The total quantity of water thus obtained from the chalk, was seven thousand seven hundred barrels or two hundred and seventyseven thousand two hundred gallons per day of twenty-four hours, or one hundred and ninety-two gallons per minute, forming, at the same time, a reservoir in the chalk, which could contain one hundred thousand eight hundred gallons. He stated the total expense to be under £7000, including the hire and repair of temporay pumps, and the cost of two new sets of permanent pumps. June 7, 1842. The PRESIDENT in the Chair. "An Account of the Alterations of Tullow Bridge." By Charles Forth. The old bridge at Tullow, over the river Slaney, was very dangerous from its steepness, its narrow roadway, (only 18 feet wide) and the awkward approaches to it; alterations were therefore determined upon, for which the author submitted a plan and also superintended the execution of it. The floods forbade any diminution of the waterway, and it would have been inconvenient to have raised the approaches on the low banks on either side; flat arches, of the following proportions, were therefore decided upon. The inclination of the roadway was thus reduced from one in seven to one in forty, while at the same time, by adding to the abutments on the up-stream side, the width of the roadway was increased from 17 feet to 28 feet, and by completing a portion at a time, the thoroughfare over the bridge was not at any time stopped. For the sake of economy, the work was done in un dressed rubble granite, with an ashlar face, taking care that the stones abutted well against each other; and on removing the centres, no settlement of any importance took place, and the traffic of loaded cars, weighing 35 cwt. each, was carried on without any danger, within a week from the time the arches were keyed. The expense of the alteration was only £485, and it has stood well, although it has been subject to some heavy floods. A detailed drawing of the bridge, before and after the alterations, accompanied the Paper, and Mr. Vignoles sent with it an enlarged plan, section, and elevation, for the purpose of more fully illustrating what he considered a successful work. "On the Introduction of Letter-press Printing for Numbering and Dating the Notes of the Bank of England."-By Thomas Oldham, Assoc. Inst. C. E. The author commences by noticing the numbering press invented by Mr. Bramah and adopted in the Bank of England in the year 1809, by which the expense and uncertainty of finishing annually a large number of bank notes, with the pen, was materially diminished, and forgery was rendered more difficult, although the machine was so far incomplete, that it produced only units, the tens and hundreds requiring to be brought forward by hand. In that year (1809) the late Mr. John Oldham (the father of the author) offered unsuccessfully to the Bank of Newry, a machine similar in principle to that of Mr. Bramah, but with the additional power of effecting numerical progression, from one to one hundred thousand, by its own operation. In 1813, these machines were adopted at the Bank of Ireland, and one of them was subsequently attached to each press for printing the body of the notes, in order to register and check the number of notes passing through the press. In the year 1819, Mr. Bryan Donkin invented a counting machine, which is described in vol. 37 of the Transactions of the Society of Arts; it is called "a machine applicable wherever it may be desirable to keep an account of the number of revolutions or strokes, which may be made by the wheels or levers of any other machine, in a given time or space; as for instance, the number of revolutions made by a mill wheel, or of the strokes of a steam-engine beam, in a given time, or the number of revolutions made by the wheel of a carriage or perambulator on passing over a certain space." This machine, like all the others used for a similar purpose, depended upon the relative motion of a series of ratchet wheels with projecting rims, having notches cut in them, so that when the first wheel counted units, the second wheel indicated tens, and so on progressively. The principle of these machines was carried out in a complex manner, which required very neat adjustment to prevent their being deranged while working; the author, after he had succeeded his father as engineer to the Bank of England, turned his attention to this point, and the result has been the production of the machine described in the paper. Four wheels, each divided by ten notches, leaving a facet between each, engraved with consecutive numbers from 1 to 0, are placed upon a shaft, a portion of their breadth being turned down about one-half of their depth, having a boss or collar between each; upon these bosses, and filling up the spaces, rest latches, and over each wheel is a pall, the width of the first being equal to that of the unit wheel, and the breadth of the others equalling that of the wheel and latch ;-the palls are driven by a crank, by each revolution of which, the first wheel is moved through a space equal to one-tenth