120 j'tltutifit "tutritlu.

[AUGUST 24, 1889·

Pa'enlll.* back again in.an hour and twenty minutes-six years
The·earliest laws of which we have any knowledge, The idea of steam navigation, or at all events of before Fulton ever produced a steamer in America, and
that granted privileges and. favors to persons who had navigation by mechanical means, seems even to have eleven years before Henry Bell (who freqnently saw
made valuable improvements or inventions to relieve presented itself to Roger Bacon, for he made the fol­ and inspected the Charlotte Dundas) produced his
suffering and benefit humanity, were enacted in Eng- lowing remarkable prophecy: "We will be able to Comet on the Clyde. Neither of the steamers which
land less than one hundred years ago. construct machines which will propel large ships with these two men produced was so complete in its me­
There was a system established during the reign of greater speed than a whole garrison of rowers, and chanical arrangements as the Charlotte Dundas, and
Elizabeth and the Stuarts that became odious. It which will only need one pilot to direct them; we will instead of being improvements upon Symington's
was not a legal right, but a royal favor, and related to be able to propel.carriage& with incredible speed with­ ideas, they were rather the reverse, for in them small
other things besides inventions, and extended to many out the assistance of any animal; and we will be able engines were geared np to drive the paddles, whereas
articles in common use. to make machines which by means of wings will enable Symingtou's plan was the bold, simple, and straight­
In the reign of James t h e First a law was passed us to fiy into the air like birds." We may safely say forward one that is in use to-day in so!ne of the swift­
known as the Statute of Monopolies, declaring all that we have attained to the first two prophecies of est paddle steamers on the Clyde-viz., the large
monopoliet! illegal and void, except copyrights and Bacon, but, with regard to the third, I think the idea cylinder acting direct upon the crank on the paddle
patents, which were granted for fourteen years. of aerial navigation by mechanical means is now very ahaft.-The Steamship.
This system, though somewhat modified, has be- much in the same position as that of steam navigation .... I ..

