mended it to mariners for use at sea, as an anti-scorbutic beverage." This is, indeed, taking the bull by the horns; but it is only by this candid proceeding that confidence can be ensured, and, in this instance, it is of value to know that the Company comes forward with no untried and doubtful scheme, but one of great national importance, aided by past experience, by chemical knowledge, and by mechanical skill. The opinion of Dr. Ure is most decided, when he says, "The facility hereby offered for making a pure and grateful beverage, at a moderate cost, quite exempt from those noxious ingredients too frequently present in beers, and porters, and ales of commerce, renders this enterprise one of the most promising, as a profitable investment of capital, which have recently come to my knowledge." And Professor Brande, speaking of the very same enterprise says, "This application of the extract to domestic brewing I consider very important; for, although the beer issued directly from our large breweries is always excellent, it is, I believe, too commonly adulterated in the hands of the retailer; and the trash which is sold under the name of small beer is too well known as neither agreeable nor wholesome." The evidence of these scientific men in favour of the extract is infinitely more conclusive than all the sneers of "A Brewer." I am very willing to believe that "A Brewer" has some of the best of beer in his store at Oakham; and that he never uses drugs, either, as he says, because they are too dear," or for any other equally good reason. He wonders why the extract may not be adulterated as well as beer. I might answer, because it is not beer, but simply concentrated liquid malt and hops, in about one-tenth the space of beer. But the best proof that the extract is genuine is, that it will ferment well, and make excellent beer, which certain drugs used in drugging beer would frustrate; besides, from its very concentration, the drug which in ten gallons of ale would scarcely affect the palate, would, when transferred to one gallon of extract, give a decided and nauseous flavour. In a popular recipe for brewing porter, the extras are treacle, liquorice-root, essentia bina, colour, capsicum, Spanish liquorice, cocculus indicus, salt of tartar, heading, (green copperas and alum,) ginger, lime, linseed, cinnamon; all which in one gallon of extract would indeed make a delicate mess, one which would require dilution with many gallons of water to soften down the nauseousness of such an offensive compound. While "A Brewer" is merely quibbling about his own practice, and the practice of the honourable part of the community, and throwing a cloak over the rest to hide their pernicious practices, I am desirous only of directing attention to a fact, that beer is adulterated continually, and by rule; it is no matter to the public and myself where, when, and how; it is sufficient to know that the practice is a stubborn fact. If he wants chapter and verse, I can give it him. Thus, in Hartley's Companion, 1843, we read, at page 210-" How to improve a butt of beer,"-by drawing off 21 gallons and filling up the void with sugar, liquorice, three quarters of a pound of salt, one ounce of chillies, two quarts of sugar-colouring, water, and finings, then rousing up, and bunging down till wanted. A precious improvement this! But for brewers' drugs, read almost any work on brewing, and particularly the exposure of the system made by Mr. Accum, the chemist. That drugs are very extensively employed, and in more than homœopathic doses, is so notorious, that I wonder "A Brewer" should venture a word on the subject. "A Brewer's" pleasantry on my remark of the loss of a few shillings only, which might accrue to the experimental brewer, is very misapplied; to make the most of the disaster, he says it may be "perhaps the value of a couple of days' work to an individual." Well, suppose this sad and serious event to occur once or so in a person's lifetime, how does it compare with the loss adduced by “A Brewer," in his first letter, when he assures us, with something like exultation, speaking of the common brewer, "thousands of pounds are frequently expended to enable the operator to controul and regulate his fermentations to the greatest nicety;" and this, with ability, "often purchased by high premiums, and still oftener by dear-bought experience?" Look on his lament over one of "the million" losing perchance a few shillings in an experimental brewing from concen THE NATIONAL MALT EXTRACT COMPANY. trated malt and hop extract, and then review his own statement amounting to an individual loss sufficient to supply the inhabitants of a good sized village with beer for a month. If this is the only kind of argument that "A Brewer" can advance, the sooner he wipes his pen, and lays it aside for ever, the better. The fraternity will not thank him for his lame advocacy of a cause he so feebly supports. The worst feature in your correspondent's communication, is want of consistency. In his first letter he cannot sufficiently praise the extract for its great utility, as consisting "in its portability for shipping, and in its enabling the mariner at all times to manufacture a fresh drink, which, as an anti-scorbutic, is known to be invaluable;" yet, in his last letter, he so far forgets himself, and loses temper, as to designate the same article "stuff"-speaking sneeringly of the pamphlet on "National Brewing," as being given away "with every bottle of stuff!" This is very like blowing hot and cold, and contrasts very oddly with another paragraph in the same letter: "I am not even given credit for sincerity when admitting the extract to be really useful to the sailor, which I most cordially do." I do admire, in this liberal and enlightened age, the highminded feeling of "A Brewer," in regard to "the credulous million, whose knowledge of fermentation may not be much more than that of astronomy;" and in recommending "every bottle of stuff," called malt and hop extract, as only "really useful to the sailor!" There is such a comicality in the confusion of ideas, of which "A Brewer" would fain deliver himself, that I feel somewhat perplexed whether to treat them as aimed to protect society from imposition; to avert a fancied calamity touching thirty thousand brewers (including himself); or to direct the