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The Doutre Automatic Stabilizer T HE all too numerous accidents to aviators place the question of automatic stabilizers in the very forefront of interesting inventions. The ideal equi· librator would be one which would act in two directions, both laterally and longitudinally. Many attempts along this line have been made but hitherto have proved unsatisfactory. A very interesting new departure is a stabilizer invented by M. Doutre. . This stabilizer has been installed upon a Farman biplane actuated by a 60·H.P. Renault motor. The well·known aviator, Didier, flew with the machine first alone and then with “ passenger, and performed several flights which demonstrated the efficacy of the apparatus. In one trial the machine flew very successfully in a 36·mile wind. The Doutre stabilizer acts upon the longitudinal equilibrium only. Under three conditions this equilibrium is affected, viz., by the slowing down of the motor, gusts of wind from the front, and gusts of wind from behind, which Ciuse the machine either to rear or plunge to the ground. To overcome the pitching, the aviator must turn the elevator in the direction of the pitching. But the pilot has not always the presence of mind nor even the time to carry out dl these movements. The automatic stabilizer; it is claimed, claims to fulfill these functions spontaneously. Th? stabilizer comprise' two essential parts: First, a plane surface, moving a vertical plate in a sliding frame, and presenting its face to the wind, which causes i to recede more or less according to the intensity of the wind. This plate practically constitutes :m anemometer which responds to the pressure of the relative wind. Secondly, there is a member which follows the displacements of the plates and transmits them through a system of joints to the horizon tal rudder or elevator. The movable resisting surface is a rectangular aluminium plate supported upon rods which slide in the frame of'the machine, being maintained in a fX0d ]losition through the tension of a spring | when the wind is normal. If the relative wind increases, the aluminium plate moves back in proportion to the resistance and returns to its former position as soon as the excess pressure disappears. Similarly, in case there is too little pressure, the aluminium plate moves forward under the action of the spring. The sliding rods of the aluminium plate are connected with a central rod T which enters the cylinder of the compressed air auxiliary motor, controlling the piston of the same; it passes out of the other end of the cylinder, and actuates a lever L which •controls the horizontal rudd0r of the aeroplane. It will, therefore, he understood that when the springs and lever joints are suitably adjusted, the movements of the aluminium plate und"r the action of the relative wind cause the adm'ssion of compressed air into the auxiliary motor, in proportion to the displacements of the piston rod, in one direction or the other. In this way, through the intermediary of the rear rod, the horizontal rudder or e'evator is au tomatically eontrolled. This apparatus, while effective by itself, is supplemented by another member which takes account of another factor bearing upon the equilibrium, namely, the weight and inertia of the masses. Thus, for instance, if the aeroplane should start to plunge forward arid downward, the increasing relative wind would lorce the aluminium plate to its rearmost limiting position, and the elevator would be set in its :ormal position; | the aeroplane would then continue in its course, heading for the ground; it would require a special act on the part of the pilot to restore the machine to its normal position. This, then, would not be completely automatic worKing. To overcome this defect the inventor provides a pair of small weights M mounted upon the sliding rods of the aluminium plate P, and each maintained by two springs in I such position that in normal flying the I small weights follow the rods in all their movements. But as soon as the speed of the aeroplane changes, which will happen every time its course is deflected frOIn the horizontal, these weights are either thrown forward or backward on account of the change of speed and their inertia. They thus overcome the tension of one or the other of the springs between which they are placed, and are displaced with reference to the rod upon which they rest. These weights are connected with the piston rod of the auxiliary motor, which thus receives from them the atmospheric impulses impinging upon the aluminium plate. In consequence of this not only is the auxiliary motor (through the intervention of the aluminium plate and the motion of the small masses together) placed under the influence of the relative wind but also under the influence of the longitudinal pitching Of the aeroplane, through the motion of the small masses alone. Accordingly, the elevator obeys automatically one or the other of these external influences, and the longitudinal equilibrium is restored. An Early Transatlantic Boat Cruise T HE accompanying illustration, reproduced from an old volume of the