'

\

ANNUAL

OF

SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY:

OR,

YEAR-BOOK OF FACTS IN SCIENCE AND ART,

FOR 1854.

EXHIBITING THE

MOST IMPORTANT DISCOVERIES AND IMPROVEMENTS

IN

MECHANICS, USEFUL ARTS, NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, CHEMISTRY,
ASTRONOMY, METEOROLOGY, ZOOLOGY, BOTANY, MINER-
ALOGY, GEOLOGY, GEOGRAPHY, ANTIQUITIES, &c.

TOGETHER WITH

A LIST OF RECENT SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS ; A CLASSIFIED LIST OF

PATENTS; OBITUARIES OF EMINENT SCIENTIFIC MEN; NOTES ON

THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE DURING THE TEAR 1853, ETC.

EDITED BY

DAVID A. WELLS, A.M.

B S T X :
GOULD AND LINCOLN,

59, WASHINGTON STREET.

LONDON:
TRUBNER AND COMPANY,

12 PATERXOSTER ROW.

1854.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1854,

BY GOULD AND LINCOLN,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.

G. C. RAND, i'riiiter, Cornhill, Boston-

NOTES BY THE EDITOR

THE

PROGRESS OF SCIENCE IN 1853,

The fifth annual meeting, and seventh regular session of the American
Association for the Promotion of Science, was held at Cleveland, Ohio,
commencing Thursday, July 28, 1853. A fair number of members and
strangers were in attendance, representing principally the southern and
western sections of the country. From New England and the North-
ern States comparatively few were present. The President, elected at
the Albany meeting, in 1851, was Prof. Benjamin Peirce, of Harvard
University.

Among the papers presented, those in the Departments of Physics
and Mathematics were much the most numerous, and were of high
merit. In Chemistry and Geology, there were few contributions. The
number of papers presented in the several departments was as follows.
Physics, Mathematics, Astronomy and Meteorology, 40 ; Geology, Chem-
istry and Physical Geography, 12; Zoology and Botany, 12; Miscellane-
ous, 13.

A Committee for revising the Constitution of the Association was ap-
pointed, consisting of Prof. Bache, Dr. J. Lawrence Smith, Dr. Le Conte,
of Georgia ; Dr. Gibbs, of New York; Dr. B. A. Gould, of Cambridge;
Prof. W. B. Rogers; Prof. J. D. Dana, New Haven; Dr. J. Leidy, Philadel-
phia; Prof. Haldeman, and Dr. A. A. Gould, Boston.

Resolutions were adopted reducing the Annual Assessment from $3 to
$1, and requiring that the Proceedings should be furnished to members at
cost; or free of expense, when the Proceedings are published by the public
liberality of the city where the meeting may be held. The Secretary was

4 XOTES BY THE EDITOR

authorized to forward copies of tlie Proceedings to the learned societies of
Europe and the United States. The whole number of members at present
belonging to the Association, is upwards of 600.

The Association adjourned on Tuesday, the 2d of August, to meet in
Washington, on the last Wednesday of April, 1851. The following officers
were elected for the ensuing year. Prof. Jas. D. Dana, of New Haven,
President ; Prof. J. Levering, of Cambridge, General Secretary ; Prof. J.
Lawrence Smith, Permanent Secretary ; Dr. Elwyn, of Philadelphia,
Treasurer. Prof. S. F. Baird, Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian
Institution, who for the past three years has so ably managed the aifairs
of the Association, declined a re-election to the office of Secretary. The
following gentlemen were appointed to report on the following topics at the
ensuing meeting. Prof. Henry, " On our knowledge of the laws of Atmos-
pheric Electricity ;" Pr--;f. Jas. Hall, " On the recent additions to our
knowledge of the Palasozoic Rocks;" Prof. H. L. Smith, " On Micro-Chem-
istry;" Dr. Wolcott Gibbs, " On the recent progress of Organic Chemis-
try;" Dr. B. A. Gould, " On the progress and development of the Electro-
chronographical method of Observation;" Prof. Leidy, " On the remains
of Extinct Mammalia and Reptilia of North America;" Prof. B. Peirce,
" On the present state of the Theory of the Planetary Perturbations;" Dr.
Burnett, " On the recent advances in Anatomy and Physiology;" Prof.
Agassiz, " On the history of our knowledge of Alternation of Generation
in Animals;" Prof. J. D.Dana, " On the Geographical Distribution of
the Lower Animals." It was also voted that at the Washington meetin^

o o

of the Association, a general session be devoted to the consideration of
the expediency of a change in the present standards of weights and meas-
ures in the United States.

The twenty-third annual meeting of the British Association for the Ad-
vancement of Science, was held at Hull, September 7th, Prof. William
Hopkins in the Chair. The attendance was less numerous than iisual, and
no communications of especial interest or novelty were presented. The
Committee on the establishment of an Observatory and telescope of large
optical power in the Southern Hemisphere, reported through their chair-
man, Lord Rosse, that an application had been made to the Government,
and that the necessary funds would most probably be granted. A recom-
mendation of the Association, that in the event of a survey of the Gulf
Stream being undertaken, provision should be made for investigating its
Zoology and Botany, has been communicated to the Admiralty, and favor-
ably received. A proposition from Dr. Bache, Director of the Coast Sur-
vey of the United States, for a joint survey of the Gulf Stream by the
United States and Great Britain, addressed to the President of the British
Association since the Belfast meeting, has been forwarded to the hydro-

ON THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 5

grapher of the Admiralty. It was Voted to hold the next meeting of the
Association at Liverpool, the Earl of Harrowby having been elected Presi-
dent for the ensuing year.

The annual meeting of the German Association for the Promotion of
Science, was held at Tubingen, on the 18th of September. It was attend-
ed by about 580 members, including a moderate sprinkling of French and
Russians, two Americans, and a few English.

The President, Prof. Von Mohl, having for some reason absented himself,
the chair was taken by M. Bruhns, Professor of Medicine at Tubingen.
Receptions by the various neighboring towns and cities were given to the
Association, and public and private hospitality was displayed to an unlim-
ited extent. The scientific part of the meeting was equally satisfactory.
In the three general or public sittings none but subjects treated in a pop-
ular manner were this time admitted, and all papers that could in the least
offend the ear of ladies had been strictly rejected, a laudable restriction,
probably adopted in consequence of the complaints made by the press that
medical subjects, not intended for any but medical men, had been brought
forward.

M. Schultz read an interesting paper "On the Development of the Natu-
ral Sciences from the Middle of the Sixteenth Century until the Middle of
the Nineteenth." He assumed three periods : 1st, The period when knowl-
edge was handed down by oral tradition. 2nd, When it was propagated
by writing; and, 3rd, When perpetuated by printing. The present time
he looks upon as the commencement of a fourth period, when, by the inti-
mate international intercourse and the power of steam, knowledge is rap-
idly diffused. Dove, of Berlin, gave a comprehensive account of the pres-
ent state of meteorology, and a very clear explanation of the causes which
determine the weather of Europe. Carnal spoke on the importance of
salt, gold, and coal, three monosyllables playing an important part in
the affairs of the world. He complained of the ignorance prevailing in
England on the subject of German coal, and quoted a conversation he had
with an Englishman of some scientific standing, who asked him whether
ihere were any coal in Germany ? a question he answered by stating that
not only had Germany enough coal for its own demand, but it could supply
England and all the world, at the rate coal is now used, for 500 years to
come. Fraas gave an account of the oldest inhabitants of the Swabian
Alps. It appears that a few years ago, fossil teeth were found, which some
at once declared to be those of man. This determination, however, was
called in question, as no human teeth of the mammoth period had ever
been found in any part of the globe. Again, these teeth were exhibited
last year in Wiesbaden, by Jaeger, when they were generally admitted to
be human teeth; one was even sent to Owen, who agreed with the Wiesba-

1*

6 NOTES BY THE EDITOR

den meeting in pronouncing them to belong to man. The discovery of sev-
eral almost perfect skulls has set the matter finally at rest ; there "was a
race of men living simultaneously with the mammoth and other huge ante-
diluvian animals.

The sectional meetings were well attended. In the Section for Chemis-
try and Pharmacology, there were Fehling, Sehlossbergher, Leube, Babo,
Weidenbusch, Ammermuller, Fresenius, Weltzen, H. Rose, &c.; Fehling
and Rose alternately presided. In the Section for Mathematics, Physic,
and Astronomy, Wolfers, Osann, K,eusch, Dove, Holtzmann, Gugler, &c. ;
Dove and Osann presided. The Section for Medicine and Surgery counted
the largest number of members. On the 24th of September the meetings
were finally closed. Gottingen was chosen as the place of meeting for
1854, and Professors Listing and Baum, were elected Presidents of the
Society.

The Scientific Congress of France held its twentieth annual session at
Arras, under the Presidency ef the Baron de Sassart, President of the
Academy of Belgium.

The sixth annual meeting of the American Medical Association, took
place in New York, in May, 1853. Dr. Knight, of New Haven, presided,
and about five hundred members were present. The prizes offered at a
former meeting for the best original essays, were awarded to the authors of
the two following : "On the Cell, its pathology," &c., by Dr. Waldo J.
Burnett, of Boston; "Fibrous Diseases of the Uterus hitherto considered
incurable," by Washington L. Atlee, of Philadelphia. For the premiums
so awarded, there were fifteen competitors.

The Ray Society held its tenth annual meeting at Hull, during the meet-
ing there of the British Association. The cause of delay in the issue of the
last part of Messrs. Alder and Hancock's work "On the Naked Mollusca,"
was stated to be, the wish of the authors to add as large a mass of new
matter as possible. Of two works for 1852, one containing a translation
ofBraun "On Rejuvenescence in Nature," Kohn "On Protococcus," and
Menighini "On Diatomacere," was nearly completed. The second vol-
ume of Mr. C. Darwin's "Barnacles and Sea Acorns," is in the press.
For 1854, the Council propose to publish Prof. Allman's work "On the
British Freshwater Polyzoa," with colored plates, in imperial quarto,
and the fourth and last volume of Agassiz's " Bibliography of Zoology and
Geology." The Secretary, Dr. Lankester, stated that Prof. Williamson's
and Dr. Carpenter's work "On the Foraminifera," was in progress, and
would probably be published in 1855.

A maritime conference, composed of distinguished representatives of the
nautical science of the great maritime nations of Europe and the United
States, convened in Brussels in August last, for the purpose of devising a

ON THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 7

uniform system of nautical observations for the advancement of scientific
navigation. The convention held its meetings at the residence of the Bel-
gian Minister of the Interior, at Brussels, and was composed of delegates
representing the following countries : United States, England, France,
Russia, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, and Portugal. M.
Quetelet, the director of the Observatory of Brussels, was chosen Presi-
dent of the Convention, Lieut. Maury having declined that honorable post.
Lieut. Maury opened the labors of the body with an expos", of the wants of
nautical science in its present state, of his own past labors for the supply
of those wants, and of his plan for eifecting completely the reforms need-
ed by the co-operation of the marines, merchant and military, of all civi-
lized nations. Having heard the expose of Lieut. Maury, the Convention
first bestowed its attention upon the instruments in general use among sea-
men for making their observations ; and it was resolved that efforts should
be made to improve several of them. The marine barometer especially,
was recognized to be very deficient. So faulty is it, said Lieut. M., that
meteorologists in their investigations into the laws of atmospheric press-
ure, find themselves almost constantly unable to give any value to baro-
metrical observations made at sea. The Conference then prepared a model
journal for the use of sea-captains in recording their observations. The
first column of this journal, indicates the number and kind of observa-
tions which the United States Government requires of sea-captains in order
to entitle them to gratuitous participation in the advantages anticipated as
the result of the system. They are required to record once a day, the
position of the ship, the direction and force of currents, the height of the
barometer, and the temperature of the air and water. The force and di-
rection of the winds must be given three times a day, and the variations of
the needle must be noted whenever observed. The succeeding columns of
the journal are intended particularly for the use of vessels of war, and are
to contain complementary observations, the making and record of which
require more time, care, and skill. When the observations shall have been
made and recorded in the manner prescribed, they are to be forwarded to
a bureau organized ad hoc, where they will be examined, and the informa-
tion they contain made use of for the discovery of the general facts and
laws, the knowledge of which is necessary for the advancement of the sci-
ence of navigation. The King of Sweden caused to be announced to the
Convention that he had already given orders that the journals kept by the
Swedish naval officers should be transmitted to the Royal Academy of Sci-
ences at Stockholm. The Governments of Holland, of Belgium, and of
Portugal, have taken similar measures, and the Admiralty of Great Brit-
ain will order meteorological observations to be made in the royal navy.
Lieut. M. announced that the merchant marines of other nations would be

NOTES BY THE EDITOR

placed, in the prosecution of this work, upon the same footing 'with that of
the United States ; that is to say, every sea-captain who would keep dur-
ing his voyages a journal upon the plan prescribed by the Convention, and
forward a copy of the same to the American Government, should be enti-
tled gratis to a copy of the Navigator's Guide, and of the charts of winds
and currents which it was intended to publish. Having settled these vari-
ous matters, the Convention adjourned sine die on the 8th of September,
after voting thanks to the Belgian Government for the liberal spirit with
which it had concurred in the views of the delegates, and furnished all
needful facilities for the prosecution of their labors.

A project of a popular geographical institution has been organized in
London, and a prospectus issued under the auspices of Sir Francis Beau-
fort, Mr. Layard, Lord Stanley, and others. It is proposed to purchase
Mr. Wylde's "Great Globe" in Leicester-square, and to surround the
present building with rooms and galleries, devoted to museums, libraries,
lecture theatres, and other apartments. The Prospectus states as follows :

" Whilst it is intended to maintain the large model of the earth in its
present position, it is proposed to add to the present extensive collection of
ancient and modern maps, charts, and books, all the maps, charts and
geographical works published throughout the world ; and to invite the
assistance of foreign governments and societies (many of whom have al-
ready kindly oifered their publications,) to contribute all their maps, charts,
and geographical works, published under the sanction of the state, so that
proprietors and the public may have immediate access to the best sources
of information on every subject connected with geography, hydrography,
and the allied sciences.

"It is further proposed to maintain a competent body of demonstrators
and lecturers, who shall deliver regular courses of lectures upon physical
and political geography and ethnology, not only within the model, but also
in the theatres of the Institute, so as to embrace all the requirements of a
great geographical school; to hold meetings of the members, at which sci-
entific papers shall be read and discussed; and to uphold a library and
reading-room, where the most important newspapers, English, Foreign,
and Colonial, will be filed, where the maps, charts, engravings, books, and
transactions of learned societies, can be conveniently consulted, and where
the latest information bearing upon geographical discoveries, and all mat-
ters especially relating to new shoals, rocks, and harbors, will be regularly
exhibited."

At the meeting of the American Association, Cleveland, a communica-
tion was made by Lieut. E. B. Hunt, U. S. A., proposing the establishment
of a geographical department of the Library of Congress, but having at the
same time a distinct and separate organization. In this library, under the

ON THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 9

supervision of Congress, it is proposed to collect and preserve the follow-
ing materials and sources of geographical information. 1. A first-class
terrestrial globe. 2. All materials illustrating the early and recent geo-
graphy of the United States, both its sea-coasts and interior, including
traced copies of all valuable maps and charts in manuscript and not pub-
lished. The materials for illustrating the past and present geography of
each State, County, Township and City, should be gathered by purchase,
correspondence, and tracing. 3. All maps and charts on the remainder of
America. 4. The Admiralty or sea-coast chart of all the European and
other foreign States, and the detailed topographical surveys of their in-
teriors, where such have been made. 5. The most approved maps pub-
lished from private resources whether as atlases, nautical charts, or mural
maps, including publications on physical geography, guide-books, railroad-
maps, and city hand-books. 6. A complete collection of all the narratives
of voyages of discovery and exploration, especially those undertaken
by the English and French Governments. 7. Geographical, geodetic and
nautical manuals, and treatises, with all the requisite bibliographical aids
to the amplest geographical investigation.

It was also proposed that this department should be placed in charge of
a suitable person, who should yearly present to Congress a report, on the
geographical explorations by our own and foreign Governments, or by in-
dividuals, so far as their results can be learned; making it a synopsis of all
the interesting and important geographical facts or publications for the
year. Upon the same officer would also devolve the duty of maintaining a
correspondence with persons having special geographical knowledge, of
keeping a list of persons who could be addressed for additional information
on foreign and domestic localities. Also corresponding relations should be
maintained with foreign geographical societies, and their publications se-
cured with promptness. At present no collection in the United States ap-
proaches the completeness or efficiency here contemplated. The Harvard
collection, so excellent in old maps, is very deficient in those great
works of interior and exterior survey which characterize the last fifty years.
No collection exists in our land which furnishes full materials for extensive
investigations, such as are now more and more demanded by questions of
history, science, commerce, and policy. There is no probability that such
a collection can soon be formed anywhere except in the Congress Library.
In the facilities which such a library, located at Washington, would furnish
the State Department, the Engineer and Topographical Bureaus, the Coast
Survey, the National Observatory, and the several Navy Bureaus, the Gov-
ernment would derive a full equivalent for all its cost. The value of such
a collection in its relations to legislation ; in its illustration of river and
harbor questions; in its prospective use for illustrating history, and genei-

10 NOTES BY THE EDITOR

ally as a means of enlarging and correcting our geographical knowledge,
gives it most truly the character proper for a national enterprise.

The Association approved of the plan presented by Lieut. Hunt, and a
committee of five was appointed to prepare a plan for the organization of
the Department, and to memorialize Congress on the subject.

An Academy of Natural Sciences has been formed at San Francisco,
California, and regular meetings holden. An address has been published,
setting forth the objects of the society, and an addendum giving directions
for preparations of specimens to be donated to the institution. This society,
if properly maintained, cannot but be of great assistance in giving to
the world a knowledge of the natural history an^. resources of California.
The field of the State is new, almost untrodden by the naturalist.

A University for Australia has been founded and endowed by the Legis-
lature of Sidney. " This step," says the London Athenreum, " is one of
great public interest, not only so far as every extension of the machinery
of education is of interest, but also as a preliminary step towards the
educational independence of the colonies settled by the English across the
line."

By the recent death of M. Jassieu, the Botanist, M. Combes, Vice-Pres-
ident of the Paris Academy of Sciences, has succeeded to the Presidency
of that body, and M. Roux, the eminent surgeon of the Hotel Dieu, has
been elected Vice-President.

For the purpose of placing on a more permanent foundation the Profes-
sorship of Morbid Anatomy, in Harvard College, Dr. George C. Shattuck,
of Boston, has given the sum of fourteen thousand dollars ; in consequence
of \vhicli, the professorship is to be hereafter distinguished by the name of
the donor.

A prize of five thousand rupees, offered by the Agricultural Society of
India, some years since, for the best cotton-gin, has, by the decision of a
committee, been awarded to Messrs. Bates, Hyde, & Co., and Messrs.
Carver & Co, of Massachusetts. The machines were adjudged to be of equal
excellence, and the amount divided between the respective parties. Gold
medals were in addition presented to each firm, and the machines purchased
at the price of construction.

Under the direction and through the assistance of the Government,
Schools of " Art and Design" have been established or projected during
the past year in various parts of Great Britain. In a circular recently is-
sued, the object of these institutions is clearly set forth, as follows : " It is
now the object of Government to make those national Institutions, the
Schools of Art, useful to all classes of the community, and therefore, whilst
the existing provision for the education of the working classes in a know-
ledge of Art is to be maintained, new arrangements have been made to pro-

ON THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 1.1

vide instruction in various branches of Art for the mid die and upper classes
of society; besides which a system is now being organized for the general
diffusion of instruction in elementary drawing throughout the country.
It is the desire of Government that the industrial classes should be educated
in a knowledge of Art in the most complete manner which can be devised,
at a charge within their means. To effect this important object, an attempt
is about to be made to disseminate elementary instruction in parish and in
other schools, and to make elementary drawing apart of general education,
concurrently with writing."

Encouragement of the fine arts, however, and an adaptation of their
principles to the wants of every day life, are not confined to the refined and
enlightened nations of Europe and America. During the past year, that
munificent Parsee, Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy, has given 10,000 to
Government, for the purpose of endowing a school of design at Bombay.

The committee of the American Institute, appointed to award the pre-
miums offered by Mr. Ray, of New York, for improvements in railroad
mechanism, have reported a? follows : There were four prizes offered; two
of which only have been decided upon, viz., "the railroad brake," for
which the prize of $100 has been awarded to Mr. T. A. Stevens, of Burling-
ton, Vermont; and the prize for a " night seat for cars," $300, which has
been awarded to Samuel Hickox, of Buffalo, N. Y. The prize of $1,500,
for the best invention to prevent railroad collisions, and the breaking of
railroad axles, and the prize of 3800 for the best invention to exclude dust
from cars, they did not decide upon.

At the Annual distribution of prizes at the French Academy of Sciences,
the Lalande prize for astronomy was divided between Mr. Hind, of London,
M. Gasparis of Naples, M. Luther of Blik, near Dusseldorf, M. Chacornac
of Marseilles, and M. Herman Goldschmidt of Paris. The prize for ex-
perimental physiology was awarded to Dr. Budge, an English physician,
and Prof. Wallon, of Bonn, for discoveries establishing with certainty facts
of a nature to throw light on the functions of the ganglionary system.

At the Annual meeting of the Royal Society, London, November 30, 1853,
the Copley Medal was awarded to Prof. Dove, of Berlin, for his work on
the distribution of heat over the earth's surface; and the Royal Medal to
Mr. Charles Darwin, the well-known naturalist and traveller, for his works
on Natural History and Geology. The Earl of Rosse was re-elected Presi-
dent of the Society, and Col. Sabine, Treasurer.

A National Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations was opened at Dub-
lin, Ireland, in May, 1853, and continued throughout the season. This Ex-
hibition owed its origin principally to the efforts of Mr. Dargan, an Irish
gentleman, who advanced, in aid of the same, nearly 100, 000. The
whole affair was entirely successful, and reflects much honor on all con-
cerned in the work.

12 NOTES BY THE EDITOR

A Universal Exhibition of Manufactures, as well as an Exhibition of Fine
Arts has been determined upon by the French Government, to take place at
Paris, in 1855. The construction of a Crystal Palace, of great magnitude
and splendor, has already been commenced in the Champs Elysees. Its
length will be 256 yds., breadth over 118 yds., height nearly 115 ft. The
exterior wall will be of a circular form, flanked with six towers, and hav-
ing 360 arched recesses. The access to the interior of the palace will be by
four large entrances, and there will be additional ones by some of the
towers. The principal front will be on the Champs Elysees, and the roof
will consist of only iron and zinc, glazed similarly to the London Crystal
Palace. The plans for ornamenting the biiilding both inside and out are
very costly. The area of the whole of the building will cover a surface of
about seven acres and a quarter.

An interesting Exhibition is about to open at Amsterdam, Holland. The
citizens of this commercial depot have resolved to hold in their most pictur-
esque and interesting town a series of public exhibitions, illustrating the
past and present state of the great departments of industry. Each year
will be devoted to a particular subject : sculpture, painting, architecture,
shipbuilding, manufactures of various kinds, and so forth. The subject of
the first exhibition is Architecture. It is proposed to exhibit specimens of
building materials, instruments and utensils, machines for raising masses
to great elevations, plans of structures, ancient and modern, fancy designs,
models of all sorts of edifices, churches, temples, mosques, palaces, pagodas,
ornaments used in decorating, and the like. The enterprise is said to have
won the general approbation of the Hollanders.

The Geographical Society of St. Petersburg is about to despatch expedi-
tions to make scientific researches in Eastern Siberia and Kamtschatka, in
the Caspian Sea and the neighborhood, and in different parts of the least-
known European and Asiatic provinces of Russia. The expedition to
Siberia excites the greatest interest, and it is expected that it will make some
important additions to the different branches of science. Twelve young
men are to accompany it for the express purpose of taking astronomical,
magnetic, and meteorologic observations.

The United States Expedition sent to Japan, under the command of
Commodore Perry, reached these Islands in August last. The Commodore
succeeded in obtaining an interview with two princes of the Empire, and
delivered the letter from the President of the United States, as also his own
credentials. It was arranged that, as the subject matter required the con-
sideration of the Emperor and the great Ministers of State, an answer
should be called for next spring. The expedition was received in a friendly
manner by the Japanese, and there are strong grounds of expectation that
a treaty favorable to commerce and intercourse may be arranged with this

ON THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 13

exclusive people. No scientific observations of any moment were mad at
this visit of the U. S. Squadron.

The American Exploring Expedition to the North Pacific, sailed in May,
1853. The fleet consists of the sloop of war Vincennes, the steamer John
Hancock, the brig Porpoise, the schooner Fenimore Cooper, and the clip-
per John Kennedy. These five vesssls are placed under the command of
Commodore Cadwaller Bingold, and are fitted out with the best instruments
procurable in the United States or in Europe. The expedition is expected
to be absent about three years. The scientific observers who go out with it
have orders to explore as minutely as shall be found convenient the shores
of Asia and America bordering on the Northern Pacific and Behring's
Straits. The surveys will also extend to the Japan Islands andWate:s,
the Gulf of Tartary, the shores of Kamtschatka, the Sea Okhotsk, and all
the isles and islands in those latitudes, including the Aleutian Islands and
the Sandwich Islands.

Commander Lynch, U. S. Navy, despatched by Government during the
year 1852, on a preliminary expedition of observation to Western Africa,
preparatory to an exploring expedition, has returned during the past year.
He was on the coast of Liberia and that vicinity from early in January to
late in March, and explored all the rivers of the region. He found none
navigable more than 21 miles above the mouth. He is possessed of no very
exalted idea of the feasibility of white colonization of the West Coast of
Africa, even in a temporary way, and for commercial purposes only. Capt.
L. intimates that there is but a single Englishman known to have survived
the climate of Sierra Leone for five years, at the end of which time the
fever carried him off. It will be recollected that perhaps 40 years since
the Portuguese colonized an island in the immediate vicinity of Guinea,
sending thither 7,000 souls. At this time there is but a single individual
living in whose veins the blood of any of these colonists is believed to
course. This is a fact making stubbornly indeed, against the "idea of a
much more profitable trade with Africa, as the result of any possible effort
of our Government to compass that end.

An expedition for the exploration of the interior of Australia, has been
projected by the British Government. It is placed under the direction of
Mr. Ernest Haug, and the party accompanying him will be provided with
every requisite necessary to insure a successful result. It appears that the
great unknown interior of this continent can be most safely reached by
making a starting point from the mouth of the great navigable river, the
Victoria, on the north-west coast, where Capt. Stokes, of H. M. S. the
Beagle, so far explored it as to arrive at within about 500 miles of the
centre of the continent. Capt. Stokes was obliged to return for want of
sufficient resources ; but he ascended far enough to satisfy himself of the

2

14 NOTES BY THE EDITOR

fair prospect of success for any future explorer. He say, "Its direction
continued to the southward, and far away could be traced the glistening
green valleys of its course, as it flowed on in undiminished magnitude ; '
and his last " regretful view," as he describes it, was taken in lat. 15 86',
long. 130 E., at a distance of 140 miles from the sea. As yet, however,
no explorer has successfully passed over the coast range to the south,
where Mr. Haug hopes to find large grassy fields extending far towards the
interior. Dr. Blundell thinks that the hitherto so greatly dreaded " Cen-
tral Desert" of this strange continent may ultimately prove to be no desert
at all:, for desert and fertile spots border each other so closely in Australia as
to make that circumstance one of the most striking peculiarities of the land.
The expedition may thus not only hope to solve the mystery of the interior
of Australia; but traversing, as it proposes to do, the only hitherto great
unknown portion of the continent, it will at any rate furnish the means of
making a rough map of the whole, determining to the colonists of the
eastern, southern, and western provinces whether or not the interior is to
remain to them and to the rest of the world an impassable territory and ' ' a
sealed book."

Dr. Sutherland, who was attached to the Arctic Expedition under Capt.
Penny, in 1851, is about to undertake a journey of exploration in South-
eastern Africa, under the auspices of the London Geographical Society.

Dr. Harvey, the well-known Botanist of Dublin, is also about to visit
Australia, under the joint auspices of the University and of the lloyal
Dublin Society, for the purpose of exploring the natural history of the
southern coasts of that continent. Dr. H. will give especial attention to
the collection of Marine Algce, and will be absent until 1855. He also
proposes various subscription sets of Algse, at the rate of 21. 5s. per 100
species, properly prepared and delivered in Europe.

Accounts have reached the French government that M. Emile Devile
and M. Duret, two of the gentlemen employed by it to explore the central
parts of South America, have been carried off by the yellow fever at Rio
Janeiro ; M. Lefebvre Durufle, the third member of the expedition,
though attacked with the malady, escaped. The loss of M. Devile is
a great one ; as, though extremely young, he was well known for his
attainments in natural history and other branches of science, and as a very
enterprising traveller. He was, in fact, the very man that could be wished
for to explore the immense centre of the South American continent, which
is at present as little, if not less known than the central parts of Africa.

Dispatches have reached her Majesty's government from the expedition
now conducted by Drs. Earth and Vogel in two different parts of Inner
Africa, the former pushing his way towards Timbuctoo, the latter to Lake
Tsad, to supply the vacancy left by the death of Dr. Overweg, and to com-

ON THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 15

plete the survey which the latter began. There never was an exploring
expedition conducted with greater perseverance than this. Travellers
across the Great Sahara know on their outset that they have a difficult and
dangerous journey before them; but to brave these difficulties and dangers
year after year for four consecutive years, with an heroic endurance and
undiminished courage, solely for the sake of science, as is the case with
Dr. Earth, is an occurrence unparalleled in the history of geographical
discovery. That traveller, after losing his only two comrades, undertakes,
alone, his journey from Lake Tsad to Timbuctoo, one of the most difficult
attempts that could well be imagined. When he wrote his last letters, at
the end of November, he was just about to leave Lake Tsad on that tour.
The communications now received bring up the intelligence three months
beyond the last date namely, up to the beginning of March last. We
find that at this time he had gained between 400 and 500 miles in his
journey, and entered the Fellatah province of Kashna, where he was well
received. An escort of 200 horse is necessary to insure his safety in cross-
ing the next districts towards that celebrated place, the goal of his jour-
ney ; and a very circumspect management, backed by a certain amount of
means, is necessary to obtain all the assistance required from the Fellatahs.
The supplies already sent off last year have not yet reached him, and the
great encouragement, which the news of Dr. Vogel's coming to his assist-
ance would be, is still denied him. Nevertheless, with unbroken spirits he
pushes onward. May he successfully return, and, united with Dr. Vogel,
accomplish still greater results. Meanwhile the last traveller has very
successfully performed the most trying portion of his journey to Lake
Tsad, in having crossed the Desert of Tripoli to Murzuk; a region which,
during the summer, is almost entirely waterless. But so successfully was
their journey performed, that neither Dr. Vogel nor any person in his
caravan suffered any indisposition; and out of thirty-three camels only
one was lost, the caravan arriving in Murzuk in the best order. At that
place Dr. Vogel will be occupied partly in reducing his numerous astro-
nomical and hypsometrical observations made on the way, and transmit
them by next courier. He hopes to start for Lake Tsad in the beginning
of September.

A new Arctic expedition under the charge of Dr. Kane, U. S. N., fitted
out by private liberality sailed from New York during the spring of 1853,
for the purpose of making a renewed search for Sir John Franklin, and
for exploring some parts of the Arctic territory hitherto unvisited.

The Secretary of the Navy, in his annual report, takes occasion to
express his regret that in certain charts uttered from the English Admi-
ralty Hydrographic Office, on the 4th of October, 1853, an error has been
committed, and credit given for certain new discoveries of lands to

16 NOTES BY THE EDITOR

officers of the British Navy, whereas in truth the lands were discovered
and named by the American expedition tinder command of Lieut.
DE HAVEN, which passed the English vessels, and led the way up Welling-
ton Channel in February, 1850.

The Naval Observatory, under the superintendence of Lieut. M. F.
MATJRY, is doing much for the service and navigation, and much for the
benefit of mankind and the honor of our country.

The operations of the Coast Survey have been prosecuted with vigor
during the past year. The operations in the field or afloat, and in the
office, have extended to all the States and Territories of our vast coast on
the Atlantic, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Pacific. On the Atlantic the
triangulation reaches, with an interval of 22 miles, from the mouth of the
Kennebec River, Maine, to Boyne Sound, North Carolina. It is com-
"menced in South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, and extends from Mobile
nearly to New Orleans, and from, the head of Galveston Bay to Matagorda
Bay, in Texas. The other operations follow it closely. A hydrographic
reconnoissance of our western coast has been made from San Diego to
Frazer's River, and preliminary surveys of most of the harbors, with
charts of them, have been published, or are in progress. It is believed
that the history of such surveys does not present a parallel to the prompt-
ness with which the execution and publication of the work on that impor-
tant coast has been made, keeping pace with the development of a com-
merce itself without a parallel. One hundred and forty-three maps and
charts have already been issued from the Coast Survey Office, including
sketches of examinations of dangers on the coast where the regular sur-
veys have not yet reached the localities. The report of the Superintendent
for the past year is accompanied with fifty-five maps and sketches, show-
ing the progress of the work, and giving information important to navi-
gation and commerce.

The great work of constructing the Pacific Railroad, which will place a
stamp upon the enterprise of the nineteenth century, may now be looked
upon as fairly undertaken. Four expeditions of survey have been organ-
zed under an appropriation of $150,000, in order to present the most
practicable line for the track. The first, under command of Governor
Stevens, of the territory of Washington, late of the corps of U. S. Topo-
graphical Engineers, left St. Paul, Minnesota, in June, and followed the most
northerly route, moving westward across the upper branches of the Mis-
souri, through the the South Pass, thence to the Columbia River. The
report of this expedition has been received. Three new passes in the
Rocky Mountains have been discovered; one of which, according to the
barometer, is two thousand five hundred feet below the famous South
Pass ; the ascent in both directions is gentle, and it would seem that the

\

ON THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 17

whole range had been sunk at this point for the express purpose of allow-
ing the passage of a Railroad. The great difficulty in exploring these
passes and the territory west arises from the dense forests and luxuriant
vegetation.

The second expedition, under Lieut. Whipple, of the Topographical
corps, is under instructions to survey the route from Memphis by way
of Vicksburg, Fort Smith, Arkansas, and Albuquerque, New Mexico, and
thence to the frontier line of California. Lieut. Williamson is directed to
leave San Diego with a surveying party, and meet Whipple at Wilkins'
Pass, in Sierra Nevada.

The fourth party was under the charge of Lieut. Gunnison, who was
ordered to rendezvous at Council Bluffs, and explore the central route
taken by Col. Fremont, in his last expedition, the termination of which
was so disastrous. This last is the favorite route of Col. Benton, and the
expedition will be accompanied by Mr. Kerr, one of Col. Fremont's men.

These various expeditions were fully equipped and provided with men
of science and artists, as well as the usual accompaniments of bushmen
and outliers, and are furnished with scientific instruments, &c. A mounted
escort of thirty-five U. S. troops accompany each party.

Since the preparation of the above notice, intelligence has been received
of the massacre, by the Indians near the great Salt Lake, of Lieut.
Gunnison and the Engineer, Mr. Kerr, with several others of the party.
The notes of the survey, as well as the instruments and journals have been
recovered.

The brig Dolphin, Lieut. 0. H. Berryman, has recently returned to the
United States, having been profitably engaged in special service, under
Act of March 3, 1849, in taking new routes, and perfecting the discoveries
made by Lieut. Maury, in the course of his investigations of the winds
and currents of the ocean. Much credit is due to the officers employed
in executing this law.

Lieut. Gilliss is actively engaged in the publication of the result of his
astronomical observations, at Santiago, Chili. The report of Lieut. Hern-
don, presenting the result of his exploration of the river Amazon and its
tributaries, is nearly ready. The report of Lieut. Gibbon, who was of the
same party, but explored a different section of the country and returned
later, is nearly completed.

Lieut. Mackai, who accompanied Lieut. Gilliss, returned to the United
States last summer, having made a series of magneticul observations very
successfully at all the elevations and at distances of 100 miles entirely
across the Pampas. Soon after leaving Mendoza he had the misfortune to
break his barometer and injure his chronometer by falling from his horse
so that he was unable to obtain the longitudes of his magnetical stations

2*

18 NOTES BY THE EDITOR

and the barometric profile of the country. Being desirous to complete his
work, he volunteered to retrace his ground, and left the United States for
this purpose some months since, taking with him a declinometer and dip-
circle, two Bunten's barometers, and apparatus for determining altitudes
from the boiling point, and some smaller instruments. Should the Argen-
tine Provinces have become sufficiently quiet, Lieut. Mackai will first cross
the Andes at the Planclan Pass (lat. 35 20'), next at the Portillo Pass,
which is the most elevated (lat. 33 40 r ), and finally at the Cumbre and
Uspalata Pass (in lat. 32 50') ; from whence he will return to the United
States.

A full chart of Lake Erie has been compiled from surveys made under
the direction of the U. S. Government, by officers of the corps of Topo-
graphical Engineers. This chart shows Lake Erie divided into three sec-
tions; the first extending downward from the head of the Lake to Point
Pellee Island; the second from that island to the base of Long Point; and
the third below that point to the Niagara River. The first section is the
shallowest, and presents a general plat or level, with an average depth of
thirty feet water. The second division presents another and much more
extensive plat or level, with no obstructions to navigation, with a depth of
water from sixty to seventy feet. The third section is the deepest, as well
as the most uneven portion of the Lake, ranging from 60 ft. to 204 in depth.

At a recent meeting of the Royal Geographical Society of Berlin, M.
Msedler, of Dorpat, announced that the Russian Government is about to
have measured the degrees of the meridian from the North Cape, in 72^
North latitude, to the mouth of the Danube, in 45 of the same lat-
itude : that is, on a line which traverses Europe in its whole length, and
forms about a fourteenth part of the entire circumferenee of the earth.
This measurement will exceed by three degrees the largest ever before exe-
cuted, that which the English carried from the Himalaya to the southern
point of British India.

A new company, under the title of the Mediterranean Electric Tele-
graph Company, destined to unite England with Africa, the East Indies,
and Australia, by way of France, Corsica, Sardinia, and Algeria, has been
formed in France and England. The capital stock is 300,000, divided
into 30,000 shares. The work is to be immediately commenced.

The construction of a sub-marine telegraph between England and Bel-
gium, and also between England and Ireland, has been successfully accom-
plished during the past season, and both lines are now in constant opera-
tion. The length of the sub-marine wire across the Irish Channel, is
sixty miles.

The subject of connecting England and America by a trans-atlantic com-
munication, has been agitated to some extent during the past season in

ON THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 19

Great Britain. One company lias even advertised for proposals for the
manufacture of the necessary cable.

The distance between Galway and British America is not far from
1,600 miles. Galway is already connected with London and all the great
European towns by telegraphic lines. A company in New Brunswick has
undertaken to extend the wires which now reach from New York to Hali-
fax, as far as Cape Race, so as to leave nothing but the sub-oceanic line
to be finished. Can it be finished ? Is it practicable ? With all the objec-
tions duly weighed currents, icebergs, variable tempei*atures, whales and
what not is the balance of probabilities in favor of the scheme ? The
British Company certainly think so two years' safe working of the line
between the South Foreland and Sangatte, doubtless forming the ground
of conviction.

The London Literary Gazette states, that the Rev. J. TV. Koelle, of the
Church Missionary Society, of England, has recently returned from Sierra
Leone, where he has made extensive investigations into the African lan-
guages. There are a great number of liberated negroes at that place, from
whom he has collected a comparative vocabulary of the languages of no
less that 190 different countries, from almost every part of Africa, which
will contain upwards of 100 distinct languages. Besides that, he has
written a grammar of the Vei language, and one of the highly developed
and most interesting Bornu language, which, together with the Fellah,
constitute the most important languages of Central Africa, The Bornu
grammar, it is believed, will throw new light on the character of the Afri-
can languages. We believe that these results, which constitute the most
comprehensive fund of philological information of that continent as yet
collected, are to be forthwith published, with a new ethnological map,
showing the localities of the various countries, a great proportion of which
have hitherto been unknown, even by name.

Commissioner Bartlett, late of the Mexican Boundary Survey, has, by
the aid of the Indian vocabulary published by Mr. Galatin, recently dis-
covered that the harsh guttural language of the Apache Indians, our new
South Western border men, is the same dialect as the Athapescan of the
distant north shore of the American continent. Similar indications of
ancient emigration may be expected at every point.

A review of the progress of mechanical, or any of the branches of phys-
ical science, during the past year, strikingly illustrate the fact, that many
important inventions and discoveries whose reality was made known years
ago, are but commencing an existence, through their practical application
to the wants of every -day life. In this work of time, the transformation of
that which was theoretically true into that which is practically useful,
there is great and wonderful progress. This progress is silent, unmarked

20 NOTES BY THE EDITOR

by any new discovery, and attracts little attention ; the application is,
however, at last made in the right way, and now that which was a symbol,
becomes an element, or an instrument of power.

The improvements recently made in the application and use of the
screw propeller, are opening a new era in the naval and mercantile marine.
As an indication of this, the management and evolutions of the great naval
review of England during the last summer, may be quoted as an example.
"We are now," says Mr. Fairbairn, "in a state of transition between
the paddle and the screw, with nearly all progress in favor of the latter.

The most powerful locomotive hitherto constructed, has been built during
the past year for the North Western Railroad, of England. The peculiarity
of construction consists in the great length given to the fire-box, in which
the greatest amount of steam is always generated, and in the comparative
shortness of the tubes, which were only half the usual length. The steam
generated by this boiler was sufficient for any engine of 700 horse power.
This engine was intended for an express, to run on the London and Bir-
mingham road.

In manufacturing machinery and processes, both in England and the
United States, and as a gratifying feature of progress, the almost uni-
versal prosperity of the working classes should be noticed.

A new combing machine, of French invention, has recently excited
some attention in England. It is applicable alike to cotton, flax, and
wool, and combs the fiber instead of carding it, by means of a series of
small combs applied in succession to the cotton or flax, by which means a
much finer yarn can be produced from the same material, than is possible
by former processes.

A great improvement in looms, known as " Eccle's Patent" for weaving
checks, was exhibited at the New York Crystal Palace during the past
summer. Among the other contributions exhibiting great mechanical
ingenuity, made to this exhibition, was a machine for pegging boots and
shoes. It is made almost entirely of iron, costs $'150 to $200, and will
probably weigh some two or three hundred pounds. It works very quietly
and rapidly, and will peg a shoe or boot, two rows on each side (leaving a
small space at the heel and toe) in three minutes, cutting its own pegs.
One man only is required to operate it, without auxiliary power. A good
workman will peg a shoe by hand in fifteen minutes.

A machine for making cots, or little leathern rolls used in spinning,
and of which 20,000 per day, hitherto made by hands, are worn out in
Massachusetts alone, was one of the most ingenious contributions of Con-
necticut to the Fair. The leather is drawn into the machine in the shape
of a strap or belt, is cut off" at the proper length diagonally, so as to form
the best edges for gumming, is then rolled or doubled over so that the two

ON THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 21

edges, being gummed in the operation, exactly meet ; when they are
pressed firmly together, and the now perfected cot dropped through the
machine and another length drawn in, to undergo the same process.

That ingenious contrivance, the sewing machine, appears to be coming
into universal use. Since the first invention, the machine has been greatly
perfected and simplified, and has, we believe, nearly attained its greatest
excellence, in a recent invention not yet made public.

The newly invented life-boat, to which the prize given by the Duke of
Northumberland, Eng., was awarded last season, has unfortunately proved
a failure. This boat, it will be remembered, was selected from a competing
number of two hundred and eighty, which were urged on the Committee
through plan or model.

Calvert, of Manchester, Eng., has recently introduced a valuable im-
provement in the process of smelting iron, by previously removing the sul-
'phurous vapor from coal and coke. The results have been most satisfac-
tory, the strength of the iron produced by this process being about 40 per
cent, greater than that made in the ordinary way.

The subject of the artificial production of fish, started in France a few
years since by MM. Sehin and Remy, has been taken up in England during
the past year with great success. A little work, containing full instructions
for multiplying fish of nearly every description to an almost incalculable
extent, has recently passed through several editions in London.

The curious and useful applications which are now so frequently made of
the improvements in photography, are strikingly illustrated by the follow-
ing notice made to the French Academy by M. Milne-Edwards of an un-
published book of MM. Rousseau and Deveria : Photographic Zoologique.
This wonderful book does not introduce any new processes of photography,
but presents an extremely important application of the art of photography
to zoology. The plates which compose this work present as yet only in-
complete essays, which, however, partly realize the advantages hoped from
the application of this new arc to zoological studies. M. Milne-Edwards
remarked that the zoologist has often occasion to represent a multitude of
details which escape the naked eye, and yet which it is necessary he should
show. To show them the draughtsman is obliged to magnify them, as if
they were seen through a magnifying glass, and the objects thus repre-
sented rarely have their natural aspect ; consequently, the zoologist
always takes care to use two sorts of images ; figures d' 'ensemble, not mag-
nified, and figures of certain characteristic parts, more or less magnified.
In the plates presented to the Academy by M.M. Rousseau and Deveria,
such as those representing the Euryale, the Agaricie, &c., the details of
structure can be perceived by the naked eye no more than in nature ; but
if the observer uses a magnifying glass, they appear to the observer's eye

22 NOTES BY THE EDITOR

as they are in nature. The advantages of photography over engraving
are considerable, when the naturalist -wishes to represent a body of a very
complex structure ; but in another regard it has much more important
advantages. When the zoologist draws, he represents only what he sees
in his model ; he brings out, as it were, only what goes to confirm the
ideas he has formed upon the structure of the body : while photography,
bringing out everything, allows every one disposed to dispute the system
of the author, liberty to do so, and places in their hands all the elements
of the controversy. Another naturalist may even make discoveries upon
these faithful images of nature, as he could have done upon nature itself.

A valuable manual of all the recent processes in photography has re-
cently been published in New York, by Mr. Humphrey, the editor of the
Daguerrian Journal.

"Stellar Astronomy continues to manifest a vigor and activity worthy
of the lofty interest which attaches to it. Bessel had made a survey of all
stars to those of the ninth magnitude inclusive, in a zone lying between
45 of north, and 15 of south declination. Argelander has extended
this zone from 80 of north to 81 of south declination. It comprises
more than 100,000 stars. Last year was published also the long-expected
work of Struve, containing a catalogue of stars observed by him at
Dorpat, in the years 1822-43. They are principally double and multiple
stars, which had been previously micrometrically observed by the same
distinguished astronomer. Their number amounts to 2874 ; the epoch of
reduction is 1830. The introduction contains the discussion of various
important points in stellar astronomy.

" Notices have been brought before us, from time to time, of the nebulas
observed through Lord Rosse's telescope. This noble instrument, so un-
rivalled for observations of this kind, continues to be applied to the same
purpose, and to add yearly to our knowledge of the remotest regions of
space into which the eye of man has been able to penetrate. Almost every
new observation appears to confirm the fact of that curious tendency to a
spiral arrangement in these nebulous masses of which mention has so fre-
quently been made. To those persons, however, who have neither seen the
objects themselves, nor careful drawings of them, a mere verbal description
must convey very indistinct conceptions of the spiral forms which they
assume.

* ' The refinement of modern methods of astronomical observation has be-
come so great, that astronomers appear very generally to think that a
higher degree of refinement in the calculations of physical astronomy than
has yet been attained is becoming necessary. Mr. Adams has been en-
gaged in some important researches of this kind. He has corrected an
error in Burckhardt's value of the moon's parallax ; and he has also

ON THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 23

determined to a neai'er approximation than that obtained by Laplace, the
secular variation in the moon's mean motion. The former investigation is
published in an appendix to the Nautical Almanac for 1856 ; the latter
has been very recently presented to the Royal Society ' ' Hopkins' Address
before the British Association.

At the sitting of the Academy of Sciences at Paris, November, 1852,
M. Faye announced the publication by M. Struve, of his new catalogue of
stars, at Dorpat, in Russia. In it he states that, for 100 years last past,
the motion of the double star, 61 Cygni, instead of being in orbits one
around the other, has been in fact only a right line movement. Bessel and
other distinguished astronomers had entertained no doubt of the orbital
movement, although the semi-major axis did not subtend an angle exceed-
ing (16") sixteen seconds.

The first report on the Geology of the State of Illinois, has been made
to the Legislature during the past year, by Dr. Norwood. The results of
the Survey have already had the effect of diverting mining capital to the
counties of Pope and Hardin, where it is reported that very large veins of
lead and iron may be had for the digging. The only iron furnaces in Illi-
nois are in operation in the latter county. They are two in number, and
make iron of excellent quality. Of coal and the ores of iron, there are
believed to be inexhaustible supplies. Dr. Norwood has explored the State
in various directions. Reconnoissances were made of all the principal
points in twenty counties, principally along the southern tier. The work,
however, has but fairly commenced, and many years will be required to
carry it to a satisfactory completion.

Dr. Norwood, in his report, discusses at some length the formation of
the bed of the Mississippi river and its tributaries. His theory is similar
to that contended for by Mr. Phillips and some others, viz : that the Mis-
sissippi line traverses a ridge, and not a valley, and that the strata dip
from the river, sloping respectively east and west. In other words, that
the bed of the Mississippi traverses a line of anticlinal axes, or upheavals.

In 1837, by an Act of the Legislature, a Geological Survey of the State
of Ohio was commenced, and continued in 1838, by Prof. Mather, and an
able corps of assistants. Eleven counties only were examined, when the
Commission was obliged to relinquish its labors, in consequence of the fail-
ure of the appropriations. At the last meeting of the State Board of Agri-
culture, at Columbus, it was resolved to petition the Legislature for the
further continuance of the work. Similar action has also been taken by
the American Association for the Promotion of Science.

Since the publication of Dr. Owen's Report on the Geology of Iowa and
Wisconsin, in which attention was particularly directed to the extraordi-
nary fossils of the Mauvaise Terres, or Bad Lands of Nebraska, three

24 NOTES BY THE EDITOR.

expeditions have been despatched to these regions for scientific purposes.
The first of these parties has been organized by Prof. Hall, of Albany, N.
Y., assisted by the American Fur Company. It was under the direction
of Messrs. Hayden and Meek, the former of whom is an Accomplished
draftsman. The second expedition was under the charge of Dr. Evans,
the geologist attached to the surveying party of Gov. Stevens. The col-
lections made by Mr. Evans, will be deposited in the Smithsonian Institu-
tion. The third expedition was from Prussia. All of these expeditions
were successful, and returned richly laden.

A report from President Hitchcock, under a resolve of the Legislature of
Massachusetts, authorizing some new geological surveys, has been pub-
lished during the past year. It embraces two subjects, viz., the coal fields
of Bristol County and Rhode Island, and the marks of ancient glaciers in
Massachusetts, upon both of which, valuable and interesting information
is given. President Hitchcock thinks he has discovered traces of ancient
glaciers in the Western part of Massachusetts similar to those exhibited in
Wales and Switzerland. The three characteristics which are there observed,
viz., the rounding of ledges, the scratches in rocks, and the accumulation
of boulders or moraines are all visible here, particularly the two former ;
but they have been somewhat modified by the subsequent action of water.

WE present to the readers of the Annual of Scientific
Discovery for 1854, a PORTRAIT OF EDWARD HITCHCOCK,
President of Amherst College, Geologist to the State of Mas-

O ' O

sachusetts, &c., &c.

