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NICKOLL'S PATENT CONDENSING RAILWAY-LOCOMOTIVE.

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NICKOLL'S PATENT CONDENSING RAILWAY LOCOMOTIVE.

Sir, I beg to invite the opinions of your correspondents upon the following proposed improvements upon my plan (Mechanics' Magazine, No. 653), for a railway condensing locomotive.

The boiler being constructed and situated as before described and represented, I would substitute in the place of the two equi-angular cranked condensing engines, D, two double-acting highpressure engines, with the addition of a condensing apparatus (consisting merely of an enlarged air-pump), which I would fix in the place of the condenser F; the apparatus in question, together with the hot water-pump, to be worked throngh the medium of a cross-head and separate cranked shaft, by an excentric from the shaft of the engines.

Concerning the refrigerator for cooling the hot water of the condenser, late experiments have convinced me, that to

maintain the cooled water, even at the temperature 80° Fah., an evaporating superficies of full 200 feet per horse-power would generally be desirable.

It is not necessary to employ the draft of a furnace, or other means, to produce a current of fresh air in the refrigeratorfor moisture, so far from loading the air with its weight, communicates, like heat, increased expansion and elasticity; consequently, as by reason of the heat and vaporisation of the hot water in the refrigerator, the specific gravity of the air therein would be lessened, so by a little elevation of the eduction air-chambers T, the refrigerator would establish a current of fresh air for itself.

With a given quantity of steam, I anticipate about one-twelfth greater effect by the employment of my high-pressure condensing, instead of the ordinary highpressure locomotive; but the steam blast being wanting in the condensing locomotive, the expenditure of fuel might perhaps exceed in a sixth ratio what might be required in an uncondensing locomotive; the ultimate economy, however, (to pass by other well-known inconveniences of the steam blast,) I apprehend to be more than questionable, because of the powerfully exfoliating influence of the very intense heat which the blast occasions upon the thin and oxygenisable material of which locomotive boilers are, and, with our present knowledge of metallurgy, must be constructed. Yet, if in no other point of view, assuredly as respects economy in the item of water, the superiority of my condensing, as compared with the ordinary locomotive, may be admitted-first, on the ground of the presumed somewhat more economical application of the

steam;

secondly, from the cooling influence of successive currents of fresh air upon the hot water of the refrigerator; and thirdly, from the vaporisation of a given weight of water, say of the temperature 100° Fah., (according to what one may infer from lately published experiments of Desormes), absorbing about one-third more caloric, than steam evolved of four atmospheres elasticity.

I am, Sir,

Your obedient servant,

J. W. NICKOLL.

RECENT AMERICAN PATENTS.

RECENT AMERICAN PATENTS. (Selected from the Franklin Journal, før February.)

MAKING SHOES, AND RENDERING THEM IMPERVIOUS TO WATER, Ernst G. Augustine, New York.-The soles, we are told, "may be made of plaited flax, hemp, or the inner bark of the linden tree. For the upper part any kind of cloth may be used, and the shoes lined with linen or cotton. The soles are then varnished or covered with the fol

lowing composition :-One quart of flax-seed oil, two ounces of rosin, half an ounce of white vitriol, which must be boiled together for half an hour. After which take four ounces of spirits of turpentine, and two ounces of white oak saw-dust, which has been exposed twenty-four hours to the sun: mix these ingredients well together, and put them on the soles of the shoes with a brush, or in any other way, which when dried will render them impervious to water.

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The claim is to "the above-described method of making shoes and rendering them water-proof." We do not discover any method of "making shoes" contained in the foregoing description.

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CLEANING WOOL FROM BURRS. &c., M. N. Simpson, Boston, Massachusetts. -After giving a description of the machine intended to be used, the patentee observes, that wool from South America, and indeed almost all wools, have more or less of a vegetable substance, called burrs, so attached to it, that it is not taken out by washing, and therefore the only mode of cleaning the wool has been by hand, until about two years since, a mechanic of the city of Boston, Mr. Lemuel Couillard, jun., invented a machine for the purpose, which performed the part of taking out the burr very well, but was set aside from the injury the staples received. The machine for which I now wish a patent performs the work of taking out the burr without any injury to the fibre. The wool should in the first place be well pinched by a common wool-pincher, with the burr in it, and in this state the machine receives it; it is placed by the operation on the feed- belt, which when the machine is in operation is conducted to the draw rolls, which revolve very slow, and as the wool is carried through the draw rolls, the card cylinder takes it in small quantities in a thin state, as it revolves with so much greater rapidity than the feedrolls, and carries it in a continued direction by the clipper-frame, which is placed nearly in contact with the surface of the teeth; the burrs and all foreign substances are stopped by the blade of the clipper-frame, and the swift revolution of the clipper knocks them off. The wool continues in the teeth of the card-cylinder, and is overtaken by the fan which is placed on the opposite side of the

