EXTRACTION OF THE CUBE ROOT-SHORT

METHOD OF CALCULATING THE CON-
TENTS OF VESSELS.

Sir, In looking over some of the back volumes of your valuable miscellany, I observed in pp. 330 and 331 of vol. xvi. two methods of extracting the cube root, which I am somewhat surprised have not been noticed in some of the subsequent Numbers, more especially as the former of the two methods (Mr. Laker's), in my opinion, as well as in that of several of my acquaintance, is of great practical utility, being very concise and also applicable to every case that can occur; but the latter method, communicated by F. B., is impracticable, except in a very few cases, and consequently useless. This is easily proved by taking the example illustrating the first method, when F. B. would find himself involved in literally an endless maze of figures without any

probability of obtaining the required

root.

Having also a short time since been applied to for a short method of finding the content of cisterns, &c., in gallons or bushels, by knowing the length, breadth, and depth, I naturally turned to your museum of information for the required rule, where I soon discovered in the Number for January 19, 1828, a rule apparently to the purpose; which, however, being calculated for Winchester bushels, was inapplicable to the case in point, and as no rule for finding the content in imperial measure has since appeared, I take the liberty of offering the following formula, the insertion of which, should you deem them worthy of a place in your Magazine, will oblige, Yours, &c.

1

Maidstone, Aug. 9, 1836.

J. L.

b=4 ft., and d = 3 ft. :—

74 bushels, the content.

101bd 13

peasantry instead of the obrok or fine they, as serfs, would have to pay their baron.

The proprietor of this manufactory is an accomplished and amiable nobleman his experiment in this case has been highly successful.

One great evil is the impossibility hitherto experienced of keeping the roots any length of time, which makes it expedient they should be worked as soon as possible after they are taken from the ground.

I have been favoured with a specimen of raw and refined sugar from these works, of which I send you a small sample, and am only sorry the distance does not allow me to send a larger one. The Russian lb. is equal to 14 oz. English; a pood 40lbs. Russia 36 lbs. English; a rouble: 100 copecks; sterling value 10d.

Your constant reader,

J. K.

Petersburg, June 25, 1836. [The samples sent are excellent; the raw sugar not quite so good as that from the cane, but the refined equal to the best products of our refineries.--ED. M.M.]

LIST OF ENGLISH PATENTS, GRANTED BE. TWEEN THE 27TH OF JULY AND 25TH OF AUGUST, 1836.

Nathan Bailey, of Leicester, frame-smith, for certain improvements in, or additions to, machinery for manufacturing stocking fabric. August 1; six months to specify.

John Thomas Betts, of Smithfield Bars, London, rectifier, for improvements in the process of preparing spirituous liquors in the making of brandy; being a communication from a foreigner residing abroad. August 3; six months.

Webs'er Flockton, of the Spa-road, Bermondsey, turpentine and tar distiller, for certain improvements in preserving timber. August 3; six

months.

John Archibald, of Alva, Stirling, Scotland, manufacturer, for certain improvements in machinery or apparatus for carding wool, and doffing, straightening, piecing, roving, and drawing rolls or cardings of wool. August 4; six months.

Ramsay Richard Reinagle, of Albany-street, Regent's Park, Esq., for improvements in the construction of carriages for the conveyance of persons and goods or merchandise. August 6; six months. Thomas Binns, of Mornington-place, Hampsteadroad, civil engineer, for improvements in railways and in the steam-engines to be used thereon and for other purposes. August 6; six months.

Thomas John Fuller, of the Commercial road, Limehouse, civil engineer, for a new or improved screen for intercepting or st pping the radiant heat arising or proceeding from the boilers and cylinders of steam-engines. August 9; six months.

John Burns Smith, of Salford, Lancaster, spinner, aud John Smith, of Halifax, dyer, for a certain

method or methods of tentering, stretching, or keeping out cloth to its width, made either of cotton, silk, wool, or any other fibrous substances by ma chinery. August 10; six months.

Henry Pershouse Parkes, of Dudley, Worcester, iron-merchant, for improvements in flat pit chains. August 11; six months.

