Francis Brewin, Kent-road, Surrey, tanner, for his invention of certain new and improved pro. cesses of tanning. Jan. 11; six months.

I. Tilton Slade, of Fitzroy-square, for certain new or improved machinery for raising earth and for other useful purposes. Jan. 11; six months.

John Ward Higham, of Tavistock-street, for an improved tablet for sharpening of razors, penknives, surgical instruments, chisels, plane irons, and other steel instruments which are capable of being sharpened by what are commonly called hones, Turkey-stones, or Welch-stones. Jan. 11; two months.

John Burns Smith, of Salford, Lancaster, cottonspinner, and John Smith, of Halifax, York, dyer, for a certain method or methods of tentering, stretching, or keeping out cloth to its width, made either of cotton, silk, wool, or any other fibrous substances by machinery. Jan. 14; six months.

Moses Poole, of Lincoln's-inn, for improvements in jacquard looms; being a communication from a foreigner residing abroad. Jan. 19; six months.

Charles Brandt, of Upper Belgrave-place, mechanist, for certain improvements in heating, eva. porating, and cooling fluids. Jan. 19; six months.

Francis Moll, of Grove-lane-terrace, Camberwell, for improvements in preserving certain vegetable substances from decay. Jan. 19; six months.

Charles Harsleben, of No. 95, Bold-street, Liverpool, for certain improvements in the machinery and arrangements for the use of propelling vessels and other floating bodies, as also carriages and other vehicles on railroads, as well as on common reads; part of which machinery is also applicable to other purposes. Jan. 19; six months.

Robert Bowie, of Bishopsgate-street Within, surgeon, for certain improvements in distillation and decoction, which improvements are more or less applicable to the heating of fluids of all descriptions; as also to the purification of oleaginous bodies, both animal and vegetable. Jan. 21; six months.

John Ferrabee, of the Thrupp, Stroud, Gloucester, engineer, and Richard Clyburn, of the same place, engineer, for certain improvements in powerlooms. Jan. 21; six months.

William Burch, Borough-road, Surrey, calico and silk printer, for certain improvements in machinery for printing silk and cotton, net or lace. Jan. 23; six months.

Julius Jeffreys, of Osnaburgh-street, Regent'spark, for improvements in curing or relieving disorders of the lungs. Jan. 23; six months.

Henry Booth, of Liverpool, for improvements applicable to locomotive steam-engines and railway-carriages. Jan. 23; two months.

Henry Pickworth, Sipson, Middlesex, for certain improvements in machinery for propelling vessels and other floating bodies moved by steam or other power. Jan. 26; six months.

LIST OF SCOTCH PATENTS GRANTED BETWEEN THE 22ND DECEMBER. 1835, AND 22ND JANUARY, 1836, INCLUSIVE.

Joseph Skinner, of Fen-court, in the city of London, civil engineer, for improvements in ma chinery for cutting wood for veneers and other purposes. Sealed at Edinburgh, Dec. 24, 1835.

John Joseph Charles Sheridan, of Walworth, in the county of Surrey, chemist, for an improvement in the manufacture of soap. Dec. 24.

William Symington of Bromley, in the connty of Middlesex. cooper, for certain improvements in the steam-engine and in the machinery and appa. ratus for propelling vessels by steam. Dec. 31.

James Bullough, of Blackburn, in the county o Lancaster, mechanic, for certain improvements in hand-looms and power-looms. Jan. 8, 1836.

Elijah Galloway, of Westmoreland-place, Cityroad, in the county of Middlesex, engineer, for certain improvements in steam-engines, which improvements are applicable to other purposes. Jan. 8.

John Malam, of Kingston-upon-Hull, in the county of York, civil engineer, for certain improvements in gas-meters and in the apparatus for generating gas for illumination. Jan. 11.

Joseph Whitworth, of Manchester, in the county palatine of Lancaster, engineer, for certain improvements in machinery for spinning, twisting, and doubling cotton, flax, wool, and other fibrous substances. Jan. 14.

William Harter, of Manchester, silk manufac turer. for certain improvements in machinery for winding, cleaning, drawing, and doubling hard and soft silk; which improvements are also applicable to machinery for winding, cleaning, and doubling thread or yarn manufactured from cotton or other fibrous materials. Jan. 15.