lllustrated London News (June, 1870), presents a picture of quaint historic interest. The little boat, the “City of Ra· gusa,” measured 20 feet in length and f feet in breadth of beam. Her registered burden was 1% tons. There was a small cabin, 3 feet wide and 4 feet 6 inches high. The boat, in its original form, belonged to the ship, “Breeze,” which foundered in a storm in the Irish Channel, and fourteen of the crew were saved by the boat. As shown in our illustration .. she is rigged as a yawl, arranged to set square sails on both masts, spreading altogether 70 yards of canvas in 8 or q sails. But she is also furnished with a two·bladed screw propeller which-so we read-can be worked either by hand or by a windmill, as shown in the illustration. We leave it to the reader to malic' his own comments on this “mechanism.” Two valiant men, Capt. Buckley and an Austrian·Italian, named Pietro Di Costa, planned to cross the Atlantic in this tiny craft. They left Cork Harbor on the evening of Thursday, and were last sighted by a pilot cutter forty miles west of Cape Clear. Of their subsequent fate our source tells us nothing. Electric Lamps for Miners T HE following copy of the conditions of entry for a competition to be conduoted by the British !'overnment for advertising a safe and efficient type of electric lamp for miners has been furnished by the United. States Bureau of Mines, also by the British Ambassador in Washington. His Britannic Majesty's government announces that, in order to encourage the production of safe and efficient types of electric lamps for miners, a colliery proprietor has placed at beir disposal the sum of £1,000 ($4,866.65) to be offered as a prize for the best lamp or lamps fulflling the requirements specified below. Mr. Charles Rhodes (a fofmer president of the Institute of Mining Engineers) and Mr. Charles H. Merz (a member of the departmental committee on the use ()f electrici ty in mines ) have cons en ted to act as judges. The conditions of the competition are as follows: 1. The competition will be open to persons of any nationality. 2. It will be in the discretion of the judges to award the who'e of the prize for | I the lamp which they consider to be the 214 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN September 2, 1911 best, or to divide the prize, or to make no award if no lamp appears to them to be of sufficient merit. 3. Lamps must be addressed care of '. Rhodes, Esq., at the Home Office testing station, Rotherham, England, and must reach the testing station not later than December 31st, 1911. A spare globe should accompany each lamp. The req uiremems which should be fulflled by any lamps submitted for competition are as follows: 1. The lamp should be of sound mechanical construction, so as to withstand rough usage. 2. The lamp should be of simple construetion and easy to maintain in good order and repair. 3. The lamp should be so constructed as to render impossible the ignition of inflammable gas either within or without the lamp. 4. The lamp battery should be so constructed that any liquid which it may contain canno” be spilled when the lamp is in use, and means should be provided for dealing with any gas which may be generated by the battery. 5. The materials used and the construction should be such that metals and other parts will not be liable to deterioration by corrosion as a result of the action of the “electrolyte,” etc., used in the battery. 6. The lamp should be effectively locked so that it cannot be opened without detection. 7. The lamp should be capable of giving an amount of light not less than 2 candle-power continuously for a period of not less than 10 hours. 8. The light should be well distributed outside the lamp. A movable reflector to concentrate or to shield the light may be provided. In addition to the above requirements, regard will be paid to (a) the first cost of the lamp; (b) the cost of maintenance; (e) convenience in handling, and (d the) weight of the lamp when charged and ready for use. Trade-mark Rules Amended ACTING Secretary of the Interior ^"Samuel Adams recently approved the recommendation of the Commissioner of Patents that certain amendments to the Trade-mark Rules be adopted to take effect November 1st, 1911. The amendments are as follows: To be inserted immediately following Rule 45: 45a. If an applieant fail to prosecute his application within one year prior to November 1st, 1911, Ot· for one year after the date when the last official notice of any action by the office was mailed to him, the application will he held to be abandoned as set forth in Rule 57a. 45b. Whenever action upon an application is suspended npon reqnest of an applicant and whenever an applicant has been called upon to put hb apllUeation in coudition for interference, the period of one year running against such applica tian shall he considered as beginning at th(' da te of the last official action preceding such actions. 45c. Acknowledgment of the filing of au application is an official action. Suspensions will only be granted for good and sufficient cause and for a rea"mable time specified. 