120 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



feeble. "When a person enters the hall or entry where this lamp is placed, 

 the door, as it is opened, is made to slide down the outer wick tube, so as to 

 give greater light then, and by closing and opening the door again, the tube 

 will be moved up to shield the wick, so as to save oil or fluid when a full 

 light is not required. This principle of operation covers gas lights, and those 

 obtained from burning fluids of any kind. The same operation applied to a 

 fork on the cock of a gas pipe, will so operate it as to give a bright and feeble 

 light by opening and closing an entry or hall door. 



IMPROVED BASIN STOP-COCK. 



In city dwelling-houses, where water is conveyed through the apartments 

 in pipes, it is usual to furnish the wash basins with stop-cocks, the handles 

 of which are hollow, and so arranged that when you pull the handle forward, 

 the water discharges through it into the basin, and when you push it back 

 the liquid ceases to flow. These stop-cocks, although ornamental and exceed- 

 ingly convenient, possess, nevertheless, some defects. An invention by Mr. 

 Eling of New York City, prevents the possibility of a careless overflow, by 

 arranging a self-acting spring within the stop-cock, in such a manner that the 

 water will run so long as you hold the handle in proper position ; but the 

 moment you let go, it flies back, and the water stops. 



BRAMBLE'S AUTOMATIC GRAIN SCALE. 



In this self-acting scale, a trough-shaped box, divided into two compartments 

 by a partition running lengthwise, receives the grain from a reservoir placed 

 above. The box rests on a weighing apparatus ; the grain falls in a steady 

 stream. When a sufficient quantity to balance the scales has fallen into the 

 box, the latter cants over a little and shuts the spout, thus stopping off the 

 grain ; at the same moment a valve in the bottom of the box opens and the 

 grain therein slips out, weighed and measured, into a bag ; the box then tips 

 back again, opens the spout, and receives a new load. 



The whole apparatus includes in fact an elevator to continually carry up the 

 grain to a reservoir or bin, as well as the measuring apparatus for letting it 

 down. The first process, the elevating, requires steam power; but the latter, 

 the measuring, does not, the whole movement being effected in this case by the 

 gravity of the descending grain. This machine weighs off the grain, indicating 

 the amount by a dial, and may beset to weigh any desired number of bushels, 

 stopping itself when the number is completed. The whole affair is extremely 

 simple, containing no delicate members except in the scale-beam where the 

 weight is indicated. The quantity weighed at each draft is three bushels, and 

 five drafts are taken per minute, so that it is practicable to weigh off with ac- 

 curacy nine hundred bushels per hour. The point wherein this scale differs 

 from all other attempts by the same and other inventors is in checking the 

 flow of grain before the weight is completed. It has been found that a large 

 stream of gram rushing with rapidity into any scale, exerts a considerable force 

 by its momentum in addition to its gravity, and it is difficult to calculate and 