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clipper-frame, and is by the fan blown or taken from the cylinder, and deposited in a clean state in the room which may be made for the purpose."

It is stated that the machine may be much varied in form whilst the same effect will be produced; and the patentee says, "I do not therefore claim as my invention any particular form of machinery to effect the object of detaching burrs or other foreign substances from wool, but claim the application of knocking, blowing, brushing, or striking the burrs or other foreign substances from the surface of the card-teeth, or any other kind of teeth."

We think this claim may prove too broad, as Mr. Couillard some time ago claimed, among other means, the "blowing or striking them off," when properly exposed; it may be, however, that in the present machine the removal being effected from "the surface of the card-teeth," may so far modify the thing as to prevent the one patent interfering with the other.

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BENDING OR SETTING FELLOES FOR THE WHEELS OF CARRIAGES, Edward Reynolds, Haddonfield, New Jersey. - The patentee says, "What I claim as my invention is the machine, or apparatus, as herein described, and may properly be denominated revolving cylinders, to be used for the bending of felloes for carriages and waggons of all descriptions; sleigh-runners; iron tires. for wheels; coopers' set-hoops, vessels' masthoops, &c. In which machine two cylinders are employed, operated together by means of certain accessary parts, in the manner, or upon the principle, herein set forth."

We think the machine described well adapted to the bending of timber for rims for wheels. It consists of two wheels in a strong frame, the peripheries of the wheels being nearly in contact with each other; the timber, prepared by boiling, or steaming, is to be bent round one of them, by turning the other, which presses forcibly upon it. An iron band laps round the outside of the bent timber, to prevent its checking; and there are proper staples, and other appendages, for the management of the process.

ROLLING UP CURTAINS, MAPS, &c., Henry Lawson, Boston, Massachusetts. - The handle by which the curtain, &c. is to be rolled upon its roller, is made much in the form of the old fashioned bell-pull, and has a small sheeve, or pulley, at its upper end; a cord, one end of which is fastened to and winds round the end of the roller, passes through the pulley, and has its other end fastened to a pin, or other attachment, above: this whole arrangement, it will be seen, is exactly similar to the hanging the weight of a common eight-day clock.

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RECENT AMERICAN PATENTS.

"My claim is, 1st, for reducing the length of the draw required to roll up this species of roller-blind, shade, curtain, map, &c. to a convenient band's pull; that is, by one easy move of the hand, to cause the roller to revolve sufficiently to wind up any length of curtain &c. required for the above purposes.

"2nd. For the pendent balance-pulley, and the manner of applying it, as above described.

"3d. For the relative proportions of the barrel and axis, as above described."

All that is said about relative proportions is that one part is made small, and another greater. Rather an indefinite thing to claim.

IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CLOTH, Freeman Wolcot, Stow, Massachusetts. This, so called, improvement in the manufacture of cloth, is, it appears, an improvement in the napping-apparatus, by substituting combs of brass for the teazles usually employed in that process. These combs are made of strips of elastic sheet brass; the teeth in them are to be about an inch in length, a fifteenth of an inch wide at their bases, and tapering regularly to a point. To these plates "a considerable curvature is to be given by swaying; that is, by placing the plate thus cut over a concave mould so fashioned as to give the teeth and plate a proper curvature, and then placing a corresponding convex iron over them, and giving it a blow with a hammer.

The me

tallic napper will then be complete, and will be a plate with a row of curved tapering elastic teeth, resembling the teeth of the teazle, and standing out from the uncut part of the plate at such an angle that the uncut part may be attached to slats of wood passing across [along] the face of a cylinder at suitable distances."

