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the heat; thin plates of tin answer well, and it will require that they be as much longer than the cylinder as will allow of a standing on the bottom under the cylinder, when desired to heat it with oil, or alcohol. It seems immaterial how or in what method the heat is applied, so that it is steady, and can be readily lessened or increased. To lighthouses, or wherever a large flame is required, most likely nothing will be better, or cheaper, than anthracite coal, unless the heat is applied from the same stove, or lamp, after once in operation. The flame of a lamp of alcohol, not much, if any, larger than that of a common candle, will cause vapour enough to rise or issue, to give the light of ten or fifteen candles, and heat enough to boil a two quart tea-kettle in seven or eight mi. nutes. When the vapour issues freely and rapidly out of the conical tube, and is inflamed, it is plain to see the effect at least of the rapid decomposition of water. The flame will be a light blue for some inches above the tube, and on the outer edge of it there will, apparently, be a border, which has the appearance of decreasing rapidly towards the outer edge, and becomes entirely invisible in about one-eighth of an inch. The heat increases as the flame becomes less and less visible, and this is continued not only to where there is no appearance of any flame, but to a sensible distance beyond; where the heat is more intense than any where within the visible flame; which is made apparent by holding a fine wire across the flame. There does not appear to be any smell of turpentine from these lamps, unless the va pour is allowed to escape without being inflamed. Alcohol and spirits of turpentine may be made to burn in the same for many uses, particularly for lighting and warming rooms; but when alcohol is burned, it will require only about one-fifth or one-sixth of spirits of turpentine to give it the white flame; or alcohol may be mixed with water in any proportion, but the greater the proportion of water the more spirits of turpentine will be required. In the latter part of my experiments, I have generally made the covering in the form of a common tin-plate coffee-pot, as much larger that the cylinder as would allow of setting in a lamp on the bottom, through an opening on one side. The use and object of the box on the upper end of the cylinder, is to answer, in a great measure, the purpose of a gasometer in gasworks. It allows of working with much pressure in the boiler, thereby giving a much steadier issue of vapour. And as it passes

into the box with a number of holes, the issue from those holes is easily adjusted, so as to have it mix with a due proportion of atmospheric air before it is inflamed, and

with a velocity that will ensure its further supply, sufficient to ensure a most perfect combustion; giving to this mode great and decided advantages over all others in burning the vapours of the liquors before mentioned, as well as all others that can be conveniently evaporated, and that are combustible; and I can see no reason why carburetted hydrogen gas may not, in this way, be burnt ithw a large volume of flame, without any smoke, which will in many cases be very useful. The great and surprising volume and quantity of light and heat given out by these lamps and stoves, appears to me, evidently, to arise from the perpetual decomposition of the water in the combustion, and its recomposition from the air within the flame, as well as that surrounding it; which is owing, in a great measure to the vapours of the liquors. which contain much carbon as well as hydrogen, being so intimately mixed and blended with a great supply of atmospheric air, both before it is inflamed and after, and that constantly. These lamps have thisgreat advantage, that the same lamp can be made to burn regularly with the light of one or two candles, or twenty, or thirty, or more. Nothing can be more convenient than these lamps are for cooking, to a certain extent; with a half gill of spirits of turpentine, as much water, and one-eighth of a gill of alcohol, two, or more, two-quart tea-kettles can be made to boil in less than five minutes each, and bread toasted and meat enough for three or four men may be boiled. In boiling meat, it will be necessary to turn the tube off laterally, a few inches, and to have the flame blue or nearly so. So again, nothing, I should think, could be more convenient for soldering than these lamps; for the moment you bring a piece of thin sheet copper in contact with the blue flame, having a piece of silver solder, or common silver and borax on it, the solder is instantly melted, and the copper very soon. So also small brass wire brought over the flame instantly drops to pieces; and small copper wire is as soon melted, and very fine iron wire, when the mixture of air and vapour is in the best proportion, is instantly inflamed.

What I claim as my invention, and for which I ask a patent, is an improvement upon the mode of producing artificial light and heat for illumination, or other purposes, by mixing together, in suitable proportions, water, alcohol, or water and alcohol with spirits of turpentine, in a cylindrical, or other shaped, vessel, and inflaming the vapour extricated by heating the said mixture -which improvement consists principally in causing the vapour of the liquors to issue through holes from the evaporator into a small box, or reservoir, and from that

box or reservoir, through such a number of very small holes, into and through a conical, or other shaped tube, with such force and velocity as will ensure its mixture with as much atmospheric air, as will, when inflamed, induce a perfect combustion,-the principles of which improvement are hereinbefore described. And I do hereby declare, that I do not intend to confine myself to any exact form or proportions in the apparatus which I employ, but to vary the same as may be desired, in any manner which admits of my operating upon the same principle, and in which a similar effect is produced. SAMUEL MOREY.

