80 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



by which this desirable result had been attained was chiefly by an arrange- 

 ment, which permitted the four hundred spiral springs on the needles, 

 used in the old machine, to be dispensed with, when, as a consequence, 

 the force and wear and tear due to their resistance would be done away 

 with, and fine and light wires could be made to do the work of strong and 

 heavy ones. 



LOOMS FOR WEAVING BAGS. 



A very excellent improvement has been made in looms for weaving 

 seamless bags by George Copeland, of Lewiston, Me., who has taken 

 measures to secure the same by patent. This invention does not change 

 the general character of the loom from those commonly employed for 

 weaving plain or twilled fabrics, but consists chiefly in certain modes of 

 constructing, arranging, and operating some of the parts which require to 

 be duplicated. A loom constructed according to this invention requires 

 two sets of harness, either for plain or twilled weaving, according as a 

 Tjlain or twilled bag is required, and all the mechanism necessary to oper- 

 ate the two sets of harness, independently of each other. It also con- 

 tains two shuttle races, placed one above the other, in front of the same 

 reed, and employs two shuttles, which are both in operation at all times. 

 In weaving a bag, though only one warp is used, two independent sheds 

 are opened, one above the other, and the two shuttles follow one another 

 through the upper and lower sheds, and thus produce a fabric composed 

 of two parts united at the edges, one -half of the warp from which the up- 

 per sheds are formed composing one-half or one side of the bag, and the 

 other half from which the lower sheds are formed composing the other 

 half of the bag, the two parts of the fabrics thus formed only requiring 

 to be united at certain intervals, corresponding with the required depth of 

 the bags, to form a continuous web of bags, which, when finished, only 

 require to be cut across at proper intervals to separate them. The bot- 

 toms of the bags are formed without any stoppage of the weaving, by the 

 harness, and all the changes are effected by mechanism, which works with 

 the loom, the whole being self-acting. Scientific American. 



IMPROVEMENT IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF FLOUR BARRELS. 



Mr. Thomas Pearsall, of Tioga county, N. Y., has taken a patent for a 

 barrel especially adapted, as he thinks, to secure flour or meal from sour- 

 ing. His theory is, that the contents of the ordinary barrel commence to 

 heat in the centre of the mass, and that such heating might be prevented 

 by inserting a hollow tube in the centre of the barrel. His barrels are 

 made like those in ordinary xise, (except that they must be larger, to allow 

 of the same contents,) and the heads are bored with a three or four-inch 

 auger. The barrel is then taken with one head out ; a hollow tube fitting 

 the hole in the head, and open at both ends, is inserted in the remaining 



