TOL. XII.] FHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 439 



being on the one side convex, on the other somewhat concave, and looking 

 Hke two hairs continuous or growing together. 



I examined the roots of several hairs plucked out of my hand, nostrils, eye- 

 lid, eye-brow, &c. and clearly saw that the whole root, except the cuticle, con- 

 sisted of little strings, which I suppose to be veins or vessels, appearing like a 

 common tree with all its roots. 



A New Invention of a Clock ascending on an inclined Plane. By M, de Gennes, 



N° 140, p. 1006. 



We have formerly seen clocks that never go but when they are applied on an 

 inclined plane. But we never yet saw any clocks that wind up again of them- 

 selves on the same plane. There is to be seen in M. Cospi's study, a wooden 

 wheel, which has the same effect on an inclined plane, invented by M. Bondoni, 

 a Florentine secretary to the said Marquis. But M. Legati does not unfold 

 this secret ; and M. de Gennes, having found out the same, has successfully 

 applied it to a clock, on the following principle. — Fig. 4, pi. 12, represents the 

 inside of the machine placed on an inclined plane. The whole invention con- 

 sists of a weight, which causes the machine to act after the following manner : — 



The circle FGH being placed on an inclined plane AB, is divided into two 

 unequal parts by the line GI. To restore to the least segment its equilibrium, 

 there is fastened to the extremity of the radius DF, a weight F, which is suf- 

 ficiently heavy to recover what the lesser segment loses by its situation. That a 

 wheel or clock may thus stand not only in equilibrium, but also ascend upward, 

 there is placed in the middle of the clock a drum, which encloses the spring of 

 the pendulum, on which drum is fastened the radius DF. For thus the spring, 

 being mounted, forces the drum to turn, and so raise the weight, which it can- 

 not do without its becoming heavier, because that coming to the point E, it is 

 farther from the centre than when it was at F; and thus the wheel turns on that 

 side as the spring gives way. 



y/ iV<?M; Engine to make Linen- Cloth without the help of an Artificer. By M. de 



Gennes, N° 140, p. 1007. 



This engine is no other than a mill to which are applied all the parts of a 

 weaver's ordinary loom. It consists of four principal parts, viz. the serpent A A, 

 two footsteps or treddles BB, one clapper C, and two arms DD, DD, fig. 5, 

 pi. 12. — ^The serpent, or iron bar A A, has two elbows EE, to which the 

 two ends of the ropes are fixed that raise and depress the treddles BB : FF are 

 two fourths of a circle, that successively rest on two arches or bows of iron GG, 

 which are above the clapper C, in order to raise it. HH are two teeth of iron^ 