Joseph Douglass, of Morpeth, Northumberland, rope-maker, for improvements in the manufacturé of oakum. August 11; two inonths.

Edward Light, of Royal-street, Lambeth, civil engineer, for certain improvements in propelling vessels and other floating bodies. August 11; six months.

William Newton, of Chancery-lane, for improvements in the means of producing instantaneous ignition; being a con minication from a foreigner residing abroad. August 11; six months.

Robert Allen Hurlock, of Whaddon, Cambridge, clerk, for improvements in axletrees. August 11; two months.

Joshua Butters Bacon, of Regent's-square, gentleman, for improvements in the structure and combination of certain apparatus employed in the generation and use of steam. August 13; six months.

Thomas Gauntley, of Nottingham, mechanic, for certain improvements in machinery for making lace and other fabrics, commonly called wash machinery. August 15; six months.

George Leech, of 25, Norfolk-street, Islington, carpenter, for a certain improved method of connecting window-sashes and shutters, such as are usually hung and balanced by lines and counterweights with the lines by which they are so hung. August 15; six months.

William Fothergill Cooke, of Bellayse College, Durham, Esq., for improvements in winding up springs to produce continuous motion, applicable to various purposes. August 17; six months.

Joseph Hall, of Margaret-street, Cavendishsquare, plumber, for improvements in the manufacture of salt. August 17; two months.

Francois de Tansch, of Percy-street, Bedfordsquare, military engineer to the King of Bavaria, for improvements in apparatus or machinery for propelling of vessels for raising water, and for various other purposes. August 25; six months.

LIST OF SCOTCH PATENTS GRANTED BETWEEN THE 21ST OF JULY AND 20TH OF AUGUST, 1836, INCLUSIVE.

William Wainwright Potts, and William Machin, china and earthenware manufacturers, and William Bourne, manager, all of Burslem, Stafford, for an improved method or process, whereby impressions or patterns in one or more colours or metallic preparations are produced and transferred to surfaces of metal, wood, cloth, paper, papier-machée, bone, slate, marble, and other suitable substances, prepared or otherwise not being used or known as earthenware, porcelain, China, glass, or other similar substances. Sealed July 29.

Walter Hancock, of Stratford, Essex, engineer, for an invention of an improvement or improvements upon steam-engines. July 29.

John M'Dowall, of Johnstone, Renfrew, Scotland, engineer, for certain improvements in ma chinery for sawing and cutting, and likewise in the mode of applying motive-power thereto. August 2.

Henry Walker Wood, of No. 29, Austin-friars, London, merchant, for certain improvements in certain locomotive-apparatus. August 4.

John Burns Smith, of Salford, spinner, and John Smith, of Halifax, dyer, for a certain method or methods of tentering, stretching, or keeping out cloth to its width, made either of cotton, silk, wool, or any other fibrous substances by machinery. August 11.

Henry Gore, of Manchester, machine-maker, for certain improvements in the machinery or appara tus for spinning or twisting cotton and other fibrous substances. August 11.

Samuel Hall, of Basford, Nottingham, gentleman, for improvements in propelling vessels, also improvements in steam-engines, and in the method or methods of working some parts thereof; some of which improvements are applicable to other useful purposes. August 15.

Thomas, Earl of Dundonald, of Regent's Park, Middlesex, for improvements in machinery or apparatus applicable to purposes of locomotion. August 15.

Joshua Bates, of Bishopsgate street, London, merchant, in consequence of a communication by a foreigner residing abroad, for certain improvements in machinery for cleaning and preparing wool. August 19.

NOTES AND NOTICES.

