PREFACE. THE Indexes to Patents are now so numerous and costly as to be placed beyond the reach of a large number of inventors and others to whom they have become indispensable. To avoid this difficulty, short abstracts or abridgments of the Specifications of Patents under each head of Invention have been prepared for publication separately, and so arranged as to form at once a Chronological, Subject-matter, Reference, and Alphabetical Index to the class to which they relate. As these publications do not supersede the necessity for consulting the Specifications, the prices at which the latter are sold have been added. B. WOODCROFT. INDEX OF NAMES. [Those printed in italics and within brackets are the names of the parties |