author invented and raised this rudder on board the Impetueux, in the squadron of Vice-Admiral Willaumez, as a substitute for one carried away by a tempest, and 3. That of Captain Pakenham, an officer in the British navy, the principal inconvenience of which is, that it sacrifices or foregoes the advantage of two pieces of masting (máture) that are reckoned of no small consequence.

By an order of the marine and colonies, this invention has been submitted to experiment, before a commission of engineers and naval officers assembled at Brest, under the Count de Gourdon, Vice-Admiral. The trial was made on board the Goelette La Colombe.

All the three above mentioned kinds of rudder were examined, and the general result of the experiment announced that the invention of M. Dussueil is much to be preferred to all others: that it is easy to make and put in its place, that it is infinitely more commodious for use, that it is of greater solidity, and of course, less liable to accidents, that the construction does not require materials adapted to the mature, that it produces no incumbrance, and will completely supply the place of a rudder, &c.

The commission recommends this invention as equally fit for ships of war, and those in the service of the merchants.

AMBERGREASE.

Messrs. Pelletier and Caventou, in a recent Journal de Pharmacie, furnish some notices relative to the substance of ambergrease. Different chymists, who have investigated the subject of ambergrease, all agree that it is an isolated or particular fat substance, though they do not accurately discriminate its nature. Cartheuser compared it to a bitumen, Bergmann considered it as a vegetable production, Juih understood it to be a resin, Rose and Bucholz placed it between wax and resin, as a substance of an intermediate or compounded nature; and lastly, M. Bouillon La Grange, who has treated the subject most at length, compares ambergrease to the fat of dead bodies, so that he includes it among the productions called adopocire. As this last chymist has made a pretty full analysis of ambergrease, we have only to wish, say these authors, that he would compare it with the different fat substances that have been so accurately investigated by M. Chevreul. It would be MONTHLY MAG. No. 340.

material to enquire whether it be stearine, cetine, cholesterine, or some substance different from all these. If this question could be resolved, it would throw some light on the origin of ambergrease.

A subsequent notice announces the fact of the two above mentioned writers having, by their own experiments, ascertained that ambergrease has no affinity to stearine, to elaine, or cetine, but on the contrary, that it is very nearly related to cholesterine, with which it may well be confounded. Nevertheless, there is an essential difference as to many of the properties, so that it must constitute a particular species, to be placed next the cholesterine, without being confounded with it. Messrs. P. and C. give it the name of ambreine. They go on to state, that with respect to the origin of ambergrease, all the numerous dissertations that have appeared on this head, have not completely cleared up the point. It however seems to be pretty nearly agreed, that ambergrease is produced by certain whales of the cachalot species. But from what organ and under what circumstances is it formed? Is it a natural excretion from the animal, when in health? Or is it the effect of some malady?

Swediawr considers ambergrease as the hardened excrements of the physeter macrocephalus; this notion he grounds on the fact of meeting with ambergrease in the intestines of the cachalot, and frequently on the surface of the sea water, sometimes indeed impregnated as it were, and wrapped round the liquid excrements of that animal. He adds that this induration of the excrements, is either the cause or effect of some malady, so that the animal then perishes, in a state of leanness and exhaustion. But if ambergrease be compared with the excremental matter in other animals, Swediawr's hypothesis, that it consists of hardened excrements, cannot be admitted.

On the other hand, there is a striking analogy between the composition of this substance, and that of human biliary calculi. Without advancing that ambergrease is the calculus itself, these. gentlemen conceive it to be produced by the biliary matter which constitutes calculi, and moreover that the larger masses of ambergrease that are occasionally found, may be formed, by an agglomeration and combination of several calculi.

3 K

PROCEEDINGS

nion that the majority of private forgeries pass unpunished, on account of the severity of the punishment. The punishment of death tends, in his opinion, to prevent prosecution, and to increase the crime.

Mr. J. F. Forster, a Russia merchant, and Mr. E. Forster, a banker in London, gave some remarkable examples of the repugnance to prosecute in forgery. In one, by the connivance of the prosecutor, a person who was introduced to the magistrate as a friend of the prisoner's, desired to see the forged cheque, snatched it away, and threw it into the fire; a mode of avoiding prosecution which, from other parts of the evidence, does not seem to be uncommon. In another, a forgery to the large amount of 15001., where the forger and the utterer were both in custody, the prosecution was relinquished merely because the offence was capital.

Mr. Fry, a banker in London, mentioned four cases of prosecution for forgery which were prevented by the capital punishment, in one of which the party injured swallowed the forged note, that he might not be compelled to prosecute. Mr. Fry explicitly stated, what is indeed implied in the evidence of the preceding witnesses, that as a banker, he should consider his property as much more secure if the punishment of forgery were mitigated to such a degree that the law against that offence would be generally enforced; in nine cases out of ten of forgery which he has known, there has been an indisposition to prosecute.

