certain compound or certain compounds of lead to various useful purposes. Patent dated February 14, 1849.

The first of these improved compounds is an oxychloride of lead, which is a fine white powder, and applicable to a great many purposes for which white lead is now used. It is formed by a solution of chloride of lead, with a solution of chloride of lead, with a solution of lime or soda, or other alkali (lime being preferred on account of its cheapness.) A saturated solution of the lime is thrown into a solution of the chloride of lead, the white powder of the oxychloride is thrown down, and afterwards separated for use.

Claim.-The combination of the chloride of lead with alkalies, to form a pigment, as described.

Specifications Due, but not Enrolled. GEORGE EDMOND DONISTHORPE, of Leeds, manufacturer, and JAMES MILNES, of Bradford, both of York. For improvements in apparatus used for stopping steam engines and other first movers. Patent dated February 12, 1849.

WILLIAM HARRIS, of Battersea, Surrey, shoemaker. For a new or improved mode of preparing leather. Patent dated Feb

ruary 12, 1849.

COPYRIGHT OF DESIGNS.

Guildhall, London, August 13, 1849.

BENESH v. BROOKS.

Mr. PAYNE, instructed by Mr. Gregory, appeared for the complainant; and Mr. CLARKSON, instructed by Messrs. Robertson and Co., Registration Agents, 166, Fleet-street, for the respondent.

The information alleged that the respondent on the 20th day of June last past, did unlawfully publish, sell, and expose for sale, goffered and rouched trimming, to which a fradulent imitation of a certain new and original design of the complainant for ornamenting articles, comprised in Class 13 of a certain Act of Parliament, had been and was applied, after having had notice in writing from the agent for the said complainant, that due consent of the said complainant had not been given to such application of his said design, he the said complainant being then and there the proprietor of the said design, contrary to the form of statute in such case made and provided, &c.

Mr. PAYNE said that Mr. Benesh had just right to complain in this case against a rival manufacturer for pirating his designs. It was by the encouragement given to genius that we became a great commercial nation, and the Legislature had thought fit to pass an

Act to secure to the ingenious, for a limited term at least, all the profits of their ingenuity. The article which he would bring under the notice of the magistrate was a double row of twilled lace, with which ladies ornament their bonnets. The making of this lace with two rows, of an equal width, had been practised for some years, but Mr. Benesh improved upon this, by making one of the rows narrower than the other, or the putting an inner row of less width. The great demand for the article showed that this was a decided improvement.

Mr. ALDERMAN SALOMONS said it would rather be the task of a lady than a magistrate to decide which was the more tasteful of the two designs.

After some further exposition of the law upon the subjec Mr. Payne referred to the opinion given by Mr. Justice Coltman in the case "Leader v. Purday," which was a complaint of new words having been put to some old music, on which the judge insisted on the principle that, if anybody improved upon an old machine, the maker of the old machine was not deprived of his right to make his machines in the customary manner, but that he must not adopt the improvement.

Mr. ALDERMAN SALOMONS, taking up the ticket of the registration, remarked that it seemed to be very vague. It did not point out for what part of the thing registered the claim of novelty was made, and what was admitted to be old.

Mr. CLARKSON' said the worthy alderman had just hit into the middle of an objection he was about to make, that the specification filed was insufficient to secure any right whatever. There was a simple pattern of the article attached to a piece of paper, with the words "This is the article for the invention of which a registration is claimed," and thereupon the registrar had affixed a number, and that completed the specification.

ALDERMAN SALOMONS said it looked as if the registrar would take anything to be new and original, without any proof of the fact, leaving a court of equity or a magistrate to settle whether the thing registered was new or not.

Mr. CLARKSON said that was precisely the case. But if the party offering the specification gave in it no description of his invention, the registrar could only give him, as in this case, a certificate of registration. To save time he would admit the registration and the sale of the article, so as to reduce the question as to the originality of the design.

