468 



General Notices. 



mouth of the sack being previously untied, shoots the contents, very gently 

 and gradually, into the tub. I say gently and gradually, because, without 

 this precaution, there will not appear to be full measure, although, pro- 

 perly delivered, there may be no actual deficiency. The mode of weighing 

 may be either by Marriot's dial engine, or by a steelyard beam. The 

 former is, perhaps, the most correct, certainly the most simple, and the 

 most scientific ; though three out of the four we have put up at the 

 Whittington malt-houses, near this place, are on the latter plan. — Samuel 

 Taylor. Stoke Ferry, Norfolk, June, 1832. 



A Lapland Lock, which may he useful to Gardeners. — Sir, In looking 

 over some papers the other day, I accidentally found a pen-sketch of 

 a Lapland lock, made some years ago, whilst attending the lectures given 

 by Professor Farish, on experimental philosophy, at Cambridge. The lock 

 in question was presented to the professor by the late Dr. Clarke, upon 

 his return from his travels in the north of Europe, and is now, I believe, 

 annually exhibited at the lectures of the worthy professor, as an ingenious 

 piece of mechanism made by the poor Laplander. The way in which the 

 celebrated traveller became possessed of the said lock it may not be unin- 

 teresting to know ; I therefore quote his own words : — " After leaving 

 Kilpala, to avoid the passage of a cataract, we landed, and walked by the 

 side of a river, until we came to a farm destitute of its inhabitants. Upon 

 the door of their steam-bath we found a wooden lock, with a wooden key 

 left in it ; the whole being so singularly and ingeniously contrived, that 

 we committed a theft for the benefit of the proprietors, and left a small 

 sum of money, for the said lock and key, upon the house table." {Tra- 

 vels in Russia, vol. v. p. 466. 4to edit.) Might not this lock be used for 

 the doors of tool-houses, rustic summer-houses, &c, for the purpose of 

 excluding outlandish folk, who commit thefts, but in a different manner to 

 that of Dr. Clarke : and might not, also, the leisure hours of the gardener 

 be agreeably employed, and his ingenuity exercised, in its construction ? 

 These being my objects, I venture to send it. The lock is made of oak, 

 about lOin. long, 6 in. broad, and IJin. deep : three loose pieces of wood 

 {fig. 81. o) each 6 in. long, and three quarters of an inch square, with a notch 

 1 Jin. wide, and half an inch deep {fig. 79.), are placed in the three grooves, 



as may be seen in fig. 79. or 80. 



81 



The key (m) ljin. wide, and half 

 an inch deep, with corresponding 

 teeth, about three quarters of an 

 inch in depth, is to be placed 

 across the notches, as in fig. 79. : 

 When the key is slided upwards, 

 the several loose pieces of wood 

 are also raised at the same time : 

 the bolt («) is then set at liberty, 

 as in fig. 80., and may be drawn 

 out, and thus the door unlocked. 

 The bolt is about ljin. wide, and 



