patentee a green colouring matter, which we have often thrown away; the colouring of oils by alkanet root, has been done thousands of times, and for ourselves, we had rather use the cloves and cinnamon for other purposes. We can assure the patentee, than an easy mode of depriving oil of all colour, would be an invention much more likely to please the publick than that for communicating colour thereto.

For an apparatus for Curing Smokey Chimneys; Henry Pollock, Baltimore, Maryland, March 11.

The oft told tale of cold air admitted from without, under the hearth, and passing into a space behind the metal back of the fire place, there to be heated, and thence admitted into the room, is here again repeated, without the variations. When the smoking is caused by currents blowing down, a quadrangular sheet iron cap is placed upon the top of the chimney; the top of the cap may be arched, and the smoke escape at each side, whilst two other openings are left below these, "made in the shape of the mouth piece of an organ pipe, and at these the smoke escapes when the current blows down;" or perhaps, it might be best to say, that through these it is intended that the smoke should escape, in the case of a downward current.

17.

For a Substitute for Lamp Oil, denominated Carbonated Alcohol; Samuel Casey, Lebanon, York county, Maine, March The patentee's recipe is, take one gallon of alcohol and one pint of spirits of turpentine, shake them together, and add half a pound of camphor.

On the 16th of October, 1830, Mr. Isaiah Jennings obtained a patent for a mixture of alcohol and spirits of turpentine, as a substitute for oil. An account of the patent may be found at p. 75, vol. vii. We consider the present as a manifest invasion of the rights of Mr. Jennings, notwithstanding the addition of the camphor. The late fatal accidents resulting from the use of such ingredients in lamps, will, however, probably put a final stop to the use of these mixtures, and we have no doubt that a court of law would now decide that they are not useful, within the meaning of the

statute.

We are obliged to agree with the Journal that these lamps as now used are extremely dangerous. But having used them some time, and found them so agreeable a light, and being likewise free from the disgusting smell and filth of oil and candles, we should hardly consent to part with them, until farther experiments had been tried to test fully whether they could not be brought safely into use. If the lamps were composed of metal, and managed with prudence, in the filling and use, we think they might be as secure as the ordinary gas lights.

279

to any particular part, nor indeed to the general arrangement of the whole.

For a Percussion Pistol Whip; Joshua Shaw, city of Philadelphia, March 17.

A percussion pistol is to be contained in the handle of a riding whip, the construction of it not differing materially from some of the pistols or rifles contained in canes. The thong is fastened to the end of a ferrule that is attached to the whip handle by a bayonet lock, and is to be removed before firing. The percussion cap stands immediately behind the pistol, and the charge is ignited through its centre. The pistol is cocked by drawing back a rod, which passes through the centre of the handle, and has a small button projecting at its head; and the depression of a small knob at the side, effects the discharge. The separate parts are not claimed as new, but the whole in their state of combination, with the variations of which they are susceptible.

For an improvement in the Gridiron ; Ami Clark, Berlin, Hartford county, Connecticut, March 28.

This gridiron is to be made round, square, or otherwise, and is to revolve upon its centre, like other reheretofore, for the purpose of collecting the gravy; but volving gridirons. The bars also, are to be fluted, as it is to differ from other gridirons much in the same way in which the kangaroo differs from other quadrupeds, namely, in the relative length of its hind and fore legs, in order to give to the gravy the proper disposition to descend into the receptacle prepared for it. Those cooks who have gridirons with legs of equal length, if any such there be, which we very much doubt, will, we hope, consider themselves as still at liberty to prop them on one side, in any degree which they may find convenient; and should there be in existence such a thing as a gridiron with fluted bars, a trough for the gravy, and hind legs longer than the fore, such as we remember to have seen in those days when a sop in the pan was accounted a great delicacy, it may continue to stand out of the horizontal, without obtaining a new lease.

PEQUOT TRIBE OF INDIANS.

A few weeks since we heard an address from a Mr.

