Valve-slides of cornets, 127 Van brake, self-acting, 234 Vanadium as a photographic agent, 342 Vane: fixing a, 157; N. and S. line for a, 146 Vapour, law of elastic power of, 613 Variable stars, 172, 484, 562, 585 Varnish: 18, 152, 361; and oil, 572; black, for engine cylinders, 547; electrical, 155; for fretwork, 157; for metals, green, 302; indiarubber, 389; photographic, 19, 335; red, 104, 155, 180; removing from cans, 364; restoring oak, 184; to stand soda, 45 Varnishing: oleographs, 547, 573; pine deal linings, 182; wall paper, 152 Vegetable: food, animal and, 414, 465, 517, 541, 569, 597, 619, 647, 672; ivory, 261; leather, 425; parasitic plants, 201 Vegetarianism: an argument for, 6 Vegetarians, to, 674 Violon organ pipe, 73, 150, 199 THE ENGLISH . composition of, 413; flow of, at different temperatures, 256; gas under, 675; gauge, 568, 596, 598; heat of, 45, 74; lime, 495; petrifying, 22, 76; pipes, noise in, 74; pure, 613, 670; regulator, 495; repelling surface, a, 236, 260, 311, 412; testing, 625; twist, 46; weight of, 208, 209; well, 494 Watercolour painting: 104; cleaning, 361 Waterglass, 651 Watchmaking: 43, 124; in England, 201, 204 Viscosity and galvanic conductivity cf some Water: 75; analysis, 388; clock, 95; desaline solutions, 581 Visibility of coloured light, 410 Vision: astronomical, 564; extraordinary powers of, 355, 432; eye, 643; limit of telescopic, 508; miraculous, xi Pegasi and, 403; naked telescopic, 585, 588, 610, 640, 668 Visit: to an astronomical observatory, 171; to cotton-spinning mill, 594; to Firth's works, 406, 511 Visitation, Greenwich, 324 Visual power, range of difference in, 533, 536 Visual powers, Mr. Dawes', 378, 480, 533, 536 Vitriol chambers, 416 Vivisection: 9, 67, 223, 530; and aquaria, 119; bill, Lord Carnarvon's, 275, 395, 577; commission, report of, 2, 28; experiments, 5; question, 370 Vivisectors in a corner, 514 Vegetation, heat of soil and air, and its Voicing reeds, 178 effects on, 606 Vellum, cleaning, 360 Velocipede driven by the hands, 462 Ventilating railway carriages, 615 Vinegar aromatic, 260; toilet, 260, 545 Vines, mildew on, 417, 439, 441, 516, 568 Viol, Fiddler's finger-keyed, 13, 72, 97, 289 Violin: 17, 19, 45, 105, 182, 236, 260, 313, 365, 390, 413, 540; age of, 17; construction, 177; costly, 91; drawing outline of, 157; instruction, 463, 540; matters, 392, 416, 465; organ pipes, Eolian, 76; play. ing, 417, 441, 486; position of bridge in, 128 Violins: old, 130, 156, 181, 234, 416; purfling, 493, 543 | Waterhouse diaphragms, 313, 363 Whitewash out of doors, 48, 76 Whitewashing, 152 Why bitter words for small offences, 329 Will, old, 156, 182 Wind instruments, gift of tone, 409 Window: blinds, gilding and writing on, 261; boxes, tesseræ, 287, 312 Windows, cheap stained, 131, 156 Wine acetic acid in, 415; orange, 622 Wines, analysis of, 364 Wire: brass, brightening, 600, 622; draw. ing, 179; gauge, Birmingham, 47; gauze for teaching electricity, 266; Marsh's vibrating electric, 673; ropes, 103; splicing, 310; silvering iron, 62; straightening, 232 Wires: railway signalling without, 474; stretching of signal, 181 Wistarias and clothes moths, 595, 618 Wave movement, 208, 230, 259, 311, 331, 381 Wollaston's photometry of Sirius, 561 Volcanic action, on, 187; phenomena of, Weak spine, 289, 337 18, 75, 214 Volcanoes, lunar, 381, 403 Wanted law for determining minimum War to the knife, 671 Warming: railway carriages, 375; stove, reflector, 387 Warts, 392, 416, 439 Washing: flannel, 410, 518; type, 339, 363, 412 Watch and chronometer glass balance springs, 396; and how to repair it, 30; mainsprings of, 105, 155; maintaining power of, 180; repairing spring of, 625; wooden, 264 Watchmaker's: combination lathe, 13; lamp, 387, 415, 543 Weald of Sussex and Kent, sketch of geology of, 138 Weather: and our food, 637; maculæ and Weeds on gravel walks, 365, 390, 413 Weight: and speed of trains, 183, 232, 308, 433; gravitation and, 197; of water, 208, 209 Weights, subdivision of the atomic, 175 Well-water: iron in, 519; sewage in, 573, 621; test for, 206, 233, 494 Westinghouse automatic brake, 230, 620 Westminster aquariam, 264 Wet bog, foundation on, 545, 572, 598 Wheat: hand-mill for grinding, 288, 362; mummy, 362 Wheel: models, pitching, 103, 179; naves, elm carriage, 337; teeth, 209, 234 Wheels: railway, 619, 647; revolutions of, 40; speeding, 593; turbine, on, 193 Whence came nature, 37 Whetstones, softening, 389, 412 Whiskey, 101 White lead: 444, 468; dissolving, 493; paint, 466 Woman's friend, 21, 75, 101, 152, 231, 258, 310, 564, 615 Wonderful vision, 641, 668 Woodbury lantern slides, 46 Wool: cleaning, 623; drying, 236 Workshops, amateurs', 78 ILLUSTRATIONS. Eolian violin pipe, 76 con- Cutting frame, Ash's elliptical, 571 Alarm: an improved low-water, 33; electric, Ancient and modern harp, 136, 344, 423 Apparatus, a simple blowpipe, 6, 99 Ash's elliptical cutting frame, 571 Bath, problem, "Plumb-bob's", 329 Battery: bichromate, 466; 48-cell, 12; Grove's, 77; improved, 321; Leclanché, Beattie's patent locomotive, 469 Bell: electro-magnet and, 130; indicator, Bells: chime of, 521; electric, 199 Bevel, square, &c., combined, 269 Blast: continuous, 98; fans, 49 Blowpipe apparatus, a simple, 6, 99 Boiler: how to make a model, 491; making, camber for plate, 468; model steamboat, 363, 492; safety-valve for model, 205; tap Eoilers, chimneys and, 219 Brass joining to guttapercha, 182; valve- Brown's keyboard for just intonation, 298, Cycloidal arc, centre of gravity of, 417 DARNING machine, 217 Dock gates, pressure on, 44 Domestic manufacture of gas, 606 Holtz electric machine, theory of, 327 Horizontal air-pump, 465, 541, 619 Hot water coil heated by gas, 441 House: building, 413; pigeons', 650 Hypocycloids, epicycloids and, 579, 657 Index counter for slide-rest, adjustable, 172 Indicator: diagram, explanation of, 674; Induction coil, instructions for making Injectors, Friedmann's patent, 671 Instantaneous shutter, 102, 127 Object-glasses, construction of achromatic, Objects, microscopic, 372, 502 Oiling mid-shaft, crank-pin, 468 Organ arrangement of pipes, 205; barrel for chamber, 286; building, 563, 593, 615; keys and action, 615; pedals, &c., 563; pipes, making metal, 153; -violon, 199; small, 181; street, 414; the orchestral, 120; tuning, 177; windchest of, 644; Overheads, 359 Keyboard, Colin Brown's new, for justly Electro-magnetic engine: 254; the Camacho, Keys and key action for organ, 615 Elliptical cutting-frame, Ash's, 571 Engine: electro-magnetic, 254; indicating, 674; model steamboat, 44; queries, 442; Engine-pumps, brass valve-balls for, 78 Engines, tire fastenings for express, 617 Epicycloids and hypocycloids, 579, 657 Etheric force: 38; so-called, 242 Experiments: singular electrical, 195; spec- Express engines, tire fastenings for, 617 Plates, new method of making surface, 505 "Plumb-bob's" bath problem, 329 Portable fountains, 254 Light mechanical production of, 56; re- Power transmitter, flexible, 581 flection of, 181 MACHINE: chamfering, 596; cutting and surfacing for wood, 217; darning, Manganese battery, improved, 191 Furnace Casson-Dormoy puddling, 142; Measurement, metrical system of, 69 for laboratory, 518, 519 Gravity, centre of: of cycloidal arc, 447; of Greenhouse, heating apparatus for small, Guttapercha to brass, joining, 182 Harmonium: and organ matters, 120, 228; skeleton, 17; the orchestral, 120; two- manual, 443; valve-action for tremolo, 520 Harp, ancient and modern, 136, 344, 423 Heating apparatus for small greenhouse, 543 Heavenly bodies, rising and setting of, 642 Mechanical: money-box, new, 589; produc- Mechanism, practical, 5, 60, 113, 168 Mercurial barometer, principle of, 205 Metrical system of measurement, 69 Microscope high-power object-glass for, Microscopic: lenses, minute, 15; objects, Mines: furnaces in, 620; plans of, 44 Mitre-planing machine, 255, 359 Model: boiler, how to make a, 491, 492; Pyramid, centre of gravity of, 598 RADIAL drills, improvements in, 659 Radiation, an attack upon, 459 Ramsbottom's safety-valve, 387 Refrigerator, a simple air, 86 Region to the north and west of Cichu, 09 Rising and setting of heavenly bodies, 612 Roller skates, 72, 111, 161, 670 Roof, flat, 389 Roving frames, drawing and, 545 SAFETY-VALVE: a safe, 57; for Satellite of Jupiter in transit, 562 Note on duplicity of 1474 line in the solar Shafting in lathe, turning, 20, 45, 74, 101 Ships, handiness of, 69 Shoe-tips, raw hide, 504 Shutter, instantaneous, 102, 127 