protoxide. In order to assure himself of the correctness of the statement of M. Berzelius, that the solubility of oxide of copper in caustic potash was due only to the presence of organic matters, M. Volker acted with the greatest possible precaution states, however, he found his experiments fully confirmed. The solution of the oxide of copper in caustic potash may be diluted with water, without a separation of the oxide of cop per. When it is evaporated to dryness, a deep blue mass is attained, which dissolves in water, communicating to the liquid a beautiful green colour. When a current of chlorine is passed through a solution of oxide of copper, in caustic potash, the liquid assumes a deep green, but the moment that the alkali is completely saturated with chlorine, the combination which was formed is decomposed, the oxide of copper is precipitated, and chlorine disengaged. ACADEMY OF SCIENCES TURIN. The Academy offers four prizes, each of the value of £100 sterling, for the best treatises on the following subjects:-Introduction to the study of Natural Philosophy; Introduction to the Study of Chemistry; Introduction to the Study of Mechanics; and Introduction to the Study of Astronomy. These works must be in the form of elementary treatises; they should give an abridged history of the philosophy of the sciences, the methods to be followed to arrive at a complete acquaintance with the science of which they treat, and should at the same time serve for the instruction of the masses, and prepare the way for a more profound study of the science. The competitors may employ the principles of calculation, which shall be absolutely necessary for the exposition of those methods and their results, without, however, passing the bounds of the elementary principles of these sciences. The works must be written either in Italian or French, but the competition is open to all the world, the members of the Academy alone excepted. No name is to be attached to the works sent in, but a motto, together with a sealed envelope, containing real name and address, with the corresponding motto written outside. The sealed packets enclosed with the unsuccessful works will be burnt unopened. The works must be forwarded to the Academy before the 21st of December, 1849. LEIPSIC POLYTECHNIC SOCIETY. At one of the recent sittings of the Society, M. Stöhrer exhibited an improved voltaic battery in working condition. In the construction of this battery, M. Stöhrer employs zinc and charcoal, the charcoal cylinders are of such a degree of hardness that steel will scarcely mark thereon, and a saw is blunted without being able to cut a small cylinder. Their durability is almost equal to that of the carbonaceous substance formed in the interior of coal-gas retorts, which, according to M. Bunsen, may be so advantageously applied to form the charcoal points for voltaic light. The cylinders which M. Stöhrer makes use of are com.. posed of coal and coke in powder, well mixed together, to which is added a sufficient quantity of coal-tar, to render the mass of a consistence suitable to be moulded. When dry, the cylinders are placed in a muffle and submitted to a white heat, every variety of shape may thus be obtained, and this substance would appear especially of service for sharp or pointed surfaces, as well on account of its durability as for the perfect homogeneousness of its grain. The zinc element in M. Stöhrer's battery is amalgamated to prevent the rapid consumption of metal, which would otherwise take place. With a battery of 2 inches in height, and cylinders of about five inches in diameter, an iron wire of the thickness of an ordinary sewingneedle may be melted, as also a watchspring; it will communicate a magnetic power capable of sustaining 220 pounds. M. Stöhrer makes use of electro-magnets thus formed, to form the steel magnets of the electro-magnetic machines of his construction. VARIETIES. NEW MANURE.-The Western Times says that Edward Barker, Esq., of Budleigh Salterton, has invented and patented a new manure, which promises to be of great importance in agriculture. It will suffice to say that the manure has been analysed and reported upon by William Herapath, Esq., the eminent chemist of Bristol, who states that 1 lb. of it is equal to 10 lbs. of farm-yard dung, judging from its nitrogen alone. He adds that it will be a highly stimulating and generally fertilizing manure, applicable to all descriptions of crops. INGENIOUS INVENTION.-A rather novel travelling machine has been invented by an ingenious mechanic, named Archibald Earrie, of Manchester, which can be driven by one man at a rapid pace, with a load of twelve persons in it. The machine has no cranks, and requires but little muscular effort to keep it in motion. -[The inventor might turn his vehicle to a handsome account on a "Derbyday," when there is always a difficulty in hiring horse-flesh.] PLANTATIONS SET ON FIRE BY A RAILWAY TRAIN.