210 
MR. PALMER’S DESCRIPTION OF 
by such lines as those in the chart before referred to ; while by connecting a 
type in the machine, with a weather-cock, above the house in which it is placed, 
an hourly register of the winds would also be obtained. 
The performance of such a machine must if well arranged be evidently free 
from those inaccuracies and doubts which the frequent and long-continued 
observations of individuals, through nights as well as days, must be liable to. 
It will require only the occasional attention of a superintendant to correct the 
time, and supply it with paper. 
The following is a description of the first that has been made for me, and 
which will shortly be placed at the mouth of the new entrance to the London 
Docks. 
Reference to the Plates. 
No. 1 . A perspective view of the machine. 
No. 2. An elevation and side view. 
No. 3. The well and float, with the relative situation of the machine. 
No. 4. A chart of tides in the river Thames observed in 1828. 
No. 5. The same tides represented according to the form to be effected by 
the machine. 
A number of parallel and equidistant lines, representing feet in height, 
are engraved, and printed on dry paper, whose sides are carefully cut parallel, 
and the ends joined until such a length is formed as to serve for three or 
four weeks consumption. 
The long sheet thus produced is wound upon a brass roller, which is placed 
near the lower part of a cylinder one foot in diameter, so that the paper may 
pass round that cylinder, and be in contact with it through about three fourths 
of its circumference. 
The contact of the paper is preserved by a roller pressing upon it by its own 
weight near the upper part of the cylinder. 
On the axis of the cylinder is a toothed wheel, which is to be acted upon by 
a clock, and hence follows the motion of the paper in the direction of its length, 
moving equal distances in equal times. By means of the same toothed wheel, 
motion is given to a Cam Wheel having six teeth, and the velocity so regu- 
lated that it makes one revolution in six hours. Each tooth in the Cam Wheel 