Mr. PAYNE thought it advisable to offer some evidence of the sale. He called,Mr. Robert Mee, who said that he was

buyer to Messrs. Groucock and Co., of Bow Churchyard. He purchased from Mr. Brooks, on the 20th of July, six boxes of goffered and rouched trimming, and afterwards sold two of them.

Cross-examined: The novelty of the lace is, that the inner portion of the quilting is narrower than the outer, the former being twenty threads, while the latter on each side was thirty threads. He had not seen any of that make previously, and, therefore, could come to no other conclusion than that it was a novelty.

ALDERMAN SALOMONS: How do you come to the conclusion that it is a novelty? -Witness: Because it creates a sale.

Mr. CLARKSON: Suppose an old lady was to wear out one edge of a lace border, and were to cut off four or five threads all the way round, would it not resemble the border now claimed as a novelty?-Witness: I cannot answer that question.

Mr. CLARKSON: Then I hope Messrs. Groucock and Co. are not present to hear you say so.

Mr. Charles Nunn, of Aldersgate-street, proved purchasing the two boxes of lace, on the 21st of July, at Messrs. Groucock's and Co.

Mr. PAYNE said that was his case.

The Chief Clerk said that it had not been shown that the parties had resided as well as carried on business in the City.

Mr. PAYNE suggested that the magistrate should, in order that justice might not be defeated, call a witness who could speak upon the point. He remembered that in a trial for burglary, he objected that the prosecution was closed and the parish had not been proved. The judge, however, would not allow the prisoner to be acquitted on that account, but recalled a witness and proved the fact.

Mr. CLARKSON, on behalf of the defendant, admitted that his client did reside on the premises.

Mr. CLARKSON then addressed the Court at great length in reply to the case, contending that he was entitled to a dismissalfirst, because the certificate was incomplete, and therefore conferred no right on the complainant; next, that the notice given to the defendant was insufficient, for, instead of being a notice to a seller that consent had not been theretofore given to the maker to imitate his registered design, it was merely a notice to the seller not to sell in future without the complainant's consent. objected, in the third place, that the design so registered was not new at the time of registration, but had been previously employed by other makers; upon that ground, therefore, the certificate of registration conferred no benefit. With respect to his first

He

objection, as to the want of a sufficient description, he would ask how any one could understand from that certificate what the other had registered, or in what the novelty claimed consisted? Mr. Clarkson read two letters which his clients had received, and compared them with the requirements of the statute, to show that neither notice amounted to anything in law. As to the third point, he should show that the article had been made for several years.

Mr. PAYNE objected to the admission of evidence as to the non-originality of design, as the registrar's certificate was to be conclusive on that point.

Mr. CLARKSON said, it had always been held that the words of the 16th sec. of the Act let in the right of examining witnesses to show there was no novelty of design. It said, "A certificate was to be taken as conclusive of the originality of design, in the absence of evidence to the contrary." That evidence therefore might be given.

Mr. ALDERMAN SALOMONS thought so too, and the case proceeded.

Elizabeth Erswell said she had been forewoman to the defendant for the last sixteen years, and she was well acquainted with the rouche article for the last nine or ten years. It consisted of a piece of lace with a thread drawn through it, so as to bring it into the shape of what was called quilling. She had made it of all sorts and sizes, in different colours, and different widths, and in the same manner as those produced, the inner lace being of less width than the outer.

The witness was cross-examined at some length by Mr. Payne, but he did not elicit anything in favour of his client, for Mrs. Erswell said that she had been in the habit of making these rouche articles for the last four or five years, including the one which was now set up as a novelty.

Mr. Henry Simmons, milliner, of Highstreet, Islington, said: I have dealt in rouche these ten years, and I do not consider that rouche of different widths is a novelty. I never saw this description of rouche until within a week. I don't consider it a novelty in putting two different widths of lace together. I can't call it a novelty, although I have not seen it before.

