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NEW BRITISH PATENTS.

any form which may be preferred, are to dip into, and to leave the water vertically; each paddle being operated on by two cranks, the shafts of which are placed horizontally one above the other. The two cranks appertaining to each paddle must be equal in length, and when attached to the paddle handle must stand in the same direction; they will then, in their revolution, carry the paddle so that every part of it will perform a circle equal to the sweep of the cranks. There may be several pairs of cranks on the same shafts, each carrying its own paddle, and standing at different angles, so that some of them will always be acting on the water. The claim is "simply the arrangement and connexion of the rods, or arms, to the double cranks, acting together, with the paddle attached to the lower end, by the principle of this motion forming a complete propeller."

STREET-SWEEPING MACHINE. Levi Kidder, New York.-This machine was designed for the use of the city of New York, and it was anticipated that it would produce a great saving in the business to which it was to be applied. cylindrical broom was to operate by means of the wheels of the machine, which was to be drawn like a cart. This, and the receptacle for the dirt, were securely covered, the whole being manageä in a manner that manifested much ingenuity. There are many difficulties, however, in the way of the successful operation of such a machine; among these may be mentioned deep holes, and other inequalities in the pavement of a city, against which it must be nearly, if not altogether, impossible to provide; others equally formidable might be mentioned, but we shall be glad to see that this machine has met with and conquered them.

IMPROVED MODE OF BUILDING WALLS IN DEEP WATER. Henry K. May, Boston.-Parallel rows of piles of sufficient length to extend above the surface of the water, are to be driven down, leaving such a space between them as shall be necessary for the thickness of the wall to be built. These piles are to be sustained in their places by diagonal spur shares on their outsides, and are to be capped with strong longitudinal timbers. A platform for the workmen, and to sustain the windlasses and materials, is to rest upon these caps. A stout frame is to be formed by uniting transverse and longitudinal timbers; the transverse timbers being of a length equal to the thickness of the intended wall, and the longitudinal ones of a length equal to such a section of it as is intended to be built at one time; the whole must necessarily be thus divided into distinct sections to carry the proposed plan into effect. In forming this frame the transverse timbers

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are placed at suitable distances, parallel to each other, and the longitudinal timbers upon them; one being situated near their ends on each side, and the whole secured together by trenails, or otherwise. This frame is to be slung under the platform upon which the windlasses are placed, by ropes, attached to blocks, and passing under the projecting ends of the transverse timbers. When so

placed, the foundation of a section of the wall is to be laid upon it. The stones, cut to a proper size, are to be laid in the manner of headers and stretchers, the first row of headers extending from one longitudinal piece to the other, immediately over the transverse timbers, and the first row of stretchers extending from one of these to the other, immediately over the longitudinal pieces; these courses are to be continued, and the frame lowered into the water, until the wall reaches low water mark. The spaces between the headers and stretchers are then to be filled in with rubble work. Section after section is thus to be built, until the whole wall is completed.

LIST OF NEW BRITISH PATENTS, GRANTED BETWEEN THE 22D OF JUNE AND THE 22D OF JULY, 1834.

Richard Walker, of Birmingham, manufacturer, for an improvement in wadding for fire-arms. June 26; two months to specify.

Jonas Bateman, of Islington, cooper, for an apparatus or instrument for saving human life, or other purposes, in case of shipwreck or other disasters by water. June 30; six months to specify.

John Barton, of Providence-row, Finsbury, engineer, and Samuel and Joseph Nye, both of Saint Andrew's-row, Southwark, mechanics, for improvements in the construction and application of pumps for raising fluids and other purposes. July 1; six months to specify.

Thomas Barton, clerk, of Withby Bush,'parish of Rudbuxton, county of Pembroke, for certain improvements in engines or machinery for cutting or preparing slates, or other similar substances or materials for various useful purposes. July 3; two months to specify.

James Hardy, of Wednesbury, Staffordshire, gentleman, for a certain improvement or certain improvements in the making or manufacturing of axletrees for carriages. July 3; six months to specify.

