480 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[Dec. 12, 1884. 



I 



from the bottom of our frame which will be our bottom 

 shelf, we now measure 11 in. up inside of the sides, and 

 placing the square there, draw a line at that height on each 

 side, and another one parallel to it an inch higher up. 

 The wood must be carefully taken out of this to the exact 



SV=U«=1 



n 



jiijiit..- 



Fig. 30. 



depth of the beading (i in.) as shown in the lower part 

 of the left-hand figure A in Fig. 30 above ; and then, 

 as the inside width of the frame is 3 ft. less 1 in. on 

 each side, or 2 ft. 10 in. ; and as the groves on each 

 side is J in. deep one of our shelves 2 ft. lOj in. will 

 accurately fit into the interval, when it may be glued, 

 nailed, or screwed if considered necessary. Eleven inches 

 higher another shelf may be fitted in precisely in the same 

 way. Our third shelf we will fit in at the same distance 

 above the second, and this will leave a somewhat less 

 interval between it and the top board, taking rather smaller 

 books. Out of our two 3-iu. strips we finally will make a 

 kind of open box as a top to the whole affair. This we do 

 by planing them up true, beading them on each edge, and 

 mitreing them (p. 35G) at the corners ; as in Fig. 31, where 

 C shows a corner, h h the beading, and m the mitre-joint 

 before it is closed up. Fixed on the upper board of the 

 shelves this really quite improves their appearance. But 

 white deal shelves don't look very pretty, so we will proceed 

 to impart a more ornamental appearance to them. To this 

 end, we must buy a bottle of one of Stephens's capital 

 " wood stains ; " or, more cheaply still, get a pennyworth of 

 burnt umber at an oilman's, mix it with stale beer, and 

 colour our shelves by rubbing this stain into them, the way 

 of the grain, by the aid of a stLffish brush. An old nail- 

 brush, or even a tooth-brush, answers this purpose very 

 well. When the stain is thoroughly dry, we must size our 

 work — i.e., coat it thoroughly with hot size. And, lastly, 

 when the size is dry in turn, we must vai-nish every- 

 thing with oak varnish and a soft brush, taking care not 

 to drive the varnish too bare. Varnishing shoidd ahcaijs be 



o o 



Fig. 31. 



Fig. 32. 



done in a hot room, like a kitchen. Cold chills it and makes 

 it assume a dull surface. A very tolerable imitation of oak 

 with the umber, or other wood, according to the (Stephens's) 

 stain used, may be made in the way just described. But 

 we have not finished our ornamentation even yet. We 

 shall require further four yards of the imitation leather 

 made like American cloth, and about sixteen dozen brass- 



headed nails. As our " leather " is cut into strips 3 in. 

 wide, we only want as much as will make five such strips ; 

 in fact, as it is a yard wide, you would ouly buy lialf-a-yard 

 at the shop, out of which you will get six strips. The 

 bottom edge of this you must " scallop," as shown in Fig. 32, 

 and the top edge must coincide with the groove of the 

 beading as shown in the figure, the brass-headed nails being 

 driven in an inch apart into the flat part of the front edges 

 of the shelves between the grooves. Of course, as the 

 bottom edge of each shelf is hidden by the American 

 leather curtain, no absolute necessity exists for beading 

 that at all. With our shelves complete, it only remains to 

 fasten them against the wall. If they are, as I began by 

 supposing, to fit into a recess, screws or nails may go 

 through the sides into the sides of the recess; the brackets 

 being similarly attached. If, though, the shelves are to 

 hang clear, and their sides to remain visible, the brackets 

 must first be fastened to the wall by means of strong 

 screws driven through at the points s s (B, Fig. 30). 

 Mind that the holes for these screws are bored in the 

 proper direction — the top one slantingly, the bottom 

 one horizontally, and do not forget to countersink depres- 

 sions in the wood for the screwheads to enter. The 

 brackets once fixed, the bottom of the shelves will rest on 

 them all right enough. To support the top of the shelves, 

 I have found what are called " angle-irons," to be bought 

 at an ironmonger's for a few pence, very handy. They are 

 .simply flat bars of iron bent at right angles, with screw- 

 holes tlirough each arm of them ; the upright side being 

 screwed to the wall, the upper flat side to the under-side of 

 the top board. When books are on the shelves these are 

 not seen at all. And now our shelves are completed and 

 put up, I fancy that the amateur will be as pleased with 

 the economy with which he has produced an efiicient piece 

 of furniture as he will with the useful result of his labour. 

 He will have a good deal more left to buy books with to 

 fill his shelves than he would had he gone to a cabinet- 

 maker for them. 



{To he tontinued.) 



OTHER WORLDS THAN OURS. 



A WEEK'S CONTEKSATION OX THE PLUKALITY OF 

 WOBLDS. 



By Mons. de Fontekelle. 

 with notes by richard a. proctoe. 



THE FOURTH EVENING.— PABxictiLAEs or the Worlds of 

 Venus, Mebccry, Mabs, Jih-itee, and Saturn. 



THE dreams of the Marchioness were not very success- 

 ful ; they still represented to her the same objects we 

 are acquainted with here on earth. We were, therefore, 

 forced to conclude ourselves ignorant what sort of inhabi- 

 tants all these planets had, and content ourselves only to 

 guess at them, and continue the voyage we had begun thro' 

 these several worlds. We were come to Venus, and I told 

 her, that Venus certainly turn'd on itself, tho' nobody 

 could tell iu what time ; and consequently were ignorant 

 how long her day lasted ; but her year was compos'd of 

 eight months, because it is in that time she turns round 

 the sun. And seeing Venus is forty times less than the 

 earth, the earth appears to them in Venus to be a planet, 

 forty times bigger than Venus appears to us on the earth : 

 and as the moon is forty times lesser than the earth, so she 

 seems to be just of the same magnitude, to the inhabitants 

 of Venus, as Venus seems here to us. 



" I see, then," says the Marchioness, " that the earth is 



