MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 129 



a continued sound, but short and crisp, like a musical-box, and capable of 

 being mixed with the ordinary tone. It has been played upon at a concert 

 and much admired, the pieces being encored. 



3. By a certain disposition of the strings, Mr. Driggs enables the two 

 strings, giving to each one note, and tuned accordingly in unison, to be tuned 

 together by a single and easy turn of the tuning-fork. This is certainly a 

 great improvement. It lessens the labor of tuning the piano, and secures a 

 more complete accordance in the hands of most < tuners. It must take the 

 place of the old piano in use. New York Tribune. 



MISCELLANEOUS IZSTVEXTIONS. 



Ornamenting Wood. Thomas Clayton, of Oldham, England, has obtained a 

 patent, for transferring the designs of graining on choice wood, such as mahog- 

 any, rosewood, yew, etc., from engraved metallic heated rollers, or flat sur- 

 faces, to the surfaces of common woods, such as pine, whereby a close imita- 

 tation of choice and expensive woods is produced. 



Narbleizing the Surface of Stone. Mr. J. Claudot, of Paris, has recently ob- 

 tained a patent for covering the surface of common stone or plaster of Paris 

 figures with a coating of marble, as follows : He lays upon the surface of the 

 stone successive coats of milk of lime, allowing each to dry before the other is 

 put on. When these coats have attained to a proper thickness; he smooths 

 them down and polishes them until the surface resembles marble in brilliancy. 

 Carbonic acid is then applied upon the outer surfaces, when it becomes real' 

 marble. The milk of lime may be colored so as to produce the exact appear- 

 ance of variegated marble. 



Arrangement for Washing Windows. A useful and novel arrangement for 

 washing windows has been in vented by G-. A. Meacham, of'N. Y. It is per- 

 haps the first attempt to reduce to an exact science the principles of this 

 sloppy, sploshy, and intrinsically hateful operation. An oil-cloth protection is 

 stretched on an extensible frame across the window-sill, to catch the drippings, 

 and a sponge filled with clean water is applied by a pole to every portion 

 of the glass surface. The sponge is kept wet by a small hose-pipe of India 

 rubber, which leads up to a pail previously suspended at a higher level, and 

 the operation is completed by removing the sponge and allowing the water to 

 flow through a nose and rinse of? the last remaining particles. 



Freeing Canal Boats from Water. An invention of William Loughridge, of 

 "Weverton. Md., has for its object the discharge of tho leakage from canal 

 boats and other vessels without the employment of pumps. It consists in the 

 peculiar arrangement of a float in the interior of the vessel combined with a 

 tube operating on the syphon principle, by which the discharge is rendered 

 automatic, and the vessel freed from its leakage at all tunes, without the as- 

 sistance of the crew, rendering examinations as to the quantity of water made 

 unnecessary, and obviating the necessity for a watch to pump out during the 

 night. 



Absentees' Register. The Boston Medical Journal notices the invention of a 

 useful little contrivance called the Absentees' Register, for indicating the hour 



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