i848.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



states his mode of forming the sleeper as follows. The chair is 

 cast upon the sleeper. A plate of iron of about 15 or 16 inches in 

 width, and of from one-sixth to one-fourth of an inch in thick- 

 ness, is then to be bent in the direction of its breadth into a cii'cu- 

 lar curve, having a radius of from about 30 to 36 inches as most 

 desirable. The moulds for the chairs are placed in the fonndry in 

 the exact relative position to each other that they should occupy 

 when permanently laid, and upon them is placed the bent plate, 

 with the convex side downwards to the moulds. Tlie cast-iron is 

 then run into the mo\ilds, and in such manner as to imbed in the 

 metal of the chair itself a portion of the curved plate ; the cast 

 metal being of about the thickness of half an inch upon the upper 

 side of the plate. Thus will the chair be securely cast upon the 

 curved plate, and firmly fixed without any bolts or pins. In 

 carrying into effect the third improvement, upon the sides of the 

 chairs are projecting pieces or ledges, upon which the girder is 

 placed. The one shown by the patentee in his drawings, is of a 

 trough-shape, that is, it passes along beneath the rail to be sup- 

 ported, and also along the sides, so as effectually to support the 

 rail. The mode of fastening the rails to the chair is effected by 

 means of a screwed bolt passing through one of the cheeks of the 

 chairs, and through a nut ; it is screwed through the nut, and not 

 through the chair, the nut fitting into a recess on the inside of the 

 cheek to receive it, and prevent it from turning when tbe pin is 

 screwed up. In the fiftli improvement, for the mode of preparing 

 the wood keys, the patentee proceeds thus. He makes a varnish 

 by combining with any of the di'ying oils red lead, in the propor- 

 tion of about yV to 50 °f t''^ latter : these are to be subjected to 

 heat for several hours, and while at the temperature of about 450° 

 Fahrenheit, the wood kej's are immersed therein, and the wood 

 becomes thoroughly impregnated, so as to withstand the tendency 

 of the dryness or moisture of the atmosphere to effect its bulk. 



MEASURING WATER. 



Edward Haigh, of Wakefield, plumber, and manager of the 

 Wakefield AVaterworks Company, for " «» invention /or mensuring 

 water or any other fluid." — Granted May 9 ; Enrolled November 9, 

 184.8. 



This invention for measuring water or other liquids, consists of a 

 wheel or drum, divided vertically by a partition, which contains 

 on each side three measuring chaml)ers. Above the drum is a 

 " preparatory cistern," into which the liijuid flows from two feed- 

 pipes, and which is divided into four parts. The water flows from 

 this cistern in two streams into one of the measuring chambers on 

 either side of the partition alternately ; so that while one chamber 

 is filling, the liquid flows through the machine : but the gauge- 

 cocks and other parts of the machine being so nicely adjusted, and 

 its being made to register twice as much as is actually measured, 

 no error it is stated can occur. This dnim is mounted on a hori- 

 zontal spindle, and carries at one end a toothed wheel which gears 

 into a toothed pinion, and communicates its revolving motion to an 

 ordinary indicating apparatus as usual. On the periphery of the 

 vertical partition are six projecting pins (equal to the number of 

 measuring chambers), which catch against and rest upon the extre- 

 mity of a tumbling lever, which is weighted at the other end by 

 a ball ; so that when the weight of the water in the measuring 

 chamber exceeds that of the regulator, it gives way, allows the pin 

 to fall, the chamber to turn, and the water consequently to flow out. 

 The patentee claims — " An apparatus or machine consisting of a 

 'preparatory cistern' in connection with a drum or wheel contain- 

 ing two sets of measuring chambers, into which the water flows 

 alternately from openings in the ' preparatory cistern,' and made 

 to revolve by the liquid ; and also the employment of the tumbling- 

 lever, or regulator, as before described. 



MANUFACTURE OF IRON. 



Charles Attwood, of Wolsingham, Durham, j!)sq., for a "cer- 

 tain improvement or improvements in the manufacture of iron." — 

 Granted April 18 ; Enrolled October 18, 1848. 



