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a layer of the articles, having legs, shapes, or forms inserted therein, and submitting them, in that state, to the action of any suitable press or pressure; and I prefer placing millboard between the articles and the plates.

The object of the present invention being the employment of suitable heated surfaces, heated by any other means than hollow surfaces, heated by steam, hot water, or other fluids, when such employment of heated surfaces is com bined with the employment of legs, shapes, or forms inserted in the articles undergoing the finishing process. It should be remarked, that in treating or finishing knit or looped Angola goods by hot pressure, it is desirable that they should be placed on legs, shapes, or forms, in a damp state.

Another part of my invention relates to submitting knit or looped fabrics of lamb's wool, worsted, Angola, and cotton, when on legs, shapes, or forms, to the action of steam, whereby the character and appearance of such goods will be improved; and in order to perform this part of my invention, having placed a number of stockings on legs, or drawers, shirts, waistcoats, or other articles, on proper shapes or forms, I place them in a suitable chamber, which will contain steam; and I either suspend them in such chamber, or have a series of open shelves, on which the articles are laid; and I prefer placing them in single layers, and in this state allow them to remain, in what may be called a steam bath, for about three minutes, and then immediately press them whilst they are hot and damp from the action of the steam, or I permit them to dry on the legs, shapes, or forms, and in some cases without pressing them at all. The steam I use is five pounds pressure on the square inch; the chamber or bath being provided with an outlet to run off the condensed steam. The steam chamber I prefer to be quadrangular, sufficiently strong to resist the pressure employed; and having a door or opening readily removed, in order readily to place in and remove the goods, and yet sufficiently steam tight to waste but little steam.

Having thus described the nature of my invention, I would have it understood that what I claim is, first, the mode of finishing knit or looped fabrics of lamb's wool, worsted, Angola, and cotton, when on shapes or forms, by Ineans of pressure, without heat, as herein described; secondly, I claim the mode of finishing knit or looped fabrics of lamb's wool, worsted, Angola, and cotton, by means of pressure, when on heated shapes, as above described, thirdly, I claim the mode of applying heated surfaces, in combination with the employment of legs, shapes, or forms, when such heat is obtained to the surfaces by any other means than by steam, hot water, or other fluids circulating in the hot pressing surfaces, as above described; and fourthly, I claim the mode of treating knit or looped fabrics of lamb's wool, worsted, Angola, and cotton, when on legs, shapes, or forms, by means of a steam bath, and either with or without pressure, as above described.

Lond. Jour. Arts & Sci.

Specification of a Patent granted to JAMES DREW, of Manchester, in the county of Lancaster, Civil Engineer, for improvements in the means of Consuming Smoke and Economising Fuel in Steam Engine and other Furnaces, or Fire-places.-[Sealed 8th November, 1838.]

These improvements in the means of consuming smoke and economising fuel in steam engines or other furnace, or fire-places, consists in providing the furnace or fire-place with a second or double set of fire bars, the one set or outermost of which are to be fixed to the boiler seating as in ordinary

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furnaces, and the second or innermost set are to be fixed upon a carriage which shall be movable in a vertical direction, immediately behind the outer set of bars; and thus the improved furnace will be divided into two distinct parts or portions; the first or ordinary half, or any convenient part thereof, will support the fuel in the furnace, and the second or movable set be capable of being raised nearer to or further from the bottom of the boiler, as occasion may require.

The object of my invention being the more perfect consumption of smoke, and the consequent economy in fuel, is effected by such novel arrangement and construction of the furnace or fire-place, as the first or outermost set of firebars is intended to receive the fuel when it is firstly introduced into the furnace, and the charred or red hot coal is to be passed backwards, and thus placed upon the second or movable set of fire-bars, and immediately raised by the sliding carriage close under the bottom of the boiler, and placed nearer to or farther from the boiler, as the case may require, thus forming a narrow heated passage, causing the smoke to come in contact with the charred or red hot coal, the heat from which passes under the bottom of the boiler on its way to the flues, and as it rises from the green or fresh coal in the front part of the furnace, it will be perfectly consumed in passing over the second or red hot fire instead of being allowed to escape along with other gaseous products to the chimney, and thereby cause a considerable saving of fuel and heat, which is commonly lost. As the principal feature of novelty is so perfectly simple that it may be readily applied to any description of furnace or fire-place, I had scarcely deemed it necessary to represent its application to any one in particular, as it is evident that its adaptation to the various descriptions of furnaces must greatly depend upon the circumstances of the case; and also the mechanical arrangements, and other details, for raising or lowering the second or inner set of fire-bars, must entirely be at the option of the engineer.

It will readily be perceived that the mechanical agents or apparatus to be employed to carry my invention into practical effect, are capable of a variety of modifications, and however applied, will not in the least affect the result of the operation.

