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IMPROVED WINDOW, WATER-TRAP, IMPROVED SYPHONS, &c.

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IMPROVED WINDOW.

To the Editors of the

GLASGOW MECHANICS' MAGAZINE.

you

GENTLEMEN, - If should think the annexed design for a shop front, worthy of a place in the Glasgow Mechanics' Magazine, I will thank you to insert it. It may be the means of drawing the attention of some of your Correspondents to the subject, and may lead to still farther improvements. I consider the mode of putting up and down shop window-boards, (at present in use,) to be attended with much inconvenience and trouble. By the adoption of the plan I here propose, I am convinced much of both will be avoided. The window

board, you will observe, slides down below the window and the pave

ment.

Fig. 1, is a design for a shop front. A, is the framing that the

shuts slide behind; B, the shuts below the street, in a frame for the purpose.

Fig. 2, is to show the manner of drawing the shuts up to the window, by means of cords fixed to the shutter. A bottom piece of iron comes through the inside casing at c, and there being a groove for it to slide in, keeps the shutter in its proper form; d, is the handle fixed to the cord; e, is the shelves that conducts the cord. A weight may be added to take part of the weight off the shut at f; and it will be found that it will slide down by its own weight; g, is the street; h, is the shut; i, is the window bottom; j, is the shop floor-each shut will require a separate cord.

I am, GENTLEMEN, yours, &c.
M. SAUL.

Lancaster, 13th Feb. 1825.

IMPROVEMENTS ON THE WATER-TRAP.

To the Editors of the GLASGOW MECHANICS' MAGAZINE. GENTLEMEN,-" In the multiplicity of counsel there is wisdom," says the wise man. I have seen, with infinite satisfaction, many ingenious methods for preventing the disagreeable effluvia which arises from common sewers from annoying the neighbourhood; and will, without farther preamble, give you another, which I think should fully answer the desired end.

A, (fig. 3,) is a section of the sewer; B, the tunnel for conveying the water from the street, which may be done of freestone, in the ordinary manner; C, is the bent part of it, which ought to be done of cast-iron or of stone, and made water-tight with puddle made of clay the water flowing through the tunnel will fill C to the bend,

which will remain so, and prevent
the return of the smell, and it is
believed that the trap will clear it-
self of
any mud or sand which may
tend to accumulate in the bend by
the velocity with which the water
will fall down the tunnel, and there-
fore jet the mud out before it: at
any rate, the opening of a water-
plug in the vicinity, occasionally
during the summer months, or in
the absence of rain, will do it com-
pletely if necessary.

This plan was laid before the Statute Labour Trustees for the city several years ago, and received their approbation, and it was in contemplation to have constructed one for trial; but, so far as I know, it has never been carried into effect. I am, GENTLEMEN, yours, &c. J. W.

Glasgow, 15th Feb. 1825.

IMPROVED SYPHONS.

M. Bunten's Improved Syphon. THE improved syphon of M. Bunten is shown at fig. 5, where A, B, is the long branch, with a bulb at A, and D, C, the short branch. This syphon requires neither to be blown into, nor any suction. It is sufficient to fill the long branch A, B, and the ball A, with the liquid, and to plunge the short branch C, D, into the liquid to be decanted. The bulb, A, in emptying itself, draws off the liquid in contact with the short branch, and though the bulb itself is partly empty, the flow is unremitting.-See the Journal de Pharmacie, Avril, 1824, p. 189.

M. Hempel of Berlin's Improved Syphon.

Another improved syphon by M. Hempel, a practical chemist at Berlin, is shown at fig. 4. It has the same advantages as that of M. Bunten, and is more easily constructed on a large scale. A part of the liquid to be decanted is poured into the funnel A, at the top of the tube A, B, which is fitted into the short branch of the syphon. As soon as the flow commences through the long branch D, C, the tube A, B, is withdrawn, and the flow continues.-Id. Id.

DESCRIPTION OF TWO NEW VOLTAIC BATTERIES.

By ELISHA DE BUTTS, M. D. Professor of Chemistry in the University of Maryland.

To the Editor of the

American Journal of Science and Arts.

DEAR SIR,-Perhaps no branch of science is more important at this moment than electricity.

The power possessed by certain galvanic arrangements to elevate temperature to extraordinary dewhen associated with our grees, present views of chemical theory, renders them justly objects of great interest. But when we reflect upon the phenomena which have resulted from a power which they also possess, to affect the magnetic condition of bodies, we cannot be surprised that so much of the attention of the scientific world is devoted to this department of study. A consideration of the facts developed by the experiments of Oersted, Ampere, Arago, &c. made me desirous to repeat them and to pursue the subject, and as the most remarkable magnetic effects appeared to have been produced by large plates, I endeavoured to construct an apparatus, upon a plan which

should not only have that advantage, but also those by which it might be adapted to operations connected with chemical researches, and in relation to both to possess if possible, in a greater degree than any of our galvanic instruments, all those circumstances of mechanical facility that have been found useful in the hands of other experimentalists.

My motive for addressing you now, is merely to describe the plan which I have adopted, as I have found it to be eminently useful in relation to the objects to which I have alluded. The result of a series of experiments in which I am engaged shall be communicated to you for a future number.

