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copper is then enveloped by the platina foil, in the same manner as it was before enveloped by the leaf of virgin silver, and submitted to the action of the same furnace as before, rubbing also in the same way with the burnisher, which applies the platina.

ACCOUNT OF AMERICAN PATENTS.

For an improvement in the Mode of Measuring and Cutting Boots. THOMAS HOWE, Worcester, Massachusetts, April 18.

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THE boots are to be cut by using metal patterns, of which there are two, made in the shape of the common crimping forms" used by boot-makers. These patterns are graduated, so that by the same guide the largest and the smallest boot can be cut. To effect this, holes are drilled near to, and at equal distances from, each other, extending inwards from the cutting edge of the pattern, of which holes there are several rows, which serve to mark the leather for placing the pattern to cut according to the size required.

A strap, properly divided, is used to obtain the measure of the foot.

"All I claim in my improvement, is, the holes drilled in the patterns, by means of which boots of the largest as well as the smallest sizes may be cut with one set of patterns.'

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"The advantages to be derived from my improvement consist in the saving of time, in cutting and fitting the boot to the foot more exactly, and with greater certainty, nothing being left to the judgment, as by the common method; in the fact, that any cobler may cut a boot that will fit, with the same exactness as that cut by the most skilful in the art."-Franklin Journal.

For an improvement in the Cylinder Paper Machine; ISAAC SAUNDERSON, Milton, Norfolk county, Massachusetts, April 18.

A GENERAL defect in the paper made upon cylinder machines, is, the inequality of its strength when tried lengthwise and across. This is in consequence of a greater number of fibres running in one direction than in the other, and a consequent want of that perfect interlocking which takes place upon mould-made paper. A part of the present machine is intended to remove this defect. For this purpose there is a "horizontal whirl wheel, which plays or revolves under the wing cylinder, so called, upon which the paper forms, and by distributing the current and counteracting the continuous motion of the pulp rising upon the cylinder, improves the quality, and increases the strength of the paper, by casting the fibrous parts of the pulp in every direction, and at the same time throwing the knots and motes on the outward surface of the sheet, (instead of depositing in the body of the paper) from which they can easily be removed without injury to the paper."

The other improvement is the sheet forming roller; this roller is used, and put in the place of the upper water pressing roller (80 called) of the cylinder paper machines. The sheet is formed on this roller, the circumference of which must be graduated according to the dimensions of the sheet required. The additional kinds of paper that can be made on the cylinder paper machine, by means of the improvement, or invention, of the sheet forming roller, and the counteracting horizontal whirl wheel, are, press paper, bonnet paper, pasteboard, and band-box paper."

There are eight floats on the horizontal whirl wheel, which are placed obliquely, the more perfectly to agitate the water. The whirl wheel and sheet forming roller constitute the claim.—Ibid.

For an improvement in the Paddle Wheels of Steam Boats, or wheels applicable to other objects, to prevent what is called back water. PAUL BOYNTON, Ogdensburg, St. Lawrence county. New York, April 21.

THIS is a wheel, upon the contrivance of which much thought has been spent, as its construction fully manifests. Its intention is to preserve a vertical position in the buckets of a paddle wheel. Many patents have been procured for this object, and we have before taken occasion to express an unfavourable opinion of the whole of them not merely on account of their complexity, but because we believe that if the end could be attained without a multiplication of moving parts, it would offer but little, if any, advantage beyond the ordinary paddle wheel.

The present plan is certainly not less complex than some of its predecessors. To move ten buckets there are not many less than 200 moving parts, and this certainly would present some objection both in point of cost, and in liability to derangement.

In several of the plans alluded to, one general principle prevails. The buckets, or floats, have on each end two pivots, inserted into the rims of eccentric wheels, the rims being of equal size, and having their centres one as far below the other as the distance between the two pivots on one end of a bucket. An arrangement of this kind will keep all the buckets vertical throughout their whole revolution. Although the plan before us differs considerably from this, yet a little analysis brings it back to an analogous, if not the same principle.

How far this scheme will obviate back water, we cannot now discuss, but will make a single remark on the subject. Suppose the paddle wheel immersed to the centre of the shaft, the last dipping and rising buckets would then have no horizontal motion whatever, but would offer the same resistance as would a flat board of the same size, fixed to the side of the boat with its surface exposed to the water.-Ibid.

For a Cylinder Hemp and Flax Machine. JAMES Y. WATSON, JOHN BLOSSOM, and ANDREW BURNET, Salem, Washington County, New York, April 21.

THIS machine is intended for breaking hemp and flax, either before or after being water rotted. Two hollow cylinders, three feet long, and four or five feet in diameter, are placed to revolve horizontally one above the other, and in opposite directions. Their peripheries are fluted or reeded, and touch each other within half an incl. Each cylinder is surrounded, for nearly two-thirds of its surface, with rollers of four inches diameter, very nearly touching each other, and approaching the large cylinder within one-fourth of an inch. The rollers are capable of receding by the agency of springs, by which they are borne up. These rollers extend from the top of the upper cylinder, as nearly as possible to its junction with the lower cylinder, which lower cylinder is surrounded by small rollers in like manner, but upon the opposite side.

A feeding apron, like that of a carding machine, supplies the upper roller, and a receiving table or apron below the lower roller conducts the material off after it has passed through the rollers.

The machinery must be properly geared, and may be turned by any sufficient power.

The arrangement of the fluted rollers and cylinders, and the steel springs by which the rollers are borne up, form the substance of the claim.-Ibid.

