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The Flight of Birds
Mr. F. W. Brearey rea'i the other
day before the London Aeronautical
Society a papei on the action of the
pectoral muscle in the flight of a bir<i.
Experimenters in artificial flight, he
said, should reduce their theories to a
demonstrable form. It had often been
stated, for instance, that the power
exerted by a bird in its flight had been
greatly exaggerated, but no one had
hitherto proved his assertion. It was
capable, however, of satisfactory proof
by demonstrating artificially the ac
tion of the pectoral muscle, by the aid
of which weight became an accessory
to power. When the bird committed
itself to the air the upward pressure
in the wings stretched the elastic liga
ment, which formed part of the mus
cle, to such an extent as to all >w the
bird’s gliding upon the air without
any exertion. The weight of tne bird
was the measure of this elasticity. It
was said by some that at least the bird
must possets the power by the down
ward stroke of the wing to raioe its
own weight. But Mr. Brearey said
that this was not an absolute necessity,
because the reaction of this elastic liga-
msnt aided the force of the down
stroke.
He proceeded to verify his assertion
by the action of a model, with wings of
four fe >t spread, under which he had
attached an elastic cord passing under
the body of the model. Upon committal
to the aii this just allowed of the wings
being expanded, so that the model
would glide downward. He then de
tached the cord and wound up his
power, calling attention to the fact
that he had wound the india-rubber
strands thirty-two times. He showed,
however, that although this was suffi
cient to create a vigorous flapping of
the wing when held in the hand, yet
when committed to the air it had not
the power to give one downward
stroke, and therefore it could only
glide as before. Holding it again
with the cord attached and the power
wound up the same number of times,
he showed that it was unable to flap
the wing, because the two forces were
exactly held in equilibrium. There
was a thir 1 factor wanted before it con Id
fly —and that was weight. The model
being liberated, flight was well sus
tained, and upon being set free sev
eral times without being wound up
any further, It appeared able to fly
with a very weak power. The same
thing was observable with another
model, compesed entirely of a loose
surface thrown into a wave action—
his own invention. Mr. Brearey re
marked that this economy in flight
can only be obtained by something of
the nature of wing action, and must
be wholly wanting in any apparatus
actuated by the screw.
Rabbits in New Zealand.
Rabbits are playing hob with New
Z-aland. They begin breeding at the
age of 3 months, and produce twelve
large families a year. This prolific in
crease has overrun the country with
the pests introduced by patriotic
Englishmen and Scotchmen, and mil
lions of dollars’ worth of property bre
being destroyed annually. Crops ave
feasted upon, streams are obstructed,
and in some places the devastation has
been so great that farmers have been
driven from their farms. From 50,-
000,000 to 60,000,000 of the frisky inno
cents are killed every year, but, with
their reproductive capacity, the living
rabbits do not mind a little thing like
that, which only amounts to a decima
tion. The ferret has been Introduced
as an antido'e, but that unreasoning
bit of condensed agility has no less a
nose for chicken than for rabbit, and
utterly refuses to make distinctions in
behalf of the farmer. And so bunny
goes on multiplying, with a fair pros
pect ahead that the short-tailed inva
ders will have the island entirely at
their own disposal before an act of
Parliament is discharged upon them.
A few radish seeds should be planted
every week from the time the frost is
out of the ground till the commence
ment of the fall. Spanish radishes
for winter use can be planted as late as
the first of September. Radishes are
among the most valuable of our garden
vegetables, but to be truly excellent
they must be quickly grown and be
eaten while they are tender.
A tablespoon ful of saltpetre dissolved
in an ordinary bucketful of water and
sprinkled on cabbage will destroy the
worms without injuring the plants.
Fob Felon.—'Take equal parts of
gum oamphor, gum opium, castile
soap and brown sugar; wet to a ftaste
with spirits of turpentine. Prepare it,
and apply a thick plaator of it.
Longfellow's Queer Visitors.