Apes an indian preacher in Massachusetts soliciting
contributions for the purpose of huilding a teacher's
house at Marshpee, Barnstable Co. Mass. where a
remnant of this once powerful tribe are settled. He
stated that the laws which had hitherto made them
slaves, were repealed last winter by the Massachu-
setts Legislature, and that they now formed a body
politick. There are about 500 inhabitants, and they
have about 70 houses none of which cost more than
$100-100 of them read, and 40 or 50 write.
Bible and spelling book has been translated into their
language. They have a church consisting of about
50 members, possess eight teams, thirty cows and a few
sheep, and are about putting up a building intended
for a school house, and teacher's dwelling. Mr. Apes,
who is himself an indian, was of opinion that the
American Indians are as capable of intellectual im-

The

For a Machine for Pegging Boots and Shoes; Nathan A. Fisher, Westborough, Worcester county, Massachusetts, April 3. The apparatus here patented is intended to cut and drive the pegs into a shoe one at a time, the pegs being made from a strip of wood of the proper length and thickness, and sharpened at its lower edge. A plate of metal, of the form of the sole, is to be fixed thereon, and this plate is to have notches in its edge like saw teeth, to serve as guides for the pegging awl. The instrument with which the holes are to be made, and the pegs driven, consists, in part, of a hollow tube, like a piece of gun barrel, five or six inches long, into which is fitted a punch, or piston, borne up by a spiral spring,provement as the whites; and alleged the disadvanand having on its lower end an awl, and a peg driver, at such distance from each other as the pegs in the shoe are to be placed. Although some pains have been taken to describe the machine, we should be unable to construct one from the description given, even with the aid of the drawing. Perhaps, were we to examine the model, the operation might be made plain. The whole appears to be considered as new, no claim being made

tages of their condition, their continued ill treatment, and the laws and prejudices of the whites towards them, as the cause of their unequal improvement and their present degraded habits and manners. Is it not incumbent upon philanthropists to devise some method by which the intellectual and moral character of the American Indians may be elevated?

280

MANUAL ALPHABET.

In laying before our readers a representation of the manual alphabet, respectively in use in Europe and on this continent-which we think may be of practical use to some, and not without interest to many in this country-it seems desirable to explain what they are, to state the purposes to which they are applicable, and to give an account of their origin, so far as it can be ascertained. For the means of doing this, we are considerably indebted to the memoir of the Abbe de l' Epee, in the 'Biographical Contemporains,' and to an article on the subject in a recent number of the 'Magasin Pittoresque.'

The pretensions of the manual alphabet have been much misunderstood and frequently overstated. If we had not met with grave and eloquent essays, which give to dactylology, (a name derived from the Greek, meaning finger-talking,) the power of conducting the dumb to the gradual attainment of speech, we should think it scarcely requisite to state that it is merely a substitute for, or rather, a mode of writing: with no other advantage over the use of pen, ink, and paper, that we are aware of, than this-that the aparatus is always at hand, always ready for use. By the means of the manual alphabet all the words and phrases of conversation can be expressed. To learn it, requires less than half an hour, and the practice of a few days makes the use of it easy and expeditious. With the engravings before him, no person can find difficulty. In the one-hand alphabet, the letters J and Z are figured in the air; J with the little finger, and Z with the index. In the other the letter His formed by dashing the palm of the right hand across that of the left. The other characters, do not appear to need explanation. It is very unnecessary to mark the points otherwise than by a proper pause in the manual action. But it is requisite that the words should be separated, either by a very slight pause, by a horizontal motion of the hand from left to right, or by a sort of fillip with the finger and thumb of the right hand.

all, can, in this manner, converse with great facility by night.

Although the two-handed alphabet is much the best known in England, our information concerning the other is far more distinct. The latter certainly came from Spain, where also the art of instructing the deaf and dumb seems to have originated. The subjects are, indeed, so much connected, that it would be useless to attempt to keep the consideration of them separate. It is a vulgar mistake to assign a French origin to those useful arts. The Abbe de l' Epee could well afford to spare the honour of the original discovery, if the assertion of an eloquent writer be true, that 'He is not the first discoverer of any art who first says the thing; but he who says it so long, and so loud, and so clearly that he compels mankind to hear him.' Of the manual alphabets the Abbe certainly was not the inventor: and the impression that he was such may perhaps have arisen from the circumstance that his tomb-stone, in the cemetry of Pere la Chaise, at Paris, bears the figure of an open hand.

