470 
Memoirs of Mr. Salmon of Woburn, 
the new Swan Inn at Bedford was his work ; 
and many new and excellent farm and other 
houses and buildings on the estate, some of 
them of pix ; besides which, Mr. S. was not 
uncommonly consulted, and gave designs to 
the neighbouring gentry, for the alteration or 
rebuilding of their mansions, or he was called 
in by them to value and arbitrate in disputed 
matters, relative to buildings or machinery. 
In the taking down of Houghton House, 
Bear to Ampthiil, wherein the late and pre¬ 
sent Dukes were born, Air. Salmon found, 
concealed behind a very old wainscoting of 
one of the rooms, some very curious large 
paintings, on the plaster of the walls; these 
he felt a desire to preserre, and contrived, by 
first glueing a strong canvas on to their 
fronts, and then sawing off the plaster entire 
from the walls, and after cleaning off this 
plaster, to obtain the painting in a state, in 
which its back (xmld be cemented by drying 
oils, oa to a prepared canvas, ns perfectly and 
as durable as if originally painted thereon : 
after which, water was used to detach the glue 
of the first canvas, and the second canvas being- 
stretched and framed, exhibited these paintings 
perfectly transferred. The printed transac¬ 
tions of the Society of Arts, preserves a full 
detail of these processes, and of others in which 
Air. Salmon succeeded, in transferring paint¬ 
ings from old and worm-eaten boards, to new 
canvas. 
Venetian window blinds, outside, which 
are so apt to receive injury from the wind, and 
at the same time yield a disagreeable noise, 
received great improvements in these respects 
from Mr. Salmon’s ingenuity. 
Mr. Salmon invented, and had a patent for, 
a t ceighiug machine, which exhibits the w r eight 
by the hand of a dial like that of n clock, which 
has been introduced on several of the turnpike 
. roads round London and elsewhere ; and pre¬ 
vents the frauds of machine-keepers on the car¬ 
ters. 
Being himself unfortunately afflicted with a 
bad hernia, Air. Salmon, after trial of several 
of the trusses most in repute, contrived a very 
improved self-adjusting truss, for which he took 
a patent (now expired), under which, in con¬ 
junction with Air. Oddy of the Strand, im¬ 
mense numbers have been sold, both here and 
ia Paris, where they had an establishment for 
the manufacture and sale of these trusses, 
which the first surgeons are in the habit of re¬ 
commending. 
A plunger lock, for the savingof water on 
canals, was invented by Mr. Salmon, of great 
ingenuity; and a self-regulating horse-ma¬ 
chine, for drawing water-buckets from a deep 
well, were both of them rewarded by the So¬ 
ciety of Arts. 
Agriculturalists have been indebted to Air. 
Salmon for a variety of useful inventions, viz. 
His chaff-cutter, the knives of which, in¬ 
stead of being radial and curved, cutting with 
very different effect at the beginning and end 
of the stroke, are straight (as easily ground as 
a scythe), and pass always through the straw 
with the same angle and effective power; have 
eome iuto extensive use. 
[D«c. 1, 
Air. Salmon greatly improved the hay-mak¬ 
ing machine ,and had a patentfor the same; he 
made very numerous experiments, and advanc¬ 
ed, perhaps as near as any one since has done, 
towards the invention of an effective reaping 
machine. 
He invented a lever drill for sowing corn 
and seeds, which is not liable to be turned, out 
of its rectelinear course by any irregularity of 
the horse’s motion, but is perfectly at the com¬ 
mand of the holder of its levers or handles. 
On the plough Air. Salmon made a very 
extensive series of experiments, und proceeded 
some way in the A1S. of a work intended to 
improve its construction, as to effectiveness 
and ease of draught. 
On the excellent large thrashing-mill, at 
the Park Farm, constructed under his own di¬ 
rections, Air. Salmon afterwards made nume¬ 
rous experiments, by an apparatus which he 
contrived, and has published, whereby he as¬ 
certained the quantum of power necessary for 
working every part of the machinery, at dif¬ 
ferent speeds, separate or in their different 
combinations, as feeding only, thrashing only, 
thrashing and throwing out the straw, perform¬ 
ing these aud winnowing the corn at the same 
time, etc. <fec. 
It would too much extend this article, barely 
to mention the various other experimental re¬ 
searches in which Mr. Salmon was engaged, 
in the last five and twenty years of his active 
and useful life ; suffice it to say, that at almost 
every one of the Woburn sheep-shearings, he 
produced some useful novelty or other, and 
frequently obtained the premiums offered by 
the late and present Dukes, for useful agricul¬ 
tural machines. The annual sessions ol the 
Society of Arts, for several years, usually 
brought forth one or more of Air. Salmon’s 
inventions, for which he has been liberally 
rewarded with many pecuniar)’as well as ho¬ 
norary marks of their approbation, as the 
volumes of their transactions will continue to 
attest; and so will those of the Repository of 
Arts, furnish a record of the several inventions 
for which Air. S. has taken patents ; iu Dr. 
Reel’s Cyclopaedia several of his inventions 
have been drawn and directed by Air. Farcy 
jun. 
Within two or three years past, Air. Salmon 
finding his health declining, had been desir¬ 
ous of relinquishing his duties at Woburn, to 
which his Grace at last reluctantly assented, 
and two or three months ago, his accounts 
having been nearly wound up, different parts 
of the various duties he had performed, were 
turned over to three young men who had long 
been his assistants; and Mr. S. engaged a 
cottage for his future residence in Vanxhall 
Walk,Lambeth, where he went to reside in the 
beginning of September last, and staid there 
a fortnight, when his concerns at Woburn re¬ 
quiring bis attention, although much indispos¬ 
ed, he went thither, and was there taken ill, 
and after a confinement of ten days, iu the 
latter part of which he suffered much from 
inward complaint, perhaps connected with 
his hernia, and died on Saturday, the 0th of 
October, 
