1827.] [ 433 ] 



PATENTS FOR MECHANICAL AND CHEMICAL INVENTIONS. 



NeiD Patents sealed, 1827. 



To Gabriel de Soras, of Leicester-square, 

 in the County of Middlesex, gentleman ; and 

 Stacey Wise, and Charles Wise, of Maid- 

 stone, in the County of Kent, paper- makers, 

 in consequence of a communication made to 

 them by a certain foreigner resident abroad, 

 for an invention of certain improvements in 

 siaing, glazing, or beautifying, the mate- 

 rials employed in the manufacturing of paper, 

 pasteboard, Bristol boards, and other sub- 

 stances Sealed 21st August; 6 months for 

 inrollrnent. 



To John Hague, of Cable-street, Well 

 Close-square, in the parish of St. George in 

 the East, in the county of Middlesex, engi- 

 neer, for his invention of a new method of 

 working cranes or till hammers 30th Au- 

 gust ; 2 months. 



To Benjamin Merriman Combs, of Bir- 

 mingham, in the county of Warwick, iron- 

 monger, for his invention of certain improve- 

 ments, or additions to a pulley machinery, 

 and apparatus used and applied for securing, 

 fixing, and moving curtains and roller, and 

 other blinds 30th August ; 2 months. 



To William Debtmer, of Upper Mary-le- 



bone Street, Fitzroy-square, in the county of 

 Middlesex, piano-forte maker, for his inven- 

 tion of certain improvements on piano-fortes 

 30th August ; 6 months. 



To William John Ford, of the parish of 

 Mildenhall, in the county of Suffolk, farrier, 

 for his invention of certain improvements in 

 the make, use, and application of bridle bits 

 6th September ; 2 months. 



To George Clymer, of Finsbury Street, 

 Finsbury-square, in the county of Middlesex, 

 engineer, for his invention of an improve- 

 ment in typographic printing, between plain 

 or flat surfaces 6th September ; 6 mouths. 



List of Patents, which, having been granted 



in October 1813, expire in the present 



month of October 1827. 



15. Henry Osborne, Warwick, for his wze- 

 thod of making tools for tapering cylinders 

 of different descriptions, made of iron, steel, 

 metal, or mixture of metals; and also for 

 tapering bars of the same. 



18. Robertson Buchanan, Glasgow, for 

 his improvements in the means of impelling 

 vessels and machinery. 



BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS OF EMINENT PERSONS. 



UGO FOSCOLO. 



This elegant and accomplished scholar, 

 whose name and writings have long been 

 familiar to the British literati, was born in 

 the Island of Zante, about the year 1777. 

 He spent many of his early years amongst 

 the Ionian islands, where, and in the city of 

 Venice and its vicinity, he chiefly received 

 his education. He studied also at Padua. 

 His career, literary as well as military, ap- 

 pears to have been commenced in 1795 } 

 when Italy was convulsed by revolutionary 

 commotions. At the period when French 

 arms and French principles had subverted the 

 Venetian republic, he became an active par- 

 tisan. His first drama, written at the early 

 age of nineteen, was Tieste. In this produc- 

 tion he stood forward as the rival of Count 

 Pepoli, and the Marquess Pondemonte, 

 whose dramas, he regretted to observe, were 

 preferred by the Venetians even to those of 

 Alfieri. Tieste was first represented upon 

 the same evening when two pieces were to 

 appear at different theatres, from the pens 

 of the Count and the Marquess. Despising 

 the taste of the day, Foscolo, writing upon 

 the model of the Greek poets, went beyond 

 Alfieri's simplicity and severity of manner. 

 The success of the piece, which retains its 

 celebrity to the present day, was decided. 

 To its publication by the actors, in the tenth 

 volume of the Teatro Italiano Applaudito, 



MM. New Series.VvL. IV. No. 22. 



a warm panegyric was subjoined. Foscolo, 

 in contempt, as it were of praise, wrote a 

 severe critique upon his own tragedy, and 

 ascribed its success entirely to its servile ad- 

 herence to the ancient model. His anony- 

 mous strictures were received with extreme 

 indignation, especially by the votaries of the 

 Venetian theatre, where a portrait of the 

 young poet was triumphantly exhibited in 

 reply. Tieste has only four characters ; but 

 its abrupt and energetic style, its strength 

 and vivacity of passion, and the mysterious 

 terror which pervades its closing scenes im- 

 part to it an interest amounting to pain. 



When the Venetian provinces were trans- 

 ferred to the despotic authority of Austria, 

 Foscolo quitted Venice with indignation* 

 He proceeded to Bologna, and, while there, 

 he wrote his celebrated work, the Letters of 

 Jocopo Ortis, a political performance, con- 

 stituting a vehicle for the author's own opi- 

 nions, and forcibly representing his own per- 

 sonal feelings and character. The story, 

 though simple, abounds with touching inci- 

 dents and traits of nature. It speedily went 

 through three editions. 



Foscolo entered into the Italian army, and, 

 in a short time became a captain. He was 

 afterwards professor of eloquence in the Uni- 

 versity of Pavia, in which office he gained 

 high reputation. Melzi, the vice president 

 of the republic, conferred an annual salary 



3K 



