SMOOTHING IRONS are of various kinds. The box iron is a polished iron box, of a form nearly triangular, and provided with a sliding door, through which is put a red-hot heater. The flat, or sad iron, which is in more general use, is simply a heater of cast iron, with a polished flat face, and a handle above ; this, however, is only heated to a degree that will not scorch the linen 'to be operated upon by it. Mr. Taylor, of Birmingham, has recently introduced an improvement upon the latter, by which it partakes of the properties of the former. /lg. I represents the lower part of the iron, hollow inside, and having a stub or block of iron cast to the face, on which is screwed a button. Fig. 2 is the heater, with a square hole in the middle, through which the stub in Pig. 1 passes. Fig. 3 is the upper part and handle of the flat iron, having also a square hole in it; so that when this is placed over the former two, the button passes through both, and is made feat by giving it half a turn, by means of the heater handle, Fig. 4. This handle also serves for taking the heater out of the fire, and putting it to the iron, or the reverse operation, by thrusting its extremity into a hole in the heater, made for that purpose. This invention, for Taylor obtained a patent, forms a cheap substitute for the box iron.
Another kind of irons, called Italian irons, are much used for the same pur poses. This is a hollow cylinder, with a spherical end, the other end being open for placing in the interior a cylindrical or somewhat tapered red-hot heater; it is mounted upon a stand, and the small articles of linen are gently pressed by a sliding motion over the heated surface. A variety of modifications of this apparatus may be seen in the ironmongers' shops, some double and some treble: but there is one that was patented by a Mr. Nicholson, of Lambeth, that seems to demand some notice here; the use of separate heaters being therein obviated by the burning of a lamp in a hollow cone, the apex of which supports the irons, and communicates the heat of the flame of the lamp thereto. Mush ingenuity has likewise been expended in the fabrication of irons for crimping and rolling linen between cylinders, with corrugated and plain surfaces, con taining, in the interior, heaters, and worked by cranks and wheels ; but as most of our readers will probably think that we have already devoted sufficient space to the affkirs of the laundry, where this machinery may easily be seen, and its uses demonstrated, we refer the ardent inquirer to the laundress herself for further particulars.