new or improved process or manufacture of silk, and silk in combination with certain other fibrous substances.-Sealed 19th November-6 months for inrolment.

To John Buchanan, of Ramsbottom, in the county of Lancaster, millwright, for his invention of an improved apparatus for the purpose of dyeing, and performing similar operations.-Sealed 22nd November-6 months for inrolment.

To Thomas Robson, of Park-road, Dalston, in the county of Middlesex, operative chemist, for his invention. of improvements in firing signal and other lights.-Sealed 22nd November-6 months for inrolment.

To George Guynne, of Holborn, gentleman, and James Young, brewer, of Brick-lane, both in the county of Middlesex, for their invention of improvements in the manufacture of sugars.-Sealed 22nd November-6 months for inrolment.

To Isaac Naylor, of Stainbrough, near Barnsby, in the county of York, gamekeeper, for his invention of an alarm gun, or reporter and detector.-Sealed 22nd November2 months for inrolment.

To Timothy Hackworth, of New Shildon, near Bishop Auckland, engineer, for his invention of improvements in steam-engines.-Sealed 22nd November-6 months for

inrolment.

To Thomas Ellis, of Stamford-hill, in the county of Middlesex, esquire, and Thomas Burr, of Shrewsbury, in the county of Shropshire, for their invention of improvements in the manufacture of sheets and pipes, or tubes, and other articles of lead and other metals.-Sealed 24th November -6 months for inrolment.

To Joseph Woollams, of Wells, in the county of Somerset, gentleman, for his invention of certain improved means of obtaining power and motion from known sources.— Sealed 24th November-6 months for inrolment.

To JOHN HOLMES, of Birmingham, in the county of Warwick, engineer, for his invention of certain improvements in the construction of boilers for steam-engines; which improvements are particularly applicable to locomotive engines, and to steam navigation.—[Sealed 7th April, 1836.]

THESE improvements in the construction of boilers for steam-engines, are designed for the purpose of exposing a very extended surface of the boiler or steam generator to the action of the fire. The boiler is made of plate iron, and without small tubular flues, which are always liable to become choked with soot and dust, arising from the furnace, and which are extremely troublesome to clean.

The invention consists in constructing these improved steam boilers with hemispherical, or dome-shaped, or waggon-top-shaped compartments, one within another, the

VOL. IX.

2 c

plates or partitions forming alternately water vessels and flues. The heated vapour and smoke rising from the combustion of the fuel passes up between, along, and partly round the water vessels, the flues communicating one with another through such openings as will not impede the draft.

Plate IX., fig. 1, is a section taken transversely through one of the improved constructions of boiler; fig. 2, being a horizontal section of the same, both of which are taken through the furnace and water chambers. In this instance the fuel is fed in from a hopper, and deposited upon a revolving fire-grate; but these constitute no part of the present improvement, except in connexion with the boiler, as a convenient arrangement for locomotive engines and steam vessels.

The jacket or outer casing of the boiler a, a, a, a, forms the external flue leading to the chimney; b, is the furnace ; and c, c, the revolving fire-grate, mounted on a perpendicular shaft, which is made hollow for the passage of air, and operates as a blow-pipe to urge the fire.

The flues leading from the furnace are shown at e, e, e, passing up and down between, and embracing the water chambers, and ultimately conducting the smoke and vapours to the chimney f, which is furnished with a damper, to regulate the heat. The fuel is supplied from the hopper g, in small granulated pieces, gradually brought down by the rotation of a toothed roller h, into the shute i, from whence it falls upon the fire-grate c, within the furnace.

The fire-grate is made to travel round with its perpendicular support by means of a screw on the horizontal shaft k, taking into a worm wheel on the perpendicular shaft; and the toothed roller h, which feeds the fuel, is driven by similar means, the horizontal shaft being connected to the rotary part of the engine.