MAGAZINE OF SCIENCE AND ART. 
n 
LABOUR-SAVING MACHINERY. 
It will Be readily acknowledged that the 
adoption of machinery, by which manual 
labour can be either lessened or made more 
efficacious, is most desirable. In new 
countries, where labour is always ex¬ 
pensive, it is especially necessary. A 
trite adage informs us that “ necessity 
is the mother of invention,” and, accord¬ 
ingly, we find that America is remarkable 
for her ingenious devices of machinery of 
overy description. 
We should be glad to observe that Aus¬ 
tralia exhibited any thing like a corres¬ 
ponding amount of energy and practical 
talent. There is no obstacle that we are 
aware of, in the obtaining a patent right for 
any invention of utility, indeed, in this 
colony, the process is remarkably easy and 
inexpensive, compared with the same pro¬ 
cess in the mother country. 
An inventor here, too, might rely on a 
strong feeling of nationality, for we find 
the whole community ready to patronize 
a genuine Australian production. 
We believe, that during the history of 
the Colony, only one patent has been re¬ 
gistered here for an original invention. In 
an American community, of similar num¬ 
bers, and harrassed by similar difficulties, 
it may safely be said, there would have 
been hundreds. 
We propose, in an early number, to take 
into consideration the whole question of 
the Patent Law as it exists in this colony. 
It cannot be sufficiently understood, or 
there must be some obstacles with which 
we are unacquainted, to account for the 
To put this machine in motion, the horse 
is placed in the stall or box, the floor of 
which is at this time fixed by means of a 
break. Having been properly secured, the 
break is released, and the floor begins to 
revolve, the horse is compelled to step for¬ 
very few attempts made to reap its advan¬ 
tages. In England, there are hundreds of 
active minds continually on the stretch 
after novelty, and we cannot conceive that 
the same intelligent race loses this enquir¬ 
ing and ingenious disposition by being re¬ 
moved into another hemisphere. 
In the neighbouring Colony, the subject 
has attracted attention, and we are informed 
that recently considerable activity has been 
displayed in Victoria in this matter. This 
might have been expected from the much 
larger infusion of the American spirit that 
is found in Melbourne, and to which, we 
believe, she owes so much of her prosperity. 
While awaiting' the development of a 
race of Australian inventors, it is, perhaps, 
as well that W’e should avail ourselves of 
the experience of others, and we have great 
pleasure in introducing to our readers the 
subjoined horse-motive power machine, 
which is of American invention. 
We first observed it in action at the 
livery stables of Messrs. Burt and Co., in 
Pitt-street, in this city, where, on enquiry, 
we found that it had proved itself to be a 
most valuable invention. 
It is one of the most economical ma¬ 
chines for the application of horse power 
with which w r e are acquainted. It resem¬ 
bles, as our readers will perceive from the 
illustration, a horse box, such as is used 
for the placing horses on board ship. The 
flooring, however, is composed of a series 
of short rails, fastened to an endless chain, 
which revolves round an axis, at either end 
of the machine, underneath the floor. The 
head of the horse box is placed at a slight 
elevation. 
ward, and as the floor slips from under¬ 
neath him, he continues the action with the 
most mechanical regularity. It will be seen, 
that by this means, the weight of the horse 
is the great moving-power, and that he has 
not to exercise his power of draught at all. 
