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THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



[June, 



slieUcred situation iii a hay, there can remain no hope for its improvement 

 until the place of deposit he removed into the true run of the ebh tide. 



With regard to the ttieory of Mr. Brooks, in our opinion it is as far 

 as that of any of his rivals from being of universal application ; in fact 

 we doubt vcrv much whether any such theory will ever be found as 

 one which shall provi<le for all cases. We must, however, say un- 

 hesilatinglv, that Mr. Brooks has by developing this theory made an 

 important contribution, not merely to the progress of the investigation, 

 but to the resources of engineering, for this theory will admit of a more 

 general application than any other. We do not like Mr. Brooks 

 condemning all the other theories propounded, for we certainly are of 

 opinion that both the theory and the practice are highly in favour of 

 some of them, as regards theirapplication to such cases as come within 

 their sphere. 



The chapter on the causes of the existence of shoals in the beds of 

 rivers, is a highly atnusing chapter of controversy on most of the cases 

 which now disturb the engineering world, such as the Clyde, the 

 Wear, the Thames, the Tyne, the Lune,the Dee and the Mersey; the 

 mere mention of which subjects, by the bye, is sufficient to show how 

 much the attention of the profession, and the interests of the public, 

 are engaged in investigations of this nature. The chapter on the 

 causes of the bore, egre, rollers, pororoca, bar or mascaret, is a good 

 contribution to an important investigation; we must, however, call our 

 author's attention to the Solway, and several other English cases which 

 he lias not mentioned. Having thus called the attention of our readers 

 to many points, to which we cannot refer at greater lerglh, we must 

 also inform them, that they must not infer from our notice that Mr. 

 Brooks' work is one of theory only, for they will find it of great value 

 on numerous practical points of harbour engineering. 



We do not treat Mr. Brooks' work as a complete treatise on the 

 improvement of rivers, and if we did so we should perhaps do him 

 injustice, as he seems principally to have had in view the statement 

 of his own theories, but we cannot leave it without pointing it to our 

 readers as one of the best works on the subject, which has yet been 

 written, and one which they w ill find calculated to give them much 

 pleasure and much instruction. 



On the Subject JSlatter of Letters Patent for Inventions. By Thomas 

 Webster, Esq., of Lincoln's Inn, Barrister at Law. London : Crofts 

 and Blenkarn, 1S41. 



There have been few subjects more debated than that of the opera- 

 tion of the Patent Laws, from which serious difficulties have been felt 

 by all classes of inventors. This has caused a strong demand for Re- 

 form in the Patent Laws, an outcry in which we are little disposed to 

 join, as we are more inclined to think that the evils have arisen from 

 the mystifications and misconception of the law, than from any defect 

 in the law itself. No one has exerted himself more than Mr. Webster 

 has done to clear up this subject, particularly in his former work, 

 " the Law and Practice of Letters Patent for Inventions," and he has 

 continued his exertions to the same laudable end in the small volume 

 now before us. Here he shows us what is tlie subject matter of Let- 

 ters Patent, supporting the general doctrines by adducing a great 

 number of cases decided. For the sake of simplification he classifies 

 the proper subjects for a patent under three distinct heads. 



I. An arrangement, combination, or composition of matter ; the particular 

 arrangement, combination, or composition, being the essence and substance 

 of the invention. 



II. An anangcnient, combination, or composition of matter, with the view 

 of carrying out into practice certain truths, laws, or principles, the particular 

 arrangement, combination, or composition, not being of the essence or sub- 

 stance of the invention, except as in connexion with and subsidiary to the 

 truths, laws, or principles, which are to be so carried out into practice. 



HI. An application and adaptation of natural or known agents, and of 

 known substances or things. 



Mr. Webster next proceeds to describe what constitutes an inven- 

 tion. 



The subject-matter of letters patent must possess the incident of novelty, 

 or the principles of the common law and the words of the statute mill not tie 

 complied with ; and further, the result to which it leads must be a new 

 manufacture. IJut every novelty is nut an invention which may be the sub- 

 ject-matter of letters patent; the change must be such as may have resulted 

 from t)ie exercise of or given scope for thought, design, and skilful ingenuity. 

