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NOTES AND NOTICES.

John Haughton, of Liverpool, clerk, for improvements in the method of affixing certain labels. March 21; six months.

William Palmer, of Sutton-street, Clerkenwell, manufacturer, for improvements in the manufacture and preparation of pills, and some other articles of a medicinal or remedial nature. March 21; six months.

Mark Freeman, of Sutton-common, Surrey, gentleman, for improvements in the construction of inkstands. March 21; six months.

Robert Hazard, of Clifton, Somerset, confectioner, for improvements in apparatus for heating public and private buildings. March 21; six months.

Moses Sperry Beach, of Norfolk-street, Strand, printer, for improvements in machinery used for printing with type, and in the construction of type for printing. (Being a communication.) March 23; six months.

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George Haden, of Trowbridge, engineer, for certain improvements in apparatus for warming and ventilating buildings. February 23.

Joseph Henry Tuck, of the New North-road, Hoxton, engineer, for improvements in apparatus or machinery for making or manufacturing candles. February 25.

Hugh Lee Pattinson, of Bensham-grove, Gateshead, manufacturing chemist, for improvements in the manufacture of white-lead, part of which improvements are applicable to the manufacture of magnesia and its salts. February 25.

Matthew Allen, of High Beech, Essex, doctor in medicine, for an improvement in producing uneven surfaces on wood. (Being a communication from abroad.)

March 2.

Thomas Stopford Jones, of Stafford-place, Pimlico, gentleman, for certain improvements in machinery for propelling vessels by steam or other power. March 2.

Joseph Garnett, of Haslingden, county of Lancaster, dyer, and John Mason, of Rochdale, machinemaker, for certain improvements in machinery or apparatus employed in the manufacture of yarns and cloth; and are in possession of certain improvements applicable to the same. (Communicated from abroad.) March 8.

Joseph Drew, the younger, of St. Peter's Port, island of Guernsey, confectioner, for an improved method of rolling and cutting lozenges; and also of cutting gun-wads and other similar substances, by means of a certain machine described by him, and constructed of divers metals and wood. March 7.

George Jarman, of Leeds, flax and cotton spinner, Robert Cook, of Hathersage, County of Derby, heckle and needle manufacturer, and Joshua Wordsworth, of Leeds, machine maker, for certain improvements in machinery for spinning flax, hemp, and tow. March 9.

James Ions, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, gentleman, for improvements in smelting copper ores. March

10.

Julius Bordier, of Austin Friars, London, merchant, for certain improvements in preparing skins and hides, and converting them into leather. (Being a communication from abroad.) March 11.

Richard Laurence Sturtevant, of No. 42, Churchstreet, Bethnal Green, soap manufacturer, for certain improvements in the manufacture of soap. March 14.

William Hickling Burnett, of Ravensbourne Wood Mills, Deptford Creek, gentleman, for improvements in machinery for cutting wood, and in

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apparatus connected therewith, part of which may be applied to other purposes. March 14.

George Wildes, of Coleman-street, London, merchant, for improvements in the manufacture of white lead. (Being a communication from abroad.) March 16.

PATENTS GRANTED FOR IRELAND IN FEBRUARY, 1842. Sam. Hall, for improvements in the combustion of fuel and smoke.

David Stead, for certain improvements in constructing, or paving of public streets and highways, public roads, courts, paths, bridges, cottages, and other houses with timber or wooden blocks, and in the machinery, or mode of manufacturing the said blocks.

James Ions, for improvements in smelting copper ores.

J. Border, for certain improvements in preparing skins and hides, and in converting them into leather.

J. Steward, for certain improvements in the construction of pianofortes.

A. Templeton, for a new improved method of preparing for spinning silk and other fibrous sub

stances

J. Coleman, for improvements in the manufacture of starch.

M. Macdonagh, for improvements in spindles, flyers and bobbins, for spinning, roving, twisting and reeling all sorts of fibrous or textile substances, and in the application, or adaptation of either, or all of them to machinery for the same purpose.

H. H. Watson, for certain improvements in dressing, stiffening and finishing cotton and other fibrous substances, and textile and other fabrics, part, or parts of which improvements are applicable to the manufacture of paper, and also to some of the processes or operations, connected with printing calicoes and other goods.

W. Palmer, for improvements in the manufacture of candles.

F. R. Conder, for improvements in the cutting and shaping of wood, and in the machinery used for that purpose.

NOTES AND NOTICES.

