venture to hazard the opinion, that the illustrious philosopher never appeared so great to the wise and virtuous as when, in the eyes of the general world, he was loaded with disgrace. What piety and candour is displayed in his confessions! How evidently sincere is his contrition! And how patriotic the feelings with which, in the following reflections on his fall, he anticipates the public good that may arise from it: "In the midst of a state of as great affliction as I think a mortal man can endure (honour being above life), I must profess of gladness in some things. The first is, that hereafter, the greatness of a judge or magistrate shall be no sanctuary or protector of guiltiness, which (in few words) is the beginning of a golden world. The next, that after this example, it is like that judges will fly from any thing that is in the likeness of corruption (though it were at a great dis tance) as from a serpent; which tendeth to the purging of the courts of justice, and the reducing them to their true honour and splendour; and in these two points God is my witness, that, though it may be my fortune to be the anvil upon which these good effects are beaten and wrought, I take no small comfort." The sentence passed upon Lord Bacon was in the following terms:— "1. That the Lord Viscount St. Alban, Lord Chancellor of England, shall undergo fine and ransom of 40,000l. "2. That he shall be imprisoned in the Tower during the King's pleasure. "3. That he shall for ever be incapable of any office, or place, or employment in the State or Commonwealth. "4. That he shall never sit in Parliament, nor come within the verge of the Court." This severe sentence, to the credit of James I., bad as he was, was never carried into effect-at any rate, it was rendered almost nominal. He was confined only two days in the Tower; and was afterwards restored to his rights as a Peer of Parliament. He never, however, resumed his seat, but died as he had lived -in the cause of experimental philosophy and the best interests of mankind. death is stated, in a recent popular publication, to have arisen from the bursting of a crucible; but the true cause, which was something very different, is given in the following extract: His "In the spring of 1626, whilst taking the air in his coach in the neighbourhood of Highgate, accompanied with Dr. Wither borne, the King's physician, it suddenly oc curred to Bacon-there being snow upon the ground-to try the experiment whether flesh could be preserved in snow. Accordingly, he and his companion forthwith alighted, went into a poor woman's house at the bottom of Highgate Hill, and bought a hen; and having made the woman exenterate it, they stuffed the body with snow, Lord Bacon himself assisting. The snow so chilled him, that he immediately fell extremely ill, and could not return to his lodgings at Gray's-Inn, but was carried to the Earl of Arundell's house at Highgate, and there put into a warmed bed, which is said, however, to have been damp, not having been used for a year be fore. In a few days after Lord Bacon breathed his last." * * * "For my burial," said Lord Bacon in his last will," I desire it to be in St. Michael's Church, St. Alban's; there was my Mother buried; and it is the parishchurch of my manor-house of Gorhambury, and it is the only Christian church within the walls of Oid Verulam. For my name and memory I leave it to men's charitable speeches, to foreign nations, and the next age." "A legacy so splendid," says Mr. Martin, with equal eloquence and truth, "the world never before received. It is the name of one who was, emphatically, the minister and interpreter of Naturethe chosen instrument for communicating to mankind that knowledge which an awful Providence, whose ways are not our ways, had hitherto concealed from the sight of man. It is the memory of one who will never be forgotten whilst eloquence can be felt, philosophy understood, or wisdom revered." A brief analysis of the first head of this specification, may serve as a sample of Mr. Farey's style. It commences with a very elaborate and lengthy description of the structure of common bobbin-net, for the purpose of introducing that of the altered direction of the carriage threads. Next comes a declaration, that an invention, similar to that about to be described, has already been patented, as applied to other kinds of bobbin-net machines. Then follows a very particular account of the cloth work to be produced, and a general statement of the means by which it is to be made. After this is a very lengthy description of the machinery to be patented, referring, if we remember right, to nine sheets of drawings, in which descriptions and drawings very many old and well-known parts of the pusher machine are delineated with the same elaborate minuteness as those peculiar to the invention. The whole is concluded by a most exact account of every motion of the machine, and every position of the threads during the entire course! The same course, or nearly so, is fol. lowed in most of the other articles. The cut of wheels, and the exact shape of the several cams, are given in full size, or on a very large scale in the drawings; and the descriptions descend so much to particulars, as to give the number of teeth in many of the wheels, and the number they move each