montague (assignor to C. C. Child),
Boston, Mass.

98,089.--STEAM GENERATOR.--Jas. Montgomery, Sing Sing, N. Y. Antedated
Dec. 17,1869.

98,090.--HARVESTER DROPPER.--Ephraim Myers, Creagerstown, Md. Antedated
Dec. 4,1869.

98,091.--COTTON BASKET.--R. L. Myers, Washington, N.C.

98,092.--VELOCIPEDE.--Robert Neale, Brooklyn, N. Y. Antedated Dec.
4,1869.

98,093.--STOVEPIPE THIMBLE.--Thomas Newell, Oskaloosa, Iowa.

98,094.--CURTAIN AND SHAWL STRETCHER.--James Nicklin, Cleveland, Ohio.

98,095.--RAILROAD CAR VENTILATOR.--E. Norton, Brooklyn, N. Y.

98,096.--ILLUMINATING STOVE.--Benjamin Nott. Albany, N. Y.

98,097.--HAY ELEVATOR,--J. W. Odaniel, Cloverdale, Ind.

98,098.--PASSENGER REGISTER FOR VEHICLES.--Thos. Ollis, Netherfleld Road
South, Liverpool, England. Patented in England, March 31,1868.

98,099.--RAILWAY CAR WHEEL.--J. T. Owen, Philadelphia, Pa.

98,100.--HARROW.--George Paddington, Springville, Iowa.

98,101.--PACKING AND ATOMIZING CAN FOR INSECT POWDER.--F.L. Palmer, Sr.,
New York city.

98,102.--COMBINED OYSTER KNIFE AND ICE PICK.--Wm. Pattberger,
Philadelphia, Pa.

98,103.--Suspended.

98,104.--TRUNK.--T. B. Peddie, Newark, N. J.

98,105.--BOLT CLAMP.--Charles E. Phillips, South Deerfield, Mass.

98,106.--COMBINED SQUARE AND CALIPER.--Josiah Potts, Milwaukee, Wis.

98,107.--METAL ALLOY FOR HARNESS TRIMMINGS, ETC.--A.A. Randall, South
Braintree, assignor to himself and C. F. Whitcomb, Boston, Mass.

98,108.--CARPENTER'S PLOW.--Royal B. Rice, Williamsburgh, Mass.

98,109.--CUT-NAIL MACHINE.--Levi Richards (assignor, by mesne
assignments, to himself, O. A. Washburn, G. S. Perkins, and F. S
Roscoe), Providence, R. I.

98,110.--ELECTRO-PLATING WITH BRASS AND OTHER ALLOYS.--Samuel Rust, Jr.,
Cincinnati, Ohio.

98,111.--INDICATOR FOR SAW MILL HEAD BLOCKS.--George Selden, Erie, Pa.

98,112.--CULTIVATOR.--J. B. Skinner, Rockford, Ill.

98,113.--HARVESTER.--A. L. Smith, Bristol Centre, N. Y.

98,114.--ELECTRO-MAGNETIC LOCK.--J. C. Smith, Brooklyn, N. Y.

98,115.--BRICK MACHINE.--Thomas Smurfit, Davisville, Mich.

98,116.--FLOOR CLAMP.--Joseph B. Spencer, Norwich, Conn. Antedated Dec.
17,1869.

98,117.--CHURN DASHER.--Aurelius Sperry, Tremont, Ill.

98,118.--GAS GENERATOR AND CARBURETER.--Amos Stevens (assignor to E. A.
Whitney), Fitchburg, Mass.

98,119.--ROCKING AND EASY CHAIR.--A. W. Stewart, Boston, Mass.

98,120.--PLOW.--R. E. Strait, Galesburg, Mich.

98,121.--MACHINE FOR SCOURING, SETTING-CUT, AND FINISHING HIDES OK
SKINS.--John Taggart, Melrose, assignor to himself and W. N. Brink,
Boston, Mass.

98,122.--VARIABLE CUT-OFF FOR STEAM ENGINES.--M. C Taylor, Grass Valley,
Cal. Antedated Dec. 17,1869.

98,123.--SHINGLE PACKER.--R. B. Taylor, Pensaukie, Wis.

98,124.--CUTTER-HEAD.--Hiram Thompson (assignor to R. Ball & Co.),
Worcester, Mass.

98,125.--WATER-WHEEL.--W. J. Thompson, Springfield, Mo.

98,126.--WHEEL FOR STEAM CARRIAGE--R. W. Thomson, Edinburgh, Great
Britain. Patented in England, April 21, 1868.

98,127.--CIRCULAR SAW MILL.--John Trunick, Muscatine, Iowa

98,128.--CLOD FENDER.--J. W. Tull, Zionsville, Ind.

98,129.--NECKTIE AND COLLAR COMBINED.--James Varley, Hudson, assignor to
himself and D. M. Smyth, Orange, N. J.

98,130.--EYE FOR RAILWAY CAR BELL-ROPE.--W. M. Walton (assignor to J. J.
Walton), Newark, N. J.

98,131.--PIPE COUPLING.--J. D. Ware, Savannah, Ga.

98,132.--GAGE COCKS.--G. L. Watson, Nesquehoning, Pa.

98,133.--LUBRICATOR FOR THE BOLSTERS OF VERTICAL SHAFTS.--J.W.Watties,
Canton, Mass.

98,134.--BRICK KILN, ETC.--E.V. Wingard, Williamsport, Pa.

98,135.--MACHINE FOR SPINNING AND CURLING HAIR.--Philip Wisdom,
Brooklyn, N. Y., assignor to John Sickles, trustee, and John Sickles,
trustee, assignor to John Wisdom and J. H. Wilcox, New York city.

98,136.--SEED PLANTER.--D.C. Woods, Waxahatchie, Texas

98,137.--HARROW.--George Workman, Rochester, N. Y.

98,138.--RAILROAD SWITCH.--Edmund Yardley, Pittsburgh, Pa.

98,139.--APPARATUS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL.--Charles Adams
(assignor to himself and Charles Sharpe), Philadelphia, Pa.

98,140.--RAILWAY CAR SPRING.--William Barry and George Franklin,
Philadelphia, Pa.

98,141.--FOLDING CHAIR.--Burroughs Beach, Meriden, assignor to himself
and E.I. Pyle, Bridgeport, Conn.

98,142.--HAIR RESTORATIVE.--Ann K. Benson, Allegheny City, Pa.

98,143.--MACHINE FOR LAYING OUT SASH.--Alpheus Bigony, Winchester, Ohio.

98,144.--DEVICE FOR SECURING PULLEYS TO SHAFTS.--J. H. Buckman (assignor
to himself and P. W. Reinshagen), Cincinnati, Ohio.

98,145.--POCKET BOOK.--Alphonzo Button, Dunkirk, N. Y., assignor to M.
O. Wilber for one half of said patent.

98,146.--SPRING BED BOTTOM.--J. P. Chamberlin, Abington, Mass.

98,147.--SAFETY HARNESS BUCKLE.--John Chestnut, Jr., Hustontown, Pa.

98,148.--WASHING MACHINE.--A. P. Cindel and Martin Vogel, Jacksonville,
Ill.

98,149.--OPERATING DEVICE FOR WATER CLOSETS.--B. R. Cole, Buffalo, N. Y.

98,150.--TURBINE WATER-WHEEL.--E. F. Cooper, Mount Gilead, Ohio.

98,151.--SEWING MACHINE FOR SEWING BOOTS AND SHOES.--C. O. Crosby. New
Haven, Conn.

98,152.--CHURN DASHER.--Theophilus Crutcher, Edgefield, Tenn.

98,153.--WATER CLOSET VALVE.--J. N. Deck (assignor to himself, B. R.
Cole, and G. F. Deck), Buffalo, N. Y.

98,154.--CARD HOLDER.--C. R. Doane, Brooklyn, E. D., N. Y.

98,155.--PROCESS OF TREATING WINES, BEER, AND LIQUORS.--J. O. Donner,
Jersey City, N. J.

98,156.--VALVE GEAR.--T. E. Evans, W. R. Thomas, and Joshua Hunt,
Catasauqua, Pa.

98,157.--CORN PLANTER.--D. Fitzpatrick and John Knull, St. Paris, Ohio.

98,158.--PAINT BRUSH.--F. P. Furnald, Jr., R. W. Champion, and I. N.
Davies, New York city.

98,159.--GRUB HOOK.--J. W. Goodall, Eldred, Pa.

98,160.--WASH BOARD.--B. F. Gott, Brooklyn, E. D., N. Y.

98,161.--CHURN.--G. H. Gregory, North Wilton, Conn.

98,162.--HYDRO-PNEUMATIC GOVERNOR.--Andrew Harris, Philadelphia, Pa.

98,163--MUSICAL INSTRUMENT.--C. F. Hill, New York city.

98,164.--SECURING THE LASH IN FLY-NETS.--J. S. Huston, Mechanicsburg,
Pa.

98,165.--PROCESS OF PURIFYING AND DECOLORING ALBUMEN FROM BLOOD.--Pierre
Jacques, Paris, France.

98,166.--WIRE HANDLE FORMER.--W. C. Jones, Quincy, Ill.

98,167.--MECHANISM FOR RAISING AND LOWERING BOARDS.--Cheney Kilburn and
Artemas Kilburn (assignors to Hale, Goodman, & Co.), Philadelphia, Pa.

98,168.--EGG BEATER.--Linn Laurie, Washington, D. C.

98,169.--WIRE BALE FASTENING.--E. S. Lennox, New Brighton, N. Y.

98,170.--INSOLE FOR BOOTS AND SHOES.--Calvin A. Leonard, Rochester, N.
Y.

98,171.--GLOBE VALVE.--Hippolite Levasseur, Brooklyn, N. Y.

98,172.--LUBRICATING SLEEVE.--G.A. Lloyd, San Francisco, Cal., assignor
to himself and Anthony Rosenfield.

98,173.--COMPOSITION FOR PREVENTING INCRUSTATION IN STEAM BOILERS.--G.W.
Lord, Philadelphia, Pa.

98,174.--GAS GENERATOR AND BURNER.--C.B. Loveless, Syracuse, N.Y.

98,175.--EXTINGUISHING FIRE IN BUILDINGS.--Orozi Lugo, Baltimore, Md.

98,176.--APPARATUS FOR DISPENSING SODA-WATER SIRUPS.--John Matthews,
Jr., New York city.

98,177.--SIRUP-DISPENSING APPARATUS.--John Matthews, Jr., New York city.

98,178.--SIRUP RESERVOIR FOR SODA-FOUNTAINS.--John Matthews, Jr., New
York city.

98,179.--SOAP.--C.P. McGimsey, Memphis, Tenn.

