56 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



FLOATING FILTERING-PUMP. 



A PATENT for a new floating filtering-pump has recently been granted, 

 in England, to Mr. S. Cheavers, of Lincolnshire. Its advantages are to pro- 

 cure a pure and wholesome, as well as an abundant supply of water ; 

 results which, it is believed, have not hitherto been combined in a 

 pump. The inventor states that the floating filtering-pump has been 

 tested in a tidal river, and is now used in an extensive brewery in 

 Spalding, where it furnishes an abundant and constant supply of whole- 

 some water, entirely free from sand-filth, which the old leaden pipes, by 

 being placed nearly to the bottom of the water, were in the constant 

 habit of contracting, thereby preventing the engine from obtaining a 

 sufficient quantity of water for the supply of the brewery; and, as a still 

 greater proof of its utility, it may be added, that it has been fre- 

 quently surrounded by the weeds and rubbish carried down the river, 

 and yet has never, in one single instance, failed to produce a copious 

 supply. Water is purer and sweeter at the surface than it is at the 

 bottom, and the floating filter totally ejects filth of every description, 

 such as worms, &c., and all impurities of the smallest kind. Tlje 

 common pump, in consequence of the pipe descending within six or 

 eight inches of the bottom, draws up with the pure water every 

 pernicious sediment within its reach. On the other hand, the floating 

 filter, by taking a supply of water within four or six inches of the 

 surface, and rising and falling with the water, at once secures it from all 

 sediment; and should there be any light filth floating in the same, the 

 filter totally ejects it, and will supply hundreds of tons of pure and 

 wholesome water daily, if required. The patent filter may be fixed to 

 tanks and butts, so as to remove all apprehension of unwholesomeness 

 in the water, by any impurity drawn up with it. The filter can be 

 attached, without difficulty, to pumps of the old construction. New 

 York Farmer and Mechanic. 



HOE'S PRINTING-PRESS. 



LA PATPJE, of Paris, while paying a compliment to one of our 

 American mechanics, Mr. Hoe, of New York, gives a description of the 

 working of his new printing-press, which we insert, instead of one which 

 we had ourselves prepared. 



" This press, the invention and manufacture of Mr. Hoe, prints off 

 133 copies in a minute. It often exceeds this number, because its 

 velocity and swiftness depend upon the speed with which the workmen 

 are able to supply the sheets of paper. When our journal, La Palrie, 

 first began to use this press, the workmen, or feeders, were only able to 

 feed it with 4,000 sheets per hour. But since they have acquired, by 

 constant practice, greater skill in their work, they sometimes supply the 

 enormous quantity of 8,760 sheets per hour, which the machine of Mr. 

 Hoe prints off. 



" It is now above four months since this press has been in constant 

 use and operation in our office. The proprietors are so well satisfied 

 with its performance, that they have given an order to Mr. Hoe for 



