Recent Patented Improvements

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The following inventions have been patented this week, as will be found by referring to our List of Claims :— FURNACE FOR WET FUEL.—The onject of this invention is to provide a furnace for the more perfect combustion of tan, saw-dust, bagasse, and all other kinds of refuse fuel in a wet or dry state as well as of wood or coal, and this it does perfectly. It is, however, speoially adapted to burning wet fuel, and is the invention of Gideon Bantz, of Frederic City, Md. SLEEPING RAILROAD CAR.—This invention consists in so forming and suspending the seats in railroad cars as to enable them to be folded downward to the floor and to be thus converted into a single or double sleeping berth ; and in arranging upright partitions between the backs of the seats, on the sides of which segmentai grooves and ledges are formed, so that projections on the ends of both platforms can move in them in such a manner as to enable the berth platforms to be brought into such positions between the partitions as to form two additional berths, and to be connected and raised out of the way, to the ceiling of the car, when not required for use. Sidney C. Case, of Detroit, Mich., is the inventor. GUIDE FOR SETTING SPOKES IN WHEELS.— It is seldom that wheelwrights can depend on the hubs as a gage to make a true wheel, as they are liable to shrink and get out of center, so the gage is always applied to the spokes, and if they be all of equal length from the'peri-phery of the hub and of equal dish, then the wheel is true. This invention is intended to secure this end by a very simple device, it readily fits on the hub and being once set to the requisite length and dish, it can be turned round to serve as a guide and gage for each spoke. This valuable device is the invention of A. Hafer, and G. Wilkinson, of Colon, Mich. HORSESHOE-MAKING MACHINE.—The manufacture of horseshoes by machinery is becoming a very large trade, and the demand for machine-made shoes is gradually increasing and if nothing else could be said in their favor, they are at least cheaper and more regular in form than those produced by hand. W. W. Lewis, of Cincinnati, Ohio, has invented a machine yiij being fed with bar iKareetroiFie properTfcigtl, grooves and punches the nail holes in it with giC?t rapidity, turning out a perfect shoe. This inve-n-tion will no doubt tend still more to supersede hand labor by machinery, in this branch of art. WE have received the full report of Commissioner Holt's decision in the Extension Case of Goodyear's India Kubtrcr Patent. 1 It is an interesting document and we shall present copious extracts from it next week.

Scientific American Magazine Vol 13 Issue 43This article was published with the title “Recent Patented Improvements” in Scientific American Magazine Vol. 13 No. 43 (), p. 339
doi:10.1038/scientificamerican07031858-339a

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