The New Steam-Boat Novelty.-The recent successful experiment of driving this boat, of the largest class, with anthracite coal, against the tide and a strong current from heavy rains, at the rate of 15 miles in the hour, has caused much remark in our city, as an astonishing fact of great importance on the subject of fuel, which may lead to revolutions in steam navigation. Dr. Knott, the distinguished President of Union College, is the well-known proprietor of the Novelty, which he constructed, we believe, with machinery modelled after his own ingenious invention, so as to adapt it ultimately to the same economical principles of combustion which have given such deserved celebrity to his patented stove. The fact of the practicability of using anthracite being now ascertained so as to produce as great a degree of speed as pinewood, will no longer compel steam-boat proprietors to import their wood at exorbitant prices from the remote forests of Maine and the shores of the Chesapeake. Nearer by, and almost at our own doors, we have the anthracite coal-mines of Pennsylvania, of every possible variety, in exhaustless quantities. In the trips to Albany for one season the difference in cost between wood and anthracite for the Novel'y, it is ascertained, would be 19,000 dollars in favour of coal. The successful navigation of the Atlantic from America to Europe is made certain. Among the other great advantages would be the vast saving of human life, as it is believed the steady, intense, radiated heat of anthracite, will be in some degree a security against those sudden accumulations which arise from the inflammable blaze of pine-wood. There is also an entire freedom from the annoyance of smoke, and the danger of fire from showers of sparks. Wood is now selling at the Hudson at five or six dollars a cord. The cost, in fact, of pine-wood is about double that of anthracite. The passage and freight, therefore, must soon be reduced to half the present rates. The Novelty is remarkable for the ease with which she glides through the water. the motion being without any jarring.-New York Evening Star.

Home-Grown Flax. We understand the agriculture practice of sowing flax in this part of the country, for domestic purposes, is becoming much more general than it was formerly. The returns from Riga and American seed have, in many instances, been very great. The Dutch seed has also been found to answer well; and there is every reason to think, if farmers would direct their atten. tion more to the cultivation of this crop, it would

turn out a profitable one, not only for family purposes, but as an article for sale. The importance of flax crops in Ireland may be judged from the fact, that there has lately been brought into the market in Derry as much as 200 tons per week, averaging in value from 401. to 80l. per ton; and there has been imported this season, at Belfast alone, above 9000 hogsheads of flax-seed, Riga, America, and Dutch.-Aberdeen Paper.

Embossing on Wood.-A new and ingenious method of embossing on wood has been invented by Mr. J. Straker. It may be used either by itself, or in aid of carving, and depends on the fact, that if a depression be made by a blunt instrument on the surface of wood, such depressed part will again rise to its original level by subsequent immersion in water. The wood to be ornamented having first been worked to its proposed shape, is in a state to receive the drawing of the pattern; this being put in, a blunt steel tool, or burnisher, or die, is to be applied successively to all those parts of the pattern intended to be in relief, and at the same time is to be driven very cautiously, without break. ing the grain of the wood, till the depth of the depression is equal to the subsequent prominence of the figures. The ground is then to be reduced by planing or filing to the level of the depressed part; after which the piece of wood, being placed in water, either hot or cold, the parts previously de. pressed will rise to their former height, and will thus form an embossed pattern, which may be finished by the usual operation of carving.

Maise Sugar.-Dr. Ballas having sent two specimens of the maise sugar to the French Academy of Sciences, M. Biot has submitted them to certain effects of polarisation in order to ascertain their precise nature. The deviation of the polarised rays to the right of the place of polarisation in an aqueous solution of this sugar alter filtration, and the proportion of its inversion to the left by the addition of liquid sulphuric acid, have been found by M. Biot to agree with the pure sugar derived from the caue.-Athenæum.

Beneficial Effects of Railways.-Some idea of the employment which railways will find for the labouring classes may be formed from the fact, that at this moment between 10,000 and 11,000 men are employed on the London and Birmingham Railway only.-Spectator. Taking this number as data, the average of accidents which occur in the prosecution of the works, is certainly under that which happens to an equal number of workmen engaged in the ordinary occupations of bricklayers, masons, carpenters, labourers, and so forth.

Time and Temperature Measurer in One.-M. Arago announced at the last sitting of the French Academy of Sciences, that a Danish watchmaker has invented a watch which at the end of the day indicates the mean temperature of twenty-four hours.

British and Foreign Patents taken out with economy and despatch; Specifications, Disclaimers, and Amendments, prepared or revised; Caveats entered; and generally every Branch of Patent Business promptly transacted.

