to the connecting rod C by the bolts x, y, and z, and the link PRS is what is usually applied to keep the planet-wheel in gear with the sun-wheel, whose centre is S; these two wheels being locked together by teeth, suppose that by the action of the connecting rod, the centre P is made to descend to p through a space of six inches, it is clear that the point R of the same wheel must also descend to r; and since the wheels are locked together by teeth, the circumference of the sun-wheel must also be

Sir,-In his last communication Mr. Baddeley complains, with the appearance at least of gravity, that Aquarius" continues to assert, without foundation, and without the slightest semblance of proof," charges of incorrectness and inconsistency on his part, with respect to the system of fire insurance. That these charges have been made is indeed most true, but that they have been made without foundation I take the liberty to deny, especially as I shall be able to produce pretty strong proofs to the contrary before I conclude, though I shall have occasion to resort to nothing more inaccessible than the pages of the Mechanics' Magazine, and to nothing less exceptionable than the words of Mr. Baddeley himself.

The charge of incorrectness is easily substantiated by a simple reference to one of

Mr. B.'s most recent letters,* the chief purpose of which is to rescue the Fire Brigade from the imputation of inefficiency, by asserting that the reports furnished by himself of London fires in 1830, 1831, and 1832, were so incorrect, that the very idea of depending upon them was ridiculous-so ridiculous, that, as he triumphantly observed, he "should like to know what sort of a firereport he could have drawn up for 1838," had his " sources of information" been no better than those of HIS OWN reports for the former years. "Incorrectness !" Why, in the letter referred to, Mr. B. absolutely revels with delight in the excessive incorrectness of his old statements; and incorrect

they must have been with a vengeance, since we are called upon to believe, that had they been any way accurate, the serious fires of 1832 would have been found pretty nearly to balance those of 1838, notwithstanding the disparity at present shown is no less than that between fifty-six (Report for 1832,*) and one hundred and eighty-five! (Report for 1838.†) But the whole of this affair must be too fresh in the recollection of your readers to need dwelling upon; the strangest part of it all is, the naiveté of Mr. Baddeley in complaining of an attack on his reputation for correctness, so soon after he had volunteered to sneer at his own pretensions to the possession of such an article.

The charge of "inconsistency" is not so soon made out. There is no knowing where to begin, nor how to do justice to so rich a subject within the compass of a column or two of the Magazine. On the insurance system, from the most general view of its scope and tendency down to the minutest detail, Mr. Baddeley has shown the very felicity of self-contradiction; he has been

"This fire completes the list of total losses, and such a list as has seldom before occurred.”—Mechanics' Magazine, vol. xxx. p. 312.

A strange time indeed for such a remark to become general, especially when it is remembered that the Royal Exchange was lying a complete ruin at the same time, in attestation of the high efficiency of the Brigade. But it may be imagined, perhaps, that, although this particular year may have been fertile in "total losses" and extensive damages, the preceding ones may have presented quite a different picture. No such thing. Before the setting up of the Fire Brigade, indeed, Mr. Baddeley was enabled to inform us that

"For the last three or four years, the number of fires has been gradually decreasing, and not only has the number been diminished, but the extent of the conflagrations has also been, upon an average, much less limited than formerly. During the last year there were not above half a dozen fires of any considerable magnitude."-(Report for 1832, vol. xvili. p. 267.)

Mr. Baddeley has never had the opportunity of making use of such language as this since the Brigade commenced operations; and yet Mr. Baddeley has never let slip an occasion of lauding the "success" of the

"Although the aggregate number of fires for the year just ended does not greatly exceed that of 1833, the amount of property destroyed has been much greater, from the circumstance of many of the fires occurring in the largest class of buildings, such as extensive warehouses, or manufactories, or the like."-vol. xxii. p. 349.

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consistent in nothing but his inconsistency. The subject seems naturally to lead him that way, even in irrelevant matters; thus, he commences his last letter by belabouring Aquarius for opening his previous communication with a song, in which he only followed suit to Mr. Baddeley, and dexterously hints at the supposed connexion between punsters and pickpockets, immediately after cracking a desperate pun of his own. Surely

"There's fate in this, could we but find it out !" But a truce to preliminaries, and let us come to the proof at once, in which it behoves us to be brief, our case is so crammed with evidence. To begin, let us adduce once more an instance from the very last Report, which has been before brought forward, but must somehow have escaped Mr. Baddeley's attention, as he has made no attempt to reconcile the discrepancy. The method of printing in opposite columns will best suit the circumstances of the case; the words quoted in both columns are all Mr. Baddeley's own :

"Under the protection of the present highly efficient Fire Establishment, the comparative security of lives and property is so much increased, as to become the subject of general remark."-Mechanics' Magazine, vol. xxx. p. 319.

