1st

unable to appreciate, such advice as Mr. Baker gives, to the effect that a good balance at the savings' bank is the best guarantee of justice being rendered to the workman, and that the opportunity is open to every man in the industrial districts to save, between his eighteenth and twentieth year, from £70 to £80, allowing both for sickness and bad times. Of strikes, he says:— "The supreme folly of a strike is shown by the fact that there is seldom or never a rich workman at the head of it." And he further remarks, that, "supposing the reason for it to be ever so feasible and just, there is no weapon which can be so safely used against tyranny of any kind, whether real or imaginary, as that which can be drawn at any moment, with a fortnight's notice." As the working classes have now learned that machine-breaking and rick-burning do not conduce to their prosperity, so we may hope that, at a period not far distant, they will have advanced another step in political economy, and learned that to paralyze trade is not exactly the best way to improve their own condition. Our faith in the good intentions and sense of justice of this, in many respects, worthy class of the community, is strong; and, therefore, we are confident that trade combinations will ultimately be revolting to the industrious workman; but the change will certainly be slow. As respects the improvement of their household arrangements, we see the germ of that already. For, to quote once more Mr. Baker's reports, "great interest is now taken by the ladies of some of the large towns in which there are factories, in the social and mental improvement of the female workers. . . . This interest-i.e., the sitting with, addressing, and instructing the women of our workshops, once or twice a week, all the year round-is destined, I think, to effect a greater revolution in the habits of the people, than all that educational institutes could do without it; because, when home economy begins, home attractions follow, and then home blessings begin to tread upon the drunkenness, vice, and immorality which arise out of a state of operative wealth, so to speak, which knows no better employment than sensual gratification, and which sees no necessity for self-control.”

To men like the present Factory Inspectors, who evidently have the welfare of the factory workers at heart, it would be safe to entrust enlarged powers. Already they ask for power to enforce more thorough fencing of machinery, and to establish the educational test; but, further than this, they might beneficially exercise the right of establishing regulations respecting the dress of female workers, both for the sake of health and safety of life and limb,-crinoline, for example, being now frequently seen in dangerous proximity to machinery; and they might also apply, with advantage, a portion of the funds in their handsderived from fines levied on the evaders of the Factory Acts-to the instruction of females in the various branches of domestic industry.

1st

As the carrying out of these suggestions would have the appearance of coercion, they should, if adopted at all, take precedence of the longpromised Reform Bill, which, by greatly extending the political power of the laboring classes, is eminently calculated to check the passing of all coercive measures directed to improve their condition.

RECENT PATENTS.

To SIR JAMES MURRAY, of Dublin, for improvements in the preparation and bottling or preserving of carbonated cod-liver oil, and other aerated liqudis.-[Dated 24th August, 1859.]

THIS invention has for its object the improvement of the medicinal and other qualities of carbonated cod-liver oil, and other carbonates or bi-carbonated mixtures, such as solutions of lime, magnesia, camphor, and other such solutions and waters in ordinary use. It is well known that these liquids, as ordinarily prepared, are liable to become impaired by exposure to the air and by evaporation during the process of filtering and decanting or fining.

Now the invention consists, in the first place, in re-carbonating the previously carbonated liquids after they are purified'; and for this purpose the patentee takes the carbonated liquids, prepared in the ordinary manner, and fined ready for bottling, and impregnates them with a strong additional charge of fixed air; he thus takes any of the ordinary aerated liquids, such as the ordinary solution of magnesia, and makes that the basis on which the new re-carbonating process is worked. The invention comes into operation at the stage at which the manufacture has hitherto ended; the apparatus used for the purpose may be such as is ordinarily used in the original process, so long as it is capable of bearing a pressure of several atmospheres; a pressure of about two hundred pounds on the square is preferred when the re-aerated fluid is at once bottled from the engine, and not set aside to settle as hitherto.

inch

The invention consists, in the second place, in preparing the vessels required to contain the said recarbonated liquids, so as to make them cleaner and more fit to preserve the same. For this purpose, the vessels are prepared by expelling from them the common atmospheric air which is displaced by an atmosphere of carbonic acid gas, supplied by pumps.

The invention consists, in the third place, in forcing the liquids into the bottles while they are immersed in the gas contained in the said vessels. By this means, the liquor meets the same gas in the bottles as that which is already in the re-carbonated liquor or liquors.

