1850. Reads syringe (fig. 473.) is by far the best implement of the kind. By means of a ball valve (d), which can never go out of repair, the water is drawn in through a large opening, and forced out either through a fine rose (e), a larger rose (b), or in one spout (a), each forming a separate cap, which screws off and on. In common syringes the air above the piston proves an obstacle to the operation of the syringe, and greatly increases the labour of the operator; but in Read's syringe there is a tube (f) by which this air escapes in the operation of drawing in water, and the space is as readily replaced with air through the same aperture in pressing the water out again. It is astonishing how much this lessens the power requisite either to fill the syringe or empty it. A child may do, with Read's engine, what requires a man with the common kind. This instrument may be considered as superseding not only the common hand-syringes, but even the barrow-engine, and other machines of this kind to which the same improvements are not applied.
