An improvement in steam traps, patented by Mr. Hugh O. Ames, of New Orleans, La., consists in combining with a vibratory arm carrying a water receiver, a side apertured hollow trunnion, a discharge pipe, a jacketed standard, and an outlet pipe.
An improved cotton press has been patented by Mr. Alfred A. Janney, of Montgomery, Ala. This invention relates to an improvement in the class of cotton and hay presses in which the follower is worked by a screw that passes through a nut, to which the required rotary motion is imparted by means of lateral sweeps or levers. It consists in the means for supporting and securing the levers and forming a vertical guide for the screw, so that the levers are prevented from rocking or swaying as power is applied in the operation of packing.
Improved Steam Canal Boat.
The late experiments in canal steamboats bid fair to be a complete success. The Baxter steamers were not sufficiently remunerative to continue the building of that kind of boat. They do not carry a sufficient load, owing to their build, and that is made necessary by the form and arrangement of the machinery and propelling power, the propeller being that form used by the tug in Buffalo. The new style, which bids to pay handsomely, is as full a bow and stern as the ordinary first-class canal boat. The propelling power is radically different from the tug propeller. The wheel is eight feet in diameter and placed close to the stern; the boiler is upright, with a single engine, very compact machinery, taking up no more room than the stable in many boats, and enabling the boat to carry 7,500 bushels of corn and coal for the trip. With this cargo they run from Buffalo to New York in seven days on five and a half gross tons of coal, saving river and harbor towing. One returned from New York to Buffalo in one hour less than seven days, bringing one hundred and thirty tons of freight. The outlook now promises to supersede mule and horse towing. The Belgian system of cable towing will take that large number of boats now relying on the mule, and deliver them promptly as consigned and in much less time and cost than can be done by the mule. Both systems are necessary for rapid movement on the canal, and to cheapen the transfer from the West to the seaboard. Steam is sure to supersede animal power on the canal, as everywhere else. The canal steamboats are at last so far perfected as to insure a handsome profit in running them, and a large number will soon be at work on the canal. Two are to be constructed in Lockport as speedily as possible by one of our most enterprising boat builders, and the machinery is contracted for, thus opening up a new industry for our numerous and worthy mechanics.—Lockport (N. Y.) Journal.