92 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



and pulleys attached to the machine for facilitating the operations of 

 the different parts, which are included in the invention and form a 

 part of it, Scientific American. 



DITCHING MACHINE. 



THE following is a description of a machine recently invented by 

 Charles Bishop, of Ohio, for the purpose of excavating ditches by 

 horse power. The machine is provided with a revolving excavator, 

 the shaft or axle of which lies in the direction of the length of the 

 ditch. The excavator is of a screw form, and is operated by an end- 

 less chain. The ditch is cut of a semi-circular form, and it deposits 

 the cut clay or other kind of excavated earth in a box, from whence 

 it is delivered at one side of the road by scrapers attached to the end- 

 less chain, the machine being propelled forward by a friction wheel, 

 or roller, moving in the ditch, and operated by the excavator's shaft. 

 Cleveland Visiter. 



PATENT SPOONS. 



INVENTIONS generally claim the attention of the public from their 

 real, or fancied importance, but occasionally some are brought into 

 notice from their very insignificance, or from some inherent absurdity 

 in their design or object. Of such a character as the latter class, is 

 an invention of Mr. I. C. Taylor, of Ohio, of a spoon for administer- 

 ing medicine, which is thus described in the claim of the patent 

 granted February, 1852. " I claim the particular construction of my 

 spoon with a sliding bottom, and a piston slide, exactly fitting the cav- 

 ity of the spoon, and the sliding rod so arranged, that it may be slid 

 in the same moment that the slide tongue or bottom is drawn out, 

 thereby quickly emptying the spoon of its contents. 



" I do not claim that mv spoon should be a graduating or measuring 



T * ^ ^ 



spoon, but merely for administering medicines already graduated by a 

 physician." 



MANUFACTURE OF GUTTA-PERCHA. 



THE following is a general description of the method of preparing 

 and manufacturing gutta-percha, as followed in the large English 

 establishments. The crude blocks of gutta-percha, as received from 

 the docks, are in the first place cut into slices by means of a machine 

 formed of a circular iron plate of about sixty inches diameter : in this 

 iron plate are three slots placed radially for the reception of as many 

 knives or cutters ; the blocks being placed in an inclined wooden 

 shoot, an end of each is set in the plane of rotation of the cutters ; 

 the slices thus cut off are transferred in baskets, though machinery 

 might readily be applied for the purpose, to a wooden tank containing 

 hot water, in which they are left to soak until they are found to be in a 

 plastic state. The next part of the process is to subject the material 