Fatal Steam-boat Accident on the Clyde.-The Telegraph, a passenger-boat worked on the highpressure principle, has been blown up, and a great many persons killed and wounded. The Greenock Observer furnishes the following-rather lame-explanation of the cause of this melancholy disaster: -"On Tuesday the boiler was inspected by scientific gentlemen, who gave it decidedly as their opi nion, that the accident occurred wholly from carelessness and inattention. The boiler shows by its appearance that it had been overheated. We understand that a regulator, attached to the engine and boiler, for the purpose of ascertaining the pressure, had gone wrong in the morning passage up to Glasgow, and it is supposed that this had prevented the engineer from knowing the amount of pressure. It is stated, likewise, that no steam was allowed to escape when she stopped at our quay, nor at Helensburgh. At low water, the boiler, &c., was sufficiently exposed to enable it to be examined to see in what state it was. The engineer, Mr. Rowland, who made the engine, caused an examination to be made, and he states the following to be the result of the investigation thus made:-The accident has evidently been occasioned by the want of a due quantity of water in the boiler, as the plates in the crown (or cover) of the fire-box had been red-hot. On examination, we find the plates riven completely across; and the heat has been so great, that though

the fire-box (or furnace) is only about three feet three inches wide, the plates are stretched or expanded so as to measure four feet; and there are also on the plates several large blisters, which could only be the result of the intensity of the heat. The violence of the explosion has been so great, as to tear one of the corners of the fire-box a considerable way down, the plates at that corner being fiveeighths of an inch thick. The same rent goes through a solid bar of iron, three inches by two. So far as can be seen, none of the tubes are injured. The fire-box was made of the best Lowmoor plate, of the following thickness:-Tube-plate, five-eighths of an inch; back, half an inch; crown, seven-sixteenths. Tube and back-plates welded."" names of the makers of the engines and boilers are not given; it seems only fair that they should be published. We should be glad to know, also, whether there are any boats on the Thames--whether of Clyde or Thames construction-now at work on the same explosive and life-regardless principle.

The

Archimedes and his Lever.-Quetelet, in his Positions de Physique, calculates that if the common centre of gravity of the earth and the moon be taken as the fulcrum of the lever with which Archimedes boasted he could move the world, the lever would require to be of such length as to extend amongst the fixed stars fifteen thousand millions of millions of times the distance of Saturn, Saturn's distance being three hundred millions of leagues; and that to have raised the earth one single foot, he would have had to act throughout a period of twenty-seven millions of millions of years, even supposing that he traversed the space requisite with the swiftness of a cannon-ball.

Miniatures on Marble.-Thin polished plates of white marble are now strongly recommended, by several French artists, as a substitute for ivory in miniature painting. The slices of marble are cemented down upon a sheet of board-paper, to prevent danger of fracture: they are said to take the colour with great freedom, and to hold it with tenacity; and it is obvious, that they are incapable of any change by time, or the effects of heat or damp. Ivory, it is well known, becomes yellow; and in hot climates often splits or warps. It can only be obtained, also, of a very limited size; whereas, these plates of the finest grained statuary marble can be obtained of any size. Plates of about 12 inches by 10 inches are prepared of only about three-sixteenths of an inch thick, and smaller ones thinner in proportion. Marble has been occasionally used, before now, as a plane for painting on in oils; but its application to miniature painting is certainly new, and seems valuable. -Repertory of Patent Inventions.

Inlaid Marbles.-A beautiful mode of ornamenting marbles has recently been brought into use in Paris-It consists in etching, by acids, deeply into the marble, various designs upon a properly prepared bituminous ground. When the corrosion has gone sufficiently deep, the cavities are filled up with hard coloured wax, prepared so as to take a polish equal to that of the marble when cleared off. Drawings thus made on black marble, and filled in with scarlet wax, after the manner of Etruscan, and certain Egyptian designs, are said to have a very noble effect, and are applied to tables, panelling, stoves, &c., &c.-Ibid.

Continental Machinery. We perceive in the Eco della Borsa of Milan, that extensive mills have been erected in Lombardy for spining of cotton and silk, and that there is now being added another ou

a very extensive scale, for spinning and weaving of flax and hemp. It is undertaken by a public company, at the head of which is S. Battaglia the banker. It is situate near Milan, on the Adda. We observe that the entire direction of projecting and executing this new concern was confided in 1840 to Mr. Albano, C. E., of London: it is stated to be the most complete mill in all its details that has ever been erected. The powerful water wheel, and the mill gear for driving the spinning machinery, are of a superior description, and were made in this country, by the celebrated firm of W. Fairbairn and Co., of Manchester. In consequence of the prohibitory character of our export laws, the spinning machinery is to be made in Belgium, although the Company was most desirous that it should be made in England. Here is another example of the ruinous effects being produced upon the country, through the absurd prohibitory laws. We thus see that an order of several thousand pounds is taken out of our hands. How long this is to last it is impossible to say.-Civil Engineer and Architect's Journal.