During the Centennial year we were
sitting together, one beautiful after
noon, on his piazza smoking and talk
ing. While we were in the midst of
our conversation I ooserved two men
and two women owning toward us
across the lawn. They <vereobviously
New-Eagland country folks retain
iug from the Centennial Exhibition.
The men had the slow, deliberate,
rustic walk, and were dressed in ill -
fitting black broadcl >th, the very look
of which made one perspiro. Tne
women, who were leading the way,
had an appearance of pluck and enter
prise, as if they were determined to
cinquer the modest diffi lence of their
companions. Mr. Longfellow was
sitting with his back to the street, and
did not observe them until they were
withlu a yard of the piazz i. He
looked a little surprised, but arose and
saluted the intruders with his wonted
courtesy.
"Be you the poet Longfellow?’
asked one of the women, in a voice
that was incredibly unmelodious.
"Yea, I am Mr. Longfellow,” he
answered.
There was an awkward pause, dur
ing which the visitors stared at the
poet with unabashed glances as if he
had been a Centennial relic on exhibi
tion.
"Now ho# old a man might you
be?” queried the other female ab
ruptly.
"I am sixty-nine years old, madam.”
" ’Pears to me you look consid’ably
older,” said one of the men, looking
up sideways to Mr. Longfellow’s face
with a critical air.
"My looks may belie me. I am no
older.”
I could not but wonder at the ex
treme urbanity with which he an
swered these blunt questions, showing
no annoyance in his face and no resent
ment. And when, Anally, at their re
quest, he conducted the party through
his house, he submitted with the same
gentle courtesy to a cross-examination
regarding his family and personal af
fairs which would have tried the
patience of the archangel Gabriel.
When at the end of half an hour he
returned, apologizing for his absence,
I made a remark which was, perhaps,
a little disrespectful to his late visitors.
"They meant no disrespect to me by
their questions,” he answered, with
that beautiful gentleness which was so
characteristic of his manner. It is
perfectly proper, where they came
from, to interest one’s self in the per
sonal affairs of everybody.”
"But it must be a great inconve
nience to you,” I observed, "to b9 so
frequently disturbed by such excurt
sionists.”
"Well, during the present year I ad
mit it has been a little trying. Never
theless, I always dislike sending a
man or woman away who has come
out here for the purpose of seeing me
or my house. Of course, I have to do
it occasionally, but it is always disa-
gresable to me needlessly, to dasap-
point anyone. Those women whom
you saw are a good staunch New-Eug
land type, and I like them in spite of
their lack of tact and their abrupt
manners. They are good, hard- vork-
iug women, who make good wives and
good mothers. And yet, the other day,
I was greatly amused at one of the
same class who came here with a large
basket—whether she had anything to
sell I did not ascertain—apparently for
the purpose of telling me that she had
read ‘Evangeline’ from beginning to
end, ‘and,’ she added, 'there ben’t
many folks can say that.’ I am con
vinced now that she had no intention
whatever of being rude to me ; she was
merely awkward and nervous, and
said what she did not mean to say. I
asked her if she had found the reading
of ‘Evangeline’ such a dreadful task.
The question seemed to surprise her;
she grew embarrassed, and shiwed
plainly that she had no recollection of
having said anything uncomplimen
tary.”
It was, as far as I can remember, on
the same occasion that Mr. Longfellow
told me of a young man from some
where in New-England who wrote to
him, saying that he was in love with
a young lady whose name was given,
and a description of whose appearance
was also subjoined. The writer had
been devoting himself for a long time
to the task of winning this young
lady’s affection, but she had so far
given him no encouragement; and he
had arrived at the conclusion that
"nothing but poetry would fetch her.”
Now, would Mr. Longfellow, whom
he understood to be a poet, write some
suitable stuff for him that would ap
peal to the young lady’s heart, and
would he first let him know how
much he charged for a poem of this
kind? Whether Mr. Longfellow bur
lesqued a little this iucldent iu relating
it I am unable to say; but from the
gravity of his manner, and still more
from hia temperamental inaptness for
burlesque exaggeration, I concluded
that the incident had occurred exactly
as he reported it.
