GAS LIGHT PIPES. in the second to the left, and so on, alternately, to the last, which communicates with the hole on the other side of the room, for letting out the smoke. These divisions being made, the whole is arched, or otherwise covered with brick, above which is laid a layer of clay or plaster, to prevent the smoke from rising through the surface. It is plain that, below this bench, there will be a winding channel for the smoke, from one side of the room to the other. A few handfuls of brushwood, straw, or any kind of fuel, will warm the bench as much as is necessary to work or sleep without feeling cold. It is generally covered with mats, felts, or other thick stuffs, according to the ability of the owner. I am, Sir, Your obedient servant, MACHINE FOR LOWERING COFFINS. SIR,-The draft of the Machine to lower Coffins (No. 105) is incor rect. As the wheel and three nuts are at present placed, not one of them can turn-the nut, H, should not meet the wheel, F, but better without the great wheel. Suppose the nut, I, was on the cross-piece, and parallel with the nuts G and H, then a small wheel in the same parallel line would do the business. The three nuts and wheel may be all of one size, say nine inches diameter, which would leave 27 inches for the width of the frame; the use of the wheel between the nuts is merely to give a contrary motion to the two rollers, A and B. If the nuts, H and G, are of the same number of teeth, the motion of the rollers will be uniform, whatever may be the number of teeth on the nut, I, or the wheel, F; for wheels working tooth to tooth neither accelerate nor retard motion. I am, Sir, R-H GAS-LIGHT PIPES. 363 Having been called to rectify a gas light that would not burn, in the house of Mr. More, Serle's coffeehouse, Carey-street, I commenced pulling down the pipe leading to the light, and found that it was very much corroded with, as I thought, the common dry sort of incrustation that adheres to the sides of the pipe. pursued the usual means of cleaning it, which is with common iron wire, annealed, drove through it, and, to my astonishment, on my applying the wire to the inside of the pipe, and driving it up and down, the contents (the corroded matter) exploded with the report of a musket through the opposite end resting on the ground the smell was that of gunpowder. If any of your able Correspondents can explain what the mixture could have been composed of to make it so highly explosive, merely by the friction or percussion of thin soft iron wire, I should feel much obliged for the information. I am, Sir, Yours respectfully, RE Abertawa. P.S. As the situation of the pipe makes a material difference in the nature of the deposit, I would wish you to understand that the gas light was in the street lantern above Mr. More's entrance, the pipe half-inch copper, running along the iron ornament of the lantern support; likewise the small stop-cock, belonging to the light inside the lantern, was always kept open; the light was, like four others, put out by the maincock; therefore the pipe that is occupied at night by carburetted hydrogen is, in the like way, full of atmospheric air in the day-time, in consequence of the small lanterncock being always open; such_was the case with the present one. May not this produce a very different chemical action on the inside to what it would if the air was excluded, forming some phosphorescent component, having a fulminating nature? IMPROVED SHOT. A patent has just been taken out for a new method of making shot. The improvement consists in mixing a small proportion of quicksilver with the lead, by which means the shot is rendered harder and heavier, and divested of the arsenic, which was one of the chief objections to the original patent shot. Other advantages are stated to be, that a shot of a smaller size is procured for guns of smaller calibre, yet equal to larger drops; that the game killed by it keeps better; that it is as clean as silver to handle, and may be carried loose in the pocket; and that it has less friction in firing. SIR,-I send you a rough sketch and description of a Simple Blowpipe, which I find to answer extremely well. If you think it worthy of insertion in your much-admired publication, it is at your service. I am, Sir, A constant reader, Description of the Drawing. size. B, a large bladder, to which is adapted the stop-cock and jet-pipe, C. D, a piece of wood, with four cords attached to it (as the sketch indicates), which pass through the board, A. E, a weight attached to the lines, which causes the piece of wood, D, to press upon the bladder, and, of course, drives the air through the jet-pipe to the spirit-lamp, F. HAINAULT SCYTHE. The Hainault Scythe is now undergoing the test of experiment in Scotland, and two farmers have been brought over from Flanders for that purpose. It consists of a short blade of twenty inches, or nearly like the point-half of an