All communications intended for the Editor of the Annual,
should be sent to the care of Gould & Lincoln, 59 Washington
Street, Boston.

I >

THE

ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS.

THE AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL EXHIBITION OF 1853.

The decidedly sreat event of the year 1853, so far as relates to the

/ c^ /

progress of science and the useful arts in the United States, has been
the Exhibition of the Industry of all Nations, in New York. This

?-eat enterprise, conceived by a few public-spirited citizens of New
ork soon after the close of the London Exhibition, was incorporated
on the llth of March, 1852, when operations were immediately com-
menced. The co-operation and countenance of the Federal Govern-
ment was very early secured, and the building for the reception of
goods, was made a bonded warehouse in which goods intended for
exhibition might be admitted duty free. The officers intrusted with
the management of the Exhibition, consisted of a board of Directors,
who elected Theodore Sedgwick, Esq., President of the Association,
and William Whetten, Esq., Secretary ; Mr. C. E. Detmold was also
appointed Architect and Engineer. In the mean time steps had been
taken to obtain a proper plan for the building to be erected. And
here serious difficulties had presented themselves. The matter of
iron construction on a large scale was, and is, almost entirely new in
this country. No edifice entirely of iron yet existed in the United
States, and the want of experience on the part of both architects and
engineers, presented serious obstacles. Many ingenious plans were
offered. Sir Joseph Paxton, with great liberality, furnished one of
singular beauty, but the peculiar shape of the ground to be occupied
rendered it impossible to use it. The late Mr. Downing offered
another of striking ingenuity, but this was also excluded by the terms
of the grant of land from the City, which peremptorily required that
the building should be exclusively of iron and glass. Mr. Leopold
Eidlitz presented a plan with a suspension roof, intended to obviate
the difficulty of spanning great widths by arches. Mr. James Bogar-
4

28 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERT.

dus submitted one of a circular building, consisting of successive
colonnades, placed one over the other, somewhat resembling the
Colosseum at Rome, and involving a new mode of joining, for which he
has obtained a patent. Mr. Julius W. Adams presented one of a great
octagonal vault or dome, supported by ribs made of fasces or clusters
of gas pipe. Several other plans were offered, of great beauty and
originality. The task of selection was difficult and delicate ; ' the
Board, however, after much consultation, finally determined on one
submitted by Messrs. Carstensen and Gildemeister, of New York.
These gentlemen are both foreigners, the latter having arrived recently
in the United States, from Copenhagen, where he was well known as
the designer of some of the principal public works of that city.

The plan was adopted on the 26th of August, 1852, and no time
was lost in putting the work under way.

The piece of ground on which the building stands, Reservoir
Square, granted by the city, was somewhat unfavorable for architect-
ural purposes. In other respects no better location could have been
found in New York, it being easily accessible from several great thor-
oughfares running in different directions.

The main features of the building are as follows : It is, with the
exception of the floor, entirely constructed of iron and glass. The
general idea of the edifice is a Greek Cross, surmounted by a dome
at the intersection. Each diameter of the cross is 365 feet 5 inches
long. There are three similar entrances each 47 feet wide, and
approached by flights of steps. Over each front is a large semi-circular
fan-light, 41 feet Avide and 21 feet high, answering to the arch of the
nave. Each arm of the cross is on the ground plan 149 feet broad.
This is divided into a central nave and two aisles, on each side ; the nave
41, each aisle 54 feet wide. The central portion or nave is carried
up to the height of 6 7 feet, and the semi-circular arch by which it is
spanned is 41 feet broad. There are thus in effect two arched naves
crossing each other at right angles, 41 feet broad, 67 feet high to the
crown of the arch, and 365 feet long; and on each side of these
naves is an aisle 54 feet broad and 45 feet high. The exterior of the
ridge way of the nave is 71 feet. Each aisle is covered by a gallery
of its own width, and 24 feet from the floor. The central dome is 100
feet in diameter, 68 feet inside from the floor to the spring of the arch,
and 118 feet to the crown ; and on the outside, with the lantern, 149
feet. The exterior angles of the building are ingeniously filled up
T\rith a triangular lean-to 24 feet high, which gives the ground plan an
octagonal shape, each side or face being 149 feet wide. At each
angle is an octagonal tower 8 feet in diameter, and 75 feet high.

Ten large, and eight winding stair-cases connect the principal floor
with the gallery, which opens on the three balconies that are situated
over the entrance halls, and afford ample space for flower decorations,
statues, vases, &c. The building contains, on the ground floor, 111,-
000 square feet of space, and in its galleries, which are 54 feet wide,
62,000 square feet more, making a total area of 173,000 square feet,
for the purposes of exhibition. There are thus on the ground floor

MECHANICS AND USEFUL AKTS. 29

two acres and a half, or exactly 2 52-100 ; in the galleries one acre
and 4-4-100 ; total, within an inconsiderable fraction, four acres.

There are on the ground floor 190 octagonal cast-iron columns, 21
feet above the floor, and eight inches diameter, cast hollow, of differ-
ent thicknesses, from half an inch to one inch. These columns
receive the cast-iron girders. These are 26^ feet long and 3 feet
high, and serve to sustain the galleries and the wrought-iron construc-
tion of the roof, as well as to brace the whole structure in every direc-
tion. The girders, as well as the second story columns, are fastened
to the columns in the first story, by connecting pieces of the same
octagonal shape as the columns, 3 feet 4 inches high, having proper
flanges and lugs to fasten all pieces together by bolts. The number of
lower floor girders is 252, besides 12 wrought-iron girders of the same
height, and 41 feet span over a part of the nave. The second story
contains 148 columns, of the same shape as those below, and 17 feet
7 inches high. These receive another tier of girders, numbering 160,
for the support of the roofs of the aisles, each nave being covered by
16 cast-iron semi-circular arches, each composed of 4 pieces.

The dome, noble and beautiful in its proportions, is the chief archi-
tectural feature of the building. Its diameter is 100 feet, and its height
to the springing line is nearly 70 feet, and to the crown of the arch
123 feet. It is the largest, as well as almost the only dome hitherto
erected in the United States. It is supported by 24 columns, which
rise beyond the second story, and to a height of 62 feet above the
principal floor. The system of wrought-iron trusses which connect
them together at the top, and is supported by them, forms two eccen-
tric polygons, each of 16 sides. They receive a cast-iron bed-plate to
which the cast-iron shoes for the ribs of the dome are bolted. The
latter are 32 in number. They are constructed of two curves of
double angle-iron, securely connected together by trellis-work. The
requisite steadiness is secured by tie-rods, which brace them both ver-
tically and horizontally. At the top, the ribs are bolted to a horizon-
tal ring of wrought and cast-iron, which has a diameter of 20 feet in
clear, and is surmounted by the lantern. As in the other roofs of the
building, the dome is cased with matched deal and tin sheathing.
Light is communicated to the interior through the lantern, and also in
part from the sides, which are pierced for 32 ornamental windows.
These are glazed with stained glass, representing the Anus of the
Union and of its several States, and form no inconsiderable part of the
interior decoration.

The external walls of the building are constructed of cast-iron fram-
ing and panel-work, into which are inserted the sashes of the windows
and the louvres for ventilation. The glass is one-eighth of an inch
thick, and was manufactured at the Jackson Glass Works, N. Y., and
afterwards enamelled by Cooper & Belcher, of Camptown, N. J. The
enamel with which the whole of it is covered is laid upon the glass with
a brush, and after drying, is subjected to the intense heat of a kiln, by
which the coating is vitrified, and rendered as durable as the glass
itself. It produces an effect similar to that of ground glass, being

30 ANNUAL OP SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

translucent but not transparent. The sun's rays, diffused by passing
through it, yield an agreeable light, and are deprived of that intensity
of heat and glare which belongs to them in this climate. In the
absence of a similar precaution in the Crystal Palace of Hyde Park,
whose roofs, as well as walls, were enclosed with transparent glass, it
was found necessary to cover the interior of the building with canvas,
to produce the required shade.

The rapid and unexpected increase of the applications of exhibitors
induced the Association to erect a large addition to the building
already described. It consists of two parts, of one and two stories re-
spectively, and occupies the entire space between the main building
and the Reservoir. Its length is 451 feet and 5 inches, and its extreme
width is 75 feet. It is designed for the reception of machinery in mo-
tion, the cabinets of mining and mineralogy, and the refreshment
rooms, with their necessary offices. The second story, which is nearly
450 feet long, 21 feet wide, and extends the whole length, is entirely
devoted to the exhibition of pictures and statuary. It is lighted from
a sky-light 419 feet long, and eight feet and six inches wide.

The decorations of the building were intrusted to Henry Greenough,
Esq., of Cambridge, Mass. The leading idea in the plan of decora-
tion, has been to bring out the beautiful construction of the building
to decorate construction, rather than to construct decoration. The
result has proved surprisingly beautiful. The colors employed on
the exterior are mixed in oil, the base being white lead. The exterior
presents the appearance of a building constructed of a light-colored
bronze, of which all features purely ornamental are of gold. The
interior has a prevailing tone of buff, or rich cream color, which is
given to all the cast-iron constructive work. This color is relieved by
a moderate and judicious use of the three positive colors, red, blue,
and yellow, in their several tints of vermilion, garnet, sky-blue, and
orange, (certain parts of the ornamental work being gilt) to accord
with the arrangement of colors employed in the decoration of the ceil-
ings. The only exceptions to the use of oil colors are the ceiling of
the American lean-to and the dome ; these decorations are executed
in tempera on canvas.

The effect of the interior of the dome, is particularly splendid. The
rays from a golden sun, at the centre, descend between the latticed
ribs, and arabesques of white and blue, relieved by silver stars, sur-
round the openings.

The whole quantity of iron employed in the construction amounts to
1,800 tons, of which 300 tons are wrought and 1,500 tons cast iron. The
quantity of glass is 15,000 panes, or 55,000 square feet. The quantity
of wood used amounts to 750,000 feet, board measure.

The general mode of erection by base pieces, columns, connecting
pieces and girders, is the same with that of the great Hyde Park build-
ing ; but the construction of the arched nave, and of the dome, is of
course entirely peculiar, and the general effect of the building is com-
pletely different. The London building was certainly deficient in
architectural effect. The form of the New York edifice affords the

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 31

requisite scope for a pleasing variety of embellishments, by which all
monotony is avoided, and allows a very economical use of the ground.

It was the intention of the officers of the Association, that the build-
ing should be finished and the Exhibition opened by the first of May,
1853. Many delays necessarily intervened, and the opening was con-
sequently deferred until the 14th of July, on which day the Exhibition
was formally opened with appropriate services, in the presence of the
President of the United States, and many distinguished men of Amer-
ica and Europe.

The details of the Exhibition, with the collecting and arranging the
various departments, was intrusted to the following gentlemen : Gen-
eral Superintendents, Capts. Dupont and Davis, U. S. A. ; Secretary,
J. M. Batchelder, Esq. ; Arrangement of Space and Classification, Sam-
uel Webber, Esq. ; Department of Mineralogy and Chemistry, Prof.
B. Silliman, Jr. ; Director of Machinery, J. E. Holmes ; Director of
Agricultural Implements, B. P. Johnson, Esq. ; Director of Sculpture,
Felix Piatti ; Director of Textile Fabrics, Edward Vincent.

The total amount of space on the floor, occupied by different coun-
tries for exhibition, exclusive of the naves, was about 152,000 square
feet, of which 94,102 is on the ground floor, and 59,000 is in the gal-
lery. The total amount of space occupied by foreign exhibitors was
98,749 square feet. The total number of exhibitors from abroad was
about 3000. In the United States Department the number of
exhibitors was about 2000, the largest proportion of whom were inclu-
ded under the following classes : Mineralogy, Metallurgy and Mining ;
Machinery and Tools ; Agricultural Implements ; Hardware; and the
Fine Arts. The number of persons contributing was about one-fourth
that of the London Exhibition.

NOVELTIES OF THE NEW YORK INDUSTRIAL EXHIBITION.

To attempt to describe, or briefly notice a majority of the multitude
of new, ingenious and useful inventions exhibited within the New
York Crystal Palace, would be impossible within the limits of the
present work. The following notices, however, abridged from the
reports given in the New York Tribune, Scientific American, Put-
nam's Industrial Record, and various other publications, will be found
to include the most important of the mechanical novelties exhibited.

One of the most interesting features of the Exhibition, was the
number and variety of the machines and implements intended for per-
fecting or economizing the various processes of agriculture. A like
collection has never probably been seen before, the whole presenting
a striking illustration of the great employment of the American peo-
ple, and of the amount of ingenuity and skill which has been made sub-
servient to this branch of industry. In no other department was the
Exhibition more National and American than in this.

The following inventions were among those deemed particularly
worthy of notice.

Improved Feed Mill. This invention of Sherlock and Blackbill,
4*

32 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

Perm., is designed for the use of farmers, or those who desire to crush
corn, or grind oats, wheat or other grain, sufficiently fine for feeding
to any kind of domestic animals, or for cracked hominy for the table.
The grinding buhrs of this mill are blocks of wood 15 inches diame-
ter, 4 inches thick. These are faced with strips of soft iron -| inches
thick, 1 inch wide, with spaces between, f inches wide, which are
driven full of cut nails, made for that purpose. The buhrs are placed
in a sheet-iron case 18 inches in diameter, and 14 inches high, at the
bottom of which is the discharge spout for the meal. This case is set
in a frame 3 feet high and 18 inches square. The upper buhr is
bolted fast to the upper part of the frame, which is fastened to the
posts by bolts, so that by unscrewing, all lift off together when the
buhr needs sharpening, which is done by cutting with a cold-chisel.
The lower buhr is moved by a pully on the lower end of the shaft,
which stands in a step-block, and that block rests on a screw by which'
the buhr is set to grind fine or coarse. With four horse-power it will
grind four to six bushels per hour, and will require about fifteen min-
utes dressing for every 150 bushels ground. It has no gearing, and in
use cannot wear one grinding surface upon the other, so that a hop-
per holding 20 bushels may be filled and ground out without the least
attention, and shonld it run empty, no injury will result.

Machine for Picking up Stones. This machine, the invention of J.
S. Foster, of N. Y., is constructed as follows : Suspended to an axle is
a movable rake, with half-circular fingers, which gathers all the stones
in its path ; and these are taken up by teeth fixed in a drum, and car-
ried up over and dropped into a hopper that conducts them into a
cart-body at one side. As these teeth come round with their load, a
trigger on the drum throws them back inside, so that stones getting
between the teeth do not stop or break them. It can be made to pick
up apples, potatoes, or any other vegetable from the size of a hickory-
nut to that of a peck measure. It can be used also to remove loose
earth.

Pennock's Wheat Drill. This machine is mounted upon a pair of
wheels like the low wheels of a small wagon, on an axletree 6^ feet
long between the shoulders. It has eight hollow teeth, which arc
attached to a movable frame, so that all or any one may be raised out
of the ground. The grain is put in a box on the axle, divided in four
parts, each of which holds half a bushel. As the wheels roll forward,
they move machinery in the bottom of these boxes, which lets the
grain down in just such quantities as the farmer desires to plant per
acre, and this is conducted down through the hollow teeth and depos-
ited at the desired depth in the previously well-pulverized soil. It
has been proved by experiment that wheat put in by a drilling
machine will produce ten per cent, more than broad-cast sowing of
the same land, while the saving of seed is full twenty per cent.

Improvements in Grinding Corn. This English improvement in
the construction of corn-mills, is the invention of Mr. Barnett, and
consists of an application of wire gauze inserted in cavities in the
millstone, which serve the purposes of ventilating the corn during the

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 33

process of grinding, and of liberating those portions of the flour
which are sufficiently ground before reaching the peripheries of the
stones. By this contrivance, it is asserted that a much larger pro-
portion of gluten is retained in the flour, consequently, there is
much less waste ; and the same quantity of wheat is capable of being
converted into a larger quantity of food. This saving is stated to
exceed 5 per cent.

Moffat's Patent Grain Thresher and Cleaner. This machine,
invented by ]\Ir. ]Moffat, of Piqua, Ohio, has some novel features of
construction. The cylinder is 30 inches long and 16 diameter. It is
made of eight flat bars of iron, ^ inch by 2 inches, fastened upon iron
heads with four strong iron bands. In each of these bars are 1 7 flat
teeth, fastened by nuts on the ends, on the back side- of the bars.
The teeth pass between one row of teeth in the concave, which is
made of bars of iron, open so the grain may fall through. The shaft
of the cylinder is 34 inches above the ground, and is driven by a
spur, wheel on the left hand side of the machine, which works into a
pinion on the cylinder shaft. On the right of the machine is a bevel
pinion, upon the end of the shaft which supports the spur-wheel,
which is driven by a wheel set at right angles upon a short shaft, to
which the power is connected by a universal joint. The width of the
frame is 40 inches; height over top of cylinder, 42 inches; height of
straw carrier at extreme end, 6^- feet ; extreme length of machine, 19
feet. The straw carrier is made of round rods and iron links, so as to
form an endless band. Underneath the straw carrier, there are two
screws 6 feet long, and 8 inches diameter, running in sheet-iron troughs,
which carry up the grain and chaff that falls through the concave and
short of the straw carrier, and drops it upon the screen of the fan-
ning-mill, which is under the back end of the machine. On the left
side of the frame there is another similar screw on the reverse angle,
which brings back from the fanning-mill the unthreshed heads, and
drops them into a spout which leads them back to the threshing cylin-
der. There is another screw running across under the fan-mill screen
which brings the clean grain out through a spout on the right side of
the frame, to which a bag may be attached. There is a wheel over
the straw-carrier that assists to push up the load. The fanning-mill is
in the usual form, similar to those constructed to work by hand.

Zimmerman 's Threshing Machine. This machine differs in some
respects from the other recent inventions. It has a spiked cylinder,
30 inches long, 18 inches diameter, made of six wooden bars, with
13 spikes in each. The concave has 45 teeth, which are movable, so
as to allow part to be taken out. The cylinder is 5 feet above the
ground, and the edge of the feed-apron 6 feet, rendering it necessary
for the feeder to stand on a platform, which is suspended by rods. The
fanning-mill is placed under the cylinder. The straw-receiver is a
level board 1 2 feet lono;, 3 feet 3 inches wide, bored full of holes, and
made to shake like the sieves of a fanning-mill ; the grain falling through
the holes is received in a zinc trough, and carried back to the fanning-
mill. The grain is all shaken out of the straw while it is on the carrier,

34 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

and as it leaves the farming-mill it is driven over slats, through which a
current of air is forced up, blowing back into the screen all chaff and
light grains, so that none but clear wheat enters the bag.

Palmer's Threshing Machine, This machine differs in all respects
from any heretofore invented for threshing grain, and in some partic-
ulars is as greatly in advance of all others, as the ordinary kind is in
advance of the flail or trampling of cattle. It does not thresh by a
spike-toothed cylinder working into a spiked concave, like the ordi-
nary machine, which is fed by a man who stands in front, feeding it
with wheat and himself with dust, to which is sometimes added a fly-
ing tooth or other death-dealing object. The grain is put into this
machine upon aprons on both sides, as fast as four men can handle
the unbound sheaves, which pass through a hole upon each side of the
case, which is circular, about four feet in diameter and six inches
thick, the hole being about the size of a bundle of grain, and situated at
the outer ed^e of the circle, about half the height from the around.

^2 * c5 C*

Here the heads of the grain are struck by four iron arms of l^inch
round iron, which are firmly set in a hub that is made to revolve with
great speed. This blow or blows, falling rapidly upon the heads
as they project from a square corner, knocks out a great portion of
the grain ; the straw is then carried forward by the arms through the
lower half of the circle, the sides of which are waved plates of iron,
which give the straw a tortuous motion, whipping it from side to side
until every kernel is whipped out. The straw is all carried forward
by arms over the upper part of the circle and thrown out at the
same side it entered, a little above. These plates are adjustable, so as
to be set close for timothy, or wide for coarse straw, either wheat, rye,
oats, rice, buckwheat or peas ; all of which it will thresh perfectly
clean. It is claimed for this machine, and apparently with justice,
that with the same power it will thresh more grain than any other.

A valuable improvement has also been made by Mr. Palmer upon
the old fashioned spike cylinder threshing machines, to prevent dan-
ger to the person tending them when a stone or other hard substance
happens to be in the sheaf. This is simply by cutting off the apron
just before it reaches the cylinder, so that all heavy substances drop
down. There is also a roller in front of the cylinder to prevent
whole sheaves from passing, or the feeder getting his hand caught.

Farmer's Labor Saving Machine. This machine, known under the
above title, was invented by G. S. Snyder, Jefferson Co., Va., and
is designed to thresh, clean and put the wheat in bags, ready meas-
ured ior market, all at one operation. It is intended to be operated
by two horses, and is represented as being capable of threshing and
cleaning 100 bushels of wheat per day.

The same inventor has also exhibited, at the Crystal Palace, a model
of a machine which is much needed in many of the Southern States.
It is intended to separate garlic from the wheat, which no common
cleaner will do. In this the wheat is washed and the garlic taken out
and the grain dried by hot air or steam. It can be operated by hand
horse, or any other power,

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 35

Clover and Timothy Seed Harvester. This machine, the invention
of Mr. J. A. AYagner, of Steubcn Co., X. Y., is essentially a simple
frame and box mounted on wheels, in front of which is a cylinder set
with spiral knives, acting in concert with curved spring teeth, in com-
bination with a straight knife, which forms a perfect shear, that severs
the heads from the stalk, which are at the same moment discharged in
the box. The teeth bein<T made to spring and vibrate, it matters not

O O ,

how thick or stalky the clover is, not a particle can escape being cut,
or allow the teeth to become clogged. The machine is so constructed
that it can be adjusted to the height of the clover and timothy. With
the aid of one boy and a horse, this machine will harvest from ten to
twelve acres per day.

Salmon's Improved Grain Cleaner. This machine is very unlike the
ordinary fanning mill, though answering the same purpose, and even
effecting much more, for by slight changes in the force and direction
of the blast, wheat can be separated from chess, cockle, garlic, smut,
white-heads, and other impurities, as well as from grass seed, saving
that and separating the different kinds of grain and grass from one
another. The wind-wheel is made of iron, 16 inches diameter, 18
inches long, and is placed in an air-tight iron trunk at the bottom of
the frame, which is 3 feet 10 inches high, 2 feet wide, and 2 feet 10
inches long. The wind-wheel is driven by a cog wheel 2 feet diame-
ter, which gives the fan great velocity, sending the air up a tight trunk
through which the grain is falling from the sieves, which are not shaken
sideways, like the common fan-mills, requiring a good deal of extra
room, but are jogged in front by a cam on the shaft of the driving
wheel. The sieves, five in number, for different grain, are made fine
at the end where the grain first strikes them, to let through fine seeds,
and coarse at the other end, through which the wheat falls on the
inclined plane, and through the wind-spout into a receiver at the bottom,
The wind-spout at the back of the mill can be closed in part, or wholly,
by which a little blast is allowed, or all turned out through the sieves.

This machine is very simple in its whole construction and operation,
and quite portable, weighing only from 125 to 135 pounds. It was
patented in July, 1853, and originated in the great wheat region of
Northern Illinois, where the want of a perfect grain cleaner has long
been felt the wheat from Chicago beino; crenerallv several cents be-

G G J

low that of New York, on account of the very imperfect manner in
which it is cleaned.

Child's Grain Separator. The principal improvement of this ma-
chine upon the old fanning mill is an attachment which causes the
grain to fall through a draft of air, created by suction of the fan, so
strong that the grain is held in suspension until all the light particles
are separated and blown out another way.

Harg rave's Corn Husking ^Machine. In this machine the ears of
corn are placed in little troughs of a horizontal wheel placed on the
top of a frame, and turned by a crank. As they pass round, a chisel
comes down, separates the stalk from the cob and pushes out the ear
and returns ready for another, as it comes around. Another contrivance

36 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

throws out the husk. In this way, says the inventor, 200 bushels
a day can be shelled, or with a large power machine, 1,200 bushels in
ten hours. The price of a hand machine is $18 to $25.

Corn Hulling Machine. This machine is a frame 5 feet long, 2^
feet high, 1^- feet wide, supporting a wooden case lined with sheet iron
in the form of a cylinder about a foot in diameter, 4 feet long. This
is made in parts, so that the top lifts up to get at the interior. In the
cylinder runs a wooden shaft 4 inches diameter, armed with three
square files in f&ur rows, thirteen in a row, which project four inches
from the shaft. A band being applied to the pulley on the end of the
shaft, it is made to revolve rapidly, and the grain being fed slowly
through a hole in the top of a cylinder, has all the hulls filed off and
blown out through openings.

Archimedes' Root Washer This is a frame and water box, holding a
barrel made of open-work staves. It is 4 feet long, 2^- feet diameter,
and about 4 feet high. There is a hopper at one end, and a discharge-
spout at the other. The internal arrangements are such that, when
the barrel is turned one way, the roots remain in the water, but when
it is reversed, they are screwed up and out of a hole in one end and
discharged into a spout, that deposits them in a basket.

Ramsey's Improved Harrow. This new pattern of harrow, is made
of three wooden frames, say four feet square, "with thirty-two teeth.
The forward frame is placed cornerwise to the team, the two outside
bars of the frame projecting back about a foot beyond the side pieces.
To the inside of these projecting bars the outside bars of two similar
frames are hung by the end of the bar projecting about six inches for-
ward. The two inside corners of these frames are also hinged together,
so that each frame is drawn cornerwise forward, and being fastened
together by universal joints, adapt themselves to the most uneven
surfaces.

Atkins' Automaton RaJcer. This machine was one of the most
simple, ingenious and yet effective pieces of mechanism exhibited at the
New l^ork Crystal Palace. It was invented by Jearum Atkins, of
Chicago, a bed-ridden cripple, who had not been in a harvest-field for
years, and who has never yet been able to witness the operation of
his ingenious and useful invention. The raker is intended to be
attached to any of the ordinary reapers, by means of a bevel-wheel,
about twenty-three inches diameter, upon a spur of which, on the
inside of the" rim, is a knob, workmg into the hollow end of an arm,
and by the mere turning of that wheel, without any other means, that
arm in its circular motion creates a motion of the rake, which is
exactly what the two hands of a man would be if he stooped down
and scraped up the grain with his hands which the reaper has cut and
laid upon the platform. The rake then turns round, opens its fingers,
lays down the wheat ready for the binder out of the way of the next
through, stretches out its arms, turns back to the platform and takes
up another load, and thus goes on its ceaseless round, the motion of the
reaper keeping the raker performing its work with unerring certainty.

Gibbs' Rotary Spade. This spading-machine is composed of two

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 37

cast iron circular plates, about two feet four inches diameter, and one
inch thick. These are fastened upon a shaft, about two inches apart,
and working between them are eight stout, narrow, wrought iron teeth,
somewhat like the old-fashioned cultivator teeth. These teeth are
hung, and have a trigger to throw the tooth out as the machine
revolves. Two sets of these plates and teeth are set in a stout frame,
and look like a pair of toothed wheels, of a very formidable appearance,
the teeth projecting about nine inches. The operation is thus : A
pair of oxen, which are sufficient upon ordinary soil, are hitched to
the frame, and, as it is drawn forward, each tooth in succession is
pressed into the earth by the weight of the machine, and as it rolls
forward the weight falls upon the trigger, and that throws the tooth
out with its load, turning and pulverizing the earth as though spaded,
or, more properly, forked over. The two wheels cut a furrow about
two feet wide and nine inches deep, which can be increased by an
enlarged machine to any desirable width or depth. It requires no
holding, yet is provided with handles so fixed as to throw the teeth
out of the ground by the weight and motion.

Pratt' 's Rotary Drill Digger. This machine, invented by E,. C.
Pratt, of Canandaigua, N. Y., is all iron, the frame about five feet
high, with twelve spades arranged around a circle, which revolves as
it is drawn forward. Each blade, which is eight inches wide and
twelve inches long, enters the ground and takes up its load, carrying
it round to the center on top, where it is discharged upon conductors
which carry the dirt off upon each side.

Arnott's Improved Road Scraper. The working of this new road
scraper, invented by Mr. Arnott, of Iowa, is the same as in the
ordinary scraper until it comes to the unloading. As the handles are
raised, the hind part of the shovel opens by ingeniously arranged
hinges, and lets the great bulk of the load out behind : doing appar-
ently as much work as the old-fashioned scraper, or ox shovel, with
less labor to the operator.

Patent Pig Pen. Among the other curious inventions and devices
exhibited, was a model of a Patent Pig Pen, consisting mainly of an
improved plan for feeding swine. Instead of a feeding trough, there
are a series of cast iron basins set in a bench about a foot high, over
each of which is an iron frame to keep every pig in his own dish.
Over these basins there is a roof, and the side of the pen in front of
them is hung upon pivots, so it can be pushed back at the bottom,
shutting the pigs in the pen and the troughs out. When they are
filled the bolt is withdrawn, and the force of hunger pushes it back
to its original position.

Patent Broom. This improvement is described by the N. Y.
Tribune as follows : There is no twine, no wire, no stitching, about
the patent broom. There is a flat steel spring, 6 inches long, with a
T head, inserted in the handle, and over that is a hinged socket, which
being opened, the broom corn is laid upon the spring, with the butts
in the socket, which, as well as the cross head of the spring, is cov-
ered with teeth, which holds the corn. To keep it in place, now shut
down the hinge of the socket, and slip a ring down orer the corn to

38 ANNUAL OP SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

about the point where the twine is generally stitched through, and the
broom is done. One handle will last for years, and is not very expen-
sive. There is a very decided advantage in these brooms in this, that
the handle does not project down into the broom, but the steel spring
gives it a pleasant elasticity, until it is completely worn out.

Humma's Corn Sheller. This corn sheller is a box, some 2 feet
long, 1^- feet wide, and 2 feet high. In the bottom is a concave-shaped
cylinder, 10 inches by 17, of wood, faced with iron staves, teethed.
The ears thrown in upon a board ^serving as a hopper, are held up to
the cylinder by wood springs, so that the butt and points have
equal bearing as they pass out, the cobs one side, and the grains drop-
ing below ; it is doubled-geared for hand, with a fly-wheel and pully
for horse-power.

Center Balanced Gate. This gate is made to open by shoving back
alongside of the fence, somewhat as a railroad gate works on rollers.
It is not, however, provided w r ith rollers, but is sustained on a new
principle of most singular construction. Suppose it is half o^cn,
between two posts, then the four supporters are seen upright, two of
which are attached to work on a pin inside of the posts, one on each
side, and two on pins at the bottom of the center batten of the gate.
Each of these last is fastened by another pin in the center to the slat
attached to the posts. The upper part of the two slats on the gate
are fastened together by a guide-pin, which works in a slat attached
to the posts, so that as the gate is shoved forward or back, the support-
ers take the form of braces, opening and shutting like a pair of
shears, and reversing position, the weight of the gate being all the
time equally sustained. It is said to work well.

Seeleifs Improved Straw Cutter. This straw cutter, invented by C.
W. Seeley, of Albany, is a frame 3 feet high and 1 foot wide, support-
ing a box to hold the straw to be cut, 3^- feet long, 5 inches deep, 13
inches wide at one end, and 8 inches at the other. At the narrow
end is a pair of fluted feed-rollers, which are driven by ratchets and
pinions moved by a crank on the fly-wheel shaft under the box. The
fly-wheel is of iron, 2^- feet across, the rim an inch and a quarter in
diameter, weighing perhaps 40lbs., and is driven by a spur-wheel 8
inches across, on the end of the crank-shaft; the crank, which is 13
inches long, is on the right-hand side of the box, the fly-wheel on the
left. From the fly-wheel crank a rod 8 inches long extends down to
a lever 16 inches long, hung by the center to the bottom pieces of the
frame. From the other end of this lever another rod extends up to
the cutting-knife frame, which is of cast-iron, and supports a knife
which is of the shape of letter W inverted. As the crank is turned,
the straw or corn-stalks are drawn forward by the rollers, and held
over a square iron edge, when the knife comes down with its shearing
cut, and with power enough to cut a good-sized walking-stick in two.
The point in the center of the knife is the great feature of the im-
provement. The straw being crowded into a compact mass by a tri-
angular knife, not having that point, would perhaps cut hard. In
this shape the point begins to enter and cut with but little effort at
the precise spot where, without it, the machine would require the

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 39

greatest power to make the cut. There is another advantage in this
knife. The point is so strong and the momentum so great that a
seasoned root or stock would be split and cut in two without checking
the machine.

Parker's New Straw Cutter. This is a straight knife, 15 inches
long, screwed on the front part of the feeding-box, and the cut is
given by turning a crank and fly-wheel, upon the shaft of which is a
crank that lifts a frame which brings up the straw so as to give it a
diagonal stroke upon the knife.

Daniel's Patent^ Straw Cutter. This is powerful machine, and for
horse or steam power is the most effective of any of the recently in-
vented cutters. Tne frame and box are in the ordinary form, similar
to that of the one first described. The crank is iipon the arm of a
heavy fly-wheel, 3 feet diameter upon one side, and forming part of
which is a driving-pully. Upon wings on the shaft of this are four
straight knives, ten inches long and two inches wide. The straw is
brought up to them by a spiked roller, geared by spur-wheels to the
main shaft, and the cut is made by the knives upon the straws resting
across the edge of a piece of iron, set so that the cut is diagonal.

The following notice of recent improvements in plows and cultiva-
tors, and the exhibition of the same at the New York Crystal Palace,
is abridged from the columns of the New York Tribune.

The number and variety of these implements on exhibition was
very large, and from their examination it would seem as though there
was no limit to the inventive genius of man, as applied to the con-
struction, alteration and adaption of the form of cast iron to all shapes,
sizes and kinds of plows, possible to conceive, thus lessening the labor
of preparing the ground, or cultivating every variety of crops grown
between tropical Florida and the barley fields of Lake Superior.

Many will doubtless remember the old Gary Plow, with its clumsy,
wrought iron share, wooden land-side and standard, and wooden mold-
board, plated over with a piece of tin, sheet-iron, or old saw-plate,
requiring the strength of a man to hold it by the two pins in its up-
right handles, and at least double the strength of team now required
to do the same work. Then there was the old Bar-share Plow a
flat bar forming the landside, with a thick clamp of iron like the half
ofi a lance-head for the point, in the top of which the coulter was
clumsily locked, and of course a wooden mold-board without any pre-
tensions to making a fit with the iron part.

The Chinese plow is similar, and the effect is similar to what it
would be if a man should hold a sharp pointed shovel, back up, with
the handle at angle of 45, and it should then be drawn forward with
the point in the ground.

The plows in Continental Europe have undergone but little change
for centuries. The ancient Roman plow is still in general use in
France. It has a beam, a share and a handle. The share is a trian-
gular shaped piece of wood with an iron point, and sometimes a coul-
ter. There is a mold board, and the point is shaped like the head of
a lance. The first step toward improvement in this rude implement

5

40 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

was the addition of a mold-board, to turn the earth over. This was
made of wood, and maintained its place until very recently. The iron
plow is a modern invention.

No plow can be adapted to all kinds of work, and no good farmer
will attempt to do all with one, or with those of the same shape.
Some land should be plowed flat, some in ridges, some stirred, some
with the furrow all one way, and some both ways. Some prefer a
plow which turns to the right, some to the left, and for successful side-
hill plowing, one is wanted which can be changed so as to plow back
and forth. ,

One of the most useful and least known, is the sub-soil plow. The
use of this is to follow the turning plow, entering the bottom of the
furrow and performing one of the most useful operations upon the
farm, stirring and loosening up the sub-soil. All these, of all sizes,
from a few pounds weight up to a load for one yoke of oxen, without
entering the earth, can now be had at prices extraordinarily low,
when compared with those made by hand ; for skill, science and ma-
chinery have been applied to the manufacture of these implements,
within a few years past, to an extent but little thought of by those
who use them.

The shovel plow, still in almost universal use throughout the cotton-
growing States, is still more rude in its construction. It is usually
made of a roughly hewn stick for a beam, about 2 inches square and
3 feet long, about midway of which another stick about 15 inches long
is framed in, upon the end of which a piece -of iron, much resembling
a sharp-pointed shovel, is fastened by one or two short screw bolts.
Two rough handles pinned to the side of the beam and supported at
the proper angle by a wooden support, with a clevis, or a piece of
bark, withe or loop of raw hide at the forward end of the beam, com-
pletes the tool by which more than half the cotton fields of America
are plowed. The whole may weigh fifteen pounds the iron part
from two to four, and its. shape may be imagined by putting your two
hands together edgewise a little curved, with the backs up. The
action as it is drawn forward, rooting through the loose soil, is to stir
the surface about 2 inches deep ; it does not turn it over, though
there is an implement called a turning shovel, made with a sort of
twist to the share, which has the effect to give the dirt a slight roll
like a small mold-board.

There is another modification of this tool called a bull-tonjnie, the

^j

share being of the shape of that article, and fixed upon the same kind
of a stock as the shovel. This is a slight advance upon the form of
the first plow of which we have any account. As represented on
ancient coin's and monuments, it is probable it was little else than a
crooked stick, afterward improved by sharpening with iron. The
implement now in use in Hindostan is little better than the original, and
even in this country some of those above described as now in use, are
but slightly in advance of the Hindoo article, which consists of a
slight beam, a narrow share and a corresponding stick with a handle
to guide it.

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 41

In connection with this notice of the plows exhibited at the New
York Exhibition, it will be profitable to all thinking minds to take a
retrospective view of the history of the cast-iron plow, and the slow
steps with which improvement has made its advance toward perfection,
which certainly does seem as though it had been nearly reached.

The first patent of which we have any notice, was granted in 1720,
to Joseph Foljambe, of Rotherham, England, and for many years
afterward, all similar plows bore the name of that place. It was a
great improvement upon those previously in use ; the mold-board and
land-side were wood, sheathed with iron plates, the share and coulter,
wrought iron with steel edges, just such as were in universal use in
New England in the forepart of the present century, and similar to
those now in use in the South-western States. This plow was in-
tended to be worked by one man and two horses much larger than
our common horses and turn over an acre to an acre and a quarter
a day. Some twenty years after this plow was brought out, the cen-
ter draft rod or chain was added, just like that now used, and sup-
posed by some to be a' very recent invention.

The first cast-iron mold-board we find mentioned, was invented by
James Small, of Berwickshire, Scotland, about 1740. He continued
to manufacture them for fifty years, still using the wrought-iron share ;
cast-iron for that purpose having been first applied by Robert Ran-
som, of Ipswich, England, in 1785. Eighteen years afterward, he
made a valuable improvement, still in use among all good plow-makers,
that of chilling the iron in the molds, by using bars of cold iron, upon
which the cutting edges of the share are cast, making them harder
than steel.

The inventive ingenuity of England had advanced thus far in
eighty years. But the cast-iron plow was not yet complete. A Suffolk
farmer added the land-side, making three distinct pieces of casting to
each, to which wrought or cast iron beams and handles were afterward
added in various parts of England and Scotland. The first cast-iron
plow in America was made by Charles Newbold, of Burlington, N. J.
His first patent bears date, June 1 7, 1 797, and is for a plow combining
mold-board, share, and land-side all in one casting. Objections being
made to the cast-iron share, probably because it was not chill-hard-
ened, he substituted wrought-iron shares. Great as these improve-
ments were upon the old wooden plows, such was the prejudice
against them some even affirming that cast-iron poisoned the
ground and prevented the growth of crops that after spending, as
the inventor alleged, $30,000 in a vain effort to gets his plows into
general use, he gave up the business in despair, leaving American
farmers wedded to their idols, the old wooden plows.

In the year 1800, Peter J. Curtemas, a merchant of New York,
advertised plows for sale, made of cast iron. In 1807, David Peacock,
another Jerseyman, taking his idea from Newbold, for which, however,
he paid him a thousand dollars, patented a plow, the mold-board and
land-side cast separate, to which he attached a wrought-iron steel-
edged share. Thomas Jefferson wrote a treatise in 1798, upon the

42 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

form of the mold-board, insisting that it should be constructed on sci-
entific principles. These principles were probably first applied by
Robert Smith, of Buckingham, Pa., about 1804-6, as he obtained a
patent for a cast-iron mold-board, and wrote upon the subject about
that time. In 1814, years after cast-iron plows had been in successful
use in England, and partially so in this country, Jethro Wood obtained
a patent for a cast-iron plow, in three parts, similar to one said to have
been in use previous to that time in Virginia. In 1817, Edwin A.
Stevens, of Hoboken, N. J., took up Newbold's plow, with a view to
improve its form, so as to make the draft easier. He took his patent
in 1821, included in which was the process of cold-chilling the cutting
edges and parts of the share most likely to wear out. His plan was so
perfect that it was highly approved of, but other engagements pre-
vented him from extending what he had so successfully begun.

In 1810, Josiah Dutcher, of New York, commenced" a series of im-
provements which are to be found upon nearly all the cast-iron plows
now in use, and which have been of immense benefit to the farmers of
this country.

Finally, we would not omit to mention the name of Joel Nourse, of
Massachusetts, as one who, in connection with his partners, has prob-
ably done more toward making the cast-iron plow a perfect implement
than any other individual, though many others are entitled to high
praise for doing, to the extent of their ability, so much to lessen the
labour of tilling land.

Among the plows on exhibition at the Crystal Palace, the following
presented peculiarities worthy of notice.

One of an awkward, unique appearance, was constructed as follows :
Two common cast-iron shares, with small mold-boards, are attached by
two rods, about two feet long, to each share, to the side pieces of a
wooden frame, made to expand so as to increase the width of the fur-
rows apart, and upon the cross pieces of the frame, are placed the
handles, and a short neap, to which the horses are attached, both made
to raise or lower to suit the hand of the holder or the height of the
team. These shares can be readily shifted so as to turn furrows out or
in, and by straddling a row of corn, both sides can be plowed, and dirt
turned from or to it, at once going through.

One of the most beautiful of the agricultural implements exhibited,
was a new " horse hoe," by Ruggles, Nourse, & Mason. This neat
little tool weighs only 63 pounds, and will cut a furrow 20 inches wide.
It is made of 2^ inch square timber, the beam or center-piece 3 feet
9 inches long, with a slightly crooked wing-piece on each side. On
the forward end of the beam, a regulating* draught circle is placed,
and a depth-guage wheel underneath. A little further back is a cut-
ting tooth, and at the hind end a double-sided share or hoe, running
flat, making a cut thirteen inches wide. On each end of the wing-
pieces a hoe of smaller dimensions and different shape is placed, which
is easily sliii'ted so as to turn little furrows in or out, as may be desired.
It is a very effective tool, and in some respects preferable to the ordi-
nary triangular Avooden-framed five-toothed cultivator, being so light

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 43

and yet so strong that it can be easily operated by one small mule or
horse, and guided by any boy big enough to reach the handles.

Another implement which promises to be very useful, is called the
double plow, or sod and sub-soil combined : known in some parts of
the country as the Michigan Plow. Its peculiarity consists in this :
upon the beam about where the cutter, or coulter is usually fixed,
there is a common cast-iron plow-share, which cuts and turns the sod
any required depth, while the main share takes up the earth from the
bottom of the furrow, four or five inches deeper, and lays it in a com-
pletely pulverized state on top of the inverted sod.

Among other improved plows exhibited at the New York Exhibition
were two patterns " side-hill plows." The first is so contrived that by
unhooking a stout hook and a little exertion of the plowman, while
the team is coming about, the whole share, mold-board and all together
is rolled over, and again fastened with the hook, so that the furrow is
turned the other way. These are made of different sizes, turning a
sod from 5 to 7 inches deep and 10 or 12 inches wide, and notwith-
standing their awkward appearance, work equally well on level or hill
side land. The same scale of proportions and carefully laid down
principles, in regard to curved lines, is preserved in all the plows
coming from this manufactory ; so that all work alike as to tractile
force, whether great or small, according to the work required of each
kind. With a side-hill plow the plowman may commence on the
lower edge of a hill-side, turning all the furrows down the slope,
going back and forth, changing his plow to the right and left at the
end of each furrow, or in the same way he may plow a level field.

The other side-hill plow is made of iron, and has this striking
peculiarity, that the beam and handles together turn round upon a
pivot formed of the top of the standard. The share has a straight
land side, 2 feet 10 inches long, with a point at each end exactly alike.
Suppose you are turning a right hand furrow-, and wish to change to
the left, you give a rod under the right handle a little jog, which
unlooses a catch, and you walk round with the handle in your hand
till the beam points directly the other way ; now pull the rod and
close the catch, stoop over and give the mold-board a flap and it
turns back bottom up, disclosing another under it exactly like the
other, also bottom up and pointing forward ; turn this also, and you
have before you as neat a looking plow as you will find in the Exhibi-
tion, the reversed mold-board lying under the other, quite out of the
way, and the reverse point forming the heel of the land-side. The
length of the beam is 4 feet ; handles, 4 feet 6 inches ; width of share,
9 inches ; length from point to upper angle of wing, 2 feet 9 inches ;
length of wing from the joint to upper end, 1 foot 7 inches ; height of
standard, 1 foot 2 inches ; height of fin-cutter, 9 inches. This plow
has been recently invented by L. Hall, of Pittsburg, Pa. His con-
struction completely obviates the objection to the other side-hill plow,
that is, that it requires a very strong man to hold it, or rather to shift
the share which rolls under, in changing from side to side.

The sub-soil plow is so little known, to a majority of those who till

5*

44 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

American soil, that a more particular description and slight history of
its introduction will be found interesting. In the year 1840, Messrs.
Ruggles, Nourse, Mason & Co. imported from Scotland, the first sub-
soil plow ever seen in the United States. It was a complicated,
expensive, cumbersome affair, as most of the Scotch plows are, and
could not be patterned after with any hope of successful introduction
among farmers. Feeling satisfied of the benefits that would result to
them from the use of a good sub-soil plow, that good genius of the
American farmer, Joel Nourse, set his mind to work and produced one,
more simple, lighter and cheaper than the imported article. It was
tried, proved satisfactory, and the manufactory of various sizes, suited
to a team of one to six horses, soon introduced this new farm imple-
ment to the notice of many farmers who never had seen or heard of
the thing before, but soon learned how to profit by its use. This plow
has no mold-board ; the use of it is to enter the bottom of the ordin-
ary furrow, and stir up and pulverize the hard sub-soil from 4 to 24
inches deep. Upon this the next round of the turning plow lays its
usual thickness of furrow slice, thus doubling the depth of tilth. It is
especially valuable in land which has a natural hard pan, or in which
one has been formed by the tramping of the plow team, or the sliding
of that instrument for a hundred years, on the bottom of furrows
always plowed just the same depth. Some idea can be formed of the
shape of this plow, by supposing the land-side of the common cast-iron
one continued in a smooth plate up to the beam, the handles being
riveted upon that, like those of a common shovel plow. On the mold-
board side of this plate, there is a shelf projecting a couple of inches,
running in a gently inclined plane from the lance head like point to
the heel, producing exactly the effect that a wedge would do if drawn
through the earth, lifting it up and dropping it over the butt, which is
2 to 4 inches high. Such is the sub-soil plow, in use in most of the
Northern States, and from its efficiency, strength, ease of draft, and
cheapness, from >5 to $15, it was thought that perfection had been
obtained in that farm implement. ]S!ot so. For this very season
these great plow-makers have brought out a new sub-soil plow, as
much more simple than their first one, as that is more simple than its
Scotch prototype, and yet more effective, and not requiring more than
one half the force to propel it ; besides which, it is a self-sharpener.

A perfect idea of the shape of this plow can be got in the way it
was first obtained by Professor Mapes, to whom the manufacturers are
indebted lor the original, by taking a piece of paper twice as long as
wide, and folding it first end to end, then side to side, then cut off the
corners from side to end fold, now make a slight lap at the side folds
and lay it down upon the table, the edges will touch all round, while
the middle is slightly elevated. Now fancy a smooth piece of hard-
ened cast iron of this shape, 20 inches long and 7 wide, with an
upright part, 18 inches high, made broad and thin, with edges alike
so that it makes no difference which goes forward, screwed to a beam
5 feet long, with handles 4 feet long, bolted upon the sides of the beam,
held in place by an iron supporter, with a center draft rod and dial

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 45

clevis, movable 4 or 5 inches up or down, or upon either side, and the
whole only weighing 84 pounds, and yet strong enough for two yoke
of oxen, but not of too luvivy a draft for one yoke, when run up to
the beam in the ground, producing such an effect as to shake the plants
several feet upon each side, and you will have some idea of a new
sub-soil plow, now publicly exhibited for the first time.

The great desideratum of the day is to contrive a machine that shall
have the efficiency of the spade and the capability of the plow. Many
attempts have been made, but, until recently, without anything like
successful results. The Marquis of Tweeddale, Scotland, recently
adapted a plough, or rather frame of ploughs, for carrying out a sys-
tem of deep ploughing. In this case two engines are employed, one
at either end of the field, the plough-frame travelling by means of
traction-chains between them, and doing the work some twelve to fif-
teen inches deep, in a most efficient manner. There appears to be a
question as to whether, all things considered, there is much gained by
the application of steam thus limited to the traction merely of the im-
plement. In most cases where steam has successfully supplanted labor,
it has demanded that the old processes be laid aside, and new ones,
suited to the advanced requirements, be adopted. The plough, itself
universally acknowledged to be a defective implement, has no claims
to exception to this rule, and certainly the small amount of success
attending the steam traction plows would be evidence in favor of it.
An attempt has been made by Usher, of Edinburgh, to construct a
machine that shall, by one operation, satisfy all the requirements of
cultivation. This has been tried in the field with favorable results,
and it certainly possesses more of the elements of success than any other
that has hitherto been brought out. The old plow is thrown aside,
and only the share and mold-board been made use of; some three to
six rows of them are arranged round a large cylinder which is attached
to a locomotive engine. When at work in the field the power is
applied to this cylinder, which, by its revolution, drives the plows (or
other instruments, as the case may be) into the soil, and thus acts as
the propelling agent to the whole machine. The soil is left in a broken
condition, as by the fork or spade, and arrangements exist by which
the three operations of moving the soil, sowing, and covering in the
seed are done at the same time. It travels at the rate of three miles
an hour, equal to nine acres a day, or, allowing for turning, stoppages,
&c., say seven acres, which it has done in its various trials, for an
expenditure of seventeen and sixpence, or two and sixpence per acre.
It travels well on common roads, ascending acclivities of one in ten, and
turning round in a circle of sixteen feet diameter, and is adapted for any
other purpose to which steam power is applied. Let us see what would
be the result of the substitution of the steam plough for our present sys-
tems of ploughing. In England, taking Caird's estimate, there are
14,000,000 acres in tillage ; these are ploughed certainly once every
year. The cost of the operation averages at least ten shillings per
acre thus giving a total of 7,000, 0001. per annum. This first machine
of Usher does the work better than by the plow for two and sixpence

46 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

an acre, or at seventy-five per cent, less cost. The saving would conse-
quently be about 5,250,000/. per annum. The labor of 50,000 men and
100,000 horses required for this one operation would be replaced, and
a saving in the consumption of corn effected to at least 1,500,000
quarters, which would be thus rendered available for the more direct
wants of the community.

Barker's Hinge Fastener. This invention consists simply in casting
a solid square on the top of the round nipple of the hinge, and having
a square cap to fit over the same ; its object is to hold open window
shutters, and thereby dispense with the use of fastenings. The cap
can be put on and taken off from the inside, which is an important
thing in stormy weather, as it removes the necessity of thrusting the
head and arms out of the window.

