120 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



[April, 



The initial velocity of the musket ball, of 003 in windage, with a charge 

 of one hundred and twenty grains, should be 



With new musket powder not less than 1,500 feet. 



" rifle " " •' l,fiOO 



" fine sporting " " " 1,800 



The common eprouvettes are of no value as instruments for determining 

 the relative force of different kinds of gunpowder. 



The proportions used in making our best powder, 76.14.10, and the Eng- 

 lish "5.15.10, appear to be favourable to the strength of powder. The best 

 mode of manufacture is in what is called the cylinder mills under heavy 

 rollers, and this process alone is considered capable of making good spurting 

 powder. The English have employeU this process for fifty years, but the 

 French still use the old method, by stamping or pounding. The *' yravime- 

 trie demily" should not he less than 850. nor more than 920. The charge 

 for cannon for all ordinary purposes should be one-fourth. No purpose, even 

 breaching a battery, requires more than one-third the weight of the hall. 

 For small arms the following charges are proposed ; for the percussion 

 musket, 110 grains; the percussion rifle, 75 grains; the percussion pistol, 

 30 grains of rifle powder. It is proposed that musket and rifle balls should 

 he nia.e by compression, instead of casting, as at present. — Silliman'n Amer. 

 Journal. 



REGISTER OF NEW PATENTS. 



If additlorol Information be required respecling any patent, it may be obtained at the 

 office of Itiis Jourual. 



FIRE ALARUM. 



Francis Taylor, of Romsey, in the county of Hants, surgeon, for " Jm- 

 provements in giving iilarum in cute of fire, and in extinguishing Jire." — 

 Granted August G, 1845; Enrolled February 5, 1846. 



Fig. 1 shows a transverse section, and fig. 2 a front eleva'ion of an ap- 

 paratus for giving alarum in case of fire ; a is a tube of glass having a 

 bulb or enlargement about the middle part thereof, this tube which is to be 

 filled vvith mercury and hermetically sealed at both ends is supported in 

 Fig. 1. Fig. 2. Fig. 3. 



-0^ 





K 



^^ 



X_'i- 



two brass sockets; b c, d d, h & brass ' ' 



or other metal box composed of two 

 parts, the frout part d being attached lo 

 the back part by the strength of the 

 glass tube ; e e are two pieces of tape 

 of about half a yard each, more or less ; 

 one end is attached to the upper and 

 lower, or front and back part of the box, 

 the opposite ends being joined to a de- 

 tonating packet containing some explo- 

 sive mixture. This apparatus may be hung up in any part of a room most 

 likely to give immediate alarum in case of fire, which fire on attaining a 

 few degrees of heat above the temperature of the room would expand the 

 mercury, and have the ell'uct of bursting the tube, and thereby let fall 

 the front part of the box, and cause the explosion of the detonating 

 mixture, which would give the alarum required. The specification shows 

 several modifications of Ibis principle ; it also shows the application of one 

 for stopping the draft of the chinmey, so as to impede the progress of the 

 lire. I'ig. 3 i^ a transverse section of the chimney, having fixed therein 

 a few feet from the bottom, a rectangular frame a, and plate i, which i)late 

 is kept in a vertical position by a chain c passing over two small pullies, 

 the opposite or lower ends of this chain are attached to au apparatus cun- 

 structed on the same principle as that above described, fixed over the man- 

 tle-piece, which in case of fire would burst as aforesaid, and let fall the 

 plate i,and have the efl'ect of stopping the draft, thereby impeding the 

 progress of the fire. 



COPPER ORES. 



Frederick Bankart, of Champion Park, Denmark Hill, in the county 

 of Surrey, Gent., for " certain improtj emcnts in treating certain metallic ores, 

 and rejinint/ the /iroJacts t/iere/rom."- -Gnntci August 7, 1845; Enrolled 

 February 7, 1846. 



