may be placed on the lowered bars as wanted, and raised into the furnace below the ignited fuel.

The claim is confined to the method of feeding furnaces from below, by lowering only Ia portion of the fire-bars ;" and rightly so, for a method of doing the same thing by the lowering of the whole of the fire-bars has been already patented (E. Foard, Islington, Jan. 16, 1841,)-a method, too, which is much simpler than that of the present patentee. If a deviation to the extent of one-half be sustainable, why not also one to the extent of a fourth or a tenth, or a hundredth, or a thousandth part of an invention ? And where then might a patentee's right be said to begin?

JOSEPH MILLER, OF MONASTERY COLLEGE, EAST INDIA ROAD, ENGINEER, for an improved arrangement and combination of certain parts of steam-engines used for steam navigation. Rolls Chapel, March 29, 1842.

The "improved arrangement and combination" which form the subject of this patent, apply chiefly to that class of marine steam-engines, in which two steam cylinders, two condensers, and two air pumps are employed; and have for their principal objects saving of space, increased length of stroke, greater stability, &c.

The patentee describes thus generally his invention :-" The improved arrangement and construction consist in arranging the two condensers and two steam cylinders, so that the two condensers being formed in one vessel, with a partition to divide it, the said condenser will fill up all the space between the two steam cylinders, the two air pumps being within the two condensers, and those condensers and steam cylinders applying one and the other with lateral contact, by suitably formed vertical surfaces extending up and down the whole, or nearly whole height of the condensers, and extending an equal height up and down the height or length of the cylinders, so as that the said vertical surfaces of the condensers which are in such contact with the corresponding vertical surfaces of the cylinders, can be firmly united together, each surface to the other, by screw bolts, or other suitable means, in order that all the aforesaid parts, namely, the two steam cylinders and two air pumps, may, by means of the contact and union of such vertical surfaces be firmly united into one combination or mass, whereby each of the said parts will be held and retained in its own intended place by its arrangement and combination with the other of the said parts, without requiring any foundation plates, and without depending materially upon fastening

down to the bottom of the ship or vessel for keeping the said parts in place. And though the cylinders will of course be fastened down to suitable sleepers or keelsons as usual, such fastening will be chiefly for the purpose of fixing the whole combination in place in the vessel. The requisite communication between the cylinders and the nosles thereof and the condensers (called eduction passages for exhausting the steam from the cylinders,) are made in the vertical surfaces by the contact and union whereof the cylinders and the condensers are united together, the said eduction passages being at the upper or highest parts of the said surfaces, so as to communicate with the highest parts of the condensers. The lower parts of the cylinders descend into the surfaces between the sleepers or keelsons, to which the cylinders are fastened down, the bottoms of the cylinders being very near to the ceiling of the inside planking, or to the floor timbers of the bottom of the vessel, whereby the whole vertical distance below the axes of the cranks that the depth of the vessel will admit of, is rendered available for giving to the engines as much length of stroke as can be obtained in that class of engines to which this improved arrangement and combination relate. The condensers stand upon, or are fastened down to the sleepers or keelsons, but do not descend so low as the cylinders. The bearings for the axes of the cranks are formed according to the usual mode in cast-iron framing, as is usual in engines of this kind, and is sustained, as usual, by means of upright pillars, affixed to the cylinders by means of projections from the upper flanges thereof; there are four such pillars to each cylinder, serving to keep the cylinder down as well as sustain the bearings."

The inventor illustrates the preceding arrangements by a number of very minutely described drawings, and sums up thus:

"And note, though two distinct condensers, and two distinct air pumps have been described, (that being preferable in most cases,) nevertheless, that is not essential to my improved arrangement and combination, but the same is equally applicable if the condenser is made without the partition, so as to be only one condenser, with only one large air pump, equivalent in its capacity to the two air pumps. And I make no claim to new invention in any other of the parts herein before mentioned, beyond the cylinders, condensers, or condenser and the air pumps or pump; but what I claim, as new invention, is, the improved arrangement and combination before described of the steam cylinders, with the condenser or condensers, and air pumps, or air

pump. The distinctive character of that arrangement and combination being, that the condensers or condenser, are, or is, so arranged in respect of the steam cylinders as to fill up all the space between the two steam cylinders, and so as to join thereto by means of vertical surfaces of mutual contact and union of the condensers or condenser, with the cylinders, which surfaces are held together by a sufficient number of screw bolts, to unite the cylinders and the condensers firmly together; also the air pumps or pump, being either vertical or inclined, and either fixed within the condensers or condenser, or else (in the case of the pumps being inclined, but not otherwise,) those pumps being firmly affixed to the condensers or condenser, by branches as before described, and by these means the whole of the said parts are united as before described, into an improved arrangement and combination, possessing great advantages in respect to simplicity, compactness and union of the said parts."

