men, and it is beginning to be adopted by others of his townsmen in the same line of business. We propose to ourselves to give the drawings and description of this machine, at the earliest opportunity.

CRAMP FOR LAYING FLOORS.-The Silver Isis Medal was awarded to Mr. Andrew Smith, for his lever cramp, for bringing the edges of flooring boards in contact, previously to their being nailed down. A description, with an engraving of this excellent instrument is given in our 2d. vol. page 225.

SURGICAL INSTRUMENTS.-The large Gold Medal was awarded to J.P. Holmes, Esq. for his improvements in obstetrical instruments; and the Silver Isis Medal to Mr. J. Gibson, for a spoon for administring medicine to children and lunatics, described by us in our last volume.

SHEET CORK.-The Silver Isis Medal has been voted to Mr. R. Lloyd, for his samples of sheet cork. The principle use to which sheet cork has hitherto been applied is, as a material for socks, or internal sole shoes, in order to protect the feet from damp. But from the mode by which thin plates of cork have hitherto been formed, the texture is more or less shattered, and therefore the utility of it much restricted. Mr. Lloyd has very successfully adapted the engine used for splitting skins, to cutting places or sheets of cork. The texture of the material is thus preserved unshaken, and he is enabled to produce sheets not more than a 32d. of an inch thick. The inventor himself has applied sheet cork to form the frame-work to hats; and there is no doubt that many other uses will soon be discovered for it.

SUGAR CANE INSECTS.-The Gold Ceres Medal was awarded to the Rev. Landsdown Guilding, of the Island of St. Vincent, for a communication respecting the insects that infest the sugar cane, in the West Indies, and the means which should be adopted for expelling them.

1

NEW CANADIAN PIGMENTS.-The Gold Isis Medal was awarded to Wm. Green, Esq. of Quebec, secretary to the Literary and Philosophical Society, at that place, for a description, accompanied by samples, of several substances, both mineral and vegetable, the produce of Canada, from which valuable paints for the use of artists may be prepared. The samples, on their arrival, were put into the hands of artists, members of the Society, who have reported very favourably respecting them. We propose to give the communication of Mr. Green in our next number.

SOUTH-WALES WINE.-The Gold Ceres Medal was awarded to Gregory Blaxland, Esq. of Sydney, New South Wales, for a sample of wine, the produce of his own vineyard in that colony. Five years ago, the large Silver Medal was conferred on this gentleman, for a sample of wine from the same vineyard. The vines with which it is stocked, are derived from a small black cluster grape, supposed to be a seedling from one of the claret grapes, originally introduced by Mr. Blaxland. Being a native of that colony, it endures the climate far better than any of the imported vines. The wine sent this year is decidedly better than that for which the former reward of the Soeiety was granted. It cannot be expected, that the produce of such young vines should have much flavour; but as the stocks get older, and less succulent, the quality of their juice will, no douht, improve. At present, it is praise enough, that the wine is sound, and perfectly free from that flavour which characterises, not advantageously, the wines of the Cape of Good Hope.

LIST OF NEW PATENTS SEALED.

LOCKS.-To G. H. Manton, of Dover Street, Piccadilly, for an improvement in the construction of locks for fire-arms.-Dated 2nd September. Specification to be enrolled in Two months.

CANNON.-To J. Tucker, of Hammersmith, for certain improvements in the construction of cannon.-9th September. Six months.

MACHINERY.-To T. S. Brandreth, of Liverpool, for a new method or methods of applying animal power to machinery.-9th September. Six

months

FIRE-PLACES.-To J. A. Fonzi, Esq., of Upper Marylebone Street, for certain improvements on, or additions to, fire-places.-9th September. Six months.

LIGHT.-To J. Soames, Junr. of Wheeler Street, Spitalfields, for a new preparation or manufacture of a certain material produced from a vegetable substance, and the application thereof to the purposes of supplying light. 9th September. Six months.