come the established policy in this country, and is sub- before Symington produced his Charlotte Dundas. We THE ELEOTRIC ROLLING BRIDGES OF THE PAEIS
stantially a-eopy of the English law, in order to secure want a man to put it into a practical shape. In this EXPOSITION.
reward to the inventor. sense Symington was the inventor of steam navigation; Visitors take great pleasure in being carried from one
There are some persons in our profession who think he put theories into practice, and embodied in a pa­ end of the Machinery Palace to the other on the elee­
it is unprofessional to take out patents, but what tent taken out in 1801 the arrangements that are still in tric rolling bridges, a general view of which is given in
would have been the status of dentistry to-day with- use at the present day in paddle wheel propulsion. our engraving. In fact, they are not indifferent,
out the stimulus of reward for useful a n d improved Symington was born at Leadhills, in Lanarkshire, in whether on foot or on this original vehicle, to travers­
appliances in the dental art? 1764, and, though educated for the ministry, be showed ing the 1,300 feet of the colossal gallery in which are
Our country is a new world, and the American den- an early talent for mechanical pursuits, which he accumulated so m any wonders of mechanics. More­
. tist is comparatively a new man; and the sooner he eventually followed. In 1786 he made a model of a over, many of the visitors, if not all of them, experience
learns to do business on a plan that corresponds to the steam carriage which he had invented, and exhibited an intelligent satisfaction in thinking that the motive
age in which he lives, the better it will be for himself it to the professors of Edinburgh University. Among power necessary for this aerial trip is furnished by elec­
and those who seek his services. others who saw this model was Mr. Patrick Miller, of tricity, and constitutes an interesting example of the
The men who invent are thinkers ; they are persons Dalswinton, a· wealthy gentleman ·who had experi­ transmission of electric energy to a distance-that
of adaptation and consecration; they are, and have mented in naval architecture and the propulsion of problem which is now in a large measure solved.
heen, benefactors to their brethren, and, as a rule, small vessels by means of paddle· wheels driven by RollicPg bridges are reckoned among the most im­
they suggest and give away to their co-workers little manual labor. Mr. Miller was much taken with Sy­ portant installations of the large mechanical works of
suggestions without money and without price, to make mington's invention, and approved of his suggestion modern times. In order to respond to the ever-in­
dental operations easy, more than all the money they to substitute the steam engine for manual labor in creasing needs of the industries, our engineers have
receive for their patents. driving his vessels. An agreement to make an experi- further and further increased the dimensions and
Inventions are the products of the brain, and they ment, at Mr. Miller's expense, was accordingly come weight of the parts of machines. The area of the
are just as legitimate as the labor of the hands. A to, a.nd in 1788, after one of Mr. Miller's experimental works where such parts are elaborated has increased
certain orator was once asked how long it had taken boats had been fitted.with Symington's patent engine, in proportion, and it is a genuine voyage that the
him to prepare his oration; he replied, .. Just forty- the first successful experiment in steam navigation was pieces have to make in passing from the rough to the
four years, for I am just forty-four years old, and I performed on Dalswinton Loch, the little boat attain­ finished state, through the lathe and the drilling,
have given my whole life to this work." ing a speed of something like four miles an hour. The bending, mortising, polishing, and other machines
I do not wish to be understood as advocating the experiment was repeated on a larger scale in 1789 on which constitute the present improved stock of tools,
giving patents away, for it is never best to give some- the Forth and Clyde Canal, the engine used being Sy­ The first care of the engineer is to arrange things so
thing for nothing, and the CI'eater does not deal in mington's patent, with rat.chet wheels and chaius for that the piece to be finished, starting from one end of
that way with his children in the various departments converting the reciprocating motion of the pistons into the works, shall, as far as may be possible, reach the
of nature. Everything is dual, and inventors are seers rotary motion, on the same principle as adopted in the other end without having to turn back on the way. A.
in mechanics, their minds become illuminated with Dalswinton experiment, but on a larger scale, the two return, in fact, presents a double inconvenience. It
visions of uses for the benefit of their fellows, and usu- cylinders in the ilrst case having been each four inches occasions a loss of time and force, and the risk is run of
ally the whole working of the improvement is wrought in diameter by eighteen inches stroke, and in the blocking the way of the piece that follows and of ,ip­
out in the night, when the body is at rest, and we second eighteen inches by three feet stroke. Neither terrupting the work of the machines and their opera­
commuDe with ourselves without interruptions. of these vessels was of any practical value, however, tors. Now, in well conducted manufacturing there ill
Almost all the improvements that have benefited beyond having demonstrated that· a steam engine not a miilUte to be lost.
the race have been first thought out and then wrought could.,e safely applied to propel a vessel; and after For small, light pieces that can be maneuvered by
out to make us great as individuals or a nation. the 1789 experiment Mr. Miller unfortunately aban- hand, the "circuhls" that we have just described i.�
It is the function of the brain to think, and the doned steam navigation altogether. _ easy to realize. For large pieces, which require fol'
hands to execute the thought. The older men of the Symington returned to his occupation as a civil en­ their handling the use of considerable mechanical
profession will recollect the ridicule that was hurled gineer, but still nursed the idea of introducing steam power. recourse is had to lifting apparatus, pulley�,
