VOL. 4.] Useful Arts--Improved Composition for Statues, &c. MR. NEW PATENT. 191 pit-sand, river-sand, rock-sand, or any To Mr. PETER HAMELIN, of Albany-Place, other sand of the same or the like Bent Road, Surrey for an Improvement or nature, or pulverised earthen-ware or Improvements in the making of a Cement or Composition for Ornaments and Statues, and porcelain, Mr. H. adds two-thirds of for making artificial Bricks, or an Imitation such given weight of the earth or earths, of Bricks, Tiles, and Stones, and joining and commonly called Portland-stone, Bathcementing the same, and erecting, covering, and decorating Buildings internally and ex- stone, or any other stone, of the same ternally. or the like nature pulverised. To every five hundred and sixty pounds weight of these earths, so prepared, he adds forty pounds weight of litharge, prepared as before described; and, with the last mentioned given weights, he combines two pounds weight of pulverised glass or flint-stone. He then joins to this mixture one pound weight of minium and two pounds weight of grey oxyd of lead. R. HAMELIN's very useful invention consists in making a cement or composition, which may be applied in the formation or making of ornaments and statues, and of bricks, or an imitation of bricks, tiles, and stones, and joining and cementing the same, and in erecting, covering,and decorating, buildings internally and externally; and the said cement or composition may be mixed and moulded upon any sort of materials, and whole and entire erections and substances may be worked and moulded therewith. This compound of earths, oxyd, and glass or flint-stone, he puts into a circular or other proper machine, that will, by its rotatory or other motion, mix them The cement consists in a mixture of well. And their proper intermixture earths and other substances that are may be ascertained by the shade or insoluble in water, or nearly so, either colour, which should appear of one even in their natural state, or such as have and regular shade or hue; but any parbeen manufactured, as earthen-ware, ticular shade or colour may be given by porcelain, and such like substances; a proper selection of earths, or by adbut Mr. H. says, he prefers those earths ding a small quantity of vegetable, that, either in their natural or manu- mineral, or other colouring matter. factured state, are the least soluble in This composition being thus mixed, water, and have, when pulverised or he passes the same through a wire sieve, reduced to a powder, the least colour. or dressing machine, of such a fineness To the earth or earths, as before named, or mash as may be requisite for the either in their natural or manufactured purposes it is intended for, preferring a state, and so pulverised, he adds a fine sieve, mash, or wire-work, when the quantity of each of the oxyds of lead, composition is to be used for works that as litharge, grey oxyd, and minium, require a fine smooth or even surface. reduced or ground to a fine powder, and The composition, thus formed and to the whole of the above-named sub- mixed, is a fine and dry powder, and stances a quantity of pulverised glass may be kept open in bulk or in casks or flint stone. These various earths, for any length of time, without deteoxyds, and glass or flint-stone, recluced rioration. to a pulverised state, in proper and due When this composition is intended to proportions, and being mixed with a be made into cement, for any of the proper and due proportion of vegetable purposes described, it is spread upon oil, as hereinafter named, form and a board or platform, or mixed in a make a composition or cement, which, trough; and to every six hundred and by contact or exposure to the atmos- five pounds weight of the composition phere, hardens and forms an impenetra- are added five gallons of vegetable oil, ble and impervious coating or covering, as linseed-oil, walnut-oil, or pink-oil. resembling Portland or other stones. The cement or composition is composed in the following manner and proportions. To any given weight of the earth or earths, commonly called The composition is then mixed in a similar way to that of mortar, and is afterwards subjected to a gentle pressure, by treading upon it; and this operation is continued until it acquires the appear 192 Useful Arts-Cement for Ornaments-Cure of Herrings, &c. [vol.4 ance of moistened sand. The mixture, cement or composition. A thin coating being thus composed, is a cement fit of the cement is then applied between and applicable to the enumerated pur- the two bodies to be joined. poses. It is requisite to observe, that this cement should be used the same day the oil is added, otherwise it will fix or set into a solid substance, and be unfit for use. surface, and the joint is made by a rule and steel jointer. When the cement is used for the covering of substances less absorbent than bricks or tiles, (as wood, lead, iron, or tin,) a much less quantity of boiled linseed oil in preparing the surfaces is required. When the cement is applied for the purpose of covering buildings intended to resemble stone, the surface of the buildings is washed with oil. The cement is then applied of the thickness When the cement is to be used or of a quarter of an inch, or any greater applied to