IRON PLATE.-To T. Morgan, of Tipton, for a new method of manufacturing or preparing iron plate.-9th September. Six months.

POWER AND MOTION.-To R. Torrens, of Croydon, for certain apparatus for the purpose of communicating power and motion.—9th September. Six months.

FIRE-ARMS.-To D. Lawrence, of Strood, and J. Crundwell, of Ashford, for certain improvements in apparatus to be applied to fowling-pieces and other fire-arms.-15th September. Six months.

ROPES, CORDAGE, &c.-To G. Harris, R. N. of Bromptom Crescent, Middlesex, for improvements in the manufacture of ropes, cordage, canvas, &c.-15th September. Six months.

DRESSING STONES.-To John Milne, Edinburgh, for a machine or engine for dressing of stones.-15th September. Six months.

CANE JUICE. To James Atchison, Clyde Buildings, Glasgow, for certain improvements in the concentrating and evaporating of cane juice, &c.— 15th September. Six món hs.

PAPER.-To Thomas Cobb, Esq. Calthorpe House, Oxford, for certain improvements in the manufacture of paper for the hanging rooms, &c.-15th September. Six months.

TIME-KEEPERS.-To T. Westwood, of Princes Street, Leicester Square, for certain improvements in watches and time-keepers.-23d September. Six months.

WATCHES.-To I. Brown, of Gloucester Street, Clerkenwell, for certain improvements applicable to watches.-23d September. Two months. WATER CLOSETS.-To H. Tyler, of Warwick Lane. for certain improvements in the construction of water closets. 23d September. Two

months.

The ex

ON ROADS, CANALS, AND RAILWAYS. THE immense advantages that result to a country from having rapid, cheap, and regular modes of conveyance, have been admitted by the most enlightened politicians in all ages. change of manufactured articles for the products of agriculture, at a rate of cost but very little more than their value where they are produced, must tend, under a proper system of government, to bring, not only the necessaries of life, but comforts and even superfluities within the reach of every individual.

So sensible were the ancient Romans of the importance of rapid conveyance, that all the cities of their vast empire were united by roads far superior to any that have been executed in later times, and of a much more expensive kind, than the best rail-roads in this country. The Roman roads were made so firm and solid that they have not yet entirely yielded to the dilapidations of fifteen centuries. Their total extent, according to Rondelet, was about 48,000 English miles.

After the decline of the Roman empire, the construction of good roads were generally neglected, and, in later times, canals have been employed as the chief artificial means of conveyance, as affording much greater facilities for the transmission of heavy burthens than any other mode, especially where great celerity is not required. Canals have, however, these disadvantages; a competent supply of water is necessary, which is not always obtained without incurring great expense; a canal is limited to comparatively small changes of level; otherwise, the delay and expenses of locks become too great. Canals are likewise liable to frequent stoppages from frosts, floods, repairs; they interfere with the right of streams and drainage, and are generally injurious to the property through which they are made. The first cost of canals, as well as the keeping of them in repair, are greater than those of railways: and the former are only preferable to the latter on a level surface, and where a greater speed than three miles per hour is not desirable, as a much greater weight can be moved at that velocity on a canal, than on a railway, with a given power. The following table which shews the work that may be performed by the same mechanical power on canals, railways, and turnpike roads, places the subject in a very clear point of view.

