17 



Cork-foals are made, by boring a piece of perfectly 

 sound cork, ^yith a hot wire, through its middle. The 

 best kind is that called velvet- cork, and may be known by 

 its beautiful smoothness, and the absence of those rotten 

 vacancies to which the common kind is subject. 



Having perforated the cork, smear the inside, while 

 hot, with tar; then pass it down a well-finished double* 

 quill float, until the joint of the plug within the quill is 

 hidden : about an inch of the quill should remain un- 

 covered at the upper end. 



After the tar has cooled, and fixed the cork to the 

 quill, with a very sharp penknife, having rather a long 

 blade, pare away the lower two-thirds of the cork to a co- 

 nical form, so as to taper down nicely to the plug. Then 

 pare away the superior third part of the cork up towards 

 the quill, so as to be conical the other way. 



When you have made the surface of the cork very 

 wnooth, and rounded off the edge made by the junction 

 of the two cones, put the float into a bucket of water, 

 first hanging a small weight to the tail-ring j and if it 

 does not swim quite upright, trim away from the under 

 part of the highest side until you find it answer well. 

 After it is dry, varnish it over with a little highly -dry ing 

 linseed-oil, or with a little turpentine varnish, either of 

 which can be had at the oil warehouses in any quantity. 



If you wish to paint your float, which is preferable if 

 the cork be faulty, it is easily done, by mixing a little 

 colour with either the oil or the varnish. Hang the float, 

 when finished, by the tail-ring to dry in a current of air, 

 but not in the sunshine. See Fig. 8, Plate I. 



Observe, that a cork-float will be more or less buoyant, 

 in proportion to the thickness of the cork at the junction 



