BANY. A second number of a work, published at Batavia by Dr. Blume, on the Plants Indigenous to the Dutch Possessions in India, has recently arrived in Europe. It is said to be highly interesting, and contains the natural history and description of one hundred new plants, found in the island of Java, with accounts of their principal physical properties, and of their domestic use. The first number of a new Graphic Work, entitled "the Ports of England," which will contain two Views, one of Whitby, the other of Scarborough, is announced as being nearly ready for publication. The Views will be engraved in the Mezzotinto style, from Drawings by J. W. Turner, R. A. and will comprise all the licensed chartered ports of England. Nearly ready for pubiication, in a quarto volume, "A Winter in Lapland and Sweden, with various Observations relating to Finmark and its Inhabitants, made during a residence at Hammerfast, near the North Cape. By Arthur de Capell Broke, M. A. F.R.S. &c. The work is to be embellished with thirty Engravings and a large Map. NEW KIND OF FODDER.-Mr. Moorcroft, who is now travelling in higher Asia, has transmitted to the East India Company the seeds of a foddering plant indigenous in Braz, on the borders of India and China. It is called prangos, and approaches the genus cachrys. If we can believe half the wonders attributed to this plant by the Hindoos, the acquisition of it is of great importance. It seems certain that it affords great nourishment for cattle, and requires little care for its propagation. It fattens flocks of sheep in a very short time; and, it is said, cures the hepatic flux, and the rot, which is so fatal after the autumnal rains. It is a herbaceous perennial plant of the umbeliferous family. Number V. of Select Views in Greece, by H. W. Williams, has been lately published, and in its pages will be found some of the magnificent remains of ancient Greece, pictured with great taste and excellence. This number is pre-eminent over what has yet been published of Mr. Williams's much admired collection. The representation of the Academic Grove of Athens is very fine and appropriately enriched by the introduetion of figure. Mount Oleus is very spirited. Fart of the Temple of Minerva is an imposing ruin. Misitra is an excellent picture of the country, its buildings and landscapes ; and Livadia, &c. equally admirable, though very unlike in composition. The Engravings are by Lizars, J. Horsburgh, and W. Miller, and do them the highest credit. RUSSIA. The Agricultural Society of Moscow, over which Prince Galatzin presides, and to which the late Emperor Alexander gave a considerable grant of land near Moscow, for the purpose of establishing a farm, is going on very prosperously. It already contains in its school above eighty pupils from various parts of Russia, even from Kamschatka; and the journal of its proceedings has been so popular, that it has been found necessary to reprint the volumes of transactions for the first two years. NAVIGATION OF RIVERS.A machine has been constructed by A. M. Laguel, and is now said to be at work on the Rhone, by which he contrives to tow vessels against the tide, at the rate of three quarters of a league in the hour; the ordinary rate of vessels towed by horses against tide being two leagues and a half or three leagues a-day. The inventor has presented a model of his machine, to the scale of an inch to a foot, to the French Academy of Sciences. LONDON: SHACKELD, ARROWSMITH, AND HODGES, JOHNSON'S-COURT, FLEET-STREET. THE London JOURNAL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. No. LXVIII. Recent Patents. TO WILLIAM HIRST and JOHN WOOD, both of Leeds, in the County of York, Manufacturers, for their Invention of certain Improvements in Machinery for Raising or Dressing of Cloth. [Sealed 7th July, 1824.] THIS invention is an improvement in the construction of gig mills or gigging machinery for scouring the surfaces of woollen and other cloths, which improvements consist in the adaptation of a second cylinder or barrel, applied to a gigging machine and in certain gear connected therewith, for the purpose of combining the action of both cylinders, by which contrivances the second cylinder or barrel is caused to revolve with the first, and either in the same direction or the contrary way, at the pleasure of the operator, both cylinders or barrels being at work on the same side of the cloth at one time, for the purpose of more perfectly drawing out the pile of the cloth than is done by the ordinary gigging machines, and if required, of raising the pile in two directions by the same operation. The invention also extends to a mode of drawing the cloth with any degree of tension against the gig