FURNITURE FOR COTTAGE DWELLINGS. 3^ be sold bv a manufacturer for a pound sterling less than the other, merely from his havin- employed in it the most common, instead of the best, description of castors. Ve are infornied bv Mr. Dalziel, who is extremely particular to use only the very best mate'rials in all thJ articles which he manufactures, that the best castor at present in use is that of Cope of Birmingham. ITiis is a ball working in a cup, something in the manner of Mr. ISIallefs iron castor ; and the more pressure there is on it, the easier it works. The cushions and mattresses of sofas are commonly stuffed with hair or wool ; and sometimes, for cheapness, with chaff, chopped hay, or straw or bran- but an article has been lately introduced into tins manuf^acture which is found to answer as well as baked hair, and not to cost above a tlurd of the expense. This is the Zostera marina, or sea wrack grass, found on the coast of Isorfolk ; abundantly in the Orkneys and Hebrides; and on the northern shores of the German Ocean. When gathered, it is repeatedly washed in fresh water, to deprive it of all its saline particles; and, being afterwards dried in the sun, it is twisted into thit-k ropes, and in That state sent to the manufacturer, who has it untwisted, and cut into short lengths for use " Whatever material is used for stuffing, it is first enclosed in strong canvass, and afterwards covered with black horse-hair, moreen, or damask, nailed on with brass- headed nails, or with a loose cover of printed cottons or other stuffs. A very cheap and yet tasteful loose sofa cover may be made of glazed self-coloured calico, with a narro'w piece of different coloured calico, or shawl bordering, laid on about a couple of inches from the edcre. This kind of cover lasts clean much longer than one of common printed cotton ; and, when the bordering is carried round the covers of the cushions, bolsters, &c., it has a pretty and even elegant effect. In all cases where the covers of sofas are made of a material which admits of a choice of colours, those should be preferred which prevail in the cai-pet and window curtains of the room ; the principal reason in tliis, and all similar cases, being, that such a choice indicates unity of design. 651 Sofa Beds. Sofas which may be converted into beds are most convenient articles of furniture for cottages and other small dwellings. Fig. 676, p. S24, shows a bed formed out of a sofa of this description. The back of the sofa is hinged, as shown in ficr 677 at a- and it falls down, and is supported by two portable legs, fig. 678, b, c: these leo-s are 'tapped and screwed into the top rail of the back (that is, a screw isfonned on the °upper end of the leg, and, a hole being bored in the rail, nearly of the same diameter as this screw, an instrument called a tap is introduced into the hole, and being turned round, grooves out a path for the screw ; this path, or screw groove, is called the female s^rew, and that which goes into it, the male screw). The end, d, is made to shift ; it is fastened to the side rail of the seat of the sofa by the two wooden dowels, e e, which o-o into the rail, and is secured to the back and bottom by two thumb screws, at f f. When the bed is used, this end is shifted to that opposite, in order to form the head of the bed ; the end style of the back of the sofa having holes to receive the same dowels and thumb-screws, so as to retain it in its place. Underneath the sofa there is a well for the legs, fig. G76, g, which may either open to the front or the back, and may be either conceafed by the valance of the sofa cover, or by a movable ^anel of wood. There is a cupboard which opens at one end, as seen at h, in fig. 678. Fig. 679, p. 327, is a view of a sofa which may be turned into a bed with posts and curtains. Fig. 680 shows 680 the first process, that of removing the sofa cover, mattress, and cushions of the seat, and the mattress of the back. Here is seen a third mattress, t, which is kept in a well underneath the scat, and sufficiently long to hold it in a curved though not in a straiglit position. The remaining part of the space underneath the seat is occupied by
