518 



MECHANICAL IMPROVEMENTS AND INVENTIONS. 



and the action is remarkably easy and elastic. 

 The tone of the instrument is of wonderful 

 quality, as well as its delicious decrexcendo and 

 remarkable sonority. 



Another valuable improvement in the piano 

 his been introduced by Friedrich Ehrbar, of 

 Vienna, by which the player can prolong any 

 note or notes that he pleases, while the other 

 notes struck die away as usual. By this ar- 

 rangement pieces written for the organ or or- 

 chestra can be rendered upon the piano much 

 truer than has been hitherto possible. 



A Prussian engineer, G. Hambruch, of Ber- 

 lin, has been engaged for a couple of years in 

 perfecting a machine for ready-printing, which 

 is superior in some respects to anything invent- 

 ed hitherto in this line. This machine im- 

 presses the letters upon a plastic substance, 

 from which stereotype plates can immediately 

 be taken. The formerly invented typo-setting 

 machines, amid many imperfections, afforded 

 but a slight saving of time and labor over the 

 manual method of composition. The advan- 

 tages claimed for this new process are: That 

 any number of different alphabets can be used ; 

 that the lines can be made of any length and 

 the pages of any size; that 40,000 characters 

 can be made by it in a day of ten hours ; that 

 an electrotype plate can be cast without any 

 intermediate operation ; that the considerable 

 fixed capital employed in providing movable 

 type, and the expense of their weax' and tear, 

 are reduced to a minimum ; that the skill re- 

 quired to work the machine can be acquired 

 in a few days ; that different kinds of letters 

 can be employed without trouble in the same 

 work ; that the machine takes up less room 

 than a printer's case. With all these perfec- 

 tions, Herr Hambruch's system, as far as he 

 has 'elaborated it, has one serious defect: it 

 will not allow of corrections and emendations. 



An electric pen, invented by Edison, an 

 American, and successfully used in England and 

 this country, consists of a style from whose 

 point a fine needle, connected with a tiny elec- 

 tro-magnetic apparatus attached to the top of 

 the pen, darts back and forth at the rate of 2,000 

 strokes a minute. When this instrument is car- 

 ried over the paper in writing, a tracing of fine 

 perforated lines is made. The writing is as easy 

 as though it were a quill-pen. The copy is then 

 employed like a stencil-plate, and any number 

 of copies can be taken by imposing the perfo- 

 rated sheet successively upon other sheets of 

 paper, and passing a roller covered with print- 

 er's ink over its surface. 



A smoke-consumer invented in England 

 does away with the elaborate apparatus here- 

 tofore used. The plan is to bore two holes 

 above the fire-door of the boiler for two pipes 

 going one-third or one-half the way across the 

 top of the furnace. A jet of steam is conduct- 

 ed into these by a small pipe from the boiler. 

 Two strong currents of air, rarefied by the 

 steam, are thus created, which, being driven 

 into the midst of the flame and smoke in the 



furnace, precipitate the carbon sufficiently to 

 prevent the issue of offensive clouds of smoke. 



A fireman's dress, which enables its wearer 

 to enter a burning building and remain in the 

 hottest fire, has recently attracted considerable 

 attention. It consists of an inner vest of rub- 

 ber, an outer one of leather, and a metallic 

 helmet. A hose-pipe, attached to the back of 

 the outer garment, divides into two pipes, one 

 which leads up to the top of the helmet and 

 discharges an abundant fine spray downward 

 over the dress, and the other runs under the 

 fireman's arm and ends in a nozzle, which he 

 can turn upon the fire. A small pipe within 

 the hose connects with the inner space between 

 the two garments and conducts compressed air. 

 which serves for respiration, and distends the 

 outer garment and keeps it away from the 

 body. The exhausted air escapes through the 

 small eye-holes of the helmet, driving the 

 srnoke and flame away from the eyes, and en- 

 abling the fireman to see clearly before him. 



A novel fire-extinguishing apparatus has 

 been introduced into the New York Tribune 

 Building by a Louisville company. A water- 

 tank hung on pivots so as to be instantane- 

 ously invertible upon the raising of a latch- 

 rod, having a connection in every room of 

 the building, is placed in the sub-cellar. The 

 water contains subcarbonate of soda, and in 

 the tank is a jar of sulphuric acid. When 

 the tank is inverted the chemicals combine, 

 producing carbonic acid, and the water is 

 forced out at a pressure of 150 pounds to the 

 square inch. It requires 20 seconds only to 

 raise the water from the sub-cellar to the top 

 of the building, where it is projected with tre- 

 mendous force from the nozzle of a large hose. 



A useful aid to the navigator has been in- 

 vented by Lieutenant Grandin, of the French 

 Navy. It is an indicator of all the movements 

 of the steering-wheel. An attachment con- 

 nected with the wheel guides a pencil, which 

 makes a mark upon a ruled roll of paper upon 

 a bobbin which unwinds by clockwork. When 

 the pencil follows the central line on the paper, 

 the ship is on her true course ; and when the 

 mark deviates from this line, the helmsman 

 must turn the wheel so as to bring the pencil 

 back to the centre. Not only is the remiss- 

 ness or unskillfulness of the steersman record- 

 ed by this instrument, but it serves also as an 

 indicator of the right course, and enables him 

 to bring the vessel about in the right course 

 when she deviates. The machine also keeps 

 a permanent record of the course sailed, and 

 of the direction of the wind, since the correc- 

 tions made by the helmsman will be most of 

 them owing to the veering of the ship hi the 

 wind. 



An instrument for deep-sea soundings has 

 been invented by naval Lieutenant Hopfgarten 

 and engineer Arzberger, of Vienna, which sinks 

 to the bottom, registers the depth, and returns 

 to the surface bringing a specimen of the bot- 

 tom, without being attached to a line. It con- 