Eight wheels (see fig. 6,) made of strong pieces of plank, screwed to each other transversely, four feet in diameter and one inch and fiveeighths in thickness, are placed upon an axle six inches in diameter, and five feet nine inches in length, having brass gudgeons one inch and a half thick, at each extremity. These

wheels are arranged in pairs, each carrying thirty semicircular plates of copper and zinc, thirty-nine inches in diameter. In order to prepare them for the reception of the plates, they are placed about ten inches from each other, and retained in their positions by eight strong pieces of ash, morticed and screwed into their edges, by which they are firmly connected. Five of these cross pieces are indented by a saw, that they may receive the edges of the plates, and keep them at proper distances. Each pair of wheels, charged with the plates, is separated about two inches from the next, as they are all intended to revolve in a cistern with divisions. The plates are counterbalanced by pieces of lead, painted and varnished, attached to the cross pieces on the opposite side of the wheel. The dotted lines, d, d, indicate the situation of these counter-weights. The cistern is supported by strong pillars of glass-is six feet long, four feet four inches wide, and two feet three inches deep. It is divided into four cells, by three pieces of one and a quarter inch plank, morticed into the bottom and sides, and rising to within four inches of the top of the cistern, for the purpose of permitting the axle to turn freely. The whole is well painted with white lead, and covered with several coats of copal varnish. The plates are arranged as in fig. 6, and the terminating plates of each division are connected by a strap of copper, four inches broad, soldered to their edges. This strap rises from one plate (for example) until it touches the axle, then passes through the wheel in contact with the axle, until it passes through the opposite wheel; it then dips down to join the edge of the first plate of the next division, which is in a different electrical state. In order to enable the

operator to experiment conveniently, the poles are brought to one end of the set of wheels, a brass bar almost as long as the axle is placed upon that side of the axle which is uppermost when the plates are immersed, and, with the exception of the terminating wheels, passes through all the rest near their centres. One end of this bar is connected by copper straps to the positive plate, and the other to a copper strap, which, rising from the axle, passes through a slit in the front wheel; it is then bent down, and fastened by a small plate of brass, which is screwed firmly upon it. Another strap is soldered to the negative plate, passes through another slit, and is fastened in the same way, by a similar brass plate.* These brass plates, with the pincers for experiment, mounted, are represented at a, a. In fig. 7, the wheels are in the position which exhibits the plates out of the fluid. The pincers and brass plates are here shown, to avoid the necessity of another plate, although not in their proper places. It is evident that, when the plates are immersed in the fluid of the cistern, the dotted lines, b, b, mark the places which properly belong to them, and which must then be uppermost. When the operator has finished, and is about to turn the plates out of the fluid, he must first draw the pincers, &c. out of the brass plate. That this may be done almost instantaneously will be perceived by referring to fig. 8, which represents one of the brass plates with the pincer holder in its place; fig. 9, represents one of the pincers. It is hardly necessary to state, that the instrument which I have now described is sufficiently powerful to melt the metals, ignite charcoal intensely, &c. In fact, with one part

* These two straps are well varnished.

of nitric acid to ninety of water, I found it impossible to fix platina wire, one tenth of an inch thick, and several inches long, in the pincers, as it melted instantly when in contact with the poles. In conformity with common observation relative to large plates, it produces neither shock nor decomposition. As in a certain position, the uniting wire situated east and west, a magnetic needle suspended below and near the wire is reversed, the north pole pointing directly to the south, its power in this respect is probably sufficiently great to accomplish all my purposes. I think it is not inferior, in relation to this power, to any of the instruments reported, and certainly superior in point of convenience either to the coil of Colonel Offerhaus,* or that of Mr. Pepys. As it is necessary, however, to have instruments capable of producing the other galvanic effects, it occurred to me to form a battery of small plates upon the above plan. Fig. 10, represents one of this kind, with semicircular plates, eight inches in diameter, and arranged as in the large apparatus. This is four feet in length, and contains one hundred and forty-four plates, namely, forty-eight of zinc, and ninety-six of copper. Two of these placed parallel to each other, I have

* Edinburgh Journal, Vol. VIII. + Brande's Journal, 1823.

chosen to connect by an arc of thick brass wire at one end, and at the other by having plates of copper connected with the terminating plates inside, fixed to the outside of the wheels, as at c, with a sheath to each to receive the ends of the conductors, as in fig.11. I am preparing another battery of this kind, with a much larger number of small plates. To facilitate the work of soldering connecting pieces to plates situated close to each other, suppose the third of an inch, one or more straps must be soldered to the edge of each plate, before they are fixed in their places, and then, by causing one strap to lap over the other, they can be easily united by the soldering tool.

You will perceive, my dear Sir, that according to the arrangement of both these instruments, we possess the advantage to be derived from the simultaneous immersion of all the plates, an advantage which has been so ably illustrated by my friend Dr. Hare's calorimotor and deflagrator, and that by half a revolution of the wheels, which may done in a few seconds by a slight effort, the plates are all in the air, and may be easily washed by a little water poured from a garden pot, or other convenient vessel. In this position they will remain unaffected until required for operation.

TAXIDERMY;

OR,

be

ELISHA DE BUTTS.

THE ART OF PRESERVING OBJECTS IN NATURAL HISTORY. (Concluded from page 7, Vol. III.)

Preservation of the Skins of

Quadrupeds.*

HAVING skinned the animal, and

* Owing to an important error in our last, some repetition is here necessary. Errata: Page 7, line 31, for foramen magnunteral wire, read foramen mag

num.

removed the flesh from the bones of the legs and the head, (taking out the tongue and eyes,) the skin is to be dried, and smeared over with preservative. It is now ready for stuffing. A piece of wire is to be fixed in the skull, extending back to the tail, serving the

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