Thames Tunnel.—“The entire brickwork of the horizontal roadways, and the two shafts for the footway descents have, in the course of the last year, been safely completed. The entire brick structure, therefore, of the Tunnel, uniting the two opposite shores of the Thames, is now wholly completed, requiring only works of an ordinary character, to speedily adapt it for public use. The staircases of the two shafts for foot passengers have been contracted for by Messrs. Grissel and Peto, and will be completed in a few months, when the Tunnel will be forthwith opened to the public as a thoroughfare. The directors must express their satisfaction at the strong and durable character of the work, notwithstanding the trials it has undergone by the repeated irruptions of the river, and the loose and dangerous nature of the ground through which the work of excavation and of construction has been carried on. The brickwork remains perfectly solid and secure in all parts. Once erected under the protection of the shield, it has never given way in the slightest degree; nor has a step in advance, once gained, and secured by brickwork, ever had to be reconstructed, even though newly done and exposed to the utmost fury of the torrents of irruptions. The directors deem it their duty to state this, because it furnishes an explanation both of the cost and of the delay of the work.-Report of Directors.-[If not "a step in advance once gained and secured by brickwork has ever had to be reconstructed," how can this possibly account-as alleged-" both for the cost and the delay of the work?" The irruptions of the river may have caused delay; but the doubling and more of the cost can only have arisen from gross miscalculation.-ED. M. M.]

Intending Patentees may be supplied gratis with Instructions, by application (postpaid) to Messrs. J. C. Robertson and Co., 166, Fleet-street, by whom is kept the only COMPLETE REGISTRY OF PATENTS EXTANT (from 1617 to the present time). Patents, both British and Foreign, solicited. Specifications prepared or revised, and all other Patent business transacted.

LONDON: Edited, Printed, and Published by J. C. Robertson, at the Mechanics' Magazine Office,
No. 166, Fleet-street.-Sold by W. and A. Galignani, Rue Vivienne, Paris;
Machin and Co., Dublin; and W. C. Campbell and Co., Hamburgh.

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Mechanics' Magazine,

MUSEUM, REGISTER, JOURNAL, AND GAZETTE.

SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 1842.

No. 974.]

[Price 3d.

Edited, Printed and Published by J. C. Robertson, No. 166, Fleet-street.

G

SCOTT'S PATENT FLOUR-DRESSING MACHINE.

Fig. 1.

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T

SCOTT'S PATENT FLOUR-DRESSING MACHINE.

[Patent dated September 23, 1841; Specification enrolled March 23, 1842.]

A bolting-mill, and a flour-dressing machine (as some of our readers may probably require to be informed) are two different things; the former being an article of some antiquity, while the latter is of modern invention, and has, to a great extent, superseded the other. The bolting-mill produces only two descriptions of meal, flour and pollard, or bran, while one flour-dressing machine is capable of producing as many different sorts, four five, or more, as may be required. Of old, it was necessary, when more than two varieties of fine and coarse flour were required, to have several bolting-mills, with cloth of various degrees of fineness.

The modern flour-dressing machine (in its most ordinary form) consists of a cylinder of hoops, or ribs, lined with wire-cloth, and a reel within it, armed with brushes; both cylinder and reel having one common axis, or shaft, but the reel only revolving, while the cylinder remains stationary. The extremities of the shaft rest in bearings in the ends of a large case, or box, which encloses the whole apparatus, but the bearings are at such different elevations as to give a considerable inclination to the cylinder. The wire-cloth is manufactured in pieces of 4 feet in length, to suit the internal diameter of the cylinder, and 9 inches in breadth; so that supposing the cylinder to be 38 inches long it will take four pieces of cloth to line it, which may be of four different degrees of fineness. The first breadth of cloth is generally of sixty meshes to the inch, and a slight degree coarser than the next, which is of sixtyfour-an arrangement found desirable, because when the meal is first introduced into the cylinder (from a feeding hopper above) it is still moist and warm from the stones, and would be apt to clog the meshes of the finer quality of cloth. The third and fourth pieces are of thirtyeight, and sixteen meshes to the inch. The bran which is too large to pass through any of the wires, passes out at the end of the machine. The part of the case below the cylinder is divided into the same number of compartments as there are pieces of wire-cloth of different degrees of fineness, each compartment being appropriated to the reception of the particular quality of flour pro

jected through the wire-cloth immediately above it, by the rotary action of the brushes within the cylinder. When four is the number, the different qualities are called firsts, seconds, thirds, and pollard.

Greatly superior as this machine is to the old bolting mill, it is not without its defects.