upon Dr_ Atkinson and the use of the mallet in im- navigation, and in 1801 he found a worthy patron in windlasses, cranes, and rolling bridges. W ell equiI-�
pacting gold iil filling teeth some thirty years ago, and Lord Dundas, of Kerse, near Grangemouth. Under ped works should contain these in all directions, so as
now we bring to its aid the various machines and elec- his patronage hfl produced the Charlotte Dundas, to permit of a rapid longitudinal or lateral
. transfer
tricity. designed for towing vessels on the canal, in order to from one tool to another.
The unprecedented growth of our profession over do away with horses for that purpose; and this vessel, As for cranes, things are so arranged (as may be seen
either of the older professions is due largely to our which was a.t work on the Forth and Clyde Canal from in foundries, for example) that the circle of revolution
freedom from the conventionalities that bind all pro- 1801 to 1813. has earned the well merited distinction of of the jib of each crane around its pivot shall intersect
fessions'to the past. Any innovations to long-time having been theji1'st pmcticaZ steame1·. In this vessel that of the adjoining crane. The piece thus passes
usages are almost certain to prove disastrous to Symington abandoned his old style of engine, and from one hook to the other as far as to its destination.
those who discover the "new and more excellent way." adopted the crank and connecting r o d for producing When the arrangement of the works does not favor
The things we invent are children of the intellect and rotary motion ot t.he paddle wheel. The Charlotte t\js, by reaso", ·of the supports of the framing, the
the affections. Man bas no power. to make or improve Dundas was builtllt Grangemouth by Alexander Hart, cranes7tre placed upon rails so that they can go to get
a thing withou t a love manifested toward the thing he in 1801. She was 56 ft. long, 18 ft. beam, and 8 ft. deep. t.he piece, and, moving around the obstacles by means
desires to make better. The man who invents sees the She had a paddle wheel at the stern. The cylinder, of turntables, carry it to its destination.
improvement he wishes to make as we see the solar which was 23 in. diameter by 4 ft. stroke, lay horizon- Rolling bridges are a recent and very useful modifi­
light before the sun makes his appearance in the morn- tally on the deck, and- the piston rod was coupled cation of lifting apparatus. They consist of a strong,
ing. direet by a connecting rod to a crank upon the paddle cross-braced platform; to which are attached the sus-
One of the hindrances to our free use of improve- shaft. This vessel obtained a speed of about 6 or 7 pension pulleys, and which can be moved through the
ments is that they have been bought up and laid aside miles an hour upon the canal, and towed upon one oc- works. The bridge is of various forms. It may be sup­
by monopolies because they interfered with the sale of casion two fully laden sloopS-the Active and Euphemia ported by a large framework, movable on rails, or else
goods already in the market, and that has discouraged -each about 70 tons burden; from Wynford to Port may roll from one end to the other of tbe room, whose
men of genius from trying to make appliances that Dundas, a distance of 19� miles, in six hours against a entire width it occupies when such width is not too
would benefit the profession . strong head wind. The wash from the paddle wheel, great. I n this case, iron girders placed under the frame-
• � • , .. however; had a tendency to destroy the banks of the work serve as a track. RoJ.ling bridges of small size are
Success oC 1lI. Pasteur'. System.. canal, and Symington was interdicted from using his moved by hand through gearing. For large ones, re-
At the Academy of Sciences M. Pasteur recently pre- Ilteam vessel on the Forth and Clyde canal. Previous course has hitherto been had to a steam engine carried
sen ted a note of the results observed in the Pasteur to this interdict the Duke of Rridgewater, having heard upon the bridge and serving at the same time for lift­
Institute from May 1, 1888, to May 1, 1889 (La France of the success of Symington's ste amer, gave him an ing purposes. From the title of this article. we have
Medicate, No. 73). · seen that electric energy can hereafter be utilized with
Dul'ing this period 1,673 persons order for eight similar boats for the B ridgewater Canal ;
bitten byrabid or presumably (t1'es suspects de rage) but unfortunately for Symington, on the very day on 8uooess for the same purpose.
rabid dogs had been treated-1,487 French and 186 which he received the notice of interdict fr�m the The Machinery Palace of the expoEition contains, as
foreigners: 9f tqis nUq>lber-viz., 1,673-118 had been manager of the Forth and Cly9-e Canlll, , he 1l.180 re- is well known, fOlir rows of shafting girders supported
bitten in the'head or faCe. Six persons (4 bitten on the ceived the intelligence of the' Dake of !:fti'idgllwater's· by cast iron columns. HaDgers fixed to these girders
head and 2 on the limbs) had been attacked with rabies death, and the order for the eight steamers was lleverreceive the horizontal shafts that are actuated by the
during treatment; 4 others were attacked within a executed. engines, and by which the machines exhibited are
fortnight after the close of the treatment. Three per- From these disappointments, combined with the driven. Mr. Vigreux, superintendent of the mechani­
sons bitten on the head died after the treatment had pecuniary losses which SYlnington suffered by his .ex- cal and electrical department of the exposition, con­
been completely finished, and these, therefore, repre- periments, he never quite recovered He died in ceived, at the beginning, the idea of utilizing these
!*lnt the total 'Jases of failure-viz., in the ratio of 1 in London an impovE'rished man in 1831, and was buried transmission girders for the running thereon of rolling
557. Or if, .. which would be illogical," adds M. Pas- in the churchyard of St. Botolph, Aldgate, London. bridges designed to maneuver and put in place, during
teur, � these 3 ('.ases were to be added the 10 above Not even a simple etone marks his grave I-and yet the period of installation, the heavy parts of the ma­
i
mentioned, there would still be a mortality of only 1 this man produced the" patent boat" of paddle wheel chines to be mounted.
in 128. . , steamers. and got up steam specially for the great Messrs. Bon & Lustremant, on the one hand, and
• Extiaot8 from an article by J. A. Robinson, DoD.S
of IJenti8trv,
••

