156 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[Arc. 



1884. 



end of the board, and it will assume a more or less convex 

 outline. From the very construction of the tool, he will 

 fail in his attempt, but this must be the tendency of his 

 planing. When, however, he can take off shavings of the 

 whole — or nearly the whole — length of the board, lie may 

 rest satisfied. By looking at the boaid edgeways, he will 

 see when it is perfectly flat on both sides, and then he must 

 plane the edges too, taking care that they are square to the 

 face of the board. He must try this all along with the 

 square (Fig. 7). Now, then, he can mark his 5 feet 1 inch 

 piece of board into the 5 equal strips, and laying it 

 down on a very firm wooden chair or box, saw it into 

 strips with the hand-saw (Fig. 1). He should pencil the 

 lines along which he is to saw, clearly, and take particular 

 care that the plane of the saw is square to the face of the 

 board. It must be sloped, though, in the direction of its 

 length. Little short cuts may be made at first, and then, 

 when the saw is fairly in the pencil-line, longer ones ; but 

 the saw must be watched and brought into the line again, 

 if it shows the slightest tendency to wander from it. In 

 this way, then, must the beginner saw out the fifteen strips 

 of wood he requires, the six " stiles " 5 ft. long, and the 

 nine "rails " 2 ft. long. The edges of these must now all 

 be planed up truly, and the strips cut to their exact lengths 

 by the tenon-saw, the lines defining those lengths being 

 marked by the aid of the square (Fig. 7) and pencil. As I 

 began by saying, the planing should finally leave the strips 

 IJ in. wide and | in. thick. It now remains to fit our 

 frames together. For simplicity's sake, we will make the 

 corner joints like those of the frame of a school-slate. 

 The middle rail, however, must be morticed in. I have 

 said that the thickness of the wood is just Jths of 

 an inch ; so we begin by loosening the screw in 

 front of the mortice-gauge (Fig. 9), separating the little 

 points f ths of an inch, and then moving up the wooden 

 fence or guide until it is | inch from the lowest point, 

 finally tightening all up by the screw again. It will be 

 seen that if now the gauge be run along the edge of the 

 wood, it will draw two parallel lines gths of an inch apart 

 in the middle of its thickness. Let us suppose that we 

 have one of our 2 feet " rails " so marked, then at 1| inch 

 from each end we draw a line truly square round it with 

 the scjuare and pencil, as before, and taking the tenon-saw 

 (Fig. 2), cut along the line marked by the mortice-gauge 

 down to our pencil-mark, and then saw from each face on 

 our pencil-line down to this cut. This will obviously take 

 oflf two thin slabs of wood, about ] in. thick, H in. wide, 

 and IMn. long, and will leave the two smaller ends or 

 "tenons," t t, standing as in Fig. 12, in which/ repre- 

 sents the rail as seen from the front, and e as viewed 

 edgeways. In sawing out these tenons the marks 

 should all be Jeft visible, and not obliterated by the 

 saw-teeth passing actually through them. Leaving the 

 mortice-gauge undisturbed, we now run it along the edge 

 of our 5-ft. "styles" (Fig. 1.3), at each end of which we 

 cut with the tenon-saw 1| inch down into the wood, leaving 

 the gauge-lines visible on that, too, and by the aid of our 

 quarter-inch firmer-chisel clear out the two apertures s s. 

 As we went inside the marked lines in cutting these out, 

 and oulside the lines in cutting our tenons, the latter will 

 fit veiy tightly into them ; so tightly, perhaps, as to involve 

 a little delicate shaving or scraping of the tenon before 

 it will enter without splitting the end of the style. This 

 joint may be seen at the corners of an ordinary school- 

 slate. In the middle of the frame, though, at m, it is 

 obviously inapplicable, so here we must make a regular 

 " mortice." This is a rectangular opening through the 

 whole width of the style, I^in. long and -Jin. wide (the 

 width and thickness of the tenon respectively). Carefully 



outlining this on both edges of the wood, the amateur 

 had better begin by boring a series of holes in this 

 marked space with the biggest gimlet he has, and then 

 carefully and truly clearing out the rectangular opening 

 or mortice with sharp chisels. If the reader has followed 

 me so far, he will see now that the tenons will drop, with 

 a little pressure or knocking, into the mortice in each rail at 

 m, and into the apertures s s, at the ends of them. When 

 everything is neatly fitted together, the styles and rails laid 

 in order must be once more separated, the tenons and the 

 holes they are to enter rapidly brushed with fresh, thin, hot 

 glue, and the whole frame put together again as rapidly as 

 possible, tied or cramped tightly together, and set aside 

 for the glue to cool. Finally, the reader may once more 

 get his biggest gimlet, and bore holes through the styles 

 and the tenons, and cutting some 

 bits of deal verij slightly conical with 

 a penknife, dip them in hot glue, 

 and drive them home as far as 

 they will go. The tenon-saw will 

 trim them off level, or practically so, 

 with the face of the wood, and a 

 finishing touch can !:« given with 

 the smoothing-plane (Fig. 5). These 

 wooden pins are technically called 

 " dowels." The frame now completed 

 is represented in Fig. 14. Three ot 

 these will, as we began by saying, 

 have to be constructed, and they 

 must be united by two pairs of brass 

 hinges (called "butts"), which may 

 be bought, with the necessary screws, 

 at any ironmonger's. Note that they 

 must be placed on — so to speak — 

 alternate edges of the frame for the 

 screen to fold properly. It only 

 remains to cover the screen with 

 canvas or American cloth, and this may be nailed on with 

 the smallest tacks or with cabinet-maker's brads. The 

 decoration of the screen with scrap engravings, pasted ot 

 to the strained canvas, or with flowers painted in oils 

 on the American cloth, may safely be left to the taste^ 

 of the reader. 



Fig. 14. 



THE GREELY EXPEDITION. 



By Andrew McPhersos. 



THE account which was published in Knowledge last 

 week of the doings and sufferings of the Greely band 

 of explorers has been supplemented in an unlooked-for and 

 unpleasant manner. A charge of cannibalism has been 

 preferred against the surviving members of the crew, and- 

 although the charge has not received oflicial confirmation, 

 it has not been met with that categorical refutation which 

 one would wish for. But, after all is said, what does the 

 charge amount to "i That cannibalism is in itself abhorrent 

 no civilised being would deny ; but to go so far as some of 

 our contemporaries seem disposed to do, is, so far as I can 

 see, uncharitable in the highest degree. I think, rather, 

 that to be so reduced by want of food as to render 

 one capable of overcoming the feelings of revulsion 

 which must present themselves, is indicative of agony 

 of the acutest description, and demands our sincerest 

 pity and commiseration rather than condemnation. 

 As Dr. Rae, a well-known explorer, writing to a con- 

 temporary, says : — " It is all very well for those who, 

 probably, have never been twenty-four hours continuously 