energies of the Extract Company into some better channel to realize a golden harvest. Now, I would suggest to "A Brewer," whether, other attempts having been made to establish the manufacture of malt extract, the best time may not have arrived for carrying it out prosperously, as we are now more alive than in former years to the powerful influence of mechanical and chemical knowledge; also, whether it answers any good end to be always pertinaciously an 539 ticipating evil results when there exists a fair prospect of success? Thus, suppose a business is established to supplyships' stores, as he recommends. Well, that is a good trade. Then, if our colonies take it, and breweries are set up without requiring large coppers, or any mash tun, (which, to a common brewery, is like wheels to a coach,) or any cooling floors, or any store rooms for malt and hops, or any steam-engine, and very few horses, and very few hands, and very low cheap buildings, why that would be a pretty good trade. And then suppose the medical faculty to recommend it to mothers, as more beneficial to them and their children to make unfermented ale as a beverage instead of beer, because of its not inducing fever, and not affecting the head, and yet supplying a pleasant nourishing draught, in its form of sweet wort; then suppose, in some isolated parts and particular districts, a little extract is taken in one corner of England and a little in another, why that would be no despicable trade; then imagine it spreading into Ireland, and superseding whisky drinking, because in Ireland there is little beer drunk at present, therefore not the same prejudices to overcome, well, that would be a good adventure; then I will suppose the Company by skill and management making, as happens in all human affairs, great improvements, becoming popular and growing liberal, bringing out a great variety of extracts, that would be a great national benefit; thus I can imagine the time approaching when it will be no uncommon thing to drink home-brewed stout and porter in very lone districts. Now, surely, in one or all of these suggestions there is enough to be picked up for one company to make at least a rational and paying mercantile speculation. I have tasted porter brewed from the Company's brown malt and hop extract, which for colour and flavour I do not think can be surpassed; it was very bright, though not a month old, and no finings used; it also carried and retained a fine head without the aid of the heading invaribly used for tavern porter, being a mixture of green copperas and alum. This heading is put to the beer, not to the wort, else it would affect the fermentation; now, the malt extract makes only the wort, and has to be fermented by the consumer. Here, then, is the difference between the old and the new system: by the old, the public are supplied with beer; by the new, with concentrated wort. Suppose 9 ounces of any drug in 9 gallons of ale, why this would amount to only one ounce diffused through each gallon, whereas in the extract it would be nearer nine ounces to each gallon, and therefore most palpable and unpalatable; but I never tasted any of the extract, whether for ale or porter, that was unpleasant, nor could I by tests discover the presence of any drugs whatever. I am, Sir, yours, &c., A CHEMIST. Kennington, Nov. 28, 1846. LITTLE'S DOUBLE-ACTION PRINTING MACHINE. objected to by an intelligent correspondent, as being inconsistent with the triple gain stated to be effected by it. The inconsistency, however, is a seeming one only; for, though the gain may be triple, it is, in fact, but the result of a system of double action, and of the great saving of time and labour which result from it. Mr. Little has himself explained all this so well in an article on the subject in the Illustrated News, that we cannot do better than repeat here his own words. The prefixed engraving is a copy, on a considerably enlarged scale, of the diagram to which Mr. Little refers. It may be considered as a skeleton representation of a six-cylinder machine on Mr. Little's plan : By "the Fast Machine," such as is used for printing the daily newspapers, the impression is obtained by four cylinders, two of which revolve constantly in one direction, and the remaining two constantly in an opposite direction. Thus, only two sheets of paper can receive an impression from the "form" of type with each passage of the table, the cylinders, when giving the impres sion, necessarily travelling in the same direction as the table: hence, although the form passes under the four cylinders, two of these are alternately idle, and the machine, consequently, produces only two printed sheets with every backward and forward motion of the type. The Double-Action Machine works with eight cylinders, six of which have a reversing motion, and produces seven printed sheets with every transverse motion of the type: thus, in the "Fast Machine," only half the cylinders actually print alternately, whilst in the latter, seven out of eight of the cylinders are constantly at work; so that, supposing both machines to have the same number of cylinders, the Double-Action Machine would, from this circumstance alone, produce nearly twice the quantity of printed sheets; but, on comparison, it will be seen that considerably more than twice the number can be produced. The surface of type, it is known, rests on an horizontal table, which is moved backward and forward by a pinion working in a rack beneath the table; this rack, terminating at each end in a semicircle of a certain diameter, has, consequently, besides its traversing motion, a lateral motion, at the time of which, the progress of the table may be considered as neutral, or, in other words, the operation of printing is at a "stand-still" until the pinion has passed round the end of the rack, causing a considerable loss of time, during several thousand revolutions: 541. thus, to print twenty thousand sheets by the present "Fast Machine," the pinion must pass five thousand times round each end of the rack, which, with a rack of six inches diameter, is equal to a space of 15,000 feet. To print twenty thousand sheets by the Double-Action Machine, it is evident that, as SEVEN sheets are produced from each passage of the table, the pinion will have to pass round each end of the rack only fourteen