If it were not also ascertained that the art of instructing the deaf and dumb originated in Spain, our knowledge that manual alphabets were first known in that country might have led to the supposition that they were originally designed for the purposes of secret communication. But our better information allows us to assign to the invention a benevolent and useful object: as it is known that this mode of communication entered into the system by which the dumb were taught to speak.

Father Ponce, a Benedictine monk of the monastery of Ona in Spain, who died in 1584, appears to hat been the first who exercised the art of instructing this unfortunate class of beings; but we are unacquainted with his method. Don Juan Paolo Bonnet published in 1620, a book in which he developed the principles by which he had been guided in the education of the constable of Castille, who had become deaf at four years of age, but who, under Bonnet's instruction, learned to speak his native language with much distinctness. Bonnet was emulated-it is not clear we should say imitated-by Digby, Wallis, and Burnett, in England; Ramirez of Cortono; Petro de Castro of Mantua; Conrad Amman, a Swiss physician practising in Holland; Van Helmont, and many others.

It appears strange that, notwithstanding this, the possibility of instructing the deaf and dumb seems to have been so little suspected in France, that Don Antonio Pareires, who settled in Paris about the year 1735, was encouraged by the general ignorance to claim the honour of the discovery for himself. He made a great mystery of the means he employed; but his claim was allowed by the Academy of Sciences. Some years after another professor of the art, one Ernaud, set up a rival claim, published a book, and solicited and obtained from the Academy the same honour which had been granted to Pareires. It seeins that under all the systems of instruction previous to that of De l'Epee the pupils were considered to have attained perfection when they had been brought to pronounce with more or less facility, and often with much pain and difficulty, a certain number of phrases; and in obtaining this result, the finger-alphabet was much employed by the teachers of the Spanish school.

On comparing the two alphabets, we find that the object of both is to represent, as nearly as possible, the usual forms of the letters-the double-handed alphabet imitating the capitals, the other the small letters. The single exhibits an anxiety not to require the help of the left hand; and the other is unwilling to dispense with its assistance. The single tortures the fingers in order to screw them into some fancied resemblance to the written character; and we see that, after a lame attempt to form X with one hand, it admits another formed with two, as a variety. The other often chooses to do with two hands what one would do better; so to match with the X in the single alphabet, there is Q in this. A very good letter is formed with one hand, but a variety is introduced as if to show that it could be done with two. C and J remain the only letters which two hands could not be made to represent; and the former is the same in both alphabets. The highly anomalous and awkward variety of Z seems to have been devised for no other reason than to obtain a resemblance to the written form. We are disposed to consider that, taking either one or both hands throughout, forms much more easy might be devised if the object of resemblance were altogether relinquished. But taking them as they stand, the The one-handed alphabet seems to be particularly characters made with two hands are much more dis- distinguished as the manual alphabet of the Spaniards. tinct, and more easy to form and decipher than the It is said to have been introduced into France by Paother. There is also this advantage in the two-handed reires; and the Abbe de l'Epee is stated to have boralphabet, that it presents the only conceivable mode of rowed it from him, having only before known the twocommunicating with the deaf in the dark; for the cha-handed alphabet. But another account, which, as the racters being formed by one hand upon the other, it is only necessary with the right hand to form the letters upon the left of the person addressed. Mr. Watson, Principal of the Kent Road Asylum, England, says, that the pupils in that institution, who have sufficient knowledge of language to use the manual alphabet at

most authentick, we shall give, declares that the Abbe obtained a knowledge of the alphabet from a Spanish book.

