them. Notwithstanding this, however, porcelain buttons were not known as a common and extensive article of manufacture until my invention of what is commonly known as the "dry process," was introduced.

This invention originated with me in the year 1832, and the first button that was ever made by that process was made by me in 1837.

No buttons were made by the same process until two years after that time. In the meantime, I had arrived in this country, and had disclosed the process in 1838, and in 1840 applied for a patent.

From that year dates a most extensive branch of industry in England, and afterwards in France; nor is it in the slightest degree interfered with by the supposed manufacture in the old way (for a very old way it really is) referred to in the article before mentioned.

I am thus particular in stating my own claims in this matter, because I have long since ceased to enjoy any emolument for the invention; and all that is left me is the honor of having been useful in a small matter. It is, however, a source of regret that the patent law of this (and I greatly fear of most other countries too) should afford so little protection to the poor inventor, as to deserve the same severe epithet of being "a fraud, a delusion, and a snare," as was applied by an Irish patriot to an English law. Originally my invention was intended to apply to cups, saucers, knobs, and other articles, in short, to all that can, and to many which cannot be made by the ordinary method used in the Potteries.

Bricks and tiles, tessera and jambs for fire places, keys for pianafortes, and, in short, all kinds of flat articles have been, and still continue to be, made in almost endless variety; and many floors have been laid in the houses and chappels of the nobles of England, and on the continent of Europe, and some of churches here as well as Mosaic tables of the most gorgeous patterns. But no one, except myself has yet been able to make articles otherwise than those with flat and parallel surface. After the indisputable evidence which was given on a trial for an infringement of my patent in United States Circuit Court, New York, April 21st, 1847, and the subsequent granting of a new trial on grounds entirely distinct from any question of validity of the patent, and without any reason whatever being assigned on any point of law or precedent, I felt that there was very little security under our present patent laws; and for the present, at least, have given up the prosecution of an undertaking of the greatest importance to this country, possessing, as it does, the greatest varieties of materials for the plastic art of any in the world. The rudeness of the machinery now used in the Potteries of England and other parts of Europe, was scarcely exceeded by that of any other country a thousand years ago.

Scarcely any machinery whatever has been successfully introduced. The plate machine of Ridgeway has entirely failed; and that is the model on which the buttons are said to have been made. But, like too many other dreamed-of-inventions, that are cried up as being made, when they are only going to be tried to be made, the inventor forgot the good old Scriptural adage "let not he who putteth on his armor boast as he who taketh it off," for not only cannot the buttons be made so cheap, by this method, but they cannot be made perfect at all, at least not one in ten, for they crack in firing, and the plan is abandoned.

The number which one woman can make of these buttons is almost incredible. Twenty-five buttons are often made in one minute, but the usual rate is from 12 to 18 per minute, the week round. The price paid for making is one cent per gross, at which rate the earnings of one woman vary from $3 to $44 per week. Twenty thousand gross of buttons have been made per week; but at present none are made in the Potteries of Staffordshire, and only a few thousand gross, of an inferior character, at Worcester. The whole of the machinery was invented by my brother, Mr. Richard Prosser; and that portion of it for making floor tiles and tessera is still in full operation. The Queen is a great patron of this manufacture, and has ordered more than ten thousand dollars worth for Osborne House alone.

I am, most respectfully,

MANUFACTURE OF GLASS BY MACHINERY.

THOMAS PROSSER.