LONDON: Published by J. CUNNINGHAM, at the Mechanics' Magazine Office, No. 6, Peterborough-court, between 135 and 136, Fleet-streetAgent for the American Edition, Mr. O. RICH, 12, Red Lion-square. Sold by G. W. M. RɛYNOLDS, Proprietor of the French, English, and American Library, 55, Rue Neave, Saint Angustin, Paris.

CUNNINGHAM and SALMON, Printers,
Fleet-street.

370

BIRCH'S FIRST-CLASS RAILWAY-CARRIAGE.

Sir, In the month of November, 1835, the London and Birmingham and Great Western Railway Company put forth a proposal inviting engineers, and others, to a professional competition in designs for first-class carriages, which was liberally backed by the promised premiums of 100 and 2007.

As one (and probably one of the humblest) of the competitors, I essayed my skill, and designed what I considered to be a carriage meeting the views of the Company; I was, however, one of the unsuccessful candidates. Thinking, nevertheless, that some of the arrangements may not be altogether deficient in originality or utility, I solicit its insertion in your widely-circulated work. The following is a copy of the directions given to the competitors:

"London and Birmingham and Great Western Railways.

"First-Class Carriage. "To be capable of accommodating at least twelve passengers. A convenient arrangement for a greater number is very desirable, and will be preferred if it should not involve other objections.

"May be placed on four or more wheels; if on six, the interval between the most distant axles, not to exceed ten feet.

"To rest on springs.

"Particular attention to be directed to the elastic mode of connecting one carriage with another; as also the various expedients which are already employed to prevent the jerking action of the carriage when the train is put in movement, and to the shocks which are generally experienced when the velocity of a train is lessened, or when it is brought to a state of rest.

"It is considered desirable to reduce, as far as practicable, the height of the body of the carriage from the ground, so that it be not less than twelve or fourteen inches above the level of the rail.

"The extreme width of any portion of the body of the carriage not to exceed seven feet. "In furnishing the above particulars, the Directors are to be understood as simply stating what appears to them to be desirable with reference to the present state of railway experience in the construction of carriages for passengers. Plans, therefore, which may not be in strict accordance with these data will receive the most mature consideration, according to the advantages they may severally appear to possess."

The following are the few observations I addressed to the Directors :

"In submitting for your approval a de

sign for a first-class carriage, I have adhered as nearly as possible to the printed instructions, and beg to offer a few observations by way of explanation.

"The body is in three divisions, one double and two single. The double division is intended to carry eight persons, and each of the single ones four, which, with the two conductors' seats, allows room for eighteen passengers. The depth of and (in the former) the space between the seats is considerably more than those afforded by ordinary stage-coach conveyances, and the consequent ease and comfort of the passengers are thereby insured.

"The carriage having both ends alike, will not require turning on the rails; and may be drawn or propelled without altering the position of the passengers, The extreme length of it is fourteen feet; the width, six, feet six inches; the height from the rail to door is two feet two inches; and the whole height is seven feet.

"It will be observed, that the springs attached to the connecting rods at each end of the carriage are different, and must be a matter of choice or experience. That marked A acting upon cranks will throw the pressure of the springs outwards, and will consequently prevent, or considerably lessen, the concussion and jerking action upon the train being put in motion or stopped.

"The one marked B acting with slidingrods, drawing from a long spring, and buffing against a double nut-cracker, will have a similar effect.

"From the axles cranks are attached to the springs, and pressing outwards will allow the wheels to rise in the slots, and surmount any obstruction of five or six inches without throwing the body out of its equilibrium.

"I presume that a tender will be attached to the train for the conveyance of luggage; but if it is deemed indispensable, an imperial, and rods may be attached to the top, for the carrying of the same. There is room for stowage under each of the seats.

"I remain, Gentlemen, with respect,
"Your most obedient servant,
"EUGENIUS BIRCH.

"Feb 1, 1836."

NEW SYSTEM OF GEOLOGY.

Sir, I have read with much interest the various articles upon the "Electrical Theory of the Universe," and I am glad to find, from Kinclaven's last letter on the subject, that no great danger is to be apprehended of this earth or any of the other planets being "whirled into the body of the sun." But, Mr. Editor, there is another new system of geology which is now