Mr. William Bayne said he was buyer to Messrs. Fisher and Co., Watling-street, and from his experience he considered that putting two widths together was new, but putting the one on the top of the other was

not.

Cross-examined: He never saw the pattern in question until lately.

George Brooks, of Walworth, wholesale dealer, said he was brother to the defendant, and did not consider there was any novelty in the design, as he had been in the habit of

making the two different widths for the last four years in all colours.

Mary Hughes deposed that before the 14th of June she had seen a bonnet with trimmings of the same description as that now in question. This was on the 29th of May. She did not make any particular examination, but thought that the inner lace was about twenty threads wide, and the outer the usual length of thirty. She had been many years in the rouche line, and seen a great deal of it of different sizes, but only lately.

In reply to the defence,

Mr. Mee was recalled, and said that Mr. Brooks had told him that he had made it years ago, and that Mr. Benesh ought not to have registered it.

By Alderman Salomons: I call this a novelty, because one portion of it is narrower than the other.

Mr. Hesketh Hughes, of Bunhill-row, lace-manufacturer, also said he considered that the rouche lace, made up as it was, was a novelty.

This being the whole case,

Mr. ALDERMAN SALOMONS retired for a short time to consult with the Chief Clerk, and on his return into Court said this was a case of that description where great responsibility was thrown on one magistrate to decide upon a case, and where the Act of Parliament itself was not very clear. He could not help thinking there ought to have been something in the certificate describing the article, so as to guide him as to what was new, and whether that had been infringed upon; for it left him to go through a labyrinth of evidence to ascertain what the design was, and what was not claimed as new. Besides the insufficiency of the ticket, he was of opinion that the balance of evidence was against the applicant as to his having originated this mode of making up the lace, and therefore he must dismiss the information.

Mr. Clarkson intimated that if ever Mr. Benesh brought him there again he should press for costs.

NOTES AND NOTICES.

The Moniteur announces that the President of the Republic has authorized an English gentleman, Mr. Jacob Brett, to establish, on the coast of France, between Calais and Boulogne, a sub-marine electric telegraph, which is to cross the channel, and communicate with the English coast at Dover. The treaty concluded with Mr. Brett guarantees certain advantages to the French Government, and leaves all the expense to the contractor, to whom it secures a privilege of ten years should the experiment succeed. The works are to be terminated on the 1st of September, 1850, at the latest.-Times.

Failure of a Cast-iron Girder Bridge.-The extension of the South-Western Railway from the present terminus at Datchet to the Town of Windsor, was expected to have been opened in the course of a very few days. In the course of Sunday last,

however, an unfortunate occurrence took place, which may probably delay the opening of the line for some considerable period. It appears that the girders of one of the arches of the bridge which crosses the Thames near Eton College snapped; rendering that arch, for the present, most insecure. The masonry and brickwork of the piers are built on caissons of cast iron, driven into the bed of the river, by means of Dr. Pott's patent process; the superstructure above the masonry being of cast iron. One of the piers, in consequence of the great weight, appears to have sunk several inches, thus causing the snapping of the girder in question. We are informed that considerable fears are entertained that the caissons will sink still further, it being supposed that they are now chiefly resting on a soft bed of clay. Should this turn out to be the case, the bridge must be reconstructed, or at least a great portion of it. It is much to be regretted, after the experience of the brittle nature of cast iron girders of the bridge over the Dee, on the Chester and Shrewsbury line, that railway companies do not incur the extra expense of constructing their bridges of wrought iron, and thus, as far as possible, insure the safety of the public.-Times. [Or of cast iron strengthened by wrought iron, according to Mr. Gardner's patent.-ED. M. M.]

