from want of a sufficient draft of air to create a current ; in order to provide for this, I propose an air-pipe to be laid from any convenient part, with a valve if necessary, to prevent the wind from rushing in, and conducted into a box behind the stove or fire-place, seen in Fig. 7, and thence over the opening of the fire-place, and immediately under the hood; this pipe is to be perforated with holes, and a guard partly to cover it, in order to direct the current of air, as seen in Fig. 7, and section Fig. 8.

In witness whereof, &c.

Specification of the Patent granted to CHARLES TANNER, of Plymouth, in the County of Devon, Tanner; for an Improvement in preserving or curing of Raw Hides and Skins, by the Application of certain Materials hitherto unused for that Purpose. Dated January 4, 1819.

To all to whom these presents shall come, &c. Now KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I the said Charles Tanner do hereby declare that my said improvements in preserving or curing of raw hides and skins, by the application of certain materials hitherto unused for that purpose, are herein truly described, and are effected in the following manner.

The materials of which I make use being well known, and already applied in various manufacturing processes, it is only the application of them to the purposes above recited, that I claim under these letters patent. The materials are the following. First, soap-makers spent or salt lees, or the same more or less concentrated by boiling down, or otherwise; or the above-mentioned spent or salt lees, reduced by evaporation to a solid substance; or the above-mentioned spent or salt lees, reduced by

evaporation

evaporation and fusion to the substance commonly known by the name of black ashes, or the said black ashes refined, and thus converted into the substance commonly known by the name of English ashes. Secondly, the spent or waste ashes from soap-makers barilla vats. Thirdly, kelp.

My method of applying the aforesaid materials is either. in the moist way or in the dry way. In the moist way, I take a quantity of the spent or salt lees, to which I add a sufficient quantity of any or all of the above-mentioned materials in substance, or a lee or lees drawn from them in the usual way. In the liquid or pickle thus prepared I immerse the hide or skin for the space of ten hours, I then take it out of the pickle, and fold it up with the flesh side outwards. In this state it will resist putrefaction, from one month to twelve months, according to the strength of the pickle which has been made use of. The spent or salt lees, and the other materials aforesaid, differ so much in different samples, both with regard to the quantity and quality of the ingredients of which they are composed, that it is not possible to give any certain rules for composing the pickle that shall be invariably applicable. In the dry way; I take kelp or black ash, or any other of the aforesaid materials produced from evaporating the spent or salt lee, or a mixture of all or any of the aforesaid materials; and having reduced them, by grinding or otherwise, to pieces about the size of peas, I take a hide or skin, and having spread it out, with the flesh side upwards, I sift on it a sufficient quantity of the aforesaid materials, the proportion varying according to their quality, and the season of the year, and the length of time that the hide is intended to be preserved. I then cover it with another hide or skin, having, like the former, its flesh side upwards, and treat this second precisely in VOL. XXXV.-SECOND SERIES.

T

the

the same way as the first. Proceeding in this manner I form a pile of twenty hides or skins, more or less, and allow them to remain in this state for six hours; after which I tie them up separately, or in pairs, with all the composition that remains adhering to them.

Although the above method of preserving hides and skins in the dry way is effectual, yet I have found by experience, that it is advantageous to mix with the other materials, previously to their being used, about onefourteenth part of fresh-burnt charcoal of wood, or of bone ground to a powder. The use of the charcoal is twofold. In the first place, it tends to preserve the hides by its own antiseptic quality; and, in the second place, by giving to the materials or composition a certain degree of sponginess or porosity, it enables them to absorb the slime and other moisture which may exude from the hide or skin, and thus contributes still farther to prevent putrefaction. Of this composition I find that eight pounds. is sufficient to cure an average-size hide; but if it is intended that the hide shall be kept for many months, I increase the quantity of the composition to between ten and eleven pounds weight.

In witness whereof, &c.

Description of a Bow for improving the Tone and Accentuation of the Violin, Viola, and Violencello; and of improved Heads for these Instruments.

FIG.

Communicated by Mr. C. R. GORING."

With an Engraving.

IG. 1 (Plate VII.) represents the peculiarities of this bow in their exact dimensions. The stick is precisely that of the French octagon: the key or lever A A A A, is made of blued steel, it is roughed on the back like a rasp,

and