Aug. 23.

shunting-lever for operating railway and tramway points, and
for analogous purposes, constructed and arranged to operate
substantially as described and shown on the drawings.

(Specification, 7s. ; drawings, 2s.)

No. 21285.-9th June, 1906.-WILLIAM MORTON, Mechanical Engineer, and JOHN HERCUS, Agent, both of Princes Street, Dunedin, New Zealand. Improved trace-fastening for swingletrees and spreaders.

Claims.-(1.) In swingletrees, in combination with their ends, of otherwise usual construction, a pin and a U-shaped covering lever arranged normally to clip in a trace securing same effectually, but allowing of instant removal when required, all substantially as shown on the drawing and as described. (2.) In Spreaders of otherwise usual construction, in combination with their ends, a pin and a U-shaped lever arranged to normally secure a link of said chain, securing same effectually, but allowing of instant removal when required, all substantially as set forth.

(Specification, 2s. 6d.; drawing, Is.)

No. 21289.-13th June, 1906.-CHARLES EDWARD YOUNG, of South Street, Feilding, Wellington, New Zealand, Farmer. An improved branding-liquid.

Claim. -A branding composition composed of caustic soda, water, glycerine, and Armenian bole in the proportions specified, and prepared in the manner set forth in the specification.

(Specification, Is. 3d.)

No. 21338.-22nd June, 1906.-LOUIS SCHMIDT, of Westbury Street, Hackney, South Australia, Australia, Engineer. Improvements in and relating to flexible non-inflated tires for vehicles.

Claims.-(1.) A non-inflated flexible tube arranged or inserted within a flexible cover so as to stiffen the same without exerting bursting pressure thereon, substantially as described and illustrated. (2.) A flexible cover for the accommodation of a non-inflated tube or core, said cover being open or ununited at its base, and being formed with or without strengthening strips of canvas or other fabric, and having circumferential flanges for retaining the same within corresponding circumferential recesses in the rim. (3.) A metal rim provided with circumferential recesses for the accommodation of the circumferential flanges of the tire, said rim being characterized by having a flat base (as indicated in Figs. 3 and 4 of the drawings) for mounting the same upon the wooden rim of a wheel. (4.) A wedge-shaped strip of metal having a parallel formation at its middle between rounded ends and a correspondingly formed recess in the rim of the wheel as shown in Fig. 3 of the drawings for uniting the adjacent or abutting ends of the same, substantially as described and illustrated.

(Specification, 3s. 6d.; drawing, ls.)

No. 21394.-3rd July, 1906.-WILLIAM ERNEST HUGHES, of Queen's Chambers, Wellington, New Zealand, Patent Agent (nominee of the Printing Machinery Company, Limited, of 188 Fleet Street, London, England, the assignees of Henry Alexander Wise Wood, of Metropolitan Building, 1 Madison Avenue, New York, United States of America). Improvements in apparatus for casting curved stereotypes.

Claims.-(1.) Apparatus for casting curved stereotypes in which a segmental back B is moved up towards one side of a cylindrical core C to be in the casting position and away from it to be out of the casting position, the metal is delivered into the mould by the lift of a power-driven pump, and the core C turned through half a circle to present the stereotype in position for being lifted off the core, characterized by a hand lever 43 for moving the said back B, the pump P, and its spout T together alternately into and out of the casting position, a finger 65 made by the lever 43 to hold a valve 66 in the pump cylinder open against the pull of a closing weight 68 so long as the back B is out of the casting position, whereby no lift of the piston 33 can then send metal up the spout T into the mould, and which finger 65 is rocked away from the valve 66 as soon as the lever 43 has placed the back B in the casting position, whereby the valve is forthwith closed by the weight 68 and the metal lifted up the spout T. (2.) Apparatus according to claim l characterized by a starting handle 80 connected to a finger 84 caused by

