123 
Air Murray on a New Shower-Bath. 
spring to prevent its descent, when raised to the required elevar 
tion ; and to preserve its movements uniform and steady, the 
vase travels in a groove g g on both sides. When the moveable 
basin B, which receives the descending shower, is removed, and 
the vase lowered into the cistern, the lever is raised to allow the 
ingress of the water, and then suffered to recover its spring, 
when it is elevated by the winch The perforated slip bottom 
of the moveable basin should be of v r ood, which will be more 
comfortable for the patient, while the vase and cistern may be 
made of tinned sheet-iron. 
The principle is very simple, and easily apprehended, the co- 
lumn of water in the vase is supported by the resisting atmo- 
sphere ; and the great superiority of the bath in this form con- 
sists in the numerous repetitions which may be made from the 
same supply of water, while the duration of each is under the 
complete controul of the patient. The intermissions may be 
abrupt or lengthened , and the w r ater suffered to descend either 
like a gentle dew or in & full torrent , 
This shower-bath has been highly approved of by those me- 
dical gentlemen and men of science to whom I have explained its 
principles. In the model it operates admirably, and I have rea- 
son to believe that some have been already constructed. 
4. Method of fastening the Seams of Hose for Fire-Engines , 
and of connecting two or more Lengths of Hose together. 
By Jacob Perkins, Esq. 
The first idea of rivetting hose, instead of sewing them, be- 
longs to Messrs Hancock and Sellers of Philadelphia, and has 
been successfully practised more than ten or twelve years. Mr 
Perkins, however, recommends that the leathers should be more 
overlapped, and has invented a method of connecting two hose 
without contracting the water-way at the joints. These improve- 
ments are shewn in Plate I. Pig. 13, 14. The rivets represented 
in Fig. 13. are made of copper, which not only last four or five 
times longer than the best thread, but if the overlap is sufficient, 
the pressure of the water against the overlap acts as a valve to 
tighten the seam. As the portion of the hose next the engine 
has been found to burst most frequently, especially when the 
water is carried perpendicularly, the first, third or fourth por- 
