Cage (elevator)

“ There was one shop window entirely filled with cages, and all sorts of beautiful birds in them. The children were delighted till they remembered how they had once wished for wings themselves, and had had them—and then they felt how desperately unhappy anything with wings must be if it is shut up in a cage and not allowed to fly.
'It must be fairly beastly to be a bird in a cage,' said Cyril. ”

“ She had engaged herself in short to the perfection of a type, and almost anything square and smooth and whole had its weight for a person still conscious herself of being a mere bruised fragment of wreckage. But it contributed hugely at present to carry on the two parallel lines of her experience in the cage and her experience out of it. After keeping quiet for some time about this opposition she suddenly—one Sunday afternoon on a penny chair in the Regent’s Park—broke, for him, capriciously, bewilderingly, into an intimation of what it came to. ”

“ Any of the men in the office can take you through it, as well as I can; but I don't let strangers go into the mine unless I'm with them. We're going to put in a new cage, next month," he added casually, as they drew near the shaft.
"What's that for?" asked Charlie, to whom cages and their construction were a mystery.
"Safer, and can carry more," answered his host concisely. "These cross-heads and buckets are slow work. A two-deck cage will do the same amount in much less time, and there's no fear of their catching, as these do sometimes." ”

“ There is the rushing noise of the cage, the whirring of wheels, the constant dripping and plashing sound of falling water, the thudding of the pump, the stifling feeling of dank heat, the stuffy mist, and joined to all the knowledge that if that slender thread of wire-rope should happen to break, the cage would fall perhaps hundreds of feet, and its occupants be killed. ”

“ The advantage of the loose bottom is that the box may be lifted off at any time, and the bottom thoroughly cleansed. I have had this type of cage constructed in blocks of four so that a single bottom and cover sufficed for the block. If the mice are being kept for show or for the observation of their movements, at least one side of the cages should be of wire netting, and, as Kishi suggests, such objects as a wheel, a tower, a tunnel, a bridge, and a turntable, if placed in the cage, will give the animals excellent opportunity to exhibit their capacity for varied forms of activity. ”

“ Inexorably, the fancy held me that some gaunt giant, fifty cubits high, kept men and women in this cage because he loved to hear their voices expressing moods he knew nothing of. Not more caged are the five brown bells in the tower, with mute, patient heads like cows, their names being Solitude, Tranquillity, Duty, Harmony, Joy. ”

“ The steel door shuts upon you, and somebody working the winding gear above drops you into the void. You have the usual momentary qualm in your belly and a bursting sensation in the ears, but not much sensation of movement till you get near the bottom, when the cage slows down so abruptly that you could swear it is going upwards again. In the middle of the run the cage probably touches sixty miles an hour; in some of the deeper mines it touches even more. When you crawl out at the bottom you are perhaps four hundred yards under ground. ”

“ When the sliding door is raised, the movable valved shield is in position half a foot within the chamber, and cuts off all escape of vapor. The workmen thus have time to push the cage leisurely, after the door is raised, into the chamber, until the end of the cage touches the screen. This effected, they push the cage in a few seconds into the lethal atmosphere, the shield running before it, and then the door is slided down into its place. When all is nicely adapted, a very few seconds are required to introduce the cage and close the sliding or entrance door. ”

“ As two heads are said to be better than one, so are two birds, therefore he who wants to raise a strain, should get two good ones, about the end of May—stop one of them. This is done by putting your cage in a box, just big enough to hold it, having a door in front to pull up. Some have a glass in the door to enable them to see the birds; others keep them in total darkness, only opening their prison to give them food and water. The common way is to put the cage in the box, and close the door, by a little at a time, daily, keeping it in a warm place. ”

“ Approach the cage, hold in your left hand a heavy cloak or blanket wrapped round your hand and arm; let there be two assistants near at hand, and a small stove in which half a dozen iron rods are heating; let the door of the cage be a real door, opening upon hinges, and shutting with a good and deeply-notched latch—not a sliding door, as such a mode of entering the cage might be as much as your life was worth. Speak kindly to the animal, and caress it through the bars of its cage ere you enter, or the suddenness of your entrance may irritate or alarm it, and thus induce it to attack you. ”

“ Not only does my bird occupy himself with corks, but with perches and the woodwork of his cage, with so great success that the former have to be frequently renewed, and the latter looks as though rats had nibbled it. The deliberate way in which he goes to work to destroy his cage is amusing, lifting the end of a perch and quietly throwing it to the floor, or pounding and splitting off a big splinter of the soft pine and carefully hiding it. ”

“ Unlocking the door, he flung it wide and stepped inside, leaving the cage door open.
"The moment a single pie is disturbed," he said to me, "I shall close the steel door from the inside, and you and Miss Barrison will then dump the rosium oxide and the strontium into the tank, clap on the lid, turn the nozzle of the hose on the cage, and spray it thoroughly. [172] Whatever is invisible in the cage will become visible and of a faint rose color. And when the trapped creature becomes visible, hold yourselves ready to aid me as long as I am able to give you orders. ”

“ The cage door is left open always now, and he flies in and out as he likes. He is a restless, inquisitive fellow, and visits any part of the room, trying each fresh thing with his bill to see if it is good to eat, and then perching on it to see if it good to sit upon. ”

“ In autumn and winter, it will sometimes dart on birds in cages which are outside the window. It may then be easily caught, if the cage be put into a sort of box, having the lid so placed that the bird by the least touch would cause it to fall upon itself. These means must be employed by those who wish to possess birds which they can let go and come at will. ”

