1871 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
425 
TEHS M0USETOILE, 
(For other Household Items , see '•'Basket" pages.) 
A Raisin-Seeder. 
A few days ago we saw in a store a little machine 
which looked like a bit of European workmanship. 
It had a crank, and when that crank was turned 
RAISIN-SEEDER. 
there were all sorts of motions, evidently intended 
to accomplish something, but what that something 
was we conld not guess, and, giving up in despair, 
had to ask. Here was a pretty position for an edi¬ 
tor of a household department—not to know at 
sight what a household implement was intended 
for. But we had our compensation. We took pos¬ 
session of the little machine, and submitted it to 
one after another, and no one could guess what it 
was for. At last came Mr. Judd, who has the 
Fig. 3. Fig. 4. 
quickest eye for “crinkums” and the sharpest 
mechanical talent of any one within our knowledge. 
He turned the machine, and looked at it in all ways, 
and then—gave it up. This ingenious machine is 
for removing the seeds from raisins, and we have 
had it figured as an illustration of the wonderful 
mechanical ingenuity that is at work to facilitate 
the simple operations of the household. Every 
housekeeper knows that raisins are all the better 
for being stoned, and she also knows how tedious 
is the operation when performed in the ordinary 
manner. With this machine, the stoning is per¬ 
formed with comparative rapidity. It has so many 
parts and so many movements, that it is not easy 
to represent it in a drawing. The machine being 
fastened to the table by a clamp, the raisins are 
pushed one by one upon the grating, a. The crank 
being turned, the plate b comes down and holds 
it in place; then the plate c, which contains nu¬ 
merous blunt needles which pass through holes in 
plate 6, is pressed down. These needles punch out 
the seeds of the raisins through the grating a, and 
to make sure that they will be removed, there works 
underneath this gratingablunt knife, moved by the 
notch d upon the moving wheel. As the driving- 
wheel revolves, the arm e comes over, and pushes 
the seeded raisin away to make room for another. 
We are aware that this may seem to be complicated 
when shown in an engraving, but if one sees the 
machine in operation it appears simple enough. 
Egg-Beaters. 
It is an old saying that “ there is,science in suck¬ 
ing eggs.” Be this as it may, there is no little 
philosophy involved in 
beating eggs. The 
light, snowy froth 
which is yielded when 
the whites of eggs 
are properly beaten is 
well known to all 
good housekeepers. No 
amount of rubbing of 
the whites of eggs will 
produce it—they must 
be beaten. Now, the 
result of the beating, 
by whatever mechanical 
means it is brought 
about, is to mix air in 
minute bubbles with 
the white of the egg; 
the finer the bubbles, 
and the more of them, _ 
the lighter and stiffer 
will be the froth. The 
simplest and the primi¬ 
tive way is to beat the 
eggs with a fork. This 
requires a good deal of 
time and labor, but 
when properly done 
produces good results. 
A few days ago we re¬ 
quested our neighbor 
Baldwin, who keeps a 
furnishing store in Mur¬ 
ray street, to show us 
all the different kinds 
of egg-beaters he had 
in his store. The num¬ 
ber was appalling, and 
it was wonderful to see 
the various ingenious 
methods that had been 
devised for accomplishing so simple a thing as 
the beating of an egg. We have figured a few 
of the leading forms. Starting with the idea 
of a fork, we have several wire beaters, which are 
only forks in a modified form. Figure 1 shows one 
of these. There are a half-dozen more, differing 
only in detail. Next, in fig. 2, we have the wires of 
the beater contrived so as to form a pear-shaped 
body; this makes a very large beater, and can only 
be useful to confectioners and in hotels. It is a re¬ 
finement on the old bundle of twigs so long used 
by confectioners and bakers. We next have, in fig. 
3, a very efficient egg-beater in the form of a spiral 
wire. The base of the spiral rests upon the bottom 
of the plate or other dish containing the egg, and 
the handle being moved up and down causes a very 
satisfactory frothing of the egg. This is only mov¬ 
ing the wires in a different manner from that pro¬ 
vided for in figs. 1 and 2. Then we have a whole 
series of revolving beaters, some of which are to 
be screwed to the table, and others are held in the 
hand while the crank is turned. Some have re¬ 
volving wire frames, and others have fiat strips, to 
which a rapid rotary motion is imparted by a sys¬ 
tem of cog-wheels ; one of these is shown in fig. 4. 
There are other devices for obtaining a rotary mo¬ 
tion. Figure 5 gives an egg-beater to which the 
motion is imparted by rolling it between the hands. 
A very ingenious implement is shown in fig. 6, in 
which the hollow handle has a spiral groove within 
it, and when this is pushed up and down, the beater 
is made to revolve with great rapidity. Quite dif¬ 
ferent from the egg-beaters we have already men¬ 
tioned is the oue shown in fig. 7, which acts some¬ 
what upon the principle of a churn. The cylinder 
into which the eggs are put has a conical bottom, 
and the dasher is a cone of tin perforated with 
small holes. It is claimed that by moving this 
dasher smartly up and down the egg is speedily 
brought to a froth. We might fill several pages 
with figures of the different egg-beaters, but we 
have already given a sufficient number to show the 
leading features of their construction, and the 
principles upon which they operate. 
On the Treatment of Husbands. 
BY FAITH ROCHESTER. 
Adam set the rest of mankind a bad example in 
more respects than one. “ The woman thou gavest 
to be with me,she tempted me,and I did eat,” whined 
he, when called to au account for his disobedience. 
Ever since that day, women have been blamed for 
most of the mischief 
done by men. It 
seems to be a com¬ 
mon sentiment 
among men that 
women can make of 
them pretty much 
what they choose, 
yet they are very 
much afraid of any 
direct interference. 
One of the most 
prominent lady writ¬ 
ers of the day, in one 
of the largest and 
best weekly papers, 
has lately been try¬ 
ing to show women 
that, by suitable 
management, they 
can, if they will, get 
the reins of govern¬ 
ment into their own 
hands, and drive men, 
in a stupid, blind¬ 
folded sort of way, 
wherever the wily 
drivers choose. I 
don’t like that kind 
of advice. It is al¬ 
ways painful to see 
one person managing 
to get influence over 
another for his or 
her own personal 
ends. When we see 
a woman trying to 
“ manage ” her hus¬ 
band, to wheedle him 
into some plan of 
hers without the 
concurrence of his 
own judgment, we 
may feel sure at once 
that there is some¬ 
thing wrong about their marriage. The wife does 
injustice to herself, and to her husband also. 
I am thankful myself for any influence that en¬ 
lightens my understanding or corrects my will—for 