I
In the ArckilltB Rober t Fulton in July of 1801, in order that he might Megy, Echeverria & Bazan on the other, manufacturers
treat him to a ,sail of four mileB. Q.l.ongthe callal and at Paris, made proposals to furnish the apparatus, and

© 1889 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC

 AUGUST 24, 18&).] J'tieuiifit �mtritlu� 12'1

It was decided to employ electric energy instead of M�U1/, Ech61Jerria· &:. Bazan's Rolling Bridge.�We ence to a new hypo or alum bath. For the latter I do
.team as a motive power, These rolling bringes, 59 shall pass more rapidly over the second bridge. Con­ not recognize a necessity, and so in the few trials made
teet in ltmgth and 16 in width, present a utilizable sur­ structed upon the same programme as the preceding, omitted it, substituting' for it, after a thorough wash
lace of nearly 900 square feet. The idea then naturally and responding exactly to the same needs, it resembles and soak, an acid bath to remove any traces of insolu­
occurred to keep them running after the period of in­ it in all its principal elements. Let us state only that ble compounds that may have remained on the print.
stallation and to use them for carrying visitors, at an the transmission of motion, instead of being effected A personal preference for less marked tones than the
elevation of 25 feet from the floor, from one end of the through friction disks, is effected by simple gearing by deeper browns given by employing the solutions at the
hall to the other, The idea was a good one, for, as we means of couplings, called progressive. This system strengths suggested led me to considerably weaken
have said, the visitors crowd into them with curiosity. consists of a circular spring, which, pressed by a lever them. By this means I obtained what I aimed at,
The following is a brief description of these appa­ in the hands of the mechanician, bears internally namely, an alteration of the cold black of the untoned
ratulI: against the drum carrying the sleeve o n which is keyed print to a less determined hue, brown black, of greater
Bon &: Lustl'emant's Rolling Bridge.- Like ana­ the gea.ring that transmits motion. It must be noted, range. I agree that a bromide print may be consider­
logous apparatus, and to answer the industrial require­ too, that in order to'diminish the tension, to equ·alize ably improved in this latter manner by the application
ments that we alluded to at the beginning of this arti­ the parallel motions and diminish the resistance to of the uranium-ferricyanide toning solution, which,
cle, the bridge is provided moreover, possesses grea.t lat­
with three movements: (1) itude of power in imparting
lifting of the load; (2) trans­ a well graduated series of
verse carriage of the same, pleasing tones.
through a h ook and wheels; Another nseful application
(3) longitudinal carriage along of the uranium-ferricyanide
with the bridge itself. toning solution . is in the
The framework consists of modification of the color of
two large, solid, longitudinal gelatino-bromide opal pic­
girders of iron plate and an­ tures. Here. as with paper
gle iron, of two lattice girders positives, one may run up and
connected with the latter by Fig. I.-THE ELECTRIC ROLLING BRIDGE-PARIS EXHIBITION: down the gamut of the brown
brackets, and of two trans­ group of
shades and ton'es
verse girders resting upon rollers. At one end of the traction, the transverse motive shaft of the bridge en­ with perfect success. I have so employed the formula
bridge are united the mechanisms of the various gages with the gearing at its center through an inter­ detailed with satisfactory and pleasing results. For
.llovements, all actuated by electricity. The electric mediate shaft that receives the motive power. This those who do not like blacks or cool grays, this me­
energy necessary is produced outside of the Machinery latter is furnished by a receiving dynamo constructed thod of toning may be confidently recommended. It
Palace in a s\,ecial building, and is furnished by a by Mr. Miot. The transmission of electric energy is will, of course, not escape remark that with bromide
Gramme generating dynamo, actuated through the effected as in the preceding apparatus. paper and opals that are developed with oxalate of
iutermedium of a belt ):ly a 25 horse power high speed Such, in its m ain features. is the installation of the iron very 6tringent care is required to free the film
Westinghouse steam engine. electric rolling bridges of the Machinery Palace of the from ferrous compounds before the application of the
Two copper conductors supported by insulators lead exposition. Aside from the pleasure experienced by uranium-ferricyanide solution, otherwise ruinous blue
the current to the receiving dynamo carried by the the visitors, we see in it with interest the application stains are sure to appear. I attach little,Jf any, im­
bridge. This dynamo transmits its motion to the vari­ 01 the transmission· of electric energy to large lifting portance to the danger of yellow stains from'the toning
ous parts of the bridge through friction. The shaft of apparatus of this kind-a principle that has already solution if its action be not protracted beyond a few
the receiving dynamo, prolonged to this effect, actu­ been applied with success to ordinary cranes, hoists, minutes. In my trials some opals, with plenty Of
ates, at high or low speed, through the intermedium etc.-La Nature. virginal margin, came out of the treatment quite
of two rollers, a shaft that gi ves the three movements ••• J" immaculate, although only ordinary precautions were
mentioned above. This shaft moves' always in the Tonln&, GeJatlno-Uromlde Print•• adopted to preserve their whiteness. -Thomas Bed­
same direction. The backward and u pward move­ Something extremely interesting to me was the ap­ ding, in Br, Jow'. of Photo.
ments are obtained by means of other friction disks, pearance of a communication to a metropolitan society, ... , .

