maker; for improvements upon Thomas Johnson's patent machine for dressing cotton, silk, and other goods, by power. Dated April 17, 1806. Thomas James Plucknett, of the parish of Christ church, in the county of Surrey, agricultural machine-maker; for a machine for dibbling and drilling all kinds of grain and pulse. Dated April 17, 1806. Anthony Francis Berte, of the parish of St. Dunstan's in the West, in the city of London, merchant; for a machine for casting or founding types, letters, and ornaments, usually made use of in printing. Dated April 29, 1806. William Bundy, of Pratt-place, Camden town, in the parish of St. Pancras, in the county of Middlesex,mathematical instrument maker; for machines or iustruments for the purpose of making leaden bullets, and other shot. Dated May 1, 1806. Stephen Hooper, of Walworth, in the county of Surrey, gentleman; for an aqueduct, tunnel or machine, for cleaning docks and other basons of penned water; and certain improvements on machines or machinery, (for which he hath already obtained letters patent) for cleaning dry and other harbours, rivers, creeks, bars of harbours, and other purposes. Dared May 3, 1806. William Robert Wale King, of Kirby-street, in the parish of Saint Andrew, Holborn, in the county of Middlesex, tin-plate worker; for a method of manufacturing tin, or iron plates covered with tin, commonly called tin-plates, into covers for dishes and plates. Dated May 8, 1806. Martin Cowood, of Leeds, in the county of York; for an improve. ment in the manufacturing metallic cocks, for conveying and stopping liquids, Dated May 15, 1806. Richard Wilcox, of the parish of St. Mary, Lambeth, in the county of Surrey, mechanist; for improve. ments in steam-engines. Dated May 21, 1806. Richard Tomkinson, of the town of Liverpool, in the county of Lancaster, salt merchant; for a machine, engine, or instrument, for making white salt. and preparing brine to make white salt. Dated August 1, 1806. James Rawlinson, of the town of Derby, gent.; for certain improvements on apparatus commonly made use of as trusses or bandages for ruptures. Dated August 1, 1806. Peter Marsland, of Heaton Norris, in the county of Lancaster, cotton spinner; for an improved method of weaving cotton, linen, woollen, worsted, and mchair, and each or any of them by machinery. Dated August 1, 1806. Thomas Fricker, of New Bondstreet, in the county of Middlesex, paper-hanger, and Richard Clarke, of Manor-street, Chelsea, in the said county, paper-hanging manufacturer; for a new mode of decorating the walls of apartments in imitation of fine cloth, without joint, seam, or shade, by means of cementing of flock on walls of plaister, wood, liuen, or.paper. Dated Aug. 1, 1806. Ralph Walker, of Blackwall, in the county of Middlesex, engineer; for an improved mode of making ropes and cordage, of every dimen sion or size, by not only making all the yarns bear equally in the strand, and laying the strands uniformly in the rope, but also by making the rope or cordage from the yarns in the same operation. Dated August 9, 1806. Josias Josias Robbins, of Liverpool, in the county of Lancaster, millwright, and James Curtis, of the city of Bristol, coppersmith; for certain improvements in boilers, for manufacturing sugar, and in the mode of fixing the same, whereby much labour and fuel will be saved. Dated August 20, 1806. John By water, of the town and county of Nottingham; for an improvement in certain sails of ships, and other navigable vessels, and the mode of working the same. August 22, 1806. Dated John Curr, of Belle Vue House, in the county of York, gent; for a method of laying and twisting the yarns that compose a rope; by which method the yarns of a rope have a better and wore equal bearing than they have in a rope made in the common way. Dated August 23, 1806. Richard Ford, of the city of Bristol, rope-maker; for a new kind of cordage, made by a process entirely new, from old rope or junk, or such short ends of new rope as are now commonly converted only into oakum or coarse paper; by means of which process the objection to cordage, usually termed twice-laid cordage, are totally obviated, and the newly invented cordage is made nearly equal to cordage made from new materials. Dated August 30, 1806. Thomas Pearson, of Haberdasher's Place, in the parish of St. Leonard, Shoreditch, in the county of Middlesex, wholesale upholsterer; for a machine or machinery, for the purpose of cleansing, seasoning, and dressing feathers, and other articles. Dated August 30, 1806. John Carey, D. L. of Camden. street, Islington, in the county of Middlesex; for various contrivances for preventing or checking fires, and preserving persons and property therefrom, by means of divers improvements in alarms, chimnies, cisterns, fire-skreens, and other articles. Dated August 30, 1805. Christopher Wilson, of Windmillstreet, Tottenham court road, Md. dlesex, master mariner; for a new system of naval architecture. Dated August 30, 1806. Robert Newman, of Dartmouth, in the county of Devon, ship builder; for improvements in the form, formation, and