Brigade's exertions, and of leading the unexamining to believe, as they might from the second of the above extracts, that the security of lives and property had really increased, instead of the contrary. In 1833, the first year of the Brigade, although Mr. B. commenced his report by premising that fires had been unusually numerous, and although it appeared from his statement of numbers, that the serious fires had tripled those of the preceding year, he indulged in considerable laudation of the " corps," and pronounced that their " success had been greater than could have been anticipated!" (vol. xx. p. 276.) Pretty well for a beginning!

The next year, however, affords him the widest scope for his encomiums. The Houses of Lords and Commons lay, a heap of blackened ruins, a splendid testimony to the merits of the new system. Nor was this all: fires altogether had increased, both in number and dimensions. Can we wonder, then, at having it in our power to confront such extracts as the following?—

"The London Fire Establishment continues steadily to improve (!) and its advantages begin to be better understood, and more fully appreciated, by the public at large, * ** The skilful management of Mr. Braidwood has given such effect to the force under his command, as to render far more efficient protection to lives and property than could possibly be accomplished by the more numerous independent bodies on whom this duty formerly devolved."-vol. xxii. p. 355.

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What next? Why, if the Brigade had been established in 1666, and Mr. Baddeley had had the writing of a Fire Report for that year, he would assuredly never have been able to contain his raptures. In fact, he commences his next Report with a quotation from a poet of that time (Dryden), and goes on to remark (by way of drawing attention

"In proof of this, I need only refer to the long and melancholy catalogue of accidents detailed below, premising that during the year which has just closed upon us, fires have been very numerous, many of them of fearful extent, and several attended with a melancholy loss of human life."-vol. xxiv. p. 354.

The next Report is ushered in with the usual intimation of the increase of fires, and the body of it is occupied with the details of two of first-rate importance, on account of

"This (the fire at London Bridge) was the most tremendous conflagration I ever witnessed; indeed it is said, and I believe truly, to have been the largest fire with which the metropolis has been visited since the dreadful fire at Ratcliffe in 1794, and may it be long ere we witness such another."-vol. xxvi. p. 358.

Singular, indeed, that, under these circumstances, the Brigade should, in their fourth year, have the honour of a fire more extensive than the "old firemen" could boast of for the last forty years of their existence !

And how comes it that Mr. Baddeley is always most enthusiastic in his praises, in proportion to the wide spread of calamity by

"The following fires of very serious magnitude have occurred in London within the last five years, viz.:

1834, October 16. Houses of Lords and Com

1836, August 30. 1837, December 28.

Fenning's Wharf.

Davis's Wharf. 1838, January 10. Royal Exchange." -vol. xxx. p. 42.

Estimated in this way, the services of the Brigade may well be estimated highly above those of their predecessors: but how is this mode of appreciation to be reconciled with the assertions hazarded as to the "increased" protection of property? If Mr. Baddeley had informed us that, "under the present highly deficient system, the increased destruction of lives and property had become the subject of general remark,' "all would have been well; the observation would have tallied exactly with what he had said as to the Parisian firemen ; the intent of his praises of the Brigade would have been obvious; and, above every thing, his " consistency" would have been preserved in the eyes of the world. The Brigade may well bear out his warmest panegyrics, seeing that they can not only show half a dozen serious fires for

to the merits of his beloved Brigade) that, as to London fires, "neither are their numbers smaller, nor their terrors less, than in the times in which he lived." Nor is be without foundation for his assertion, as will be seen from the first of the confronted quotations below:

"Its progress (that of the Brigade) has been such as to realise the best expectations of its founders, and has fully demonstrated its importance in a public point of view, as well as its great practical utility. The immense advantages of the united system, during its brief career, must have been strikingly apparent to every attentive observer." (!!) -vol. xxiv. p. 364.

the unchecked ravages of the flames. Of course, also, Mr. Baddeley's usual testimony is not wanting :

"Having for fourteen years attentively watched the progress of the firemen under the old state of things, and for four years the results of the united system, I have no hesitation in most positively asserting, that both the Insurance Companies and the public generally are gainers by the change."-vol. xxvi. p. 364.

fire? We have seen that he never fails to accompany every more than usually appalling detail by reiterated eulogies on his protegés. To account for this, recourse has been had to a communication of Mr. B.'s, which certainly harmonizes wonderfully with the hypothesis that he considers a good fire a good thing, to wit:

"Against which, I believe, the Parisians can set nothing beyond the Theatre Italia' in January last. "Whenever a comparison has been made, in my hearing, between the promptness, skill, and intrepidity of the London and Parisian firemen, it has always been to the advantage of the former; a glance at the foregoing elements will show the fair. ness of the conclusion.-vol. xxx. same page.

one with the sapeurs-pompiers of Paris, but can produce considerably more than two for one, when compared with the old disunited firemen of their own district!

