A couple of administrative matters: I sent a DagNews post on March 27 from my e-mail account at Boeing (where I work.) For some unexplained reason, I received several messages bounced back to me. If you didn't get the post (a brief obituary of Charles Meade) and would like me to resend it, let me know and I'll be happy to send it again. Also, if you have advance warning that you will be closing an e-mail account, please favor me with a notice so I can remove the address from the distribution list. Finally, in the March 22 post, there was a typo in the e-mail address provided for Anthony Davis. It should be: antiqphoto@earthlink.net As always, past DagNews posts are available at: http://www.daguerre.org/resource/dagnews/dagnews.html * * * * * * * * * * * On this day (March 31) the following text appeared in the 1855 "Scientific American." (Vol. X, No. 29; March 31, 1855; page 230) under the heading of "List of Patent Claims issued from the United States Patent Office": - - - - - - - - - - POLISHING DAGUERREOTYPE PLATES--David Shive, of Philadephia, Pa.: I do not claim effecting a gyratory motion of the pad for polishing the surfaces of daguerreotype plates, or other like surfaces, by means of machinery, as such has been so effected before for similar purposes. But I claim the shaft E, with its arms F, cranks G, the pieces C and D, or their equivalents, and the eccentric H, with its spur-wheel I, in combination with the united spur-wheels M and N, and the spur-wheel K, when constructed and arranged substantially and for the purposes as described. The patent drawing and text (from the Patent Office Report) are now available on the Daguerreian Society web site at: http://www.daguerre.org/resource/texts/patents/shive.html -------------------------------------------------------------- 03-31-97