Here is a landlord with a good eye to the wishes of his customers and`all the other people who have to work on Sunday. Steam is the powering force for bellows, bells and warmth, thus allowing them to spend more time in this Hotel. Even better if he can sell the patent for his invention!
“Mr. Whiteley, ‘mine host’ of the Star Hotel, Sowerby, near Halifax, informs us that he has invented a machine for ringing changes on church bells, warming the interior of the church, and blowing the organ bellows, by the aid of a two-horse power steam -engine. By his invention, he proposes to save that excellent class of persons, bell-ringers, from working on Sundays; at the same time that he releases the organ-blower from his bellows, and comfortably warms the toes of the congregation whilst the good clergyman is essaying to warm their hearts. And all these things are to be effected at an expense infinitely less than he believes he can sell the patent right for. If we undertand his letter aright, he contemplates making the ringers, organ-blower, and congregation of Sowerby church a present of his invention, if he can sell tha patent right for what he thinks it is worth; and, in return, they can do no less than make his hostelrie the first ‘Star’ in the firmament of Sowerby. – Leeds Times.
The Stamford Mercury, 19th January, 1849.