98,180.--METHOD OF HEADING SCREWS.--Daniel T. Munger (assignor to
himself and Rufus E. Hitchcock), Waterbury, Conn.

98,181.--BRICK MOLD.--Matthew Newlove (assignor to himself and Samuel
Gilbert) Burlington, Iowa.

98,182.--HARVESTER CUTTER.--Theodore Neys, Menomonee, Wis., assignor to
himself and Alexis I. Brunell.

98,183.--COTTON SEED PLANTER.--A. E. Nixon, Memphis, Tenn.

98,184.--HOSE COUPLING.--William J. Osbourne (assignor to himself,
Gideon B. Massey, and William F. Shaffer), New York city.

98,185.--FARM GATE.--Christopher Ostrander, Lodi, Wis.

98,186.--RAILWAY RAIL CHAIR.--S.N. Park, Bloomsbury, N.J.

98,187.--NUT LOCK.--Morgan Payne, Cardington, Ohio.

98,188.--SHUTTLE-CHECK FOR LOOMS.--David Pickman (assignor to himself
and Stuart Bishop), Lowell, Mass.

98,189.--SAW GUIDE.--C. Purdy, Bedford, Ohio.

98,190.--GRAIN BIN.--Fitch Raymond and August Miller, Cleveland, Ohio.

98,191.--BOOKBINDING.--Ira Reynolds (assignor to "Reynolds & Reynolds"),
Dayton, Ohio.

98,192.--VAPOR BURNER.--Wm.H. Rudolph, St. Louis, Mo.

98,193.--CORN PLANTER.--C.B. Ruth, Doylestown, Pa. Antedated December
11, 1869.

98,194.--GATE.--Charles Saxton, Fredonia, Ohio.

98,195.--FARM GATE.--Samuel Scott, Yane, Ohio.

98,196.--POST AUGER.--George Seeger and Charles H. Shaffer, Clark's
Hill, Ind. Antedated December 11,1869.

98,197.--PAYING BLOCK.--Reuben Shaler, Madison, Conn.

98,198.--CARTRIDGE FEEDER FOR GUN HAMMER.--Thomas Shaw, Philadelphia,
Pa.

98,199.--WASH BOILER.--John P. Sherwood (assignor to himself and
Benjamin S. Burnham), Fort Edward, N. Y.

98,200.--BOOKBINDING.--David Shive, Philadelphia, Pa.

98,201.--RAILROAD CAR VENTILATOR.--Oliver Slagle, London, assignor to
himself and Thomas H. Foulds, Cincinnati, Ohio.

98,202.--CULTIVATOR.--S.T. Spaulding, North Cohocton, N.Y.

98,203.--ELEVATOR.--Francis Stein and Henry Haering--New York city.

98,204.--TIRE COOLER.--Edward Stodtmeister, Cape Girardeau, Mo.

98,205.--DYNAMOMETERS.--John W. Sutton, Portland, Oregon.

98,206.--MACHINE FOR SAWING AND SPLITTING WOOD--John A. Taplin, Carthage
Landing, Fishkill, N.Y.

98,207.--CARRIAGE SPRING.--George W. Tew, Kansas City, Mo.

98,208.--SELF--VENTILATING SAFETY CANS FOR FILLING AND DISCHARGING
HYDROCARBON APPARATUS.--Lovias D. Towsley Newark, N. J.

98,209.--CORD-TIGHTENER FOR CURTAIN FIXTURES.--Elisha Turner,
Wolcottville, Conn.

98,210.--MANUFACTURE OF PAPER PULP FROM WOOD.--George Vining,
Pittsfield, Mass.

98,211.--COMPOUND FOR MIXING PAINT.--Peter M. Wallower, Smith's Ferry,
Pa.

98,212.--HASP LOCK.--Cornelius Walsh, James F. Connelly, and Alfred
Bratt, Newark, N. J., assignors to Cornelius Walsh.

98,213.--SEED DRILL.--Orrin A. Wheeler, Doniphan, Kansas.

98,214.--EXPANDING TRIPLE SHOVEL PLOW.--Edward Wiard (assignor to B. F.
Avery), Louisville, Ky.

98,215.--HEAD-BLOCK OF SAW MILLS.--Franklin J. Staley (assignor to
himself, George W. Joseph, Isaac S. Long, and George H. Carter),
Indianapolis, Ind.

       *       *       *       *       *




REISSUES.


97,293.--MACHINE FOR CLIPPING HORSES' HAIR.--Dated June 30, 1868;
patented in England, April 24, 1867; reissue 3,767.--Patrick Adie, of
the Stand, London, England.

23,033.--HOSE COUPLING.--Dated February 22,1859; reissue 3,768.--William
H. Bliss, Newport, R. I., assignee of himself and Robert B. Lawton.

52,135.--SEEDING MACHINE.--Dated January 23, 1866; reissue 3,769.--Henry
Bundel, Dayton, Ohio.

26,475.--BREECH-LOADING FIREARM.--Dated December 20, 1859; reissue
3,770.--Bethel Burton, Brooklyn, N. Y., and Wm. C. Ward, New York city,
assignees of Bethel Burton.

94,486.--EXTENSION SLIDE FOR TABLES.--Dated September 7, 1869; reissue
3,771.--S. J. Genung. Waterloo, N. Y.

71,624.--ELECTRIC CLOCK.--Dated December 3, 1867; reissue 3,772.--The
Kennedy Electric Clock Company, New York city, assignees of Samuel A.
Kennedy, S. W. Holt, and Joseph Gerlach.

82,705.--SCRUBBING BRUSH.--Dated October 6, 1868; reissue 3,773.--B.F.
Koller, Shrewsbury, Pa., assignee of Samuel Gibson.

42,617.--PUMP.--Dated May 3, 1864; reissue 3,774.--Henry R. Sensenig and
Moses W. Martin. Earl township, Pa., assignees, by mesne assignments, of
Martin W. Zimmerman and John Zimmerman.

88,208.--MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL.--Dated March 23, 1869; reissue
3,775.--John Ralston, Abraham L. Thomas, and William Parkinson, for
themselves, and William A. Shoemaker, Schuylkill county, and George
E. Buckley, Philadelphia, Pa., assignees of said Ralston, Thomas, and
Parkinson.

       *       *       *       *       *




DESIGNS.


3,790 and 3,791.--TACK HEAD.--Orrin L. Bassett (assignor to the Taunton
Tack Company), Taunton, Mass. Two patents.

3,792.--COFFEE OR TEA FILTER.--George M. Bull, New Baltimore, N.Y.

3,793.--CARPET PATTERN.--Robert R. Campbell (assignor to Lowell
Manufacturing Company), Lowell, Mass.

3,794.--CAR VENTILATOR.--Robert Hitchcock, Springfield, Mass.

3,795 to 3,797.--WARDROBE HOOK.--Morton Judd, New Haven, Conn. Three
patents.

3,798 to 3,802.--CARPET PATTERN.--Elemir J. Ney, Dracut, assignors to
Lowell Manufacturing Company, Lowell, Mass. Five patents.

3,803.--TRADE MARK.--Charles Perkes, Philadelphia, Pa. 3,804 and
3,805.--WATCH PLATE.--George P. Reed, Boston, Mass. Two patents.

3,806.--FRUIT JAR COYER.--Henry E. Shaffer, Rochester, N.Y.

       *       *       *       *       *

SUBSCRIBERS--who wish to have their volumes bound, can send them to this
office. The charge for binding is $1.50 per volume. The amount should be
remitted in advance, and the volumes will be sent as soon as they are
bound.

       *       *       *       *       *

ADVERTISEMENTS

_The value of the_ SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN _as an advertising medium cannot
be over-estimated. Its circulation is ten times greater than that of
any similar journal now published. It goes into all the States
and Territories, and is read in all the principal libraries and
reading-rooms of the world. We invite the attention of those who wish
to make their business known to the annexed rates. A business man wants
something more than to see his advertisement in a printed newspaper. He
wants circulation. If it is worth 25 cents per line to advertise in
a paper of three thousand circulation, it is worth $2.50 per line to
advertise in one of thirty thousand._

RATES OF ADVERTISING.

  Back Page    $1.00 a line.
  Inside Page     75 cents a line.

_Engravings may head advertisements at the same rate per line, by
measurement, as the letter-press_.

       *       *       *       *       *

FOR SALE--A 9-ft. Planer, 4 Lathes, 2 Shapers, Gear Cutter, Drill Press,
Fanblower, Anvils, Vises, etc., at L. DUVINAGE'S, 209 Center st., New
York.

       *       *       *       *       *

TOSELLI'S Ice Machines, Simple in operation, makking transparent ice
without steam power. Address G. B. NEWMAN,33 Maiden Lane, New York.

       *       *       *       *       *

GALVANO PLASTIC IRON--For Bank Note Printing, Books, Engravings, etc.
Patent Rights for sale by C. M. CLAY & CO., No. 45 Liberty st. Box 4950.

       *       *       *       *       *

CANCERS, SCROFULA, and all CUTANEOUS DISEASES cured by using the

SHELDON SPRING WATER.

Book of thirty pages, with certificates, sent free. Addres J. W. BEALS,
Treasurer, Boston, Mass.

       *       *       *       *       *

AGENTS WANTED IN EVERY COUNTY of the four following States:--Illinois,
Indiana, Iowa, and Wisconsin, to sell B. F. Alexander's Patent Horse Hay
Fork. For particulars address HOMER DUBREE, Glen Hope, Clearfleld Co.,
Pa.

       *       *       *       *       *

_IRON & WOODWORKING_

Machinery Depot. New and Second-hand. GEORGE L. CUMMTNGS, 140 Center
st., New York.

       *       *       *       *       *

FOR SALE

_AT A BARGAIN_,

A BABCOCK & WILCOX ENGINE, 16-in. cylinder, 42 in. stroke, NEARLY NEW.
This Engine is to be taken out by Wm. A. Harris, and replaced by a
Corliss Engine, built by him. Address

WILLIAM A. HARRIS,

Providence, R.I., or 49 Murray st., New York.

       *       *       *       *       *

HUNTER'S GUIDE--Revised, Enlarged, New Secrets Added. 24,000 already
sold. Twenty-seventh edition of 5,000 copies Now Ready, enlarged, twenty
new tanning secrets added (three cost $5 each). THE HUNTER'S GUIDE AND
TRAPPER'S COMPANION tells how to hunt and trap all animals, from mink to
bear, to make traps, boats, etc. How to tan and dress all hides, etc.,
etc., to color furs and skins. New secrets just added. The secret
recipes in this book would cost $30 anywhere else. Tells how to hunt,
fish, has hunting narratives, etc., etc. A New Book, well printed and
bound, 64 pp. Price (not $1) but 25c.; six for $1; mailed free. Beware
of "Recipes," "10-cent papers," and swindlers. Sold by all dealers. All
wholesale news dealers sell it. Send for one. Worth $10 to any farmer,
hunter, or boy. Only a "QUARTER." Address

HUNTER & CO., Publishers, Hinsdale, N.H.