Hints to Inventors
In the absence of all other proof, the
date of the patent will be taken as the
date of applications and the date of as
signment.
The government of the United States
has no right to use a patented inven
tion without compensation to the
owner of the patent.
A corporation may bind itself by a
contract not under its corporate sea 1
when the law does not require the con
tract to he evidenced by a sealed
in-itrument.
The second clause of rule 93 has no
application to such a case, the patent
here referred to being one which was
granted before the pending application
was filed.
Such contracts may be executed by
an agent, and the rule is that the agent
should, in the body ol the contract,
name i he corporation as the contract
ing body, and sign as its agent or offi
cer.
Assignments of patents are not re
quired to be under seal. The statute
simply provides that "every patent, or
any interest therein, shall be assign
able in law by an instrument in
writing.”
The inventor cannot relieve himself
of the consequences of the prior public
use of his patented invention by assign
ing an interest in his invention or
patent to the person by whom the in
vention was thus used.
Where one or two conflicting appli
cants have inadvertently obtained a
patent without notice to the other, an
interference may then be declared
nunc pro tunc between the application
and the patent, under authority of the
first clause of Rule 93.
The fact that i person holds stock
in a company gives him no right to
its property, and the attachment of
such stock in the hands of a stock
holder, for a personal debt of the
stockholder, does not in any way en
cumber the property of the company.
Conflicting applications under ihe
law and the rules sustain a hostile re
lation each to the other, irrespective of
their relative datei of filing, and the
premature issue of a patent to one ap
plicant is not conclusive either for or
against the right of the other.
A patent for a machine cannot be
reissued lor the purpose of claiming
the process of operating that class of
machines, because, if the claim for the
process is anything more than for the
use of the particular machine patented,
it is for a different invention.
A paten'ee cannot claim in a patent
the same thing claimed by him in a
prior patent, nor what he omitted to
claim in a prior patent in which the
invention was described, he not hav
ing reserved the right to claim it in a
separate patent, and not having season
ably applied therefor.
If a patent fully and clearly de
scribes and c’aims a specific invention,
complete in itself, so as to be inopera
tive or invalid by reason of a defective
or insufficient specification, a reissue
cannot be had for the purpose of ex
panding and generalizing the claim so
as to embrace an invention n >t speci
fied in the original patent.
The statute of 1870, relating to reis
sues, authorizes the insertion of new
claims founded upo n the original in
vention as exhibited by the specifica
tions or drawings in reissues when the
omission results from "inadvertence,
accident, or mistake,” and where the
claimant has not by some act or omis
sion estopped himself from exercising
the right to amend.
An assignment, therefore, purport
ing on its face to be the contract of the
corporation therein mined, declaring
that the consideration has been re
ceived by the company, that it is exe
cuted in pursuance of a resolution
passed by the company, and purport
ing to be signed by Smith, President
of the company, who declares that he
signs as the act of the company, is
transfer of said company, and not the
personal deed of Smith.
If a person employed in the manu
factory of another, while receiving
wages, makes experiments at the ex
pense and In the manufactory of the
employer, has his wages increased in
oonsequence of the useful results of his
experiments, makes the article invene
ted, and permits his employer to use
it, no compensation for its use being
paid or demanded (for more than two
years), and then obtains a patent for
it, the patent is invalid and void.
The French Bourbons.
A Love Affair of Henry V.’* Father.
The Count de Ciiambord, known to
a faithful few as Henry V., King of
France, is ill with fever at his Frobs-
dorf chateau, and although he by no
means causes the Fieucb Republic as
much fli-quietude as he caused the
Second Empire, he is still a very im
portant public character. He is the
chief of the elder branch of the Bour
bon family, the direct descendant of
Louis XVI., who lost his head by a
stroke of the guillotine during the
reign of terror. His father was
Charles Ferdinand, Due de Berri, the
younger son of Charles X., who had to
leave his throne In a hurry one July
day, fifty two year; ago. His mother
was the famous Duchess de Berri,
known before her marriage as the
Princess Caroline Ferdinande Louise
of Naples.