ordinary hay-scythe, and has a handle of the same length. The blade during cutting is quite level, both from point to heel, as well as from edge to back. The handle stands in a position nearly upright, or inclines forward at the top, so as to form, with the blade, an angle of 80 degrees. That portion of it held in the hand is turned back a little, or nearly to 45 degrees, and hand, on which overlength the arm is longer than the breadth of the rests, and is strengthened during cutting. In the left hand the operator holds a staff 31⁄2 feet long, at the HAINAULT SCYTHE. extreme end of which is a hook; while cutting, this is used in pressing back the corn about midway up at the time the soythe strikes the bottom. At each stroke the scythe cuts the length of itself, and a foot or more deep, which cut corn it leaves standing quite upright in front of the uncut victual. As soon as the operator has proceeded as far as he wishes across the ridge, he turns, and with the hook pulls the corn towards the open side, cutting a little more at the same time, so that in going and returning three feet may be cut. The operation is exactly the mode of cutting called bagging in England, only the handle of the bagging-hook is straight with the blade, and occasions the reaper to stoop, and the baggers use the fingers in gathering, and a small rip of corn in cutting, instead of the staff and hook. There can be little difference in point of time, but the Flemings seemed to work very easily. No trial was made of the time they would take to cut any given quantity of grain, although the speed they made certainly warranted the assertion, that two in a day would cut an English acre. This is often done by the baggers. It is very good work to three sickle-reapers to do this, and bind it, as it is understood they do. The scythes used were very clumsily made and ill-tempered, and broke and bent on receiving the slightest extra opposition; but if the instrument is found beneficial, this will soon be remedied by British makers. Farther particulars. On Saturday, the 27th ult., the Flemish reapers exhibited the use of the Hainault scythe, on the farm of Hillhead, estate of Cardonald, belonging to Lord Blantyre, and occupied by Mr. John Hogg. Sir John Maxwell, Mr. Maxwell, Mr. Spiers of Elderslie, Mr. Campbell of Blythswood, Mr. Stewart of Williamwood, Mr. Orr of Ralston, Major Walker, Mr. Wilson, and several other gentlemen, and a number of practical farmers, were on the spot. About eleven o'clock, the reapers began to a field of wheat, of which they cut about 495 ells in 25 minutes, which 365 It is produced four stooks, each containing 14 sheaves. At this rate the two reapers would have cut a Scottish acre in five hours and ten minutes. The wheat was sown about New Year's-day, the straw was strong, and the crop will probably run about ten bolls an acre. Mr. Hogg was aware that the reapers were to exhibit on that field, and when he set the shearers to cut down the other parts that were ripe, he enjoined them to take time, make the stubble short, and finish their work in a neat and masterly manner; so that the kintra might na be affronted a'thegither wi' the strangers." He was more than once complimented on the neatness with which the field was cut, yet, notwithstanding, the part cut by the Flemings is quite apparent in the shortness of the stubble. Except on some solitary parts, that had been cut with either the point or heel of the scythe, the stubble runs from two to three inches in length. On the tops of the ridges, where the ground was smooth and free from stones, the crop was cut quite close to the ground. believed that an ordinary crop of wheat, cut by the Hainault scythe, will produce from 16 to 20 stones of straw more an acre, than when cut in the usual way. The exhibition on the wheat-field gave great satisfaction to all present. The Flemings next proceeded to a field of oats. On this field, before sowing, lime had been harrowed in, and a number of unburnt lime-stones were lying on the surface. The crop was estimated at nine bolls an acre. They cut 308 square ells, which produced four stooks, each containing 12 sheaves, in about the same time they took to the wheat. Though the field was very unfavourable for the scythe, the stubble was visibly shorter than that of the oats cut with the hook. The implements must have been considerably injured on this trial, as they had driven pieces out of a number of the stones that were lying on the ground. The Fleming's had most trouble with some spots where the crop was very thin, and the ridge sloping into the furrow; but still they managed it better, in respect of stubble, than could be done with the hook. When the crop is light, it does not stand the stroke of the implement so well, and they cannot get forward with the same expedition as when it is heavy, and the ground level. They next cut a small quantity of barley, to show that the scythe was as well adapted for cutting it as any other sort of grain. The ground in this case was not measured, and no attention was paid to the quantity cut. The next trial was in a field of beans, and here the scythe was shown to great advantage. given by Nature. The cage is made of brass, and the wheels which make them move and produce the sound are of silver; the plumage is real. A person of distinction, it appears, offered the watchmaker 32,000 florins for his cage, but he will not take less than 60,000. INQUIRIES. The crop was very good. The ground No. 147.