MECHANIC . XXVIII Reviews continued. Sanitary Engineering, by B. Latham, 435 Section-cutting, by Dr. S. Marsh, 336 Sound, by A. M. Mayer, 598 Studies in Spectrum Analysis, by J. N. Lockyer, 212 The Art of Scientific Discovery, by G. Gore, 359 The Artisan, by R. Riddell, 337 The Doctrine of Descent and Darwinism, by O. Schmidt, 212 The Grammar of Lithography, by W. D. Richmond, 598 The History and Principles of Weaving, by A. Barlow, 287 The Magic Lantern Manual, by W. J. The Practical Cabinet-maker, 435 The Sight and How to Preserve it, by The Stars in their Courses, by T. S. Bazley, 262 Ure's Dictionary of Arts, &c., by R. Hunt, 263 Reynier's new electric lamp, 164 Eifle-shooting of the future, 275 Rocks age of sedimentary, 561; heat developed in, 132 Bals: boring, 587; solid-end connecting. 559 Roe, salmon or trout, preserving, 257 Roll, breaking, 254, 305 Roller bearings, 578 Rollers, leather-pressing, 592 Rolls, hardening iron, 355 Roof, false, to mouth, 453 Room, heating small, 638 Ropes, safe load of steel, 498 Roscoe's self-acting lubricator, 102 Ross's patent objectives, 522, 568, 588, 633 Royal Exhibition, 46 Scotch: express, Midland, 40, 98; mails, Irish and, 424 Scratches: in filing, 549; removing from silver plate, 500 Screen: 154, 179; folding, 178 Screw-head tool, Geneva, 255 Sea: lost property at bottom of, 99; seeing bottom of, 44 Sea-bird theory of comets' tails, 171 Sealing barometer, 353; wax, 521 Seasons, perverse testimony of the "Times" to the, 467 Sea-water, chemical composition of, 555 Sections: conic, 156, 171; microscopic, 181 Sedimentary rocks, age of, 561 Self-acting Inbricators, 147, 201, 219, 300 Sensitising tracing paper, 477, 498 Separation of antimony and tin, 206, 220, 254, 279, 372 Snow-raised bread and pastry, 542, 585, 632 Snuff-boxes, musical, 403 Soap: 355; dry, 592; floating, 350; mottling, 452, 570, 610; stamping, 329 Soapstone as a lubricant, 246, 276 Societies: bullding, 100, 126, 151, 177, 203, 228, 253, 278, 304, 326, 351, 376; microscopical, 478; watchmakers, 75, 177 Society of arts, 244 Soda: molten carbonate of for puddling, 445; test, 592 Sodic sulphate, precipitating iron from, 129, 376, 450 Soldering: brass wire, 46, 75; hard and soft, 63; stones to metal, 228 Solution: gold, 179, 327, 351, 398, 587, 609; mixed, 523 Solvent for hair, 77; for indiarubber, 428 Solving problems in maxima and minima, 41, 120 Sonorous voltameter, 431 Solar: corona, 273; engine, Mouchot's, 90, 158; heat, industrial utilisation of 158, 234; spectra, 552; spectrum, rain bands in, 171 Sound: measurement of intensity of, 111; recorder, multiplying, 249, 374 Soundboard of piano, 454; of violin and other instruments, 145, 174, 201 Sound-conducting property of wood, 230, 254 Sounder, Elisha Gray's, 156 Specific gravities, simple method of taking, Specification of Canterbury organ, 428 Seventy-five miles an hour, 97 Shear blades, constant angle of, 401 Royal Society, the late meeting of the, Ships, galvanic destruction of, 501 418 Rubber stamps, 475 Ships' bottoms, painting, 400, 541 Shoes, Fleming's, 476 Rubmkorff coil: 478; best cell for use Shooting of the future, rifle, 275 Shop, heating, 153 Short-sight, 563, 604 Shots, firing, 591 Show-bills, transparent, 280 Signals: fog, 325; marine flashing, 396 St. Lawrence, lights of the, 207, 305, 327. Silicates, artificial production of, 31 Silk-growing in Australia, 42 Silver: chloride of battery, 130, 525, 546, 548, 569; frosting, 610; gilt case, removing gold from, 282; nitrate of, 43; plate, removing scratches from, 500, 523; polishing, 525, 589; recovering from solution, 70; refining, 526, 547; wattle gum, 154 Silvering: 271, 355, 378; glass specula, 38, 45, 179, 306; mirrors, 113; thermometer scales, 79 Silver-plating harness buckles, 282 Simplicity and elements, 258, 273, 426, 450 Singing: 376; condenser, musical or, 461, 494 