JOHN HARWOOD, OF PORTLAND-PLACE, IN THE COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX, ESQUIRE, for an improved means of giving expansion to the chest.-Enrolment Office, April 7, 1842.

The principle on which this invention is founded, is one of unquestionable soundness, namely, that "it is necessary to the due expansion of the chest (on which the healthful action of the entire body depends) that the shoulders should habitually have a backward and downward position or inclination;" and we believe it to be true also, as the patentee avers, that such a habitual position of the shoulders must contribute essentially to the perfection of the shape and figure of the body, and to an erect and graceful carriage." To accomplish these objects, the patentee provides the shoulders with "certain artificial aids or supports, calculated not only to induce them to assume the proper retracted and depressed position, but to sustain them in such position without painful or inconvenient pressure, or impeding the free action of any of the muscles of the arms, shoulders or back." These artificial supports are composed of thin plates of metal, or other suitable solid substance, covered with leather, or other soft material; or simply of an outside frame of metal or wire, filled in with some soft substance; and they are so curved, or arched, as to fit without inconvenient pressure upon the shoulders. The hind parts are of a large pearshaped form, in order to present a broad surface of support for the shoulder-blades, over, and upon which they rest, and the anterior parts, which are of a similar shape, but much narrower, come down in front.

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The shoulder-pieces are connected by elastic bands at the back and front with a waistband; those in front coming straight down, but those behind crossing each other diagonally (like common braces). The effect of these, and other subordinate arrangements which it is here unnecessary to detail, is stated to be "to impart at once great support to the trunk, and a right bearing and action to all the bones and muscles of, and connected with, the upper extremities, and so to prevent, diminish, or remove, without inconvenience, that stooping and protrusion of the shoulders, of which weakness in these muscles, or distortion of the body, is the usual cause." "" Again:-"The shoulderpieces being entirely separate, or only slightly connected together by the back-bands where they cross each other, each shoulderpiece admits of the natural play of the shoulder, which it sustains independently of the other." A further important advantage which these supports possess over all other contrivances of this class which we remember to have seen, is, that they do not require straps, or bands of any kind, to be passed under the arms, where pressure of any sort is not only irksome, but certain to be more or less injurious.

NOTES AND NOTICES.

The Story of the Egg-Columbus Anticipated.Vasari relates an anecdote of Brunalleschi, similar to that recorded of Columbus, though this has unquestionably the merit of being the first, since it occurred before the birth of Columbus. (Brunaleschi died in 1446, Columbus was born in 1442.) A council of the most learned men of the day, and from various parts of the world was summoned to consult, and show plans for the erection of a cupola like that of the Pantheon at Rome. Brunaleschi refused to show his model, it being upon the most simple principles, but proposed that the man who should make an egg stand upright on a marble base should be the architect. The foreigners and artists agreeing to this, but failing in their attempts, desired Brunaleschi to do it himself, upon which he took the egg, and with a gentle tap broke the end, and placed it on the slab. The learned men unanimously protested that any one else could do the same, to which the architect replied with a smile, that had they seen his model they could as easy have known how to build a cupola.— Latilla on Fresco Painting.

