04 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



[March, 



the saw i'pindle by grooves and leathers. They are made of thin steel plates' 

 screwed between two metal plates, which are worked down on each siile so 

 as to leave the steel edge projecting about ^ of an inch. 



Seventlily, a machine for preparing deals and baulks of timber for sawing. 

 The wood to be operated upon is laid on a metal bed moved by a rack and 

 pinion and slides on V pieces Cxed to t!ie floor. The apparatus for holding 

 the timber is firmly secured to this bed ; puppets are screwed to tlie sliding 

 bed, their inner faces being made perfectly true. To these faces a cast-iron 

 beam is attached vertically, so that it can be moved up and down, by nuts 

 and screws, and serves to clip the upper part of the piece of timber. 



The holding parts arc capable of adjustment, so that timberi of any size 

 may be held on difterent sides (juite firmly, and lirought up to the cutters by 

 the traversing bed, for preparing a flat or square side thereto. 



Eighthly, a machine for the same purpose, which may also be used for cut- 

 ting moiddings or cornices and skirting-boards. 



The wood in tliis case is secured to a traversing table and moved forward 

 by a chain, rack and pinion, or other convenieut mean^. Circular cutters 

 are made to revolve above it, wliich strike the required pattern on the edge 

 of the wood as it advances. 



Ninthly, another machine for the same purpose, only in this case the ma- 

 chinery with the cutters approaches the wood instead of the wood approach- 

 ing the cutters. This consists of a moveable lied traversing upon a fixed 

 one ; this bed carries the cutters with their driring wheels, &c. The wood 

 is held upon a rising and falling table, while the machinery, cutters, &c. on 

 the traversing bed are made to approach and perform the required operations 

 on its surface and edges. — Ibid. 



MACHINERY FOR PRODUCING PLAIN OR MOULDED SURFACES 

 ON WOOD. 



Jamos Hodgson, of Liverpool, Engineer, for a new mode of combining and 

 applying machinery for the purpose of cutting and planing wood, so as to 

 produce plain or moulded surfaces. Enrolment-office, Feb. .3, 1841. 



This invention consists in a mode of combining and applying machinery, 

 whereby the i)atentee is enabled to employ a rotary spiral cutter for cutting 

 and planing wood, so as to produce either plain or moidded surfaces. The 

 machinery consists of a strong cast-iron frame, of any required dimensions, 

 planed perfectly true on its upper edges, the feet or standards being bolted 

 down to the flooring so as to give great firmness and stabiUty. A cast iron 

 table, also planed perfectly true, slides smoothly and equally upon the bed ; 

 this table is fitted witli a cover or plate of wood on its upper surface, for the 

 convenience of aftixing tliereto the wood to be operated upon by the machine. 



Nearly in the middle of the bed tlierc rises an upright frame or slide, in 

 which the revolving spiral cutter is supported, and raised or lowered by a 

 screw. The spiral cutter consists of a twisted bar of steel, or of iron and 

 steel combined, the cutting edge passing from one end to the other in a spiral 

 direction around the .ixis of its motion. This cutter is driven at a great speed, 

 and revolves transversely to tlie grain of the woo<l. Such a cutter is adapted 

 for the production of plain stu-iaces only ; if mouldings are to be iiroduced, 

 the cutter must be worked out to the pattern intended to be given to the 

 mouiiiing. One mode of en^ecting this is stated to be by making a steel tool 

 of the pattern required, which is placed beneath the sjiiral cutter while in 

 riipid motion and gently raised as the cutter becomes indented. The edges 

 of the pattern thus produced, are then filled up to an angle and sharpened, 

 so as to make a clean ctit in the wood moulding. The motion is supplied 

 from a steam engine or other prime mover to a fast or loose pulley, from 

 whence a series of wheels and bands conmiunicate the necessary high velocity 

 to the sjiiral cutter. The table on which the wood is fixed to be cut slides 

 backward and forward upon the bed ; a rack j>laced on its imder side is acted 

 upon liy a ))iuion, driven by suitable traversing gear, and carried forward to 

 the cutter. The backward movement is accomplished by a small handle on 

 the axis of the pinion. 



The claim is for the mode described, of combining and applying machinery 

 so as to employ a spiral rotory cutter for cutting and planing wood so as 

 to prO(kicc plain or moulded surfaces. — Ibid. 



IMPROVEMENTS IN ROOFING AND SL.4TING BUILDINGS. 



James Taafi^e, of Shaw-street, Didjlin, Slater and Builder, for improvements 

 in roofing and slating houses and other buildings. Enrolment-office, Feb. 1, 

 1841. 



