pared solution, under a pressure of 80 lbs. per square inch. When placed upon the ballast, the joint chairs are first put down 15 feet apart, and the intermediate chairs loosely placed 3 feet apart; "cramp gauges," embracing the inside and outside of the rails, are then fixed between each pair of sleepers, and the wedges along one side driven up one trenail being driven in each chair, the hole for which is previously bored in the sleeper by a gauge, to insure an equal projection on each side of the rail. A "guide tube," of an internal diameter to fit the spiral auger for boring the trenail holes, with the external lip tapered to correspond with the hole in the chair for the head of the trenail, is then used, and by its agency the holes are pierced with great accuracy, concentric with the hole in the chair, at the same time protecting the tool from being injured by the cast-iron. The intermediate chairs are then fixed in the same manner, and the operations are repeated for the opposite rails; the ballast is then consolidated by ramming. It is found that the work proceeds very rapidly; the ballast supports the sleepers throughout, and has no tendency to fall away from them; the water drains away freely, and hitherto the passage of the ballast wagons over that portion of the line which is laid, (although they are without springs,) has been productive of benefit rather than injury.

The inclination of the rail being given in the chair had insured such accuracy, that, after one day's traffic over it, the surface of the rails is rubbed equally throughout, and not alternately on either side, as is so commonly the case.

Mr. Cubitt did not claim the invention of the angular-formed sleeper, as Mr. Reynolds had used it before for his longitudinal-bearing rails, but he believed that transverse sleepers of that form had not been previously laid down; nor did he claim the compressed wedges and trenails, or the peculiar mode of casting the chairs, the merit of these was entirely due to Messrs. Ransome and May, who had entered completely into his views and wishes, and executed them with extreme intelligence.

In answer to questions from the President, Mr. May replied that it had been an object to gain in the trenails and wedges the greatest amount of strength with diminished bulk, and also to cut away as little of the sleeper as possible in boring the holes; he had, therefore, introduced this method of compressing them, with a view, also, that in swelling from the damp they should fix themselves tight into the soft timber sleeper, and hold the chair fast down.

He hoped to extend the use of compressed trenails to ship-building, for which they were

eminently adapted; if they were used, smaller holes would be bored in the timbers, and they would hold tighter than the trenails now used, which require to have the points split and wedged up, and the heads also divided and caulked, to prevent leakage through the open sap-vessels of the wood.

The President remarked that, on the Hull and Selby Railway, the chairs were fastened to the kyanized timber sleepers by uncompressed wooden trenails.

Mr. Cubitt was not aware of that fact; he had always found that uncompressed wedges and trenails would not hold tight. Some of the compressed trenails had been wetted by accident, and could not be afterwards driven into the holes in the chairs; they nearly resumed their original size, and then showed the marks of the turning-tool upon their surfaces. In answer to a question from Mr. Parkes, as to the comparative expense of laying the line, it was rather in favour of the system he had adopted, although the prices paid for the items separately were higher than usual, but the saving in labour, and the almost total absence of waste of miterials, gave the economy. He then quoted a few of the prices paid; sleepers 68. 6d. each, (ready to lay down, including kyanizing;) chairs 91. per ton, free from faults in casting, the contractors for them replac ing all that were broken in laying the line. Each joint chair, with three trenails and one wedge, 28. 10d. Intermediate chairs, with two trenails and one wedge, 28. 1d. each. The labour for laying the line was from 2. to 3s. per yard running; the cost of fixing the sleepers, laying the rails, and ballasting complete, was from 1,500l. to 2,000l. per mile, including all expenses.

Mr. Macneill fully concurred in the im portance of providing for clear drainage from the sleepers; and in the advantage presented by the angular form for ramming the ballast. The transverse sleepers, with such rails as had been used on the South-eastern Railway, were preferable to a continuous bearing, as they would prevent the gauge from widening, and preserve an uniform regularity of surface, which would tend materially to diminish the oscillating motion so common on railways, and which was so destructive to the engine and the carriages; altogether, this railway appeared to be the most perfect he had hitherto seen.

