35 



MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



Art. I. General Notices, 



HORTICULTURAL Syringes. — The admirable improvement made in this 

 instrument, by Mr. Reid (Encyc. of Gard., 2d edit., § 1419.), the origin of 

 which, we have been informed, was the circumstance of a cannon ball hav- 

 ing accidentally served the purpose of a valve in a ship's pump, has, as 

 might be expected, led to subsequent improvements. One of these, by 

 Mr. Macdougall, we have described in detail, Vol. VI. p. 305. : another, 



59 , 



by Messrs. Warner, is figured and described in the Register of Arts, 

 part xxxv. p. 14. The general form (fig. 59.) is the same as that of 

 Mr. MacdongalPs but, instead of the valve employed by the latter, 



the rose head (fig. 60.) is in 

 itself a valve, " which," says the 

 editor of the Register, " renders 

 the apparatus infinitely simpler, 

 more durable, and not so likely to 

 get out of order." The price by 

 retail, we believe, is 275. We have 

 tried one of Warner's syringes 

 against one of Macdougall's and 

 one of Reid's, and we have con- 

 versed with those who have had 

 some experience with them. The 

 result is, that both Reid's and Warner's are, from the nature of their con- 

 struction, more liable to draw in such extraneous matters as maybe in the 

 water ; and consequently the rose is more liable to become choked up in 

 the action of syringing. Now, Macdougall's valve is guarded by a wire 

 grating (Vol. VI. fig. 58. c and g), expressly for the purpose of excluding im- 

 purities ; we are therefore of opinion that it must necessarily be preferable, 

 and we are certain that the workmanship is better at least than Warner's. 

 A still more perfect syringe than any that has yet appeared has just been 

 invented by Mr. Siebe, late of Holborn, but now of Denmark Street, 

 Soho, whose rotatory garden engine and water cock we have before 

 commended in this Magazine (Vol. VII. p. 84.) ; and whose rotatory pump, 

 one of the very best of his inventions, we have described and figured in 

 Vol. VIII. — No. 38. a a 