Dr. Lushington declared that he knew, that in the minds of many persons there is a strong indisposition to prosecute, on account of the severity of the punishment; and that he had heard from the mouths of prosecutors themselves, who have prosecuted for capital offences, where there was a danger of the person's being executed, the greatest regret that they had so done; and many times they have expressed a wish that they had been able to have foreseen the consequences, they would never have resorted to the laws.

Mr. Charles Attwood, a manufac

turer of window glass at Newcastle, and a seller of window glass in London, had observed a very considerable indisposition to prosecute in capital cases among the traders of London generally; and conceives that this reluctance would abate, if the capital punishment were mitigated to something less than death.

Mr. Isaac Lyon Goldsmid, a broker to the bank, and to merchants, whose experience in the transactions of bankers is very extensive, entertains no doubt that the punishment of death has a tendency generally to prevent prosecution, and thinks that evidence to that effect might be discovered in hundreds of instances.

Mr. Daniel Gurney, a banker in the county of Norfolk, declared his own reluctance, and had observed a similar reluctance among many bankers and traders in the country, to prosecute in cases of forgery, in consequence of the severity of the law. The dread of being instrumental in inflicting death had, with himself, and to his knowledge with others, operated as a protection to the criminal.

There are several points on which the committee are desirous of offering some observation to the house: two of these are of great importance: the first relates to the best means of enabling judges to pronounce sentence of death only in those cases where they think it probable that death will be inflicted; the second, whether the establishment of unexpensive and accessible jurisdictions, for the trial of small offences, with the help of juries, but with simple forms of proceeding and corrective punishments, might be a means of checking the first steps towards criminality. These and other parts of this great subject, the committee hope that the house will allow them to consider, by permitting them, in the next session, to resume, and, if possible, to complete their inquiries.

Sir James Mackintosh has, in the present session, moved to bring in bills in conformity to the principles of this report—may he succeed in his meritorious endeavours!

HE Breaking Machine is more sim

certain Machinery for breaking and preparing Flax and Hemp. Oct. 1819.

has

He now

has invented for the purpose of breaking and dressing flax and hemp. proposes to construct a frame, carrying three fluted or indented rollers, formed as the frustums of cones, about seven inches long, in the working part, three inches and a half in diameter at the largest end, and two inches at the smaller end; of course not confining himself strictly to these precise dimensions.

Two of the rollers are placed in proper carriages at the bottom, and the third above, lying upon, but not in immediate contact with, the two lower ones: they all revolve upon axles; the lower two supported by the frame, and the upper one by a carriage connected to a lever, by which this roller is to be raised or lowered at pleasure.

There are, however, springs applied to keep the upper roller raised about two inches above the lower ones, in order that there may be an opening for the purpose of introducing the raw flax between them, which is to be taken in the hand, and when placed upon the lower rollers, and distributed equally, the foot of the operator presses upon the treaddle connected to the lever and carriage of the upper roller, by which means the upper roller is pressed down upon the flax. The hand of the operator then draws the flax out from between the rollers, by the indentations and pressure of which the woody parts of the flax are broken.

Upon removing the foot from the treaddle, the lever rises, and the spring mentioned above, forces up the upper roller, for the purpose of again introducing the flax between the rollers, which, when distributed, is again pressed upon by the upper roller, forced down by means of the lever and treaddle, and the flax drawn out as before.

This operation is continued until all the boon or woody parts of the flax become entirely broken, and separated from the fibre, observing that the first breaking of the flax should be performed at the larger end of the rollers, and the finishing at the smaller end; the flutes or grooves becoming finer, as they approach toward the smaller end of the frustum.

To THOMAS BROCKSOPP, of Forestreet, Cripplegate, for the application of certain Machinery to the purpose of breaking or crushing of Sugar. Aug. 1819.

This invention consists in applying a small mill, to break the lumps of raw

sugar, upon taking it out of the hogshead, and is intended to supersede the necessity of pounding them with a mallet or hammer, as commonly practised by the retail grocer. The apparatus is simply a pair of rollers, between which the sugar passes from a hopper above, and falls into a box below: the rollers are made to revolve against each other by means of a cog-wheel and pinion upon their respective axles worked by a handle; and as the cog-wheel and pinion cause the rollers to turn with different degrees of velocity, they will necessarily rub against each other, which will more effectually reduce the sugar to powder. There is a scraper placed under the rollers to prevent the sugar from adhering, and the motion is regulated by the application of a fly-wheel.-London Journal.

