Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Lesley Halamek, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net [Illustration] SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN A WEEKLY JOURNAL OF PRACTICAL INFORMATION, ART, SCIENCE, MECHANICS, CHEMISTRY, AND MANUFACTURES. NEW YORK, JULY 14, 1877. Vol. XXXVII.--No. 2. [NEW SERIES.] [$3.20 per Annum [POSTAGE PREPAID.]] * * * * * CONTENTS. (Illustrated articles are marked with an asterisk.) Africa, carrying peace into 16 Air compressor, Bower's * 15 Alloy, new 18 American inventions. N.S.Wales 25 American Institute Exhibition 24 Answers to correspondents 27 Artesian well, pumping (13) 27 Billiard ball holder * 22 Billiard table * 22 Bisulphide of lime (35) 28 Bleaching silk and wool 24 Boot and shoe machinery * 19 Bookbinding, new method of * 19 Books and publications 25 Business prospects 15 Carrigeen crop 17 Catastrophism, Clarence King on 16 Catastrophe in geology 17 Chalk cup * 22 Coloring matter from herbs (2) 27 Copper plates covered with steel 22 Curtain fixture * 19 Disinfecting rooms 15 Duplex education 17 Dyspepsia, on 20 Education in Germany 24 Electricity, conducting power (21) 27 Electrotyping cylinders (33) 28 Electricity and magnetism (5) 27 Gold, dentists' (24) 27 Horses, dead, standing erect 20 Inventions patented in England 25 Lightning, effects of 20 Lime, precipitating (22) 27 Locomotive valves, setting 21 Man's place in Nature 25 Measures of the U. S. (32) 28 Mints of the U. S. (30) 27 Papier Mache (40) 28 Patents, American and foreign 25 Patent decisions, recent 25 Patents, official list of 28 Phosphorescent sweating 18 Plague, extension of the 24 Plants, curious carnivorous * 23 Popular fallacies 24 Santini, death of Professor 15 Sebastin, a new explosive 18 Solar heat, apparatus for utilizing 18 Special notice 25 Steamer, new 21 Steam pump, pounding (20) 27 Sulphur, test for 22 Sunstroke 20 Tin scrap, utilization of * 18 Tin-can telephone 21 Tin and phosphorus, alloy of 24 Yule, John 15 * * * * * BOWER'S PATENT AIR COMPRESSOR.