MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 131 



cable. It consists in a method of constructing either a bolt-head or a nut, as 

 the case may require, whereby the screwing up of the nut or the bolt causes 

 it to expand, and makes it fit tightly within any opening or hole within which 

 it is inserted, and so wedges it in that it can not be directly drawn out. 



Uncorking and Decanting Machine, This consists of a neat little ornamental 

 metal stand, carrying an inclined rest for the reception of the bottle during 

 the process of uncorking. At the part where the bottle-neck projects over 

 the frame-standard is a cork-screw, which steadily withdraws the cork from 

 the neck. Clamped in position upon the frame, and all strain being within 

 the frame itself, no shaking can ever arise. "When the cork is out the butler 

 tips up the holding rest, with the bottle with it, to the required angle for de- 

 canting the contents, without disturbing the crust or sediment. London 

 Practical Mechanics' Journal. 



Improvement in Water- Pipes. Mr. "Waite, of Leeds, England, has patented 

 water-pipes formed internally of white delf, with a glazing like that of porce- 

 lain, and surrounded and compacted with a thick covering of a sort of concrete, 

 forming a strong and impervious substance not liable to decay, and as capable 

 of resisting violence as iron-pipes, and more economically produced. They 

 are also said to be well adapted for gas-pipes, and to be so air-tight as to pre- 

 vent leakage. 



THOMPSON'S IMPROVED LIFE-PRESERVER. 



This invention, by Mr. Nathan Thompson, of New York, is designed to 

 serve the purpose of a seat on all ordinary occasions ; but, unlike the other 

 forms of life-preserving seats, when employed as a preserver, it encircles the 

 body like a belt, and may be supposed capable, if perfectly tight, of sustaining 

 the body not only after the hands are too weak or numb to grasp one of the 

 ordinary kind, but even after life is extinct ; and the skeleton of the lonely 

 voyager may be supposed to drift backward and forward until a storm should 

 wash it from its secure position. Although the latter stretch of imagination 

 may not of itself be particularly soothing to the nerves, the superiority of such 

 a device over the ordinary canister-shaped seats can not well be questioned. 

 Thompson's is hi fact a species of double box, the halves being hinged to- 

 gether in such a manner, that when folded together it forms a compact seat, 

 and when extended, produces a kind of rectangular float, with a sufficient 

 aperture in the center to admit the body of a stout man. It this position, 

 with the arms hanging over the sides, the support would be much better and 

 more prolonged than by any method of grasping the legs of a stool. New 

 York Tribune. 



IMPROVEMENT IN TAILORS' MEASURES. 



An improvement hi tailors' measures has been recently patented by John 

 M. Krider, of Middletowu, Va. Various instruments for taking the measure 

 of persons, hi order to cut the cloth accurately for garments, have been used ; 

 but these, it is stated in the patent of Mr. Krider, have been defective, "by 

 depending on the judgment in contracting the curved admeasurements, such 