Single cell process, 398; engines, 521; Skins, preserving, 427 Slag, blast-furnace and its uses, 319 Science in elementary schools, 407; pensant ways in, 188; state aid for, 65; the Times" and popular, 65 &intific: discovery, art of, 359; scep ucign, 443 Sleeper, new railway, 11 con Slide for lathe, 448; the Weber, 366 Spectra of chemical elements, 355; 370; of chromium compounds, 38; solar, 552; stellar, 467, 477 Spectroscope: 205, 613; M'Clean, 404, 418, 451, 475 Spectroscopic observations on the human body, 415 Spectrum: electric light and actinic, 119; of element, effect of temperature on, 427; photography, 418; -at red end of 563, 629; sun, 355 Specula: glass, silvering, 38, 46, 179, 306; -grinding, 46, 79, 179, 306, 609; -testing, 637 Specular reflection, 118 Steam boilers, 428; canoes, 233, 328; carriage, boiler for, 127, 279; generation, solar heat for, 234; hose, flexible, 206; heating houses by, 433, 495; in small boats. 42; launch, 180, 205, 207, 229, 355, 401, 427; lifeboat, Thomson's, 142; on common roads, 10; pressure, relation of revolutions to, 590; superheating, Carvalho's system of, 511; tramway in Wellington, N.Z., 349, 607; trap, Blake's positive, 113; users' association, Manchester, 99: value of oil fuels, 316; veloeipedes, 153, 205 Steamboat, model, 378 Steamboats, Thames, 78, 204 Steam-engine cylinder, 306: domestic, 254; economy, uniform basis for comparison, 139; governors, 476, 493 Steam-engines, 378, 401, 522 Steamer, model, 126 Steamers: American river, 99; raft-decked Steam-valve, oscillating, 165 77; Steatite or soapstone as a lubricant, 276 Steel: 43, 254; cast, 454, 592, 611; corvettes, 169; for sewing machines, 592; from Cleveland iron, 533, 584; hardened, cutting, 546, 589; making at Middlesbrough, 375; from pig containing phosphorus, 608; manufacture, rails, comparative wear of iron and, 303; ropes, safe load of, 498: Siemens's process of making, 172, 203; tungsten in, 206; works laboratory, 70 Steel-faced iron plates, 504 Steering of steam vessels, 202 Stellar spectra, 467, 477 Stencil ink, 426 Step: bearing improved, 9; bicycle spring, 615 Stephen's stains, varnishing, 232 Stephenson's: embossed plates for locofireboxes, 578; long boiler engines, 356 Stock, screw, Everett's, 198 Stone: breaking machine, 48. 78; cement for broken, 46; floor cleansing, 20; for engine, ashlar, 380; steps, discoloured, 308 Speed of trains, 40, 46, 71, 126, 174, 177, Sulphuretted hydrogen apparatus, new 224, 275, 348, 372, 398, 426 Spinning beads on brass tubes, 547 Spirits: proof, 547; weak, 118 Square: and cube root, extracting, 356, Standard measure, invariable, 496 Star: catalogue, nice specimen of, 604; catalogues, 171, 229, 273; in Draco, 320; magnitudes, 65, 473; new variable, 277, 298; red, new, 345; spectroscope, McClean's 516 form of, 535 Sulphuric acid, distinguishing between nitric and, 70, 101 Sulphuric ether, 21, 44 Sulphurous or sulphuric acid, 156 Sun: apparent divergence of rays of, 44'; corona of, 118; detachment of planets from the, 36, 94; elements in the, 418; gas machine and lamp, 111; path of, 562; spectrum, 355; temperature of surface of, 516 Sunderland, bridge at, 524, 544 Sunshine in January, 562; measurement of duration of, 562 Sunspots: 146, 172; and commercial panics, 487, 516, 604; and the iron trade. 