The Sun.
London, England, 1841-01-30 00:00:00

BEER-DRINKING IN GERMANY

The particular habits connected with beer-drinking
in Germany, as it is carried on, will strike a stranger
at first sight as being characteristic how far habit goes
in giving us prejudices and predilections. In England
we drink our malt liquor out of potF, glasses, tumblers,
&c. ; b❑t in this portion of the world such is not the
case. A German is never seen to drink white beer out
of a glass similar to that from which he drinks Bava-
rian ; nor Bavarian out of that from which he drinks
common ; and moreover, he will not drink one, two,
or three out of glasses or pots having a similar shape or
configuration. Thus every k;nd of beer is served in its
particular glass ; in such a manner that it is easy to be
informed, from one end of the coffee-house to the other, li
even by a glance of the eye, with what sort of liquor
the various guests are regaling themselves. The white
beer is decanted, the whole bottle at a time, into a
drinking-glass about eighteen inches high, of small dia-
meter, and that the same throughout, with a bore of
stnilar dimensions as the mouth. When full it contains
about two English pints ; and moreover, when placed
on the table, is provided with a moveable cover, I pre-
sume, intended to prevent as much of the carbonic acid
gas from making its escape as possible. One may cer-
tainly drink out of any sort of vessel—that is, a vessel
of any shape—when thirsty ; but on raising such a one
as this to our lips for the first time, it seemed very like
as if we were drinking malt liquor from the barrel of a
blunderbuss. It requires much steadiness of hand, and
the practice of a few weeks, in order to quench thirst
from such a bicker, without, on getting towards the bot-
tom, pouring some part of the contents down the breast.
The Bavarian beer, as we have said, has got also its
own pot, and in configuration it is the very reverse of
the former. It is formed of flint glass, and is some five
or six inches high, containing a pint, and becoming gra-
dually narrower from the bore to the top, the latter of
which is covered with a metallic lid, in a manner re•
ambling a gill-stoup ; the lid, moving by a pivot on
the handle, of course is raised every time the pot is
raised to the mouth ; and, owing to the small dimen-
sions of the upper part of the pot, whilst the lip of the
same is in our mouths, the lid sticks, with little con-
venience, into our right eye. So much for articles
which seem so very inapplicable to the purposes to
which they are applied, yet no German would ever
think of pouring his beer into a glass, and drinking it in
that. more convenient way. The common beer is drunk
out of a glass differing from either of these, it being
neither so long as the one, nor so short as the other,
but somewhere half and half between the two. So
much for the manner of beer-drinking in Germany ;
and we shall also add, that the Germans are find of
their beer, and drink it in large quantities—they like it
because it is their owa.—Correspondent of the Morning
Advertiser.

PROPOSAL FOR ESTABLISHING
A BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR THE AD-
VANCEMENT OF THE FINE ARTS.

A knowledge and consequent due appreciation of
the fine arts,—the arts which purify and ennoble,
—are now observable amongst much larger masses of
persons in the metropolitan cities of the United King-
dom, than was the case 20 years ago ; and mnst ine-
vitably go on to augment in a greatly multiplied ratio
as every step gained becomes the means of further ad-
vances. In the provinces, too, where there are fewer
" appliances and means to boot," the attention of the
people to the importance of the fine arts as civilizing
agents, and as tending to promote the general good,
and therefore the general happiness, has visibly in-
creased, and has manifested itself in more than one
good result. Still there is a wide fiald here open for
ev.rtion ; and so undeniably important is the object to be
attained, so vast is the good that would result from
spreading a taste for the fine arts throughout the coun-
try, and inculcating a love of the beautiful, that no ef-
forts could be too great, no scheme of operations could
be too extensive, which should propose to effect it,
Eaperience shows the advantages which have re-
sulted from the establishment of the " British Associa-
tion for the Promotion of Science," not chiefly to science
per .se, although these have been great and manifold,
but to the people generally . attention has been
awakened in the minds of thousands to subjects be-
fore unthougiit of : a spirit of inquiry has been induced ;
and whole: towns inoculated with an admiration
of knowledge, and a determination to pursue it, to
the exclusion of demoralizing sources of excitement,
until then indulged in. Why, then, might there not
be formed an association for the encouragement of art,
which, like this, should meet annually at a different
town in England, Ireland, or Scotland, and at which
meeting painting, poetry, sculpture, architecture, &c.,
c., in all their varieties, and with all -their ramifica-
tions, should form the subjects for the consideration of
the different sections ? A large and important exhibition
of works of art might be collected, and an Art-Union ar-
ranged so as to secure the sale of a certain number of
them, and thus to ensure the assistance of the most
eminent artists, by rendering the society directly, a 5
well as indirectly, advantageous to them. A small
subscription (say one pound) would constitute a meta.
ber of the Association for the year, the aggregate of
which, after deducting the expenses ne ccuar ily incurred,