He was using, on the Dublin and Drogheda Railway, chairs of somewhat similar construction, with uncompressed wooden wedges and fastenings; they were very roughly cast in Scotland, with hot-blast iron, and the breakage was very great; they, however, cost less than 57. per ton. He believed that chairs such as were cast by Ransome and May would be cheaper at 97. per ton. The

uncompressed trenails were found in many instances to become loose. In ballasting the railway, as stone was cheap, the whole surface of the line was pitched transversely with thin stones, and then a good bed of broken stone used for ballast, in the same manner as Mr. Telford had proceeded with the Holyhead Road.

Mr. William Cubitt had compressed a considerable quantity of wood wedges, by forcing them singly, by a blow of a piston, through a taper steel mould; on leaving the mould they had attained their ultimate state of compression, and they were some time before they reassumed their original bulk; but he conceived that Mr. May's plan, by which they were dried in a compressed state, enabled them to retain their form longer. He considered the systems of preparation, and of laying the road, to be the most perfect hitherto executed.

Some years since, Mr. Horne had made a series of experiments on the form of timber beams, which presented the greatest amount of strength with the least quantity of timber; he found that a triangular beam placed with the base upwards was one-third stronger than any other form.

Mr. Colthurst inquired whether the trenails and wedges had been found to have lost strength by compressing. He imagined that they would not bear a transverse strain so well as before compression.

Mr. May replied that no experiments had been tried as to the relative transverse strength of timber before and after compression.

Mr. S. Seaward thought it was probable the timber did suffer somewhat from compression, but that did not militate against the system, as there must necessarily be an original excess of strength in the trenails, so that no inconvenience could result from the process.

The President observed, that although uncompressed trenails do draw out of the stone blocks, they hold fast in wood sleepers. The round trenails used to fasten the chairs to the sleepers on the Hull and Selby Railway, were of a proper size to fit the hole in the chair, and at the end a square head was left, which held the chair down.

Mr. Cubitt had frequently seen trenails or plugs driven into stone blocks to receive the iron spikes which fastened down the chairs; he believed they had also been used driving through the chairs into the blocks, but he was not aware that they had been used in wood sleepers, until he employed them on the South-Eastern Railway.

In answer to a question from the President, Mr. Lynde explained, that upon the Hull and Selby Railway, trenails were certainly used in conjunction with wooden

381

sleepers, a portion of them were uncompressed, but the greater part were compressed like the wedges; the latter were supplied by Mr. William Cubitt.

Mr. William Cubitt only supplied the wedges, they were compressed as he had previously explained; he believed that the trenails and wedges generally used upon the London and Birmingham, and other railways, were compressed by being driven through steel rings, by heavy mallets, or by a press; they were most frequently used in the stone blocks to receive the iron spikes.

ABSTRACTS OF SPECIFICATIONS OF ENGLISH

PATENTS RECENTLY ENROLLed.

THOMAS MACAULAY, OF THE CURTAINROAD, MIDDLESEX, UPHOLSTERER, for certain improvements in bed-steps, which are convertible into other useful forms and articles of furniture. Enrolment Office, May 2, 1842.

The improvements comprehended under this patent are embodied in four different sets of bed-steps. The first is a three-tier set, which includes a portable water-closet, and may be readily converted into an easy chair. The chief peculiarities of construction are, 1. The supporting of the bottom step on a pair of folding-doors, which can, by the touch of a spring, be projected or withdrawn at pleasure; 2. The making of the bottom step to turn up in front on hinges, when not wanted; and, 3. Causing the action of the top step, as it is thrown back in order to convert the bed-steps into a chair, to turn over a pair of arm-rests, or pads, on the sides of the case, which now serve as the chair-arms. The second is also a three-tier set, but includes, besides a portable water-closet, a wash-stand, a dressingtable, and a bidet. The contrivances by which one piece of furniture is made to serve so many different purposes are very skilful, but too numerous and minute, (though simple withal,) to admit of an abridged description. The third is also a three-tier set of bed-steps, but convertible into a chair only by turning up the bottom step out of the way, or removing it altogether, and making a chair-back of the upper step. And the fourth is a two-tier set of bed-steps, including a night-commode, and convertible, by the shifting of the steps, into a chair, which may, by means of certain rack-work, be made either reclining or not reclining. The patentee describes also a water-sealed pail of a peculiar construction, and claims it as included under his patent, when used as a part of any of the improved sets of bed-steps before described.

