and 9 inches diameter, provided with a cover and handle similar to that of a canister, and at a foot from the extremity of the large cover, are cut out four auxiliary chimneys, at equal distances one from the other, with a 4 inch diameter. Four strong iron rings are fixed to the cover to receive the hooks of a chain, which, by means of a double purchase, raises or lowers the cover.

When this furnace, says Dumas, is filled with wood, the cover is lowered down, and some firebrands are precipitated through the central chimney to the bottom of the kiln ; the wood being placed so as to leave a sort of funnel open. By means of the four blowing air-holes the fire is very soon spread in all directions, and its progress is to be regulated by shutting or opening the smoke and air holes, according to the direction of the

wind.

These rules, which no doubt did answer when wood was to be distilled, were inefficient when applied to the carbonization of peat; but by dint of trials and patience, I succeeded beyond my utmost expectations, upon the following plan:

I make two tunnels of inch board, 9 feet high and 8 inches square, with some handholes from distance to distance. These tunnels I place in the kiln along the side, in order that the bottom end may correspond with one of the four air-holes; one of my workmen descends then to the floor of the furnace, and forms an aerated bed with peat, by setting the cakes upright, with their tops inclined one towards another, so as to create a good draft, which must, as much as possible, run in the direction of both air-holes where the tunnels are standing. It is necessary for this operation that the cakes be entire and dry, as pieces would intercept the air, and a wet cake would paralyze the action of the fire. After the setting of this bed, the peat is thrown down upon it, and left in the natural confusion of its fall, only it is required that a man places round the tunnels the turf cakes in regular order, to build like a chimney round these moveable tubes. When the kiln is filled and heaped up about 3 feet above the level of the hole, the tunnels are drawn out by means of their handholes, and leave two square passages from top to bottom. In these temporary chimneys, a few incandescent peat cakes are thrown, and on these some broken pieces of turf, till the passages are filled; but as the air plays more freely through these former chimneys, some barrowfulls of peat crumbs will shut the too wide pores, which places are easily seen by the greater volume of smoke escaping from them. The kiln left open to facilitate a more general conflagration, is not covered before the heap of turf

cakes has sunk to the level of the brickwork. In this state, the cover is let down, and some soil is brought round its border to intercept the escape of smoke. In this stage of carbonization, all the air-holes with the large and small chimneys are open.

As soon as the fire is perceived through either of the small chimneys corresponding with the passages where the fire has been lighted, the horizontal mouth of the same air-hole is to be shut with a piece of brick and some marl, and the others are to be successively stopped in the same way, the moment the redness of the fire can be distinguished. If there remains any doubt of the perfection of the operation, a pole about 14 feet long should be thrust through the hole where the carbonization appears incomplete, and by thus gauging to the bottom of the furnace, you will immediately be aware of the state of the charcoal, which you can remedy instantly, by opening the air-hole opposite the place examined.

When the smoke begins to abate, you place the cover on the central chimney, but so as to shut only the half of the aperture, taking care at the same time to direct the open part of the cover towards that part of the kiln, which you might consider not so perfect as the remainder. At last, when the eruption of smoke has ceased, you shut all chimneys immediately, and the operation is at an end. It requires generally twenty-four hours to complete the carbonization of one furnace, and sixty hours for carbonization and cooling of the charcoal. A kiln of these dimensions can receive between three and four one-horse-loads of peat, of about fourteen hundred weight.

There are three kinds of peat. The white, or top of the moss land, is the lightest, and consequently the worst; it is sold from four to five shillings the load. The brown, which comes from the second stratum, is much better, being more compact, and sells at five shillings and sixpence per load. The black, or best quality, sometimes called iron turf, is very hard and heavy it gives an intense and sharp heat; produces a thick black smoke, with strong and unpleasant smell; it burns slowly, and is bought at six shillings. The incineration of the black turf leaves heavy reddish ashes, whilst those of white turf are of a sulphur yellow, and those of the brown have often a sort of orange tinge.

:

The peat ashes which owe their alkaline quality chiefly to the presence of lime, are considered a good manure for grass and clover, and used as such in the north of France and in Belgium. March and April are the best months to use them. They are generally sown during damp weather, and will have a good effect used with any plant,

at its first appearance above ground. I tried them last year with pease and other vegetables, and perceived in one instance, that the use of them cleared the cabbage plants of the insects that were devouring them.

