36 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



of cheapness and efficiency of action. The parts may be chiefly made 

 of wood, and the cost is insignificant compared with the working ca- 

 pacity of the machine. Instead of the rollers on either side of the 

 receiving cylinders, two horizontal tablets may be substituted. In 

 connection with this mode of confining the cotton, attachments sup- 

 ported from the carriage are necessary to impart a traverse motion to 

 the bale. A machine of this description was exhibited at the late 

 Fair of the Massachusetts Mechanics' Association in Boston, and 

 elicited the award of a gold medal to the inventor. In this machine, 

 cotton was compressed to the density of more than forty pounds per 

 cubic foot, and while effecting this enormous condensation, nearly 

 threefold what is attained by the common plantation press, the power 

 of one man applied to the driving-pulley was found sufficient to over- 

 come the resistance. Several of these machines have been ordered by 

 parties from Georgia, and are shortly to be forwarded to their destina- 

 tion. Editors. 



GRAIN-DRYER. 



MR. CHARLES S. SNEAD, of Louisville, Ky., has invented a very 

 excellent grain-dryer. It is composed of a number of hollow semi- 

 spherical tubes, the upper part of which are concave, so as to receive 

 the grain. These pipes, being hollow, are heated by steam, and any 

 number of them are set at a small distance apart, above one another, 

 firmly secured to a frame. There is an opening made through every 

 one, to allow the grain to drop from one to the other, thus pass- 

 ing through and over the whole set of tubes. There are a number of 

 rakes placed at different distances apart on radiating arms, and these 

 rakes are set in motion by a band and pulley driving the vertical shaft, 

 on which the rake-arms are secured. They thus continually stir the 

 grain and carry it forward and around each tube, pushing it into the 

 opening, whence it drops into the next tube, and so on, till it comes 

 out at the bottom perfectly dry. The grain is delivered to the ma- 

 chine by a hopper at the top. Scientific American, April 20. 



ANTI-FRICTION PRESS. 



THE Scientific American for March 30 gives a description of Dick's 

 anti-friction press, adapted for pressing cotton, punching, straighten- 

 ing railroad-iron, embossing, and for every kind of pressing. It is 

 compact, and presents a most important arrangement of mechanical 

 powers, to avoid friction. The great principle of this invention is the 

 saving and centralizing of the power, by directing the power, which 

 is applied through a line of contact points, and reducing very much 

 the loss usually caused by friction. Its general construction is as 

 follows. An upright frame has two partial rotating cams, placed 

 one above the other, and between them an axle passes, having a cog- 

 wheel near each extremity, so as to be outside of the cams, but within 

 the frame, the axle being allowed to move slightly in its bearings. 

 Pinions on fixed axles, one on each side, key into the cog-wheels, and 