Dickson's Sled-lock. The object of this invention is to prevent the
sled or sleigh from crowding against the horses in descending a hill.
It is formed by attaching a couple of bars turned downward at the
end, firmly to the roller, and connecting the tongue to them at their
front ends by a hinge joint, so that when the sled crowds forward, the
back end of the tongue will fly up, throwing the dogs downward into
the ground.

Clark's Static Regulator for Steam Boiler Fires is intended to equal-
ize the heat of the fire and thus produce a steady pressure of steam.
This is accomplished by causing an undue pressure of steam to operate
a damper and thus lessen the draft, and consequently the amount of
combustion.

Eastman's Stone Dressing Machine . The cutters of this machine
are a series of chisels arranged on a shaft, each one on a small eccen-
tric or crank placed a little out of line with its fellow, so that by
revolving the shaft, the chisels act upon the stone placed beneath and
fed forward to them, with a reciprocating motion identical with the
hand method of hewing stone. The whole arrangement of the machine
is very simple, and the chisels endure as long as those used by hand,
are as easily made, and require no more sharpening. The chisels can
be set to dress stone facing, reeding, fluting, and moulding.

Canvass House. Another curiosity something entirely new, and
which has been brought into existence in verification of the adage that
necessity is the mother of invention is a canvass house. It is twelve
feet square, six feet high at the eaves, and seven and a half feet in the
center ; has four windows and a door, all upon hinges, and so cons-
structed that it can be folded together upon hinges into a flat bundle,
six feet across, carried by two men a mile and set up again in one
hour. It also has four frames, canvassed for berths, which also fold up
quite out of the way. The canvass is painted waterproof, and the
whole appears substantial.

A fine display of Cotton Cordage, an article of recent manufacture
in this country, was made at the Crystal Palace, by the American
Cordage Company, of New York. The method of rope-making adopt-
ed, is as new as the use of cotton for this purpose. A machine is
made to answer all the purposes of a long rope-walk. The advantage

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 47

of using cotton is, that it is capable of a tighter twist ; that it is less
liable to injury by friction than hempen cords. The old cotton rope
will be worth considerably more than the old hempen rope. The rope
of cotton is found to run with greater freedom through the blocks, and
is altogether more pliable than ordinary ropes. It has been success-
fully applied to rigging for vessels ; to hoisting-tackle ; bow, stern, and
tow-lines for canal-boats ; fishermen's lines, &c. The description of
cotton used is a long-staple " Macon, Georgia." The fibres of the
cotton are laid together far more compactly, and with more perfect
tension, by this process than by any other made known ; consequently,
the rope possesses greater strength than when laid in the ordinary
way. It is lighter than Manilla, so that although its price per pound
is a few cents more than that of Manilla roping, it is no more expen-
sive when regarded according to length, while it is believed to be
capable of lasting three times as long.

IMPROVED MACHINES FOR PREPARING FLAX.

Chichester's Flax and Hemp Brake. This machine is furnished
with a feed-table, over which the material is spread out, and entered
into the bite of a pair of iron calender rollers, which flatten and split
the stalks lengthwise, as they are carried forward through a pair of
iron fluted rollers into the bite of a pair of large breaking cylinders,
which form the body of the machine, from which the material is de-
livered on to a receiving apron in a wide mass or sheet of fiber.

These breaking cylinders are each formed by securing near the op-
posite ends of a shaft, a pair of iron heads or flanges, perforated with
radial slots, into which are inserted breaking plates, or ribs of iron
(wrought to a smooth edge on top), which are free to move in and out
towards or from the center of the cylinder heads, as they are guided
by cams and springs, arranged in such a way that the ends of every
other plate or rib in each cylinder project through the radial slots in
the cylinder heads, and rest upon stationary cams, placed outside of the
heads, and all the intermediate plates or ribs rest upon spiral springs,
supported by circular flanges, keyed on the shafts just inside and close
to the cylinder heads. These flanges are perforated with holes form-
ing sockets on their periphery, to receive and support the spiral
springs, and admit the iron pins which pass through and sustain the
springs, and are fastened or locked to the under edge of the pressure
plates or ribs.

As the cylinders revolve together (one being placed over the
other), the cam-plates or ribs of the lower cylinder are guided upwards,
and meet and carry back the spring or pressure plates of the upper
cylinder : and at the time the cam-plates or ribs of the upper cylinder
are in the same manner guided downwards, and meet and carry back
the pressure plates of the lower cylinder.

These cylinders, in their operation and action upon the materials
were designed to copy the movement of the hands when pressing a
stalk of flax betw-een the thumbs and fingers, then slowly moving the

48 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

hands backwards and forwards in opposite directions, allowing the flax
at the same time to slip through the thumbs and fingers under pres-
sure, breaking, and at the same time rubbing the fiber, so as to com-
pletely separate the woody from the fibrous portion of the plant, and
preserve each line of the fiber perfect throughout its entire length.

Chichester's Flax Dresser. This machine, intended for dressing the
flax with greater efficacy and economy of material, consists of two
conical cylinders, formed on parallel shafts, driven by a pair of gear-
wheels fastened outside of the frame. These cylinders are each formed
of four spiral blades of wood, secured to flanges of iron, which are
keyed on to opposite ends of the shafts, and placed one over the other,
revolving towards each other, the blades of one cone being opposite
the spaces between the blades of the other. A slot is cut through the
front casing, along the bite of the cones through which the operator
first introduces the flax to the action of the dressing blades. These
blades draw in the mass, striking first on one side and then on the
other, nearly at right angles with the line of the fiber, beating out the
wood and impurities which pass oif through the opening behind. The
mass is then moved along the slot towards the other end of the blades,
to be finished. The conical and spiral form of the blades cause a
gradual change in the direction of the blows from the feed end, where
the blows fall at right angles to the mass, towards the finishing end of
the cones, where the direction of the blows is nearly lengthwise with
the line of the fiber. At the feed end, the blades are left very blunt
and rounded off'. This, also, changes gradually to a sharp edge at the
finishing end. The severity of the blows is also increased as the
radius of action increases, towards the larger end of the cones. With
this arrangement, also, a larger space is left at the feed end for the
mass when filled with shives, which gradually diminishes as the mass
is cleaned and diminished in bulk.

The flax and hemp brake above described, is a durable machine,
and by its peculiar mechanical arrangement, takes but little power to
operate it (one horse power being more than sufficient). The move-
ments are all very slow, but continuous in their action the w r orking
parts being distributed over the surface of the large cylinders, which
make but three or four revolutions per minute to brake a ton of straw
in a day.

Flax Pulling Machine. In addition to the flax brake and dresser,
Mr. Chichester has also invented a flax puller, designed to pull flax
and lay it on the ground as rapidly as grain is gathered with the
present reapers.

A horse is harnessed into the machine, moving it before him, and
the flax is laid in such a manner on the ground as always to give him
a pathway, and also leave a track on each side for the wheels.

Jn the forward movement of the machine, the flax is separated and
collected between long wedge-shaped projections, forming a breast or
front near the ground, and is pulled by means of vertical rollers, fur-
nished with arms, reaching forward underneath the branches or seed
tops of the flax, which is thus, at each revolution, be^it over nearly at

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 49

right angles with its growth, bringing the lower portion of the stalks
into the bite of the vertical rollers, ranged iust back of the angles

^J V

formed at the base of the wedge-shaped projections, and delivered on
the ground in rows to be bundled. The rollers are driven by gear-
wheels, on a shaft receiving motion from the two large wheels, to
which the whole frame is adjusted.

CLEMENS' FLAX DRESSING AND BREAKING MACHINE.

This machine, invented by Mr. S. A. Clemens, of Springfield, has
been gradually perfected, and introduced during the past year into
the flax growing districts with great success.

The apparatus is about eight feet in length, by four feet in width,
and three feet high. The entire weight is nearly one ton. It can be
driven by a horse power machine, or otherwise, as is convenient.

In operating the machine, the flax straw is spread in successive
layers upon a feed apron, which advances it lengthwise upon the bite of
feed rollers, which carry it to a vibrating beater of peculiar construc-
tion, by the action of which, aided by currents of air from a fan
blower, the woody parts of the stalks are broken into minute frag-
ments, and separated and blown away from the machine on one side.
From the beater, the fiber without waste passes outward from a
discharging apron in successive layers, which are removed by an at-
tendant and finished upon a scutching wheel, attached to one side of
the machine, in a position convenient for the purpose. This rapidly
removes any remaining woody fragments, and the fibers are laid and
condensed, which completes the process of dressing. By the best
modes of dressing flax with labor-saving machinery, hitherto employed
in this, and European countries, the straw is first repeatedly passed
between rollers deeply and sharply fluted. The broken stalks are
then rough scutched, which removes the greater part of the shives,
and along with them, a large quantity of coarse tow. The flax is af-
terwards finished on the scutching wheel, which removes the remain-
ing shives, and the tow produced is of cleaner quality. Aside from
the expenditure of time and labor, from the necessity of repeated
handling, it is obvious that by this process a great waste of material
results from the peculiar action of the rotary breakers, the deep
sharp flutes of which not only operate to crush the woody parts of
the stalks, and make the shives of the long slender form which ad-
here so tenaciously to the fibers, but the fibers themselves, being
comparatively non-elastic, are greatly strained, bruised and broken
by the same action. From this arises the great amount of tow pro-
duced, when the flax is submitted to the action of the scutching knives
and the heckle.

In Clemens' machine, each stalk is broken at regular intervals of
about one thirty-second of an inch, and the woody fragments as they are
broken off, are forced from their fibrous envelope and thrown off,
with comparatively no injurious strain upon the staple. As the layer
of ttroken flax pa/sees "between the beating surfaces, for the spae of

50 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERT.

several inches it undergoes a violent whipping action, due to the rapid
vibration of the double beater upon an axis parallel to its biting and
breaking edges ; and aided by the strong currents of air, the shives are
still farther removed. The efficiency of the mechanical arrangements
of the machine, is shown in the fact that the breaking and whipping
action is repeated quietly and safely, at the rate of more than three
thousand blows per minute. Such is the perfection of the result, that
good well-conditioned flax is delivered from the beater upon the dis-
charging apron, in ribbons of fiber, perfect in length and strength, and
almost wholly free from woody fragments. The attendant at the
discharging end of the machine, gathering two of these layers into a
medium sized hand of flax, and favored by the peculiarity in the form
of the shives, and the condition in which the fiber is left by the beater,
rapidly finishes it upon the scutching wheel. In thi? process much
less tow is made than by the old modes, and it is of better average
quality, while the condition of the dressed fiber ensures that it will
produce less tow on the heckle when manufactured. The machine
when worked at a moderate speed, and attended by two hands, will
finish from three hundred to four hundred and fifty pounds of flax
per day, according to the skill of the workmen, and the quality and
condition of the material Aside from the saving in tow, this is fully
equal to the average product of the labor of five hands using the
common machinery, and, at the rate of speed necessary to accomplish
this, about three horse power is sufficient to operate the machine. At
a higher speed, from fifty to seventy pounds of fiber can be run
though the machine each hour, but it will then require more hands to
attend it. The price of these machines is stated to be about $400.

HOLYHEAD HARBOR.

ONE of the most stupendous works of modern times, is the great
breakwater now constructing by Government for the protection of
Holyhead Harbor, on the iron-bound coast of Anglesea, Great Britain,
under the direction of Mr. Rendel, C. E. It was commenced in 1849,
and is intended to secure a total area of 300 acres for the purpose of a
harbor, two-thirds of that space having a minimum depth of seven
fathoms at low water. Accommodation will thus be provided for
about 400 vessels of all classes, including 70 men of war as large as the
Duke of Wellington. The north or great breakwater will be 5,000
feet long and 170 feet wide, and of this immense work 4,000 feet have
already been completed to low water mark 3,500 feet of it being
from 14 to 15 feet above high water. The depth at low water thus
filled up is from 45 to 48 feet, and some idea may be formed of the
magnitude of this mole from the fact that the stonework which sur-
mounts it is about 80 feet above the foundation. The smaller, or east-
ern breakwater, which protects the harbor on the landward side, will
be 2,100 feet long, and 1,000 feet of it have already been formed, in a
depth of 30 feet at low water, and to a width of 100 feet. Since 1849,
when the works were begun, 2,400,000 tons of stone, in blocks varying

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 51

In weight from 10 tons downward, have been deposited in the sea, and
the rate at which this gigantic operation is carried on is said to be
from 22,000 to 27,000 tons per week, and from 4,000 to 5,000 tons per
day.

The quarries which have been opened to supply so prodigious a de-
mand for material wherewith to control the waves are hardly less re-
markable objects of attention than the undertaking to which they are
subordinated. They realize the fabulous stories of mountains removed

w

and cast into the sea. As much as four tons of powder is frequently
exploded in them at one blast, or (more properly expressed) in one
mining operation, and thus 20,000 and 30,000 tons of stone are often
at once set free for the construction of the breakwaters. The plan
adopted is to blow away a huge section of the base of the mountain,
when the superincumbent mass of rock, 150 feet high, being unsup-
ported, tumbles down after it. The reader may form some conception
from these details of the manner in which the works are carried on ;
but it will quicken his appreciation to state that the rate of progress is
250 times greater than it was in the Plymouth breakwater. This
great economy of time has been effected by the use of piled stages
carrying railways, which, projecting boldly into the sea, present a me-
chanical arrangement for conducting the operations at once simple,
convenient, and independent both of tides and wind. Mr. Eendel was
scouted as a visionary when he first proposed so daring a plan for
facilitating the work, and it was confidently predicted that rails thus
supported on scaffolding would never answer. Nor is it wonderful
that persons less experienced than Mr. Rendel should have such mis-
givings, for the piles which support the stages are 89 feet long, being
built of short lengths of the timber commonly used for building pur-
poses. Thus, resting upon a precarious framework of wood, with
water more than 40 feet deep below, and required to carry long
trains of heavily loaded trucks, the railways of the Holyhead break-
water do not impress an unprofessional mind with any extraordinary
confidence in their security. There is, however, no answer to the
successful experience of four years in this matter, during which time
thousands of tons of stone have been daily brought down from the
quarries and deposited in the sea. A large proportion of the material
thus removed consists of fragments of rock weighing from 5 to 10 tons
each, and calculated by their weight to overcome, with the least pos-
sible delay, the momentum of the ocean. It may therefore be readily
conceived how severely Mr. Rondel's bold plan for carrying on the
works has been tested, and how complete his triumph has been. The
contract under which the harbor is being constructed contemplates
an expenditure of about 800,000, and the outlay so far is under
400,000.

NEW BREAKWATER.

A new system of floating breakwaters, especially adapted for the
Goodwin Sands, has been invented by Admiral Tayler of England.

6

52

ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

The disasters continually occurring at this place have given it a
melancholy name in English history. Scarcely a year passes in which
there are not above 1000 lives lost at these treacherous quicksands, and
the number last winter was 1500 ! Every attempt to moor a vessel or
floating beacon over the sands has hitherto failed. The present light
was fixed only after reaching the chalk, eighty-two feet down.
Admiral Tayler's plan is to moor his refuge in deep water, not over,
but near the sands, and to keep life-boats and a supply of every neces-
sity for giving aid in case of shipwrecks, and for sheltering the saved
sailors. Two or three hundred persons could receive temporary shel-
ter, and there is every accommodation and comfort provided for the
keepers of the refuge. The refuge, with its boats, stores, and mate-
rials, rests on a frame-work of piles, with strong transverse beams, the
longitudinal piles floating about nine feet above water and twenty-
seven below. The water in this framework, along with the surround-
ing eddy, effectually breaks the force of each advancing wave, the
water being perfectly smooth under the lea of the refuge. The piles
rise and fall with the tides, but are otherwise firmly moored at the
stern beam.

IMPROVEMENTS IN SHIPS AND STEAMERS.

A VESSEL is now in the process of construction at Green Point,
in the vicinity of New York, under the direction of William Norris,
Civil and Mechanical Engineer, and John W. Griffiths, Naval Archi-
tect, which it is anticipated will perform the transatlantic voyage
within six days in the winter season. The dimensions of the vessel
are as follows :

Length on deck .225 ft.

Depth of bold 21 ft.

Diameter of paddle-wheels. 33 ft.
Beam amidships 37 ft.

Draft of water 6_V ft.

Displacement 750 tuns.

Tower 1,200 horses.

Accommodations for 80 passengers.

The following advantages in the improvement introduced in the con-
struction of this steamer are claimed by the builders : - - 1. A perfect
security against fire or water. 2. Less risk to life, and greater com-
fort to passengers. The boilers will be placed within walls of iron,
with iron beams over the same. Air chambers, of sufficient sustain-
ing capacity, will extend the whole length of the ship. The sudden
shocks of head and beam seas, to which all ships of the present con-
struction are liable, are obviated by these improvements, while the
gentle undulating motion ahvays maintained, will tend to prevent sea
sickness, and at the same time keep the decks dry except from spray.
The full power of the engine will be reserved ibr combatting heavy
gales, while ships of the present construction are compelled to slacken
their steam as the gale increases in severity. These new improvements
enable more steam to be applied, the harder the gale blows. The ma-
chinery of this ship will consist of one walking-beam engine with two
tubular boilers, all of the most improved construction, but without any-

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 53

thing neAv in their principles. The power of the engine, in propor-
tion to the size, and draft of water, will be very great, about live
times that of the steamers of the Cunard line. In an ordinary vessel
such power cannot be applied, as it would tear the hull to pieces. In
the present case, however, it is made practicable by the peculiar in-
ternal structure as well as by the novelty of the mode. As will be
seen by the figures given above, the floor of the vessel is unusually
flat, and its draft of water exceedingly small. At the same time the
bow is unusually sharp. In fact, the model is the result at once of a
great deal of practical experience, as well as of laborious and careful
mathematical calculations, and it is believed that its lines and form
are such as to produce the least possible resistance in passing through
the water. Here, then, we have the grounds for the estimate that an
average speed of 20 miles an hour will be attained in storm as well as calm :

1. Sharpness of bow, perfection of curves, and light draft and
buoyancy.

2. Enormous power of engine.

The daily consumption of coal will be about 90 tons, and the stock
for a passage about 300 ; no freight is to be taken. The vessel >\iil
carry no masts, but will be arranged with jury-masts to rig in cases of
necessity.

The Clipper Slip Great Republic. During the past summer a
gigantic clipper, bearing the above title, has been constructed and
launched by Donald McKay, Esq., of East Boston, Mass. This vessel
is the largest merchantman ever constructed, has a capacity of about
4,000 tons. She is 325 feet long, 53 feet wide, and her whole depth
is 37 feet. The keel, for 60 feet forward is gradually raised from a
straight line, and curves upwards into an arch, where it blends with
the stem so that the gripe of her forefoot, instead of being angular
like that of other vessels, is the complete arch of a circle. This arch,
both inside and outside is formed of solid oak, and binds all the joints
together, so that the greater the pressure the more firmly will the arch
be knit together. Strength, however, is only one reason for adopting the
arched form for her forefoot: the other reason is, to facilitate her
working, and at the same time to make her entrance as clean as
possible, to obviate resistance. She has vast surface of floor, with
about 20 inches dead rise, and a very long and clean run, which,
however, as it rises, is spread out to prevent her settling aft. Her
lines are concave forward and aft up to a few feet above the load
displacement line, but become gradually convex as they ascend and
form her outline on the planksheer. The angular form of her bow,
however, is preserved entire. Her sides are arched, or swell some-
what like those of a ship of war, but not so much in proportion to her
size ; and her sheer is graduated her whole length, with just sufficient
rise forward, to impart ease and grace to the bow. She has a waist
of nine narrow strakes defined between the mouldings of the upper
wale and the^planksheer, and every line and moulding is graduated to
correspond with her sheer. Her stern is semi-elliptical in form, and
corresponds well with her after body. She has four complete decks.

54 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY,

The height between the upper and spar decks is 7 feet, and between
each of the others, 8 feet. Abaft the foremast is a house 24 feet long
by 16 feet wide, the forward part of which is designed for a workroom
in wet weather, or as a shelter for the watch on deck in stormy
weather. Abaft the fore hatchway is another house 25 feet long, 16
wide, and 6^ high, which contains the galley ; and abaft the galley is
the blacksmiths shop and an engine room, where there is a steam
engine of 12 horse power. This engine is designed to do all the
heavy work of the ship such as taking in and discharging cargo,
setting up rigging, working the fire engine, hoisting top sails, pumping
ship, &c., and connected with it is an apparatus for distilling fresh
water from salt water. Abaft the mainmast is another house, 40 feet
long by 12 wide, which contains a messroom for the officers, and has
a stair case in its forward part, which leads to the quarters of the
petty officers and boys, on the deck below. Farther aft there is still
another house, 17 feet long by 11^- wide, and the same height as the
others. It protects a stair case which leads to the vestibule of both
cabins below, and contains lockers, &c., and aft near the topsail, is
the wheel house. Like a ship of war she has a double wheel, an iron
tiller, and a gun tackle purchase as her steering apparatus. She has
four large boats on the spar deck, two of them of 20 tons each, and
30 feet long, 104- feet wide, and 5 feet deep, fitted with sails and all
the other appliances necessary to preserve life, in the event of disas-
ter to the ship. She also carries four quarter boats of 26 feet length,
and a captain's gig of 22 feet. Notwithstanding the space occupied
on the spar deck by the houses and boats, such is her vast size, that
the deck looks comparatively clear fore and aft, and is more roomy
for a working ship than that of a ship of the line. There are 4 work-
ing hatchways, the main one 11 by 14 feet in the clear, which is large
enough to take down an omnibus, if required. Her heavy spare
spars are stowed on the deck below, and in the spar deck each side is
an oblong square opening to admit of the spars being taken up or sent
down. The materials of which the Great Republic is constructed,
are of the very best quality. Her keel is of rock maple in two tiers,
which combined are, side 16 inches, and mould 32. Her frame is of
selected seasoned white oak, and she is as strong as wood, iron and
copper can make her.

She has four masts, the after one named the spanker mast, which is
of a single spar ; the others are built of hard pine, the parts dowaled
together, bolted and hooped over all with iron. The bowsprit is also
built and hooped in the same style, and the topmasts and jibbooms are
of hard pine. She has Forbes's rig, and is square-rigged on the fore,
main, and mizzen masts, and fore and aft rigged on the spanker mast.
The main yard is 120 feet square, and the lower main 1 top aft yard,
92 feet. Excepting these, all other yards above are alike, on the fore
and main masts, and the lower foretopsail yard is of the same dimen-
sions as the crossjack yards, and all the yards above are alike on both
masts. She will spread 16,000 yards of canvass in a single suit of sails.
Her sails were made by E. F. Southward, and Richard Friend, Jr.,

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 55

upon the recently patented improvements of Mr. Southward. She
will be the first vessel ever furnished throughout with these improved
sails, and it is believed that their peculiar cut will enable her to attain
a greater rate of speed. A portion of the sails were stitched by
machinery, and their cost will be from eight to ten thousand dollars.

Harris' lightning rods are applied to all her masts. She has four
anchors. Her best bower is 8500 Ibs. weight ; her working bower
6500 Ibs. ; her small bower or stream anchor 2500, and the kedge
1500. Her bower chains are each of 2^ inch, and each 120 fathoms
in length.

New Mode of Ship Building. A late French paper has the follow-
ing notice of a new mode of ship building, in which an entire change
in the construction has been adopted:

" The public were gratified on Tuesday last with the launch of the
Peninsula and Oriental Company's new Steamship Vectis, of 1000
tons, the first of them being built on the new principle, without tim-
bers, being all solid planking. She was constructed by Messrs. John
and Robert White, on their ' patented improved diagonal principle ; '
and is intended to form one of a fleet of steam-packets, upon the new
contract, to carrv mails between Marseilles and Malta, and vice verfia.

V

As the Vectis is the first which has been constructed on an entirely
new principle, destined to form a complete revolution in ship building,
some few remarks will be necessarv as regards the method on which

/ o

she has been constructed. It would appear that the introduction of
iron ships into our leviathan steam companies, as well as into the navy,
threatened for a while the annihilation of wooden ships altogether.
To meet the requirements and reasonable demands of the various
steam companies, and to counterbalance the advantages which iron
ships possessed over those of wood, some improved method in the con-
struction of the latter was absolutely necessary, in order to render
them stronger and more buoyant, and carry a larger cargo in propor-
tion to their tonnage, with equal speed, to attain which objects the
Messrs. White were induced to turn their attention ; and after suc-
cessfully making a series of experiments and models, at no inconsider-
able cost, they at once satisfied themselves of the practicability of their
plan, and undertook to build ships of any magnitude and any degree
of sharpness, combined with all the requisites of speed and internal
capacity and this by a combination of planking, without the neces-
sity of ribs or frame timber. Their new mode of construction enabled
them to produce vessels whose sides were only as thick as an iron ship
with ribs and ceiling. The frame being entirely dispensed with,
greater buoyancy was produced; and the ships were consequently
enabled to carry from 10 to 20 per cent, more cargo in dead weight,
with equal speed ; or the same quantity of cargo as an ordinary built
ship, but with greater speed, in consequence of being enabled to have
finer lines. In the mode of construction, viz. : two thicknesses of
diagonal planking, and longitudinal planking outside, greater durability .
and safety were effected over the old method ; and by the exclusion
of vacant spaces, where foul air generated from the bilo-e-vrater or dirt

6*

56 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

collected in the openings, the plan was rendered more healthy. More-
over, in the new method, there is freedom from rats and other vermin,
and above all, the plan is particularly adapted to men-of-war, from
there being no iron strapping or iron knees, and the sides being solid,
there would be consequently less splinterings from shots, and particu-
larly healthy in warm climates."

Messrs. Scott, Russell & Co. of England, have the contract to
build for the Eastern Steam Navigation Company the largest ship
ever heard of in the world, which is to carry sufficient fuel for
the entire voyage to and from India or Australia. Her length is
to be 680 feet ; breadth, 83 feet ; depth, 58 feet ; with screw and paddle
engines of aggregate nominal horse-power of 2600. In addition to
taking from 4000 to 6000 tons of coals, she will be able to carry
5000 tons measurement of merchandise, and will have 500 cabins for
passengers of the highest class, with ample space for poops. and lower
class passengers. The whole of her bottom, and up to 6 feet above the
water line will be double and of a cellular construction, so that any
external injury will not affect the tightness or safety of the ship. The
upper deck will also be strengthened on the same principle, so that
the ship will be a complete beam, similar to the tube of the Brittania
bridge. It will be divided into ten water-tight compartments. She
will have separate sets of engines, each with several cylinders ; and
separate boilers will be applied to work the screw, distinct from those
working the paddle wheels, so that in the event of temporary or even
permanent derangement of any one of the engines, or of either the
paddle wheels or the screw, the other engines and propellers would
still be available. It is computed that her great length will enable her
to pass through the water at the velocity of fifteen knots an hour, and
by the great speed, combined with the absence of stoppages for coal-
ing, the voyage between England and India, via the Cape, may be
accomplished in thirty or thirty-three days, and between England and
Australia in thirty-three or thirty-six days. It is said that the ship
will become, by its construction, a beam of sufficient strength to meet
any strain to which it can be subjected, and will consist of so many
distinct compartments that no local injury, however serious, will affect
its buoyancy to any dangerous extent. Journ. Soc. Arts.

Improvements in Propellors. In a patented improvement by J.
Burch, of England, the propulsion is not effected by a disc, but by
vanes or helical sections, which he calls " fins," set in the circumfer-
ence of a disc, or wheel, to which the corresponding lines of the ves-
sels are prolonged, so as to form a kind of cylindrical-shaped projec-
tion, from the position of the disc tapering aft to the stern post, and
forwards forming a continuation of this gwasz'-cylinder, or trunk, to a
little abaft the beam. Above and below the disc are apertures for the
passage of the fins. Six vanes are set upon the disc, and, revolved
by the motive power, propel the vessel. The advantages alleged are,
that the truncated lines act in the manner of Griffith's globular center,
in nullifying the central resistance, which chokes the ordinary screw,
an object which is a grand desideratum, if attainable. " The advan-
tages," says the inventor, " gained by this arrangement, consists in

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 57

shielding the ineffective surface of the propeller from the passing cur-
rent, and leading the water upon the fins at such a radial distance
from the axis as will secure the whole power applied in the right direc-
tion. By this alteration of the locality of the screw, the current is
thrown direct on the helm."

IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CALKING OF VESSELS.

In the construction of vessels the process of calking the seams so
as to exclude the water, forms an important part of the operation.
This has heretofore been done by chamfering the outer edges of the
planks, and then driving oakum or other similar material between
them. An objection to this mode of calking is the well-known fact
that the working and straining of the vessel has a tendency to throw
the oakum out, and render re-calking necessary, while, at the same
time, as the planks are not driven so close together, and consequently
cannot form a close joint, the hull will be less stiff and rigid than is
desirable.

An improvement recently devised by Mr. B. F. Cook, of Boston,
consists in rendering the seams water-tight by placing between the edges
of the planks some adhesive elastic substance or material, such as
india rubber, gutta percha, or compound of both. This may be
done by forming a groove in the centre of the edge of each plank, and
placing in the said groove a strip of india rubber, gutta percha or
other elastic material, and then driving the planks closely together,
the edges of the planks not being bevelled but square, so that they
will form a close rigid joint. This strip of calking may be round and
tubular, or of any other required form, so as to fill the channel, which
may also be of any shape desired the planks thus grooved or
plowed are then driven together, with a coat of elastic cement be-
tween them if it is thought advisable. By the above method of calk-
ing a vessel, it will be seen that the necessity for chamfering the
edges of the plank is entirely obviated, and by cutting the edges
square, and placing between them an adhesive elastic substance, the
joint will be impervious to water, and at the same time the hull remain
extremely stiff and firm, while the calking cannot be worked out by
the straining or working of the vessel, as frequently occurs in the
method of calking heretofore practised.

EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATIONS ON THE PRINCIPLES OF LOCO-
MOTIVE BOILERS.

The following is an abstract of a paper recently read before the
Society of Civil Engineers, (England) by Mr. Clark of Edinburgh.
It commenced with some historical facts in locomotive progress, show-
ing that the general design of the locomotive was matured, imme-
diately after the trials on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in
1829 combining the multitubular horizontal boiler, the horizontal
cylinders, and the blast pipe. Reference was made to the various

58 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

systems practised in working out the general design, and to the neces-
sity for fixed principles in proportioning the locomotive to the work
for which it was destined. For the proper discussion of the question
it was indispensable to distinguish the three elements of the machine :
the boiler, the engine, and the carriage ; and to consider them sep-
arately, with respect to their proper functions, as the mixing up of
one with the other had caused much of the confusion with which
many of the recent discussions on the subject had been invested.
The paper was chiefly devoted to the discussion of the physiological
principles of locomotive boilers. It was argued, that the combustion
of coke in the firebox was, in practice, very completely effected ; that
it was quite independent of the strength of the draft, being equally
complete with fast and slow drafts ; that expedients for improving the
combustion were superfluous ; and that the combustion of coal might
also, in practice, be perfected by a judicious use of the ashpan, dam-
per, and the firectoor. The evaporation of 12 Ibs. of water per
pound of pure coke was found, by careful laboratory experiments, to be
the maximum evaporative performance ; in the best ordinary practice,
an actual evaporation of 9 Ibs. of water per pound of coke, or 75 per
cent, of the possible maximum, was readily obtained, the balance
being lost by leakage, of air and by waste ; and it was adopted, by the
author, as the ordinary standard of practical economical evaporation.
It was shown, by numerous examples, that the question of the rela-
tive value of firebox and tube surface was of no practical importance,
as the efficiency of boilers was not sensibly affected by their rela-
tive amounts ; that the superiority of firebox surface Avas due merely
to its greater proximity to the fire ; and that the distinction of radiant
and communicated heat was merely circumstantial, that what was
gained in radiant heat was lost in communicated heat, and that whether
it was all radiating, or all communicated, mattered not to the total effi-
ciencv of the fuel. On these grounds the author regarded with indif-

/ O O

ference the use of such expedients as extended fireboxes, midfeathers,
corrugated plates, and combustion-chambers; and it was asserted, that
where the addition of midfeathers had been found advantageous,
there had been a deficiencv or mal-arrangement of the tube-surface.

v O

A minute analysis was made of the results of numerous authenticated
experiments on the evaporative power of locomotive boilers, of very
various proportions, comprising several, made by the author, on the
engines of the Caledonian, Edinburgh and Glasgow, and Glasgow
and South AVestern Railways. It was concluded, that the economical
evaporative power of boilers was materially affected by the area of
the fire-grate, and by its ratio to the whole heating surface ; that an
enlargement of the grate had the effect of reducing the economical
evaporative power, not necessarily affecting the quality of combustion
in any way, but governing the absorbing power of the boiler, as the
lower rate of combustion, per foot of grate, due to a larger area, in
burning the same total quantity of fuel per hour, was accompanied by
a reduced intensity of combustion, and by a less rapid transmission of
heat to the water, in consequence of which a greater quantity of

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 59

unabsorbed heat must escape by the chimney. An increase of heat-
ing surface, again, reduced the waste of heat, and promoted economy
of fuel, and added greatly to the economical evaporative power. In
short the -question resolved itself into the mutual adjustment of three
elements: the necessary rate of evaporation, the grate-area,
and the heating surface, consistent with the economical generation of
steam, at the assumed practical standard rate of 9lbs. of water per
pound of good coke. An investigation of the cases of economical
evaporation, in the table of experiments, conducted the author to
the following very important equation, expressing the relation of the
three elements of boiler-power : in which c was the maximum eco-
nomical evaporation, in feet of water, per foot of grate per hour, Jt
was the total heating surface, in square feet, measured inside, and g
was the grate-area in square feet :

^h
c = .00222

s

From this it followed : 1st that the economical evaporative power
decreased directly as the area of grate was increased, even while the
heating surface remained the same. 2nd. That it increased directly
as the square of the heating surface, when the grate remained the
same. 3rd. That the necessary heating surface increased, only, as
the square-root of the economical evaporative power. 4th. That the
heating surface must be increased as the square-root of the grate area,
for a given economical evaporative power. It was contended thence,
that the heating surface would be economicallv weakened by an exten-

<- t *f &

sion of the grate, and would be strengthened by its reduction ; and that
whereas large grates were commonly thought to be an unmixed good, and
being generally recommended were usually adopted ; still they might
be made too large ; not that their extension affected the quality of
combustion, but that the economical evaporative power might be
reduced. Concentrated and rapid combustion was, alike, the true
practice for the largest and the smallest boilers ; and in locomotives
where lightness, compactness, and efficiency were primary objects,
the boilers should be designed for the highest average rates of evapo-
ration per foot of grate, that might be followed, in good practice, con-
sistently with the highest average rate at which coke could be prop-
erly consumed ; as, in this manner, the smallest grate, and the small-
est amount of heating surface, consistent with good practice, might be
employed. It was stated, that 1501bs. to 260lbs. of good sound coke
could be consumed, per foot of grate per hour ; and, allowing for
inferior fuel, an average maximum of 1 1 2lbs. per foot of grate, per
hour, was recommended as a general datum. This determined the
average maximum of economical evaporation to be 16 feet of water
per foot of grate per hour, allowing 9lbs. of water per pound of coke ;
for which 85 feet of heating surface per foot of grate should be pro-
vided. It was accordingly recommended, that a heating surface at least 85
times the grate-area should be adopted in practice. ^It was also shown,
by examples of inferior economy of evaporation, that the clearance

60 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

between the tubes, for the circulation of water and steam, was in
many boilers much too small ; that the clearance should be in propor-
tion to the number of tubes, and that for good practice, a clearance
at the rate of one-eighth of an inch for every thirty tubes should be
allowed.

DU TEEMBLEY'S VAPOR ENGINE.

During the past season, several practical experiments have been
made in France, by M. Du Trembley, for the purpose of testing his
new vapor engine, which has now been for several years before the
public. His motive power, as is well-known, is derived from the ex-
pansion of the vapors of sulphuric ether and of water, and the
engine, which is similar in all its appointments to a double-cylinder
steam engine, is driven by the combined vapors, which act singly,
each in its own cylinder, and without any intermixture.

The condensation of the aqueous vapor is accomplished by the
evaporation of sulphuric ether, and the condensation of the latter, by
means of a current of sea-water, which constantly laves and cools the
surfaces of a condenser, into which the vapor passes after its escape
from the cylinder. These two condensations take place in close ves-
sels, and the exhaust-pumps return the liquids each into its proper
generator, so that they are alternately evaporated and condensed. If
it were possible to make such accurate adjustments as to prevent any
escape, one supply of the two fluids would serve indefinitely. To ob-
tain this perfection of adjustment seemed to be required by the nature
of things, and to this point the inventor has devoted his attention
mainly. Every one knows how extremely volatile ether is, and how
penetrating its vapor. So successful has M. Du Trembley been, that
in the engine room one can scarcely detect the presence of ether, not-
withstanding the considerable quantity which is supplied to the cylin-
der by the generating apparatus.

The following details of the experiments are taken from a recent
French publication :

As soon as Du Trembley considered his machine in good working
order, he placed it at first on a screw propeller, engaged statedly in
traffic between Marseilles and Algiers. The vessel was of 500 tons
burden.

In the first experiments, the vacuum obtained in the condensers
was 62 centimetres for the aqueous vapor, and 23 centimetres for the
vapor of ether ; the pressure of the two vapors was two atmospheres
for the vapor of water, and 2 1-5 for that of ether ; the cylinder of
the former was 65 centimetres in diameter, and of the latter, 80 cen-
timetres ; their stoke of 75 centimetres. The two vapors were introduced
only during the half of this stroke. The number of revolutions obtained
witli a light breeze ahead, was from 36 to 38, which gave from 72 to 76
turns to the srriMv, and a speed of six knots to the vessel ; but if it is duly
observed that the force developed by the machine has been calculated
at no more than 60 horse power, it will be seen what entire reason we

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 61

have to be satisfied with the velocity communicated to the craft,
which we have already stated to be of 500 tons burden.

These results were obtained on a trip from Marseilles to La Seyne,
where the vessel was taken to complete its outfit.

Upon the return trip, the vessel achieved nine knots and a quarter
with a gentle breeze astern, and with the same inconsiderable power
of 60 horses, applied to a burden of 500 tons. This more than con-
firmed the first anticipations. The average consumption of coal was
112 kilogrammes, or 240 Ibs. per hour; while for an equal speed, the
ordinary steam-engine would require 350 kilogrammes, or 750 Ibs. per
hour.

During a trip subsequently made to Algiers, results equally flatter-
ing were obtained. Assailed by a storm during the voyage, the vessel
rolled fearfully, but the engine, feeble as it was, in proportion to the
tonnage of the vessel, never exhibited a moment's hesitation, nor
suffered a notable abatement of velocity ; notwithstanding the shocks
it experienced, no escape of the fluids or vapors was observed ; and
upon the subsidence of the gale, the propeller completed its voyage
without, from first to last, enjoying the aid of its sails. Frequently
the speed was seven knots, with the consumption of only 77 kilogram-
mes, or 165 pounds of coal per hour, or two tons for the whole dis-
tance, instead of an average of ten tons, previously consumed for the
same transit. It must not, however, be disguised that the use of
ether, owing to its inflammability, is exposed to much danger, more
especially on marine vessels than on shore. The vapor, indeed, is
heavier than air; and on land, in low places, we have always the
expedient of exciting a powerful current of air, which will dissipate
the vapor, and remedy the evil ; but on shipboard and down in the
hold, it is much less easy, if not quite impracticable. Ether mixed
with air, in the proportion of 1 to 4, is explosive, as is observed in the
mines. The most minute precautions, therefore, become imperative ;
and w r e are confidently assured that M. Du Trembley has given the
subject the fullest consideration.

In regard to the practicability of the other engine, Mr Rennie, the
eminent English engineer, stated at the Bristol association, that he
had been requested to investigate the efficiency of the engine, and for
that purpose he made a voyage in the vessel from Marseilles to Algiers
and back, accompanied by his son. The steam-boiler is adapted only
for an engine of thirty-horse power, and during the return voyage
Mr. Rennie placed the coals under lock and key, so that he might
ascertain exactly the quantity consumed. The result of his investiga-
tions was, that by the additional action of the ether vapor there was
a saving of from 60 to 70 per cent. ; and the amount of gain had been
reported by a French commission, appointed to examine the engine, at
74 per cent. The loss of ether by leakage did not exceed in value
one franc per hour during the voyage, and that might be greatly
reduced by improved construction in the machinery. The French
Government have paid the inventor a very large sum for the inven-
tion, and there are now several ships in course of construction to be

62 ANNUAL OP SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

propelled by engines of this kind; one of which is to be 1,500 tons
burthen, and the engines are to be of 150 horse power. Mr. Rennie
said that arrangements are made for dispelling the ether vapor that
escapes, so that there is no danger of its ignition. Mr. Sykes Ward
observed that good ether does not corrode iron ; therefore no objec-
tion to its employment could arise from that cause. Mr. Fairbairn
said that 2| Ib. of coal per horse power are consumed in the best Lan-
cashire engines, worked expansively, whilst the steam-boats on the
Humber burn about 10 Ib. of coal per horse power ; and as it appeared
from Mr. Rennie's report of the working of the combined steam and
ether engine that the duty was greater than that of the best Lanca-
shire steam-engines, the advantage of the combined action compared
with that of the marine engines on the Humber was very important.

ERICSSON'S ENGINES.

The Scientific American states that the folio wing alterations and im-
provements have been made in the Ericsson engines, since the last trip
of the vessel. Immediately above the fire is placed six layers of cast-
iron pipes, nine feet in length and three and a half inches in diameter ;
above these pipes are two heaters, 9 feet in length, and 2 feet 5 inches
in diameter. These heaters are filled with tubes 2 inches in diameter,
through which pass the flame and smoke from the fires. The cylinder
is 5 feet 2 inches bore, and about 7 feet stroke. He also employs a
cooler 10 feet in length, and 3 feet in diameter, filled with tubes H
inches in diameter ; among these tubes circulates a supply of cold
water for the purpose of condensing the air after it has passed from
the cylinder. These various parts communicate with each other, but
not with the external air - - the cold air from the cooler passing in the
heaters, then through the cast-iron pipes immediately over the fire,
then into the cylinder and back to the cooler again.

A late number of Silliman's Journal contains an investigation of
Ericsson's Caloric Engine, by Prof. Norton. The conclusions of the
author are thus summed up :

1. That Ericsson's Hot Air Engine, as compared with the condens-
ing marine steam engine, in its most economical operation, has shown
the ability to do the same work with the use of from one-sixth to one-
third less fuel ; and, that if its full estimated power should hereafter
be developed, the saving effected would be 70 per cent.

2. That for the same actual power, its weight is about three times
as great as that of the marine steam engine, and that in case its esti-
mated power should be obtained, its weight would be as much as
thirty per cent, greater.

3 That in respect to the space occupied with the engines and coal,
the advantage is decidedly in favor of the steam engine.

4. That the great weight of the engine, in proportion to the power
developed, must prevent, for the present, the realization of a high
speed in the propulsion of vessels. At the same time it is to be
admitted that the full estimated power is adequate to the production

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 63

of high velocities. Time alone can decide the question, whether or
not this maximum power is really obtainable.

5. The great weight of the engine, and space occupied by it in its
present form, will in all probability, prevent its adoption for the pur-
pose of inland navigation and railroad locomotion, in preference to
the steam engine. If used as a land engine, the features will be less
objectionable ; accordingly it is only in this form of application, and
in those cases of marine navigation in which speed is likely to be
sacrified to economy of fuel, that the caloric engine may be confi-
dently expected to achieve decided triumphs over the condensing

steam engine.

Although this discussion has brought us to the conclusion that the
new motor is not likely to equal the extravagant expectations which
are so widely entertained with regard to its capabilities, still it must
be freely conceded that the invention of a new engine in respect to
which a just claim to superiority over the steam engine can be asserted,
in any particular, is a great achievement, and that the ingenuity and
mechanical skill displayed in the invention and construction of the
Caloric Engine cannot be too highly extolled.

REGULATING THE SPEED OF STEAM ENGINES.

Luther R. Faught, of Macon, Georgia, has invented a very ingeni-
ous and original improvement for regulating the speed of steam
engines, by cutting off' the steam in the steam box when it exceeds the
established velocity. The speed of the engine is regulated by the
" cut-off," which consists of a plate of metal placed to fit and work on
the back of the slide valve, which is furnished with cerlain openings
through which the steam must pass into the cylinder while the cut-off
plate is in a proper position. The form of this cut-off is not new, but
the method of operating it is peculiar: the cut-off is caused to move
with a slide valve by means of friction produced between them by-
suitable means, and by attaching the rod of the former to a pendulum
axis or other device, capable of offering resistance to its movement,
which causes it, when the velocity increases, to move a shorter distance
than the slide valve and thus close the steam openings of the valve,
and cut off the steam before the termination of the stroke of the piston.
The steam passages of the slide valve are closed earlier cr later,
according to the velocity of the piston, by the action of this governor
valve, to regulate the speed of the engine. The governor valve is
therefore operated by resistance which increases as the undue velocity
of the engine increases, to cut off the steam early when necessary.
Scientific American.

LOCKING AND COOK'S ROTARY AND VALVE ENGINE.

In this engine a metal disc, with three apertures, slowly rotating on
a flat surface, with corresponding openings connected with the boiler
and the cylinders, supplies the place of the ordinary slide valves,

7

64 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

Rotary motion is given to the valve by a vertical shaft, on -which there
is a pinion that is worked by a cog-wheel on the shaft of the engine.
The two bearing surfaces are ground steam-tight, and an outer casing
serves to confine the steam, as in the common slide valve. The advan-
tages said to be gained by this arrangement are the diminution of
friction and a more ready means of cutting off the steam and of revers-
ing the engine. As the rotary valve has a continuous slow motion,
the inconvenience and friction occasioned by the rapid reciprocating
action of the slide valve is avoided. Among other advantages of this
contrivance it is stated that it costs less, is less liable to get out of order,
and occupies less room.

BRISTOL'S ROTARY ENGINE.

This rotary engine, invented by Richard C. Bristol, of Chicago,
and exhibited at the New York Crystal Palace, is very simple in all
its parts, and it embraces features which remove many objections to
the heretofore economical working of such steam motors. The descrip-
tion of the rotary engine to which these improvements relate, consists
of an outer fixed annular case with open ends, and an inner wheel so
fitted to it as to close its ends and leave a channel or steam way within
it, outside of the wheel, the outer case having one or more abutments
which project from its inside and fit to the periphery of the wheel, the
latter having sliders or wing pistons, upon which the steam acts for
the purpose of giving rotation to the wheel, by admitting the steam
between the sliders and the abutments spoken of.

The outer case is so supported that it is capable of yielding in any
direction necessary to enable it to preserve, at all times, the proper
position in relation to the wheel inside and the working parts of it,
notwithstanding any inequality of their wear, or any other cause which
might induce them to work out of line.

The sliders are pushed out against the concave face of the annular
case by means of small pistons attached to them and acted upon by the
steam, but only at such times as the sliders or wings are acted upon
themselves by the steam, the pressure of the said pistons ceasing as
soon as the exhausting commences at the back of the sliders to which
they are attached, and before the withdrawal of the latter to pass the
abutments, so that no resistance is offered to their withdrawal or back
stroke.

This engine cuts off the steam at any point desired ; the packing
consists of adjustable metal rings, and is not liable to wear uneven or
quickly, as the friction is small. Scientific American.

NEW BOILER FEEDER.

The nature of this invention, by Aaron Arnold, of Troy, N. Y.>
consists in having a small hollow closed metallic vessel, which is hung
on a balance outside of the boiler, and has communication at the top
with the steam, and at the bottom with the water of the boiler, and is

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS.

65

connected with the throttle valve or cocks in the feed pipe. The
object of this apparatus is to regulate the quantity of water to be
supplied to the boiler by a pump, so as to maintain the water in the
boiler at a proper level. As the small vessel spoken of communicates
with the steam chamber and the water in the boiler, it receives both
steam and water, the latter being always at the same level as that of
the boiler. It is balanced on a centre in such a manner that when
the water in the boiler is at the proper line, it remains poised on its
centre, and keeps the throttle valve in the feed pipe open to the exact
width that will supply the boiler with water commensurate to the
steam used. When the water in the boiler falls below the proper line,
the water in the small outside vibrating vessel diminishes, which
causes it to rise and open the throttle valve somewhat wider, and let-
ting more water to the boiler. The reverse action takes place when
the water in the boiler rises above the proper line. The vibrating
outside vessel is guided by the amount of water in the boiler to regu-
late the throttle valve. Scientific American.

RAILROADS OF THE UNITED STATES, AND OTHER COUNTRIES.

The number of miles of railway now in operation upon the surface
of the globe, is 29,606; of which 15,436 miles are situated in the
Eastern Hemisphere, and 14,170 are in the Western, and which are
distributed as follows :

In the United States, 13,586

In the British Provinces, 173

In the Island of Cuba, 359

In Panama, 22

In South America, 30

In Great Britain, 6,976

In Germany, 5,340

In France, 1,831

In Belgium, 532

InRussia. 422

In Sweden, 75

In Italy 170

In Spain, 60

In India, 30

The longest railway in the world is the New York and Erie, which
is 467 miles in length.

The total number of railways in the United States, in operation and
in course of construction, is 372, constructed at a cost of $400,713,907.
Merchants Magazine.

RAILROAD IMPROVEMENTS.

French's Improvement for overcoming Grades. This invention con-
sists of a common wooden superstructure, with a flat bar-rail : the
ends of the cross-timbers are cut off flush with the sleepers, and the
flat bar resting on the sleepers projects over on the outside of the
track, forming a clear continuous space on each side of the road for
friction rollers, or small wheels to revolve up against the projecting
edge of the rail. The cranks are attached to the ends of the driving-
axle, and between these and the driving-wheels is suspended from the
axle, on each side, a friction roller, or wheel, which is made to drop
at pleasure directly under the driving-wheels. Using the driving-axle

66 ANNUAL OP SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

as a fulcrum, by means of a compound lever, these friction rollers or
wheels are pressed up at pleasure, and to that extent press down the
driving-wheels, producing instantly whatever amount of adhesion may
be required. The tread of the driving-wheels is as wide as the rails,
and the friction rollers revolve just under them, with flanges to pre-
vent their rubbing the sides of the road. These friction rollers or
small wheels, when not required, are instantly thrown up some
eighteen inches above the track, where they remain until they are
again required, when they are instantly thrown into gear.

New Car Wheel and Truck. An improvement in the construction
of car wheels and trucks has been effected by Mr. J. T. Deniston, of
Lyons, N. Y., by making the rim of the wheel somewhat thicker than
is used, and forming the flange in the centre of this rim, thus forming
two treads, one upon each side of the flange. The circumference of
the tread upon the inside of the flange being larger than that upon
the outside. When the curve is turned, this inner tread takes a new
rail, placed near the outer rail of the curve, and thus causes the cars
naturally to run in a circular direction. It will be observed that the
outer wheel, in turning curves thus instantly, becomes larger than the
inner wheel, which gives the curvilinear motion.

Improved Car Break. Draper Allen, of New York, has invented
and taken measures to secure by patent, an improved mode of con-
structing the brakes for rail cars, more particularly intended for the
horse-cars of city streets. It consists in constructing the shoes of
brakes in such a manner as to bear not only on the periphery of the
wheel, but on the flange also, thus distributing the friction over a
greater amount of surface, and at the same time preventing the
unequal wear of the wheel, rendering necessary its frequent renewal.
Scientific American.