 It is not necessary that either thought, design, skill, or ingenuity, should 

 have been exercised — the invention or discovery may have resulted from 

 guess or accident ; and in a great number of cases the whole invention is but 

 the conception of the idea ; and whatever may have been the thought or 

 labour before the idea was conceived, or the result attained in practice, yet 



inasmuch as the result itself gives no evidence of thought or labour, neither 

 may have been exercised. This is pccuHarly the case with many of the in- 

 ventions which are applications of known agents and things, and described 

 above under the third class. In most of these cases the practical application 

 of the idea is easy and simple, and will suggest itself as soon as the idea ; in 

 fact, the whole invention is realized as soon as the idea is conceived. In 

 these cases then it is only necessary that tlie possibility of thought, design, 

 and skilful ingenuity, having been exercised, should not be excluded. The 

 simple substitution of one material for another, as brass for copper, in any 

 constniction, may or may not be an invention or discovery which could be 

 the subject-matter of letters patent. Suppose a machine for making iron 

 nails in a particular manner — the application of that machine to making cop- 

 per nails, there being no adaptation, no change in any part of the manufac- 

 ture but the substituting of copper for iron, the machine being worked pre- 

 cisely as before, could not he the subject-matter of letters patent. Cases of 

 this kind must be determined by other considerations, as the utility of the 

 change. 



This definition Mr. Webster supports by several cases in which the 

 same doctrine has been laid down by the law authorities, and tlien 

 proceeds in a similar manner to define what is novelty, non-use, and 

 utility in a patent, concluding with a review of practical proceedings. 



The various matters treated of in the preceding pages, may be illustrated 

 and contirmed by a review of the practice of obtaining letters patent. The 

 party soliciting the letters patent represents to the crown that he is in pos- 

 session of an invention, which, as he believes, is new, and will be of great 

 public utility. Thus the conditions of novelty and of utility are at once in- 

 troduced as material and essential ; the failure of either of them would be a 

 ground for avoiding the letters patent, as having been obtained on false sug- 

 gestion. Upon this representation, and on the consideration that it is en- 

 tirely at the party's own hazard, whether the invention is new, or will have 

 the desired success, and that it is reasonable for the crown to encourage all 

 arts and inventions which may be for the public good, the law officer of the 

 crown recommends the grant, with a proviso requiring the inventor within a 

 certain time to cause a particular description of the nature of his invention, 

 and in what manner it is to be performed, to be enrolled in the court of 

 Chancer}'. This proviso gives rise to the specification, upon which instru- 

 ment so much depends, for if it does not satisfy the terms of this proviso, 

 and, further, is not a full and fair disclosure of all the inventor knows, the 

 letters patent will be void. 



We are very glad to find that Mr. Webster's well known scientific 

 attainments have induced him, to turn his attention to the study of so 

 important a branch as that of the Law of Patent Invention, and we 

 have no doubt that he will find himself amply repaid by the results for 

 the labour and talent he has devoted to these researches, while to the 

 patentee it will be a great advantage to find that they have a barrister, 

 who is so well acquainted with every department of the subject, one 

 who unites to the acumen of the barrister, a practical knowledge of 

 mechanics and science. 



The Mechanics of Engineering, intended for use in Universities and in 

 Colleges of Engineers. By William Whewell, B.D., Professor of 

 Moral Philosophy in the University of Cambridge. London : Parker, 

 1S41. 



If we wanted any proof of the high estimation in which engineering 

 now stands as a profession, we shall find it in the present work, where 

 a man of Professor Whewell's attainments feels himself called upon to 

 contribute towards its elementary instruction. The motives which 

 have urged him to this work are so laudable, and they are expressed 

 in a manner so well calculated to give sound counsel to the profession, 

 that we think we cannot do better than insert the following extract. 



Various circumstances at the present time make it desirable that the sub- 

 ject of engineering should be treated in such a mode that it may be made a 

 satisfactory part of a liberal education. I refer not only to the attempts now 

 so laiuialily making in various quarters to improve the professional education 

 of engineers, but also to the desire which is more and more felt in the coun- 

 try, that what our students Icarn of mathematics in their university career 

 should have some meaning in real life. In the science of mechanics it has 

 especially happened that the mathematical study of the subject has been pur- 

 sued with very little regard to its practical application. The consequence of 

 this is, not only that our theoretical teachiny is of little value in preparing a 

 person for any part of 'J if business of engineering, but also, that it is of little 

 value as intellectual discipline. For the student has not been taught to seek 

 and to tind, in the mechanism which he sees about him, the exemplification 

 of his theoretical principles ; and hence he never learns to think steadily 

 upon the subject, and when his days of pupilage are past, ceases to think 

 upon it at all. This could hardly happen if his education made him familiar 

 with principles readily applicable to every machine and every stnicture which 

 came in his way; for in that case he would he constantly stimulated to un- 

 derstand what he saw ; and clear views of mechanical relations would become 