[A figure is given in the specification which we do not deem necessary to the understanding of the invention. The second set of fire-bars is placed so as to be easily brought, by screw or lever machinery, to a level with, or depressed below, or raised above, the common grate bars, so that the ignited and incandescent coals can be brought near the bottom of the boiler, and the throat or flue being thus constructed, the smoke and cinders of the fresh fuel have to pass over, and in contact with, the ignited coals.]

Having thus described the object of my improvements, and the manner in which the same may be carried into practical effect, I desire it to be understood, in conclusion, that I claim as my invention the elevation of the second set of fire-bars or back part of the furnace, either in a level or inclined position, and the lowering of the same in the manner and for the purposes above described, in whatever situation it may be used in connexion with ordinary furnaces or fire-places; and also by whatever ordinary mechanism or apparatus the same may be worked, as the lever, screw, rack, or any other well known agent may be effectively employed.

Ibid.

Specification of a Patent granted to JOSEPH GIBBS, of Kensington, Engi neer, for an improvement or improvements in the Machinery for Prepar ing Fibrous Substances for Spinning, and in the mode of Spinning certain Fibrous Substances.-[Sealed 21st December, 1839.]

This invention is described under three distinct heads; first, an arrangement of machinery for breaking the woody parts, or boom, from raw flax, New Zea land flax, and hemp, and partially separating the fibres. The material is fed into the machine through horizontal spouts or troughs, whence it passes between rollers, weighted, to produce pressure. These rollers have teeth or angular indentations all over their peripheries, in order that, as they revolve, they may pinch the material and crack the boom; and besides their rotary motions, the rollers have also lateral movements upon each other, which assist in breaking the boom, and thereby preparing the material for the subsequent operations of heckling and spinning.

The construction of the machine may be easily conceived. The rollers are all made to revolve by toothed gear upon their axles, driven by one actuating wheel and pinion, and the lateral movements are produced by excentrics upon the axle of the driving wheel, which cause the rollers severally to slide endways. The feature of novelty claimed, is merely the particular arrangement of the parts shewn in the several figures of the drawing appended to the specifica‐ tion, constituting, as a whole, a machine for breaking and preparing flax, &c. The second head of the invention, is the employment of a sort of scribbling engine for preparing floss silk. The silk is conducted, in an uniform thickness, from a feeding table, between rollers, to the cylinder or barrel, covered with fine pins, which, as it revolves, takes up the fine filaments of silk, and they are pressed in between the pins on to the surface of the barrel, as it goes round, by a cylindrical brush, which lies in contact with the barrel. When a sufficient quantity of the silk has been thus lapped on to the surface of the barrel, the operation is suspended, and the lap of silk so formed is then taken off in a sheet and placed in another machine, to be drawn and spun into threads or yarns; or the lap of silk may be separated in its width into several sliders, and passed immediately between drawing rollers to the spinning machine. In this part of the invention, the arrangement only of the whole machine is claimed as new, not the parts separately considered.

The third head of the invention, is the production of a peculiar sort of yarn, which is made by spinning or winding very fine fibres of cotton or other material, round a previously spun yarn of flax, or other fibrous thread. To effect this, any convenient construction of spinning or winding machinery may be employed, in which the previously spun yarn may be conducted from a bobbin, and brought under the operation of a winding flyer. The object of this winding is to give tenacity and strength to fibres of extremely delicate and fine materials.

Ibid.

Specification of a Patent granted to JOHN SWINDELLS, of Manchester, in the county of Lancaster, Manufacturing Chemist, for his invention of certain improvements in the Manufacture of Prussian Blue, Prussiate of Potash, and Prussiate of Soda.-[Sealed 16th April, 1839.]

This invention of an improved method of manufacturing prussiate of potash, prussiate of Soda, and Prussian blue, consists in producing the same

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during the process of manufacturing carbonate of potash, carbonate of soda, and British alkali, commonly called soda ash.

The common method pursued in manufacturing these articles, is by forming a mixture of the sulphate of potash, or sulphate of soda, lime, or carbonate of lime, and small coal or any other carbonaceous matter, and subjecting them to heat in a reverberatory furnace, and thereby decomposing the sulphates, and producing carbonate of potash or soda; and likewise a quantity of sulphuret of potassium or sodium, according to the article operated upon.

The patentee states, that "in my process I dispense with lime or carbo. nate of lime, and use, along with the various sulphates, a quantity of ground coal of the best caking description; and also a quantity of iron filings or borings, in manner following, namely:-I take any quantity of the sulphate of potash or sulphate of soda, and fuse them in a reverberatory furnace, such as is commonly used in the manufacture of alkalies; and then I add, by degrees, a mixture of small caking coal and iron filings, (in the proportion of one part of iron filings to eight of coal,) until I have added to the fused sulphate one half of their weight of coal, or more, if the sulphates require it, taking care to stir the materials well during the addition of the coal and iron filings, and also for ten or fifteen minutes after the whole of the coal is added, when the material will be ready to remove from the furnace, and allowed to cool.