Babcock's Railroad Track- Supporter. This arrangement is intended
to obviate entirely the noise, jar and dust now produced by the passage
of trains, enabling each passenger to read or converse as freely and
comfortably as though seated by his own fireside, while immensely
diminishing the wear and tear of rails and machinery, and the con-
sequent danger of accidents. It is entitled " Babcock's Railroad
Track- Supporter " and " Track- Spring," and the plan is briefly as
follows : Lay the ties firmly on blocks of stone, where these are to be
had, and on any solid substitute where they are not, so as to obviate
the perpetually recurring necessity for raising one side of the track
here, lowering the other there, and leveling it every where, but which
cannot now be avoided because a certain elasticity in the track rapidly
traversed by a train has been proved indispensable. This elasticity
Mr. Babcock supplies by means of air-tight metal boxes, each enclos-
ing a circular piece of India-rubber, say 2 inches in diameter and ^
of an inch thick a box being set into each end of every tie, just
under the rail. Thus the required elasticity is obtained, not in the
track, nor in the rail, but in the Indian-rubber spring ; the rail merely
settling a little on each spring as the train presses upon it and rising
again when it has passed, leaving the track entirely unaffected. The

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 67

entire cost of this apparatus is estimated by the inventor at some
$1,200 to $1,500 per mile, and he calculates the average saving
thereby in the wear of track and rails alone at $350 per mile per
annum.

Gardner's Compound Car Axle. In this new car axle, each wheel
is shrunk upon a sleeve which has a loose inside flange upon it and a
small rim on the inside of the flange. The axle has a fixed flange upon
it, inside of the wheel, and it extends through the sleeves. The
sleeves of the wheel, therefore, run upon the axle, and are like long
boxes which are secured by screw bolts. By this arrangement of the
axle, an independent motion is given to opposite wheels without
affecting the relative lateral action. The excessive strain upon the
common axle in turning narrow curves is obviated and the danger of
breakage removed.

In turning curves of average radius, and with ordinary trains, a
large portion of the motive power may be saved. With the common
axle, owing to the greater distance to be traversed over in the same
time by the wheel on the outer rail, all the wheels on one rail must
slide to compensate for the natural tendency to a difference in veloc-
ity. With this axle, each wheel moves with a velocity due to the
length of rail to be traversed.

In the application of the brakes the torsion of the axle is also
obviated each wheel turning with the velocity due to the pressure
of the brake on itself, and not affecting or being affected by the
other. Scientific American.

Cast-Iron Driving Wheels. Henry A. Chase, of Boston, Mass.,
has invented an improvement in cast-iron driving wheels for locomo-
tives, which consists in casting the " counterbalance " in a double-
plated chilled wheel opposite the crank-pin in the inner face of the
tread, between the two sides, but not touching them. It is cast on
the tread, and stands up from it in the hollow part of the wheel, like a
plate, but is not attached to the hub. The plates of the wheel, there-
fore, are made of equal thickness throughout, and consequently when
cast they contract equally. The counterbalance, or solid plate, cast
opposite the crank pin inside of the wheel, is therefore free to con-
tract without affecting the side plates after being cast. Scientific
American.

NEW WAY OF CHECKING RAILWAY BAGGAGE.

The following method of checking baggage has recently been
adopted with great satisfaction on two or three of the English rail-
ways.

When a train, say a down train, arrives at any particular station, a
porter attends with a book. It contains tickets of stiff card board
bound in the book. Each ticket is about 3 inches long and 1 inch
wide. It is partly cut. So that two separate parts of it can be easily
torn off. The tickets are numbered differently, but each of the three
parts of a ticket has the same number. The outer part of the ticket

7*

68 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

has a loop of tape gummed to it. Suppose a person arrives at a sta-
tion and is not going on by a train for an hour or two, or a day, and
is desirous of leaving a carpet-bag or trunk at the station. Pie pays
one penny, and in a moment the taped portion of a platform ticket is
fastened to the handle of the carpet-bag. This portion bears, as has
been already stated, a printed number also ; the words " deposited at
Winchester," or whatever the station may be, and likewise the words,
"for down train." Another portion of the ticket, with the same num-
ber as the last, is torn off and given to the owner of the carpet-bag,
to be presented at the station when the article is wanted. The
words " for down train " are omitted on this portion. The portion of
the ticket that is left in the book corresponds with that given to the
passenger, and is a check on the money taker. The company then
becomes responsible for the safety of the property. Luggage is divi-
ded into three class that for down train, up train, and to be left till
called for, and should be sorted into three different compartments at
the station. For each division there is a separate book of tickets. If
a person were to find or steal a ticket, and apply for property, he
would be instantly detected, because he would first have to say
whether the luggage was for up or down train, or to be left till called
for, which he could not do unless he owned it. There is no necessity
for any address to be on the luggage. One penny per package per
diem is charged for a platform ticket.

IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF WATER WORKS.

At the last meeting of the British Association, Mr. J. F. Bateman
described at length some recent improvements introduced in the water
works of Manchester, England. The magnitude of the Manchester
Waterworks was stated to be greater than that of the Croton Aque-
duct at New York, which has hitherto been considered the largest of
modern times. The three principal reservoirs will contain 500,000,000
of cubic feet of water, and there are two smaller reservoirs which hold
100,000,000 ; so that the total quantity stored up for the consumption
of Manchester and the neighboring mills is 600,000,000 cubic feet.
The furthest reservoir is 20 miles distant from Manchester, and is 420
feet above the level of the upper part of the city. The daily con-
sumption of the inhabitants is 30,000,000 gallons, which are supplied
immediately from a service-reservoir 150 feet above the level of Pic-
cadilly, at the highest part of Manchester. The valves of the main
pipes which open and cut off the supply are 40 inches in diameter, and,
with a pressure of 150 feet on that area, it would have been impossible,
without great labor or complicated machinery, to have opened and
closed the valves had they been of the ordinary construction. Mr.
Armstrong, of Newcastle, suggested, as a means of overcoming the
difficulty, that the large valve should be divided into three, and this
plan had been found to act remarkably well. A small compartment
of the valve was first withdrawn, and the rush of water through it hav-
ing filled the pipe, the pressure was counteracted, and the other and

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 69

larger divisions of the valve could then be easily lifted. By this con-
trivance the mains could be opened and closed by one man. Another
object to be accomplished was to arrest the flow of water in case the
large pipes with such a pressure upon them should burst and flood the
neighborhood. This was successfully effected by introducing into the
main pipe a kind of flood-gate, which was opened at a certain angle
by the ordinary flow of the water, and at that inclination it held sus-
pended, by means of a lever, a heavy weight connected with a throttle-
valve. When the rush of water greatly exceeds the ordinary flow, a
catch that retains the lever is withdrawn, and the fall of the weight
closes the throttle-valve and stops the flow. This self-acting machinery
has more than once prevented serious damage that would have arisen
from the bursting of the pipes. Another contrivance deserves men-
tion. The water in the reservoirs is generally beautifully clear, but
during heavy rains it becomes turbid, and would be unfit for the con-
sumption of the inhabitants without being filtered. To avoid the
inconvenience and expense of filtration, Mr. Moore suggested a plan
for separating the turbid water from the clear. A weir was con-
structed, over the edge of which during dry weather the water in the
reservoir flows perpendicularly into a drain-pipe immediately below,
which conveys the clear water to the service reservoir ; but in heavy
rains, when the water is turbid, the extra flow shoots it over the first
drain into the second, to convey it to the reservoirs that supply water
power to the mills. By this simple arrangement the turbid and clear
waters are separated, and it is calculated that a saving of 100,OOOZ. has
thus been effected. In supplying Manchester with water, a new kind
of fire-plug has been adopted, consisting of a gutta-percha spherical
valve, which closes the apertures, and when the water is required to
escape, an instrument is introduced which forces down the valve. The
great water pressure in the pipes forces it so high that there is no
necessity for fire engines ; and the effectual manner in which fires are
extinguished by the torrent of water that can be thus applied has
greatly diminished the cost of insurance in that city. Mr. Bateman
stated, that in large establishments the diminished premiums on fire-
insurances, produced by the increased facility of extinguishing fires,
are sufficient to pay the water-rate.

WATER METERS.

Improvements in apparatus for measuring the flow of water and
other liquids, have been made by S. R. Wilmot, of New Haven, Conn.
The improvements relate to that description of fluid meters, consisting
of a piston made to move reciprocally within a cylinder of known
capacity, by the admission of the water on opposite sides alternately, and
by which the flow of liquid is measured by registering the number of
reciprocations of the piston. These kind of meters Avork with great
accuracy, and the only objection to their use, is the great amount of
friction the piston, when tightly packed, requiring a considerable
pressure of water to move it. The object of the new improvements is

70 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

to remove the great amount of friction, and enable the piston to be
moved with a low head of water. One improvement consists in form-
ing an air seal or packing, to separate the water above from the water
below the piston, by extending the piston upwards at its sides, in the
form of an open topped tube or cylinder, to enter a narrow open bot-
tomed but close topped chamber, which is formed around the upper
part of the interior of the vertical working cylinder, and always con-
tains a quantity of air, which cannot be expelled by the water. As
there is no communication between the spaces above and below the
piston, except this chamber, the air forms a seal or packing, and admits
of the piston being made to fit so loosely to the cylinder as to produce
a very small amount of friction. Another improvement is, that the
piston is fitted with an air float, so proportioned to its weight, that it
will preserve an equilibrium with the water, and offer no resistance to
its entrance upon either side. All the mechanism through which the
piston operates upon the valves is enclosed within the cylinder itself,
or a water chamber above or below the cylinder, having free commu-
nication therewith, whereby the necessity for stuffing boxes and other
packing, is obviated. Scientific American.

Kenedy's Water Meter. In this meter the fluid is passed through
an adjustable valve, working in connection with an arrangement of
clockwork, the combination being so contrived that the exact flow of
the liquid shall be indicated by apparatus worked from the clock
movement. In one arrangement, the valve on the supply-pipe con-
sists of a small bored cylinder, fitted with a piston, and having a nar-
row longitudinal slot on one side. Then the water being admitted to
this cylinder beneath the piston, escapes through this slot into an outer
cylinder, communicating with the service-pipe or delivering stop-cock,
at a rate proportioned to the extent of slot left open to the water by
the piston. When placed vertically, the piston-rod is loaded with a
weight, to keep it steady upon the water, the rod being passed through
a stuffing-box at the top of the outer cylinder, above which it is con-
nected to a traversing pulley, which is kept constantly revolving by
contact with a cone pulley, driven at a continuous uniform rate by a
common clock. The result of this combination is, that as the piston
rises in its cylinder, admitting an increased flow of water, it draws the
traversing pulley towards the larger end of the cone ; and this pulley
being connected to the indicating mechanism, at once points out the
quantity of water passing through, as it is driven at a more or less
increased speed, from its position nearer to, or further from, the large
end of the cone.

IMPROVEMENTS IN BEARINGS.

M. Decoster, at Paris, has lately invented a novel method of lubri-
cating bearings, especially applicable to light shafting, and which is
thus described in the London Artisan : The bearing is made rather
wider than usual, and a small disc is fitted on the shaft, which dips in
a reservoir of oil in the base of the hanging carriage or pluminer-block,

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 71

and by its revolution, raises the oil and distributes it over the bearing.
A tight fitting cap covers in the whole bearing, and prevents the access
of dust. Bearings of this description, we are assured, will run for
more than a twelvemonth with one supply of oil. M. Decoster is
replacing all his line shafting with shafting of a much smaller diameter,
but running at a higher speed. This arrangement saves great expense
in constructing mills, and is attended with no inconvenience, if the
system of lubricating just described is adopted.

T. S.^Minniss, of Meadville, Penn., exhibited at the Crystal Palace, a
lubricating box, for the journals and shafts of machinery of a decidedly
novel character. The arrangement for vertical shafting is constructed
as follows : The foot of the shaft is expanded into a hollow cylinder of
sufficient capacity to contain a weight of water equal to the entire
weight of the shaft and all resting upon it ; this hollow cylinder is
water-tight, and being filled with air it is evident that when plunged
in a vessel of water it will support the shaft, and at the same time will
be in contact with the water only. Its motion is however made steady
by a pivot in the center, and by the water vessel, the size of which is
reduced to but a trifle more than the diameter of the sustaining
cylinder.

GIGANTIC MANUFACTURING ESTABLISHMENT.

The largest single manufacturing establishment in the world, has re-
cently been opened at Saltaire, Yorkshire, England, for the manufacture
of alpaca cloth. The vastness of this great work will be seen from the
following statement, which yet applies to only one department. The
weaving shed will contain 1,200 looms. The length of the shafting
will be 9,870 feet, or nearly two miles, and weighing between six and
seven hundred tons. The steam engines to work these shafts are
equal to twelve hundred and fifty horse power, and the looms in this
one weaving shed will be capable of producing thirty thousand yards,
or nearly eighteen miles of alpaca cloth every day, and an aggregate
length of jive thousand six hundred and eighty-eight miles "of cloth
annually. The building covers six acres of ground, and the floors in
the several buildings, including warehouses and sheds, cover an extent
of eleven acres and a half. The south front of the building is exactly
the length of St. Paul's, 545 feet. It is six stories high. The top
room is unbroken in its length, and is one of the longest in the world.
The roof is of iron, and the windows vast squares of plate glass.
Around this model mill is growing up the town of Saltaire. The
town begins with seven hundred houses, built on the best principles,
and including every convenience necessary to the health and comfort
of its inhabitants. It will consist of spacious squares and streets,
grounds for recreation, schools, a place of worship, baths, and wash-
houses. The air is not to be polluted with smoke, or the water to be
deteriorated by any impurity. The alpaca wool has been known in
England for about forty years ; but its manufacture to a large extent
is comparatively recent. It was introduced by Mr. Salt into Brad-

72 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

ford, in 1836. For the first five years the average annual imports
were five hundred and sixty thousand pounds. In 1851, they were
2,186,480 pounds; the increase being principally owing to the great
demands of Mr. Salt and a few other Yorkshire manufacturers. The
mohair or goats' wool of Angola was introduced about the same time
as the alpaca. The quantity of mohair imported in 1841, was 1,011,780
pounds ; in 1851, it was 1,943,280 pounds.

FOREMAN'S PROCESS FOR RAISING SHIPS.

In this arrangement for raising sunken vessels, cast-iron generators
containing wet gunpowder are employed. These are connected with
a cast-iron retort or purifier filled with water, from which passes a
coil of cast-iron tube. The whole apparatus is placed in a box about
6 feet square and two feet high, which is filled with water. From
the end of the coil a hose, dividing in two parts, passes to casks lashed
to the sides of the vessel to be operated on. The powder in the gen-
erators is then ignited, and the gases generated by its combustion pass
by means of the hose and pipe into the casks, and displace the water
with which they are filled, holes having been made in the bottom of
the cask. The buoyancy of the confined air raises the vessel.

IMPROVED SYPHON.

W. Lover, a Dublin surgeon, has invented an ingenious syphon,
which promises to be useful for philosophical purposes. It consists in
adding an elastic bag to the longer leg of the instrument, communi-
cating freely with it a little above the extremity. When intended for
use, the air is to be expelled from the bag by pressing it with one
hand, and the end of the tube close to it is to be shut by a finger of
the other, if there be no cock upon it. Upon plunging the shorter
leg of the instrument into the fluid to be drawn off, and releasing the
bag without removing the finger from the end of the tube, the partial
vacuum which will be created within it will raise the fluid over the
bend of the tube, and fill the longer leg. It will then only be neces-
sary to remove the finger, or to open the cock, to set the syphon in
action. This is evidently a convenient means of filling the instru-
ment, far preferable to suction, or to pouring fluid into it beforehand.

IMPROVEMENT IN PICKERS AND GINS.

A new picking machine has been invented by R. Kitson, of Lowell,
which possesses some features of novelty. The object of the machine
is to get rid of the impurities contained in the cotton or rags to be
picked, by blowing them out at the time of picking, instead of sub-
jecting them to a second operation for this purpose; and also consists
in a new mode of attaching the picking teeth to the cylinder. The
machine contains two cylinders, having within them fan blowers cre-
ating a strong blast, which pass through openings in the periphery of

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 73

the cylinders, and forces the dirt and dust through other openings in
the concaves. The shanks of the teeth are shouldered even with the
face of the cylinder, and after they are driven home, a metallic plate
having notches of the same size as the teeth above their shoulders, is
screwed firmly upon them, thus rendering it wholly impossible for
them to escape until all the screws in the plate give way.

An improvement in the cotton-gin, devised by L. Campbell, of
Columbus, Miss., consist in the employment of a concave, constructed
with a series of passages, in which the ginning saws work ; the sides
of said passages being covered with bristles or other elastic subtances,
for the purpose of more effectually freeing the cotton from impurities
as it is drawn through the passages by the saws. This concave is
also provided with a series of brushes which, in combination with the
brush fan of ordinary gins, spread the cotton evenly upon its dis-

charge.

WEAVING OF BROCATELLES.

The weaving of this elegant sort of tapestry goods by power-
looms has been introduced at Humphreysville, Conn. The Journal
and Courier (New Haven) thus speaks of the enterprize :

" The adaptation of heavy machinery to the production of silk
goods, is a stride in manufactures which only those can appreciate
who are familiar with the business. During three years of patient toil,
in the face of difficulties which seemed insurmountable, and sur-
rounded by discouragements which would have broken the spirit of
ordinary men, the projectors of this enterprize have moved steadily
forward with an unfailing confidence in their ultimate success ; and
we are rejoiced to learn their labors are being crowned with a rich
reward, exceeding their most sanguine expectations. The fabric they
manufacture has been brought to great perfection, and a large demand,
greater than their present facilities can supply, is pressing upon them
from the larger marts of trade. Bigelow's celebrated power-loom, the
use of which is confined to this company, has been adapted to this
work by the ingenuity of Mr. J. P. Humaston, to whom alone the
credit is due for the introduction of this new branch of manufacture ;
and so nicely is the machinery balanced, that the breaking of a single
thread, though scarcely larger than a twisted spider's web, throws the
whole machinery out of gear, and all the wheels, shuttles and pullies
are brought to a dead stand, that the thread may be mended. Indeed, so
ingenious is the adaptation, it seems almost to possess human intelli-
gence. This company are using only original designs, and so compli-
cated are some of these, it requires eight thousand cards, each per-
forated with from twenty to seventy holes, every one of which is
worked through the harness of the loom to represent a few inches of
the fabric correctly. Mr. Humaston has invented a card cutter, with
which a child can perform as much labor in a week, as two men can
in a month without it ; and this enables them to be prodigal in new
designs. For a hundred years these goods have been made in Europe,

74 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERT.

but only on the old-fashion hand loom, and one yard per day is con-
sidered a fair day's work there, even at the present time. On these
power-looms a girl can weave six yards per day, of better fabric than
any German goods imported, and almost equal to the best French
Brocatelles."

"MUNGO, SHODDY, OR DEVIL'S DUST."

The New York Tribune in an article on the woolen fabrics at the
Great Exhibition of New York, gives the following graphic explana-
tion of the above terms (frequently used in English political debates)
and of the peculiar manufactures to which they apply. The writer
says : We do not introduce this explanation because we wish to en-
courage the use of these articles in America, as we are aware that they
are getting into use without such encouragement. We believe, how-
ever, that if carefully selected and used in moderation, that shorter
nap, of which we have spoken as desirable in American goods, will
most probably be secured. We are aware, too, in speaking of these
articles, we may be considered as exposing the secrets of the trade ;
but as we write for public enlightenment, and the advancement of
our domestic manufactures, we are sure that we are justified in saying
what we know of English manufactures in this respect.

In the somewhat hilly district of Yorkshire, between Huddersfield
and Leeds, stand on two prominences the pretty little towns of Dews-
bury and Batley Car. The stranger on alighting from the railway-
car, is struck with the unusually large warehouses, built of stone, by
the Railway company. For such small stations these are mysterious
erections. But if he enter the principal warehouses, he will probably
find piled up hundreds of bales, containing the cast-off garments of
Great Britian and the Continent of Europe. Here, in fact, from all
parts of the world, are brought the tattered remains of the clothes,
some of which have been worn by royalty in the various Courts of
Europe, as well as by peers and peasants. The rich broadcloth of
the English noble here commingles with the li/ery of their servants
and the worsted blouses of French repullicins; while American
undershirts, pantaloons, and all other worsted or woolen goods may
there be found, all reduced to one common level, and known by one
common appellation of " rags."

The walls of the town are placarded with papers announcing pub-
lic auctions of " Scotch Shoddies," " Mungoes," " Rags," and such
like articles of merchandise, and every few days the goods depart-
ment of the railway is besieged by sturdy looking Yorkshiremen,
who are examining, with great attention, the various bales ; some of
which are assorted into " whites," " blue stockings," " black stock-
ings," " carpets," " shawls," " stuffs," " skirtings," " linseys," " black
cloth," &c. A jovial looking man of doubtful temperance principles,
at last steps forward and puts the goods up to auction. The prices
which these worn-out articles fetch is surprising to the uninitiated.
Old stockings will realize from 7 to 10 a ton ; while white flannels,

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 75

sometimes sell for as much as 20 a ton and even more. The
" hards," or black cloth, when clipped free from all seams and threads,
are worth from 20 to 30 a ton. There are common mixed sorts of
coarse fabric, which can be bought as low as from 3 to 5 a ton ;
whilst the " rubbish," consisting of seams, linseys and indescribables,
are purchased by the chemists for the manufacture of Potash Crys-
tals for from 2 to 3 a ton.

It will be seen that assorting these old woolens is equally important
with the assorting of the different qualities of new wool ; and there
is the additional consideration of colors to render assorting still more
necessary. It is surprising, however, with what rapidity all this is
accomplished. There are some houses where old woolen rags are
divided into upward of twenty different sorts, ready for the manufac-
turer. The principal varieties are flannels, of which there are " Eng-
lish Whites," " Welsh Whites," " Irish Whites," and " Drabs." Each
of these command a different price in the market ; the English and
Welsh being much whiter than the Irish and of finer texture, are
worth nearly double the price of the Irish. The stockings are the
next in value to the flannels, on account of the strength and elasticity
of the wool. The peculiar stitch or bend of the worsted in stocking
manufacture, and the hot water and washing to which they are sub-
mitted during their stocking existence, have the effect of producing a
permanent elasticity which no after process destroys, and which no
new wool can be found to possess. Hence old stockings are always in
great demand, and realize for good clean colored sorts as much as 16
a ton, in busy seasons. The white worsted stockings are the most
valuable of the " softs," and when supplied in sufficient quantity will
sell for as much as 28 a ton. Carpets and other colored sorts are
generally, owing to their rapid accumulation, to be had at very low
prices. The rag collectors and merchants of America would be sure
to find a good market for flannels and stockings in England, but the
common articles would scarcely pay for the transit.

The " hards," consisting of old superfine cloth, will generally realize
good prices in England, and should be stripped of their seams and
sifted free from dirt, before exporting. We have seen from 20 to 30
Irish women in a room cutting the seams from old cloth. This is in
fact an important branch of the business, and in Liverpool, Manches-
ter, and nearly all large towns, it finds employment for many hundreds
of hands. They are generally paid by the weight of rags they cut.

" Shoddy," so well understood in Yorkshire, is the general term for
the wool produced by the grinding, or more technically, the " pulling "
up of all the soft woolens ; and all woolens are soft except the super-
fine cloths. The usual method of converting the woolens into shoddy,
is to first carefully assort them so as to see that not a particle of cotton
remains on them, and then to pass them through a rag machine. This
consists of a cylinder three feet in diameter, and twenty inches wide,
with steel teeth half an inch apart from each other, and standing out
from the cylinder, when new, one inch. This cylinder revolves 500
times a minute, and the rags are drawn gradually close to its surface

8

76 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

by two fluted iron rollers, the upper one of which is packed with thin stuff
or skirting, so as to press the rags the closer to the action of the teeth.
The cylinder runs upwards past these rollers, and any pieces of rao-
which are not completely torn into wool, are, by their natural gravity,
thrown back again upon the rags which are slowly creeping into the
machine. The rollers are fed by means of a creeper or slowly movino-
endless cloth on which a man, and in some instances a woman, lays the
rags in proper quantities. One of these machines is commonly driven
by a seven-inch strap, and requires at least five horse power. Half a
ton of rags can be pulled in 10 hours by one of these machines. The
dust produced, subjects the work people, who first commence this oc-
cupation, to what is there called the " rag fever." But after a time
the immediate effects are warded off, and although it no doubt shortens
life, the remuneration being considerable, (two English shillings for
every 240 Ibsof rags pulled,) there is never any difficulty in obtain-
ing work-people.

The " Mungo " is the wool produced by subjecting the hards, or
superfine cloths to a similar operation as that above described. The
machine, however, for the mungo trade is made with a greater num-
ber of teeth, several thousand more in the same-sized cylinder, and the
cylinder runs about 700 revolutions in a minute. The rags, previous
to being pulled in this machine, are passed through a machine called
a " shaker." This is made of a coarsely-toothed cylinder, about two feet
and a half in diameter, which revolves about 300 times in a minute, in
a coarse wire cylinder. This takes away a large portion of the dust,
which is driven out at a chimney by means of a fan. The mungo pull-
ing is, therefore, a cleaner business than the shoddy making, and, as a
general rule, is more profitable. The power required for a muno-o
machine is that of about seven horses.

Both the better kinds of shoddy and the mungo have for some years
been saturated with oil ; but when we were last in Yorkshire, we found
that milk had been applied to this purpose, and found to answer ex-
ceedingly well. The consequence was, that milk had risen 100 per
cent, in price, and even in that district, where cows are kept in large
numbers, it was feared there would be a great scarcity of milk for the
supply of the town.

When well saturated with oil or milk, the shoddy or the mungo is
sold to the woolen manufacturer. There are scores of men who attend
the Huddersfield market every Tuesday to dispose of their mungo. It
is as much an article of marketable value there, as cloth is here. It is
not unusual for good mungo to realize as much as eight English pence
per pound, while the shoddy varies in price from one penny to six-
pence per pound according to quality.

The common kinds of shoddy require, of course, to be subjected
to the scouring process, for which large wooden beaters, or " stocks,"
are employed. The dung of hogs is largely employed in this purifyino-
process, as well as human urine, which is extensively used in the
blanket manufacture of Yorkshire.

The white shoddy is capable of being used either for light-colored

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 77

goods, or for the common kinds of blankets, while the dark colored
shoddy is worked into all kinds of coarse cloths, carpets, &c., which
are dyed any dark color, so as to hide the various colors of the old
fabrics. It is mixed in with new wool in such proportion as its quality
will permit without deteriorating the sale of the material.

The mungo is used in nearly all the Yorkshire superfine cloths, and
in some very extensively. It produces a cloth somewhat inferior, of
course, to the West of England goods in durability, but for finish and
appearance, when first made up, the inferiority would only be per-
ceived by a good judge of cloth.

The great English slop-sellers, Moses and Hyam, are among the
largest purchasers of Yorkshire broadcloths.

The effect of shoddy in the cloth of an overcoat in the wear, is to
rub out of the cloth and accumulate between it and the lining. We
have seen a gentleman take a handful of this short wool from the
corners of his coat.

The grounds on which this shoddy and mungo business can be jus-
tified, are the cheapening of cloth, and the turning to a useful pur-
pose what would be otherwise almost useless. The business in York-
shire is dignified by the title of the " Dewsbury trade." And to it
Dewsbury certainly owes its wealth, and we might also say its exist-
ence. In twenty years it has grown from a village to a town of some
30,000 inhabitants, and some immense fortunes have been made by
this extraordinary transformation of old garments into new.

Considerable quantities of white shoddy have been sent from Eng-
land and Scotland to this country, and a machinist informed us that
he had sent several of his rag machines, so that the trade is not entire-
ly unknown here, and it is probable, there will one day arise a Dews-
bury in the New-England States, which will render it unnecessary to
send old woolens to England, to be pulled into wool, and then return-
ed here again at a cost of some 300 per cent, above the price given for
the woolen rags.

The Dewsbury trade is somewhat fluctuating, being affected very
much by the state of the wool market. So great is the competition in
the English markets, that as soon as a rise takes place in the price of
new wool, the small manufacturers, instead of raising their prices, com-
monly regulate their expenditure by using a larger proportion of the
old material, and they are thus enabled to compete, in prices at least,
with the larger manufacturers, who can lay in a large stock of new
wool when the prices are low.

MACHINE FOR CLEANSING VAULTS AND CESSPOOLS.

The Pneumatic Draining Company, of New York, have in their
employ an ingenious arrangement for the cleaning of vaults, &c., with-
out creating the effluvia nuisance usually accompanying such opera-
tions.

The apparatus consists of a strong iron cylinder, with all the appur-
tenances of valves and stop-cocks mounted on four wagon wheels.

78 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERT.

From this cylinder the air is exhausted by a steam engine. It is then
taken to the premises, where the sink is to be emptied, and a large
air-tight hose, with one end screwed to the machine in the street, is
carried through the house, if there is no alley-way, and the other end
inserted in the sink. When all is ready the valve is opened, and as
" nature abhors a vacuum " she makes haste to fill it. The hose is
then unscrewed, and a cap put on ; the full cylinder is driven off, and
an empty one takes its place, which in five minutes is full and ready
to give place to another, and so on till the sink is exhausted of all its
liquid contents, and with it nearly all the effluvia, the force of the
suction being so strong that if the vault is pretty tight it will be com-
pletely exhausted of its fetid air, so that if necessary to remove the
contents which are too solid to be taken up through the hose, the work
can be done in a few minutes.

The Pneumatic Company have daily, or rather nightly, in operation
six of the above described machines, which average about nine loads
a day, of 45 cubic feet each, making 54 loads, or 2,430 cubic feet of
the semi-liquid contents of privy vaults ; every gallon of which ought
to go to the country and be sprinkled upon the cultivated fields ;
instead of which it is all discharged off the end of piers into the Hud-
son River.

To show the amount of fertilizing materials collected, and for the
most part wasted, within the city of New York, we quote from a
report of the City Inspector. In a communication to the Board of
Aldermen, he stated, "that within two months, of the spring of 1853,
six thousand nine hundred and fifty loads of night soil were removed
from the various parts of the city and emptied overboard from the
four piers used as dumping places ; and I am informed that besides
seventy-six thousand eight hundred and forty-five loads of dirt, fifty-
five thousand four hundred and ninety-three loads of manure have
been collected by the Street Department, during the same period.

TOBACCO PRESSING MACHINE.

An ingenious machine for the compressing of Tobacco into plugs,
was exhibited at the New York Crystal Palace, by Mr. A. A. Parker
of St. Louis. The tobacco is received into a hopper, then carried
forward, and fed into moulds or cells in a rotary disc box, in which it
is pressed into plugs by toggle jointed levers, and from which it is
discharged in plugs, into a receiving long pressure box, where all the
elasticity of the compressed tobacco is destroyed, and the plugs ren-
dered incapable of swelling again, and from which they are discharged,
firm and permanent in packing shape and size. Means are also
employed in this press to keep the moulds or cells, and all the contact
parts of the machine, clean and free from the gum and liquorice of
the tobacco. The compressing box into which the plugs are dis-
charged from the moulds or cells, embraces a principle essential to the
success of a tobacco-pressing machine. If the tobacco was freely dis-
charged when quickly pressed into plugs, it soon would lose its form

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 79

and compactness. This receiving compressing box has its bottom, top,
and sides, composed of endless belts, and it is of such a size as to hold
the plugs under pressure while confined for about a half an hour,
during which time the plugs lose their elasticity, and always retain
their form after they are discharged. This machine presses about 20
plugs per minute, and the receiving compressing box contains a great
many plugs, as it is somewhat long. When full, as one pressed plug
is thrust in by the lever, another is discharged, ready to be packed up,
and so on continually.

INDIA RUBBER WASHING MACHINE.

The nature of this invention by E. L. Evans, of Hartford, Conn.,
consists in constructing two rubbers, which are secured on arms
suspended from two standards ; one of the rubbers is secured to the
lower end of one arm, while the other is suspended to a similar arm
secured to the main one, by a hinge, which allows the rubbers to be
drawn together or forced apart by the operator, at pleasure. The
rubbers spoken of, act so as to rub the cloth to be washed between
them and fluted wash-boards placed under them, one of which is
stationary and the other movable sliding being moved by a treadle
operated by the foot, to draw the cloth through regularly, to present
new surfaces to be rubbed. The movable rubbers are of prepared
India rubber, and are made to be of a nature like the human hand
something like a cushion, whereby the cloths are well rubbed, with
as little injury as possible to their texture. Scientific American.

MANUFACTURE OF UMBRELLAS AND PARASOLS, IN NEW YORK.

The manufacture of umbrellas and parasols in the city of New
York is chiefly confined to seven different firms, who by the aid of
machinery manufacture annually about $1,500,000 worth. One of the
largest firms employs 325 persons, including 250 girls. During a con-
siderable part of the year, from 1,200 to 1,500 umbrellas and parasols
are turned out daily, and $75,000 worth of silks and ginghams are
sometimes consumed in the course of three months. There are in au
umbrella 112 different parts, and before being perfected the umbrella
passes through nearly as many hands. The average wages received
by the sewers of umbrellas is $4 per week.

RICHARDSON'S ATMOSPHERIC TELEGRAPH.

This arrangement brought forward during the past season and
exhibited in model by Mr. J. S. Richardson, of Boston, is constructed
as follows : The apparatus consists of a tube connecting the places
between which communication is to be maintained, in which a sort of
piston called " the plunger " is fitted with a loose leather packing.
The matter to be sent is enclosed in a bag attached behind this plun-
ger. Its propulsion is secured by the pressure of the atmosphere of
ordinary density behind it, that in front being rarified by means of an
air pump, producing a partial vacuum. As the air is exhausted from

8*

80 . ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

before the plunger, it is evident that the plunger is driven with atmos-
phere pressure at the rate that air rushes into a vacuum, barring the
loss of velocity by friction. In all the atmospheric telegraphs heretofore
proposed, the motion of a long column of air behind the ball or carriage
has presented an insuperable obstacle to its operation on a long line. To
obviate the evil of Avorkino; on a long column of air behind the piston,
new air is admitted at different stations along the line behind the
plunger, and the long column is cut off so that the action is like a suc-
cession of short effectual efforts. This is done in an ingenious manner,
by valves hanging in the main tube connected with the atmosphere,
which are acted upon by the plunger as it rushes through the tube,
when the air is cut off a short distance behind the plunger, and a new
column commences to act, to force the carriage through. This propel-
ing power is so great as to produce an apparently instantaneous motion
of the plunger with its load from one end to the other of the model
tube on exhibition, Avhich is about 30 feet long and 1 ^ inch in diameter ;
indeed the plunger issues forth with so much force, when not confined,
as to knock down violently a heavy billet of wood placed opposite the
end of the tube, if it is left open. The speed is estimated at about
1000 miles in an hour. The apparatus is so arranged that there can
be intermediate stations upon the line, at which the progress of the
plunger can be arrested, or, if preferred, it can pass directly through
to the terminus. The inconvenience of the sudden shock occasioned
by the arrival of the plunger at the end of its journey is avoided by
an arrangement by which a portion of the air in front of it is com-
pressed and allowed to escape, but gradually, forming a sort of cushion
to ease the jolt.

For the purpose of carrying the above described invention into
effect, it is proposed to build a line of atmospheric telegraph 2 feet in
diameter, from Boston to New York, for the conveyance of letters
and packages to and from the said cities and intermediate places,
allowing fifteen minutes for each transit; sending from Boston to New
York at every hour, and from New York to Boston at half-past every
hour, twelve hours each day. The cost of laying it down is estimated
at $2,000 per mile. There will be supply valves as often as once in
25 miles, and intermediate stations at suitable points ; for instance, at
Worcester, Springfield, &c. There will be air pumps at all the sta-
tions.

SMOKE CONSUMING FURNACE.

The London Mining Journal describes and praises very highly a
smokeless furnace, invented and patented by Mr. John Lee Stevens.
The invention consists in the combination of two sets of fixed fire-
bars, the first of which is chiefly fed by the scoria and cinders voided
from the second or upper set of fire-bars, with a caloric plate, the
face of which may be protected by a few fire-bricks ; by which arrange-
ment the current of air entering at the lower part of the furnace
passes through two strata of fire, and thence between the caloric

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 81

plate and the bridge, and is thus so intensely heated as continuously
to produce the entire combustion of the gaseous products of the fuel,
and to prevent the ordinary formation of smoke.

Smokeless Chimneys. Major Browne, of London, has recently pa-
tented an apparatus for preventing the egress of smoke from the tops
of chimneys. The invention is applicable to old chimney shafts, or
in the construction of new ones the height might be very considerably
reduced. The top of the chimney is closed in, and at about half-way
up in those of present construction an opening is made in the side as
large as the structure will allow. Outside of this an iron box is firm-
ly secured, in which is a foliated revolving cylinder, its axis placed
horizontally, having a grooved pulley geared to the motive power by
which it is set in motion. The leaves of this cylinder are curved
downwards in the direction of its rotation, to facilitate collecting and
carrying downwards the solid particles of carbon, and the denser va-
pors into a tank beneath, containing water, and in which it partially
revolves. This tank has two openings, one to insert fresh water, the
other to withdraw the collected matters. When the smoke reaches
the opening it comes within the immediate action of the draught
caused by the rapid revolution of the vanes, and is quickly condensed
in the cold water trough.

A new law for the abolition of the smoke nuisance in London went
into operation in August, 1853.

There are eight sections in the law, and it enacts that from and after
the 1st of August, furnaces in the metropolis shall consume their own
smoke, under penalties described. The act extends to any mill, factory,
printing-house, dye-house, iron foundry, glass-house, distillery, brew-
house, sugar refinery, bakehouse, gasworks, waterworks, or other
buildings used for the purpose of trade or manufactures, within the
metropolis. From the same day steam-vessels on the Thames above
London bridge are to consume their own smoke, under penalties to be
recovered in a summary manner before a magistrate. The words,
" consume or burn the smoke." are not to be held in all cases to mean,
"to consume or burn all the smoke;" and the justice before whom
any persons shall be summoned may remit the penalties if they are of
opinion that such person has so constructed or altered his furnace as
to consume or burn, as far as possible, all the smoke arising from it,
and has carefully attended to the same, and consumed or burned the
smoke arising from the furnace. Constables may be empowered to
enter and inspect furnaces and steam engines.

IMPROVEMENTS IN CRUSHING AND PREPARING ORES.

Machine for Separating Ores. An important apparatus for separa-
ting ores and other substances of different specific gravities and of
different magnitudes into their constituent parts, has been invented
by Victor Simon, of Nerviers, Belgium ; the inventor, Mr. S., accom-
plishes the desired object, by passing a current of air through a long
trunk or tube placed horizontally, or nearly so, with a series of re-

82 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

cesses arranged in the bottom of the tube for the reception of the
ores, or other substances ; these substances, after being pulverized,
are fed to one end of the tube from a hopper placed above it, and are
subjected to the uniform current of air above the recesses ; the heav-
iest particles fall immediately to the bottom of the tube to the receiver
prepared for its reception, and those lighter to the adjoining recesses,
and so on, in proportion to their specific gravities, the lightest being
found in the receiver farthest from the feed opening. The particles
of matter received in any one receiver of the series will have a spe-
cific gravity so much greater, compared with that of the other particles,
as their volume is less, and vice versa. When thus classified, the per-
fect separation of the different substances may be easily affected, and,
at the same time, the removal of any impurities which may exist in
the pulverized material. This easy and simple classification and sep-
aration of particles of matter is a most desirable result, and will very
much facilitate the analysis of ores and other substances submitted to
its action. The improvement has been already tested in Belgium, and
is believed to be one of utility. Scientific American.

New Method of Crushing Ores. A new method of crushing ore,
invented by Capt. Sharpnell, of London, is thus described in the
London Mechanics Magazine :

" The invention consists of a chamber about ten feet long, eight
feet high, and six feet wide, the back of which is made of inch and a
half wrought iron, and the sides of sheet iron. The sides are riveted
and strengthened with ribs. The whole rests upon a bed of timber
strongly framed. A short railroad track is placed in front of the box
for the cannon to run upon. The gun is charged with powder, and a
wad rammed down upon it, and all above the wad is charged with
broken pieces of ore, and the whole covered with another wad. It is
now moved forward upon the rails, against the front of the chamber,
in which there is a circular hole, rather larger than the muzzle of the
gun. The muzzle is just introduced within the thickness of the plate,
the piece is primed and fired, when the charge is projected against the
strong thick plate forming the back of the box. To relieve the sides
of the box from the concussive force, the roof is formed in doors upon,
hinges, which suddenly fly up when the explosion takes place, and act
as safety valves, after which they immediately fall. The reduced ore
is acted upon by a gentle blast, which sends off the lighter particles,
and allows the heavier metallic to fall. A preforated false bottom
allows the reduced ore to fall into a drawer, which is withdrawn with
the dust, to submit the latter to the winnowing process."

Gardiner's Quartz Crusher and Amalgamator. This invention con-
sists, first, of a kettle or trough, which in the working machine is to
be of cast iron, 8 feet long, and of sufficient width to admit a ball 3|
feet in diameter. This trough is stationary, is set horizontally, and is
firmly imbedded in a framework of wood. The ball which travels in
this trough has a pole passing through its centre, serving as its axis or
journals, to which is attached a horizontal shaft working on the jour-
nals of the ball ; and that shaft is attached to a crank or to the piston

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 83

of the engine, which when set in motion gives the ball an oscillating
motion, causing it to travel back and forth the entire length of the
trough in which the quartz is placed, at the rate of about 600 feet per min-
ute. At one end of the trough are small apertures or slats, through
which the quartz, after being crushed to the size of large peas, is
forced by'the motion of the ball, falling into a stationary cast iron ket-
tle or mortar of about 3 feet diameter. Into this kettle is inserted a
tolerably close-fitting cast iron half-sphere, or perhaps more properly
a pestle. By the operation of the machinery two motions, gyrating
and rotary, are given to this pestle. As the crushed quartz passes
from the trough into the mortar, it is (such is the theory of the inven-
tor) pulverized to an impalpable powder, and passed out at the
bottom into an amalgamator immediately beneath. The amalgamator
consists of a cast or wrought iron cylinder of any given length and
size, placed horizontally, with steam-tight heads at both ends, and
resting on hollow journals cast on the heads, through which the pul-
verized quartz is received into and discharged from the amalgamating
cylinder.

Berden's Quartz Crusher and Amalgamator. In this machine, the
crusher is an iron ball or globe, weighing five thousand pounds, and
some thirty inches in diameter, which revolves in a mammoth cup,
not unlike a potash kettle, which is obliquely suspended from and
strongly secured to a heavy wooden framework, which should be firm-
ly imbedded in the earth or fastened to an unyielding platform resting
thereon. This cup or basin is made to revolve by an ordinary appli-
cation of steam-power by means of a belt, and thus the ball, continu-
ally seeking the lowest position, revolves without changing its place,
being attached by a pin to a stem in the centre of the cup. A stream
of water is conducted into the cup from above, and forms a pool of
some three or four pailfuls around and under the ball. The mer-
cury is of course under the ball, and the quartz is shoveled into the
pan or may be poured in from a hopper above. So far, gold-miners
will recognize it as an improved Chilian Mill, of extraordinary pow-
er. But beneath the pan or cup or rather in a cavity at the bottom
thereof, formed expressly to this end, a small fire is made, which (be-
ing fed /with air through half a dozen orifices at regular intervals sur-
rounding it,) is fanned into lively action by the revolution of the cup,
and heats the quicksilver moderately without heating essentially the water,
continually pouring in above it, dashing about and running off, sur-
charged with the pulverized quartz. The effect of this contrivance is
claimed to be the perfect amalgamation of the gold (or other precious
metal) with the thus enlivened and expanded quicksilver without sub-
liming that metal and causing it to pass off as vapor. By this means
it is claimed that the very last particle of gold is extracted from the
quartz and held by the mercury, ensuring a product per ton of quartz
three or four times as great as has hitherto been secured ; so that the
owners of this machine may make money faster by washing the " tail-
ings " or already pulverized and exhausted quartz at any gold-digging
already worked, than can be obtained by other machines from rich
quartz not previously exhausted.

84 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERT.

COOKING BY GAS.

Some interesting experiments have recently been made in London,
tinder the supervision of M. Soyer, to determine the question on the
merits and economy of roasting by gas. The results of the first trial,
which took place on the eighth inst., was, that 36 legs of mutton, weigh-
ing 288 Ibs., were roasted at a cost of Is. 2d. In order to arrive at
more positive results in regard to its economy, a second trial was
deemed requisite, which took place on the llth inst., when equal
weights of mutton were cooked 23 joints, weighing 184 Ibs., were
roasted by gas at a cost of 10d, with gas supplied at four shillings per
thousand feet ; when cooked, the above weight of meat was found to
weigh 146 Ibs.; dripping, 19 Ibs.; of gravy or ozmazome, 2f Ibs.,
thus showing the actual loss to be 8| Ibs. Twenty-three joints of mut-
ton, weighing 184 Ibs., were cooked in the usual way, namely, in one
of Count llumford's ovens, hitherto considered the most economical
way of roasting. When taken out they were found to weigh 132 Ibs. ;
dripping, 18 Ibs. ; gravy none; thus showing a loss of 34 Ibs. The
coke consumed by the oven weighing 102 Ibs., coals 30 Ibs., thus prov-
ing the great economy of gas over the oven by a saving of 13 Ibs. of
meat, 1 Ib. of dripping, and 2| Ibs. of gravy, the value of which saving
is as follows : Meat, at 6d. per Ib., 6s. 6d. ; dripping, at 5d. per Ib.,
5d. ; and gravy, at Is. 6d. per Ib., 4s. l|d., making a total of 11s. 0^-d.

DUPLEX SAFETY REIX.

A striking and valuable improvement in bridle reins, was exhibited
at the New York Crystal Palace, by W. A. Holwell, of Canada, de-
signed either for riding or driving. He calls it the " Duplex Safety
Rein." Ordinarily, there are two reins to every bridle, one of which
connects with a curb, and the other with a snaffle. This improvement
proposes to dispense with one of these altogether. A single leather
rein is attached to the curb-bit. A short elastic connecting piece, or
false rein, is attached at one end to the main rein, and at the other to
the ring of the snaffle-bit. With this arrangement, so long as the horse
moves gently, the driver or rider bears on the connecting piece only,
and through it upon the snaffle-bit. If the horse is restive or hard-
mouthed, his resistance stretches the connecting piece until the pres-
sure is thrown upon the main rein, and through it upon the curb or
stiff bit, thus bringing its lever power into play. The moment the
animal becomes tractable again, the elastic piece contracts and trans-
fers the natural pressure of the horse's mouth to the snaffle bit, the
lever bit becoming instantly relaxed. The material used by Mr. Hol-
well, for his model, is a gum-elastic tube with a metallic hook at one
end, to attach it to the snaffle or cheek-ring, and a little button at the
other, for whose reception holes are punched along the main rein.
The advantages proposed by this promising though simple invention,
are a more natural, self relying movement on the part of the horse,

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 85

and greater sense of security to the rider or driver. For women, or
inexperienced and feeble persons, it promises an exemption from the
common risk of getting hold of the wrong rein, amid fright and confu-
sion.

IMPROVED SPRING MATTRESS.

Maurity & Demeure, of New York, have introduced the following
improvement in the construction of spring mattresses. The springs
are made of copper wire, set upon iron slats which are fixed at the
bottom of an iron frame. At the top, the springs, instead of being
connected together by wooden slats, rudely fastened, as is the case in
the ordinary spring mattress, are united by smaller spirals, also of cop-
per wire, which cross the mattress from side to side, and from end to
end, connecting the several ranges of springs in each direction, and
giving the most equal elasticity and yieldingness possible to every part.
So firmly are the springs fastened, that it is not necessary to envelope
the mattress in a tick ; it has no cover, and offers no retreat for ver-
min. A thin mattress of hair or moss upon it is all that is necessary.

SELF LOADING CART.

A self-loading cart has been invented by Messrs. Parks & Rue, of
Illinois. The cart is so constructed that two plows with mould-boards,
turning in opposite directions, passing inside the wheel, and near its
track, raise the earth and throw it into a series of buckets formed in
the inside of each wheel near its periphery. The wheels, by their
revolution take the earth, thus thrown within them, upwards, by their
revolution, to the top of the box, into which it falls, over an inclination
of the bucket, and an inclined slide plate upon the top of the box.
Scientific American.

IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING.

Several improvements in types and printing have been invented in
London, England, by Mr. Beniouski, the most important of which is
thus described. It consists in forming the letter of the type upon its
feet and sides, by which the composition can be read as soon as set up,
without the necessity of taking a proof. The letter formed upon the
foot of the type is so placed that when the type is inverted in the com-
posing-stick, with the embossed or printing letter removed from the
eye of the compositor, it presents itself to his eye in the same relative
position with regard to the other letters in the same line with itself as
it occupies on the printed page. By this ingenious arrangement there
is no occasion to turn the type to see the letters which have been
picked up, and no occasion to be skilled in reading the surface of type.
The back of the type presents letters to the eye in the proper succes-
sion for reading off, and if a mistake has been made, the foot-letter in-
stantly discloses the fact. To make this arrangement perfectly effective,

ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERT.

the foot-letter is always an intaglio, or sunken letter ; and as the face
in which it is sunk is hardened in the manufacture, and receives a
stout coating of silver by electrical deposition, the metallic surface
formed by the feet of the type presents the appearance of a neat but
boldly-executed engraving of a page identical as regards matter with
what a proof would present. By means of the letter on the side, which
is also an intaglio, the type can be immediately distributed from pi, and
with the greatest ease. When the distribution from pi is going for-
ward, the spaces, which are of steel, being thin and light, will readily
be attracted by the poles of a magnet, passed over the type, by the
distributor, while the type-metal not being magnetic, will not embarrass
the work by requiring separation.

The cases for the type are arranged in a crescent form, and the com-
positor stands in the centre a pair of nippers being employed in com-
position for seizing the type. Another alleged improvement is in the
use of " logotypes," or little blocks of type, representing words, pre-
fixes and terminals. The use of logotypes is not, however, a novel
one. Towards the end of the last century, one of the London news-
papers was printed with these types ; and efforts have since been
made, with little or no success, we fancy, to introduce mixed founts
into use in printing-offices. The frequent repetition of certain words
articles, conjunctions, and prepositions, more especially would
lead to the supposition, as a matter of theory, that a mixed fount would
be useful ; yet the additional size of the frames and the complication
of elements appear to constitute a difficulty greater than the corres-
ponding advantage.

Mr. Beniouski's improvements also relate to the use of india-rubber
inking-rollers, in place of those ordinarily constructed of glue, &c.

Wilkinson's Cylindrical Rotary Printing Press. The New York
Tribune furnishes the following description of this new printing press,
invented by Mr. J. Wilkinson, of New York. The press is of the most
simple construction, and very compact. It is not more than 8 feet in
length, by 4 breadth, and perhaps 5 in height. A secure frame- work sup-
ports two pairs of cylinders, each about 18 inches in diameter. Upon
one of these cylinders are the types that print one side, of the paper,
and upon the other those that print the reverse, the printing-cylinder,
which gives the impression, being below in the one pair and above in
the other. A roll of printing paper is suspended on an iron rod or
axle, on one end of the frame-work of the press, on a level with the
cylinders, and but a foot or two removed from the nearest one. And
this, with the inking rollers and the cutting apparatus, constitutes all
of the machinery. The process of printing is commenced by taking
the end of the paper from the roll and drawing it through the press on
a nearly horizontal line, passing it under one of the type cylinders and
over the other. The power is then applied, and the cylinders revolve,
causing a corresponding revolution of the roll of paper which is thus
passed between the cylinders, receiving its impression on either side
as it goes. As it passes out at the opposite end of the machine, it is
cut off at regular intervals, and the separate sheets fall regularly into a

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. &7

pile. The cutting apparatus is of admirable simplicity and beauty, and
cuts wet paper as infallibly as dry.

