Dkc. 12, 1884.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



479 



features, while it resembles the latter in the evidence 

 which it affords of the influence of the physical condition 

 on the phenomena of double consciousnesa. 



{To he c(yntintted.) 



THE WORKSHOP AT HOME. 



By a Working Man. 



( Continued from p. 405.) 



BY this time the amateur will have begun to aciiuire a 

 certain amount of mastery over his tools, and to 

 handle them much more familiarly, and to more immediate 

 purpose, than he did as an absolute beginner. We may 

 now treat ourselves to two tools not mentioned in the list 

 on p. 154, I mean a beading-plane and a brace and bitts. 

 The beading-plane has an iron of an approximately semi- 

 circular curve, corresponding with that of a slip of box- 

 wood, inlaid into the bottom of the plane ; so that if 

 carried along the edge of a board, it cuts a moulding 

 represented in perspective by A, and in section by B, in 

 Fig. 27. What is known as a ^--inch plane of this sort 



A 



Fig. 27. 



will be found a handy size by the amateur. It is sur- 

 prising how much can be done in the way of effective orna- 

 mentation by such a simple tool. The brace and bitts are 

 shown in Fig. 28. The head, C, of the brace is pressed 



T 



against the workman's chest ; the shanks of the bitts, S, 

 fit into the square, so that, being retained in position by 

 the thumbscrew, T, their points are forced against the work 

 to be bored by the pressure, and the brace is turned round 

 by the ball or handle, H, which moves quite freely round 

 the iron; as does the iron again inside of the head, C. 

 The first bitt to the left is the ordinary centre-bitt for 

 boring clean cylindrical holes in wood. The point, p, is 

 inserted into the centre of the hole to be bored, the nicker, 

 cuts the hole truly circular as the bitt rotates, while 



nicker, cuts spiral shavings within the space marked out 

 by the nicker. The second object is a spoon-bitt, also used 

 for boring cylindrical holes. The third figure shows a 

 rose-bitt which is employed to " countersink " the surface of 

 wood to admit the head of a screw. The fourth object 

 represents a countersink for metal. As the amateur can 

 buy one of these bitts at a time, adtling as it were bitt by 

 bitt to his stock, I need not pursue my description any 

 longer here. There is a costly form of wooden brace sold, 

 but the one shown in Fig. 28 is very cheap and just as 

 eifective. 



To-day we will try and make a set of bookshelves. The 

 dimensions will, of course, depend upon the size of the 

 space which the maker has to fill. As an example I will 

 imagine that they are to fit into a recess in a room, and be 

 "hanging" shelves — i.e., are not forest on the ground — 

 are to be 4 ft. high, 3 ft. wide, and 6 in. deep. To make 

 them we shall want 28 ft. of 1-in. wood G in. wide when 

 planed up, so that we must buy 7-in., or if procurable 6i-in. 

 stuff, 9 or llin. planking cutting terribly to waste for our 

 purpose. Fig. 20 represents our set of shelves completed 

 and erected. We first plane and square up all our board 



the cutter, c, 



at right angles to the edge of the 



Fig. 29. 



carefully, and then mark off two 4-ft. lengths for the sides 

 of the shelves, as we do subsequently three pieces 



2 ft. 101 in. long for the middle shelves on which the books 

 rest, and two pieces 3 ft. long for the top and bottom. 

 Having marked off these lengths with the square, and sawn 

 them off with the tenon-saw, we proceed to " bead " them 

 on both sides of what will ultimately be their front edges, 

 as shown in Fig. 30 both in plan and section. This gives 

 a wonderful finish to the whole thing when put together. 



3 ft. of our remaining board we must divide longitudinally 

 into two pieces 3 in. wide each. These are to make a 

 slightly ornamental top to our shelves, to be presently 

 again referred to. Lastly, we must cut out two brackets 

 identically alike (B, Fig. 30), G in., of course, wide from 

 / to b, and 1 ft. deep from 6 to e. The best way to do this 



is to fasten the two pieces of wood side by side, if possible 

 in the bench-vice, draw the form of the bracket carefully 

 on one of them, and saw them both out together with the 

 frame-saw (Fig. 3, p. 1.54). Still keeping them fastened 

 together, the cut edges may be finished in succession by a 

 rasp, a piece of broken glass, and some fine sand-paper. To 

 make a nice neat job, the top and bottom should be dove- 

 tailed into the sides in the way explained on p. 233. This 

 will give us 3 ft. 10 in. clear in the inside height. Starting 



