there will then be no interval in which the heated air from the fire may not be admitted directly into the barn.

The manner in which the heat may be regularly distributed, and applied to the curing of tobacco, is fully described in the specification of a patent for a new mode of curing tobacco, which was granted unto me on the 1st day of October, 1830. To the system, or mode of procedure therein described, these flues and stoves are particularly adapted, but they may also be used when tobacco is cured in the ordinary way.

Where flues are carried directly through a barn, or drying house, the draft cannot be advantageously managed, and most of the heat is lost; a difficulty completely obviated by flues, or stoves, constructed upon the principle above described.

What I claim as my invention, or discovery, is the application of flues, or stoves, constructed upon the within described principle, by which the heated air from the fuel may be admitted, directly, into a barn, or drying house, for the purpose of drying and curing of tobacco, whilst the smoke may be entirely excluded. I also claim the returning of the draft of the flue, or stove, to a point, at or near to the feeding door of the stove, by means of which the draft of the fire is readily and perfectly managed, so as to produce great economy in the use of the fuel.

The escape flue, however, may be carried out at any part of the building, although not with equal advantage. It may, for example, be carried directly through the house, and yet the main object of my patent, that of admitting the heated air without the smoke, may still be attained. D. G. TUCK.

D. G. Tuck's Stoves or Flues.

A, the stove for fuel. B, pen, or box. C, iron door, opening into the barn. D, return flue for smoke. E, pipe, or flue, to carry it off.

Specification of a patent for an improvement in the construction of a Bucket Water Wheel, used for the purpose of giving motion to hydraulic works, or machinery. Granted to DEAN SAMUEL HOWARD. Lyonsdale, Brantingham Township, Lewis county, New York, February 16.

A COMMON bucket water wheel is well known to be a series of buckets suspended at the end of a certain number of arms passing

through a shaft hung up at each end by gudgeons, or pivots. The inside of these buckets is formed by the lining of the wheel; the bottom is a narrow board varying in width with the size and proportion of the wheel, with one edge jointed to the lining, and the other edge extending directly from the centre towards the circumference until it meets the front, which inclines from the circumference inwards on a straight line in a sectional direction till it meets the bottom, which forms the bucket.

Section of a part of How

ard's Bucket Wheel.

The improvements thereon are as follows:

The bucket is detached from the lining of the wheel, so that the air has free access from one bucket to the other all around the wheel; the front is a board warped, or bent, in such a manner as to take and retain more water, longer than the common wheel; the front is wider than the back, so that all the surplus water must escape over the back, and none be thrown out by the centrifugal force. All the surplus water is directed into the bucket below, (which will hold more as the wheel turns,) by a board for that purpose forming the lining to the wheel and extending down by the back of the bucket. If thought necessary, the air might have access through the lining to each bucket. D. HOWARD.

Specification of a patent for an improvement in the construction of Steam Boilers. Granted to LEVI DISBROW, city of New York, February 18, 1831.

THE object of this invention is the advantageous application of anthracite, or other, coal, to the purposes of heating water in the boilers of steam engines. The boiler may be made of cast iron or any other usual materials, of any dimensions adapted to the purpose. The water contained in the boiler is heated by means of two, or more, furnaces of a conical (or other) form, erected within the boiler, having their bases, or the grates through which the ashes fall, upon or near the same level with the floor of the boiler. The smoke or gas is discharged from the top of the furnaces, by one or more horizontal cylinders passing through the boiler to its outer surface. Each furnace is replenished with coal by means of a pipe or feeder of a cylindrical or other convenient form, passing from the outer surface of the boiler through the same into each furnace at, or near, its top. Each of such pipes is secured by a door, or other means, at the surface of the boiler, and fixed to the furnace with a flanch or other suitable connexion; and the horizontal cylinders above mentioned

are also secured to the top of each furnace with a suitable flanch or connexion.

The said Levi Disbrow claims as his invention the advantageous application of heat to the boilers of steam engines, by means of two, or more, furnaces for anthracite, or other coal, erected within the boiler itself; and as parts of the same invention, he claims the mode of supplying such furnaces with feeders passing into them from the surface of the boiler, and also the mode of discharging the gas or smoke of the coal by a cylindrical pipe, or pipes, extending from the top of each furnace to the outer surface of the boiler.

Disbrow's Steam Boilers.

LEVI DISBROW.

A, boiler. B, B, furnaces. C, C, pipes for smoke. D, D, feeders. E, E, grates.

Specification of a patent for an improvement in the apparatus for Distilling. Granted to CHARLES OTIS, Tunkhannock, Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, February 16, 1831.

To all whom it may concern, be it known, that I, Charles Otis, have made an improvement in the apparatus used for distilling, and that the following is a full and exact description of the same. The still may be constructed in the ordinary manner. A tube is to lead from the beak of the still into a tub, or vessel, which contains low wines. The top of the tub is made to fit steam tight, and the before mentioned tube passes through it, being also so closely fitted as to prevent the escape of any vapour around it, and extending nearly to the bottom of the vessel. The vapour from the beer which is contained in the still, will thus pass into the vessel containing the low wines, and cause the liquid to boil.