It will be seen from this description how remarkably simple is the
machine. There is no backward or "reciprocating motion," as it is
termed by the mechanics ; nothing but a simple forward revolution of
the type and printing cylinders. The speed at which these cylinders
may be made to revolve would seem to be only limited by the rate at
which the printing paper may be unwound from the roll ; and this is
obviously very great. At the experimental trial observed by us, the
papers were thrown off at the rate of seventy -five per minute. This
number we judged could be easily doubled, and it was the conviction
of the inventor that it could be quadrupled without difficulty. If so,
the machine would print at the rate of eighteen thousand newspapers
per hour.

But whatever may be found to be the exact capacity of this press in
its printing power, its cheapness and simplicity of construction, and its
ability to perform an uncommon amount of work with the attention of
a single man, are very remarkable. If it shall turn out that there are
no hindrances or inconveniences arising from the new mode of setting
type upon small cylinders, and in the mode of unrolling the paper
adopted by Mr. Wilkinson, we do not see but this press must mark an
era in the art of printing. When the paper can be taken from a roll
revolving with the utmost rapidity, and printed upon both sides at a rate
limited only by the revolutions of the roll, it would seem that the art of
printing could go no farther as respects rapidity of action.

Montague's Improved Press. A new press has also been invented
by Mr. Montague, of Pittsfield, Mass., which is highly recommended on
account of its cheapness of construction and effective working. It is a
cylinder press with an oscillating motion to the bed, and prints two
sheets to each revolution of the cylinder, the motion of which is sus-
pended while the bed passes back. It will run off from 600 to 800
sheets per hour, and is sold from $500 to $700, depending on size.

Improved Lithographic Press. An improved press for lithographic
printing has been invented by H. C. Spaulding, of Hartford, Connec-
ticut. The object accomplished by the improvement consists in giving
a uniform and forcible impression to all parts of the stone with the ex-
penditure of but a very small amount of power. The arrangement of
Mr. Spaulding for effecting this object is this : a wood or metallic air-
tight chamber or tub, containing water or other fluid, with its bottom
or one side composed of india rubber, or some other water-proof
elastic or pliable material, is used to give the impression ; said cham-
ber being furnished with a tube and plunger, and the pliable bottom
or side of the chamber serving as a tympan. By applying pressure to
the plunger, an equal amount of pressure is transmitted by the water
or fluid to every part of the tympan, and by using a small plunger an
immense pressure may be obtained with a small expenditure of power.

Lewis' Improved Press. This is a hand press invented by Dr. John
Lewis, of Buffalo, N. Y. One of suitable size to print a half sheet of
letter paper weighs 115 pounds, is 9 inches wide, 14 long and 12 high.
9

ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

A lever about two feet long projects from beneath the bed, where the
machinery which gives the pressure is fixed. It is very simple and
ingeniously arranged. The platten is hinged to the edge of the bed
opposite the lever, and in lifting, spiral springs at the hinges act in
counterbalancing the weight. The frisket is hinged to the platten.
When the platten is down upon the form there is an iron bail working
upon the top of the platten upon a center-pin. Underneath the bed
there is a reverse of this bail, supported upon a spiral spring. Now
the first movement of the handle trips a trigger at the further end of
the lever, which throws the upper bail around and locks the two to-
gether ; then, as the pressure of the handle is continued, the effect is
to carry down the lower bail, and of course the upper one being locked
into it must come down equally, and that resting upon the platten,
which is suspended by the springs over the form, it must come down
so as to give any amount of pressure, which is regulated by the cloth-
ing of the platten. For many purposes, both in printing offices and
in private establishments, this press will be useful. The press and a
fair assortment of job type in cases can be packed in a moderate size
traveling trunk.

New Composing Machine. This machine, invented by William
Mitchell, of New York City, for the purpose of setting type, is thus
described by the New York Tribune : It has keys like a piano, with
a number of endless tapes, kept in motion by machinery, to carry the
types to the spot where they are set up. The types are laid with the
nicked side up, in little brass cases or galleys, some 15 or 18 inches
long, and just wide enough to admit a type crosswise. Of these
cases there are as many as there are small letters and punctuation
marks, and they are fixed at an inclination of about 45 over the
types, so that when a key is touched a type drops flat upon its tape,
and is instantly conveyed to another larger tape, to which [all the
types are carried, and which conveys them all to a little metallic throat,
down which they drop upon a table all set up, but requiring to be
divided into lines, or justified, by hand. Capitals and italics have to
be laid on the tapes by hand, there being in the machine no keys or
galleys for them. Two persons are required to attend the machine
one to work the keys, and one to justify and remove the matter com-
posed. It is a very ingenious invention. All its parts are simple, and
we judge that it would not easily get out of order. It occupies rather
more space, perhaps, than a piano.

Delcambre's Type-Setting Machinery. A machine for setting and
distributing type, invented by M. Delcambre, of Paris, has been ex-
hibited at the New York Crystal Palace. The compositor sits down
before a finger-board, on which" is arranged all the letters of the alpha-
bet, small and capital, with the customary pauses, &c. These are
placed upon keys communicating by wires with the case at the top of
the machine. This is formed by placing thin strips of metal in a ver-
tical position, leaving sufficient space between them for a single type.
Between these the type are arranged in columns, with their faces in
one direction. From each of these columns of type passes a groove or

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 89

channel down an inclined plane at the rear of the machine, all these
uniting in one at the bottom, where, by a simple contrivance, the type,
as it passes down, is shoved into the composing stick.

NEW WHEELBARROW.

AT the last meeting of the British Association, Capt. F. Wilson pre-
sented the plan of a new wheelbarrow, in which the wheel is placed under
and is sunk into the bottom ; so that the weight rests on the wheel and
not on the hand, and there is less oscillation. By means of this bar-
row it was stated that twice the usual weight can be wheeled.

VACUUM SUGAR PANS.

J. WALKER, of Wolverhampton, England, has taken out a patent
for a new sugar pan. The improvement consists in introducing into
the body of the vacuum pan a series of vertical tubes, through which
steam is admitted to facilitate the operation of evaporation and crystal-
lization. The tubes are inclosed within a cylindrical casing ; between
the sides of the pan a vacant space is left. This arrangement causes
an upward current of the solution in the pan, at the center of the series
of tubes, whilst a gentle descending current is produced between the
cylinder and pan, by which compound motion the contents in the pan
are prevented from burning.

IMPROVEMENT IN FIRE ARMS.

Marston's Improved Gun and Cartridge. Mr. Marston's invention
consists in a breech-bolt or slide which, by draiving the lever forward,
is brought back from the breach end of the barrel a sufficient distance
to allow space in the breach in which to place a ball cartridge. When
the cartridge is placed in this chamber through an opening on the
right hand side of the gun, the lever is drawn back, and the ball
cartridge is forced by a pressure of some 40 or 50 Ibs. into its seat in
the barrel. The piece is now loaded, and by placing a cap on the
nipple it is ready to be discharged. The fire is communicated to the
rear end of the cartridge by a small hole running through the nipple
to the breech-bolt and thence to the cartridge, which is perforated in
the center, as will be presently described. The most ingenious part
of the construction is at the top of the lever, where there is a slat or
slide in the shape of a knee-joint, in which the pin of the breech-bolt
works. When the lever is brought forward in drawing back the
breech-bolt, the top of the lever slides along on the pin connecting it
with the bolt the whole length of the slat, and the lever then hangs at
right angles with the breech-bolt, and offers no resistance to the back-
ward motion of the breech-bolt. But as soon as the lever is drawn
back, and the cartridge driven into its seat, the lever and breech-bolt
being at an angle of 135 degrees, and formed at their connection so as
to fit at that angle, the resistance to the backward force prorhiced by

90 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

the fire is complete, the two pieces of metal fitting each other in a
similar way to that of the keystone of an arch fitting the stones on
each side. A small round bush enters the breech end of the barrel,
and surrounds the cartridge and breech-pin at their junction so as
effectually to prevent the leakage of smoke or fire when the piece is
discharged.

The cartridge deserves special attention. It is composed of the
usual materials with a conical ball cemented into it. The rear end,
however, has a leather button or disc attached to it, of somewhat
larger diameter than the bore of the barrel. This is why a lever is
employed to force it into the barrel. This leather button is perforated
in the center to receive the flash from the cap, as above described.
The first fire of the gun will leave this leather button (which is pre-
viously greased,) in the large end of the barrel, and the second fire
will force the button through the barrel, thoroughly cleaning it for the
discharge which immediately succeeds. The result of this is, that the
gun is kept constantly clean. However, as the leather button is left
in, every time, it would seem to be necessary to expel it, or draw it
out by some other means than by firing, when it is intended to lay by
the gun, otherwise the effect of the last shot would still remain in the
barrel. A ramrod is furnished with each gun for this purpose, or for
uncharging, or for loading the gun at the muzzle in the old way.

The lock is a slight improvement upon the ordinary locks : the
lever hangs upon a pin with an elongated hole, which allows it to rise
and fall so as to avoid the necessity of another piece of metal between
it and the piece which works the tumbler, simplifying that which has
always been the most complex portion of fire-arms.

Gibbs' Patent Revolver. This invention differs essentially from
Colt's Revolver, in having no center-pin to the cylinder, which
revolves on two raised bearers inside a fixed brass case, covering two-
thirds of the cylinder above, and a slide bearing the weight of the
cylinder below. This slide is easily withdrawn when it is desirable to
take out the cylinder. The slide is so constructed as to continue
under the barrel in the shape of a stock, leaving space sufficient
between the slide and the barrel to permit of the exit of all the balls
at once, should they all go off, without danger to the person, the cover-
ing above the cylinder protecting the eyes and face, and the slide
below protecting the hand from the effects of such an accident. The
inventor declares that he has fired five cartridges and balls at once,
without harm. The cylinder is revolved in the most simple manner
by a slide similar to a trigger, working in a slat in the under side of the
case or breech, formed by the brass slide already described. This
trigger is worked by touching it with the left hand, every motion of
which acts upon the cylinder within, by means of a catch, of which
there are seven round the cylinder.

Porter's Patent Rifle. One of the most recent and important
improvements in fire-arms, is the self-loading rifle, invented by Mr.
P. \V. Porter, of Tennessee, which in its construction and use is as
sure as it is commendable. The barrel and stock of this gun are not

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 91

very different from the ordinary rifle, the invention being confined to
the'lock alone. That which composes the lock of the present rifle is
fastened forward, with a hinge, to the barrel of the gun, and a spring
or latch fastens 4he other end of the lock to the stock. This latch
being turned, the lock swings forward like a gate, and to it are
attached all the principal appliances of the invention. The guard of
the hand over the trigger of the ordinary gun, swings with the lock
on Porter's rifle, and upon it depends the evolutions and works for
firing. The barrel is fastened to the stock upon the side opposite the
lock, by a long steel arm, (a continuation of the barrel,) between
which and the lock, when closed, is an open space, about three inches
in length, and a half or three quarters of an inch in width. At the
front of this space is the open butt of the rifle barrel, and at the other
end is the wooden termination of the stock. A cylinder, about three
inches in circumference, in which are the charges, fits tightly in this
aperture, and completes the invention. Around the edge of this
cylinder are nine holes running towards its centre, in which are placed
the powder and ball; at the lower end of each charge, into the side
of the revolving cylinder, are the touchholes, which successively fall
under the hammer of the lock and communicate with the cap. The
latch of the lock being opened, the lock is thrown forward, and this
nine charged cylinder is set edgwise into the aperture, at the foot of
the barrel, with its axis on one side reaching through its steel arm, and
the axis on the other side fitting into the lock, which is now closed.
The guard of the trigger being furnished with a handle is pressed
forward, and thrusts a spring into a niche in the side of the cylinder,
and as the guard is brought back to its place, it raises the hammer of
the gun, and revolves the cylinder, bringing one of its charges in
direct connection with the barrel. Under the hammer of the gun, on
the lock, is a spring cap box, which constantly throws a cap over the
touchhole of the cylinder, when the hammer is raised. The gun
being fired, the guard is again pressed forward, a simple metallic spring
pushes away the exploded cap, and when the guard is again brought
back, a new charge is under the cap, and before the barrel, ready to
fly upon its mortal errand. When the nine charges are fired, the lock
is unlatched, a new charged cylinder takes the place of the one used,
and the firing is renewed with great rapidity. If it is not desired to
add new cylinders, it is but the work of a moment to revolve the one
used, and load it while in the barrel. An iron ramrod, about twelve
inches long, is fastened in its centre upon the top of the barrel, with
one end reaching over the cylinder ; and as the charges revolve, one
end of it is raised, which gives a lever power at the other for pressing
down the load. This gun has many superior merits over any other
known. It is water-proof, all the touchholes being perfectly air tight
while revolving against the lock. The rifle barrel can be supplied by
that of any other species of fire arms either by a shot gun or pistol.
It will shoot forty times per minute, and with as much accuracy as any
other rifle. It is well guarded against accident, there being no cap
over the touchhole until the hammer is raised. This gun has attracted

9*

92 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

the attention of several legislative bodies, and the States of Tennessee,
Louisiana, and Florida, have adopted it for their State militia.

New Primer. A. N. Newton, of Richmond, Ind., has invented an
improved self-acting primer for fire-arms. The intention consists in
a light lever furnished with suitable fingers to hold a percussion cap,
and connected by suitable mechanism with the cock of the gun, the
movement of which will cause the fingers to take a cap from one of a
series of studs on a revolving cylinder or its equivalent which is fitted
to the side of the gun-lock for this purpose. To this lever a fork is
so attached that when the fingers before mentioned seize a cap, the
said crook or fork will partly encircle the nipple, and the movement
of the lever will cause it to withdraw the exploded cap from the
nipple. Scientific American.

A correspondent of the N. Y. Tribune furnishes the following in-
formation relative to the improvements in fire-arms recently effected
in Europe, especially in France. He says :

Since the completion of the models at the great Exhibition of Lon-
don, and the opening of the New York Exhibition, a great deal of
attention has been directed to the subject of small arms, in both the
United States and Europe. Our people have gained a certain
amount of notoriety in the manufacture of revolvers ; and for sharp-
shooting, they are very apt to believe there is no arm to be compared
to the American rifle, and no marksman equal to the rifleman of the
backwoods. In a certain sense this is perhaps true. But the Ameri-
cans are not the only people at this moment engaged in the study of
the perfection of small arms ; and it would be well to look at what
others are doing, in order to ascertain the position in which we stand.
If a man were to present himself before a Western log-cabin with
one of the " balle-a-tif/e " guns now in use by the Chasseurs de Vin-
cennes of the French army, and were to propose to shoot for a wager
at a distance of from 1,000 or 1,200 or even 1,400 yards, he would
be, perhaps, only laughed at for his proposition. And yet with the
gun now in the hands of over 15,000 men in the French army, and as
soon as possible to be in the hands of all, it is perfectly practicable for
an ordinary shot to be sure of hitting within the square exhibited by
the front of six to eight men at the distance of 1,200 and 1,300 yards,
while a little practice will enable him easily to hit a single man at the
same distance. The ball is as sure of hitting the target, if properly
directed, as if only sent the distance of two or three hundred yards ;
and the explanation of this fact lies in the construction and weight of
the ball, and not in the gun, as many suppose.

There is, moreover, great misapprehension in the United States as
to the arm used by the Vincennes Chasseurs, it being generally
termed the "Minie rifle," without any distinct knowledge of what the
Minie rifle is. The fact is, there is no Minie rifle ; but there are two
kinds of balls, of which one is known as the ba/le-a-tige, introduced
into the French service by the French Commission of the School of
Practice, and the Minie ball, which is the invention of Major Minie.
The balle-a-tige is the one used in the French service : the Minie ball

MECHANICS AXD USEFUL AKTS. 93

has not yet been adopted, either in the French or any other service.
The effect of the two balls is quite the same, the Minie ball being
only preferable from the fact that it may be shot from any gun -wheth-
er rifled or not, (though better rifled than otherwise,) while the balle-a-
tige can only be used as a balle-a-tige, by having a p'm-tige inserted in
the chamber (center of the breech-pin 1^ inches long,) in order to
receive the ball and produce the operation of slugging by the force
of the rammer an arrangement which will be described further on.

The balle-a-tige is of the immense range of 1,000 to 1,200 metres
(1,080 to 1,300 yards,) with an elevated "back-sight" perfectly with-
in the command of the marksman, and just as easily used as any
short-range or point-blank sight. The " back-sight," placed just in
advance of the lock, is about two inches high, open in the centre, and
graduated with a scale, so that the angle at which it throws the ball
above the range of the target may be easily known at all distances.
The usual target range of the Chasseurs de Vincennes is 650 yards ;
and then, as their practice improves, they retire a hundred yards at a
time, their eyes in this way growing well accustomed to the distance,
and their practice being consequently good.

On a recent occasion, some American officers were invited by Ma-
jor Minie to take part in some experimental firing at Yincennes. The
gun used was of rough construction, rifled half a turn, and percus-
sion. The balls used were the Minie balls, weight 50 grammes, (1^-
oz. about,) the charge of powder 5 grammes, or one-tenth the weight
of the ball ; the cartridge so constructed that the ball is encased in
paper, and greased by dipping the ball end of the cartridge in tallow,
which then slips into the barrel easily, without the aid of the rod, un-
til it arrives at the charge. A great saving of time in loading is thus
gained. How, then, is the windage stopped, and the ball slugged so
as to make it shoot correctly ? Here is the great desideratum and
the great peculiarity in the Minie ball. These important points are
gained by the shape of the ball, which is cast oblong, with a conical
point, with its base hollow for two-thirds the length of the ball. Into
the opening of this internal cylinder, there is placed a small concave
section of iron, (cut out by power-press,) which the powder, at the
moment of firing, forces into the ball powerfully, spreading it open,
and causing it to fit tightly to the cavity of the barret in its course
out, thus giving it a more perfect direction than any other form of
slugging can do, while at the same time it stops windage, or rather
destroys it. This is the entire secret of the success of the Minie im-
provement.

With the gun and cartidges above described, the shootin^ bejran at

o ^j ^j ^j

400 metres, equal to 432 yards. The target was of board, six feet
square, painted white, with a black spot a foot diameter in the center.
Major Minie placed three balls in the black, which is a most extraor-
dinary feat. Only think of driving three balls into a mark the size of
a man's hat, three times in succession, at a distance of three-quarters
of a mile, off-hand ! and Major Minie says he can do as well all day,
and teach any other man of ordinary capabilities the same accuracy.

94 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERT.

On a late occasion Major Minie hit a " but " seven times out of ten at
the immense distance of 1,804 yards! with sufficient force to pass
through a cuirass and kill. The " but" was 100 feet in length and 18
feet high, representing, for example, though not perfectly, thirty
mounted men. It is frightful to think of the havoc which a well-
trained army, equipped with these guns, might make on an enemy
equipped after the old style.

The reason why the Minie ball has not been adopted is simply be-
cause the balle-a-tige was invented first, and thus obtained precedence.
The results obtained with each are similar. The gun required for
the latter ball, as mentioned before, requires to be of a peculiar con-
struction, which may be described in a few words: a steel pin, 3-16
inch in diameter, is screwed into the breech-pin, upon which the ball
strikes when put into the barrel, (the powder being first put in,) and
rests there, sustained on the pin, not on the powder. The conse-
quence is, that when the heavy iron ramrod, made with a concave but,
strikes down on the ball, the pin is driven upward into the substance
of the ball, spreading it out on all sides firmly against the walls of the
barrel, which slugs it more perfectly, and consequently directs the
ball with more accuracy than is possible to obtain with any other
slugging. The same principle of slugging, therefore, is used in both
balls, but produced by different methods: in the ball just described,
being produced by ramming, while with the Minie ball it is produced
by the explosion. The balls are both of precisely the same exterior
form and of the same weight ; when the ball weighs 40 grammes, the
charge of powder is 4 grammes, and when the ball weighs 50 grammes
the charge is 5 grammes. By this principle of slugging, therefore, it
will be seen that the old uncertain musket is at once converted into a
close shooting rifle of a most extraordinary range, before which no
field artillery known to science could sustain itself. It is the opinion
of the most distinguished French officers that heavy cavalry can be
no longer used with effect, and that artillery must be restricted to
siege operations and the defence of fortified places.

To show more forcibly the difference in power and execution be-
tween the old musket with round ball, and the improved musket with
balle-a-tige, I may cite the following experiment, which I did not see,
but for the truth of whicji I have the best evidence. Four regiments
of French soldiers (not picked,) fired, at the Polygone of Vincennes,
300,000'balls, one-half out of the old regulation musket with the usual
round balls, and the other half with the improved rifle-musket, with
balles-a-tige. To make the experiment fair each man fired the same
number of balls from each kind of gun. The following was the re-
sult:

From 30 to 100 yards superiority rather in favor of the new gun.
(Distinguished British officers have objected that the new French gun
was not adapted to a short range, and therefore less efficient than the
old musket. These experiments disprove the assertion.)

150 yards The imprqyecj. gun twice as good as old musket; -md
round ball.

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 95

200 yards Thrice as good.

300 yards Seven times better.

400 yards Eleven times better.

500 yards The improved musket rifle hit nearly as often as at 150
yards, but no musket ball hit.

600 yards The new gun hit nearly the third of what hit at 150
yards' distance.

700 yards Hit nearly the same as at 600 yards' distance.

800 yards Hit nearly one-fifth as at 150 yards' distance.

It will be seen, therefore, from these experiments, that if 150 men of
any of these four regiments were armed with the improved gun and
bzlle-a-tige, that at distances of from 300 to 600 yards, they would in one
minute do more execution than 525 men at similar distances and the
same time with the old muskets and amunition ; consequently 1,500
men can be made equal to 5,250 men, or 15,000 American soldiers
can now be drilled and armed to do as much execution as could have
been done by 50,000 of the veterans of the revolution.

ORNAMENTING METALS.

Fertile, varied, and peculiar, as are and have been the various pro-
cesses devised for the purposes of ornamenting objects made of metal,
we are not aware of any which, in simplicity and beauty, at all equals
one that has recently been brought into operation. It emulates in
economy the application of transfer-printing, to the adornment of
japan and papier-mache objects, or the same to china, when in its
biscuit state. In all probability the accidental phenomenon of a com-
paratively soft substance leaving, by pressure, its impress on a harder
material, may have been noticed ; it has, however, been reserved for
Mr. Sturges, of Birmingham, to apply the same to a practically useful
purpose in manufactures, and to devise through its means a style of
surface-ornamentation, limited only in versatility by the illimitable
resources afforded in the results of the machines of the lace-makers, or
the endless forms and devices which may be suggested by human fancy.
The process in its simplest form will be best described by stating that,
if two or more plates of metal are taken, and between these is laid a
piece of wire-webbing, thread lace, perforated or cut paper, and the
two sheets of metal, with the pattern of thread lace, wire-web, or
paper between them, be passed through a pair of ordinary rolls employ-
ed for the rolling of metal the two sheets of metal being thereafter
separated, an impression of the pattern will be found on each, corres-
ponding to the compressibility of the material out of which the pattern
is formed, or the hardness of the sheet of metal to be so ornamented.
The known delicacy of such a material as thread lace, opposed to the
hard and comparatively unyielding metallic substance to be orna-
mented, and yet by its agency indenting the latter, will doubtless be
productive of matter of wonder to the uninitiated ; we can, however,
inform our readers that we have seen the same piece of lace employed
in ten successive operations in Britannia metal ornamentation, and

96 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

with a manifest improvement in each operation, until the cohesive
property of the fibre out of which the lace was made became destroyed
by the pressure.

Ornaments in lace or paper will also leave their impress upon a steel
plate most distinctly, and in very considerable relief or incision ; this has
been proved by actual experiment. The fitness of thread lace for the
purpose is much improved by its immersion in a starchy liquid, and
thereafter drying the same on heated cylinders, viz., such as are used by
lace or ribbon manufacturers. Lace net, and sewed work on muslin,
appear to be best fitted for giving impressions upon tin or Britannia
metal in the indented manner. A style of ornamentation in relief is
produced by the substitution of cut-out or perforated paper, or metal ;
thus the employment of perforated zinc as a medium resulted in one
of the most perfect of specimens yet produced. When paper is to be
used, the design is to cut out as a stencil pattern, or such as is used in
poonah-painting, or as the metallic perforated or cut-out plates for
marking cases ; this paper or sheet of metal, occupies the same posi-
tion as the lace, viz., between the two sheets ; the three thicknesses
being then passed through the rolls, interstices or perforations in the
paper appear with a raised surface, bright the surrounding metal
being dead or matted. The durability of such a tender substance as
paper will excite astonishment, when we say that eighteen salvers
were ornamented with a single piece of perforated paper. In using
paper for the purpose of a pattern, its usefulness and durability are
considerably increased by immersion in a liquid metallic solution
such as sulphate of copper or tin rolling the same on hot cylinders,
or subjecting it to the action of a powerful press ; this serves to render
the paper tough, compact, and prevents elongation from taking place
between the metals. Ordinary sand-paper produces the most perfect
dead matted surface imaginable ; though the softest of the materials
already specified as being used for the purpose of producing the orna-
ment, leaves its impress upon tinned iron, German silver, sheet brass,
copper, or Britannia metal.

It will readily be understood that the depth, as has been explained,
varies according to the hardness of the metal which is desired to be
ornamented ; thus lace, which gives a comparatively deep impress
upon the alloys of tin, gives one of a shallower kind on nickel silver.
To secure the requisite depth of ornamentation on the harder metals,
it became necessary to devise a means by which delicate lace formed
out of metallic wire could be produced. It is one of the peculiarities
of our country, that on a difficulty or a want being suggested, there
are thousands of active brains and hands ready, at a moment's notice,
to try to obviate the difficulty or supply the want ; the result in the
present instance has been the adaptation of a lace machine for the
production of a gossamer, web-like lace, formed of wire, which, when
applied so as to take the place of the thread lace, or the metallic sat-
urated paper pattern, (viz., between the sheets of metal to be orna-
mented,) on German silver, brass, or copper, leaves a deep, clear,
and distinct series of reticulations or indentations, corresponding to

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 97'

the simplicity or complexity of the pattern of the lace, &c. This lace
is produced with equal facility, plain or figured ; and for the purpose
of blinds for windows, or for bird cages, the repeated pressures to
which it is subjected, in rolling between the plates of metal to be orna-
mented, much improve its quality for such applications.

In the present state of the invention, it appears very difficult to
place any limit to the nature of the materials out of which patterns
may be made ; as, for instance, the writer of this notice picked up, in
an afternoon ramble in the country, two or three specimens of what
Coleridge has so poetically described as

" Brown skeletons of leaves that lag
Sly forest brook along."

These placed between plates of previously rolled soft metal, and sub-
jected to pressure, on the separation of the plates each disclosed the
delicate markings of the tender frame work upon which the vegetable
matter that makes up the leaf had been stretched ; not a single spar or
rib was wanting. These impressions could be printed from with ease,
and would serve as illustrations of the structural form of leaves for the
use of those interested in the study of the science of botany. Very
excellent impressions may, in like manner, be procured from lace,
and the lace manufacturer has thus at his command the means of pro-
ducing a pattern book of his designs without the trouble or expense
of engraving the same ; the depth of the indentation is sufficient to
hold the necessary quantity of ink to produce an impression by means
of the ordinary copper-plate press, or by surface-block printing. As,
however, in the first instance, it is intended to use the process more
particularly for the purpose of ornamenting those portions of the sur-
faces of manufactured objects in electro-plate, which have hitherto
been left plain, it is unnecessary to enter more minutely into the
description of the same, as applied to printing ; its perfect applica-
bility has, however, been sufficiently clearly demonstrated, and, in the
present instance, has been indicated in order to show to what extent
one invention may affect or assist other departments of trade than the
individual one for which it was originally intended. No doubt can
exist as to the present invention superseding, to a great extent, in the
production of an universal class of goods, the method of ornamenta-
tion by means of engraving. The delicate reticulations of the lace
markings gives a richness of appearance hitherto unattainable with-
out a corresponding addition of cost for engraving and embossing,
and which placed them beyond the reach of an ordinary class of
purchasers.

Objects may be manufactured from ornamented Britannia metal
sheet by the process of " spinning," a mode of production which
entirely throws into the shade, all others employed for securing, in the
objects produced, elegance of outline ; the pressure of tools used in the
process does not remove the markings produced by the various medi-
ums employed to produce the ornamental metal. The ordinary method
of raising the metal into shape by the stamp and die may also be taken

98 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

advantage of with the most perfect confidence, as the indentations on
the metal do not appear to suffer thereby. Elegantly formed tea
services, salvers, cruet-frames, dish covers, drinking cups, urns, and
other objects produced in electro-plated and gilt metals, are so many
evidences of the utility, economy, and ornamental character of the
invention as applied to the art of the worker in electro-plate and
Britannia metal goods. The process illustrates a philosophical truth,
viz., the compressibility, yet indestructibility of matter, in connection
with the cohesion of the several particles, forming the substances out
of which the patterns are made. London Art Journal.

CHRONOMETRIC LOCK.

A contrivance has been invented by Mr. W. L. Bass, of Boston, for
locking the doors of bank vaults, &c., in such a manner that they can-
not be opened before an hour fixed upon beforehand. The apparatus is
extremely simple, but appears to be entirely sufficient for the purpose
designed. There is no key-hole to the door, the bolt of the lock being
turned by means of a handle upon the outside. Upon the inside there
is a catch which holds the bolt fast, except when withdrawn by the
operation of a simple clock-work, which can be set, like an alarm-clock
for any hour. The absence of a key-hole precludes attempts to blow
up or pick the lock.

Lest there should be any fear that the disarrangement of the works
at some time might prevent the opening of the lock, even at the pre-
scribed hour, there is attached an additional piece of apparatus, con-
trived with much ingenuity, by means of which, in case of the stop-
page of the works, the catch upon the bolt may be lifted by turning for
some time a key at the side of the door ; but this is powerless except
in case of the stoppage of the works. As the clockwork is without dial
or hands, there is, however, much less danger of stoppage than in a
common clock.

DESCHAMP'S OMNIBUS REGISTER.

THE following description of a new omnibus register, invented by
Mr. F. O. Deschamps, is taken from a report of a committtee of the
Franklin Institute :

The instrument is placed in front of the omnibus, between the lamp
and the hole by which the fare is passed up to the driver. It resembles
in appearance the dial of a common clock with a single index.

It is the duty of the driver upon the receipt of each fare, to pull a
handle, which rings a bell inside the instrument, and at the same time
causes the index to move forward on the dial one division, while a
similar record is made by a second dial, which is placed upon the same
arbor as the center wheel and the hand or pointer, and is concealed
behind the face of the first dial. When the index in the first dial, and
consequently the index in the second dial, have made an entire revo-
lution, by -means of a toothed wheel, notched cylinder and click, a

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 99

second concealed dial is moved forward one division, corresponding in
the instrument examined by the committee, to 36 divisions on the first
dial. By this means any number of fares desired may be registered
on the concealed dials. In the instrument examined by the Com-
mittee, the record exceeded 10,000.

The outer dial is examined byjthe agent at the terminus of the route
at the end of each trip, the number of divisions passed over by the
index noted, and the hand returned to zero. Each dial maybe turned
back -without affecting the record upon that which enumerates the
higher numbers.

The second and third dials are concealed behind the first, and their
index numbers are brought into view by a key, in the possession of a
second agent. This key slides back portions of the face or first dial,
covering the indicating part of each ; thus enabling them to be read,
but not moved.

The concealed dials can only be reversed by means of a third key,
which is in the hands of the proprietors alone. When they are ex-
posed, the ringing apparatus is locked, and they cannot be moved for-
ward.

Hence it may be seen that if the driver neglects to pull the bell, his
dishonesty becomes apparent to all within the coach, among whom may
be a secret agent of the proprietors, and the knowledge of this fact
will tend to prevent any such attempt being made on his part.

The -first agent who inspects the dial at the end of each trip, can
only open the glass covering its face, and cannot expose the concealed
dials. The second agent \vho inspects the concealed dials at the end
of the day, cannot alter them, but acts as a check upon the driver and
the first agent, while it is in the power of the proprietors to satisfy
themselves, at any time, of the correctness of his records, by examin-
ing for themselves the concealed dials.

IMPROVEMENTS IX SEWING MACHINES.

During the past year, a number of sewing machines, involving new
principles of construction, or action, have been invented and patented.
Since 1843, the whole number of these machines for which patents
have been granted, is believed to be upwards of thirty, which num-
ber will undoubtedly be greatly increased during the present year.
These machines, the use of which is now becoming extensive, are rap-
idly approaching perfection ; and the work that they already accom-
plish, seems to the inexperienced, as bordering on the marvellous.
The peculiar principle of the best sewing machines, consists in the
use of two threads, the one being fed by a needle, and the other
the wrong side thread, or as it has been termed the auxiliary thread
being supplied by a shuttle and bobbin. The needle is secured to a
stock, whose movement, caused by arms and levers, drives its point
through the material to be sewed ; the eye of the needle at a mod-
erate distance from the point, carries the thread through and then re-
tires leaving a loop, through which loop a shuttle is passed, on the

10

100 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

under side of the material to be sewed ; this shuttle carries a quantity
of thread upon a spool, which it supplies as the seam progressess.
The needle on retiring draws up the loop, and thus closes the seam,
which on the upper or face side of the work presents the appearance
of what is called a " row of stitching," and on the under, a close resem-
blance, but differing slightly. The return, or rotation of the shut-
tle in its orbit, is a matter of course, and the work thus goes on con-
tinuously and with great rapidity.

The feed, or the progressive movement of the material to be
sewed under the needle, is accomplished in various ways : generally,
however, by means of the friction of a feeding wheel, whose roughen-
ed surface creates sufficient adhesion to move the material forward at
the requisite intervals. This feed is effected by the ordinary means
of a racket- wheel and click or paul, the latter being capable of ad-
justment through shifting levers, so as to give a longer or shorter stitch,
at the will of the operator, or the requirements of the work.

The superiority of machine sewing over hand sewing is evident
from the following statement. Whenever a " needle-full of thread "
is employed, either by machine or by hand, it is passed into the work
with the needle, and drawn through until it closes up the seam, and
this operation is repeated, stitch by stitch, until the " needle-full " is
used up, and has been worn in exact proportion to the number of
stitches taken, and must then be fastened off. It is then renewed to
undergo the, same operation, the "fastening off" not unfrequently be-
ing carelessly done, the unequally worn, and sometimes worn out
thread being incapable of producing work bearing any comparison
with the work of a machine, which wears only as much of thread as
is necessary to make the stitch, and goes on without "fastening off'
until the seam is finished, whether it be the " side seam " of a pair of
pants, or the main sail of a man-of-war.

The sewing-machine, although its use has become general within
a comparatively recent period, is an old invention. The needle with
the eye in the centre, and double-pointed, is beautifully employed in
the embroidery machine, which is an old French invention. This
machine worked upon cloth as many as sixty similar figures or flow-
ers at the same time; the whole being directed by one hand, who by
the aid of a pentagraphic guide on a prepared pattern, pointed the
needles to their appropriate place of entrance, and returned them with
unerring certainty and exactitude. The earliest form of stitch made
use of was the " chain stitch," which is still employed for ornamental
purposes, but is not approved of where strength or durability is re-
quired, as it will " run " if the thread breaks, and may be all '' run
out " by drawing upon one end of the thread. The next stitch in or-
der was the " running stitch," and was accomplished by means of a
needle having an eye in the middle and points at each end. It has
been extensively used for the cheaper kinds of work, such as bags,
&c., but cannot be with propriety employed where durability is re-
quired, as it does not draw the work well together, and if a thread
breaks, it runs each way to a ruinous extent. The next form of

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 101

stitch is that already described, as formed by means of two threads,
with a needle and a shuttle. A machine also exists in which two
needles are used, the one working horizontally and the other vertical-
ly. A machine has been invented by Mr. J. P. Martin, which by an
highly ingenious arrangement is self-regulating, and stops whenever
the thread breaks, or a loop is missed. The credit of inventing the
essential parts of this double thread sewing-machine, is claimed by
several parties. It is, however, generally believed, and has been so
reported by a Committee of the Franklin Institute, that the employ-
ment of a double, or auxiliary thread, as well as the use of the needle
with the eye near the point, or at the center, and of the shuttle, are
not patentable, but are open to public use.

The sewing machines which are now in most extensive use, are
those known as Singer's of New York, Grover & Baker's of Boston,
Wilson's, and Avery's. A new sewing-machine is now manufactured
by Ihe Ames Manufacturing Co., at Chicopee, Mass, which combines
in one machine the principles of several diiferent patents, which are
controlled by the Company.

Among the machines patented, or first described during the past
year, none appear to be possessed of any very new or striking fea-
tures, with a single exception. This is a machine recently invented
by Tilly Haynes, Esq., of Springfield, Mass., and which for effective-
ness, simplicity, and economy of construction, appears to approach
nearer to perfection than anv other machine vet brought before the

*' V ^T

public. Like the other most approved machines, this uses two
threads, and is capable of making with the greatest exactness from
600 to 800 stitches per minute. We see no reason why this invention
should not hereafter become an indispensable appurtenance of every
household.

IMPROVEMENTS IX THE MANUFACTURE OF INDIA RUBBER.

This is an abstract of the specification of a patent recently granted
to Charles Goodyear and Robert Hearing for improvements in the
manufacture of India Rubber. " The improvements made are in the
moulds which give form to the vulcanized rubber, &c. ; heretofore
metal moulds have been used without good results. The invention
consists in using or employing sand, pulverized soapstone, plaster, or
some similar granular or pulverized substance, and when put together
form porous matter, or moulds made of porous substances, to sustain
and keep the form of moulded articles composed of caoutchouc or its
compounds, and other gums susceptible of vulcanization, during the
process of heating or vulcanization. We take articles composed of
compounds of caoutchouc or other gums susceptible of vulcanization
in the green state. We cause them to be pressed or otherwise formed
into the exact shapes which they are required to have, after being
vulcanized ; we then cover the surface of the articles with pulverized
soapstone, or plaster, or other similar non-adhesive powder. We then
place the articles in a box filled with sand, the finer the sand the bet-

102 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

ter, or pulverized soapstone, or other similar equivalent granular or
pulverized matter, so that each article shall be completely surrounded
and covered by the sand or pulverized soapstone or plaster, c., and
imbedded in the same, and thereby sustained. When it is desired to
give a very smooth surface to the article, we cause it to be completely
surrounded with a layer of soapstone, even though sand may be
employed about the layer of soapstone. We sometimes use moist
sand or pulverized soapstone. When the articles are thus properly
placed in the box, we subject the sand or other material to pressure,
so that the box shall be solidly filled ; we then by means of a cover,
or sometimes by pressure, confine the sand or other material so that
the articles shall be at all times in contact with and pressed upon by
the sand or other material during the process of heating. We then
place the articles surrounded with and sustained by sand or pulverized
soapstone or other material, in an oven or heater, and subject the same
to a high degree of artificial heat, moist or dry heat, say from 260 to
300 Fah., for a period of from three to seven hours; and upon taking
the articles out of the sand or other material, the articles will be found
to be vulcanized in the same form in which they were when put into
the sand ; we are thus enabled to produce economically great variety
of objects. Among them, embossed, or indented, or plain sheets or
plates or masses of regular or irregular forms, convex or concave, such
as pieces of furniture, book covers, buttons, toys of various kinds, &c. ;
or we make the moulds of plaster of Paris, (best calcined), or other
substance, which, when dried will be porous and permit the escape of
gases evolved from the matter under treatment, and all contained air,
and thereby prevent the expansion of confined air and other gases
from injuring the surface of the moulded substance ; or we mould the
article in a mould which is to produce the figure, and pack in sand, or
pulverized soapstone or other like granular pulverized substance to
support the other surface or surfaces of the article to be produced,
and thus keep the face, which is to be figured in contact with the
partial mould of metal or plaster, or other material, and thus aiford a
free discharge for air and gases, whilst at the same time the moulds
are greatly cheapened. The moulds or outer casing may be made of
glass instead or iron or other metal, but we prefer the first mode of
procedure, as it avoids entirely the use of moulds during the process
of vulcanization. The sand or other pulverized or granular material,
having the effect thoroughly to support and retain the form previously
given to the article by moulding or modelling. The prepared
caoutchouc, gutta percha, &c., if it is to be imbedded in moistened
plaster should be previously varnished, and to keep the surface of
such articles to be thus vulcanized in sand, smooth India paper should
be interposed between such surface and the sand.

STEREOTYPE MOULDS.

At a late meeting of the Scottish Society of Arts, Mr. Wilson
described and exhibited the new process introduced by him to the

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 103

notice of the Society, which consists in taking the casts of the types,
not in gypsum or stucco, but in blotting paper, overlaid with a thin
layer of whiting, starch and flour-paste, covered with a sheet of tissue
paper, and impressed on the types by means of beating it with a fine
brush. It is then dried on a hot steam-chest, while still adhering to
the types ; and by this means a matrix is produced, and the types are
again ready for distribution by the compositors within an hour. The
advantages, he said, of the new process are : 1st. The greater cer-
tainty of the process ; the new matrix not being liable to warp or
break, as the stucco is, or to remain in the smaller interstices of the
types, so as to require revision by the picker. 2d. The greater
rapidity, the process being completed in one hour by it, which could
not be done in less than six by the other. 3d. The practicability of
using the matrix in certain cases for casting several plates ; whereas,
the stucco mould is always destroyed in a single casting. 4th. The
much greater simplicity of the apparatus required ; which, added to
the economy of time, and the consequent diminution of the quantity
of type required for the compositors, give the important economic
results which form the great merit of the new plan. A mould was
made, and a cast taken, in presence of the meeting. Edinburgh
Courant.

IMPROVEMENT IN OIL LAMPS.

Nathan Buchanan, of Johnston, R. I., has invented a new mode of
supplying the wicks of lamps with oil. The improvement is the
employment of additional wicks placed by the side of the burning
wick, and in close contact with it at the top, for the purpose of sup-
plying it with a greater amount of oil than it is capable of taking up
itself. The burning wick is thus rendered less liable to char, and con-
sequently needs less attention. Scientific American.

IMPROVEMENT IN SCALES.

Mr. Burnap, of Hartford, Ct., has devised a new arrangement of
scales for weighing light or heavy weights. The principle employed
differs from that of the ordinary scales in this respect the weight is
indicated by fluid, which is forced upwards through a transparent
glass tube on which the different figures for pounds, ounces, &c., are
marked, like those of a thermometer. The fluid is introduced through
a small aperture (which regulates the force of the pressure) to a flat,
shallow cavity beneath the platform on which the weight descends,
and a remarkable degree of precision is obtained by the employment
of vulcanized India-rubber as a covering to the fluid.

HICKOK'S IMPROVED CIDER MILL.

In the arrangement of this mill, invented by TV. O. Hickok, of
Harrisburg, Pa., the labor is divided by arranging a cutting cylinder

10*

104 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

to break the apples, and then deliver them to the lower cylinders to
be reduced to pomace. By this arrangnient the work is performed
faster and with much less labor. The press is arranged with a much
larger screw than formerly, and by a very ingenious device the use of
the bag is dispensed with and the tub made to open at will to deliver
the pomace, while at the same time the cider is left clear and the
work can be done with much less labor than by the old method. The
cylinders are covered with heavy sheet zinc, both on their peripher-
ies and ends. The machine is made to run by horse, steam, or hand-
power, and when the apples are ground, a small boy can press the
pomace with all ease.

In former times it was supposed that a large quantity of cider
could only be made by using a ponderous machine, that slowly crush-
ed the apples without grinding them fine. They were then made
into a massive cheese in straw, and a most severe and long pressure
was required to extract a portion of the cider, a considerable quanti-
ty being absorbed by the straw and the mass of pomace, and to obtain
this unsatisfactory result the farmer had to take all his hands, and
perhaps his six horse team, and devote a whole day that could have
been more profitably employed, to make from six to eight barrels of
cider. To obviate the difficulty the farmers have heretofore labored
under, this machine has been invented. The apples are grated up
into a fine pulp, so that it requires but a comparatively light pressure,
and that but a minute or two, to extract all the cider ; it being ascer-
tained by practical experiment that one-fourth more juice can be
obtained, than by the old process. Besides this, it only requires two
hands to grind up and make into cider a larger quantity of apples,
than can be possibly done on the old fashioned machines. On this
press, owing to the compactness of the pomace in the tub, and the
complete manner in which it is ground, a pressure of from 3 to 5 tons
that can easily be obtained will produce a more favorable result
than fifty tons pressure on the ordinary cider press, even if the ap-
ples were ground as finely.

NEW TUNNEL EXCAVATOR.

A new machine for the boring or excavation of tunnels in rock, has
been invented by Mr. E. Talbot, of Hartford, Ct. It is intended to
be operated by an engine of sixty horse power, which is to drive four
piston rods, horizontally, and these turn four half-circle plates, of stout
proportions, on which circular revolving blades are set. These four
plates are turned with exactness about one-fourth of a circle and back,
and are all set upon a revolving plate, of about ten feet in diameter,
and as thus set, cut a circle of 17 feet in diameter. The machine
weighs about 80 tons, and is of stout proportions throughout. The
motion obtained by this invention is novel entirely new. By it, the
revolving knives, each running its quarter circles, cut completely from
the center to the circumference, and they do their work surely, cut-
ting a round hole as they are turned by the large or center plate.

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 105

Improved Tunneling Machine. A very ingenious apparatus has been
devised to facilitate the progress of the Piedniontese railroads, in
which tunnels have to be cut under mountains. The excavating
machine cuts the channels in the rock, by means of several series of
chisels placed one beside the other, in straight lines ; these lines of
cutting tools are so arranged as to be capable* of a slight motion in the
direction of the grooves after every stroke ; the object of this is to
bring the chisels to bear upon all the spaces lying between the several
cutting tools situated in the same line, so as to produce not a succes-
sion of holes, but a continuous channel similar to a very wide saw-cut.
This lateral shifting of the lines of chisels, which takes place alternately
from right to left, and from left to right, is caused by a corresponding
motion given to the frames in which they are fixed. Each chisel is
driven against the rock by a spiral spring coiled round it. This spring,
driving the chisel forcibly against the rock, obliges it to act efficaciously,
notwithstanding the slight inequalities at the bottom of the channel,
arising from a want of uniformity in the resistance of the stone. When
the machine is in operation, the several lines of chisels are all drawn
back simultaneously, by means of a species of cam, or moveable bar.
The apparatus is arranged so as to enable each chisel to strike 150
blows in a minute. The machine at the same time sets in motion a
pump, which forces a constant supply of water into a reservoir, the
upper part of which is filled with compressed air. By this means the
water is driven out in jets, through small pipes placed between the
chisels, and is thus made to play upon the grooves, where it performs
the double office of preventing the cutting instruments from becoming
heated, and removing the dust and broken stone, which would other-
wise accumulate in the grooves, and thereby prevent the effectual
working of the excavator.

IMPROVEMENTS IN MODELLING IN PLASTER.

DURING the past year a patent has been granted to Hiram Powers,
the sculptor, for improved files, to be used in connection with certain
improvements in modelling, which he has lately invented. These
improvements are described as follows in a letter from the inventor to
the editors of Putnam's Magazine.

The principal tools used in the work consist of chisels, scrapers,
and trowels, the blades of which are of gutta percha set in metallic
backs, and elastic, so that the plaster can be put on with them some-
what as with a brush, and perforated or open files every tooth hav-
ing an opening in front of it, through the body of the instrument, so
as to allow the dust and filings to pass through and escape, leaving the
teeth unclogged and free to act. The files are of various forms and
sizes, being curved, round, flat, &c. The material used is common
plaster of Paris.

^ In projecting a human figure, a pair of irons, reaching nearly as
high as the hips, and corresponding in general direction to the bones
of the legs, must be set up on a platform, and around these a base

106 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

must be formed, to hold them firmly, by pouring a sufficient quantity
of mixed plaster to produce it. With these for a nucleus, the statue
is then commenced to be built up with cores and mortar. The cores
are made by pouring a quantity of plaster on a piece of oil cloth, and
as it begins to harden, scoring it deeply with a knife or chisel, so that
when quite hard it may be easily broken into fragments of a desirable
size. Courses of these cores are built up around the irons, and above
them, until finally the entire body is finished in this rough manner,
the layers being cemented together by plaster mortar. The chisels
are then brought into play for the purpose of roughing the figure
(consisting of legs, body, and head) into the general human shape.
A long core is then dipped in fluid plaster and the end applied to the
shoulder. It soon adheres and forms the nucleus of the upper arm.
To it another core is attached to form the fore-arm. When these are
filled out with plaster, the whole body is covered with a coating of the
same, and the files brought into use, which soon produces an even sur-
face, taking off all irregularities.

The advantages of these models over the ordinary clay models

^j i/ /

which are generally constructed, are, first, a clay model cannot be
changed materially after it has once been commenced, for the iron
skeleton which sustains every part of it is a fixture ; but in the plaster
work the iron frame is only in the legs, and all the rest can at any
time be cut apart and varied from the original design in accordance
with any after-thought of the artist. The plastering neither shrinks
nor swells from exposure, and does not require wetting or covering
with cloth to keep it in order. The process is less tedious than clay
modelling, for by means of the open files more can be accomplished
in a day than with clay in several days. And again, no moulding is
necessary to transform the form from clay to plaster ; the plaster fig-
ure, as it came from the artist's hands, is itself the model. Mr. Powers
says modelling in plaster is not new ; he only claims his way of doing
it as new. He considers the chief merit of his contrivance to consist
of the open file, which is an instrument of his own invention, and by
aid of which a high perfection of finish can be easily attained.

ENCAUSTIC TILES AND CLAY MOSAICS.

AMONG the collections of porcelain and pottery exhibited at the
Great New York Exhibition, were samples of encaustic tiles, and
mosaics of clay, intended for flooring, and exhibited by Minton & Co.,
Stoke-upon-Trent, England. These tiles, now extensively used for
the flooring of churches and other buildings, are made in the follow-

ing manner :

The encaustic tiles are made from the wet or slip clay, pressed into
blocks, and faced with a finer clay, colored to the desired tint. The
whole is then put in a box-press, and a plaster slab, containing the
pattern in relief, brought down with force upon the face of the tile :
upon this deeply indented surface, clay, in a semifluid state, is poured.
This clay is generally of a deep color, and after lying twenty-four

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 107

hours on the tile, becomes hard. The superfluous clay is scraped off,
and the surface mechanically cleaned and smoothed, and the tile is

tf

then baked in the oven. This process is almost similar to the mediaeval
one, and Mr. Minton is entitled to the credit of having revived it with
increased beauty and utility.

The mosaics are made from stained dry clays, which are pressed
and baked, and afterwards formed into moulds by mixing with plaster
or Roman cement. The pressure exercised to form these dry tiles is
immense, being, in the steam machine working by Prosser's patent,
equal to 400 tons. Each machine can make 5000 tiles an hour, and
but one man is required to take out the finished article.

