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Hawke's Bay Times, Volume V, Issue 214, 16 January 1865, Page 3

Jubilee. —Sunday, the 25th ult, was Ihejubilee of the first sermon preached in New Zealand, by the Rev. Samuel Marsden, in ISI-t, at the Bay of Islands. Household Bells. —An elaborate essay, by Mr. William H. Preece, C.E., appeared in a recent number of the Telegraphic Journal. Mr. Preece, after giving a most readable account of tl.e history of bells used for dome-tie purposes, says : —lt is evident, that some improvement is needed in the construction and working of our household bells. The chief cause of the inconvenience we suffer lies in the fact that we have to exert a strain upon the wire to produce a sound upon the bell. Remove the necessity of pulling the wire, the wire remains firm, the noise ceases, the cranks are abandoned, and it matters not how much dirt vermin heap over the wire—they can’t eat .it. All these evils—unpleasant noise, liability to slick, pronencss to stretching, instability of parts, variation in tones —are entirely removed. in the new electric bell, which is so extensively employed in' Franco. Nothing struck me, in a recent journey to Paris, so much bs the intensive use which our neighbours make of this new application of that wonderful science which serves our public and private wants to such a marvellous extent. Electric bells are used everywhere—in private houses, in public institutions, in merchants’ offices, in ordinary shops, in cafes and restaurants ; all the large hotels—the Grand Hotel, the Louvre—are most completely provided;with them ; indeed, they become a general .domestic necessity. Enormous posters advertise them to the Parisian public. Large shops are devoted to their supply alone. They must, sooner or later, be introduced into England, for we can’t long remain behind our neighbours across the water in an article of such advanced priciples and of such domestic and everyday use. A gentle pressure upon a small button effects all that is required. The electric force that rings the boll steals noiselessly along the wire, there is no sound, there is no strain : but the bell gives forth its warning sound as though It were rung by the stout arm of some invisible sprite. How is this effected ? We require a ba tery to generate the electric force, wires to convey it to the bells, buttoiis to bring’ it into play, bells to.be sounded, and tablets to indicate the room from whence the impulse emanated. ■Preserving Wood nr Salt.— J. B. Simons, of Brush Valley, Indiana, thus writes to the Scientific American: —"l have used common salt for the preservation of mill-shafts or water-wheel shafts, and it has. had a. good effect in staying the decayed timber. Take a two-inch auger, bore holes into the stick of timber* and,fill up with salt, and then .plug up the holes tight. In a large stick of timber, like a water-wheel shaft, bore a hole through the centre like a pump, and fill up with salt and plug it has been uo, and there is no felling how. long this may been tried with us, and.has answered vety_ well last, No manwould believe what effect it will have fill he tries it. 1 have used it in a mill-abaft that was decaying, audit certainly has helped it wonderfully. ‘ I have never seen a salt barrel but what was sound, and will stand more weather than any other barrel or stave of its kind.”

A hungry man’s description of one of, the watering-places this season;—Sixty-four guests, sixty-five waiters, and notHing to eat.