On one of the days which the Abbe was in the habit of employing in the instruction of his pupils, a stranger came and offered to his acceptance a Spanish book,

C c

NEW YORK INSTITUTION FOR THE INSTRUCTION OF THE DEAF AND DUMB. This charitable institution was incorporated in April 1817. It was projected the year before, in consequence,' says Dr. Akerly, 'of a letter written by a dumb person in Bordeaux, offering to come to this country to establish a school.' Two other institutions of the kind had been established previously in this country, the American Asylum at Hartford in 1815, and the Pennsylvania Institution incorporated in 1821. But these were deemed inadequate to the wants of the country in this respect, it having been ascertained that a very large number of deaf mutes existed in this state alone, without competent instruction. Under the above mentioned act, a school was opened in 1818, which, in consequence of employing teachers inadequate to the task they undertook, languished for years in a very unpromising condition. An asylum fund had been created however, by the State Legislature, and in 1829 the present building was erected at the expense of about $31,000, defrayed by the State and private donations. A radical reformation in the government and methods of instruction, in the institution, took place in 1830. Mr. Vaysse was obtained from the institution of Paris to ac as instructer; and Mr. Peet, previously an instructer for nine years in the Asylum at Hartford, accepted the situation of principal, which he continues to fill. They brought with them the methods and the signs in use at Paris and at Hartford. 'As a natural consequence,' observes Mr. Barnard, 'the institution assumed a character which it had never before possessed, and in nediately won for it anew the confidence, which had efore been partially withdrawn.'

diately adjacent, is the property of the institution; it having been granted by the City Corporation. The institution holds a lease of nine acres of land immediately adjoining, also from the Corporation. The main building is constructed of brick and stuccoed in imitation of marble. In the dimensions of its ground plan it is 110 feet by 60. In elevation it embraces five stories, including the basement, and has an observatory upon the roof. Its rooms are spacious, and symmetrically and conveniently arranged; and always with a view to preserve as distinct and independent of each other as possible, the male and female departments. A dining room 60 feet by 30 is situated in the basement. Immediately over the dining room is the Chapel, divided from a school room of equal dimensions with itself, by the main passage through the building. The upper rooms are occupied as dormitories. There is a laboratory in the basement, and a cabinet, library and bathing room on the main floor.

This institution is situated on an eminence distant three and a half miles north of the City Hall, a few yards west from the Harlem Rail Way. The ground occupied by the building, and about one acre imme

In one end of the building is a sitting room for the use of all in common, sitting rooms for the teachers, and a separate room for the male pupils; at the other end the principal and his family are accommodated with apartments, and on the second floor is a distinct sitting room for the female pupils.

6

The internal organization of the establishment, says one of the Reports, may be considered as resolving itself into three principal divisions; to wit, education, government and domestick economy.' These are all under the control of the principal, who is accountable to the board of Directors.

Under domestick economy is embraced whatever relates to the physical wants of the pupils. These are amply supplied, and all suitable provision is made to promote the comfort and happiness of the pupils male and female.

The government is for the most part parental and In the methods of instruction, generally, we believe preventive; that of the females is vested in a matron. the New-York Institution follows those pointed out by Education is physical, mechanical, intellectual, mor- the Abbe Sicard. The system of methodical signs al and religious. In their physical education those however which were early in use in this institution have exercises are encouraged which tend to give elasticity been gradually abandoned. Methodical signs, are the and vigour to the muscular system, to procure a proper representatives of a group of colloquial signs defining development of its powers, and which have the most or illustrating some word, and are abbreviated from this salutary effect in the general formation of the animal group; they are sometimes called signs of reduction. man. In an institution for the deaf and dumb, the This institution found them less simple, and less adaptmechanical education of the pupils is of very high ed to the purposes of rapid execution, than even alphaimportance. Necessitated, as most of them must be, betick dactylology. The means, on which the principal to depend upon the labour of their hands for subsist-reliance is now placed, are the language of action, so ence, it would but half discharge its duty towards far as it is in familiar use, writing, symbolick grammar,* them, should it suffer them to leave it without some design, and alphabetick dactylology or the manual ⚫ species of knowledge, which could be turned in this alphabet. In the manual alphabet, but one hand is way, to immediate account. In the New York Insti-employed. The institution has been for some time tution a choice is offered between five occupations, viz.: cabinet making, tailoring, shoemaking, gardening and book-binding.*

The male pupils are engaged in some one of these occupations, about four and a half hours daily, under the superintendence of skilful workmen. The building appropriated to the purpose is situated a few yards east of the main edifice. The female pupils, in the mean time, are employed, under the direction of a seamstress, in sewing, knitting, &c. or under that of the matron, in light household affairs, with the proper management of which, it is essential that they as well as all other more fortunate young ladies should become acquainted.

