Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/685

 INTERIOR FINISHING OF FARM HOUSES. 661 berries or grapes, there is a very excellent machine, comprising a hopper, crushing rollers, a trough, and press, sold by Weir and Co., Oxford Street, London, for the purpose of bruising the fruit and expressing the juice. There is also a simple and economical, but very efiective, gooseberry crusher and press, figured and described in the Gardener s Magazine, vol. viii. pp. 542. 544. 1:?84. T/ie Furniture of a Cleaning-house, or Knife and Shoe House, may either contain a wheel for cleaning both knives and shoes, and all movable parts of grates, such as we shall hereafter recommend as particularly suitable for inns ; or, the very simple knife- cleaner, fig. 1266, may be used. In this figure, a b are two boards twenty inches long, 1266 six inches broad, and one inch thick, joined together, but not quite close, by a hinge at c; d e are two pieces of buff or belt leather stretched over the interior surfaces, and nailed on the exterior ones, and y is a handle, to assist in holding the apparatus steady. " In using it, lay powdered Flanders brick, or any similar dust, on the lower leather, shut the boards together, lay the left arm on the upper board holding the handle, put the knife, well wiped from grease, between the leathers, and four or five rubs forwards and back- wards, not sidewise, wiU produce a beautiful polish on both sides ; the shoulders and back may be polished by rubbing on the part of the leather turned over." This knife- board has been found to give great satisfaction. {Alech. Mag., vol. ii. p. 409.) No machine for beating and brushing clothes has yet been invented ; but it would be easy to make such adcUtions to the knife and shoe cleaning machine, above mentioned, as would not only beat and brush clothes, but beat carpets. Already a machine for scouring floors has been patented in America ; and we sincerely desire that it may soon come into use in this country, as well as the other machines mentioned ; for there are few labours more unsuitable for women than scouring floors, cleaning grates, and wringing clothes. The American scrubbing-brush is to be worked backwards and forwards by a lever, operating in the manner of a pump-handle. A flat board, on which the operator stands, is placed upon the floor on castors ; and from this rise two uprights, to sustain the pin that is the fulcrum of the lever. To the lower end of this lever the scrubbing- brush is attached. It would be easy to modify this machine in such a manner as to render it fit for rubbing tables. (See Meek. Mag., vol. xv. p. 109.) I3S5. For the Ashpit of the ICitchen- court a cinder-sifter is a very useful utensil. For the small ashpits or dustholes belonging to houses about towns, there is a portable box, in which is placed a sieve ; and, the ashes being put in, the lid put on, and the box shaken, the dust passes through the sieve, and remains in the bottom of the box ; without any dust having escaped to annoy the operator. But tliis machine is on too small a scale for a farm-house, which would either require a portable one, of double or treble the usual size, or a screen operating in a large box. When the intention is thoroughly understood, such a machine may be easily contrived by the commonest country carpenter. The object is not merely to sift the cinders, which never can be done more etfectually than by a common riddle or sieve ; but to sift them in such a manner as not to incommode the sifter by the dust. For this purpose, all that is necessary is to make such an arrangement, as that the riddle may be worked in a large box, by a rod passing through the box, and attached to the riddle within ; the latter resting on two laths or rails, and having sufficient room in the box to admit of its being worked backwards and forwards, A friend of ours, and a valuable contributor, Mr. Laxton, has his dusthole enclosed on all sides, with a door in front ; and through a hole in this door, the rod passes, which works the riddle. The riddle is square, and rests on two laths, placed horizontally about ."3 fett from the ground ; and when the riddle is pushed as far back as it will go, the handle projects beyond the door when the latter is shut, just as much as to enable a person to take hold of it. In the morning, when the girl carries out the ashes, she opens the dusthole door, and empties the cinders into the sieve, without changing its position ; she then shuts the door, and, taking hold of the handle, draws it to her and pushes it from her for ten or a dozen times, according to the quantity of ashes which she has put into the riddle. She then leaves it, without opening the door, in order that