| 
| 
1825.] 
To Samurt Hats, of Basford, Noits, for 
an Improved Steam-engine.—Sth April 
1824. 
Tue laconic fille of this patent very ill 
‘and insufficiently accords with its specifi- 
cation ; which, in reality, is not for an 
improved steam-engine, or any steam- 
engine at all, according to the received 
meaning of the term; but the invention 
(which, by the bye, is an old one—Mr. 
R. Stein, on 20th Feb. 1821, having taken 
an exactly similar patent), consists in a 
method of supplying a high-pressure, or 
non-condensing engine, with the compound 
gases and vapours generated by burning 
fuel, on to which a jet of steam is thrown, 
in order to its being decomppsed into its 
component gases—and therefore no longer 
steam; and an engine so supplied must 
properly be described as a high-pressure 
gas or vapour-engine, to distinguish it from 
the condensing gas-engine of Mr. S. Brown, 
described in our last volume, p. 165. 
The apparatus described by Mr. Hall, 
of which an engraving may be seen in the 
* Repertory,’ No. 276, consists in a close- 
shutting strong iron furnace, in the lower 
part of which fuel is to burned, supplied on 
one side by atmospheric air, forced into the 
furnace by a large air-pump or blowing- 
cylinder, worked by the engine; and on 
the other side, by a jet of steam issuing 
from the top of a boiler, surrounding the 
furnace, and supplied, from time to time, 
to the proper level, by water forced into this 
boiler by a pump, worked also by the en- 
gine: and the mixture of gases and vapours, 
thus generated, under pressure, in a close 
furnace, are to pass into a strong “ air- 
tight vapour reservoir,” furnished with a 
safety valve; from whence, either whilst 
still expanded by the heat such vapours 
have acquired in the furnace, or after they 
are cooled down to the temperature of the 
air and surrounding bodies, this compressed 
yapour may be let out to propel the piston 
of a pressure-engine, with that excess of 
expansive force which the vapour pos- 
sesses, at the time, over the pressure or 
expansive force of the atmosphere. 
The manner in which the patentee pro- 
posés to supply fuel to his furnace, at in- 
tervals, and, when necessary, to extract the 
cinders and refuse of the combustion, is 
through the openings of large stop-cocks or 
close-sliding valves, in the top and bottom 
of his furnace ; two or more of these fur. 
naces, with all their apparatus, being pro- 
vided, so that one may work the engine, 
whilst another is being supplied with fresh 
fuel, &¢e :—it being evident, although the 
specification conveniently passes it over, 
that, on first starting the engine, manual 
labour, or some other temporary power, 
‘must be used to blow the furnace, until 
the water surrounding it boils, in order to 
commence operations. 
In the “ Observations” supplied to the 
“ Repertory,” the patentee says, ‘‘ I some- 
Remarks on New Patents. 
445 
times mix oxides of metals, as manganese, 
lead, &c., or other-substances containing 
oxygen, with the fuel, to promote the com- 
bustion thereof (a notable discovery !) for 
the decomposition of the steam ;’’ con- 
fusedly adding, “ that the liberated oxygen 
will add to the bulk of vapour, and assist 
in producing motive power.’’ And almost 
laughable it is, speaking of the complicated, 
cumbrous, dangerous, and, probably, im- 
practicable apparatus, above briefly de- 
scribed, that the patentee concludes thus, viz. 
‘* T have no doubt my invention will prove 
of the highest importance to steam-naviga- 
tion, rail-ways, and in all cases where loco- 
motive or other power is required !” 
Truly, rail-way gulls have large swal- 
lows, but no gas locomotive-engines have 
yet been able to go down with them. 
To James Coox, of Birmingham, Warwick-+ 
shire, for certain Improvements in the 
Method of making and constructing Locks 
for Guns, Pistols, and other Fire-Arms.— 
20th May 1824. 
Tue principle of this invention consists 
in using a helical spring, to project the 
hammer of a gun-lock forwards in a straight 
line, against the flint or the detonating 
substance ; so that the whole may be 
included in a tube, and occupy the head 
of an apparent walking-stick, to be formed 
by the gun-barrel. The gun-barrel to which 
the patentee usually adopts his new. lock 
is made of the best twisted stub iron, the 
muzzle being stopped, when not in use, by 
a plug ferrule: at the other end, a patent 
breech has the touch-hole in the centre of 
the end; and herein the small roll of deto- 
nating powder is placed, opposite to the 
hammer, moving like a loosely-fitted pis- 
ton, in a tube screwed on to the breech of 
the gun; the upper end of which tube is 
surmounted by a buck’s-horn walking-stick 
crook or top. The latter is not screwed 
or imroveably fixed on the tube, but joined 
thereon, by a hinge on the top of the tube, 
opposite to the crook, and has a circular 
plate of metal fixed on its under side, which 
acts like a flat cover to the top of the tube, 
when the horn top is shut down, in its 
usual position. 
The hammer already mentioned has a 
square handle, which, like a piston-rod, 
slides through a square aperture in a cylin- 
drical piece of metal, fixed in the middle of 
the tube’s length, which serves to steady 
the straight-forward motion of the hammer 
to and from the touch-hole. To the upper 
end of the hammer’s handle is jointed a 
bridle or short rod, which goes and slides , 
freely, through a hole in the centre of the 
cover, to the top of the tube, which has al- 
ready been mentioned, and is attached there- 
to by a button or nut on the end ofthe rod. 
Around the handle of the hammer, below 
the fixed cylindrical piece through which it 
slides, a helical or worm-spring is slipped, 
just of the proper length to press with the 
requisite 