We witnessed, says the Sandwich Observer, at the factory of the Boston and Sandwich Glass Company, the making of glass bowls by machinery, and of a magnitude that far exceeds in size and weight any heretofore made in this or any other country. The machine, we understand, weighs between two and three tons, and is worked with

the accuracy of a steam engine. The glowing metal was taken from the furnace at its greatest fusion by the workmen, placed in the machine by hand, set in motion, and in a few minutes a perfect bowl, of rich design, was turned out, spreading a most intense heat around, which, none but those accustomed to the business could stand. It was an interesting sight to notice the arrangement made in working the machine-there is no confusion-each workman is in his allotted place--and it surprises us to see an article of its weight and size handled with so much judgment and skill, that in one minute it was taken from the press by the head workmen, and carried to a side furnace to receive the fire polish, and formed into shape; as soon as that was secured, it was taken to an annealing kiln, and placed therein to cool-which requires eight or ten days. The bowl, we learn, weighs about sixty pounds, stands twenty-one inches high and twenty-two inches in diameter at the top. It is called the Union Bowl, and the moderate price it is held at will enable hotel keepers and others to possess a beautiful and useful center ornament for their table.

AMERICAN CASTOR OIL.

The following communication on the subject of the article known in commerce as Castor Oil, from one of the leading drug houses of Boston, was originally published in the Daily Advertiser of that city. It contains so much valuable information in relation to the manufacture and comparative quality of the American and East India Oils, that we transfer it entire to the pages of the Merchants' Magazine.

MESSRS EDITORS:-A paragraph has been going the rounds of the newspaper press the last few weeks; and as it manifestly is calculated to injure a respectable class of manufacturers at the West, and as it involves facts which we think cannot be supported for a moment, we would respectfully request a small space in your paper, in order to stay if possible the progress of a statement apparently unfounded, until the manufacturers shall have had an opportunity to defend themselves, and to set the public right by the presentation of such statistics as shall at once be quite interesting to the general reader, and at the same time expose the fallacy of the position assumed by the writer of the remarks in the Courier, on which the paragraph at the head of this communication was based.

We have taken it for granted that our alarmist intends to charge this adulteration upon the Manufacturers of Castor Oil. But if he evades by saying he designated no class of persons in particular, then he implicates the highly respectable commission houses in Boston, New York, &c., who usually receive the consignments of the article to sell at wholesale, and the Druggists and Apothecaries who dispense it in smaller quantities to the retailers end consumers. And since it would be equally easy and profitable for the Druggists and Apothecaries to adulterate East India Castor Oil, if they were disposed to adulterate either, we infer the remarks were intended only to bear upon the Manufacturers or their agents who receive it on sale in our commercial cities. They will doubtless defend themselves.

The writer has been in the wholesale and retail drug business more than a quarter of a century, and without arrogance may be presumed to know something in regard to this matter. And so far as his experience and observation enable him to judge, the American Castor Oil is still "the best article of the kind in market," is still "in demand,” not only for "foreign shipment," but for home consumption; and so far from having become “almost unsaleable,” it never was more saleable,—indeed but very inconsiderable quantities are ever left in market when the new crops arrive from year to year.

As to the admixture of Lard Oil, we will not pretend to deny its possibility, or even its probability, to a certain limited extent; we have heard from creditable sources that such adulterations had been made, and we know there are never wanting knaves, who will turn a penny by any act of baseness that will best serve their purpose. But we must say in all our business career, it has never happened to our lot to have this species of adulteration brought under our observation. And its detection is so practicable to every tyro in chemistry or pharmacy, its success would be very doubtful.

Pereira, in his "Elements of Materia Medica and Therapeuticf," 2d Lond. edit., vol. 2, page 1124, remarks, (and his opinion will have weight with every physician and pharmaceutist) "American or United States Castor Oil is for the most part imported from New York. All the samples which I have examined, have been of very fine quality, and, in my opinion had a less unpleasant flavor than the East Indian variety. Our druggists object to it on the ground of its deposing a white substance (magartine) in

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cold weather-a circumstance which has led some persons to imagine it had been mixed with Olive Oil." And, Mr: Editor, it is this combination of the Margartic acid and Glycerine, or Ricino-stearine, which has constituted the greatest objection to American Castor Oil ever since its first extensive manufacture at Newburn, N. C., some twenty-five or thirty years ago. It is one of the original elements of Castor Oil, and its external manifestation is owing to the manner of manufacturing the oil from the beans, or to the rigidity of the season when it is made. In cold weather it appears in a white cloudiness, which gradually becomes more dense and settles, unless the oil is kept in a warm place, when it is held in unobservable suspense. Boutron-Chalard argues that Castor Oil which has been previously heated to 212° never deposits Margarin; and Christison, in his Dispensatory, page 793, recognizes this deposite in the American Castor Oil as a proof of its being really cold drawn or expressed, and infers that the freedom from such deposite in the East Indian Oil, is a proof of its being hot pressed. Cold pressed Oil has always been considered the best.