The Count de Chambord’s father
was mortally wounded on the night of
Feb. 13, 1820, as he was leaving the
Paris Opera-H >use, by a man named
Louvtl Seven months after this
event the son was born. His mother
left France in 1830 with Charles X.,
but in 1832 she returned ior the pur
pose of stirring up an insurrection and
claiming the crown for this son. She
landed at Marseilles, but finding no
support there she made her way to La
Vendee, where she succeeded in rally
ing a few adherents. They were
quickly subdued, however, and she
tried to make her way secretly out of
the country. She was betrayed, how
ever, to Louis Phillippe’s Govern
ment and imprisoned in the castle of
Braye, Where she gave birth to a
second son, the fruit of a secret mar
riage between her and a young Italian
nobleman. The publication of this
fact made her harmless in the eyes of
the Government, and she was released
in June, 1833. She retired to Sicily,
where she lived up to her demise in
1870, with her husband and his rela
tives.
The legality of the marriage of the
Due de Berri with the Princess Caro
line Ferdinande Louise, of Naples, has
been questioned by English Protes
tant writers, as if their views were to
be accepted as the correct ones, the
two daughters born to the Duke by
Amy Brown are the only legitimate
representatives of that gay and gallant
nobleman, while, had certain formali
ties been complied with by the Duke
immediately after his marriage to
Amy, in 1806, a quiet gentleman who
lived until recently, bearing the com
monplace name of George Granville
Brown, would have stood in the Count
de Chambord’s shoes in the eyes of
these same writers.
The D ic de Berri, after the revolu
tion, served in the French Legitimist
army, and subsequently in that of
Russia, but in 1801 he went to Eng-
land, and three years later he made
the acquaintance of Amy, the daughter
of Joseph Brown, vicar of the Church
of All Saints, Maidstone. S;ie was a
great beauty and he was a dashing,
handsome fellow. He was 26 -she 21
They fell madly in love with each
other, and in April, 1805, she gave
birth to a son, the George Granville
Brown here mentioned. A year after
tne two were married in the Catholic
chapel in King street, Portland
Square, London, according to English
law, in the presence of witnesses, and
without objections from the relatives
on either side. The son was not legiti
mated, however, as the mother doubt
less expected he would be. Amy gave
birth to one of the two daughters in
1808 and to the other in 1809. They
were taken by her to France, and edu
cated and married there, the husband
of one being the Prince Fauoigny
Luoinge, the other the Baron de Cha-
rette. They are still living and have
large families.
When tlie Duo de Berri married
Amy there seemed to be little chance of
the Bourbons ever coming to their own
again. As their prospects brightened
his passion for Amy cooled, and when
Louis XV ill. came to the throne that
monarch formally petitioned the Pope
for annulment of the marriage on the
ground that it had been contracted
without the consent ot the head of the
family. This petition was granted
after some delay, and in 1816 the Due
de Berri married the mother of th
Count de Chambord, the herione > £
the episodes that culminated in Castle
Braye.
It must be said In justice to the
Count’s father that he took excellent
care of Amy and her daughters. The
three of them were invited to come to
Paris after his second marriage, and
every afternoon up to the time of his
death, he oame to see the daughters.
The son, George Granville, was, how
ever, not allowed to come to France to
see his mother even, until after the
revolution in 183 ». According to Mr.
Theodore Cuild writing in the Phila
delphia American, he lived nearly
fortj year* in the house No 7 Rue
Haiut Pierre, at Montes, having mar
ried Miss Charlotte Louise (> Jbrown,
and, spending a fair in ;o:ue, doubtless
given to him by nis father, in work*
of charity.
