To the Worshipful the Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Council of the Borough of Liverpool.

Gentlemen, The continuing encroachments on the shores of the River Mersey by the extension of docks will deprive the inhabitants of this borough

of sea-bathing within any moderate distance of their residences, unless some mode of remedying artificially the privation of a sea-shore be adopted.

Your memorialist has long thought this might be effected at no very great expense, if, instead of filtering the water before it is used for bathing, the principle of allowing it to cleanse itself by subsidence were acted upon; and should most respectfully suggest, that where it is intended to have baths or reservoirs for sea baths, two should in every case be made, and alternately used, in which case the water taken into the one at flood tide would have the whole of the next day and the night-time for its impurities to subside, before it would be wanted, the other being used during the interval.

To prevent the intermixture of these impurities with the mass while people are using the bath, an intervening body might be introduced between the subsided impurities and the clarified water, which might be done two ways, either by sinking a false bottom to, say one foot from the bottom of the bath, immediately before it is required to rise; or by drawing from one side of the bath to the other a water-tight canvass at the same distance (say one foot) from the bottom. Any annoying communication between the purified and impure waters would be thus cut off, and in the act of sinking the false bottom, or drawing the canvass across the bath, no disturbance need be occasioned.

Your memorialist has been informed by practical men that several of the main sewers would admit of men entering them to lay iron pipes of sufficient delivery to supply water to a bath or reservoir of any requisite capacity, during the time the water in the river is at flood; and in that case, the baths need not be confined to one locality, but might be in number as many as the main sewers would permit of pipes being brought through them, and the site of a bath might be any place adjacent to such main sewer, but within the limit where the seawater has reached a given elevation.

*The difficulty is the confined space in which men would have to work, but this might be obviated by the improvement in connecting iron and stoneware pipes patented by Mr. Martin, Lindsey-house, Chelsea, by which the time expended in packing with lead, as well as the expense of that material, is saved; and the connection is immediately effected by his wedge clip when the two ends are brought into the required contact.

It will be found that during the six months beginning with May and ending October of the present year, the tides under 13 feet will be 42; those of 13 feet and under 14 feet, will be 19; and those of 14 feet and above, will be 123.

Supposing the baths to be made with relation to the tides of 13 feet, and to be 6 feet deep, this would give 7 feet elevation to the bottom of the baths above the Old Dock sill, and supposing the sewers to have a fall of 15 feet to the mile, this would allow of the baths being brought inland 821 yards; but as the pipes would have to follow the fall actually given to the sewers respectively, the distance inland must be governed by that circum

stance.

It will be obvious that at higher tides than 13 feet, the supply-pipes must be closed when the baths are filled. The tide of 13 feet is here selected only as elucidative of the proposition; but a higher tide than this might with safety be worked upon, as will appear from a classification annexed of the heights of tides during the six months in question, and especially as the allowance of one foot from the bottom of the bath, for the subsidence of impurities, is at least as much again as would be necessary.

The mouths of the supply-pipes might be carried into the tideway in the rivers, and, by an* appliance thereto, the water might be taken from any distance below the surface. The baths might be emptied either through them at low water, or otherwise conveyed into the main sewers

serving in so far to flush them.

The above suggestion's will have reference to the part of the shore which has long been occupied by the old town, but to that about to be taken away by the projected extension of the docks northward, they will not apply the ground being here still free to operate upon as may be thought best.

If the surface of the land chosen for the site of a bath were above the proposed elevation of 13 feet above the

The appliance alluded to consists of revolving arms placed at the ends of the supply-pipes, of such length that the orifices might be raised above the level of the highest tide when at flood. These should be floated at a given depth, say a foot, below the surface as the tide is rising, and when the baths are filled, by raising the orifices out of the tide water, all further flow into the baths would cease. The gutta percha tubes would answer the purpose, being easily adjustible, flexible, and light.

dock, sill, or datum, the access to the bath must of necessity be obtained by excavating that surface to such proposed elevation of the surface of the water, and, as of old, the people must go down to bathe. This would be opposed to an ingenious project which has been before your council, of sending them up the hill, where they are to find the water filtered and forced up; but unfortunately, at the expense of labour, fuel, and machinery, the outlay for which must be returned to your corporation by the public, at a greater charge for admission than possibly might otherwise be required. An admission-price, from six in the morning till twelve at noon, might be exacted, which would support the establishment, and in the afternoon the baths might be free.

Your memorialist humbly presents the present as the outline only of a plan, in the hope it may induce inquiry into its practicability in detail.

Liverpool, June 7, 1849.

ROBERT BAINES.

PERFORATED GLASS WINDOWS.-IMPROVEMENT SUggested.

Sir,-If the rules of your Mechanics' Magazine permit, I would beg through its pages to obtain the attention of glass manufacturers towards the value of perforated glass for ventilation, similar in design to the specimen of perforated zine which I enclose. I am aware of one patent, by Mr. Lochhead, for perforated glass; but for the beneficial ventilation of dwellings, hospitals, &c, it has two serious objections: first, the perforations are too large, and the air is thus admitted in too great a body; secondly, the surface is smooth on both sides, which admits the rain, requiring an external sash as a shield in wet weather. The advantages possessed by the perforated zinc are, 1st. The orifices are sufficiently minute to divide the fresh cold air admitted, so that it shall easily incorporate itself with the internal atmosphere, instead of descending in a continuous cold stream into the apartment, and probably affecting injuriously the person within its direct influence.