the making of decorations, thickness, according to the nature of ornaments, and statues, or artificial the work, joint or stone, it is intended bricks, or an imitation of bricks, tiles, to resemble. It is requisite to observe, and stones, running or casting moulds, that when a joint, intended to resemble prepared, suited, and applicable for the a plain stone joint, is to be made upon purposes for which they are intended, the surface of the cement or composiare made use of. The moulds for tion, the cement or composition must making ornaments, statues, or other be partly set or hardened previously to fancy works, are prepared and made of the impression of the joint upon its gypsum, or plaster of Paris, or seasoned or dry wood, and must be prepared by rubbing the internal parts well with raw linseed-oil, until they are brought to a dry, smooth, and polished surface, to prevent adhesion; and, in some instances, to obtain a more perfect, dry, smooth, and polished surface; pulver- From specimens which we have seen, ised plumbago is used. In all cases it we think that this is a valuable discovis requisite to detach or remove, with ery, and that in due time it will be convenient speed, the mould from the preferred to all other compositions, and body of the cement or composition to even to stone itself, as more elegant which it is intended to give form. The and more durable.-Mon. M. Sep.1818. statue, ornament, bricks, tiles, and stones, or the imitations of all or either of them CURING OF HERRINGS, &c. thus formed, must be removed with Mr. R. Alken, merchant, Stranraer, care, and placed upon a bench or plat- in Scotland, has discovered a mode of form, which must be previously covered curing herrings so as effectually to prewith fine dry sand, to prevent adhesion. vent the yellow fust, and to preserve the And, in some cases, for statues and fish in its original whiteness. After ornaments, a bed of fine dry sand is having accomplished his purpose in renecessary to receive them, where they gard to herrings, he applied generally must remain, in both cases, for the the same mode of curing and preserving purpose of setting, for twenty-four to mutton, beef, pork, and butter, in hours, or a longer period, according to which application he has also succeedthe temperature to which they are ex- ed. Some months ago he correspond, posed. When it is applied for the pur- ed on this subject with the Commispose of cementing and joining of bricks, sioners for Victualling his Majesty's tiles, stones, and other substances, the Navy, sending to them specimens of the surfaces, to which the cement or com- meat cured after his manner. He in position is to be applied, are prepared due time received their acknowledgment by brushing and cleaning them from of the great value of his discovery, with dust and all loose matter; the said sur- permission to use the name of the Board faces are then covered with boiled lin- in support of his claim to public notice, seed-oil, with a brush, as in painting. He likewise communicated the nature This application of the boiled linseed- of his discovery to the Commissioners oil prevents the too rapid absorption of of Customs, Excise, and the Fisheries in the oil employed or mixed with the Edinburgh, who examined specimens VOL. 4.] Curing Herrings-Virtues of common Chalk, 193 of the herrings, mutton, pork, and beef, Last summer, a man working in my cured by Mr. Alken in November last. garden was stung by a wasp in my The result of their examination was the presence: I directed him to apply the most unqualified admission that Mr. remedy, as described above, immediAiken's discovery is calculated to pro- ately; which he did, and in a few minduce very great benefit, not only to fish- utes, while rubbing the wound with the curers and victuallers in particular, but mixture, the pain began to abate, and to society in general. The specimens in a few minutes afterwards ceased altoexhibited shew, when cut, the fat and gether, and never troubled him again,the lean of the several kinds of meat, al- a perfect cure being produced by a sinmost as fresh as when newly killed, gle application of the remedy. This and the taste is particularly pleasant. being the case, there can be no doubt the same remedy would cure the sting The importance and value of salt as of a bee, and that of all other insects. an introduction into food, becomes con- From the above facts it is reasonable to tinually more evident, as its medical infer, that the application of chalk properties are rendered more distinct would be efficacious in the bite of vipers, and fully known. Among other salu- and of other snakes; possibly even of brious virtues, may be mentioned its those whose bite is generally, if not alauthelminthic (worm destroying) pro- ways, mortal; but in these cases the perties which have been rendered very powdered chalk should be applied dry, evident by the publication of some late instantly after the bite, and pressed into cases. It appears, that whenever salt the wound, then wiped or washed off, is denied to the human being, diseases and fresh chalk applied immediately in of the stomach are general, and that the like manner; and these operations worms are engendered in the body; to be repeated successively for some and in one instance