hundred and twenty-eight times, equal to a space of 4284 feet, or 10,716 feet less than in the former machine. Another source of gain in the DoubleAction Machine arises from the cylinders being diminished in size, and by working them as closely together as possible; the present four-cylinder machine requiring a rack of six feet, whilst the Double-Action Machine, with twice the number of cylinders, requires a rack of only eight feet,* which, multiplied into the number of revolutions required to work twenty thousand copies, is about equal to five thousand seven hundred and twelve feet. * * * It will be evident that, as the cylinders of the Double-Action Machine work backward and forward, continuous tapes cannot be used for connecting the printing cylinders with the feeding drums, and revolving with them constantly in one direction. In the 1, 2, 3, 4, have no connection with the tapes diagram, the tapes passing round the drums passing round the printing cylinders b, c, d, e; the purpose of the former being to conduct the sheet to the cylinder, and afterwards to receive and carry the printed sheet away. We will now trace the passage of the several sheets, commencing with that which passes direct to e, the first of the reversing cylinders. The sheet enters on the drum 1 at A, it is then conducted to the feeding rollers, 2, 3, and passes from them to the cylinder rollers, 1, 2, and next round the cylinder e, where it meets the form of type, and receives an impression; it is then conducted by the cylinder tapes through 2, 3, to the takers-away, 3, 4; thence it passes in the direction of the arrows to the point в 2, when it falls on a single continuous tape, and is carried to a receiving-box; the next sheet enters on the drum 2, at A, passing as before in the direction indicated by the arrows to the printing cylinder d, and ultimately arriving at the point в 3, when it is again carried by single tapes to a receiving-box; the next sheet enters on the drum 3, and proceeds as before to the cylinder c, arriving at в 4; and the next sheet on the drum 4, to the cylinder b, coming out at *The entire length of traverse in two of the Times machines is 6 feet 7 inches, in another two 6 feet 21 mches. B5, &c. So soon as this last sheet has cleared the cylinder rollers 8, 9, the whole of the feeding and taking-away rollers are made to slide, bringing the same figures over each other, thus-1 over 1, 2 over 2, &c.; the printing cylinders being at the same time reversed, revolve in a contrary direction. It will be observed, the feeders are now in a position to deliver a sheet on the other side of the cylinders: indeed, the whole operation is so simple, that a careful study of the diagram is alone sufficient to explain the theory of the Double-Action Machine. We have made no allusion to the working of each of the end cylinders, since they revolve only in one direction, and are lifted alternately, as in the old system. Our description, however, would not be complete, without explaining why we combine the old system with the new, since this combination is an important feature in the invention. It has been stated that the Double-Action Machine has eight cylinders, and that seven printed sheets are produced from each passage of the types. Of these eight cylinders six only have a reversing motion, or revolve backward and forward; each of the end cylinders lifts and revolves constantly in one direction, like the cylinders of the Cylinders. present "Fast Machine." The reason why the end cylinders differ from the other six is this: in consequence of the reversing motion of the six cylinders, it is necessary that a certain interval of time should elapse to allow the sheet in work to get clear off before the next sheet can be allowed to enter; to effect this, the table must traverse a certain distance beyond the extreme vibrating cylinder, and advantage is taken of this space, to place a lifting cylinder, which does not require the type to pass beyond its centre, thus giving one sheet more from each end of the Machine, amounting to 2856 during the working of 20,000 sheets. This will explain how seven sheets only are produced from eight cylinders, each of the end cylinders producing only one sheet, whilst the remaining six produce two each, from one revolution of the rack or table. We conclude with an abstract of the several powers of the Double-Action Machine, working as it may be, with one or more reversing cylinders. We simply give the number of combined cylinders at work, the length of traverse, the speed per second, and the result from two rates of going, viz., four and five feet per second. Length of traverse. Speed per second. 4 Feet No. of sheets printed per hour. 5,760 7,200 8,000 9,000 10,000 12,000 12,600 15,750 But thirty-two years have elapsed since the proprietors of the Times, which was the first newspaper printed by a steam-press, boasted that "no less than eleven hundred sheets were impressed (by it) in one hour." It was regarded by them as a feat quite unparalleled, and never, in all human probability, to be excelled. What a wondrous change have a few years effected! By the persevering ingenuity of Napier, Cowper, Dryden, and others, the number of impressions was increased about four-fold, and now Mr. Little has carried the increase to nearly four times four. Such giant strides as this in art, are only to be made by giants in genius. 5 The introduction of printing by moveable types was scarcely itself of more importance than this; it increased amazingly the capabilities of the typographical art, but not for a long time to anything like the extent which Mr. Little's machine promises to do, before another year passes over our heads. Koenig's name stands deservedly high as having been the first to apply steam power to the art of printing; but equally high, if not higher, should stand the name of him who, by his mechanical skill, has enabled steam to do three times more for the art than Koenig ever realized or, most probably, ever dreamt of. EXTENSION OF AMERICAN PATENT RIGHTS. [From the " The 18th section of the Acts of Congress, of patents substantially, as follows, viz.: If of July 4th, 1836, provides for the extension the patentee desire an extension of his We shall take an early opportunity of adverting to the constitution and objects of this Association. ED. M.M, |