       *       *       *       *       *

COLLEGIATE & Commercial Institute (Gen. Russell's School), New Haven,
Conn. Winter term begins Jan.11

       *       *       *       *       *

FOR SALE--A splendid set of Sub-marine Diving Apparatus, but little
used, cheap. Address Box 1582, Norwich, Conn.

       *       *       *       *       *

We rarely open a more readable magazine than "The Galaxy." There is not
a dull page between its covers.--_N.Y. Times_.

Well sustains its reputation for vigorous and racy writing.--_N. Y.
Tribune_.

A model periodical; a credit to American periodical literature.--_Press,
Philadelphia_.

THE GALAXY FOR 1870.

GREAT ATTRACTIONS.

ARTICLES SECURED FROM

CHARLES READE, MRS. EDWARDS, RICHARD GRANT WHITE, ANTHONY TROLLOPE,
JUSTIN McCARTHY, PARK GODWIN, DR. J. C. DALTON, DR. DRAPER.

AND ALL THE LEADING WRITERS OF THE DAY.

FIRST.

PUT YOURSELF IN HIS PLACE.--Charles Reade's Great Story will continue
to delight the readers of the Galaxy the greater part of the year 1870.
Part First is is now ready in book form, and will be sent free with the
Galaxy for 1870 on receipt of $4, the regular subscription price.

SECOND.

A NEW STORY BY MRS. EDWARDS, author of "Susan Fielding," "Steven
Lawrence, Yeoman," etc. Mrs. Edwards is one of the very best female
novelists now writing in the English language.

THIRD.

ANTHONY TROLLOPE will furnish a series of "Editors' Tales," in which he
will work an entirely new vein.

FOURTH.

PARK GODWIN, one of the ablest American writers, will furnish a series
of noteworthy articles on Historical subjects.

FIFTH.

RICHARD GRANT WHITE will continue his critical and social essays.

SIXTH.

JUSTIN MCCARTHY, whose skill as an efficient magazine writer is almost
unequaled, has been engaged on the Editorial Staff, and will contribute
regularly to the Galaxy.

SEVENTH.

TEN YEARS IN ROME, giving an inside view of the Roman Catholic Church,
by a late Ecclesiastic, will be a noteworthy series of articles.

EIGHTH.

THE SCIENTIFIC ARTICLES will be prepared by Drs. Dalton and Draper, both
eminent Physiologists.

NINTH.

THE EDITORIAL STAFF of the Galaxy is now very large, and has on it the
best talent engaged on American periodical literature.

We have arranged for very liberal clubbing terms with the other leading
periodicals.

A sample copy will be sent on receipt of 25 cents.

Price, 35 cents per number; $4 per year.

NOW IS THE TIME TO SUBSCRIBE.

THE GALAXY IS THE BEST OF AMERICAN MAGAZINES.

SHELDON & COMPANY,

498 & 500 Broadway, New York.

       *       *       *       *       *

FOUND AT LAST.--Watches Superseded. The Dollar Time Keeper.--A Perfect
Gem.--Elegantly cased in Oriode of Gold, Superior Compass attachment,
Enameled Dial, Silver and Brass Works, glass crystal, size of Ladies'
Watch. Will denote correct time, warranted five years, superb and showy
case, entirely of metal. This is no wood Compass. Is entirely new,
patented. 6500 sold in three weeks. Only $1 each, three for $2, in neat
case, mailed free. Trade supplied. Address the sole manufacturers,
MAGNETIC WATCH CO>, Hinsdale, N. H.

       *       *       *       *       *

STOCKS, DIES, AND SCREW PLATES Horton's and other Chucks. JOHN ASHCKOFT,
50 John st., New York. 16 tf

       *       *       *       *       *

THE NOVELTY IRON WORKS--Foot E. 12th st., and 77 and 83 Liberty st.,
New York Manufacture the most approved Stationary Steam Engine, with
Variable Cut-off, now in use.

       *       *       *       *       *

ROBERT McCALVEY, Manufacturer of HOISTING MACHINES AND DUMB WAITERS. 602
Cherry st., Philadelphia, Pa.

       *       *       *       *       *

STATEMENT.

ORDINARY FURNACE, from 15th to 20th April, produced 23,195 lbs. of Muck
Bar, and 295 lbs. Scrap Bar, worked double turn. Day turn started at 3
A.M., and was done by 1 P.M. Night turn went on at 2 P.M., and was done
by 11 P.M., worked 5 heats to each turn. Consumed 350 bushels of coal.
Furnace was lighted on Sunday out of coal. The Stevenson Furnace, from
15th to 20th April, produced 29,160 lbs. of Muck Bar, and 515 lbs. of
Scrap Bar, worked double turn. Day turn started at 3 A.M., and was done
by 10 A.M. Night turn started at 11 A.M., and was done by 6 P.M., worked
6 heats to each turn. Consumed 300 bushels of coal. Furnace was lighted
on Sunday out of coal. The same weight of heats of Pig and Scrap were
weighed to each Furnace. On Stevenson Furnace, 3,963 lbs. more Muck Bar,
and 220 lbs. more Scrap Bar were made, with 50 bushels less coal than
were used in other furnace. The saving in ore (fix) in former over
latter during the week, was 450 lbs., by actual weight. A very important
feature is the great saving accomplished in brick and brick-laying. The
first Stevenson Furnace, put up three months, has not had any repair
put upon it, and is, to-day, in good working order, while the ordinary
furnaces are generally repaired about every two weeks. The cost, over
ordinary furnace, is about seventy dollars.

We cheerfully bear witness to the truth of the above statements of Mr.
Stevenson. They are rather under than over the mark. The quality of iron
made in his furnaces is the same as made by ordinary kind. We think it a
valuable improvement, and intend to introduce it as fast as possible in
our forge. J. PAINTER & SONS.

WILLIAM STEVENSON,

West Pittsburgh, Pa.

       *       *       *       *       *

FOR SALE.--The entire State Rights (except Georgia and Texas), of the
Self-supporting Gate. Every farmer wants it, and will give from three to
ten dollars for the right to make it for his own use. Address JOHN R.
DAVIS, Covington, Ca., stating what you will give.

[Illustration]

       *       *       *       *       *

LARGEST-BEST-CHEAPEST!

MOORE'S RURAL NEW-YORKER.

THE GREAT ILLUSTRATED

Rural, Literary, and Family Weekly.

MOORE'S RURAL Excels in CONTENTS, Size, Style, ILLUSTRATIONS, etc.
Sixteen Double-Quarto Pages of Five Columns Each. Ably Edited,
Beautifully Illustrated, Neatly Printed, and adapted to both Town and
Country. The RURAL is Profusely and Splendidly Illustrated--the vol.
just closed containing OVER EIGHT HUNDRED ENGRAVINGS!

The Rural for 1870

Will be the Largest, Best, and Cheapest ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF ITS CLASS
in the World! Only $3 a Year,--$2 50 in Clubs. All who form Clubs will
get

"GOOD PAY FOR DOING GOOD!"

A choice of OVER ONE HUNDRED VALUABLE PREMIUMS! Specimens, Premium
Lists, Posters, etc., sent free.

D. D. T. MOOME, 41 Park Row, N. Y,

       *       *       *       *       *

2d-Hand Machinery.

22x48; 16x36; 10x24; 9x12; 8x24, Stationary; and 2 Portable Engines, in
good order; Boilers of all sizes; Lathes; Wood and Iron Planers; Fay's
Molding Machine; Machinery bought, sold, and exchanged.

W. WILLARD,

47 Dey st., New York.

       *       *       *       *       *

THE GEM NOVELTY Combines a Superior Battonhole Cutter, Yard Measure,
Scissors Snarpener, Knife Sharpener, Pencil Sharpener, Emery Cushion,
Seam Ripper, Spool Stand,Thread Cutter, Scale, and Rule. A standard,
popular, and rich article for agents, very ornamental and useful. Rapid
sales guaranteed. Price prepaid by mail $1. For sample and liberal
terms. Address J. H. MARTIN, Hartford, N. Y.

       *       *       *       *       *

AN Experienced Civil and Mechanical Engineer is open for engagement as
Manager. Would undertake Contract Work. Address "Engineer," care of
Philip S. Justice Philadelphia, Pa.

       *       *       *       *       *

McCHESNEY'S IMP'VD GIG OR SCROLL

Saw.--First Medal and Diploma, Fair of the American Institute, N. Y.,
Sept. and Oct., 1869. Superior to any for either light or heavy work.
For description and price address

T.L. CORNELL, Birmingham, Conn.

       *       *       *       *       *

NATIONAL WAGES TABLES--

Showing at a glance any wages from $1 to $37, by hour, day, or week,
from half an hour to four weeks. Half bound, 50 cents; cloth, 75 cents;
in Morocco, $1. Sent by mail on receipt of Price. Address

NELSON ROW, Publisher,

149 Fulton st., New York.

       *       *       *       *       *

BAIRD'S CATALOGUE OF PRACTICAL & SCIENTIFIC BOOKS.

Sent free of postage to any one who will furnish his address to

HENRY CAREY BAIRD,

Industrial Publisher, 406 Walnut St.,

PHILADELPHIA.

       *       *       *       *       *

NOW READY.

Charles Reade's Great Story,

PUT YOURSELF IN HIS PLACE.

PART FIRST.

One volume, octavo, elegantly illustrated. Price, $1. Containing all
published in the "Galaxy" up to the January Number.

This great story will be continued in the "Galaxy" most of the year
1870.

PUT YOURSELF IN His PLACE will be sent with the "Galaxy," for 1870, on
receipt of $4. which is the regular subscription price of the "Galaxy."

THE GALAXY NOW STANDS AT THE HEAD OF AMERICAN MAGAZINES.

RECENTLY PUBLISHED.

SUSAN FIELDING.

A NOVEL, BY MRS. EDWARDS.

Author of "Archie Lovell" and "Steven Lawrence, Yeoman."

One vol., octavo. Elegantly Illustrated. Cloth, $2. Paper, $1 25.

Also, A New Edition of

ARCHIE LOVELL.

A NOVEL, BY MRS. EDWARDS.

One volume, octavo. Illustrated. Cloth. $1 75. Paper, $1.

STEVEN LAWRENCE, YEOMAK

A NOVEL, BY MRS. EDWARDS.

One volume, octavo. Illustrated. Cloth, $2; paper, $1 25

SHELDON & COMPANY, Publishers,

NEW YORK.

       *       *       *       *       *

"It Still Waves."