The intellectual cultivation of the deaf and dumb, through the medium of written language, is by far the most difficult task that falls within the plan of the institution. The method of instruction consists in teaching written language by means of signs. Of course it becomes the province of these signs to express the meaning of words, to explain the construction of sentences, and generally to describe those circumstances and events usually imbodied in written language. Isolated as the unfortunate deaf mute is at first from the world of letters, incapable of receiving knowledge through one great ordinary source, the ear, and deprived of the means of communicating with his fellow beings, by those symbols universally intelligible among them, conventional, spoken language, how difficult seems the task of enlightening that mind, literally pent up in a prison house of clay, and of bringing it even near upon a level with those whom God has blessed with the ordinary resources of knowledge! But that benevolence whose aim is ever to equalize the privileges and the happiness of the whole human family with its gladdening light, has penetrated the gloom that hung around the desolate life of the deaf and dumb, and opened up to his glad eyes the avenues of knowledge. It has set him down in a path which he may follow to wisdom, and explained to him the glories of immortality and the ways that lead to its inheritance.

*Lithography has likewise been proposed, and we think the teaching of the art might be wisely adopted by the Institution. The art is by no means difficult; and such deaf mutes as have a genius for drawing, by reason of their being able to give a more undivided attention to study than those who have listening ears and talking tongues, we think they might easily perfect themselves in this useful and elegant art, which would soon furnish them with lucrative employment.

contemplating the introduction of articulation and the labial alphabet. The experiment is unquestionably practicable; and if we are rightly informed a class has been already established in which the principal is testing its practicability. He may derive encouragement from the fact, that in nearly all the European institutions, articulation and the labial alphabet are now taught; and it is stated that religious exercises are there no longer conducted by signs; but publick prayers are daily articulated in the presence of the pupils.

A course of lectures has been established in this institution within a year or two past, which has been attended with gratifying success. The lectures are given three evenings in a week, and the lecture room. is sought with avidity by the pupils, who seem to ap preciate the benefits of this enlargement of their sphere of knowledge. The departments of investigation embrace the following subjects: 1. Those branches of science which treat of nature, and of which the object is to discover the properties and relations of all bodies. 2. Description of the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms. 3. Rise, progress and present condition of the arts, commerce and agriculture. 4. Geography, physical and political. 5. History, ancient and modern, sacred and profane. 6. The science of government. The lectures are conveyed by signs, and illustrated by means of a black board or Welch slate, and when necessary, by philosophical apparatus. Each lecture is reduced to writing in order that the subject matter may be referred to, and studied by the pupils

at their future convenience.

The moral and religious education of the pupils, constitutes a distinct department. 'No opportunity is suffered to escape, of impressing upon the mind of the pupil his duty to his Maker, and to his fellow men:

*The introduction of grammatical symbols into the plan of instruction in this institution, is highly spoken of as a very important auxiliary in the instruction of language. The N. Y. Commercial Advertiser in reference to it, thus observes ;-" The characters of which it consists denote not merely the different parts of speech; but they likewise undergo systematick modifications corresponding to the inflections of language, and bearing a strong analogy in idea to the modifications of meaning attendant upon those inflections. They exhibit thus nouns and pronouns in their several cases, adjectives in the different degrees of comparison, and the verb in all its varieties of form, whether as transitive or intransitive, active or passive, past, present, or future, affirmative, conditional, hypothetical, or imperative, or in the infinitive or participial forms. This system is very readily comprehended by the pupils. It is in fact ideographick, and the simplicity of its fundamental principles renders it very easily explicable to any person who will devote a few moments to its examination.