2nd. The external burr prevents the admission of wet, even when exposed to the violence of a storm,-permitting in consequence the ventilation (i. e., the

admission of fresh air) to be continued when ventilators according to Mr. Lochhead's patent would have to be closed. The evils of the admitted rain, also of the descending stream of cold air in crowded hospitals, where patients must be placed under the windows; also in crowded barracks, where the same necessity as regards the soldiers' beds exists, need only to be mentally dwelt upon to be acknowledged as serious, particularly during the quiet of the night-a time when such assistants to ventilation are most required.

The objection to the zinc is its opaque nature, rendering its use in front windows unsightly, and causing a loss of light where, probably, it can ill be spared. Glass, therefore, is sought to be substituted as the material, and the desired object is to obtain perforated glass, having the perforations one-eighth of an inch in diameter, with a burr, as from a punch, externally, the perforations one-half inch distant one from the other. The manufacture to be in sizes or squares applicable to stopping in sashes of all dimensions. A margin of a plain surface may be left, for glaziers to reduce as required. It is essentially necessary that the price should be moderate.

If the subject be considered worthy of a trial by such ingenious improvers as Mr. Bessemer and others, there seems little doubt as to its successful manufacture.

It is admitted that the most simple mode of ventilation is the one most desirable, and most likely to be permitted by the occupants of crowded rooms. The very necessity for the admission of fresh air, renders the occupants less able to bear contact with any rush or stream of cold atmosphere; thus the opened door or window is the readiest means, but speedily produces its chill, and is again closed by shuddering hands. A like effect, and a similar fate, follows the employment of any ventilator admitting any considerable body of cold air. The application of the glass, perforated as described, is to substitute it for common glass in one or more squares, as required, of the window sash, gaining therefrom a gentle and easily-diffused supply of fresh air. In poor-houses, barracks, hospitals, or gaols, such an assistant to ventilation (under trial of the zinc) has been found most valuable and

successful, and from the speedy incorporation or mixing of the atmosphere within the apartment, no inconvenience is felt, and no temptation is given to the occupants to tamper with the means of gaining a supply so necessary to health.

In private houses, ball-rooms, &c., the adoption would be found invaluable, and save the lungs of many of our fair young ladies, so often sacrificed to heated rooms and rash contact with the cold night air admitted through an opened window. In

such applications the perforated pane might be guarded by an inner glazed slide, or small sash, somewhat similar to Mr. Lochhead's design.

The present, or any other means for supply of fresh air must, however, invariably be seconded by means of escape for the heated and vitiated atmosphere. I am, Sir, yours, &c.,

Dublin, Sept. 15, 1849.

R. E.

Specification.

Firstly, my invention, in so far as it regards machinery for or methods of manufacturing rope or cordage has relation to the means employed to give motion to the reels or bobbins in laying the yarn or wire into strands, or in laying strands into rope or cordage, and consists in the improved arrangements for that purpose represented in figs. 1 and 2, the former of which is a plan of the machinery on the line yx, and the latter a side elevation thereof. The bobbins or reels, gg (of any convenient number) are mounted in a circular frame, A, which is upheld by screw-rods, vv, within an outer framework, A2, consisting of a basement, k, four pillars, pp, an entablature, y', spandrils, 11, and conical apex, w. The

principal parts of the frame, A, are three six-armed rings, R1, R2, R3, which are connected vertically together in the manner to be presently explained, and two laying plates, tt, at top of all. The undermost ring, R1, is connected by a series of cranks, Cee, with the second ring, R2, and R2 with the third ring, R3, by straight vertical rods, ss. The centre crank, C, is stationary, and stepped by its short arm in a pedestal, N, attached to the basement of the outer framework, A2, while the undermost ring, R1, is attached to a loose boss, ", slipped over the short arm of the crank, C, so that on a rotating movement being given to the ring, R, it carries round with it the ring, R2, by means of the side cranks, ee, that is to say, the side cranks, ee, which may be called live cranks, are made to revolve round the centre or dead crank, C, while the ring, R2, in its turn imparts, through the medium of the ver

tical rods, ss, a simultaneous rotary movement to the top ring, R3. The long arms of the connecting cranks, ee, carry the reels or bobbins, gg, on which the yarn or wire is wound, and as they revolve at fixed and invariable distances round the centre or dead crank, C, any twist of the yarn or wire which is in the course of being laid is effectually prevented. The requisite rotary motion is given to the machine by means of a pair of bevel wheels, B1 and B2, the former of which (B1) is attached to the loose boss, r, on the short arm of the dead crank, C, and the latter, B2, to a shaft, S, which is turned by a steam engine, or other first mover, through the medium of the rig. gers aa. The long arm of the dead crank, C, carries at top a reel or bobbin, u, from which the heart or core for the rope or cordage (of whatever materir! such heart or core may be) is supplied. The yarns or wires from the different bobbins pass through guide holes in the topmost ring, R3, and meet and unite with the core at the laying plates, tt. To the revolving shaft, S, and at a little distance from the riggers, aa, there is attached a worm-wheel, h, the threads of which take into a tangent wheel, i, and thereby give motion to a whelp wheel,j, keyed to the axis, k1, of i. The whelp wheel, j, serves to receive or take away the strand or rope as it is delivered from the twisting or bobbin frame, A, over the pulley, Q. The whelps, 17, of the wheel, j, are moveable to and fro in slots, as usual, so that they may expand or contract (as it were) in proportion to the lay of the strand or rope. On the axis, k, of the wheels, i and j, and outside of both, there is keyed a flat grooved rigger,