24 5 
I82L] New Patents and Mechanical Inventions . 
or linen manufactured piece goods, or 
a mixture of the same, instead of, or 
in addition to, the stiffening of them 
with starch. 
To Richard Witty, of Sculcoats in 
the County of York , for certain Im¬ 
provements in Pumps of various Con¬ 
structions for raising and conveying 
Water; and Methods of applying 
certain Principles to Ships' Pumps. 
For the first part of this invention, 
the patentee introduces a siphon into 
the pump barrel, for the purpose of 
drawing off water or other liquors from 
ships, distilleries, &c. when raised by 
the pumps to a certain level, instead of 
forcing the fluid entirely up to the top 
of the barrel, and then suffering it, as 
usual on ship-board, to run over,'on the 
decks ; or, instead of letting the water 
escape at the usual places of delivery, 
he causes it to descend again in a siphon 
pipe, to the lowest level at which it can 
conveniently be delivered. By this 
contrivance a considerable portion of 
the^labour of pumping the water from 
below up to the deck is saved. 
The water on shipboard, is to be 
raised in the pump barrel to a little 
above the level of the water, in which 
the vessel floats. The mouth of the 
siphon is introduced into the barrel some 
distauce below the water line; the pipe 
is thence carried up to the deck, and 
down the side of the ship, the longest 
leg of the siphon reaching to the wa¬ 
ter’s edge, consequently, when the 
pump is working, the siphon draws all 
the water out of the pump barrel as 
low as the level of the water in which 
the ship swims; so that the men who 
work the pump are relieved from the 
weight of all that part of the rising co¬ 
lumn from the water line to the usual 
place of delivery. 
The second part of the invention is a 
contrivance for working pumps, by 
which the physical powers of a man can 
be more beneficially exerted than in 
the ordinary mode of pumping. It is 
' proposed to place the man in a rocking 
chair, which is to vibrate upon a ful¬ 
crum or joint, at the bottom. To the 
top of the chair back is attached a 
rope or rod, leading to a bent lever, 
which raises the pump-rod. The man, 
being seated in the rocking chair, places 
his legs in a horizontal position with 
his feet pressing against the pump-bar¬ 
rel, and holds a rod also attached to 
the bent lever. He is thus enabled to 
rock the chair backwards and forwards, 
and by means of the rods attached to the 
bent lever the pump-rod and bucket 
are worked. 
There is also a contrivance, for shew¬ 
ing at all times, in the cabin, or else¬ 
where, the height of water occupying 
the lower part of the ship. A float, 
from which a rod passes up through the 
decks, raises the top of the rod in 
front of a graduated scale and in¬ 
dicates the height of the water below. 
Or a small line from the rod is passed 
over ptillies with a plummet suspended 
upon a graduated scale.— April , 1821. 
To James Goodman, of Northampton, 
for an Improved Stirrup-iron. 
This consists in the introduction of 
a cross-bar, bearing a spring within the 
open bottom of a stirrup-iron support¬ 
ing a false bottom, which rises and falls 
according to the motion of the horse, 
and affords relief to the rider; the horse 
is also relieved from any sudden pres¬ 
sure, and they prevent the breaking of 
the saddle-tree, the weight of the rider 
being uniformly carried upon an elastic 
instead of a solid bearing.— June , 1821. 
To Abraham Henry Chambers, 
Esq. of New Bond-street, London, 
for an improvement in the manufac¬ 
ture of a Building Cement , or plaster, 
by means of the application and com¬ 
bination of certain known materials 
hitherto unused for that purpose. 
This improvement consists in the 
employment of certain burnt or vitri¬ 
fied earths, and metallic and other sub¬ 
stances, which are pounded or ground 
to powder, and mixed with lime for 
the purpose of producing the said build¬ 
ing cement. 
The earthy substances used, are all 
those kinds of clay or loam that are 
capable of becoming vitrified and in¬ 
tensely hard by exposure to a strong 
fire ; chalk and such earths as become 
soft and fall to pieces, when exposed to 
heat, are unfit for the purpose; but 
flint stones or pebbles may be used with 
advantage. Trial upon a small scale 
may be made to determine the capa¬ 
bility of any particular earth, by ex¬ 
posing it to a very strong heat, when if 
it runs into a vitrified state, or becomes 
excessively hard, it may be considered 
fit for the purpose, if otherwise not. 
The proper kinds of earth being thus 
selected, the material is heated in the 
interior of a brick-kiln, or furnace, 
until it becomes completely vitrified or 
reduced to a state of hard, black o” 
glassy slag; and this vitrification will 
sometimes 
