112 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



and four circular saws, which cut the entire pins and dovetails doing away 

 with the necessity of chisels, and performing the work in a manner which can 

 not be done by hand. The dovetailing process, as is well known, has always 

 been a most tedious and difficult task. Every joint had to be accurately 

 marked out, and cut with a chisel by the hand ; and in making the drawers 

 of bureaus and other case-work, the expense has been very great. By Bur- 

 ley's machine, seventy-five to a hundred drawers can be neatly, substantially, 

 and beautifully dovetailed in an hour. Better even, much better and stronger 

 is the work than when done by hand, for the weary artisan is likely to slight 

 some of his corners and finish in cutting the joints. The machine cuts the 

 mortise with a precision and accuracy which renders every joint perfect. 

 There is also a machine working on the same principle, and coming under the 

 same Burley patent, designed for box dovetailing, the first invention being 

 adapted peculiarly to cabinet-work and drawers. The main advantages of 

 the machine are, that the operator can dovetail from eighty to one hundred 

 boxes in an hour, and without extraordinar}'- exertion, and yet the joints will 

 be perfectly strong and neat. Hoops and nails in all kinds of boxes, however 

 large, are dispensed with, and the packages for heavy goods are rendered 

 quite as strong as if hooped with iron. All kinds of wood, whether clear or 

 otherwise, are worked with equal facility. The advantages, therefore, of this 

 machine in the manufacture of soap and candle-boxes, sugar-boxes, packages 

 for dry goods, etc., can not be overrated. 



Waifs Lathe for cutting irregular forms. Mr. P. H. "Wait, of Backersville, 

 N. J., has recently patented an improvement upon Blanchard's well-known 

 turning lathe the first automatic machine ever made which was capable of 

 producing an exact copy of an irregular pattern. The frame of Mr. "Wait's 

 machine looks somewhat like a saw-horse, for it consists of four arms, crossed 

 and hung on a central shaft. The upper ends of the arms are furnished with 

 revolving cutters, which bear against the stuff to be turned. The lower ends 

 of the amis are made to embrace the pattern between them, being pressed up 

 against it by means of springs. It should be observed that the frame does 

 not revolve, but the arms move on the shaft, which serves as a pivot. When 

 the pattern is made to revolve, the lower ends of the arms follow its irreg- 

 ularities, and thus correspondingly move the cutters to or from the stuff to be 

 turned. There are two sets of cutters, and consequently two copies of the 

 pattern are simultaneously turned. The chief advantages of this machine 

 over Blanchard's and other lathes for turning irregular forms consist, first, in 

 causing the guide-arms or pattern-followers to embrace the pattern, so that 

 no matter how long and slender the pattern may be, it can never give way or 

 bend.. Second, in producing two copies of the pattern at once ; or, in other 

 words, doubling the quantity of work produced without any additional com- 

 plication of the machine. 



Wurttts Wood Lathe. In this invention there are two sliding rests, one on 

 each side of the stuff, which carry the cutting tools. The rests move slowly 

 along the whole length of the machine, and, during their progress, are made 

 to play in and out laterally, and so cause the cutters to act on the wood ; 

 this lateral play of the rests is produced by means of guide-plates located on 



