JAS. IG, 1883.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



59 



Om I-nt3rntoi-G' ^Column. 



So great is the numher of inventions new yatciited that many good 

 things are comparatiifly lost in the croud. A succinct account, 

 therefore, by an Ex-pert, of all inventions of really popular interest 

 and utility must be advantageous both to the public and the 

 Itxventcr, enabling pfisotis to hear of I'liVt'iiliotis already desiderated 

 by them, and thus acting reciprocally as a stimulant on supply 

 and den^and. 



AX IJIPKOVED FIKE-13L0WEU. 



FlRKS that do not " draw " well are f auiiliar eiioiij,'li among house- 

 hold worries. The means of surely making a really good fire at 

 anv time must be to many a desideratum, and in view of this, Mr. 

 William Paitfield English, of ISO, High-street, Hull, has just in- 

 vented an improved tire-blower, which is stated to possess the 

 advantage of being easily, quickly, and readily attached, and 

 applied to any ordinary fire-grate with the view of creating a strong 

 draaght, and causing the tire to burn brighter and bettor. The 

 patent consists of a metal or other frame of a convenient si^e, 

 which is tilled in with asbestos or other suitable material. The 

 blower so made may be ornamented, or it may be made of a solid 

 sheet of metal or other substance, ornamented or not. The blower 

 is made to fit or cover the front part of the fireplace above the 

 grate, and is held in position by suitable supports, a handle being 

 fitted to the back. 



SCHAEPFBR'S TATEXT TAP AXD BUXG CLO.SER. 



Thk use of cask beers is now so universal in well-ordered house- 

 holds that some improvement in the ordinary rather clumsy, and 

 often very wasteful, method of topping casks has long been due. 

 To meet this want, Mr. Anton Jos. Schaeffer, of 9, Mincing-lane, 

 London, E.C., has patented an ingenious arrangement whereby all 

 trouble is saved, and any one can perfectly tap a cask as easily as 

 they can open or shut a door. It is claimed for this system that it 

 possesses the following important advantages : — It enables anyone 

 to tap a cask without trouble or loss of liquid ; also without dis- 

 turbance of the same. It ensures the casks being kept sweet and 

 clean, as, when the tap is removed, the cask is perforce hermeti- 

 cally scaled. It effects an entire saving of corks, and further 

 protects the bung-hole, preventing the injury that part usually 

 sustains, and the subsequent repairing that in most cases becomes 

 necessary. It is of very simple construction, and strong, not liable 

 to get out of repair, and the cost is so trifling that it needs but a 

 trial to ensure its universal adoption. A single tap can be used for 

 several casks, and when the tap is removed it forms a convenient 

 safety lock, especially when fitted with the lid, which is recom- 

 mended for casks intended for travelling. 



THE IMPERIAL LIXEN STRETCHER. 



With most marking-ink, a contrivance is sold to stretch the 

 object to be marked ; but it is always more or less unsatisfactory, 

 and there has long been a good opening for such an invention as 

 the "Imperial" Linen Stretcher (Musgrave's patent), which is 

 manufactured by Messrs. E. Wolff & Sons. The apparatus consists 

 of a block of cedar wood conveniently shaped for holding the fabric 

 to be marked, and attached to which is a stout wire loop worked 

 upon pivots and fitting closely to the sides of the block. The wire 

 has merely to be raised, the linen or fabric to be laid smooth!}- over 

 the surface of the block tmder the wire, and the latter when 

 lowered will firmly clamp the linen, thus presenting a smooth 

 stirface for marking. The marking-ink is contained in a reservoir 

 within the block. This ink reservoir reaches, it is said, nearly to 

 the end of the block, and contains the quantity of ink usually 

 supplied in bottles sold for one shilling. The ink seems to be of au 

 excellent quality, and, as the apparatus is ail in one, there is an 

 obvious convenience over the separate and imperfect round 

 ■"stretcher" often sold with various kinds of inks. 



STEAWFEXA CIGARETTES. 



CiGAEETiE-sMOKiNG has enormously increased of late years, and it 

 is alleged that to many mischief results from the practice. The 

 most practicable remedy is an improved form of cigarette 

 smoking; cool and deprived of any injurious characteristics, ilessrs. 

 Robinson & Barnsdale. cigar manufacturers, of Free Church- 

 street, Derby-road, Xottingham, have with this aim patented what 

 is known as the Strawfena Cigarette. This patent consists of a 

 small clay disc, through which the smoke passes into a straw mouth- 

 piece fitted to a paper coil, which can be elongated at pleasure. In 

 this cigarette there is no waste, the essential properties of the 



tobacco cannot reach the smoker's mouth, and generally tho 

 Strawfena may bo deemed to bo a hygienic cuntrivanco. 



FIREPROOF Fl.XlNG-liLOCKS. 