constructios of ships and other vessels of war, and ships and other vessels of commerce, and of sloops, barges, and other vessels, any otherwise employ. ed. Dated September 6, 1806. Joseph Manton, of Davies-street, Berkeley square, London, gun. maker; for improvements in doublebarrelled guns. Dated September 15, 1806. Isaiah Birt, of Plymouth deck, the county of Devon, gent.; for a black paint, composed chiefly of carthy and mineral substances, which will be beneficial to our navy, and the shipping interest at large; being particularly calculated to preserve wood, and prevent rust in iron, and may be applied to all purposes for which paint in general is used. Dated September 18, 1806. Marc Isambard Brunel, of Port sea, in the county of Southampton. gent.; for a new mode of cutting veneers, or thin boards. Dated September 23, 1806. Henry Pratt, of Birmingham, in the county of Warwick, steel toy. maker; for a new toast-stand, or an improvement on the article called cats cats or dogs, upon which things are placed before the fire. Dated Oct. 2, 1805. Robert Salmon, of Woburn, in the county of Bedford, surveyor; for newly invented mathematic principled, safe and easy trusses, for the relief and cure of ruptures. Dated October 2, 1806. William Cooke, of Chute-house, in the county of Wilts, gentleman; for certain improvements in the construction of waggons and other carriages with more than two wheels. Dated October 2, 1806. Ralph Wedgwood, of Charlesstreet, Hampstead-road, in the county of Middlesex, gent.; for an apparatus for producing duplicates of writings. Dated October 7, 1806. Ralph Sutton, of Macclesfield, in the county of Chester, brazier and tin-plate-worker; for certain im. provements in an apparatus for cooking, either by steam or water. Dated October 7, 1806. William Sampson, of Liverpool, in the county of Lancaster, millwright; for a new discovery or invention to be acted on by the impulse of wind, in order to work mills, pumps, and other machinery suitable to its application. Dated October 7, 1806. Archibald Jones and James Jones, of Mile-end, in the county of Middlesex, printers; for a method of discharging colours from shawls and other dyed silks, and silk and worsted of every description, on such part or parts thereof as may be required, for the purpose of introducing, by printing or staining, various patterns on such discharges or otherwise. Dated October 7, 1806. William Clegg Gover, of Rotherhithe, in the county of Surrey, carVOL. XLVIII, penter; for an improved wheel or purchase for the steering of ships, by means of which wheel or purchase a considerable degree of labour is saved, and a ship may be steered with more ease, and greater steadi ness and certainty, and with more safety to the steersman.. Dated October 15, 1806. Joseph Bramah, of Pimlico, in the county of Middlesex, engineer; for a machine whereby valuable im. provements in the art of printing will be obtained. Dated October 15, 1806, John Fletcher, of Cecil-street, in the Strand, in the county of Middlesex, esquire; for a composition for agricultural purposes, which is not only of the greatest value as a manure, but is also extremely eflicacious in the destruction of the fly in turnips, snails, slugs, ants, and the majority of those other insects which are detrimental to vegetables; which composition he usually denominates prepared gypsum. Dated October 21, 1806. Elihu White, of Threadneedlestreet, in the city of London, gent. for a method of making a machine for casting or founding types, letters, spaces, and quadrats, usually made use of in printing. Communicated to him by a certain foreigner residing abroad. Dated Oct. 23, 1806. John Prosser, of Back hill, Hatton-garden, in the county of Middlesex, smith; for various improvements upon smoke or air jacks, which may be applied to those now in use. Dated October 30, 1806. James Caparn, of Leicester, in the county of Leicester, brazier ; for a machine for discharging smoke from smoking chimnies. Dated October 30, 1806. 3 Q Isaac Isaac Sanford, of the city of Gloucester, civil-engineer; and Ste. phen Price, of the Strand, in the county of Gloucester, civil engineer; for a method to raise a nap or pile on woollen, cotton, and all other cloth, which may require a nap or pile, as a substitute for teasels or cards. Dated October 30, 1806. Robert Bowman, of Leith, manufacturer; for a method of making hats, caps, and bonnets, for men and women, of whalebone; harps, for harping or cleaning corn or grain, and also the bottoms of sieves and riddles, and girths for horses; and also cloth for webbing, fit for making into hats, caps, &c. and for the backs and seats of chairs, sofas, gigs, and other similar carri. ages and things; and for the bottoms of beds; as also reeds for weavers, &c. Dated October 30, 1806. Remarks on sundry important Uses of the Potatoe. Abridged from Letters and Papers of the Bath and West of England Society. The potatoe has, though deserv. edly, oecupied so much of the attention of different writers, that it may seem almost necessary, to bring for ward some