To GEORGE WASHINGTON WILDS, of Coleman-street, in the city of London, merchant, for his invention of certain improved machinery for cutting marble and other stones, and cutting or forming mouldings in grooves thereon.-[Sealed 15th April, 1833.]

THE machine exhibited in the drawing which accompanies this specification, consists of a series of circular cutters for separating slabs from a block of marble, or other stone; which cutters are put in rapid rotary motion by a band from any first mover (as a steamengine or water-wheel), passed round riggers on their axles.

The block of stone is slowly advanced to meet the cutter, by the progressive movement of a platform on wheels, or a carriage on which the block of stone is fixed: this carriage being moved onward by the agency of a rack and pinion.

Plate VI., fig. 14, represents this apparatus in perspective. It is formed by a frame of wooden rails, and posts a, a, a, a, in which the axle of the rotary cutter b, is mounted. Two edge rails c, c, are fixed horizontally to the upright posts, for the purpose of receiving the running wheels of the platform or carriage d, on which the block of stone e, is placed. This carriage has a rack fixed longitudinally in any convenient part of its under surface, and a pinion on the lower transverse shaft f, drives an endless screw or worm, which takes into this rack for the purpose of moving the carriage slowly forward, in order that the block of stone may be brought up to meet the cutters.

The Patentee describes the cutters as improved revolving, circular metallic plates, smooth and without teeth upon the face or edge, operating by friction with sand and water upon the material to be cut.

It is of course known, that in sawing stone the thin blade or instrument by which the stone is to be severed is not in fact a saw, but a soft material, as copper or soft iron, and that to the edge of this soft material the particles of sand, which are really the cutters, attach themselves, and are carried forward, in order to cut by the friction produced between the sand and the stone, merely by the motion of the cutters. In order, therefore, to cut the stone, sand and water must be applied continually to the edges of the cutter. This is done by means of a trough g, placed transversely above the cutters with spouts, from which the sand and water is continually running on to the stone, the several spouts being situate as nearly as possible over the edge of each cutter, as without this continual and uniform supply of sand and water to all the cutters, some of them would not be found to perform the operation so readily as others.

When several circular cutters are employed on the same shaft, they are secured, at the proper distances apart, by washers of such sizes as the thicknesses of the several slabs may require.

In this part of the invention the improvement claimed is stated to "consist in the sawing of marble, or other stone, by means of a revolving circular metallic plate, smooth or not serrated on the face or edge, and applied with sand and water, as is done with the straight saws."

The proper speeds of the cutters must vary according to their diameters; those of about two feet should move at three hundred revolutions per minute, and so on down to one hundred and fifty for a cutter of four feet diameter.

The other parts of the invention are described as consisting in the moulding or grooving, and polishing of marble, or other stones, by means of the improved revolving, moulding, and polishing cylinder or wheel, operating in cutting mouldings by friction with sand and water upon the surface to be wrought; and polishing by friction, in like manner, with putty, buff, pumice stone, or some other suitable material.

These improved moulding and polishing cylinders, or wheels, are to be of soft metal, or of wood. No figure of them is shown in the specification, but they are thus described:--Cast iron wheels are preferred for moulding, and some of the softer metals or wood for polishing. They may be of any dimensions suited to the work, having the converse of the intended moulding or grooving either cast or turned upon their surface or periphery; and by means of these, any series of mouldings or groovings may be wrought on a surface of marble or stone at one operation, and, in like manner, be polished.

The wheel or cylinder is placed on a horizontal shaft, which is turned by a cog-wheel, or pulley and band, connecting it to the driving power; and it is intended to operate upon the material to be wrought, by revolving vertically against its surface with sand and water for cutting mouldings, and with pumice stone, buff, or other suitable material, in polishing.

The speed of the moulding wheels may be greater than that of the saws nearly twofold, and the polishing wheels may be made to run at a greater speed than the moulding wheels. For polishing flat surfaces, a cylinder may be employed in like manner, the stone being carried forward in the way described, in reference to the sawing machine.

The improvement claimed in moulding and polishing is, in applying a rotary wheel or cylinder to that purpose, in connexion with the other parts of the machine.-[Inrolled in the Inrolment Office, October, 1833.]

TO JOHN HOWARD KYAN, of Upper Baker-street, in the county of Middlesex, Esq., for a new combination of machinery to be applied to the purposes of steam-navigation, in aid of, and in substitution for, the motive power, hitherto and at present obtained and afforded by the application of steam.- [Sealed 21st December, 1833.]

1

WE scarcely know how to identify the invention exhibited in this specification, with the title of the patent to which it refers. There is no auxiliary motive power described, the sole impelling power being that of steam, which is employed to work two horizontal pumps for the purpose of drawing water at the bow of the vessel into two horizontal pipes, and expelling that water from the pipes at the stern of the vessel, for the purpose of propelling the vessel by the recoil of the water so ejected.

Plate VI., fig. 6, is a plan or horizontal view of a vessel with the apparatus placed therein: a, a, are two openings in the bow of the vessel through which the water flows into horizontal pipes leading to the pumps. These pumps lie horizontally, and are shown in section, at b, b; in the figure, the pistons or plungers c, c, working to and fro within.

To each of the plungers of the pumps a rod is affixed, which rods respectively pass through the hori

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zontal cylinders d, d, of a high-pressure steam-engine; and upon these rods, within each cylinder, is fixed the working piston, intended to be actuated by steam, as in other high-pressure steam-engines.

The extremity of each piston rod is connected by jointed arms to the ends of a vibrating beam e, e, and high-pressure steam being admitted in the ordinary way, through valves into the cylinders, the pistons are put in action, and consequently the pumps also.

By these means the water is drawn into the barrels of the pumps b, b, through the trumpet-mouthed pipes a, a; and by the natural operation of the lateral valves at the ends of the pump barrels, the reciprocating actions of the plungers c, c, cause the water so drawn in, to be forced along the horizontal pipes f, f, and to be ejected with considerable force, through contracted apertures g, g, at the stern of the vessel.

As the stream so ejected from the pipes at the stern, by striking against the water in which the vessel floats, will produce a recoil, it is expected that the vessel will in consequence be propelled forward, or in the opposite direction; and in order that this force should operate uniformly, air-vessels are connected to the pipes at h, h, which operate as regulators to the varying forces exerted by the plungers as they reciprocate.

The Patentee claims the particular arrangement or combination of the machinery above described, which we presume means the precise form set out; for as to the principle intended to be applied, and the manner of applying that principle, as well as the means employed for putting it into operation, they have been repeatedly proposed in various shapes, and made the subjects of several patents: we need only refer to Lilly and Fraser's patents, dated 19th August, 1820, which ap