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NEW PATENTS.

It will form a REGULAR PART of our future plan to present the Public with an abridged Sketch of the fpecifications of all new Patents AS SOON AS THEY ARE ENROLLED. We have no doubt but Patentees will liberally contribute towards the perfection of our plan, by tranfmitting copies of their specifications; and we have no befitation in afferting, that our plan itself is fraught equally with benefit to the Public and to the Patentees. Such of our readers as wifh for more exact information, will doubtless have recourse to the offices of Enrollment, in Chancery-lane.

MR. DESMOND'S TANNING PROCESS. ON the 15th of January, letters patent were granted to MR. WILLIAM DESMOND, No. 6, New Palace-yard, Weftminster, for his invention of a method of tanning all forts of hides and kins, and of rendering more folid and incorruptible in water, feveral vegetable and animal fubftances, fuch as flax, hemp, cotton, filk, hair, wool, &c. as well as the manufactures made thereof.

The principle of this invention is explained in the fpecification, by the following account of the proccfs:

"Provide five vessels, called digeftors, with an aperture at the bottom of each: and let them be elevated upon ftillages. Fill the digeftors with tan; pour water on the tan in the firft digeftor, and draw it off prefently afterwards; pour this liquor on the tan in the fecond digeftor, draw it off, and pour it into the third, and fo on till it comes through the fifth and laft digeftor. The liquor is then highly coloured, and marks from fix to eight degrees on the hydrometer for falts. This liquor may be called the tanning lixivium. It has this peculiar property, that if on a fmall quantity be poured a few drops of a folution of animal glue, the liquor which before was clear becomes turbid, and a whitish fubftance falls to the bottom of the glafs. The precipitate thus obtained by means of the folution of glue, is a fure indication that the liquor contains the tanning principle; for this reafon, that glue being of the fame nature with the kins or hides of which it is made, whatever fubftance unites itfelf indiffolubly with the former, will do fo likewife with the latter. This folution is made by diffolving a little common glue in water over a moderate fire; by means of it not only oak-bark, but alfo the bark of feveral other trees, fuch as plane-tree, chefnuttree, the American hemlock-tree, poplar, elm, willow, &c. as well as divers inrubs and plants, fuch as myrtle, &c. all of which I call tan, are found to contain the tanning principle; and by employing the folution as above, it will in

all cafes be eafy to afcertain, whether any given fubftance contains this principle or not.

"In the courfe of thefe lixiviations, two things will be obferved; firft, the liquor running from the firft digeftor, at length lofes its colour: if in this ftate a little of it be taken in a glafs, and the former experiment be repeated, the hquor no longer becomes turbid, but remains clear, which thows it contains no more of the tanning principle; but if you pour into the fame glafs a few drops of fulphat of iron, the liquor becomes thick and black. This liquor is not to be poured on the tan in the fecond digeftor, but is to be laid by and used for the depilation, or taking off of the hair or wool. It is diftinguished by the name of gallic lixivium, because it appears to contain the fame principle as galls.

"The fulphat of iron is obtained, by diffolving a fmall quantity of iron in oil of vitriol, diluted with water; or by diffolving green copperas in water. This folution ferves to afcertain fuch fubftances as contain the gallic principle. Lime-water will also produce this cffect.

"When the liquor ceafes to grow black, by the mixture of the fulphat of iron, it will be ufclefs to pour any more water on the tan in the first digeftor. This tan, being exhaufted both of the tanning and gallic principles, must be removed, and new tan put in its place.

"It will be obferved, fecondly, that the liquor after running through all the digeftors, at laft grows weak. Add to your ftock of tanning lixivium, all the liquor that makes from fix to eight degrees on the hydrometer; what afterwards proceeds from the laft digeftor, is to be poured on the new tan in the firft; then the fresh water is to be conveyed on the tan in the fecond digeftor, and the liquor of the first to be laid by, while it marks fix or eight degrees on the hydrometer, and added to the tanning lixivium, which must always be carefully feparated from the gallic. In this manner, the tan in all the digeftors may be

renewed

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New Patents of Mr. Potts and Mr. Pratt.

renewed, and the lixiviations continued. The number of thefe lixiviations, as well as the mode of making them, may be varied at pleasure the effential point is to repeat them fo as to give the liquor a fufficient degree of concentration, which may be determined by the hydrometer, and proportioned to the quicknefs required in the operation, and to the thickness of the hides and fkins to be tanned, all which experience will foon teach. As all kinds of tan are not equally good, it will fometimes happen that fix or more filtrations will be necef fary, to obtain a lixivium of fix or eight degrees; in this cafe, the number of digeftors may be increased, and the fame method purfued as above, and when a weaker lixivium is wanted, three or four filtrations will be fufficient.