The old favorite, the "STAR SPANGLED BANNER." The Jan. No. just out, Now
is the Time to Subscribe Every No. contains 40 long columns, 8 pages,
Ledger size 480 long columns of splendid reading during 1870. Four
columns of "swindling exposures" in every No. In fact the whole paper
is brimming with Wit, Humor, Fun Sense & Nonsense, Wit, Wisdom, & Wind,
Fun, Fact, & Fancy. It is Rich, Rare, & Racy; Smart, Spicy, & Sparkling.
It exposed 100 swindlers last year, and is bound to "show up" rascality
without fear or favor. You Need it. There is nothing Like it. It will
instruct, amuse, and will Save You Money. We give the superb steel
plate, 11/2x2 feet in size, entitled "Evangeline," mount it on roller, and
send it Gratis, and the paper till 1871, all for only 75c. Engraving
alone sells for $2. It is not a "sell." Has been published regular since
1863. Largest circulation in New Hampshire. If you try it one year you
will come again. You have often thought of subscribing--Now is Just the
Time. We will refund your money if you are not Perfectly Satisfied it
Will Pay. You run no risk. Buy a copy of any newsman, or send six cents
and receive one by mail. Remember you get the elegant parlor engraving,
"Evangeline," (richly worth $2), and the paper a whole year; all for
only 75c. Satisfaction Guaranteed, or will return your cash. Address

"STAR SPANGLED BANNER," Hinsdale, N. H,

       *       *       *       *       *

S. CRAIGE'S PATENT SPUR FOR SALE

at the Philadelphia Riding School, Nos 3,334 to 42 Market st.,
Philadelphia. This spur possesses advantages over every other spur. Is
easily put on, and solid when on. Will last a life-time. Suitable for
Ladies or Gentlemen. Send size of heel.

       *       *       *       *       *

PRACTICAL DRAFTSMAN'S BOOK OF

INDUSTRIAL DESIGN

AND MACHINISTS' & ENGINEERS'

DRAWING COMPANION.

Forming a Complete Course of Mechanical, Engineering, and Architectural
Drawing. From the French of M. Armengaud the elder, Prof. of Design
in Conservatoire of Arts and Industry, Paris, and MM. Armengaud the
younger, and Amoroux, Civil Engineers. Rewritten and arranged with
additional matter and plates, selections from and examples of the most
useful and generally employed mechanism of the day. By WILLIAM JOHNSON,
Assoc. Inst., C.E. Illustrated by fifty folio steel plates, and fifty
wood cuts. A new edition, 4to.............$10

Among the contents are:--Linear Drawing, Definitions, and Problems.
Sweeps, Sections, and Moldings, Elementary Gothic Forms and Rosettes.
Ovals, Ellipses, Parabolas, and Volutes, Rules, and Practical Data.
Study of Projections, Elementary Principles. Of Prisms and other
Solids. Rules and Practical Data. On Coloring Sections, with
applications--Conventional Colors, Composition or Mixture of Colors.
Continuation of the Study of Projections--Use of Sections--details of
machinery. Simple applications--spindles, shafts, couplings, wooden
patterns. Method of constructing a wooden model or pattern of a
coupling. Elementary applications. Rules and Practical Data.

THE INTERSECTION AND DEVELOPMENT OF SURFACES WITH APPLICATIONS.--The
Intersection of Cylinders and Cones. The Delineation and Development
of Helices, Screws, and Serpentines. Application of the helix--the
construction of a staircase. The Intersection of Surfaces--applications
to stop cocks. Rules and Practical Data

THE STUDY AND CONSTRUCTION OF TOOTHED GEAR.--Involute, cycloid, and
epicyloid. Involute. Cycloid External epicycloid, described by a
circle rolling about a fixed circle inside of it. Internal epicycloid.
Delineation of a lack and pinion in gear. Gearing of a worm with a worm
wheel. Cylindrical or Spur Gearing. Practical delineation of a couple
of Spur wheels. The Delineation and Construction of Wooden Patterns for
Toothed Wheels. Rules and Practical Data.

CONTINUATION OF THE STUDY OF TOOTHED GEAR.--Design for a pair of bevel
wheels in gear. Construction of wooden patterns for a pair of beveled
wheels. Involute and Helical Teeth. Contrivances for obtaining
differential Movements. Rules and Practical Data.

ELEMENTARY PRINCIPLES OF SHADOWS.--Shadows of Prisms, Pyramids, and
Cylinders. Principles of Shading. Continuation of the Study of Shadows.
Tuscan Order. Rules and Practical Data.

APPLICATION OF SHADOWS TO TOOTHED GEAR.--Application of Shadows to
Screws. Application of Shadow to a Boiler and its Furnace. Shading in
Black--Shading in Colors.

THE CUTTING AND SHAPING OF MASONRY.--Rules and Practical Data. Remarks
on Machine Tools.

THE STUDY OF MACHINERY AND SKETCHING.--Various applications and
combinations: The Sketching of Machinery. Drilling Machines; Motive
Machines; Water-wheels. Construction and Setting up of water wheels,
Delineation of water wheels, Design of a water wheel, Sketch of a water
wheel; Overshot Water wheels, Water Pumps; Steam Motors; High-pressure
expansive steam engine. Details of Construction; Movements of the
Distribution and Expansion Valves; Rules and Practical Data.

OBLIQUE PROJECTIONS. PARALLEL PERSPECTIVE.

TRUE PERSPECTIVE.--Elementary principles. Applications--flour mill
driven by belts. Description of the mill. Representation of the mill in
perspective.

EXAMPLES OF FINISHED DRAWINGS OF MACHINERY.

The above or any of my Books sent by mail, free of postage, at the
publication prices. My new revised and enlarged CATALOGUE OF PRACTICAL
AND SCIENTIFIC BOOKS, 74 pp. 8vo, now ready, complete to Nov. 1. 1869,
will be sent, free of postage, to any one who will favor me with his
address.

HENRY CAREY BAIRD

Industrial Publisher,

406 Walnut st..Philadelphia, Pa.

       *       *       *       *       *

"A BLAZE OF BEAUTY." FOR 1870.

THE JANUARY DOUBLE NUMBER OF THE PICTORIAL PHRENOLOGICAL JOURNAL appears
in bright array. A new form, new types, numerous rich illustrations,
with sound and sensible reading matter, render this the best ever
issued. Among the contents are the following:

Ferdinand De Lesseps, the chief promoter of the Suez Canal with a
portrait and sketch of his life. Hon. S. S. Fisher, United States
Commissioner of Patents, with portrait and biographical sketch, and a
glimpse of the workings of the Patent Office. Carlos Manuel Cespedes,
the President of the Cuban Republic. George Peabody, the successful
merchant, banker, and philanthropist. Dr Tischendorff, the eminent
Biblical discoverer and critic--his life, travels, and writings, with
portrait.

The Kaffir Race--Physically and mentally considered: with
engravings, from life, of young and old natives. Northwestern
Australians--Appearance, customs, and peculiarities, dress, ornaments,
food, weapons, etc.

The Progress of Science-Steam, electricity, invention, scientific
discovery, anatomy, physiology, medicine, phrenology.

Brain Waves--Progression of thought how thought and sentiment are
transmitted. What Can I do Best?--Or, the requirements of the teacher.
Who believes Phrenology?--Are there among its followers persons of
eminence and influence? Faces We Meet--What they tell us and how they
affect us. An Afternoon at "389"--A glimpse at the specimens in our
cabinet. Small cautiousness--"Just for Fun," or trifling with death.

Confessions of a Smoker; what he suffered in consequence of the habit;
how he reformed and the happy results. The Wasp Waist--its metaphysics
and physiology. Application--the necessity for its culture.

Our Country's Agricultural Resources--A survey of our productions during
the past fifty years with tables.

Facts in Natural History--Will a horsehair become a snake? The Hedge
hog--What it is, how it lives, and where it is found. Illustrated. The
Sponge--Its origin, growth, and uses. Educational Matters-Cornell,
Harvard, Yale, Michigan. Cathedral of Rheims-The Coronation place of the
old French Kings; Joan of Arc.

This favorite JOURNAL has now reached its fiftieth volume, and appears
in the usual magazine form. We think it will prove even more popular
than ever before. Terms, only $30 a year. Thirty cents a No. Newsmen
have it. Now is the time to subscribe for 1870. Premium list sent on
application. Address

S.R. WELLS, 389 Broadway, N.Y.

       *       *       *       *       *

R. BALL & CO., Worcester, Mass., Manufacturers of Woodworth's, Daniel's,
and Dimension Planers; Molding, Matching, Tenoning, Mortising Shaping,
and Boring Machines; Scroll Saws, Re-Sawing, Sand Boring, Wood turning
Lathes and a variety of other Machines for Working Wood. Also, the best
Patent Door, Hub, and Rail Car Mortising Machines in the world. Send for
our Illustrated Catalogue.

RICHARD BALL.

E.P. HALSTED

       *       *       *       *       *

DO NOT BE SWINDLED.--READ STARSPANGLED BANNER

       *       *       *       *       *

VINEGAR.--How Made from Cider, Wine, Molasses, or Sorghum in 10 hours,
without using jugs. For circulars, address F I. SAGE, Vinegar Maker,
Cromwell Conn.

       *       *       *       *       *

FOR SALE LOW--A No. 6 Taft's Pat. Power Shears. In use but a few days.

H. McMURTRIE & CO,

80 Milk st., Boston, Mass.

       *       *       *       *       *

ATTENTION INVENTORS!

Having lately made several important negotiations, thereby leaving
vacancies in our regular schedule, we are now prepared to receive
applications from patentees who wish to contract with us for the sale
of their inventions. Enough will be selected to fill our list, and
negotiations for their sale immediately commenced. Comunications by mail
promptly noticed. Commissions reasonable.

E. E. ROBERTS & CO., Consulting Engineers,

15 Wall st., New York.

       *       *       *       *       *

HINKLEY KNITTING MACHINE

For Family Use--simple, cheap, reliable. Knits everything. AGENTS
WANTED. Circular and sample stocking FREE. Address HINKLEY KNITTING
MACHINE CO., Bath, Me., or 176 Broadway, N.Y.

       *       *       *       *       *

CAST STEEL Name Punches, Letters, and Figures--all sizes and styles, and
for all purposes, made by

ROBERT ROGEKS, Letter Cutter, 26 Spruce st., S.E. cor. William st., New
York.

       *       *       *       *       *

PARKER POWER PRESSES.

[Illustration]

Are what are universally known as the

"FOWLER PRESS,"

improved, and _are without a rival_ as regards strength and durability,
combined with delicacy of adjustment of the Punch. NOTICE is hereby
given that the

STILES POWER PRESS

is a direct INFRINGEMENT OF OUR PATENT dated April 17, 1855, and
reissued Aug. 24, 1869, and ALL PARTIES are hereby CAUTIONED against
BUYING OR USING said presses WITHOUT OUR PERMISSION.