"The invention for which, and for the use of which, the said Wolcot claims his patent, is for making from thin brass a plate, with curved, tapering, and elastic teeth suitable for napping cloth."

MACHINE FOR MANUFACTURING CORKS, Jonathan Cutler, and Isaac Keyes, Putnam, Vermont. This cork-cutting machine has a mandril which revolves like that of an ordinary lathe. The cutters consist of four or any other convenient number of pieces of steel formed at their ends like an ordinary gouge. They are capable of expanding and contracting, as otherwise they would cut the cork into a cylinder instead of making it conical. Each of the cutters is hinged, by a handle at its opposite end, to the revolving. shaft, and there is a collar so contrived as to cause the cutters to approach each other as the cork is cut. In front of the mandril there is a horizontal wheel, called a feed

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"What we claim as our own invention is the expansive, or cutting cylinder, as connected with the other machinery. Every other part of the machine may be constructed differently, and answer the same purposes."

This machine is skilfully contrived, and described with sufficient clearness; the claim, also, we think weil expressed and sufficiently guarded; still we have doubts of the eventual success of the plan, from the intrinsic difficulties which present themselves in the cutting of cork by machinery. There have been several patented contrivances for the same purposes, but we believe that none of them has stood the test of continued use. Those who are acquainted with the operation of cutting corks by hand know that a thin and sharp knife is employed for the purpose, and that the edge of this knife is preserved by passing it over a piece of wood between every two or three cuts, the workmen deing this dexterously with one hand whilst the other is employed in taking up a fresh block; without this fine edge the cutting cannot be effected, and we think that in a machine it can scarcely be preserved. Besides this, from the varying thickness of the cork-wood, it is no easy matter to have the blocks all of one size. In cutting by hand this is of no consequence, while in cutting by machinery it is all-important.

IMPROVEMENT IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF STOVES FOR BURNING ANTHRACITE, AND OTHER FUEL, Jordan L. Molt, New York." For the purpose of description," says the patentee, "I will suppose a vertical, cylindrical stove to be constructed. The body, or furnace part, of this stove, is to be of cast-iron, and consists of any required number of separate rings, of such internal diameter as may be required for the furnace. These rings are to be placed, or super-imposed, upon each other to the required height; rims, or ledges, and corresponding grooves, or hollows, being cast upon their touching sides to keep them in their places. Holes are also to be cast in them, or ears formed on them, to receive rods, by which they may be confined together. The lower part of the stove, forming the ash-pit, and its appendages, and also that part which is above the fire, may be constructed in any of the usual forms, or of any of the ordinary materials; the improvement made by me consisting entirely in the construction of that part which

LIST OF ENGLISH PATENTS FOR MAY.

is formed of rings, or rims, in the way described.

"I intend usually to form these rings so that, when put together, the interior of the furnace shall, by their junction, have a uniform, continuous surface, either cylin drical, conical, or otherwise, whilst the outside shall be fluted, ribbed, or grooved, so as to expose a large surface to the action of the external air, as this mode of forming them will, by its extended radiation, tend to prevent their being over-heated.

"When used for gas-retorts, their outsides will form one continuous surface, as best calculated to receive the action of the fire by which they are to be heated. When used in tubes for the conveyance, distribution, or management, of heat, they must, of course, be so formed as to adapt them to the partieular purpose to which they are to be applied.

"What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is the forming the exterior, or shell, of furnaces, or fire-places, for stoves of various kinds, the bodies of gas-retorts, and other apparatus which are to be exposed to great alterations of temperature, by the combination of separate rings, rims, or frames of metal, usually of cast-iron, by which means any difference of expansion in the respective parts may take place without the danger of breaking, whilst any portion which is defective may be easily removed, and its place supplied."

LIST OF ENGLISH PATENTS, GRANTED BETWEEN THE 28TH OF APRIL AND 24TH OF MAY, 1836.

John Burns Smith, of Talford, Lancaster, cottonspinner, for certain improvements in the machinery for roving, spinning, and twisting cotton and other fibrous substances. Sealed April 30; six months to specity.

John Whiting, of Rodney-buildings, New Kentroad, doctor of medicine, for an improvement or improvements in preparing certain farinaceous food. May 2; six months.

