Hình ảnh trang
PDF
ePub

257 duct of such writers, I would not advise proceeding immediately to these extremities; but that we fhould in moderation content ourselves with tarring and feathering, and tofsing them in a blanket.

If, however, it should be thought that this proposal of mine may disturb the public peace, I would then humbly recommend to, our legislators to take up the consideration of both liberties, that of the prefs, and that of the cudgel; and, by an explicit law, mark their extent and limits; and at the same time that they secure the person of a citizen from afsaults, they would likewise provide for the security of his reputation.

INTELLIGENCE RESPECTING ARTS.

Continued from p. 224.

Paper-making.

STILL more useful will be the machine, when it shall be invented, which it doubtlefs will be, for lifting up the paper in the frames, and turning it out upon the blanket. The great inaccuracy of hand-work, is now sensibly felt by every person who has occasion to use much paper. Not only does it happen that one fheet will sometimes be greatly thinner than another, but even one part of a sheet will frequently be greatly thicker than another part of it. This must subject the papermaker to great expence and inconvenience; because an expert hand must be so much more valuable than another, that he will have it in a great measure in his power to demand what wages he pleases. This must naturally make him insolent, idle, and difsipated 1; and as the lofs that must result from inaccuratemade work will be great, the training of apprentices cannot fail to be a disagreeable and unprofitable talk, which gives additional power to the trained monopolizers. VOL. Vii.

KK

All these evils would be effectually removed, were a proper apparatus of machinery contrived for performing this operation. If care were taken to keep the pulp of one thickness, (and a gauge might easily be adapted to indicate a change in this respect with the utmost precision,) every sheet must of necefsity be of the same thickness with others, and every part of the fheet alike, throughout its whole extent. It might likewise be set to work a thicker or thinner kind of paper, with a degree of precision that cannot at present be attempted. These are considerations that ought to induce papermakers to apply for the aid of men of genius in the line of mechanics, much more than they have otherwife done. Perfection in manufactures can only be obtained by the combined efforts of men of science in the lines of mechanism and chemistry, with industry and application of the undertakers through every department of their works.

Carriages upon springs.

SEVERAL persons about Edinburgh have lately contrived carriages with springs for bringing to market articles that are very tender and easily broken or bruised. The straw. berry dealers began this improvement, and the glasshouse company at Leith have followed their example. In these cases nothing more is intended than merely to diminish the shocks, to which the tender articles put into these carriages are exposed by the way. The owners of these, and other machines of the same kind, are not aware that the difficulty of draught is thus greatly diminished, so that one small horse will draw with ease in such a carziage, as much weight of goods as would have required a much stronger horse to move it, if the weight had been placed immediately upon the shafts.

OLLA PODRIDA.

A receipt to make a Spanish olla (a favourite dish) for a company of eight persons who dine at four o'clock.

ABOUT ten o'clock in the morning take three pounds of beef, fat and lean, with little or no bone; set it on a pretty brisk fire, in a pot with cold water; when the water is going to boil, the beef will throw up, during ten minutes, or thereabouts, a thick scum, which must be carefully taken off, till no more comes up; cover again the pot, and let it boil till twelve o'clock, when you must put in it three pounds of good mutton, with little or no bone, a piece of bacon, or ham, with as much fat as lean; at one o'clock add two or three black puddings or sausages, (the first being the best, as they have more fat and substance,) two or three leeks or onions, and some cabbage, broccoli, or other greens. Season the pot with salt, pepper, and a very little cinnamon, diminish the fire, and let the whole boil gently till three o'clock.

Take a soup dish that bears the fire, and toast, in pretty thin slices, about the quantity contained in three halfpenny loaves of French bread, a day old, put it into the soup dish, and pour the broth from the pot upon it; cover the soup dish, and set it on a gentle fire, where it must boil very slowly till the hour of dinner, letting the pot with the meat, c. remain at the edge of the fire, so as to be kept quite hot. Serve up the soup, and afterwards the meat, arranged neatly in a large difh, with all the other articles. round it. If the olla is well made, the soup will have a fine rich flavour.

Upon particular occasions, and when the company is large, a young fowl is also put into the pot; which ought. to be done either at the same time with the mutton, or with the black puddings, which circumstance I do not re

[ocr errors]

collect. Upon second thoughts I believe the pot ought to be seasoned at the time the mutton is put in.

Receipt for dying cotton a fine BUFF Colour.

LET the twist be boiled in pure water to cleanse it; wring it, run it through a dilute solution, of iron in the vegetable acid, what printers call iron liquor; wring, and run it through lime water to raise it; wring, then run it through a raw solution of starch and water; wring and dry, wind, warp, and weave,-send it to the taylor, or to Germany, where it will pay well.

SPECULATIONS ON TRADE AND MANUFACTURES.

a EXTENSIVE Speculations in trade, are generally hurtful, be. cause they produce, for the most part, bankruptcies; but monopolizing speculations to a large extent in manufac+ tures, are still more destructive; because they not only occasion frequent bankruptcies to the parties themselves who engage in them, but also so much derange the operations of others, as to throw many industrious persons out of bread, which is one of the severest maladies that can attack. the body politic, and is attended with the most destructive Consequences.

Never, perhaps, was there a nation on the globe in which monopolizing speculations were carried to such great lengths as in Britain. It is not many years since a large manufacturing company in Manchester, engaged in a speeulation on cotton, so deeply, as to occasion a failure, and a lofs to their creditors of several hundred thousand pounds.. It is unnecessary to add, that every enterprise of a similar

nature, is liable to equal risk, and ought therefore to be guarded against with care. Whether it is pofsible for the legislature, without encroaching too much upon the privileges of a free people, to guard against it, is doubtful; but it surely ought to be the study of every cautious man, in his private capacity, to keep as free of transactions of this nature as pofsible, whether he be considered as an active adventurer in this deep game of hazard, or as a pafsive being, who, by a culpable inattention, may be eventually involved in the consequences resulting from it.

We have heard that there is at present, on foot an enterprise of this adventurous cast, upon a greater scale than ever before was attempted in Britain. A large manufacturing company in the west of England, it is said, have had many agents employed for some time past in buying up all the white linens and cotton cloths that can be found, at such prices, as gives the callico printers who are, or lately were in the pofsefsion of these cloths, no room to think they could print them with profit, if the price of printed goods fhall continue as low as at present; and as these agents confidently afsert, that the company for which they act, will continue to sell printed goods, to any extent that may be demanded, at the present prices, many of the manu facturers have been prevailed on to sell a great part of their unprinted goods, thinking they thus obtain a very good profit, certain, instead of a moderate one, contingent only; and some, we have heard, have even gone such lengths, as to sell the whole of their stock on hand, and to abandon the business.

It is of importance, however, to the public, that an adventure of this sort fhould be scanned with attention at as. early a stage of its progrefs as pofsible, in order that the probable evils it would occasion may be guarded against.. With this view, it will not be impertinent to hazard a few

« TrướcTiếp tục »