92 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



NEW METHOD OF EXTRACTING COLORING MATTERS. 



At a recent meeting of the Society of Civil Engineers, M. Loysel 

 exhibited a simple and ingenious apparatus for extracting coloring matters 

 from dye-woods, and also for obtaining infusions or extracts of vegetable 

 substances for medicinal or other purposes. The principle of action was 

 that of direct hydrostatic pressure, applied by a simple and inexpensive 

 apparatus. The substance to be operated upon was placed within a cylin- 

 der whose bottom was finely perforated ; a similar pierced diaphragm was 

 placed over it, so as not to produce any pressure ; the liquid, either cold or 

 hot, was poured into an upper reservoir, whence it descended by a centre 

 tube to beneath the lower diaphragm, and was forced upwards by. the press- 

 ure through the superposed substance, every particle of which is saturated 

 in its passage, expelling the air, and carrying before it all the finest portions 

 to the upper strata, against the under side of the upper diaphragm. When 

 a sufficient quantity of liquid had been passed, or the infusion was com- 

 pleted, a cock was opened, which permitted the infusion to return from 

 above, by its own specific gravity, through the substance already operated 

 upon, thus completing the abstraction of any coloring or other matter not 

 previously taken up, and at the same time filtering the liquid. By a 

 second and similar process, any thing still remaining in the substance could 

 be extracted. It was practicable, by varying the height of the column, to 

 give any degree of pressure ; and by the application of a lamp, or, in a large 

 apparatus, of a coke fire, the temperature of the decoction could be main- 

 tained as might be desirable. By another modification, the steam generated 

 in a small boiler regulated the action of the apparatus. The system was 

 described as being adapted to very numerous purposes, and the familiar 

 application of it to making coffee was exhibited ; the apparatus consisted 

 of one vase, either of glass, china, or metal, whose cover, on being reversed, 

 formed the reservoir and pressure column, and in a very few minutes clear 

 strong coffee was produced. 







CARYL'S FLAX- CLEANING MACHINE. 



In this machine, the flax straw is fed upon an endless apron, and passed 

 between several pairs of fluted rollers, to break the wood, thence through a 

 pair of feed rollers, armed with coarse cards, the teeth being hooked towards 

 the fluted rollers, to prevent the flax from being thrown too rapidly into 

 the machine by the picker. 



The picker is a cylinder four feet in diameter, having on its periphery 

 from sixteen to thirty-two bars, three feet long. On each of these bars is 

 a row of teeth, and between each of the bars are rods at a distance of three- 

 quarters of an inch apart, which rods hold the flax up to the cards above, 

 but at the same time permitting the dirt to fall through them. Above this 

 picker are cards three inches wide and three feet long, through which the 



