THE SEWING MACHINE.

Thames Star, Volume VI, Issue 1802, 12 October 1874, Page 3

THE SEWING MACHINE.

Very great improvements have been made in the manner of driving sewing . machines. Scarcely anyone now works the treadle by foot; the machine is driven either>. by water or gas. .The " water-wheel attachment," as it is called, is a small metal turbine wheel, attached to the crank of the machine. The steps of the turbine are covoied by a metal cap. A small jet of water from an ordinary tank, conducted to the machine by a few yards of rubber hose, keeps the machine going all the tim#. The jet, as it passes over the wheel, is not thicker than a stout needle, but the power is borrowed from th* force of the fall. A surplus pip* carries off the water as the wheel is turned. The only objection to the water-power is, so far as families are concerned, the diflU culty of moving the machine from room to room.X Here that is not much felt, for in most modern houses a sewing-room is added-to the ordinary rooms. The,gas \ power is, perhaps, better for private use* ) as th» machine and the power can be j moved together. The water attachment i costs about thirty dollars,—of course it is j a monofiplj. Fraser and Tinn» ought to introduce these improvements. - They ' could bVmade in Auckland for five dollars* and would be a great boon to thousands^ .■',.;."'•■ SCIENCE AND BELIGIOHV At the recent meeting of the British Association held in Belfast, Professor Tyndallj on taking his place as president, gave the Association a clear, statement of his religious views. In it he charges re-; ligiori, especially Christianity, with beiug inimical to human progress, and does not hesitate to assert his belief in nature and nature only. He asserts that there cannot be in the nature of things any harmony between science and religion, and that if man is to progress the former must be iacrificed in the interest of the latter. He; ignores faith altogether,; and ; in short declares himself a fine materialist. The position Mr. Tyndall has taken up settles at once the standing of scientists. Hitherto it has been the custom to believe that scientific men'did not differ in their ultimate view of the Godhead from ordinary believers, but this declaration of Tyndall; as the representative and head of the British Association of Science, must be regarded as the creed to which these men have generally subscribed. How«ver much it may be rggretted that Tyndall should fall back into such an old-fashioned heresy, it is a matter of moment that he has been frank enough to acknowledge his position. Unless a race of religious scientists now spring into existence, progressive science must be relegated to non-believing savants.