418 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



much commendation is bestowed is an arrangement for wash- 

 ing slice}) to cleanse the fleece. For this purpose the sheep 

 is placed inside of a cage of water-pipes, perforated through- 

 out, and connected with a head of water, through which, on 

 turning a cock, innumerable jets of water pass with consider- 

 able force, all playing from every direction upon the animal. 

 The washing is much more thorough than could be done by 

 hand labor, and the aid of the man usually required to hold 

 the sheep is thereby saved. Another machine is intended 

 for shearing the sheep, which it does in the most satisfactory 

 manner. 



Among the miscellaneous articles of the museum, Admiral 

 Inglefield's steering gear is mentioned with approbation, and 

 it is stated that this has been applied to some of the larger 

 iron-clad ships with great success. In rough weather, from 

 thirty to forty men are required at the tiller of these huge 

 monsters, and even then the force of the waves will some- 

 times be too much for them. The gear in question utilizes 

 the great hydrostatic pressure due to the twenty or thirty 

 feet of water in which the ship swims, the water being al- 

 lowed to come into cylinders and to work pistons within 

 them, much after the manner steam would do in an ordinary 

 engine, and thus a motive power is secured equal to one 

 thousand pounds to the square inch, in small hydraulic rams 

 attached to the tiller. A single man can by this method 

 steer the largest ship in the roughest weather. 



Another machine exhibited is a model by Mr. Tommasi for 

 utilizing the tides as a source of power for machinery. This, 

 however, is considered rather curious than useful, as long as 

 coal is held at any thing near its present price. Some of the 

 other articles mentioned are Thompson's road-steamer, with 

 India-rubber tires; Hodgson's wire tramway, with the sad- 

 dles of the buckets clinging on to the wire rope by simple 

 adhesion ; Girdwood's copper wire steam-packing, the con- 

 densation of water within which forms the lubricant; Sie- 

 mens's electrical pyrometer, for measuring the degrees of 

 very high temperatures; Michele's cement-testing machine, 

 in which the bent lever is most ingeniously applied; Captain 

 Scott's selenitic cement; and other practical inventions wor- 

 thy of close investigation and consideration. 5 A t July, 284. 



