New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1864-05-13
TIE PROGRESS OF INVENTION

The Report Of. the Commissioner of Patents,
to which we have heretofore referred, deals
largely with the progress Of the arts and exhibits
under various heads the Improvements made
during the year in many branches OF industry.
Like every other public document this shows
everywhere the pervadng influence of the war;
an influence alternately beneficial and inju.
rious, stimulating inventive genius to greater
activity in some directions, discouragng and
REFRESHING il in others.
In agriculture, the war seems not merely to
have invited but to have compelled an unusual
effort to create such machinery as should replace
the labor withdrawn from the farm to fill the
national armies. The number of applications
for patents on agricultural implements, exclu-
sive of reapers, bee-hiyes, horse hay-iorks and
horse hay-rakes has increased from $50 in 1851
to soy in 1863 Many machines seem TO have
reached point beyond which no improvement
is to be expected. Machines for sowing and
planting seed can be had (which will plant
everything from q mustard seed TO potato,
either by hand or animal power, and at prices
varying from 800 down to - 50' In plowS,
the form of the mold.board, which is the most
essential part, seems to have been satisfactorily
agreed on. Steam plows, however, remain to
be improved and adapted in such way as to
bring them into general use. Thrashing and
cleaning machines are made by which the grain
is thrashed, cleaned, measured, and bagged,
and the straw stacked, at one operation. BY
other machines, of recent origin, clover is
thrashed, separated from the straw, hulled, and
cleaned, at the same time.
Passing from agricultural implements to fire.
arms which are scarcely more essential to the
progress and success of the war, we find the
year 1862 shows the greatest number Of appli-
cations. The comparative list given by Mr.. IIol-
loway includes cannon, projectiles, small arms,
cartridges, tents, and miscellaneous articles.
The inventions in 1850 were i39, in 1851 rose
suddenly to $3.50, in 1862 reached 453, and
declined in 1863 to 322. During these four
years there were 2ll applications for improve
ments in cannon alone, which are described as
embracing:
"vaous sppance. for strengthening the body fthe gun
devices and mechanical arrangements operating gun
rages and heavy ordnance few projects Of very
striking novelty for rng cannon having reference 10 either
the shape Of tho the system Of their spiral develop
nent methods Of oodng ordnance devices for disabling them
Of emergency by the insertion Of expanding and jam
ming plugs within her bore and oherwse and several
vances less complex. for rendering artillery many
loaded by multiple barrels repeating by seffevding
magazines for the purpo,e Of increasing the rpdity ofther
fire Plausible these latter classes Of Improvements may be,
they DO not to have practically sustained the anticipation
Of their contriyeIs."
OF the many Improvements in breoch-lOading
cannon, Mr.. Holloway thinks none of much
value, and inclncs to believe that efforts to
construct such cannon must be abandoned as
In small arms, on the other
hand, it is precisely in this direction that the
greatest Improvements have been effected, the
number of patents, and the resulting value of
the arm, steadily increasing. There were IL
such patents in 1860; 10 in ISGl; "a in 1862 and
~ in 1863 "Tho employment of chambered
revolving cylinders" says Mr.. Holloway, has
been almost restricted to pistols;
but there does not appear any sufficient reason
why method of rendering arms repeating,
found to be so convenient and efficient, should
not be much more largely extended to muskets, or
arms with long barrels" 1t is anticipated that
the advantages Of breech-loading arms, their
greater ease and safety Of loading their rapid
ity of firing, the increased facility of handling
the arm, &c, will ultimately cause them to SUI
persede muzzle leaders almost entirely. The
patents relating to ammunition are for special
forms Of fixed ammunition or of priined me.