438 
New Patents and Mechanical Inventions. [De'c, 1, 
and facility to the steering of the ship, 
as to render the short iron tiller per¬ 
fectly secure in all weathers. 
Tile improvement consists of a flap, 
or minor rudder, traversing with the 
principal rudder, and attached to the 
stern-post; this flap covers the vacancy 
around the posts behind the rudder, or 
between the rudder and stern-post. 
This vacancy or space in a vessel of 
1200 tons burthen, is about 23 feet 
high, and 18 inches by 12 or 14 inches 
broad, and into this vacuity, when the 
helm is nearly a-weather, the water 
rushes with such force in passing off 
from the ship’s bottom, as to impede 
her progress and to cause her steering 
difficult. Incase of sternway, the flap, 
or minor-rudder, is turned back against 
the stern-post out of action. On the 
under part of the stern-post, a piece of 
copper is fixed to prevent ropes getting 
between it and the rudder; and it is 
recommended that the edges of the rud¬ 
der be cut off, or rounded,down to light 
water mark, to break the eddy other¬ 
wise occasioned by its passage through 
tile water. 
It is further stated, that by this im¬ 
provement the velocity of the ship will 
be augmented in proportion to her rate 
of passing through the water, inasmuch 
as the effect or the action of the coun¬ 
teracting power of the column of water 
which rushes between the stern-postand 
rudder (equal in weight to several tons 
in larger vessels) has a new direction, 
and is applied to her velocity, increas¬ 
ing her average progress one knot per 
hour, giving facility to the sailing, 
safety and comfort of the vessel. 
To William Taylor, of Wednes- 
bury . Staffordshire , for an improved 
Smelting Furnace for Iron and other 
Ores. 
The improvement projected by the 
patentee, consists in constructing the 
hearth of the furnace so that the blast 
may be conveyed into it through several 
apertures in the same side of the fur¬ 
nace ; that the blast may be distributed 
more equally through the whole of the 
fire, and with greater effect, than if con¬ 
ducted through one aperture as here¬ 
tofore. 
The patentee does not confine him¬ 
self to any given scale of dimensions or 
proportions, his whole contrivance is 
to convey the wind by blow-pipes from 
the bellows thiough seveial apertures ; 
or Iwyer-holes, immediately to the fire, 
by which he considers the smelting of 
iron and other ores will be more easily 
effected than in furnaces of the old or 
common construction. 
To William Bate, Esq. of Peterbo¬ 
rough , Northamptonshire , for im¬ 
provements in the mode of preparing 
Hemp , Flax , and other fibrous sub- 
stancesffor spuming. 
The patentee’s improvement con¬ 
sists in a machine composed of a mul¬ 
tiplicity of wheels, pinions, and rollers, 
turned by one toothed-wheel, receiving 
its motion from a first mover, as a 
steam-engine, wafer-wheel, &c. The 
hemp, flax, or other fibrous substance 
intended to be prepared, is passed 
through this machine once or oftener, 
in order, in the first instance, to break 
its hard external coat; and then to sub¬ 
ject it to the operation of raking, by 
means of scutchers, by which woody 
parts previously broken are scraped off. 
At the top of the machine are two 
indented rollers working into each 
other, between which the rough hemp 
or flax is first introduced, and, passing 
through, becomes crimped and broken, 
previous to the scutching process. From 
these breaking rollers, the filament 
passes between two conducting rollers 
down to the first of the presenting 
rollers, as the patentee terms them, and 
of which there are several; and be¬ 
tween every two of these is a small 
guide roller, for the purpose of keeping 
the filament tightly distended. A large 
and also a small drum-wheel carry a 
number of scutchers, placed longitudi¬ 
nally, round the drums. Tile large 
drum-wheel revolves rapidly, and 
causes the scutchers to scrape the fila¬ 
ment on one side, as it comes down ; 
the lesser drum-wheel, placed lower in 
the machine, scrapes it on the other side. 
By these means the broken boom is 
entirely removed from the fibres, by 
the time that the flax and hemp have 
passed through the machine. The pre¬ 
senting rollers are placed one under 
the other, and increase in diameter as 
they approach the bottom; by which 
means the filament is stretched in its 
descent, and the separation of the fibres 
promoted. 
Beneath the breaking-rollers are two 
thin plates, forming troughs, which 
catch the pieces of "broken boom, pro¬ 
tecting the wheels and machinery at 
the lower part of the arrangement ; the 
flax passing to the guide-rollers, be¬ 
tween the troughs. The broken boom 
collected by the troughs is conveyed 
away by giving them a slight motion 
by means of cranks and connecting rods. 
VARIETIES, 