Thomas Jevons, of Liverpool, in the county of Lancaster, for an invention communicated to him by a certain foreigner residing abroad, for certain improved machinery to be used in manufacturing bars or wrought-iron into shoes for horses, and also into shapes for other purposes. Jan. 15.

Thomas Greig, of Rose Bank, in the parish of Bury, in the county of Lancaster, calico printer, for a mode of embossing and printing at one and the same time, by means of a cylinder or roller on goods or fabrics made of or from cotten, silk, flax, hemp, and wool, or any one or more of those materials, or on paper. Jan. 18.

Andrew Smith, of Princes-street, Hay Market, in the county of Middlesex, engineer, for a new standing rigging for ships and vessels, and a new method of fitting and using it. Jan. 19.

John Day, of York Terrace, Peckham, in the county of Surrey, gentleman, for an improved wheel for carriages of different descriptions.

Jan. 20.

Patents taken out with economy and de. spatch; Specifications, Disclaimers, and Amendments, prepared or revised; Caveats entered; and generally every Branch of Patent Business promptly transacted. Drawings of Machinery also executed by skilful assistants, on the shortest notice.

The Supplement to the last volume, containing title, index, &c. and portrait of Charles Vignoles, Esq., C. E., is just published, price 6d. Also, the volume complete, in boards, price 9s. 6d.

LONDON: Published by J. CUNNINGHAM, at the Mechanics Magazine Office, No. 6, Peterbo rough-court, between 135 and 136. Fleet-strcet. Agent for the American Edition. Mr. O. Ricu, 12, Red Lion-square. Sold by G. G. BENNI, 55, Rue Neuve, Saint Augustin, Paris. CUNNINGHAM and SALMON, Printers, Fleet-street.

Considerably damaged

sumed, is.......

Slightly damaged

.....

31

125

315

471

106

Alarms, from fires in chimneys.. False alarms

Making the total number of calls....

The number of alarms from fires in chimneys, quoted in the foregoing table, does not include any calls to chimneys on fire, stated at the time to be such, but only those that were represented to be bad fires, and attended accordingly. The actual number of chimneys on fire in the metropolis varies, as stated in a former report, from 100 to 150 per month!

Persons frequently ridicule the idea of firemen attending chimneys on fire, and in many cases, it is true, that their services are superfluous; but instances are by no means unfrequent, nay, they are almost of daily occurrence, where the firemen's aid proves not only useful, but actually necessary, to prevent that, which in itself is trifling, from becoming the source of serious and extensive mischief. No longer ago than in December last, a chimney took fire at Mr. Knight's, Upper King-street, Bloomsbury, at half past 2 p...

The firemen were called to a large fire, and three of the Establishment engines, with a proper complement of men, hastened to the spot; upon their arrival they were informed it was only a chimney," and were refused adinittance. After several ineffectual attempts to obtain an entrance, and after the fire appeared to be extinguished, the men departed, and all seemed to go on well, till about a quarter before ten o'clock the same night, when flames suddenly burst forth in a closet on the second floor, the fire having slowly crept along some timbers, most improperly placed close upon the chimney. The closet was burned out, and the joists, flooring, stock and furniture, damaged, before the fire could be subdued, and much alarm created in the neighbourhood. Had the proffered assistance of the firemen been accepted in the first instance, it is pretty certain their second attendance would not have been required. People often ignorantly imagine, that by refusing admittance to

66

643

the firemen they can escape payment of the rewards; this, however, is a great mistake, and is often productive of serious results. The fact is, the imperfect and careless manner in which buildings in general, and flues and chimneys in particular, are constructed, requires the utmost watchfulness to guard against the spread of those mischiefs which they continually generate.

