seear; fourth, forming the hammer of one piece with the tumbler; fifth, placing the nipple at the back of the breech; sixth, firing behind, by a peculiarly formed breech; seventh, the enclosing the cock within a metal box or chamber; and eighth, the metal chamber or case.

These are the points which are considered by the Patentees to be new; they may be adapted to any kind of hand fire-arms; and, provided the lock, with the nipple, be enclosed within a metal box or case, the butt and the stock may be of any shape, and of wood or other material, as may be thought proper.-[Inrolled in the Inrolment Office, March, 1832.]

TO WILLIAM HALE, of Colchester, in the county of ' Essex, machinist, for his invention of improvements in machinery or apparatus for propelling vessels, which improvements are also applicable for raising or forcing fluids. [Sealed 13th October, 1831.]

THE subject of this patent appears to be a modification of the mode of propelling vessels on water, for which a patent was granted to Mr. Hale, dated 12th January, 1830. (See vol. ii. of our present Series, p. 22.) It consists in mounting a revolving propeller in an excentric position, within a box or case, the sides of which continually diverge, thus forming a convolute curve. The water is allowed to flow into this case through a central aperture formed round the axle of the propeller; and by the rotation of the excentric propeller, the water is expelled through a passage formed as a tangent to the box or case which is placed at the stern of the

vessel. The pressure of the water from the jet thus produced, acting against the surface of the water in which the vessel floats, constitutes, by its resistance, the means of propelling the vessel in the opposite direction.

Plate V., fig. 9, represents a section of the box, with the propeller mounted in an excentric position upon an axle, which may be turned by toothed gear, a rotary chain, or a band, connected to any first mover. The propeller, in this figure, is formed in the shape of what is technically called a snail; it revolves in the direction of the arrow, and, as it revolves, is intended to press the water out through the tangent-formed channel.

Fig. 10, is another modification of the same contrivance, in which the propeller is formed by a wheel, having curved paddles placed in the directions of convolute curves round the rim; these paddles being the segments of a circle. Fig. 11, is another modification of the same, in which straight paddles are attached in the positions of tangents round the rim of a wheel.

Fig. 12, is a slight variation from, or modification of, the snail first described, the interior of the snail being divided by a partition.

These propellers are said to be also applicable to the raising of water in wells; and, for this purpose, one of them is mounted either perpendicularly or horizontally, and rotary motion being communicated to it, it forces the water up a tube or pipe adapted for that purpose. [Inrolled in the Inrolment Office, April, 1832.]

To JAMES LANG, of Greenock, North Britain, flaxdresser, for his invention of certain improvements in machinery for spreading, drawing, roving, or spinning flax, hemp, and other fibrous substances, dressed or undressed. [Sealed 24th September, 1831.]

THIS invention is described as consisting in the arrangement of a series of machines, in order to carry on the several operations of spreading, heckling, drawing, roving, and spinning of flax, hemp, &c. in consecutive connexion; the object being to prepare coarse yarns for ropes and cables.

The machines employed are the ordinary gill, and the bobbin and fly frame, without any perceptible variation from the constructions commonly used, except in the following particulars, which constitute the novel features claimed, viz. :—

First, there is a mode of shifting the situation of the feeding rollers of the gill, by sliding the frame in which they turn upon an inclined bracket, for the purpose of adjusting the distance of those rollers from the travelling heckles, according to the length of the fibres of flax or hemp operated upon. In some cases, where the fibres are very short, two pairs of feeding rollers are employed, their rotary action being connected by toothed gear.

Second, passing the slivers as they descend from the drawing rollers through trumpet tubes lined with felt, or some such material, in order to give greater compactness to the sliver before it becomes twisted and wound by the bobbin and fly below.

Third, a mode of increasing the drag of the bobbin of the spindle, in order to make it wind on the yarn with greater tension, which is effected by two coupling

VOL. XI.

surfaces, formed as caps under the bobbin ; these being pressed together by unjustable springs.

The fourth feature claimed is, the arrangement or combination of machines having the above described novelties, in which the flax or hemp is first spread out, then fed in by rollers to the travelling heckles of the gill, its fibres being held or retained by the adjustable feeding rollers at certain lengths, while the heckles pass through them, and comb the fibres straight. The sliver then proceeds through the drawing rollers, and thence descends into cans.

A second process of heckling and drawing, for the purpose of refining the fibres, is then to be performed in another gill machine, in which two slivers may be operated upon; and this may be followed by a third and fourth similar operation: and in conducting the slivers from the last pair of drawing rollers to the bobbins and flies of the roving operation, they are to be passed through the trumpets with the felted linings as aforesaid, for the purpose of smoothing them before twisting; the bobbins being retarded in the way described, in order to give tension to the yarn.-[Inrolled in the Inrolment Office, March, 1832.]

Zo FRANCIS PETTIT SMITH, of Hendon, in the county of Middlesex, farmer, for his invention of an improved propeller for steam and other vessels.-[Sealed 31st May, 1836.]

THIS is another edition of the so-often-repeated Archimedes' propeller, formed by a sheet of thin plate wound obliquely round a cylinder, as a screw. This screw, or propelling shaft, is placed longitudinally at the side of

the boat, toward the stern, as shown in Plate V., at fig. 13. (We presume two are to be employed, one on each side of the keel). It is mounted upon pivots or an axle, and turns freely in the water, receiving its rotary motion through bevel gear, connected with its axle from the steam-engine within the vessel. It is intended that, by the oblique surface of the screw pressing against the water as it revolves, that the vessel to which the screw is attached, shall be propelled in the opposite direction to the resistance.

This contrivance is so well known, that it is perfectly unnecessary for us to say any more upon the subject; indeed, we have told the whole, as the Patentee states that it may be driven by any suitable construction of gear, or by a band and pulley, at any desired speed; and the propeller may be made of wood, sheet iron, or other suitable material, and with the screw set at various angles.

The specification concludes by saying, "Whereas, I claim, as my invention, the propeller herein before described, whether arranged singly, in an open space in the dead wood, or one on each side, or more forward or more aft, or more or less deep in the water."-[Inrolled in the Inrolment Office, November, 1836.]

To THOMAS WALKER, of Burslem, in the county of Stafford, mechanic, for his invention of improvements in extinguishers to candles, and in the application of sucr extinguishers to candles and candlesticks.—[Sealed 3rd July, 1835.]

THESE improvements consist in the combination and arrangement of certain simple pieces of mechanism,