Lava Ware. This is the name of a new article of manufacture,
exhibited at the Crystal Palace, made from iron-slag, the waste of
smelting furnaces. After the iron is drawn off, the melted sand and
clay, mixed with iron, which remains as waste, greatly in the work-
men's way, can be cast into tiles, urns, bowls, table-tops, and various
useful things, at a very small cost.

RAXSOME'S ARTIFICIAL STOXE.

THERE has been introduced of late years a new kind of artificial
stone, which, although perfectly plastic at one stage of the manufac-
ture, is of perfectly uniform composition, entirely free from all shrink-
ing and contortion during the process of kiln-drying, and bears ex-
posure to winter temperatures and a moist atmosphere without any
deterioration. This important immunity from so serious an evil, it
owes to the fact that no part of the material used in the construction
consists either of lime or clay. It is, in fact, a silicious or flinty stone,
the particles of which it is made up (fine pure sand) being united to-
gether by a fluid which, after exposure to the kiln, becomes changed
into a kind of glass. By the very nature of the case, therefore, this
stone is secured from ail injury from soot, acid, or other vapors, or
disintegration by weather; and, in many cases where it has been
actually exposed for several winters, it retains all its sharpness and sur-
face perfectly. This material is called " Ransome's Patent Silicious
Stone ;" and is tolerably well known by most architects and builders,
as well as those engaged in ornamental stone-work. The chemical
fact on which the discovery of this stone is based is the perfect solu-
bility of flint, or any silicious material, when subjected to the action
of caustic alkali (soda or potash) at a high temperature in a steam
boiler, or in cylinders communicating with such boilers. On being
heated with caustic soda at a very high temperature, there is formed a
thick, jelly-like transparent fluid of pale straw color, which is a hydrat-
ed silicate of soda, containing 50 per cent, of water; and which, if
exposed to the air for a time, or heated, loses a part of its water and
solidifies into a substance capable of scratching glass.

The history of the silicious stone will now be readily understood.
The fluid silicate of soda having been obtained as described above, it
is mixed with sand and other material, which may vary according to the

108 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

required result, and thus forms a kind of thick paste, moulded readily
into any shape. Exposed for a time to the air, this gradually hardens
by the evaporation of part of the water, and when put into a kiln the
water is more rapidly and completely given off, the result being a per-
fectly solid mass, the original particles of sand being now cemented
together by a kind of glass, formed by the silicate of soda raised to a
red heat. The whole amount of water in any given quantity of the
unburnt stone does not exceed one-tenth part of its volume, but the
total amount of contraction is extremely small, and scarcely percepti-
ble in any case. On the other hand, the contraction in terra-cottas is
not only very considerable, requiring allowance to be made in mould-
ing, but is also extremely irregular.

In consequence of the peculiarly simple composition of this new
material, it has been found easy to manufacture of it porous as well
as compact stone, and also such articles as grindstones and scythe-
stones (all of which enter into competition with natural stones) at a
considerable advantage, both in texture and price. The porous stones
are peculiarly useful as they make admirable niters, and by the simple
precaution of placing a coating of fine pure white sand upon them
they can never become choked. They are now extensively used, and
are found to succeed admirably. For pavements, balustrades, terrace
works, vases, and generally for all purposes of garden decoration, it
is well adapted by its cleanliness, sharpness of outline, color, dura-
bility, and cheapness. For ornamental flooring in halls, churches, and
public buildings, it possesses many advantages, and could be put down
at little more than half the price of encaustic tiles of similar patterns.
For quoins, cornices, battlements, chimney-pots, and many other
building purposes, it seems equally well adapted : while for niters it is
invaluable, and might be used to any extent in preference to any
known natural filter stones. London News.

\

PATENT OFFICE REPORT FOR 1852.

The Patent Office Report for 1852, published during the latter part
of the year 1853, contains the following notices of several new inven-
tions, which have not heretofore been made generally public.

New Reverberating Furnace. A novel form of reverberating fur-
nace, which is designed to dispense with the labor usually expended in
stirring and balling materials exposed to the action of the fire in this
species of furnace. A grate, fire chamber, ash-pit, &c., are, with the
fire bridge, constructed of brick in the ordinary manner ; and at the
usual distance therefrom is built a chimney and horizontal passage
leading into the same, also in the ordinary way. The body of the fur-
nace, the roof, and working bottom are omitted ; and their place is sup-
plied by a cylinder of cast-iron lined with fire-brick, and free to re-
volve upon metallic rollers. This cylinder has an area about equal to
that of the ordinary working chamber, is provided with a door fitted
like a man-hole or a hatch, and has revolution imparted to it by means
of a cog-wheel or a belt. The materials, broken pig for instance, are

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 109

introduced through the door, which is then closed ; motion is now
communicated to the horizontal cylinder, and each portion of its pe-
riphery in turn becomes the bottom, while the contents are rolled, or
turned over and over, and continually exposed to the flame which
passes through the cylinder on its way from the grate to the chimney.

It is obvious that every portion of the surface of each fragment will
be exposed to the action of the flame, and that the mass, when melted,
will be continually stirred or agitated as if acted upon by the ordinary
rabble. I am not informed as to the fact of this furnace having been
practically tested, but see few difficulties in the way of its successful
operation, and these of such a character as may be easily remedied.
Another furnace of the same class, and having in view the saving of
the same kind of labor, has been patented by another inventor, favor-
ably known as a practical metallurgist. The bottom of his furnace is
a cast-iron table, circular in its contour, covered with brick, and re-
volving on a vertical axis under the ordinary fire brick roof of the re-
verberating furnace. Through the ordinary working door projects into
the furnace and over the revolving bottom a rabble connected at its
outer end to a slide, actuated by machinery which gives to the rabble
a reciprocating motion. This slide runs upon a guide whose angle
to the side of the furnace may be changed by the operator, and the
rabble is thus forced to stir over every portion of the working bottom.

Improved Trip Hammer. An improved method of lifting the ordi-
nary trip hammer deserves notice, as by means of it any different
degree of blow within the range of the lifting cams can be attained
with a facility almost equal to that afforded by the steam hammer. In
this contrivance the cam, instead of acting directly upon a lifting leg,
acts upon the end of a lever, vibrating in a vertical plane, which em-
braces that leg. This lever is provided with a sort of toggle catch,
which grasps the leg firmly whenever the lever is raised, but has no
hold thereon when the lever is falling. A wedge enables the attendant
to regulate the point to which this lever shall fall. The cams in their
revolution strike it sooner or later, According to the distance it has
been permitted to drop ; and the instant that the lever commences to
rise, it clasps and holds the leg, forcing the hammer up a distance pro-
portioned to its own ascent only.

Improvement in Anvils. A simple improvement in anvils bids fair
to obviate an important practical difficulty in their construction. This
difficulty has its origin in the heat retained for a long time in the im-
mense mass of metal behind, or rather below, the centre of the steel
face in the process of hardening, which heat prevents the rapid cool-
ing of the steel face, and generally leaves a soft spot near its center.
By forming the body of the anvil with a cavity of some size extending
from its bottom nearly to its face, a portion of the metal at the centre
is dispensed with, and facility for the introduction of a stream of cold
water into the centre of the mass, and almost upon the bottom of the
face, is afforded during the process of hardening. The center of the
mass is therefore cooled almost as rapidly as its exterior, and a sound
and equally hard face is, in consequence, a matter of easy attainment.

110 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERT.

Machine-made Nuts. Good nuts, which shall at the same time be
cheap, and machine-made, have long been a desideratum ; several in-
ventions have been recently brought out which finish and turn out
nuts much cheaper and better than any that are manufactured by
hand. The following description of one machine will serve as a type
of the others.

A heated iron bar, about the width and thickness of the intended
nut is advanced over a die-box of the exact shape of the periphery of
the nut to be made. A die then descends, severs a blank from the bar,
and forces it into the die-box. The die is bored out precisely to the
same size as the- aperture required in the nut, and, as it carries the
blank along, forces it still enclosed in the box, against a cylindrical
punch, which punches out the hole, carrying the disk it severs, and
finally entering itself into the aperture in the die. This die, with the
nut now punched out, and upon the punch in front of it, still advances
until it brings the nut in contact with the face of another die, which
like itself fills the die-box, and commences to move in the same direc-
tion as the first die is travelling, but with a less velocity. The nut is
therefore submitted to powerful pressure between these two dies while
still on the punch, and all cracks incident to the cutting or punching
of it are thoroughly welded up, while the exterior of the nut is forced so
strongly into the moulded faces of the dies that, when discharged from
the machine, it is nearly equal in smoothness to a nut that has been
planed. Actual experiment has proved that the compression is an
essential part of the operation, and that nuts merely severed and
punched are not only rough in appearance, but are so filled with cracks
as to be unable to withstand the strain to which they must be sub-
jected.

File j\Iacldnes. An improvement in file machines, presenting an
easy method of giving different amounts of feed to the carriage which
supports the blank at certain times firmly on its bed, while at others it
gives it free motion to adapt itself to the chisel, has also been patented.
Machines of this class have long occupied the attention of the inventor,
and have lately come into actual use ; good coarse files made by one
lately patented being in the possession of the Office. It does not ap-
pear, however, that any of them have, in the manufacture of fine files,
been able to compete with that exquisite sense of touch which is the
unfailing guide of the file cutter, and which, in many instances in this
branch of manufacture, puts the blind workman on even a better foot-
ing than his comrade who has full possession of his sight. Many of
these machines have apparatus which actually set the chisel by feeling.
Complication, however, must result from such a basis of action, and
the present successful machines perhaps owe their efficiency, in no
small degree, to the simplicity of movement which disregards inequali-
ties in the texture of the blank, and, while it may spoil some files, is
yet unfailing in its own power to produce, and does produce, a good
article whenever a blank approaching to perfection is submitted to its
action.

Threading Wood Screws. -- Among the many improvements in ma-

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. Ill

chinery for threading wood-screws, has been patented one whose cut-
ter is somewhat like the fusee of a watch, with the difference that the
grooves are in three sections, parallel to its axis, counterparts of the
threads of the screw to be cut, and that these grooves are deeply
notched or serrated, so as to form a series of cutters. This cutter has a
swift revolution on its axis, and its periphery revolves in contact with
a blank, properly supported and presented to it ; the blank also, re-
volvino- in the same direction as the cutter, and having a slight motion

i^ 1 7 O ^

in the direction of the axes of the cutter, is gradually pressed against
its periphery, so as first to mark, then to deepen, and finally to finish,
its thread. These are the main characteristics of the machine, which
is provided with many other ingenious contrivances, subordinate, in-
deed, to the general principle, but essential to its prompt and correct
action. The rapidity with which this machine performs its work, and
the accuracy and beauty of the screws made by it, are equally won-
derful.

Thimble Machine. A machine which forms perfectly the thimbles,
so termed, used in large quantities in the rigging of vessels, has been
patented. These thimbles are metallic rings, or short cylinders, whose
outsides are grooved, and whose insides are convex to the same extent
that the exterior is concave. In the machinery for making them, two

^*

shafts are so arranged as to revolve at the same time and in the same
direction, and have a common axis. Thev are also so fitted that, while

revolving, they can be made to approach or recede from each other.
The contiguous ends of these shafts are each provided with a forming
disk, whose diameter is least upon that side of it which is at the end
of the shaft, and gradually increases in a concave curve to the other
side, which is of a diameter equal to the greatest inside diameter of
the thimble to be formed. Each disk exactly fills one half of a finished
thimble, and when their adjacent sides are, by the motion above as-
cribed to the shafts, brought in contact, thev entirelv fill a finished

^ * *

thimble. A hammer, whose face is an exact counterpart of about one
quarter of the outside of the thimble, is arranged in such manner as
to strike repeated blows upon a piece of iron sufficiently heated, and
thrust in between it and the disks above cited.

In the working of the machine a lever is moved which brings the
disks in contact. A piece of iron, in length equal to the circumfer-
ence of the thimble to be made, is then introduced between the disks
and the hammer. The disks then revolve, and the hammer forces the
iron into the groove, and at the same time bends it into a circular
form.

As the disks revolve, new surfaces are brought under the action of
the hammer, and a thimble is finally formed, closely enclosing the two
disks. These are then separated by the action of the lever, and, as
they revolve on horizontal shafts, the finished thimble drops down be-
tween them.

The thimbles formed by this machine are not only cheaper, but
better finished, smoother, and more regularly shaped, than those made
by hand,

11

112 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

In another machine, emanating from the same inventor, the forcing
of iron into a certain class of shapes, is performed with expedition
and certainty. In this machine a roller is mounted upon a carnage,
in such a manner that a large portion of its periphery projects out-
wards, free from the carriage.

Two such carriages, each with a roller, are located opposite to each
other, and are capable of being moved by machinery back and forth
through a certain distance ; each roller being opposite to the other,
and located between its own and the other carriage. These carriages
are, by means of guides, forced to move in curved lines of any given
shape, and these guides can, while the machine is in motion, be forced
to approach or recede from each other.

An iron rod properly heated is, while the carriages are in motion,,
placed in a check or tongs capable of revolution on a centre in such
manner that the rod passes between the two carriages and their
rollers. The carriages are now caused to approach, and as (hey ap-
proach they reciprocate, and their rollers touch the rod; the latlor
commence to revolve and draw out the iron. The rod is also revolved
continuously or through a given arc, and then stopped and moved
again. By a continuation of these motions, figures of revolution, gen-
erated by various curves or figures of polygonal cross section, and
regularly irregular longitudinal section, are forged out with great
speed and precision.

Improvement in Locks. The following interesting notice of several
improvements jn locks is given by Mr. Ben wick, the examiner of this
Department :

The lock exhibited by Mr. Hobbs at the World's Fair, which, in
connexion with the lock-picking achievement of the same gentleman,
created so great sensation in this country and in England, was pa-
tented in its most approved form in 1851 ; its great feature of security
having, however, been invented by, and patented to, the same inventor
several years since. The following is a brief description of its con-
struction and arrangement :

In an ordinary tumbler lock and bolt, which is a sliding piece of
metal which has projecting from it a pin, this pin, when the lock is
on the door, usually projects horizontally towards the face of the lock.
Between the bolt and this same face lie one or more thin metal plates
which slide up and down vertically, but cannot move horizontally.
One edge of each of these tumblers abuts directly against the pin
above named when the bolt is shot. Now, it is clear that, to move the
bolt back, one must either break the pin or move the tumblers out of
the way ; but these are so long that they cannot be moved up suffi-
ciently far to let the pin pass below them, nor down far enough to let
the pin pass above them ; the top or the bottom of each tumbler, in
the one case or the other, striking the lock-rim, or some firm stops,
which prevents its further motion. Each tumbler has, therefore, cut
in it a long, nearly horizontal, slit of the precise width of the pin,
and if by any means each tumbler can be moved so that its slit comes
opposite the pin, then will the pin enter all the slits at once, when the

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 113

bolt is pushed back, and may be unlocked. If any one turnbler_ is
lifted up too far, or not far enough, it will bar the passage of the pin,
and the lock cannot be opened. The right key is so shaped that,
when turned, its bits perform the duty of lifting these tumblers.
When a person skilled in the art, for so it may be termed, attempts to
pick such a lock, he first, by some means, (a sharp-pointed, crooked
wire, for instance, introduced through the key-hole,) shoves the bolt
back until the pin bears forcibly against the faces of the tumblers.
By means of another wire, he then shoves up or moves each tumbler
separately until the sense of feeling tells him that the notch therein is
opposite the pin. An increased facility of motion in the tumbler is
one certain guide of this point being reached ; or if the tumblers be
weak and the pressure on the bolt strong, a click will be heard, and
the tumbler may remain resting precisely at the proper point. As
the proper position of each tumbler is ascertained, it is carefully
measured and noted down. When all the positions are discovered,
each tumbler is lifted and held at the right height, and the bolt is
moved, the pin enters the slits and the lock flies open. This opera-
tion as described may seem easy, and it is so to those who, to a deli-
cate touch and mechanical dexterity, add perfect knowledge not only
of the principles of locks, but also of the construction of the precise
kind of lock they intend to pick. Those who undertake to pick a
lock without these requisites will find their task not only difficult, but
absolutely unacconiplishable.

Another lock patented is powder-proof, and may be loaded through
the key hole and fired until the burglar is tired of his fruitless work,
or fears that the report of his explosions will bring to view his expe-
riments more witnesses than he desires.

In it the pin on the bolt does not abut against the tumblers, but
against other sliding pieces which cannot be reached through the key-
hole, having between it and them strong steel partitions. These pieces
may be termed secondary tumblers, and are furnished with slits
like the tumblers first named in this section. These secondary tum-
blers are connected with the true tumblers, through the agency of
slender springs, in such manner that the true tumblers will raise the
secondary just as they themselves are lifted, when no obstacle ob-
structs the movement of the secondary tumblers. Now if the lock
be locked, and the proper key applied and turned, it first lifts the true
tumblers to the proper height ; these, while being raised, lift the sec-
ondaries by the springs until their slits are at the proper height,
when the pin enters, and the bolt is retracted by the further turning
of the key. If the lock be locked, and an attempt is made to pick it,
the bolt is first forcibly shoved back until its pin strikes the edges of
the secondary tumblers ; its pressure upon these prevents the light
springs from moving them, and the burglar may move the true tum-
blers up and down, amusing himself as long as he desires, without
altering at all the position of the secondary tumblers, or obtaining any
indication as to the locality in which they must be placed before the
bolt can be moved. The partitions above named prevent any direct

114 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

application of force to the secondary tumblers, and unless the former
can be blown or drilled away, which many years' test has proved im-
possible, the lock stands impervious to any instrument except the
proper key.

Another lock is so constructed that when the key-hole is open no
access can be had to the tumblers. When the key, which is merely
a series of bits without a pipe, is introduced, a knob is turned, which
revolves a disk inside the lock which covers the key-hole, and as it
revolves further, the key-hole remaining shut, uncovers the passage to
the tumbler. A cam on the spindle of the disk then lifts the bits and
carries them in contact with, and finally lifts the tumblers. The bolt
may now be withdrawn, and a further turning of the knob repeats
these operations in reverse direction and order, finally leaving the bits
under the now open key-hole in such a situation that they may be
withdrawn. It appears to me that this lock cannot be picked, and
that its construction is such as to bring into play the doctrine of
chances, which Bramah and Chubb have both claimed, fallaciously,
as being the true exponent of the difficulties of opening their locks
by other means than the true key.

An improvement in the tumblers, or rather the manner of support-
ing the tumblers of the locks, has been patented. In ordinary tum-
bler locks, each tumbler moves in a certain determined plane and no
other, and must be moved by a pick or key to a fixed and certain
point, neither beyond it, nor short of it, before the bolt can be
moved.

In the present lock each tumbler is free to swing, and can be
moved in many planes, but must be moved precisely to the right spot,
and in a certain plane, before the bolt can be operated. A lock-pick-
er must therefore, by repeated trials, find the proper plane of motion
of each tumbler, and, by some instrument, hold each in that plane,
before he can proceed to pick the lock in the ordinary manner.
It is evident that longer time and increased skill will be re-
quired to pick this lock, when contrasted with the ordinary tumbler
lock.

A very curious, novel, and it appears, unpickable lock has also been
patented. The key-bit of this lock is composed of a series of closely
packed cylindrical disks of different sizes. The key-hole is a small
cylindrical cavity, closed at the bottom, and when open has no con-
nexion with the tumblers or any part of the interior of the lock.
The key-bit is attached to the handle by a spring connexion, and
when the operator introduces them and commences to turn the key,
the first operation of the lock is to separate the bit from the handle ;
as he turns, the former is carried in the cylindrical opening away from
the handle ; a solid metal block occupies the place of the cylinder ;
the key-hole is entirely closed ; the bit moves on and lifts the turn-

V *>

biers, and, by a continuation of the turning motion, the bolt is finally
retracted. A reverse motion of the handle shoots the bolt, drops the
tumblers, carries the key-bit beneath the handle, reattaches it thereto,
and, when the latter is withdrawn, the key aperture is again in its
place and exposed.

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 115

Powder enough to fill the cylinder is all that can be introduced into
the lock, and its explosion therein damages it no more than it would a
pistol barrel of the same size.

This latter lock has attracted much attention. It is simple in its de-
tails, has no long trains of motions depending on each other, is not lia-
ble to get out of order, and has, when locked and unlocked by those
unacquainted with its operation, been productive of no little mirth. It,
as I have attempted to describe, fairly steals the bit away from the
handle, and leaves the latter only in the grasp of the astonished exper-
imenter, who, as he turns, finds the lock unlocked, but the key proper
gone, and every aperture in the lock completely closed. Until he is
undeceived, he' is apt to imagine that the whole affair is some juggler's
apparatus, constructed for his mystification, and not for legitimate use
as a door fastener.

Either of the three locks thus noticed, when placed on doors which
have also been patented, and will now be described as intelligibly as is
in my power, appears to me to afford perfect security against all
known methods employed by burglars.

The door first patented is constructed as follows, namely : by sup-
porting, at some fixed distance apart, and attaching to each other, two
plates of sheet iron, w T ith a rim between them, which, with the plates,
completely enclose a space and form a sort of iron box. Into this
space Xo. 3, or white pig, is poured when melted, which fills the space,
encloses the bolts which connect the sheets, and enters apertures
left in either of them. The whole forms a door in which the sheets
firmly support, and prevent the breaking of the thoroughly chilled
and hardened interior, while it in turn forms a complete stopper to all
drills and cutting tools which may, by burglars, be made to preforate
the outer sheet.

In another door, invented to meet the same requisites, and to pre-
sent a bar to that class of ingenious operators whose acquisitiveness
has generally contrived ways to circumvent the utmost ingenuity of
the lawful dealing workman, pig-iron of the same character is cast
around a wrought iron gauze or net-work. This net-work is made of
the size of the intended door, with meshes about one and a half inch
square, and is constructed of bars of small round iron. All attack by
drilling is prevented by the chilled cast iron, and when the door is
assailed by a heavy sledge, this iron breaks into small pieces, each of
the size of a mesh, the fracture being along the centre line of the iron
rods, and each fragment being firmly held in place by the groove formed
by its junction with the bars which surround it. The door, by repeat-
ed blows, becomes pliable, yielding, and is bulged in here and there,
but the strongest man has not yet been able to make any absolute
break therein.

Improvement in Propellers. An improvement in propellers has
been patented by a French inventor, whose object was partially to re-
move the resistance to the progress of the vessel under sail only,
which is occasioned by the ordinary screw propeller. This plan has
no relation to those which permit of alteration of the pitch, or admit

11*

116 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

of the propellers being hoisted out of water, and is somewhat dif-
ferent from any hitherto essayed. The wings of this propeller are
arranged in pairs, and are each of no greater width than the dead
wood of the vessel in which the propeller is located. The first pair,
if there be six wings, is attached to a hollow shaft ; the second pair is
fastened to another hollow shaft, concentric with and inside of the
first-named one ; and the third pair is secured to a solid shaft, also
concentric to the first and located within the second hollow shaft ;
each pair lies a little behind the former in the direction of the length
of the vessel, and their shafts are fitted with gearing and clamps,
or their equivalents, in such a manner that the various pairs of
propellers can be made to alter their angular distance with respect
to each other, or be clamped at any specified relative position.
This gearing is within the vessel, and by means of it the various
blades are, when the propeller is to be used, spread around the
whole periphery of a circle, so that each acts in turn and in the
same position as in an ordinary propeller, where the wings have
no motion with respect to each other. When, however, the propel-
ler is no longer to be used, and sail is to be employed, then, by
means of the gearing, the blades are revolved so as to fold the
one behind the other, like the leaves of a shut fan, and the whole
set are turned so that they lie in the line of, and are covered by, the
dead wood, thus offering little or no resistance to the progress of the
vessel. The engine is connected to the outer shaft in such a manner
that it drives the whole of the shafts, without altering their angular
position with respect to each other ; the motion to produce this latter
result being entirely independent of the former.

Improvement in Canal Boats. A method of fitting canal boats
to be used for the conveyance of coal, &c., appears to present features
of utility, and will probably lead to a material saving in the discharge
of cargoes of that article. Beams are secured along the inside of the
boat's ceiling for its whole length from stem to stern, forming a species
of continuous bracket round the interior of the vessel, at a distance
of some two or three feet from the bottom. Along the bottom are
laid rails, upon which a small car may be moved, and immediately
over the car's top, from beam to beam, crosswise of the boat, are laid
planks, which form the cargo deck, on which the coal, &c., are loaded.
In the process of unloading, one plank at a time is lifted up by crow-
bars, and the cargo runs by degrees into the car underneath. This
car, when full, is run along the track until free of the floor and then
hoisted out as a bucket and emptied, replaced, run back, and filled
again. All shovelling of the coal is saved by this contrivance ; and it
will probably be adopted in boats which, after their passage through
canals, discharge their coal for further transport into the hold of sea-
going vessels.

Improvement in Harpoons. - - A harpoon, which forces the point
deeper and deeper into the whale as he draws the boat after him, has
been invented and patented. In this contrivance the ilukes are
hinged, and so arranged that they can be latched to the point, or can

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 117

slide away from it. The whale line is forked or split, and each part
thereof is rove through a pulley or sheave attached to the flukes, and
is thence led and attached to the socket or staff which is firmly fixed
to the point.

When the harpoon is thrown and enters the whale, and strain is
brought upon the line, the flukes spread out and take firm hold in the
blubber, detaching themselves by such motion from the point. The
pulleys, or sheaves they carry, are now fixed in the whale, and the
strain upon the line passing through them forces the shank and its
point to slide between them, penetrating deeply into the whale.

Gas Regulator. Three patents have been granted for three sev-
eral modifications of this instrument. The instrument consists of an
enlarged chamber in the service pipe, where it enters the consumer's
building, and is generally placed near the Gas Company's meter.
Each of the modified regulators is designed merely to equalize the
size of the flame, while the number of burners is varied. This en-
larged chamber in the pipe has a valve, which controls the amount of
gas going to the burners, and thus divides the chamber into two com-
partments one being on the side towards the street main, and the
other on the side towards the burners. The valve is at one end of a
small scale beam or lever, and counterpoised at the other by an in-
verted cup in a vessel of mercury. It is easily seen that if we vary
the pressure on the external surface, of the inverted cup, or on the in-
ternal surface, we increase or diminish the opening of the valve, and
thus admit more or less gas. In the first of these devices patented, the
internal part of the inverted cup communicates with the side or com-
partment of the chamber towards the burners ; in the second, it com-
municates with that towards the street main ; and in the third, the
construction is such that it communicates with both at the same time,
and thus modifies and controls the amount of s;as received through

o O

the valve in three several ways.

Geometrical Measurement. A geometrical instrument has been
patented, which is termed by the inventor a center-square for finding
the center of a circle, designed for the use of mechanics. The gene-
ral principle upon which the instrument is based is well known to
geometricians, viz : that if two tangents (or straight lines touching
the circumference of a circle) be extended until they intersect each
other, a straight line bisecting the angle between them will pass
through the center of the circle. The instrument consists of two arms,
placed together at right angles to each other, in the manner of a car-
penter's square, but of equal thickness, and having their surfaces
" flush ; " upon the upper surface of which arms a straight ruler is
fixed at its end in such a manner as to have one of its edges at the
inner angular point of the arms, and that edge extending midway be-
tween them, or bisecting the angle between them. This ruler can be
braced firmly by a bar running across between the extreme ends of
the arms. If the mechanic wishes to find the center of a circular
wheel he places the instrument upon it, with the two arms both resting
against its circumference, in which position the edge of the ruler will

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118 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

run across its center. A straight line is marked in this position, and
the instrument is applied again to another part of the circumference,
so as to mark in the same manner another line intersecting the first.
The point of intersection is of course the center of the wheel.

New Spring Balance for Time Keepers. The ordinary chronometer
or watch-balance, it is well known, plays on points at the ends of its
axis, and its motions or vibrations are governed by the tension of a
coiled spring, which in watches is called the hair-spring. This
balance, which has been called the most beautiful invention in
mechanics, has, of late years, to a considerable extent, taken the place
of a pendulum in larger time-pieces ; and in such cases the points of
the axis of the balance have been made to rest upon friction wheels
to reduce their friction. In the present instance, however, the points
and the spiral-spring are thrown aside, and a long, straight, thin, and
narrow steel spring is made to perform the office of both. The spring
is secured to the clock-frame at both ends and strained tight, and the
balance itself, consisting, in this instance, simply of a straight bar,
loaded with a ball at each end, is suspended at or near the middle of
the spring ; the spring passing through the middle of the bar at right
angles. The spring is thus made to serve the double purpose of a
frictionless suspension for the balance and a governor of its motions.

The force of torsion, as it is called that is, the force with which
a twisted wire or thread of glass tends to untwist itself has been
used before in certain instruments for philosophical purposes, as in
some magnetic instruments where the magnetic bar is suspended at
the lower end of the wire ; and, when used for such purposes in this
manner, the force of torsion of the wire has" been measured by removing
the magnet, putting a given weight in its place, and counting the
number of vibrations it accomplishes in a given time ; and such an
arrangement as this has even been applied to a time piece. But in
the present arrangement, where the flat spring is secured at both ends,
and strained tight, so that the time piece can be moved about like a
watch, the governing force of. the balance is -not derived from the
simple torsion of the spring, but is also due in part to, and can be
varied by, the force with which the spring is strained. The exact
adjustments for time are made either by an adjustable slot, through
which the spring passes near its end, or by a screw adjustment of the
balls, or both.

Improvement in Turbine Wheels. In this improvement the orifices
of discharge from the buckets in the wheel are capable of adjustment
for different heads of water without changing the curvature of the
buckets. This is effected by attaching to the bucket a sliding plate of
the same width and curvature as the bucket ; the moving of this plate
outward extends the curvature of the bucket and diminishes the
orifice of discharge.

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY.

IMPROVEMENT IX ELECTRICAL MACHINES.

M. Provenzali, of Rome, has found that by covering a part of the
conductor of an ordinary electrical machine with a thin sheet of gutta
percha, the sparks that may be drawn from the part thus covered
greatly exceed in length, those which can be obtained from the part
uncovered. It appears that this effect depends upon the obstacle
which the insulating sheet offers to the dispersion of the electricity,
which dispersion tends to take place from the asperities of the surface
of the conductor, and which discharge in part at a distance this same
conductor, whenever it is approached with a non-insulated conductor
for drawing the sparks. M. Provenzali proposes to cover the whole
conductor of the machine in this way, to see if it will not protect it
from the action of moist air, and give always a considerable quantity
of electric fluid. In order to obtain the largest sparks, it is neces-
sary to have the insulating sheet strongly electrified.

ELECTRO-CALORIC MACHINE.

In 1844, M. Andrand put in action on the railroad from Paris to
Versailles, an air locomotive, in presence of a commission named
by Government. Although with some points of resemblance, it was
not precisely a caloric engine like that of Ericsson, against whom, M.
Andrand enters no claim of priority. The locomotive acted through
air at first compressed in a heater and then dilated by the heat. The
air acted at high pressure, and the generator consisted of a worm
plunged in a fire for the purpose ; on passing through this spiral tube,
the air was dilated ; then on reaching the water cylinders it under-
went additional dilatation, for the concave bottom of the cylinders
were furnished with plates of cast iron, which were at white heat.
The dilatation thus obtained, increased three fold, according to M.
Andrand, the power of the condensed air ; whence he concluded that
in order to arrive at a practical solution of the problem, the previous
compression could be dispensed with, and obtain at the same time the
condensation of the air by using for this purpose part of the expan-

120 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

sive force of the caloric. M. Andrand has not put this idea into prac-
tice ; but in the course of his trials he has several times remarked an
unexpected fact which we here mention.

Before making his air locomotive public, M. Andrand had it in ope-
ration within his workshop. When the reservoir was well filled with
condensed air, the fire of the dilatator was made, and the iron plates
of the bottom of the cylinders were brought to a white heat. This
done it was only necessary to open the stop cock of the reservoir to
set the machine in motion, and cause the two driving wheels to re-
volve. But while the apparatus was heating up, and before the valve
was opened, it happened several times that the machine started spon-
taneously and communicated to the two wheels a frightful velocity. The
phenomena continued from 30 to 40 seconds, then ceased, without
his discovering how it was produced, or why it stopped. M. Andrand
has not succeeded in repeating it at will. Already, some three years
previous, the same motion, spontaneous and violent, manifested itself
two or three times in a small hot-air car, which this mechanician had
made to move on rails.

What may be the cause of this singular phenomena ? Those who
explain everything by a word, who know the precise cause of the
cholera, steam-boat explosions, the potato disease, &c., do not fail to re-
ply that the cause is " electricity," and without looking much to the
why, or the wherefore, they can easily solve many other difficult prob-
lems the same way. M. Andrand, who has as a mechanician, a well-
merited reputation, does not hesitate to assign the same cause ; and
his explanation is not without a shadow of foundation. The two mo-
tor cylinders, which act independently on the driving wheels, are of
different kinds, one wholly of bronze, the other, by chance partly of
cast-iron, and partly of bronze. But the phenomena does not appear
to be produced in this last cylinder, and never in the cylinder of one
metal. The two cylinders of the locomotive, in which the spontaneous
movement was reproduced, also consisted of two metals, the cylinders
being of cast-iron, and the pistons and bottom of bronze. From this
to the phenomena of Galvani, is but a single step ; and M. Andrand is
convinced that he has been witness of the mechanical work of the
electricity excited by the heat. Setting aside an explanation which
elucidates nothing, and which may mischievously make one believe
that the problem is resolved when it is hardly presented, we may con-
clude with M. Andrand, who says : It will be a conquest, both scien-
tific and industrial of the first order, when we shall succeed in produc-
ing at will, this new motive force, and give it a continued action ; then
two ordinary motor cylinders, moderately heated and fed successively
with a very small quantity of air, will suffice to generate an enormous
force, which M. Andrand estimates at 10 or 12 atmospheres, and this
with an expense of heat altogether insignificant. We shall have then,
says he, electro-caloric engines which shall leave far behind steam-en-
gines, however perfect, and shall realize under volumes of small ex-
tents, the marvels attributed to the apparatus of Ericsson.

Finally, M. Andrand closes his memoir by the following consul-

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 121

rf>

erations : " Steam-boilers are found, as regards electricity, in condi-
tions analagous to those of our hot-air chambers. It is probable even,
that with equal volumes they contain a much larger quantity. Is it
not natural that the phenomena which I have observed, as a matter of
chance, in our hot-air cylinders, should be sometimes reproduced in
steam-boilers ? It is known that explosions are more violent the
greater the amount of electricity ; and on the other hand, that the
quantity of electricity is greatest when the steam is of moderate ten-
sion, as in steamboats of low-pressure engines. And these low-press-
ure engines, are the ones which often explode, while the locomotives
which are high pressure, very seldom explode. In support of these
considerations, M. Andrand says, that he has more than twenty times
tried to burst vessels of thin sheet iron by compressing in them air at a
high temperature, and has not been able to succeed in tearing them,
except when the pressure was raised to 50 or 60 atmospheres ; twice
onl} r has he produced an explosion ; and those with vessels of copper
when other metals were present. Silliman's Journal.

ELECTRICITY AND HEAT.

M. Gaugain, of France, as the result of carefully conducted re-
searches, has recently informed the Academy of Sciences, that he does
not think the currenits developed in thermo-electrical batteries, viz.,
in electrometers formed by the association of two different metals,
whose points of junction are maintained at different temperatures,
should be attributed to the motion of heat. He consequently sus-
pects all experiments, upon which experimenters have endeavored to
found the doctrine that the propagating motion of heat in the interior
of bodies disengages electricity. One of these experiments, how-
ever, is celebrated ; it constantly succeeds, but M. Gaugain interprets
it differently from every one else, and he especially prevents the
fundamental phenomenon appearing by changing the experimental
data, without, however, so changing, as to prevent the propagation of
heat. This is the experiment : A platina wire, with one extremity
inserted in the interior of a glass tube, closed with the lamp and blow-
pipe, is placed in connection with the plate of a condensing electro-
scope by its other extremity. The glass tube is surrounded in the
interior with a second platina wire, rolled spirally, and which commu-
nicates at one end with the earth. If the experimenter heats con-
siderably by a lamp's flame the metallic spiral, and the parts of the
tube enveloping it, it will be found that the plate of the electroscope
is charged with positive electricity. According to the theory of I\L
Becquerel, the author of the experiment, the heated spiral is the seat
of an electromotric force ; the negative fluid goes towards the
ground, following the same direction as the heat, and the positive
fluid, moving in an inverse direction, traverses the glass tube,
which has become a conductor in consequence of the elevation of
the temperature, and is conducted by the interior wire to the in-
strument which indicates its presence. To make this celebrated

122 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

experiment fail completely, and to destroy, or, at least, place in
abeyance the explanation given of it, M. Gaugain only introduce
into the tube a few drops of alcohol, which rising in vapor, should in
nowise hinder the heat from playing its usual part, but which operates so
as to place the two wires in the same chemical positions ; for the flame
of the spirit-lamp really forms around the exterior wire an atmos-
phere of alcohol. It is consequently very probable that in the already
mentioned experiment, the disengagement of electricity was due to
an especial chemical action, which cannot be well defined, but whose
effect is annulled by opposing to it a similar chemical action. M.
Gaugain thinks a gaseous couple, analagous to that discovered by M.
Grove, may play a part in the matter. The idea is ingenious, but it
does not furnish a complete explanation, for in Grove's battery there
is a conducting liquid, while there is nothing analagous in the data
of M. BecquerePs experiment.

RUHMKORFF'S ELECTRICAL APPARATUS.

It is not the least brilliant of Mr. Faraday's claims to high scientific
rank, to be the discoverer of that singular influence exercised on
distant points by electrical currents, the influence which he called
induction. Before him no one had succeeded in obtaining with the
battery, electricity of tension like that furnished by the electrophore
and the old fashioned plate electrical machine. The battery does not
of itself give the spark which flashes between two points, but the cur-
rent it produces can act and influence a neighboring conductor and
produce there all the signs of static electricity. The current of induc-
tion, (so called to distinguish it from that of the two electricities
accumulated in the exterior and interior foil coatings of the Leyden
jar) does not manifest itself in a complete circuit, except under the
influence of another current subject to variations of intensity. Sup-
pose the current of a battery is passed through a metal wire, wound
around a hollow bobbin, in whose interior a second wire is wound, just
the same as the wire on the outside ; if the communication of the
battery with the exterior wire be frequently interrupted, the exterior
wire will excite in the inside wire currents of induction, properly so
called, and which are generally endowed with a great degree of tension ;
the introduction of a bar of soft iron in the centre of the bobbin,
increases to a still higher degree the intensity of the phenomena.
The inducted current then becomes so powerful, that to prevent the
wire discharging itself on itself, it is necessary to separate the different
coils by a resinous and insulating substance. To insure the action of
the apparatus without the intervention of any person, an interruptor,
(according to the method suggested by M. de la Rive) is placed in a
proper position, and the magnetized iron suffices to agitate it. Such
is the apparatus invented by M. Ruhmkorff ; it is an excellent machine,
giving forth brilliant sparks, powerful shocks, and which may be
advantageously substituted for the electrical machine, in all experi-
ments relative to static electricity. M. Fizeau, when about making

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 123

some experiments with this new machine, desired to augment the
tension of the electricity it furnishes. A very decided increase of
effect is obtained by employing a stronger battery to put the apparatus
in activity, and the electricity developed at the poles acquires a
marked increase of tension. But this method has an inconvenience
which makes the instrument lose its principal advantage, which con-
sists in the regularity and duration of its effects. When in operation
very brilliant sparks are produced between the surfaces of the inter-
rupter ; yet, notwithstanding these surfaces are of platina, they are
soon melted and deformed when the current is made more intense,
the vibrations of the interrupter consequently become less constant,
and the production of electricity soon ceases to take place with regu-
larity. The same inconvenience would doubtless manifest itself, if an
attempt was made to give to the apparatus of induction superior
dimensions to those adopted by M. Ruhmkorff ; for the force of the
sparks, which appear at the points of contact of the interrupter, is es-
pecially due to an inducted current, which is also produced in the in-
ducting wire itself; and if the dimension of the wires, and the number
of spiral windings, be augmented, the current will necessarily become
more intense, and the sparks stronger. But a careful study of the pe-
culiarities of the apparatus, suggested to M. Fizeau a very different
method of increasing the energy of the effects produced. This con-
sists in disposing a condenser, formed of two plates of tin, each
isolated from the other by a coating of varnish, and to connect each
of these plates with each of the extremities of the inducting wire.
So that the two electricities may spread themselves upon the two
surfaces of tin where they will lose, in a great degree, their tension
from the effect of the mutual influence exerted through the isolating
coating of varnish. When the condenser presents a sufficient surface,
(two or three square feet,) it will be seen that communications are
immediately established, the light becomes weaker at the point of
interruption, and, at the same time, the machine receives a remarkable
increase of energy ; the poles then give much stronger sparks, which
strike at distances much greater than they could attain before. The
condenser may be placed conveniently in a horizontal position, a little
above the electro-magnet, and supported by glass feet.

APPLICATION OF THE TELEGRAPH AND ELECTRICITY TO MIL-
ITARY PURPOSES.

At a recent grand review at Olmutz, Austria, at which the Em-
perors of Russia and Austria were present, a sham fight on a grand
scale, the siege of the citadel, including the application of electricity
on the most recently approved principles of ignition and combustion,
constituted the most important of the manoeuvres which were prac-
tised. A Vienna paper describes three omnibus-looking vehicles,
which were in the camp, each containing a complete electric appara-
tus, with a contrivance for laying an insulated wire along the ground
by the mere locomotion of the vehicle, the wire being so protected as

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124 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

to remain uninjured by the pressure of the heaviest artillery passing
over it. By this means orders are to be instantaneously conveyed
from the Emperor's station, and that of the chief commander to
troops at almost any distance on the field of the manoeuvres.

WEAVING BY ELECTRICITY.

The Commerce Sericole, a French commercial paper, gives an ac-
count of the remarkable invention by which it is proposed to utilize
the electric current in the process of weaving. In the Jacquard loom,
as is well known, the regulation of that particular order of the threads
which determines the distinctive character of the fabric, and which
was formerly effected by children crouched under the loom pulling
cords, is at the present produced by the movement which the weaver
gives himself to a treadle. This invention, however admirable, is not
without difficulties and certain defects, which it would be satisfactory
to overcome by still simpler means. At each passage of the shuttle,
there must be a piece of card-board of a certain breadth, pierced with
holes arranged so as to correspond with the design ; and when we
bear in mind that, for certain designs, as many as 40,000 of these
pieces of card-board have to be used, and that 1,500 are required in
ordinary cases for a design of the simplest coloring, and calculating
that they cost about 15 francs (12s. 6d.) per hundred, it will be easily
seen that these cards must be the cause of great expense, as well as
inconvenience. There are other objections, of more or less impor-
tance ; such as the noise which the loom makes in working, the space
which it occupies, and its constant liability to derangements. All
these inconveniences are about to disappear, by the introduction of
electricity, the action of which is so powerful, so easy to be directed,
and so prompt in its various operations. The treadle of the weaver
lifts the threads and connects the extremity of each by means of cop-
per wire, with a current of electricity either positive or negative at
will, and the result is, that without any noise some of the threads re-
main suspended, and others descend, according as the current is di-
rected. By this means as great a simplicity is effected in the weaving
of fabrics of the most complicated nature, as in that of common
cloth. To direct the electricity, there is no longer need of mechan-
ism for transferring or tracing the design. A series of points are ar-
ranged in a line like the teeth of a comb, each point communicating
with an electro-magnet. The weaver will only have to pass under-
neath these points the design, traced in varnish on a cylinder or on a
metallic leaf, in communication with the battery. The current will
pass only where the varnish is wanting, and it will be the correspond-
ing threads only which will remain suspended, and which, by that
means, will reproduce the design as it came from the hands of the
artist, with a surprising exactitude. Instead of the expense of a de-
sign, through the means of complicated cards, you have only that of
a simple design, and of the tending of the battery. Telegraphic expe-
rience proves how slight will be this last. There will be a saving in

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 125

the most complicated designs of very nearly three-fourths of the ex-
pense, and in others certainly more than half. We shall be able,
moreover, to correct and vary our designs by a few strokes of the
brush ; and their slight cost will permit a more frequent renewal.

IMPROVEMENT IN LIGHTNING RODS.

Two patents have been recently granted, for improved lightning-
rods, both having for their object such a construction of the point as
shall cause it to be left tolerably well pointed even after it has been
partially melted by an ele'ctric discharge. The principle in both is
the use of metals or metallic alloys of different degrees of fusibility ;
the most fusible forming the upper end or outer surface of the point.
In one of these points the device consists in completely covering or
coating the inner or main point with a pointed metallic sheath of a
more fusible metal or alloy ; and this again with another still more
fusible ; and this, if desired, with still another. In case of a stroke of
lightning sufficiently powerful to melt the point, as not unfrequently
happens, from its small mass and the great heat produced where
the fluid passes from the air to the conductor, the external sheath
is to act as a protector to the point of more infusible alloy within,
by absorbing the heat as it melts off, leaving the latter sufficiently
perfect still to act as a point.

The other plan is a modification in which the unequally fusible
metals or alloys, instead of being formed as a succession of sheaths,
are made solid, and connected one above another by oblique joints or
faces, the inclination being towards the square or angular corner of
the rod, so that when one section is removed the one next below will
be left with a sharp point on that corner. Patent Office Report, 1852.

ON THE ACTION OF ELECTRICITY UPON THE MAGNETIC NEEDLE.

There are several methods of measuring the intensity of electrical
currents : the most common is the magnetised needle, which has the
property of placing itself transversely to the direction followed by
the positive electricity following the conductor placed near the nee-
dle. It was by making the discovery of this mysterious action, that
(Erstedt, the natural philosopher, of Copenhagen, gained the brightest
scientific glory achieved during this century; and it was his great
good fortune to see before his death, this leading principle serve
as the foundation on which the science of electro-magnetism is
reared. The action of electricity in motion upon the magnetised
needle is such, that if the observer would identify himself with
the current (and suppose it entered his body at his feet and
left it by his head,) he would find the needle form a cross with
him, and point its south pole to the left. As the needle, however,
is continually struggling with the action of the earth, it does not com-
pletely yield to the current, which, were the earth impotent, would
place it at right angles with the current, but generally it takes an ob-

126 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

lique direction, conformably to the result of the combined actions of
the current and the earth. The more the action of the current pre-
dominates, the nearer this result approaches the perpendicular of the
conducting wire; so that the greatness of the deviation produced by
the influence of the current, serves to measure the current itself, pro-
vided the observer knows the law which determines the intensity, and
its relation to the greatness of the deviation two quantities which
vary in the same sense, but which are never rigorously in proportion.
When the needle and the current are placed in certain conditions
(which will be presently specified,) the angular deviations increase
less rapidly than the intensity of the current ; but if instead of the
angles of deviation, their trigonometrical tangents are taken, the ex-
perimenter will find values in proportion to the intensity he seeks to
ascertain. To do this, the electrical current must move in a vertical
circle, whose plane is parallel to the natural direction of the magnetic
needle ; in other words, the circular conductor must be placed accor-
ding to the magnetic meridian ; secondly, the magnetic needle placed
in the centre of this circle, must be so small as not to move beyond
the plane of the circle (during its oscillations from right to left,)
where the maximum of the magnetic actions take place. Then,
and only then, M. Pouillet's tangent compass gives, without need
of correction, exact measures.

But, it is evident that a galvanometric compass, formed of a cir-
cle infinitely large, or of a needle infinitely small, is a pure fiction ;
and so soon as an experimenter wishes to realize it, and gives it
such proportions as are necessary for convenience in experiment-
ing, the circle is always too small or the magnetic needle too
large. Then between the real and the theoretical deviation such
great differences are found to exist [differences which augment
in proportion to the strength of the currents] the experimenter is
forced to choose, as recently happened with M. Despretz, between
two equally inconvenient alternatives : to restrict the use of the com-
pass to the measurement of small arcs of deviation, or to calculate
greater deviations by a complicated formula, in which new terms are
employed, charged with representing the characteristic data of the in-
strument. Besides, it will easily be conceived that all sensible in-
crease of size given to the needle placed in the center of the circular
current, militates against the exactness of the deviations ; in truth,
the principle of the compass-tangent supposes that in every position
of the magnetic needle around its pivot, the sum of the distances of
each of its points to all the elements of the circle remains the same.
But it is clear that the moment the needle quits the plane of the cir-
cle in turning on its pivot, its extremities are removed from the ma-
jority of the points, which must then influence it at its then distance ;
and, consequently, this influence diminishing the deviation, must re-
main less than its theoretical value. Thus all tangent-compasses
hitherto employed, are the more inert, as they are used to measure
stronger currents.

Such was the state of the question when M. Gaugain, an engineer

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 127

and ancien ekve of the Polyteclinic school made an ingenious remark.
He supposed that the needle, instead of being placed in the plane of
the circle, should be placed completely outside of it, either on the one
or the other side, but always perpendicular to the plane of the circle
and by its center ; he foresaw that, in these new conditions, the needle
would be in the power of the circular current, and that it would be
forced to make a greater deviation from its initial position, (parallel to
the circle.) He saw that if the needle avoided by one of its extrem-
ities, the magnetic action of the current, it would go before this action
on the other extremity ; that what was lost on one side would be
more than gained on the other, and consequently the violations of the
law of tangents must, compared to the preceding case, be produced
in an inverse sense ; he observed that in the conditions where the or-
dinary tangent-compass became inert, this was endued with increased
alacrity. But, by virtue of the great law of continuity, which regu-
lates the phenomena of nature, as well as those connected with pure
mathematics, there must exist upon that perpendicular to the centre of
the circle, a point where the magnetic needle, avoiding both extremes,
must necessarily follow a regular march.

To test his idea by experiment, M. Gaugain went to M. Fronient, the
celebrated instrument maker, and ordered a tangent-compass, whose cir-
cle could at will be made to move parallel to itself and be placed at differ-
ent distances from the centre of the needle. By means of this arrange-
ment, he has been enabled to ascertain what is for every position of the
circle the corresponding value of the difference between the real and
theoretical deviations, which he sought to annihilate. He attained
these results : when the circle is of a small diameter and occupies
its ordinary position, or when its center coincides with that of the
magnetic needle, the value of the difference is very great, when the
deviation itself is somewhat great ; but if the circle is removed from
the center of the needle, it is found that the difference corresponding
to a determined deviation decreases as the circle is removed from the
needle ; when it has reached a certain distance, the difference is mil
for all the deviations. Beyond this distance, the difference begins to
re-appear with a contrary sign, and its absolute value continues to in-
crease with the distance, (at least with quite extensive limits.) M.
Gaugain next operated comparatively with two different circles, and
he observed for both of them that the true place of the center of the
needle is outside of their planes, at a distance equal to one quarter of
their radius. The analysis applied to this question by M. Bravis, con-
firms the result of this experiment. Proc. French Academy.

SELF-REGISTERING COMPASS.