That "large importations of Castor Oil from the East Indies has been recently made, and more is on the way," is very true; and the writer has been personally interested in several of these importations to a greater or less extent, and knows that they were occasioned by no such motive as the author of the paragraph specifies. The truth is, the crop of American Castor Oil during the last few years, has been insufficient to supply the demand for foreign orders and home consumption, and the price has ruled high. Then again, early in the spring of the present year, the most extensive establishment in this country for the manufacture of Castor Oil, (Mr. Blow's of St. Louis,) was destroyed by fire, and with it several hundred barrels of Castor Oil, and some thousands of bushels of the unmanufactured seed. This calamity enhanced the price of Castor Oil very much, and occasioned the transmission of large orders to London by the steamers, for East Indian Castor Oil, of which some thousands of chests containing tin canisters were stored there. Other orders went forward overland to Calcutta, and the oil in answer to those orders has been arriving recently, and some is now passing our custom houses. And to the writer, this hue and cry about American Castor Oil appears very much as if it came from parties who are desirous of ridding themselves of large importations of E. I. Castor Oil, before the new crop of American Castor Oil, which is soon coming forward, shall have arrived in market.

The only bad American Castor Oil that we have seen for many years has been that made from the scorched and smoaked beans saved from destruction at the fire in St. Louis; this was high colored and quite unsavory, and should never have been sent to market, although free from adulteration. There are several grades of American Castor Oil, such as "No. I," and "shade;" but these depend more upon the care in manufacturing, than upon any extraneous substance introduced by way of adulteration. American Castor Oil is not always so clear and sightly as the best East Indian, but this is owing to the process of manufacture, which, while it occasions a slight milky whiteness or opacity, at the same time preserves it from that disagreeuble acridity which usually attaches to the East Indian Oil in a greater or less degree. The handsomest American Oil is not unpleasant to the taste, and is entirely effectual for the purposes to which it is applied; while the handsomest E. I. Castor Oil usually has an acrid pepperishness which is extremely irritating to the palate and fauces. In the E. I. Oil the palitability is sacrificed by the process of manufacture in the mere transparency of the article in any climate. The American Oil is made alone from the "Palma Christi" or Ricinus Communis of Linnæus, as produced in our own country; and to this circumstance it owes its great superiority over the East Indian, which is made indiscriminately from the Ricinus Communis, Ricinus Africanus, Ricinus Macrophylius, Ricinus Lencocarpus, Ricinus Lividus, and Ricinus Viridis.

The writer may be permitted to add that he has no private interests to subserve, and only wishes to advance the truth; his interests as a druggist are about equally balanced between E. I. and American Castor Oil, but his patriotism inclines him particularly to protect, if possible, by his feeble endeavors, the reputation of American products.

COPAL AND COPAL VARNISH.

W. A. B.

THE DIFFERENT SORTS OF COPAL FOUND IN THE MARKET, AND ON THE MODE OF PREPARING COPAL VARNISH FOR CERTAIN PURPOSES.*

Three sorts of copal are to be found in the market, neither of which have any other name attached, whereby to ascertain this difference, beyond the terms East and West India copal, the latter term including two kinds very different from each other.

* By R. Schindler, in the Pharmaceutical Journal, August, 1850.

