MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 101 



hundred to two hundred and fifty pounds of cotton per day, in a 

 superior manner, but it can also be run to clean five hundred pounds. 

 Scientific American. 



CORK-CUTTING MACHINE. 



A cork-cutting machine, recently invented by Mr. Conroy, of Bos- 

 ton, Massachusetts, has the following construction and method of 

 working. A suitable apparatus first cuts the cork into parallelopipe- 

 dons, and then into smaller figures of the same kind, according to the 

 length of bung or cork required. These smaller pieces are brought 

 in contact with a knife mounted on a circular horizontal disc. The 

 disc is put in motion by a large wheel similar to a cutler's wheel, and 

 a band running over a drum in immediate connection with it ; or it 

 may be worked by steam-power. This disc, by means of gearing, 

 traverses a platform from right to left, and vice versa, by which ar- 

 rangement a cork is no sooner cut on one side than a cork is cut on 

 the other. The square body to be shaped into a rounded one is 

 placed in a groove ; the gearing seizes it in the manner of a piece of 

 wood in a turning-lathe, by its extremities, advances it to the edge of 

 the circular knife, and in an instant the rough block of cork appears 

 a shaped article wherewith to stop a beer barrel, a bottle of cham- 

 pagne, or a medicine vial. The ease with which this machine does 

 its work is surprising. A clever cork-cutter, working by the hand, 

 can turn out, on the average, eight gross of corks a day. By this 

 machine can be made fourteen gross of corks per hour. In a day of 

 ten hours, therefore, two men can produce 20,160 corks or bungs, 

 while two men by the hand, in the course of the same time, can turn 

 out only 2,304. The corks can be cut in perfect cylinders, or bevelled 

 to any angle required by slightly elevating the horizontal disc. The 

 machinery is very simple, and ingenious through its simplicity. 



PERFUME VAPORIZER. 



A simple apparatus, capable of being made very useful as a sanitary 

 agent, as well as for the diffusion of merely pleasant odors through 

 apartments, hospitals, halls, theatres, etc., has been invented by Mr. 

 E. Rimmel, an English perfumer. It consists of a vessel heated by a 

 small lamp below it, and intended for the vaporization of steam im- 

 pregnated with the odors of flowers, aromatic vinegar, or acids, chlo- 

 rine, ammonia, etc. Some perfumes act not merely as ministrants to 

 luxury or pleasure, but as sanitary agents, by, it is believed, ozoniz- 

 ing the oxygen of the atmosphere, and so converting it into true 

 vital air ; and one essential oil, namely, oil of cloves, though heavy 

 as a mere perfume, has a very singular power of destroying musty 

 mould, as in paste or gum, and of keeping it sweet and fresh for 

 months. Such an agency, diffused by Rimmel's vaporizer, in close 

 and musty apartments, could not but sweeten them. The choice of 

 perfumes, however, is endless. .Dr. Hassall, who recommends this 

 apparatus as a useful sanitary agency, states that if even the delicate 

 flower-leaves of the violet or rose be thrown into the vaporizer, their 

 scent will be diffused throughout a room, without any of that acrid 

 and offensive empyreumatic odor which is so apt to accompany the 



combustion of perfumes, as on the burning of incense or pastilles. 

 