PARKER BROTHERS,

West Meriden, Conn.

New York office with CHAS. PARKER, 27 Beekman st.

       *       *       *       *       *

THE BEST PUNCHING PRESSES ARE

made by the Inventor and Patentee of the famous Eccentric Adjustment.
Infringements upon said Patent will be severely dealt with.

N.C. STILES,

Middletown, Conn.

       *       *       *       *       *

WROUGHT-Iron Pipe for Steam, Gas, and Water; Brass Globe Valves and Stop
Cocks, Iron Fittings, etc. JOHN ASHCROFT, 50 John St., N.Y.

       *       *       *       *       *

RICHARDSON, MERIAM & CO.,

Manufacturers of the latest improved Patent Daniels' and Woodworth
Planing Machines, Matching, Sash and molding, Tenoning, Mortising,
Boring, Shaping Vertical and Circular Re-sawing Machines, Saw Mills, Saw
Arbors, Scroll Saws, Railway, Cut-off, and Rip-saw Machines, Spoke and
Wood Turning Lathes, and various other kinds of Wood-working Machinery.
Catalogues and price lists sent on application. Manufactory, Worcester,
Mass. Warehouse, 107 Liberty st., New York. 17

       *       *       *       *       *

CINCINNATI BRASS WORKS.--Engineers' and Steam Fitters' Brass Work. Best
Quality at very Low Prices.

F. LUNKENHEIMER, Prop'r,

Cincinnati, Ohio.

       *       *       *       *       *

L.W. Pond's New Tools.

NEW AND IMPROVED PATTERNS--

Lathes, Planers, Drills, Milling Machines, Boring Mills, Gear and Bolt
Cutters Punches and Shears for iron. Dealer in

IRON & WOOD WORKING MACHINERY

Works at Worcester, Mass. Office, 98 Liberty st., N.Y.

S.N. HARTWELL, General Agent.

       *       *       *       *       *

S.S.B "SO SAID BILL." The STAR SPANGLED BANNER saved me from sending $10
to a swindler.

       *       *       *       *       *

WANTED--Iron Planers, Engine Lathes, Boring and Shaping Machines, one
set of Boiler Tools, Cupola, etc.; must be modern tools, and as good as
new. Address, with catalogue and lowest cash prices,

JOHN COOPER & CO., Mount Vernon, Ohio.

       *       *       *       *       *

_Niagara Steam Pump_.

CHAS. B. HARDICK,

No. 9 Adams st., Brooklyn, N.Y.

       *       *       *       *       *

OTIS' SAFETY HOISTING

_Machinery._

OTIS BROTHERS & CO.

NO. 309 BROADWAY, NEW YORK.

       *       *       *       *       *

Do your own Printing

WITH A NOVELTY JOB PRINTING PRESS

The only Low-Priced Press ever invented, that will do good printing.
Printing can be done as well and as rapidly on this press as on the best
that printers use; and for printing offices where artificial power is
not used, or for business men, apothecaries, grocers, country traders,
and others who desire to do their own printing, it is entirely without a
rival. The Best Holiday Gift for Boys. Price of Presses--$15, $30,
$32, and $50. Send for full descriptive illustrated circulars, with
testimonials from all parts of the country, and specimens of plain and
color printing done on the press, & specimen sheets of types, borders,
cuts, rules, etc., to

BENJ. O. WOODS, Proprietor,

351 Federal st., Boston, Mass.

[Illustration]

       *       *       *       *       *

IRON STEAMERS, HULLS, & LIGHTERS.

Estimates & Specifications furnished on application. HENRY J. DAVISON,
77 Liberty st., New York, Agent for Pusey, Jones & Co. 21 tf

       *       *       *       *       *

HAIR, WOOL, AND COTTON DUCK FELT, for sale by the Square foot,or boilers
covered by Contract. RUSSIAN FELT, of every description, a SPECIALTY, by
HENRY J. DAVISON

77 Liberty st., N.Y.

       *       *       *       *       *

WAGON AXLES, COMMON, CONCORD, IRON HUB, and SOLID COLLAR, of superior
quality & finish. Also, Manufacturers of Machinery, Pat. Steam and Belt
Forge Hammers, Power Shears, Car Axles, Windlass Necks Truss Shapes,
Crowbars, Boiler Fronts, Cast Iron Jack Screws, Patent Swage Blocks,
Tire <DW12>s. Forgings & Castings. Address, for Price List, LYMAN
KINSLEY & CO., Cambridgeport, Mass.

       *       *       *       *       *

TO THE WORKING CLASS.--We are now prepared to furnish all classes with
constant employment at home, the whole of the time or for the spare
moments. Business new, light and profitable. Persons of either sex
easily earn from 5oc. to $5 per evening, and a proportional sum by
devoting their whole time to the business. Boys and girls earn nearly as
much as men. That all who see this notice may send their address, and
test the business, we make this unparalleled offer: To such as are not
well satisfied, we will send $1 to pay for the trouble of writing. Full
particulars, a valuable sample, which will do to commence work on, and a
copy of _The People's Literary Companion_--one of the largest and best
family newspapers published--all sent free by mail. Reader, if you want
permanent, profitable work, address E.C. ALLEN & CO., Augusta, Maine.

       *       *       *       *       *

INVENTORS, AGENTS, MERCHANTS, and all Dealers in Patents or Patented
Goods, should subscribe for the PATENT STAR, devoted to their Interests.
Terms 5oc. per year. Send stamp for sample to

BENT, GOODNOW & CO., Boston, Mass.

       *       *       *       *       *

WROUCHT IRON BEAMS & GIRDERS

The Union Iron Mills, Pittsburgh, Pa. The attention of Engineers and
Architects is called to our improved Wrought-iron Beams and Girders
(patented), in which the compound welds between the stem and flanges,
which have proved so objectionable in the old mode of manufacturing,
are entirely avoided, we are prepared to furnish all sizes at terms
as favorable as can be obtained elsewhere. For descriptive lithograph
address the Union Iron Mills. Pittsburgh, Pa.

       *       *       *       *       *

ASHCROFT'S LOW-WATER DETECTOR will insure your Boiler against explosion.
JOHN ASHCROFT, 50 John st.. New York. 16 tf

       *       *       *       *       *

POWER LOOMS.

Impreved Drop Box. Spooling, Winding, Beaming, Dyeing, and Sizing
Machines Self-Actmg, Wool-Scouring Machines, Hydra Extractors Also,
Shafting, Pulleys, and Sen-Oiling Adjusable Han...ers [Transcribers
note: word illegible], manuf'd by THOS. WOOD, 2106 Wood st., Philad'a.
Pa

       *       *       *       *       *

WOODBURY'S PATENT

Planing and Matching

and Molding Machmes, Gray & Wood's Planers, Self-oiling Saw Arbors, and
other wood working machinery.

  S. A. WOODS,         / 91 Liberty street, N. Y.;
  Send for Circulars.  \ 67 Sudbury street, Boston.

       *       *       *       *       *

BOILER FELTING SAVES TWENTY-FIVE PER CENT OF FUEL.

JOHN ASHCROFT,

50 John st. New York.

16 tf

       *       *       *       *       *

WATCH SWINDLES.--Humbug Music

Boxes. Bogus Money. Four columns of "Ventilations" in the "STAR SPANGLED
BANNER."

       *       *       *       *       *

BUERK'S WATCHMAN'S TIME DETECTOR.--Important for all large Corporation
and Manufacturing concerns--capable of controlling with the utmost
accuracy the motion of a watchman or patrolman, as the same reaches
different stations of his beat, Send for a Circular.

J.E.BUEBK,

P.O.Box 1,057, Boston, Mass.

N.B.--This detector is covered by two U. S. patents. Parties using or
selling these instruments without authority from me will be dealt with
according to law.

       *       *       *       *       *

LATHE CHUCKS--HORTON'S PATENT--from 4 to 36 inches. Also for car wheels.
Address

E. HORTON & SON, Windsor Locks, Conn.

       *       *       *       *       *

CATALOGUES 10 CENTS EACH, SENT BY MAIL.

_MATHEMATICAL INSTRUMENTS_, 112 pages. _OPTICAL INSTRUMENTS_, 72 pages.
_MAGIC LANTERNS and STEREOPTICONS_, 100pp. _PHILOSOPHICAL INSTRUMENTS_,
84 pages. JAMES W. QUEEN & CO., 924 Chestnut st..Philadelphia Pa

       *       *       *       *       *

COTTON AND WOOL

SHODDY PICKERS

Of the most approved English pattern, built by RICHABD KITSON

Lowell, Mass.

       *       *       *       *       *

Excelsior Lubricator

For Cylinders of Engines. The most durable and best oil cup,
manufactured by B. E. LEHMAN, Lehigh Valley Brass Works. Bethlehem, Pa.
Send for desc'ive circular

       *       *       *       *       *

MODELS, PATTERNS, EXPERIMENTAL,

and other machinery. Models for the Patent Office built to order by
HOLSKE MACHINE CO., Nos. 528, 530 and 532 Water st., near Jefferson.
Refer to SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN office. 14 tf

       *       *       *       *       *

MACHINERY FOR SALE--

Consisting of steam engines, boilers, machinists' tools, planers from
two to five feet wide, lathes from 11/2 to 7-ft. swing, and one boring,
turning, and slotting mill, of 8-ft. swing, trip hammer, blacksmith's
tools, fire proof safes, portable mills, fan blowers, water wheels,
pulleys, shafting, belting, platform scales, etc., etc.; all at prices
that will insure a rapid sale. Send for schedule. Engines, water wheels,
and machinery made to order.

GEOBGE T. McLAUTHLIN & CO.,

120 Fulton st., Boston, Mass.

       *       *       *       *       *

M. N. FORNEY, Mechanical Engineer, 64 B'dway (Room 48), N.Y. Designs,
Plans, Estimates and Working Drawings of Machinery. etc., promptly and
accurately made. Instruction given in Mechanical Drawing to a limited
number of pupils.

       *       *       *       *       *

NEW SCROLL SAW (Moyer's Pat.), with--out Post or Gate; uniform Tension;
no jarring or noise; executes better and faster than any other. Send for
a circular.

HAMPSON & COPELAND,

42 Cortlandt st., New York.

       *       *       *       *       *

PERFECTLY RELIABLE.--Established 1863. Satisfaction Guaranteed. "Star
Spangled Banner." 75 cents a year.

