they are to be laid straight in the vessel, and a light weight or grating placed upon them so as to keep them covered by the solution, and from being boiled up into an entangled mass. After the fibres have been properly laid in the vessel, the alkaline solution is to be poured in, and the whole boiled from four to six hours, or more, according to the state of the fibres. After this they are to be well washed or rinsed, to free them from the alkaline solution, and then hung up to dry in the shade, the fibres being shaken frequently to prevent them adhering together more than can be helped; and when dry they will have the appearance of a mass of white silky fibres, although, in fact, every fibre is a bundle of fibres of exceeding minuteness, and in this state the fibrous material is in a condition to be applied to the various purposes above stated.

The second part of the invention consists in the application of the above-named fibrous substance to the purposes for which flax, hemp, cotton, silk, or such other materials are now used; and when they are intended to be spun into threads or yarns, they are to undergo the process of bleaching, after the usual manner of treating flax.

This is stated by the Patentee to be best effected when the fibres are in the state of rovings, as the bleaching process further separates the fibres, and allows the roving to be elongated between the delivering and drawing rollers of the spinning frame; and for coarse yarns the first of the usual process of bleaching. will do; but when it is intended to make an exceedingly fine yarn or thread, the bleaching is to be repeated or carried out to a greater extent.

The claim of invention is stated to be as above, preparing the fibrous parts of the pine-apple plant and the

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application or use of the same to the various purposes for which flax, hemp, tow, silk, and other fibrous substances are now used.

The adaptation of this material appears to us to be a very important discovery; we have seen some specimens of cambric both in the bleached and unbleached state, said to be manufactured from this pine-apple fibre. It is of a finer texture than any we have ever seen made from flax, and exceedingly strong; but that specimen of the cambric made from this material which has been examined by us, is formed by strands of fibres not twisted or spun, the separate strands being, we presume, in the simple state they were left after the above described process of cleaning, and merely joined together at their ends apparently by adhesion, in order to constitute such lengths as would be adapted for the warp and weft of the fabric. Each strand of fibres is really, as the Patentee states in his specification, a bundle of longitudinal fibres of extreme minuteness ad_ hering together, for on examining the fabric by a powerful microscope, from 150 to 200 distinct fibres may be counted in one strand, standing parallel and straight.

It appears from the specification that the Patentee confines himself to the employment of the pine-apple plant (bromelia ananas) alone, though it is obvious that the whole of the system (bromelia) are of nearly the same fibrous character. If the other plants are applicable to the same purposes, they should have been stated so to be, for in the absence of such statement, they are left open to the public use.-—[Inrolled in the Inrolment Office, June, 1837.]

To ROBERT WILLIAM SIEVIER, of Henrietta-streel, Cavendish-square, in the county of Middlesex, gentleman, for his invention of an improvement in the means of dissolving and preparing caoutchouc or India rubber for various purposes.-[Sealed 27th February, 1836.]

THIS invention consists in dissolving or separating the elastic gum caoutchouc or India rubber by means of alkali in the following manner :—

Take caoutchouc or India rubber, cut into small pieces, and put them into any convenient vessel that may be closed at the mouth; then fill the vessel with liquid ammonia so as to entirely cover the India rubber, and in a few months it will be dissolved, or its particles separated.

After such dissolution, put the solution so made into a still or large retort, and by the application of heat nearly the whole of the ammonia may be distilled over in a gaseous form, and may be taken up in the usual way, by cold water; in which state it again becomes liquor ammonia. In this operation of distillation, it is preferred to use a water bath, as the India rubber by that means cannot be subjected to a heat of more than 212 degrees of Fahrenheit. The ammonia assumes a gaseous form at 130 degrees.

On separating the ammonia by distillation, as above, the India rubber is left held up in the water, and in that state may be applied for water-proofing cloths, or in making solid masses of any form.

By subjecting this solution to evaporation, any degree of consistency may be given to it, by increasing or diminishing the quantity mixed with the previous dissolved India rubber.

The Patentee concludes, by saying, "Having de

scribed my improvements in the means or process of dissolving or separating the particles of caoutchouc or India rubber from each other, and preparing it for various purposes, I desire it to be understood that I claim, as my discovery or invention, the use or application of ammonia to effect the solution or separation in the manner herein described."—[Inrolled in the Rolls Chapel Office, August, 1836.]

To MILES BERRY, of the Office for Pulents, Chancerylane, in the county of Middlesex, engineer and mechanical draftsman, for new or improved apparatus or mechanism for marking down or registering the notes played on the keys of piano-fortes, organs, or such other keyed musical instruments, being a communication from a foreigner residing abroad.—[Sealed 12th April, 1836.]

THIS is a piece of mechanism to be attached to a pianoforte, or other keyed musical instrument, by means of which every note produced by the depressions of the keys of the instrument as they are severally touched, will be marked upon a roll of paper placed upon a barrel below; and the barrel carrying the roll of paper, being made to revolve slowly by means of clock-work, (in accordance with the time of the subject played,) the marks left upon the roll of paper will be in such positions, and at such distances apart, as will clearly indicate not only every note which has been struck by the finger, but also the respective lengths of such notes; thereby affording the means of perfectly transcribing or translating the whole subject played into the proper forms of notes and musical passages as commonly ex

pressed upon paper. By the use of this apparatus appended to a piano-forte or organ, it is intended that any extemporary subject played upon the instrument shall be preserved and recorded upon the roll so as to be copied in the ordinary musical characters.

By way of illustrating the construction of this apparatus, the Patentec has referred to the mechanism of an ordinary bird organ or hand barrel organ, in which pegs, upon a rotary barrel, act upon levers which open the apertures of the organ pipes, and thereby produce the sounds: this apparatus being of the same sort of construction, but reversed in its action; that is, whilst the pegs on the barrel in the former act upon the levers or keys of the instrument, the levers or keys in this apparatus act upon the barrel; or to explain this more clearly, the under part of each key, when it is depressed, strikes the end of a compound lever, and causes a point, as that of a pencil, to press upon the surface of the roll of paper, and thereby produce a mark upon the paper in a situation as to the width of the roll, corresponding with the particular key struck; and as the roll is progressively moving forward, the length of the mark will indicate the length of the note.

Plate V., fig. 1, represents one of the compound levers detached from the instrument; fig. 2, shows a series of these compound levers connected, or, as it would appear, attached under the key-board of a piano-forte: about one half only of the front of the piano, and consequently of the apparatus, being exhibited; fig. 3, is a section taken transversely through the middle of the piano-forte, in which the apparatus is represented in profile.

The ordinary keys of the instrument are shown at a, a, a; the inner side of each of which keys when