and applied to a variety of purposes for which iron, lead, zinc, copper, and other substances have been heretofore used. July 30th, 6 months. S. Hall, of Basford, Nottinghamshire, Civil Engineer, for improvements in steamengines, heating or evaporating fluids or gases, and generating steam or vapour. July 30th, 6 months. J. Rayner, and J. W. Rayner, of Birmingham, Warwickshire, Civil Engineer, and H. S. Rayner, of Ripley, Derbyshire, Civil Engineer, for their improvements in machinery for roving, spinning, and twisting cotton, flax, silk, wool, and other fibrous materials. July 31st, 6 months. E. Heard, of Bateman's Buildings, Soho Square, Middlesex, Manufacturing Chemist, for certain improvements in oxydising lead, and converting the same into pigments, or white and red lead, and manufacturing part of the products arising from these processes into soda. August 1st, 6 months. George Marquis of Tweeddale, for an improved method of making tiles for draining, soles, house tiles, flat roofing tiles, and bricks. August 1st, 6 months. To extend to the colonies only. E. Whell, of Walsall, Staffordshire, Tallow Chandler, for an improvement or improvements in the manufacture of candles. August 1st, 6 months. J. Dennett, of New Village, in the Isle of Wight, Hampshire, Engineer and Surveyor, for improvements in war rockets, and the methods and apparatus for applying the powers of rockets, for the purpose of obtaining communication with vessels which are stranded, or in other situations of danger; also an improved instrument and method for accurately pointing mortars for throwing shells, which may likewise be used for firing shots from mortars, for the purpose of obtaining communication with ships. August 2nd, 6 months. S. S. Hall, of the Circus, Minories, in the city of London, for improvements in preserving certain vegetable substances from decay. Communicated by a foreigner residing abroad. August 3rd, 6 months. T. Lund, of Cornhill, in the city of London, for improvements in extracting corks from wine and other bottles with steadiness, facility, and safety. August 3rd, 6 months. C. Bourjot, of Coleman Street, in the city of London, Merchant, for improvements in the manufacture of iron, August 3rd, 6 months. R. W. Siever, of Henrietta Street, Cavendish Square, Middlesex, Gentleman, for certain improvements in looms for weaving, and in the mode or method of producing figured goods or fabrics. August 6th, 6 months. P. A. le Comte De Fontainemoreau, of Charles Street, City Road, Middlesex, for certain improvements in wool combing. Communicated by a foreigner residing abroad. August 6th, 6 months. R. Rodda, of the parish of St. Austle, Cornwall, Assay Master, for certain improvements in furnaces, fireplaces, and stoves for the consumption of smoke and the saving of fuel, and in the mode of applying them to the generation of steam, the smelting of metals, and other works. August 7th, 6 months. E. de Beuret, (commonly called Viscount de Beuret,) of 28, Moorgate Street, in the city of London, for certain improvements in the construction of rail-roads and tram-roads to facilitate the ascent and descent of hills and inclined planes. Communicated by a foreigner residing abroad. August 10th, 2 months. M. Heath, of Furnival's Inn, in the City of London, Gentleman, for improvements in preparing tobacco, and in making snuff. Communicated by a foreigner residing abroad. August 10th, 6 months. T. Corbett, of Plymouth, Devonshire, Gardener, for certain improvements in heating hot-houses and other buildings. August 10th, 6 months. D. Cheetham, Junior, of Staley Bridge, Chester, Spinner, for certain improvements in the means of consuming smoke, and thereby economising fuel and heat in steam-engines, or other furnaces or fireplaces. August 14th, 6 months. C. W. Williams, of Liverpool, Lancashire, Gentleman, for certain improvements in the process or the mode of purifying or preparing turpentine, rosin, pitch, tar, and other bituminous matters, whereby he increases their power of giving out light and heat, either when distilled or burnt as fuel. August 14th, 6 months. W. H. Porter, of Russia Row, Milk Street, Cheapside, London, Warehouseman, for improvements in anchors. August 15th, 6 months. R. R. Reinagle, of No. 13, George Street, London University, Royal Academician, and the Chevalier G. R. D'Harcourt, of No. 6, King William Street, in the City of London, Civil Engineer, for certain improvements in the means of propelling canal-boats, steamers, and other vessels. August 15th, 6 months. G. R. D'Harcourt, of King William Street, in the city of London, Civil Engineer, for improvements in the manufacture of paper. Communicated by a foreigner residing abroad. August 15th, 6 months. C. Fox, of No. 28, Gloucester Place, Camden Town, Middlesex, Engineer, for an improved arrangement of rails for the purpose of causing a rail-road engine carriage or train to pass from one line of`rails to another. August 15th, 2 months. M. W. Johnson, of Buckingham Place, Middlesex, Sculptor and Stone Mason, for improvements in the construction of coffins. August 15th, 6 months. W. W. Potts, of Burslem, Staffordshire, China and Earthenware Manufacturer, for certain improvements in