That the Brigade system, estimated in the more usual way, as a suppressing force, has been a failure, the extracts above given are in themselves sufficient to show. Mr. Baddeley alleges that I accuse them of "culpable inefficiency;" this I deny, and dare him to the proof. There seems little need of going farther for the secret of their great want of success, when the fact is made known that the whole force consists of "something less than one hundred men," divided over an immense mass of buildings like the metropolis, eight miles in length, by two, three, and four in breadth! The idea of anything like proper

protection to either life or property being afforded by such a slender provision as this is absurd on the face of it, and the facts adduced by Mr. Baddeley in extenuation of some of their failures, confirm the view which every impartial observer must take. Thus we are told, that while the Royal Exchange was burning, a part of the force was absent at a fire at Chelsea. This is an excuse for the firemen, but none at all for those who maintain the "highest possible protection" theory. In such a place as London, two fires may often be expected to break out at once-or even more,-but to how helpless a state does such an occurrence reduce so slender a body as the brigade? Again, we are assured that all the numerous fatal cases of last year were consummated before the arrival of the firemen on the spot ; a tolerably plain proof of the frequent inability of the brigade to render that timely assistance which such cases invariably require.

These consequences, lamentable as they are, were foreseen and deprecated;—and by whom? By Mr. Baddeley ! We have seen how often he speaks of the "anticipations" formed of the brigade being "realized"; let us see what these anticipations were, premising that, previous to the formal establishment of the brigade, a considerable approach to the same economical system of retrenchment and co-operation had been essayed by some of the Insurance Companies. On this, Mr. B. published the following well-grounded remarks, every one of which, it will be perceived, is perfectly applicable to the present state of things:

"Some of the oldest Insurance Companies have formed a sort of union, or alliance, by which they

"The public will not, as P. R. states, 'be led to suspect, but, if they view the case aright, they will positively know that it is not to the Insurance Companies' interest that property should be secured against calamity by fire (at their expense) beyond a certain extent':-that is, beyond the extent of their own liability."-vol. xxvi., p. 158.

"Let the public take what share of the risk they please, but let them protect that share as well as the Insurance Companies protect theirs, and we shall hear but little complaint about the spread of fires in future."-vol. xxx., p. 159.

Surely, "the force of contradiction can no further go."-I may well stop here and give time to Mr. Baddeley to vindicate his consistency on this, the most essential feature of the whole discussion, before adducing any longer list of his points of inconsistency; certes, there is no need to pause for want of material, as I find I have not yet noticed one half the instances of glaring inconsistency I intended to call attention to when I began these remarks, and that, should I copy them all, with but a brief comment upon each, something like a whole number of the Mechanics' Magazine would

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mutually agree to aid and assist each other, thereby reducing the number of engines and firemen necessary to be kept by each. This, the co-operative system, works exceedingly well for the Insurance Companies, but is not equally advantageous to the public, seeing that the chance of prompt and effectual assistance, in case of accident, will always be in proportion to the number of men and engines that are distributed over the metropolis."-vol. xvi., p. 311.

We have seen, by the increasing number of serious and fatal fires, that the apprehensions here expressed have been verified to the very letter; yet, will it be believed, the writer of these remarks has taken every opportunity of repudiating them, and the more so, the more they have been proved by actual fact to be correct and sound! In the above passage, Mr. Baddeley distinctly recognizes the proposition for which I contend, and which seems too evident to need much demonstration,-that the interest of the public and of the Insurance Companies in fire-extinction, is not by any means the same. I have observed that "the pivot on which the discussion hinges, is simply this, "that it is not to the interest of the Insurance Companies to establish a fire-extinguishing system of the highest degree of efficiency," and by this proposition I am quite ready to stand or fall. Strange to say, upon this point Mr. Baddeley has exhibited (if possible) a greater degree of "inconsistency" than on any other. At one time he has laid down the law almost exactly as I have just stated it, while at others he has asserted directly the reverse; witness the following extracts :

"

"Every nerve has been strained to render the Fire Engine Establishment as efficient as possible." -vol. xxvi., p. 227.