John Macneill, of Parliament-street, civil-engineer, for improvements in making or mending turnpike or common roads. May 3; six months.

Henry Sharpe, of Broad-street-buildings, London, merchant, for improvements in sawing wood and other materials; being a communication from a foreigner residing abroad. May 3; six months.

William Sneath, of Ison Green, Nottingham, lace-maker, for certain improvements in machinery, by aid of which improvements thread-work ornaments of certain kinds can be formed in net or lace, made by certain machinery commonly called bobbin-net machinery. May 3; six months.

William Augustus Howell, of Ramsgate, Kent, smith an ironmonger, for certain improvements in the construction of springs for doors. May 3; six months.

Thomas Henry Russell. of Took's-cour', London, tube-maker, for improvements in making or manufacturing welded iron tubes. May 3; six months.

Edmund Pontifex, of Shoe-lane, London, copper

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smith, for an improvement in the process of mak. ing and retini g sugar; being a communication from a foreigner res.ding abroad. May 5; six months.

Joseph Banister, of Colchester, Essex, watch maker, for improvements in watches and other time keepers. May 7; six months.

John Elvey, of Canterbury, Millwright, for cers tain improvements in steam-engines. May 7; six months.

Matthew Hawthornthwaite, of Kendal, West moreland, weaver, for a new mode of producing certain patterns in certain woven goods. May 7; six months.

Thomas Taylor, of Banbury, Oxford, saddler and harness-naker, for certain improvements in saddies for riding. May 7; six months.

Luke Hebert, of No. 20, Paternoster row, London, for improvements in horse-collars; being a communication from a foreigner residing abroad. May 9; six months.

John Hague, of Cable-street, Wellelose-square, engineer, for an invention for raising water by the application and arrangement of a well-known power from mines, excavations, holds of ships or vessels, and other place where water may be deposited or accumulated, whether from accidental or natural causes, and also applying such power to a d in giving motion to certain machinery. May 9; two

months.

Richard Waddington and John Hardman, of Bradford, iron founders, for an improved method of making and constructing wheels for railway carriages. May 10; six months.

Richard Birkin, of Basford, Nottingham, lace manufacturer, for certain improvements in ma chinery for making lace, commonly called ornamented bobbin net lace. May 11; six months.

Richard Wilson, of Blyth Sheds, Northumberland, builder, for improvements in making or ma nufacturing fire-places, slabs, columns, monuments, and corrices, such as have heretofore been made of marble. May 12; six months,

Thomas Grahame, of Nantes, France, but now of Suffolk-street, Pall-Ma'l, gentleman, for im provements in passing boats and other bodies from one level to another. May 13; six months.

Ashdowne, of Tunbridge, Kent, gentleman, for improvements in apparatus to be added to wheels to facilitate the draft of carriages on turnpike and common roads. May 13; six months.

Wheatley Kirk, of Commercial street, Leeds, music-seller and manufacturer of piano-fortes, for certain improvements in piano-fortes. May 14; six months.

Joseph Whitworth, of Manchester, engineer, for certain improvements in machinery for spinning and doubling cotton, wool, and other fibrous substances. May 17; six months.

David Fisher, of Wolverhampton, mechanic, for an improvement in steam-engines. May 17; six months.

Henry Walker Wood, of No. 29, Austin-friars, London, merchant, for certain improvements in certain locomotive apparatus. May 17; six months.

James Brown, of Esk Mills, Pennycnick, North Britain, paper maker, for a certain improvement or certain improvements in machinery or apparatus for making paper. May 18; six months.

Thomas Beck, of Little Stoneham, Suffolk, gentleman, for new or improved 'apparatus or mechanism for obtaining power and motion, to be used as a

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Pierre Barthelemy Gainibert Debac, of Brixton, Surrey, civi-engineer, for improvements in railways. May 18; six months.

Henry Elkington, of Birmingham, Warwick, gentleman, for an improved rotary steam-engine. May 23; six months.

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William Watson, of Leeds, dyer, for an improve ment in dyeing hats by the application of certain chemical matters never before applied to that purpase. May 24; six months.

LIST OF SCOTCH PATENTS GRANTED BETWEEN THE 21ST OF APRIL AND 21ST OF MAY, 1836.

