11 Wall street, N. Y. replies that in some waters it is partially
effective but at the expense of the boiler, with a certainty of foaming
and corrosion. The most reliable and positively uninjurious remedy for
incrustations is his anti-incrustation powder--in successful use for 12
years past.
T., of R. I., speaks of the famous mechanical horse shown at the Paris
Exposition which is said to have accomplished with its rider a little
over an English mile in fifty seconds, and asks what is the motive
power. As it is said that the French Government took possession of the
machine and preserves its mechanical construction a secret, we know no
more about it than about the much vaunted Napoleon cannon.
S.S., of N. Y.--"Please give the ingredients of the composition used for
tipping matches." Different manufacturers employ different materials and
in varying proportions; the mixture of phosphorus melted and stirred up
with thin glue is sufficient, although some add a quantity of powdered
glass, niter, chlorate of potash, sulphur, etc. The phosphorus, however
is the light-producing material.
R.S.B., of N.Y., alluding to the inquiry of S.W.P., in No. 23, for a
waterproof paste. "Calico printers when they wish to leave white figures
on a dark ground use what they term a 'resist paste' to cover such
places as are designed to be unaffected by the dye. If the ingredients
of this paste were known it might be what S.W.P., desires." This "resist
paste" is 1 lb. of binacetate of copper (distilled verdigris), 3 lbs.
sulphate of copper dissolved in 1 gal. water. This solution to be
thickened with 2 lbs. gum senegal, 1 lb. British gum and 4 lbs. pipe
clay; adding afterward, 2 oz. nitrate of copper as a deliquescent.
M.A.H, of Vt.--"I have a surplus of water power and desire to know the
probable cost of the apparatus for producing the electric light, with
a view of employing my surplus power in that direction." A serviceable
magneto-electrical machine for giving light is quite expensive.
* * * * *
Business and Personal.
_The charge for insertion under this head is 50 cents a line_.
* * * * *
Parties in want of Fine Tools or Machinists' Supplies send for price
list to Goodnow & Wightman, 23 Cornhill, Boston, Mass.
Pattern Letters and Figures for inventors, etc., to put on patterns for
castings, are made by Knight Brothers, Seneca Falls, N.Y.
Allen & Needles, 41 South Water street, Philadelphia, Manufacturers of
Allen's Patent Anti-Lamina, for removing and preventing Scale in steam
boilers.
All Parties having any article to sell through an agent, address, with
circular, etc., Box 499 Oil City, Pa.
Manufacturers of Tag Holders will please send address to Box 1019, St.
Paul, Minn.
Manufacturers of Presses for making Castor Oil, address or send circular
to F.M. Peck, P.O. Box 190, Montgomery, Ala.
Manufacturers of Cotton-Spinning and Knitting Machinery send circular
and price list to W.L. Jones, Holly Springs, Miss.
Dr. W. Spillman, Marion Station, Miss., wishes to correspond with
manufacturers of buckshot or bullets, either conical or spherical.
Toy Makers--One-half of Patent Right of Toy Wind Wheel given away!
Address Dr. W.H. Benson, Norfolk, Va.
Milton Darling, East Macdonough, Chenango Co., N.Y., wishes the address
of those that want broom handles for the year 1868.
A.B. Woodbury, Winchester, N.H., wants to sell two valuable
patents--Jack-Spinning Improvements.
E.C. Tainter, Worcester, Mass., wants to sell a good set of Sash and
Door Machinery, used only six months.
Parties desiring any of their new ideas put into practical form, or
wanting any new apparatus invented for manufacturing purposes, etc.,
address, with confidence, A.E.W., Inventor and Draftsman, 114 Fulton
street, N.Y. References given.
* * * * *
MANUFACTURING, MINING, AND RAILROAD ITEMS.
For the benefit of the Union Pacific railroad, the base of the Rocky
Mountains has been fixed at the base of the Black Hills, a distance of
6.637 miles west of Cheyenne, and, according to the railway surveys
525.078 miles from Omaha.