machines applicable to the printing or producing patterns in one or more colours, or metallic preparations to be transferred to earthenware, porcelain, china, glass, metal, wood, cloth, paper, papier machie, bone, slate, marble, and other suitable substances. August 21st, 6 months. S. Stocker, of the City of Bristol, Machinist, for improvements in chimneys for dwelling-houses, and in apparatus for scraping, sweeping, or cleaning chimneys, and in the manufacture of such apparatus, and of the materials of which such chimneys are formed. August 21st, 6 months. R. Bradley, W. Barrows, and J. Hall, of Bloomfield Iron Works, in the parish of Tifton, Staffordshire, Iron Masters and Co-partners, for an improved method cr means of making iron. August 21st, 6 months. J. L. Clement, of Rochfort, France, but now of Jauney's Hotel, Leicester Square, Middlesex, Gentleman, for improvements for ascertaining and indicating the rate of vessels passing through the water. August 21st, 6 months. N. Troughton, of Broad Street, in the City of London, Gentleman, for improvements in the process of obtaining copper from copper ores. August 21st, 6 months. P. A. Le Comte de Fontainemoreau, of Charles Street, City Road, Middlesex, Gentleman, for certain new and improved metallic alloys to be used in various cases as substitutes for zinc, cast-iron, copper, and other metals. August 23rd, 6 months. G. Dickinson, of Wood Street, Cheapside, in the City of London, Paper Manufacturer, for an improvement or improvements upon steam-engines. August 23rd, 6 months. A. Dunn, of Stamford Hill, Middlesex, Gentleman, for certain improvements in the manufacture of soap. August 24th, 6 months. J. C. Haddan, of Bazing Place, Waterloo Road, Surrey, Gentleman, for certain improvements in the construction of carriages to be used on railways, and of the method of forming the same into trains. August 25th, 6 months. H. Kaill, of Eldon Place, Bermondsey, for improvements in cleaning the bottoms of docks, rivers, and other waters. August 30th, 6 months. J. Grafton, of Cambridge, Civil Engineer, for certain improvements in the construction of retorts, and other machinery for making gas from coal and other substances. August 30th, 6 months. J. Davies, of Nelson Square, Surrey, Gentleman, for a composition for protecting wood from flame. August 30th, 6 months. W. Dolier, of Liverpool, Lancashire, Lecturer on Education, for a certain durable surface or tablet for the purpose of receiving writings, drawings, or impressions of engravings, or other devices capable of being printed, which surface may be applied for roads or pavements, and part of which invention may also be used as the means of strengthening or beautifying glass. August 30th, 6 months. M. Berry, of 66, Chancery Lane, Patent Agency, for certain improvements in looms for producing metallic fissures, and also improvements in such fissures applicable to the making of buttons, epaulettes, tassels, and other purposes, for which gold and silver lace, or braiding, is commonly employed, and to the making of imitations of jewellery and other fancy articles. August 30th, 6 months. L. Heyworth, of Yewtree, near Liverpool, Merchant, for a new method of employing steam power directly to the periphery of the movement wheel, for the purposes of locomotion both on land and water, and for propelling machinery. August 30th, 6 months. J. E. Huxley, of Great Marlborough Street, J. E. Huxley, junior, of the same place, and J. Oliver, of Dean Street, Soho, Stove Makers, for improvements in certain descriptions of Stoves. August 31st, 6 months. W. J. Curtis, of Stamford Street, Blackfriars' Road, Civil Engineer, for certain improved machinery and apparatus for facilitating travelling and transport on railways, parts of which are also applicable to other purposes. August 31st, 6 months. MONTHLY METEOROLOGICAL JOURNAL. Kept at Edmonton. Latitude 51° 37′ 32′′ N. Longitude 3' 51" West of Greenwich. The mode of keeping these registries is as follows:-At Edmonton the warmth of the day is observed by means of a thermometer exposed to the north in the shade, standing about four feet above the surface of the ground. The extreme cold of the night is ascertained by a horizontal self-registering thermometer in a similar situation. The daily range of the barometer and thermometer is known from observations made at intervals of four hours each, from eight in the morning till the same time in the evening. The weather and the direction of the wind are the result of the most frequent observations. The rain is measured every morning at eight o'clock. * A brilliant meteor passed just below Casseopeia's chair on the evening of the 27th ultimo. AURORA BOREALIS.