"The perfon who directs thefe lixiviations fhould be provided with the folution of glue and fulphat of iron already defcribed, in order to afcertain the qualities of the different lixivia, as well as with an hydrometer, or areometer, properly graduated, to determine their degree of concentration or specific gravity."

Befides the very great favings in point of time and labour, the leather tanned according to the above method being more completely faturated, will be found to weigh heavier, to wear better, and to be fefs fufceptible of moisture than the leather tanned in the ufual way. The thickest hides may be tanned in about fourteen days, and a boar's fhield has been completely tanned in about three weeks, that, according to the common method, would require fix or feyen years. The faving, moreover, in other refpects, is at least 120 per cent.

The other animal and vegetable fubftances already mentioned, by being fteeped for a certain time in a weaker or ftronger tanning lixivium, will acquire trength and incorruptibility. Cords, ropes, and cables made of hemp or fpartery, impregnated with this principle, will fupport much greater weights with out breaking, will be lefs liable to be worn out by friction, will run more fmoothly on pullies, &c. This liquor in fhort will be found fo advantageous, particularly in the rigging of veffels, as to render the ufe of tar in many cafes neceflary. Even meat may be preferved by it without falt.

INLAND NAVIGATION. On the 10th of Auguft, the fpecification of a patent was enrolled, at the MONTHLY MAG. No. IX.

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Petty Bag Office, by MR. THOMAS Porrs, of Sanctuary, in the parish of Penrice, in the county of Glamorgan, for his invention of a machine for the moving of veffels, boats and barges on canals, and other ftill waters. chine confifts of a vertical oar, which is made to act at the ftern of the veffel that is required to be moved forward. The car is put in motion by means of a pole, to one end of which it is faftened, which pole is fufpended above the deck by a rope or chain, on which it fwings. The pole is kept fteady and in its proper direction, by lateral beams that project as far over the ftern of the veffel, as the oar is intended to move backward and forward. The vertical oar, power, is readily pushed backward, and drawn forward by means of the fwinging pole, on elevating the end of the pole when the oar is to be pushed back, and on pulling the end down when the oar is to be drawn forwards. In these alternate movements confift the practice of the invention. The broad furface of the oar, varying in its fize, according to the depth of water and weight of the veffel, is not expreffed in the fpecification.

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COMPOSITION MILLSTONES. MR. MAJOR PRATT, lime-burner, of Running Waters, in the parish of Pittington Halgarth, in the county of Durham, obtained a patent, on the 11th of March, which was enrolled on the 6th of September, for a method of 'manufacturing a compofition ftone, that will anfwer the purpose of grinding every fpecies of corn, and all the other purpofes to which foreign and other millftones are, or may be applied. principle of his invention confifts in a due mixture of filiceous and argillaceous earths, under certain circumstances, and converting the fame into ftone by the application of heat. To produce the femi-vitrification neceffary to the hardnefs of the stone, an addition is made to the mixture of about one feventh of calcareous earth, for which he found lime to answer well; but various other fubftances he conceives may accomplish the fame end, fuch as gypfum, alkaline falts, coal, iron, &c. The heat requifite fhould vary according to circumstances, but the degree found to anfwer, is the fame as that ufed in the calcination of lime, fome of the compofition having been prepared in a lime-kiln, during the ufual procefs of burning lime.

Mr. PRATT conceives his compofition, by being burnt in moulds of any 4 Z particular

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The lengths of the rack-work are joined together by means of mortices and tenons, with a fpring which holds them faft. In each length is a joint, by which the rack work will accommodate itself to angles or turns in the flues. To the firft or uppermoft length is affixed a brufh, of hair, or wire, or fpunge, or other claftic fubftance, as the occafion may require.

This invention is, doubtlefs, well calculated to anfwer the purpofe intended, and may, perhaps, be the means of diminishing the number of thofe objects of mifery, the unfortunate chimneyfweepers.

ORIGINAL ANECDOTES AND REMAINS

O F

EMINENT PERSONS.

[This article is devoted to the reception of Biographical Anecdotes, Papers, Letters, &c. and we request the Communications of fuch of our Readers as can affift us in these objects.]

ANECDOTES OF PERSONS CONNECTED WITH THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.

[Continued from our laft.]

CHAUMETTE.

