134 
EXPERIMENT TO OBTAIN A SUBSTITUTE FOR STEAM. 
tlie colours and arrangement of the spunyarns 
of cotton, silk, or other material, used in 
weaving various fabrics. 
And the bare cords or strings of caout- 
chouc that form the warp or weft, or both, 
or a part of either, in the elastic fabrics 
woven in such looms, may be combined with 
yarns or threads of any other materials, 
with which the quality and degree of fine- 
ness obtainable in the bare eords of strings 
of caoutchouc may render them fit to be 
mingled and worked. On the character and 
extent of these combinations no pi’ecise 
directions can, from the nature of the sub- 
ject, be given, but they must be left to the 
discretion of the weaver. 
And whereas cords or strings of caoutchouc 
have been heretofore used in various ways 
for composing elastic articles, as for instance, 
by introducing such caoutchouc cords or 
strings in the said articles to act as springs, 
the same being contained in pipes or cases 
of leather, linnen, or cotton, or other similar 
material, in the manner described in the spe- 
cification of a patent granted to Thomas 
Hancock, on or about the 29th of April, 1820. 
And whereas such caoutchouc cords or 
strings covered by platting, winding, or 
otherwise with cotton, or silk, or other like 
filamentous material, have, or may have, 
been combined by laying them together, or 
platting, or interlacing, or netting them 
together, to form cables, ropes, lines, bags, 
and other like fabrics or articles, as described 
in the specification of a patent granted to 
Robert William Sievier, on or about the 1st 
day of December, 1831. 
And whereas also, such caoutchouc cords 
or strings so covered with cotton, or silk, or 
other like material, have, or may have, been 
woven in combination with cotton, or flax, or 
other similar yarns, to produce a fabric par- 
tially elastic ; but bare cords or strings of 
caoutchouc have not been heretofore used in 
the warp or weft of a fabric woven in looms 
of any ordinary construction, and with the 
usual modes of harnessing such looms. 
Now I do hereby declare that I do not claim 
the use of cords or strings of caoutchouc 
when the same are so covered with silk, or 
cotton, or otherlike material, wound, platted, 
or otherwise laid around them ; or when the 
same are used merely as springs, or in any 
other wuiy than that I have described herein- 
before. I claim only the method, which I 
have described, of weaving elastic fabrics 
with uncovered or bare cords or strings of 
caoutchouc or India rubber in looms of any of 
the ordinary constructions ; the said bare 
cords or strings of caoutchouc forming cither 
the entire or any portion of the warp or of 
the weft, or of both the warp and the weft 
of such elastic fabrics. — In witness where- 
of, &c. 
Repertory of Arts 1836. 
ON WATER AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR 
STEAM. 
Mr. Editor, — On perusing Mr. Galt’s 
“ substitute for steam power,” No. (129, p. 
403, and the subsequent remarks of “ Hy- 
draulicus,” No. 031, p. 400, I was reminded 
of an attempt made about two years ago by 
myself and an engineer, who has since con- 
structed for me a steam-carriage, to employ 
water on the principle of Bramah’s hydrosta- 
tic-press, as a substitute for steam. My 
object was to propel a slow heavy cariage as 
a substitute for the carriers’ waggons in ])re- 
sent use. The experiment may be said to 
have failed : the utmost velocity tliat the ex- 
periment promised, supposing all intermedi- 
ate difiiculties could have been successfully 
combated, would not have exceeded a quar- 
ter of a mile an hour — too slow for my 
purpose. The same ideas, or some modir 
fication of them, seem to have presented 
themselves to Mr. Galt and to Hydraulicus., 
Should my experiment, and its result, pos- 
sess enough of interest to entitle them to 
a place in the Mechanics’ Magazine, you 
will oblige me by inserting this paper, whilst 
attention is directed to the subject. 
Having, in the first place, prepared 
suitably strong iron stage, and an iron frame 
to carry a four-inch iron shaft, with a nine- 
inch throw carnk at its centre (the same I 
now have in ray steam-carriage) ; there was, 
in the next place, fixed upon the centre of 
the stage, or platform, an ordinary double - 
acting steam-cylinder, 12 inches diameter, 
18 9 stroke. An ordinary sliding valve, 
moved by an eccentric upon the shaft,, whicl). 
valve I now use to govern the ingress and 
egress of steam, was used, on that occasion, 
to regulate the ingress and egress of the 
water. To get over the dead points, a com- 
pensating fly, just previously patented by 
ray engineer, was added at his suggestion ; 
this w^as intended to supersede the necessity 
of introducing a second cylinder ; the mo- 
tion was, however, too slow to demonstrate 
the utility of that fly. After the water, 
which was conducted from the pump into 
the w'orking cylinder by a two-inch pipe, 
had caused the desired motion of the piston, 
it escaped through a two -inch eduction pijm 
into the tank to perform again and again tlie 
same circulation. In' the tank, which w'as 
of cast-iron, and firmly fixed upon the plat- 
form or stage, was fixed a double-acting 
pump on the principle of De la Hire. This 
pump is, I presume, so well knowm as to 
need no description. In virtue of certain 
arrangements for working this pump, by 
which it was filled four times, and emptied 
four times, by one revolution of its lever or 
handle, I hoped to obtain four times the 