Although almost every body has heard of rewards to be paid to firemen for attending with their engines at fires, few but those who have had the misfortune to be called upon to pay them, know much about the subject. The statute (14 Geo. III. cap. 78) directs that there shall be paid by the churchwardens or overseers of the poor of the parish in which any fire happens, thirty shillings for the first engine that shall arrive in good order, twenty shillings for the second, and ten shillings for the third; also ten shillings for the turncock who shall draw the first water-plug. These rewards the churchwardens or overseers are bound to pay, on the production to them of the certificate or direction, if in the country, of one of the justices of the peace; and if in the city of London, of the Alderman, his deputy, or two of the Common Councilmen of the ward; and if such rewards shall have been paid for " any fire in a chimney only, or first beginning in, or occasioned by, the taking fire of any chimney only, then the tenant or occupier is to repay the churchwarden the rewards so paid, or such part thereof as the magistrate shall, on hearing the case, award and direct."

Although the false alarms amount to a considerable number in the course of the year, still the present is the smallest number reported for some time. Many of them have originated in a laudable anxiety to prevent mischief, on the part of individuals not sufficiently conversant

with these matters, accurately to discriminate between real and apparent danger. It is true, many of the appearances have been sufficiently specious to deceive the most experienced judgment-especially some of the atmospheric phenomena, which have been of rather frequent occurrence during the year. One in particular on the 17th and 18th of November, gave the London Fire-Establishment a great deal of trouble; 74 of their men and 12 engines being kept in almost constant motion from 11 p. m. of the 17th, till 6 o'clock of the following morning, pursuing a number of false alarms of fire, which were occasioned by a succession of those brilliant phenomena scientifically known as the aurora borealis, or more popularly as the northern lights, and which, from some peculiar modification of the atmosphere, presented the appearance of wide-spreading conflagrations.

The first alarm occurred, as before stated, at eleven o'clock at night, when the men at the Jeffrey's-square station, in St. Mary-Axe, distinctly saw what they conceived to be a tremendous fire in the direction of Hackney or Kingsland. The engine was instantly got out, and she alarm forwarded to the head-station in Watling-street; but by the time the men got to Shoreditch, the bright glare of light that had allured them thus far, after various shiftings and changes of hue, gradually disappeared. The other engines that were following saw very little of these singular appearances. At three o'clock in the morning a fresh alarm reached the head-station of a dreadful fire at Hampstead, and Mr. Braidwood, the superintendent, himself went out with one of the engines on this occasion. At this time the southern side of the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral was brilliantly illuminated by a reflected light, and no doubt existed of the correctness of this call. On reaching Gray's-Inn-road, in a direction nearly due north, a strong red glare of light was seen rising from the horizon to a height of about 30°. All the policemen they passed agreed that it was a terrible fire, and had been raging some time. As the firemen advanced, a cloud intervened, and the light appeared to become more distant, and then became paler, shifting from north-north-west to nearly north-west. These changes con

vinced Mr. Braidwood that the appearances were completely illusory, and on reaching King's Cross he determined on turning back. The appearance of the lights as viewed from this spot is described as being peculiarly brilliant and interesting. Several alarms were subsequently received, and from the official returns to the head-station, it appears that some of the engines went to Hampstead, and others to Kilburn, but all on idle errands. The last alarm was for Hampstead at six o'clock in the morning. The night was throughout clear, and the stars shining brightly. A phenomenon very similar in appearance to the above, and attended with the same results, viz. a general turn-out of the firemen and engines, was described at p. 14 of your 16th volume; with this difference, that the red glare of light upon that occasion appeared in the east, about two hours before sunrise.

Too much praise cannot be awarded to the firemen for the alacrity with which they are in motion, on an alarm of fire being given at any of their stations. Proper caution is always exercised in receiving calls from strangers, which is highly beneficial; but as all the men of the Establishment would rather turn out twenty times to no purpose than be five minutes behind-hand at a fire, they must sometimes inevitably go on useless errands.

Although the present report gives an increase on that of 1834, in the numbers of the consumed and considerably damaged, it is still below the returns for the year previous. Several untoward circumstances have operated to extend the number of serious fires beyond the usual

amount.

Of the thirty-one consumed, eight fires were at so great a distance from the nearest engine-station, that the London fire.. men stood no chance of reaching the spot until after the fire had been raging for a considerable time.

The first of these fires occurred at Brentford on the 19th of January, eight miles from the Establishment's nearest station; the town was at the time a scene of drunken revelry and confusion, in consequence of the election, and three buildings were consumed before the fire could be stopped.

The next distant fire took place on the