-UNIFORMITY IN COLOUR was quite level, free of stones, and every thing was favourable for the trial. They cut 161 square ells, which produced 33 sheaves. In this case the difference of the stubble is very striking. Grass, weeds of every description, as well as the crop, were swept away by the scythe, and there is scarcely a green blade to be seen on the spot where the trial was made. The gentlemen were highly satisfied with the exhibition in this field, and declared that the superiority of the scythe, for heavy crops, was beyond the reach of controversy. After the Flemish reapers hadfinished their business, a very ingenious scythe was shown by Mr. Kippie. With this implement the inventor cut both oats and barley; and the gentlemen who witnessed the work expressed great satisfaction with it. This machine is the common scythe, with the addition of a tin back and spring in front, which regulate the cutting, and collect the corn into neat rows. Mr. Kippie computes, that nearly as much corn could be cut with it in a day, as of hay by the common scythe. It is much to be wished that an opportunity was afforded to Mr. Kippie of exhibiting the merit of the instrument in a larger trial. EXQUISITE MECHANISM. A watchmaker of Bayreuth has manufactured a cage filled with birds, to the number of sixty, representing parrots, sparrows, swallows, &c., each of which has the peculiar note OF BRICKS. SIR,-If any of your Correspondents would, through your useful Magazine, furnish me with information on the following subject, they would confer a great obligation. I have a brick-kiln now in constant use, the bricks made are good, but scarcely two of the same colour; out of the same kiln are red, pale red, and brown, with all pale yellow, deep yellow, bluish the intermediate shades of colour. Coal is used in the burning, and frequently bursts the bricks, and the soil is a bluish mart; the lime shows itself in the tiles in small spots. I wish to be informed how the bricks may be made nearly of the same yellow colour? and also how to colour the tiles of a slate or dark colour? ANSWERS TO INQUIRIES. the annual heavy expense in thatching, I wish to be informed if a permanent cover cannot be made at a moderate expense, something in the following manner? A wall being first built, of about two feet six inches, on which the stack rests, with a coping to keep out vermin, an iron pillar may rest upon each corner covering, and lashing over two bricks, each way, to steady t; from them a very slight deal roof may be built, resting upon a larger tube in the centre of the stack, which should be hollow, and pierced with holes to let out the heated air. The cover may, I think, be brown paper, well tarred, resting on strings, or on a light net drawn over the whole. I should think that the iron corner pillars may be made in pieces of about three or four feet long, fitting into each other either by screw or other wise. I wish to be informed of the expense of the cast-iron pillars, and what size they should be made of, and any improvement in the form or plan which may suggest itself to your Correspondents. I must remark, that the expense of thatching a moderate-sized stack, taking in all the work necessary, cannot now be less than one pound, and, what is still worse than the expense, is, that the work must be done at a time when all bands are fully employed in harvest. Wishing success to your useful undertaking, I am, Sir, Your obedient servant, NO MECHANIC. NO. 149.-ECHOES. SIR,-I shall feel much obliged if any of your numerous Correspondents will inform me which is the best and cheapest way to remove an echo from a room or chapel? I remain, Sir, SIRROM, 367 NO. 133.-MANAGEMENT OF BEES., SIR, In reply to an inquiry in No. 96 of your Magazine, for the best mode of sheltering flat-top Bee-hives, I inform your Correspondent from Burton, of a cement: sometimes made use of in France, which I think well calculated to answer his purpose; I have used it generally to secure my hives to the board on which they are placed, and prefer it to any other in which lime is an ingredient, because it. does not crack, and give admission to other insects. I have covered my hives totally with it, and they have borne exposure to all kinds of weather for many months, but, having observed the straw, of which my hives are formed, became injured by the confinement |