PIERRE GASPARIN CHAUMETTE, the revolutionary recorder of Paris, was a native of the town of Nevers, in the Orleanois. Few men excited more attention in France for a time, or had a more hateful task to perform, during the meft tragical part of the Revolution, than Chaumette. He had been bred to the fea, but not relifhing that life, and failing to obtain expected preferment therein, he quitted it, and lived by the ufe of his pen, which he certainly knew how to manage more to his profit, than the compass. He could, however, fpeak better, and more fluently, than he could write. He had also been employed as a librarian and amanuenfis to a dignitary of the church, in the diocefe of Nivernois, but at the commencement of the troubles in France was actually a clerk to an attorney, and occafionally wrote for the newfpapers, as well as trifles for the ftage. He was one of the chief difciples of CA MILLE DESMOULINS. and among the first who put the tri-coloured cockade in his hat just before the taking of the Baftille. He greatly out-ran that apof tte in zeal for the new faith, for when Camille was compofing the first number of his Vieux Cordelier, with the hope of

tranquilifing the overheated imaginations of the leaders of that great event, and tempering the public rage against the real or fuppofed enemies of the new order of things, Chaumette was ftill farther inflaming it, and directing it in vengeance againft particular individuals. It was Chaumette that inftigated the commune of Paris to demand the trial of the queen, and he was of the committee which prepared the charges, and regulated the evidence against that ill-fated woman. He was himfelf a witnefs too against her, at the revolutionary_tribunal, and undertook to reprimand M. LA TOUR DUPIN, lately war minifter to Louis XVI, for not expofing those parts of Antoinette's conduct, which, it was infifted on, he was privy to, or acquainted with. The most odious part of this man's character, as to his charge against this imprudent queen, was an incestuous penchant towards her infant fon, till then confined with her in the temple. This infinuation, for it could be called no more, fhocked the whole court and auditory, and especially the female part of it, and immediately funk the accufer in the popular opinion. Even Robelpierre himfelf, under whofe aufpices he was believed to act, grew outrageous when he was told of this article of accufation, more abfurd than all the reft; and it is not denied, even by her fevereft enemies, that that culpable and loft princefs was murdered,

1796.]

Original Anecdotes.-Duke de Bourbon.

murdered, under the form of a revolutionary trial. Whatever might have been the amount of her crimes, had they been fairly enumerated or weighed, and whatever punishment might have been pronounced on them, it is not lefs a fact, that nothing like juftice was done her in that mock ceremony. No fooner was Robespierre informed that the procureur of the commune had exhibited a charge of fo unnatural à die against the miferable prifoner, than he exclaimed, "The fool! was it not enough that he had proved her a Meffalina, but he must make an Agrippina of her too?" Robefpierre inftantly faw this abominable conduct of Chaumette would hurt the credit of the cause, en which account he never forgave him, though he allowed the zeal to continue to operate on inferior objects, till it whelmed the zealot himself in ruin. Chaumette had credit now with none but the very fcum of the revolution, and fuch recrementitious matter will always be thrown off in national ebullitions of this kind.

Robespierre was at this time in the very zenith of his power, yet Chaumette moved fuch a propofition in the full commune, as gave reafon to many to believe that he would fet up as his rival in the city. This daring motion was for uniting all the heads of the forty-eight fections of Paris in one council, a measure that would have fuperfeded the force of the legislature itself, if not its authority. This was a project, conceived in com mon with the famous HEBERT, MoMo RA, and MAZUEL, and would have been aided in its execution by the daring ROUSIN, who at that time commanded a body of the armé revolutionaire.

How far Robefpierre was apprised of, or approved the fcheme, does not appear; many threwd obfervers of what was paffing, feemed fatisfied that it was to have been only a prelude " to the fwelling act" that was to follow, when the hero of the piece was to have been in full play. The majority of the convention faw through the veil which covered the workings of the plot, and anticipated their own danger, thould it be carried into effect. They, therefore, without lofs of time, annulled the proceedings already had in it, declared all to be rebels who fhould perfift therein. Chau mette appeared to put a good face on the correction. He told the commune, on its next meeting, that his propofition must be relinquithed, for that the convention, with a voice paternal, though fevere, had stamped with nullity their

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former refolution, and that it became them, like dutiful children, to submit. Hebert, Momora, and Mazuel, were foon after accuted as traitors, imprifoned, tried, and executed; but Chaumette furvived a fhort time longer, as his enemies thought it fafer to wear away by degrees the remaining popular partiality for him, before he thould be truck at. He was taken up, however, on the 26th of March, 1794, under a charge of confpiring, with the foregoing men, against the government, and guillotined on the 13th of April following, without the fmalleft effort, on the part of Robespierre,

to fave him.

He faid, at the place of execution, that the revolution had inflamed his imagination, and at times intoxicated his brain, from the too free gratification of his vengeance for the perfonal injuries he had received. He faid, alfo, that three inftances had come to light of his ariftocratic and inveterate enemies attempting his life; and that a defire of reprifal, in which he conceived the fafety of the commonwealth in a measure involved, made him feek all occafions for arrogating power, but that he never cherifhed an idea of poffeffing any permanent authority, not even of a fecondary or fubordinate nature.

THE DUKE DE BOURBON

Is defcended from the most ancient family of Europe, and one which was alfo reckoned the most illuftrious during an age when birth, and not virtue, conferred a claim to immortality. Being of the branch of Bourbon-Condé, and fon of Prince Louis Jofeph de Bourbon, and Charlotte Godefride Elizabeth de Rohan-Soubése, he is confequently nearly related, not only to the late king of France, but also to the kings of Spain, and the two Sicilies, and many of the princes of the empire.

