being a communication from a foreigner, residing abroad.Sealed 25th March-6 months for inrolment. Charles Payne, of South Lambeth, in the county of Surrey, gent., for improvements in salting animal matters.-Sealed 25th March-6 months for inrolment. Frederick Steiner, of Hyndburn Cottage, near Accerton, in the county of Lancaster, for improvements in looms for weaving and cutting asunder double piled cloths; and a machine for making wefts used therein.-Sealed 25th March-6 months for inrolment. James Molyneaux, of Preston, in the county of Lancaster, linen draper, for an improved mode of dressing flax.-Sealed 26th March-6 months for inrolment. William Mc Murray, paper-maker, at Kenleith Mill, near Edinburgh, in that part of Great Britain called Scotland, for certain improvements in machinery used in manufacturing paper. -Sealed 1st April-6 months for inrolment. Charles Cameron, Esq., lately in Her Majesty's 18th Regiment of Foot, and at present residing at Mount Vernon, in the county of Edinburgh, for certain improvements in engines to be actuated by steam or other elastic fluids.-Sealed 14th April-6 months for inrolment. Francis Sleddon, Junr., of Preston, in the county of Lancaster, machine-maker, for certain improvements in machinery or apparatus for roving, slubbing, and spinning cotton and other fibrous substances. Sealed 14th April-6 months for inrolment. List of Patents Granted for SCOTLAND, subsequent to March 22nd, 1841. To Joseph Stubs, of Warrington, file manufacturer, for certain improvements in the construction of screw wrenches and spanners, for screwing and unscrewing nuts and bolts,-being a foreign communication.-Sealed 26th March. George Henry Fourdrinier, and Edward Newman Fourdrinier, both of Hanley, paper-makers, for certain improvements in steam-engines for actuating machinery; and in apparatus for propelling ships and other vessels on water,-being a foreign communication.-Sealed 31st March. William Mc Kinlay, of Manchester, engraver, for certain improvements in machinery or apparatus for measuring, folding, plaiting, or lapping goods or fabrics.-Sealed 31st March. Charles Green, of Birmingham, gold plater, for improvements in the manufacture of brass and copper tubes.-Sealed 1st April. Henry Newson Brewer, of Jamaica-road, London, mast and block-maker, for an improvement or improvements in wooden blocks for ships' rigging, tackles, and other purposes where pullies are used.-Sealed 7th April. John Barber, of Manchester, engraver, for certain improvements in machinery for the purpose of tracing or etching designs or patterns on cylindrical surfaces.-Sealed 8th April. George Blaxland, of Greenwich, engineer, for an improved mode of propelling ships and vessels at sea, and in navigable waters. -Sealed 8th April. James Pilbrow, of Tottenham, London, engineer, for certain improvements in steam-engines.-Sealed 8th April. Robert Pettit, of Woodhouse-place, Stepney-green, for improvements in rail-roads, and in the engine carriages and wheels employed thereon.-Sealed 12th April. William Samuel Henson, of Allen-street, Lambeth, engineeer, for certain improvements in steam-engines.-Sealed 14th April. Henry Bessemer, of Perceval-street, London, engineer, for a new mode of checking the speed of, or stopping railroad carriages, under certain circumstances.-Sealed 20th April. Hugh Graham, of Bridport-place, Hoxton, artisan, for an improved manufacture of that kind of carpeting usually denominated Kidderminster carpeting.-Sealed 21st April. THE London JOURNAL AND REPERTORY OF Arts, Sciences, and Manufactures. CONJOINED SERIES. No. CXIII. Recent Patents. To BENJAMIN HICK, of Bolton, in the county of Lancaster, engineer, for certain improvements in machinery or apparatus for drying cotton, woollen, and other fabrics, and other fibrous substances or materials. · [Sealed 25th May, 1839.] THESE improvements in machinery or apparatus for drying cotton, woollen, and other fabrics, and other fibrous substances or materials, consist in the arrangement and application of machinery and apparatus, whereby a stream or current of atmospheric air is brought into contact with, and along the surfaces of the goods to be submitted to the process of drying during their continuance and passage in and through a confined vessel or box, in such a manner that the moisture in them may be rapidly taken up and carried away, or any required degree of dampness or "condition," VOL. XVIII. 2 A as it is technically called in the trade, may be left in the goods, and thus the process of drying may be performed more efficiently and advantageously than has hitherto been accomplished. I will first describe one method of carrying my improvements into practical operation in drying cloth, and afterwards explain the arrangement of the machinery or apparatus more particularly by reference to the drawings,—see Plate IX. The cloth to be dried is brought from the mangling, stiffening, or any other wet process, being wound upon a roller, and forming what is usually called a "catch." This catch or roll of cloth is placed upon a frame, and so arranged that the cloth may be unwound and extended or drawn horizontally along and through a chamber or vessel, which I call a drying-box, and wound upon corresponding rollers at the contrary end of the drying-box. The figs. 1 and 2, shew a method of treating such rolls of cloth or batches on the frame, the cloth from each being drawn through the vessel one above the other, at about two inches apart, and supported at intervals by small rollers. The air will in most states of the atmosphere, and with most descriptions of cloth, require to be heated, or otherwise dried, to increase its capability of absorbing moisture, for which purpose an ordinary coal or other stove, or a hotair furnace, called a "cockle," may be used. This stove or furnace is situated near one end of the drying-box, having suitable flues for conveying the heated air into the box, through which it is drawn in a continuous and uniform stream, by means of an exhausting fan, placed near the other extremity of the drying-box. It is necessary here to observe, that I prefer to draw the cloth through the drying-box, in a direction contrary to the current of the air; and also that the air must be introduced into the box at that end where the cloth is driest, and drawn out of it at that end where the cloth is wettest, in order to prevent any moisture, when once absorbed by the dry air, from being deposited upon the dried cloth. It will be evident that the various descriptions of cloth will require different periods of time in drying, which may be easily obtained by altering the progression of the cloth through the box, or allowing it to remain stationary therein some time, or by changing the speed of the fan, or varying the temperature, or dryness and quantity of air, which is brought into contact with the cloth. In like manner, any required degree of dampness or condition may be left in the cloth, to be accurately ascertained by the application of a hydrometer to the interior of the drying-box; but these and similar modifications will be easily adapted to the material to be operated upon, by those conversant with the business, without further description or explanation. In order, however, that the above method of carrying my improvements into effect, may be rendered perfectly intelligible to the practical operator, I have attached to these presents a sheet of drawings, in which fig. 1, is a side elevation of the machine; and fig. 2, is a plan of the same; similar letters of reference denoting corresponding parts of the machinery or apparatus in each of the figures. The side frames or castings a, a, a, a, are placed at suitable distances apart, at each end of the room in which the drying-box is situated, supporting a number of catches or rolls of cotton cloth b, b, b, b, each containing a number of pieces, stitched together, end to end, which are drawn through the drying-box c, c, c, c, in a horizontal line, one under the other, being supported at certain intervals by the transverse bearing rollers d, d, d, d, until they arrive at the other end of the drying-box, where they are again |