one of which is keyed to a shaft of the windlass, and embodying some, experiences of the toning of silver Cooking by Electricity.

the two others to a sleeve revolving with the shaft and bromide emulsion pictures with urauium nitrate and The Hotel Bernina, at Samaden, hall for some time
capable of sliding on it. Upon leaving the sleeve to potassium ferricyanide, the constituents of Dr. Eder's been lighted with electricity, power being supplied by
.lide to th e right or the left, one or the other of the negative intensifier. If one may presume to criticise a waterfall. As during the day the power is not' ·re­
4isks of the 8lee\'e is brought into contact with the· Mr. Elder's remarks, they struck me as being very quired for lighting, and is therefore running to waste,

Fig.2.-GENERAL VIEW OF .BON' &; LUSTREMANT'S ELECTRIC ROLLING BRIDGE.

diskof the windlass, and this is carried along in one lucid, and I was able without diftlculty to arrive at the proprietor of the hotel has hit upon the idea of
direction or the other. The levers controlling the sa.tisfactory modifications of the tones of bromide utilizing the current for cooking when it ianot required
various movements are situated beneath the girders prints by following his instructions. That gentleman for lighting, and an eiperimental cooking apparatU8
of the bridge,. in.. a swall compartment, and under the recommends 10 per cent solutions of both salts. The has been constructed. This contains German silverre­
eye of the mechanician. picture after flxatioo·ts to be washed in acidulated sistance eoils. which are brought to a red heat by the
The total weight of the apparatu8, with it!! aeces� water· and then freed of the acid and treated with current, and it has been found possible to perform all
Bories, is abotit 22 tons. Its platform holds from nioety equal parts of the solutions named in twenty parts' of the ordinary cooking operations in a range fltted with
to one hundred visitors by a little crowding. water. After tOning, another waahing and trAll8fdr- a seritlS of BUchcoils.

© 1889 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC