72 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



ford, in 1836. For the first five years the average annual imports 

 were five hundred and sixty thousand pounds. In 1851, they were 

 2,186,480 pounds; the increase being principally owing to the great 

 demands of Mr. Salt and a few other Yorkshire manufacturers. The 

 mohair or goats' wool of Angola was introduced about the same time 

 as the alpaca. The quantity of mohair imported in 1841, was 1,011,780 

 pounds ; in 1851, it was 1,943,280 pounds. 



FOREMAN'S PROCESS FOR RAISING SHIPS. 



In this arrangement for raising sunken vessels, cast-iron generators 

 containing wet gunpowder are employed. These are connected with 

 a cast-iron retort or purifier filled with water, from which passes a 

 coil of cast-iron tube. The whole apparatus is placed in a box about 

 6 feet square and two feet high, which is filled with water. From 

 the end of the coil a hose, dividing in two parts, passes to casks lashed 

 to the sides of the vessel to be operated on. The powder in the gen- 

 erators is then ignited, and the gases generated by its combustion pass 

 by means of the hose and pipe into the casks, and displace the water 

 with which they are filled, holes having been made in the bottom of 

 the cask. The buoyancy of the confined air raises the vessel. 



IMPROVED SYPHON. 



W. Lover, a Dublin surgeon, has invented an ingenious syphon, 

 which promises to be useful for philosophical purposes. It consists in 

 adding an elastic bag to the longer leg of the instrument, communi- 

 cating freely with it a little above the extremity. When intended for 

 use, the air is to be expelled from the bag by pressing it with one 

 hand, and the end of the tube close to it is to be shut by a finger of 

 the other, if there be no cock upon it. Upon plunging the shorter 

 leg of the instrument into the fluid to be drawn off, and releasing the 

 bag without removing the finger from the end of the tube, the partial 

 vacuum which will be created within it will raise the fluid over the 

 bend of the tube, and fill the longer leg. It will then only be neces- 

 sary to remove the finger, or to open the cock, to set the syphon in 

 action. This is evidently a convenient means of filling the instru- 

 ment, far preferable to suction, or to pouring fluid into it beforehand. 



IMPROVEMENT IN PICKERS AND GINS. 



A new picking machine has been invented by R. Kitson, of Lowell, 

 which possesses some features of novelty. The object of the machine 

 is to get rid of the impurities contained in the cotton or rags to be 

 picked, by blowing them out at the time of picking, instead of sub- 

 jecting them to a second operation for this purpose; and also consists 

 in a new mode of attaching the picking teeth to the cylinder. The 

 machine contains two cylinders, having within them fan blowers cre- 

 ating a strong blast, which pass through openings in the periphery of 