A remnant of the once powerful
Pequod race stilt maintains a tribal
organization in Connecticut. Sohagh-
ticoke, the ancient seaffof this people,
is situated in the town of Kent, under
the Schaghticoke mountain, in the
middle of the valley of Hausatonic.
Bchaghtiooke now consists of six little,
brown, clapboarded, one*story houses,
tenanted by some seventeen persons,
and the whole tribe numbers about
fifty. The reservation of 300 acre
comprises Schaghticoke mountain,
valuable only for timber. Vinnie,
the aged Queen of the tribe, is nearly
white, earns her livlDg by basket-
miking, and is a member of the
nearest Congregational church.
A Ceylon Jungle.
Prof. Haeckel, who is giving iu the
German jRundschau some ace >mt of
his travels iu Ceylon, thus ti cribes
his first attempt to pen trate a Ceylon
jungle: The jungle, he says, is not,
properly speaking, primeval forest-
forest, that is, untrodden by the toot of
man (such are in Ceylon of^small ex
tent and rare occurrence); but it cor
responds to our idea of such a forest
in that it consists of a dense and im
penetrable mass of mighty trees of all
kindB, which have sprung up without
regularity or any interference from
man, and are surrounded and over
grown by a wilderness^of creeping
and climbing plants, of feitis, orchids,
and other parasites, the Interstices
being so completely filled *
motley mass of smaller weeuf
quite impossible to disent
coil of tendrils so as to distil
species from ihe other*
tempt to penetrate such a jungle as
this was sufficient to convince me of
the impossibility of the undertaking
except with the aid of axe and fire.
A hard hour’s work brought Tie only
a few steps into the thicket ai^^hen I
was obliged to acknowledge jnyself
vanquished and make good a Retreat,
stung by mosquitoes, bitten by ants,
with torn clothes, and arms f legs
bleeding from the thorns and (^ckles
with which the climbing palm' (Cala
mus), the climbing Hibiscus, the Eu
phorbia, and a multitude of other jun
gle plants repulse every attack r^ade'
on their impenetrable la&yfintSr
But the attempt had not been’made
altogether in vain, for it enabled me
to gain a very fair idea of the jungle
as a whole, more especially of tli^mag-
nificence of its trees and creepers,
sides introducing me to many separate
varieties of animal and vegetable life,
which were of the highest interest;
here I saw the magniflcent^Glojdess
superba, the poisonous climbit^iily of
Ceylon, with its red and amber flow
ers ; the prickly Hibiscus radiatus,
with large cup-shaped brimstone-col
ored flowers, deepening lo vlolec_in
the hollow ; while around them flut
tered gigantic black butterflies wi&T
blood-red spots on their tail-shaped
wings, and chafers and dragon-flies
flew past with a metallic gleam. But
my delight reached its height when
on this, my first attempt to penetrate
a jungle in Ceylon, I came across tjjjr
two most characteristic of its inffab
tants from among the higher clas
animals—parrots and apes. A
green parrots flew screech)
lofty tree, as they became aw
gun in my hand, and at the
ment a herd of great black a
with a growling cry into the
I did not succeed in getting a
either one or the other; they a
to be too familiar with the look
I was consoled, however, by set,
with my first shot a colossal
iguana six feet long, of a kind
much awe by the supersti
tives (Hydrosaurus salvator
h uge erocodile-like beast was
himself on the edge of a wa
and the shoe hit him so preo
the head as to kill him at opce
struck any less vital pait he
probably have dived into the w*d
and disappeared ; when seized, ti
iguana has the power of hitting
sharp a blow with its scaly tail as
cause a severe wound and even sou
times a broken limb.
A Sure Cure for Chilblains.—
Three applications of vaseline will
oure the worse case of ohllblain s. For
ordinary cases one or two applications
will be suffioient. Although vaseline
is made from petroleum, it is far more
rapid in its work of healing than ker-
oeene.