A tube leads from the upper part of the vessel of low wines, into a second tub containing a still worm, and called the heater. This

heater is to be filled with the beer with which the still is to be charged. This beer becomes heated in consequence of the partial condensation of the vapour, in its passage through the worm. This heater is to be elevated, so that a tube inserted near the bottom of it may convey the heated beer into the still, when it is ready for a charge. From the worm in the heater the spirit is conducted through a cooler, in the usual way.

By this arrangement of the distilling apparatus, the low are converted into high wines, by the operation of the vapour of the beer contained in the still.

I usually insert the still in a second vessel, so as to distil by a water bath; in this case I economize heat by conducting the steam from the second, or outer vessel, by means of tubes, so as to heat a second still, or to aid in performing other operations in the stillhouse, to which it may be applicable. Sometimes I convey the steam through a tube, provided with a cock, from the outer vessel into the still. This, however, I do not claim as making any part of my invention.

What I claim as new, and for which I ask a patent, is the conducting the vapour from the first distillation of the beer, into a vessel containing low wines, in the manner, and for the purposes hereinbefore described.

CHAS. OTIS.

Note by the Editor.-We do not perceive the difference between the plan here specified, and that of William Cook, which will be found in Vol. 5, p. 157. That patent was issued in December, 1829.

Specification of a patent for an improvement in the Manufacture of Gas for illuminating purposes. Granted to JOSEPH BARTON, city of New York, an alien, but a resident in the United States for two years, February 11, 1831.

Be it known, that I, Joseph Barton, have discovered a new and useful improvement in the manufacturing of gas, for illuminating purposes, and of a portable nature, and that the following articles are used as a combination to produce said gas without smell, viz. Tallow, spirits of turpentine and rosin fused together, and decomposed through red hot tubes.

Turpentine and alcohol,

Coal tar and rosin,

Coal tar and tallow,

do.

do.

do.

Coal tar, fallow, and rosin, do.

Seneca oil, coal tar, tallow, and rosin, do. do.

India rubber and Hydro carbons, do. do.

Oil of turpentine and rosin, do. do.

The foregoing substances contain gaseous matter, which when mingled with the pure illuminating principle, diminish its intensity,

and increase its bulk. The application of the combinations heretofore enumerated, is to unite two or more of these hydro-carbons, and decompose the mixture so as to form a compound on which chemical agents will act so as to separate the deteriorating from the beneficial, viz. spirits of turpentine by its decomposition furnishes the pure illuminating principle, (Carburetted Hydrogen,) mingled with free hydrogen, and carbonic oxide gases, both destitute of illuminating principle or properties, but with the addition of a small portion of rosin previous to decomposition, the carbonic oxide is converted into carbonic acid, which may be entirely removed by washing with an alkaline or earthy lixivium, and if to this a small portion of tallow, or oil, be added, it will have the effect of converting the free hydrogen which the mixture still contains, into pure carburetted hydrogen, which will be perfectly free from smell or smoke. If alcohol be added to turpentine, and the gaseous mixture resulting from its decomposition be passed through an alkaline lixivium, and thus purified from carbonic acid and other deteriorating gases, the gas thus produced will be the pure illuminating principle, which when compressed by a peculiar process into copper recipients with valves, may be made portable and applied to all uses where light is

essential.

The method of making illuminating gases by a union of two or more vegetable, animal, or mineral hydro-carbons has never before been suggested or acted upon.

JOSEPH BARTON.

Remarks by the Editor.-We were placed upon tiptoe, some months since, by the announcement in the New York papers, that a chemist of that city, Mr. Barton, had made some important discoveries in the making and using of gas, for illumination, and if we had not learned from experience to chasten our anticipations, the result would have been sore disappointment. There is not a single fact, or principle, noticed in the foregoing specification, with which every chemist was not perfectly familiar, and therefore there is not a point in it which can lay the slightest claim to discovery.

We are first told that the gas is "of a portable nature." What does this mean? How much more portable is it than the gas from oil, or from rosin, made at the New York gas works? If the patentee supposes, as he evidently does, for he makes it the very foundation of his claim, that two or more oleaginous, bituminous, or resinous substances have never been mixed together for the manufacturing of gas, he has but little knowledge of the history of that art. The name of hydro-carbons with which he labels these different articles, has not been enlisted into the ranks of the chemical nomenclature, and, we apprehend, will not be received as a volunteer. The last article upon the list of compounds to be used is scarcely made with a view to economy. The chemist would not wish to convert turpentine into rosin and spirits, for the sake of combining them together again, for the manufacture of gas. It appears, however, according to the chemistry of this specification, that rosin is to be added to