The improvements relate to ores containing copper, whether combined 

 with sulphur or not ; and consist in mixing the diti^erent ores in such a 

 manner, that those which contain sulphur in excess may compensate for the 

 deficiency of sulphur in the other ores, and submitting the ores so adjusted 

 to successive roastings and lixiviations, whereby a solution of sulphate of 

 copper is obt.iineil, from which the copper may be precipitated in a refined 

 meta'lic stale, which is dotie in the following manner : — The copper ore is 

 first reduced to powder, and the relative proportions of sulphur and copper 

 which it contains are ascertained by analysis ; then if the sulphur bears a 

 less proportion to the copper than one to two, iron pyrites or copper pyrites, 

 also pulverized, are added, in such quantities as will bring it to that propor- 

 tion. If two or more descriptions of copper ores are to be treated, they 

 must be mixed together in such proportions as will make the sulphur of the 

 mixture bear to the copper at least the proportion of one to two ; iron 

 pyrites or copper pyrites being added, where necessary, to ensure that pro- 

 portion of sulphur. And there must always be a sufficient quantity of 

 sulphur ores for the conversion of the copper into a soluble sulphate, and 

 also to allow for the escape of part of the sulphur during the processes. 

 The copper ore, prepared in this manner, is then submitted to such a degree 

 of heat, in free contact with atmospheric air, as will oxidize the metals not 

 already in a state of oxide, and convert the sulphur into sulphuric acid. For 

 this purpose, a common reverberatory furnace is used, and the ore submitted 

 to a dull red heat, in free contact with the air, until the mixture attains a 

 state of seeming fluidity, and it is retained in that state until the evolution 

 of sulphurous vapour nearly ceases : the whole of the mixture is not put 

 into the furnace at once; hut it is divided into several portions, and one 

 portion being put into the furnace, another is added when the first hat 

 attained a dull red heat, and so on until the whole has been introduced ; — 

 the mixture is frequently stirred during the process. The evolution of sul- 

 phurous vapour having ceased, or nearly so, the mixture is removed from 

 the furnace to a vat or pit, and water (or a weak sulphate liquor from a 

 previous lixiviation) applied at about the boiling temperature, and retained 

 at that temperature for some time, by means of injected steam, to ensure 

 the solution of the sulphate of copper. When the sulphate of copper liquor 

 is drawn off from the residual mixture, the latter is mixed with as much iron 

 pyrites or copper pyrites as will supply the requisite proportion of sulphur; 

 the while is then subjected to a second roasting, and to a second lixiviation : 

 this process of adjusting the proportion of sulphur in the mixture, and 

 roasting and lixiviating, is repeated until the w hole of the copper is obtained 

 from the ore. The next process is to precipitate the copper from its sulphate 

 solution ; after which it is to be fused, and run into moulds, for sale as fine 

 metallic copper. Various modes of precipitation ma> be adopted ; but the 

 patentee prefers to employ cast or wrought iron plates, keeping the solution 

 at a temperature of from 120° to 150" Fahr., and as nearly as may be of the 

 same strength, by means of a circulating stream of fresh sulphate solution, 

 which, entering at the top. and being conducted by a pipe downwards, tends, 

 by its greater specific gravity, to displace the lighter solution; the latter, 

 overflowing, is to be returned into the lixiviating vat, to be recharged with 

 sulphate of copper, and this again precipit.ited, until the refuse liquid 

 becomes a nearly saturated solution of sulphate of iron, when it is set aside 

 to crystallize. 



The claim is for mixing of the different ores of copper and iron pyrites in 

 such proportion, according to the quaniity of sulpliur relatively with the 

 copper which they respectively contain, and adjusting them in such manner 

 as that ores which hold sulphur in excess may compensate others which are 

 wholly or partially deficient in sulphur, and subjecting such mixture to a 

 succession of roastings and lixiviations (the residuum, after each roasting, 

 having the proportion of copper to sulpliur adjusted as before), and thereby 

 obtaining a solution of sulphate of copper, whence the copper is obtained, 

 by precipitation, in a refined metallic state. 



Charles Searle, of Bath, in the county of Somerset, doctor of medi- 

 cine, for " improvements in stoves." — Granted August 9, 1845 ; Enrolled 

 February 9, 1840. 



The improvements consist, firstly, in the employment of a heat retaining 

 mass in connection with the fire-chamtier, for the healed gases to pass 

 through on their way to the flue, instead of the vessels now in use as the 

 conceding medium between the fire-chamber and the flue. Secondly, in so 

 constructing the fire-chamber or furnace as to obtain solidity of substance, 

 and isolation from surrounding conducting media as far as may be practic- 

 able, with confinement of space or closeness of the fire-chamber : the 

 patentee's object being to absorb and retain as long as possible the heat 

 derived from the combustion of the fuel, to prevent its escape, and to con- 

 centrate its operation upon the fuel, in aid of its more perfect combustion. 