Description of the Engraving.

a is a metallic cylinder; b, a small tube one-sixtieth inch diameter; c, another tube one-inch diameter; d, screw; e, safety-valve; f, small apertures through which vapour issues to the tubes; g, tubes; h, conical tube or receiver; i, place for the admission of atmospheric air; k, heat for generating vapour.

Remarks by Dr. Jones.

The statements of Mr. Morey may be relied on most implicitly, in whatever relates to those facts which have come under his own observation; and he has been an indefatigable experimenter and observer, more espécially as regards the production of flame by the combined action of alcohol, essential oils, and water. In an article published in Silliman's Journal, vol. xxv. p. 150, he says, "I have no doubt that I have tried lamps, stoves, and machines, in more than four thousand different forms, for effecting these purposes; and yet not many months have elapsed since I have felt entirely satisfied.

The experiments which I have made, have proved practically, that an engine with a power equal to driving a boat four miles an hour, and a rail-road car twice that distance in the same time, with ten or twelve passengers, may be made for one hundred dollars, and that the engine with its preparing vessel (a substitute for the boiler in the steam-engine) need not weigh one hundred pounds and the expense of working it will not exceed ten or twelve cents per hour. There are certainly no difficulties to be removed. These facts have been verified prac tically and repeatedly before hundreds of people.

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The foregoing observations are succeeded by some account of the effects produced by the flame, similar to those noticed in the specification of his patent; and Professor Silliman adds

"We have seen some of Mr. Morey's experiments, and can testify to the correctness of his statements, as regards the great amount of heat and light evolved by combustion of the vapour of water mixed with that of spirits of turpentine or alcohol, and duly modified by common air. The results are very striking and beautiful, and we can see no reason why they should not prove of great practical utility."

We have not witnessed the operation of Mr. Morey's lamp, but as we have already said, we are satisfied as regards the correctness of his statements, although we by no means agree with the gentleman in his theoretical views. In the article to which we have alluded, Mr. M. has given these at some length, but in doing so he has assumed as settled certain points with respect to the nature of electricity, which are by no means generally admitted by philosophers; and upon these he has founded his theory, or rather his hypothesis. We, however, should deem it out of place here, to enter into an argument on this subject; so far as the lamp and the patent are concerned, the question is one of facts, and it will afford us much more gratification to find that this invention is publicly introduced, generally approved, and fully compensating the author of it for his indefatigable and meritorious exertions, than we should be to establish our own theory, if we have one, of its modus operandi.

The

We will, however, make a remark or two, with respect to one point in the theory, that is, on the "burning of water." idea of doing this is not peculiar to Mr. Morey, as others have taken patents for "water-burners ;" and certainlythe introduction of the vapour of water among burning fuel has, under many circumstances, the effect of quickening the combustion, and, more especially, of enlarging the flame; still we do not believe, in spite of this sensible evidence, that these effects are produced by the decomposition and recomposition ofthe water, but think that they arise from its mechanical action in diffusing the material of flame so as to expose it to a larger portion of atmospheric air. We have before made the remark, and will here repeat it, that so far as the production of light and heat are concerned, it would seem to us that the simultaneous decomposition and recomposition of water must neutralise each other.

Sir,-In your Journal of the 1st Feb. last, there is a plan of a hydraulic blowpipe; this, and an abortive attempt, in which I lately spent some hours to no purpose, in working with an inefficient blow-pipe, set me a thinking, and the following plan is the result. I think it will be considered to combine simplicity of construction and efficiency nearly as much as may be.

A and B are two circular pieces of wood, firmly connected by four pillars of wood, three of which are seen. A cylindrical air-tight bag is fixed between A and B, and is divided into two equal parts by a solid diaphragm of lead, seen under the letter D. This diaphragm has two rings at diametric points, which run on two of the pillars and steady the weight; one of them is seen. A and B have, each of them, an air valve opening inwards; one of them is seen at V, as if through the bag. They have also each a valve opening outwards, into the boxes C and C. From each of these boxes there proceeds a pipe down to F, a circular box into which the pipes open. Fis a sort of pipe, wide where it receives the tubes coming from C C', and immediately after contracted, so as to be capable of serving as an axis on which the whole apparatus may turn. It ends in a nozzle, made so that blow-pipe jets of different sizes may screw into it. Diametrically opposite is another axis with a handle, and from one axis to the other there passes a circular hoop, which is fastened to the adjacent two pillars, but passes

outside of the other two; this is for strength's sake. Two uprights (not in the figure) support the axis, and the apparatus is complete, if only you add a catch which may engage the handle at each vertical position, and retain it there until the next turn. Care must be taken that the perforation of the jet used is truly in the centre of the axis, and the lead diaphragm should be of a weight equivalent to the pressure usually required; if greater pressure is requisite, weights can be added to the rings, which may be contrived with conveniences for such an addition; if less pressure be necessary, you have only to fix the machine at an angle proportionably deviating from the perpendicular, and the pressure will be in the same degree lessened. By introducing an air-tight joint at F, and adding a small fixed air reservoir, it would be easy to prevent any intermission in the blast. This contrivance might perhaps be available on a larger scale, and for more important purposes.