To WILLIAM BAILEY, of High Holborn, London, for an Invention of certain Improvements in the Construction of Sashes, Sky-Lights, and Frames, generally used for the admission of Light and the exclusion of Rain and Snow; also for making Roofs or Coverings for Houses and various other Buildings.-Jan. 1819. Mr. B. proposes the use of iron bars which after rendering them red hot, he passes through grooved rollers, so as to produce rebates on the side intended to receive the glass, and any other form of moulding upon the reverse of the sash frame; the bars are then cut into convenient lengths, and fitted together, so as to form the frame of

any desired dimensions. After this the glass is to be attached by putty, paint, or the common modes of cement to the sash frame. For such windows as are of a curved form, particularly those in the Gothic style, this invention may be made peculiarly applicable by bending the bars (after they are rolled into the mouldings as above) to any desired or fanciful form, and so producing, at a comparatively small expense, substantial sash frames of (by any other means) the most difficult construction.

In the erection of hot-houses, greenhouses, and all kinds of conservatories, the patentee considers this invention particularly desirable, as it combines strength, lightness, economy, and durability. For the purpose of roofs it is recommended, after fixing the frame of moulded bars as above manufactured, to take sheets of iron, tin, copper, or other suitable metal larger than the spaces between the bars, and, after

turning

turning up the edges square on each side, to cover and enclose them in a grooved slip the whole to be firmly attached together by means of rivets, screws, pins, or the like. It is obvious also, that any other metal may be wrought as above; but the patentee most particularly recommends iron from its cheapness: he, however, embraces every other material capable of being moulded and bent by his proposed process.-London Journal.

To MR. TEW COWPER, of Biston, by Weedon, for an Invention of certain Improvements on, and in addition to, Machinery or Ploughs for the purpose of under-draining Land.-May, 1818. The first part of this invention consists of a coulter, with a mole-iron or borer at its bottom, to be lowered into the ground and drawn along, preceded by a circular cutter to relieve its way, and followed by a roller to close the channel made by the cutter and coulter, leaving the channel thus formed by the mole-iron entire at any desired depth below the surface of the ground: which depth is regulated by vertical screws raising or lowering the said cutter and mole-iron in its carriage, assisted, of course, by small wheels or rollers as commonly applied to plough-carriages. The second part of the invention consists of a standard with a capstan turning horizontally, upon which a chain coils that is to be attached to the plough. This standard is secured by ineans of an anchor, from shifting its ground, while the capstan bar is carried round by one or more horses as in a mill, or by manual labour; and the draft-chain, as expressed above, winding round the capstan, draws the plough-carriage to which it is attached, with cutter and mole-iron, forward. When this last contrivance is not used, the plough is to be drawn forward by horses as in the common process of ploughing. This invention as applied to hollow or under-draining; viz. the mole-iron with its carriage, and the capstan with its carriage and anchor as a fulcrum, is considered by the patentee to be entirely new, and of which he claims the original invention.

To MR.H.P.FULLER, of Piccadilly, for an improved Method of producing or procuring Sulphate of Soda, (Glauber's Salts,) Soda, Subcarbonate of Soda,and Muriatic Acid.-Sept. 1819. The patentee proposes a solution of muriate of soda, (prepared either by

dissolving in hot or cold water; or by evaporating sea water; and which solution may contain any quantity of muriate of soda, that is or may be soluble in water :) to be mixed with a solution of sulphate of iron, in such quantity that there shall be forty-seven parts and a quarter, or thereabouts, of the sulphate of iron, to twenty parts, or thereabouts, of the muriate of soda. These materials so combined, are to be submitted to heat, so as to evaporate nearly the whole of the water; the remaining mass or quantity is then to be exposed to a full red heat in a retort of cast iron, or of any other material which is capable of bearing the fire, (the particular form or size of the retorts, it is not necessary to describe, as that is not of importance for the performance of the process,) for the purpose of distilling over the muriatic acid, which will be separated by the heat from the aforesaid mass or residue left from the above mentioned solutions of muriate of soda and sulphate of iron; but which solutions, after they have been mixed as above directed, will be found to be changed into solutions of muriate of iron, and sulphate of soda. The muriatic acid is to be received into a condensing receiver, containing any quantity of water and when the whole of the acid, or nearly so, has been drawn over, the residue, which will be found to contain sulphate of soda, and oxyd of irou, partly or almost entirely, in a nicaceous form, or with some trifling quantity of muriate of soda, muriate of iron, and sulphate of iron, must be dissolved either in hot or cold water, and filtered to separate the oxyd of iron. mode or modes of dissolving the mass, and filtering the solution, it is not necessary to explain, as any particular mode is unimportant, and the manner of doing it will occur to every one acquainted with such operations. The solution of sulphate of soda is now to be mixed with a solution of caustic, or pure barytes, and then dissolving it in water, in such quantities, that there shall be to every twenty parts of muriate of soda, or thereabouts, used in the first part of the process, twenty-seven parts or thereabouts, of pure or caustic barytes: the produce of this will be pure or nearly pure soda and sulphate of barytes. The soda is then to be separated from the sulphate of barytes by filtration or any other method which may be deemed eligible.

The

VARIETIES,