These improvements consist of a novel mode of roofing and slating houses 

 and other buildings, whereby much of tlie overlapping of the slates will be 

 avoided, and roofs will be more advantageously formed and constructed with 

 a much smaller quantity of timber and slates than at present used. And a 

 roof formed accoriUng to the tenor of this patent, wiU, it is said, be much 

 superior to that which could have been produced by a larger quantity of tim- 

 ber and slate applied as hitherto practised. In the first place, the rafters 

 liave a groove ploughed or otherwise made in their upper surface which is to 

 be lined with lead, zinc, or other suitable metal to form water channels or 

 courses. Two other modes of forming these water courses are shown : in the 

 one case the rafter is divided into two and an angular metal gutter placed 

 between; the other is formed l)y nailing two projecting strips of wood along 

 the sides of the rafter, which form the sides of the channel. The rafters 

 being furnished with proper water channels in some of these, or other con- 

 venient ways, slates are taken of such a width as to reach exactly from the 

 centre of one water course to the centre of the next, so that the side joinings 



of each series of slate fall exactly over the centre of the water channels, by 

 which means any water that may pass through between theru. is c.'.rried off 

 Into proper gutters. The first or lowest row of slates are screwed to the 

 rafters by four copper screws, one in each corner, but in all the other rows, 

 two screws, at the upper corners, only are used. Nails may lie used iustead 

 of screws /or fastening the slates to the roof, but the latter are preferred. 



WTicre the slates overlap each other they are held together by clamps of 

 this form, ::;, made of copper or zinc. A notch is cut iu the sides of the 

 two upper slates, and a space cleared away in the two lower ones to admit 

 the stem of the clamp On the under side of the slates w here they overlap, 

 two tliroats or grooves are cut to prevent the water from running along un- 

 derneath and so getting beyond the water channels. — Ibid. 



COKE OVENS. 



John Cox, of Ironmonger-lane, civil engineer, for improvements in the 

 construction of ovens for the manufacture of coke, and other purposes. Jan. 

 19. — The oven is constructed of any convenient form, and of suitable mate- 

 rials. The best Stourbridge fire-bricks, with the joints closed by the same 

 clay of which the fire-bricks have been made, is preferred. The roof of the 

 oven is to be made very thin, and a broad fiat shallow flue formed over it. 

 The oven is charged in the usual manner, and the door closed, and as the 

 gaseous products arise they are conveyed through ])roper small apertures into 

 the flue above, where they are supplied with a sufficient quantity of atmos- 

 pheric air to support combustion. They are consumed in the flue, and the 

 heat transmitted downwards, for the purpose of promoting the process of 

 coking through the roof of the oven. In some case? only part of the distilled 

 products is consumed for the purpose of coking, and the remainder carried 

 away in any convenient manner for any other purpose for which it may be 

 required. In other cases the atmospheric air is admitted into the chamber 

 with the coal, and thereby the products are consumed together with the coal. 

 Sometimes retorts or other small vessels to he heated are set in the flue above 

 the roof of the oven, and the products consumed as at first described. — The 

 inventor does not claim the mode of consuming the distilled products in the 

 same chamber as the coal ; nor the application of flues to the bottom, sides, 

 or ends of the oven ; but he claims — First, The creation of heat by the ad- 

 mission of atmospheric air to the distilled products in or after they haye left 

 the oven, and the consequent combustion of the said products in or after they 

 have left the oven. — Second, The same, whether the air be admitted at the 

 top, bottom, sides, or ends of the oven. — Third, The same, whether the heat 

 be employed for the process of coking only, or for manufacturing or other 

 purposes as well. — Fourth, The-promoting the process of cokmg by the ap- 

 plication of a flue or flues over the top of the oven ; whatever be the form or 

 construction thereof. — inrentors' Advocate. 



PSOCSEDIIVGS OP SCIEWTinC SOCIETIES. 



KING'S COLLEGE. 

 Mb. Hosking's Lecture. 



We are glad to see that the Class of Engineering and Architecture is 

 being carried on under such good auspices ; our readers will see, by the fol- 

 lowing sketch, the course that Mr. Hosking proposes to adopt in the im- 

 portant department of instruction which falls under his direction. In ex- 

 pressing our approbation of the genera! views propounded by Mr. llosking, 

 we have to thank him and his colleagues at the College for their courtesy to 

 us on this and so many other occasions. 



After some introductory observations Mr. Hosking proceeded as follows: 



" The printed paper already in your hands gives a general statement of the 

 matters to which I shall have to direct the attention of the student, and I 

 believe that every man who has had to learn these things for himself will 

 readily admit that any instruction in them, however imperfect it may be, may 

 become of the greatest practical value, by supplying, as a ground work for 

 professional study, what has had, but too often, to be learnt in practice, and 

 what, oftener still, is never learnt at all. 



"We cannot hope hereto make young men carpenters or masons, but we 

 hope to make them better qualified to compose, describe, estimate and direct 

 works of carpentry and masonry than they can be without such assistance as 

 that we offer them. In becoming proficient as a carpenter, a mason, or a 

 smith, a young man is apt to overlook the importance of other handicrafts ia 

 favour of that in which he has acquired confidence, — but a sound, and indeed 

 a somewhat extensive practical knowledge of the modes of operating in all 

 the leading crafts, of w hich the three I have mentioned, together with the 

 bricklayer's craft, are the most prominent, is essential to the civil engineer, 

 who only exists independently of the architect on the one hand, and of the 

 practical machinist on the other, through his presumed superior practical 

 skill in applying the operations of the carpenter, mason, bricklayer and smith, 

 in connection with those of the navigator or earthworker and miner." The 

 early life and experience of the late Mr. Telford are next referred to, with aa 

 account of his occupation in youth, and of his estimate of the value of such 

 occupation to the intending engineer. Mr. Hosking then remarks ; 



" Such was the early education, and such were the matured opinions of the 