At the several velocities less than five miles per hour, it will be perceived that the effect of the same power is greater upon canals than upon railways; but at the higher velocities, the effect is greater on a railway than on a canal; and when the speed reaches to thirteen miles per hour, the effect of the power on a canal is about the same as on a turnpike-road, the resistances to. the motion of the load being nearly equal: but the effect of the same power, at the same velocity, upon a railway is eight times greater than either on canals or turnpike-roads: therefore, the immense advantages of railways, where rapidity of transmission is required, is sufficiently conspicuous. The lowest velocity stated in the table, namely, two miles and a half per hour, at that at which a horse can produce the greatest effect in drawing a burthen : if the velocity be increased beyond three miles per hour, the useful effect is rapidity diminished; that is, a horse will move a greater weight through a given space, during a day's labour, by the lower velocities than by the higher. On canals an advantage is found in travelling at about the velocity corresponding to the maximum of useful effect to a day of ten hours long, and they continue their labour with little intermission throughout this long day, except while the boat is passing through the locks. If they attempt to go at a quicker rate, the increase of resistance becomes very considerable, as the resistance to the motion of a body in fluids increases nearly as the square of the velocity. On the contrary, in rail-roads, the resistance remains nearly the same at all velocities. The effect of a given force on a level railway, being eight times that on a level turnpike-road, one horse will draw upon the former eight times as much weight as on the latter; but as horses cannot increase their speed materially, without reducing their power of traction—and, as the resistance upon a railway does not increase, however great the velocity of a body moving thereon, horse power cannot be so advantageously employed as the means of propulsion as steam power, in which the force upon the piston may be rendered nearly uniform at all velocities; indeed it is difficult to assign any limit to the velocity of a steamcarriage properly constructed, and duly supplied with fuel and water, as the heat of the furnace may be augmented in proportion to the velocity of motion. Locomotive steam-carriages have accordingly been brought into use on most of the principal railways in the kingdom.

The first railways appear to have been used in the neighbourhood of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, about 1680. The rails were of wood, resting upon wooden sleepers; and in some places near the Tyne, the same species are still in use. The wooden ones are however nearly abandoned for the iron ones, and, of the latter, there are an immense number of them branching in various directions, from both sides of the Tyne to the various coal works; and also, several inclined planes on which the waggons are moved

* In the former part of this work, is given a table, shewing the maximum quantity of labour a horse, of average strength, is capable of performing at different velocities; on cana's, railways, and turnpike roads.

by stationary engines. The rails employed are all of the kind called edge-rails; and it appears from experiments, that on the level rails, when they are in good condition, I lb. will draw 170lbs.' or one horse will draw 25,500lbs. including the weight of the waggon, at the rate of two miles and a half per hour*. The same kind of railways and waggons are employed in various parts of the kingdom.

It was our intention to have briefly noticed the various railways at present in use in this country, as introductory to our description of the Manchester and Liverpool railways, and the important experiments recently made thereon; but we find that our space will not, at present, permit us to do so, satisfactorily; we shall therefore, here simply refer the reader, who may be desirous of information in these points, to Wood's, Palmer's, and Tredgold's works on rail-roads; to the article, CANAL, in Rees's Cyclopædia, and to INLAND NAVIGATION, in Brewster's Edinburgh Encyclopædia.

TRIAL OF LOCOMOTIVE CARRIAGES ON THE MAŊCHESTER AND LIVERPOOL RAILWAY.

IN giving a description of this celebrated undertaking, which is now nearly completed, and the competition which has just taken place among several engineers, to produce the most efficient locomotive machine, we propose to avail ourselves chiefly of the information furnished by the talented editor of the "London Mechanics' Magazine," who appears to have exerted himself very laudably in collecting, from authentic sources, and in furnishing from his own observations (by personal attendance on the spot) more information on the subject than is to be found in any other publication of the day.

In the year 1822 this grand undertaking was projected by William James, Esq., civil engineer; † but, in consequence of the strong opposition which was threatened by the whole body of canal proprietors throughout the kingdom, and other causes, the prosecution of the design languished till the progress of the Stockton and Darlington Railway towards completion; and the success of some preliminary trials upon it, animated the people of Lancashire with a new zeal in behalf of their own speculation.

In the summer, or rather autumn of 1826, the formation of the railway commenced under the direction of Mr. George Stephenson, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, who had been appointed by the Company to carry the design of Mr. James into execution. The natural character of the country through which the road passes made the undertaking one of considerable difficulty, as

* Description of a Railway on a new Principle, p. 29.

Then of the city of Warwick, but now residing at Bodmin, in Cornwall, the author of various great public works.