time. Perhaps the most remarkable passage is one in the second article, where there occurs a description of the fluted roller machine, occupying about twenty folios, followed by this declaration, or one to the same effect:-" So far is a description of the fluted-roller machine in general use: I now proceed to describe the alterations in it necessary to produce the before-mentioned effect." The concluding part of the specification is not less verbose than the rest. For instance, after claiming, in very diffuse terms, the invention specified in the second article, the very same words, changing only the name of the machine, are used; again, in the third article, in all their lengthiness to claim the application of it to another machine; and again, without omission or contraction, in the fourth. The claim alone of the nine articles occupies, altogether, two closely-written skins. In making these remarks, we have not the slightest intention of impugning the professional ability of the respectable engineer who drew the specification-our quarrel is mainly with the law. It is necessary to bear in mind, that a law of patents, and the administration of that law, to be good for any thing, must accomplish at least two purposes; it must secure to the inventor his rightful property in his invention, without danger of successful infringement; and it must warn all others from trespassing on his right, without restraining them further than his right extends. If it fail in the first, it leaves the best benefactors of their country to be robbed of their undoubted rights; if, in the second, it renders the protection of the inventor, oppression and robbery to all beside. Let us see how the law has worked in the present instance. The stamp duty on patents is so regulated as to be proportionately less on a long specification than on a short one; and, what is worse, the fees are as large for that which fills but one skin, as for one which occupies a hundred. On the score of economy, then, there is a strong inducement to include many inventions in one patent. If fraud or concealment were intended (which we are very far from insinuating in the present instance), it could not be better attempted than by a long and intricate specification. Before it was altered by the late enactment, the law, bad as it was in other respects, accidentally put a "prudential check" on this practice, by invalidating the whole patent on the upsetting of any one of its parts; but now each count bears only its own risk it cannot be told how long, how prolix, or how mischievously comprehensive they may become. In every manufacture-and particularly in that of bobbin-net-there are many persons far, indeed, from wealthy, but ingenious, ardent, and persevering, whose inventive powers are very likely to be exerted on subjects akin to some already patented; while, from the nature of the machinery, it is not less likely that their plans may differ essentially from those of their predecessors. But how is an inventor to ascertain whether he is or is not following a path already trodden? No agent can inspect for him a specification like this to any purpose, for only those who are intimately acquainted with this kind of machinery, have the slightest chance of carrying away a single idea from the perusal; even his own examination of it, supposing him to have travelled from Nottingham or Devonshire for the purpose, would benefit him little as to the points on which he would need to be informed, when he has to struggle through the mass of intricacies collected here; and it should be remembered he must take no notes, He must then either, abandon his project, risk the expense of perfecting, and the danger of working a re-invention, or give 381. 16s. 8d. for a copy of the specification, and 1007. for that of the drawings! These obstructions meet the inventor of small means just at the most anxious and the most helpless period of his efforts; when the nascent scheme most exalts his own hopes, and induces the largest expenditure of his own resources, but is not mature enough to gain the confidence and the aid of others. Just then the full information the law ought to afford him at easy cost would be invaluable; it would become either a warning if he were forestalled, or a little to help and countenance if he were not. But it is refused him, except at a cost far above his means. Perchance he struggles on, supported by the sanguine hope of an inventor, to find at last that, in some huge dust-covered roll, lurks his sentence of poverty and disappointment. A peculiarity in the bobbin-net trade greatly aggravates this wrong. Plain bobbin net is made by several different kinds of machines: the circular bolt or comb machine; the rotary machine, with single-bladed lockers, the fluted roller, the levers. the pusher, the traverse warp machines, and, perhaps, some others. Now each owner and workman devotes his means and attention chiefly to some one of these different machines, and all his plans of improvement refer to it. Let us suppose he thinks he can make clothwork on the pusher machine, before he can know whether he is infringing Mr. Croft's right or not, he must pay for copies of that gentleman's other eight inventions; of which, be it observed, one only refers to the kind of machine in which this unfortunate