Sivut kuvina
PDF
ePub

yield more than seventeen ounces of butter, and this upon repeated

trials.

The milch cows, treated according to my new plan, have been in excellent order both seasons, and are allowed to be superior to any in the neighbourhood.

Cole seed I have found to be the most profitable of all green crops for milk; and it possesses the further advantage of standing till other green food is ready to supply its place.

To ascertain the benefit and uti. lity of a supply of milk both to the consumer and the public, will be best done by comparison.

To prove this let us contrast the price of milk with other articles of prime necessity, and consider how far it affords a greater produce from a less consumption of food.

I cannot here omit observing, at a moment when Great Britain can hope for no further supply of grain from the continent, and must look for and depend on her own resources for feeding her population, every mean by which the quantity of victuals can be augmented, is an object of great public concern.

Each milch cow yielding six quarts of milk per day, furnishes in the period of 200 days, 2,400 pounds of milk, or 171 stone of 14 pounds, equal to twice her weight, supposing her in a state fit for kill ing, with a third less food, and at one half less expence. The milk costs 101. whilst the same weight of butcher's meat, at 6d. per pound, would amount to 601.

Taking the scale of comparison with bread, we shall find a Winchester bushel of wheat, of the usual weight of 4 stone and 41lb. VOL. XLVIII.

when manufactured into four of
three sorts, yields
Of first flour

[merged small][ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

2st. 9lb

[blocks in formation]

9 lb.

Lost by bran, &c. 0 The present cost is 10s. 3d. 2,400lb. of the three sorts of flour, will cost 231. 3s. 9d. To make it into bread allow 1s. per bushel, which makes the cost of bread 261. 10s. 9d. or something more than 2 d. per lb. exceeding twice the price of the same weight of milk. To furnish 2,400lbs. of bread requires 47 busbels, or the average produce of two acres of wheat.

Three acres of green food sup. plied 30 milch cows, with two stone each of green food, for 200 days. Two stone of hay each for the same period, would have required 75 acres of hay. Chaff can scarcely be considered as of any value be yond the manure it would make, which shews the profit of keeping. milch cows in all corn farms.

Certificates of the quantities of milk sold and money received, accompany this.

If the society of arts, &c. think the experiment worthy their notice and approbation, I shall be highly flattered. At all events I trust they will accept it as a small tribute of respect and gratitude for the many (avours conferred upon their Obedient and very humble servant, J. C. CURWEN. Workington Hall, April 18, 1806. To Dr. C. TAYLOR, Secretary.

Schoose Farm, April 18, 1806.
I Isaac Kendal, Bailiff to J. C.
Curwen,

3 R

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

Transactions of the Society of Arts, &c. A. D. 1806. Vol. XXIV.

Take the bones of sheep's trotters, break them grossly, and boil them in water until cleared from their grease, then put them into a crucible, calcine them, and afterwards grind them to powder. Take some wheaten flour, put it in a pan over a slow fire until it is dry, then make it into a thin paste, add an equal quantity of the powdered bone-ash, and grind the whole mass well together this mixture forms the ground for the pannel.

:

The pannel having been pre. viously pumiced, some of the mix. ture above-mentioned is rubbed well thereon with a pumice stone, to incorporate it with the pannel. Another coat of the composition is then applied with a brush upon the pan. nel, and suffered to dry, and the surface afterwards rubbed over with sand-paper.

A thin coat of the composition is then applied with a brush, and if a coloured ground is, wanted, one or two coats of the colour is added, so as to complete the absorbent ground.

When it is necessary to paint upon a pannel thus prepared, it must be rubbed over with a coat of raw linseed, or poppy-oil, as drying oil would destroy the absorbent quality of the ground; and the painter's colours should be mixed up with the purified oil hereafter mentioned.

Canvas grounds are prepared, by giving them a thin coat of the composition, afterwards drying and pumicing them, then giving them a second coat, and lastly a coat of colouring matter along with the composition.

The

The grounds thus prepared do not crack; they may be painted upon a very short time after being laid, and from their absorbent quality, allow the business to be proceeded upon with greater facility and better effect, than with those prepared in the usual mode.

Method of purifying Oil for Painting.

Make some of the bone-ashes into a paste with a little water, so as to form a mass or ball; put this ball into the fire, and make it redhot; then immerse it for an hour, in a quantity of raw linseed oil, sufficient to cover it: when cold, pour the oil into bottles, add to it a

little bone-ash, let it stand to settle, and in a day it will be clear and fit

for use,

White Colour

Is made by calcining the bone of sheep's trotters in a clear open fire, till they become a perfect white, which will never change.

Brown Colour

Is made from bones in a similar manner, only calciuing them in a crucible instead of an open fire.

Yellow Colour; or, Masticot. Take a piece of soft brick, of a yellowish colour, and burn it in the fire; then take for every pound of brick, a quarter of a pound of flake-white, grind them together, and calcine them; afterwards wash the mixture, to separate the sand, and let the finer parts gradually dry for use.

Red Colour, equal to Indian Red. Take some of the pyrites, usually found in coal-pits, calcine them, and they will produce a beautiful red.

[blocks in formation]

Crayons

Are made of bone-ash powder thereto the colouring matters. The mixed with spermaceti, adding

proper proportion is, three ounces of spermaceti to one pound of the powder. The spermaceti to be first dissolved in a pint of boiling water, then the white bone-ash added, and the whole to be well ground toge. ther, with as much of the colouringmatter as may be necessary for the shade of colour wanted. They are then to be rolled up in the pro per form, and gradually dried upon a board.