M. Deleuil has presented to the French Academy a new self-
registering compass. Its object is to register the changes of direction
in a vessel for every three minutes during the twenty-four hours.
The marking is made upon a compass card ; and it enables the captain
to control with certainty the direction followed by his ship, and to

12*

I

128 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

overlook most effectively the manoeuvres of the steersman and pilot.
This self-register consists of three principal parts: 1st, a clock
movement placed at the center of the apparatus for causing the point
or pivot carrying the needles to move up and down at regular inter-
vals ; 2d, an endless screw furnished with a nut carrying the point for
piercing the paper ; 3d, the compass-card, made of three needles fixed
to a sheet of mica, a material as little hygrometric as possible. The
mica is covered with a desk of velvet firmly glued to it by means of
strong glue, and whose tissue has been saturated with a kind of glue

<T> ^j * ^j

that is soft when cold. On cooling, the glue has an even surface
pierced with an infinity of pores, into which the point will readily
penetrate after having pierced the paper compass-card. Owing to
this addition, the process of puncturing does not stop the movement
of the needle, a principle essential to the success of any method of
self-registering. When the needle is fixed towards the north, the axis
or diametral line of the compass-card is placed in the line of the axis
of the ship, and the punctures made every three minutes, will indi-
cate the deviation of this axis with reference to the magnetic needle.
The succession of points, or the nearly continuous line which they
trace, shows to the eye the course of the route.

IMPROVEMENTS IN GALVANIC BATTERIES.

Some new and improved galvanic batteries have been described by
M. Kukla, of Vienna. The combination used in one of these, is anti-
mony or some of its alloys, for a negative plate, with nitric acid of
specific gravity 1.4, in contact with it, and unamalgamated zinc, for a
positive plate, with a saturated solution of common salt in contact
with it. A small quantity of finely powdered per-oxide of manganese
is put into the nitric acid, which is said to increase the constancy of
the battery. The alloys of antimony which Mr. Kukla has experimented
with successfully are the following : Phosphorus and antimony, chro-
mium and antimony, arsenic and antimony, boron and antimony. These
are in the order of their negative character, phosphorus and antimony
being the most negative. Antimony itself is less negative than any of
these alloys. The alloys are made in the proportions of the atomic
weights of the substances. All these arrangements are said by Mr.
Kukla to be more powerful than when platinum or carbon is substituted
for antimony or its alloys. In this battery a gutta percha bell-cover is
used over the antimony, and resting on a Hat ring floating on the top of
the zinc solution, this effectually prevents any smell, and keeps the
per-oxide of nitrogen in contact with the nitric acid solution. When
a battery of twenty-four cells was used, Mr. Kukla found that in the
third and twenty-first cells pure ammonia in solution was the ultimate
result of the action of the battery ; but only water in all the others.
This experiment was tried repeatedly, and always with the same
result. A battery was put into action for twenty-four hours, at the
end of that time the nitric acid had lost thirteen-twentieths of an
ounce of oxygen, and one-quarter of an ounce of zinc was consumed.

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 129

Now as one-quarter of an ounce of zinc requires only 0.06 of an ounce
of oxygen to form oxide of zinc, Mr. Kukla draws the conclusion that
the rest of the oxygen is converted directly into electricity ; and this
view, he says, is confirmed by the large amount of electricity given
out by the battery in proportion to the zinc consumed in a given time.
In the above battery each zinc plate had a surface of forty square
inches. The addition" of per-oxide of manganese does not increase the
effect of the battery, but it makes it more lasting; the per-oxide of
nitrogen, formed in the bell-cover, taking one atom of oxygen from
the per-oxide of manganese ; this is evident from only the oxide of
manganese being found in the battery after a time : in the salt solution
no other alteration takes place than what is caused by the oxide of
zinc remaining in a partly dissolved state in the solution. For this
battery Mr. Kukla much prefers porous cells, or diaphragms of biscuit
ware, as less liable to break, and being more homogeneous in their ma-
terial than any other kind. This battery is very cheap, antimony be-
ing only 5d. per lb., wholesale, and the zinc not requiring amalgama-
tion. The second arrangement tried by Mr. Kukla was antimony and
amalgamated zinc, with only one exciting solution, viz. : concentrated
sulphuric acid. This battery has great heating power, and the former
great magnetizing power. It, however, rapidly decreases in power,
and is not so practically useful as the double fluid battery, which will
exert about the same power for fourteen days, when the poles are only
occasionally connected as in electric telegraphs. Certain peculiarities
respecting the ratio of intensity to quantity when a series of cells is
used, have been observed, which differ from those remarked in other
batteries. Mr. Kukla, on directing his attention to the best means of
making a small portable battery for physiological purposes, has found
very small and flat Cruikshank batteries, excited by weak phosphoric
acid (one of glacial phosphoric acid to twenty of water), to be the
best. Phosphoric acid being very deliquescent, and forming with the
zinc, during the galvanic action, an acid phosphate of zinc. A bat-
tery of this description does not decrease in power very materially
until it has been three hours in action.

THE AURORA BOREALIS AND THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.

A correspondent of the Boston Traveller furnishes the following
results of six years' experience in determining what effect the Aurora
Borealis exerts upon the telegraphic wires.

On the House, Morse, and other magnetic telegraphs, the effect
produced by the Aurora is generally to increase or diminish the elec-
tric current used in working the wires ; sometimes it entirely neutral-
izes it, so that in effect no fluid is discoverable on them. As, however,
the Bain, or chemical telegraph, is much the best adapted for observing
the precise effect produced by the Aurora, I shall confine myself*
principally to it. In this system, the main, or line wire, is brought
into direct contact with the chemically prepared paper, which lies on
a metal disc, connected with the ground ; any action of the atmos-
pheric current is therefore immediately recorded on paper

130 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

During a thunder storm, the atmospheric electricity attracted by the
wires passes over them to the chemically prepared paper, and thence
to the ground. As it passes from the wire to the paper, it emits a
bright spark, and produces a sound like the snapping of a pistol. At-
mospheric electricity never remains for any length of time on the
wires ; it will, however, sometimes travel many miles before discharg-
ing itself; I have seen discharges of electricity from the instrument,
which emanated from thunder storms forty or fifty miles distant.

The effect produced by the Aurora Borealis on the wires, and the
record on the paper, is entirely different fro that of the atmospher-
ic current. Instead of discharging itself from the wires with a flash
and report, and without the aid of a conductor, as is the case with the
latter, it glides along the wires in a continuous stream, producing the
same result on paper as that produced by the galvanic battery. It is
well known that only the positive pole of the battery produces the
colored mark on the paper the negative having the contrary effect
of bleaching it ; the same is also true of the two currents from the
Aurora. The current usually commences lightly, producing a light
blue line just perceptible on the paper and gradually increases in
strength, making a dark blue, and then a black line till finally it
becomes so strong as to burn through several thicknesses of it ; it then
gradually disappears, and is followed by the bleaching process, which
entirely neutralizes the current from the batteries.

In my diary of September 29, 1851, 1 find the following account of
the effects of the Aurora on the evening of that day : " All the lines
leading from the city are so strongly charged with atmospheric elec-
tricity this evening as to prevent operation. The surplus current on
the Chemical Line is equal to one hundred and fifty Grove's cups ;
and the same seems to be the case on the House and Morse wires.
The weather is cloudy, but through the clouds we can occasionally
see the brilliant scintillations of an Aurora Borealis." The next day
I ascertained that the Aurora, as seen from Providence, New Haven,
and other places, was very brilliant. February 19, 1852, I find the
following description of the effects of the Aurora of that date, in my
journal : " Toward evening a faint blue line appeared on the paper,
which gradually grew stronger and darker, until at last it burnecl it ;
then gradually grew fainter until it disappeared, when it appeared
again in a new form, bleaching instead of coloring the paper. This
singular phenomenon continued until we closed, at a late hour in the
evening. The Aurora was very brilliant in the evening."

Mr. llowe, Superintendent of the Boston and Vermont Telegraph
Company, showed me specimens of paper taken from instruments
on that line, at 12 o'clock at night three hours after the batteries
were taken off which were covered with light and heavy blue lines
and bleachings. These were caused by the Aurora of the 19th of
February.

Our troubles from the Aurora are not confined to the evenings
entirely, though they are more frequent then. On several occasions I
have predicted in the afternoon that we should have an Aurora in the

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 131

evening, judging by the effect on the wires at that time, and I do not
recollect that I have ever been mistaken in my predictions.

Thursday, April 22, 1852, were much troubled by an atmospheric
current; sometimes preventing our working for half an hour or
more, and then disappearing for about that time ; the current was
constantly changing during the whole evening. We had a very bril-
liant display of the Aurora.

The Aurora Borealis seems to be composed of a vast mass of elec-
tric matter, resembling in every respect that generated by the electro-
galvanic battery ; the currents from it change, coming on the wires,
and then disappearing as the mass of the Aurora rolls from the ho-
rizon to the zenith sometimes so faintly as to be scarcely percepti-
ble, and then so strongly as to emit one continual blaze of fire yet
very different from what we commonly term atmospheric electricity,
and which we cannot relieve ourselves from, as in the latter case, by
placing ground wire conductors in close proximity to the line wires.

TERRESTRIAL MAGNETISM.

No one has contributed more to the progress of Terrestrial Mag-
netism during the last few years than Col. Sabine, formerly Presi-
dent of the British Association. Heretofore we owed theories on this
subject much more to the boldness of ignorance than to the just confi-
dence of knowledge ; but from the commencement of the systematic
observations which Col. Sabine has been so active in promoting, this
vague and useless theorizing ceased, to be succeeded ere long by
the sound speculative researches of those who may be capable of grap-
pling with the real difficulties of the subject, when the true laws of
the phenomena shall have been determined. These laws are coming
forth with beautiful precision from the reductions which Col. Sabine
is now making of the numerous observations taken at the different
magnetic stations. In his address before the Association, in 1852, he
stated that the secular change of the magnetic forces was confirmed
by these recent observations'; and also that periodical variations de-
pending on the solar day and on the time of the year, had been dis-
tinctly made out, indicating the sun as the cause of these variations.
During the past year the results of the reductions of the observations
made at Toronto have brought out with equal perspicuity, a varia-
tion in the direction of the magnetic needle, going through all its
changes exactlv in each lunar dav. These results with reference to

o *" */

the sun, prove the immediate and direct exercise of a magnetic influ-
ence emanating from that luminary ; and also the same conclusion
with regard to the influence of the moon. It would seem, therefore,
that some of the curious phenomena of magnetism which have hitherto
been regarded as strictly terrestrial, are really due to solar and lunar,
as much as to terrestrial magnetism. It is beautiful to trace with such
precision these delicate influences of bodies so distant, producing phe-
nomena scarcely less striking either to the imagination or to the philo-
sophic mind, than more obvious phenomena which originate in the

132 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

/

great luminary of our system. Hopkins' Address, British Association,
1853.

At a subsequent meeting of the Association, Prof. Phillips remarked
that in terrestrial magnetism, magnetic and diamagnetic effects on a
suspended needle ought probably to be looked for as a simple conse-
quence of the superposition of the strata, and their pressure on one
another. Looking at what had been done with magnetism, and con-
sidering what had been stated by Colonel Sabine, that the moon as
well as the sun had effects on magnetism, he must say that he thought
the day would come when we should be able, by magnetism, to arrive
at the nature of those substances beneath the thin crust of the earth's
surface, and that over the red sandstone of England we should be
able to see into the condition of coal measures, without actually mak-
ing a perforation.

FARADAY ON THE MOTION OF TABLES.

The following account of the method pursued and the results ob-
tained by Prof. Faraday in the investigation of a subject which has
taken such strange occupation of the public mind, both in America
and Europe, was communicated by the author to the London Athe-
naeum.

" I have been," says the Professor, " greatly startled by the revela-
tion which this purely physical subject has made of the condition of
the public mind. No doubt, there are many persons who have formed
a right judgment or used a cautious reserve for I know several
such, and public communications have shown it to be so ; but their
number is almost as nothing to the greSt body who have believed and
borne testimony, as I think, in the cause of error. I do not here refer
to the distinction of those who agree with me and those who differ.
By the great body, I mean such as reject all consideration of the equal-
ity of cause and effect who refer the results to electricity and mag-
netism, yet know nothing of the laws of these forces or to attrac-
tion, yet show no phenomena of pure attractive power or to the
rotation of the earth, as if the earth revolved round the leg of a
table or to some unrecognized physical force, without inquiring
whether the known forces are not sufficient or who even refer them
to diabolical or supernatural agency, rather than suspend their judg-
ment, or acknowledge to themselves that they are not learned enough
in these matters to decide on the nature of the action. I think the
system of education that could leave the mental condition of the pub-
lic body in the state in which this subject has found, it must have been
greatly deficient in some very important principle."

" The object which I had in view in this inquiry was not to satisfy
myself, for my conclusion had been formed already on the evidence of
those who had turned tables but that I might be enabled to give a
strong opinion, founded on facts, to the many who applied to me for
it. Yet, the proof which I sought for, and the method followed in the
inquiry, were precisely of the same nature as those which I should

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 133

adopt in any other physical investigation. The parties with -whom I
have worked were very honorable, very clear in their intentions, suc-
cessful table-movers, very desirous of succeeding in establishing the
existence of a peculiar power, thoroughly candid, and very effectual.
It is with nie a clear point that the table moves when the parties,
though they strongly wish it, do not intend, and do not believe that
they move it by ordinary mechanical power. They say, the table
di-aws their hands ; that it moves first, and they have to follow it,
that sometimes it even moves from under their hands. With some the
table will move either to the right or left according as they wish or
will it, with others the direction of the first motion is uncertain ;
but all agree that the table moves the hands, and not the hands the
table. Though I believe the parties do not intend to move the table,
but obtain the result by a quasi involuntary action, still I had no
doubt of the influence of expectation upon their minds, and through
that upon the success or failure of their efforts. The first point,
therefore, was, to remove all objections due to expectation, having
relation to the substances which I might desire to use : so, plates of
the most different bodies, electrically speaking, namely, sand-paper,
millboard, glue, glass, moist clay, tinfoil, cardboard, gutta percha, vul-
canized rubber, wood, &c., were made into a bundle and placed on
a table under the hands of a turner. The table turned. Other bun-
dles of other plates were submitted to different persons at other times,
and the tables turned. Henceforth, therefore, these substances may
be used in the construction of apparatus. Neither during their use
nor at other times could the slightest trace of electrical or magnetic
effects be obtained. At the same trials it was readily ascertained that
one person could produce the- effect; and that the motion was not
necessarily circular, but might be in a straight line. No form of ex-
periment or mode . of observation that I could devise, gave me the
slightest indication of any peculiar natural force. No attractions, or
repulsions, or signs of tangential power, appeared, nor anything
which could be referred to other than the mere mechanical pressure
exerted inadvertently by the turner. I therefore proceeded to ana-
lyze this pressure, or that part of it exerted in a horizontal direction :
doing so, in the first instance, unawares to the party. A soft cement,
consisting of wax and turpentine, or wax and pomatum, was pre-
pared. Four or five pieces of smooth, slippery cardboard were at-
tached, one over the other, by little pellets of the cement, and the
lower of these to a piece of sand-paper resting on the table ; the edges
of these sheets overlapped slightly, and on the under surface a pencil
line was drawn over the laps so as to indicate position. The upper
card-board was larger than the rest, so as to cover the whole from
sight. Then, the table turner placed the hands upon the upper card,
and we waited for the result. Now, the cement was strong enough to
offer considerable resistance to mechanical motion, and also to retain
the cards in any new position which they might acquire and yet
Aveak enough to give way slowly to a continued force. When at last
the tables, cards, and hands all moved to the left together, and so a

134 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

true result was obtained, I took up the pack. On examination, it was
easy to see by the displacement of the parts of the line, that the hand
had moved further than the table, and that the latter had lagged be-
hind that the hand, in fact, had pushed the upper card to the left,
and that the under cards and the table had followed and been dragged
by it. In other similar cases when the table had not moved, still the
upper card was found to have moved, showing that the hand had car-
ried it in the expected direction. It was evident, therefore, that the
table had not drawn the hand and person round, nor had it moved
simultaneously with the hand. The hand had left all things under it
behind, and the table evidently tended continually to keep the hand
back.

The next step was to arrange an index, which should show whether
the table moved first, or the hand moved before the table, or both
moved or remained at rest together. At first this was done by plac-
ing an upright pin fixed on a leaden foot upon the table, and using
that as the fulcrum of a light lever. The latter was made of a slip of
foolscap paper, and the short arm, about quarter of an inch in length,
was attached to a pin proceeding from the edge of a slipping card
placed on the table, and prepared to receive the hands of the table-
turner. The other arm of 11^- inches long served for the index of
motion. A coin laid on the table marked the normal position of the
card and index. At first the slipping card was attached to the table
by the soft cement, and the index was either screened from the turner,
or the latter looked away : then, before the table moved, the index
showed that the hand was giving a resultant pressure in the expected
direction. The effect was never carried far enough to move the
table, for the motion of the index corrected the judgment of the ex-
perimenter, who became aware that, inadvertently, a side force had
been exerted. The card was now set free from the table, i. e., the
cement was removed. This, of course, could not interfere with any
of the results expected by the table-turner, for both the bundle of
plates spoken of and single cards had been freely moved on the tables
before ; but now that the index was there witnessing to the eye, and
through it to the mind of the table-turner, not the slightest tendency
to motion either of the card or of the table occurred. Indeed, whether
the card was left free or attached to the table, all motion or tendency
to motion was gone. In one particular case there was relative motion
between the table and the hands : I believe that the hands moved in
one direction ; the table-turner was persuaded that the table moved
from under the hand in the other direction : a guage, standing upon
the floor, and pointing to the table, was therefore set up on that and
some future occasions, and then, neither motion of the hand nor of
the table occurred.

A more perfect lever apparatus was then constructed in the follow-
in^ manner: Two thin boards, 9^ inches by 7 inches, were provi-
ded ; a board, 9 by 5 inches, was glued to the middle of the underside
of one of these, (to be called the table-board,) so as to raise the edges
free from the table ; being placed on the table, near and parallel to

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 135

its side, an upright pin was fixed close to the further edge of the
board, at the middle, to serve as the fulcrum for the indicating lever.
Then, four glass rods, 7 inches long and ^ in diameter, were placed as
rollers on different parts of this table-board, and the upper board
placed on them ; the rods permitted any required amount of pressure
on the boards, with a free motion of the upper on the lower to the
right and left. At the part corresponding to the pin in the lower
board, a piece was cut out of the upper beard, and a pin attached
there, which, being bent downward, entered the hole in the end of the
short arm of the index lever ; this part of the lever was of cardboard ;
the indicating prolongation was a straight hay-stalk 15 inches long. In
order to restrain the motion of the upper board on the lower, two vul-
canized rubber rings were passed round both, at the parts not resting on
the table ; these, while they tied the boards together, acted also as
springs, and while they allowed the first feeblest tendency to mo-
tion to be seen by the index, exerted, before the upper board had
moved a quarter of an inch, sufficient power in pulling the upper
board back from either side, to resist a strong lateral action of the
hand. All being thus arranged, except that the lever was away
the two boards were tied together with string, running parallel to the
vulcanized rubber springs, so as to be immovable in relation to each
other. They were then placed on the table, and a table-turner sat
down to them ; the table very shortly moved in due order, showing
that the apparatus offered no impediment to the action. A like ap-
paratus with metal rollers produced the same result under the hands
of another person. The index was now put into its place, and the
string loosened, so that the springs should come into play. It was
soon seen, with the party that could will the motion in either direc-
tion, (from whom the index was purposely hidden) that the hands
were gradually creeping up in the direction before agreed upon,
though the party certainly thought they were pressing downward only.
When shown that it was so, they were truly surprised ; but when they
lifted up their hands and immediately saw the index return to its nor-
mal position, they were convinced. When they looked at the index
and could see for themselves whether they were pressing truly down-
ward, or obliquely so as to produce a resultant in a right or left handed
direction, then such an effect never took place. Several tried for a
long while together, and with the best will in the world ; but no mo-
tion, right or left, of the table, or hand, or anything else, occurred.
The result was, that when the parties saw the index, it remained very
steady ; when it was hidden from them, or they looked away from it,
it wavered about, though they believed that they always pressed
directly downward ; and, when the table did not move, there was still
a resultant of hand force in the direction in which it was wished the
table should move, which, however, was exercised quite unwittingly
by the party operating. This resultant it is which, in the course of
the waiting time, while the fingers and hands become stiff, numb, and
insensible by continued pressure, grows to an amount sufficient to
move the table or the substances pressed upon. But the most valuable

13

136 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERT.

effect of this test apparatus (which was afterward made more perfect
and independent of the table) is the corrective power it possesses over
the mind of the table-turner. As soon as the index is placed before
the most earnest, and they perceive as in my presence they have
always done that it tells truly whether they are pressing downward
only or obliquely, then all effects of table-turning cease, even though
the parties persevere, earnestly desiring motion, till they become
weary and worn out. No prompting or checking of the hand is
needed the power is gone; and this only because the parties are
made conscious of what they are really doing mechanically, and so are
unable unwittingly to deceive themselves. 1 know that some may say
that it is the cardboard next the fingers which moves first, and that it
both drags the table and also the table-turner with it. All I have to
reply is, that the cardboard may in practice be reduced to a thin sheet
of paper weighing only a few grains, or to a piece of goldbeaters'
skin, or even to the end of the lever, and (in principle) to the very
cuticle of the fingers itself. Then the results that follow are too ab-
surd to be admitted ; the table becomes an incumbrance, and the per-
son holding out the fingers in the air, either naked or tipped with
goldbeaters' skin or cardboard, ought to be drawn about the room,
&c. ; but I refrain from considering imaginary yet consequent results,
which have nothing philosophical or reasonable in them.

Another form of index was applied thus : A circular hole was cut
in the middle of the upper board, and a piece of cartridge paper past-
ed under it on the lower surface of the board ; a thin slice of cork was
fixed on the upper surface of the lower board corresponding to the
cartridge paper ; the interval between them might be a quarter of an
inch or less. A needle was fixed into the end of one of the index
hay-stalks, and when all was in place the needle point was passed
through the cartridge paper and pressed slightly into the cork beneath,
so as to stand upright; then any motion of the hand, or hand-board,
was instantly rendered evident by the deflection of the perpendicular
hay-stalk to the right or left.

I think the apparatus I have described may be useful to many who
really wish to know the truth of nature, and would prefer that truth
to a mistaken conclusion ; desired, perhaps, only because it seems to
be new or strange. Persons do not know how difficult it is to press
directly downward, or in any given direction against a fixed obstacle ;
or even to know only whether they are doing so or not ; unless they
have some indicator, which, by visible motion or otherwise, shall in-
struct them ; and this is more especially the case when the muscles of
the finger and hand have been cramped and rendered either tingling,
or insensible, or cold by long continued pressure. If a finger be
pressed constantly in the corner of a window frame, for ten minutes
or more, and then, continuing the pressure, the mind be directed to
judge whether the force at any given moment is all horizontal, or all
downward, or how much is in one direction and how much in the oth-
er, it will find great difficulty in deciding ; and will at last become al-
together uncertain : at least such is my case. I know that a similar

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 137

result occurs with others ; for I have had two boards arranged, separ-
ated, not by rollers but by plugs of vulcanized rubber, and with the
vertical index : when a person with his hands on the upper board is
requested to press only downward, and the index is hidden from his
sight, it moves to the right, to the left, to him and from him, and in
all horizontal directions : so utterlv unable is he strictlv to fulfil his in-

V +'

tention without a visible and correcting indicator. Now, such is the
use of the instrument with the horizontal index and rollers : the mind
is instructed, and the involuntary or quasi involuntary motion is
checked in the commencement, and therefore never rises up to the
degree needful to move the table, or even permanently the index it-
self.

The subject of the table movement has been also brought before the
French Academy, in a paper by M. Seguin, one of the members.
The subject, as might be supposed, found no favor with Arago, who,
after the reading of this communication, intimated, in brief but some-
what vague terms, that his belief was, that the movement of the
tables is caused by muscular action. And he proceeded to say :
" What is most extraordinary and most difficult to explain in the phe-
nomenon is the circumstance, that with impulsions, so to speak, in-
finitely small, imprinted on the table with the fingers, we in time can
communicate to it active movements, (ties mouvernens considerables")
This, however, he alleged, is no novelty, as " Mr. Elliot, a watchmak-
er, relates in the ' Philosopical Transactions ' of some years ago, that
two clocks having been hung to a wall, a foot apart, one of which was
going, the other standing, the latter after a while began going too,
being set in motion by the imperceptible vibrations transmitted from
the other through the solid body between them and it even contin-
ued going after the first one was stopped."

INFLUENCE OF THE MIND ON MUSCULAR AND NERVOUS

ACTION.

The following letter on the subject of magnetization, &c., was ad-
dressed to the illustrious savant, Ampere, by M. Chevreuil, a member
of the French Academy, and was first published in the Revue des
Deux Mondes, in the year 1833. It was in 1812 that several persons
affirmed that a pendulum formed of a heavy body and a flexible
string would oscillate when held by the hand over certain substances,
although the arm should remain stationary, and they urged M. Chev-
reuil to make the experiment.

" The pendulum I used (says M. Chevreuil) was an iron ring sus-
pended by a flaxen thread ; it had been arranged by a person who
was very anxious that I should verify for myself the phenomenon
which appeared when it was placed over water, a block of metal, or a
living being --a phenomenon which I saw appear in his hands. It
was not, I confess, without surprise that I saw it reproduced when,
having taken hold with my right hand of the pendulum's string, I
placed it above the mercury reservoir of my air-pump, an anvil, sev-

138 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

eral animals, &c. I concluded from my experiments that, as I was
informed there were only a certain number of bodies apt to determine
the oscillations of the pendulum, it might be that, in interposing other
bodies between the former and the pendulum, the oscillations would
cease.

" Notwithstanding my presumption, my astonishment was great when ,
after having taken with my left hand a plate of glass or a cake of res-
in, &c., and having placed these bodies between the mercury and the
pendulum which oscillated over it, I saw the oscillations diminish in
length and then wholly cease. They recommenced when the inter-
mediate body was taken away, and again ceased upon its re-interpo-
sition. This succession of phenomena was repeated a great many
times, with a really remarkable constancy, whether the intermediate
body was held by me or by any other person.

" The more extraordinary these effects seemed to me, the more
necessary I felt the importance of verifying that they were foreign to all
muscular motion of the arm, as I had been informed they were, in the
most positive manner. This induced me to lean my right arm, which
held the pendulum, upon a wooden support, which at intervals I grad-
ually advanced from my shoulder to my hand, and brought back from
my hand to my shoulder. I soon noticed that in the first circumstance
the motion of the pendulum decreased in proportion as the support
was placed near the hand, and that it ceased when the fingers which
held the thread were themselves supported, whereas in the second
case the contrary effect took place.

" This induced me to think that it was very probable that a muscu-
lar motion which took place unknown to me determined the phenom-
ena ; and I was the more inclined to take this opinion into considera-
tion as I had a souvenir, vague in truth, of having been in a certain
state when my eyes followed the oscillations described by the pendu-
lum which I held in my hand.

" I made the experiments spoken of above over again, my arm be-
ing entirely free, and I convinced myself that the souvenir just spoken
of was not an illusion of my mind, for I felt very distinctly that,
while my eyes followed the oscillations of the pendulum, there was in
me a disposition or tendency to tlie motion, which, involuntary as it
seemed to be, was the better satisfied as the pendulum described larg-
er arcs ; consequently, I thought that if I had repeated the experi-
ments, first taking care to blindfold my eyes, the results would be
very different from those observed. It happened so exactly. While
the pendulum oscillated above the mercury, a blindfold was placed
over my eyes ; the motion soon diminished ; but, although the oscilla-
tions were feeble, they were not sensibly diminished by the interpo-
sition of the bodies, which seemed to have arrested them in my first
experiments.

" Lastly, from the moment the pendulum was at repose, I still held
it for a quarter of an hour over the mercury without its moving. Dur-
ing this interval, and totally unknown to me, the plate of glass and
cake of resin had been interposed and withdrawn several times by per-
sons in the room.

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 139

" This is the interpretation I give to these phenomena : When I
held the pendulum in my hand, a muscular motion of my arm, al-
though insensible to me, moved the pendulum from its repose, and
when once the oscillations had commenced they were soon augmented
by the influence exercised by the sight, so as to put me in that partic-
lar frame of disposition or tendency to the motion. Now, it must be
acknowledged that the muscular motion, even when it is increased by
this same disposition, is nevertheless weak enough to stop, I will not
say under the empire of the will, but when it has simply the thought
of trying to see whether this or that will stop it.

" So, then, there is an intimate connexion between the execution
of certain motions and the act of the mind relative to them, although
this mental act is not the will which commands the muscular organs.
In this regard, it seems to me that the phenomena I have described is
interesting in connexion .with psychology, and even the history of
sciences ; they prove how easy it is to take illusions for realities,
whenever we turn our attention towards a phenomenon wherein our
bodies play a part, especially in circumstances which have not been
sufficiently analyzed.

" In truth, if I had contented myself with making the pendulum
oscillate above certain bodies, and with the experiments where these
oscillations were arrested when glass, resin, &u., were interposed be-
tween the pendulum and the body which seemed to determine its mo-
tion, then certainly I would have had no reason not to believe in the
divining rod, or any other thing of the same sort. Now, it may be
easily conceived how honest and educated men are sometimes led to
recur to very chimerical ideas to explain phenomena which are not in
reality removed from the physical world we know.

" Consequently, I conceive without difficulty that an honest man,
whose whole attention is fixed upon the motion a rod which he holds
in his hands may take from a cause unknown to him, may receive
from any the least circumstance the tendency to motion necessary to
superinduce the appearance of the expected phenomenon. For ex-
ample, if that man seeks a spring, and he has not his eyes blindfolded,
the sight of a green plat of grass over which he is walking may, un-
known to himself, determine in him the muscular motion capable of
disarranging the rod by the established association between the idea

o o /

of active vegetation and that of water.

" The preceding facts, and the interpretation above given of them,
have led me to connect them with others which we may daily observe.
From this connexion the analysis of them becomes both more simple
and more precise than it was, at the same that time they form an ensem-
ble of facts, whose general interpretation is susceptible of a great exten-
sion. But, before going further, let us distinctly remember that my
observations present two leading circumstances :

" First. To think that a pendulum held in hand may move,
and that it moves without our having the consciousness that the mus-
cular organ gives.it the least impulsion. This is the first fact.

" Secondly. To see this pendulum oscillate, and its oscillations
13*

140 ANNUAL OP SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

become longer from the influence of the sight upon the muscular or-
gan ; and this, too, without our having the consciousness of it. This
is the second fact.

" The tendency to motion, determined in us by the sight of a body
in motion, is found in several cases. For example:

" 1. When the attention is wholly fixed upon a bird flying, a stone
thrown, running water, the body of the spectator is directed more or
less towards the line of motion.

4i 2. When a billiard player follows with his eye the ball he has
just put in motion, he places his body in the position he would see the
ball follow, as if it was still possible for him to direct it towards the
mark whither he sought to direct it.

" When we walk upon a slippery place, everybody knows with
what promptness we throw ourselves on the side opposite to that
whither our body is carried in consequence of losing its equilibrium ;
but a circumstance less generally known is, that a tendency to the
motion appears even when it is impossible for us to move in the sense
of this tendency. For example, in a carriage the fear of being upset
makes us lean in a direction opposite to that which menaces us, and
from it result efforts which are so much the greater as the fright and
irritability are greater. I believe that, in ordinary falls, the falling is
less painful than the effort made to prevent the fall. It is in this
sense that I understand the justness of the proverb : II y a un Dieu
pour les enfans et pour les ivrognes !

" The tendency to motion in a determined sense, resulting from the
attention given to a certain object, seems to me the prime cause of
several phenomena generally ascribed to imitation. Thus when we
have seen or have heard a person gape, the muscular motion of gap-
ing generally takes place in us in consequence. I may make the
same remark about the communication of laughter, and, besides, this
example presents more than any other analogous one, a circumstance
which seems to me to support the explanation I have given of these
phenomena. For laughter, feeble at first, may, if kept up, become
accelerated (pardon the word) as we saw the oscillations of the pen-
dulum held in the hand augment in amplitude, influenced by the
sight ; and laughter, in being accelerated, may go to convulsions.

" I do not doubt but that the sight of certain actions proper, so act
forcibly upon our frail machine, that the relation of these same ac-
tions animates with the voice or gesture ; or, further, the knowledge
communicated of them by merely reading about them does not induce
some individuals to do these very same actions, in consequence of a
tendency to motion, which thus mechanically determines them to an
act of which they never would have thought, had not some circum-
stance, extraneous to their will, presented it, and to which they would
never have been led, but by that which we call instinct in animals.

" In here terminating the exposition of facts which seem connected
with my observations, I think I should make a remark which is cer-
tainly contained in the foregoing paragraphs, but which may escape
some reader : it is, that this tendency to motion, to which I attribute

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 141

the prime cause of a great number of our actions, takes place only
when we are in a certain state, which is exactly that which magne-
tisers call faith.

" The existence of this state is perfectly demonstrated by my ex-
periments. So long as I believed the motion of the pendulum
which I held in my hand possible, it took place ; but, after having dis-
covered the cause 'of it, it was impossible for me to reproduce it. It
is because we are not always in the same state, that we do not con-
stantly receive the same impression from the same thing.

" Thus the gaping of another does not always make us gape ; laughter
is not always communicated from the laugher to his neighbor, &c. The
great orator who wishes to make the crowd share his passion does not
reach at one leap his object ; he commences by disposing his audience
to it, and it is only after he has made himself master of them, that he
gives his last argument, his last trait. The great poet, the great writer
constantly resort to the same artifice ; they first prepare their reader
for their final impression.

" Nothing is more curious in the study of the causes which determine
man's actions, than the knowledge of the means employed by the shop-
keeper to attract and fix the buyer's attention upon the qualities of the ar-
ticle he would have him take ; or the knowledge of the means employed
by the ' necromancer ' to have one rather than another card drawn
from a pack, or to divert the spectator's attention upon one thing so'
as to withdraw it from another, a diversion without which the ' necro-
mancer ' would cause no surprise, which is the great object of his art
It results from these considerations that the most different professions
employ quite analogous although excessively varied means to attain
the same end, that of first fixing man's attention so as afterwards to
produce on him a determined effect.

" I think my observations are connected with the history of the
faculties of animals'; that some of their acts attributed to instinct are
really of the class just spoken of. This seems to me especially true of
gregarious animals ; and it seems to me that it would be very interest-
ing to study in this regard the influence of their leaders upon the
subordinate members.

" Do not the instances above mentioned throw some light upon the
cause of the fascination one animal exerts over another."

OX THE NATURE OF HEAT.

WITHIN the past few years some new views respecting the nature
of heat have been brought forward. They are highly interesting theo-
retically, and important in their practical application, inasmuch as they
modify in a considerable degree the theory of the steam-engine, the
air-engine, or any other in which the motive power is derived imme-
diately from heat.

A theory which proposes to explain the thermal agency by which
motive power is produced, and to determine the numerical relations
between the quantity of heat and the quantity of mechanical effect

142 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY,

produced by it, may be termed a dynamical theory of heat. Carnot
was the first to give to such a theory a mathematical form. His theory
rested on propositions which were regarded as axiomatic. The first
embodied the conception of a perfect thermo-dynamic engine, and has
been equally adopted by the advocates of the new theory of heat.
Again, suppose a given quantity of heat to enter a body by any pro-
cess, and thereby to change its temperature and general physical state ;
and then, by a second process, suppose the body to be restored exactly
to its primitive temperature and condition, Carnot's second funda-
mental proposition asserts that the quantity of heat which passes out
of the body into surrounding space, or into other bodies, in the form
of heat, during the second operation, is precisely the same as that
which passed into the body during the first operation. This view
does not recognize the possibility of heat being lost by conversion
into something else, and in this particular it is at variance with the
new theory, which asserts that heat may be lost by conversion into
mechanical effect. To elucidate this distinction, suppose a quantity of
water to be poured into an empty vessel. It might then be asserted
that, in emptying the vessel again, we must pour out just as much
water as we had previously poured in. This would be equivalent to
Carnot's proposition with respect to heat. But suppose a part of the
water while in the vessel to be converted into vapor ; then it would
not be true that in emptying the vessel the same quantity of water, in
the form of water, must pass out of the vessel as had before passed in-
to it, since a portion would have passed out in the form of vapor. This
is analogous to the assertion of the new theory with regard to heat,
which may be lost, according to that theory, by conversion into me-
chanical effect, in a manner analogous to that in which water may be
said to be lost by conversion into vapor. But the new theory not
only asserts generally the convertibility of heat into mechanical
effect, and the'converse, --but also more definitely, that whatever be
the mode of converting the one into the other and whether heat be
employed to produce mechanical effect, or mechanical force be em-
ployed to produce heat, the same quantity of the one is always the
equivalent of the same quantity of the other. This proposition can
only be established by experiment, liumford, who was one of the first
to adopt the fundamental notion of this theory as regards the nature of
heat, made a rough attempt to determine the relation between the
force producing friction and the heat generated by it; but it was re-
served for Mr. Joule to lay the true foundation of this theory by a
series of experiments which, in the philosophical discernment with
which they were conceived, and the ingenuity with which they were
executed, have not often, perhaps, been surpassed. In whatever way
he employed mechanical force to produce heat, he found, approxi-
mately, the same quantity of heat produced by the same amount of
force ; the force being estimated in foot-pounds according to the usual
mode in practical mechanics, L e., by the motive power employed in
raising a weight of 1 Ib. through the space of 1 foot. The conclusion
adopted by Mr. Joule is, that 1 Fahr. is equivalent to 772 foot-pounds.

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 143

These results are unquestionably among the most curious and inter-
esting of those which experimental research has recently brought
before us. When first announced, some ten or twelve years ago, they
did not attract the attention which they deserved ; but more recently
their importance has been fully recognized by all those who cultivate
the department of science to which they belong. Of this Mr. Joule
received last year one of the most gratifying proofs, in the award
made to him by the Council of the Royal Society of one of the medals
placed annually at their disposal.

This theory is in perfect harmony with the opinions now very gen-
erally entertained respecting radiant heat. Formerly light and heat
were regarded as consisting of material particles continually radiating
from luminous and heated bodies respectively ; but it may now be
considered as established beyond controversy that light is propagated
through space by the vibrations of an exceedingly refined ethereal
medium, in a manner exactly analogous to that in which sound is
propagated by the vibration of the air, and it is now supposed that
radiant heat is propagated in a similar manner. This theory of radi-
ant heat, in accordance with the dynamical theory of which I have
been speaking, involves the hypothesis that the particles of a heated
body, or a particular set of them, are maintained in a state of vibra-
tion, similar to that in which a sonorous body is known to be, and in
which a luminous body is believed to be. At the same time, there are
remarkable differences between light and heat. We know that light
is propagated with enormous velocity, whether in free space or through
transparent media ; sound also is propagated with great rapidity, and
more rapidly through most media than through air. Heat, on the
contrary, whatever may be the velocity with w r hich it may radiate
through free space, is usually transmitted with extreme slowness
through terrestrial media. There appears to be nothing in light analo-
gous to the slow conduction of heat. Again, the vibrations which ren-
der a body sonorous have no tendency to expand its dimensions, nor
is there reason to suppose that luminous vibrations have any such ten-
dency on luminous bodies ; whereas, with the exception of particular
cases, heat does produce expansion. It is principally from this prop-
erty of heat that it becomes available for the production of motive
power, as, for instance, in the expansion of steam. These phenomena
of the slow conduction of heat and the expansion of heated bodies, are
proofs of differences between light and heat not less curious than the
analogies above indicated. They must, of course, be accounted for by
any perfect theory of heat. Mr. Eankine has written an ingenious
paper on a molecular theory of heat ; but before any such theory can
be pronounced upon, it will be necessary, I conceive, to see its bear-
ing on other molecular phenomena, with which those of heat are in
all probability intimately connected. Prof. W. Thomson has also
given a clear and compendious mathematical exposition of the new
dynamical theory of heat, founded on Mr. Joule's principle of the
exact equivalence of heat and mechanical effect. This is not, like
Mr. Rankine's, a molecular theory, but one which must henceforth
take the place of Carnot's theory.

144 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

Some interesting speculations suggested by the new theory of heat
have been recently brought out by Prof. W. Thomson. The heat of
a heavenly body placed under the same conditions as the sun, must,
it has been said, be ultimately exhausted by its rapid emission. This
assertion assumes the matter composing the sun to have certain prop-
erties like those of terrestrial matter with respect to the generation
and emission of heat ; but Prof. Thomson's argument places the sub-
ject on better grounds, admitting, always, the truth. of the new theory
of heat. That theory asserts, in the sense which I have already
stated, the exact equivalence of heat and motive power ; and that a
body, in sending forth heat, must lose a portion of that internal motion
of its constituent particles on which its thermal state depends. Now
we know that no mutual action of these constituent particles can con-
tinue to generate motion which might compensate for the loss of
motion thus sustained. This is a simple deduction from dynamical
laws and principles, independent of any property of terrestrial matter
which may possibly distinguish it from that of the sun. Hence, then,
it is on these dynamical principles that we may rest the assertion that
the sun cannot continue for an indefinite time to emit the same quan-
tity of heat as at present, unless his thermal energy be renovated from
some extraneous source. The same conclusion may be applied to all
other bodies in the universe which, like our sun, may be centers of
intense heat ; and, hence, recognizing no adequate external supplies
of heat to renovate these existing centers of heat, Prof. Thomson
concludes that the dispersion of heat, and consequently of physical
energy, from the sun and stars into surrounding space without any
recognizable means of reconcentration, is the existing order of nature.
In such case the heat of the sun must ultimately be diminished, and
the physical condition of the earth therefore altered, in a degree
altogether inconsistent with the theory of non-progression.

Mr. Rankine, however, has ingeniously suggested an hypothesis
according to which the reconcentration of heat is conceivable. As-
suming the physical universe to be of finite extent and surrounded by
an absolute vacuum, radiant heat (supposing it to be propagated in
the same way as light) would be incapable of passing into the vacuum,
and would be reflected back to foci corresponding to the points from
which it emanated. A reconcentration of heat would thus be effected ;
and any of the heavenly bodies which had previously lost their heat,
might, on passing through these foci, be rekindled into bright centres
of radiant heat. I have alluded more particularly to this very ingen-
ious, though, perhaps, fanciful hypothesis, because some persons have,
I believe, regarded this view of the subject as affording a sanction to
the theory of non-progression; but even if we should admit its truth
to the fullest extent, it may be deemed, I think, entirely inconsistent
with that uniformity and permanence of physical condition in any of
the heavenly bodies which the theory just mentioned requires in our
own planet. The author of this hypothesis did not possibly contem-
plate any such application of it ; nor am I aware how far he would
advocate it as really applicable to the actual constitution of the

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 145

material universe, or would regard it as suggesting a possible and con-
cievable, rather than a probable, mode of counteracting the constant
dispersion of heat from its existing centers. He has not, I think,
attempted to work out the consequences of the hypothesis as applied
to light, to which it must, I conceive, be necessarily considered
applicable if it be so to heat. In such case the foci of the reflected
heat would be coincident with those of the reflected light, proceeding
originally from the same luminous bodies. These foci would thus
become Visible as the images of stars ; so that the apparent number
of stars would be constantly increasing with the increasing number
of images of each star produced by successive reflexions. This will
scarcely be considered the actual order of nature. It would be easy
to trace other consequences of the application of this hypothesis to
light ; but I would at present merely state that my own convictions
entirely coincide with those of Prof. Thomson.

In the year 1824, M. Carnot, of Paris, published a pamphlet entitled
Reflexions sur la puissance motrice du feu, which contains ideas,
(ciearly expressed) which have long been current, and still maintain
authority in some minds. This person advanced that in every fire
machine the labor effected is due simply to the passage of heat through
the moving power. The imponderable fluid acted somewhat like the
water which feeds an hydraulic wheel, and whose motive power de-
pends upon the difference of the level whence the water flows. As
after having produced its effects the water may be found in the same
quantity below as above the wheel, so, notwithstanding the fall of the
temperature occasioned by its diffusion, the caloric was said to exist
without loss when it came out of the fire machine. In reasoning in
this manner about the steam-engine, the boiler was compared to the
mill-dam basin, and the condenser represented after a fashion by the
lower basin. To complete the analogy, the word " fall" was employed
to express the passage of the heat from the boiler to the condenser,
and the height of this " fall" corresponded to the differences of tem-
perature. The greater was this difference or height of the fall, meas-
ured according to the degrees of the thermometric scale, the greater
was the amount of heat which passed in the same time, and the more
powerful was the machine. To submit this theory to a rigorous veri-
fication, it would have been necessary exactly to measure the quanti-
ties of heat really contained in the steam before and after it had per-
formed its functions, and to see if in truth the equality was maintained.
At that date an experiment of such great precision could not well be
made. They contented themselves w T ith reasoning a priori. And yet,
if they had only thought of a very common phenomenon : caloric de-
veloped by percussion, they would have seen its weakness. The phil-
osophical impossibility of the truth of this theory is escaped in a new
theory, by considering the intervention of heat from another point of
view. In the new theory, the quantity of heat communicated to the
boiler, and which from that moment belongs to the machine, is not
kept in toto in a state of caloric ; a portion instantly disappears, and in
its place they receive an equivalent quantity of motive power. This

146 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

power is, in every case, in proportion to the quantity of heat lost ;
or rather, this heat is transformed into mechanical labor ; it reappears
so soon as the labor is employed, in the quantity of water beaten up
by the steamship's paddles, &c., &c. According to Carnot, when the
temperature fell, this " fall " was accompanied with the production of
a certain amount of labor. In the new theory, the dilation of bodies
by the penetration of heat, changes the nature of a part of the bodies,
and the deficit which results therefrom is in proportion to the resist-
ance to be overcome during the accomplishment of this dilation. The
heat disappears, but a disposable labor is produced, and science con-
quers a new idea that a weight raised to a certain height is the
equivalent of a certain amount of heat.

M. V. Regnault, (the best experimenter in France,) is fast demol-
ishing Carnot's theory by irresistable facts gathered in his laboratory.
" The heat of the boiler," said Carnot, " must be found integrally on
its egress from the cylinder." But according to the most precise
measures, M. Regnault found that in a very close machine, (without
condensation) into which steam penetrated 5 atmospheres, and left
it under ordinary pressure, the quantity of heat possessed by the
steam on its entrance, was about 653 unities, and at its egress about
637. In a machine with a condenser, the difference is still greater,
the figure 637 is reduced to 619. There are 16 unities lost in the first,
and 34 in the second case. In other terms, there is 1-40 or 1-20 part
of the total heat transformed into available labor, which explains, by
the way, clearly enough, the economical value of machines with con-
densers. It was also pretended that the quantities of heat disengaged
or absorbed by the same elastic fluid, were equal when the fluid passed
from the same initial state to a final identical state, whatever might be
the sense in which the transition was made ; in other words, it was
admitted that these quantities of heat depended only on the initial and
final conditions of temperature and pression, and that they were inde-
pendent of the intermediate circumstances through which the fluid
passed. If these were true, the same result would be obtained in these
two cases : air is condensed to 10 atmospheres in a vase which is placed
so charged in a calorimetre, or furnace ; at a specified moment the ca-
pacity of the recipient is suddenly doubled, necessarily the pression
descends to 5 atmospheres, and this dilation produces a cold which
may be appreciated by the thermometer. On the other hand, place
in the same furnace two reservoirs of the same capacity, exhaust the
air in one, in the other condense the air to ten atmospheres. The ap-
paratus having reached a state sufficiently stationary for a delicate
observation, communication between the two reservoirs is suddenly
made ; the gas spreads, as before, in a double space, as the pression as
before is reduced to 5 atmospheres. Who would not expect to witness,
as in the other case, a decline of temperature ? Yet no such thing
takes place ; the column of mercury in the thermometer remains per-
fectly stationary ! This experiment, imagined by M. Joule, acknow-
ledged to be exact by M. Regnault, is certainly very remarkable, and
all natural philosophers will be greatly struck by it. If the initial and

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 147

final conditions only were considered, the two experiments would seem
to be the same, and the cause of the difference of the caloric effects
produced in the two cases, would pass unperceived. But if inquiry
be made of available labor produced, it would be found to be consider-
able in the circumstances where the temperature fell, while in the
other case, it was null. When the capacity of the first vase is doubled
in volume, the side which withdraws, undergoes an effort which would
be capable of raising a weight placed outside of the furnace, while at
the moment the two reservoirs are placed in communication, the es-
cape of air can engender only currents of air, which die in the interior
of the reservoir, without transmitting anything outside. No experi-
ment could be made to demonstrate more clearly the close connection
existin^ between heat and the result of its transformation into mechan-

o

cal labor.

In a recent communication to the French Academy, M. Regnault
continues the subject. In all fire machines heretofore employed, heat
acts through the medium of an elastic fluid, gas or vapor, saturated or
not saturated. This elastic fluid is only a vehicle to which heat is con-
fided, for it has need of a substratum wherein to fix itself, and without
which it would instantly escape in its radiating form ; consequently it
is necessary to ascertain the quantity of heat the different vehicles will
take or leave in passing from one to another temperature. This quan-
tity of heat, easily determined in solids and in liquids, may serve to
characterize the different bodies in nature, and it has been felicitouslv

i

named specific heat : water is in this regard characterized among all
other bodies in a very remarkable manner; it possesses (to use the
received phrase), the greatest capacity for heat ; i.e. it can contain in
the same weight a greater quantity of caloric than any other known
body in nature. Consequently, if any one had to distinguish water in
the midst of other liquids, all enclosed in- sealed bottles, it could be
discerned by this single characteristic : to raise its temperature ten,
twenty, thirty degrees, more heat, and consequently more fuel would
be required than for all the others. It is in consequence of its great
capacity for heat that water is so convenient to fill heating apparatus
in which the experimenter does r^ot wish to make a fire. If the feet-
warmers ladies place in their pews or carriages during the winter,
were filled with alcohol or oil, or mercury, they would complain of
the rapidity with which they cool, even more than they do now. It is
also partly to the greatness of this coefficient that the sea owes its
equality of temperature. Its mass taking a great deal of time to fill
with heat, is also very slow in dischargement, so that winter comes be-
fore its reheating is concluded, and reciprocally summer returns before
the cooling has made very great progress. The difference between
the capacities of solids and liquids for the " storing " of heat must, ac-
cording to all probability, also exist in gases, but as these may besides
be treated in two different ways, as they are forced, during the change
of temperature, to keep the same volume or the same pressure, there
are two different specific heats to be considered in each gas, namely,
specific heat under constant pressure, and specific heat under constant

14

148 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERT.

volume. The first definition alone coincides with that admitted for
solid and liquid bodies, and it is also the only one which has been
found practicable for a direct experimental determination. As to the
second it seems accessible only to very indirect methods, of so difficult
practice that an illustrious natural philosopher, the conscientious Du-
long, died laboring at it.