it to hold the valve 66 open against the pull of a valve-closing weight 68, and a locking segment 79 holding the starting handle 80 by the arm 86 fast thereto and away from which it is rocked by the pump lever 20 only when the pump piston 33 is on the point of lifting, whereby the valve 66 can be closed only when the piston is about to lift. (3.) Apparatus according to claim l characterized by a finger 830 rocked by the motion of a starting handle 80 that permits the pump valve 66 to be closed up to a shoulder 570 connected to the lever 43 and the segmental back B, thereby locking the said lever 43 against premature reversal and the back B against being moved prematurely out of the casting position. (4.) Apparatus according to claim l characterized by the pump lever 20 acting through a locking segment 79 connected to it and also through a starting handle 80 to hold a finger 84 off the valve 66 so that a weight 68 can close the latter before the casting operation, and a spring 85 previously compressed by the handle 80 and resilient to return it and thereby open the valve 66 at the end of each working cycle of the apparatus. (5.) Apparatus according to claim l characterized by a winch handle and gear for turning the core C, a stud 91 on the core C at each end of a diameter, a pawl 93 pivoted on a hand lever 92 and held in the path of the studs 91 by the weight of the lever 92 and the pull of a spring 94, and a detent 97 held by a spring 99 in the path of the said studs 91 so that it is rocked out of said path by a stud 91 and returned by its spring 99 as each stud 91 in turn comes up to the pawl 93.

(Specification, 13s.; drawings, 6s.)

No. 21401.-5th July, 1906.-LEON SERPOLLET, of 9 and 11 Rue Stendhal, Paris, France, Engineer. Improved arrangement for heating steam-generators and the like by means of liquid fuel.

Claims.-(1.) A system of heating steam-generators, &c., by means of liquid fuel, characterized by this that the liquid fuel and the air which serves to support combustion are separately injected under pressure and in convenient portions, after having been previously heated or not, into a carburetter where the two fluids are atomized, and mixes in flowing through the same narrow passage which leads into an enlarged chamber where the mixture is ignited and burns with a continuous flame. (2.) A system of heating steam-generators, &c., according to claim 1, in which a supplementary compressed-air supply is led either into the liquid-fuel pipe at a point placed in front of the outlet orifice of this pipe, or into a small perforated box or nozzle surrounding the outlet orifice of said fuel, with the object of insuring the atomization of the liquid from its exit from the pipe before its arrival in the carburetter. (3.) A system of heating steam-generators, &c., according to claim 1, in which a liquid-fuel pump d and an air pump h, actuated by a same feed engine b, deliver simultaneously and in required proportions the liquid and the air into the carburetter j, whence the mixture leaves through a narrow passage and passes into the enlarged chamber k, where it ignites. (4.) A system of heating, according to claim 1, for instantaneous steam-generators in which a feed engine b simultaneously actuates a water pump which supplies the water to the generator a, a liquid-fuel pump d and an air pump h which deliver at the same time the liquid and the air into a carburetter-atomizer, whence the mixture formed passes into an enlarged chamber communicating with the furnace of the generator, and where the said mixture is ignited, in such wise that when the injection of water to the boiler ceases the combustion of the furnace instantly ceases, the flame of a float-light lamp n alone remaining lighted. (5.) A system of heating steam-generators, &c., according to claim 1, in which one part only of the air necessary for the combustion of the liquid is delivered into the carburetter-atomizer at the same time as the liquid, the supplementary air being drawn by the suction produced by the flowing of the mixture already formed, which passes into an injector-pipe before arriving at the combustion-chamber.

(Specification, 8s. 6d.; drawing, Is.)

No. 21403.-5th July, 1906.-CHARLES ROBERT ROGERS, of No. 56 Clarke Street, South Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, Factory and Chemical Expert. An improved process of and apparatus for retting or degumming and subsequently cleaning and drying fibrous materials preparatory to obtaining the fibre therefrom.

Extract from Specification.-My process consists essentially in effecting the retting or degumming by boiling the material to be treated in a vat containing water to which has been added an emulsion of linseed-oil. When the material has