---- Reynolds, power loom brake.
Strong & Ross, scales.
Wm. & W.H. Lewis, photographic plates.
T.A. Weston, differential pulley.
S.S. Hartshorn, buckles.
H.A. Stone, making cheese.
N. Whitehall, cultivator.
J.R. Harrington, carpet lining.
H.L. Emery, cotton gins.
J. Stainthorp, moulding candles.
Walter Hunt's heirs, paper collars.
A.B. Wilson, sewing machines.
S.A. Knox, plows.
Rollin White, firearms.
Aikin A. Felthousen, sewing machines.
H. Woodman, stripping cotton cards.
L. Hall, heel trimmer.
J.A. Conover, wood splitter.
J. Dyson, carding engine.
G. Wellmann, card strippers.
E. Brady, safety valves.
Jearum Atkins, harvester rakes.
John Thomas, re-rolling railroad rails.
Thomas Mitchell, hair brushes.
Stephen Hull, harvesters.
T.R. Crosby, wiring blind slats.
G.W. Laban, mitre cutting machine.
T.A. Whitenack, harvesters.
J.J. Vinton, furnaces.
A. Fuller, faucets.
D. Baker, pitcher spouts and lids.
G.F. Chandler, refining sugar.
G.H. Nott, boiler furnace.
William Hall, lightning rods.
B.F. Rice, paper bag machines.
S.D. Nelson, shovels.
E.T. Russell, car springs.
Hubbell & Conant, steam pumps.
C.A. Chamberlain, shovels.
C.A. Adams, locks.
E.A. Leland, paint can.
In addition to the above, I find the following names as applicants for
extensions, but the inventions covered by the patents sought to be
extended is not mentioned: S.S. Turner, Arculous Wyckoff, De Witt C.
Cummings, Moses Marshall, J.W. Fowler, and Holloway & Graham. Many of
the applicants have apparently given up their cases for this session,
but they may be only lying back to its close in hopes that in the
final rush their "little bills" may slip through easily.
Several bills tinkering at the patent laws are before Congress, and
one of these (House Bill, No. 3,370) passed the House on the 30th ult.
It has one section that may be made to work great harm to inventors,
as it prevents infringers being sued for more than one year's damages
previous to notice of infringement being given. By this bill, if it is
allowed to become a law, a person will be able to build and use
patented machines or processes for years in some out of the way place
where the inventor cannot easily find him; and should he be
discovered, he can only be sued for one year's damages. There are
other sections in this bill which will bear ventilating.
Another bill, introduced into the Senate by Mr. Paddock, provides that
all appeals from the Board of Appeals shall be direct to the Supreme
Court of the District of Columbia, instead of to the Commissioner as
heretofore; and that the fees shall be the same as now paid to the
latter official.
Mr. Sampson has introduced into the House a bill changing section 4886
so that it shall read as follows: "SEC. 4886. Any person who has
discovered any new or useful art, machine, manufacture or composition
of matter, or any new or useful improvement thereof, not known or used
by others in this country, and not patented or described in any
printed publication in this or any foreign country, before his
invention or discovery thereof, and not in public use or on sale for
more than two years prior to his application, unless the same is
proved to have been abandoned, may, upon payment of the fees required
by law, and other due proceedings had, obtain a patent therefor:
_Provided, That the manufacture or composition of drugs as a medicine
shall not be patentable_." The change is the addition of the words in
italics.
The Smithsonian Institute has sent to Congress a memorial setting
forth that the present Institute building is already too small for the
vast amount of articles already placed there on exhibition; that at
the late Centennial Exposition the Commissioners of various countries
presented their entire collection of exhibits to the United States,
which had delegated their care to the Smithsonian Institute, and they
had no place for them; that the armory building was being fitted up
for the reception of the United States Centennial collection, and they
therefore asked that a building be erected for the foreign collection,
which could be used as a national museum, or otherwise we should have
to offend the donors by keeping their valuable gifts stowed away in
cellars and other rubbish receptacles.
Mr. Eads, who is now here on the lookout for his pay for his work on
the South Pass of the Mississippi's mouth, has received intelligence
from the resident engineer at the jetties that the channel through the
shoal at the head of the South Pass is now twenty-two feet deep, and
that the least width at which twenty feet depth is found is one
hundred and ten feet. The principal works to improve this shoal were
constructed during the last six months. The low stage and feeble
current of the river has delayed their effect until the recent flood
from the Ohio reached them, and the problem of deepening the shoal has
been fully solved by the rapid scouring away of the obstruction. It is
stated that the channel is quite straight and is deepening rapidly.
The channel through the jetties at the mouth of the Pass is twenty-one
feet deep. The entrance from the sea through the jetties is one
thousand feet wide, and through the works at the head of the Pass
eight hundred feet.
A recent telegram from Nevada states that the Sutro Tunnel (of which I
gave you some particulars in one of my letters) has now progressed a
total distance of 15,565 feet and has fairly entered the mineral belt,
and will soon help to increase the already vast products of the
Comstock lode.
While on the subject of mining, I will state that the amount of
quicksilver produced in California has increased so immensely during
the last two years that it has attracted the attention of all
interested in the article throughout the world. The receipts for the
year have been 63,928 and the exports 48,010 flasks. In addition to
the receipts there, probably about six thousand flasks were shipped
direct from the mines to Nevada, thus bringing up the total production
to over 70,000 flasks, a gain in round numbers of from twelve thousand
to fifteen thousand flasks over 1875. The exports in that year were
34,844 flasks, or 13,666 less than in 1876.
Occasional.
* * * * *
TYRIAN PURPLE INK FOR MARKING LINEN.--Von Bele gives the following
method for preparing an ink for marking linen and cotton: Neutralize
75 grains of carbonate of ammonia with pure nitric acid, and triturate
45 to 60 grains of carmine with the solution. Mordant the fabric with
a mixed solution of acetate of alumina and tin salt, and write upon
it, when it is perfectly dry, with the ink.
* * * * *