Benjamin Hick, of Bolton-le-Moors, engineer; Edward Evans, the elder, of Oldham, coal proprietor; and John Higgins, of Oldham, engineer, for certain improvements in the construction and . adaptation of metallic packings for the pistons of steam and other engines, pumps, and other purposes to which the same may be applicable. July 4; six months to specify.

William Higgins, of Salford, machine-maker, for certain improvements in machinery used for making twisted rovings and yarn of cotton, flax, silk, wool, and other fibrous substances. July 7; six months to specify.

John Gold, of Birmingham, glass-cutter, for certain improvements in cutting, grinding, smoothing, polishing, or otherwise preparing glass decanters and certain other articles. July 7; six months to specify.

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John Aston, of Birmingham, button maker, for an improvement in the manufacture or construction of buttons. July 10; six months to specify.

George Beadon, of Taunton, lieutenant in the Royal Navy, for a machine or apparatus for preventing boats or other floating bodies from capsising or overturning when oppressed by too much sail, and for easing off the ropes and sheets of dif ferent classes and descriptions of vessels, parts of which machine or apparatus may be applied for other purposes. July 10; six months to specify.

Lemuel Wellman Wright, of Sloane-terrace, Chelsea, engineer, for certain improvements in machinery for cutting tobacco, and which machinery may be applicable to other useful purposes. July 10; six months to specify.

John Ramsbottom, of Todmorden, mechanic, and Richard Holt, of the same place, iron-founder, for certain improvements in the construction of power-looms for weaving cotton and other fibrous materials into cloth or other fabrics. July 12; six months to specify.

Peter Wright, of Edinburgh, manufacturer, for an improved method of spinning, twisting, and twining cotton, flax, silk, wool, or any other suitable substances. July 17; six months to specify.

William Septimus Losh, of Walker, county of Northumberland, gentleman, for an improved method of bleaching certain animal fats, and certain animal, vegetable, and fish oils. July 17; six months to specify.

F James Warne, of Union-street, Southwark, pew terer and beer-engine manufacturer, for certain improvements in engines or machinery for raising, drawing, or forcing beer, ale, and other liquids or fluids. July 17; six months to specify.

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The Constitutionnel of Friday last gives an account of a first experiment made at Paris, on the day before, with a carriage rigged with sails. It started from the Military School, crossed the bridge of Jena, stopped in the Place Louis XV and returned thence to the Rue du Mont Blanc. During part of the journey the wind was almost right a-head. Carriages have been occasionally propelled in this way times without number; but to place any permanent dependance on a moving power of such variable strength and duration as the wind, is of course out of the question.

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Mr. Burden's Steam-Raft, about which much has been recently said, is built literally after a plan suggested by a correspondent (Paupertas) of the Mechanics' Magazine, as far back as Sept. 4, 1824.-See vol. ii. p. 407. E. S. P.

An American newspaper states, that a Mr. Welch, of Annapolis, having failed to get rid of several warts on his hands by nitrate of silver, &c. tried electricity, when, by sending sparks through them for five minutes daily, during five days, the whole of them disappeared.

The London and Birmingham Rail-road. This magnificent enterprise is now proceeding with considerable rapidity. The excavations are nearly finished at the foot of Primrose-hill, and the clay which had been removed from that quarter is used for the purpose of making the embankment necessary to elevate the road near the Regent's Canal. It is calculated that the first twenty miles of the road will be finished within two years, and that the whole line will be completed in four.-Birmingham Journal.

One of the difficulties which has hitherto attended the construction of rail-roads is the establishment of a sufficient foundation for the iron rail, which has been usually laid on a sleeper of granite or other stone, and sometimes on wood. But the expense of these materials have been found so enormous, that it has been suggested to substitute for them slabs of slate, fixed in a bed of concrete. In order to ascertain the best mode of effecting this object, it has been arranged that 300 or 400 yards of the Birmingham and London Rail-road shall be laid with slate sleepers in the first instance.-Ibid.