In order to get the kiln to act more regularly, it is well to carbonize each sort of peat separately. I have at present four furnaces or kilns at work; they are constructed between two rails, on which I have built a moveable frame, with a roof covered with a tarpauling. This skeleton of a house answers two purposes, namely, it enables the men to fill and empty the kilns in all kinds of weather, and affords to the whole line the use of the double purchase to wind up the heavy iron covers.

The white turf gives a fourth of its weight of charcoal, the brown a third, and the black one-half.

The nature of charcoal from peat is a great deal less pyrophoric than that of wood charcoal; and during the four years that I have had always large quantities in the interior of my works, I have not had a single instance of a spontaneous ignition, whilst I had two accidents of this nature, with wood charcoal, in the short space of six weeks.

RECENT AMERICAN PATENTS. [Selected and abridged from the Franklin Journal.] IMPROVEMENT IN THE JACQUARD MACHINERY FOR WEAVING ALL KINDS OF FIGURED GOODS. Alexander Calderhead.The patentee says "The nature of my improvement consists, first, in lifting and lowering the threads of the warp with what I call independent metallic heddles, or heylds, instead of the weights, males and twines composing the lower mountings, or harness, of the draw loom. Second, in constructing the cylinder, or pattern, so as to directly lift and receive the said heddles, to form the sheed, or shive; or in constructing a trunk and pattern web, both to direct what shall be the sheed as it does in the Jacquard and other drawing machines by trapping or untrapping the hooks, or knot cords, to be drawn up."

A MACHINE FOR MANUFACTURING CANNON BALLS, BULLETS, AND OTHER KINDS OF SHOT FROM MALLEABLE IRON. Lewis Grandy and Thomas Osgood.-The metal from which the ball, or bullet, is to be made by means of our machine, is first to be formed into round bars of a size adapted to the kind of shot to be formed. When these are to made of malleable iron, the metal must, preparatory to its being passed into the machine, be brought to a degree of heat nearly equal to that requisite for welding, in a suit

able forge or furnace prepared for that purpose. When the balls, or bullets, are to be made from lead, or other soft metal, the heating process is omitted. The machine consists of suitable cutters for cutting off the proper quantity of metal from the bar to form a single ball, or shot, and of an apparatus for receiving the piece so cut off, and rolling it into the spherical form. The rolling is effected by means of channelied pieces of cast iron, or steel, which we will denominate swages. The channels in these, when

the swages are made straight, are semi-cylindrical, and by placing swages in pairs, one over the other, with their channels coinciding, a cylindrical cavity is thereby formed. These swages may be either straight or circular; and to one, or to both, of each pair, a longitudinal, reciprocating, or a revolving, motion, as the case may be, must be communicated by suitable machinery.

A MACHINE FOR SPLITTING LEATHER, - OR GREEN HIDES. Alpha Richardson.— This patent is for improvements in the machines that split the leather by means of a vibrating knife. The gauge-roller, which is placed above the knife to gauge the thickness of the grain side of the leather, works on pivot-screws at each end, that pass through two arms projecting from a tubular shaft, within which a shaft revolves to communicate motion to the gauge-roller by means of two chain bands, one at each end, that pass through openings in the tubular shaft. The table, or bed, against which the cutting is effected, rests on springs, and on its upper surface there is a revolving, elastic, steel rod, against which the flesh side of the leather is borne, and which yields to the inequalities in the surface of the leather. The split leather, or skin, is drawn through, to feed the machine, by means of three rollers geared together.

