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Messrs. Editors.—The important Good-year's vulcanized India :|;ubber extension case has been progressing at the Patent Office this week. The patent of Chas. Goodyear for vulcanized gum elastic, dated June 15, 1844, expires on the 15th of this month, unless the Commissioner grants an extension of seven years before the expiration of that date. This patent of Goodyear's consists in treating rubber with sulphur and heat. The friends or licensees of Goodyear have put forth the most strenuous efforts to obtain an extension of this patent, and the public has also been actively engaged in opposing the extension. The Examiner, Dr. Thos. Antisell, who has the case in charge, after an immense amount of labor, has presented a very able and elaborate report in the matter. It shows that Chas. Goodyear has personally received $114, 000 profit from the vulcanizing patent alone, and after pointing out that great discrepancies existed in the account furnished by Mr. Goodyear in his petition, it recommends that perhaps the extension had better be granted, as it seems hard to send such a n^an of genius into the world penniless at the age of 58, who has done so much for the encouragement of the arts. It is also alleged by Mr. Goodyear, in his petition, that he is poor and in very feeble health. Messrs. Blatchford and Brady, eminent lawyers from New York, are counsel for Goodyear, and Stoughton, Greenough, Stansbury, and others, counsel for the American and European public. The case in behalf of the latter was very ably argued by Mr. Stoughton of New York, and in behalf of Goodyear by Mr. Brady, in a very learned and dignified manner. The case will be decided by the Commissioner before the 15th inst., and doubtless a just decision will be tendered, as he is fully qualified to decide in a matter of this magnitude. It is alleged that millions of money hang on this case. Mr. Goodyear is certainly a man of genius, as the hundred different applications of his invention now on exhibition in the gallery of the Patent Office abundantly testify ; among which may be seen almost every kind of stationary articles, carpetings, tents, awnings, coverings, spreads ; house, ship, and camp utensils ; packing, sheathing, and caulkings; valves, stops, springs, wearing apparel, life preservers, be^s, combs ; surgical, medical, and philosophical instruments, and a host of other things too numerous to mention. F. Washington, June 11, 1858. [Our correspondent will notice in another place an article bearing upon the extension of patents by the Commissioner. This is, undoubtedly, a very important case, of which fact, no doubt, the Commissioner is fully impressed. It strikes us as somewhat queer that if Goodyear has received $114,000 for the vulcanizing patent alone, he should now appear before the Patent Office " penniless at the age of fifty-eight." We shall be able to give the decision in the case next week. Dr. James Dean died on the 9th inst., at his residence in Greenfield, Mass. He was distinguished as a geologist, and was engaged on a work relating to the bird-tracks in the sandstone of the Connecticut valley, at the time of his decease. It was to be published by the Smithsonian Institution. Propeller steamships appear to be fast superseding paddle wheel vessels, both in regard to speed and economy. Those running on the Atlantic make quicker voyages in proportion j to their tunnage than the crack steamers of ^ the Cunard line. ^