White Chalk,

If required to work soft, is made by adding a quarter of a pound of whitening to one pound of the boneash powder; otherwise the boneash powder will answer alone. The coloured chalks are made by grinding the colouring-matter with boneashes.

On Means of assisting Persons in Danger of Drowning. By Mr. II. Lawson. (Phil. Mag.)

The absolute necessity that assis tance to persons in danger of drown, ing should be speedy to be effectual, induced Mr. Lawson to consider what articles were most readily and 3 R 2 universally

universally to be found at hand in all cases, which could be converted into a floating apparatus, either for the use of the person in danger, or those who might venture to his assistance. What seemed to Mr. Lawson in a great measure to answer all those conditions, is the buoyancy afforded by a common hat reversal on the water, which will thus admit of being loaded nearly with ten pounds weight before it will sink, and will bear seven pounds with safety; and as the body of a man is about the same weight as the water, a buoyancy equal to seven pounds will effectually prevent his sinking. To render the hat more manageable for this purpose, and less liable to fill with water from accidents, Mr. Lawson recommends that it should be overed with a pocket-handkerchief laid over its aperture, and tied firmly on the crown: Mr. Lawson asserts that with a single hat prepared in this manner, held by the tied part, a man, who even does not know how to swim, might venture safely to assist one in danger.

When two hats can be had, Mr. Lawson recommends that a stick be run through the tied parts of the handkerchiefs which cover them: and if more hats could be got it would be still better; four hats may thus be fastened to a common walking-stick, which will thus smstain at least 28 pounds.

When a stick is not at hand, another pocket-handkerchief tied to the lower parts of those which covered two hats, would thus unite them like a pair of swimming corks and make them equally convenient. If a man happens to fall out of a ship or boat, he may support him

self till he can get assistance, by turning his hat on its crown, and holding by its brim with both hands, so as to keep the hat level on the water.

Mr. Lawson recommends that the Humane Society should have at their receiving-houses large footballs, furnished each with a string and small weight, to throw out to those in danger, (if the expence of swimming spencers for the same purpose should be thought too great) by which they might support themselves till better assistance could be procured.

Observations.-The number of accidents that happen every year both to swimmers and skaiters (the more melancholy, as the sufferers are generally in full health and vigour, and often in the midst of gaiety and frolic) make Mr. Law. son's contrivances for affording instant relief in all cases, very valua ble; and should therefore obtain them notice in every publication where they can be admitted.

Large foot-balls also which Mr. Lawson recommends for assisting persons in danger, might be rendered more serviceable by uniting them in pairs like swimming corks; and would be thus nearly equal to swimming spencers, which latter differ somewhat from a cork jacket, and consist of a cork girdle, which is made by stringing a number of old bottle-corks (which may be procured at a small expence) on packthread, and uniting as many of those strings of corks as will form a belt of six inches diameter, which is inclosed in oil-cloth, and furnished with bands for girding it over the shoulders and between the legs.

It is strongly recommended, in

the Esprit des Journaux, to carry a number of those cork spencers in every ship, for the use of the seamen; and an instance is mentioned in it where the lives of hundreds might have been saved by some such contrivance, in the fate of an English vessel of war, which was burned within view of the shore, off Leghorn.

A Mr. Mallison has invented a simple apparatus for similar purposes, of cork, which he sells under the name of the seaman's friend, and is one of the most convenient articles of the kind. Those commanders of ships who would not think it worth while to attend to these minute matters for the sake of the sailors, may perhaps do so for the sake of the ship. The inaction and insubordination which total despair produces among the crew, has often caused the loss of valuable ships; and such a contrivance as this mentioned, though it might only keep those who used it afloat for a few hours, would prevent this despair, and make them stick to the ship to the last. In case of a ship taking fire, which often happens near other ships or the shore, their use would be indisputable.

In addition to the methods before-mentioned for giving assistance in case of accidents, the following means of preventing their frequency in the neighbourhood of this and other large cities, is earnestly recommended to the attention of the Humane Society, and other benevolent gentlemen; which would not only have this effect, but greatly contribute also to the health, cleanliness, and activity, of that valuable class of men, to whose labours the rest are indebted for most of the necessaries and comforts of life.

All those advantages would arise from having large ponds prepared near the city, of about four feet deep, well supplied with fresh water, in which any one might be permitted to bathe or swim, for a penny paid at the entrance; within some feet of the bank, these ponds should be surrounded with walls or hedges, and might be planted, in the interval between these and the water, with shrubs, so as to form an agree able walk all round. There is no doubt but ground might be procured in Hyde Park for this purpose, if properly applied for. The excavation to so small a depth would cost very little comparatively, and the trifle paid at the entrance would assist in paying interest for this cost. Baths for the use of the lower classes of people, furnished at the expence of the benevolent and rich, are universal in most parts of Asia, in Russia, and in several other countries. That there are none yet in England, unless some few for the actual sick, can only proceed from no one having suggested their use, to the public.

As a farther inducement to gen tlemen to subscribe to form such swimming places, it should be considered, that they will form excellent situations in winter for skaiting, where this fashionable and manly amusement may be practised in perfect safety, which will be an argument in their favour, even to those gentlemen who do not skait them. selves, as there are very few of those who have not some friends or relations who use this exercise.

For both swimming and skaiting the ponds should be made of considerable extent: if formed on a too confined scale, the cost would be thrown away, as in this case few or 3 R3

none

« EdellinenJatka »