alteration in the course of manufacture, nor in the leas degree any alteration in the application of the materials, or the materials themselves, nothing on earth; but the question simply being whether Mr. Neilson's patent may be applied to a mode of making iron perfectly well known before, and which only failed to make good iron for want of Mr. Neilson's patent.

(To be continued.)

Vice-Chancellor of England's Court,-Oct. 27, 1842. ELLIOTT v. FRIEDEBERG.

Mr. James, on behalf of Mr. Elliott, a button-maker residing in Birmingham, applied to restrain the defendant, who carried on business at Hull, from infringing a patent obtained by the plaintiff in 1837, the validity of which had been fully established in 1840, by a trial at law in the Court of Common Pleas, upon which occasion the usual issues were taken of "Not guilty," "that the plaintiff was not the first and true inventor," and so forth, upon all of which issues a verdict was entered for the plaintiff, the effect of which verdict had been to cause all the other persons who were infringing to submit entirely to the plaintiff's right, and pay him license dues. In the present case Julius Friedeberg had lately been very largely importing into this country buttons made upon the principle of Mr. Elliott's patent. The affidavits stated, that plaintiff having heard of the infringement, a person was sent down to Hull to obtain legal evidence thereof; that he there purchased three gross of the said buttons (specimens of which were produced to his Honour), from the defendant. The patent was for making buttons with a centre pattern, by dies and pressure. The present application was to restrain the defendant from importing into this country, as well as selling and vending, buttons made upon the plaintiff's principle.

The Vice-Chancellor thought the infringement had been clearly proved, and granted the injunction in the terms prayed, at the same time expressing an opinion that it was a very clear case.

SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANEA.

PROGRESS OF FOREIGN SCIENCE.

Report of the Commission of the Academy of Sciences upon the Memoir of M. Ebelmen, on his Researches on the Composition and Employment (for manufacturing purposes) of the Gases evolved from Blast Fur

naces.

(Continued from page 252.)

M. EBELMEN arrives at a very remarkable conclusion, viz., that the combustible gases which issue from the mouth of the blast furnace, contain an amount of fuel, which in the case of Clerval represents sixty-two per cent., and in that of Audincourt sixty-seven per cent., of the whole fuel employed, so that the useful effect of the fuel consumed in the blast furnace at Audincourt is only onethird of its actual value. This result is rather below than above the truth, because the furnace at Audincourt is upon a good model, because M. Ebelmen, in his calculations, has assumed, at zero, the initial temperature of the ascending column of air entering the furnace and that of the inflammable gases, and has taken no account of the combustible materials disengaged from the wood, which are condensible by sulphuric acid, from which it is evident, that cast-iron being fusible at 1200 degrees, the temperature produced by the combustion of the gases of

the blast furnace will be sufficient for its refining and working subsequently.

But the question arises, can we collect the gases of blast furnaces? To take them from the lower part of the belly of the furnace would expose the combustion in the fire to derangement, and to take them near the mouth is to lose a portion of their useful effects.

M. Ebelmen thinks that it will be preferable to collect them at this latter spot, but that then we must introduce the ore to the furnace previously calcined, at 300 degrees. In adopting this process, we can still augment the good effect, by mixing the finely divided ore with sawdust or powdered charcoal and moulding it into bricks, and then roasting, as one of the reporters (M. Berthier) long ago advised. M. Ebelmen, having conducted his research so far, asks, "Will it not be advantageous in many metallurgic processes, to burn the fuel in the state of gas rather than in the solid form?" Thus the limit of temperature which we can attain in draft furnaces is by burning charcoal with air in excess, at 0° 2232°, and if the air is at 300° = 2518°. But this temperature is limited to a small space on account of the rapidity with which the carbonic acid produced in the first instant is reconverted into carbonic oxide the instant following, so that when we burn charcoal on the grate of a reverberatory furnace by means of a blast (d'air forcé), if the bed of fuel is thick there is but a very small space near the grate. Where the temperature is high, the carbonic acid as soon as converted into carbonic oxide produces a cooling; if, on the contrary, the bed of fuel is thin, it is very difficult to avoid an excess of air, but this excess again lowers the temperature, resulting from the formation of the carbonic acid (i. e., from perfect combustion); in fact, we see how difficult it is to avoid these extremes, and to obtain the whole useful effect of the charcoal.

Setting out from these considerations, M. Ebelmen has constructed a small furnace, by means of which the

carbonic oxide produced by the atmospheric air, which transverses a bed of charcoal sufficiently thick, has been then burnt (deprived already of all its sensible heat), in a furnace properly constructed and fed with heated air, and the temperature thus developed was sufficient to melt cast-iron.

Finally, M. Ebelmen, after having found the impossibility of burning advantageously the charcoal of a blast furnace with water, because during the reaction of these bodies too much heat becomes latent, has thought of causing a current of vapour of water to arrive immediately above the grate of the furnace before spoken of, while the current of air arrives below the grate. By the help of this contrivance he has obtained a mixture of carbonic oxide and of hydrogene, the combustion of which develops heat enough to melt cast-iron.

But the fact which this last trial reveals is the possibility of developing the heat necessary for working iron, (i. e., for puddling, refining, &c.,) by employing anthracites, dry and earthy coal of bad quality, culm, charcoal dust, turf, mould, &c., which cannot be used at all or disadvantageously by ordinary methods of combustion.

It is to be wished that M. Ebelmen should continue his researches, and it will be a fine conclusion to his first happy thought of utilizing the lost flame of blast furnaces, should success crown his efforts.

The reporters observe, that it would be desirable that M. Ebelmen should submit to further experiments the actual temperature of the different heats of blast furnaces, and conclude by a high eulogium upon the skill, perseverance, and accuracy of his researches, and finish by stating, that had not the research been the result of a commission, undertaken by the author at the command of the Director-General of Mines, &c., they should have recommended its publication in the "Recueil des Savants Etrangèrs," but this being irregular, they propose the approbation of the Academy to M. Ebelmen, and a request on its part to continue his researches, and the

Academy have adopted these suggestions, together with the Report.

To ourselves, liberally, profusely supplied as we are with fuel, these researches do not perhaps seem of such importance as to our neighbours, but recollecting that there never yet has been a new principle developed in the arts but ere long its application and their happy results developed themselves, it cannot be doubted but that this method of using at a distance the gases now wasted in so many of our processes, may and will become of high utility in many other of our manufactures as well as in those of iron. R. M.

NOTICE OF EXPIRED PATENTS.

(Continued from page 124.)

GRANVILLE SHARP PATTISON, of Old Burlington-street, in the city of Westminster, and county of Middlesex, Esq., for a new and improved method of applying iron in the sheathing of ships and other vessels, and of applying iron bolts, spikes, nails, pintals, braces, and other fastenings, used in the construction of ships and other vessels. Communicated by a Foreigner.--Sealed September 4, 1828.-(For account of specification, see Repertory, Vol. 8, third series, p. 397.)

JOHN SEAWARD and SAMUEL SEAWARD, of the Canal Iron Works, in the parish of All Saints, Poplar, in the county of Middlesex, Engineer, for a new and improved method or methods for propelling or moving carriages and all other vehicles on roads, and also ships, boats, and other vessels on water.-Sealed September 4, 1828.

CHARLES SANDERSON, of Park-gate Iron Works, near Rotherham, in the county of York, Iron Master, for a new method of making shear steel.-Sealed September 4, 1828. -(For account of specification, see Repertory, Vol. 8, third series, p. 732.)