We have heard with much regret of the death, on the 20th instant, of one of our mathematical correspondents, the Hon. Lionel Smythe, second son of the Right Hon. Viscount Strangford. He was a youth of extraordinary promise; for, though he had not quite completed his thirteenth year, he was already not only a good mathematician, but well advanced in every other branch of polite learning. Two excellent mathematical solutions from his pen will be found in this Journal, No. 513, p. 156, and No. 551, p. 361. He was as amiable too as he was clever; and though one of the foremost amongst those of his age and station in all useful and elegant pursuits, was at all times one of the most gentle, modest, and unassuming.

Communications received from Mr. SquireQ.-Mr. Aris-R. S.-William.

The Supplement to Vol. XX, with a Portrait of William Symington, is now ready, price 6d. also Vol. XX., complete, in boards, price Ss.

LONDON: Published by M. SALMON, at the Mechanics' Magazine Office, No. 6, Peterborough Court, between 135 and 136, Fleet-street. Agent for the American Edition, Mr. O. RICH, 12, Red Lion square. Sold by G. G. BENNIS, 55, Rue Neuve, Saint Augustin, Paris.

M, SALMON. Printer, Fleet-street.

Mechanics' Magazine,

MUSEUM, REGISTER, JOURNAL, AND GAZETTE.

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LAPIDARY'S UNIVERSAL LATHE.

LAPIDARY'S UNIVERSAL LATHE, FOR CUTING, GRINDING, POLISHING, &c. Dear Sir,-The sketches which I send you herewith, represent a foot lathe, which I recently made for a gentleman who is fond of mineralogical pursuits, and who not only works occasionally at it himself, but employs a good workman to do all The sorts of lapidary jobs for him. drawings (fig. 1, a front elevation; 2, plan of the top; and 3, end elevation) are

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nearly as well as satin wood. The footwheel is a light casting of iron, with a lead ring cast on, and then turned and varnished black; it has six laps, each fitted with its spindle and pulley. The crane neck which holds the upper centre is of brass. The seal engraving or drilling head may be worked by sitting on the opposite side; as academician or amateur turners work with the lathe head to the right hand side, and not to the left hand side like commoners. The ring that carries the cat-gut band for driving is of mahogany. The part marked A is that which holds the cushion for the elbow to rest on.

The cost of the apparatus was from 121. to 147. I am, dear Sir, &c.

WM. REED.

Peterhoff, April 17, 1834.

on a scale of one inch to a foot, and show the construction of the apparatus so clearly, as to stand in need of but little explanation. It combines, you will observe, not only the usual arrangements for cutting, grinding, and polishing, but those required for seal engraving, and is at the same time extremely compact and manageable.

The frame is entirely of ash, done over with varnish of a yellow tinge, and looks

SOME MORE NOTES ON MR. NUTT'S BOOK ON BEES.

Sir,-In consequence of your inserting in your Magazine my remarks on Mr. Nutt's book, I am emboldened to continue them; but in doing so I shall endeavour to be as concise as possible.

We are told (p. 95)" on rising early one morning in July, 1827, and walking into my apiary, as my custom then was and still is, I found that some malicious wretch had been there before me, and overturned a fine colony of bees." Is it not possible that the fine colony of bees, by being placed, as we are informed they were on a square box, toppled off (to use an expression of Mr. Nutt's) of their own accord, without the assistance of the malicious wretch ?" Sir Joseph Banks, if Dr. Walcot can be relied on, was once the occasion of a similar accident when engaged in some interesting entomological pursuits.

Mr. Nutt, with "invention ever new," immediately converts the malice of this "malicious wretch" into a great benefit, for it leads to the invention of a beehive at least equal in value to his "matchless one." It is called the inverted hive, though, to a plain bee mas

* We think our correspondent's remarks are written in the spirit of truth, and therefore willingly insert them; which we do the more readily, that though ample time has been afforded to Mr. Nutt and his admirers to refute the former strictures of the same writer, they still remain unrefuted in every essential particular-the friendly efforts of Mr. Booth and K. notwithstanding.-ED. M. M.