Ancient Railroads. It is generally supposed that the Greeks, amid all their advances in abstract science, were comparatively backward in some of the most important practical arts of civilized life, more especially in all that relates to interior communication by means of roads, bridges, &c. There are, however, many strong evidences, both of a practical and a speculative nature, that under all these disadvantages this branch of internal economy was, according to the use and fashion of the age, carried, even at the remotest period of antiquity, to a much higher degree of perfection in Greece than has usually been supposed. Travellers have long been in the habit of remarking the frequent occurrence of wheel-ruts

in every part of that country, often in the remotest and least frequented mountain passes, where a horse or mule can now with difficulty find a track. The term rut must not here be understood in the sense of a hole or inequality worn by long use and neglect in a level road, but of a groove or channel purposely scooped out at distances adapted to the ordinary span of a carriage, for the purpose of steadying and directing the course of the wheels, and lightening the weight of the draught, on rocky or precipitous ground, in the same manner as the sockets of our railroads. Some of these tracts of stone railway, for such they may in fact be called, are in a good state of preservation, chiefly where excavated in strata of solid rock. Where the nature of the soil was not equally favourable, the level was probably obtained by the addition of flags filling up the inequalities. It seems now to be generally admitted by persons who have turned their attention to the subject, that this was the principle on which the ancient Greek carriage roads were constructed on ground of this nature.-Mure's Tour in Greece.

New Process of Dyeing.-The Commerce announces that the Russian Government had purchased for the sum of 1,000,000 rubles the new process of dyeing blue, by means of which the price of dyeing a piece of cloth is reduced to six francs from thirty-two. M. Casimir Périer, the French Minister at St. Petersburgh, was in treaty with the inventor for the acquisition of his discovery, which would "free France from the tribute which she pays yearly to both Indies for indigo."

Different Effects of Vegetables upon different Animals.-Horses will not touch cruciferous plants, but will feed on reed grasses, amidst abundance of which goats have been known to starve; and these latter, again, will eat and grow fat on the water hemlock, which is a rank poison to other cattle. In like manner, pigs will feed on henbane, while they are destroyed by common pepper; and the horse, which avoids the bland turnip, will grow fat on rhubarb.

The Mat Trade.-The bark of the Linden tree is a great article of commerce in Russia, where it is used to make mats, baskets of all kinds, bags, slippers, and other things, and also for thatching. The trades is carried on to a considerable extent throughout the North East of European Russia, from the Ousha and the Wetugt to Kama, where the lindens grow in great abundance, but do not thrive without the shelter of other trees. It is calculated that upwards of 14,000,000 mats are made annually in Russia, requiring 1,000,000 of trees to be stripped, and creating a traffic to the amount of, at least, 3,000,000 of silver roubles, or more than 12,000,000 francs.

M.

Warmth of the Snow Blanket.-At the French Academy of Sciences, (March 14,) M. Arago read a communication on the warmth imparted to the earth by a covering of snow, and respecting which there has hitherto been much scepticism. Arago stated that M. Boussingault had ascertained the truth of the theory beyond the possibility of doubt, during the past winter. He found that a thermometer plunged in snow to the depth of a decimetre (about 4 inches) sometimes marked 9 degrees of heat greater than that at the surface.

England's Destiny.-"I do not know, in the history of the world (says Frederick Von Raumer, in one of his recent works), a more noble destiny than that to which England is called, which she has already accomplished, or will infallibly accomplish in due time. The great projects of Alexander fell

to the ground at his premature death; Rome established her power by the sword alone, and the destruction of other nations, and she perished in the sequel by her own fault, of a long protracted disease. Mahometanism, in relation to Christianity, was a deplorable retrogression, and the empire of Napoleon only a meteor of arrogant tyranny. The Papal dominion of the middle ages had an eternal value for the education of the haman race; but it extended at that time only to Europe, and fell into numerous errors. The errors, however, are not the essence; and this essence will survive all the tricks of political mountebanks. England is the first empire, which embraces the whole earth, every nation; yet the chief weight and the chief value are not in the extent of its dominions, but in the highest activity, united with progress in the sciences, and the most laudable solicitude for the spread of religion. England is the intellectual eye which turns to every quarter, penetrates through every zone, and prepares an exalted future destiny for the human race. Before this noble, comprehensive, glorious destination, the low and violent disputes of domestic parties lose all their importance, or are but shadows that relieve the higher lights."