-We regret to hear of a very serious damage happening to Lord Howden's extensive plantations, adjoining his Lordship's collieries, at Wingate Grange, in the county of Durham. The Hartlepool and Clarence Junction Railway passes through these fine plantations, and on Friday the 26th ult., as a train was passing, it set fire to an outside part of the plantation, and as the wind blew towards the wood, in spite of every effort to stop the fire, it rapidly spread on all sides; and, but for an opening in the plantations, the whole, consisting of several hundred acres, must have been consumed. At this point, by great efforts, the progress of the fire was fortunately impeded. We understand that about 25 acres of plantations were destroyed, and that the damage is considerable, for which the Company is rendered responsible by the Act of Parliament. The Railway Calls for May amount to £2,605,868, of which £38,500 is for foreign lines. Correspondence. To the Editor of the Patent Journal. SIB, In the number for May 13th it is stated, at p. 611, that you have been requested to publish what is there erroneously termed "correspondence," inasmuch as I have never received the long acrimonious philippic, superscribed "To Mr. Charles Frodsham, and dated May 5th, 1848." I presume, therefore, sir, that you have been imposed upon, for the Editor of so respectable a Journal would not, I think, intentionally allow his pages to be the vehicle of what rather resembles a tissue of personal insult, than a communication having for its object the claims of justice or the cause of science. I cannot suffer myself to indulge in personal abuse, which is no less contrary to my taste than derogatory to my position, I shall therefore hold no further correspondence with the writer of the ungentlemanly article alluded to; but as there are several particulars, relative to the assumed inventions, which I think it important should be known to the public, may I request you, sir, to give them a place in your Journal. On the 29th April the patentee apprised me by letter of the specification in your Journal, and then added, "I must have £2,000, more if I can get it. I have some time contemplated retiring from business, and have purchased the patent right merely for the purpose of selling it with advantage." The extraordinary price, £2,000! set upon this patent, induced me to inform the patentee, by the letter inserted at p. 611, that the "radial-arm,' a part of the said patent, is perfectly identical with that attached to a balance, in my possession, which had been removed from an old Arnold chronometer at the time of its restoration by order of the Government. To that letter I received a short note in reply, which concludes with the following passage "I will answer your commenting at greater leisure, according to your claims, and in a different way;" referring, no doubt, to the splenetic article at p. 612. In the year 1842, a description of certain schemes, claimed to be the invention of Mr. Eiffe, for improvements of chronometers, and also plates and descriptions of very similar schemes, patented by Mr. Molyneux, were published by order of the Government, under the auspices of G. B. Airy, Esq. the Astronomer Royal, and the sum of £300 was awarded to Mr. Eiffe as a compensation for their publication. From the prefatory remarks by the Astronomer Royal I extract the following:-" Two chronometers, containing Mr. Eiffe's improvements, were tried at the Royal Observatory from 1836, Feb. 27 to June 25. The circumstances of the season were not favourable for obtaining extreme temperatures; nevertheless I was fully enabled to express a most favourable opinion of the success of the application of the principle. Mr. Eiffe was, as I have understood, authorized by the Board of Admiralty to construct several chronometers for their use upon the same principles; I believe, however, that no such chronometers were constructed." The Astronomer Royal's concluding remark is, I believe equally applicable to the presentperiod; for no such chronometers, that I am aware of, have been constructed; and the principles must necessarily remain as at that time a matter of "favourable opinion" only. The general opinion entertained by the chronometer makers with whom I have conversed upon the subject has been, that all plans which interfere with the free expansion and contraction of the balance rim are objectionable, to say nothing of the instability attached to so very delicate adjustments as most of these were, and the constant risk incurred of their being disturbed. In evidence of the little benefit that has been hitherto derived from patents for the improvement of chronometers, it may be stated, that in no one instance has a chronometer, containing patented principles, gained a prize at Greenwich; and further, that if the tables of the order of merit of chronometers under trial there, published annually, be consulted, it will appear that the instruments constructed upon the Arnold and Earnshaw principles, are superior to those which are puffed off in advertisements as having been improved by patents. At the latter part of the second column, p. 612 of your Journal, the patentee refers to the Government publication for a plate of the "radial-arm;" and upon examination, I find one at Pl. III. fig. 10, but this is no proof that it is his invention; for that on Mr. Arnold's old balance was of many years' earlier date, and a diagram thereof is moreover to be found in Rees' Cyclopædia-vide Pl. XXIX. of the horological plates. It must be remembered, that the weight or weights, whatever be their shape or magnitude, being in themselves inert and passive, can form no part of the patent, which must therefore, of necessity, reside in the contrivance or agency for moving them, that is, in the "radial-arm :" now by the patentee's own showing, at p. 612 of this Journal, he was perfectly aware