       *       *       *       *       *

THE WOODWARD STEAM-PUMP MANUFACTUBING COMPANY, Manufacturers of the
Woodward Pat. Improved Safety Steam Pump and Fire Engine, Steam, Water,
and Gas Fittings of all kinds. Also, Dealers in Wrought-iron Pipe,
Boiler Tubes, etc. Hotels, Churches, Factories, & Public Buildings,
Heated by Steam, Low Pressure. Woodward Building, 76 and 78 Center st.,
cor. of Worth st. (formerly of 77 Beekman st.), N.Y. All parties are
hereby cautioned against infringing the Pat. Bight of the above Pump. G.
M. WOODWABD, Pres't.

       *       *       *       *       *

CAMDEN

Tool and Tube Works,

Camden, N. J. Manufacturers of Wrought Iron Tube. Brass Work and
Fittings, and all the most improved TOOLS for Screwing, Cutting, and
Fitting Pipe. Screwing Machines for Pipe, of five different sizes. Pipe
Tongs, Common and Adjustable; Pipe Cutters, Pipe Vises, Taps, Bearners,
Drills, Screwing Stocks, and Solid Dies. Peace's Patent Screwing Stocks,
with dies. No. I Screws 3/4, 3/8, 1/2, 3/4, Pipe. Price complete, $10. No. 2
Screws, 1, 11/4, 11/2, 2 Pipe, $20. No. 3 both screws and cuts off, 21/2, 3,
31/2, 4, $65.

       *       *       *       *       *

TODD & RAFFERTY, Manufacturers and DEALERS IN MACHINERY.

Works, Paterson, N. J.; Warerooms, 10 Barclay St., N. Y Boilers, Steam
Pumps, Machinists' Tools. Also, Flax, Hemp, Rope, and Oakum Machinery,
Snow's and Judson's Governors, Wright's pat. Variable Cut-off & other
engines.

       *       *       *       *       *

To Electro-Platers.

BATTERIES, CHEMICALS, AND MATERIALS, in sets or single, with books
of instruction, manufactured and sold by THOMAS HALL, Manufacturing
Electrician, 19 Bromfleld st., Boston, Mass. Illustrated catalogue sent
free on application.

       *       *       *       *       *

PORTABLE STEAM ENGINES, combining the maximum of efficiency, durability
and economy, with the minimum of weight and price. They are widely and
favorably known, more than 750 being in use. All warranted satisfactory
or no sale. Descriptive circulars sent on application. Address

J C HOADLEY & CO Lawrence, Mass

       *       *       *       *       *

BLIND-SLAT TENON MACHINE.--We have recently patented one of the above
Machines, which we GUARANTEE SUPERIOR to any machine of the kind in
use. Shall be pleased to furnish cuts and prices of this and any other
Wood-working Machinery. Address STEPTOE, McFABLAN & CO., Cincinnati,
Ohio.

       *       *       *       *       *

FOR CUTS AND PRICES of Machinists' Tools, address STEPTOE, McFARLAN &
CO.,

Cincinnati, Ohio,

       *       *       *       *       *

STEAM AND WATER GAGES, STEAM Whistles, Gage Cocks, and Engineers'
Supplies. 16 tf

JOHN ASHCROFT, 50 John St., New York.

       *       *       *       *       *

H. BOARDMAN, Lancaster, Pa.--Superior Patent Cork-cutting Machinery,
Hard-laid Twine Cord, and Rope Machinery, with Pat. Stop & Condenser

       *       *       *       *       *

WOODWORTH PLANERS a SPECIALTY--From new patterns of the most approved
style and workmanship. Wood-working Machinery generally. Nos. 24 and 26
Central, corner Union street, Worcester, Mass. Warerooms. 42 Cortlandt
street, New York.

WITHERBY, RUGG & RICHARDSON.

       *       *       *       *       *

SILICATE OF SODA, IN ITS VARIOUS forms, manufactured as a specialty, by
Philadelphia Quartz Co., 783 South 2d St., Philadelpnia, Pa.

       *       *       *       *       *

11-2 by 2 FEET IS THE superb new plate "Evangeline," given free to all
who send 75 cents for the "STAR SPANGLED BANNER," for 1870.

       *       *       *       *       *

_Pevey's Cupola_,

WARRANTED to Melt, with, one tun of Coal, 2000 lbs. of Iron MORE than
any other Cupola now in use.

ABIEL PEVEY,

Patentee and Proprietor, Lowell, Mass. Van Tuyl & Co. No. 273 Cherry
st,. New York, Agents.

       *       *       *       *       *

MERRICK & SONS

Southwark Foundery,

430 Washington Ave., Philadelphia, Pa.,

MANUFACTURE NASMYTH & DAVY

STEAM HAMMERS, CORNISH PUMPING, BLAST, HORIZONTAL, VERTICAL, AND
OSCILLATING ENGINES.

Gas Machinery of all descriptions.

Sugar Refineries fitted up complete, with all modern apparatus.

New York office

62 Broadway.

       *       *       *       *       *

LECOUNT'S PATENT HOLLOW LATHE DOGS AND CLAMPS.--A set of 8 Dogs from 3/8
to 2-in., inclusive, $8. A set of 12 from 3/8 to 4-in., $17.30. Five
sizes Machinists' Clamps, from 2 to 6-in., inclusive, $11. Send for
Circular.

C.W. LECOUNT.

South Norwalk,

Conn.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

       *       *       *       *       *

MASON'S PAT'T FRICTION CLUTCHES are Manufactured by Volney W. Mason &
Co., Providence, R.I. Agents, R. BROOKS & CO., 123 Ave. D, New York.
TAPLIN RICE & CO. Akron, Ohio 16 tfeow

       *       *       *       *       *

Molding Machinery.

THE MOST VALUABLE MACHINE FOR Planing Irregular and Straight Work in all
branches of Wood-Working, is the Combination Molding and Planing Machine
Co.'s "Variety Molding and Planing Machine." Our improved guards make it
safe to operate; our combination collars save one hundred per cent;
and for planing, molding, and cutting irregular forms, our Machine is
unsurpassed. The right to make and vend these Machines is owned solely
by us, and we will defend Purchasers in case litigation is forced upon
them by any parties pretending to own Patent on any part of our Variety
Machine. COMBINATION MOLDING AND PLANING MACHINE CO., 424 East 23d st.,
or Postoffice Box 3230 New York City. Silas M. Hamilton, Baltimore
Samuel Leggert, New York. 19 tfeow

       *       *       *       *       *

Gear's Variety Moulding Machine,

WARRANTED THE BEST in THE WORLD FOR Moulding and Cutting Irregular
Forms, with Patent Improvements for Combination Cutters, and Patent
Guard to protect operator and material. Secured by six Patents. Deeds of
Right to use furnished with every Machine sold, to protect parties in
using them. Before purchasing Combination Moulding and Planing Machine
Co.'s or Grosvenor's Mongrel Infringing Machines, (which they and their
agents, in behalf of the Singer Sewing Machine Co., and the Central
Pacific R.R. Co., and others to whom they had sold Machines to be used
out of the State of New York, have been made to pay us for using) or
Ball's or Fay's infringing Machines, which users have had to pay us for
right to use. Address for particulars and Machines, Sole Owners and
Lawful Manufacturers for all the United States, except New York

A.S.& J. GEAR & CO.,

NEW HAVEN, CONN., or 91 Liberty Street, New York.

       *       *       *       *       *

MACHINERY.--S.C. HILLS, No.12 Platt st., New York, dealer in all kinds
of Machinery and Machinists' supplies. 2 tf a

       *       *       *       *       *

PLATINUM. H.M. RAYNOR 57 Bond st., N.Y.

       *       *       *       *       *

AGENTS wanted everywhere. Brown's Pat. Double Cone Ventilating Damper
gives the most heat with the least fuel. Send tor Circulars.

O.R. BRIGGS & CO., 184 Washington st., N.Y

       *       *       *       *       *

AMERICAN TINNED SHEET IRON.

Coating uniformly over the entire sheet, by an entirely new and patented
process. All sizes and gages on hand and made to order.

H. W. BUTTERWORTH & SON,

29 and 31 Haydock st., Philadelphia, Pa.

25 eow tt

       *       *       *       *       *

Independent Steam

BOILER SUPPLY, OR _Feed Pump_.

RELIABLE FOR HOT OR COLD WATER.

[Illustration]

Circulars sent free.

COPE & CO.,

No. 118 East 2d st., Cincinnati, Ohio

       *       *       *       *       *

BREECH-LOADING GUN.--

Probably superior to any in the market. Patent for sale. Address

T.L.,

Box 728 Postoffice, Derby, Conn,

       *       *       *       *       *

CIRCULAR SAW MILLS, PLANERS Matchers, etc. Prices Low. S. HEALD & SONS
Barre, Mass., make the Largest and Best Planer to be found for the
money. Send for circulars.

       *       *       *       *       *

SHINGLE AND HEADING MACHINE--Trevor & Co.'s Improved. The Simplest and
Best in use. Also, Shingle, Heading, and Stave Jointers, Stave Cutters,
Equalizers. Heading Turners, Planers, etc. Address TREVOR & CO,
Lockport, N. Y.

       *       *       *       *       *

THE INVENTOR'S AND MECHANIC'S GUIDE.--A valuable book upon Mechanics,
Patents, and New Inventions. Containing the U. S. Patent Laws, Rules and
Directions for doing business at the Patent Office; 112 diagrams of
the best mechanical movements, with descriptions; the Condensing Steam
Engine, with engraving and description; How to Invent; How to Obtain
Patents; Hints upon the Value of Patents; How to sell Patents; Forms for
Assignments; Information upon the Rights of Inventors, Assignees and
Joint Owners; Instructions as to Interferences, Reissues, Extensions
Caveats, together with a great variety of useful information in regard
to patents, new inventions, and scientific subjects, with scientific
tables, and many illustrations 108 pages. This is a most valuable work.
Price only 25 cents. Address MUNN & CO., 37 Park Row, N.Y.

       *       *       *       *       *

BALL, BLACK & CO.

Nos. 565 and 567 BROADWAY,

Offer an Unequaled Assortment of

JURGENSEN, NARDINE, JACOT, SALTZMAH, NICOUD, GERARD, FRODSHAM, PEARDON,
GORDING, RUGENSTEIN, HARRISON, TAYLOR.

ALSO, A FULL LINE OF AMERICAN WATCHES,

At the Lowest Price.

       *       *       *       *       *

ROPER Carloric Engine Co., 49 Cortlandt st. New Style Upright Engines.
Send for Circular.

       *       *       *       *       *

Perpetual Brick Kiln.

SAVES 2-3 IN FUEL. Address WEDEKIND & DUEBERG, 55 N. Calvert st.,
Baltimore, Md.

       *       *       *       *       *

WANTED-To correspond with an extensive manufacturing firm of 1st-class
reliability, to make and sell, on royalty, Dodge's 2-way cock or pump
attachment. Exclusive control of territory given. 100,000 doz wanted in
U.S. Address Hedden & Dodge, Lowville, N.Y.