IMPROVEMENTS IN CLOCKS. Aaron D. Crane. This clock, instead of being regulated by the vibrations of a pendulum, is regulated by the twisting and untwisting of a narrow strip of steel, to the lower end of which a spherical weight is suspended. The twisting and untwisting of the strip of steel, which constitutes the pendulum-rod, is effected by an arrangement of levers connected with the escapement-wheel, but in a manner not easily explained in words without drawings. A rotary hammer, also, is employed in the striking part, instead of the ordinary reciprocating hammer; this hammer is hung by a joint pin to the upper end of a vertical spindle, and is provided with a counter weight to balance it-both the hammer and counter weight, when lying horizontally, may rotate under the bell without striking it, but immediately in front of the

bell there is a short inclined plane, which elevates the hammer sufficiently to cause it to strike as it approaches the bell, and then permits it to fall. The time, or watch part, is driven by a spring, which is wound up by the striking of the clock, and the striking part is driven by a large spring, which is to be wound up in the usual way. On the arbor of one of the wheels in the train of the striking part, there is a barrel containing the spring of the time part, which barrel is connected with the train of the time part; this spring is attached to the arbor of the wheel in the striking train, and its other end forms the connexion with the time part by friction against the inner periphery of the barrel; when the clock strikes, this spring will consequently be wound up, and any excess of winding will be counteracted by the slipping of the spring on the inner periphery of the barrel. In the construction of this time-piece there is considerable ingenuity displayed, but we apprehend that the skill of the inventor would have been more profitably directed in the improving and manufacturing of clocks operated by the ordinary pendulum, which his tortion pendulum is hardly destined to supersede.

DOOR AND OTHER LOCKS. Solomon Andrews. The patentee says-" I denominate this lock the combined snail-wheel lock,' which name is given to it on account of its principal characteristics being the causing of the key to carry around with it any desired number of wheels formed of flat plates of metal, which wheels revolve upon a centre pin, and are each of them perforated with a snail-like, or other suitably-formed opening, within and upon which the bit of the key is to act."-The snail-like openings in all the wheels are alike, and the key is formed with projections on the bit of different lengths, one for each wheel, and as the key is turned, the projections being of different lengths, they will act upon the snail-like openings at different parts, and then carry the wheels around. Each of these wheels is provided with a recess so situated, as that when the projections on the bit of the key are all in contact with the wheels upon which they act, the recesses will all correspond, and receive the end of a pendulous lever, which is set in motion by the continued turning of the wheels, by which means the bolt of the lock is shot forward.

IMPROVEMENT IN FIRE ENGINES; Asa Barrett, city of Baltimore. The patentee observes that "the usual manner of ejecting water from the engine, is by means of the goose-neck pipe, which is from five to eleven feet long; the bore having a uniform taper through its whole length. Whereas, I contract the length of the joints and the eject

pipe to the short length of from fourteen to seventeen inches: the eject-pipe itself being from three to six inches long." To a pipe, connected with the engine by the usual lower joint of the branch pipe, (which the patentee calls the eject-pipe,) a short cylinder is attached at right angles to the length of the pipe. The branch pipe, which is very short, is attached to a cylinder which turns within that first named, the branch pipe passing through a slot in it, of sufficient length to allow the pipe to play through a range of a quarter of a circle: the inner cylinder has a long opening in it to admit the water from the main pipe. The inner cylinder is provided with gudgeons at each end, that pass through the heads of the first-mentioned cylinder, and these have a lever attached to them for the purpose of governing the elevation of the branch pipe.

IMPROVEMENT IN MAKING BRUSHES ; Robert B. Lewis.-This patent is for a mode of attaching the bristles, &c., to the handles of brushes for whitewashing and for such other purposes as require brushes to be wide and thin. The bristles are placed on each side of a double champfered bar, and are then confined by a metallic band, made in two parts, and jointed at each end. In this manner the bristles are confined by being pinched between the side plates, or band, and the champfered bar.

IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANNER OF FASTENING AND COMBINING THE TRUSS FRAMES OF BRIDGES; Jehu Price and James T. Phillips.-We make the following extract from the specification, viz:— "The peculiarity in the manner of fastening our truss frames and combining them with each other, consists in the employing of the pieces of timber last inserted in putting together the truss frame, in such a way as to cause them to operate as keys, and to bind the whole frame together without its being necessary to use pins, tree-nails, bolts, wedges, or other devices analogous thereto, excepting for fastening down the floor timbers, or such as may be employed in covering in. From the circumstance of these last inserted timbers keying the whole together in a manner similar to the binding together of the toy sometimes called a 'puzzle knot,' we have denominated our bridge the 'Puzzle Keyed Bridge.''

