Is usually performed by means of the useful contrivance called a _bottle
jack_, a well-known machine, so named from its form. It only serves for
small joints, but does that better than the spit. It is cheap and
simple, and the turning motion is produced by the twisting and
untwisting of a string. The sort of roasting machine, called the _Poor
Man’s Spit_, is something of the same nature, but still more simple. The
meat is suspended by a skein of worsted, a twirling motion being given
to the meat, the thread is twisted, and when the force is spent, the
string untwists itself two or three times alternately, till the action
being discontinued, the meat must again get a twirl round. When the meat
is half done, the lower extremity of the joint is turned uppermost, and
affixed to the string, so that the gravy flows over the joint the
reverse way it did before.