60 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



Several premiums for improvements in railroad cars, &c., having 

 been offered by Mr. Ray, of Brooklyn, N. Y., through the American 

 Institute, a great number of inventions and improvements were 

 brought out at the fair of the Institute, in October, 1852, at New 

 York. Nearly one hundred different novelties in methods for ventila- 



i/ 



tion, brakes, seats, spark catchers, wheels and axles, rails, &c., were 

 brought forward, all of which seemed to embrace decided improve- 

 ments on the methods now in vogue. Among them was a sheet or 

 plate iron car, constructed and designed by Mr. F. E. Warren, of 

 New York. The points arrived at in this instance, are greater 

 strength in the car, combined with less weight than is requisite in all 

 passenger cars now in use ; greater durability ; an increased width 

 (" in the clear") of nine inches, which will enable the car to be fitted 

 up so that three rows of berths or sleeping places for passengers, three 

 tiers high, may be placed in each car, with two passage ways, suffi- 

 ciently wide to admit of free locomotion in the carriages. The result 

 of this arrangement is, that in one of these cars designed to seat sixty 

 passengers during the day, quite as many can be comfortably and 

 conveniently bedded at night. They can also be ornamented with 

 cast iron ornaments even more beautifully than they are now 

 embossed and ornamented, and at far less expense. In case of an 

 overturn or collision they cannot fly into splinters as at present, and 

 are therefore hardly ever to be so damaged by accident as to be ren- 

 dered worthless. As a matter of course, they can be finished or fitted 

 up and lighted in any desired style. By the use of non-conducting 

 lining they may be made as impervious to heat in summer as to cold 

 in winter; and they will receive and permanently retain any descrip- 

 tion of ornamental painting now in vogue for cars or coaches. The 

 supports and braces of these cars are made of plate or drawn iron 

 tubes standing in cast iron plates, and the joints of the thin plate 

 metal, which takes the place of the panelling, floors, and roof of wood 

 in the cars now in use, are made close and very strong by a system of 

 flange riveting. It is understood that this description of car can be 

 afforded at a considerably loss cost than the ordinary first class passen- 

 ger cars now in use, and when no longer serviceable, the materials of 

 which they arc constructed will be valuable for other purposes. 



SUBSTITUTE FOU THE COW CATCHER. 



AN invention has been made by Mr. Darling, of Utica, N. Y., 

 designed as a substitute for the cow catcher now generally used in 

 front of locomotives on railroads. The object is to clear the track not 

 only from cows, but all other objects obstructing the passage of the 



The cow catcher now in use does not invariably succeed in throw- 

 ing the obstacle from the track. It frequently passes over it, suffering 

 the obstacle to remain, when the whole train passes over it, often 

 throwing the cars from the track. The design of Mr. Darling's inven- 

 tion is to render more certain the work of clearing the track, and 