The Pittsburg, Fort Wayne and Chicago railway have just rebuilt in
the most permanent manner an iron bridge over the Alleghany river, to
replace the old wooden Howe truss bridge, which had become inadequate
to the increasing traffic. The new bridge opens like a fan towards the
freight yard at Pittsburg being at the narrowest part, next to the main
span 55 feet wide. The river is crossed with spans averaging 153½ feet
in the clear, with a bearing of five feet on each pier. The principle
of the construction is known as the lattice girder plan, with vertical
stiffening. The work was executed under the superintendence of its
designer, the engineer and architect of the company Felician Stataper.
The production of precious metals in the United States from 1849 to 1867
inclusive, has amounted in value to $1,174,000,000.
The president of one of the New Jersey railroads proposes a plan to
avoid the danger to life and limb from the series of trains that run
into and out of Jersey city. The new project is to elevate the present
tracks fifteen feet above the streets, and by safe machinery to lower at
once an entire train in the depot at the river.
A mining company at Newton, Nev., are making preparations to work their
claims by means of a steam engine which will be used to throw a stream
of water instead of the ordinary hydraulic pressure They estimate that
with a ten or twelve horse power engine, then can throw 100 inches of
water with a force equal to at least 150 feet fall. The result of this
experiment is looked upon with a good deal of interest, as there is a
vast amount of good hydraulic ground in the adjoining countries, which,
as in this case, cannot be worked by the ordinary process for want of
water fall, but which, if the expedient in this case proves successful,
will soon be worked by steam engines.
By an oversight in the article on the trans-continental railroad,
published in our last issue, the Western or California section of the
road was styled the Union Pacific, instead of the Central railroad. In
the race to reach Salt Lake the California company have 400 miles more
to build, while the Union company have only 328 miles. But the country
to be traversed by the former is comparatively level, and favorable for
winter work, while that on the other side crosses four distinct mountain
ranges, and winter storms must interrupt work for several months in the
year.
* * * * *
PATENT OFFICE DECISIONS ON APPEAL.
USEFUL COMPOUNDS ARE PATENTABLE--THE APPLICANT NOT REQUIRED TO PROVE THE
FUNCTION OF EACH INGREDIENT.
S.H. HODGES for the Board of Examiners-in Chief.
_Application of Rew for a Patent for Preventing and Curing Swine
Cholera_.--The applicant's specific is composed of a number of medical
articles, the nature of which is not important upon the present
occasion, and it is unnecessary to enumerate them. But it is objected
that "a medical prescription" "should contain some recognition of the
medicinal properties of the several ingredients" "and the part they
perform in the compound:" or, as it is elsewhere expressed, such a
mixture should not receive the sanction of this department "unless
perhaps a satisfactory rationale should be given for the use of each of
the ingredients in the proportions named."
If the medical faculty were always satisfied themselves as to the
operation of the various remedies they employ, there might be more
reason in the objection. But it is well known that different schools
disagree widely on this subject, and there are remedies employed with
success the effect of which the most intelligent are unable to account
for. So long as there is a single one of this character to be found, and
while the operations of the vital functions are so concealed from us
that we are unable fully to comprehend the process by which any specific
operates, so long it is impossible to prescribe as a conditon of
patentability, a full explanation of the mode in which any one acts that
is brought forward. It would be still less justifiable to require such
an explanation as would content any particular class of medical men.
Every year new therapeutics are introduced into practice, and not
unfrequently some whose beneficial results are not understood. And as
long as one such may be found, it is not just to make it a condition of
its being protected by a patent, that the discoverer should bring the
scientific world to agree with him in his theory respecting it, nor even
that he should have one.
The man who stumbles upon a new and useful article is just as much
entitled to the exclusive use of it as if he had elaborated it by the
most profound and painful study. It is true that there is danger upon
this principle of countenancing mere nostrums, and giving them undue
prestige This can only be guarded against by the exercise of great
caution and requiring convincing proof of utility. Such his been
furnished in this case, in abundance.
The application cannot be rejected except upon such grounds as would
insure the rejection of nearly all medicines whatever. Nor is the Office
responsible for the false importance which the public may attach to its
proceedings, so long is they are confined to its legitimate province.
Its duties certainly must not be neglected, and meritorious petitions
refused, in order to obviate such misapprehensions.
The decision of the Primary Examiner is reversed.
[Transcribers note: full index of volume XVII. left out]