The object of this invention is to obtain a better reduction of 

 small pieces of the ore which at present run through the coke, 

 &c. to the bottom of the furnace, without having come sufliciently 

 in contact with the limestone and other substances usually mixed 



with the ore in blast-furnaces. The small pieces of ore to be ope- 

 rated on are mixed with a bituminous coal, which will agglutinate 

 in the process of coking, in the proportion of about one-fourth of 

 the weight of the coal. The mass so mixed is afterwards coked in 

 the ordinary way of coking coal for smelting purposes, and the ore 

 becomes involved in the body of the coke, by which it is retained, 

 till freed, by the subsequent process of smelting. Ore so combined 

 cannot fall through the blast furnace faster than the coke with 

 which it is combined ; it will therefore have abundance of time 

 to combine with carbon to the required extent, before it reaches 

 the bottom of the furnace. With regard to the size of tlie parti- 

 cles of ore that will be benefited by such treatment, anytliing 

 from the size of a hen's egg or large walnut, down to the smallest 

 particles of dust, it will be proper to subject to such combination 

 with coal previous to coking; but anything materially larger, it 

 would be unnecessary to subject to such treatment, as it becomes 

 properly reduced in the ordinary method of smelting iron. 



The patentee finds that coke formed of the kind of coal found 

 in Durham and Northumberland will, after having been coke<l 

 and combined with one quarter of its weight of ore, bear a burden 

 of ore, in the ordinary manner of charging the blast furnace, 

 equal to the same weight of coke without such combination of 

 iron ore ; it therefore becomes improved to a very considerable 

 degree, independently of the advantage derived from a proper 

 reduction of the smaller particles of ore effected by this process. 



SELF-ACTING SAFETY-VALVE. 



EnwARD Walmsley, of Heaton Norris, Lancashire, cotton 

 spinner, for ^ certain improved apparatus for preventing the ejcplosion 

 of steam-boilers." — Granted April 27 ; Enrolled October 27, 1648. 



This invention is chiefly applicable to low-pressure boilers, the 

 safety-valves of which are lifted, when the pressure becomes too 

 great, by a weight of water forced out of the boiler and acting at 

 the end of a lever. 



This apparatus consists of a vertical tube, containing a column 

 of water, which may be the ordinaiy feed-head. In this the water 

 is sustained at a certain height, according to the pressure of the 

 steam. A little higher than the surface of the water is placed a 

 lorizontal branch-pipe, leading to a descending-tube, down which 

 the water flows when forced over by any undue pressure in the 

 joiler. Immediately under the descending pipe is placed a small 

 circular jian with a bottom slightly conical, suspended on the end 

 of a long lever. Tliis lever forms a continuation of the safety- 

 valve lever from the fulcrum in an opposite direction to the 

 weighted end, and is so adjusted, that when the pressure of 

 the steam is at the proper height, it will be nearly in equilibrium, 

 the preponderance being slightly in favour of the weighted end of 

 the lever. When the pressure, becomes too high, the water 

 column will be elevated so as to run down the pipe, and will be 

 caught in the pan. This additional weight of water causes that 

 end of the lever to preponderate, which will immediately descend, 

 thereby raising the safety-valve. The pan is furnished with a 

 small valve in the bottom, having a short stem projecting through, 

 so that on completing its descent this pin comes in contact with the 

 bottom of a receiver, thus raising the valve and allowing the water 

 to flow out. The steam in the mean time having been reduced to 

 its ordinary pressure, the whole assumes its original position. 



A second improvement consists of an apparatus for opening a 

 valve in a channel leading into tlie tire-place, directly above the 

 dead plate. The cover of this channel is connected with tlie op- 

 posite end of a lever from which the float is suspended. In the 

 event of the water falling below the proper level in the boiler, the 

 float will consequently sink, thereby causing the opposite end of 

 the lever to remove the cover from the air-channel, and allow a 

 current of cold air to pass through the fire. Tlie same principle 

 is scarcely aiiplicable to high-pressure boilers, because the 

 column of water would requii-e to be inconveniently high. To 

 obviate this difficulty, the patentee employs only a short length of 

 vertical tube, thi'ough which however tiie water does not rise 

 until the safety-valve has been raised by the pressure of the 

 steam ; the weight of water being in this case only a supplemental 

 assistant in opening the valve farther after it has been raised by 

 the steam-pressure. 



4S* 