barrels, and causing it to embrace a greater or less portion of their surfaces, and consequently to be more or less powerfully acted upon by the teasles, without interfering with the general rotatory action of the gig barrels: the tension of the cloth being produced by several rollers bearing against it, which are slidden in and out by means of racks and pinions. This invention has subsequently been further improved, which improvements form the subject of a more recent patent, and as the machinery in both instances are alike, with the exception of some trifling additions in the second, we have thought it advisable to explain the details of the apparatus, with reference to the graphic figures accompanying the latter specification which immediately follows this. [Inrolled, January, 1825.] To WILLIAM HIRST and JOHN WOOD, both of Leeds, in the County of York, Manufacturers, and JOHN ROGERSON, of Leeds, aforesaid, Millwright, for their Invention of certain Improvements in Machinery for Raising and Dressing Cloth. [Sealed 1st October, 1825.] THE patentee states that these improvements in ma chinery for raising and dressing cloth, consist in certain additions to the apparatus described in the specification of a former patent, bearing date the 7th July, 1824, (see the preceding.) That the leading features of the said former invention were the combination of two cylinders or gig barrels together in one machine, with the necessary gear for actuating them, and the employment of certain rollers, with pinions and racks, for the purpose of pressing the cloth against the surfaces of the gig barrels: and the modes of regulating and adjusting the same, in order to bring a greater or less portion of the cloth in contact with the gigs; and also to make it bear upon the teasles with any required pressure. The present improvements upon the before mentioned machinery, are the introduction of certain rollers, and the gear connected thereto, by means of which contrivances the surface of the cloth may be brought in contact with the backs of both the gig barrels as well as their fronts, and thereby produce double the effect of the former machine; which improvements will be fully understood by reference to the general construction of the machine exhibited in Plate XIV. where the improvements contemplated under the former patent as well as those of the present are seen. Fig. 1, is a front view of the machine, shewing the two gig barrels, covered with teasles, and the rollers with the toothed wheels, by which they are actuated. Fig. 2, is the right hand end of the machine, with the wheels and other gear more perfectly exhibited, and fig. 3, is a representation of the left hand end of the machine, with the piece of cloth shewn by dots passing over the rollers, and in contact with both sides of the gig barrels; the letters of reference respectively marking the same parts of the machinery in all the figures. The vertical shaft, a, with its horizontal bevel wheel, b, receiving rotatory motion from a steam engine, or any other first mover, actuates the bevel wheel, c, from whence rotatory motion is communicated to the machinery by the sliding clutch or coupling box, d, locking it to the axle of the lower gig barrel, e. At the reverse end of the axle of the lower gig barrel is affixed the toothed wheel, f, which takes into a similar toothed wheel, g, that slides loosely upon the axle of the upper gig barrel, h, and when the axle of the upper gig barrel is locked to this wheel, g, by the sliding clutch, i, then the two gig barrels revolve together in opposite directions; but when the clutch, i, is withdrawn, the wheel slides round its axle and the upper gig barrel remains quiescent. At the right hand end of the axle of the lower gig barrel the toothed wheel, k, is affixed, which takes into an intermediate toothed wheel, 7, and this into a similar toothed wheel, m, sliding loosely round the axle of the upper gig barrel; hence when the clutch, n, which slides upon the square part of the axle is made to lock to the wheel, m, and the clutch, i, at the reverse end is unlocked, the two gig barrels are made to revolve together in the same direction. The cloth to be operated upon, (as shewn by the dots in fig. 3,) is first passed over the roller, o, and stretched smoothly breadthwise, from thence it is carried downwards, and conducted under and over the rails, p, p, which are intended to give it tension, and then under the roller, q, after which it proceeds upwards with the face of the cloth next the gig barrels, and over the rollers, r, r, at top, from whence it is conducted down at the , back of the machine, and under the rollers, s and t, to the pair of drawing rollers, u, and is then let fall on to |