AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 545 



containing no sulpliur, and consequently inducing no headache, 

 but was produced economically in quantities nearly or quite equal 

 to that from coal, pound for pound. We failed to learn with any 

 considerable accuracy the final cost of the products, on account 

 partly of the great difference in the character of woods, all kinds 

 of which can be used without difficulty, but understood that in 

 general 2,000 lbs. or about a cord of hard wood produced from 

 80,000 to 90,000 feet of gas, about equal to that from a ton of 

 good cannel coal, while the full original value of the wood would 

 be retained in the charcoal, which is of a very superior quality, in 

 addition to which is 'produced, incidentally, a large quantity of 

 pyroligneous acid, from which, if desired, very superior acetic 

 acid or vinegar can be manufactured. Altogether he made out a 

 good case for wood gas, and it would appear to be deserving of 

 attention in other quarters than the solitary concern in Philadel- 

 phia, whicli is now said to be adopting it. 



Mr. Wm. H. Akins of Speedsville, this State, exhibited a very 

 admirable specimen of a lock, just patented, and which now covers 

 the sum of $1,000 in the reading-room of Lovejoy's Hotel, said 

 sum being the lawful prize of any one who shall withdraw the 

 bolt. It was dissect^ before the audience, and appears to be a 

 species of combination lock, or one in which the whole secret con- 

 sists in rightly arranging certain discs by means of a dial or dials 

 outside. No key is employed, unless such name be given to a 

 simple square stump, inserted to obtain a better hold on the parts? 

 and instead of (as usual with locks of this class) presenting several 

 dials outside to be set in certain different positions, corresponding 

 to numbers treasured" in the memory of the owner, only one or 

 two dials are shown, which, by being turned alternately back- 

 ward and forward to certain extents, indirectly arrange the posi- 

 tion of several sets of discs inside. An admirably simple yet effi- 

 cient means is adopted to prevent the possibility of picking by 

 feeling, or what is known as the tentative process, and the lock is 

 made susceptible of some billions of changes, so as to be made 

 substantially a new and different lock every day, if desired. Al- 

 though evidently a very cheaply-made lock, there would appear 