where a person, time, with a view of absorbing or neufrom aversion to that substance, had re- tralizing all the venom injected into the fused it either in food or in any other wound by the bite. If it be the bite of form, they appear to have been the a snake, whose bite is known to be consequence, and remained for many mortal, it would be advisable, immediyears. In Ireland, salt is a well known remedy for bots in the horse; and among the poor people a dose of common salt is esteemed a cure for worms. From the Monthly Magazine, Sept. 1818. SIR, a ately after the above-mentioned operations, to cut the wound out with a knife, or apply the actual cautery, and renew the applications of dry powdered chalk, subjecting the wound afterwards to surgical treatment. It would be prudent to treat the bite of a mad-dog exactly in the same manA FEW years ago I was stung by ner as described above for that of a gnat, and, not having my usual snake, whose bite is mortal, with this remedy at hand, and reflecting on the addition--apply the dry powdered chalk absorbent and neutralizing quality of daily to the wound, and wash it by chalk, I resolved to make trial of it, and pouring water (the colder the better,) mixed some of it powdered with a little out of the spoot of a tea-kettle upon it, water, to the consistency of paste near- refilling the kettle, and emptying it in ly, which I rubbed for some minutes this manner upon the wound for the well into the wound. This immedispace of an hour every day for a month, ately effected a perfect cure. Since that in order to wash every remaining partitime, I have occasionally applied the cle of venom out of the wound, which same remedy for the above purpose, and should be kept open as long as the suralways with the same invariable success, geon deems expedient. G. BOOTA. by a single application, a second having Allerton; July 14, 1818. never been found necessary; and sev- P.S. Persons in bot climates, where eral persons, whom I acquainted with snakes are numerous, should constantly keep the remedy, have uniformly found this a little powdered chalk in their pockets. to be the case on using it. 2A ATHENEUM. Vol. 4. 194 Memoir of the Life and Writings of Lady Morgan. [VOL. 4 WHA COTEMPORARY AUTHORS. THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF LADY MORGAN. From the New Monthly Magazine, Sept. 1818. WHATEVER theorists may im- that dull routine of mediocrity to which agine or philosophers assert, re- the vanity of man has subjected the sex specting the proper sphere of woman's in general, it opens a new path to the activity, it is a fact past all contradiction investigation of genius itself. that literature stands indebted to the For the productions of Lady MORfemale sex for its richest possessions in GAN, the world, as she has herself hintthe department of imaginative compo- ed,* is indebted to that great parent of sition. exertion, necessity. In the earlier periThe naturalist will readily admit, that od of her school education, she is said the softer sex is conspicuous for a more to have exhibited alternately a taste for refined susceptibility and a more viva- music and for painting, which held out cious mobility of fibre, than the soi-di- the most flattering promises of future sant superior animal. The senses of eminence-promises which, by giving women are more acute, their apprehen- a bias to her industry, and concentrasion quicker, their interest in observa- ting her exertions upon those arts, might tion more intense, their feelings more have impeded the intellectual culture prompt, and their affections warmer, necessary to literary eminence, and have than those of men. In works, there- dictated to her other paths to emolufore, of pure imagination they are pecu- ment and distinction. But before the liarly calculated to excel. A richer arrival of the epoch of life, in which glow of fancy a deeper pathos, a great- taste and genius build a superstructure er warmth of colouring, and above all upon the bases of well-grounded ina more captivating grace and delicacy of struction and practical effort in the arts, thought and expression are the natural domestic misfortunes threw her upon attributes of beings thus constituted; her own exertions for support, and dewhile all that belongs to the heart and termined the necessity for adopting purthe tender passions must be considered suits in which natural talent is more as most especially within their domain immediately available, and expensive and jurisdiction. preparation and protracted mechanical labour are less necessary to success. Her father, the late Robert Owenson, was grandson of Sir — Crofton, the The literature of our own country is singularly distinguished by the number and brilliancy of the gems, which female genius has set in its crown. In the representative of an ancient protestant works of Cowley, Inchbald, Ratcliffe, family in Connaught, in the reign of Smith, Lee, Edgeworth, Tighe, the Elizabeth. By an imprudent connecsubject of the present memoir, &c. &c. tion with a beautiful and once celebra&c. may be found an exuberance of ted actress, he became early in life infancy, a vivacity of wit, a deep strain fected with a dramatic mania; and of feeling, a masculine philosophy, and having afterwards married a respectable