       *       *       *       *       *

WANTED.--

In an Extensive Agricultural Implement Works in Ohio, an Experienced and
Capable Superintendent. None but a Through Machinist, who can give high
reference as to Character, etc., need apply. Address

Thrashing Machine Works, Drawer 5947, Chicago, Ill.

       *       *       *       *       *

RIGGS' BELMONTYLE OIL

PREVENTS

Rust, Tarnish, etc. Send for circular to

H.B. Riggs,

150 Front Street, Hew York.

       *       *       *       *       *

The Mother's Journal.

THE BEST HOME MAGAZINE IN THE WORLD.

Beautifully illustrated; 600 double-column pages; $2 per year. Specimens
sent free. Now is the time. Address

MOTHERS' JOURNAL, Chicago, 111.

       *       *       *       *       *

DECISION ON STEAM ENGINES.--Wm. A. HARRIS, builder of the Corliss Steam
Engine, was awarded the 1st Premium at the National Fair of the American
Institute, New York,1869, for its superiority in economy in fuel,
regularity in speed, perfect construction, accessibility of all its
parts. Send for a circular. One 80-H.P. Engine, ready for delivery; one
40-H.P. Engine, ready for delivery; three 30-H.P. Engines, ready for
delivery. WM. A. HARRIS Providence R.I. New York Office 49 Murray st.
Send for a circular.

       *       *       *       *       *

Manufacturers' Depot.

SPOKES, HUBS, WHEELS,

And a general assortment of Carriage and Wagon Wood work. The above
goods are of our own manufacture, which enables us to offer better
inducements than any other House in the city.

N.G. OLDS & SON,

51 Murray st., New York.

       *       *       *       *       *

ROOT'S WROUGHT IRON SECTIONAL

Safety Boiler.

Composed of best Wrought Iron Tubes, tested to 500 pounds; no large
sheet iron, shell or thin cast iron to explode. Absolutely safe,
economical, durable, and efficient. Send for pamphlet. Also, Steam
Engines, Steam Pumps, etc.

ROOT STEAM ENGINE CO.,

95 and 97 Liberty St., New York.

       *       *       *       *       *

FOR SALE--A 60-H.P. Root's Sectional Safety Boiler, at Atlantic Sugar
Refinery. Brooklyn. Apply to LABATT & CO., 111 Front st., New York.

       *       *       *       *       *

POWER PLEDGED

Equal to any overshot, with

N.F. BURNHAM'S

New Turbine

Water Wheel.

Illustrated Pamphlet, for 1870, "with Reduced Price List," sent free
by N.F. BURNHAM, "Patentee," York, Pa., or S.N. Hartwell, "Ag't," 98
Liberty st., N.Y.

[Illustration]

       *       *       *       *       *

The Woven Wire Mattress Co.

OF

HARTFORD, CONN.,

Call attention to the fact, that they have established AN AGENCY in
the City of NEW YORK, at 82 E. Ninth St., opposite the store of A. T.
Stewart & Co., for the sale of the

Woven Wire Mattress.

All who are interested in the article in this No. of the Scientific
American, all who admired its qualities at the American Institute Fair,
and all who desire A PERFECT BED, are requested to call at the Agency
and examine it. The Mattresses are for sale by many of the Furniture
Dealers in the city, and also throughout New England. If your furniture
dealer does NOT keep them, order one through him, at the Agency in
New York, or directly from the Co. Send for circulars, rights, or any
information desired, to GEO. C. PERKINS, Sup't, Hartford, Ct.

       *       *       *       *       *

STEREOSCOPES

WITH ENDLESS CHAIN--To hold from 3 to 50 doz. pictures, in great
variety, at the Patentee's manufactory. ALX BECKER, 560 Broadway, N.Y.

       *       *       *       *       *

TO INVENTORS AND MANUFACTURERS IN THE UNITED STATES--

Mr. George Wood, Wood's Museum and Menagerie, respectfully and earnestly
invites the attention of Inventors and Manufacturers to the fact that,
at a large expense, he has arranged a hall in the Museum Building, for
the purpose of exhibiting to the public Models, Machines, and all the
products of inventive genius in active working operation. The space
allotted for this purpose embraces 6,000 square feet, supplied with
Steam-power, Gas, and all the requirements of the Workshop, the Factory,
and the Laboratory, which will be kept open every day and evening, and
form a perpetual MECHANICS' FAIR, affording an opportunity to Inventors
and Mechanics to place their products before thousands of daily visitors
at a nominal tariff. Inventors and Mechanics are earnestly invited
to co-operate in this laudable and advantageous enterprise, and are
requested to call on or address MR. WALTER P. NEWHALL, Superintendent of
Machinery and Models. GEO. WOOD, Proprietor. Office at Wood's Museum,
corner Broadway and 30th st.

       *       *       *       *       *

FRENCH BAND SAW MACHINES, SAWS, Taper Files, etc., Machines for Scroll,
Re-sawing, and Log; Mongin & Co.'s Band Saw Blades, all Sizes, on hand
and made to order.

All Styles of Band Saw Machines in operation at Mahogany Mill, 10th st.,
E.R.

GEORGE GUEUTAL,

Sole Agent for the U.S., 39 West 4th st., N.Y.

       *       *       *       *       *

_Horsford's Bread Preparation_.

The only "baking powder" recommended by Scientific Men. Made under
personal supervision of Prof. Horsford, of Harvard University. Restores
to fine flour the Phosphates. Refer to S.H. Wales, Scientific American;
Dr. Fordyce Barker; Dr. John H. Griscom; Dr. Wm.A. Hammorid (late
Surgeon Gen. U.S. Army), Prof. R.O. Doremus, all of New York; Prof. J.C.
Booth, Prof. S.H. Dickson, Philadelphia, etc. Liebig & Horsiord's Essay
on Bread Making sent free.

WILSON, LOCKWOOD, EVERETT & CO.,

201 Fulton st., New York, General Agents.

       *       *       *       *       *

STURDEVANT'S FAN BLOWERS,

_Pressure Blowers_,

THE BEST FOR ALL PURPOSES.

_Judson's Governors_.

THE ONLY RELIABLE.

JAS.L. HAVEN & CO., Cincinnati, Ohio,

Agents for the above standard, articles.

       *       *       *       *       *

_Oak Leather Belting_.

Manufactured Dy CHAS. A. SCHIEREN, 92 Gold st., N.Y.

       *       *       *       *       *

SCHLENKER'S PATENT

BOLT CUTTER

NEW INVENTION.

ADDRESS.

HOWARD IRON WORKS. BUFFALO. N.Y.

       *       *       *       *       *

[Illustration]

Reynolds'

Turbine Water Wheels.

No Complex, Duplex, or Triplex complications. All such are costly,
perishable, easily clogged, inaccessible. Mill Gearing, Shafting, and
Pulleys. Send for Illustrated Pamphlet.

GEORGE TALLCOT,

96 Liberty st., New York.

       *       *       *       *       *

STEAM ENGINES & BOILERS

From 4 to 500-H.P., including celebrated Corliss Patent Variable Cut-off
Engines, Slide Valve Stationary Engines, Portable Engines, etc. Also,
Circular Mulay, & Gang Saw Mills Sugar Cane Mills, Shafting, Pulleys,
etc. Wheat and Corn Mills, Circular Saws, Belting, etc. Send for
Circular and Price List.

WOOD & MANN

STEAM ENGINE CO.,

Utica, N.Y.

       *       *       *       *       *

IRON PLANERS, ENGINE LATHES, Drills, and other Machinists' Tools, of
Superior Quality, on hand and finishing. For sale Low. For Description
and Price, address NEW HAVEN MANUFACTURING CO., New Haven, Conn. 5 tf os

       *       *       *       *       *

Free.--Our New Catalogue of Improved STENCIL DIES. More than $200 A
MONTH is being made with them S.M. SPENCER & CO., Brattleboro Vt.

       *       *       *       *       *

[Illustration: EMERSON'S PATENT

PERFORATED

CIRCULAR & LONGSAWS

REQUIRE NO GUMMING

FOR DESCRIPTIVE PAMPHLET

ADDRESS

AMERICAN SAW CO. N.Y.]

Factory, Trenton, N.J.... Office. No. 2 Jacob st., N.Y.

Branch Office for Pacific Coast, No. 606 Front st. San Francisco, Cal.

       *       *       *       *       *

HOWLAND'S PAT. KNIFE SHARPENER.

[Illustration]

The best and most durable thing of the kind ever invented. Agents wanted
from all parts of the country. Sure sale. Every family wants one. Sample
of Porcelain sent on receipt of 75c.

F. TRAVER & CO.,

Agents,

14 Park Place,

New York.

       *       *       *       *       *

Pratt's "Astral" Oil.

UNLIKE MANY OTHER ILLUMINATING OILS, the Astral Oil is perfectly pure
and free from all adulterations of any kind. It emits no offensive smell
while burning, gives a soft and brillant light, and can be used with
as little danger as gas. Chemists pronounce it the best and safest
Illuminating Oil ever offered to the public; and insurance companies
indorse and urge upon consumers the use of the "Astral" Oil in
preference to any other. Thousands are now burning it, and in no
instance has any accident occurred from its use. A lamp filled with it
upset and broken will not explode or take fire. To prevent adulteration,
the Astral Oil is packed only in the Guaranty Patent Cans, of 1 gallon
and 5 gallons each, and each can is sealed in a manner that cannot be
counterfeited Every package, with uncut seal, we warrant. The universal
testimony of consumers is that the "Astral" Oil is perfect; a single
trial serves to establish it in the family.

For sale by all dealers, and by wholesale and retail by the proprietors

Oil House of CHARLES PRATT.

P.O. Box, 3,050.

108 Fulton Street, New York.

Send for Circulars with testimonials and price list.

       *       *       *       *       *

Building Paper.

This is a hard, compact paper, like an ordinary book cover, and is
saturated with tar and used on the outside of frame buildings, under the
clapboards, also under shingles and floors, to keep out damp and cold.
It is also used on the inside, not saturated, _instead of Plastering_,
and makes a warm and cheap wall. It costs only from $8 to $30 (according
to size) to cover houses on the outside. Samples and descriptive
circulars sent free.

Address, ROCK RIVER PAPER CO., Chicago,

Or B.E. HALE, 22 & 24 Frankfort Street, N.Y.,

Agent for the Eastern States.

       *       *       *       *       *

CAUTION TO

BRASS COOK

MAKERS.

PLUMBERS, STEAM AND GAS FITTERS,

ARCHITECTS, BUILDERS, DEALERS IN BRASS GOODS,

And _ALL OTHERS_ against _MAKING, BUYING, SELLING_, or _USING_ any
INFRINGEMENT of our "PATENT RIGHT" for COMPRESSION BIBBS, FAUCET, COCKS,
or on any thing to which our Patent is applied.