-On the evening of the 16th instant, from seven to half-past ten, we had an aurora borealis, rather differing in its character from that which is usually visible here. Our attention was first directed to a curved belt of white light, which extended from Atair in Aquila, through Vega in Lyra, to Corona Borealis; after moving very gradually about three degrees towards the south, which occupied rather more than ten minutes of time, the intensity of light had considerably diminished, and here it disappeared in less than a quarter of an hour. At this moment but little light was visible in the north; shortly before nine, however, it became very light, and from this hour to half-past the coruscations, which were almost incessant in the north and north-west, were of a pure white-shortly after ten the coruscations had ceased, and the aurora was slightly tinged with red, and many clouds had risen. Edmonton. CHARLES HENRY ADAMS. HISTORICAL REGISTER. As in consequence of the Recess we have no Parliamentary Intelligence to record, we shall avail ourselves of the opportunity thus afforded, to place before our readers some of the most generally interesting communications furnished by the Assembly of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, which has just concluded its Eighth Meeting, held at Newcastle. On Monday, August 20, Sir John Herschel took the chair, and stated some preliminary arrangements which had been decided on for the general convenience, and some papers were read on astronomical subjects. In the geological section a paper was read on the Newcastle Coal Field, by Mr. John Buddle, from which, being a subject of great interest, especially in the metropolis, we shall make the following extracts. This coal-field occupies a tract in the counties of Northumberland and Durham, of about seven hundred square miles, the limits of which were accurately marked on a geological map of the district. Within this tract all the strata that compose the coal series may be traced continuously. The lowest bed in the series, that, namely, which lies next the millstone grit, is the Brockwell seam. There is, indeed, another seam of coal, called the eight-inch seam, at a perpendicular depth of 97 fathoms below the Brockwell seam, but separated from it by the entire mass of the millstone grit, and the upper bed of carboniferous limestone, and not, therefore, properly be. longing to the series now under consideration. An account of this and the associated strata, the author reserved for another communication, as he wished to confine attention to the strata above the millstone grit. The surface of the country is finely diversified with hill and dale, presenting nowhere any elevation deserving the name of mountain, or any depression which can be called a ravine or glen. The hills decline gradually into the valleys, except on the east and south-east of the district, where the magnesian limestone fronts the west and north-west in steep escarpments, and at one place in the interior, where Sacriston Heugh forms an escarpment fronting the east. The valleys through which the Tyne, the Wear, the Derwent, and other rivers flow, have such an aggregate breadth, that on their excavation an enormous mass of the most valuable coal seams in the district have been destroyed. The valley of the Tyne from Hexham to Tynemouth, that of the Wear from Wilton Castle to Sunderland, make a complete section of all the seams lying above the millstone grit, as they cut through the several outcrops in their relative order of superposition. The vale of the Derwent also cuts through the entire series, with the exception of the highest, or Hebburn Fell seam. This complete exposure of the contents of the coal-field is a compensation for the enormous waste before referred to; it has also caused the mineral wealth of this region to attract attention at an early period; and, in the infant state of mining, offered many advantages in the facility of working seams by horizontal adits, and effecting a cheap and easy drainage. Nay, even in the present improved state of this art, the valleys enable the miner to drain extensive collieries with ease, and facilitate the draining, by steam power, of the deeper mines. A range of hills of alluvial formation, consisting of sand and gravel, commences at Newburn, on the north side of the Tyne, and passes north and south, with some slight interruptions, by Stella, Beda Hills, Pelton Fell, and across the Wear at Durham. The most curious part of the ridge is at the Beda Hills, near Lintzford, on the Derwent. The thickness and breadth of the ridge are irregular; it does not extend so deep as any of the seams of coal, but has been very troublesome, in many instances where shafts were sunk in its line of direction. There are other detached masses of sand and gravel in various parts of the district. On the east and south-east side of the district, the coal strata plunge under the magnesian limestone series; but the depth to which they extend is unknown, and may be so for ever, as we are cut off, by the barrier of the German Ocean, from carrying our inquiries so far as to determine the eastern edge of the great trough or basin in which these strata have been deposited. There is, however, every probability that the Newcastle coal-field is really such a basin; for we find at South Shields the beds of coal rising towards the sea, and coal is raised at various places from under the magnesian limestone. A great many seams of coal are found in this coal tract, but they differ much in different places; and seldom more than five of workable thickness co-exist; and often not more than one or two occur in the same locality. For example, in Monkwearmouth colliery there are thirty-one