Gazogenes. — In country homes, or where difficulty, as frequently happens, is experienced in keeping a stock of aerated waters, one of Favarger’s Gazogenes will be found a most useful adjunct to domestic comfort. With the aid of this machine and a supply of Briets’ Gazo- gene Powders, which are very inexpensive, almost any desired kind of aerated water can be had at short notice, and often of a superior quality to what can be obtained in bottles from the local tradesmen. More- over, the Gazogene possesses all the advantages attaching to the syphon system, as the exact quantity of soda or seltzer required can be drawn off at a time, what remains in the machine being as bright and well gas-charged as at first. The Gazogene, in short, ministers both to comfort and economy, and is a decided advantage in any house. The possession of a few fruit syrups will enable the nimble-fingered house- wife to manufacture any number of delicious cooling summer beverages, such as children and young people are so fond of. Household Linen. — Before purchasing table and kitchen linen, it is as well — unless you have the advantage of residing in a large town, or belong to a ‘ store ’ — to apply to one or two leading manufacturers for their price-lists. Money can often be saved, and a better article obtained, by dealing direct with, say, a good Belfast house. Lamps and Petroleum Oils. — Among thousands of families into whose hands this little work will stray, the petroleum oil lamp has doubtless already found a home. A few hints respecting its purchase and management are therefore likely to benefit the housekeeper, who through ignorance or carelessness not unfrequently meets with disap- pointment or worse. Accidents, occasionally of a harrowing nature, KITCHEN AND DOMESTIC REQUISITES. 139 have occurred, and will re-occur, so long as the public persists in false economy, buying cheap and unscientifically-constructed lamps of foreign manufacture, and then using these so imperfectly as to practically court disaster. Dissatisfaction, again, is constantly expressed with the light yielded, but where in nine cases out of ten lies the blame ? With the housekeeper. Either the lamp is defective, the oil is bad, or the management is heedless. How can anyone look for that soft brilliant illumination so greatly admired in West-End lamp shops when oil is procured from a retailer below the wholesale cost in bulk for a decent second-rate article ? Comfort is then sacrificed to mere thoughtlessness or niggardliness. Such oil, as we indicate, must either be insufficiently rectified or adulterated, and its light cannot be other than unsatisfactory. Between good paraffin and good petroleum or kerosene, there is not much to choose. The distinction between the two is as follows. Paraffin is produced from Shale by a process of distilation, the chief seat of the industry being Scotland, while the rival oil is the natural product derived from wells sunk in America and the Baku region in Kussia. Paraffin comes somewhat less expensive than kerosene — if such an expression is permissible with regard to illuminants costing half the price of gas — it ignites more slowly, and flashes at a higher point. The balance of safety is therefore if anything on its side, but the glow from the best-fed paraffin lamp is less white and cheerful than when well-filtered kerosene is used, and in our opinion the latter is preferable.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

Gazogenes. — In country homes, or where difficulty, as frequently happens, is experienced in keeping a stock of aerated waters, one of Favarger’s Gazogenes will be found a most useful adjunct to domestic comfort. With the aid of this machine and a supply of Briets’ Gazogene Powders, which are very inexpensive, almost any desired kind of aerated water can be had at short notice, and often of a superior quality to what can be obtained in bottles from the local tradesmen. Moreover, the Gazogene possesses all the advantages attaching to the syphon system, as the exact quantity of soda or seltzer required can be drawn off at a time, what remains in the machine being as bright and well gas-charged as at first. The Gazogene, in short, ministers both to comfort and economy, and is a decided advantage in any house. The possession of a few fruit syrups will enable the nimble-fingered housewife to manufacture any number of delicious cooling summer beverages, such as children and young people are so fond of. Household Linen. — Before purchasing table and kitchen linen, it is as well — unless you have the advantage of residing in a large town, or belong to a ‘ store ’ — to apply to one or two leading manufacturers for their price-lists. Money can often be saved, and a better article obtained, by dealing direct with, say, a good Belfast house. Lamps and Petroleum Oils. — Among thousands of families into whose hands this little work will stray, the petroleum oil lamp has doubtless already found a home. A few hints respecting its purchase and management are therefore likely to benefit the housekeeper, who through ignorance or carelessness not unfrequently meets with disappointment or worse. Accidents, occasionally of a harrowing nature, have occurred, and will re-occur, so long as the public persists in false economy, buying cheap and unscientifically-constructed lamps of foreign manufacture, and then using these so imperfectly as to practically court disaster. Dissatisfaction, again, is constantly expressed with the light yielded, but where in nine cases out of ten lies the blame ? With the housekeeper. Either the lamp is defective, the oil is bad, or the management is heedless. How can anyone look for that soft brilliant illumination so greatly admired in West-End lamp shops when oil is procured from a retailer below the wholesale cost in bulk for a decent second-rate article ? Comfort is then sacrificed to mere thoughtlessness or niggardliness. Such oil, as we indicate, must either be insufficiently rectified or adulterated, and its light cannot be other than unsatisfactory. Between good paraffin and good petroleum or kerosene, there is not much to choose. The distinction between the two is as follows. Paraffin is produced from Shale by a process of distilation, the chief seat of the industry being Scotland, while the rival oil is the natural product derived from wells sunk in America and the Baku region in Kussia. Paraffin comes somewhat less expensive than kerosene — if such an expression is permissible with regard to illuminants costing half the price of gas — it ignites more slowly, and flashes at a higher point. The balance of safety is therefore if anything on its side, but the glow from the best-fed paraffin lamp is less white and cheerful than when well-filtered kerosene is used, and in our opinion the latter is preferable.

English and French cookery