Screw Steaming.-Messrs. Maudslay, Sons, and Field made an experimental trial on Monday last of a new steam vessel called the Bosphorus, belonging to the General Screw Steam Shipping Company. The vessel left Blackwall about 1 o'clock, and made five runs in Long Reach, the mean rate of which showed a speed of 9,679 knots per hour, which is considered the best result ever obtained by a screw vessel of the same horse power per ton. The Bosphorus was much admired for her symmetry, and the engines worked with the greatest accuracy, without noise; the vibration could scarcely be felt at any part of the ship. The following particulars will be satisfactory to those interested in the propulsion of ships by the screw;-The Bosphorus is 175 feet between the perpendiculars, breadth 25 feet, depth 15 feet, engines 80 horses-power, direct acting; draught of water on trial, forward, 6 feet 8 inches, aft, 9 feet 6 inches; mean draught of water, 8 feet 1 inch; screw 14 inches above the water; diameter of screw, 10 feet 6 inches; pitch, 18 feet 6 inches; mean revolutions, 62.2 per minute; speed of screw, 11-348 knots; slip, 14.7 per cent.; length of engine-room, 30 feet, including stowage for 150 tons of coals.-Times.

WEEKLY LIST OF NEW ENGLISH PATENTS.

John Ruthven, of Edinburgh, civil engineer, for improvements in propelling and navigating ships, vessels, or boats by steam or other powers. (Being a communication.) August 10; six months.

Arthur Dunn, of Worcester, soap maker, for improvements in making soap. Aug. 16; six months Frederick William Bochner, of Paris, France, civil engineer, for certain improvements in machinery or apparatus for letter-press printing. August 16; six months.

Richard Archibald Brooman, of Fleet-street, London, patent agent, for improvements in machinery, apparatus, and processes for extracting, depurating, forming, drying, and evaporating substances. (Being a communication.) August 16; six months.

Jonathan Blake, of Mount Pleasant, Eaton, Norwich, surgeon, for certain improvements in lamps. August 16; six months.

James Young, of Manchester, manufacturing chemist, for improvements in the treatment of certain ores and other matters containing metals, and in obtaining products theretrom. August 16; six months.

Louis Lemaitre, late of Paris, but now of the Hotel de l'Univers, Blackfriars, engineer, for improvements in the manufacture of ferules for fixing the tubes of locomotive and other boilers. August 16; six months.

To Inventors and Patentees.

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PATENT SOLICITORS,

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(Of which firm Mr. J. C. ROBERTSON, the EDITOR of the MECHANICS' MAGAZINE from its commencement in 1823, is principal partner,) undertake

The procuration of Patents For England, Scotland, Ireland, and all Foreign Countries, and the transaction generally of all business relating to PATENTS.

Specifications Drawn or Revised. DISCLAIMERS, AND MEMORANDUMS OF ALTERATION PREPARED AND ENROLLED.

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Advantages of Registering Designs for Articles of Utility.

Under the New Designs Act, 6 and 7 Vic. c. 65. Protection for the whole of the three Kingdoms by one Act of Registration.

Protection for a term of three years. Protection at a moderate expense (from 127. to 201.) Protection immediate, (may be obtained in most cases within a couple of days.)

Power of granting licenses for any of the three Kingdoms, or any of the cities, towns, or districts thereof, to one, two, three, or any greater number of persons.

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For a copy of the Act, with Table of Fees, and Explanatory Remarks, see Mechanics' Magazine, No. 1047, price 3d.; and for Lists of Articles registered under the New Act, see the subsequent Monthly Parts.

Specifications and Drawings, according to the Provisions of the Act, prepared, and Registrations effected without requiring the personal attendance of parties in London, by Messrs. ROBERTSON and Co., Patent and Designs Registration Agents, 166, Fleet-street, and 99B, New-street, Birmingham; or by their Manchester Agents, Messrs. Wise and Wood, 3, Cooper-street.

Ornamental Designs also registered under the 5 and 6 Vic. c. 100.

To Engineers and Boiler
Makers.

Screw Steaming.......................................... 166 Weekly List of New English Patents ............ Weekly List of New Articles of Utility Registered.......................................................................................................... 167 167

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