345; and their effects, 365; does the corona wax and wane with, 141; does the gaseous part of the corona vary with, Starboard, port and, 176, 202 scope, portable, 489 Starlight, 445 Stars: colours of, 248, 273, 277, 298, 345; mapping, 355, 370; places of, 315; red, 37; scintillation of during aurora, 214; temporary and variable, 11 State aid: for art, 538; for science, 65 Synthetic examination of vowel sounds, 625 Syrups, baking powders and glucose, 488 TABLE: legs, 229, 280, 568; multiplica- Tails, sea-bird theory of comets', 171 Tale as an anti-incrustator, 244 Tangent: galvanometer, 354, 497, 522; testing, 521, 542 Tangye's horizontal engine, 127 Tank: engines, L. & Y., 445; height of wanted, 20; how to make a lead, 74 Tanks, cement for cast-iron, 75 Tarpaulins: boiling oil for dressing, 181; renewing, 154, 179 Taste, electrical, 548 Teaching apprentices, 442 Technical: College at the Cole-hole, 467, 604; education and the Turners' Company, 135 Teeth of wheels, 570 Telegraph instruments, 154; lines, 281, 328; single needle, 77; writing, Cowper's, 623 Telegraphy, duplex, 416 Telephone: 257, 380, 404, 477, 501, 615, 637; 516 Telescopes: celestial objects for common, 198, 298; increasing power of, 94, 118; portable star-finder for altitude and azimuth, 489; reflecting, 42; terrestrial, 12, 37 Telescopic image, magnifying, 12, 46; work for moonlight evenings, 335 Temperature: 500, 569; lunar, 104, 118, 127, 182, 229, 279; of sun's surface, 516; of various flames, 312 Temperatures of the planets, assumed, 517, 562, 563, 583, 604 Tempering: coned springs, 100; gun springs, 572; mill bills, 180 Temporary and variable stars, 11; repairs of locomotives, 8 Tenacity of ice, 476, 543 Tennis court, lawn, 22; marker, lawn, 607 Terra-cotta, clay modelling and, 252 Terrestrial constants, 116; magnetism, variations of, 227; telescopes, 12, 37 Terry weaving, looped or, 541 Test for arsenic in wall papers, 615, 638 Testing: air, ozone and a method of, 114; eye, 592; for resonance, 222; gas fittings without gas, 353, 401; lathe, 142; specula, 637; sugar, 404, 427; tangent, 521, 542 Tests for blood, 476 Texas, 639 Thames steamboats, 78, 204 Theatrical effects, 355; lightning, 232, 255, 280, 328; moonlight, 379 Thebit, 298 Theorem, Pythagorean, 22, 45, 75 Theoretical and practical, 461 Theories of world-making, 217 Time: 562, 593, 611; geological, 118, 152; --and human race, 516; measurement of, 497 "Times" and its good nature, 418; and popular science, 65; perverse testimony of to the seasons, 467 Tin plates, sizes of, 638; separation of antimony and, 206, 229, 254, 279, 372; surfaces, decorating, 164 Tinning: brass, 327; saucepans, 208, 230, 254; sheet iron, 354 Tinplate working, 400 Tins, preserving meat in, 548 Tinting mechanical drawings, 74 Tires, bicycle, 477, 499, 543 Tobacco: machinery, 74, 326, 376; smoke, effect of upon photographs, 473 Toes, straight, 19 Tom Thumb microphone, 539, 585 Tone bells ringing same, 46, 75; of bell, lowering, 21 Toning prints, 429 Tool: a useful, 94; Geneva screw-head, 255 Tools: blackening of, 178; turning, inside, Torpedo: boats, 313; -submerged, 54; Tour in Ireland, pedestrian, 400; in Tourniquet, experiment with the electric, 86, Toy, a new optical, 448 Tracing paper, sensitising, 477, 498 Travelling: in Italy, 231; trunks, 500 Trees: blowing up, 180, 229, 379, 476; Trout roe, salmon or, preserving, 257 VACUUM: brake, Smith's, 18, 300; -v. automatic, 250; engine, 43; tubes, working, 590 Valuation of friendly societies, 102 353 Van, the experimental, 225, 565 Vapours, noxious, and health, 28 Watercolours: moist, 20; varnish for, 428, 522 Water-power: for electric light, 182, 206; Wattle gum, silver, 154 Weaving: 75; art of, 287; looped or terry, 541 Variations of terrestrial magnetism, 227; Varnish for water colours, 428,522; -gas, 525; green, 331, 354; white for micro-Weber slide, 366 slides, 638 Varnishes, fiddle, 524 Varnishing: chromos for lantern, 615, 636; paper, 232, 255; Stephen's stains, 233, 256; wood, 128, 152 Vegetarianism, the whole hog in, 118, 199 Velocipede, weight carrying, 426 Velocipedes, steam, 153, 205 Webb's "Celestial Objects," 198 Velocity of bullets, 182, 229, 474, 497, 570, | Wellington (N.Z.) city steam tramway, 587; of pulleys and shafting, 128 Veneering, 547, 571 Venetian blinds, saw for, 454 Ventilating a bedroom, 77, 126 307 Ventnor, undercliff at, 155, 171, 179, 205 Venus and Mercury, relative brightness of, 119 Verge watch, 590 Vertical boiler, firing 3-horse, 103 Vessels, side-lights of, 176, 222, 275 Vice, repairing a, 152 607 Wells, foul air in, 148, 199, 221 Western Australia, organ building in, 399, 448 Westinghouse: automatic brake, 71, 124, 146, 280; reducing valve, 483, 565 West's six-cylinder engine, 351 Wheel: barometer tubes, refilling, 504, 612; La Cour's phonic, 410; patterns, 589 Wheel-cutting, 493 Wheels: driving. 403, 446, 451, 477, 407, White glaze, 588; flexible enamel, pure, Whose land is it? 232 Vinegar: adulteration, 573, 591, 610; adul- Wind vane, 78, 126 Volcano, active, in moon, 444 Vulcanisation, improved process of, 6,81, Tube: draw, 306; pneumatic action for WAGES, machine for calculating, 72 organs, 422; speaking, 353 Tunnel, St. Gothard, 391 Turners' company, technical education and Turning 477, 523, 543; bowls, 638; book on, 546; crank shaft, 26; lubricant for tools in, 612; preparing a shaft for, 242; shaft in lathe, 442, 472; swash plate, 478, 523, 543; tools, slide-rest, boring or inside, 43, 74; wood and metal, 516 Theory: di-harmonic, 15; of musical in- Turnips, club-root in, 63 Waggon wheels, 257 Wales, walking tour in N., 611 Walking tour in N. Wales, 611 Wall-papers, test for arsenic in, 615, 638 Wallace electric lamp anticipated, 449 Walls, damp, 20 Walnut, darkening, 588 Ware, hollow, 426, 569 Warming house, 380 Washable respirator, 271 Washbottle, new form of chemical, 518 Washers, asbestos, 152 Washhouse, cementing floor of, 546, 569 Washing machine, 101 Watch and how to repair it, 4, 265, 410; burnishing pivots of, 307; cleaning, 474; finishing, 255; Geneva, 543; jobbing, 179; magnetised, 130, 153, 179; plates, frosted, 74; polishing pinion of, 21, 75; repairing, 208, 230, 305; tools, 475; verge, Watches, aluminium and platinum in, 343 Watch jobbers, to, 74 Watchmakers' societies, 75 Water: and air, weights of, 571; as a motive power, 118; discharge of from pipes, 180; drinking, 378, 400; hard, 78, 102; main, air in, 502, 569, 589, 634; molecules, mean distance of, 480; pillow, repairing rubber, 22; pressure of, 378, 525, 546, 570, 589; pumping, 178, 204, 253; seeing under, 23, 47; supply, 500; swimming below, 20; testing potable, 355 Winding engines for Rhondda, 542 Woods, mordants for staining, 234 Work: for filing, height of, 62; of diffusion, 425; on clockmaking, 43, 74 Working man, a pattern, 64 Workman, British, the: 221; -charges against, 273, 300, 373, 446 Workshop: flooring, 543; overlooking a, ILLUSTRATIONS. Apparatus, easily made physical, 512 Are: electric, and its divisibility, 237, 261, BALANCE, compensation, a newly Band saw, combined circular and, 362 Bands, rain, 156 Batteries, practical notes on electrical, 395, Bearings: bicycle, 331; roller, 578 Bell: call, 232; connecting clock with Bell's improvements in telephony, 191 Bicycle bearing, 331; double driving Blake's positive steam trap, 113 Blowing machinery for organs, Willis's, 87 Brushmaking, 635 Bunsen's battery, 419 Burch's new micrometer, 34 Burner for electric light, 73 Burning sawdust, 44 Cog-wheels: circular, 45; in drawer, 234, Coil: Du Bois Reymond, 178; regulator Combustible gas, production of, 86 Compensation balance, Woerd's, 241, 399 Condenser microscope, 594; the musical Connecting-rods, solid-end, 560 Engine: breakdowns, preventing, 125; | Intra-mercurial planets, 219 cylinder, casting, 256; G.N. 8ft. bogie, Invariable standard measure, 496 445; model marine, boiler, 329; revers- Invisible propulsion, 593 ing oscillating, 428, 569; Tangye hori- zontal, 127; West's six-cylinder, 351 Experiment, curious telephonic, 485 FACE-PLATE, trueing on lathe, 635 Conversion of motion, 269, 322, 378, 402, Fastening hand-rests, 615 Cowper's writing telegraph, 623 Crucibles, manufacture of, 328 Crystalline form and chemical composition, Current regulator, Edison's, 565 Cylinder: boring out of portable engine, Fireboxes, Stephenson's embossed plates Forks, improvements in bicycle, 176 Lathe amateur's, 391; and fret-saw com- bined, 390; attachment, 176; chuck- plate, 513; Eureka, 455, 477; fan for, 331; how to test a, 142; planing machine, 61; saddle, 256; slide for, 448; wire in- sulating machine for, 493, 540 G.W.R. gradients from London to Read-Lever escapement, 5 Galvanometer: a, 24; reflecting, 129, 153; Gases, mixing for lantern, 229 Design reading, or analysis of cloth, 455, Gas-fittings, testing, 401 Lieuvain's rotary lubricator, 374 Light: electric, for the house, 346, 396, 423, 519; reflector for, 321; more, 586; Sawyer-Man electric, 363; spectrum of Lighthouses, electric light for, 564 Geodetic surveys, use of the heliotrope in, Lines of angles, 377 441 Double: canoe with single bow, 69, 568; Drawer, cog-wheels in, 234, 328, 426, 450 Drills and drilling, 414; grinding twist, Drop, photographic, instantaneous, 535 CALLAUD cell, Plush's modification Du Bois Reymond coil, 178 EASILY made physical apparatus, 512 Edison's current regulator, 565 Edward's improvements in polishing Electric: alarum, simple, 564; are, and Electric light: 27; battery for, 468; burner for, 73; Edison's, 579; for light- houses, 564; for the house, 346, 396, 423, Heliotrope in geodetic surveys, use of, 441 Hickley's improved telephone, 121 Hot-water apparatus for mushroom grow- House, electric light for, 346, 396, 423, 519 House-fly, the, 95 Hydraulic: ram, Dale's improved, 13; self-acting, 147; Stauffer's, 249; White- Lunar: changes, microscopic, 395; crater, Machine Bramley's knife-cleaning, 339; centreing, 518; electrical cylinder, 76; for making sand moulds, 532; new flying, Mathematical instruments, 510, 534, 557 Measure, invariable standard, 496 Mechanical: conversion of motion, 269, 322, Melting furnace, Siemens', 173 Microphone: construction, 378; in New Microphones: 496; working by induction, Microscope: 354; condenser, 594 Power of steam, measuring, 614; trans- Propeller: Perkins's, 567; pitch of, 330, 353 Propulsion, invisible, 593 Notes: mining, 435; on our satellite, 172, QUESTIONS, mining, 499 RAILS, finishing ends of, 358 Rainbow, reflected, 39 256 Receiver, Gray's improved telephone, 387 Regulator: Edison's current, 565; for in- 338 Repairing the watch, 412 Segments, table of, 179 Shear blades, constant angle for, 401 Siemens': apparatus for regulating electric Singing condenser, the musical or, 461 Slide-valve, simple method of ascertaining Specific gravities, novel and simple method Spectrum of the electric light, 27 Standard measure, invariable, 496 Reversing motion: 379, 451; of oscillating Step bearing, improved, 9 Robinson Crusoe's cheap reflector, 120 Photographic: dark slide, 402; drop, in- Roller bearings, 578 stantaneous, 535 Physical apparatus, easily made, 512 back, strengthening, 733; Pianoforte : Percival's patent portable, 190 Pipes, soldering, 566 Pipette, 252 Roscoe's self-acting lubricator, 102 SADDLE, lathe, 256 Safety-jet of oxyhydrogen lanterns, 229 Sand-moulds, machinery for making, 532 Plush's modification of the Callaud cell, Saturn, 248, 419 Saturn's satellites, 72 Saw, combined circular and band, 362 Sawyer-Man electric light, 363 Testing: a lathe, 142; for resonance, 222; Theorem, Pythagorean, 22, 45 Tool for inside turning, 75; useful, 94 Trouvé's microphone, 316 Trueing face-plate on lathe, 636 Turning: crankshaft, 21; swash-plate, 178 VALVE: equilibrium, 641; Westinghouse reducing, 481, 565 Van Renne's caloric engine and pump, 295 Voltaic are and its divisibility, 237, 261,311 625 WALLACE lamp anticipated, 449 machine, 74 Water-power, measuring, 614 new Water-ring, miners', 592 Synthetic examination of vowel sounds, 625 TABLE of segments, 179 Telegraph: Cowper's writing, 623; single- 121; Telephone: Hickley's improved, of Telephonic experiment, curious, 485 Werdermann's electric light, 261 Wheels, teeth of, 570 Whitehouse's lubricator, 315 Whitworth's crank axles, 623 Williamson's safety-lamp, 295 540 Woerd's compensation balance, 241 Writing shaky, 20; telegraph, Cowper's, ZITHER, music for the, 451 THE ENGLISH MECHANIC AND WORLD OF SCIENCE. ARTICLES. AMERICAN MACHINERY AT THE PARIS EXHIBITION. The temporary monopoly which the patent- American industries." The manufacture right grants to the inventor has unquestion of gold pens is essentially a Birmingham ably secured the practical application of industry, and the method of slitting them, myriads of useful ideas, which would other- universally adopted, is the invention, some wise have died with the minds that thirty years old, of Mr. Wiley, a BirmingDURING the last thirty years American harboured them; while the temporary ham manufacturer. We believe that gold inventors have taken a prominent restraint which such monopolies have pens were first introuduced by Messrs. place in several branches of industry, and imposed upon others, and the public dis- Mordan, of London, and the industry was notably so in connection with novel advantages incident thereto, have been carried to the United States by British labour-saving machines. With a wise fore- infinitely outweighed by the preponderance workmen. To a man who can fall into sight the Government of the United States of the good effects produced by the system. ecstasies over an American gold pen, the encourages invention by granting patents When a great improvement was made in machinery employed by the Waltham on the payment of fees which, at the usual the methods of grinding wheat-such an Watch Company would naturally excite value of money in that country, are not improvement that all the millers were com- feelings of intense admiration. But with beyond the means of the humblest artisan; pelled to adopt it-an outcry was raised what astonishment must mechanics have and the industrious populations of the because the patentee had a virtual read the following passage in the Times!— New England States, having a great monopoly on the people's food; but it was "To illustrate how involved are the various aversion to the expenditure of unnecessary speedily found that the invention was improvements in mechanism, it may be labour, every man amongst them is almost worth more than it cost, for by its aid the noticed that the delicacy of construction of a born inventor. A carpenter in that millers were able to produce a better the new balance would only have been country objects on principle to wasting his article at a smaller cost, and the public possible with the mechanism introduced by time in planing a board or using a hand-reaped their share of the benefit conferred the Waltham Company, the precision of saw, if his object can be effected by a by the monopoly. which may be judged from that of the machine, and a similar aversion to hard The exhibit of American machines at micrometer last produced and shown at muscular exertion prevails in other handi- Paris, remarkable as it is, by no means Paris, which measures the 25,000th part of crafts, if by any possibility the work can eclipses that of Great Britain for solid an inch, and even indicates that so largely be performed by other means. The price worth, though the numerous novelties, that it might be divided under a lens readily of labour, too, has had its effect in produc- seen perhaps for the first time, have an into hundred-thousandths. A micrometer ing the large number of machines devised attraction for visitors of all classes. We screw gauge detects inequalities in the by our cousins, but unquestionably the see the effect in the unappreciative lauda- thread of a screw up to hundred-thousandths, patent laws of the States have exercised the tion lavished upon the American exhibits and a screw made for the Government most potent influence in bringing about by the non-scientific or non-mechanical Scientific Commission, to correct the the enormous development of inventive portion of the Press. The writing machine measures, has been constructed, in which talent. Every New Englander appears to is described as enabling the operator to the maximum of error in the thread is less be a born inventor, though he may never print his thoughts more rapidly than he than one ten-thousandth of an inch." We ripen into a patentee; but amongst the can write them legibly with a pen. The presume the writer has heard of Sir Joseph races descended from the old English stock, statement is, of course, absurd, for he must Whitworth, and if he visited the Loan Colthe true Yankees, there is certainly a class be a poor penman indeed who could not lection of Scientific Instruments, he would of men whose whole business in life seems write as fast as the machine will print. have learned that our great master designer to be to invent and to patent. Hundreds But the type-writer is not an American of modern measuring instruments, had deof useful little devices proceed from their invention, although we believe it was first vised a machine capable of measuring not fertile brains every year, and though in made a practical success by a native of the merely to the 25,000th part of an inch, but to many cases they are things we could well States, probably from the simple fact that the millionth. It is small wonder that a dispense with, they are so cheap and so inventions of the kind have a better chance writer who knows nothing of what Sir Joseph handy that we are practically compelled to of selling there than here. The reporter Whitworth has done should regard the new buy them. The man who would venture who stood in wonder before the type-writer compensated balance of the Waltham Comto assert in the States that the American goes into ecstacies over American gold pany as a remarkable instance of American patent law had hampered industry and pens, the manufacture of which, he appa- inventive talent. He has discovered that conferred monopolies on individuals at the rently imagines, originated in the United the balance spring has as much to do with expense of the public, would be looked States. We are informed that the process the difficulty of compensating as the balance, upon as little better than demented, for by which a gold pen is produced is not one and he ventures to make the extraordinary the people are well aware that every really of scientific elaboration or brilliant inven- assertion that the Waltham Company now successful patent has conferred benefits tion, but of laborious experiment and construct "the most essential parts of the upon them, while the patentee has also thoroughness and conscientiousness of watch on a new principle, which permits of reaped his reward. An American contem- manufacture, which we are not generally an approach to perfection unattainable by porary writing on the subject in connection disposed to credit American manufacturers the old mechanism, however produced." with some attempted reforms, in the way of with." We suppose that American manu- That means that the rim of the balance, of restrictions, in the patent law of the States, facturers are at least as thorough and plain steel, "is cut nearly through, at the says that the practical wisdom of the conscientious as their British rivals, but fixed extremities of the semicircles, by Fathers of the Republic was in no way we did not know that "exhibits of gold several saw-tooth shaped notches-the more strikingly manifested than in their pens are an indispensable and characteristic number determined by experiment-and the appreciation of the value of inventions. part of any collection of the important brass is forced into these notches. The VOL. XXVIII.-NO. 703. 66 |