Harford's, for an Improvement in heating of Iron. 285

great difficulty of preventing them from being burned or melted, has hitherto rendered such floors of little advantage. The present improvement in the heating processes in the manufacture of bar, rod, sheet, and other descriptions of malleable iron (whether the same may have been previously prepared by puddling, or other modes of refining,) consists in covering the cast-iron floors or bottoms of such furnaces with charcoal, or any animal or vegetable matter that may, by the application of heat, be converted into a sufficiently durable charcoal, such as peat, turf, the spent bark of tan pits, shavings of wood or leather, saw-dust, chips, soot, or plumbago.

Any of these substances being spread over the castiron bottoms of the furnaces previously to placing the piles of iron on them, will effectually prevent either the burning or melting of the bottoms, by the intense heat that is necessarily employed in the processes above mentioned. These advantages result, in a great degree, from the known quality of charcoal as a bad conductor of heat: but a still further advantage arises from this mode of employing of charcoal; as the iron is thereby kept pure, and not subject to come in contact with stones, gravel, or other silicious matter, above alluded to; besides which, the iron is found to be much improved in toughness, and thereby the oxidation of the metal is, in a great degree, prevented.

The specification concludes, by saying, "In order to identify, more distinctly, the nature of my improvement in the heating processes in the manufacture of bar, rod, sheet, and other description of malleable iron, whether the same may have been previously prepared by the puddling or other modes of refining, 1 hereby further declare, that it consists entirely in substituting and

covering the iron bottoms of balling, heating, or annealing furnaces, with charcoal, either animal or vegetable, which may be used in the state in which it is manufactured or reduced in any degree, even to powder; or the said bottoms may be covered with the shavings or chips of wood, sawdust, peat, turf, the spent bark of tan pits, leather shavings, soot, plumbago, or any animal or vegetable matters or substances that will form a sufficiently durable charcoal for the purpose; by the substitution and use of which the impurities that usually adhere to iron, manufactured in furnaces with earthen or silicious bottoms, will be entirely prevented, and, consequently, the value of the iron will be greatly enhanced. And I, hereby, further declare that I do not, in this patent, extend the use of my improvement to puddling furnaces, but to balling, heating, or annealing furnaces, only."

Inrolled, July, 1822.

See Harford's Patent "for an improvement in that department of the manufacture of iron commonly called PUDDLING," page 8 of our present volume.

To JEAN FREDERICK MARQUIS DE CHABANNES, of Russel Place, Fitzroy-square, London, for a new Method and Apparatus for attracting and catching of Fish.

THE peculiar method of catching fish, proposed by the patentee, is by means of a lighted lamp, to be sunk under the surface of the water, to any depth that may be necessary; the case of the lamp having one or more openings in its top, to which pipes are attached that

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Mar. de Chabannes, for a Method of catching Fish. 287

lead above the water's surface, for the purpose of admitting air to the lamp, and drawing off the smoke. The object of thus placing a light in the water is in order to attract the fishes; and, for which purpose, a box containing mirrors is connected to the lamp; shewn in Plate XV. fig. 1 and 2. Behind these are traps, or nets, into which the fishes are intended to be allured by the mirrors. It is also proposed to place living fishes surrounded by glass, in or about the nets as decoys.

No particular form or construction of lamp is proposed, but the lamp preferred is shewn attached to the box, at a, Fig. 2. The general form of the box is represented in the horizontal section, Fig. 1, over the top of which the lamp is to be placed in its glass enclosure, as at Fig. 2. The box is intended to be a mere frame of wood or metal, containing mirrors, b, b, c, c, of any suitable form, which, being illuminated from above, reflect and multiply the images of the fishes which approach them: d, d, are the apertures of the box where the fishes enter, with flaps or valves enclosing the box in front, which give way to the fishes on entering but shut them in. (The material of which these flaps are made is not mentioned; they are probably intended to be of netting or wire work, that the fishes may see through.) e, is the passage into the net or pouch, g, behind the mirrors; f, is a contracted passage of netting, which gives way to the fishes on entering, but closes against their return. In this pouch the fishes collect, and are taken out by the fishermen when the box is drawn up.

It is proposed to cover the outside of the box with weeds, cloth, or any other material, so as to conceal it as much as possible from the observation of the fishes, in