MLCHAXICAL AND USEFUL ARTS. 117 



PATENT PORTABLE BUILDINGS. 



Messrs. Calvert, York, and Light, Parliament- street, Loudon, 

 the patentees, first form foundation shoes, consisting of a screw 

 having a gaining thread, or thread of variable angle, cast or 

 wrought u pon it ; and above the screw a sole- plate or loose plate, 

 which supports either an iron standard or a socket ; and one or 

 more pockets for receiving the horizontal beams and upright posts 

 or standards of the building. They prefer to commence the 

 thread at the point of the screw, where they make it very narrow, 

 and to increase the breadth of it, and increase also the angle which 

 it makes with the axis of the screw as it rises from the point towards 

 the sole or base-plate, the greatest diameter of the screw being equal 

 to two- thirds of the diameter of the base-plate. The principal 

 standards are supported directly by the screwed foundation shoes ; 

 and the intermediate standards are tenoned into mortises formed in 

 horizontal beams, which extend from one foundation shoe to the 

 next, and which are held at either end by ths pockets before men- 

 tioned. Framed panels form the wall, and are dropped down from 

 above between the standards, being held in position by tongues or 

 fillets of hard wood or other suitable material. These framed panels 

 are formed hollow, and are composed, by preference (although not 

 necessarily) of Bielefeld's fibrous slab, which secures the interior of 

 the building from extremities of temperature. The edges of the 

 fibrous panels are received in rabbets formed in the wooden framing 

 of the panel. The roofing is composed of grooved rafters, the 

 grooves of which hold canvassed slabs of the aforesaid fibrous material, 

 or a roofing of any other suitable material. The whole of the fibrous 

 slabs are waterproofed with a suitable composition. Buildings con- 

 structed in the aforesaid manner are said to be exceedingly light and 

 portable, and easily put together without the aid of skilled labour. 

 The invention also consists in the employment of a gaining screw for 

 fencing posts, gate-posts, and other purposes. — Builder. 



DE TIVOLI'S NEW PATENT OMNIBUS. 



This new Omnibus is divided into separate, well-ventilated com- 

 partments, disposed in two rows, back to back, the passengers 

 sitting alone, each in one compartment, facing the pavement on 

 their respective sides. A small window, with a shutter on each side, 

 puts in communication the contiguous compartments, if agreeable to 

 both parties to converse. The compartments are fitted like first- 

 class railway-carriages. A portion at the back of the omnibus is 

 left undivided to contain four persons, just as a four-wheel cab or a 

 private carriage, and constitutes a second-class carriage. Palmer's 

 patent signal or a bell puts each passenger in communication with 

 the conductor. Access to, and egress from, the compartments is 

 obtained by two steps (as in private carriages) leading to a kind of 

 landing or railed platform, upon which open the doors of the com- 

 partments. This platform runs round the forepart of the carriage, 

 to give to all the passengers on each side the advantage of entering 

 or leaving the carriage always on the near-side pavement. The 