There is a great deal of utility, as well as ingenuity, in these improvements; and they

come in good season now that steam navigation is multiplying so prodigiously the number of travellers by sea and river, and that the multum in parvo is become a matter of such essential importance in cabin furniture. The set of steps No. 3 would, we imagine, be found an excellent article, as well for libraries as for bed-chambers.

EDWARD ROBERT SIMMONS, OF CROYDON, ESQUIRE, for improvements in apparatus for preventing splashing in walking. Enrolment Office, May 2, 1842.

These improvements consist in applying to the heels of boots or shoes a shield, composed of a thin piece of metal, which can be taken on or off at pleasure, and which, it is said, will effectually prevent all splashing from behind, by catching on its under side the mud that would otherwise rise up and rest on the trowsers.

The claim is to temporarily applying shields to the heels of boots or shoes, to prevent splashing when walking.

In our 481st Number, for October 27, 1832, we gave an engraving of a "mud protector," communicated by a Mr. Needham, of Birmingham, which differs but little in shape from that of Mr. Simmons, and will, we dare say, be found quite as efficacious.

JEREMIAH BYNNER, OF BIRMINGHAM, LAMP MANUFACTURER, for improvements in gas-burners. Enrolment Office, May 2, 1842.

Mr. Bynner is the patentee of what goes by the name of the "Solar Lamp." His present improvements consist in a peculiar manner of feeding gas-burners with air, whereby "quiescence in the burning of gas is produced, flickering diminished, and combustion made more complete." These objects are effected by causing the whole of the air admitted into the burner to pass through a multitude of very small orifices. The air which is introduced into the interior of the burner goes through a metal cylinder, the sides of which are perforated with a number of small holes; and that which finds its way to the exterior of the flame is made to go through a circular plate, perforated in the same manner, which plate serves also for the support or gallery to the chimney-glass.

The claim is to the dividing or filamenting the currents of air in their passage to the interior and exterior of gas-burners, in the manner above described.

JOHN CARR, OF NORTH SHIELDS, EARTHENWARE MANUFACTURER, AND AARON RYLES, OF THE SAME PLACE, AGENT, for an improved mode of operating in certain processes for ornamenting glass. Rolls Chapel Office, May 9, 1842.

The "improved mode" here patented is stated to consist in the application to glass "of the process usually called by glass-stainers printing with materials which have not

heretofore been used in that way, and under circumstances which give great facility for, and make great improvements in, ornament. ing glass."

First, as regards the staining of glass, the improved mode of operating is stated to be as follows. "Instead of mixing the staining materials now used for that operation, when levigated finely and dried, with oil of turpentine or other volatile oils, or water, a usual, we mix them with boiled linseed or other oil, such as is now used to mix with enamel colours, when printed on glass: and instead of floating the staining materials over the glass in a liquid state, as now prac tised, we print them on, or transfer them as impressions from, metal plates, in the manner now adopted in the operation of printing enamel colours, and proceed, after the material transferred has been well dried, to fire it for the colour required, in the usual way. When we operate with the same staining materials, so mixed with oil as aforesaid, on what is called pot metal, or on pieces of glass which are what is called 'flashed,' opaque and transparent shades are produced, leaving the surface of the glass quite smooth, and not raised in those parts, as in the common mode of applying body colour for the purpose of shading."

Second, as regards the operation of what is called stopping-out, the patentees give the following directions. "We also mix the materials used for that purpose into a composition with boiled oil, as aforesaid, and transfer printed impressions on to the glass with it, as before explained, covering such parts as are not to be acted upon, and can then float over the whole surface, including the parts so stopped out, with liquid staining composition, and fire it as usual, to produce the stain; after which, the glass being cleaned, the pattern so printed on it in stopping-out materials is exhibited in the original colour of the glass, and quite distinct from the stained ground; or a printed impression being transferred to the glass in stopping-out materials, as aforesaid, the remainder of the ground may be obscured, as it is called, in the usual manner, thus producing transparent patterns on obscured grounds.'

Third, As regards the operation of what is called obscuring glass, the patentees say: "We also mix the materials which are used to produce this effect with boiled oil, and transfer impressions from engraved metal plates on to the glass; this produces obscured patterns on transparent grounds. Now, whereas it is evident, that in all processes for ornamenting glass by staining, stoppingout, or obscuring, the means we have discovered of mixing the staining, the stoppingout, and the obscuring materials with boiled linseed oil, so as to enable us to print with