122 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



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The pump for general purposes is manufactured entirely of cast-iron. The 

 lower portion of the case is spherical, and is closely fitted by the spherical 

 side of a casting at the foot of the shaft, which shaft, in this case, is assumed 

 to be vertical. This casting is nearly a hemisphere, the top being somewhat 

 conical instead of flat the general form of the casting approximating to that 

 of a boy's spinning-top inverted. Imagine this nearly hemispherical mass 

 sawed nearly in two by a vertical cut commencing at the apex, and insert in 

 the opening thus made a semi-circular disk of metal, straight side uppermost. 

 This disk will represent the feather alluded to. Lay a flat cover upon the 

 point of the cone and incline it until it bears fair upon the inclined surface of 

 the cone. Tin's cover will represent the flat side of the nearly spherical case, 

 and a rude model of Carpenter's pump will be the result. On revolving the 

 internal mass by the aid of a shaft continued upward from the point of the 

 cone and passing out obliquely through a stuffing-box in the flat side of the 

 case, the feather will oscillate so as always to bear with its straight edge 

 against the flat side of the case. A screw at the base allows of driving up 

 the whole shaft, and with it the sector of a sphere described, to compensate 

 for any wear of its upper surfaces ; and as this driving upward of the interior 

 work would increase the space below and make a leak at that point, provision 

 is made for preventing this by a very simple modification of the form of the 

 parts, which insures a tight joint at the largest part of the pump hi all cases ; 

 and to prevent any flow of water through the slot in which the feather acts, 

 the slot or split is not made continuously across, but is interrupted in the 

 middle by a solid partition, and a triangular portion is cut from the feather to 

 correspond thereto and allow of its free vibrating motion. 



Gray's Improved Pump. In this pump, invented by S. H. Gray, of Bridge- 

 port, Conn., two pistons are employed in one cylinder, both operated by one 

 handle or lever. The improvement consists in a novel means of operating 

 the pistons. A shaft passes transversely through the center of the pump- 

 barrel, within which, on the shaft, a cogged pinion-wheel is placed. The 

 piston-rods have teeth on them like a rack, and gear with the pinion. Outside 

 of the pump, and attached to one end of the shaft, there is a handle or lever, 

 by working which back and forth, the pistons are operated. No piston-rod, 

 it will be noted, is seen t>n the outside, since all the moving parts, except the 

 lever, are confined inside of the pump. By the use of this invention two 

 separate streams of water can be discharged, if desired, or a single continuous 

 one. It is, in effect, the combination of two of the ordinary pumps into one 

 apparatus, at a cost which exceeds only by a trifle the expense of the single 

 pump. The prominent advantages are, doubling the capacity, and therefore 

 the utility, without much increasing the cost. Scientific American. 



BROAD-CAST MANURE DISTRIBUTER. 



The object of this invention, which has received a prize from the Royal 

 Agricultural Society of England, is to distribute regularly all kinds of natural 

 and artificial manures, even the most difficult ones used as top-dressing, 

 such as nitrate of soda, salt, guano, and soot. The manure is delivered from 