4:d. Only one susjwnsion must be approved hv the Examiner of Trade-marks. Any furtllt'r suspension must he approved by the Commissioner. The frst paragraph of Rule 56 is cancelled. This paragraph is as follows: ,6. From an adverse decision of the examiner in charge of tmde-marks upon an applicant's right to register a trade-mark, or to renew the registratiou of a trade-mark, or from a decision of the examiner in charge of interferences, an appeal may be taken to the Cotlmissioner in person, upon payment of the fee reqnired by law, For the above there is substituted the following: 5(. Every applicant whose mark has been twice refnsed registration by the Examiner of Trade-marks for the sallt) reasons upon gronnds involving the merits of the applicaHon, may appeal to the Commissiouer in person upon payment of the fee required by law. HICI refusal may be considered hy the Examiner of Trade-marks as final. 'here must hav(' been two refusals to l"Igis tel the mark as originally filed, or, if amenied in matter of substance, the amended mark, and, except in cases of division, all preliminary and intermediate questions relating to matters not affecting the merits of the application must have been settled before the case can bp appealed to the Commissioner. The remaining paragraph of Rule 56 stands unchanged. Following Rule 57, which relates to the taking of appeals in trade-mark cases to the Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia, there is inserted the following: 57a. An abandoned trade-mark application is one w11ich has not been prosecuted within one year prior to November 1st, 1011, or completed and prepared for examination within: one year aIter the filing of the petition, or which the applicant has failed to prOSlcutl within on , year after any action therein of whIch notlce has been duly gIven, or wh.Ich the applicant has expressly abandoned by liI-ing in the ofllce a written declaration of abandonment, signed by himself and assignee, if any, identifying his application by serial number and date of filing. 57b. Prosecution of an application to save it from ahandonment must include such proper action as the condition of the case may require. The admission of an amendment not responsive to the last official action, or refusal to admit the same, and any proceedings relative tllet'eto, sllall not operate to save the application from abandonment. 57c. Before an application abandoned by failure to complete or prosecute can be revived as a pending application it must be shown to the satisfaction of the Commissioner that the delay in the prosecution of the same was unavoidable. 57d. When a new application is filed in place of au abandoned or rejected application, a new petition, statement, declaration, drawing and fee will be required. The foregoing amendments to the rules of the Patent Office relating to the registration of trade-marks, for the most part, are a paraphrase of similar rules that have long been adopted and used in connection with the prosecution of applications for patents. Thm, 47a corresponds with Rule 77 of the Rules of Practice; 56 corresponds with Rules 133-134; 57a corresponds with Rule 171; 57b with Rule 171; 57c with Rule 172, and 57d with Rule 173, etc. At the present time the practice in the Division of Trade-marks is and has been not to consider an application abandoned by reason of the failure of an applicant to prosecute it within a specified time. There is every reason why this practice should not continue. Under the present practice, the first application filed under the Act of February 20th, 1905, which was acted upon soon after, must be taken up for action whenever the applicant de8ires, even if no action has been taken by applicant in the intervening time. As the result of this procedure and the accumulation of a large number of cases, the Trade-mark Division is seriously handicapped in the prosecution of its necessary business. It is estimated that there are now on file about sixteen thousand cases not “awaiting action” by the Office, and that three-;ourths of these cases filed prior to January 1st, 1909, have not been acted upon within one year. Under the rules as amended to tnke effect November 1st, 1911, it is believed that the present difficulties involved in making an issue 8earch would be materially lessened. This search is made once a week by each of the seven assistant examiners and necessitates examining every one of the sixteen thousand drawings. This has become a severe burc_en and was rapidly becoming more sa. It is estimated that at the end of ten years there will probably be twenty thousand more drawmgs whICh, added to those that are already filed, would make thirty-six thousand drawings. To search these once a week is an appalling task. When it is also considered that the search of the examiners is increasing in length each year, due to the increase in the number of registrations granted, it is easy to see that the system in vogue could not indefinitely continue. It was desired, therefore, to confine, so far as possible, the energies of the examiners to the search proper rather than expending them uselessly in searching each week a large number of practically dead applications. This saving in time and labor on the part of the examiners will greatly facilitate better and more expeditious examinations. The rules as amended seek to accomplish only, in connection with trade-mark applications what is now accomplished in connection with applications for patents by similar rules. The language of the rules follow somewhat closely the corresponding rules, so far as the language employed in connection with applications for patents is deemed applicable to applications for the registration of trade-marks. Moreover these rules are regarded as being in every way consistent with the statutes. Notes for Inventors Losing One's Way in the Air.