As to the East India copal, also called African copal, it is softer, more colorless and more transparent than the other varieties, always having a clean surface, and emitting an agreeable odor when heated. Its form is globular, and it would be as well at once to give it the name of globular copal, as a distinctive mark. This is the copal which furnishes the best varnish. Old oil of turpentine has but little action on this copal; more recently distilled turpentine dissolves it completely, but not in a larger proportion than its own weight, or the excess of copal is precipitated. Rectified turpentine, or turpentine digested with sulphur, is able to take up double its weight of this copal without any precipitation;-the solution, however, at this strength, is somewhat turbid.

Oil of rosemary, when thick and old, only causes the copal to swell; that which has been newly rectified, or as it is usually met with in the market, provided that it has been carefully kept, dissolves the copal in any proportion, giving a clear yellowish solution, which, in the proportion of equal parts of oil and copal, remains fluid enough

for use.

This kind of copal fuses much more readily than the two others. It is less volatile, and gives out no empyreumatic oil, but only some watery acid. If the operation be performed without access of air, fire carefully regulated, and the vessels so constructed as to allow the free disengagement of the liquid substances formed, this copal is not darker after fusion than before. As soon as it ceases to froth up, the fusion is complete, and then good oil of turpentine dissolves the copal in any proportion, and forms, according to the solvent used, a beautiful and good varnish for the metals, paintings, wood exposed to the air, leather, etc., etc.

The second kind of copal, called West Indian, or American copal, is imported in pieces almost always flat, and of a size seldom exceeding three ounces in weight; it is very hard, has a rough appearance, and is without taste or odor. Its color is yellowish; it is never colorless, like the preceding. Insects are very rarely found in it. It is brought from the Antilles, Mexico, and North America.

According to Lunery it exudes, in the Antilles, from a large tree, falls into the rivulets, which run along side of the mountains, and from thence is carried away by the rivers and thrown upon their banks. According to this chemist, it owes its great hardness to its remaining a long time in the water. If we carefully examine the exterior of this copal, we shall find the outer layer, which is coarse, and not transparent, bears no impression of either sand or dirt, and rarely of leaves. Its exterior appearance gives no indication of subterranean origin.

Absolute alcohol dissolves it in so small a proportion that no advantage is derived from a spiritous varnish, although those which are thus prepared are very hard and durable. Rectified oil of turpentine dissolves, after a long digestion, a small quantity of this copal, and, when heated for some time, the solution becomes colored; with new oil of rosemary it swells, but is not dissolved.

It fuses also with much more difficulty than the globular copal, giving off much less watery acid, but a good deal of empyreumatic oil. Fused with access of air, it becomes entirely black, unless a large vessel be employed, in which the empyreumatic oil can be readily removed. It is also blackened by repeated fusions. As soon as the copal ceases to froth up, the fusion is complete. If it has not been sufficiently fused, or if an oil of turpentine, containing too much rosin, be employed, for dissolving the copal, a good deal of copal settles down from the solution. Notwithstanding most minute precautions, it is difficult to prepare a varnish with this copal, free from a brown color.

The third kind of copal is imported in convex or concave pieces, weighing about half a pound each, often containing insects and vegetable substances. Its color is aromatic, its consistence is not hard, and when warm, it readily takes the impression of the nail. It is of the color of hard copal, and, in order to distinguish it from the latter, Mr. Schindler gives it the name of insect copal.

Alcohol, oil of rosemary, and oil of turpentine, act on it in the same way as on hard copal. Its fusing point is between that of the globular and the hard copals. When in a state of fusion, it gives off less acid than the former, but much more oil (volatile as well as empyreumatic) than the latter; in other respects it resembles a hard copal. By careful treatment, a transparent varnish is obtained with it; but so soft, and so słow in drying, that it would be as well altogether to reject its use in the manufacture of varnish.

TO PREPARE A VARNISH FOR COATING METALS.

Digest one part of bruised copal in two parts of absolute alcohol; but as this varnish dries too quickly, it is preferable to take one part of the copal, one part of oil of rosemary, and two or three parts of absolute alcohol. This gives a clear varnish as limpid

as water. It should be applied hot, and when dry, it will be found very hard and

durable.