We have already commenced LEGAL proceedings with the firm determination
to prosecute all and every violation of our rights to the fullest extent
of the law.

MESSRS. HAYDEN, GERE, & CO.,

84 Beekman st.

NEW YORK,

--AND--

DALTON & INGERSOLL, 19 Union st.

BOSTON,

Are our ONLY Authorized Selling Agents.

_E. STEBBINS

Manufacturing Co._,

SPRINGFIELD, MASS.

       *       *       *       *       *

_Ahearn's Patents_.

PURCHASERS wanted for every State and County not yet sold. $1000 AND
EXPENSES can be made monthly on every $200 invested. For particulars,
address

J. AHEARN,

5 P.O. Avenue, Baltimore, Md.

       *       *       *       *       *

PATTERN LETTERS

TO PUT ON PATTERNS FOR CASTINGS--.&.C.

KNIGHT BROS.

SENECA FALLS N.Y.

       *       *       *       *       *

$20 A DAY TO MALE AND FEMALE Agents to introduce the BUCKEYE $20 SHUTTLE
SEWING MACHINES. Stitch alike on both sides, and is the only _LICENSED
SHUTTLE MACHINE_ sold in the United states for less than $40. All others
are infringements, and the seller and user are liable to prosecution and
imprisonment. Outfit free. Address

_W.A. HENDERSON & CO., Cleveland, Ohio._

       *       *       *       *       *

2d-Hand Machinery

FOR SALE--viz:--

50 Milling Machines, Index and Universal Milling Machines, Horizontal
Milling and Drilling Machines, Drill Presses. Hand and Power Lathes,
Edging Machines, Drops and Punch Presses, Screw Machines, etc., etc.,
1000 feet of 1-3/16 Shafting, with Hangers and Pulleys, etc., etc., by

O.F. WINCHESTER,

New Haven, Conn.

       *       *       *       *       *

SENT FREE!

M. O'KEEFE, SON & CO.'S

SEED CATALOGUE AND GUIDE TO THE FLOWER AND VEGETABLE GARDEN, FOR 1870.

Published in January. Every lover of flowers wishing this new and
valuable work, free of charge, should address immediately M. O'KEEFE,
SON & CO., Ellwanger & Barry's Block, Rochester, N.Y.

       *       *       *       *       *

London

48 Cannon street.

H. KOHNSTAMM,

Manufacturer of ULTRAMARINE,

And Importer of English, French, and German Colors, Paints, and Artists'
Materials, Bronzes, and Metals. No. 3 Tryon Row, New York, opposite City
Hall

       *       *       *       *       *

_WIRE HOPE_.

Manufactured by

JOHN A. ROEBLING'S SONS,

Trenton N.J.

FOR Inclined Planes, Standing Ship Rigging Bridges, Ferries, Stays or
Guys on Derricks & Cranes Tiller Ropes, Sash Cords of Copper and Iron,
Lightning Conductors of Copper. Special attention given to hoisting rope
of all kinds for Mines and Elevators. Apply for circular, giving price
and other information. Send for pamphlet on Transmission of Power by
Wire Ropes.

       *       *       *       *       *

THE

_Tanite Emery Wheel_.

Does not Glaze, Gum, Heat, or Smell. Address

THE TANITE CO.,

Stroudsburg, Monroe Co., Pa.

       *       *       *       *       *

GETTY'S PATENT PIPE CUTTER.

  No. 1 cuts from 1 inch to 1/8........................Price $8
  No. 2 cuts from 2 inches to 1/2........................Price $10

  GETTY'S PATENT PROVING PUMP AND GAGE.
  Pump and Gage.......................................Price $25
  Gage alone..........................................Price $13

Address

McNAB & HARLIN,

MANUFACTURERS OF BRASS GOODS AND IRON FITTINGS,

86 John st., New York.

       *       *       *       *       *

REPEATING FIRE-ARMS

FOR SALE, viz:--

  5,000 Winchester Repeating Muskets.
  5,000   "            "     Carbines.
  5,000   "            "     Sporting Rifles.
  2,000 Spencer        "     Muskets.
  30,000  "            "     Carbines.
  500     "            "     Sporting Rifles.
  2,000 Joslyn Single Breech-loading Carbines.

Metallic Cartridges of all sizes, by

WINCHESTER REPEATING ARMS CO.,

New Haven, Conn.

       *       *       *       *       *

PAT. SOLID EMERY WHEELS AND OIL STONES, for Brass and Iron Work, Saw
Mills, and Edge Tools. Northampton Emery Wheel Co., Leeds. Mass.

       *       *       *       *       *

KIDDER'S PASTILES--A Sure Relief for Asthma. STOWELL & CO., Charlestown,
Mass.

       *       *       *       *       *

WELBY & McCAULEY,

PRACTICAL MECHANICS.--Mechanical Commission Depot No. 5, Harrison st.,
Baltimore, Md., Buy and Sell, on Commission, Improved Machinery, etc.,
etc. Negotiate Patent Rights, introduce New Inventions, practically.
Agents for manufacturers generally.

       *       *       *       *       *

_The American Builder_

AND JOURNAL OF ART.--Terms $3.00 a year. Sent four months to trial
Subscribers on receipt of one dollar. Address

CHARLES D. LAKEY

Chicago, Ill.

       *       *       *       *       *

_Cotton Seed Oil Mills_.

Built by Contractor otherwise. For Estimates and Machinery apply to Oil
Machinery Manufacturing Co. of N.Y. city, 96 Liberty st. P.O. Box 1183

       *       *       *       *       *

HARRISON

SAFETY

BOILER

First-Class Medal World's Fair, London, 1862.

First-Class Medal, American Institute Fair, New York, October, 1869, for
safety, economy of space, and economy of fuel.

400-H.P. AT A.T. STEWART'S.

437-H.P. AT JERSEY CITY SUGAR REFINERY, and over 1,000 boilers in other
places.

Harrison Boiler Works, Philadelphia.

_John A. Coleman, Ag't_,

49 Murray St., N. Y., and 36 Kilby St., Boston.

       *       *       *       *       *

_30-H. Corliss Engine_.

Also, Six Engines, from 15 to 30-Horse. Have been in use, but are in
good order. Cheap for cash. Address

CHAS. H. SMITH,

135 North 3d st., Philadelphia, Pa.

       *       *       *       *       *

_Drawing Materials_.

WHATMAN'S PAPERS.--White and Yellow Roll Drawing Paper, 40 and 54 inches
wide Tracing Muslin, Tracing Paper. Muslin-backed Drawing Paper, 40 and
53 inches wide. Winsor & Newton's Colors India Ink. Faber's Drawing
Pencils, etc., etc. Priced catalogues 10 cents each.

JAS. W. QUEEN & CO.,

924 Chestnut st. Philadelphia.

       *       *       *       *       *

SAWS. EVERY DESCIPTION

Guaranteed under a forfeiture of $1000, to cut the most lumber with the
least expense.

_Henry Disston & Son_,

PHILADELPHIA. Special attention paid to our new style Circular, Belt,
Cross-cut, Mill and Hack Saws. Orders received from England, Ireland,
and the Continent.

       *       *       *       *       *




THE Scientific American FOR 1870




Cash Prize and Premium List

This Illustrated Weekly Journal of

Practical Information, Art, Science, Mechanics, Invention, Chemistry,
and Manufactures--Entered its Twenty-fifth Year on the 1st of January.

The SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN stands at the head of Industrial Journals of the
world in point of Circulation and Influence.

Every number has Sixteen Imperial pages, embellished with Engravings of
New Inventions, Machinery, Tools for the Workshop, House, and Farm, also
Public Buildings, Dwelling Houses, and Engineering Works.

The Illustrated Department of the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN is a very striking
feature, and has elicited the praise of the Press and all articles
appearing in its columns are written in a popular and instructive style.

To Inventors and Mechanics the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN has special value and
interest, from the fact that it furnishes an Official List of Patents
issued, with copious notes of the principal American and European
Patents.

The Publishers offer the following


SCHEDULE OF CASH PRIZES.

For the fifteen largest lists of names sent in before February 10, 1870,
the following Cash Prizes will be given:

  $300 FOR THE FIRST LIST.
   250    "    SECOND LIST.
   200    "    THIRD LIST.
   150    "    FOURTH LIST.
   100    "    FIFTH LIST.
    90    "    SIXTH LIST.
    80    "    SEVENTH LIST
    70    "    EIGHTH LIST.
    60    "    NINTH LIST.
    50    "    TENTH LIST.
    40    "    ELEVENTH LIST.
    35    "    TWELFTH LIST.
    30    "    THIRTEENTH LIST.
    25    "    FOURTEENTH LIST.
    20    "    FIFTEENTH LIST.

Competitors sending names should be particular to mark "Prize List" on
their orders, and remit the amount of subscription, as per terms. All
Clubs of 10 names and upward, will be taken at the rate of $2.50 per
annum.

To those who do not compete for the Cash Prizes the publishers offer
the Splendid Steel Engraving, in size 22x36, entitled "MEN OF
PROGRESS-AMERICAN INVENTORS." It contains the following group of
illustrious inventors, namely: Prof. Morse, Prof. Henry Thomas
Blanchard, Dr. Nott, Isaiah Jennings, Charles Goodyear, Jos. Saxton, Dr.
W. T. Morton, Erastus Bigelow, Henry Burden, Capt. John Ericsson, Elias
Howe, Jr., Col. Samuel Colt, Col. R. M. Hoe, Peter Cooper, Jordan L.
Mott, C. H. McCormick, James Bogardus, and Frederick E. Sickles. The
likenesses are all excellent, and Mr. Sartain, who stands at the head of
our American Engravers on Steel, in a letter addressed to us, says "that
it would cost $4,000 to engrave the plate now," which is a sufficient
guarantee of the very high character of the Engraving as a work of art.
Price of the Engraving, $10 for single copy. To enable all to possess
this beautiful work of art, at, a very reduced rate, the SCIENTIFIC
AMERICAN will be sent one year, together with a copy of the picture, on
receipt of $10

  Any one sending
  10 Names for 1 year, and $30, will receive one picture
  20   "       "            50,      "        "      "
  30   "       "            75,      "       two pictures
  40   "       "           100,      "       three   "
  50   "       "           125,      "       four    "

Competitors for the above prizes can send in names at any time on or
before February 10th, and from any postoffice. For full particulars and
sample copies of the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, address the Publishers.

Terms of the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN: Single copy one year, $3.00; six
months, $1.50; and one dollar four months. To Clubs of ten and upward,
$2.50 each per annum.

MUNN & CO.,

37 Park Row, New York









End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Scientific American, Vol.22, No. 1,
January 1, 1870, by Various

*** 