225 Patent Fire Shield. 
weeks, inclosed in an air-tight jar, with a quantity of lime and 
sulphate of iron worked up into a paste with water, which has 
the property of abstracting oxygen from the air that is in contact 
with it. The passing from ripeness to decay in fruits is also cha- 
racterized by the production and evolution of mueh carbonic acid, 
and equally requires the presence of an oxygenized medium. The. 
internal changes produced in fruits by the ripening process are 
particularly distinguished by the production of sugar, which 
hardly exists in any notable quantity in immature fruits; and it 
appears to be produced at the expense of part of the gum, and 
especially of the ligneous fibre. 
“* Lastly, the change which the woody fibre experiences during 
maturation continues during the decay of the fruit. It becomes 
brown; much carbonic acid is given out, and part of the sugar 
again disappears.” Seay j 
PATENT FIRE SHIELD. 
A Mr. Ralph Buckley, of New York, has invented and ob- 
tained a patent for a Fire Shield, of which the National Advo- 
cate gives the following account :— 
“* It appears to us the most effectual protection of property 
from fire ever invented. This shield is intended to protect fire- 
men whilst employed in extinguishing fires, but it is particularly 
designed to prevent fire from spreading. It is well known that, 
when a house is on fire, if it even can be saved after the time is 
lost in bringing up engines, it must necessarily be very much da- 
maged. The evil to be apprehended is the spreading of this de- 
vouring element, which frequently lays whole blocks of buildings, 
and sometimes whole cities, in ashes. This invention is intended 
to arrest the evil on the spot where it originates, by enabling 
firemen to approach so near the flames as to protect surrounding 
property. As this invention is of deep interest to our citizens, 
and particularly in the southern cities, so much afflicted by fires 
of late, we deem it necessary to be particular in our explanations, 
The fire shield is made of a metallic substance ; thin, light, and 
impervious to heat; it is of a length and breadth sufficient to 
cover the whole person, and it may be used in several different 
positions. For example: when used in the street, it is firmly 
fixed on a small platform, with wheels, and a short elevation 
from the ground. The fireman takes his stand on this platform, 
and behind the shield; he is dragged by ropes neat the current 
of heat and flames, without being scorched or feeling any incon- 
venience, and with the hose pipe, or leader in his hand, he di- 
rects the water to the part where it is most required. In_ this 
way a line of shields may be formed in close order, in front of a 
powerful heat, and behind whick the firemen may stand with 
safety and play upon the houses with their water pipes. The 
utility 
