MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 31 



as a head, a cap for oozing staves, and as a head-hoop, all combined in 

 one. The head may be screwed on, the flanch or hoop part of the 

 head having a female screw cut on it which cuts a worm for itself, 

 and embeds in the stave as it goes on ; or it may be barbed with con- 

 centric rings, and driven on with a hammer. This latter method, the 

 patentee considers as generally preferable. The advantages of this 

 improvement for preventing leakage and furthering the durability of 

 the casks are considered to be very great. 



Mr. Connolly also recommends the construction of casks of iron in 

 the place of wood, with heads applied in accordance with his improve- 

 ment. The body of the cask might be rolled out in one piece, or it 

 might be of two, three, or more pieces, which, being ground at joints, 

 or rebated, or tongued and grooved and put together in any way with 

 packing, would insure a tight joint, if well bound, as at present, with 

 hoops. A cask so constructed, of boiler-iron, could be more readily 

 " shooked " and " set up " than a wooden one. If dented, it could be 

 beaten out. No more shrinkage, with its consequent leakage and 

 labor, would then occur. Such casks would last for generations. 



A NEW BRICK AND MORTAR ELEVATOR. 



There is no operation in all the arts in which the waste of labor is 

 more palpable than that of carrying up brick and mortar in erecting 

 buildings. In order to raise forty or fifty pounds, the hod-carrier is 

 required to exert muscular effort to raise his own weight (some one 

 hundred and fifty pounds) in addition, thus involving a waste of about 

 three-fourths of the power expended. An invention to economize the 

 power required in this operation, devised by Mr. T. F. Christman, of 

 Wilson, North Carolina, is substantially as follows : An endless chain, 

 formed of iron links, passes around two pulleys, one at the ground, 

 and the other at the top of the wall. The pulleys have spurs which 

 take into holes in. the belt, to prevent slipping, and the upper pulley 

 is furnished with a crank for turning it. Hoppers are secured upon 

 the upper side of the belt for receiving the brick, and as the wall rises, 

 the belt is lengthened bv the insertion of additional links, which are 



/ 



furnished with hooks so that this may be readily done. Scientific 

 American. 



NEW MATERIAL APPLIED TO THE ARTS. 



At the great London Exhibition, 1862, a new material applied to 

 the manufacture of fancy articles, such as picture-frames, canes, inlaid- 

 work, &c., attracted considerable attention. It is obtained from sev- 

 eral species of marine plants, washed up on the shores in the vicinity 

 of the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa, but principally from the 

 lamlnaria buccinalis. It is of a dark color, and when fresh, it is thick 

 and fleshy, but when it is dried it becomes compact and its surface 

 looks like a beautifully-grained deer's horn. After it becomes dry 

 and hard it can be rendered soft again by steeping in water, and in 

 this condition it may be stretched and formed into various shapes. 

 When dry it can also be reduced to powder, then made plastic by 

 soaking in water, and in this condition it may be struck into almost 

 any shape in a die press. It comes out of the moulds like articles 

 formed of gutta percha. The discoverer of the use of this substance 