Logan Rock Replaced in its Former Position, -This great lion of the west, after being kept for the last several years by means of chains and props, from falling off the rock on which it stands, is once more more brought back to its former position. It appears that it had been gradually wearing away the part on which it stood, until it had become a foot distant from its own basis. By the ingenious adaptation of four screws, however, invented by James Tregurtha and J. Hutchens, of the village of Treene, they succeeded in foreing back the rock to its original place, and it may now be moved with greater facility than before, and equal safety.-Cornwall Gazette.

Disc Hydraulic Engine.-We have been gratified with the inspection of a very complete hydraulic apparatus, constructed on the principle of the dise engine, by the Birmingham Disc Engine Company, and impelled by a steam-engine on the same prin ciple. The engine, boiler, and hydraulic apparatus, are all contained in a small canal boat measuring 50 feet in length, and 7 feet in width. The engine and apparatus, without the boiler, occupy a space of only 12 feet by 6 feet. When we inspected this machine, it was drawing water from the canal, and delivering it at a height of 5 feet, through a pipe of 20 inches diameter, which was filled "full bore," and the delivery of the water was almost perfectly uniform. We understand that the quantity of water raised has been ascertained by measurement, and found to be equal to 4,000 gallons per minute, or nearly 40,000 cubic feet per hour. This apparatus has been constructed for one of the canal companies, to be used for emptying the canal, when requisite for repairs. -Midland Counties' Herald.

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.

The prefixed engravings represent an ingenious application of the Drummond Light (so called after its scientific inventor, the late lamented Captain Drummond,) to domestic purposes, which has been lately invented and patented by Messrs. A. H. Simpson, P. H. Irwin, and T. E. Irwin. We extract the following description from the specification of the patentees.

The invention is stated to consist "in directing a stream of oxygen gas at an angle across a flame proceeding from ignited pyroligneous spirit or any ethereal spirit, and causing the two gases thus produced to impinge upon a piece of lime or other earth containing lime, placed in a receptacle, so arranged, that it keeps the lime at one uniform height, as regards the point on which the gases impinge on the lime, at the same time that the lime is susceptible of being turned round in its receptacle to present fresh surfaces to the action of the gases as occasion may require."

Figure 1 shows a suspending lamp for a room with the improved light attached thereto; fig. 2 is a portion of the same lamp on a larger scale in section, and fig. 3 is a horizontal section of the same. AA are small jets, through which oxygen gas is supplied from a reservoir or gasometer placed in any convenient place, by means of the pipe B; these jets must be provided with stop-cocks, as at C; DD are jets, which are supplied with pyroligneous spirit by means of the tubes EE, from a reservoir F, which is provided, as in the ordinary Argand lamp, with a sliding valve G. The spirit jets are enlarged or bulbed at their ends to receive some cotton wool, so arranged as to allow the ends of the oxygen jets to be brought within it, and are furnished with small apertures for that purpose, as also when the spirit is ignited. H H are hollow stems, supporting at their upper ends, open cups or receptacles, in which are placed cylindrical pieces of lime I I. The lime is fitted into interior sockets, JJ, as shown more clearly in the detached fig. 4, and these sockets are fixed at bottom to rods K K, which pass down the hollow stems H, and at bottom have screw heads L L, by which the lime can be turned round as the flame

• Patent dated June 17, 1840.

From fig. 4 it will be also seen that the interior socket J, rests upon a spiral spring M, which presses the lime upwards, as it is burnt, against a small friction roller N, attached to the outer cup or case, and by which the lime is prevented from being forced out of the socket, and is always kept at the proper jet of gas. Fig. 5 shows a cap, or cover height to meet the flame of the lamp and O, which is placed over the lime when the lamp is not in use to keep it dry; though apparently a trifling addition, it is in its effect very important in preventdamp from the atmosphere when the ing the lime from crumbling by imbibing light is out, and should be put on the moment the light is extinguished, and while it is yet warm.

What the patentees claim as their invention is, "the directing a stream of oxygen gas at an angle across a flame spirit, or any ethereal spirit rising in a proceeding from ignited pyroligneous tube with two apertures bulbed at each end, such bulb being fitted with cotton wool, or other the like substance, or rising in a tube cut off at its upper end producing two gases, and causing the two in a slanting direction, as aforesaid, thus gases thus produced to impinge upon a piece of lime, or other earth containing lime, and placed in a receptacle furnished with a spring below, friction roller above,