120 YEAR-BOOK OF FACTS. 



safety to horses, and comparative freedom from noise." An ex- 

 periment has heen already made with the "composite blocks." 

 Three years ago a specimen was laid down at the fiolborn end of 

 Little Queen street, the great thoroughfare from Holborn to Covent 

 Garden. This^specimen has been examined by Mr. Braithwaite, the 

 civil engineer, and Mr. Trehearne, surve) T or to the Board of Works 

 in the district; and both express the opinion, that having withstood 

 the traffic to which it was exposed for thirty-three months without 

 requiring repair, its general adoption would be advantageous to the 

 public. — London Review. 



KILN-DRYING GRAIN. 



Mr. W. Norton has patented certain improvements in Kilns for 

 Drying Grain. This drying-kiln the patentee forms with a rotating 

 circular head or platform, 'mounted on a vertical shaft, and driven by 

 suitable gearing. To the centre of this rotating kiln-head or plat- 

 form (which is to be heated by fire placed underneath, or by means 

 of heated air) the grain is supplied by an adjustable leading spout, 

 fitted at its lower end with a sliding or telescope tube, which is in- 

 tended to lengthen or contract the spout, and thus increase or de- 

 crease at pleasure the supply of grain to the kiln-head or rotating 

 platform, the spout forming a channel for leading down the grain 

 direct from the grain store. Extending from the centre of the cir- 

 cular rotating head or platform to its circumference is a rotating 

 brush, formed of wire and hair, or other suitable elastic materia! set 

 helically around a horizontal axle. This brush receives a slow rota- 

 tory motion, and is for the purpose of distributing the grain over the 

 surface of the kiln-head or rotating platform, and of discharging it 

 over that edge thereupon after it has, by being exposed on the rota- 

 ting heating surface, been sufficiently dried. The apparatus may lie 

 driven by steam or other power, and regulated by a pendulum. — 

 Mechanics' Magazine. 



MANUFACTURE OF GLASS. 

 Mr. Balmain, St. Helen's, has provisionally specified certain im- 

 provements in the Manufacture of Glass and other vitrified sub- 

 stances. The object of the invention is to ensure the removal, 

 from the furnace or pot in which the raw materials for forming glass 

 are placed, of each portion of the glass mixture immediately it is 



vitrified, and thus to separate it from the unverified mass. This 

 object is attained in an open furnace by constructing it with the two 

 beds, one horizontal or nearly so, on which the raw materia] is intro- 

 duced, and the Other joining it (with an inclination of about 1 foot 



in G feet, more or less), whioh removes the material as fast as it 

 fluxes, and perfectly vitrifies it by the time it has run from 6 to 



8 feet. The advantages gained, it is said, are an economy of foe! 

 and labour, and an improvement in the quality of the glass. — Builder. 



ROOT AND HHOOIAKINC MACHINERY. 

 Mr. C. II. SoUTHALL has patented an improved apparatus for 