IMPROVEMENT IN MANUFACTURING BUTT HINGES, BY CASTING THEM IN COMBINED METALLIC MOULDS; Thomas Shepherd and Thomas Loring. The patentees say "We construct our moulds of iron, placing one mould upon another, so as to form tiers, one above the other; and in each mould, at each pouring, we cast a half hinge, the moulds containing, in the first

pouring, a pattern which occupies one half thereof, and which is so constructed that it can readily be removed, leaving the half hinge first cast in the mould; and we then, by a second pouring, cast the second half of the hinges. Instead of a joint pin we usually cast the knuckles of one half the hinge with conical depressions, or countersinks, which are to receive conical projections on the knuckles of the other half; but, if preferred, joint wires may be inserted in the ordinary way, the respective halves being cast without conical projections."

ROTARY STEAM ENGINE; Jesse Tuttle. In this engine, as in many of the old rotary engines, the chamber in which the piston works is formed by two plates, each having a semi-circular annular groove, which when put together form the chamber for the rotary piston to work in. The piston is attached to the outer edge of a plate which rotates on its axis between the two heads that form the piston chambers, commonly called the cylinder. On each side of this rotating plate is formed a cam groove, which receives a pin projecting from each side of a forked connecting rod, for the purpose of working the abutment valves. There are two of these abutment valves, placed on opposite sides of the piston chamber, with their forked connecting rods, the pins of which slide in slots made in the outer case of the engine. The steam chambers are situated on each side of the rotating plate, in which suitable appertures are made, as well as in the shaft, to conduct the steam from the side pipes to the piston. There is a sliding valve, with a handle, for changing the direction of the motion of the piston.

IMPROVEMENT IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF WHEELS FOR PROPELLING BOATS, STEAM SHIPS, AND WATER AND WIND MILLS; John Hobday and William J. Cooke. In this operation the paddle boards are to pass through openings in the periphery of a hollow drum, and are jointed to a crank within it. The crank remains stationary, but the drum is made to revolve on its axis, and in consequence of this the paddles will be projected beyond the periphery of the drum during one part of their circuit, and will be drawn in during the remainder.

MACHINE FOR HULLING CLOVER SEED; William C. Grimes.-The patentee says,"In the construction of machines for hulling clover seed, it has been a common practice to depend rather upon acute asperities to break the hull, than upon a more permanent principle, or structure, less affected by use; hence such machines have become speedily defective as they became worn; the seed

passing through the machine in a current too thin or diffuse for the round teeth or asperities to act with sufficient force upon the light and scattered pods or hulls to break them.

"In my machine the hulling is effected while the chaff and seed (in a mass) is under a pressure produced by centrifugal force; thus the effective power of the machine is rapidly increased with its activity."

A runner is attached to the lower end of a vertical shaft, and is provided with teeth above and below, and on its outer periphery, which is rounded. The teeth on the upper surface extend much nearer to the shaft than on the under surface-the space between the inner ranges of teeth and the shaft being occupied by arms which admit of a current of air to pass upwards. The upper end of the shaft is provided with a fan consisting of arms or vanes-and the whole is surrounded by a case, that part which surrounds the fan being provided with a valve or damper to regulate the current of air, and the part which surrounds the runner with teeth on the inside, to correspond with and pass between those on the runner.

The grain is fed in through a hopper, that opens into the case near the inner circle of teeth on the upper surface of the runner, and by the action of the centrifugal force it is forced outwards, towards, and around, the periphery, and then along the bottom towards the centre, where it meets with a strong current of air, produced by the fan at the top, which carries up the chaff and permits the grain to fall down. The centrifugal force resists the escape of the grain at the bottom, but as the body of grain is greater at the top than at the bottom it is forced out.

Claim." What I claim as new, and as my invention, and desire to secure by letters patent, is the manner of hulling clover or other seed, under a pressure produced by centrifugal force after the manner and upon the principle herein before set forth; that is to say, the seed in the hull is passed through a hulling chamber, in which it first diverges from, and is then conveyed towards the centre; centrifugal force subjecting the seed and hull to a pressure, less or greater, according to the velocity of the wheel, spheroid or runner, as it passes over or around the bilge or periphery of the same."

Secondly.-" -"I claim the combination of the fan with the hulling wheel or ring, and operating after the manner, or upon the principle above described."

Thirdly." I claim the mode of regulating or maintaining a nearly uniform current