"The uninsured, the insured, as well as the insurers, all equally receive the greatest possible protection"!!-vol. xxx., p. 364.

us on

be required to contain them; and I am afraid, as it is, this communication has extended to quite as great a length as can be afforded to the subject. I shall, therefore, leave Mr. Baddeley to his cogitations, and your readers to judge between this question (?) of "inconsistency," upon the evidence already brought forward; only observing, that I hold myself in readiness to produce as many more point-blank instances of self-contradiction on his part, if required, either before or after he shall have digested the specimens given on the present occasion.

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There are one or two matters in Mr. Baddeley's last letter, on which I intended to say a few words,-and a very few words they now must be. One of these was the "showiness" of the Brigade's appointments. Mr. Baddeley appears to have overlooked just one half of the strictures I made on this head. I charged the Insurance Companies with "making as great a show as possible at the lowest possible cost." This latter part it is that Mr. B. has missed. Nobody doubts that the old firemen's dresses were showy enough, and that everything was conducted with a view to excite attention in their days. The constitution of the Insurance Companies then was the same as now, and their objects (display the chief one) just the same. Under the old competitive system, however, rigid economy was not the order of the day; the "number of men and engines" was far greater than are now employed; and the result evidently was, (in conformity with Mr. Baddeley's opinion, vol. xvi., p. 311, before quoted) that "the chance of prompt and effectual assistance was much greater than it has ever been since the Fire Brigade's establishment. Mr. Baddeley has brought forward in proof of the efficiency of the latter, the fact that all the fire-offices (except one) have joined it;-a proof indeed, of its efficiency for their purposes, but none at all of its utility to that very differently-circumstanced body," the public." The Brigade is well " got up" in all that respects display, and with every regard to economy at the same time. More " stageeffect" probably is produced by the cheap "dark grey uniform" of the Brigade, with those well-imagined "properties," the chivalric morion, or helmet, and terrific tomahawk, than by all the expensive "bright-blue Brummagems" of the old firemen. In this point of view the "high efficiency" of the establishment is unquestionable.

In conclusion, I trust Mr. Baddeley will pardon my want of the qualification of a twenty years' attendance at fires, on the strength of my having advanced no fact whatever without its being backed by the testimony of a person as experienced as himself: and, if it be not considered too inquisitive, I should be glad to know whether it is on fires alone that anonymous correspondence is considered a disgrace," or whether the subject of locks is equally prohibited to a masked writer? Will Mr. "B. B." be so good as to read me this Riddle?

I remain, Sir,

RECENT AMERICAN PATENTS. [Selected from the Franklin Journal for Jan. 1839.] IMPROVED TRAP FOR RATS AND OTHER ANIMALS, Thomas Hill, Alexandria.—This trap is arranged with much ingenuity, but whether the wary animals for whose accommodation it is principally intended, will be inclined to examine its interior is a question to be decided by experience. It has several compartments, the first of which has a sliding door, which rises and falls in the manner frequently adopted in traps; within this first compartment the bait is placed upon a hook, by the moving of which the front door falls; but the same action opens a passage into a second compartment, the floor of which is a moveable platform, or drawbridge, by stepping on which the opening into this second compartment is closed, whilst the first slide is raised, and the trap reset. A conical opening of pointed wires, or a sloping fall door allows the rat to advance into a third compartment, leaving the former free for new applicants, and to this third, is attached a fourth compartment, or grand saloon, which may be removed at pleasure, with the animals which may have entered it.

FURNACE AND POTS FOR MELTING METALS, Silas Grilley, Connecticut.-The furnace may be round or square, and of a size suitable for the pots intended to be used, and must be lined with fire brick, or other material indestructible by fire, and having a grate at the bottom, the middle bar of which should have on it an elevated stand about an inch high, for the pot to rest upon.

The pots may be of any size, and for large or small operations, and are in the common form, except that they should be made with. out a projecting lip, and of the materials in common use, or of any other that will stand the fire; the improvement consists, principally, in placing on the melting pots, a top pot, or tube, open at both ends, about onefourth longer than the bottom pot-in diameter, of the size of the lower pot where they join, and a little less at top, having a shoulder with a lip at the bottom, to fit, embrace, and rest upon the top of the lower pot, and is made of the same materials as the lower pot.

The object and peculiar use of the top pot, or tube, is to enable the operator to charge both pots with metal sufficient, when fused, to fill the lower pot as it melts and descends; thus preventing the necessity of opening the furnace to introduce cold metal, and the waste of time occasioned thereby ; and while the fuel in the furnace surrounds both pots on the outside, all coal may be excluded from the inside of both.