Solar clock, a, 69; spectrum, duplicity of 1474 line in, 476 Sound measurer, 518 Soundboard of organ, wood for, 597 Spectroscopic experiments, 180 Specula, supporting, 94 Speed-cones of lathes, securing, 143 Spring lever hammer, 387 Steering-gear, pneumatic, 58 Stopping a musical string, 209 Surface plates, new method of making, 505 TAMPLIN harmonium pallet, 228 Teeth, peculiar fossil, 280 Telegraph: code time, 75; the musical, in Paris, 659 Telegraphy, duplex, 79, 126 Star, appearance of, in cheap telescope, 614 Telescope, appearance of a star in a cheap, Steam domes, 326 Steamboat engine, model, 41, 363 614 Telescopes, improvements in Galilean, 351 THE ENGLISH MECHANIC AND WORLD OF SCIENCE. ness man. ARTICLES. an and legislators, who have fairly earned their missioners as sufficient evidence of the positions, should be misled by the special novelty or value of an invention. But there pleading of the class. We say misled, were more than 4,500 applications for THE NEW PATENTS BILL. because it is evident that if the Lord Chan- patents last year, or about 90 a week, and THE HE new Patents Bill, or rather the cellor and those who will support his bill the framers of the bill must have a very amended and in some respects im- are not misled, they are certainly doing a poor idea of the amount of searching requiproved bill, which the Lord Chancellor has great deal to discourage patents, if only by site, or of the difficulty of forming an introduced to the House of Lords, must the simple fact that they do not encourage opinion on the novelty of an invention, if undergo a still further improvement before them. The bill has many of the old faults, they imagine that the six examiners they it can expect to meet with any extensive and nearly all that we said against that of propose to appoint can possibly get through support from those outside of Parliament last session may be urged against the pre- the amount of work required of them with who are most directly interested in the sent one. satisfaction to those most interested, or measure. Lord Cairns, though of course First and foremost, although" provisional even to themselves. Before exposing the he has not the least objection to patentees, protection" remains, it is not the provi- preposterous character of this innovation, quâ patentees, appears to have listened far sional protection which, from long user, it will be well to notice an interpolation in more attentively to the arguments of manu- we have learnt to understand and to appre- the present bill. As the clause reads, the facturers and traders than to those who are ciate. An intending patentee must deposit commissioners will, on the request of the in reality the best friends of the "busi- his specification at the time of making applicant, refer the application to It is incontestable that manu- application for a patent, and although it is examiner. The mode of expression is profacturers oppose inventions and discoveries, true that, by means of certain formalities bably characteristic of bills in Parliament, except under special and rarely-occurring and fees, he may obtain leave to amend for we certainly fail to understand what is circumstances; for in many cases inven- it, the evil remains that it gives the meant. Is it only on the request of the applitions revolutionise whole processes, render inventor little opportunity to improve cant that his invention will be referred to the valuable machinery antiquated and useless, his invention before the sealing, and examiners, or is it one of the necessary steps and often take some time before they begin no opportunity, or scarcely any, of to obtain a patent, similar to the present to make a return on the fresh capital, finding purchasers or capitalists to work "notice to proceed"? If the applicant which is not always easily obtained. But it. Another thing which should not be fails to " "request" the commissioners to when these inventions are encumbered by forgotten is that the early publication of refer his application to the examiners, will the "letters," the manufacturer becomes a an invention opens the door for unprincipled his failure so to do be considered an abancruelly ill-used man. Here is an invention persons to oppose the granting