inventor is interested. Many is the honest and clever man, within our own knowledge, who must consign his plans to darkness, however original and meritorious, rather than incur such risk on one hand, or such expense on the other. Neither does a specification like this serve any better for the protection of the patenting inventor. Describing and claiming many hundreds of new parts (to say nothing of the needless and circumlocutory description of old ones); it is morally impossible it should not include many which are not the bona fide inventions of Mr. Crofts. Whoever has superintended the construction of a new machine, knows well that, though its peculiar principle may be unquestionably due to the professed inventor, many of the subordinate, though important arrangements, are usually suggested by the workmen. Now, we do not say that the inventor is not morally entitled to the best services of those he employs, and to all the profits and consequences of those services; but we do say that a specification so lengthy and so ridiculously minute as this is, necessarily endangers the patentee's légal right, by including much, which, though morally, is not legally, his. ; On another ground we take grave exception to specifications like this. The machinery employed in the manufacture of webs of every kind, from blondnet to loop-sacking, is becoming gradually more complex; for, though simplified amazingly, as far as relates to the production of any one effect, the effects themselves required by public taste or convenience, are becoming daily more numerous, and are daily saddling the plain machine with contrivances of increasing elaborateness and delicacy. In the present state of the lace-machine, Mr. F. judges it necessary to figure and define many parts as well known to the trade as a cart or a gate is to a farmer nay, if our memory deceives us not the common fast and loose pulley is honoured with two long lines of verbiage, though it may be found, under its above-mentioned popular name, in books twenty years old, at least. Now, let us imagine that, in a few years, the plans now patented have become familiar to the trade, that new devices are added to them, and Mr. Farey is called upon to specify. Will be, then, think it necessary to re describe these then old contrivances with the same minuteness he has lavished in the present instance on those now old? If he does, then, indeed, the present document, enormous as it is, is but a very moderate precursor of those we may expect; if he does not, then every reason for such a decision equally condemns his present practice. It is, indeed, not wonderful that the patent law, originated without principle, and proceeding only by blunders, should involve even well-meaning men in absurdities, which bring on them the sus picion of caring most for the weight of their professional gains. Founded (if, indeed, it be founded at all,) on essential error, requiring the fulfilment of contradictory conditions, and altogether unsuited to the present state of the useful arts, it presents to the honest only a tissue of perplexities and dangers, while it affords to the designing an ample pretence and an effectual cover for private injustice and professional rapacity. It is not for us to allot between Mr. F. and the law their respective shares in the monstrosity of this notable specification. A law which cared as it ought to do for the interests involved in this subject, in. terests vital to the well-being of the community, would certainly, as it might easily, provide against an abuse like this; while even the mischiefs consequent on the present law might as certainly, in this case, have been greatly diminished, had Mr. F. been less inattentive to the amount to which he was swelling his client's costs. DOUBLE-LIFTING GASOMETERS. Sir, In your last Saturday's Number, there is a description of what is termed a "Double-lifting gasometer," said to be the invention of Mr. Stephen Hutchison. If there be any merit in the invention, I believe Mr. Hutchison must allow me to lay claim to a priority of right to it. In The London Journal of Arts and Sciences, for June, 1824, p. 305, will be found a rough representation, in outline, on a small scale, and a description of a gasometer, exactly similar in all its essentials to that claimed by Mr. Hutchison as his invention. A few short extracts from this will fully substantiate my claim: "TAIT'S IMPROVED GASOMETERS.-The gasometers employed in storing up gas, until required for use, occupy, upon the old plan, much space, and are attended with considerable expense in erecting. The water-tank, whether sunk in the ground or raised, must be at least of equal dimensions with the gasometer, both in breadth and depth. The improved construction, which we are about to explain, affords a means of reducing the depth of the tank; dispensing with the bridge of suspension; and of increasing, at pleasure, the capacity of the gasometer upon a given base, thus rendering a small apparatus capable, if required, of holding a large quantity of gas, the first cost of which will be considerably less than a small gasometer, constructed upon the ordinary plan. * * * "The gasometer is formed by several cylinders, sliding one within the other, as the tubes of a telescope; and so on. Round the lower edge of this