MODE OF PURIFYING PALM OIL.

To purify Palm Oil, and to whiten it comparatively for making Soap.-Take two parts of quick lime and three parts of the muriate of ammonia, the lime having been previously slacked with half its weight of water, and allowed to cool and reduced to a fine powder, and the muriate of ammonia having also been reduced to a fine powder, and then intimately blended with the powdered lime. The mixture is to be put into a still, or castiron pan, having a close cover to it, and a tube leading from the head of the pan or still to near the bottom of the soap copper, which should contain equal quantities of water and palm oil. On fire being applied to the still, the ammoniacal gas will pass over into the soap-copper; and as the water and oil combine, continue adding boilingwater to the extent of treble the weight of palm oil in all. By this process the colour of the palm oil will be almost instantaneously changed to a pale yellow. The boiling palm oil and water should, of course, be kept rapidly stirring while the gas is passing through. The ammonia being an alkali adds to the strength and detergency of the soap, while the peculiar smell imparted by it is so weak as scarcely to be susceptible after a few days' exposure to the atmosphere.

S.

66

G. C.

ANOTHER EQUALLY CERTAIN SCHEME

OF PERPETUAL MOTION.

Sir,-As I have observed that few things so effectually stimulate the exercise of the mechanical ingenuity of your readers, as the suggestion of any new mode of obtaining the perpetual motion, I crave insertion for the following scheme for that purpose:

Let a cylinder be prepared, say 13 inches in diameter, and 30 feet in height. This cylinder may be filled with any fluid substance—take, for instance, mercury. At about 1 foot from the bottom a valve is to be fixed horizontally across the cylinder, and beneath this a lateral opening, closed with a tight fitting door is to be made; or, instead of this, a second valve may be made at the bottom of the cylinder. If a cylindrical mass of iron or lead, for example, be now introduced, either by the lateral or end opening, and the valve or door closed, and then the upper valve be lifted up, the mass of iron or lead, being of less specific gravity than the mercury, will ascend to the top of the cylinder, and raise also such additional weight as may be required to balance the difference of gravity; and when it arrives at the surface of the mercury, the mass being made to descend on the outside of the cylinder, will, of course, give a power equal to its weight, falling through 30 feet in air.

If the machine proposed consisted of no other parts than those described it would be evidently useless, because, whenever the lower valve was opened, the quantity of mercury or other fluid, below the upper valve, would escape;

and when the upper valve was opened, to allow of the passage of the ascending body, the column would sink proportionally, so that, leaving friction out of the question, all that could be obtained would be a mere balance of power, all the power which the machine could exert being required to raise the fluid again to its former height. But two or three methods of preventing the sinking of the fluid column may be suggested. The most simple of these I will now proceed to describe. If a cistern, containing a small quantity of the fluid, be fixed at a little height above the upper valve of the cylinder-upon the body, which is to ascend, being introduced into its chamber, and the door or valve being closed, the chamber may be filled from this cistern, and the communication being cut off, the upper valve may be opened, and the ascending motion put into action. From the difference of spe cific gravity, sufficient power would be obtained in the ascent to pump up the fluid again into the cistern; and thus we should not only have the perpetual motion, but considerable available power to boot, namely, that arising from the descent of the body outside the cylinder. I am, Sir, Your obedient servant,

May 15, 1834.

A SEEKER.

LARDNER'S ARITHMETIC.

Dr. Lardner has just contributed to his own 66 Cyclopædia" a volume on the science of Numbers, which takes far higher ground than the common school treatises on the subject. The learned Doctor, while he gives, like them, the plain and practical rule for working each of the various problems, aims also at the more important object of explaining the reasons of the process, and leading the student's mind to the perception of the “why and because" of every operation he performs. It must certainly be conceded that arithmetic, as usually taught, is a mere empirical science, of the theory of which the learner (and very often the teacher) knows just as much as a blind horse in a mill of the theory of the wheel

A Treatise on Arithmetic, Theoretical and Practical, by the Rev. Dionysius Lardner, LL. D., F.R.S. London; 1834. Longman and Co. Small, Svo., pp. 353.