38 



General Notices. 



nothing of the detriment done to the sleeves of the dress, will frequently 

 insert tlicnisclves between the f^lovcs and tiiosc sleeves, scratching the 

 wrists, and causing no slight degree of uncomfortableness, anil, I may say, 

 of present and after pain. To obviate this long experienced difficulty, it 

 at length entered, I cannot exactly say my own imagination, to conceive, 

 that gloves niaile after the fashion of gauntlets would at once protect 

 both wrists and sleeves from injury; and in this idea some members of my 

 family gave a glove-maker instructions in nudging a pair of stout leather, 

 which appear as if they would well answer the purpose, preventing the 

 intrusion even of the strongest prickles. Believing that many huly gar- 

 deners may have felt the same inconvenience, witliout, perluii)s, having 

 thought of a remedy, I am induced to send you tiie accompanying little 

 sketch of one {Jig- 18.) of tiie gardener's gauntlets, and the information 

 that they were made by Mr. T. Joy, No. 12. Mount Street, Lambeth, who 

 will undertake to make tiiem to order of any size and description. Yours, 

 iS.c. — C. P. Surrey, Kovemhcr 22. 1831. 



Howden's Gatc-sluittcr Hinge. (Jig. 19.) — Few things are more vex- 

 atious about a gentleman's premises, or even on a eonnnon farm, than to 

 have gates left open by careless people. The following hinge, or contriv- 

 ance for fixing on the lower end of the hanging style of the gate, serves as 



an cflTei'tual gate-shutter. Being made of cast-iron, it is botli ciieap and 

 durable. " You see it looks like two semicircles, working into each other 

 in the way of tooth and pinion : but they are not semicircles, they are not 

 .segments of circles, they are not even the two halves of an ellipsis ; as I 

 tried all these before 1 got it perfect. I made the model of a beech board, 

 1,^ ill. thick; 1 formed an ellipsis 7i by G in. : this I sawed in two, on the 

 line of the longest diameter ; the segments I cut into regular teeth, or 

 cogs, seven in tiie one, anil eight in the otiier, .so as to work freely into 

 each other; these 1 tried and altered, till 1 got tlie gate to play to the 

 greatest nicety, and then had sets of castings (Jig. \9.(/) for iron gates, and 

 ( ,fig. 19. /-») for wooden gates. The chief alteration from a semi-ellii)sis is 

 flattening the centres, so as to give the gate a home or resting-place. A 

 gate thus hung cannot possii)ly l)e left open (luiless fastened open), any 

 more than the pendulum of a clock can remain .stationary any wiiere but 

 perpendicular to the centre of gravity. The best gates in your Eiwi/clo- 

 pwdi/is, 1 see, play ni)on two centres, which is certainly a great improve- 

 ment on the old hook and thimble; but then, they are very haril to open at 

 first, and though the fall gradually diminishes u]) to the s(|uare or point 

 where the gate, when open, makes a right angle with the line of the gate 

 when shut, yet, if opened any wider, the I'all is reversed, and back it goes 

 with a bang, straining itself all to pieces : whereas my gate, playing upon 

 something like two (juadrants, is most eaMl> opened at first, the pressure 

 gradually increasing, not only up to the si|uare, or right angle, but 20° 

 beyond it, both ways. — ./i>/in llowdtn. April IW. \KM). 



(hi the AilvcDildgrx ij JlT J'/i<ii/\s J'i/s for groieiii'^ ear/i/ CuriDtibem. — 8ir, 

 The season having approached when those who desire early cucumbers are 



