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[Illustration]


SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN


A WEEKLY JOURNAL OF PRACTICAL INFORMATION, ART, SCIENCE, MECHANICS,
CHEMISTRY, AND MANUFACTURES.


NEW YORK, JULY 3, 1880.

Vol. XLIII.--No. 1. [NEW SERIES.]

[$3.20 per Annum [POSTAGE PREPAID.]]

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CONTENTS.

(Illustrated articles are marked with an asterisk.)

   1     Agricultural inventions              1
  40     Aspirator and compressor*           11
  38     Astronomical notes                  11
  25     Baby elephant takes a bath           7
  22     Bath, shower, portable, new*         6
  11     Boiler explosions, prevention of*    4
  38     Canal boat, improved                10
  17     Carpetings, etc., printing gold on   5
  30     Chloral hydrate, simple test for     7
  13     Chloroforming during sleep           5
  35     Corn magnets                        10
  14     Dipper, watering, improved*          5
  29     Drowned, perseverance with the       7
  15     Electric lamp, improved*             5
  25     Elephant, baby, takes a bath         7
  37     Engineering inventions              10
   6     Epidemic, strange, a                 2
  33     Exhibition, internation., Sydney*    8
  11     Explosions, boiler, prevention of*   4
  39     Fires in New York                   11
   8     Fogs, navigation in*                 3
  16     Fruit, preserving app. for*          5
   3     Gas machine, Maxim's*                1
   3     Gas making, simple process*          1
  20     Genessee Falls, utilization of       5
  34     Horology, report of judges*          8
  33     International exhibition, Sydney*    8
   1     Inventions, agricultural             1
  37     Inventions, engineering             10
  24     Inventions, mechanical               7
  12     Inventions, miscellaneous            4
  42     Inventions, new                     11
   9     Iron, effect of age on quality       3
  15     Lamp, electric, improved*            5
  23     Leadville mines and railroads*       6
  35     Magnets, corn                       10
  36     Materials, resistance of, exp. on   10
   3     Maxim's gas machine*                 1
  24     Mechanical inventions                7
  31     Natural history notes                7
   8     Navigation in fogs*                  3
   7     Oil tanks, cannonading of            3
  18     Ore separator, Edison                5
  41     Photoglyptic process, new           11
  26     Phyllirhoe Bucephala*                7
  32     Ruggles, S. P                        7
  22     Shower bath, portable, new*          6
  19     Slate washer, novel*                 5
   2     Specimen, rare, lost                 1
   5     Steamer, little, remarkable          2
  10     Steamers, large, collision between   3
  21     Stevens Institute of Technology      5
  33     Sydney Industrial Exhibition*        8
  28     Tree growth, force of*               7
  27     Trees and shrubs, care of            7
  19     Washer, slate, novel*                5
   4     Watches, Am., superiority of         2
  14     Watering dipper, improved*           5

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AGRICULTURAL INVENTIONS.

Mr. Sterling A. Millard, of Clayville, N. Y., has invented a scythe
blade that contains much less weight of metal and possesses equal or
greater strength than the ordinary scythe blades. It is made in the
usual manner from what is termed by scythe makers a "scythe rod," and
is wrought and shaped in such form that a proper thickness is left
to serve as the back of the blade. A longitudinal auxiliary rib or
supplementary back is formed on the blade, which stiffens the scythe
without requiring the same weight of metal as those of the usual
construction.

Mr. George C. Winslow, of Kalamazoo, Mich., has patented an
improvement in spring harrow teeth, which consists generally in
hinging the harrow tooth in the forward end of a rectangular frame
bolted to the harrow bar, and combining therewith a spring, which
at its back end is clamped to the harrow bar by the same bolts which
secure the rectangular frame, and which spring then curves upward and
forward, and then down through the slot or opening of the rectangular
frame, and is jointed at its extremity, near the bottom of the harrow
tooth, so that its tension serves to throw the harrow tooth forward,
but allows it to yield to obstruction.

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A RARE SPECIMEN LOST.

Captain Ingalls, of the schooner Chalcedony, has let slip an
opportunity to make a small fortune and at the same time settle the
long vexed question as to the reality of the elusive and possibly
mythical sea serpent. His story, as told in the _Argus_, of Portland