I also produce the same results by mixing, in the first instance, the coal and iron filings with the various sulphates, and then fusing them in the furnace in the usual way; or the iron filings may be omitted in the process, but I prefer the addition thereof. The materials, after being cooled, I take and dissolve in water, and when the solution has subsided, I evaporate the same until it has obtained a specific gravity of 1.320, at a boiling heat; then I transfer it into coolers, when the prussiate of potash or prussiate of soda crystalizes in the course of four or five days; the solution now will consist of carbonate of potash or soda, and sulphuret of potassium or sodium, which sulphuret may be removed by the usual methods employed for that purpose. The crystals of prussiate of potash, or prussiate of soda, will be requir ed to be re-dissolved and re-crystalized, when they will be ready for use or sale; or they may be manufactured into Prussian blue, in the usual

way.

Ibid.

Progress of Practical and Theoretical Mechanics and Chemistry.

Anthracite Iron.

A series of experiments has been lately made of the quality of anthra. cite iron manufactured by the Ystal-y-fera Company, in the Swansea Valley. We are indebted to the gentleman (Mr. Richard Evans, of Manchester) under whose superintendence the tests were submitted, for a very detailed report of the results, which, we regret, from its length, we are unable to transfer to our columns. It will be our object, however, to render an abstract of the paper before us, which is in itself of too scientific and techni cal a character to be understood by our general readers. Mr. Evans hav. ing been requested to examine and report upon the strength of the several qualities-Nos. 1, 2, and 3—of the Ystal-y-fera iron, with a view to ascertain its properties, particularly in relation to other descriptions of iron,

proceeds in his report to give the results of about 280 experiments upon rectangular transverse bars, taking as the most satisfactory and methodical arrangement, that adopted by Messrs. Fairbairn and Hodgkinson, in the series of experiments reported in the "Sixth Report of the British Association." In effecting this, care was taken to follow closely the practical parts of the investigation of those gentlemen, by breaking the bars between supports of their distances-viz., of 4 ft. 6 in. and 2 ft. 3 in. apart. The trials were confined to the transverse strength of 1 in. rectangular bars, with their several values, as follow:-1, specific gravity; 2, modulus of elas ticity; 3, transverse strength of 1 in. rectangular bars, 4 ft. 6 in. apart; 4, transverse strength of 1 in. ditto, 2 ft. 3 in. apart; 5, ultimate deflection; 6, power to resist impact, into which the tables are divided. The bars broken being from seventy-two specimens of No. 1-sixty-five of No. 2and sixty-one specimens of No. 3-cast horizontally in sand, and melted by coke from the cupola in the ordinary way. In addition thereto were fortyfour bars, being equal mixtures of Nos. 1, 2, and 3; twenty-four bars of the same quality, but planed down to a perfect 1 in. square gauge; and sixteen bars of the same mixture, but melted in the crucible. The several trials were effected with the greatest care, for which Mr. Evans expresses his obligations to Messrs. Whitworth and Co. (by whom the castings were furnished), and for the general interest and care manifested by those gentlemen to arrive at satisfactory results. It is unnecessary to enter into those details, suffice it to say, that they exhibit a proper regard on the part of Mr. Evans and others to give a correct result, and by the practical man will be duly appreciated. The first series of experiments made was on No. 1 Ystal-y-fera anthracite iron, with the view of ascertaining the transverse strength and elasticity of rectangular inch bars, to effect which seventy-two experiments were made at 4 ft. 6 in. and 2 ft. 3 in. distance between sup ports, as already mentioned.

We must necessarily confine our extracts from the report to the summary or abstract of the several experiments made, of which the following will be found to give the result-the numbers of the experiments referred to being explained in note at foot:

Summary and comparison of the total mean results of the various tables, together with the same from Messrs. Fairbairn & Hodgkinson's list:

No. of Speci- Elasticity in Breaking cwt., Breaking cwt., Ultimate de- Power to experi- fic gra- lbs. per square lbs. in bars 4ft. lbs. in bars 2ft. flectn. in parts resist inments. vity.

inch.

6in.

3in.

of in.

pact.

[blocks in formation]

*In the tables, the figures used for reference are thus explained:-1. Mean of experiments on No. 1 Ystal-y-fera anthracite iron. 2. Ditto No. 2 iron. 3. Ditto on No. 3 iron. 4. Equal mixtures of Nos. 1, 2, and 3. 5. The same mixtures, but from the crucible. 6. Equal mixtures of Nos. 1, 2, and 3 iron, but planed bars. 7, 8, and 9, referring to the tables of Messrs. Fairbairn and Hodgkinson, being respectively, No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3 iron.

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