WINE, OIL, AND SPIRIT MEASURE.
Two pints will make one quart
Of any wine, I'm told:
Four quarts one gallon are of port
Or claret, new or old.
Forty-two gallons will
A tierce fill to the bung:
And sixty-three's a hogshead full
Of brandy, oil, or rum.
Eighty-four gallons make
One puncheon fill'd to brim,
Two hogsheads make one pipe or butt,
Two pipes will make one tun.
A little wine within
Oft cheers the mind that's sad;
But too much brandy, rum, or gin,
No doubt is very bad.
From all excess beware,
Which sorrow must attend;
Drunkards a life of woe must share,—
When time with them shall end.
The arithmeticon, I would just remark, may be applied to geometry. Round, square, oblong, &c. &c., may be easily taught. It may also be used in teaching geography. The shape of the earth may be shewn by a ball, the surface by the outside, its revolution on its axis by turning it round, and the idea of day and night may be given by a ball and a candle in a dark-room.
As the construction and application of this instrument is the result of personal, long-continued, and anxious effort, and as I have rarely seen a pirated one made properly or understood, I may express a hope that whenever it is wanted either for schools or nurseries, application will be made for it to my depot.
I have only to add, that a board is placed at the back to keep the children from seeing the balls, except as they are put out; and that the brass figures at the side are intended to assist the master when he is called away, so that he may see, on returning to the frame, where he left off.
The slightest glance at the wood-cut will shew how unjust the observations of the writer of "Schools for the Industrious Classes, or the Present State of Education amongst the Working People of England," published under the superintendance of the Central Society of Education, are, where he says, "We are willing to assume that Mr. Wilderspin has originated some improvements in the system of Infant School education; but Mr. Wilderspin claims so much that many persons have been led to refuse him that degree of credit to which he is fairly entitled. For example, he claims a beneficial interest in an instrument called the Arithmeticon, of which he says he was the inventor. This instrument was described in a work on arithmetic, published by Mr. Friend forty years ago. The instrument is, however, of much older date; it is the same in principle as the Abacus of the Romans, and in its form resembles as nearly as possible the Swanpan of the Chinese, of which there is a drawing in the Encyclopaedia Brittanica. Mr. Wilderspin merely invented the name." Now, I defy the writer of this to prove that the Arithmeticon existed before I invented it. I claim no more than what is my due. The Abacus of the Romans is entirely different; still more so is the Chinese Swanpan; if any person will take the trouble to look into the Encyclopaedia Britannica, they will see the difference at once, although I never heard of either until they were mentioned in the pamphlet referred to. There are 144 balls on mine, and it is properly simplified for infants with the addition of the tablet, which explains the representative characters as well as the real ones, which are the balls.