cylinder a groove is formed, and as it rises, the edge takes hold of the top rim of the cylinder f, which is overlapped for that purpose. The groove at bottom of the first cylinder fills with water as it ascends, and by the rim of the second cylinder falling into it, an airtight hydraulic joint is produced. "Thus several cylinders may be adapted to act in a small tank of water, by sliding one within the other with lapped edges, forming hydraulic joints; and by supporting the apparatus in the way shown, the centre of gravity will always be below the points of suspension. A gasometer may be made, upon this plan, of any diameter, as there will be no need of a bridge to support it," &c. &c. In the works which I erected almost immediately after this publication, I introduced the same method of suspending the gasometer; with this difference, that instead of suspending it from about onethird from the top, as represented in the plate, I fixed the suspending chains to the upper rim of the gasometer: a method which, I believe, has been since that time almost invariably adopted, with, express of my paddle-wheel, and your intimate knowledge of mechanics, induce me to request you to insert in your valuable Journal the following challenge to Mr. Galloway :: I propose that a boat, selected for the purpose, shall be tried first with a pair of the common wheels, next with a pair of Mr. Galloway's, and afterwards with a pair of mine. The expense to be defrayed by the unsuccessful competitor; each party depositing with an impartial third person, before the commencement of proceedings, 1507. for that purpose. By such a mode of comparing the value of our respective wheels, the question of superiority will be fairly set at rest; and the time and capital of such spirited individuals as take pleasure in forwarding inventions likely to prove beneficial, will not be misapplied. Mr. Galloway having taken upon himself the office of an instructor in mechanics by publishing his "History of the Steam-Engine," he will surely feel no hesitation in informing me by what law of mechanics he is authorised to expect an increase of power from the present form of his wheel; or whether he does not himself believe, that instead of power being gained, a loss of power is sustained. Admiring the liberality and enterprise of the steam-boat proprietors in Liverpool, it is my intention to be there in a few days with a model of my invention, when I have no doubt I shall be able clearly to demonstrate the advantages it possesses over every other wheel of the present day. In conclusion, I have to assure you, that the William Symington steam towboat, a vessel of rather greater magnitude than Mr. Galloway's "Monarch,' has been working with good effect on the Thames for the last fortnight; and that the wheels have been pronounced better, and are likely to be adopted by nume rous steam-boat owners, who have had ample opportunities of judging of its value. Assuring Mr. Galloway that I have no wish to detract from his mechanical skill, that all I want is fair competition, and that I am perfectly ready to abide the issue. Your most obedient servant, Feb. 3, 1636. THE HERAPATHIAN CONTROVERSY. Sir, I have read with much interest the letters on both sides of the question, as to velocity on railways, the principal writers on which are Mr. Herapath and Iver M Iver; and I cannot help thinking, that the former gentleman has been rather unfairly treated by his opponents. For instance, no sooner does a letter appear under any signature whatever, in support of Mr. Herapath's views, than his assailants instantly, and without deigning to give the shadow of a proof, attribute its production to Mr. H. himself. I do not see, for my own part, why the same trick might not be played off on the other side; and perhaps it might not be so very far from the truth, if it were to be at once asserted that, were the anonymous mask in which, with the usual caution of Italian bravos, Mr. Herapath's enemies are enveloped, to be torn from their brows, it would be found, that Iver M'Iver, and his numerous backers, S. Y., H., Miso-philo-anti H., F. Meredith, &c., are one and the same individual.* They are all birds of the same feather, and all display the same eagerness to carp at the excellence they reach. It is at least quite as probable that the great Iver M'Iver is his own trumpeter, as that Mr. Herapath is his, or even more so, when it is considered that an anonymous writer may be expected to be not quite so scrupulous as one who appends his name and address to his communications. Iver M'Iver asserts, as his echo, Mr. Meredith did, a week before him, that Mr. Herapath (as they assume A Looker-on to be), must be in the wrong, when he exposed the fallacy of Iver's theorem, since that theorem has not yet been promulgated. Now, I would ask, did not this valiant Highlander, when he first demolished, as he thought, Mr. Herapath's calculations, profess to show in what manner, and how much, he was out in his reckoning; and if so, let me ask the whole multum in parvo, how could he possibly do this, without producing a theorem, which he contended to be correct? A plain answer to this plain question will go farther towards settling the point in dispute, than whole This supposition we know to be quite erro neous.-ED. M. M. |