TO PREPARE A VARNISH FOR THE SCALES OF THERMOMETERS.

Mr. Schindler recommends the following:-One part of copal, one part of oil of rosemary, and three parts of oil of turpentine, recently rectified or digested with sulphur. After a moderate digestion, the varnish is ready for use. This varnish dries quickly, but is not so hard as the preceding, although it resists the action of the air and atmospheric influences.

FOR VARNISHING LEATHER.

Especially of delicate colors he recommends the following:-Six parts of oil of turpentine, saturated with caoutchouc, two parts of copal, and two parts of oil of rosemary. This varnish should be applied somewhat fluid, and always dried at a high temperature.

FOR VARNISHING FURNITURE.

The fused copal dissolved in oil of turpentine is the most economical. If the copal has not been kept a sufficient time in the state of fusion, the varnish made with it remains soft for some time after it is dry, and afterwards peels off.

MALLERD'S PATENT SIZE FOR COTTON FACTORIES.

Among the important improvements, developed by the depression of cotton manufacturing, is the discovery of Mr. William Mallerd's Size, for which he has obtained letters patent, dated July 15, 1850. Mr. Mallerd is residing in Lowell, Massachu setts, with whom we have lately had a conversation, in connection with Mr. Geo. W. Partridge, foreman of dressing in the mills of the Hamilton Company.

The component parts of the patent size we have not learned; and if we had obtained such learning, it would be doing injustice to the patentee to make it known through our columns. Potato starch is much used in making sizing for cotton warps, and many dressers consider that starch, for manufacturing purposes, superior to any other. The potato rot has most essentially influenced the quality of the starch made from the potato. The size made from the new prescription is known to be admirably adapted to remedy the detriment accruing to potato starch from the rot.

When the new size is mixed with the common, and applied to the warps, the following advantages are found to be secured:-First, it very much strengthens the size, whether made of potato starch or any other material. One gallon of patent size, which costs only seven cents per gallon, is considered equal in strength to fifteen pounds of starch. Second, the patent size prevents size from souring. Third, it strengthens the warp and makes it more elastic. Fourth, it fastens the sizing in the yarn, so as to obviate the dust which arises from weaving; and it enables the process of weaving to be carried forward with less of steam in the weave room. Fifth, it enables the dresser and weaver to do more work in a given space of time. This last advantage is evinced by comparing the statistics of weaving in the mills of the Hamilton Company, in which it is seen that, in their last semi-annual trial, five hundred thousand yards more had been turned out than usual, during the time of weaving which the improved size was used. This great increase in amount of work accomplished, may be fairly ascribed, in part, at least, to the use of the patent size.

The company above-named was the first to use the improved size. After a short trial, it purchased the right to make and use it permanently. The first six months' use shows a saving of 15 per cent on starch, besides an improvement in the aspects of the cloth produced, particularly in colored goods, which it causes to appear a shade or two darker, and prevents cracking; which last two facts are of as much importance as is the saving of starch. The Lawrence Company having used the size some six months, have by it made a saving of six thousand pounds of starch. The Suffolk Company have also purchased the art to make, and the right to use the new size. The Merrimac and Massachusetts Companies are now giving the size a trial. The New Stark Mills and the Amoskeag Company, in Manchester, New Hampshire, have also purchased rights to make the new size, and so far results have been favorable. The Bartlett Cotton Mills, of Newburyport, Massachusetts, have followed the example of other corporations. Other mills will doubtless adopt the new size, as soon as changes in the times encourage a vigorous renewal of manufacturing. A right to make and use the new size can be secured for twenty-five cents per loom. In large mills a discount from thie price may be calculated upon.

After the careful examination which we have been able to make into the merits of Mallard's Patent Size, we can but hail its discovery as of great importance to manufactures, who, as well as the discoverer, we hope, will reap pecuniary benefit from its general adoption.