And the invention consists, lastly, in displacing common air and other ordinary vapours, gases, or impurities, from the pores of the corks. This is effected by keeping them some days immersed in carbonic acid gas, or by confining them in an air-tight vessel, and withdrawing the common air from them by means of an ordinary air-pump. When a sufficient vacuum has been attained, some of the same liquor about to be bottled is

1st

admitted to the corks, and is made to penetrate them, and pass into the pores thereof, which thus become saturated with the liquid intended to be preserved. By the means above described, the liquid entering the bottles does not come in contact with the common air in the bottle, as in the ordinary mode of bottling, and the interval between the surface of the liquid in the bottle and the cork is filled with a powerful antiseptic air or gas. It will thus be evident, that by the use of the invention the ordinary tendency of the aerated liquids to become vapid, bitter, and occasionally turbid, will be obviated, and that they will be preserved in a fresh and sparkling condition. By displacing the atmospheric air with its vapours, smells, and miasma, and filling the bottles with fixed air instead, and by bottling under a pressure of that gas, aerated liquors are freed from the contact of vapours and foul air of towns. By excluding the common air, the decomposing power of its oxygen is prevented. When the bottles are previously charged with carbonic acid gas, the liquors entering into them meet with an air of the same kind as that already contained therein, whilst, on the contrary, if flowing into bottles through common air, subject to all kinds of vitiation, the contaminations remain in the liquors while the atmospheric air is discharged. Corks also are liable to imbibe the breath, foul air, and smells, in crowded places and works. By withdrawing this air, and causing carbonic acid, or some of the liquor about to be preserved, to enter into them, the fault called "corking" is abated or prevented, together with the contact of all hurtful emanations.

The invention is also applicable to the better preservation of ales, porter, and other fermented liquors; also to animal or vegetable food and medicinal infusions. On the same principle, holds of ships, closets, cellars, hospital wards and beds, drains, and low infected places, can be deodorized and ventilated by filling them with antiseptic fixed air, until vermin, foul odours, and miasms are driven off or abated. Carbonic acid gas is also useful for excluding oxygen during surgical operations; the lower part of the body or one of the limbs being supported in a wide vessel containing that gas, due provision being made for respiration. Anatomical subjects or preparations can likewise be kept more safely in this antiseptic gas.

The patentee claims, "First, -the revivifying of the aerated liquids after having been already prepared in the ordinary manner, by repeating the process or processes of aeration after the liquids have been fined, and just before they are bottled, under such pressure as to secure an excess of fixed air, in order to preserve them in better condition than those hitherto in ordinary use. Secondly, the preparation of the bottles, by displacing them from the ordinary atmospheric air with any impure vapours, miasma, or gases therein contained, and replacing it by an atmosphere of carbonic. acid gas. Thirdly, the bottling of the liquids in vessels containing an atmosphere of carbonic acid gas, that being the gas already in the re-carbonated liquor or liquors. And, lastly, the preparation of the corks, by withdrawing from them the ordinary atmospheric air, with its impure vapours or gases, and causing some of the liquors intended to be bottled to enter their pores and saturate them.

1st

To JOHN HENRY JOHNSON, of Lincoln's-inn-fields, for improvements in reducing solid substances to powder, and in the machinery or apparatus employed therein,-being a communication.-[Dated 3rd June, 1859.] THIS invention relates to a mode of reducing to powder certain substances, which, on account of their peculiar nature and consistency, cannot be effectually operated upon by ordinary grinding apparatus; and relates, also, to a peculiar construction and arrangement of machinery for accomplishing such reduction.

In Plate I., fig. 1, represents a longitudinal vertical section of a reducing machine, constructed according to this invention; and fig. 2, is a plan corresponding to fig. 1. A, is an ordinary circular saw, secured to the spindle B, which turns in suitable bearings a, a1, fitted to the opposite edges of the table or platform c, which is supported by, and secured to, any suitable frame or pair of standards D. On each edge of the platform is fitted a raised guide-rail e, e, between which guides is fitted, to slide freely, the box or frame E; its movement being in a line or parallel with the plane of the saw, without having any lateral play. A slot f, is cut transversely in the box E, and this slot coincides with another one in the platform, within which the saw revolves freely. To strengthen the box, two curved ribs h, h1, are secured to the back thereof. A longitudinal slot is made in the back of the box, to admit the ends i, of the two slides G, G, which slides fit into the box, and are moved along therein by the screwspindle H, which works through the ends i, of the slides, and turns in bearings m, m, secured to the opposite ends of the box. One half of this screw-spindle is formed with a right-hand thread, and the other half with a left-hand thread. On turning, therefore, the screw-spindle in one direction, the slides G, will approach each other simultaneously; and on turning it in an opposite direction, they will simultaneously recede from each other.

