MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. Ill 



is conveyed to the scribbler (the axis of the roller or spool placed 

 in suitable supports), and made to bear or rest on a second roller 

 or drum, which ha,s a slow, uniform rotary motion communicated 

 to it, whereby the waste threads are uniformly delivered into the 

 sliver as it comes off the scribbler. The sliver passes to the con- 

 densing carding engine in the usual way. 



Pentagrapliic Embroidery is a name applied to an ingenious 

 method of performing needle-work, invented by Mr. Billwiller, of 

 St. Gall, England. A number of jointed frames are employed, each 

 carrying tambouring or sewing apparatus. They are so arranged 

 and connected together that the needles they carry may be made 

 to traverse in any direction over the surfaces of the fabrics to be 

 embroidered, and that the movements of the several needles shall 

 be simultaneous and similar. The needle-frames are also con- 

 nected with apentagraph having a tracing point capable of being; 

 led by the workman over the lines of a pattern which it is desired 

 to cop} 7 , and when this is done the needles will each travel in and 

 work along a path similar to that passed over by the tracing point. 

 Thus each needle will produce embroidery resembling the pattern, 

 but not necessarily of the same size ; usually it is preferred that 

 the pattern should be on a larger scale than the work produced 

 by its means. 



Paving Streets French consists, first, in the employment 

 of wood disintegrated into fragments, of as great a length as 

 possible, in the construction of rides and bridle-paths, carriage- 

 drives, riding-schools, and training-grounds, streets and roads of 

 all kinds. Second, in the employment of disintegrated wood of 

 shorter length than the preceding, in the construction of foot- 

 paths of all kinds for promenades and gardens. Third, in the 

 employment of disintegrated wood, mixed or not with pitch or 

 with antiseptic material, or both, as a cushion for supporting the 

 sleepers of railways. Fourth, in the employment of this disinte- 

 grated wood, mixed with pitch obtained from gas tar or otherwise, 

 or with natural asphalte or bitumen in the construction of roads, 

 footways of streets, public drives, and any description of works 

 in which asphalte is ordinarily emplo}"ed. 



Sir William Fairbairn, of Manchester, England, has invented 

 an improvement in Steam Boilers in which he combines together 

 3 cylindrical shells of boiler plate. He arranges them parallel 

 the one to the other, and horizontally, or nearly so. Two of the 

 cylinders, which are set side by side, are each traversed from end 

 to end by an internal tube, in which are the furnaces, and these 

 cylinders each communicate with the third cylinder, which is 

 placed over and between them, by 3 or other number of pipes or 

 passages, of sufficient size to allow the steam -generated in the 

 lower cylinders to escape freely into the upper, and to allow the 

 water freely to circulate. 



A Liverpool inventor has patented a taper or Friction Light, 

 which is made after the following formula: He takes 1 ounce 



^j 



saltpetre, one-half ounce powdered orris-root, one-eighth ounce 

 of minium, and 1 ounce of phosphorus, or any other convenient 

 friction-match composition. To these ingredients, the phospho- 



