The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1871-07-27

Some Needed Inventions.

American invention has done its full
share in reducing the sum of human
misery. The world is debtor to it fo1
much that has simplite1 labor by sup
planting or supplementing muscle with
mechanism and machinery. The cotton
gin, the steamboat, the sewing-machine
the mower and reaper, and many other
ingenious combinations or appliances,
have gone out from us to gladden. the
world and receive the grateful recogni-
tion of mankind. But enough is left to
be done to occupy the most inventive
genius; and in directions which promise
ample remuneration to the fortunate
discoverer. Of these needed inventions
we may name q few, not necessarily as
wonderful or as widely influential as
those above referred to, but which are
none the less desirable. Moreover, there
is fortune in store for the happy man
or woman who shall first introduce any
of them to waiting world.
| Let us, first and foremost, in behalf of
the housekeepers of every civilized coun-
| try, bespeak the invention of some safe
contrivance for the washing of dishes,
which shall do this branch of domestic
work with the least possible drudgery.
Very few husbands know how large a
share of female human life is now worn
out both by mistresses and maids in
this least snowy but most constant of all
household occupations. One of the
greatest of woman's wrongs, TODAY, is
the compulsory sacrifice of her time and
temper to the inexorable claims of each
meals crockery. Even if her own hands
are not obliged to undergo parboiling in
the process, her cleanly tastes must be
outraged, and her nerves shattered, and
her purse depleted by the slovenly or
careless mode of procedure whereby Bid
dy bedaubs or breaks the fragile cups
and plates. That this work, or most of
it, can be done by some nicely adapted
mechanical appliance, certainly seems to
be among the possibilities The only
wonder is that it takes SO long to hit
upon it.
Another great want of the household
is the invention which shall render in
odorous the kerosene which has come to
be the mainstay of most people outside
of the cities as an illuminating agent. In
whatever shape it is used, the "scent of
the Kerosene hangs round it STILL" and
round everything else as well. II does
little credit to chemical science and pro-
gress that SO many thousands of homes
should be obliged to implore, in vain, re-
Ilef from this ever present nuisance.
The man who will supply this desidera-
tum Is sure OF being hailed and paid as
an almost universal benefactor.
Another want is smoke-preventing
apparatus, which will permit the con-
sumption OF bituminous coal in furnaces
and stoves. The essentials of perfect
combustion are we'll enough known, and
the necessities of this special case can be
theorized on ad H6itum by persons who
profess to be able to do what is wanted.
But in practice all their promises fail, or
If the thing is secured, it is at an expense
OF money and complexity which makes
it useless. Else why do our steamboats,,
locomotives, and stationary furnaces con-
tinue their pernicious and disgusting
habits of smoking? If the invention
has been introduced into English use, as
some insist, how happens it that the Gu
nard steamers never have adopted any
thing of the kind by way of showing us
how the thing is doneP This question
is one OF great concern to all of our
country lying west of the Alleghanies,
and i'll the districts where bituminous
coal SO largely predominates. A practi-
cal solution of the difficulty would be a
blessing to Pittsburg, where white face
is an ephemeral vision, and clean shirt |
is never seen. Seeing that this fuel is |
vastly more plentiful in the United |
States than anthracite coal, and in some |
sections is the sole dependence of the
people, there surely are sufficient incen-
tives for the development of some simple
process OF eliminating its only disagree
able characteristic. Here, then, are
some fine openings for ambitious invent
ors. And when this order is filed, we
shall be ready with another list.-Neao
York Times.