Page 4 Advertisements Column 3

Ashburton Guardian, Volume I, Issue 34, 13 December 1879, Page 4

Flouk Experiment.— A French ohemist last year exposed a quantity of flour to a hydraulic pressure of 300 tons, which reduced it to one fourth of its original hulk without impairing the quality. After the lapse of a year the unpressed flour has become spoiled, while the pressed remained sweet, and was excellent when baked. The use of the bridal veil has been traced bade by some wise men to the Anglo-Saxon custom of performing the nuptial ceremony under a square piece of cloth, held over the bridegroom and bride, to conceal her virgin blushes ; in the case of a widow, however, wo are told the veil was dispensed with. Orange blossoms, ever an inseparable part of bridal gear, are said to have been derived from the Saracens, or at least, from the East, and are supposed to have been thus employed as emblems of fecundity. The weddingring is thought to be of heathen origin, which circumstance nearly caused its abolition doping the Commonwealth.