Scientific American Volume 17, No. 26 December 28, 1867 Part 31

R.S.B., of N.Y., alluding to the inquiry of S.W.P., in No. 23, for a waterproof paste. "Calico printers when they wish to leave white figures on a dark ground use what they term a 'resist paste' to cover such places as are designed to be unaffected by the dye. If the ingredients of this paste were known it might be what S.W.P., desires." This "resist paste" is 1 lb. of binacetate of copper (distilled verdigris), 3 lbs.

sulphate of copper dissolved in 1 gal. water. This solution to be thickened with 2 lbs. gum senegal, 1 lb. British gum and 4 lbs. pipe clay; adding afterward, 2 oz. nitrate of copper as a deliquescent.

M.A.H, of Vt.--"I have a surplus of water power and desire to know the probable cost of the apparatus for producing the electric light, with a view of employing my surplus power in that direction." A serviceable magneto-electrical machine for giving light is quite expensive.

Business and Personal.

_The charge for insertion under this head is 50 cents a line_.

Parties in want of Fine Tools or Machinists' Supplies send for price list to Goodnow & Wightman, 23 Cornhill, Boston, Ma.s.s.

Pattern Letters and Figures for inventors, etc., to put on patterns for castings, are made by Knight Brothers, Seneca Falls, N.Y.

Allen & Needles, 41 South Water street, Philadelphia, Manufacturers of Allen's Patent Anti-Lamina, for removing and preventing Scale in steam boilers.

All Parties having any article to sell through an agent, address, with circular, etc., Box 499 Oil City, Pa.

Manufacturers of Tag Holders will please send address to Box 1019, St.

Paul, Minn.

Manufacturers of Presses for making Castor Oil, address or send circular to F.M. Peck, P.O. Box 190, Montgomery, Ala.

Manufacturers of Cotton-Spinning and Knitting Machinery send circular and price list to W.L. Jones, Holly Springs, Miss.

Dr. W. Spillman, Marion Station, Miss., wishes to correspond with manufacturers of buckshot or bullets, either conical or spherical.

Toy Makers--One-half of Patent Right of Toy Wind Wheel given away!

Address Dr. W.H. Benson, Norfolk, Va.

Milton Darling, East Macdonough, Chenango Co., N.Y., wishes the address of those that want broom handles for the year 1868.

A.B. Woodbury, Winchester, N.H., wants to sell two valuable patents--Jack-Spinning Improvements.

E.C. Tainter, Worcester, Ma.s.s., wants to sell a good set of Sash and Door Machinery, used only six months.

Parties desiring any of their new ideas put into practical form, or wanting any new apparatus invented for manufacturing purposes, etc., address, with confidence, A.E.W., Inventor and Draftsman, 114 Fulton street, N.Y. References given.

MANUFACTURING, MINING, AND RAILROAD ITEMS.

For the benefit of the Union Pacific railroad, the base of the Rocky Mountains has been fixed at the base of the Black Hills, a distance of 6.637 miles west of Cheyenne, and, according to the railway surveys 525.078 miles from Omaha.

The Pittsburg, Fort Wayne and Chicago railway have just rebuilt in the most permanent manner an iron bridge over the Alleghany river, to replace the old wooden Howe truss bridge, which had become inadequate to the increasing traffic. The new bridge opens like a fan towards the freight yard at Pittsburg being at the narrowest part, next to the main span 55 feet wide. The river is crossed with spans averaging 153 feet in the clear, with a bearing of five feet on each pier. The principle of the construction is known as the lattice girder plan, with vertical stiffening. The work was executed under the superintendence of its designer, the engineer and architect of the company Felician Stataper.

The production of precious metals in the United States from 1849 to 1867 inclusive, has amounted in value to $1,174,000,000.

The president of one of the New Jersey railroads proposes a plan to avoid the danger to life and limb from the series of trains that run into and out of Jersey city. The new project is to elevate the present tracks fifteen feet above the streets, and by safe machinery to lower at once an entire train in the depot at the river.

A mining company at Newton, Nev., are making preparations to work their claims by means of a steam engine which will be used to throw a stream of water instead of the ordinary hydraulic pressure They estimate that with a ten or twelve horse power engine, then can throw 100 inches of water with a force equal to at least 150 feet fall. The result of this experiment is looked upon with a good deal of interest, as there is a vast amount of good hydraulic ground in the adjoining countries, which, as in this case, cannot be worked by the ordinary process for want of water fall, but which, if the expedient in this case proves successful, will soon be worked by steam engines.

By an oversight in the article on the trans-continental railroad, published in our last issue, the Western or California section of the road was styled the Union Pacific, instead of the Central railroad. In the race to reach Salt Lake the California company have 400 miles more to build, while the Union company have only 328 miles. But the country to be traversed by the former is comparatively level, and favorable for winter work, while that on the other side crosses four distinct mountain ranges, and winter storms must interrupt work for several months in the year.

PATENT OFFICE DECISIONS ON APPEAL.

USEFUL COMPOUNDS ARE PATENTABLE--THE APPLICANT NOT REQUIRED TO PROVE THE FUNCTION OF EACH INGREDIENT.

S.H. HODGES for the Board of Examiners-in Chief.

_Application of Rew for a Patent for Preventing and Curing Swine Cholera_.--The applicant's specific is composed of a number of medical articles, the nature of which is not important upon the present occasion, and it is unnecessary to enumerate them. But it is objected that "a medical prescription" "should contain some recognition of the medicinal properties of the several ingredients" "and the part they perform in the compound:" or, as it is elsewhere expressed, such a mixture should not receive the sanction of this department "unless perhaps a satisfactory rationale should be given for the use of each of the ingredients in the proportions named."

If the medical faculty were always satisfied themselves as to the operation of the various remedies they employ, there might be more reason in the objection. But it is well known that different schools disagree widely on this subject, and there are remedies employed with success the effect of which the most intelligent are unable to account for. So long as there is a single one of this character to be found, and while the operations of the vital functions are so concealed from us that we are unable fully to comprehend the process by which any specific operates, so long it is impossible to prescribe as a conditon of patentability, a full explanation of the mode in which any one acts that is brought forward. It would be still less justifiable to require such an explanation as would content any particular cla.s.s of medical men.

Every year new therapeutics are introduced into practice, and not unfrequently some whose beneficial results are not understood. And as long as one such may be found, it is not just to make it a condition of its being protected by a patent, that the discoverer should bring the scientific world to agree with him in his theory respecting it, nor even that he should have one.

The man who stumbles upon a new and useful article is just as much ent.i.tled to the exclusive use of it as if he had elaborated it by the most profound and painful study. It is true that there is danger upon this principle of countenancing mere nostrums, and giving them undue prestige This can only be guarded against by the exercise of great caution and requiring convincing proof of utility. Such his been furnished in this case, in abundance.

The application cannot be rejected except upon such grounds as would insure the rejection of nearly all medicines whatever. Nor is the Office responsible for the false importance which the public may attach to its proceedings, so long is they are confined to its legitimate province.

Its duties certainly must not be neglected, and meritorious pet.i.tions refused, in order to obviate such misapprehensions.

The decision of the Primary Examiner is reversed.

[Transcribers note: full index of volume XVII. left out]