Among all the researches made to determine the specific heat of
gases, under constant pression, that of Delaroche and Berard, which
was crowned in 1823 by the Academy, is still the most complete trea-
tise on this subject ; it is also that which the nearest approaches the
results M. Regriault has just obtained. Delaroche and Berard have
obtained to express the specific heat of simple gases, considered under
the same volume, numbers which diifer little each from the other.
Besides, in augmenting by condensation the density of the atmospheric
air, these two natural philosophers have remarked an increase of spe-
cific heat ; but they thought they remarked the latter increased less
rapidly than the former. Lastly, Delaroche and Berard admitted, ac-
cording to theoretical considerations, founded besides upon the direct
experiments of Gay-Lussac, that the specific heat of gases rapidly aug-
mented with the temperature. Thus, at the same time that oxygen,
hydrogen and azote had, under the same volume, the same specific
heat, science had admitted as an inextricable complication of the me-
chanism of simple gases, that the specific heat of the same mass varied
with the temperature and the density. In examining the new figures,
obtained by M. Regnault, the student will find that invariability which
aids the memory and satisfies the mind. We see that a gramme of air
requires, say to elevate its temperature to 10 degrees, the same quan-
tity of heat, whatever may be the space it occupies, whatever may be
its initial heat. The physical atoms heat themselves each for itself, as if
it were alone, and independently of the distance its neighbors may be.
And yet, it may be said, when that air is dilated, cold is produced by
its forcing outwards the sides which confine it in a vessel. This is an
additional reason to regard this lost heat as a purely mechanical phe-
nomenon an additional reason to endeavor to find it merely in the
labor produced. Let us renounce, then, this false idea that the gases
possess so much the more heat as they occupy a larger space. The
experiment of connected reservoirs demonstrates the contrary ; it was
an inexact notion, founded upon a gross assimilation of a gaseous mass
to a sort of sponge, capable of absorbing or expressing the caloric fluid,
according to the extension it was allowed to occupy.

SPECIFIC HEAT OF ELASTIC FLUIDS.

THE following is an abstract of a paper recently read before the
French Academy, on the specific heat of elastic fluids, by M. Regnault.

After a preliminary introduction and allusion to Ericsson's engines,
he says : For more than twelve years I have been occupied in col-
lecting the data necessary for the solution of the following problem:
What is, theoretically, the motive power which may be obtained from a

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 149

given quantity of heat by applying it to the development and dilata-
tion of various elastic fluids, under the various conditions which are
practically realizable ? At the time when I entered upon these re-
searches, the question appeared to me more simple than it does at
present. But, as is usually the case in sciences of observation, in pro-
portion as I advanced in my studies, the subject has continually ex-
panded. Within the last few years the mechanical theory of heat has
occupied the attention of a great number of mathematicians. It has
been assumed that heat may be converted into mechanical action, and
reciprocally that mechanical action may be converted into heat. Ac-
cording to the old theory, the quantity of heat possessed by the elastic
fluid at its entrence into the steam-engine is found undiminished in
the elastic fluid which is discharged from it, the mechanical action
being produced solely by the passage of heat through the engine. Ac-
cording to the new theory, the whole of the quantity of heat does not
remain in the state of heat ; a portion of heat disappears during the
passage through the engine, and the motive power produced is in all
cases proportional to the quantity of heat lost. According to my ex-
periments, the quantity of heat possessed by the fluid at its entrance
into a high pressure steam-engine is 653 units ; that which it retains
at its escape amounts to 637. According to the theory of which I am
speaking, the quantity of heat rendered available for mechanical ac-
tion would be 653 minus 637, or 16 units; that is to say, only one-tbrtieth
part of the quantity of heat communicated to the boiler. In a con-
densing engine, the heat rendered available would be a little more
than one-twentieth. In air-machines, where the motive force is pro-
duced by the expansion of the air in the machine by heat, the action
should always be proportional to the difference between the quantities
of heat possessed by the air on entering and escaping from the engine ;
in other words, equal to the loss of that heat by the air in traversing
the engine. But as, according to Ericsson's system, the heat which
the air possesses at the time of its escape is deposited in substances
from which the fresh air in entering abstracts it, in order to convey it
back again into the engine, it is evident that theoretically speaking, in
these latter engines all the heat is rendered available for the mechan-
ical action, while in the best constructed steam-engine only one twen-
tieth of it is rendered available. It must, however, be remembered
that I do not here take into consideration the exterior losses, from
mechanical or industrial obstacles, which may present themselves in
practice. Messrs. Joule, Thomson and Rankine in England, Messrs.
Mayer and Chassius in Germany, setting out from different points of
view, have developed mathematically the mechanical theory of heat.
In the course of my researches I have encountered indeed at every
step anomalies which appeared to me inexplicable in accordance with
the theories formerly recognized. For the sake of illustration I will
quote one instance. 1. A mass of gas under a pressure of 10 atmos-
pheres is contained in a space which is suddenly doubled; the pres-
sure falls to 5 atmospheres. 2. Two reservoirs of equal capacity are
placed in a calorimeter, the one is filled with a gas under a pressure of

150 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

10 atmospheres, the second is perfectly empty. When a communica-
tion is suddenly made between the two reservoirs the gas expands to
double its volume, and the pressure is reduced to 5 atmospheres. In
these two experiments then, the initial and final conditions of the gas
are the same : but this identity of condition is accompanied by calorific
results which are very different for while in the former experiment
there is a reduction of temperature, in the second the calorimeter does
not indicate the slightest alteration of temperature.

M. llegnault then gives a table of specific heats of various elastic
fluids, the result of his own experiments. Some of these are widely
different from the result hitherto obtained by other experimenters.
The following are the more important :

' Specific New Former Specific New Former

beat of: Experiments. Exp'ta. heat of : Experiments. Exp'ta.

Water 1,000 .... 1,000

Atmospheric Air. . . . 237 267

Oxygen 218 236

Nitrogen 244 275

Hydrogen 3,405 3,294

Carbonic Acid 216 221

Carbonic Oxyd 248 288

Water Vapor 475 847

Alcohol Vapor 451

Ether Vapor 481

Chloroform Vapor .. 157

The specific heat of air has been found the same at different temper-
atures, from 30 deg. below zero to about 500 deg. above it, and under
pressures varying from one to ten atmospheres. The specific heat of
steam is given at about one half the number formerly assigned to it.

ON THE OSCILLATORY THEORY OF LIGHT.

IN a paper on the above subject read before the British Association,
by Mr. J. Rankine, the author endeavors, while retaining the whole
of the mathematical forms of the undulatory theory of light, to render
the physical hypothesis which serves as its basis more consistent with
itself and with the known properties of matter. Light, according to
the undulatory theory in its most general sense, consists in the pro-
pagation of some species of motion amongst the particles of the
luminiferous medium, the nature and magnitude of which motion are
functions of the direction and length of certain lines transverse to the
direction of propagation. According to the existing hypothesis of
vibrations, this motion is a vibration of the atoms of the luminiferous
medium in a plane transverse to the direction of propagation. In
order to transmit motions of this kind, the parts of the luminiferous
medium must resist compression and distortion like those of an elastic
solid body ; its transverse elasticity being great enough to transmit
one of the most powerful kinds of physical energy with a speed in
comparison with which that of the swiftest planets of our system is
appreciable, but no more, and its longitudinal elasticity immensely
greater, - - both these elasticities being at the same time so weak as to
offer no perceptible resistance to the motion of the planets and other
visible bodies. The author considers that it is impossible to admit
this hypothesis as a physical reality. He also points out the difficulties

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 151

arising from certain inconsistencies in the present theory, as to the
relation of the direction of vibration in polarized light to the plane of
polarization. The author then proposes what he calls the hypothesis
of oscillations, which consists mainly in conceiving that the luminifer-
ous medium consists of detached atoms or nuclei distributed through-
out all space, more or less loaded with atmospheres of ordinary matter,
and endowed with a species of polarity, in virtue of which three
orthogonal axes in each atom tend to place themselves parallel respec-
tively" to the three corresponding axes in every other atom ; and that
plane-polarized light consists in a small oscillatory movement of each
atom round an axis transverse to the direction of propagation and
perpendicular to the plane of polarization. The square of the velocity
of propagation of such a movement would be proportional directly to
a co-efficient depending on the rotative force or polarity of the par-
ticles in a given space, and inversely to a co-efficient denoting the
sum of the moments of inertia of the luminiferous atoms in a given
space together, with their loads of atmosphere, round the axes of
oscillation. The author shows that it is necessary to suppose that the
co-efficient of polarity for transverse axes of oscillation is the same in
all substances, and for all directions ; and that the variations in the
velocity of light depend wholly on the variations of the moments of
inertia of the luminiferous atoms with their loads, in different sub-
stances, and round different axes. The co-efficient of polarity for
longitudinal axes of oscilliation must be supposed to be very great
compared with that for transverse axes. How powerful soever the
polarity may be, which is here ascribed to the luminiferous atoms, it
is a species of force which must necessarily be wholly destitute of
effect in producing resistance to compression or distortion, so that it is
no longer necessary to suppose the luminiferous medium to have the
properties of an elastic solid. The author deduces from this hypothe-
sis the known mathematical laAvs of the wave-surface, of the intensity
and phase of reflected and refracted light, and its plane, circular, and
elliptic polarization, and of all other phenomena to which the existing
theory has been applied, the equations being identical in form.

BADIATION OF LUMINOUS BODIES.

On looking at a very brilliant light, it sometimes appears to be sur-
rounded by brilliant luminous rays, clear, free from cloudiness, and
which must not be confounded with those caused by the eye-lashes
when the eyes are partially closed. These rays may be observed
most distinctly by looking at an image of the sun reflected upon the
surface of a convex glass, or still better upon a lens having consider-
able curvature. They may be most easily observed by looking at an
image of the sun formed in the focus of a lens placed at the extremi-
ty of a tube blackened in the interior. If the observer place him-
self in a room into which the light penetrates only through a narrow
opening, the phenomenon appears with great splendor, and it may
even be said with extraordinary magnificence. The rays are either

14*

152 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

white, or present all the colors of the spectrum. In that case a
motion appears to take place in their interior, which cannot be com-
pared with anything better than that of a liquid circulating with dif-
ficulty in narrow channels, in which it meets with obstacles. There
are also seen irregular concentric rings, which appear to move from
their common centre. Whatever may be the circumstances in which
the observer places himself, and whatever may be the precautions
which are taken to obviate the complication of the phenomenon, the
rays do not appear disposed as those in a circle ; they have not all a
common center, but form entangled bundles in a very peculiar manner.
At first sight I was struck with the resemblance which appeared to
me to exist between the arrangement of these rays and that of the
fibers of the crystalline lens ; and I attempted immediately some ex-
periments directed from that point of view. From among those
which I have made I will quote the two following, which, if they do
not prove that this apparent radiation is to be attributed to the crys-
talline lens, at least show completely that the phenomenon takes
place in the eye, and depends upon the structure of that organ.

1. On looking at an image of the sun, produced in the circum-
stances above described, through a black screen, with a circular open-
ing of five or six millims. diameter, the image is seen upon the sur-
face which reflects it ; while the rays are separated from it and appear to
be super-imposed upon the screen, and this even when it is brought
very near the eye.

2. If the head is inclined to the right or the left, the want of
symmetry which is observed in the arrangement of the rays follows
the movement of the eye, which under those circumstances turns up-
on its axis in the direction in which the head is inclined. M. Baud-
rimont, Comptes Rendus.

ON TWINKLING.

The following paper, from the " Annuaire du Bureau des Longi-
tudes,' 1852, one of the last that issued from the pen of M. Arago, has
been translated and published in the ' Proceedings of the Astronomi-
cal Society." M. Arago commences his inquiry by giving an exact
definition of the term scintillation. It is, he remarks, from not adopt-
ing a similar practice that astronomers and other physical inquirers
have hitherto failed to arrive at a satisfactory explanation of the
phenomenon. He affirms then that, in so far as naked-eye observers
of the heavens are concerned, scintillation, or twinkling, consists in
very rapid fluctuations in the brightness of the stars. These changes
are almost always accompanied by variations of color and certain
secondary effects, which are the immediate consequences of every
increase or diminution of brightness ; such as considerable alterations
in the apparent magnitudes of the stars, and in the length of the
diverging rays, which appear to issue in different directions from their
centers. It has been remarked from a very early age that the phe-
nomenon of twinkling is accompanied by a change of color. M.

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY 153

Arago states, upon the authority of M. Babinet, that the name of
Barakesch, given by the Arabians to the star Sirius, signifies the star
of a thousand colors. He also cites various passages from the works
of Tycho Brahe, Kepler, and other modern inquirers, indicative of a
similar change of color attending the process of twinkling. M. Arago
asserts further, that the twinkling of the planets is a well established
fact. Thus observers generally, from Tycho Brahe downwards, have
remarked that Mercury twinkles very strongly. Venus has also been
observed to twinkle, and even Mars and Jupiter, though feebly.
Tycho Brahe has remarked that Saturn never twinkles, but this
opinion has been controverted by Scheiner and other observers,
although it is generally admitted that the phenomenon is exceedingly
difficult to be recognised in the case of this planet. An impression
has generally prevailed that the stars do not twinkle in telescopes
M. Arago, however asserts that this opinion is erroneous. Even a
few years after the invention of the telescope Simon Marius remarked
that, by removing the eye-piece of the telescope, the images of the
stars and planets appear enlarged, and exhibited rapid fluctuations oj
brightness and color. In 1814, Nicholson showed that a similar phe-
nomenon would be produced, if the eye-piece of an achromatic
telescope was pushed out of focus. The same inquirer also gave an
account of another experiment, which tended to illustrate the rapid
fluctuation of color which the stars undergo during the process of
twinkling. The telescope being adjusted to distinct vision, he applied
to it a smart vibration, which caused the image of the star to be trans-
formed into a curved line of light, returning into itself, and diversified
by several colors. A similar phenomenon presented itself on the
occasion of each successive vibration. He estimates that each color
occupied about a third of the whole length of the curve, and assuming
that he applied ten vibrations to the telescope in the course of a
second, he hence concluded that the light of Sirius passes through
thirty changes of color in a second of time. It follows, as a necessary
consequence of this experiment, that the stars in general shine only
bv a portion of their light, the effect of twinkling being to diminish
their brightness. It is easy to conceive, therefore, that a star which
is estimated to be of the seventh magnitude, because it is usually
invisible to the naked eye, might become distinctly perceptible if the
phenomenon of twinkling were to cease.

After giving a detailed account of the circumstances which accom-
pany the twinkling of the celestial bodies, and of the modifications to
which they are subject, M. Arago next proceeds to explain his views
of the physical origin of the phenomenon. He maintains that the only
satisfactory theory which can be advanced on the subject is that which
connects the phenomenon with the principle of the interference of
light. He illustrates the latter principle by the well-known experi-
ment, in which two rays of light emanating in different directions
from a luminous point, are made to converge again by being reflected
from the surfaces of two mirrors, and to combine together, or to de-
stroy each other, according to the conditions of the experiment. If

154 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

the light from which the rays issue be homogeneous, and if the routes
severally traversed by them be made to differ in length by gradually
displacing one of the mirrors, the jooint where they meet after reflex-
ion will, in some positions of the movable mirror, exhibit a very vivid
light, while in other intermediate positions it will appear quite black.
The positions of the movable mirror, corresponding to which the two
rays thus alternately conspire together or destroy each other, will vary
with the color of the spectrum employed in the experiment. It re-
sults from this important fact, that when rays of white light emanate
from the luminous point, they will exhibit at their point of concourse
after reflexion a succession of prismatic colors, depending in each case
on the position of the movable mirror. It is found that similar effects
may be produced, if, instead of causing the routes of the two rays to
differ in length, the refrangibility of the media through which they
pass be subjected to a similar variation. It is upon these two facts
that M. Arago has established his theory of scintillation. In the case
of telescopic observations, he supposes that the rays of light which
enter the telescope at opposite extremities of a diameter of the object-
glass, may have traversed strata of the upper regions of the atmos-
phere, which, either from variations of density or temperature, or
from hygrometic causes, may possess different refractive powers. It
might happen from this cause that the red rays at the one extremity
of the diameter might totally destroy those at the opposite extremity,
and that the focus might pass from the normal color of white to that of
green, the complementary color of red. In the next instant the green
might be totally destroyed, and the color of the focus would, conse-
quently, be red ; and similar effects might manifestly be produced
each successive instant, by the destruction now of one color and now
of another color of the spectrum. Generally, the rays will only par-
tially destroy each other by their interference ; in which case the light
will still be colored at the focus, although less intensely than if the
destruction had been complete. M. Arago had already established by
experiment, that if even the twentieth part of a pencil of light were
extinguished by the interference of any of the homogeneous rays, the
light at the focus would appear sensibly colored. It would, therefore,
be sufficient that the strata of the atmosphere should, by reason of
their unequal refrangibility, affect intermittently, and in a suitable de-
gree, the twentieth part of the rays which the surface of a lens em-
braces in order that the focal point should acquire in succession the
different prismatic colors. " Now," says M. Arago, " if we take into
consideration the great length of the route traversed by the light from
the superior limits of the atmosphere to the object-glass of the tele-
scope ; if we reflect, moreover, on the small difference of refrangi-
bility which suffices to occasion the passage of two rays from the state
of accord to that of destruction, on the effect of winds, however mod-
erate, bringing incessantly new atmospheric strata before the tele-
scope, it cannot excite any surprise that in observing Sirius, a star
sufficiently low in our latitudes, as many as thirty changes of color in
a second have been noted." Having thus explained, by the principle

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 155

of the interference of light, the twinkling of the stars in telescopes,
M. Arago finds no difficulty in applying the same explanation to ob-
servations with the naked eye. He then proceeds to show how the
twinkling of the planets may be accounted for by the same principle,
and he concludes the exposition of his views on this interesting sub-
ject by suggesting three different modes of measuring the scintillation
of a star. We shall confine ourselves to a brief notice of the first of
these scintillometres, as he terms them, which is unquestionably the
most ingenious in its conception, and the most conclusive as regards
the character of its results. It depends on an experiment, which is
originally due to M. Arago himself, and which he first gave an account
of in the year 1824. If a diaphram be placed before the object-glass
of a telescope, so as to allow the light to pass through a circular aper-
ture, and if a star be observed with the telescope when the eye-piece
is in the position of distinct vision, the image of the star will resemble
a vascillating disc of light surrounded by alternate dark and bright
rings. If the eye-piece be now gradually pushed in, there is a second
position, in which the luminous disk in the center will be replaced by
a black hole surrounded by alternate bright and dark rings. By con-
tinuing to push the eye-piece towards the focus a third position will
be found, in which the image will resemble that observed in the first
instance ; and thus a constant recurrence will take place as the eye-
piece is pushed forward, the image alternating between a luminous
center surrounded by dark and bright rings, and a central dark hole
surrounded by bright and dark rings. Now, to determine the second
position of the eye-piece, viz : that in which the image of the star ex-
hibits a black hole in its center, instead of observing the star directly,
the eye-piece may be placed exactly midway between the first and
third positions. If the telescope be now directed to a star which
twinkles, the phenomenon will manifest itself in a succession of acci-
dental reappearances of a luminous point in the dark hole, and these
reappearances will be more numerous as the twinkling is stronger.

M. Arago states, that although he feels convinced that in connecting
the phenomena of scintillation with the principle of interferences, he
has viewed the subject in its proper aspect, still he is far from being
of the opinion that nothing further remains to be done. " For exam-
ple," says he, " no one of nay acquaintance has connected in an en-
tirely satisfactory manner the planetary disks which the stars acquire,
and the rings which surround them with the theory of interferences."
He adds, that he had been informed that M. Schwerd, a geometer of
Germany, had succeeded in this research ; but he was told at the same
time that according to the calculations, which were applied exclusively
to simple lenses not achromatic, the diameters of the planets when
seen in a telescope with a reduced aperture ought to appear enlarged
like the stars, a result entirely contradicted by observation.

156 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERT.

ON THE POLARIZATION OF ATMOSPHERIC HEAT.

The observations of M. Arago and Sir David Brewster have long
since established, that the light by which our atmosphere is illuminated
is polarized in certain directions. It might be supposed from analogy
that the heat proceeding from the same source is endowed with simi-
lar properties ; the following experiments place this supposition be-
yond the pale of doubt.

The means of polarizing a ray of heat, without greatly diminishing
its intensity, are less perfectly known than those of polarizing a ray
of light, and the result is a corresponding inferiority in the exactitude
with which the calorific ray can be analysed. In the use of the thermo-
electric pile, the experimenter must be on his guard against numerous
sources of error. The blackened face of the instrument radiates into
space, and is cooled to a degree which depends partly upon the trans-
parency of the air, partly upon its temperature. The other face,
although protected by a closed tube, is not entirely free from the in-
fluence of conduction in prolonged experiments. The thermometric
state of the atmosphere changes capriciously every moment, owing to
the unequal mixture of the ascending and descending columns of air.
The variations in the transparency of the air, the calorific reflexions
-which proceed from the surface of the earth and from clouds, render,
in general, the intensity of the heat radiating in any given direction
extremely inconstant.

These obstacles being known, I endeavored to combat them by the
following arrangements : The thermo-electric pile of Melloni was
placed in a capacious chest, so that its uncovered face was turned
towards an opening in the center of one of the sides. This face is
provided with its cone of polished brass fixed in a cylinder of wood,
which is lined with a tube of paste-board. The extremity of this
tube enters the circular opening in the side, and moves in it with
strong friction ; screens and diaphragms of various substances can be
attached to it. At its extremity, the piece destined to contain the an-
alyzer is fixed level. It carries a collar, to which the hand imparts a
rotative motion by means of a strong handle, and which carries an
index pointing to a dial, three decimetres in diameter, fixed against
the chest. This piece is surrounded by a cylindrical case of white
paste-board blackened in the interior, six decimetres long, open in
front, and destined to circumscribe the portion of space to be exam-
ined, the oblique rays being arrested.

The analyser which I made use of in my first experiments was a
pile of thin plates of mica. It would have been easy to render it
movable round a line perpendicular to the axis of the thick paste-
board cylinder which enclosed it; but I preferred arresting it at an
angle of 35 with its axis, and placed a similar pile parallel to it and
six centimetres in advance. This assemblage polarizes and analyses
the heat completely; it prevents the currents of air frorn^ acting upon
the solders of bismuth and antimony, and destroys the radiation of

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 157

those metals so effectually as to render all other preservatives unne-
cessary. I afterwards replaced this portion of the instrument by
a very large Nicol's prism constructed by M. Ruhmkorff. It is 0.086
of a metre in length; the greater diagonal of the base is 0.036 of a
metre, and the lesser 0.028 of a metre.

The body of the pile is sheltered against variations of temperature
by filling the entire chest with carded cotton. In the side opposed to
that which contains the analyser is a rectangular glazed window,
through which, by the means of a good thermometer, the temperature
of the envelope can be read off. Finally, a little hole pierced in the
bottom permits of the passage of two wires from the poles of the pile
to the rheometer. The whole is preserved in a place less warm than
the surrounding atmosphere, so that during the experiments the pile
must necessarily be affected by any accession of heat. The sense of
deviation of the rheometer serves to prove that this condition is ful-
filled.

The chest furnished with axes of hard wood turns in a rectangular
frame, which permits of the pile being retained at any angle whatever
with the horizon, in the vertical plane which it describes. This angle
of declination is estimated on an appropriate dial by means of a plum-
met and an index which follows the chest in its motion. The frame, in
its turn, moves round a vertical foot, in which it is steadied by friction.
The azimuths are read on a fixed horizontal dial, which permits of the
adjustment of the apparatus. No magnetic metal ought to be used in
the construction of the latter.

I have said that the temperature of the air is subjected to almost
perpetual fluctuations, which cause the corresponding variations in
the thermo-electric current. To lessen this grave inconvenience, the
pile was caused to act near the window of a closed room. In the
reading of the rheometric deviations, it is better to determine the
arcs described by the index at each change of the plane of analysis,
than the positions at which it tends to come to rest after a number of
excursions, which become less rapid the more nearly astatic is the
system of needles. The results agree exactly with those deduced
from fixed deflections, in those rare cases when the atmosphere is calm
and permits of the operation being carried on in the open air, as also
within doors.

The success of these researches depends also upon the goodness of
the rheometer. I have obtained an excellent multiplier from M.
Ruhmkorff. It is composed of two short and thick wires rolled on a
frame of bone. The dial is of pure copper, with its graduated cir-
cumference silvered. The needles, suspended from a fiber of silk
extremely fine, and 0.15 of a metre in length, make only a single
oscillation in twenty-four seconds. When the calorific radiations are
weak, I found the compensator of M. Melloni to be of service, more
especially as the object was not to obtain absolute measures, but the
ratios of the deviations. Operating in the manner just described, it
is found there are two positions of the analyser 180 degrees apart, at
which the deviations are equal and maximum ; and two other positions

158 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

at 90 degrees from the former, and at 180 degrees from each other, at
which the deviations are equal and minimum. The positions of the
analyser, which for a given point of the heavens procure the maxi-
mum and minimum transmissions, correspond to those of greatest
intensity of the direct bands and inverse bands of the polariscope of
Savart. They are thus determined without much difficulty.

The atmospheric heat can be depolarized by means of a plate of
mica placed near the extremity of the exterior tube, and perpendicu-
lar to the incident rays. The analyser being in the position of the
minimum of transmission, the deviation of the index experiences no
serious diminution when the principal section of the interposed rnica
coincides with the plane of polarization, while the deviation is aug-
mented when the rotation of the mica in its own plane brings its prin-
cipal section to an angle of 45 with the primitive plane of polariza-
tion.

The phenomena of the polarization of atmospheric heat are much
less apparent in winter than in summer. The difference is doubtless
due to the want of sufficient sensibility in the apparatus, to the greater
difficulty of experimenting at low temperatures, and to the small pro-
portion of polarized rays which on the most favorable days accompany
the natural heat.

The serenity of the air exercises a marked influence on this pro-
portion, which becomes probably null when the heavens are obscured.
Finally, it is easy to satisfy one's self, particularly if the atmosphere
be calm and without clouds, that the polarization augments from the
environs of the sun up to a certain limit, from which forward it de-
creases. I have found it inappreciable in the regions occupied by
neutral points.

NON-POLARIZATION OF THE AURORA BOREALIS.

Although the results which I have obtained are purely negative, it
may be useful to record the fact that, having on several occasions dur-
ing the last eight months, examined the light of the aurora borealis
with a Nichol's prism, I liave never detected any trace of polarization.
To show that this did not arise from the faintness of the light, I may
mention, that on the last occasion when I observed it, the polarization
of the same light produced by reflexion from the surface of a river,
was distinctly visible, although the direct light was evidently free from
all sensible polarization.

This fact is adverse to the supposition that the light of the aurora
borealis is reflected from crystals of ice. Prof. Rankine, Lond., Ed.
and Dub. Phil. Mag.

LONGITUDINAL LINES OF THE SOLAR SPECTRUM.

The following is an abstract of some recent investigations made by
Prof. Ragona-Scina on the lines exhibited in the solar spectrum.
Heretofore the longitudinal lines of the solar spectrum have attract-

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 159

ed little attention. It "was believed by physicists that they were due
to the minute imperfections of the glass of the prism, the little irregu-
larities along the edge of the slit through which the light is admitted
into the dark room, or to other similar causes ; and that they were in
no way related to the constitution of the light itself.

The numerous experiments which I have made in connection with
this subject, have led me to the conviction that the longitudinal lines
are not due to the irregularities alluded to, but are produced by inter-
ference. Whoever is accustomed to experiments on light, will find
the mere inspection of these lines sufficient to convince him that they
are due to no mechanical cause. The clearness and beauty with
which they exhibit themselves, and their sharp and definite character
throughout their entire length, distinguish them at a glance from those
which might be produced by unevenness of the slit's edge, particles
of dust, imperfections of the apparatus, and so forth.

In the first place, I have observed that the longitudinal lines are
entirely absent when a large lens is not applied, and when it is placed
close to the prism and at right angles to the rays issuing from the
same. I have further seen, that the lens changes the breadth of the
spectrum only, and not its length.

Thus in one of my experiments, which was conducted with an equi-
lateral vertical prism and a biconvex lens of 90 centimetres focal dis-
tance, after ascertaining by trial the position in which the spectrum
was most clearly shown, I found its dimensions to be

Length 13-4 centirns.

Breadth 3-2 "

The lens was then removed, and the position of the screen and
prism remaining unchanged, the dimensions were found to be

Length 13-4 centims.

Breadth 15-8 "

Hence the introduction of the lens caused the disappearance of 12-6
out of 15-8 parts of the .spectrum; the light must have been com-
pressed from a space of 15-8 to a space of 3-2.

In the latter space, the rays which had passed through the lens
overlaid each other, as may be rendered evident by a very simple
experiment. It is only necessary to move a bit of cardboard close to
the lens from top to bottom, or the reverse, and thus to receive a por-
tion of the rays passing through it. It is then seen, that no matter
how great the portion may be which is thus intercepted, the dimen-
sions of the spectrum remain unaltered, its brightness alone being
more and more diminished as the intercepted portion becomes greater.
This experiment establishes the fact of superposition, and the produc-
tion of the longitudinal lines by interference is a simple result of this.

It is really interesting to observe how every line may be caused to
vanish by moving the card in a proper manner before the lens. From

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160 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

these experiments it follows, that the phenomenon of the longitudinal
lines is not peculiar to the spectrum, but that in every case lines of
interference must exist in light which has passed through a convex
lens.

I therefore removed the prism, and made the slit in the window-
shutter wider. White light now passed through the lens. By mov-
ing the plane of projection backwards and forwards, a position was at
length found where the whole breadth of the white image was inter-
sected by splendid black lines which crossed it horizontally.

It is scarcely necessary to remark, that I made many experiments
to convince myself, that in the production of these lines, no foreign
influences come into play, which, however, is sufficiently proved by
the mere inspection of them.

METHOD BY WHICH THE EYE JUDGES OF DISTANCES.

The London Art Journal says, that many opinions have been at
various times advanced relative to the determination of proximity or
remoteness of objects from the eye, but the most plausible hypothesis
seemed to be that some time ago suggested by Hermann Meyer, of
Zurich, namely, that proximity of an object was determined by di-
vergence of the two optic axes. The reflective stereoscope has de-
monstrated the correctness of M. Meyer's hypothesis. If after having '
placed the two pictures in the stereoscope in such a manner that their
centers correspond, and when, consequently, one single image in re-
lief appears, the two designs be drawn simultaneously towards the
eyes, the dimensions of the image in relief seem to grow less. If,
however, the two designs be simultaneously removed from the eyes,
then the image in relief seems to grow smaller than before. Now it
is obvious that the convergence of the two optic axes increases in
proportion as the two screens are brought near to the eyes, and de-
creases in proportion as they are removed.

NEW PHOTOMETER.

At the last meeting of the British Association, Dr. Price exhibited
the plan of a new photometer. The author, by arranging two in-
clined mirrors in a box, contrived to reflect the standard light and
the light to be measured, so as to cross each other at a piece of ground
glass or oiled paper on the top of the box ; then it was easy, he assert-
ed, to adjust the distance of the standard light so as to make the two
reflected lights appear equally intense, and then, on the common
principle, the illuminating power of the light to be estimated could be
calculated.

CURIOUS OPTICAL PHENOMENON.

A work of art illustrating a curious optical phenomenon, has been
recently exhibited at Cologne, Germany. It consists of a flat surface

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 161

upon which appear a quantity of colored spots -without the slightest
trace of design or order in their arrangement ; indeed they remind
one more of the -dried-lip colors on a painter's palette than anything
else. A cylindrical mirror being placed in the middle of the table,
reflects a perfect picture of the elevation of the cross, a composition
containing six figures, no less accurate in their drawing than beauti-
ful in their coloring. One looks in vain for any method or design in
the irregular and shapeless mass of colors smeared on the flat board.

DIRECT ACTION OF LIGHT UPON THE EYE.

The experiments of Lambert, Fontana, and Weber having shown
that light, through the medium of the retina, and the nervous centers,
acts upon the iris, it has been supposed to exert no direct action in
contracting the pupil, but up to the present time this effect has been
considered as a reflex action.

M. J. Budge has shown, Comptes Rendus, xxxv. p. 564, that the
pupil contracts upon exposing the eye to light after section of the two
optic nerves, or one only. If in a frog the trunk of the grand sym-
pathetic is cut upon one side, below the ganglion of the pneumogas-
tric, a section of the two optic nerves being made at the same time,
the pupil contracts in an hour somewhat more upon the side upon
which the section of the sympathetic is made ; upon removal to a
dark place the pupil which was contracted dilates, and again contracts
upon exposure of the eye to light, but the light does not act as
promptly upon it as upon the pupil of the other side, where only the
optic nerve has been severed, without cutting the grand sympathetic.
The results are the same upon cutting off the head of a frog, or re-
moving the eyes entirely; in this case the pupil contracts under
influence of the light, and dilates when taken into a dark place.
This phenomenon may be observed for nearly an hour.

ON THE STEREOSCOPIC COMBINATION OF COLORS.

M. Dove's researches have reference chiefly to the stereoscopic
combination of colors. In 1841 he showed that the stereoscopic com-
bination of the complementary colors of polarized rays produced
white light. He now makes use of drawings with colored outlines,
the colors being dioptric or catoptric : the former he obtains by mak-
ing drawings of white lines upon a black ground, and viewing the
stereoscopic combination through a colored glass ; in the second case,
the figures are drawn upon white paper in the colors which are
intended for combination.

The projection of a convex pyramid was drawn in red lines upon a
white ground, and on the same base the projection of a concave
pyramid in blue lines. On a second leaf the corresponding drawings
were made in the same colors for the other eye. On viewing these
drawings in the stereoscope, each pair combined in the usual manner,
we should have a convex red pyramid and a concave blue pyramid,

162 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

the axes of both forming one and the same straight line. But it is
altogether impossible to obtain a relief in this case. A hexagon
embracing a six-pointed star is always obtained, the sides of which all
consist of red and blue lines running alongside each other in contact.
When this complicated figure was viewed through a blue glass, the
convex relief, bounded by red lines, started forth ; when a red glass
was used, the hollow pyramid with blue edges was observed. In the
first case the blue lines vanished almost completely in the blue light ;
while the red, whose rays were intercepted by the glass, acted as black,
and became subjectively colored red. In the second case the red
lines nearly disappeared in the red light ; and the blue, subjectiveJy
colored, combined themselves to a relief.

To understand what has here been said regarding subjective color-
ing, attention to the following facts is necessary. If the diffused
daylight be completely shut out from the eyes, and a drawing in black
outline on white ground be viewed through a colored glass, the relief
is seen with black edges ; but when the glass is held at some distance
from the eyes, so that the diffused daylight shall also reach them, the
black hues assume a vivid subjective coloring, which becomes stronger
the longer the drawing is regarded. When the glass is colored blue
by cobalt, the lines appear red ; when the glass is a ruby-red, the out-
line appears bluish-green.

The result of the above experiment with the blue and red pyramids
is remarkable. Each eye has two drawings presented to it, and a
double combination is thus possible. When the identity of outline is
preserved by the eye, and no regard is paid to the difference of tint,
two plane figures composed of different colors must be observed.
This is the case when the intensity of both colors is nearly the same.
When, however, the intensity is very different, such, for example, as
that brought about by the red and blue glasses in the case under
consideration, the identity of the outline is overcome by the tendency
to form a relief.

The projection for one eye was drawn in white lines upon a black
ground, and for the other eye with black lines upon a white ground.
A most remarkable result was obtained by the stereoscopic combination
of both. The relief started into existence with surfaces which shone
like graphite, having their edges formed of dazzling white and deep
black lines which run parallel and in contact with each other through-
out. When the black leaf with the white lines is placed before the
left eye, and the white leaf with the black lines before the right eye,
the white lines in the relief lie to the right of the black ones. When
the leaves are changed, the relative position of the black and white
hues is also changed ; hence the lines appear always pushed aside
cross-wise. Exactly as in the case of black and white, combinations
of both of these with other colors are obtained, and combinations
of the latter with each other. To obtain the combination of dioptric
colors with white and with each other, drawings in white outline
on a black ground are made use of. When white is to be combined
with another color, a glass of the required tint is placed before

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 16

one eye, while the drawing is viewed by the other eye naked. When
different colors are to be combined, suitable glasses are placed before
both eyes. The most beautiful result is obtained when the colors
produced by a deep blue and a red glass are combined : the relief
stands fortli illuminated with violet light and with splendid edges
of red and blue, which run alongside each other in contact. Jn
the case of colors which nearly approach each other, the edges are
also formed bv those double and differently colored lines. One result

*

is always observed the lines appear pushed aside cross-wise, that is,
the color observed by the left eye appears to the right, and that
observed by the right eye appears to the left.

The following remarkable fact has been observed by M. Dove, and
his observation has been corroborated by others. The projections of
a convex and concave pyramid for the right eye were drawn upon
the same base, and on a second leaf the projection of a convex only
for the left eye. In the stereoscope, therefore, a convex pyramid was
seen, and on the base of the same the projection of a concave one.
When the ruby-red glass was brought before the left eye, while the
former drawhi"- was regarded bv the naked rischt eve, both the

^J ^3 ** * * ,

pyramid and the projection were observed ; but it depended entirely
on an act of volition whether the pyramid was observed with red
and white boundaries and the projection in red and white outline. It
hence appears that a projection as contour can combine itself with
another as color to form a relief.

The same phenomena which we have observed with objective colors
exhibit themselves with subjective colors also. On viewing the draw-
ings formed in black outline on white ground through the ruby-red
glass with one eye, and through the glass colored by cobalt with the
other, permitting the diffused daylight at the same time to strike the
eyes, the relief is observed with colored double parallel lines as edges,
as in the other instances : the crossed position of the lines is also
observed here ; so that when the red glass is held before the left eye,
and the blue glass before the right, the bluish-green lines appear to the
right of the red; it will be remembered that the subjective tint
developed by the red glass is bluish-green, and by the blue glass, red.

Why is it then, that the red and blue lines cannot be made to com-
bine, but always lie alongside each other crossed in the manner indi-
cated ? M. Dove finds the explanation in the non-achromatic nature
of the eye. That the eye is not achromatic has been known since
the time of Fraunhofer ; but a very simple way of proving the fact
was discovered independent by M. Dove and M. Plateau about
twelve years ago. If the flames of a candle be viewed through a
colored glass which permits the ends of the solar spectrum to pass
through it, but extinguishes the middle, at the distance of distinct

O ' ^J *

vision a violet flame is observed. At a greater distance a red flame
is observed within a larger blue one, which embraces the former on
all sides and becomes wider the further we recede from the flame.
Within the distance of distinct vision, on the contrary, the violet
flame is encompassed by a sharp red rim. From a medium distance a

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164 ANNUAL OP SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERT.

long-sighted eye sees the latter, and a short-sighted eye the former.
Hence the experiment furnishes us with a kind of optometer ; to
this purpose M. Dove has applied it in hundreds of cases, and
never found a single individual whose eyes fulfilled the conditions
of achromatism at all distances. Acquainted with this fact, and
observing a certain analogy between it and his stereoscopic exper-
iments, he naturally sought the cause of the phenomena presented
by the latter in the non-achromatic nature of the eye.

A fine white line drawn upon a black ground was viewed through
the glasses used in the stereoscopic experiments. It was ascertain-
ed that, to be plainly visible, it must be held at a greater distance
from the eye when the red glass is used than when the blue glass
is applied. Sir David Brewster has obtained an analogous result
with pigments. A number of square pieces of gradually decreas-
ing size was cut from the same vividly-colored card, and placed
one upon the other so as to form a pyramid with ascending steps,
all of the same height. Two such pyramids were built, the one
beside the other ; the squares were blue and red ; one pyramid had
a blue square for its base, the other a red one. It was always
found that a blue square placed upon a red one appeared higher
than a red square placed upon a blue one ; so that in the building
of the pyramids, each appeared by turns to exceed the other in
height. From this experiment it follows, that at the distance of dis-
tinct vision the lines of convergence of both eyes enclose a smaller
angle in the case of red light than in the case of blue. Hence, if an
observer, who sees equally well with both eyes, have both colors pre-
sented, to him in the stereoscope in the manner already described, the
lines cannot coincide, but will project themselves in directions which
cross each other upon a surface which does not pass through the
point of intersection of both directions.

M. Dove next goes on to discover the cause of the glistening, which
for example, is observed on the surface of varnished pictures, and
which may be destroyed by quenching the polarized rays with a
Nichol's prism. In every case in which a surface appears thus shi-
ning, there is a reflecting layer, more or less transparent, through
which another body is viewed : the glistening owes its origin to the
combination of the rays reflected from the surface and those which
pass through the transparent layer from the body behind. This is in-
creased when the number of the alterations of the layers increases.
Thus mica assumes a metallic lustre, and layers of glass plates
the appearance of mother-of-pearl. In the projection of a truncated
pyramid intended fora certain eye, the section was colored with a
saturated wash of blue ; in the figure intended for the other eye, the
section was colored yellow. At the moment of combination, when
the resultant green appeared, it seemed as if one layer of color had
become transparent and that the other was seen through it. When
the colored section was viewed through a violet glass held before both
eyes, the surface appeared like polished metal.

These experiments are intimately connected with the phenomena

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 165

of irradiation. They established the fact, that the deportment of
black and white towards the eye is exactly similar to that of two dif-
ferent colors. The lustre obtained by the combination of black and
white is peculiarly strong, so decided, indeed, that some, and among
others, the writer of this report, compared it to the lustre of lead
glance, or of tin, although the component white and black were both
perfectly dull and lustreless. According to the explanation already
given, one of these surfaces must appear in advance of the other,
the viewing of an object by the naked eyes by different degrees of
illumination with white light is analogous to those experiments with
colored light, where the object, to be distinctly seen, must be brought
nearer in the case of blue light than with red. A dark object will,
under the same conditions, appear further off than a white one, as
th,e red surface appears more distant than the blue. At the distance
of distinct vision, the flame of a candle, when viewed through the
violet glass, which permits the ends of the spectrum to pass and
extinguishes the middle, appears violet ; that is, the red flame is as
large as the blue. At the distance of distinct vision, a white ob-
ject also appears of the same size as a black one; at a greater
distance, the blue flame embraces the red ; that is, beyond the dis-
tance of distinct vision the blue flame is larger than the red one ;
and so also beyond this distance, the white object on black ground
appears larger than the black object on white ground. In this way
the phenomena of irradiation are connected by a chain of experimen-
tal facts with chromatic phenomena, which directly point the way to
the explanation of the former. The complete explanation is em-
braced by the proposition, that for a given distance the capacity of
accommodation of the eye is different for while and black.

In a recent paper, M. Dove has added some proofs to those already
given, of the fact that blue and red are plainly visible at different dis-
tances. Beyond the point of distinct vision, a micrometer drawn in
black lines upon a white ground appears as a gray spot ; when drawn
in white lines on a black ground, it appears as a bright one. If a se-
ries of parallel white lines be viewed through a blue glass, the ob-
server gradually receding until the lines run into each other and are
no longer distinct, from this distance the lines, if observed through a
red glass, will appear quite distinct. The reader may in this way
easily satisfy himself that the distance of distinct vision is considera-
bly greater 'for red than for blue. In the same way it may be plainly
shown that the distance for white is also greater than for blue. It is
difficult to obtain pigments of such equal intensity that their combination
shall exhibit lustre, but the lustre can be readily obtained as follows :
A drawing in white lines upon a black ground is combined in the
stereoscope with another in black lines upon a white ground and
viewed through a colored glass held before both eyes. With
the ruby-glass and bright light, the relief appears like polished
copper. In this way we learn that the result, as regards lustre and
irradiation, obtained with white and black, are also true for any
colors whatever.

166 ANNUAL OP SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

It is known that a green spot on a red field which is moved quick-
ly hither and thither, appears to oscillate. Wheatstone has shown
that a red heart on blue ground appears to oscillate still more quickly ;
hence the appearance is not to be referred to the action of comple-
mentary colors, but to a difference of refrangibility. Sir David
Brewster was the first to observe on geological maps, that blue and
red do not appear in the same plane ; and the reason of this M. Dove
considers to be rendered completely evident by his stereoscopic exper-
iments. His explanation of the fluttering heart is as follows :
When the sheet is moved in its own plane, the heart and the ground
on which it rests, describe tangents of the same absolute length, but
with radii which the eye regards as different. The angular velocities
of both thus appear to be different, and hence the object seems to oscil-
late upon the plane which bears it.

That yellow and red colors approach the nature of light more than
blue, is an idea which may be traced throughout antiquity. In the
common language of the Germans, this is expressed by the terms
" screaming yellow," " burning red," in contradistinction to " deep
blue." This notion is corroborated by photometric experiments. But
with these well-known phenomena, another stands apparently in
complete contradiction. It has often occurred to M. Dove, on quit-
ting a picture gallery on the approach of night, when he happened
to cast a parting glance upon the paintings, the red color Had alto-
gether disappeared, while the blue appeared in all its strength. Artists
are well aware of this fact ; at least, on questioning such, M. Dove
has always found his own observation corroborated.

The stereoscopic experiments already described, furnish an accurate
and beautiful method of observing this fact. On applying two glasses,
one of which permits the homogeneous blue rays to pass, and the other
the homogeneous red ones, the relief, as already stated, appears with
beautiful edges of red and blue lines which run alongside each other.
Although when the light is intense the red lines appear much the most
vivid, the blue glass made use of being more than ten times the thick-
ness of the red one, still as the twilight advances, the red becomes
weaker and weaker ; it finally disappears altogether, and instead of the
relief formed by the combination of the red and blue outline, the blue
alone is observed, as projection, upon its proper leaf. If two
red glasses be now placed before the openings of the stereoscope,
nothing whatever is seen ; while with two blue glasses the relief ap-
pears in blue lines, and remains distinctly visible for a quarter of an
hour longer. Thus the fact of the earlier disappearance of the red
rays is placed beyond a doubt : how is this to be accounted for ?

It is known that weak impressions on the organs of sense singly may
arouse no consciousness, but do so where they are quickly and uni-
formly repeated. On this account the string of the contra-basso must
have a wider amplitude than that of the violin, inasmuch as the di-
minished number of vibrations demands a greater energy to render
them heard. Thus also if we wish to make ourselves heard without
great effort, we speak in a higher tone ; and hence it is that when the

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 167

deep voice of the seaman, strengthened by the speaking trumpet, is
lost in the storm, the shrill pipe of the boatswain still pierces through
the howl of winds and roar of waves. Savart has shown, by means of
the toothed-wheel, that the limit of sensibility of the ear for grave
tones is extended by strengthening the strokes. The complete simi-
larity of the vibration causes the most perfect summation of impres-
sions, because the interferences which take place when the times of
oscillation are different then fall away. This uniformity renders the
tone pure, and in the case of colors, renders them homogeneous. Blue
stands in same relation to red that a higher tone occupies with regard
to a deeper one. With blue the vibrations of the retina are more fre-
quent than with red, as the vibrations of the tympanum are more fre-
quent with a high tone than with a deep one. Now it is proved that
with deep tones the limit of sensibility becomes contracted when the
tones become weaker ; and this is completely analogous to the case,
that by decreasing brightness, the limit of sensibility for the red rays
should become narrower. Hence with weak illumination, red, as a
color, disappears ; while blue, on account of the greater frequency of
its vibrations, remains longer visible.

" In this way," observes the Professor, " I explain to myself the
wonderful phenomena, regarding which, however, strange to say, no-
body has expressed wonder, that by the weak light of the stars the
blue of the firmament is rendered distinctly visible."

Herewith is connected the fact that a prismatic spectrum obtained
from light which has passed through a narrow aperture, has its colors
towards the red end comparatively stronger when the light is intense.
This is peculiarly plain if the spectrum be viewed through a dichro-
matic medium, which permits the ends of the spectrum to pass and
extinguishes its middle, thus enabling both ends to be immediately
compared with each other. The dark space beyond the red end of the
spectrum, where the calorific effect is a maximum, would probably be
distinctly visible if the intensity of the sunlight were considerably in-
creased by concentration. This would be the experiment of Savart
applied to colors. Probably to the subject we are considering, belong
the experiments of Sir David Brewster on the lines of Fraunhofer in
this portion of the spectrum ; although the facts observed appear to be
referred to the destruction of spherical aberration, and not to the illu-
minating power of the telescope applied. In a similar manner the
limits of action on an iodized silver plate at the violet end of the
spectrum, become expanded with increasing brightness.

If a person pass suddenly from a brightly illuminated room into a
very dark one, and then approach the place through which the light
enters until blue becomes distinct, it will be found that red is at first
much more vivid. The eye must remain for some time in the dark-
ened room, before the retina becomes as sensitive as in deep twilight.
When this is attained, the person may recede to a distance from the
place where the light enters, where the blue is still distinctly visible,
and find that the red has vanished completely. Another remarkable
fact observed by M. Dove was, that among the numbers to whom he

168 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

showed, in bright daylight, the stereoscopic relief with blue and red
edges, one declared that he saw only the drawing with blue lines, as
through the red glass he could see nothing whatever. The eyes of
this individual in bright daylight, were in the same condition as a pair
of normal eyes by twilight. LoncL, Ed., $ Dub. Mag., June 1852.

THE BINOCULAR MICROSCOPE.

At the session of the Physico-Medical Society of New Orleans,
April, 1853, Prof. Riddell, the original inventor of the binocular
microscope, exhibited and explained a simplification of that important
instrument, by which, at an expense not necessarily exceeding thirty
or forty dollars, it is practicable, in existing compound microscopes of
the ordinary forms, to replace the brass tube carrying the ocular and
objective, by an efficient arrangement for binocular vision. To
accomplish an equal division of the pencil of light immediately behind
the objective, and so effect its distribution to each ocular, only two glass
prisms need be used. They must be of such form, that the faces, at which
the light is imniergent and emergent, shall form equal angles with the
face on which the internal reflection occurs. The chromatic dispersion
is a minimum, and really nothing, when these angles are each near
eighty-seven degrees. This form is theoretically preferable. In the
instrument constructed, and shown by Prof. Blddell, the French
rectangular prisms, such as sold by most opticians, were used, in which
the equal angles alluded to, are forty-five degrees. The long sides of
these, which are the reflecting surfaces, face each other, and, while
the edges next the objective are in contact, the upper edges are
adjustable, so as to vary at pleasure the inclination of the prisms to
each other. In its transit through these prisms, the light is reflected
internally, and undergoes two refractions which are almost mutually
compensatory. The result is satisfactory. To produce orthoscopic
binocular vision, simple, not erecting eye pieces, are required.

TRACINGS ON GLASS FOR MICROSCOPIC TEST OBJECTS.

The tracings executed by M. Nobert, of Prussia, for microscopic
test objects, are of the most curious character. The plan adopted by
him is to trace on glass ten separate bands at equal distance from each
other, each band being composed of parallel lines of some fraction of
a Prussian inch apart: in some they are 1-1 000th, and in others only
l-4000th of a Prussian inch separated.

To see these lines at all it is necessary to use a microscope with a
magnifying power of 100 diameters; the bands containing the fewest
number of lines will then be visible. To distinguish the finer lines it
will be necessary to use a magnifying power of 2000, and then the
lines which are only 1-4 7000th of an inch apart will be seen as per-
fectly traced as the coarser lines. Of all the tests yet found for object-
glasses of high power these would seem to be most valuable. These
tracings have tended to confirm the imdulatory theory of light, the

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 169

rent colors of the spectrum being exhibited in the ruled spaces
-rding to the separations of the lines ; and in those cases where
tne distances between the lines are smaller than the lengths of the
violet light waves, no color is perceived : and it is stated that if in-
equalities amounting to '00002 line occur in some of the systems, stripes
of another color would appear in them.

IMPROVEMENT IX THE MANUFACTURE OF LENSES.

The following notice of an improvement in the manufacture of
lenses, is given in Newton's (London) Patent Journal :

Tho dioptric lens, heretofore in use, for sea-lights, or other lights
requiring great intensity, being constructed of single zones or rings
made up of segments according to the diameter of the required lens,
has induced a belief that glass could not be prepared without incurring
the expense of grinding and polishing the curved surface, and that
economy dictated a method of manufacture embracing a center and
zones or segments. The inventor was induced to examine the method
of Ihe construction of the built-up lens, to tr