[Illustration:  Fig. 2.—­SALLERON’S APPARATUS FOR TESTING CORKS.]

Fig. 2 gives a perspective view of Mr. Salleron’s apparatus for testing corks.  A reservoir, A B, of tinned copper, capable of holding 100 corks, is provided with a cover firmly held in place by a clamp.  Into the cover is screwed a pressure gauge, M, which measures the internal pressure of the apparatus.

A pump, P, sucks water from a vessel through the tubulure, t’, and forces it through the tubulure, t, into the reservoir full of corks.  After being submitted to a pressure of five atmospheres in this apparatus for a few hours, the corks are verified and then sorted out.  In addition to the apparatus here illustrated, there is one of larger dimensions for industrial applications.  This differs from the other only in the arrangement of its details, and will hold as many as 10,000 corks.—­Revue Industrielle.

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IMPROVED BISCUIT MACHINE.

The accompanying illustration represents a combined biscuit cutting, scrapping, and panning machine, specially designed for running at high speeds, and so arranged as to allow of the relative movements of the various parts being adjusted while in motion.  The cutters or dies, mounted on a cross head working in a vertical guide frame, are operated from the main shaft by eccentrics and vertical connecting rods, as shown.  These rods are connected to the lower strap of the eccentric by long guide bolts, on which intermediate spiral springs are mounted, and by this means, although the dies are brought quickly down to the dough, they are suffered to remain in contact therewith, under a gradually increasing pressure, for a sufficient length of time to insure the dough being effectually stamped and completely cut through.

[Illustration:  IMPROVED BISCUIT MACHINE.]

Further, the springs tend to counteract any tendency to vibration that might be set up by the rapid reciprocation of the cross head, cutters, and their attendant parts.  Mounted also on the main shaft is one of a pair of reversed cone drums.  These, with their accompanying belt and its adjusting gear, worked by a hand wheel and traversing screw, as shown, serve to adjust the speed of the feed rollers, so as to suit the different lengths of the intermediate travel or “skip” of the dough-carrying web.

Provision is made for taking up the slack of this belt by mounting the spindle of the outer coned drum in bearings adjustable along a circular path struck from the axis of the lower feed roller as a center, thus insuring a uniform engagement between the teeth of the small pinion and those of the spur wheel with which the drum and roller are respectively provided.