seams sunk through, in a depth of 264 fathoms, containing forty-seven feet of coal, inclusive of the interstratified foreign matters, but one seam only is worth working. The thickness of the seams varies from one inch to six feet. Also in Blackworth colliery, 283 beds have been bored through, in a depth of 206 fathoms, comprising forty-five beds of coal, which, with foreign interstratified substances, have an aggregate thickness of sixty feet; but of these only two or three are workable. These beds cannot, however, be regarded as continuous over the entire coal-field, as many of them can be traced to other seams, by whose splitting or division they have been formed. There are also some seams which have not been deposited in one locality as they have in others, distances of a mile or two often showing remarkable changes in the number and quality of the seams. The coal, generally speaking, is bituminous, but here also there is much variety. The strata consist of the usual alternations of argillaceous and sandy beds. The former, when soft, are called metal-when hard, metal stone. The sandstone beds are called Post. Argillaceous ironstone occurs interstratified with the metal stone. These various beds differ much in respect of texture, colour, &c., and it is difficult to identify them in remote localities. The best-defined sandstones near Newcastle are the grindstone, the seventy-fathom, and the main-post. The first supplies the Newcastle grindstones, which have been so long celebrated, and is extensively used for building: the two last lie below the grindstone, a great mass of argillaceous strata intervening. The main-post is the most continuous of all the strata in the district, and always accompanies the High Main coal seam; the other sandstone strata are not continuous over the district. The magnesian limestone in the east of the tract overlies a large body of coal strata; but it is in an unconformable position, as is proved by many sinkings. The mouth of the Tyne may be regarded as the northern limit of the magnesian limestone, small detached portions only being found north of the river, in the promontory of Tynemouth, and again at Cullercoats. Here also the inferior new red sandstone is exposed to view. The strata of the coal-field are generally covered by a strong clay soil, particularly in the higher grounds; but in some places, a thick diluvium prevails, as from Byker to North Shields, where the band varies in breath from one to two miles, and from a few feet to thirty fathoms in thickness. It consists of clay, sand, and gravel; the latter being generally underneath, upon the regular rock. Fragments of sandstone, mountain limestone, ironstone, basalt, greenstone, and granite, are found in the diluvium, more or less rounded by attrition. They have plainly been derived from older rocks lying westwards. The clay of this diluvium is finely laminated; and frequently between the laminæ there are arenaceous partings, in which crystals of selenite are found. Peat bogs occur in some places; alluvial deposits prevail in many of the valleys; and in the larger ones, peculiar lacustrine deposits, locally called washes, are frequent. One of these occurs near North Shields, but its extent is not well ascertained. It has denudated and destroyed the coal seams to an unknown depth, as they terminate on its western, and reappear on its eastern side. It has thus formed a great gap in the strata. A similar wash occurs in Ouseburn, and extends under the Tyne, and seems to be continued for some distance to the north-west, traces of it occurring at Jesmont colliery. Another extends from Chester-le-Street, thence to the bed of the Tyne, at Elswick colliery: its depth seems to be between thirty and sixty fathoms. The substances of which these washes are composed, are detritus from the neighbouring hills -clay, waterside sand, and gravel. In some places, where workings were carried on below this lacustrine deposit, an opening in the roof let down a current of sharp sand, in a completely unconsolidated state. Some of these deposits in the valley of the Tyne have been plainly formed in lakes, through which the river once flowed, but by the bursting of whose barriers a new channel was formed. Prof. Phillips called the attention of the Section to the importance of the paper just read, and on the fact, now placed beyond a doubt, that the true coal strata extended beneath the magnesian limestone series. He stated that some of the best coal taken to London was found beneath that deposit. He also remarked that the other coal-fields, both of England and Scotland, showed a perfect accordance with the Newcastle field in respect of the amount and thickness of the beds, the average total thickness of the coal seams being about 50 feet, including the interstratified matters, while the whole number of beds-283 to 260 fathoms-showed an average thickness of about 5 feet. He expressed surprise how any one could doubt the slow and longcontinued deposit of the coal measures, when he saw exhibited before him such a vast mass of sand, clay, ironstone, and other substances, regularly stratified, and intermixed, in many places, with abundant remains of shells.-Prof. Sedgwick also |