198 NEW STEAM ENGINE. him. Some of the finest yachts at present afloat, as the Arrow, 80 tons'; the Miranda, 140; the Oberon, 40; and several others which I need not name, have iron keels to a consider able extent; and I doubt not the time will come when the prejudice will be done away with, and the difficulty of fastening so great a weight obviated. I do not, indeed, despair of seeing our men of war of some classes so fitted, especially as I have seen the principle recognized in the iron keelson of the Pylades, built by Sir R. Seppings,-no bad authority on this subject. With respect to "Noah's" vessel to be hauled alongside a wharf, &c. &c. I must make a remark. Let a vessel, A B C, have 5 tons of ballast at C. Mark her centre of motion D, and then place a ton at B. The power of the ton at B will be to a ton at C, as B D is to DC, nearly. Now, as the vessel, by "Noah's" supposition, will be very light, the line D C will be very short, and of course the power at B great in proportion. But this is merely such a case as that of trimming ballast to windward, the effect of which every one knows. If a ton were placed at A as well as at B, no power at all would be gained. I will, however, soon take an opportunity of trying this question with a small vessel; and you shall know the result. In conclusion, I beg to apologize to "Noah," if I have unwittingly offended him; for I will never designedly write any thing under an assumed name, to which I should hesitate to place my own. PHILO-NAUT. NEW STEAM ENGINE. Sir, I beg leave to acquaint you, that after considerable labour and long application, I have completed a steam engine, on a principle which, as far as I can ascertain, is altogether new. It is a reciprocating engine of extreme simplicity, in which the entire force of the steam is applied with equal intensity during the whole stroke; it does not, therefore, require a fly. wheel-all the expense and friction of which, together with that of the beam parallel motion, is saved. The entire engine does not weigh more than 30 lbs. per horse power, and the cost would not exceed £5 per horse; it also possesses the advantage of occupying a very limited space-very little, if at all, exceeding that occupied by the cylinder of the present engine. I am at present engaged in applying it to a carriage, which, from the result of experiments I have tried, I feel no hesitation in asserting I shall be able to perfect, at the rate of 10 or 12 miles an hour, on an ordinary turnpike road, if the frame work can bear that velocity; at all events, the strength of the frame is the only limit to the speed attainable. The model I have constructed, which of course is not in the best style of workmanship, has not cost above £50, although of 12 horse power. The peculiar principle of this engine has also enabled me to complete the design of a boat acted on by paddles of a new construction; which, it will be evident on a very slight inspection, will altogether avoid the injurious effects incidental to those at present in use. I should have no objection to treat with some person possessed of experience, and of sufficient means to bring this invention fully and fairly before the public, as soon as I shall have completed the experiments I am at present engaged in, which I calculate will be in about two months. Any person, in the mean time, wishing to communicate with me, may have my address from you, which I herewith send. As it to the perusal of your COTTON MACHINERY. most valuable and interesting publication that I am indebted for having first directed my attention to this subject, and also as it is from thence I have derived a large portion of the practical information which has enabled me to mature my plans, I think it but equitable that you should be the first to have the option of publishing a description, which I will take the liberty of forwarding, the moment I can do so with security to myself; in other words, so soon as I shall have secured my right by patent. I am, Sir, Your obedient Servant, COTTON MACHINERY. HARGRAVES AND ARKWRIGHT. Sept. 4, 1827. Mr. Editor, Happening the other day to look through the second volume of your useful Magazine, I was surprised to see a letter signed "Argus," the writer of which, in endeavouring to set right the readers of the "Mechanics' Magazine," in the belief that Arkwright was not originally the inventor of the spinning-jennies, himself falls into a similar mistake; as he states in his letter, (page 255, vol. ii.) "the inventor to be a poor illiterate cabinet-maker, named Brown," who, in the act of shaving Arkwright, suggested the basis of the invention." I must beg, however, to differ from." Argus ;" as it is much more generally believed that this valuable invention was first discovered and brought into practice by a poor weaver, of the name of Hargraves, observing his wife's long wheel for spinning wool accidentally, or in a frolic, overturned; when it occurred to him that he could improve upon the method, with less labour, by making use of more spindles. At length, by dint of application, and setting the wheel in motion while it lay upside down on the floor, and placing in a perpendicular manner his spindles, to the number of twenty, he produced the 199 machine called the spinning-jenny. It was left, however, to Arkwright to perfect what Hargraves had begun; he making the cotton pass through rollers, in a similar manner to what he had seen iron bars drawn out, in some iron works ;-a degree of smoothness being thus attained which was previously unknown. An early insertion of the above statement, in your impartial Magazine, will much oblige your old Subscriber and Constant Reader, H. H. H. Yorkshire. We embrace the opportunity afforded by the letter of our correspondent, to extract the following additional and highly interesting particulars from an able article in a recent Number of the Edinburgh Review, "On the Rise, Progress, Present State, and Prospects, of the British Cotton Manufacture." "The first improvement in the cotton manufacture was made by a person in humble life-James Hargraves, a carpenter at Blackburn, in Lancashire. This illiterate, but most ingenious and inventive person, adapted the stock-cards carding of cotton, and greatly improved used in the woollen manufacture to the them. In consequence, a workman was enabled to execute about double the work, and with greater ease, than by means of hand cards-the only instrument previously in use. Hargraves' inventions were soon succeeded by the cylindrical cards, or carding engine. The inventor of this valuable machine is unknown, but it was first used by Mr. Peel, the grandfather of the late Secretary for the Home Department. Mr. Peel's carding engine was constructed, with the assistance of Hargraves, as early as 1762. Sir Richard Arkwright added, at a subsequent period, many improvements to the carding engine; and his apparatus for taking off the cotton from the cards, and giving continuity to the fleece, is the most perfect that can well be imagined. "But the tedious and expensive method of spinning by the hand, was the grand obstacle in the way of the extension and improvement of the manufacture. Insurmountable, however, as this obstacle must, at first sight, have appeared, it was completely overcome by the unparalleled ingenuity, talent, and |