Most persons know tho difliculty there is in properly fastening 

 joiners' work to walls, while tho use of wood, when in chimney- 

 breasts ami close to (lues, often results in fire. In order to over- 

 come this ditliculty, Mr. George Wright, of 3, Wostminstor- 

 chambors, has introduced a material, recently described before tho 

 Society of Architects, which is stated to bo safe and imi)erishable. 

 Tho lixing-blocks are fireproof, as hard and evorlasting as brick or 

 stone, yet nails can bo driven into them with tho utmost facility. 

 Heing made about the samo size as ordinary bricks, thoy are built 

 into reveals of openings, jandjs, &c., williout tho slightest extra 

 labour or trouble to tho bricklayer, and without destroying the 

 bond of the work. When in position, tho blocks at onco form a 

 fixing for the wood-linings, architraves, &c., and which become in 

 reality fixed to the solid wall, dispensing entirely witli the wiioil-juint 

 pieces, strips, ic, which .shrink, aud frequently retpiiro woiiging-up 

 before a set of linings can be fixed. Driving plugs, and consotpiont 

 injury to walls, is entirely obviated by u-iiing these fireproof blocks. 

 They can also be safely inserted near fireplaces and flues, and for 

 fixing bell-pulls upon chimney-breasts, without the slightest risk of 

 taking fire — a great advantage over wood-plugs, which in these 

 positions are a source of danger. Finally, these blocks may be 

 beneficially introduced wherever it is necessary to nail or screw 

 anything to brick, stone, or concrete walls, either in carpenters', 

 bell-hangers', or gas-fitters' work ; and they can bo readily cut with 

 a trowel. 



CUPBOARD FASTEXIXG. 



EvEKV housewife knows well what a nuisance most cupboard 

 fastenings are, and how useless, too, they generally become in the 

 end. In view of this well-kuowu domestic inconvenience, Messrs. 

 Brendon Brothers, of Collington, Cornwall, have invented a new 

 cupboard fastening, which embodies a noticeable improvement on 

 the ordinary " cupboard turn," simply by making a slot in the sunk 

 portion of the face of the escutcheon for about one-third of its cir- 

 cumference. A stud attached to tho knob runs in this slot, and 

 thus prevents the blate of the fastener from falliug below a hori- 

 zontal line. 



AX IMPROVED BILLIARD TABLE. 



The lovers of Billiards are so numerous that any real improve- 

 ment in that popular game or its apjiliances is sure of a wide and 

 prompt welcome. Mr. Eustace Bennett has, it appears, patented a 

 method for readily transmitting billiard balls from a pocket of a 

 billiard-table to another pocket of the same, without the trouble of 

 removing the said balls from one ]iart of tho billiard-table to another 

 part thereof, in the manner hitherto reriuired. To effect this 

 object the several pockets of the billiard table are made of strips 

 (round or otherwise) of covered indiarubber, or other elastic 

 material, with a band of india-rubber attached to the back thereof, 

 and in each pocket there is formed an aperture at tho bottom or 

 side thereof, sufficiently large to allow an ordinary billiard ball to 

 pass through. The three pockets on each side of the billiard-table 

 are put into communication one with another, hj means of a 

 half tube made of metal, wood, gutta-percha, or other suitable 

 material, lined with cloth, flannel, sheet india-rubber, or with 

 curved wires fitted to the top, at a distance of about one inch 

 apart, thereby forming a tube of sufiicicnt diameter to admit easily 

 a billiard ball of the ordinary size. The tubes are to be open 

 where connected with the pockets, so as to be capable of receiving 

 a billiard ball, and they are to extend in a line horizontal, or nearly 

 so, from the top to the bottom pocket, on each side of the table, 

 and to be supported at, or near tho niidille, by a pivot or axis fixed 

 to the table. Tlie tube on each side of the table is to be affixed to 

 the pockets, so that their respective apertures are caused to meet ; 

 they are fastened together by making the ends of the strips and 

 bands of the pockets pass through holes in the tubes, such strips 

 and bands being secured on the other side. When the tube, or a 

 pocket, is raised or lowered at or near either end of the table, the 

 ball contained therein will travel along the tube and pass from one 

 pocket to another as required, without the necessity of removing 

 the balls. 



RrssiAN Me( lUNKAL Industry. — With the view of encouraging 

 the manufacture of locomotives and railway rolling stock in Russia, 

 the Russian Government has given the following sums in bounties 

 or premiums during the last five years: — 1880,2,029,051 roubles; 

 1881, 2,039,513 roubles; 1882, 1,034,783 roubles; lf-83, 748,187 

 roubles; and 18S4, 1,950,000 roubles. The aggregate premiums for 

 the five years amount, it will be seen, to 8,700,000 roubles. 