of its entire circumference, bringing regularly forward the numbers from 1 to 0, at which point the latch of the second wheel is depressed, and the wheel moves forward one division, marking the tens; the same process is repeated with regard to the other wheels, and thus any amount of numbers can be registered, by simply increasing the number of the wheels in proportion. Machines on this plan are now generally adopted in the Bank of England, with perfect success, and in some cases they are added to the Bramah numbering machines; and as the author believed that they might be adapted to other purposes than Banknote printing, he presented the drawings and description of them to the Institution. ON THE LAWS RELATING TO LETTERS PATENT FOR INVENTIONS. No. 1. The rapid strides made by inventive genius in the fine and useful arts, which have contributed, in so great a degree, to raise Britain to the proud position it now assumes in the scale of nations, would naturally bring all parties, connected with the prosperity of our manufactures, to the consideration of the best means to protect the inventor. We should therefore feel wanting in our duty, did we any longer delay bringing before our readers the subject of a revision of the Patent Laws. In doing this, it is not our wish hastily to propose alterations, and dogmatically retain the same opinions, but we would rather call the attention of our readers to the various laws by which the rights and properties of inventors are protected in foreign countries, and see, if out of all these some good practical hints may not be drawn for our own guidance. As a commencement then to a series of articles on this subject, we subjoin a translation of a "projet de loi," which is now occupying the attention of the French Legislature. For the early information we possess on this subject, we are indebted to our esteemed and talented correspondent M. Antoine Perpigna, of Paris. In a very able pamphlet, on the provisions of this Bill, entitled "Observations sur le projet de loi, concernant les brevets d'invention; par A. Perpigna, ancien Avocat à la Cour royale de Paris," the author, who, from a personal knowledge, we can pronounce to be fully able to undertake such a task, has, with great care, considered the bill clause by clause, and made his observations thereon, which explain, in a concise and intelligible manner, the bearings of the various articles, and point out the effect they will be likely to have upon the interests of inventors, both French and foreign. Some features of the proposed law may be considered improvements upon those already existing, as far as natives of France are concerned; but others are highly objectionable, from proposing to increase the government charges, or tax, on brevets for 5 and 10 years; and also instituting a series of, what appear to us, useless formalities, thereby mystifying the subject, and at the same time threatening to reject the inventor's application, if all these forms are not strictly complied with. Foreign inventors (as British) are to be burthened with peculiarly rigorous restrictions, some of which are manifestly impracticable, and others useless and annoying. We indulge in a hope, however, that for the sake of both French and British inventors, the project will not become the law of that country, as it at present stands, but that the objectionable clauses will be so modified as neither to cripple the inventive genius of the people, nor the introduction of foreign inventions into France. We regret that our present limits will not allow us to present our readers with extracts from M. Perpigna's very judicious observations, conceiving, that from the very great intercourse existing between the two countries, the French law of patents must be a matter of considerable interest to British inventors. FIRST HEAD. General Arrangements. ART. 1. Any new discovery or invention in any branch of the arts and manufactures, confers upon the author a right of full and exclusive enjoyment for the terms, and under the conditions hereafter mentioned. This right is conferred by a certain document, delivered by the Government, under the title of Brevets of Invention. 2. Subjects which may be protected by Brevet:— The invention of any new article in the arts or manufactures. The invention of new means, or the novel application of known means for producing or obtaining any article appertaining to the arts or manufactures. 3. Subjects which cannot be protected by Brevet :Principles, methods, systems, and generally, all discoveries or ideas purely scientific or theoretical. Plans or arrangements of accounts or finance. 4. The duration of brevets shall be 5, 10, or 15 years :— For each patent a fixed tax shall be paid in the following manner : * 500 fr. for a patent of 5 years. SECOND HEAD. SECTION I. On the Application or Petition for Brevets. ART. 5. On the formalities required upon granting Brevets: Whoever wishes to obtain a brevet of invention, must deposit, 500 francs equal about £20. sterling; 1000 francs, about £40. ; and 1500 francs, about £60. |