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For a Machine for slitting Tenons, Veneers, &c., called the Vertical Tenoner," and intended for Shop Purposes. JOHN M'CLINTIC, Chambersburg, Franklin County, Pennsylvania, April 21.

THIS machine is furnished with a vertical, and also with a circular saw, either of which may be put in gear, and used. A carriage running upon rollers receives the piece which is to be tenoned: this carriage has a table framed across it, regulated by a tail screw, so as to set the piece to be sawed without the necessity of guaging. For all but very heavy work the carriage is drawn up by a weight and pulley; there is a rag wheel, however, which may be used when necessary. The claim is as follows: running the driving shaft on points, also my plan of fly-wheel, also the manner of (fixing the) tail screw or table, preventing the necessity of gauging, and producing perfect uniformity of tenon, with but little care.

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The cases are numerous in which patentees are at a fault to tell what to claim as new in their machines, especially where ingenuity has tortured an instrument into almost every variety of form, for the purpose of obtaining an exclusive right. There are several machines. for tenoning, for which patents have issued, the essential parts of which appear to us similar to that in question; and there are in our country ten thousand workmen, who, if required, could make a machine equally suitable for this purpose, without having seen either;

and, after all this had been done, there would be very little of invention, properly so called, in the whole; but merely a condensation of larger machines, and an adaptation of parts of them to the particular purpose in view.-Ibid.

For a new and useful Machine for planing Floor Plank, and grooving and tongueing, and strengthening the Edges of the same, planing Boards, straightening and planing Square Timber, &c &c., called the Cylindrical Planing Machine. URI EMMONS, New York, April 25.

THIS machinery is confessedly similar to that for which a patent issued to William Woodworth, of Hudson, New York, in December last, Mr. Emmons claiming to be the true and original inventor: the correctness of this claim is in a fair way for investigation before the proper tribunal.*—Ibid.

For a Machine for washing Clothes. STEPHEN HINDS, Montrose, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, April 25.

We wish it was universally known that all possible washing machines had been long since invented, abandoned, and re-invented, until all conceivable permutations upon every imaginable number of fluted rollers, dashers, rounds, rubbers, and squeezers, had been exhausted. We had rather visit the kitchen on a washing day than be compelled to describe " a new and useful machine for washing clothes, churning butter, and other purposes, not heretofore known or used." Unfortunately, however, the choice is with the patentee, and the duty of submission with us.

Conceive of two gridirons, hinged together at one end, and you have the form of the washing part of this machine; but, of course, it is made of wood. This frame-work is put into a wooden box, with a proper dose of soap-suds, and the clothes are placed between the two racks. A lever, like a pump handle, is attached by a rod to the lower rack, which is to be worked up and down until the clothes are completely cleansed. There is no claim, and of this we are glad. -Ibid.

For an Improvement in the Mode of manufacturing Salt from Sea Water, or Salt Springs. HENRY J. TUDOR, Boston, Massachusetts, April 29.

THE mode of procedure, for which this patent is taken, is designed to facilitate evaporation by solar heat, and seems to be well calculated to produce the intended effect. It appears to us to be

* Mr. Malcom Muir, of Glasgow, took out a patent for England, dated July 31, 1827, for machinery for the precise purposes abovementioned, and the means of effecting the same are in all probability very similar. Mr. Muir's specification and drawings are given in our third volume, second series, p. 66. -Edinburgh Register of Arts.

new, and is presented in its simple form, without appending to it other claims of doubtful novelty, which patentees so frequently hang as dead weights about the necks of their inventions.

Double-inclined planes are to be made, which will appear something like the roofs of rope-walks. They may be covered with hydraulic cement, &c., or may consist simply of boards, of from four to ten feet in length, running from the ridge to the eaves. The salt water is to run slowly down these into proper gutters. In order to distribute the water upon them, there is a gutter of wood which surmounts the ridge, and this is to be filled with the salt water. Gunny bags, or any suitable kind of cloth, or other material, is used to distribute the water from the gutters upon the inclined planes; one edge of a strip of cloth lying in the water, and the other, with a ravelled edge, hanging over on to the inclined planes. The water is thus carried over by capillary attraction, and the quantity may be graduated to the weather, according as evaporation goes on more or less slowly this is effected by allowing the water in the troughs to stand at different distances from the top. In this way brine of the same strength may be obtained whenever evaporation goes on, the quantity only being varied according to the heat and dryness of the air.-Ibid.

For a Machine for sifting Grain, Flour, Rice, Flax-seed, and other Seeds, and separating all Sorts of Materials which are capable of Separation by sifting. JOHN NICHOLS, Boston, Massachusetts, April 29.

THREE or more wire sieves, the frames of which form quadrangular boxes, are placed side by side, over a common box or trough. A horizontal crank shaft, with three or more cranks on it, corresponding with the number of sieves, carry connecting rods or pitmen, which move the sieves alternately backwards and forwards. This constitutes the whole of the machinery, which will undoubtedly operate very well. Were we desirous of using such a machine, we should even now scarcely think it necessary to buy a right; and had we invented it before the present patent was obtained, we should not have claimed an exclusive privilege, lest the first wheat fan which we saw might contain a sifter with a crank, or some similar motion.Ibid.

For an Improvement in the Construction of Hose, for the Purpose of supplying and distributing Water to Sails, or Sheets of Cloth, for the Protection of Buildings from Fire, called the "Fire-Screen." CALEB PIERCE, Salem, Essex County, Massachusetts, April 29.

A COMMON leather hose is to be perforated with holes a few inches apart; the extreme end of this hose is to be closed, and a sail or sheet is to be attached to it for the purpose of retaining the water

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