of the indentity of the radial arm in his patent with that in the Government paper, for which he received £300 compensation; and he must, consequently, have had very singular notions as to what constitutes a fraud upon the rights of property when he took out the patent for the purpose of re-appropriating it. of the balance in the middle The person who showed me the conical contrivance for the mercurial column, was Mr. Ulrick. The advantages said to be derived from its employment were then, as now, unaccompanied by theoretical investigation, and unsupported by actual experiment: upon a very slender basis, therefore, rests the claims of a contrivance which is intended to measure not only the minute quantities of rise or fall in the mercurial column, but even to appreciate the differences of ratio among the quantities themselves. With respect to the attack which your correspondent has made upon me personally, as to my professional knowledge, I shall simply observe that chronometers, watches, and clocks are in general their own historians: I have a large number of each in the hands of the public, and shall leave them to speak of their maker as he deserves. And so far from boasting of my own skill, I very often am heard to exclaim with emphasis: What have the the moderns done for horology! are we not indebted for all we know, to the talented watchmakers of the 18th century? In this spirit, sir, I have studied their works and writings as my rule and guide; and beyond this, I simply profess myself to be an ardent lover of the art, and a painstaking individual, which is one of the distinctive features of the very excellent school in which I was educated. The father of the late Mr. Arnold was the inventor of the compound rim balance and present chronometer escapement. He knew its defects, and both he and his son made balances of every conceivable variety and shape in their attempts to discover one that should be found correct through the entire thermometrical range. Berthoud was acquainted with the error Arnold's, 84, Strand, 19th May, 1848. I am, Sir, yours very respectfully, Patents Recently Granted. ENGLISH PATENTS FOR THE WEEK ENDING MAY 30, 1848. Thomas Richardson, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, chemist, for improvements in the manufacture of manure. Patent dated May 26th, 1848; six months. George Remington, of Workworth, Northumberland, for improvements in locomotive engines, and in marine and stationary engines. Patent dated May 26th, 1848; six months. James Parker Penny, of Clarendon-Terrace, Notting Hill, Middlesex, gentleman, for certain improvements in obtaining copper from copper ores. Patent dated May 26th, 1848; six months. (Communication.) Moses Poole, of the Patent Office, gentleman, for improvements in propelling vessels. Patent dated May 26th, 1848; six months. (Communication.) Matthew Hague, of Waterhead Mills, Oldham, machine-maker, and Joseph Firth, of Huddersfield, Yorkshire, cotton-doubler, for certain improve ments in machinery for twisting and doubling cotton yarns and other fibrous materials. Paten dated May 26th, 1848; six months. Felix Hyacinthe Follies Louis, of Southwark, Surrey, gentleman, for an improved method or process of preserving animal products. Patent dated May 26th, 1848; six months. Abraham Solomons, of the City of London, merchant, and Bondy Azulay of Rotherhithe, Surrey, printer, for improvements in the manufacture of gas, tar, charcoal, aud certain acids. Patent dated May 26th, 1848; six months. William Wood, of Cranmer-place, Waterlooroad, Surrey, carpet-manufacturer, for improvements in weaving carpets, and in printing carpets and other fabrics. Patent dated May 30th, 1488; six months. William Seaton, of Camden Town, Middlesex, gentleman, for improvements in closing tubes, and in preventing and removing the incrustation in boilers. Patent dated May 30th, 1848; six months. Patents Recently Expired. Richard Simpson, of London, gentleman, for improvements in machinery for 1oving and slubbing cotton and wool, communicated, by a fo reigner. Patent dated June 3rd, 1834; exp re June 3rd, 1848. MR. B. COOK.-The specification of Edward Cot- Mr. Cantilo's Process for "Hydro-Incubution" is patented, but to go fully into the particulars would involve the trouble and expense of reading the specification. A.I. Your communication would occupy too much space for insertion. Can you not abridge it? A SUBSCRIBER.-We cannot give the shape of the "Drill" registered by Mr. B. Urry without paying the fine of five shillings for examining the copy of the registration. Should you wish this done, you can send us the amount in postage stamps. T.C.-The patent you mention not being complete we are not at liberty to give the particulars, but shall be in a position to do so early next month. To prevent disappointment you should have the stamped edition of the Journal sent direct from our office, or instruct our agent in Manchester to send it to you. We have to correct an error in the report of the inquest on the late Mr. Dakin. Mr. Renton having been mentioned as foreman to Messrs. Robinson, whereas he is connected with that firm. Printed (for the Froprietor) by H. SILVERLOCK, at his Office, No. 3, Wardrobe-terrace, St. Andrew's by the Wardrobe, in the County of Middlesex, and published by CHARLES JOHNS, at the Office of the PATENT JOURNAL, 69, Chancery-lane, in the said County.-Saturday, June 3, 1848. |