MISCELLANEOUS.
Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 202, 17 January 1846, Page 184
About this newspaper
MISCELLANEOUS.
Guide to the Workhouse. — To Young Married Couples. — You are supposed to begin housekeeping with a decent competence, which, with industry and frugality, will enable you to live comfortably, and put something by. Never, therefore, dream of saving, except of saving yourselves trouble. Be sure to rise very late ; you will thus have the less time to spend in minding your affairs. Also, wives particularly, be as long as you can in dressing of a morning; whereby you will pleasantly get over two or even three hours, which might have been devoted to domestic drudgery. On no account do anything for yourselves that servants can do for you;* and, therefore, do not be content with one servant. Bear constantly in mind the maxims following :— lt is impossible for a lady to darn stockings. She can by no means make a shirt for her husband, or a dress for herself. She must never be seen in the kitchen. As to looking after her linen, helping to make beds, or cook, the very thought of such exertions ought to kill her. You should have two dinners daily ; one for your servants at two, and another for yourselves at seven, until you are blessed with a family., and then you should have three. Hot dishes every day are indispensable ; never, for economy's sake, put up with a cold dinner. Have fires in every room in the house. Strictly follow the fashions ; you should not wear out an old dress, if ever so good. Use towels, handkerchiefs, and the like, without the least regard to your washing bill. In the matter of perfumes, gloves, and stationery, consult nothing whatever but your senses — common sense excepted. As regards eating and drinking, have the best of everything. Give plenty of parties ; and if you doubt whether you ought to keep a carriage or not, give yourselves the benefit of the doubt, and keep one. The extreme of luxury in furniture is too obviously advisable to be dwelt upon; and you will feel the advantage of it when it comes to be sold off. Indulge yourselves, generally, in every wish ; and never put up with the least inconvenience to avoid the greatest expense. Do not bridle your respective wishes, or sacrifice anything, except each other's fortune, for each other; whenever you want what you cannot have, get into an ill-humour — and show it. Accustom yourselves to call every, the smallest, act of self-denial " horrid," " shocking," "miserable," "dreadful," "intolerable." Shut your ears against advice, and let your sole considerations be your own will and pleasure, and the world's opinion. Having five hundred a year, live at the rate of a thousand, and plunge without scruple headlong into debt. You will find these directions an infallible "Guide to the Workhouse." — Punch.
Intelligence of Jurors. — An inquest was lately held before Mr. Wakely, at the Fool's Cap and Bells, on the body of a groom who had been thrown from a restive horse, and killed by falling on the kerbstone. The jury, after much
deliberation, returned a verdict of " Manslaughter "against the horse. Coroner: Gentlemen, I am afraid this verdict will not stand. What would you have me to do with the horse 2 A Juror : Commit him for trial. Coroner : I advise you, gentlemen, to reconsider your verdict. The jury retired, and, after much further debate, brought in a verdict of — " Died of a fall from a horse, with a deodand of £100 on the kerbstone, and the horse not guilty."
Parsey's Air-Engines. — The inventor of these engines, it appears, is sanguine enough to imagine that he has accomplished an object which will work a complete revolution in the mode of drawing or propelling trains on railroads, and in the manner in which the rotatory motion of paddle-wheels in ships is produced. Mr. Parsey's invention is, he thinks, applicable to all the purposes of setting machinery in motion for which steam-engines are now employed. Thus it will act as the motive power in locomotive or stationary engines of all kinds. The engines are worked by means of condensed air. The elasticity of air when compressed into receivers is raised to any .power. The engines, according to the description furnished by the patentee, can be filled at a terminus with highly condensed air, previously generated, and replenished from stationary receivers at the various stations of railroads as often as occasion may require. To the receiver or receivers of the engine so filled, to obviate the excessive force and gradual decline of pressure as the working cylinders draw it off, a receiver is attached, into which the air passes till it reaches a given working pressure, which it cannot exceed but by adjustment of the engineer, as the self-acting regulator belonging to the working receiver shuts or opens the inductive passages from the high-pressure receiver or receivers uniformly with the discharges from the driving cylinders, by which means as much power is carried by the engine as will propel it and a train any distance. It has an advantage over steam, inasmuch as steam must be used as it is generated, whereas condensed air may be generated at leisure, and can be kept any length of time without losing its elastic or expansive power, and therefore can be used at any time it is required. In generating steam there is a considerable waste, and there is also a loss in blowing it off when the engine is stopped, but in condensing air there is no waste whatever, neither is any waste incurred by stoppages. From the official report of Mr. Stephenson, the engineer to the London and Birmingham line, it appears that the expenses of steam locomotive power for the line for the year 1843 amounted to £63,834 ; out of which enormous amount nearly £30,000 were for coke, coals, and fuel, and the remaining item 9 for expenses incidental and necessary for the repairs of engines, and for things connected with the present system, all of which would, as Mr. Parsey states, be saved if the air-engines were substituted for the steamengines. Mr. Parsey courts the fullest inquiry into the pretensions of his invention, and is most anxious that it should be fully investigated. The model has been seen in operation at No. 2, Spur Street, Leicester Square, by many mechanicians and practical engineers, and they have spoken of it in terms of enthusiasm, and all persons connected with railways, navigation, and machinery, are invited to go and see it. Whether it will succeed or no we cannot undertake to affirm, but it is certainly of sufficient importance to arouse attention, and deserves to be fully and completely tested. — Times.
New Agricultural Implement. — There was recently exhibited a patent "convertible cultivator," the invention of Mr. J. Hall, of this town. The peculiar properties of this machine are, that it is made with parallel and tilting motion frames, now for the first time, it is stated, brought into operation, and that in the machine may be fixed any instrument for the general purpose of tilling the soil, the frame being alike suited to all. Previously to setting this machine to work, the delvers and crushers can be fixed, so as to penetrate into any required depth into the soil, and the arrangements for this purpose can be easily and quickly varied when necessary. Motion is given to the delving and crushing wheels, by the delvers and crushers acting against the ground in a contrary direction to the line of draught of the horses or other animals employed to draw the machine. From the hind wheels revolving in the spaces between the front wheels, they not only serve to break up any clods or lumps which may have been "imperfectly acted on by the front wheels, but are also of great use in clearing away any rubbish which may adhere to the delvers and crushers of the front wheels. — Cambridge Advertiser.
Steam Power. — Letters patent have been granted Mr. Francis Watteeu for an invention by which the incrustation formed by deposits in steam boilers and steam generators will be totally prevented. The material used is perfectly soluble and harmless. It prevents crystallization and attraction, which are the principal causes of incrustation. It is inexpensive, and the application most simple, and it is applicable to all sorts of boilers, whether fixed or locomotive, of whatever construction they may be, or for whatever purpose they may be used.
Singular Cure for Headache. — I had a violent headache, which the captain undertook to cure, and he certainly succeeded. He made me sit down, seized hold of my caput, and, placing a thumb on each side of my temporal arteries, pressed them in such a way as almost to stop the whole circulation of my blood; he then directed me to heave as long a sigh as I could, and I walked in to dinner completely cured. I have seen ladies in this country, whilst suffering under such malady, appear with a wafer stuck on each temple, which I presume was only a milder way than my friend the captain employed of driving off this tormentor. — My Adventures, by Colonel Maxwell, K.H.
Adelaide. — The wheat harvest had commenced, and the crops are said to be general ly , good, with no signs of blight. There are n< w upwards of twenty reaping machines in Sou th Australia. Three shillings appears to be tle standard price for new wheat in the Adelai le market. — Lamceston Examiner, Dec. 11.