-An army aviator, Capt. Paul Beck, flying from ,0 11 ege Park ' Md “, recently lost his way for an hour or so m the clouds and .anded fnally over in Montgomery County, miles out of his course. It appears that the ordinary mariner's compass is not satisfactory for use in the air, since the aviator cannot determine, after he loses sight of the earth, the extent to which he may have drifted laterally from his course. The incident has stimulated renewed interest in the subject and Capt. Chambers, who has charge of naval aeronautics, is continuing his efforts to devise some means whereby aeronauts may be able to determine the course with reasonable accuracy. A Medal for a Printing Office Employee. -On behalf of the Public Printer, Vice-President Sherman has presented the assistant foreman of the foundry section of the Government printing office at Washington, D. C, with a gold medal for an invention, hygienic in its nature, and operating to reduce the danger to health, resulting from graphite dust in electro-typing and printing. A Domestic Cream Separator.-A domestic cream separator embodied il a milk b ott I e 0 f th e f orm commonI y used b y da1'rymen l'n del1'vering milk to customers is shown in a patent, No. 999,747, to Ada B. Brown of Seattle, Wash. It has an L-shaped tube Journaled In an opemng In its side at abou t the base of the neck and having an upturned wing in the bottle which, by turning the horizontal journaled wing, can be set to different heights to take cream from different levels and discharge it through the horizon tal wing to the outside of the bottle. A Fireproof Coil for Electrical Apparatus. —Seeking to provide a fireproof coil for electrical apparatus, Charles E. Skinner of Wilkinsburg, Pa., assignor to the Westinghouse Electric&Manufacturing Company, has patented No. 999,893, a coil which has a plurality of turns of conducting material with a strip or layer of metal foil interposed between the adjacent turns, the foil being first treated to provide an insulating film on its surface. A Moving Spiral Staircase.-The Otis Elevator Company has obtained a patent, No. 999,885, for an elevator which has a conveyer transporting between different levels in which the direction of movement is clockwise and contra-clockwise. The elevator is in the form of a moving stairway, having ascending and descending series of steps which travel in spiral paths in opposite directions about a common center of curvature. The inventor is Charles Leeberge:: of New York CIty. Printing by Sound.-A method of printing by sound is the subject of a patent, No. 999,97i, to Arthur C. Ferguson of Brooklyn, assignor of eleven-sixteenths to Lyman C. Smith of Syracuse, N. Y. By the method, the sound waves are recorded by utilizing a succession of said waves to initiate the operation of mechanism actuated by a separate source of energy for printing a legible character corresponding to certain tone eharacteristics of said waves. In othr words, the character printing mechanism is actuated by a separate source of energy and the waves are utilized to control such source of energy. LEG^AL NOTICES 1 ATENTS If you have an invention which you wish to patent you can write fully and freely to Munn&Co. for advice in regard to the best way of obtaining protection. Please send sketches or a model of your invention and a description of the device, explaining its operation. All communications are strictly confidential. Our vast practice, extending over a period of more than sixty years, enables us in many cases to advise in regard to patentability without any expense to the client. Our Hand Book on Patents is sent free on request. This explains our methods, terms, etc., in regard to PATENTS, TRADE MARKS, FOREIGN PATENTS, etc. All patents secured through us are described without cost to the patentee in the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN. MUNN&COMPANY 361 BROADWAY, NEW YORK Branch Office, 625 F Street, Washington, D. C. PA T E M T ^ SECURED OR FE E /* 1 E- FN 1 S RETURNED Free re port as to Pa t entability. Ill ustra ted G uide Book, a nd W h at To Invent witb Lbt.t of l n ventions Wanted and Prizes offered for inventlOns sent free. VICTOR J. FV ANS&CO .. Washington, D.C. Classified Advertisements Advertislllg 1U this column j. 7:") cents a line. No iess than four nor more tha n i2 Ji nes a ccepted. Count seven words to the line. All orders lllust be accompanied by a reritlance. 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