“ Everard King came out, and taking the iron handle which I have mentioned, he began to turn it. As he did so the line of bars in the corridor began to pass through a slot in the wall and closed up the front of this grating, so as to make an effective cage. When it was in position he opened the door once more and invited me into the room, which was heavy with the pungent, musty smell peculiar to the great carnivora.
“That’s how we work it,” said he. “We give him the run of the room for exercise, and then at night we put him in his cage. ”

“ When evening comes it is kinder to take the cage out of a room in which there will be much light and noise, and put it somewhere dark and quiet, as the air of a room where gas is burned is not good for it. But if moving the cage is not convenient, lower it to a position below the level of the burners and cover it up with a thick cloth. By day the cage should be hung in the sunshine if possible, but if the sun is very hot a green gauze cover ought to protect the bird a little. If the bird's singing is too lusty—as sometimes happens—a handkerchief thrown over the cage will check it ”

“ It is possible to narcotise as many as a hundred dogs at one time. [Pg 653] This generally takes place at night. The unfortunate animals are conveyed from the Condemned Cell to a large cage some ten feet long, by four feet in depth and width. Two such cages—each of which is divided into tiers—are here. When the dogs are safely secured in the cage, they are taken to the chamber, the door of which is unlocked, the bar-bolt lifted, and the cage with its inmates is run into the Lethal apartment. ”

“ We must make one exception—the elevators for hotels and warehouses, in which America is in advance of all other countries. While we have many varieties of these, we must give credit where it is due, and the ascenseur Edoux of Paris is the original of all those in which the cage is placed upon a plunger that descends into a vertical cylinder into which water is forced to elevate the plunger, and from which it is withdrawn to allow the plunger and cage to descend. ”

“ To accomplish this feat the winter should be chosen, and the cage, containing a goldfinch that has not been rendered tender by having been too long accustomed to the heat of the room, must be placed on the outside of the window every day, or on a shelf intended for it, and where the mice cannot reach it. ”

“ When choosing cages in which to keep canaries, the primary consideration should be the comfort of the birds, and this should not be sacrificed to any desire for ornate appearance. There are several types on the market, any of which may serve. So far as shape is concerned, a square cage is best, as it affords more room for exercise than one that is round. ”

“ Then throw open the door, enter with a firm and resolute step, push the door behind you, but see that you do not for an instant remove your eyes from those of the animal you are visiting. Do not advance from the door; stand near the bars of the cage, that you may have a better chance of escape, and may be more readily assisted by your attendants in the event of an attack. Speak kindly towards the animal, and if it, as it most likely will, comes over to you, fear nothing, but stretch forth your hand and caress it. ”

“ Some amateurs of the song, rather than friends of the bird, to procure the pleasure of hearing it night and day in all its strength, employ a very cruel and inhuman contrivance. They first place the cage in a very obscure place, and accustom the poor little creature to find its food in the dark; they then blind it, either by destroying the pupils of the eyes with a red hot iron wire, or by passing it over the edges of the eyelids, unite and paste them completely together. ”

“ Never leave any green food longer than a day either in or over the cage. So shall your pet be healthy, and live for many years to give you comfort with his sweet fond voice. I may just mention that the linnet will learn the song of some other birds, notably that of the woodlark. Sea-sand may be put in the bottom of the cage, and when the bird begins to lose its feathers and moult, be extra kind and careful with it, covering the cage partly over, and taking care to keep away draughts. After the feathers begin to come you may put a rusty nail in the water. ”

“ The bottom is made to slide upwards on the upright wires which form the sides. When it is desired to prepare the cage for use, a canary is first placed therein,312 and the bottom is then pushed up as far as it will go (see Fig. 147) , the sides, which work on hinges at a a a a, being folded one by one upon the bottom, the cage finally assuming the shape shown in Fig. 148. It is in this condition that the cages, generally three in number, are introduced into the hat, either from the servante or from inside the vest of the performer ”

“ A roar that fairly made the ground shake answered Phil’s question. The cage in question held a lion, and a big, ugly one if his voice was any indication. The great elephant, when the cage was being placed, would, at a signal from its keeper, place its ponderous head against one side of the cage and push, while a driver would steer the wagon by taking hold of the end of the tongue. ”

“ The basket was one they used to carry their dinners to school in, and, of course, this could not be used to keep it in all the time. John said, “It will be best to make a cage for it. We can, with our knives, soon whittle out sticks for bars and with the saw and some boards make a cage.” They labored on this for two days, and then, with Uncle Ben’s help, for he could drive nails better than they, the cage was completed. Some cotton was shaped into a nest and the bird was placed in it and the cage was its home. ”

“ The Starling’s Cage.—This should be as large and as roomy as possible, or else the bird will break his tail and lose other feathers, to the great detriment of his plumage and beauty. The cage may be a wicker-work one, or simply wire, but the bars must not be too wide. However much liberty you allow Master Dick in your presence, during your absence it will generally be as well to have him inside his dwelling-place; let the fastening of its door, then, be one which he cannot pick. Any ordinary wire fastening is of no use; the starling will find the cue to it in a single day. ”

“ With one shrill pipe of hope, the thrush fluttered from his cage, spread his wings, and followed him.
"When the sailor found that the wind was getting up, he came to take the cage down, and then his grief was sore indeed.
"'The canary died last voyage,' he said, sadly. 'The cage was bought on a Friday, and I knew ill luck would come of it. I said so to Mother; but the old lady says there's no such thing as luck, and she's Bible-learned, if ever a woman was. "That's very true," says I, "but if I'd the money for another cage, I wouldn't use this;" and I never will again. Poor, bird! ”