The Country Gcnt/rcvovian 



125 



DOMESTIC LABOUR-SAVING MACHINES. 



THE application of mechanical contri- 

 vances to the saving of labour, the 

 rapid and economical production of the 

 thousand and one things which minister to 

 our wants or our luxuries, is one of the most 

 striking features of the times we live in. 

 It is merely a grandiloquent piece of 

 fudge, or is it the expression of a simple 

 truth, conveying much that is eminently 

 practical, when we say that the mechanical 

 and scientific men of our day have not 

 been sufficiently zealous in improving the 

 appliances of domestic life ; and that 

 while perfecting to a marvellous degree the 

 more gigantic products of the mechanical 

 mind, they seem to act in reference to 

 such minute but important matters as if 

 it was beneath the dignity of the inventive 

 mind to stoop to interfere in what they seem 

 to think are but trifling details? We are 

 prompted so to write on consideration of 

 what we have witnessed of the labour-saving 

 contrivances used in the households of 

 American ladies. There labour is dear, and 

 labour therefore must be economised. Hence 

 the use of a perfect army, so to say, of ap- 

 pliances, by which either the intervention of 

 human work is altogether dispensed with, or 

 its amount reduced to the minimum. Ma- 

 chines and contrivances do for the house- 

 wives of America what they do here for the 

 manufacturers of this country; and apt as 

 one of the old country is to smile at what he 

 or she may call the trifling knick-knacks we 

 have above alluded to as existent in large 

 numbers in American households, after one 

 sees what they can do to save labour and 

 economise time — and shall we be ungallant 

 enough to say, save the temper of the 

 " angels of the house " — the smile is apt to 

 be changed into something more serious. 

 In many of the departments of household 

 economy there are numberless things which, 

 when done in a wrong way, are provocative of 

 much trouble of mind and loss of time, but 

 which, bv the aid of a little contrivance, can 



be readily changed into things easily done 

 We purpose from time to time to devote a 

 brief paper to illustrate and describe some 

 simple mechanical appliance, which will serve 

 to fulfil the condition to which we have just 

 now alluded. Some of these will be ambitious 

 enough, and take some labour to realize ; the 

 majority of the "notions" will be simple, 

 applicable to every-day purposes, and the 

 making of them will be within the scope 

 of even the humblest of country mechanics. 



A SIMPLE KNIFE-CLEANER. 



A clean knife is more than a luxury, it is a 

 necessary, and should be at every well-ap- 

 pointed table, whether that be laid in the 

 ' lordly hall" or the " lowly cottage." Some 

 of the contrivances recently brought out, 

 however effective, are costly ; and some act 

 wrongly, as, for instance, in ultimately giving 

 a back as sharp as the front — a consumma- 

 tion by no means to be wished. For those 

 who do not aspire to the use of the costly 

 knife-cleaning machines, the following knife- 

 cleaning appliance (fig. i.) will be useful and 



very easily made. It is formed of two pieces 

 of wood a b, with handles c d. On the top 

 surface of these, and joining them as with a 

 flexible hinge, is laid a piece of thickish 

 leather, and firmly secured to the blocks a h. 

 The upper surface of this is provided with a 

 rough surface of emery, put on by a method 

 known to almost every mechanic. In using 

 this appliance, the two pieces are folded 

 together, as shewn at //, and the knife g in- 