The materials to the reduction of which this invention relates, are either of such a glutinous, fibrous, or, in other respects, tough nature, as to prohibit the use of ordinary grinding mills. Amongst such substances may be classed the animal matter forming the residuum after the process of boiling tallow, and which is generally compressed into cakes, in which state it is known in the trade as "graves" or crackling." The powder of this substance is extremely valuable for farm purposes, both as a manure, and as food for live stock.

This invention is equally applicable to the reduction of gutta-percha, or of scraps of leather, temporarily cemented together into masses or blocks, and also to the reduction of dye woods.

The following is the mode of reducing substances in this apparatus:The slides G, G, having been moved to the two opposite ends of the box, by turning the screw-spindle H, the block of material to be reduced is placed within the box, and the screw is then turned until the block is confined between the two opposite slides G. The box E, with its appendages, is now pushed forward, by hand or otherwise, and the block is severed by the saw; after which the box is drawn back clear of the cutter; the screw H, is again turned to an extent sufficient to bring the severed ends of the block into close contact with each other, and the box is again pushed forward, and the material acted upon by the saw, as before, but in the exact line of junction of the two halves of the block: this is continued

VOL. XII.

C

1st

until the whole of the block has been reduced by the teeth of the saw, the resulting powder or sawdust passing down a shute 1, to the ground, or into a suitable receptacle to receive it. It will be observed that, when the severed ends of the block are brought together after each cut, the point of contact must invariably be in a line midway between, and parallel to, the sides or edges of the saw. Not only, therefore, does the latter act as though cutting through an undivided block, but each severed half of the block furnishes its separate quota of powder removed by the

saw.

The patentee claims, "First, the general construction, arrangement, and combination of machinery or apparatus for reducing solid substances to powder, as herein before described. Second, the system or mode of reducing glutinous, fibrous, and other tough materials to powder, by placing the ends of blocks of such material opposite to, and in contact with, each other, and presenting them simultaneously, and at the point of junction, to the edge of a rotatory or reciprocating saw or other suitable cutter, as herein before described."

To ZACCHEUS NUTTALL, of Stockport, for improvements in looms for weaving.-Dated 12th October, 1859.1

THIS invention consists in an improved combination of machinery for raising and lowering the healds to form the shed.

In Plate I., fig. 1, is a sectional elevation of the improved machinery. a, a, are two frames, bolted to the upper part of the framing of the loom : the bolt b, connects the two frames a, a, and supports the top jacks c; the top jacks c, are connected to bottom jacks, and the healds are connected to the jacks in the usual manner. At each end of the jacks c, are loops for the shot-bolts d, d', to slide in; these shot-bolts are connected by the wires e, e1, and centre-piece f. The pattern chain g, is constructed with pegs or pins in the usual manner, and passes over the drum h, which is supported in bearings attached to the frames a, a: the pattern chain g, passes over the guide-roller i, supported by rack-bars j. The pins on the chain g, act on the spring wires o, o, which are attached above to the crosspiece a, and, after passing through the guide-plate a3, enter into the centre-pieces f; the frames a, a, are also connected by the stays k, k1, the projecting ends of which serve as fulcra for the toothed segment levers 7, 11. To the outer ends of the levers 7, l1, are fixed the slot-pieces m, m1, between which the knives or grifes n, n1, are supported; these knives are also guided in the segmental slots a1, a1, in the frames a, a. Each pair of levers 7, l1, and the knives n, n1, form a swing frame. The levers 7, 1, are connected by the pieces p, p1, to which the buffers q, q', are attached. To one of the levers 7, is jointed the catch r, by which the drum h, is turned partly round after each shed has been made; the drum being held in position by the spring-lever s, and notched-wheel g1, seen best in fig. 2. The mode of operation is as follows:-The dotted lines in fig. 1, represent the jacks c, horizontal, or in the position they assume when the shed is closed; the shot-bolts d, d1, being brought towards the righthand end of the machine by the spring-wires o, during the closing of the shed. As soon as the drum h, has been moved so as to bring forward another link of the chain g, the pins on the link thus brought forward,