a rich harmony of language, sufficient English woman, in the possession of a to form the entire intellectual capital of good life income, he purchased a share other less favoured nations. The bi- in one of the royal theatres of the Irish ography, therefore, of these distinguish- capital, and became joint proprietor of ed females possesses an interest beyond the establishment with the celebrated what is merely personal; it furnishes Mr. Ryder. He was afterwards sole documents for determining the acciden proprietor of one of the metropolitan tal and concurrent causes, which have developed so much intellectual superiority, and by betraying the agency that has elevated so many females beyond theatres, but resigned on Mr.Daly's obtaining an exclusive patent, upon an equivalent being guaranteed to him (we • See Preface to the first edition of France." VOL. 4.] Memoir of the Life and Writings of Lady Morgan. 195 believe) by act of parliament. Mr. O. a person of more experience would have afterwards embarked in the double been careful to avoid. speculation of mercantile and theatrical Another circumstance, which has concerns: he became a wine-merchant, materially contributed to give peculiar and built some theatres in the country, features to the productions of this lady, particularly the beautiful edifice at Kil- was a long residence in some of the kenny. In both these careers he pro- wildest and most classical scenes of Ireved unsuccessful; and under the pres- land, which, while they stored her fancy sure of difficulties, originating in these with picturesque and romantic images, causes, the literary talent of Miss Ow- afforded a primitive race of inhabitants, enson developed itself, accompanied by whose antique customs, fiery passions, an energy of mind and unvanquishable and calamitous history, supplied her elasticity of spirit that, spurning depen- with materials for interesting moral dence and disdaining compromisc, was combinations, and for striking dramatic neither depressed by misfortune nor narrative. Previous to the composition unbent by pleasure. of the "Wild Irish Girl," Miss Owen Young, inexperienced, unacquainted son and her sister had been kindly rewith the world, and removed from the ceived by their relations, Sir Maltby scene of observation, Miss Owenson and Lady Crofton, at their ancient and drew entirely from her own resources. hospitable seat in the county of Sligo, Her first printed novel (for we have situated on the wild shores of the Atreason to believe she did not publish her lantic ocean. To her residence in this earliest efforts) was too decided an imi- mansion Miss Owenson makes grateful tation of a known model: but in the allusion in her "Patriotic Sketches." course of her labours she gradually acThe progress of civilization in Euquired a greater originality; and in the rope has left but few sites, adapted to "Wild Irish Girl" succeeded in creating fictitious narration. The uniformity a genus of composition exclusively her which fashion casts over the exterior of own, and to which we are, perhaps, in- polished manners, and the protection debted for that delightful series of na- which established governments hold out tional tale, now universally attributed to to the lives and fortunes of the citizens, Walter Scott. The success which at- circumscribe at the same time the range tended this publication, and that of the of adventure and the latitude of personal "Novice of St. Dominick," which preced- peculiarity, admissible into the "tale of edit, introduced Miss Owenson at once real life." On the other hand, the rointo the highest circle of English and Irish mance of feudal superstition, and of bafashion, and afforded her opportunities ronial oppression, with its ghosts, dunof observation that gave a vast and sud- geons, and trap doors, was exhausted den expansion to her ideas, and greatly before the epoch of Miss Owenson's increased her powers as a novelist. In first appearance as a writer. In the the more unfavourable epochs of her life, rude and uncultivated scenery of Ireland, a natural repugnance to the vulgar, the in the isolation of its inhabitants, and in dull, the vitious, and the uninstructing, the surprising chances and changes of in a great measure secluded her from its domestic warfare, a resource awaited society; and, except within the narrow the novelist for escaping the satiety and limits of a few personal friends, she insipidity of the common romance; maintained little or no intercourse with and guided by her taste, her genius, the world, till she came forth herself one and her national affections, she eagerly of its ornaments. This circumstance availed herself of it; for while compoexplains the ideal cast of her earlier sing the "Wild Irish Girl," and the compositions, the richness and abun- "Patriotic Sketches," at the seat of Sir dance of her sentimental reflections, the Maltby Crofton, she embodied in those romance of her heroines, and at the works the picturesque beauties, and same time the paucity of her remarks on simple but characteristic manners of the life, the "unreal mockery" and impro- district and population by which she bability of her story, and a certain haz- was surrounded. arding of situation and character, which The poetry and music of Ireland are |