new and important discoveries concerning it, if we attempt to say more on its qualities. It is not, however, a singular opinion, that so important is this vegetable, and so applicable to economical uses, as human food, that it will remain for posterity fully to appreciate its positive and comparative value. But as no new and promising experiment, however imperfectly conducted, should be suffered to escape general notice, it will be acceptable to our readers to recen a general statement of certain trial made by a very respectable Brinsi merchant, with a view to ascertan the value of the potatoe for se provision and other stores. diffidence about having done justice to the subject, which he doubts of finding leisure to prosecute, prevent his allowing his name to appear s to a finished essay of his own; bat certain statements are deemed to important to be lost, as they may lead to farther discoveries and fass The statements, then, are in st stance as follow. The ease with which this root à prepared by boiling and for imme diate consumption, either in its parate form, or mixed in bread; the little trouble there is in preserving it through the winter months; and the short period between the time al planting and the return of the crop: have most probably been the caf why less pains have been taken to find out cheap methods of preserving potatoes, as a store for future suste nance, than would otherwise have been the case. The large quantity of potatos produced in the last season, and the reputed scarcity of bread-corn, in duced me a few weeks since to make some small experiments on the mean of drying potatoes, either in sub. stance or in flour; either for futur consumption at home, or for t supply of our seamen on long voyages. The ease with which I found th might be done, and the probibe benefit which I think may be derived to the public from a farther pursuit of the subject, induces me to submit to 1 4 ་ the he inspection of the society a small uantity of the flour of potatoe sent erewith. The potatoes were boiled with eir skin on, dried on a kiln, and e whole ground in a steel cornill: none of the skin has been parated by dressing. By experiments that have been fore made on fine dried flour of tatoes, it is known, that it will eep longer than the flour of wheat ithout spoiling; that it is used as a bstitute for sago, and makes good scuits without admixture. And I Ive every reason to believe it will mix id make good bread,in a much larger roportion with wheat-flour, than as hitherto been employed of the oiled root, in the common mode of sing it. Of the expence of prearing the flour from the root in rge quantities I am not prepared › speak. The chief labour is wash. g the potatoes from the mould, hich adheres to the eyes, particurly in those sorts, the eyes of which e much depressed. Drying them ill be considerably expensive; but think may be reduced much below hat at first it will be estimated at. rinding will not cost more than orn. s From what I believe were accuate experiments, I find that 100 f washed potatoes will produce full 5 lbs of flour (such as the sample.) The difference in weight will be very ttle, whether the potatoes are oiled, or only ground in an apple. aill, and the juice suffered slowly to rain from them before they are ried. It might seem, therefore, at irst view, that the boiling might be mitted; my trials however have hewn me, that the colour of the lower is much fairer when boiled, and the taste more pleasant; and, that the expence of boiling in steam is very little. With the greatest care even some of the starch (the most nutritive part of the root) will separate with the juice; above 3 lbs of the fine starch, (weighed after it was dried) passed off with the water from 100 s of potatoe. Other persons will, I trust, ascertain such facts with more accuracy; I, myself, hope soon to ascertain more satisfactory particulars. In the mean time, permit me to make an estimate of the probable produce of an acre of potatoes in quantity, when reduced to the state of flour. The average produce of an acre, managed with care, is estimated at about 80 sacks of 240 lbs each. According to my experiments (as before,) 100 s of washed potatoes will produce 25 s. of dry flour; or each sack 60s.; or one acre, two tons and upwards. I am not qualified at present to carry these calculations farther—if quantity alone be the question, I need not. Note. The potatoes used in the foregoing trials were the red apple potatoe. The steel-mill has not ground this flour so fine as I believe a stone-mill would have done. Some of these had their skins stripped off after boiling. Should an expeditious method be found of stripping off the skins, it will, perhaps, be less troublesome than washing so carefully as must be otherwise practised. After giving a numerical account of the samples of flour of potatoe prepared for exhibition, this gentleman gives also samples of bread and biscuit made from different sorts of potatoe flour, mixed with different proportions of wheat flour of different degrees of fineness; but these 3Q2 would |