The hiftory of this nobleman carries a moral along with it, and ought to teach humility to the aristocracy of Europe. To thofe who are zealots for the rights of humanity, his misfortunes, however, will fcarce afford even a tranfitory pang, when it is recollected, that on his immenfe eftates, the life of a partridge was in equal eftimation with the life of a peafant, and the game laws enforced far more ftrictly than the criminal code!

The duke lately refided in Goldenfquare, where he acted as an agent for his "coufins" the emigrant princes; he is not, indeed, acknowledged at the

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court of St. James's, as their ambaffador, but he has folicited in their name, although hitherto but with little effect. The laft fum delivered him, on behalf of the once fplendid houfe of Bourbon, is faid to have amounted to lefs than one half year of his own income, before the revolution!

While the fon acts occafionally in a diplomatic capacity here, the father,

PRINCE LOUIS JOSEPH DE BOURBON-
CONDE,

A warrior grown grey under arms, is
at the head of a body of emigrants on the
borders of Swifferland. Thefe have at
different times been fubfidized by the
coalefced courts, and are faid to be at
this moment in the pay of England. Of
all the enigmas of the prefent day, the
greateft, perhaps, is, the refufal to allow
thefe men to fight their own battles!
The French noblefe have repeatedly foli
cited to enter their native country, fword
in hand, and have been threatened with
chaftisement for perfevering in this wish!

THE SOI-DISANT LOUIS XVIII (For fo he must be ftyled, until he is acknowledged by fome one court of Europe, according to diplomatic etiquette), was known, before the revolution, by the name and titles of Louis Stanislaus Xavier, Comte de Provence, and Monfieur.

He is now in his 42d year, and his confort, a princefs of Sardinia, in her 43d.

During the late reign, he participated but little in either the intrigues or the debaucheries of the court. His brother, Louis XVI,attached himself to the ftudy of charts, while he addicted himself to books their conforts were fond of far different amufements!

It must not be omitted, that, at an early period of his life, he difcovered a tafte for poetry; and as he has actually written fome very pretty verses, he may at leaft claim to be admitted into the catalogue of "royal and noble authors."

Previoufly to the flight to Varennes, both the king and his brother were greatly refpected, and the bulk of the people relied implicitly on their reiterated oaths and proteftations to remain in France, fome of which were preferred voluntarily, and, indeed, unexpectedly. Luckily for Monfieur (if it really may be called fo) while Louis took the road for Montmedy, he purfued that which led towards Mons, and efcaped. Like our Charles II, after the

battle of Worcester, he has fince led a
wandering life, fubfifted on the preca-
rious bounty of his friends, and been
fo reduced, as almoft to excite the humi-
liating pity of his enemies. From Ve-
rona he was lately difmiffed, with an un-
courteous precipitancy, by the fenate of
Venice, a body that, by means of its
policy, has been able to maintain its
power undiminished amidit the innova-
tions of ages. His brother,
CHARLES PHILIP COMTE D'ARTOIS,
Once the moft gay, gaudy, fluttering,
accomplished, luxurious, and expenfive
prince in Europe, has at length found
an afylum in the ancient palace of the
Scottish kings: and that nation now re-
pays to the Bourbons, at Holyrood-house,
what the Stuarts were indebted to them,
in point of hofpitality, at St. Germain's.
His reception, however, owing perhaps
to the latitude of the place, is very colds
and the ill furnished and ill lighted apart-
ments at Edinburgh must recal, from the
very contraft, the fuperbly decorated halls
of Versailles.

The Count d'Artois, or Monfieur as he now ftyles himself, was beloved by the for to his extravagance they attributed, courtiers, but execrated by the people, (perhaps unjustly) great part of their mifery. Certain it is, that Calonne was reproached with having fupplied both him and the queen with immenfe fums of money; and fome of the immenfe deficit

has been referred to that fource !

Were it not for our attachment to the

laws, it might be painful to recollect that, in our own time, a king* has been imand that, at this very day, a prince of mured within one of our English gaols, the most powerful houfe in Europe is actually confined fix days of the week within the purlieus of a Scotch abbey.

The count's establishment is far from fitted up under the direction of the babeing fplendid. The apartments were rons of the Exchequer, who, it must be acknowledged, have difplayed no inclination to encourage a wasteful expendi ture-the candles, which are faid to be tallow, are administered fo fparingly, as to produce darkness vifible" rather than light; and it is well known that his officers, at a fide table. royal highness dines, daily, with his own This is, no doubt, a mortifying fituation to a branch of a family proverbially proud; but a more expenfive eftablishment would be neceffarily deemed an injustice towards

* Theodorer

the

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