would probably enable the Committee (which should be
partly local, partly general) to offer s for compe-
tition in the higher branches of the various arts, and
vote sums for the encouragement of any desirable ob.
ject in connexion therewith ; such, for examplo, as for
the prosecution of experiments in the preparation of
colours, the manufacture of stained glass, or for the
purchase of particular pictures, worthy of national re-
gard.
During the meeting the various local collections
would be thrown open to inspection ; conver-
sazioni would be held ; and other means adorte l
to bring men into contact with each other, on one
common ground. One of the first points to be
achieved by the united sections would be, to
obtain an able and correct report of the pro-
gress of Art in England, Ireland, and Scotland,
for the last fifty years—a task to be fulfilled satis-
factorily only by the joint co-operation of men
in all parts of the country. This report would
afterwards be continued from year to year, under
its various heads, and could not fail to prose
a work of the highest interest and value. It is not here
attempted, however, to point out what cotill be done by
a Society organized on the footing suggested : its power
of effecting much good must be apparent to all, and
needs hardly to be insisted on. The writer is contented
simply, but with great earnestness and but one object—
namely, strong desire to serve the cause of art (the
cause of morality and public good), to state the proposi-
tion, in the hope that others of more ability, influence,
and leisure, may view it as it has appeared to him ; and
be induced to carry it into execution, efficiently, and
forthwith.

GEORGE GODWIN, Jun.
Pulliam Crescent, Brompton, Jan. 1841.

THE ELECTRO-TYPE.

Little is known by the public generally of the newly-
discovered and highly useful art of electro•metallurgy,
to which the present and future generations will doubt-
less owe some of the greatest improvements in arts and
manufactures which have rendered any age remarkable
in the annals of civilization. The process by which the
electro-t.ype or volts-tyr4 is formed is extremely easy,
and does not require any complicated machinery. A
simple voltaic battery is set in motion, and the copper-
plate or other subject of which it is required to take a
copy is made the negative pole of the battery, the consc—
quence of which is, that the sulphate of copper in solu-
tion is precipitated upon it. This goes on in a very gra-
dual manner, and the plate is left suspended in the
trough until the copper deposited is of a sufficient
thickness to allow of its removal from the original plate.
The c►ust thus formed will, however, of course, present
the subject in relief, and reversed ; and in order to
form a fat-simile of the plate, this copy is again placed
in the trough, when the same process is repeated upon
this first copy or " matrix," and a perfect plate is the
production ready from which to throw off copies.
At first it was supposed that the process could not
be attended with successful results in the case of non-
metallic bodies ; but the knowledge of the chemist
soon suggested means of applying the electto•type to
non-metallic as well as metallic substances. The most
simple as well as efficient of there means is found to be
the simple operation of rubbing a common domestic
black-lead brush over the face of the seal, cast, wood-
cut, or other material of which it is by this process de-
sired to take a fat-simile. The black-lead forms a
very fine metallic surface upon the non-metallic sub-
stance, and the process goes on as well as if it were
solid metal.

The accuracy of the copies of engravings taken from
electro-type plates is such that artists have found it
in many cases impossible to say which was taken from
the original plate and which from the fac-simile ; and
in other cases, where a distinction has been discover-
able, it has been in favour of the electro-type, the lines
of which were softer than those of the graver. The
process in all its varieties was exhibited by Mr. Brande
on Friday evening, in illustration of his lecture on the
subject, at the Royal Institution. Another important
discovery in connexion with this art has been made,
which is of importance to the engraver—namely, that
by the means already described, plates of copper, of a
purity which can be ensured in no other way, aro to be
obtained. Two such plates, one of very large dime n-
sions, were exhibited by Mr. Brande.
It will be seen, that from the ease with which dupli-
cate plates can be produced, there will be, in the case
of costly engravings, no necessity of using the original
plate at all, and thus the necessity of " retouching,"
which in many instances amounts to half the original
cost of engraving, may be entirely superseded by mul-
tiplying, through the all-powerful agency of the eke-
tro-type, the number of the copies. Copies of fruit,
leaves, and a variety of other substances, arc taken with
a perfection, beauty, and (necessaty) truth to the ori-
ginal, which belongs to no other art. The discovery
is likely to work a great reform in the patterns and
devices of pottery, which, instead of rudely designed
and ill-executed ornaments, may, in a short time, be
expected to present the most beautifully engraved sub-
jects which the art of the engraver can furnish.—
Evening Paper.