In the first place, the wire-cloth wears rapidly away at the places where it is in contact with the ribs, from the action of the brushes against them, the number of which places in a cylinder 38 inches in length, is not less than twelve, so that a cloth becomes, in these places, unfit for use, when in all others it is, perhaps, as sound as ever. Hence a great expense for new cloth; hence, also, very frequent interruptions to the working of the machine from partial rents or failures, and endeavours, not always successful, to repair them without going to the expense of an entirely new lining.

In the second place, from the cylinder being always stationary, the parts of the wire-cloth below the axis have a great deal more work to perform than those above, which is another source of unequal wear; and quantities of unexpelled flour collect and settle in the bottom of the cylinder, to the great prejudice of its general action and efficiency. Many attempts have been made to obviate this objection by giving a rotary action to the cylinder, as well as to the brushes, and there are not a few mills in which, at the present day, this is actually done; but the rates of going which it is proper to give to the two parts of the machine are so different that it has been found a matter of the greatest difficulty to proportion the one to the other, and in no instance has it been hitherto done, except by means of most complicated and cumbrous contrivances. The brushes are usually made to revolve at the rate of about four hundred times in a minute; but the cylinder ought not to revolve oftener than once in three or four minutes.

Both these defects are at length completely remedied by the improved machine we are now about to describe-by means, certainly, of exceeding simplicity, but not on that account the less meritorious, or the less likely to be efficient.

The first defect, Mr. Scott (of Louth)

IMPERFECT BALANCING OF MACHINERY.

the patentee of the new machine, tells us, arises simply from fixing the ribs of the cylinder in straight lines, parallel to the top and bottom of the cylinder, or, in other words, at right angles to the axis of the cylinder. And who can doubt for a moment, (the thing being once pointed out) that he is right? Try to rend a piece of wire-cloth in the rectangular direction of the threads-nothing is easier; but try to rend it diagonally, or in a direction from corner to corner of the piece, and you will find that the thing is next to impossible. Behold, then, the obvious. remedy. Mr. Scott places the ribs of his machine at such an angle (about 25°, as represented in the prefixed engraving, fig. 1) in respect to the threads, or meshes of the wire-cloth, that they shall be "more or less in the line of greatest resistance to tearing and rending."

"To prevent the angular position given to the ribs from diverting any of the finer or coarser portions of the flour into partitions other than those allotted to them, circular bands or plates of copper, or any other suitable material, as a, b, fig. 1, and of about the depth of the ribs, are inserted into the cylinder in positions parallel to the ends, and outside of the wire-cloth, at those places where such partings are desired to be made. Each piece of wire-cloth commencing with that at the top of the machine overlaps the one next below it; and to prevent the brushes from starting or raising the edges, and to keep these edges flat and even, each joining is covered with a strip of copper, or other suitable metal nailed over the cloth to the ribs."

The additions to the machine by which the second objection is got rid of, are also of admirable simplicity. We quote the ingenious inventor's own description.

"CC is a cog wheel, or rather series of cogs affixed to the head of the cylinder A; D is a pinion which takes into the cog-wheel, or cogs C C; E is a plate fixed vertically to the head of the cylinder case, carrying the pinion D, and a pallet wheel F; G is a pendulum, the rod of which carries at its upper end two palls, which, as the pendulum vibrates, take alternately into the teeth of the pallet wheel. A separate view (as seen in front) of the additions E, F, and G, all of which, with the cogs C C, and pinion D, are peculiar to my said improved

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dressing machine, is given in fig. 2. The effect of imparting rotation to the cylinder, being of necessity to set in motion, all the gear work in connexion with the cogs CC; it follows also, that according to the relative proportions of the wheels and the weight and length of the pendulum, will be the rate at which the cylinder revolves. In order to lessen the friction of the cylinder in its rotation, the bearing at the tail end is made of the reduced size and form, represented in the plan, fig. 3."

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IMPERFECT BALANCING IN MACHINERY, A GREAT BUT NEGLECTED SOURCE OF LOSS OF POWER-THE CAUSE ALSO OF THE ROCKING AND JERKING MOTION COMMON TO LOCOMOTIVE ENGINES.

The Midland Counties Herald has contained lately some excellent reports of a series of lectures on Physical Mechanics, delivered by Dr. Melson at the Birmingham Philosophical Institution, and in every way deserving of being well reported. We have been much pleased with the sound and practical character of these lectures-the clearness of the lecturer's descriptions-the abundance and fitness of his illustrations-and the ability, as well as frequent originality of his suggestions. The sixth of these lectures was chiefly occupied with the exposition and enforcement of certain views on the friction arising from the imperfect balancing of machinery, first made public in the pages of this journal

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