Frederick Edward Harvey, of the Horseley Irons works, Tipton, Stafford, mechanical draftsman, and Jeremiah Brown, of Tipton, roll-turner, for certain improvements in the process and machinery for manufacturing metallic tubes, and also in the process or machinery for forging and roll ng metal for other purposes. Sealed April 22, 1836.

William Maugham, of Newport-street, Lambeth, alchymist, for an invention of certain improvements in the production of chloride of lime and certain other chemical substances. April 25.

Thomas Ridgway Bridson, of Great Bolton, Lancaster, bleacher, for a certain improvement or improvements to facilitate and expedite the bleaching of cotton, linens, and other vegetable fibres. April 25.

Joseph Lidel, of Arundel-street, Pantou-square, Middlesex, professor of music, in consequence of a communication made to him by a foreigner residing abroad, for certain improvements in piano-fortes. April 28.

Andrew Smith, of Princess-street, St. Martin'sin-the-Fields, engineer, for certain improvements in engines for exerting power for driving machinery and for raising and lowering heavy bodies. April 28.

James Burns Smith, of Salford, Lancaster, cotton-spinner, and James Smith, of Halifax, dyer, for a ce tain methol or methods of tentering, stretching, or keeping out cloth to its width, made either of cotton, silk, wool, or of any other fibrous substances, by machinery. April 28.

Robert Copland, of Brunswick-crescent, Camberwell, Esquire, for improvements upon patents already obtained by him for combinations of apparatus for gaining power. May 6.

William Preston, of Sunnyside, Lancaster, operative calico printer, for certain improvements in printing of calico and other fabrics. May 10.

Henry Sharpe, of Broad-street-buildings, London, merchant, in consequence of a communication by a foreig er residing abroad, for improvements in sawing wood and other materials. May 10.

Janes Cropper, of Nottingham, lace-manufacturer, and Thomas Brown Milnes, of Lenton Works, No tingham. bleacher, in consequence of a communication by a foreigner residing abroad, for certin improvements in machinery or apparatus for embroidering or ornamenting bobbin-net or lace, or cloths, stuff, or other fabrics made from silk, cotton, wool, flax, or he p. May 10.

Jacob Perkins. of Fleet-street, London, engineer, for improvements in the apparatus and means for producing ic and in cooling fluids. May 13.

William Gossage, of Stoke Prior, Worcester, alchymist, and Edward White Benson, of Wich

bold, alchymist, for an improvement or improvements in the process of making or manufacturing ceruse or white lead. May 20.

NOTES AND NOTICES.

Geology.-In consequence of the representations addressed to Government in July last, that the officers employed on the trigonometrical survey of Great Britain would have constant opportunities afforded them of collecting specimens illustrative of the app'ication of geology-or, in other words, of the mineral we lth of the country-to the useful purposes of life, it has been determined to form a inuseum for the reception of such specimens from time to time, and to place them under the Department of Woods and Works.

Paddington Steam Omnibus. -Mr. Hancock's carriages still continue to run between Paddington, Islington, and the Bank. The results of the week's traffic have been somewhat similar to our former statements.

Improved Method of Casting Brass Burrs.-The usual method of accomplishing this object is to place tlie screw in a mould of The required form, and to cast the brass about it, by which means a very perfect burr may be produced, but there is frequently great difficulty in removing it from the screw. To avoid this, it is proposed to cast a lead burr in the usual way (which may be easily taken off), and to use it as a box for the formation of a sand core. After the box is filled, it is subjected for some hours to the heat of the drying-stove, and when its contents are found to be perfectly free from moisture, the whole is plunged into the melted lead, which robs the core of its casing, and renders the sand copy fit for use instead of the original screw by this means the difficulty above alluded to is entirely obviated.-Third Report of the Cornwall Polytechnic Society.

Communications received from Mr. BaddeleyClovis Mr. Hodson-Mr. Hi l-Mr. Skene-M. F. de Pourquet-A Country Teacher-H.-P. P.C. R. -Mr. Dickson-Mr. R. Simpson.

Errata in Iver M'Iver's article, pp. 105 and 106, for "V, V, V2," &c., read "V V &c.; and for “m1, m2, &c., read " "" nr 1, M2, M3," &c.

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