SOME MORE NOTES ON MR. NUTT'S BOOK ON BEES.

ter like myself, to turn a beehive topsyturvy appears an absurdity. Indeed Mr. Nutt, when enumerating his objections to the practice of driving bees, acknowledges it to be so. He says they are turned topsy-turvy, and describes it very truly as a strange unnatural position," though when descanting on the merits of his own invention it becomes instanter the very best possible position. Mr. Nutt must, however, have overlooked one inconvenience arising from it-at least so it appears to me. The cells in the comb, as built by the bees in the hive, have an inclination so great as to admit of being completely filled with honey, without requiring to be sealed with wax, which is never done, excepting the honey is intended for use in winter. By turning the hive topsy-turvy, as in this unique invention, if there be any honey in the cells at the time the operation is performed (which is extremely probable, as it is recommended to be done between the months of March and October), every drop will run out, and lodging at the bottom of the hive, will probably destroy the greatest part of the bees, and those not absolutely killed will be so daubed with it, as never after to be able to fly-an objection, by the way, which Mr. Nutt avails himself of, and strenuously urges when condemning the storying practice. There is another very powerful objection to this topsy-turvy hive, which must be obvious to every one. When a hive is placed, as it usually is on a stand, by carefully lifting it on one side the stand can be easily cleaned (which Mr. Nutt very properly recommends to be frequently done); but how is such an operation to be performed when the hive is turned topsy-turvy? It is impossible. Every thing must fall to the bottom of the hive, where it will accumulate and become an intolerable nuisance, there being no mention made of any semi-lunar hole through which the filth might be extracted. Besides these objections, the expense of fitting up one of these topsyturvy hives must be so enormous as to counterbalance any advantage to be derived from it. The only part after all of this invention to which Mr. Nutt has any claim is the topsy-turvy part all that relates to the glasses is entirely the invention of the late Mr. Wildman. I purchased some years ago, at the shop

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of Mr. Wildman, just above Middlerow, Holborn, a straw hive, with a flat wood top to place glasses on, with proper apertures cut for the bees to work through into them, exactly as I understand to be the case in Mr. Nutt's inverted hive; and I now get excellent straw hives, made in a similar manner, at a less price than 4s. There are boxes made on the same construction, I believe, by Mr. Milton, of Marylebonestreet, who also furnishes the requisite glasses. It is farther worthy of observation, that Wildman gives in his book plates of all his hives-these hives with glasses on them among the number-and that Mr. Nutt mentions in his preface that some friend had made him a present of this very book.

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We come at length to the most prominent of all Mr. Nutt's inventions, that invention which, according to his distinguished patron, the "learned lord," is " a more ingenious contrivance" than was ever put into operation by any other man," It is called the "observatory hive," afterwards the "grand hive;" and as if neither of these titles was sufficiently distinctive, ultimately the "blessed hive."

"By this bless'd hive our ravish'd eyes behold The singing masons build their roofs of gold." "Singing masons!" I have long and anxiously studied the sublime mysteries of masonry, and obtained the very highest degrees conferred by our grand professors; but this is the first time I ever heard of its being a characteristic of a good mason to sing at his work. No such things are never thought of by any of my brethren until they have ceased labour, and are partaking of refreshment. I do not deny that some unworthy characters may be found in so numerous a body as my craft consists of. By tradition we know that two pestilent fellows were engaged in the building of Solomon's Temple, and the atrocious act they committed is still deeply deplored by all good masons. I apprehend the idea that masons mis-spend their time in singing was communicated to Mr. Nutt by his noble patron the "learned lord," who, from his acquaintance with the ancient authors, has no doubt read the following story, which is to be found in Thomas Bozius de Signis Ecclesiæ:— "How certaine theeves, having stolen

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