of a patent. donment of his application, or will matters to utilise which will probably cost him a At present it is difficult for any one to proceed to the sealing without such examiconsiderable slice off his profits, which will oppose a patent until the complete specifi- nation? The same phrase occurs in another upset all his routine, and, besides that, cation is published, because the real nature clause, in which it is stated that after the there is an individual who occupies the of the invention is unknown; but if the report of the examiner the commissioners enviable position of the last straw on the full description is to be published before will, on the request of the applicant, transmit camel's back, because he demands a royalty. the patent is sealed, it will be comparatively to the law officer the application, specificaFortunately, the manufacturer does not an easy matter for persons possessed of tion, and relative documents and report. break down, except in temper, for he knows money to get up evidence to show that the Here, again, we are in doubt as to the that if Brown and Jones do not adopt invention is not new. They will, in fact, be meaning of the words in italics. Is it or is the invention, Smith and Robinson will, able to so hamper the poor inventor, by it not necessary that the applicant should and so accordingly he consents to adopt the means of gold and law, that he will be com- request "the commissioners to forward new process, and to haggle with the pelled to give up his patent. In a certain the documents to the law officer? Will patentee as to the terms of the license. sense the same thing may be done under failure to so request forfeit the "applicaBut there is a worse side still. The know- the present law; but a patent is now primâ tion"? It would seem so, for it is not until ledge that the rival house will take up the facie evidence of an invention, and it is for after these formalities have been gone invention is a thorn in the manufacturer's the infringers to prove that an invention is through that the applicant is directed to side; the greatest torture is the possibility not new. Under the proposed law, as it give notice to proceed." Considering the of new firms starting in the business seems to us, the intending patentee will high position of the introducer of the bill without the drawback of capital sunk in have to show that his invention is new, and we are sorry to say that it is an incompreplant rendered useless by the new inven- this against all that money can do. No hensible and impracticable measure. Some tion. The first firm to take up an invention Patents Bill can be satisfactory that does of its minor details are improvements on is also placed at a disadvantage, unless not give the inventor time-time to test his the present law, but in its main features it special and favourable terms are made with invention, time to get capital to his aid, is radically bad. Rather too much has been the patentees, because there are always and time to get it into working order. By made of "examination;" but we fail to see alterations and expenses of one kind and no other means can the inventor feel secure what really useful purpose examination will another which have to be met before an in explaining his methods or processes to serve. Unless thoroughly done it will be a invention is brought into practical working, those who are to use them. great evil, and six examiners cannot by any and the manufacturer knows that his The examination clauses are preposterous, possibility do it, even if the period of time rivals in business-those who come after and we are sorry that we feel compelled to known as a "day" were specially lengthened him-will reap the advantage of his expe- use so strong a phrase. By the bill only to suit their necessities. But is there any rience. These are amongst the principal six examiners are appointed, and we assume absolute need for examination? From the reasons why manufacturers dislike patents, from experience that their verdict will be inventor's point of view we can readily and it seems strange that practised lawyers accepted by the law officers and the com- reply, yes; for it is no easy matter to learn VOL. XXIII.-No. 573. 66 66 |