325 



MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



ARTS, &C. 



Cylindrical Railway-Carriage.— The following account of a very novel 

 *ud ingenious description of Railway-Carriage, invented by a Mr. P. Flem- 

 ing, engineer, at New York, is given by Dr. Jones, tbe superintendent of the 

 Patent-office at Washington, in a recent number of the Journal of the Frank- 

 lin Institute: — 



" The carriage is a cylindrical body, which may have an axis passing 

 through it, or gudgeons affixed to and projecting from its ends, for the pur- 

 pose of drawing it. The wheels are iron rims placed about the cylinder so 

 as to encompass it like hoops; these stand at a proper distance from each 

 other, to run upon the rail; they are provided with Handles, or have their 

 faces finished in any form suitable to the rail upon which they are to run. 

 In the inside of the cylinder may be stowed box^s, barrels, bales, or other 

 goods to be transported. When bars of iron, lumber, or other articles of 

 considerable length have to be carried, the traction is performed in a dif- 

 ferent way ; the carriage is then a hollow cylinder, not furnished with ends ; 

 the iron bars, boards, or plank, are passed entirely through it, and, of course, 

 do not admit the employment of an axle, or gudgeons. In this case an end- 

 less rope is passed round the middle of the cylinder, which is furnished with 

 double rows of pegs to form a groove, or checks, to retain the rope, or band, 

 in its proper place. This rope also passes over a pulley, which is attached 

 to the horse, or other drawing power, so as to work like the large and small 

 wheels of a lathe with their hands. Two, three, or more cylindrical car- 

 riages may be made to follow each other, when connected by bands in the 

 tame way. 



" Under this arrangement it is evident that whatever is carried must roll 

 with the carriage; but in transporting some kind of goods, and particularly 

 in carrying persons, this would, to say the least of if, be very inconvenient. 

 To obviate this objection, a second cylindrical body is placed inside of the 

 first, and is made sufficiently small to revolve within it. This is suspended 

 upon the axis, or gudgeons, and is weighted on one side; so that whilst the 

 outer cylinder rolls upon the road, the inner one will not revolve with it. 

 It is proposed sometimes to make this suspension by the agency of friction- 

 M.hcels, so as to leave but little more friction thau that which results from 

 the rolling of the carriage. The patentee says — 



" ' What I claim is the use of a cylinder, or other volume of revolution, on 

 a railway, as a carriage, or vehicle for transportation. 



" ' I also claim as my invention the use of the endless rope in the manner 

 above described for progressive motion. By means of this use of the cylin- 

 der and traction-rope friction is saved or avoided to a greater degree than 

 by any machine now known. The traction-rope may be employed separate- 

 ly from the cylindrical railway-carriage in any other machine where similar 

 progressive motion is required.' " — Mechanics' 1 Magazine. 



AGRICULTURE, &C. 



0» Lime-Kilns. — For a sale of lime for agricultural purposes in a limited 

 district, 1 have found kilns of small dimensions to be most profitable. The 

 construction of a kiln I have employed for many years was of an oval shape, 

 not more than two feet wide at bottom, widening gradually to five feet at 

 the height of 18 feet, and continuing at that width to 2S feet high from the 

 bottom. A kiln of this construction has been found to burn lime in much 

 le>s time, and with a smaller proportion of fuel, than kilns of large dimen- 

 Rbns, narrow at bottom and wide at top, as heat is well known to ascend 

 more rapidly in a perpendicular than in a sloping direction, from which 

 arisi s the superiority of a narrow kiln, with sides nearly perpendicular, com- 

 pared with one with sides that slope rapidly . 



