MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 103 



notice of the Society, which consists in taking the casts of the types, 

 not in gypsum or stucco, but in blotting paper, overlaid with a thin 

 layer of whiting, starch and flour-paste, covered with a sheet of tissue 

 paper, and impressed on the types by means of beating it with a fine 

 brush. It is then dried on a hot steam-chest, while still adhering to 

 the types ; and by this means a matrix is produced, and the types are 

 again ready for distribution by the compositors within an hour. The 

 advantages, he said, of the new process are : 1st. The greater cer- 

 tainty of the process ; the new matrix not being liable to warp or 

 break, as the stucco is, or to remain in the smaller interstices of the 

 types, so as to require revision by the picker. 2d. The greater 

 rapidity, the process being completed in one hour by it, which could 

 not be done in less than six by the other. 3d. The practicability of 

 using the matrix in certain cases for casting several plates ; whereas, 

 the stucco mould is always destroyed in a single casting. 4th. The 

 much greater simplicity of the apparatus required ; which, added to 

 the economy of time, and the consequent diminution of the quantity 

 of type required for the compositors, give the important economic 

 results which form the great merit of the new plan. A mould was 

 made, and a cast taken, in presence of the meeting. Edinburgh 

 Courant. 



IMPROVEMENT IN OIL LAMPS. 



Nathan Buchanan, of Johnston, R. I., has invented a new mode of 

 supplying the wicks of lamps with oil. The improvement is the 

 employment of additional wicks placed by the side of the burning 

 wick, and in close contact with it at the top, for the purpose of sup- 

 plying it with a greater amount of oil than it is capable of taking up 

 itself. The burning wick is thus rendered less liable to char, and con- 

 sequently needs less attention. Scientific American. 



IMPROVEMENT IN SCALES. 



Mr. Burnap, of Hartford, Ct., has devised a new arrangement of 

 scales for weighing light or heavy weights. The principle employed 

 differs from that of the ordinary scales in this respect the weight is 

 indicated by fluid, which is forced upwards through a transparent 

 glass tube on which the different figures for pounds, ounces, &c., are 

 marked, like those of a thermometer. The fluid is introduced through 

 a small aperture (which regulates the force of the pressure) to a flat, 

 shallow cavity beneath the platform on which the weight descends, 

 and a remarkable degree of precision is obtained by the employment 

 of vulcanized India-rubber as a covering to the fluid. 



HICKOK'S IMPROVED CIDER MILL. 



In the arrangement of this mill, invented by TV. O. Hickok, of 

 Harrisburg, Pa., the labor is divided by arranging a cutting cylinder 



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